First few Days at IISc

Joining IISc, Bangalore (The First Few Days) Thanks John for editing

These are my first few days after arriving at IISc Bangalore. i have been selected for MTech program in Electronic Design and Technology(EDT) offered by the Centre for Electronic Design and Technology (CEDT)

July 29 Arrival

We arrived on July 29 morning by Island Express. 'WE' includes John, Sreejith, Deepu and Deepu's mother. Sreejith boarded from Kottayam. Anoop Sathyan was also on the train but we didn't get to meet him until the next day. The Sudent's Council picked us up at the station and dropped us off in front of the hostel office were we got our rooms by lot. I got U3 which is a single room, spacious enough and near the academic section. Building is a little old but there is nothing to complain about. Sreejith got alloted to the same block as mine. John got a double room in PD block which is one among the furthest from the academic section. The rooms there are nice with terrace and balcony.

There are 9 from the 2009 batch of CET.

applied - me, john, sreejith

tele - jobin, anoop

ele - rahul

civil - meenu, deepu

mech - vargese

The first day included settling into the rooms.Some of the double roomers found their alloted rooms locked, as their roomates were off somewhere after locking their room.

July 30 Registration

The second day was registration. We were adviced to reach early, but apparently everyone was adviced so. I was 171 in queue eventhough i arrived half an hour before the alloted time. By afternoon our certificates were all checked and we were given provisional admission.( when will our s8 results be announced i wonder.) In the afternoon we submitted application for bank account into which my 8000/month stipend will be credited. That too will have to wait till the results are out.

July 31 Getting Accustomed

Joined the mess today. Food is okay. I joined south indian non vegitarian mess. we get some no vegitarian item for lunch and dinner.

Got the new sim. Airtel. My new number is 9535xyyy8z9,

a. my college bus alphabet is the x-th alphabet.

b. x is the ones digit of the class strength in 12th

c. y is 4

d. z is nothing

It is a campus plan. Everything local is okay. But STD sucks. so guys pls call. miss you all.....

Afternoon went to cycle shop to check out cycles, didn't buy.

The next two days are free.

(I am typing all this up in Wordpad cause I havent got an internet connection yet. There is no internet in hostel.)

August 1 The Marvellous Treat Day

sreeejith, john, anoop sathyan and me went to MG Road. we first got a bus to Majestic and from there to Mayo Hall. we landed right in front of

bangalore cantral. we went in as gokul said he would take some time. found out a laptop bag. didnt buy. seems like i had to sleep on it. lol...

then treat by gokul

lunch at hotel Paramount(mixed fried rice)

then at CCD (cool blue, green apple soda, choclate fantasy)

then Pizza Hut, Forum(pizza)

gokul has found out the best places to eat in bangalore, it seems....

sreekesh joined at forum, his turn next to treat us.

went to Hotel Kairali near Forum. had kerala style oonu. me had konju fry with it. gokul syas' eruvu ennu oru vikaramundu ennu maranirikkuvayirunu'.food kerala style, bill bangalore style..

saw many places around forum - nthin philip, kiran, arun s etc etc..

got back at 10.30 or so

August 2 Retreading Yesterday's Path

Morning - found out were church is. there is one just outside one of the gates of IIScwith malayalam mass. the next mass was at 5.

after lunch to bangalore central to grt a laptop bag for me, ironbox for sreejith and belt for john.

there was no way in which i could return in time for the mass. so took our own time.

August 3 first day at the department

atarted off with tea, puffs an cake. then there was an introductory speech by our chairman, professor Gopakumar sir and one sir from switzerland.

the department was started in the 1970s as a partnership between india and switzerland. we are supposed to learn everything from designing a product in software, fabricating pcbs to creating th prototype. this is the best placee to study it from in india. i am still confused about the subjects.

there are 3 girls 33 boys, 2 from isro, one from drdo, 7+1 mallus, 4 cetians

senior students from PhD showed us around. our group was guided by vikas and arun.

one thing about CEDT, everyone seems good at cracking jokes...

Loved the department. there is a tea kiosk attached to the department.

sreejith says there is only a few people in his department. he has caught a cold.

seniors advised us to enjoy ourselves to enjoy all we want the first month, coz the lab will be our home after that.

we have the afternoon off. i feel likee typing, so i am typing. i ammissing u guys, so please do call...

will get internet connection only after a few days it seems....

Late night assignment thoughts from first semester MTech

A post i wrote when i was disoriented doing one of my mini-projects in first semester. my thoughts when i look back is going to be a future post (like i am going to post any time soon.)

At 2am I am in my lab working on my mini project, one of the two i am having this semester. What's the mini project? getting lots of numbers from lots of places and arranging them in a different order so that someone else can understand it. What if the values are wrong? nothing would happen. like who knows how to find the correct ones. i should be sleeping right now. not coz i have a problem staying up all night, just coz wat i am doing is writing in numbers that someone deleted. if he hadnt deleted i would have had nothing to do

the difference between Btech and Mtech is that we are supposed to do btech, but mtech is a choice. damn those bloody numbers. now i have sweared and i cant put that up on the blog.

Just went out and had tea. (At IISc there is 'teaboard' and some other shops that stay open at night till 2.) The people at the shop should be allowed to go home early. the have to stay up all night and at the end they don't even get a Mtech degree.



kurachu naal munbu collegile kurachu juniors ivide vannappool sreejith avarude aduthu paranju enikku oru katha undennu, oru aanede katha. annu parayaanenikkonnum kittiyilla. pakshe ennenkilum oru katha ready aakum ennu jaan urapichirunnu.

i have thought about the story many times ,, but was never able to come up with a story. i think why am i not able to get a story. may be it's coz i don't read anymore. i feel like everything that i have except the electronics; be it intellectual, fun or spiritual, have taken a few steps backwards. now its just damn electronics (which FYI i still love very much)

And now about my name. just one week back nobody used to know my nickname. now two guys here call me bach. i now feel bach and s**** are really two people.

onnu chalu adichittu etra naalaayi!! elllaam aalochicheduthu englishileekku translate chythu varumbozheekum adutha chaluvinulla samayamaakum. ethaayaalum ethrayokke parajathalle, oru kadhayum koode paranjeekaam.

One day Tata was taking a stroll in the park . as he walked around watching the kids play and thinking about what new sector he should invest in, he noticed his old friend Ambani coming in his direction. Tata waved at him. Ambani saw Tata and came to him and said, "Hi, Tata!" In reply Tata says"Dude! Have you got so busy that you can't spare a sec to talk with me. okay then bye"

Now most of u must be thinking, "good thing this guy can't come up with stories anymore. The world would now be a better place to live in now."

I have been watching a lots of F.R.I.E.N.D.S lately. Now reached season seven.

I have taken digital signal processing as an elective, i thought i would love it, but didnt. Its getting worser and worser that i just want to pass the fcking subject.

I dont see anyone around,oblivious to passerbys and am not being seen by anyone. i feel like a visitor from k-pax.

one other thing i wanted to mention was about crushes. it seems like i just need someone around me that i have a crush on. it seems i dont care who it is, just someone.

my family planned on visiting bangalore this november. but now it seems they have better things to do.

now that is just about everything i wanted to say.

The Circle

It was first year at college. i was browsing the net and came upon this blog by shrutz. It was called Brain Freeze. shrutz was a senior at college. final year electronics. this blog served as inspiration for starting a blog. she blogged about CAT exam, how she got 5 or so calls from IIMs, and finally got admission into iimb. after she left cet she stoped posting at brain freeze and started a new blog. she has posts on the gd an interviews. i should say shes too good.

now here i am with a blog and 3 calls a,c,k. this is all that i want to say about cat....

and there will be posts on what happens at the gd/interviws if they spare my life if not pride

virus says lets play a game

I was having a free life until recently, i mean computer viruses..

The only exception was during schooldays. the virus attack made windows un-bootable. There was just one drive and i lost all data. A computer expert was brought in. We had to pay some 200 bucks or so. its the last time my family spent money for a software related problem.

First i used avg anti virus which is free. but as its scan was a little disruptive, i switched to the wonderful NOD32. light and efficient. until....

Most of the computers in and around our college had the thb virus. It got into my computer too. My beloved NOD32 failed me. Though there was a step by step procedure for removing the virus i decided to play with it manually. I succeded. I finally switched to Kaspersky. If it weren't for the thb virus i would still prefer NOD32.

Then there was mother's computer at office. it had 2 viruses. no anti-virus installed. i took out the tooth of both the viruses. but i couldn't remove it completely due to lack of information. It still can wag its tail. All this fun with viruses helped me come across some good tips and software.


Softwares first:

1. Winpatrol - it runs in the taskbar. light. warns when there is changes made to the registry. it enables you to control the startup items and a lot more. no need to go to msconfig or task manager. informaation on each entry available.
   
2. Unlocker - I have often seen "cannot delete the file coz its currently being used" with unlocker u can find all the "locking handles" and u can kill the process from there.
3. Regsupreme - it is available as trial. it can clean the registry. just remember not to run it in aggresive mode.
4. Norton removal tool - provided by Norton itself. removes norton softwares. needed if you want to install another antivirus. i cant understand why it cant be part of the uninstall tool. alternately u can use "unlocker+delete folder+regsupreme(not recommended"
5. Zonealarm - Firewall. i can't live without it. though some complains that its hard on system resources

Tips.

1. Safe Mode - booting in safe mode is a very useful tool in fighting viruses. some viruses don't work in safe mode. you can poke them from there. a previous unsuccessful boot will bring up the option for safe mode. but use F8 key during bootup to get a safe mode option. really handy.

2. run>regedit to get into registry and edit values there. use with caution. if u don't have access to regedit run>gpedit.msc. in there user configuration>administrative templates>system. change the "prevent access to registry editing tools" to get access to regedit

3. if the virus has made it impossible to use "show hidden files and folders" options, you can always use search>more advanced options tick "search hidden files and folders" and search. remember that '*' stands for multiple characters and '?' for a single chartacter.
???.exe will get all executable 3 letters long.
*.* will give all files
*.exe gives all executable files
you can use a combination of them too.

the correct solution for the above problem is available at Technize.

4. run>cmd will bring the command prompt. a complete list of commands is available here. But you can manage with the following

dir - lists the files and folders in the current directory/folder. wont display hidden,
dir /a - lists all the files and folders in the current directory/folder.

if when you start you see this
c:\documents and settings\abcd>
it shows the folder you are currently in.
if you want to go into a folder in here "cd folder_name"
if you need to go up, "documents and settings" here "cd.."
to go to root,ie c here, "cd\"
simply type "g:" to go to another drive. replace g with the one you need.


del for deleting files

attrib - Very useful. It Changes attributes of files which are

• R - Read-only
• A - Archive
• S - System
• H - Hidden
  

use "attrib filename -h -s -r" (removes hidden system and read-only attributes) to bring the file to the open and hence deletable.

5. keep "hide extensions for known file types" always unticked. you can access it at tools>folder options>view just under the show hidden files options. it will help you spot many viruses, especially the ones with icons of folder which makes you mistake it for a folder. "new folder.exe" is an example.

6. Always have a linux live cd(recommended: Ubuntu) and a friend who understands linux. see here

more updates and corrections later, like naming folders with virus names to stop them.....

if u have any suggestions or corrections plz do comment. I am learning....

Disclaimer: i never keep any important documents in c drive. if i do anything really stupid i can always reinstall windows. So use these with discretion. but then, easiest way to not to fall is by falling.

Deja vu

data communication(DC) teacher came to class today; and i think, wasn't last hour DC too? i checked my watch. it was the first hour after lunch, so obviously last hour wasn't DC. i was having my lunch then.

so why did i get the feeling? coz she had taken one hour in the morning. this week i reach college everyday at 8.45 due to one sadist of a bus driver. And leaves at 4. i have pretty much no idea what is happening in between. i cant distinguish even lunch hour from class hour.

all i know is there had been lots of classes this week at least half of which was DC. Was she taking classes during lunch hour, I wonder. luckily i have the same teacher for my microprocessors lab which was 50% longer than usual lab hours.

after all the hours taken i have just understood one thing: she is teaching about something(i know not What) with 6 or 7 layers(i know not how much) and this info, i got from sharath.

time to go....dinner awaits.....

P.S. i run spell check and found this error- i have typed preetty for pretty....lol

Advanced Reflections

It was the advanced microprocessors( elective) class today. it was at the mini-seminar hall.none was prudent enough to switch on the AC. Hence, it was stuffed.

teacher taught. everyone but me sat listening. nothing entered my ears as usual. i am starting to think it is some kind of disease, inevitable when [bach intersection CET]

i started casually observing the room, actually writing an article about the room. i started with the door, moved on to the switches and then to the white-board. on the board there was some instructions for Intel processors. but then, on the board was reflection of the windows at the rear. also there was this silhouette of the students in the class. as teacher moved away from the board it became perfect. silhouette of some 5 to 6 students. the right number. when you see this image the instructions written on the board fades away, just leaving a shade.

the image got stuck in my head. and sorry, you cant get a copy of the image as the printer-port in my head is currently dysfunctional.

i wonder, if i hadn't started writing the stupid article i wouldn't have seen it. something right in front of my eyes. Oh! this sentence looks pathetic. so i take it back.

there must have someone in the class who would have cursed the glare on the board which made it difficult to read the instructions.

Catch 22

i get pretty confused when i recommend a book or a movie to someone. if i say it is bad, obviously they don't go after it. if i say it is good people forget. if i say awesome then they read/see it, then come and say, "it was okay/good. but not as good as you said it is." reading/watching something after someone recommends it takes out half the fun.

it's a catch-22 situation. you cant make someone enjoy something as much as you did whatever you say. i have had the problem with catch-22. so, for me, catch-22 is a catch-22. i accept it is a bit boring to read. i myself abandoned the book once, and only uber-boredom turned me back again to the book. i finished the book, it gets better as you read. as you progress you will understand that the start was just the right thing. it is now one of the 2 books i really fell in love with, the other being LotR.

i have tried the following ways of recommending catch-22
1. it is a nice book. the start is little boring
2. it is a gr8 book. the beginning is a little difficult
3. it is the f**king greatest book ever.
4. plzzzzzzz read it
5. start reading the book or i will curse you and all of your family

sadly, none worked. there must be some curse on the 20th page, coz everyone who dared to read, stopped there. if someone finds some way you have tried successfully please let me know....

Ten things to describe this semester

The past 2-3 months had been a little different. but then, when you figure something out it changes the next moment. so at the beginning of this semester i had guessed everything that would happen in the next year. it hasn't so far come close. there is so much to write. so points, points, points....

1. Confusion- what am i going to do with myself after college? there was a large number of options each lucrative in its on way. there were those signs that pointed one way or the other. not two pointed in the same direction. the solution - float until i wash up on some shore, why bother swimming when you can float with your eyes to the starlit night sky.
2. jon had some years before came up with this 'switch' philosophy. it is making your mind impermeable under offensive condition. for me those switches haven't been working for some time now. it is still under repair.
3. there is one thing i learned in the seventh semester of my engineering. its about love. i have have come to fear love, respect love and love love.
4. i produced 4 stories in the past few months compared to the 3 i produced in 20 years. i fell in love with this paalam (പാലം ) outside our class. i sit by the window and gaze outside from 9 to 4 everyday. that is pretty much the only thing i do in college these days.
5. i drew a cartoon inspired by xkcd and explosm. it is in my note and it need to be preserved. there is lot of things in my note that need to be preserved.
6. i have had two days exposed to the highest kind of madness - explosm and roald dahl. both are awesomely crazy. roald dahl, second craziest author i have read, after Oscar Wilde.
7. suffered laziness at its extreme - none of the muscles feel like moving. brain stops working..... and you r sure the next stage would be the freezing of heart muscles. the laziness earned me another name, to be added to the list of my names - sloth (did you know: sloths can move only one voluntary muscle at a time. that is why they are ssllllllllooooooowwwwww!!!!!!)
8. had an array of mental states - inhuman to worse than a silly girl.
9. had this thought: it doesn't take many days or even hours to make an impact on people. and you will wonder at the number of people that you had made an impact upon.
10. need to be working on the main project. but look, here i am, blogging. i lack the initiative(or the push, whatever you call it) that i had during the first three years of college.

Bonus points

1. i already feel nostalgic about college
2. everthing appears dim, blurred and colourless, almost meaningless

finally

today is history
4 years 1 month and 28 days
the braces are off
i have been wanting this for long
infact for 2.5 years.
and now that it happens
i shoud be happy
i am glad that it is finally off.
i can eat whatever i want
i discovered incisors have 2 flat sides
its fun that way

Much ado about nothing

(I am breaking from my blogging rule of "no malayalam" for this blog)

A phone call at 4 in the evening
me:Hello.....
female voice from the other end: Sir, this is from bank X.

(Hint on bank X
Conversation between two mafia heads, both sworn enimies, with gun pointing at each other
head 1: blah blah blah
head 2: (getting angry) BLAH blah
head 1: I see
Head 2: (louder) I see
Head 1: I.......
Head 2 shoots Head 1 in the chest. Head 2 shoots back.
End of story
)

she: We have a new investment plan, blah blah economics blah blah commerce blah banking blah blah black sheep blah blah investment

me:(scraching my head) eh........ emm......... achante aduthaano samsaaarikkan udeeshikkunnathu?
she: Oh!!!! ethu church aaayirunno???
me: alla... athalla.... enthe FATHERinte aduthaaano samsaarikkaan udeeshikkunathu?

(Stupid me. But she understood)
(Which makes me wonder whether there are any other pair of words with one word having two different meanings in one language and its transilation to another language gives the other word with two different meanings which are same as that of the first word in the first language. leave that)
she:(lol) oooohhh!! achan eppool varum?
me: 7.30
she:(as if that is too late) Raavile etra mani vare kaanum?
me:ettu mani
she : achan evide work cheyyunnu?
me: in a private firm.
she: achante designation enthanu?
me finace manager. (i dont usually say that to anybody)
she:achante mobile number tharaamo?
me: mobile use cheyyaarilla
she:enthaanu peeru?
me : augus.. achante peeralle veendathu?
she:alla yours(i dont remember the exact word)
me :says my name
she: enthu cheyyunnu/padikkunnu?
me: engineering second year
she:k. appol achan varumbool paranjaal mathi. nammal naale contact cheyyaaam
me: enthuvaa parayande
she:new investment plan, blah blah economics blah blah commerce blah banking blah blah black sheep blah blah investment
me: okay
she:thank you.
hangs up.(that is right no welcome)

This conversation got me thinking
Why did she talk so much?
may be she is a good innocent conversationalist.
Or mabbe she was saying all those things as business tactic to make sure i talk to my father about the new investment plan, blah blah economics blah blah commerce blah banking blah blah black sheep blah blah investment
(I did.)
Or mabbe it is that i dont think the world out there is innocent. It is crooked and manipulative.Everywhere there are traps.
The smiling face you see there. The compliment you get here. The criticism there. It may all be part of someone trying to bend you.I hate to drag Fountainhead into this, but i have to. someone like Toohey.

I am pretty sure that i didn't think like this in the past. may be i have discovered the truth. may be i am being a pessimist

Comments are hereby solicited on whether the world is crooked or not.