2007

by 0 comments on "A fortnight of 4th semester"

The college reopened on 19 November and I entered into my 4th semester classes. All the subjects are very important and interesting, form the core of Computer Science Engineering course. The teachers are uninspiring and discouraging and they made me realise that self-learning is the way to go. The results were out and I scored 9.42 GPA to placed within the top few. Abhilaash topped with 9.77 and there were few others who scored more than me. I must shamelessly confess that scoring top marks has been long off my priorities and it has no meaning or worth to me anymore. Scoring good enough marks consistently is satisfactory for me. Gaining precious knowledge is far more important to me than anything else and marks never reveal a student’s knowledge! :-(. Knowledge is power! 🙂

I am into TCENet development work and am going to work for the ‘Internals module revamp’ and many of my friends are also into modules. I am extremely glad about it! 🙂

My 19th birthday on November 17 was a happy and memorable one. I watched ‘Azhagiya Tamizhmagan’ with my cousin on that day. Quite a day!

by 0 comments on "End of third semester!"

The remaining few working days of the third semester passed without any eventful events and my bunking classes  🙂 . The final internal test dragged on and on to finish slowly. Semester exams were ok without any problems. The saving grace was the holidays i had in between when i was able to enjoy at home. I blitzed the practical exams much to my pleasant shock and surprise. The college reopened on November 19 after a few days of holidays. 🙁

by 0 comments on "Sun workshop at TCE!"

On 26 September 2007, a Sun workshop was organised by the Sun Club of TCE. I alongwith a few second year friends from my department attended the daylong workshop. Third years from CSE and IT departments also attended the workshop in which seminars/demo/lectures were given by final year CSE students.

First we started with Grid computing and Sun Grid Engine which was presented by Shridhar. Then Balachandran and Nachiappan presented DTrace and DScripts with demos. After this session we had a teabreak and when we returned, we had a session on NetBeans IDE for developing J2EE applications presented by Narayanan.Subramanian and Pradeep with valuable inputs from Agalya. But I found this session very vague and laborious as I was not familiar with enterprise applications and advanced Java programming.

Then we had a session in the evening, during which Krithika presented Zones in Solaris OS which was a novel and a great technology. Then we continued with NetBeans and EE applications, In the end, Subramaniam presented a small demo on J2ME programming using NetBeans which was really cool. In the end we were presented with Belenix cds and Sun pens as souvenirs. Then we left with the satisfaction of attended a great workshop.

(All the persons named in this post are my seniors doing their final years and my due respect to them. Apologies for not suffixing akkas and annas as doing it is laborious.)

Here is the link to the photographs taken during the workshop by Krithika.Photo Gallery

by 0 comments on "India wins Twenty20 World Cup and a billion hearts"

India vs Pakistan Twenty20 World Cup final was the unexpected thing to happen in the T20 World Cup. Both sides had very little experience in this shortest form of cricket and had crashed out of this year’s ODI World Cup in the very first round. But what an excellent cricket these teams have played to reach this far. A millions of applauses!

In the final, India won the toss and as expected, chose to bat first. Their innings was sedate as they kept losing wickets regularly. Gautam Gambhir held one end up and scored his 3rd consecutive 50 of the tournament.In the process, he became the second highest run-getter in the tournament. Towards the end, young Rohit Sharma’s pyrotechnics ensured that India reached 157, a total they had fighting chance to defend.

Pakistan’s chase began with fireworks from Imran Nazir but wickets were lost regularly at the other end. When Imran Nazir was run-out by Robin Uthappa the match was starting to tilt in India’s favour. Shahid Afridi lasted a ball and departed with score at 77 of 11.2 overs. At this point, Indians believed that they had the game in their hands as the asking rate was climbing steeply.But Misbah-ul-Haq, the man in form combined with Sohail Tanveer to clobber 5 sixes in two overs bowled by Harbhajan and Sreesanth to reduce the asking rate drastically. Indians then fought back by dismissing 9 Pakistani batsman for 141.Pakistan needed 13 runs off the last over with the dangerman Misbah on strike.

Dhoni, surprisingly again, chose to bowl the previous match hero Joginder Sharma instead of the experienced Harbhajan. When he started with a wide, Indian fans groaned, and the situation became even more desperate when Misbah pummelled a full toss miles over long-off for six. But with victory in his grasp, his judgement failed him. Moving across his stumps, he went for the scoop down to fine leg. He didn’t connect cleanly, and millions on the subcontinent held their breath as Sreesanth came under the ball at short fine leg. When he held it, the stadium erupted. India had won the T20 World Cup and the world was at their feet. Misbah, meanwhile, collapsed to the ground ruing his judgement to play the scoop shot over fine leg.

Poor Misbah-ul-Haq found himself facing the fire once again in an India-Pakistan match. Like their last encounter, he kept Pakistan in the match by playing intelligently and picking the right balls to hit. A huge six in the last over, which started with Pakistan needing 13, seemed to swing the match decisively in their favour. Then, with only one wicket in hand and fine leg in the circle, Misbah went for that scoop which, not for the first time, ended in tears for the batsman. Sreesanth would have never taken a more important catch in his life. But for Misbah, who has been Pakistan’s surprise star of the tournament, it will take some forgetting!

Indians did a victory lap in the stadium with the Indian flag and there was absolute euphoria all around.The noise was deafening in a packed stadium and even though the Indians outnumbered the Pakistanis by some distance, the shouting match was almost even. The battle cry was similar: every Jeetega bhai Jeetega, India Jeetega (roughly translated to “Brother, India will win) was followed by Jeetega bhai Jeetega, Pakistan Jeetega. But the man who almost stole the applause from the cricketers was Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian film superstar equally adored in Pakistan. Shah Rukh, a self-confessed cricket fan, recently starred as a hockey coach in the hit film Chak De India. He was last seen on a cricket ground in England during the Indian tour, and was now seen standing next to Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, deliriously cheering every Pakistani wicket. When his face was flashed on the giant screen, the crowd went even more delirious.

Irfan Pathan won a deserving Man-of-the-match award while Shahid Afridi was named the Player-of-the-tourament. Lets hope that this great Indian victory spurs a new revolution in the Indian cricket and the Indian team become a group of world-beaters. Chak diya India!!misbahscoop.jpgvictory.jpgt20trophy.jpgchamps.jpg

by 0 comments on "Indian juggernaut rolls on"

Fresh from the Yuvraj blitzkrieg against England, India faced a must-win game against South Africa to qualify for the Twenty20 World Cup semifinals. India scored 153 in their 20 overs despite some early setbacks. The star of the Indian innings was the promising debutant Rohit Sharma who scored a magnificent 50 under pressure. South Africa were never in the chase, losing too many wickets for too few runs. R.P.Singh was the bowling hero picking up 4 wickets for 16 only! Dinesh Karthik took a stunning catch to dismiss Graeme Smith. South Africa batted so badly that they couldn’t even make the 126 needed to qualify for the finals.Pity that with their first loss, they’re out of the tournament while Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and India with one or more losses made it to the semis. Poor South Africa keep finding ways to exit a major tournament!

The semifinal against Australia was supposed to be a humdinger and it lived up to the billing. Yuvraj once again was the star, scoring 70 priceless runs in just 30 Australian deliveries continuing his six-hitting spree. India scored 189 runs in their innings.

Australia began their chase earnestly, scoring runs at a rapid pace before Gilchrist played all over a Sreesanth inswinger and had his stump uprooted. Brad Hodge scored some valuable runs with Hayden before he was out. In came Andrew Symonds and both the batsmen started hitting the balls out of the ground almost every ball that the asking rate dropped to 7 an over and an Australian victory was on cards But Sreesanth, returning to complete his quotam had other ideas. He uprooted Hayden’s stump and Pathan cleaned up Symonds. Indians had a chance to win the game. Australia required 30 off the last 3 overs with Clarke on strike.Harbhajan yorked his leg stump and the asking rate was climbing fast. Harbhajan bowled a splendid over and RP Singh bowled a great penultimate over conceding virtually nothing. One over and 22 runs required. Dhoni turned to his most expensive and inexperienced bowler Joginder Sharma. A few eyebrows were raised but Joginder bowled a good over and got the wicket of ‘Mr.Cricket’ Hussey and the World Champions over knocked out. This memorable Indian victory set up a most unlikely and most exciting final between India and Pakistan. Winning is the way to go!

by 0 comments on "Take it back Dmitri!!"

India vs. England Super8 match in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup was very important to India’s fortunes as it was a do-or-die match for the Indians. Indians batted first and Sehwag and Gambhir gave a splendid opening start of over 100. But even after that a score of 180 was unlikely and inadequate as well. After the opening pair, wickets fell regularly and India would’ve been extremely lucky to scrape past 180.But came the penultimate over-the 19th where Stuart Broad was to bowl to Yuvraj Singh who had just arrived at the crease. Yuvraj had been a flop in the tournament falling very cheaply in both the matches played. But after bowling the last ball of the previous over, Andrew Flintoff had provoked Yuvraj with his words and Yuvraj too retaliated before the umpire responded.

Yuvraj played the innings of his life hitting 6 sixes in the next over bowled by Stuart Broad and raced to his 50 in 12 balls-the fastest ever 50 in the history of Cricket. It was vintage hitting and poor Stuart Broad could only watch as Yuvraj’s hits cleared the ropes with absolute ease and after 5 hits, everyone was hoping that he’d make it 6 in a row and when it happened, everyone watching the match went out of breath and applauded Yuvraj wholeheartedly. It was a magnificent batting from this very talented and special cricketer. As a result, India cleared 200 with ease and reached 218. In the end, India defeated England by 18 runs to keep their semifinal hopes alive. The next match against South Africa would also be a must-win game.

Earlier in this summer, Dmitri Mascarenhas of England had clobbered five consecutive sixes in a Yuvraj over of innocuous slow leftarm. What a stage Yuvraj picked to pay back!!It was awesome and Mascarenhas could only watch the ball sail over the fence repeatedly and applauded. Kudos to Yuvraj for his blitzkrieg and a befitting reply to England. Go Yuvi go!!!I luv you so much! 🙂

by 0 comments on "Azkaban at College"

I go to Azkaban once a week and very surprisingly it is in my college and that too in my department buliding! Everytime on the day i have to go there i go crazy. I’ll have loads of work to do, but can’t do it. Can’t do anything as planned,can’t take leave, can’t have lunch at mess, can’t do anything worthwhile after coming from Azkaban. I can’t even prepare for going there. 🙁

Ok, enough of unnecessary hype. The Microprocessor lab where I go for my Digital Systems lab is the place under questions. There are loads of hidden dementors and a few visible ones in the form of my batchmates, who suck out all the energy, happiness and hope inside me and I’d end up feeling empty.

There are non-living dementors too-the ICs, trainer kit and the bread board, which could’ve performed the Dementor’s kiss on me instead of leaving me in such a traumatic state so often. Whatever experiment is to be done will never happen correctly as if its destiny’s wish. Everyone else would seem to be having patronuses to protect them. They finish all the experiments in a jiffy when my batch couldn’t do it for weeks together.Our group would almost often stand out as the only one, which didn’t finish the scheduled experiment(s).

Even if everything goes well, the circuit is connected perfectly and there are adequate wires, the output would never come for eternity for God-knows-why. The materials and apparatus of all the other batches would seem to be working immaculately. But when we take theirs and try to do something, our Midas touch(??) would make sure that nothing would work. We would dismantle everything and reconstruct the circuit again with a vigour and hope but worse would befall us. The hope, the energy and the enthusiasm would vaporise and it wouldn’t take long to give up.

A couple of good-for-nothing guys in my batch who don’t help a bit but still disturb by talking too much of themselves would add to the misery.The hollow gloating would irritate me like anything. They would also never miss opportunities to make rude comments about others-girls particularly or to film some offensive stuff using their mobile cameras. Gits!!!

With everything against the completion of experiments and such wonderful 🙁 batchmates, often we’ll end up lagging behind by a mile. At times we shamelessly borrow the circuit from the other batches to show the output to the lab sir or even get it signed by a sir who wouldn’t even come near our bench but still would gladly sign our lab observation notebooks.

I don’t know where this will end. With such practice, I doubt if I could clear my semester practical exam. I’m worried about it because i’m in a no man’s land without a bit of my fault.

by 0 comments on "Food for thought!"

Today, a soul-wrenching experience hit me. A classmate, a silent and a non-violent one, took a seminar on a very vague topic and subject. He couldn’t even spell common words correctly and all he did in the name of seminar was to read from the book-very poor at it, which was not a problem as Sir was not present in the class and there was a stopgap sir.Neither do I degrade that poor chap, nor blame him. All that I could do was to regret his condition and lament about our education system of which he is a very routine product. 🙁

Our education system emphasises more on marks and knowledge is of zero value. As a result everyone including the teachers, students, their parents and tuition centres become mark-crazy and kill the capacity in a student to learn.

That a 2nd year student in a very reputed institution and highly-valued course can’t even spell a few basic words or read a few sentences continuously and properly is a shame to everyone of us.

He may have got into the college and the course due to his marks earned by rote memory or by the evil reservation. I’m not against reservation but the purpose it is being used these days is evil. It neither helps the students benefiting out of it, nor the other meritorious students who are victims of reservation.

The purpose of reservation is to empower educationally backward people, but even after gaining out of reservation, they make zilch progress. The better idea would have been to raise the educational standards of such people instead of pampering them with reservation and making sure they never learn or rise in their lives. 🙁 .

The political parties have gone overboard with reservation and are over-killing the vote-earning cow. The reservation in Tamil Nadu has exceeded the Constitutional/Supreme Court’s limit of 50%. They’re even contemplating on Religion-based reservation which is unsecular and unIndian.People of many castes want their castes to be included in the Backward classes and even fight and indulge in violence with people of other castes which disturbs the harmony of India.

When will this injustice end? Even God may not know. But it is a pity that such people who benefit from reservation suffer more, failing miserably in the higher levels of education and life. I pray to the Al(l)mighty!

by 0 comments on "Early to bed and early to rise"

“Early to bed and early to rise” is an oft-quoted virtue but very difficult to follow in the hectic paced life of today. Having a sufficient daily sleep is very essential for everyone to be sane and fresh as well. Sleeping and waking up at odd hours affects the body’s biological clock and as a result you still fall into sleep during odd times-most often in the classroom, when the lecturer’s words seem to be a lullaby.

I used to have atleast the “Early to bed” virtue, but now being a hostel resident and with the hectic life I lead, I’ve shamelessly lost the good habit.

Getting up early in the morning gives more benefits than sleeping beyond the alarm ringing in vain. The day and the activities to be done can be planned and implemented leisurely rather than indulging in bad habits like skipping bath as a result of getting up late. 🙁

Getting up early without adequate sleep can lead to sleepiness in the daytime, so its very essential to have a good sleep which i’m in dire need of daily. Getting up late leads to shortage of time, hurry and unwanted stress which my body and mind cannot afford. It also often makes me irregular!!??!!!(As if I’m regular otherwise!). 🙂 . So “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” is not only a virtue to be read, it is to be preached and followed. I hope to be healthy, wealthy and wise! 🙂

by 0 comments on "FStival’07!"

Today we celebrated Software Freedom Day in our college. We had a talk on FOSS and GNU/Linux by Mr.Praveen Krishnamoorthy, a FOSS enthusiast and a distinguished alumnus of our college. There was also a demonstration on the installation of Ubuntu Linux by Mahesh of 3rd year and the features of Ubuntu were demonstrated by Mr.Subramani, another alumnus, who along with Mr.Senthil, answered the queries of the audience. We had a T-Shirt designed for this year’s FStival and almost all of the guys involved, wore it.

Then a lot of students from schools in Madurai and the students from the other department visited the halls in the CSE department where there were demo stalls on various GNU/Linux tools. I, alongwith Venkatachalam and Raju, hosted a stall on LaTeX, a powerful typesetting language. It was fun demoing stalls to the visitors. The other stalls were GIMP by J.Aravind, Krishnakumar, Content Management System by K.Manikandan, Vi by S.Anugraha and co., Blender by Deepika and co., Emacs by M.P.Aravinth and co., and so on. The demo stalls were open for about 2 1/2 hours and then we closed them. My only regret was that I couldn’t visit other stalls.I visited the Blender stall i the midst of an explantion and it was very attractive to me as I was already very much interested in 3d animation and 3Ds max.Even when Blessings came to near my stall, it was about to be closed and I was explaining seriously to seniors visiting my stall and when I was done with it, Blessings was nowhere to be found there.

When I went to the Microprocessor Lab, Blessings and co., had closed their stall and were leaving. All the other stalls i visited thereafter were closed and I was a bit disappointed as I had thought that the stalls would’ve been open till evening.

Then we brought back all the computers to the PP lab and connected them. Then we had a photo session with Senthil anna, Bala anna and Ravishankar anna shooting pics with their camera. Then we walked our way out of the college, as a group with a lot of cheerful talking. Today has been an unforgettable day in my life.