Another Project!!

With another project looming large i was scouring the net for possible things that i could make. My team always try to make something ambitious so i too was trying to get an ambitious project topic. Thats when i found this picture. take a look. :)

Hawkeyed!!!!!

Rarely do we come across a topic that is quiet fascinating and that can be taken in such a way that will leave the audience spellbound. I was in search of such a topic to present as 7th semester seminar /paper. the holidays were spent searching various websites giving semianr topics with a small abstract but still i could not find the topic that most fascinated me. almost losing hope i made a note of few topics that were appealing.
Thinking that the seniors will help me i tried out one last resort. Tried chatting with as many seniors as i can get hold to. and that is where is struck gold. One of my seniors told me to take something in sports technology and stated telling me about Hawkeye(though i already knew about it, it had not crossed my mind a a topic worth taking). One wiki search and i knew that i had found what i wanted.

That day started the extensive research and collecting all sorts of info that is available on the net. College started and i had to submit the abstract. I submitted 3 topics. I submitted HAwkeye ,Imax(another topic that interested me, now begin researched by one of my closest friend :) ) and GPS. And the unthinkable happened. The TEacher rejected my main topic and asked me to take GPS (i had already taken this topic in another semester). DAMN !!!! Somehow i coaxed her to accept the topic( that was not tough at all).

I slacked a bit after this and had to make the ppt on the day before the presentation but somehow still managed to make it adding lot of pics and videos. i was feeling jittery as i had not prepared well enough but still was confident of not giving a bad show :) .

The seminar started. I went on with full gusto explaining each and every bit. Usually the trend in seminars is that the class starts minding its own business after a few slides.. but mid way into my presentation i was surprised that most of the class was still paying attention to my blabbering :)
That gave me extra confidence. The seminar ended leaving me satisfied. The teachers really liked my work and asked the others to take examples from my work . But the best part ws when each and evey member present there came and congratulated me for taking a wonderful class. and i guess it was so good that almost the whole college was talking about it the next day. :)

I'm feeling satisfied on a job well done. to know more about Hawkeye visit the following links
Wiki
Hawkeye Official Site

Programmer Excuses

These are the most frequently used 20 replies by programmers when their programs do not work:

20. "That's weird..."
19. "It's never done that before."
18. "It worked yesterday."
17. "How is that possible?"
16. "It must be a hardware problem."
15. "What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?"
14. "There is something funky in your data."
13. "I haven't touched that module in weeks!"
12. "You must have the wrong version."
11. "It's just some unlucky coincidence."
10. "I can't test everything!"
9. "THIS can't be the source of THAT."
8. "It works, but it hasn't been tested."
7. "Somebody must have changed my code."
6. "Did you check for a virus on your system?"
5. "Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. "You can't use that version on your system."
3. "Why do you want to do it that way?"
2. "Where were you when the program blew up?"

And the award for the Number One reply goes to :

1. "It works on my machine."


To be frank i have used some of the excuses myself many times :) and i know many people will agree with me on that fact :D

Infosys it is!!!!

My last blog was about placement companies and how they recruit people. I would now like to beak the good news to all that i have been placed in INFOSYS. hurrayyyyyyyy!!!!!

The day started just as another ordinary day,but with a difference that i was facing my first try to getting placed in a good company. That was also the first time Infosys was coming to our college. The big day arrived, me with all the required files and blessings of my parents started from home. After reaching college i saw some students trying to get through the last minute studies. Then me and my friends went and registered. After that we had a one hour program in the auditorium about Infosys. We were given certain ground rules about the test and some forms we had to fill. We all were also shown a video clip about the company.

The program ended. We were taken to our respective halls. The test started at 12. one glance at the paper and i knew it was going to be a tough ride. Anyways i started and since there were no negatives i just bluffed a few relying just on my gut feeling :-). At 1 the test got over and we were told that the results would be announced at 3.
At 3, after 2 hours of nervous waiting, the results were announced. and to my utter surprise i was in the 21 shortlisted for the interviews from the initial 120 students. I just could not believe it. and to think i almost contemplated going home during the 2 hour break.
My interview was at 5. It was pretty good. i was mostly asked about my extra curricular activities( as i had written a lot on it in my resume ), and ppl who have read my previous post would know that i'm fully involved in ECA activities.
The final result was announced at 7.30, after another 2 hours of nervous waiting. And i was one of the 16 who made the grade of the company. i can still fell the announcement ringing in my ears.

" 1036... err sorry...10463***...Aswin Pai Sudhish"

hearing this i wanted to go and hug the person who made this announcement. But i just meekly raised my hand.I was on top of the world.The person who had come from infosys told us that he was dissapointed by the result.. so wht.. he had just made my day. but he also gave us lot of advice which 'll sure try to pay heed to.
That was the end of the day when everything just clicked. My parents were really happy.

In the end i want to thank all ppl who supported me till now. My parents, my teachers, my friends and all. i want to specialy thank 3 ppl ('m not naming any here) for their support to me on the big day. All said and done

" I FEEL LIKE THE KING OF THE WORLD "

i feel from my heart for those who didnt make the grade.. but hey guys this is not the end of the world.. u got more companies coming up.. work hard and give ur best shot.I end this post with one line(this line may seem more familiar to all in hindi :-) )
"If u desire anything with a true heart the whole world will conspire to give it to you".

Trucks are Coming

Its the middle of the 3rd year engineering. Placement time starts rolling in. Students are thinking left and right about which company they will get placed in. In fact most of the talks end up in placement issues. With nobody willing to tell that they are hopeful of securing a good company( which most of them know they will). Placement training starts and studies takes a back seat(as if it ever took a front seat other than during exam time), people start doing problems from RS Aggarwal, Shakuntala Devi with the hope that some of the questions may somehow find their way into the question papers in the test.
With companies like Infy,Wipro and many other coming students can rest assured that they will get placed if they have the right aptitude and also they meet the companies criteria. All it needs is a bit of practice, some common sense and some gut feeling. Either that or just practice a lot from the many books available.
Title of the post may put u in a bit off. But these compaines are really called Truck companies becos they just come in empty and leave with lot of students in tow which they may or may not kick out later according to their needs. Its a misconception with lot of ppl that once placed then life is smooth. well its not wrong but not right too. one cos one has to work extra hard to maintain his academic performance. Two cos they may kick you out after one or two months of traing if the performance is not satisfactory. But friends don't lose heart if u don't get in one company cos their are lots of others who will appreciate ur talent and take you in. and not getting into a company is not the end of the world. There are a lot more avenues these days, some untried, others just coming up.
also read the following link
http://swetaprabhu.blogspot.com/2007/02/its-all-about-getting-placed.html

I wish all my friends who are trying to get placed all the best for their endeavors . Hope all of u are sucessful in your conquests and come out with the flags held high.

A Panchatantra Story(with a Difference)

Information Technology is quite a stressful field to be in. In spite of that, the creativity of engineers has been irrepressible. One of the most unusual outlets that it has acquired is through the refinement of old Panchatantra moral stories that our elders used to narrate to us, the Indian equivalent of Aesop's fables.The most famous among them is the variant of the wood cutter's story doing the rounds. It even has an exciting and very true moral at the end.
The original Panchatantra story :
One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, his axe fell into the river.When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?" The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water. The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
The woodcutter replied, "No."
The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.
Again, the woodcutter replied, "No."The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe. "Is this your axe?" the Lord asked.The woodcutter replied, "Yes."
The Lord was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happily.

The modern Panchatantra story :
Once upon a time, there was a software engineer who used to develop Programs on his Pentium machine (of course a lap top),sitting under a tree on the banks of a river. He used to earn his bread by selling those programs in the Friday market.
One day, while he was working, his machine tumbled off from his lap and fell in the river. Encouraged by the Panchatantra story of his childhood (the woodcutter and the axe), he started praying to the River Goddess.The River Goddess wanted to test him and so appeared only after one month of rigorous prayers. Poor Engineer, he waited for a long time and at last Goddess came!
The engineer told her that he had lost his computer in the river. As usual, the Goddess wanted to test his honesty.She showed him a match box and asked, "Is this your computer?" Disappointed by the Goddess' lack of computer awareness, the engineer replied, "No." She next showed him a pocket-sized calculator and asked if that was his.Annoyed, the engineer said "No, not at all!!"Finally, she came up with his own Pentium machine and asked if it was his. The engineer, left with no option, sighed and said "Yes." The River Goddess was happy with his honesty.

She was about to give him all three items, but before she could make the offer, the engineer asked her, "Don't you know that you're supposed to show me some better computers before bringing up my own?"The River Goddess, angered at this, replied, "I know that, you stupid donkey! The first two things I showed you were the the latest computers from IBM!"

So saying, she disappeared with his Computer!

Moral for Information Technology Professionals(and also for would be professionals):
If you're not up-to-date with technology trends, its better keep your mouth shut and let people think you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

The story of an Indian Engineer!!!!

Read the story of an Indian engineer. The story may differ at different colleges and also in different situations. 'm just laying down the general outline of the 4 years in the life of a student studying for engineering. It all starts with the student joining the Science stream in school and after a series of entrance exams finally enters an engineering college( sometimes the case is different here too).

The making of the Great Indian Engineer is a very complicated task which involves a collaboration of many disciplined and restrained efforts. It involves patience, suspension of reason, money and a will made of an alloy of the highest strength . Although an Indian engineering grad will look normal to the outside world, there will be 10 centuries worth of wisdom and knowledge between his years. We are trained never to let the world know of our amazing abilities lest we be labeled as the definitive Indian geeks.

An Indian Engineer’s training to take on the world starts as soon as he enters the college premises for the first time. He is made to feel a false sense of security by the seniors until the parents accompanying them have left the college compound. Then he is given a lecture by his seniors on words he never knew existed, and rules are laid down, which each and every new student will inadvertently follow letter to letter. This is the first and (usually) the only legitimate class that actually takes place for the next four years!

After that, everything else learned is through self discovery. In case of hostlers life governing Philosophies are learned step by step from “Thy toothpaste is thy entire hostel’s toothpaste” slowly making its way up to “Thy undergarment is thy neighbour’s undergarment”. Privacy, to an engineering student, is only something that can be had in the toilet, and that too separated by a thin, hole-ridden wooden (make-shift) door with negligible sound (and smell) proofing.

Classes occur rarely and when they do, except for a few uninitiated ‘day-scholars’ and an unfortunate professor, the class will be empty. The teachers serve little purpose other than to act as scarecrows to keep the children away from the staff rooms. Innocent love-birds are seen chirping at every nook and cranny of the college campus. Studies are almost non-existent for the entire length of each semester. But the syllabus is as huge as ever.

The only time he studies - and this is what sets an Indian Engineer widely apart from other kinds of engineers - is on the day before the final University Semester examinations. In fact, some engineers are gifted with an abundance of skill such that even this last minute studying is rendered redundant and needless.The way their brain absorbs information will put even a sponge to shame! The is one of the profound strengths of an engineer.

Nights in a hostel are all about partying. Walk through the corridor of an Engineering students hostel at night and you will inadvertently hear sounds of gunfire (Counter Strike), or cars racing( NFS), listen to loud and deriding wise-cracks, ‘clinging’ of paper-glasses accompanied with all involved students yelling “cheers!” and see different colored smoke as if the hostel was on fire or something. But you will also see one or two students sitting alone with their books not minding any of the distractions on offer as if they were some social outcasts.

But no matter what happens, when the 4 years of engineering are up, the ordinary Indian boy that went into the college will emerge as The Great Indian Engineer with companies(requirements met) ranging from Wipro or TCS to Yahoo! and AMD fighting over him(this usually starts in the second half of 3rd year itself). Eventually its up to the gr8 engineer to decide which he wants to join.This is the story of The Great Indian Engineer.

For all the wannabe IT company professionals

As i am an IT student and as most of the youngsters want to get placed in IT companies i just want them to read this post so that they can know some of the ways and the tricks in IT companies. Its better to be prepared beforehand .So here goes....

If you are preparing for a career in IT or are new to IT, many of the “dirty little secrets” listed below may surprise you because we don’t usually talk about them out loud. If you are an IT veteran, you’ve probably encountered most of these issues and have a few of your own to add — and please, by all means, take a moment to add them to the comments. You are welcome. Most of these secrets are aimed at network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals. This list is not aimed at developers and programmers — they have their own set of additional dirty little secrets — but some of these will apply to them as well.

10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you

Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate’s or bachelor’s degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society. However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, “That’s just part of the job.” If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, “There’s no comp time for that since you’re on salary. That’s why we pay you the big bucks!”

9.) It will be your fault when users make silly errors

Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, “What’s wrong with this thing?” or “This computer is NOT working!” or (my personal favorite), “What did you do to the computers?” In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.

8.) You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day

When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes — and they don’t realize how simple the fix really was — you will become the hero of the moment and everyone’s favorite employee. But they will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown — you will be enemy No. 1 at that moment. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you’ll soon return to hero status.

7.) Certifications won’t always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise

Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You’ll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don’t have the experience to effectively do the job. They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organized and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills. If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job.

6.) Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs

Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbors) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks. They will e-mail you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC or the wireless router that stopped working after the last power outage and to ask you how to put their photos and videos on the Web so their grandparents in Iowa can view them. Some of them might even ask you if they can bring their home PC to the office for you to fix it. The polite ones will offer to pay you, but some of them will just hope or expect you can help them for free. Helping these folks can be very rewarding, but you have to be careful about where to draw the line and know when to decline.

5.) Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong

Working with IT consultants is an important part of the job and can be one of the more challenging things to manage. Consultants bring niche expertise to help you deploy specialized systems, and when everything works right, it’s a great partnership. But you have to be careful. When things go wrong, some consultants will try to push the blame off on you by arguing that their solution works great everywhere else so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Conversely, when a project is wildly successful, there are consultants who will try to take all of the credit and ignore the substantial work you did to customize and implement the solution for your company.

4.) You’ll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones

One of the most attractive things about working in IT is the idea that we’ll get to play with the latest cutting edge technologies. However, that’s not usually the case in most IT jobs. The truth is that IT professionals typically spend far more time maintaining, babysitting, and nursing established technologies than implementing new ones. Even IT consultants, who work with more of the latest and greatest technologies, still tend to work primarily with established, proven solutions rather than the real cutting edge stuff.

3.) Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies

A lot of companies could implement more cutting edge stuff than they do. There are plenty of times when upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure can potentially save money and/or increase productivity and profitability. However, it’s often the case that one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not budget constraints or management objections; it’s the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. This can be a good thing because their jobs depend on keeping the infrastructure stable, but they also use that as an excuse to not spend the time to learn new things or stretch themselves in new directions. They get lazy, complacent, and self-satisfied.

2.) Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business

Another subtle but blameworthy thing that some IT professionals do is select and implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the business dependent on the IT pros to run them, rather than which ones are truly best for the business itself. For example, IT pros might select a solution that requires specialized skills to maintain instead of a more turnkey solution. Or an IT manager might have more of a Linux/UNIX background and so chooses a Linux-based solution over a Windows solution, even though the Windows solution is a better business decision (or, vice versa, a Windows admin might bypass a Linux-based appliance, for example). There are often excuses and justifications given for this type of behavior, but most of them are disingenuous.

1.) IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up

All IT pros — even the very best — screw things up once in a while. This is a profession where a lot is at stake and the systems that are being managed are complex and often difficult to integrate. However, not all IT pros are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Many of them take advantage of the fact that business managers (and even some high-level technical managers) don’t have a good understanding of technology, and so the techies will use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining why a problem or an outage occurred. For example, to tell a business manager why a financial application went down for three hours, the techie might say, “We had a blue screen of death on the SQL Server that runs that app. Damn Microsoft!” What the techie would fail to mention was that the BSOD was caused by a driver update he applied to the server without first testing it on a staging machine.

Post your comments about what you feel after reading this post. Thanks for Techrepublic for posting this.