After Chetan Bhagat's Five point someone, maybe we can write a novel on Thirty nine point something.... As Indian Rupee is getting stronger everyday, it has now reached "39.x" mark and its not far away when it would touch the 35 mark. So now what should we do, be happy coz our currency will finally get the status we deserve, and finally some good amount of investment in non Indian companies will take place, or should we be sad as now FDI will reduce, outsourcing to India will be drastically reduced and the day is not far when the reverse flow will start.
I am definitely unhappy, coz it has landed me in not picking up projects and even if I pick, I land up with very less in my hand. So what should I do, leave the projects, leave the work and just concentrate on studies, then I realise what good are the studies gonna do to me? I have decent acads and they r not gonna change in 2 sems... So I try helping myself with the other type of stuff and enjoying my last yr in college. I don't know where will I be landing next yr!
As far as the money is concerned, I'll adjust myself with a bit of lesser money, infact it also helps the country get some foreign revenue (hehe, well one way of supporting it). So wat next, I am having my exams round the corner so may be I'll have to take a break from this blog for a while!
Oh yes lately I have also participated in Imagine Cup Round 1 Match 1, and I am stuck at some score... I am not able to crack other levels. Don't know agey kaise badega and my rank is just falling down and down... The fight is ON
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Not a winning Prodigy
A few days back, rather about 2 weeks back I received a mail from our college explain details of a competition called Google Product Prodigy. I was thrilled with this contest because I had wished for such a competition. Though there was a small constraint, that only two entries were allowed from the college. I knew that with an idea that was already in my mind, I would be definitely able to clear atleast the college level.
So I called up a couple of my friends and discussed this stuff with them, and we decided to work together. Well I really don't wanna discuss the idea here, but I believe it was something I have never seen implemented anywhere and was thus supposed to be unique. So we started with the abstract that was to be provided to the college and we dedicated 2 days (rather nights) discussing this topic and preparing abstract. On the last day, we took a printout and provided it to the Department for approval.
We expected the results to be out soon as there were only a few entries submitted for it. The results were to be announced in the end of the day.. so I went back home as I had some work pending. Later it was announced that all the teams who submitted their entries have to report to the department for a basic overview of each project. As I was not in the college by that time, I told my friends to report at the department for the same.
After an hour or so.. I received a message saying that we were not selected. I don't know what happened and how we were not selected. I just wished that I could have got a chance to talk to them... Probably it might have made a difference. But now who cares, we might get more of those chances in future.. So probably we are not winning prodigies.
So I called up a couple of my friends and discussed this stuff with them, and we decided to work together. Well I really don't wanna discuss the idea here, but I believe it was something I have never seen implemented anywhere and was thus supposed to be unique. So we started with the abstract that was to be provided to the college and we dedicated 2 days (rather nights) discussing this topic and preparing abstract. On the last day, we took a printout and provided it to the Department for approval.
We expected the results to be out soon as there were only a few entries submitted for it. The results were to be announced in the end of the day.. so I went back home as I had some work pending. Later it was announced that all the teams who submitted their entries have to report to the department for a basic overview of each project. As I was not in the college by that time, I told my friends to report at the department for the same.
After an hour or so.. I received a message saying that we were not selected. I don't know what happened and how we were not selected. I just wished that I could have got a chance to talk to them... Probably it might have made a difference. But now who cares, we might get more of those chances in future.. So probably we are not winning prodigies.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Microsoft TechMela
On Tuesday, Microsoft organised TechMela, an event to focus on the web and software enterprise solutions using Microsoft Tools. So as per my interests, I attended the workshop on "Web Application for Enterprise". Though it was a bit more on enterprise side, but was worth attending even after taking a day off from college.
The gathering was decent, i mean not a big rush i was expecting for a free event. The major reason would be the Weekday effect. Anyways, they had great food and great workshop, that was important.
The workshop was further divided into six sessions, taken by different so-called Evangelist. The first session was of building an enterprise grade rich web app in 15 mins, and i was going to bet that he won't be able to do it in 15 mins. But i underestimated the visual studio power, after lots of chitchat in between, he was able to complete it in 25 mins (oh offcourse he skipped the part of database creation which i was counting on initially :)). Anyways, that session was really basic, he told us bout the basic usability of AJAX toolkit in enterprise apps.
The next session was more of my type, they showed us PHP on Windows, though it's just a simple thing, but using FastCGI with IIS was what that made it interesting. They showed how the use of FastCGI over tradition CGI for perl and PHP would speed up the process and reduce server load. Though they didn't show any real application in PHP, but they showed a comparison between CGI, FastCGI and FatCGI with enabled caching.
The next good session was that of SilverLight and AJAX. SilverLight as some of you might be knowing is an add-on launched by Microsoft which enables users to view pages coded in XAML. They actually converted an image into xml code :0 The image (also including media file) was made in their software called Expressions, whose code is pure XML which they call XAML. This silverlight made them do stuff only made for high speed internet, work correctly on normal broadband connection. That was really impressive. AJAX part was again the same, showing the different tools available in AJAX library and toolkit that comes as an add-on of Visual Studio.
There were a few more sessions, one was on MSDN and other other developer resources offered by Microsoft and other on best practices to follow in an Enterprise, but those were not of that interest to me, to write bout them. Though I have attended the webinars of two of the speakers who came for the workshop, but this truly was good experience for me. For the first time I came in direct contact of the actual people behind these things. Well there's a similar workshop on 13th this October, i hope to attend that too.. Lets see what they have this time!
The gathering was decent, i mean not a big rush i was expecting for a free event. The major reason would be the Weekday effect. Anyways, they had great food and great workshop, that was important.
The workshop was further divided into six sessions, taken by different so-called Evangelist. The first session was of building an enterprise grade rich web app in 15 mins, and i was going to bet that he won't be able to do it in 15 mins. But i underestimated the visual studio power, after lots of chitchat in between, he was able to complete it in 25 mins (oh offcourse he skipped the part of database creation which i was counting on initially :)). Anyways, that session was really basic, he told us bout the basic usability of AJAX toolkit in enterprise apps.
The next session was more of my type, they showed us PHP on Windows, though it's just a simple thing, but using FastCGI with IIS was what that made it interesting. They showed how the use of FastCGI over tradition CGI for perl and PHP would speed up the process and reduce server load. Though they didn't show any real application in PHP, but they showed a comparison between CGI, FastCGI and FatCGI with enabled caching.
The next good session was that of SilverLight and AJAX. SilverLight as some of you might be knowing is an add-on launched by Microsoft which enables users to view pages coded in XAML. They actually converted an image into xml code :0 The image (also including media file) was made in their software called Expressions, whose code is pure XML which they call XAML. This silverlight made them do stuff only made for high speed internet, work correctly on normal broadband connection. That was really impressive. AJAX part was again the same, showing the different tools available in AJAX library and toolkit that comes as an add-on of Visual Studio.
There were a few more sessions, one was on MSDN and other other developer resources offered by Microsoft and other on best practices to follow in an Enterprise, but those were not of that interest to me, to write bout them. Though I have attended the webinars of two of the speakers who came for the workshop, but this truly was good experience for me. For the first time I came in direct contact of the actual people behind these things. Well there's a similar workshop on 13th this October, i hope to attend that too.. Lets see what they have this time!
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Web 2.0 - The geek speaks
Alright as promised here I am with the geeky version of web 2.0, the new internet thingy. Don't worry i m not a geek.. so I'll explain only the basics. This is regarding the workshop i took last week on web 2.0.
So web 2.0 is not a technology but a concept.. it not like just another web technology which comes almost every month. This term was introduced in a seminar by O'Really and is considered to be the next generation of websites. Now internet and websites are no longer viewed just as a network but is now acting as a platform. Web2.0 is based on the "architecture of participation". The concept highlights the importance of users as the providers of content so as to get a remixed and enriched content by the users themselves. So users have changed from consumers to contributers.
Now the content need not be only provided by geeks but by the common man. Web 2.0 focuses on dynamic sites backed by large databases which keep on growing with time. So this concept is not to change the technology but to change the people.. The mentality of people and society should be changed instead of technology... Content is the key element and not the design or technology. Its the data that they want and not the user interfaces. So no matter what technology is used web2.0 concept is applicable to all.
Web 2.0 not only includes quality content provided by the users but it is also a mixture of rich internet applications and interactive user interfaces. Thus websites like pixenate (online photo editor) and google docs also come under web 2.0 tag. These websites harness the power of Javascript to improve the users experience.. Majority of the tasks are performed on the browser (client) itself and thus server side scripting is not the major issue..
So to get going with developing first web 2.0 application all you need to know is basic html and one of the server side technology plus a good knowledge of client side technology like javascript. Rest depends on our imagination.. how far can one think of! and as the Idea people say "an idea can change your life...
So web 2.0 is not a technology but a concept.. it not like just another web technology which comes almost every month. This term was introduced in a seminar by O'Really and is considered to be the next generation of websites. Now internet and websites are no longer viewed just as a network but is now acting as a platform. Web2.0 is based on the "architecture of participation". The concept highlights the importance of users as the providers of content so as to get a remixed and enriched content by the users themselves. So users have changed from consumers to contributers.
Now the content need not be only provided by geeks but by the common man. Web 2.0 focuses on dynamic sites backed by large databases which keep on growing with time. So this concept is not to change the technology but to change the people.. The mentality of people and society should be changed instead of technology... Content is the key element and not the design or technology. Its the data that they want and not the user interfaces. So no matter what technology is used web2.0 concept is applicable to all.
Web 2.0 not only includes quality content provided by the users but it is also a mixture of rich internet applications and interactive user interfaces. Thus websites like pixenate (online photo editor) and google docs also come under web 2.0 tag. These websites harness the power of Javascript to improve the users experience.. Majority of the tasks are performed on the browser (client) itself and thus server side scripting is not the major issue..
So to get going with developing first web 2.0 application all you need to know is basic html and one of the server side technology plus a good knowledge of client side technology like javascript. Rest depends on our imagination.. how far can one think of! and as the Idea people say "an idea can change your life...
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Web 2.0
Alright, so you might have heard of web 2.0 earlier also and I am not here to discuss its deep tech meaning. I am writing this blog to share my experience of the workshop i conducted on web 2.0.
Yes its true last week an annual technical workshops event - Techweek was conducted in our college and I was given a slot in this event for conducting a workshop on Web 2.0. Well for preparing a base of that workshop I took a small workshop a week before that describing the introduction to web technologies. So in all I conducted 2 workshops and now I feel really great bout it, I mean a few people have actually started talking the web development seriously. That's all I was looking far, help people understand the power of internet.
So in the first workshop was a little bit of surprise for me... I was given a slot in techweek and I started making the presentation a week before it. And on the very day when I started with the ppt, I got a call that I have to conduct a workshop on web technologies the next day to develop a base of the main workshop. So I prepared the presentation in around 3 hrs that day(ya this is very small time if we have to prepare for a workshop of 2 hrs). The workshop started a bit late than scheduled time, but was really well received. I never expected a hall of capacity of more than 100 people to be almost full. I showed them what internet and websites are all about and showed them how to go with them. Also I showed them some small examples of coding for web.
Then came "the day"! Well I was a bit confident after my previous workshop that this workshop should go fine. There were over 300 registrations of this workshop. And the capacity of the hall was the same - just over a 100 people. We didn't expect so many people to actually come for the workshop. But many people did come for the workshop. The hall was completely full and even many people were sitting on the floor. So I started with the workshop.. I could easily figure out that there were a few students who were also there in my previous workshop. But I had to cover up all the topics that were covered in previous workshop because most of the people were different. So i speeded up the work and completed my 44 pages slides in 45 minutes... Gosh that was really quick.. I really doubt people would hav actually got something. But I had to be a bit harsh as time was very limited.
Then after the ppt was over, i showed them some live coding.. I started with basic html and javascript and continued with php and showed them some small application with AJAX. Yes i know that most of the people wouldn't have actually got anything but i had rto show them something to attract them to web programming. Eventually as expected by the end of workshop many people were gone, almost half of the hall was empty... or in other words half of the hall was full. But overall I feel that workshop was fine, I never expected more than this response. People have actually started contacting me regarding their interests in this field and I feel good answering them :)
Sorry I couldn't cover the tech details.. maybe sometime later
Yes its true last week an annual technical workshops event - Techweek was conducted in our college and I was given a slot in this event for conducting a workshop on Web 2.0. Well for preparing a base of that workshop I took a small workshop a week before that describing the introduction to web technologies. So in all I conducted 2 workshops and now I feel really great bout it, I mean a few people have actually started talking the web development seriously. That's all I was looking far, help people understand the power of internet.
So in the first workshop was a little bit of surprise for me... I was given a slot in techweek and I started making the presentation a week before it. And on the very day when I started with the ppt, I got a call that I have to conduct a workshop on web technologies the next day to develop a base of the main workshop. So I prepared the presentation in around 3 hrs that day(ya this is very small time if we have to prepare for a workshop of 2 hrs). The workshop started a bit late than scheduled time, but was really well received. I never expected a hall of capacity of more than 100 people to be almost full. I showed them what internet and websites are all about and showed them how to go with them. Also I showed them some small examples of coding for web.
Then came "the day"! Well I was a bit confident after my previous workshop that this workshop should go fine. There were over 300 registrations of this workshop. And the capacity of the hall was the same - just over a 100 people. We didn't expect so many people to actually come for the workshop. But many people did come for the workshop. The hall was completely full and even many people were sitting on the floor. So I started with the workshop.. I could easily figure out that there were a few students who were also there in my previous workshop. But I had to cover up all the topics that were covered in previous workshop because most of the people were different. So i speeded up the work and completed my 44 pages slides in 45 minutes... Gosh that was really quick.. I really doubt people would hav actually got something. But I had to be a bit harsh as time was very limited.
Then after the ppt was over, i showed them some live coding.. I started with basic html and javascript and continued with php and showed them some small application with AJAX. Yes i know that most of the people wouldn't have actually got anything but i had rto show them something to attract them to web programming. Eventually as expected by the end of workshop many people were gone, almost half of the hall was empty... or in other words half of the hall was full. But overall I feel that workshop was fine, I never expected more than this response. People have actually started contacting me regarding their interests in this field and I feel good answering them :)
Sorry I couldn't cover the tech details.. maybe sometime later
Friday, August 10, 2007
DG - The Success Story
Oh may be I have never discussed here that my code name DG :), given by my friends in college. So yesterday, 9th of August was a day on which I wrote my success story, the story of the glory!!
Yesterday, the company, of which I have not talked about ever on this blog, Cisco Systems came to our college for placements. Cisco systems is a well known networking solutions company. It was providing a whooping package of 7.1 Lcs. So it began...
The start of the day was really horrifying, 211 people fighting to get in Cisco. And the written test was still horrifying, coz it had no programming questions, but all electronics and communications related. I gave the paper and expecting a negative response for me, i went to hostel to relax... but as soon as the result was declared, my friend called me up, saying "u've cleared it"...
Well I was in a shock, i went to the placement cell, completely formally dressed. Well after that there was a small 10 mins written test - a mini essay on root cause for terrorism. That was easy, but as soon as it end, started was a long long wait for interview.I had to wait for 3.5 hours before I was actually called for interview. The interview was almost like a viva voice that we give in our practical exams. The only difference was that the interviewer asked me 4 times my favorite subjects. So I moved Web technologies to Programming, DS and at last networking. He asked me everything ranging from these topics to OS and Microprocessors.
The interview went fine... but then we had to wait for an HR interview also. While we were waiting i got a placed at another place also. I got a call from Nagarro where I had given an interview 2 days back. I got selected in that too. Later I was called for the HR interview. Well it was like a cake walk, just an informal talk. After waiting for 2 more hours for result, they announced the results and helped me write my success story.
So yesterday was probably my lucky day, I got 2 jobs in a single day. The success in placements so far is 100%, coz i have only applied for these 2 jobs.
Yesterday, the company, of which I have not talked about ever on this blog, Cisco Systems came to our college for placements. Cisco systems is a well known networking solutions company. It was providing a whooping package of 7.1 Lcs. So it began...
The start of the day was really horrifying, 211 people fighting to get in Cisco. And the written test was still horrifying, coz it had no programming questions, but all electronics and communications related. I gave the paper and expecting a negative response for me, i went to hostel to relax... but as soon as the result was declared, my friend called me up, saying "u've cleared it"...
Well I was in a shock, i went to the placement cell, completely formally dressed. Well after that there was a small 10 mins written test - a mini essay on root cause for terrorism. That was easy, but as soon as it end, started was a long long wait for interview.I had to wait for 3.5 hours before I was actually called for interview. The interview was almost like a viva voice that we give in our practical exams. The only difference was that the interviewer asked me 4 times my favorite subjects. So I moved Web technologies to Programming, DS and at last networking. He asked me everything ranging from these topics to OS and Microprocessors.
The interview went fine... but then we had to wait for an HR interview also. While we were waiting i got a placed at another place also. I got a call from Nagarro where I had given an interview 2 days back. I got selected in that too. Later I was called for the HR interview. Well it was like a cake walk, just an informal talk. After waiting for 2 more hours for result, they announced the results and helped me write my success story.
So yesterday was probably my lucky day, I got 2 jobs in a single day. The success in placements so far is 100%, coz i have only applied for these 2 jobs.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
2 days with internetlessness
Well this is not a tech related post in any way, but I would like to discuss this experience with you. As the nae suggests, I suffered from a serious problem of internetlessness .I had no access to internet at my place for more than 2 days, precisely 56 hours.
This was because of my carelessness that I broke the wire of the adapter of my MTNL modem (for broadband) from where this problem originated. So, as a usual solution, I called up my isp helpline no and registered a complaint there. They said the problem will be attended within 24 hours. I was really horrified by the idea of internetless life for one whole day. I still thought that it would be managed, so I called up my friends and had a chat with them.
Then when I turned to my computer, I realised that the computer is really a boring destination without internet... I tried playing some game like MS Hearts, Minesweeper, Ubuntu Nibbles, Same Gnome, and few others, but no use.. I got fed up from them in a few hours. Then I tried developing some previously left applications my uncle's website and some of my project work. Okay that was still refreshing. Then I started working on some C++/C codes which is required for placement preparations. So finally I passed my whole day
But 24 hour time elapsed and nobody attended my complaint. Then I got really frustrated, I took the number of my area's manager and contacted him and after a few calls I got the actual area manager's number and talked to him. He said he'll get the work done the next day because he didn't have the concerned person at his desk that time. So again started my horrifying 24 hours which were probably the longest hours of my life. It was like imprisoned at home, with no sources to the outer world.
This time I also managed to move out and reached a cyber cafe. I accessed internet for an hour from there. Then I felt a bit relaxed, checked few of my mails and had a chat with a couple of my friends. That day I slept a bit early, because I had nothing to do, though i made more than a dozen of calls to get everything up and running, but still in vain.
The next day the representative from the help center came to check out the problem and he realized that he had brought an incompatible adapter to the modem. So he went back saying that he'll come later. Well that day, i went out with my friends for some usual gc (group chat). i expected that by the time i'll reach home the internet would be up, but he appeared long after I reached home. He replaced the whole modem and adapter set and finally my internet is working, but I must say that this experience was a horrible one...
This was because of my carelessness that I broke the wire of the adapter of my MTNL modem (for broadband) from where this problem originated. So, as a usual solution, I called up my isp helpline no and registered a complaint there. They said the problem will be attended within 24 hours. I was really horrified by the idea of internetless life for one whole day. I still thought that it would be managed, so I called up my friends and had a chat with them.
Then when I turned to my computer, I realised that the computer is really a boring destination without internet... I tried playing some game like MS Hearts, Minesweeper, Ubuntu Nibbles, Same Gnome, and few others, but no use.. I got fed up from them in a few hours. Then I tried developing some previously left applications my uncle's website and some of my project work. Okay that was still refreshing. Then I started working on some C++/C codes which is required for placement preparations. So finally I passed my whole day
But 24 hour time elapsed and nobody attended my complaint. Then I got really frustrated, I took the number of my area's manager and contacted him and after a few calls I got the actual area manager's number and talked to him. He said he'll get the work done the next day because he didn't have the concerned person at his desk that time. So again started my horrifying 24 hours which were probably the longest hours of my life. It was like imprisoned at home, with no sources to the outer world.
This time I also managed to move out and reached a cyber cafe. I accessed internet for an hour from there. Then I felt a bit relaxed, checked few of my mails and had a chat with a couple of my friends. That day I slept a bit early, because I had nothing to do, though i made more than a dozen of calls to get everything up and running, but still in vain.
The next day the representative from the help center came to check out the problem and he realized that he had brought an incompatible adapter to the modem. So he went back saying that he'll come later. Well that day, i went out with my friends for some usual gc (group chat). i expected that by the time i'll reach home the internet would be up, but he appeared long after I reached home. He replaced the whole modem and adapter set and finally my internet is working, but I must say that this experience was a horrible one...
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