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Life and Personal Tech and Culture

The end of “No-Smoking” signs on airplanes

Just how many times have you looked above your seat in an aircraft and wondered why they have those “No Smoking” signs at every row? I know I have! I think the last time I was on a flight that allowed smoking was in 1988. The aircraft had designated sections for smokers in every class, and the sign would go off a few moments after the plane took off.

Well, now days, almost every country has banned smoking in flight, making those signs pretty pointless, and constantly lit. In retrospect, what we really need are signs that tell us when it’s safe to use our portable electronic devices. I am glad this is going to happen as early as next year!
After this, all I need is a “No talking loudly” sign!

Categories
Economy India Life and Personal Tech and Culture

What would have happened if I went to college in the US

I wuld have probably dropped out. Yes, that’s right! I would have probably dropped out. I was in college during the peak time of the dot-com boom, and there’s no way I would have stayed in college and forgone the great opportunities in the economy back then.

Even in India, I was able to experience the rise of the dot-com era in a very spectacular way, and I am pretty sure that things would have been a lot different for me if I were in the US. Who knows, I could have been a millionaire by now, or a broke ex-CEO!

Sometimes, it feels good thinking about things that never were…

Categories
Life and Personal

Out of School…into the real world

I have spent more time in school than the average person. You can say that I have spent more time in grad school than I did in college! College education in India is fairly linear in that once you get in, you know exactly when you’re going to graduate, and what you’re going to end up doing. In my case, I was destined to goto North Carolina State University to get a Master’s in Computer Engineering. Again, I took a prescribed path and graduated in 3 semesters with significant research experience that pulled me towards doing more research. This is where I took the off-beat path, and ended up getting another master’s degree from NCSU.

If there’s one skill I truly honed in graduate school, it is the skill to be “meticulously adaptive”. I have now developed the capability to work on almost any kind of project, any kind of technology, and basically bring it to completion. To me, graduate school is more about developing the right attitude than getting some knowledge. Of course, knowledge comes with attitude, especially if you set out to get a doctoral degree, which is essentially a seal certifying “total” knowledge of a subject matter.

Now that I am out of school (at least for quite some while), I realize that the real world is not very hard to adapt to for someone who has the same kind of experiences as myself (I will write about what exactly I did in my graduate school years at some other time). In the real world, it is a whole lot easier to exceed expectations, for one. Then there’s the whole work to get paid deal. You don’t have to consistently slog hard and exceed expectations AS A RULE to make a living. I enjoy working on more than one thing at once because it gives me the flexibility to refresh my brain during certain phases of one project, and I am glad to be able to continue this tradition.

I believe that success comes naturally to everyone. There’s no force strong enough to stop someone from getting what they truly desire. As such, everyone is successful in their own way. When I was in grad school, I used to dream about working for Microsoft. Maybe my desire wasn’t strong enough, and hence I am definitely not working at Microsoft, but I am working on things that make me happy. Now, I could have been happier working at Microsoft, but I just did not want that to happen strongly enough. Of course, there’s a certain philosophy to this, and I would write about why it’s always better to let circumstances mould our life than to try to engineer it, at some other time. Now, I just want to make it clear that by saying circumstances, I am not implying the benefits of lack of goals in life, rather, a careful analysis of one’s current state vis-a-vis their ideal state.

Do I think I made a bad move by not trying to find a job with my favorite company? Certainly not. I am on the right track, and am definitely getting as much in benefits as a regular Microsoft employee sans many negatives, and of course, with many cons. But, on the outset, I think I am handling the transition fairly well, and am actually trying to make some difference in the world I live in.

I think my graduate school experiences have moulded me into a person who has the capability to take on any sort of challenge in life, often times getting pulled towards them.

Categories
Life and Personal Tech and Culture

It’s the initial setup that takes all the time

I am working on a new project, and what’s different this time is that since it’s not a coursework project, I am having to deal with requirements planning, engineering, and source versioning. Working in an academic setting usually means that the infrastructure is already in place, and you just have to start writing code. Hence, software projects have a short design to production time span.

In the real world, I am collaborating with others on project requirements, design documents, and various other nitty gritty. On top of that, I am having trouble deploying the JBoss Portal Server on my personal laptop. Once, that is done, I have to compile the source code I obtained from our CVS server to work with my AS. The actual coding is very straightforward if I could just get the AS running as I want.

I wish there was enough documentation out there for certain open source projects that would make deployment seamless. As for now, I am trying to justify spending time on something that seems so mundane on the outset.

Categories
India Life and Personal

“I hope you decide to live in this country”

A very interesting thing happened yesterday as I was being a tourist in downtown Minneapolis with my parents. While we were taking pictures, a young American male, probably a college student, stops by and asks us if we were from India. He then asked us if we were in the US as visitors, or whether we lived here. The guy then expressed his strong positive feelings for his country, and said that he hopes that we decide to live here permanently as it is a wonderful place to live. Finally, he commented on how smart allIndians are, and how he keeps hearing so many good things about Indians.

I have been living in the US for the last 5 years, but this was the first time I met someone so happy to be in this country. Most of the times, I see people whining about all the bad stuff, but no one acknowledges the good that makes America unique.

I will remember this incident for a long time!

Categories
Life and Personal Tech and Culture

I am 2 degrees away from Bill Gates

According to the Six Degrees of Separation theory, I am now connected to Bill Gates through a 2 degree long chain.

Here’s my Chain:

Me
|
CliffyB
|
Bill Gates

CliffyB is the lead game designer for Epic Games in Raleigh, NC. I met him for an informal lunch in late 2004 because I was interested in learning more about the gaming industry. He designed one of my favorite PC games, Jazz Jackrabbit, more than a decade ago.

It is amazing how motivation and inspiration guide you towards your aspirations. This guy is a college dropout, and just had one goal in life; to make it big in the videogame industry. I would say he has achieved all that and more. Currently, he’s working on the new XBOX 360 game called “Gears of War” that is supposed to be the biggest game of this year.

CliffyB recently met Bill Gates for the first time ever, and you can see him with BillG in the videos posted at this blog. Watch Bill Gates say that Microsoft is counting on Gears of War for the success of their Xbox 360!

Now, I just need to shorten this chain…

Categories
Life and Personal

Twice in 3 weeks…my car gets broken into

How unlucky do you have to be to have your car broken into twice in three weeks? I mean, seriously. Well, last night, the scum of the society struck again, and stole every single gadget from my car, breaking my glove compartment lock in the process. One of the worst things about driving an old car is that it is TOO easy to get in them. I realized this after I discovered that the bastards had been able to get in without breaking a thing. They broke the glove compartment latch as it was locked.

The last time I had such an experience was when I went to Raleigh for my graduation ceremony. I had rented a Toyota Corolla, and was celebrating graduation with my friends in downtown Raleigh, when I come back to the car and see the passenger side front window shattered to small pieces. The robbers had been unable to steal anything, though, because I had nothing in the car besides my graduation robe. They were too dumb to realize its value, apparently.

This has been driving me mad for the last 7-8 hours. I really miss my navigation system. I miss my satellite radio. And, I miss my Dell music player. Yes, it was dumb of me to leave all that equipment out in plain view, but how the hell was I supposed to feel insecure when the car was parked a small distance away from my apartment in a VERY illuminated lot with lots of cars and houses surrounding it? I am just very mad right now, and hope that the culprits rot in the worst possible situation imaginable.

I know I am never going to see my stuff again. The cop somewhat assured me of that. It’s impossible for them to track transactions at every pawn shop in the city much less the state. Nevertheless, I am going to try to find out the serial numbers of the gadgets and pass them on. He refused to take finger prints, and I am not sure what the usual procedure is on that, because when my rental car was broken into in Raleigh, the cop there told me that they usually take fingerprints if something is stolen from inside the car. I was lucky then, but I was very unlucky now.

I just wish the scum of the society got cleansed out forever.

Categories
Life and Personal

US is an impatient nation !

This A.P. poll confirms it. America is full of impatient people that cannot wait 5 minutes in the grocery check out line or on hold.

I wonder if this impatience has anything to do with America’s technological advances and the standard of living!

Categories
India Life and Personal

The memories of my IBM ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest adventure

I was reading the news today, when I came across news that the results of the IBM ACM-ICPC World Finals had been announced. This is a very prestigious programming contest that begins at the regional level and then goes onto the international level, with exciting prizes and recognition for the winners and runners-ups.

I had the opportunity to participate in the 2000 ACM ICPC Asia regional contest at IIT Kanpur. Although, my team did not score an entry into the prestigious finals, I am proud to have represented Kanpur University at the Asia level. Those were the days! I can still remember the sequence of events that lead me to the regionals and get an honorable mention. There was this subtle desire to achieve something; the desire to be different. I will never forget my college days.

The best part about representing Kanpur University was the fact that I did not have any formal training in programming. My major wasn’t Computer Science, and yet my team was able to qualify to be the official entry from the University after acing the screening test in which about a dozen teams participated from within my college. I had a blast with my team members, Abhinav Bali (currently a graduate student in Australia) and Ruchi Makhani (haven’t communicated since 2001). We literally stayed at IITK’s guest house for about 3 days even though we had our own places to live in Kanpur. Our trio was a force to reckon with, and we went on to win a string of programming contests, including winning the 2nd position in a national level programming contest at IIT Kanpur.

There was so much enthusiasm. Participating at the regionals was a new feat for my college and we lacked the kind of coaching that is almost required to even qualify. We felt on top of the world, and of course the loads of freebies (books, CDs, licensed software, certificates, food), bragging rights, and celebratory social events pumped up our egos. I remember dining with the top faculty of both my college and IIT Kanpur, and being recognized by name by students of all the batches.

I gained a lot of confidence after that event, and still cherish my memories of the contest. I got to meet peers from all over India and neighboring Asian countries. I have to admit that I loved being in the limelight at my college for more than a year by virtue of representing it at various national technical competitions. I travelled significantly, and it was great to be paid to travel and have fun at other Universities!

College life is an amazing experience, and I am very glad to have made the most out of it in terms of learning, popularity, entrepreneurial spirit (I’ll write about this sometime soon), setting lifelong goals, and realizing my true potential.

Categories
Life and Personal

My new favorite song

I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your INHIBITIONS

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

Oh, oh, oh

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can’t live that way

oh, oh

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your INHIBITIONS

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
To the years where your book begins…

-Natasha Bedingfield