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Thursday, January 26, 2012

The new PICT

In short:

Cameras all over the college.
Principal calls you if he sees you doing anything ( i mean anything) from cam. ( I heard he actually did few times)
There is one cam in library too, that means PL's are screwed big time this year.

B.E's are enjoying their time at home especially our class BE 2. Placements are not that good, many people are still waiting.

Have watched TE people fighting over BE project group this year too. I must add here, its not that big deal, if you are ready to give time ( thats for everyone in the group) then do with your friends.

There isn't any  unity between anyone (students and teachers) in college, groupism is all what i see these days.
Its very bad for college reputation and overall attitude development of budding engineers.

Its all my perception of viewing the situation, it always may vary from what others think.

Hope its all good back soon. Peace.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

3 days at pycon

International Python conference was held at Symbiosis, Pune this year.
16th Friday to 18th Sunday was full packed with lots of talks on python.

I don't see any point in telling what is python, you can always wiki it.

The conference day 1 was friday so most of the developers working in companies did not attended. It was day of tutorials, 3 hours two session with a great lunch and tea in between.
I attended "web scrapping" in morning and then moved to "python with other languages" for next, but came out in between as the guy was freaking me out, but i guess i missed few cool things in next half.

Day 2 started with a key note and then many talks, same was Day 3. Raymond Hettinger was the attraction, who is working in python from long time and also gives training to google people on python.

Was shocked to see many colleagues there, normally they do not attend any conference. Me and one of my friend are always interested in conferences, it gives a kick start for any technology and then you can advance anytime easily.
Most of them visited the conference because their final year project is related to web or maybe they need python somewhere, which was not case with me.

The talks i loved personally were(in no particular order):
Python on android
Kivy framework for NUI
Subclassing in Python
Decorators
Web Scrapping
and few more..

There was a good talk on emacs too.

It was altogether 3days of world with technology and people who are master in that. I myself planned to give a lightning talk, but was not prepared, so next time in next conference :)

Heard Ruby Conference is going to be Pune, looking forward for it.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Project, Placements and Torture

From the title, you may have already guessed what I am about to talk about… PICT obviously!

Mid-June, third year exams over, stepped into the last year of my engineering life. Thought life would be cool now, will have more time for myself, but over time I realized, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
It all started with a fight to get project sponsorships. Alumni groups, and few companies came with their own respective selection methods to provide us with guides for our projects. I got guidance under one of the prestigious groups and my friends who were not in my project group got into a big-wig company for project, with a heavy stipend to assist in their work. Sometimes, there is this dilemma, money or good project, or if when greedy, both! But going by the Heisenberg’s principle, it is either one, anyone.

All this didn’t constitute the torture that I was to say. The real thing was to follow.
Placements, for which our college is so well-known, started, and with that, so did the actual college semester, from July. Now, we have been in PICT for last three years and have seen a lot of radical changes in the working of the college, and its administration.

In short, First year was chill, but as we were new, and not so accustomed to the ongoings, we didn’t dare challenge anything.

Second year, was by far the best, by means of curriculum too, and other things too.

Third year was when suddenly the admins got wings, and also decided to clip ours at the same time. My attendance in the first sem TE was as much as I had in the whole of the second year! Thanks to the infamous fine system.

Now, the fourth, and the canary has turned into a full-fledged vulture. It’s turned into a school now. Oh, had I joined just one year before :|

So what’s new? We cannot reach college even a min late, which has been relaxed to 5 min, but yeah, like that’s an helluva buffer, ain’t it? And not that we are sent off, which would have been a pleasure, instead, we are dumped into the library reading hall, which implies no attendance. So much for punctuality. I mean, it’s the last year; we want to attend college, and then this. I wonder when a faculty arrives late, what may be the proceedings.

An I-card is necessary in college premises, which is perfectly justified. What doesn’t make sense, is that you cannot have it in your bag, bille ki tarah, you have to tag it along all time. And neither can you wear it and keep the card in your shirt side pocket. No sir. Keep it hanging all day. Yes, woof!

No mobile phones in college premises. The premises outside the classroom! Faculty using phones inside lecture rooms is supposedly okay (!), but, us students aren’t privileged enough to use them even outside classrooms, in the break time.

If attendance is less (less, being a highly relative term), then prepare to be detained, go to the principal and HoD for every other mistake, and many similar threatening has become the norm. There is also the letter from the parents. You arrive late. Late, in the sense, ki you enter the class just behind the faculty, who himself is late technically. Why are you late? Bring a letter from your parents, explaining the reason for this miniscule delay. Ah, discipline!

If any senior is reading this, you may be realizing what the scenario is, as a whole.

College is supposed to be the changeover period, when a certain professional attitude is developed, and not all this. If anything, the students would be deviated off-course, and end up emphasizing on things that are not going to matter, or affect their performance. That would have an indirect effect on projects and quality of students.

Placements are going superb. No two things about it; the college is known for it. We just hope the management gets its things right, coz, right now, students aren’t seen engineering, rather being type-casted into impassive, robotic products.

*Of course, it is an intensely personal view, no hard feelings, or any judgments whatsoever.

Peace :-)

-d3m0n and SK

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

You-know-who

How to know if it's Voldemort:
1. The poor guy has lost his nose somewhere.
2. Always has this fubar expression up, not at all satisfied with anything.
3. Is dumb enough to flaunt the Elder wand (stealthily stolen; cowardice), not knowing the consequences.
4. Can't speak properly.. probably a throat infection.
5. Has this obsession with a scarred boy-wizard, and would scamper towards him at once, like moths to a lightbulb.
6. Doesn't care about anything else, except the boy, not even his 6 other soulful investments.
7. Can be fooled easily; you just need to be pure-blood. Ask Severus! Who btw, is half-blood.
8. Has his name jinxed, and since now i have uttered it, he might be with me for tea by evening, thinking me to be Harry, coz Dumby, the other who utters, is already dead.
9. Doesn't know that people are going to throng in the millions to just enjoy watch him die (SPOILER ALERT) by his own spell. All that fuss about the boy wonder !

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Finally we are B.E

Its was 13th June, exams over and now we are seniors in this college :D

Two days before the seniors had their last fight with the P.U and now they are free birds. It was fun watching them playing with colors and scribbling on each other tee shirt, i was just wondering when will i get away from this university.

Its been three years we are here and what everyone is waiting for, is this day, the day when we will leave this place. But its not so, people don't like changes in their life. I see when students come in their first year they don't like this place (change) and when they leave the place they again don't like it (change), because this is the time when you make friends who counts and this is the your "alma mater".

Most of the seniors are joining industry and there are few who are going for masters. But there are many in our batch who would be opting for masters. One senior got into Google, and  one in Microsoft, big achievement for college. Not to miss 46 companies visited campus this year and average placement was close to 4-4.2 LPA (not bad). J.P Morgan and Morgan Stanley were attraction this year, hope they come next year too. From abroad only one company visited campus, Rakuten from Japan.

Exams are over now but Project Sponsorships, Placements, Aptitude Preparation is new thing between third grade students, most of them haven't left for home this time.

Anyways i am studying for placements and hope you too,, for seniors " adiĆ³s ".

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

My experience with Chicken Pox

The very first thing, its ugly and smell's a lot.
Its normally observed that someone do not get Chicken Pox( giving respect, so i made 'C' and 'P' capital :P )  if he had it before. It is caused by varicella zoster virus, it resides in your body if you've had it once making your body immune with . I had Chicken Pox when i was less than one year old and second time when i am 21.

Its a contagious disease, to prove,
                                                    it started from the son of my mess aunty. From it flowed to my friend, from him to my room mate and finally to me, makes sense B-)
The very first symptom is mild fever, which you would surely ignore but its with little body ache. Fever will go down early but ache remains.
Then there would first few rashes on neck, back and in few cases like me on face directly. That would remain for a day, and helps your doctor to confirm that yes, you have joined fraternity of Chicken Pox.
As soon as you are confirmed patient of Chicken Pox you are untouchable :P
Firstly you think its cool, you are away from college for more than 10 days, will enjoy with your laptop and internet, play games and all,, but truth is you get bored first day.
I saw my room mate and friend going through the disease so i took a decision and went for my home. It was 2 days after my confirmation that i reached home, and my face was full of rashes. Finally i found, its not only my face but my back and chest too. Well it was expected so no surprise. They come into your mouth too.
Little weakness on 3rd and 4th day followed by boredom everyday. Mom din't gave me any salt and oil for more than a week, says this helps. More warmness in body make them come fast.
There is only one medicine which cuts multiplication of virus. I started taking 800mg 5 times a day. Days goes in boredom, tried to study few times but failed. When in disease you just can't concentrate on one thing.

Now its been a week, the rashes on my face have dried and no new. Have started eating better things and will be going back to college in few days.
Anyways just wanted to share with all, my experience.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Gmail Motion and Google Autocompleter: Google's April Fools prank for 2011

Gmail Motion
"The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed," reads the introductory post. "Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology?"

In true Google form, it's a bit dry. But when they break into the tutorial of an extremely sad looking man giving a double thumbs up to "reply all" on an email, we sort of lose it. 

Past Google April Fools pranks include Gmail Paper, Google Custom Time and Google Romance. 

For an intro on how to use the entirely unreal Gmail Motion, watch away!


GOOGLE  Autocompleter
Google's April Fool’s Day prank. They are looking for people interested in a job profile of Autocompleters.
The job would require you to predict what users are trying to search on Google search.
Instead of relying on machines to complete the query (Google Suggest), these autocompleters would be required to provide the hints.
And since the suggestions are to be shown instantaneously, Google is looking for people with ultra-fast thinking and typing skills.

Here is the job profile description:

Watch anonymized search queries as they come in to Google.
Predict and type completions based on your personal experience and intuition.
Suggest spelling corrections when relevant.
Keep updated with query trends and offer fresh suggestions.
Requirements:

Excellent knowledge of English and at least one other language.
Excellent knowledge of grammatical rules (e.g. parts of speech, parsing).
Understanding of the search engine space.
Proven web search experience.
Good typing skills (at least 32,000 WPM).
Willingness to travel (in order to provide local autocompletions) or relocate to obscure places like Nauru and Tuvalu to develop knowledge of local news and trends.
Certificate in psychic reading strongly preferred: palm, tarot, hypnosis, astrology, numerology, runes and/or auras.