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.

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

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 !

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 " adiós ".

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.

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.

What follows is a post by the great Harsha Bhogle, of whom i am the biggest literary fan.

Remember when you failed an examination. How many people recall that, your class, friends, relatives? You failed to make it to the IITs or IIMs. Who remembers. How many times have you had the feeling of being the best in your class, school , university, state….., you failed to get a visa stamped this quarter…, you missed a promotion this year…, how did it feel when you dad told you in your early twenties that you are good for nothing…..and now your boss tell you the same...

You keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize you, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry when your own kin scoffs at you. You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?

Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right.

He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin.

True, he has single handedly lifted to moods of this entire nation umpteen number of times. He has been an inspiration to rise above our mediocrity. Nobody who has ever lifted the willow even comes close to this man’s genius. His dedication and metal strength is unparallel. This is specially for those people who would have made fun of him again last night when India lost. They are people who are mediocre in their own lives. Who just scoff at others to create cheap fun. Who have lived in a small hole throughout their lives and thought they have seen the oceans.

Think about the man himself. He is 37 years of age. He has been playing almost non stop for 22 years. The way he was running and diving around the field last night would have put 22 year olds to shame. The way he played the best opening quickies in the world was breathtaking. He just keeps getting better which is by the way humanly impossible. Its not for nothing that people call him GOD.

But still I don’t want to be in those shoes. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people.

Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup.

This is not just a game, and he is not just a sportsman. Its much more than this. Words fail here...

- Harsha Bhogle

How to date an Indian ( advice for non-Indian)

Before getting to "how," let's start with "why.

" There are obvious reasons one would want to date an Indian, such as how successful and professionally desirable they are. Indians dominate as engineers, doctors, lawyers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. They make up a large proportion of our graduate students -- just walk around the campuses of Harvard, Columbia or Stanford or and you will see these incredibly attractive brown people all over the place. Which leads to point number two. Indian people tend to be really good looking. According to Wikipedia*, "India holds the highest number of Miss World winners, only to be tied with Venezuela." (*That feels a little like citing The National Enquirer but I am going to go with it.)

Most Indians are innately gracious, social creatures; they highly value friends and family and have a calendar filled with various holidays and occasions to celebrate, which they typically do with gusto. Those endless jubilant dance numbers in Bollywood movies pretty much channel the Indian soul. Moreover, Indian men love to dance. If for no other reason other than you want someone to dance with you (or without you for that matter), date an Indian.

Ok, now that the stock for single Indians is up, you need to be on your game if you want to date one. If you are Indian, you can skip the rest of this post and spend the next four minutes savoring your desirability. If you are not Indian, keep reading to learn seven things that should ingratiate you with them. The first five have to do with Bollywood. Indians take Bollywood and their celebrities very seriously.

1. SRK. Two things you need to know about these initials. One, SRK is short hand for Shahrukh Khan, one of India's premiere Bollywood celebrities. Two, you must have an opinion about him. He is a polarizing figure. Indians either love him or hate him.

2. Favorite actor. If you are pinched for time, you can simply claim SRK is your favorite and move on. But, if you want to take some initiative, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with some Bollywood actors and choose a favorite. Some safe, attractive possibilities: Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Amitabh Bachchan. Kal Penn does not count.

3. Favorite actress. See above. You need to have a favorite. You could claim that it is Aishwarya Rai, who is familiar to most Americans, although you will then be suspect as Aishwarya, while extremely beautiful and successful, is a pain in the neck. She has a reputation for being a major diva. Better options: Rani Mukherjee or Kareena Kapoor.

4. Favorite Hindi movie. It should be obvious by now that you need to have a favorite Hindi movie. If you bust out something like, "Yea, I loved Kuch Kuch Hota Hai," you are very likely to get a second date. If not something straight out of the Kama Sutra. One strong recommendation: "3 Idiots". It's a newish film with crossover appeal. Major bonus points if you suggest seeing a Hindi movie together. Most major cities have theaters that screen Bollywood films otherwise you can easily stream one through Netflix, etc.

5. Bhangra. Bhangra is the percussion-heavy music that is featured in most Bollywood films. It has an irresistible beat that will motivate even the most dance-phobic types to hit the floor. Showing an appreciation for Bhangra will score you points. Finding a place that plays Bhangra music and going there together is sure to get you something straight from the Kama Sutra, especially if you exhibit the right dance moves, i.e. patting an imaginary dog while screwing in an imaginary light bulb.

6. Food. Indians love their food. Probably more than they love dancing. Unless you are willing to take some serious initiative in the kitchen, plan to go out for an Indian meal. Although this can be tricky. Many Indians would agree that it is often tough to find a good Indian restaurant, even in major cities. If you want to be adventurous and score some points, I suggest you try cooking him/her a few Indian dishes. You can get the basic spices in most grocery stores. I'm happy to share a dal recipe that is unbelievably tasty. (Really, it is called "Mrs. B's Magic Dal.")

7. Language. Indians love when you speak their language. (Note: there are hundreds of languages spoken in India. Aside from English, Hindi is the most prevalent but not all Indians speak Hindi so you might have to determine his/her native tongue.) Before we got together, Sanjay was greatly amused by my reciting various things in Hindi to him. I got a tourist book and told him among other things, that I was missing my green socks. Now there are several iPhone apps that will give you translations. I suggest you pick up a few and break them out at an appropriate time, probably somewhere well into the second date. You don't want your date to think that if things go south, you will resort to stalking.

Good luck and let me know how these suggestions work out. I hope Laxmi, Goddess of Prosperity, smiles on you as you endeavor to date one of her people.

Oh yea, I almost forgot to mention: one more big bonus when it comes to dating an Indian: communication with cabbies. Think I'm kidding? New Yorkers: Just imagine if you could stop a taxi during the 4pm transition time and your date could say, in Hindi, "Hey brother, will you please take us to Spring and 6th?" You'd find Laxmi did indeed smile upon you.

Source -> Huffing Post

Of coincidences !

2^nd week Feb 11

There is a website associated with Berkeley institute that has a compilation of many riddles. Discovered it yesterday, it was like the hottest thing going on in our group, solving those puzzles. Morning session, computer networks, and I was discussing with Seagate about the website and hence about Berkeley. I just happened to look up at the slides put up by the prof. It was about some sockets. Now, the Berkeley institute doesn’t have any sort of connection with computer networks, nor does its riddles. But, still the 4^th type of sockets happened to be Berkeley sockets! We hadn’t heard or seen the word Berkeley till day before yesterday!

12 Feb 11

It was going to be a particularly boring lecture, so the moment Ma’am stepped in, the class started demanding an ‘off’. The Ma’am, living up to her tedious, wearisome image, began wailing that she shouldn’t accept such behavior. She suggested that before commencing, you can tell her how much time would we want to just while away, she would allow the same, but once she starts, no interrupting. So she asked how much we need, and waited for a non-existent answer. It was then that it happened. Raj was sitting to my right, Seagate to my left. I, and Seagate, both said the amount of time we required, only that we weren’t talking to each other; I was murmuring to Raj, and Seagate was just saying out loud to no one in particular. Neither were we on the same topic previously. But somehow, we both suggested 47 minutes, and then looked at each other, astonished.

13 Feb 11

I had just woken up. About 7 a.m. I had a dream about her, first time that she had taken the efforts to come in my dreams, that I had received a facebook message from her, saying (I remember word by word), ‘’I have a noobish question about……. and the question followed”, which was perfectly in context and was valid, but not important here. I was colon capital D. I was going through my morning routines, when I wondered, could it be at all plausible (I had many previous instances of déjà vu), and wanted to check fb immediately. But it then it hit me, she doesn’t use the word ‘noob’, and so dismissed the possibility. 15 minutes later, I logged in to my fb account. Don’t worry, the message wasn’t actually there! Good lord, that would have been an extremely astounding story. Aso. I was going through the news feed on my wall, when I stopped abruptly at my friend Salmon’s status update, which was put up 4 hours ago, about time when I was maybe having the dream. The status, unconcerned about the person reading it, preached: ‘ Did you know that when someone appears in your dream, it’s because that person misses you. –Psychological fact.’ I was colon capital O!

Geek Valentine's Day gifts

Geek Valentine's Day gift: LED Flashing Heart

While I won't be giving this first product away as a Valentine's Day geek gift idea, it is pretty clever:

Geek Valentine's Day gift: A Girl's Guide to Dating a Geek

Next, I'm beginning to think that many girls are as geeky as guys, and maybe a book like this isn't necessary, but if you're a non-geek woman terribly attracted to geeks, this book may be for you:

Geek Valentine's Day gift: Geek Babydoll Tee

This geek gift t-shirt idea is a perfect gift idea for your significant other:

 

Geeky Valentine's Day Gift Ideas: The "Ex"

I'm not sure this actually fits with the overall "Happy Valentine's Day" theme, but it is a cute idea, especially if your relationship with a significant other didn't end on a very positive note:

Snarky Valentine's Day Cards for Geeks

Getting to the fun ones, these geek Valentine's Day gift cards are hilarious. You can only see a couple on the Think Geek website, but they are good for a few laughs:

Geeky Valentine's Day gift: Geek Love Poem T-Shirt

And finally, I haven't seen this poem before, and it's a perfect fit as a Valentine's Day 2011 geek gift idea:

I hope you like some of these Valentine's Day 2011 geek gift ideas. They've definitely been fun to research.

-- You can buy them at thinkgeek.com