Resurrection

 I have these short bursts of enthusiasm to start blogging every now and then. But even after numerous attempts I am never able to carry on with the same enthusiasm to write, create or make something worthy of putting up. Laziness has its ways with me. This again is yet another (hopefully not futile, but who knows) attempt at resurrecting the blogger in me.

 Initially I was of the opinion that it was Blogger that caused me to stop; so I started looking at other options. There was Wordpress, which I thought had a very interesting look; but I couldn't get my head around the way it worked.  Then I started with my hobby of photography, and I started looking for a place to put up whatever I clicked. Initially it was Facebook, but then it doesn't really do justice to the picture's resolution and quality. Then came Flickr; pretty good initially, but then the charm soon wore out. Then there was Tumblr which looked quite interesting; I could write stuff as well as put photos! Fresh layout, eye catchy themes ( thats something that I look for everywhere). But again I find myself falling away from it.

 Although every time I begin blogging, I stop abruptly and it just discontinues for a while; but I always find myself coming back to one place to start putting my thoughts out again. And that would be here, Blogger - Random Design Bala. Why? Probably because it was here that I started off. My first post online; and then on a stream of posts that remind of how my thoughts changed, how I changed. None of the other online sites give me that feeling, be it Facebook, Twitter or whatever I have an account on.

 I can only wait and see how long it takes me this time to discontinue again. But till then, I shall be busy making something cool everyday.

Jail Break at Incident '12

Weekly Stuff #3

Some memories are good to lose, but some memories are all that we have. - Arkady Balagan, End Game S01E03

The following is a video that was going around on Facebook. I usually don't check out videos given the constraint of my internet connection usage. But when I saw the title ad the small preview thumbnail something told me that this video would be worth it, and it was! 'This is what winners are made of'

Kids are supposed to be very true of heart, innocent and express every feeling untainted! This kid here is supposedly sitting for an exam and that as you can see is his expression. I'm sure we see ourselves in that kid!

There was an awareness test that was going around on Youtube quite a few days back, on Change Blindness. If you didn't catch it there, check out the video below.

The picture says it all!

Here is a brilliant piece of writing on how to take back control of your life.

A memorial to Steve Jobs. Here is just a preview of a compilation of all the tweets that were posted. To get the bigger picture visit the link given.

There have been so many cartoons after job's death and I have got to admit it, they are hilarious. But this one is the best so far!

                           

And finally I got my own! Check it out below...

Canon 1000D

Weekly Stuff #2

This is the second edition of the posts that I plan on updating on a weekly basis. But still I haven't thought of a decent name to go with, so for now I guess I'll have to stick to the same uncreative thing.

Student-of-University-of-Madras.-Preparations-for-exams
(working-hard,-they-tie-hair-to-nail-in-wall-to-prevent-falling-into-sleep)

Otomata : As the creator puts it, it is a generative sequencer. All I care is that it is an awesome timepass if you are on the internet and don't know what to do. A brilliant and addictive music generator where you have to just place boxes; these move in straight lines and hit the walls of a box and when doing so create music. Check out for yourself at Otomata.

Now thats what a true nerds would look like. Simply brilliant!

So true!

S M Krishna with Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar

This was found on facebook with a caption contest going along with it. So far the best caption that has been gives is 'SPARSHANE PAPAM...DARSHANE PUNYAM..'.

                          

An Indian man walks into the New York City bank and asks for the loan officer. He tells the Loan Officer that he was going to India for some business for 2 weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The Loan Officer tells him that the bank will need Some form of security for the loan. So the Indian man hands over the keys and the documents of the new Ferrari car parked on the
street in front of the bank. The loan officer consults the president of the bank, Produces all the required items and everything check out to be OK. The loan officer agrees to accept the car as a
security for the loan. The bank president and the Loan Officer had a good laugh at the Indian
for keeping a $750,000 Ferrari as a security and taking only $5,000 has a loan. An employee of the bank then drives the Ferrari into the banks underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later the Indian returns and pays $5000 and the interest which comes to it $15.41.  Seeing this, loan officer says, “Sir, we are very happy to have your business and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you are away, we checked you out and found out that you were a multi millionaire. What puzzled us was why would you bother to
borrow $5000?” The Indian replies "Where else in the New York City can I park my car for 2 weeks and for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return".
This is a true incident and the Indian is none other than... "Vijay Mallya"

Weekly Stuff #1

At some point of time you would have come across something on the web that you would love to share with others. For this there are quite a lot of ways out there to do it; facebook, twitter, buzz and the list goes on... They are great, there is nothing I can say against these; but you see, if I decide to share things over there, then what do I do with my blog? No traffic = sadness! So I decided that though I don't get to 'blog' about anything, I'll just dump everything that I come across and feel is interesting over here!

From Tushar Suresh through tweetdeck

Thats something that I can connect to instantly!

An awesome self portrait from Joshi Daniel

Found this on Joshi Daniel's profile 'Joshi Daniel Photography | Images of people'. Me being absolute nuts for photography with excessive field of depth, just can't resist not loving this picture. Added to that, there is an awesome analog watch in focus! Waah!

 After the unforgettable thrash of Arsenal by ManU we had the much awaited ManU vs. Chelsea. Sure there were expectations of a good much ( at this point I have to agree that whenever ManU plays, the games are fun to watch; but don't interpret that as 'I like them') and we did indeed get a match that was fun to watch. A spectacular goal from Nani from outside the box, a hilarious slip by Rooney and a couple own goals missed by Chelsea! And one among them being my favourite - Torres being unable to score against the world's unarguably the worst goalkeeper in the world - 'thin air'!

Vettel ripping at Singapore

Vettel is ate the verge of securing a back to back championship at Singapore. And he has definitely done everything right till now. Securing pole with a huge margin of 0.351s from Webber just makes me wonder HOW? Looks like from here on its the Red Bulls, McLarens, Ferraris; Vettel apart... Looking forward to the race though! Paul Di Resta(10) and Adrian Sutil(9) in top 10, awesome!

'Mind' it!!! :P

Your mind is like an engine; like all the other engines, it tends to stop once it is out of juice. But again, it is only like an engine and not one!

- M Balakumaran

GIMP Vs Ps

BSOD's most recent victim!

  The dreaded blue screen that has and still is plaguing so many computers today finally got its hands on my laptop. The poor thing; I had put it to sleep and gone out for a while. When I got back, I tried to switch it on; it showed me the horrific Blue Screen of Death and died! (Yes, just like in the movies)
 
  The time just seems to be so perfect. My warranty got over just a month back and within these two months I already have had two problems with my laptop; that is way more than the number of problems that i had when I was covered by the warranty i.e. zero problems! It appears as if Dell has perfectly planned out when the parts are supposed to fail; just right after their warranty period is over!

Incident

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To stay updated click here.

Right or Wrong

  The other day I was at the badminton court waiting for my turn to play. The game I was waiting for got over and I picked up my racquet to get in... but then I find another guy in my place. From nowhere he just got into the court and demanded that he had to get a chance to play since he too had all the rights to play in that court. Agreed. But then he had overlooked the simple fact that there were people there before him who were waiting to play there! The people I was playing with previously protested that I should be let to play as it would only be fair to allow me since I had been waiting for my turn for a couple of matches. Now, I was put in a dilemma, should I give the guy who just came to play, a chance or continue standing on the court and arguing why I should be allowed.
  I didn't see the whole point in arguing and wasting time to decide who should be let. Since I had already played two games before this guy had come I decided that it would be fair to let this guy have his first game. While it appeared to me that that was the right thing to do, the people I was playing with had a totally different view point. They started to argue that the four of us (it was doubles match) were playing together and thus should continue playing together. I can't really comment on if he was right to say that or not; this just infuriated the other guy and he became even more determined that he would not budge. The players I was playing with, still continued to claim that I should be allowed to play, whereas I was ready to give him a chance and this other guy was not ready to move :/. It ended in a not so pleasent situation, with the players I was playing getting off the court and leaving the new guy alone on the court with no one to play with.
  After a debate that lasted for around five minutes I went to the guys who were arguing on my behalf to ask if they would be ready to play the next game. To my surprise they started telling me that it was wrong on my part to allow him to play. All that was going through my mind at that time was, "What!! me... wrong?!? Why?". When I look back now I can't figure out what I should have done. These guys were reasoning for me and I let them down by allowing the guy who hadn't gotten a chance to play. Was it fair that I went against the guys who were on my side and gave a chance to another guy to have his first game since I had already played two games?

  I still feel that I was right on my part to let him stay on the court. It is true that he had made a mistake by not checking if anyone else was there before him, waiting. But it was also true that it was his first game and I had already played.

  Its fine to argue if you think you are right, but you have to know both sides of the story before you decide to stick to your points. Ego blinds one from looking ahead of what they already know due to the fear that what they discover might actually be against them. But later when you have gone quite far down that path and the damage is done, your ego is not going to be there to cushion your fall. I can't say that only the guy who stormed in was wrong; it was also the fault of the people that were arguing for me to have tried to control things ( it might appear like i'm showing ingratitude towards them, but, thats how i feel!) . We could have always waited for the new comer's game to end and played after that... Yet again I can't say that I am right (I don't know both the sides of the story!), 'cause they could have wanted to play that game because of their own reasons; probably they wanted to go back home early or something else.

  Things like this happen all the time in life. You are put in a dilemma as to whom to stick with and often it ends up with you hurting the feelings of someone or the other. What do you do then? It is probably going to take me forever to figure out a safe, rather reasonable way out, where things sort themselves out without causing any complications.

  On a different note, here is Raghu Dixit performing antaragni:


Official Music Video.
Directed by Varun Agarwal
D.O.P : Subbbaiah Kuttappa

Yipeee!

Its the end of the semester and everyone is talking about going back home; everyone but the ece junta! Why? Cause we have the all so important mini projects to complete... What a drag! We have to stay back after the end sems (means we cant enjoy the end of the end semester!) and get our lazy ass to the dept. everyday to finish the projects!
But, why did I start with a "yipeee"? Well our projects seem to be going the right course currently, so I should have no troubles to finish them! One night out and I can see some nice results in my DSP project! Take a glimpse.


Hmmm the numbers won't make much sense to others, but for me... wow! It was awesome to see these numbers pop up on the screen :)
As for the other project (VLSI), we are right now standing in a dump of graphical wires and loads of routing errors! But 79 seems to have a very solid plan for pulling the wool over the eyes! Since nothing seems to be working I have to work by his plans :/
Also, my DSP scores were out.. and... I am the average!!! oO woohoo!

From the windows...

Thats what I wake up to!

Just when I thought...

...everything was going to be smooth sailing from here on, comes another problem! Registrations done, preparations... going on (not really!), got a learner's license for exam's sake, but then I HAD to miss something that would prove to be very important later. Apparently having a passport is a MUST for the students from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. But why? Who knows? If not for those two lines in the whole page instructions, my life would have been have been so much more simpler. Now I have to pore through the long and boring instructions to apply for a passport. And that is just the beginning, I don't want to even think about the long queues that I'll have to stand in (nooooooo!).

Its that time of the semester again when you either gloat with satisfaction or shrivel into a diminutive entity. The post midsem period is here! My condition now: Balanced I must say... I'm two papers down and my head is still above water!

PS: Wish me luck for my passport. I wish I could put that on my magical wish list and presto I wake up next morning with my passport in hand!

Guys in signal processing do know how to have fun! Lena...

Keeping it alive!

I can never get myself to blog on a continuous basis! Its just the pain of typing so much that puts me off! Well what the heck... I shall use this like Twitter or Facebook status update from now on!

So whats todays new? Hmm.. I have mid semester exam from Monday and I am in a very very bad state academically. Wonder how it is going to go!

Glimpse of the life in ECE

A long break

Indeed... After ages I return again to blogging . I can't really point out to a single reason and say that, this is why this place remained so idol; no laptop, no internet, no time, no ideas, too lazy are just a few of the reasons that I can think of right now ( and remember they are in the chronological order).

Well now that I am back, I feel you should know the reason why... I was asked to make a blog for the IEEE nitk chapter, 'cause apparently there is some blog and tweet competition around the corner and the person with the MOST blog entries would win ( how ironical). I did start making it but then I realized that my old blog, that is this one and the IEEE nitk blog would be sharing the same profile!!! All the rubbish written in this profile started appearing on the other... It didnt look rather nice considering that it was supposed to reflect what we did in out chapter!At 11 in the night, I couldnt figure out anything better than just deleting everything that was written in the profile and typing everything again... Ans as foolish as it might seem, I ended up doing that.... and hence the Lorem Ipsum that is currently being shown in my description! I decided that only other alternative was to create a fake id and then create a blog with that id. But what the heck, I didnt want to take so much pain... But what was done was done... my profile had got screwed and now I am sitting and trying to get things as they were before... painful. :/

Attempt at Ae

My first attempt at Adobe After effects animation!

Wallpaper #5

Another Michael Jackson Wallpaper. This one is a own creation, inspired by the background images that were being projected on the curtain during his funeral.


PS : I am sorry for the bad quality of the pic. The computer at home did not have the adequate resolution so could not make out the rough edges. And I am unable to upload the modified pic as my hostel does not have internet(I know thats sad! I miss you so much; it hurts :P)... If you are wondering how I put up this message; I wrote this in the little time that I got in the digital library of my college!

Google Wave

Like every other Google product, this one too seems to be an out of the box concept and design. Check out the new Google Wave.


Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

Some Awesome features on Google Wave

Concurrency control technology lets all people on a wave edit rich media at the same time.

Server-based models provide contextual suggestions and spelling correction. (this one is really good. Check it out in the video.)

Embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets, thanks to Google Wave APIs.

This is the interface on the Google Wave. Looks neat.
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Don't forget to check out the video and enroll yourself for the Google Wave here.

Wallpaper #4

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This one was inspired by a playstation 3 ad.

Wallpaper #3

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I surely can't say I made this one completely on my own, the inspiration and guidelines for this one came from this wonderful site called abduzeedo. But I have a touch of my own creativity here and there!

Character designing

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This is my second character design. Was quite easy to draw, but the took 2hrs to edit it in Illustrator and Photoshop! Can't say its great, but hey its just the beginning.