Life in Bengaluru

Now that's a pretty contradicting title - concerning what the blog is about :-D

But being a Bangalorean, and being in Bangalore now - this post shouldn't be too off-track.
(And let me honestly accept - I don't have any other significant topic to blog as well ;-))

In one phrase - Its a slow pleasure...

No worries about what is coming ahead for the next day or the next week..
No hurries for each day - no marked deadlines for doing a task..

I just get into a total different mode when I get in - just sit back and chill, take life easy :-)
Of course - workload mounts steeply upon getting back, but as long as I am here, that seems to be the least of concerns!!

Talk about SLOW - the lifestyle, the people, the Internet, the traffic - name it and it is 'relatively' slow..
Caution Notice: Above view is completely personal and spatio-temporally biased due to my current life.
No offences intended ;-)

Its just meeting up with friends, sitting like a couch potato in front of the TV, relatively(again..) less use of internet, have some pointless but fun chit chat sessions with kith and kin(now thats a purely literary usage - Flag if inappropriate!)

But bottomline - I love it...
I dont see me telling 'Aamchi Mumbai' anywhere in the near future..

Now for a grand sentimental ending:
Bangalorean by birth, and Bangalorean at heart always!!

News Bulletin

Dedications: An early wake-up after many many days .....

1) A picture says a 1000 words:

Well, I dont think the above does :-D
One of the many pics from the Department Trek - perhaps the best "adventure" in my life of recent times..

2) Too much of Charlie Sheen these days:
      Roast of Charlie Sheen
      Two and a half men - almost all seasons
      Hot Shots
      Status updates about him..
I believe its time to cut down on this one!!

3) Trying to get back the old sleep pattern - Not very early to sleep and not very late to get up...
Success today - should see what awaits tomorrow..

4) Finally a named email id that proves I am an IITian( :-D ): Changed the roll-number id to sumanthj@iitb.ac.in

5) I am SINGLE ;-)
    .
    .
    .
    in terms of marks of mid-sems and quizzes of many courses :-O :-P
Its a never-before feeling that you dont want to experience!!

6) This one is rather complaining and intruding - Discovered that my roomie snores !!!
Shh, keep it a secret, don't let him know :D

7) Discovered that we guys are so reckless waste generators..
Don't read between the lines! - I mean that everyday huge bags of throwaways and unusable materials are dumped as garbage..

8) Crazy kids in the hostel - I dont understand the need for brutal birthday bumps at mid-night..
Poor guy would be wishing that his birthday would fall during the vacations!

9) Trying to showoff that I am IIT material and busy by being invisible online ;-)

10) Project time - A project in almost every course; indicating of the tough days that are to come ahead!

The title and the post just reminds me of the wiki days of PESIT :-/ :-)   

Evolution is the crux of Computer Science

Just trying a shot at a serious article..

Computer Science - A phrase that raises the eyebrows of many; afterall how can hitting a few keys and making some fantastic visual/financial/personal/medical aids in the form of a machine even constitute a science right ??

Though it has been a thoughtful debate of how and why it is a science or not - it is here to stay and make an impact!

And what better than the following awesome video by Prof. Kavi Mahesh sir that puts across clearly how it is indeed a Science:

Truly Computer Science has made a profound impact in the recent past( by the timescale of human existance - 50 years is recent past !!)

 Just like any of its competing and contemporary fields - the core that drives it is Evolution; more so - it manifests itself as a perfect example of Evolution!

Let us walk through some of these observations to prove the point:

1. Networks - Can anyone think of a disconnected isolated world today - the internet, world wide web, telephones, cell phones, wi-fi and more fancy names such as 3G, WiMax, Streaming etc etc. 
   Computers have been the backbone and scalability support for all of them!!
   'What about Evolution?' you ask - just imagine the big fat boxes that they used to call cellphones 15 years ago versus the current age of iPhones, androids, blackberrys, smartphones, tablet-phone hybrids...
   Or a simpler cases - emails; does anyone want to check their emails from the unix terminal using a set of commands, with tons of options, and limited space; or just go Yahoo or gmail or hotmail and have the graphical experience ?
2. Business - Its only in the good old classics that you see the 'Blue-eyed boy' of a company managing crates of files with just a telephone at his disposal, and a big brainy head that can helps him excel in his work and also please his girl ;-)
   Its all the different gadgets that gt him to do the work now - laptops, smartphones, tablets, connected networks and what not..
   And here too - there is a mutual evolution; the person evolves with these upcoming technologies, and these technologies continually improve and evolve to suit the needs of the business.
3. Softwares - Of course, there are tonnes of books on multitudes of aspects of softwares - building, maintenance, underlying hardware, software engineeriing, application software, system softwares, operating systems.
   That is a whole plethora of stuff - just proving the point - there is Evolution!
   Write some software, release it, find bugs, improve it, patch it, release a new and upgraded version..
   And over time, if the software is obsolete, scrap it and replace it with the better and improved alternatives..
   Its definitely a ground to prove 'Survival of the Fittest' here!
4. Personal Life - What would have been the typical answer for favorite timepass of a growing kid 10 years ago - surely would have been some sport, or a hobby like philately. Today there is a gen-x shift - its mostly a much awaited and talked about game with fantastic effects, or collection of trendy gadgets that make news everywhere.
   And how has this come about - the infiltration of the computing devices and miscellany into the consumer and entertainment industry; and within a span of year - there is an upsurge of new devices, better gadgets, funky cool stuffs...
5. Security, Defence and other Higher strata - No one can argue here about the need and necessity of super fast, super processing, super analytical beasts that are crucial for lives at stake scenarios.
   Better algorithms, better mechanisms, better tactics, better planning - its all about improve, advance, transform, grow, EVOLVE..

Now a final thought - What is Research ??

Research is what facilitates this evolution - ideates it, nurtures it, accelerates it, sustains it !!

Those sci-fi fantasies that prove life change are brought to life by whole bunch of brainy people researching on how it can be brought to life - formulating a pathway that leads it from imagination to reality..

And the whole 'Bettering' stuff - that takes detailed studies, careful analyses, performance tunings, replacing faulty constituents by the right ones; all of which is Research lingo!
Also the realization that Intelligent humanoids that can replace humans is impossible in the foreseeable future - is again from Research into dedicated fields of AI, Cognitive learning and aligned fields..

So Kudos to all those Researchers out there - you people are making the Evolution happen and spread across far and wide :-)

Life in the small

Here is a small entry in this small blog regarding the small things happening in my small life...

Starting from the small room(well, totally unquestionable and undeniable!!) to the small pleasures of life - the observant Me has found out how small things make it large..

Finding that small is found and applies everywhere :-
small quizzes,
small projects - from the professor's perspective :D,
small size day to day items - like toothpaste and soap powder,
small creatures - call me weird, but I have seen snails of the size of a matchstick - now thats small :D,
small time compared to the things out there you can explore,
small moments of fun,
small distractions - but those that multiplicatively consume time; e.g:games,
small weekends - this one is personal - sleeping late and getting up later does shrink the time,
small laziness - no comments :P,
small movies on small laptop,
small logins,comments and shares on fb and buzz
small marks - not the right adjective, but it sends out the meaning anyway :))
small degree - bazinga!!, just kidding ;-)
.
.

And thus an end to a small post :-)  

Mid-sem after effects - A tribute to the movies I saw during the week :-D

I guess I should have been singular and said only "effect", because there was only one effect - movies!!
Watched hell lot of movies - downloaded from the intranet via DC++

A comprehensive list??
Here it is - Harry Potter 7, Van Helsing, Back to the Future trilogy, Pancharangi, Mere Brother ki Dulhan.

The general schedule of the movies was past midnight - watch until 3 AM, sleep and wake up next day at 11 AM !!
And to accompany the joblessness was a lot of internet - chat, no chat, facebook, youtube..
All of it made me realize how I can clearly spend days together doing nothing!

And the best of them all was the finale - Transformers 3 in IMAX-3D
That was one hell of an experience :-)

Sunday was two of my firsts - First 3-D film, and first time travel in a taxi..
Other incidents that happened during the week dont find a mention here - to maintain 'sanctity' of the post ;-)
Good night Folks :-)

Half-Time

Time does run quickly, and you unnoticingly adjust to its pace..
Mid-sem exams are almost done - counting as the half-time !

Some news:
* Broke the lock of the trolley bag - had to do it coz it refused to open even on putting the right combination!
* Mid sems - Well, they had to happen; they happened - Nothing special there..
* Fun of open endedness - A 2 hour lab exam went on for 5 hours !
* Cleaning happening around hostel - looks a lot better now..
* Writing blog entry after a span of time(oh, just 4 days :D)

Halfway through - seems a lot has changed, and a lot has not.
But overall - now I certainly feel its not a bad way of life; just that it could have been a lot better if I had more insight and more preparation.

And seems my degree is in a sort of tumult - 15 more days to the deadline, and I am still not sure about the T.C!
Its amazing how a single sheet of paper decides what can go right and what can go wrong in your life :-D

And also it seems like I am at a loss of thoughts and words while writing here, may be an indicative that I should be extending this half-time and get serious about two things - life and studies !!!

No pics for the day - Signing off....

King of Sub-optimal choices

Ok, this is going to be yet another boring post..
So for those who dont want to continue and find something more interesting, go to StumbledUpon

Oh, so you want to continue ??
Let me warn once again - this is going to be one more self-complaining yet contradictingly complementing post; and perhaps reaching no conclusion..

This is not an of-late finding, but I have frequently observed myself making weird choices and decisions, that are more often than not second to the best !

Taking for instance the new phone  that I selected for my mother - had seen a decent camera dual sim phone, but on the verge of purchasing; changed to a non camera dual sim querty phone !
Going back a little - the choice of pursuing MTech  immediately after my undergrad seems so very sub-optimal now; considering that I had a very good job offer in hand !
And even further back - switching over to computer science  for B.E, when my passion was electronics then was a similar scenario - though it has not turned out to be a total blunder...
And this conscience crops up in things big or small  - right from insignificant grocery purchases to life changing decisions(if any taken until now)

I have reasoned out two main things for such happenings:
 - one is the more than needed trust I place in the words of others who speak in favour of the "second-best thing" when making the choice.
- second is the inherent indecision that rests within me; that probably gets amplified when taking a decision.

One thing about such choices is that they dont turn out to be totally useless or less beneficial - but they do leave a small glitch about not being best of best; that surfaces time and again..

How many of you have had such similar experiences ???