Why am I blogging now?

A very pertinent question actually. Though it is a part of the larger question of why i blog which in turn is a part of the largest question of why bloggers blog. Actually this also is a part of another wider question of why people write something like a diary, blog etc.
The actual question is why am i blogging at 3:30am when i am already running short of 12-14 hours of sleep? Will this be my second awake-night of this week? Who cares....
I am writing this post since i have to understand and then enhance a program (should be called a software, it contains so many files and lines of code) which i havent seen till today and which has its comments in german! What a nice job.
To the larger question, Why do i blog?
Answers: (this post may look similar to one of jayaram's )
Ans. Because i like typing
Ans. Because i like writing
Ans. Because i dont feel like doing some work
Ans. Because i can write or rather ramble on.
Ans. Because i have 24hrs free access to net (actually pay for it through fees so i guess we need to fully utilise it ;)
Ans. Because, well, umm, maybe i should fake some answers :D

Some wrong answers:
Ans. Because it gives people a window into my life. (What! nah. this is not true)
Ans. Because it improves my writing skills (they are going from bad ot worse)
Ans. Because i am paid for it (wish it were true)
Ans. Because some people read it (but then why did i begin at all?)

Why do people as such blog? Cant enumerate the reasons now. As regards the last question, i have no idea why any person would maintain a diary, so cant comment on that either.

Someone(a friend) feels that my blog is awesome. :D:D:D Am flattered though i have no idea why he thinks so. (nope, am not trying to be humble (i already am ;) )
By the way, is there any cure to this disease called procrastination? Its microbes seem to have infected every cell of mine. Cant find much clean air these days either.

Summer is here to stay .. :((

Unbearable hot sun for the past few days. The last couple of days were spent in completing one of my three projects. The deadline of the submission was strangely at 6:00 am in the morning (yesterday). That resulted in almost all the students of that course stay awake all night in a desperate effort to make their programs work. By morning 6:30, i and my project partner had finished all the coding neccessary and even intergrated the various components. The components seemed to be working fine individually. But then when we ran it as a whole, we got the error that you should get in order to make a correct program, "segmentation fault". Check for the reasons. couldnt find any. We still had to write the documentation. My partner retired to his room, while i realised that blogging had some use. It made writing crap easy ;) and submitted the thing. Then ate breakfast etc. It always feels strange to brush your teeth when you didnt sleep. It sort of feels redundant :d. But anywayz, (i did brush) and just hung around until it was time for class. After the class, we again looked at the program to se if we could do something about the fault. In vain. It seemed to be getting worse. Earlier we were getting the error for some inputs only. But now it was not input specific. It was invariably giving seg faults. But not all at the same exectution step. Each time it was at a different step. Finally we went at 3 to show our non-running program. There was a crowd, all with the same intention. So i thought we would have a final look at the code. Then the process started. We seemed to be getting more errors. But we could atleast find some causes. Most of the other teams' programs were working for atleast some inputs. But not ours. Finally we made it run without any faults. But the output wasnt totally right. Made a few more changes. By this time, most of the teams had shown their program, most of which just gave a segmentaion fault. Finally it was our turn. I wasnt sure that our program was yet giving the correct output. We showed the updated version. It surprisingly ran for all the cases giving the correct output! Ours was the first one to be totally correct. Also it was the first time that our program gave a correct output! ;) So one of three has gone off well.
The second and most important one is lost in doldrums with no way to escape. Its living up to its name ........

The sun is beating down upon us....I want winter :((

Feeling nice ...

after some much needed sleep and relaxation. Writing this post in a dreamy stupor.

On a slightly different tone
let us be all alone
look into each other's eyes
and tell each other, lots of lies

Let us walk on the beach      [long time i went to beach :(( ]
out of everyone else's reach
holding hand in hand
and on each other, throw sand

Let us frolick in a spring meadow
without any lingering shadow
play around with the fresh grass
and crack jokes, really crass

Let us paint the town red
and share a comfy bed
live our life together
and hit each other with belt leather


Back to the dream world now .....

i had forgotten to title this post ...

02:19:40) pranavasishta: we complement each other well
(02:19:47) me: basically we suck
(02:19:54) me: hav lost direction in this world
(02:20:18) me: and r not helped by the fact that there is no one nearby to drive some sense into us
(02:21:04) pranavasishta: think i could never put it better.

A chat conversation that i had with the sage of my class in the night around 2. And all of it is so true! What are we trying to do? Living life, trying to fit everything into nothing, going about life which though is different everyday, is similar in more ways than one realises. The same sun, the same morning rush, the same missing of breakfast to attend a class which is not worth it, the same dozing of in the class which helps you escape exerting your mind in trying to make sense of the seemingly incoherent mamblings by a distinguished prof, but doesnt help you in getting the much needed rest, the same rush after the class either to another class or to a nearby pc to check mail, the same mails, one from the administration office (some vaccine or another such inane matter) a couple from the lug (a question easily solved through man, and its reply stating the obvious), quite a lot of lost-found and sometimes to break the routine, a mail from some prof. Trying to fit in the available time to do something, though achieving nothing in the end other than a feeling of having worked a lot. What is the point? What are we trying to do?
What is the institute trying to do? "We want to be a research institute". Yet at every available oppurtunity we boast about our 100% placement record. Placements mostly at companies that follow the seriously complicated SE procedures. I dont think doing Pt every morning is going to make a better researcher. Neither would beingimmersed in assignments and classes. Poor first years, I pity them. We were really lucky. Didnt have the pt, the compulsary attendance, nor the place fixation in the classes. And they have grand plans of increasing the strength! For what? Quality is not going to improve. I just hope the institute doesnt degrade and fall into an abyss. It was a bright spark till now. A spark which sometimes falters. but hopefully would collect all its oil and glow cheerily again. ....

just because i feel like typing ...

.. hence i am writing this post. So have no expectations my dear readers. What sort of sins did u commit in your previous and future lives that you read my blog and some of you even return! I thought i would write something for the creative writing competition, but did nothing till now. Already 6 days have passed. And i dont seem to be doing anything now either. I crib saying that i have to do three projects etc etc. But do i do any of them? No sir. The only things that i am doing these days is eating and sleeping. And i am doing a lot of it. Seems that the copious hours of sleep is doing no help. Am feeling sleepy already........ But i dont want to wake up tomorrow morning. If i do, i am stuck without a free hour from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. :((
I had an hour free from 2 to 3, but now even that has been alloted to the Felicity meeting. So I am going to be a zombie running around tomorrow. :((
I dont want to wake up. Good night :)

21 ...

Yeps. Thats how old i have become today. It does feel strange. How does it affect anything? Maybe it doesnt. But then again, it does feel different. And, do i look like a 21 year old? Certainly not, or so i am lead to believe. Anyhow, 21 years have passed. Lot more to come (hopefully). Looking forward to life :)

Veritas Horizon ...

I other words, Verizon. The sponsor for CodeCraft. Their GM, human resources came to the campus today to deliver a small talk. It was their idea. They also wanted a report on Threads to be given during this meeting. So, we had given them an itinerary long time back and were supposed to follow it. The major problem that i thought i would face was to get the seminar hall filled with people. I had mailed to students stating that the talk would start at 9:30 whereas it was scheduled to start at 10. At 9:30 as i was walking towards the room, i am approached by their HR who looked worried. He told that he didnt want his GM to face an empty room, hence called him and asked him to come at 10:15. After a few frantic efforts, people started filling the hall. 10:15 came and went. 10:30 was approaching. The supposed audience was getting restless and some started moving out (Oh no!). Finally he came after 10:30. Immediately i went and invited the Dean to come. The itinerary was that the Dean would give a speech, then i would present the report, then the GM would talk and finally answer the questions. But do things anytime go according to plan? The scheduled time was from 10 to 11. The compere didnt know the itinerary (not his fault), hence it lead to the GM being invited first to give the talk. He talked about the corporate jobs, the attitude of employess etc. This was obviously interrupted as has become the norm these days by the one-who-must-not-be-named (though i dont care a damn about placements). It went on till 11:15. Then i was called upon to give the report. I made it short and sweet. Used the same material that we had used for the press conference, just updated it a bit. I spoke for around 5 minutes. And i spoke pretty okay, with no gaffes. Dilip's nod after the report reassured this belief of mine. Then the beloved dean gave his talk about emotional intelligence. It finally ended at 12. One hour behind schedule. Debugging contest prelims was also supposed to end then. And it was the only event that i really wanted to participate. I was then supposed to escort him to the Director's office. In between, he praised me on my speech, saying it was well organsied blah blah. I made use of the time that he was in the director's office to find out the latest information about the events. I was informed that the third session of Debugging was starting then! He came out of the office, and requested us to show him around the building, the labs mainly. So took him around to the research labs etc. A group of five. They three, we two (Gautam and me). During this, he again expressed his appreciation. After that, escorted him to the stall on the ground, then back to the campus. The-one-who-must-not-be-named had also joined the group now, and was talking most, in fact all of the time. Finally he left at around 1. Before leaving, he appreciated the report once again, this time calling me by my name. :D
So where does that leave me? Do i want a job in Verizon? Nah, not really. The bad part, i couldnt participate in the debugging contest :(

Threads has started...

And it is a huge success as of now! The two most popular events have been conducted. The response has been immense. And the icing on the cake is that there were no technical problems at all. \:d/. In short, we rock.
Sunday started with Codecraft, the online programming contest. 630 teams registered. The mock test on saturday had a few problems. So we were jittery. We completed the questions, their test cases etc just in the morning as the previous post tells you. So, all the more jittery. Changed every question beyond imagination. Hence, though all of them were from the net, where even the test cases and the solutions were available, they werent at all searchable. Finally all programming questions come down to the various types of algorithms like dp, greedy etc. We werent able to change just one question. It was still googlable. But we were already exhausted by then. So everything was ready by 2. And the contest started. I was at the help desk, i.e chatting on yahoo with contestants answering their queries. The contest was for 8 hours, supposed to end at 10. And the number of questions given were also 8. The submission portal opened at 2:30. Immediately there was a correct submission! Though it was for the second easiest question. Next submission for a distinct question was for the easiest question. Many teams had solved two questions by 3. I was getting tensed. Because if this was the rate, then the people would have solved all long before the contest got over. But, we were reassured by a question, which we assumed was next to insolvable. But guess, what happened? It was solved by a team at 3:15. Now that really got me tensed. All questions arent supposed to be solved by a single team in a programming contest. It was an unwritted law. Then Masu and me tried to prepare another question, but we werent upto it, so we soon quit. A few teams had solved 4 questions by 4:30. But then the speed fell. They encountered the tougher ones. And it took them a lot of time. All this while, there was not even a single problem with our server. It handled this huge amount of load pretty well, thanks to the distributed system which used around 10 pcs. I was chatting all this while. Some had nice doubts. But most were stupid or remarks that though their solution is correct it is not being accepted. At 6, it was obvious that our contest was a big hit. Most of the contestants were praising it. Both the questions and the server. Even our sponsors were extremely happy. Afterall, every question was based on them. What more mileage could they have got?
In the last two hours, i was getting feedback from the contestants along with solving their doubts. All liked the contest. Some even became my friends. We went on chatting about iiit, their institute (mostly iit) etc. The contest ended at 10 as scheduled. The most questions a team had solved were 6. And one question wasnt solved by any team. The ideal result. The only sad part was that the top IIIT team was placed 11th. None of our teams in the top 10 :( Though the guy coming second who had also solved the toughest question first, was an ex IIITian. There was a swedish guy who came fifth or something. We had many other international colleges participating.

That was CodeCraft. The next day, that is monday was Cachein, the online treasure hunt. It was supposed to go on for two days. Monday and Tuesday from 4 pm to 10 pm. It started on dot at 4. We were all tensed initially because, there was no mock conducted. But there were no problems what so ever again. A few questions had mistakes. But thats it. Nothing to do with the server. It ran as fast as an hare. :) Again i was at the help desk, that is chatting with the treasure-hunters, answering their queries with patience. Most didnt read the rules, and would ask about things clearly mentioned on the site. The others were adamant that their answers were correct though they were wrong. Many of the people that i chatted with were the same as the day before, i.e codecraft contestants. So once again, the discussion started about the fest, how they came to know about it, how they find it, their praise, their institute, our institute etc. :)
The firat day ended at 10. The same story with the second day i,e today (actually yesterday), though it was more tensed and frantic, it being the final steps to the treasure. I wasnt chatting this time. Had other things to do. By the way, Cachein had 700 people logged in at once, trying to solve puzzles and find the treasure.

Equity Pulse the stock market game had a demo yesterday i.e monday. But it wasnt good. Many problems came to the fore. The actual contest started today morning at 10. It really created a buzz around the institute with people asking each other about the profit they made. It had 800 teams. There were a few problems, bugs etc which led to the contest being restarted again at 2. Not many problems after that. In the night the online crossword and online quiz started after hectic work by the organisers who had been inactive a few days back without doing anything about it. The online crossword is called "X Word" while the online quiz is called "The Answer is 42".
Many institute's people are spending their nights trying to solve these two.
All in all, as of now, Threads'05 rocks. Not just in our eyes, but in those of the other institutes' guys as well.
For more details visit http://felicity.iiit.ac.in ......got too used to typing this at the end. Replying to various queries in the mails.
Feel like celebrating after every succesful event. :) Thats the plus point of being the coordinator without being stuck with one event. You are part of all events :)

Quite a big post this is...... Got to write one now on Threads with the statistics for the newspapers. I guess this was a practice for that........

Two sleepless days for Codecraft

So, the day has come. Threads is going to start today. And start in a big way. Hopefully. So, this is morning. The whole night was spent in deciding and redefining the questions. Also went to Nift fashion show yesterday evening. Well, the brouhaha was okay, but i seriously did not quite understand the concept of the fashion as they defined it.
Coming back to Threads. I hope no hiccups would be encountered. Codecraft starts and ends today. Just finished its questions. Cache-in starts tomorrow. Yet to write its story. And nothing much done regarding the other events, which are going to follow these.
A very very very busy and hectic and other such synonymns...week ahead. :). What with Threads starting today and Felicity in a few days, not to mention my perenially stuck project. Have started regarding Felicity and Threads separately these days. Though i had vehemantly opposed the idea of having a separate techfest this time, i think it would be better to have them separate next year. Threads seems to have found its niche. and looking after the techfest is no easy job. Learnt it the hard way. Time to have some breakfast. The sun too has shown his face now.

Rain rocks...

Well, rain really rocks. It feels good to smell it. It feels good to hear it. It feels good to experience it. I do not dread getting wet in the rain. But the irritating part is that if i do get wet, i also almost go blind. All i can see would be blurry shapes. Blurred due to the water playing on my glasses. When will they invent water-repelling glasses ?
Today has been quite a leisurely day. I could even watch a movie: I, Robot (had stored it on my pc for almost half an year now :D ). This leisure is not due to any luck or something of that sort. Its not that i had nothing to do. It was more like i was not capable of doing anything. Didnt have the strength. Just a few discussions related to Threads.
The first 'Threads' poster adorns my wall. It also has the distinction of being the first poster to be put up anywhere. That is the first poster of this year's Felicity which also includes Threads.
Whenever the weather is good like this, with nice cool wind and a rainy scent garnishing it, i feel like going for a walk. But i dont want to go for a walk alone. It gets too boring. But none of my regular walk-mates are around. :(
I have been checking the mail from the afternoon but havent recieved a single one. I think i now qualify as that pc-freak that innumerable internet jokes make fun of. The first thing i do on getting up in the morning is check mail! Before even my eyes are barely open. The first thing i look at when i enter my room is the monitor screen. I think the only time i spend away from a computer is when i sleep. Even that sleep time is decreasing now. But strangely when i go home every weekend, i stay away from anything even remotely equivalent to a pc for a whole day. Yet, i am not reminded of a computer then. Not even once. I guess, my going-home routine helps me stay sane. To think that i hadnt even used a computer a couple of years back. Really, home recharges my batteries because all i do at home is sleep, eat, sleep, sleep, eat and then sleep again. :)
But, when i have a vacation, that is on a longer stay at home, i start missing my room. Not my pc. But my room! I guess i miss the independence that it gives me rather than it's walls and windows.
Well, i looks like i am pretty settled currently. With this room, my home, this computer and my life as such. But it will all change again in a couple of years. A new begining has to be made again.
Something new is what makes something interesting. Anything perennial is boring. But change is what is most feared. Why? Because we fear the unknown. Everyone walks into a new territory apprehensively. Slowly or maybe immediately they get used to it and again start being wary of change.
But something new is what makes something interesting....

Intentionally left blank...

...courtesy _Su_.
I dont want to crib. I dont want to comment. Neither do i want to sleep. Hence i blog.
There are two types of people. One boasts, the other cribs. I guess there is a third group which does neither, but we are ignoring them since we have nothing to write about them. Well nothing to write about the these two types either. So we abandon this train of thought. A train that was speeding into the abyss. So waiting at the station now, waiting for another train. As usual, the train is running late. I guess if its even running at all. Must be snoring somewhere i suppose. Well, to catch a snoring train, we will need to snore too. Bed, bed wher art thou?

Perennially exhausted..

what is going on? i know. Threads and Felicity are eating up a lot of my time. For the ignoramous just check out http://felicity.iiit.ac.in . Any rest of time, i am being left with is gone in a whoosh. No idea where it runs away to. Another project is starting now. The most tough part about a project is to decide the project. Especially when there are no options, when you are expected to come up with the problem statement. A problem statement that no one had thought of before or has not solved before. Lost in all this, i neglected my most important thing. That is my rescue project. Less than a month now to its deadline. And a load of things to do. And the coming days are not going to be any less hectic. Where am i going ??
Atleast have been able to read newspaper these days. Thankfully. So, why did India refuse foreign aid? Was it right in doing so? Well, if we are giving aid to Sri lanka, Maldives etc, then that surely means that we are quite capable of aiding ourselves.
Dean's list released. I thought they had totally done away with it. As is said, Better late than never.
Am i seriously going to hoist the flag? Its actually scary. I was actually bewildered when i heard that. Actually did a double take. On the phone. It went like this -

Her - Invite you to come on the republic day..
Me - Oh sure! teacher...
Her - to hoist the flag..
Me - I ll be comingggggggg
Me - what! did u say hoist ?
Her - Yes, hoist the ....
Me - hoist!!!
Me - what ??

And then she explained the concept which was calling the alumni (illustrous i hope) for hoisting the flag during the Independence and Republic Days. Wow! Hoist the national flag indeed! I dont know from where my school gets these ideas. As if this wasnt enough, she added that i also need to address the students.
Address the students!!!! What!!! I was getting scared by the minute. She tried to reassure saying ," nothing much just a few minutes, no need of any worked upon speech or anything. "
Worked upon speech indeed...
I left the matter there, will think about it later....
Oops got to go now, a lot of work ahead. Need to meet someone now.
When will the day come when i wont have anything to do? Not soon. Not soon at all :((

............................

Well, i spent a few minutes trying to think of a title in vain. Guess that dots will have to do. So today or rather yesterday was the day that i wrote three back to back exams. Cool eh? Actually the exams were cool since any reading was not required to answer the questions in any of the three tests. And then went out of the institute at aruond 5 only to return after midnight. Hunting for Sponsors and then off to a movie. a bad decision actually (with ref to the movie). So you find this tired and drowsy guy with eyes burning (not with anger :D) trying to write a post so that one more is added to his blog.
Now again, am having to think what to write...yawn. A very boring post.

Want to write a long post...

But what should i write in it? Nothing much. Rescue everywhere. One side, is the institute's initiative to help those disaster victims and on the other hand is my rescue project which is in dire need of a rescue operation. I am a witness to my friend's desperate efforts towards collecting money from the students to donate for relief fund. Of the hundred in our class, just more than fifty have contriuted, each an average of around 150. And this high figure of 50 has been achieved due the untiring efforts of my dear friend who used to remind any and every person he met that they are yet to contribute towards the fund. And in the morning he barged into my room and gladly announced that our batch's contribution exceeded 10K. 10K? Just? That would translate to 100 per person! But then again, there are many reasons from the other side mainly that the parents have done their bit etc etc. And its true too. I think anyone would think twice before dontaing their parents money just like that. Thankfully i didnt have to think in similar lines. But then again, maybe the people can contribute by not utilising the money that they generally use it for. Eat in the mess or dont eat at all instead of going to the restaurant and splurging. And i have found that those who havent contributed are mainly those who do the above. Well, the same argument can be held against Felicity. So, my argument is totally wrong. Because i cant forego Felicity. No way!
As regarding the other rescue, well this post needs to end here since i need to start the rescue operations. :)

It really sucks

When u find the normally cheerful faces looking around blankly engulfed in deep musing. The worse part is that you dont know what to say. No way of consoling them since you have no idea how they must be feeling. You cannot console them because it is not their fault. Nothing feels normal. All that you can do is maybe stand around giving silent support. The questions that rose in my head were, should i discuss about the matter with them? No, it would only add to the pain. So, what should i do? Nothing as usual

Just Blogging

Writing a post now because i felt it would be better than finding out what is an Interval Tree, what is an Segment tree and how they would be useful to solve the assigment. Yeah, assignments already. Lots of them. What the difference then? Nothing. Its always the same.
Threads. The name of the College techfest which is part of Felicity (the annual IIIT techno-cultural festival). Sent a mail to students asking for people interested in organising any events for Threads. Many seemed extremely interested. Hence i got just 25 replies out of 800 students. Tch tch. Well as if that large number is not sufficient, most of them want to organise only the top two online events!! As if the other events didnt exist. Anyways, an hours hard work paid off and most of the events are now proud of their organisers. Just that, i havent informed the soon-to-be-organisers that they have been given so and so event. Before doing that, i need to ask a few personally whether they would be willing to organise so and so event. The rest of them would be informed of their predicatment through the impersonal mail. A mail which wouldnt event contain my name so that they wouldnt know whom to lodge their protest with.
Whatever, i just hope Threads is a success. Lets hope that Threads yarns a success story. :)

happy new year....

So. a new year has come. 2005 AD it is beig called. So whats new? Just another day. The sun would continue to rise same as before etc etc. But what is the difference? New year resolutions! Why should they be any. I mean why specifically for new year? We can make any resolutions any time we want. And break them anytime too. The only difference i find is that i need to write down the date carefully. Its no longer -04 but -05. Thats it. But anyway, everyone wishes everyone 'happy new year'. And I reciprocate. Why? Because thats the norm. Does the new year signify a new begining as it is made out to be? This is turning out to be quite a boring post.
Enjoy life. Be it new year or old.