World's Best UNiversities in the field of IT

I have been looking for a list of world's best technical universities for quite some time. Finally i found out an authentic page. http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2009/10/20/worlds-best-universities-engineering-and-it-universities.html .

I am proud that i am part of an university that is ranked 30th in the world. Also it is the top engineering college of the country.

Oh! Kolkata , I will miss you ....

Four years ago i came to Kolkata to pursue B.Tech from Techno India. Previously i had been visiting the city once or twice a year to visit my relatives. From that time , i have developed love for the city and its people. So , i was quite happy to pursue my B.Tech here.

I have thoroughly enjoyed staying here. I made so many friends here and have some unforgettable memories with them. I have never enjoyed friendship so much. During my schooling i used to frequently change my place and schools , so i didnt have as many friends. But here i have throughly enjoyed friendship . I have made some friends whom i will never forget in my life. Some of them are Rajorshi , Rahul ,Nirmalya , Kalyan , Bagchi , amit ,susmit , sumit , nandan and many more. Rajorshi one of the first friend that i have made after coming here. I will never forget the days when at the start of each semester we used to go to college street to buy books and also eat :-) .Rahul is the friend with whom i have interacted the most , be it mobile , online or in college. I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him many for countless of hours . And i must admit that i loved giving him chap(he has also understood this) . So sometimes he doesnt believe me even when i am serious :-) . I want to thank him for giving me so many s/w and games and scanning and email-ing important things. He has truly helped me a lot.

Nirmalya aka mallu has been extremely lucky for me. Whenever i have traveled with him , good things have happened . He and i suffered from the same pain after the TCS campusing . So we used to share our pain. During the infosys campusing i went with him. That turned quite lucky for me . I got through , so did he. Also he , rajorshi and samya helped me immensely during the Infosys campusing. I will thank them forever for this. Also i will have unforgettable memories of the semester exam days. The way samya used to copy from me was simply astonishing . He became quite famous for that. Loved every bit of the exam days with samya and samrat aka bokaro.

Kalyan is the friend who has helped me immensely academically. I call him SUPER kalyan because he does everything perfectly and never misses out on anything like lab work ,assignments . He is one of the guys who used to reach college at the earliest. So i used to chat with him regarding academics at that time. I sincerely pray that he quickly gets a job. He is person who deserves a job more than anybody else in the class. Also i have many friends with whom i have interacted a lot , like amit , susmit , nandan , sumit , anustup and anand.

Finally one of the friend whom i wouldnt miss at all is kaustav because he will be studying Mtech with me. I am quite lucky to have got such a helpful friend like him . He is always ready to help u at any situation. For my computer problems i always turn to him for help. Loves cracking jokes at others. I am quite lucky that he will accompany me to IITB.

I am going to miss my college days so much. Also i will be missing Kolkata a lot.

Thanks Kolkata for everything you have give me.....

My Solution to the Fatigue problem for the cricketers

Recently there has been discussions on the continuous amount of non-stop cricket that cricketers are playing nowadays. With the popularity of T20 and tournaments like IPL and world cup T20 , the fatigue factor among the players has even increased further. So its high time that we find a solution to the non-stop cricket that cricketers play nowadays. Also as a spectator we dont want the amount of cricket to reduce. Also the cricket boards and sponsors dont want to lose money because of less cricket.

Keeping these points in mind i have tried to find a Mathematical solution for this problem. I think the main reason for fatigue is that players play too many matches during a certain period of time , like they play say 3 tests and 8 ODIs in one month. That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on their body. For this purpose , i think a rule should be made that you are allowed to play only certain number of matches during a period of time.


To make this rule i think certain point should be given to tests , ODIs and T20s. For example 10 points for a test , 5 points for an ODI and 3 points for a T20. Now if a player plays one test match and one ODI , then he has 10+5=15 points. Now we should make a rule such that a player doesnt exceed certain amount of points in the last few days. Like we can make a rule like a player should not have more than 50 points in the last 30 days. Now if a player's point exceeds than 50 , then he should rest for few days and let his number of points reduce .Then again he can play. For example - Suppose a player has 50 points between 4th june to 4th july , and suppose he has played a test match between 5th june to 9th june... now points between 10th june to 10th july is 40 . So the player cant play between 5th july to 9th july , but can play on 10th july.This rule stops players from playing non-stop cricket continuously.

Now many people may argue that why shouldn't a team play his best player if he is fully fit. But i think if the team management does its calculations correctly then it can stop the player from playing in non-important matches and save him for crucial matches .Also the team's bench strength gets tested. A team having a pool of good players will succeed. Also the amount of cricket played doesnt reduce and hence spectators , boards and sponsors are happy.

I know this idea is not 100% correct. But i think my modifying this idea we can certainly come up with some solution for this fatigue problem.

Please post your valuable comments. DO let me know about my idea and the modifications to this idea.

Is Micheal Jackson Still alive?

Just days after Michael Jackson died, rumours are flooding the internet that he faked his own death.

Thousands of fans have been logging onto websites to join wacky conspiracy theories that the singer is still alive and is just getting ready to make a spectacular comeback.

One website released a photo three days after the singer's death claiming that he is alive.

Another says the singer has been planning this for a year-and-a-half and is now in hiding in eastern Europe. However, there is no proof to back these claims, reports the Sun.

Another site has released a photo it claims is of Jackson, insisting that the man who died on Thursday was the singer’s body double with a terminal illness whose family will be looked after in return.

“Over the past few days there have been many Michael sightings. People have emailed with pictures and amazing stories," a message reads.

“Michael is alive and well. The plot was 10 years in the making but it had to be done.

“We know he is alive because we have seen pictures. Clear pictures taken on June 26, 2009 of Michael Jackson lounging poolside with friends.

“Those close to Michael known about the plot for years, t was a very expensive and intricate venture.

“The man who died had a terminal illness and his death was long overdue. He was given facial surgery to resemble Michael exactly. No doubt his family will be taken care of.

“Soon, Michael’s new music will be out. Under a different name and with a drastically altered face... though a harmoniser has been used to disguise his voice”, the website claimed.

Source :- Hindustan Times

Poor captaincy and over confidence throws India Out of T20 world Cup.

Its not west Indies and England who threw India out of T20 world cup. Only the Indians are responsible for their debacle in the World Cup. Poor captaincy by Dhoni coupled with over confidence of the players were responsible for the early exit of the Indians from the T20 world cup.

The players were over confident was evident from their interaction with media. Between the game between WI and ENG Yuvraj Singh was asked a question -" Why team India is shopping Instead of Practicing for the crucial match against England?". Yuvraj replied saying that they know whats best for them. But Clearly Yuvraj didnt know whats best for the at all. The team struggled against Bouncers in the match against the Windies. And they didnt work on even after the failure , the result - The Indians again struggled against the bouncers in their match against England. Had Yuvraj Singh known whats best for them , then they would have certainly worked on their weekness during the practice session. Instead they went shopping. Also some of the press conference with Captain Cool MSD raised some eyebrows .

MS Dhoni was not the captain he used to be before the IPL. His captaincy was pathetic to say the least in the world cup. He made countless errors this time and this blog space might not be enough for me to list down all the errors. In the match against England , RP singh and Zaheer Khan bowled so well early on. RP singh gave us the important break through , but Dhoni didnt even utilise his full quota of overs!! Even Zaheer khan's one over was left. Instead he went for Ishant sharma who went for 13 runs in his first over. Also Ishant was hammered in the last match. Clearly either MSD got his calculations wrong or he made a huge mistake. He must learn from Sri Lanka. They utilize their bowlers so well. The key bowlers - Murli , Mendis and Malinga are handled so well by them . All three bowl some overs in the middle and also the last 4-5 overs of the innings. Its as if everything is planned before they come to the field.

Also Dhoni got his batting order wrong virtually in all the matches. In the game against Windies he made the mistake of promoting himself up the order and in the game against English men he promoted Jadeja up the order. Both his decisions proved suicidal with respect to match outcome. You got to have your best players early in T20 matches because overs are very few. In the ideal case one would want their best players to play the entire 20 overs so that they can score as many as possible. But Dhoni held back Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan and instead opted for the slow scoring jadeja.

This result will surely act as a wake up call for Team India and MS Dhoni. Till now he was enjoying a golden run but now his real test as a captain will start. As Sourav Ganguly rightly says we have to wait and see how Dhoni performs when the going gets tough and then only we can comment whether he is India's greatest captain. So Dhoni must learn from its mistake and show the world that he is a good captain in the champions trophy starting fews months from now.

Internet to be replaced by " Grid " .

The Internet could soon be made obsolete by "the grid.” The lightning-fast replacement will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, the grid will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spinoff from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the Web, could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies “could revolutionize society.”
“With this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day -- the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider, the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realized LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs -- enough to make a stack 50 miles high. Ironically this meant that scientists at Cern -- where Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1989 -- would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.

This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and which lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 in two years.

The Grid
While the Web is a service for sharing information over the Internet, the new system, Grid, is a service for sharing computer power and data storage capacity over the Internet.

It will allow online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call. In search of new drugs against malaria, it analysed 140m compounds -- a task that would have taken an Internet-linked PC 420 years

Google Squared

Google, already the king of Internet search, rolled out an experimental new search product called "Google Squared".

Google Squared does not provide a list of links to Web pages, like with a traditional Google search, but presents information derived from a query in a spreadsheet-like grid called a "square."


Users of google.com/squared can then build, modify and refine their "square" through further Web searches.

"Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic -- instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet," Google said in a preview of the product last month.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Google said Google Squared could be useful when a user needs to make multiple searches to find the information they want.

"It essentially searches the Web to find the types of facts you might be interested in, extracts them and presents them in a meaningful way," Google said.

"If your square isn't perfect at the beginning, it's easy to work with Google Squared to get a better answer," Google added.

The Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant cautioned that Google Squared remains experimental and the technology behind it "is by no means perfect."

Nokia popularity dips

According to a recent report, mobile phones market leader Nokia is steadily losing its hold over the rather important teen segment thanks to the uninspiring, bland designs that most Nokia phones sport.

Nokia seems to have failed to introduce an attractive handset that teenagers could carry around. The survey carried out by Social Networking site Habbo Hotel was conducted over the period of a few months and saw the participation by 112,000 teenagers from across 30 countries. The results from the survey showed that while Nokia still remains popular, its popularity has dipped almost 8 percent from last year. The drop in popularity has helped Nokia's Korean rivals Samsung and LG to capitalize with phones like the LG Cookie that offers the user a touchscreen experience at a not so hoigh price.
Yes, Nokia too was fairly successful with its touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic, which has sold over 2.6 million units so far, but post that the only other addition is the N97 which is hardly a teen phone. The Koreans on the other hand have been constantly releasing new, cheaper handsets while Nokia refuses to update its now old 5800 with spruced up features or even a nw sibling.
The surprise part of the survey was that even though Sony Ericsson might be in trouble now, the brand is still popular amongst teenagers. It amazingly stood as the first choice for 18% of the students. This however was a drop of 3% over the past year. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that the company has a hardcore fan following amongst teens. The 18% preference puts it at the third place as Samsung has now moved up to 19% in the teen segment.

Death of Internet

Video killed the radio star. But could it also kill the Internet? New research from American analyst firm Nemertes Research Group says that by 2010, increasing Internet traffic, particularly video applications like YouTube and Hulu, will fatally clog the tubes.

This isn’t the first such prediction that has been made in the recent past: Brett Swanson of the Discovery Institute, a think tank, warned in 2007 of a coming surge of data that “today’s networks are not remotely prepared to handle”. So are the increasingly dire predictions of the demise of the Internet on the mark, or have rumours of the Net’s death been grossly exaggerated?

It is true that with the advent of Web 2.0, Internet usage has shifted to bandwidth-heavy applications like YouTube and Skype. The amount of traffic generated by YouTube in 2006 was more than that of the entire Internet in 2000. At 50-60 percent a year, the current growth of Internet traffic is enormous. However, several experts believe that the Internet is in no danger of collapsing under the weight of its own success.

Andrew Odlyzko, a computer scientist at the University of Minnesota who specialises in analysing historical trends in networking, believes that global Internet traffic is and will remain manageable with modest capacity updates.

There is some evidence to support that conclusion. For one, telecom companies in both Britain and America are already investing significant amounts in order to upgrade Internet infrastructure, including the last mile cable, to increase capacity. Secondly, the Internet was originally developed to withstand all kinds of catastrophes and has proven to be remarkably robust. It has coped with massive growth over the past 15 years. There’s no reason to suppose this can’t continue.

Anyway, engineers are preparing for the worst by working to replace the Internet with a superfast ‘grid’. So, even if capacity updates fail to keep pace with demand, an alternative will be in place. No one is suggesting that the Internet wouldn’t face operational difficulties if it was left just as it is.

The debate is over whether the rate of investment in capacity upgradation is fast enough to cope with rising demand. Studies like this can provide an impetus for telecom majors to invest in infrastructure. As of now, though, it’s safe to assume that the Net will be with us for a while more.

Finally Dream Comes True - To Become an IITian

Since my childhood i have been seeing IIT Kgp on my way from Kharagpur railway station to native home. I always use to admire the huge IIT campus . I also used to hear that its the best engineering college in the country. So from my childhood days i had the dream to become an IITian and study in one of country's best college.

To fulfill my dream i started preparing for IIT-JEE in class XI and XII. Its the toughest exam in the country and i knew that getting through it will be very difficult . But i still decided to give it a try so that in future i dont have to repent for the fact that i didnt even try to achieve my dream. I did better than what i expected in the exam , but it wasnt enough to make me an IITtain. After the results i was upset , but i had the satisfaction that i did try my best.

After that i decided to take admission in a private engineering college - "Techno India" in kolkata. At that time i decided that though i failed to do the under graduation from IIT , i will try my level best to do post graduation from IIT. Also my cousin inspired me a hell lot to pursue Mtech from some IIT.

And finally the moment arrived when the result of GATE (All india test for post graduation in Engineering) was announced. I expected to get an IIT and i was over joyed. Finally it looked like that i will become an IITian. The preparation for GATE was easier than IIT JEE but the number of seats for MTech are also lesser than BTech.

After the results started a tedious job of applying in the IITs. It was an extremely tiring phase for me. I had to apply in several IITs. Making DDs and speed posting them was a very tedious job for me to do. Also i had to take admission in IITD first because i was uncertain whether i will get my preferred IIT(IIT Bombay) or not . Lots of critical decisions had to be taken during this time. It took a hell out of me. I found out that i had to work harder in the post result/examination phase than pre-examination phase (ie .. preperaing for the exams) !!

Finally i got the IIT i wanted. My name appeared in the second list in IITB. I was overjoyed and was over the moon. I got the IIT that i targeted and aspired to study in.Its the best in the country and every engineer dreams to study there.Two my friends also got in IIT Bombay. That makes it even more sweater. We all are going to study Mtech with each other!! Now i can relax because the Admission process is finally over for me.

I know its going to be very difficult for me to study in IIT. I will have to work harder than my capabilities to survive there but my dream of becoming an IITian suggests me to join the IIT.

Looking forward to my education @ IIT Bombay..................

Chrome and Firefox are safer and more secure than safari , opera and IE 7 , Reason - Frequent Updates

A new study has revealed that users who use Google's Chrome or Firefox are more "secure" than folks who use other browsers like Safari or Opera.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

and Google Switzerland have revealed that the built in update mechanisms which keep the browser up to date by automatically downloading and installing updates, offer a far more secure browsing experience as compared with products that need a user prompt to initiate an update.

The study noted that only about 45 percent of Internet users were using the most secure browser version when visiting Google's servers

. It also revealed that as much as 83 percent of all Firefox users were using the latest version of the browser. As for Google Chrome, just 21 days after an update, a very high (97 percent) percentage of users were on the latest version.

On the contrary, a dismal 53 percent of users had updated to the latest version of Safari after three weeks of its release. As for Opera, the figure was even lower at 24 percent. Imagine! 76 percent of Opera users remain vulnerable to threats posed by the security holes that were plugged by the latest updates.

While expert users may scoff at the study, automatic forced updates are one of the best ways to remain protected. However, those who wish more freedom to control their "updates", it's just a matter of designing user friendly preferences that lets the user choose how frequently or when he wants to update.

Most Frequent Virus Attacks are done using PDF

For all those who rely on PDFs for most of your work or studies, here is something you should be careful about. Security software maker F-Secure has discovered that PDF is the most common file type in targeted attacks.

F-Secure conducted a comparative study of file types which were the most vulnerable during 2008 and 2009. The study discovered that Adobe Acrobat Reader was 28.61 percent vulnerable to target attacks in 2008. However, this figure almost doubled to 48.87 percent in 2009.
In 2008, it identified about 1968 targeted attack files. The most popular file type was DOC, i.e. MS word representing 34.55 percent.
So far, in 2009, F-Secure has found 663 targeted attack files and the most popular file type is now PDF. Why has it changed? Primarily because there has been more vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader than in the Microsoft Office applications.

News for Infosys ( Infy ) Joinees 2009

We had a seminar for Infosys joinees 2009 in our college . One of the Infy HR personal told us that the benchmark for performance will be higher this time. That means we have to work harder in this time of recession . Also he said that the training period will be between 4-6 months . The first phase wiil cover the basics(the length of first phase will vary for CS and non-CS students). After the first phase both the CS and non-CS students will be considered same. 2nd and 3rd phase will foucs on specific technology like .NET , Java , Mainframe etc. He also said that Campus connect students(CCP) find it easy during the first phase. And the performance in the CCP online test wouldnt affect the joining dates etc.

Its going to be extremely tough for Infy joinees this time. Not only infy but all the companies are going to make it very difficult for us in this time of recession . Already TCS has decided to layoff many of its employees and infy has also done the same. So things not looking too bright for us.:-(

Microsoft's Bing to Compete with Google

Back in March, a screenshot of Microsoft's new search engine Bing was Leaked on the web. John PaczKowski of Digital Daily mentioned that Microsoft will unveil its new Bing search engine at D: All Things Digital conference which will kick-start on May 26. Looks like search engine wars will get interesting as Wolfram Alpha is already here and now Microsoft is going to bring Bing.

At the D: All Things Digital conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil and talk more about new search engine dubbed Bing. Recently, at the TechEd 2009 India, Ballmer did give some hints about Microsoft prepping to challenge the existing search engine leaders - Google and Yahoo.

Microsoft has been testing Bing since months. As Ballmer stated at TechEd 2009 India, search results should be presented in a more organized manner so that users don't waste more time looking for links. Hence, the search results are grouped for effective representation. For instance, a particular Mobile phone model will show links of reviews, technical discussion forums, addresses of the retail shops, repair shops, videos and so on.



The software giant will battle search engine giant Google. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal Reported that Yahoo plans to improve its Web search queries with specific data like addresses, photos and other 'real world information' rather than merely showing other web-links. Google's search engine is constantly Op to come up with smarter results.

Undoubtedly, Google is leading the search engine market share currently, with Yahoo following it. So, it's obviously that folks over at Microsoft are still looking to ink a deal with Yahoo on ad marketing on Yahoo's search engine markets.

Like we said earlier, in the coming months, search engine wars between Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and the new player Wolfram Alpha will get exciting. But will the purpose to offer best and user-friendly search results be served?

India one of the best in Tackling Recession !

India has been ranked as third best country that will tide over the global economic crisis by a worldwide survey among business persons to understand the business morale and impact of the economic downturn.

According to the Servcorp International Business Confidence Survey, India has been ranked as the third most promising country to survive the economic crisis. Australia has been voted as the best place to be during the recession times by international business people, followed by China.

The third position is held jointly by India and Singapore while Hong Kong and Canada are in the fifth and sixth place respectively.

Interestingly, developing nations have emerged favourites among international businessmen as places which are best placed to tide over the recession as 21 of the 36 countries listed by the Servcorp International Business Confidence Survey are emerging market economies.

Source :- Times of India

Lecture Videos by IIT professors

Few months ago the seven Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Launched many of the lecture videos by eminent Professors in their college into the internet through Youtube. Also Various courses and notes are available in the internet.

The IITs have taken up an initiative of starting on-line teaching and thus have started offering course materials on-line for every engineering stream.The main objective of NPTEL program is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum based video and web courses. This is being carried out by seven IITs and IISc Bangalore as a collaborative project. In the first phase of the project, supplementary content for 129 web courses in engineering/science and humanities have been developed. Each course contains materials that can be covered in depth in 40 or more lecture hours. In addition, 110 courses have been developed in video format, with each course comprising of approximately 40 or more one-hour lectures. In the next phase other premier institutions are also likely to participate in content creation.

Many professors from all the IITs have provided course materials for each chapter and each subject.

One has to register at the link provided below and can access the course material free of cost.

Every Chapter has been described with diagrams and charts. Please spread this message to everyone, as many can benefit from this program taken up by the government and IIT.

This is just a trial period going on and hence they requested everyone to register at the link given.

1] Type the following address on internet explorer http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in

2] Click on Courses
3] sign up as a NEW USER
4] And one can access any course material.

One can also see the lecture videos online using Youtube . The URL for this is - http://youtube.com/iit

I have personally seen some of these videos and they rock!

So if u guys need some help on some topic then take a look at these videos and courses

Amazing Keyboard ! - Optimus Maximus keyboard

Keyboards are some of the most heavily abused components of any computer. Yet the abuse and torture they go through in our hands gets no consideration, and people usually head for the cheapest. Finally a keyboard has spoken up, and proven that keyboards can do more than just be hit on.

Presenting the Optimus Maximus keyboard, a keyboard so wonderful that you’ll probably give up typing, just so it doesn’t get spoiled. This 113 key monstrosity has an OLED display embedded in each key! The keyboard is capable of changing what is displayed on each key, and no, not so you can watch a movie while you type.

The keyboard supports changing its layout on the fly, so you can actually choose a different key layout for each application you use! So a keyboard layout in Photoshop could show the icons for the action you are going to perform rather than show alphabets, a layout for a music play can show the media controls. Furthermore you can create your own keyboard layouts, by editing a template, and painting right onto the keys! Otherwise you can edit the font, and styles of each key individually.

The keyboard is capable of showing immediate responses to key presses, such as capitalizing the letters on the keyboard when you have caps lock pressed, or showing the extended keyboard when your press alt+ shift.

This presents a huge advantage to gamers, or people who type in multiple languages, or in fact anyone who uses different applications that use the keyboard differently. The keyboard is currently in its design stages, and doesn’t work as well as expected, but manages to impress nonetheless.

Shocks in lok sabha (general) election 2009

Following are some of the shocks in General election 2009 that i have found out :-

1. Left front routed from West Bengal and Kerala - Last time they had as many as 61 MPs from India . This time they only managed half of it. This is mainly because of their poor show in WB and kerala. It was expected that their performance will dip this time , but nobody expected a 50% fall.
2. Indian national congress bagging more than 200 seats - This was most unexpected. Everyone expected that they will get around in the range of 160. But they got 40 odd seats too many.
3. Congress bagging 20+ seats in UP - The big players SP and BSP failed this time. And congress ,the underdog in UP got 20 seats in UP. This was mainly because of the Rahul Gandhi factor.
4. TMC getting all the seats in kolkata and 100 Kms away from kolkata - Another big shocker. The left was completely routed from kolkata. What was even more surprising that they lost by huge huge margins in some constituency.
5. SP and BSP giving unconditional support to UPA - SP leader Amar singh before the results said that they will force the congress and humilate the congress by making them beg for Samajwadi party's support. But things are quite different now. Its the other way around . Also SP and BSP supporting the same govt!!... quite a surprise.
6. Congress alliance with DMK doing expectionally well in TN - Everybody expected AIDMK+ to do well in TN this time . Everybody expected Jaylalitha to play the role of kingmaker this time. But nobody now even talks of Jaylalitha .
7. Congress doing well in Maharastra - I personally felt that congress will do poorly this time in Mahasrastra simply because of poor governance there and the 26/11 attack. But congress managed to increase its tally by 2 this time around.
8. The Naveen Master Stroke - Naveen Patnaik broke away from the NDA this time before the polls. He took a huge gamble. But surprisingly BJD managed to sweep polls in both lok sabh and also state elections!
9. Paswan failure - Ram Bilas Paswan the 6 time MP and LJP leader lost in the election for the first time. I was personally shocked to see this.

If you have any more points to add onto this please comment!

Next Version of Internet May Include Brain!

The problem with the web today is, it has no idea what the hell you’re talking about! It doesn’t understand what you are asking of it. Search for an artist you like and you’re OK but ask it “what was the highest temperature in Kolkata week”, and it fails embarrassingly.

A new technology Wolfram|Alpha, a system which is capable of computing answers to questions is likely to be launched this year.So the web is expected to be smarter by the end of this year. However it isn’t limited to any field or type of question. It actually understands what you are asking of it, and computes the answer! It is like as calculator which can give you answers to questions like “What was the length of the longest whale discovered in the pacific ocean between the years 1900 and 1990”. It doesn’t come with preprogrammed questions; considering the scope of the questions it aims to answer, that would be almost impossible. Instead, the developers have actually generated models of the kind of factual questions that it may be asked, and broken them down into units that can be computed.

The potential of this system is limitless, but it itself is not. It doesn’t not plan to give answers that may have multiple opinions, just for facts so don’t expect it to answer question on anything like “Should I marry my boyfriend who has been with me for the last three years, but we broke up for like 3 months in the middle, and he didn’t even call once! Well actually he did, but I wasn’t there, but he didn’t call again! So should I? ”. This means the system has less chance of being biased, i.e. having answered based on the opinions of the people who are entering the data. This also means that it can only supplement google, not replace it. It may never be able to rule the world, but I’m pretty sure it will rule the web!

My GATE 2009 Experience

GATE is an All India Competitive exam conducted by IISC and the IITs for admission in various post graduation courses in the field of engineering and science. So if u are interested in doing Mtech from these institutions then GATE is a must for u.

I decided to take this examination the moment i took admission in Under graduate college for Btech!! It may sound strange that before even i began studying for Btech , i started thinking for Mtech. But it was planned by me to try to go for Mtech from IITs. The reason was simple - I always dreamt to be an IITian. After i started studying for Btech , i developed the love to study subjects related to computer science. This further increased my hunger to go for Mtech... the intersest to study computer science.

I deceided to appear in GATE 2008 as the GATE score was valid for 2 years. I didnt have much preperation going into the examination . I gave the exam just to know how much tough it really is. The conclusion i got was that if i study a little harder and in a planned way then cracking GATE 2009 might not be difficult. That year my rank was 1904.

The preparation for GATE 2009 began after i got placed in Infosys. That gave me a huge amount of Energy and boost to study for GATE. I took admission in Gateforum , a coaching institution for GATE. Two of my friends also joined with me. I started regualrly attending the classes. I also started preparing slowly and steadly . What it did was it moved me away from the semester exam study and made me concentarte on GATE related study. More than what they taught there , the practice and staying in touch was more important for me.

The person who lifted my study for my GATE exam was our TOC and compiler teacher. I was weakest in these two subjects , but the way he taught us these subjects was simply superb. Eventually TOC became my strongest point! But more importantly he gave us huge amount of confidence and self-belief.

Also the most important point that i personally picked up from his lecture was to go for a plan study. He discussed with us how he planned his study. I would like to discuss this issue here. He showed us a notebook which was divided into 8 parts each for one module in GATE. In each part he noted down some problems and important points that were most important thing in that module. And he believed that if he practices those problems and remembers those important point and tricks then he can solve any problem from that module. He believed that 20-25 problems from a single mdoule was more than enough to cover the total module. Also when we asked me to give us that notebook he warned us that these notes will vary from person to person!!!!!I found this concept and idea an interesting one. I decided to follow his plan ... and i must say it really worked for me also. This planned study saved a hell lot of time. Also another thing that he did was prepare a one page note on some of the subjects. The objective of this plan was to study the important facts and tricks the day before the exams quickly , and doing so will save a hell lot of time.

After all the study it was time to sit for a series of Mock All india Tests. The tests were conducted by Gateforum. These tests were extremely useful for all of us. I must say that it played the single most important role in getting a decent rank in GATE 2009. In fact one of my friends didnt ever study for GATE. He appeared only the test series and guess what he was able to get rank 57! The reason for this is that the test series constantly showed where we stant in the competitition . We were told that if we are able to secure a rank of within 20 in these exams then we will surely rank with 100 in GATE 2009. Also these exams helped us in stay with constant practice . Even if u didnt study previously , here we solved problems of all kinds that covered all the areas. Also the discussion among my friends after the exams was very very important. We were able to discuss various tricks and ways to solve the problems. These helped a hell lot.

The final one month before the exam was all about constant practice and nothing else. Totally dedicated towards GATE study and nothing else.

Finally the examination day came. I was surprised to see such easy questions to begin with. I became too relaxed and started solving problems slowly and steadily. And that was the mistake i made. In the end there were some tough problems and i struggled to finish off the paper. I made a total mess of the whole exam. To make it worse when i discussed the answers with my friends i found out that i made about 8 marks of silly mistakes. All my hopes of studying in IIT was completely gone.

On march 15th the results came out. I was surprised to see the rank(87) that i eventually got.Two of my friends got 37 and 57 rank. I was extremely delighted to get this rank. At the moment i am hoping to study in IIT and fulfiling my dreams.

Some points that are essential for preparing for GATE(might be useful for 3rd years preparing for GATE) -

1. To succeed in GATE u must be truly interested in pursuing Mtech. U must have high interest in computer science. I have seen people who dont have some much love for the subject but want to pursue Mtech. U are bound to fail in such case.
2. Participating in some all India test series . I gives u constant practice in the last 5 months. Extremely useful. Also shows u where u stand and how much u need to work harder.
3. There is a myth that u need to study the books that toppers study. This is compeletely rubbish. One should study the books that he or she is most comfortable in. I didnt have any book for many subjects.
4. Forget ur semester exams and all. Just concentrate on the GATE related study. The CGPA matters liitle(it only plays a significant role in IIT Delhi).
5. A planned study is essenstial as i described above.

All The Best to everyone preparing for GATE!

How NRIs celebrate Pujas

My cousin who stays in florida(doing phd from university of florida) described me the way they celebrate various indian festivals like durga puja etc . I was highly impressed by their way and it also shows how they utilize their precious time.

The NRIs also celebrate the pujas the way we do... but there is one difference. They dont have any fixed date to oragnize the puja. They always perform the puja and celebrate on weekends. For example if the durga puja here starts on tuesday , they wouldnt perform the puja on tuesday. Rather they will do it on the coming satruday and sunday!

In this way the manage to not waste their working days and also utilize the weekends to good effect. According to me when u perform the puja or when u celebrate doesnt matter. We should utilize our time properly and also celebrate the festivals equally.

Cricket Fantasy Games

Some Days ago i found a nice cool time pass option in the internet. Its a website where you can act as the manager/owner/coach of a cricket team. All you have to do is create an account and start! The website is -- http://www.cricketfantasies.com/ . Its an extremely interesting fantasy game. Currently fantasy games for the IPL 2009 are on.

There are two stages for this . First stage is Bidding for the players and the second stage is picking up playing 11 for each round of matches. The overall concept or story is as follows - Leagues are created containing 8 teams. So after u create an account u will be randomly placed in one of the leagues.U will also be give 2 million fantasy dollars to bid on the players. After u are placed in one league u have to bid for players. U have to compete with only rest of the 7 teams in ur league. U have to bid for players like its done in the real IPL! Each player has a starting bid price. U have to bid 1.1 times the current highest bid for a player. For example - Suppose current price for Mathew Hayden is 1000$ , then u will have to bid for 1100$. This bidding process continues till the closing time for Auctioning. U will get the players for which u have won the bids. This is just like Auctioning for real IPL. This whole process is extremely interesting. U have to pick some players and leave some players. This gives u the opportunity to be the mallays , ambanis.

After getting ur 15 players u have to select the playing 11 for each round . The nth round is the time period in which all the teams play their nth matches. After u select the playing 11 points will be allocated to ur players based on their performances in the real IPL matches. So u have to continously change ur playing 11 for different rounds based on the performance of the players on field. Also during the fantasy rounds the left over players(for who nobody bidded in the auctioning) will be available in the bazar. So u can also buy players from bazar during the matches. Also u can sell ur current players by putting them in the bazzar.

Unfortunately u can no longer participate in these fantasy games for the IPL . But these games will continue for various event and the next event is T20 world cup. Looking for ur participation in the T20 world cup. Its a nice time pass option specially after the exams are over!

And one more important thing -- The top three teams(With the highest points) walk away with cool prizes like PS3 ,Nintendo wii , X-BOX and lots of cash!

Its Over ….. Farewell

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Farwell is always an emotional affair for all of us.It marked the end of our college life and marked the beginning of a new life. We wish each other all the success in our life.

Our Juniors yesterday gave us a warm farewell. It was a grand function organized by them. The hall was nicely decorated by the juniors. I was surprised to see the amount of hard work that they had to put in for the function. The function started roughly at 1:30 with a boring speech by a junior. Then several of our teachers gave speech. They wished us all the very best in our life. After that all the students were given mementos and gifts. It was quite a lengthy affair. After that there was a quite funny event. Here some peculiar prizes were given … like the most “pakaoo” student , the cutest couple etc etc. We liked that event a lot. In the mean time cold drinks was served to us. Then there were some performances by our juniors. One 2nd year guy wrote such an amazing and exciting poem titled “pagli ladkhi”. Everybody was impressed by his poetry skills. Not only he wrote the poem well but also the way he presented the poem was simply superb to say the least. Then there were some songs sung by our juniors. After that there was a lunch break.

After the break there was quite a surprising event. There was an announcement made that one of my close friend had proposed to his girl friend(also my classmate) and that she had said “yes” to him. Hearing this thing both of them ran away from the function because of shyness. Some of my friends chased them and got them out of a auto standing at a traffic crossing! Then they were brought back to the function . After that there was a virtual (Demo.. whatever you want to say) marriage between them. All of us enjoyed it a hell lot!

 

At last we gave the football trophy that we won in 4th year to our juniors and wished them all the best for their future. Then there was a cake cutting ceremony.

Through out the function we captured many photos and videos. Literally everybody had cameras of all kind and thousands of photos were taken. Everybody was posing for a picture.

I will never forget this farewell and also the four years of life that i spend with my friends. I wish all the success in life to all my friends…

Its an extremely good news for the Indians. Slumdog Millionaire has won 8 Oscar awards this time.
Though its a British film but it has an Indian connection to it. The technicians , musicians etc etc are Indians. Three Indians headed by AR Rahman have won Oscars. This makes the occasion even special for the Indians.

AR Rahman finally got the award and recognition that he deserves the most. Probably the western world listened to his music for the first time other wise he would have and should have got Oscars much before. He has given even better music in most of his Indian films like Rang de basanti , Roja etc etc. Now he is the only Indian to win two Oscars.

Gulzar also got one award along with AR Rahman for the best origninal score(for the song JAI HO) . Though he gives all the credit to Rahman , he too desrves this award. He has been lyrist in numerous Hindi songs.

And at last but not the least .. Resul Pookutty won an Oscar for best sound mixing. Another Inidan making us proud ....As he rightly said -"History has been handed over to him".

Though there was some controversy on the film highlighting the slums of India , but it has done more good things for the Indians than Bad things. The Indian technicians , musicians etc will get more recognition in the west now.

Failed to perform in the JU tech fest...

I and two of my friends participated in the Jadavpur University Tech fest in the C-Thru event. On the first day we had prelims. It was an online exam. All mcq questions. We some how managed to qualify for the finals though our performance was not up to the mark.

Next day we had the finals.It was a 4 hour exam on programming on real life problems. We did extremely poor there. Could solve only one out of eight problems. Pathetic performance . Quite naturally we didnt even manage to come in the top 6. My friends were really upset because they manage to win everytime thet take part. For me though it was nothing new...:-)..

But we did have some fun there.....A nice experience.

A Rocking third day of the fest....

After lasts day's exciting show today i went to the fest with much less energy as i didnt know much about the performers of the 3rd day.Also today's artists were going to sing only English and Bengali songs for which i dont have any passion. As usual we all reached the place at 5:00 pm. Today even more of my friends came so the enjoyment factor was going to be even more.

Days proceeding started with some peculiar type of fashion show. They tried to give some message through fashion like anti-terrorism , no-smoking etc etc. It was an unique thing that i saw or heard of. I paid attention to only the first .... no "anti-terrorism".. It was quite a good performance.

After an hour latter "Anjan Dutta" a famous bengali singer came to the stage. My friends were really excited about him. At the start he sung some boring songs. But after that he sang some really cool songs. I really liked them . Mesmerizing to say the least. The end was even fantastic. For the first time i liked bengali music..:-) . Though the songs were not rocking or
songs on which we can dance but they were certainly very cool and meaningful. His son Nil Dutta also sang some good songs. Excellent performance by the whole team.


After that a band called Pentagram came. I never heard of it .... But i knew that Vihsal , The music director was part of it. So i decided to wait a little longer to listen to it. Pentagram took the stage at 8:45 pm. After what happened there can't be described in words here. Vihsal came and rocked "Techno India". He was full of energy and started jumping all over the space . I didnt understand what he was singing. But it was certainly energetic. So excited that he even said to our faculty and guests that-"No one dares to sit down when pentagram in performing .. please get up and join us!!". He made everybody dance. Though he uttered certain nasty words which i certainly didnt like.

During the whole evening lots and lots of crackers where burnt in the sky. Each craker was cheered by everybody. Totally energetic enviroment.

I couldnt afford to watch the whole performance as i had to catch the last bus for my home. I wanted to stay longer but couldnt afford to. After i came home i heard that pentagram was shouting so loud that police came to stop them!! .. But they didnt stop then also.. They said they wouldnt listen to the police!!... They ended the show at 10:00 pm.

Unfourtunately it was the last day of the last fest in my college life ... so felt a liitle sad in the end.......As one of the anchors vijay truely said .."It was an emotional moment for the final year students"...

An exciting second day of cultural fest....

After yesterdays dull show i was thinking whether today will be the same. But luckily it was not the case this time. Today there was lot more crowd and all were full of energy. Many of my friends turned up today. We reached there at about 5:00pm. Initially the function was quite boring and nothing much was happening. But the atmosphere was good and we were enjoying and gossiping and taking lots of pictures.

When the real function started we were allowed to enter the privileged area(as we are the senior most in the college) ... totally near the stage. So we were able to see the artists clearly and enjoy a hell lot. Firstly a lady from last years "saregama pa " came and sang some energetic songs . The dancing had already started. Every one was pumped with energy.

After she finished the person for whom we were waiting all evening came-"Javed ali". He sung some beautiful songs (songs from yuvraj ,delhi 6 ,gajni ,rock on etc etc ). Though some of my friends didnt like it that much as some of the songs were slow but i enjoyed it totally . I even danced with some of my friends (For the first time in my life). My friends were surprised to see me dancing ..:-).

While dancing my mobile fell from my pocket. Didnt notice it earlier . When i realized it i started searching for it. I found it under a guys feet who was jumping upon it . Luckily not much damage was done.

Unfortunately we had to return earlier before javed ali could finish as we had to catch the last bus to our home. But i enjoyed it extremely.

A Dull first day of the cultural fest....

Today was the first day of the cultural fest 2009 . This is the last fest of my college life . So i decided to enjoy it to the fullest. In the excitement i went there early . But unfortunately none of my friends(except three) turned up. It was extremely sad to see that no one turned up as this was the last "masti" opportunity for us . They prefer to keep themselves buried in their home and study or waste time surfing internet.

Anyways we went inside to see the programs in the fest. The first was rock band competition. None of us liked it. Those guys were shouting their hell out and we didnt understand any word. We got extremely bored and decided to return home quickly and hence didnt even watch other programs after that.(Moral of the story- Worst programs should always be kept at the end of the day so that people dont miss good programs)

It was the most boring function that i ever attended. I hope next day would not be as boring...

Counter Terrorism

This topic may become extremely controversial because of my thinking that i think defers from everybody. Recently the amount of terrorist activities in India and all over the world as increased significantly and this reached peak during last year's 26/11 attack in India. This attack has made everybody to think on -"How to counter terrorism?". The country's intelligence and the police was under the scanner. All the politicians started blaming each other as usual. But my question is -"IS there any definite way through which we can stop terrorism ?".

I feel that no matter what you do its next to impossible to stop terrorist activities. We may be able to stop some of these activities but more often than not we will fail. If the terrorists decide to strike more often than not they will succeed. How can police force or army scan each and every entrance to city on a daily basis.?. How can police scan each and every bag that we carry with us on the city road?How can police check each and every car parked in a city.? We can do these things for a couple of days but cant continue this on a long term basis. So its becomes impossible for police to patrol each and every corner of a city on a daily basis. So i think its impossible to stop terrorism.

But cant we stop terrorism then? The answer i think is Yes but the solution i guess might not be feasible during this time. Terrorism can stop if and only if terrorists themselves decide to stop them. So the infeasible solution that i was talking about is that we should change the mindset of the terrorists. Easier said than done or we have to wait for the birth of another Gandhiji....

Please do suggest solutions to terrorism which can be practically implemented so that we can get rid of this thing....

Finally it came.....

Finally the day came for which i was anxiously waiting -I received my Infosys offer letter . I was waiting for it since mid jan(as last year our seniors got it during this time). Infosys never made any communication with us after campusing . So i was even more worried . Also the global melt down was on my mind. But finally i got my offer letter . Checked my email at 7:00 am and was absolutely delighted to see mail from infosys.

My date of joining is Nov 16 and i am extremely happy on this.Many may feel its late but i like it.I will be able to relax in my home for some more time and also spend the festive season with my family.

Infosys has honured each and every committement that it made. "Infy is really a company with a conscience. It is very transparent and manages things in a beautiful way". Infy has proved this thing once again . Also smart buisness move my giving joining before any other companies.

The only sad point in this whole story is that i didnt getting the same date of joining as my friends.So wouldnt be able to go with them together.

I am extremely thankful to my friends who helped me during the tough campusing period.

I wish all other companies(who recruited) also give the offer letter to my batch mates hence honouring each and every committement they made like Infosys...

Australian Domination in Cricket Over?

In the past few months there has been lots of talk on "The end of era of Australian domination in cricket." particularly after the Australians where removed from the ICC ODI ranking by South Africa. Just because Australians are not playing well for the last 6 months we have concluded that their 120 months domination in the world of cricket is over? Do not you think its too harsh on the Aussies who dominated the world for so many years?

There are several reasons for the slump in Australian performance. Most talked about point on this regard is "greats retiring from the games" . You do not have control on this thing so no point discussing on it. But the major factor thats hurting them the most is their best two all rounders and power hitters "Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson" are out of action for many days. This affects their performance significantly . So once these two return to the team i guess they will again become the Number one again.

You may be thinking how can i be so confident that once these two return australia will become the number one team. Its not only this factor. The most important thing that i believe in the australian system is professionalism. They are the most proffesional team and this factor alone can drive them to the top rank again. Also the australian cricket adminstration system along with its facilities is the best . Even sunil gavaskar (Who does not like the aussies too much) appriciates the australian cricket system. So all of a sudden there system cannot become that bad that they cannot regain the number 1 position. I dont think their cricket adminstration and facilties have worsened .

So , Those who think that the australians are finished (at least for couple of years ) are absoultely wrong. They will definetly bounce back within 4 months (though i dont want them to). I can bet on it.

Arguments against my view are most welcome.

Examination System.

Just a few days back is sat for GATE(graduate aptitude test for engineers). After the examination i started thinking on -" Does the current examination system for competitive exams really filters out the best students appearing for the test?". In the current system we are given only one opportunity to show case our talent and that too within 3 hours. But can we really judge a student within 3 hours?. It may so happen that on a particular day a student does not do well. Does that mean the he is a weaker student than those who got more marks than him? I guess the answer should be "NO".

Now , if the current system is not OK then a natural question will arise - "what should be the examination system structure?". Instead of identifying a talent within a student on a single day we should conduct the examination on several days (say 3 days). We should then find the average of the marks obtained on all the three days. This system will be better than the previous system.Also this system eliminates the luck factor to a large extent.

Now if we increase the number of tests then certainly we will be getting better output(filtering most talented students). But as we increase number of tests then cost of the examination will increase . So we must find out a proper balance between the two.

But certainly the number of tests conducted for an examination should be greater than one.We have to get rid of the current system so that we get better output through our examination system.

Please post your comments on what you feel on my thoughts.

My first post.

At last i got some free time and finally i decided to start blogging. My friend rahul bhattacharya influenced me a hell lot to start blogging and i am thankful to him.You can see lots of my posts(where i will express my views ob various topic) from now onwards in this space and please comments on my views .....