16 December, 2007

A typical day in-between the exams

YES YES... my secrets revealed :P:D.. here goes ==>

set the alarm clock to 5:30 am ...
wake up at 5:30am... yawn as if someone was going to shove a 10m round pipe into ur mouth... set the alarm to 6:15am ... go back to sleep

wake up at 6:15am.. don't care about the next alarm... go back to sleep

wake up (finally) at around 7:00 bitching urself and ur laziness

waste half-an-hour reading the newspaper anyway... and another half just staring in void

clean urself and eat something hurriedly....

think : 10 min to 9:00 ... i'd better check out orkut and yahoo in 10 min ...

9:30am... mom shouts from the kitchen and I realise what time it is ... don't shut down the PC ... finally start studying

after each 5 min... yawn and see if there's some nice/hot song playing on any of the TV channels..

sigh! and bitch the censor board... check orkut and yahoo to see if anyone's there... sigh! and bitch everyone for not wasting time and studying (except probably prajya :D)

1:00 : lunch ... go to sleep.. wake up at 3:00 ...

not in my senses... so check orkut and yahoo for an hour ....

4:00: study.. ass on fire.. so some serious study upto 7:00

7:00 ... finally make urself believe that u have worked very hard today and that u *deserve* a break

check orkut and yahoo .... go for a nice walk ... return 8:30
watch "asambhav" ... discuss whats goin to happen next ... time : 9:30pm

call up someone just like this or check orkut and yahoo ...

mom says one should not study at night... so check if there's some nice/hot movie on any of the channels... again bitch the censor board!....

set alarm to 5:30am... go to sleep!!

15 December, 2007

Who is she?

If anyone knows who she is .... do leave a comment !!!:):)

13 December, 2007

Auto-generate Break-up mails :D

Finally the software revolution has caught on with relationships too... here's the ultimate, most customizable break-up mail generator... Right from I-am-sorry mails to You-are-an-asshole mails... You HAVE to try this out :D

Check here
Trust me, a software can't get any better !!

08 December, 2007

Klueless

the 3rd Klueless puzzle series is finally out...
go here and start scratching your heads...

(Thanks to Vikrant for the alert :) )

07 December, 2007

Linux softwares

Here is a (supposedly) helpful list of packages you'll need to plunge into the linux world:
The best method of installation is to compile the source. Being platform independant, you don't need to worry about which distro the source is meant for.
A typical sequence of commands you'll need to follow for installation from source is :
./configure
make
(login as superuser)
make install

consult the corresponding README files for any divergences

Coming back to the list:
Internet Dialer : Kinternet
Browser : Firefox
Messenger : Gaim (or pidgin as it is lately called)
Music player : AmaroK
Video player : Kaffeine (even, MPlayer or VLC will do)
pdf reader : Acrobat
chm viewer : kchmviewer
Text editor : Kwrite / Gedit
CD/DVD burner : K3B
Paint : GImp
Image viewing tool : GwenView
System Manager : YaST (Suse specific)
Word Processor : OpenOffice
Hex editor/programmers editor : Emacs / Vim
calculator : Kcalc

Any suggesstions/additions are welcome....

CHM woes

Having switched to linux about 3-4 months ago, there remained only one hitch -- I couldn't find a chm viewer under my suse. (chm formats are btw, a 10000 times better than PDFs in terms of usability and simplicity). So, after unsuccessfully running after xchm for more than a month (which btw, i suspect, was specially programmed for Debian distros only), I resumed search for another good chm viewer.

There were atleast two other viewers I found : kchmviewer and Gnochm
To express my unconditional love for KDE, I chose the former, even though the screenshots suggested its graphics would be nothing more than "primitive"

Although, the graphics is quite primitive (uses Qt libraries)... the overall GUI is user-friendly albeit a bit slow. An additional tabbed-browsing feature is exactly what i missed in Windows' chm viewer.

also, the executable isn't directly put in one of the PATH listed folders. So, in order to use kchmviewer like an ordinary command, you first need to put it one of those folders. (/bin or /usr/bin ... etc).

so, adios to Windows... who needs BILL and GATES when everything is FREE and OPEN !!:D

05 December, 2007

The wheel of death

This is a must watch... incredible!!



Hat-tip : Prajwalit

23 November, 2007

Goal : A Review

The only reason I went to this movie was that our exams were just over and I can't bear the torture of Sawariya and OSO.....

It could have been a pretty decent movie if some cliches could have been avoided. Actually, making these kind of sports-heroics movies is difficult, since you cannot have anything new in the story. You have to mesmerize the audience merely by the direction skills.

Some things I liked about the movie :
1) For a change, the actors seemed to be quite committed to the movie. as in, atleast in some scenes, the actors could actually PLAY football !!.. thats a positive change in bollywood and probably that is a reason why I started off having a good impression about the movie.

2) Arshad Warsi was good in his role and so was John.

3) for a change, this bollywood movie did NOT revolve around love and romance.


Many things that bugged me:
1) My god!.. this movie is an epitome of racism. as Arshad Warsi puts it in one of the scenes, "it is not about football, it is about our race, our colour". In almost every scene the English are referred to as "gora"s.... I mean, come on, whats up!.. can someone please give us a break from racism!... how long do we keep insulting ourselves??.. call ourselves "powerless" because we are coloured... get some self-respect man!.. unless we don't stop cribbing about racism, why should they?

2) the climax was the biggest screw-up. The climax is NOT at all about football, but totally about John. Not a single brilliant strike or a phenomenal save, not even a simple tackle. Also, Boman Irani dosen't at all suit in the role of the tainted hero.

3) Although I agree that the story line or should we say, the climax is always predictable for such movies, but, the part that leads to the climax can be different. But, not a single effort is made towards this. The plot thus ends up being a cliche.

4) Bipasha needs to join an acting school.

There are some funny and some really touching scenes. But, they are only a few in number. All-in-all, the movie is worth watching just to check out the footballing skills of John. The first half was good... but the end was pathetic.

My rating : 5.5/10!!
enjoy!

14 November, 2007

Eric Schmidt's serenity prayer... -FSJ

you guys HAVE to check this out... the most hilarious piece of writing ever !!!!
hail FSJ !!

here is the "prayer"

12 November, 2007

Here comes the best FSJ poem ...

This guy never-ever stops...
Namaste. :)

11 November, 2007

The Hobbit movie ...

Want The Hobbit to be as big a legend as the LOTR series??.... who else can do it better than Peter Jackson, the man behind the magic of LOTR...

http://www.youchoose.net/referral/jitesh_s/click/2/campaign/the_hobbit_movie

check this out ...

06 October, 2007

An Achilles' heel in Google !!

So, the mighty google is not perfect afterall.... They found a way to hack gmail too !!
click here for all the details...

do check out if you have any unauthorised filters installed !!

UPDATE : (8th of oct)
Google says the vulnerabilities on blogger and google were fixed long before the public announcement by CERTIN on 27th of sept. Only the vulnerability on gmail was fixed on 27th sept !!!.... <:-P

28 September, 2007

Linux : converting wma to mp3

It was never this simple !!
The only thing you need is : MPlayer codecs (w32all-codecs). You probably already have them installed if videos (specially avi) are running fine on your distro

Change to the directory where the wma files are stored ....
Type in the following one-by-one in the terminal (a script file will also work .. and probably be much more simpler... but lets use the terminal !!)

Thanks to : http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/Convert_WMA_to_MP3)

//remove spaces
for i in *.wma; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr ' ' '_'`; done

//remove uppercase
for i in *.[Ww][Mm][Aa]; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`; done

//Rip with Mplayer / encode with LAME
for i in *.wma ; do mplayer -vo null -vc dummy -af resample=44100 -ao pcm -waveheader $i && lame -m s audiodump.wav -o $i; done

//convert file names
for i in *.wma; do mv "$i" "`basename "$i" .wma`.mp3"; done rm audiodump.wav



The only change you require is probably in the conversion script... wherein.. the -waveheader option is deprecated..
instead modify it as : -ao pcm:waveheader
and it'll work fine !!

simple and fast... eh !!

18 September, 2007

Etags

Imagine studying the linux kernel (for entirely sane purposes :D) with thousands of files containing thousands of functions... Around 70MB worth of text... And you are told to find a function in this haystack !! (well... don't even try grep.. it takes MONTHS to return a result.. I'd rather search manually :P)

Etags swoops in to ur rescue...
etags is basically a utility which generates tags for each function or data definition.
eg. a function declaration fun() would yeild "fun" as a tag. The corresponding file name and the offset at which the definition can be found is recorded in the file TAGS. TAGS is used by Emacs editor to simulate hyperlinks for tokens.
In simple language, if you come across a function and wonder how it is coded... just move the cursor over the function name and press M-. (M= meta key... usually ALT)... and voila!
The simplest way to browse a code !!
neat... eh!

wanna go back to where you were... no probs... M-* and there you are !!
Linux continues to amaze me!!

For kernel source code :
go to /usr/src/linux-[version]
login as su.. nd type in "make TAGS"...

For your own directory tree:
this is a bit clumsy since etags dosen't support nested directories... etags searches for specified files ONLY in the current directory... so.. the roundabout way is :
go to the root of your directory tree and type in
$ find . -name "*.[chCH]" -print | etags -
and voila!:D

what it does is... the find command returns all the filenames of .c and .h extension and this output is piped to etags command (the hyphen after etags directs etags to use standard output as its input)...

now that i see what linux editors can do... notepad suddenly appears soo lame !!:)

06 September, 2007

uhhh... suse problems !! (and solutions :d)

Yesterday was an eventful day for me. Finally I was prepared to completely dump windows and switch over to linux. As a part of that endeavour, downloaded w32 codecs and got video and all other workable things working on my Suse 9.3 ... and in the excitement of videos running flawlessly on my distro (which is outdated and antic :D), tried running as many as 5 movies on all possible video players !!

Today, I would quit Windows. Little did I know what Linux had in store for me :(
(Btw... this has forced me rethink the "completely" part of dumping windows... I'd rather use Windows to troubleshoot linux when it crashes :D... a worthy use for Windows :) )

The thing is, I have a 10G partition dedicated to Linux, of which only about 5G is currently in use. But, today while I was browsing the internet, a pop-up message showed up saying I was low on disk space and within minutes, all applications ceased and failed to load when I tried to restart them. I looked around for a while, then decided to reboot (the windows way :D)... but, when I rebooted, Suse tells me that I can't even log in because the disk is 100% full !!... Not a byte to spare for the user of the system to log in!!... (may be because XWindows system requires some disk space??) whats suse goin to do without ME :D

Anyways, so here's where windows comes in, a simple google search suggested that I use the du command to check the disk usage and then decide on the further action.
So, booted Linux in failsafe mode, and entered du :
The problem was : the temporary folder (/tmp) was hogging half of the disk with a whopping 4.8G !!

and why's that ??.... well .. apparently when I played the movies yesterday (which were stored on the windows drive), what linux did in the background was :
it copied the movie, realtime, onto the linux /tmp folder and then played the movie. i.e. the entire movie was being copied onto my linux drive in the background. And the responsible application didn't even delete it from the temp folder!! I am still not able to pinpoint whether the erring app is kaffeine, VLC or Mplayer... but once I do, its going to get a beating of a lifetime :D

So, solution ?? ....
$ rm -rv /tmp
(del contents on tmp folder)

22 August, 2007

Configuring suse : The n00b way !!

Gone are the days when Linux was ONLY for developers. Today, Linux is set to become the Universal OS. What with excellent multimedia and 3D games support. And .. anyone who has checked out the xgl graphics would certainly throw Windows out of the Window !!

Suse configuration is extremely easy, given you use the right source to get your info. The first thing you should know is how to use google. There is help on each and every topic you need, given you care to search for it !!

(Note: I use the Suse 9.3 distro... but the process described here is same even for later versions)
Configuring Suse for Internet : (DSL modems)
1. Don't be dumb enough to wrongly connect the hardware :D
2. Goto Start->System->YaST ... Enter the root password
3. Network Devices -> DSL (Ensure that your Network card is detected)
4. Click on "Configure" to Configure your DSL device
5. PPP mode = PPP over Ethernet... Click Next
6. If you don't have a provider added (which you probably won't) .. click "New"and fill-in the username.. password for the connection... Click Next.. and Finish !!
(You can click NO for the Configure Mail popup)
Done !!!!!

To Connect : Start -> Internet -> Dial Up -> Kinternet
Kinternet will appear in the Tray.... just click Dial-in.. and You are connected !!!<:-P


Getting the Multimedia Working :
Assuming the sound drivers and installed and working.. here's how you can get multimedia working...
Note that due to licensing conflicts, no codecs are available even for mp3 files....

1. Connect to the internet
2. YaST -> Software -> Online Update
3. Select Multimedia Option Pack 1 (compulsary for audio), 2 (for basic video.. like mpg..), 3 and 4 (extras)
(If you want only audio to be installed.. select only pack 1.. etc etc)
4. Complete the installation
And AUDIO is working !! .. but whoa.. the video still refuses to play....

To fix that... Uninstall Xine, Kaffeine, and LibXine1 (if you have them)

Now, you need to download latest codecs for avi, divx, etc to work..
The simplest way to is to use repositories... Reposiories are nothing but an online collection of packages.. I think, Packman is a really good and exhaustive repository... everything you need.. you'll find it there !!

here's how you add a repository : (make sure you are connected to the internet)
YaST -> Software -> Change Source of Installation -> Add-> HTTP
For Suse 9.3 ... add the following :
Server : packman.iu-bremen.de
Directory : suse/9.3
(for 10.0 and above... a simple Google search will give you the repository details)

once that is done .... Now you need to install Codecs and the players
So, go to
YaST -> Software -> Install and Remove Software
ADD : Win32all codecs, Xine, Kaffeine, LibXine1 and MPlayer (xine, kaffeine and MPlayer are media players) .. Install them..

and now... the Videos work too !!
(You need to uninstall and then reinstall the packages because the video players use the codecs available during their installation.. they can't be added later on.... )

Recommendations :
Audio player : AamroK simply ROCKS !!!
Video : Consider downloading either VLC player or MPLayer.. the default in Linux are clumsy to use

And then dump windows :D:d:D
good luck hacking with Linux.... Always say to yourself :
"I'll google before asking a dumb question" :D:D... and all your linux problems will be solved in no time !!

07 August, 2007

Top 10 !!

I thought I'd compile the list of top 10 songs I love... this list may, and will change almost every month... so keep checking

1. Ana : We Are (Spiderman 2- OST)
2. Boyzone - Words
3. Fuzon - Khamaj
4. Linkin Park - Leave Out All the Rest
5. Godsmack - Serenity
6. Metallica - nothin else matters
7. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to heaven
8. Eric Clapton - Layla
9. Guns n Roses - Sweet Child of Mine
10. KK - Yaroon Dosti

01 August, 2007

Music...........

Finally I mustered the courage to broach up the sensitive topic :D:D
why sensitive?... here's why --
(People claim) I am a really pathetic singer.... (not that I disagree... but to maintain a decent image of myself... I think of myself as the greatest vocalist of all times !!:D:D)... forget even trying to learn to play a musical instrument (I stay away from it for "The Greater Good" :D)... yet, I love music soooo much. I could listen to music for straight 5-6 hours. infact, 2 days after I installed winamp, the history showed that I played a total of 101 songs for 13:24 hours !!... I even intend to exploit the multitasking abilities of windows (and lately Linux) to the extreme... what with winamp, mozilla, yahoo, Word, etc etc always open at the same time! its impossible to even think of doing something without music in the background... my computer is either turned off or Winamp is running... such is the craze!...

and I listen to.......
Linkin Park (all time fav...), Nirvana, Coldplay, Scorpions, Beatles, Metallica.. and some of the songs of Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, GodSmack, 3 Doors down, Guns n Roses, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Rasmus, U2, etc etc

among others would be - 1990s ke hindi songs, fuzon and aayushyavar bolu kahi, diwas ase ki and namanjur....

and the list is by no means exhaustive ... there are many many others... but I have better work to do than document all of em (like trying to share directories on linux... even though ping works just fine, sharing which would take max 15secs on windows, is a herculean task on linux :D)

so music is my soul, but you don't want to ask me to perform :D:D... its all jolly-good ONLY until I am LISTENING and NOT participating :P...
(btw.. I accept suparis for murders and torture :d)

30 July, 2007

Why do i blog?

7-8 months ago... I started a blog just to know what a blog exactly is... I had no idea what was I gonna write on the blog... so for nearly 4 months my blog was just sitting there in the dark corner.. waiting to be rediscovered. and then a concoction of circumstances changed everything... today I just love blogs! here's y--

1) I came across some really awesome blogs which was my source of inspiration for a blog. I realised I could write whatever I want, however I want. And its soo different from a diary, which no one would read, atleast until I pass away. I could communicate whatever I can't through normal 1-1 communication. just coz they aren't considered to be "healthy" communication topics. I could log whatever I feel at the spur of the moment... come back to it later and discover how wrong I was !! I could vent my frustrations... talk to "unknown" people without caring whether they are listening or not...

2) blogs can be private... so instead of a potentially unsafe diary, I can always resort to a blog and use it as a diary.... today, when i read the posts written when i was either frustrated, angry or exhilarated, I realise how foolishly I acted in many situations... that the fault was mine in many of them... that people weren't as wrong as I thought when they accused me of condescending... but isn't it for the good?.. now I can work on the areas I faltered!

3) and lastly, blogs make me feel free!!.. u don't have to care about your, so-called "image"... you can be rude, sarcastic, selfish, generous, caring, compassionate... just anything u want!!!.... u can finally be YOURSELF without caring "what others will think"... that, i think, was the major attraction !!

~~~~

23 July, 2007

The Boy Who Lived ... *censored as it was a spoiler*

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

***************** Spoilers *****************
(almost the entire plot uncovered :D )

What a way to end the fascinating 7 year journey through the truly magical, magical world of JK !!!
Not a single word in the entire 607 page epic fails to grip you... there is action right from the word go... so many secrets unravel... new unfathomable powers... and the brave 17 year old wizard facing the might of Voldemort, the most powerful Dark Wizard ever... The book surely gets the adrenaline rushing. And at the end, it is satisfying. Nowhere do you question the absurdness of a novice wizard challenging the might of Voldemort and still winning. so convincing is the story.


The grooviest part of the book was ofcourse the fight at Hogwarts. The climax that is! Giants, Giant spiders, Death-eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named- all those aganist a bunch of Hogwarts teachers, Order members and some students !! .. and how Harry manages to pull off the victory!

But, JKs masterstoke would be the delineation of Dumbledore!!
She has a message here. Dumbledore is not this infallible shrewd wizard who somehow always does the right things! During his youth, he was as attracted to power as Voldemort was. Even he had this greed to "master death" ... apparently that was the last common thing between the two great wizards. No man is born great, its what his deeds that make him great...Dumbledore "understood" magic. He knew its limitations. He understood HIMSELF. He gathered himself up after the initial fiasco, learned from his mistakes. That made him great. He did not succumb to the greed of power. Voldemort did. In the insatiable hunger of power, to rule the world, to defy death he cornered himself!
We should all know this... its how we react to situations, that describes us. Selfless love, trust, faith make us powerful, not fear and coercion.

newayz... the book is just awesome!
How she manages to weave such mesmerisingly flawless and gripping stories, she knows!... but the spell she casts on the readers is unsheildable! :d

17 July, 2007

The sweet taste of success !!

Today's lesson : Wine is not the only thing that tastes sweeter with time ... so does success !!
I also realised why people get so intimidated even at the thought of hacking with the linux kernel.

5 days ago..........
Me : Hey, lets do that kernel module thing... its gonna be whacky !!
He : yeah man, lets do it...


So, we installed Suse linux 9.3 (and while trying to recompile the kernel.. totally screwed up 2 laptops... one of which refused to detect any active partition and the other simply gave up!!.. but thats another story which is definitely not gonna appear on this blog !!).
and tried the "Hello, World" kernel module... to be frank.. "hello, world" programs have never excited me .... one of the reasons being their over-exposure (C, C++, Java, VC++, VB, SQL, LISP, etc etc) ...

but.. this one was just kickass !!
so.. we wrote out first hello, world kernel module. It took hardly 3 min... but what followed was hell !!...
Linux just refused to compile the code saying that some "CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT" wasn't defined... that we managed to circumvent... but the next error was a bouncer

#error processor family not defined

what crap??... Linux just refused to acknowledge the processor that ran it!! .. that is kalyug !:P
newayz... so started our brainstorming sessions... we googled everything... read forums... pestered our proj guide to bail us out (till the point where he must have thought.. why on earth did i choose these dumbasses?)... studied the linux code header files... and every damn thing that cld be done .. was tried !!.. recompiling the kernel.. trying the 100s of commands suggested on various forums... other linux versions... and what not !
but...alas! 5 days... all wasted!! ... each one of us put atleast 4-5 hrs a day just beseeching Linux to ack the presence of its GodFather, the processor.....

and comes today. What a way to solve the problem !!
well ... while i was driving to chill's place (thinking about Emma Watson ofcourse ;) )... and bang! ... the lightning had struck! ... so.. cancelled all the plans... told Emma to wait while I do some imp work... went back to my place.. booted Suse... and husssh.. the DAMN thing worked !!
IT WORKED !!
I cld see my "hello, world" module proudly sitting 3rd in the lsmod listing !! ... that was it !... the exhilaration was numbing... I wanted to dance.. shout... sing... kiss Emma ;) .. all at the same time !! ... that was it...

and suddenly i realised, its just a "hello, world" program .. and thats the best hello, world program we wrote!!....

13 July, 2007

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

******* WARNING : SPOILERS ***********

So was released the 5th installment of the Harry Potter series !!

For a hardcore HP book fan the movie turns out to be a disappointment. What with many scenes deleted, worse : modified. But, thats not the only thing that makes the cinema aweful.

The director somehow thinks that 2 hour movies are sure-shot hits. But, in that frenzy to be done with the movie in 2 hrs, the plot is distorted !!
1) the movie moves on soo fast, it is sometimes hard to catch-up with the pace. It ends up to be a collage of only the most imp scenes. HP loses its magic with the details not filled in.

2) many many scenes are simple deleted (eg. No Marietta the traitor, No centaur teacher, The room of requirement cannot be accessed by just anyone (the movie sadly ignores this), no Avada Kedavra curse in the Voldy-Dumby showdown (in the book Voldy fires 3 of em on Dumby), no Sirius-Bellatrix fight, etc etc)

3) The characters lack depth. You never feel the same anger and resentment for Umbridge as you do in the book. The portrayal of Dumbledore, Bellatrix and other powerful wizards/witches is pretty much lame. You just don't get the adrenaline rush when Dumbledore enters a scene. Even the scene in the last fight, where Dumbledore makes a grand entry and takes on 6-7 death eaters so easily, is simply dropped !!

4) NO QUIDDITCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
now thats outrageous!! ... how can there be no quidditch in an HP movie!

5) The looks of the Dementors is changed (but its for the good).. also the way Sirius appears in the fire is slightly modified (but again.. for the good)

Agreed that the book is too long and that its not possible to show everything in the movie blah blah... but 3 hours would have surely done some justice to the plot.. you can't relate the story in 2 hrs... its bound to fail !!


But, there are some agreeable changes too .. like the Fred and George escape (altho modified... the effect is magnificent!)... and the voldy-dumby fight is excellently portrayed (altho I seriously missed Avada-Kedavra !!))

All in all, if you are a hard-core book fan, its unlikely you'll love the movie.. but its a good one-time watch.. but for others.. its a feast for the eyes !! what with Emma Watson ;) and the awesome special effects !!
My rating : 7/10

11 July, 2007

A bastion among the clouds !!

There we were, 7 of us (not related to the 7 wonders of the world :P) at the Malavli station (just before Lonavla). The sweet scent in the air was sooo much refreshing, a change from the otherwise polluted Pune environment !!

So, started our trek (I prefer to call it that, sounds FUNDOO :P) to LOHAGAD. 100m into the trek and we were already beginning to enjoy it. We were standing on a bridge spanning across the Mumbai-Pune Expressway... on the bridge.. the E-way spanned till the horizon on both the sides... awesome!!

And after what seemed like only a few seconds (but actually a whole 20 mins), we continued. As we were treading across a village, it seemed that all the bulls out there were seduced by VEDANG's charms... all of em WANTED him !! (to be fair, he was wearing a bright red T-shirt). And as we passed the village and Vedang rejected all the advances... we 7 jewels started composing a poem on our dear friend VINAYAK ... it went something like
"ek hota Vinayak...
to vikayala gela kitak nashak...." etc etc... (check out FRIENDZ blog for the entire poem)
and then as we were done with the poem, we entered the wonderful world of nature!... streams of clear water flowing along the kaccha road we were treading, clouds obscuring the pinnacle of mountains, brief spells of rain, greenery all over and the brief glimpses of the fort among the clouds .. all sooo mesmerising !! On one side were the vast expanses of plains and on the other the intimidating mountains...

1:30 hours into the trek, and we reached a place that would leave Kashmir far behind. Two mountain ranges crawling towards one another, both pointed at their ends with steep slopes. On the left range sat royally the Visapur fort and on the right, the LOHAGAD fort. Both majestic. we were there in the valley between them mesmerized by their royalty. The clouds and the slight sunshine permanently imprinted the view on our minds.

and SO, we continued (for the fear of overrunning the Google server with too much data, I'll skip over to the point where we actually reached the fort). So, after climbing just about 30-40 steps, we realised why Shivaji maharaj chose this location to build the fort. Well, I don't have words to describe the point and frankly no words could suffice. Here's a sample pic :


Next, we entered the fort. It is in such a good shape. No one would believe it was built 100s of years ago. The holes in the walls for firing arms, the huge doors, the small dark chambers, even the unharmed steps, the intimidating walls, all sooo beautiful !


and we explored the fort for nearly half an hour. Then we reached a Darga. we could barely discern the structure among the thick fog although we were barely 20-25 m away from it. The ravine on the left and the NOTHING on the right (Actually, a thick cloud cover:P) and the rain now pouring. It was the perfect spot for a katta. So, we sat there and chatted chatted chatted while basking in the heavenly atmosphere.

Here's a pic of the darga:



None of us wanted to leave, so we continued up the hill in now, even a thicker cloud cover. There we reached a well. The biggest one I have seen till date. We couldn't see the other end of the well.. but till the point we could discern, the well had no end!
A perfect spot for a horror movie:P. by then, the rain had gained such a momentum as to be comparable to the Mumbai rains. we could actually feel the rain slapping us on our backs. So we had make a move. But, took shelter in a nearby shelter!
There we unleashed our musical instincts which never subjugated until we reached Pune. We sung all the songs right from "Pardesi Pardesi jana nahi ..." :P ... to "Yaaron Dosti ....". (and we could make out the irritation on CHIRAYU' face... ofcourse.. what would a musician feel to face such a mass-distortion of awesome songs!! .. we could totally understand.. but our spirits couldn't... and we continued.............................

and let me not bore u with our return journey.. which was every bit as exciting as the climb.
I guess.. this was by far the bessst trek I ever had !!!
And I would never forget the lovely place, only second to Kashmir. The best part of the trek was that we were almost alone in the entire fort which kinda made us feel like the kings of the fort! ...

a must visit place !!

09 July, 2007

"AAJ TAK" - the fastest news service spreading rumours

How can people be so stupid?
well.. just yesterday while I was out attending a marriage... one of my relatives came to me sounding distressed... apparently he had been watching the news and "aaj tak" news channel reported some 27 deaths .. and the cause?
You get a call from an unkown number.. and when you answer the call ... you instantly die of brain hemorrhage. This is because the call activates a virus which sends out high-frequency waves...

I mean.. how stupid is that!
First... how the hell does a call activate a virus?

Second... Are the handset makers stupid enough to provide speakers that can emit such high frequency tones? (well ... even NORMAL programs do go wrong.. and they are aware of that.. so they will never take such a risk)

Third... Why does the screen turn red?.. does the mobile OS somehow get a premonition of the forthcoming death? :P

and Last... technical.. but well.. even the techies were taken for a ride by this rumour...
Do you know the concept of bands? .. no signal outside a band of frequencies is accepted or transmitted.. bandpass filters ensure that.. so how the heck does this new virus circumvent that?


click here
for the complete news of the foolhardy !!.. we had real fun during the marriage.. faking unknown numbers.... and havin a gooood laugh!!... you too will lol once you know how absurd all this is !!

01 July, 2007

New cell

its been 10 days since i got this new cell : Sony Ericsson W200i...




cool, isn't it?
I've been addicted to this ...

although there are some shortcomings like no bluetooth, only a VGA camera and only 128MB mem, it has everything I want.
Walkman facility with high quality mega-bass headphones and the usual games and applications. The GUI is great. and unlike the LG or panasonic handsets, the buttons are easy to use.
The lack of bluetooth is somewhat compensated by infrared. atleast I can transfer themes and small wallpapers, if not large applications and games.
The looks are typically Sony Ericsson, rocks !!

and the most imp thing : its real cheap... 6380 bucks is what it costs !! with amazing functionality packed in!!

21 June, 2007

The worst thing

the worst thing in life is to be dependent on someone...
no doubt people will say that social life is full of dependencies.. but you can sometimes do without them.. what i am talking about are dependencies from which you can't even flee... you are like a helpless animal in the cage... you can't live with it, you can't live without it !!

badd!!

03 June, 2007

What does Barney do for a living?

seriously! .. what does he do for a living?



1. A lavish house
2. Wall-sized Televisions in every room
3. Stacks of mention-nots
4. Can run and win a marathon without any preparation
5. Always suited up :D
6. "awesome" standard of living

What does Barney do for a living?
:D

01 June, 2007

An argument on eating habits

for the complete argument click here

well .. its sort of lengthy ... infact insanely lengthy ... i'll try to highlight the important points .. or write a summary ... but after the exams:)

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on the same stage !!

Two giants who with an unpleasant history and contemporary stiff competitors ...
check this out :
includes the full interview....

Click here for the interview


Bill clarifies he's not the fake Steve Jobs:P:P

and Steve says (on the fact that Apple had to design iTunes for Windows) "it was like offering glasses of ice water to people in hell":d

What do you make of this?

(This is purely a work of fiction:P)

what do you make of it when -
1. You find yourself frequenting places where she hangs out?
2. When you can't concentrate on your fav work just coz you may miss out a glance at her?
3. When your eyes constantly search for her?
4. When you can't act normally when she is around?
5. When you are tongue-tied when she is around?
6. When you get a sudden surge of gloom when she says "bye"?
7. When you are jealous if she talks to someone else?
8. When you feel down if there's no contact since days?
9. When your insides toss and turn just looking at her smile?
10. When you feel at the top of the world when you make her laugh?
11. When you just want the time to freeze and the "others" to vanish in thin air, when you are with her?
12. And finally, when you are disappointed when she calls you only a "friend"?:D .. sigh!

(crap... dnt gape... just going the "LP" way.. trying my hand at something "different":P..
NOTE : This is purely a work of fiction)

23 May, 2007

Friends

A "friend" is an interesting term ... ppl have come to associate friends with two diametrically opposite viewpoints ...

First, a friend is the one who is with you in all the times, good or bad. He is the one who is always on "your" side. (He flatters you in the good times, and blames the others for your failures in the bad times. )

Second, a friend is your critic. He always points out your mistakes, irrespective of whether u just scaled mount Everest or you failed miserably in a venture.

Clearly, both the views are flawed. The former can be easily confused with a flatterer and the latter, with an antagonist.
The obvious solution is to say that a friend should have both these qualities. But, there is something more to it. A friend should know when to show which quality i.e. he should not mess up your moments of joy with stinging criticisms .. as well as... he should not wrongly blame others for your faults.

Friends who exhibit this poise are more likely to be helpful and close to you than the 2 categories mentioned earlier.

(Post under construction .... )

22 May, 2007

Non-veg : Imagine this .....

I have been mocked and ridiculed for being a veggie. Well I pity all of them. the self-centered assholes. Have they ever imagined how would it be like if their own brothers and sisters were murdered like this in front of them. How it is like to know that you are going to die and actually seeing your kindred being mercilessly slaughtered. Murdered just for someone else's delight.

What if tomorrow someone opens up a slaughter house to slaughter humans .. wouldn't all these ppl cry foul? (If they don't ... dudes .. you are beyond repair) Then why do they show no compassion towards non-humans? .. just because they can't retaliate .. or coz they aren't human !!
sad!!

neway .. check this out ... this is a song by "The scorpions" named "Under the same sun" .. awesome song .. nd have a look at the lyrics :

"I saw the evening
Fading shadows one by one
We watch the lamb, lay down to the sacrifice
I saw the children
The children of the sun
How they wept, how they bled, how they died

Do you ever ask yourself
Is there a Heaven in the sky"

Microsoft is lame

How lame can anyone get !!
apparently microsoft is planning to sue OpenSource communities for an infringement of 235 of its patents !! ... kewl .. Bill really knows how to mint Bills:P
Patents related to the user interface and the kernel; OpenOffice suite

Bill ... no need to get hysterical ... there are other moral ways of quashing competition ... grow up! don't you remember how Microsoft came into existence?? ... remember Apple?? ... How "someone" stole their OS which became "DOS" ??

newayz ... OpenOffice ... Bill ... do u claim title to the concept of open office? ... CONCEPT !! ... the concept belongs to the world Bill .. grow up !!

see here for the complete news

IBM launches 4.7GHz processor !!

The frequencies just got faster ....
IBM just unveiled its 4.7GHz POWER6 processor !!

A dual core, 64-bit processor with 8MB on-chip cache .. wow!! ...

check out the complete new here

Microsoft makes a foray into the ad market

hah .. so finally the giants enter the hitherto unheeded (by Microsoft:D) field of online ads. The competitor is none other than Google.

So what provoked Microsoft to enter the ad field?
The question remains unanswered ... but we can guess it has something to do with "popularity" or "future competition" ...

well .. google just launched its own online word processor program ... for FREE !!! ... which Microsoft sees as a potential competition to its Office products.
So, how does Microsoft counter-attack? .. By a $6bn deal to buy out the ad agent aQuantive. People also see it as a reaction to the google's recent spate of buyouts including $3.1bn deal with DoubleClick.

Whateva, the competition just got groovier
Click here for the complete news

Fake Steve Jobs !!!:P

check out this blog ... this guy is just blows me off !!!

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/

18 May, 2007

Linkin park : Leave out all the rest

Check out the lyrics ...... shows how much LP has matured these past years .. the 4 yr wait really seemed worth it after I heard this song ... just awsm !!

I dreamed I was missing,
You were so scared.
But no one would listen
'Cause no one else cared.

After my dreaming,
I woke with this fear.
What am I leaving,
When I am done here?

So if you're asking me I want you to know;
When my time comes,
Forget the wrong that I've done.
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed.

And don't resent me,
And when you're feeling empty,
Keep me in your memory.
Leave out all the rest.
Leave out all the rest...

Don't be afraid,
Of taking my beatings;
Of shit behind me.

I'm strong on the surface,
Not all the way through.
I've never been perfect,
But neither have you.

So if you're asking me I want you to know;
When my time comes,
Forget the wrong that I've done.
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed.

Don't resent me,
And when you're feeling empty,
Keep me in your memory.
Leave out all the rest.
Leave out all the rest...

.
.
.
.
.
.


I can't be who you are,
I can't be who you are.

16 May, 2007

Spiderman 3 ... arghhhh

After the action-packed and mesmerizing two installments of Spiderman, here's the third one : the worst so far.

But, as a token of respect:) to Spiderman 1,2 ,I'll start with the plus points.
2 overwhelmingly powerful villians join forces to eliminate their common enemy : spiderman. Both of them are amazing. You have the Sandman born out of a mistaken particle physics experiment. (which they perform in open air:) .. outside a lab .... r they crazy?) and the other one Venom, an alien parasite attached to spiderman's peer who wants him dead. Both of them have awful powers.
The climax just rocks. You get this adrenaline boost seeing all the action and turn of events. Rocks!!

But, there's where the plus points end. sigh!:(
The first half of the film is pointless. Spiderman's unsuccessful attempts to woo her girl, his romantic life, etc etc. What crap? Are we here to see how spiderman kisses or how he approaches women? btw ... I bet everyone in the theatre had this feeling of just leaving the theatre at some point or the other in the first half. Awful.
the real movie starts in the 2nd half : and unfortunately, the wooing session continues here too ... but is more in the background and has kinda -ve shades, so its k. By k i mean ... handleable, without getting any feelings of just slapping spiderman in the face for his dumb gaffes.
In the 2nd half, as we are gettin a feel of spiderman, the director has a lot to offer. Understanding the complex relations between harry and spiderman, Venom and Sandman. As a result, there has been sort of an unfair treatment to each character. No one would have minded two separate movies for each of the villians coz both of them have that ability to fill up a movie:)
Finally what you get is ... 15 min of great action and 2:15 hrs of boredom!

So, when u r just gettin that action for what you went for the movie, bang ... the movie just ends. And you come out shaking your head in disappointment. Wasted 3 hours in which you could have solved your own love problems !!:)

13 May, 2007

Why do we need "scientific" reasons?

When I saw the "Matrix" trilogy for the first time, the concept was fascinating. A virtual world designed to keep the people in the real world unaware of themselves. But, what if someone says you are fast becoming a victim of such a design? And the grand design is made by none other than "SCIENCE"!!

Right from a very young age, a lot of emphasis is given to scientific thinking, scientific point of view and logic. NO problems. But, then science crosses the lines to rubbish spirituality and traditions as "crap". Why are they crap? Because there are no "Scientific" explanations for some of the beliefs.

"scientific" ... the meaning of the term changes with each century. From Newtonian theory to Darwin's theory, every theory has its shortcomings. Even the most "intuitive" Newtonian theory was superseded by the thoroughly complicated and counter-intuitive Einstein's theory. Science is still far away from perfect !!! Then, why do we judge these beliefs based on science? With science's limitations today, the fact that these beliefs can be true cannot be ruled out.

If in the Newton times, someone said, "hey, an electron can be at 2 places at a time", he would have been regarded as deranged and mocked at. But, today we know it is the truth (refer Einstein's theory:). So, whats the guarantee that tomorrow the basis on which we overturn the beliefs, themselves do not exist!

Just because a bunch a scientists could not find the relation between the planet positions and our "supposed" future (Even I do not believe in this crap, but ... ), can science label astrology as crap? Can't it be attributed to our limited knowledge or immature science?

Why do we believe that there isn't anything called "soul"? Why do we rubbish reincarnation theories? Why do we deny the existence of GOD? (here, GOD isn't someone who made this world or controls this world .. NO ... he is just a perfect HUMAN BEING).
Just because science says so? Just because it is illogical? Don't you acknowledge your own shortcomings? Don't you think there might be some things out of your ken? Some things you can't know because you can't see or feel them with your senses?

Actually, the fault is ours. We think our culture is a big hoax. Something called the GOD was imagined so that there'll always be someone who one fears. Well, science chauvinists need to open their eyes to the shortcomings of science.
Thousands of years ago, it was said that eating green vegetables on some days in a month is unhealthy. The belief was rubbished. Today, it is found to be true. 5 times a month, when the moon is nearest to the earth, the gravitational pull of the moon causes increases water-levels
and humidity. This atmosphere is conducive for germs and hence, unhealthy for us.

The main problem with religion is, the reasons why we follow some of the mores are lost in time. So, there is no way of distinguishing between what are true traditions and what are just blind beliefs.

One of the unintended victims is : Spirituality. Although science dosen't directly attack spirituality, it has come under the scanner. If spirituality is overthrown and "logic" emphasized so much, I fear we might be reduced to robots, devoid of emotions and relationships. What makes us humans unique is NOT only the science but our culture, which is a fine mix of science, religion, traditions, spirituality and social inclinations.

Also, there's no reason to abandon our beliefs about soul and GOD and the higher facets of our spirituality. Science should just keep itself in check. It should understand its limitations. We should understand its limitations.

12 May, 2007

The Subconscious

Spoiler : I do not try to explore the mystic and hermetic lands of the subconscious and propound the ways to tap its omnipotent powers for your spiritual upliftment. NO. I am not into that crap. This blog is merely a collection of my some of my observations and conclusions drawn from them.

For skeptics, lets first try to establish that there is something called "the subconscious".

Have you experienced something called "the lightning solution" (It is unlikely that you know this term, coz i just coined it!!:) ) ? Lemme explain.
There's a knotty and complicated problem badgering you since days. You aren't able to figure out the solution no matter how hard you try. Finally, somehow, while you are doing something else or just goofing off, your mind interrupts you to announce the solution to the problem !! You haven't been thinking on it for days, then how did you "stumble" upon the solution?
Well, some might say that the quantum waves of the solution somehow penetrated your mind blah blah blah ... others might say ... ghosts of the primordial period whispered the solution into your ears:P.
I beg to differ

Here's where the subconscious comes into the picture. According to me, the conscious is the part of the mind you can discern through your senses. But, the mind is far more complex than this. the subconscious mind is where the problem are actually pondered upon. It would be unwise to assume that we have only one subconscious, there may be many (like Threads in a processor:P).
Anyways, the important thing is - how does it work?
What I think is, the conscious part of the mind provides the subconscious some inputs to work on. (Thus, it logically follows that if you don't mull sufficiently on a problem, the subconscious has a lesser chance of coming up with a solution) Then, it is the job of the subconscious to work out a solution and interrupt the conscious whenever necessary.

So, enough of this boring blabbering ... now we have a theory as to how the subconscious works, so how can we put it to test?
Try this out -
1) Suppose you encountered a problem just as you are about to sleep. Don't defer it to the next day. Think on it a bit and then doze off. This (hopefully) will kick off the subconscious and will probably simplify your problem solving task the next day.

2) Give the subconscious enough time. Studying everything at the last moment is not going to help you. The job of subconscious is not only to find solutions to problems, but also to reflect on whatever you have learned in the course of the day (the process of reflecting may take months:D). So, it is recommended (by me:P) that start studying asap and go slow, don't overstuff yourself. It will help you to grasp the concepts well and retain them longer. Remember, the earlier you start studying, the more time your mind has to consider the aspects of the issue in question.

So, it is not that we have NO control over what our subconscious does. We do have some. We just have to figure out how to exploit it.
The power of subconscious is soo vast, its not worth neglecting it.

04 May, 2007

GRE (old sylabus) : how to maximise ur score

You can either learn from someone's mistakes or you can learn from someone's success. Surely, both the forms are equally important. This is a guide to the former.

I didn't get a particularly good score in GRE. 1340. Not that bad, but obviously if you are reading this, your aim will be significantly higher (say 1500+). So, here are some of the "avoidable" mistakes I made. Learn from them, don't repeat them:P

1) There seems to be a pervasive misunderstanding that GRE is a test of Barron's words. Although it was quite true until some time ago, things have changed significantly. Today, Barron's is a guide to - which words are least likely to be asked in the GRE, and it is a good guide:). Even if you learn each and every Barron's word carefully, paying attention to the minutest nicety, you would be very lucky to cross 550 in verbal.
This dosen't mean you go to the market and buy a book giving you a list of non-barron's words. The point I wish to propound is that "learning" words from "lists" is no longer the only thing required to crack the GRE. What you need is good language which only comes from voracious reading (not only fiction, but a wide variety of books, magazines and articles). The words asked are not obscure words coined by a jobless pedant, they are the words which we have heard here and there, yet they are not as popularly used.
Words like "hull"(v) or "ream"(n) etc. These words won't appear in any of the lists.
Yet, a good reader will be well aware of these words. Also, it is less likely yo find these words in a fiction or a non-fiction book. What you need is a comprehensive reading habit.
That is the new GRE !! nothing great .... nothing to be afraid of ... very few esoteric words, but its a real test of your language !! and thats what people are afraid of !:). The test of your language and NOT your ratta skills.

I suggest, if you have time, start reading newspapers, magazines, watch sitcoms, movies, etc. Don't discount on the Barron's lists ... they are going to fetch yoy 550 ... its the way to 800 that we are trying to uncover and the way has to pass through Barron's !!:)


2) Do not neglect RCs and SCs. People tend to leave RCs for option assuming that they can cover up the score in the other question types. They are grossly mistaken. RCs is going to be your saving grace in the GRE (it was my saving grace, words totally screwed me). + If you get easy questions for the other types, good answers for the RCs can land you well above 1500. Also, RCs are NOT as difficult as people tend to think. Its difficulty is merely aggrandized by the grapevine. They are manageable, but only with practice can you tackle RCs.

And the last thing, don't neglect analytical section either, although it is not at all difficult to score above 4, people tend to bungle up in over-confidence. It is not that easy either. + a good 5 or 5.5 can compensate for a mediocre GRE score.

In summary, Barron's is NOT the ultimate guide, concentrate on improving your language.
DO NOT neglect RCs and SCs.

Best of luck !!

23 March, 2007

What is time?

Have you ever spared a thought to this, seemingly "trivial" question? It is not as simple as it looks. Time, as we perceive it, is clock-ticks, hours, minutes, days, years, centuries and ages. But, is this really time that is passing?

Well, you guessed it right, it depends on how we define time. If time is defined as "something measured by a clock" then the above hypothesis might be true and you don't need to read all the prolix prattle which follows. But, if we consider time as something which gradually passes, then we have a problem.

Consider an Arrow. its motion is similar to passing of time. Now, according to Heisenberg's Uncertainity principle position and momentum of this arrow cannot be accurately and simultaneously determined (Yes, it is true even for macroscopic bodies!!). And it is true, if we photograph the Arrow, we know its position, but we have lost all the information about its momentum. and if we see an arrow moving, we know its momentum (as a vector), but we can't determine its position !!

Now, its analogy with time. If time is an Arrow. and say the arrow is moving, then we can't say whether we are in Past, Present or Future !!(its position can't be determined). and if we assume that we are in the Present. then Time is stationary (momentum cannot be determined !!). Thus, a fallacy!!

The thing is, we confuse time with relationships. We measure time (lets call it that for the time being:) ) with respect to some cyclic changes like Earth's revolution around the sun or moon's revolution around the earth. Which implies, that if these motions slow down, time will slow down !! ... therin lies the fallacy! .. we don't measure time, we compare ourselves with other activities. This comparison should not be confused with time!

So, there is nothing called time.
Time is just a perception. An imagination of human mind. That explains why time (the colloquial "time", acutally there is nothing like time) seems to pass slowly while we do a boring piece of work and why time seems to fly away when the work we are doing is interesting! Because, clock-ticks is not time, neither is the location of sun or moon with respect to the earth!

Then what is past? what is future?
Past is just an improbable event. i.e. the waves of probability have grew stronger for the Present and weaker for the past. Also, the waves of probabilty are weak for the future. So, future is also an improbable event, as of now.
To understand it completely, well, consider a gramophone record. Assume, the needle is at a particular point playing your favorite song. Well, it just implies that the other parts of the record are improbable and the part which is being played in highly probable (the analogy with past, present and future in simple).
To summarize the above paragraph, well, past and future are nothing but, improbable events. There is nothing called "time" as such !!

Its all quantum mechanics. As true for macroscopic objects as for microscopic!

So, go over the topic again ... What is time? .. does it seem that simple yet??:))

07 March, 2007

Quantum Computing

This is my seminar topic this year. And the most promising new development in the field of computing.

Today the processors are growing faster and faster. But, there's a limit to the speed. A given mass of material cannot perform more than certain calculations. This puts us into a jeopardy. How will we cope with the future requirements ? The answer suggested was PARALLEL processing. But, again traditional computers proved grossly inefficient in implementing the concept. Scientists were in search of something that was "inherently" parallel in processing .... and the ans came in the form of "quantum computing".

Quantum computing emerged from the fact that the processors will grow so small that their elements will be of the size of an atom. Then the classical laws will be rendered meaningless and quantum laws will come into picture. quantum bits - popularly known as qubits - can store 2^n values SIMULTANEOUSLY, where n=size of register. Thus, the inherent prallelism!

Thus, 2^n computations can proceed simultaneously in a n-qubit register. This massive parallelism has gripped the imagination of the scientists world over!

But, the main problem with this field is, as a renowned scientist summarizes
"My students don't understand quantum computing, because i don't understand it"
Such is the intricacy of the subject that even those working in the field can't confess to have complete knowledge of the topic! Also, most of the technology required to implement a quantum computer is rather non-existent.

All in all, quantum computing is NOT the near future. But, in the long run quantum computing will certainly cause revolutions in the quantum field !! ... It will change the way we compute !

GRE : why when and how ?

GRE : Graduate record examination
This is a must exam alongwith TOEFL (which is also compulsary to apply to US universities for higher studies.

The typical question asked today is "Why US? Indian engineers are earning enough, why go to US?" (This post is only for engineers, others shoooo :) ) ... The reason is, the US education system induces some practicality in you. + You have a chance to become independant i.e. live on yourself. Also, although software engineering is a booming field, there are bound to be recessions and your MS degree in US will help your boss NOT to sack you:).

When ? : there is no restriction by ETS (the GRE conducting body) as to when can appear for GRE. But, considering our own benifit, I suggest you should appear for GRE in your TE (that too, the month of March. March because it is believed that the examination is a bit easier then). TE because, you'll need atleast a year to complete all the formalities : GRE score, TOEFL score, VISA, application to universities etc). So, you can leave for USA as soon as your BE examinations are over. Thus, you don't end up sitting at your home for a year straining your father's income:). If you are NOT sure whether you will clear all subjects in TE or BE, then also, it is suggested to appear in TE only, because GRE score is valid for 5 years.

Classes : I don't know about others, but Dilip Oak's is a good option if you are a puneite. But, again classes are not that much of a help. I suggest, buy out the DOAK's material and prepare on your own.

Books and other resources :
The ultimate guide will be Barron's book. A nice work. You can also go for, Princeton or Kaplan's guides. Besides, there's a lot of material available online.
You can also download some from,
http://nidheshjain.googlepages.com/gre2
and if anyone needs anything more, well you can contact me. I pride myself with an awesome GRE collection.

Required score :
for computer engineers anything above 1300 will be called decent.
One can easily score 750+ in the quantitative section. So, you are just supposed to scrape in 550 odd in verbal which won't be a problem.
Also, recently Analytical writing scores have gained importance. try to get atleast 8 out of 12. Again this is NOT at all difficult.

Final words :
Anyone readin this post now would probably appear in the new syllabus. So, beware there are only Reading Comprehension and Sentence Completion type questions. RCs are hell. So, start reading now. You need to have a good vocabulary to understand the RCs and attempt the SCs. So, taking a look at the Barron's list will still be a good idea (although, ypu won't need to learn the words as you needed to do in the OLD syllabus)
Plus, the new syllabus will be a 5.5 to 6 hours ordeal. So, get your concentrations up too.
And, Quantitative and Analytical sections are unchanged, so, NO problems on that front.

(Add a comment if you found this useful or if you need further information.
Best of Luck in your endeavour)

23 February, 2007

GRE

some really good material with me :
1) princeton and kaplan tests
2) dictionaries : POD, meriam-webster's, thesaurus, WordWeb(by princeton, very very good)
3) Ananlogy bible
4) Antonym bible
5) out-of-Barron word list : 2700 words
6) 32 issues and 32 arguments (5-6 pointers)
7) Word Hacker (good for last min revision)
8) Rarest eng words (About 1800, believe me .. they are quaint and amusing)
9) some links to regulary to test your progress

the only thing missing is RC practice set ... if anyone is in possession of one, plz plz mail me