Its the first weekend this academic year. First week, fine, had one tut quiz already :(.
Right now, I do have time, but feeling a bit lazy to write something.
So, maybe, This will do...
Top Ten Reasons To Date an Engineer
1. The world does revolve around us... We pick the coordinate system.
2. Find out what those other buttons on your calculator do.
3. We know how to handle stress and strain in our relationships.
4. Parents will approve.
5. Help with your math homework.
6. Can calculate head pressure.
7. Looks good on a resume.
8. Free body diagrams.
9. High starting salary.
10.Extremely good looking
Top Ten Reasons NOT to Date an Engineer
1. T-shirt and jeans are their formal dress. Hot dog and a six-pack is their seven-course meal.
2. The only social life known of is to post and talk on the net.
3. Flames like a monster and speaks like a pussycat.
4. Works from 6:30am to 7:30pm daily. No morning kisses and no evening walks.
5. No matter how hard you cry and how loud you yell, he just sits there calmly discussing your emotion in terms of mathematical logic.
6. Only listens to classic rock. Hates everything from Bach to Prince.
7. Touches his car more often than you.
8. Talks in acronyms.
9. Can't leave that damn pencil off his ear for a minute.
10.Will file a divorce if you call him in the middle of debugging.
FIND OF THE DAY : You can't spell Geek without EE
Courtesy : http://www.gdargaud.net/Humor/Engineer.html
PS: In case you didnt get the title, try to think of a famous english author.. of medieval times.. his famous words...
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Such a small world
Yesterday, I went with my mom and dad to visit some old neighbours of ours, "the Sharma's". It was nice, meeting them after about three years or so.
Before that, we were neighbours for some five+ years.
Though I didnot had that much fun, which I thought I could. Almost throughout, it was like mom busy with aunt, dad with uncle, and me, and their two kids, just watching them, and smiling in between.
When we were about to leave, some of their relative dropped in. The troop wasn't a big one, consisted just of uncle's sister, and her daughter-in-law. Then, again a little general discussion started.
The daughter-in-law was newly wed, maybe a few months or so. So, then a little discussion about where did she is from. They moved in Delhi just about two years ago. 'Where in Delhi??', 'Mayur Vihar', came the answer. Apparently, we were also in Mayur Vihar, some two years back. So, next so obvious question from my mom, "Which phase???", "Phase-II" was the reply. "OOOooo.... even we were in phase-II"; "Which pocket??", "Pocket-B"; "Oh oh..even we were in pocket-B, there was this Bal Bhavan School, my son was there only /* referring to me.. :D */, and there was this 'Neelam mata ka mandir' ". "Yeah.." said she. Now, the next question was flat number. She said "161-A". I was relived a bit, I thought she lived in same house as ours.. :P. But hey, this wasn't far from ours', we were in 167-B. /* A for ground floor, B for first floor, and not blocks or something, so it was pretty close */. I was thinkin it was close enough. But I was proven wrong in a little while.
There was a little discussion between her and my mom, about there that person lived and blah blah blah. And in that discussion only, she said "We were in 166-B for a little while". Now, that house was just next to us, and that you say 'close enough'. They moved into that 166-B just a few days before we left our 167-B. And guess what, my mom and she have had some conversation at that time also. And now they remembered every bit of it. And even I did, I saw that young girl once or twice in her balcony, though she looked pretty different than at present. At that time only, she once enquired, through my mom, for she was trying to get a job in Bal Bhavan, my school. I told her, its not a nice place; it actually is not, specially not for teachers. Anyways, we are not discussion my school.
But the thing is, wow, I have never been in such a co-incidence. It was close.
Really, such a small world.
FIND OF THE DAY : I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
Though I didnot had that much fun, which I thought I could. Almost throughout, it was like mom busy with aunt, dad with uncle, and me, and their two kids, just watching them, and smiling in between.
When we were about to leave, some of their relative dropped in. The troop wasn't a big one, consisted just of uncle's sister, and her daughter-in-law. Then, again a little general discussion started.
The daughter-in-law was newly wed, maybe a few months or so. So, then a little discussion about where did she is from. They moved in Delhi just about two years ago. 'Where in Delhi??', 'Mayur Vihar', came the answer. Apparently, we were also in Mayur Vihar, some two years back. So, next so obvious question from my mom, "Which phase???", "Phase-II" was the reply. "OOOooo.... even we were in phase-II"; "Which pocket??", "Pocket-B"; "Oh oh..even we were in pocket-B, there was this Bal Bhavan School, my son was there only /* referring to me.. :D */, and there was this 'Neelam mata ka mandir' ". "Yeah.." said she. Now, the next question was flat number. She said "161-A". I was relived a bit, I thought she lived in same house as ours.. :P. But hey, this wasn't far from ours', we were in 167-B. /* A for ground floor, B for first floor, and not blocks or something, so it was pretty close */. I was thinkin it was close enough. But I was proven wrong in a little while.
There was a little discussion between her and my mom, about there that person lived and blah blah blah. And in that discussion only, she said "We were in 166-B for a little while". Now, that house was just next to us, and that you say 'close enough'. They moved into that 166-B just a few days before we left our 167-B. And guess what, my mom and she have had some conversation at that time also. And now they remembered every bit of it. And even I did, I saw that young girl once or twice in her balcony, though she looked pretty different than at present. At that time only, she once enquired, through my mom, for she was trying to get a job in Bal Bhavan, my school. I told her, its not a nice place; it actually is not, specially not for teachers. Anyways, we are not discussion my school.
But the thing is, wow, I have never been in such a co-incidence. It was close.
Really, such a small world.
FIND OF THE DAY : I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
My new fan
Yesterday, got up at around 1000 hrs. Thanks, my PS is over :).
Around 1300 hrs, I was sitting in front of this stupid machine, called computer, as usual; when my mother called me, and asked me to get a little stuff from the mother dairy. /* In case you are not a delhite, by mother dairy I am referring to government run shops which sell milk products and vegetables */. I had to comlpete the job before 1400 hrs, when the shop gets closed, so, after lazing around for a while, I went there, and this is where I met my new fan :).
I was supposed to get some tomatoes and potatoes, /* gen sabji bhaji */. I 'selected' them, put them into a basket, and was waiting for my turn. There was a girl, getting some onions and tomatoes. And there on the other side, was my new fan, the salesperson. While weighing her stuff, he weighed the onions, and then tomatoes. Though such activities are generally not much interesting to observe, but it was interesting to see that one single tomato weighed 300 gms. Both the salesman, and that girl were a bit amazed, but anyways, out of all those tomotoes which she selected for herself, she took only one, weighing 300 gms. I guess she had to get 250 gms of them.
I also had collected a few, intending to take home around 500 gms of those. I also had a packet of potatoes. I weighed my potatoes, on the other machine, it read 1.250 kgs. Anyways, the girl was over with her stuff, and cash transaction followed. She was still managing the change, when I put my potatoes on the machine which the salesman had. It read 1.500 kgs. Now, this was ambiguous. I immediately prompted, and then the salesman realised, he did not set the zero properly. And this solved the mystery of that single tomato weighing 300 gms. After my potatoes, the girl's stuff was weighed again. The salesman was smiling at me, ' sir, aapne bataya na hota to aaj to aise hi jaata'. I smiled back. The girl, she also must had been smiling, but damn, that salesperson was talking to me, and I couldn't look at her :(.
Now, the girl was again packing her stuff, about to leave. I put my tomatoes forward, and instructed the salesman, 'bhaiya, aadha kilo kar dena'. He put all those tomatoes on the machine, and the digital display read "0.500 kgs". And this was more than enough to make him my fan. 'aapke haathon mein to jaddo hai'. I again smiled back to him. And yeah, even I was thinking, 'kamaal hai, eggjactly half kg :P'. The girl, she was at some distance now, else I could had expected a 'girl fan' also... :D
FIND OF THE DAY : People have the right to be stupid. Some people abuse that privilege
Around 1300 hrs, I was sitting in front of this stupid machine, called computer, as usual; when my mother called me, and asked me to get a little stuff from the mother dairy. /* In case you are not a delhite, by mother dairy I am referring to government run shops which sell milk products and vegetables */. I had to comlpete the job before 1400 hrs, when the shop gets closed, so, after lazing around for a while, I went there, and this is where I met my new fan :).
I was supposed to get some tomatoes and potatoes, /* gen sabji bhaji */. I 'selected' them, put them into a basket, and was waiting for my turn. There was a girl, getting some onions and tomatoes. And there on the other side, was my new fan, the salesperson. While weighing her stuff, he weighed the onions, and then tomatoes. Though such activities are generally not much interesting to observe, but it was interesting to see that one single tomato weighed 300 gms. Both the salesman, and that girl were a bit amazed, but anyways, out of all those tomotoes which she selected for herself, she took only one, weighing 300 gms. I guess she had to get 250 gms of them.
I also had collected a few, intending to take home around 500 gms of those. I also had a packet of potatoes. I weighed my potatoes, on the other machine, it read 1.250 kgs. Anyways, the girl was over with her stuff, and cash transaction followed. She was still managing the change, when I put my potatoes on the machine which the salesman had. It read 1.500 kgs. Now, this was ambiguous. I immediately prompted, and then the salesman realised, he did not set the zero properly. And this solved the mystery of that single tomato weighing 300 gms. After my potatoes, the girl's stuff was weighed again. The salesman was smiling at me, ' sir, aapne bataya na hota to aaj to aise hi jaata'. I smiled back. The girl, she also must had been smiling, but damn, that salesperson was talking to me, and I couldn't look at her :(.
Now, the girl was again packing her stuff, about to leave. I put my tomatoes forward, and instructed the salesman, 'bhaiya, aadha kilo kar dena'. He put all those tomatoes on the machine, and the digital display read "0.500 kgs". And this was more than enough to make him my fan. 'aapke haathon mein to jaddo hai'. I again smiled back to him. And yeah, even I was thinking, 'kamaal hai, eggjactly half kg :P'. The girl, she was at some distance now, else I could had expected a 'girl fan' also... :D
FIND OF THE DAY : People have the right to be stupid. Some people abuse that privilege
Friday, July 20, 2007
50% engineer?? Definitely!!!
Its been pretty long time since I wrote something by myself on the blog. Well, was a lil' busy with PS thing.
Yeah, I am gonna describe it in brief.
PS a.k.a. Practice School.
Its one of its kind programme at BITS, Pilani. I am not too sure, but I guess in India atleast, no other institute offers such a nice way of industrial training to its students. We have PS-I, after second years, during the summer break, for around 55 days. There is PS-II, six month long, in the final year.
So, it was PS-I for me this summer. Somewhere around in march, we were told about the various centres all over the country where PS-I will be conducted. All 800 students from my batch were to fill in the preference order, and were alloted one of those 'practice stations'; as per merit and the preferences.
I got Centre for Railway Information Systems, Delhi /* to be referred as CRIS, here onwards */. It was my first preference. Reason number one, it was in Delhi /* :) */, and I expected there must be some interesting thing to learn there. /* damn, I lie big time, the secondary reason was its location in delhi, south delhi, the posh area... close to DU south campus.. :P */.
Anyways, I had one of my ex-wingie also at this centre... that's cool.
So, this PS-I thing was to start on 24th may'07. Now, as I told you, this unique thing in our insti, they had a few more arrangements for us. Each centre had one instructor /* read : faculty member */ and one student co-instructor /* a third yearite */. By the rule book, these two persons were to look after our training, they had to come regularly to the centre(s) assigned to them. And if they go by the rule book, its sure is not a good news for the students, like me.. :P. And it pretty much wasn't in my case. And apart from that, in this period of 54 odd days, we had two quizes /* written tests */, two group discussions, report submission and seminar, in the midterm, and at the end also. These were the arrangements made by our insti for us. This all sounds a bit wierd, but that's the way it is, for us.
We had to strictly follow the timings, 0930 hrs to 1730 hrs, five days a week. I took just one leave. A bit hard for a BITSian... :P. But, yeah, it helped in see the professional one. Though CRIS was a government organisation, it would had been different scenario had it been a private organization, still, it was all professional. On the second day of our PS, we eight people were alloted various departments, as per our interests. In a nutshell, CRIS takes care of all the IT related work for Indian Railways. So, it had much of software engineers in there. But, yours truely, being a eletronics student, is not much interested in that. So, I went to the telecom department. And it wasn't that a bad place. Though it mainly was about networking only, still, I loved the name 'telecom', which
sounds more of electronics, than computers :P.
It was for the first time that BITS had a training centre in CRIS. So, there were no such special arrangements there. Anyhow, we started our training. For a first few days, just saw the networking facilities there... saw the network devices, routers, switched, and the web servers hosting indian railways websites like irctc, trainenquiry, were also there. There were database servers also in the complex, bhramha and vishnu. It was pretty nice to see them. Now, we were to be alloted some project to work over for next 50 odd days. This department didnt had any special project or something going, where we 50% engineers could had contributed. So, it was almost decided that we'll be doing some study based project only. Later on, they asked us to make a little software to help them generate reports for network maintenance. So, it was like, we were three people in telecom departments, yours truely, Piyush, and Neha /* the latter names from BITS Pilani goa campus */. And we had two projects, one that software thing, and one analytic one, analysis of the next STARS network implemented by CRIS in Andaman and Nicobar. I am not going in any detail of them, not because its a state secret or something, but I dont want to. Yours truely and Piyush were on the analytic one, while Neha was handling the software thing, in which I also contributed unofficially. I would like to share my experience in that software development also, maybe sometime later.
Anyways... we showed our engineering skills pretty well all through the training. The two quizes, light, the two GD's, light. But yeah, that seminar and report thing, it did require some amount of energy to be spent.
The midterm report... it wasn't much trouble some for me, I prepared it one telecommunication basics, the thing I am pretty much interested in. Enjoyed preparing that report. And seminar, it didnt had much to worry about the presentation, but I had to prepare the slides also. But it was bit easy with the report already prepared. I started to work on the presentation at around 2200 hrs the previous night, and completed it by 1330 hrs. It went pretty well, but the audience was not from this field, it could had been better.
And the final presentation, the senior most person from telecom department was going to be there. It was bit scary also... that guy... I mean sir, I am pretty much impressed with his knowledge, and his attitude toward us also. And we were pretty scared for he definitely was going to cross question. We divided the presentation among two of us. The presentation, was not that bad, but boring for other trainees, who were from other departments. Though at that time I thought, not my fault, its never gonna interest them. But later on I realised, I should had made it interesting for those people also. Anyway, our fear, he did cross questioned both of us. A few we were able to answer back, in some, he shared his 'gyaan' with us. But at the end, he said he was pretty much impressed by the way we organised the stuff, and the way we presented, it was really good for students of our level, still wondering if that was just to flatter us. Anyway, the final presentation was over. Just that crappy report left. That day, we went to play pool, eight people, one table, half hour, it was much of fun there.
2-3 days more, now this report didnt interest me much, as I was sure that no one is going to give a shit for it. Completed it, got it printed, got a few things wrong, our prof almost threw the report at my face, not literally, the pages were not binded, and he realised it on time, thank god, else I would had been collecting them from the floor. Anyways, thanks to the co-instructor, a student like us :), she helped correcting it. Soon came the last day, we submitted the report, completed the formalities.. and yeah.. PS was over...and now its history
our second year was over...
50% engg??
I don't judge it by the grades, but by the way we ahdnled things at PS. All the work started at deadline, completed at extended deadline... :)
I sure am showing signs of a good engineer.. :)
FIND OF THE DAY : History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Yeah, I am gonna describe it in brief.
PS a.k.a. Practice School.
Its one of its kind programme at BITS, Pilani. I am not too sure, but I guess in India atleast, no other institute offers such a nice way of industrial training to its students. We have PS-I, after second years, during the summer break, for around 55 days. There is PS-II, six month long, in the final year.
So, it was PS-I for me this summer. Somewhere around in march, we were told about the various centres all over the country where PS-I will be conducted. All 800 students from my batch were to fill in the preference order, and were alloted one of those 'practice stations'; as per merit and the preferences.
I got Centre for Railway Information Systems, Delhi /* to be referred as CRIS, here onwards */. It was my first preference. Reason number one, it was in Delhi /* :) */, and I expected there must be some interesting thing to learn there. /* damn, I lie big time, the secondary reason was its location in delhi, south delhi, the posh area... close to DU south campus.. :P */.
Anyways, I had one of my ex-wingie also at this centre... that's cool.
So, this PS-I thing was to start on 24th may'07. Now, as I told you, this unique thing in our insti, they had a few more arrangements for us. Each centre had one instructor /* read : faculty member */ and one student co-instructor /* a third yearite */. By the rule book, these two persons were to look after our training, they had to come regularly to the centre(s) assigned to them. And if they go by the rule book, its sure is not a good news for the students, like me.. :P. And it pretty much wasn't in my case. And apart from that, in this period of 54 odd days, we had two quizes /* written tests */, two group discussions, report submission and seminar, in the midterm, and at the end also. These were the arrangements made by our insti for us. This all sounds a bit wierd, but that's the way it is, for us.
We had to strictly follow the timings, 0930 hrs to 1730 hrs, five days a week. I took just one leave. A bit hard for a BITSian... :P. But, yeah, it helped in see the professional one. Though CRIS was a government organisation, it would had been different scenario had it been a private organization, still, it was all professional. On the second day of our PS, we eight people were alloted various departments, as per our interests. In a nutshell, CRIS takes care of all the IT related work for Indian Railways. So, it had much of software engineers in there. But, yours truely, being a eletronics student, is not much interested in that. So, I went to the telecom department. And it wasn't that a bad place. Though it mainly was about networking only, still, I loved the name 'telecom', which
sounds more of electronics, than computers :P.
It was for the first time that BITS had a training centre in CRIS. So, there were no such special arrangements there. Anyhow, we started our training. For a first few days, just saw the networking facilities there... saw the network devices, routers, switched, and the web servers hosting indian railways websites like irctc, trainenquiry, were also there. There were database servers also in the complex, bhramha and vishnu. It was pretty nice to see them. Now, we were to be alloted some project to work over for next 50 odd days. This department didnt had any special project or something going, where we 50% engineers could had contributed. So, it was almost decided that we'll be doing some study based project only. Later on, they asked us to make a little software to help them generate reports for network maintenance. So, it was like, we were three people in telecom departments, yours truely, Piyush, and Neha /* the latter names from BITS Pilani goa campus */. And we had two projects, one that software thing, and one analytic one, analysis of the next STARS network implemented by CRIS in Andaman and Nicobar. I am not going in any detail of them, not because its a state secret or something, but I dont want to. Yours truely and Piyush were on the analytic one, while Neha was handling the software thing, in which I also contributed unofficially. I would like to share my experience in that software development also, maybe sometime later.
Anyways... we showed our engineering skills pretty well all through the training. The two quizes, light, the two GD's, light. But yeah, that seminar and report thing, it did require some amount of energy to be spent.
The midterm report... it wasn't much trouble some for me, I prepared it one telecommunication basics, the thing I am pretty much interested in. Enjoyed preparing that report. And seminar, it didnt had much to worry about the presentation, but I had to prepare the slides also. But it was bit easy with the report already prepared. I started to work on the presentation at around 2200 hrs the previous night, and completed it by 1330 hrs. It went pretty well, but the audience was not from this field, it could had been better.
And the final presentation, the senior most person from telecom department was going to be there. It was bit scary also... that guy... I mean sir, I am pretty much impressed with his knowledge, and his attitude toward us also. And we were pretty scared for he definitely was going to cross question. We divided the presentation among two of us. The presentation, was not that bad, but boring for other trainees, who were from other departments. Though at that time I thought, not my fault, its never gonna interest them. But later on I realised, I should had made it interesting for those people also. Anyway, our fear, he did cross questioned both of us. A few we were able to answer back, in some, he shared his 'gyaan' with us. But at the end, he said he was pretty much impressed by the way we organised the stuff, and the way we presented, it was really good for students of our level, still wondering if that was just to flatter us. Anyway, the final presentation was over. Just that crappy report left. That day, we went to play pool, eight people, one table, half hour, it was much of fun there.
2-3 days more, now this report didnt interest me much, as I was sure that no one is going to give a shit for it. Completed it, got it printed, got a few things wrong, our prof almost threw the report at my face, not literally, the pages were not binded, and he realised it on time, thank god, else I would had been collecting them from the floor. Anyways, thanks to the co-instructor, a student like us :), she helped correcting it. Soon came the last day, we submitted the report, completed the formalities.. and yeah.. PS was over...and now its history
our second year was over...
50% engg??
I don't judge it by the grades, but by the way we ahdnled things at PS. All the work started at deadline, completed at extended deadline... :)
I sure am showing signs of a good engineer.. :)
FIND OF THE DAY : History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Some more engineering humour.. :P
What is said...
What it means
A number of different approaches are being tried...
We don't know where we're going, but we're moving.
An extensive report is being prepared on a fresh approach to the problem...
We just hired three guys.. We'll let them kick it around for a while.
Developed after years of intensive research...
It was discovered by accident.
Modifications are underway to correct certain minor difficulties...
We threw the whole thing out and are starting from scratch.
Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive...
The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.
Test results were extremely gratifying...
It works, and boy are we surprised !
The design will be finalized in the next reporting period...
We haven't started this job yet, but we've got to say something.
The entire concept is unworkable...
The only guy who understood the thing just quit.
We need close project coordination...
We should have asked someone else.
Alternate: Let's spread the responsibility for this.
Reference
[1] gdargaud
I know, its been quite sometime since I wrote something by myself. But seems good days are over. A few engineering experiences of my own will soon follow. Not good for you, huh!!! But good for me... :D
FIND OF THE DAY : I am really really lazy... seems engineer inside me is coming to full power.. :D
What it means
A number of different approaches are being tried...
We don't know where we're going, but we're moving.
An extensive report is being prepared on a fresh approach to the problem...
We just hired three guys.. We'll let them kick it around for a while.
Developed after years of intensive research...
It was discovered by accident.
Modifications are underway to correct certain minor difficulties...
We threw the whole thing out and are starting from scratch.
Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive...
The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.
Test results were extremely gratifying...
It works, and boy are we surprised !
The design will be finalized in the next reporting period...
We haven't started this job yet, but we've got to say something.
The entire concept is unworkable...
The only guy who understood the thing just quit.
We need close project coordination...
We should have asked someone else.
Alternate: Let's spread the responsibility for this.
Reference
[1] gdargaud
I know, its been quite sometime since I wrote something by myself. But seems good days are over. A few engineering experiences of my own will soon follow. Not good for you, huh!!! But good for me... :D
FIND OF THE DAY : I am really really lazy... seems engineer inside me is coming to full power.. :D
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Rinoa Heartilly
A little more of Rinoa Heartilly...
I dont think I need to write anything else in this post...
FIND OF THE DAY : For an optimist the glass is half full, for a pessimist it's half empty, and for an engineer is twice bigger than necessary.
I dont think I need to write anything else in this post...FIND OF THE DAY : For an optimist the glass is half full, for a pessimist it's half empty, and for an engineer is twice bigger than necessary.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
You Might Be An Engineer If...
- You have no life - and you can PROVE it mathematically.
- You enjoy pain.
- You know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
- You chuckle whenever anyone says "centrifugal force".
- You've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
- It is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.
- You frequently whistle the theme song to "MacGyver".
- You know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.
- You think in "math".
- You've calculated that the World Series actually diverges.
- You hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function.
- You have a pet named after a scientist.
- You laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
- The Humane society has you arrested because you actually performed the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.
- You can translate English into Binary.
- You can't remember what's behind the door in the engineering -building which says "Exit".
- You have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there's a wind-chill factor in the lab.
- You are completely addicted to caffeine.
- You avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.
- You consider ANY non-engineering course "easy".
- When your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe.
- The "fun" center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.
- You'll assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.
- The blinking 12:00 on someone's VCR draws you in like a tractor beam to fix it.
- You bring a computer manual / technical journal as vacation reading.
- The salesperson at Circuit City can't answer any of your questions.
- You can't help eavesdropping in computer stores... and correcting the salesperson.
- You're in line for the guillotine... it stops working properly... and you offer to fix it.
- You go on the rides at Disneyland and sit backwards to see how they do the special effects.
- You have any "Dilbert" comics displayed in your work area.
- You have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work.
- You have never backed up your hard drive.
- You haven't bought any new underwear or socks for yourself since you got married.
- You spent more on your calculator than on your wedding ring.
- You think that when people around you yawn, it's because they didn't get enough sleep.
- You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon.
- You've ever calculated how much you make per second.
- Your favorite James Bond character is "Q," the guy who makes the gadgets.
- You understood more than five of these jokes.
- You make a copy of this list, and post it on your door (or your home page !)
These are not my own, I read them here. And you'll love to read the whole thing if you actually are an engineer. Else, I guess any ways, I'll post the rest soon here. :)
FIND OF THE DAY : Engineer : A person who always has more than one solution to a problem, chooses the one most complicated, and gets screwed. PS : The find of the day is my own, actually my recent experience.
- You enjoy pain.
- You know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
- You chuckle whenever anyone says "centrifugal force".
- You've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
- It is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.
- You frequently whistle the theme song to "MacGyver".
- You know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.
- You think in "math".
- You've calculated that the World Series actually diverges.
- You hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function.
- You have a pet named after a scientist.
- You laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
- The Humane society has you arrested because you actually performed the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.
- You can translate English into Binary.
- You can't remember what's behind the door in the engineering -building which says "Exit".
- You have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there's a wind-chill factor in the lab.
- You are completely addicted to caffeine.
- You avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.
- You consider ANY non-engineering course "easy".
- When your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe.
- The "fun" center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.
- You'll assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.
- The blinking 12:00 on someone's VCR draws you in like a tractor beam to fix it.
- You bring a computer manual / technical journal as vacation reading.
- The salesperson at Circuit City can't answer any of your questions.
- You can't help eavesdropping in computer stores... and correcting the salesperson.
- You're in line for the guillotine... it stops working properly... and you offer to fix it.
- You go on the rides at Disneyland and sit backwards to see how they do the special effects.
- You have any "Dilbert" comics displayed in your work area.
- You have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work.
- You have never backed up your hard drive.
- You haven't bought any new underwear or socks for yourself since you got married.
- You spent more on your calculator than on your wedding ring.
- You think that when people around you yawn, it's because they didn't get enough sleep.
- You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon.
- You've ever calculated how much you make per second.
- Your favorite James Bond character is "Q," the guy who makes the gadgets.
- You understood more than five of these jokes.
- You make a copy of this list, and post it on your door (or your home page !)
These are not my own, I read them here. And you'll love to read the whole thing if you actually are an engineer. Else, I guess any ways, I'll post the rest soon here. :)
FIND OF THE DAY : Engineer : A person who always has more than one solution to a problem, chooses the one most complicated, and gets screwed. PS : The find of the day is my own, actually my recent experience.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
You're Beautiful
My life is brilliant.
My life is brilliant
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
Yes, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last 'till the end.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
La la la la la la la la la
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.
by James Blunt
Had nothing else to post. Was listening to this song, its beautiful.
FIND OF THE DAY : I cna ytpe 300 wrods pre mniuet!
My life is brilliant
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
Yes, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last 'till the end.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
La la la la la la la la la
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.
by James Blunt
Had nothing else to post. Was listening to this song, its beautiful.
FIND OF THE DAY : I cna ytpe 300 wrods pre mniuet!
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Hurray!!! Finally turned it off
Its been so long, main culprit.. my laziness.. and google's smartness. This transliteration feature was really bothering me for a while now. Whenever I wished to post something... it converted all those words in devanagari script. Well, ya, I know hindi and its not that I hate it, but it feels a bit uncomfortable now-a-days. Gosh, hindi meri matrabhasha hai, aur hindi mein post likhne mein main takleef kehsoos kar raha hun, yeh to bahut hi buri baat hui.
Actually, I guess it is that I want some readers, not just my close friends. /* Having unrealistic expectations.. huh */So, I guess I should go for the international language, and that's what I am doing.
Well, lotsa time has passed, I have started going to practice school /* read - summer training */. I guess I'll describe that stuff some time else, today just wanted to post something, with transliteration turned off... and I succeeded :)
Any ways.. I still would like to post a few pics.. my latest crush.. Ronia...
This one is my current favourite
Yeah... forget Yuna.. Rinoa is great... I just love her...I guess I'll post more of her pics soon.
I know, its been years since Final Fantasy VIII was released, but as is said ' der aaye durust aaye' :)
FIND OF THE DAY : Animated character can be damn sexy
This one is my current favourite
Yeah... forget Yuna.. Rinoa is great... I just love her...I guess I'll post more of her pics soon.
I know, its been years since Final Fantasy VIII was released, but as is said ' der aaye durust aaye' :)FIND OF THE DAY : Animated character can be damn sexy
Monday, May 21, 2007
स्वर्ण जयंती पोस्ट :)
Its been long time. Not that long though, but seems to be so, to me. I could have blogged.. about my compres, about my trip back home. Well actualy yes.. I need to blog about the last day on campus previous sem, and the trip back home.
The last day, 14th may '07.
In the morning, we had our last compre, it was CAS /* read : circuits and signals */. When I came out of examination hall, thought, the worst is over. Never thought of any competition to those three hours by any other situation that time. After returning back, chillaxed a bit, then the mammoth task of packing, packing the trunk to be kept in cloak room. Took me a few hours. And then taking it to the other hostel, that also needs a mention. Those rikshaw walas, what money they make in those few hours, the way they charge, and the students who are in a hurry to leave the campus asap are usually not bothered much. Whatever.
I, with few of my wingies, got the truck to the other hostel, and then I said 'humfff... DONE, now lets have dinner and then I'll start packing bags for home.'
But then this stupid thing rang. The person on the other side, Mr. Karan Bathla " Cab aa gayi ". I said, "Good". But the next few words changed my thoughts. Karan, " Carrier nahi hai". Me, "WTF, carrier nahi hai??? ".
K, to help you understand the situation better... we were seven people, and the luggage included, four computers, and atleast two-three bags per person. We booked a Qualis, with a carrier of course, from delhi. We were not sure whether it was enough. Then came the news... 'carrier nahi hai'. We cant send the cab back 200 kms. WTF.
I had to drop my plans of dinner at that moment, it was around 2200 hrs that moment. We were planning to leave within 4-5 hours. But HOW???
I went to hostel, wondering ' tough competition to CAS '. Reached SK. The scene... five people, Mr. Karan Bathla, Mr. Abhisek Rathi, Mr. Bhuvn Dubey, Mr. L V Sumanth, and MR. MOHIT VERMA, the guy who booked the cab. To my surprise, they all were trying to find a solution to cab problem, instead of targetting the problem source, Mr. Mohit; which is quite unusual. Actually, we dint had much time to do that. The only solution, get another cab along, preferably, with some people already in it /* money matters */.
So, next two hours, we tried all our conTs. Got a few unsatisfactory proposals. Then finally, got one, a cab leaving @ 0130 hrs. But from us, who'll be it, who leave early with those strangers kinda people, not excatly strangers though, those were also our batchmates only. Whatever. Had a long debate, I escaped, for my packing was not finished yet :). I'll be going in our own carrier less cab only. After the debate, finally it was Abhiskek and Bhuvan, going with the other fellows. Me, Su, Molly, Bathla and Mickey /* I know I havnt introduced all the nicknames, but as if you are interested */. I went back to my room... started packing. And in the mean while, I did take my dinner. Now I thought, worst is over.
I was proved partialy wrong, this one was not that bad as such, but really frustruating. I had 0.46 INR balance in my airtel prepaid. I also had a top-up card for Rs. 100+ somewhere in my room. Searched for it, and tried to recharge my balance.
Called 123, pressed 2, entered my PIN, then she asked me to press 1 to confirm the PIN, I did, but then she dint reply. I looked at the watch, it read 0001 hrs. Damn it airtel, they dont recharge, with these cards atleast, after midnight. That I actually had experienced, but never this way. I was a few seconds late, damn it.
And you know what, within a few hours, I'll be in roaming, and form there, you cant call 123. So, I had low balance. I had top up card, but cant do anything more than... "damn it, is worst not over yet??" This actually might not seem to be so frustruating, but it actually was. I had to use my number, I had to send a few msgs, that very hour, and from my own number only. That could had improved a few things.. guss that anyways, I am not gonna get into it.
Anyway, I completed my packing by 0200 hrs. Loading the stuff in the cab really took time, plus some other points, we left the campus around 0330 hrs.
Good bye pilani, see you next academic year.
FIND OF THE DAY : Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
The last day, 14th may '07.
In the morning, we had our last compre, it was CAS /* read : circuits and signals */. When I came out of examination hall, thought, the worst is over. Never thought of any competition to those three hours by any other situation that time. After returning back, chillaxed a bit, then the mammoth task of packing, packing the trunk to be kept in cloak room. Took me a few hours. And then taking it to the other hostel, that also needs a mention. Those rikshaw walas, what money they make in those few hours, the way they charge, and the students who are in a hurry to leave the campus asap are usually not bothered much. Whatever.
I, with few of my wingies, got the truck to the other hostel, and then I said 'humfff... DONE, now lets have dinner and then I'll start packing bags for home.'
But then this stupid thing rang. The person on the other side, Mr. Karan Bathla " Cab aa gayi ". I said, "Good". But the next few words changed my thoughts. Karan, " Carrier nahi hai". Me, "WTF, carrier nahi hai??? ".
K, to help you understand the situation better... we were seven people, and the luggage included, four computers, and atleast two-three bags per person. We booked a Qualis, with a carrier of course, from delhi. We were not sure whether it was enough. Then came the news... 'carrier nahi hai'. We cant send the cab back 200 kms. WTF.
I had to drop my plans of dinner at that moment, it was around 2200 hrs that moment. We were planning to leave within 4-5 hours. But HOW???
I went to hostel, wondering ' tough competition to CAS '. Reached SK. The scene... five people, Mr. Karan Bathla, Mr. Abhisek Rathi, Mr. Bhuvn Dubey, Mr. L V Sumanth, and MR. MOHIT VERMA, the guy who booked the cab. To my surprise, they all were trying to find a solution to cab problem, instead of targetting the problem source, Mr. Mohit; which is quite unusual. Actually, we dint had much time to do that. The only solution, get another cab along, preferably, with some people already in it /* money matters */.
So, next two hours, we tried all our conTs. Got a few unsatisfactory proposals. Then finally, got one, a cab leaving @ 0130 hrs. But from us, who'll be it, who leave early with those strangers kinda people, not excatly strangers though, those were also our batchmates only. Whatever. Had a long debate, I escaped, for my packing was not finished yet :). I'll be going in our own carrier less cab only. After the debate, finally it was Abhiskek and Bhuvan, going with the other fellows. Me, Su, Molly, Bathla and Mickey /* I know I havnt introduced all the nicknames, but as if you are interested */. I went back to my room... started packing. And in the mean while, I did take my dinner. Now I thought, worst is over.
I was proved partialy wrong, this one was not that bad as such, but really frustruating. I had 0.46 INR balance in my airtel prepaid. I also had a top-up card for Rs. 100+ somewhere in my room. Searched for it, and tried to recharge my balance.
Called 123, pressed 2, entered my PIN, then she asked me to press 1 to confirm the PIN, I did, but then she dint reply. I looked at the watch, it read 0001 hrs. Damn it airtel, they dont recharge, with these cards atleast, after midnight. That I actually had experienced, but never this way. I was a few seconds late, damn it.
And you know what, within a few hours, I'll be in roaming, and form there, you cant call 123. So, I had low balance. I had top up card, but cant do anything more than... "damn it, is worst not over yet??" This actually might not seem to be so frustruating, but it actually was. I had to use my number, I had to send a few msgs, that very hour, and from my own number only. That could had improved a few things.. guss that anyways, I am not gonna get into it.
Anyway, I completed my packing by 0200 hrs. Loading the stuff in the cab really took time, plus some other points, we left the campus around 0330 hrs.
Good bye pilani, see you next academic year.
FIND OF THE DAY : Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Compre time
Man, I just love this course. This has the only course which I have studied till now, having all the evaluated component as open book.
The course is ES C263 - Microprocessor Programming and Interfacing.
In BITS, each and every course need to have some of its component as open book. Courses like biology, considered to be much of a cramming thing, also do have some of its evaluated component as open book. This is one of the things I just love about this institute.
Had compre /* read - semester examination */ of muP /* read - Microprocessor Programming and Interfacomg */ today. Fine, we are not going to discuss how it was, but I just enjoyed this open book stuff.
Yes, compres are going on.... but I am still blogging, the next one, day after tomorrow, is electrical sciences - II, all the tranformer and AC, DC machines. Now, this course I can say... sucks. And yeah, this course is a record holder. I got 5/60 in test 2 in ES-2. Previous record was 6/60, in mechsol /* read mechanics of solids */, last sem. Yeah, this is not a thing to boast around... but I am in no mood to study this course at the moment. And I prefer blogging and music at full volume with headphones /*current track - Lonely World by Limp Bizkit */. I just pray my mind changes after dinner atleast. Currently I am 56/180 in the course, with 120 marks compre left. Well hey, the average is 66, so I am not thaaaat far behind. But yeah.. need to do something... this CG thing... need to do something for it.
After that one, its a five day break, then other three will follow. So, fine, next post on that break.
Over and out...
FIND OF THE DAY : Frogs have it easy. They can eat what bugs them.
Had compre /* read - semester examination */ of muP /* read - Microprocessor Programming and Interfacomg */ today. Fine, we are not going to discuss how it was, but I just enjoyed this open book stuff.
Yes, compres are going on.... but I am still blogging, the next one, day after tomorrow, is electrical sciences - II, all the tranformer and AC, DC machines. Now, this course I can say... sucks. And yeah, this course is a record holder. I got 5/60 in test 2 in ES-2. Previous record was 6/60, in mechsol /* read mechanics of solids */, last sem. Yeah, this is not a thing to boast around... but I am in no mood to study this course at the moment. And I prefer blogging and music at full volume with headphones /*current track - Lonely World by Limp Bizkit */. I just pray my mind changes after dinner atleast. Currently I am 56/180 in the course, with 120 marks compre left. Well hey, the average is 66, so I am not thaaaat far behind. But yeah.. need to do something... this CG thing... need to do something for it.
After that one, its a five day break, then other three will follow. So, fine, next post on that break.
Over and out...
FIND OF THE DAY : Frogs have it easy. They can eat what bugs them.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
My current favourite screenshot...
Assembly language code in notepad2 in foreground /* my assignment for my favourite course this semeser, read Micoprocessor Programming and Interfacing*/; and cute YUNA from final fantasy in background.... /* Animated characters are also really sexy, and this one's really a lot for us BITSian :P */ I love them both.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Baithe baithe kya kare???
'Principles of management'.... have test in another six and a half hour. Damn it, these test series...
Had MATLAB test yesterdy 1600 hrs, then this POM test today 0900 hrs. Loads of other components also waiting in for this week.. guss By the way.. its 0223 hrs at the moment.
Was really getting pissed off with the course... thought of writing a post.. dint get any nice idea...
Then just gen multicasted to all the hostel inmates (around 260 online at the moment) on the ip msgngr....
Had MATLAB test yesterdy 1600 hrs, then this POM test today 0900 hrs. Loads of other components also waiting in for this week.. guss By the way.. its 0223 hrs at the moment.
Was really getting pissed off with the course... thought of writing a post.. dint get any nice idea...
Then just gen multicasted to all the hostel inmates (around 260 online at the moment) on the ip msgngr....
Do you know what's the effect of varying magnetic field due to jupiter's satellite, Titan, on EM waves carrying voice signals in copper wires at depth 30.67856 m below sea level in south american nations??
And hey... I even got a few replies... which included 'lolz' by my school and now BITSian friend Shubhayan...being the shortest conversation...
But a few conversations on the topic did last a bit long..
one of them..
Me : Do you know what's the effect of varying magnetic field due to jupiter's satellite, Titan, on EM waves carrying voice signals in copper wires at depth 30.67856 m below sea level in south american nations??
Please help... its urgent.
Unknown1: they turn into worms and sharks eat them
Me : hey, they are not underwater, usage of sea level is just to specify the depth precisely
Another one
Me : Do you know what's the effect of varying magnetic field due to jupiter's satellite, Titan, on EM waves carrying voice signals in copper wires at depth 30.67856 m below sea level in south american nations??
Please help... its urgent.
Unknown2 : Please use wiki or google
Me: thanx... i got the result.. thanks anyways
Unknown2 : what is it???
Me : No effect... that varying field is perfectly shielded by the 30.67856m soil cover over it, in addition to the plastic cover over them
Unkown2 : k
These above two conversations are purely based on my memory, except for the query raised in the very first message... and my memory dint help me much in remmebering the names of the guys
the longest one being...
Me : Do you know what's the effect of varying magnetic field due to jupiter's satellite, Titan, on EM waves carrying voice signals in copper wires at depth 30.67856 m below sea level in south american
nations??
Please help... its urgent.
Sastry : It has effect on some people who go crazy and start asking such idiotic questions.......
Me : Can we find such people outside south america???
Sastry : yeah......u know who it is!!!!!!!!!
Me : O ya.. those who have no other work than to ask such ques....
and also... those who bother to answer them
Sastry : U are wrong.....those are the people who keep on sending multicasts.....
Me : really???
I guess u r right... this damn wiki is no longer reliable... i got the prev result from der only
Sastry : i guess u have only posted that!!!!
Me : i searched... i got the result... :)
Sastry : i was speaking of what could have happened before u searched.
Me : oh.. is it...lemme try some other link in that case...
coz i know..
seniors are always right...
juniors are always wrong...
:P
Sastry : I think u made a deliberate mistake in the use of smiley........
Me : :D
Sastry : Guess....u don't have a proper understanding of the three golden laws of BITS
Me : U are right.. :P
Sastry : well....do u mind coming to my room once so tha i can know what exactly is right.
Me : each and every statemnt given by you is totalling right :D
Sastry : in that case....good night!!!!
Me : sorry for bothering u so much... was really getting bored with POM :)
good night
Sastry : k
This text has not been editing, just formatted a bit. Thanks to google desktop scratch pad.
Yeah... there are lotsa other people like me... :D
By the way, this sastry guy seems to be a fourth yearite /* from his room number*/
Anyways... I guess now I should concentrate on managing my grades a lil' with 'Principles of management'
FIND OF THE DAY : Never wrestle a pig. You both get dirty and the pig enjoys it.
Hey, what pig are you talking about???
Saturday, April 07, 2007
MICROMOUSE
So, now lets just concentrate on the cynosure for us this techfest and this APOGEE.
MICRMOUSE : Micromouse is an event where small robot mice solve a 16x16 maze. It began in late 1970s, although there is some indication of events in 1950. Events are held worldwide, and are most popular in the UK, US, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. In India, the contest is being held in IIT-Bombay during its technical festival for past few years. Our MICROMOUSE
And this chart was prepared by me, though I like drawing and painting and stuff... but again, advertising is not my cup of tea.
We worked for whole of Feb and March to make our mouse move. The problem with the one which we took to Mumbai was that it was too heavy to lit itself, so, we decided to send it to VLCC for the weight los program. As a result, we got a new chasis, fabricated wih aluminium /* instead of cheed wood, which we used earlier */, at my room. Wings were fabricated with bakelite /* blank PCB board :P */. Also, we reduced the number of sensors to three on each side wing, from four. One of the biggest trouble, which stil doesnot have a satisfactory solution was the castor wheel. We couldnot find a light weight castor wheel. And finally what we put is a small trailing wheel, steered by a DC motor. Though we are not using proper steernig, we are just having on the spot turn. So, the steering wheel is either parallel or perpendicular to the two control wheels.
If I have to describe it, it is like, on the input side, we have eight IR sensors, two on the front wing, three on each side wing. The advantage of such positioning of sensor is that as the sensor are downward facing, they donot hae trouble with ambient light, as can be the case with many IR sensors. Apart from that, this design is easiest to work on :P. The two front sensor are to detect the front walls and to avoid head-on collision with a wall in case of some mishappening. The three sensors on each wing, the centre one helps to detect if there is a wall in a particular grid or not while the other two on each wing helps in maintaining a straight path while moving. That is the input part.
Now, for processing, we used Philips P89C51RD2 microcontroller, with 64K coding area and 2K RAM. Thoguh generally, people dont prefer Philips microcontroller, Atmel and PIC are the big names in the field, but we had to go for this one as we found programmer for this one only. A programmer is a hardware device which helps in gettng the code from the computer to the microcontroller.
On the output side, we had two stepper motor /* this pair we got from Lamington, Mumbai */ which are diretly attached to the two wheels. Stpper motors give better accuracy, though they take up more current as compared to geared DC motor, but stepper motors are fairly simple to use, and hey, this was our first hand in robotics, so we played safe by going with this one. Aprat from that, we had a DC motor aso to steer, which I had mentioned earlier.
The electronis included obviusosly the controller P89C51RD2. On the input side, we directly took the output of IR sensors to muC. These sensors ON2509, are proximity sensors, with a really short range of approx. 1 cm. They give high if they detect something. On the output side, we gave output to two L297, stepper motor controller, thourgh a buffer, and the to ULN2803, current amplifier, and then to the two stepper motors. Though we could had avoided L297, but t just made coding a little bit simpler. Also, we had DC motor connected through L298, which acts as a H-bridge, as we required bi-directional DC motor control, and a current amplifier as well. But he biggest rouble which is still there is, we are not able to run it on batreries, its getting too heavy with them, mayb we need better and lighter batteries, and that's the bigest drawback, being in pilani, lack of resources. Well, for electronics, me and gautam were there, supporterd by mr. L V Sumanth /* to be referred as Su here onwards */ for soldering.
Now for the algorithm we applied, we used Depth first search for exploring the maze and Breadth first search for finding the shortest path. I worked on the code just for interfacing, i mean I/O control. Rest, the algorithm part was taken care by karan bathla, the fourth member of the league.
And the mechnical design was completely handled by mr. Su. The mechnical part included chasis design and fabrication, which was done in my room only with aluminium :). And also, DC motor and small steering wheel was also his idea, when we gave up on castor. Though this mr. su is a comp sci student, his knowledge and understanding specially for automobiles is too good. A few pics of fabrication.
This wasnt the final circuitery, we resoldered it all.
And yeah.. the name.. we are stil lookig for a name for our mouse. When we went to mumbai, we called it 'Ram Bharose', and this new improved verison is called 'Mann Mauji', though not ofically. Still looking for some name.... suggestions are most welcome. And mayb if the name suggested by you is selected, you'll win a free lunch(box) from me :P.* So, our micromouse expert comittee :P /* in alphabetic order*/
Gautam Chaudhari
Karan bathla
L V Sumanth
Rishi Mathur
* Conditions apply. You need to apply for the contest through the prescribed form, which will be made available form a later date, which wil be intimated soon. I won't courier/parcel the gift. You'll have to collect that from me, and you'll have to notify me six working days in advance if you wish to claim your prize, after the contest results are declared FIND OF THE DAY : Why be difficult when you can be impossible
MICRMOUSE : Micromouse is an event where small robot mice solve a 16x16 maze. It began in late 1970s, although there is some indication of events in 1950. Events are held worldwide, and are most popular in the UK, US, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. In India, the contest is being held in IIT-Bombay during its technical festival for past few years. Our MICROMOUSE
And this chart was prepared by me, though I like drawing and painting and stuff... but again, advertising is not my cup of tea.
We worked for whole of Feb and March to make our mouse move. The problem with the one which we took to Mumbai was that it was too heavy to lit itself, so, we decided to send it to VLCC for the weight los program. As a result, we got a new chasis, fabricated wih aluminium /* instead of cheed wood, which we used earlier */, at my room. Wings were fabricated with bakelite /* blank PCB board :P */. Also, we reduced the number of sensors to three on each side wing, from four. One of the biggest trouble, which stil doesnot have a satisfactory solution was the castor wheel. We couldnot find a light weight castor wheel. And finally what we put is a small trailing wheel, steered by a DC motor. Though we are not using proper steernig, we are just having on the spot turn. So, the steering wheel is either parallel or perpendicular to the two control wheels.
If I have to describe it, it is like, on the input side, we have eight IR sensors, two on the front wing, three on each side wing. The advantage of such positioning of sensor is that as the sensor are downward facing, they donot hae trouble with ambient light, as can be the case with many IR sensors. Apart from that, this design is easiest to work on :P. The two front sensor are to detect the front walls and to avoid head-on collision with a wall in case of some mishappening. The three sensors on each wing, the centre one helps to detect if there is a wall in a particular grid or not while the other two on each wing helps in maintaining a straight path while moving. That is the input part.
Now, for processing, we used Philips P89C51RD2 microcontroller, with 64K coding area and 2K RAM. Thoguh generally, people dont prefer Philips microcontroller, Atmel and PIC are the big names in the field, but we had to go for this one as we found programmer for this one only. A programmer is a hardware device which helps in gettng the code from the computer to the microcontroller.
On the output side, we had two stepper motor /* this pair we got from Lamington, Mumbai */ which are diretly attached to the two wheels. Stpper motors give better accuracy, though they take up more current as compared to geared DC motor, but stepper motors are fairly simple to use, and hey, this was our first hand in robotics, so we played safe by going with this one. Aprat from that, we had a DC motor aso to steer, which I had mentioned earlier.
The electronis included obviusosly the controller P89C51RD2. On the input side, we directly took the output of IR sensors to muC. These sensors ON2509, are proximity sensors, with a really short range of approx. 1 cm. They give high if they detect something. On the output side, we gave output to two L297, stepper motor controller, thourgh a buffer, and the to ULN2803, current amplifier, and then to the two stepper motors. Though we could had avoided L297, but t just made coding a little bit simpler. Also, we had DC motor connected through L298, which acts as a H-bridge, as we required bi-directional DC motor control, and a current amplifier as well. But he biggest rouble which is still there is, we are not able to run it on batreries, its getting too heavy with them, mayb we need better and lighter batteries, and that's the bigest drawback, being in pilani, lack of resources. Well, for electronics, me and gautam were there, supporterd by mr. L V Sumanth /* to be referred as Su here onwards */ for soldering.
Now for the algorithm we applied, we used Depth first search for exploring the maze and Breadth first search for finding the shortest path. I worked on the code just for interfacing, i mean I/O control. Rest, the algorithm part was taken care by karan bathla, the fourth member of the league.
And the mechnical design was completely handled by mr. Su. The mechnical part included chasis design and fabrication, which was done in my room only with aluminium :). And also, DC motor and small steering wheel was also his idea, when we gave up on castor. Though this mr. su is a comp sci student, his knowledge and understanding specially for automobiles is too good. A few pics of fabrication.
This wasnt the final circuitery, we resoldered it all.
And yeah.. the name.. we are stil lookig for a name for our mouse. When we went to mumbai, we called it 'Ram Bharose', and this new improved verison is called 'Mann Mauji', though not ofically. Still looking for some name.... suggestions are most welcome. And mayb if the name suggested by you is selected, you'll win a free lunch(box) from me :P.* So, our micromouse expert comittee :P /* in alphabetic order*/
Gautam Chaudhari
Karan bathla
L V Sumanth
Rishi Mathur
* Conditions apply. You need to apply for the contest through the prescribed form, which will be made available form a later date, which wil be intimated soon. I won't courier/parcel the gift. You'll have to collect that from me, and you'll have to notify me six working days in advance if you wish to claim your prize, after the contest results are declared FIND OF THE DAY : Why be difficult when you can be impossible
APOGEE2K7
After the unforgettable experience @ techfest'07, there was this APOGEE2K7, our technical festival, which kept me busy.
APOGEE2K7, scheduled from 20-24th March'07, adn I guess am a bit too late to advertise for it :P.
So, my second APOGEE, this time I was supposed to bring up much more. I gave it my all, and thank you my lord for helping me live upto the expectations, we bagged second position in Projects in Automation category, and also, second in the event called Embedded Brains.
This one was a pretty nice experience, as I not only participated but had a say in organizational part as well :). Though got a setback, as one of the event which I initiated dint get good response, but never mind, I had a really nice experience in preparing for it, though in the end, I accept it was a miss. But hey, just have a look, this poster isn't that bad at all.
This is not the final one. I designed it, my idea, and the idea of hte event was like, thi swas upposed to be an instrument design event, wherein participants had to design and implement an instrument to achieve a given task, from a given set of components. And yeah, this had multiple solutions, some difficult, but advantageuos, some easy, but not too flexible. I did a lot of homework for this one from technical point, but I guess it lacked publicity, I need to improve in these non-technical skills, and that's the thing which I dun like. But I guess I'll have to manage that also. Yeah, this was a real big miss.
,br> And hey hey hey... I dint mention about what made me keep up to the expectations, I dint mention what helped me and the three others to get to the stage and get the certs...
It was MICROMOUSE, yeah the one which we prepared for IIT-B techfest. Though it was not functioncal when we took it to Mumbai, but after returning from there, we spent two more months, and made it move. More of it in the next post.
APOGEE2K7, scheduled from 20-24th March'07, adn I guess am a bit too late to advertise for it :P.
So, my second APOGEE, this time I was supposed to bring up much more. I gave it my all, and thank you my lord for helping me live upto the expectations, we bagged second position in Projects in Automation category, and also, second in the event called Embedded Brains.
This one was a pretty nice experience, as I not only participated but had a say in organizational part as well :). Though got a setback, as one of the event which I initiated dint get good response, but never mind, I had a really nice experience in preparing for it, though in the end, I accept it was a miss. But hey, just have a look, this poster isn't that bad at all.
This is not the final one. I designed it, my idea, and the idea of hte event was like, thi swas upposed to be an instrument design event, wherein participants had to design and implement an instrument to achieve a given task, from a given set of components. And yeah, this had multiple solutions, some difficult, but advantageuos, some easy, but not too flexible. I did a lot of homework for this one from technical point, but I guess it lacked publicity, I need to improve in these non-technical skills, and that's the thing which I dun like. But I guess I'll have to manage that also. Yeah, this was a real big miss.
,br> And hey hey hey... I dint mention about what made me keep up to the expectations, I dint mention what helped me and the three others to get to the stage and get the certs...
It was MICROMOUSE, yeah the one which we prepared for IIT-B techfest. Though it was not functioncal when we took it to Mumbai, but after returning from there, we spent two more months, and made it move. More of it in the next post.
Techfest '07 ++
Seems I am bit lazy these days... for blogging atleast.
Well, it actually is, most of the time I have so much to write but so little time, that I postpone the task. But fine, lets give a try, to cover up as much as I can in this one.
The last post had a mention of my visit to Techfest'07. Basically, once I had strated preparing for that, and got into robotics, I have really kept me busy in that.
In techfest'07, I participated in codemastroes, a complete event for a computer buff /* like me :P*/, which had it all, programming, algorithms, debugging, gaming and all. We dint fare well, stood 7th among the 20 finalists chosen before the fest throgh online elims. Though actually, we were pretty happy just to qualify, dint had much hopes before that. So, for that seventh position, got some goodies from google and Nvidia.
Another event, which was more important for me than this one, though I wasn't registered in it, but I spent over two months for that ( Nov'06 - Jan'07), it was Micormouse. Our very first experience in robotics, and that too with AI and all. From the very first day when we started working on it way back in Nov, we were not sure about even if we'll be able to qualify or not, but still, we tried our best. The result was not so good, we lacked a bit in mechnical part, the electroncs was fine, the code was fine, but we made a few wrong selections in motor and chasis and as a result our mosue was not ablt to move, though if you lift it in air, then one can see that motors were moving perfectly.
Never mind, this was our first experience in robotics, are we were glad to do this much on our own.
There were other civil people also with us on the trip. We dint got much prizes from campus, but had a really nice experience there, which we do value.
But hey, the trip is not yer over. After three days on campus, we went to Gautam's home. There were eigth of us. The next day was Essel World. Had loads and loads of fun there. But unfortunately forgot our digicam, so cant share those moments in visual with you. Bu that day was absolutely fabulous. And after Essel World, we went to Gorai beach, not a famous one in Mumbai, but thatwas adjacent to Essel world. And that was my first encounter with sea. Its so nice to see the sea.. its all over.. seems like this is the edge the world. Spent arounf an hour therem collected some broken sea shells and then returned back. While returning, we thought of going to Marine Drive, but a few of us were too tired, so ended our trip after beach only.
The next day, I went to Lamington road, paradise for electronics buffs, with gautam. Alas, we dint had much time that day, we planned to get lots of stuff from that place, but when the market was in full flow, we had to return back, train was scheduled for 1850 hrs and we had to reach home by 1500 hrs. We just managed to get a pair of stepper motors, really small one, and which do hold an important position these days. And a little of other stuff, for our seniors.
This marked the end of our week long trip to MUMBAI.. it rocks
Certainely a HIT
FIND OF THE DAY : The road to success is filled with free parking spots.
Well, it actually is, most of the time I have so much to write but so little time, that I postpone the task. But fine, lets give a try, to cover up as much as I can in this one.
The last post had a mention of my visit to Techfest'07. Basically, once I had strated preparing for that, and got into robotics, I have really kept me busy in that.
In techfest'07, I participated in codemastroes, a complete event for a computer buff /* like me :P*/, which had it all, programming, algorithms, debugging, gaming and all. We dint fare well, stood 7th among the 20 finalists chosen before the fest throgh online elims. Though actually, we were pretty happy just to qualify, dint had much hopes before that. So, for that seventh position, got some goodies from google and Nvidia.
Another event, which was more important for me than this one, though I wasn't registered in it, but I spent over two months for that ( Nov'06 - Jan'07), it was Micormouse. Our very first experience in robotics, and that too with AI and all. From the very first day when we started working on it way back in Nov, we were not sure about even if we'll be able to qualify or not, but still, we tried our best. The result was not so good, we lacked a bit in mechnical part, the electroncs was fine, the code was fine, but we made a few wrong selections in motor and chasis and as a result our mosue was not ablt to move, though if you lift it in air, then one can see that motors were moving perfectly.
Never mind, this was our first experience in robotics, are we were glad to do this much on our own.
There were other civil people also with us on the trip. We dint got much prizes from campus, but had a really nice experience there, which we do value.
But hey, the trip is not yer over. After three days on campus, we went to Gautam's home. There were eigth of us. The next day was Essel World. Had loads and loads of fun there. But unfortunately forgot our digicam, so cant share those moments in visual with you. Bu that day was absolutely fabulous. And after Essel World, we went to Gorai beach, not a famous one in Mumbai, but thatwas adjacent to Essel world. And that was my first encounter with sea. Its so nice to see the sea.. its all over.. seems like this is the edge the world. Spent arounf an hour therem collected some broken sea shells and then returned back. While returning, we thought of going to Marine Drive, but a few of us were too tired, so ended our trip after beach only.
The next day, I went to Lamington road, paradise for electronics buffs, with gautam. Alas, we dint had much time that day, we planned to get lots of stuff from that place, but when the market was in full flow, we had to return back, train was scheduled for 1850 hrs and we had to reach home by 1500 hrs. We just managed to get a pair of stepper motors, really small one, and which do hold an important position these days. And a little of other stuff, for our seniors.
This marked the end of our week long trip to MUMBAI.. it rocks
Certainely a HIT
FIND OF THE DAY : The road to success is filled with free parking spots.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Techfest '07
Its been so so long time. I was really busy during all these days.
Got a little time right now. Yeah, many exciting things have happened... both hits and misses. And I am sure I won't be able to describe most of them today.
But fine, lets give it a start. We attended techfest 07 at IIT-Bombay last month. It was really rocking. And yeah, basically this was all which kept me busy. It was a nice break, apart from being a rocking experience, both in the IIT campus and in Mumbai as well. We spent three days in the campus, during the fest. Next two days, we spent at Gautam's place, visited Essel World and Lamington road. Well, in case you know a bit about Mumbai, you might find Lamington road bit odd, but hey.. that place is hevaven for robotics buffs.. like me.. :D But unfortunately, We din't had much time for the heaven. Still, I liked the place. I don't have much time at the moment. I will write about the trip.
A few of random pics
Got a little time right now. Yeah, many exciting things have happened... both hits and misses. And I am sure I won't be able to describe most of them today.
But fine, lets give it a start. We attended techfest 07 at IIT-Bombay last month. It was really rocking. And yeah, basically this was all which kept me busy. It was a nice break, apart from being a rocking experience, both in the IIT campus and in Mumbai as well. We spent three days in the campus, during the fest. Next two days, we spent at Gautam's place, visited Essel World and Lamington road. Well, in case you know a bit about Mumbai, you might find Lamington road bit odd, but hey.. that place is hevaven for robotics buffs.. like me.. :D But unfortunately, We din't had much time for the heaven. Still, I liked the place. I don't have much time at the moment. I will write about the trip.
A few of random pics
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