Pranav Mistry an The Indian genius researcher from MIT, who unveiled his futuristic ‘Sixth Sense’ project earlier this year, made a significant announcement at the first-ever TED (Technology, Entertainment and Development) conference in India. Pranav told that he’ll making his project open source in less than a month.

Sixth Sense video must have been seen by lots of people where in he takes the world of computing to a whole new level. Videos of Mr. Mistry clicking snaps with his bare hands, checking email on his palm or flipping through multimedia reviews while rummaging through a library shelf have been doing the rounds.

This project could have been sold to IT giants with a million dollar price tag, but why open-source? When asked this question during the interview he said, “There have been many offers, but money means little to me. If this product could be taken forward and fuel greater innovation, that would be my reward”. He also wished if the “Indian Government” would approach him so that his invention could reach the masses… (Buddy! Indian Government just hires corrupt politicians and can put a price tag on anything, they don’t care OPEN SOURCE or NOT, but we all appreciate your kind gesture)…

The apparatus is very simple and cheap, but bringing to India will make it costly… Read about the project at Wikipedia or Here

Trust me… You’ll Love it

On 25th Sept 2009 three of my friends and I went on a sudden trip to Trivandrum, we had Amma’s birthday in the campus and there was no accommodation left for us in order to make room for the visitors. We had packed the luggage, thinking of what to do next. The room where in we were told to shift was already occupied by eight guys, so we decided to leave the campus that instant and take a room outside. My room-mates went and searched for accommodation in the nearby town. But we got a some what better deal in Trivandrum. My room-mates (Ritchi and Sudhanshu) took their bike and started towards Trivandrum and me and Saurabh took the first train to Trivandrum that evening. We reached Trivandrum by 9:30 in the night and we were completely exhausted. Few things about Trivandrum that were different from the place where my University is are Auto Rickshaw fare (very low) and the place is also great.

In Trivandrum: We had our dinner from a restaurant nearby the place we stayed. While we all lay in the bed Ritchi got an idea of going to Kanyakumari, we were all shocked once, but this was one of the final opportunity were we all were there together and so near to the destination (it is just 88kms). So we agreed. We all got up by 8:00 in the morning. We had our laptops and internet, we quickly found out the places to visit in Kanyakumari and  train timings. We locked our choice on one of the trains which was schedule to depart at around 10am. With just 2 hours in hand we somehow made it before time to the railway station. Ate our breakfast and off we went on a 1 day tour of Kanyakumari. Even though just 88kms it took 3 hours to reach there and reaching there filled our heart with joy we longed for entire three years of the stay in Kerala.

In Kanyakumari: On reaching Kanyakumari, I first booked our(mine and Saurabh’s) return ticket to college. After this we made a move towards the beach. We didn’t have camera, so tried to manage with cell phone’s camera having a dying battery. When we went, there was not much crowd in the ticket counter and thus the process to reach the ferry took a maximum of some 5mins, however when we returned we witnessed how much crowd can be there, the counter, lanes were overflowing. The ferry took us to the Vivekananda Rock first, well there is a Devi temple adjacent to the rock memorial. The place is well maintained and looks awesome. Also being in the sea, the speed of the wind was also high, we practically were sailing all the time in air. The view of deep blue sea from the rock was mesmerizing. There are few more things like a place for meditation, book store at the same place. After this we went to the statue of Saint Tiruvaluvar, the statue is 95 feet high and looks beautiful, it was built in 2000 and at the entrance there are many beautiful quotations on the walls. There is also a canteen there, we took some refreshment from there and continued our trip.

I can assure you one thing, there’ll never be a language problem in Kanyakumari, people from all the corners of the world come there and there are many shops that serve north Indian food. We stopped for lunch and then continued our tour to Gandhi Memorial, Kamraj Memorial, the Beach. We were wandering about and went to a small Church too. This was the first time I went to one, it was same for others too. Church are very convenient place, no need to open the shoes and you can wear whatever you want, but they are very spooky… We were eating snacks all the way. We were very sad that the we could not watch the places near Kanyakumari. There are lot of beautiful places around Kanyakumari, so if you are planning to visit, have a plan for 2 days and not just 1 like us. At 4:30pm we took a bus to Nagercoil, because its tough to get a bus to Kerala from Kanyakumari also the train are there in morning only. The bus journey was atrocious and we reached dead tired to Trivandrum. Even though in this state we could not stop talking about the trip. We had dinner and walked all the way to the place where we stayed, it was apparently about 5-6 kms away from the hotel we ate.

Back In Trivandrum: This day I though of finishing some of my pending work of the college, we all ate lunch together (didn’t have breakfast because we were sleeping then), after that Ritchi and Sudhanshu took the bike and went to Kovalam beach, I had already visited the beach so didn’t go and Saurabh followed the suit. On the final day we were very tired and just stayed in room. All of us played Quake in LAN. At 5:30 Saurabh and I boarded the train back where as the other two went on the bike.

Even though the circumstances where tough and the trip was completely unplanned, we enjoyed every single moment of what we call it was a truly unforgettable trip….

November 3 Last Date to submit form by post

Hi All.. I am adding a post after a long break. This post is really important for all the GATE aspirants. The forms for GATE 2010 are out and are available at Bank Branches in the respective IITs and IISc zones. There in total 8 zones as follows, follow the links to get the list of the places and the banks from where the Application forms and Information Brochure can be procured :

1. IISc Bangalore
2. IIT Madras
3. IIT Kanpur
4. IIT Kharagpur
5. IIT Delhi
6. IIT Bombay
7. IIT Guwahati
8. IIT Roorkee

For more details you can log on to http://www.gate.iitb.ac.in/gate2010_website/forms.php . The Application Forms and the Information Brochure can be obtained at designated bank branches by giving a cash payment of Rs. 1000/- for General and OBC category and 500/- for ST/SC/PD category. You can also obtain the Information Brochure and Application Form by Post from the zonal GATE offices by sending a request letter and two self-addressed slips along with a Demand Draft for the amount (mentioned as above) payable at the city of the respective zonal GATE office (Please refer to the website given above for details). Application Form can also be obtained from the zonal GATE Offices after handing over Demand Draft for the appropriate amount.

Posted in GATE ]]> http://anshumanpandey.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/gate-application-forms-available/feed/ 1 anshumanpandey http://anshumanpandey.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/an-interaction-with-cognizant-technology-solution-hr-manager/ http://anshumanpandey.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/an-interaction-with-cognizant-technology-solution-hr-manager/#comments Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:21:33 +0000 anshumanpandey http://anshumanpandey.wordpress.com/?p=363 ]]>

Only four days to go for my very first campus interview. To help us get an idea of an HR interview (which is the last round) Suzzane Matthews who is the HR manager of Cognizant Technology Solution and also a Alumini of Amrita School of Business was invited. We met her on 7th August and she started with the basics of interview, as in, what interviewer wants? What the interviewee wants? and some small tips. Then we had a small rounds of self introductions where in the students intriduced themselves and the other gave a positive critique. The session lasted for quite sometime and we had lot of fun. She looked young and smart and was friendly too, she also was keen in hearing our problems. After this I realised that people in software industry are not just robots but humans too.

We were told the there’ll be one more session by her on the 8th (happens to be a Sunday). After giving the mock written test for practice we went for the session. She along with a faculty member was standing outside. Having some amount of confidence from the last meeting I we had I gathered myself to speak to her, and the talk to her went on really smooth and nice, talked for 5-10 mins only though. I asked if CTS will come for recruitment. She gave a positive answer to my questions.

She was short of time so instead of taking individual interviews, she made two of us to become panel members and one can be on the hot seat. In this way we were able to look st sn interview and learn from the mistake made by others, Suzzane was doing a great job. All the time we felt as if she was one of us and not someone with 6years of experience and having a managerial post in a reputed company. I was a panel member and she made me take a stress interview and I ended up petrifying the interviewee who was my classmate.

It was great to meet such a person. I thank her on behalf of everyone from my college to have spent her valuable time with us

Well the wait has finally ended as we’ll face the recruitment of Hewlett-Packard. It seems a demon called “Recession” took leave for sometime from our lives to give us some sort of hope to get into a company. All of my classmates had left the hope of getting a placement and were preparing for exams to go for higher studies (GRE, GATE, CAT). The news about recruitment came as a “SHOCK” more than like a “Pleasant Surprise”. Well the story of  HP coming for recruitment is itself a bit funny. I’ll take You through it.

After like a month or so into the semester the head of Center for Corporate Relations (Fancy Name, Right? Called CCR) came to our class telling that future of placement oppurtunity is bleak and there that more of us should go for higher studies. We even had a meeting of all the class members to do collective studies for GATE (which was officiated by CCR). Then suddenly out of no where on 30th July (Cannot forget this date) a faculty who happens to be our placement officer came to our class to tell that HP is coming for recruitment on 12th August. It was nothing less than a bomb shell right on us. To add to misery I volunteered to become the placement coordinator of my class (worst decision made).

Since then we were having our periodicals and then now this is were we stand at a gap of less than a week to face our first placement interview. To add to misery the eligibility criteria was made atleast 8 CGPA (initially 7), this knocked off 90% of the candidates in one blow. But I went through this eligibilty, felt really bad for my classmates who could have been with me for the interview. This makes me the only boy from my class along with 10 girls from the class to go for interview.

We all are hoping for the best and wishing more companies come for recruitment (let it be small scale). Atleast this keeps the hopes of the student alive. Recession made sure we were crestfallen, and the students are ready to grab on to any ray of hope they find.

Wishing to have a great time. Wish me and my 10 classmates LUCK!! Thanks

Well a tiring series of my very first periodical, in my final year is over. Though three days, but two exams each day made the life litreally impossible to live. Although the toughness of the exams were not up to the standard that I expected (I can judge if a question is tough or not only if I know the something about the question ) the syllabus was too time consuming. The periodicals started with subjects that can doze of even the most sincere of the students (sometimes even I am included in the famous or we can call it infamous list too)… Behold “Software Engineering” and “Engineering Management”, which on the very next day were followed by “Compiler Design” and “Distributed Database” and on the last day that is today we had “Distributed Computing” and “Data Mining”… This deadly list consist of 3 subjects that come in the category of pick your subject(poison.. something like which weapon will you want to die from)

For Software Engineering, our faculty made us bench press 8 chapters from “Pressman” for the exam and gave the questions from only 2 chapters (That is height of FRUSTRATION!!). Engineering Management was also OK and didnt cause much problem because I didnt study much. In comes one of the poison I picked, “DDBS”, the faculty of this subject also happens to be the HOD of our department. Those who have studied DDBS will now terms like BEA and Vertical Fragmentation, this section comprises more than 60% of what I felt as the most important chapter, Distributed Database Design, cracked my skull and my brain to figure out algorithms (Tamer and Valduriez, too many errors in the book) only to find out that there was not even a 2 marker from these topics (I lied on the desk for 10mins to recoup from the shocker). The story of Compiler Design is well known to all the Computer Engineers, so I wont go into it, but for a change the questions were not tough. This is also the first time I understood the languages, the expressions and the grammar too. Distributed Computing was by far the simplest of all and hence I must be ready for some strict evaluation. Last but not the least, DATA MINING. The questions were like rocketing past me and I was not able to grab anything (The same way F-14 of  Val Kilmer was surrounded by rocketing MIG-28s in Top Gun). 40 % of terms I’ve not even come accross and questions were like WOW! How do you solve that? I think you are getting the feel, I was awestruck seeing the question paper forget about solving things.

But finally they are over and I am happy I did pretty well from my part in some of them. Results will come out soon. Need Best Wishes.

Next post about the much awaited (UNEXPECTED) placements. Hewlett Packard comes for recruitment.

The mutual disdain between Microsoft Corp. and Linux, an open-source computer operating system, is unrivaled.

But new rules for software contracts put out by The American Law Institute have united the enemies as part of a growing protest of tech companies and their lawyers. The most controversial of the guidelines is that software vendors must guarantee buyers that there are no hidden flaws in the software.

Industry lawyers say the rules will create undue product liability for companies and developers because of the inherently flawed nature of software.

“It creates an unrealistic standard and a lot of litigation,” said Mark Radcliffe, a DLA Piper lawyer who’s worked to oppose the new rules. “Any project that has Microsoft and Linux on the same side, you know there’s something wrong.”

The Principles of Law of Software Contracts, as they are called, were passed in mid-May by ALI, the venerable and scholarly group that clarifies laws. The principles are not law, but they serve to guide judges, who frequently cite them in decisions, and may be adopted by states.

Robert Hillman, a Cornell Law School professor who headed the multiyear project for guidelines to clarify software contract law, said the criticism that the changes will bring a lot of litigation is overblown.

“That’s the cry of anyone who opposes any law — that it’s going to create litigation,” he said. “Fraudulent concealment law is as old and established as any law, which is all we’re doing here.”

The debate divides consumer protection advocates, who say software companies should be liable for the quality of their products, from the industry, which calls the principles unnecessary and potentially crippling.

Hillman said that “users of software are very supportive of this, and for the most part we haven’t heard from a lot of the industry.”

But both Microsoft and Linux — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once called Linux a “cancer” and open-source advocates consider Microsoft an evil empire — joined together to oppose the changes. They submitted an open letter (pdf) of protest before the principles were adopted. “There is no great failure in terms of substandard quality or unmet expectations that would justify imposition of mandatory new rules, particularly given the existing remedies under misrepresentation and consumer protection law,” the joint letter stated.

ALI backed down on a couple of proposals that might have especially hurt open-source software developers. They removed a section that would have made companies and developers liable for IP infringement in the software they sold. They also limited the guarantee about hidden flaws to software that’s sold (open source is given freely).

But DLA’s Radcliffe said that will be a difficult distinction since software is now often given away, with only services, such as technical support, being sold.

He and others also said there is uncertainty about how to interpret the controversial section. The wording of the guarantee is that the software “contains no material hidden defects of which the transferor was aware at the time of the transfer.”

“Most lawyers are concerned about what’s material, what’s known, what’s a defect and what’s distributing for money,” said Heather Meeker, a Greenberg Traurig lawyer who was an adviser on the project. “We know as lawyers we could argue about that until the end of time.”

Jane Winn, a professor at University of Washington Law School who also was an adviser on the project, said leaving this type of software product liability up to the court system isn’t the right call because of the complexity in figuring out what and who is responsible for software that doesn’t work.

“There’s no question that the current liability regime is inadequate, but the solution might be agency regulation rather than a common law principle,” Winn said

Hi Friends… The Application Forms for GATE 2010 are available.. For more details check this link

Syllabus For GATE-2010 (CSE & IT)

Engineering Mathematics

Mathematical Logic: Proportional Logic and First Order Logic

Probability: Conditional probability; Mean, median, mode and Standard Deviation; Random Variables; Distribution; Uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson, Binomial.

Set Theory and Algebra: Sets; Relations; Functions; Groups; Partial orders; Lattice; Boolean Algebra.

Combinotorics: Permutation; Combination; Counting; Summation; Generating Functions; Recurrence relations; asymptotics.

Graph Theory: Connectivity; spanning trees; cut vertices and edges; covering; matching; independent sets; coloring; planarity;Isomorphism

Linear Algebra: Algebra of Matrices, determinants, systems of Linear equations, Eigen Values and eigen vectors.

Numerical Methods: LU decomposition for systems of Linear equations; numerical solutions of non-linear algebraic equation by Secant, bisection and Newton-Raphson methods; Numerical integration by trapezoidal and Simpson’s rules.

Calculus: Limits, Continuity & differentiability, Mean Value Theorem, Theorems of Integral calculus, evaluation of definite and improper integrals, Partial Derivatives, total derivatives, Maxima and Minima.

Computer Science and Information Technology

Digital Logic: Logic Functions, minimization, design and synthesis of combinational and sequential circuits; number representation and computer arithmetic(fixed and floating point).

Computer Organization and Architecture: Machine instruction and addressing modes, ALU and data-path, CPU control design, Memory interface, I/O interface(Interrupt DMA), Instruction pipe-lining, Cache and main Memory, secondary storage;

Programming and Data structures: Programming in C; Functions, Recursion, parameter passing, scope, binding; Abstract data types, Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, Binary search trees, Binary heaps.

Algorithms: Analysis, Asymptotic notation, Notions of space and time complexity, worst and average case analysis; Design: Greedy approach; Dynamic programming, Divide and conquer, tree and graph traversals, connected components, spanning trees, shortest paths; Hashing, sorting, searching, Asymptotic analysis (best, worst, average case) of time and space, upper and lower bounds, Basic complexity classes -P, NP, NP-hard, NP-complete.

Theory of Computation: Regular languages, finite automata, Context free language and push-down automata, recursively enumerable sets and Turing Machines, Undecidability.

Compiler Design: Lexical Analysis, Parsing, Syntax directed translation, Runtime environments. Intermediate and target code generation, basics of code optimization.

Operating System: Process, Threads, Inter- Process communication, Concurrency, Synchronization, Deadlock, CPU scheduling, Memory management and virtual Memory, File Systems, I/O systems, Protection and security.

Databases: E-R Model, Relational model(Relational Algebra, Tuple Calculus), Database design (integrity and normal forms), Query Languages (SQL), File structures (sequential files, indexing, B, B+ trees), transactions and concurrency control.

Information System and Software Engineering: Information gathering, requirement and feasibility analysis, data flow diagrams, diagrams, Process specifications, I?O design, process life cycle, planning and managing the project, design, coding, testing, implementation and maintenance.

Computer Networks: ISO/OSI stack, LAN technologies(Ethernet, token ring), flow and error control techniques, Routing algorithms, Congestion control, TCP/UDP and sockets, IP(v4), Application layer protocols(ICMP, DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP); Basic concepts of hubs, Switches, gateways and routers, Network security-basic concepts of public and private key cryptography, digital signature, firewalls.

Web Technologies: HTML, XML, basic concepts of client-server computing

Bootstrapping (Compilers)

We got an assignment to find out about bootstrapping in our very first class. I found about it and thought of sharing the same with you all.

We all know that the Java Compiler is written in C. Generally the compiler is not written in the same programming language it has to compile. But if we think of the very early compilers, how would they have been developed, here comes in bootstrapping. The concept is the answer to “Hen egg problem in case of compilers”. For those who didn’t get this yet, well think about how would the very first high level programming language would have been implemented? Did they use assembler? If they used assembler, how did the assemblers come into existence? Hope now its clear.

Bootstrapping: It is a means of developing a compiler in the target programming language which it is intended to compile.

Lets take an example and see this. Consider an Assembler, we can define a language as a subset of another. So lets say we have “subset 1” contained in “subset 2” which is contained in “subset 3” and so on.

One might first write an assembler for “subset 1” of Assembler in machine code, perhaps on a load-and-go basis . Lets say that this subset assembler program might, perhaps, do very little other than convert mnemonic opcodes into binary form. One might then write an assembler for “subset 2” of Assembler in “subset 1” of Assembler, and so on.

This process, by which a simple language is used to translate a more complicated program, which in turn may handle an even more complicated program and so on, is known as bootstrapping, by analogy with the idea that it might be possible to lift oneself off the ground by tugging at one’s boot-straps.

Advantages of Using Linux

There are many factors that lead to the fact that Linux machines are better than Mac OS or Windows machine. Here I am giving some of the points that I saw in one of the articles at news.cnet.com. Some of them are subtle and some of them are very obvious when you use these Operating System and try comparing them. Believe me, Linux stands apart.

Linux machines are more efficient

In the design of both Windows and Mac OS the priority was given on the simplicity (that is why there is a common saying that Linux is for Geeks), not on efficiency.

When you work with large amount of windows on Windows of Mac, we minimize all the windows that are not currently needed making our task bar really messy, or some people tile the windows making it tougher to even locate the window they need.

This problem is very nicely solved in Linux, there is something called “work spaces”, one can easily navigate through these work spaces and open only the required windows in a particular work space. We can also use Fluxbox window grouping. If you like your windows to be on the same desktop, but do not want to minimize them all the time, you can shade the window so that only title bar shows.

No Lock Downs

With Windows or OS X, you get what you get and no more. Of course, you can install third-party applications in Windows, but you’ll never have the flexibility you would find with a Linux desktop. And if you don’t like the desktop you are using in Linux, you can choose a different one.

Because Linux distributions are not locked down to any one window manager or desktop, you should be able to find exactly what you want. Whether you want a complex desktop, just the bare minimum or something in between, Linux can make your desktop be and do anything you want.

Equally, you need not fear too much configuration or too many options. You can start with the basic desktop and live with that all your computing life, if you so choose. Eventually, however, you are likely to discover how far you can bend the desktop with Linux. Bend away — it will not break.

Easier Use Of Removable Media

When I started using Linux I faced a lot of problem mounting the removable media, and it was a very cumbersome process to do so too. But that is not the case anymore thanks to HAL and D-Bus. In the current versions of Linux operating systems an icon is instantly displayed as soon as the media is read, and in many cases the contents of the media are automatically opened in the required applications. Where as in Windows unless the autorun feature is not enabled (which people disable for it being the most common reason for their systems to be infected with viruses and worms) we have to follow a some what lengthy path of going to “My Computer” and then to the disk drive to access its contents.

Eye Candy

Last year we had a technical fest in our university pertaining to promote the use of Free and Open Source Software, to attract the newbies we showed them fascinating features we can add to our Linux desktops using FOSS like Compiz, KDE 4 and Elive Compiz. Windows tried to bring in some eye candy features in Vista but that didn’t work all that well, the Beta version of Windows 7 showed some promises of the same, but its really hard to beat their FOSS counterparts. OS X did give some very nice eye candy, but they are still limited.

This feature may not be very important for a tech savvy guy and someone who is a computer geek but the so called “WOW factor” is what amazes and impresses the average users.

No More random, over crowded menus

Have you installed a program in Windows, and saw the way they appear randomly in the menu (start menu). But such is not the case with Linux as you’ll find the things at exactly the place it should be, like if you install a word processor it’ll come under the office category. So its easy to manage. We may say that shortcuts on the desktop can be useful but, how many shortcuts will you put.

How much does your Desktop weigh

Vista is huge and devours your resources. A big reason for that is its desktop. Windows 7 will be better, but that would not be difficult. Having an operating system where the desktop eats up most of your resources is a barrier to productivity.

When you need to dedicate your CPU cycles to more important applications — such as work — you need a desktop that is not going to fight them tooth and nail for resources.

Yes, RAM is cheap now, but tossing in more should not be considered a solution. That approach simply avoids the problem. It is the Microsoft way. The Linux way is to optimise applications so that they do not require as much RAM. The desktop is a perfect example of this.

Compliant Desktop

The Linux desktop is the one made for the people by the people. It asks you want you want to do — it does not tell you.

One of the true beauties of the Linux desktop is that it works with you. Microsoft’s old slogan was “Where do you want to go today?”, and it took you places, but they were not necessarily where you wanted to go.

Let me give you an example. I dislike icons and panels. I like mouse menus and lots of transparency. I like the 3D cube. Getting that out of a Windows desktop would be a nightmare. Pulling that trick on Linux is simple.

In fact, I can find a distribution with the exact desktop by default. Or I can put together my own using various window managers and applets. Is the average user going to go to such lengths? Not really, but nevertheless they can if they want to.

Better Keyboarding

You can do anything on Linux without moving your hand from your keyboard, there are key bindings for all the tools on Linux, we can even make the “Windows” button to do something more than just open the Windows menu. So there is no need to move your hand to and fro keyboard and mouse.

Widgets

If you have played with KDE 4, you have experienced the widget. This is the point where the Linux desktop merges with OS X — only Apple’s operating system is a copy of the original Superkaramba.

This application places small widgets on the desktop that serve various uses — from news tickers and system information to viewing comic strips.

These widgets consume few resources and can be quickly hidden or viewed. Microsoft tried this feature in Vista with the Google sidebar. It failed miserably. KDE 4 widgets work well and make the user experience much better by having often used or viewed widgets, or information, readily available at all times.

Updates

In more modern Linux desktops, updates are obvious and readily available. And they do not always come in huge chunks like Windows updates. Instead, there are more micro updates that take care of single bugs or smaller sets of bugs. And these updates come out fast. So when a bug is discovered, it is quickly squashed.

The most recent Gnome desktop has one of the best update systems available, with a system tray notifier that makes it obvious there is an update and makes it simple to either run or not. It is the single most user-friendly update tool available.