Angad@NUS

Another semester at NUS : My second

2010-05-16T01:53:00.000+08:00

My second semester at NUS is over with results awaited on 29th (?) of May. This semester at NUS was surely my best semester, and I can even say that it will be my best until the last one - CS3216. I would cherish all the memories that I have with the awesome module and really awesome friends and great experiences. Pull in all the +ve adjectives for this module.
So this would just be my summary of my 2nd semester at NUS -

CG1102 - Data Structures and Algorithms - 5MC
This was the CG1101 next level module with C++ and data-structures, taught by Prof Colin and Uncle Soo. Interesting as we had cumulative lab assignments - building on the same stuff every lab using different variations of data structures and algorithms for sorting traversing etc. A good module to get the logic ready for higher algorithms. The other great thing about the module was its integration with CG1413. We worked in teams and the shared suffering induced some bonding. It was the first instance in NUS that we got to meet and work with our fellow CEG mates.

CG1108 - Electrical Engineering - 4MC
The modified form of EG1108 - with the uniqueness of 40% practical element and only 30% final exam. This module was taught by 3 professors - Prof JJ Cabibihan, Prof Sahoo and Mr. Panicker. The lectures were particularly interesting with practical demonstration in the lecture theatre. Every tuesday 3hr lab was also interesting which included LEGO mindstorms design challenge and a self made PIC controlled line tracking robot. Interesting as it introduced the realism of Digital Design.

CG1413 - Effective team communication - 4MC
A team work and crap english module. I personally did not like this module very much probably by the way it was taught and the so objective way of grading presentations and reports. The module was not an intelligent and worthy but I really enjoyed working in it with my team mates on the interesting topic of "Introducing Cloud Computing in NUS". Really got to learn a lot about Cloud Computing after devouring "Cloud Computing for dummies" and talking to the Cloud Computing head of NUS.

MA1506 - Mathematics 2
Crap. No interest in this one. Dont know if I will pass in this one. But I would really like to flaunt - I never ever went for a lecture, tutorial. I never saw a webcast and I dont know who my lecturer or tutor is. All this can be attributed to the other stuff that kept me busy during the semester but I do not regret it. I would be happy to get a B in this.

CS3216 - Software Development on Evolving Platforms
Eye opener for the rest of my stay at NUS. A+ boosts my CAP :) No more comments. There is a whole blog on it.

So I think this semester was an experience of a life time with a trip to Malaysia at the end of it.

1st vacation to India - December 2009

2010-05-12T01:46:00.000+08:00

//Was in the drafts since long, needs editing.

4th December 2009 -

6.30am - Leaving PGP for Changi

10.15am - flight to New Delhi

1.30pm (IST) - New Delhi

9pm - Dehradun

5th December 2009 -

5pm - Train to Amritsar - Golden Temple

6th December 2009 -

Early Morning to Phagwara - Funeral of my mother's uncle.

7th December 2009 -

Back to Dehradun

Winter Vacation break - enjoying with family and friends; preparing application for CS3216.

25th December 2009 -

11am - Delhi Airport

3pm - Bangalore Airport

A short 5 day visit to Bangalore to sister and veerji

Includes Bangalore Innovative Film City and awesome food.

26th December 2009 -

Application acceptance for CS3216 :)

31st December 2009 -

8am - Bangalore Airport

12pm - Delhi Airport

3.30pm - 9.30pm - Train to Dehradun

1st Jan 2010 - 8th Jan 2010 - Dehradun

8th Jan 2010 -

Dehradun to Delhi

10th Jan 2010 -

00.40am - Flight to Singapore

8am (SG time) - Singapore

Settling in PGP

11th Jan 2010 -

6.30pm - first CS3216 lecture, Show and tell session

Computer Science = No Closed Source Shit

2010-04-28T16:56:00.001+08:00

This post comes out from some recent thoughts and a post here : http://www.silicon.com/technology/software/2010/04/23/why-the-iphone-could-be-bad-news-for-computer-science-39745730/
and another one here http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/18/the-users-manifesto-in-defense-of-hacking-modding-and-jailbreaking/

So majorly what I see here is that the shiny looking gadgets are hindering the modder to go under the hood, rewire (or rewrite some code) to get that device to do some cool stuff, perform to its limits and even innovate.
Do closed-source devices inhibit the geek?

When computing was developing and personal computers were introduced in homes, I remember, they were seriously much more open and not-so-hooded as present day computers and devices. Anybody could open up a CPU and upgrade the RAM or even a cooling assembly for that matter. People still do so. But, it is really complex to go under the hood of an iPhone or even a general laptop for that matter. It requires much higher levels of knowledge to tinker with a device without bricking it. The gap is increasing. The CS education needs to keep track with the advancements in the real world.

But still, how hard the hardware manufacturers may try, somebody in the crowd stands out with a broken "warranty-void-if-seal-broken" tag and comes out with a way cooler trick of using the device. Some recent modding - http://linuxoniphone.blogspot.com/ - Android running on an iPhone.
And the recent PS3 hack which gets the Other OS option back in firmware version 3.21. http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/2010/04/otheros-supported-on-321oo.html

The present day devices abstract or hide a huge chunk of Conputer Science under them. Its all good and shiny for the general user, but I believe it should not be just a device that emulates some real world physics in its graphics & UI for a CS student. It is a bloody chunk load of electrical components and millions of lines of code. In-short, it is a geek's paradise.

The University of Cambridge is up with its course- http://www.cscubed.org/ geared towards a shift in Computer Science that is much more present-day oriented, coupled with high research and innovation. Well I believe that this should also make place into the usual classroom. I dont imply teaching modding in a class room (that is a ridiculous idea), but atleast the teaching should somehow relate to the real world stuff. It should, in some way, imbibe the spirit to learn*. Well thats what University education means to me, and I believe to all of us. It should not at all be engulfed in closed source shit, atleast Computer Science. One needs to look under the hood - especially if you are not just a user.

Adding to the above, I have big expectations from my course at NUS - CEG - Computer Engineering. I am far away from the real world stuff, but maybe this course can get me somewhere :)

* - CS, as far as I have encountered it, is 99% a self-learning path. 1% is where you learn how to learn.

Microsoft Guy Speaks Up!

2010-02-24T12:22:00.000+08:00

We had the pleasure of listening to the Microsoft SEO person Chewy Chong at the CS3216 talk - "You, Others and the Business of People".
Chewy is a public speaker. Most inspiring - his Oratory skills. His words forced us all to think and thats what his motive was. Cedric mentions it as "tour de force".

So the talk in all was about the consumer behavior, the marketing strategies and a bit of Search engines. It was fun to see a MS guy use Google :P

Consumer Behavior
Coming straight to the point, he managed to implant a really important thought in the minds of all the listeners out there, as is evident from the other blogs on this talk. Chewy got us into thinking about the consumer behavior, what a typical (non-geeky, not-so-tech savvy, and an ad-influenced person. In short - a rather large segment of the consumer market) consumer thinks and does before buying a product.
Here is what got into my mind regarding it-
There is this "unaware" phase where the consumer wants to buy a product but is unaware of the stuff - price, companies, offers. The companies target such unaware consumer by the traditional advertising methods- TV ads, Radio ads, Huge roadside boards etc.
Then comes the phase of the "aware" consumer where he is aware of the product available from the different competitors. So what the consumer does is to go ahead and do a Google search (Or Bing for that matter :P). There come the Google Ads. There is a whole big world of Google Ads and their strategies. I am not too interested in either SEO or how Google Ads work, and nor do I intend to delve into that. I am an ad-free person (there you go Laurence =)).

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Get to know yourself
The man of talk got this point absolutely right. We need to know our strengths and ultimately should know where we should be. I dont know if I have an idea right now where I would want to be in the coming 10 years, nor am I sure about my strengths. CS3216 is making up a bit of me. It is constructing me in my raw years. I just know that I should do everything and in the best possible way. I should taste almost every apple (in my garden) to know which tree is the best for me and which I can climb. I had written this post quite earlier and have linked it many times in my blog. I link it here again too because I really cherish a comment by a friend - there

"I think it's ok to be jack of all trades. You are gaining width.
I would have said "it's ok to be jack of all trades and master of none", but that it is quite clearly not the case. You're doing enough specialization for what you need, if not more. Plus what all this width adds to you is knowledge of the field(s) that you eventually want to get into. It'll be harder for someone who's not had the taste of oranges, cherries, guavas, mangoes and grapes to pick and say "I love mangoes the most, and that is what I shall eat for the rest of my life." But you will have a taste of most, if not all, of them and say with at least some added confidence that you wanna have bananas for the rest of your life (pun intended). haha."

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See from others' eyes
I think this is a point where I can say that I think "I can". The first step to look from other people's eyes is not to judge people immediately. To get, what I call the "Helicopter view", one must close its one inner eye (that judges people), and open the other inner eye (that anlayses the situation) as wide as possible. That way, I think one can get the best view from other's viewpoint. Just putting oneself in the other person's position is not enough. One must also look at the situation and the external factors.

Breaking the traditional market
Chewy pointed out a real important thing in the talk - Location matters (atleast in Singapore). He was trying to get us to be the change-makers for breaking this "Location" tradition.
Singapore is a small place. Getting from one farthest point to other farthest point shouldnt take more than an hour. So the markets such as the Shoe market in Queensway flourishes because people know that it is the hub of shoes. I wouldnt go all the way to Tampines to buy shoes from a particular shop when I know there are loads in Queensway and I perhaps might get a better choice (than a single shop in Tampines).

I would like to point out that perhaps the Queensway shoes example is how a traditional market economy is supposed to work. I come from India, where the Mall culture has recently hit the cities (i mean the state capitals and other important towns. Metro cities had malls quite earlier). It is often argued their that the mall culture destroys the traditional economy and the traditional way of how business was done. I would often hear from the elders that earlier this particular place was where you would get the best of hand made thread-needle work clothes (dunno what is it called actually in English, though has a word in Hindi), or the best kind of cotton cloth in this area. Now that culture is dying off slowly with the advent of malls. A common notion : People would prefer buying from an air-conditioned mall, than going to individual dealers with no guaranteed after sales service.

I take a stand here that the Mall culture destroys the traditional culture and how it affects the lives of the people in the particular business. Though it might be a hell-load of a success for a businessman to transform a Queensway shoe shopping area to a decentralised mall where everything is available. But we are aspiring entrepreneurs here, Not ruddy businessmen. I can think of a situation here which is more-or-less true - A place in my city was really famous for tailors and the best quality cloth stitching. (In India people still get their clothes stitched, especially the ladies garment http://www.indian-dresses.net/Salwarkameez.asp). So I remember my mum telling me that all her marriage dresses were made by a particular tailor there.
Now, when the city has seen the rise of 3 malls and even more brand-shouting shops in a mall like environment, these tailors have almost lost their daily high earnings. And I can say that the clothes they stitch is still much better than any other shops across the city. This implies that in a place such as India where traditional arts have always been the culture, the mall advent and the ruddy businessmen are destroying the local people's wages. Also, the age-old art and craft is being lost over generations.
I want to point out a major related event that happened like 2-3 years back in several cities almost all over India. Reliance, a big company, opened up a big vegetables/fruits only super market chain that got its supplies directly from the farmers (known as Reliance Fresh). All the local wheel-cart grocery sellers were horrified by this. They pulled down some of the shops as a strong group but still the super store exists. But it is not of any major success or breakthrough. Breaking a traditional economy is difficult.

Singapore is much more advanced and has seen the rise of malls since long. But still, traditional markets do exist (though quite less in number), implying there is still scope for thenew business idea of decentralised marketplaces.
In Singapore's case this might not be the situation (as in India) as there are really less places which talk about traditional art. But still the idea of destroying a place which is a hub for good quality products and convert it to a consumer oriented market, is a bit difficult to accept. Regarding the attitude of the traditional shop owners, they should rather be open to the current marketing strategies or let their business die to a businessman's eye-candy offers to the customer.

I dont know what the entrepreneurial solution to such a problem would be. I would rack my brains on it if I ever get into people-to-people business. Till then Peace Ho!

Just a quick point : if you try searching for the mall culture in India and google it - you just type "mall cu" and the top entry is "mall culture in india". That denotes the hotness of the topic. Read this to get a good insight
http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/mall-culture-India.asp

Cloud Computing, a semester full of that

2010-02-16T01:32:00.000+08:00

Cloud Computing has been really hogging my life since quite a long time. I was suggested by some alumni last semester, that I go ahead and read about it. linuxNUS (me) had organised a talk with Simone Brunozzi, Technology Evangelist, Amazon Web Services back in November. Though I could not attend it, I got a chance to listen to him and meet him personally at a C3216 talk. Awesome stuff :)

So I actually first get the experience of actually using Cloud Computing (from here, referred to as CC) for my facebook application for CS3216. Amazon Web Services supported the CS3216 group by providing us EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing) for hosting and setting up our facebook application. They gave $100USD to each team.
It was actually more than hosting and an awesome experience in setting up an instance. I even tried out setting up a community AMI- Ubuntu 9.04 from scratch as a LAMP server and set up an Etherpad.com instance - 13 hrs of struggle in strange waters of Java and Scala. I have been using Virtual Machine (VM) since a long time. I run Ubuntu, OpenSolaris on Win7. So working under linux environment is my best known playground :)

CC is coming to hog me even more. I am doing a CG1413 module Problem Solving project on Introducing CC in NUS. I have a good team of 3 more people, and fortunately we have found the main guy behind cloud computing in NUS. Meeting him this Wednesday. I am getting even more reasons to delve into CC as I recently found a book "Cloud Computing for Dummies" in the Central Library and it is damn latest!! Just launched a week back! Gobbling it down right away.

So this semester is all about Computing in the Cloud. Looking forward to an amazing learning experience!

I will soon be back writing all about CC that I can find through talks, surveys and experience!

Being a Good Boy for one day :)

2010-01-22T20:50:00.000+08:00

I have been a Good boy today :)

I have slept like an innocent kid for 6 hrs in the morning and 4 hrs in the afternoon. (Though I overslept to go to a lecture, but no worries - Webcast)
I have a clean room and a clean desk.
I have washed my clothes.
I have gone through the other modules too (apart from CS3216)
I talked to my parents and sister for a really long time. *Feels Good*
I am trying to get my social life back. Sleep is already back and I think the amount of sleep I had today will keep me charged for the next week. My friends are planning a movie tonight, and I will see if I can catch up. But Adhiraj is a bit over me to set up his Linux system.

But I will be soon back to my life.

The Facebook application requirements have been sorted out priority wise, and the whole next week is packed. The weekend will be over in a jiffy. But lets gear up for the second half of the run!

CS3216 is an investment on oneself. The returns are awesome - Good friends, Great learning, Good Contacts, A Great professor to look up to, and a real awesome experience.
After attending its lectures (which actually "teach" nothing, but just push you on the right track), I am kind of wondering, what will happen to the remaining of my stay in NUS. Who will be there to push us so hard that even the limits expand? Is there any other *work hard* + *fun* course? Prof, do let me know if there is.

P.S. This post is actually meant for my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com. But never mind, it goes there too :P Its all about my life, so doesnt matter wherever I write.

Motivated();

2010-01-22T01:23:00.001+08:00

//This entry is from my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com . Read more there to understand the context.

I dont know, I get a small tiny voice that asks me to blog - (haha! I mean, reflect)

So we have reached the mid-assignment submission and our team's application is up with a few broken connections and lacking what it is actually made for :)
I believe what we have the back end and the front-end right now, will be quite different a week later. Completing all the "aspirations" and making our app "click-and-does-something" gives a sense of satisfaction. Its still a long walk to go, with more night campings at SoC.

Talking about my past 2 days, I have missed 2 lectures, almost slept in a tutorial today and my room is like a total mess with clothes waiting to go for laundry (ok, I know that I am gross to mention this, but this depicts that I just come to my room to sleep, and sometimes not even that :P).

But the experience that has come in working with a team is price-less. Learning so many things in such a short period of time and then implementing it is really an achievement for us. I had read this quote somewhere
- though I forget the exact words -

Success is not measured by how high the person has reached,

but by the distance from which the person started.

I am of the opinion that learning anything is never beyond my scope, and there is no age for learning. Actually learning is a life-long process, and those who believe that learning stops when u stop studying, are mistaken. There was this interview with Will Smith some years ago in Reader's Digest magazine that I had read and luckily I found it on their website.

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/will-smith-interview/article31133.html

Just read it, and if you cant I will pick up the most important line from in there

"I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class."

....

"The first step is you have to say that you can."

Though this may sound simple but one has to say that "I can".

I dont know why I am recalling such motivational stuff... I have another story that I had heard once on the All India Radio FM channel (as I write this, I googled up 'Bamboo and Fern story' and the exact story is there). So I will just quote it from there - (Better than my telling a story in rather haywire manner :P)

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One day I decided to quit…I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality.

I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

“God”, I said. “Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”

His answer surprised me.

“Look around”, He said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”

“Yes”, I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. The same in year four.

“Then in the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern, it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just six months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.

“Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots? I would not quit on the bamboo.. I will never quit on you.

“Don’t compare yourself to others.” He said. “The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful.

“Your time will come”, God said to me. “You will rise high"

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So with a hope for good "aspirations" (pun intended), I hit my bed for a peaceful sleep.

P.S.: I hope to touch other modules tomorrow as it is the only day that I feel I am a bit free from 3216 stuff. Weekend : Learn more :P

3 days of Sem2

2010-01-12T23:49:00.000+08:00

This post has been lifted from my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com

Its been nearly 18hrs since the Show-and-tell session of CS3216 has ended and I feel that the sooner I write, the better I recall.
But still I am not going to write about whatever I inferred from the session. My inference is with me and I am still twirling those thought threads.
Let those threads weave some material, and till then, I will just be writing about my past 3 days.
I landed in Singapore after the holidays on 10th Sunday Morning. A sleepless 6hr night flight imposed a 5 hr day time sleep. A sudden change in climate (I come from a place in India that is a valley and has usual temperature of 4-7 degree celsius during winters) gave me a terrible headache and a cold. No worries, it subsided by the next day :)
My usual *bed-hitting* time back in India was around 1-2 am. In Singapore time, it converts to 4-5 am. My first night was sleepless. I took advantage and watched the 2 3216 guiding videos again with a friend of mine, suffering from the same phase of insomnia.
I got up next day early with just 4 hrs sleep, in search for a laptop with a parallel port. I had brought along a school project of mine which I had intended to show "working" during the show-and-tell session, An RC car controlled by the PC keyboard. Bad Luck, Parallel Port is outdated :(
The whole day was rather eventful with a 2-4pm lecture of CG1108, the new form of EG1108, a 4MC module. It was really interesting to know that we would be programming LEGO robots in the module, unlike any previous 1108 course. This was another of the time that I felt good that I had taken this "new" Computer Engineering Course. More details about my major here.
I feel really good about the 1108 module. It is also a really innovative type one, and with a passion for embedded systems, I am really liking it. An excerpt later.
I was rather disappointed as I couldnt show off the feat that I had achieved in high school. Though simple but my first introduction to hardware interfacing with a computer. The parallel port is really gone now. But I can just say this now, that the RC car did not have any microcontroller for its logic. The whole logic was the parallel port with 8 bits for output and 8 (or so) bits for input (light sensing). And I really liked the flexibility that parallel port gave over the serial port, (for a simple project like that). Serial port would have required an external circuit to transmit data to the remote.
Moving on, the Show and tell was fun for me. I perhaps have to read up some blogs right now and get in the flow of thinking about what I can give to a team.
The session ended late and I had already missed the bus to PGP. So walking down with Adhiraj and Cedric was fun. We kinda bonded and shared lots of insightful threads of memories and thoughts. We came up with team plans and what the team should be like and what all programming skills need to be brushed up or picked. Though perhaps we had an inclination of forming a team there and then, but it was good to hold it for that night and wait for some channeled thoughts from our own minds and other great minds from this module.
After a quick dinner with Cedric at the Supper House, I headed back to my room. A good friend of mine and I sat for another 2-3 hrs discussing all the entrepreneurial and philosophical stuff. Catching up on whatever we had been upto during the holidays was fun. Perhaps he is the best peer I can look up to for bits of advice. USP and his own skills have perhaps really made him capable of that.
Sleeping at 4 am and then again waking up at 8 am for a 9am lecture was a bit tough. Loud and numerous alarms help. CG1102 was the 9-12 lecture by Prof Colin Tan. It was basically an introduction to C++. I used a significant amount of time during the 3 hr period to go over the last night events and create a mental picture of what tree I am climbing on. A lunch and then 2-5 pm (just 3 hrs before I post this) CG1108 lab exhausted me. Coming back to CG1108, I really loved and cherished the lab. We were given a LEGO Mindstorms kit and asked to make the robot (according to the pictorial instructions) and then program it to follow an oval shaped black line. I was on the software part for my team of 4. A simple switch case and if else, and it was fun to know that my robot was the fastest :) and smooth over the curves.
And now I am here finishing this blog post. And I will be coming back soon after dinner to write another one over the last night experience and the usual "selling myself" on the blog.
P.S. : I believe, for rather average oratory skill set, blogging is the best "Show-and-tell".

CS3216

2010-01-05T04:24:00.001+08:00

Its been 10 days since I blogged : I was holidaying, I was busy with packing and shopping.

A christmas gift and a great opportunity: CS3216: Software development on Evolving platforms. - My 5th module for SEM2 @ NUS.
As per the module requirements, I will be blogging about CS3216 at another blog - http://angad-cs3216.typepad.com

And here is the first post on CS3216 at the new blog.

Christmas Spirit

2009-12-25T11:13:00.000+08:00

Its Christmas and I am on a move! This one comes from the Delhi Airport, en route to Bangalore; a visit to my sister.
The Christmas Spirit is unique every year and thats the thing I like about it.
And this is the only thing that I have to say this Christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azcimpWgCT0

Embedding is disabled so just the link here!

Enjoy
Merry Christmas!

Module Review

2009-12-23T01:56:00.000+08:00

I had kept this one to write after my result which came out today. It was actually Ok., not too good, not too bad. I think a CAP of 4.00 is decent. An S/U for my GEM can get me a CAP of 4.12. But considering I have to save my S/Us, I will leave it at 4.
Now here I will actually be giving justifications for my grades rather than reviewing the modules :)

Starting with MA, (the worst) it was a B. I had expected better here. Perhaps it was that that I had a cold that day and 30% of the time I was sneezing and cleaning my nose. Yeah, I was the one who sneezed 2-3 times during the exam. Circumstantial. Over with MA1505. Better luck for 1506. 1505 was a cool module. It can be managed easily after all the tutorials and past year papers. Advice: Never get sick during exams. Precaution.

PC1432 was fine too. B+. I like physics but I dont know why cant we just appreciate the beauty of the module. Why do we have to prove certain formula? I did prove all asked, but I guess I did some mishandling with the questions. Like just trying to run for the end-result. But I dont care any more for this module. I am not gonna have Physics any more now :)

CG1101- This was actually good. A. Though I wouldnt mind an A+, but A seems fine. Perhaps the mid-term took its toll here. (16/24 was bad..). I could solve the PE and all the programming in final paper. CAP booster.

GEK1514 - B. GEM module. Unexpected can happen. No words for this.

CS1231- B+. The most dreaded module. But the exam was awesome. Lost in the mid-terms (34/58) and a group assignment.

So here was some really small rantings about my result today. Some say, 1st sem results sets your threshold in NUS. I will definitely try to bring this point down :)
So some observations to follow for next sem:

1) Dont under-estimate the mid-terms
2) Never believe a senior
3) Maintain health during exams
4) Try and get more from the prescribed books (negotiable)
5) Take interest-wise modules as far as possible

Login to SoC unix shell off-campus.(Ubuntu)

2009-12-22T02:17:00.004+08:00

I have been trying to connect to the SoCVPN to access my SoC Unix account from Windows and it was no luck. No idea why. Linux came to the rescue. This just gives a short description to connect to SoC VPN from ubuntu. Though the master document lies at opensource.nus.edu.sg , I just have a small one here but this method works for the lazy guy :) Only for ubuntu.

make sure you are root user (sudo /bin/bash)

sudo apt-get install openvpn
download socvpn.conf (source linuxNUS)
download socca.crt (source SoC)
openvpn --config /download/path/here/Socvpn.conf --ca /download/path/here/Socca.crt
sudo apt-get install ssh
ssh username@sunfire.comp.nus.edu.sg
You are in!

This was the simplest method I found. Should get you in. Refer more at the master wiki here

Ask queries at #linuxnus IRC channel

My 18th Budday!!

2009-12-18T03:29:00.001+08:00

I had come to Singapore on 26th July with my parents. It was fun to have them here for a week. They helped me in settling down, and more importantly, they were satisfied that they had seen the place where their son intended to spend the next 4 years.
My 18th Birthday was on 31st July 2009 and it was celebrated amongst the all-new friends at NUS. I was rather foolish not to spend the night of 30th July with my parents who were staying in Copthorne Orchid. But it was an experience in itself to get my birthday celebrated in a different style in PGP.
Just 3 days before my birthday, Sahil aka. Gandhi had his birthday and after his birthday was celebrated, I had half a mind to not to stay in PGP on my bday night!

At midnight Geetika, Ayushi, Sasha, Aadarsh, Kaustav, Rajul, Sahil, Sumit, Sukrit and some others gathered in my Block 12 Level 12 Kitchen and I was ready to be slaughtered at their hands. 2 small muffins as cake and a bottle of coke were not consumed. They were over me and my clothes. A small round of kicks on my butt (which later required a hot shower) ended the deal. Not much harm was done as they couldnt get the opportunity to throw me into the pool.
The night was rather eventful including a stroll on the Pasir Panjang Road later.
Leaving the description apart, the thing about my 18th Birthday was that that I was now an adult. Well yeah, everybody becomes an adult on their 18th Birthday. But there was something different about my turning into an adult. It was an actual forced transformation on me. Here it goes.

I came to Singapore as a child with my mum dad. As soon as I turned 18, my parents left for India. It was as if they left me to take care of myself as an adult, self-responsible, (add to that - doing my own laundry) living on my own. It was good to get such freedom, independence and a sense of responsibility.

But with this experience I can say :

I turned into an adult on my 18th Birthday

XML DOM!

2009-12-18T02:58:00.001+08:00

I am trying to use XML as a back-end database as with a particular case I dont have access to MySQL or any other database tool. In Fact, I dont have admin rights on the hosting server. And the poor server just supports HTML and all client side scripting. Till now I havent found any way to write to the XML file on the server without any server side scripting and I dont think that anything for that exists :( Security Security...

So I am planning to manually edit the XML file everytime I want to make changes to it and the upload the file to the server using FTP.
But I can read the file using XMLDOM. And in the process, I made this: help sheet for XML and XMLDOM. Includes a handy DOM reference.

XML_XMLDOM

A CSS Help sheet

2009-12-14T03:47:00.002+08:00

Bad CSS: $@!$%#@%#!$@%@

And I really do make drastic blunders with this

So here I come with a self-compiled cheat-sheet for CSS, a one that I keep in handy for a better CSS experience :)

CSS Help Sheet

Disclaimer : Self Compiled perhaps in a sleepy mood. May contain errors.
Please post the errata here as comments.

Angad

GEM1514

2009-12-13T02:31:00.000+08:00

Here I will be ranting about the GEM that I took up in my first semester here. It was actually one of the most difficult one and the one that was least popular. But blame the missed CORS bidding rounds, I had to take this one up to complete my 20MCs for 1st sem.
GEK1514 : Microelectronics, from Sand to IC, A general module offered (no longer) by the Faculty of Engineering talks about the manufacturing process of the Integrated Circuits and Micro controllers (sounds geeky ah..). With only 29 people in the whole of NUS taking this module, I guess it is the least popular one. The name itself carries a heavy weight with it (which soon got tied to our necks).
But I particularly found this module interesting. I like electronics stuff and have played around with microcontrollers, so with this module I got to know about its manufacturing process. To tell you truly, this was the only module for which I went for all lectures! and I mean ALL!
3 people from my CEG had taken this module including Geetika and Akash Ranka. It was fun to attend the lecture and tutorial for this module (both of which took place in the tutorial room E1-06-06). The lecturer was also a nice one: Prof. Chor. She was damn passionate about her electronics stuff and her lectures were really interesting as she brought along many samples to show around in the class.
The real fun in lectures was when Akash answered all the questions when everybody was half dozing and then the long discussion began with the Prof on some topic regarding that. The module also got interesting as we had a lab visit to a microelectronic manufacturing lab: the clean room. The lab visit was the best part of the module. Wearing the funny bunny suits and all protective coverings, working in a "clean" room was fun. The lab co-ordinator Ms. Sweta Agarwal showed us around the various aspects of the manufacturing process.
The Continous assessment for this module was small quizzes after every chapter got over. They were easy and were often points of hot debates in the class. (refer: Akash Ranka).
The lab report was followed by a project submission. I had a project group with Geetika and we made the project on the Societal Impacts of the IC industry: Health and Pollution hazards. The project was fun, and required many SoC nights. A 20 page project was finally submitted after sitting over it for a month.
The project was followed by a 15 min presentation on the project matter: 5 min for me, 5 min for Geetika and 5 min for cross-questioning. It was my first university presentation and we made sure it was a good one. We used pp tPlex for the presentation design which turned out to be an eye-catcher. And controlling the presentation wirelessly using MobileWitch from Geetika's cell was fun too!
So in all I feel it was rather a good choice to take this module, in comparison to the other available ones. Moreover this was totally related to my field of education. The module also helped me in learning how to write a full-fledged project and a presentation.
Hoping to take more awesome ones like these later.

Fingers crossed for a good grade!

CEG: Computer Engineering

2009-12-09T03:49:00.001+08:00

So I am back home and enjoying. Ok, another post for that "home" subject matter later.

So here I talk about Computer Engineering, my course of study at NUS. Computer Engineering at NUS until 2008-09 was offered separately by the Faculty of Engineering and School of Computing. From what my seniors tell me, the one from FoE (CPE) is totally electrical engineering but more stress on computer hardware part and the one from SoC is totally software. So what NUS has done from 2009 onwards is to combine both these engineering degrees and make a new Computer Engineering offered jointly by SoC and FoE
For more info : See the official website

I am the first batch for this course and so are most of the Indians here. Its actually like the first 10 roll numbers for this cohort are all Indians!
We come under a new virtual faculty under CORS as Joint Multi-Disciplinary Program, and as most of the people call us : we are "faculty-less". We dont have a home faculty. It is true till some extent as we dont have a faculty name on our Matriculation card and it really sucks not to have one written on it. Though I would have preferred "FoE/SoC".

As NUS puts it :
"The new CEG programme aims to produce graduates with a good foundation to work in the critical layer of technology that interfaces hardware with software. In particular, graduates will be able to attain significant knowledge and abilities in key technologies for real-time embedded systems, computer networking & wireless communication systems, medical imaging & information systems, intelligent control systems, and many others. In the workplace, computer engineers span a wide range of skills: Eg: developing MP3 players and headphones, creating novel security/cryptographic systems for protecting images, music, etc."

We are like the in-between people for hardware and software, the ones involved in the totally latest techie things these days : mobile phones, mp3 players etc. We would write software for them and even develop their main-boards and processors. Cool ah!
The Computer industry has matured. Hardware cannot be separated from Software and its no more like
"Beware of the Software guy carrying a screw-driver" or "Beware of the Hardware guy with a software patch"

As argued by most we are the ones who are "Jack of all trades, master of none". But I would say that we are master of the in-things these days! We are not like the electrical ones, designing circuits all day. Circuits these days are all microcontrollers and do need a firmware. So we can write the firmware too. And not like the Computing ones with just the algorithm in their hand. We have both the tools in our hands. And of course 4 years into this field can surely make us master both tasks.We would not be deep into electrical, but electronics and communication. We would not be deep into algorithms and all logic. Its a perfect balance for both. Write code for what you build.
Adding more to the positive side: We can play IFG(Inter-Faculty games) from any side!! We are loyal (perhaps disloyal) to both! haha!
From what I have heard from reliable sources : we will have our own special labs for CEG. We have financial $$$ support from both the faculties. And (I guess) we will have both the option of UROP and SPC!!

CEG sounds really good till now. Lets see how much I grasp. I have tried to get the max out for my course by taking up a GEM in my first sem relating to it : GEK1514: Microelectronics - from sand to IC. More of it in a later post.

For my first sem I had CG1101, the new form of CS1101 designed for the CEG ppl. It was a bit tough for many. Though I have been programming for the past 6yrs, the logic part was a bit tough :( . Awaiting result.

A perfect CEG profession as it appears to me now is a person well-versed in the latest technologies, constantly updated, can code all new things and get on any hardware without much difficulty. It can be the ultimate profession as a product-project manager with necessary business skills or perhaps an own start-up with a revolutionary product.

Countdown!!

2009-11-27T11:53:00.003+08:00

Countdown Clock by Zoodu.com

My essay for USP 2nd Intake

2009-11-26T00:26:00.000+08:00

This is my essay for my USP application 2nd Intake. Though I am still awaiting the result for it (and I have really low hopes of getting through).
Still, here is it

Write an essay that explains why you’ve been intrigued by an idea, concept, or theory you have encountered. This idea can come from either a traditional academic discipline ‐‐ such as history, science, philosophy, or mathematics ‐‐ or from fields such as film, engineering, art, or politics.
In planning your essay, bear the following in mind: we are looking for evidence of your specific, first‐hand response to an idea or theory. Your essay should identify the idea and explain if you have a personal, unique, or notable relation to it. Then, analyze the concept with as much detail and depth as possible, explaining how your engagement with this idea changed or broadened your thinking.

The idea that has intrigued me most is the concept of Open Source Software. We live in an era of computers and we have to use software for all tasks with computers. Open Source Software, usually free, is the software that is available with its source code that can be modified or even redistributed depending on the general public license. As compared to proprietary software it is not locked down with any end-user agreements and copyrights.

Being a student of computer engineering, I have a deep passion in understanding the intricacies of technology and inferring the associated impacts of the technology on a common user. I was introduced to programming in my secondary school years. Since then I have always held a curious outlook to the upcoming technologies. During my high school years, I used programming and other computing tools for various tasks of which Open Source Software formed an important part.

Using Linux as my operating system on my computer has made me an advanced user and an admirer of Open Source technologies. It has enabled me to make use of my programming skills to help in the community driven projects. The code is open, visible to everyone. I am no longer just a user, blindly accepting technology with its flaws. The openness of code gives one full control over the program and with the necessary knowledge I can make full use of it for my tasks. It induces self-learning.

The philosophy behind Open Source Software is simple: it decentralizes computing brain-power. The Basic functionality of a computer is the software that runs on it. For instance, the most necessary software that is required is the operating system and a word processor which can be regarded as a commodity that is widely available from many suppliers. It is like clothing. It does not make sense at all for every individual user to pay hundreds of dollars for each software license when the technology is common and ultimately does the same thing. Commodities can be sold, but if a premium is charged over it, somebody else will soon undercut it.

When it comes to custom software management, concept of commoditization fails. According to me, the maintenance and development of software that provides custom solutions has a selling point in the market. But selling standard operating system or application software is pointless. Software that is developed outside the constraints of license agreements and copyrights, by a community guided with a common passion is much more acceptable to me than proprietary software. Free access to software tools is a pre-requisite to the existence of the software community.

Singapore is a technology-ready country. Since I came here for my undergraduate studies earlier this year, I have actively taken interest in the local Open Source user and developer groups. I am an active part of the linuxNUS interest group and have also helped organize its events. There are many active groups whom I aim to be a part of by contributing to and supporting the movement.

Apart from inducing scientific temperament, the Open Source concept has also broadened my thinking in an ethical sense. I respect other peoples’ work, ensuring proper credit to the creator of the software and others who introduce subsequent changes. Sharing information and learning at the same time ensures a healthy development environment.

Though I am still in the learning phase and it will continue forever, I realize the importance of community effort and the need for open source software. I believe that technology should not be held in the hands of monopolistic giants. It should be available to everybody to collaborate and even modify it to suit somebody’s needs.

CS1231: True or False

2009-11-24T17:04:00.000+08:00

I am just back from CS1231 Final exam. My first University Exam :)

CS1231: Discrete Structures (Mathematics)
My Computer Engineering course has this module pre-allocated in its 2nd Semester but due to lost battles in CORS, I had appealed for this module and had got myself a seat with the other Computing students from SoC who had it pre-allocated this Semester.
The Semester 1 CS1231 is offered by SoC and from what I have heard the Semester 2 CS1231 will be offered by Faculty of Science so it was rather a mistake to take it this sem as the SoC one turns out to be more difficult. But I was one of the unlucky 8 of Computer Engineering, who had appealed (begged) for this module. :(
But I feel that it was actually good to have taken it this semester. I will be one module ahead of my cohort in 2nd Semester and would facilitate me to take some extra modules next semester. And of course, it was good to get over with it early. :D

CS1231 was the only module that had always given jitters. All the weird symbols and the notations in it made me even dislike the subject more. The first half of the module, until recess week went totally over my head. Though I understood everything in the lectures, I could not solve much questions. It can be called lack of practice and I dont't feel ashamed to admit that. Some failed attempts to understand the questions had marred my confidence in it. My midterms grade suffered. Though my marks were just the average of the class, but amongst all the Indians here, mine were the lowest.
After the midterms, though I did not attend any more lectures, the module turned out to be manageable. Rather it seemed interesting.
I particularly liked the lecturer of this module. He is an amazing French guy with awesome class skills. He keeps walking throughout the lecture theater and even sat besides students to ask and arouse interests of the students. Though he never gave a break in the lectures, I really was amazed that my concentration did not wander.
The exam was pretty easy, but I guess the bell-curve will be awesomely high and even a small mistake would bring me down.
This pic truly depicts about the module:

True or False??

Haha! It was during a long night of killing Graphs and Trees chapter in my cluster's Kitchen in PGP. You can easily spot this over the Bin Chute!

This module has totally given a sense of logic (though i dont know if i am ever going to retain that!). But still I feel that for a Computer Engineering guy, this module can be revamped a lot. Clubbing us with SoC Computing is rather a bit tough.

A semester at NUS, my first : A Documentation

2009-11-22T17:29:00.009+08:00

edit: 5/1/2010 I am discontinuing this Documentation. Enough has been written. :) I may write later.

10 days are left for my first semester at NUS to be over. I am going back home on 4th of December :)
What I intend to do over the vacations is to write on ~~every~~ topic (edit: not on every that I list here... :P) Well some are already down in the Drafts over the sleepless nights here but need changes.
I will hyperlink them as soon as I finish with any. Till then, fill this form

1) CEG
2) Financial
3) Matriculation
4) Laptop Concerns
5) CCAs
6) Hospital case
7) Freshie night
8) Midterms
9) CA
10) Movies
11) Fun
12) Concerns - friend
13) Home sickness
14) Birthdays
15) Night outs
16) Orientation
17) linuxNUS
18) Gaming
19) NUS- National University of Stairs
20) Geekiness
21) 18th budday
22) Central Library
23) CORS
24) One night stands :)
25) Seniors
26) Singapore - as a tourist - as a resident
27) Module review
28) Startups

31) GEM1514
32) Block 12 Level 12
33) CS1231
34) USP Essay

One Night Stands

2009-11-14T03:39:00.050+08:00

You might be wondering, why I have such a topic for this blog post. This is my 4th post in the 1st Sem Documentation series. The title seems as if it has nothing to do with any of the previous blog entries. But it has everything to do with them!
One Night Stand has been a problem with me since childhood.

Ok, now opening the connection: Each night I spend with a different interest, a new hobby, (that lasts just a night and so One-Night-Stand) a new passion. These flicks may extend till 2-3 weeks or so but in the end they are just like having a night spent with each. In conclusion, I know a bit about everything, but not a "lot" about anything.
Clearing up things more now, I have never been able to stick to a thing for long.
I can create a timeline for things that I have had awesome nights with but that would be like blowing my own
trumpets :P
Just a brief picture here: I spend nights with APIs, I spend nights with OSs, I gobble down techie tutorials, I love modding; add to the list reading random just out of anything stuff. My recent blogs portray this only. The result : An overloaded mind. A cloud of randomness in here.

The huge pool of information available at the press of a button makes life difficult for a young mind like me, hungry for knowledge. Information is widespread, it overloads, it kills. Every other day I consume loads and loads of information generated by others in the form of newsfeeds, blogs, random tutorials, articles, videos, podcasts etc. Add to that the new web2.0 websites with cool stuff.

Here is how information is processed within me (AFAIK)
A single query in the mind translates to a google search which might lead me to a web-article. Suppose its a wikipedia article. As I move on with that article, I encounter some techie word that results in another OHT (Over Head Transmission). Thanks to firefox, I can open up another wikipedia article in another tab.
Similar things happen while checking your mailbox. Here I see an awesome newsletter. I must read it and know it. An in-built feature of my brain (perhaps some coreutil) prompts me to open that info link in another tab. And now I have around 30 tabs open, bubbling with information.

Curiosity presses the switch, the search engine turns on the bulb. There is light everywhere, but fails to remove the darkness of the hollows inside.

Each day innumerable innovations are taking place. Information is generated at a huge rate. So much unprocessed information makes you go crazy. You realize at the end of it that you have read loads of it. Even tried out a few things, a few APIs and a few web2.0 apps. But you gain nothing. Or perhaps a crammed up head. It feels like you are a squirrel running from here and there between various trees of knowledge with no fruitful outcome.
I can never imagine how a tech-freak like me can ever cope up with such levels of information.

The only cure that I can see for my one-night stands is to continue till I find a perfect night that can lead me to my interest.

Blogging is the only medium I feel that can clear my head of all the awesome stuff of the huge web.

Good factors about it is:
1) I get to know loads
2) I get to know loads
3) I get to know loads
4) Exploring myself on what I want :?:?:?:

From another stand-point I see that perhaps I should limit my interests. I need not be the Mr.Know-it-all. The world is not resting on my shoulders. This is an era of super-specialisation.

VAIO VGN-CS36GJ

2009-10-31T17:22:00.000+08:00

VAIO Dismantled!

Well you might be wondering what made me take such drastic step to open my VAIO (a 3 month old baby still covered under the international warranty)...
Here is my justification

1) Fan was making loud noises (It was disturbing for others and me to sit in quiet places like the library)
2) I wanted to see how a dual-core looked like
3) I wanted to see a liquid cooled gfx card (I am not sure if it is here, but I could see copper pipes, so i guess it might be.)
4) My hacker instincts guided me to the screw-driver.
5) I was jobless.

I am not putting up these on my facebook this time as my parents (who are on facebook) disapprove of my destructive behavior (I was not good to my old PC.. *evil grin*)

Here are the pics:

P8700 2.53 GHz

The main board (With heat sink and cooling fan removed)

2X2GB RAM

Copper pipes running over the processor and GFX card
Couldnt do anything to the fan.

Enabling Virtualization on x64 processors (Insyde H2O Bios)

2009-10-16T04:46:00.001+08:00

This post is for Sony VAIO laptops running the Insyde H2O bios

Microsoft Virtual PC, Sun Virtual Box and other VM are getting increasingly popular these days among the OS fans and die-hard modders.
Being a Windows 7 (64-bit) and Various Linux (primarily Ubuntu and OpenSolaris) user, I wanted to run some of my old programs of windows xp. I tried using the Sun VirtualBox but due to some unknown bug, my old DOS program never run on it. I tried Windows 7 32 bit, Win XP 32 bit and even Wine on Ubuntu, but my damn program never executed.
You might be wondering what this "program" is that I am so desperately trying to run. It is actually a FAR Manager with JDFlasher Plugin to mod SonyEricsson firmware based phones. (A useful utility for the modder). I can write a whole Blog on SE modding here, but not detouring, lets stick to the point. Perhaps my next article soon!

Another solution that came in front of me was to use Microsoft Virtual PC and the Windows XP Mode (special for Windows 7). Downloaded it...
To my bad luck, a message pops up when I run Windows XP Mode: That I need to enable virtualization in my BIOS.
Ok, no big deal : enter BIOS, look around...
Damn!! not even a single clue of virtualization settings...
Did a Processor ID check; Yuss, my processor supports virtualization.
Then why the heck it is not there.

This is why virtualization setting is locked in my BIOS:
Sony has this concept that it will not enable virtualization and advanced settings to the casual user. What the heck: Did I buy a hot-shot processor for this shit??
Or perhaps it is a market policy of the giant? Keep the virtualization undercover, gain monopoly, and when Windows 7 is officially launched and people will ask about Windows XP Mode then reveal it..
But nothing can escape the eye of the modder!!
I want that setting to enable 64 bit support in my virtual machines!!

Ok now this is a bit model specific:
Got this application that writes to the VSS of the BIOS.
A single change of a bit in the register enables Virtualisation. But that bit may vary for different BIOS versions : so heavy caution!
Boot this EFI from a USB
http://luna.vmars.tuwien.ac.at/%7Efroemel/insydeh2o_efi/BOOTX64.EFI

and there you go.. It is a GRUB loader that fails and enters the rescue mode.

setup_var 0x1af
this should return 0x0 (means that the register holds 0, virtualization disabled)

to change it to 0x1 type
setup_var 0x1af 0x1a

this should do the trick. restart the machine..

OOooo IT WORKS!

Now I have the Windows XP Mode running in MS Virtual PC.
And all the 64bit OS also run in Sun VirtualBox!!

Disclaimer: NO GUARANTEE THAT YOUR BIOS WILL WORK AFTER THIS
DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK

Do email or comment here for any query.

Angad