EGO Fall 2007 PIcnic at CMU

After 2 gruelling months, finally we got a small opportunity to unwind a bit, the EGO Fall 2007 Picnic, at Scheneley Park. After a LONG LONG time me and Vish set out of apartment with a relaxed mind, despite loads of work and assigments to do.


Taming the Lion. photo credits: Vish, concept: Atul

We had vouched to enjoy at the picnic to the fullest... and guess what... we DID! We Just Did It! Strolling along the park, clicking loads of photos on the way, we reached the spot: satisfied our taste buds with Indian food silenced the bubbling juices in our grumbling stomaches ~~~tears of happiness in eyes~~~ played with flying-dish, soccer, the swing, relaxed a bit and then headed back to our den.

Here you go, check out the albums:
[1] Prince's album
[2] Vish's album

Choosing a Laptop/Notebook

As promised earlier, here you go with this post...
I have spent endless hours reading posts after posts, reviews after reviews for more than 3 months before deciding the exact config and model. Like me, if you don't have unlimited money resource to buy a laptop, you would want to be maximize your value for money! Thought this small guide might help you a bit towards that end. Feel free to add and seek advice :D

0. Processor
Most of tasks we do are not CPU-bound, they are IO-bound. So invest wisely
Anything more than 1.86 GHz is just a feel-good-factor! If you are not into too much of graphics (which is the case for most of us), trust me, processor is NEVER the deciding factor in the over all feel of speed you get. So don't waste your $$$s on this, no matter what GHz shit Intel promotes. In fact, if you are observant, Intel just stopped pushing GHzs these days, in fact from P-4, they started NOT advertising speed much and even reduced their core clock speeds!!! And if you missed that, take a note NOW!

But yes, don't go for the outdated Celeron processors. Dual core, in my view is NO better either. You are better off with single core Pentium-M, and if you saving some bucks, go for single core. Ask the sales rep explicitly if they offer discounts on single cores. And don't even think of Quad-cores for your notebook! Whoever tells you need one, is full of sh!t!

1. RAM
1GB is great, but 512MB is not bad either. Get 533 MHz DDR2, that's the standard these days anyway. If you gonna run vmware, or any other virtualization stuff, 512MB might be a tad too little. And anything above 1.5GB, again, is a WASTE! It like 1 person living in Palatial house! You definitely feel good, but don't need and never gonna use that much space!
(update: I don't use M$ OS much, so thanks for update from my colleague, Vinay. He says you need 2GB for Vista! God! My Linux runs pretty darn well on 512!)

2. HDD
Hitachi is really good. Never made it's presence felt by emitting unnecessary decibels. What is VERY important is that buy the fastest you can in your budget. Even if it means cutting down on few GBs of space and compromising RAM!!! Being a mechanical device, it's the slowest element introducing the maximum latency. That's the reason I opted for 512MB RAM and 80GB 7200 rpm HDD. I could have very well gotten 1GB RAM and 120GB 5400 rpm HDD n the same cost. But just increasing RAM doesn't increase the speed. I can bet my config will kick a$$ of the later config! So, invest wisely. Remember what I told above, most of your tasks will be IO-bound and NOT CPU-bound.

3. Display & Resolution
That's purely a matter of choice. Too small a display (12") means cramped kbd, lesser screen real estate and limited resolution. Too big a display (17") and you are better off leaving your baby on the desk. For me 14" worked the best. Small enough to carry her around. And still full sized keyboard. Read the spec for pitch and keystroke. Highest in the class resolution of 1400 x 1050 gives me more than sufficient screen real estate.
There's another thing, depending on your taste, you might want a glossy vs matte finished display. I personally like matte, it reduces the glare and looks more professional. I don't know of any maker giving you matte finished screens other than TP.

4. Weight
You don't have much of a choice here, because this is dominated largely by the size of your lappy. Your call, what takes the precedence: weight or size.

5. Built
TPs are notoriously famous for lasting years immemorable! Nothing beats it! But I tell you, Sony Vaio looks more sexier. It's Classy vs Sexy. Vaio will get you more stares from babes than TP! But hey, TP also has a legend, which goes like: If you enter a boardroom, and don't know who's heading it, look for ThinkPad! I tell you, it's classy jet-black looks are superlatively beautiful.

6. DVD
Due to her size and built, my TP could only take 9mm drives. To my knowledge there's only one maker of DVD-writer of that spec: Matshita. I WANTED a DVD-writer and had to spend a fortune getting it! Probably you won't have to take that pain. Go for the best you can here. And yes, if you are in a habit of backing up your movie DVDs a lot, you might wanna consider buying a DVD drive which has a firmware update to ... you know what!

7. WiFi
Get the built-in one, don't buy external card, it's cumbersome. I trust most of then have built-in, but if you go for 12" (or lower) sized notebooks, you will mostly probably be left with no choice but carry that additional card with antenna sticking out of it. This does give your notebook a robotic look, but don't forget that it gets tangled in wires VERY easily if you move around a lot.

8. Mobo
Unlike PCs, you don't have much say here, you gotta take what the maker gives you.

9. Heat
You don't want to boil eggs on your notebook, you are better off with your traditional stove. So another most important factor that you wanna consider is how good is your notebook's thermodynamics. Because more the heat means faster fan. And yes, the faster your CPU higher is your core clock and more is the heat generated. This is another good reason to not reach for the fastest processor. And faster fan implies more noise and shorter battery life. Only way to figure this info is to dive in LOTS of mailing lists.

Same config on Dell, HP or Acer will definitely cost you 30%-40% less! But I tell you, if you are looking at notebook for longer run, it's worth investing in ThinkPad. DON'T buy TP from India, it's hellishly expensive there! Plus, you won't get all the options to configure. If you can, buy it from US or Canada.

What I've never tried with my TP is the S-video port, PCMCIA slot. Things that she doesn't have are FireWire port & card reader. I don't need'em.

If you are serious on buying a TP, I strongly recommend that you spend some time on ThinkPad Forum. It's moderated by some GREAT moderators who are freaking knowledgeable about TPs and have ripped many of them apart and put'em back, SUCCESSFULLY!

Acronyms used:
TP: ThinkPad
kbd: KeyBoarD
mobo: MOtherBOard

P.S.: These specs and tips are not of much use to you if you are one of these species: Gamer, heavy video-editing, number-cruncher, etc. where CPU power becomes too critical a factor. But the general guideline will still help you. And neither have I taken Apple Macs into consideration.

A clarification...

After the post: My love, finally she's out! many people actually thought I bought a new lappy. No, she same old flame of mine! Just that I happened to blog on that soooo freaking late!

C is my mother tongue too!

Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C.

-Linus Torvalds

For the curious souls: http://lwn.net/Articles/249460/

I love this guy, and his view, but not everything that he says in that post. C is my mother tongue, anyway! And there's very little doubt about it after the fact that I've taken the much dreaded but highly revered course from CMU's CS dept: 15-213: Introduction to Computer Systems, the course that gives CMU it's ZIP!

P.S. No offense intended to my C++ programmer buddies! This was just an interesting thread I thought of sharing. Views in that post are definitely too strong, or even arrogant I would say.

My love, finally she's out!

More than a year back, when I wrote about her, some of you guessed it, but many didn't have a clue as to what's coming. After failed attempts, they stopped inquiring.
Finally, time has come to introduce her! This relationship has been a little older than a year, and I know it's very late to introduce her, but better late than never!!!
I fell in love the first day I saw her, at IBM, probably. Mesmerized by her beauty I was wondering if I'll ever get her! Finally, now, I HAVE her! Albeit wasn't easy doing so! With sleek body, amazing features, rugged yet beautiful, unbeatable built, sexy... Oh GOD, I can't stop appreciating her! I have been wanting to write about her, but haven't the peace of mind and time to do so, until today. This is my best attempt do justice to her beauty...

Presenting before you none other than my IBM ThinkPad T43!

~~~claps and applauds~~~

come on guys, show some respect! The only real competitor to her was Sony Vaio! Making the call between them wasn't easy! In retrospect, T43 still won hands down!

Originally designed in Japan, ThinkPads have had a legacy that's been difficult to break. I'm not sure how well Lenovo will keep the name up, but fortunately, I have the T43 originally designed and assembled by IBM (Japan, I guess).

So? What makes me love this machine so dearly! Before that, I'll tell you what's my configuration:
0. 512 MB blazing fast 533 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
(That was the fastest available, but today it's succeeded by 666 MHz I guess)
1. UltraSlim Matshita UJ-822S DVD-RW (this costed me a fortune!)
(There apparently is only 1 maker of DVD-RW of 9mm thickness)
2. Breathkaing SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) resolution
3. HDD: 80GB Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, 7200 rpm
4. ATI Mobility Radeon X300 Graphics Card
5. Mobo: Intel 915GM
6. Display Size: 14.1"
7. Wight: 5 lbs
8. Keyboard: Full size Thia NMB (the BEST kbd out there!)
9. 1.86 GHz Pentium M
A. WiFi: Intel PRO/wireless 2915 ABG
B. Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
C. Fingerprint Reader

So what makes me LOVE this beauty!
Don't know where to start...
Ok! Simplicity of her design scores highest on the charts! Extremely simple, superlatively no-nonsense design is what took my heart away! I believe I have a thing for Japanese designs (ref. Head over heels). No unnecessary bells-n-whistles. It immediately projects an impression that I mean business! Titanium body gives it all the sturdiness a laptop can acquire. 1+ year of usage and it's steel hinges still don't show a sign of any play. If you have handled some poorly built plasticy Dell lappies, you will understand what I mean. The steel hinges doubles up as heat dissipating element. Genius, isn't it!

Keyboard is one of THE BEST: NBM Thai made keyboard. There are many varieties of kbds on TP, and thank GOD that I'll not bore you guys about it. But, of course, if you planning on buying one, do email me back. And NMB is THE BEST! Of course you don't have a choice of getting your first kbd, but I was lucky to get the best one. You might even get a cheaper Chicony or some other poor kbd. This beauty has spoilt me now, I have never liked any other kdb after I used this one! Kbd has all the keys in RIGHT place, no brain-dead rearranging of home-del-pgup-pgdwn & cursor keys. And trust me, really really trust me when I say it's frustrating to find key on kbd when you are dying to meet your deadlines! Only the Fn key in place of Ctrl requires a little adjustment. But hey, anything for this beauty.
It's trackpoint is amazing! I hate the touch pad, its darn tooooooo slow to be used. And if you happen to press the touch pad a little too hard while navigating, you might end up dragging a whole lotta shit!!! Not to mention, if you have selected a zillion photos to be moved and while you are dragging, your tap gets registered as double click! BTW, you gotta be stupid enough to move files on GUI, but still! Once you get used to this trackpoint, you won't ever want to come back to touchpads! Ask any TP user and you will understand what I mean. Besides, using the trackpoint (that revered small red dot at the center of my kbd) gives me enormous speed in moving the pointer, enough to impress anyone around! You gotta believe me on this. I have had a couple of friends gasping in frustration: "What the !@$# are you doing, I didn't get a thing! That was too fast!" Kbd has absolutely no unwanted Play/Rwd/Fwd and other absolutely frustratingly brain-dead and useless multimedia keys.

Screen: The SXGA+ give whooping 1400 x 1050 of screen resolution. Once you see a movie/picture on this, only Sony Bravia can spoil you! It's crisp and 1400 x 1050 is a LOT of screen real estate. Some ppl find it irritating working on high res, but I find it amazingly cool.

I bet I did miss a lot, maybe I'll keep updating this!

All in all, ThinkPads are is THE pinnacle of notebook designs! Touch Wood!
Special Thanks to:
ThinkPad forums where I kept reading posts, queries, problem reports, solutions, etc. It's moderators and users for replying promptly, Chris in particular. To my Uncle, to be kind enough to buy it on my behalf from US. A similarly spec'ed TP here would have costed my twice as much and still wouldn't get everything I got! And special thanks to my bro for letting me keep this beauty, while originally intended for him!

Choosing a Laptop.
I have spent endless hours reading posts after posts, reviews after reviews for more than 3 months before deciding the exact config and model. Like me, if you don't have unlimited money resource to buy a laptop, you would want to be maximize your value for money!
So, I'm going to make another post to address that concern. And also on after-sales-service. I've had a horror story there.

--- edit---
Here you go: Choosing a Laptop/Notebook

What's up, Part-II

Part-II (in continuation to Part-I)
No matter how much I write about this whole ordeal of applying and accepting admissions to US universities, I won't be able to cover every damn thing! Nonetheless, I'm not discouraged from attempting it! So, firstly, why wasn't I shraing this... simply because things were very very tentative back then. And besides that, I wasn't very sure if I'll get offers from univs I had applied to. I didn't want to spread the word unnecessarily. I've been through this kind of experience once already. Plus, with too many resignation rumours going around in Nevis, I didn't want to take a chance. I was all dejected as I kept getting rejects... all rejects to start with, then 1 waiting list, and only 1 offer. I was all gloomy and aloof, confused wheter to accept it or not. I wasn't enjoying work at office either.

Then, on one auspicious, Thursday I guess, I got an email, with that title that had been racing my beats for past 4 months: 'Admission Decision'! Every night, at odd hours, I used to get up and check if I've got any replies from univs. I was just too desperate for a break, to study, to move out of Nevis and do something better with my life. And BINGO! I got the admit to CMU-INI! It was THEN that I decided I'm definitely going for masters. But yet had a LONG way to go: Transfer of Tech at office, pulling finances together, applying for visa, visa documentation, getting visa, etc. By no means, any of these were megre and easy tasks! It's real PITA to go through all these. But, in the end, I believe it's worth the time and effort spent. And I can write on and on non-stop on each of these and still not cover everything.

After the visa preparation ordeal was over, came the much anticipated day of visa interview. I drove from Pune early in the morning at about 0511 hrs, reached VFS lounge (US visa consulate's facility) at 0745 hrs. I was scheduled for interview at 0901 hrs. After waiting for 2 good hours, I was usherd in @#$@ed up unventilated swampy room. With no fans facing me. After sweating like a pig for 1 more hour, we were taken to another room, the so-called AC room, which was no better then the previous one, only that it's situation in basement made it even more choking. Then came call for people scheduled for interview for 0901 hrs. I got a chance only in 3rd lot. The bus drove us to the consulate, where I had to wait for another 45 mins or so. Then, after harrowing checkup, I finally got a token! Thank GOD! I could at least see Visa Officers now. I'm nearing my goal, I thought! I was called within 15 minutes, and my interview was over in 31 seconds flat! Only questions I was asked were:
1. Why are you goin to US
Ans: Duh!!! You are holding my I-20, can I go for anything other than studies?
2. Which course?
blah blah...
3. How are you managing finances?
another blah blah....
4. Why is your sponsoror intrested in sponsoring you?
more blah blah....

All the time he was doing something on his PC. Then he said, so sounded like: 'Congratulations! And wish you great career ahead. You are granted the visa'! WHAT? I couldn't hear him :( But the smile on his face, and the fact that he kept my passport with him gave me a clue that I've got the visa! Yupie!!! I thanked my VO from the bottom of my heart, not once, but twice, and left the room! The fact that my interview was over in 31 seconds was not sinking in yet.

Apparently, a buddy of mine was standing in the queue JUST next to mine! And I didn't even notice her :( She did notice me, though. But probably she was VERY NERVOUS with not in a mood to socialize in such an unsocial enviroment of visa interview. Only when she told me I came to know she too was there for her visa interview. I was done by 1245 hrs and I wanted to take passport the same day, which meant I'll have to spend 4-5 hours lingering around. Then me, mom and daddy decided to go to Charni Road Chaupati, our favourite place from the time we grew up in Mumbai. Had lunch there, a stroll on the beach in the with scorching sun, took a long drive around Marine Drive, and then back into the queue! I was thrilled to get the visa.

Then came the tickets booking. The agent refused to take check, and I didn't carry cash of that order to buy the tickets. My agent is in Mumbai itself. After endless calls, and failed attempt to manage that much dough, we managed to convince him that we'll send him demand draft the VERY NEXT DAY (I wasn't carrying any ATM cards either)! Thank GOD, he agreed. I couriered the DD, and to my horror, even after 3 days it didn't reach him. I was panic striken :( As much I was worried about having to shell extra bucks for tickets, I was worried about NOT getting the tickets of my travel date at all. After 100s of calls to DTDC, talking to, God know how many dumba$$ a$$h__e regional managers, managers, deputies of DTDC courier in Pune and Mumbai, all the information we got was: 'Your courier is on it's way for delivery'! !@#$ you! I know that, I can see that online myself. They all kept playing blame game, since 10 in morning to 2 in the noon. It was then that I got a call from my agent that he's got my DD! Phew! I was soooo relieved! I've sworn that I WOULD NEVER use DTDC now! And would advice you the same!

With tickets issued, there's another, what I would call, BIGGEST, of tasks: Money, Finance, $$$s! Showing ability to pay for princely fees at CMU and actually paying it are completely different! While I sit here at Heathrow Airport, I don't have a DD for my fees, I'll get it later, once I reach Pittsburgh, hopefully IN TIME to avoid any problems.

I really envy people who have got their admits in very early, done with their visas within a month, followed by their finances in place, already a step ahead in registeration process, and shopping done, tickets booked! And all set to move, 3 months well in advance!!! All I can say is, some people are just darn lucky.

As to journey, flew with Jet Airways from Mumbai to London (Heathrow), and in United from London to Washington and Washington to Pittsburgh. The flight from Mumbai to London was smooth, except that at London you are allowed only '1' hand baggage, and I was carrying 2! Somehow I managed to sneak in with 2! Thank GOD! Otherwise they would have asked me to check-in the extra piece of baggage. With 3 pieces already checked-in, the fourth would have costed me a BOMB! Flight operators are notorious for charging princely amounts for extra baggages. But I was lucky to not get into that trouble.

At Pittsburgh, a buddy of mine was promptly waiting to receive me at the airport! On the way long journey back in bus to this apartment, where I'll spend few days before I get my apartment, he pointed me to every important place I might have to visit during few initial days. He was more than helpful in making me feel at home! Just today he gave me a guided tour of the CMUniverse!

What's up?

Part-I
So... why sudden online disappearance!!! If not all, then most of you are wondering so!
No updates on blog, you don't find me online on yahoo messenger, GTalk...
Sluggish email responses....
Well, don't worry, I wasn't abducted by sone aliens! Neither was I underground to save my a$$ from some bombings and kick-a$$ terrorist attacks!

So what's the deal???
Well, I've quit Nevis, about 3 weeks back now, and for a good cause... I'm going for my Masters to States! Yes, you heard it right, MS to Carnegie Mellon University. In fact part of this post is edited at the London Heathrow Airport, while I wait for my connecting flight to Washington.

Past 6-7 months have been full of frenzied activities: application plus office work. None even slightly considerate of human limits. I have spent sleepless nights over shortlisting universities, going through list of professors, understanding the courses, their requirements, preparing Statement of Purpose (SoP), getting transcripts form college and university (this is no small feat), readying resume, consolidating finances, and preparing package for each of the univs, with it's own unique requirements! And then the online applications! Phew! It was one hell of an experience!
And for good part of 3 months or so, this was the state of my room (my bro's room actually, which I capture/sabotaged for that duration!).

To quote you one hellish experience... due to my field of specialization, I had very limited choice of universities. For 2 univs I decided (GOD knows for what !@#$ing reason) to apply ON the last !@$#ing day!!! And guess what... the website started rejecting my credit card payment! Hell! I was scared to death, my face white as chalk and hands freezing cold, on the verge of shivering, and beads of sweat glistening on my forehead (the next day they told me there was a glitch at their end while they were upgrading my card). After too many failed attempts, I started calling buddies at unearthly hours for their credit cards. None of them had it :( I'M DEAD! Just then it occured to me to call Arun (aka Anna) who's out there in USC. Fortunately, I caught him just before he left for the office. And being there just for 3-4 months, he had managed to secure a credit card with enough credit left! Thank GOD! He paid the online fees and my registeration was complete! (Sad part is that I didn't get offer from any of these 2). But that 1 hr spent on application was the LONGEST!

But why didn't I share this openly... this post has gotten too long so I'll post it next time.
Keep reading....

Better GMail and Mohammad Rafi

Too little techie stuff of lately... what else to rescue other than vim...
Better GMail is really a very useful Firefox add-on for keyboard fanatics, which also translates to vim fanatics. I wouldn't dive into intricacies of the addon, because it has been already done extensively by Lifehacker.

vi's i,j,k,l commands are already supported on GMail, even without this extension. But this addon takes keyboard control to next level, you can:
- Jump to a label
- Create a new label
- Trash an email
- mark it as read/unread
- archive
and do LOADS more, just at the press of a key! Click the above snapshot glance what all it gives you. Once you get used to it, there's no looking back! Give it a shot! And my bet is you'll love it!
(Note: emacs users, stay away from this plugin, you'll come to hate it!)

BTW, there's another, what I would call, mother-of-all addons exclusively for vim fanatics: vimperator. I haven't given it a shot yet, but just glanced at it. And it's nothing less than a full fledged vim INSIDE firefox!

Oh yes, and for last 3-4 days, I've been listening to this melodious song sung by none other than my Mohd. Rafi (only few of the persons who can be called real singers, most humane and down-to-earth celebrity, with God's gift to mesmerize his listeners) from Tere Ghar ke Samne. I put it on repeat-mode and listen it while driving to and from office, NON-STOP. For 1+ hr straight, each way of the journey: Tu Kahan Ye Bata.
Yes, I'm a little crazy, but that's just me! You gotta give it a try, and listen to it (try it when you are at peace with yourself). And you'll feel you have attained the blissful state of momentary nirvana. That's the magic of Rafisab's voice.
Pick the song 'Tu Kahan Ye Bata' from this folder. Also find lyrics in the same folder. Passkey is 'rafi'. Oh and did I forget to say the lyricist is none other than the legendary Hasrat Jaipuri!

What have I been upto

It's been a long long time I've posted... posted anything interesting... It's more because I'm bogged down by so many things happening around, rather than, not having anything worth while sharing. There's NEVER a dearth of things I want to share.

So what the hell have I been doing lately, besides getting ground in the usual, boring, mundane and frustrating product releases and useless reports...

Movie Update

Yes, you know that, however busy I'm, I manage to see at least one movie in a fortnight, if not 3 or 4.
Jhoom Bara Bar!
Yes, I know the first reaction from the most of you will be" 'Atul! I don't believe you even agreed to watch this!'
Well then, the fact buddies, is that, I DID! I @!#$ing DID! Rather I HAD TO! (Note: not because of GF! Thank GOD I haven't any, to force me into such inhuman acts!) I'm so ashamed to admit this, that I walk with my heads down in front of movie buffs! Without diving into reasons why I watched it, I wanna tell you PLEASE, FOR GOD's SAKE DON'T EVER watch this shit! I'm telling you, the movie sucks, 3 love stories till the interval, and then 2 more after the interval. Never ending songs... and ever shortening clothes... (oh yes, don't watch with your younger/elder siblings if you aren't too comfy) and the @!#$ed up song (read title song) keeps playing every 15 minutes! I tell you, you have to be completely brain dead (not once, but a hundred times) to like this movie! The Bachans suck BIG time ever on the screen! My verdict: I believe the makers of this movie, including Bachans, should switch to the vacuum cleaner business where people actually want products that suck!!! Once again, NEVER WATCH THIS MOVIE! May GOD forgive me of committing this sin! Amen!

Guns of Navarone

An impregnable fortress... An invincible army... and the unstoppable commando team Another war-time classic, based on the battle of Stalingrad. Very well made movie... once again only makes be think... Only the dead knows what a war was like!

The Gods Must Be Crazy-I:

A Sho in the Kalahari desert encounters technology for the first time - in the shape of a Coke bottle. Thinks it's GOD's gift... And the life is NEVER the same for him again!
A nice thought provoking and light hearted movie, with a nice love story, good cast and amazing direction. What's most exciting about this movie is that how the small tribe survives in the extremities of Kalahari desert.

Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End

You will find a zillion reviews out there... so I'll keep it short...
Amazing special effects, worth watching once in a theatre. But the story is VERY incomprehensible. You better own a DVD if, like me, you can't take the fact that you can't explain every word exchanged on the screen. And don't dare watching it without seeing the first part, if not the previous 2.

Life Update

There's a one? Oh! Sorry! Next time around I'll remember that there's one! No novels! No new programming language (my stint with python died a premature death!) No new treks! No new places! Ah.. there's 1 new place I went to, 3D Funky, near Chandani Chowk. Nice place to kill time if you are in a group. I liked bowling the MOST followed by air hockey. First time I ever played both.