The Indian Engineer

If you are a human being who is aged anywhere from 16 to around 23 years, and happen to be living in India right now, odds are that academically, only two options will be swimming around in your head: Engineering or Medicine! Between the two, I'd say Medicine is the more coveted profession to follow. But that usually means around 9-years of rigourous, sleep-less, mind-numbing hard-word. And after the nine years, you have to constantly keep yourself updated with the latest developments in the industry. Whew! A tall order by anyone's standards.

I fit the above mentioned profile, almost. So which one did I choose? I chose Engineering. 4-years of relaxed, fun-filled, party-driven high-road to employment. Or so I thought, until I joined one such college. Everyone told me, "Hey man, go for 'Computer Science and Engineering'. It's the easiest. Moreover man, you like, know programming like the back of your hand. And in the end, you'll get recruited into some nice, big software company!". But I would have none of it. I was always intrigued by cutting-edge electronic technologies. So, what do you suppose I did? Well, I took up 'Electronics and Communication Engineering.' I heard some mumblings from my well-wishers that sounded something like, "It's the toughest stream. He doesn't know what he's getting into..." Of course, I didn't heed the warnings.

Next thing I know, I'm a 4th year, pot-smoking, alcohol consuming, blogging, already-recruited, wanna-be software engineer, who doesn't know his ACs from his DCs (well, almost! Who doesn't like comic exaggeration?). I currently stand recruited in a software firm that's all Indian and has a good reputation but doesn't have quality work. Atleast not for the fresh faces. Moreover, if i am to have an inkling of hope of joining the company, I have six months od my course left, in which to clean up my act. If I don't, I might as well kiss the job goodbye and get into my parent's black-book which I have skillfully managed to avoid so far. I have exactly 1 semester (6 months) left of my college-life. And right now, no matter what I do, the grass looks more business-like on the other side..!

Ever felt like you're in a spiral with a vacuum-pump at the bottom end? And you can't stop the downward motion that has achieved its resonance with its environment? No? Well, I do. And no matter how bad it looks (and it is, mind you) I can't help but enjoy myself in this sorry situation I am in...

eXlinks???

What is up with eXlinks? Being a blogger, I was naturally inclined to click the banner that proclaimed loudly...

'exlinks is the ultimate exponential link-swapping site exploding system and it's completely free. Signing up now will give ... extra benefits'

and now, I am even more intrigued! What really got my horns blowing was this exposé :
eXlinks Exposed.

I say, try it out. What do we have to lose?

For more information on such stuff and others check out this site.

Dawn of the Don...

I went to watch Farhan Akhtar's new Don the other day and I must say, I was impressed! Now, I don't say things like that about a bollywood movie. From time immemorial I have had a thing against bollywood movies and movie-makers. Take Karan Johar for instance. To me he is the great over-doer. A person who destroys his work by over doing it to death. A case in example: Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.

The new Don is a remake of an old movie of the 70's with the same title that starred one of the greatest bollywood legends: Amitabh Bachchan. Everyone expected more or less the same story. But Farhan Akhtar had other plans. He changed the plot and gave it a jolting twist at the end. The twist was so unexpected that people started leaving the theatre even before the climax thinking that the movie was over. Poor souls.

Farhan Akhtar has always introduced firsts into the technicalities of bollywood. Like the well choreographed fight sequences or the completely deceptive double-roles. Each frame of the movie is packed to the brim with style and gloss a la the matrix. Although I don't care much for Shah Rukh Khan's acting I must say Farhan Akhtar managed to convince him to give a more subtle and underplayed performance. That's a first for SRK who has always been over-dramatic. But this has caused critics to blame the movie for lacking in josh. I beg to differ. The movie had a lot of expectations as the old Don was a runaway hit. One of the biggest movies not just of that time but even today.

Farhan Akhtar's previous 2 movies Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya were also spectacular. I hope to god that this director will stay on in bollywood and churn out more of such cunningly contrived movies. Farhan, take a bow.

Sports and India

Indian sports is in a state of complete disorder. Despite the growing billion+ population, Indian sports just hasn't clicked together. Atleast not yet...

But the bright side is that the whole Indian sports presence is increasing globally, albeit slowly. Lets look at some of the Indian sports people who have made it globally.

Cricket is a sport where India is well established. When talking about Indian Cricket, the name that jumps into everyone's mind is :- Sachin Tendulkar. He is truly a global Cricket superstar. He is widely considered the best batsman in the world. But this isnt a one man army type thing. There are others : Dravid, Ganguly, Sehwag, Kumble, etc... And there are many amazingly contested matches between India and its political rival Pakistan. But this is well known in the world and so lets move on without much ado to other sports.

Tennis. In tennis, we have always had a representative. The Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi doubles partners have been ranked the number 1 on many occasions. Thats number one in the world. Now they have split. Paes is with Navratilova and Bhupathi with Mary Pierce. But currently the hot news is Sania Mirza. She is a young and energetic player who has won over many an Indian praise and heart. The recently concluded Wimbeldon(her first appearance) saw her breeze past the first round with ease. But she was defeated in the second round. But that was not a bad thing because she put up a fight with the more fancied Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. This spirited performance made one BBC commentator say "Sania Mirza, remember that name cause we are going to see a lot of her." Although she isn't in the league of a Maria Sharapova, she still has an unbeleivably large fan following here in India.

F1. One name : Narain Karthikeyan. Yup, an indian in the eighteen elite drivers from around the world. He is dubbed 'the fastest Indian'. In such a high profile sport like the Formula 1, the presence of an Indian is really meritorious. He drives a Jordan car. This explains why he hasn't accumulated any points(except on one occasion he finished 4th). But he has finished in front of his teammate Monteiro on most occasions. He too isn't in the league of a Montoya or Schumaker, but this could do wonders for Indians aspiring to be F1 drivers.
Hockey. India is a well known and established name in Hockey. But hockey in India is marred in politics and no steps are taken to improve its standards. Lets leave it at that.

Chess. Vishwanathan Anand. He was the first Asian to win the World Chess Championship. He has defeated Kasparov on numerous occasions. He is truly India's intellectual sport brand ambassador.

Soccer. Nothing of significance has ever been achieved by India in football. Personally, i would love for India to excell in football more than any other sport. But like hockey, this too is marred in political controversies and a chronic dose of doing nothing.

Athletics. Except for a few tiny blips on the radar screen(like Anju Bobby George) nothing of much significance.

Feels About Right...

Came across this joke on the net and I couldn't believe how true it all seemed:

Variation Law: If you change queues, the one you have left will start to move faster than the one you are in now.

Law of the Telephone: When you dial a wrong number, you never get an engaged one.

Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch.

Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of the Alibi: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the Next morning you will have a flat tire.

Bath Theorem: When the body is immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Law Of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases
when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.

Law of the Result: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.

Law Of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Theatre Rule: People with the seats at the furthest from the aisle arrive last.

Law Of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Nanotechnology? Wha' the...?

Imagine the earth. Imagine a soccer-ball lying on the earth. Now imagine shrinking the size of the earth (along with the ball) to that of a grape. Now, imagine the size of the shrunken ball. That is how small a nano-particle is!!

The 21st century is the slated to be called "Century of the Nanotechnology". Nanotechnology is the manipulation of nano(atomic) particles to help people to perform a wide array of different functions that are today considered impossible. Nanometre means 10 to the power of -9 metres. That is how small this technology is. But its applications are as varied as that of curing cancer to speeding up computers.

Nanobots

Imagine creating machines with atomic precision and almost zero power consumption. One such device would be a nanobot. A 'nanobot' is a sort of robot made to about the size of a single atom. These are constructed to perform a predefined task. Thousands of such nanobots can perform tasks (like getting rid of pollution from the air or getting the ocean surface clean after an oil spill particle by particle) together. Thus simultaneously making the task easier as well as faster. In addition these bots could be self-replicating, eliminating the need for creating newer ones each time these bots fails.

Nanomedicine & Nanobiology

Now medically, thousands of such 'nanobots' could be assigned to each person to take care of his medical needs. For example, these 'nanobots' could act as 'dust clouds' around a person. When a medical emergency arises, this 'dust cloud' will act accordingly. And since they act at the atomic or sub-micron levels, the repairing of tissues and destruction of infection causing organisms is made possible.

Consider a patient inflicted with cancer. These bots could be inserted into the patient and then could be used to search and destroy the cancerous cells thus getting rid of the patient's cancer!! Many companies are already in clinical trials for drug delivery mechanisms based on nanotechnology!

Nanocomputing

In computing terms, nanotechnology has already made somewhat huge strides. As computing power increases rapidly, manufactures are finding that it is increasingly becoming difficult to follow Moore's Law(which stated that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 18 months) which has been holding true for a very long time. But a point will be reached when following Moore's Law would simply not be practical.

This is where nanotechnology steps in. By manipulating atomic and sub-atomic particles, their charges can be used to mimic the binary 1s and binary 0s used in today's digital computing. This will increase the transistor count significantly. It is estimated that using nanotechnology, the computing speed would increase 1000 times!!! Now that's a lot of power. In 1989 when one scientist used a Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) to spell out the letters IBM using xenon atoms.

Some other uses of nanotechnology i found interesting were machines tiny gears and cogs made from atoms, miniature or atomic submarines in the bloodstreams controlling the presence of micro-organisms, carbon nanotubes, etc.

These are just some of the areas that will be affected by nanotechnology. Once the impeding problems and wrinkles are sorted out and nanotechnology takes off, life will become more easier and healthier. Can't wait!

Head in a Fountain!

For the past few days I have been having two thoughts. That's not so bad you say? Well it isn't bad unless it is both simultaneous and different at the same time. That is the case here. I have two thoughts I can't quite put into words. The overall effect is like feeling both: happy and sad/pain and relief/ deep and shallow/high and low. Like the feeling when you put your head in a fountain: you feel cool and yet, suffocated! Okay, bad example.

But still, what started all these random ramblings was the book I started reading a couple of days back.It was The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I didn't know what I was getting into. I had heard about it before and some said it was nice and others said it was boring. I wasn't prepared for what I was about to read. Now I can't get it out of my head. I had expected a normal everyday novel with an exaggerated ending. But instead it was... The Fountainhead!

I cannot put in words how caught up I was in the story of Howard Roark and Dominique Francon (with villainous inputs by William Toohey). If you haven't read it yet, I would recommend you do so; but be warned it is not your typical, everyday novel. It hides behind its grandeur an exciting new kind of philosophy called Objectivism. And to think the book was published in the late 1920s!

Ayn Rand portrays her concept of an ideal man, the woman for the ideal man and the villain for the ideal man. All the other characters are present merely to contrast him. She succeeds in what she set out to achieve. The birth of a new philosophy. It is said that Ayn Rand herself declared that no one would be able to achieve the standards of Howard Roark. He was just too perfectly ideal. Take a look at this book. It's worth it...

The VRD

I know its been a while since I posted. I have been busy trying to juggle my college life with my umm.. religious life. Crazy working hours. Even crazier eating hours. And to top it all off, I had to give a seminar on a topic of my choosing. The topic I chose was the Virtual Retinal Display.

I am an extremely shy guy who tries to hide his shyness by actually maintaining a close group of friends. So I wasn't all too excited about taking a seminar in front of 50 students and a few teachers. So I worked really hard to make this happen. And I must say I'm impressed with myself. Even the teachers were visibly impressed. And that's a tall order in itself.