Enjoyable experience: Kane and Abel

I usually don't read novels. But, off late due to my extended tour of Bangalore, thanks to the Bangalore traffic, I have made a habit to carry a book along with me. This way I make good use of the time rather than stare out of the window and hope my bus doesn't hit any of the two-wheelers beside. 

One such book I started reading was Kane and Abel by Jeffery Archer. The book was recommended by a couple of my friends. 

In short, the story is about two people, Kane and Abel, who are born and raised in contrasting environments but end up crossing each other's path. The common thing about both of them is: they are born on the same day and they are both very smart. They excel in all their endeavors but always come back to the little unnecessary feud they started. The book also shows how feuds are meaningless and don't serve any purpose than bringing all the parties involved down.
Pros:
The story is fast paced. The book covers the entire lifetime of the two people, hence, the story moves rather fast. The story also tries top include all the famous institutions at the time when the story takes place. This made the book even more interesting for me. In a way, the story of Kane is like a Hollywood movie, rich elegant and based on logic and knowledge, while, Abel's story is like a Bollywood story where luck overrides logic and the hero triumphs amidst adversary. The book made me to look up for few words on the dictionary. This is one of the reasons I read books- improve my vocabulary.
Cons:
The author doesn't really develop the environment; he just proceeds with the story. This is unlike few other authors like Dan Brown and John Grisham, who describe the situation as well as the environment which makes the story more enjoyable. The climax is very bad. The characters are built up so elegantly and they are killed so fast even before you realize it. I don't mind reading hundred more pages of the book if the story has the same grasping effect.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to enjoy a wonderful story. It's worth the time.

Horoscopes

I might be an engineer graduate(will officially graduate this weekend) but I have some faith in things like horoscopes. So, I have a feeling to prove this horoscope is actually true. Every day, every horoscope I read is different in different sources. Probabilistically, one of those should match my daily experience and so to prove that horoscopes work and someone can predict your future. But the only catch being, we don't know which horoscope is our correct future. You have a million mobile apps, Facebook apps, Newspapers, Magazines and what not!
I realised that it is quite useless to read all those horoscopes because I would spend more time to shape my life to match one of those horoscopes, rather than do the things in the way I would have done. So, I came up with this brilliant idea that I would read the horoscopes at the end of the day. One of the horoscopes would definitely match my day's experience and I would feel very happy that I am leading my life according to the movement of stars. I told you it was a brilliant idea.
Today, I ended up reading the following horoscope in a mobile app which closely fits my day. However, the only problem is that today's horoscope tells me what to do tomorrow. I am in a big dilemma, whether to go on with the horoscope or go with the flow of life and take the chances to scare the Gods.

Cancer Aug 29 2012
Once again, Moonchild, you are faced with having to forgive someone. You sometimes have trouble with this concept, and so you probably need to be reminded that forgiveness is more for you than it is for those who have offended you. But the bigger problem with your current dilemma is that the one you need to forgive probably doesn't even think he/she needs to be forgiven. It's hard to be gracious when someone who has hurt you doesn't even acknowledge being the cause of the injury. But you have great power right now - the power to just let it go without analyzing it. Just let it go.
--
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Job Hunt Ends Today

Now, I can actually say, "My job hunt ends here". Maybe I could have said it a couple of weeks back but I just wanted to make sure.
When you are in the final year of the BE course you have an added burden of finding the right job. And that too when you are in the core course of ECE, the right job being a ECE-oriented job is even more hard to find. Sometime in July last year my job hunt started with an internship interview at LSI. I failed to clear it. This will be the first of my three tries at LSI.
My job hunt could have ended with my internship itself. Unfortunately(or fortunately ?), I couldn't get a clear offer from Lattice Semiconductor. A month and a half ago, I was holding an offer from Wipro(IT) and preparing for my last semester's finals. What amazes me is that I never thought I would take so much time to find a job. No one ever told it would be so difficult to find a job. I had fun in trying my luck at the best companies in India but it is a different feeling when you walk after you hear the words"you can leave for the day". My experience with job-hunting can be classified into the following cases, I think I have experienced pretty much all the possible cases.

• I was rejected after the written round.
• I was rejected after the technical round.
• I was rejected after the HR round.
• I was rejected after being offered the job. yeah, this is possible. they just blamed the bad economy for the mess.
• and then, the best part, I cleared all the rounds and I was offered the job. This happened thrice(without considering the previous case).

Anyway, I have decided to choose TI among the offers I had. From this job-hunting season I take away that you need to be ready and to be dynamic in planning, as well as, execution of the plan because no one can guarantee that anything will happen as expected. 

Talent takes you to the doorstep but only luck will help you to open the door

#PESITmemories

Monday, the 28/5/2012. It was not going to be just another monday. Many of my classmates and myself had our final final-exam of 4-year BE degree, a Final year Project Presentation. By 4pm we had finished with our presentations and as we headed home, on the way, we made a routine visit to a eatery nearby.
Everything was the same. Nothing was amiss from the previous day. I played a couple of games of FIFA 12 before I had to surrender the TV to my parents who were interested to watch TV9 for more exclusive coverage of Jagan Mohan Reddy's arrest.
As usual, picked up my phone and let some tweets out before I spotted this:

Are we trending#PESITmemories?? RT: @sachingowda: #PESITmemories - Sitting in OAT and having lunch with some people
— Gowrav Shenoy (@gshny) May 28, 2012

And this

Shall we trend #PESITmemories?? PESIT people plz reply...
— Gowrav Shenoy (@gshny) May 28, 2012

Let the riot begin :-P "@gshny: Shall we trend #PESITmemories?? PESIT people plz reply..."
— Jayadeep T P (@jayadeeptp) May 28, 2012

Sometimes, as they say, the mass will be ready just a spark will be missing! So few PESITians started to tweeted their sweetest memories of PESIT. This few grew large enough to send it onto the top of trending lists of Bangalore and India.
So here are some of the tweets which I liked. The tweets are from a small group of PESITiams whom I follow

Hoax Bomb call #PesitMemories
— Guruprasad Alse (@SumneGuru) May 28, 2012

Way to go!! RT @varun_mp #PESITmemories NO 1 in Bangalore trends :)
— Sachin Gowda G (@sachingowda) May 28, 2012

Every speech began with this one :) RT: @nithdotin: in 1976..........gymkhana.......#PESITmemories
— Gowrav Shenoy (@gshny) May 28, 2012

Thank you #PESIT for everything. Awesome Seniors, Juniors, Friends. #PesitMemories
— Pradeep Nayak (@prdpnayak) May 28, 2012

#PESITmemories .. @mvvijesh & I discussing the possibility of a photography club in college at the end of 1st semester! @PixelsPesit
— Priya Prakash (@pricelessjunk) May 28, 2012

Well this is twitter so you should expect this #spam

@jayadeeptp Free Identity Theft Protection Incredible ! Pretty amazing
— felipe.s.palmeira (@felipespalmeira) May 28, 2012

And back with #PESITmemories

And we've just gone No. 1 in India with #PESITmemories, folks!
— Anand M S (@yemmay) May 28, 2012

@sachingowda Dont sleep till it goes to top 1 #PesitMemories
— Guruprasad Alse (@SumneGuru) May 28, 2012

everyone rushing to big bazaar to buy white shirt,black pant,tie combo for first DAC :P #PESITmemories
— nithin a (@nithdotin) May 28, 2012

Typical Gals :P #nooffence RT: @pricelessjunk: #PESITmemories Patafying all the external examiners by talking to them in kannada :P
— Gowrav Shenoy (@gshny) May 28, 2012 

this EPIC circular... this can happen only in PESIT#PESITmemories twitter.com/ipraveenkrishn…
— praveen krishna (@ipraveenkrishna) May 28, 2012

being updated with current political situations with contradicting views thanks to @rohitbhatta & @yemmay #PESITmemories
— Susheel Kumar (@callmesusheel) May 28, 2012

 

#PESITmemories watching a football ground turn into a two-storey parking-lot #ithappens
— Jayadeep T P (@jayadeeptp) May 28, 2012

Cant forget watching the Cricket World Cup 2011 final on a huge screen at college auditorium . #PESITmemories
— Jayadeep T P (@jayadeeptp) May 28, 2012

The Mysterious Graffiti Wall !! #PESITmemories
— varun punganur (@varun_mp) May 28, 2012

#PESITmemories Talking DJ to getting the apple logo painted on the graffiti wall! And he did!
— Priya Prakash (@pricelessjunk) May 28, 2012

I am sure most of my followers would have muted the pesit hashtag... Sorry folks.. My college and i am proud of it.. :)
— Gowrav Shenoy (@gshny) May 28, 2012

never can u sit at peace in the OAT. some guy will start whistle podu. #PESITmemories   — Susheel Kumar (@callmesusheel) May 28, 2012

As #NBT said 'Pride Forever Business Never' "@mvvijesh: The ever-empty Campus Store! #PESITmemories"— Jayadeep T P (@jayadeeptp) May 28, 2012

 #PESITmemories Yes our college makes us miserable. But we're proud of it. And intensely so.  — Anand M S (@yemmay) May 28, 2012

OK. I thought of putting many more tweets but I really became tired of scrolling down - the tweets were going on...You can catch all the tweets here.
I am pretty sure neither @sachingowda nor @gshny thought #PESITmemories will become so big.Yes, we made #PESITmemories to trend at the number one spot on Indian trend list within 2 hrs, less than a SEE paper duration :D.
I am really proud to be a pass-out from PESIT and I am also happy that I was involved in helping #PESITmemories trend on Twitter on this Monday, the 28th May, 2012.

First Step into the Corporate World

4 years ago, I made a choice; for good or bad, I wanted to be an engineer. The engineer I dreamt was very different to what I am today or what I will end up being after 6 months. Each year my view of an engineer became clearer. It was neither a bad profession nor was it perfect. I made up my mind; I need to 'earn' a job before doing my higher studies. 

Well I needed someone to hire me first. I had the opportunity to give many interviews but I struck gold only my seventh time! I got an intern-ship at Lattice Semiconductors this past week. It is not exactly 'gold' at least a golden opportunity to showcase my talent (or whatever is left of it). My friend Varun too made it through and interns at the same place.

Today was the first day at 'office'. Majority of my life, 18 years out of 21, I have been a student going to a school (except for 2 years in PU) for being taught lessons/subjects. Suddenly, I realized this was going to be different I was no more a student. I didn’t go to a school; I went to an 'office'. It was something new to me, few of my friends too, had already been-there, done-that. It always baffled me. How will it be? Will you get pampered? Will you get punished? Will you get appreciated? Nothing of such sort happened to me on the first day. 

First day, I was late to 'office'. I had to report at 9am but thanks to Bengaluru's traffic, I reached there by 930am. It was still cool, only few had turned up at the workplace. I think they had a wonderful weekend. Next, I was briefed about the kind of work what I might be assigned. This was the highlight moment, when I politely refused to drink a cup of tea. Now the 'real' work for the day began, reading the datasheets of the company's products. I didn't even read the 8051 micro-controller datasheet properly for my course!

Next up, lunch at 1245, looks like they already know PESIT's timetable, good for me. It was a 'Special Day' for the 'team' as the interns were arriving, so we go out for lunch at Silsila restaurant - pretty decent, but needs to get more customers.

I was back to the most-interesting work, reading datasheets.  Between 2pm and 3pm I fell asleep twice. The last time I woke up was when the tea was served. This time I couldn’t stop but drink the tea. Caffeine removes drowsiness or something like that. I suspect my mentor, saw me taking a power nap, we started to chit-chat. As we finished our tea, he told me to get back to work.

At 530pm I was still staring at the monitor trying to understand digital electronic concepts. A look at the watch reminded me of my satellite work which stretched onto 7pm some days. This was when my mentor made his way out. After 15 minutes my friend and I left the ‘office’ to attack the roads of Bengaluru.

How was the first day? Not bad, I was pampered but also warned of punishment, if things didn’t go right. I think the next 3 months will be a good experience to go through the intern world of corporate before making the jump. It was not even a peek into the actual ‘work’ that is done, but at least got an idea of what people in tall buildings do in A/C rooms in front of their monitors.

My Ice Cream Sandwich

A couple of weeks earlier, Google released the next version of Android, named Ice Cream Sandwich. In honour of that I made my own Ice Cream Sandwich :-D.
I hope Samsung ports ICS to my phone soon!

FIFA 12 Demo

Firstly, if you didn't know already, the demo version of FIFA 12 is out.

Secondly I tried it out on my ps3. And finally I was very very disappointed.
FIFA 12 is the most awaited game of this year. I was excited with all the new features they had mixed. Precision dribbling along with tactical defending and player impact engine was too much to resist. It seemed very nice. Moreover I think the bits of info the Twitter account of EA sports were giving was indeed interesting. With such excitement I began the download of FIFA 12 demo from the PSN store yesterday.
As usual I left the download to complete through the night. I installed it, first thing in the morning. The game started, selected my favorite club as FC Barcelona (Manutd not available in demo) . It was FIFA time (-morning 7am, glad my mom didn't see me playing).
Not so fast EA wanted to teach me some defending skills. The new defending skills are confusing and the worst part of the game. It took me 10 minutes to finish the tutorial itself. According to me, the standing tackle concept is removed. They have replaced with a new 'tackle' concept using which the players keep their foot front regardless of where the ball is. Yes it sounds so idiotic that it makes the defending impossible. After the tutorial I started the exhibition match thinking that I could survive the 6min match.
Barcelona vs OM.
I had to take the first touch, my routine game began, set my styles as counter attack and team pressing, made the move which usually creates crossing chance early in the game. Missed the header. And the AI got the possession of the ball. And after that I just made three touches on the ball. All three of them by the goalie.
Yes it was shameful, but atleast I didn't concede any goals ibm the match. Needless to say the match was draw. The defending is tough in the sense that there is no clear move to recover the ball. You get it if the AI throws away the possession or if he shoots and your goalie holds on to it. Your defenders keep running behind the AI.
A couple of games in the evening made me understand I had to keep a little more possession. This is when I saw the bad effects of tactical defending. The AI defenders don't press your team very much. You can dribble past them by using the sprint button. This is worse than FIFA 11 defending. However if the game build up is slow the defenders indeed covered ground and gave some competition. But still the wings are unprotected (untouched).
Also another bad thing I saw was the buggy graphics. Players tend to mix too much.
The good thing you can take away from the demo is the fact that the game is a demo version and the full version will usually be bug free and complete. The game is so buggy that Fabregas plays for both Barcelona and Arsenal. Some of the transfers are not yet effected.
The defending has to be different else there will be total chaos, every dribble has a chance of becoming a goal.
Even with all the complains I have I would still buy the game. I just want to see what is there in this game that it won 20 awards at the E3.