December 10, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Blogroll, Fedora, Fun, Life, Linux

The ultimate feel of freedom

I feel really bad when I have a look at blogroll and there are no new posts. What has happened to the so called blogger batch? Well, after a bit of inspection, I discovered that *they* (including me) have placements. But should you really give up what you like just because right now there is something else which is driving you nuts? These days, I see a lot of people (who were cool till a month ago) under serious stress. People like KBC, Ganja who are talented in every possible way from watching the stuff of the other type ( 😛 ) to studies. But its a matter of one or two sentence(s) to completely break them down. May god help them in interview.

What happened to the senior bloggers? Well, it seems few of them are angry at terrorists and want to refrain from blogging and few others think that writing four lines after forty days is blogging. And few others think that they are not kids anymore. The grown up MS guyz now refuse to blog. And few others are now aliens. Don’t expect to hear from them. Thats all! So no bloggers and hence no posts.

And I feel bad when I say that there are countable people in junior batches who actually blog 🙁 There used to be a fight for being in the top 10 in IIIT Blogroll. But now even if I don’t post for a week, my posts will still be in top 10 🙁 Come on people!! What happened to you all???

You might be wondering about the title of the post. The actual post starts here 😛 I feel this (pre-placement time) is the most awesome time of my stay at IIIT-H. I don’t know why but I am experiencing a feel good factor 😉 No tension, no pressure and then these economic crisis boosting the dollar 😛 Taking everything lighter than I can afford. Suddenly everything looks hollow. The studies, exams, placements everything. But still this is THE busiest time of my stay here. Spending all my time on videocache, intelligentmirror, blogging. More than 25 downloads per day of videocache are pushing me to work on it 🙂 And in this crucial time, all I care about is how fast my Fedora boots 😛

Good luck everyone for the placements. And have fun 🙂

December 3, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Google, Hacking, Hardware, Hosting, Life

Quick updates

Super busy with my VPS adventures. Updated VPS to 512MB RAM and 20GB HDD. Its super fast now at a cost of $50/month 😀 Learnt a heck of technology in past week.
76 downloads of my software videocache in last two days 😀
Thinking thinking thinking and so on.
Future still uncertain.
Had a real tough time making the resume. Wasted others’ time as well while building it.
Fooling Google is on my hobbies list now 😛
Exams have started yet another time.
Feeling discontent with whatever I know.
Watched Dasvidaniya, Oye Lucky Luck Oye and Sorry Bhai. Watched sorry bhai thrice in three days. Something driving me nuts for the second time in life [snip..].
Rest laterz.

November 21, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Fun, Life, Linux

Long Time No Post , Quick Update

I have been too busy to write a post on this very blog 🙂 Here are quick update.

Released a few versions of youtube_cache in last couple of weeks. Youtube Cache now supports caching videos from 10 websites. A few ISPs are using it.
IntelligentMirror also received updates.
Placements are here. And I am still f**cking with this caching thing. Too addictive.
Inclination towards higher studies as more and more companies decline campus recruitment. How tough GRE can be?
Sudden fear of losing all the friends sucks big time 🙁
Proxy war with a professor. Just kidding 😀
No outing in last two weeks.
Mahaveer’s Compete India is doing really great 🙂

Rest laterz.

October 27, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Camera, Food, Fun, Life, Review

Yours truly’s birthday party / Angeethi / Barista / City Center

Well, It was my birthday on October 25th and today I threw a party. We left for Angeethi at 7:30PM. The journey was fine as the roads were not crowded due to festival season. We were in Angeethi in almost 45 minutes. Got a nice place to sit. Well, after browsing the menu we eventually discovered that there was no soup. Had to order Paneer Tikka and Hara Bhara (chu****pa) kabab which unexpectedly turned out nice. Main course was also cumsi cumsa.

Kulbir Saini Birthday Party at Angeethi

Ajay’s photos can sometimes be really unexpected.

Koi isko (Ajay) ko bhi khana dedo

Afer having dinner at Angeethi, we moved on to Barista which is on the ground floor in the same building. This was first time I was visiting Barista. I ordered something randomly and fortunately it was good. It was fun at Barista. The ambience of the place was really good (from a newbie photographer’s point of view 😛 ) and pics came out real good.

I don’t know what I was doing when somebody clicked this pic 😛

Kulbir Saini Birthday Party at Barista

After that we moved on to City Center just for browsing random stuff in crossword (a book shop in City Center). After roaming around and clicking pics in city center we moved out.

Sambhav has made these two awesome gifs from the photos we clicked in city center and barista. Hats of to his skills.

Kulbir Saini Birthday Party at City Center

Kulbir Saini Birthday Party at Barista

PS : Though its only a day left for diwali, city is not really decorated. Almost no lights 🙁 This shop which I found opposite to City Center is one of few decorated on the road no. 1.

Krsala Designer Jewellery

October 23, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Fun, Life

Not going home on Diwali, yet another time

Ever since I got into IIIT, I never celebrated Diwali at home. And diwali in south India is not really celebrated with much enthusiasm as compared to north India. Last year I might have gone home but the laziness factor overpowered me and I chose to stay back at IIIT. This year, I was thinking of going home.

I woke up at 7:00AM on Oct 19th to book ticket in Tatkal. But the almighty computer caught my attention and I was browsing random stuff till 7:30AM. I left for the station in a hurry and discovered a huge line for reservation. While standing in the line, I was just thinking how railways and airways completely looks like a computer network. Assuming rail tracks as wires, trains as current, stations as switches, junctions as routers, local MMTS network as VLANs, airways as wifi and people as packets who want to flow through these. The entire transportation system translates to a computer network. AC/Sleeper/General translates to different quality of services. Both of them have the same problem, they are overcrowded. Anyway I was there in the queue for 40 minutes and I could move only 8-10 feet. And a few minutes later, I realized that Tatkal quota was over. Yipeeee!!!! We have crossed the allocated bandwidth limit. Check back laterz. I got back to IIIT and successfully continued browsing after that.

I could have tried for the ticket the next day but again the laziness factor overpowered me and now I am ready to celebrate Diwali at IIIT yet another time 🙂

October 19, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Camera, Fun, Life, Photography

The Indian Aviation Show 2008 at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad

Today (October 18, 2008) Indian Aviation Show 2008 was open for general public at a nominal price of Rs. 150/- as a ticket. We (Me, Sambhav, Mahaveer, Romit Pandey (UG2K7), Manish Sharma, DJ Ranga, Deepak, Prateek) left for the Begumpet Airport at around 9:20AM. As the roads were almost free due to Saturday, we reached Begumpet at 10:10AM. The place was crowded as hell (literal meaning of hell is not intended :P). We somehow managed to get tickets quickly. But the queue to enter the airport premises was real long. Almost more than 1500 people were in line at any instant of time. Romit, Manish and Mahaveer managed to get in quickly by switching lanes. We (the unlucky ones) had to wait for some more time. We finally switched lines and got in at 11:10AM. A deep breath after an hour of frustration. I entered an airport for the first time and was surprised to see the awesomely f***ed up security. You can carry anything you want. Its ok that the airport is not used anymore but in situations like these when you have thousands of people in airport, the security should be tight and everyone should be screened well. Anyway, after getting in we started clicking pics as I was ready with my digicam 😀 The first picture I clicked is of an helicopter named Dhruv.

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Dhruv Helicopter

After that we were roaming around clicking everything possible. There was an exibition of different planes/helicopters/private jets etc. All in all it was a nice show and worth visiting. Below are few more shots from the show.

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Helicopters

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Kingfisher

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Air India

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Sports Star Plus

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Liberty XLE

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Bharat Earth Movers Limited

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Bell Helicopters

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Messed Up

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Indian Airlines

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad

Indian Aviation Show Hyderabad - Kingfisher

October 18, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Computers, Fun, Google, Hacking, Life, Success

Almighty linked lists

As the time for placements has finally come, I am trying to train myself for the lame questions that companies usually ask instead of asking things related to the real talent.

I am a bit (a bit????) paranoid about pointers, linked lists and stuff that involves pointers. I couldn’t really keep up with the data structures because I learnt to use this WONDERFUL language called python. I was not a bond in C/C++ but my skill level was good enough to write basic codes. Though I didn’t submit all my programming assignments, I used to write C/C++ codes for fun especially during third and fourth semester when I was awesomely obsessed with Object Oriented Programming and classes in c++. But I never used pointers even in that period. After fourth sem, I completely switched to python quitting c/c++ totally. I have been doing fun things like my Google Summer of Code, IntelligentMirror, Youtube Caching and other private stuff in python since almost one and a half year. Python is a real handy language when you want develop projects quickly.

Anyway, I thought I’ll give c/pointers another shot. I picked up EssentialC, Pointers And Memory and LinkedListBasics from Stanford CS Library. Read first two of them from start to end without missing a single word. Read 5-6 pages from Linked List Basics and then thought of coding a very basic linked list with few operations. But unfortunately couldn’t do so even after fighting for one hour. Fifty percent of the time, i was fixing my code because I wrote the damn thing in python style formatting, forgot to declare variables before using them and blah blah… In the meantime Pankaj pinged for the BC session. When I told him the same thing, he said he implemented linked list few days back using arrays … OMG!! pretty easy. huh!! After we returned from canteen, I gave it one more shot. BINGO!!! I did it this time 🙂 I finally wrote some code in C for linked list which finally worked 😀

Loving pointers a bit and looking for exploring more.

October 16, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Fun, Life, Servers

Exams Over and Upgraded to WordPress 2.6.2

Finally the exams are over for the 20th time ever since I joined IIIT. 20 times in just 3 years is a bit too much of evaluation and still there is not even single person in my batch who can really be evaluated based on his/her scores in these so called exams. More than 80% of janta spend 6-7hours per course per semester other than attending classes which anyway doesn’t count. And a BIG THANKS to the 20% of janta for studying damn seriously and teaching creatures like me 😛

Also, upgraded to wordpress 2.6.2 to be on the technology front-end. Previous version was giving some problems with image uploads and it was an irritating experience using elinks and stuff to upload image files.

October 14, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Fun, Life

Embarrassed

October 08, 2008

We (Me, Pankaj, Deepak, Nitin Bansi) just entered the main gate of IIIT Hyderabad after shopping. A delivery boy was already there with a Pizza ready for delivery. He was looking for help. I asked security guard “Whats the matter?”, just for the sake of moral responsibility.

Delivery boy : Scooter mein petrol khatam ho gaya hai. OBH jana hai. (There is no petrol in my scooter. I want lift up to OBH.)

Right at that moment a two wheeler entered IIIT gate. I didn’t realize who was it.

Me to delivery boy (pointing at the vehicle) : “Inke saath chale jao..” (Go with him).

The person (on vehicle) stopped right there because I pointed at him. And it turned out to be a faculty member. “Mere pairon tale se jaise zameen hi khisk gayee”. OMG. What I have done?? Why in god’s name will I ever stop a faculty member to ask for giving a lift to a pizza delivery boy.

Faculty Member : Whats the matter?
Me : (stammering) hmm… umm …. this guy .. um… this is a delivery boy (as if it was not obvious from his dress). um.. he is looking for help …
(Delivery boy almost took everything for granted and watch trying to approach the vehicle …)
Delivery boy : Scooter mein petrol khatam ho gaya hai …
Faculty Member : What he needs?
Me : hmmmm … he needs a lift …
Faculty Member : For what?
Me : To deliver pizza.
Faculty Member : (I couldn’t really get what he said but approximately) why are you bothering me?

And he left. I took a DEEP breath. This was one of the most embarrassing situations I ever faced at IIIT 😐

October 12, 2008 by Kulbir Saini on BC, Food, Fun, Life, Review

Four Seasons / Hyderabad House / Mak’s Kitchen

October 10, 2008

I was in Yuktahaar mess with Deepak Vig. I picked up plate to fetch some rotis from the basket and my phone rang. It was Pankaj. I immediately understood his problem. I received the call and he asked for going out to Four Seasons to have some biryani. That mouth watering word biryani took control over me. I returned the plate back to mess guy. I accompanied Deepak for the dinner but didn’t have anything. We walked down to NBH main gate. Gaurav and Kiran Dandu was already there. I told them about going out and they were already waiting for someone to join. Finally me, Pankaj, Sachin, Ajay Somani, Gaurav and Kiran left for four seasons.

We reached four seasons at almost 8:00PM. The place was totally full. And when we queried, the attendant said that it will take almost an hour to get a seat for six people. We were hopeless. All of us dying of hunger. Though we didn’t want to go to Hyderbad House because Biryani at that place sucks pretty much, we decided to checkout. We entered the place and as expected we were the only people there apart from one family. We took seats. But to our surprise they had only Mutton Biryani. I wanted to cry 🙁 Hungry!!!!

We walked out. And while walking different people suggested different place from Ginger court, McD (by me 😀 ), Hyderabad House near Lakdi Ka Pul, Mak’s Kitchen etc.. Finally we decided to go to Mak’s kitchen which is beside Temptations in front of Four Seasons. The place was average. Others took soup, it was below average. But biryani was good. It felt like having biryani after a life time. I still remember, the OBH mess once started offering biryani in lunch and dinner daily. I had biryani in lunch and dinner continuously for two weeks during that period. Good old days 😀 In the end the person at Mak’s Kitchen forgot to bill me and somani for the food. Nice 😛

After that we had ice cream at Temptations and headed back to THE holy place on earth, IIIT Hyderabad 🙂

PS : Have a lot to write about.