Monthly Archive for December, 2008

the laSIcK experience

Published on December 26, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

I had been very excited about getting LASIK done on my eyes. It would obviate the need for me to wear glasses all the time. Believe me, that was a big incentive. Earlier I had to carry an additional pair of glasses. And it annoyed me when I became aware of the glasses sitting by my nose. Also it would pain around the nose if I dozed off while studying, obviously with my spectacles on.

The biggest motivation was the need to feel independant. I hate depending on anything too much. It always worried me to think what would happen if I accidently broke my glasses. I would go half blind.

And thus the decision to undergo the surgery.

I read blogs on lasik, saw a video on youtube (was disgusting), and prepared myself for the procedure. But nothing could have prepared me not to be nervous on the day of surgery.

The surgery on the right eye was scheduled for 11 in the morning. I got into the surgery dress. A drop of local anesthesia was put into my eye. Apparently a drop is enough to make your eye insensitive to anything. Then I was taken into the surgery room. The room was air conditioned and I got goosebumps seeing the doctors there. I was afraid, too nervous.

My face was then covered with a sheet of paper, with a small gap where my eye was. I was told to keep both my open. I found that extremely difficult, what with lights just above my face watering my eyes. And I did not dare to move my body. The surgery started, wit the surgeon putting few more drops of some medicine. I do not remember the exact sequence of the procedure.

Most of the time it was something being put into my eye. When a suction ring was inserted into my eye, my vision faded and I could see with only the other eye. It was a bit of relief actually, not being able to see what was being done to your eye. But sadly, when the ring was removed, the vision was back. The lasers were activated and it was fun watching them. After the lasers were done doing their work, the surgeon put few moe drops of liquid in my eye, corrected the flap, washed the eye and then cleaned it.

And it was all over in a few minutes. But those few felt like eternity. I was praying for the proedure to complete before they even got started.

I could immediately open my eyes. The vision was quite hazy though. Inspection of the eye followed next. The doctor was pretty pleased with the surgery and said all went fine.

I got the next eye operated upon after a gap of ten minutes. So the whole thing was over for me in a hour and I was free to go back home. A pair of black glasses and a few eye drops were prescribed to me by the doctor.

It’s been a week already. I am happy with the surgery. I have no need of glasses now. The eye drops make the vision unclear, but the doctor says that it will clear up with time. 

But it feels good to be able to see everything without glasses. My first impression was – everything seems proportionately bigger ! I love it.

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JD Effect

Published on December 26, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

I have been watching a lot of Scrubs lately. JD is the narrator and main character of the story. He provides voice-over to the series which fills the roles of his internal thoughts and an overall narration in the show.

JD’s most prominently featured quirk is his habit of daydreaming. When this happens, he tilts his head back and to the left, blankly looking upwards. The sequences played out in his daydreams are of surreal scenarios and situations that have just been mentioned or wondered about, often in an exaggerated manner.

JD made me realise how much I like to introspect and daydream. Its really simple. You just need to shut out the sounds and fly away to a fantasy world of yours. Over the years I have improved a lot in my technique. Earlier I had to close my eyes to cut out the real world and dream, but now I don’t need to.

If you ever find me lost in a conversation, not talking at all, you can be almost sure that I am only physically present. Mentally, I am in my own beautiful world. I dream about a lot of things – cars, F1, then a few of my favourite movies, either replaying the or wondering what could have happened if things turned out the otherway, what I would like to do in future, holidaying at some scenic location, almost always New Zealand, then of course Lord of the Rings, else flying the Millenium Falcon, and the list goes on.

And this is a good habbit I have developed. It helps a lot in class. Few people like to sleep, a few grunt, complain about having to attend classes while I enjoy dreaming.  The only side effect is that your facial expression tends to become blank. As you are not aware of what people are talking about, you do not know if you need to smile or be serious. I generally try to imitate group’s facial expression. So if someone laughs out, its a cue for me to do so as well. There’s always a time lag though, and sometimes I have landed in trouble because of it, but most of the time it works out pretty well.

I have got bored of writing already. A recent study found that the average concentration span of human beings is just 5 minutes 7 seconds. I need a break now. I am off to my dream world.

Update: I improved my skill to include dreaming while conversing. Intelligible and sensible replies are not expected, but I am able to say something which adds to the conversation while at the same time also dreaming – multi tasking.

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The Friend

Published on December 22, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

There are people and then there are more of them. But a few are special, too special. And of these few special people, you name the best ones as your closest friends. A very select group whose happiness means the world to you. Time or distance cannot make you forget how these people once made you feel. Those special moments, the time spent together and a dream of future yet to be.

I too have a group of special, very special friends. But this post is not about all of them, but one of them, whom I happenend to have met today – might I add, finally!

But something about the whole situation was un-nerving. I was too nervous. I could feel myself shivering. I could see my glass of coke shake when I raised it to drink. And I actually drank more water than I would have done in two days! I wondered if my friend could see these external signs – I hope not. Something about the whole thing made me too conscious of myself.

I said the weirdest of things. We were in Hyderabad, and I was talking about Bangalore, New Zealand, Venice and a trip to Alps. The only place I missed out must have been the moon. Damn! There I was wondering how few people can make you so uncomfortale that you lose your sense of speech – my tongue was like an out of control freak. I was hearing somebody called Anuvrat speak, and was wondering what a fool he is. But this friend must realise that this was my weird way of saying – I like you, missed you and would always want to be around you.

And then there were these occasional silences. I was reminded of the Giggle Loop theory. Take my advice dear friends, never watch Coupling. If by mistake you have already done so, do not repeat the series every semester because then you will start remembering all of Jeff’s horrible, senseless, pointless theories at the worst possible moments.

I had never imagined speaking with a school friend could ever be so difficult, and that too one I have been dying to meet since I left the school. Agreed I am uncomfortable talking to someone over the phone, but I do not have trouble maintaing a conversation when face-to-face. I am usually frank and open with everyone, and so never have to think what to talk about. Yet here I was with a friend I so wanted to meet but out of expressions. Help me my friend, you are my only hope.

PS: Writing this post, I was reminded of my first week at Kharagpur. Apparently, the first thing I used to talk about those days was either Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. And four years later, here I am talking New Zealand and Venice! Am I progressing onto bigger things? I sure hope not. :)

Update: I hate this friend now. Times change, people change, but I expect my friends never to change. How I hope things to have been otherwise.

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Rubik's Cube

Published on December 16, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

When my brother told me about his obsession with solving the Rubik’s cube, I coul not understand what made the 26 cube faces so special and addictive.  used to mock him for having chosen such a boring hobby. I could not have been more wrong!

This winter, during the holidays, he taught me the easiest and basic trick to solve the puzzle. It was fascinating to learn the algorithm. The first two layers appeared logical and I could understand the sequence of moves easily. The third layer however proved to be the most tricky one as it required me to learn the steps instead of deducing them logically. I had to write them down on a piece of paper, so that by repeated application of the same steps I could memorise them.

Now, having practised the same moves for days, I feel confident of solving the cube. What more, my fingers have got used to rotating the faces so as to align the cubes properly. I hardly ever stop to think. However, I do not think I can yet compete with my brother for speed, he’s much too quicker than I am.

The next step would be to move on to a better and faster algorithm. My brother has been trying it out for a few days now – a method by which you can properly align two faces at the same time, instead of doing them one after another. Probably in a day or two he might tell me the new trick of his.

Let me now get back to my cube … 

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Funda Session

Published on December 12, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

Hehe .. who doesnt like giving fundas. Its something you become good at, chattering non-stop to your juniors about stuffs. The usual – dont study, have fun kind of fundas. And that was exactly what I got to do today at Delta.

After putting off the visit to Delta to meet Srikanth sir, I finally went there. Sir was busy with a class and I had to wait for something like half an hour to talk to him. We had a casual talk, about this and that, nothing in particular related to studies or even remotely to me being his student a few years ago. And then he said the most unexpected thing. He asked me to go into a class and speak to the students there !!

My happy moment. The first impression was of happy and surprised faces starng back at me. When I was introduced and handed over the mike, the first few stammers made every body laugh out. I tried to keep it that way, tried to make the atmosphere casual, and spoke for about ten minutes without mentioning studies or Srikanth sir. What did I talk about, you may wonder.

I gave the usual funda that I say to everybody -if you want to motivate someone for IIT, ask him to spend a week with their friend already at an IIT. The easy going life that we have in our campus is more than enough to motivate anyone to study hard for a few months.

One question though stumped me and I tried to answer it as honestly as I could. However, I do not think I was convincing enough. A guy asked me if any research goes on in IIT. Well, the obvious and truthful answer is definitely yes. But I saw an image of myself in him – a boy in senior college, dreaming of pursuing research work in his career. All that was lost in me when I saw realised the kind of work phd students do. However I hope this person goes on and does some serious research work.

And then there was also this usual question to which my most standard reply – What would you advise we do a couple of days before the JEE exam? I love this question. The simplest answer that I can give is – Friend, go and read Lord of the Rings.

I really enjoyed the funda session. After some time Srikanth sir realised that I could make them rebellious and concluded the session. But it wasnt my fault. After spending four years at kgp, if anyone ever asks me about studies or exams, my answer has always been – why study, go out and have fun. I leave the serious fundas to older men, those with nothing else to do than advise the younger generation.

But if I get a chance to talk to people again, I will definitely go and visit Srikanth sir every time I am at Hyderabad. :)

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Fair Isaac Prelims Question 1

Published on December 8, 2008 in Problems. View Comments

As I mentioned earlier, I have been offered a position at the R&D department of Fair Isaac. This was through the campus interviews. 

The first round was a mathematical test that we had to pass in order to be shortlisted for the interviews. I did not do the test that well. However, I have been thinking about a few of the problems, and shall be publilshing the soutions here as and when I get the time.

I was returning from Kharagpur to Hyderabad. The train journey always is the most boring part of the holidays. However, this time it wasn’t so. You have lots of free time to think, and i was thinking about the conversation I had with Pooja. She had asked me about my performance in the second module of the Fair Isaac test, and I replied that I had taken a few calculated smart risks.

It so turns out that I did indeed make a fool of myself. Here I am posting the question and the right solution. Never ask me for the smart logic I had applied in the test. Obviously it back-fired.

Question:

Given that a, b, c, d are all integers, find the number of solutions to the following set of equations:

a + b + c + d = 0

1/a + 1/b + 1/c + 1/d = 0

|a| + |b| + |c| + |d| = 2008

 

Solution:

From the first two set of equations we can conclude that a = -b, and c = -d.

Using the third equation, we get that

        2a + 2c = 2008

=>     a  +  c = 1004

Now, a or c cannot be 0. So the possible set of solutions to this eqation is

{ (1, 1003), (2, 1002) , … , (1003, 1) }

The size of this set is 1003. So, the solution to our original question  is

{ (a, -a, c, -c), (a, -a, -c, c), (-a, a, c, -c), (-a, a, -c, c) }

Thus the number of solutions to the given set of equations is 4 x 1003 = 4012

 

I hope this solution is right.

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A Guide To 2009 F1 Rule Changes

Published on December 3, 2008 in Sports. View Comments

Cutting the costs incurred by the teams has been the latest issue at FIA. They are hell bent on reducing the amount spent by each team so as to neutralise the obvious advantage teams with bigger budget had. It is  being argued that by limiting the budget of teams, there is a hope for the lesser teams to aim for a podium finish, thus making the races more interesting.

Another motive behind all of this is to impose stricter reliability of engines on the team. Also, a study carried out by a combined team of aerodynamics engineers of a few teams seems to indicate that to overtake you need to be 2 seconds faster than the car ahead of you on an average. Thus the chances of overtaking in a F1 race are usually bleak, and the most gain or loss in positions occur only at the start or during the pits. This discourages new people from following F1, because you generally need to have a fair amount of background and idea about the rules and their implications before you start enjoying the sport.

Drastic rule changes have been implemented in the past few years, and more have been planned for the next few. I would like to chalk out a few here.

One of the major changes has been the re-introduction of slick tyres. The use of slick tyres was banned in the 1997 season. Since then the grooved tyres have been used. This was done to constrain escalating cornering speeds. However, with recent emphasis being on the mechanical setup of the car rather than the aerodynamic, the slick tyres are back into picture. The increased grip though will be offset by the reduced downforce resultant from major changes to the aerodynamic regulations.

The aerodynamics is the next most important change to be introduced. Cleaner bodywork and reduced downforce are being imposed from the next season. Changes to front and rear wings will be easily noticeable. The purpose is to aid overtaking manuevers by reducing the susceptibility of the following car to the turbulence created by the car right in front. The new cars will look much different than those used in the 2008 season. Not all drivers are happy about this change though.

The Kinetic Energy Recovery System is an optional engineering feature that could be installed in the cars from the forthcoming season. It recovers the otherwise waste kinetic energy generated by cars braking. The recovered energy is then made available to the driver by pressing a boost button. Apparently this technology could cut down the lap time by about seven tenths of a second. However the teams are all facing difficulties implementing this system. Safety of the driver is a key concern.

Another significant change is to the engine life. Last year required the drivers to use one engine over two races. This season onwards the same engine has to be used for three races, thus dramatically reducing the cost spent on engines and requiring better reliability from the teams.

Another idea that seems to be doing rounds is the normalization of engines among all the teams. A single specification engine shall be used by all the teams. This has provoked different reactions from teams. A few have threatened to break away from F1 such a move would nullify the interest that a constructor team would have in a sport like F1. Fans also complain that the introduction of such a rule shall eliminate the differences between the NASCAR and F1.

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Back To Work :(

Published on December 3, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

Now with the interviews over, and suffient rest its time to get back to work. I do feel a bit lazy though, wanting to postpone the moment when I would have to deal with those nasty pointers again, but its high time. A few hours of serious coding is all that is needed.

Happy coding.

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Finally Into RnD

Published on December 2, 2008 in Anu. View Comments

Interviews are stressing, and I did find this out the hard way. It took just two interviews to flush out all my energy and concentration.

The night before, on the 30th of November, the shortlists for Microsoft and Fair Isaac were put online. I was selected in both. The interviews were to start early morning at around 8 on the 1st of December. I couldn’t sleep. I lay in my bed, body tried, but mind racing. I was trying to anticipate all that could happen the next day. What things could go wrong, was I unprepared, did I forget to revise something, and so on. Finally I fell asleep at around 3 in the night, only to wake up 3 hours later.

Although I had slept less, I was feeling awake. The thought of interviews got me out of my bed, and pretty soon I was dressed up in the formals, ready for my first interview. I just had a single banana for the breakfast, and was on my way to Takshila.

The first activity scheduled for me was a group discussion for Fair Isaac. Unfortunately, the very thought of group discussion unnerves me. It were one of the worst 30 minutes of my life. However, I was selected for the next round of interviews at Fair Isaac.

But after the group discussion, I headed off to the main building TnP office for my interview with Microsoft. The first round went well. I was asked a simple enough question and was required to produce a bugless code. Also I had to propose a few test cases that I could use to test the function. I did so. I was cleared for the next round.

A sadist man welcomed me for the next round of interview for Microsoft. He asked me to code a threaded program. Not having studied threads, I wasn’t able to do anything. Next he asked me if I could code the implementation of databases using B+ trees. No again. And that was it, the end of the road for me at Microsoft.

Though disappointed, I refused to let it kill my spirits. I had interviews with Fair Isaac pending. I decided to go for it. It was already 2 in the afternoon and I had not yet had my lunch. But strangely enough, I wasn’t feeling hungry either. So I went back to Takshila once again to appear for my Fair Isaac interview.

I shall never be able to explain the next half an hour. It was completely reverse of what I had prepared for. My interviewer, an alumni of this institue, Kashyap, was a cool person. He greeted me with a smile and tried to make me feel confortable. He let me know that he wanted interview me for the RnD profile. I couldn’t have believed my ears! This was what I was hoping for. He proposed a few questiones, 4 to be exact, of which I think I was able to answer just one. Its bad, but he was convinced that I could be the right person for this job.

I met Pooja next. She was from the HR department, and she let me know about my chances of being selected for the RnD profile. She also explaned to me in detail the pay structure as listed out for the RnD profile. Half the things went over my head. I need to get used to things now. Talking to her felt more like chatting with a friend than being interviewed for a posiiton. At this point of time, it was almost confirmed that I would be selected. I was happy.

I am not yet completely clear about the kind of work that is done in the RnD department at Fair Isaac, but I had been told it was a good challenging task to take up. Positive feedbacks from seniors convinced me that this is probably what I wanted to do. And then Kashyap told me more about his work, mentioning graph theory, clustering and something else which I always keep forgetting. It sounds pretty interesting, and I am now looking forward to joining the company in a few months time. I also spoke to the head of the team, Naveen is the name I believe. He also briefed me about the activities in the group and what I could expect to be working at as a part of this team.

The official confirmation was relayed to me just before the start of Yahoo’s written test. I skipped the test, as I didn’t have to write them anymore. The next hour was the best of my life. Telling everybody that you have finally been employed and hearing their reactions is heartening. Everybody in the wing was ecstatic. Lots of treats to follow.

And now, I am feeling exhausted. I want to sleep for hours together. I want a rest. And I definitely don’t want this day to come again in my life, ever again. Trust me, getting yourself a job at IIT is no joke, at least not if you are aiming at the hot shots. You need to be mentally and physically prepared for long stressful hours. I am glad things are over. They finally turned into my favour. All’s well that end’s well.

PS A: Raunaq Tambi, my wingmate, also from Hyderabad, has also been selected at Fair Isaac. Yipee !

Ps B: Perhaps this is the best performance by our wing in placements – two job offers on the first day. Yo !

PS C: Only 19 have been placed this year compared to the 77 last year. Yup, I am one of the 19 to have been offered a job position. Now thats something !

PS D: The first thing that came to my mind when I read the official confirmation was – blip.

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