Somdas's Random thoughts

Cricket Schedule Android App

2014-08-20T23:20:00.005+05:30

Since long time I was looking for an android app that quickly shows me the list of upcoming cricket matches. There are apps like Cricinfo, CricBuzz already in the market. But the problem with these apps is that the user has to navigate a lot to check out the fixtures. Sometimes this is very irritating. Also another issue with these apps is that if your device is not connected to internet then you cant view the fixtures. This is also frustrating.

Finally I came across an app that does more than what I wanted. The app is called Cricket Schedule which is freely available on the Android Play store. You can filter fixtures based on type of match, teams, series and Calendar month. It also helps you in easily adding reminder to Google calendar.

A Part of Dhoni's Resume

2011-04-03T21:45:00.002+05:30

* Led the team to win the cricket world cup

* Captain of number one test team of the world

* Captain of number one ODI of the world

* Led the team to win the T20 world cup

* Captained CSK to win IPL

* Captained CSK to win Champions League

* Led the team to first ever series win (both test and ODI) in Newzeland

* Led the team to first ever tri-series win in Australia

* ODI average of around 50

The Kamran Show

2011-03-10T19:14:00.011+05:30

After Kamran Akmal's Superb show in this world cup, people have started praising him for his fantastic performance. Here are some of the expert comments -

1) Behind every successful batsman, there is Kamran Akmal

2) Kamran's favourite movie: Catch Me If You Can

3) I hope that Kamran's wife doesn't let him hold their babies!

‎4) Why can't Kamran Akmal be a Pakistani team selector? Because he will keep dropping everyone from the squad!

5) Why is Umar Akmal the best batsman in the Akmal family? Because he got the most chance to bat in the back yard as Kamran Akmal...

‎6) Kamran legacy: kamran could be a good brand ambassador for Save water campaign. "Every drop counts"

7) Why did Kamran Akmal have to walk back to the team hotel after the match? Because he failed to catch the bus!

8) ‎Kamran's favourite pickup line-" Can I drop you somewhere?"

9) What do Kamran Akmal & Michael Jackson have in common? Ans. They both wear gloves for no reason.

Intel Interview Experience

2010-12-26T20:40:00.003+05:30

Had a chance to sit for inteview with Intel during campus placement. I am overjoyed that i was finally recruited by them. It was one of my dream company. Very Happy to be there.

Below is my interview experience.

Shortlisting Criteria

* Resume based Shortlisting

* Students shortlisted with either work in systems area or high cpi or excellent
resume

* Many shortlisted students with good interviews were eventually rejected because their work did not match with intel's profile. This time they were looking for people with networks or graphics background.

* Intel is a company to target if you are good in systems, architecture etc. People weak in algorithms can target this company as there very are few questions from algorithms.

Interviews

I had three back to back interviews with hardly any gap between the interviews.

Technical Interview 1

* WAP to count the number of set bits in a number efficently. Cases when the number is positive and negative.

* How can we support OOP features in C? What about the access specifiers? How can we do it in C?

* Do u have any experience with linux kernel or device driver. No. I said i had interest in OS, and given the opportunity i can work. I was always trying to drag the interviewer towards OS and i was successful in it.

* Do you know anything about ARM or intel architecture? No.

* One program was given and i had to find error. The program had a function which returned addess of a local variable.

* How is memory protection done in OS?

* What are the various modes of operation of a process? User and kernel mode. What was the need to have two such different modes?

* What happens durig system call?

* What exactly happens in the trap instruction?

* What are the advantages and disadvantages of kernel and user threads?

* Some basic questions on my mtp (M.tech project). He wanted to know about my mtp.

* Can we start a bash shell from another bash shell? Yes.

* What is we want the new shell to use a enviroment variable of the old shell?

HR Interview

This was supposed to be a HR interview, but turned out to be a technical + HR interview. This was the toughest of the three interviews.

* What is the difference between device driver and firmware. Couldnt answer

* What type of work you want at intel. I said, system related.

* Suppose you are working on your preferred field, but suddently you are told that you would not working on this field any more and now you have to work on a field that you have no interest. What will you do?

* Give an example from your life when you successfully completed an uninteresting task? I said i had taken a course called “Philosophy of mind” in which i did well. Then he asked me to say anything on philosophy of mind. I couldnt say a word.

* Are you a honest person?

* Who is the most honest person that you have met ever?

* Who is the most honest politician? I said Gandhi. He asked why? Could not answer.

* He got angry and said that you dont know anything, why should i hire you? I said it is not important to know everything, but it is important to know few things in great details (I committed a great mistake by saying this). Ok, tell me what is your field (in which you know in great details).I said wireless networks.

* He asked me difference between 3G and 4G? How does GSM work? Could not say even a word.

* How does CDMA work. Explained.

* Which type of network will support more customers - TDMA based or GSM based. Explained.

* Do u think you will be selected? Yes. Why?

* Give me a situation where you showed your creativity?

Technical Interview 2

* Expalin me the TCP/IP protocol stack.

* Explain me your mtp.

* Do u know what is 802.1x eap? I said no.

* How does virtual function work in c++.

* When is Vtable created.?

* What if we delete the this pointer within a class fuction? What will happen?

* Would you like to work on graphics or networks?

Resources for preparation

1. Prepare your resume very well
2. Brush up your OS skills
3. Apply only if you like systems related work.

Are we losing Harbhajan as a bowler ?

2010-11-17T12:47:00.005+05:30

In the recent past Harbhajan has been in excellent form with the bat. He has not only scored the highest run in the current series, but also has made some useful contribution with the bat in the recent past. This form with the bat has been useful for India in saving and winning test matches in the recent past.

But his form with ball has not been good for quite some tine now. His bowling does not have the same sharpness that it used to have previously. This is an extermely worrying sign for India, particularly with the world cup nearning. As the world cup is going to be in the sub continent, spin will be a big factor and India will require Harbhajan more than ever it has needed him. But at the moment the opposition does not seem to be too much bothered by Harbhajan.

India will get more benifit if he performs more with the ball than the bat. Ofcourse benifit will be highest when he performs with both. He should not get carried away with his batting performance. He should focus on improving his bowling now. Otherwise he will suffer the same fate that Irfan Pathan suffered. Pathan was also performing quite well with the bat, but did not concentrate with the bowl. So, he thrown out of the team. Similar thing happened with Parthiv Patel. Patel is a brilliant batsman, but he dropped too many catches behind the wicket and hence he was ultimaltely dropped from the team.

So, Harbhajan should try to bowl well and should not concentrate too much with the bat. India need him as a bowler, not as a batsman.

M.Tech Stage-1 Report and Presentation

2010-10-28T19:48:00.023+05:30

Please have a look and give feedback so that i can improve myself.

Who is the most valuable indian player in the last decade ?

2010-10-18T18:40:00.004+05:30

Sachin Tendulkar has been in the best form of his life in the last year. He has not scored more runs in a year than what he has already scored in this year. He also became the first player in the history of ODIs to score a double hundred. But my choice for the most valuable player is not sachin.

My choice for the most valuable player in the past decade are the two Vs of the Indian cricket. V.V.S Laxman and Virendra Sehwag. Both of the have made valuable match winning contribution in the last decade. The nature of the contribution is totally different for both of them. While Sehwag has mainly contributed in the first innings, it is the opposite for Laxman.

Laxman is one of the player you can rely on when the chips are down. He has bailed out the indian team in the 4th innings of a test match numerous times. He has got under the skin of the aussies. His speciality has been to strive under pressure. He relishes playing under pressure. He specializes in playing with the tailenders. Be it the famous 2001 test series against the aussies, the 2010 sri lanka series or the just concluded series against the aussies; Laxman has delivered when the team had lost all the hope in winning the match. That is his speciality which Sachin has already lacked.

Sehwag on the other hand has mainly dominated the opposition in the early stages of the test matches. He has given blazing start to the team, which not only increases the run rate (thus increasing the chances of the match producing a result) but also increases the morale of the batsmen down the order. The bowlers are crushed when he is in full flow. One of the negative points about Sehwag is that he fails in the 2nd innings but he makes up for it in the first innings by scoring doubles and triples !!

I see tremendous potential in Murli Vijay who can become the most valuable player in the next decade. He is a free flowing batsmen like sachin.

SIGCOMM 2010

2010-09-21T22:16:00.005+05:30

I always wanted to know what happens in an conference. I got the opportunity to attend a conference when i received an email about travel grant for SIGCOMM 2010. SIGCOMM is one of the most famous conference in the field of networking. I send the application for the travel grant and it was accepted. I was delighted that i will be going to New Delhi to attend the conference. One of my friend (Kaustav) also went with me. We also registered for a workshop "APsys" which was held one day before the main conference.

We went to New Delhi by train. My mama had made arrangement for our stay at Banga Bhavan. After reaching there we took some rest and ate typical bengali food there. I enjoyed the food extremely. In the evening we went to Cannaught place. We also rode Metro Train. The train and the station were outstanding to say the least. I had never seen such type of railway station in my life. I was like a Mall !

The next day we went to the conference venue Hotel Le Meridien. It's a 20-storey 5 star hotel. For the first time in my life i went inside a 5 star hotel. It was amazing. The workshop was at 20th floor. The seen was amazing from the 20th floor. Everything was glittering. The lift were made of of glass.. something that i saw only in movies.The workshop was held in a small room and was quite boring except for the Keynote talk by prof. Hari Balakrishanan. We had snacks and lunch through the day. I didnt like the workshop and had extreme headache.

The next day was better. The conference started with presentations on wireless network. I liked couple of them. But after that i didnt find that much interest except for couple of papers. The lunch and the snacks were truly amazing, specially the desserts :-).. i had tons of them.

In the night there was a gala dinner. I never went to such a dinner party ever. Truly unique and amazing experience. Ate lots of starters and juice. We also interacted with a person from Bell Labs, US. I was surprised to know that he likes spicy indian food.

Next day was the best day as the best paper in Wireless networks were presented on that day. I enjoyed listening to them. In the night there was a banquet at Taj. Another thing that i had never experienced before. There was a Outrageous Opinion Session where profs. shared "Networking Jokes" with us. There was also some classical Indian music.

The last day was quite boring for me. None of the papers interested me. But i had to stay to get my travel grant check :-).

Sigcomm 2010 was a wonderful experience. For the first time i saw so many DONS in the field of networking. For the first time i went inside a five start. For the first time i had such a wonderful dinner and banquet.

The only thing i couldnt do was visit some places in Delhi. It was not a option for me because i went with kaustav :-( ......

Goa Tour

2010-07-15T22:11:00.006+05:30

Since i came to IIT Bombay, the place i wanted to visit the most was Goa. Me and my friends made many attempts to visit Goa during the first year. But we failed each and every time.
Suddenly on 8th july evening we realized that most of our guides were out of station. So, we suddenly decided to make yet another attempt to
visit Goa. But there was more intent to it this time. We decided to book tickets for bus. At around midnight we booked 10 tickets to Goa. The bus to Goa would leave at 5:30pm from Kanjurmarg.
The next day, full with energy 10 of us left for Kanjurmarg to catch the bus for Goa. The journey was boring to say the least. It took us 16 hours to reach Goa. I couldnt even sleep at night. But finally we arrived at Goa.
Our first stop was Margao, a small town in south Goa. We took a cheap hote(Rs 220/head)l there. After having lunch we booked Qualis to visit various temples and churches in south Goa. We visited two beautiful (but identical) temples. The temples were really quite and i found peace there. The environment there was quite and peaceful there. Some of us also bought 'Goa T-Shirt' from a shop outside the temple. Then we went to visit some churches. The first church that we visited was Se Cathedral. It is the oldest church in Goa. The church was huge and full of architecture. I have never seen such a huge church before. We also saw the coffin were the body of St. Xavier's was kept. We visited a art gallery in the church. After visiting that church we visited another nearby church. The state of the church looked like it was not used for hundreds of years.
After visiting the churches the Qualis dropped us at Colva beach. It is one of the famous beach in south Goa. The beach has many coconut trees. At around 5pm we decided to take a bath and have some fun in the sea. After having a bath some of us decided to have a beer in the beach. The beer didnt have any effect on me, so i was a bit disappointed . After that we returned to our hotel. After taking a shower we went to have dinner. For the first time in my life, i ate lamb. It was extremely mouth watering to say the least. We had some drinks (scotch) with red chilly lamb. After that we had some baskin robbins icecream. After that we came to the hotel . Some of us slept and some of us watched the fifa world cup match for the 3rd place.

Next morning after having some light breakfast we left for north goa. It is the happening and rocking part of Goa. We changed four buses to reach our destination. While moving towards the Calangute beach (The most famous beach in Goa) we saw hundreds of wine shops on the way. On reaching the beach many dalals contacted us for hotels. One of the them said he has he room for 10 people costing around RS 1500. We were surprised to hear about such a cheap hotel in Goa and that too near the beach. The dalal took us. We were waking through the beach and were wondering where is the hotel. Suddenly he pointed towards a hut and took us inside. We were surprised to see concrete walls inside the hut. The hut was a disguise for the police. The building was illegal and had to be covered with coconut leaves. After a long discussion we decided to stay there (after all our budget was very less). After dumping our luggage we headed for the beach. We also bought a football. The beach was a 3kim long. It is known as Calangute and Baga beach. We walked from Calanguta beach towards the beach. Along the way we played football. A dog also joined us in playing. After reaching the beach some of us had beer and chicken. After that we had 4-5 hours of fun in Baga beach. Never spent so much time at a beach at a stretch. We played many types of sports with the ball in the water. In the evening we came back to the hotel and took shower.

After that we went for dinner at a restaurant in the beach. The restaurant was quite expensive. Some of my friends decided to go for crab and some decided to go for squid. I opted prawn. The prawn was good but the curry was awful because it was cooked with coconut oil. After the expensive dinner some of us went to buy some decorative items for our home. After that 6 of us decided to to have high volume of alcohol and have fun in the night. We stat in a open air restaurant in the middle of the beach. Three of our friend ordered Hokka and all of us first ordered Cashew Fenny. It is a local Goan drink. After that we went for couple of pegs of Royal stag. We had lots and lots of fun there. The nice was full of fun and the sea made it better. After that we went back to our room. The Fifa world cup final was going on. I was supporting Spain and rest of my friends were supporting Netherlands. Finally Spain won and i was the happiest man in the room that night.
Next morning we left the hotel and headed straight to a Fort near the sea. We spent around one hour roaming inside the fort and taking photographs. Then some of our friends found out a way to reach to the sea. The path to the sea was extremely tricky and risky. It was like trekking but was more dangerous. I couldnt even complete it because my pant was torn on the way :-(. But the seen there was amazing.
After that risky adventure we went to the bus stand to catch a bus for Mumbai. After yet another long and boring bus journey we returned to our campus at 6am in the morning. After coming back we ate the famous Goan sweet called Bebinca.

World's Best UNiversities in the field of IT

2009-12-08T10:51:00.003+05:30

I have been looking for a list of world's best technical universities for quite some time. Finally i found out an authentic page. http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/worlds-best-universities/2009/10/20/worlds-best-universities-engineering-and-it-universities.html .

I am proud that i am part of an university that is ranked 30th in the world. Also it is the top engineering college of the country.

Oh! Kolkata , I will miss you ....

2009-07-12T18:54:00.001+05:30

Four years ago i came to Kolkata to pursue B.Tech from Techno India. Previously i had been visiting the city once or twice a year to visit my relatives. From that time , i have developed love for the city and its people. So , i was quite happy to pursue my B.Tech here.

I have thoroughly enjoyed staying here. I made so many friends here and have some unforgettable memories with them. I have never enjoyed friendship so much. During my schooling i used to frequently change my place and schools , so i didnt have as many friends. But here i have throughly enjoyed friendship . I have made some friends whom i will never forget in my life. Some of them are Rajorshi , Rahul ,Nirmalya , Kalyan , Bagchi , amit ,susmit , sumit , nandan and many more. Rajorshi one of the first friend that i have made after coming here. I will never forget the days when at the start of each semester we used to go to college street to buy books and also eat :-) .Rahul is the friend with whom i have interacted the most , be it mobile , online or in college. I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him many for countless of hours . And i must admit that i loved giving him chap(he has also understood this) . So sometimes he doesnt believe me even when i am serious :-) . I want to thank him for giving me so many s/w and games and scanning and email-ing important things. He has truly helped me a lot.

Nirmalya aka mallu has been extremely lucky for me. Whenever i have traveled with him , good things have happened . He and i suffered from the same pain after the TCS campusing . So we used to share our pain. During the infosys campusing i went with him. That turned quite lucky for me . I got through , so did he. Also he , rajorshi and samya helped me immensely during the Infosys campusing. I will thank them forever for this. Also i will have unforgettable memories of the semester exam days. The way samya used to copy from me was simply astonishing . He became quite famous for that. Loved every bit of the exam days with samya and samrat aka bokaro.

Kalyan is the friend who has helped me immensely academically. I call him SUPER kalyan because he does everything perfectly and never misses out on anything like lab work ,assignments . He is one of the guys who used to reach college at the earliest. So i used to chat with him regarding academics at that time. I sincerely pray that he quickly gets a job. He is person who deserves a job more than anybody else in the class. Also i have many friends with whom i have interacted a lot , like amit , susmit , nandan , sumit , anustup and anand.

Finally one of the friend whom i wouldnt miss at all is kaustav because he will be studying Mtech with me. I am quite lucky to have got such a helpful friend like him . He is always ready to help u at any situation. For my computer problems i always turn to him for help. Loves cracking jokes at others. I am quite lucky that he will accompany me to IITB.

I am going to miss my college days so much. Also i will be missing Kolkata a lot.

Thanks Kolkata for everything you have give me.....

My Solution to the Fatigue problem for the cricketers

2009-07-04T18:02:00.005+05:30

Recently there has been discussions on the continuous amount of non-stop cricket that cricketers are playing nowadays. With the popularity of T20 and tournaments like IPL and world cup T20 , the fatigue factor among the players has even increased further. So its high time that we find a solution to the non-stop cricket that cricketers play nowadays. Also as a spectator we dont want the amount of cricket to reduce. Also the cricket boards and sponsors dont want to lose money because of less cricket.

Keeping these points in mind i have tried to find a Mathematical solution for this problem. I think the main reason for fatigue is that players play too many matches during a certain period of time , like they play say 3 tests and 8 ODIs in one month. That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on their body. For this purpose , i think a rule should be made that you are allowed to play only certain number of matches during a period of time.

To make this rule i think certain point should be given to tests , ODIs and T20s. For example 10 points for a test , 5 points for an ODI and 3 points for a T20. Now if a player plays one test match and one ODI , then he has 10+5=15 points. Now we should make a rule such that a player doesnt exceed certain amount of points in the last few days. Like we can make a rule like a player should not have more than 50 points in the last 30 days. Now if a player's point exceeds than 50 , then he should rest for few days and let his number of points reduce .Then again he can play. For example - Suppose a player has 50 points between 4th june to 4th july , and suppose he has played a test match between 5th june to 9th june... now points between 10th june to 10th july is 40 . So the player cant play between 5th july to 9th july , but can play on 10th july.This rule stops players from playing non-stop cricket continuously.

Now many people may argue that why shouldn't a team play his best player if he is fully fit. But i think if the team management does its calculations correctly then it can stop the player from playing in non-important matches and save him for crucial matches .Also the team's bench strength gets tested. A team having a pool of good players will succeed. Also the amount of cricket played doesnt reduce and hence spectators , boards and sponsors are happy.

I know this idea is not 100% correct. But i think my modifying this idea we can certainly come up with some solution for this fatigue problem.

Please post your valuable comments. DO let me know about my idea and the modifications to this idea.

Is Micheal Jackson Still alive?

2009-07-02T23:51:00.000+05:30

Just days after Michael Jackson died, rumours are flooding the internet that he faked his own death.

Thousands of fans have been logging onto websites to join wacky conspiracy theories that the singer is still alive and is just getting ready to make a spectacular comeback.

One website released a photo three days after the singer's death claiming that he is alive.

Another says the singer has been planning this for a year-and-a-half and is now in hiding in eastern Europe. However, there is no proof to back these claims, reports the Sun.

Another site has released a photo it claims is of Jackson, insisting that the man who died on Thursday was the singer’s body double with a terminal illness whose family will be looked after in return.

“Over the past few days there have been many Michael sightings. People have emailed with pictures and amazing stories," a message reads.

“Michael is alive and well. The plot was 10 years in the making but it had to be done.

“We know he is alive because we have seen pictures. Clear pictures taken on June 26, 2009 of Michael Jackson lounging poolside with friends.

“Those close to Michael known about the plot for years, t was a very expensive and intricate venture.

“The man who died had a terminal illness and his death was long overdue. He was given facial surgery to resemble Michael exactly. No doubt his family will be taken care of.

“Soon, Michael’s new music will be out. Under a different name and with a drastically altered face... though a harmoniser has been used to disguise his voice”, the website claimed.

Source :- Hindustan Times

Poor captaincy and over confidence throws India Out of T20 world Cup.

2009-06-15T19:36:00.002+05:30

Its not west Indies and England who threw India out of T20 world cup. Only the Indians are responsible for their debacle in the World Cup. Poor captaincy by Dhoni coupled with over confidence of the players were responsible for the early exit of the Indians from the T20 world cup.

The players were over confident was evident from their interaction with media. Between the game between WI and ENG Yuvraj Singh was asked a question -" Why team India is shopping Instead of Practicing for the crucial match against England?". Yuvraj replied saying that they know whats best for them. But Clearly Yuvraj didnt know whats best for the at all. The team struggled against Bouncers in the match against the Windies. And they didnt work on even after the failure , the result - The Indians again struggled against the bouncers in their match against England. Had Yuvraj Singh known whats best for them , then they would have certainly worked on their weekness during the practice session. Instead they went shopping. Also some of the press conference with Captain Cool MSD raised some eyebrows .

MS Dhoni was not the captain he used to be before the IPL. His captaincy was pathetic to say the least in the world cup. He made countless errors this time and this blog space might not be enough for me to list down all the errors. In the match against England , RP singh and Zaheer Khan bowled so well early on. RP singh gave us the important break through , but Dhoni didnt even utilise his full quota of overs!! Even Zaheer khan's one over was left. Instead he went for Ishant sharma who went for 13 runs in his first over. Also Ishant was hammered in the last match. Clearly either MSD got his calculations wrong or he made a huge mistake. He must learn from Sri Lanka. They utilize their bowlers so well. The key bowlers - Murli , Mendis and Malinga are handled so well by them . All three bowl some overs in the middle and also the last 4-5 overs of the innings. Its as if everything is planned before they come to the field.

Also Dhoni got his batting order wrong virtually in all the matches. In the game against Windies he made the mistake of promoting himself up the order and in the game against English men he promoted Jadeja up the order. Both his decisions proved suicidal with respect to match outcome. You got to have your best players early in T20 matches because overs are very few. In the ideal case one would want their best players to play the entire 20 overs so that they can score as many as possible. But Dhoni held back Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan and instead opted for the slow scoring jadeja.

This result will surely act as a wake up call for Team India and MS Dhoni. Till now he was enjoying a golden run but now his real test as a captain will start. As Sourav Ganguly rightly says we have to wait and see how Dhoni performs when the going gets tough and then only we can comment whether he is India's greatest captain. So Dhoni must learn from its mistake and show the world that he is a good captain in the champions trophy starting fews months from now.

Internet to be replaced by " Grid " .

2009-06-08T21:27:00.001+05:30

The Internet could soon be made obsolete by "the grid.” The lightning-fast replacement will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, the grid will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spinoff from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the Web, could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies “could revolutionize society.”
“With this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day -- the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider, the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realized LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs -- enough to make a stack 50 miles high. Ironically this meant that scientists at Cern -- where Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1989 -- would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.

This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and which lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 in two years.

The Grid
While the Web is a service for sharing information over the Internet, the new system, Grid, is a service for sharing computer power and data storage capacity over the Internet.

It will allow online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call. In search of new drugs against malaria, it analysed 140m compounds -- a task that would have taken an Internet-linked PC 420 years

Google Squared

2009-06-07T21:21:00.000+05:30

Google, already the king of Internet search, rolled out an experimental new search product called "Google Squared".

Google Squared does not provide a list of links to Web pages, like with a traditional Google search, but presents information derived from a query in a spreadsheet-like grid called a "square."

Users of google.com/squared can then build, modify and refine their "square" through further Web searches.

"Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic -- instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet," Google said in a preview of the product last month.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Google said Google Squared could be useful when a user needs to make multiple searches to find the information they want.

"It essentially searches the Web to find the types of facts you might be interested in, extracts them and presents them in a meaningful way," Google said.

"If your square isn't perfect at the beginning, it's easy to work with Google Squared to get a better answer," Google added.

The Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant cautioned that Google Squared remains experimental and the technology behind it "is by no means perfect."

Nokia popularity dips

2009-06-07T12:22:00.001+05:30

According to a recent report, mobile phones market leader Nokia is steadily losing its hold over the rather important teen segment thanks to the uninspiring, bland designs that most Nokia phones sport.

Nokia seems to have failed to introduce an attractive handset that teenagers could carry around. The survey carried out by Social Networking site Habbo Hotel was conducted over the period of a few months and saw the participation by 112,000 teenagers from across 30 countries. The results from the survey showed that while Nokia still remains popular, its popularity has dipped almost 8 percent from last year. The drop in popularity has helped Nokia's Korean rivals Samsung and LG to capitalize with phones like the LG Cookie that offers the user a touchscreen experience at a not so hoigh price.
Yes, Nokia too was fairly successful with its touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic, which has sold over 2.6 million units so far, but post that the only other addition is the N97 which is hardly a teen phone. The Koreans on the other hand have been constantly releasing new, cheaper handsets while Nokia refuses to update its now old 5800 with spruced up features or even a nw sibling.
The surprise part of the survey was that even though Sony Ericsson might be in trouble now, the brand is still popular amongst teenagers. It amazingly stood as the first choice for 18% of the students. This however was a drop of 3% over the past year. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that the company has a hardcore fan following amongst teens. The 18% preference puts it at the third place as Samsung has now moved up to 19% in the teen segment.

Death of Internet

2009-06-05T23:51:00.000+05:30

Video killed the radio star. But could it also kill the Internet? New research from American analyst firm Nemertes Research Group says that by 2010, increasing Internet traffic, particularly video applications like YouTube and Hulu, will fatally clog the tubes.

This isn’t the first such prediction that has been made in the recent past: Brett Swanson of the Discovery Institute, a think tank, warned in 2007 of a coming surge of data that “today’s networks are not remotely prepared to handle”. So are the increasingly dire predictions of the demise of the Internet on the mark, or have rumours of the Net’s death been grossly exaggerated?

It is true that with the advent of Web 2.0, Internet usage has shifted to bandwidth-heavy applications like YouTube and Skype. The amount of traffic generated by YouTube in 2006 was more than that of the entire Internet in 2000. At 50-60 percent a year, the current growth of Internet traffic is enormous. However, several experts believe that the Internet is in no danger of collapsing under the weight of its own success.

Andrew Odlyzko, a computer scientist at the University of Minnesota who specialises in analysing historical trends in networking, believes that global Internet traffic is and will remain manageable with modest capacity updates.

There is some evidence to support that conclusion. For one, telecom companies in both Britain and America are already investing significant amounts in order to upgrade Internet infrastructure, including the last mile cable, to increase capacity. Secondly, the Internet was originally developed to withstand all kinds of catastrophes and has proven to be remarkably robust. It has coped with massive growth over the past 15 years. There’s no reason to suppose this can’t continue.

Anyway, engineers are preparing for the worst by working to replace the Internet with a superfast ‘grid’. So, even if capacity updates fail to keep pace with demand, an alternative will be in place. No one is suggesting that the Internet wouldn’t face operational difficulties if it was left just as it is.

The debate is over whether the rate of investment in capacity upgradation is fast enough to cope with rising demand. Studies like this can provide an impetus for telecom majors to invest in infrastructure. As of now, though, it’s safe to assume that the Net will be with us for a while more.

Finally Dream Comes True - To Become an IITian

2009-06-04T11:57:00.003+05:30

Since my childhood i have been seeing IIT Kgp on my way from Kharagpur railway station to native home. I always use to admire the huge IIT campus . I also used to hear that its the best engineering college in the country. So from my childhood days i had the dream to become an IITian and study in one of country's best college.

To fulfill my dream i started preparing for IIT-JEE in class XI and XII. Its the toughest exam in the country and i knew that getting through it will be very difficult . But i still decided to give it a try so that in future i dont have to repent for the fact that i didnt even try to achieve my dream. I did better than what i expected in the exam , but it wasnt enough to make me an IITtain. After the results i was upset , but i had the satisfaction that i did try my best.

After that i decided to take admission in a private engineering college - "Techno India" in kolkata. At that time i decided that though i failed to do the under graduation from IIT , i will try my level best to do post graduation from IIT. Also my cousin inspired me a hell lot to pursue Mtech from some IIT.

And finally the moment arrived when the result of GATE (All india test for post graduation in Engineering) was announced. I expected to get an IIT and i was over joyed. Finally it looked like that i will become an IITian. The preparation for GATE was easier than IIT JEE but the number of seats for MTech are also lesser than BTech.

After the results started a tedious job of applying in the IITs. It was an extremely tiring phase for me. I had to apply in several IITs. Making DDs and speed posting them was a very tedious job for me to do. Also i had to take admission in IITD first because i was uncertain whether i will get my preferred IIT(IIT Bombay) or not . Lots of critical decisions had to be taken during this time. It took a hell out of me. I found out that i had to work harder in the post result/examination phase than pre-examination phase (ie .. preperaing for the exams) !!

Finally i got the IIT i wanted. My name appeared in the second list in IITB. I was overjoyed and was over the moon. I got the IIT that i targeted and aspired to study in.Its the best in the country and every engineer dreams to study there.Two my friends also got in IIT Bombay. That makes it even more sweater. We all are going to study Mtech with each other!! Now i can relax because the Admission process is finally over for me.

I know its going to be very difficult for me to study in IIT. I will have to work harder than my capabilities to survive there but my dream of becoming an IITian suggests me to join the IIT.

Looking forward to my education @ IIT Bombay..................

Chrome and Firefox are safer and more secure than safari , opera and IE 7 , Reason - Frequent Updates

2009-06-03T10:45:00.000+05:30

A new study has revealed that users who use Google's Chrome or Firefox are more "secure" than folks who use other browsers like Safari or Opera.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

and Google Switzerland have revealed that the built in update mechanisms which keep the browser up to date by automatically downloading and installing updates, offer a far more secure browsing experience as compared with products that need a user prompt to initiate an update.

The study noted that only about 45 percent of Internet users were using the most secure browser version when visiting Google's servers. It also revealed that as much as 83 percent of all Firefox users were using the latest version of the browser. As for Google Chrome, just 21 days after an update, a very high (97 percent) percentage of users were on the latest version.

On the contrary, a dismal 53 percent of users had updated to the latest version of Safari after three weeks of its release. As for Opera, the figure was even lower at 24 percent. Imagine! 76 percent of Opera users remain vulnerable to threats posed by the security holes that were plugged by the latest updates.

While expert users may scoff at the study, automatic forced updates are one of the best ways to remain protected. However, those who wish more freedom to control their "updates", it's just a matter of designing user friendly preferences that lets the user choose how frequently or when he wants to update.

Most Frequent Virus Attacks are done using PDF

2009-06-01T10:38:00.000+05:30

For all those who rely on PDFs for most of your work or studies, here is something you should be careful about. Security software maker F-Secure has discovered that PDF is the most common file type in targeted attacks.

F-Secure conducted a comparative study of file types which were the most vulnerable during 2008 and 2009. The study discovered that Adobe Acrobat Reader was 28.61 percent vulnerable to target attacks in 2008. However, this figure almost doubled to 48.87 percent in 2009.
In 2008, it identified about 1968 targeted attack files. The most popular file type was DOC, i.e. MS word representing 34.55 percent.
So far, in 2009, F-Secure has found 663 targeted attack files and the most popular file type is now PDF. Why has it changed? Primarily because there has been more vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader than in the Microsoft Office applications.

News for Infosys ( Infy ) Joinees 2009

2009-05-31T12:13:00.002+05:30

We had a seminar for Infosys joinees 2009 in our college . One of the Infy HR personal told us that the benchmark for performance will be higher this time. That means we have to work harder in this time of recession . Also he said that the training period will be between 4-6 months . The first phase wiil cover the basics(the length of first phase will vary for CS and non-CS students). After the first phase both the CS and non-CS students will be considered same. 2nd and 3rd phase will foucs on specific technology like .NET , Java , Mainframe etc. He also said that Campus connect students(CCP) find it easy during the first phase. And the performance in the CCP online test wouldnt affect the joining dates etc.

Its going to be extremely tough for Infy joinees this time. Not only infy but all the companies are going to make it very difficult for us in this time of recession . Already TCS has decided to layoff many of its employees and infy has also done the same. So things not looking too bright for us.:-(

Microsoft's Bing to Compete with Google

2009-05-29T22:18:00.002+05:30

Back in March, a screenshot of Microsoft's new search engine Bing was Leaked on the web. John PaczKowski of Digital Daily mentioned that Microsoft will unveil its new Bing search engine at D: All Things Digital conference which will kick-start on May 26. Looks like search engine wars will get interesting as Wolfram Alpha is already here and now Microsoft is going to bring Bing.

At the D: All Things Digital conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil and talk more about new search engine dubbed Bing. Recently, at the TechEd 2009 India, Ballmer did give some hints about Microsoft prepping to challenge the existing search engine leaders - Google and Yahoo.

Microsoft has been testing Bing since months. As Ballmer stated at TechEd 2009 India, search results should be presented in a more organized manner so that users don't waste more time looking for links. Hence, the search results are grouped for effective representation. For instance, a particular Mobile phone model will show links of reviews, technical discussion forums, addresses of the retail shops, repair shops, videos and so on.

The software giant will battle search engine giant Google. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal Reported that Yahoo plans to improve its Web search queries with specific data like addresses, photos and other 'real world information' rather than merely showing other web-links. Google's search engine is constantly Op to come up with smarter results.

Undoubtedly, Google is leading the search engine market share currently, with Yahoo following it. So, it's obviously that folks over at Microsoft are still looking to ink a deal with Yahoo on ad marketing on Yahoo's search engine markets.

Like we said earlier, in the coming months, search engine wars between Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and the new player Wolfram Alpha will get exciting. But will the purpose to offer best and user-friendly search results be served?

India one of the best in Tackling Recession !

2009-05-29T00:34:00.002+05:30

India has been ranked as third best country that will tide over the global economic crisis by a worldwide survey among business persons to understand the business morale and impact of the economic downturn.

According to the Servcorp International Business Confidence Survey, India has been ranked as the third most promising country to survive the economic crisis. Australia has been voted as the best place to be during the recession times by international business people, followed by China.

The third position is held jointly by India and Singapore while Hong Kong and Canada are in the fifth and sixth place respectively.

Interestingly, developing nations have emerged favourites among international businessmen as places which are best placed to tide over the recession as 21 of the 36 countries listed by the Servcorp International Business Confidence Survey are emerging market economies.

Source :- Times of India

Lecture Videos by IIT professors

2009-05-27T23:24:00.005+05:30

Few months ago the seven Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Launched many of the lecture videos by eminent Professors in their college into the internet through Youtube. Also Various courses and notes are available in the internet.

The IITs have taken up an initiative of starting on-line teaching and thus have started offering course materials on-line for every engineering stream.The main objective of NPTEL program is to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum based video and web courses. This is being carried out by seven IITs and IISc Bangalore as a collaborative project. In the first phase of the project, supplementary content for 129 web courses in engineering/science and humanities have been developed. Each course contains materials that can be covered in depth in 40 or more lecture hours. In addition, 110 courses have been developed in video format, with each course comprising of approximately 40 or more one-hour lectures. In the next phase other premier institutions are also likely to participate in content creation.

Many professors from all the IITs have provided course materials for each chapter and each subject.

One has to register at the link provided below and can access the course material free of cost.

Every Chapter has been described with diagrams and charts. Please spread this message to everyone, as many can benefit from this program taken up by the government and IIT.

This is just a trial period going on and hence they requested everyone to register at the link given.

1] Type the following address on internet explorer http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in

2] Click on Courses
3] sign up as a NEW USER
4] And one can access any course material.

One can also see the lecture videos online using Youtube . The URL for this is - http://youtube.com/iit

I have personally seen some of these videos and they rock!

So if u guys need some help on some topic then take a look at these videos and courses