Disclaimer

Some people (read Khasgi) seemed to have taken my post on MindSpark very personally. I have nothing personal against the organizers. Most of them are my good friends. That post was written entirely from the point of view of a frustrated mech student (read Me) who is trying desperately to be as +ve as possible about the whole situation. So please forgive me if anyone is hurt (not like that many people read my blog anyway, but still…)

Chunky Pandey in news

We last saw him in Om Shanti Om where he claimed that he is the best actor, during filmfare award ceremony. ‘Kaun Om Kapoor? Chanky Pandey jeetega bhai!‘.

I was watching a song on Zoom TV and this news flashed at the bottom of the screen.

“Bangladeshi fan robs Chanky Pandey’s passport”

So?

That was my first reaction. But suddenly I noticed the important part…..Bangladeshi “FAN”???? Now thats a news!

But seriously, who on earth except from that chap himself would care about that? Or are there actually people out there who want to know these tiny useless details about utterly insignificant characters like him?

New usages of English words

Professors in my college are trained to use english in a very flexible manner. So they use the words interchangeably or even invent a few. For example, a professor coined following phrases-

1) to abstract out (A pump is used to abstract the steam out of the cylinder)

2) to be harmonous (Some working fluids like CFC are harmonous to human health)

Also see Flexible Usage of Grammar

This is a good practice. May be this is why our answers in the exams are also very innovative!

My take on MindSpark

I presented a paper at Axlerate’08 in MIT. Did not get a prize but it was a good experience. After the presentation I was told that the certificates were misplaced and I will get them later. I said great! Another effort to improve my CV gone fruitless. Because I had a same experience from my college itself at MindSpark’07. I participated in the idea presentation competition ‘Save the World’ and I got a certificate that was not even signed. No participant of Save the World had got 1. It was as good as ‘Raddi’. So I went to the MindSpark office to see what I can do. They took that certi and and told me to come after a week. I dont know why, but a teeny-tiny part of my brain believed that I would get it back. But, not surprisingly, I still haven’t got it. I tried a couple of times a month later and now I have given up. So I thought that Axlerate effort was also vain. But to my surprise, I received a call from the organizer, two weeks later who told me that my certificate was ready. She apologised for the delay and was even ready to deliver it to my place. I said you kept your promise, thats good enough and I collected it myself.

I dont care that I didnt get the MindSpark certificate. The point is..that MIT people kept their promise and accepted that it was their mistake. In case of MindSpark, nobody was accountable for the blunder. I think the reason why this happened is because MindSpark was introduced by scrapping all the departmental events. Mechanical department had a well established technical event ‘Fervor’ organised by MESA. I had worked for Fervor team for 2 years, and I was very dejected when MindSpark was announced. Our director had his reason for introducing MindSpark. But it was not fair for mechanical department. So there was hardly any response to MindSpark organizing committee from mech dept. MindSpark supporters pointed out that single event for a college is a universal thing, like in IITs. But those people are accustomed to that from the start itself. That was not the case in my college due to departmental differences.

I worked hard for Fervor to establish my position in the MESA managing committee and I just didnt feel like doing so for MindSpark. I think there will be a few people from my department who will agree with me. In couple of years MindSpark will be well established as people who had worked for departmental events would have passed on. But a few like me suffered the indifference of the first outcome.

McLaren Finishes in style

Coolheaded Hamilton won the Australian GP without a hitch and gave team Mclaren a stunning season opening. Teammate Kovalainen finished 5th. Williams and BMW drivers made it to the podium and made it clear that the championship is not going to revolve only around two teams like last year. The germans Heidfeld and Roseberg were 2nd and 3rd.

But the dramatic retirements and accidents of drivers stole the show with only 6 drivers actually crossing the finishing line! Safety car had to be brought out 3 times. Only 8 drivers got classified with 90% completion rule. Barrichello, who crossed the finishing line, was disqualified as he left the pitlane on a red light after his 10sec-stationary penalty for an earlier pit stop blunder. See Results

Ferrari had a very disappointing finish as both the drivers failed to finish the race. Kimi received 1 championship point after Barrichello’s disqualification. The reigning world champ had a rough race. Starting from 15th on the grid after 10 spot penalty of Timo Glock, he managed to reach 8th position on the first lap itself. At the start of 2nd safety car period, Ferrari crew showed some wits by giving a ‘Just-in-time’ call to Kimi and warning him to stay on the track just as he was entering the pits. This saved from losing his track position. Just after the 3rd safety car period his car went off the track during an overtaking maneuver and was thrown at the back. This happened again as he tried to take over Nakajima. Finally, with 3 laps remaining Kimi retired due to engine problem. Massa also retired earlier in the race due to an engine trouble. Ironically, neither of the Ferrari engine car could complete the race today.

The luckiest man on the track was Fernando Alosno. He managed to finish 4th. But again, this was entirely due to reliability of his Renault. He was clearly struggling for speed. The only remarkable overtaking was in the penultimate lap when he took over Kovalainen to regain his own position which he had lost at the previous corner. But their lack of pace will be important factor in the coming race. Let us see how things turn out.

My prediction about Alonso turned out to be wrong. But my other prediction was correct. That was about the accidents due to the track. The major reason for accidents was of course lack of control due to the ban on electronic driver aids. But out of the 8 drivers who crashed out, at least 2 were the victims of the track. Jenson Button crashed his car into the wall when he tried to avoid hitting Anthony Davidson, who was slow due to damaged tires. Had there been a proper run off zone, he would have just lost time. The other 1 was rookie Timo Glock. He went off the track, but there was no proper run off zone at that corner. The grassy patch was very bumpy and so his car lost its contact to the ground, and went tumbling on the track.

This race has shown that absence of traction control and engine braking is going to take its toll. The teams have to be very very careful in the coming races. I really hope the next weekend at Sepang will not be as EVENTFUL’ as this 1. F1 fans will be more than happy, I think, with a less dramatic race.

Mclaren Back With A Bang

Mclaren has shown the world that though they started the season as the last team, it is going to take only 1 race to jump to the top. Hamilton delivered a stunning performance in his Mp4-23 and booked P-1 for the start of the race at Albert Park, Melbourne. His teammate Kovalainen will start 3rd behind Robert Kubica who had to just miss out on his first ever pole position due to a blunder on the last turn.

Ferrari had a rough start. Kimi’s car had a major problem just after finishing Q1 and he could not retun to the pits and so was barred from further action. This was very odd considering the performance of the F2008 throughout the practice sessions. So the reliability issues that Ferrari faced at the start of the last season seemed to have dogged them here also. Massa finished 4th on Q3 and will start the race on 2nd row.

Force India was not able to produce anything special and will start the race at the back of the grid from 17th and 19th position. Red bull and Williams had a mixed day with Roseberg and Coulthard making it to the top 10. Both Toyota drivers did well to qualify for Q3 with qualifying specialist Trulli starting 6th on the grid. Rookie german Timo Glock had a good start and is 9th on the grid.

All the speculations regarding Renault were rested today as both the drivers had a pathetic start. Nelson Piquet Jr will start 20th. Alleged championship contender Alonso finished 12th and I hope will have nothing more to say. Bad news for Alonso haters though! ING being the official sponsor of F1 we will have to tolerate their ad featuring Alonso in every break. Cant help!

Drivers were clearly struggling to have a grip on their cars around the corners with traction control and engine braking gone. Few had a spin on the tracks but the major 1 was involving local hero Mark Webber in his Red Bull. On his opening lap of Q2 his car went out of control, slipped on the gravel and spun off the track. The session had to be terminated as his car was very near to the track. This has brought up the old debate of safety issues on the older tracks. Australian GP track has always been considered dangerous. The walls are very close to the track at some places and this has been a major concern for some years. Now with electronic aids banned, tomorrows race could see quite a few collisions if cars spin off the track. Though crash barriers are there, they still damage the cars unlike large run-off zones which just put the driver off the race without any major car damage.

The new rule changes for qualifying made a lot of impact on strategies. The 20-15-10 min format for Q1-Q2-Q3 was effective with last teams utilising the extra time in Q1. The refuelling norms ruled the strategies in Q3 with various teams using different fuel loads which clearly reflected in the results.

A good news for F1 fans. Chris Goodwin is back in commentary team with Steve Slater. The famous duo will continue to entertain us with their usual lively comments and thorough analysis.

The qualifying clearly suggests that this is going to be a hell of a close season. Cant wait for tomorrow’s race

Stinking HT

Today we were made to take down this gigantic equation with like a million parameters in Heat transfer. Professor said that we have to mug it up. And what are going to be the problems like in exam? We will be given values of all those parameters and we just have to substitute them in the equation. So whats the point???? Get clerks to do that why engineers? Why not just understand the funda to use the eqn and use it in practical applications? Suppose you face a similar problem in an assignment in ur job, what will you do? Will you tax your imagination to remember this gooey formula? You will open JP Holman and find out this formula. So why bother? What will you achieve by mugging the thing that you will  probably never need?

F1 season preview

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Good points discussed here. Keep in touch with F1 official site and of course my blog for latest updates in F1 as the season kicks off this weekend.

How Stuff Works

Part-1: Bus Depot, Sangli

I was standing in a queue for reservation. I was 5th in the row. My turn came after 25 min. But that was not new for me. There is no computer, but the tickets are hand written. Sangli is a district place in so called developed state of Maharashtra. Computerized reservation is such a basic thing nowadays. But thats not how it works here. The standard procedure for reservation is like this- you tell the person sitting across the window the day of journey, destination and time. The man then finds out a register for that particular bus out of a huge stack. Then he slowly turns the pages until he finds out the required date. It takes him an eternity to find out an empty seat. He confirms everything again. . Finds out the relevant page in the ticket book. Then looks around for carbon paper and inserts two pieces in the booklet. Slowly writes the ticket. Fills the register. And all these actions are according to the standards established in government offices-1)Customer is the least important thing in front of you and 2) Do not make any movement faster than 2 cm/sec. Then he asks for the money in change. Bickers about something or the other. Whew!!! Finally you get the ticket.

Part-2: Prepaid rickshaw stop, Swargate.

I reached Swargate from Sangli at 10 in the morning. Came out of bus stand and went to pre-paid auto-rickshaw booth. There was a traffic police officer standing next to it who was supposed to attend the travelers like me. But instead, I found him smoking a cigarette (which by the way is illegal at public places). I tried to ask him very politely if I could hire a rikshaw. He did not even bother to look at me as if I was speaking to an invisible man next to him. I waited for an answer. Nothing! After seeing me trying to talk to him, a rickshaw driver came and said I should not disturb the officer but should go with him. But he was not ready to accept the fare by meter. He offered a flat rate. 50 Rs for Karvenagar. Obviously I was not going to fall for that. So I had to cross the busy crossroad and go to the nearest rickshaw stop to get a fare deal. Fortunately I did get 1. But thats not good enough. When you travel for 4 hrs to reach Pune in ST buses, you expect to reach home without any further headache. Thats exactly why these pre-paid rickshaw stops were introduced in the first place. But like all good schemes, this 1 was also broken down by the Police and rickshaw organizations together because they are the ones who will have to compromise.

Part-3: Teqip and Library
Teqip is Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme. My college is funded under this programme. There is a feedback session to be carried out to check the progress implementation of plans accordingly. Today I attended the same. Before that we had briefings about this programme from various professors and our director. Everybody emphasized on its importance and asked us to give a positive feedback. But that was quite understandable as the further grants are dependent on this feedback. I also thought that it was my duty to help my institution and I gave a very positive feedback. I was very proud of myself until I went to library. These library people make sure that my opinion about them is degraded with every visit. Two years ago our library was a book lending shop. We had to place an order on a particular day and return next day to collect the book if it was available. This system was as pathetic as it sounds. This was changed from current academic year and now we have free access. But still our library is in no respect a modern library. Here, the organization of books is the most disorganized activity. All the books are bar coded and are issued by swiping. But still we have to fill the little yellow papers in them for record. We have to make an entry of the book while leaving the library in a register. I mean whats the point of bar coding? We still have to get the books issued by the same old method plus an additional step of swiping it. In spite of all this, there are always instances of wrong records. We can keep the book for 7 days. No no…not the way you know it. We HAVE to keep it for 7 days. Not a day more, not a day less. We cannot renew it. If we are late, we pay fine. Here also they have made it sure that we will be miserable to the maximum possible extent. We have to collect a Chalan from store, fill it in, pay the fine in bank, deposit 1 receipt in bank and 1 in library. So much for a fine of Rs. 5! Ever been to BCL? This whole system sounds ridiculous, doesnt it?

FilmyFare

Every year I watch the Academy awards and then decide not to watch our degraded award functions including Filmfare. But I invariably end up watching them. So this year I made no such decision and enjoyed Filmfare on a quiet Sunday evening.

5 years ago at Filmfare, King Khan SRK and Chhote Nawab Saif put up a great show with extreme arrogance toward the film fraternity. I have to admit I enjoyed it thoroughly. Next year, they did quite ok trying lamely to apologise for all the disrespect. For last couple of years, Filmfare was very boring and aimless.

This year, the duo was back with a bang and dominated the whole show. But the old charm seemed to have vanished this time. Some of the jokes were ok. But they seemed totally lost in their aim of insulting everybody. Their dialogues were not ‘Offensive’ enough. Saif was off the mark for most of the time. They were completely disoriented during the presentation of ‘Na-real’ awards. ‘Na-real’ awards to Vidya Balan and Ramesh Sippy were pointless. I liked only the one given to Akshay Kumar.

This year the traditional crown of ‘Show off business’ was forwarded from The Bachchans to the fresh couple- Saif-Kareena. The exhibition of ‘Love’ by Saif and Kareena was ridiculous.

The performances were as usual, totally useless, although they were fewer in number than usual. Himesh did his share of irritating people sincerely. Deepika did her 1st ever live performance. She did quite well.

Most of the awards were predictable. Everybody knows Aamir doesn’t attend award function. But I think he should have been polite enough to let the organizers use a clip from TZP during announcement of nominations. Instead, a note flashed across the scene saying ‘Clip was unavailable from the producer’. I think this was unnecessary.

There is always a talk amongst the celebrities that the nature of award functions should be changed radically. But no organizer is brave enough to do so. I think the reason is their mentality. They cannot think in a broader sense. This is why, barring a few exceptions, we have had some ridiculous entries from India to the Oscars in the past including this years Eklavya. Its not like we dont make good films at all, but the selectors conveniently forget about them for some unknown reasons. Instead of doing this just for the sake of sending an official entry, they should just declare “You people dont understand our great movies (Or rather what we think as great movies) so we dont want to compete at all. We are a class of our own!”