Manish Chauhan Personal Blog

Sand Magic

2009-09-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

Dont Judge so Fast

2009-09-16T08:17:00.003-07:00

Wierd Life

2009-05-21T09:33:00.001-07:00

There are moments in life , when you want to say a lot of things to someone , but life dont give you those circumstances and those situations .

Its too dis-hearting and tough to keep it all in your heart and mind . The feeling of "If only I would have said that" kills you each moment . Life becomes tough ...

Why ? I guess life does not wants you to go ahead and do it , Its just not worth and you have some thing else do concentrate on , just forget it , let it go and dont look back . But surely its painful , so is life :)

people who are so close to you , suddenly go so far , that you never talk to them , never see them , never hear there voice , which was totally unimaginable that time , and now after so many months , years . You remember them when you see some pic or hear the same name in some song and then all those moments become fresh ...

Weird Life . Real life

2009-05-04T05:40:00.002-07:00

The Children of Taliban

I am posting 4 videos which was aired by pbs.org which shows the real picture of how Taliban is controlling Pakistan , and the role of childrens in this . An excellent documentary .

Part 1

Pakistan - Children of The Taliban (Part 1 of 4) - The best bloopers are here

Part 2

Pakistan - Children of The Taliban (Part 2 of 4) - The funniest videos clips are here

Part 3

Pakistan - Children of The Taliban (Part 3 of 4) - The funniest videos clips are here

Part 4

Pakistan - Children of The Taliban (Part 4 of 4) - More amazing videos are a click away

2009-04-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hans Rosling shows some beautiful data in an amazing way ... see it

2009-03-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

My Favorite Scene ...

You must be having your own favorite movie and favorite scenes . There are many movies which were not a big hit and not came much in limelight , but have some best scenes . One of my top most favorite is scene from "Socha Na Tha" .

Why do i love this scene so much ?

People like things which they can relate to , or they want to relate it to somehow , they might have some dream about it , want it to happen with them .. So may be its the same reason with me too.

Enjoy the scene ...

2009-02-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

Which are my Favorite movies ?

There are many movies which i like , Some of them are

1. Rehna Hai Tere Dil Me
2. Kuch Kuch Hota hai
3. Dil Chahta hai

But there is another movie which is very special movie which i love . I am not sure how others rate that movie or even know about it, but this movie has a very special place in my heart .

The name of the movie is "Love" . This is a Salmaan Khan , Revathi classic which came in 1991 . The reason i love this movie , its music and how it shows love between Salmaan and Revathi .

Revathi has done brilliant work in the movie , her childish acts are the main turn ons . I am sure every boy likes girl like that . I want someone who loves me the same way, may be thats the reason i like that movie and try to imagine myself in place of salmaan :)

A scene where salmaan proposes Revathi is here , It feels so nice seeing this scene :) .

A short clip which shows deep love between them is here .

A classic song of the movie is here .

Manish

Tamarind on Trees :)

2009-01-03T23:20:00.001-08:00

Tamarind on Trees :)
Originally uploaded by manish_chn

We were on our way to Yelagiri Hills ... On the way we saw tamarind Trees loaded with the fruit ... We needed a break too ... So it was a great break we could have taken ... we enjoyed plucking (is this the correct word to use .. i dont know .. ) the tamarind from the tree ...

It was nice experience ... It always feels good when we do something like this away from a busy City , where we only code and eat coffee all day ... (i am not sure if we do the first thing ,... but sure for the second thing ) ...

Anyways .. it was nice experience ..
Pics for the trip are here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/manish_chauhan/sets/72157612137828932/detail/

Manish

2008-11-21T23:10:00.000-08:00

Recently i watched DASVIDANIYA , the hindi movie .. I am a big fan of Vinay Pathak . His performance in Bheja Fry has touched me ... The humour at its best . I have never seen a classic actor like him . That's the reason i was waiting for Dasvidaniya for long and at moment i decided to watch it alone in theatre when no one was there to accompany me . I generally never prefer watching movie alone in theatre, but finally i downloaded it and watched it .

Every movie as its best scenes , Following is one scene which has touched my Heart and the performance from Vinay Pathak is unbeatable.

Vinay Pathak is suffering from Cancer and can die in another some months and decides to do a set of things which he wanted to do before he died . one of which is telling his childhood love (Neha Dhupiya) that he loves him .. He meets her after a long time only to find that She is now married happily . But a wish is a wish and he decides no matter what he will tell her that he loves her . Watch the clip .

I really wanted to see how Neha Dhupia Neha Dhupia feels after Vinay Pathak Proposed her . That's one thing movie missed .

2008-11-12T22:13:00.000-08:00

PUCSD Memories

PUCSD was a different place, it added a new flavour in my life, the style of education, the atmosphere of department and the life here altogether were in-sync with my likings and were just like me, Not only it taught me Computer Science, it taught me life too. I have learned and seen all the dimensions of life in PUCSD. The time spent here was great for me. i will always remember this part my life which has made the rest of my life. I might have become a man of success without coming to this institution, But now i will become man of values and principles too. It was an honour for me to meet and learn from Great teachers like Roy (when will you do that question i gave you ? ) and Mody sir .

Some Beautiful Moments in PUCSD

There are many who became part of my life in PUCSD and i have learned a lot from them .. Each person has taught me something while i was with them .. This part of my life will be one of the most important part of my life.

I miss PUCSD ...

manish

2008-11-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

Placement week for FP is going start soon and there are some questions needs to be answered .

1. What are generally the main sections in the written exams for FP ?

The main parts are

Aptitude questions and puzzles (mostly easy ones)
C questions
DS , OS , Algo
Sometimes Networks , Database and other subjects

2. What's the level of the following in FP :

Puzzles :

Depends on the company , Some companies like Amazon , Adobe , Yahoo , Microsoft asks good and little tough questions .

Other companies may ask puzzles which they think are very good and tough , but most of the time its crap and done by people like us .

C :

Good quality questions , above average , better to know each aspect so that you can answer most of the questions .

APTITUDE :

Questions are of 10+ level , Some practice and revision before the FP will definitely help . But the most important is the speed you do it .

OOPS concepts(will anybody ask for design patterns or they will ask only core language concepts)

hmm... There is less chance anybody will ask DP , but better if you include it while answering , it would definitely make some impact .

OS (is galvin sufficient for FP)

OS is very important , Basic knowledge is sufficient , Deep knowledge is a plus always .

Btw , What is Galvin ? !!!

3. How I should prepare to talk about Internship since I didn't get to code much in my company and didn't get to work on the core part of the product . What to do if the interviewer gets into to much details of my Internship.

Most of the time it would not happen , while FP , just tell them sincerely what you did , If you did your job well as it was expected from you , its good enough , No one expects you to be great coder before they hire you , They will judge you very well from there interview if you can be a good employee for them or not .

Don't try to makeup things , just be sincere and tell exactly what you did .

4. I am thinking not to prepare for DBMS and n/w at all.

If you plan to do this , then be ready to be unable to answer the questions in these fields , If there is a network or Database company then you are not preparing for them , which may be ok , if you are not into N/w or Database much and don't plan to go in that field .

5. Any special tips/papers for any Company

Amazon : Be good with everything , good in Algorithms and Puzzles .

Trilogy (Versata) : Flawless coding , Algorithms . CPA wont help much .

Symantic : Don't worry , answer crap with confidence , they will take you.

Sybase : Be good with Unix , good CPA will help .

Fair Issac : Be good in Maths and logic , good analytical Skills

2008-08-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

IT preperation for PUCSD

What is IT ?

IT is Industrial Training which you do for 6 months in Industry. You work on some project , may be you do some Coding or most of the time some bug fixing or QA .
I have seen that most of the people take IT very seriously , where as its not that big thing. Dont worry for IT .. i mean worry for getting IT but dont worry if you cant get into some high profile Companies PUCSD is crazy about like Amazon , Versata or any thing like that.

What you get into a BIG company ?

Most of the time there is a project which is already complete and you do some bug-fix or testing or some build some module . Which is perfectly fine. No body is going to put you on hardcore development from day 1 , you will only give you things which they think you can handle. Even in regular job people end up doing bug fixes and understanding the product for initial 6 months or more . So expecting hard core development is not a good idea

+ : High stipent , good facilities
- : no good work (most of the times)

What you get in a Small company ?

In small companies , most of the time you can get better work (which is most important) but the stipend wont be that great like big companies , but it would be sufficient.

What do companies ask you when they come for Campus ?

Hardly it matters what you have done , most of the time they dont even ask anything ... and when they ask , they ask you to explain what you did ? Thats it.

Does it affects what have i done in IT ? Does that matter a lot while i get offer at the time of FP ?

Not really. There are people who have done testing work and now doing Pure dev work , There are people who did development work in IT and now doign Testing and other non-dev work. There are people who have done XYZ and now doing ABC .

FP is different and your IT matters very less . mainly you have to do good in interviews and written exams.

Does CPI matter ?

Let me tell you when CPI matters .

- Most of the companies keep minimum CPI criteria for students to sit in the written exams . they may allow people above 3.0 or 3.5 sometimes . In that case CPI is something which will help you .

If they find 2 good candidates with equal skills and they have to take one then if there is big gap in CPI it will matter. But if there is small difference like <1 style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 0, 0);">How should you see Written test and interview ?

From what i and almost everyone has seen that written test is something you study for . all your maths skills , C and other knowledge helps you most at the time of written test. you have questions in front of you and you answer it . Here comes your knowledge and only your knowledge and the fact that how much you have mugged up (i hate it) ... how many differnt C problems you have done , and how deep you know about something.

Interview is something you show your creativity , your confidence , sometimes your appearance , and most of the time your luck .

I have seen people who are great in OS , Algo , Data structures and over all computer science , but are weak in aptitude ... and that turns out to be the biggest nightmare . they are able to crack all the questions they will face in interview , but they are not just able to reach there because they fail in written.

Aptitude and C are very important part of any written test (most of them) .. you cant afford to be bad in aptitude . its the first step of your ladder. If you cant make it , you cant pass through.

Just make sure that you clear written easily and interview is something more muck rather than skill. What matters most in interview is your confidence , some times how you appear (yes , i am talking about physical appearance , they dont expect Salman khan , but just be a polite , nice , clean , smart person)

Is my coding skills important ?

You can be great coder , but you can fail here . Coding at IT or FP time is different. When we code for our assignments and for lab work , we have adequate time , we have computer to test the mistakes . But in IT or FP you dont have time ... you are given 30 min or 1 hr to write a program and it should RUN !!! ... What it means is that it should be very near to perfection . you should be able to handle all the cases apart from small things like <= should not be there in place of < . and many other small small things . Just try to write a HeapSort() in C on paper and then try to run it . You will see where you stand. Yes , you code in C only .. no python , C++ or java etc. You cant afford to be bad here , you need to be a Fair (if not good) C programmer . Atleast a paper coder. Try to write a lot of programs on paper , most of the times if you are solving a problem , try it on paper and then test it . It should help . most of the companies ask C coding in there written exam , so if you not good at it, that will be bad.

I am ignoring maths and puzzles and only doing C , data structures , OS etc ?

Thats not a good thing. Companies do not need a C programmer or an OS expert with an average mind . They would rather prefer average C and OS person with exceptional problem solving capabilities. You must be able to solve complex problems apart form working knowledge of other things. This is mainly for Fp and not for IT and its also true for IT .

When they ask things from you they will see how are you solving it and not that you gave a correct answer . A correct and right approach is much appreciated than a right answer.

What will happen during IT time ?

Surprises , there is a one word answer but let me elaborate over it . Be prepared to see a person get a IT before you who has less CPI then you or who was considered less smart , less attractive , less knowledgable than you all these days ... That happens .

Just dont worry .. keep cool , be confident . Its just a matter of 3-4 hrs that they have to judge people and they have there own criteria's . It might happen that A knows 10% and B knows 90% , but A was asked nothing from that 90% what he/she doesnt know and B was asked a lot from 10% which he/she does not know .

What subjects are more important?

OS : OS will be asked by everyone , this i would rate rank 1 . atleast it will be among top 2 always ... Each company will ask OS except some like versata.

Algorthims : this will also be asked by almost every company , make sure that you brush up all the basic questions like those arrays problems and linklist problems .

Data structure : This will go same way like Algorthim . this will be asked by almost every company . Make sure that you know the concepts and seen many questions . Share a lot of qustions with each other and practice.

Puzzles : Yes , i would put puzzles and riddles after this . Most of the companies test your problem solving skills and your way of thinking . Here , its not neccessary that you give them correct answer , you will win if they are convinced that you are able to think in right direction and can lead to correct answer if you are given some more help , its obviously great if you can solve the puzzles , but its ok if you cant.

Rest all subjects :

Some Tips and things to remember

- If you dont know something , be straight and tell them that you dont know (make sure its not a very very silly and simple thing , if they ask you to traverse a linklist , dont say you dont know , rather try it) . But they ask you how malloc works internally , its something not everyone knows , so you can tell them that you dont know . and give them chance to go ahead. People who come to recruit understand that you cant know 100% , you its fine if you said that you dont know 2 -3 out of 10 things.

- Make sure you do aptitude and C very very well (for written) .

Programming interview exposed : http://manish.pucsd.googlepages.com/Programming_interviews_exposed_1_.pdf
: Read This ebook , it has good problems of DFS and other things , which are very nicely explained. This is a must read.

Orkut Community for PUCSD puzzles : http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=36434569
Join this community and discuss some of the puzzles and questions. Mainly this is focused for Algorthim and puzzles . If people are ready and enthsuastic , we can start active discussion .

Some comments and experiences : I asked some people to share there experiences and write a small paragraph for you people so that you can understand what people do in IT and how they feel about it . I am sure it will help.

"In my IT, I have done testing of Sybase IQ products which include writing scripts for automated testing, executing scripts and some parts involved manual testing as well. In my initial days of IT I was given time to learn shell scripting and database concepts especially about indexes in deep. In my IT days I was given two main projects – work load monitoring and load improvement. The work that I was doing required mainly shell scripting, python code and dbtest (a Sybase tool) scripts

I doesn't liked manual testing, the work given to me was completed by me in the given time that is all required by a company. Many times some of the works gets blocked due to one reason or other.
during my IT I was utilising saturdays and sundays for FP preparation"

Vivek Bhardwaj , batch 05

"I worked on developing a test automation framework for there product called Unwired accelerator . mainly i worked in python and xml parsers . I learned about syncing technlogies . and overall product architecture ... there was not much work load . The stipend was very good , the atmosphere was excelent . i love Sybase . its a nice company to work with. For my FP the only 1 out of 4-5 companies asked which interviewed me ... my current company didnt even ask about it .. i guess they dont even knowthat i did any IT :) . So for my FP its didnt matter at all. "

Manish Chauhan , batch 04

"well i wasn't that happy going to symantec initially, but as i always say it depends on the team. Well i worked on making a test automation tool for one of there product's QE team. The work was good, basically related to DS, C/C++, lots of XML parsing and creation, mostly related to Window's system environment(that was a new thing :) ). Learned new tools as well. I think going in for an IT you don't require anything extra, you will grab the things there.
Just one thing, be in touch with at-least two people in your team one, your mentor/buddy, second the person whom he reports, as these are the people who will be the one sending out your details."

Vineet Garg , Batch 04

"I did my IT at IIT Bombay

There at IIT, as part of the job I was involved in mainly two things,
> was involved as a tutor in GCC workshop
> was involved with some GCC code changes which finally didnt completed (or bettr say I couldnt complete)

From my IIT experience I gained only two things
> I read GCC source code (so now, I am not afraid of reading any code :) )
> Got time to do things othere than course/syllabs like learnd TT, and other tech related stuffs.

What I feel , my IT experience was not an Ideal one, and dont thing u can take an example out of it (anyways, now nobody goes to IIT)
Somebody who did IT in industry could provide better insight.

:)
"

Neeraj Chopra , Batch 05

"During IT u have to do things within deadline & this deadline is strict coz ur ppo depends on it. so u learn to do ur task faster & better. I learned new things in optimization of db query. how a database engine works, how to design ur db schema to make your query writing easy. having said that it makes u feel confident each time u complete a task & get appreciation for it. u shud b master of the subject in which u r doing ur IT. Also getting corporate culture xperince helps u in real job.keep discussing diff ideas with ur seniors/mngrs during IT also helps u"

Preetdeep , Batch 04

If there are any doubts or questions , you can always shoot an email to manish.pucsd@gmail.com .

Manish Chauhan
http://www.finance-and-investing.blogspot.com/

2008-06-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

I Have learned a lot of english idioms and words by interacting my US teammates and they help me learn new things without knowing knowing themselves that they do.

These are things i have learned from them.

you beat to it : This means "to do something before someone else can".

hold down the fort : Taking care of the place you're at while others are gone.

take a stab at : To attempt or try OR to guess

2008-05-06T01:44:00.000-07:00

This small documentory shows how slavery exists in insects world. How a powerful species of Ants make another ants species their slaves by fooling them.

2008-04-15T08:46:00.001-07:00

Writeups

Following are the writeups about me from my class mates in MCA at Pune University Computer Science Department.

"Agar tum mere is sawal ka jawab doge, to main tumse dus aur sawal poochonga":)

If you find someone scribbling on a piece of paper on the door-steps of the dept. b sure he is none other than Manish.:-) He has got a real knack for puzzles and
Number Theory.His fav. past time is reading and increasing his knowledge about numbers.Be it CM, SIM, or Graphics, he has special affection with all these subjects.The mere reason behind it being it involves Mathematics. He is a very cool-headed person with simple and humble approach towards life.You would always find him smiling and thats the best part in him. He is very helpful when it comes to assignments and has been a gr8 aid to me from time to time.

He is a fun-loving person and does not need any reason to laugh.His PJs are really Pathetic and imagination all the more weird but he can bring smile to ur face with his descriptions of funny scenarios. Although a movie-buff but never trust his comments on a movie as according to him every movie is "Good":-) and there were times when after watching a movie, I wondered why did I even listen to his reviews about it.

His write-up won't be complete without the mention of his cooking skills.
He is an excellent cook and has a passion for cooking and experimenting new
dishes.He loves to eat and mebbe thats why he loves to cook as well.I'll terribly miss the time when we cooked together.IT was really gr8 being with you and thanks for making me eat all those things which I really hate to. I'll even miss your peculiar way of saying "Arey Beta.....":-)

May God bless you.Have a great future ahead.

-Archana.

Are beta Manissss hum tumhara writeup likh rahe hain. "Mr. cool" of csd, spreads calmness whereever he goes. You can't irritate him no matter what you do(beleive me I have tried everything). I see my own reflection(not physically ;-) ) in him. We have had discussions on every conceivable topic and our thoughts were almost same. In these three years I have learnt a lot of things from him. Intelligent and intellectual his motto is "study less, understand more".

Very helpful, he has taught many students on the eve of exams without caring about his own preparation. Known for his jokes, his heights of everything, I still remember his one liner on height of poverty ;-) . Energy and soul of khadki group, he has the potential and he'll achieve his goals of life.

-Kshitij

Manisssss is what we call him,thinking about him creates coolness in environment.he is as cool as the cold waves in greenland.This is one of his strengths and one of things which i tried to learn from him during 3 years with him.he became famous as gabbar singh during our intro session.A guy with discipline,loves mathematics,with a good smile and do enjoy anything involving thought process.applies mind on everything.loves good food,good music and likes to innovate.from last three years,i have seen him in his blue nickers with a banyan over it at flat. This guy is responsible for getting many people passed during first sem.

This guy is having many dreams and he will surely get them.wish u a happy and
successful life ahead.

- Rachit

Manish or better call him maths bond...one who is engrossed in his own world of numbers...one either finds him solving a problem or reading a book on numbers...he is one of the nicest people i have come across...very helpful,kind and down to earth...he loves being in his world of maths...and has amazing ability of grasping things...and is very good at explainin them too...n hence he has cleared the concepts of lots of people in the dept...well i guess this is wat majority of people in dept knw abt him..but her ecomes the insiders view...he is not only gud wid maths concepts but he is equally gud wid his fundas abt life....

he has a very clear understandin of everythin n amazes me by putting things which may appear confusing n complicated to others in a very simple matter of factly manner.manish is someone who knows his priorities right...stands by his principles...n doesnt believe in gossiping :))...he is truly a gem of a person...n now dat he is making a new beginning in his life i wish him all the success n happiness...n im sure he'll make it big in tihs world!!!
cheers manish!!stay as u r!!

-Shazia

This person can certainly write "n" number of problems on an N-size array.
Yes, i am talking about the "Aare Beta" or "Khanshi" as we know him(because of his non-stop 365 days of coughing in a year). During Third sem, we often felt that whenever he is going to open his mouth, either he is going to cough, or Going to through an N-size array problem on us. The gabber singh of our class, has a really dangerous smile. Being with him for three years(as we were room-mates too) has taught me many things about life, commitment, passion for what you do. How this person never fooled around a system wasting his time(while i am writing this article, he is doing some kind of coding) made me amazed some time.

I will never forget how he used to write the code for assignments in 2 days, and then refine them to perfection till the submission day(and announce the refinements every- time he made them to the whole class). He has always been in limelight of helping out people(specially girls) on any subject(if he can) but i know the whole and soul purpose of his was helping and learning.He makes good food(though rice is always a part of those dishes). The word from his mouth which scares me the most is "probability", i don't know how he thinks of mapping any thing with probability. The last thing i came to know about this guy is he always want to play "flash" every night(i don't know how he will manage his money?). One more thing about this person, never challenge him to write a code in gofer, i know he will always win. All the best to you man.

-Vineet

He's a brilliant guy. Has a real flair for solving puzzles and questions that would make a mince meat of anyone else's brain. I consider him to be a very good friend of mine. We spent a lot of time together visiting companies (being fellow place members) and those were great times. He made every situation seem easy and light. He does have a gross sense of humour though at times....

The most admirable thing about him is his super-cool temperament. He never
takes much tension. He's very down to earth and a genuine person. With his brain, sincerity and all the good will that he's sure to get, he's bound to be very
successful in his life.

-Priya

Manish is the most hardworking person i have ever seen. He knows what he
wants and is fully dedicated to achieving that. He is damn brilliant, has awesome grasping power. There were many classes, especially CM and SIM, when he would be the only one who got what happens in class and after that he would explain that to everyone. He is good in all subjects, be it maths, logic or coding.

He is very humble person. He also likes to cook and is very good at it. He
is always happy and would make others laugh with his jokes. If u hear "arree beta" be sure manish is around (;-)).

He got a knack for puzzles, would always be asking puzzles from others. He
is very helpful, if you have any problem, he would always help you out. I wish him all the best for future. May you have a wonderful life ahead. Do keep in touch.

-Jyoti

I'll forever remain grateful to him for all the times he's helped me with my studies. He's been like a mentor to me many times. The best thing about learning from him is that he never grudges or complains about his time being wasted and is willing to explain a thing countless no. of times if a person has any doubt.I really think that he has a flair for teaching. I wish him the very best in his future.

-Megha

2008-03-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

My favorite Sayings

- "In a day , when you dont come across any problems - you can be sure that you are going on a wrong path" - Swami Vivekanand

- "Three sentences for getting Success : a) Know more than others. b) Work more than others. c) Expect less than others." - William Shakesphere

- "Winning doesn't always mean being first , winning means you are doing better than your have done before." - Bonnie Blair

- " If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, keep moving." - Martin Luther King Jr

- "Everything is consistent in short term" - Myself

- "You only have to do a very few things right in your life, so long as you don’t do too many things wrong." - Warren Buffet

-“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” - Seneca

These are some of the words or sentences which my friends have said, may be without realising its beauty and depthness ... If you try to understand they have a lot of meaning and truth of life ...

"Life goes its way u enjoy it your way" - Deoyani

2008-03-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

My First Camera :)
It was due for long , but finally i bought it . Thanks ot my visit to US , The fact that Electronics in
US is much cheaper than India forced me to buy it .

After a lot of reviews and suggestions , i bought Canaon A720IS for $188 from amazon. I also bought Transcend 4 GB SDHC memory card , along with Transcend Card Reader , with out knowing what they are :)...

It has amazing quality of images and videos . My visit to Yahoo in Sunnyvale gave me an opportunity to buy this camera in low price and take some nice beautiful pictures of San Francisco and In and around Sunnyvale

Pictures of San Francisco and Yahoo Sunnyvale

San Francisco looking great from Sea

Golden Gate Bridge : This is a great bridge , build in 1937 and weighs around a 900,00 tons .

Lombard Street

Sunnyvale to SanFrancisco by Caltrain : Me and Gurpreet took a Caltrain from Sunnyvale to SanFrancisco , Caltrain is a train covering most of the cities between San Jose and San Francisco and an easy medium of travel.

Ferry Building : It is the center of a transit hub that connects all of San Francisco's neighborhoods and the surrounding bay communities.

The Ferry Building Marketplace is a people's marketplace serving residents and travelers alike. Located within the historic Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street, shops large and small celebrate food in all its forms, offering everything from artisan cheeses to the freshest of local fish. Restaurants and cafés serve cuisine representing the quality and cultural diversity of San Francisco’s best chefs.

With a cutie on Ferry

My Dinner cooked by Myself : Veg Tehri , salted Poch Egg and Jeera Omlete

San Francisco from the shuttle...

Streets of Peir 39, San Francisco (with my camera)

2008-03-06T13:19:00.004-08:00

Cool things I found on net

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Mozilla Mail Redirect : This Plugin in Mozilla helps you to redirect the mail recieved by you to some other mail address , to if A has sent you a mail and you redirec it to B , B will recieve a mail from A , you you are not at all in scene.

URL : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/550

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2008-03-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

La Grand Chef , Height of watching movie

Time : 3:30 am in the morning
Temprature outside : - 50 C (negative)
Place : Somewhere in Pacific Ocean

And I was watching La Grand Chef , a korean movie and i liked it and no , it was not a dream. I was on Cathe Pacific flight from Hongkong to San Francisco. It was a tiring journey and i had nothing to do. how much can one read "Money Today" , there is limit to everything !!!

So i started surfing their inflight entertainment system on the screens before me and got this movie.

This was a movie based on the story of a person who was contesting to win for the title for the best chef. Once i saw that its something to do with cooking and i was glued to it and guess what !! .. the movie was great ..

2008-01-28T03:18:00.001-08:00

SAVE WATER

I make people clean,i flow through the showers.
I make plants grow, i help grow flowers.
I flow through the rivers, i feel so good.
When it comes to save me , Why everyone so rude?

Don't be so ignorant, try to understand me
I am for you all, open your eyes and see
It will get late, It will get over
Do something please, Its now or never

I see people brushing, i see people shaving.
I get wasted all over, but people keep ignoring.
I love them all, but i am neglected.
I do so much for all, but its never reflected.

Written by : Manish Chauhan, Pune

From the very early days of mine, i was always inclined towards the nature. My favorites were plants, birds, other creatures, and natural things which are essential for survival of this earth like plants, air and water.

But Its sad to see the state of one of these things, Today i want to talk about is WATER.

Its one of the things people waste so much without considering it costly.
I often listen comments like :

Its god given , its in the rivers , what will happen if some litres are wasted or gone.

Anyways millions of gallons of waters is wasted all day in hours , what great will happen if i save some litres.

In case water is flowing from the tap or anyplace it becomes "PAIN" for someone to save "WATER" , because its not there property, or it does not concern them ...

There are thousands of children dying everyday just because they don't get sufficient water to drink... but millions of people take shower trice a day to keep them "clean" .

Consider a small and trivial situation , if everyone on this earth does shaves not with flowing water but with a mug of water , This single alone event will save more then 100 million or more liters of water in single day ... because the water will be saved while people were shaving and water was not flowing.

The amount of water flushed in toilets daily is far more then the water drank in a day ...

There are small things which need to be taken care by people, which needs little efforts and little involvement from everyone... Following are the things with highest priorities ...

1. Close the taps if they are open unnecessarily. Repair the taps even if the water gets flowed drop by drop, even if its flowing with rate of 1 drop per second , its boil downs to 9 gallons per day or around 2700 gallons per year.

2. Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues, insects and other such waste in the trash rather than the toilet.

3. Stop using long and unnecessary showers.

4. Don't let water run while shaving or washing your face or brushing you teeth.

There are a lot of things to take care which people should take care of and not wait for someone to ask to do them . Its everyone responsibility to save this precious natural thing provided to us by nature.

There are small responsibilities for everyone which are big pain for most of us, but if we don't take this pain now, they will hit us or our future generation very hard. People waste a lot of water everywhere, there are situations when they could have avoided the wastage or could have minimized it, but they consider the whole act of saving water as WASTE .

There is a lack of awareness among people and they don't know that water is so important. We must try to increase the awareness at least among the people we know , even if one person who reads this article and gets concerned and tries to take pain and understands the problem and starts doing something positive about this problem , it will be great !!! and it will be at least a start.

Even if we add one person to the "pool of concerned person" in some days ... it will be a lot in some years, and it will be a great effort ...

SAVE THE WATER ... SAVE THE EARTH ...

2008-01-28T03:15:00.000-08:00

SAY NO TO PLASTIC

Last Sunday you wrapped me
Around the beautiful dress
I looked so nice fine and i shine
But now i have created a mess .
In the earth as i don't decompose or shine .

I wanted to be of use to u throughout
But i just caused more destruction
I am very upset now as i am of no help
I don't know what to do now

I just wanna say please don't use me
As i don't want to cause more stress
I want u to abandon me
Coz am not biodegradable
Coz i let nothing breathe
Coz i am just what u all call me PLASTIC

poem written by : Chandana Bhattacharya , New Delhi

I was trying to answer the question, "People know plastic bags are bad and its use needs to be stopped., then why its not happening, is it really a big problem??? "

Lets see some statistics!!!!

1. The overall society's consumption rate is now estimated at well over
500,000,000,000 (that's 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.

2. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

3. The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.

4. Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery store offers a $.05 or $.10 credit per bag for bringing your own bags.

5. The use of plastic in India has more than doubled in the last 20 years. It has increased from 1.8 million tons to about 5 million since 1995-96 up till now.

I found the reasons why its not happening, the problem is "BIG" but can be solved easily but requires massive effort and requires a lot of sacrifices on part of consumers and shopkeepers both as well...

The biggest hurdle is the feeling from each person that his contribution in saying no plastic bag will not be significant enough ... everyone thinks "What good can happen with one less plastic bag where millions and billions of plastic bags are used daily ???"

No one can see that every one thinks the same way hence there individual thinking about the issue dominates the problem .. had everyone had done his share of social responsibility without thinking about what it can contribute into the system, it can create wonders !!!

Each and every person need to do his/her share of responsibility of using plastic less if not stopped... If a person gets a plastic bag after he/she buys something, i am sure it would not be a big pain for him/her to carry it back when they go to buy something. considering the power of Evil plastic that it can be used 10 times before it gets in bad shape or gets torn , each plastic bag can be reused for 10 times at least . it can significantly bring down the consumption levels by whooping 90% , As compared to 1 billion plastic bags used daily globally , it can be mere 100 millions... and that's the very small amount of effort considering the so called "Society" understand there share of "Non-mandatory Responsibility" .

The levels of consumption can be brought down really to very low levels by these collective efforts. people need not say that no body is going to do it except me, you and some handful of "Social" people, but they should do it for themselves, they must have the feeling that they are doing something which is making a difference, though very less but will be a massive effort when every body does it from there side.

People can also use the paper bags which are considered environment friendly but they need trees to be cut ... anyways they are better than plastic if they are in form of bags. So it can reduce the plastic bags significantly.

I would say these efforts needs to be from consumers more than shopkeepers because shopkeepers will not be able to do it very well because they have other factors like they start loosing out customers to other shopkeepers who provide plastic bags which are "convenient" for customers

But even shopkeepers must keep paper bags in place of plastic bags even though they are "little costly" considering it as share of effort in this issue of Global warming and threat to the world in long run...

I guess that if people try to stop using plastic it will only add to problems and it wont be that easy for the "small world now a days". rather the plastic bags consumption can be brought to minimal levels... It like people just for little inconvenience to them don't want to carry a plastic bag with them to the shop if they want to buy something. but they must understand that it will reduce 1 plastic bag and if millions of people do it ... we can bring down the use by millions and millions every single day ... to stop using plastic seems to be rather very tough .. but reducing the consumption seems very optimistic until this point ... i have opted for stopping the plastic bags consumption till me all limits are crossed ...

lets see what the world has to do about it ...

Expecting small but tough support from at least the readers of this article ...

You can make difference ... Save the earth ...

2008-01-28T03:10:00.000-08:00

Stop Expecting

" Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done.They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.Believe it, it is real. But only for a season."

i have always observed that root cause for a fight with some one like your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, your friends, parents or it may be anyone , or feeling bad about any event is this strange thing called "EXPECTATION".

We always feel good about someone , we start spending time with some one and after some time we assume that he/she understands us and will take care of our needs and will understand us and when it does not happen , it hurts , we are in sorrow, it becomes such a big issue for us that we feel cheated and uncared and then we feel bad.

Instead, This all happens just because we "expected" someone to do something and he/she did not do it. rather people must try to be independent and should be ready for the worst case. There are some people you can really expect and its fine to expect from them like your parents, children , spouse, lover etc ...but to some extent, everything has some limit. If you expect a lot from them you get hurt sometime. Be ready to be self dependent and just think understand that every person other than you wont understand more than you , so they cant understand your needs...

they cant understand what you want at which time, so no one can take care of you more than yourself... so be your caretaker yourself. Once people understand this there 90% problems are solved...

2008-01-25T04:08:00.000-08:00

Ants, my Favorite Creature

Siafu Ants : Most deadliest creature on Planet.

Siafu ants killing a duck.

Links :

http://www.geckoeye.com/writing.php?article=killer
http://www.geckoeye.com/writing.php?article=ants

2007-12-03T23:47:00.000-08:00

Merging many flv files in a big file (avi format)

I was facing with problem from many days ... i had many files in flv format downloaded from youtube or others (through keepvid.com)

also i had linux on my system (UBUNTU) ... so i got these work around to create a singe copy by merging all those clips..

Step1 : change all the clips in avi format.

do : ffmpeg -i your_file.flv your_file.avi

to install ffmpeg do "sudo apt-get install ffmpeg"

This way change all the flv files into avi files ...

Step2 : merge all the avi files into single file.

do : avimerge -o destination.avi -i souce1.avi source2.avi .... sourceN.avi

to install avimerge do "sudo apt-get install transcode"

2007-11-09T02:43:00.000-08:00

Flickr Downloader

I have come across situations when i had to download lots of photos from someone's Flickr Account and i had to manually copy those files from the account, So i thought of writing a Pythin script which can help in this job. This script was really nice in its job , just specifying username , size of photos will list down all the sets and after choosing sets it will start downloading the photos in folders with names same as set names ...
It uses flickr API's ...

Links :

1. FLICKR DOWLOADER IN ZIP FORMAT
2. FLICKR DOWLOADER TAR FORMA T

2007-06-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

My one of the favorites poem
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लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है.
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है.
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है.
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में.
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो.
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ कर मत भागो तुम.
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

2007-04-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

THE WATER STORY

I make people clean,i flow through the showers.
I make plants grow, i help grow flowers.
I flow through the rivers, i feel so good.
When it comes to save me , Why everyone so rude?

Don't be so ignorant, try to understand me
I am for you all, open your eyes and see
It will get late, It will get over
Do something now, Its now or never

I see people brushing, i see people shaving.
I get wasted all over, but people keep ignoring.
I love them all, but i am neglected.
I do so much for all, but its never reflected.

-- written by myself

2007-04-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Life ...

The trees were silent , The night was calm
The world was sleeping waiting for the dawn

The air was fresh and world was quite
The life was ready for another fight

written on 12:30 am , 18 apr , 2007

2006-10-30T22:33:00.001-08:00

i recently saw a question which says , you are given two games with following properties.

Game A: We win $2 with probability 2/3 and lose $1 with probability 1/3.
Game B: We win $1002 with probability 2/3 and lose $2001 with probability 1/3.

Which game is better financially? We have the same probability, 2/3, of winning each game, but that does not tell the whole story. What about the expected return for each game? Let random variables A and B be the payoffs for the two games. For example, A is 2 with probability 2/3 and 1 with probability 1/3. We can compute the expected payoff for each game as follows:

E [A] = 2 . 2/3 + (-1) . 1/3 = 1
E [B] = 1002 . 2/3 + (-2001) . 1/3 = 1

The expected payoff is the same for both games, but they are obviously very different! This difference is not apparent in their expected value, but is captured by variance. We can compute the Var [A] by working “from the inside out” as follows:

A - E[A] = 1 with probability 2/3
-2 with probability 1/3

(A - E[A])^2 = 1 with probability 2/3
4 with probability 1/3

E[(A - E[A])^2] = 1. 2/3 + 4 . 1/3

Var[A] = 2

Similarly, we have for Var [B]:

B - E[B] = 1001 with probability 2/3
-2002 with probability 1/3

(B - E[B])^2 = 1002001 with probability 2/3
4008004 with probability 1/3

E[(B - E[B])^2] = 1002001 . 2/3 + 4008004 . 1/3

Var[B] = 2004002

The variance of Game A is 2 and the variance of Game B is more than two million! Intuitively,
this means that the payoff in Game A is usually close to the expected value of $1, but the payoff in Game B can deviate very far from this expected value. High variance is often associated with high risk. For example, in ten rounds of Game A, we expect to make $10, but could conceivably lose $10 instead. On the other hand, in ten rounds of game B, we also expect to make $10, but could actually lose more than $20,000!

i was amazed to see that that the topics like variance which i wondered when to use or how they are really applicable to real life , help us to decide some of practical things in life !!!