... when you bump into the engineer within you...

Strange things happen when you are enrolled for an engineering degree. Especially when you are neither particularly delighted about the field nor are you bestowed with the skills of Niccola Tesla.

Following is a Gtalk conversation with a friend of mine who is a complex function of engineering skills, innocence, intellect and disinterest. The background is this: he is supposed to stay back in Summer [yes, the mention of 'Summer' was warranted because its the Chennai summer that is being referred to] and finish his project which involves setting up two modems and making them 'talk' to each other.

No, he is not a technician at Devraj Computers. He is a pre-final year student in the Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Madras. Getting back to the project, he has to use two postpaid sim cards and insert them in those modems and make them work (if not in reality, atleast in his report). Among the other things that were a pain in his ass was the fact that his prof. forgets to get his ID card everyday AND/OR forgets to get photographs to obtain the sim cards. BUT, lets leave that there.

I knew that he was not particularly enjoying the work, so as a good friend I asked him about the progress of the project. Here's the excerpt :

me: dude, how is the project going?
him: pain
me: why what happened?
him: modem dude
one of them broken and other not working
me: ohh ok
him: with the working one, i actually called my cell :D
it was aawesome
me: he he.. first time felt like an elec engineer enh?
him: yeah dude
it was like magic!
no kidding
me: ha ha ha ha ha ha
ok ok.. :D :D
fack! magic it seems
him: yeah
me: trippy man.. trippy
him: anyway, if the modem gets repared i will be done with saarathi for good.
me: i will blog this!

This leads me to quote by Robert Heinlein, a famous Sci-fi writer. He said:

"One man's magic is another man's engineering."

There are indeed those times when we feel engineering is mythical and magical - those are the rare occasions when we - I am referring to the people in my boat alone - bump into the engineer within.

The first time I can recall it happened to me was when I first saw my name dancing and turning and twisting in rainbow colours in the screen saver on the 15" CRT of my first computer. (Yes, we've all done it! ) Ofcourse, this has got nothing to do with engineering!

The last time it happened at IITM was when a Latex code (non-pervert perspective at this juncture is appreciated) worked on my computer and did NOT work on my Prof's computer at the time of submission.

"Magic Sir", I should have said then, "Pure Magic!"

PS: If you bothered to click the Tesla wiki link and read about him OR you are one of those kids my mom talks about who knows everything about everything, including Tesla - and are even fractionally (?) turned on, then check this Bad Ass article about Tesla out.

Post Number 100

Food for a week

The plight of the under-developed nations in comparison with the developed nations is best illustrated by the couple of pics that follow.

Food for a week - Darfur refugees, Chad:

Food for a week, Germany:

I am sure the economic recession has no bearing on the people in Darfur, for they would not even know what a booming economy means.

Sourc: Peter Menzel, 2005.

Nano's the new Mega

I am elated to see the Tato Nano making waves. That it found a mention in the NY Times blog was itself surprising. 

They have received more than 200,000 orders within two weeks and what's more - only 20% pf the bookings are for the famous '$2000 car'! The Indian consumer now seems to exercise a lot of choices. And it is a sure sign of the new India.

The NYT article mentions that about 50% bookings are for the 'high-end' $3300 model. BUT here's the cherry:

The number of bookings is more than double what Tata is capable of building in the car’s initial production run. The first 100,000 owners will be selected through a lottery. Tata expected to start delivery of the Nano in July.

People's car. Indeed. 

It is so heartening to see such a market response in India. On the one hand, you have the Chrysler - rather, had the Chrysler -bankrupt and left with their wounds to lick. And on the other you have the Tata Nano, unable to match production with demand.

The lessons from this are three-fold:

• India has an amazing consumer base, hungry for innovations and willing to spend that extra buck for value-add. In the economists' words, the 'consumer confidence' is high.
• In spite of the worldwide hit to the Manufacturing industry, India could be the least hit because there still is such a big void to fill. Our automotive industry is still in its nascent stages of growth. Here's the take-home: Indian auto industry is still a virgin industry whereas in the west, it is a replacement market. 
• On a slightly tangential note, politicians (read Mamta Bannerjee and the likes) can - howsoever hard they try -only hinder growth, but not stop it. And this perhaps is the beauty of a democracy - what West Bengal lost, Gujarat (and perhaps rest of India) gained. I doubt if this could have been possible in China. 

Cheers to Nano, the new Mega. 

What's with all the carbon talk?

I have been reading a few articles and reports about the concept of Clean Development Mechanism - the use of financial instruments to reduce carbon emissions. A brilliant story, quoted to forewarn the stakeholders about the vested interests of the Wall Street is as follows:

For aficionados of offbeat road races, there are few events that top the Tour de Donut, a 30-mile bicycle race held every July in tiny Staunton, Illinois. In this belly-busting race, competitors stop twice during the course at break stations where they are offered glazed donuts. For every donut that competitors consume, five minutes are deducted from their scores. Thus, for even mediocre riders who also are really good donut eaters, the ride offers an offset structure that makes them champions. In recent years, with top competitors downing over 20 donuts each, winners have actually posted negative times, finishing their races—on the books at least– before they began.

The full article can be accessed here. The article goes on to mention why the CDM will be a failure and how the US government is playing into the hands of the rich and powerful at the Wall Street. According to them, Wall Street is trying to create a huge financial market which trades carbon-reductions as a commodity. Since the volumes will be low, the market will not actually possess all the reductions being traded - it will be hedged and re-packaged in futures and swaps. This could well be the foundation for another financial meltdown!

Reading the article and learning about the possibility of carbon-based futures/contracts and swaps reminds me of Enron - how the company used to hedge natural gas and oil and make money and finally ceased to exist. The carbon finance space seems exciting and should throw up a lot of controversies over the next decade. 

Political debates and GRE/GMAT preparation go hand-in-hand

Yesterday, I had a chance to be part of a 'TV debate' as part of the audience. It was a Doordarshan program called Janvani. Eminent personalities and VIPs were invited.

The underlined part was not mentioned in their invitation letter - so we happily made our way to the program. The 'eminent personalities and VIPs' part also needs an explanation. There were 8 people on the dias - ALL Tamil policians.. and I could recognise only one of them. I had not a clue who the others were and why they were there. DMK, AIADMK, BJP, Congress, CPI, CPI(M), BSP and umm...  one more party. So, that's that.

Let me tell you why you should (NOT) be part of such debates if you are planning to write GMAT/GRE/CAT in the near future:

argumentum ad hominem:

In the GMAT, 'ad hominem' attacks tend to weaken an argument, hence considered as a fallacy of arguments. [ad hominem attacks a person's character and not his/her opinions]. All through out the TV debate, the members on the dias kept digging old stories - 'They are ones who put Vaiko in jail and now are talking about blah blah...'  ' You are the ones who give out free TVs' and many many more.

Use of articles:

A, an, the. There was a BSP chap who was perhaps the most correct English speaker but for his use of articles. Examples "The China is not a threat to India." ... ".. a Sri Lanka..." and so on...

Wrong choice of words:

One of the speakers seemed to use the wrong word from the P-list of Barrons.. While she meant, 'it is the prerogative of the public schools', she ended up saying 'it is the prority of the public schools'

This is ignoring the obvious and blatant violation of rules of grammar, including - Parallelism, Verb-tense matching, consistent use of pronouns etc.

Other commonly found GMAT-errors:

• Inability to differentiate between causaton and corelation. ["Terrorism increased after Congress came to power. Hence, Congress is soft on terror."]
• Shifting the burden of proof. [To imply that a position is true merely because no one else has disproved it]

A few other things I could note:

Congress chap: The budget allotment to primary education in 2003 was 8000 blah crores... but we increased to 10,000 blah crores in 2005. That is an achievement.

BJP: You have not accounted for inflation in the increase!

(If you don't get this one, I seriously advise you on taking the course HS 109: Principles of Economics.)

***

The person second from left resembled our Chief Security Officer, who had fined me for 500 bucks for driving a bike inside the campus. So, I already had a bias against him. 

***

The CPI fellow kept dozing off and would wake up suddenly and make out-of-the-blue statements like 'China is not at all affected by the US recession' and ' India started the process of liberalisation way before China (??!!!)' and go back to sleep.

***

The CPI (M) fellow would just shout in the mike to make his point. His lungs may not serve him well if he continues the same, considering that age is not on his side.

***

The BJP chap is not part of any alliance in the state - and hence not in the centrestage of TN politics but he would always catch attention by saying "The BJP would like to respond to that question.."  OR "BJP can do it better..."

In essence, Indian politics, in it's present form is no more than a self-fulfilling prophecy. They hardly seem to care for the voter and the politicians are way off understanding the pulse of the common man. 

BUT, that is not the point of the post. My sincere advice would be this: If you are planning to take the GRE/GMAT/CAT anytime soon.. please do watch all the political debates on national channels... they are perhaps the best example of what-not-to-do in your verbal section. Also, it is a quick revision of 'commonly found errors in [Insert your test name here]'

Do thank me if this post helps you ace the test. And yes, DO VOTE. 

Slumdog Millionaire! :P

It is as dramatic as the turn of events in the movie. The following picture speaks more than a thousand words. It captures truth with just a slight imperfection. (A 3315 instead of 1100!)

Here are my first thoughts on the iPhone:

• It an amazing high to hold such a sleek piece of electronic gadgetry
• Best moment: When I could connect to the wi-fi network at home and access gmail on the iPhone.
• Accelerometers on the phone rock
• Touch -to-click is addictive. Atleast overnight.

• Typing text on the phone is pain. Sweet pain initially. Irritating a while later.
• Downloading and installing applications on the phone is not easy.
  
• It is a little too sleek :-P
• Speaker output is poor - extremely extremely feeble.

Photo courtesy: Normal

PS:

Let the post not give you an impression that I was living below the poverty line all this while. Just that my Sony Ericsson W700i got royally screwed because of my overuse (or recklessness, as per dad) - Charger port not working, keys 2,5,8 not working and mouth piece not working.

So, under such dire circumstances, I reverted to my old Nokia phone. Within two days, its battery died down and all I had was a landline phone because it wont work without AC input. Subsequently, fearing social ostracization, I asked my friends for a spare phone. After employing the tactics of 'saam-daam-dund-bhedh' and 'beg-borrow-steal', finally Uss managed to unearth to his old 1100. Key 7 was not working. There was no battery cover. Atleast, it had enough battery to take me to mess and back! I owe a sincere thanks to my dear buddy!!

In between, Normal took pity on me and lent his swanky Nokia 5310 for a couple of days so that I can text in peace and put my strained relationship(s) back on track ;-) And in his own words 'God is great. Help the needy' ensures that he has a right over my iPhone the next time (and every time) he goes on a date.