Update – After 3 months.

I’ve been neglecting my supposedly ‘new’ blog for such a long time that Google still ranks my old blogspot blog ahead of the new one. The reason for the neglect might have been because of my busy schedule throughout the semester and may also be because I’ve been posting regularly at my twitter profile – @alagappanr and my facebook profile = fb/alagappanr.

My blog was crying for some fresh content. So I guess its time I start posting content on this new blog and get its ‘page rank’ up.

So by the time I’m typing this post 7 semesters of my college life are over and I’m now just a few months away from being a full engineer. For all those curious guys who want to know about NITT Placements – I’m not yet placed and I don’t intend to talk about it here.

In the past few months hundreds of things happened and that includes me writing my CAT Exam, The Great Chennai Run, a trip to Ooty+Coonoor, supposedly an agitation against the college mess, watching all seasons of 24 and TBBT, reading a lot of books among other stuff. I just feel this semester could have been a lot better and I hope the next one is.

Festember 09

Yet another festember has gone by. This one being the last one of my college life. Didn’t want to miss blogging about this. Thats why I’m back from a long hiatus.

Thanks to the heavy downpour in Trichy on Day 0, I couldn’t attend the inaugural function (in which the college presi wished everyone good morning at 6 in the evening) and I also missed a few performances by the Dance Troupe of  NITT. But I did make it to the concert by Kadri Gopalnath. He started off with a few classical ones and eventually went on to what the audience really wanted – the ‘Anjali anjali’ song. Overall it was a memorable performance. It was followed by half-an-hour long fireworks display. The sky was completely lit and the I’m sure the awesome show would have caused a few accidents in the adjacent highway due to mesmerized drivers.

A few of the other events I attended were ChoreoNite and Tarangini the major events at barn. As usual there was an uncontrollable crowd shouting every time a team performs for some ARR song. There were quite a few catchy performances from various colleges. Vijay TV’s Super Singer winner Ajesh too had come over for competing in Tarangani with his college light music team. The crowd loved his performance.

Yet again, the Dance Troupe and Music Troupe of NITT were at their best. It is a great thing for participating institutions that they don’t have to compete with the hosts in the dance and light music events. Else the best they can get is the second place.

Another popular event at Festember every year is the pattimandram type of event conducted by the Tami Mandram of NITT. This year it just got bigger, with excellent group of participants and and awesome judge, Barathi Baskaran of Sun Tv Pattimandram fame.

This Festember wouldn’t have been fun without Sushish Kamath‘s workshop. He was called in for a workshop on Independent Film making and he was at his best. He gave us tips on how NOT to make a movie. He included his own experiences making TFLW and another movie He Says, She Says. He definitely kept his audience attentive even though the workshop’s timing made many of them stay hungry.  It was indeed an enthusiatic turn-out. After all he is the best known film critic of south India.

The best of the events were saved for the final day. The ProNite show had an energetic Benny Dayal and a band called Bandish currently making waves in the music scene. Benny Dayal’s concert was simple superb, but had to be cut short as the girls were asked to leave early. Then a just-for-boys show by Bandish began enthusiatically at 11 in the night. The best thing was the absence of staff and the girls. With them in Barn, Festember wouldn’t have ended the way it did this year. Would never forget their performance I guess. They rocked the stage and the barn truly came alive with the whole crowd cheering. It ensured that Festember 09 ended on a high. Inspite of there being a few organisational glitches, and rain playing spoilsport, I would say that Festember 09 rocked. (and even kra feels the same).

Ubuntu #Fail

I’ve been using Ubuntu for about a year now and this has never happened before. This is Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. #Fail

Update: Already there have been quite a few accusations that this image is a fake one. And I want to make it crystal clear that this image is not a fake and is just a screenshot of what I experienced a few minutes back in Ubuntu.

4 Ways to Save Orkut Pictures

Orkut is a great social networking site where you get to share your images with your friends. A few months back Orkut had disabled right click on images for security reasons. Whenever I used to add images to my profile there were a few friends who asked me to send me those images even when there are numerous ways for them to save the images themselves. If you are one of them, here are four ways using which you can save Orkut images instead of asking the owner of the pic to do so.

1. Drag the image to a new tab.

This is the simplest way to save an image. All you have to do is to drag the image to a new tab. The image which you get in the new tab can be easily saved by using Ctrl+S.

2. Image Fetcher Add-on

If you are a Firefox user, then you can install the Image Fetcher Add-on for Firefox. On installing this add-on you get a small save button at the nottom left corner of each image. Here you can select the destination folder and then save the image.

3. Firefox Tools

This is also applicable only for Firefox users. You have to click on the Tools menu and select Page Info. (Keyboard Shorcut – Ctrl+I). Here you got to the media tab and then locate the image which you want to save and then click on the Save As button to save it.

4. Print Screen

This is a crude way of saving images. You can capture the screen by cliucking on Print Screen key on your keyboard. This would capture the screen onto your clipboard. Now you can open MS Paint and paste it. Then you can crop the image to get the picture you want and save it.

There are many other ways to save the images which are avaiable. Thats one of the main reasons why you need to think twice before posting content online.

New Domain, New Blog

Hi Guys.

Welcome to this blog. This is my new domain, gifted to me by my brother, Vivek. I have now moved my existing blogspot to this domain and I will discontinue blogging there.

New Domain and New Blog and hence the renewed enthusiasm to blog more. From now on you can expect more exciting new content in this website and I hope it is of use to you.

Go throught the various widgets and links on the sidebar. You will find interesting content.

Mobiles and Me

It all started with the entry of Nokia’s 1100 mobile. Since it was very cheap and affordable I got a chance to own a mobile when I was in school. Didn’t use it much those days since most of my friends didn’t have a mobile.

When I entered NIT Trichy, I still used 1100 for almost a full semester before shifting to Motorola L7 also called as the SLVR. This mobile was slim and chic and was worth showing off. But one fateful day my roommate, Aditya, pounced on me and phone slipped off my hands and the glass screen had broken. Luckily the mobile was working. I used it without bothering to change the broken glass for more than a year.

During the early fifth semester I had a felt like changing the display. (Ya.! I did change the display after one and a half years) But sometime during Festember 08, the mobile took its revenge on me for not changing the display for a long time by disappearing from my desk in my department. After frantically searching for it for more than a couple of days I had to give up. I got a duplicate sim card and reverted back to my 1100.

After a couple of months, my bro went to the US leaving behind his Samsung E250 mobile. So I was granted another chance to use a multimedia mobile. After losing all the contacts I had in my old mobile I started gathering them again. Though it wasn’t as great looking as my L7 it was still good to use. But then bad luck returned. During one of my regular beach visits a few weeks back, I forgot the presence of the E250 inside my pockets and got myself completely wet. It was only after a few minutes I realized that it was shouting all the time for help. But it was too late. It had stopped working.

Luckily, I still have that good old 1100 with me. After making a few minor repairs here and there I’ve made it look as good as a new 1100 mobile and I thank Nokia for making such rugged and long lasting mobiles especially for people like me. Not surprisingly, the 1100 is not just the world’s best-selling cellular phone model, but also the best-selling consumer electronics device, having sold some 200 million units since 2003. This clearly shows that many people emphasize on durability more than looks.

The one thing I’m glad about is that I’ve had the same mobile number all these days even though I’ve changed my mobile quite a few times. So even though I lose contact numbers of others they still have mine and anyday I can use the ‘Can I know who this is?’ SMS to get back all my lost contacts. I hope the Mobile Number Portability option is implemented as planned (that is by around Sept 2009) so that I can keep using the same number even though I change service providers.

It Happens Only In NIT Trichy

Photos of Class Notes

A couple of days before the cycle test, one person gets a camera and starts clicking. The properly compiled notes of a studious person(mostly a girl ;P), pages of a rare text book, etc are photographed and circulated to all students.

This method is generally easier than photocopying since it is free and can be shared on the LAN. More importantly because a digital camera is easily available(even I have one – generally used for this purpose ;P) and also because an overwhelming majority of the students own a laptop or a desktop computer.

Putting Technology to a great use.. ;P

Seven Reasons I’ve Started Washing My Clothes On My Own

Washing clothes has been one of the most painful activities a person has to do when in hostel. Of course there are other alternatives to avoid doing this work. But postponing the ‘Washing Ceremony’ often results in the accumulation of a lot of clothes, which are then carried all the way to Chennai. I recently decided to start washing my clothes on my own by finding suitable time for it between the busy schedule which I have.

Here are a few reasons why I’ll do it regularly from now on. \m/

7. It’ll please my roommate.!
If you divide my room into two my part of the room would be full of papers, clothes and books lying throughout and it’ll take more than a minute to even find my mobile from this mess. And Rachit’s half would be clean and neatly maintained. So it’ll be a relief for him to see my part of the room becoming more clean.

6. Keeps my room clean.
It’ll make my room a better place to live.

5. Reduces Luggage when traveling to Chennai.
Every NITTian who is from Chennai travels home at least once in a month. And it is during such trips that we take all our dirty clothes and give it for washing at home. It’ll please my Mom and will also reduce the luggage that I got to carry home each time.

4. Saving Laundry Charges.
I see a lot of guys giving their clothes in the laundry shop located within the campus. Washing one’s own clothes saves these laundry charges.

3. Preventing formation of Bacteria and Viruses.
Not washing clothes for a long time makes it a suitable dwelling place for various bacteria and viruses. So i’m now on a mission to kill all these organisms.

2. Finding Old Question Papers, Bills etc.
Finding such papers stuffed inside the pant pocket’s is common at least for me. Once I start washing clothes I find all these old cycle test question papers, CPC papers etc neatly stuffed inside my pockets.

1. Finding Money..!! $$$$$$
It had been a habit for me to keep coins and currency notes in my pant pockets instead of the wallet. Once removed I often forget to take the money out of it. And it is upon occasions like these that I discover such treasures from my pockets.

Firefox

Firefox is one of the most popular web browsers, commonly used by computer users in the world. I guess it needs no introduction. Firefox is the best ever browser that I’ve used till now. I’ve been using firefox ever since I actively started using the internet.

Why Firefox is so great..?

Best thing about Firefox is that it is open source. So there are thousands of people modifying the source code to create their own features, add-ons, plug-ins and themes. Firefox has indeed become a common phenomenon. This is because internet browsing has become more personalized. This is possible firefox allows you to install plug-ins and add-ons. Moreover it has been present in the market for a long period now and thanks to that there are a lot of features specifically designed for firefox which aren’t available in other browsers like Chrome.

Firefox is considered to be one of the safest browsers and are recommended by many IT experts. A sophisticated phishing security has been included in Firefox 3. If you don’t want any malware to enter into your PC, then using Firefox is a great choice.

It is the best option available among the web browsers available today. Click here to Download.

Pragyan

Hey Algae.. What is it Pragyan? inquired Ganesh on gmail as I had my Status message as Pragyan 2009.

Since its holiday time, I have loads of time to read blogs, to write blogs, and besides other things, to keep in touch with old friends.

Our Tech Fest…. I replied.

Reminds me of my college days, continued Ganesh, an 2008 pass-out of a prestigious private college in Tamil Nadu. I was a part of the Guest Lecture Team in my college Techfest. Our techfest meant more to us than anything else.

I could see this guy lost in his old days. I could feel the pride in his eyes.

Have a Look at the Pragyan 2009 website, I said as I typed www.pragyan.org

After a few minutes,

Hey, Do you people outsource this website work? asked Ganesh.

Now, It was my turn to feel proud. It was the time to declare with a smiley that it was our Techfest. OURS. We did every bit of it ourselves. The posters. The Website. The Videos. Everything. And we did it like professionals. I didn’t say much.

All I said was, we do it on our own. In fact, even I’m partly involved in it.

Oh! So you did it? he was surprised.

Not just me. We work as a big team. Almost every NITTian is involved in the organization of Pragyan.

He wasn’t in a mood to project his techfest as something cooler than what Pragyan is. So he continued with the plain truth, Ah, Well… We used to outsource our website work. Even now I guess it is outsourced.

A sense of satisfaction replaced the feeling of pride. I felt more happy than proud to be a part of a culture which believed in the true meaning of a student fest. Students should make it work. The culture of Pragyan. Celebration of Technology..!!

Thats when the proud, satisfied and happy heart of mine wanted to shout - NITT Rocks…!!