Wai wai, not at all healthy.. Also contains MSG

Disclaimer: Read this if you are interested to adapt healthy food habits :) Skip it , if you don't care.

Hi Folks. I expect that you must have heard about Wai wai. Its a Nepalese noodle brand, manufactured by Choudhary Group , Nepal. Its now being manufactured in India also. The Nepalese version of it contains MSG (monosodium glutamate) , but I don't know about the Indian version (please check). Some blog/ research says MSG as cancerous, causing heart ailments... All leads to shortening of your life..

Hold on, you must be thinking ... I know that... Big deal if it has MSG.. Or you would say I don't see that listed in the ingredients. Manufacturers are intelligent. They has mentioned this as "(621, 627 & 631) Flavor enhances" under ingredients on the packet. With a small note in font size 2 or 4 pts " This package ... blah blah contains Monosodium.. "...

Image:

I am penning this out for social awareness. Wai wai has been my favorite since several years. I would we all love it, but it's time we should plead the makers to look for alternative formula without MSG, as we don't want this brand to die. Until then, we can stop/ reduce the consumption of this product. As this is a health concern for all of us.

You all must be thinking, MSG is everywhere... Yes, almost in every processed food in one form or the other. I got an intensive list of food which we should avoid.

After reading about MSG for a while, I figured out it stays in blood vessel forever, Like you consume it , Count = X units, you again consume it , Count = X + Y.. and so on..

Let me tell you the symptom what this can lead to. .

Effects:

1. rashes (see RIBO RASH factsheet), itching, burning, numbness
2. migraines, headaches
3. asthma
4. irritable bowel symptoms
5. chest tightness, heart palpitations, heart arrhythmia, anxiety (see HEART factsheet)
6. irritability, restlessness, sleep disturbance

Source: http://fedup.com.au/factsheets/additive-and-natural-chemical-factsheets/621-msg-and-the-new-flavour-enhancers

Effects on children: Children are more vulnerable to the effects of additives than adults. MSG and other flavor enhancers are not permitted in foods manufactured specifically for infants and young children (12 months or less). Effects can change with age

Frankly speaking, we all know all these highly processed food are not good for our health. I will try to lower consumption of such foods from today.. I hope even you do.. Until these companies learn that consumers are intelligent enough to figure out what is good or bad for them or we have a strict jurisdiction to figure this out.

.

Urgent vs important

Off late I have realized that its very important for one to understand the Graph between Urgent and Important.

There are four combinations:-

1. Urgent and important
2. Not Urgent but important
3. urgent but not important
4. Not urgent not important

To manage our time properly and to prioritize stuff in work as well as personal life we should be able to categorize every task one of the above category. Henceforth, Its very easy to make your decisions.

Somebody has put this up perfectly -

“The most effective people make their important things, your urgent ones. The most ineffective people do the exact opposite.”

1. Urgent and important : This category is for critical tasks. Which needs to be resolved ASAP. We should avoid things to fall under this category as this is life is full of deadlines and possess high risks.

2. Important but not urgent: A good leader or visionary always keeps his/her tasks in this category. As it's a safe zone. A good manager foresees and senses any possible task which can be categorized as 'Urgent & important' and addresses them. We should not procrastinate tasks which falls under this category as there is high chance of them to become urgent and important. (Highly recommended)

3. Urgent but not important : This are things which should be handled if time permits and scheduled after urgent and important.

4. Not urgent and not important: This are useless things which should not be focused. One to stay away or procrastinate these things until he/she has free resources.


I found an below image online, which can explain Urgency vs importance more :

Programming Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0

It has been long, like 3 years since I wrote my last blog post. I am little nervous :).

Think of an online task you do in your day to day life and it should have a workflow backing up. Eg. you buy movie tickets online (Its a client side workflow, you go to ticketing site -> chose tickets -> confirm -> pay).  Other workflow is server-side workflow which is a background task. Eg. when you buy a product on Amazon. Steps, Chose a product -> pay -> A server side workflow should kick off which contacts actual seller, calculates estimated delivery time, add order details in your account, send confirmation email to buyer and other individual tasks.

Today I want to write about Windows workflow foundation 4.0 (WWF). There are other workflow frameworks like Oracle offers, Sharepoint workflow etc.

But I personally liked this workflow framework. WWF a framework used to perform work intensive sequence of tasks (known as activities). Always remember, workflows are used to "Just Do Work".
Eg. Do X -> Check Y-> See P -> Send A and for 1 million users. Your workflow in workflow designer might look like:

I have been working on WWF since couple of months and I am amazed with the power of this framework. With this you can :-
1. Run independent tasks/Activities in parallel
2. If you have created a share point farm your workflow can run on multiple machines in parallel.
3. It can be triggered by a workflow or a timer job
4. Create custom activities to implement business logic.
5. Set up concurrency of workflows
6. Call external methods and use those results in workflow
7. Automate a sequential set of tasks.

I would like to talk about performance of Windows workflow. Since it runs on the application server. Doing things wrong/inefficient can slow down the entire server and eat up the processor and clog the database.

I want to talk about few things which you should keep in mind while programming with Windows workflow:
1. Performance: Its a important aspect of every piece of code. But it becomes very important in case of workflows. Eg. you have to give discount to user on your product based on the sales, page hits and other parameters in 1 million products on your website. Calculating discount for individual product should be very efficient, it should take less than a second by your workflow. Workflows should not run more than couple of hour.  Keep batching in mind. If you are reading an item from database , processing it and writing into database try batching stuffs. Divide 1 million item in batches, read a batch of 10000 items -> process them -> save 10000 items together. Batch size is critical can be best explained by :

2. Logging: Log every failure, successes, high importance in proper category for telemetry and support purpose.
3. Scalability: What if you start dealing with 100 million products after supporting 1 million products. Keep this in mind. In that case, divide your products with category, run workflow for individual category. Don't do any unnecessary operation in your workflow. which can slow down your workflow by many folds.
4. Modularization: Try to break your methods as small as you can. So that it can be used by some other activity ,help you in unit testing and improves the maintenance of the code.
5. Memory: Keep memory leakages in mind. for eg. C# has a built in garbage collection, but always Dispose objects which are derived from IDisposable interface. When your workflow is running keep track of memory used by the workflow process in the task manager. It should increase and become constant. If ,the memory should keeps increasing during the life of the workflow, its an alarming situation.
6. Activity flooding: Decomposition of every tasks to an activity might look fascinating. But creating every activity has a cost(creating activity and deleting activity ) by the workflow. We should not create 3 activities for a million object. That means if the cost of Create + Delete of an activity is 0.01 sec then you can save 20k seconds = 5 hour by creating 1 activity to do all 3 things together.

Remember workflows are made to "Do work" . If you have some base cases, which will exit the workflow in between, check that condition before the workflow is kicked off.

Let me know if you have more pointers to improve programming in WWF.
Disclaimer: Ideas/Views mentioned above are purely personal and learnt with Experience/reading. Feel free to correct me. 

Compress Photos before uploading Online

Uploading photos on your facebook or other online places can eat up your bandwidth and be a slow process. There are many compressing software available but instead of wasting time in choosing the best one.Microsoft office Picture manager can serve the purpose. This office too not only converts 3 MB file to 8kb-301 KB as per your choices without affecting the quality much.

Step 1: Windows button on taskbar->Microsoft Office-> Microsoft office tools-> Microsoft Office Picture Manager.As shown below



Step 2: Add picture shortcut by clicking the link on left side panel.

Step 3: Choose a photo-> Edit picture -> Compress picture



Step 4: For 4 MB image Choose documents(301kb),Web pages(30kb),Email messages(7kb) as per your requirements.Save using save as option.

My college life :: Episode 07-11

This is a post after a long time ,I thought of writing about my college life which is a milestone in my career and a memorable experience.All the folks of my batch I want to share the following lot with you FINALLY :) I shall describe this journey yearwise to keep it brief and interesting.

1st year:
I stepped into a place which I never heard before but I had crossed through this Durgapur JN many times while going to and fro Calcutta/Kolkata.I started with all new faces around ,I knew nobody except my brother Shivek Agarwal he was in 2nd year that time.He supported me and guided me through every step out them.Nepali seniors were very supportive and fun loving.We spend many memorable and enjoyable moments with them.Whether it's family picnic or any other family occasion.Life was quite exciting then as going to city center was very interesting and too much of fun.I interacted with almost everybody in Hall9 and spend my time with nepali friends specially Yudhir,prakash,rajiv,manoj and Nirjhar.Exam time...most of the papers vomited guesses for them....but I screwed up my 1st sem results scoring mere 7.76.I was quite disappointed and some friends helped me out to come out of this shock.In second sem I was quite motivated to focus on studies ,and I woke up thinking it's high time as time is running very fast if I don't perform well the whole engg. degree will of no use being a 7 pointer.It was 2nd sem exams and we were newly cought up by PETER ANSWERS.com .This is a very addictive and funny website until the person comes to know the truth and continues to be superstitious.Still somehow I could score well between loads of fun and Jolly statements by Yudhir ,Nirjhar on peteranswers .I was a part of GNU/LUG..Got to know about the open source world..and my addiction to UBUNTU began :)

2nd year,3rd year:
I entered CSE Deparment and I from my last blog post you can estimate my interest for the subject-Computer Science.I liked most of the subjects except few...CMOS,NMOS...I couldn't build my interest for that please ...........I was interested in software.A girl(I won't name her) came into my life..We started with likeness ,same department,similar passions and goals...brought out close and we started helping each other ,working towards our goal forgetting the world for a while.We were so involved in our work and ourselves we didn't give ample time to friends and people around(Few of my friends had problem which i came to know later on).Keywords I would like to mention...Library,Profs(we ran after projects also),working on codes,STL etc,First benchers,Padhakus,bookworm.I was performing well in my Semesters not so great but it was satisfactory.In 2nd year summer break I did a training at Delhi on Networking which was to utilize my time and poor knowledge on what is good or bad and 3rd year summers I prepared for Interviews,coding,Aptitude and brushing up my skills which I felt imporant for interviews.
Final year:
Session started in July and I found Novell is the first Dream company coming for CSE and made my preparation more specific and it was 5th August ..I appeared and Cracked it...:) I was quite relaxed after a job and very confident (cracking on the first go matters a lot).Few friends told me in the race you have forgotten us,you din't keep a proper balance between the girl and friends..work and friends....I thought yeah I was wrong but I was quite serious on the studies and I liked it too.It happens with everybody ,if you are involved with something very much it's quite difficult to focus on something else.For me it's always 0 or 1 .I can't go fuzzy.But after the job I started correcting it.Started keeping balance which i know it was difficult but still I tried my best.I was isolated in 2nd and third year ...It was little contributed by me little by my friends..After Novell...I started having fun...Enjoying...walking out to CC almost everyday...Dining out...Freaking for no reason..I wanted to taste every minute of my last year.Novell was taken over by attachmate and again I became low about my future.We Novellites (Saurabh,kapil,subhasis and me) had some bad times too..but still we were confident to face the consequences.In the meantime I heard Microsoft will be coming to our college for placement.It was 3rd time ..announced the same line.I was hopeless ,after preparing for 2 times..I thought of preparing again for the last time..I sat for the interview and cracked it.:) I was very happy to know the results as that girl who was my gf also got placed with me.It was moment of rejoice and celebration.Then started the season of treats and dining out with friends.I remembered everybody who were important to me..In the meantime I interacted a lot with Saurabh koar,kapil and subhasis and shared good friendship which I din't in first 3 years....After a month I was invited for New hires day at Hyderabad which was quite a fun and I will share with you soon :).There are few bad and sour memories of my college too...concentrating when full music in being played in the hostel wing...Some of my friends misunderstood me...and finally they stayed in they attitude and me too..Now I don't know when we shall meet next...It's Alvida Bidding to everybody...Truly speaking...I understood little about the memories and I gonna miss my college in last few days..but right now I miss it like anything..I hate to think of the day when going back to college for results when nobody will be at the college to laugh with you in the corridor of the wings,pull your legs and discuss on a silly issues of all over the globe...Empty mess...But finally I want to thank my college...for making me whatever I am today...capable of sustaining every where with any kind of food...making my food habits flexible..and my self development..and I thank all my friends..who beleive I am worth a friend ..Knock me anytime I will be right there for you.:) Finally Signing off from NITDGP both officially and unofficially....Leaving durgapur...college,89 cinemas,suhatta,junction all the restaurants(with and without discounts :P) in durgapur..LH more,Jhoops,Techno and all the canteens...CC,Department..Library( best place in college) and every street within ...All are my memories..and I dive into the sea of nostalgia while thinking of them.. After all it's life one has to move on...Hyderabad I am coming...:)

Install NS2 (ns-allinone-2.35-RC7) in UBUNTU 9.10

Checklist of prerun package installation/command
1.g++
2.repositories updated($sudo apt-get update)
3.if you are behind a proxy, make sure you have $http_proxy variable configured in ~/.bashrc or type the following in the terminal

$ export http_proxy=http://username:password@ipaddr:port/

Step 1: Download the source for NS2 all in one (I used this version ns-allinone-2.35-RC7.tar.gz )

Step 2: Extract the tar.gz file downloaded into your home folder by right-clicking the tag.gz file

Step 3: Open terminal (Applications–>Accessories–>Terminal) and change the directory (using cd command) to the extracted folder and execute the following:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libxmu-dev

This will install the dependencies required to compile NS2 from the source.

The following command is used to compile the source.

$ ./install

It will take long time to compile all the required packages for ns to work…
Step 4: Setting Environmental Variables

Type in terminal:

$ gedit ~/.bashrc

and append the following text to the opened file (Please note that the path contains the path in my system, replace path with yours.)

# LD_LIBRARY_PATH
OTCL_LIB=/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/otcl-1.14
NS2_LIB=/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/lib
X11_LIB=/usr/X11R6/lib
USR_LOCAL_LIB=/usr/local/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$OTCL_LIB:$NS2_LIB:$X11_LIB:$USR_LOCAL_LIB

# TCL_LIBRARY
TCL_LIB=/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/tcl8.5.8/library
USR_LIB=/usr/lib
export TCL_LIBRARY=$TCL_LIB:$USR_LIB

# PATH
XGRAPH=/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/bin:/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/tcl8.5.8/unix:/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/tk8.5.8/unix
NS=/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/ns-2.35
NAM=/media/E0BAB170BAB14436/ns-allinone-2.35-RC7/nam-1.15/
PATH=$PATH:$XGRAPH:$NS:$NAM

Step 5: Now, after editing the file, save and close it. Then in terminal type:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Try “ns” command, it shud go to the “%” prompt then it just means the installation was successful! Enjoy :D

Note: These steps have been tested and worked like breeze in Ubuntu and is expected work in all the debian based linux.

Reference:
3.) http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/ns-build.html (Might not be needing this, but just in case)

Microsoft interview continued ...Part 2

Day 1 :
Today is 18th Jan'11.After a long wait MS was finally coming to NIT Durgapur.PPT was scheduled at 1 pm with few glitches.We all were asked to be in formals ,So I started from room in the same attire.We were waiting for the ppt and they announced that they will be first conducting the written exam and it will be forwarded by PPT and then the interviews.This seemed to be a multithreading operation to me .The parent thread MS panel ,created a new thread called "Paper correction team" just after the written test:).

Round 1:Written examination
IMHO this was conducted by merit trac wing of MSIT.This had 11 questions :
Qn1->how will you sort array of numbers(logic and dry run only)
Qn2->In a given string print the character occuring maximum number of times.
Qn3->A question on void pointer's output and typecasting.
2 testing question,1 troubleshooting question,2 question on OS(1 on disk seek time and latency) other was on uptime etc.,2 puzzles,1 design question(spacecraft).
Test streched for 1 and half hr(so far i remember).I did fairly well.

Round 1a:Preplacement talk
Guys I tell you ,It's Microsoft IT (Aukaad wali).PPT was boring at the beginning and picked up in midway.I didn't like the business and division part but rest was fun.The perks were impressive and few lines acted as a motivating touch.One of them I remember "We have hackers working day and night monitoring our systems so that none of our offsprings msn.com,hotmail.com and bing.com suffers from any sort of malicious attack.Coz once they are successful this will be the headline of the next day's newspaper".Next was "We go to orphanage and schools to teach poor children ,we believe in giving back to society."etc.This way I was highly impressed by the company to go ahead and ATTACK :):).

Round 2:Designing round
They asked us to fill our choices between SDE,SDET,SME posts.We all filled down the forms and I was shortlisted for SDE/SDET post.The designation was uncertain now.They shortlisted around 18 people for the interviews for FTE's(Full time engineers).I was called in the last room :) of our gd/pi rooms.There I was asked to design an ATM machine,integrate the SDLC with this.All the phases of designing including database part,coding and front end.I like this the most and I proceeded with my idea.I had frequent interactions with the interviewer and he was a sort of impressed.I was pushed to the next round.Interviews were over for the day.I was asked to report next day at 9:30 am.

Round 3:Coding round
I was waiting and waiting and waiting.It was around 2 pm ,I was sick tired of it and then they called me.This was the worst part.But now I enjoy thinking :).I was asked what are the questions you have come across as you have been waiting for so long.The interviewer was a dude:).I liked him but believe me I am straight:):).I told them all the questions which my fellow interviewee got struck so that he is impressed with my honesty.As I had already prepared those questions so I was gutsy to speak those questions.:) He replied I won't be asking you all that.So don't worry:).Then he started typing my name on his keyboard.I enquired are you googling my name.He replied I have bing and turned the laptop towards me adding that I ws preparing a feedback form for you anyways let's open BING.He asked me check '/' division operator.I wrote around 54 cases of a/b form and he told nikhil are you missing something that those were actually 108 test cases total :).He asked tell me what happens inside recursion,what are saved in stack etc..After this he asked me write simple codes Q>Sum the numbers upto n (given). He asked me to write test cases,solve the overflow situation and many pros,cons and alternatives of my code.Q>Write the code for depth of the tree and test it.He asked me write it fast and I did that .

Round 4:Coding and Final round with the Senior most interviewer
I was called early in this interview may be the Round 3 interviewer gave a positive feedback about me,which accelerated my interview.He started with "Tell me about yourself".He didn't express how far he liked my answer.They he started asking code for LCA of Binary tree ,I wrote it, Q>Two linked list merge at a point in Y shape don't have both the arms equal how will you find the point of intersection and other coding and algorithmic questions.He asked puzzles to my fellow interviewees to but he didn't ask me any.Then he moved on to the final Q>Take a mobile keypad,each key maps to some characters eg. 1->abc 2->def etc. So if a 10 digit number is given how will you find all permutations.How many permutations will be generated,you would prefer iteration or recursion and many questions related to that.The answer stucked me there itself and I explained him ,he seemed to be impressed.Then he asked me ask some questions(SDET and SDE fear) ,any improvements you suggest.I told few and I was moreover sure that I will crack it :).I came out with full energy and priyanka and everyone waiting outside could understand my interview was good.One more thing about this interview I would like to add is a story with my CV.I made a CV for Microsoft specially and nobody even had a look at it.I thought my effort will go in vain.Then I asked him to please see my CV,he was not interested but I convinced and then he took a copy of my CV and I was satisfied.

This ends the interviews.Result was declared(2SDE+1SME+1 intern(SME)) ,I was in :) but it was very difficult to wait for that.I couldn't take my dinner properly.It was Wednesday also :(.Still it was fun.

Marriage with Microsoft,My second Job offer,Part 1 :)

Micosoft and me ,we have a great bonding.Not from now, but since a decade ago.Let me rewind the pages of my life and present to you all.

My Story Begins:)

#June 2000
I am from a middle class family and I got my education from the best school of my City birgunj,It is a gateway of Nepal and business hub.We assume daily more than millon dollar transactions takes place at birgunj which is just a sub-metropolitan city.Computers were new at that time and we couldn't afford them or you can say I was in mere class 6 and my dad was reluctant to buy on the first go.He asked me get me a BASIC COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE degree from CSE,A computer training institute and then he will be sure that we will use the computer properly:).Till then I was devoid of computer at my home but luckily I had a Cyber Cafe(CC) just below my house and the owners didn't know anything of computers.One fair day, I was passing by that CC and my brother AMIT BHOJANIA(Delhi) asked me to made an email ID ,which was my first email ID (nikhil_18_4@hotmail.com) His Id was amit_18_4@hotmail.com.I blindly followed the legacy of " _18_4 " blindly as I love my brother alot.Soon I started catching up.Internet was NRS 60/hr that times and I started using Internet and MSN Chat.I spend most of the time in that CC,learning and teaching newbies.It was like every regular user thought that I was the boss of that Cafe.I more person I would like to mention "Sushil Agarwal"(in mah facebook friendlist).He is gem of a person,a geek and too creative.We both met,started getting deeper and deeper in computers.Those days computers were very low end and IE didn't clear temporary internet files automatically so we(I am sushil) had to regularly visit Client machines of Cafe and fix them up.We were so called tech bouncers there :).People ask me why do i have a typing speed of 54 words/min.I tell them its since 2k2.We used to call Bill G as "Bill**"(As being close to bihar but respected him like anything,sorry no offences intended) tried making few sites like Khakhor.com(chat startup) but lacked time and proper knowledge.The CCafe boss thought we use internet for free and asked us to do some job.Opening sites for newbies and do some typing/printing jobs.I was having no problem as I got time to sit with computer,my mate :).I started suffering from Intejavascript:void(0)rnet fever,High and very High.We both used to hack passwords Keyloggers,snapshot taking bot,I remember the site (alpinesnow.com and many).I completed my Basic computer course too :).

Happiest movement of my life,my first computer machine :)
My dad on dhanteras'01,I was at my shop handed me a Rs. 55k bundle and told "Go and grab the best system you want".I purchased the system and life was awesome henceforth.My sister gifted me AOE(Age of empire) CD on my birthday :):).I skipped lunch ,dinner ,tutions and played that game.It was great fun :)For me computer was Internet,Windows office,music,Hacking from websites(I downloaded songs by disconnecting the net when I was playing a song on embedded real player online by availing the link after DC) and loads of fun.Literally I knew what programming is but I didn't know how it is done or what are the syntaxs and I was passionate about hacking accounts ,playing games(AOE,motorcross midtown madness,road rash etc)& learning Windows architecture(System,system32,temporary internet files folder etc.).Beleive me people I have used almost every edition of windows(98 I loved it,Me(explorer.exe error),professional WIN2000(cool),WIN2000server(didn't use much),WINXP and now WIN7 :)) and office.

My motivation towards what I loved to do.:)
I wanted to do computer engineering any how.I started researching how to grab a Comp. Sci degree.I started researching online.I found B.Tech with Science background is the only way and respected comp. sci degree around the world.People asked me before appearing class 10 what you will choose I replied Science.They suppressed me by telling you won't be able to cope up,It's not for you,take a commerce degree and handle your business.I din't like them then I ran away from that place of discussion.I started focussing on my studies,knew things won't be easier but I was confident enough to cope with it.I spend less time at CC more on studies.

Fast Forward :)
I gave my 10th board,12 from Delhi and that line by people that I won't be able to cope up was a source of inspiration and dedication.I couldnt grab a good seat on the first go and got NIT Durgapur in 2007.On the very first day ,I saw Microsoft visited this college and hiring few students and hence I thought I got my Ramp to get loaded into the proper locomotive :)

Journey at NIT Durgapur :)
It was a difficult path although I covered and finally reached here.I was very unsatisfied with the college and the standards(now It has been completely transformed and getting transformed).I didn't repeat the mistake bought a laptop in the first year itself and started using it :):).In a farewell party to the batch of 2k8 @Nepal family we boozed.After that I broke around 4-5 beer bottles(my seniors told me next morning when I asked why my hands were burning) fighting between Microsoft and open source(I supported Microsoft like anything,I am a die hard fan).We discussed all tech stuffs there like Vista file search is far advanced than XP search,Why it failed etc.Saurabh dai,Bibek dai If you are reading I hope you can recall.Then I met priyanka and got motivations from my seniors(TOPCODERS ..nitdgp,rajatag12 ).They guided me through repeatedly saying Comp Sci<->Programming.My love for coding and programming increased exponentially and I enjoy doing that.People criticized me, friend didn't like me thinking I didn't give them time.But dudes I don't know where I was in 2nd and 3rd year.I was like LOST!! I was so involved with my work and love I couldn't Context Switch.You can call it as Hibernation :P.We prepared ourselves,coding,spending time in library learning,giving big shot semesters and scoring 9 pointers :):) and on 5th august 2010,I cracked Novell:).In Convo2010 sushil dai visited ,I was tensed about future of Novell,he told me very confidently that in anycase won't be joining Novell:).I knew something else is waiting for me.So I didn't treat any of my Nepal family mates,friends and people at my home.And it's 18th Jan'11 and Microsoft is visiting:):).I will cover the interview experience in next part.Till then goodluck guys.Hope you enjoyed it.

Novell Interview,first Job offer

It was a Thursday morning 5-8-10 and Novell was visiting my campus,NIT Durgapur.PPT was scheduled at 8 am and I reached there few mins late as I always do and soon it got started.Novell's products and services includes virtualization,Identity management,cloud computing,networks and other data centre services summing upto 65 products.I was always inclined to all these keywords and finally I decided to head for written test.PPT lasted for about 1 hr.
We all headed towards written test venue.Question booklet and answer sheet were distributed.There were about 7-8 sets of test booklets.Details :

It included 3 sections:
Section 1: Aptitude(Included sentence ordering,quant ) -15 quesns.
Section 2: System concepts(Included questions on DS,complexities and recurrence equations,few basic fundas of computers like microprogrammed and stuffs,questions on timeslice etc.).-20 quesns.
Section 3: Programming(C programming outputs and questions on precedence order).15 quesns.

All together there were 50 questions which had to be done in 60 minutes.Instructions were given one should give 20 mins each for all the 3 sections .Cutoffs will be decided for each sections and I followed the same.60 mins flew away.I didnt realize.level of the Paper was average.I fould verbal a bit time consuming.Rest everything was a cakewalk.So I suggest you to complete all the sections and get back to verbal part at last.
Next was PI.I returned for Lunch and was very excited to know about the results.One of my friend announced my selection in the hostel mess and my heart started pumping faster.I finished my lunch and was on with my last minute preparations.16 people were shortlisted.Interview schedule was from 12 noon to 7 pm and every one was scheduled with a gap of 30 minutes.My interview was at 2.15 pm .It was running late and started at 3:10.I entered the room,shook hands with everybody,got seated,presented my resume and questions started flooding :).First I was asked about my project.Then they asked me to tell somthing about myself and about my field of interest.What I love to do and all.I answered "problem solving".Hence,I was asked to write pseudocodes for the problems .About 4-5.Then they asked me to define few string library functions such as strcpy,strncpy and few others.Few DS implementations,sorting algorithms and technical was over.:):) Then they started with HR questions.Included questions like my achievements,something like I would like to go back to the past and change,why do you want to join us and all .Last few questions were do you have any other offer? wanna go for higher studies? .It ended all well.I received a T-shirt titled 100 in 100.After that I was restless and waiting for the results.Now time was moving very slowly.I had my dinner and I my friend called me around 9:30 pm and congratulated.I was asked to reach the same PI room for some formalities.We all reached there,clicked photographs and they presented us a lappy bag and a jean shirt.Both are cool.After this it was all fun and frolic with few hits and I slept peacefully.The day ended well with my new facebook status msg ,new gtalk msg stating my new professional destination NOVELL INDIA DEVELOPMENT(SOFTWARE) PVT. LTD. ,Bangalore(a city were I always wanted to be after being a computer engineer).Thanks to everybody for your wishes.In zest it was all fun and the life moves on.

Delhi-ite Old,Then and Now!!

Hey Guys, This is one of my poetries ekdum dil-se.It may not look like a poetry to you still it is very close to my heart and "Delhi".After reading you can estimate how much I love the capital of this country and the pride to be called as Delhi-ite after staying just for 2 years(2004-2006).Kehte hai na Delhi se "Pehle nazar mein pyaar ho gaya tha" .Wish to reside again and,if the lanes of my fate takes me there.

I will try my level best to visit Commonwealth Games,2010.Delhi you rock!!

I had written this on 3/25/2006.

Delhi-ites @ 1990's

Delhi-ite woh jo rehta hai red tape capital main,crores ki bheed main,traffic ki reel main,khaadi ke vastron mein,investment ke sapne main,media ki dhundh mein,chawri ki chaal mein,qutub ki taal main, walled city main nach raha hai.

Delhi-ites @ 2000's

Delhi-ite woh hai nai millenium se lambi umeed main,metro aur markets ke bante bigadte plan mein,tod phod ke bheech main,career ki khooj main,call centre ki shifts main mobile phone ke saukh main,flyover ke swaad main chalo delhi ke abhiyan mein,pani ki killat mein,mehangai ki jillat mein ,sheela ki chaal main thidak raha hai.

Delhi-ites @ 2010's

Delhi-ite mast hai metro ke supersonic jaal mein,greenery ki khushbu mein ,commonwealth games ki chakachaundh main ,media ke saye mein,flyover aur underpasses ke saath main,modern airport ki mauj main,economy ki boost main,6 lane road ki lap mein,auto mobile ke fleet main ,outsourcing ke monopoly main ,world city main rehta hai ..........

How was it?

Me and iPaneer :For all the food freaks

Hey folks.On the verge of completion of my 3 years of Engineering ,my stay in this city "Durgapur" is also turning 3.I am a complete foodie and being a veggie by birth I have a soft corner for Paneer :).From Birgunj to kathmandu,Delhi to Darjeeling,Kota to kolkata and atlast to Durgapur I have gulped them everywhere.Last night I saw a dream .The dream goes like I met a paneer representative called himself as "iPaneer" (A fat man in his 40s with a big cubical tummy and football shaped mouth gave expressions like Paneer pasanda.)I had a short but sweet conversation with him .As he wanted feeback about successors located around the world and treating the bellies around the globe.I wanna present you an excerpt from the talk.
iPaneer: Hello nikhil ,How are you?

Me: Hey.Who are you? who seem to be very funny!!How do you know me?

iPaneer: I am iPaneer.Noways,It's the way I am.I am seen your name in ATM reciepts when you pay at Restaurants and on feedback forms.

Me: Ohkie.Why are you named iPaneer?What do you want from me?
iPaneer: Actually my name was Paneer but due to sudden advancements among you guys like phone changing to iphone,similarly i20,ipad,K800i etc.I thought of adding an i infront of my name.isnt it sexy? I am available from Russia to Malasia,Australia to India and almost everywhere.Just wanted to take a feedback from you,if you don't mind.

Me: Why me?You can go to frequent travellers,chefs etc.

iPaneer:No, either they are busy or have just tasted only one kind of paneer.I want a versatile consumer who have tasted both Hall-9 paneer and Grand Hyatt's Paneer.Can we proceed?

Me: Sure.

iPaneer:Let's begin .How is paneer associated with your life?

Me:Actually it is insaperable.Being a veggie ,we are confined to malais,mix veggies and paneers after we go out to eat.Life is so miserable.I wish cook invent more and more recipes of paneer.Remembering from the days of buying 250gm of paneer (asked by mom) ,ordering at hotels to eating So called Paneer at Hostel we have a great association.

iPaneer:Which have been the best place you have consumed paneer so far and the test reminds you now?

Me:Last Durgapuja I had paneer chilli at Junction5,Birgunj.It was simply awesome.Soft as valvet and really yummy.

iPaneer:Give a oneliner on paneer of different places.

Me:Birgunj introduced me to this stuff called paneer,Kathmandu assured me "Hello Indian food is awesome here" ,Delhi and kota reminds me of Dhaba typo paneer masala ,do pyaza..umm... Durgapur Hostels "We prepare paneer items but donno how to prepare :)" and restaurants speak "let's rock in all the flavours".

iPaneer:Why did you mention durgapur hostel so explicitly?What is so special about them?

Me:The paneer items which we have it here ,are not worth to be called as paneer items.Hard paneers,in their half cooked state and pathetic.I fall in the sea of my riverie that this is the paneer I liked so much..

iPaneer:I will give you 30 sec .Name as much as paneer items you can.

Me: paneer butter masala,paneer do pyaza,pasanda,sahi paneer,paneer sikh masala,paneer bhujji,paneer tikka,panner mix veg,paneer dosa,matar paneer,paneer sandwitch.Paneer pakoda,paneer kofta.ab baas...YUMMY :P...

iPaneer:Can you suggest some slogans,promotional schemes,marketing ideas to go Global?

Me: Sponsor T20 it will be a biggest hit.You can ask Sachin Tendulkar to promote Paneer Sandwitch if he wishes.then sky is the limit?
Next you can do is you can provide paneer coupons and sign boards specifying "Paneers are sold here". I think it will work.

iPaneer:Any suggestions?

Me: Please broaden your scope of recipes,we have very few items to choose from.Next is growing paneer prices are restricting the consumption to upper class of society only.There should be proper training sessions for Chefs,NITDGP cooks and homemakers.Free paneers on sundays :)

iPaneer: It was nice meeting you.

Me: Same here .See you soon.

And then the alarm clock rings.....and it was already 8. 1st class...RUSH!!

why Internet in the hostels of NIT,Durgapur is slow??

Hello guys you must be having a mysterious question going in your mind all the time when you experience a slow net in the hostels of NIT,Durgapur.I am going to talk about reasons,solutions ,challenges and your contribution related to INTERNET(via LAN).First of all I would like tell you the source of information mentioned in my post is a discussion with Prof. C.Sarvanan ,System Manager ,NIT Durgapur.
Current scenario: We are having a bandwith of 70 mbps (30 Reliance +40BSNL).Unmanaged network,poor cooling facilities,power consumption is reaching to its saturation point(and 2 new hostels coming up).
Recently we are facing a new problem specially during late nights due to poor DNS service of BSNL.When we complained them about the problem they provided with 2 new DNS hosts and still there is no improvement in the speed.
Compiled Reasons:-
1.DC++, gulping up all the bandwidths and slowing down the internet.
2.Chances of Ping flooding.
3.Network viruses ,torjans etc.(will minimized if we all start using LINUX).
4.Only 40 mbps of BSNL line is supplied to Hostels(10.0.0.1 series) and rest 30 mbps is supplied to Academic building and deparments(172.16.64.1 series).left unused in the night time.
5.Poor monitoring of every ports of every room.
6.Single proxy for all the hostels.
7.You all are familiar with work culture of West bengal.Companies respond for service request in 4-5 days.
Solutions :
1.Instead of DC++ there will be a saperate Server hosting TBs of online intranet space and will be serving all the download requests.
2.Ping and icmp will be stopped.
3.if all of us use LINUX distros.
4.There is one and only one line of 70 mbps which will be supplied 24/7 to hostels.
5.Network structuring is being done so that any room using more than allocated b/w will be barred from internet.
6.A single proxy for every 4 hostels.
7.Software firewall is set up.
Request to all:
1.He has pointed out that video servers are running in halls esp. 4,5 which is detoriating the Speed.
2.Co-operate for 2 months more by the time another vendor takes up the responsibility and manage servers and LAN together.
3.People interested in Networking,Security are welcome to support.
He expressed that there is huge potential in GNU/Linux Users group which can join hands and sort things out.Any suggestions/comments are welcome.

MUKTI'10 5-7 FEBRUARY COUNTDOWN BEGINS...

A WARM HELLO to all Open Source community Enthusiasts,Hardcore & Learning coders ,Developers,Designers...Introducing a Fire storming Carnival of Free & open source software....If you play with PHP ,sleep with C/C++,drive on Python and dance in the tunes of Drupal.......THE GAME IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!!!! Pack your equipments,gears,bags,laptop(definitely) and rush to NIT Durgapur...between 5-7 February!!
::::HIGHLIGHTS::::
1.Talks from eminent personalities like Pradeepto Bhattacharya(the face of KDE in India),Shabbir Keriwala,Arun Ravindran are due.
2.Hands on Workshop on Linux Securities & vunerablities by Sedulity Group ,Delhi & FOSSEE(These folks will take a two day workshop on Python on 'FOSS in engineering education'.).
3.100% Exitement packed events
3 ON-LINE Events (FREEPL,CodeCracker & Online treasure hunt) & following :-
a.Brain-mesh(Web Designing competition)
b.In-canity(C/C++ Coding competition)
c.OpenPaper
d.Konfigure
e.Rush Hour
::::UPDATES::::
1.Problem statements of the events are out.
2.FreePL Online is up & running http://freepl.mkti.in
3 Online Treasure hunt will be starting from 1st Feb.
4.Keep Checking the website for details....(HTTP://mkti.in)

See you there in the fest premises..Signing off!!

Fire in the Slums of Kolkata. A personal View

Fire In the City ,Fire Fighters Helpless

12th Jan '10 is an upsetting day in this so called civilized society.Basanti Colonies,a slum in north kolkata caught fire .Slum dwellers were found running helter-skelter to save their lives.Domestic cylinders were acting like explosives. Unfortunately,by the time fire control guards reached the venue everthing was reduced to debris . They had to meet too many hurdles to reach the affected spot. .Eratic auto rickshaws ,cycles let the blockage hindering the fire menreaching the colony.The inferno was turning vigourous and its smoke could be seen from the blockade point and barricade cleared after the drivers rushed to save their homes and families. Next was TC squatter blocking the way due to protest against transcending prices.Same story repeated and fire fighters were not allowed to proceed even after many requests. Finally when the fighters reached the venue and only salvage operation was left. Poor slum dwellers rushed to save their belongings but all they found was the remains of their property ,food,clothes . They were left ina mitigated condition as thier valuables matters a lot to them unlike that of white collar and higher civil societies. Moreover the people heading towards airport,school children and travellers were also disrupted.The slum dwellers at last occupied the nearby railway station as a temporary shelter. Now, who is to be blamed for this devastation? You , me actually all of us. Public infrastructure like trains,roads,hospitals,school should not be targetted to show up our agony or the demands before of the government.Their can be other means too. Any ambulance carrying a serious patient would'nt have been able to make its way to the hospital in proper time.The patient must be sharing the same human rights as we do,don't we? To have an ideal civil society weeds in ourselves are needed to be chopped off before we point finger on others.
Note: References from TOI.This post is no way related to political scenario but an effort to spread a message.

Speech by Chetan Bhagat at Symbiosis ...must read...

Hey guys,
I liked it so I am sharing it.I hope you all will like it too.
"
Don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a
balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful.
Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are
all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup.
There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not
enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions."

"Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run
with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls,
there is no point coming first. Same is with life where health and
relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there
is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this
spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.
……………….

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life
is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here.
We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we
may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we
really need to get so worked up? …………….

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up
a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights
with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices........." :)

"Don't be serious, be sincere."!!

How to Host a website In World Wide Web ?

5 Easy steps to host a website in the world of web:-

Step 1: Develop a website.

Step 2: Buy a domain "yourdomain.com",suppose XYZ company.Pay & Wait for Setup from 12-24 hr.

Step 3: Buy a Hosting plan as per your requirement and specificaitons at ABC company choosing an option Host an already existing domain "yourdomain.com" update & replace all the Name servers of ABC company in the domain management @ XYZ company.Pay & Wait for propagation and setup from 24-72 hr.

Step 4: Go to cpanel ,if your hosting supports or download a ftp client ,upload your developed website to the file manager in public_html folder where as public_ftp folder is for your ftp uploads.

Step 5: Open the site in your favourite browser. "yourdomain.com" VOILA!!

PHP error Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by ...

Error ...

PHP Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by.............

Hello PHP developers over there.This is a very frequent error or I will say an obvious error if you are new to PHP coding.It can occur due to many reasons such as:-

1. Headers must be parsed before any HTML,
2. Look for any statements that could send output to the user before this header statement. If you find one or more, find some way to move the header statement before them.
3.Make sure there is no white space outside of the php start and end tags. While a blank line before the 4.header("location:../first.php"); //'Location' should replace 'location'
5.fix your script to send the cookies at the correct time.
Solutions:-

Note: This Error irritates a lot.So if you are in a hurry go for Solution 3 and resume.:)
1.Try to resolve the above if exist.If the problem still persists..
2. Modify the PHP.ini file of your server by turning => output_buffering=on or output_buffering = 4096
3. Best Solution:

try placing this at the top of your page:
//Its turning on the output buffer.

then at the bottom of the page place this line of code:

//So any output is kept in the buffer.This is to flush the buffer.

What Next!!

From 64MB RAM to 4-8GBs of DDR RAM,381MHz to 3GHz QuadCore and more,Serial Port to USB 2.0,CRT to WXVGA to HDTV.28.8Kbps to 100Gbps of Internet.Wireless mouse to WIMAX.What next??
Do you think it is saturated??
Still more to come!!
Picture a day,Tap on your gigabit-wireless-connected tablet, to pull up a 3D movie on the razor-thin HDTV hanging on the wall. A media server streams the film via a superspeedy USB connection to a wireless HD transmitter, which then beams it to the TV.

Highlights:

1.USB 3.0 : The new USB 3.0 standard preserves backward compatibility by allowing older cables to plug into newer jacks; but newer cables like this one have extra pins that boost the data rate to 4.8 gbps.
It will be like before you leave your Workplace, you need to back up your computer. You push a button, and 5 minutes later, while you're still packing up, your system has dumped 150GB of data onto an encrypted 512GB superfast solid-state drive($2200 Introductory Price).
Imagine USB speed increasing 10 folds.All your USB devices will start sizzling.Printing,scanning,data transfer all the job will be done ten times faster.USB 3.0 could eliminate all the external ports except ethernet.
2.Rise of Wi-Fi : By 2012, two new protocols--802.11ac and 802.11ad--should be handling over-the-air data transmission at 1 gbps or faster.Today's Wi-Fi will be left in the dust by 802.11ac and 802.11ad, both of which will be capable of carrying multiple video streams and of operating at far higher data rates.
3.3D TV:Panasonic and other high-definition TV makers are looking to faux 3D technology to provide stereoscopic depth--and a reason for consumers to buy a newer set.
4.HTML5:Web pages built with HTML5 will display the same on any browser--desktop or mobile.Website designers and Web app developers won't have to deal with multiple incompatible formats and workarounds in their efforts to create the same user experience in every browser.HTML5 is now completing its last march toward a final draft and official support by the World Wide Web Consortium.
5.HDD with 3TB/inch: Jimmy Jian-Gang Zhu is developing a prototype of his microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) technique he believes will pack 3TB/square inch of a spinning disk.Seagate Technology has been championing an approach called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) that uses a tiny laser light on each drive head to heat a portion of the disk just before a write operation. Rival Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is working on a way to pattern tracks and even bit locations on media.All sides say they are actively exploring both technologies. Ultimately both technologies will be needed to deliver disks that pack 10 terabits or more per square inch.

What next??Post your reviews and ideas?

Source: eetimes.com and pcworld.com

Rank#1 CODECRACKER 3.0

GNU/LUG NIT Durgapur launched its CODECRACKER 3.0(http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/codecracker) on 14th October'09 for the programmers in the college.
CODECRACKER is A semi-automated online judge for organising programming contests, developed by GNU/Linux Users' Group, NIT Durgapur.
Source is available at http://code.google.com/p/ccnitdgp/ .

The Contest started at 10 PM with 3 level of questions.EASY(2) ,MEDIUM(2) and HARD(1).Time span was 2hr which was further extended by 15 minutes.Previous 1.0 and 2.0 versions supported C/C++ only but this version supported codes in JAVA and PYTHON too.I was able to solve 3 questions (2-Easy and 1-Hard).
I stood RANK#1 ,results are available at ( http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/codecracker/score.php?t=1255583166 (if link exists :-) ) Coding was fun and Entertaining as it is always :).

Qualified for ACM-ICPC Regionals 2009,Amritapuri On-line contest!!

Hello folks..I am back with this post.It's an informal one.Last week when our college was going through 'Water crisis' on 13th September We (priyanka and me) participated with the team name 'parallel_coders' for the ACM-ICPC Amritapuri Regional On-line contest from 9 am to 1 pm.We solved programming questions inspite of load shedding between the coding round.On 15th I received an email ,declaring results are out @ http://icpc.amrita.ac.in/site/teamsforonsite.html .I found my team_name -> Parallel_coders(NIT durgapur) mentioned there.I was happy with a broad smile on my face ,hardwork pays ;).Next is On-site round on 1st of Nov. let's see If we are able to go there.All under the constraints of god,time and
finances.