Echoes Volume 3 Issue 1 March, 2004

International Institute of Information Technology

echoes

Vol. III Issue 1 Mar 1 - 30, 2004

THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Editorial Wondering what this four page booklet is all about? Well by now some of you would have remembered that “Echoes"(as the heading goes) is our newsletter. For those of you, who haven’t remembered yet, let me tell you that this is Echoes, IIIT’s newsletter, last seen in October (first seen in September, this academic year.).

What has happened to Echoes all these days? Before that let me tell you some interesting facts on the basis of my experience of being at this place for the past 3 and half years. The question I mentioned will not occur to 50% of the IIIT junta. 25% out of the half who take the trouble to bother about the question will forget about it in the next 2-3 hours. 20% of the remaining 25% will 'just' think about it for the next 1-2 days taking care not to voice their thoughts.

4% of the left 5% will think about it for the 1 week, discuss it with their friends on the mess tables and casually ask a Mag member about it, in case he/she appears on the scene. The remaining 1% (the Mag team) thinks about it and tries to do something about it. (Wow! we are giving it a try).

The "trying" process continues till the 20th of the current month after which the Mag team realizes that it is too late to release Echoes and hence postpones the entire process to the next month.

This has been the story for the last few months.

Pardon me for using different numbers and percentage symbols instead of the conventional 0 and 1 bit. Being in the 4th year , I have had many FYP submissions of late ( where we submit some x% of the y% of the total work ) and hence couldn't keep the numbers away.

Keeping numbers and percentages apart, the fact is that all of us have been guilty of being indifferent. We, the Mag Team were at fault for not carrying out the task assigned to us. The rest of the institute is equally responsible for this sorry state. The fact that there is not even a single mail in the Mag inbox regarding the release of the newsletter confirms this. There have been times during the last few months when Echoes could not be released despite the editorial, campus-rumpus and city capers being written because of lack of contributions from the student community. We are planning to come out with the college magazine "Interface" by this month end.

To make it a success, we need contributions from the entire college in the form of articles, poems, anecdotes etc.

The Mag Team has recently taken a decision to cover the various seminars that are held at our institute. The coverage of Vinod Khosla's talk was the first step in this direction.

We request all those who attend the seminars and talks on various fields to help us in covering these events in the future.

Let us try to be different and not indifferent.

Anticipating active participation from all of you, Raghu Chaitanya

Campus Rumpus MaG 3: Return of the Mag: Yes, it’s for real. The Mag is back with a bang! Did you miss us when we were gone? Send your bouquets and brickbats to mag@students.iiit.net. We are currently working on releasing the annual issue of The Interface, the college Magazine. Articles are invited for the same.

Pitch Report: The new practice cricket pitch has been laid in the ground between the OBH and NBH to give the extra edge to our Sachins and Brett Lees.

Run for your Life: The Jogger’s track along the campus perimeter has finally been completed.

Yet another excuse to drag yourselves out of the comfortable confines of your room and get healthy this summer!

Rang Barse: The festival of colours, Holi, was celebrated with customary fanfare in the campus on March 6th. The OBH ‘swimming pool’ was sorely missed this time around.

CAT calls: Budding management whizkids Puneet, Arvind and Sasank have made it to the GD/PI stage for IIM’s A,B,C,L (latest reports). On other fronts Puneet Vohra was the All India topper in the JMET. Showcase: The event formerly known as Open House has been rechristened and revamped. On 10th and 11th March for the “R&D Showcase ‘04”.

IIITians are all set to display their best projects and the products of research and development going on in the institute.

IB*T: Sporting spirits have risen to new heights after the Inter batch Cricket and Basketball Tournaments. All the batches participated with much enthusiasm which made the matches enjoyable. Ug4 came up trumps in both Cricket and Basketball. The next tournament coming up is the IBFT for all the football players out there.

Excitement of Research: A two day seminar was conducted on the 28th and the 29th of February on “Excitement of Research”. Students from various Engineering colleges in the city were invited and presentations were made about the virtues of research in various fields of IT.

Expressionist of the Month -Keerthilal Kala “I wanna stand with you on a mountain, I wanna bathe with you in the sea; I wanna live like this forever, Until the sky falls down on me.”

That’s how Darren Hayes (Savage Garden) expresses his desire for the ornate emotional bliss he wants to discover for himself. Well you might say pretty idealistic, filmy kinda desires, but doesn’t everyone want something or the other in more or less the same way? Desires differ but the passion that drives them is the same. Your longing for something satisfying makes you dream of things that you’ll share only with your closest pals, and I dare say you’ll be the luckiest person on the planet to do so with the one & only “SOULMATE”. Isn’t that a very troubling idea? A soul mate……. How exactly would you define that? One who loves you, one who cares for you, one who is willing to die for you, etc, etc. Most of these notions are the progeny of the recent arrival of romantic movies. I call them ‘recent’ because when Shakespeare wrote, there were no movies. Was it then that people never had any of these itches? If poets wrote things then, didn’t it affect anyone? Were they speaking for themselves alone? Why then all of a sudden this brouhaha about love and relationships?

Coming of age is not necessarily the same any more. Even a school kid these days ditches his girlfriends and has valentines. If Aaron Carter sings “I want Candy”, what does he want? From a man’s point of view, we search for our ‘mother’ in the perfect woman. You may or may not accept it, but that’s the real bliss that you’re looking for in the new woman. And if there’s someone who needs to get a lot of that it’s the kid who’s going gaga over the girl in his class at school. Does this mean that Moms nowadays are not as affectionate as before? Or is it that she has lost her space in a person’s life per se? Aren’t we bothering our young, growing generations with passions that they should not, - rather necessarily not - want at their age? Their passion, zeal, vigour, and energy should go into exploring the world that they have just got into contact with, and in imbibing the cruel, subtle and most beautiful ways in which life teaches us how to live. Shouldn’t it be ‘Daffodils’ or the Three Laws of Newton? Well, spare the rod and spoil the child they say. Let values and everything valuable to life be deglamourised and let us follow the demigods in gay abandon. “Enjoy”

Management Institutions???

-Potential manager!

Many of the final year students, who were serious about a career in management, have applied for various management institutes in the country. Most of the institutes have conducted written tests as a part of the selection process. It was the manner in which these management institutes organized these tests that has left me stumped.

As per the dictionary definition, management is the act of managing something.

The Management institutes are places where "management" is taught to the students.

Conducting the written exams was a basic task that the management institutes should have done very efficiently. But what happened was the opposite. XLRI, a well known management institute provided a non-functional "forgot password" link on their website. The concerned authorities did not offer any help, when one of the students who forgot his password approached them one week prior to the test. The student had no option but to wait till the d-day and hope that he would be allowed for the test. Finally, he was allowed but not before going through some tense moments that should have been avoided. On top of all this, students were told at the exam centre that they should have brought their photographs with them. The students were made to wait till the very last moment before the authorities completed the entire process. IIFT, another reputed management institute, managed the hall ticket part well, much to the relief of the students.

But then they bungled the most important part the duration of the test. Some students were lucky enough to get 5-10 minutes of extra time while the unfortunate ones were given 3-5 minutes less than the allotted time. Every single mark counts in competitive exams like these and even 5 minutes plus or minus makes a hell of a lot of difference.

There were other problems like the center being excessively crowded, the writing desks being too small, lack of parking space, etc. CAT, the mother of all management entrance exams was however different from the rest. The entire process was very smooth with instructions being given through the speakers that were provided in each and every classroom. Perhaps that explains why the IIM’s are considered a class apart from the other management institutes.

I believe we have these sorts of management misnomers at every level. For instance, an aspiring management student like me not finding time to write this article for the last one month, the Mag team failing to bring out Echoes for the past 4 months, the Felicity

management team failing to award prizes even a month after the event is over. Given all this, I guess we have already displayed enough potential to be a part of the (mis) management institutes.

Vox Populi (The people’s Poll) How good are the medical facilities at IIIT? d) Thank God! I never had to think of them33 votes c) OK24 votes b) Very Bad12 votes a) Pretty good2 votes Which was the most popular event in Felicity ’04? b) Mr. and Ms. Felicity 26 votes c) Fusion Night 22 votes a) Strings Concert 18 votes d) Mirchi eating contest 5 votes How happy are you with the way the stationery shop functions in IIIT? e) Never found it open when it mattered 47 votes b) Not bad 9 votes c) Very bad 9 votes a) Very happy 2 votes d) Never had to go there 2 votes What is your opinion on the many cycles that are laid to rest in the OBH? d) Why not let them rest in peace? -34 votes c) Never had the opportunity to see them -17 votes a) Walking is better than cycling 11votes b) Do not help in giving a lift to a friend - 5 votes

IIIT shining!

IIIT has been in the news these days a number of times. First it was the inauguration of the Robotics Lab; with this the leading dailies placed us on the moon! Next it was the grand success of Felicity. The Hindu and the Times of India allotted a good amount of space for Felicity. Then it was the seminar on the “Excitement of Research” which was featured in the newspapers. Way to go IIIT, all this has been some much needed publicity for us.

Techie Tip Contributed by R. Deepak, B.Tech IV year A to Z of Vim -- Part 1 a append A append to end of line b previous word B previous WORD c change {motion} C change to end of line d delete {motion} D delete to end of line e end of word E end of WORD f forward to char F backward to char g g-series of commands ga describe character gg beginning of file gq format g* search for current word without boundary g# search for current word backward without boundary G end of file h left H top of screen i insert I insert at first non-blank character j down J join lines k up K help on word (man, etc.) l right L bottom of screen m set mark M middle of screen n next match for search N previous match for search o open line O open line above p put P put before q record macro Q 'ex' mode (mapped to reformat in RedHat Linux) r replace character R replace mode S remove character with string t go to character T go backward to character u undo v visual mode V line visual mode w next word W next WORD x delete character X backward delete character y yank {motion} Y yank line (usually remapped to yank to end of line) z z-series of commands zt take line to top of screen zz take line to center of screen zb take line to bottom of screen ZZ write and quit

City capers Campus Rumpus Greeting folks, Long time indeed. With all due apologies for the delay here we are now. First of all let me offer you the warmest (and belated ;-)) Christmas, New Year, Sankranti and Holi greetings.

To make up for the delay on reporting news on my part, here is the best piece of news you will want to know. Ever wanted to play in snow, have snow fights, make snowmen etc.? Well all that is now going to be 18kms and Rs. 250 away.

Frozen? You should be... India's first and Asia's second Snow theme Park has opened at lower Tank Bund near Indira Park. Complete with tonnes of snow, fun rides and games, this promises to be a boon to all ye snow-dreamers out there.

Looking for some ethnic Andhra food?

'Masala' at Jubilee Hills offers some culinary delights at reasonable prices served in a homelike atmosphere. Don’t forget to stop by at the adjoining ice-cream shop 'Temptations'. If you are a stickler for excellence in good ice-creams, "Melting Point" much further down the road is a good place for ice-creams.

One for the few people who are still strong on their stand against music piracy, Planet M has opened a new outlet at Nagarjuna circle near Punjagutta. It houses a larger collection of titles than the one at MPM mall.

Of late have you been thinking of buying some clothes? Act fast as many of the company retail outlets as well as Shopper's stop and Lifestyle have an End-of-the-season sale going on with discounts upto 50% on selected items.

This is scheduled to end soon so time is of the essence.

The best way many will want to have a break after a midsem is by watching a movie. It’s much better if you go out and hang around for a much needed break. So on the movie front 'Apollo 13' is being screened at Prasad's IMAX. This movie is worth seeing for the IMAX experience considering the fact that it won an Oscar for visual effects. LOTR 3: Return of the King has released in the movie houses this month. This Oscar sweeping final episode of the Lord of the Rings trilogy deserves to be seen on the big screen for its excellent visual appeal.

That will be all for this time folks. Go ahead and have a break! ...here we are now, entertain us...

Nikhil