Third Prize for CloudStrap at Meraki 2013, FIIB

So I and Shubham went with our idea of an advertising mobile application for the first time to a startup competition, and guess what? We won the third prize!

We plan to use the fellowship for our pilot, which we expect to do sometime around May end of this year.

The Hunger Games Trilogy: My Review

I had read the three Hunger Games books - Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I got interested in the books when the movie came out, so decided to give them a read.
The first book in the trilogy, The Hunger Games, is somewhat interesting and invokes interest in the story. Some parts of it are thought provoking, and it really gets you thinking about the way our society behaves. It shows you how humans would exploit their powers in extreme situations. It gives you insights on poverty, teen anguish, work and more. The movie adaptation of the first part was also a hit, and rightly so.
However, I was highly disappointed with the other two books in the trilogy. The focus of the story shifts to a teen love triangle and the protagonist of the story, Katniss, who became a teen idol in the first book because of her bravery, calmness and sorted out thoughts, is now extremely conflicted and indifferent to what's happening around her. The story is no more though provoking, and does not provide any new insights. Because of the violence, it cannot really be classified as a children book, but is also not really a book for mature readers. In my opinion, it wouldn't be wrong to compare the two books with the Twilight series, where the story is only about a teen girl with a confused mind in a fantasy world. Two boys are madly in love with her (for what?), and her mind keeps on shifting from one to another. Her struggle against the system was limited only to the first book. However, author Suzanne Collins has a nice writing style and I was hooked onto the books even though I did not like the story at all.
Overall, I would recommend the book only for teen girls who liked the Twilight. The first book and the movie were okay, but I don't see myself going to watch the other two movies.

String Around the World

This is one of my favorite examples of counter-intuitive conundrum. I was fascinated by this problem (and its solution) for the first time when I was probably 15. I happened to come across this again sometime ago. It goes like this:

Assuming that the Earth is a perfect sphere, let's say that we tie a long string all around the equator so that it perfectly fits. Now, imagine if we cut the string at some point, and add an extra 2 meters of string, and tie it back again. The slightly longer string will be a bit loose now and can be raised by some height all around the Earth. How big will be that gap?

Intuition suggests that since the string is so long, adding an extra 2 meters would hardly make a difference. The height by which the string raises would be to the order of microns, and won't be even visible to the naked eye. But that is not the case.

The surprising answer is that the gap would be big enough for most people to crawl under! It will stand approximately 32 centimeters above the surface all the way around. Hard to believe, right? Let us look at the calculations:

Length of the string = Circumference of the earth (Pi x Diameter of the earth)

New length of the string = Old length + 2

Also, new length = Pi x (Diameter of the earth + 2 x Gap)

Therefore, Pi x Diameter of earth + 2 = Pi x (Diameter of earth + 2 x Gap)

Which means that the Gap = 1/Pi = 1/3.14 = 0.32 meters

The gap here is independent of the diameter of earth. So even if you do this with a tennis ball or a football, the answer would be the same (which is somewhat easier to visualize and more believable than in the earth's case).

A New Project For Me

I have had this enthusiasm for data analysis since a long time. Even during my school days, even though I never used to score good in it, Statistics used to be my favorite topic in Mathematics. In around June 2012, I was introduced to this idea of "Big Data". Although it has been there since a very long time, the scope of analyzing big data for making decisions enthralled me. Add to that my interest in statistics, I thought that a career in data services would be something I would really love to do.

I did a lot of research on this topic then, read magazines, blogs and articles, and discovered that indeed, there is a lot to be done in this sector. Only very large companies properly analyze big data for decision support. Data analysis is considered to be out of reach from small and medium-sized companies for two reasons; one, that they need expertise for data analysis, and two, that outsourcing data services is almost not accessible to them, as big data service providers serve only very big companies, and charge very high fees. This led me to thinking that I might actually try to attack this problem, and the idea of "Indicina Services" was conceived in my head.

"Indicina" is a Latin word I had come across a few days ago, which is derived from "index", and is the root of some English words like "indicator". It basically means information. This would be a perfect name for my startup, as it aims to provide support to those who want to convert "data" to "information". The motto for Indicina could be "democratizing data services", as it is what I aim to do. I plan on creating a platform/application, with the help of which small and medium-sized companies could use tools and techniques which are otherwise accessible only to the customers of giants like IBM and EMC. Although most of the other companies in this sector are more like consultants, I plan to make Indicina more like a software company than a consultant, which would sell a software service to be used conveniently by companies.

I have been trying to get some technical knowledge lately, which I am finding quite interesting. Indicina right now has just a 1-person team, but I am considering adding some team members this month, as I believe I have a working knowledge of the subject. Things have moved very slowly till now, but I really want my startup to take off by this April, for which I have to work real hard in the next few weeks. I hope that once I get a team, things would move faster, as there would be other team members to push me even more. This only increases the importance of getting the right people in the team. I am also looking for a data analysis-related topic for my bachelor's degree thesis, as then I could learn even more and instead of wasting my time on a pedestrian topic, I could spend time on something meaningful, while making a useful bachelor's degree project at the same time.

Please pardon me if I have used some terms related to data wrongly as I am just learning. I would really appreciate it if you could add your feedback and inputs in the comments :-)

IIT Kanpur's Senate Meeting Minutes

I just got hold of the minutes of IIT Kanpur's Senate Meeting on the JEE issue. Not that I oppose the proposed admission process, most of the points mentioned here are very much valid and significant. The post may appear disoriented on your screen, maybe because of your screen resolution or browser. I had to upload it as jpeg, as this is the format I got hold of it in. Right click on the image, and select "Open image in new tab", or simply save the image and view it as per your convenience.

Indiaplaza.com review

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This was the book I wanted, after hearing a lot about it on internet forums and from friends. I quickly opened two new tabs in my browser - Flipkart.com and Infibeam.com, and typed in the name of the book in their respective search bars. Rs 221, after a discount of 25%, both sites displayed. I had almost clicked the "Add to cart" button on Infibeam, until I decided to check Google once for some offers or special discounts. The first search result showed Indiaplaza.com, offering the 400-page book for Rs 177, at a discount of 40% off its MRP of Rs 295. Should I go for it? After my previous terrible experience with Indiaplaza, I had vowed never to use that site again. However, I heard they recently had a makeover and improved their customer service. I consulted one of my friends who is a regular buyer of books. He said Indiaplaza works just fine. I decided to give them another chance.

Few months ago, in around September 2011, I had used Indiaplaza to shop for products worth over Rs 1000, ranging from teddy bears to pen drives. I was quite amazed by their low prices and heavy discounts. However, they had failed terribly. After not receiving a single delivery for over 7 days, when I tried to reach their customer service through email, no reply came. Surprising, as I had tried to reach them once before my purchase, and they replied within minutes. When I tried calling them up on their 24-hour phone line, it kept me waiting for at least 10 minutes, until I gave up. I tried a few times again. Everytime I called them, I was always the "caller number 6", so for a moment I wondered if they even exist. I tried reaching out to them via phone and email for the next 2-3 days, without any success. Regretting my decision to try this site out, I decided to write about my experience on Mouthshut.com. As I published my review on Mouthshut, I immediately got a message from Indiaplaza asking for my order numbers. As I gave it to them, I received a call from them within minutes. A female voice assured me that they are treating my order as high priority and will dispatch my order within 2 days. The delay was due to stockouts and delays by their vendors. When I told her about how I was unable to reach out to them, she told me that I can call on the number she was calling from, which was a land-line number of Bangalore. I got an update from them after 2 days indeed, saying most of my ordered items have been couriered to me via FirstFlight couriers. One of the items, a soft toy, couldn't be delivered as their vendor is unable to supply to them and my money would be refunded soon. I received the items as expected and my money soon after.

So, after that, I was pretty skeptical of their services. I stuck to eBay, Flipkart and Infibeam for my next online purchases, until recently, when I ordered the book "The Hunger Games" from them. The transaction was smooth. They shipped the book just after 2 days of ordering via FirstFlight. I received the book soon after, packed nicely in cardboard and in perfect condition. The customer service number on their website has changed and mentions time on which to call. It looks like they have indeed improved their services. The interface is new and a variety of items has been added, with good, but not-so-ridiculous discounts. Overall a smooth experience, but I would like to stick with Infibeam and Flipkart for my next few purchases, unless I am getting a big price difference.

7 Common Myths in JEE Aspirants About IIT

IIT-JEE aspirants often wonder things about the IITs, their dream institutions. They discuss about them with their friends. However, in this process, like the classical game of Chinese Whispers, a lot of wrong information is floated around, which gets turned and twisted at every stage and ultimately gets misguiding at once. Most aspirants believe these myths to be true, which could be harmful sometimes. Even I used to believe some of these before coming to IIT. Here are 7 common myths relating to IITs. Please provide feedback, positive or negative, through comments at the end of this post:


Myth 1: "IIT Mandi is the best according to that magazine's rankings"
Around the time of April-May each year, all magazines claim to have conducted surveys and studies in all colleges across India, and allot points on different fields like campus, academics, extra-academics, etc. Do you really think these magazines go to all these colleges and do these studies and surveys as they claim? Even if they do, how accurate is their evaluation? The truth is, in fact, no such study is ever conducted by any of those magazines. Such rankings and points are given by a group of their reporters, most of who cannot even differentiate IITs from IIMs. The rankings and points given are based on the feedback they receive from mostly random people around them. The views are highly prone to be biased towards or against a particular IIT. Also, most often these rankings are highly influenced by the promoters of private colleges (VIT was once ranked better than IIT Guwahati by some magazine). These rankings are also never consistent. Different magazines have entirely different rankings. So it makes no sense to base your judgement about a college on these rankings. They are indicative up to some extent, like they would never place IIT Bhubaneshwar above IIT Kharagpur. They just should be trusted with utmost care, not blindly.


Myth 2: "IITians have to work hard day and night owing to the extreme pressure"
Thanks to the movie 3 Idiots for this. People often think of IITs as institutions where students are under extreme pressure all the time and are always looking for new ways to commit suicide in their hostel rooms. Students have to take unlimited assignments and surprise tests from their grumpy old professors, which leaves them with no time for anything apart from academics, killing their innovative thinking. The truth is, yes, there is a certain amount of academic pressure in IITs, which is more than other engineering colleges. But the pressure is never more than what we can handle. After all, IITians are the top 2% of the students who apply for it. They are supposed to be better than the others. Whatever pressure is there, is easily handled by the students. And we get more time (and facilities) for extra academics than other colleges. Ask any IITian, and you would know we complete most of our syllabus in the 1-2 weeks before exams. Rest of the time is used to develop extra skills, academic or non-academic. And there is plenty of time and encouragement to do something, anything, innovative. Students in private colleges often do not get so much time and freedom to do so.


Myth 3: "IIT Kanpur is good at Physics, etc"
This is a common one. I don't know where these kinds of rumors get started from. It's true that a particular IIT may have better research facilities for a particular subject, but B. Tech. students have nothing to do with it. Having better research facilities and scientists does not mean the professors will teach you any better. Also, B. Tech. students are most probably not going to use any of those research facilities during their B. Tech. program. So it does not mean a thing for undergraduate students. It only makes a difference for the research scholars (Ph. D. students) or M. Tech. students.


Myth 4: "IITs have more than 100% placements"
It still makes me laugh. I heard it for the first time around the time of my JEE counselling, from one of my friends who had also cracked the JEE. Some people believe IITs have "600% placements. It means the total number of job offers available are 6 times more than the number of students passing out." This is entirely wrong. Even a top branch in the old IITs cannot guarantee you a job. The percentage of students placed very often does not even reach the 100% mark. It hardly ever happens that a company which came to recruit from the IITs had to go back empty handed because there weren't enough students. However, sometimes companies do go without recruiting anyone because they didn't find any IITian competent enough to work for them. Surprising? Remember Narayan Murthy's comment about the IITs? He said majority of students passing out of IITs fare poorly at jobs, which is why Infosys does not recruit from the IITs anymore. I am not here to debate on his comment, but it should give you an idea of what the corporate world thinks of IITs. For JEE aspirants, IITs are their dream institutions. But for the corporate, it's just another engineering college which produces slightly more talented workers than the others. Companies want talented people who can work for the company. They don't care how hard you worked for cracking the JEE or what was your JEE AIR. They come to IITs to recruit just because they have a better probability of finding talented people here. If you are not competent, you won't get a job, whatever IIT and branch you may be in. Most recruiting companies have a very rigorous process of selection, to ensure that they get only the best. So, you see, the bargaining chip is with the companies, not with the IITs.


Myth 5: "I find solving linear equations interesting. I am a genius at Maths"
Students in 11th and 12th class often get over-excited by their good results in a particular subject. If you are performing well in a subject, it may mean that you have a good aptitude for it, but it does not always mean that it will remain that way once you get in college. The syllabus for Physics, Chemistry and Maths get very different once you go for higher studies in that topic. For example, while Physics in senior high school is mostly about concepts of Classical Physics, in college it mainly revolves around Modern Physics. While Classical Physics is more numerical based, Modern Physics involves more of theory. So students who used to love Physics in their senior high school often dislike the subject when they go for higher studies in the topic. However, don't lose confidence. You may really have a good aptitude for a subject. Just don't jump to conclusions. Get an idea of what your studies will be like once you go for higher studies in a subject, then take decisions.


Myth 6: "JEE achievers are extremely talented and should be worshiped"
Coaching centers these days will do anything to add one number to their "number of students qualified". This has led to over-valuation of one's JEE rank. JEE ranks' only role is to provide a preference order for qualifying students during JEE counselling. A better ranking student's preference is taken in to account first while allotting branches and IITs. After the seats are allotted, your JEE rank hardly holds any value. Of course it's nice to know that you achieved such a good rank in the JEE, but now there are better ways to evaluate you. A JEE rank of 1 or 1000 hardly makes any difference 4 years after JEE. People are more interested in knowing what you are capable of doing, not in what you did 4 years ago after taking years of focused coaching for the 6-hour exam. Very often it is seen that students with better JEE ranks turn out to be less successful than others.


Myth 7: "Once I get into IIT, I will have girls/boys lined up for me"
Oh yeah, why not? Boys would love their girlfriend to:

• study all day and all night long
• care only and ONLY about her grades
• be obese, wear specs and have no fashion sense at all
• be in a college where all boys know all the details about her
• nag all the time about how good she is at maths
• think she is the most beautiful girl on earth even if she looks worse than Rakhi Sawant

And what could a girl possibly wish for? All girls would die for a boy who:

• has not talked to anyone else besides his parents and teachers during high school
• can tell the HTML code for the color of a girl's salwar-kameez
• shows off all the time about him being an IITian
• who thinks of himself as "Gawd" because he is so good at Physics, Chemistry and Maths
• thinks the number "69" is so significant because it is the atomic number of thulium
• uses bullet points to say something... oh wait :-|

:-D


Hope this clears up some of your myths and makes you more aware. By the way, the game of Chinese Whispers has been used in UK schools to simulate the spread of gossip and supposed harmful effects. It is also used to teach young children how to listen attentively. So better take the lesson early without having to play the game in real life. ;-)

17 December 2011 Randomness

Just happened to remember my good old Blog after 6 months. I have seen I got a few visitors, from different parts of the world. I wonder from where they find my blog. There even was a comment from a random person, who seemed to have liked some of my posts (the philosophical ones)

I realize that I have changed a lot in the past 5 months. I seem to care less about things. My confidence has increased steeply, though sometimes I wonder if it is my confidence or my arrogance. I find it difficult to concentrate on things. I cannot have just one tab opened in my browser. If somehow I fight hard to have just one tab opened at a time, I look for other things to do around me. This is an area where I would really like to improve.

Small Things

I believe in judging people by small things. Small things, which are done sub consciously. Usually, people don't pay attention to little things which they do. And that's when they are most honest, because they do what their hearts say, not their brains. When people become conscious of what they are doing and what others would think, they do something which is not honest. They do it to show others something which may not be true.

One of my close friends lost credibility in my eyes yesterday due to a very small action of theirs. They may not even have thought that someone would notice such a small incident, but I did and I had to totally change my views about that person. I earlier considered them to be one of the best, one of the finest friends of mine. But I turned out to be wrong, thanks to yesterday's incident. I have certainly not lost a friend, but I have lost trust in one of my friends.

A Long Day at the Office

After lots of persuasion by my granddad, I finally went to my dad's office. Had kind of fun, probably because I didn't do any work. I almost laughed at small things, like once when I used the scanner to make a photocopy. Don't know why it seemed so funny to me, maybe it was just a sense of achievement for having successfully used a scanner for the first time in my life.  Today was also the first time I spent the full day at office, from morning till evening. Luckily, I didn't have to eat the lunch out of a tiffin like dad does, because we had a small party to attend in the afternoon. Overall the day at the office was good, with lots of Facebooking (on a dead slow internet connection).

In other news, the 'J' button has come off my keyboard after my attempt to clean my keyboard. I should have probably left the job of cleaning to the vacuum cleaner.  My Facebook status today got only 3 likes, and a pie chart, which I made myself, got no likes. In fact, a friend of mine suggested me to keep away from Facebook a bit, because I was putting too 'arbit' status updates. Seems no one values my creativity  I should probably stick to copy-pasting stuff as before  Anyways, as if that is going to stop me from putting more status updates. As long as I like my status update, I will update it ("like" as in real like, not Facebook like). The same with this blog. I have been consistently getting no readers for the last few posts. Who cares, I am writing this for you, dear Google, so that your hard drives fill up faster. ;-)

Purpose or Fear?

Whenever you do something, whether it be studies or work, what drives you? Is it purpose, or fear? Most of the people in today's world are driven by fear. They do something because they fear what will happen if they don't do it. I won't get a promotion if I don't work. I won't get good grades if I don't study. I think, being driven by a purpose is more fun, and hence, more productive. It's like pushing a car. You might be pushing a car for two reasons - either for taking it forward, or for stopping it from running over you. In the first case, you have no liability. If you don't push the car, it simple won't move. But in the second case, you have to push it - otherwise you will get injured. You have a fear in the second case, that if you don't push, the car will run over you. In the first case, you just have a purpose for pushing it - to take it forward. There will be no liabilities if you have a purpose. You have nothing to lose - only to gain. While if you are driven by a fear, you have everything to lose, and nothing to gain. You will be at your best if you don't lose anything, forget about gaining something. So, you should be doing something because you want the result of doing that work. You should not be driven because you don't want the result of not doing the work.

Movie Review: Chalo Dilli

Finally got a chance to see "Challo Dilli" with my family. I had heard a lot about this movie from my friends, that it is very entertaining. With Vinay Pathak in cast, I also had my hopes high with this movie.

The first half of the movie disappointed me a lot. I almost felt like leaving the movie at the time of interval. The script seemed terrible, and the story looked like total crap. Also, the pace of the movie in the first half was too slow. Lara Dutta's characterization didn't seem to be well done. The dialogues were poor, and so was the acting. So, as you can see, everything in the first half of the movie was poorly done. But don't know what wonder did the director play, that the second half suddenly turned out to be more entertaining and well directed. Small details were taken care of at most places. Vinay Pathak's character had a similar quirkiness as in Bheja Fry, making the character very adorable and funny. In the second half of the movie the storyline was clear too. Overall a well made and entertaining movie.

Flipkart.com Review

I used Flipkart.com for the first time after one of my friends recommended it to me. Prior to this, I used to order my books from Infibeam.com, and I have been pretty happy with its services.

I wanted to purchase the book "Atlas Shrugged". I compared the prices at eBay, Infibeam and Flipkart, and found Flipkart to be the cheapest, though there was another website which was offering even low price. I decided to go with an established name and pay Rs 20 extra instead of risking losing my money. I ordered the book from Flipkart.com on April 28th evening, and made an advance payment through my credit card. Though they give you an option of payment on delivery, but I nevertheless decided to pay in advance in case I am not at home when the delivery arrives. They shipped my book the next day evening, on 29th April through AFL Wiz Courier. They had given me a shipping number to track the package, but the site of AFL Wiz never opened, neither from Kharagpur, nor from Ranchi. So I was unable to track my package. It is probably the fault of the courier service, but I received the book 5 days after I had ordered it, against Flipkart's promise of delivery within 3 days. This is a place where they have really disappointed me. Infibeam delivers books through DTDC, and they have never been late for more than 2 days. Anyways, the book I have received is in a fine condition, thanks to the careful packing. There is a big black spot in one of the pages, Signet Publishers being at fault. Rest seems fine. The pricing of Flipkart impressed me, but their crappy courier service has disappointed. Overall, I think I will still make my future purchases from Infibeam until Flipkart offers a way low price.

BSNL Jharkhand, you suck!

Another boring morning at home, thanks to BSNL Jharkhand. The internet connection, which the BSNL claims is a broadband connection and has a speed of 2 MBPS, is so horrible that it takes around 15 minutes to login to my Facebook account. Our phone line has been dead for over a week. The BSNL phone at my Grandfather's office has been dead too. We file complaints, they would fix the phone after 1 week, then after 2 weeks it would again go dead. This has been happening since the past 2 years. Our phone goes dead at least once every month, and gets fixed. The BSNL office is very well aware of the problems in this area, still they won't find a permanent solution. I have written to the BSNL head office too, but never got any reply. Nor did I expect any, but I decided to write anyway just to be sure that they have not improved.

In other news. Air India pilots are on a strike since 4 days. I think half the people in India who are on government jobs get their salaries for nothing. BSNL has a crappy service. Air India staff goes on a strike every two weeks or so. The police is anyways corrupt. Nobody knows what NTPC does. IOCL is just there to be manipulated by the government to win elections. I used to oppose the idea that India should become a free market like USA, but now, I think it is better to lose some control over things you can't handle. Most of the government offices are over-employed. Where a private company would do away with just 1 employee, the government hires 10. So the government is literally giving out salaries for free. The employees, used to getting spoon-fed, would go on a strike whenever they need anything. Need a raise, strike. A co-worker got fired, strike. Boss scolded us, strike. We don't have an AC in the office, strike. This has become such a common thing in government offices that it is too difficult to end this. Unless these companies go into private hands, and they get a CEO who is free to take decisions, nothing can be done.

The Beginning of Nonsense

Okay, so here it goes. This is my second attempt at blogging, or rather, an extension of the first one. I am not going to share this blog anywhere, or with anyone except with my closest friends. So if I send you the link to my first post, consider yourself lucky (actually, unlucky :P ). I am writing this mainly for myself, because I like the idea of having a personal diary, but am too lazy to pick up a pen and a diary. I don't expect anyone to read such a shitty blog, but if you want to, you are most welcome :-)


There are a few rules I wish to mention, for myself as well as for those who happen to be reading it. Here they are:

• I am really terrible at giving titles to my posts. Most of the times, you would feel that my titles would have been more appropriate if I just numbered all my posts serially. Still, I am going to give some title to each of my post, hoping to improve at this skill soon.
• I am not committing myself to writing posts at a certain frequency. Whenever I feel like writing, I will.
• This is MY blog, and I can change, delete or add rules whenever I want.
• I already know I am a terrible writer, still any feedback through comments/email will be highly appreciated. I will feel satisfied to know that I've wasted someone's time.
• I don't understand how to end a post, I really don't.