First look at Kshitij
Jan 28th
We came to IIT KGP on 26th Jan. Well, everything looked deserted. Clearly the preparations for IIT KGP have been inadequate. The tent wasn’t ready on 27th. Unless they pull off a one nighter, its unlikely to look too good today. Apart from that, we haven’t seen anything worth recording. Will keep uploading pics as I get them. We haven’t worked much in the last 2 days. Just played NFS and San Andreas. Let’s hope we can finish this bot today itself. First look photos will be uploaded soon
3-idiots: miss takes
Jan 15th
So you’ve seen the movie, read my previous post about 3 idiots. Its a fun movie, alas with many not-so-well-thought-of miss-takes and am not talking about slip-ups. These are mistakes in the very story of the movie.
1. Raging a senior: So Aamir knows conductivity. First of all that prank isn’t all that original. Its been used in many colleges especially IITs, Jadavpur etc for years. They make you piss over the heater. Try doing that. Don’t worry you won’t get electrocuted, cuz you’ll automatically stop peeing as soon as you get the first jolt.
That apart, he shocks a senior. That’s a death sentence in most colleges. You do not get away with that, esp in a college where they can make you strip openly. They get back at you, gag you up and beat the shit out of you. they might as well give you the same treatment as you gave them (read electric shock). The only way you can escape that is by tying up with the particular seniors rival, if there is any. Again chances of that happening are low as it is. You cannot rag a senior esp not on your first day in the college.
2. The Quad-Copter
The cute little versatile helicopter you see in the movie “designed” by Joy. The design is called a quadrotor. It was invented way before the movie’s apparent timeline, around 1923. Check out Quad Rotor on Wikipedia
Now I don’t understand how it was an original idea. Its been there for years, even in the robotics field for years. I also don’t understand what Aamir did, because apparently he did nothing. I hope he changed the direction of rotation of 2 of the rotors to opposite that of the other two. But again that’s not so apparent.
3. Cellphones, guys, cellphones.
When they go to get the papers from the office, Aamir calls using the principal’s office phone. What the hell happened to cellphones. I mean he’s careful enough not to grab a paper later and run. He neatly opens the seal, xeroxes the paper, replaces it and seals the package, but no cellphones. Hell no cellphones. Why use a cellphone to call his girlfriend when there’s a perfectly suspicious and tracable landline phone right ther. give me a break
4. No Generators, are yo kidding me?
So ICE is the top college in India, dragged from #28 to #1 by His strict highness, Mr. Veeru Sahasrabuddhi, but I’ll be damned, the hostel doesn’t have a generator. They have to use an inverter made just to get the lights on. I mean, you got to be kidding me. No generator in the top college of India. Even our college has a generator.
Also add to that the fact, that when the city is knee deep in water, eletricity out, ambulance services out, the internet connection works just fine.
5. And ofcourse, forget Defibrillators and respirators, just say “Allizwell”
So you can revive a dead child just by saying Allizwell. You got to be kidding me. ROFl. Go to a graveyard and say Allziwell 3 timesand you’ll have a nice army of zombies at your disposal.
Am I the only one, who thinks this is crzy?
3 idiots: Chetan’s the idiot
Jan 3rd
Before I start, let me declare for the record that I am fan of Chetan Bhagat. I liked his first two books, though though the third one was a piece of …well you get the picture, but apart from that I ike him. So my views here are independant of my liking for either Chetan or Aamir Khan, they are purely objective.
Those who don’t know why I wrote that Disclaimer, please read this wikipedia article on the 3 idiots controversy. Now I am not saying the movie wasn’t inspired by the book. It was, more than 2-5% but not enough to say that the book was a screenplay. Let’s get to that first.
Points of Differences
1. The theme: 5.someone is based on the lives of IITians, the most elite institution, and how the most elite institution is not the most comfortable one. IItians would disagree, but this ain’t about you. So the basic theme is diffrerent. This one is about how the established system and norms aren’t always the best.
2. The Subtler differences: Well there are hundreds of subtle differences even between the parts adapted from the book and the original book. Like the key being willingly given by the daughter, rather than being stolen. The main trouble making character, Rancho in the movie, Ryan in the book are a lot different from each other. Rancho is an identity thief, Ryan a rich bastard. Ryan ends up with a job lesser than his fellow Chuddy-buddies, Rancho is one helluva lot richer.
3 idiots is about chasing your own dreams fearlessly, FPS is more about defiance.
Having said that, you already know how different they are, if you’ve seen the movie, so let’s skip that part. My point is they are very different, the storyline has traces of similarity here and there but overall, even if you’ve read the book, you cannot predict the story and vice versa. Now Aamir gave Chetan credit. If I read the contract correctly, he was supposed to be given a name in the rolling credit, he was. I also assume the monetary formalities were taken care of, otherwise there’d be a whole lot different issue and Chetan would file for theft/fraud/ any of the million things.
So the legal contract was fulfilled. As for the moral ground. Let me tell you the story as I see it and as Chetan would probably want us to think about it.
Aamir’s writer comes to chetan and says heya fella, we are making a movie out of your book. Chetan smiles in delight and says “Ya cool, let’s talk money”. Writers say we’ll send our lawyer. Lawyer comes says “We give you a lac bucks for chai-pani now and 10 lac, after the movie is released.” Chetan says “Ya cool, but give me some sunshine” Lawyer says “Your name will be in the rolling credit” Chetan says “Oh Goody, thank you. Have some chai in our humble house” Lawyer says “No thank you, I cannot accept anything from you that might be considered a bribe in any way”. Lawyer hence goes(Ya that part was how lawyer would react if he knew what he’d have to do later). Movie goes into production, and all. All the time Chetan doesn’t consider it necessary to check the script, which he has a right too, and doesn’t file for a stay order, if he had read the script, on noticing that the movie is adapted quite a lot. So the movie is released and then Buhuhu Chetan says “Aamir stole my booksie.”, goes to his wife, who welcomes him with a warm hugsy. Chetan gets over is tears and goes to Aamir. Aamir says “Chetan, I am the Koyal’s egg, you are the crows egg, you are broken”. Chetan says “I want to be in the nest”, Aamir says “No, you are broken egg”
Okay so that story wasn’t very realistic, but translating it to a more sensible version you will see there are big flaws. I mean for God’s sake Chetan is the writer of 2 best-selling and one bullshit book. He is smart. You expect me to beleive he never read the book. Infact, I may be wrong but isn’t he supposed to consent to the release of the movie.
He didn’t mind then, but now he sees that he could have extacted more money so how about break Aamir’s eggs. So you see the flaws in the story. Chetan is actually just looking for money. Maybe he has a strong case, but Aamir was never wrong. He promised credits, he gave credit. Chetan could hae stopped the release of the movie at any time, but did he? No he waited until he was sure the movie was good, and then attacked. So who is right?
Even
10 Signs you are addicted to twitter
Jan 1st
So you use twitter. That’s all cool. The question is : Are you a twitter addict to the point that you have blurred the line between real life and tweelife. Find out
- Your mom asks you to come to dinner and you say at mom (@mom) be rite der.
- All your sentence are less than 140 characters
- When Twitter Goes Down You Spiral Emotionally.
- You asked the really cute girl in the BBA department’s twitter username instead of her phone number
- You don’t want to go to a vacation in the beautiful countryside with your girlfriend because there mightyou might not be able to tweet there
- You actually direct your wishes to @god instead of praying
- Ah so its new year’s eve, you can be out partying but you’re sitting on your desk, waiting to tweet “Happy new year” at just the right moment
- Your friend says “Ah that’s a rare species of the Isiopiitia myopia bird twittering. And you’re like birds don’t twitter. The guy is stoned
- You wish your girlfriend Happy Birthday with an “@sophie Happy Birthday” instead of calling
- You Judge People On Their Following/Follower Count.
Yeah, you better get that in check or the next thing you know your girl friend asks for a kiss the first time and you say “b-r-b gotta tweet this” ( that’s number 11, if its already happened)
The memoirs of 2009
Dec 31st
So 2009 is almost over. I am going to try and look back at the year, things that I remember, things that I’d rather forget. Since I have a weak memory I don’t remember everything, the reason I think I should get a diary. Anyways, in last years new year eve, I was in Gurgaon. Everyone had apparently decided New Year wasn’t such a great day after all and hence, there was no one on the streets at night. So at ten in the night there was not a single person out in Maruti Vihar. It was hell boring. I can’t say this one will be particularly fun . Now after that, the first interesting thing was the trip to Springfest @ IIT KGP. We decided to rush there and have some fun. My initial plan was to attend only Kshitij, not springfest. A few days before springfest we learned that there were lots of teams from our college going to Kshitij for Robotix. It was too late to go there with any robots as we learned all this just three days back. Also a misinterpretation of the problem statement further discouraged us. We thought in Wedged, the bot had to come down and then grab another swing and go up. Well it wasn’t that complicated. The bot just had to come down, no going up. So we went there. We had to get a letter from the principle(Bona Fide Letter), which was easy enough this time.
Anyways, so we went there. I was surprised, not really that much, to learn we (I and Anupam) were the only fellas there from JIS. So we had a little bit of fun. We were staying at Nibirh’s Dorm. we had drinks one night. I even picked up a girl from IIT for a salsa workshop, a black cutie. We also ran in the youth marathon, where we out of turn got a T-shirt(they split the queue, and jmped up in front of the second queue). Didn’t win nothing though. Food, snacks, sightseeing. We came back ad went to Kshitij with no competition to participate in. We attended a workshop there on autonomous robotics by Technophilia. Now you see at Kshitij, there were so many teams from our college all asking what we were doing there and we hid our misery and shame in our jackets 
We were really hiding from them. There was Rajarshi, Debopriya, Yashodhara, Krishti Basu and many many more. That apart, it was enjoyable. There was also this girl that I picked up at the techquiz. I couldn’t keep up though, since she wasn’t that interested after leaving the room so much. Her name was Kalyani, from CoET, Bhubhanshwar. i should have taken her phone number. Idiot me, always make that mistake. So that was over. Now you see my memory tends to fade. I only remember the bigger events, forget the million smaller ones. So well we went back to college, I took up two more team members for robotics, and we decided to go to ISM D. Abhsihek and Abhijeet(no they were not brothers). I also asked Soma, but she bailed out that time. Before oing to Dhanbad, we had a row with the principal over Bona Fide letter. He wanted us to get the application signed by the HOD, since the HOD wasn’t there, we decided to try G. Lohar. Well he decided since we were going on private tour, not for college purposes, we shouldn’t be given a bona-fide letter and decided to go to the principal with his judgement. The director was also there and it got a little ugly. First of all those assholes didn’t beleive the college ISM even existed. Then we had trouble convincing them we won’ use the lettter for attendance which is stupid since we should have been given that anyways. A lot of troube for a letter we didn’t need in the first place, it was anupam’s idea. Although I didnt oppose him. So we went to ISM for two competition. We lost the first one. The second on didn’t even work. The people of ISM were pretty hospitable so not much trouble there. Theirs was a techno-cultural fest so there was lots to see as well. That sem I also got a supple, it was 4th sem btw. The 5th sem was not as eventful. There was freshers and I hit on this girl called Sutapa. I played my cards wrong maybe. I ‘dumped’ her when she ignored the hell out of me on a bus ride, which I was guiding her throgh since she didn’t know how to get from the college to the hostel. I may have been single for too long, but am not desperate yet.
Also there were my attempts at opening a debate club, which were too much trouble in the begining. Permission from this, that, and then I lost interest. We also went to Ankush College for counterstrike. I joined up on Somik’s team against Tapen’s cuz he didn’t ask me when forming the team. We knocked their balls out: 7 against 3. And then came the attendance problem. I had to hunt around a lot to get my attendance up to 60%.
Things that I haven’t mentioned here are training at Denso and his and that. you will find blog posts for them. So here I am remembering the last year. It was a decent year exept for the supply. I hope this one is better.
Exams over
Dec 22nd
So it was a week and a half of constant tension, overslogging, self-infliction and frustration. I finally asked myself the question: Why Slaith why? I could have prepared all over the sem, instead of doing almost nothing. It would have been so much easier. So hell I am signing a decree to myself. Hell I am not letting this happen one more time. I am going to study before the exams from now on. Iknow I do it each time. This time I really mean it. As for now, I have Gate on my mind.
So Let’s kick som Gate Ass, guys
12 things students think in the Exam Hall
Dec 18th
1. Oh crap! I am screwed!
2. Holy Shit! What chapter is this from?
3. Ouch my back hurts!
4. oooooh! Nice boobs
5. Oh my god oh my god oh my god
6. This can’t be happening to me!
7. Why can’t the bitch mind her own business(the bitch being the invigilator)
8. So this is actually in the syllabus.
9. #WbutSucks
10. Why God, why!
11. I am so gonna flunk this time
12. I want my mommy!
Finally a plea to die considered by SC
Dec 17th
The supreme court has agreed to examine a Euthanasia case, probably for the first time in Indian History, where it wasn’t simply dismissed. So there is hope for Aruna Shanburg. The lady worked in KEM, was raped and assaulted by the hospital janitor. She has been brain dead for 36 years. Her lawyer argued the case before the SC and well for the first time I’ve heard they actually agreed to give it a thought.
Generally SC would summarily dismiss the case saying it is assisted suicide/murder or somethng. but Euthanasia isn’t assisted Suicide. Well in a way it is, but consider the difference. In suicide, the reasons range from bad marks to broken heart, too much pressure from wife, too many loans. Now make another column , put into it: the girl is brain dead. y/es her brain is gone, she will most probably never recover. Chances of recovery in brain dead cases are in the milion-to-one range. She is force fed by tubes, on a respirator, can’t move her hand, infact has her wastes disposed by machines too. For all purposes, she is dead. Only her body lives on. Why not save her some dignity and let her pass on.
I hate suicide. Infact when someone contemplates suicide (and that has happened) I generally say you still have hands, a brain, use them. This girl has neither.
So its good thing SC wants to consider her plea. Most probably it will be rejected, knowing Inida, we hate change. I don’t want Euthanasia be legalized. Doctors will misuse it. The court should have the final say and in cases like these, it should be allowed
WBUT new paper style: take qpapers home
Dec 16th
Wbut is now allowing you to carry question papers home after exams. You have to give answers on a seperate booklet, and take the q booklet home. I don’t see anything good about it though. Except some extra paper, you seriously hope you never have to use again. Plus you have to write down the MCQ options which could lead to error in checking by the examiner. He might read them in order(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10) and you might have answered in (2 4 5 6 7 8 9 …) Common Errors, considering the trained manpower WBUT gets. So that apart, I dun knw if ti will help students or WBUT.
Making a simple Line Sensor
Dec 7th
What is a line sensor?
Line Sensor is one the most commonly used Detector in Robotics. It is used to detect the presence of a line. It has or applications. Theoretically, it detects the intensity of light reflecting off a surface. In most competitions, the robot either has to follow a line, or navigate a grid. So you are provided with white lines on a black surface. What this sensor does is it checks the amount of light reflected off a surface and outputs it as a voltage level, which may range from Vcc to a certain minimum value depending on the characteristics of the photodetector.
The principle is that different colors reflect different amount of light, white being the most reflecting, black being the least. So when using this on a black surface with white lines, when you get a high reading, the line is present(white is detected), when you get a low one, line is absent. These are generally used in groups of 208 to help decide which direction to turn
Here’s a diagram for a simple line sensor.
Simple Line Sensor
The data pin is attached to an ADC or the ADC pins, if your microprocessor has an inbuil one like AVRs, the others are obvious. Don’t supply more than 8 Volts to the circuit or it may get damaged. If you donot have an ADC on your board, just use a comparator and compare it to some constant value.
You wold want to first get a reference value for the given scenario, then use it so you can adjust to ambient lighting. You may also want to cover the The photodetector with a tape so it is not sensitive to ambient lighting in the first place.
int wref;
function get_refernce(){
::wref=Read_ADC(Channel)
}
void main(){
if (Read_ADC(Channel)<wref-20)
{
//Line is absent. Do something. Move the robot, stop it whatever
}
}
That’s a sample code. Just a sample, not really usable, so don’t copy paste it.. It just explains how this thing works. I’ll write a better tutorial someday…