I am legend and so are you!

Excerpts from my Ice-Breaker Talk,

Pleasant Good Afternoon to everyone! 

I know its a cliche to start with a quote. But I can't find a better one liner to describe my life and also its a good one! Newton said once, 

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

Many of you would have watched the movie 'Prestige' right? I don't want to be the magician! I want to be the man behind the magician. I want to be that guy 'Nikola Tesla' who went on to give life to all his imaginations and gave it away to humanity for free. As such, I don't like the second part though.  We all have watched 'The Dark Knight Trilogy'. I don't want to be Dark Knight. I can never be one. I have wonderful living parents and a great city, per se. So, there goes. But, I want to be the man who gives away all those toys for the Bat Man to play with. I want to be 'Lucius Fox'. We all have watched 'The Iron Man Trilogy'. Nah, I don't want to be Iron Man either. How many of you have noticed the man who Tony Stark meets in Iron Man 2 in the restaurant just before the race.  He is the real life 'Tony Stark'. That guy is 'Elon Musk'. The man behind Paypal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX. A true Engineer in all its mighty sense. One common underlying fact behind all these great individuals is this, 'They are great Engineers and they followed their passion no matter what stood in their way. And they also made great Heroes/leaders happen'. People say, 'Don't build Castles out of thin air', But I dare say them, 'I have built Cities full of sky-scrappers out of thin air'. One day, it might become reality. I hope that day shall come. This is my world. And I welcome you all to this World full of possibilities. Well, there goes my fantasy introduction. Lets get back to some trivia or facts if you want to name it that way.

I am Sugavanesh B. I am a college fresher with an Undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Engineering. My alma mater is National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Technically, its 20 kms from Trichy. But, hey who cares?! I am passionate about everything scitech, Movies, Computers, Tamil (my mother tongue), Music, Cricket. Yeah, all the trivial new-age college kiddie stuff. I love traveling. But, I have never been on one. Would love to join one if any of you guys are planning one. I am open-minded (or so they say) I believe in the good will of humans. I believe in the quote, 'The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful. And being generous. Everything else is crap!' How true! 

I have been and continue to be a victim of Murphy's law, 

''Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

My tagline goes like this, 'I am a guy with internet'. Why?! I spend most of time reading, upvoting and answering questions on Quora, Reading  subreddits on Reddit, reading fellow user-written articles in Cracked, Oatmeal, Enjoying comics in xkcd, phdcomics, zenpencils and what not! I blog at amastersidea. My online signature is 'sugavaneshb'. B for 'Bold'. I sometimes write code and hack stuff. My code is hosted in github. I talk a lot, at the same time, a way better listener, one real thing I am proud of myself. 

I am a small town guy from Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu where the famous Kaveri enters Tamil Nadu and Hogenakkal falls enrich everything on its way. I was a state topper in my board exams. By virtue of which, I got to meet the then CM and some great people. Enough with my boring details. I like to be a ghost at the same time love to enjoy the privilege of a celebrity. (Who doesn't? ) I do a lot of self reflection and am a strong self-critic. I always yearn to learn new stuff and undergo new experiences. I have made a lot of mistakes but I make sure I don't repeat them. I am fun to hang around. (Or so my friends say!). I am bad at emotions though! I watch a lot of movies. I stand by the quote, 

"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win" .

I just want you to take home this one single mantra which defines my life, 

"When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than your ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people. So create."

Live long & Prosper. I am Sugavanesh, I am legend and so are you! 

[Arch Linux] A self-help list of commands for wifi and network related issues

Right when I started using arch-linux, I know my state will be something like this meme,

Well, yeah, arch-linux has frustrated me on many occasions. Nevertheless, it has given me the greatest compatibility and working experience with all its bleeding edge updates. 

Recently I performed an upgrade and ever since I have been facing problems with wireless connections.. And I figured out every time, I am trying to fix the same problem by reinventing the wheel. So thought of maintaining a self-help list so that I can fix it myself without referring through all wiki and going through all those answers..

So few commands that I am supposed to remember for all network issues:



#if system network services are not compatible error comes up,

sudo systemctl enable NetworkManager

#to check what is the current status of wifi and bluetooth (well actually, list of processes affected by rfkill),

watch -n1 rfkill list all

#to set an interface up (In this case wlp4s0),

sudo ip link set wlp4s0 up

Tip:
If wpa_supplicant does not come to the rescue, Use the graphical network manager and try to use 'connect to some hidden network'!

That worked for me though the command line wifi-menu tool showed authentication errors repeatedly.

P.S I know this is so basic, yet I forget these every time. So, this is just a self-help list.

Amazon Interview - Chitchat with a friend

I am posting this conversation with the consent of the other guy. I have edited here and there for privacy concerns and grammatical errors :P 


Anonymous: Hey

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian: Hi! How are winter holidays going?

Anonymous:
Good and idle
I am gonna bug you for the next few minutes !!!
you free 
?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
shoot them!

Anonymous:
Stuff like spoj and topcoder help ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
programming help?!

Anonymous:
For my ppo ?
Frankly speaking I am not very much interested in codin these algo questions , For everything I learned the stuff required for interviews from these books
Crackn the codn interview
Geeks For Geeks

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Do codechef cookoff's, TC SR's, COdejam (Google), FB Hackathon, and sometimes spoj.. That should do..
Disclaimer: I myself didnt do all this!
SO u are on my league! I wont say I dont like, but I am lazy enough to code 

Anonymous:
Is it compulsory ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Not much! U are done with basic algos and ds right?

Anonymous:
yea
I mean decently good
I know good deal of Java

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
I think that should do for clearing PPO (as such, from my interview experience and I didnt know a good deal of them)

Anonymous:
And I love hacking and coding applications

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Oh, great! So u have an added advantage..
k.. U have done sth? have a github profile?
Thats not compulsory.. just asking out of curiosity..

Anonymous:
I dont have one !!!
But I did work on few web applications , web pages !!!

11:56pm
Sugavanesh Balasubramanian
If u love hacking, coding, create an account with github and start doing what u love..

Anonymous:
Have them on my local git

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U can find many freaking stuff! Oh, good.. Somewhere online or offline..

Anonymous:
offline
I will better have them on git hub
Not very great stuff

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Just upload them on github or code.google.com.. Never mind.. That doesnt matter..

Anonymous:
Btw , can you tell me when did your intern start
when did it end ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
They ll ask u for the dates..

Anonymous:
Oh !!!
And how much did they pay you  ?
I dont know anything
They never mentioned

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Me and the other guy from our college decided to ve 1 week before and after the intern as holidays.. so accordingly it turned out to be 2 months and 2 weeks as holidays

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
30 + 30

Anonymous:
ohk

11:59pm
Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Just tell them, I dont know.. I maintain the same even after knowing the package..

Anonymous:
and food , Is something avlbl in the company ?
That was the the thing I mentioned to everyone , "I DO NOT KNOW"
Easiest way out !!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
They ll give u food coupons but that ll be hardly enough for more than 15 days.. There is a food court where u have many stalls like KFC (This is in Chennai, not sure abt the rest), etc.. Also u would have cafeteria in every floor which is absolutely free.. U get soup, all milk stuff..

Anonymous:
oh ok !!!
What time do you need to be there and when do you leave from work ?
Does a cab pick you up ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
In our team, there was no restrictions.. From what I heard, he also didnt have any restrictions... I used to come by noon (12!!) and leave by midnight.. My staying place was sloppy so I chose to go there only for sleeping..
It depends on the team u are put in and the kind of work assigned!

Anonymous:
Thats osum and cool

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U have cabs to pick u up and drop!

Anonymous:
great !!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Mine was completely independent work from the entire office so I just wanted to disturb my mentor if at all otherwise i got to work in my own pace.. So it didnt matter much for me..

Anonymous:
How did it go about

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
what?

Anonymous:
The entire thing
when you went to the company till you got your ppo ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U mean.. the intern?

Anonymous:
yea
you had some explicit training ?? !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
I didnt go to the company till I got PPO. The results were conveyed only after a month or so. and he opted to have his PPO interviews here in campus after college started!

Anonymous:
I dint get you !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
It depends.. I didnt have any. As I said, no one knew anything abt what I was working on.. But he had a bootcamp for about a week, I think

Anonymous:
You had your ppo interview during ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
my intern.. But he had his interviews only when Amazon came to campus (he opted that way!)

Anonymous:
oh !!!
And you got a confirmation on ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
After a month or so. they called me and informed..
and also sent a mail

Anonymous:
Oh no one would know ryt after their interviews ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
?? I didnt get the question..
You wont know right after the interviews...

Anonymous:
Oh !!!
So when was this , after a month
I mean which month ?
August ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
I am not sure abt the exact date.. It was a Friday though..
after fb initial screening.. May be..

Anonymous:
Oh
Okay get it !!!
July 20 or so

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
May be..

Anonymous:
And how are the people there ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
again, it depends on the team and place.. One of my friends' friend had a 'not so good' time due to the high demand placed by his mentor.. But for me, like I said, I was left to work in my own pace..

Anonymous:
Oh
And what do they offer in Amazon as CTC ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
same as Microsoft.. should be 16.. I think But all that matters is what that comes in hand..

Anonymous:
"I do not know" - not for me 

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
*to hand.

Anonymous:
yea !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
??

Anonymous:
And how are people in general 
Do they work extremely hard ?
Do you know of any interns who were denied a PPO ?


Sugavanesh Balasubramanian
some, yeah.. few ppl like me, No!! Ask Harish!! he would give u a great narrative.. He used to work his ass off that his mentor called him and told this is just intern dont work this much but my manager always told u got to do more.. I worked at my own pace. 
Yeah, many..

Anonymous:
Oh

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
In our office, me and only three others made it, out of say 15 roughly..


Anonymous
Oh theres a high chance of not making also then
:|

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Never mind.. U still didnt even join..
Just keep ur options open!

Anonymous:
hmm
he did it at B lore ryt ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
yeah!
how I wish he was with me...

Anonymous:
any differences here and there ?
And do they ask you for your preference of location?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
ask him.. I dont know much.. Few things i know are, climate, clubs, fun outside office, cheap rooms..

Anonymous:
oh !!!
Btw all these 15 ppl are from ?
I mean which colleges ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Yes! But in my case it turned out to be exact opposite! My choices in order was B'lore, Hyderabad, Chennai.. But I was posted to Chennai. (I dont regret it now, though!)
IIT K, IIT KGP, Anna University, few other NIT's, Delhi University and few others!

Anonymous:
Oh !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
And IIT guy was the first guy to get it.. (to my knowledge)

Anonymous:
So tell me things I need to do and shouldnt do

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
He did an excellent work it seems..

Anonymous:
to ensure I get a PPO
Oh !!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Shouldn't do: Dont think about PPO ever.. I never thought about that till they called me to schedule the PPO interview..

Anonymous:
Oh !!
but somehow this thing is making me more anxious !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
2) Dont ever hesitate to ask doubts and get it clarified. They are uber-cool. And try to create some kind of bonding and friendship..
Never mind, as soon as u go there.. u have better things to worry about..

Anonymous:
lol
and 3 ) ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Also, there were events for interns from US (I found it through internal wiki!) and try to have such events in India. I have already put forward that notion... I was the only one to participate from India in all those coding contests, puzzle champs!
they didnt have any when i went there..

Anonymous:
Oh !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Hope they ll come up with sth when u guys go.. otherwise u take the initiative.. (if u are interested, i mean)

Anonymous:
Oh cool
and technologies ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
i mostly worked on opensource software except for some proprietary code.. Its no big deal.. U can figure that out there..

Anonymous:
Oh

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Just be comfortable with debugging, eclipse... that should do
*get comfortable

Anonymous:
Any idea why people were denied ppos
i mean any obvious reasons ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Few reasons as I heard, 1) they weren't productive enough (as was expected, I wonder why I didnt become a victim of this reason! :P)
2) didnt fit in the team
3) didnt have the expected talent or knowledge (this one too!)
4) not so committed to work like being unable to figure out the problems (again, I might have gone down here!)..

As I said earlier, just care about the quality of work u do.. Do u work for the money's worth they are paying u? Thats all that matters!

Anonymous:
And yea the quality of work is it in our hands ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Dont care about PPO.. U know ******?! He was denied a PPO, it seems! But look at the bright side, he made it to MS IDC (though personally i think working in Amazon is better!)
most of the time, yeah!

Anonymous:
Oh cool
****** is from your batch ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
dude, ******* is the same batch of ******* blah blah (edited for privacy!)

Anonymous:
Oh
cool
sugavanesh
Let me start thinking on real stuff
than ppo ppo

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
like?!
hehe.. exactly!

Anonymous:
coding something
improving myself
on algos , ds ,
Ok Comp Arch ?
will this serve any purpose ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
think about how u wanna see urself after say 4 yrs! do some projects, participate in competitions.. learn some other stuff..

Anonymous:
I mean shld I learn ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
i dint get u..
do u mean, should I learn comparch?!

Anonymous:
Computer Architeture
yea

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
depends.. u again have a subject in 7th sem! also, if u are interested u can further pursue a carrier in that.. Also, few companies might require that knowledge.. Just know the basics. that should do if u dont like the subject..

Anonymous:
OHk

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Try to be strong in networks and OS (general advice! nothing related to Amazon!)
Though, my OS knowledge helped me a lot!

Anonymous:
and OS DBMS ALGOS DS C Java Networks 
anything more ?
I am not good at C++
I mean I knw stuff but then I dont use it

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Get comfortable with linux and shell. I was able to automate a lot of stuff in my intern for trivial stuff like logging and settting flags..

Anonymous:
Okay linux and shell
I dint get you
you mean writing scripts and all that ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
yeap! exactly!

Anonymous:
Oh cool
I will meet you in person and know more on this !!!

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
U are CSE student! u are expected to know basics of everything.. so try to cover that! it should be helpful in future in some form or the other!
Sure!

Anonymous:
Okay
I indeed bugged you
And thanks for this

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
No issues, buddy! All the best!
Just think beyond 3 yrs and ur career.. THat should do!

Anonymous:
Bye

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Can I make this conversation public (a part of it?! ) l
Never mind, bye!

Anonymous:
cool !!!
you are making it now ?
Let me also watch 

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
Nah! I shall edit some stuff and post it on my blog..

Anonymous:
oh cool
give the link
whats your blog ?

Sugavanesh Balasubramanian:
k... ll do once i post.. amastersidea.blogspot.in (not that active, actually!)

So I watched a video (Hiphop Tamizha - Manithan Tamilan) and this is what I feel

TL;DR

This video is not worth the time (Just skip to the last 1.5 minutes which is worth the time) just like this blog post. :P

Link to the video:

Uh, wait! Seriously? Did u watch the entire video? Is it really a must watch?! 

Personally, I have nothing against the video as for the motive behind it. But the way the promotion is done is what irritates me!! On a related note, read my article regarding the same here.. 

He is citing Lemuria, Alex Collier, 20000 yr old language (??),  DNA research (Watch Story of India by BBC!), Angkor wat and what not?! 

Myths demystified:

1. Lemuria : Read my other post on it.

2. Alex Collier : Avan onna number dagaalty! Controversy is all around him! He also claims we were extra-terrestials and he has made contact with Andromeda! (I mean, seriously?! ) Read this, and google his name! (You ll have the most fun time of your life!)

3. 20000 yr old language: Few excavations here and there has cited proofs of Tamil Brahmi script to be as old as 6K yrs old but 20000 yrs is too far-fetched. And I am not going to buy it! 

4. DNA Research (and Tamil being the oldest DNA): For that they need not be Tamil ppl from the origin for all I know, thats what the researchers concluded. Yes, its true that the oldest DNA from the human race was found from the person somewhere in a village in Madurai but that doesnt say anything, for all I know. 

5. Angkor wat : Watch videos on Angkor wat (Digging for truth: YouTube) and read Sivaranjani's article (its a great one!) on the same in our magazine, Aayutham. Nowhere, it has been proved that it is a Tamil King. Yes, there have been clues and hints like, the architecture of the temple, the irrigation system of the entire old city (Read about this! Its an interesting piece of engineering for the age of it!), few artworks here and there, religion of the temple. But its still inconclusive. It is safe to say, it is by some Indian origin dynasty but nothing else can we derive as of now. 

6. Citing aganaanuru and puranaanuru as oldest treasures: I mean seriously?! What happened to Tholkappiyam, Thirumanthiram, and all other scientific works in Ettuthokai and 18 Keezh and Mezh?! 

This is how low, an argument can be. All the above are myths! And just that! Atleast, he didnt claim to bunk other languages. I am happy about the way he has concluded that we should just be proud about our language (That, I like it..)  

Personally, this is how the video should have been!  (I feel it this way!)

1. Tanjore temple (Thats a great one! I liked it!)
2. Thiruvalluvar
3. Siddha medicine 
4. Thirumanthiram 
5. Pythogorean theorem (Tamil version)
6. Scientific quotes in 18 Keezh, 18 Mel, ettuthogai
7. Tholkappiyam (Its claimed to be the oldest book on grammar by many. I dont know how far its true!)
8. Third (might be forth) most popular language on the internet (Thanks to the Srilankan Tamil patriots for their amazing work like Noolaham!)
9. Yaazhpaanam library (I liked this one too!)
10. Kalaigal 64
11. Secularism embedded in the language
12. Importance to arts, science over religion in the literature (Read ancient works, some wikipedia articles, watch some videos on how advent of Hinduism and other religions corrupted the literature works to be religious!)
13. Semmozhi status for its literature
14. Carrying over culture over centuries through customs, arts and language.. 

This would have been a valid and fine argument! Rather than quoting Alex Collier and co. That substantially defeats the argument in itself.

I mean seriously, having a conversation with Andromeda extra-terrestials, and Lemurians are extra-terrestials. Oh, please save me on this one!

I rest my case. Valid Comments (with proper citations and proofs!) are welcome.

P.S: I am not posting this argument over there in the source as it might lead to unwarranted comments and unwanted bashing. People just don't understand. So I am limiting the audience to my commentary.

Lemuria or the Kumari Kandam, the myth as it stands!

Hi,

Lemuria or Kumari Kandam or Land of the Civilized or whatever!

It makes up for an interesting read! Sure! But much has been already debated and discussed around this hypothetical, supposedly a sunken kingdom (as it stands now! ). It is not yet proven (like giving any stone works or archaelogical excavations attributing to the then existence of Kumari Kandam or Lemuria or whatever! ) This is not about debunking it! This is just about not getting misguided! Few may claim to debunk it myself. But always understand its called "Burden of Proof" for the person who claims it and not for the the person who debunks it. And this is no different from Santa Claus or Apocalypse myth's. We are fascinated by many fictional stories but that should not construe or influence any part of our belief systems!


Few Wikipedia articles: (Also read through the Extended links)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_%28continent%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari_Kandam

As of now its a controversy, its a paradox.. Its a myth.. I just wanted to share this because, I have seen people, whenever they talk about history, whenever they speak about our ancient people, they come up with 'this' (here 'our' stands for the tamil people!).. And thats always gonna weaken the cause !! Beware of myths!
I rest my case :)

*I am open to any suggestions, criticisms or any interesting proofs or sources.. After all, we are all learners. Right?!

Thanks and Regards,
Sugavanesh

Ayitham (Aayutham) Edition 1

      After much delay, it was released successfully. And here is the soft copy of the magazine for your grab. First Edition of Ayitham (Aayutham), an Inter-college Tamil Magazine, first of its kind! Need I say more?! Comments are welcome...

Contacts in .xls (excel sheets) to Android mobiles through gmail

Hi,

I just bought a new Android mobile, Samsung Galaxy ACE. Since I have stored my contacts in many places, I need to go through a hectic process to have all the contacts back in one place, my phone. Few were in Facebook, gmail, which didnt take much time to sync with my mobile contacts.. 

Though the problem was with the ones I have placed offline in groups and excel sheets.. I kind of googled and figured out that there is no possible direct way to transfer contacts in .xls to Android without trying to convert it to either Vcard or .csv or using some other accounts. I would rather go to gmail. 

So in gist, this is what is supposed to be done.. 

1. Convert your .xls to .csv format

2. Upload to gmail. (Optional: Merge duplicate contacts)

3. Sync with your contacts

Step 1 : Convert your .xls to .csv format

Thanks to ubuntu. I dont want to go for some online service neither use some other faulty scripts nor do i need to download some software. 

This is what to be done...

1. Install catdoc.. 

 $sudo apt-get install catdoc

2. Use the tool 'xls2csv' (How cool ?!) to convert your .xls sheets to .csv format

$xls2csv your_contacts.xls > some_file_name.csv

[**Before that, Make sure that you have proper headers for each column.. like use 'Name' and 'Mobile Phone' not just 'Number'.. It wont work when you import in gmail.. To check whether your headers are right in gmail format, export some contact in 'Outlook' .csv format to your computer and check whether the headers match with the headers in your excel sheet.

FYI,  this is the list of  few of the headers as accepted in gmail..

  Last Name
  First Name
  Title
  Home Phone
  Mobile Phone
  e-Mail Address
  Work Phone
  Home Address

]

Step 2: Upload to gmail

1. Choose Contacts from the left side options.. 

2. Choose More and then Import.. Upload the file and your contacts will now be added to your gmail contacts.

Step 3. Sync with your contacts 

 

Now you are good to go to sync contacts with your android, which can be done  by,

 Settings->Accounts & Sync and Sync gmail.. 

 

To the person I look up to, My Dad...

I got the notion of sharing this article when I was returning to Chennai, the other day with few hours remaining for me turning into an adult from a teen.. It was the time for some realizations, commitments, blah blah.

I have never been close to anyone like my parents lest few friends.. But, I have been always more close to my Mom, sharing everything with her and asking for guidance more than my father.. This is not about how relatively I like my Mom and Dad.. This is about what I have realized or say felt about my Dad !! Originally, I wanted to write something about my Dad on Father's Day but I was waiting for his birthday.. In the end, settled for mine.. Ah, lets cut the crap.. and dig into my thoughts to see what I actually wanted to say!!

#NOT.. BUT.. SO..

I look up to my father all the time, not because he is successful but he is CONFIDENT that he can be successful even after years of toil, not because he is rich but his wisdom, situational abilities, rich circle he has surrounded himself with (few trust-worthy friends and many notable acquaintance ), not because he is a genius but he is passionate about what he does ( only when he does ), not because he is a celebrity but because he and mom always made me and my bro feel we are special, not because he is in a responsible position but I saw a reformer in him.

#AURA

I have never seen him cry nor sit dull even at the toughest of his times that I have witnessed him in.. He always had that calculative mind which clicked most of the times.. Though he was out of business due to unexpected reasons (which happen to occur most of the times), I have never seen him broken nor did he yield in to any other stuff (uknowwhatimean). The loss he has seen, the failures he has gone through, Man it should take a lot of confidence ( I have a better term in Tamil - 'Nenjazhuththam' ) and he perseveres it yet..

#PURE LOVE

I have never seen a man who doesn't sleep for more than 2 hours for 6 months in continuum.. I saw a devoted son doing the same, my father as a devoted son to his father.. I have my grandpa saying to my Mom, "Please leave me in Ashram, I ll manage with somebody's help over there.. I can't see my son's toil and sleeplessness for nights...." Well, we hear (or atleast I have) heard even the richest ignoring their parents. though they love them, they just cant bare the pain in serving their parents.. But here was my Man, doing what is unmatched service ( who cares about literature.. I saw one in my home!! ). My grandpa was well-built and composed. I would see my father carrying his father as a child around places.. Kaana kann kodi thevai irunthathu!!

I would never have used the pc cam for a better purpose than picturing my father taking care of his.

#INTIMACY

Now, it has been one year since my Grandpa's demise and there broke a fight between parents over an issue about his clothes. And all I could see in my father was the pure and atmost love to his father in the fight.. And that was what my Mom was trying to overcome.. Who ll know this man better than she does?!

#ABILITY

Due to his procrastinating nature, he faced failures in many ventures irrespective of his hard-work, effort and intelligence.. This lead to a lot of criticism from the relatives whom are less talented than my father in many ways (which I say with 'garvam' ) which was unbearable and remains that way for me and my Mom.. He seldom cares about that.. And thats where the spark for other fights raise between my parents.. When we know he deserved enough credit for what he has done but was neglected or not given the same, we can never feel good about it.

#DECISION MAKING

Not just through his character and way of life, but also through his guidance through the life he has inspired me a lot and made me feel he is the man I look upto.. Even during adverse situations, he has always said, 'Never indulge in anything or never buy anything which doesn't give u 100% satisfaction.. Never haste into any decisions just considering few factors compromising ur satisfaction for it.. ' Damn!! Those were the lines driving my life!! '

#REFORMER

Thinking back, I would say My father was the first reformer, I saw. And the second one would be my Mom. While, it is not customary to allow women work in my relational circle aka caste ( as i perceive ), a man who encouraged and supported my Mom to work who in-turn supported the family economy, was my father. And I take pride in saying that he was more excited in our success while he was least bothered about his own though he saw and cherished our success as his own. 

#UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Still remember the reaction of  Prakash Raj on his child's cry ( from the Movie : Abhiyum Naanum ) And such was the love he has always shown to me and our family. Though we never really shared many pleasantries (which i sometimes feel bad about), Our conscience knows that We are there for each other all the time.

When all these thoughts ran through my mind with few more incidents (which I have avoided to defy from vagueness ), for a few moments, my throat choked... I felt like having tears (I actually had).. And that was the moment I decided to share this amazing feeling with others.. 

Love u Dad!! This is for u :-) You are my first mentor, friend, above all my beloved father :-)

Emacs in Maximized mode by default

I hope that many would agree that emacs is one of the greatest editors made by the one and only R.M.S!!

 

It happens to be  my favorite too..

 

Well, one of the problems i face,when i use emacs in interactive mode is.. i need to press maximize icon everytime to go to full screen..

 

And thats when python came to rescue..

Open the config file of emacs.. That will be there in your home folder..
If you prefer terminal, then,

1.  Type cd
    
         **-desktop$ cd

2.  Open .emacs file

         **-desktop$ emacs .emacs

If you go by GUI, then,

1. Go to your home folder
2. Enable 'Show hidden files' option in View menu
3. Browse through the folder to find .emacs and then open it.. 


Add this code in the file...

(defun toggle-fullscreen ()
  (interactive)
  (x-send-client-message nil 0 nil "_NET_WM_STATE" 32
        '(2 "_NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT" 0))
  (x-send-client-message nil 0 nil "_NET_WM_STATE" 32
        '(2 "_NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ" 0))
)
(toggle-fullscreen)

Now that should open emacs in Maximized mode with all the icons  unlike -fs mode which disables few toolbars..

Voila!!

Coutesy: Source of this code :) 

'Why this Kolaveri di' -Lyrics

Here is the lyrics of the viral song.. Its magical and wonderful that i felt like posting in here...

The original video with subs can be found here...

yo boys i am singing song

soup song

flop song

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

rhythm correct

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

maintain please

why this kolaveri..di

distance la moon-u moon-u 

moon-u  color-u  white-u

white background night-u nigth-u

night-u color-u black-u

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

white skin-u girl-u girl-u

girl-u heart-u black-u

eyes-u eyes-u meet-u meet-u

my future dark

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

maama notes eduthuko

apdiye kaila snacks eduthuko

pa pa paan pa pa paan pa pa paa pa pa paan

sariya vaasi

super maama ready

ready 1 2 3 4

whaa wat a change over maama

ok maama now tune change-u

kaila glass

only english.. 

hand la glass

glass la scotch

eyes-u full-aa tear-u

empty life-u

girl-u come-u

life reverse gear-u

lovvu lovvu 

oh my lovvu

you showed me bouv-u

cow-u cow-u holi cow-u

i want u hear now-u

god i m dying now-u

she is happy how-u

this song for soup boys-u

we dont have choice-u

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

why this kolaveri kolaveri kolaveri di

Meaning of the 'iconic' words used in this song:

** They are mostly used as Tamil slang words.. 

Kolaveri - Killer rage or Murderous Rage. just meant not actually.. 

"Soup Song" - Love failure Song 

"Soup Boys" - Boys who feel like they have failed in love

My journey to Amazon intern....part 3:P

                         Continuing from...."I was bitterly hungry so went out with a friend to have something and then came the call on my phone...."   Yes it was one of our guys who was waiting there outside for the results just like me... The only difference is right now am not there at the spot... So i went back along with my friend after gulping what i meant to enjoy drinking...Anyways chuck that... We reached over there... and the guy who called me said i made it to the next round along with few other people.. You know the exact number was not known to anyone 'cause afterwards they called few more.....


                      So, though i didn't have any expectations as a fellow candidate i was a bit apprehensive about what is next... So i asked others about what is gonna be next...Of course each had their own versions just like me... Then i managed to make out something from the morning experiences and my friends' ... that they were specific about something called 'approach'... so i was bit comfortable that i might be able to satisfy them with what i call that 'i just work on my intuition at the moment'... So i was waiting for my turn to come while discussing all petty things with others which was possible at that moment....


                     I didn't feel like sitting there anymore so i just gave company to the other one who was just having a walk around near-by asking about how he developed all such good programming skills specifically coding skills..i shared my stuff too... and then asked about some random stuff and time just passed for some time. I no longer felt like walking around as one of our guys was called in and he just left.. As i said earlier i was waiting for my turn.. Then one of the panelists came out and said that the others were busy with other candidates so we   could have  a short break or something, have our lunch and then could come back after one hour... we actually didnt have a mind-set to eat at all... After all we just need to know whether we would make it... But still as a bunch anything is possible....


                    Me and other few guys left to sc to have something and then there we met few of our friends who gave their wishes... I dont think that whether it really reached our minds or not as we were busy thinking something else... So we came back before 15 minutes of the stipulated time(let me say so... )... After sometime they called few of our friends and seniors and then was MY TURN....I WENT IN... to be continued in the next post.... Sorry for the extension of time.... Bye....

My journey to Amazon intern....part 2:P

       Continuing from... Damn man i never received any messages till then.. Then i texted our supposed to be cic-rep about the results.. and yes the results were out... To my relief in the message that followed contained the shortlisted candidates... and i was able to see my name present in full... Sugavanesh B... Then i asked about the timings for the next rounds and procedure...and yeah i was also supposed to forward this message to the other shortlisted friends of mine... well yeah i managed to do that... then i go myself ready with a slight relaxed manner with the idea that things never start in the mentioned time atleast here in our place... 

       But no, there came a message from one of my friends asking me to come fast.. OMG, i need to rush to the spot now... By the time i reached there others already have started taking the test... On the board were the questions something related to trees yet another time... and some stuff related to subsequence....

      I managed to understand the question by the time few were already ready to show their approaches or solutions... God knows what it really was.... But yeah i managed to crack the second problem first and then explained to the panelist and he felt it was right..(But you know what i was a little unsure whether it will work for few exceptions but yeah it actually works and he found that prior to me...) Then i was asked to think on the approach for the first one...which i had no idea(as of that moment)...

     Then came the memories of the past where i failed 'cause i thought monotonously without even thinking about other possibilities due to which i failed... So i was firm not to commit the same mistake again.. So i was thinking of all the possible computer algorithmic terms in my mind to relate to it rather than thinking about the basic thought behind it... DP, Hashing, STL, vectors, class, branching, greedy, local, and anything i have heard of or that was in my memory...... Nothing really worked except cracking few solutions here and there... Damn then came the sad part... The solution was the basic idea behind it... i guess u guessed it right...  monotonous thinking was the actual solution with best available space complexity(at least) and yeah i explained him the context he wanted to reduce the time complexity also but i had a thought about it and found it impossible.. This time i was more fixed with my idea and point that he also felt i was right.. and thats it i was asked to write the code....after struggling a lot i was actually able to 'programize' my idea... because of all those conditions and exceptions......

        I was a little confident of having solved both the problems and so i felt i have a kind of chance to make it to next level 'cause many felt their complexity wasn't that good... this complexity stuff always makes things complex.... 

        I was bitterly hungry so went out with a friend to have something and then came the call on my phone.... Continuing on part 3... You know i cant actually write the entire stuff altogether......