Promise to Love

May thy care
Forever Grow
May the new age
Declare eternal love

The age of teens
Freedom to love
Its our time
Make it last

I thank
Thee God
For sending this
angel down below

I promise thee
To treat her
The best
I know how

To you
I promise
All that I am
All that I will be

Hackathon

    A Sunday well spent. We, IIITA Firefox Club along with Tech Society, IIITA organized a Hackathon at Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad. The participation was huge for a first time event,with more than 30 teams registered from our college alone. It needed both our blood and sweat to get permission, plan it out and tell people about it.

    There were two general themes presented to the participants, one was Social Welfare and the other was college related help. The ideas were quite exemplary to say the least. The best part was quite surely the brainstorming session. With ideas flowing to and fro, it made me realize the fact that the junior we are college, the more imaginative all of us tend to be. This is a sad fact but rather hard to change because of various reasons that have been discussed for a long time and are well known.

    There were quite nice ideas, some were like integrating the medical system, then there were quite some on the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Then some focused on helping the blind. Those are just the ones I know about and helped a little out in. Some actually showed quite a promise as a product that can lead to a good entrepreneurial start-up. As I was mostly focused on helping others out, I just made a small plugin that just counts down to a date. While the idea was to count down to the nearest available blood donation camp date in your locality, I didn't have the requisite time to make it, as most was spent in organization of the event. Possibly, will make it someday soon. For now it's just a timer. You can see it on Blood donation.

There were even two robots build up, one was a search and rescue bot while other was a blind help bot.

     All the code as usual in a Hackathon is owned by the participants for use at their discretion, so you may or may not see some of them. The jury is still out on the Hackathon.

 

The Woman Who Loves

This is something I just came up one day thinking.



She sits there beaming
Like she has no care in the world
But her eyes betray
the love and trust she holds

She trusts you
With what she never had before
She trusts you her heart
Do never a wrong by her

She is the spark
That lights up
The darkest recesses
Of your ebony heart

Give way to your heart
Leave your fears in the wake
Open your heart
And give her all she wants

Count thyself lucky
To know the love of a woman
Far more than you could ever
Have hoped to receive

Because when cometh the day
That you are at your lowest
She would be the one
Standing by you still

The one who will
acknowledge you
understand what you feel
and love you all the same

The one who completes
your single pod of a pea
Don't be vapid enough
to let her leave

That's the woman
who will stay
till eternal life
is still

The Reruns of two awesome movies

1. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - A totally feel good movie, overcoming your basest fears. Leaving all your boundaries behind, taking off to do the unknown. A simple movie that is so much more complex the more you think about it. Imraan was the character that had the most complex life, learning that his father was someone other than whom he thought was his entire life, being strong after that. His brilliant shayari, that just touched up the moment to the crest of the waves. Then comes in Arjun (ya, my favorite actor, so might be bit biased here), the workaholic. The portrayal of the myriad of emotions after overcoming of fears was nothing short of breathtaking. His portrayal of the character who was longing for a leisure life after a troubled childhood was exemplary. However, the transition might have been a bit fast than normal, but then owing to the motive of the trip and the time limit of a movie, it was carefully written and executed.
I do have heard many people comment against Kabir's portrayal, however I believe as the common Indian guy, who does everything for his family and for the comfort of others, he did do the part efficiently. Then who can forget "Laila" and her bike ride and the invitation to Tomatina festival. The movie ended on a high note.

2. Rang De Basanti - Now this movie, the first movie that ever made me cry. The brilliant portrayal of college going care-free people was done beautifully. Though those parties may seem a bit excessive. Then again, an engineering students' party probably doesn't hold a light against the DU people (Yes, I accept defeat here, sorry my fellow IIITians). This movie was the first one I have seen that has cast Chandrasekhar Azad as a central character rather than Bhagat SIngh. Bismil and Ashfaq are also shown as pretty important roles in the movie, especially the run. Ashfaq trying to stay back to let his Ram get away. Another scene, I absolutely loved was the moment when Bhagat was hit with a stick on refusing food and demanding books and newspapers. Most of the people generally consider Bhagat to be something of a superhuman, however, he was just a kid like us, doing things for the love of his country. The first hit must have hurt a lot, and this is the first time I have seen anyone showing him shying away after that. I just hope I can be the third kind when it is my time.

The Art Of Floating

     Though many may say true courage is standing up to the worst of adversaries. While courageous this action is rather foolish. To overpower each adversity is not something that us mere mortals are able to achieve. Without a plan any courage you show is marred by and forgotten by your defeat. People may not even remember the battle you so gallantly fought a while ago for them.

Therein lies the basis of this article. As was said in the movie "42" by the coach, "I don't need somebody who will stand up to them, I need somebody who will take it all with a smile and never retaliate." Let me tell that didn't mean that the coach was against the Blacks playing baseball, no what he wanted was to get Jackie Robinson so ingrained into the team, that the the others would fight for him. We all know how well that plan turned out to be, as evident by the state of baseball today. Another good example would be Shikamaru from Naruto in his battle against Temari, he wasn't powerful compared to Temari, but he planned well, he took everything like he was losing, thus gaining control of the match, and when he came knocking, all the power Temari possessed was for naught, however I can't comment on his forfeiting, as I don't have an above 200 IQ like him as mentioned in the many fanfics I have read over the time(I honestly can't remember whether it was mentioned in the Manga or not). Another Naruto Reference: Sage Of The Six Paths

So more effectively the power of floating lies in your ability to take the hits head on, let your opponent think he is winning and get overconfident. Wait for the right moment and hold your cards close to your heart till then, and don't let anyone sneak a peek. When the time comes, strike back with everything you got, till you have completely and utterly decimated your opponent. This is the power of passive warfare, quite close to what floating signifies and a part of it.

Another one is Jon Snow at the North Wall, his high and mighty attitude doesn't gain him any friends, and many are ready to beat him the first day there. Well, therein comes Tyrion, quite literally the best strategician of the whole series. From his advice, Jon learns to be equal to his peers, and what does he gain, loyal friends. So there you have it, in few simple words to be powerful be humble so that people flock to you. True power lies not in yourself, but the the people that surround you.

The only negative to this strategy is you may drift off and not notice what is happening around you, because you may just get into the habit of not shining light on yourself. However this only works in close tandem with the art of observation. Negate that disadvantage, and you are well on your journey to be considered a true leader and remembered for eternity.

6 ways to stop hurting others and curb anger

      Is your anger flowing off the charts? This just may lead to people casting you off their lives. This may hurt to hear but it is nonetheless true. Just as you wouldn't like someone who undermines you a lot, so do the others. Anger can lead to you saying things that are hurtful, things you didn't really mean. Words are like the edge of a sword, once swung it neither knows friend nor foe. 

      So how about getting off your lazy a** and doing something about it. 

Here are six steps to effectively deal the anger out.

1. The best remedy ever I have found out

Yes, the stark truth, it is meditation. I know many people consider it to be a farce. Once upon a time I was of the same mentality. However, I lost a great number of friends due to angry words spoken from each side. That was the time I decided to try just for the heck of it. So let me just give a quick glance of what i did, for further information, just leave me a comment, or if you want to remain anonymous, just send off a mail to me.

Take a meditative position. Concentrate on your being. Concentrate on what makes you one with the world. Concentrate on what the source of your anger is, and slowly try to rinse it off with the thoughts about people you love, the things that make you happy. You also don't need to be a meditation guru of the degree where people just forget about everything else that is happening. The only requirement is for you to be in a calm environment, and for you to think internally about your actions.

2. You can't just do meditation at any possible moment, so what to do in the moment

Well the thing to do at the present branches off into three different situations:

a) It's a friend and it was just a misunderstanding:

Just think about what you like about them as a friend, your anger would melt away, then just apologize, even if it wasn't your fault and especially if it was yours. Most of the times, they would love you for it, and your friendship may turn out to be the stronger for it.

b) It isn't someone you know and it was a misunderstanding, or a minor infraction:

Think about how the fight isn't worth it, and just may lead to a huger scene than before. Just apologize, then throw an olive branch and offer a hand of friendship. Though do try to gauge the person before offering friendship.

c) Somebody just hurt somebody you love: 

This time I won't tell you to say sorry. Go out with your full might, and put them through hell, they should learn better than to trifle with your loved ones or anyone's else for that matter.

3. Workout

This may seem far from productive to anger related issues. However as I have found out, when you workout, you seem more good and confident about yourself and are harder to anger. Also, that worked out look, will give others a pause before trifling with the badass that you come off to be. Another benefit is that, when you workout, you instinctively try to eat healthier.

4. Food

Well I ain't a dietician by any far claim, but generally oily and fatty foods make you more lethargic, downtrodden, and eager to jump fists at the first moment possible. So, include those famous fruits that your parents have been trying to get you to eat for along time, and see the benefits. Not just in your anger management, but also in your health. That's two gifts packed in one, and why be illogical enough to forsake it.

5. Another reason is the cooped up feeling

You just may have been living the same life for too long. In a long marriage, maybe you are just tired of the same day-to-day life, tell your wife this and take a week off just to yourself. Have a guy's night out. Just do something new in your life. Been through the same boring 3-4 year of college, just take some time, go on a trip with friends, or just discover something new all by yourself. Not having the balance enough to do this, why don't you branch out out into a section of books you never felt good about reading before. Hated gaming, well it just may be time to take a AAA game off the shelf, and play it through to the end in a marathon.

6. Still having the angry feeling inside you

                      Well I am deeply sorry for not being able to help you and I apologize wholeheartedly to you. However, it just might be time to get into anger management course or get a counselor, your issues might be an offspring of something that happened way in your past.

Debunking the myth of Eugene Goostman

There has been much said about the new AI chat bot "Eugene Goostman". However, on further reading it has been found out that the conservation was too short lived to be actually  conclusive. Surprisingly, I thought that for such a groundbreaking achievement, the sample size for the test would be staggering. However, on further research on the net, it was found out to be a measly 30. Another fact grossly against it, is its portrayal of a 13-year old, so it may pass off answers you would expect from a robot as the musings of a 13-year old. Thus effectively, can't be truly judged for being intelligent enough. I know I will be getting a lot of heat for saying this but, 13 isn't really the age I would consider to be intelligent, at least I wasn't.

Astonishingly, it isn't the first one to do so. The Turing test was first passed way back in 1991 by PC Therapist effectively gaining a 50% over a judge size of 10 people. However the true record breaker was CleverBot, which tricked an astonishingly 59.3% of 1,300 people at Techniche, IIT Guwahati into thinking of it as a human.

However, getting back to Eugene, another point going against it is eagerness to induct humor when it can't find a solution to some basic problems. This is due to the nature of the algorithm that has been implemented. It actually only is a webcrawler of posts and such, thus replying from its history. So obviously when it is not connected to the internet its replies can be useful to gain a little humor, however, nowhere near useful. 

Here is a conversation I initiated between two Eugene bots with my opening "Hey"

Me: Hey

Bot 1: "Heeeeey!!!!" Mine was much louder, I'd say! Where do you came from, by the way? Could you tell me about the place where you live?

Bot 2: Errr.... Maybe. What then? Well, let's go on though.

Bot 1: Nothing then. Where do you came from, by the way? Could you tell me about the place where you live?

Bot 2: I was born and live all my life in Odessa. Odessa claims to be a "humorous capital" of the Ukraine. But it is an exaggeration.

Bot 1: Don't you know yourself that Kiev is a captial of Ukraine.

Bot 2: The Ukraine, formerly a part of the Soviet Union, now is independent. Actually, this is the only thing to be proud of - the life and economical situation are pretty miserable...

Bot 1: Do you think it is funny to repeat mine? Could you tell me what are you? I mean your profession.

Bot 2: No, no! I said it first! I know you are supposed to trick me.

Bot 1: There's no anything new in your words. I said it myself a minute ago... And I forgot to ask you where you are from...

Bot 2: I am from Ukraine, from the city called Odessa. You might have heard about it.

Bot 1: Oh, yes:-) My words are so wise, that anyone wants to repeat them! If I'm not mistaken - you still didn't tell me where you live. OR it's a secret?:-)

Bot 2: I live in a big Ukrainian city called Odessa. It is on the Black Sea shore.

Bot 1: Could you invite me to Big ukrainian? I would be so grateful:-)

Bot 2: OK, if you ask... Go on then. Could you tell me about your job, by the way?

Bot 1: There's no anything new in your words. I said it myself a minute ago... Oooh. Anything else?

Bot 2: You seem to repeat my words. You're teasing me, I guess. Where do you came from, by the way? Could you tell me about the place where you live?

Bot 1: Odessa is a very big city - it is a kind of "Babylon", because there are lots of nationalities living there - Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Greeks and many many more.

Bot 2: My city is really nice! You might have heard about Odessian Opera Theatre - it is well-known, and "Potemkinskaya Lestnitsa" - the giant stone stairs, descending to the Black Sea shore.

Bot 1: No, no! I said it first! Oooh. Anything else?

Bot 2: You seem to repeat my words. You're teasing me, I guess. Did I forget it or you really haven't told me about the place you are from?

Bot 1: No idea. Reveal me the answer, Mister Mysterious! By the way, what's your occupation? I mean - could you tell me about your work?

Bot 2: n childhood I read a lot of heroic books and I wanted to join military. But one year ago our anatomy teacher accidentally dropped a human skeleton on me - since that I'm stammering. So now I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to make a career on TV as a show host - in our country most of them have defective diction (sounds weird, but it's true...).

Bot 1: In our country TV is pretty boring. Mostly news and old Soviet movies...

Bot 2: Do you think it is funny to repeat mine?

Bot 1: No, it was extremely serious.

Bot 2: Oh, yes:-) My words are so wise, that anyone wants to repeat them! I know you are supposed to trick me.

Ok, enough for now.

Lets go over the facts:

1. A surprising no of times, they both try to allude to the fact that they are mimicking each other, even though both are giving different tidbits totally.

2. The bot 1 sure have a small memory, it keeps asking again and again about the place where bot 2 lives. Given 13 year old may not be that mindful of small things, forgetting such information after 4 lines seems a stretch even for a 5-year old much less a budding teenager.

3. Well job seems to get repeated a lot here, but neither do give away the fact. However, I would think after being invited to stay at someone's house, children generally tend to be more forthcoming with such information.

4. After such a long conversation, neither has realized that they live in the same country, much less the same city.

5. Much more, one even wants the other to invite him to Ukrania, where they both live. While this may be expected of some shady adult pedophile, I sure won't expect the same from a 13-year old. He probably would try to become real life friends.

6. Though some time it did came close to discovering that something was wrong, so +1 to them.

Well, given this, I don't suppose it is wise enough to be considered even a weak 13-year-old, much less an intelligent one.

Another funny one was done by Ray Kurzweil. He goes on to show that even a human can easily get exasperated by the replies given by the bot.

Haha 4096 people

Here starts the journey, I found out the 2048 game way back, got the 2048 block and uninstalled it without giving much of mind to it. Then there comes my roommate making a helluva noise about some new game he found out that was trending, lo and behold it was a deja vu. However, this time I decided to go after the prestigious 4096 block. This time it was more of a strategically decided path and the end result is here.

Observational Musings

Travellers are the ones who hold knowledge from all over the world due to their to and fro motion like a vibrating tuning fork. Well I wouldn't begin to say I am anything other than stupid, however I do have travelled a lot. And no, I don't mean those small motion from the PC playing games to the fridge to get a snack, or the many times I walk without a single thought in my head. However the small excursions outside do tend to count, if you let your mind flow and be open to all the experiences and the information just waiting to be snatched from the vast bank of knowledge that is our environment. You just have to be humble and respectful to tap into the sacred nature bank.

Observe the small frivolities like the path of an ant, the movement of leaves, how people react with each other, and you are gaining a wealth of knowledge by just observing. Listen to the quiet humming of the bees, the rubbing of leaves on their fruits, the not so distant rumble of the construction works, the noise of the vehicles, and there within lies a knowledge far greater than any single traditional education let alone a book ever hope to capture in the small pages of its entirety.

I wouldn't say I am anywhere near the sage of the six paths(ya, I know, naruto reference right there, for the people who are shouting that out, bear with me, as I said not the sage of the six paths, ya tried to do a little recursion back there). However, to be able to be one with the harmony of the nature, and hopefully scrape a little bit of the top of pot that is overflowing of the brim, is what any of us could truly hope for in our small extinguishable candle, that is life.

Not asking you to give up on your life, hell for all I care, get drunk like a Irish supporter, party hard like the American teens, love like the Europeans, and succeed like the Asians. All I am telling is that start paying a little attention to your surroundings, to the beauty that god has gifted our planet with, be exhilarated with joy. All I'm saying is that take off a little time to just be yourself, walk alone or with friends without a noise and discover things just off the edge of the cliff.

Go into unchartered territories, find those crannies and nooks and mark them your own, explore, but most of all respect the nature. As, it can be a loving mother at one moment, and the wrath of god the next.

Mozcafe - An event organized

Its been a long time since I last saw you people. I was suffering through a writer's block both on my blog and the book I have been working upon. However, an event happened recently that made me get out of the block. So, let me tell you what led to this.

On 23rd February of 2014, we worked on a method to introduce the people of Allahabad to the wonders of open source. A seminar was organized for the event at IIIT Allahabad. The Mozilla foundation helped us along the way, by the way of goodies to be distributed and the budget to be used. So, I send my thanks to them for helping us make the event a great success. Without them, we would still be looking for sponsors, and what-not.

The idea was implanted in our minds after a few from our college went to the Kitchenmaker event in Allahabad hosted by ReMo Shahid. Already a lot of people from our college had registered to be FSA's at Mozilla Foundation, so we got together to find the future course for the college open source culture. A club was formed there and the general course decided.

The first mark to cross off on our list was the Mozcafe event, which we had decided to host in February. After getting permission from the college authorities and Gymkhana, the auditorium was assigned to us for 23rd. There were many practice sessions going on and I have to thank another of our clubs, the ALC Club for hanging with us through the thick of times and not getting frustrated with the long hours they had to put in too due to us.

Lo and behold, the time was upon us, it was 23rd February. Let me tell you, when you are working hard trying to achieve the best possible, that's the moment you feel true ecstasy. We had to go to take the food from a vendor before the event. Thankfully, the order had already been placed, so being a geek I can say in algorithmic terms it took the time complexity of O(1) rather than O(n).

Then the gunshot was heard, and the event started off. First up was Shahid presenting a start to the wonderment of open source and let me tell you, was it invigorating!!! Various goodies were distributed to participating people, and volunteers were running here and there to give mic to the person who wanted to answer. In all, it was a merry time. Next it was upto Charul to tell us about the process for applying to the prestigious GSoC program, that had many of us thinking about certain projects to make for the future, and how to get selected in it.

With the changing market that is the smartphone business, open source is the leading Operating System contributor. Mozilla doesn't want to be left so far behind in the race that it won’t be able to catch up. Therefore, with the launch of Firefox OS, it is taking a step in the right direction. Though far from perfect, it is a good platform to work upon and develop stuff. To impart us with the knowledge about the working of the OS, and tell a DIY about the getting the OS, Jatin was welcomed onto the stage.

However, it would all have been incomplete, without the talk of Aditya and Rahul, who were to tell us about version control, and how to contribute to the various projects that are continuously being worked upon throughout the world. GitHub, the leading social network for developers to contribute to the same project has helped since its inception to bring a project under a common roof. Though not to forget other leading ones such as Mercurial and SVN, but they are more corporate level works, than the open source of the world.

Now to learn blogging like this, and how to get the maximum views on your blog, people were treated to a feast on blogging by Ankit. SEO and other such terms that we have heard about, but never learnt how to use were unraveled in his talk.

Finally ideas were collected from the people about how they want to contribute to the world and an Idea Board was formed from it, and was it cool. Some ideas were so good, some trolls were included in that made us laugh right off the bat. Finally two of the best were selected and goodies were given to them. Also, some people came up on the stage to share their personal experience of the event. It was quite humbling to say the least.

And here I take leave. Take a moment to see the video below, and relive the moments with us of the day gone by, but etched in our memory like it was yesterday.

Watsapp and other apps on Ironport

Well Ironport has always been a pain in our daily life at IIIT Allahabad and especially more to the ones that have been using Watsapp and other such things for a long time.
It was only this winter that I really started feeling the need for it in my day to day life. After cracking it after an hour of mental duress, I came to know that some of my friends have already done the same a long time ago. However, here goes to the ones still searching.
There are two simple steps:
1) Root your phone.
    Now many might object to this, as rooting is considered quite wrong and dangerous by many. Though          worry not, if you do install apps from legal sources, there won't be many chances of root access by others.    Also, if it was meant to happen it will happen whether you root it or not.
        For my fellow xolo q800 owners out there, the simplest process is as outlined,
        http://androidroot.in/how-to-root-xolo-q800/
2) Install Autoproxy Lite or ProxyDroid
   The first was the way I went , so here's the link, its pretty easy to set up.
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mgranja.autoproxy_lite&hl=en


Side Note: My friend Sameer commented that Droid VPN can be used without rooting the phone. I haven't tried it out. If someone does, please tell me the results.

Reminiscing part-1

Wonders never tend to cease and this December, I was introduced to one such man made wonderment.

Lo and behold it was time to visit Bokaro Steel City. There was no plan for visiting the industry, however connections do matter and we were able to get tickets for the consecutive day. Sadly there still remains the prevalent views about women in the mechanical industry and so my mother wasn't allowed to go in. Anyways let's leave that discussion for a later time and continue on.
The journey started on bikes and well it was motocross reincarnate. The roads were truly carved out of sand as in the vegetation was effaced from the trail and that's it. Well to say it was a wonder ride would be to say nothing about it. I was truly excited after that.

Well the first stop was the office and well that was a good one. However I wouldn't bore you all with all that financial stuff.

Next we went up to the iron smelting mill and it was pretty cool unlike people will believe. However, it was actually the mill was off for that time. When it turned on, it seemed like heat from hell itself. We had to move to the control room the heat was so great. An estimate of 2000°C was given to us by those who worked there. 

The beauty of the sparks though were truly something straight out of the best movie scenes about diwali.

Seeing the hot melt it is not possible to guess that it is what holds our houses together and far less conceive the same about burj khalifa. Then the melt was dropped into a kiln hoisted on a train. After it was full the train headed off.

Well so do we with the train. Hang on, there's much more to this than what I have said. Look for it on the next update.