Switching to better stuff.

Today, I switched from MS Office XP to OpenOffice 2.0. I installed OpenOffice just for fun but it turned out so good that I decided to switch permanently. The best feature is the flawless 'Export as PDF' option. I used PDF Creator to do this but that is too slow and buggy.

Also, I have decided to switch to Wordpress for my blog and website. The basics are already in place. I bought ChiragGupta.com from Yahoo at $6 for 3 years. Isn't that dirt cheap!! Also I got free 100 MB Linux web space courtesy AIPPG and Dr. Mutha. Thanks a lot again, Sir. Now as soon as I find a good theme I'll start the shifting process.

Lastly, I am planning to switch to del.icio.us from furl. Two reasons for this one.
First, when I heard Yahoo is buying it and when I checked it out again and found that it works great now. Last time, I chose furl over it because I found it better.
Second, today only I realized that it spells delicious! Now isn't that a great name for a bookmark manager.

First exams at IIT.

My first semester at IIT Roorkee is finally over. The result is out and I got 8.36/10 and I am quite happy with myself because this arguably is the first time I studied decently for exams.

I must say at IIT exams are very different from my undergrad institute. There, unlike here, exams were quite fun. We mostly had open book exams with a few design questions which meant I never studied for exams :-D.

But that also meant I never studied any course book at all. All my knowledge was (and sadly is) limited to what I heard in lectures or read casually (out of interest) from Internet. I guess such exams are best for places like MIT/Stanford or for PG/PhD students who have gone through their course books thoroughly and are interested applying the knowledge to practical applications. For UG students it's best to have theory exams so that they at least read there course books properly once.

Anyways it's better late than never. Now I always make a serious attempt to read my course books whether I am interested or not. And I think it is working out well!

I’m still alive..!

It’s been a month since I posted. The major reason for that is lack of Internet. Out happy days with Wi-Fi at hostel got over last month due to some unknown reason. Luckily, if rumors are to be believed Wi-Fi will be officially available in our hostel rooms from this January.

A lot happened since the last post. Now that I am home, I will finish all pending work on my Dial-up connection. Instead of writing one huge post I’ve decided to post a small post for everything that is worth writing. So keep waiting if you are interested.

Dilbert and IIT

This is the third time the cartoon strip Dilbert features IIT.


Previous two cartoon strips featuring IIT



Read Dilbert regularly at my blogroll or if you use Bloglines, subscribe to it.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Another movie has stormed into my All time favorites - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Do watch it if you haven' t yet. And if you are an Indian, lookout for 3 hindi songs in it's soundtrack!

Now the list (in alphabetical order) is:
American Beauty
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Fight Club
The Matrix
The Shawshank Redemption

Animated:
The Incredibles and Shrek 1 & 2

Bloglines is amazing!

I have been looking for an RSS/ATOM reader that allows me to read various Blogs and posts without going to individual sites.

I hate Desktop RSS Readers and I was never really into online RSS readers (or aggregators).
Today for the first time I opened Mark Jen's Bloglines blogroll and found it real good. Exactly what I was looking for.

Now I don't need to click ten's of favorites every day. I have added all the Blogs I read but my regularly visited tech sites are still not there. I'll add them soon.

My Bloglines blogroll.

Blingo!

I wonder if it's normal but anything free always sounds good to me :-D

Like this new search website Blingo.
These guys are giving gifts to those (or friends of those) who search for something using Blingo at some particular time (time is different each day)

Most importantly Blingo just redirects Google's results so it's not like I have to use something unnecessarily. Just Search normally and you might win!

Join my friends list. It'll increase both our chances..

Update:
The service is only for citizens of USA :-(

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and WOW, it was the best book in the series.

I am still feeling weird, not sad but weird. And, I have absolutely no words to describe anything more.

A must read for all fans!

MIT Lab's $100 laptop!

I am awestruck and have no words to say. This may not be an example of some cutting-edge technology but this is an engineering marvel.

Links:
Official website
Cyberia Weblog

IIT Roorkee rocks!

If somebody had asked me a few days ago how is IIT Roorkee, my reply would've been, "Well it's good but not as good as I expected an IIT to be. The place is kinda old and boring."

Ask me now, and I will say, "IIT Roorkee rocks!"

And what caused the drastic perception makeover? Well, the answer is Internet.

When I came here I had almost no source of accessing Internet except the labs which I feel sick of visiting. Add to it the repetitive courses (similar to my UG curricula) made life hell boring. I began wondering whether the the courses were boring or the professors were bad. At a time I was so sick, I was wondering whether I made the right decision choosing M.Tech (CSE) at IIT R over my job at Infosys.

But now, ever since I have Internet access through WiFi on my new laptop (Compaq M2201TU) all my woes have vanished. Suddenly, I am lacking time to do stuff. It took me 2 days before I got time to write this.
I found IIT Roorkee Intranet website, which is simply amazing. We have local mirrors of all the common software required and, like it should be at any respectable place, most of them are open source.
Also, I found an online notice board with all the notices about last year placements. In short, they rock!
Last thing I saw today was faculty profiles. Well, all the professors I was cribbing about have over 50 research papers published in International journals! I am kinda feeling guilty.

Apart from the Internet-revealed stuff, this place is really cool to live. Ofcourse, Roorkee is no Delhi but I never got so much freedom in my life before I came here. For one instance, today I went to SnackPoint (near Century Gate, IIT Roorkee) to have my dinner (after I skipped the mess dinner) at 11 PM. And when I was returning, IIT hostel canteens were literally flooded with students. All canteens here open till 2 or 3 at night. Maybe mine is a special case but I never imagined such a thing in my UG institute.

It's hard to stop writing since I am so happy, but I think you have got the essence of the post, IIT Roorkee rocks...