Exam Time

Final year exams are about to start in 3 days. With the exam fever affecting me a day back, i thought of studying for the exams but in vain. I coudn't concentrate on the subject because it has been over 3 months since i touched the book. With me in this condition, there have been rumours about me getting spread quickly that i am doing my revisions. All 'cos of my faithful friends who create such rumous spread it to others. Anyways i know the truth and i had to study hard if i wanna get my degree. So, me going to sleep now and get up early in the morning and start my study ( this is what i have been telling myself for the past 3 days ). My blog visitors ( if any ) leave a message in the shout box and i would reply after my exams. Cya ppl after May 5!!! 

CHANGING CHENNAI

From the day of tamil new year, a new fever has been spreading all over the city of Chennai, Changing Notes. A. R. Rahman, the Mozart of Madras is the person behind this program in association with the new entry to the city media, The Times of India. This program is a special music concert the musician A. R. Rahman wherein he performs his masterpieces along with many other typical sounds. This also gives an insight on the past chennai and how the future chennai would be like. The highlight of the show would be the various sounds that are unique to the chennai city like the autorickshaw horon, MTC bus sounds, the beach tides hitting the shores etc. So, every Chennaiite would love to enjoy such a show but they do have the doubt of where to get the tickets for the show. Though if they know where to get the tickets, they may not be able to go their and get one amidst their hectic schedules.

For people like these, the Times of India has made an arrangement such that its representatives would give away free passes to the show at various hotspots of the city during the peak hours i.e 8.30 AM to 10.30 AM and 5 PM to 7 PM. Hotspots also include the busiest signals of the city.

• Mount Road - Spencer's Junction
• Nungambakkam - Sterling Road Junction
• Adyar Signal Junction
• Luz corner
• Tidel Park
• Parry's corner
• Nandanam - Chamiers road Junction
• Anna Nagar round tana
• Vadapalani - 100 feet junction
• T Nagar Bus terminus
• Kamarajar Salai
• Chennai citi center
• Abhirami mall
• Spencer Plaza
• Sathyam Cinemas
• Elliots beach

In case if you get to find yourself in any of the spots, do look out for persons giving away passes and donot miss this once in a life time experience. The most important aim of this program is to create awareness to the Chenaniites about the increasing population, traffic, pollution, changing culture etc and to keep the city well maintained and a greener city. Well, i have got my pass for the show and you people don't miss it too. Lets appreciate the efforts of Times of India and A. R. Rahman for doing something to the city and make it a better one for living.

The show is on 20th April at St George's ground near Pachayappa's College at 6.30PM.

Apple Macbook Air

" THE WORLD'S THINNEST LAPTOP". The Macbook Air comes out with this title. But how does this mac prerform? is it worth for the money? Here is a sneak peak on to the Macbook Air.
First thing, you notice in the Macbook Air, is its sleek design having a tapering design at the base. No wonder it is the ultimate thinnest lappy. It is light weight weighing around 3 pounds. The full size keyboard with backlight make is easier to work with even in the dark. The touch pad is also quite large and apple has integrated the iphone's gesture based commands to the Air. The processor found in the mac book air is Intel dual core 1.6Ghz processor with 2Gigs of RAM.

But looking at the hype created for Air, the output was a bit disappointing. The Air has got its own limitations such as only one USB port, no card reader, no embedded optical drive, no upgradable RAM etc. And also the battery standby time of the Air is around 3 hours and like the iphone it is also not user serviceable.

Although the mac book air has certain shortcomings, it is certainly the cutest lappy found today. Hope Apple compensates the shortcomings and release a better model in the years to come.

Cholera in Chennai

Yesterday was the release of a new newspaper for chennai, The Times of India. Though this paper has been introduced in other major cities of the country, it took some time to establish itself in the city of Chennai. I was eagerly awaiting for the first release of the newspaper as its promo titled "New Anthem of India" was wonderful and inspiring. But our paper boy took a half on that day, and gave us only the regular tamil newspaper. With a disappointment, i had to ready the same old death news in the tamil paper yesterday.

But today, it was my day. When i woke up, first thing i saw was the Time of India paper lying on the table. I took it enthusiastically and on the cover page what i read was, the CM being questioned on water quality in Chennai city. The following page warned the Chennai locales regarding the spreading of Cholera in the city. So, i thought of getting more info on Cholera, its symptoms and ways to prevent it. These are the info which i got from the net.

Cholera is an bacterial disease, Vibrio Cholerae the name of the bacteria causing the disease. The disease spreads through water and mainly contaminated or impure water. The symptoms of Cholera are extreme diarrhoea with great lost of body fluids. Fever may also be witnessed as a result of secondary infection. The only way to treat the disease is to compensate for the loss of fluids from the water. We know very well that Prevention is better than cure. Ways to prevent cholera are Boiling the drinking water, maintaining clean habits and habitats etc.

Though my inputs on cholera are very few, a detailed info is given in wikipedia. Please follow the link for more information on Cholera. So, Drink safe water and live safe.

Top 100 Movies Ever!!!

With my college life getting over [ Still got exams :( ], i feel bored very much as i have said in most of my previous posts. No more text books in life may sound sweet but when you experience it with no studies or record works to do, it would make u bored to the core and you even feel like counting the stars would keep you occupied. But i do not have that much patience to count the stars and so i decided to watch the best of movies ever to make me occupied. So, as usual my google god helped me to find the best of movies ever. Below are the top 100 movies ever and if you feel bored as i am, then watch any one of these movies. Hope i have suggested the jobless persons like me a good way to kill your time.

Here is the list of top 100 movies ever...

1.CITIZEN KANE (1941)

2.CASABLANCA (1942)

3.THE GODFATHER (1972)

4.GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)

5.LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

6.THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

7.THE GRADUATE (1967)

8.ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)

9.SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)

10.SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

11.IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

12.SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)

13.THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)

14.SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)

15.STAR WARS (1977)

16.ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)

17.THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)

18.PSYCHO (1960)

19.CHINATOWN (1974)

20.ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)

21.GRAPES OF WRATH, THE (1940)

22.2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

23.THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

24.RAGING BULL (1980)

25.E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)

26.DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)

27.BONNIE & CLYDE (1967)

28.APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

29.MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)

30.TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

31.ANNIE HALL (1977)

32.THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)

33.HIGH NOON (1952)

34.TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)

35.IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)

36.MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)

37.THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)

38.DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

39.DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)

40.NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)

41.WEST SIDE STORY (1961)

42.REAR WINDOW (1954)

43.KING KONG (1933)

44.THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

45.A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)

46.A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)

47.TAXI DRIVER (1976)

48.JAWS (1975)

49.SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)

50.BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

51.THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)

52.FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)

53.AMADEUS (1984)

54.ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)

55.THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)

56.M*A*S*H(1970)

57.THE THIRD MAN (1949)

58.FANTASIA (1940)

59.REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)

60.RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

61.VERTIGO (1958)

62.TOOTSIE (1982)

63.STAGECOACH (1939)

64.CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)

65.THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)

66.NETWORK (1976)

67.THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)

68.AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)

69.SHANE (1953)

70.THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

71.FORREST GUMP (1994)

72.BEN-HUR (1959)

73.WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)

74.THE GOLD RUSH (1925)

75.DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)

76.CITY LIGHTS (1931)

77.AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

78.ROCKY (1976)

79.THE DEER HUNTER (1978)

80.THE WILD BUNCH (1969)

81.MODERN TIMES (1936)

82.GIANT (1956)

83.PLATOON (1986)

84.FARGO (1996)

85.DUCK SOUP (1933)

86.MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)

87.FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

88.EASY RIDER (1969)

89.PATTON (1970)

90.THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)

91.MY FAIR LADY (1964)

92.A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)

93.THE APARTMENT (1960)

94.GOODFELLAS (1990)

95.PULP FICTION (1994)

96.THE SEARCHERS (1956)

97.BRINGING UP BABY (1938)

98.UNFORGIVEN (1992)

99.GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)

100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

Nearly after 1 week

It has been nearly one week since i have posted in here. I was busy with my project work and now it is over. Thank God ! Everything end up well, with no tough viva questions from the external examiner. When i have totally forgotten about this blog, a good friend of mine, Suresh, who has played a great part in encouraging me to keep this blog alive by commenting for almost all the posts asked me " Nanba!! Any new posts in your blog???? " and there struck in my mind " Oh yes! I had a blog, hadn't i? " From that instant, i was searching for good stuffs to post in my blog.

My last post was a Techie post and so i din't wanted to make the next post a techie one too. Thinking of what i could post for my blog many options came to my mind, my personal life experiences, my crushes, my mokkais, people whom i can never forget in my life etc etc. With all these things coming in my mind, i thought posting all these would make this blog a place of personal feelings and i don't want it to be so. As my blog name says JUNKS, it should be a place with all sorts of information which i could share with my blog visitors. And i hope, this sort of postings would satisfy all my blog visitors.And also i assure that there would be a many number of posts from now on as my summer vacations are on. so keep checking the JUNKS regularly.

Same blood from 700 ears!!!

Uffffffffff!!!!! I still hear a "GOYING" sound in my ears. Courtesy : My college management. Today is our so called OFFER LETTER DISTRIBUTION function for the placed students and it was said that 354 have been placed for the 2008 batch. So i guess around 350( including staffs )might have present for the function.

Before that, while leaving for college in the morning my mom asked me to eat idlies and go. But i said her that i would be having my lunch by 11.40 and could control my hunger till then.

We all entered the audiotorium so quickly so that we could occupy the seats at the back and you surely know the my intention, talking and sleeping if the function bores us. Unfortunately, our GANG was separated when the co-ordinators asked us to sit company wise. Not knowing where my colleagues are sitting, i asked one of the staff "Sir, Where should the TCS people sit?" and he asked me to go front. I went to the front and found seat only at 2nd row right in front of the dignitaries. Everything was going against my wish and was thinking of how to pass through that session.

Then came the dignitaries and occupied the dais. The function started with prayer song and a girl with sweet voice sang a beautiful song but i couldn't understand anything. After that song, it was our famous staff who gave the welcome address starting in his own style "Dear Dear Student friends" [ Naanga avaruku friends aaaama?? Enna kodumai saravanan idhu ]. He is know for hourly lectures he dint show any courtesy on us. NON STOP NAKKA MUKKA. Then came the top most person of the management. He started of in a pleasent tamil vocabulary and his speech was funny and enlightning. The comments he passed would sound mokkai to most of the guys and still he managed to bring out some smile in our faces. But the way he expressed his ideas was somewhat unacceptable which showed his dominating character. But still, he is older than us and we have to listen to it. How i managed to sit this lecture was due to my friend's comments sitting at my back. Thanks to barath for making me kill my time so some extent.

Then the chief guest, Ms. Sumuki addressed us and then the offer letter distribution ceremony started and it went on for about an hour. By this time, we all were exhaushted of listening to excess advices and non stop clapping and I started to get hungry. I thought after the ditribution, it would be thanks giving. But there came another personnel of the management who has been sitting like a newly joined child in kindergarden. He resembles the tamil director T.P.Gajendran ( Remember "Nan nikkuren nan nikkuren" comedy from the movie Ivan ? ) He started his comedy speech and said something which neither could understand. What i felt on seeing him was, may be the podium should have been altered to his height. When all these were going in my mind, he suddenly started to sing " Clap! Clap! Clap your hands!" and later only i realised that it was to applaud the placement cell for their outstanding achievement.

After this, i thought the ceremony was over and it wasn't. Then came the placement officer and she thanked everyone of those who were behind the scenes in achieving this and were distributed mementos. It doesnt end there, the top most person again grabbed the mic and start his second innings and this time his stove was not at sim. It was burning high with mega mokkais and my stomach was burning with hunger. And after all these sufferings, finally the announcement came "Pls stand for National Anthem" and there came my life. Proudly singing the National Anthem, vidu jooootu straight to canteen.

Safari

I have been blogging for over a month and in the past few posts it has been my personal experiences. So, i thought of giving my visitors a techie perhaps an useful info that could help 'em a lil bit. While i was searching for some interesting topic to post on my page, a bulb glowed in my mind that why don't i introduce the Apple's browser SAFARI for WINDOWS to my webistors.

I have already said about this browser to my friend but it was under BETA stage. If i had asked him to install and use it, it would have crashed quite a number of times and would have given him the chance to damage me. I don't want that to happen and waited for my time. And here comes my time. APPLE SAFARI stable version has been released.

What really made me to use this browser is that its aesthetics, looking simple and sleek layout in aluminum color. The fonts looks soothing. And about its performance, apple claims that it is 2x faster than IE and Firefox and i don't know how far those stats are true. But compared to IE, it is faster and stands a good competition for Firefox too. Speed is also good when compared to untweaked Firefox. Moreover, it consumes less memory compared to Firefox and slightly higher than IE. Safari takes less time to start when compared to Firefox.

So, I hope this browser might earn a name for itself as other Apple products did. So, why are you waiting for ? Give Apple Safari a try and post in your comments.

Download Safari

Best books of all time

My closest buddies know that i never have the habit of buying books even for my semester exams. Dunno why, i have developed that mentality and always tried to lend books from library or study from an e-book. But it was the day when i met one of my closest mate after a long time, he asked me about my future plans. I said " Planning to do my MBA after 2 years of work". He asked me whether i have started my preparations 'cos aiming to do MBA in reputed institutions such as IIM's requires blood sweating hardwork. I said no and he asked me to start my preparations right away. The tip he gave was to read a lot of novels and read a good english newspaper. A good english newspaper? All these years what i have read was the tamil daily "THINA THANTI" which publishes only the death news such as a man died by slipping in bathroom, a lady died on seeing mega serial etc. Infact my father reads all these stories from top to bottom and whats worse in here is he doesn't know english. So i had to adjust reading the tamil newspaper for him.

So, i decided to read the novels as said by my friend and wanted to start with some good interesting books. So i searched for the best e-books and this is what i found. These are obtained from my LAN and i have nothing to do if these books bored you.

• Aldous Huxley's - Brave New World
  
• D.H. Lawrence's - Sons and Lovers
• D.H. Lawrence's - Women in Love
• D.H. Lawrence's - Sons and Lovers
  
• Edith Wharton's - House of Mirth
  
• Ernest Hemingway's - The Old Man and the Sea
  
• George Orwell's - Animal Farm
  
• J.D Salinger's - Catcher in the Rye
  
• James Joyce's - Ulysses
  
• Joseph Conrad's - Heart of Darkness
  
• Robert Heinlein's - Citizen of the Galaxy
  
• Rudyard Kipling's - Kim
  
• William Faulkner's - The Sound and the Fury
  

The e-books are available at various file sharing sites such as esnips,4shared etc. Just search 'em and you will find it.

My First Interview

March 2007. The month which gave our college students the image of job holders. Yes, it was at this period where our campus recruitments started and today most of our college students got license to propose their love with one good reason. ( I am yet to get LLR L ). So I thought it would be good to share my interview experiences with my page visitors. ( anyone there????? )

The first company to recruit our students was Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS ). We were already informed that our campus recruitment will be starting in March and so the preparations started way before but not me. I started to prepare for TCS 2 days before the placement. I have this habit of not spending money on books and followed the same for placement too. So, I went to the library and took the GRE Barrons 12^th edition book and started to work out on the logical section. But I couldn't understand even the question. Embarrassed with myself, I started to work on quants section and never touched the Vocab section because I am very very bad in my English. At the end of 2^nd day, the day before the aptitude test for TCS, all what I prepared was the mathematics section and mugged up some of the logical reasoning questions. I never had the confidence that I would clear the aptitude and made up my mind for CTS which was the next company to recruit us. All what I had in mind was that if I could clear my aptitude, then there is a better chance of me getting placed in TCS.

Having a feeling of wasting the 2 days, I entered the lab for the aptitude test with very much low on confidence. The first section was my enemy, Vocabulary section. Right from 12^th Std, I have this habit of calculating the probability of getting marks if I answer the same option for the consecutive questions and it have worked for me in exams like AIEEE etc. So I sticked on to my formula and was staring at the monitor which option to select. Having no clue of what the words meant, I made up my mind to select my initial as my option which is 'C'. I selected 'c' for all the synonyms and antonyms and did something for the comprehension part.

Next section was the Mathematics section, which was very very easy and I got the answers for all the questions. Then the logical section came and by god's grace I got questions 2 of the questions of the same type and I cracked 'em easily. The third question was of average difficulty and I managed to find answers for 3 of its sub divisions. Having done the quants and logical section done fairly, I had 2 minutes left. I was at the acme of my nervousness whether I would clear or not. I decided not to click the submit button and waited for the 2 minutes to pass by staring at the monitor and counting down my fate. At the end of 2^nd minute the screen flashed and the message came " CONGRATS! YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO THE NEXT ROUND" . And finally my formula has worked again for me.

Then, we were asked to come the next day for the technical and HR interview. The next day, with lot of enthusiasm we all reached the college and there you could see everyone in neatly pressed new attire, cleanly combed hair, boys having ties around their neck etc and I was also no exception. Everything I wore was new and with a good looking "OSI" tie, I waited for the technical interview. During my wait for the interview, I could see different kind of faces like tensed, completely cool, some has the thought of 'kalaichifying' the interviewer etc. I dunno how I looked for others, but inside me I had a bit of fear because I have the habit of blabbering when I get nervous or tensed, even in tamil. Think how would I blabber in English. I wont even find words to blabber in English. By the time I was thinking how am I going to tackle this, a voice calling "C.Karthik! you are next " and there I go.

I entered the Interview hall with a smile and there I could see 3 interviews, 2 guys and 1 girl ( sumaar figure in her late 20's ). I wished 'em and I was given a seat. Here is how our interactions went.

Interviewer 1 : Hello karthik. New shirt ! New pant! New Shoe! You are looking smart

Me : Thank you sir. These are interview special

Interviewer 2 : So karthik please tell me about yourself

I said what I have prepared and it came in a flow with out any pause or struck in between

Interviewer 1 : So whats your favorite subject?

Me : Microcontroller, Sir.

Interviewer 1: Anyway I am not going to ask you questions from that.

Interviewer 2: (Seeing my resume) you are an electronics student. Why did you go an IV to aavin.

Me : Sir, that was during our 3^rd semester. We were new to our field and so we just visited aavin for nam sake.

Interviewer 2 : You have written you came first in maths talent test. So can u solve a sum for me?

Me : sure sir.

The sum was some number power something

I gave an approximate answer. But he asked me the accurate answer or at least the methodology. I said it can done by binomial expansion sir. He said tell me the another way. I said sorry sir. I couldn't guess it. Then he asked about my mini project and I explained I well. After that he said ok karthik you can leave now. All this time the sumaar figure hasn't opened here mouth and I wanted to hear her voice. So I turned towards her and asked her " do you have any questions for me ma'm?" She asked me "would you like to solve a puzzle?" I said " I will give it a try ma'm". She gave me a puzzle which I couln't solve. She said " that's ok. You can leave now". And immediately I escaped from that spot.

After that , I waited for the results and I was through to the HR which was very normal. Like asking the personal questions etc etc. So finally the interview process was over and the results came at night with TCS selecting 143 ( I LOVE YOU ??? ) from our college and me one among them. This is how I became a "KUDUMBASTHAN".