Saved by the strike

Strike on, and internals postponed indefinitely. Thank god, for I hadn't studied anything.
Among other things I have started swimming at a nearby pool. Also, I registered for the Google India Codejam. Registrations opened today only. I guess I will give it a shot this time.

Final game: The farewell gift.

The setting was not new. In fact for the past four years I have spent in this college, it has always been the same. They would crush their opponents as ruthlessly as we did. They were always as strong as we were (if not more). And they would always reach the finals as we would. Last year though, they beat us. They beat us real bad.

My day had started with me cramming up the portions of the dreaded internals. Distributed computing and Security in computing to be precise. Till the clock showed 5:45 pm, I was always near a text book. It was time for the finals. B.Tech, CUSAT vs Rest of CUSAT.

The match started on a high note for us: Praveen scored the first points by scoring a 3 pointer. But, after those first points, ROC came roaring back into the game. At the end of the first quarter we were down 7 points.
We didn't give up. Our playing five fought like hell and tied the score by the end of the second quarter at 15-15.
The third quarter saw the same ups and downs. At one point they would score at the other point we would do well. At the end of the third we had a small lead of 3 points.
The fourth quarter started with a bang for us. We managed to extend the 3 point lead to 7 points. The time left on the clock was somewhere around 2 minutes, and the game was a wrap .... or so it seemed.
Thomas is undoubtely the best player in the university. Be it ball control, shooting or passing. He is literally a one man army. And he was in the opposing team. He shot a 3 pointer and followed it up with another excellent 2 pointer. And we became nervous..
The clock had counted down to 45 seconds. Thomas had the ball. The B.tech crowd was shouting their lungs hoarse, for they though t the match was over, while the ROC crowd waited patiently for a miracle. He slowed the game down. Waiting for the clock to count down further. And then came the screen. Bipin came and blocked Praveen who was guarding Thomas. Thomas went to his right, looked down at the 3 point line and let one loose. The ball had a perfect arch and it fell into the basket. ROC lead by 1 point. Clock showed 10 seconds. We were in dismay.
The throw was taken, the ball passed to Praveen, which was then quickly passed onto Pylee, who was standing at the ROC three shot line. Pylee fumbles the ball... Freddy gathers it tries to drive in and gets fouled !!! Two free throws granted.
Now that is what you call pressure. But, we all had confidence in Freddy. He shot the first free throw, in front of a crowd which was trying their level best to distract him, and it fell !! What a relief, the scores were tied. The second one didn't fall and the whistle was blown.
The game was tied and we were to have 5 minutes of over time. The playing 5 played their hearts out and in the end we managed to win the game by 6 points !!!
It was the perfect goodbye gift.

PS : I was a substitute player in the team, and didn't get a chance to play. The first five played the whole game and no one could have done better than them. I'm just really happy to be a part of this team.
There were a few fights and unfair decisions in the game. But those all are a part of it, I guess.

Another textured terrain

This time around, no wastage of time or effort and the texture is 2D. The results are for you to judge :D I'm satisfied though...

Terrain textured with a high resolution texture.

The terrain textured with a low resolution texture.

The wire mesh.

I beome cooler by the clock ;)

A textured terrain

I spend a lot of time (time, not effort) getting the terrain textured by a 1D texture. The main problem which I faced was making a texture in Photoshop which looked natural enough. After a lot of hit and trial with the gradient tool I got it somewhat right. End result, the wire mesh looks much cooler than the textured terrain :(

The textured terrain.


The good old wire mesh.

And now I can't concentrate on studies.

Skybox

After much lazying around, I finally managed to get one skybox demo running (although I haven't made the skybox class as of yet). It is actually pretty easy to make and really no big deal.
A skybox is basically a cube which is textured on all six sides by seamless images, so that when you look around it seems like you are in a real world. But, actually you are just in a painted box.

I hope that made sense. If it didn't just look at the pretty pictures.

Venom ??

To all the spiderman movie fans, it seems that Spiderman 3 will not have 1, but 2 villains. There is a lot of speculation over the photo below, that the person in the photo is not spiderman, but Venom.
If you are thinking that this is a Black and White image, then listen to the official sony announcement. Here is another pic to show the similarity in the costumes of the two (i.e Spiderman and Venom).

I really don't think that Sony Pictures would actually risk changing the costume of Spiderman from red and blue, to black.
One thing is sure though, Spiderman 3 will be having Sandman as one of the villains. IMDB has the cast listing, and only person (Topher Grace) is there without a specified role. So looks like he will be the one who will play Venom.

Match 2

Model engineering college thrashed by B.Tech, CUSAT 46-24. We are back !!!

Google pages

It seems that Google has finally come up with a web page hosting + online web page editing (WYSIWYG) tool. At first look, it seems that Google has beaten Yahoo (Geocities) once again.
The editing interface is pretty cool, uses AJAX, the works. Best part, they are giving out 100MB and no ads. Also there are a lot of designs and layouts to choose from. The domain name is also easy to remember. It is of the format: http://username.googlepages.com
The bad part is that, I don't think that you can edit all HTML by hand online. But, you can upload any HTML page, from your computer, to your account.
I had to test it out, right ;)
Update: You can edit the HTML online !! I just couldn't see the option on my browser, as there was no scroll bar and the "Edit HTML" link was at the bottom left. If you can't see the link, hit F11.

Another day in the calendar...

which saw another mass bunk from our class. It has now become a well revered practise. Whenever we don't see any faculty in the staff room, it is assumed that he/she is absent and what follows is one thing which our whole class is good at: walking out of the class really fast.
The day also saw our basketball team (that includes me) getting our spanking new red and black jerseys for the sports meet. Our game was against College of engineering, Munnar. We played very badly in the first three quarters, but still managed to beat them by a margin of around 20 points. The game also saw some really bad intentional fouls, which in my opinion were not required.

Inzy winzy spider

The most awaited moment for me during each of the India-Pakistan ODIs was: the presentation ceremony. Especially Inzy's speech.
Now, Inzamam Ul Haq has matured to be a really nice person and I would go as far as to say that he has reduced the amount of in-game rivalry which existed in India-Pakistan matches. He is also a caring person who has built a free hospital in Multan, his home town. But, his presentation speeches are a bit .... well funny.
Here are two forwards which I got. One from Sarvesh and the other one from my brother.

1. Inzy's interview: What he wants to say.

This is Inzy'S interview after the third ODI

*Rameez*: So Inzy, disappointed with your performance today?

*Inzy*: Bismilla-e-rehman-e-rahim. Thank you allah.ya the indian batsman
is play very good today. we is try very hard but is not win the game.

*Rameez*: Any words for Dhoni?
*Inzy*: Ya dhoni is play very well. He is hit his shot very hard in our
gaps. In start, we is protect our gaps very well. the grass is also
thick.. but dhoni is split our gaps with his bat.

*Rameez*: Another ordinary bowling performance?
*Inzy*: Ya our balls is loose. the bowler is went for many run. Asif is
bowled well. Also, after some shots the ball is out of shape. umpire is
not give another ball.. it is tough to play with one ball

*Rameez*: Dropped catches.. did that prove costly?
*Inzy*: ya the ball is not stick to our hands. we is practice a lot
sticking our bat in our hands.. but now we is more practice sticking
balls in our hands.

*Rameez*: Any plans for the next match?
*Inzy*: ya India is on top but we is try to bounce on our back. Insha
allah we is play better.

*Rameez*: All the best Inzy
*Inzy*: Thank is you

2. Inzamam's interview.

Most cricketers, who are not comfortable in conversing in English, go prepared for some standard questions that are asked from them when commentators chat with them during the awards ceremony.

Inzamam was once asked a different question after Pakistan won the match, for which he was not prepared. He always had a standard response to the first question. But this time.....

Tony Greig: So Inzi, that's fantastic, your wife is pregnant for the second time!

Inzamam: Bismillah-e-Rehman-e-Rahim! All credit goes to the boys. Everyone work hard for it, especially Afridi. It was tight situation when he went in. Without his strokes it not have been possible. He was pulling the
good balls. Also Bob Woolmer keeping close watch on progress and giving instructions. It's all team effort which pulled us out of big hole. Insha Allah, we all will work together as team, put in big effort and
deliver good result all the time.

Random musings

So after the mixed reaction which I got for my previous post, which left me in a lot of self doubt, I will ramble about my life just to distract you from what I had written previously.
There are more basketball matches in store for me. The University sports meet has already started and basketball starts from tomorrow. Our first match though is only day after tomorrow. The special thing being that this time we will be getting jerseys with our names on the back. This does make a difference, because first it cost me Rs 200/- (and I may have to give another Rs 40, they say) and second the crowd will know my name. This is, in one sense, BAD !! Now the abuses from the crowd won't be directed to a number 5, but to my name. And civilized crowds in CUSAT are as elusive as the IIT status, which we were about to get. But other than that, it is the first jersey which will bear my name and it would be a nice goodbye gift.
Talking about basketball, you have to see this: The Top 10 slam dunks of NBA (5.04 MB wmv). Even if you don't play or watch basketball, you will find this awesome.

Satya ki khoj

I'm still trying to search the real me. The meaning of my name, according to some people, in Sanskrit is: "The First Rays of the Sun". As I had barely managed to pass Sanskrit in my 8th standard (needless to say I didn't take it in 9th & 10th), I really can't confirm that. Anyway, I can confirm one thing though, that the meaning holds no significance in my case. I wake up maybe with the last rays of the sun, or may be with the first rays of the tubelight. Talking of tubelights, yes I'm a bit slow in my mental department, but that is a topic I only discuss with my neurosurgeons. So, coming back to the meaning of my name, the other meaning which I have come across is: the color red. The only place where, as we have been taught since childhood, the color red holds any significance is: the traffic light. To reiterate what you sang in chorus when you were in nursery: "Red means stop.". So whenever you see me, STOP, and honk your horn. Or whenever you are at a traffic light cursing the other driver, remember me, for I will always be there, above you and looking at you. Amen.

P.S: The above was an attempt at revamping my dull and boring "about me" section at numerous profiles. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't have. It now looks to me as a lame attempt at humor, which was maybe *inspired* by reading the two blogs which I mentioned yesterday.

LMAO

Two blogs which crack me up:
Mostly thoughtless.
Domain Maximus.

My advanced weight loss tactics

I have never fasted a whole day. So, I thought that it will be an experience and also help in the reduction of "you know what". I had one glass of milk in the morning and continued to starve the rest of the day, until now. I gave up, and bought a pack of sunfeast (the poor man's biscuit costs only Rs 3/-). I will have my dinner, to hell with the fast.
P.S: This doesn't mean that I have given up trying to reduce, it just means that I won't starve the whole day anymore.

Presenting another distraction

It has to be the India, Pakistan matches which tempted us into taking this decision. The decision being that of buying a TV tuner card. If you are still wondering what the heck I'm talking about: We got CABLE TELEVISION !!!!
God save my final semester.

1 + 1 = 4

Today's dinner was at Pizza Hut. Us being fairly well endowed physically (read as over weight and hungry), consider a personal pan pizza a waste of money. A medium pizza, which according to pizza hut serves two (yeah right !!), is filling..... for one of us. What we ordered today was a combo: meal for 4. The catch being that two people were having a meal for four (we were eight in total). So what was my dinner like?
Here:


-Two pieces of cheese garlic bread.
-1 Glass of Pepsi (well a little more than one glass).
-Half a plate of Pista Mint Salad.
-1 Tomato Basil soup.
-One medium sized pizza
-Tid bits from left and right

Our other accomplishment, was that we managed to finish 4 bottles of tomato sauce. The oregano, though, was still standing.
The good part was that we ate so much that the pizza hut guys didn't bill us for 3 extra pepsis and 1 tomato basil soup, which we had even after our grand dinner.

Sierpinski triangle

Saw this on someone's slashdot signature. Copy, paste, compile and run.

main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}

This post is dedicated...

to BC suttah.
(I know that the song is now pretty old, but I was treated to it only a few days ago. TGMD is also a classic on the same lines.)

I yum back

I'm not in a mood to write anything so I will just type whatever comes to my mind.
We came, we saw and we ate. The food at SRM college was free, good and unlimited. So that's that.
We lost the first match itself against mysore university by 5 points and got knocked out. We were leading by 1 point in the final quarter, but couldn't capitalize in the end. And as they say "In the end it doesn't even matter" (forgiveness please.. )
Roamed around Chennai that evening and the next morning. Verdict: 5/10 .

Tornado cup and more basketball

Tornado cup is a homebrewn cricket event organized by our juniors. There are around 150 players participating. The teams have been formed mainly on the basis of location. Ours being called "Yuva". The rules of the game are same as that of the standard ODI game, except for the fact that there are no LBWs, leg byes and the number of overs has been reduced to 20, with a maximum of 4 overs for each bowler.
We had our first match today. We lost the toss and were put in to bowl. In our twenty overs we conceded 161 runs, which was really bad as at one point of time their team was 90/8 . I bowled fairly well, but didn't manage to get any wickets. As soon as we finished our quota of overs, we were asked to leave as we didn't have permission to play in the ground (it was not our university ground). Our batting innings should take place in the evening, hope we manage to chase well.
I will be leaving for Chennai tomorrow for the south zone inter-university basketball tournament, so I won't be able to stay back for rest of the cricket matches. The team shall miss their star left arm pacer ;)

CS vs IT

This match was supposed to be the second semi final, after the first one between Civil and Mechanical got over. Civil beat mechanical in the first semis by a massive margin of around 20 points.
The general impression about our match was that we will lose, because IT had a good team and Pylee (the guy who can dunk) was back after completing his project. I was given the job of guarding him.
In my opinion this game was the best fight which any team has given to IT in the past 3 years (IT has won the basketball tournament all 3 years.). We defended well, passed well and played a really commited game of basketball. But, Pylee with his reach and jump took the game away from us. He scored 27 points of the 41 which the team scored. The final score was 32-41 favoring IT.
Although Pylee scored 27 points, I think I guarded him well.
This was one of the games where, though we lost, I feel content for giving a good fight.
At the end of the game I was bruised on my shoulders, knees etc, but didn't feel the pain (well not until the after-shave lotion was applied on it.).
Tomorrow the basketball finals is there between IT and Civil/Safety, it will be a good match.

CS vs Mech

We weren't expected to win this match, but due to some excellent play by Arun Thomas and Afzal we managed to beat them. Final score 41-39. Looking at the final score it may seem that it was a tight match, but it wasn't. There wasn't a single moment when the mech guys had the lead. I wasn't at the best of my forms today (contrary to yesterday), and only scored a meagre 8 points. There was some trouble, with the mech guys saying that they were not satisfied with the referees, but nothing untoward happened.
Tomorrow we face IT. Our old unbeatable rivals. It's the third time we are facing them. Hope we can pull off something extraordinary.

This one just in.

A notice outside our SOE office read as follows:

Lost & Found

A purse that someone might have lost has been found in the SOE premises. The loser may claim back the same with proper identification to the principal.

I think the person who posted this notice is being a bit too harsh on the person who misplaced his/her purse ;-)