CAMPUS PLACEMENTS and the SOFTIES

The sixth semester ends and there starts the official drive for on campus placements for the engineers : a part of the promising future of our country.
Talk about placements and the first thing that comes to your mind is the Top Five Software conglomerates : TCS, WIPRO, INFOSYS etc. often nicked as 'bulk recruiters'
I'd been for one of their Pre placement talks (PPT), but before going in for that lets talk about Pre PPT scenario.

These Software giants are perceived differently by different people:

a) If you are from an IIT, then you'll give the "huh?- I-dint-get-you reaction when asked about placements in these companies.
b) If you are from an NIT, then you'll get the question, but promptly reply that its not prestigious for you to get in there (you know better)
c)If you are from any other local engineering college, then this is mostly going to be your first job (and probably your final one,on campus) taken from job-security point of view.
d) If you are a parent, then its a prestige issue that your lad works in here (you certainly have the following facts & figures:turnover,employee base,business verticals,presence in different countries et all.

Coming back to the PPT, since I'm from a non-IIT/NIT institute, this company was confident of getting a wholesale deal struck here (offcourse with bulk discounts and other perks). When you know you have the market then you tend to loosen up a bit and so was this one , a bit unorganised in their presentation skills.
A confident bloke tried to challege them and asked the golden question' why do you recruit such masses?' He got back:" Well, we have an ever expanding business and we are always in need of freshers" -Thanks to the ever increasing attrition rate and headhunters.THis explains the reason why he made two contradictory statements:
a)"You all have the freedom of choosing your career paths: be it a domain or a vertical of your choice"
b) you'll be able to chose your domain/vertical after establishing considerable (4-5years) time in the organisation."
I say he was a smart guy: he knew the folks were dozing untill he reached the 'compensation' slide.
I liked their attention seeking technique of starting off with an audio visual ad campaign and winding up with a 'this-is -the kewlest-place-to-be' movie ; for which almost 75% of the junta fell in.
But I did not, as i constantly told myself: "You are here just for the PPT. Not to get placed!"

But the truth is that sooner or later, I'll be placed within one of it's competitors and you might just hear my mom say 'Mera beta ABCDeeeee mein job kartaa hai'

Dear mom. And dear me.


copyrights reserved by Pseudonormicks and boy luvarien.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are solely the author's and are subjective.They are not intended to influence,offend or hurt anybody living or dead.The articles may have a tendency to be satirical and or sarcastic.

PSYCHE: Teleseries Reviewed

VERDICT: ***
Mondays: 10:00 pm Saturday :4:30 pm (Star World)

Shawn Spencer (James Roday ) is very much like an average bloke in his twenties with a charismatic persona except from the fact that he possesses an innate ability of observing and successfully retaining the minutest detail in the surroundings. But for his father, Henry (Corbin Bernsen) , this feat is the result of the training imparted, than his genes .Thanks to his razor sharp senses, he is able to pin point the culprits from the corner of an over a news bulletin while his blonde girlfriend is over him.
Spencer kept on tipping the cops while he went hop-skip and jump through the 36 jobs he took after high school until this day when the cops suspect him of being an accomplice terming his tip as an inside information. The witty Shawn however tries to convince the cops that he is psychic and bags a kidnapping case from the still skeptical chief of police. He gets his childhood buddy Gus (Dulé Hill) who reluctantly joins him on the case and then in guarding the 'psychic' secret. Spencer solves the case in a weird (dramatic) style : asking impertinent questions, hitting on the victims sister and yes, cant miss the psychic pretence. All of this drives Gus crazy getting him the fits and the viewers the drama sufficient enough to draw the un-types in for a mystery series. Later on Spencer goes on to open his Investigation agency 'PSYCHE' forging Gus' signatures to make him a partner and thereby dragging the poor chap into what could be an adventurous ride for their careers.
The series is Star World's attempt to relinquish the many detective concepts being aired by giving it a fresh perspective through the 'comic-drama' genre. Although Spencer's antics might just remind some of you of one Detective Omkar Nath (I'm not suggesting things), yet this typical American kid and his chicken hearted partner have something for you to be glued to the IB for an hour and a half.


copyrights reserved by Pseudonormicks and boy luvarien.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are solely the authors's and are subjective.They are not intended to influence,offend or hurt anybody living or dead.The articles may have a tendency to be satrical and or sarcastic.

ROBO-KAAND

Whiling away my precious PL(prep leave) morning over the myriad newspapers I have subscribed to, I came across a little piece :a pseudonorm that said ”South Korea plans Code of Ethics for Robots” : The scarcely populated country which comprises of old people (unlike ours which is heavily populated with a good proportion of young blood) would have new citizens 10 years down the line. These robots would also be guarding the delicate border separating the nation with North Korea.

Recently Prof Warwick (the first man to have a chip implanted in his body) had come down to India giving a series of lectures on the importance of implanting these chips .Prof. Warwick predicts that the world will be full of robots in the next 25-50 years and so to survive , one definitely requires these chips that could keep man still superior over his creation.

So, the next-gen cool kids won’t be the one’s who’ve got pierced at odd places, but the one’s who’ll have implants at maybe even places. To add to it, they might even carry tags saying “Powered by XYZ Corp.” This seems to be an excellent brand building tool complimenting the much sought after evolution of mankind. Especially when R&D work is being done on building intelligent robots who can take their own decisions, there’s a lot more to see for the current young guns and off course their kids (that’s if they reproduce humans instead of bots)

If you haven’t sensed the sarcasm above, let me brief you about the preventive measures proposed to the much dreaded future (only witnessed in Sci-Fis): Coming back to the South Korea article, they’ve set up a team of esteemed scientists, lawyers and doctors to come up with a set of rules that would prevent android (human look alike robot) abuse and define the relationship between man and these machines. They might even consider Issac Asimov’s (sci-fi author,”I,robot”) laws laid 60 years back:
a) Robots may not injure humans or allow harm to come to them
b) Should obey orders given by humans (not overriding the above law)
c) Must protect their own existence (not overriding the above 2 laws)

It is difficult to understand how exactly these laws might be inherited if these robots are to guard a country’s border, however, I give the benefit of doubt and wait for them to come up with their set of laws.
Laws made would possibly differ among nations and might lead to the setting up of an international federation of Robotic rights and proliferation (I’d prefer a kewler name though) and the then superpower would decide the fate of this creation that may have just evolved out of the human fetish for owning slaves.

I feel I’m virtually on my way to build my first work of fiction and eventually perform a fast Fourier transform of the nightmarius-producto-hormones in side your cerebrum (or is it cerebellum?) , so preventing any further deflection on my guilt-o-meter ,I take your leave ; but do ponder.

Pseudonormicks copyright 2007
The views and opinions expressed are solely the authors's and are subjective.

Pseudonormicks Fab Phone Awards 2006

-- XeoN

2006 was a roller coaster ride in the cell phone arena as we saw better cameras getting built into handsets, fashion phones walking the ramp, GPS and Wi-Fi integration becoming more essential, and advancement in mobile networks exposing us to faster downloads for content. Scouring the latest mobile devices on the Mumbai market, special attention was paid to design, features, functions, as well as value.

Camera phones pushed into the 3-megapixel space with Sony Ericsson ™ and Nokia™ both launching 3G handsets that took best-quality snaps. The K800i edged in front of N73 in terms of ease-of-use, but what I appreciate is Nokia's integration with Flickr for uploading photos.
While LG™ introduced the innovative Chocolate KG800 phone, it's the company's clever marketing strategy -- to call a handset something that's instantly recognizable -- which is being imitated by others. Arguably though, Motorola™ got there first with the iconic MOTORAZR, which continues to be popular in all the iterations we've seen this year.

Windows Mobile devices tried their best to steal some of the enterprise market from RIM, with the introduction of push e-mail, but the Blackberry maker retaliated with the 3G-capbable 8707 and the Pearl, the first consumer-oriented Blackberry that features a built-in camera, expandable memory and multimedia playback.

Following the popular adage:” There is no right no wrong.” And of course” Beauty les in the eyes of the beholder” , we thought of giving out The Pseudonormicks Fab Phone Awards (PFPA) 2006 spanning across different categories chosen and analyzed by our brand new tech contributor XeoN.


Best camera phone of 2006 – Nokia N73

The hotly anticipated Nokia N73 camera phone has nearly every bell and whistle under the sun. With the Carl Zeiss 3.2 Mega Pixel lens, the N73 snaps superb hi-resolution stills with accurate colours and precise focus, letting users who want more control tweak a range of options to get pictures just the way they want them - including colour effects and red eye removal. Also, the large, high-resolution screen not only makes a great viewfinder but works a charm for browsing or viewing pictures you've already taken, which can also be shared and printed in all thinkable and unthinkable ways. Business users will also get a good companion in the N73 since it has Symbian OS 9.1 (S60 v3) & thanks to its many quality connectivity options as well as its ability to view documents in popular Office formats, decent scheduling capabilities, bundled mp3 player & FM radio & also 3D stereo speakers. It’s priced at Rs.23k in Mumbai.

Best Music phone - Sony Ericsson W810i

With the W810i, the act of navigating music has been vastly improved as the navigational pad now lets users easily skip forwards and backwards as well as play and pause music in a one-step process. As presented through the bright and crisp 1.8-inch medium resolution screen, the Walkman interface remains one of the best in existence for music management. Picking up where the W800i left off, the Sony Ericsson W810i offers improved music navigation in tandem with the same excellent music management capabilities and decent amount of bundled memory as its predecessor. Other musical tidbits worthy of mention include the ability to activate the well-performing stereo FM radio with RDS through a dedicated play/stop button on the left side of the phone is a handy feature. W810i is the phone that came closest to being an "iPod Killer". Priced at Rs.15.5k in Mumbai.


Most Ergonomic phone of the year - LG Chocolate KG800


Straight out of a Space Odyssey, LG's new KG800 (aka Chocolate) is a black monolith of a slider with an unusually stylish exterior. Joining a crowded space, the fashionable LG KG800 slim phone has its work cut out for it. At 95 x 48 x 15.2 mm and 83 g, it's slim, lightweight and undoubtedly one of the most stylish handsets I have ever seen. In fact, its front half is completely flush; flick the handset open, and 9 touch-sensitive navigational controls are lit up in bright red. While Motorola's RAZR still manages to trigger ultra-thin fashion clones, LG has moved in a different direction with the Chocolate KG800, an understated and stylish mobile phone with a beguiling design twist. Its priced at Rs.13.5k in Mumbai.






Chic phone of the year – Nokia 7370

Trendy colours and a faux leather exterior combine with a solid, compact spinner design to render the Nokia 7370 a stylish contender with classic touches. A crisp and colourful 2-inch QVGA screen ranks as its most impressive feature, contributing to hassle-free navigation throughout Nokia's Series 40 interface courtesy of its high resolution - the latter of which joins EDGE in making WAP browsing a similarly pleasant affair. Keypad and navigation buttons are, for once, first-rate with regard to both looks and usability, proving text input needs not be sacrificed on the altar of style. A fully adequate 1.3 Megapixel camera with an intuitive interface has also taken up residence within the 7370, adjacent to 10 MB of memory. Available in Mumbai at a price of Rs.13.5k.

Super slim phone - Samsung D900

Samsung released the Black Carbon with the claim that it is the world's thinnest slider, and I couldn’t find anything thinner than the D900's half-inch (12.9mm). The phone has a glossy, fingerprint prone front with rubberized sides and backing. As a stylish slider, the Samsung SGH-D900 "Black Carbon" is worth a look, if you can overlook some imperfections. The menu system is very convenient, and the interface in general was a pleasure to work with. The 3-megapixel camera puts the phone ahead of the mass of camera equipped handsets, but the slow interface resulted in many failed shots, and the lack of good software on the PC means this camera phone is not for novices. This may make a great companion for those who want a sidekick to their larger digital SLRs, but don't toss your mid-range digital for this phone.D900 is available in Mumbai at Rs. 20k


Best smart phone for executives – Palm Treo 700p

The Palm Treo 700p Smartphone delivers everything you need without compromise. The Smartphone combines a smarter phone with broadband-like speeds and rich-media capabilities, all in one. This Treo phone brings Palm's world-class ease of use to the Palm OS Mobile platform. Connect with people in multiple ways: voice, e-mail, SMS, or MMS3. Your contacts are always reachable from any application on the 700p. Palm sees the Treo 700p as a phone first, and it shows in their tweaks. The Today Screen has a speed dial plugin with shortcuts similar to the Treo 650, and there's even a photo dialer (thumbnails of any contacts you wish) on the home screen. Simply tap the photo to dial that person. As with the Treo 650, you can also assign any letter on the QWERTY thumb keyboard to a contact for speed dial. Its available in Mumbai markets at a price of around Rs. 28k.



Best phone for e-mail – Nokia E61

The E61 does what Nokia does best: connects people. Its all-encompassing connectivity setup is exploited in full by a broad line-up of quality messaging, office and browsing applications which run in tandem with a superb screen and more than decent thumb board. HSCSD, GPRS and EDGE bring up the rear for data across quad-band GSM support on the go, while Wi-Fi 802.11b/g takes care of high-speed local connectivity. Add Bluetooth for use as a modem, synchronization, connecting headsets and printing; USB for synchronization and data transfers. Also with good handy utilities, good battery life and a compact form factor, and you end up with a very solid business phone contender indeed. Its available in Mumbai at a price of Rs. 19k.



Best Touchscreen phone – Sony Ericsson M600i
A number of factors combine to render the M600i an ideal device for enterprise e-mail, the most prominent of which is the unusual yet surprisingly well-working thumbboard - complete with a near 90-degree learning curve. Hot on its heels follows Exchange ActiveSync support, which can be configured either for true push e-mail or scheduled retrievals, while a scroll wheel and the brilliant screen chime in for terrific, thumb-driven e-mail triage. Reading e-mail attachments is a breeze with the built-in viewers for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Acrobat documents, and particularly so when the screen's landscape view is enabled. 3G and Bluetooth serve as a springboard for getting ones laptop online. It also delivers a solid impression in every other department, with the near-sole disappointment being its lack of a bundled USB cable and USB charging support. Add good battery life and nice touches such as a scroll wheel, stereo Bluetooth audio and a clever, agenda-style standby screen. Its priced at Rs.18.6k in Mumbai.


Most anticipated phone for 2007 – Nokia N95
While it was hard to stick to Nokia’s mantra that their new N-Series are not phones (they're "multimedia computers”), we can't argue with the raw power of the N95.The size of a small slider phone, the screen on the N95 is bright and clear, perfect for the incredibly smooth interface. GPS features are striking, especially the 3-D mapping. Based on the rendering of the 3-D map, the N95 looks to have some graphical prowess -- at last, a phone that seems capable of true 3-D. Movies are bright and clear on the QVGA (320x240) screen, though a wide-screen ratio would have prevented the letterbox bars on movies that made them look small. The N95 sports a 5-megapixel camera and a video recorder capable of VGA (640x480) recording, all of which can be stored on microSD cards, as well as a TV-out port and speedy HSDPA data support. Set for release in Indian markets in 1st quarter of 2007,the pricing is yet to be announced.

* Prices quoted are approximate, verification of the same is highly recommended.
** The views and opionions quoted are solely the author's and are subjective.
copyrights reserved by Pseudonormicks.

Glimpse of Modd Indigo '06

If you are a fest enthusiast and you walk into day 2 @ MI then there’s very little you can do on the participating front as most of the elims happen on day 1. But if you got there just to maaro lukkha then there’s more than just one thing to do.

MI just keeps on getting bigger and better every year and this year it brings to us the Indian Raaga. I heard of them bagging a huge sum in sponsorship and it got clarified on the face the moment I entered the main gate @ IITB. Everything at IIT seems to have a worth be it the trees, the lampposts, the walls , the main gate and even the urinals (see pic) as each of these flaunted at least one big commercial banner on their chest (Mr. Buffet,guess I have a tip for you)

The most brand draped venue is the Convo Hall where most of the informals happen .The comic strip exhibition by Shreyas was simply kickass and so was the rangoli exhibhition (see Sarkar rangoli pic) .

Makrand Deshpande’s play Sa Hi Besura was almost a house full at least at the beginning, but don’t know what happened after I walked out within five minutes . A Shabhaas India kinda stunt was seen where this man pulled a Tata Indica with his teeth.A gallery full of XBOXes was available for the junta to juggle with the joysticks.

A new event that’s come in is “The Reality Show” which asks the participants to organize an event on the final day of Mood Indigo. The folks, who get short listed by a 100 word synopsis of their event idea, have to stay on campus for all 4 days . Winners will be bagging Xboxes, iPods, Goa trips “and of course some cash’- as they put it. Overheard a few guys talking:” Yaar yeh to puri Roadies khila rahein hain , bus XBOX mil jaaye yaar”

JAM this year had an exhibition showing of the best JAMmers (IIT alumni) who like sticking to the campus every year.” We like hanging around IIT and we always ask them (MI organizers)to allow us in (JAM). So this year they decided to have a JAM exhibition finally”, said Zuzhe ,an alumus.

The ballroom dance finals @ LT was packed to the core! Couldn’t even get a glimpse of the dancers but the crowd said it all: I missed something great.

The queue outside the SAC kept on growing as the Popular Nite came close and so did KK’s performance.The crowd management wasn’t all that smooth , but the show made for it. It began with the hindi band finals “Mantra” which showcased a band from Delhi “Zingaro” (strangely they sung a track on their band name Zingaroo-o-o-o-o-o Zingaro –o-o-o-o-o the folks behind me went ‘ho ho ho’) and a few bands from Mumbai too. ‘Mukti’s fab vocalist became a cult figure thanks to his versatile voice spanning over tracks by Kailash Kher, KK and Atif.

Just before KK arrived, the crowd was exposed to an eccentric light show customized for Mood Indigo 05 & 06.
Then came the man himself and the OAT with approximately over 12K junta gave an uproar and the stage literally was set ablaze. It had a couple of goblets of fire and outlets for firecrackers and which shot rockets and confetti as the man rocked the junta to the core.

KK performed songs like Aap ki dua, Hum dum, Dus Bahane, Tu hai aasmaan mein , etc. But the crowd went crazy when he came with his version of Summer of 69 :”…Me and some guys fromVersova….. Nobody Quit and evone got married….. Those were the best days…” .
But when he came onto Pyaar ke Pal, the OAT was quite a scene. It went all dark with over 10K cell phones swaying with karaoke under the moonlight.

Sriram Emani, the very hospitable Overall Coordinator of MI ’06 was extremely glad when we expressed how much fun we had , after all it’s blissful when your efforts pay off well.Kudos!



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