13 hours and going strong

Few of my observations after having spent some time in the IT industry.

• Basic programming skills are sufficient. Know-how on how to manipulate pointers, linked lists, arrays and you are done.
• In algorithms, the most frequently used and the most useful algorithm by far is the Binary Search. Next most frequently used "algorithm" in IT industry would be Brute Force ;)
• Knowledge of SQL is necessary. Only [select * from table] is not sufficient. Update, Create (views & sequences & tables), Insert etc are needed frequently. Join conditions are a must.
• Knowledge of Networks is very helpful. Socket Programming and all those boring assignments are indeed useful.
• Software Engineering _is_ important, very important – period. Coding is _actually_ the smallest part of any project. (I never believed people who used to say this, now I believe!)
• Parsers are must.
• Operating Systems, Compilers do not have much importance.
• High-funda algos like The Shortest-Path-Algo and Dijkstra-Algo etc are rarely, if ever, used.
• There are stupid people in here too :P 

But this does not mean that OS & Compilers & High-Funda-Algos are useless. Without these a proper understanding of the working of code is impossible & without that knowledge I would have to categorize myself in the stupid-category… Yeah, it is apne muh miya mitthu, but being of a Computer Science background does help a lot!!

Parting Shot: Life without _loops_ is HELL!!

GoogleBlog Hacked!

Those who use Google Reader

Those who don't

Update: I labeled the item as "Share" and shared it using latest Google Reader Sharing facility. Suddenly I do not have any items in my 'Share' label. So the links are not working. The entry has been removed from my Google Reader too. I am unable to find it… Where is the feed??? Let me Google for it :D …

Update-2: Some more links –

• One
• Two
• Three

Hyderabad is Beautiful

Long Drive! That's what I needed. I wanted to feel the cool wind against my face; I wanted to feel the air rush through my hair… I had my trusty bike and good company (unluckily not of the fairer sex ;)). What I really required was a stretch of road that would allow me a leisurely long drive, without the cough-inducing smoke or the screaming horn behind me.

I was searching for such a road and on an impulse took the road that goes towards Hi-Tech Railway Station from Cyber Towers. Bingo! I found the perfect road. Negligible traffic, super-smooth roads and beautiful landscape around :D The road meanders through solid rock and the whole city of Hyderabad is visible on the distant horizon. Spectacular in daylight, breathtaking at night.

I hope that the evil eye of commercialization spares the rocks and leaves this beautiful 5 km stretch of road (called Kukkatpally – Hi-Tech City Spinal Road) shrouded in natural beauty. Unluckily I saw distinct signs of commercialization :( From Kukkatpally till Hi-Tech Railway Station, there has been rampant construction; but from there till Cyber Towers, no concrete mars the beauty. I hope, at least part of the road remains beautiful.

Hope

I hoped, I wished –
Many times, I cried,
And then once, I rejoiced.

An atheist was grateful,
I believed, I prayed,
Uttered a silent thanks.

He tested me, I failed…
Redeem yourself! He said
But again and again, I failed

Sure as the blowing air,
Hope had been in me.
Wonders, I had hoped of!

But now,
Hope is but a wisp of cloud,
I strive to touch it, catch it,
I meet the nothingness, the void.

Colourless Holi

From home to roaming through Raipur in a bicycle to roaming through Raipur in a scooter to IIIT’s NBH hostel to IIIT’s football ground to the tank behind guesthouse to sitting in office blogging about it.

Holi has certainly changed :(

Holi @ NBH in 2002 (my first year, 2nd semester) was by far the best Holi ever. 5 a.m. in the morning and someone starts banging on the door. With drowsy eyes I open the door and get drenched in ice-cold water. And thus, the celebrations start. I don’t remember who was the guy who drenched me, I have no clue who all were waiting outside to colour me, but I do remember that along with these people I woke up the whole batch and by breakfast time we had exhausted all colours. After painting NBH red & pink, we motored towards OBH and there a deathly silence meets us. After all it’s just 9, why should anyone be awake? The seniors were all blissfully asleep. Thanks to us, the Holi celebration were kicked off in OBH too and the white walls were soon pink (courtesy, the colours provided by seniors). The Holi celebrations shifted center to Guest House Lawn and long after the lunchtime, finally, the celebrations abated.

Next morning in one of the classes, Jayanti mam enters and starts scolding us, after all we were the people who had coloured NBH & OBH walls! We were ordered to clean the walls; armed with scrubs and water pipe we got down to business. We scrubbed all the walls clean, they again became white & we played a second round of Holi (although with only water this time). Ahh, it was fun – two Holi celebrations in two days :D

Unfortunately there were talks of banning Holi celebrations because of these events; after the cleaning expedition and our apologies the faculty looked down benevolently and did not enforce the ban on Holi, but the next day a new rule appeared in the rule-book of IIIT: Holi & Diwali would not be celebrated in hostel, all celebrations would take place in the football ground.

Those were the days!