Campus buzz... things that matter

The last post

2006-11-17T16:50:00.000-08:00

This is the last post on IIITBuzz.

It was pretty evident from the scanty posts that CmdrBuzz was missing (for a few months now). Well, the reason is that CmdrBuzz (yup, me) has graduated and moved out of IIIT. The blog was started as an effort to report the buzz in campus and has been pretty successful (except for the last 3 months). Also, the blog aimed to record the day-to-day events at IIIT and it did quite a neat job of it too (except for the last 3 months, again).

I hope someone can use one's journalistic skills to create something similar, to keep updates for IIIT. News, by itself, is as cold as ice. It's only when an author lives in the news that the ice melts. This blog can serve as a motivation, if anything.

I started this blog as an experiment. I wanted to see how the people in the institute think. What are rumours? What causes rumours? What is news? How many people know the news? How many people get the facts right? How many people really think? The answers to these are for my personal consuption.

I employed psychology with this blog to gain mind-share. To give an example: Did you ever notice the "Just buzzed" comment on every post which buzzed on this blog? Just think over it and you'll realize why we put it. Or did you note that we have been using the word "buzz" throughout this blog as a selling catch-phrase -- a tounge-o-philic term? Don't agree? Just count the number of times "buzz" occurs in this post. Or did you notice that the (almost) secret identity of the authors added flair to the ordeal?

Throughout this blog, we tried our best to maintain the truth. It is because of this factor that IIIT Buzz had some credibility with the faculty too.

Who is CmdrBuzz?
The ones who need to know can add 2+2. For the rest, it doesn't even matter. Really.

Adios
Cmdr Buzz
Editor, IIIT Buzz

Server room tragedies

2006-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

It seems like the server room tragedies which had seemed like a thing of the past have come back. Read Turbine's blogs for more. Also, ftp and telnet ports have been blocked on 200 for "security" reasons. It is suspected that this action was taken after 200 was hacked / cracked.

If you haven't noticed - SMR has changed the look of blogroll.

Wireless and Wired LAN

2006-10-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

We all know that wireless LAN has been performing poorly. After the recent maintenance session, DC++ was blocked. Wired LAN is now following in the footsteps of Wireless. With speeds between adjacent rooms in OBH varying at around 400 kbps, it is only a matter of time before some of the predictions in ORB's post come true.

South Zone Inter College Football Tournament

2006-10-08T02:01:00.000-07:00

IIIT's football team will be going to Chennai from the 10th to the 13th of this month to take part in the South Zone Inter Collget Football Tournament. The first match is against University of Madras. Defender Siddarth Ravi was enthusiastic about the team's chances.

Carnival Returns

2006-09-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

Yup..... the campus was again briming with activity throughout the day...n well,night.
Kudos to the guys n gals who managed it n put up a wonderful show.
While various activities ranging from adzap,debate,blindfold-sketching .... were scattered through
out the day with an appreciable audience(hope you know that's how it is in IIIT),the kho-kho forced people out of their afternoon nap.
The evening events set the mood upbeat with the (a)musical chair,the thoroughly enjoyed - treasure hunt, the brain-tickling bluffmaster,catch-the-clip ..
hey!! did i mention the talent show,the paper dance,the .......... oomph...... gala time....... Cheers!!

PS - this soul might have missed some events - during the hopper's break time. ;)
no offence meant.Thanx for the great Sunday.

Must Read Blog

2006-09-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Mythalez has been writing about his experiences in Southampton (UK). A fun read for anyone with excellent descriptions of the british, the place and life in general as a student in a foreign country.

Check it out.

The Foundation Day Panel Discussion

2006-09-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

The most important and highly anticipated part of the foundation day was the Panel Discussion. A mail sent to the students read :

The idea of having Panel Discussions on 'IIIT Culture' came in the context of the recent 'Ragging' scene which led to 3 students being sent to Mussourie as a part of transformational measure.

Whether or not the word ‘transformational’ should have had quotes around it is open to debate. The mail went on to state the questions which would be asked (and hopefully answered), and it made interesting reading :

What is the 'IIIT Culture' as has been gained through the past experience in the Institute? How has it fared?

and

What kind of Culture should IIIT build - among the students as well as the faculty and staff - as an Institute striving for better nation-building?

After sitting through the panel discussion, one thing is clear for all to see – those questions were asked to some minor extent but they were not really answered. There are two more discussions left to be held, with different panelists, so there is yet a chance something constructive may come out of all this. The people who participated in the panel discussion made up a very good mix - two current students, two alumni and two faculty. The panelists were (as announced in the afore mentioned mail):

Prof. Rajeeev Sangal, Director
Prof. P J Narayan, Dean (R & D)
Sunil Mohan Adapa, Alumnus (Batch of 2003)
Jayachandra Sunkara, Alumnus (Batch of 2004)
I V Aprameya Rao, Student, UG IV
Varun Boppana, Student ,UG III

The Moderator was Prof. P R K Rao and the session by and large went smoothly. The session was initiated by the moderator, who chose to quote a couple of famous personalities and then proceeded to explain to the audience his interpretation of their wise words. Shortly, the session officially began with the moderator handing the stage over to the panelists. The panelists were given a limit of five minutes to state their opinions before the debate began, but the actual amount of time each panelist talked for was more or less random. Some of the speeches were interesting and provided a unique insight into what the panelist considered a part of IIIT culture, but most were barren and devoid of any great conviction.

Given the boring and repetative manner in which the speeches began before the proceedings gained some momentum, a reasonable section of the audience was seen rubbing their eyes, yawning and in some cases, even sleeping on the uncomfortable chairs. After each panelist had stated his point of view the debate began.

The panelists were asked if they had anything to say about all the points which the others might have touched upon. The panelists treated this like they did their initial speeches, carefully weighing their words before speaking and adding umpteen “aaahs” before most lines. Then began the most productive part of this discussion which, bar a speech or two, was otherwise dreary and mediocre till that point of time. The stage was thrown open to the audience.

The audience had some good questions to ask and some quaint comments to make, but none of them directly dealt with those burning questions due to which this discussion had to be held in the first place. Rather than approach the topic from a higher level of abstraction, the questions were more about individual references which the panelists had made during their initial speeches.

A special mention has to be made of Prof. P J Narayan, whose witty comments and interesting personal experiences earned much appreciation from the audience. His comments on the way people treat "muggers" and his replies to the questions from the audience probably added a bit of flair to the evenings proceedings.

Prof PRK Rao’s job was made easier due to all the questions asked, which barely kick-started any real debate. More discussions of this sort would certainly be welcome, but only if they would result in some good solutions being found. However, watching so many people leaving right in the middle of the session was disappointing to say the least and that is probably one of the reasons why we have need of more such discussions in the first place.

BumbleBee Exam Time

2006-08-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

BumbleBee has no exams to take but it knows exams-time's approaching when:

Bathrooms remain unused for days at a stretch. Undergrads prefer to dwell in the placebo that time shouldn't be wasted in something as ephemeral as hitting the showers.
Love-birds are missing from their usual spots in the campus in the evenings. Instead, they're found in the library.
TAs assume god-like status with worshippers frolicing around lest the TA should utter words of wisdom or leak info about the "important" chapters.
The photocopier near the library has a thriving business.

BumbleBee studies the alertness level of an undergrad student in the neighbourhood of exam-time.
As expected, the stud's alertness level drops severely once the exam starts. The stud elevates to a state of trans for 3 hours. Words read / hour is way greater during exam-time than during prep time. This is also because during exam-time the stud has to read not only his own paper but the paper of his/her 6-neighbours as well.

BumbleBee stumbles across the undergraduate lab where a TA is checking assignments in person.
TA: You're busted. It's not your code.
Stud: oh.. no no no. It's 100% mine, sir. You can ask me anything.
TA: Um...ok.. tell me what's a linked list?
Stud: Well, Oxford dictionary defines a linked list as......
TA: Get lost
(the student departs)
Stud (to himself): What got him suspicious? Someone must've tipped him.
TA (to himself): Huh.. That code is definitely copied. I showed the same code to my TA last year!

Barged In Again

2006-08-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last time it was Vasavi and now it is CBIT. All the people who can remember what happened last time (Feb 28) when Vasavi college guys and gals came to our college to promote their fest will recall that almost the same feat was repeated by the CBIT guys trying to promote their fest last Thursday. All of a sudden some 15-20 cars appeared out of nowhere and the people started screaming on the top of their voices forcing even the faculty to come out and look out for what was happening. The promotion was horrendous, no one got any idea of their fest, people who were there on the first floor of main building didn't even know which college they come from, leave aside knowing about their fest and all. Comparing this with the our publicity for Felicity, wherever the representatives of IIIT went they maintained decorum.

Also, it puts a lot of question marks on the security system.

(Article by Himank)

Who gets whose Mails?

2006-08-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

Working on a tip off, we discovered that there are some interesting observations about a few batch mailing lists.

Observation 1:
For one, there has been some time since all mails sent to UG2 are landing into the mailboxes of UG1-CSE studs as well. This is because UG2's mailing list contains an entry for ug1_cse. Common sense dictates that it might have been an honest mistake. Apparently this matter has already been reported to the sysadmins, but the fact that the error still exists indicates that the reporting has gone like water on a duck's back.

Observation 2:
UG1 and UG2 beware. All mails sent to your batch's mailing list lands into Prof Kamal's mailbox as well. Someone indeed is watching what the freshers and sophomores are up to.

(Thanks to "Mr Somebody" for the tip off)

Personal Internet Service

2006-08-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

The institute's internet has gone from bad to worse to pathetic lately. When google search takes 10 seconds to load even when the bandwidth monitor reads full-speed, it doesn't take an Einstein to realize that something must be definitely wrong. Unfortunately, the dark lords are not amused.

SMR floats an idea of a personal internet service whereby he can lease a new internet connection and sublet internet within campus. Not only will it definitely be more reliable than the current state of IIIT's internet, it'll bring peace into the lives of many. It'll prove manna for studs whose heart stops beating every time the internet stops / slows down.

Even if we just have to talk about it, a reliable internet with browseable speed is all that we want. Is that too much to ask for?

CVIT adds another lab

2006-08-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

CVIT has added another lab to its already existing list of 3 labs. The fourth one has recently been setup in Room no. 214.

BumbleBee buzzes again

2006-08-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

BumbleBee had nothing better to do since the IIIT Internet was down; so it investigates theories on how to utilize such frequently-occurring situations:
Theory 1: There's no better time for coffee. Fire a google search and stroll towards the coffee shop. If you're lucky, the results will be almost ready when you return.
Theory 2: Stare at the monitor as the google search result loads @ 100 words / min. A free time-travel to the age when Internet was just evolving.
Theory 3: You get an opportunity to appreciate the lesser things in life -- pending projects, the sound of the birds, the color of the sky.

BumbleBee analyzes the anxiety level of an undergraduate student as the exams approaches:

The peak observed in the above graph (~2 hrs before exam) is the moment of frenzy when UG studs scurry about searching for text-books.

BumbleBee was busy brushing its wings when it overhears two girls chat in the "Motivate your BF" club:
Alice: Paul has been performing so poorly in the tests lately. I'm worried.
Nancy: Why, what does he do the whole day long?
Alice: He spends all day writing stupid posts on some blog about IIIT.
Nancy: That's your BF!? My BF spends all day reading that! Make him stop!

BumbleBee, tired of the nagging, moves away to hover over two guys in the "Make a GF this year" club:
Paul: Got a road map to achieve the year's resolution?
Frank: I've been regularly scrapping all gals in my friends' list on Orkut. Actually, even friends of friends, then their friends, and so on...
Paul: Oh! But, you shouldn't come too strong. You'll get people them suspicious.
Frank: Huh! I already figured that. So to even it out I scrapped a bunch of guys too. They must have scrapped back by now. I'll go check.

Ex-Dean talks at Infospur

2006-08-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

Newindpress reports about our beloved former-Dean speaking at Infospur-2K6, a national symposium on 'Discerning the Edges of Technology', organised by Avanti Institute of Engineering and Technology and Saint Theresa Institute of Engineering and Technology.
FTA:

Speaking on the occasion, IIIT, Hyderabad dean R Govindarajulu stressed the need for extensive research on IT and advised the young engineers to acquire skills appropriate to the needs of the country.

[Poll] Rate the Carnival

2006-08-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

IIIT organised a first-of-its-kind Carnival last Sunday. Even though the motivation is shrouded with a lot of bitterness, the event pulled off quite well. Now that a few days have passed and the emotional outburst has supposedly been put at rest, how would you rate the carnival?

Grade the Carnival
How do you rate the Carnival (20/08/2006)?

A
B
C
D
F
I

view results

BumbleBee buzzes

2006-08-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Introducing... BumbleBee

BumbleBee overhears a conversation in the doctor's room.
Stud: I'm having irregular heart-beats.
Doc: How long has it been?
Stud: It's been for a while. But lately, it has become prominent. My heart starts pounding every now and then. Sometimes, I'm restless for hours at a stretch. Please help me.
Doc: Open your mouth
Stud: aaaaa.
Doc: Are you in love? Some girl?
Stud: Fie. Fie. Nah.. all of them hate me.
Doc: Well let me see your eyes and your hand
Stud: Here it is
Doc: You have nothing. The irregular heartbeat is due to the dilapidated internet condition. Your heart starts pounding whenever the internet is down or is slow. Go back to your room, dork.

BumbleBee (BBee) runs across a UG4 stud as he gets out of of the viva-room after the BTP-viva.
BBee: Paul, is it true that there's only a marginal difference between the work you presented for the last BTP viva and this one?
Stud: Garbage! that's what others tell to defame me.
BBee: Oh really! So, what are the improvements in your work?
Stud: You see, I've been working very hard. There has been a change of perspective since the last BTP-viva. It's all a learning process, really.
BBee: Yes, why don't you have experimental results to quantify it?
Stud: Ah, who cares about intermediate results. I have the final application ready.
BBee: Oh great. What's your project by the way?
Stud: Well, not sure... it's something to do with video-conferencing over the network. It's a traditional project (I got it from a senior). It has worked wonderfully over the years, I'm told.

BumbleBee (BBee) interviews a group of agitated students sitting on a dharna outside the director's office.
BBee: Paul, What exactly are you demanding?
Paul: Well, we are demanding that starting next year, fresh students be enrolled before the summer hols rather than after it.
BBee: But don't you think it'll be difficult, with the entrance tests, counselling, etc? How does it even matter to you anyway?
Paul: You see, the summer hols are too long to stay at home. We're planning on a trip to Mussoorie. With the freshers having arrived, getting a sponsored trip will be so damn easy.

--
BumbleBee is a bee. It has 8 legs, 4 wings, 2 antennae, 1 mouth and 0 brains.
Just in case you don't get it, the mood in the above excerpts is "satirical".
Thanks to someone for pointing us to this.

Research First, then Placements

2006-08-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

As per a mail received by research students, the placement policy for coming season will entail that MS students don't take part in the "normal" placements held Dec onwards. Placements for them will be personalized for each MS student, arranged for specially by the institute. This round of placements will begin only in April and a student requires his/her advisor's approval before appearing for it. The message is loud and clear: concentrate on research work; then (and only then) placements will be taken care of.

ISAS gal tying knots

2006-08-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Sreelakshmi, an alumnus of the UG2k batch, is getting married to Prasad (of UG99) tomorrow. Sreelakshmi is one of the two responsible for the ISAS system (along with Vandana), for which they received the Banyan award. Prasad had been a well-known geek figure in campus and had been a system administrator for a while too.

This is perhaps the second IIIT couple, having chosen their other-half within from within IIIT, the first being Sujit (UG98) who married to fellow-batchmate Rupa a few months ago.

All the Best to the happy couple.

Indian or International?

2006-08-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

Rumour has it that there's an ongoing effort to get back the original name
of the institute, that is become "Indian" Instt of Information Tech.

IIIT's name was changed to "International" a few years ago after pressure
from the government that words like Indian, National, etc should be owned
only by government-managed institutes since they lead to confusion.

The faculty members are in favour of getting back the "Indian" tag. What
does the rest of IIIT think?

Bakras of GDIT'99

2006-08-16T19:54:00.000-07:00

Ravikiran, an alumnus currently at UWash, maintains a link to a collection of bakra mails sent to his batch during IIIT years. Whereas some are a result of login-left-open mails, there are is a large variety of pure humorous ones too, ranging from GRE / Felicity / CRs to love-declarations / emotional-outburst / fanatics. Some excerpts are quoted below. Read on for the rest.

i've at last discovered my love in the fresher's
party

I am gonna go for a diet. Plzzzzzzzzz...... help me in slimming down. Kick
me if you see me eating anything........

I'm going to start teaching dance in the morning...
   and yoga in the night,from tomorrow onwards.

After tiring work of around 1 year, finally i came out with an
algirithm to find out a person's sex. Here goes the SDA-Algoritm.....

200 and counting

2006-08-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

This article marks the 200th post on IIIT Buzz. So, Yeeaaaah.

Started on 5th Feb with the motto as "A place to record and discuss the most buzz..ing things concerning IIIT ", this blog has lived for 193 days. That works out to an average of 1.036 posts per day. Discounting the dry period of summer hols, the average goes higher. Individual posts have seen comments ranging from a high of 24, to a low of (of course) 0.

Besides, IIIT Buzz is the only known blog to have confirmed readership by faculty members (note: plural) and off and on some faculty members have been known to comment as well. The authors take this as a pride, along with the responsibility to ensure that not-any-post makes it to IIIT Buzz. Apart from IIIT students, several alumni members also check up to know "wassup?" with the institute. IIIT Buzz is also known to drive a surge in traffic to students' blogs that get buzzed.

IIIT Buzz currently has 8 authors (girls included), each of whom abides by the ethos. Apart from these regular authors, IIIT Buzz occassionally receives tip-offs about news items, through email. For every article that actually buzzes, there are a couple of those that are discarded, for a variety of reasons.

All the above is not a coincidence. At the back of IIIT Buzz goes a commendible amount of brainstorming amongst the IIIT Buzz Team members. A couple of new items are planned and we are pretty excited about it. Keep your fingers crossed.

Adios, and stay buzzed.

The I-day Cultural Tune

2006-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

There are some questions which never have a universally acceptable answer, good examples being "What is the meaning of Life?", " Why do people love Himesh Resmaiyya's songs?", "Who is John Galt? " and "What is IIIT culture?". Whatever IIIT culture may (and may not) be, being late is something which would have to be included in any of its many definitions. The cultural evening which was scheduled to start at 17:30 hrs yesterday, true to form, started late.

The event was held in the old library room (#119). Sometime after the program started, there was a seating crisis, with more and more people wanting to watch the show. Thanks to the additional lengths of carpet laid out, and to the high levels of dexterity displayed by the students (which helped squeeze two people in one chair), everyone managed to reach a reasonable state of comfort.

After an anterior dance, the program got underway. There was a play by some kids demonstrating the contempt with which people of different religions treat each other. This was followed by a telugu play, which was very well done, earning a very enthusiastic response from a clearly impressed audience. Much praise has to be attributed to the organizers and actors in this play. It had an awesome script backed up by very good acting. Judging by the reaction of the crowd, this would have to be the best program of the evening.

After this was the most anticipated show of the evening -- the Instrumental Performance. Much to the delectation of the audience, the three months of hard training clearly seems to have paid off ("for the past month, we practised from after classes at 7:30 till midnight on some days", to quote Violin Vasu). Despite the relatively small amount of time spent in preparing for this event, there were barely any mistakes made during the performance.

Following this was a short play, in English. Despite some guffaws from the audience, the play as a whole left a lot to be desired, and appeared unpolished. The gap between the two plays was pretty large in terms of quality, as was indirectly pointed out later by Prof Govindarajulu.

This was followed by some talks by the faculty members who were present, to give the actors time to change their costumes. The evening ended with a Mime Show by the students. It illustrated the internal struggle which we all go through when making decisions, and how one side wins in the end.

Irrespective of whatever IIIT Culture means, one thing is clear - we may not be the most cultured people around, but in a few years time the Cultural Quotient of the campus would be pretty high. So, a hearty Well Done to the Cultural Council. More of the same please.

(Debut post by Basilisk, our new author)

To Do or Not To Do

2006-08-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Sagar Rastogi, an alumni currently at IIM-A, writes about his experiences while organizing an event at IIM and compares it to IIIT which being a new institute wasn't very organized.

One of the traditions here at WIMWI is the T-nite. On paper, it is something like the Amalgam we used to have in IIIT

In retrospect, he confesses that even though he saw many problems at IIIT, he did not do much to solve them.

Sometimes I feel a little guilty about that because when I was there I didn't really think big / long-term for the institute… and at the risk of sounding boastful, I think I could have made a difference. I had some ideas from time to time… but I cynically pushed them away without even trying, thinking that they were doomed to failure. Bad decision :(

This is not the first time when an alumni feels sorry about not having done enough to make a difference. Time and again several alumni members have felt the same. Unfortunately, such thoughts occur after having left IIIT, not before. What else, otherwise, could have stopped someone like Sagar from making a difference as he wanted to?

So, before getting back to the usual rhetoric of flaming anything and everything, think about what you could do that could solve the problem. Or else you could just do nothing and carry the guilt later. The choice, as is always, is yours.

Kalam sings Jeevan Vidya on I-day Eve

2006-08-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

A P J Abdul Kalam, President of India, while addressing the nation on the eve of its 60th Independence day, mentions about the Jeevan Vidya experience as a typical model that has made a significant impact on social development. From the article:

Jeevan Vidya experience: Jeevan Vidya is being practiced by Prof. Ganesh Bagaria, IIT, Kanpur, Prof. Rajeev Sangal, Director IIIT (Hyderabad) and their teams. This scheme is concerned about addressing the basic causes of major problems of violence, corruption, exploitation, domination, terrorism and war. It has been found that violent and anti-social behaviour, unless dealt with care and with professionalism, could aggravate the extreme behaviour.

Jeevan Vidya develops tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty in human conduct by enabling self-knowledge that understands harmony in the self and in the entire existence. The academicians could bring about marked change even among the inmates of jails through the use of these techniques.

There's a lot of obvious rage against Jeevan Vidya in campus, especially since it's compulsory. However, is the rage justified? Or is the rage just against it being compulsory?

If someone as learned as the President of India feels so highly about Jeevan Vidya that he mentions it on the I-day eve, it must definitely be something sensible and upright. It must really be "a 'teachable human value based skill' that can address inherent conflicts within the mind of the individual, within families, in organisations and in public life".

Two to a Room

2006-08-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Karan writes about the problems of having to share a room in the hostel.

From the article:

It is just that its difficult for two people to adjust in a room meant for one! Theres barely space enough for two beds, a table and a chair to fit in. And now, having to manage it with two laptops on a single table(thats not all.. most of us have gone in for external hardware devices like keyboard, mouse and speakers), stifled is the perfect word to describe our state. Does that leave space on the table to study?

Although it appears to be written as an outburst, he ends it nicely with:

Of course, I have nothing against two people staying in a room.. but considering the disadvantages, they way outnumber the advantages. I hope that something is done about it soon, and the work on the new hostel speendens up, so that they can be ready for use by the next semester.

Campus Lingo

2006-08-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Gaurav assembles an alphabetically-ordered recap of some commonly used phrases in campus. Really popular include Bond, Matke, Phatta. The some controversial ones have been skipped. Examples explaining some of them are also given. FTA:

Disco:

Disciplinary Committee…

Usage : "It's the time to DisCo…

Matke: MTech Ke…

Hyd Trip for UG1

2006-08-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

UG1 has just returned back from a Hyderabad Bhraman today. They were taken to several places around the city in 3 buses which are still standing in front of NBH. It was an institute-sponsored trip for the freshers, aimed at getting them acquainted with the city.

Campus-buzzing

2006-08-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

IIIT has never been a more happening place than it has been over the past two weeks. There have been club meetings every evening. The parliament has already met once to decide on the future course of action. The chess matches have reached their penultimate stage. The informal interaction last Friday prepared the ground for the Fresher's Welcome Party scheduled for the 19th of August. The inter house cricket tournaments starts today.

The campus is definitely buzzing with unprecedented activity !!!

Against this atmosphere, this Independence Day is bound to be different from any that you have ever had in IIIT.

Besides the flag hoisting ceremony in the morning which is being organised by Aakash and Vayu house this time, the Cultural Council is all geared up with a string of performances on the eve of Independence Day. As many of us know, this year's summer break was unique with its Summer Cultural Camp wherein students learnt how to play the violin or guitar, learnt Bharatnatyam, prepared dramas in English and Telugu. The event marks the culmination of the camp. The students would be performing all that they learnt in the vacations.

A fusion musical performance with students on the violin, tabla and guitar is a much awaited performance. All are looking forward to the birth of IIIT's first Fusion Band.

Reliable sources say that there are a few surprise packages and treats for the participants as well as the audience.

The Informal-Interaction

2006-08-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

After a wide speculation, finally the 'informal-interaction' was held in Motorola school seminar hall yesterday.

Though the crowd was smaller as compared to the history of the day, nothing could beat the enthusiasm of the 'seniors' and 'juniors' alike. Inspite of the various dramatic events prior to this,there was a healthy interaction - something that all were eagerly waiting for. Right from the start till the very end,there was a liveliness in air .. and the ice between the batches did really seem to melt. The mood of the air was swinging between extrimities of applause to criticism to cheering...

Starting off the day with play (which nobody listened to or rather able to ) and followed by a sequence of dances and singing songs, UG-1 people tried to give their best shot at each one of them and the equally upbeat audience was a pleasure to watch. But soon,the seniors were seen talking n laughing with the juniors in small groups. They all seemed to enjoy the memorable moments. On many occasions when the 'seniors' asked the juniors to leave .. they refused !! They wanted to live those moments for 'some more time'.

Something that deserves to be mentioned is.. the UG-2 gals did surely have their piece of fun... what say??

IIIT Empowering rural India

2006-08-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

CIOL carries a recent article on how IIIT's e-Sagu project is helping in empowering rural India.
From the article:

esagu, devised by the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad in 2004-2005 crop season, is an extension system that involves farmers, coordinators and scientists. The coordinators are appointed out of the educated youth in the villages. The benefit can be gauged by the fact that the project has resulted in a net gain of Rs 3820 per acre. This has been due to reduced input cost over complex fertilizers and pesticide sprays, and increased yield. It has also increased production by 1.5 quintals per acre, saved fertilizers by 0.76 bags and pesticides by 2.3 sprays per acre. Within a span of two years the project has been extended to 35 villages in six Andhra Pradesh districts.

"The response time is 24-36 hours. We have 12 experts who address farmers' problems. Each village has coordinators who work from Monday to Friday and obtain crop status through digital photographs and texts. The status is sent to the experts who advice the farmers through the coordinators. The response time is 24-36 hours," explains G Shyamasunder Reddy, research scholar, IIIT.

No OBC Reservations at IIIT

2006-08-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

TimesOfIndia carries this news about the union cabinet having decided to abstain from implementing OBC quota in unaided educational institutions. Of course, IIIT is one of them. Following the whole hullabaloo on reservations in IITs, IIMs, etc, it felt quite natural that private institutes were next to be roped in, especially since several cabinet ministers had expressed their commitment towards the cause. But now, it looks like PMO is singing a different tune. Good news for IIIT, therefore, for the time being at least.

Rakhi & Beware!

2006-08-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

It's Rakhi today, celebration of brother-sister love.

That apart, it's also a day when guys are expected to be roaming the campus a bit less for fear being tied to the threads of Rakhi.

A warning to this effect has already been orkutting about.

अगर आप बस, रेल या कही से भी आ जा रहे हो और कीसी लडकी के हाथ मे फूल, धागा, चैन या ऐसी ही कोई चमकती वस्तू नज़र आये तो आप् तुरन्त वहा से दूर हो जाये।
ये चमकती वस्तु ऱाखी भी हो सक्ती है.
आपकी थोडी सी लापरवाही आपको भाई बना सक्ती है।
पुरुष हीत् मे जारी

Happy Rakhi from the IIIT Buzz team.

The WLAN Saga

2006-08-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

For the people who have been a little out of touch with campus news, we provide a full recap of the entire WLAN hooplah thats been going around.

It all started with a mail from Mr. Muzafer. In his mail, he raised several points related to the performance of the wireless network. A few of these points, any student who has taken Computer Networks will be able to say are not entirely accurate.

Nirnimesh then replied to this mail in private. In his reply, he asked a few valid questions. However, Mr. Muzafer replied to all@iiit with a one-liner -- "Nirnimesh update your networking skills". Considering Nirnimesh, his knowledge and experience, this remark was in extremely poor taste.

After this, yours truly and Rohan Monga sent a mail to life@iiit and Mr. Muzafer asking a few other questions about Wireless LAN and giving some suggestions. So far, there has been no response to any of the points in that mail.

Anyway, let us hope that something good comes out of this mail.

ITWS1A Gossip

2006-08-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

Jayabharth Reddy raised issues against gossip in the ITWS1A class for PG 1st year studs. From his mail:

"Some people(M.tech CSE 1st year guys) already know about what Instructor is saying. Does it mean that you people have to disturb others by shouting and gossiping??"

P Rajeshwar compares this to "a class room of KGs(LKG or UKG)".

Copier blog deleted

2006-08-04T04:11:00.000-07:00

The blog accused of promoting assignment copying, itws3, has been deleted. The blog was started on 1st August and by the time it was buzzed here yesterday, it already hosted two ready-made assignments. Now that it has been removed things are back to normal.

Dominoes Doesn't Deliver

2006-08-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a call to Dominoes at 9PM was met with the chap at the phone telling us that he did not deliver to IIIT anymore. He did not offer any reasons for the same. It is speculated that this is because he came two and a half hours late with some 10 odd pizzas and was not paid.

However, he did add that a new Dominoes would be opening at InfoSys. Until then it looks like the supply of pizzas has dried up with first Pizza Hut and now Dominoes refusing to deliver ...

AIEEE studs prefer IIIT, others over NITs

2006-08-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Newindpress, a South India's leading news site, carries an article stating that NITs no longer enthuse AIEEE top rankers and that students are instead looking forward to innovative courses in stand-alone institutes, IIIT being one. From the article:

In IIIT-Hyderabad, all-India ranks of the entire students who have been admitted for Computer Science and Engineering hover between 75 and 1,750. For Electronics and Computer Science, the ranks of students range from 300 to 2,000. These institutes have innovative courses in IT and Engineering.

Parliament 2006-07

2006-08-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Amid the confusion (last moment venue shifting) and the heavenly showers, the new Student Parliament Members took oath today in the Motorola school seminar hall. Dr. Govindrajulu administered the oath in the presence of Dr. Abhijit Mitra and other faculty. Dr. Harjinder was announced the new SLC chair person. Dr. Kamal will be the 'Observer'.

The UG1 people present there, confused as they naturally are, also stood up for the oath, along with everybody else. Everyone else, except them were standing and perhaps they felt left out. But soon they realised that they were the lone spectators (rest were the parliamentarians). The new Speaker - Arun, Deputy Speaker - B Varun and then all the other MPs introduced themselves. Dr. Govindrajulu was disappointed that none of them stated their 'aims n objectives'. After some 'few words' by the faculty members, everyone dispersed. Parliament 2006-2007 is formed.

As always, we expect the new Parliament to do something new.
All the best

(Debut post from Campus Hopper, our new buzzer)

This way please, says NBH

2006-08-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

NBH has a new entrance now. The gate near the stairs (leading to basement) has been closed and the one on its adjacent right has instead been opened.

Copy Assignments from Blogs

2006-08-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

UG2 has a novel way of copying assignments -- blogs. The blog named itws3 already has two assignments. Though it can be argued that genuine discussion can take place over this blog, but it makes it awfully simple to just copy assignments from there. It might help however if the assignment solutions are posted after the submission deadline rather than before. This way it can be useful as an archive of assignments, especially before exams.

IIIT Mag vs IIIT Buzz

2006-08-03T01:40:00.000-07:00

What might seem to be a theoretically perennial battle between two different schools of thought is not a conflict at all. Well! At least as far as the majority of IIITians are concerned, iiit buzz is a more convenient option.

Anti-mag ethos:

The just-graduated batch brought up the IIIT mag from the oblivious state of non existence. Such an enthusiasm/zeal towards mag is lacking in the current 3rd and 4th years. Those who are worthy of shouldering such a responsibility are lethargic to the heights of tepidity.
Those who are interested and incredibly passionate about mag are seemingly esoteric in the public eye
There is a traditional ghost looming large over the editorial echelons of mag. Free speech is obstructed to the brink of laboured, manipulated, bland articles. If someone speaks out (in a euphemistic yet realistic way) about things that matter but are not necessarily correct, one undergoes the legendary treatment meted put to some former editors. (though PK harboured some fault on his side too)
I regret to say. But some of the folks mentioned in the 1st point (I repeat, some, not all) were laden with a quality that can be found in this set ==> {egoistic, egotistic, ego-centric, ego maniacal} depending on the intensity level of their egos. Though these qualities are essential for the working of just about anything, they probably hesitated to hand over the reins (or rather responsibility) to the juniors. That would have probably rejuvenated the mag-passion.

Pro-buzz ethos:

Free Speech. Truth is maintained nevertheless. The limitations prevent abusive verbiage and vulgarized states. But surely, there are less constraints and no orthodox idealists involved. The idea is: discuss issues, not reject them outright.
Its faster, cheaper (free in terms of monetary expenses) and permits anyone good enough an expression.
It's interesting. Since there's no compulsion or a daily/monthly deadline, posts are published only when there is something to publish.
The legislative, judiciary and the executive powers are in the hands of the buzz team. So nothing can be held as an excuse for penalisation against any one of the buzzers. Neither can the institute management be held responsible/accountable for what is written here.

Anti-buzz ethos:

A different dimension of news coverage is a harbinger of new potential problems. For instance, leaking out information to outsiders. So far, no such post has been published. Guess its up to CmdrBuzz to see to it that not any arbitrary post is not published.

(Debut post from "I" for Incredible, our new author)

M$ - here we come

2006-08-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

After a IITian succeeded in coding for Bill Gates and won the prestigious Code4bill competition, Microsoft Research India, announces five PhD fellowships for the year '06, the ET reports.Three of them have been bagged by the IITs, one each from IISc and our college.

Each awardee is expected to receive $5000 per year for the next four years and also an option to intern at MSR for three to six months. Lets wait until this gets official and we get to know the name of the lucky fellow.

Blogs by UG2

2006-08-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Maruti lists out the bloggers from UG2 into two categories: technical & non-technical. As per the article, there are 15 bloggers in UG2, which sums to 8.6% of the batch strength. The article goes on to mention that "3rd sem is most easiest sem of all and we get a lot of spare time". Hopefully no faculty chance by this, or else UG2 can expect some heavy assignments.

Server Room on a Corrective Path?

2006-08-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Former sysadmin Nirnimesh posts the mail he had written to the institute faculty about the server room mismanagement and possible remedies. There is a change in course from "tragedies" to "corrections" and since this one is numbered #1, it's expected that there's more to follow.

Let us hope that they take it seriously and do something, hopefully get some student sysadmins. Let us hope that IIIT's system administration problems end once for all. Hoping too much?

Subnet 20 Killed

2006-08-02T04:32:00.000-07:00

172.16.20.* has been killed.

OBH's wired LAN's IP has been changed to a brand new series. This brings us to the end of subnet 20 (172.16.20.*). There are a lot of memories associated with subnet 20. It was a nice subnet but had been ill for over a fortnight. It had been put on gateway 172.16.15.1 for life-support for quite some time. If you have been in IIIT for more than a year, you'll remember how faithfully subnet 20 has served you. Specific IPs include 20.56, 20.57, 20.28.

Remarkable was the announcement for this changeover. The first mail didn't contain subnet and gateway information necessary for connecting to the LAN. It is only after the changeover was effected that this information was announced through a second mail. How can you check the second mail unless you are connected? In other words, who came first -- the chicken or the egg?

Messy things

2006-08-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Registered mess started operations w.e.f. today (Aug 1). A number of experiments have been tried this time. Hot Rottis has been invited for the OBH mess and Yuktahar, the cooperative mess, has been added as an option. This makes 4 messes in campus now apart from the canteen. That's a lot of competition. It is believed that competition will be a clever way to ensure proper food in the messes. The equation is simple: just choose the mess which has the best food. Bon Appetit.

"Con-Vocation"

2006-08-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

Mails were sent out declaring that the 5^th convocation of IIIT will be held on 29^th july and that all graduating students along with their parents are invited. The graduating students started arriving and by evening of 28th almost all of them made it except a few of the mba students and a couple of others. The students coughed up the Rs.150 and took those black flowing graduation gowns.

All were supposed to assemble at 5 in the evening for rehearsal. All did, only to be kept waiting and waiting. But it was a great opportunity for them all to meet their batch-mates exchange stories of the new experiences in the IT companies, enquire about the US going guys etc. Predictably, most of them grew a bit fat as any IT employee ought to be. But Khurana (our former author Smiley Singh) did the opposite and turned up smarter and trimmer. After whiling away time at the venue until 7, Dr. P K Reddy makes his appearance and announces the names of the people in the order in which they shall be collecting their degrees. That was the rehearsal! At night, many groups went out on what would be their last dinner together.

Breakfast to be from 8 o’clock on 29^th morning. The students many of who never woke up at this time in the whole of the past year in the institute turned up at the Guest house all smartly dressed up. Most of the Parents living in AP and nearby states made it too. Not many faculty members were to be found though. The breakfast was pretty good what with all the varieties i.e Idly, Puri, Vada and Dosa along with Jalebi being served. The graduating students assembled on the side of the temporary shed and started unraveling the mysteries of those shiny gowns. The main gown was simple enough to wear. All the problems were with that ‘thing’ which was supposed to hang onto the shoulders but would keep slipping away. The cardboard cap on the head made sure that you wouldn’t get too comfortable all through the programme.

The dignitaries assembled on the dais, the students were called out and handed over their degrees by Prof. Raj Reddy. It has been a long time since Prof. Raj Reddy personally attended the convocation. A lot of clicking was being done all around. This ended at 10:30 and the Director requested everyone to remain seated until 11:15 when the Chief Guest i.e the Chief Minister would arrive and the main programme would begin. Obviously the students didn’t heed the advice and went around in their flowing gowns to be introduced to the parents of their friends and have some photographs taken and so on.

Surprisingly, the chief guest and the guest of honour arrived on time and the ceremony began and took its usual course. Maybe the chief guest and the chairman could have looked more attentive during the speeches or the vote of thanks. There were many cameras around belonging to news channels and newspapers. The highlight of all the speeches was the announcement of the Chief Minister about the land on which IIIT stands being given to IIIT at a nominal rate (worth 900 crores would be given at 90 lakhs). The topper of the batch Santosh Kumar was awarded the gold medal. He made an impromptu speech dedicating it to his parents and also thanking Prof. PJN and Dr. Jawahar. Lunch was to be served after the ceremony though none of the graduating students knew whether it was also for them or only for the dignitaries (I still don’t know).

All through the programme great winds lashed on the metal shed and made a raucous noise sometimes making the speaker inaudible. The function was well reported by atleast two local newspapers (DC and TOI with pictures of Santosh with parents and MS graduating girls respectively) and telugu news channel Teja News. The students who were with the parents left on the evening itself, a few others stayed until Sunday and then flew away. For most of them, the convocation provided the opportunity for their first ever plane travel. All in all, it was a decent and a memorable event for the ‘grooviest batch’ aka UG2k2.

UG2k2 waves a ‘Good bye’ to IIIT and so do I - daemon aka mythalez aka rama

As The New Sem Begins

2006-07-31T23:38:00.000-07:00

We meet to create memories,
We part to cherish them.

And so the campus bade an official farewell to the graduating and post-graduating students last Saturday. With the last add/drop day over today, the campus seems to be back where it was eight months ago. But yes, there has been a huge change altogether. Old familiar faces can be seen no more and new unfamiliar faces spread all over the campus.

A festive mood prevailed over the weekend with loads of cheerful passout students gathering for their Convocation ceremony on Saturday. The rain failed to dampen the spirit of bonhomie and fun for which UG2K2 is so very well know for. It was good to see old students meeting faculty members, friends from junior batches and even the guards. One could not miss the satisfaction common among all graduating and post-graduating students.

Here's IIIT Buzz wishing them Good Luck for all their future endeavours! As far as the Freshers' Welcome Party is considered there is no official news about the same till date. May be there is still some time for the ice to melt.

About IIIT Buzz

2006-07-31T07:18:00.000-07:00

We have received innumerable queries regarding IIIT Buzz. So, we thought we'd rather answer some frequently asked questions to everyone.

What is IIIT Buzz?
IIIT Buzz like a diary, for IIIT. Everything under the umbrella of "things that matter" can be posted here. It's a place to record the most buzzing things concerning IIIT. IIIT Buzz is _not_ IIIT's official blog.

Who are the authors?
Studs, like you. We are a loosely knit team of bloggers. Faculty members don't post on this blog. (Some) faculty members do read the blog, though (and comment too).

How can I become an author?
Invitation for authorship is 100% referral-based. You'll have to wait until you get invited. We invite people who we find interesting and are able to write/blog well. If you want to become one, SMR's blogroll is a nice place to start. If you think you are qualified already, send a mail to cmdrbuzz@gmail.com. We don't promise we'll extend you an invitation, but we'll consider it.

How do authors get added?
After an invitation is sent, a new author submits his/her first story. This has to be approved by us before he/she is added as an author. So, the first post from an author is posted as from CmdrBuzz. The later ones are posted directly, but can be edited by CmdrBuzz.

I have an article. What do I do?
Send it over to cmdrbuzz@gmail.com. If we find it interesting, we'll post it. You have the option of remaining anonymous.

Are there any guidelines/rule-book you abide by?
We don't intend to be prohibitive. We just want our posts to be true and decent. We don't allow posts which are: 1) against IIIT's interests, 2) abusing a faculty, etc.
As a policy, we don't comment-back to readers' comments.

I liked your post on ..XYZ..
Thanks.

Your post on ...XYZ.. was indecent.
Maybe. But we are adults, and we expect you to behave like one too. And this is a college, not a nursery school. So, don't expect only rhymes-like posts here. Our authors are responsible enough and we know that we don't cross boundaries.

The post on ..XYZ.. should not be posted on IIIT Buzz.
It's disappointing sometimes that people discuss whether an article should be posted or not. Instead, we want you to discuss the issue, not the validity of the post. Remember, WE get to decide whether a post is valid or not -- it's a privilege we authors grant ourselves.

We'd be happy and pleased to see some discussion going on the issue at hand, rather than mere flaming the authors. Anonymous flames, we feel, are no more than dog-barks. Offer solutions instead of noise.

Who is CmdrBuzz?
This is the most popular question. Unfortunately, we cannot answer this (yet). Who is John Galt?
We know that some authors are not undisclosed, but it's their call.

I have another question. What do I do?
Write in the question as a comment. We'll try to answer.

HSSM and a UG2 gal

2006-07-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

(Based on a true account of a UG2 gal)

With a song on lips and jump in feet, I, now a senior [;-)], entered the campus on 14th after a heartful break. My lips turned blue and my feet failed to move when somebody remarked "Hey! you are pretty late.. better fill in your choices for HSSM". My mom had told me never to lose temper and dad wanted me to take wise decisions. Here I was with seemingly infinite options but all seemed to be equally confusing. So, I rushed to my forever-trusted seniors for guiding me. I was told to fill in choices and that we could later add/drop the course after having a short brush with the course. I again started reading those dreadful names: ahh English Literature -- I know what it is! Thank God...'click' ..followed by some more clicks..which still echo in my heart. Do i need to say anything more? I was awarded and my wish fulfilled. I must confess I am a die-hard optimist. After being in queue for add/drop session for 1 hr and 40 mins, I was relieved to see Appaji. But he had no solutions to my misery. I am shock-resistant now.

While I was still trying to find out what HSSM meant (my seniors failed to tell me!!) ...BANG!! came in the 'final list' of alloted courses, a completely new one, and a random one. My heart again went mmm... when i heard most of the students were shifted. "Make wise decisions," my father's words echoed in my mind.

(Debut post by Ms Margaret, a new authoress)

The new sports calendar and related stuff

2006-07-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

The new sports calendar (for all those who are not aware even now ) is out !
It was sent to your 200 mail accounts and also on display at the PEC notice board

Since the interactions with the freshers reached a historical phase (absolute ZILCH stage) one wonders how the talented personalities among the 1st years will come out into the sports arena :(

Of course there's a bright side.There are two new talented chaps already discovered ..one guy who plays real good cricket and another fellow who suposedly is a very good athlete. The ittefaqhere is that both of them belong to Agni (oh no!Not the Agnians again)

Mr.kamalakar (for those who are reclusive enough not to know ..he's IIIT'S PD ) decided to send a team of athletes to Inter-University Athletic Championships in Bangalore in November.And also,other inter-college championships in other sports.But too bad the good athletes and sportsmen in the final year can't participate owing to CAT,placements,GRE,etc.,

Hoping these Inter-house sports events bring out the new crop of sports icons ...the next generation !!

Rain Rain Go Away

2006-07-27T00:02:00.000-07:00

Rain rain go away
Come again another day
IIIT's convo is two-days away

With the monsoon hitting back the city in full might this time, speculations are rife as to what will happen on convocation-day. The main-ground is damp and soggy with numerous puddles of water all over. The sheds laid over the poles served no purpose in the face of last evening's torrential downpour. Wonder how the to-be-graduate students, would react to this arrangement when they arrive in a day or so? At this point we can only hope the Sun God shines bright and strong.

Meanwhile, a few basket-ball players enjoyed the heavy rains yesterday on the court. They were seen dribbling the ball with ease despite the chill. Just a note of caution, though: better take proper care than face shortage of attendance at semester-end.

(Debut post by Arwen, a new authoress)

IIIT+CMU for MSSD

2006-07-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today's ET carries an article on IIIT's collaboration with CMU to offer executive programme in management of software systems and development (MSSD). Talking to ET, Lynn Robert Carter, principal fellow, Institute for Software Research International, School of Computer Sciences, CMU, said that the programme was designed to target the issues that the global best practices such as CMM, CMMI, P-CMM could not address. Therefore, the programme helps to address issues hampering a software manager’s ability to deliver a quality product in the most profitable manner. The programme is intended for people with 8-10 years of work-experience.

Naming IIIT and its Corners

2006-07-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

That IIIT is visible from google earth is no secret. Several of its places are tagged on wikimapia. But what is unnoticed is that apart from tagging the buildings, grounds, coffee shop, etc, some interesting spots are marked too. Have you checked IIIT's Cupid's Corner or Piya Milan Chowk on Wikimapia?

Convocation Invitation for Graduating Studs

2006-07-25T06:11:00.000-07:00

The institute website has been updated with an invitation for graduating students for the convocation. The convocation will be held on 29th July (Sat). AP chief minister YSR will be the chief guest and F C Kohli, former deputy chairman of TCS will give the convocation address.

The distribution of certificates will begin at 9:30 AM and the convocation ceremony will be performed at 11:30 AM. All graduating students are supposed to report on the 28th to collect the convocation gown and participate in the rehearsal.

Starting today, preparations are visible in the main-ground, which is where the convocation will be held this time. Hope it doesn't rain.

Ragging in 2010 AD

2006-07-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

It's 15th July, 2010 AD.

The new academic session is about to start. Freshers have arrived in the campus. Freshers, the very idea sends chill down the spine of all seniors. In fact, they are terrified. One even had a mild heart-attack (he's alright now).

There was a time, not quite long ago, when it was the other way round and the sun used to set in west. Seniors used to interact with the freshers, tried to talk to them, make then comfortable, taught them things and even trained them to face the world which is undoubtedly rough. Unfortunately, the govt of India and therefore the institute faculty didn't like the idea. They treated all such measures under a unified banner called ragging. Circulars to this effect were attached to every notice board. Special task forces and detective mechanisms were put in place to nab the germination of all such activities. It began with seniors being suspended in a frenzy. In subsequent years, they were handcuffed, tortured 3rd degree, capital punishment. And one fine day, Charlie, a second-year stud, looked directly into a fresher's eyes. His eye-balls were plucked out.

So, things have changed remarkably over the few years. The sun doesn't set in west anymore. Seniors dread juniors. They gasp for breath in case one passes by. Freshers summon seniors to their rooms to shine their shoes. All such defensive mechanisms have been accepted as combat weapons against ragging. The more senior one gets, the more vulnerable one is. Only yesterday, a 2nd year PhD student was seen moving around with a dog-tail, which had been planted by freshers. He dare not remove it lest he should be accused of ragging. A 3rd-year B.Tech girl was seen roaming around in lingerie, as per strict instruction from fresher girls.

OBH is silent. Most seniors have gone on a 1-month leave (after the summer hols) to avoid the high-steam period. Some have refused to come out of their rooms in days. It's heard that the 4th year guy in Room #520 (OBH-extn) has dug a bunker and is hiding there. Freshers rule the campus. They move about merrily. Freshers can't make out the difference between a TV and a computer monitor. One just burnt a computer monitor, thinking that it was useless since it wasn't showing ESPN. Of course, seniors can't dare enlighten them. One fresher doesn't know how to open a bank account. He lands up depositing all his money in some random mutual fund with some random bank, thinking that it was a safe deposit. Of course, no senior can dare guide him. Mr Tim, a fresher, has never had enough courage to talk to a girl. He still wets his pants. Yesterday, he was mugged by an auto-walla opposite the main-gate. Of course, no senior dare volunteer words of wisdom / tips to be stronger -- it might constitute ragging.

The faculty is pretty content. And why not. The measures they initiated a few years ago to combat ragging have worked. Who cares about equilibrium anyway? Who cares that no batch talks with any other batch? Who cares that the only interaction possible is that of freshers ordering their seniors to carry out odd errands for them? Who cares, as long as the campus is a ragging-free zone!

The latest news

2006-07-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

The latest is apocalypse writing an interesting article on the state of affairs at campus.

Also nirnimesh posts on another tragedy in the server room.

CVIT Party today

2006-07-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

CVIT has a party today. They're going to Dhola-ri-dhani resort. As per an invitation sent to CVITians (over 100 of them!), they'll leave by bus at 2:00 in the noon and return by 11:00 PM.

In a situation where batch parties/picnics are getting rare, it's intriguing to see a research lab going for one. And dhola-ri-dhani has its Monsoon discount offer (20%) going on these days.

Update: The party in pics.

UG2 Woes

2006-07-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

The current UG2 have been an unfortunate lot. They had to begin with sharing hostel rooms and they continue to do so even in their 2nd year. Then due to some traitors UG2 danced before DISCO for you-know-what. The dance is ongoing.

This batch had to buy laptops and have now been deprived of PCs in labs. The concept of workspace, introduced to them in their 1st year, still continues, except that they don't have any PCs. (Where will they learn Age/CZ/Quake?) People are expected to bring their laptops and sit in the workspace/lab. God knows why. Can someone explain the concept of workspaces, by the way?

With the ever-increasing fees, it's natural to feel that the facilities provided have gone down. What will happen with the lab PCs anyway?

(story submitted by Himank; edited)

Freshmen Tone

2006-07-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

This is the time of the year when many freshers are introduced to the world of emails & mailing lists and some of them get a very picturesque idea, particularly of the students mailing list. A series of such anecdotes landed into the mailboxes of all the students.

[Students] I want to be enrolled
[Students] yes i will join

-- Both genuinely innocent

[Students] (no subject): my id is manish_a.i want your mailing list. have a nice day. bye bye.
[Students] (no subject): mine is chaitanya_gsk
[Students] mailing list: please send mailing list

-- Want to exchange mailing lists (for some reason)

[Students] Mailing list: plz send me the mailing list..

-- Wants to have the mailing list

[Students] mailing list: if u get all the mail IDs i can show u the way contact me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- No idea what he wants so show

[Students] mailing list: hi mine is chaitanya_gsk send me mail yaar
[Students] mailing list: plzzzzzzzz mail me

-- True IIITians. Already desperate for mails

[Students] Mailing list: hi mine is chaitanya_gsk send me u shall be friends
[Students] hi: Hi welcome to everyone. Iwant to make friendship with everyone.

-- Terrific friendliness

Internet B/W Increased

2006-07-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

The instt's internet bandwidth has been increased to 4 Mbps. Earlier it was 3 Mbps. This is synchronous with the change in the ISP to STPI. The figure below illustrates a rather fluctuating performance. But let's hope it's just the initial hiccups and that things will smoothen over (finite) time.

A 1v1 for "Healthy-Interaction"

2006-07-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Suryakant posts an exciting duel with Sugandh on the issue of you-know-what with the freshers. An anti you-know-what has been setup to protect the freshers. In the post, Suryakant corrects Sugandh to make him understand that interaction is quite necessary to develop worth-anything relationship between batches, "Almost everything in life is a continuous function and same is with Ragging and believe me we get a 0.1 on the scale of 0-1 for ragging". Whereas Sugandh admits that IIIT never really had any physical you-know-what, he equates it with seniors' ego.

Can speak now, says Govt

2006-07-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Deptt of Telecommunications instructed the ISPs to unblock unduly blocked blog sites, as per its earlier order. This comes as a breather for all the bloggers.

Now, after the hols, even iiitbuzz can come back to life.

Shut up, says Govt

2006-07-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Department of Telecommunications, Govt of India, has issued notices to several ISPs in the country instructing them to block several sites, particularly blog sites. This includes blogspot.com, typepad.com and geocities.com. Interestingly, wordpress has been spared.

In the age where India is being seen as a major in Information Technology, such gagging acts go a step further in purporting the mindless rhetoric of the government. There's an ongoing discussion of the censorship on GoogleGroups.

What IIIT did this Summer

2006-07-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

A brief recap of events at IIIT during this summer hols:

Solid discussion on mailing lists and then IIITians participate in Anti-Reservation Protest March
Cultural camps organized
Stationary shop gets robbed.
DC++ stopped and restarted.
Labs closed during summers.
DataQuest survey ranks IIIT at 10, while Outlook ranks it at 24
3 Faculty join the institute.
Workshop on Research Focus organized
IIIT signs MoU with Andhra Bank to provide edu loans at concessional rates
ISP changed. Internet situation worsens. blogspot sites (among others) become inaccessible

Outlook ranks IIIT at 24

2006-07-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

The cover story of the July edition of Outlook has ranked IIIT at an abysmal 24th position, in its list of Top 100 Engineering Colleges in India. From TFA,

We asked the most informed group—senior faculty members in different engineering and medical colleges across the country—to rate the institutes they were familiar with against various parameters: intellectual capital, pedagogic systems, infrastructure, industry interface and placements.

While it is interesting to see colleges like Jadavpur University, ISM Dhanbad, PSG College and MANIT ranked above our institute, IIIT figures just above this Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (??). IITs maintain their stronghold even in the Top 5 as per specialization.

NIT Warangal, an institute with barely browseable internet access has been ranked above IIIT in infrastructure. Well, if the recent state of internet in IIIT is any indication, they might not be entirely wrong.

new Faculty[3];

2006-07-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

dynamic_cast < IIIT_Faculty* > (new Faculty[3]);

As per Dr Kamal's mail, 3 faculty members have joined IIIT, beginning the upcoming semester.

Prof B. Yegnanarayana, (yegna 'at' iiit.ac.in) did his BE (1964), ME (1966) and PhD (1974) all from IISc, Bangalore. The focus of his research activity is to address issues in the development of speech systems for Indian languages with particular reference to speech-to-text and text-to-speech systems for Hindi. He'll teach Speech Tech along with S P Kishore. His office is located in CDE faculty, adjacent to Vikram Pudi's.
Dr. Kishore Kothapalli (kkishore 'at' iiit.ac.in) just completed his PhD (2006) from John Hopkins University. Earlier, he did M.Tech from IIT, Kanpur (1998) and B.Tech from NIT, Warangal (1996). He's interested in Theory of Network Communication, Overlay Networks (esp Peer-to-Peer Networks, Wireless Networks), Distributed Algorithms. He worked as software engineer at D E Shaw, Hyderabad (1998-1999) and as Software Consultant for American International Group, New York (1999-2001) before opting for PhD at JHU. His office is located in Room #109.
Prof. P. R. K. Rao (prkrao 'at' iiit.ac.in) did his PhD from IIT Kanpur. He has interests in Probability Theory, Random Processes, Communication. He'll be teaching Signal Detection & Estimation Theory and Probability and Random Processes.

Unfortunately, the IIIT faculty information page has not been updated since long. It still shows Sashikumar as a research associate at CVIT. Worse, it still shows Ramkanta Bal as a guest faculty.

Freshers are here

2006-07-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

The 3-month long emptiness of the campus is now coming to an end.
Freshers have arrived in campus. Parents and new students are visible
strolling around since the 8th, even at nights. Some parents are often
seen inquiring things from students passing by.

While any real "interaction" won't begin until the hols get over, any
movement in campus is welcome.

MoU for edu Loans

2006-07-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

IIIT entered into an MoU with Andhra Bank for extending educational loans at concessional rates of interest (9.5% for males and 9% for females). CMD of Andhra Bank and IIIT director exchanged the MoU today.

Convocation on 29th July

2006-07-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

IIIT's fifth convocation will be held on 29th July. Shri F C Kohli, vice
chairman of TCS, will be the keynote speaker, while the CM, Y S
Rajasekhara Reddy, will be the chief guest (yet again).

IIIT ranks at 10 among Tech Institutes

2006-06-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

The DataQuest survey ranks our institute at the 10th position among all the technical institutes in the country. It was ranked at 14th last year. So kudos to ourselves once again. However one point that should be noted is that 25% of the rating is based on the perception of the IT industry and that is why our institute has managed to barge into the top ten. More can be found out here.

ps- Thanks to Gaurav Somani of the 2k2 batch for the info.

Vacate thy hostels

2006-06-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

There's an ongoing grumbling regarding vacating the hostel by the passing out batch. They were asked to vacate by 15th June. Later, this was converted to a pay-and-stay till June 30th. The only catch was that one would have to pay Rs 100/- per day, after 15th. Since several students don't have a place to go and some have not yet received confirmation from their companies, they feel homeless. Some feel dejected. Thinking that they had already paid till June 30th, UG4 students requested for a clarification. Turns out, that the payment was for the semester only, not the whole 6 months; or at least that's what the hostel warden confirms.

The administration has the tight schedule to prepare for accommodation for the fresh students, while the passing out batch has nowhere to go yet. Deadlock.

Workshop on Research Focus

2006-06-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

A two-day Brainstorming Workshop on 'Research Focus: New Models for Higher Technical Education' started today morning. Many eminent researchers and educationalists are attending the workshop. They include NASSCOM president, Kiran Karnik, and director and researchers of several IITs.

Campus was abuzz with rumours that the President would be coming. The actual rumour was that the President would attend the Jeevan Vidya at IIIT. It was plain rumour.

Alumni Fund Bye Laws Announced

2006-06-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

The bye laws governing the IIIT Alumni Fund were announced yesterday by Dr Jayanthi Sivaswamy, Alumni affairs coordinator. Provisions have been made to simplify the contribution process. One can contribute with (i) Credit Card (ii) Online Bank Transfers and (iii) Cheque/Demand Draft.
The main objectives of the Alumni Fund are:

To create an alumni fund in IIIT to use for various activities proposed from time to time.
To create students scholarships to the deserving and the needy students for full and partial financial assistance
To create cutting-edge technology research labs in the premises of IIIT
To create infrastructure facilities in IIIT for setting up teaching labs or construction of buildings, etc
To award loans to research students for undertaking international travel to participate in conferences to present papers in case where such funding is not available from other sources
To award best FYP (BTP), MS and PhD Thesis
To award Teaching assistantships and research assistantships

The aid to students will be interest-free. People desirous of availing aid will have to make a written application to the Institute stating the extent of the aid sought. The operation of funds will be deliberated by a 8 person committee (6 alumni + 2 IIIT faculty).

Stationary shop robbed

2006-06-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

The stationary shop located in the basement of NBH was robbed yesterday
night. The lock was broken open, and about Rs 1000/- plundered. Police
turned up for investigation. The police have sought permission from the
administration to question some students as well. It is reported that
the robber was carrying a bag, which he hurriedly left behind, while the
security was on rounds at night. The bag contained a Microsoft mouse and
some tools.

DC++ gone

2006-06-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

Following speculations of a crackdown, DC++ is gone. The server is down,
and with it disappears all sharing on the intranet. This summer is
turning out to be a dry one.

Labs closed: why?

2006-05-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Campus Life Council enquired of the certain circumstances that led to yesterday's announcement of hibernating the Computer Labs for the summer. Electricity needs to be saved. Agreed. But the surprise announcement raises a slew of questions:

Has the administration lost faith in students? Students were not only not consulted, they weren't even properly informed of the intention. I thought IIIT was a place where students' life was managed by the students. Have we lost this unique feature?

Games/Movies: Well. Is it really that bad to play games and watch movies in labs? It's holidays, isn't it?

PCs or ACs? What really consumes power -- PCs or ACs?

Computer Labs Hibernated

2006-05-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

As per a mail sent to students, due to certain circumstances, the computer labs will be closed for the rest of the summer hols. Only one lab remain open, and students have to register to avail this opportunity. I might be uninformed here but I think that such circumstances have occurred for the first time in IIIT, forcing the closure of labs. And it comes as a surprise.

Anti-Reservation Protest March

2006-05-21T04:15:00.000-07:00

Following heated d i s c u s s i o n s over the Reservation issue on the Life mailing list, IIIT students participated in the Anti-Reservation protest procession organized today morning at Indira Park near Tank Bund. The IIIT crowd was spearheaded by Sumeet Gupta. Requisite permissions had already obtained from the police, who manoeuvred the crowd along some by-lanes in that locality. Interestingly, a pro-reservation gathering, albeit thin, was co located.

The event was covered by a few news channels as well. The entire procession was totally peaceful (physically, that is). Several philantropers also distributed water packets during the entire rally. The slogans raised by the crowd totally flamed Arjun Singh:

Gali gali mein shor hai, Arjun Singh chor hai
Arjun Singh, Hai Hai
Arjun Singh, kursi chhoro
We want -- Justice
1 2 3 4, Band karo yeh atyachaar
1 2 1 2, Arjun Singh ko phenk do
Reservations, down down

Some representatives are to meet the governor in the evening today, and submit a memorandum against the reservations policy as a whole.

PG Entrance Exam '06

2006-05-21T03:50:00.000-07:00

Entrance test (PGEE 2006) for admission to over 22 Postgraduate courses at IIIT was held today. The examination centers were at Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. This examination decides students for 6 programmes in M.Tech, 7 in MS by Research, and 9 programmes in PhD at IIIT. The results for this test will be available by June 6th, and the classes will commence from July 14th.

Reservations

2006-05-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

The reservations issue seems to be bringing out a type of discussion never seen before. (Partially due to the resources that enable people to express opinions better).

There is a debate going on at life

Pranav called a meeting at 104 today. Technically this post should have come before the meeting. (im sorry).

Ravi Shankar has blogged about it ... and also about a related issue

Siddarth Ravi has blogged about it

Vardhman Jain has written about a related issue.

Halleyji writes about it

Sumeet has written about it strongly. Coincidentally he started the discussion on life.

So, join the discussion at life@students or on any of these blogs, or here itself at IIIT buzz.

ESWC

2006-05-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

ESWC Prelims in hyd on 28th ...

Register at Indiatimes ... (hopefully its not too late yet)

Best of luck to all IIIT teams (lets win ESWC this year)

PS - ESWC - Electronic Sports World Cup

GO iiIT

-obelix

Insomnia going to rock Hyderabad Central

2006-04-29T02:19:00.000-07:00

Theres a "Battle of the Bands" going on. Its a rock competition sponsored by "360 Degrees"TM

Insomnia have qualified along with five other bands from all over Hyderabad.

The competition starts at 1730 hrs today so if you wanna see Insomnia kick some ass go to Hyderabad Central.

See you there !!!

Cultural Camp

2006-04-25T01:13:00.000-07:00

Finally, IIIT has a well organized plan for cultural activies too. Today, we begin with the much awaited Cultural Camp with Mr.Vasudevan conducting his first session. He would be training students in carnatic vocal and violin. Mrs.Dipti Mishra Sharma, faculty-in-charge of Cultural Activities this year is on the lookout of someone who could train students in dramatics as well. Seems we have an interesting summer vacations to look forward to. Reminds one of school days summer vacations when we would throng summer camps wanting to learn those arts that are now facing lack of interested learners !

Be there in 119 Main Building at the scheduled time (check your mails). You never you could be the on your way to winning a prize at next years Inter-House Singing Competition after 3 months of training.

Submitted by Katalyser Power

UG2k2 rocks further

2006-04-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

Did Campus Buzz tell you that 3 students from the BTech passing out batch got into IIM Ahmedabad? Did it tell you that 2 got into IIM Calcutta? And did it tell you that one got into IIM K? And that there are 2 on waiting lists? Oh, another one who earlier was on a waiting list in XLRI gets confirmed. More MS calls. And more and more students getting placed into big shot companies, with most of them at packages above 5 lacs pa. Great that is. Studying at IIIT seems to have been paying off really well.

Surveys for Alumni Fund

2006-04-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

People like Vipul Kedia and Abhishek Nayani are taking a big initiative in trying to setup a new fund called the Alumni Fund. Campus Buzz has published about a few details earlier too. Now, when the alumni site seems to have been made and surveys being conducted to see the alumni' reaction in relation to the new fund, people do not seem to be even filling up the forms. It's sad to see that when on one side people are working a great deal to start the fund, others are not even interested in giving back the feedback. Considering the low response, Abhishek Nayani sends a 'seem-to-be-frustrated' mail to ug4 and pg2 asking them to fill up the survey form as to whether they are interested in donating their caution deposit money. Let us see how many of them actually work towards taking the survey now.

CVIT doing great job

2006-04-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

CVIT is conducting a great set of classes this vacation for the new group of students (those entering the third year) who'd be joining the lab from next sem onwards. There are around 45 such students and the things are organized really really well. Dr. Jawahar, Dr. PJN, Dr. Anoop, seniors like Tarun, Paresh, Ranta and some others are doing a great work teaching them about a lot of things that a visual technology student should now. They may not be using all of them in their projects but it's a great piece of learning. About images, videos, graphics, about a lot of things. Kudos CVIT.

Smiley Singh is leaving

2006-04-13T03:23:00.000-07:00

Smiley Singh, one of our authors, a UG4 student, after having disclosed his identity, is leaving. Smiley Singh is Akansh Kurana (ah.. I can hear the I-thought-so coming). He has authored a large number of humorous, witty, encouraging and like posts on IIIT Buzz. We are thankful to him for all the time and energy he has devoted to IIIT Buzz. If anything, his posts had one common theme -- they were all aimed at jolting the students into coming to action. There were also times when anonymous cowards posted thoughtless comments, but then, in the end -- no hard feelings.

Ground Breaking Ceremony

2006-04-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

A Ground Breaking ceremony held at 8 AM this morning kickstarts the construction of appendages to the existing OBH. The ceremony involved traditional pooja by a pundit and was presided by the Director and the Dean. A board was on display showing the picture of the proposed construction as well as its layout. The new construction covers the concavity of the existing OBH fins leaving open space within. The construction is slated to be completed in 8 months.

Particulars:
    No of rooms: 96 (double bed), 12' x 16' each
    Start date: 13th April, '06 (today)
    Estimated date of completion: 12th Dec, '06

Reservation buzz

2006-04-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

The campus is abuzz with talks condemning the proposed 49.5% reservations for SC/STs and OBCs in govt-aided educational institutes. Turbo calculates that these efforts would leave a mere 38.4% seats for boys in the general category. While Nirnimesh appears to be furious, going to hilarious lengths to attack Arjun Singh, Paresh points to a stakeholder analysis of who gains and who loses, by an IIM grad. These efforts join those at other institutes to protest against the proposal. An online petition is in already in heavy circulation, which appeals to the President of India, and the signature count is growing by leaps and bounds every second.

Turns out that the Election Commission's bashing has put the proposal on the back-burner currently, but Arjun Singh appears confident of sailing through. What is more frightening is that the act could be extended to cover private institutes like ours as well. And once introduced, no political party would have the guts/inclination to roll it back.

Railinfo

2006-04-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

With the exams about coming to an end, many would be buying tickets or at least checking the availability. And all of us know how the indianrail site abuses JavaScript, besides having a pathetic interface (hopeless color combo inclusive). Did you know that you could ease out all this with the http://railinfo.iiit.ac.in utility? It was developed as an IT Workshop project to continuously pre-fetch the availability status of all interesting trains and make it available in a far more usable fashion. You can even search for your train and the list of options updates itself (realtime) to narrow down your search.

Yet another logo for I.I.I.T

2006-04-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

After the hilarious artwork on IIIT's logo, a month ago, Ankit Garg has done it again -- this time more formally so: A new logo artwork for IIIT. Cute, how the tree stands for a T.

BarCamp Review

2006-04-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

Vardhman has a nice roundup review and pics of today's BarCamp. Given that this was held on an exam day, the deficit in the number of IIIT participants was made up by our alumni. "Coming to the content part. I was surprized to see the amount of information flow that happened during the presentations. Many ppl in the industry are amazing too was my conclusion, really." Kunal has a more comprehensive report on the individual talks. Besides, it was nice to see so many (working) techies in Hyderabad conglomerate at IIIT.

And just in case you didn't know, BarCamp didn't have anything to do with beer and all.

barcamp hyderabad

2006-04-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

Barcamp hyderabad is being organized here at IIIT. It starts tomorrow (Apr 8) at 1500 hrs. Registrations stand at 192 as of now.

A barcamp is an "unconference" wherein people come, share their thoughts and discuss.

The theme of the barcamp is Web 2.0

For more information click here

Who'll be the MessCom?

2006-04-07T06:42:00.000-07:00

With the current UG4 passing out, IIIT will also fall short of (working) messcoms. Arpit Baid (with Dharam, and team) has been instrumental in getting the basic structure of the mess in place. They're also responsible for getting the canteen funtioning. Though a passers-by would boast with: "hey.. what's there in being a messcom. Anyone can do that", it's not that trivial. It's not a perfect world, you see. True, with more than 2 years of involvement, Arpit & team have a lot of experience dealing with the caterers and handling them. But with them gone in some time, the future doesn't look conspicuous. The enthusiasm in the messcom from lower batches isn't sparking enough. Whereas the mess portal will continue to work unabated (it's alredy being handled by a UG3 & a UG2 stud), other aspects of the mess committee might get paralyzed unless some saviour, stung by the mess food, surfaces, and takes charge.

Thanks Arpit, Dharam, and team for all your hard work.

Hoax Alumni Caller

2006-04-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

Jayaram, an alumni from the 2k1 batch, sent out a mail to the batch warning about a hoax caller who poses himself as an alumni and tries to fool people into giving him money out of pity. He calls saying that he has been pick-pocketed at Mumbai, and has to reach Bangalore urgently. But all's a hoax.

Jayaram's mail:

hi all,  I just got a call from a person claiming to be a Shyam Sundar of th gdit98 batch . He said he was working with microosoft research in sydney and was moving back to India(bangalore)  sadly in mumbai his wallet got picked and he dosent have any cards or cash on him and is in trouble and would like to get to Bangalore urgently. He asked for a internet transfer of funds and for numbers of alumni in bangalore/mumbai.  He took the names of chandramouli and subhash from 98 and was aware of where they were and what they were doing so he seems very belivable.  I called up Somu from 98 to confirm if there was anyone by that name and somu didnt recollect anyone .  It seems he has also called Sandeep Kakani in mumbai with the same story and asked for money.  He calls up from a std booth in mumbai Matunga so he is atleast not lying about being in mumbai.  I think this guy is a hoax and is fishing for contacts and trying to fool them with this well laid story. So if you gett a call please DO NOT give him any more contacts than he already has.If you already have then please call those ppl up whose numbers you have given and let them know.  If someone called Shyam really exists and his story is real then apologies to him.

and another one:

This 'Shyam Sundar' has been calling up from the following numbers 8-9 people have already recieved a call from him. Please beware .  02232537134 9892019306 02240100038 - std booth near matunga station 09892870003 -std booth in matunga  This guy actually called back to ask for more numbers. I told him that we are onto him and it would be better if he stopped calling. He cut the phone. I feel kind of bad for not abusing him well.

Alumni Taking Initiatives

2006-04-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mr. Vipul Kedia, a IIIT Alumnus and a very well known guy among most of the batches here and the faculty members, has taken over an initiative to propose starting up of a new fund called the Alumni Fund. The rough draft has been distributed among few alumni, faculty and the final year students. Final Year Students too declared something on the similar track during the farewell speech (Akansh's speech).

Main points from the proposal:

1) Start off a fund and try to reach a target of 25 lacs during next 1 year
2) The money shall be contributed by alumni members and through caution deposits
3) Money from the fund might be used in various ways such as:
- Financial Assistance to students in form of scholarships
- Assistance for students to attend conferences from time to time
- Awards such as best FYP, MS and PHD Thesis etc
- And many others

The success of this proposal mostly depends on how the various alumni members react to it. If they do have a feel for the institute, they shall step up or else things would get dumped.

Contributed by a Final Year Student

Record Breaking Sharing on DC Plus Plus

2006-04-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

Third year students are trying their best to increase the total sharing on DC to more than 8 TB. They've already reached successfully the high of 7 TB [7.39 to be exact]. But is that high a score worth it? They're putting all kinds of things on sharing from program files to WINDOWS folder to what not. Be it whatever, the high records are being reached and it atleast makes people happy. I last saw 313 people logged in on DC++ and that's a big number indeed. DC is probably the best thing that students came up with. Thanks to people for putting all kinds of stuff on sharing. It'll only be more helpful if people become generous enough to give certain slots too.

Good luck guys. Keep more things on sharing for people to live happily in IIIT.

PROJECT MATERIAL

2006-04-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

Our ears are still echoing with the numerous loud mails from you-know-who, demanding to return the project material. We've also been threatened that he'd inform the director and he'd take serious action. He's also confirmed this with the director, and he has agreed. He confirmed this again and the director has agreed again. But still you-know-who hasn't got back his precious project material. So what can you-know-who do next? All the people who have taken his project material are requested to please return them, at least as a service to the entire student community. Or else he might:

Sue you in the Supreme Court of India
Refer the case to the CBI/FBI/Interpol
Take out a supari against you.
Get the Human Rights Commission into action
Complain to the director. He has already agreed, mind it.

Phil & Fine Arts dropped

2006-04-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hurray! It's a win for all the people who raised their voices against the Philosophy and Fine Arts state of affairs -- the cheap grades distribution, the appeasement, the crap-in-the-course, etc. Appaji announced the next semester's course offerings and these two proffs have been dumped. The students voices -- yes, it's heard.