http://www.mkartik.com/blog serves as my blog

Henceforth, all posts would be on the new blog. I request all of you to have a look at my new site.

The month started with my bad health which lead to hospitalisation, the first time in my life. After recuperating, I made up for the lost time and started worked hard on my project.

The sessionals went well, at least were a lot better than the previous two. Then the shock arrived “Rejection from ETRI, Korea” which prompted me to rethink. Finally, the three tiresome days having three Lab End Sems, one class test and 10 theory classes arrived. My first end sem JAVA, went pretty well with me scoring 60 on 60 in the internals whereas the second one, Microprocessors was a total disaster and finally the third one, DBMS was also good.

The end of the month gave me a nice surprise, my Birthday was celebrated on 30th night even though it was on 29th May. Well, the reason is quite obvious, my friends wanted to bash me and hence thought of the nice plan. I enjoyed the birthday as there was a yummy cake for me.

There were many other minor incidents during the course of this month which prompted me to write this post. This month has been a great learning experience and I am a lot more mature now !!!

I was initially taken aback by the rejection as I had worked pretty hard but then with the help of my friends and family, I am back A Chicken Tikka Sub and a chocolate shake sponsored by my friends was more than enough for cheering me up.

On the bright side, I would be spending an awesome two months at home, working on another internship, completing my pending projects.

Bye!! (PS: This was a short post just to convey the news )

It all started with some pain in my fingers which I think was because of excessive typing or perhaps gyming. I got it checked with a orthopedic doctor who prescribed some painkillers. The pain subsided but I developed fever with cough and cold. On the next day, my face was full of spots( pimples) and then it spread to the entire body. A perfect case of Chicken Pox but if you read on, you would come to know it was nothing but some Viral Exanthem ( God knows what it is ). I was actually terrified of the spots and visited the doc who got me admitted for keeping me under observation. Well, I was actually shocked to hear that and had a half a mind to run away but alas, couldn’t get myself to do that.

Hence, my stay in the Isolation Ward of KMC started !!! It was a nice long room actually a corridor. I had a comfortable bed with food at my disposal, charging point for the laptop and it was a lot cooler than my hostel room. What more could I ask ? The first day was pretty exciting, many friends came to visit me and I was actually enjoying the stay. I was never alone barring a few moments. We had turned the isolation ward into a public ward, the nurse actually told me later “Your friends are very talkative” to which I gave a big smile. Well, I was thankful to them for coming to visit me. It actually gives the patient a great feeling when you visit him in the hospital. I decided then and there that I would make it a point to visit each person I know admitted in the hospital and spend time with him/her. Believe me, it helps a lot.

The second day was a lot worse than the first even though my condition had improved significantly. The doctors told me to stay another day for observation. They were a group of 10 doctors, all of them made a circle and I was in the middle. Well, was I some kind of experimental piece ? Every one was saying something and I was just trying to grasp whatever I could understand. Another day meant one more day in that small room with that uncomfortable bed and with that disgusting smell. Notice the change in my description of the room. I was frustrated and just wanted to run away from there. I actually stared at the EXIT for around 5 minutes. The rest of the day went peacefully, thanks to the awesome book “Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand” , Rang De Basanti movie and of course friends. Manu stayed for around three hours and we discussed various stuff.

By the end of the second day, I was pretty sure that I would run away if they told me to stay for another day. I had actually decided to sign LAMA ( Leave against Medical Advice). The docs didn’t give me the chance to try that and happily discharged me. I left the hospital at 11 30 am and was back in my room by 12 00. HOSTEL SWEET HOME . Later during the day, I went and collected the discharge summary, finalised the discharge and discovered that the computer in my ward had a Internet Connection .

I got a lot of support from my family. I had planned to mention all my friends here but its a long list, hence chuck it. I had a continuous supply of eatables, thanks to Anirudh who made a point to get something. I patched up with my best friend.

Well, as I said I realised couple of stuff like “Health is Wealth”.

That’s all !!. It was really a great experience. It made me a much more experienced person. You must be thinking that I loved my stay at the hospital ? Well, yes it was good but given a chance, I wouldn’t want to spend another day at the hospital.

Armed with basic knowledge of LaTeX, I set out to create my first document using it. I chose my CV as it had some small mistakes here and there( read different bullet sizes) and I was unable to rectify that using Open Office. After going through “The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2 “, I successfully created my CV.

At our next LUG meeting, I volunteered to take a session on LaTeX and thus, I learnt Beamer ( used for presentations). I created a nice presentation, it looked pretty decent and was far easier than power point. The whole source code was around 390 lines. Though, it looks much but it isn’t when you start to type.

So, the slides were done and approved. We planned to have a 3 hour session on LaTeX on the 1st April, 2010 incidentally April Fools Day. Posters were made and put up, room booked, website updated, FB event created and tweeted. Everything was done well in time, only my preparation remained which I had postponed to the last day.

Finally, the D-Day arrived and I was ready with the setups. There were some initial problems with the installation of LaTeX on Linux but all were taken care of. The session went pretty well though the start was not as expected. I encountered some unexpected problems. The audience response was pretty bad at the beginning but then it improved a lot during the end. Overall, I would say the session was a success, it served its purpose well though it could be a lot better. I learnt a couple of lessons, got some feedback and plan to incorporate the changes. So, guys if you attended the session please leave your suggestions as  comments. Feel free to write anything you wish, even if you totally hated my teaching. Your suggestions will help me a lot and I would surely implement them

Download the slides here

Kudlu Falls is a place in Kudlupatra, Agumbe. It is one of the most beautiful falls of the state and I confirmed this fact. Take my word, if you live in Manipal, you should surely visit Kudlu. For all those guys who came here looking for travel instructions, go down. For the rest, the patient ones read on to know my experience.

We were a group of 10 people, so we booked a Sumo along with a scooty, so the ride was quite comfortable except for the fact that the Sumo was non- AC. We started at around 8: 15 am and reached the place in 2 hours even though our driver was driving at a “mere” 40 kmph. Shahbaz had planned the trip to the smallest possible detail. It was indeed great on his part. We took Chicken Biryani, Seekh Kabab with rods, coal to heat it, Soft Drinks, Chips, 1 kg salt and loads of water. Ya, you read it right, we took 1 kg of salt. Any guesses ? We had taken this precaution against leeches which are very common in the forest areas but we totally forgot the fact that leeches only come during rainy season. So, thanks but no thanks to Anirudh who reminded us to take salt. I am yet to decide about what to do with the Salt.

During the journey, you will come across a famous temple, I suggest you visit even though we didn’t. On reaching Kudlu after crossing a river, ( it was like that AD where a sumo goes through water) we finally reached the place from where we had to go on foot. So, we picked up all our luggage and started to trek. The trek was very tricky and you can easily go wrong. We took a wrong in the starting due to some absurd theory by Appan, then came back to the correct track. You come across a small stream of water and from there the upward climb begins. Please be very careful and look out for diversions. We took the wrong route and ended up going almost 6 kms the wrong way. But we reached the falls through the wrong way. This way had costed us 3 hrs, some precious water, bruises and some great experiences. This was the most dangerous trek I ever undertook and will probably undertake. At one time of point, I had even decided to turn back but the lure of the falls was too great to resist. So, we went on never minding the tough trek, bruises. Finally, on hearing the sound of water, my whole body rejuvenated and I trekked non stop. The sight of the falls was so amazing that I forgot all the hardship taken and felt it was worth. We quickly changed and went into the water. No words can describe when you stand under ice cold water falling from over 100 feet. The water was so clean that even rainbows were formed over the water. Then, we had yummy Chicken Biryani along with Kababs, Coke and chips. After our lunch, we started our journey back as it gets dark there and this time we took the right path. We reached in half an hour and were very thirsty as our supply of water was finished. We drank almost 15 soft drinks and coconuts at a nearby shop, I am sure we left the shop with a big grin on the shop keeper’s face. We reached Manipal at around 6 pm and then had a nice sleep with awesome dreams

Travel Instructions:

(Note : This is taken from http://www.world66.com/asia/southasia/india/karnataka/agumbe/things_to_do/kudlu_theertha_fal)

How to go - 20 kms from Agumbe, take a left detour before 6 kms to Hebri, another left after another 3-4 kms. The road will end at the banks of river Sita. There is a burma bridge on the right side to cross the river(dont try to swim across). After that one has to walk for 4 kms inside the jungle. There will be a small stream which has to be crossed to reach the foothills. Trek 3-4 kms  and you will reach the most beautiful falls in the entire state.

You can even request your driver to drive you across the river, this way you save 3 kms of trek. I did the same.

Remember, always go to your left along the water and if takes more than a hour, you probably came the wrong way

Mode of transport – If one wants to go there by public transport, then he can either go to Shimoga and catch a mini bus(which piles at frequent intervals to Hebri) and get down at the Koodlu gate. From there catch another minibus which will go upto a place called Dargas. Dargas is around 6 kms from the banks of river Sita. So one need to walk that extra 6 kms also. The other option is to go to Hebri(the bus will go via Dharmastala, Karkala,etc) and there you can catch the mini-bus to Nellikatte and get down at Dargas.

Travel Essentials :

Note: This is from my personal experience

• Loads and Loads of Water, atleast 3 litres per head
• Wear Shoes and loose pants, preferably a lower.
• Take a cap, comes very handy against the sun
• Camera and some yummy food
• Some band aids, would come in handy for bruises
• Salt, if and only if its raining
• Most importantly, TRAVEL LIGHT
  

Take my word, you will thoroughly enjoy this trip. Even though, I took the wrong route and wasted 3 hours, I would still say that the trek was one of the most exciting things. So, guys if you are one of those who like to discover a new way, don’t follow any of my instructions, just go and have fun.

Watch out for the pics..

Listings is a awesome package for LaTeX which makes including code a breeze. No need to do formating, no need for copy paste too !! It has syntax highlighting too. Check out the links given below. I had some difficulty installing listings package and couldn’t find a nice way and hence this blog post.

Here is the code: ( Try it and check if you already have listings)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings}
\begin{document}
\lstinputlisting[language=C++,firstline=2,lastline=20]{../Programs/4.cpp}
\end{document}

It has support for many languages and if you find one thats not there, you could perhaps write a patch for one, thereby contributing to FOSS.

“../Programs/4.cpp” is the exact file name with its path.

Installation:

1. Download the zip here : http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/listings.zip and listing.sty from http://ctan.um.ac.ir/macros/latex/contrib/listing/listing.sty
2. Unzip it using your favourite archive manager.
3. Then go to the location where you installed TeX. For linux users it is /usr/share/texmf/ . Windows users, figure it yourself
4. Copy the following files as mentioned :
   1. listings.pdf              to      texmf/doc/latex/listings
   2. listings.dtx, listings.ins,listings.ind, lstpatch.sty,lstdrvrs.dtx          to            texmf/source/latex/listings
5. Create the directory texmf/tex/latex/listings or, if it exists already,remove all files except lst<whatever>0.sty and lstlocal.cfg from it.
6. Run listings.ins through LaTeX  i.e  type  sudo latex listings.ins in your terminal.
7. Move the generated files to texmf/tex/latex/listings.

If all goes well, then you should have listings working properly. Try it out with the code given above. If you still have any problems, just ping me.

There are plenty of examples available over the net which illustrate the use of Listings package.

Check this pdf here : http://ctan.um.ac.ir/macros/latex/contrib/listings/listings.pdf

Check out these too :

http://dante.ctan.org/indexes/macros/latex/contrib/listings/

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Packages/Listings

January – A new Year, a new Semester. It started with great news from my employer at Dulcet Solutions in the form a nice letter. I completed my first industrial exposure successfully. I boarded the Rajdhani( bunked the first day) to reach on 4th. Train journey as usual was great fun. I had confused feelings in the train, was both happy and sad. Happy because I was going back to the place I loved most and sad for the reason of getting away from my family. Manipal was the same, no noticeable changes were there. I had three half days . The tiring 7pm classes were no longer there. Within a week of arriving in Manipal, I was back to work. Editorial Board work was going on full swing. We overhauled the entire design of MAGMIT and implemented a forum for MITians with great plans but alas, many of those plans are yet to be implemented. The first two weeks were pretty hectic owing to the enormous workload of the website. Needless to say, I enjoyed the work and learned a lot. This sem I came with a firm mind to shape up my body. In that direction, I joined a gym. Yes guys, you read it right.Even I had never expected that I would join a gym. Many of friends were pretty much shocked to hear, many laughed, teased but none could stop me from what I wanted to do. The first few days were tiring and then I enjoyed it. For the record, I still go thrice a week, if not more. I had my german exam this month, was pretty scared. This is the second time I have been this afraid of a exam( the first was Engineering Graphics).  I studied pretty hard in the last week of Jan and understood German properly. I regret not giving more attention earlier. There are plenty of nice websites available on the net which are a awesome help. Needless to say, I passed with a ‘B’ grade which was far more than I expected.

February: IAESTE offers were about to be released and I was ready armed with letters, certificates etc. I had been dreaming of this since my first year. The first two weeks went pretty fast( IAESTE and Sessionals). I scored pretty badly in the sessionals, it was one of my lowest. Maybe partly because of IAESTE and partly because of ‘not in a mood‘. Feb 14th, as usual was a dull affair for me. I had candlelight dinner with around 10 seniors(all males). I was pretty much free in the evenings, started playing Badminton and TT and developed a bad habit of sleeping in the evenings. I was not in a mood to do something new as I needed some kind of a push which I was not getting. This is also one of the many reasons for the delay in a post. In the end of month, I went to Bombay, Shirdi, Aurangabad  with my family. This was one of the best trips I had.  Maybe, I would write a complete post on my trip. Ah!! I forgot to mention that I got nominated for KOREA for a internship at ETRI. Though, it is yet to be confirmed by the employer, I had already started my celebrations as this was what I always wanted. I would like to mention the enormous wishes I could got from all my near and dear ones. For almost a week, I had developed a habit of saying ‘Thanks’ to anyone whom I met.

March: March brought Revels and for the first time, I did not take part nor organised  any event. I was busy with sending my nomination to Korea. Too much work preparing your CV, LOR and cover letter.Once again, sessionals have arrived.

Overall, this semester has been going pretty well though I had planned a lot more. I have further strengthened my friendships, made enemies( not my mistake ). Hope the rest of the semester goes well and my internship at Korea gets confirmed.

St Mary’s Island is a small group of islands lying 58 km north of Mangalore and little to the north of the port of Malpe town. St. Mary’s Island are known for their famous basalt rocks which have crystallized into columns and split into hexagonal mosaic.

Now,about my trip :

One of friends(Pratik) had asked me if I would be kind enough( ) to accompany him to St. Mary’s on Sunday,10th Jan. Well, I did not have any urgent work and moreover it was my first weekend at Manipal in the new year, so I readily agreed. Next Day, I bunked gym( Yes, I started gyming) and we started at 10 after having a nice breakfast. There were 14 people and I knew only 3 well. I had asked my friend (Abhinav) to accompany us just half an hour before because I knew had I asked earlier he would have said a clear “NO”.

We took a Bus from the MIT Bus Stop to Udupi and then took another to Malpe. Then, a ferry to the Island. Detailed travel instructions below.

During the ferry ride, there was water all around us and I remembered the famous “Water Water everywhere but not a drop to drink” from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor. On reaching the island, we quickly changed and took some nice pictures (We had a wonderful photographer among us ).After a round pf pictures, where each one of us displayed their best poses, we went to the other end of the island. There were big rocks all around and I later came to know that these are Basalt Rocks and St Mary’s is the only place in India where these kind of rocks are available. The water too was quite ok but not very clean (thanks to the careless tourists). We went to a place which was surrounded by rocks and there was water in the middle. We started swimming and I got a chance to try out my skills ( ). We played catch – catch and some other idiotic but fun-filled games. At around 3, we boarded the ferry again to take us back to Malpe as the last ferry was supposed to be at 4 and we were not in a mood to spend the night there. If given a chance,I really plan to spend a weekend at an island. On reaching Udupi, I had lunch after getting turned down at two restaurants. One more bus ride and HOME SWEET HOME ( Well, I call my hostel my home )

Travel Instructions from Manipal

1. Take a bus to Udupi bus stop.

2. Ask for a bus to Malpe Harbour, tell him clearly that you intend to go to St Mary’s Island.

3. At the Malpe bus stop, walk for around 200 meters to Malpe Harbour .

4. Buy a 1 rupee entry ticket for the harbour.

5. Go right till you see a gate and a shipyard.

6. You would find a ticket counter there, buy a to and fro ticket costing Rs 80 for the ferry ride to the Island

7. Wait for the ferry, it can take upto 1 hour. As soon as the ferry comes, don’t rush, make a queue and board it nicely. Pushing others is dangerous as people may fall off into water.

8. Find a seat, the ride takes around 30 minutes. There are two floors in the ferry, go upstairs if you can spare another 30 bucks.

9.All the passengers are transferred to a smaller boat which then takes them to the island.

10.This boat ride takes 5 min. Get down safely and voila, you reached the island.

Tips :

1. Be prepared to get yourself drenched. Take another set of clothes if you are too shy to take of clothes while in water. More importantly, take a towel.

2. Take adequate amount of food along ( Chips and cold drinks). Alternatively , if you are a rich lad, you can buy them at the island at triple the price.

3.Take along a nice camera.

4.Most important, take your friends along.

Final Word : On reaching the island, I was not actually happy as I expected a lot more but at the end it turned out to be one hell of a trip. I recommend all my friends to at least visit once.

In late September , I had got a internship ( 6 months project well beyond my 1 month holiday) at Data Mining Tools but had decided against pursuing it as the asking working hours were too much ( I had to enjoy my holidays too )

Then , I came across Dulcet solutions through a IEEE Delhi Branch mail . It was a startup and was in the field of Web Development . Bingo , the one I had been exactly searching for . I called up the number given and then sent my CV by mail .I received the reply within a couple of hours . And Yes , I was selected and in fact he was impressed by my CV .After that , I finalised a couple of details about the internship .I was told to learn MediaWiki , Ushahidi and sum other packages for better understanding .

As soon as I arrived in Delhi , I started working . Rather than a internship where you learn nothing , mine was more like a project which we did on line and hence there was no need to go the office ( ).The project was about Democracy i.e to empower people their democratic rights . Our work was to create a software ( rather a crowd sourcing website ) which brought life into the project .We were a group of 8 people ( 3 from VIT , 4 from NSIT and me ) . All were in the their final years except me .All of us collaborated over the net ( mostly chatting ) .Our employer had made a google site which was used as a platform for our discussions ( maybe Google Wave could do the same ).

Perhaps , you could say it was a software ” of the people, by the people, for the people ” in Abraham Lincoln’s words.

We were using Drupal , a very popular CMS ( Content Management System ) .

My Experience

I learned about the ER Diagram and Schema , which I was supposed to learn in my IVth Sem . More importantly , I coded two Drupal modules from scratch .I worked deep into the night as I have seen I can concentrate a lot better at night  . I had used “Learning Drupal 6 – Module Development ” by Matt Bucher . It is a excellent book as it has covered almost the API’s that Drupal provides .During the coding  , I learned many conventions eg the function names , when to use a underscore ( all functions which are for internal use by a module start with a ‘_’) etc . It was also my first experience at using  API’s ( Database , Form ,hook ) .

Very Soon , both my modules will be released under GNU GPL ( its Open Source ).. I am currently documenting it . I will post the link once the modules are released .

Lastly , this has been a great learning experience for me .And Yes, it was great fun too . I would recommend all my friends to try doing a internship as it gives you huge amount of exposure .

Download the Module here :

Email Node Module

Users Tax Module

References and Links :

The Quote ” Of the people , by the people , for the people ‘

Drupal

Content Management System

Crowd Sourcing

PS: As usual , comments are most welcome