Birthday Bash…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Uncategorized
p> The 28th of August, 1991 marked the day when God probably said, “Let there be light!” So, I, the creator of the most illuminating blog of the universe i.e LuminaR was born. So each year, this day is celebrated by some, and revered by others. I stand a testament to some of the most obnoxious events that took place in the world history… from Hong Kong gaining Liberation, to Melvin Shwartz passing off, August 28th is one of those days, when the world (or some part of it) trembled, literally, in Bosnia, less than 42 people were killed by a Mortar Shell. Martin Luther King delivered his memorable speech “I have a dream” in front of the Lincoln memorial. Other than that, even Leo Tolstoy was born on the same day.
So there you a lot of reasons to remember this day, so the next time, any LuminaR reader not wishing me would have his/her IP blocked! (I do have a database of the all the visitors on my blog, and I do note down the static IPs of the visitors close to me.) Anyway, my 16th Birthday was a nice day to live, so here is an account of it.
It was a nice coincidence on this day. Raksha Bandhan, the Indian day to celebrate the brother-sister relationship landed fortunately on my B’Day. Thanks to that, I had a holiday from school, and I had more than just one excuse to step out of the house and have fun. So first came the B’Day demands, 2 books - The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Stephen Hawking’s - God Created the Integers. Parents promptly gifted me those.
The afternoon was spent with friends at Nirula’s with a lunch. (Nope, I didn’t pay for the whole thing!) The evening with my sissy with a dinner at a newly discovered eateria called Garam Masala (will review it soon!) near Chanakya. Anyway, thanks to everyone who wished me on that day. Best wishes to the whole world, extra wishes to my readers, and love you all!
P.S: I have no illustrations for this post!
MINET 07: Initiating Depression Mode…
Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Uncategorized
Another computer symposium was just the thing I needed to raise my spirits nice and high… and well, MINET 07 was totally showed results totally oxymoronic to what I expected from myself. A full account of this later, but let me recap a few old memories that I have with MINET…
MINET stands for Mother’s Information Network. Although the fullform doesn’t really sound very creative, the acronym surely sounds cool. MINET has largely been responsible in convincing me that computer symposiums are winnable. MINET 06 was the very first computer quiz contest in which I qualified to the finals, which simply resulted in some desire to win stuff, greater aptitude towards computers, and a different perspective towards observing daily technology. This year was very different though. Unlike last year, where I used to have Uma as my permanent quiz/crossword partner, this time, I didn’t know who my partner was till the quiz actually started. The way I would go for such events is fundamentally different from the way it used to be before… more on that later…
Well anyway, a recap of the chain of events on the first day…
One of the things that is different about going to symposiums this time is that, I am the one who would be blamed if I don’t turn up in time for the event. I can’t actually put things on a bus driver who was drinking tea and due to the hangover caused by the extreme dosage of nicotine, he takes a wrong turn at a point and then goes into a fit of amnesia which makes him forget where he was going to and finally after barely escaping lethal collisions and flying over a clogged up road, we reach there 42 minutes late. We are on our own this time… Personal transport has got its own advantages and disadvantages..!!
Anyway, reached there about 30 mins before the event began only to see faces from Ramjas about whom I felt nostalgic about. And then I saw just the same number of faces from DPS RKP as well, which made me wonder about a problem that I would probably face…
The executive members of the MINET clan i.e Akshay, Raag and Milind, tweaked their schedule on the last day for no good reason. The plan initially had the quiz, the decode and the surprise event all lined up chronologically. This was very good for me as we people had just one team (which planned to have just one person in it) for all the three events. After some divine intervention, they decided to flip the crossword with the programming event which meant a bad clash. Strangely enough, the DPS RKP guys were in a similar situation. After some assistance from the MINET team, for which I am greatful, I managed to give in all the three events.
First came the quiz prelims for which I was supposed to be all alone, due to some fortunate tweaking Gaurav did with the Showcase event, I got a partner. So with lots of hopes, I wait for the paper only to be burdened with a history test. I have been bad at history ever since I have known what it is. And tech history especially, I am totally not interested to know who invented the mouse or the floppy disk…
After the pathetic prelims, in which I didn’t qualify by one point, I rushed off to give the surprise event alone. To my surprise, it wasn’t Banana Sculpting, neither it was making Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, but it was to solve a cleverly made crossword. I took less than 42 minutes to wrap up the whole thing. I got three clues right because of the poster hung next to me… and in the end, it turns out that I am one amongst five teams to score 11 points. The way they eliminated the extras was very fair and neat though. Akshay analyzed each clue and alloted it different points based on the difficulty level. So, I was out of the Surprise event fair and square… 
Next up, the Decode event. You had to solve cryptic clues relating to technology and stuff. For the first 42 minutes of the event, I was alone in it only able to get 2 clues right. Pulkit joined me later and we together got 2 more. Apparantly, it wasn’t enough to get to the podium. So, I return home empty handed and really really angry…
But the happy thing was Gaurav came first in the Showcase event all alone. He presented an alternative design to the OLPC and explained how it would change the method of education in India forever. He did that spontaneously cracking stuff about others who presented their stuff. The judges were by far impressed and were speaking to him for more than 42 minutes after he got the trophie. Kudos to Gaurav for this…
Varun, perhaps the best Web-spinner in Delhi, remained at the top to come first in the WebD event. The topic was to create an “interface” for an online Operating System. What he did in those two hours looked spectacularly cool. Unlike a few others who just made a rip off of the desktop operating systems, added a few useless functionalities, and coded it like they would do for a real OS, this guy actually worked to the topic. What they had asked was an Interface and not a working OS. Although what Varun made was more of DI than a WebD entry, the thing looked like a futuristic NetOS.
Day II
I didn’t go. I had no reason to. The quiz finals were very nicely made. It wasn’t a history questionnaire this time though… sigh! Anyway, Varun and gaurav managed to get the second position in the Digital Photography event. (Did I tell you that Gaurav is a photography freak and owns a Nikon D80..??) A few photographs taken with some intelligent tuning and some creative photoshopping can give gorgeous looking visuals that would treat any eye!
Who is up next tell me! Its clobbering time in the next symposium!
…and God said Let there be light
Posted by Uma Damle | Filed under Uncategorized
An impromptu picture taken during a power cut.
Bluegenemaid
