IIT Goa at Loliem and the Opposition to it.

Its often a matter of pride when a prestigious Institute comes knocking on your door. Now before i sound that i am pre decided that the IIT at Loliem is best for the people and environment let me make it clear that no "developments" ever made by man has gone in the favour of nature. But yes, if the question is that i support IIT campus in Loliem or for that matter any place in Goa, then the answer is yes!

One of the perks ( at times could be nightmares!) of being in my field of job ( i would not mention it here so soon, so that the reader is not prejudiced) is that i get to travel every once in a while to different parts of the country. And recently i was lucky to get a chance to visit IIT Madras and stay there for a week.So here are few of my observations.

1. The IIT Madras campus is located next to Guindy National Park. Its very green. i mean very very green. Its almost a mini forest. don't believe me? take a look at this..

No this is not photoshop'ed unlike most of the Whatapp forwards we get now a days. I clicked them in person. Did even manage to touch one! These animals roam around as if its their natural habitat. The campus is that good.

The fear that IIT campus might destroy the environment is baseless. Even IIT Bombay campus is next to a lake in Powai. Not as green as Madras but nevertheless greener than any industry or private institute of any kind i have seen.
Look at below images from Google of IIT Madras and IIT Bombay campuses. And look at the surrounding areas near the campuses. which are more greener?

2. They have their own waste management and segregation plant. In Goa its kind of fashion now to oppose anything for the sake of opposition. Be it even the urgently required infra to manage the amount of waste we generate. Just look at our roads and fields. they are lined with polythene bags filled with our waste. But we oppose any garbage treatment or segregation plant. If a proper agreement is made with the village, even their waste can be treated in the IIT plant.

3. The best water in town. I have heard horror stories of people having hell of a time with Chennai water. To the extent that people even have bath with Bisleri. Of course i dont know if the Bisleri thing is true. But during my stay in the Campus of IITM i had absolutely no problem with water. So will the IIT in Loliem solve locals water problem? look at it this way. if the IIT campus does not come the water problem will never be solved. yes you read it right. proof? did you see the enthusiasm of incumbent government to repair roads for BRICS? yes thats right. the Authorities need a push to get things done. IIT campus is that push for villagers of Loliem. Things will happen now with the campus. If it shifts their problems will never be solved. sad i know. Being on a plateu a arrangement of water harvesting can also be worked out with the IIT admin which will benefit both the parties involved.

4. Job opportunities galore. Government promises jobs from industries but we know better all these low level jobs are taken up by people from outside. so how is IIT different? IIT Goa at its current campus in Goa Engineering college, Farmagudi employs staff of Goan origin. Seen it with my eyes. Be it security or housekeeping. Now in a full fledged campus there are lot of jobs which can be filled by Goans. Lab assistants, Clerks, Peons, Housekeeping, Security, Garden staff, Mess and Hostel staff and other administrative jobs. Plus every IIT organizes several functions, workshops etc throughout the year. Those contribute in following jobs: catering, Pandals, Taxis. Also with people visiting from outside will contribute to increase in air, bus, train passenger inflow. Remember these are over and above the tourists. These are academia people who would otherwise will not be coming. They will also require accommodation. so business for hotels outside the campus.

5. Having a institute of national importance in near vicinity brings added advantage for our Goan students studying in other private and govt. colleges. It increases student interaction, creates awareness and helps the teachers also to raise their standard. In all which contributes to the development of the society.

6. Another point which comes up is the sheer number of people that are going to stay in the campus. Yes, campuses like Madras, Bombay and Kharagpur etc. have more that 10000 people in the campus. But these are established institutes running for the past 50 years. If one looks at the new ones like mandi, indore etc then the total number is less than 2000. Even Guwahati has less than 6 being more than decade old. Secondly the campuses are built self contained and self sufficient. So other than water (which can be taken care of as above) there is no adverse effect of people in campus on the village and its life.

An IIT Campus is lot better than having industries of any kind. It greener and cleaner. And it contributes to the society.

Let the Blogging begin.


After a loooooooooong break from blogging i am thinking of starting this again. Hopefully writing about random stuff will get some stress out of my life. Not to say its not good but i could be better. A lot has happened in life since the last post. Lots of updates to come.

IDEA HUAWEI E162G USB EDGE MODEM in Linux

STEP 1 --

Download the tar file from the link:
http://oozie.fm.interia.pl/src/huawei.tar.bz2

Don't worry if the model no it says is E220.it works for E162 too.

STEP 2 --

Now copy this file to home folder on Linux. Open terminal and navigate to home folder.Now type:

$ tar xjvf huawei.tar.bz2

this will unpack the tar file. Now goto the huawei folder in home directory from explorer and open the "make" file.Now find and replace "udevcontrol reload_rules" by "udevadm control --reload-rules".

STEP 3 --

Now go back to terminal and type :

$ cd huawei
$ sudo make install_ubuntu

you should get no error.Now plug in your data card in any USB port available.

STEP 4 --

Now in terminal type :

$ sudo pppd call huawei-e220

Watch the LED status on the data card it should be stable now.

Enjoy Surfing.


Please not that this is original work by someone else.I have just improvised upon some steps.
Original Page: http://oozie.fm.interia.pl/pro/huawei-e220/
Original Author Website: http://ooz.ie/
Twitter : http://twitter.com/ooz_ie

535 km's of pure fun,hard biking and neck ache!!! :-)

23rd of May '09.Nothing special about the day in my life except the maniac in me had decided to ride down to Goa from Pune all alone.The previous day i was gettin goosebumps but as some wise men in sprite said "darr ke aage jeet hai".So the let the journey begin...

They say in Mumbai life starts at 12 midnight and ends at 6 in morning.you see Pune is lot different. People are still to wake up at 5am. After freshening up a bit i took my warm jacket and left the flat.I started the bike at 5.45am and within 15min i was out of Pune city. Not that i was speeding but except some sleepy rickshaw-wallas,just-reached-Pune travelers,a few news paper sorters there was no one on road. just complete contrast to what Pune exactly 12hrs later.

The above pic was taken at entrance of old Katraj tunnel at 6am. After crossing the tunnel i accelerated to average 60kmph.Next ghat was the Kambatki ghat.Not so mighty as compared to the one i encountered later along the journey but i was enjoying the turns.


I was betting on the weather not to play spoilsport(Not that i would have sued IMD for wrong sat. images :D).And as it turned out even though it was cloudy the wind was cool and the clouds saved me from the harsh sun.Overall the timing turned out to be just perfect.

7.30am and i was in Satara.110km on the trip meter.Still long way to go. though i dint have much the last night but i was not feeling hungry.Yeah i cant say the same about adrenalin though.For me the next stop in mind was Kolhapur. a 120km ride from Satara.But the 4 lanes of NH-4 hardy give any trouble and it was a smooth ride.Cutting across trucks and cars of which cars would eventually take revenge and zoom past you.but at least i defeated the trucks.lol.By now i was comfortable riding around 80kmph.for a small stretch i even hit 115kmph.
Around 8am in morning somewhere close to Umraj and my bike celebrated 30,000km.(finally after 5yrs)yeah!!!.

The clock showed 10am and i was 30km away from Kolhapur when the hunger for food took better of me. I stopped at a decent hotel for some snacks. After gobbling medu wadas and a glass of lassi(it was that thick!)i hit the road again.Next stop Kolhapur.

10.30am and i was in Kolhapur city.On a suggestion from my friend i decided to try Kolhapuri Misal at "Fadtare Misal".Had little tough time to find it since it was unlike what i expected.it was a small family run place no bigger than a 4x3m room with thin tables shared by at least 20-30 people.Although the misal was not that great and certainly not upto my expectations but it was different and good for a change.After the misal extravaganza i had to now search my way to the lake so that i can take the road to gaganbawda.After asking a couple of people i finally arrived on the banks of Rankala lake.



After some moments at the lake i hit the road. This by far was the worst stretch of road full of potholes and traffic.Another 50km from Kolhapur and i arrived on top of the mighty Gaganbawda ghat. The view was just breathtaking.I had seen the ghat at night(i could only see the road and nothing else that time :-))but now it was awesome.







Now it was time to leave the ghat. As i rode down the twists and the turns the ghat seemed never ending. If the road was better it would have been a more wonderful ride but even then the fear instilled in you by the shear height of the ghat makes you ride slow.
Once down the ghat(which seemed like after ages!) it was one of THE BEST stretch of road i have ever ridden on.Till Talere where the road meets NH-17 it was full of trees along both sides with not a single ray of sun falling on me and freshly laid asphalt. It was just pure biking nirvana.But by now my neck was starting to hurt badly and i needed a break.After joining NH17 at Talere i continued till Sindhudurg Nagari passing through town of Kankawali.Here is where i decided to take 5min of rest.After 5min and a glass of fresh pineapple juice i was back to my riding ways.
Now the neck was hurting even more.Every now and then i was counting every milestone on road as the figure next to "Panjim" became lesser and lesser.
After passing through Kudal,Sawantwadi and Banda i finally arrived in Patradevi at around 2pm. Another 60-70km and i was in Panjim by 2.30pm and in Margao at sharp 3pm.Its been close to 9hrs since i left from Pune.It was time to celebrate so i gifted myself a B&R scoop.By now i was feeling damn tired and needed rest but before that i had one more thing to do-Surprise my GF.you see neither she nor any one at home knew about my plan. So it was a nice little surprise for them.I got all the stupid questions like what?how?when? but what the heck here i was standing on my legs safe and sound!It was one the best experiences in my life.(Worth the pain).All i can say is thank you God.

Going Green...Going White!

Since most computers now come with LCD screens and laptops too i changed the colour to white...Go Green!

The Lonavala Trip!

SMT Soldering Tutorial.

http://www.curiousinventor.com/guides/Surface_Mount_Soldering/101

The above link provides nice detailed tutorial about SMT soldering. Those interested in Surface Mount Tech or just repairs will find it helpfull.