“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
- Albert Einstein

Hi. This is a pretty long post where I have pretty much indulged in telling people why Xceed core is the best place to be, in the Kurukshetra team. It might sound arrogant, boastful, and annoying, especially to certain other teams like logistics and marketing because of the fun the Xceed team has, but hey, life ain’t fair. So here goes…

What gives you the opportunity to do nothing, let a junior do all the work, snigger as he runs around organizing stuff and all the while, you sit in CTF playing rummy, lets you travel to nice locations all over the country, pays for your travel, accommodation and food as well and best of all, gets you a letter of appreciation for um, enjoying your time?

One word. Xceed! (And, for those of you who spell it Exceed, be warned!)

If you don’t know what Xceed is all about, it is the regional prelim for Kurukshetra’s robotics events. This year, we expanded that to fit in the regional round of the K! Biz Quiz as well.

The Bangalore round of Xceed just concluded, where students from SIT Tumkur just showed everyone else how a line follower should run! (CEG students, take note. Theirs actually went fast, in a straight line for quite a bit of distance, before zig zagging for decisions). The quality of participation at Bangalore, ahem, Bengaluru, was fantastic, as always, in both the quiz and robotics events. Thankfully, the guys who won an event here last year as school students (putting many of our own guys to shame) are in college. So defeat wont taste that bitter now, boys.

Hospitality was just great! Not to mention the awesome food in RVCE’s mess (this statement is not sarcastic). The guys there helped us a lot in conducting Xceed and me and Prem had to barely lift a finger. I should say that the best thing about Xceed- Bangalore was the support of the boys from RVCE. Thanks a lot guys!

This is not all. Xceed will happen in other centres as well, and yours truly will be getting back with more updates on what’s happening in the world outside in the forthcoming posts.

Until then, cheerio!
Deepak,
Xceed Team

P.S We were done with our work in the evening and even had a bit of time to admire the sights and sounds of Bangalore 

Headings for posters

Our little neighbor is a frequent visitor at our house.  He loves to come over and rummage through our basement toy closet, which is packed full of retired toys that were once favorites of my kids.   With all there is to choose from, he always pulls out the same toy — a “Marble Run” that used to be one of my kids’ favorite toys as well.   They used to spend endless hours building tracks with all sorts of twists and turns and watch intently as they raced their marbles down.

Unfortunately, our Marble Run has seen better days.   Many pieces have gone missing or were chewed up by our mischievous dog, so I was thrilled when I found this toy available at MindWare.  I’m looking forward to replacing the old with new and seeing the excitement on the neighbor boy’s face next time he opens the toy closet!

This also got me thinking that although my kids have outgrown their Marble Run, there are many great building toys available for their ages as well.   I’m committed to go beyond the electronics this Christmas and invest in toys that have educational as well as entertainment appeal.  Some of the benefits of building toys for children include developing their imagination, improving fine motor skills and eye/hand coordination, improved focus and attention skills, creative thinking and spatial and reasoning skills, just to name a few.

Check out these award winning building toys for the kids on your shopping list:

• Building Block Buddies (Ages 3+): Take block building to a new level.   76 full-color design cards inspire wonderful creations, all made with the 21 well-crafted, colorful wooden blocks.

• Connectagons (Ages 4+): A whole new dimension of fun!  240 brightly colored wooden circles can be connected in any direction to create a unique freeform sculpture.   Children can exercise their imaginations while learning valuable spatial reasoning skills and basic principles of balance.

• Tekton (Tower, Fire or Bank) (Ages 6+): The classic building sets from the 1960s are back to inspire a new generation.   Kids can build whatever they dream up with over 250 sturdy plastic pieces, including interlocking columns and beams, window panels and more.

• Contraptions (Ages 7+): Young thinkers can build unbelievable ball track structures with this simple stacking plank system, including ramps, funnels, chutes and crazy contraptions.   Fostering unlimited creativity and experimentation, KEVA planks build an early understanding of proportion and balance, while teaching basic principles of physics and engineering.

• Erector Sets (Ages 8+): A classic!  With a combination of shiny steel pieces and flexible components, hands-on builders will be challenged to create moving toys that teach mechanics, physics and problem-solving skills.

• Physics Workshop (Ages 8+): Learn physics by building models that move, including a wind power generator, all-terrain vehicle, crane, sail car, Mars robot, centrifuge, pendulum clock and more.  Kids will learn fundamental laws of physics such as gravity, force and acceleration with cool machines they’ve built themselves.

• Hydrodynamic Deluxe Set (Ages 10+): Construct and operate a real hydrodynamic plant that actually works, with tanks, pipes, valves and an electric pump.  Balance the water flow by adjusting valves, discover how a siphon works and learn principles of fluid dynamics.

Did I mention the best benefit?  Watching their faces and seeing the sense of accomplishment and pride after they’ve built their very own masterpiece!

You’re invited to attend, as performer or audience

ODDMUSIC CONVERGENCE DECEMBER ‘09

“metablues, microtones, contraptions, utopia”

on Monday, December 14, at 7:30 p.m.

in the main space of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.

$5-10, no one turned away for lack of funds.

a concert featuring responses to invitations:

• 0. ODDMUSIC - What is Oddmusic?  Show us.
• 1. METABLUES - Write a “blues” song which points, instead of at old problems framed in th old language, new problems which demand a new language.
• 2. MICROTONES - Write a piece in an odd tuning (one which is non-redundant with conventional wisdom).
• 3. CONTRAPTIONS – Write a piece for an odd instrument (or a not-so-odd instrument played in an odd way).
• 4. UTOPIA – Write a piece which speaks of alternatives not yet possible in the current system.  For example, a false statement bulletin.

Some performances are already in the works which play with these invitations.  We invite you to add more!  This Convergence will have something of an Open Mic element to it; if you have a piece, or can put together a piece, which attempts to respond to these invitations, please bring it and share it!  Surprise us with your own metablues, microtones, contraptions, or utopias.

If you want assistance making a piece happen, get in touch!

Next Sunday, December 13, the day before the Convergence, we’re holding Office Hours as usual in th Oddmusic Oddstrumentarium (room 21A of the IMC).  We’ll be working on pieces then, and welcome your participation in that.  Bring a desire, and we’ll work on something together! 

Music is ours to odd.  Odd is ours to music.

Much love, Andrew.

www.kurukshetra.org.in

10:15.a.m.: Networks class had already eaten 5 minutes into the break time. All of us (second year engineers-to-be) were getting restless. A familiar baritone calls out 72 that signals the end of the class. Hell! no. Seniors? Again! Four seniors march in. There is one that I know and she is not the type to ruin my break. Sigh! As we wait for them to let the cat out of the basket, they wait for us to settle.

“Kurukshetra” says an anonymous (then) senior. It triggered a vague memory. Without getting into the actual details of the talk, what they wanted was – IDEAS for new events are welcome. Thus, started my tryst with K! Thinking back, I have had a really good time and many cherished memories of K! There have been major anxious times, surprised times, ayyo times, gleeful times, despo times, frusty times, crush-ed times, happy times. But overall I’ve always had a good time.

Kurukshetra has been one great learning experience for me. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that K! has helped me find more about myself while indulging in some hilarious fun. Jotting all of them down here would make an incredibly long post. So here goes a succinct description.

Adventure

Hatching ideas

Late nights at CEG

heated healthy arguments

bliss that comes with knowledge

INBOX

try your strength & trust

Damn! I wasted my first year

writing like never before

Pushin’ it harder and faster

explore – People – Connect – waiting –  WOW

did that even exist before?

busy as busy can get

blanked out

(Place : Vivek Audi, Event : Cerebra. Oh! boy, you’vegotta be there to see it for yourself)

experience of a life time

The environment that K! creates is irresistible. It literally sucked me in like a black hole. I could easily add a lot more platitudes (like “bigger and better”, “we are doing it because we can”… get the drift?) but K’09 – my initiation year – was such a personal experience that these clichés would render it redundant. As someone who was pretty skeptic (and late) in understanding the gung-ho about K! it took some time to realize what drove the movers and shakers at CTF. As a matter of fact, when this realization dawned, I knew that that was what was and still is driving me too.

S.Swathi Meenakshi

Event Coordinator, Prove or Disprove, K ‘09

Guest Lectures and Workshops Team, K ‘10

Just overheard from the living room…  Middle Daughter to Youngest Daughter as she is looking out the front window:

Come quick!  This is the most amazingest contraption evee*!

* ever

And there goes the garbage truck.

www.kurukshetra.org.in

Kurukshetra is synonymous with war and wisdom and in a sense, that is what the International Conference and Techno Management Festival of Anna University, Chennai is – The Battle of Brains. What began as a germinal idea to do something big and unique has now taken many aspects of its organisation to a whole new level. While its magnitude and standards have been well established over the past few years, I’ve noticed that many CEGians still have qualms about working for Kurukshetra and I must admit that I have had moments when I wonder whether the things that I am putting my time and efforts into really matter. So, here’s a post on what you stand to gain from being a part of Kurukshetra – it is as much a gist of opportunities available to you, as it is a recollection of a treasured journey for me.

In concrete terms, Kurukshetra provides avenues to work for one of the following teams: Events, Guest Lectures, Workshops, Industry Relations, Media, Content, Projects, Design, Marketing, Human Resources, Hospitality and Quality Management. From interacting with the Who’s Who of the technical and industrial worlds to travelling to various other top colleges in the country and getting to know some of the brightest minds in various fields, the benefits are countless. To conceptualise an idea, analyse its impact, listen to others’ viewpoints about it, work hard to make it happen and see it materialise before you is a truly unique experience.

Kurukshetra is the perfect platform to exhibit your skills, learn new things, realise your potential and find out what you are good at. Planning, setting priorities, managing time and working in a team are essential in anything you do and being a part of this offers you a chance to gauge how good you are. There is no greater joy than the sense of satisfaction you gain from knowing you contributed in your own way to make an event a success. And if things don’t turn out the way you expected them too, you learn how to face the world and take responsibility for your actions. Sometimes when you become accountable for something that wasn’t your fault at all, you learn that life is unfair and you’ve got to deal with it.

Above all this, the biggest thing that I have gained is getting to know so many people, working together and learning from them.

Someone whom I have so much fun talking to,
Someone who has been an amazing and dependable friend,
Someone who seems to take everything lightly but does them so well,
Someone who believes in me much more than I do myself,
Someone who made me feel really good about the sincere work I did,
Someone who is a warm listener and a wonderful person to work with,
Someone who is so full of ideas and avenues to make things grander,
Someone who is really brilliant and yet modest about it,
Someone who shares my enthusiasm about so many interests…

These people taught or reminded me that:

Working smart is as important as working hard,
Someday when you join all the dots life will be the perfect picture,
Solving cryptic crosswords can be so much fun,
Living life to the fullest and thinking big can take you places,
Punctuations and punctuality are very important,
The little things in life matter most,
When you want to get something, you can definitely find a way,
Doing things thoroughly and perfectly earns you a lot of respect,
Being zealous about everything you do is very admirable.

It has been a pleasure knowing you. Thank you all… and thank you, Kurukshetra!

Cheers,

Abhirami

Guest Lectures Team

www.kurukshetra.org.in

“Hi Anna! I am interested in working for Kurukshetra. But what can I do? How am I going to get benefited?” The typical question asked by a junior to the core team members of Kurukshetra. Most people usually get a convincing reply though.

Lesson 1: Web experience

I was lucky enough to do the design and functionality of Kurukshetra’s website. It seems to be simple and yes it is. With more than 2,00,000 views the site has, my prime focus was on user friendliness. Thinking for a while the fact that made me WOW was, this is the only way by which my work could reach more than 2 lakh people in this world. Being a non-techie the amount of information of I learnt in web-designing is decent. You need to know the index of a book rather than what is inside the book.

Lesson 2: Online tools

Google provides a Google docs feature. A popular one, yet I was able to realize only after using it. Maintaining online docs and sharing, editing is much simpler than before. Mail client is another popular thing that is not used among the student community. With more than 300 mails a month, and most of the time being offline, mail client has become my diary, book, biography. Getting professional!

Lesson 3: Networking

It’s rare to see people having more than 25 friends online in gtalk whenever they login. With more than 600 contacts in mobile, not just friends, business men too, following up everyone is a big deal though. NetworKing!

Lesson 4: My recent STD & ISD calls

“Hello! Am I speaking to Mr. Anil Kumble? This is Senthil calling from Anna University India….”  He replied, “Ya, speaking.” Conversation goes…

Goosebumps! Adrenalin just rushes up and my phone bill too.

Yeah we have the substance to call up anyone in the world. Feel Free to contact!

Lesson 5: Google Analytics

Main poster is up. The nation-wide campaign has started. But how many noticed it? Shall we ask the people who viewed to paste their thumb print there and send us back? Bad Idea! Google Analytics comes to the rescue. It provides pin point analysis of the web traffic this is my first hand experience in analyzing real-time data of the marketing strategies we did. Getting started! J

Finally everyone has the independence to choose things as your hobby, work, opportunity, responsibility… It is: “Kurukshetra. Of the students. By the students. For the students.”

Cheers,

Senthil

QMS Team

At first glance, one might think this is just a picture taken through the windshield of a car. But, there is SO much more going on here.

First, apparently I have spied the only Jamaican made automobile in the world.

Second, if you are going to add after market turn signals to your rear view mirrors…don’t you think it wise to take a few seconds to make sure that you put the left-pointing arrow on the left side of the car and vice versa? And yes, in case you were wondering, verification was made that the right turn signal produces an arrow in the mirror that points the opposite way as well.

Third, the above pictured left hand turn and subsequently referenced right hand turn were observed en route to a Walmart parking lot. Seems timely given the recent surge in popularity of the viral site People of Walmart don’t you think?

Lastly, the timing of this photo is one-in-a-million. In the rain, waiting to turn left, it only took 2 tries to get the signals flashing at just the right time.

Yes, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, or at least several seconds of sarcastic mockery.

This is by far one of the longest Rube Golberg devices I have ever seen. The whole thing is about 26 minutes long, so be prepared to be sitting down for a while. It is worth a watch just to see what triggers each object, because some are triggered by liquids and even by gasses!

The Kindle and Kindle Application for iPhone

The best gift for any book lover and reading fanatic is The Kindle, amazon.com’s 10.2 ounce, portable, wireless reading device and library. It has a lauded ergonomic design, a glareless display that makes it easy to read on for long periods of time, and a glowing recommendation from Oprah. 

The Kindle does not depend on the computer for downloads or charging, requires no synching, and does not use WiFi; instead, the Kindle works on the Amazon-built technology, Whispernet that has the same powerful 3G wireless network that cell phones utilize. So, you search for, sample, download, and read books, magazines, and newspapers right out-of-the box, immediately, and free.                               

For $299 (1^st generation was $359) you get the Kindle, a book cover, power adaptor, and USB 2.0 cable. You can shop amazon.com directly from the Kindle, read samples of books before you purchase them, subscribe to magazines and newspapers, and automatically receive the subscriptions directly to your Kindle. The Kindle also has a built-in dictionary, search feature, and access to Wikipedia.

 This second generation Kindle has a Read-to-Me feature that reads blogs, magazines, newspapers, and books out lout to you. What? Yes my friends. The exception is if “the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable” then that particular book, magazine, and so on doesn’t have the feature.

The best application for iPhone owners who love to read, is the amazon Kindle application for the iPhone. The application is free. You can purchase and download books, but not magazines or newspapers…but who cares, iPhone has applications for those things. 

 I use my iPhone, and I am very pleased with being able to sample the books before I actually purchase them. The Kindle version of novels are usually cheaper than the hardcover or the softcover. But most of all, I love not having to carry my book bag every where. Now, I can carry my books in my phone!!!

Read Kindle books on your iPhone or iPod touch

• No Kindle required. Order your books from the amazon.com Web site or directly from your iPhone! Get the best reading experience available on your iPhone or iPod touch. Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you. Automatically synchronizes your last page read between devices with Amazon Whispersync. Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle.

I am most impressed with the Kindle. I love the concept, accessibility, technology, and portability. But, I think I’ll wait and pick up the next version of it.

 iPod Owners…you can get books on your iPhone using amazon.com’s Whispernet technology.

Peruse the Bestsellers that are available on the Kindle…$9.99

Dear colleagues,

Of course, a little Gmod got me thinking entirely and almost obsessively about contraptioneering. I am a sick man. In the shower yesterday, it dawned on me that making hoverballs work in other gravities was as simple as telling the hoverball that its z-target simply needs to be its current position, plus or minus whatever we desire in order to make it move! Voila: no more having a hoverball at -4000 which thinks it ought to be at 500.

As a test, I strapped together a little hover-cart. It’s pretty simple: The cart is held aloft by four hoverballs. Right below these hoverballs are rangers which tell the cart how far away it is from the ground. A constant value chip sets the desired distance from the ground. The actual distance is subtracted from the desired distance to get a number (positive if the cart is too low, negative if it’s too high) which tells the hoverball how much higher or lower it needs to be. We add this number to each hoverball’s current position, then feed that back into each hoverball’s z-target. The result? Each individual hoverball automatically adjusts to keep itself the right distance from the ground.

Here she is:

A new mutli-purpose, multi-gravity hover vehicle.

Now for some additional details: The hoverballs are set to suffer some friction, so the cart won’t go skating off. The thrusters are fully wired up to the port-side seat, and are powerful enough to move the cart at a steady rate up a 45 degree incline. The cart itself moves rather slowly, so the spacebar will engage some 90,000 force boosters to bring it up to speed. (It’s still slower than an airboat.) Though the hoverballs correct rather quickly and falling off an incline can be really rough, the cart tends to right itself pretty well. I’ve practiced flipping it! Furthermore, if the cart is ever lifted high enough that the tips of its rangers don’t touch the ground, the hoverballs simply stop correcting.

Though this version is pretty barebones, it can easily be dolled up and the front section can be used for anything from transporting life-support systems to a mounted gun controlled by the passenger. Two built-in wire screens can be linked up on the fly, and thruster forces can be adjusted to make this thing as fast as we need it to be. Any feedback or suggestions for a particular application?

Yours until permadeath,

~ Zach

In honor of our innate love of all things fast, we’ve gathered up a list of the fastest things on (or nearly on) Earth.

You’ll find no cheetahs or peregrine falcons here, just the most crazy-quick contraptions humans have ever strapped themselves into. With that, let’s punch it….

Source:
http://www.switched.com/2009/06/10/worlds-fastest-planes-trains-and-automobiles-and-other-stuff/

In honor of our innate love of all things fast, we’ve gathered up a list of the fastest things on (or nearly on) Earth.

You’ll find no cheetahs or peregrine falcons here, just the most crazy-quick contraptions humans have ever strapped themselves into. With that, let’s punch it….

Source:
http://www.switched.com/2009/06/10/worlds-fastest-planes-trains-and-automobiles-and-other-stuff/

On April 15 we had a post on Jenny McCarthy claiming that HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxyen Therapy) is able to cure and prevent cancer. However, there is no evidence for this claim whatsoever. 

Other claims about alternative use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy include that it helps patients with autism, but again, there is no scientific evidence to support these claims. 

In the USA, HBOT-chambers are sold on a large scale for home use. In many other countries commercial use of HBOT-chambers is severely restricted because of high risk of fire and for the same reason home use of HBOT-chambers is often illegal. That there is good reason for this is shown by a tragic accident in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea at the beginning of this month.

If you have a spare half-hour or so to kill, take a listen to 

Yes, there's a zeppelin

Somehow the department let me do a radio show to fullfill my degree requirement… Woo woo! 

 A Zeppelin,
 Cute Robots,
 6 Passengers,
 A Murder.

 Let us take you to the clouds…

The show can be accessed here, with the password “chandelle”.