I’ve given you the prelims, Now eat the finals. The prelims were compiled by Shikhar, and hosted by me. The finals are compiled and written by Shreyans, and hosted by me. You can now see how I love to take credit for others’ work and boost my blog views.

Download The TCS IT Wiz 2009 Quiz Finals

A small note here. This quiz archive is EPIC. It’s simply awesome! Download it for sure. At. Any. Cost. Shreyans has compiled a truly magnificent archive. Never before have a seen something like this. If possible, print it on photo paper and frame it.

TCS IT Wiz 2009 was held on 31st October 2009, and 909 teams turned up. I managed to finish tenth out of them (along with Saumey). DPS Noida won this year’s edition of TCS IT Wiz. You can download the quiz prelims here. Quiz finals are being prepared. More later.

Please give Shikhar complete credit for this work. It may have been hosted at my blog and typed by me, he made it a point to write them all down during the quiz (you can improve your handwriting, Shikhar).

Download the TCS IT Wiz 2009 Prelims

When George Bush waged war against Iraq, he found a pack of Ubuntu disks.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Thank you for the title, Shikhar.

After what seemed like eternity, Dynamix 2009 came at Ramjas, RK Puram. It was my first quiz of the year, let alone tech symposium, as H1N1 messed up my plans for others. Naturally, I was really excited.

We started out quite late. I had brought my entire collection of Digit magazines with me to pass the time.

Saumey-”Bhaiya, aapne Alienware laptop ka review padha?”

Me-”Nahi. Which month?”

Saumey-”October”

I opened it up to see a shiney ahuja Best Performer award. Because of a 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM, and two GeForce 285 GTX cards running in SLI with a gig of RAM each. Blew my head off!

Reached at about 9.20. Registered and ran for the quiz. Stopped in mid-way. Told to go to Audi. Stopped in midway. Told to go for quiz. Stopped in midway. Finally went to Audi.

As noticeable, Ramjas always has organisation problems. They’re well known for organising the most disorganised fest in the entire universe. They’re known for that in the Andromeda Galaxy as well. (Okay, that went too far). So when we (Saumey and me) eventually reached the quiz destination, it was already on. Problem was, Crossword and Quiz were on the same time. And I was taking part in both. Ashmeet, my Crossword partner, was already in the library. I had to hurry.

Unfortunately, the organisers weren’t too happy with all this.

Houston, we have a problem.

I begged and convinced them to let me participate in both.

“But you have to submit your quiz paper. Only then can you leave.”
But can’t my partner sit here and do the paper?”

“No”

“Why?”

“No”

(audible sigh)”Alright”

“But if you qualify in both, what will you go for?”

“Fat chance”

“But still…”

“I’ll choose at that time”

And so, the quiz began. The written prelim was tough. Not so tough, but tough. Negative marking wasn’t helping. First question was about some NewHoo. Dunno what it was. Lots of MCQs were also there.  Some were copied questions, like the MIME acronym. Remember seeing that in some quiz… There were two questions on MAC addresses.

And there were these to logos to conclude the prelims.

In addition to these being super easy (you’re FAIL if you don’t know these. What are you doing on a tech blog anyway?), we discussed the former one on our way to Ramjas! Nice, eh?

Having no time for pleasant surprises, I left for the Library, when Saumey went to swat flies in the Audi.

The Library is awesome. There are six (no less) split air conditioners there (though none were switched on). Way better than the Montfort library. Ashmeet was coolly doing the paper. He had managed two on twenty. When I was through, I had about eighteen on twenty.

Crossword Prelims was a joke. Just too easy. Repeat questions as well. Remember the clue “Michael went to see ET” at Exun? This one had “Michael, ET, Dell”. So simple. So stupid, being unable to think of another question, as it was there in the quiz prelims.

There was a question about the son of Zeus (four-letter). I’ve never played God of War, so I had absolutely no idea. Wrote “aero” (it fits). Turns out, it was “ares” (thank you, Wikipedia). This question is of little significance here, but look out for quiz finals.

There was another crossword clue which said something like Heroes of the movie 300 and enemies in Halo. Now, I’ve never seen 300. But I’ve played Halo. So I thought it must be the Covenant. They are the enemies in Halo. But didn’t fit. A spoof movie on 300 was Meet The Spartans, so the answer must be Spartans! Good clue, but wait. Spartans may be the heroes of 300, but they were NOT enemies in  Halo! This is a serious error! In fact, they helped defeat the enemies, the Covenant, in Halo Wars. Shikhar confirmed. He’s a big fan of Halo.

Easy prelims felt great, and it put me in another crazy situation. Damn. I’m qualifying for both. Now what?

And the inevitable happened. When Shikhar, Vinamra, Saumey, Ashmeet and me were discussing about an exoskeleton while munching on the world’s most deserving candidate for Shitty Patty of the World, it was announced that we had, indeed, qualified. For both. And both were to start at 11.30.

I requested the authorities with a similar conversation, that I can give the crossword in seven minutes flat, and then go for the quiz. They accepted, on the condition that no one would wait for me at the quiz, and I had to hand over the crossword paper.

Crossword finals were damn tough. Seemed tougher when we did it in seven minutes. Easiest question was “Main Protagonist of GTA4″. Didn’t get simple ones like “First commercial OS”. Also had good clues like “Wolverine was a hacker in this movie” (which was Swordfish were Hugh “Sexy” Jackman was a hacker; courtesy New Era, where Prateek the Great has infused his Wikipedia-sized knowledge).

Anyway, I rushed to quiz, where Saumey was sitting. I made a dramatic entry, skidded to a halt near my table, and sat down. The projection-on-wall displayed “Where are the NVIDIA headquarters situated?”

“Who’s direct?”

“Ours”

“Oh shit…”

“Answer, please?”

“California”

“That’s right. Its Santa Clara, California”

As usual, DPS RK Puram fought.

“Dude, California is like, a state. A huge state”

“But he gave  the answer”

“Dude! Everything is in California!”

“Fine. No points”

Which left me disappointed and breathless (as I had just run a floor downstairs).

The quiz continued, and it made me realise the WTFness of it. None of the questions were transferrable. And, in my breathlessness and disorientation, I forgot what Ray Tomlinson invented. D@mn it.

At the end of the first dry round, RKP was first, we were second, MSM was third, and the other school was fourth.

Next round, connect round. The craziest round of all. There are four images in each question, and answering one gives twenty points EACH. And getting all gives an additional ten points. That’s like ninety for each question, and only ten for first dry round ones. We and RKP were stunned. But it started anyway.

Both RKP and we didn’t get ours. I don’t remember their questions, but I certainly do ours. There was this sun sign, galaxy, and a picture of computers connected across the world. Answer was Ares. Couldn’t think of anything else, Dynafix? As Ares was already there in the crossword?

Next school had some easy question. Seventy points. MSM had the easiest of all. Chrome, Firefox and Tux, and this.

Okay, that was easy. This picture is Freedom Toaster. It’s essentialy for those who a) don’t have unlimited downloads b)who’re too lazy to download and c)both. I’m speaking about Linux distros of course! You take your own blank CD, and Freedom Toaster writes any distro for you. It’s a Mark Shuttleworth initiative, who, for the record, is the guy behind Ubuntu, and has also been to space for a vacation. Gives you the idea he that kind of guy who can afford stuff like this.

Now I knew this one, and offered to answer for no points. There was this guy sitting behind me with a heavily tattooed Dell laptop, and looked like he had made the quiz (not sure).

“That’s Freedom Toaster. You can get distros at that.”

“Correct. But no points”

“I’m not complaining. There’s only one in India. Trivandrum”

At which, that Dell guy shouts

“No. Bangalore”

“Trivandrum”

“Bangalore”

“Trivandrum”

“Bangalore”

“Really? Maybe”

Apart from noticing that both of us used the wrong names for Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, I had my strong doubts. When I came home, I checked up Freedom Toaster’s site and opted to find a toaster. It produced unsurprising results.

What did I say?

So, kids, listen to the unicorn.

This round changed stuff. Now, MSM was first, the other school was second, RKP was third and we were fourth. Naturally, RKP couldn’t stand themselves losing, so they fought. I support them completely. This was ridiculous. With their pestering (and ours), Ramjas relented. The next round, the audio-visual round, which was to be a hundred points each, would now be only fifty. But no change in previous round. Unfair, I thought, but kept quiet.

In the final round, there was a video with another audio combined together. I really liked this round. The idea was really nice. I don’t care if this was ripped off from somewhere.

RKP got the first chance, and they had that Intel ad music (the USB one) and this awesome speech (in video. The text in the video, not the original video itself)

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world
Are the ones who do

It was a really easy one, and they garnered fifty points. It was Apples Think Different campaign. Of course, I’m not whining that they always get easy ones (it wasn’t really easy. I just chanced to know about this).

Next was our turn. We had some heavy metal soundtrack playing and a war game in the video.

“Wait. I’ve heard this! Yes! It was in the G@teway intro video. Er, no. It wasn’t. Ah! Now I know! Its the soundtrack for Need For Speed Most Wanted“

“Correct. Name the song”

“Er, I’m sorry?”

“Name the song”

“Are you kidding me? There must be fifteen songs in that game, and you exepct me to memorise all the names?

“Alright, I’ll give it to you. And the video”

“Er, I dunno. Call of Duty?”

“No. Army of Two“

So we got fifty points.

I can’t remember what the next school got, but I do remember what MSM got. I think they got The Matrix soundtrack, and a game trailer which said From the 2007 Game of the Year.

“Er, Crysis“

“Alright”

DPS-”Wrong! They said Crysis. Its Crysis Warhead“

“Yes it is. No points”

At which RKP was jubliant. They had won, and that is why they wanted MSM to get it wrong. MSM were second, and we were fourth. We fought against that stupid points system, and signed our own death warrant. Sob.

Shikhar, Vinamra and Karan couldn’t get anything at S.Y.N.C.E.D, although they did have a cheesy concept. They ran out of time. Also, I was told, Ramjas had a trial version of Fruity Loops. How diabetic.

According to unofficial results, we came third in the crossword. New Era was second, and RKP was first. There were other events the next day, including the answer to this PJ.

Q: Woh kya hai jo Ravan akele kar sakta hai, par Ram nahi?

A: Group discussion.

Didn’t get anything in that as well. And others. In the end, Montfort returned empty handed from Ramjas, as they did not have a third prize, which is bad. I always get third in every Ramjas event.

Now I found out why I go to Dynamix. Apart from criticizing poor management, they do have a great quiz and crossword. Trust me. Quiz was actually very good and so was crossword, apart from the obession with certain stuff like gaming. But poor management let such a great event down. I just hope it gets better next year. Congrats to DPS RK Puram, though. Although they did fight at the quiz, they answered superbly. They deserved to win it, and the overall trophy as well.

Dynamix guys promised they’d upload answers on their website. I don’t think they’ve kept their promise.

If you’re still reading this uber-long post, thank you for having the patience. Happy belated Diwali, guys.

I’ve lost track of the number of times ISPs have lied to us about the download speeds they offer us. Novice users can also get confused about the difference between Mbps, Kbps, MBps and KBps (for the record, Mbps is mega bits per second, and MBps with a capital B is mega bytes per second. Mega bits has a value eight times that of mega bytes per second).

Speedtest.net is a funky place to know your true speed. It calculates ping time(in milliseconds), upload speed and download speed (in Mbps).

Just visit the site, and wait till Speedtest.net automatically detects your nearest server. Click on the yellow pyramid to start the test. The coolest part of the test has to be the speedometer.

Also, something really great is that based on the download speed, you also have an idea about the time it will take to download a particular movie or song. Also, you can copy some direct links (to images) and forum links (for embedding) to boast about your download speeds, especially if you have an internet backbone connection (whoever’s got that, I envy you. Just wait till you see my download speed).

Do you have any idea about the torture I go through everyday?

Unfortunately, not all have the convience to download movies via torrents. Lets face it: torrents do take time to download an entire movie to your HDD. Also, you may want to watch only a portion of a movie. So download the entire freakin’ clip?

This is where QuickSilverScreen (or QSS, as they’d like to call themselves) comes in. Its great for watching new movies, with respectable video quality, especially if they’re atleast a week old.

The service is just so amazingly fast, you wouldn’t even realise you’re actually through. No sign-in and other hassles required at all! And most importantly, its free.

In case you’re wondering, this is not a sponsored post.

Hey! Looks like you’re trying to install a new software! And it looks like its downloaded from the internet.

Yes.

Hmm. iTunes 9. Do you really want to install this?

Yes.

Alright. <wait a minute> I really don’t think you should. It may harm your computer.

I don’t care.

Ookay. But still, I must ask again. Do you really want to install this?

Yes, you idiot!

Alright! There’s no need to get so angry! <wait five minutes> Unfortunately, this program doesn’t seem compatible with Windows. Wanna try with recommended settings?

Hmm, alright. Ballmer didn’t leave me another choice, did he?

Er, no he didn’t. Lets go over this again.

Hmm. iTunes 9. Do you really want to install this?

Yes.

Alright. <wait a minute> I really don’t think you should. It may harm your computer.

I don’t care.

Ookay. But still, I must ask again. Do you really want to install this?

Yes, you idiot!

Alright! There’s no need to get so angry! <wait five minutes> Looks like you don’t have the permission to install software. Do you have an administrator password?

This is an administrator account, you twat.

I know, but still. Gimme a password.

Here goes…

Alright, then.

Hmm. iTunes 9. Do you really want to install this?

Yes.

Alright. <wait a minute> I really don’t think you should. It may harm your computer.

I don’t care. No wait. Cancel the freakin’ installation!

But why?

Psst! Lemme give you a piece of friendly advice. Use Windows Media Player.

That doesn’t work with iPods.

Do I care? Buy a Zune, for Bill’s sake! And oh, that installation you wanted to cancel? You can’t. Its hung. Its crashed.

Die.

Now WHERE did I keep those Linux disks?

The Lost Symbol

Author: Dan Brown

Price: $30 (Rs 700)

Publisher: Doubleday (US)

Transworld (UK)

Bantam Press (India)

Genre: Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Boredom

Dan Brown has penned down an international bestseller

Bestsellers are not always good.

Dan Brown is back. And so is Robert Langdon. In another “fast-paced” thriller. The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown is known to almost the entire world. He happens to be the best-selling author of the very famous The Da Vinci Code, though I thought his finest work was Deception Point. The Lost Symbol is based in Washington D.C this time, in contrast to his other novels which are based in Spain, Vatican City, The Arctic and Europe. Langdon is summoned to DC by a mysterious caller, who seems to impersonate his friend Peter Solomon’s secretary. Langdon has to decipher a large number of clues (including a lone hand) and unveil the Ancient Truth of Freemasonry, the society around which this book is based upon. Sadly, although the plot seems promising, the book is too long in various parts and is such a big bore, that you’d be surprised that you’re not reading from an encyclopedia.

The plot is ingenious and also quite gripping. But the problem is stuff like this is very, very old now. It’s that typical Langdon+Scientist-cum-chick-cum-love-interest+Assassin+Ancient-Brotherhood formula, which Dan Brown has tried and tested for two books. It may successful once, like in The Da Vinci Code, but not always.

Also, half the stuff is almost entirely unnecessary. Instead of simply stating “Langdon suffered from claustrophobia”, Brown goes on to give a full and long, detailed explanation of how he got it. Even though he already has mentioned it in his previous books. And even more stuff on him doing fifty laps in the Harvard pool, and him wearing a Tweed coat. Its boring now. Really. I know it may be for the first-timers but come on now. It’s too much. Have a look at the Harry Potter trilogy. Rowling just gives a sweeping mention of Harry’s past and gets down to real business. Now Brown. He wants to write a big novel. He knows that he can keep you gripped to it. This is exactly the place where the book succeeds. It is addictive. Excessively. In fact, my curiosity had arisen to such a great extent, that I sat up at even one-thirty in the night to read it.

But it really is those cliched verses which frustrate you till eternity. Picture this conversation between X and Y

X- Have you heard about Z?

Y- Of course. <five-line long history on Z follows> …and its known as <this> by the Mayans, <that> by the Hindus, <whatever> by the Greeks and — <stops short>

X- What happened?

Suddenly is was crystal clear. Everything was falling into place. It was in front of us all the time, and yet we didn’t catch it X thought. How ingenious.

<end of chapter>

That happens almost every two chapters. Plus, the book is full of descriptions of rituals and acts of crime, which are really not relevant to the plot at all. They’re just… there. There are too many words such as “odd”, “bizarre” and, especially “double take” that are used too often.

In the end, The Lost Symbol turns out to be a good experience, but it is also a really, really boring book. Read it only if you’re love the Dan Brown style, although it is quite old now. It is nowhere near as good as Deception Point, which, I feel, is Dan Brown’s greatest book yet.

Rating: 5.8/10 (So-so)

Notice something strange with Google today?

Googlle

No, there’s no need to be very, very scared. Its only Google’s eleventh birthday! Happy birthday, son! You are four years younger than me.

Google was born on 4 September 1998, and was conceived by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But you can read all that elsewhere.

P.S: I hope you noticed that the “ll” is actually 11 (eleven). I hope you noticed that. I really hope.

P.P.S: Happy Dussera everyone!