Rather enjoyable week. Our two classes, yesterday’s & today’s got cancelled for some reason. Those have been compensated for in the last week of February. Now, we had three continuous days where our afternoon sessions were free. As usual, my class guys went off for sports, while Ragha & I were busy writing our records in the canteen.
Ragha & I have been thinking of ways to make Tanya’s Revenge better. I’ll update this site when the new version is ready.
Man, what a hectic week! I had 4 continuous classes @ IITM. Coming back home at almost 9 pm, it’s practically impossible to do anything but sleep. Thankfully, I have a couple of days off now, until Monday, that is. On the other hand, the classes are really worthwhile. Our first class was taken by Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, one of the top professors in IIT (also the pioneer behind WLL). The way he took it was ultimate! Generally, IIT staff record the professors lecturing. However, when Jhunjhunwala came, he immediately asked the man to remove the recording. We had a nice session then. Unfortunately, he won’t be taking any more lectures for us. The other three days were basically lab sessions where we learnt about DSP architecture in general (we have another 3 hours of lecture on that on Monday) and more specifically, the ADSP2192-12 from Analog Devices. They have given us a demo version of VisualDSP++ to install on our comps. I have to first get a serial from Analog Devices first. Only then can I install it.
Ragha told me that Tanya’s Revenge was far too unbalanced. So now, I am working on a more balanced version, though I don’t have as much free time on my hands as I used to. Unfortunately for me, (or fortunately) my classes go on till March 10th, and I can’t even bunk one class!
The day after I bunked my lab, I went to my in-charge & apologized for being absent, telling her that I had already gone home. She didn’t even chide me! I guess I was overreacting when I got the news.
Now that my second cycle of tests are over, I can probably relax a little, although there is still the stupid matter of assignments…
Today, I was supposed to go to University of Madras to meet the Controller of Examinations and ask him to retotal my paper, along with Satish’s. However, the college arranged for a Maruti Van to take 10 people (including the driver). In the end, the princi told Sat & me to attend the class while the other staff members argue our case. Since at that time we had the library hour, we didn’t have a problem.
But Sat & I were really fed up of the classes and decided to bunk the lab. We asked all the other guys to join us, and they agreed. But as usual, in the end, only Sat & I were outside the lab. We had a nice round of cricket with the ECE ‘A’ guys. After the game, Raju came & told us that Velmathi (the staff who went to UOM) had come to the lab looking for us. The guys said that we had already left for home. To top it all, Bhuvaneswari (my lab in charge) came in my bus today (as routes 1 & 12 were combined for the umpteenth time). I wound up hiding my face behind the others in the last seat of the bus. I dunno what’s gonna happen when I go tomorrow to college.
My DSP classes @ IITM begin tomorrow. Most probably, tomorrow evening, I’ll go directly to IIT with Venkat for the class. I’ll also have to retrieve my lab coat from Prabhu.
Hopefully, I should get Red Hat Linux 8.0 CD3 soon. If not, I just have to wait and ask somebody in the hostel to download it and transfer it to me (and download CDs 4 & 5 as well 
). Let’s see…
With the host of problems I was having with Linux, I chucked it out of my system for the time being, along with its boot loader. Also, I’ve managed to recover most of my data from the missing partition. Or rather, all of the important data - namely Tanya’s Revenge. The file is now ready and you can download it from the downloads page. Use the link at the top of this page. And don’t forget to mail me with comments and suggestions.
For those interested in how I recovered the data, here’s a tip. Look for some free data recovery software (or like me, for some loopholes in shareware). I got a shareware program which doesn’t allow you to directly retrieve the file, but it allows you to view the file to see if it is recoverable. So, I started viewing all the files, and copying them from the temp directory to their final destination, oh, and after renaming them to their proper names of course. I’m not naming the software here as the authors could sue me later, and I don’t have that kind of money.
Well, once again, all’s well that ends well…
The start of my 4-day weekend. The Pongal Holidays.
I managed to install Mandrake Linux 8.1. But this was after trying to install Red Hat 8 and that installer repeatedly asking me for Disk 3, when I have only 2 disks. And I have still not been able to get that partition recovered. I think I should reformat everything & switch to Linux permanently. But my parents would kick me. Also, I am not as good with Linux as I am with Windows. Let’s see. Hopefully, I should be able to recover Tanya’s Revenge soon. As for Project Enigma, I think there is some implementational glitch with the VB file. I’ll upload the file soon. Also, I’ll try to implement the same using some other language. Problem is, I don’t know Windows programming with VC++ like I know VB. Let’s see…
Damn! I tried installing Mandrake Linux 8.1. It did not install properly. I thought “OK, I just have to reformat this drive.” However, it turned out that another partition which houses all my software, including Tanya’s Revenge is no longer recognized by Windows. I have no option but to reformat it. However, I may still be able to recover the software if I can get Partition Magic. Let’s see.
Today, I got the full day off. SSN is hosting an international conference on Wireless Communication Networks. I’ll post the link as soon as I verify it. I had to go to Hindustan & Anand to invite them to the conference & to try to get some sponserships. With my work complete by noon, I had two choices. One, go to the college and sit through 3 hours of lectures (mainly the BORING DBMS lecture), or Two, go home and relax (of course with attendance already given for the full day). Naturally, I chose the second option.
Then in the afternoon, I went to IIT to pay my DSP course fees. Mom & I went for a pradakshanam around IIT, being unable to find the Electric Sciences block. Finally, after about 20 minutes of circling around, we found the block & I paid my fees. The course will begin on Tuesday, the 21st of January and goes on till the 10th of March, and will be held on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. In addition, we have 5 extra classes on Tuesdays & Thursdays (the exact dates are not yet confirmed) in order to complete the course in time. It’s gonna be a hectic 6 weeks…
Finally, Tanya’s Revenge is ready. However, Project Enigma is still giving some trouble. I’ll upload Tanya’s Revenge soon, so that you can download it. The file is only 98K, consisting of a single zipped rules.ini file. All you have to do is to load the rules.ini file in your RA2 folder. Remember to back up any existing mods you have.
As usual, the day was relatively free for us - with only 2 VLSI classes & a communication class out of 7 hours in the day. Also some good news for us. The college has declared 14th to be a holiday. So we get a full 4 days off! But after those 4 days, college will begin at 8 & end at 3. Oh well, one can’t have the cake and eat it too.
I sent my official retotalling form today. The people at the office said that they will discuss my case with the chief examiner when they go to meet him. So, I’m hoping to get a better mark now.
I’m now working on a new Mod for Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge. Total Cheating though is what it is. Tanya has a long range Tesla bolt, rocketeers have air to ground missiles, supserweapon inhibitors, fast superweapon recharging, monkeys are loaded with nuke warheads and paradropped in the enemy base, blowing up the entire area when they get killed. The original version which I modified for RA2 had less units. I’m trying to get a new building to house the defence mechanisms, instead of the Eiffel Tower! Maybe even a tree!!!! Let’s wait and see. I’ll inform you when the mod is ready. Till then…
I just sent a letter to the controller of examinations today, requesting him to recheck my paper. I’m still rather shocked that I managed to score only 34 in that paper. What’s even more shocking is that, in the external examination, they have awarded me only 19 out of 80. I’ll still have to give the official retotalling form tomorrow. Let’s just hope for the best.
Wishing everybody a very Happy New Year!!!
As I promised in my last post, as of today, I have a completely new look for this site. Powered by Blogger and Tripod, with StatCounter providing statistics. When I realised that Tripod had FTP access, I decided to make the switch. Not only does Blogger make page handling a great lot simpler, but their templates are way cooler than anything I could program by hand. Also, this switch is primarily dedicated to KK, for his pressurising me to return to Blogspot. Sorry Blogspot, but like I said, I cannot maintain two websites about myself. Also, Tripod allows me to host a lot more stuff than Blogspot would ever allow me to. To that effect, I deleted my last blog hosted by Blogspot. Surprisingly, the site still remains as such. My previous posts are still present on this site.
I just saw The World Is Not Enough last night. A good movie, except that I couldn’t really understand the story at the beginning. Maybe that’s because I missed the beginning. However, among the 3 James Bond movies in which Pierce Brosnan acted (I haven’t yet seen Die Another Day), I like Golden Eye the best. But among the title scores, I like Garbage’s The World Is Not Enough.
Back to current affairs - the exam results are just out. Surprisingly, I have been awarded extremely poor marks in Digital communication. The question remains - is it a simple entry error, or is it a major problem? The answer will come with the official marksheets. Till then…