Microsoft's Singularity

Singularity is Microsoft's latest venture into research. No, its not the consequence of a 'Vista failure' ( I still love Vista. I think it's great!). The project had begun way back in 2003. It's not a commercial Operating System and right now it only has a command line interface. They are basically aiming to come up with an operating system that'll be more suited to the modern needs of computing. The entire system has been started right from the scratch.

It's base of architecture is formed by .NET Framework. Unlike MS Windows, MAC, Linux, Unix which trace their lineage back to MULTICS, Singularity is different. About 95% of the kernel code is rewritten in C# and Sing# ( Extension of C#). The usage of this will eliminate buffer related errors on which the viruses of several types capitalize thereby, as it was pointed out, increasing security.

 

                                                                                              Fig 1.Singularity Architecture

It's three key architectural features are

1. Software Isolated Processes (SIP):

These are independent of each other having their own code, data, garbage collector, runtime and communicate through channels. It enables programs and system resources to be broken down into components that are isolated from other software components running on the same device. Singularity runs each program, device or driver or system extension in its own SIP. SIP's are not allowed to share memory or modify their own code. It enables parts of system to fail without risking total failure. Consider the analogy, If the radio fails in the car, the brake does not fail. This will replace the conventional dual mechanisms of processes and dynamic code loading as well as encapsulating the application extensions.

   2.  Static Analysis:

Now, the several programs' SIPs need to communicate with each other in case they work on shared resources or on shared objectives to facilitate information exchange. Static Analysis, here, is the mechanism devised for the aforementioned. The codes of the processes are checked at compile time to ensure if they are communicating properly even before the code is run. It inspects a program’s source code in advance to make sure a process obeys certain rules that guarantee it’s isolated from the rest of the system. Traditionally, programs were checked at run time, using hardware mechanisms.

3. Manifest based programs:

The contemporary OSes do not analyze a program's composition, purpose or the resources it is going to utilize. Being represented with a series of bits it would simply execute them. However, while building Singularity, researchers have clearly laid emphasis on system dependability and because of this each program to be executed is checked to see if it'll lead to a break or breach in the other programs that are already running. In other words, Singularity reserves the right to say NO if the program that's going to be run will not comply with the OS rules and standards.

                                                                     Fig 2. Singularity's Command Line Interface

To be more precise, Singularity is more like an emerging prototype to come up with a system that is more tailored to the modern needs of computing. The Singularity project illuminates the broader implications of using managed code to develop operating system components. The Singularity research development kit (RDK) is available for download at CodePlex. But can only be used for noncommercial academic use, and the license for the Singularity RDK explicitly stipulates that you can't use the included compilers to develop production software.  Currently research is moving to the development of Singularity RDK 2.0.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Singularity,manifest based programs,SIP,static analysis

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

Regionalism at a glance

I'm really saddened by this entire MNS episode with their campaign "The Sons of The Soil" theory, "Jai Maharashtra" et all. And now with Shobhaa De supporting the cause, I'm actually quite revolted. I least expected her to support such a cause which only breeds disunity and in the times which we are living today we need to be as united as possible.

Firstly, I don't understand distinctions such as North Indian, South Indian, East Indians and then on basis of state names such as Maharashtrians, Kannadigas, Keralites etc. Secondly,categorizations are also made on the basis of your mother tongue. For instance, people will find it hard to believe that you're a South Indian if you can't speak a single tongue twisting South Indian language. According to the Indian Constitution, an Indian has the right to settle down in any state of their choice and work over there.
More...

I'm really saddened by this entire MNS episode with their campaign "The Sons of The Soil" theory, "Jai Maharashtra" et all. And now with Shobhaa De supporting the cause, I'm actually quite revolted. I least expected her to support such a cause which only breeds disunity and in the times which we are living today we need to be as united as possible.

Firstly, I don't understand distinctions such as North Indian, South Indian, East Indians and then on basis of state names such as Maharashtrians, Kannadigas, Keralites etc. Secondly,categorizations are also made on the basis of your mother tongue. For instance, people will find it hard to believe that you're a South Indian if you can't speak a single tongue twisting South Indian language. According to the Indian Constitution, an Indian has the right to settle down in any state of their choice and work over there. But no! these political parties want to take the maximum advantage of Indian mentality's definition of pride and honor and instigate such feelings of disunity amongst people on the basis of origin and language.

However I feel such a thing will fail to diminish Mumbai's spirit. I'm not a Maharashtrian but I've an association of a sort with that beautiful city. My mother and all her cousins were born and brought up in Mumbai, even my dad was born in Mumbai but after 5 years or so came down to Mangalore, my native place.  A lot of my mother's cousins have all settled in Mumbai for good as have my grandparents too. So going to Mumbai has been a regular affair. I have infact even studied there for 2 years. The best part of the city is the way it makes you feel that you're a part of it!Unlike Karnataka, you will never be treated as an outsider if you don't know the local language. As far as I know, the spirit of the people over there is unbreakable. They are really friendly and helpful. You just sort of blend instantly. No wonder it's called the City of Dreams. There are people from all walks of life who come there to realize their dreams. For instance, the Indian film industry, Bollywood...Will MNS outcast all these actors and condemn them for not being a Maharashtrians or rather overshadowing their glory??

In the past few decades, Mumbai and sometimes larger Maharashtra have witnessed a growing resentment towards South Indians and recently towards North Indians. There is also a recent movement towards compulsory use of Marathi language in Mumbai in places including the Municipal Corporation. This "Maharashtra for the Marathis" sub-nationalism or regionalism has been condemned by mainstream political parties such as Congress and BJP and Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has assured protection for both North and South Indian immigrants.

It's very imperative that people realize that this is a political gimmick that is feeding on people's emotions and their sense of being. It's also important that we first identify ourselves as Indians! When you go outside India and people know that you're an Indian, they are just going to start talking in Hindi (our national language) initially i.e if they know a line or two else they'll just stick to English which is nearly universal. They will never ask from which place you belong and specifically talk in that language or something like that.  Instead of looking at the big picture and considering our entire nation as one, we are busy bickering with our neighboring states. It's terribly sad that the picture of unity we show the entire world is flawed and internally being eaten and broken down, all at the hands of politics and people's false sense of pride originating from the place they hail.

Well...the last thing that our politicians can do is respect the Indian Constitution atleast and learn to be secular most importantly. Unless and until we defeat malices such as regionalism and communalism, true progress will never occur. Moreover, people should realize that generalizing an entire sect of people hailing from one region because of one bad act from one person is detrimental to the peace and harmony of the society.

To make a difference, take a trip down the memory lane and

• Recall what you studied in Civics.
• Respect the Indian Constitution.
• Respect and use the knowledge which you've gotten through education in a constructive, rational way.
• If you find it particularly hard to be secular, just keep your destructive opinions to yourself.
• If the aforementioned is unbearable, it's better to live in an uninhabited island where you can freely preach your views to the other living things there. If things get really bad and you've a strong urge to express, put a note in the bottle and throw it in the ocean!
• Do not poison the minds of innocent children by propagating regionalism and communalism.
• To always talk in your region's language when you're surrounded by people hailing from different places, in your region with your counterparts shows your lack of courtesy. Language first came into existence to enhance communication... not to fight over it and die or flaunt it everywhere.
• In a group of people who speak different languages, stick to a common language everyone can understand.
• Stop generalizing people. We never generalize for good things so don't generalize for the bad stuff either.
• Lastly, be well mannered and courteous no matter from where the person hails or what the person speaks. It is not fatal to be nice.

Technorati Tags: regionalism,maharashtra,mns,marathi

 

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

Trip down the memory lane...

Today I am feeling particularly reminiscent about my Pre University College days at St. Aloysius. What days were those! In our entire year across all streams, there were only 3 students from Sharada Vidyalaya and I was the only one in my class. And the craziest and boldest thing I ever did in my life was stand for the Class Representative elections on the very first day of college without knowing a single soul in class (I don't know what thought process resulted in that action)!!!I was so terrified!!!!!Nevertheless I did win, which was a good thing and a bad thing. Good thing was that it helped me break the ice with several people in class of 100 odd students and the bad thing was, well... many of them though that I think am too smart and the little-miss-perfect kind of girl and whole lot of stuff like that! Anyways the latter part did trouble to some extent it was very trivial considering all the other moments we had in college!
More... Aloysius is always abuzz with activities, I think we used to celebrate literally every public holiday with competitions and functions...preparing the entire class for such competitions was the best part..What a class we had.. a real versatile one!you name what you want, we had someone from our class who would do it exceptionally well! And I used to be so naughty back then that people who've now seen me in engineering would say like "What a contrast!".

For starters, I could never sit still or quiet in a single class and if you're surrounded by awesome friends with amazing sense of humor, you would know what it's like to giggle and stifle your laughter for two continuous hours! In Zoology classes, I used to be some sort of a reference point...After getting caught talking incessantly once I decided that I'd follow silence is golden but people around me kept getting yelled for talking being referred as the girl next to me or the guy behind me. It was as good someone using you as a reference for screaming. And how could I forget Hindi Classes. I always used to sleep in the second but last bench and my two friends around me would pull long faces and explain to our teacher what horrible headache I am having 'cause of sinusitis and she would always nod sympathetically and let me sleep!

Every PreUnique, we all used to gather(usually Me, Sanam, Mridula, Rajat, Ramsey, Pramitha, Varun, Sunil) and round up a couple of tired, harassed volunteers and head to the coffee day nearby...We literally used to live there...after every function we would hit that place and either celebrate our victory or drown our sorrows over there. Especially the Variety Entertainment 2005 Competition. It was such a freaking disaster but I must admit that the one's who were the part of it certainly managed to smile the latter half of the day, all thanks to Nikhil, our equally grief stricken emcee who gave us a lot of aftermath disaster pep talks when all of us were sprawled like half dead people near the pretorium with our heads buried in our hands!!!We then finally drowned the disaster Cafe Coffee Day over several mugs of coffee, iced tea and sandwiches! And Cafe Coffee Day will definitely not forget Rajat (you can follow his blog from mine at the right hand side corner) for pepping their newspapers up with funny thought bubbles and dialogs!

And yes...how can I forget the uproar we had in class with invisible ink. I managed to invoke my best friend, Sanam's curiosity by talking about some special ink so much that she started imploring me to show it to her. I just took the pen and jerked it at her white dress spraying ink all over! A usually calm person that she is, she just stared at me for good 10 minutes thinking how to react!!!!Luckily I told her just in time that it was invisible ink else I don't know what things would've been thrown at me! The Creative Directors of our class Rajat & Ramsey would shoot candid videos of different lecturers yelling in class...even the dean!

On the contrary, most of them believe that science students tend to be more disciplined and all that but mind you, every rule has an exception. And what exceptions were we! For instance, hardly any of us completed biology records during the Christmas break thinking that, "It's literally impossible to complete so much in 15 days!!!". But after a fatal final deadline was issued, the whole record got completed in two days with some people like Rajat taking just a couple of hours! Talking about bio lab, I clearly remember the time we ended up having a thermocol war in the lab during the making of a plasma membrane model and well...we landed ourselves in detention: 1 hour of service to lab which comprised getting rid of the mess we made and scrubbing the hardened plaster of Paris off atleast 25 miserable trays i guess!

It was really hard to say goodbye. In contrast to Nitte, at Aloysius we learnt real independence and dealt successfully with the responsibility that comes at the price of independence and freedom. Of course, not all of them made the right choice but most of us did. Every tear and a smile had a lesson to teach! These were the most beautiful moments we friends have shared together and how happily we reminisce every time we have a reunion!

That was it. Thanks for your patience if you managed to reach to this line. I made it as concise as possible! :)

Technorati Tags: college,memories,reunion

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

Tadaa!!!

The last 3 days were quite eventful and hectic. An apparently controversial blog post's feedback and sessionals had engulfed my entire time slice. As for the sessionals, I've no idea why I even wrote Client Server computing...Lets see how much marks does one hour of study fetch me. My hopes are anyways pinned on the third sessionals for this course. Another important stuff I realized was freedom of speech and expression should be underused and that criticism should always be sugarcoated if you want to live your life in peace :)

Anyways got to run. Since it's Diwali tomorrow, there's mega sale going on at every imaginable place...what a jackpot for a window shopper like me! If there's one thing I can't resist, it's a good bargain.

Until then Au revoire.....and HAPPY DIWALI to all!

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

Embedding Fonts in Microsoft Powerpoint

Have you ever had to install and use fonts on a different computer because it won't support the ones you've used in your Microsoft Powerpoint presentation?? Then this is the post to read. You can actually embed the fonts in your ppt. By embedding fonts, Powerpoint saves the file with the fonts however it will do so by using up more space. But the extra space used is insignificant and I guess it's way easier to embed rather than installing new fonts wherever you run a slide show.
More...

To embed fonts in Microsoft Powerpoint 2007, do the following.

• Click on the Microsoft Office logo at the topmost left hand side corner of Microsoft Powerpoint Window. The logo is shown here on the left.
• Select Powerpoint Options from the bottom most part from the dropdown.

• Select the Save option, third from first.
• Under the third section, Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation, check on the Embed fonts in the file option.
• Also check Embed all characters under the previous selection.
• Click on ok and save your ppt as usual.

This is how the status bar will look like when you save the file after enabling font embedding.

 

To embed fonts in Microsoft Powerpoint 2003 do the following,

• Select from the menu bar, Tools->Options
• In Options dialog box, select the Save tab.

• As aforementioned for Powerpoint 2007, check Embed TrueType fonts and then choose Embed all characters.
• By default fonts are not embedded in both the versions.
• Proceed to save the file as usual.

That's all for now! Keep watching this space for more. Until next time, Au revoire...

Technorati Tags: powerpoint,embedding,fonts,2003,2007

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

Computer+Task Scheduler=Super Alarm!!

Doubling up a laptop as an alarm finally struck me when I got really fed with cell phone alarm letting me down! My Nokia XpressMusic 5310 has an annoying feature of having its volume less than halved each time the alarm goes off for the first time and for me the louder the alarm, the better it is since I’m not really a light sleeper at all! Anyway you can always download an alarm application online but setting up an alarm task within the operating system gives you more freedom and flexibility.
More...

After you boot in to your Microsoft OS (I’ve done this on vista service pack 1 build), go to Start->Program->Accessories->Task Scheduler.

Here’s how the Task Scheduler main screen would look like.

1)Select Create Task on the right hand side section of the main dialog box.

A new dialog box labeled Create Task should now popup.

• Fill in the Name of the task. Here its a task to set an alarm hence My Alarm or any other name you want keep.
• The Author field would be already filled in by default.
• You van either write or leave the description field empty.
• Under Security Options, the control of the task by the user account can be changed from account to another by using the Change User or Group tab.
• Next check the radio button Run whether user is logged on or not so that even if your laptop is timed to log out of the account it'll make the alarm go off.
• Select Run with highest privileges to give high priority to your alarm-task.

2) Next, Select the Triggers tab under Create Task.

 

Initially the Triggers, Details, Status part would be blank so select the New tab and New Trigger dialog is launched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• For Begin the task choose On a schedule, because its the most appropriate one to run the alarm task. You can also make it run at logon, startup, event change etc but this is the most simplest of all.
• Next, Select Daily under Settings to have a regular running alarm.
• Specify the Start time and let it recur every 1 day.
• Under Advanced settings check Repeat task every <5,10,15,30,60> minutes for a duration of <15/30/ minutes,1/12 hours,1 day, indefinitely>. The first choice acts as your snooze time whether you want it to snooze after 5, 10 or how many minutes while the second choice will let you specify the duration of your snoozes happening. With 12 hours I've specified, no chance that I can ignore it!
• Also I've checked Stop task if it runs longer than 2 hours because I had a choice between 1 or 12 hours for snooze duration time and I chose 12 since 1 would be too less. However if I do get up early the 12 hour thing would be annoying as it will keep playing so I've restricted to 2 hours here.
• Don't forget to enable your task.
• Click ok to proceed next.

3) Now we proceed to the Actions tab.

 

 

• Under Action select Start a program.
• Browse to the song or a playlist you want as the alarm sound under Program/script.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Once you ok the aforementioned, the Actions tab is going to look like the screenshot on the left hand side.
• You can also specify more than 1 action by clicking on New  again.
• Several actions can be reordered by using the reorder tabs specified in the right most part of the dialog box.
• In case you want to edit an already specified action, click on the Edit... tab to proceed to make the changes.
• To delete an action click on the Delete tab.

 

  

4) Select the Conditions tab next.

• Here, you can specify the conditions that are imperative to the running of task along with the trigger.
• Select the condition carefully, in case of false or conflicting conditions the task may run unpredictably or may not run at all!
• For the alarm-task the Idle settings are not really relevant so I just left it unchecked.
• Check Start the task only if the computer is on AC power only if you don't want the task to start on battery power keeping power consumption in mind.
• Essentially check Wake the computer to run this task so that even if your laptop is sleeping it will get up to run the scheduled alarm-task.

 5)Proceed to the settings tab now.

• Check Allow task to be run on demand.
• You may also check Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed just to be extra sure that it will run.
• Imagining the worst case possibility, check If the task fails, restart every <choose from dropdown> minutes and Attempt to restart up to <specify number> times. Here I've chosen it to restart every 1 minute and specified 3 attempts.
• Check If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop, just to make sure that the alarm-task doesn't bother you beyond your specified schedule!
• Lastly choose Run a new instance in parallel or Queue a new instance just in case the playlist/song you've selected plays longer than your snooze duration that is set up!
• Click on OK and you're done! 

In case you want to edit the task double click on Task Scheduler Library. In the middle pane, select your alarm task and choose Properties from the rightmost window pane to edit the entire task. you can also run, disable or delete your task from the same side. It's history can be viewed in the second half of the middle pane after you select your alarm task.

Your super alarm is now ready with automatic powerful snoozing easily customizable by you! With all the proper extra measures you will never have to worry about getting up late ever again!

P.S: You can also customize your task to be suitable to run in a desktop environment!

Ciao!

Technorati Tags: alarm,laptop,task scheduler,vista

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

The Allergy and Fever Chronicles!

This weekend has been amazingly charged, hectic, really draining and sometimes bordering on torture! Spending a lot of time with my grandmother, aunt, uncle and my mother all of who are down with the flu, its no surprise that I'd to get it a day before the ceremony and have it peak just on my cousin's wedding! I know I've no chance for reprieve once the fever with the trademark body ache sets in!

At this moment I just feel like sharing some stuff and some tips which the doctor otherwise will never tell you. I can tell you very safely that as a chronic dust allergy patient a standard viral will definitely leave you more weaker and susceptible if you do not take proper rest.The problem here can be split into 2 subproblems : The allergy and the viral fever itself.
More...

Allergy can be defined as abnormal sensitivity by the immune system of the body to certain substances such as air borne particles, insect stings, food, medicines etc. I'll be mainly concentrating on dust allergy since I'm more familiar with its kind of suffering.

Risk factors for allergy can be placed in two general categories, namely host and environmental factors. Host factors include heredity, sex, race, and age, with heredity being by far the most significant. There have been recent increases in the incidence of allergic disorders, however, that cannot be explained by genetic factors alone. The four main environmental candidates are alterations in exposure to infectious diseases during early childhood, environmental pollution, allergen levels, and dietary changes.

Common symptoms indicating allergy affects organs such as

• Nose: swelling of the nasal mucosa (allergic rhinitis)
• Sinuses: allergic sinusitis
• Eyes: redness and itching of the conjunctiva (allergic conjunctivitis)
• Airways: Sneezing, coughing, bronchoconstriction, wheezing and dyspnea, sometimes outright attacks of asthma, in severe cases the airway constricts due to swelling known as angioedema
• Ears: feeling of fullness, possibly pain, and impaired hearing due to the lack of eustachian tube drainage.
• Skin: rashes, such as eczema and hives (urticaria)

Dust Allergy is quite a broad term and that itself doesn't lend much help to treating it effectively. It is imperative to know what exactly is the 'dust' that triggers your allergy. A diagnosis is usually done by "Skin Testing". This involves marking several spots on the upper arm and introducing small amount of suspected allergens poking with a needle dipped in it or through a syringe. The reaction may range from slight itchiness or reddening of the skin to full blown swelling. It takes approximately 30 minutes for the reaction to generate.

Going by my experience this was a real horrible thing. I'd had skin testing done on my left upper arm in 20 different spots. Well the poking part pains a lot and my arm did swell! Though my symptoms comprised incessant sneezing and sinusitis, the tests revealed I was allergic to all kinds of dust (house mites, paper, saw etc) in addition to flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes and several other things!!! Risk factor in my case was my mom who is a chronic allergy patient and also an asthmatic. Right after the tests, I embarked on a year long journey of immunotherapy which consisted of injecting small amount of allergens irritating me in my body to make my immune system more resistant. However looking back now, I would have rather not made that choice! Because immunotherapy while suppressing one problem of the immune system sometimes leads to another problem possibly resulting in another allergy! Its best to leave your immune system alone! The therapy was effective only for a while after I finished the treatment but my susceptibility to fever and respiratory tract infections catapulted to new levels. I also developed intolerance towards having anything cold. The easiest way to get fever was to have a glass of extremely cold lime juice with 5-6 ice cubes and go to sleep. Since the immunity level of the body is lower when one sleeps, after getting up I'd have sore throat and by next morning fever!

However one must never lose hope!I got really fed up after the immunotherapy had failed and gotten me a new allergy! I used to be actively involved in sports but now running even halfway across the basketball court would leave me gasping for breath, sinus became my shadow and sneezing was and still is my unwanted attached companion. Several things I tried was...

• Started living as though I had no allergy. I wouldn't care if I'm in a dusty place and had cold stuff suiting my whims and fancy. I hated being a delicate darling! Sadly it didn't work out. Getting fever 4 times in a month is not very enjoyable with high dose of antibiotics that render your taste buds dead and manifest its side effects with breakouts on face, dysentery and increasing heat in the body. Further the wheezing had also begun. Time to stop living life pretending allergy doesn't exist!
• Next I focused more on prevention than cure. Prevention included avoiding the allergens and resisting the temptation to have ice creams, extremely cold drinks especially during the pollen season during which I am highly prone to hay fever. In my quest for preventing the most effective tool in my armor was EXERCISE! Yoga was a real lifesaver. The Alom Vilom and the Ujjayi Pranayama were particularly helpful. I used to go running every morning. I could slowly feel the breathlessness reducing and my endurance greater as weeks passed by. The change is extremely slow and it requires several months before a considerable change can be observed. The most important thing exercising taught me was to learn to listen to my body and interpret it's signals.

Now I can expertly sense if I'm going to come down with a fever and I swear the last time I thought I'll compromise by having a bowl of cold boondi raitha I had a very very very bad bout of sneezing making me miss even one of my sessional papers, literally as if I was being forewarned "Hey don't eat me!"

However if you also come down with a fever,

• Make sure you see a doctor at the earliest. Sometimes taking usual off the shelf fever/headache tablets will barely have any effect because your fever will be related to your allergy. In case of an infection antibiotics will be prescribed.
• If you suffer from cough after the fever your doctor would most likely prescribe you an expectorant or a bronchodilator. Avoid all cold things with a vengeance because the cough is hard to get rid off as it is.
• Take your antibiotics on time. Never ever miss a single dose because your condition will get worse and in extreme case the antibiotic may not work effectively and the dosage will have to be made more stronger!
• Eat well before having antibiotics unless you want your stomach to be on fire like a supervolcano erupting from within. It's an inexplicable sensation. It happened to me once and I guzzled 2 liters of cold milk. But it didn't work anyway! I'd to bear it out.
• You can safely make out you are badly infected and you need to see the doctor if the mucous has turned green and you've sore throat for starters. Ignoring this and pretending to be as if nothing has happened and having cold stuff again will make you lose your voice, medically known as laryngitis. The cold kills cold theory will not work so do not try it out!
• Viral/bacterial fever is often accompanied by severe body pain and weakness so make sure you rest adequately. The medicines prescribed will be sedating so it's normal to be sleeping and feeling drowsy or lethargic.
• Have a lot of healthy stuff to eat, the vegetables and the works you know. The best way to protect your body is to eat right and exercise. But save the exercise part till you've recovered completely!

Well...That's all for now! You can't make it vanish but you can definitely minimize it's effect on you. Basically, you just go to learn how to live with it :) ! As for the wedding it was quite fun. I still can't believe that my cousin is married. She's just beginning to believe it herself!!

I can hear a bowl of soup calling out to me now! So Ciao! Stay healthy and eat well!

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

AUTONOMY: AN EXPRESS TO DOOMSDAY?

“Oh! I’m xyz madam’s favorite, so I guess it’ll be fine and I don’t need to worry about the corrections.”...... That sir is really sweet; he’ll give me a few marks more to reach 90.”…. How many conversations have you come across as similar as this? The aforementioned is beyond doubt self explanatory, clearly underlining a major understated flaw of autonomy but let’s just move on to more pressing issues. Well!!! NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte, established in 1986 is finally autonomous and aren’t we happy?? You bet! We are. Nevertheless it’s just a matter of time before the true story unfurls itself.
More...

Everyone knows an autonomous decree can make or break a university’s quality of education. A matter of rejoice is that we’ll be no longer under VTU and that we can set the syllabus and evaluate the students as we please. Under the new system, the students get only two sessionals of 30 marks each which will comprise and average out of 30. The remaining 20 marks lies with lecturer who divides it on the basis of discipline, interaction, assignments etc.

 

But wait! THINK!!! Look at the first year results…So many students with GPA of 9? How?? Even the students at the IITs go crazy trying to keep their GPA at quarter of 9 and look at us here…in a class of 65 people 35-40 people have their GPA higher than 7! Universally a GPA of 9 or even 7 or 8 is considered to be brilliant…a pride of an intelligent hard working person, a perfect ideal student, someone who’d be branded as a nerd with his nose in the books all the time! Going by the current situation, we could definitely learn a thing or two from the western universities which have adopted grading ages ago. One cannot argue over the benefits of grading. To be succinct, it eliminates unhealthy competition, stress and strikes a perfect balance between academics and other activities. Unless and until the students are evaluated properly, the grades will lose their meaning.

On an interesting note, the autonomy is followed by a huge amount of fund from the World Bank, more than what you and I can ever fathom. One can only wonder if the funds are being utilized for developing the real “education”. With the fee structure now taller than an average skyscraper, it should definitely not become some sort of a deal that majority of them should be assured of excellent GPAs in the longer run! The system designed should be dependent on what is really there inside your head, how hard you work and not on how much money you’re willing to pay. Moreover, the funds SHOULD be used to provide excellent faculty else even the most infallible evaluating system will fail to save us from the impending disaster!

I’m definitely not a maniac on rampage nor envious of so many people doing really well but then again it’s a matter worth pondering over that no other evaluating system and no other college following grading gets results as attractive as ours with minimal changes to the previously existent system. The stakes are high, after all it’s the entire future of a young person. On the contrary, most of the students under the autonomy feel that it tests only their memory and does not really gauge their level of understanding or application skills for that matter. The real picture will be clear only after the students finish their first semester under their branch. So, it’s still not late to use the autonomy to our advantage and empower the student with knowledge. Make the process of getting an 8, a 9 or even a 10 more rigorous. Otherwise the grades will be as worthless as ever.

After all a smooth sea never made a skilled mariner!!

P.S: If someone concerned with this entire grading-autonomy thing ever happens to read this post please understand that YOU DO NOT GIVE MARKS UNDER GRADING SYSTEM just plain ‘ol grades! The students never know what their marks are, just the grade!

BOTTOMLINE: grading is NOT supposed to make our lives easier. If it does, it’s probably not working!

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

The Beginning

Ahem! I finally decided to join the Blogging bandwagon after all. After wondering for nearly a week about what should really qualify as my first ever post I finally thought I'd state

20 Reasons Why I Am Going to Blog!

1. Writing is therapy.
2. I love to talk so I’ll probably never run out of stuff.
3. I can bottle up neither my feelings nor opinions because I’d be worse than a super volcano!
4. Because I can rant on days when I feel like climbing the rooftop and screaming it out loud.
5. Or I can go on and on about things that really amaze me!
6. I might be able to trigger an insurgency against the atrocities inflicted upon us, the poor mass of students, at college.
7. I can give various examples of my undying optimism like the one immediately aforementioned.
8. Because the world is round, birds fly and fishes swim.
9. Because am a big foodie.
10. Because I need to attain an equilibrium between idealism and realism
11. Because I love tigers.
12. Because I absolutely HATE to waste paper.
13. Because I’m absolutely clueless.
14. Because I love to write!
15. And be myself without any pretense or a facade!
16. I can come up with stuff like "For the opportunity to knock on the door...Build the door first!"
17. I can write for posts together why the sky is blue and no one stop me!
18. Because I can be really really crazy.
19. and sometimes antithetical.
20. Lastly because I want to blog....

...So here I am! About me? Well I'm a typical Aries girl. I've always been rather skeptical about sunsigns but it's baffling how it sometimes describes you to the tee.

If you have a lot of patience you can follow the link below. I couldn't have described myself better than Linda Goodman! Of course there's more to me than that but this is good enough introduction I guess...

http://www.cyberspacei.com/englishwiz/library/names/zodiac/aries.htm

Au revoir

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...