Why the Indian Way of Running a System Should Go to Hell!!!!!!!

Then past few weeks have been really hectic, working overtime on the project. Past Wednesday, was our hostel farewell theme party which was the most awaited and amazing event for all of us. However, the beautiful hangover of it was neatly shattered yesterday and today it has manifested into an uncontrollable rage where am raring to clobber, thrash or pulverize some damned nerves!!!!

I’m just back home after attending the College Day/Farewell Function….Needless to say it didn’t match the aforementioned farewell’s standard at all. Couple of seniors and juniors spoke from different branches. Folks from Electronics and Communications, Mechanical, Computer Science and Biotechnology spoke really well and actually seemed to relate and build a bond with the audience. The rest just droned on in a soporific state leaving one wondering why the hell they just speak for the heck of it!!! I hate rehearsed and artificial toned speeches where one is not spontaneous and fails to connect with the people.

Anyways coming back to the thing that robbed my peace, my sisters cell phone got stolen in a very very very crowded bus. She immediately went to police station with a friend, the one in Pandeshwar, to lodge an FIR for the lost cell phone and SIM card. However, much to none of our surprise the damned ***********************(feel free to interpret as any horrible bad word…As a personal rule, i don’t really believe in swearing a lot!) police refused to lodge a complain as the both the things are in my mom’s name who is out of country right now. Next, called Vodafone where they said they cannot block the SIM unless and until we get a copy of the filed FIR. On hearing the problem, they said that we can provide my mom’s identity proof and get the FIR filed and in case of any problem, we could just ring them up. However, the police, as usual didn’t cooperated instead those ************* were really really rude and finally sat on his desk with his legs on it. That bloody ************* actually had the nerve to tell my sister and her friend to tell my mom to file a complaint in the country where she is right now!!!!!!! My parents then said not to make any more trips to the police station (2 trips were already made).

Today on the way back from Nitte, I stopped by at Nokia Care to have the cell phone barred and blacklisted. Previously, I had spoken to a Vodafone care center executive who said that blacklisting has to be done by the cell phone provider. The lady at Nokia Care bluntly told me that they can’t do it! What the hell! I’m studying Mobile Communications this semester and I know this can be done and that there are several services on internet which do this. When I mentioned this to her, she added that such a system is not existing in India. Damn!!!I totally lost it then I gave her the yelling of her life, screaming that a global brand like Nokia provides such poor support and so on. She even heard the nerve to retort back which I nipped in the bud by fresh, highly required insults…..then banged the desk…screamed some more and made a loud exit!!!!! I knew that am not going to be able to get them blacklist the phone so screamed thoroughly and left.

Seriously, no matter how seriously we vote or what we do and no matter who comes to power, the fact remains unchanged that the country has gone to the dogs. I watch shows like Call 911 on Discovery Channel and it really saddens me. The difference between a developed and developing country is disheartening. Unlike America, none of our systems work right when we need them. Even if one feels proud to be an Indian, at times like this it melts faster than an ice cream inside a running microwave. To get justice in our country is like kissing your own eye. God damn them all!!!!!

P.S: I’m not giving up so soon. Going to check out some online services now which will blacklist the cell phone. As for that damned thief, I hope our curses don’t spare him till the day he dies! and the Vodafone executives were really polite, considerate and very helpful. They will block the SIM following my mom’s email and identity proof.

Moral of the story: Even if you do dial one of those numbers and get your IMEI number, incase your cell phone is lost, no one will help you out….atleast not Nokia in India. And it’s better to elicit help from the police using some “contacts” as the damned Indian Police Force doesn’t believe in providing service to the common, unimportant people like us!

del.icio.us Tags: India,police,station,force,stolen,lost,cell phone,nokia,blaclist,IMEI,pandeshwar,call,911,SIM,Vodafone,FIR

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

Speech Recognition in C#.Net

I’ve now started playing around with speech recognition using C# in Visual Studio 2008. The last time I demonstrated Speech Synthesis to read the contents out loud from a text file. However this implementation is command based and not dictation based. This is very very basic and it recognizes only one word and then displays the results from database containing that word. For basics on getting started with speech utilities in C#, refer to my last post here.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Speech;
using System.Speech.Recognition;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
namespace speechrecog
{
    class Program
    {
        //connection initialization to the database
        static string connectionString = "Data Source=MEOW-PC;Initial Catalog=Shopping_eye;Integrated Security=SSPI";
        static SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);        
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            new Program();            
        }
        private Program()
        {
            //access to the default shared speech recognition engine used by the desktop
            SpeechRecognizer rec = new SpeechRecognizer();            
            rec.SpeechRecognized += rec_SpeechRecognized;                        
            //add the words in choices that you want to be recognized     
            Choices c = new Choices();            
            c.Add("cheese");
            c.Add("pizza");
            c.Add("olives");
            c.Add("exit");
            //Populate the grammar builder with the choices and load it as a new grammar
            GrammarBuilder pizzadetails = new GrammarBuilder(c);            
            Grammar g = new Grammar(pizzadetails);
            rec.LoadGrammar(g);
            rec.Enabled = true;           
            Console.Read();            
        }
        void rec_SpeechRecognized(object sender, SpeechRecognizedEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.Result.Text == "exit")
                System.Environment.Exit(0);//Closes the console when you say exit
            string cassy =e.Result.Text;
            Console.Write(cassy);       
            //This query will display the results containing the word that was recognized                 
            string squery = "select * from speechrecogtest where name like '%"+cassy+"%'";
            SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(squery, cn);
            DataTable dt = new DataTable();
            cn.Open();
            // Fill the data table with select statement's query results:
            int recordsAffected = da.Fill(dt);            
            System.Console.WriteLine();
            if (recordsAffected > 0)
            {             
                foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
                {
                    System.Console.Write(dr[0]);
                    System.Console.Write(" ");
                    System.Console.Write(dr[1]);
                    System.Console.Write(" ");
                    System.Console.Write(dr[2]);
                    System.Console.WriteLine("");
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
 

So, when I say “cheese”, the following entries containing the word are retrieved from the database and displayed on the console. I am still figuring how to loop the program to recognize my commands back to back, as per the choices mentioned in the code. Until then, keep trying and experimenting…Au Revoire!

del.icio.us Tags: speech,recognition,.net,visual,studio,2008,microsoft,windows,vista,service pack,commands,grammar,builder,database

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...

VTU Question of the Year

I was trying to cram and make sense out of the stuff I’m supposed to study for the sessionals tomorrow when I received this really funny message from my friend. Anyone who is studying under a university earlier affiliated to VTU which is now autonomous will definitely find this one good. Here goes…

VTU Question of the Year

1)2/10=0.2 but prove that 2/10=2.

Answers:

The autonomous students wrote “Out of Syllabus”.Some of them probably cried whereas some went to whine and influence the lecturer who will correct the paper!

But… the VTU students answered…

2=TWO          10=TEN

Therefore, TWO/TEN=WO/EN

But according to the order of English alphabets order, W=23|O=15|E=5|N=14

Hence, W+O=38  and E+N=19

So, 38/19=2!!!!!! Hence Proved!

Proud and relieved to be studying under VTU and not under the institution’s autonomy. If you have more time to waste you can also read on how easily autonomy can make you a 9 point someone here.

Ok got go now and break my head again!!Au revoire..until we meet again…

del.icio.us Tags: vtu,autonomy,funny stuff,humor,question,year

[+/-] Read More...

[+/-] Summary only...