World's amazing Engineering Facts



Guinness Book of World Record - Engineering Feats


Windows 7 Collection!

A nice video about Windows 7

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7


2) This web page has a FAQ on the next version of Windows. Neatly organized and presented. Check the link here. Some of the questions include

a) What will be the new features in Windows 7?
b) Is Windows 7 going to be a major release on Windows series?

3) Beautiful screen shots on the 'Multi touch functionality' offered in Windows7. Check this out here. But I guess the screen shots are grabbed from the video. Hypersnap ;)

4) Also, check out the article 'Windows 7 "top feature request list" leaked to the public' by Jeremy Reimer here.

5) Windows 7 News articles and blogs. A nice collection, available here.

Innovative USB devices

Gone are the days where you used USB to connect some hardware devices to your PC or laptop. Like the Web 2.0, newer ways of harnessing the power of USB devices has come to play these days.I'm listing some innovative ways of using the USB these days, that fascinated me:-

1) USB vacuum cleaner

Elsewhere in the web, I read that the most dirtiest place in the house in the computer keyboard. This is a tiny vacuum cleaner that operates with the power from the USB. Just plug it in your PC and the suction power from the device is really good enough to remove all those tiny dirt, hair, sweets etc from your keyboard. Hurray! you have a cleaner keyboard now. Check with Ebay for cheaper auctions.

2) USB water heater

Tired of using Microwave for heating water. Grab a cup of water and place it on this device. Within minutes hot water is ready to serve! There are also some variations in this like USB coffee heater etc.

3) USB lamp

Sucks the power from the PC and uses it to provide light! Edison would be really happy if he sees this nice way of using the power from USB. A nice way to save electricity as well!

4) USB Fan

As the name goes ! A fan that operates through USB.

5) USB Massage Ball

Ouch, perfect soothe your tense muscles with this really usable massage ball. Good vibrations.

More in next..

Virtumonde blocked Automatic Updates!

Automatic updates in Windows XP got disabled in my PC today. I was not able to start the service "wuauserv" from the "services" tab. It was disabled initially and I tried starting it so many times..it was returning the same error code back. Hardware profile under "Log On" tab in the service was also enabled. Something strange, it was just not getting enabled.

I've McAfee antivirus software with updated definitions in my PC. I ran a full scan which took more than two hours to get completed. 0 virus found -> This was the result. The problem persisted.

I just upgraded my Windows XP to SP3. I was wondering if it is an issue with the upgrade.

Googling in the web did not help. A lot of forums discussed about the same problem. But none offered a convincing solution. Some of the solutions include

1) Check RPC service is up and running.
2) Check for Event logger service. etc..

Finally, I decided to take the help of Spybot. Earlier during the day, when I was not connected to the internet, some program in my PC was just trying to connect to the Internet during regular intervals. I could sniff some possible spyware infection in my PC.

After spybot installation, the program updated its definitions and finally the hunting started. There were around 1.5 lac signatures that needed scanning. The scan detected one Adware in my PC

"Virtumonde"

Before even proceeding to fix, I tried searching about this Adware. VirtuMonde is an adware program that downloads and displays popup advertisements. 16 entries of this program were detected in the scan. Some additional information about the Adware is available here.

This virus is reported to record your keystrokes and randomly displays advertisements. This virtumonde.c Trojan will create a DLL (Dynamic Link Library) to facilitate the recording of your keystrokes and communicates with a website located on the internet. Virtumonde.C attaches to explorer.exe, goes memory resident and verifies that it's running (the virus that is). If for some reason Virtumonde.c is stopped, the memory resident program will fire it back up.The virus also writes to cookies on the infected computer and may visit more than one internet site. The part that makes VirtuMonde.c tricky is that it's a memory resident and writes to a file that spyware removal programs can't erase.

Spybot was able to remove all the traces of Virtumonde. I rebooted my PC after the scan and there was one more startup scan to remove any outstanding traces. One more entry was found this time, and it got removed through Spybot.

Finally, I tried activating "Automatic Updates" and it got enabled successfully.

Some questions running in my mind after this operation are

1) I did not find any connection in the web between Virtumonde and Automatic Updates. How come the removal helped in enabling 'Automatic Updates' ?

2) Why McAfee did not detect Virtumonde in first place?

3) How on earth it entered my PC in first place? (Hope I will have an answer for this soon)

If you have a similar problem with 'Automatic Updates', check with Spybot. It could be due to Mr.Virtumonde. :)

Indians Develop 250 Km per litre 'Wonder Car'

This article is in news in almost all the leading news channels in India.
That's exactly what students of a technical institute in Punjab - the Rayat Institute of Engineering and Information Technology near Ropar, 50 km from here - claim to have developed.
'It is a rare solo car which can generate a mileage of up to 250 km per litre. Our team of students have not only achieved this feat, but are going to showcase it at a world super-mileage competition in the United States next month,' Gurvinder Singh Bahra, vice chairman of the Rayat and Bahra group of institutes, told media persons here as he unveiled the 'wonder car' with the team.
The car, having a 92cc engine, has been developed by a seven-member team of students from the sixth semester of the institute's mechanical engineering course. The team is led by Gaurav Aggarwal as captain and other members are Mayank Tyagi, Bhavuk Makkar, Arun Salaria, Rahul Kumar, Ramandeep Singh and Navneet Kumar. The team had Jujhar Singh and Rajesh Chaudhary as faculty advisors.

More details can be obtained from here.



Tips to Succeed in Interviews

Some important tips to succeed in your technical interviews. This will really help you if you follow it completely. Remember, I have done interviews with over 5000 candidates and I know the common mistakes committed by most of them..So, here we go

1) Stay bold and confident throughout the interview. Never put yourself in doubt.

2) Be presentable. Wear a neat and tidy dress.

3) Never be over smart and don't undermine the interviewer.

4) Make sure that your body language and verbal expressions match. Don't act or imitate.

5) Switch off your mobile phones during the interview.

6) Explain the answers with examples.

7) Stick to the point. Don't deviate from the question. No flamboyant or flashy words. Keep it simple.

8) Never bother about the outcome of the interview during the interview.

9) Don't add content in the CV that is not relevant to you.

10) Never show any hurry in answering your questions.

11) Don't get into an argument even when you are cornered.

12) Don't put the pen or pencil to your mouth.. I've seen a lot of candidates doing like this.

13) Greet the interview panel when you enter and exit.

14) Don't flatter the interview panel.

15) If you don't know the answer to the question raised, be bold enough to accept it. Remember, it is your confidence, which is being tested most of the time.

A two headed snake in my garden

I was roaming around in my garden when I found this two headed snake. I'm not sure of the breed to which the reptile belong to. I've heard about two headed snakes only in stories. I'm really scared of snakes, but thanks to the highly zooming digital camera and the serpent, What a nice pose he gave...('he' is only an assumption..)...

Two headed Snake

Famous Quotes - Albert Einstein - Part V

Part V of the quotes quoted by Albert Einstein. Search on this blog for the previous parts. (if you want to!)

· "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

· "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

· "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

· "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

· "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."

· "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

· "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

· "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)






Famous Quotes - Albert Einstein - Part IV

Fourth part of the fantastic Quotes of the Genius - Einstein are presented below. If you have missed out parts 1, 2 and 3, visit the following pages here, here and here.

· Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loath some nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

· "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"

· "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

· "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."

· "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

· "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

· "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

C Interview Questions - Part IV

In this sample Interview Question series, let us focus on program - output type of questions that can be asked in C.

Part I, II and III were focusing on understanding the basics of the language. This part will help you in tackling questions during interview. You may get questions of similar kind during any IT interview. Such questions are likely to be asked either during the initial screening test or during a face to face interview. For the code snippets provided below, predict the output of the program. I strongly advise you to execute the code snippets and understand them completely. This will help you to answer the questions asked on similar lines during a real interview.

1)

void main()
{
int const * a=25;
printf("%d",++(*a));
}


2)

main()
{
char s2[ ]="man";
int i;
for(i=0;s2[ i ];i++)
printf("\n%c%c%c%c",s2[ i ],*(s2+i),*(i+s2),i[s2]);
}

3)

main()
{
float str1 = 1.1;
double str2 = 1.1;
if(str1==str2)
printf("C is a good language");
else
printf("C is a very good language");
}

4)

main()
{
static int var2 = 5;
printf("%d ",var2--);
if(var2)
main();
}

5)

main()
{
int c[ ]={2.8,3.4,4,6.7,5};
int j,*p=c,*q=c;
for(j=0;j<5 br="" j="">printf(" %d ",*c);
++q; }
for(j=0;j<5 br="" j="">printf(" %d ",*p);
++p; }
}

6)

main()
{
int i=-1,j=-1,k=0,l=2,m;
m=i++&&j++&&k++||l++;
printf("%d %d %d %d %d",i,j,k,l,m);
}

7)

main()
{
char *p;
printf("%d %d ",sizeof(*p),sizeof(p));
}

8)

main()
{
int i=3;
switch(i)
{
default:printf("zero");
case 1: printf("one");
break;
case 2:printf("two");
break;
case 3: printf("three");
break;
}
}

9)

main()
{
int i=50;
i=!i>14;
Printf ("i=%d",i);
}


10)

#include
main()
{
char s[]={'a','b','c','\n','c','\0'};
char *p,*str,*str1;
p=&s[3];
str=p;
str1=s;
printf("%d",++*p + ++*str1-32);
}

11)

#include
main()
{
int a[2][2][2] = { {10,2,3,4}, {5,6,7,8} };
int *p,*q;
p=&a[2][2][2];
*q=***a;
printf("%d----%d",*p,*q);
}

12)

#include
main()
{
struct xx
{
int x;
struct yy
{
char s;
struct xx *p;
};
struct yy *q;
};
}

13)

main()
{
printf("\nab");
printf("\bsi");
printf("\rha");
}

14)

#define square(x) x*x
main()
{
int i;
i = 64/square(4);
printf("%d",i);
}

15)

main()
{
char *p="hai friends",*p1;
p1=p;
while(*p!='\0') ++*p++;
printf("%s %s",p,p1);
}

Answers to these questions with explanations will be given in subsequent postings. More to come shortly..

Famous Quotes - Albert Einstein - Part III

Popular quotes of Albert Einstein - Part III. Make sure you check out part I and II as well. There are available here and here.

· "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

· "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

· "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."

· "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

· "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

· "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

· "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

· "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

· "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."

· "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."

· "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."

10 Weird ways of getting out in Cricket

I found this video in one of the popular Indian site today. '10 Weird ways of getting out in Cricket" - a really nice one to watch. Especially, the dismissal of Inzamam and Symonds. I have watched it live before, but this video was really nice to get a recap. Check out the video here..




C Interview Questions - Part III

You are currently in the Part III set for Interview Questions in C Programming language. If you want to check Part I click here and for Part II, click here.

These questions will really help in preparing for your interview and you can excel if you have a good knowledge on these ones.

1) How will you print the character % using C?

2) Write a program in C to print the first five numbers of a Fibonacci series.

3) How will you convert an unsigned long integer value to a string using C?

4) A header file in C should always have an extension '.h'. True or False? Justify.

5) List some sorting algorithms in C. Which is the quickest approach and why?

6) What is the benefit of using const to declare constants in C?

7) Who is the founder of C language..(this was asked to one of my friends)

8) How can you print a string in C without using printf?

9) Which library in C is used for drawing menus?

10) How can you open a PDF file using C?

11) Write a program in C to swap two numbers without using a temporary variable.

12) How testing of a C program becomes easier using functions?

13) What is the difference between exit() and return?

14) How can you make a function to return more than one value in C?

15) Which is better to use malloc() or calloc() ?

16) Write the best algorithm to check if a number is prime or not.

17) How can you override a defined macro?

18) For what purpose, would you use #line in C?

19) What is the difference between text mode and binary mode?

20) Write a C program to swap two numbers using pointers.

In the next part of this series, let us discuss on program -> output model questions. Such questions will be asked mostly during aptitude test and is unlikely to be asked during interviews.

Famous Quotes - Albert Einstein - Part II

Ever famous quotes of Albert Einstein. Part II of my collection. If you want to check part I, click here.

· "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

· "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

· "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

· "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."

· "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

· "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

· "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."

· "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

· "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

· "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

· "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

· "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

· "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

C Interview Questions - Part II

I had earlier given some basic questions for which every candidate must know the answer before appearing for an interview, projecting C language as one of the skills. Here we go a little wider into the language and see some more interview questions. If you want to have a look at the older post, click here.

These questions are highly probably to be asked in C based interviews. If you can explain the answers to these questions in a very elementary way rather than in a bookish way, then it will be a additional bonus for you. Prepare the answers to the questions listed below before you appear for an interview. It will be really helpful to you.

1) What is the basic difference between an array and a pointer?

2) What is the purpose of realloc();?

3) How are pointer variables initialized?

4) Write a simple program in C to print "Hello World" using pointers.

5) What is the difference between main() and void main() ?

6) What is modular programming? Why should a program be modular in first place? How to achieve modular programming in C?

7) What are the advantages of 'auto' variables?

8) Why n++ executes faster than n+1 ?

9) Write a program in C to print the address of a variable?

10) How can you make a PC to burn using a C program? (Interesting one! Try your hand)

11) What is the difference between stack and queue?

12) List some queue algorithms.

13) When would you use a pointer to a function?

14) How do you convert a string to a long integer? Where can you use this in real time?

15) What is the difference between strcpy and memcpy?

16) What is a pragma?

17) What is the difference between #include and #include “file”?

18) What is the benefit of using enum?

19) Why is a binary search faster than a linear search?

20) Write a program in C to check if a number is divisible by 7 or not in shortest lines.

Keep watching this space. In my next blog, I will come up with some real time scenario based questions that are normally asked during interviews.

A Stunning Love Story!!!

Today asusual when I was surfing the net, came across a heart-throbbing and a touching love story. This is such a kind of love story, which I had Never read in my life. And also, I would never read in the future too.

Enjoy reading the story show below.


When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why? I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man!

That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; I had lost my heart to a lovely girl called Dew. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, 30% shares of my company and the car. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Dew so dearly.

Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Dew. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a months time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.. She requested that everyday for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy.

Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Dew about my wife s divorce conditions. She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully. My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mummy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset..

I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest.. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Dew about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily. Suddenly it hit me; she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart.

Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head. Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mum out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind... I walked upstairs. Dew opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Dew, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished. Then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Dew, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other any more.. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death does us apart.

Dew seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote:
'I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart'


Moral of the Story
The small details of our lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, the property, the bank balance that matters. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

Relationships are made not to exploit, not to be broken!!
We teach some by what we say;
We teach some more by what we do;
But we teach most by what we are ;

Let me know your valuable comments about this story.

Albert Einstein Quotes - Part I

Collection of Quotes by Albert Einstein. I'm dividing it into six parts. Here we go with the part I


Albert Einstein Popular Quotes
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

Placement & Interview Question Papers

Model papers for Campus recruitment -> This search drives everybody crazy. So, I thought I would collect all those nice collection and give them as a link in this blog. Note that these are sample papers only that will help you in your preparation. By no means, these are actual papers. If you are looking for exact papers, then this blog is not the place for you.

The best way to prepare would be to understand each and every question and then derive your answer. If you go only by the answers and try to act smart, be warned! The team that prepares the questions are more smarter than you. Ideally you have to use the collection as a reference and prepare on similar lines.


campus question papers
campus question pa...
Hosted by eSnips


campus papers
campus papers.rar
Hosted by eSnips


Other Comps placement papers
Other Comps placem...
Hosted by eSnips


Looking for some more. I found this big folder in eSnips




Use them as a reference and prepare. These are not actuals :)



A tough Paradox??

I stumbled across this Paradox today.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tortoise challenged the great warrior Achilles to a 100 meter foot race, claiming that he would win as long as Achilles granted him a little headstart. Achilles laughed, for he was a mighty warrior swift of foot, whereas the Tortoise was heavy and slow.

"How long of a head start do you need?" asked Achilles, smiling.
"Ten meters," said the Tortoise.
Achilles laughs. "OK, you will most definitely lose, but we can race if you really want."
"Actually, I will most definitely win, and I can prove it to you with a simple argument," said the Tortoise.
"Go on then," Achilles replied, with less confidence than he felt before. He knew he was the superior athlete, but he also knew the Tortoise had the sharper wits, and he had lost many a bewildering argument with him before this.
"Suppose," began the Tortoise, "that you give me a 10-meter head start. Would you say that you could cover that 10 meters between us very quickly?"
"Very quickly," Achilles affirmed.
"And in that time, how far should I have gone, do you think?"
"Perhaps a meter - no more," said Achilles after a moment's thought.
"Very well," replied the Tortoise, "so now there is a meter between us. And you would catch up that distance very quickly?"
"Very quickly indeed!"
"And yet, in that time I shall have gone a little way farther, so that now you must catch that distance up, yes?"
"Ye-es," said Achilles slowly.
"And while you are doing so, I shall have gone a little way farther, so that you must then catch up the new distance," the Tortoise continued smoothly.
Achilles said nothing.
"And so you see, in each moment you must be catching up the distance between us, and yet I - at the same time - will be adding a new distance, however small, for you to catch up again."
"Indeed, it must be so," said Achilles wearily.
"And so you can never catch up," the Tortoise concluded sympathetically.
"You are right, as always," said Achilles sadly - and conceded the race.
Was it really impossible for Achilles to win the race? Explain.
Note: Story adapted from Douglas Hofstaeder's awesome book, Godel, Escher, Bach.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me try to offer an explanation here. Here are the race settings
Tortoise - Speed 10 m/hr
Achilles - Speed 50 m/hr
And assume that the race ground is a 100 m one.
Which means, the Tortoise can complete it in 10 hours.
Achilles can complete the race in 2 hours.

Then, the tortoise was never right..How can this be termed as a paradox?

What is the point in the original listing above makes this a paradox? According to my knowledge, a paradox is something that is very hard to reason out...

??????

I think the tortoise thought that Achilles will be trying to catch it rather than looking at the race end pole.. :)




C Interview Questions - Campus Placements - Part I

Getting a first job is a dream for everyone in this world. A typical job seeker refers hundreds of books, sample questions papers and get himself geared for the big day. A neatly worn dress, with all the certificates on hand, the testing starts the moment the interview panel starts questioning his expert areas.

Most of the questions are asked from a single basic language - C. If you have quoted your skills in C as your strength, then you are sure to be asked questions starting from the basics. It is wise that you have a good brush up of the language before even you write about it in your CV. Never underestimate the interview panel. The panel is always talented enough to estimate you with a few questions.

I'm listing down some of the questions in C which is really elementary and you ought to have a good grasp on them. So, before even you write C as your primary skill, make sure that you know something on the questions listed below. A very simplified way of explaining the answers to these questions will also be an added advantage. So, here we go

1) What is the difference between malloc() and calloc() ?

2) Give an example for passing by value and passing be reference. When should you use them and why? (believe me! Most of the candidates get wrong here)

3) What is a register variable?

4) What do we use typedef for?

5) What is the difference between Structure and Union?

6) What is a far pointer? When do we use it?

7) What is a NULL macro? What is the difference between NULL macro and NULL pointer?

8) Write a simple file handling program in C, opening a file, write to the file and close it.

9) Which bit wise operator is suitable for checking whether a particular bit is on or off?

10) How will you compare two strings, without using strcmp?

11) What do the functions atoi(), itoa() do?

12) What are the advantages of using pointers in a program?

13) Explain different storages classes in C.

14) What do 'c' and 'v' stand for in argc and argv?

15) What is the difference between rand() and random() ?

How best can be a Chess Problem?

In my opinion, there are two kind of chess players

1) One who play by the 'book'. - These people follow all the chess notations and play as per the book. Of course, they do think!

2) One who play the game for time pass - These people know the rules of the game, but are not bothered about the game notations. For example, Rc4 Be5 means nothing to them. They can't just go by the notations.

Some people fall into both the categories, partially fitting in (1) and (2).

Chess problems make anybody to think and solve. However, think of a problem that is expressed in this way

6k1/2P3p1/4p3/3b4/p7/6qP/6P1/4r1K1 w - - 0 3

Sorry, to be honest, not everybody can make the meaning of this position. There can be so many other ways, through which a notation can be arrived, but nothing is as great as simply visualizing the moves. Anybody learns better when the moves are provided in the form of a picture. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I was searching the web looking for some sites that gives the chess problems and the solutions in a diagramatic way. I stumbled across this link today. What is really special in this? The problem is not depicted as notations and the solution is presented in the form of a video. This will really make people to understand the moves in a better way. I'm embedding one of the solutions here to give you a feel of it.



It would have been nice if annotations are also supported in this link. This can help in understanding the variations in the game easily. If you really like to solve the chess problems in the way that I mentioned, make sure you check this link. A web based chess notation interpreter would also be really helpful in this case. We can embed the game on the fly :)

5 famous riddles!

Riddles are by the way, a nice time pass for anybody at any age.Here are five famous riddles. You would have heard this else where, and the answers are also available elsewhere in the web. If you are really busy doing something, this will definitely prove to be a break for you. Grab your coffee and read ahead!. If you have any other interesting solutions to these puzzles and riddles, feel free to post them.


Riddle # 1
During World War II, there was a bridge connecting Germany and Switzerland, and on the German side, there was a sentry tower with a guard in it. He would come out every three minutes to check on the bridge, and he had orders to turn back anyone who tried to get into Germany, and shoot anyone trying to escape without a pass. There was a woman who desperately needed to get into Switzerland, and she knew she didn't have time to get a pass. It would take her at least six minutes to cross the bridge, but she managed to do it. How?

Riddle # 2

A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a guy whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing. She believed him to be her dream guy so much, that she fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few days later she killed her sister.

What is her motive for killing her sister?

Riddle # 3

What question can you ask all day where you can get a different answer every time with all the answers being correct?

Riddle # 4

A man rode into a town on Friday, went strait to a hotel and stayed there for two nights, then rode strait out home again on Friday. How is this possible?

Riddle # 5

A father and his son (an only child) got into a car accident. The father died but the son survived and was taken to the hospital for minor surgery. The doctor came in and said, 'I can't do any surgery on this boy, we're directly related.' Both the boy's parent's were also only children. Who was the doctor?


Looking for more puzzles and riddles, check the related post section below.

A new image type - UIF

Some of you might have heard about this already..But it is new to me. Last weekend, I saw one of my friend struggling with a file that he downloaded from the internet. He reckoned it to be an DVD image file, but it had an interesting extension "UIF". He tried renaming the file extension to ISO, BIN / CUE and tried opening with UltraISO; nothing seem to work. UltraISO was just not able to recognize this format.

Puzzled with all of those, he even tried to rename it with an extension of ZIP, RAR..same result. I could see the eagerness in his face to open the image file on which he was really very fond of. Finally, we found out what this format is all about and why is it so nice..

UIF stands for Universal Image Format. It is a compressed image format and it can be opened with a software called MagicISO. This format supports compression of image files, and is very reliable. The main advantage of going to this format is that the size of the image file is reduced tremendously here. That is not the case with ISO or other image formats. A normal 4 GB DVD image can become as less as 3. 4 GB when it is converted as a UIF image.

UIF provides the feature of password protection for denying the access from any unauthorized user .Unlike ZIP,RAR and other compression archive, you don't have to extract files and folders from UIF before you need to use this files or folders. MagicISO will do all the work automatically for you.

The official site of MagicISO is http://www.magiciso.com/. You can download your copy from there and try the format.



20 repeated Quiz Questions

I used to attend a lot of quiz programs during my childhood days. Often, I found the set of questions given below being repeated. Are the Quiz masters lazy to take new set of questions? Or, do they all refer to the same Quiz book. Strange..Some problem here.. It is like a question paper set which will be referred by every quiz master before preparing their questions..Anyway, they are easy enough ..Crack the answers if you can..

1) What was the name of the Greek Ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya?

2) Who built the Red Fort?

3) What is the other name of Chanakya?

4) What is the capital of Chile?

5) What do you mean by the phrase "Kick the Bucket"?

6) If lord Shiva lives in Kailasha, who lives in Vaikunda? (inaugural question for most of the Quiz)

7) Who wrote "A tale of two Cities"?

8) Who wrote "DayBreak"?

9) What is the scale value at which Celsius and Fahrenheit show the same reading?

10) Who discovered that lightning is electricity?

11) Who invented Television?

12) What is the full form of UNICEF?

13) Who quoted "I always wanted to become a Bus Driver, but I got into Cricket Somehow".

14) Which country besides India celebrates its independence day on Aug 15?

15) Which is the tallest building in the world? (And till today the have the old answers, "Sears Tower")

16) Which travels faster Thunder or Lightning?

17) Which bird can rotate its head at an 360 degree angle?

18) What is the full form of UNESCO?

19) How many muscles are their in the human body?

20) Which vitamin is responsible for clotting of blood?

Any other interesting questions to share? Post them...

8 Funny ways to Protect your Laptop from being Stolen

Here are eight funny ways to protect your laptop from being stolen..

1) Keep a dog beside your laptop:

The first approach is to keep a dog to the side of your laptop. The dog will be highly vigilant enough to make sure that your laptop is safe.

2) A cat this time..

Of course, if your laptop has a mouse..the cat will make sure that its prey does not move even an inch..

3) Put an Electric Fence over your laptop

Put an electric fence over your laptop and make sure that you turn it on. And also make sure that you don't touch the fence after your turn it on...your laptop is safe.

4) Build a construction over your laptop

Put the strongest of the available bricks, and develop a concrete construction over the laptop. A nice way indeed..

5) Where ever you go, make sure that you sit on top of your laptop always. This will really make it tough to be pulled off..

6) Employ black cat bodyguards who will take care of your laptop always..and forget about you..

7) Paint your laptop so that it looks like a normal notebook. Thief will get misled and will miss your laptop.

8) Put a boxing hand that gives a punch when the laptop is opened. And make sure you keep safe distance when you open it.

If you still can't protect your laptop, better don't buy one...

Hello World in 366 programming languages

"Hello World" is the first program one usually writes when learning a new programming language. It is used in many introductory tutorials for teaching a programming language. Such a program is typically one of the simplest programs possible in a computer language. I remember writing a code like this in C during my college days

main() {
      printf("hello, world");
}
Even before that, the first language that I learnt, BASIC.. Writing Hello World in BASIC goes likes this

10 REM Hello World in BASIC
20 PRINT "Hello World!"

Today, elsewhere in the web, I found a single page that contains how to write a "Hello World" program in all the available languages. If you want to learn or even just have a look, it is here.

Check it out and refresh some of your languages that you might have stopped learning now!

Hotel Saravana Bavan

Saravana Bavan - If you ask the name of this restaurant in Chennai, even a child would yell the right answer. Such a highly popular restaurant, the quality of food that this restaurant offers is simply beyond words. It is in existence over generations and infact is a must visit tourist spot if you happen to visit chennai.

With an ever increasing population in India, managing crowd in the hotel is a little difficult task. Such a high popularity for this restaurant that you are really lucky if you happen to get into the hotel and grab a seat for you. But once you are in, you will not be disappointed for sure. Check here for the official website of the hotel. This hotel has branches at the international level as well and is sure to expand it horizon in the international area. All the branches of the hotel are available in the map below



View Larger Map


If you are really looking for hygenic and quality food in Chennai - then Saravana Bavan is there for you. Make sure you don't miss it when you are on a ride in Chennai.

Adding Google Adsense to Blog

A lot about this has been discussed elsewhere in the web, but I cannot refrain myself by giving a link to a Youtube video.

This video discusses how to add a Google Adsense Unit to a blog. This does not mention about editing the blogger template. But, it gives the direct approach to add an add unit in your blog. The video is very neatly structured and helps a novice blogger to quickly place an ad unit in their blog.

In a nutshell, an ad unit can be easily included by adding a page element, and selecting Google Adsense in the options. But before that, make sure that you have a Google Adsense account with you. You cannot place ads without having an adsense account. The video is available below




Learn Javascript!

Lynda is an excellent resource towards acquiring knowledge across any programming language. Here is a nice link towards getting started with Javascript through Lynda.




Also make sure you check this link if you are looking for some Javascript books.