RSS Feed

‘Occasions’ Category

  1. Starting off with the new year

    February 9, 2014 by Sunit Nandi

    I think many of you may have been wondering where I’ve been for such a long time and why I haven’t written anything. There’s a reason for that which I’ll explain later. But before that, let me tell you what I was up to.

    After the new year celebrations back in my hometown, we returned to Guwahati on 8th of January. Due to the temperature difference between Digha and Guwahati, I caught cold, cough and breathing difficulties. Assam is a few degrees colder than West Bengal, and that’s obviously a no-brainer. I spent a whole week in bed, unable to move or talk properly. As if that wasn’t enough, my digestive system decided to revolt, making me unable to eat anything. There were several visits to the doctor and another week of no activity.

    After the whole illness drama got over, I was too weak to go to college, so I spent my time at home perfecting my coding skills and watching movies. During this time, I got myself a MicroTik RouterBoard RB-751, because I had this sudden urge to study routers and networks. I flashed a couple of firmwares, tested various routing options and attacks in simulation. But then, I felt I wasn’t doing anything practical. So, I tried to do what I wanted to do in the last 3 years: build my own home streaming network. It was successful in the end, and felt like a dream come true. I documented the steps and made a video out of it for TechnoFAQ TV.

    20140123_183148 20140123_195523

    Here is the video:

    In the meanwhile I ordered myself a Cisco Linksys X3500 ADSL2+ home gateway from eBay to replace my ageing DLink DSL-G604T. It was shipped but the courier (Blue Dart) decided to “cache” my shipment and delayed the delivery.

    I began going to college, but classes were a hit or miss. Some were held and some weren’t, but being among classmates again felt wonderful.

    In the beginning of February, my X3500 shipment arrived. I unboxed it and set it up, replacing the DLink and RouterBoard with a single device. It didn’t seem anything special at all, but the performance was epic. My DSL speeds were greater than 9000 Kbps, whereas the DLink would average at around 7000 Kbps. The X3500, being a dual-band N access point, performed better than both the DLink and RouterBoard combined. Now I get pretty good WiFi signal in my bedroom, the garden and toilets (heehee!) too.

    20140130_152645 20140130_152700 20140130_152727IMG_20140130_223651

    One day later, Alcheringa 2014 at IIT Guwahati began. I enjoyed the Saturday and Sunday to the fullest with my friends. I won’t be describing the events here as they are widely popular and published in the newspapers.

    This was followed by Saraswati Puja. I spent the whole day at college with friends, hopping from hostel to hostel. Out of compulsion, I had to have the bhog (feast) 4 times at 4 different hostels. After the whole day, I was tired of eating.

    20140204_141724 20140204_141533 20140204_141549

    And the award for the best looking lady goes to:

    misssaraswati

    Okay, that’s enough, I guess. 😛

    After that classes begin at full steam and labs start.

    I also managed to set up OpenVPN despite being behind a proxy and firewall and was able to route some of my home traffic via Japan just for testing. My Android devices which could not play live streams like ShoutCast before could do now. So its music, music everywhere.

    Screenshot_2014-02-05-21-31-12

    Also I installed Mac on a non-Apple machine, a.k.a Hackintosh. So far, its pretty good, but the graphics drivers are not properly loaded and the video performance is poor.

    20140203_151253

    Now, I’ll come to the point where I’ll tell you why I haven’t written anything in a long while. Well, for some reason, the WordPress admin panels on all my hosted blogs were timing out for some reason or the other. After a whole day of troubleshooting alongwith the webhost’s staff yielded nothing in particular about misconfiguration or heavy resource usage, I made the plunge by requesting them to backup, delete, recreate and restore my userspace. We all thought that would not make any difference, but on the contrary WordPress was running stably again and I am now able to blog.

    Before I left for my hometown in December, I made sure static content on my site be delivered from Amazon S3 and CloudFront. After 2 months of testing their service, I realised it was not worth it. CloudFlare serves static content faster than CloudFront, atleast in India. So I rolled back and deleted my S3 buckets.

    SOVIC is an NGO that is based in my college. This NGO runs several child welfare schemes. They requested me to build a website for them, which is now live at sovic.in.

    So, this is what life has been till now.

    I’m waiting for my upcoming new camcorder and a workstation so that I can make awesome videos.

    Till then, take care. I’ll be writing again soon.


  2. New Year at Mandarmoni

    January 16, 2014 by Sunit Nandi

    On the 1st of January, dad’s friend Subhas Pradhan and his wife invited us (me and my parents) over for an outing at Mandarmoni. At 2 PM we leave Digha for Chaulkhola via bus. A few minutes later, the Pradhans arrive in their car and pick us up. Together all of us travel to the Mandarmoni beach and drive down the open shore.

    [000224]

    We roam the wide beach freely in the car. Being a very free area, I made my first advances to drive a car.

    After that, we move to one end of the beach to where a creek flows into the sea. A jeep was stuck in the sand and was sinking. However, no one was interested in dragging the jeep up because the jeep driver was in an altercation with the locals. After observing them for sometime, we left.

    [000230] [000229] [000225]

    In the meanwhile mom and aunty (Mrs. Pradhan) are already collecting crabs to take home. The local kids are busy digging and tying crabs for them. After collecting several crabs, they return. At this I argue that creatures should not be killed. After a long debate with them, mom and aunty decide to release them.

    [000237] [000239]

    We drove towards Rose Valley and shot a couple of pics. Then we sat down at a seaside restaurant and ordered tea and snacks. We sat and had long chats.

    [000242] [000247] [000252]

    In the evening, we travelled to Digha and sat by the seaside and enjoyed the breeze.


  3. Meeting Mary Kom and Sushmita Sen

    December 19, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    Sometimes certain things happen out of the blue. My dad had told me from beforehand that on 15th of this month, Dalmia Bharat Cement alongwith Sushmita Sen (former Miss Universe and current Bollywood actress) were launching the book “Unbreakable” by Mary Kom (female Indian boxer) in Assam and the North-East India. The event was to take place at IIT Guwahati prior to the Inter-IIT sports meet opening ceremony. But, I wasn’t really expecting what it actually turned out to be.

    15th came. I was learning Python at dad’s workplace. Suddenly dad bursts into the room and hurriedly takes me home at 1 PM. After a really quick lunch me, mom and dad hurries off to the open-air stage in the cricket field. With dad being a faculty, we were sitting in the VIP zone.

    First the announcer greeted the crowd, followed by the usual oohs and aahs. Then comes in Sushmita Sen and cracks a couple of jokes with the crowd. Mary Kom is then called in and together they give a synopsis of the book. This was followed by Mary Kom who narrated her struggle in the boxing career, albeit in broken English. This was followed by a speech by the CEO of Dalmia Cement.

    IMG_20131216_140245 IMG_20131216_140941

    After that, the people on the stage wore golden coloured gloves and broke down a cardboard punching bag, out of which two copies of Mary’s book fell out. In this manner the book was launched. This was followed by signing and distributing copies to everyone present on the stage.

    IMG_20131216_141303

    Finally Mary and Sushmita come down from the stage to greet the crowd. I get this opportunity and stand really close to both of them. Before I could really speak to them, the insane press people break the bounds and come into the VIP area. Some even jumped over the fence. Before I could think or decide anything, I was squashed in the crowd. The press guys surrounded them from all sides. Some guys even stood up on the chairs and some even dirtied the sofa with their shoes. Watching the sheer craze, it felt like some sale was going on. Needless to say I was stuck. Now don’t ask why I was not able to take photos with either of them. Sushmita is rather talkative and really good in public speaking. She started to deliver a long lecture to the media about Mary’s twins and Mary’s projects for the underprivileged.

    After that, me and my parents headed to see the newly constructed indoor badminton court being inaugurated by Mary Kom. It was here that I actually got to speak to her a bit and shake hands with her. Mary toured the court. In the meanwhile Sushmita got into a BMW SUV, waved at everyone and then left the spot. Finally, the everyone moved on to the spot where the remaining events were taking place.

    IMG_20131216_144831 IMG_20131216_144853 IMG_20131216_144856 IMG_20131216_145027

    Finally, we had the opening ceremony of the Inter-IIT sports meet, which I’m going to describe later. The fireworks at the end of the day were indeed beautiful.

    Anyway, seeing Mary and Sushmita together, and that too so closely in person, is something not less than a lifetime experience. What do you say?


  4. Wish you all a very Happy Diwali!

    November 3, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    It’s the “Festival of Lights” today,
    It’s again the day of Diwali,
    It’s time to dress up folks,
    It’s time to adorn the thali.
    It’s the occasion to throng the temples,
    Pray to the Gods and give them offerings,
    It’s an opportunity to entreat the deities,
    To bless us all and rid us of sufferings.
    It’s the day to light the diyas,
    Ignite the rockets and burst crackers,
    But it’s also the time to be safe,
    From the fireworks and all the sparklers.
    It’s the season to pay a visit,
    To all our friends and relations,
    To hand them over sweets and presents,
    Diwali is our splendid chance.
    But while you spend a time of joy,
    Don’t think it’s merriment all the way,
    Out there wait many of those,
    For whom it’s no time to be gay.
    Denied of laughter and smiles for days,
    They know not what it is to enjoy,
    Can you not share something you have,
    Can you not bring them a little joy?
    When you can make someone else smile
    When you can be someone’s ally
    That’s when you can yourself be glad
    That’s when you’ll have a HAPPY DIWALI!

    Diwali decoration at home:

    image

    image

    image

    image


  5. Navami and Dashami

    October 15, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    On Navami, we did manage to see the rest of the pandals we were aiming to see. Leaving home at 3 PM, we first toured Pandu port area, followed by Athgaon, Bharalumukh and finally Maligaon.

    It didn’t just end there, as we missed seeing the local pujas. So after we returned we saw the pandals at Amingaon and North Guwahati (College Nagar and Doul Gobindo temple area). Reaching home at around 11 PM, it was pretty much of a hectic day.

    Some glimpses:

    image

    image

    image

    image

    image

    Dashami wasn’t a very interesting day. I felt dizzy all the time, so I spent the entire daytime in deep sleep. Waking up in the evening, I wasn’t really inclined to sit in front of the computer and upload pics. But yeah, I will do it soon. I managed to catch a cold, and this headache is not helping me.

    Still I hope earnestly, so that I feel a little better so that I can sort out the pics and upload them.

    Everyone, please stay tuned, while I catch up with stuff.


  6. An awesome Ashtami

    October 12, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    Today afternoon, we went out again for pandal hopping. This time, there were no friends to accompany me. So it became a homely family affair with just me and my parents.

    First we went to Latashil Playground to see the grandly done Durga Puja mandap. After that we headed to Silphukuri, and moved on to Uzan Bazaar, Zoo Road, Dispur and finally Ganeshguri, seeing lots of pandals on the way

    At this moment, I met Jyotisman and Vishal (my college buddies) on a bike. We had a chat and I came to know they were headed toward Maligaon and Pandu.

    IMG_20131012_171042

    After that, we went to Fatashil Ambari. After seeing a couple more pandals, we realised it was getting late, and decided to call it a day.

    Hopefully, tomorrow on Navami, I’ll get to see the remaining pandals so that our pandal-hopping is complete.

    Some glimpses:

    IMG_20131012_155126 IMG_20131012_160920 IMG_20131012_161805 IMG_20131012_165917 IMG_20131012_172656 IMG_20131012_173809 IMG_20131012_174424 IMG_20131012_182235


  7. A wonderful Saptami

    October 12, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    We began our puja pandal hopping yesterday, on Saptami. To add to the fun, my old friend and classmate back at school, Sailesh (now in NIT, Silchar) and his parents decided to accompany us.

    image

    We spent the morning with a get-together at our home with them. I and Sailesh had lots of fun talking about the good old times and also discussing over our present college lives.

    In the afternoon, we all went out for pandal hopping. We took the National Highway 37 from Jalukbari, and visited the pandals on the way. After that, we entered the city at Lokhra, and followed Lokhra road to Lal Ganesh and Kalapahar and then all the way to Paltan Bazar via Chattribari, Rehabari and Birubari. Finally it was 8 PM and time to go home.

    Some glimpses of the pandals we saw:

    image

    image

    image

    image

    Also an unforgettable moment when I shot a pic of our family car while riding Sailesh’s family car.

    image

    Today, on Ashtami, I’ll be going out again for seeing more pandals.

    I’ll be uploading all the photos as soon as I sort everything out.

    Stay tuned for more updates.

    Have a wonderful puja everyone!


  8. Excited for puja

    October 5, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    Well, now Durga Puja is coming up and I’m pretty much excited about it. Only a few days are left, before we all will be having lots of fun.

    As usual, I’ll be taking photographs of each and every pandal I see and nicely showcase them in the photo gallery.

    Till then, stay tuned. Have fun!


  9. Its almost mid-semester

    September 1, 2013 by Sunit Nandi

    It has been quite a while since I have written. What was going on during this time was assignments, labs, projects and stuff that every burdened engineering student faces.

    The mini-project was an extremely awkward situation though. Me and my project partner we considering making a web interface for GCC (GNU compiler collections). I have seen a lot of such projects on the web, and I wished to make something different in my version of it. So I proposed using a web terminal/console to emulate a interactive environment for running the created executable. Our guide was, however, not interested in using third party programs to enhance the project. So I had no other choice but to compile and display the output using PHP like every other guy did. I don’t know whether to punch myself on the face or to blame the education system. My partner is a beginner as he is still in the process of learning HTML, CSS, JS and PHP and it’ll take him a while to actually catch up. The funny part is that our guide insists us to focus more on writing the SRS (software requirement specifications) than doing the actual project itself. Nevertheless, I installed Apache with PHP and MySQL on my tablet PC and implemented the compiling and the output display the way our guide wanted it to be, and to be honest, it’s very boring.

    In the meanwhile, my college’s Computer Centre engineers came to know about be, and now they approached my requesting help for strengthening their proxy servers to provide better performance. I came to know that they were using a version of Ubuntu that was long outdated. I first enquired about their requirements, then proceeded to install Manjaro (I was wary about installing Arch Linux as it had a chance of breaking on updates, hence Manjaro). RedHat or CentOS wasn’t actually going to solve the problem as the packages in their repo was so old and unsuitable for their requirements. Within 30 minutes, I finished installing. Then set up a Squid proxy with 2GB disk caching and 512 MB RAM caching. A couple of tests showed it was loading things faster than their already running Ubuntu proxy server. The only thing remains is setting up user authentication, and after that I expect it to be ready for use.

    Coming to the personal front, I bought myself a Reliance 3G SIM as Airtel was disappointing me. Then dad gave me a Huawei E355 mobile WiFi smart dongle which is giving me pretty satisfactory download speeds as of now, about 3-5 Mbps. I even wrote an unboxing review and article on it. My old laptop from 2001 is repaired and ready for use, and I’ll be reviving it soon with a good Linux distribution. Right now, I feel ill and have a dry cough and a bad headache, but forced to use the PC to write C code for college assignments (*insert education system rant here*).

    Techniche 2013 is going on at IIT Guwahati, and I’ve seen lots of events yesterday, which includes Robotics (like Robocalypse, Robofest, etc.), the exhibitions (Indian Army, National Disaster Rescue Forces, North-east Frontier Railway) and a canine show (where sniffer dogs display tricks). Today I might go and watch the RC airshow, irrespective of how badly my body is aching right now. I’m not interested in attaching any pictures here because the news agencies document the whole event so well, but one thing that interested me was this:

    Flying survelliance vehicle

    Survelliance vehicle flying in the air

    You can see that is a battery powered rotocopter that can take images while flying in the air, it has 4 fans and no counter rotors or wings. Two fans spin in one direction and two the other way and the pressure difference it creates makes it move towards the direction it files. Its controlled by a 2.4 GHz wireless controller/remote.

    Well I guess that’s pretty much of what’s going on right now. The mid-semester exams are near, starting on 9th of September. I just hope they stop throwing assignments at us, because I want to study for the exams with no extra workload. But then, who listens to us?


  10. Finally I’m 18

    May 6, 2012 by Sunit Nandi

    So, my birthday comes this time in 2012. And finally I turn 18. How time flies, sigh.

    Nothing much in store today though. Plan to have a get together with family and friends tomorrow.

    HTC HD2 crashed after experience because of the slow Class 2 card. I’ll need a faster SD card soon.

    So, currently installed CyanogenMod 9. Plan to use it in failsafe for a few days.

    Will write again soon.