Update 5.12.1

Hello ppl...
I'm back...
these bloody winters get to me... damn cold at my place... had to put up with a lot of wind and rain... not to mention the insects...
So.. what have all you been upto? looks like this winter not many mails are flying... my inbox looks very empty... no news of friends and acquaintances alike...
and news is trickling in very feebly.....

Team 007.. well.. the trio solved 4 out of 8 ACM problems as i've posted before.. 23rd.. hmm.. not bad.. but then.. if you check up the stats... http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/regionals/ViewRegionalStandings.asp?ContestID=730 , well.. it just goes to show that practice and preparation pays off... who knows... next time maybe they'll beat the daylights out of other teams, with just a bit more dedicated effort - which wasn't quite there, what with the end sems and all....
this is a message for all coders from 'Team 007': "Practice. Pay attention to even small details. The best coder is not the one who knows the most, but is the one who uses his knowledge the best."
Hope to have more participation from BIT in the future ICPCs.. surely the ACM chapter will work towards that end...

The Robolabs prep is going really well.. well placed sources have expressed the following views...
".. abe. it is sexy. ..."
".. the Atmel microcontroller is powerful, boss. line-follower robot aaram se ban sakta hai... aur autonomous bots bhi ..."
".. bhayanak.. Kshitij ke liye sahi prep hoga.. oof.. god type hai..."
Hats off to Siddharth Priya and Suchintya again... not to forget Mrityunjay bhaiyya...

Heard that polls have taken place in Iraq... good.. even in all the gloom around the world.. some people do find out time for acting out a comedy...
and India's won the test series against Lankans.. moved to Rank 2 in the ICC Test ratings... obvious ain't it ? I mean, no jayasurya, no vaas... what did the lankans want ? 3 innings defeats in 3 matches ?

A team of S.R.K.Raman (Rawman), Aniruddh (Nishu), and Mallikarjun Deo went to Kolkata fro the Campus Rock Idols...unfortunately they didn't make it past the first round.. No Sweat guys.. At least the effort was there.. I'm sure you'll all do much better next time...
Ppl.. there's got to be some serious work to be done in the area of extra-curriculars... I mean, not just guitaring, bot building or coding.. but things like gaming - your everyday NFS Underground, AOE/AOK/AOM - should be taken care of...
True, we do it for fun.. but has anyone of you given even a moment's thought of the talent out there on campus? There are a couple of AOK players who can give 'The Sheriff' (one of the best players in the world) a run for his money... "and what are we supposed to do?" you may ask... Encourage them... Organise contests... not just racing games like NFS or something else, but also strategy games... scripting games...
Remember.. if you pay a little bit of attention, you may well excel at what you consider to be fun... As far as i can remember, Raman started playing the guitar just out of curiosity.. look where he's now.. not even 2 years, and he's playing as well as, if not better than, 5 year veterans like Mallikarjun...
And here's a bit more trivia: Suchintya started solving ACM problems only after his second year.. and today he's ranked 3087... worldwide...

What are ppl doing for Drishtant? C'mon guys.. blokes as far as St. Kitts and Anna University have been asking questions... they seemed eager to participate... wouldn't exactly be a good show if more outstation teams turn up than BIT teams.. eh? And talking of participation.... rumours have it that Bitotsav'06 is going to be held from 1st Feb'06 till just before Drishtant. Now, Kshitij is starting on the 2nd of Feb. Would BITians give up their enthusiastic prep for the KGP techfest (Kshitij), just to show some acticity on campus for BITOTSAV ? Narf... My ass... If I correctly remember, Tatva was a total sham... Tej Dhar (snort)... hmf... Any sane person wouldn't go and waste his/her time in stupid, badly managed attempts at a "college fest" like the BITOTSAV... at least not till the current administration is around... Let's all head for Kshitij... it's more fun there...

News just came in that the Architecture department of BIT went on a study tour of some sorts.. Mallik you gotta fill in the gaps... I ain't gotted the full details...
looks like they were supposed to head off for Orissa (Cuttack,Bhubaneswar and Puri)... But certain ppl (administration again) insisted that tickets for the train be booked only after the concession forms arrive... BIT released the forms on 5th December - Team 007 could not therefore avail of it for their trip to Coimbatore, being away from campus, And due to some railway entrance exam in orissa on 18th Dec, all trains were chock full.. so the Archi dept had to settle for a bus for their journey to Orissa on 17th. As luck would have it, as the bus started out from Ranchi, a tanker collided with god knows what, and lay sprawled across the highway (NH-33), making sure that the entire Archi paltan arrived at Jamshedpur at night, instead of afternoon(as planned). and so far that's the update.. they put up at Cuttack, i presume....

Do let us know what you have been doing over the vacations.. keep the comments coming.. you have no idea hom much we appreciate them...
It's late at night... yawn... I'm going off to watch a movie - "Johny English" a funny one according to what ppl have told me...
By the way... all people who have missed 'The Shawshank Redemption', make it a point to watch it... Rare are such movies....
And all those fools who are planning to watch "Neal and Nikki" with their families... It's an R-rated movie ppl... take your gals for it, or best go with a bunch o pals... A few good songs, and a screen full of the girl's tits... that's what you'll get... and it's just 80 minutes long.. so you won't have to put up for long if you don't like it... And people have been telling me that "Bluff-Master" is amazing too.. as is "Missed Call".... well try them out if you wish...
And among books.. I got "One Night at a Call Centre" by Chetan Bhagat of the "Five Point Someone" fame for my birthday... will try to finish that by the time i come back... And also try out the follwing books... They're a treat to read I assure you:

The Evening News by Arthur Haily
A Stone For Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins
We, The Living by Ayn Rand
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Adios...
-ONE