4 down.... 2 to go.....

Finally it's going to be over in less than 4 days..... 4 papers over..... Today was chemistry. I was not sure, what was going to be the difficulty level of the paper, but when I saw it, I was mad at myself. I spent hours and hours studying all the crap which was not even mentioned anywhere in the paper....

But, thanks to some good study material and whatever I had studied, the paper was fine. I have tried my best. You know, when you get in a kind of uncertainty, then just go on writing the same sentences again and again and just change the sequence of the words, and you are done.

From what I have heard, they (paper checkers) just measure the length of the answer paper and give the marks accordingly, and the height of it all was when I heard that one boy had written names of movies in his answers and he still managed to get 40/50.... Can you believe it?

Only 4 days to go......

Aditya Shevade

From the bottom of my heart......

From the bottom of my heart.... Don't get excited.. this is not my love story..... What I am saying is that I hate exams from the bottom of my heart.....

Still 3 papers left... first 3 were good.... The problem is that there are 3 more.... 5 more days..... x-( .... I am just waiting for 25th, when it all will be over and there will be a LONG vacation of about 2 months.......

Till then... enjoy my website at Aditya Shevade.

Aditya Shevade

My life is getting worse and worse.......

I have never been more frustrated in my entire life. First I have got the exams coming up from the 14th and then I have not studied as much as I would have wanted to....

Let me start from the beginning.... On the 1st of May, my cousin was getting married at a place about 400KM from where I live. After a lot of discussion and thinking, I decided to go with my parents on the 28th of April.... As it was marriage time, there were about 16-18 people constantly in the house and sometime even up to 30.... How the hell was I supposed to study? I absolutely wasted 5 days.... But it was worth it... I had a lot of fun.

Then I came home... I was kinda hoping that I might start with full speed, but I dunno how it happened but all of a sudden I am thinking of creating a website... A full fledged one, with all my photos, projects some tutorials and even a blog. And so, I have been spending about 3 hours a day in searching all that I need.... Now, if I fail to get a distinction, I think the computer is going out till I get a VERY good score.... (OK... it's not that bad.... I can still get a distinction..... but I know I can do more....)

And because of all this, the exams, my experiments with linuxes and multibooting and all has kept me from writing the posts here.... It's really frustrating as I said..... And I need a break, and I think I will get one after 25th.... Till then, I think this irregularity of the posts will continue. But I am thinking of writing everyday or at least every alternate day in my vacation....

Aditya Shevade.

Making your own Linux..... It's hard, but working on it is a wonderful experience....

Regarding this post, first let me tell you that this time, it was my mistake that caused the trouble. I will start from the beginning, or shall I say scratch?

When I was stumbling on the net using stumble upon... I came across a site where all the information about building your own linux distribution from scratch is available. (click here for more info).

I read the information, then proceeded with the download. Read the first introductory chapters in the book and then thought that I might be able to get it working. So I downloaded all the necessary packages and then proceeded with building. At the first time it did not work, but then second time, it looked like I might get it working (for the second time on this day).

First thing was to create a dedicated partition and install the OS there, so that it does not interfere with the existing system. I did all that was described. I succesfully installed 4-5 softwares as well. But as soon as I came to the place, where I had to install gcc for the second time, all the problems started.

It did not pas the make test. I waited for 1 hour for the whole process to get executed, but I just could not do it. Then my parents began to remind me of my upcoming exams. And eventually I had to give it up, so as to study a bit.

But it really was a great feeling. I mean, I am not an old wise owl of linux. It's only been about 3-4 months that I am using it. And after that much of knowledge, I feel quite satisfied, still it hurts deep down inside that I was not able to finish it in the first go. But I guess that is life after all.....

And as I said above, this time it was my fault that things went wrong. Now I have decided that I should better get my hand on a good guide to learn linux shell scripting. And then, as soon as my exams are over, I am going to have another go at this.....

Aditya Shevade

Mr. Gawaskar has lost his head........

My first question is, why? Why did he have to begin with this issue before the world cup? The more I think on it, I am beginning to feel like that the old man is losing his head.

First of all, the statement that he made that Australia are not popular winners is wrong. Only if you do not support them, it does not mean that the rest of the world does not. Australia have a very big fan support around the globe. You cannot say that they are not popular, there are plenty like me, who support Australia, even after being Indians. So that is completely crazy.

Next thing, it was Ponting's turn. Of course, when someone criticizes your team like that, anyone would lose their head. I completely back Ponting on this issue. Not just because I am a hardcore fan of his, but because this time it was Gawaskar's fault. What Ponting said is all true. The man who left the crease with his partner has no authority whatsoever to lecture anyone. Had it been anyone else, then that person would have been criticized around the world. It's only his name and fame that has kept people from going against him. Old man is really losing his head.

What Ponting said is true. Look at India. Why should Gawaskar always have a go at the Aussies? Look what Pakistani players are on the stadium. Why he never criticizes them? Due to national relations? Or because we have been defeating Pak for a long time, and not Aussies, and he cannot digest it, and that is why it's Aussies and not Pak? Coming back to Indian team, it's only because Indians lack professionalism and the attitude and urge to win that holds them back. Look at the last WC. They were terrified by Aussies. Our Mr. Opening Bowler started of with a wide and then gave it all away. Look what is performance of Sachin in big games. They are afraid and they lack the attitude. Had I been in any team, I would have done what Aussies are doing right now.

Then, what Gawaskar said on this statement of Ponting is... “We are not discussing the performance of any team, but their behavior on the field”. Then he defends his decision to leave the crease. In short he is just having a go at Aussies cause he has nothing else to do. Now my question, on one hand he says that he is talking about the on field behavior and then he says that if Aussies behave like this in a bar then they will get whacked. Now I don't think that there are bars on Cricket ground. Why do you care? They might get whacked or might hit someone, or get killed. Why are you brining this issue?

And in fact, Ponting was involved in a bar fight once and he is still standing. He is right now, arguably the best batsman in the world cricket. Best batsman in test for sure and one of the best captains and fielders the game has ever seen. And according me, unless you have a mindset and attitude like Ponting, you cannot perform that well.

To sum it all up, I would say that Mr. Gawaskar should stop criticizing Aussies now. It's been quite a long time that he is having a go at them. And in my opinion, it's the attitude of Aussies which makes them the world winners and that too popular winners.

Aditya Shevade

And we were not selected......

Again, I really do wonder how these things happen in life. Today, we had a competition, we means me and my friend. It was a PowerPoint presentation competition. We were to face a screening test first and then we were going to be given some not technical subjects, on which we would have had to prepare a presentation, with the help of the Internet in one hour. That was, of course, given the fact that we were selected.

But, it all went wrong. First, the time management. The screening was scheduled at 8:30am. We were present at the spot at that time, but we came to know that screening was on 9:30. But it didn't start at 9:30 as well. Then finally it did begin at 11:30am.

We were under the impression that the screening was going to be an aptitude test, but alas. We are not that lucky. Only some 12 out of 60 questions were based on the Mental Ability Test (MAT), rest were stupid general knowledge questions, like who is president of LETTA. I don't have any idea what the hell is LETTA. Cause, I am not at all concerned with it. And I really can't see how can it be a screening test for a PowerPoint presentation contest.

They could have checked out PowerPoint knowledge or our language, the ability to present our thoughts and such things, but no, they wanted to see if we knew where the hell are the "Venkatgiri" or "Devangiri" or something like that Saree's are manufactured, like we want to start a new business there.

So, in the end, only 10 teams were selected out of some 60. And the saddest part is that ours was 11th. (I know people will not believe in me, when I say ours was 11th, but believe me, they had sorted our name, but I think they received 2 papers with scores more than ours, so my team and one more were rejected). They said that 24/60 was the last team and so, we must have had got anything from 23.75 to god knows what.

There was 1 mark for correct answer and -0.25 for a wrong one, and now I only wish, that we should not have hit arrows in air to see if we catch a pray. Those -0.25 marks did make a difference and we lost our spot. Bad luck. Maybe next time.........

Aditya Shevade

And I wasted half an hour in my life......

Actually it should be..."And my old computer wasted half an hour in my life". Let me start from the beginning. As you would have read in the first post here, that my new computer, the laptop has been busted and so I am back to using the old 'box' of mine.

It is working great as I said, but the fact is that, it is celeron, 500MHz, 96MB RAM, and I have installed XP on it. I think you got the idea there. It takes almost 12-13 minutes to start working since the start button has been pushed. I mean, just now, some 2 hours ago, I had begun writing my last post about my worst day in February 2007, and suddenly there was a power cut. And the UPS gave away before the computer could shut down. I mean, that is ridiculous.

Then, I again started it on inverter supply. And again, after some 15 minutes, as I was about to begin the post again, someone switched the TV downstairs and again, the computer crashed. And so, another 15 minutes gone.

And now, finally I am writing this post. And now I am getting tired of this. There is only one way that can stop this, and that is my laptop. And finally I got a good news on that point. The HP people have replaced the motherboard, optical drive and HDD. But they are not sure yet. (Think that something else is in bad condition). So I am yet to receive it.

Aditya Shevade