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Well, they might be the largest manufacturer of x86 processors, and then motherboards and stuff, but they piss me off…

First for some reason (maybe my fault, maybe not) my Intel D865GBF motherboard gets fried. I contact Intel, who replace it for me. Fine. Job well done. I even laud their methodology of working. Super.

But the stupid replaced motherbaord (those who follow this blog know) refused to run with the 1 GB RAM I gave it. Simply hangs. Reboots. Sick of it. Send Intel another mail. They graciously offer to replace the motherboard, after a few emails. Fine. Another two weeks downtime. I can live with that.

Then the courier chap decides to take his sweet little time to collect the faulty replacement. He claims that he thought that the new order that he recieved for my motherboard was somehow related to the old one (which it was) and that since he had already taken care of it once, there was nothing to be done… You freak, why the hell do you think Intel would pay him extra just for the heck of collecting my motherboard and sending it all across the nation to Chennai, if he had already done the thing, and there was absolutely nothing to be done? Gaaaaaah…

Anyway, another week’s delay, I live on…

And finally, they ship the replacement motherboard. It arrived today, all shiny and new (apparently). I, very excitedly rip the box open, and get on with the installation. The processor goes in, and then I spend some quality time with the thermal compound, applying it nicely on the processor (since I knew, it always causes me a lot of pain, the last time it would simply not stick to the thermal spreader, and I had to manually peel small peices off and place them on the processor, something I hated to the core, and as a side effect, that got my processor to stick to the heat sink, so when I removed the heat sink, the processor came with it. Poor thing!). I allow the compound to settle for two hours… Let it do it’s thing, I say.

And then when the time comes to attach the heat sink, what do I observe? There are no brackets to connect the heat sink to… WTF? I pull my hair out (which is good, since they are a little overgrown). See pics, of the motherboard, not of me pulling my hair out!

Apparently some moron sent his motherboard to Intel for replacement with the bracket removed, and the morons in Intel logisitics completely ignored the fact that I had sent mine with my motherboard. They ought to have sent me those, but they neglected it. Pissing me off, royally! So I have sent them a mail, let’s see what happens!

Somebody, please help! I am tending towards insanity BIG TIME!

Those close know this already: I want to do my MBA in Systems.

I got the SPJIMR Admissions CD today. Decently done. There are some interesting graphs and pie charts on the CD (also duplicated on the web site) that detail the student profile at SPJIMR. I observed that those pursuing the MBA in Information Management (thats Systems!) have at least some experience. There are absolutely no freshers. This was further confirmed by Madhav Nayak on my college CAT aspirants group, who went on to say that the lowest period of experience is 20 months.

Which brings me to a crucial decision check-point. Whether an MBA in Systems is worthwhile without any industry experience? Will it be effective?

I am beginning to guess, after reading stuff on Software Engineering, Management and the likes, that it is better to get some base experience and then pursue management studies.

So, while I shall most certainly take the CAT this year, and that too with the best preparation I can afford (considering I also have my BE semesters, which are rather more important, now), I am not looking forward to the MBA part of it. Of course, I will be happy to do it, if I get an opportunity this very year, but if not, that’s even better.

Will work at Atos Origin for two years, and then pursue my MBA. How’s that for a plan?

No, I am not going to fret on how I do not get time, and how I have not updated my blog since quite some time. Let’s just say, stuff happens, and now that I am all too bored to update it, let’s just move on…

Now, for today’s post… A few must reads:

• Paul Graham’s Essays

• Joel on Software
• And for some light reading: Computer Stupidities

That’s it for this short post, more later on!

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PS. And yes, I could not resist adding this in: Intel has shipped me my replaced motherboad. Should arrive tomorrow! Yaay!

• Results are out. Scored a 64.45% in my sixth semester. Third in class. Which has been effectively murdered, with 17 drops in all, and hoards of KTs. Some close, some far, many people have fumbled. Not worth mentioning, anyway. Such is life!
• Intel is finally replacing my motherboard.
• CAT is coming up very fast.
• This weekend rules, with four (yes, you heard it right), four holidays in a row! I love India.
• Loads of heavy and rather stupid discussions with friends online at 2:30 hours in the night. Maybe will post some of them here sometime. If not hilarious, they are outright dumb.
• Movies - loads of them. Gonna spend quite some time watching them.
• Saw the Crazy Frog video by Axel F. What an awesomely done music video! Totally whacky! Downloaded it. Beep Beep… Bam Bam!
• Assignments and college stuff starts in full swing.
• And lots more Coldplay. Man, can one ever live without that kind of music? Perfect for the mellow moods!

… to create “catastrophic errors!”

And someone said software programmers have no sense of humour!

BTW, I stood by. Nothing seems to be happening. Sad.

Had my first BE practical today. CAPS. That’s Computational Analysis of Power Systems (or something to that effect). Was a simple one, we had to write code (I used MATLAB) to generate the Y-Bus (that’s the admittance matrix) of a given system. Was fun.

RANT: My college recently upgraded some of our computer labs. All sparkling new Zenith machines, with 2.8 GHz Intel P4s and 256 MB DDR 400 RAM (ouch!). Guess what also is included in the configuration? Samsung (yuck!) DVD Writers. Now, I have no idea who decided to buy them, but they are there.

And the problem is, all of them have Windows XPSP2. And we have been provided with limited user accounts. With the DVD Writer disabled. CRAP! Of what use is a 4k hardware, if it is not accessible to the users?

The lab admin tells me that it is done to prevent people from copying unwanted stuff and to prevent junk from coming to the lab. Right. And like that’s going to prevent people. I know of atleast three ways of getting in stuff, in the current configuration right now. But never mind.

I was just calculating: About 40 machines, all with DVD Writers. Imagine: 140000 could have been saved! But no, we like to buy things, and wait to see them rot. Maybe I should drop by the HoD sometime soon…

UPDATE: And I remembered about ergonomics. Aparently the people who redesigned the new lab had no sense of design. The tubes reflect off the monitors, the keyboards have no wrist rests, the mouse and the monitor are at abnormal heights, so that your hand and neck will start paining after sometime. Stupid, stupid people.

We got our ids created for storing our files on the new Windows server. The admin would not give me an id hthite, since he believed an underscore was necessary to make an id. He would simply not listen to me. Finally had to settle for h_thite. Geee, where do they get these people from?

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My PC is showing tell-tale signs of the Ostrich Algorithm. More on that specific thing later.

But here’s the sceneario. Removed all the PCI cards. Comp still reboots. Sagar suggested that I try removing one of my RAM chips. Alright, what the heck, did that. Removed one 512 MB chip. The PC runs perfectly. Now then, to determine if the removed chip really is faulty, I removed the current RAM chip, and put in the earlier removed one. And the comp still works fine. :-S
Wonder what gives? Too weird. So now, I have put back both the chips in. Let’s see what happens with 1 GB of RAM.

If nothing happens, and the machine is stable, I’ll start adding in the PCI cards one-by-one tomorrow, so wish my machine (and me) luck!

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Strange incident of the day: At Malad station, saw a nice gal (or lady, for sake of chivalry) beating up a poor man with her umbrella. What a funny sight! From what I could comprehend, the man (giving him the benefit of doubt) accidently pushed the woman, or something like that. She, being the agressive and man-hater, decided in a fraction of a second that he did it purposely, for whatever reasons that come to her head, and started shouting at him, while her hand (and the umbrella) repeatedly hit the poor chap. He was trying to avoid the blows, apologizing all the while.

I sincerely feel it could not have been a purposeful doing. Must have been an accident, things were crowded there. But then again, that’s exactly the place to take a chance, isn’t it?

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Watch this place for the Society for Promotion of Ostrich Welfare, courtesy my discussion with Swapneel (and his quick recollection of Hermione’s S.P.E.W.). Coming soon to this blog!