Techcrunch Reader

Every time I click on techcrunch articles on its home page, it would take me to new link. So if I have to read another article, I would have to do to a ‘back’, find my old article and read the next one. I always wondered why didn’t they open the article on same page with a new dialog same what facebook does when we click to see photos. It opens on same page with theater view.

After much frustration/irritation I decided to do it myself. I parsed techcrunch page took out their articles and made a site of my own with the above said feature.

I don’t know if it is legal or if I am violating their copyrights, if so i sincerely apologize to Techcrunch.

Before you visit the site let me warn:

1. Its a bit slow: 3-4 seconds to load
2. Don’t open on mobile
3. To come out of article press esc button
4. It still has bugs

I am still working on site. Since I was super excited i decided to open the basic version for all to get feedback.

Here it is: http://readeroftc.appspot.com/

Update: After doing some optimization, the home page now loads faster.

Hum Amrika se bol raha hu! (Calling from America)

Applying for universities,Visa, flight tickets, packing, finding room mates, selecting courses. And we thought we are free after appearing for GRE. The list doesn’t even end here. The list goes on with 1st semester, internship applications, 2nd semester, looking for internship, getting jealous of people who have already got internships, work on summer internship, 3rd semester, look for full-time jobs, getting jealous of who have already got fat salary offers, join company, getting jealous of who have already got girl friends, H1…the list goes on! Here is a guide which would be useful to help you in USC. Though I am not a stud who has Apple/Google in hand, I have tried to see experiences of people who come here and achieve great things. This is from a perspective of a CS grad in USC, though can be applied to other grad programs.

First Semester: Miss home. Start networking with people who are already employed. And start slogging. Target for a perfect 4.0 score. (I wish I was a 4 pointer). It DOES matter. Rather only 4.0 matters. (no 3.95, 3.99. All scores from 3.5-3.99 are considered at same level). This is because when you apply for internships in winter holidays, you have 4.0 to show if not anything else. It is more than enough to get you a call. Take courses which are coding intensive and algorithmic. It helps in interviews.

Winter Holidays – How to prepare for interviews: Geeksforgeeks.org; careercup.com; topcoder; and leetcode.com. (No shitting around)

Second Semester: People with whom you have networked in first semester, contact them and ask them to refer you in their respective companies. Its the best way to get a call. Generally first interview is a telephonic interview. Prepare well for that. Be prepared to get a lot of rejects and don’t get disheartened by them. Learn from them and apply rectifications in your next interview. Do go to each and every career fair. In first semester, do collect goodies while giving back your resume at every stall. Take a big back-pack along.

Even if you have got an internship, keep on giving interviews. The interview experience is priceless as you would talk to very different people each time. Don’t judge the company or a profile before you get an offer. Interview with them, get an offer and then decide whether you wanna go for it or not.

Summer: Work a lot at company during your internship. Convert it into full time. Save money for next semester’s fees.

Third Semester: Get a full time offer where you interned, chill out. If not, look for full time jobs.

Fourth Semester: If already have an offer, do a full time internship else do a part time and look for full time jobs.

Courses: Here are some of really good courses, which I know, at USC. This is not a comprehensive list, though.

1. CS 402, OS
2. EE 450, networking under Prof. Zahid
3. CS 571, Web Tech, under Prof. Horowitz
4. CS 551 (all profs are good, depends on you which one to select, I took under Prof. Cheng, awesome project)
5. CS 570, Algorithm under Prof Cote
6. CS 530, Security under Prof Neuman(He worked on Kerberos, superb prof)
7. CS 571, under Prof Crowley (takes in summer normally)
8. CS 558L, Distributed lab (awesome if you are going in networking)
9. CS 561, under Prof Itti
10. CS 503, Parallel Programming
11. CS 565, Compiler Design
12. CS 652, Wireless

You can skip taking CS 450 (which is a pre-req for many courses) and take its placement test, instead. The test is easy to crack if you have watched all lectures of Prof Zahid’s EE 450.

Also, if you see any ads on this post, rest assured that I haven’t posted it. I have not upgraded my wordpress account to ads free, so you are seeing ads.

Review: Revolution 2020

Wow, it feels so nice to do the things which you always love doing. Lets start…

Two guys and a gal. The old love triangle. One would turn up villain and ditches the gal. The other guy would get the gal. Every one lives and loves happily. Isn’t this what we expect when we take the book in our hands?

Revolution 2020 beats all your expectations. Villain is the hero. Confusing? (I am not going to spoil, it. Find it for your self.) There is neither ‘corruption’  nor ambition in the whole book, but only love. And so strong that the book was inside me (no pun intended) for about a week.

Presenting the old India from the plains of Ganga, including modern stuff (IITs) and plotting a love triangle is indeed a challenging job. And if done nicely, it makes the strong gripping story. For the first time, Chetan Bhagat has done it precisely. Coming from the author who makes the best youth love stories (read: sex stories), a matured story like this, is indeed a pleasant surprise.

The book is elegant, gripping for most parts. I would highly recommend it if you are an avid Chetan Bhagat fan (small/big doesn’t matter) and especially if you were disappointed after reading his earlier 3 mistaken books.

My ***1/2 for the book.

A shout-thanks to Neha Joshi for sending this book all the way from India.

You can get this book from: Flipkart, Infibeam.

If you are in USC, you can borrow book from me (and please return it back as I want to put it on my showcase in living room) .

Synopsis: 

Once upon a time, in small-town India, there lived two intelligent boys.
One wanted to use his intelligence to make money.
One wanted to use his intelligence to create a revolution.
The problem was, they both loved the same girl.

Welcome to Revolution 2020. A story about childhood friends Gopal, Raghav and Aarti who struggle to find success and love in Varanasi. However, it isn’t easy to achieve this in an unfair society that rewards the corrupt. As Gopal gives in to the system, and Raghav fights it, who will win?

Review: Love Happens like that

So, another  weekend, another book. That too in ’99′ category. I have become fond of this category. Particularly because I get away with the guilt of buying pirated books (courtesy: Flipkart / Infibeam) and these are cheap books to experiment with. This fondness got stronger after reading this book.

Apologies, this time I wont put a prologue copying from covers of the book. I’ll, myself, draft one (for some reasons which would bore you, so don’t ponder about it).

So the ‘cool dude’ Ritesh Garg is in 9th standard. Falls for a sweet-matured-honest-gal (as happens in almost every love story) . They have common friends (obviously all gals). He does all kinds of things to woo her. She gets wooed. Success. Everything was ideal. Suddenly,there is a turn, she had to break up. Guy’s infidelity?? NO. For that read this book!

This love story has happened in every guy’s life at school. That time when our life was completely commanded by our parents, which would make us irritated. Ritwik’s story is no different. While reading this book a guy would find the story his story. That fear of rejection, not getting night’s sleep waiting for answer, joy of new relation, maintaining it and to keep it under wraps hiding from parents.

The same story line, the same plot! Still the book is interesting. It compels you to buy its sequel (I’d call this a nasty attempt made by Ritwik).

But, the book is engaging. You get the feel and remain connected to the book till the end (except at few places where Ritwik- the aithor, gets too philosophical). I’d recommend this book all gals out there to make them realize how exactly a guy feels and thinks.

I give *** 1/2 to my last week’s rather weekend’s partner.

 

Review: Johnny Gone Down

Prologue: “Jhonny gone down is about Nikhil Arya who, once an Ivy League Scholar is now 40; broken; homeless and minutes away from blowing his brains out in a diabolical modern-day joust.
With a promising future in NASA, this was not meant to be this way. But an innocent vacation that Nikhil took twenty years has been extended and has turned into an inter-continental journey. This period he became first a genocide survivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, a software mogul and a deadly game
fighter.

Now Johnny alias Nikhil is tired of running. With the Colombian mafia on his trail
and his abandoned wife and son ten thousand miles away, he prepares for his final act, aware that he will have lost even if he wins.

Or will he? Is there any greater victory than living a life that knows no limits, a world that has seen no boundaries?

 

 

Will Nikhil aka Johnny pick up the pieces or will he go down for good?”

After so many days, I have read a novel so action packed (of course, of an Indian author). The book with its nasty twists and turns make you fully engaged and teach you about relations, budhhism, friendship and humanity. Karan made Nikhil’s character come alive .

My new read in the ‘Rs. 99′ category was surprisingly extra-ordinary. I’d highly recommend the book for its craft.  Full worth of money I give **** to the book.

Some links giving good offers on the book: Landmark, Flipkart

Review: Of Course I Love You…till i find someone better!

Prologue: Of course I love you…, is a story set in Delhi, during the years 2006-2008 that revolves around colleges, nightclubs, relationships and friendships. It’s about a young college going guy – Debashish Roy.

Debashish Roy, is as his name suggests, is ordinary. What’s not though is his enviable interminably long list of girls he had managed to date and taken to bed amongst other things. Things are going fine until one day, Avantika, a girl so beautiful that you would have a tendency to stab yourself back to reality, walks into his life and wrests away everything he has. As his relationship with her gets steamier and deeper, everything else in his life gets on a fast track to one direction. Down

Of course, this book is a love story. But, unusual one.

The first chapter of the book should have warning: ‘Only for adults’, no, seriously!

The best part of the book is that it is seldom dragging. You feel the book not just understand the story. Every part of the book is engaging. If you are a ‘Chetan Bhagat’ fan you will find this book ‘much, much better’ than all of his four pieces.

This book being first part of the trilogy, by Durjoy and Manavi, sets up a standard and gives you an entertaining reading experience. I will highly recommend this book to all avid readers apart from all those ‘dil-fek’ people who give their hearts ‘periodically’.

I give **** to this book!

Some links which give good offers for this book:

Flipkart, Infibeam

Review: Love, Lust, Life

Love, lust and life is written by Azhan Ahsan. Though a new comer in the industry, this author tries to show maturity.

This book is about a guy who calls himself a king of liars. Right from childhood to his youth he lies. And of course, these lies cause his doom. Also, he goes around with two gals at the same time. Azhan gives a very good attempt to show how a little kid from village goes to Mumbai to make his career, his parents being financially weak, his relatives at Mumbai ask him to leave their home and how this kid tries to make good of his life. It might seem an old Bollywood movie theme minus emotions.

A point worth noting. Azhan, instead of specifying the dates of occurrences, gives the major events that happened at that time. This is the only engaging thing in the whole book. eg. ‘abba was watching on TV how america was attacked by an arab terrorist’, ‘hum aapke hai kaun became the biggest hit’. You really need to brainstorm as when these events would have occurred.

Overall, this book is not entertaining. It seems a boring autobiography, where you have no feel of emotions. I’d recommend this book only if you have nothing to do and want an Indian fiction.

I give ** to this book.

Some links you can use to purchase this book:

Flipkart and Crossword

Review: Dhobi Ghat

Well to write a review for the movie of this stature would be inappropriate for a novice critic like me!
The movie is a true masterpiece of art containing all elements of emotions, comic, loneliness and passion which comprise an art form, apart from being abstract, purely abstract. When you watch this movie, you need to be present-minded because the movie expects you to do so!
Character, munna, very nicely portrayed by Prateik adds fun to movie. I’d rank it as his best performance ever!
Amir khan, who is Arun, a great painter is a loner, but understands human emotions nicely. he finds a muse accidently/ coincidently at his new apartment!
The other two characters, whose names I honestly don’t remember, were okay.
Debutant Kiran Rao has been phenomanal in her ‘art’, but failed to get people’s attention during ‘those 95′ minutes. It was a wise decision to not to have interval, else, trust me, people would have run out of theatres!
I give **** to this art and * for entertainment!

Review: The green hornet 3D

I went for this movie only to spoil my Sunday start.  If you feel that Bollywood borrows its themes from Hollywood, this movie is going to prove you wrong. Its vice versa in this case. Quite comfortably I can compare this movie with ‘Tees Maar Khan’, where you don’t have anything which satisfies you, neither good action nor good comedy.

Lead actor, Seth Rogen’s father dies leaving him his empire of  a newspaper which used to do well, but had fallen in the recent times. As usual, ‘amir baap ki bigdi aulad’, Seth never took his father’s business seriously. After his father passes away, he fires everyone from his mansion who used to work for his father. Incidentally it also included ‘Jay Chou’ who is an expert mechanical engineer, and a great chef(who makes only coffee). Seth calls Jay back to work for him (why he comes back, let it remain a mystery). Till here movie is pretty slow.

But as soon as these actors meet, there is a series of blunders (movie pretends they are hilarious, which, trust me, aren’t), drama and entry of Cameron Diaz. Honestly I went to see the movie for Cameron, but her small role doesn’t suit the actress of her stature. She is seldom seen in the movie, where Seth harasses her (read sexually harasses), but she minded it only in the end. The movie also attempts to show the love triangle between Seth, Jay and Cameron, but couldn’t compete ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’.

The cars used in the movie are awesome, esp the ‘accessories’. I could stand this movie because of the cars and the friend of mine who accompanied me.

Last but not the least, the 3D effects are nothing compared to Tron- The legacy.

But yes, this movie is a light one. Those who want to expend some money and have a light fun, this movie is good, but don’t carry any expectations of hilariousness.

I give ** to this movie.

Admire

I have seen a person who lost his job at the time when his kid was in 7th std. (as company shut down itself due to its miser policies), started doing a business earning 7k month getting transformed to a person earning much that he could buy his own car, a new farm, get his kid a new bike, that too in the same year! And all this transformation in just 6 years.
It really does need a lot of hard work and self control to not to show off.
Once I was talking to this person and he said- ‘हमे कार तभी लेनी चाहिए जब हमारे पास कम से कम उसे दो साल तक चलाने के लिए पैसा हो!’
This sentence really had a deeper meaning which understood some time later.
I saw that person doing all hard work in front of my eyes, all through these years. This thing made me matured, really.
And that person is my DAD.
Admire him the most…