VirtualDrums on App Store

Our App VirtualDrums is now available on App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch. You can look at the description and download the App by clicking the below link:

Virtual Drums

Wireless project- virtual drums using sunspots

This post with updates is now available @ mayurmotgi.com and also information about our new iPhone App “Virtual Drums” @ mayurmotgi.com.

Finally now that my semester is over and I have loads of free time, i will start writing about our wireless project-Virtual Drums using SunSPOTs. It all started when I first entered the Wireless Fundamentals class after a short vacation in India. I had attended my other two classes (full of people I didn’t know) in the afternoon. I was expecting to have no luck in this class either. When i entered the class i was so relieved to see Vijay in class. Though I saw a few familiar faces but they were just acquaintances. Then Dinesh entered and I remembered all the days in CSE Services. Dinesh and Vijay shared most of the courses so they had decided to do the project together. I asked Vijay if i could join them and he said okay. I was quite relieved I must say. Then Dinesh told me Shrikanth would also join our team. We had seen the earlier semester projects and were anxious to start working on the SunSPOTs.

How to start? We created a google doc and decided to add our project ideas in that. We decided on a server monitoring project wherein we use different sensors to detect intrusion, follow it using camera and send the videos/photos back to the administrator. Dr. Liu wasn’t very happy with the concept and he said it too easy(we thought we were over ambitious). Then we sent him few project concepts and hold him to select one. One interesting concept which i thought had lot of application was the automatic traffic signal based on the number of vehicles approaching the intersection.

But Dr. Liu had already made his mind on another project. Vijay sent me a link about new type of instruments using hand gestures which helps kids create music. So how can we create music using SunSPOTs. Guitar too tough, piano not possible, Drums hmmm. Drums can be easy. So Shrikanth and Vijay started searching for projects on music using sunspots. They found an interesting site : JFugue

But we just wanted to play midi files of different parts of a drum set. May be we can different intensities also. Once we found a java class which played midi files and the sounds we were ready to start. But we were scared how we would manage to code these devices. I personally had no experience working on a sensor device. Thanks to the “SunSPOT quick start tutorial” in NetBeans we got everything set, deployed the BounceBall demo. This is what we did on day 1. We also decided to meet every Tuesdays and Thursday for an hour.

Day 2: “We created music”, says Vijay. See the videos below for the results of day 2.

Day 3: Next step was to add intensity to our drum set. Based on how fast you swing the SunSPOT, you get a given beat. Just two intensity levels for the time being. Watch the video below.

Then we hit a roadblock. We had tough time getting everything to work together. So we decided to ask Dr. Liu. He suggested having a sunspot for each Drum/Cymbal. Using the signal strength we decide the proximity of the SunSPOTs. Though this approach worked well, we wanted to make the project simple. As we kept adding to the complexity of the project , we knew we were increasing the chances of failure. So we decided to work with only a single base station to process the information from the other SunSPOTs  and play the sound. So 2 SunSPOTS were used as sticks and one SunSPOT as the bass drum. For more information see the video below:

Now we were thinking of presenting our project in class. What better way to present than to play the drums on a song. So we had to find a song with simple drum beats. We used to go to an indian restaurant  after our team meetings every tuesday and thursday. While going to the restaurant we used to listen to songs and try to figure out how tough it would be to play drum on them. While looking for songs with drums, we found a song with distinct congo beats. And the rest was history:

That went well. Okay back to our drum set. So to explain our drum set here is Shrikanth:

Okay so let me give you a brief demo of our final product before we go into our performance in class:

And finally the uncut version of our performance. I think it went well. At least  nothing was thrown at us. Dr Liu was very happy and he also insisted on us exhibiting the project in the Engineering Week in Spring 09.

So finally I am at the end of this post. I will thank the few of you who read the entire post and watched all the videos. Thanks for all the support we got. I promise an awesome show in February. Engineering week here we come….

Okay i will be a little selfish and add one video of me enjoying the drums. If you need more information about this project mail me @ mayur.motgi@mavs.uta.edu.

Nah… No future as a drummer. See you soon.

Top 12 iPhone Applications

This post with updates is now available @ mayurmotgi.com.

Most of the applications need you to jailbreak your iPhone except the ones available on App Store.

1. SBSetting: Do you ever feel like changing something in your settings while you are working on another application? Dont you hate quitting the application just to make a small change like enabling the WiFi or change the auto lock ability. Then SBSetting is for you. Its the next level BossPref. It gives you the ability to access all the features of BossPref just by sliding your finger over the top status bar. So you can quickly change the setting and go back to your application. Available on Cydia/Installer.

2. IM+ Lite: After almost an year of searching i found a chat client while works with tzone. I haven’t tried the Pro version but if you want a basic client which does not drain too much of your battery like Safari you should download this. The app is available on the App Store. It supports Gmail, Yahoo etc.

3. MxTube: Lets you download YouTube video. Its very easy to use and the video quality is awesome. Available on Cydia and Installer.

4. Fring: You can chat and make VoIP calls to your Skype, MSN, ICQ, SIP and Google Talk friends. You can also chat with your Twitter, Yahoo and AIM friends. Now available on App Store. One of the few applications which went legal and is still free.

4. Nimbuzz: Chat, make VoIP calls to your Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo, MSN etc. friends. The voice quality on the calls is good and there is no lag. Install VoIPover3G to make calls over 3G. I am assuming with a AT&T 3G you would not have any lags. Much better than Fring in terms of lag and voice quality. Available on App Store.  VoIPover3G is available on Cydia.

5. Finder: Similar to Finder on Mac, it gives you a GUI to cut/copy/paste files, manipulate folders and even run a file with a given application.

6. Winterboard: When the developers Summerboard on iphone 1.x decided not to port it to 2.x, winterboard came to the rescue. Its Gui is not as impressive as Summerboard, but the features available are almost the same. You can change wallpapers, lock screen, battery, icons etc. You can have a video wallpaper, rotating wallpaper or you own picture as wallpaper. Be careful it makes iPhone slow. But a good theme changes the appearance of your iPhone. Available on Cydia and Installer.

7. Netatalk: This application helps you display the contents of your iPhone on Finder in Mac. You can use either the mobile user account or the root account on your iPhone(default password for both is alpine which you can change in terminal). You don’t need to install SSH on your iphone. Once you connect your iPhone to your Mac and connect your iPhone to a wireless network, the name of your iphone will appear on the sidebar of the Finder. Click on Connect As and provide the username and password. Once connected you can see the contents of your iPhone. I use Netatalk to copy new ringtones, MxTube downloaded videos and Videos taken using Cycorder. Its available on Cydia and Installer.

8. Cycorder: The best video recording application for iPhone. Video immediately available after recording. Available on Cydia.

9. GasBag: Okay i added this to my list coz i travel about 65 miles 2-3 days a week. This application gives the price of gas at close by gas stations on Google Map. You can also search for a given address and find cheap gas around that address. Available at App Store for FREE.

10. Google Earth: Yes its now available on iPhone and it more realistic. Available on App Store.

10. CToggle: Allows you to disable auto-correction. This is really helpful when you use lot of abbreviations. Its available on Cydia and Installer.

11. biteSMS: I think the best application for people who do lot of text messaging. Lets you type in the landscape mode and forward messages too. I haven’t tried their sms packages but you can always use the sms service provided by your carrier, Give it a shot. Available on Cydia and Installer. Don’t update to 3.0 which is a paid version with 30 days free trial. On Installer you can still get the 2.7 version.

12. Terminal: Similar to the Terminal on Mac, this gives a command prompt to work on iPhone. The number of commands availabe is not as extensive as what is avaiable on Mac but you can add extensions(ssh, gcc etc)  to this terminal for different command. Available on Cydia and Installer

List will be updated again if i find better applications….. A new post on how to upload ringtones to your iphone here…

Where Am I Watching Live Cricket—-

http://sportsdesi.blogspot.com/2009/03/cricket-1.html

http://webcric.com/0309/india-vs-new-zealand-live-streaming-2.htm

Best link: http://new-zealand-v-india-2009.blogspot.com/2009/04/link-5-3rd-test-new-zealand-v-india.html

http://webcric.com/0309/india-vs-new-zealand-live-streaming.htm

http://www.cricketheats.org/server3.html

Wanna See Who Is Logged in Invisible mode on Google Chat????

So I am on this hunt for the ultimate chat app for the iPhone/iPod Touch on App Store. Everyday I try a new chat application available for free on the App Store(Sorry no money for the paid ones). I had downloaded this chat app called MobileLinked IM couple of days back and trying to log onto my google chat/talk account. Because I did not include ‘@gmail.com’ at the end of username, it refused to connect to my account. I got frustrated and deleted the app from my iPhone. Today i was getting bored and started searching for a new chat app. While searching i found the creators of MobileLinked IM mentioning something about how light the app is and that it connects directly to the server with minimal delays. So I downloaded again and tried again to get the same error. I decided to add  ’@gmail.com’ at the end of the username. This time I was able to log in. I tried to have a look at my friend list to find a lot more of my friends online. Especially the people who I know usually log in invisible mode were online. Just to test I pinged one of my friends(I know he will definitely read this and laugh) accusing him of chatting secretively and that I could see him online. Of course the guy didn’t reply initially. But in the evening he pinged and confirmed that he was actually online. I asked another friend to go invisible and verified again. So its true(at least for me) that using MobileLinked IM you can see your friends online who are logged in invisible mode. For my friends who prefer to be invisible I respect their privacy and will not disturb them(not use the app also coz its not that great besides the amazing feature which makes it unique). The work around for this app is just to block the people who are using it or who you think you will never talk to(now I am sure I will definitely fall in one these categories). No names mentioned and no friends harmed.

Make Custom iPhone Ringtones for Free( any length)

This post with updates is now available @ mayurmotgi.com.

Okay lets get down to business. Most of the steps you will read are what you see in most of the forums and blogs. But i was never able to get the ringtones on to my iPhone after i created the customized ringtone(due to Apple’s restriction on length of the ringtone to 40 seconds). Thats where netatalk came to my rescue.  This method lets you create ringtones of any length and is not restricted to 40 seconds. In case you want to convert the entire song to a ringtone and avoid the hassles start from step 9.

Step 1: Open iTunes and find the song that you want to make into a ringtone.

Step2: Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.

Step3: Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

Step4:Right-click the song and select “Get Info.”

Step5:Click the “Options” tab.

Step6:Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to “Start Time” in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 2:01) format.

Step7:

Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to “Stop Time.”

Step8: Click “OK”.

Step9: Right-click your song again and select “Create AAC version”. Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.

Step10: Find the new file in itunes. Unless you are in a playlist the new song will show up next to the original song. Right-click on the new file and select “Show in Finder”. You can also search for the file directly. It will have the same name as the song but ‘.m4a’ extension.

Step11: Change the extension to ‘.m4r’. Copy the file.

Step 1-11 is same for every single method available online to create a free ringtone for iPhone. Now the way to upload the ringtone is a little different so read carefully. First of all you need netatalk or any application(ssh, iPhoneBrowser etc) which gives access to all the directories of iPhone.

Step12: Go to  ’/Library/Ringtones’ and paste your file. And you are done. Go to Settings>Sounds>Ringtone and select the ringtone file you just added.

Have Fun!!!!!

E-week Performances

Aicha E-week Virtual Drums 

Aint No Sunshine E-week Virtual Drums

Final Series of Performances Virtual Drums E-week 1

Final Series of Performances Virtual Drums E-week 2 

Final Series of Performances Virtual Drums E-week 3 

Final Series of Performances Virtual Drums E-week 4 

Final Series of Performances Virtual Drums E-week 5 

Final Series of Performances Virtual Drums E-week 6 

Take your pick

I am sure most of you must have read the short stories by jeffrey archer. In fact the main reason why i started writing short stories was because of his amazing writing skills given the length of the stories. One of his short stories had a given start and three different endings. It was left to the reader to decide which was the best ending. I am going to give a shot at something similar.

It seems quite ackward to sit in a busy restuarant n eat alone. But i have got used to it. Everyday i take this corner table for 2 and order the same dish. Infact the waiters know me well now. I just have to nod and the food is brought to my table. Do i miss company… No i dont i enjoy the food with no one to disturb me. Ya i do, its so boring to eat alone i need someone to talk to.
hey what do i see – a guy eating alone like me. Should i go n join him. Let me go to the restroom and on the way back i will ask if i can join him.
i cant see his face from far away. Let me just walk towards him. Is it a … No it isnt.. Oh my god it is… It is a girl and a beautiful one… What do i do… What do i do…

Take 1:
“Hi i see you are eating alone. Mind if i join you?”
She hasn’t replied. I think she is scared of ppl coming upto her at restuarants.
“my name is vivek. I usually have dinner here alone. Saw you alone so thought you might need someone to talk to while you eat. Dont worry i wont eat you, i am a vegeterian”
Now why did i say that. Its so stupid. I cant believe she smiled. So i will have company for dinner after all.
“hi my name is rashmi. My roommates have gone out of town and i had no mode to cook so i came here to eat”
” good for me. When are you roommates coming back”
“why?”
” hopefully till they come back u wont have mood to cook and meet me here.”
I never met her at the restaurant again.
“this place is far from my house. Had come here for some work. So are there other place where you go alone ?”
That brought a smile to my face. ” i am going to this movie tomorrow at 7.
” oh k. May be you will find some company there too.”
Next day i waited outside the theatre till 7 30. I was feeling so lonely. Just as i was abt to leave i saw an auto stopping near the gate and rashmi coming out of it. I couldn’t help but smile.
” hey how did you know i would be here!”
For the next one month i went to movies, restuarant and trips alone and luckily found rashmi to give me company.
it was getting serious and we used to spend the evenings together. I wanted to pop the question but i didnt know how to. Near the beach, in my house with roses everywhere, surprise visits oh i had lot of ideas. And then it happened. I told her we can go to the restuarant where we first met. We drove upto the place. The place seemed closed. I told her to check while i park the car. She entered the restuarant but it was dark. As soon as she entered the lights came on. The entire place was empty except me standing near the corner table with roses in my hand. She was shocked. She took the roses but didnt say anything. She was quiet the entire evening. Then she told me she wants to leave. Without asking her anything i dropped her home.

I cant believe i am back in the same restuarant. Same table, same dish and the same stupid empty chair.
” hi i see you eating alone. Mind if i join you?”
“sure. I hate eating alone. My name is vivek.”
“i m preeti. I hope you dont it the wrong way. I am not used to eating alone.”
“not at all. You dont have to worry about me drooling over you. Guess where i met my wife first time…”

Take 2:

“Hi my name is Vivek. I saw you eating alone thot u wud like some company.. “
She gave me a weird smile. Okay its becoming weird now. She hasn’t said anything for 5 mins. Wait her lips are moving.
“I m sorry but i like to eat alone. I hope you dont feel bad”
“What if i do?”
“Sorry” she said with a sorry smile.
I went back and ate my food quickly. I wanted to run out of the restuarant asap.
I went back and went to bed. The entire night i thought about her. She was really pretty i couldn’t get her out of my mind.
Next day all my friends were meeting up. I wanted to get her out of my mind so i decided to go meet my friends. It was nice catching up with whats going with others. But i kept looking around trying to find her.
“Rashmi! here!” shouted a girl behind me. I turned around and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was the girl from the restuarant. She came and sat near table behind me. I wanted to look at her so i turned my chair towards her. Okay i had to talk to her. Let me see if she remembers me.

” Hi do u remember me? We met in the restuarant yesterday. Dont worry i am not here to bother you again. “

” No thats okay. So u like eating out a lot huh.. Give me a minute…” she stood up and left. I waited for an hour but she never came back.
Was she trying to run away from me. I hoped i would never see her again. It was so embarassing. Next few days i was quite busy with my work. I had forgotten all about the fiasco. It was my colleagues bday so we decided to go for lunch close to office. As i entered the small fast food joint i was shocked to see her sitting near the window with a couple of her friends. Before i could realise i was standing next to her.

She looked at me and said “Are u following me?”

Everyone kept looking at me. I was so embarrassed. I was just hoping the roof would fall over.

“Girls this is friend Vivek”

I was shocked she remembered my name. I wanted to talk to her but i had come with my office friends. I couldnt just forget about them. Though they are not like my best friends. No its rude. So i told her i had to go and that we could catch up sometime. She didnt say anything. So i went back to my table. All through out the lunch i kept looking at her. She didnt look back even once. All my feelings for her were back. I decided to talk to her after everybody had left.

Finally my friends started walking out of the restaurant. I turned to walk towards her table but she was gone. I didn’t know what to do. So i walked out of the restaurant.

After reaching office i kept thinking of how to contact her. I just knew her first name. The only thing i could do was to go the 3 places i met her and hope she is there too. There has to be some reason why i see her everywhere i go. Okay i will go to the restaurant tonight where i first met her.

I entered the restaurant and carefully looked at each table. Unfortunately she was not to be seen anywhere. Okay let me have my dinner and hope she shows up. I sat at my favorite table in the corner. Before i could say anything the waiter asked if i would have the usual. I was not interested in the food. I was just waiting for Rashmi.

The food was on the table. Without looking at the food much i started eating. The food was so good that i forgot about her for sometime. And then everything came back to me.

“Hey Chef someone wants to compliment your cooking.”

“Finally!”

“Hi Rashmi.”

“Hello Sir. So i was told you liked my dish.”

“I always liked your cooking. Even when you were 7 and had just started cooking. But i never knew you would become a chef in a big restaurant. I am sorry I didn’t recognize you. I knew there was a reason why we met everywhere, why i liked that dish so much.”

“But you took a lot of time Sir. I thought for a while that you don’t remember your friend. You have always been slow. Never knew how to cease the moment.”

“But i will not be slow this time. Rashmi I could never find a friend like you. Will you be my friend forever and to make sure you don’t leave me this time will you marry me?”

“Why do you think i followed you everywhere!”

“So does this mean i can have that dish for free at home.”

No matter how much i begged her, Rashmi never made that dish at home.

100 bucks

This is one of the first stories i wrote. The story is about Naveen and his life in 2 parts. Part1 is about his school days.

Hi my name is Naveen and i am 16 years old. I have always been the best student in class. Best in studies and awesome in sports. My friends just love me. People are dying to be my friends. I am every teacher’s pet. Life can’t get better than this.

I entered the class and instead of getting a cheer from my classmates i got nothing. I looked around the class to find everyone crowded around a desk in the corner of the class. I couldn’t see who everyone was talking to. When the teacher came in everyone returned to their respective desks. I could see a fair guy with short hair and dark eyes sitting in the corner desk. The teacher looked at him and called him to tue front to introduce himself. His name was Pradeep and his father just got transferred from jabalpur. For the next 15 mins he spoke about jabalpur and his journey from there. Everyone was listening very intensely and he spoke pretty well. But for me he was just a big show off. After the introduction we went back to our science lesson. The tea cher asked a question and as usual i was the first to raise my hand. I was about to stand up to answer when the teacher called his name. His answer was correct but i wasn’t impressed. Then the teacher  looked at me and said that now i have someone to compete with in class. I didnt like that a bit. But boy was she right.

Not only did he compete with me, he faired better than me in everything. He was scoring better than me. He slowly becoming the teacher’s pet. And i was loosing my popularity. All my friends were more interested in hanging out with him. The worst part was that he was a very nice person. He was never proud of his achievements. But i just hated that guy. But there was one thing he could never beat me in.

The annual school debate competition was going to start next week. I had won the competition for the past 4 years. I never expected pradeep to compete in this competition because he was very soft spoken. When i went to enroll for the competition i wrote down my name in the enrollment list. Guess whose name was written before mine.

It was the first day of debate. I was waiting for neha to come and wish me luck. Oh i didn’t tell you about neha. She was this girl i liked since god knows when. I think she liked me too. But i could never tell her how i feel about her. When i was with her i used to forget everything else. She used to get the best out of me. When i saw her coming towards me i started smiling. She shook hands with me. I kept smiling and i am sure i was freaking her out. She told me she would be back in 5 mins. Then she went to pradeep and wished him good luck. I decided to ignore this.

First couple of rounds were really easy. I won with high margins. My last debate was with pradeep. The topic was easy and we both did pretty well. I was expecting to win the debate. When the results came i have to say i was quite surprised. For the first time in the competition there was a tie. The judges could not decide who was better. The top 4 scorer went to the next round. Out of that 2 would proceed to the finals. No marks for guessing who went to the finals. I wanted to win this competition  and i could have done anything to make that happen.  This was the only thing that could prove that i was better than him. So i went up to him and tried to make him a little nervous i told him that i bet 100 bucks that i would win and while he hands me that 100 bucks he has to write “Naveen is a winner” on it. It was my turn first and gave my best shot. When pradeep came to the stage he was welcomed by a round of appluades. After he started talking no one moved a muscle. By the time he finished the judges had already decided the winner. After the competition i went upto him handed the 100 bucks with the dreadful words on it. But the worst was yet to come. Neha ran to pradeep and hugged him. I had lost everything. I never spoke to neha after that. I heard she got married to pradeep later.

The second part of the story is when naveen is 27.

I am a manager in one of the branches of the country’s largest bank. My parents are forcing me to get married soon. I like this girl in office and we have been dating for quite a while now. Everyday i walk from my house to the office. Its a 2 km walk. I like the atmosphere in the morning. Everyone is so lively. Everyone but this small house and its occupant. The house is so dirty that even dogs don’t go towards it. I dont think it was ever cleaned or repainted. Everyday when i cross this house i see an old man with uncombed hair and a dirty beard sitting on a chair outside the house. Once in a while i look into his eyes and i get a feeling that he is trying to talk to me. Then after i reach office and start my normal work. In the evening i take shruti out for dinner and then drop her to her house. I have been following this routine for the past 4 years.
  

One day i woke up late and i was running late to work. I walked a little fast and decided not look around but walk straight to office. As i was crossing the old house i looked at the chair outside. To my surprise the chair was empty. I got really curious. I wanted to go check inside the house but i was getting late. So i continued to office. The whole day i kept thinking of the old man. Shruti had sone work in the evening so i decided to walk back home. On the way back i was hoping to see my friend sitting outside. But the chair was still empty. I decided to keep walking but some force made me turn towards the old shack. I kept walking towards the door. As i went closer i saw a group of people standing in a circle inside the house. I joined the group and tried to find out what everyone was looking at. In the centre my friend was lying down motionless. People were trying to decide what to do with the body. After standing in the crowd for 10 mins i decided to turn around and walk out. As i was about to do that, i saw something peculiar. My friend was holding something tightly in his fists. Before i realised it i was already trying to get the thing out of his hand. It was a crumpled paper. I opened the note and read what was written on it.

“Pradeep Naveen is a winner”

A Short Story

I dont believe in miracles or life changing incidents. I believe in hard work. I have been very successful in everything i have worked for. So why should i change my beliefs. So what are we talking about here. I have no complaints in life. So am i happy in life? Now thats a totally different story.
i am a blah blah in a blah blah company and earn big bucks. Still single but voted as the most eligible bachelor in the country. Just didnt have the time for girls. My life is very monotonous. So i am looking forward for my trip to blah next week. Right now i am trying to make a list of people i know in blah. Guess what there is a girl in that list. I will call her a couple of days after i reach blah. Calling on the first day would look a little desperate. Come on guys when it comes to girls i am a little nervous. And not much exciting is happening in my life. So lets see how things go.

My flight is at 7. So i left at 4 and was at the airport by 5. But guess what the flight is cancelled. Infact the aiport is closed. The reason is unknown. So the only way i can reach blah is by train. You got to be kidding me. I have never travelled in a train. I always had enough money to travel by plane. But i have to be in blah by tomorrow evening. I have a meeting day after. So i am scared.

The train is full. I have a lower berth. The train is clean. But i am not going to the toilet. I have heard horrible stories about the train toilets. Considering its a 18 hours journey, i think i can manage. There is a couple sitting in frint of me. I dont think there was a single conversation where they didnt argue. But for a guy who is has not been in a relationship, it was music to my ears. They were quite comfortable unlike me. I didnt know anyone and didnt know what to do. What was taking the stewardess so much time.

I had heard of beggers in train. This guy with a shabby shirt and couple of suitcases. Nah beggers dont carry suitcases. So the guy came and sat next to me after placing his luggage below the seat.

I didnt want to talk to him. If i could just get my dinner, i would go sleep. I didnt find a button to call for assistance. The couple removed a big cylindrical steel box. It was made of smaller boxes which had rotis, subji, salad etc. I was looking at the food when the guy next to me spoke up.
” did you get food to eat from home?”. I didnt know what to say. So he poked me and repeated the same question.
“no i thought i would get something in the train”
“hmmm.. I think this is your first time in this train. The food in the train is really bad. But dont worry we can pick something up from the next station.”
I didnt say anything. Why is he being so friendly. What does he want from me.

The train stopped and a few people came in trying to sell some dishes. By the time i realized  i was dragged out of the train onto the platform. He ordered a few items on the menu of a food stall. I was scared i would miss the train so I kept looking at the train. Guess what the train started moving and my friend was not bothered. Should i make a run for it. What will he think. But what if i miss the train. May be he knows what he is doing. And he surely did. Within the next 30 seconds he picked up the food, held my hand and dragged me into the train. This guy is crazy. What if i got injured, even died. But a part of me was saying this is the only excited thing that has happened to you since god knows when. Time to eat.

The food looked delicious. I was very hungry so i started eating and didnt talk much till i finished eating. I didn’t know how to thank him.

” The food was good. Which station did we buy the food from?” Okay that was dumb.

“The food in the train is never good. The platform stalls have fresh food. I didn’t see the name of the station.” 

“I never got to say thank you. I would have never done that alone. Let me pay for the food. How much did u pay?”

“That’s okay. The food wasn’t that expensive.”

“But i insists..”

“Okay lets make a deal. If you can guess my profession by the time i get off at blah, you pay for the food”

What a weird guy. Not everyone is jobless like him. Anyways the food was not expensive. Let me just go to sleep. By the time i get up, we would have reached blah. So i tried sleeping for the next one hour. But the curiosity to know what this guy does kept me awake. I tried to listen to his conversations with other passengers.

“The Indian cricket team is doing well now. I think its the best team since the world cup winning team in 83′. I have followed Indian cricket closely. I know a few cricketers personally.” So he is definitely  doing something in the field of cricket. Commentator, journalist etc.

“But there is no money in cricket unless you are a player. I was more interested in politics from the college days. I know very few people of my age think about going into politics, but you cannot clean the dirt in your house without getting dirty.” Oh a politician, god bless him. He thinks looking at his age i would never expect him to be a politician.

“I am definitely joining politics after 3 years. In fact all my college friends belong to the ‘youth of india’ party. 3 years because i need to finish all my current assignments before i resign from my job.” So close yet so far.

Now I knew I couldn’t sleep till i find out what he does. So i joined his conversation with the other passengers. I waited till the other had gone to sleep to introduce myself.

” Hi my name is Shivu. I am a .., sorry forgot our deal. So you must be really rich. Have you ever thought of donating money to the needy.?”

“Ya i sponsor the education of a few kids.” I said. And i started to think if he was a social worker. 

“Don’t worry i am not a social worker. The question just comes to my mind when i see a rich guy. But I think you are doing a very good thing. My kids might need a sponsorship too. ha ha ha…”

I didn’t laugh. As i had guessed from his clothes that he was not from a wealthy background. But he was happy. What makes a person happy. When he has everything in life. But no one can have everything. But why is he happy, he doesn’t have anything.      

The rest of the night he told me what he likes doing. He is into adventure sports, loves watching movies, likes playing guitar and traveling around the world. But what do you do for a living.

” How can you waste your life doing all this. What will happen after you are too old to do all these things. Thats why I work so hard now so that when i am old i have enough money to live comfortably.”

“What will you do with so much money when you get old. You can’t do anything. You won’t know how to spend the money. When I am old i can at least say i lived my life to the fullest. I fulfilled all my ambitions and now i can die poor but happy. peacefully!!!”

I didn’t know what to say. It was around 7 in the morning and we were about to reach. And then something happened, I got up and went to the toilet. My feet weren’t in my control anymore. By the time i came back, Shivu was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t look for him, I knew his work was done. 

 

After a year i got into the same train. My shirt got stuck somewhere while boarding the train. When I tried to pull my shirt, it tore. I placed my luggage below the seat and sat next to this guy who looked really tensed. I looked at him and said.

” did you get food to eat from home?”. I knew he wouldn’t answer. So I poked him and repeated the same question.

Slingshot in Orlando Florida

This was in march 2008. We had gone to Orlando for a job fair. You experience 3Gs of acceleration. Next stop bungee jumping.

SunSpot Reset Button Not Working…..

This post with updates is now available @ mayurmotgi.com.

We recently had the problem with our SunSpots where in the SunSpots stopped responding, when we tried to update the firmware or deploy any code we got the following error:

“[java] [waiting for reset] Caught java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: negative sleep time while collecting/sending sensor sample.”

The main problem was the reset button was not working.

After lot of googling we didn’t find any answer. None of the users had ever encountered the error. We found a lot useful sites which help troubleshoot. One of them is given below:

http://sunspot-evrenbingol.blogspot.com/2008/11/resetting-button-does-not-work.html

https://www.sunspotworld.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=564

We decided to try constantly resetting the SPOT by hitting the control button the moment the rapid green flashes stopped to see whether I could keep it in a semi-controlled state of crashing long enough to at least get code deployed. And it worked!!!!!! Though i don’t know how to rectify this problem, at least i can get the code deployed to the SunSPOT for our demo today.

I have written a post for our SunSpot project. We call our project “Virtual Drums”. Click here to read it.