This is a great website!

Hello!

I found this website on Quora yesterday. Its truly inspirational...
filled with posters that charge you up and get you going.

www.zenpencils.com

Goutham

Do it yourself

Hello!

How do you feel when you make a pizza in your kitchen rather than buying it from Pizza Hut?
When was the last time you felt happy after cooking something on your own and sharing it with dear ones?
How did you feel when you make something that you can say as 'truly belongs to you'?

This feeling can be cherished long after and acts as morale booster somewhere in future.

Doing something yourself gives you confidence and makes you feel independent. Many things can be self-made, like indoor fixtures, daily use accessories, fashion wear like wrist bands, chains, cloth mods, musical instruments, gadgets involving useful electronic circuitry and many more things. You name it. I have seen tech nerds making their own web servers, quadcopters and even guitars(I made one).

This electric guitar was made by me and my friends
in first semester as part of an exhibition

People who follow this trend seriously are often addressed as 'DIY enthusiasts' or 'DIYers'. This is a great culture and helps in stuff getting recycled, thus eco-friendly. The categories range from punk albums to high altitude ballooning. Sometimes, you need not spend much on trivial things like key chains, paper weights or even soap bubbles.

The electric guitar you see on the left was made for the college science exhibition(1st prize). It is made of single plywood plank with a thin wood sheet for the tuning pegs. Strings and pickup were bought. The amplifier part was made of a single IC on breadboard connected to an 8 ohm speaker. We encountered lot of noise but it turned out to be an advantage as it attracted more people to our stall.

This is my toothbrush stand
made from soda can

Making and experimenting is a part of learning. I can also say that this blog is a website of that sort. I write to share what I went through and also to develop my skills. I would like to share a website here that motivated me to step into the business of DIY-synth. We all know what synthesizers are and also how expensive those complex things are. This website emphasizes electronics hobbyists to make own analog synthesizers, as the poster below says.


There is a movement going around the world to cut down costs and innovate cheaper ways to progress. Be it any way. This is called DIY sub-culture or even the Punk culture.

One of the best examples of DIY enthusiasts I can give you, Steven Wozniak. He built his own calculators, watches, timers, audio equipment and often played pranks on people unaware of his genius. When he was about my age(seventeen), he mastered Boolean algebra and started making computers. People like this person change the perspective of  innovation in the eyes of society and the world itself.

Experience is the best teacher, also a hard one. Nothing learned practically is forgot. Doing things on your own is the single best way to apply knowledge you have been storing.

The website shown on the right says these words:
Keep imagining, keep inventing, stay ingenious!

Thanks

Few of my favorites

Hello!

I do listen music(everyone does) and would like to share few of my favorites in this blog. I listen many genres like Fusion, Jazz, Carnatic rock, watch coke studio and many others.

Each one of us have different tastes. I am bent more towards overdrive than fuzz(these terms belong to guitar jargon). Overdrive is like smooth reverb while fuzz is the rough sound you get by just plucking a string.

There are extremists commonly known as 'Audiophiles'. These particular people not only love music but also emphasize of what they buy to hear it. Few of them spend more than $5000 for hi-fi systems. They know the worth which we don't care about much...

I listen music while doing boring chores. It really eases you out.... you don't even realize you got tired.

Enjoy the songs:

Thanks!

Goutham

What is it like staying in a college hostel (India)?

Well

I am going to discuss what you see and how you feel in an average college hostel in India. I am talking about this as far as SRM university (that's where I study), Boys hostels are concerned.

This is my daily routine and for others too (From Monday to Friday):
Wake up at 7 am

Corridor getting fumigated

Get ready by 8
Reach the classroom by 8:30
Classes all depend upon the teachers. Few manage to excite the spirit to learn.
We have a break at 11:20 (10 minutes)
Then again classes (not only classes but also workshops, labs and very rarely recess)
Break for lunch from 12:15 to 1:30 (The fact that this university lies in south India makes it prone to harsh heat at noon, but weather at other times is pleasant)
And again classes till 4 pm
Done (I mean you can go home).

But what makes you a true student lies totally after that. You may listen to classes with rapt attention or while away time playing Flappy bird in the last row (Please don't do that. If the teacher likes your phone.. you will be notified that you won't get it back). I have seen many people. Here is the list what others do after 4 pm:

-->sit and chat (many types happen. Few call it discussion, few call it debate and few call it small talk, dirty talk. Talks range from Counter-strike, GTA, Doreamon, to semester exams, new projects and many other wild things I can't even imagine. I don't know what girls usually talk, If anyone knows, please comment)

-->study (your conscience tells you whether you are actually learning something new or not)

Undergraduate boys hostel  blocks. Looks like Azkaban

-->do homework (Here, I strongly feel there nothing worse than doing those tedious 'assignments', they just tell you to copy whats there in one notebook into a 'long and clean' format and submit it on time. Doing homework here is entirely different from studying)

-->play computer games (The worst part is that few of them are so addicted. I say addicted because they play the whole night and wake up late in the morning only to miss two or three classes. I should mention about about the attendance stuff... each course has its own attendance count and you need to have atleast 75% to write the final semester examination. Otherwise, you will get detained and have to attend extra classes in the next semester and appear for it later)

-->watch movies, soaps(few of them do...)

-->play sports (this particular university has enough space to exercise and practice your favorite sport, though I don't do that) 

-->There are certain many other things that people know and do and many ought to be covered here. Forget them.

As mentioned in previous posts, I am pursuing engineering here in Electronics. I feel passionate towards this discipline. It can be described as:

" The control and manipulation of electron flow through many exotic substances, arrangements and exploiting the nature and the way it behaves to expand and experiment with new ideas, to make devices that help mankind to progress forward in development and civilization" 

You can readily notice from the term 'electronics' that it all involves just electrons. This emergence of complexity from electrons, simple subatomic particles is what the greatness of this field of technology.

We seem to divert from the topic, hostels.

All the things that I have discussed above happen in weekdays. From Monday to Friday, they keep us busy with stuff like studying, writing like records and observations (take half the valuable time), etc.

College life is no different from that of school. Except that you have even more to learn and practice by having a more serious perspective and attitude for what you do.

Now let us talk about weekends, the most awaited. Few plan it meticulously. Few just sleep.

These two days, Saturday and Sunday are like money. In any college, students certainly feel guilty if weekends are not spent properly, be it any way. SRM is close to Chennai. People go to malls, beaches, cinemas and many more. I occasionally go to Ritchie street (here you get electronic parts like diodes, relays, chips, etc). Few indulge in parties while few others delve into awe-inspiring things like experiments, projects, coding and good books(Art of Electronics is one of them). The latter are people who in future change the face of technology and make us proud of our country.

On Fridays, many of us generally stay awake late into night (the thing is, we feel we worked hard whole week and deserve more free time before sleep engulfs us). The next morning starts quite late obviously and kicks off with late breakfast (called brunch). Please note that there are many things that go on in the campus. I stay confined to hostel room, so this is only a partial account of what actually happens. This university in particular has humongous student population and there's no mistake in assuming it to be a town.

Sundays generally pass by just like Saturdays (and here too, don't expect me too mention every aspect of campus life).

Conclusion: Studying and staying far away from home makes you feel responsible and trains you to manage time, money and of course your marks too. You feel free to do everything. But remember, whatever you do and think in a way decides what you will be tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. If you belong to SRM, please comment about anything extra that usually happens around in the campus. I didn't mention everything.

Yo! Wassup?

Hello!

Now that I've got a laptop computer of my own(My father gave his to me), I can blog 'at my
will'. Brag what I got, write nonsense and share my views. I am still
learning lot of things and was posting all sorts of non technical
stuff for the past few months.

If your question is: "Any developments?"
Ans: Not much. Still reading lots of articles in Wikipedia and
learning from two big books in my Cupboard. Though there's not much
time till the finale but there's plenty of time for knowing....

Recently, just two months ago I did shut down my facebook and twitter
accounts. Reason, whatever you post is just like a thought in wind.
Check the feed after 10 minutes you have posted it in facebook. You
will notice your post relocated some 30 posts below where it was
earlier. Also I am proud of having a blog where my true writings get
etched for free of cost (thanks to Google) in indestructible web
servers for ages to come.

Other reason is that posts in facebook and twitter have got word limit. Blogs don't.

One thing I am active as far as social media is concerned is in Google+. Whatever
I want to share, from now on will be in this blog.. so have an eye on
it.

Also blogging regularly can improve your writing and typing skills.

Goutham

PS-Ignore this post If you feel its nonsensical but please keep
visiting often. Thanks!

Nothing to share

The second semester is flowing and nowadays, time seems to be out of control. Days pass simply 'just like that' and its we who decide what the day should be like, not the day.

I have nothing to share except that I've bought two new books

Art of Electronics
Student manual for the same

I have read many times here and there that these books are really great for some real practical stuff and a must read if pursuing electronics as course or interest.

Bought few more logic chips and essentials.................

That's all
Goutham

Here comes 2014!

Hello!

Here comes another new year(well it always comes every year) and I am fed up of these new year resolutions. Though I have kept up at few this time, I was not able to for many of them. Now I know the mistake I have done. I had too many.

Do not have more than what you are able to do... I mean to say realize yourself and your abilities. Do not take it too seriously and get tired.

2014, I feel this time it should not be 'just another year ' in my life. I need to make it truly good and make it stand out of all till now in terms of learning and having fun with whatever I gained. My college life should be more productive at every stage and learning new everyday. Most importantly, having fun.....

Wishing you a very Happy New Year,
Goutham

Burnt LED has about 30ohm resistance

Hello!

Notice the two LEDs(Light Emitting Diodes in the picture connected in series. The red one glows but the other LED doesn't. This is because the latter one is burnt by excess current beforehand and a burnt LED  always acts as a bilateral low inpedance conductor.
Goutham

I have decided the row

Hello!

I have decided the sort of things that I would be making during my four year stay at college. Anything more added will get edited later. Already half an year is completed and I should be starting fast.

These are the list of things that I decided to make myself(DIY) and to improve my practical knowledge.

-Time bomb
-Quadcopter
-Electric guitar with effects unit
-Basic caluculator
-High altitude balloon flight
-Digital watch
- Musical keyboard
-Ham radio
-Walkie talkie
-RC plane with FPV
-Apple I

And maby more I guess. The electric guitar was made once that I've mentioned in the previous post. Let me see how many of the above will be realised. You can notice that all of them involve electronics since that is my branch of study in engineering for bachelors and I am proud of that.

Goutham

SRM space probe #2

Hello!

Our university project, I was talking about is nearing its completion. The solar tracking is solved and the structure is getting ready. We have a telescope pointing towards comet ISON and a camera behind its lens that shoots pictures at regular intervals. We are using insulation and warmers.

For tracking we people are collaborating with NARL and  using their radio sonde.

I will further write about it few days later..

Goutham

Soon to become free

Hello!

My prefinal exams are over and all I am left is with final exams of the first semester then I will be once again free to blog.

Next month... well I have plans to make it useful and lets see... always make sure that you use time properly... because time is money.

Goutham

DIY Electric Guitar