MangoSave

MATLAB, Engineering Graduation etc etc.

2009-07-29T20:29:00.004+05:30

After a long time I am posting on this site. I am now learning MATLAB, and it is pretty fun. I learned 'plot', 'stem', and 'stair' for various data visualization. I learned looping techniques and array allocations. Some books say that MATLAB in my CV would be a very good addition, that might boost my career. I am kinda excited about MATLAB.

My syllabus has some numerical methods, and does instructs us to do all those computations using the C language. That might be a bit difficult, compared to MATLAB, but if I practice much I will make it up to some apparent perfection. I have used C most of my programming life, so it would not be much difficult to express the algorithms into program.

The Bayesan Probability and related algebra is exciting! Most exciting is the significance of probability distribution function, which I didn't even try to understand (Keeping the dessert as the last treat).

Graduation in engineering can be very boring, but the concepts introduced can be very exciting if learned properly.

We have the all the great subjects this semester:

Mathematics (Probability & Statistics, Fourier Series and Transform, Graph theory, Complex calculus)
Solid State Devices (When the going gets tough, the tough gets going)
Electronics Instrumentation and Measurement (U know, the transducers and actuators stuff)
Numerical Methods and Analysis (The mathematics practical)
Circuit Theory (I have a faint idea what this is)
Data Structures and Algorithms (Pretty easy stuff I think)

It is fun to try to enjoy the whole engineering stuff...good!

Blinker!

2009-06-30T19:17:00.004+05:30

I designed this PCB in EAGLE Layout Editor, then used toner transfer and Ferric chloride to etch the PCB, then ultimately I populated the board.

This is my first PCB, and I am pretty happy how it came out...

It uses a NE555 in astable mode, the simplest circuit I could get!

Back on Track!

2009-06-26T23:56:00.003+05:30

I did have some trouble figuring out where to put this post. I just put a link there at that blog and writing it here. I went to the Electronics Market there to find out some Motors and other stuffs. I was really happy, that I was going to build something, some proximity sensing self controlled car. The sad part was that my Microcontroller Prototyping Board as I discovered was faulty. I was really dissapointed about that. Pretty Sad, I started planning to build a microcontroller programmer myself and a circuit that could make up my car.

I searched the internet for many home PCB etching techniques, and on I came across methods that uses photo paper method to transfer the toner. It was really a good technique, and after a few days of mental interia, I finally got to work, and transferred the toner beautifully.

And as my post-sem vacation has been extended I am pretty excited about the things I can do in that time.

I will always have a dissatisfied part of me, which will keep me reminding that I was meant for Physics, not Engineering, but some part of Engineering is FUN! That includes these rare moments of success after a gloomy design and planning period.

Aaah! Now I can sleep in a bit peace! :-)

KiCAD: Desiging PCB

2009-06-04T13:46:00.003+05:30

I built a NE555 tester PCB, which I tried to make small. It is a great free software, KiCAD. Which let me do design circuits and route them pretty easily on the PCB. I did a manual route... it was great fun. And as tomorrow my maths test, I think I should go now!

Uff!

2009-05-22T21:02:00.006+05:30

Sometimes some easy stuff gets into some kind of loop hole, that actually hinders progress of understanding of such concepts. I sometimes fall victim of such loopholes, and I get frustrated very easily by these events.

The last one occurred during my study of saturation mode for a BJT. It is very simple that in saturation mode, both the Emitter and the Collector junction is forward biased, while in active the collector junction goes reverse. That is pretty easy! And as for Germanium it is 0.7 V forward drop, so the Transistor (Ge) will remain in saturation until the Collector Voltage reaches 0.7 volt less that the base voltage. But I had trouble of figuring this out. I had to think about five minutes to get, and browsing franatically on the Net, just to find myself suddenly getting the fact.

New mouse

2009-05-06T22:54:00.002+05:30

I didn't really notice, but these days these mouses are very very sensitive and smooth. I bought a new mouse, which is great. And I am still having to practice CS 1.6 a lot.

Something's not right...!

2009-05-03T14:30:00.002+05:30

This post is not really about technology.

It's something about IT Company Recruiting process and current trends in technical education and etc etc. Something ironic happened.

As been said by Sayamindu, you can read it here @ http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings/2009/04/29/why-should-i-bother/

Each year, thousands of bright young students get turned into zombies. What a terrible waste… what a terrible waste… - "Why should I bother?" by Sayamindu Dasgupta

I am not going to muse anymore about this, just read that post!

Approximated Euclidean Beauty

2009-04-29T20:44:00.002+05:30

Today we learned how to project isometrically. It has some very useful approximation. The whole thing appeared strange to me. Like we approximated an ellipse with four arcs. We still don't know how to convert a 2D Projection into isometric projection. Like, we have to build a iso'scale', so that we can convert 2D distance into isometrics distances and then blah blah blah.

It was fun altogether!

Morse!

2009-04-27T13:16:00.001+05:30

Samuel Finley Breese Morse? It's his birthday!

Owl Country

2009-04-26T14:02:00.001+05:30

Thoughts from High Level to Low Level

2009-04-25T20:42:00.005+05:30

When I try to program in C nowadays, my minds has to do some effort to think it in low level. In Python you only think about the algorithm in the light of the abstract features of the language. But in C, you need to consider a lot more aspects e.g. memory. As my practice changed from C to Python, I sometimes just cannot think in Low Level, sometimes it is just a mental inertia, sometimes it is just the lack of practice.

Belated NetBeans Birthday!

2009-04-25T19:42:00.007+05:30

Happy Belated 10th Birthday to NetBeans...

I was not being able to embed the videos in this Blog. Do check them out...!

NetBeans Code Swarm Video

NetBeans People's Celebrating

LED Train Shifting

2009-04-21T18:45:00.007+05:30

I corrected the circuit, my previous post has a mistake in the Schematic. So I posted it here. A new schematic this is. I used 4 ICs to do this simple job. I am trying to find better alternatives. I used a NE555 in astable mode, HEF4017 decade counter, HEF4072 OR gate and 74HC595 shift register.

If there is two, let there be two...

2009-04-20T10:39:00.002+05:30

At last, my old blog [Link] is online again. I think I am gonna keep both the blogs. This blog I will specialize in science and technology stuffs. And on that, all the other stuff that I think I can talk about.

About this new blog

2009-04-19T14:33:00.006+05:30

I have been blogging for about two years. I used to blog almost everything that I thought could be in my blog, that would be better for flaunting. Like electronic circuits, math problems, philosophy etc etc. It was http://xenoargento.wordpress.com

Few days ago, while logging in my Google Talk, my password didn't match. Suddenly I got a bad feeling about that, and tested all the accounts I have online, and saw that many accounts including my Wordpress account died. It was disappointing. Two years of blogging just froze. I don't know whether they will keep my blog for long, if I stop logging in. I hope they do.

The word Mangosave I first heard in a game named Timeshock: Pro Pinball. There, the ball can be freezed for a brief moment at certain places on the board. This is called MangoSave. It is somewhat an enigmatic feature which doesn't give any special advantages of disadvantages to the players like me (n00b).

The mango is actually the most loved thing in the parts of the world, where I live and play. I just want to enjoy that!

Thus the name MangoSave I think!

Even with my new blog up and running, I am trying to recover my old blog. I cannot leave that to starve.

And talking about the good things; I now have the chance to test the Bloggers more flexible features that Wordpress didn't give me, e.g. JavaScript support, CSS editing etc. The Blogger interface is a bit different, that I will need to time to get used, while the Wordpress interface will be fading from my memories (Unless I recover my old blog). I always love to start something new!

The new blog...

2009-04-19T13:08:00.000+05:30

This is my new blog. Actually some "good for nothing" hacker just blew my Wordpress password up, so I am forced to start a new blog. You can always visit my old blog at http://xenoargento.wordpress.com.
From now on I will be posting from on this blog...
Thanks for visiting, Folks!