Awesomeness of a Hackathon

Last weekend (18-19 July) , I experienced my first ever hackathon. A few months ago Shan asked me if I was interested to join the CodeXtremeApps (CXA14) Competition this year. As I had just recently developed a liking for programming and dabbling with the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, I thought to myself why the hell not and along with Manu (a colleague of Shan’s), we were registered as Team Narwhal. We had intermittent ‘discussions’ about the project and even designated lunches to discuss the project we planned on working on; but it wasn’t until a few weeks leading to CXA14 that we discussed what we actually wanted to do.

The plan was to design an image capturing system to let you know what was in your fridge whenever you wanted to know. We thought it was a great idea and went about ordering the parts that we needed. When we finally met up to try out the circuitry and the plans we had for the hackathon, we discovered that the camera Shan had bought was a defective piece and heated up whenever it was plugged into the Arduino (oops!). On that day we came up with a hilarious list of names along with Manu’s lovely wife Manju and finally decided on BreakNeck (ask us why later).

Breakneck- Prototype 1

Fast-forward to the day of the competition. We were to meet at SMU at 2pm to register, so Manu went ahead and registered our team and sat through the briefing. When we reached, we found out that we were to be on lockdown mode after 7pm on Friday until 3pm on Saturday. We were quite shocked, considering none of us were really prepared to stay the night and we didn’t really pay too much attention to the details outlined in the documents sent to us by the organizers (oops again). Once we got over our initial shock, we sat down and explored the different project themes our BreakNeck could fit into. While discussing, Manu had a brilliant idea. He had recently moved houses and had to call Singapore Power to cut out the power at the house. Shan piped in that there are SP staff who come in once in two months to check on the power meter of every single unit and bill them on a pro-rated basis. I of course, had no idea that this even happened and was very surprised that the method was so resource intensive and not accurate.

Thus came about a new idea for BreakNeck- use the image monitoring system to capture snippets of the power meter readings on a regular basis and then upload them to a server which would then be able to read the values! Like seriously, why people hadn’t done this already was beyond me! We quickly arranged for a RasPi camera (Thank You 12 Geeks!) and started cracking. By 7pm we decided the path we were taking and broke down our tasks to satisfy the task at hand. We even had a wish list for stretch goals we wanted to implement. The plan was to have an initial prototype by 9pm. Our camera was working perfectly fine (Shan’s had terrible experiences with killing RasPi cameras), I was in charge of processing the images and getting a reading out of them and Manu was in charge of the server development and creating a pretty interface.

Everything seemed to be going perfectly fine. Shan was able to capture images with the camera; I managed to use SimpleCV to do an Optical Character Recognition of the images we were going to get and Manu had a basic server which was able to display pretty graphs. We had dinner and worked a little more. We had a couple of breaks to go out (luckily the helpers allowed us to go out and get dessert). It was fun to see that there were so many things to learn and so many people who were so focused on getting their things working yet having fun while at it. Around 11pm, I started feeling rather sleepy but kept working nonetheless. Things were still going smoothly although Shan seemed to having a bit of trouble with the Raspberry Pi. As I completed my part of the image processing, I was waiting to receive the images from Shan and we contemplated implementing FTP over the mobile networks. I recall feeling very exhausted and tired and thinking to myself that just a year ago, it didn’t seem too difficult to stay up all night and work on things like a report or watch movies.

As the night stretched on, I could feel my eyelids dropping. There were a couple of people who were dozing on their tables. A couple of friends of ours were well prepared with sleeping bags and went to bed. I saw Manu and Shan working vigorously and felt like I wasn't doing much, so I decided to work on the project some more and play around with mock images of power meters. I started feeling very sleepy and decided to rest my head for a while. When I woke up I noticed an hour had passed. This cycle repeated itself until around 6am in the morning when I finally decided to leave the room. I sat on a bench outside and woke up half an hour later finding myself lying down on said bench. There were a few other people who lay asleep on the nearby benches which made me wonder about the magic of sleep.

In the day session, we decided to move things to the cloud. As Manu set up the web server on Amazon, Shan debugged his camera and GSM connection; I tried implementing the code on the webserver only to realize that it ran a different OS than what I was used to. After a lot of whining from my side, Manu kindly switched to running an OS that I was more familiar with. For the first time in a long time, I encountered a segmentation fault while running my program and I was startled. We eventually managed to get a version of our prototype running and as the judges trickled in to see our set-up I started feeling more nervous.

 Once the judges left, we went around exploring other projects which I must say was rather fun. It’s amazing to see projects people can come up with and implement within 24 hours! Once the judging was completed, we all dispersed and waited to hear about who had been shortlisted for the final round of judging (Update: We got selected with 13 other teams).

So what am I taking back from this experience? Well, I would definitely say that it gave me a sense of accomplishment. I now know that through amazing team work it is possible to achieve goals and come up with a working prototype in 24 hours. I know that I can learn on the fly and do things I once couldn’t imagine myself doing- I hadn’t even thought I was capable of doing something like OCR a few days back. I know that I had an amazing team who were so encouraging and patient even though I was quite annoying at times.

Would I encourage anybody to take part in a hackathon? YES! It was one of the best experiences I have had in a while and I think it’s a great way to learn and achieve things that you weren’t sure you could. Who needs sleep when you know that somewhere down the road you will come up with something that is awesome or atleast something you tried to develop. It’s knowing that even though a prototype doesn’t work, it’s the knowledge you get from it that makes a difference!

So please, if you have a chance to take part in a hackathon or arrange one- DO IT! I was surprised to hear Manu say that he was able to come up with something he’s been planning on working on for a year in 24 hours. If that isn’t the awesomeness of a hackathon, I don’t know what is!

Me, My Spot and I

Change is the only constant. When I came to Singapore five few years back, I came as a person who’d returned after years of visiting the country on holidays which ranged from a few weeks to a few months. But this time, it wasn’t as a tourist, but as a student who had to spend four years of her life in this island. My initial thoughts as a 17 year old were that I would tire of visiting the same places repeatedly, but what has turned out to be a half a decade stay in Singapore (and hopefully more) has completely disproved that (take that 17 year old self)!

There was a place I used to go to each time I felt depressed or lonely, one that I frequented very often during my initial years of college- a quiet little corner on the deck at Vivo City. I absolutely loved it for two main reasons; the first, it was a place to get away from the buzz of daily life even though it was a crowded place which attracted lots of tourists who want to get a view of Sentosa Island. Secondly, it had an amazing breeze brushing past it 24x7. Even on the hottest days (Singapore gets ridiculously hot) you could sit under that shade and feel a cool breeze blowing past your hair which made even the worst days feel so much better.

I would take a bus from NUS to Vivo City and just run up to the top floor and sit down at my spot (which surprisingly was almost always empty, although I never understood why) and stare at what I thought was the horizon. Looking around, I’d see children playing in the tiny pools, getting their feet and clothes wet and shrieking with joy. I would see concerned parents worrying about their child catching a cold or just scolding their child for getting in the water in the first place, I’d see young couples sitting by the steps and indulging in the cutest forms of courtship- be it giving out a rose or having a full blown make out session. I’d often wonder why nobody wanted to sit at my spot which seemed so perfect. On hindsight it was probably because I was already sitting there. I would take my lecture notes from my tedious Engineering classes and distractedly gaze out at the ships and yachts docked and suddenly a difficult concept would start making sense. I have sat there and cried when I felt I had no friends to turn to, I sat there arguing with my parents and brother about the most irrelevant things and I’ve just sat there with music blaring in my ears paying heed to nothing around me.  That spot was my little piece of heaven

But life eventually caught up with me and I made new friends, got involved in crazy musicals and performances and my spot on the deck of Vivo City got lost in the recesses of my mind. I would now visit Vivo City for a movie with nouveau friends or for a dinner party one of my more atas friends would throw. I hardly ever went there alone considering it was now further away from my place of residence. As graduation inched closer, my worries and fears would all be shared with my friends who kept telling me that my worries were baseless and I started to forget what it was like to be alone and just having time to reflect upon things.

A week before graduation, I had plans to meet a friend at Vivo City for lunch and unsurprisingly he was late. I had a few minutes to myself at Vivo City and sub-consciously found myself taking the escalator to the deck. Emotions rushed through me as I walked towards my spot, I felt joy in imagining the moments I had spent there by myself, I felt sorrow and regret for not having been there in over two years and I felt a pang of loneliness which pulled at me unexpectedly. Nobody was there and in my mind I wondered how anyone could ignore a corner as empty as this especially someone to whom it meant so much (hint hint- me) .

As I sat there I thought of how much I had changed over the years, I was no longer the young and immature girl who’d sat here throwing tantrums at her parents over the phone and crying over the fact that she had no friends to turn to; instead I was someone who was thinking about what the future held and how I could possibly take hold of the opportunities that came my way. It took me by surprise to realize that I missed that girl but I appreciated the woman I’d become. My spot had helped me realize that I was ready to take on the challenges of the real world and that my fears and worries weren’t baseless but I had the courage to face them. Interrupted by the buzzing of my phone, I reluctantly left to meet my friend.

I returned a few weeks after my graduation to find that there was a No Entry sign put up on the route to my spot, they were constructing a new restaurant which had free Wi-Fi and a Kid Friendly Menu. It broke my heart a little but it also helped me realize that the spot had just been a catalyst for what I had within me. All I needed for self-reflection was me, my thoughts and well a mindset. Maybe one day I’ll find myself a new spot, but that corner on the deck of Vivo City will always hold a special place in the corner of my heart. After all, change is the only constant.

2 States movie review

"What's the most important thing for a marriage? Love... But not in Indian families, there are a few more steps. The girl and boy have to love each other. The boys family has to love the girls family, the girls family has to love the boys family and in the end, if there is any love left, the boy and girl get married" (sounds better in Hindi) was one of my favorite dialogues from the movie. There are two perspectives I have of the movie; the first as an Iyer girl watching the movie and the second as a fan of the book watching the movie.

I read 2 States by Chetan Bhagat two years ago and I fell in love with the characters, with Krish who transforms from a childish to someone more mature as he faces the challenge of loving the pretty Iyer girl Ananya who is headstrong, stubborn and places her family above all else. I connected with Ananya, not just because of her heritage, but also because of her character. There was always a part of me that appreciated her for standing up for her parents when all else seemed destined to work against their way, but there was a romantic in me that disliked her for not trusting her love enough. Krish on the other hand, who is torn between his melodramatic mother and his headstrong girlfriend is rather cute and enjoyable as a character but to see Arjun Kapoor become Krish and bring the character I imagined in my mind to life was amazing and it thrilled me. Initially I was completely unconvinced that Alia Bhatt could play Ananya, but I was so wrong. Alia brought out the best and worst of Ananya with such ease and it was so wonderful to see her speak in Tamil!

Ananya's parents were amazing, the passive types but Mrs. Swaminathan was always my favorite because she showed the love and compassion I could see in my own other and Sri Revathi brought her out so wonderfully and I was so moved by the acting. What I was rather disappointed with was Mr. Swaminathan, he was so much more active in the book, in the movie, he was just a play piece who wasn't used to the full potential of the actor. Amrita Singh was amazing as Krish's mother! She was a perfect blend of the maternal love and melodramatic, stereotypical Punjabi mother. Her dislike of Ananya and her parents showed so exquisitely in the movie, but the fear and disappointment from her own marriage hits you strongly. Speaking of which, Ronit Roy, as Krish's father was just pure brilliance. His mood swings, his alcoholism, his frustrations with his son, wife and life in general were done to the tee and I loved him and hated him at the same time. The actors were so well casted in their roles that I didn't feel any type of hiccup in the movie because of the roles they played. Even minor actors like Duke and the random IIM-A guys were so hilarious that the story was further enhanced by it.

As an Iyer girl though, it pissed me off that they messed up the traditions. To me the Iyer wedding has always been the dream, not just because I am Iyer, but because the whole tradition bit makes it so very interesting. I was glad that they kept the whole garlanding and tying the thread ceremony in the typical style, but I'd have loved to see parts of the Big Fat Iyer wedding :P. Other than that, I loved seeing rebellious Ananya step out of the boundaries of what characterizes Iyer girls (no non veg, no drinking, etc) and it was refreshing to see Alia play that role with a seeming ease.

Another thing I loved about the movie is the ending where there is an understanding between the generations. The question posed is: why do parents oppose to us choosing our own partners? It's not as if our love for them changes if we loved someone other than who you choose.. The answer came in a rather beautiful fashion: they want to see you happy, but if you can show them that your happiness comes from this other person; they would be able to eventually see past that difference.

Overall, it was a wonderful movie, but if given the chance, I'd rather watch the second half of the movie rather than the first. The first half of the movie focuses on the blossoming of love which is a tried and tested movie. What makes it different is the second half where they fight for the love and eventually take it to the next step, in a way that fits the current generation and as Ananya puts it " I want my parents to be at my wedding and I want to watch them be the happiest people in the place"

Reflections on Arduino Day 2014- Singapore edition

The first time I heard of the Arduino, I was uninterested and didn't really care enough to know about it. But when I got my hands on my first kit, I started playing with it and soon I realized that it was probably the best thing that I had come across. Not only does the Arduino make life a lot easier by using basic C commands, but the IDE is also user friendly. Also, the vast ocean of knowledge that is the internet which allows you to google for the strangest issues related to the Arduino and come up with a halfway decent solution to the issue.

Since I now consider myself a half way 'geek', I decided that I would volunteer with this years Arduino Day celebrations held at the National Design Centre and inspire people to use the Arduino in a way that would change their lives, the way it helped me. The first thing that struck me was how beautiful the location itself was- the NDC is an ancient building which has been renovated to accommodate makers and hackers alike and of course, designers. The Arduino day celebrations were held at two different levels, with the workshops (beginner and masterclass) being held concurrently on the lower floor whilst the showcase was on the higher level.

One thing I discovered from looking at the showcases was that people are insanely creative. There were various amazing things which had been made with multitude of Arduino products ranging from the Arduino Uno to the Lilypad to the Arduino Nano. There was even a booth where every product had integration of conductive fabric in it which allowed you to control things such as music at the tips of your finger (literally!). There was an awesome project: the monocopter which although being frightening, was quite the attraction and was a piece of work in itself. There were also people selling Arduinos to the enthusiasts.

The workshops was where most of the action I experienced took place. There were several sessions and for the beginner class, the participants were suggested to try their hands at self learning and clarify any issues with us (the volunteers). I greatly appreciated the enthusiasm all the participants showed, they were all very engaged with the learning process and had no qualms about asking question. What was even better was that majority of these participants were not young children, instead they were working adults or secondary school students who wanted to explore the world of easy programming and hardware control. I enjoyed the fact that they were willing to learn and asked questions even though they thought they were stupid. Sharing the knowledge I had and troubleshooting on occasion was quite thrilling for me as a volunteer and I was so engrossed in the whole process I hardly noticed the time pass by. What felt the most fulfilling for me was able to share my fondness for the Arduino with people who were enthusiastic and having a group of volunteers who enjoyed it just as much as me :D

Here's to all the participants at Arduino Day 2014- Singapore! It was a blast and hopefully we see more creative projects based off the Arduino <3 

Hasee Toh Phasee Review

If you want to watch a rom com with just the right amount of social awareness and with lots of flavour of Karan Johar, you definitely need to watch Hasee Toh Phasee.

**Spoiler Alert** 

First of all, it's an interesting combination of producers. Whoever thought that the serious Anurag Kashyap would make movies with the flamboyant and amazing Karan Johar? The fact that Hasee Toh Phasee works so well is partially due to this wonderful collaboration between two of these producers who are experienced in two completely different fields of cinema.

Siddharth Malhotra may be the new kid on the block, but he's amazing in his portrayal of the boyfriend, Nikhil, who has loads to prove before he is married. He works at a job he despises and seems to waver a lot in the interests he has. He has to get 5 crores in the bank before he can get married to his long term girlfriend- Karisma (played by underrated actress Adah Sharma) to earn her respect and he struggles to come to terms with her and her constant string of breaking up and getting back together. Karisma's huge Gujju family is not too helpful in any particular way, her father in particular has a certain dislike towards young Nikhil who he sees as a "gharjamaai" who just keeps borrowing money from him.

Enter Meeta, who Nikhil meets at the wedding of Karisma's older sister where she is running away with a whole lot of cash she stole from her family. Meeta's a genius Engineer from IIT who's discovered a way to harness energy through the constant bouncing of a ball made of polymer (yes, it's not necessarily scientifically accurate, but it's a movie!). Meeta is a bit disturbed and quite a drug addict (she takes a lot of anti depressants) but she teaches Nikhil a new way to live and a new way to love.

What I loved the most about this movie is the way they portrayed Meeta. Initially you feel pity towards her and as the movie moves forward, you start feeling her pain and understanding why she is the way she is. In the end, you love her. It's the attitude towards drug addicts in general I believe that the story managed to bring out beautifully.

And of course, there's the adorable love story where Nikhil can't seem to decide whether he wants to leave Karisma who's selfish and a bit too spoilt and be with the selfless and loving Meeta (when she is sober) or just leave the past 7 years' relationship behind and start his own life anew. Director Vinil Matthews seems to have realized the potential of his actors and has done the shots so amazingly well. There are no extremely exotic locations as are atypical of KJo, but at the same time there is a fairy tale like edge to the movie which makes it seem practical yet ethereal.

The story ends in a very typical fashion, and it's a roller coaster of laughs particularly thanks to the experienced cast Sharat Saxena (who plays Nikhil's dad) is an ex IPS officer who despite not having much screen time, manages to cast his usual spell; Manoj Joshi (Meeta, Karisma's dad) who changes from being the despicable sasur to a loving father and even KJo who makes a cameo appearance.

The songs were amazing and I was surprised at the complete lack of stunning visuals for the romantic songs like Manchala and Zehnaseeb. I loved Punjabi wedding song and of course Shake it like Shammi, songs that I would love to shake a leg to at any party at any time.

Overall, it was a fun movie that I wouldn't mind watching a second time :)