Mechanical Engg revisited Part 1 of 2

After a hiatus, finally I write something.. I really envy the frequent bloggers.. How do they churn out so many creations every now and then..
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I had got a car in April, a 2003 Mazda Protege and it was running well. Driving in the US is a pleasure. In India, you can trust your fellow road users to MAKE mistakes, suddenly swerve the car to show their prowess at the steering wheel, test your reflex by turning on the indicator at the last second and test your brakes by crossing the road exactly when your feet is about to give some gas. In the US, I can trust my fellow road users to adapt to MY mistakes. Pedestrians are super careful and will dare not cross until all cars come to a complete stop or disappear from the horizon, and drivers follow lane discipline and traffic rules to a T. It is credits to them and Him that with very limited driving experience in India, I managed to take my parents and my sister around when they visited me. ~3000 miles in 4 weeks was something even I did not imagine! I am in no way blaming the Indian traffic (which I have every right to). I know the root causes are in population density and there is no way individuals can be made to follow traffic rules unless it is ingrained in their blood. Alas, this article is not about traffic rules!
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So, the car was running well. Suddenly, sometime in the middle of August there were first signs of craziness. One good thing about mechanical things is that they do not suddenly fail. They wear, giving you enough time to act and then if you are lazy come down crashing. So, the signs that my car gave me was rather rocking! Yes, when I started the car or when I was idling, it will rock and vibrate as if it wants to throw me out as though I am in a bull fight! But curiously it will stop misbehaving if I step on the gas (accelerate). The technical name for such a thing was Rough idling!
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Just like how when a child misbehaves and the mother will give stare , where in it will stop misbehaving only to start causing embarrassment at the opportunistic time, I figured out a way to handle my car. Every time I idle, I will switch to neutral, keep one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator. It was extremely funny (and dangerous, as even if I miss one action, I am sure to get into trouble). Soon, the car was unhappy with the attention I gave and the check engine light (CEL, the miraculous light that shows up in the dashboard if it detects some malfunctioning in the engine) was on. So the Mazda dealer said he will charge me $50 for just diagnosing. I thought I could do better and went to Autoparts to get the diagnostic kit for free. The kit gave me two codes P0401 (EGR Insufficient flow) and P300 (cylinder misfire). Don't ask me what the codes meant. they sounded as crazy as my course codes.
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But, I figured out that the problem was with the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator) valve. It is some valve that controls the exhaust gases (which you know is nasty smoke) and the valve is blocked. Quick googling actually hinted that it is a common problem with Mazda protege and can be fixed by anybody. Call it adventurous, audacity or sheer stupidity I thought I will do this myself. So, I decided to brush up my mechanical engineering (not that I learnt anything close to practicality, but did remember studying about this EGR, in theory that is), opened the hood and tried to locate the EGR valve with no idea on what it would even look like. I disconnected the battery. Removed some wires and tubes and still had no idea where this stupid EGR is. Somehow managed to put everything back and ensured the car started again and the brakes were working. Of course the problem remained. Removing the battery and putting it back obviously would not have solved this problem.
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So one day my department wanted me to engage a visiting person for break fast (recruitment drive). And I had to take my child along:P . I thought I am just going to drive it to the hotel (5 mins) and then have breakfast at the hotel and then drive back. And so I thought. But, as luck would have it, the person said let's go out for breakfast.. Ahem ahem.. Err.. 'Don't you have a car?', 'Of course I do, Let's go' came my spontaneous reply. Funny moments ensued with my car sensing the right moments (traffic lights) to play some rock and me trying to calm it by feeding it some gas. Somehow managed to finish breakfast at Bruegger's and drop him back at the hotel.
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To be continued (Next week)

What I do and what you can too - Global Warming

Watch this if you can spare 90 minutes .. or at least the last few minutes of the movie if you are too busy.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
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Global Warming - The words that scientists use to always threaten us doubting our very survival in future. Some take it easy as we are all going to survive 'tomorrow'. But it is the question of how many tomorrows. We all know our current way of living is unsustainable. But yet, we dismiss it saying what can 'we' do. It is the job of scientists and 'others'. Our contributions are too trivial for this. I beg to differ and ask you to be generous in begging (you got to appreciate the oxymoron there :P )
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What am I doing from my side? A few trivial things but I believe it makes a difference. And I request you to join hands and even tell me if we could do more

• I am not a materialist. I buy/get only things I need and use. Nothing more (and maybe something less). You don't have to be a miser but at least you can avoid using resources lavishly. Following are some examples
• I try to use as less paper as possible, double side printing (or sometimes even avoid printing if I can just peruse it in a comp), do not use paper towels but switch to good old cotton wipes, be as efficient as possible on the paper towels in restaurants (absolutely never take it and dump it in a dumpster without using it)
• Bike (=bicycle in US) to places where I can bike and avoid using my car
  
• carpool whenever possible
• Being a vegetarian (Processing meat consumes 10 times more water and uses 5-10 times more energy!)
• Try to get the produce from the local farmers who use less energy and of course do not pack it in plastic bags. It is also good for my health
  
• Use a grocery bag instead of the tens of plastic bags each time I shop
  
• Recycle and reuse whenever I can (the plastic bags, paper)
  
• Switch to organic whenever I can afford
• Avoid wasting food and water.
  

Spider solitaire - the road to victory (how to win)

Well, before you think 'what's the big deal in solitaire', I would urge you to try playing it once. Spider solitaire-> difficult-> 4 suites. Chances are that you probably would not be able to complete even one suit. It is a tough game and can be painstakingly slow. Few people will actually believe that I got addicted to this game.. A stupid game but fascinatingly overpowering. First I just wanted to win, which I somehow managed to if I played more than 20 games (a success rate of 5%), then I wanted to strive for consistency. Can I win every game? I must admit I have not been able to, but what I have achieved is a success rate of close to 50% (large sample size of course), that is a win every alternate game! A result developed over months and probably more than the number of ODIs Sachin has played. It all might look really very silly, but (Ripley's) believe it or not, I am actually quite serious! Am I the only seemingly jobless guy to even attempt this? Surely not, there must be quite a few souls out there who would have said 'the grapes must be sour' and walked away. This blog is sincerely dedicated to those souls :P

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Ok, what do you need to win in this game? Patience, time and iteration. And mind you it is a product of all three, so if you do not follow even one, you must depend on Lady luck. There are three diffrent levels Easy (single suit), medium level (two suits) and hard (four suits). Single suit you must be able to win hands down. I have finished it with a little over 100 moves or perhaps even lesser. The medium level (two suits) can be difficult at times but it is easy enough you can finish all games. Depending on other factors I can finish in about 150 moves or so. But I never got addicted to these two levels. The difficult is the hard nut to crack and following are some tricks of the trade.

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Terminologies

Stack - Any series of cards stacked one over another at least respecting the card order

Correct stack - A stack with cards of the same suit

Pack - the cards that are in the upper most row with face down. I believe there will be 10 packs.

Deal - The cards that are in the bottom right corner.

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Basic rules of the game

It is like any other solitaire game. You must form the combination KQJ1098765432A of 4 suits*2, that is 8 series in all. (Yes, there are two packs of cards out there). But when you stack cards, other than respecting the order there is no other restriction. That is you can stack a 2 spade over a 3 heart (or club or spade or diamond). As long as you respect the order KQJ1098765432A you can stack any suit over another. This was probably the first attraction to me towards this game. Other rules we can learn as play (There are no other big rules I believe).

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Step #1- Start simple. A game well begun is half done, but even if you begin well, there is no guarantee that you will able to finish this game. But beginning well is the easiest and the most basic step that we can take so that we find at least the initial part easy. What is beginning well? When you start the game, you will see a display of cards. Try to see if you can stack some of those correctly (at least 2 immediately) that is stacking with the same suit. Even though you can stack a 2 hearts over a 3 spade, stacking a 2 heart over a 3 heart will enable you to move the 3 and 2 together. That is, if a particular stack is correctly stacked (all of the same suit) you can lift them as one. So, when you start the game, at the first look, see if you can stack at least two cards correctly (same suit). If not press F2 to have a new game. Keep doing this till you can begin easily.

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Step #2 - Iterate. Once you begin well, chances are that you might have more than one move available to perform. Feel free to choose any move, but remember this point. Once you have taken a move and got stuck, press ctrl-Z (undo) and come back to the point where you have more than one feasible move. Now, try the other moves. See if it is any better. If yes, good. If not, bad luck. Go back to the original move (yes, you can press ctrl-z any number of times, at a small penalty. But, at this point let us concentrate on winning the game, efficiency can be dealt with once you have experience).

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Step #3 - Always have an eye on correct stacking (as it enables you to lift all of the stack together in one clean pick). For example let us say you had a stack of 4 and 3 diamond on one pack, a 3 club on another pack and a 2 spade on another pack. Now, you have two options. You can either put the 2 spade over the 3 club or the 3 diamond. Suppose you choose to put it over the 3 diamond and let us say a 5 diamond gets revealed. Now, the stack of 4 and 3 diamond could be put over the 5 diamond to create a bigger correct stack. But the 2 spade over the 3 diamond will prevent you from doing this. So iterate by putting the 2 spade over the 3 club and free the stack of 4 and 3 diamond. Now you have made a bigger correct stack.

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Step #4 - Try to reveal as much as possible (to get empty slots). Once you clear all the cards in a pack, you get an empty slot and this will be very handy. In the above example instead of a 5 diamond, lets say a 5 of hearts turned up. You still go ahead and do the above steps, because if you stack the 4 and 3 diamond over the 5 of hearts (even though incorrect) it will enable you to reveal one more card that is beneath the 4 and 3 diamond, thus getting you closer to an empty slot.

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Step #5 Respect the order. Say if you have two options, you can put a 10 of hearts over a Jack of spades or a 9 of clubs over the 10 of hearts. First, understand that both are incorrect stackings but you don't have a choice. Now putting first the 9 of clubs over the 10 of hearts will 'lock' the stack 10 and 9 as you cannot lift them together to put them over the Jack (they are of different suits). But of you first put the 10 of hearts over the Jack and then the 9 over 10, you have revealed two cards (one beneath the 10 of hearts and the other beneath the 9 club). But since you have incorrectly stacked, always keep an eye on a possibility of step 3. You should mostly prefer correct stacking to incorrect one (exception is talked about below), since a correct stacking enables you to lift togther.

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Step #6 - This is a follow-up of Step #2, Iteration. If you have two feasible moves, one that will result in correct stacking and the other with an incorrect stacking, try both and stick with the one that revealed many cards or was more useful. That is, not always do we go for correct stacking. It varies from situation to situation.

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Step #7 - Managing the empty slots.

Now you have an empty slot. How to best use it? Empty slot in Spider Solitaire is a definite achievement. Use the empty slot to rearrange cards into correct stackings. You will be amazed at how much one empty slot can help you achieve. For eg you have one stack of K hearts, Q and J of club, and another stack of K club, Q and J of hearts and an empty slot. Use the empty slot to correct these two stacks. That is, keep the Q and J of hearts in the empty slot and stack the K,Q and J of hearts together. Then stack the K,Q and J of clubs. It is crucial to get back the empty slot after this rearrangement like how we got it back in the above step. Now use the empty slot for further rearrangement.

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Swapping empty slots

You can forego an empty slot if you can get another by rearrangment (although two empty slots will be awesome. I have rarely lost after I get two empty slots). For eg K, Q, J of hearts stacked over a 10. Now, using the empty slot you can make it KQJ10. There are many more such possibilities. So be open and look out for them.

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Before you click deal for a new set of cards, make sure you don't clog the empty slot. Either keep just one card (after all your iterations) or keep a correct stack. This way you can again have an empty slot reasonably quickly. Of course, if you happen to a get a King in the deal in the empty slot then sorry mate, it is blocked!

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Step #8 - Before you click deal, press 'm' or 'h'. It is an hint for any available moves and you might have overlooked any move. It might appear as cheating and some may avoid doing this. I do it so that it saves my time. But, be careful though, the hints or the moves the computer shows are not the best ones. You should try to follow the above steps as and when possible.

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Major tips

#1 Try to create empty slots (that is clearing all the cards in one of the stack). More the empty slots the merrier. Empty slots can be used to iterate as you can keep cards in the slot, rearrange and then remove it again. Thus, empty slots can be a temporary place to keep the card to perform many of the above steps. So  if you have an option of removing a card from a bigger stack and removing a card from a smaller stack, other things being the same, opt for removing from the smaller stack (you are closer to getting an empty slot)

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#2 Avoid keeping an Ace or a King in the empty slot. Because a King can lock the empty slot until you finish the series and an Ace also sort of locks the slot as you will not able to stack anything over an Ace.

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#3 Feel free to undo (Ctrl+Z) as there might be several steps possible at a given point of time and nobody is sure what is right. So you can try one combination and if it does not go well, press ctrl+z all the way down and try the other combination. In Windows xp you cannot undo the step where you completed one series and you cannot undo once you opened a new deal. But in windows 7 you can undo just anything. Some might think this is cheating. But if it is allowed, why not do it? Besides, I don't think, this game is designed for winning every time. It is still a random deal and hence you might be still unlucky and end up losing.

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And after typing all this, I just happened to google for 'winning spider solitaire' and actually found quite a few useful links myself :P .. So the biggest tip is to google perhaps!! And yes, why do you need patience? Because, on an average before I finish this game, it takes about 300 steps and some times even close to 500 steps. That many iterations may be needed. So if you lose the game with less than 100 moves, sorry you need to iterate a lot more than that!! Good luck!!

Why I hate Solanum Melongena

It is crowned the King of Vegetables and is known as eggplant in countries like U.S., Aus... With the hue and cry over Bt Brinjal, I just started wondering why I hate this seemingly lovely vegetable... I am sure there are many lovers of it including my immediate family members... But somehow brinjal could never relish my tongue...

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It all started when I was a kid, when my tongue was learning the tricks of the trade and when your mother had all the control over what you can and what you cannot taste... When, for the first time brinjal made its entry into my soul.. like many kids my body after a sequence of chemo-physio-thermo-kinetic reactions decided to frighten my mom with an allergic reaction. Out came abnormal bumps and out went brinjal from my diet. Little did I know that it was not only my skin but my muscles had joined the war too. (FYI tongue is a muscle)

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As I grew up my mother again decided to take control of my diet. Brinjal can no longer be denied entry. Allergy can no longer be an excuse. So what do you do when you are force served? You keep it in a corner of your plate, promise that you will eat at the end of the meal and then silently manage to tuck it and throw it when nobody notices. But if you are caught, you have to gulp it down ensuring that it never kisses your taste buds, lest you have to 'make' faces. (So with a laborious maneuver you take the small pieces, position it perfectly to fall directly into the throat and in a split second motion allow it to pass through the oesophagus). Slowly my mother gracefully understood that I was smart enough to waste it (without their notice of course) and stopped feeding me, thinking 'if you don't eat it, you are at a loss'. Thinking of 'punishing' me, she 'rewarded' me by keeping Brinjal away! So the deal was every time she makes Brinjal, she should also make my favorite tatoes (potatoes) so that I have some veggies to eat! Awesome!

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Why do I hate the King? Is it because it somehow for me resembled a 'fish' and being a vegetarian I just could not stand it? Well, frankly having never eaten or not even seen a cooked fish dish, the argument looks too far fetched. The only fish that was close to being blue, like Brinjal, is the Blue Whale and I have no clue if someone eats it! Or maybe was it the very appearance? Its 'kozha kozha' (mucilagenous/sticky) nature that made me feel odd, whenever I touched it or put it in my mouth? Or is it just a feeling that I could not overcome?

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So after years of abstaining, I finally decided to try it again. After coming to the US, when my cooking experiments had temporarily taken rest, I thought why not give it a try! The egg plants in the US resembled the size of a blue whale's egg (oops whale is a mammal.. never mind.. if a whale decides to lay eggs, it might resemble it?). Chopped it into big pieces.. fried it.. spices.. the dish was ready... it din't have any resemblance, what so ever, with what my mother makes. Good for me, I thought. This should be better than how my mother makes. First spoon....yucccccccccck! Never! Never will I attempt again! But within minutes, I reneged and the buck I wasted on my experiment found its way into my stomach somehow, after fighting and gulping for 30 minutes! Phew!

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I think I found the answer, rather an excuse. Wiki tells me that Brinjal has the highest amount of nicotine among all edible plants and 9 kgs of Brinjal has as much nicotine as a cigarette! Since, I am a non-smoker I will not eat Brinjal! Its NOT a food for thought for me.. He he..

Beware, citizens of Venus! Men are coming!

Men are from earth and women are from Venus? Move over ladies and make some space, we are already there!

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Lions (Male) sport manes, lioness don't. Peacock (Male) spreads its tail feathers, peahens cannot , and Bucks (Male deer) grow antlers while the Does don't. Yes, you can guess it. The male species try to attract the female ones by their physique and fancy accessories. But human beings are peculiar and the behavior is reversed, or so I thought....

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But I think we have started going 'primitive'. We have enough animal instincts already but this one 'attraction' thing was reversed and we have started to fill this gap. We are trying to exploit the world of Venus. Working out and hitting the gym is no longer reserved for Arnold.. Men are worried about their single pack (of fat/belly) and want to convert it to at least two if not six. Tight fit shirts are slowly starting to appear. Though the word 'metrosexual' has been around for some time now, I think it is accelerating even faster of late.

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When I first saw the 'Fair & Handsome' ad, I thought it was ridiculous. I know women fall for the beauty products just like flies getting attracted to light but to imagine the same fate for men was too far fetched for me.. Yet, that's exactly what reality turned out to be. Words like 'color of the skin is not important even for women' I know will fall in deaf ears but now when men go after fairness and whiteness it sounds strange.

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It is a famous saying that 'Men fall for women who are bautiful whereas women like men who can speak well'. But will the saying lose its relevance now? So what next? Will the future wallet of Men come with special features to fit the make-up kit of men (ala handbag). Even if it comes, will men be smart enough to pack a dozen items in that small space? And then there will be some funny things too.. Imagine a fat guy trying to show off by wearing tights or a guy's wallet spitting out a dozen items when he tries to get his credit card! Crazy things await!

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Who wants to live on Earth any more.. So ladies, here Men come!

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P.S - If there are any hints of male chauvinism, it is purely unintentional. I know I cannot generalize my opinions for all women. I just went with the mass opinion on things which I believe is true for 'most' women.

The aura that comes with being at the top

Disclaimer - This is not a sports articles though it will start with that note

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Two instances... One in which, Federer came back from a set down, suddenly shifting his gear and moving to 'his' zone, just blasting Davydenko to reach the semis of Aus. open and ..... Two in which, Aussies digging deep and finding their resilience, came back from a situation of no-return in the second test match against Pak.... But that is only one side of the story.. the other way of seeing it is ofcourse Davydenko going down after leading 3-0 and that too after already pocketing a set, and Pakistan managing to find a door to defeat after dominating Australia for 3 days...

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A lot has been and always be written about the top and superior guys. All credits to their spirit for hitting back from such situations. But spare a thought for the 'heroes' (or rather comedians?) of the other side. Because even we get into such situations without even realizing it. And so here goes my comment on trying to investigate what actually happens.

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Though several philosophical and technical explanations can be given to scenarios such as above I think the aura of being at the top and the underdog(relatively) tag might play a crucial role here. The underdog may just cannot believe that he is at the top there. It is not only a thing of surprise for others who are watching him, but even within himself he is quite surprised. 'Is it that I am really playing that well or is it that he is having an off day here?', and that I think is a killer doubt, your concentration wavers and there you have lost your energy!

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The reason why I had put the disclaimer was it is not a scenario that happens only in sport. It happens in my life and so (I believe) it does in each of our lives. It is because of the simple reason that you can never be 'the best' in what you do (and even if you do, you cannot be 'the best' in everything you do). And when we seem to be winning against an individual whom we consider (and the world in general) as superior to us, we lose our way somewhere. It might be studies in school (you beating the top ranked guy in small tests and then losing out on the Final), might be in presentation skills with a co-employee, might be winning contracts for a small company and then goofing up when it comes to a bigger client.. I am sure we will be able to think of several examples of our own.

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Under these circumstances, I think, it is important to remember how we reached that winning position. It well might have been that the 'superior' person was having an off day, but we cannot take the role of our hardwork lightly. It deserved every winning step that we achieved.

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But this is where sport differs from real life. What is 'winning' in life? Nothing is permanent as we all know, so it is that 'fleeting' superior satisfactory performance that we call win, it is the consistency of wins that we call a success. But we all know it is not an end point, it is a continuous journey that we are always reminded of. We keep raising our bar. (Even in sports one might argue the same thing about winning, but I guess I communicated what I intended to)

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Being aware of such a thing is of course the first thing in preventing the slide early. We need to remember that if we slack even for a moment, our so called superior opponent will just cruise through. It is hence important to sustain the steam, it is not about self confidence or belief, but rather about indefatigableness, the power of never giving up till your goal is reached.

Are Indian rookie bowlers underbowled?

It has been some time since I wrote.. Here is one again on Cricket, a thought I wanted to record long before.. so before I forget..

It is the final day of a test match. India needs just 3 more wickets to seal the test match with a lot of runs to defend themselves and an entire three sessions. Whom do you think will open the day's bowling? You can expect the 'leading' pace bowler (currently Zaheer Khan for example) and the 'first' spinner (currently Harbhajan Singh). I would not say it is a bad decision. Obviously, you would want to seal the win as quickly as possible without letting things out of your control. But in the process what happens is you tend to 'overbowl' your main bowlers and 'underbowl' your sideline bowlers.

 

One can argue that it is fair enough as the last wickets are mostly easy scalps and your main bowlers deserve them for all their hardwork through out their career. Their confidence can also go up with two to three wickets added to their names and of course their stats page. But at what cost? One, you tend to 'overwork' your bowlers. It is perhaps the ideal situation to give your bowlers some much needed rest (that too in such a packed calendar now a days). Two, best chance to give your sideline bowlers some work to complete. Those two to three wickets will be a huge confidence boost to the young chaps who would want to cement their place in the teams. I think the twin benefits of the latter are much more than the possible benefits you get from the former. In case your main bowlers are out of form then it can be argued differently.

I guess teams like Australia consider this factor (though I know I have to prove this with stats or examples), if my memory serves me right. They trust their young bowlers to finish their job for the team.

No stats here. Just my plain opinion. If I find some time later I would back up my opinion with stats. It will be an interesting task in itself.