Remember my post about Yahoo! ? Its title was “Life at its best”.. Today it was a dream come true for me since I got a job offer from Yahoo! Research and Development. Well, I have been dreaming about this company ever since I wanted to work, concentrating on the skills that Y! looks for, took a lot of risk waiting for Y! to arrive on campus and now.. its worth all those efforts. With God’s grace and good guidance, i got through.

The selection process consisted of a written test, 2 technical interviews, a programming round and a HR interview. The best thing about the overall process is the emphasis on thinking BIG. Y! seldom asks memory based questions. All they need is the right approach to the right problem at the right time. It was a great learning experience. Looking forward to working at Yahoo!

This is how i feel now - “YAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOO”!!!!!

I was completely unaware of the blasts in Bangalore when we started planning for a beautiful Friday evening. The perfect weather and good mood had an amazing effect on planning. Its only after stepping out, I realized that LIFE has its own plans for each of us..

I was shell shocked when i came to know about the bomb blasts, more so  because of the  multiple blasts on Mysore Road. It is very painful to see innocent people living in namma Bengaluru suffering this way. The jammed network added to my “all-time-high” tension. Calling up my family and friends and ensuring that they r safe cheered me up to some extent. In the mean while, the count of blasts kept shooting up and my concern for my loved ones raised exponentially.

Amidst such confusion and fear, LIFE indeed gave me a great evening.. A drive in city’s heart when the entire city was gripped by fear was very daring!!! Long beautiful discussions, playing pool and good snacks.. everything seemed to be too good to believe in such a situation.

We never know what can happen next moment.. All we can do is hope for the best and keep giving our best to LIFE

The past one month has been very hectic with exam preparations and interviews. I was praying all these days for the exams to get over because i hate studying for exams.. its not as interesting as studying for knowledge. Today, i realize that i have actually grown “workaholic”.. Now, dont imagine me studying late nights, coding all day and doing other geeky stuff.. “work” according to me includes ssoo many things be it sleeping, singing, listening to music, dancing, talking on the phone or chatting online.. its all WORK

Some strange things happen during exam time

* the urge to sleep increases with the study load

* the interest in reading general books and solving programming problems shoots up as exams approach

* the last exam is the hardest to prepare for.. most of time is spent on (fruitless) planning for the vacation and stupid dreaming

Life seems tooo rosy on the day i finish my exams.. but the excitement soon dies out. Morning naps are no longer so enjoyable, spending time with loved ones in spite of busy schedule is no longer a problem.. Well, exams really bring out the BEST out of me. I tend to compete with myself each time to accomplish more n more n more, to read more in lesser time, to keep up with the challenges thrown at me by life

Many algorithm correctness and performance tests, games and others require random number generation. Here is a way to generate a random number between two limits min and max.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<time.h>
int main()

{

int randomnum;
int min=1;  /* lower limit */
int max=7; /*upper limit */

time_t seconds;
time(&seconds);
srand((unsigned int) seconds);  /*seed for rand() */

randomnum = rand() % (max-min+1) + min; /*generate random number within limits*/

printf(”random number=%d\n”,randomnum);

return 0;

}

The idea behind the solution is very simple.

• rand() generates a random integer between 0 and RAND_MAX. The number generated depends on the seed
• rand()%max+1 generates an integer between 1 and max
• On the same lines, rand()%(max-min+1) generates a random number between 0 and (max-min) thereby randomizing the difference between the two limits. To this random difference, we can add a lower limit min to generate the random integer between min and max

“If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you dont.
If you like to win, but you think you cant,
It is almost certain you wont.

If you think you’ll lose, you are lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins in a fellow’s will
Its all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles dont always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”

I still remember the stories told by my grand mother which typically begin with “In a distant land, lived a beautiful princess… loved by a handsome prince ” and end with “and they lived happily ever after “. Before i could even know the meaning of love, i was crazy about my dream boy ( following simran’s foot steps in DDLJ!!! ) and thoroughly believed that “my prince” would take me away one day

After some years, this fantasy world seemed to be too unrealistic.. I grew busy with my studies, caring for family etc.. My world revolved around them I have always believed in the quote — “If u desire for something with all ur mind n heart, the whole universe wil conspire in helping u achieve it”. I have always loved the feeling that I wil be in LOVE one day.

“He” walked into my life in the most unexpected manner possible. Calm, composed, warm, friendly, intelligent, cute.. everything that i ever wanted in “my” boy.. We have had a journey which has a stronger story line than most of the superhits in bollywood. Well, it definitely took some time for me to realize that “he” is THE ONE for me. But one point has always been significant ever since we have met each other and that is “happiness”. He came into my life as happiness, the journey of happiness continued each time we met and now “he” is my definition of happiness!! “He” is the greatest gift to me from GOD. Nothing seems more important than him.. not even my life. Thank u “my boy” for making me realize that love is ssssssoooooo beautiful. “He” changed my world by being my world.

All the moments we spend together.. chatting for long hrs, thinking about each other, planning our meets and those very special meets.. steal my heart, as though i am falling in love with “him” all over again!!! A smile on “his” face wipes out all my sadness and worries, and makes me feel glad that i am alive. My heart dances with joy when I realize how lucky I am to have “him”. I want to live for “him”, ensure that he is happy always, work towards realizing all his dreams. My life is the smallest gift i can ever give “him”. Puranas say that two persons become friends for life after walking seven steps together. I want to walk a million steps with “him”, hand-in-hand, so that “he” is mine for the entire spiritual journey.

His questions like “Why do u love me?” drive me to feel and think hard because every time i discover a reason to love “him”, it seems tooooo weak to express my love.. “My boy”, do i need any reason to love u? His sweetness, care, support make me crazy about “him”. I ponder over “his” naughty questions and romantic descriptions for hours together. Words fall short to express “his” importance to me. I hope and pray GOD that our “love story” will resemble a fairy tale and v ll be happy together forever.

My boy, since you love simplicity, here are the last few words ONLY for you .. “I LOVE YOU more than myself“.

-”Yours” forever Netra

P.S: No comments enquiring about “him” are encouraged

I received an internship offer from Yahoo! Research and Developement, India in last November. Since then, I have always cherished the idea of meeting people at Yahoo!, seeing their work culture and the ambiance at Y!.

Prasanna invited me to join them on Interns’ Day on 11-4-2008.. Luckily, I got permission from our HOD to attend the function. Rama, my classmate, and me first went to M.G. Road office. Pavan, our senior, who is working in Y! took us inside the office and GOSH!! Its a different world. Great place to work.

Then we went to the EGL office. I was told that I ll be doing my internship at that office.. The office carves a niche of its own Its simply superb. A huge mood chart welcomes u at the entrance. The most wonderful aspect is that each floor has a theme.. like historic monuments, music, sports etc. Whats makes Y! most special is its people. EVERYBODY is ssssssssooooo humble and sweet!! I was astonished at their simplicity. The work place also offers good food in LARGE quantities. I hope to put on weight during my internship Pavan explained that the work is tooooo good and stressful situations are rare. We interacted with Sushma, our HR, also.

I met Prasanna. He is a really nice person… very humble, down to earth and a genius ( He is the one who took my interview for the internship .. his approach to optimization is amazing). We attended the interns’ day function. It was very very funny :D. Great performances and it was a very good stress reliever. It was a pleasure to meet all the seniors from my college interning @ Y!.

Prasanna did a great help by dropping me home.. For the first time, I experienced Bangalore’s traffic at its worst. Well, it took us 3 flat hrs to drive home I must admire Prasanna’s patience for tolerating my unending questions for 3 hrs.. Prasanna, Rama and me discussed about lots and lots of topics ranging from movies to tech. Prasanna even gave a treat at Coffee Day.. GOD!! If the higher-ups of everyone is so sweet and caring.. life would be so comfortable..

Thank God. it was a PERFECT DAY.

Yesterday, I searched for open source tools for my 9 year old brother.. The results were amazing.

Tux Paint is a wonderful program for painting. In particular I liked the magic and stamp section. The happiness on my bro’s face after seeing this tool was priceless The features like sparkle, drip, shades, rainbow, grass, stamps etc are very good.

Pingus is a game involving penguins (well, u can term it as a strategic game ). The best part is its UI and the ease with with which u can create a level.. I designed a level for my bro and he enjoyed it very much. The game stimulates children to think about the necessary actions to be taken to reach the goal..

So.. If u have small kids at home, try exposing them to these tools and i bet they wil enjoy!!!

Signing off,

-Netra

One of the questions posed in 8th mile OSP prelims was :

Write a program to check if the compiler (C compiler ) allows nested comments.

Here is the solution I came up with

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{

int i=10,*j,k,l=20;

j=&l;

k= /* /* */i */*j;/* */ 1;

if(k==i)

printf(”does not allow nested comments\n”);

else if(k==l)

printf(”allows nested comments”);

return 0;

}

I hope it works.. Comments and suggestions are most welcome. Please tell me if u have a better solution.

    8th Mile is the techno-cultural fest conducted by our college, RVCE. The event occured after 5 long years and it was a huge success. The first day featured eastern music and eastern dance competitions.  The performances were great and we enjoyed every single moment. On second day, we had technical events. We won second place in “On the spot Programming”. Prabhanjan is my team mate and it was a joy to watch him code a solution in last 10 minutes!!! Hats off to u Prabhanjan..

We had performance by Raghu Dixit. It was rocking The most amazing thing about him is the spirit with which he performed. His performance was very lively and humous. He established a good rapport with the audience.

The next concert was by Praveen Godkhindi. It was majorly classical. I enjoyed it the most because I am a fan of Hindustani Classical Music. He played Bhupa, Bhinpalas and Pahadi..He also played many popular numbers from Kannada and Hindi movies. Classical music gives happiness to the soul. Its very refreshing. We realized the beauty of classical music. That concert has inspired me to continue my classical music riyaaz after engineering

8th Mile was the change we were seeking from the day-to-day routine…