How NOT To LAN Party!!!

A week passed by since the events at the college. While the preparations for our branch’s technical festival were going on so were the preparations for SCT’s Quest’06. This was the technical festival of the electronics branch. The thing that was brought to my interest was that a LAN party was going to be conducted the first of its kind to be conducted in Trivandrum. My friends Frantic, Duttan, Namic etc was also there in organizing the LAN party and the progress of our technical festival was halted by the on going strikes. Seeing the opportunity I decided to lend a helping hand to conduct their LAN Party.The events were to be conducted on March 11th and 12th in Kanakakunnu Palace so we had to setup the computer and the LAN on 10th. But we got the place to ourselves only by evening. One of the toughest things to acquire was of course the computers, Duttan and Frantic had to convince a lot of friends to lend their computer for the LAN Party. This included my computer also. Duttan and Frantic also provided the necessary transport for the equipments. Due to the slight asthma attack I had, I dint do a lot of strenuous job. I was supposed to setup games in the systems and make sure the LAN was ok. We did take around 40 m of Twister Pair Cable, about 100 Jacks for making LAN. We also acquired a 16 port switch and about 20 computers for the purpose of gaming.

Friday 11th March, 3.30 PM
On that very day I had my final series exam and a boy in the college committed suicide and therefore the afternoon session exams were postponed. So I reached home by about 3.30 pm on Friday. I called up Duttan and Frantic all were really in a rat race. Obviously Frantic had some serious problem with this computer about not detecting the HDD. I went over there to check the situation. It was then that I knew that Frantic was in charge of the technical events and every 30 seconds or so he was receiving calls. In the mean time I found that the problem was caused by a faulty SMPS and asked him to replace it ASAP.

Friday 11th March, 5 PM
After sorting things out there, Frantic took his car and went to collect my system. We were accompanied by Ashok. After taking my system we went back straight to Frantic’s House and reached there by 5.45 PM. From 5.45 PM to 9.30 PM I was at Frantic’s house. As I said I was suffering from a little asthma attack and hence couldn’t do any strenuous work and hence had to take rest. Later that evening @ 8.00 PM Duttan dropped by to take the systems and he loaded 11 CPU towers into his car. Frantic loaded up his car with the monitors and he said they will come and pick me up in the next go. I readied up my small bag with the LAN cable the crimping tools, Jacks, screwdrivers etc. I waited for their arrival.

Friday 11th March, 9.30 PM
Both Duttan and Frantic came by and took up the rest of the towers and the monitors about 6 of them. I also joined them. Namic was also there. We drove off to Kanakakunnu Palace. We reached there by 10.15 PM and got out and I went straight to the conference hall, while they unloaded the systems

A team of 6 people (Me, Frantic, Aravind V.J., Dinup, Duttan, Namic) locked ourselves into the conference hall and started work on setting up the systems and cabling.

Friday 11th March, 11 PM
The place was locked down completely and we started to work. This is when we realized our mistakes.

1. No Labels to Name the systems


2. No marker to write on them


3. No scissors to do handy cutting

Namic and I got the Kinetic Honda of Arun Ayappan. We had to fill it up with 1 Litre of petrol and went straight to my house reached there by 11.30 PM. Took the necessities and left back to the palace. Reached there by 11.50 PM
Satruday 11th March, 12.00 AM
Well it was well passed midnight and when we reached there we saw electricity was up and we began the crimping process. We had written down the color codes for the crimp and Frantic and Aravind V.J started crimping by about 12.30 A.M we had crimped about 10 cables and we wanted to test the crimped cables. In the meantime Namic and I had arranged some computers so that we can network them. We plugged the computer into the outlets and started them. It was then we noticed that the earthing wasn’t good and the computer bodies shocked, this was bad Duttan became a human tester touching to see if the bodies were shocking and let me tell you it was a pretty shocking experience. Mistakes made:

1. Always make sure u got good and clean power even before brining in the computers


2. For God’s Sake bring a good tester

Saturday 11th March, 1.00 AM
We had figured that all the power outlets weren’t properly earthed and hence u started up a single computer by UPS and tested the cables. We powered the switch and then plugged in the cables. Most of the cables dint work and the crimping dint work. Now this was real bad, cross checking dint help and re-crimping of cables dint help either. Two of the cables worked and we used them to transfer the necessary files to the computers from my computer.

Satruday 11th March, 2.30 AM
By 2.30 AM we had no more than 3 working crimped cable, we were supposed to have 20 by now. So Namic and I decided to go and take working cross and straight cables from my house. Mistake made:-

1. Bring pre crimped cables so that one can have reference to crimped ones

So in the middle of the night once again we set out to take the cables. All this took about 45 minutes and by 3.15 we were back. Still sitting and doing the crimping. With the UPSs running out of power and none of the cables working we haven’t had done anything productive so far.

Saturday 11th March, 4.00 AM
I was beginning t lose my sanity and becoming unstable to due the lack of sleep and rest. So were the rest of the crew and worst of all things nothing was accomplished. So with about 10 non working crimped cables and 2 working crimped cables it was lot of job to be done because we need to start the event by 11.00 AM. After having chit chat for about an hour and helping with crimping I decided to nap off for about 1 hr.

Saturday 11th March, 7.30 AM
I lost track of time after taking nap. I was awoken by Rohit a junior from SCT studying electronics. It was the 1st time I saw the guy, though I had known him through online chatting. Anyway I was tired and said a very tired “Hi” to him. After which Frantic and I decided to go home. We took an auto ride back home. I reached here by 8.10 and took a nap till 10.30 AM.

Saturday 11th March, 10.30 AM
I got up shaved and had a bath and then Namic came to collect me. It was back to Palace. Things were pretty much the same and even worse no power. They still dint have the working generator there. But the crimping process was almost complete. This should have been done long back.

Saturday 11th March, 3.00 PM
No power yet. The generator was there but no fuel. Finally someone put diesel and the thing started to work. Systems were up one by one and then we started to setup network on each PC one by one. Bad cables were re-crimped and each system was networked successfully until…..

Spawn had come from cochin to take part in the festivities. I had met him once before in RWW in cochin.

Saturday 11th March, 4.00 PM
Low power followed by no power!!! The generator died because diesel was sprinkling out of it and no one noticed it. More time wasted and by this time CS Clans had already arrived. I sat around taking to my friends who came to play and passed time.

Saturday 11th March, 5.00 PM
Power is back. But we were suffering in setting up most systems. Many of them dint have proper drivers. Some of them dint have the games. Some of them dint even boot when the time came. Mistakes Made:

1. Always check the condition of the systems before bringing to the party


2. Setup all essentials before bringing it for the party

One of the most annoying things that happened was when one system is right, the other system goes off the network.

Meanwhile Sreekanth and Aravind V.J setup systems for NFS:MW and it was started.

Saturday 11th March, 7.00 PM
Almost all the systems are up and running except 2 on each side. Rohit, Sreekanth, Frantic were all helping to bring systems to full functionality. We needed 11 systems and 9 were up by now. A lot of people were playing CS just for fun.

Saturday 11th March, 7.30 PM
All systems for CS up and running. Clans readied up to face each other just when the care taker came and said we have to vacate the hall.

They babbled about the conference hall being Government property, is used only for seminar and conferences which usually end by 4 pm, and that they have never let this hall out beyond 5.30 pm, and that they wanted to sleep, etc…

By this time, Need for Speed had finished and Sreekanth was the winner of a Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. I guess it is the first time in Kerala (or maybe South India), that a gaming keyboard worth 5000 Rs was given away as a prize at a tourney. Kudos to SCT for getting the sponsorship from Logitech.

Later on we realized that a bottle of booze would have settled the guy down by then it was too late we had packed up everything

CS Tourney had to be cancelled and postponed to next day.

Saturday 11th March, 8.15
We all got out and went to the street. Namic, Showstopper, Frantic, Duttan, Spawn, Greenhorn and I decided to go to Pizza Corner and give Spawn a treat and treat ourselves to some good dinner and a small get together. By 9.00 PM we reached there ordered a couple of Large Pizzas and waited we got it by 9.30 PM. Enjoyed it and paid a hefty bill of 845 Rs. They added 50 Rupees just for adding extra cheese for the topping anyway after the dinner we all set out to our homes.

Saturday 11th March, 10.00 PM
Reached Frantic’s home. Frantic dropped me at my home. Greenhorn had a sleep over at Frantic’s. I went to bed by 10.30 PM was too tired to do anything.

Sunday 12th March, 8.00 AM
Frantic came in the morning and we had to take some print outs. He gave me lift to the Palace. Reached the palace by 9.00 and started to setup the systems and powered them up one by one. Except for 2 systems all were powered up. But when I plugged in the last 2 the fuse got busted and that was the end of power.

Sunday 12th March, 10.00 AM
All the wiring was a total mess. Snehath, Wazim and Shiraz from the CS clan decided to lend a helping hand to fix the problem. All the wires from the plug was removed and each UPS was allotted a single plug. To prevent overloading one plug per UPS was assigned. Big thanks to those guys. A work well done.

Sunday 12th March, 11.00 AM
Power back, got all systems up and running by 11.30, then LAN trouble popped up again. In the midst of everything Namic, Rohit and Sreekanth were actively helping throughout. Meanwhile UT2K4 competition was held in parallel. The heat was on between Spawn, Stryker and Showstopper.

Sunday 12th March, 12.00 PM
The systems were set and the tourney was about to begin, just when we were about to start the tourney a phone call came that all gaming events were to be concluded by 12.30 PM. Later on Wazim negotiated with the convener and later on the period was extended.

Sunday 12th March, 1.00 PM
The CS tourney started and the 1st match was between Snehath’s Clan and Rohit’s Clan. Obviously they were raped by Snehath’s Clan.

Meanwhile big battle was going on between stryker and spawn for semi final entry. Showstopper beat Bleak to get into the semi. Later on Stryker won the semi with spawn.

The finals for CS tourney was going between Snehath’s Clan and Sajan’s Clan. They were raped by Snehath’s Clan and they won the finals. I think it was the Azote factor that helped them to get that deserved victory.

Meanwhile The UT finals were about to start with Stryker and Showstopper and a Logitech G5 Laser Mouse was at stake.

They played 2 matches in DM-1on1-Lea and DM-1on1-Roughinery. Showstopper won both matches, with some effort on his part. But it was a match worth watching.
He won a Logitech G5 laser mouse worth 4500 Rs.

Sunday 12th March, 3.30 PM
Everything got over and systems were taken one by one and being transported to the respective owners. Frantic and Duttan was also joined by Shiraz in helping to transport PCs. By 4.30 the last set of PCs were being transported and I was riding with Frantic with Greenhorn. We had to give two systems one of Deno and the other of Greenhorn.

Sunday 12th March, 5.30 PM
After dropping off Deno’s PC, we decided to take a break on the way to Greenhorn’s house. We stopped in the Ambrosia in pattom, had some snacks and then we were on our way to Greenhorn’s House. We reached there and dropped off his PC and took some time out in his house. After this we had wine together. It’s the second time I had tasted home made wine. It was a different experience. After this Frantic and I drove off to his house to get my PC.


Sunday 12th March, 7.45 PM
Reached Frantic’s home, he took the computer placed in the car and then we drove off to my home.

Sunday 12th March 8.10 PM
Reached home and setup the computers. Frantic left it was already late. Just when setting up the main computer I remember I left my bag at frantic and my MX 518 etc was there. Now I have to go there to get it from him the next day. Anyway I got online and I played some CS with the old Logitech Value Optical Mouse and felt the enormous difference from MX.

I was too tired for anything else and decided to take off for the rest of the day and went off to sleep thinking about the first ever what was supposed to be LAN party conducted in Trivandrum.

Here is a list of people who helped out / gave their systems for the tourney.
Aravind V.
Aravind V.J.
Arun Ayyapan
Ancy
Aziz
Anoop Joseph
Arun S. Babu
Arun G.P.
Auster
Biju
Antony
Balaji Diwakar
Deno Vikram
Dileep R.
Fox
Girish Chandran
Jameel Nahas
Jitin Jayakumar
Nishant S.S.
Nishant B.
Nobot
Rohit P.S.
Snehith
Shiraz
Showstopper
Shyju T.
Waseem Raja

Requiem For A College

I haven’t been able to blog for sometime now. The main reason being that I have been running between my main project, LAN Parties and inter college gaming competition. Due to the multi tasking I am usually totally exhausted and go to sleep right away. However now I got a small break and decided to do a little blogging again. The following events took place from March 6^th 2006.

The entry is about the college I am studying in, College of Engineering, Trivandrum. It was supposed to be a primer institute in Engineering at the time of my entry at 2002 or so it seemed to me. Through the passing years, I experienced how the college degraded itself and basically the spirit of the college died with it.

At the time of my admission this very college was compared and ranked in an all India level. But being a Government College there was always politics in campus, and for most of the time, it was a one sided affair with the S.F.I dominating in all aspects of the college politics. Other parties like the K.S.U and the A.B.V.P didn’t stand a chance. One of the strengths of S.F.I was the Hostlers ; both Mens Hostel and Ladies Hostel were in full support of the S.F.I. This led the domination of S.F.I in our college. In my 1^st year at the college there was this election and in our view S.F.I’s campaign was the most awesome and we all voted for the S.F.I.

It was during the course of events that lead to the next election that changed the whole offset of mine about campus politics. It was Dhrishti 2005 and my friend whose nick was Black had got into the finals of the F.I.F.A 2005 contest conducted by the college M.H. Now the final was posed against another M.H guy. In the finals there was literally no support for Black for his awesome play, except the 3 of us including me supporting for Black. The rest of M.H guys in the room were supporting the M.H guy even though he was losing. They were roaring and yelling for every small attempt made by M.H guy but not even a single clap for Black’s goals. There was obviously no sportsman spirit among them. The same went for Counter-Strike also.

And so elections came and this time the scene had changed. Not only did the other opposing parties unite to form a new party but this was supported by many formal neutrals in the college politics. The new party was christened “Voice Of CET”, V.O.C for short. What made this party strong was the injection of politically neutral candidates into contestant positions. Another factor being that the party had a majority of Day Scholars working in it, hence causing strong opposing forces within the competition. And pretty unexpectedly they won the seat of Lady Representative and for the 1^st time in 15 years S.F.I had lost a seat to the opposing party.

This sparked off a chain of events that lead to the complete destruction of the spirit of the college. I could see the effect of the hostlers on every Technical Event conducted in C.E.T. Not only had they held key positions in the conduction of events. They wanted to have it their way according to their rules. This was very visible in the Gaming Events conducted in Urja, Yantra and Dyuthi (Me being a predominant gamer, I can only comment on the gaming events.). I could feel the tension and polarization within the college between M.H and Day Scholars.

During the next election conducted in 2006 the battle was fierce. Not only did the intellectual quality of the students competing for the respective posts degrade, but also the tensions between the M.H and Day Scholars started rising. I did not even cast my vote this time. I had so much lost faith in both the sides I felt that it was better that I didn’t vote at all. When the results came S.F.I had bagged most seats except the S8 Representative.

The following Monday was declared Victory Day by S.F.I and there was a little of pushing between the two parties. The following day saw a full blown fight between the two sides. With senior day scholars from Mechanical, Civil and some from electronics taking sides with V.O.C and the rest of the M.H going for S.F.I. They college had to be shutdown for 2 weeks in order for things to cool down.

Even after reopening tensions between sides had not eased out. It was a ceasefire mood in the college. It was like a explosive gas filled room waiting for that spark to incinerate everything. That day came when the spark had ignited the gas. One fine evening a guy in my class got into a small verbal assault with a day scholar and this escalated into a full scale fight between the two sides, which eventually lead to the strike on the next day. The police had to come and arrest the guys who were provoking the fights and the two front runners, one from my class and another from mechanical were arrested and put in jail. It was ordered that all the party posters and stuff be removed from the college premises.

Let me remind you that this is not the 1^st time a fight was started because of silly reasons. In another scenario a fight between the Day Scholars and the M.H erupted because a senior Day Scholar asked a Junior M.H his name and this interaction was interpreted by the junior as an act of ragging while the original intention was just a formal introduction. This was followed by a verbal abuse and then another full scale fight. In another incident during one of the “Sargam” (inter semester cultural festival) a fight between M.H and Day Scholars broke out due to the fact that some of them were booing at an event conducted by M.H. The fight was so bad that any innocent day scholar who passed through that area was beaten up.

Anyway after the arrest I heard rumors that the guy from M.H was crying like a baby in the police station. It was said that he stayed there for a couple of days before he was released. There was nothing the M.H could do about it. All they can do was show theie muscle power within the college not outside it. The condition was so bad that not a single M.H guy could wander out without the fear of getting beaten up by some thug from out side.

In-between all this mayhem a group of enthusiasts were trying to promote “Vision 2020”. A program through which C.E.T would be made a world class college by the year 2020. Yeah right!!!

1) The 1^st thing we need to even progress in C.E.T is unity. We should not have demarcation like Day Scholars or Hostler. We all should be united as one ie “CETians”. Only then we will move forward. This polarization within the college has gone to such an extent that the spirit of being a CETian is lost. This was clearly seen in the M.H day events conducted by M.H. Not a single Emmaus guy was invited because they were working for V.O.C

2) Better Faculty and teaching staff is required for the better aiding and developing better quality of students. With H.O.Ds like in Department of Computer Science & Engineering one cant obviously progress in a college like C.E.T

3) Educational Autonomy and regular updating of syllabus in accordance with changes happening in other universities. Even though there are committees that update the syllabus every 5 years, its too long a time to update syllabus especially in branches like computer science that are facing day to day changes. Move over the style and setting of the syllabus is just like an extension of the school. Just mug up and go to the exams and you get marks.

4) Our Kerala University follows the rule that the S1/S2 be held as a year and the rest of course as 6 month semester. Why the differences? Why not hold it as semester from the beginning? Well obviously the university wants comfort in correcting and evaluating the student’s papers so they kept it for their convenience. Even though there are assholes who say there is advantage to this system let me remind people that there is no other system that does this kind of evalution.

Even as I write this, I am doing my final year in this college. One of the foremost observations that I was able to make was that it was not the college that was great but the students studying were hardworking and it’s because of these students that the college gets its name. If the crème of the students dint join this college, this college could have been dead long back. It is here my dreams of becoming a computer engineer died.

What was supposed to be one of the oldest and greatest college in Trivandrum has now been reduced to mere building structures with no life in them. The spirit of CET is broken, by 2020 my vision is a college that is same or that has grown worse from its current state. Unless there are some serious efforts taken by the students and college officials I don’t see this college coming back to its original life.