Will the Real Gamers Please Stand Up?

So folks, it’s been a hectic few weeks as I was working on my research, and coupled with the odd hours of working during Ramadan. Things are back to normal now, or as the average IIITian might say: the Larkification of the Owl is complete.

You might have noticed that I’m a die-hard gamer – Most of the posts on this still-nascent blog will refer to gaming in some form or another. I know what some of you might be thinking now… “I wonder what this guy’s frag count in CS or how much time does he take to build 50 houses in AoE” and the like. So, to all such people: Here’s a major rant that I’ve sealed up inside for quiet sometime:

Gaming doesn’t start and end with CS, AoE and NFS. I’ve seen most of the ‘gamers’ here restrict themselves to this - unofficial “Universal Subset of Games” in IIIT. Very few brave warriors dare venture into uncharted territory with new games or old classics. This post is an attempt to open the doors to other ‘gamers’: Open your Eyes and see the light…

I have a real bone to pick with CounterStrike. Sure, it’s the world’s most popular game, and it has its reasons… one of which is primarily the fact that it runs on every god damn machine u throw at it. But seriously, after hours of running and chasing around the same maps over and over again, don’t you people long for more? Are the flat-shaded walls and the endless yapping of “(Counter)Terrorists win” enough to keep you all hooked? Some people just refuse to even try something else lest the presence of a new game on the same disk offend the grand 10-year old executable. Here’s a self assessment for all the CS freaks: If you know what game was unofficially modded to give you CS, ok, you guys aren’t as lost as I thought. Bonus points if you’ve actually played that game.

I know what you are thinking…”but d00d, how can we even think of playing games that come out today, the ones that require a nuclear deal to be signed with some country to just get enough processing power to play them?”. Ok, I give you that one. But try out some other games: if you are willing to play CS, surely there are other games that might be your fancy: How about Quake 3 Arena or Unreal Tournament? For true adrenaline junkies, it’s just pure non-stop action with immediate respawn and not turn based like CS. One real classic to be mentioned here is Halo 1. It’ll run on any system, it’s got amazing multiplayer with a wide range of weapons and vehicles. You can even get into a tank and use it to run over your friends: How does that sound? Another awesome game is Serious Sam : The Second Encounter. I've played it from start to finish in co-op with ORB, and it was among the most multiplayer fun we've ever had!

"Look at how many people I can frag with this! Die Covenant Scum!"
Halo Multiplayer Screenshot

And now for Age of Empires, and just like the name, a game takes Ages to complete. And most people blindly assume that it’s the only good strategy game ever made. As a matter of fact, one of the best strategy games ever made, as well as one of the earliest genre-defining and bestselling RTS games is the Command and Conquer series, The latest installment of which just released recently called Red Alert 3. And the best part? Actual, real hot babes that call you Commander and obey your every command (well most of them at least). Tired of ramming Persian Elephants into walls all the time? Try sending in a F-22 Raptor to take out a Soviet Tesla Coil that’s frying your soldiers at the enemy base. The Red Alert series is all about the US vs. Soviets – and if you go with the Reds, it’s the perfect game to live your ultimate communist fetishes, hell ya!

Honestly... Who do you really want to Command right now?
Age of Empires II vs. C&C: Red Alert 2

So a final appeal to all you people: Don’t restrict yourself to a single game because you believe that it’s best game ever made – That’s akin to saying that “The Matrix” is the best movie ever made, bar none, and you flatly refuse to watch other movies. Expand your horizons in gaming. I’m sure that you will be pleasantly surprised. Expecting fanboy counter-ranting in 3...2...1...

Ramadan Woes...

In case you people haven't noticed yet, I'm a Muslim. And this is the holy month of Ramadan (or Ramzan) for us. Since a lot of people have been asking me about it (understandably since there are only about 25 Muslims on this campus), here's quick blog post to inform everyone.

During Ramadan, a healthy, able Muslim must compulsorily fast for the Month of Ramadan in the Islamic Calendar (this year it's from 2nd Sept - 2nd October). That means no food, water, sex etc. from Sunrise to Sunset. We break the fast at sunset (which is calculated scientifically nowadays), traditionally with a few dates and water, and then a huge feast! Here's what a typical 'break'-fast looks like:

Being brought up in the Middle-East was an amazing experience during the holy month. The moment Ramadan started, the entire place would change. Mornings and Afternoons would be lazy, most shops would down their shutters, schools and offices will get at least 1-2 hours off. Everyone suddenly becomes pious and good-hearted.

Our neighbors (all arab, btw), will send huge parcels of food that they have prepared at home (Kebabs, Haleem, Biryani, Cutlets etc), and that too every single day! Needless to say, Ramadan was a time when everyone used to double in size in spite of starving all day long. After the evening prayers, the entire city used to bear a festive look. Shopping Malls, small stores, Footpath vendors will all be open till the wee hours of the night, the aroma of freshly cooked delicacies will be everywhere. Ramazan was also a time of roaming around and eating, since everyone wants to host an Iftar (break-fast) party at their homes. Mosques run by influential sheiks would set up a huge tent and host a public buffet every night, for everyone, come and eat as you like! Ramadan is treated like a month-long festival there, with a delicious spread served for all 30 days. Check out one such iftar feast:

It’s been about 5 years since I’ve been with my family at home for Ramadan and year after year it’s been getting worse. Given the small number of students who are fasting (~25) we cannot make elaborate arrangements for our food. And we are forced to rely on the canteen to feed our only meals for the day – the Iftar (sunset) and Saher (sunrise) meals. The first week was extremely bad: Food was coming in Late, and one day our canteen-wallah tried to make Biriyani, but ended up like Pongal. (I wish I clicked a snap of it then to convince you people). The two UG1 Muslim students have opted out of the ramzan mess arrangements after falling sick and are now fending for themselves.

There is pretty much nothing that can be done about this situation. We all know that our canteen is in a deplorable state, but it is our only option to get food during this month. It’s pretty ironic that Hyderabad is one of the best places to be in India during the month of Ramadan, but inside the Institute, it’s a real downer. One silver lining is that we believe that during this month, we are expected to suffer and work as usual, and not take it easy. Going by that, we are sure to receive extra ‘credits’ from the God Almighty for this month.

I would like to mention however the goodwill and support extended by our faculty in letting us make all the arrangements for this month – from the prayer areas to finance and mess arrangements. Compared to other institutes with Muslim minorities in the student body, we have been treated very well. I’ve heard stories from friends in institutes like IIT-M about how much they have to bear with the indifferent attitude of the administration to get their Ramadan-related issues sorted out, year after year. I’m not sure if this is the case with other institutes but it doesn’t really sound too farfetched.

Bottom-line, I’m ranting about not being with my family during this month!

Tech-Nostalgia Part II – First Time Surfin’

On a hot summer day, sometime in June 1996, my dad came home with an envelope – I grabbed it from him and ripped it open. It contained a 1.44" floppy and some instructions. The envelope contained our first Internet Access Account and Package.

My PC at the time was a Pentium 133 Mhz PC with 2 GB HDD. It was fully loaded back then – An 8 speed CD-ROM drive, Soundcard, etc. This was also my first "Assembled" pc as I had branded machines before this: MiTAC, Compaq, AST. The PC also ran Windows 95.

Also, about a year before that, Qatar had an old-skool Bulletin Board Service (BBS) working via a dial-in server on a terminal. I've checked this out with some of my friends; it's pretty cool and is basically the text-only precursor to the Internet.

So I start up the computer and frantically follow the instructions to the dot. Luckily, the ISP has DHCP enabled, so all I had to do was configure the DNS servers (back then, DNS configuration was also manual). So I saw things like IP Address and stuff, really made no sense to me back then. So after setting everything, I said a prayer and clicked on 'Dial'. The 28.8K modem sprang to life, opened the telephone line and started dialing the access number. Then, all of a sudden, the computer starts making funny noises (I later found out that this was the most famous modem handshaking noise, something which is now pretty much defunct). Also, this was one of the first Internet access dialer programs, so the moment the handshake was completed, a terminal screen showed up with the login and password to be keyed in then (much like today's putty). So after logging in to the Internet terminal, I wait patiently as the terminal window starts showing weird characters, and then poof! , the modem disconnects. After resolving the Issue (which was merely to close the login terminal after dial-in), Windows 95 reported that I was connected to the Internet, with the small modem icon in the system tray!

So I fire up MS Internet Explorer v2.0 (which came pre-installed in my copy of Windows 95), and then wait patiently for something to come up. I was just staring at a blank page. I picked up a magazine that I had got about a month back which featured some Internet websites, so I randomly choose a site from their list. I typed in the address patiently, and hit enter. Suddenly, a animated logo Windows appears to by flying, and after a full 5 minutes, I saw a green-colored page.

I was seeing my very first HTML webpage. It was a Star-Sports cricket page made for the Cricket World Cup of 1996. Since Google didn't exist back then, one of the engineers from my dad's company recommended a site called Altavista for all my searching requirements – (the site was decent, it kept me company until Google was launched in 1999-2000). By the end of the day, I downloaded Doom in a file format that I'd never ever seen before (.zip), and also discovered a nifty little application called WinZip. I was totally hooked on to the Internet!

At QR 6 an hour (approx. 75 Rs.), it wasn't cheap, and the arrival of the Internet bill was a monthly scolding session from my parents. Within a few months, I switched to Netscape Navigator 2 (the precursor to Mozilla), Then when Windows 98 was released, IE completely obliterated the competition and Netscape became defunct. It's nice how Netscape is kicking IE's ass with its rebirth as Firefox now.

Even after I came to India for Higher studies in 2003, Dial-up internet was still the only way to go online. Also, my previous college had sucky 64k ISDN lines to its labs only, so the only way I went online back then was using GPRS through my mobile. I'm greatly indebted to Airtel in Kerala, since they allowed me to go online at a reasonable rate of 250 Rs./month unlimited access. Sure, the speed was just a little better than the first time I went online on the 28.8K modem, but it did a good job of keeping me connected to the world as I slogged away for 4 years in a village to complete my B.Tech.

Tech-Nostalgia (Part I)

Sometime in 1992, back in Doha, I was sitting at home, doing my Homework like a normal 7 year old, and my Dad pulls into the driveway. My big bro (12 years old at the time) sprints out and jumps up and down. Dad's got a smile on his face as he gets out and opens the trunk.

Inside, there were 2 big heavy white boxes. I was still trying to figure out what was going on. The excitement was clearly showing on everyone.

I had not much to look forward at that time. There was just that State-run TV that showed 30 minutes of cartoons a day, and otherwise, I was just a kid who sat at home, reading some of the children's books that were lying around.

So we bring the boxes inside, Mom gets a cloth to wipe clean a table we had to put it on. As we unboxed the containers - I saw what looked like a small TV, and a big white metal box. It was a sight to behold at the time: Like some contraption that came from the future. My brother was busy glancing at the manual, and we placed all the equipment one-by-one on the table. After frenzied searching in the manual, we figured out what needs to be plugged into what. So finally, when everything was in place, we said a small prayer and plugged it in to the wall socket and pushed the power switch.

This, my friends was my first contact with a computer. It was an 80286 IBM-Compatible PC manufactured by a Taiwanese company called MiTAC. The specifications (as I remember) were:

• 80286 Intel processor Clocked at 12 MHz
• 4 MB RAM
• 40 MB HDD
• Colour Monitor attached to a VGA Graphics Adapter
• Standard PC-AT 101-key Keyboard

So, we waited in awe as the Computer fired up, Saw many rolling digits (which I know know is the BIOS), and finally this prompt showed up:

C:\>

That’s when we knew that the beast was alive, and ready to take input. So, my brother and I sit on the table, all excited, and type:

C:\>HI

We saw some lights flash, we were scared out of our wits, as the computer took some time to process what we just typed. And then, all of a sudden, the computer spouted out:

Bad command or Filename

OK. The computer was talking back to us, but didn’t make much sense. I thought I'd try to introduce myself. I tried typing:

C:\>MY NAME IS SUHAIL

Again, as the computer tried to process it, it then said the same thing:

Bad command or filename

Dad comes in and says... “Boys! don't spoil the computer by typing garbage. I'll get an engineer to help you people use it.”

So, we then switch of the computer, and after a day's wait, my dad brings home a computer engineer from the company, who taught my big bro some fundamentals. He brought a big bag of 5.25" Disks and put them in one by one and typed so many commands as the computer just kept generating screen after screen of text that made no sense to me. Finally, after my begging my brother later when he left, He taught me the first few commands I’ve ever used on a PC:

C:\>CD GAMES

C:\GAMES>CD PRINCE

C:\GAMES\PRINCE>PRINCE

That, my friends was the point where I fell in love with computers and computer games :)

Meanwhile, check out the promotional video for MS-DOS 5 (the OS described above), back when M$ was desperate for the $$$'s here.

(Re) Introduction - README.1ST

Hi Folks! A few of my previous posts will be surely visible below, those were from a gloomier, depressed and maybe even psychotic period of my Life that I'd like to forget, (a.k.a My B.Tech)... Maybe I’m making it sound worse than it really was, but truth is I'm much better off now than I was back then...

For those of you who don't know me, well I'm Suhail Rehman, now officially MS-2k7 here at IIIT-H. I was born approximately 23 years ago in a place called Doha, Qatar (known more famously for the Asian Games, Al-Jazeera and the 'Doha' round of the WTO talks). I spent my entire childhood there and finished my 12th in 2003, came back to India as an ABCD (Abroad-Born Confused Desi), and spent 4 years of my prime in a Village (kind-of) in mid Kerala to pursue my much coveted (or so I thought) degree in Computer & Engineering at the MES College of Engineering.

As a kid, I was fascinated by computers. My dad brought home an old 80286 desktop when I was in second grade, and back then I started fooling around with DOS 5.0 and all the games that I could find that fit on either a 5.25" or a 1.44" Floppy. The rest was then, basically history, and I was fortunate enough to witness the evolution of personal computing and grow up to be absolutely crazy about them.

Crazy enough not to care about the other things actually, so I was pretty much an 'above-average' kid in school, which is why I landed at the above said college. Life was miserable there, we had no decent Internet access until year 4, and the rest of the posts you see below are remnants of my attempt to blog using my GPRS connection. I'll rant about how messed up life was there in another post, but here, I’m just trying to restart something that I’ve not bothered to do for a very long time...

Meanwhile, now that I'm in IIIT-H, having the time of my life, and indulging in my favorite geek work, let me take this opportunity to thank god and everyone who's supported me throughout the years as I finally ended up in an Institute that actually matters. With this blog, I'll probably post things about my life, maybe a bit of tech, and the occasional rant about missing home (just to justify the existing blog title). And this time, I hope there will be people to read and comment, and I also hope I can do my part to revive the blogging culture here at IIIT, which according to an interestingly anonymous fellow, was once flourishing. Meanwhile, explore the following few posts that I managed to put out on the blogosphere ages back, when the anger was intense and the internet speeds were abysmal.

Life with Archie & Gang

“You know that Archie Gang is inspired by a real bunch of people somewhere in the US…, even the ‘Bee’ is an actual high school principal”. I was like “no wayy dude..”, but he kept on going with that load of crap. He even goes to the extreme by saying, “Our principal should be like him and I wish we all had lives like the people in that gang. Hey you could even be Moose!” 6 years ago, during 10th grade in an Indian school back there in Doha, it seemed like a bunch of crap coming from a skinny little fellow who was my classmate. He left a year later to Canada, and probably got his little pipe dream over there.

Life in my school was tough, with its ‘thrust on academics, no time for fun’ rules and a strict policy against fraternizing with the opposite sex (We had separate buildings and facilities). Given all that, those years were the best years of my life. There is a special attachment to your fellow man, and there were so many things that you just can’t do in class if you were in co-ed (open swearing, et all..). I started having a decent social life by the time I hit 11th and 12th grade, all of which were outside the walls of my school. The last day of school, and one thought races through my mind – “School’s over and college is gonna be a blast, so much better than this rotten place…”. It never did.

Here I am, sitting at home, a week away from my next trip to Doha, just waiting for one more punishing year of college to get over with. Some bastard stole my phone at the hostel, I am dead tired working my ass off for a few college events and I have so much work pending. With all that, a grim feeling of a shattered dream I had back in school of a better life in college… something on the lines of Archie and his gang himself. Maybe I could have been Archie, or heck even Moose or Dilton. We would have fun, hanging around at our ‘chocklit shoppe’ and generally screwing around. Too bad I have no gang and no ‘chocklit shoppe’ either.

Thank god I’ll be back home on Saturday.

Rock On!!

A lonely road, dark, lovely and deep, right through the dense forest (Hope Frost doesn’t turn in his grave) near Kunnamangalam. Just me and my bike, cruising and hoping against hope to reach NIT Calicut in time. The day was just like the video of Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life…”, rushing to make it for a concert. Parikrama was scheduled to perform for the Cult Fest of NIT, Ragam ’06… (For the uninitiated, NIT is the premier engineering college in Kerala, and stands for the National Institute of Technology, formerly known as REC).

A quick look at my watch shows 8:15… the show was supposed to start at 7:30 but then there’s the clock adjustment called IST – Indian Stretchable Time (Similar to DST in the US, but this is universally applicable). I pull up at the campus soon enough, only to be interrogated by the Police there… (they think I’m some terrorist hell-bent on screwing the show…), after explaining that I mean no harm and I’m just there to have fun, they let me through….

5 minutes and 75 rupees later, I’m at the Open Air Theater and the rest is history… the show was fuckin amazing… all the rock classics.. loads of weed, crazy guitar leads and thumping bass from the drums! Sadly though, I came late and ended up stuck at one corner while my friends were rocking on center stage! One of my friends was ranting about the chicks head-banging and singing along to rock classics, it gave him such a hard-on!

Seriously though, this was a true portal to another dimension, especially in a place like Kerala. For a couple of hours, I was in another place, a better one…. It’s happy to know that rock is alive and kicking here… sharing the venue with like-minded people was just amazing. Then, all of a sudden, we all were relentlessly thrown back into reality when a middle-aged professor came up on stage at the end of the show with his ears covered and spoke in a thick malayali accent… “Aull de shtoodents pleeaze gett aout of de venue from de leaft side!”…

ATM’s in Kerala - A Portal to another Dimension

Life in Kerala is a weird paradox. We shun development in its various forms, and are hell-bent against any real progress. All the ‘real’ development here has been forced upon us by the Central Government & Multi-state Corporate Majors – Rubberised National Highways, Cellular Networks & Telecom Boom, and the new revolution in Banking Convenience. The State Bank of India (SBI) has the highest number of ATM’s in India, including 14 ATM’s in Calicut itself.

My college is in a rural setting, 2 hours away from Calicut by road, with one town nearby. The SBI ATM here is at the entrance to this town. So, facing utterly disgusting food at the hostel, I and my friend take a hike to this nearby town to get some grub to eat. I climb into the ATM to get some cash. From the grimy, dusty outdoors with all the garbage spread around, we climb up a small set of stairs and into this fashionable enclosure, with design elements that are completely out of this world. After swiping my card at the door, a beep and a flashing LED certifies my entry into this restricted space. A sudden breeze of cool air coming from the two ceiling mounted split air-conditioners grazes my skin in a soft, cooling caress. I’m suddenly transported to a different, yet familiar place.

Back in Doha, air conditioning was as bare a necessity as Food and Water. With temperatures peaking in at 51 degrees Celsius in the summer, it was essential to keep them running 24/7. Even our school buses back there were air-conditioned. Somehow, living without it for a while made me realize how amazing it can be. Kerala, with its relatively high per-unit charges for electricity, caused by a cash-strapped state electricity board, finds a/c’s an invitation for trouble. Everyone can afford one, but nobody can afford to keep them running.

Meanwhile, I’m still in my ATM vestibule, enjoying the neat interiors, the glossy flooring, and of course the climate control which keeps the interior at a cool 16 degrees. The glass provides a wonderful pseudo-transparent window to the outside world, and all the sounds from outside are muffled by the vestibule. The ATM’s here in Kerala, and especially the ones they deploy on the Highways for the rural areas are truly a portal to another dimension. As I struggle to get my cash from the machine (the machine’s conked out), I give up. I’m not mad at the machine though. It’s a place that provides a unique escape from the madness that is small-town Kerala. A place that is so inviting, and so seductive, it makes me wish that the ATM machine somehow magically morphs into a big, shiny portal that transports me back to the commercial world, one of Fast-Food joints, Shopping Malls, and uninterrupted air-conditioning! On my way back to the college hostel though, the ATM made up for its rude behavior before. Another trip to my portal for a second attempt, I walked out 200 rupees richer!

Feb 14 my @ss!

One of the worst days in the calendar ever… Feb 14 is loved by some, loathed by others. For me, it’s a perpetual tale of loneliness which becomes all too real on this horrible day. This time, however I made a point to not let it bother me. I wished whoever wished me (2 people) and spent the time trying to study, and work on my laptop that just made it back after a painstaking month of repair work back in Doha (to fix the DVD writer). Although I have a University Exam tomorrow, I was more preoccupied with tweaking the Graphics Processor to achieve more frame rates and visual quality in my Direct3D enabled games using the brand new Mobility Catalyst drivers from ATi. Any doubts now to why I’m alone?

I am probably a living manifestation of the Comic Book Guy in ‘The Simpsons’… heck,even he got lucky once with Principal Skinner’s Mom… There I go again, quoting TV Shows, just like the Comic Book Guy! Bottom Line: Valentines Day Sucks! (For me atleast...)

The Gloomy Intro...

27th March 2003 . This day, will remain unforgotten for the rest of my life. I can’t possibly think of any other day that has changed my life so much. I wake up in the morning, late as usual… get my cup of coffee, entertain some well-wishers at the house… pick up some gifts. Towards the evening it was all about going around town, shopping, having the family pictures taken. I was busy on my phone talking to one of my best friends of the opposite sex (u know, a girl & a friend, but not a girl friend… heavens, no!), fixing a time to meet up.

Later everything’s ready, have a good meal in the house, dress up and leave with my brother in the car, after waving goodbye to my parents. We go to one of our favorite spots in the city, pick up a juicy falafel (one of my favorites…) and drive on. We pull up at KFC to meet my ‘best’ friend and her gang, have a great time and take a few snaps, exchange a few gifts. Then, all of a sudden it’s time to leave, so I get ready and say goodbye to all my friends. I’m back in the car, we drive a short distance… and reach my final destination… get my bags out, check in and pick up my boarding pass to Calicut, India. I snoop around the Duty Free Shop and pick a few final items … and then finally, board my flight. I’m all comfy in my business class seat, and take one last look outside the aircraft window and whisper a soft goodbye to my homeland for 18 years: Doha, Qatar. But that’s all I did then… it never hit me that I’m going away for a long time… that that moment would be the closing of a chapter in my life (one of my best, I guess), that my life would be all downhill from there. After I reach my country of nationality, I cry…. first a bit, and then so much that I’d never ever forget it…

28th March 2003 was the start of this new chapter in my life, a life alone… a life far from my roots (my childhood, and ironically, I came here to study in a place when I can get in touch with my ‘real’ roots!). From then, till now, sitting on a bed with my trusty laptop, little has changed. A flirtatious fling with my homeland, Doha, my country of birth, comes twice a year, once in May, and then again in December. Going back there is an adventure the first day I’m there, a sort of Jet-Lag period to get adjusted and then BANG… I’m right where I left my life behind. It’s a parallel life that I live that’s put on pause when I leave, and then continues right where I left it the moment I land back there.

At my ‘real’ roots here in India however, in the past 3 or so years, I’ve managed to make no real friends, land up in a third-rate college by sheer bad luck, and realize that I’m a 20 year old man who’s living in the present, but whose mind is so badly stuck in the past. Every now and then I have flashbacks about that day that I left, and realize that I should have taken that day more seriously, (like the last day of a man in death row, but who doesn’t realize that he’ll be no more in a few hours).

To make things perfectly clear, I have nothing against my country, India. It’s a great land, I am a keen political observer, keep up-to-date on everything that’s happening around me, patriotic about the way it’s developing and optimistic about its future. I love the freedom, the food, the relaxed way of life; I would quiet frankly say that I have adjusted very well over here. Sadly, I just happen to be in a hellhole part of India… down south in ‘Looney Land’, Kerala; “Gods Own Country” it seems…

The fact is that I really haven’t found the substitute for my ‘best’ friend. She was everything to me back there, a loyal friend, a comfort. The real reason I cried landing her was the fact that I could never ever speak to her like I used to (I’d get charged). I attended my first day at college optimistically, but never really could blend in. It took time, I’ve made a bunch of good friends, but I still haven’t found my substitute, a person who I could talk to when I’m feeling down, which is pretty much why I’m writing this.