Today, I bought a puppy from my relative. I am very fond of pets, but my father is not much interested. I was really surprised when he told me about buying a puppy. The puppy is a cute one, black and white in colour. It likes playing with me and my brothers and always wanted someone to play with. Now, there is a confusion in naming it. My brothers suggested the name “Arjun”, the name of the dog in one of their favorite film, “CID Moosa”. Other suggestions are the common names for dogs like “tippu”, “tommy”, etc. Any other suggestions are welcome…

The photos of the puppy are below.

The list of selected organisations for GSoC 2008 was published and it was a sad news for a few of us that SMC is not in the list. The reason might be that Google is not concentrating on organisations related to language computing. As I checked the ideas from some of the selected organisations(including Coppermine, Drupal, WordPress, etc), I found some, which I could do. Since I am not participating, I am willing to help those who are selecting those topics.

More details about GSoC and the selected organisations can be found at http://code.google.com/soc/

I was not much interested in participating in Google Summer of Code this year due to the high work and study load in the first year of my B-Tech(Every one says that first year is a crucial year). As my friends inspired me, I at last decided to check out the topics. I was concentrating more on topics related to Malayalam, as it will be easy to get included as chances for SMC to be there in the selected organisations is high(SMC was the only organisation selected from India last year). But, when I read the rules and regulations, I found that only those who are of 18 years old on or before 14th April 2008 are allowed to participate. I am still 17 and will be 18 only during last of May. So, at last it was confirmed that I am not participating in GSoC this year.

Last three days witnessed great rain here in Kerala. Its due to the low pressure formed in the Bey of Bengal and is said to last for a few more days. The rain was comparatively less today. In the three days, roads were flooded and many damages were caused, mainly in the agricultural sector. As usual as in rainy days, the electricity played hide and seek with the rain. Any way, the rain might reduce the scarcity of drinking water during the summer.

There was a meeting during noon in our college to discuss about the future activities of GNU Lab at MES CE. It could be considered as the first official one. Raju sir, Raghesh sir and a few students including Shyam and Mahesh were present. The participation in the meeting was less as the study leave for university exams for second and third years starts today.

The current active topics were discussed and Raju sir suggested to go through the previous years Google Summer of Code topics to get more for the GNU Lab. Other suggestion were to have the college labs open 24 hours and to provide the root password for students, so that they could do much more. Raju sir himself supported us by quoting IIT’s and NIT as examples and said that the authorities here are not much encouraging and the college could develop in these aspects only with their help. He also suggested few ideas to overcome such situations. I am a bit disappointed too, that the conclusion of the meeting was to give first years works like to introduce or work with a particular software or topic. I think there might be talented ones who could do much beyond that and the selection criteria should not be based on year or semester wise.