These are definitely needed before I even begin to describe the places in the Ladakh region of Kashmir. All of it is beautiful, and I mean not only the places but also the roads and rivers and valleys and snow covered mountains and everything in and around them.

They are ideal for a getaway from the rat-race that is city life. Not only are they unique in their beauty, you will be gasping with awe every time you see a mountain or a river, no matter how many times you have already seen them.

Here are some of the places I visited :

Srinagar : A bustling city, the gardens are a must watch. They are really beautiful and very well maintained. Staying in the house boats is a novel experience, even if they are half moored on land and don’t move about in the lake.

Sonmarg : A truly beautiful place. Lots of greenery,snow. Good place for adventure sports. The Thajwas glacier is quite nearby from here. A nice tricky place to climb up a snow mountain without much equipment If you are going somewhere and are passing through Sonmarg, it is best to pass Sonmarg before noon, as the heavy motor vehicles are let out at noon and they therefore hog the road.

The route from Sonmarg to Kargil has awesome sights, and nothing less than pictures can do full justice to it. On this road, the journey is literally more beautiful than the destination.

Drass : A town en route to Kargil. Reportedly the coldest inhabited place in the world. Non-vegetarian food is the major diet here.

Kargil : A small town which gained popularity after the 1999 Kargil war, there isn’t much to watch here except a museum which has war relics as well as a 5 Lakh note (currency, I don’t know :S ). It gets pretty cold here during the night. There is a memorial dedicated to Operation Vijay, which won us the Kargil War, some distance before Kargil.Almost all the mountains on which battles were fought can be seen from here.

On the Kargil – Alchi route comes the famous Maitreya Buddha statue, that of the Buddha to come.

Also on the way is the famous Llamayuru monastery.

The way from Kargil to Alchi is mainly rocky and barren mountains, but those mountains emanate a strange kind of beauty. They are beautiful in a special way,more beautiful than any kind of other moutains you will see.

Uley : Uley is a small village some way before Alchi,and is actually just a resort in the lap of nature. It is truly natural, with cottages surrounded by apricot and apple trees and overlooking the river. Its very peaceful and serene over there, away from everything. A perfect getaway. My previous poetry perfectly describes Uley. Oh, and those of you wanting to tweet from there about how great it is, there is no mobile network coverage there

Alchi monastery is another famous monastery.

On the way from Alchi to Leh are quite a few interesting sights :

1. Magnetic hill : Keep you car on the white paint on the road, and the hill automatically pulls the car toward itself. Unbelivable, eh ? Try it, it works.

2. Pathar Sahib : This is the place where a demon threw a large rock on a meditating Guru Gobind Singh. The stone failed to do any harm on the Guru and a partial impression of Guru Gobind Singh can be found on that rock.

3. Hall of Fame Museum : All of the Indian army’s exploits in the mountainous north can be found here, including the adventures in Siachen and the Ladakh ranges. Commendable work and impressive show.

Leh : Leh is quite a big town, with a large part of the population there engaged in the booming tourism industry there. Agriculture is another important occupation here.The Ladakhi song and dance is truly light and beautiful.Don’t miss it.

Leh is the center for most tourist activities, and people generally visit the Pangong Lake, Nubra Valley, Tsomoriri and Tsokar from here. Things worth seeing in Leh are the Leh Palace and the Shanti Stupa. Leh is a popular destination for cycling, motor-cycling,rafting and para-gliding. Likir and Thiksey are the famous monasteries en route Hemis.

Likir Monastery

Hemis : Hemis is a village a little ahead of Leh. It is famous for its monastery. It is the only monastery which holds its annual festival in the spring, when there is no snow, unlike all others which conduct them in winter, and therefore cannot be witnessed by most tourists. This festival is immensely colorful and attracts a lot of foreign tourists as well as locals. This festival consists of a complete village fair along with cultural and religious programs in the monastery. This festival generally happens for 2 days in a year in the beginning of July. I was lucky to catch it on the 2nd and 3rd of July.

Lake Pangong : A 5 hour drive from Leh, this lake is the highest inland lake in the world, and is shared with China. This is a real gorgeous work of art by God and shines with all the shades of blue and green when the sun shines on it. Truly worth watching.

On the way to Pangong lake is Chang-La Pass, the 2nd highest pass in the world (17586 Ft). It is generally snow covered and windy. A cool place to be It is difficult to stay there for more than 20 minutes due to breathing problems caused by the lack of oxygen at such a high altitude.

Nubra Valley : It is a beautiful valley at a 5 hour drive from Leh. On the way is Khardung-La, the highest motorable road in the world (18380 Ft).

The Hundur and Deskit villages are rest spots in Nubra valley, with camel safaris close by. The strange thing about this is that there are silver sand dunes right next to the river ! Apparently the J & K Tourism Department thinks that this has good potential The only lodgings here are tents. If you can find a camp by a river, you will get a real good chance of experiencing nature at its very best.

Sarchu : Sarchu is a beautiful place almost midway between Leh and Manali. Baralacha, Tanglangla and Nakeela are the lofty passes on the way. Also on the way are the Chandra Taal and Deepak Tal,lakes from where the Chandra and Bagha rivers originate. Sarchu is surrounded on all sides by mountains. There are camps on the flat land between the mountains which truly make you feel small The wind whispering in your ears all evening is an added joy. At night temperatures go down to 2-3 degrees so be prepared to face the cold.All said and done, Sarchu is a place worth visiting.

Its a pity Sarchu lies where it does.The route from Leh to Manali is the worst I have ever seen in my life. There are no pucca roads.In certain stretches visibility is a serious problem due to the dust the vehicles kick up. There is a 5 minute flat stretch for which the road literally disappears..All one sees is tyre tracks going everywhere and no kuccha or pucca road !! God help the inexperienced driver ! Also, there is no mobile network coverage once you leave Leh uptil Keylong. So if you are stuck, may other drivers help you !

All said and done, all of it makes you feel like you have come to a different world altogether. So if you get a chance, TAKE IT !! The beauty there is Leh-gendary !!

I know of a getaway, away from it all
Far away from the noise, where few footsteps fall
Resting blissfully in nature’s loving arms
Where we can give in to the life’s simple charms

Where rises the sun early and bright
And the weather is always just about right
With early morning rain to wash its face
And clouds to line the sky like pearly white lace

With tress laden with apples,raw and sweet
And farms all around gleefully waving its golden wheat
With a gentle river to maintain the peace,
Overwhelm the troubled mind and bring it to ease

This place, it would break your heart to leave
This haven, where a year would seem but an eve
This getaway of mine, is no childish fancy
This portal to heaven, is beyond what you could ever fancy

Click here to view the result
Click here to view the top 100 students

Having already been through this phase and having not much interesting stuff to do, I decided to go through the results to have an estimate as to what juniors I might get at VJTI. Here are my observations :

1. Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban and Thane together have 55 or so toppers among the top hundred

2. A fair number of them are Gujjus. ( No implications, just an observation )

3. The toppers from Agrawal Classes in HSC have yet again made it to the top in the MHT CET

4. The top-100 closed this time at 191 as opposed to 193 effectively last time.

5. The last rank given to a guy at 196 was 46 last time whereas it is 18 this time. This means that the density of students at the very top is less. This probably, not necessarily means that the density below (after and around 192/191) maybe be higher. However, I expect cut-offs to go down by at least 1 or 2 marks this time.

6. As last time, the number of people in the top 100 from the reserved category are less. This effectively means that more people from this category will get a better chance to get into the most desired institutes.

Finally, for those wanting to getting into or knowing about VJTI, let me tell you that all the bad press VJTI got recently about losing autonomy is very biased and prejudiced, written by one and only one reporter. There were management concerns expressed, but I think this presentation here effectively puts them to rest.

Details for admission to Autonomous Institutes here
Last year’s cut-offs for Autonomous Institutes (2008-2009) here

Cheers,

Hope to see some of you around in VJTI

1. MOSI : Master Out,Slave In :

Pin B,5

This line is used by the master to send out data to the slave.The Master always initiates any communication.

2. MISO : Master In,Slave Out :

Pin B,6

This line is used by the slave to send data to the master.

3. SCK : Serial Clock :

Pin B,7

This is the serial clock generator. Communication takes place only when the clock is working.The clock starts a cycle when the master initiates communication.

4. (~SS): Slave Select :
Pin B,4

The slave will respond only if the Slave Select line is pulled low.If not pulled low,the chip will not read data even if keeps on receiving clock pulses.The Master pulls the Slave select line high again at the end of the data transfer to synchronise the slave.

Connections :

Master ——————————————> Slave

MOSI ——————————————> MOSI

SCK ——————————————> SCK

~SS ——————————————-> ~SS

MISO <—————————————— MISO

Data Flow :

The SPI supports a full duplex operation, which means communication can take place both ways simultaneously, i.e. data can be sent on one line and received on another line simultaneously.

When two-way communication is desired, it is best to follow the following method.
1. Write Data to the SPDR (SPI Data Register)
2. Wait till the transmission is complete. You can do this either by polling a flag or by using interrupts.
3. Read the SPSR (SPI Status Register) and then the SPDR immediately after that, in that order, if you are using the polling method. Just reading the SPDR is enough if you are using the interrupt example.

This will prevent any accidental loss of data.

This can be done safely even with the slave, since the data which has been queued up in the SPDR will not be transmitted unless the Master initializes communication. However, iteration-based loops cannot be used in the case of the slave to send data, since it is unsure when the Master will initiate communication and so the data would keep on updating in the SPDR without being sent. It is thus advisable to use the interrupt method in case a transmission by the slave is desired.

Modes of Operation :

Click here to view the modes of operation.

Control registers :

• Bit 7 – SPIE : SPI Interrupt Enable

This bit causes the SPI interrupt to be executed if SPIF bit in the SPSR Register is set and if
the global interrupt is enabled.

• Bit 6 – SPE : SPI Enable

1 —-> SPI Enabled
0 —-> SPI Disabled

• Bit 5 – DORD : Data Order

If DORD = 1 , the LSB of the data word is transmitted first.
If DORD = 0 , the MSB of the data word is transmitted first.

• Bit 4 – MSTR : Master/Slave Select

MSTR = 0 —-> Slave Mode
MSTR = 1 —-> Master Mode

If SS is configured as an input and is driven low while MSTR is set, MSTR will be cleared,
and SPIF in SPSR will become set. MSTR will then have to be set again manually to re-enable SPI Master mode.

• Bit 3 – CPOL : Clock Polarity

CPOL = 1 —-> SCK is high when idle
CPOL = 0 —-> SCK is low when idle

• Bit 2 – CPHA : Clock Phase

The settings of the Clock Phase bit (CPHA) determine if data is sampled on the leading (first) or
trailing (last) edge of SCK.

• Bits 1, 0 – SPR1, SPR0 : SPI Clock Rate Select 1 and 0
These control the SCK rate of the Master device and have no effect on the Slave. The relationship between SCK and the Oscillator Clock frequency (fosc) is shown in the following table:

Status Register :

• Bit 7 – SPIF : SPI Interrupt Flag

This flag is set when a serial transfer is complete. An interrupt is generated if SPIE in
SPCR is set and global interrupts are enabled. If ~SS is an input and is driven low when the SPI is in Master mode, this will also set the SPIF Flag. SPIF is cleared by hardware when executing the corresponding interrupt routine or it can be manually cleared by first reading the
SPI Status Register with SPIF set, then accessing the SPI Data Register (SPDR).

• Bit 6 – WCOL : Write COLlision Flag

The WCOL bit is set if the SPI Data Register (SPDR) is written during a data transfer. The
WCOL bit (and the SPIF bit) are cleared by first reading the SPI Status Register with WCOL set,
and then accessing the SPI Data Register.

• Bit 5..1 – Res : Reserved Bits

• Bit 0 – SPI2X : Double SPI Speed Bit
When this bit is written to one the SPI speed (SCK Frequency) will be doubled when the SPI
is in Master mode . This means that the minimum SCK period will be two CPU
clock periods, as opposed to the minimum of 4 in normal mode. When the SPI is configured as Slave, the SPI is only guaranteed to work at fosc/4 or lower.

The SPI interface on the ATmega16 is also used for program memory and EEPROM download-
ing or uploading.

Sample code:

Click here to view sample code to setup and perform SPI communication in the master.
The code to setup the slave is pretty simple and can be found in the ATMEGA16 Datasheet on Page No. 139

Resources :

1. ATMEGA16 Datasheet
2. Modes of Operation
3. Sample Code

Just today I woke up with this great idea of doing something good and something useful.
Well, I was thinking what it could be, when I suddenly tried a software which increased my Internet download speed exponentially ( 7kbps to 400kbps is exponential from me ). Then it struck me !!

I am going to try and spread Linux distros around me…
My major reasons for deciding to do so are :

1. Linux is a great open source alternative and the communities are active
2. Its not very popular among people I know and people around me
3. People who are interested can’t get their hands on distros, since none of them except Ubuntu give out free CDs, and downloading or paying for them somehow doesn’t appeal to a vast majority of us Indians…

Just today I woke up with this great idea of doing something good and something useful.
Well, I was thinking what it could be, when I suddenly tried a software which increased my Internet download speed exponentially ( 7kbps to 400kbps is exponential from me ). Then it struck me !!

I am going to try and spread Linux distros around me…
My major reasons for deciding to do so are :

1. Linux is a great open source alternative and the communities are active
2. Its not very popular among people I know and people around me

3. People who are interested can’t get their hands on distros, since none of them except Ubuntu give out free CDs, and downloading or paying for them somehow doesn’t appeal to a vast majority of us Indians…

So, here’s how I aim to do it :
1. Drop me an email or comment on this post with your emai id if you are interested in a Linux distro I mention below or any other (free) distro which you have in mind
2. I contact you
3. You provide me a blank CD and I burn the distro on it for you. Simple !!
4. Also, please do spread the stuff around, as this is what this initiative is about anyways.

AND BEFORE YOU ASK, I AM PLANNING TO DO IT FOR FREE !! (Unless you REALLY want to pay me for it )

Also, if you are interested in helping me with my initiative ( since I can’t reach out to too many people alone), please contact me via email and we can work something out.I really need help from you people if this is to succeed, you know.

I REPEAT, I AM DOING THIS FOR FREE. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DROP ME AN EMAIL OR COMMENT ON THIS POST, GET A BLANK CD ALONG, AND I’LL BURN THE DISTRO FOR YOU.

I am in the process of adding distros, so please bear with me while the entire list comes up.

You can find a list of various popular distros and their comparisons here:

1. Linux Forums

2. Distro Watch

DISCLAIMER :
You must realize that this is a free service meant to help you all, so please do not try to sue me. I am just trying to provide the software as is. I do not promote use of any of the above software. I am not responsible for damages/losses or any adverse effects resulting out of use of any of the distros provided. It may not be possible to respond to all requests, but I will try my best.

Recently, I was searching for a convenient alternative when I came across “Way2SMS” which provides exactly what I was looking for : free SMS notifications as soon as new email arrives !! Awesome !!

How it works :
I sign up for a Way2SMS account, they ask me what user id I prefer ( its something like your_id@way2sms.com), fill up your number and some minor details and your account is ready !! Then you go to settings, and in the SMS tab and activate mail notifications. Simple !! Awesome !!

Now,all you have to do is forward a copy of your email ( from whichever email ID you use) to your way2sms id and you are done…Every time you get an email, you get notified on your cell phone.Plus, they also let you chat on your GTalk and Yahoo! ids from within their dashboard, pretty decent mp3 ringtones,an address book, quick SMS and Group SMS. Their SMS feature also beats SMSGupshup because they allow you to send SMS upto 110 characters and unlike SMSGupshup, all of my messages till now have neither been delayed or lost.

The only catch I found in Way2SMS was that they require you to activate your email notification setting every 7 days, otherwise it is automatically deactivated.I understand its a way to make sure users keep coming back and not forget about it, but I am sure they will be able to work out a better way.

Ok, to sum it up, here’s what I loved about it :

• Instant SMS updates (they claim 10 secs. and deliver too) on receiving email
• Usable with any email service that lets you forward email,even official IDs
  
• Customisable,in case you want to receive only specific updates
• You can select what time and days you prefer to receive notifications
• You can select to receive notifications only from your contacts
• They do not serve ads at the end of email notifications (not yet,anyways)
• You can notify recipients on their mobile when you send them email (!!!)
• ITS ALL FREE !!

I hope they carry on the good work !! Kudos, guys !!

————————————————————————————————
Disclaimer : This is NOT a paid review. All views expressed here are my own.

Recently, I was searching for a convenient alternative when I came across “Way2SMS” which provides exactly what I was looking for : free SMS notifications as soon as new email arrives !! Awesome !!

How it works :
I sign up for a Way2SMS account, they ask me what user id I prefer ( its something like your_id@way2sms.com), fill up your number and some minor details and your account is ready !! Then you go to settings, and in the SMS tab and activate mail notifications. Simple !! Awesome !!

Now,all you have to do is forward a copy of your email ( from whichever email ID you use) to your way2sms id and you are done…Every time you get an email, you get notified on your cell phone.Plus, they also let you chat on your GTalk and Yahoo! ids from within their dashboard, pretty decent mp3 ringtones,an address book, quick SMS and Group SMS. Their SMS feature also beats SMSGupshup because they allow you to send SMS upto 110 characters and unlike SMSGupshup, all of my messages till now have neither been delayed or lost.

The only catch I found in Way2SMS was that they require you to activate your email notification setting every 7 days, otherwise it is automatically deactivated.I understand its a way to make sure users keep coming back and not forget about it, but I am sure they will be able to work out a better way.

Ok, to sum it up, here’s what I loved about it :

• Instant SMS updates (they claim 10 secs. and deliver too) on receiving email
• Usable with any email service that lets you forward email,even official IDs
  
• Customisable,in case you want to receive only specific updates
• You can select what time and days you prefer to receive notifications
• You can select to receive notifications only from your contacts
• They do not serve ads at the end of email notifications (not yet,anyways)
• You can notify recipients on their mobile when you send them email (!!!)
• ITS ALL FREE !!

I hope they carry on the good work !! Kudos, guys !!

————————————————————————————————
Disclaimer : This is NOT a paid review. All views expressed here are my own.

Click here for a quick intro on interrupts.

Okay, now why are they of importance to us ? A lot of stuff generates signals in the form of voltages or voltage changes to indicate decided events. For example, a device might have one line which goes low for a few clock cycles and then high again to indicate that it has completed its task.We can therefore use this line as an external interrupt line to schedule further tasks.

The ATMEGA16/32 has 3 external interrupt lines : INTO,INT1 and INT2, on pins PD2,PD3 and PB2.

Interrupts on INT0 and INT1 can be

1. level-triggered(meaning that the interrupt is triggered when the signal goes low i.e. 0V for some time

OR

2. edge-triggered(meaning that the interrupt is triggered when the signal changes from high to low or low to high)

====> INT2 can only be used as an edge-triggered interrupt.

Setting up the interrupts :: Control Registers

MCUCR : MCU Control Register

Bits 3,2,1,0 are the ones which are of importance to us.

Bits 3,2 are used for sensing an external interrupt on line INT1.
Bits 1,0 are used for sensing an external interrupt on line INT0.

The table for setting up these bits is as follows :

The table for INT0 is similar to the one above.

It is to be noted that if an edge triggered interrupt is selected, the edge (change) must last for at least one cycle for it to be detected. Similarly, if a low level triggered interrupt is selected, the low signal level must be held till the instruction being executed currently by the MCU is completed.

MCUCSR : MCU Control and Status Register

Bit 6 is the only one of importance here, and controls the INT2 line.

If this bit is set to 1, a rising edge generates an interrupt and if it is set to 0, a falling edge generates an interrupt.
The pulses here also must be longer than one clock cycle.

Also, the ISC2 bit must be set following a specific method,since an interrupt can occur even while changing the ISC2 bit.

The procedure is something like this :

1.Disable INT2 by clearing its Interrupt Enable bit in the GICR Register.
2.The ISC2 bit can be changed.
3.The INT2 Interrupt Flag should be cleared by writing a logical one to its Interrupt Flag bit (INTF2) in the GIFR Register before the interrupt is re-enabled.

GICR : General Interrupt Control Register

Bit 7,6,5 enable the INT1, INT0 and INT2 lines respectively if set to one.

GIFR : General Interrupt Flag Register

Bit 7,6,5 manage the status of the Interrupt requests. The flag is set for each of these when the respective line is triggered, and cleared when the corresponding interrupt service routine is executed.Alternatively, we can clear the flags manually by writing it to 1.

Click here for sample code.

Resources :

1. ATMEGA 16 Datasheet
2. Introduction to interrupts
3. Sample Code

The images of the register configurations have been taken from the ATMEGA16 Datasheet.