Kerala Adobe User group was honoured to conduct an event at Amrita Institute, vallikkavu where the flex developers team were able to communicate with Adobe Professional Arul Kumaran. Arul was the one who motivated us to conduct this event even when he was only available for couple of days.

My good friend Aneesh anand from Amrita made all the arrangements in coordination with Kamal Bijilani of the E-learning team at Amrita.

The Venue, Amrita Institute.

Although it was 3 hours travel from ernakulam, we made it by starting early and hiring a taxi.

The Audience

Audience were mostly starters in Flex along with some expert project leads with Java background.

The Celebrity

Arul started with the history of flash and how the whole evolution happened. He took time to answer all the queries and also demonstrated his Open Source tools which can make life easier for any Flex developer.

The Support

I made myself available as support, mostly adding bits of information to what Arul was sharing. There was a small interacttive session on game development where I tried to answer queries on gaming and 3D in flash.

The Sight seeing.

Aneesh took us around the ashram and we had the chance to see the awesome seaside view from a multistoried building. It was breathtaking and all of us enjoyed the same. On the way back we talked a lot about technology and life in general. For me it was the chance to meet up with a great person who was really down to earth and eager to share experience, that mattered the most. End of the day I was a richer guy with a new friend and lots of professional information.

Lady Juwal joined us on the way back as we had lots of pending thing to do as part of marriage preparations. It seemed like a family reunion when we three came together. Arul commented that he was happy to find a like minded person and I too realised the common energy channel running in both of us. I hope that this be the starting of a fruitful friendship, all thanks to Arul for making this happen.

No related posts.

I had the privilege although accidentally, to take manage the Adobe workshop at MEC.

From Drop Box

I was informed only a couple of days prior to the event by Harish Sivaramakrishnan about the event at Model. It was a flex workshop and Adobe representation was impossible because of traveling restrictions over the Ayodhya verdict coming out that day. It was a as short a notice as it can get, so it was really hard to find people to take up the workshop. My expertise in Flex was that of a novice and I was not apt to take the workshop. After calling in a lot of favours and being denied by many, I got confirmation from Cabot Solutions. Mr. Shibu Basheer was really forthcoming and ready to provide a team of Flex experts for the event.

So i decided to take sessions on introducing the flash platform, Flex and AIR and then let the team from Cabot take the workshop. I could not create new slides and those adobe sent were not tailored to my suiting. So i decided to adapt the Key note by Ben Forta for the AFPS event. Everything went smoothly, and we did eventually run out of time. There was little issue with the flex version being dicstributed among the students and the goodies from Adobe. Goodies including Tshirts were sent by courier to my addres and it didnt reach on the date of the event. I later on delivered it to Sreedhar, the student coordinator.
Sreedhar did a wonderful job coordinating the event and also letting me have the snaps of the event.

Related posts:

1. Blender Workshop @ASIET
2. Adobe User group meet at Oberon Mall

As part of my interest in Adobe technologies, I had been part of Kerala Adobe User group. Trying to build a community of Adobe technology users to share info and support each other. I have hosted the UG site at godsowsdevelopers. We had a very successful user group meeting at Oberon mall on 12th Dec 2009. Being the first meeting it was conducted on an unofficial manner in order to measure the attendance and support of the members and as a bench mark to plan ahead for future meetups.

From Adibe User Group meet 12th Dec 09

I would be entirely grateful to Mr. Vipin Chandran and all the members of Toobler for making the event a success. Majority attendees were from toobler under the guidance of Jerry and Bobbin. We had SEO specialists, PHP expert, Artists (award winning at that), cold fusion expert, Flex and flash developers.

From Adibe User Group meet 12th Dec 09

We started off when the team from toobler reached us. We were joined by Musavir and couple of others later on. We had general discussions, introductions and the distribution of the Adobe goodies. We venue was not exactly suitable for open discussions as there was this music going on. Yet once vipin joined us things heated up as he took everything into control with expert views and opinions from his vast experience with Adobe software.

From Adibe User Group meet 12th Dec 09

Later on we decided to have a stand up talk anchored by Vipin where we had some discussions on web services, flex 4, Cold fusion Builder etc. He advised on how to move forward with the group and gave some valid points regarding other User groups and meeting which he had known in his 9+ years of industrial experience.

From Adibe User Group meet 12th Dec 09

We all had a lot to learn from the bits of info he was sharing. He also told the team about planning the next meeting more officially with dedicated sessions and support infrastructure. Later on we planned about spreading awareness about the user group among other IT companies and institutions and taking it to the next level in 2010. We have decided to conduct next UG meet in Kochi itself at a more dedicated meeting space with projectors and sessions. All those who missed out on this one are welcome to join up and be active in strengthening the activities and spreading the news.

Special thanks to all those who attended

Related posts:

1. Adobe Flash Platform Summit 2010
2. Adobe workshop – Model Engineering College

So I had the opportunity to take a full day workshop on Blender at the Engineering college, ASIET at Kalady. It was organised as part of the software freedom day by the Computer Science students at the college.

From Drop Box

I had prepared a lot this time around which covered all segments of character modeling and animation. Mr. Vishnu from the college who had contacted me for the workshop, had mentioned that all students were interested in character development. College turned out to be highly disciplined and all the students were already present and seated when i arrived. Was a bit late for that matter and thanks to some real driving from bro’s part, we reached almost on time. Manoj was with me for the workshop. I had a meeting with the principal and HOD at the principals room. We talked about how 3d art can be used for inter college competitions and the betterment of students.

From Drop Box

I used my mac mini for the demonstration and blender worked just fine. The students helped screen the 2 ope movies in blender. I also showed them some games which were developed in blender along with final character rigs for some of my characters and some professional characters.

From Drop Box

The sad thing was that, i could not even take 20% of what i had originally prepared. Well but i hope i had instilled some interest among the students there.

From Drop Box

Session at Amrita

Related posts:

1. Adobe workshop – Model Engineering College
2. My Session on Blender

This time it was my third visit to kumarakom. The place has some unforgettable memories for me and this time around it was no less. Here is the post on the earlier one. This time it was a houseboat trip arranged by Arun George for his marriage. Class mates from College of Engineering Chengannur were supposed to join up for the trip and visit him for marriage the other day.

From Kumarakom_May_09

I was the first one to reach the boat as timeliness was an asset with all my friends and they were supposed to reach the place at 11.30

From Kumarakom_May_09

I waited for them to join up and had a chat with the people of the boat. Here are the details on the boat if any one want to contact – Alumparanbil, Cheepunkal, Kumarakom North, 0481-2525797 (Soji-9846184654)
It will cost you around 11000Rs for one day trip on the boat. It had 3 bed rooms and sun deck with vcd tv on board. We had natural cocconut drinks on arrival and the food was commendably good.

From Kumarakom_May_09

It was the day of election results and thanks to hightech Jyothis we had live net on blackberry and laptop.

From Kumarakom_May_09

We had smirmoff vodka sponsored by AGT, but there would be no fun without the local Toddy So we came ashore at R-block, which was an artificial island created by Murikkan and taken over by the Govt. He had cultivated cocconut in the whole island and it was the hub for Toddy. We had 5 litres for Rs70/Ltr.

From Kumarakom_May_09

But just before having the drinks we decided to take a bath in the salty waters on vembanad lake. It was really shallow and we had some limited fun in it as the water was real salty.

From Kumarakom_May_09

Now inside the boat too the water supply was salty and i got informed that it was seasonal when the lake water gets salty due to onrush of seawater. Licenses for boat to travel was till 6 pm at night, after which they had to be ashore. So some of our friends were coming to join us at night, it was a tricky place to find as we were inside remote areas of the lake. But we ultimately found each other in the thick of the night.

Heated political discussions were there all through out the night when all the topics under the sun were seriously covered. I found myself sleeping on the sun deck that night as a watchman for the boat. It was fun despite the mosquitoes. Next day we arose to the magnificent sight of migratory birds in the fields near by.

From Kumarakom_May_09

We got ashore near cheepunkal bridge at 9am and were ready for the marriage at kottayam.

Related posts:

1. A Trip to Kumarakom

From BarcampKerala 5

Attended bck five point oh aka BCK5 at technopark. This one had lots of specialties to it, we had a new Tshirt being distributed (RS 220) , I was taking a session on Adobe technologies, lots of attendees and we got to travel with SEO guru Mani Karthik from dailyseoblog.com. Check out some photos here

My session slides are shared here

Now it was fun traveling with Mani as he was giving out expensive tips and help. Also being a god driver we reached prior to the organisers. When we reached there we saw Binny already present and after a little bit Anand and Kenney came along. We went to have food together which was kinda fun. We also had with us Binoy who was displaying his all new HP mini lap. The sessions were fun as Binnys session fired up new talks and discussions. Now looking forward to next one.

Some old links here : Barcamp1, Barcamp2

No related posts.

The idea was there when i first did my trip to wayanad. I selectively left out Chembra peak for the sole reason to conquer it with fellow trekker Anish. So we planned to execute it on the third weekend of March09. Anish came to my home the friday evening and stayed with us. The next day we had an official agreemetn signing of a court case which had been prevailing for some years now. That was a satisfying settlement as we were getting some money back. We started our travel on bus before after noon. We had to see Devraj as Anish had to collect a mural painting which dev was doing. At trissur we met up with dev and he handed over the 6 foot mural of ‘Ashtalakshmi‘ which pictured 8 lakshmi goddesses. Anish settled the payment and we took a bus to kozhikode where we planned to deliver the mural, get the Fuji camera that anish had a friend bring him from US. When everything got settled it was very late at night and we planned to book a ticket to wayanad. Although we booked our tickets we found that our seats were already taken, thanks to some real sloppy work by the people at the ticket counter. Duplicate tickets were given out for the same pair of seats and we were left out. We got a refund and waited for the next bus. We reached Kalpetta at nearly 2 am and started enquiring about lodgings. Alas all the lodgings in Kalpetta was booked. This was news and the reason was that during weekends people from bangalore make weekend getaways to this place and all locdgingd got booked on weekends. We looked around for some time and found that the onl y option left was to find transport to sultan bethery and find a lodging there. We waited at bus stand and then the magazines arrived. Bunch of people started sorting everything. We were amazed to find this activity and to our happiness we found that the vehicle was going to sultan bethery to deliver news paper. We got a ride and it was real fun as the vehicle was free rolling onto shops to throw paper kits over to them. At sultan bethery we got a lodge for Rs 450 which was not worth Rs150, but we had no complaints.

We started early after 3 hours sleep, took bus to Kalpetta where we enquired about any bus leaving in the evening in which we can book tickets back. But the timings were not right. So we had food and got on bus to meppadi were we got an auto to Chembra peak. We actually stopped over at the forest range office at meppadi and the officer there informed us that the permission was not to be given from there. We would get the pass and guides from the office near the peak itself. The auto guy took us to the ticket counter which was on the way upto the chembra estate.

From Chembra_Mar_09

The tickets were for Rs 1000 for hard trekking and Rs 500 for mild trekking. This was an overkill as i had made treks on Himalayas for much cheaper rates. They will provide a guide for the rate and we were charged Rs 500 and allotted the hard trek. We all know that no one will come trekking if they charge Rs 1000. The auto took us to the bottom of the estate for Rs 70. It was 7kms and it was fair enough.
We started our walk towards a look out post where we found another guard. It was a scenic poit from where we can see the landscape.

From Chembra_Mar_09

The trek was supposed to be 4 hours up and down if we took it at a stretch. It was 2100 feets climb to the top and we took turns to rest when the guide simply walked on. We saw some other gangs returning from the trek and some foreigners too. It was only after a while that we saw the peak for real.

From Chembra_Mar_09

The whole area was barren due to a recent wild fire. Actually there should have been long grasses which were 6 feet high blocking all views. But this time we could see everything and that really killed the fun. We reached the lake where the mild trekking will end. Had some chocolates and bananas and lots of water. Advise is to carry 2 bottles of water atleast.

From Chembra_Mar_09

The trek consisted of 5 tiers of mountain climbing one after the other. We could reast after each steep climb. It was kind of severe when considered to the other treks that we had made.

From Chembra_Mar_09

It took us 3 hours to reach the summit. After some initial troubles we had become accustomed to the trek and towards the end it just ended abruptly. Last stretch of climb was rocky and fun.

From Chembra_Mar_09

On reaching the summit every one lied down basking in the mild sun. Sun had gone behind clouds and there was good breeze. This was relaxing. No one spoke a word, we just rested there watching the beauty all around us.

From Chembra_Mar_09

We were feeling real hungry by now as we didnt take much food on the way and have not had a good nights sleep. Suddenly we found that it was going to rain. We both had new cameras and were terrified at getting wet. So we had to rush down to beat the rain.

From Chembra_Mar_09

So we rushed down and made it back in record time. We just beat the rain and reached our Auto ride whom we had called up on our way back. We got back to our lodgings and took some rest, food and refreshment. We cancelled the idea of going for the Air bus as it was really late. We took a late night KSRTC to my place and Anish exited at his Uncles place at Kozhikode. We both knew that this was the most severe trek we had performed yet. It was also kind of dry as the vegetation was all removed due to the fire. I think i will take a break from dry treks for a while and rather look for scenic places for the time being. Looking forward to a getaway in the coming months.

No related posts.

From Life Snaps

I take this opportunity to thank you for allowing us to conduct the educational tour. I
am pleased to present the following tour report,
As planned we departed from the college at 5:30 pm on 8-8-2000. We stopped at Kumily at
10:00 pm for taking permit. By that time we had dinner and got refreshed.
We reached Pondicherry at 9:00 am on 9-8-2000. We went to Youth Hostel and had breakfast
and refreshment there. From Youth Hostel we went to VDesign Pvt. Ltd. for the technical
visit. We attended a seminar on VHDL (Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware
Description Language). After the seminar, TPC members from S3 B held discussions with the
director of the firm. After the technical visit we had lunch at hotel Ram International. After
lunch, we went to Aurobindo Ghosh Ashram. There we offered prayers at the samadhi of the
great saint. After visiting the ashram, we spent time on the Beach Road. We also found time
for shopping at the Nehru Street, which was nearby. After shopping we had dinner at hotel
Sagar. At 11:00 pm, we left Pondicherry for Yercaud.
We reached Yercaud at 7:00 am on 10-8-2000. After breakfast at hotel Tamil Nadu, we went
for sight -seeing. We went to Lady’s Seat, a viewpoint 3 km from the hotel on foot, as it was
not accessible by bus. On coming back we had lunch from the same hotel. After lunch, we
went for trekking to KilliyurWater falls. But we couldn’t visit the falls as it was about to rain
_and we were forced to return~ After trekking we went for boating at 5:30 pm. Pedal boats
were available for rent till 6:30 pm. At 6:45 pm, we went back to hotel and prepared for our
campfire. Dinner was served at 8:30 pm. We conducted the campfire at 10:00 pm and went to
bed at 11:30 pm. At 6:30 am on 11th, we left Yercaud.
~== On way to Black Thunder, we had our breakfast in a restaurant at Bhavani. There we were
surprised to meet the S3 D batch on tour. We reached Mettupalayam at 12:30. Lunch was
served free of cost inside Black Thunder itself for all the students and staff members. We
enjoyed the water games till 6:00 pm and we left for Coimbatore at 6:00 pm.
–= ~=~
Dinner was arranged at Hotel Annapoorna near the Town Hall. After dinner, we went for
shopping till 10:30 pm. At 11:00 pm we left Coimbatore and reached our college at 5:00 am
on 12-8-2000 as planned.
The technical visit arranged at Pondicherry was very much informative. The tour also helped to
create a better understanding between the students and the staff members. I once again thank
you on behalf of the class for allowingus to conduct our educational tour.
Sd/-
Arun George T
Tour Representative
S3B
CEC

No related posts.

When i was passing out of professional college i wanted to do some kool thing which others think twice or thrice before following. Then this desire died out in time when i wandered around aimless for a couple of years , ultimately landing at my destination. After some hectic time at entrepreneurship at office suddenly boredom was setting in..then suddenly my long lost desire came back!

Now what was too kool with out much trouble..which i can accomplish that others wont follow up. Hmm after long thoughts and brainstorming i found out the original desire which was lying dormant in my mind all these years – get a tattoo!

Tattoo was always a taboo in my society and i never wanted to do stuff against my parents wishes. Everyone is supposed to do social functions with their shirts off in Hindu religion, so i cant get too wierd. So i decided on a black and white twin dragon tattoo which was quite famous. Then all of a sudden 2 of my friends got tattoed and started making fun of me. I was the one who was talking abt getting the tattoo and they overtook me. hmmm no w i have to live upto the reputation by doing something better..lets see. The i booked tickets to blore where these guys got the tattoo and informed my friend Aby , yes the same guy! I didnt tell any one else but got permission from mom, thank god she doesnot care much these days and has given me a grownup status!

So i was there one weekend and we started off to find the studio the next day which was a sunday. We found the studio in commercial street after getting wierd looks from ppl with whom we had to ask the directions. Then i saw there were other studios also and some of them did gunshots! ehmm! It was a small room and the long haired handsome (girly) artist welcomed us. I am very nervous about getting affected by some health problems..even Aids for that matter. The setup didnt look very good. Anyways the guy gave me courage and took out 3 albums of tattoo designs. We started looking thru..meanwhile we asked the rate and all. It was rated per square inch i believe, my memory a little rusty. Normal shoulder tattoos costed around 1000 -2500. Then i saw colored tattoos..well i had to do something better. I decided not to use the dragon design i have brought but rather do a full shoulder colored tattoo. After a great amount of support from aby i decided i will do the rising phoenix!

Now came the pain time. I had to sit for sometime to get the courage to start. He asked if i had had food or it will feel dizzy. Then i removed shirt and sat on the chair. He took the design and started drawing with the pen. Normal pen ok! The design was complete and then he took out the tatoo pen and the needle! oh my God! the needle is gonna prick my skin 1000 times per second ohh..atlast i told him i was ready. It felt like a painfull vibration i had to clench my fists and close my jaws. Seconds were years. He completed the outline and gave me a break. it lookd good at that time and we were both happy and the pain session vanished from memory.
After some time the guy came back and took out the colors. The painting session was about to begin. Now this is something that i wont endeover again in my life, ever! The pen crisscrossed inside the design to fill in the color. It was more painful and took years to complete. Blood was everywhere and he kept on cleaning with cotton and dettol. The end product was never as beautiful as the design i saw on picture but i was very eager to get going. We also made him add flames under the phoenix, which i regret right now. Anyways he told how i was to take care of the skin for one month to come and bandaged the complete stuff.

When we got back to my evening bus from madiwala all friends were there awaiting to see the tattoo. I never let them touch anything as it pained a lot. Aby had informed all and even juniors were there to see. Hmm my friend from school saw me and was making a issue of the whole thing. He made fun of me infront of some relatives..and i still remember how their faces changed when he told why i came to blore!

Anyways the wound healed in 1 and a half weeks and there was not complexities. It looked like a blurred bubblegum tattoo. So many people thought it actually was a bubble gum tattoo..good for me! Right now i am happy with the phoenix but it restricts me from displaying my body around. Only when i go outside kerala do i usually use my sleeveless skin tight shirts.

From Athirappilly Trip

But lifes fun…what shd i do next?

No related posts.

Life was always complicated and it remains so even now. Every thing was different, sometimes i made them so, but usually they were like that in the first place. It took me a lot many years to even decide what i wanted to do with my life. It was not easy as trying a normal life was sometimes a challenge in itself. So when i had found the courage to think of myself and take serious decisions in life i made simple guidelines.

Follow my heart, do what you want to do. Dream realisable dreams, try to get them.

I was not sure what path to follow, what career to pursue. I never wanted to go on studying for ever, even when i was good at it. It never meant anything to me other than readying us to understand the world around us. I wanted to use any talents that i was given and put it to good use. Create something out of it and create a meaning for my life. I told myself that if God decided not t give you something, then you are all the more responsible for what God had given you specially. I think i am successful in that being part of Csharks. I am able to create a dozen jobs and able to drive foreign money into India and that also from scratch.

I was crazy about computer games when i was in my college. It eventually ended me up with Csharks. But my first dream was to buy a computer which made justice to all my gaming needs. I saved some money during my initial days at Csharks to buy the best gaming rig at that time. It cost me 80K and had a 36K dedicated dualcore graphics card in it. My successful dream of owning a gaming machine. It was time for having a good mobile too, my idea was to buy sonyericsson phone. Sony had excellent aesthetics and it always appealed to me as an artist. When Sonys w850 slider came out i went for it for nearly 20k. My savings were completely over by that time as we were not really trying to make profits with our firm back then.

Other than that i wanted to see the world around me. I made traveling a hobby. It was not so to begin with, but i specifically followed friends who liked to travel. I was successful in that too as i was abe to visit the himalayas, trek south indias 3rd highest peak and swim in many exotic waterfalls.

Now there came the idea to settle down and have a lady in my life. Here again i wanted to follow my heart and go for a lady whom i wished to be there in my life. I as always tried my maximum as failure was never something which i could take easily. Now this time around it was failure awaiting me, but then i learned some hard facts. Even though you plan things right and consider the odds in your favour, there arises certain unforeseen complications which screw things up for you. In my case this complication was something that i could never change or correct. It was time for me to accept the defeat as it was and to move on. I still believe that we make our life, i would rather take this incident as an exception.

So dream left now is for me to get a drive. I currently dream of the new Honda City Automatic with paddle shift. Driving dream was something which i killed when i realise how difficult it was for me to get a license. Now it has become all the more important for me to get it. That is the key to my freedom and i need it desperately. Although i am not sure of how to raise the money for the wheel, i am hopeful that it wont be much of a trouble once i get my license.

Now i guess i have to find more dreams to follow, i have my professional dream of making Csharks big. Then it will take time and its more of a long term goal. Anyways i am not building any dreams for my partner again, we dont really make the same mistake twice.

No related posts.