Technical Accomplishment contd.

Finally came the last week of the project.Ours and few others were at the end of our project.Only few things here and there left.

It was hectic..everyone running around speaking Greek and bringing up topics from all technical fields.Hardware,networking,programming syntax,terminology,what not....!!!
Soon after the internal exams,the heat was on......

The Project centre was Abhay's hostel.Everyone calls him up for advices,solutions and guidelines.No wonder our project lie there,neglected.We too had some technical parts left.
But as our project was almost over,we didnt mind letting Abhay do the works for others too.

The last two days were the really tough ones.Deepak's group started their code learning job 1-2 days before presentation.And it was no simple project.It was a very lengthy stuff with lots of technologies and programming involved.It was the Anti-Phishing system.Srijith's team also had to get some laptops,so they too camped there.
With such a big crowd,naturally everyone was on the run.Scheduling laptops,pcs,net access and Abhay were main issues.
Also there were enough time to have fun,poke around other's projects,crack jokes,and even playing indoor cricket.It was full masti in there.

But as the day neared,everyone had issues to clear up.Fun and play stopped....everyone was busy with their own work,tempers on the rise.....watches and clocks ignored...getting the projects to run flawlessly and preparing to face the viva was the only goal in each person's mind.Some people revising concepts,doing final touch-ups on the codes,some doing the documentations,others practicing presentation stuff...all dedicated to surviving that one day.

Finally that day arrived.We were 4th group.The first group began with 2-3 hours long viva and lengthy presentation interrupted frequently by power-cuts.All of us were tensed at such harsh conditions.We frantically revised and prepared our part.Abhay was still busy with other groups' work as they seemed to have troubles managing such a huge project.



The nervous waiting continued till after lunch break.Our chance came at 3.30-4 pm I think.The initial presentation was quite good,with everyone putting in their contributions and explaining project features.While explaining though,HOD caught a specific test case that we had removed from code,but was still in document.Unknowingly Abhay agreed to show the case,but failed to and had to give excuses.

Later on,she called upon each member to explain the project as a whole,demonstrate it and explain in detail their contributions.I wasn't asked to modify code,or explain other's codes.I only needed to explain the Server side code, and connected parts were just mentioned.I dint have to demonstrate either,and so was let off quickly.James had some trouble recompiling modified code,which made us nervous.But it was only some minor issue.We survived!!!


Overall,it was a good performance by most groups.Projects were good,presentations also.When the marks were given later on,it was clear.Only a few groups who had issues with improper work divisions and report submissions had lost some marks.

Anyway that was a good experience,to work with many technologies,learn and hear about more and also to finish a work in a professional way with deadlines to meet.Will be back with more experiences and experiments with life...adios!!

Story of a technical accomplishment

Phew....finally that day came and it didn't bring much harm.I am talking about my Minor Project for our sixth semester.



I will not go into technical details of the project here,I may put them up on my tech blog.I am also trying to find a place to upload the already popular project somewhere on the internet.
OK...briefly speaking the project aims at using a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone for controlling media players running on a computer.The software works on all JSR-82 complaint phones(that majority of phones in the market,but didn't work on most of Motorola handsets).Hehe..while typing this...what comes to my mind is the god-knows-what kinda content that we used to make for documentation..twisting and talking about almost the same point.Initially it was tough,then we got used to it.


As I said early,I would like to keep the technical details for the other blog.The documentation's non-tech part would be similar to this blog,if I take out the personal references.For guys who are gonna start minor projects or are worried how documentation is done,I would like to say only this...know your project,learn the codes and as far as possible involve yourself with all parts/modules of the project.This gives you a far insight into the product perspective(another docu terminology of SRS fame).
Well now I think I should briefly explain how things happened so far in our college and how we fared and finally how the results were met.
To begin with,I had great faith in our project,because unlike most of our classmates,this was an idea my friend(Abhay the puli..) had really wanted(because he needed something to control media players while lying down).I had asked him to concentrate on other ideas also for choosing abstract,but most of them were either involved hardware or needed too much research and time.Finally we stuck to this plan,as while searching for ideas on the net,we came upon an umpteen number of similar projects.
Abhay being a java puli and mobile(especially bluetooth) fanatic quickly found out whether the expected bluetooth implementation is possible,while I was unable to understand much of it.I had taken up the media control part,where my imagination alone is enough and also Abhay's guidance.
We were happy when the abstract was accepted.Afterwards,we hit a rock bottom(as did most groups).We collected and downloaded pages,pdfs and references to Bluetooth and its implementation.Abhay was active with it most of the time..though not much coding took place.

It was by the beginning the stupid documentation process that we got serious with our project.SRS creation was something which needed detailed information the project.Me and Abhay started using del.icio.us and collected materials discussed it online or when we met.Quite a solid ideas was laid at that time and all four of us knew what finally it would be like.
Initial coding involved taking codes from existing open source codes and understanding them(only Abhay could do it).Soon Abhay and Sooraj learnt J2ME needed for the GUI and prepared it very early.By the midterm evaluation,we had GUI completed and we had bits and pieces of client Bluetooth.The evaluation went well and all members progressed alongwith the project.
Then started our search for proper server and how to use the JDIC functions for media control.Then came placements,leaving the project as it is.On the day after TCS,when Mindtree placement was going on,Abhay called and said..."Da,project over.Will show tomorrow".I was so stunned.
Anyway after that we had several fixes and add ons from then on,I learned my part of the code and then started training and fixing strategy of approach.The dirty documentation was what I did to learn the project perfectly,even the previously unknown parts.I designed those UML diagrams,algorithms and all kinda dialogues and sporty lines that make our project look like the next urgent need of the generation.

Rest contd in next post...this has become quite big.