Learnings from Masters Thesis

I just gave my Masters thesis presentation a week back and think its a good time to record my experience, in case I decide to pursue higher studies.

1. Literature review: Its like a chicken and egg problem. Unless you do literature review you don't know what is out there and what needs improvement. But unless you choose a topic how do you do the literature review. So my advice is to pick an area and read the basic few papers. See what interests you and then use google scholar to find related papers. Look for which other papers referenced the papers you have already read. Always keep copy of the papers you read and maintain a summary. Keep adding them to your reference library. Be prepared to be surprised. While writing my final paper I came across an article published 3 years ago with the exact same work as mine. That added another month to my work (and delayed my graduation by a semester) as now I had to extend my work beyond what I had already done.
   
2. Research Topic: Don't worry to much about the research topic. Being flexible is the key. Do decide on a title but its not written in stone until its published. So don't worry, let the research take its course.
   
3. Documentation: This is very important specially if there is various different codes and datasets. Keep track of naming conventions. Give meaningful names.
   
4. Backups: Take regular backups. If possible sign up for a online backup service (like mozy) and point them to your important files and folders. Take a full backup after anything significant happens, like sending your file for review. You might have the actual file in the email, but if the file is not self contained (like LaTeX files) having a copy of the supporting file is a good idea. Memory is cheap now a days.
   
5. Presentation: Keep a separate power point file or word document where to record any significant ideas, graphs, links, commands, references, change of course etc. For important plots save the editable graphs, as some annotation or label change etc. might be needed if its decided to include it in the final report.
   

समय कि धारा

अपने देश से दूर मुझे अब २ साल हो गए और अपने घर से दूर ७ साल।
मैं इन्टरनेट का आभारी हूँ कि इतनी दूर से भी मैं अपनों कि खबर रख सकता हूँ। लेकिन ये तो बस अभी कि बात है। पिछले कुछ सालों में बहुत कुछ पीछे छूट गया है।
कुछ दिन पहले मेरी भांजी ने मुझे ओर्कुत पे add किया। सालों बाद फिर से बातें हुई। कितनी बड़ी हो गयी है वो। कालेज में है। आज मुझे ये पता चला कि मैं ७-८ महिने पहले नाना बन गया था। मुझे अहसास हुआ कि कितना कुछ पीछे छोड़ आया हूँ मैं।
समय कि धारा तो अपनी गति से बहती रहती है। अचानक बचपन कि वो सारी यादें वापस आ गयी। मैं इतना बड़ा भी नही हूँ। वो तो हमारा परिवार इतना बड़ा है कि मेरे भांजे, भांजी भी मेरे उमर के हैं। वो साथ में छुप्प-छुप्पी और लंगडी खेलना। कॉमिक बुक्स पढना और कागज़ के नाव बनाना। आज मन थोडा उदास भी है और बहुत उत्साहित भी। सबसे मिलने का कितनी इच्छा हो रही है। लेकिन जानता हूँ जब वापस जाऊंगा तब भी इतना समय नही मिलेगा कि सबसे मिल पाऊं। अब तो बस यादें ही हैं।
आजकल यादों को क़ैद करने के कितने तरीके हैं। लेकिन यादें कहॉ है। सब कितनी दूर होते जा रहे हैं।

Embarrasing moment

Well its not that bad as it sounds. There was a drug test schedule for my internship offer. It was quite close to my place so when I saw I have about an hr left before the center closes, I just took my bike and rode off. Upon reaching there and doing the paperwork (5:00 pm) I realized they need a urine sample oh-oh!. I was not feeling like going and was actually quite thirsty and dehydrated.
The attendant guessed that and old me I could have some water and wait if I wanted to (5:10 pm) ( I guess they get such cases often). So I took a cup of water and started sipping (it was chilled so couldn't' drink any faster) So after waiting for sometime I decided to give it a try (5:20 pm) to my utter disappointment I couldn't even make half of what was required. So decided to give it another try. I took another cup and helped myself with two full cups of tap water (non-chilled) then after a small stroll another cup. By now my stomach was so full but I was still feeling dehydrated. Then half a cup ... now it was not possible to even sip water and it was getting late. The center closes at 6:00 so I was wondering if I should come back later. But then that would be Monday! in the meanwhile I had made some nice nail art on the Styrofoam cup I was holding. I wish I had taken a few pictures of it. Finally at 5:50 I mustered enough courage to go ahead with it. After drinking another half a cup I decided to wait a little more. Now I was growing impatient. Somehow my kidney was not in a hurry at all. I tried everything; tightening my belt, squatting, strolling, twisting. Finally at 6:05, after drinking 5 1/2 cups of water, I went in and came out with just enough to meet the requirements. But I was wondering where did it all go. Well I was soon going to found out.
Back in the lab and at around 7:00 pm I could feel the pressure mounting. I decided to wait and by 7:10 it was so bad I had to limp to the restroom. Now after an hour later (8:20 pm now) I need to limp again. Can't hold anymore. will blog later .... oooo!

कोशिश करके देखे

अरे वाह ! ये तो सच में काम कर रहा है। मज़ा आ गया।
कितने दिनों बाद हिंदी में लिखने का अनंद आ रह है। यहाँ तक कि फुल्ल स्टोप भी "।" कि मात्रा में बदल जा रही है। वह वाह वाह कितना मजेदार है। हाँ ये बात ज़रुर है कि अंग्रेजी के शब्दों का इस्तेमाल करने कि temptation को हटा पाना मुश्किल है। उसकी मुख्य वजह है हिंदी के शब्दों का अभ्यास ना रहना।
गूगल ने एक और कारनामा कर दिखाया। वैसे अंग्रेजी वार्ता प्रदेश में रहने से अब तो हिंदी में सोचना भी कठिन होता जा रह है। ऐसा लग रह है जैसे बहुत मेहनत करनी पद रही है। चलो आज के लिए इतना ही काफी है। जल्दी ही मैं एक नयी सोच नयी धरना के साथ फिर आऊंगा। तब तक के लिए मेरे हिंदी भाषी मित्रों को धन्यवाद।
आपका रोहित

Assumptions

Before stating the problem in hand let state the assumptions.
As the name clearly states this blog is composed of IDENTICALLY and INDEPENDENTLY DISTRIBUTED RANDOM thoughts. Yes you guessed it right I am a stats person.
Like many other random people I have numerous random and completely pointless points. In fact some of them are pretty blunt circles even bumps. Till now I thought the world was not ready for that but now I don't care. Life is too short to keep wondering about the world. I am a normal guy, I like to be pampered, I like hearing good things about me and constructive criticism (yeah right!). I do not follow a pattern and since i am slow at typing I miss out thoughts. So if you plan on reading this be warned, you might end up with less hairs on your head.
So what am I going to talk about ? weren't you reading ... jeesh ... its all random thoughts.