NIT, Hamirpur (HP) invites applications on prescribed format for the following
Teaching /Non-teaching posts by 3rd November, 2008 :-
Teaching Posts:
1. Civil Engineering : Assistant Professor-03, Lecturer - 04
2. Electrical Engineering : Assistant Professor-03, Lecturer-04
3. Mechanical Engineering : Assistant Professor-05, Lecturer-03
4. Energy & Env. : Professor-02, Assistant Professor-03
5. Electronics & Commn. Engineering : Professor -02, Assistant Professor-04, Lecturer-03
6. Computer Sc & Engineering : Professor-02, Assistant Professor-05, Lecturer-03
7. Architecture : Assistant Professor-02, Lecturer-03
8. Applied Sc. & Hum. : Professor-04 (Math-1, Physics-1, Material Sc.-2) , Assistant Professor-09 (Math-1, Physics-1, Chemistry-2, Sociology-1, Economics-1, Material Sc.-3)Sociology, Economics one each), Lecturer-06 (Math-3, Chemistry-1, Communication Skill-1, Management-1)
9. Training & Placement : Professor - 01

Not-Teaching Posts:
1. Registrar : 01 post
2. Medical Officer : 01 post

How to apply:

Application forms can be downloaded from the institute website www.nitham.ac.in. The form downloaded from website should accompany Demand Draft/IPO of Rs. 100/- for General category and Rs. 50/- for SC/ST/ OBC category in favour of Registrar, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur (HP) payable at Hamirpur (H.P). Applications received on plain
paper, without DD/IPO or received after the last date will not be considered. The last date for receipt of complete application is 3rd November, 2008.

For More Details Visit

Ba mai mult, as spune chiar ca NIT apartine Romaniei, mai exact, TVR-ului. Doar TVR-ul are si el un logo care seamana izbitor de tare cu cel al NIT. Prezint imagini:

Dar daca stau sa ma gandesc... poate apartine totusi Federatie Romane de Fotbal? Postez si logo-ul lor:

Stiti ce ma face sa cred ca ar apartine FRF? Pentru ca in ambele logo-uri (si de la NIT si de la FRF) se poate de citit o cifra norocoasa - 666. E drept ca in logo-ul NIT este foarte stilizata, dar, nu degeaba simbolurile sunt abstracte. Imi aduc aminte o fraza din filmul "Operatiunea I": "- De ce se cheama "operatiunea I"? - Ca nimeni sa nu-si deie seama." Noi trebuie sa ne uitam cum se uita sculptorul la un bloc de piatra, din care urmeaza sa inlature bucatile in plus, ca sa ajunga la miezul, care este de fapt, sculptura finala. Postez imaginile putin prelucrate:

Bine, poate exagerez. Iata si logo-ul FRF prelucrat:

Scuzati ca liniile nu-s perfecte.

Totusi, imi pare si mie ca prea exagerez.

Unde am mai vazut ceva asemanator? Ah, da, in noul browser Google Chrome. Iata logo-ul lor:

Gata, inchid. Se incep povestile cu masti la NIT :)

Key Dates:
Fest: November 13-14, 2008

Corona is the annual technical festival held at the National Institute of Technology, Patna.It is a two day annual event to be held from 13th - 14th November, 2008.The annual technical extravaganza of NIT Patna, CORONA is galore of intellectually stimulating events held over 2 days which include Robotics,Technical Innovations, Industrial Challenges, Design competitions, Gaming contests, Workshops, Guest Lectures. It subscribes to the basic idea of innovating for the future and serves as a perfect platform for participants to exploit their talents and skills to the best.

For more details visit the Homepage

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Susmit worked hard to get some dvd's, stickers and posters ready for the trip. So we finally had about 37 dvds and at around 450 stickers .

On 24 th we boarded the train and reached nagpur on 25th . On 25 th we mainly did some setup . though we had some trouble. my mac was not outputing any sound and arindam's was facing trouble with projector.

On 26th we had our scheduled talk . it started at 4 pm . Susmit gave a nice talk on fedora . I gave a talk on "myths about linux" and arindam gave talk on fedora live.

We did had some audience during talks . At around ~55 people.

However people did asked questions . My talk attracted most questions and Arindam successfully converted his talk into a mini workshop as his laptop was not working with projector. :P

It went through for more than 2 hours . 

From the feedback of students and organizers there we came to know our talk attracted  some people.

On 27 th we had our workshop scheduled .However due to problems like lack of labs and coinciding with their cultural show . we were delayed . but still some students (at around 20) came by ,mostly from previous talk day audience.

We got only an hour before we got request of pausing our workshop (cultural fest was about to start) and request from organizers to hold it next day .

On 28th we started off in the morning . The crowd was large as compared to last two days. We had a install fest (installation over http) , setting up personal machines . quick quide to basic tools like firefox,pidgin etc , some detailed guide to syllabus oriented tools including gcc,gnu octave,Fedora Electronic lab(FEL) which gathered good amount of interest .

The workshop lasted for 3.5 hours and we packed up at around 2 o clock.

Good to mention is that NIT nagpur had their introduction to opensource through sun's seminar conducted last year . So we decided to ask them to form a LUG . They decided to form it with basic infrastructure like a google group and some in person meetings .

You can see all photos here .

Karmacoma, originally uploaded by annamon (going to Terabithia).

♪♫ Karmacoma, Massive Attack ♪♫ || Mejor en grande, sobre fondo negro

Having written his first play, Vrh (The Peak), at the artistically tender age of 26, he still holds the honour of being the youngest playwright in the theatrical history of Bosnia and Herzegovina whose play was staged by a professional theatre. The success of Vrh had secured him his first commission to write a play about the 1941 anti-fascist insurgence in the Romanija region near Sarajevo. Though one of his best plays, Iza šutnje's (Beyond Silence) attempt to demystify the legend of Slaviša Vajner Čiča, a Partisan leader at the heart of the events, displeased Bosnian political censors. As a result, the play was swiftly taken off the repertoires of the four out of five leading Bosnian theatres. The fifth one, in Banja Luka, never attempted to stage it.

Plakalo wrote his third play Nit in the middle of the censorship battle, but disheartened by the outcome and the "incomprehensible attitude of the Bosnian theatrical world towards home-grown dramatic literature", he temporarily gave up on writing to become a theatre critic. It was a personal tragedy that made him return to his dramatic and poetic roots with an autobiographical memento mori to his tragically killed wife, Sonja, Phoenix je sagorio uzalud (Phoenix Has Burnt In Vain). On his 36th birthday, and ten years after his first play, he finally saw another of his works premiered on a theatre stage.

His doubt, however, didn't leave him and it was only at the request of his great friend and the doyen of the Bosnian theatre, actor Safet Pašalić, that he agreed to write Kulin IV (Kulin the Fourth). As destiny would have it, the great actor died not long after the work's completion, and Plakalo decided not to follow through with the production. By the end of the fourth decade of his life, while his daughter Tamara was still a girl, Plakalo completed three more dramas, all three of them (Koncert za klavir i svjetlost, Preparirano proljeće and Balada o Modrinji), for children.

What followed was his most significant drama to date, Lutkino bespuće (A Doll's Wasteland), Plakalo's 'reply' to Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (Nora). Lutkino bespuće earned Plakalo a reputation as the 'Ibsen of Bosnia' both at home and abroad. The play caught the eye of the Columbia University Ibsenologist, Professor Sandra Saari, and Norway's Ibsen Stage Festival, but another twist of fate put Plakalo's international plans on hold as his beloved Sarajevo came under siege in 1992.

 Theatre against death

In the city paralyzed by war, Plakalo and three of his close friends and collaborators, Gradimir Gojer, Đorđe Mačkić and Dubravko Bibanović, decided to form Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR) as a form of spiritual resistance to the madness of war. Together with Bibanović, Plakalo embarks on writing Sarajevo's first authentic war play - Sklonište (The Shelter), in which he explored the genre of grotesque as the only meaningful approach to the tragedy that surrounded them. During the next 12 months, Sarajevans braved shelling, snipers and hunger to see Sklonište 97 times, often under candle-light. The theatre's ensemble did the same for its audience taking the performance to the front-line on more than one occasion, and giving some 2000 performances during Sarajevo's four years under siege.

In 1994, at the height of the siege, Plakalo wrote a letter to his friend Stein Wing, director of the National Theatre of Norway, and with support from Waclav Havel, Ingmar Bergman, Ellen Horn and Bibi Andersson, the troupe made its way through Sarajevo's only lifeline, the famous Tunnel, to make its first international appearance at the Ibsen Stage Festival in Oslo. Since then, SARTR has made over a hundred appearances around Europe, and collaborated widely, most notably with the Valencian dramatist José Sanchís Sinisterra, Bordeaux's Globe Theatre, and the Ex-ponto International Festival in Slovenia.

The Memoirs of Mina Hauzen, another Plakalo's play, was SARTR's first post-war production. However, despite their immense popularity, neither Sklonište, nor The Memoirs had a lasting effect on Plakalo's dramatic orientation. As the world around him returned to an uneasy peace, Plakalo returned to his primary interest - the theatre of human intimacy, penning an hommage to his mother in a play about Muhammad's daughter, Fatima. The most complex of his plays, Hazreti Fatima (Fatima Az-Sahra), marks Plakalo's return to another interest - poetic drama, demonstrating his T. S. Eliot-inspired need to address the reader in a strict poetic form with rare erudition and piety. His fascination with the fundamental philosophical issues of women's existence soon found another expression in the play Smrt i čežnja Silvije Plat (The Death and Desire of Sylvia Plath), another hommage, this time to the great American poetess.

Plakalo was also the spiritus movens behind the famous 1969 Poetic Marathon, is a former journalist of Oslobodjenje, Večernje novine, and Sarajevo "202", and a respected theatre critic. He lives and works in Sarajevo, where he is still at the helm of SARTR. His first novel is currently being prepared for print.

Plays

• Vrh (The Peak)
• Iza šutnje (Beyond Silence)
• Nit (In vino veritas) (The Thread)
• Koncert za klavir i svjetlost (Concert for Piano and Light)
• Preparirano proljeće (The Stuffed Springtime)
• Balada o Modrinji (A Ballad about Modrinja)
• Phoenix je sagorio uzalud (Phoenix has burnt in vain)
• Kulin IV (Kulin the Fourth)
• Balada o ex-šampionu (A Ballad about an Ex-champion)
• Lutkino bespuće (A Doll's Wasteland)
• Sklonište (The Shelter)
• Memoari Mine Hauzen (The Memoirs of Mina Houzen)
• Hazreti Fatima (Fatima Az-Sahra)
• Omer za naćvama, libretto based on a play by Alija Nametak
• Soba od vizije (Chambre des Visions) (A Room of Vision)
• Smrt i čežnja Silvije Plat (Désir et mort de Sylvia Plath) (The Death and Desire of Sylvia Plath)

Novels

Plod smrti, forthcoming

Enjoy Life !

Enjoy

The crappy mess food with all its denim chappatis ,

The fever of Festember which of course you will miss ,

The fear of seniors alongwith the 3 Rs : ragging, rules n regulations

The mindless SMSing in those sleepy lectures

The Xerox frenzy preceding every cycle tests

The long nights poring over those Xeroxes

The club inductions and the chaat of the ‘interviews’

The first year parties where dress-codes take a break

The mindless movie-watching till 4 in the morn

The breaking the 10 PM curfew so that u can squeeze In some extra hours of CS/Dota

The endless gossip ranging from that junior high school crush to why theres only 4000 IIT seats

The continual cursing of the 8:30 morning class

The dumass copying of readings in labs

The boring ED sessions before submission day

The feverish revisions 10 mins before the exams

The strict attendance regime of 25% at Snacky (Guess where’s the other 75 ?)

The jobless roaming around during the 10:10-10:30 break

The winter that will never come.

The Pragyan which finally will come.

I wonder whether this is me advising my firsties to enjoy what is probably the most memorable part of being an NITTian or simply me being nostalgic.

While I am a (very) proud alumnus of BITS, Pilani, I have always held institutions all over the world in high regards and respect. However, I have always been puzzled by the disrespect shown by REC alums (specifically, read a cousin of mine and few of my friends) against BITS, Pilani and BITsians in general. A soft dinner table discussion, turned into a passionate argument. Slowly, but surely, we were getting into a troubled zone. It’s been a while since I’ve thrown out a few fist punches. But last night was close, real close.

The REC guys started by questioning amongst various items the following:
• Entrance system to BITS (which has always been one of the best in India, and since been revised to make the system even better);
• The resulting diversity at BITS (students from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh used to make up the majority of BITS students, which no longer holds true);
• The success of BITS alumni (simply preposterous on the REC folks part to question the success of BITS alumni!!!!). I wouldn’t be surprised if these folks actually worked for a BITsian company.

My argument was very simple. It went like this:
• Unlike REC’s, BITS does not prescribe to a quota system. REC seats are proportioned as a % of a State’s population, i.e., the more reproductive a State is, the more seats you get at a REC college. This rewards population growth in India. What a wonderful idea!!!!
o Real Result: The very best do not get into REC’s. Moreover, supports population growth in India;
• Local State students make up at least 50% of every batch (There goes your argument on diversity against BITS);
• I could list out pages and pages of successful BITS alumni. All the REC guys could talk about was the lack of success of BITS alumni. My observation: REC folks are the like the Republican Party, lacking in success and any achievement of their own, they get into negative attacks to try and win an argument.

The reality of the situation is that some these REC guys actually were rejected by BITS (I am not surprised at all) i.e., sour grapes. Sadly, the only place closest to BITS they could is a dinner date with a proud ex-BITsian.

Good luck with your life though, my dear REC friends.

Per altra banda, a IB3 Ràdio i des del Casal Solleric, Pere Estelrich, conduirà un ESPECIAL NIT DE L’ART de tres hores, entre les 9 i les 12 del vespre, amb l’equip habitual d’El crepuscle encén estels i connexions en directe amb galeristes, artistes, crítics i aficionats a l’art. Podeu escoltar la Ràdio de les Illes Balears aquí. 

I per ambientar aquesta nit artística us deix també una recomanació musical de l’escriptor mallorquí Miquel Rayó al Crepuscle: “Take five” (1951), la coneguda peça de jazz del Dave Brubeck Quartet, creada pel saxofonista Paul Desmond, i amb un fantàstic solo del bateria Joe Morello.  

Una peça que també podeu veure i escoltar, versionada per George Benson, Al Jarreau, o Tito Puente. Una meravella.   

Organised By: National Institute of Technology Calicut

Key Dates:
Fest: October 23-26, 2008

Tathva 2008 is the annual Techno Management Fest organised by National Institute of Technoloy Calicut. Events ranging from Robotics to Coding, Electronics, Managerial and online events. Workshop and Guest Lectures are also being organised.

Tathva 08 promises to take the experience to a whole new level by presenting a fine blend of competitions, lectures, workshops, demonstrations and papers in technology and management. While the competitions have been designed to encourage the questioning spirit and challenge the conventional way of thought, lectures and workshops by eminent personalities will update you with the current pulse of the techno-management world. Management, the mixture of scientific knowledge and its prudent application in real life is also given due importance as it is a separate section in the 2008 edition as it was last year.

For more details on registrations and events visit here.

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Organized By:
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar National Institute Of Technology, Jalandhar

Key Dates:
Fest: September 19-21 ,2008

Techniti ,The Annual Techno-Managerial Fest of NIT Jalandhar has a number of events stacked up for all the Technical students as well as the Management Gurus. Events Ranging from F1, Robo Wars, Gaming Competition, De Sports Quiz, Branch Wise Events and many more.

Guest lectures ,Workshops on Robotics and Animation also happening on the days of the Fest.With some many events happening over a span of 3 days its going to be a blast.

For further details please visit the website.

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Bye , cya .

Jai Gurudev! and Keep breathing

La primera emissió de TV3, el 10 de setembre de 1983, amb Joan Pera com a presentador.

• Maryland's partnership with the NIT
Get used to it. With an unfavorable schedule that includes playing Miami, Duke and North Carolina two times each, the chances are good the Terps will be back at the NIT for the fourth time in five seasons.

I don't even have a comeback, Heather. You've just got me all melancholy now.

-- full article

Event: TechnoZion (Website)

Organised By: NIT Warangal

Key Dates:
Fest: October 17-19, 2008

Technozion is the annual Technical fest of National Institute of Technology, Warangal. The 3 day fest includes events to cater to all branches of engineering. The events are organised under the following categories: Robotics, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics, Metallurgy, Chemical, Computers, Biotechnology, Management.

For more details visit the Homepage

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Organised By: VNIT, Nagpur

Key Dates:
Fest: September 26-28, 2008

Axis is the annual Technical Fest organised by Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, which aims at bringing together all the die-hard technoholics and management freaks. Events starting from Coding contests to Robotics, Paper presentation, Online Events, Chemical and Meta events to Management Events are part of this Annual National Level extravaganza.

Visit the Official Homepage for more details on the events.

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Em caso de perda, basta usar a internet ou obter informações no 135

O trabalhador que perdeu o número de inscrição na Previdência Social – que também serve para a requisição de qualquer benefício previdenciário pago pelo Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social (INSS) –tem como recuperá-lo pela internet. Em caso de dúvida de como proceder, basta ligar para a Central 135, das 7h às 22h, de segunda-feira a sábado, que os operadores poderão orientar os segurados.
Esse número é essencial para o trabalhador, principalmente no caso dos autônomos, para o preenchimento da Guia de Previdência Social (GPS) todos os meses e para manter em dia as contribuições à Previdência Social.
Como cadastrar - Quando uma empresa contrata um funcionário que ainda não é cadastrado na Previdência Social, ela é que é responsável por providenciar a inscrição do empregado em uma agência da Caixa Econômica Federal. Na inscrição, o trabalhador recebe um número do Programa de Integração Social (PIS).
Nos estados em que o Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE) já emite os modelos informatizados da Carteira de Trabalho e Previdência Social – CTPS, o cadastro é feito automaticamente na emissão do documento. O número do Programa de Formação do Patrimônio do Servidor Público (PASEP) utilizado pelos servidores públicos é o mesmo do PIS, mas administrado pelo Banco do Brasil.
Além do PIS, a Caixa trabalha com o Número de Identificação Social (NIS), que é utilizado pelos programas dos governos Federal e estadual, para beneficiários que nunca trabalharam com carteira assinada e emitido por diversas entidades (Sistema Único de Saúde, Cadun, Projovem, Presença, Pronasci, Garantia Safra). Esse número pode ser atribuído a qualquer cidadão, independentemente da idade.
E existe também o Número de Identificação do Trabalhador (NIT), que é o de inscrição fornecido pela própria Previdência Social para o cidadão que quer contribuir e nunca teve PIS ou NIS. Qualquer um deles pode ser usado por quem quer pagar as contribuições e tornar-se segurado da Previdência Social.
Como recuperar – Para recuperar o número de inscrição pela internet, basta entrar na página da Previdência Social (www.previdencia.gov.br). Clicando em “Serviços”, no lado esquerdo da tela, procure pelo item “Inscrição na Previdenciária Social”, na janela que será aberta. Mesmo que o segurado já possua um ou vários números de contribuição, deve clicar no botão “Inscrição”, que aparecerá em seguida.
Ele será levado a uma página, com ambiente seguro, com o título “Cadastro Nacional de Informações Sociais (CNIS)”, onde deve preencher o formulário Inscrição do Contribuinte Individual, Facultativo, Empregado Doméstico e Segurado Especial. Devem ser informados o nome completo, a data de nascimento, o CPF, a Identidade (RG), o número da Carteira de Trabalho (CTPS), o Título de Eleitor e o nome completo da mãe.
Ao concluir o preenchimento, caso o sistema não localize um número de inscrição, automaticamente atribuirá um NIT novo ao trabalhador. Por isso, é importante informar os dados completos.
Caso localize mais de um número de inscrição para os dados informados, o sistema estabelecerá um elo entre eles, desde que os dados anteriormente passados para cada um estejam iguais, e elegerá apenas um como número principal, a qual os outros passarão a ser atrelados.

fonte - Prev. Social

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that ESPN was trying to fill the dead space between the NBA Finals and the Olympics with yet another list. Normally I wouldn't have even bothered to look at it because ESPN's lists have been getting progressively more ludicrous (hitting its peak--or nadir--when John Hollinger put Dwayne Wade's 2006 "Fall down 7 times, shoot 14 free throws" performance above every single one of Michael Jordan's masterpieces). However, when I noticed that ESPN was trying to rank the most prestigious programs for college basketball in the 64-/65-team era, I was intrigued and figured it was worth some analysis.

The first thing I always do when looking at any list is to see the scoring system used and ESPN sure picked an interesting system. I'll break it into segments with some analysis:

• National title … 25
• Title game loss … 20
• National semifinal loss … 15
• Elite Eight loss … 10

- All four of these things seems pretty reasonable. I think that most fans would value the post-season performances in a way that is pretty close to the points awarded although it seems like a Final 4 berth is considered a great accomplishment for any program (even for the Duke's and North Carolina's of the college basketball world). I probably would have bumped up the national title, title game loss, and national semifinal loss by 5 points to give a 10 point spread between an Elite 8 loss and a national semifinal loss.

• Best W-L record in conference's regular season … 5
• 30-plus wins in a season … 5
• Sweet 16 loss … 5

- This is where the scoring starts to get questionable. I'm assuming the "Best W-L record in conference's regular season" is lawyerspeak for regular season conference champion. I'm glad that ESPN has decided that the America East regular season champion deserves more points for their in-conference performance than the regular season runner-ups in the ACC, Big East, and SEC. The 5 points for the 30-plus win season may seem like a lot, but in fact they are very rare (Duke leads with 9 such seasons and I could only count/remember 16 programs with any 30-win seasons since the start of the 1984-85 season) so that seems reasonable (as does the 5 points for a Sweet 16 loss although 16 programs achieve are awarded this each season while approximately the same number have achieved it for a 30-win season during the entire era). My main question with the 5-point awards is if they really consider all regular season conference titles the same as it is easier to win certain titles than others. One interesting note about this methodology is that Princeton with 10 regular season Ivy League titles is awarded 50 points with this methodology while Duke with 9 30-plus win seasons is only awarded 45 points for that feat (ignoring the fact that Duke probably won the regular season conference title most of those years).

• Conference tournament title … 3
• AP first-team All-American … 3
• Losing in NCAA second round … 3

- I'm assuming that the Ivy League regular season champ automatically gets the 3 points for winning the conference tournament title since they don't have a post-season tournament. This only further skews the points Princeton and UPenn get in this system as they receive 80 points and 96 points respectively for their Ivy League titles not to mention the 20-win seasons they racked up beating up on Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, and Brown. I'm perfectly fine with the AP 1st-team AA points as at most 5 teams a year will have a player earn that distinction. Perhaps they should have thrown in a National POY bonus as that player is the one who usually defines the season (Ralph Sampson, Christian Laettner, etc.). Likewise, I'm in agreement with the 3 points for the 2nd round NCAA tournament loss.

• Player in top 10 of NBA draft … 2
• NCAA first-round win as a 12-16 seed … 2
• NIT title … 2
• AP second-team All-American … 2

- This is where it starts to get really weird. Let's get the reasonable things out of the way first. Top 10 pick worth 2 points? Ok. That seems fine even if the draft was dominated by high schoolers and Euros for a few years. In the future, the one-and-done rule might make this benefit the schools that are willing to take the one-and-done guys even if it does hurt their APR. That is unless those guys start going to Europe. Cinderella getting 2 points for a 1st-round upset? Fine with this too even if we will all remember the Hampton upset of Iowa State more than we will remember the annual 5-12 upsets. AP second-team AA worth 2 points? Ok with this one too even if I think once you start getting to the 2nd team the players selected start getting more dependent on the voters. I'm too lazy to check this out (perhaps rtmsf can do it), but I'd be willing to venture there is a lot more variation in the guys selected to the 2nd team by various publications/groups than there is with the 1st team. Now for the crazy one. . .Awarding 2 points for a NIT title? Maybe in the 1950s, but today winning the NIT only makes you the butt-end of every more successful team in your conference. How many message board threads have trolls made mocking the 65th (now 66th) best team in country? I'll admit that the NIT champs would probably beat the 13-16 seeds most of the time, but is there really any pride in being the small fish (mediocre team) in the big ponds (power conference) that can beat up on the plankton (13-16 seeds)? I'd give the NIT champ 1 point overall, which leads into the next big problem. . .

• 20-29 wins in a season … 1
• NCAA tournament berth … 1
• Postseason NIT berth … 1
• AP third-team All-American … 1

- Let's get the easy ones out of the way. No problems here with the 20-29 wins or AP 3rd team AA getting 1 point. I would probably differentiate between 20-24 wins, which is usually a solid season, and 25-29 wins, which usually will put you into consideration for a top 4 seed if you're from a power conference. Like I said before the further down the AA list you go, the more variation you will have by publication/group, but it's not really worth arguing about for 1 point. The thing worth arguing about is giving the same number of points for a NCAA tournament berth and a postseason NIT berth. To borrow an over-used phrase from John McEnroe, "You cannot be serious!" While I recognize that in this system the NIT team can only receive 2 points from the tournament (if they win), it is ridiculous to even consider invitations to the 2 tournament similar when the entire selection special is based on camera crews camping out in rooms with bubble teams to see if they got into the NCAA tournament. Maybe the ESPN stat whizzes have access to different camera feeds than I do, but it seems like the players, coaches, and families are happier when they get into the NCAA tournament than when they find out they are going to the NIT (even if Madison Square Garden is a slight upgrade from Boise, Idaho--unless we're talking NBA). That's just one man's interpretation of the reactions I see although I could probably point out that a few years ago Georgetown declined an invitation to the NIT because they wanted to give their players more time to study for exams. . .in March. I wonder why Georgetown didn't turn down its #2 seed this year. Do John Thompson III and the Georgetown AD not care about those same exams any more?

• NCAA first-round loss to a 12-16 seed … -2
• Losing season … -3
• Ban from NCAA tournament … -3

- No problem with the first two although I wonder if a losing season is counted against you if you have it expunged from your record and throw your long-time assistant coach under the bus? Also, I'd consider a 15-16 season a disappointment while I would consider 8-20 a complete embarrassment, so I'd probably make the less than 10-win season a significantly bigger penalty. I think the NCAA tournament ban should be a much larger penalty in this scoring system as the public (and press) reaction tends to be pretty bad (see below).

>> Minimum 15 seasons in Division I
** Ties are broken by overall winning percentage since the 1984-85 season

- After all the issues with the scoring system, I'm not going to complain about these minor qualifiers and tiebreakers. Both of them seem reasonable and none of the top 50 teams were tied.

Now that we've looked the methodology it's time to pick apart the rankings to see what ESPN got right and what they screwed up. Duke is the run-away winner as even the most ardent Duke-hater (feel free to chime in here rtmsf) would agree that Coach K's Blue Devils have been the most dominant program of the era even if their results have been underwhelming the past few years. The Blue Devils are followed by the Jayhawks in 2nd and the Tar Heels in 3rd. I'm not going to argue much with this although I would have UNC in 2nd just because I consider Kansas a team that historically underperforms in the tournament (Mario Chalmers' shot and Danny and the Miracles not withstanding). Now onto the rankings I am utterly confused by.

Overated:
- UNLV: 8th?!? I loved Jerry Tarkanian's Runnin' Rebs, who may have been one of the best college teams ever even if they lost/threw the 1991 national semifinal against Duke, but there is no way this has been the 8th most prestigious program in the country over the past 20+ years just like Memphis isn't in that category. ESPN provides a pretty clear summary of why UNLV shouldn't be in the top 10: "2 NCAA sanctions; 10 coaches since 1984-85; 0 NCAA tourney wins between 1992 and 2007". I'd keep UNLV in the top 20, but they definitely don't belong in the top 10 with that track record.
- Xavier: The Muskeeters (at #17) have a nice Atlantic-10 program, but the fact that they have never made a Final 4 should automatically keep them out of the top 25. The Musketeers are buoyed by 21 combined conference titles, but have not really been a threat in the NCAA tournament having only racked up 15 NCAA tournament wins. Interestingly, Xavier came in 2 spots ahead of Cincinnati even though Xavier is widely considered the red-headed stepchild in the city.
- Temple: I don't mean to sound like Billy Packer ripping on the mid-majors (sorry, if you're not a BCS conference, you're a mid-major in my eyes), but the Owls never made the Final 4 despite five trips there under John Chaney. I think they're a very good program, but like Xavier, Temple shouldn't be in the Top 25 without a Final 4 appearance.
- Murray State: Now this is the point where I rip the little guy. I was absolutely stunned when I saw this one. The Racers always seem to be one of those teams you see at the bottom of the bracket and maybe every once in a while you decide to take a chance on them to pull off the huge upset. Unfortunately, if you're one of those people, you've only been rewarded once (1988 against 3rd-seeded NC State). The Racers piled up the points by dominating the Ohio Valley Conference racking up 22 (or 24 depending on your addition skills) conference titles and twelve 20+ win seasons (thanks to an easy conference schedule). Somehow this manages to put them above Villanova, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest.

Underrated:
- Maryland: The Terps (28th) are killed by the fact that they play in the ACC and have lost out on a ton of points thanks to playing in the same conference as Duke and UNC. Although Gary Williams hasn't had good teams the past few years, the Terps run especially in the Juan Dixon era should have been enough to propel them into the top 20. How does this program only rank 2 spots ahead of Murray State?
- Utah: I don't think the Utes would be able to move up much higher, but it would be interesting to see how high they would be on this list if they didn't have the misfortune of playing Kentucky so many times in the 1990s. While the Utes benefited playing in a softer conference than some of their peers on the list (SEC and ACC), the Mountain West has been a fairly strong conference in recent years.
- Florida: I'm not sure how much higher the Gators could move up because of their relative lack of success (not counting Lon Kruger's 1994 Final 4 run) before Joakim Noah and company ran off back-to-back titles, but it seems like that alone should be enough to crack the top 20 especially when programs like Xavier and Temple are ranked ahead of them despite not making a single Final 4 appearance. The Gators probably belong in the top 15 although that may be more of a recency effect, but it just seems that there recent run puts them at a level that isn't that much different than UNLV with its run with Larry Johnson.

Other points of interest:
- Coach K's current program (Duke) ranks #1. The program he left (Army) comes in tied for 298th, or as it is more commonly referred to "DFL". Hopefully the Duke athletic department program has a better succession plan in place than Army did when Coach K decides to leave the sidelines.
- I found this rather amusing from personal experience. Boston University comes in at 108th ahead of programs such as Clemson, Providence (with a Final 4 appearance), Washington, and USC.
- In the current SportsNation voting, Kentucky is in the lead (good work out of the Sea of Blue crowd) with Duke in 4th even though they have the most #1 votes (something tells me they were left off a lot of ballots or voted 25th). The three teams I singled out as being overrated in the top 25 were moved down quite a bit. Note: I thought they were overrated even before I saw the online voting.

While I was with Deepak sir, Ramkumar sir came in and I got to know him better. Of course, he took Microprocessors and Microcontrollers for us last semester, but it's difficult to get acquainted with a professor during a course, as the class strength is nearly ninty. Deepak sir asked him about the formalities involved in starting a new student club. Ramkumar sir did his BTech in the erstwhile REC during the eighties. He replied that in those days, all you needed was to get ten people together, find a staff advisor and submit a request letter to the Principal.

He talked about the active student groups and forums which had been flourishing then, and have since become extinct. Those where the days when politics was at its peak in our campus, and yet, he said, there were many active forums for discussing the issues of the day, entirely free from any political flavour. Debates are still held occasionally by the Literary and Debating Club, as competitions during culturals fests, but it is mostly debating for the sake of debating- and "soft skill" development.

I realize that the sort of campus Ramkumar sir talked of, no loger exists. When I look about me, I see mostly students glued to their laptops, engrossed in watching movies, unauthorized copies (the word "pirated" is unfair and inappropriate) of which are freely shared on our hostel networks and playing computer games which degrade your level of existence.

Another sad fact that is that there is practically no interaction between the faculty and the students except for the lectures and the labs. I personally feel that a free mingling of people of all ages is crucial to the health of a society. I know from my experience, that there is a lot to be learnt from elder people. I'll write more about this later. This is a glaring deficiency in today's campus.

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