Every Master’s student in a research university would have had to face this question at some point during their stay. For some, it’s been a no-brainer. Not for me, it’s easily the most difficult decision I’ve ever faced in my life.

On one hand, there’s the opportunity to work for a corporation, draw a handsome salary and help millions of people today by writing great software. On the other hand, there’s the opportunity to spend the next 5 years of my life with just enough money to survive on ramen, working on a really hard problem no one knows the solution to and derive satisfaction from the fact that my work might help millions of people tomorrow.

Computer science is also one of those fields where getting a PhD doesn’t mean you have to become a professor. Not that I don’t enjoy teaching, as a matter of fact I love teaching, but it’s comforting to know that you can always go back to what you sacrificed. The fruits of research in computer science typically reach mass consumption much faster than other fields, and several silicon valley companies specifically target doctorates for recruiting. Not to mention, you could always dropout — aren’t a lot of great institutions founded that way?

All of this tilts the scale a bit towards PhD, but this decision requires many more months of thinking! What are your thoughts on the matter? Have you had to make such a decision? What did you choose and why?

After a (relatively) short flight, I landed at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport the day before yesterday. I was greeted by a student from the ESN-VUNiverse, who explained the excellent public transportation system of Amsterdam while making the trip back. Getting to Uilenstede (a student housing community in Amstelveen, where I have a room) was a breeze, we reached in just around half-an-hour.

The first thing I noticed about Amsterdam is how much like a city it doesn’t look. It looks more like a quaint little town – there are no huge skyscrapers or crowded streets – overall very pleasing to the eye. The weather is pleasant, but mostly rain and clouds – haven’t seen much sunshine since I got here

We arrived at my ‘corridor’, protected by a door of its own. Every corridor has 12 dutch students and 2 international students, sharing a common kitchen. I proceeded to my ‘unit’, which is basically my room – it is a lot bigger and cleaner than my previous room at MNIT.

Internet and Cable were ready to go from the very first day. I’m loving this place

Yesterday, we had the ‘Word of Welcome’. I wasted no time in buying a bicycle, the standard transport vehicle in Amsterdam, so my trip to the university was a quick 10 minute ride. Most of the streets in Amsterdam have their own dedicated bicycle paths, complete with their own traffic lights. Bicycle theft, however, is also very common; so common in fact, that some people call it the ‘national sport’!

Immediately after lunch, we had the introduction programme at the faculty of sciences where we got upto speed with all the practical stuff that needs to be done (opening a bank account, registration with the municipality and so on). Then, we got a tour of the faculty: very very impressive! In the evening, we had a small gathering with the staff for drinks: I finally met Prof. Andrew Tanenbaum and Prof. Maarten van Steen

Another thing I love about Amsterdam is that everyone speaks excellent English, and they’re not shy of showing off their bilingual skills. That makes it a lot easier for foriegners like us to settle down quickly. I am also trying to learn a few Dutch words though. I’m pretty sure I am going to have a fantastic time for the next two years: the course, the staff, the city, and the people are all top-class.

Classes start on September 1; but meanwhile, ESN-VUniverse has organized a few events that I’ll be attending. This weekend, we are touring Amsterdam, doing a canal cruise, some waterbiking and cycling. See you next post!

No resolutions, they don’t really work for me. But I do have a lot to look forward to!

Here’s wishing everyone a fantabulous new year

My Goa trip was simply fantabulous. Apart from the fact that Goa is a great place for a vacation, I was accompanied by 7 of my college friends which made the trip one that I will cherish for a long time to come.We left Bangalore by bus on the 15th. The journey was pleasant and the view next morning was absolutely stunning:

The bus dropped us off at the Panaji bus terminus, and we took a shuttle from there to Vasco – where Ameya (our host) lived. After a nice lunch and a nap, we took off to the beach closest to base camp – Bogmalo. The beach was a quiet and clean with relatively few people around, which made it possible for us to play a game of beach football. We returned home after jumping around in a sea for a while.

We hired a couple of Activa’s the next day (this seems to be the norm for transportation in Goa) and reached Old Goa in an hour or so. We visited the really old church, which was really impressive – it also contained the remains of St. Francis Xavier. The archaeological museum next door was fun too, very informative about the history of Goa. We proceeded to the capital city of Panaji next, and after booking tickets for a river cruise aboard the Princess de Goa for the night, had lunch at the QuarterDeck.

After lunch, we visited Donapaula, a popular Jetty, which was unfortunately under renovation or something. The view was great though, and we enjoyed a nice little ride on the water scooter. After hanging out in Cafe Coffee Day for a while (These places are *everywhere*, I think they’re trying to become the Indian Starbucks :)) we reached the Panaji river coast to board the Princess de Goa. These river cruises seem to be a popular attraction, they basically consist of a few dance shows, a dance floor and an amazing view. We got to see the (in?)famous floating casino on the way too.

My Summer of Code mentor, Matt Lawless, happened to be in Goa too, so we scheduled lunch for the next day. We met at the Calangute post office (which was somewhat close to Matt’s home) and proceeded to the Calangute beach after lunch. My friends, meanwhile, reached the Baga beach, which was just next door to the Calangute beach (the two most famous beaches in Goa). We splashed around in the water for a while, joined by Matt, and then a second lunch

Matt decided to leave, and we went on to try some of the water sports at the beach. We went for a banana ride, a water scooter trip, but the one that took the cake was the parasailing. Nothing like a gentle ride in the sky to rejuvenate you. Flying over water with the beach behind you and the sunset in front is an experience I can’t put in words

The third and last day began with a long ride to south Goa, where we first visited the Benauli beach. This beach was beautiful, the sand was different than the others, and the most fun part was when I was buried by the others:

The rest of the day was spent at GoaKart, which was apparently a national Karting track. Parasailing was great, but karting was really the most exhilarating, especially because we raced and went for 4 rounds

Flickr didn’t let me upload more than 100MB of photos at once, so I moved to Picasa Web Albums instead. I wrote a small script: backr.py that uses James Clarke’s flickr.py to back up all my photos and uploaded them to Picasa Web, which allows me to create as many albums as I want (unlike Flickr). UPDATE: I finally got myself a Flickr Pro account, so pictures are back there again. This time I just used iPhoto to migrate

So, I guess that’s a few more items off my “list of things to do before I die”!