Ramblings about myself...

Atul Talesara

About The Website

Welcome! You have reached the dreamland of fanatic who officially goes by the name: Atul Talesara (aliases: AT, AtulT, shaolin).

This website is still a work-in-progress. And is best viewed with Firefox or Chrome (I have done a bit of testing with Konqueror too and seems to work good with IE7+ too).

You can find some useful information, tools and tips on some of the sections. It is also an attempt to create an online image of myself: this page is also about what I am (and what I am not), what I love to do, what have I done so far, where I want to go, what's happening in my life, etc. I have also thrown in some technical mumbo-jumbo but nothing too unusual for someone's homepage. So welcome once again and take your time and explore the world as at sees it.
You can view my blog at Ramblings of the Unfeterred Mind as an extention of my homepage.

For your viewing pleasure, there are some customization buttons on the right, to adjust font, font-size, theme, etc. Experiment and choose the one that suits your taste. I appreciate your feedback, so don't hesitate to share what you think about my website.

What's new?

Adjectives people tag to me

Affable, Friendly, Family-man, Geek, Crazy, Fanatic, Linux, Vim, Shy, Human-being, Anti-Politics, Disciplinarian, Reserved, Suave, Funny, Austere, Humble, Loner, Hot-tempered, Lazy, Capricious, Adamant, Paranoid, Intelligent, Spiritual, Energetic, Enthusiastic, Boring, Gregarious.

Yes, there are contradictory adjectives, and to be technically correct, some are not even adjectives!

No, but really, Who are you?

A Software Developer by profession, a Martial Artist by instinct, a Warm Human Being at heart, a Sportsman by physique, a Dreamer by sunset, a Thinker by aptitude, a Perfectionist by nature...
I am currently pursuing my Masters in Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMUniverse).

Apart from studying exciting courses, I'm working with Prof. Garth Gibson on Replaying traces of Parallel Filesystems (more on this later). This project is affiliated to CMU's Parallel Data Lab aka PDL.

I successfully completed my Summer 2008 internship at Google's Googleplex. You are welcome to read about my experience and have a peek at some wonderful photos:

  1. Noogler's Point of View
  2. Last Week of Internship At Google
  3. Some Wonderful Moments of a Noogler
  4. Exclusive Inside Google!

I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from Pune Institute Of Computer Technology (PICT), affiliated to Pune University, in the year of 2002.

How I ended up doing what I'm doing right now?

After few years of work following my bachelors degree in Computer Engineering, I decided to break out of the daily din of assaulting keyboard, staring at apparently mindless characters on screen and meaningless bits and bytes in network packet, and go back to school. Go to some really good school, with an intention to do something better with my life. And so here I'm now, pursing my masters at Carnegie Mellon University in Computer Engineering with major focus in Operating Systems and Storage/Filesystems.

I was longest employed at Nevis Networks, as a System Software Engineer. While I quit Nevis to pursue my masters, I was working on Threat Containment Technology, Nevis' answer to increasing network security concerns. That is what got me a little interested in computer and network security. For most part, I worked on a lot of low-level systems stuff: design/implementation of the GDB stub for Nevis' multi-threaded network processor (aka Supernova), write POST, maintain/hack boot code, tweak the GNU Tool Chain and binutils (ld, gas, objdump, etc), design Nevis' build system, linker-scripts, makefiles, etc. And some other usual nonsense stuff too! Of course, System Programming still remains my first love, which I thought would fade once I come to CMU!

Core Technial Competencies

  • Operating System Internals
  • Storage and Filesystems
  • Security
  • System Programming
  • Networking
  • Languages: C, Perl, Java, Shell scripting, Assembly (x86 and MIPS)

Companies I worked with

Serious Activities I Engage Into...

  • Programming (it is not mere coding)
  • Martial Arts (it is not just fighting)
  • Photography (it is not just point-and-shoot)
  • Reading (is not just skimming over black ink)
  • Writing (is not mere producing legible text)
  • Sports (is not mere running after the ball)
  • Trekking (is not mere walking)
  • Music (is not mere listening to vocal sounds)
  • Movies (is not mere watching people act, talk and fight)

Activities I engage into

  • Programming

Being software engineer by profession, I have developed an obsessive liking for designing and implementing software. To me, blindly coding some algorithm is unnatural. The real challenge and talent, I believe, is in designing the software, coming up with the architecture as they put it.

  • Photography

Lately, with the purchase of Canon EOS-30D I have taken my interest in photography to next level. This is my first DSLR. I have been dreaming SLR for more than 6 years when I bought it. Though I am using a cheap a Tamron 18mm-200mm super zoom all-purpose glass, soon I plan to buy decent specialist lens. I just added a Sunpak 4300 Pro-B Tripod with Ballhead to my photography arsenal.

  • Reading

My first serious stint with books/novels was in late 1990s during my first year of engineering. I feel restless if I am not reading a book or two on any given day. One technical, and one non-technical book is my favorite combination.

I am currently reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and Rajeev's Windows NT File System Internals.

  • Sports & Martial Arts

It was only a few years of training made me realize that being forced to learn karate by my Mommy was one of the most wonderful things to have happened to me. Much of my mind-body coordination, quick reflexes, discipline, self-control and self-reliance can be accredited to my martial arts training.

I loathe it when people see martial arts only as a means to learn how to hit. At the core of it martial arts is _not_ about hitting.

I am also a die-hard fan of Volleyball and Soccer. But I rarely watch any sports on idiot-box. I love to be part of action.

  • Writing

I had always wanted to maintain a personal diary, to keep log of wonderful things and sh!t that happened in my life. But I never got to the point of writing one. Until recently when the sudden surge in blogging provoked me once again. Though I don't write everything that happens in my life, I am now in a habit of writing regularly.

I am also honing my technical skills enough to produce quality technical articles. I'm currently working on tutorial which is dubbed as Mastering vi.

More activities I am into:

  • Trekking
  • Music
  • Cooking
  • Movie-watching

Professional Resume

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