Filling my Technological Void|Learning to Adapt to new Technology…… The Hard Way.

Its been a long time since I made my last post and I’m going to plead the Fifth so that I don’t look guilty of slacking. Anyway the past 1-2 months have been quite hectic. First of all results have come out and they are quite below what I expected. Although the subjects for this semester aren’t alot they contain quite a bit of content to keep a student busy.

The subjects I have for this Semester are given below:

1. Advanced Operating System
2. Advanced System Architecture
3. .Net Applications
4. Project

The subject .Net Applications is an elective which I chose over Embedded Systems. Mainly I chose that over Embedded cause I greatly doubt SMU’s ability to be able to provide quality study material on the subject. As the fourth subject you can see I’ve listed out a Project. It seems that the whole project is graded as a separate subject and even has an examination which is based on four subjects that we learned in previous semesters like OOPS , DBMS etc.Now to mention I have the usual slew of assignments which needs to be done within a month. This month and the next should be quite interesting.

Finally, I decided to go and download Cent OS so I could try it out for my Network Installation Project. You can access the download section here at this page . At first when I saw the size I was kind of pessimistic if this was going to happen anytime this year. I couldn’t have been any more wrong, I managed to get speeds above 150 kbps for their downloads which is the fastest speeds I have had yet (329 kbps).  Anyway I managed to get the 32 bit of the distro very fast.

Next task was installing Virtualbox. So I went ahead and entered the following command.

pacman -S virtualbox

After confirming the download and installing it I followed the instructions which I found here on the ArchWiki. Once Virtualbox was installed I configured it for the installation of Cent OS (Red Hat).  Next I burned the ISO I downloaded onto a DVD for backup purposes and then inserted the Disk and checked if I was able to start the Installation. As soon as I started the installation I was greeted by the Cent OS GUI Installer. Continued with the Installation and choose the Option for Server and with the Gnome GUI. Further selected server services like Apache, Samba etc as this was going to help me with my Network Install project.

Heres a picture of my Arch Linux desktop with Cent OS 5.2 Running in VirtualBox.

I noticed one thing though, the mouse seemed not to be captured till I went to Devices > Install Guest Additions. Although I’m not sure why that actually fixed it or it wasn’t working in the first place. Now its time for me to get my hands dirty and goof around on the server and prepare for setting up this on our Windows Network :).

Well now with my exams just amonth away I guess its time to prepare a bit. For some odd reason I hate all the subjects this semester .  Anyway SMU has a weird way of grouping subjects together for its exams. The subjects I have for this Semester is shown below.

• Advanced Internet Programming - ASP
• Server-Side Programming
• Data Warehousing and Data Mining
• E-Business Fundamentals
• Secured E-Commerce Transaction
• Digital Imaging techniques - I
• Digital Imaging techniques - II
• IT Law and Practice
• WML WAP - Revised
• XML
• C# Programming
• Software Engineering
• Software Quality Assurance

Yes I also have no idea what they we’re thinking when they grouped all of them together. Anyway studying for all of this is going to be a pain in the rear. There’s like 16 books for all of them. Luckily since I’m not exactly a last minute person I have managed to go through quite a bit.

Other than that I’ve been thinking of trying out Arch Linux. Not that I don’t like Ubuntu. Its just that I would like to try something new. Maybe I’ll try it out on VirtualBox as it is exam time and the last thing I need is my PC not to be functioning right.

Yeah, its that dreaded time again. Our exam time tables have been posted and look, I have less than one month to prepare. Considering that I did do a good revision of the subjects I should be okay. But considering that this is SMU you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to pass anyway. Its about getting every single mark you can. I’ve uploaded the timetable here to my Blog just in case someone needs to access it. For some odd reason I can’t download it off the University website and I had to have one of our professors get it for me from the Learning Center Login.

Time Table for July 2008 Exams

Well I know I haven’t been exactly active through the past month. However in my defense I’ll say that I have been working on alot of things at once. I’ve finished reading “Let Us C” by Yaswant Kanetkar in the past month and after starting to read Brian Kerninghan and Denis Ritchie’s book on Programming in Ansi C I must say that the “Let Us C” book is a horrible excuse for a book.

Anyway rants aside I have also been reading up on “Core Python Programming” by Wesley Chun and I must say that after the first few chapters I find no faults in it and that the author definitely keeps me interested in the topic at hand. Anyway the reason I started on Python early than what I had planned for is because I’m sick and tired of using C for the www.projecteuler.net questions. For the uninformed the site has a series of mathematical questions which you are to solve. After solving about 20 of them with C I must say that I have had enough with it. Although it is definitely doable I think that the questions would be much easier using Python than C.

For those of you who are in SMU Distance Education and haven’t gotten their assignment questions. It is on the website under Notices and Announcements. By the way, what’s the deal with us MCA’s getting our assignment questions last?  Something tells me  that someone in the IT department of SMU is definitely slacking off and should try better to get the assignments on the website much earlier.

To end this post I have been seriously been thinking of changing from Ubuntu to something else like Debian or Sabayon. Initially I was planning to try Sabayon using the DVD I got from last months Linux For You magazine. That plan was shot down when I found out that Sabayon Professional Edition 1.1 is not supported any longer as explained by the folks in #Sabayon on IRC. I have half the mind to go to the Trivandrum Linux Install Fest however considering its distance I might have to reconsider. I wouldpost the link but thats going to have to wait as it seems this Reliance WebWorld Internet Cafe won’t allow folks to open up extra browser windows as it has been restricted. If you are somewhere from the Trivandrum area and are able to go for the event then I highly recommend it as they will be more than happy to install whatever distro they have available (Ubuntu by default and others based on request and availability) on your system at no charge :). If you have been wondering about diving into Linux now would be a good time for you.

By the way you can find the details for thew Linux Install Fest here .

Well after a long wait and loss of lot of hair its finally here. The results for my MCA examinations are finally out. Anyone from SMU (Sikkim Manipal University) can find their results here at www.smude.edu.in. As you might have noticed that they have changed the website again. Just click  on the Student Login Icon and then enter your Student Registration Number and then the password and it should take you to the Interface which allows you to check various details of your course. One of the items in there are “Results / marks ” Click on it and select the Semester you are in and voila. You should now see your results.

Well with exams around the corner its becoming extremely hard to spend time on anything else. I find it rather amusing that Sikkim Manipal University haven’t even managed to get the hall tickets to their distance educations students after this much time. But then again there still is 2 weeks more for the exams to commence. So I’m not bothered that much. What does freak me out is the fact that I don’t know where my Exam Center is going to be. Last time it was in a College in Pambadi which is about 15 kms away from where I am. My learning center insists that they are going to change it this time. I just hope that its not any farther than the last one.

By any chance if any SMU official happens to read this. Stop slacking off and post details pertaining to the students at their Login Site you provide. Providing a very short message that says ” Contact your Learning Center for your Hall Ticket” is just lame.

Well with a New year it seems I’m definitely not being as up to date as I wish to be on my blog. To my defense may I first state that I seemed to have caught this nasty cold on New year’s eve. Haven’t resorted to taking any medicine yet but I might if it doesnt go away by tomorrow.

Furthermore I have exams at the end of this month. Not to mention that the subjects I have would put a cappuccino to sleep. Maybe it has to do with the content within the Sikkim Manipal University study guides. Anyway the subjects I have for this semester are.

• Communication Technology
  • Digital Telecom
  • Broadband Communication
• Software Engineering
  • Software Engineering
  • Advanced Software Engineering
• Software Project Management & Quality Assurance
  • Software Project Management
  • Software Quality Assurance
  • Advanced Software Quality Assurance
• Oracle 9i & Distributed Database
• Client-Server Architecture & Networks

Hopefully I’ll be able finish revising all before the exam gets close. As for more stuff on Linux and Ubuntu I’ve been working on a small theming guide which I should have up soon.

Ever since I joined SMU for MCA through distance I’ve seen more people than I cared to count ask whether SMU is recognized or if it somehow dampens there chance of getting a job. “But the course isn’t recognized by the AICTE” . Let me clear something before I discuss anything more about this topic. I am talking about the distance education modules and not the regular classes conducted at the University or other Manipal University campuses.

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