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.

I’m sorry for the lack of updates during the last month. If you read previous posts you might have noticed that my exams we’re this month and I must say I’m not quite impressed with the way I did though. My averages hit around 80-85% and to be frank I studied much more than I usually do for the other Semesters but it seems that those scores are from reality this time. By the way, SMU please have the courtesy of at least running a spell check on your papers to confirm whether at least 50% of it is typed up correctly . The way your papers come out just glorifies the inefficiency of whoever made those question papers in the first place.

Anyway this Semester should be real fun as I have to do my Project and I don’t have a clue yet on what I will be doing. The little college where I go to ask me if I could make them some bulletin board which each student could access. Although I could probably do that easily with Joomla I’m only going to resort to that if I can’t find anything else proper to do. On the other hand I’ve been looking forward to work on something involving Python, but I still have ways to go before I reach a competent level to do the same.

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.

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 now that my exams are done its time to get back blogging and tinkering with my computer. As for my SMU Exams I have just one thing to say to you SMU. Read the freaking papers before you distribute it, half the questions are spelled wrong and quite a few questions even have the wrong options as choices. At least show the courtesy of checking the papers at least once before sending it out to the Exam Centers. Whew… now that I’ve let that out I feel much better .

Now its time to get back to work on several pending guides I’ve been planning to publish.

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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