Sajux

St. Edmund's College – A Reflection in Time

2013-01-09T23:59:00.001+05:30

Today, I was just browsing through my past digital archive and found an article that I had written after completing my undergraduate programme.

Producing it here for posterity:

Ah the very name itself sends nostalgic chill down my spine. St. Edmund's College, SEC for short – the haven I spent five years of my life in. I would rather say I spent a lifetime therein. It was my dream, when I passed my 10^th, to be part of this esteemed institution. My joy knew no bounds when I found my name among the list of selected candidates. It was a fascinating journey and a rich learning experience ever since. The bunking of classes, playing cricket during class hours, running away from Bro. E.V. Miranda, proxies in class, hanging around with friends, tension during tests, the lab works – the memories are too numerous to list them all here.

The times spent in Bsc. Computer Science require particular mention. The professors were awesome. Prof. Sajid Nagi, Prof. Patea, Ms. Karmakar, Bro. Len (though he was not officially part of Computer Sc. Department but he was of Maths department) and all others had been more of a friend than teachers. They guided us when necessary and helped us in every way. I remember Prof. Patea allowing us to use his personal computer at home to complete our major project. Bro. Len’s way of teaching was both humorous and innovative. The Electronics department professors deserve special mention as well. Prof. Passah, Prof. Dhrubojyoti Das were fun people to learn from. How I wish I was back in college again! Thanks, SEC, for everything.

SEC has been instrumental in crafting many a dream, building many a career, offering many a path, making men and women who leave a mark in whatever field they work in. As I pursue my career and life, I try to implement the learning that I gathered during my association with SEC and it shall be my endeavor to be an Edmundian always.

I wish all students, teachers and non-teaching staffs to keep up the brilliant work and to keep SEC shining for years to come. All the very best to all of you and may Almighty bless you all.

As I sign off, I remember two motto of our annual celebrations:

If you `Dare to Dream`, then `Follow your Dreams`!

Installing Fedora 11 from a USB stick

2011-06-27T21:20:00.000+05:30

With the release of Fedora 9, anaconda has introduced a new consolidated boot image:

"Consolidated network booting ISO image, replacing old boot.iso, diskboot.img, and rescuecd.iso."

Download the boot.iso image according to your system architecture from these locations:

i386: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/11/Fedora/i386/os/images/boot.iso

x86_64: http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/11/Fedora/x86_64/os/images/boot.iso

and loopback mounted on /mnt:

[root@localhost ~]# mount boot.iso /mnt -o loop,ro

Now the steps to create the USB pendrive image are quite simple. A file is created, formatted and made bootable with syslinux and the appropriate files from the boot.iso are copied over:

[root@localhost ~]# cd /tmp/
[root@localhost tmp]# mkdir pendrive

[root@localhost tmp]# cd pendrive/

[root@localhost pendrive]# dd if=/dev/zero of=diskboot.img bs=1M count=23

23+0 records in

23+0 records out

24117248 bytes (24 MB) copied, 0.25443 s, 94.8 MB/s

[root@localhost pendrive]# mkdosfs diskboot.img

mkdosfs 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)

[root@localhost pendrive]# syslinux diskboot.img

[root@localhost pendrive]# mkdir mount

[root@localhost pendrive]# mount diskboot.img mount/ -o loop

[root@localhost pendrive]# cp -r /mnt/isolinux/∗ mount/

[root@localhost pendrive]# grep -v local mount/isolinux.cfg > mount/syslinux.cfg

[root@localhost pendrive]# rm -f mount/isolinux.∗

[root@localhost pendrive]# umount -f mount

[root@localhost pendrive]# rm -rf mount/

[root@localhost pendrive]# cd

[root@localhost ~]# umount -f /mnt

[root@localhost ~]#

After these steps, a diskboot.img file is located in /tmp/pendrive. This file can be written to an USB stick with a command such as dd if=diskboot.img of=/dev/sdb. Special care should be taken to write to the correct device (/dev/sdb in this case) and _not_ overwrite one of your own hard drives.

The River of Knowledge

2011-01-28T17:29:00.001+05:30

Knowledge is like a river. It starts from an origin. It swirls, it curls, it twists, it turns, it curves and it flows. So does knowledge. It joins with other rivers to form mightier rivers and distributes into smaller streams to benefit a smaller environment. When we collaborate on knowledge it generates better knowledge and is beneficial to a larger community. When we use part of a knowledge, it benefits locally. And finally the river reaches its destination, the ocean. Then from the ocean it evaporates and returns back to its origin. The one who shares knowledge also learns from the recipients of the knowledge.

The river enriches its surroundings wherever it flows and so does knowledge. If you hold the river, it will cause flood and destruction. Holding knowledge back has similar effects.

Remember, you cannot freshen the waters if you do not channelize it out.

In spirit of this epic journey of the river, let us all try to inculcate its characteristics. Someone rightly said, Knowledge is POWER.

So don't hold back the river. Let your knowledge flow.

Open the flood gates!!!

Saying 'Hello' to the World

2008-03-17T17:45:00.000+05:30

It all starts with a 'Hello'. The first friendship, the first love, the first date, the first communication. The 'Hello' paves the way for the rest that follows. In Computer Science, the first time you learn a new language, you are taught to say 'Hello, World'. One learns or knows only a couple of languages: around 5 to 10 (including human languages). Ever wondered how to say 'Hello' in different languages. Well, here it is for your viewing or 'saying' pleasure : the 'Hello , World' s in all the languages both for computers and humans.

http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm

A beautiful one to say hello to state your obvious:

http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/helloworld.html

Googly-woosh

2008-02-23T05:30:00.001+05:30

Today, I presented on the noteworthy features of Google's product and services at my company. Had been using Google's stuff for a long time that I felt I needed to discharge some of the electrons dancing in my head. Those who attended it, please feel free to share your comments and reviews, so that I can improve upon it.

Others can view the presentation below:

Do share your comments after viewing it.

Thanks.

काश कही ऐसा होता

2007-10-26T15:15:00.000+05:30

ए काश कही ऐसा होता
कि सिने मैं दिल न होता
ना जीने कि तमन्ना होती
न मौत का खौफ होता
महबूब के यादें न होती
न बेवफाई का सितम होता

ए काश कही ऐसा होता
कि सिने मैं दिल न होता
तो जीत कि ख़ुशी न होती
न हर का घाम होता
दोस्तो के साथ न होता
न दुश्मनों के ज़ुल्म होता

ए काश कहीं ऐसा होता
कि सिने मैं दिल न होता
तो नेकी का भरम न होता
न गुनाह का शर्म होता
सनम की आस न रहती
न मोहब्बत कि यस रहती

ए काश कहीं ऐसा होता
कि सिने मैं दिल न होता
तो वो जीना भी किया जीना होता

Thinking!

2007-08-13T14:50:00.000+05:30

You are richer when you share,
And poorer when you withhold!

Introduction

2007-06-26T18:17:00.001+05:30

Hi All,

Since this is my first blog, let me introduce myself.
I am Sajux. Not my real name, though. :)

I am a software engineer by professional designation, designer, innovator and creator by aspiration, researcher by nature, average by looks, unknown by popularity, communist (not as in politics but as in open source) by affinity, Muslim by religion and Indian by nationality.

This is my first attempt to address a large community. So, hope to update on myself as often as possible.

Thanks!