Techmaniac

A few great sources of wisdom for a computer science students

2012-02-29T14:00:00.003-08:00

Hey friends often as a student you are looking for an idea, for your project, seminar or just something to kill time.Some of you might have the passion to bring about the next big change in computing.Now if you are one of the lucky few who get admission to some coveted institutes(like IITs) you can go to your professors, for others its not an option.In most of the second tier colleges the professors have not got even a single paper published, how are they going to help you.So, today I am going to share about a few sites and resources which will help the not so lucky students.
1.Communications of the ACM:
This is the monthly magazine of the Association for Computer Machinery featuring the state of current research and a lot of interesting columns by eminent computer scientists.This magazine is a must read for a computer science student.Of course you can find topics for your seminar and project work from here and who knows you might even be inspired to develop the next famous algorithm.Reading the current issue requires subscription but you can read the issues from last month and older from magazine archives without subscription here.

2.Stanford Engineering Everywhere:
Through SEE Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world.This includes the three course introduction to computer science taken by most of the Stanford's graduates along with seven other courses.This is a great opportunity for students around the world to access truly world class education.

3.Careercup.com :

This is a great website for anyone preparing for coding job interviews.Here you can find the latest questions asked by top companies with solutions.
You can suggest any other resources that I have missed in the comment section below and your feedback and sugessions are always welcome :D.

The Humble Programmer-"Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (May 11,1930-Aug 6,2002)"

2012-02-27T09:26:00.001-08:00

Edsger Wybe Dijsktra, Professor Emiretus Department of Computer Science, University of Texas. Working in his small office with a few close scholars he solved problems of great importance which shaped development of computer science as a respectable scientific discipline. He was born to a chemist father and a mathematician mother. His mother was a lasting influence on his approach to mathematics and his emphasis on elegance. Those days computers were a novelty and he happened to be a programmer by accident. A. van Wijngaarden, the then director of the Computation Department at the Mathematical Center in Amsterdam offered him a job, which he accepted becoming Netherlands’ first official programmer. When Dijkstra married Maria (Ria) C. Debets in 1957, he was required as a part of the marriage rites to state his profession. He stated that he was a programmer, which was unacceptable to the authorities, there being no such profession at that time in The Netherlands. And, believe it or not, but under the heading "profession" his marriage act shows the ridiculous entry "theoretical physicist"!
He was a towering figure in the field of computer science. Among his contributions to computer science is the shortest path-algorithm, also known as Dijkstra's algorithm; Reverse Polish Notation and related Shunting yard algorithm; the THE multiprogramming system; Banker's algorithm; and the semaphore construct for coordinating multiple processors and programs. Another concept due to Dijkstra in the field of distributed computing is that of self-stabilization – an alternative way to ensure the reliability of the system. Dijkstra's algorithm is used in SPF, Shortest Path First, which is used in the routing protocol OSPF, Open Shortest Path First.
He is also known for his famous paper ‘A case against the GOTO statement’ criticizing Goto statement, which led to wide deprecation of use of Goto and development of control structures such as while loop. This methodology of programming was known as Structured Programming.
Simplicity, beauty and eloquence in programming were his hallmarks and through these he inspired several budding programmers. As he stated himself once “If you want more effective programmers, you will discover that they should not waste their time debugging, they should not introduce the bugs to start with”
Dijkstra always believed it a scientist's duty to maintain a lively correspondence with his scientific colleagues. For over four decades, he mailed copies of his consecutively numbered technical notes, trip reports, insightful observations, and pungent commentaries, known collectively as "EWDs", to several dozen recipients in academia and industry.
In 1972, Dijkstra received the Turing Award, known as the Nobel prize of computing, for his major contributions to the development in the late 1950's of ALGOL, a high level programming language, which became a model of clarity and mathematical rigor. His acceptance speech for this award, titled the “The humble programmer”, includes a vast number of observations on the evolution of programming as a discipline and prescriptions for its continued growth; it is must reading for any aspiring computer scientist.
Let’s conclude on a lighter note with an excerpt from Dijkstra’s speech in which he talks about the condition of the poor programmer:

“What about the poor programmer? Well, to tell the honest truth: he was hardly noticed. For one thing, the first machines were so bulky that you could hardly move them. Secondly, his somewhat invisible work was without any glamour: you could show the machine to visitors and that was several orders of magnitude more spectacular than some sheets of coding.”

The underdog of sciences: Computer Science

2012-02-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

Hey friends how's it going?Well I recently met this person who is working in some fire and safety firm.He gave me a ride, on the way he asked me what was I doing?I said-"I am pursuing my degree in Computer science",at which he smiled and said Computer Science mania.WTF.I mean if you are doing your major in physics and mathematics you are considered to be a great academic, If you are doing B.tech in any other branch except computer science you are the bright engineer.The moment you say Computer science you are labeled a maniac some kind of a wannabe.Computer science deserves every bit of respect that any other branch of science or engineering gets.

Recently some reality show producer made a remark that people who spend time in front of computer have no life.The producer is a baldy who's famous for scaring the shit out of young kids by putting them in a room and abusing them.I guess that is a great thing to do, as he has turned into this self reclaimed youth icon.God save the youth of this country.I guess you would have guessed who is he?Well he's Raghu(Yeah! Raghu i named you.Sue me _|_).He does'nt have a clue what he is talking about.The site that he uses to publish his content and videos is designed by some geek, the TV that he uses to telecast his TRP hunting show runs on algorithms designed by us.

These CS greats are responding to your comment in their own way.

Now,lets remind people what is computer science doing for them.We are there in your microwave,in your television,in the smart grids that supply electricity to your home.You go to the general store we are there at the cashier's system.We have enabled you to communicate with your friends and family,given you email,chat.Remember the days when you had to write a letter and wait for snail mail to arrive.We are there at the reservation counter,we are at your bank.We have designed the software that runs industries, that drives satellites.We have developed robots that assist old people in Japan,we have designed system that checks your answer sheets in your exam.We have designed all your favourite sites that you use whole day and the tablets, computers, ipads ,ipods and what not.So,next time you meet a computer engineer show some Respect.Signing off\m/.

How much RAM you are actually using?

2011-09-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Every now and then when we are trying to upgrade our system we come across the question do i have enough RAM or should i increase the ram? Today I will try and help you find the answer o this question.We all know that RAM is the part which our computer uses as its physical memory.Many believe that one gigabyte of RAM is enough for virtually any non-professional application scenario. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Have you ever launched a recent gaming title with lots of resource-hungry applications already launched? Everything might seem fine as Windows relocates the applications' memory data to the swap file on your hard drive. However, as soon as you hit a Windows key accidentally, the OS will hectically try to exchange the gaming data in the main memory by the application data that was swapped before.
32 bit system
For a 32 bit there is always a physical limit of 4gb because we run out of address space.But the 4 gb limit is also theoretical the actual limit is equal to 4GB minus your video card memory and the address space allocated to a couple other hardware resourcse. Typically, the realistic maximum memory is somewhere betwee 2.5GB and 3.5GB.So having a more than 3gb is a waste on a 32 bit system.And if you have an expensive graphics card with 1 gb dedicated ram the situation is worse your system will see only about 2.5gb RAM.

64 bit system
People often say it is not worth upgrading to 64 bit if you don't have enough RAM.Well if you see the details for 32 bit system your system is actually seeing much less RAM than it actually has.One of the benefits of being able to run 64-bit native versions of applications is obviously a huge increase in memory capacity, but there are other added benefits. Because the kernel itself is running in 64-bit mode, it can easily accommodate the desires of a 32-bit Large Address application.

Limitations
The only problem in using 64 bit os is that it does not support the native 16 bit applications.But who uses those anyway?

Embrace the Future
The transition to 64-bit computing is like many technology transitions before: it requires some additional work and new learning. Nevertheless, it offers exciting new opportunities and potential.

Five must have softwares for your windows pc

2010-02-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

Today,I present a list of my favourite softwares for windows pc.
1.Quintessential Media player.
It is a feature rich media player for windows .It highly skinnable.What i like most about this player is its feature packed media library feature.It lets you import files as well as folders and comes with a number of preinstalled plugins.To download click here www.quinnware.com/

2.BumpTop
It is a fun, intuitive 3D desktop that keeps you organized and makes you more productive.Its highly customizable it lets you decide how you want your desktop to look.BumpTop lets you create piles, just like you do in real life. But with advanced search and sort capabilities, you'll always find what you're looking for.What i love about Bumptop is the simulation of gravity and bumping of different desklets.Highly recommended.Get it click here

3.Lime Wire
It is an open source p2p client that lets you share your files and get files from other users that are using its network.You can share your data with your friends and get what they have shared without a hassle.It has two search bar one bar that searches the whole network and the inner search bar searches your library.To get it click here.

4.Malwarebytes' Anti Malware
It is an excellent malware detection and removal tool.It is surprising effective for a freeware .The scan speed is also good. It is capable of determining the difference between false positives and dangerous apps.Real time protection is restricted to the paid version but this one can well be used with your existing antivirus once in a week to check for any malware that is not detected by it.To download click here

5.CDBurnerXP
It can be used for burning Cd's ,DVD's,blueray discs and even iso images.You can burn any kind of data ,video or rip an audio disc.It does not contain any adware as is the case with most of the free softwares.Try it its good trust me.Get it from here

Dual booting vista and ubuntu and partitioning the drive

2009-12-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Here i give you simple steps on now can you partition your hard drive and then install ubuntu on your system
Partitioning drive for ubuntu
1:Go to start menu right click on computer on the drop down menu click on manage .

2:In the next window select disc management wait for drive information to load.

3:Now right click on the the drive you want to shrink to create space for ubuntu.
4:The next box will show you the amount that you can shrink .If the amount of volume to shrink is less than the amount you want(5 Gb min recommended 15 GB) defragment your drive.
5:Now select the amount of storage you want for your ubuntu.

Creating Your ubuntu CD
1:Download the iso image of the latest version from here
www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
2:Burn the iso image to a cd (CD R 80 min 700 Mb).You can use any image burning software if you dont have one download CD Burner xp from here
cdburnerxp.se
3:After burning you are ready to install ubuntu to your system.

Installing ubuntu from your CD
1:First make sure that in the boot sequence in your bios CD rom is listed before Hard drive.(BIOS can be opened while booting by presssing F10 or F12).
2:Now insert your burned CD in the CD Rom and restart your system.
3:Now your computer will boot from the cd .
4:Select install ubuntu from the list that appears.
5:Select country and click forward.
6:Then you will be asked to enter your username and password which will be used for your login.
7:Enter the details and click forward.
CAUTION : Now the partition manager will start in it check the box for Use the largest continuous free space.

8:Now click forward and select install this will install ubuntu on your system.
9:Whoa you have installed ubuntu un your system .You will get the option to select to boot into either ubuntu or visat on startup.

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