Unconventional way of studying things..

Sometimes I think that I studied lot of things in engineering text books, but don't have any clue on how the concepts/formula derived or how much analysis they put behind on those concepts.That research or hacking experience generally missing in text books. Sorry ..I am not saying school/college text books are bad. We ( as students) always needs to read text books .. but what I am trying to convey is... sometimes  textbooks are missing practical possibilities of  formulas or concepts.

There comes the importance of unconventional way of studying things..  or the hackers(in good sense) way of mastering the interested areas. Our schools and  colleges should give these kind of opportunities for students.

 Okay.....

These things came to my mind when I was watching the below video... 





She (http://jvns.ca )  explains the tool 'strace'

I tried 'strace' against our normal linux command 'ls'. This actually listed me amazing tracing log ...

 This is just an example .All concepts that we are studying/hearing should have unconventional way of mastering it or we should at least try to develop it !!!

None of the computer text books might have taught you on, what actually happens behind the 'ls' command. But the unconventional way is, find out some tool which can list the activities behind 'ls' and mastering what is it doing.... obviously it is very difficult, but  it gives you the full concepts behind the 'ls' upto very low/machine level.

Unconventional way of studying things opens opportunities which are not described in most of the text books That gives you the confidence to question the actual concepts or current implementation.

But it will have some initial difficulties and extra research  out of your text books or tutorials. But I am sure that there will be always some supporting tools/methods which somebody might have implemented already or you can implement such a method if it's not there!! :-)

Below is the screenshot of 'strace' on  'ls' in command line

some research on each system calls behind means ..

With the death toll from a massive earthquake in China now above 67,000, the government aims to prevent new deaths by protecting survivors from possible floods and the threat of a disease outbreak. Jamila Trindle reports from Beijing.



Chinese health officials said Tuesday that they have begun the country's largest public health effort in recent history to guard against the threat of epidemics among survivors of the Sichuan earthquake.

Concern about possible outbreaks is rising not only because survivors are living in cramped, sometimes unsanitary areas, but also because the threat of disease is always higher in the summer. Officials say there have been cases of diarrhea, tuberculosis, and hepatitis among survivors, and they are monitoring the cases closely.

Ministry of Health official Chen Xian Yi says researchers have compared the current outbreaks with disease patterns before the quake.

Chen says that they have found that there are no more cases after the earthquake. In other words, he says, so far, there has been no big outbreak of disease.

While health workers focus on disease, soldiers are trying to evacuate an additional 80,000 people from around a lake that formed when a landslide dammed a river during the quake. With heavy rains expected in the coming days, there are fears the dam could give way suddenly, causing a flood that could endanger more than a million people. More than 70,000 people evacuated the area earlier.


how deeply the disaster affect the people in china. If you want to see the coordination of chineese people even in this critical situation read the ppt . http://naveendavisv.googlepages.com/Earthquake11.ppt

Entering into Insurance Domain

I am doing LOMA certification. For that I am getting a Insurance Class. Actually this is a fully new subject to me. Lot of terms that are unknown to me. First three classes really tough to get, because teachers, sorry BA(business analyst), they are starting with insurance terms and also I had missed first 7 chapters.Anyway I started to new area of knowledge, more related business and money.

Sea bath

This is very hot season in chennai. Actually people call these days as Agni Nakshatram( burning star).In room I cann't sit, fortunately power cut is also there in my place( ha ha) .Today I got a chance to bath in sea. Really enjoyable.I went to Basant Nagar Beach at 5.30 pm.I called my hcl
friends also.Lot of people were enjoying the sea bath till I came
back(7.45 pm).Actually the water is not good for bath because it is
mixed with sand as well as some dirty things. Anyway after a long time I took bath in sea.
If there were more trees in chennai , it would have really helpful to escape from these hot season. Instead of trees, only building are here. It will only help to increase the temperature.The thing I understood , I have AC in my office, but the cooling I got from the sea shore had some more safty or calmness than I am getting from office.

A confession of a Btech student... the things I forgot to follow

Really I wasted lot off time in Btech life. When I joined in the Electronics & comm department , I thought I would get everything from teachers itself. But in Btech 90% of things, a student need to study by himself... that is fact. It is possible... easily possible. But you should follow whatever principles you followed in the schooling time. Wake up early at least 6 am. Give half an hour to every subject in every day. .... every body will have one time table in school time.One thing that is different in college, teachers will not take portions everyday . So we have to study ourself to cover that day portions. Main problem for students failing to follow these principles in Btech ( from my experience and problems me faced) are .....
Following some superheros..... Those are coming in car to college or showing that they have some money or having 3 or 4 girl friends to talk...haha. Don't follow them. They are only showing their father's money or what they got before coming to college. Believe that you are the superhero. Show your hard work and abilities in studies and helping others. You can show things that you learned after coming to college. For that you must try to clear your weaknesses..... struggle for that.
Wasting time . ... In my college life, I stayed in hostel. In that days , I didn't get interest to study, because no portions of subject were moving. ... Nothing to study. The subject that taking in classes were not interesting. But one thing I can tell, if you try to study subject daily , you can create interest in those subjects easily and you can follow teacher's classes also. But Btech study culture is, only studying in exam holidays. I will tell, you can pass exams with that study, but it will not give satisfaction in study. Don't follow that culture , follow the study culture you got from your schooling. My mother is a teacher, so I know how strictly I followed sch ool time table and my own time table , including weekly revision of subjects.( i really confessing. ) . I forgot to tell how I wasted my time in Btech life. Actually i didn't get my own private time. Always some friends wil be there.( these are not their problem only , I also included in disturbing others ) .. playing cards , going for movies, talking about waste things...... etc. These things are needed, I know . But no limitations was there in my Btech life. “ Better you take single room or come from home to college . You should get your own 5 hours time daily“ this is my first advice to Btech students.

Make use of everything in your college... attend your teacher's class.. I least go and attend the classes. If you are following the daily portions then that classes will be helpful. Attend seminars , technical talks of every subject ,including other department. “Don't think I am a electronics student so why should I attend a computer science or mechanical subject talk”. Attend... attend. No need to understand everything . Make use of your library. Read books.... Don't read for exam. Study to get some extra knowledge. This was the No:1 mistake I did in my Btech. I didn't take even a single book from my main library.... I am really regretting because of that. But I usually go and take magazines from my department library . There are really good books and magazines that you can not subscribe or buy. My favorites are 'linux for you', 'PC Quest', 'electronics for you'. Go and participate every technical programs in every college.

The things that you must follow other than you followed in school are you must make a habit of browsing Internet 1 hour daily . Relate the subject you studied and the information you got from Internet . Try to acquire knowledge,technology,computer programming language from Internet. This is not for CS ,ECE but for every Btech student, Every day you should try for some new thing from Internet. At the same time you should not go back in your college subjects.

Every week or month you should try a project with the information you get from college, internet, magazines, books. In electronics there are lot off magazines and projects avaliable . Try to do those things monthly as group( with your friends) or individual.

Try to read English news papers daily and discuss daily news. That will improve your English as well as communication skill.(second mistake I did)

broadband in Laptop

Today I got Tata indicom broadband connection. Actually it is prepaid connection. For 3 months 2150 Rs (including installation charge) . For more information see http://www.tataindicombroadband.in/access/prepaid/order/prepaid_tariff_a.html