Cloud Computing has been really hogging my life since quite a long time. I was suggested by some alumni last semester, that I go ahead and read about it. linuxNUS (me) had organised a talk with Simone Brunozzi, Technology Evangelist, Amazon Web Services back in November. Though I could not attend it, I got a chance to listen to him and meet him personally at a C3216 talk. Awesome stuff :)
So I actually first get the experience of actually using Cloud Computing (from here, referred to as CC) for my facebook application for CS3216. Amazon Web Services supported the CS3216 group by providing us EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing) for hosting and setting up our facebook application. They gave $100USD to each team.
It was actually more than hosting and an awesome experience in setting up an instance. I even tried out setting up a community AMI- Ubuntu 9.04 from scratch as a LAMP server and set up an Etherpad.com instance - 13 hrs of struggle in strange waters of Java and Scala. I have been using Virtual Machine (VM) since a long time. I run Ubuntu, OpenSolaris on Win7. So working under linux environment is my best known playground :)
CC is coming to hog me even more. I am doing a CG1413 module Problem Solving project on Introducing CC in NUS. I have a good team of 3 more people, and fortunately we have found the main guy behind cloud computing in NUS. Meeting him this Wednesday. I am getting even more reasons to delve into CC as I recently found a book "Cloud Computing for Dummies" in the Central Library and it is damn latest!! Just launched a week back! Gobbling it down right away.
So this semester is all about Computing in the Cloud. Looking forward to an amazing learning experience!
I will soon be back writing all about CC that I can find through talks, surveys and experience!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Being a Good Boy for one day :)
I have been a Good boy today :)
The Facebook application requirements have been sorted out priority wise, and the whole next week is packed. The weekend will be over in a jiffy. But lets gear up for the second half of the run!
CS3216 is an investment on oneself. The returns are awesome - Good friends, Great learning, Good Contacts, A Great professor to look up to, and a real awesome experience.
After attending its lectures (which actually "teach" nothing, but just push you on the right track), I am kind of wondering, what will happen to the remaining of my stay in NUS. Who will be there to push us so hard that even the limits expand? Is there any other *work hard* + *fun* course? Prof, do let me know if there is.
P.S. This post is actually meant for my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com. But never mind, it goes there too :P Its all about my life, so doesnt matter wherever I write.
- I have slept like an innocent kid for 6 hrs in the morning and 4 hrs in the afternoon. (Though I overslept to go to a lecture, but no worries - Webcast)
- I have a clean room and a clean desk.
- I have washed my clothes.
- I have gone through the other modules too (apart from CS3216)
- I talked to my parents and sister for a really long time. *Feels Good*
- I am trying to get my social life back. Sleep is already back and I think the amount of sleep I had today will keep me charged for the next week. My friends are planning a movie tonight, and I will see if I can catch up. But Adhiraj is a bit over me to set up his Linux system.
The Facebook application requirements have been sorted out priority wise, and the whole next week is packed. The weekend will be over in a jiffy. But lets gear up for the second half of the run!
CS3216 is an investment on oneself. The returns are awesome - Good friends, Great learning, Good Contacts, A Great professor to look up to, and a real awesome experience.
After attending its lectures (which actually "teach" nothing, but just push you on the right track), I am kind of wondering, what will happen to the remaining of my stay in NUS. Who will be there to push us so hard that even the limits expand? Is there any other *work hard* + *fun* course? Prof, do let me know if there is.
P.S. This post is actually meant for my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com. But never mind, it goes there too :P Its all about my life, so doesnt matter wherever I write.
Motivated();
//This entry is from my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com . Read more there to understand the context.
I dont know, I get a small tiny voice that asks me to blog - (haha! I mean, reflect)
So we have reached the mid-assignment submission and our team's application is up with a few broken connections and lacking what it is actually made for :)
I believe what we have the back end and the front-end right now, will be quite different a week later. Completing all the "aspirations" and making our app "click-and-does-something" gives a sense of satisfaction. Its still a long walk to go, with more night campings at SoC.
Talking about my past 2 days, I have missed 2 lectures, almost slept in a tutorial today and my room is like a total mess with clothes waiting to go for laundry (ok, I know that I am gross to mention this, but this depicts that I just come to my room to sleep, and sometimes not even that :P).
But the experience that has come in working with a team is price-less. Learning so many things in such a short period of time and then implementing it is really an achievement for us. I had read this quote somewhere
- though I forget the exact words -
Just read it, and if you cant I will pick up the most important line from in there
"I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class."
Though this may sound simple but one has to say that "I can".
I dont know why I am recalling such motivational stuff... I have another story that I had heard once on the All India Radio FM channel (as I write this, I googled up 'Bamboo and Fern story' and the exact story is there). So I will just quote it from there - (Better than my telling a story in rather haywire manner :P)
--------------------
I dont know, I get a small tiny voice that asks me to blog - (haha! I mean, reflect)
So we have reached the mid-assignment submission and our team's application is up with a few broken connections and lacking what it is actually made for :)
I believe what we have the back end and the front-end right now, will be quite different a week later. Completing all the "aspirations" and making our app "click-and-does-something" gives a sense of satisfaction. Its still a long walk to go, with more night campings at SoC.
Talking about my past 2 days, I have missed 2 lectures, almost slept in a tutorial today and my room is like a total mess with clothes waiting to go for laundry (ok, I know that I am gross to mention this, but this depicts that I just come to my room to sleep, and sometimes not even that :P).
But the experience that has come in working with a team is price-less. Learning so many things in such a short period of time and then implementing it is really an achievement for us. I had read this quote somewhere
- though I forget the exact words -
Success is not measured by how high the person has reached,
but by the distance from which the person started.
I am of the opinion that learning anything is never beyond my scope, and there is no age for learning. Actually learning is a life-long process, and those who believe that learning stops when u stop studying, are mistaken. There was this interview with Will Smith some years ago in Reader's Digest magazine that I had read and luckily I found it on their website.
http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/will-smith-interview/article31133.html
Just read it, and if you cant I will pick up the most important line from in there
"I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand up in front of the class."
....
"The first step is you have to say that you can."
Though this may sound simple but one has to say that "I can".
I dont know why I am recalling such motivational stuff... I have another story that I had heard once on the All India Radio FM channel (as I write this, I googled up 'Bamboo and Fern story' and the exact story is there). So I will just quote it from there - (Better than my telling a story in rather haywire manner :P)
--------------------
One day I decided to quit…I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality.
I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
“God”, I said. “Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”
His answer surprised me.
“Look around”, He said. “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”
“Yes”, I replied.
“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.
“In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. The same in year four.
“Then in the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern, it was seemingly small and insignificant.
But just six months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle.
“Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots? I would not quit on the bamboo.. I will never quit on you.
“Don’t compare yourself to others.” He said. “The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful.
“Your time will come”, God said to me. “You will rise high"
--------------
So with a hope for good "aspirations" (pun intended), I hit my bed for a peaceful sleep.
P.S.: I hope to touch other modules tomorrow as it is the only day that I feel I am a bit free from 3216 stuff. Weekend : Learn more :P
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
3 days of Sem2
This post has been lifted from my other blog angad-cs3216.typepad.com
Its been nearly 18hrs since the Show-and-tell session of CS3216 has ended and I feel that the sooner I write, the better I recall.
But still I am not going to write about whatever I inferred from the session. My inference is with me and I am still twirling those thought threads.
Let those threads weave some material, and till then, I will just be writing about my past 3 days.
I landed in Singapore after the holidays on 10th Sunday Morning. A sleepless 6hr night flight imposed a 5 hr day time sleep. A sudden change in climate (I come from a place in India that is a valley and has usual temperature of 4-7 degree celsius during winters) gave me a terrible headache and a cold. No worries, it subsided by the next day :)
My usual *bed-hitting* time back in India was around 1-2 am. In Singapore time, it converts to 4-5 am. My first night was sleepless. I took advantage and watched the 2 3216 guiding videos again with a friend of mine, suffering from the same phase of insomnia.
I got up next day early with just 4 hrs sleep, in search for a laptop with a parallel port. I had brought along a school project of mine which I had intended to show "working" during the show-and-tell session, An RC car controlled by the PC keyboard. Bad Luck, Parallel Port is outdated :(
The whole day was rather eventful with a 2-4pm lecture of CG1108, the new form of EG1108, a 4MC module. It was really interesting to know that we would be programming LEGO robots in the module, unlike any previous 1108 course. This was another of the time that I felt good that I had taken this "new" Computer Engineering Course. More details about my major here.
I feel really good about the 1108 module. It is also a really innovative type one, and with a passion for embedded systems, I am really liking it. An excerpt later.
I was rather disappointed as I couldnt show off the feat that I had achieved in high school. Though simple but my first introduction to hardware interfacing with a computer. The parallel port is really gone now. But I can just say this now, that the RC car did not have any microcontroller for its logic. The whole logic was the parallel port with 8 bits for output and 8 (or so) bits for input (light sensing). And I really liked the flexibility that parallel port gave over the serial port, (for a simple project like that). Serial port would have required an external circuit to transmit data to the remote.
Moving on, the Show and tell was fun for me. I perhaps have to read up some blogs right now and get in the flow of thinking about what I can give to a team.
The session ended late and I had already missed the bus to PGP. So walking down with Adhiraj and Cedric was fun. We kinda bonded and shared lots of insightful threads of memories and thoughts. We came up with team plans and what the team should be like and what all programming skills need to be brushed up or picked. Though perhaps we had an inclination of forming a team there and then, but it was good to hold it for that night and wait for some channeled thoughts from our own minds and other great minds from this module.
After a quick dinner with Cedric at the Supper House, I headed back to my room. A good friend of mine and I sat for another 2-3 hrs discussing all the entrepreneurial and philosophical stuff. Catching up on whatever we had been upto during the holidays was fun. Perhaps he is the best peer I can look up to for bits of advice. USP and his own skills have perhaps really made him capable of that.
Sleeping at 4 am and then again waking up at 8 am for a 9am lecture was a bit tough. Loud and numerous alarms help. CG1102 was the 9-12 lecture by Prof Colin Tan. It was basically an introduction to C++. I used a significant amount of time during the 3 hr period to go over the last night events and create a mental picture of what tree I am climbing on. A lunch and then 2-5 pm (just 3 hrs before I post this) CG1108 lab exhausted me. Coming back to CG1108, I really loved and cherished the lab. We were given a LEGO Mindstorms kit and asked to make the robot (according to the pictorial instructions) and then program it to follow an oval shaped black line. I was on the software part for my team of 4. A simple switch case and if else, and it was fun to know that my robot was the fastest :) and smooth over the curves.
And now I am here finishing this blog post. And I will be coming back soon after dinner to write another one over the last night experience and the usual "selling myself" on the blog.
P.S. : I believe, for rather average oratory skill set, blogging is the best "Show-and-tell".
Its been nearly 18hrs since the Show-and-tell session of CS3216 has ended and I feel that the sooner I write, the better I recall.
But still I am not going to write about whatever I inferred from the session. My inference is with me and I am still twirling those thought threads.
Let those threads weave some material, and till then, I will just be writing about my past 3 days.
I landed in Singapore after the holidays on 10th Sunday Morning. A sleepless 6hr night flight imposed a 5 hr day time sleep. A sudden change in climate (I come from a place in India that is a valley and has usual temperature of 4-7 degree celsius during winters) gave me a terrible headache and a cold. No worries, it subsided by the next day :)
My usual *bed-hitting* time back in India was around 1-2 am. In Singapore time, it converts to 4-5 am. My first night was sleepless. I took advantage and watched the 2 3216 guiding videos again with a friend of mine, suffering from the same phase of insomnia.
I got up next day early with just 4 hrs sleep, in search for a laptop with a parallel port. I had brought along a school project of mine which I had intended to show "working" during the show-and-tell session, An RC car controlled by the PC keyboard. Bad Luck, Parallel Port is outdated :(
The whole day was rather eventful with a 2-4pm lecture of CG1108, the new form of EG1108, a 4MC module. It was really interesting to know that we would be programming LEGO robots in the module, unlike any previous 1108 course. This was another of the time that I felt good that I had taken this "new" Computer Engineering Course. More details about my major here.
I feel really good about the 1108 module. It is also a really innovative type one, and with a passion for embedded systems, I am really liking it. An excerpt later.
I was rather disappointed as I couldnt show off the feat that I had achieved in high school. Though simple but my first introduction to hardware interfacing with a computer. The parallel port is really gone now. But I can just say this now, that the RC car did not have any microcontroller for its logic. The whole logic was the parallel port with 8 bits for output and 8 (or so) bits for input (light sensing). And I really liked the flexibility that parallel port gave over the serial port, (for a simple project like that). Serial port would have required an external circuit to transmit data to the remote.
Moving on, the Show and tell was fun for me. I perhaps have to read up some blogs right now and get in the flow of thinking about what I can give to a team.
The session ended late and I had already missed the bus to PGP. So walking down with Adhiraj and Cedric was fun. We kinda bonded and shared lots of insightful threads of memories and thoughts. We came up with team plans and what the team should be like and what all programming skills need to be brushed up or picked. Though perhaps we had an inclination of forming a team there and then, but it was good to hold it for that night and wait for some channeled thoughts from our own minds and other great minds from this module.
After a quick dinner with Cedric at the Supper House, I headed back to my room. A good friend of mine and I sat for another 2-3 hrs discussing all the entrepreneurial and philosophical stuff. Catching up on whatever we had been upto during the holidays was fun. Perhaps he is the best peer I can look up to for bits of advice. USP and his own skills have perhaps really made him capable of that.
Sleeping at 4 am and then again waking up at 8 am for a 9am lecture was a bit tough. Loud and numerous alarms help. CG1102 was the 9-12 lecture by Prof Colin Tan. It was basically an introduction to C++. I used a significant amount of time during the 3 hr period to go over the last night events and create a mental picture of what tree I am climbing on. A lunch and then 2-5 pm (just 3 hrs before I post this) CG1108 lab exhausted me. Coming back to CG1108, I really loved and cherished the lab. We were given a LEGO Mindstorms kit and asked to make the robot (according to the pictorial instructions) and then program it to follow an oval shaped black line. I was on the software part for my team of 4. A simple switch case and if else, and it was fun to know that my robot was the fastest :) and smooth over the curves.
And now I am here finishing this blog post. And I will be coming back soon after dinner to write another one over the last night experience and the usual "selling myself" on the blog.
P.S. : I believe, for rather average oratory skill set, blogging is the best "Show-and-tell".
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