Nithin Kamath’s Weblog

I just read a blog named “Joel on Software”, got there through either reddit or del.ici.ous.com not sure which one, but it was for reading the article/post Advice for Computer Science College Students. It is a very nice writeup where in the author writes about 7 things Computer Science college students should do. The 7 things mentioned are:-

1. Learn how to write before graduating.
2. Learn C before graduating.
3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.
4. Don’t blow off non-CS classes just because they’re boring.
5. Take programming-intensive courses.
6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.
7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

The article starts by telling that students should learn how to write, since writing is a very form of communication, students should take into writing, it may be in the form of assignments or blogs or any other form. In the second point, emphasis is given on learning the ‘C Language’, which I also agree is one of the language which every programmer should know.

On the third point, this is something some of my classmates (MCA) would like to know, this semester we have a subject called ‘Managerial Economics’ and many were wondering why should we learn economics (which was clarified in the very first class itself), the article sums it up very nicely:-

Why should CS majors learn econ? Because a programmer who understands the fundamentals of business is going to be a more valuable programmer, to a business, than a programmer who doesn’t. That’s all there is to it.

The rest of the points are that one should do well in non-cs subjects and should not ignore them, one should take programming intensive courses, and doing some good programs during the holidays.

The sixth point which i skipped was because it was about worring about losing jobs to India, well the article mentions:

Well, OK, first of all, if you’re already in India, you never really had to worry about this, so don’t even start worrying about all the jobs going to India. They’re wonderful jobs, enjoy them in good health.

So this was my attempt at posting something interesting and at the same time something worth while.

Currently i am in the process of learning asp.net for a project to be done in the college, which is supposed to be done in the next semester. Since i am using gnu/linux, i was in a dilemma on how to learn asp.net without spending much time on windows. Suddenly, i remembered mono “the open source .net project”, i fired up firefox and googled for “mono asp.net” and voila, the very first link itself took me to the page i was looking for [http://www.mono-project.com/ASP.NET]

I found out that i could either install an Apache Module or run a small standalone server. I choose the second one, the stand alone server “xsp” which is written in c#.

The best thing about “xsp” is that it came with my mono installation and all i had to do was do to the directory which had my “.aspx” files and run xsp in that directory. It set up a server and i could browse to http://localhost:8080 and run the .aspx pages. Cool! right, i found out that the c# scripts were supported and i don’t know if vb scripting is possible since it generated errors when run.

If you don’t want to write your own pages to test this server then change directory to: “/opt/mono-1.1.9.2/lib/xsp/test” or where ever mono is installed in your system. Once in the /lib/xsp/test directory start xsp and you can goto localhost:8080 and check out some cool sample pages.
Got lots more to explore. Bye for now.

This tutorial link gives a brief overview of the differences between C# and the two languages that are its closest relatives viz C++ and Java. References are given in each cases to more comprehensive works currently to be found on the web.

Google Talk is a simple and free way to talk with and send instant messages to your friends. Like Gmail, Google Talk uses Google’s innovative technologies to help people communicate more effectively and efficiently. Think of it as Google’s approach to communications.

Google Talk is easy and intuitive to use. All you need to make free calls is an Internet connection, a microphone, and a speaker. After you download Google Talk, sign in with your Gmail username and password. Invite your friends to download Google Talk, and once they do, you’ll be able to talk or IM with them instantly.

To use Google Talk, you need Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home & Pro), or Windows Server 2003. You’ll also need a minimum 56k dial up connection.

Google Talk also supports standards-based communication clients, which means that Gmail users can access the Google Talk service and exchange instant messages using other clients that support the standard XMPP protocol, such as Trillian, GAIM, iChat, Adium, and Psi. This allows users to access the Google Talk service for instant messaging from all major platforms, including OSX, Linux, and Windows.
–
I am able to connect to the Google Talk service using the GAIM client, and i am really enjoying it now, since most of the people i know have gmail id’s and it was difficult to know their yahoo/msn id’s if i wanted to contact them through IM, with Google Talk it is really simple. Google now has E-mail, groups, IM, search and a host of other services, so only time will tell what’s next from Google…May be a Operating System based on linux or a browser based on FireFox….

Today as i was browsing the web i stumbled upon a webpage which show how “Hello World” programs. If you are not a programmer, it is worth mentioning that “Hello World” is the first program one usually writes when learning a new programming language. And this site has more than 190 “Hello World” programs written in as many language.

So visit http://www.roesler-ac.de/ if you want to see how languages differ from each other when writing a simple program such as to display “Hello World” on the screen.

Have you read about Extreme Programming and it sounds interesting. It seems so far from where we are today, though. Where do you start? How do you start?

Here are some of the promised benefits of XP: fewer defects, more predictability, greater flexibility, closer conformance between delivered features and actual needs, and shorter lead time for new features. A typical XP project has weekly milestone releases, each of which is technically ready to deploy….

Read Full at: Informit.com