Photo Post - Workshop @ ACET, Villianur

As a part of OpenGyan, a week back, i happen to spend a day in Achariya College of Engineering and Technology, Villianur, Puducherry and the workshop was on "Data structures and algorithms". This visit is kind of special to me because for a very long time i have been thinking of contributing back to my home town (Villupuram - the place where i did my schooling/grew up). After visiting this place/college, i feel like i m little closer to my home town (and in a while, i should be back to my home town for another workshop and to Pondy for few more workshops). Surely the visit to Pondy/Villianur is nostalgic (the place where i did shopping for diwalis and engineering books @ Higginbothams @ Pondy)

Here are few clicks from the workshop (and more in coming months).

Why OpenGyan?

For quite sometime couple of my friends and I are doing little weekend work in the banner of OpenGyan. Check out this and this to know more about it. One thing that puzzles people why are we doing this without getting anything back (the fact is that, till now, we didn't get even the traveling allowance or cost and in some cases we request for accommodation in guest house if it requires overnight stay). And this requires an honest answer.

When i thought, i got the following answer (this is my personal view. Though i believe the founders/friends agree with this, i m writing this on my own to keep me grounded and work on the purpose/mission)

• Getting back need not always be material 
• having conducted 10+ workshops, i would say i got more in terms of experience and i cannot equate anything with this.
• Give back if you are privileged to lead a quality life
• Again it depends on people. With the compensation i get from my daytime job thro' my company, i can lead a quality life and feel i can spend a little on my passion.
• Giving back leads to getting back
• I strongly believe that this is an investment but not a spending.
• Pay your fees for learning life lessons
• I cannot afford to set up a college to teach to people. I see this spending as my fees towards realizing my dream/passion
• Meeting young minds is honor but not a job.
• One cannot underestimate the power of young/curious mind. If not for all the above reasons, this one by itself justify the spending i do.
• Get an experience of how to run the show with minimal resources
• Just three folks with each having day time job & family, it requires a lot of endurance to run the show with minimal resources (most importantly time).
• At the end, i makes me happy
• At the end, it is so cool and it makes me happy. So, i better do the things that makes me happy.

More gyan on why OpenGyan later.

Have a happy week.

First Net Sec Workshop by OpenGyan

This is going to be the first workshop on Network Security by OpenGyan. This workshop is designed by Rajkumar. We have the following things in the agenda (but we are not focused to cover everything, we will just cover things based on how things are on the particular day).

• Why network security?
• Elements of Security
• Threat types - Unstructured, structured, Internal and External
• Attacks - Reconnaissance, Access & DoS
• Access attack
• Detection & Prevention

+ a lot of case studies and live demos

We will be again in PSG Tech this Saturday for this workshop.

After this, we will have two consecutive workshops on JVM Architecture one in Vellore and another one in Villupuram. We are working on another workshop during September/October. Stay tuned for future workshops.

In order to inculcate the habit of questioning, we are planning to have a column in our website - Curious Questions. This section will feature all the questions [intelligent, curious ones] that are asked by students/participants along with their name/college. We are in the process of giving it a structure. Again, stay tuned for an update on this in coming weeks.

Spread this goodness - http://www.facebook.com/opengyan

OpenGyan is a non-profit initiative that imparts experiential learning at schools on computing/computers.

5K Performance (33 mins 06 secs)

Y'day, i did a little faster 5K. Last month, my 5K running was 36+ minutes. During my y'day run, i completed 5K in 33 mins 6 sec and noticeably shaved off 3 minutes in a month. Another instance where i found that setting goals in life really helps. 

What amazed me was that, i was able to run at 11.25 kmph for almost 0.5 km and another 1km at 10.5kmph continuously (1.5 km). It is going to take a lot of training for building up speed but it is certainly doable without hurting myself.

Here is my latest run.

I m glad that i m clocking so much and getting better every day. Though it is not a goal now, i m thinking of running a 5K under 25 minutes (may be, i can do it within next 6 months and which means that i should run @ 12kmph for 25 minutes)

Running Performance - Improving

What i felt Last Saturday

On 21-July , i did a 20K run/walk. Ran for approximately 13K and walked for 7K without any perceived tiredness/strain. Unlike my first 21K run, i was able to continue with my usual life. There was no cramp or weird pain in the butt. Seems like my legs have become better. Still i feel there is a long way to go to cover 5K less than 30 minutes and 10K in about an hour (1 hour 10 mins). I m still hoping that i should cover 5K distance in less than 30 minutes in couple of months from now.

Today,

Coming my 5K performance. I feel that after a couple of days of rest followed by a longer run helps to improve the performance of 5K. Seems like my body and heart takes up more oxygen. My average speed is increasing every week. 

Here is my latest 5K performance (yesterday's run).

Good to see things improving.

My target is 5K in 29 mins 59 secs. Let me see how it goes from here. Within next 12 runs, i should have been trained to run 5K under 30 mins which should roughly take 3 weeks from now.

Thinking to run 10K under one hour is distant thought. I should first complete 5K, then move to 7K and then 10K (gradual). So, i think, it should take at least three months to run 10K under one hour.

Let us see how it goes

Another important thing when it comes to running is losing weight. I continue to shed my weight, which is good. I have chopped off 16 kilos and i still need to shed around 20 kilos (which should take at least 6 months).

Running is great way to chop off weight. I m glad that i m still consistent & injury free (yep, rests are more important than running).

OpenGyan - An Update

It has been while since i wrote about OpenGyan. We are glad to see that more and more people ask for workshops. We conducted one day workshop on Linux Programming in PSG Tech for Department of Information Technology. We had a great learning experience and hope we improve the way we present/conduct workshops. Here are couple of photos taken during the session.

In near future, we are planning to have one day workshops on network security and JVM architecture (in the month of August). Still things are in discussion/planning phase. Once it is ready, we will be rolling out in our website. So, currently we have the following

• Linux Programming
• Data structure and algorithms
• Network Security
• JVM Architecture

Please checkout our website - http://www.opengyan.com and pass on the information to your alma mater.

See you later

Plan for Next Three Months - Need for Speed

After running 21K last Sunday, i feel like my body is not yet ready to run 21K on a weekly basis. There are no major problems but i could see my body is taking little more time to recover. No knee pain, ankle pain or discomfort. But i don't feel the urge to run which i would be sensing after a break for couple of days. I m concluding that my body is taking more time for its recovery and i hope that it recovers stronger.

So far, my running is successful because i have always tied my running with a specific goal like running for 30 minutes to running a self-paced half-marathon. The next target is "Need for Speed".

In next three months, my goal is to

• run 5K under 30 mins
• and possibly run 10K under 1 hour 10 mins

In order to achieve it i have to increase my speed by 3 kmph for a 5K and 5 kmph for 10K.

Can i achieve it? Only the time can tell.

Next Month:

• Reduce mileage by 10% and increase intensity by 10% every month for next three months before raising the mileage & retaining the intensity. To be in safer zone.
• No 21K for next three months. 
• 15K would be my longest run (once per week) and 10K on other days (3 days per week). My week should be - 10K, 10K, Rest, 15K, Rest, 10K (little more intensity), Rest

OpenGyan - Update

Most of the colleges have reopened and we have received few workshop requests. Glad to see that people are calling us again. We feel that it is easier to expand this way. In July and August, we have finalized on conducting two workshops - Linux Programming Interface in Coimbatore and JVM Architecture in Vellore. I think, we should be doing couple more in August/September. Will keep you posted.

Badhrinath has come up with a proposal document of what is (really) OpenGyan and what we intend to do/make difference. It is a document that answers most of the questions in people's mind so that it will be easier for us to reach out to people/institutions. He will post it in Facebook to as notes.

When we conduct workshops, we are planning to meet up with key people and find out a way of working closely with set of institutions who are not commercial (or at very least not seeing OpenGyan to make more money).

We have also added Networking and Network Security to the list of workshop.

The website has undergone few minor upgrades and by now you should be knowing that there is a Facebook page managed by Badhrinath.

Web - http://www.opengyan.com

Facebook page - http://www.opengyan.com/opengyan

Request you to reach out your alma mater and share this initiative.

Way to 21K

The update is that i have completed by self-paced first half-marathon. Before i started to run (again), i never had an idea of running a half-marathon. Surely, Runner's world, Born To Run, Jeff Galloway and K7 made a difference this time.

I planned to run my half-marathon sometime end of June or early July but had to run yesterday because of this video. Watch it. If you need instant motivation to recover your wellness, look no further, watch that video. Awesome, awesome and awesome is the only word that i could get after watching it. The guy barely walked but later ran "Boston Marathon". I don't know him name but i watch it just before every run. It is possible to inspire other by just being consistent and focused on self. Utmost selfishness to be great & consistent is utmost selflessness.

Here is the stat of my dream run (it all took three straight months for a couch potato to enjoy a dream run & it is equally rewarding burning around 15kg of body mass)

• Distance: 21KM
• Duration: 2 hrs 55 mins
• Energy spent: 1954 Kcal
• Hydration: 500 ml of tang and 2 liters of water while running.

Post run, had (and i enjoyed every sip of the juice and every bite of pizza)

• a jughead special in Fruitshop on Greams Road
• half small jugalbandi pizza at pizza corner
• 500ml of Gatorade

While running, had cramps in thighs and butt few times. The cramps went away with stretching and walking for 2 mins.

After the half-marathon, my next target is on pace. Run 5K in less than 30 mins (probably 27 mins, which means that i should run at 12 kmph for 27 mins). It is going to heavily taxing on my legs, bones and lower body. Time to apply brain while running and be more sensitive to body.

During this journey, i can't really measure the amount of inspiration provided my little nephew K7 (is now Anna) who was dancing for this song when he had broken his left arm. I can't stop running when i hear this song (imagine that he is dancing) and i shoot up speed at least by 2kmph. God bless.

On the way (back to 2003) fitness

Seems like long distance running at slightly lower pace and medium distance with slightly higher pace is doing the trick. Glad that i m getting back to 2003 fitness level in running (i used to do a 5K @ 32 mins on a treadmill).

Yesterday, i ran the usual 10K distance and there is a marked improvement in overall pace. The completed the first 5K in 36 minutes. It really excited me and i think i should try to work on my 5K running pace. So, my running goal for next 3 months would be to shave off 6+ minutes and complete 5K under 30 minutes.

Another goal that i would be reaching by end of this month is running my first half-marathon distance. (eagerly looking forward). As far today, my max distance is 19.1K which i did last Sunday.

These days, i seem to love every running days and particularly weekends due to longer run.

Other stuffs:

1. Would be joining Inshape or Maverick Fitness early July
2. Research more on my next Asics running shoe
3. Improve hydration
4. Move running to the morning. I wont be consistent running in the evening due to work and little longer commute to work.
5. Get my lipid profile tested by end of July (all my previous lipid profiles are normal and in safe zone. I feel that i should still reduce bad cholesterol and triglycerides)

With all these, i believe i can reach my 1995 fitness levels in next 3-4 four months and my life's best fitness level in next 6-9 months (you see i was never in underweight/normal weight zone. I was mostly in obese zone and little in overweight zone :-)).

Eagerly looking forward.

Check this video. Excerpts of the book Brain Rules

Exercise Benefits for Cancer Patients by David Haas, Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance

Exercise Benefits for Cancer Patients Begin at Diagnosis
Of the many stressful events in life, a diagnosis of cancer ranks highly. One in two men and one in three women will face the stress of diagnosis, which can result in secondary symptoms and ultimately exacerbate the symptoms caused by cancer and treatment. Secondary symptoms caused by diagnosis include depression, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of appetite. Researchers have discovered a therapy that is capable of lessening the stress of diagnosis and other common symptoms as well.

Exercise as a treatment has been evaluated for many types and stages of cancer. It prevents and reduces the severity of symptoms and also increases the efficacy of treatment, reduces the risk of recurrence, and reduces the development of chronic diseases related to specific treatments.

Benefits of Beginning Exercise with Diagnosis
Clinics have been slow to make physical fitness experts available to patients at every stage of treatment, but this shouldn’t stop anyone from being active. Those with fitness experience should continue at their normal levels and talk about their routine with their doctor. Those with little history of exercise are advised to speak with their doctor and begin a low to moderately intense program.

Programs can consist of walking for 20 minutes each day for six days a week. Other exercises such as yoga, cycling, swimming, or any type of aerobics work as well. Strength training at least twice a week is also important. Weight training, isometric exercises, and special types of yoga will build lean muscle quickly and increase your aerobic ability. It’s vital to achieve higher levels of fitness before treatment, especially for chemotherapy and radiation. Treatment will reduce exercise capacity and those who start in better health will experience less severe symptoms.

One study performed for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute sought to determine whether exercise following breast cancer diagnosis was responsible for reducing cancer mortality and recurrence. After controlling many factors, experts found exercise did improve overall and disease-free survival for cancer patients.

Addressing Other Forms of Cancer
Breast cancer requires regular screening and is highly treatable. Other forms of cancer spread before being caught and others are resistant to treatment. In cases like pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma, exercise may seem unwarranted, but research shows it will still be beneficial.

When time is limited, quality of life becomes an important factor. At least one study has shown that a higher quality of life can be used to predict longer survival time. In any case, exercise is a unique method of reducing the severity of multiple symptoms without worry of compounding side effects.

About the Author: This is a guest post by David Haas, Awareness Program Advocate. Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. David is a cancer support group and awareness program advocate at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance. In addition to researching the many valuable programs, David often blogs about programs and campaigns underway at the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, as well as creative fitness ideas for those dealing with cancer, while creating relationships with similar organizations.

Half-Marathon (Self) Training

Lots of experiments on my body especially heart, knees, back and foot. 

So far, my body responded well for the "running challenge". I never thought i would take running so seriously (with a lot fun when i m on the road). It is real fun when you run and great learning when you throw the towel and give up. You become so upset because you cannot run that additional kilometer. Running teaches me many things. Every time i step into my shoes i m determined to run X kilometers and i m becoming more of a tough guy (prepared to crawl and reach home). When running, we generally take heart to a upper level and make the body to burn the calorie. I learnt to watch my strides to make my run comfortable and i can inhale/exhale at a comfortable pace. 

I started running by reading articles in Runner's World. Sometime in March '12, i started of my jogging (i should say restarted) with a 21 days training for running 30 minutes. Next step is to take running bit more seriously. How about running a self-paced half-marathon? Won't it be a big test of my consistency? 

With all my experience in past two plus months, i should be able to run few half-marathons in 2-3 months from now. It is biggest challenge in my life - "can i run half-marathon? (consistently)", only the time can decide. 100% committed. Will share my progress here with you.

My heartfelt thanks to all my friends who comment here and in Facebook. I owe you people a lot.

Second 15K Run - Much Improved

Today, i ran my second 15K run and things are improved. The last Sunday i ran my first 15K and when compared to that, this run was bit easier, relaxing and have improved my the duration (noticeably shaved off around 15 mins). Today's run

• 0.5 km - warm-up walk
• 12.5 - 5/1s, 7/1s, and 8/1s
• 2km - cool down walk
• Duration: 2 hours 10 mins (approx)

And most importantly, i finished off with a lot of energy (was planning to run 16K but didn't do it as it became too dark). For the past one week, i have been working on my hydration while running and sipping around 500ml of tang (should be close to 150 calories). Have to experiment on drinking water than tang.

Things to improve

• Stretching before and after the run.
• Hydration while running (to increase the performance)
• Do some breathing exercise (start doing pranayama taught by my dad)
• Have a shorter version of run (9K/10K) and keep repeating it for speed built up (and to burn more calories).

Glad to see my dad filling my running journal and he has become my raving fan.

Unstuck and Get a Life - April 2012

Started this month will a mileage of 6K and completed April with a mileage of 15K. I gradually increased the distance/time everyday by few hundred meters (and few minutes). I feel that i m much fitter and my legs are little stronger than March. I no longer feel that mild soreness. The overall mileage of April 2012 stands at 174K (yeah, it is one hundred and seventy four kilometers only). Here is my chart.

The key thing about running is that i got a time slot to think about myself and set my priorities.

Side effects:
During this month, i would have burnt down (108 (weight in kg)*174 (distance in kms)*1.036(a constant to be multipled) = 19468.512 calories) and this should have helped me to reduce 2.5kg of my mass if my intake is 2400 calories per day. I need to burn 2 lakh calories to reach ideal body mass (which would take at least a year if i m pretty consistent in my efforts). The key here is an healthy diet + not more than 2400 Kcal per day.

Stats:

Starting Mileage: 6K

Ending Mileage: 15K

Total Mileage: 174K

Total Running days: 19

Total rest days: 12

Cross Training: none

Good things

• Enough rest days
• Not too much carried away. Take every day as it comes. When you take unplanned off from running, i don't feel guilty.
• Take enough rest before increasing the mileage (if it is more than a kilometer)

Next Target

• Half Marathon {Run a half marathon in 2-3 months from now.}
• Cross training (swimming?)

Once again, thank you folks for supporting me. Your pouring comments here and in Facebook are really cool and motivates me to keep running.

As i said in March, i m looking forward to complete May with much better stats & health.

Heuristics and Review

Read about Heuristic

Infer things from common sense and use it for solving a problem. The human generally don't believe in common sense unless they perceive a pattern (we usually term this as experience) and once they find the pattern the human hardly believe that the pattern can change. We start with a low confidence (that leads to frequent checks/reviews), build the confidence by perceiving patterns and become over confidence (through the knowledge gained). Over a period of time, we tend to ignore the signs of pattern reversal. It is not pattern reversal but it is mere lack of understanding the system (one theory is that we fail to understand the theory of large numbers. For example, the probability of getting a head is 0.5. In the current trial, if we get a tail, it doesn't mean that you will get head next time. It means that for (real) larger number of trials you will get 50% heads and 50% tails.).

For example, when you try to learn to drive bicycle, you are tend to be very careful (cautious). Then, why do accidents happen? (check out theory of large numbers, theory of medium numbers)

I think, this applies to everything and the failure of things is more pronounced in discrete systems.

So, it is absolutely critical that we review (to keep inferring things/environment) and anticipate failure.

Failures are inevitable (as most of the systems in this world are really medium and hence there will be irregularities)

One can rely on heuristics if he reviews the heuristics properly (keep inferring and never conclude).

More gyan can be found in Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Weinberg.

Running Log - 20/Apr/2012

Today (21-Apr-2012) is yet another rest and after increasing my weekly mileage.

Yesterday, i added two more kilometers to my mileage. Since i follow 10%, i run an additional 1km run and added a kilometer for my cool down. I m kind of reached 12K mark. Here are the details

• 0.5 km - warm-up walk
• 9km - run (couple of 10/1s and 5/1s)
• 2.5 km - cool down walk

Observations:

After initial hurdle of 10 mins, i was able to run comfortably up to 40 mins.

After about an hour of run, i was again able to run comfortably (i ran couple of 10/1s after about an hour)

Running in uphill (not steep one) is little difficult (but i m getting better)

Walking speed has noticeably increased at least by 1kmph.

Next Milestone:

Hoping to reach my next milestone of 15K in three weeks from now (12-May-2012).

Be serious on stretching before/after the run 

Important Thing:

Apart from very mild soreness (which goes off after the rest day), i don't have any joint pains and running doesn't interfere in my daily life. I m talking this as my body's signal to add more mileage.

Running + drinking lots of water is doing wonders in my sleeping patterns.

My Experiment with my body

I have been experimenting a lot with my body (especially my legs, knees and hips) and i think my body is responding well to the toughest challenges. For people who know me well (and those you had a chance to look in close shot) will visibly see me bulky. And with hardly a month of running (with enough rest days), i understand that the size doesn't matter. Here are my learning.

• Size doesn't matter. The legs are designed to carry you even if you are heaviest unless you don't abuse it. But the catch is that it can run any distance only when there is gradual increase in mileage.
• Consistency is very important factor. You cannot bunk days. It is good even if you have time to walk/run a kilometer. Just do it and your body will surprise you.
• Rest days are as equally important as your run days. Veteran runners say body uses the rest days to recover. I feel it slightly. I need to watch my body more to really comment. But one thing that i can say that after every rest day my body craves for more running.
• Three words that i carry - consistency, hydration and good shoes
• Being around with good friends who just pep you up when you are down (thanks to all those who post comments in my blog, likes in facebook and retweets in Twitter)
• Personal mileage tracker with challenging short term goals.
• Don't starve. Rely more on whole foods and non-carbonated fluids (and say NO to junk foods - those half air-filled chips packets)

I m sure that these things are pretty much common (more common sense) among fitness freaks. Anyways, not too bad to share. You will see more common sense posts on running in future :-)

Running Log - 13/Apr/2012

After almost a week, i tried to increase my mileage today and tried to reach the next milestone - 10K. I didn't feel any pain/discomfort while i ran. I didn't overstep, i didn't increase the intensity of the run and thoroughly enjoyed. I m going to keep watching my steps and it is doing miracles. Watching the body really works. I did couple of things before the run. Around an hour before my run, i gulped 200 ml of Tang (flavored water which gives around 75 cal of energy) and 500 ml of plain water. Here goes the running log.

• Total Mileage: 10K
• Warm-up: 0.5 km walk
• Run: 8.5km (5/1s). 
• Cool down: 1km walk

Next Steps:

• Few upgrades
• Research on compression shorts/pants.
• Research on the need for knee band (that keeps the knee cap intact). I feel that i should wear it for next 3-6 months
• Check out the loss of minerals and how to build it back.
• Check out crossing training (cycling/swimming)

Observation

5/1s is really doing wonders. If you want to finish your race few minutes before, you should walk in between your run.

My overall mileage this month stands at 75 kilometers.

Previously (sometime back when i traveled to San Jose) i ran 12km but today's 10K gives me different feeling. I feel that i should keep running.

Thank you guys for being with me. Special thanks to Sandy for motivating me. Whenever i run, i sincerely feel that i should wear the kurta you gave me. The gift can actually change my life/lifestyle.

Running Log - 11/Apr/2012

After yesterday's rest, i think my body repaired quite well. Today's run is pretty impressive.

• Distance: 9K
• 0.5km - warm-up
• 7.5km - non-stop (no 5/1s or 6/1s). [But there is an interesting observation. 5/1s actually help me shave few minutes in my total run]
• 1km - cool down (cool down was absolute cool down. Not feeling any heat/hotness. Hydration is super cool)

Only two more runs this week. Hoping to add 20K to my mileage

Thanks to Veeru for sharing his views in Facebook. I m going to be very careful in add miles to my daily run.

Plan for 1/2 Marathon

I never thought that i would take up running seriously and enjoy every step. Whenever i run, i never think about shedding my pounds. I don't have losing weight as my goal. I enjoy the way i sweating out because running helps me to prove to my own self - what i m capable of. I don't just run. When i run, i think, i m hearing my body.

For the past one month, i have been witnessing the importance of keeping goals that are challenging. Everyday, when i untie my shoes, i think about adding a mile next time. I m not successful in adding a mile the very next day. But i add few hundred steps before giving up and everyday it is incremental. It is great thing to faint and fail. It is great thing to give up after sweating your butt.

I started with 3K. And for past few sessions i broke 9K and i should say, "i m pretty much consistent". With this consistency and if i apply 10 percent rule (increasing the mileage by 10 percent every week), i should be hitting 21K mark (half-marathon) in another 12 weeks (3 months). If i add a month to it to factor in my rest days, i should be able to run a half marathon within four months from now. It is very much attainable goal.

The point here is. I can run my half marathon next week. It is bit easy to run 21K once. But can i run 21K consistently every week without an injury is a question mark. I would like to bank on consistency, 10 percent rule and advices of veteran runners.

Running Log - 8/Apr/2012

Today, it was a fantastic day for two reasons.

First, my hydration was super cool and second i got new pair of Asics. I have been using Reebok for sometime for my evening jog. I wanted to buy a new pair of shoes. I was not happy with my new Reebok Vibetech and started searching for good shoes. Good that i came to know about Asics. Today, i bought a new pair of Asics from Reliance Footprint and my run was sturdy. I never jogged with such a comfort. More on Asics later (after my initial experience).

Coming to the run. Today, i took a different route. Here is my run log

Run log

• 0.5km warm-up
• 7 km 5/1s runs
• 1.5 cool down walk

Yeah, i crossed 8K today and made up 9K. 8K was my psychological barrier.

Upgrades (both these made my run pretty comfortable):

• Asics running shoes
• Nike running socks

Learning

• Try to find a route that you can complete in single run (irrespective of the distance). For long distance running, repetition seems to be a scary thing. Running laps are just boring. Make your run motivating.
• Add a bit of sodium after a long run. Today, had banana milk shake. Just a pat on my back :-)
• I feel that with training (and Asics), running a half marathon (13.1mi/21K) is an attainable goal (may be in 6-8 months).

Next:

• Need to study a bit on injuries due to running and how to mitigate them
• Have to check websites on Gatorade. Should i really take Gatorade?
• Start working on half-marathon running/training plan. Get a gyan and fix a goal (which is attainable yet challenging)

Gyan that i got:

Don't run to complete 5K/10K/half-marathon or to lose weight. Run to enjoy life and discover who you are.

One more kilometer to hit 10K. As usual, my endurance was up a bit and few times in the middle of my runs, i ran really fast (due to traffic signals and traffic congestion).

Only word that hits me these days - Consistency, Consistency & Consistency.

Running Log - 7/Apr/2012

Yesterday was a rest day (and also had some work @ office. had to stay till 8pm & attend a late night call). Good that all those fell on the rest day.

Today, i jogged 8K. While leaving home, i said i would go 10K today but my father asked me to stop at 8K (asked me to increase gradually). Took, few more minutes than my previous run (5-Apr-2012) but finished with little energy left.

• 0.5 km - Warm-up
• 6.5 km - 5/1 runs @ 54 mins
• 1.5 km - cool down

Started to keep myself hydrated well. In today's run, i felt that my endurance to run 8K has increased and  today i didnt feel the uneasiness.

I closed this week with overall mileage of 29km.

So, fell like it is good going and great self-training :-)

Tomorrow, have to buy a Asics (seems like available in the city at Reliance Footprint). Reebok doesn't seem to go that well with my foot.

Running Log - 5/Apr/2012

Today is a wow. Stepped inside the shoes and jogged 8KM. Here is the log

• 0.5 km warm-up walk
• 6.5 km (5/1, around 10 sets of 5 minutes running and 1 minute walking)
• 1 km cool down walk

Observation

• It was bit difficult to run 5/1s throughout. Had to slow down in my jogging in couple of runs. As usual, finished strong. Some energy was left to job another kilometer. (run-walk-run does the magic)
• After 53 minutes of 5/1s, i feel that my endurance has go up a little.
• It is high time to do some leg toning in coming weeks (climb stairs, do some sit-ups)

Next

• Complete this week with a 6K (tomorrow) and 8K (saturday or sunday)
• Be ready to run 9K by end of next week
• Get a good pair of shoes (asics or new balance, have to check out in sports shop during weekends)
• Keeping my fingers crossed to touch 10K by end of April' 12
• Have to find some cool jogging routes near my home.

So far, have clocked 21 kms this week.

Experiencing "Running"

I have been running (rather jogging/walking) for quite sometime. Got past my target of 5K pretty consistently and every day i jog i make sure that i jog 5K. And most importantly, i finish my run with lot of energy (which is good) and i have to (deliberately) tell my legs "stop". After my evening run, i still have energy left to play with my playful nephews.

The following helps me to enjoy my running

• Use run-walk-run method (check out Jeff Galloway's website) .
• Have enough rest days (two consecutive run days followed by a rest day)

and slowly i have to

• add miles to my run
• cross training (do toning exercise or bit of cycling/swimming)
• work on my "hydration" and make it better
• work on my diet
• Run in the morning (through not very urgent)

This week, i ran 6K and 7K on Monday and Tuesday respectively. Hopefully, by the mid of May, i should run my first 10K (yeah, it is 10 kilometers in single run). Currently, i m not focusing too much on the time to complete. Being heavy, i feel that running is much more important than speed.

My first gyan from this renewed habit is - "Size doesn't matter".

Philosophy of Being Naughty

Any philosophy to be called as a philosophy should primarily have two attributes. It should withstand the test of time and there should have been enough counter perspectives [contrarian views]. If you accept something simply because it has been rolled out by the CEO, you will do more harm to the philosophy than good. If you don't rebel, there are two possibilities. The philosophy could be so great but you missed to understand it. The second possibility is that the philosophy could actually be crap but you would be wasting your time on something which is useless. So, when in doubt, question. When in doubt, do not co-operate. When in doubt, be naughty.

In some cases, obedience is height suicide. Disobedience can lead to great self satisfaction and most productive for the company. This point itself could be a philosophy. Philosophy of being naughty (by naughty i mean not taking the casual route, naughty could be not fearing, naughty could be not trusting until there is a proof, naughty could be trying to be rebel).

By being naughty, if you don't buy in to the philosophy, it just fine. Because, you follow "Naughty Philosophy"

Unstuck and Get a Life

I never thought that this blog would turnaround my life and make me think big. You the readers have been my source of inspiration in many ways. I only hope that i live up to my own potential of being an human being.

Here is March '12 performance card of my jogging {i put together a tiny personal tracker/website in my laptop and till will take a while to make it online}

Points:

• Restarted to jog. {started and stopped the habit many times in the past. Every time i start, i vow to make it a part of my daily life. nothing changed this time}
• Training myself for a 5K run. {as of now today, i can comfortably jog 5K with 4/1 strategy. 4 mins jog and 1 minute walk}. 
• From mid of March, have jogged a total distance of 40 K (yeah, it is kilometers).
• In the last day of March, did few 3/1s, two 9/1s and a warm up (5 mins walk)/cool downs (10 mins walk).
• Next would be reaching 10/1 gradually and build endurance.
• Next 10 days, i would be working on hitting 5K consistently, every day that i run.
• From the end of April, i would be training for a 10K and hoping to hit 10K once with 10/1 strategy.

Learning:

Have enough rest days. Allow muscle to repair itself. Be tough to be consistent and be gentle while you run.

Hope to put up a better post on first of next month.

[By the way, don't think that this is fools day post. It is just a coincidence that i started this on March '12]

See you later.

Random Thoughts on "Add Value"

Having been in the industry for quite sometime, i took a lot of time to understand the true meaning of "add value" and practical meaning of "add value". I never shy away from being bold and often share my candid opinion with a caveat that i could be wrong. When i share, i understand my limitations in my own thinking and offer to correct my thinking flaws when an argument is made with evidence. This post need not necessarily my experience at my workplace. This is just a "how the world can be" thinking. 

Many people who manage people use these tricky words - "add value". I think, the statement "add value" is so abstract. Can you make it concrete so that understanding becomes easier? When you go abstract, you become more philosophical. The abstraction has to be an outcome of one's own thinking. It is outcome of your thinking when you play with few concrete things and you understand them. It can and should never be taught. When we say "add value", what do we mean by that? Have we clearly said what is basic expectation and what is value addition. Being in an industry where there is large human churn (due to attrition), being sticking to a company for few years is basic expectation and  serving the company for long years is adding value. can the mere presence be considered as "adding value"?

How will you convince a worker who is so passionate, who maintains a very low profile who thinks that he is doing something what is expected out of her. Here, "adding value" is built in. You cannot differentiate such worker and value. How can you define "add valuing" to such a person? Will you exploit him when she says "she is normal guy".

Why is that adding value never be practiced? When you have so many people under you, it is much easier to make noise, can you step up your contributions through critical thinking? Are you dare enough to say, "come on guys, fire my thought process, let us learn something new, thinking fresh is more important than value itself". You know, being an example takes a lot of pain and we have to endure a lot of pain. The commitment to remain painful is a way to "add value" to your folks. For example, you have endure the pain of no results for many months before seeing something. Are you prepared for it? When your team is in incubation, will you rally around it?

Unless we have such a commitment towards shaking up status quo, we can never be "adding value".

With my little experience, i infer that only rebel can add value in words and spirit and i also believe that the value driven out of such a person will never be visible. Because such a value will lead to paradigm shift.

Open Gyan - The Commitment

This year (till now), Open Gyan, has conducted two workshops on Linux. We planned two more workshops in different colleges (DS/algo, JVM Internals and Linux) but we decided to push those to next semester as we felt that it would be little hectic for the students to prepare for their semester/labs and attend our workshops. All these workshops would be scheduled next semester along with few new workshops.

Visit us - http://www.opengyan.com

I would like to share couple of ground rules that would instill our long term commitment towards Open Gyan, its values and long term goals.

Since we are receiving the workshop requests moderately but we are very selective. At Open Gyan, we are interested to have a specific format (in delivery, hands-on and do it yourself) on selected topics. We don't want to repeat what the students have already learnt (or will be learning). We can certainly customize our workshop based on the students' exposure but we would not be interested to cover the entire syllabus (we feel that the college should be doing it). We welcome workshop requests that enhances the thinking/programming skills of the students and we aren't interested in merely repeating some text books and syllabus. We want to do workshops that shapes up thinking and to people who are passionate about computers/programming and conduct workshops (to curious minds) that challenges our own thinking. With this, we will also be challenged enough and knowledge sharing will be two way street.

The second issue is that many are asking for financial commitment. With the best interest of Open Gyan and its members, it is correct time to clear the air. Open Gyan will not be charging anything as fee. Our workshops are free (free as is in Open Source). Our companies pay us enough to have a moderate lifestyle. This initiative is driven out of passion. So, if you are looking out to cash something through us, i think, it is better to say "Open gyan will be truly open". Open Gyan will remain non-profit now and in FUTURE. Another caveat is that if our workshops require over night stay (which is very rare), we expect accommodation be arranged. With this, our original and true intention are preserved and our values won't get diluted. This will also help us to set expectation with any new members who join Open Gyan.

We are pleased about the response for Open Gyan. We have been meeting people and contacting them (through referrals and personal contacts). It would be great if you can share this with your friends specifically who are in academia (they could be professors or students). 

You can do two possible things 

• Forward this post using the link at the bottom of this post or copy/paste this post in a email.
• Visit/like our Facebook page (post this on your wall). In order to make your job easy, i m sharing couple of links.

Open Gyan - http://www.opengyan.com

Open Gyan@Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/opengyan

Email: ping@opengyan.com

Once again, we thank you for the support. We sincerely hope, "Together, we will make something meaningful to the community".

Have a Great Week.

Cheers,

Open Gyan Team.

Commitment Vs Compulsion

There are two ways by which you can complete a work. 

The first way is to complete it because you are committed to do it. You love to do it and in that case the work itself becomes reward. You don't expect anything back when you do such a work. 

The second way is to complete it out of compulsion. You complete it as you don't have any choice left. If you do it this way, the work will be so much incomplete even though it is complete.

You, only you can decide which work is "compulsion" and which one is "commitment".

So, decide. It is never too late to do the work that you would love to do.

Stretching the limits - Why

Have you ever stretched your limits? If you have done it, why did you do that? What did you infer by stretching the limits? Did it make you happy? Did you feel so good? If you felt good, why did you feel good? If you felt bad, why did you feel it that way?

So many "silly" questions.

By stretching, i didn't mean slogging in office for more hours. Now, you understand that this is not that "silly". By stretching, i mean - the thinking, your thinking (damn serious?).

Why should we stretch our thinking?

I feel that one should keep stretching their limits to infer that we are limitless.

It is not expanding the boundary or expanding the thinking envelope. It is experiencing that we are limitless.

So, let us stretch the limits and become limitless (got the gyan?)

Top of the mind Thinking

Whatever clever we are, we just do most of the things from top of the mind. We do something when others watch us and we tend to do totally different thing when there are no one around us[another variation is when you are near a person know to you versus when a stranger is watching you].

You can have any value system (it evolves or degrades over time, i m not commenting anything on the value system) but make sure that it is available at the top of your mind. In a very passionate/emotional situation, we tend to do things from top of the mind. If you happen to do something against your value system, just don't feel sorry. But make sure that you make an initiative to bring the value system to the top of your mind.

More than thinking, "top of the mind thinking" is more relevant in day-to-day decision making.

Once you do that, you will never feel sorry in life (buying certain things that you dont need, deciding on your next job, taking an extra scoop of ice cream in Baskin Robbins, dieting and life style changes that we are trying to alter everyday etc).

Is your career a Gambler's Fallacy

Read Law of averages, Law of large numbers, Gambler's Fallacy and my previous post Standing in the sideline.

We stand in the sideline without much contribution (i should accept that there is no dearth of oral contribution). By contribution, i mean mutual value creation. We think that many people in the past were successful by just doing that we are doing (being close to idle). When something goes wrong, we tend to think about a "pyramid" and compare our growth with the pyramid. We just think that it is natural to get dropped at the bottom. 

Is our career a gambler's fallacy?  Those black balls never come next time and we keep betting on the black balls. Like the previous times, we continue to lose this time too (and probably next time).

Standing in the line for extended period of time is like gambler's fallacy.

So, i happen to conclude that law of averages, law of large numbers and gambler's fallacy helps people who think. Thinking fuels you to make better bet.

Standing in the sideline

When the game is on - you can play it or choose to be on the sideline.

Wherever you want to be (it is just fine. If you don't play this game, you always have time to play another game), just say it loud and be specific (to yourself and others)

• Let your stand be loud and clear to others so that others don't lose/experience the game. 
• You have to be loud to yourself. You must not count the returns when there is no input. And just standing in the sideline doesn't make any sense - you don't have time to play another game (which would have really a game changer game in your life)

When you are on the sideline, it makes sense to be clear to others/you that you are on the sideline and move on to play another game.

Open Gyan - News and Update

This year is quite good for Open Gyan. Having started this initiative during 2009, it is glad to see some momentum and we see that this initiative is taking off a bit. We decided that it is apt time to invest more time (personal/leisure) and as a result we came up an idea of focusing on two areas. First is DS & Algo and the second one is Linux. DS/Algo helps us solve the problem and Linux makes it simple (KISS principle).

OpenGyan - Logo

This year, we would be doing series of workshops in these two areas. Each area will have at least two workshops (basic and advanced). As we already said, the workshops would be hands-on (and we just don't stop with prescribing something. we sit with the students and make them do things. So the learning will be mutual).

Next comes the update.

OpenGyan gets a logo.

We are bootstrapping new website. Please visit us and share your thoughts [www.opengyan.com]. 

• Open Gyan

After getting inputs from few of our friends, we prepared/updated our main presentation slides for "what is Open Gyan". We are constantly updating our goals and priorities based on your inputs. We are looking forward for your inputs.

Once again, we would like to thank you (a tonne) for supporting us and spreading the goodness. Please share with people that you know who can benefit out of this initiative (students/professors in colleges).

Get the Gyan

Get the Gyan, it is never too late.


Either you learn it hard way or learn it from others, make sure that you get the gyan. Learning it from others is just an optimization. Don't bother if you cannot optimize.

Get the Gyan.

When you ask for Feedback again

People often ask others to give them feedback on them - what they feel, what would make them effective, efficient, better. An usual, cyclic ritual.

When someone gives you a feedback,

• at least have a courtesy to say "thank you" immediately (at least before a month).
• when you ask the feedback the next time, make sure that you convey people what did you do with feedback that was already given. How did you act on it? If you thrashed them, just say so but politely. It is much better than not saying.

Without the feedback of feedback (a courtesy), the people do not actually need to be courteous again. They have options - option of giving feedback to people who value it.

Do-It-Yourself (OpenGyan) - Write a (your own) shell

This is one of the exercises we give to students in our workshop on Linux programming. Many of the participants understand the concept behind the shell and use basic process management system calls (fork, exec, wait and exit) to write a miniature shell on their own. Given time (and effort), i think one can write their own shell. Here is the requirement for a brand new shell (feel free to assume/add more requirements). As an additional effort, try to find the features that are missing in existing shells and implement those in your new shell.

Write a mini-shell with a following features

1. The shell should receive command from the user and execute it. If the user just gives the command, you have search the command in all of directories defined in the environment variable PATH. If you are not able to find the command, you have print "no luck, seems like your program is toasted". If the user specifies the path along with the program, it is enough if you just load and execute it.
2. You should store the last command that is execute and its exit status.
3. You should implement a facility to run the program in background.
4. You should remember last “N” commands and print it upon user request.
5. You should name your shell and it should appear as the prompt.
6. When you type "quit", you must quit from your shell with a greeting.

Hope you find this interesting. Happy Shelling....

Success And Failures

To be successful, you just need one success.

To be successful consistently, you need numerous failures and phenomenal failures.

The failures are bound to happen when you make those baby steps.

So, when you fail. Just get up and go ahead.

Open Gyan, Linux Programming Workshop - Slides

As i updated sometime back, Badhri and I will be presenting our second workshop in 2012 on Open Gyan's Linux Programming. This workshop is part-1 covers only process, memory and file i/o. The second part would be interprocess communication. Since we felt that IPC is bit complicated (and lengthy), it would be better not to cover everything in single sitting. So we split that into two.

We have prepared presentation slides (this is not office, we are not using MS powerpoint, thanks to Google docs) and a companion exercises course hand-out. Would be great if you can have a look at them and give your feedback to make it better. There are few slides that are incomplete and those will be completed in couple of days.

You can send me an email (grabyourfreedom@gmail.com) and we will add your name to contributors/reviewers list.

Open Gyan, Linux Programming Course Hand-out

Open Gyan, Linux Programming Presentation Content

Thanks everybody, for supporting Open Gyan. 

Here is our Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/opengyan

Reason of why we are not excelling

Is there a reason for why we aren't excelling?

Why we don't do programming (let us say work) little better? Why aren't we little nicer to others? Why are we taking everyone for granted? Why do we think that we are correct (not always but 110% of times)?

We pity a lot - not on others but on ourselves. The bigger world doesn't expect us to be bigger, greater or nicer, in fact the world doesn't need us to be great. It never cares for individuals. It just extinguishes the matter that is not relevant. The world keeps changing its skin like a snake. If you don't excel in your thinking, you are gone, you become history.

We fail to exist because we fail to excel. We fail to excel simply because we are clever, just clever enough to find a reason to fool around like - i didn't have good primary education, i m a villager, my boss is not great, i don't have a corpus to spin off a start-up. All these can true. Even if these are true, it doesn't really affect one. It is the self-pity and finding reasons that affects us the most.

I hope, one day, i will come out of this self pity and start doing something meaningful to just prove to myself and simply enjoy my drive in life journey.

Open Gyan - Are you a student @ college?

So many people have talked about the students not being industry ready and this has been a talk for a while. Sometime back, we wanted to take dip and try out something which could lead for a change.

Why?

In a country like India where there is so much of social divide right from basic sanitation to higher learning, we don't think it is reasonable to expect everyone to be same without giving them exposure and skills. The students who are living in cities have access to technology but the people in villages have less access to the technology (the same applies to rich and poor). The folks who have access to technology have opportunity to be well-informed. Unfortunately, there are lot of people still don't get the exposure.

What about others?

We thought about it couple of years back and started an initiative "Open Gyan". The primary goal of this initiative is to give exposure to students in the way of conducting workshops. We just wanted to give a try in this format - conducting workshops. 

Why did we choose workshops?

Most of the things in software may it be computer networks or Unix operating systems originated because the people who invented it needed it badly and later they made it available to the world. The wider community fine tuned it. They followed "do-it-yourself" philosophy. With this workshops, we believe that we will be able to give "hands-on" in programming and impart the importance of "do-it-yourself" attitude, both of the traits are much needed in IT/Software (makes sense even in broader sense).

We have done "do-it-yourself" kind of workshops in few colleges and it is gaining the students' interest. They love to do it and learn it more than theoretical.

In case, if you are interested to recommend to your friends (we will appreciate if you recommend after doing a background check whether we are really worth :-)), here are few pointers you should check the following.

Open Gyan - www.opengyan.com {bit outdated and will be updated shortly}

Open Gyan @ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/opengyan

Open Gyan @ Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/opengyan

We don't want to mention that this workshop is free (nothing in this world can truly be free). We strongly believe that knowledge grows when it is shared and we are happy to take our paycheck in the form of knowledge gain. As of now (and we think for ever), these workshops will be offered free of cost to students (and we don't have an intention to expand Open Gyan beyond the students community).

If you have any questions, comments/feedback, please do write to us. We would be glad to answer you.

Provoke to get a better feedback

You scratch my back and i, surely without fail, can scratch your back. It is professional kick back and it is mutually beneficial. It is dangerous than any scam because you officially institutionalize "back scratching". Everyone knows yet none flags. Kick backs are so sweet. It gives you a feel that the benefits of kick backs outweighs the sweat that you must shed to fix something {in most cases, our attitude}.

Very few and (really) only very few of us provoke people to give great/blunt feedback. Some of us, just love to hear complaints. Provoke people to give great feedback so that both the giver and receiver steps out of their respective comfort zone. The comfort zone of giving the same feedback and the comfort zone of getting the same yummy feedback.

Provoke and question the feedback until it is blunt.

Community And Company

You can run a company for profitability. You can see products/services as something that are getting assembled and you sell those for a margin. There is nothing wrong in it (and equally there isn't anything great either). If you really want to exist, you just keep making profits.

Not good enough these days and not enough any day when you want to make meaning.

You run a company plus run communities.

Communities where people learn how they assemble products and deliver services. They do bold experiments and your company becomes nothing less than a laboratory. They stretch their brain muscle, elevate their thinking and ready to make BIG mistakes.

Open source is a great example. There are many open source products where no one claims ownership but make their contributions count. The success of open source product paves way for great success in future and failures become lessons.

Communities are great way when you want build something ground up. Communities lead to paradigm shift.

Communities inside the company should be the foundation for your company (not just profits).

Ubuntu - Windows Installer

Have been using Ubuntu for quite sometime and was thinking of migrating to 11.10. Since i m coming from an older version of Ubuntu, i badly needed a good dock in 11.10 and i didn't go for Ubuntu 11.1 as platform for all my development @ home (still, i use crap windows at work).

I just wanted to try converting Ubuntu 11.10 as my dev station. Without much of hassle, i downloaded ISO image. While i was downloading, i happen to see Windows installer this time (with only selfish motive of converting my windows workstation) and wanted to give it a try.

I also downloaded "wubi.exe" and installed it in one of my windows machine. I didn't face any issue either installation or setting up Ubuntu 11.1. I downloaded few tools needed for my development like Gvim, Emacs, Eclipse and VLC Player (don't ask me why. i hear songs when doing development). Everything was effortless. (windows only users should make a note of this. try migrating to Ubuntu :-)).

How can i get a dock (which can hold all my application launchers)? I searched a bit and found out "Cairo-dock". I m quite impressed with the features that are offered by "Cairo". You can customize the applets, docks and various other themes. If you have Ubuntu, you should really try Cairo-dock.

After couple of hours, my Ubuntu looked like this.

Try WUBI - http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/windows-installer

Second Workshop in 2012

Sometime back, we happen to start an initiative Open Gyan and conducted few guest lectures in 2009/2010/2011. We went to around 10 colleges around Chennai and met up with principals and Head of Departments.

This year seems to be going really well (social media is really working out). We were originally thinking of conducting workshops (focus on hands-on training than guest lectures/theoretical sessions.) on basics of computer science/programming and i m glad that we kick started that this year. Last month, we had a workshop in Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Engineering College @ Perambalur. We happen to test drive our workshop (and my brand new Fiat Linea Emotion Pack) on Linux and Network Programming.

I m yet again glad to share with you that we would spending another day of workshop early next month (we have booked our tickets) in Coimbatore.

Everyday, we are spending at least 30 minutes in customizing our content/delivery and i ought to say that it is a tremendous opportunity to share knowledge and improve myself. If you have any comments, feedback based out of your personal experience in interacting with freshers at your workplace, please do let us know. We would love to listen to you in the interest of thousands of professionals out there in schools.

Again, thank you for all your support (tweeting, likings in Facebook and forwarding personal emails) and your support should take us a long way.

Steep, Steep, Steep

There are two types of work.

The first type is to take up something that appears to be steep (learning curve) but isn't steep really when you sit back and reflect. We can take up this type of work just to impress others or ourselves (and it would pay off well). The work that you are accustomed with also falls in this category. People will fake that they are recognizing you when there isn't so much to recognize.

The second type of work is the real steep one. If you choose this work, you should be ready to fail because you are stretching your elastic limit and there is whole a lot of possibility of you being torn apart (and there is equal possibility of you stretching your limits consistently).

Choosing the type of work is really a choice, the choice you make everyday and your choice decides your experience.

Being with RIGHT GUY and turning UPSIDE DOWN

Changing the status quo needs a vision. You got to know where you want to go. It is your "point zero".

Only then comes the resources. Most of the times, you just don't commit to a change initiative thinking of resources. Resources are assumed to be available when you need them.

If you are convinced enough that you have to change and facilitate a change, the next important thing is being with RIGHT people. I m not saying you need to be with a visionary. I m just saying that you got to be with someone who sees tomorrow, next month or probably next couple of years. The way he is seeing may not be consistent. But the key is seeing tomorrow.

As long as he sees "some tomorrow", he is the guy and he is going to question you and probably shake things up to make tomorrow little better.

Be with RIGHT guy and turning UPSIDE DOWN would be a wonderful experience. You will simply love being part of such a change.