Great Book on Compilers

Recently, i have been trying to keep myself focused on learning the basics. The interesting thing about this i keep finding something very interesting. The digging things is really very interesting. I failed understand this when i was doing my under graduate degree nevertheless i learned the lesson and from here it is going to be another personal undergrad course in computer science :-) and most of the credits should go to the students who attend our workshops @ OpenGyan.

While i was reading a textbook on C, i found another interesting book and just thought of sharing here. I just skimmed through the table of contents and it is massive 1000+ pages book but it gives an excellent understanding on compilers.

Next to Discrete Mathematics, this book is likely to get into my shelf (and possibly to my brain little later). Please buzz me if you are interested for a group learning.

OpenGyan Workshop in PEC

The last two Saturdays have been nothing less than awesome. It was most satisfying moment in my life as i happen to meet few students of Pondicherry Engineering College, Department of ECE, @ their college campus for two day workshop on Linux Programming from OpenGyan.

First, after a long time, i happen to meet folks who speak in black and white. It is much easier for a teacher or trainer if the students convey whether or not they have understood (especially when they didn't understand). When the understanding is not clear, the teacher should think more and come up with better way of presenting. A teacher can think better only when there are intelligent questions or when an articulation was not understood. For sure, this workshop has sowed a seed of self improvement in me and i should say that this will make me to think better.

Second is the puntuality. We never had a situation where we started the session because of delay due to students. Everybody was there on time (1 or 2 minutes before).

Third and most important aspect is that almost everybody showed genuine interest to listen and "do" the exercises.

Overall, it one of the most fulfilling moment in my life and i hope this continues. Here are few clicks from the event.

And finally, the "moment"

Life Lessons @ OpenGyan

It is always honor if people look up to with trust that you can bring in a change. Top execs take charge after promising that they will bring about a change. Change is something good. Rather than change, we should call it shifts, a paradigm shift. Change is not so easy, it is pretty involved. Though there is a hope of turnaround, the change is not rewarding until it happens. Since it doesn't provide us an instant gratification, often people disengage themselves from the change. This is exactly why top execs are fired (or resign gracefully).

The youth, the students often think that they can do many things. It is true because the potential is always infinite. We have potential to do infinite things because we, the human beings know how to build systems up, from simple systems. Few smaller systems give us a little bigger system and by moving up further, the integration leads to much bigger system. So, it is possible to build infinite things and to produce infinite number of smaller things.

So, when you want to bring about a change (or rather a paradigm shift), keep focus the change, the much bigger and might system and at the same time draw a genuine motivation from milestone. A recent example is OpenGyan. While there is something big behind the idea of OpenGyan, the genuine motivation is drawn during every workshop. The motivation helps me to keep the bigger reason of existence of OpenGyan relevant.

And ultimately, i tend to think that everything decompose on how you break the system (goals, software, human relations, life's challenges) and how you integrate it again.

So, enough?

Our first workshop in 2013 at PEC, Department of ECE, Pudhucherry and eighth workshop (overall) is most satisfying experience.

Visit us http://www.opengyan.com and join us in Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/opengyan

More you share, the more you learn

Knowledge is the only thing that grows when shared. All the other things diminishes when you share. The idea is during the sharing process, you get questions from curious minds that helps to understand the subject more. You tend to uncover a lot of different perspectives by mere thinking. Another perspective is that you tend to study the subject from multiple sources and revise the subject that makes the understanding little deeper.

After a little experience in programming/software development, i wanted to study programming from the scratch. (Gyan from OpenGyan). So, from yesterday, i have started an exercise of reading through Discrete Mathematics. I m planning to follow the book Discrete Mathematics With Applications (Buy from Flipkart.com). I got this book sometime last year and never found a time to read beyond first chapter. This year, i m planning to study this book with a strong focus on solving all the exercises and couple more books on theoretical computer science. 

The idea here is to read, solve problems, share in my workshops and repeat it. If possible, i would be posting interesting puzzles and problems so that it helps folks who are following my blog. Nothing hurts. Once again it is knowledge sharing.

Another few books i find it valuable to read are - Write Great Code (guess, there are few volumes)

Together, we are stronger.

Happy learning.

Life Lessons @ OpenGyan

Meeting great teachers have become a rarity. I m not talking about teaching as a profession but "teaching" as a quality - an ability to be a source of inspiration. I do not have words to express my experience in meeting Dr S Jayaraman, Professor, Dean & Head, Department of Electronics and Communiation Engg @ Sona College of Technology.

OpenGyan Team with Prof Dr S Jayaraman and Prof Ayubkhan

One of the reason why i do exist in OpenGyan is because of my father (who is teacher) and when i meet great teachers like Dr. Jayaraman, my longing towards sharing knowledge grows more. An humble human who speaks less and the words that gets uttered from his mouth revives energy and makes me to feel that i m doing something divine.

I felt uncomfortable to say a "thank you note" but decided not to say "thank you" as i felt the only way of paying him back is "living the life of purpose" and steer OpenGyan's initiatives.

Happy to end 2012 with so much positive vibe and looking forward to make 2013 little more meaningful.

I wish you and your family, friends a very happy and prosperous new year.