Varsha Jaikumar

The workshop was again held from 11-13th September,2009. It was more fun this time, than I had last time, although there were less number of people to teach.

Day 1 (11th September  2009):

Registration started. I had to keep running to the warden of the first year girls' hostel for permission to conduct an orientation for LUG. There was no one to help me. I was all alone . But never mind, I could manage.

We gave a brief insight into Linux and the meaning of FOSS. People seemed interested. A few people who had come last time, again showed up at the workshop. I felt glad that they were interested . We also taught them the usage of Yast (SuSE), network configuration and installing new software.

Day 2 (12th September 2009):

We began with creating an account on Gmail or Yahoo. A friend of mine, Vikas taught Orkutting to a few of them and added one of them to his list, and later she sent me a friend request, which I accepted. . I sent her a scrap later on after coming back to hostel.

Meanwhile, the water supply in Durpapur ceased. We were all feeling very tired and dirty, but the workshop had to go on. The college declared holidays from Monday, 14th September 2009, although the vacations (mass bunk included) were to start from Friday, the 18th.

There was also the fest Verve going on. So there were a few people avaliable for teaching. This was really sad. People weren't interested in participating in the activities of their own club. But anyways, I summoned the second year students, and gave them a piece of my mind. They had told me the previous day that they would come. I had called most of the second year people on IRC to discuss the plans, regarding the first year girls' orientation, the IOTA workshop and the refiltering of the second year students that was about to be held on Tuesday, the 15th. After talking to them for sometime, I asked them to go back to participate in Verve, but they did not; they stayed on to assist us in teaching GIMP. GIMP was new to me too, but still I tried teaching the application to the people, and that was what I told the others to do; you also learn this way. This workshop is important to me because I also get to learn apart from sharing my knowledge. But people hardly realize this.

Later the second year students left, and there were just about four teaching members left. We were in a fix; just four people cannot attend to so many people at the same time, but we tried to manage.

At last we taught OpenOffice Writer. Anima was there, to help, and I got a company among so many boys.

Day 3 (13th September 2009):

We continued with OpenOffice.org. We taught Calc (Spreadsheet) and Impress (Presentaion). We were just three people who did the teaching. A few others came, but soon went away. I really had a lot of fun.

After the workshop got over, we distributed the participation cerficates. The HOD of the IT department was there, Sir S. Choudhury. We asked a few teachers to express their views on the workshop and share their experience. A few of them said that they liked my teaching, and that I was very gentle. A teacher of  R. E. College Model School tried convincing me to take up teaching as my profession . And I told him that I do not want to do that . Then he kept talking about his teaching experience. Seeing this, the IT faculty members present there, and the boys started joking and making fun of me, saying that I had got an off-campus job as a teacher .

The best part of the workshops was that we got breakfast, tea, water and lunch!

I returned to my hostel. The water started coming, although it was dirty.

Now time to return home! Just one more day. I'll go back tomorrow- Monday, that is. Packing yet to be done.

We had a three-day workshop organized by the IOTA cell of NIT Durgapur in the IT Department. The participants were the teachers of many schools of Durgapur, who came to attend the workshop with zest and interest. Although for many, Linux was a completely new platform for learning, and many were not even aware of how to operate a computer, they fully cooperated and dedicated their precious time to the learning of Linux basics. The teachers were the LUG members of the college, including me, who were more than happy in sharing their knowledge.

Day 1 (28th August 2009):

The final year B.Tech students, Roshan Singh, Mitesh and Abhishek Gupta gave a brief insight into FOSS and Linux, the advantages of using FOSS, the flexibility, and other important points. They showed the installation procedure of Linux (OpenSuse), but due to unavailibility of electricity the participants could not try it out themselves.

Day 2 (29th August 2009):

A practical session was conducted on changing the boot sequence and Linux installation in the laboratory. Then, Amit Daga of IT final year and Abhishek Srivastava of MCA final year demonstrated the use of GIMP.

Day 3 (30th August 2009):

The third day saw the practical learning of OpenOffice, with eager faces enthusiastic about grasping whatever was being shown on the screen with a projector, and the volunteers helping the participants in getting the things right.

Later, towards the end of the workshop, we had a valedictory ceremory, in which Professor Kajla Basu of Mathematics Department and also the HOD in charge of IT Department gave away the certificates to the participants, followed by a thanksgiving speech by Sir Sajjal Mukhopadhyay, a faculty member of IT Department.

Thus, ended the three-day teachers' training workshop, with the majority of the participants satisfied with their newly gained knowledge and many more still eager to learn more. This workshop would have definitely encouraged them to start a LUG in thier respective schools or at least bring about a major and the much needed change of begining the use of Linux in their school laboratories.

Also, the students who took to teaching and volunteered to help in spreading the word of Linux were extremely glad at their attempt, and retained their enthusiasm till the end of the workshop.

I joined SQLStar on 15th June 2009. We had a 2- hour class, and  were given an overview of the course. The general class schedule would be of 4  hours, where 2 hours would be for theory and the remaining 2 hours for practicals, which has to be completed the same day the assignment is given. Suvendu Roy Sir informed us that the next day would be off and meant for self-study. We were given the topics, and were told that we would meet after one day, that is, 17th June.

I made friends with Pooja Manna, a girl undergoing the same course there. After returning home, I coudn't start of  with my homework as my sister was at my laptop the whole day for her project she was doing at SHRM. So I had to wait for the next day, when she would be away at her institution, so that I could utilize my time to the fullest. 

Now, today I logged into the website www.thelearningport.com, and signed in with the username and password given by the institution. But unfortunately, the internet connectivity was so slow and unstable that I coudn't go ahead with my work. Moreover, I had difficulty in searching for the topics given to us, and the reading of the topic was to be done on a SkillSoft Course Player, and using it for the first time, delayed my work even more.  Also, I had to install it before doing anything else, and due to poor internet connectivity, it took a lot of time, and my first attempt to download the Java Runtime application failed. Finally after it was done, I kept searching for my topics and trying to figure out how this player works. I have to complete two topics before going to back to attend my classes tomorrow. 

Then, before every class I would have to do some pre- class activity, which would be preparing the topics before being taught in the class, and post- class activity, which would include quizzes wherein I'll have to score well in order to maintain a neat profile on The Learing Port website. Since these quizzes would be of a specific time limit, the internet modem has to work well; otherwise I lose marks. 

Now, the 20th of July...

Yesterday was Friday. I was put in a new batch, 7am-9am for the module PL/SQL. That means I will have to do two shifts in a day, one as mentioned above,  7 am -9am, and then 10am-2pm, the class for SQL. Wow..., now that's a bit too hectic; but I'll have to do it. But, actually speaking, PL/SQL should be done only after the completion of the module SQL. Even my sir said that I would have to put in some extra effort.

On Friday, I had only the morning class. From Monday onwards, I'll have both the classes.

I was really upset that I coudn't do my project at my college. I was partially driven out of the hostel. I had to stay there for the summer in order to complete my project (on Java and DBMS), but my warden did not give me and my friends the permission .

Anyways, it's ok. 

Then I tried to apply for a project at DeepRoot Linux, but my luck did  not favour me again- my mails were not being delivered and I coud not proceed with it.

At home now.

I saw an advertisement in The Times of India. Courses were being offered at SQLStar. I called on the number that was given, and enquired about  it. After a few days, I was sitting at their office with my Mom.

I registered myself with a payment of more than Rs.16000/- as enrolment fees. I was told that classes wuld begin in a few days (I remember it was scheduled to start from 4th May 2009). But due to some reasons, the starting date for the classes was postponed to 12th and then 15th.

You know, the best part of all this is that this institution is certified by Sun, Oracle and Redhat.  .

First read this: System Proxy In Ubuntu- A Bug?.

But after doing this, when I tried logging into Pidgin, it showed an error connecting. I tried several times, but got the same message. All of a sudden, it occurred to me that why not I change the settings of the System Proxy once again. I did. Then I tried connecting, and Yes! Successful.

But what about Epiphany?

I tried opening a few sites in this browser. Guess what? I did not face the problem again . I could open almost any sites.

What does this mean? Why is the System proxy playing tricks?

Anyways, now this problem is solved.

We had an Annual General Meeting (shortened as AGM) on 8th April, 2009 in D. M. Sen Memorial Building, to review about what had been done so far, the achievements of LUG and our achievements in the previous year. I am not going to write much. Please see this link. Here, have a look at this too.

I was really happy that day.

I was made the technical assistant of GLUG. I already knew about this, but did not somewhat expect it to be announced that day, but it had to be as the main agenda of the meeting was to have an overview of what we had done so far and to announce the new committee for the year 2009-10.

At first, I was extremely happy about the goings-on, but then the thought that 'do I really deserve this post?' came to my mind. Not that it was far too difficult to accept, but I wasn't that technically sound; even now, I am just a beginner. Two days after the meeting, I actually strived to learn some more, as whatever I already knew wasn't much. I learnt to deserve this post. And I am really happy with my progress. I decided to try out whatever I came to know about. I came to know about Mencoder and Unoconv. Then I learnt how to download videos from Youtube.

I tried using Epiphany, had a few problems which, with the help of Rangeen Basu, a Fedora Ambassador of NIT Durgapur, I could solve.

Later on I had problems in using Pidgin. It refused to connect. I fiddled with the system proxy once again, and checked 'Use the same proxy for all protocols'. This solved the problem. Then I tried Epiphany. That too working fine.

In short, I learnt a lot. I was really happy about all the things going on around me. But a few people keep asking why I waste a lot of time on Linux. I said that this is not a waste of time, I am doing something useful and worthwhile. This is a part of study. Then, a classmate of mine named Rajnish Jagnani said, "You can do all this after exams." I immediatly replied that some people waste a lot of time in chatting, that too their status being available, he being one of them (although I did not tell him this , he would have understood alright). My "wasting time on Linux" was far far better. But now, exams are here. I really need to study, and have to postpone certain work for doing after my exams.

Open Source fans await the opportunity to get into a big Open Source software development company. And imagine you have already got ths wonderful opportunity, or Golden Opportunity I should rather say.

Shreyank Gupta is one such lucky person.He gave telephonic interviews, may be about three, and got selected in Redhat. And I must say he was truly required at the place.

I wish I too get an opportunity like this. But I have to try harder for something like this. I agree I have got limited knowledge. But not limited interests. Let's see what happens. If I, by any chance get such a wonderful, I would be on top of the world.

I really love art.

Please see this link:

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

In case, you did not understand the beauty of the black background, please try once again. Click the link above. This time, try clicking with your mouse. What do you see?

I surely loved it!

Now, see below.

Click this link. You must really go through this. You'll find the most excellent and extraordinary pieces of art here.

Do you love poetry? Well, I do. I used to write. I used to write a lot- stories, poetry, essays. But, now I have lost the habit completely. I don't find the time. Ok, lame excuse, I agree. I spend my leisurely time in doing various other things. But, my sister has kept up this habit. I hope I should have done that too. It's ok. Please check out her blog

There is something else I would like to show you.

Check this out.

Well, that's it for now.

I'll definitely post again, whenever I find something interesting, or ecstasic. Look out for updates, all ye art-lovers, for thine is this column to seek.