some thing special

How BIOS Works

2008-12-08T01:05:00.000-08:00

One of the most common uses of Flash memory is for the basic input/output system of your computer, commonly known as the BIOS (pronounced "bye-ose"). On virtually every computer available, the BIOS makes sure all the other chips, hard drives, ports and CPU function together.

Every desktop and laptop computer in common use today contains a microprocessor as its central processing unit. The microprocessor is the hardware component. To get its work done, the microprocessor executes a set of instructions known as software (see How Microprocessors Work for details). You are probably very familiar with two different types of software:

* The operating system - The operating system provides a set of services for the applications running on your computer, and it also provides the fundamental user interface for your computer. Windows 98 and Linux are examples of operating systems. (See How Operating Systems Work for lots of details.)
* The applications - Applications are pieces of software that are programmed to perform specific tasks. On your computer right now you probably have a browser application, a word processing application, an e-mail application and so on. You can also buy new applications and install them.

How Operating Systems Work

2008-12-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

When you turn on your computer, it's nice to think that you're in control. There's the trusty computer mouse, which you can move anywhere on the screen, summoning up your music library or Internet browser at the slightest whim. Although it's easy to feel like a director in front of your desktop or laptop, there's a lot going on inside, and the real man behind the curtain handling the necessary tasks is the operating system.

Most desktop or laptop PCs come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows. Macintosh computers come pre-loaded with Mac OS X. Many corporate servers use the Linux or UNIX operating systems. The operating system (OS) is the first thing loaded onto the computer -- without the operating system, a computer is useless.
More recently, operating systems have started to pop up in smaller computers as well. If you like to tinker with electronic devices, you're probably pleased that operating systems can now be found on many of the devices we use every day, from cell phones to wireless access points. The computers used in these little devices have gotten so powerful that they can now actually run an operating system and applications. The computer in a typical modern cell phone is now more powerful than a desktop computer from 20 years ago, so this progression makes sense and is a natural development.

The purpose of an operating system is to organize and control hardware and software so that the device it lives in behaves in a flexible but predictable way. In this article, we'll tell you what a piece of software must do to be called an operating system, show you how the operating system in your deskto

How ROM Works

2008-12-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

Read-only memory (ROM), also known as firmware, is an integrated circuit programmed with specific data when it is manufactured. ROM chips are used not only in computers, but in most other electronic items as well.

How Removable Storage Works

2008-12-08T01:01:00.000-08:00

Removable storage has been around almost as long as the computer itself. Early removable storage was based on magnetic tape like that used by an audio cassette. Before that, some computers even used paper punch cards to store information!

We've come a long way since the days of punch cards. New removable storage devices can store hundreds of megabytes (and even gigabytes) of data on a single disk, cassette, card or cartridge. In this article, you will learn about the three major storage technologies. We'll also talk about which devices use each technology and what the future holds for this medium. But first, let's see why you would want removable storage

Does adding more RAM to your computer make it faster?

2008-12-08T00:59:00.000-08:00

Computer Hardware Image Gallery

RAM eliminates the need to
Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images
Will adding more RAM to your computer make it run any faster? See more computer hardware pictures.

One topic you might hear people discussing when they're talking shop about computers is how much random access memory (RAM) they need to add to their computer. Up to a point, adding RAM will normally cause your computer to seem faster on certain types of operations. RAM is important because it eliminates the need to "swap" programs in and out.

When you run a program such as a word processor or an Internet browser, the microprocessor in your computer pulls the executable file (.exe) off the hard disk and loads it into RAM. Large programs like Microsoft Word or Excel use large amounts of memory. The microprocessor also pulls in a number of shared dynamic link libraries (DLLs) -- shared pieces of code used by multiple applications. The DLLs take many more megabytes.
Then the microprocessor loads in the data files at which you want to look, which might total several megabytes if you are looking at more than one document or browsing a page with a lot of graphics. So a big application can easily take 100 megabytes of RAM or more, which can slow your system down significantly if there isn't enough memory. On your machine, at any given time you might have the following applications running:

* A word processor
* A spreadsheet
* An e-mail program
* A drawing program
* Three or four browser windows
* A fax program
* A Telnet session

Besides all of those applications, the operating system itself is taking up a good bit of space. Everything together may need more RAM than your machine has. Where does all the extra RAM space come from?

Introduction to Mac OS X Technology Overview

2008-12-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

e-on Software has introduced its first Mac product, Vue d'Esprit 4, at this week's Macworld San Francisco. For Mac OS X only, it's a landscape generator that includes SolidGrowth, a vegetation synthesis and rendering technology.
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Vue d'Esprit 4 is the first e-on product for the Mac platform, but it won't be the last. It's the first of a series, President Nicholas Phelps told MacCentral. From now on the company's products will be released for the Mac and Windows platforms simultaneously. And look for all the Mac products to be Mac OS X only.

"We actually started a version Vue d'Esprit 4 for Mac OS 9, but scrapped it when Apple shipped their newest operating system," Phelps said. "Vue d'Esprit 4 is totally Mac OS X native."

Vue d'Esprit is optimized for the creation, rendering and animation of natural scenery. Version 4 features a completely new interface design optimized for ease-of-use and productivity, he said. Its rendering features include volumetric effects, glowing materials, lens flares, stars and planets, rocks, and more.

Vue d'Esprit lets you use outdoor lighting algorithms in tandem with a variety of rendering effects to produce natural looking pictures. Objects, materials, atmospheres, clouds, waves, and just about anything can be animated due to e-on's Dynamic Motion Reaction technology. Advanced users can also fine tune their animations with access to all animation properties, time spline control, motion blur, forward dynamics, field interlacing, flicker reduction, non-square pixels, animated alpha, and Z buffers for compositing.

You can link objects to create complex animated structures and take precise control of all animation properties by editing keyframes directly and adjusting the flow of time. Plus, you can preview your animations with a customizable animation preview.

The application is open to other 3D apps. You can import models created with other software using an extensive set of import filters. Objects created with TrueSpace, 3D Studio, Lightwave, or Poser can be imported.

SOLARIS DERIVATIVE

2008-12-08T00:52:00.002-08:00

Shortly after the publication of OpenSolaris Jörg Schilling announced his own distribution SchilliX 0.1 on 17-6-2005 for the download. It consists entirely of Open source software and was supplemented with the GCC. The live CD offers the installation on USB-sticks or fixed disk. A graphical interface shall be integrated later in a next release of this developer related distribution. SchilliX 0.5.1 which contains for the first time a graphical interface and based on OpenSolaris Nevada build 35 was published on March 2nd, 2006.

The BeleniX distribution was derived from the OpenSolaris project as a live CD. The source of the choosen name BeleniX is the sungod Belenos from Celtic mythology. The first public release of this Community developed project was BeleniX 0.1 in 4-10-2005. The version 0.3 was published on 18-12-2005, as a user interface Xfce 4.2.0 is used.

The operating system NexentaOS consists of the OpenSolaris Kernel and Solaris runtime files. The unusual feature lies in the connection of Solaris with Linux technology. For this operating system only free software is used from the GNU Debian project. Gnome is the preferred GUI, further software like the Apache HTTP server, mySQL and the Mozilla Firefox browser are also contained. On 22-2-2006 the 3rd alpha version of NexentaOS (code name elatte) was published.

Solaris 10

2008-12-08T00:52:00.001-08:00

On 16-11-2004 became officially Solaris 10 for the x86 and SPARC architecture introduced and was ready for download on January 31st, 2005. It is delivered with programs for autodiagnostic and self-healing tasks. Programs for Solaris 9 can further be used in this new release. The operating system was changed to 64-bit and supports NFS 4.0 now, the IP-Stack was improved and improved with a new threading procedure. The effective forwarding of network traffic for 10 gbit and beyond per second is possible. Executing several instances of an operating system by virtualization on a common hardware base can be done with the technology Solaris Zones. In the project Janus the ability was developed for this operating system to be able to execute Linux applications after the recommends of the Linux standard base without new compiling. Planned for this release, this feature is not activated yet for Solaris.

The new file system ZFS (Zettabyte File System) contains an integrated volume manager and support for logical Volumes which can be greater than 1 terabyte, however, this feature is not available in this Solaris release yet. The 128-bit file system called Dynamic File System (DFS) has self-healing and self-managing files with a maximum size of 2'128 bytes. The data files are mirrored permanently, checks all data blocks to faults by hash sums and repairs the copy or the original as well as if necessary the data storage. This happens transparently in second fractions without disrupted application software in the productive working mode. With ZFS practically unlimitedly big partitions and files are possible, the storage can be extended dynamically. A data block can be up to 128 kbytes of size, the size of the data blocks can vary. The compression rate makes it possible that files assumes only 50% to 33% of storage space.

The service DTrace (Dynamic Tracing) tracks down performance bottlenecks at the execution of network applications, the fault manager provides a better stability and is part of the foresight and self healing concept which analyse errors in ahead and perhaps even clear the fault. To this the data are checked in the Kernel at 30,000 test points and a report created at negative signs for the administrator within less minutes. With this powerful tool it is possible to recognize problems earlier which was often before not or only heavily to trace back.

With the technology Grid Container the administrator can set up disk partitions for every user so as if he works with an operating system of his own. Several users can share the system without disturb of the running applications. The system utilization is used considerably better and thousands of services/applications are managed better without large additional processor expenses. If necessary, services or applications can be provided to other users also about a network and separated from each other.

Solaris 10 1/06 supports the SPARC, x86 and x64 architecture. As boat loader is grub used. The speed was optimized and it offers support for iSCSI and 10-gbit ethernet. Solaris 10 6/06 is the first official release of the Zettabyte file system (ZFS), supports SATA controllers and contains Xorg 6.9.

The project Open Solaris was started officially in January 2005, a part of the source code was published. The work was started with support of Sun in a working group with 140 international subscribers for the disclosure of Solaris source code already in September 2004. The Solaris kernel as well as the system libraries followed in June 2005. In the course of the next months larger parts of the distribution followed under the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License). The necessary patents also were provided to the Community under the CDDL. OpenSolaris does not see itself as a ready ready final user product or complete distribution. It rather offers the code base with developer tools for an operating system as well as the infrastructure for the communications under the developers. The ZFS (Zettabyte file system) is integrated since the OpenSolaris build 27a.

Solaris express 6/05 (Nevada build 15) was published on June 21st, 2005. Sun provides under the concept of the Software Express program new monthly public Solaris releases for the Community. Furthermore the use of this operating system is free for private users, the commercial use is charged with $ 99 for a year. The Solaris Express releases for x86/SPARC almost based on the latest OpenSolaris release, special worth is attached to a stable release. About a web interface bugs can be reported and bug fixes followed up. JDS can alternatively be used as GUI.

Solaris was certified with Trusted Extensions after Common Criteria in July 2008. Solaris 10 version 11/06 for the platforms x86/64 and SPARC reached the certification in Common Criteria EAL4+. For the first time the graphical user interface Gnome was also audited.

solaris 9

2008-12-08T00:51:00.000-08:00

The supported languages (39) and local special features (162) were refined in this operating system release. At first the projects of Sun intended only to deliver new operating system releases for SPARC platform of their own. Because of the resistance from the public Sun supports x86 architecture now anyway furthermore. The download of the SPARC variant was possible at first, the x86 variant followed later. At first the download of Solaris/x86 was bounded with a small fee and since December 2003 without charge.

The compatibility was improved to Linux in Solaris 9, standard libraries for Linux applications are installed now too. Security characteristic became extended, the new Resource manager tool with CLI and GUI as well as one new directory server where added. The file system was improved and extended with the SVM (Solaris Volume manager). New libraries were added for multithreading and the installation and configuration got improved. The execution of java applications with the Java Virtual Machine is accelerated by the new libraries now. As a desktop you can choose between the CDE (Common Desktop Environment) or Gnome 2.0 desktop .

Wit hthe Live Upgrade Software patches or system modifications can be done without interruption of the running Solaris or his applications. To this the modifications are made in a second partition and Solaris installation and taken over at the next reboot in the main installation. After Solaris 9 8/03 this integration happens automatically.

In Solaris 9 4/03 the maximum file size was increased from 1 tbyte to up to 16 tbytes. The system administration tool of SunMC 3.5 was revised, as a Web browser Netscape 7.0 is contained.

Solaris 8

2008-12-08T00:50:00.000-08:00

Solaris is the UNIX-based operating system of Sun Microsystems with roots in the BSD operating system family. Up to the version 3.x this operating system was called SunOS, this name was kept into the internal release information of current Solaris versions. The first version of SunOS was published in 1982. With the version 4.0 the new product name Solaris was introduced for SunOS releases as of 1989. The operating system Solaris 2.0 (SunOS 5.0) basing on the UNIX system V release 4 was published in July 1992.

The installation package of Solaris 8 (SunOS 5.8) is delivered on several CDs which include the operating system, applications and the documentation. With the Solaris Webstart 3.0 Installer Solaris can be installed comfortably on a prepared harddisk partition with at least 2 gbyte of free space. The Installer divides the partition into one boot partition (10 mbyte of size) and the Solaris System area inclusive swap area.

The Primary boot subsystem VSN 2.0 proceeds after the Installation as a booting manager. After the booting procedure the CDE or optionally OpenWindow system is available as a GUI. Solaris fulfils the Open Group Unix98 specification. With the available Solaris Security Toolkit application it is possible to made specific protection settings for Solaris.

Field of Application
- CAD (computer aided design) applications
- Stable system for databases, data centre
- Intranet server as well as Internet or file server, Internet client

Structure information
- Multi-processor capable of up to 8 CPUs (Kernel limited to 21 CPUs)
- UNIX derivat
- Realtime OS (timing up to 1 nanosecond)
- 64-bit operating system (UltraSparc), 32-bit on x86, (Intel)
- Monolithic Kernel

System Environment
- Optional CDE 1.4 or OpenWindows 6.4.1
- SPARC platform and Intel processors, PowerPC
- supports new hardware technologies like USB, FireWire, SCSI, Hot Plug, ACPI
- Scalability: more than of 4 gbyte RAM, max. 64 CPUs
- File system: UFS (0x83), logging of all writing processes, protection against inconsistencies
- Read/Write: FAT, FAT32, ISO9660
- Java support, Perl integrated for CGI programming among others

Strength
- Support LDAP authentification and NDS
- Supports automatic and dynamic reconfiguration of hardware devices
- Cover various Internet and intranet applications like DNA, Senmail, IPv6, IPsec

SUSE 10.2 Review

2008-12-08T00:44:00.002-08:00

The biggest Linux event this December is without a doubt the new release of SUSE. It was announced early, the scheduled date was met and on the 7th of December the much awaited SUSE 10.2 was out and available for download. This time SUSE was in a very good position. Ubuntu 6.10, Fedora Core 6 and Mandriva 2007 were released in October, and this gave SUSE nearly two months to inspect them, learn from their respective innovations and make SUSE 10.2 the best desktop Linux distribution available on the market. Had they done so? I couldn't wait to find out!

SUSE 10.2 can be downloaded as a DVD or as a set of 5 CDs for x86, x86-64 and PPC architectures. There are also two additional CDs that you can download, one that contains language packs and the other one for non-open-source software. Of course everything is also available from the repositories, so if you're only interested in a default English Gnome or KDE desktop installation, all you need is to download the first three CDs.

I found the mirrors to be quite fast and it only took me an hour to download all three CDs. You can get them from here via HTTP or BitTorrent: http://en.opensuse.org/Released_Version

The DVD contains both free, non-free and source packages. Also, A live DVD should follow the release and be available in the forthcoming days.

Installing SUSE 10.2

SUSE's installer is quite impressive. If you like options and the ability to choose every single detail of your installation, you'll love it. It is designed to be both simple and comprehensive to suit both novice and experienced users. At every stage of the installation you can see where you are and what remains to be done. It starts by asking you about your default language. Then it proposes to check your installation medias. After that you need to read a license agreement and you can choose whether you want to upgrade from a previous version of SUSE or go for a new installation. There's also an option which you can select if you downloaded the Add-on CD, which allows you to install non-free software from it. You then need to select your desktop. Gnome and KDE are available and none is selected by default. For the purpose of this review I chose to go for Gnome.

And then... you're done. A summary appears on the screen and you just need to press "Next" to proceed... Oh! But not so fast! If you actually look at the summary you can see that the default option for partitioning your drive is simply to remove everything! I can understand that partitioning was made optional so that novice users wouldn't have to care about it, but deleting all their data is definitely not what I would have chosen for them to be the default option. On top of that, the partitioning tools didn't prove to be very intuitive. Another bad thing about the installer is that it installs GRUB on the target partition by default. Most users prefer to put it in the MBR, so be careful about that summary and even though it seems "optional", chances are you don't want to go for the default options!

Although the installer is more responsive and faster than it was in the previous release... Although you can define exactly which packages get installed and get total control on every aspect of the installation... Although you are shown the time remaining between each CD, this installer is not as cool as the one found in Fedora Core. For instance, it doesn't show where its logs are kept and doesn't allow you to save the choices you made in order to automate future installations. During the installation of the packages (which is quite long) you can't access the Release Notes, so you basically get bored waiting for the installation to complete, and when the notes finally become available at the end of the process you're ready to play with SUSE so you're not going to take time to read them.

The message that asks you to insert CD3, is not labeled "Please insert CD3" but "insert '20061207-124705 CD3'" and if you'd like more esotericism you can press "show detail" on it :) It looks like some developer left the debug traces turned on (actually while I'm talking about that... dmesg is full of debug message from the wifi eth1 interface on my machine).

Overall, it's a good installer. It's full of options and it does the job. It's not fun though and it can be confusing for a novice user.

Starting Vector Linux

2008-12-08T00:44:00.001-08:00

Introduction

Welcome to part five of a series for beginners explaining what Linux is, where it came from, where it's going, how to use it and why you should. I don't want to waste space repeating my intro so please refer to previous articles, especially http://www.linuxforums.org/reviews/starting_ubuntu.html

Vector Linux

Canada-based Vector Linux has been around about six years, the original version was a noble attempt to put a friendly face on Slackware and provide a minimalist distro that will run well on old/low spec hardware. Now at version 5.1 it still does that, but there is Vector Linux SoHo Edition too which is more like a 'normal' distro with Gnome, KDE, Open Office etc. Either version can be downloaded from www.vectorlinux.com or bought on CD from the Vector on-line CD store (though I bought mine from www.linuxiso.co.uk) The standard version is only 390MB which makes for a speedy download, the SoHo version is 690MB, still small enough for a single CD-R.

First, the standard version. As usual you put it in the drive and re-boot. Also as usual you get to specify your preferred language, keyboard style and time zone, and are given the option to mess with the suggested partition table if you really want. Installation is fast, about ten minutes, then another five or so to configure things, then you are ready to log in.

Right from the start it's clear Vector is different, the login screen is enlivened by little little Tuxes running around, even flying, which is a first for penguins, and when you drag the cursor across the screen it creates ripples like moving your finger through water. OK it doesn't really make the PC work any better, but it's fun. The log in screen gives you a choice of six window managers (excluding Gnome and KDE) or a simple X Terminal. Any will load lightening fast and all look great, and you can change between them without logging out and in again. IceWM resembles a Windows or KDE desktop and offers a choice of themes, including some 'XP' inspired ones which put a familiar looking green 'Start' button in the bottom left corner! Linux purists may shudder, but this sort of detail helps make newcomers feel at home.

Without either KDE or Gnome, a lot of familiar applications and applets are missing, but there is still quite a lot to keep you amused, even working if you want. There is no Open Office or Koffice, but AbiWord takes care of wordprocessing and is able to open and save both Open Office and MS Office formats (plus dozens of others). For email there is 'Sylpheed', which is a new one on me but does what an email client has to do, send and receive mail and allow you to file it for posterity. For Web browsing Vector provide Firefox and 'Dillo', the latter is another new program for me but one I could easily get attached to. It isn't sophisticated, it doesn't do clever stuff with tabs and pop-up blockers, but my it's fast. I'd always assumed browsing delays out here in wild Wales were due to our not-very broadband connection, but Dillo is a revelation.

My only disappointment is Gslapt, which is Vector's take on APT as used by Debian based distros to add new applications. Basically it just doesn't run, from a desktop menu or even from a terminal, so on to Vector 5.1 SoHo Edition...

Installation is once again straightforward, and given that this version includes KDE, Open Office 2 and I opted for the Gimp as well, remarkably quick at around 15 minutes. Configuration takes about another two minutes and we're ready to go. Vector Linux Soho edition defaults to the KDE desktop, and Vector have managed to speed it up, but if you are impatient Xfce is also available. As with Ubuntu and SuSE, Vector detects the sound chips set and on-board graphics perfectly, and sets up the network with DHCP.

One slight glitch on the network, Vector enables the firewall by default and prevent me connecting to the my home network. If like me you connect via a router with built-in firewalling you can just switch off the Vector firewall and hope the router's is good enough. If you don't have a firewall protecting you network, or don't trust it, then you can configure Vector's version using Vector Admin & System Menu (VASM). Once the firewall is out of the way VASM does a good job configuring Samba, locating a Samba/Windows network and connecting to any servers and shared directories.

VASM is also the place to be if you start messing with the hardware post-installation. When I added an extra hard drive VASM put a friendly GUI face on 'cfdisk' (similar to 'fdisk' on Windows) so I could partition it, format it and mount it where ever I chose. VASM doesn't have it's own print setup utility, but provides access to CUPS (Combined Unix Print System) admin through a browser screen. Simple but effective, which sums up the whole Vector Linux experience.

The selection of applications included in the basic Vector installation is very good, Open Office version 2, all the multimedia, Internet and email applications you are likely to need, and of course as it defaults to KDE, you get instant access to all the KDE applications and applets. Gslapt does work properly from the SoHo edition, making it relatively simple to add more applications. The Vector Linux repositories are no where near as comprehensive as those for Debian (and Debian based distros such as Ubuntu) but there is quite a lot there. If you want anything else though you are going to have to get source code and compile your own.

Vector Linux Verdict

Not as polished as SuSE or Ubuntu, but very quick and easy to install and configure. Runs fast too, especially the basic version, and is suited to quite elderly hardware. As an experiment I have loaned a Pentium 3 with Vector SoHo edition to my local school, the students there took to it immediately, frankly they aren't really bothered what OS they have providing they have an office suite and plenty of games. With Open Office configured to use MS file formats by default, they don't notice it's not Windows!

And the winner is...

None of them, or all, it depends what you want to do. Ubuntu 'just works', virtually no set up is required, but if you like tinkering and want to learn more about how Linux works you will probably come to a full stop pretty quick. Vector is faster and therefore better suited to older hardware. If you are going to set up a PC for regular use rather than playing with, either Ubuntu or Vector are fine. If you want to learn a lot, then SuSE. It too 'just works' but with YaST and its excellent on-screen hints and tips, and 'Help' system you can spend many an hour learning how to configure things, change obscure settings and generally work towards 'guru' status.

APPENDIX 1

Internet connection is vital to most users these days so it's worth getting it right from the start. Unless you really like wrestling with hand crafted scripts and configurations do not try to use a USB ADSL modem, even if your ISP gives you one free. To keep the cost down these rely on software running on your PC to make up for deficiencies in their own hardware (much like the the internal 'Winmodems' of old). Needless to say the driver software is Windows only and although it is possible to hack a working version for Linux, it is not worth the hassle. Trash it and get a router. You connect them either direct to your LAN port, or via a LAN switch, you configure them via a web browser, any browser on any OS, and they act as DHCP servers too so any PC you connect will acquire an IP address automatically. Not only that but routers usually have their own Firewall which means you can turn off the firewalls on your individual PCs and save your self a lot of configuration hassle creating exceptions.

APPENDIX 2

Peripherals and drivers are a potential problem for Linux users. Most hardware manufacturers ship Windows drivers with their gadgets, but very few provide them for Linux. What tends to happen is that keen Linux developers get hold of each new device and 'reverse engineer' it to see how it works, then write a kernel module to support the device without any extra driver being needed. Some manufacturers co-operate with open source developers by making technical information available to facilitate this process, but most do not. Development of modules to support new devices can take a few months, so beware when buying new peripherals.

SuSE has a particularly good 'supported hardware' database on their website, so check it out before purchasing anything (http://cdb.suse.de/index.php?LANG=en_UK). Many devices (especially printers) are redesigned every few months, but actually change little. Buy one coming to the end of it's production life and you'll probably get a bargain and it will almost certainly work on Linux.

USB memory devices such as mp3 players, cameras, external drives and memory sticks are detected automatically.

Book Review: Classic Shell Scripting

2008-12-08T00:42:00.002-08:00

Classic Shell Scripting, in its own words, bridges the gap between Learning Unix (see: UNIX 101) and Unix in a Nutshell (throw a manual page at the reader; he'll be fine). It's aim is to provide a guide to writing scripts for the POSIX shell, which can be approached by novice and expert alike. Every tool that is introduced is accompanied by what looks like a condensed manual page, going over the major options and any peculiarities that the reader should know about. The book also has a chapter completely committed to awk, an underappreciated text processing language.

But what good is any of this without examples? Every chapter is bursting at the seams with them. Chapter 8 is comprised of nothing except for 2 examples summarizing everything learned so far, as is Chapter 11. Classic Shell Scripting has 15 Chapters and 3 Appendices, one of them devoted to the art of writing a manual page in roff markup. As has been my complaint with other O'REILLY books, there are a few typos, but only one or two were really detrimental to the text.

Since this was a book on shell-scripting, I was surprised to find an entire chapter devoted to awk. This special attention to awk was a bit of a double-edged sword. The chapter on awk was quite long, so the coverage was rather complete, however I thought that the space wasn't used efficiently. The examples on awk weren't thoroughly described, and some of the techniques used weren't completely explained elsewhere in the text. However, I feel that the coverage of awk was due, as it is used extensively in later examples in the book.

Another nice thing about the book were its three Appendices, Bibliography and Glossary, which accounted for about 20% of the book's content. This extra material supplemented the text very nicely, filling in some gaps that didn't really fit anywhere else. The bibliography was very complete, giving reference to some very informative sources beyond the scope of Classic Shell Scripting. The three appendices covered Manual Page writing, UNIX files, and a cheatsheet of common commands, respectively. I think that Appendix C ( the cheatsheet ) will prove an invaluable resource to those readers who are new to shell scripting ( or even UNIX in general). The history lesson on UNIX files was rather enlightening, as was the Manual Page guide.

In all, I thought that Classic Shell Scripting was a wonderful primer on the world of shell scripting. It should prove to be an invaluable tool for both shell newbies and UNIX veterans alike, if only for its abundance of real-world examples. And like all O'REILLY books, the sample code is made public for general consumption, so the useful additions to the UNIX toolbox can be easily integrated into any system. If they had just used their shell script from Chapter 12 on the book itself ( Chapter 12 covers spellchecking! ), this book would have scored a perfect five. But as it stands, I award Classic Shell Scripting 4 out of 5 penguins

Top 10 MBA colleges in India

2008-12-08T00:42:00.001-08:00

Directory of Top MBA Degree Colleges in India. Browse through our MBA Colleges List to get info on all famous and top ranked Best MBA Colleges in india and international MBA Universities.
Top MBA Colleges In India

In India, MBA(Master in Business Administration) is rapidly growing over past few years. More and more students are enrolling themselves for MBA Degree program after completing their graduation because of wide variety of career options ahead for them. Today there are so many MBA Colleges in India where students can enrol themselves for MBA Degree Program. In India, IIMS is one of the best institute for obtaining MBA degree. They have branches all over India. And also there are lots of other famous leading MBA colleges which also provide quality education. The list below provides some of Top MBA Colleges in India along with their address, contact number E-mail id and Website Details.

1.

Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad)
Address : Vastrapur, Ahmedabad - 380 015, INDIA
Contact No : 91 79 2630 8357, dean@iimahd.ernet.in
Website : http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/
2.

Indian Institute of Management (LUCKNOW)
Address : Prabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur Road,Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh,India,PIN : 226013
Contact No : 00(91)(522)2761397, 00(91)(522)2761437,
Website : http://www.iiml.ac.in/
3.

Indian Institute of Management (Kolkata)
Address : Diamond Harbour Road Joka, Kolkata (Calcutta) - 700104, West Bengal, INDIA
Contact No : +91-33-2282-4598, +91-33-2467-9178
Website :http://www.iimcal.ac.in/
4.

Indian Institute of Management (Kozhikode)
Address : IIMK Campus P. O., Kozhikode 673 570, Kerala, India
Contact No : +91-495-2803001
Website :http://www.iimk.ac.in/
5.

Indian Institute of Management (Indore)
Address : Prabandh ShikharRau-Pithampur Road,Indore 453 331,Madhya Pradesh, NDIA
Contact No : + 91-731-4228400
Website : http://www.iimidr.ac.in/
6.

Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore)
Address : Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, IndiaPin Code : 560 076
Contact No : 91-80-26582450
Website : http://www.iimb.ernet.in/
7.

Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (FMS)(New Delhi)
Address : Faculty of Management StudiesUniversity of DelhiDelhi - 110007
Contact No : +91 11 2766 6382 / 6387 / 6388
Website :http://www.fms.edu/
8.

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (Mumbai)
Address : Backbay Reclamation, Mumbai, India. Pin - 400020
Contact No : +91 - 022 - 22024133 / 22024118 / 22025153

Website :http://www.jbims.edu/
9.

Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI) (Jamshedpur)
Address : XLRI Circuit House Area (East)Jamshedpur 831 001JharkhandIndia
Contact No : +91 - 657 - 398 3333
Website : http://www.xlri.ac.in/
10.

SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (Mumbai)
Address : Munshi Nagar, Dadabhai Road, Andheri West,Mumbai - 400 058, India.
Contact No : +91-22-2623 7454 / 0396 / 2401
Website :http://www.spjimr.org/
11.

Institute of Management Technology (Ghaziabad)
Address : Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad 201 001, India
Contact No : +91 0120 3002200
Website :http://www.imt.edu/
12.

Xavier Institute of Management (Bhubaneshwar)
Address : Bhubaneswar - 751 013, India
Contact No : 91.674 3012345
Website :http://www.ximb.ac.in/
13.

International Management Institute (New Delhi)
Address : B-10, Qutab Institutional Area, Tara Crescent, New Delhi - 110016
Contact No : 2696-1437/3519/6143, 2686-3701, 2652-8276/9237/9338/9239
Website :http://www.imi.edu/
14.

Management Development Institute (Gurgaon)
Address : Mehrauli RoadSukhrali, Gurgaon - 122001INDIA
Contact No : + 91 124 2349831-36, 4013050-59
Website :http://www.imt.edu/
15.

FORE School of Management (New Delhi)
Address : B-18, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi, India
Contact No : 91-11-41242424-33
Website : http://www.fsm.ac.in/
16.

National Institute of Industrial Engineering (Mumbai)
Address : NITIE Campus,Near Vihar Lake,Mumbai 400087, Maharashtra, India
Contact No : 022 28575590
Website :http://www.nitie.edu/

The colleges above are the Top Business colleges in India. The fees of MBA degree program vary from college to college. Typically it ranges from 1,00,000 to 12,00,000 for two years. However, you will soon get all your money back because you are going to get a job in a Top MNC Companies that is provided by theese MBA Colleges.

[Please note that the above list of Top MBA colleges in india is best of my knowledge. If you see any error in the location or Website of above list, Please let me know about it. The above list of MBA colleges is only for personal use.]
Labels: List of MBA colleges, Top 15 MBA colleges in india, Top management colleges in india

Overview of the ten major Linux distributions

2008-12-08T00:39:00.000-08:00

A review of the 10 major Linux distributions out there, giving the pros and cons of each and every one of them

Introduction

The Microsoft Windows operating system is developed and released by a single company. It comes with a minimal set of applications (a calculator, a few games, some networking tools, an Internet browser.. etc). Other software can be obtained by users from various sources and installed on the operating system.

GNU/Linux is different. A GNU/Linux operating system is made of a Linux kernel, a set of GNU tools, an installation program, a package management system and a lot of other software components. Because all these components are free to use and to distribute, anybody can assemble and configure them according to their needs and create their very own GNU/Linux operating system. Since 1993, a lot of people and companies have been distributing Linux operating systems. These distributions made it easy for people to get and to install a working GNU/Linux system on their personal computer.

At first only a few distributions were available. Nowadays there are so many, that it would be pointless to compare all of them. The website http://www.distrowatch.com lists more than 350 active distributions and reports new releases almost every day. Of course, some distributions are quite similar, although some others are very different to each others. Depending on your needs you'll prefer some more than others.

All distributions include the Linux kernel developed by Linus Torvalds and the GNU tools developed by Richard Stallman but they don't necessarily use their latest versions. Some distributions even make their own changes to the kernel. Distributions usually differ in the choice of software applications they offer, in the way these software applications are configured and in the way they are installed and upgraded. Distributions also differ in many aspects such as their philosophy towards proprietary software, their priorities between ease of use and efficiency or between stability and latest technology. In fact, every distribution is different and this means you have more than 350 ways to run GNU/Linux!

Of course some distributions are more popular than others. This article is dedicated to the 10 most famous and popular: Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Gentoo, Mepis and Xandros.

Debian

Debian is one of the oldest GNU/Linux distributions. It was created in 1993 by Ian Murdock who named it after the combination of his own name and the one of his then-girlfriend (now wife) Debra. The Debian project is non-commercial and gathers more than a thousand developers throughout the world. A strict organization and clear guidelines made its releases famous for their stability and reliability. The project is very ambitious and supports more than 15,000 packages on 11 architectures: m68k, SPARC, Alpha, PowerPC, x86, IA-64, PA-RISC, MIPS (big and little endian), ARM and S/390. AMD64 is also supported although it is not officially included in the distribution. Debian is known for its strong adherence to the Unix and free software philosophies, its stability and its huge community. It is also very well documented and translated in many languages. Its software package management is extremely powerful and was adopted by many other distributions. Although it is meant to be a general-purpose distribution, the quality of its releases made Debian a distribution of choice for servers.

Debian provides three branches: "Stable" which corresponds to the latest release, "Unstable", which is in perpetual evolution and "Testing" which represents the next release to-be. Although it is possible to use "Testing" and to stay up to date, a lot of people are unhappy with the slow release cycle, which makes the "Stable" branch quickly outdated. For this reason Debian is seen as a serious and stable distribution but not as a cutting-edge and reactive one. This "outdated" reputation combined with the absence of graphical installation or configuration tools made Debian look hard to use and slow to evolve. When it comes to desktop, a lot of people prefer fast release cycle, eye-candy configuration tools, graphical installers and ease of use.. and this is not what Debian is.

Official website: http://www.debian.org

Pros: Open-Source philosophy, non-commercial project, strong community, huge selection of packages and supported architectures, one of the best package management, excellent documentation, extremely stable and well-tested releases, modular, fast.

Cons: Slow release cycle, text-based installer, lack of configuration tools

Slackware

Founded in 1992 by Patrick Volkerding, Slackware is the oldest surviving GNU/Linux distribution. It is very secure, stable and it is often recommended for server installations. The package management is minimal and doesn't deal with dependencies, the installer and configuration tools are text-based and almost everything is done through configuration files. Slackware doesn't offer graphical frontends nor eye-candy configuration tools. When Patrick was asked why Slackware releases do not have code names, he simply replied that there was no need. In fact the distribution focuses on stability and is well known for being bug-free. System administrators usually say that Slackware is the most Unix-Like GNU/Linux distribution. Most packages are used in their pristine form without any Slackware made improvements. Slackware is usually not recommended to novice users although it is easy to configure and probably one of the most formative distributions. What a user learns while configuring Slackware usually applies to any distribution. Rather than using distribution-specific configuration tools, the user has to modify settings in configuration files and so he has to learn about Linux internals which are common to all distributions. For these reason the Slackware distribution is usually used by system administrators, eager to learn novice users or simply Slackware fans :)

Official website: http://www.slackware.com

Pros: Stability, security, strong adherence to Unix principles, speed and performance.

Cons: Minimal package management, infrequent releases, limited hardware detection.

Fedora

One of the best known Linux company in the world is Red Hat, founded in 1995 by Bob Young and Marc Ewing. In 2003, Red Hat decided to focus on business and stopped releasing its public distribution. The company chose to sponsor a community driven project called Fedora. Red Hat Linux 9 was the last version in the Red Hat product line and was replaced by Fedora Core. This distribution is quite unique and mixes leading edge features and conservatism. The result is a stable and secure system with frequent releases and up to date packages which suits both server and desktop installations. The package management is based on RPM, invented by Red Hat, and it is enhanced by a set of tools like Yum, which bring additional features similar to the Debian package management. Because of its close relationship with Red Hat this distribution is very popular among companies. Efforts were also made to make it attractive to the public and Fedora is full of graphical configuration and administration tools. The installation is also graphical and special attention was put to the look and feel of the distribution. As a result Fedora is a popular choice for both desktop and servers among Linux users.

Official website: http://fedora.redhat.com

Pros: Widely used, good support, innovation, good-looking desktop, configuration tools.

Cons: Not as stable as Debian or Slackware for server use, not as easy and up to date as Suse or Mandrake for desktop use. Fedora is truly a general-purpose distribution.

Mandriva

Originally called Mandrake and created by Gael Duval in 1998, Mandriva is based on Red Hat. It uses a RPM-based package management, which is enhanced with a tool called urpmi. Mandriva became famous and popular since its first release thanks to an efficient and powerful graphical installer, which is still considered the best nowadays. The default Gnome desktop environment used in Red Hat was replaced in favor of KDE and some good looking configuration tools were added. Also, Mandriva tends to include new versions of software applications as soon as possible and to stay up to date as much as possible, relying on the users to report bugs a posteriori. As a result, Mandriva is highly up-to-date and even though some of its releases are buggy it remains the best distribution for people who are new to Linux or people who find it acceptable to experience some crashes if this means benefiting from the latest versions of applications.

Official website: http://www.mandriva.com

Pros: Highly up-to-date, easy to use, good looking desktop, good community support.

Cons: Unstable, releases are initially reserved to mandrivaClub members and then made public after several weeks.

Suse

Since its creation, Suse has always been seen as a distribution of choice for desktop installations. It benefits from a powerful installer and configuration tool called YaST. Professional attention is made to detail, the default KDE desktop environment, the boot process, everything is tailored to make Suse pleasant to the eyes and a serious choice for professional desktops. In 2003, Novell acquired the company and made ISOs of Suse releases freely available on the Internet. Novell also opened the development to public participation and released YaST under the General Public License. Since the launch of OpenSuse, the distribution is now completely free. Suse is stable, polished and pleasant to use. It is probably one of the best desktop solutions.

Official website: http://www.suse.com , http://www.opensuse.org

Pros: Up-to-date, easy to use, good looking, stable.

Cons: Speed and performance.

Ubuntu

In 2004 a distribution which was never heard of before, quickly became the most popular and famous of all distributions: Ubuntu. Based on the "Unstable" branch of Debian, Ubuntu features a fast release cycle, up to date and numerous packages, fast download mirrors, great documentation and even free shipment of CDs. Even though the installer is text-based and the configuration tools are not as good looking or integrated as those found in Fedora, Suse or Mandriva, this distribution quickly became the most used for desktop use. Ubuntu was created by Mark Shuttleworth and is distributed by his company Canonical Ltd. It is not clear whether or not Ubuntu is profitable to Canonical Ltd, but according to the multi-millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, this is not the main priority nor purpose of the distribution. Instead, Ubuntu aims to be an innovative and dynamic general purpose distribution which tackles issues that were not addressed by other distributions. Since its creation, Ubuntu has been the most popular GNU/Linux distribution and every single release is better than the previous one.

Official website: http://www.ubuntu.com

Pros: Great community of users and developers, great documentation, up to date packages, fast release cycle.

Cons: The business model doesn't seem to be viable.

Knoppix

Created in 2003 by Klaus Knopper, Knoppix is a live-CD distribution, which means the user can run it directly from the CD without having to install it on the hard drive. Thanks to an efficient compression mechanism, the Knoppix CD features a huge selection of software. Knoppix also provides a great automatic hardware detection, which is far better than those of other distributions. The CD can be used as a recovery or administration tool, as a Linux demonstration, as a hardware test tool or even as a full GNU/Linux desktop distribution since it is possible to install it on the hard drive once booted from the CD. Releases are frequent and packages, based on Debian's "Unstable" branch are quite up-to-date.

Official website: http://www.knoppix.com

Pros: Live-CD, excellent hardware detection, good and up to date package selection.

Cons: Slow if run from the CD.

Gentoo

Created in 2002 by Daniel Robbins, Gentoo comes from the idea of adding the FreeBSD autobuild feature, "ports" into GNU/Linux. Gentoo is a source-distribution, which means that its packages are not binary but source packages. Each package is meant to be compiled on the user's computer in order to get the best performance and speed out of the resulting compiled binary software. Because repositories use source-packages, they are also very quick to get new software releases as soon as they come out. This results in a very fast and highly up-to-date distribution. The package management is also very efficient and easy to use. On the other hand, the installation of the system and of big packages can be very long and tedious, even with a fast processor.

Official website: http://www.gentoo.org

Pros: Highly up-to-date, very fast, good documentation.

Cons: Long and tedious installation, can be unstable.

Mepis

Created in 2003 by Warren Woodford, Mepis is a mix between Debian "Unstable" and Knoppix. It is a live-CD which, once booted, features a graphical installation program. Users can simply boot on the CD, try the distribution, and if they like it.. run the graphical installation program. Also, the distribution chose a different path regarding the use of proprietary software, arguing that the user's comfort was more important than the adherence to open-source philosophy. By default, Mepis includes NVIDIA drivers, Flash and Java plugins, Java runtime, multimedia codecs, and other non-free software. The hardware automatic detection is very good and even detects some winmodems. In-house configuration utilities are also provided.

Official website: http://www.mepis.com

Pros: Installable Live-CD, pre-configured with latest plugins and codecs.

Cons: Not yet well-established, poor adherence to open-source principles.

Xandros

In 2001 Xandros acquired Corel Linux. The distribution was based on Debian and aimed at making it easy for novice users to use GNU/Linux. Nowadays Xandros Desktop is the most user-friendly distribution on the market and is recommended to first time Linux users. In its Deluxe edition Xandros Desktop also includes a NTFS resizing tool and a Windows compatibility layer called CrossOver, which makes it possible to run some Windows applications.

Official website: http://www.xandros.com

Pros: Designed for beginners, easy to use, very stable.

Cons: Small package selection, includes proprietary components, only free for personal use.

Conclusion

People often ask "so which distribution is right for me?". The answer is very simple: "It depends!". It depends on your needs, it depends on your experience, on your philosophy or your tastes. It depends on a lot of things, and even if you found the one you preferred among these 10 majors distributions, don't forget that there are about 340 other distributions available, which could potentially suit your needs. If you're ready for the adventure, go and explore. Read reviews, try as many as you can and make your own mind. Otherwise, if you just need something good without the hassle, stick to these 10 major distributions. If you're running a server, consider Debian or Slackware. If you want to install Linux on your home computer for desktop use, consider them all. If you're new to Linux you could try Xandros, Mepis, Suse or Mandriva. Different people have different tastes and this is exactly why GNU/Linux comes in so many flavors...

Discussion(s)

	Nice list
	Written by Mark on 2006-04-01 11:03:08
	OK SUSE is best for YOU. ha Ha. Actually right now it is the most polished because of Novell. The search is done right and it doesn't seeem to have that raw distro feel which is nice. Also maybe good to add that Slackware has probably the best sub-tributions. Arc, Zenwalk etc.
	Discuss! Reply!

	suse
	Written by adfs on 2006-04-01 11:52:02
	perhaps, but suse does not support my raid driver (promise fasttrak 376) out of the box whereas mandriva does
	Discuss! Reply!

	Slackware
	Written by Dominique on 2007-08-22 05:18:59
	I am an old Slackware user. But I just install Slack 12 yesterday and it seems not quite right. I also experience mysterious bugs in Slack 10 about 2 years ago. This leads me to believe that Slackware is not that stable after all any more. To me it seems that Slackware 3 was better than Slackware 12.
	Discuss! Reply!

	Good list but Slack makes me mad =o(
	Written by Superfly on 2008-01-20 21:56:41
	Quote: OK SUSE is best for YOU. ha Ha. Actually right now it is the most polished because of Novell. The search is done right and it doesn't seeem to have that raw distro feel which is nice. Also maybe good to add that Slackware has probably the best sub-tributions. Arc, Zenwalk etc. I liked Slack allot but it did not support the on board sound on my K8U triton socket 939 board. Most other distros do tho which dissappoints me =o(
	Discuss! Reply!

	Slack frequency
	Written by Dave on 2006-04-01 11:47:45
	Slack: "Infrequent releases".... hm.... I guess I havent' measured it, but it seems like about twice per year. That's plenty often enough to be doing upgrades, seems to me. In any case "most unix like" is what does it for me.
	Discuss! Reply!

	PCLinuxOS is the best PC Distro out ther
	Written by fanoflinux on 2006-04-01 11:49:12
	I am surprised the author didn't mentione PCLinuxOS which is by far the best distro for anybody wanting to dump MS windoze. Not only it is intuitive for newbs but also feature rich for more advanced linuxers. -fanoflinux
	Discuss! Reply!

	Hell yeah - PCLinuxOS is one of the best
	Written by MN on 2007-01-16 20:55:12
	Quote: I am surprised the author didn't mentione PCLinuxOS which is by far the best distro for anybody wanting to dump MS windoze. Not only it is intuitive for newbs but also feature rich for more advanced linuxers. -fanoflinux I am agree with fanoflinux. PCLinuxOS is one of the best distro i'd ever use. When the first time I use it, I said to myself "this is the most user friendly / newbies friendly distro I'd ever used" -mrnice
	Discuss! Reply!

	PSLinuxOS is a just a bad Mandriva clone
	Written by Me on 2007-09-17 23:27:57
	Quote: Quote: I am surprised the author didn't mentione PCLinuxOS which is by far the best distro for anybody wanting to dump MS windoze. Not only it is intuitive for newbs but also feature rich for more advanced linuxers. -fanoflinux I am agree with fanoflinux. PCLinuxOS is one of the best distro i'd ever use. When the first time I use it, I said to myself "this is the most user friendly / newbies friendly distro I'd ever used" -mrnice WHAT??? PCLinuxOS is just a bad clone of the good distro named Mandriva, also to remind that continues using old apps versions and just to remind that have a very poor rpm management tool named Synaptic.
	Discuss! Reply!

	PCLinuxOS
	Written by thomas on 2007-12-30 03:35:53
	Quote: I am surprised the author didn't mentione PCLinuxOS which is by far the best distro for anybody wanting to dump MS windoze. Not only it is intuitive for newbs but also feature rich for more advanced linuxers. -fanoflinux I totally agree: I have tried out Ubuntu, Mandriva, OpenSuse, Xandros, Puppy, DSL, Debian-Edu(Skolelinux), SimplyMEPIS, Fedora and Gentoo. On both dekstop and laptop PC`s. PCLinuxOS proved for me, as a newcomer to Linux, to be the best and most simple to use. Everything worked straight away, easy to add Google Earth, use Frostwire(Similar to Limewire...), no codex issues with viewing windows media files. And it took less than 30 minutes to install. Ubuntu was great too, but for some reason not on a laptop. PCLinux rocks!
	Discuss! Reply!

	PCLinuxOS
	Written by Magic MAckenzie on 2008-09-29 06:01:33
	Quote: I am surprised the author didn't mentione PCLinuxOS which is by far the best distro for anybody wanting to dump MS windoze. Not only it is intuitive for newbs but also feature rich for more advanced linuxers. -fanoflinux I agree with your comment. PCLInuxOS is now my main O.S. previously I used the Microsoft crap for 15 years and have always had trouble with crashes non responsive backgound apps and generally it became a pain. Of all the distro's out there, and I have tried SUSE,MANDRIVA,UBUNTU,GENTOO,SLACKWARE MEPIS to name but a few, but by far and away the most useable and intuitive is PCLinuxOS 2007 .... It's a cracker I wish i'd seen this distro many moons ago.

	archlinux
	Written by Kyle on 2006-04-01 11:52:26
	Also check out arch linux. It has a awesome package management system, and is i686 optimised, so its really easy to update and runs really fast. The PKGBUILD system is amazing. In my opinion, this distribution will become one of the major players in the near future. www.archlinux.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Linux PS: Great reviews by the way!

	Mandriva!!!
	Written by George on 2006-04-01 12:05:30
	I think for beginners the best choice is Mandriva. Easy to install, includes several packages, and it looks nice! Support is very good, also! My first linux was mandrake 10, and i was so happy with it!

	Ubuntu fits most
	Written by Keith on 2006-04-01 13:22:07
	Of all the distributions, I have to agree that Debian is best run on servers, though it will function as Desktop equally well. However, after I tried out Ubuntu, then I find it won't be soon that I will change for another Linux distro. Ubuntu, built on top of Debian structure, can function pretty well as a server. The release cycle if fantastic, if one chooses to upgrade to the latest packages in the repositories. The speed is pretty fast as well. Furthermore, it's pretty secure, except for one small "critical" incident found last month, which is fixed within 24 hours.

	Ubuntu is good for beginners as well.
	Written by Fred on 2006-04-03 19:05:09
	The article did not list Ubuntu as being one for beginners, which it most definitly is. It can be used by everybody!

	New user
	Written by Dennis James on 2008-09-08 18:42:51
	Quote: The article did not list Ubuntu as being one for beginners, which it most definitly is. It can be used by everybody! I just started using Ubuntu 8.04 and it is very easy to install and use. All my hardware worked properly after the install. It is also easy to use and add software to, and if a problem comes up there is a very good forum that you can turn to.

	Frugalware
	Written by barny rabbit on 2006-04-04 01:39:59
	Frugalware is looking very good. It uses PACMAN from Arch Linux as the package manager, has a simple installer (text based but so what - it is simple to use and works well), and has default KDE and GNOME install so you get both. Numbers of packages growing fast, and seems to support multimedia quite well too. Easier to set-up than Arch, and unlike Ubuntu and many other distros (that get reviews by people who dont dig deeper than the name of the distro and the splach screen) it seems mostly to actually work. Worth a look.
	Discuss! Reply!

Linux Kernel Development

2008-12-08T00:38:00.000-08:00

Being the first book I've ever read printed by Novell (technically, the book was published by Pearson, but it was put together as a Novell Press book), Linux Kernel Development left me with a good impression of the publisher.

Robert Love
(c)2005 Pearson Education Inc.
ISBN:0-672-32720-1
MSRP:$44.99

It's very nice to see a good technical book from somebody either than O'Reilly. As the title suggests, Linux Kernel Development concerns itself with the inner workings of the kernel. But it also gives a valuable insight into the development process itself. This second edition covers the 2.6 Kernel series, and is up to date as of release 2.6.10.

This book does a very good job showing the underpinnings of the various subsystems that come together to make the kernel one cohesive whole. Whether the topic be kernel timers, or system calls, LKD covers it. One thing to note, however, is that the learning curve is rather steep. After a few introductory notes in the first chapter, and the next chapter on building the kernel, Chapter 3 dives headfirst into C code, and never looks back.

If you're the type who needs lots of examples, you'll find this book to be rather lacking in that department. Examples are few and far between, however they are usually explained rather well. The converse to this is that with a subject matter such as kernel hacking, the /usr/src/linux directory is all the example that is required. There are plenty of short code snippets however, but as I said, full, fleshed out programs are very rare.

Another thing that potential readers should note is that the scope of the book is rather limited. I think that it is best read in conjunction with, or after reading other sources of documentation on the kernel and the general principle of it. A good place to start is the Documentation/ directory found in the kernel source tree itself. While the book can stand on its own, I think that supplementing it with information from outside references would be a more effective strategy for learning the ins and outs of kernel development.

That being said, I think that Linux Kernel Development has left me with a good impression of Novell Press. I award this book 4.5 out of a possible 5 penguins.

Knoppix 3.6 Review

2008-12-08T00:36:00.000-08:00

Knoppix is a “Live CD” version of Linux, which means a distribution which boots from a CD and allows you to use a wide array of built-in programs and utilities without ever having to install anything on your hard-drive. Such a CD is useful for people who are often on the road, and wish to always have Linux with them. Another benefit of a “Live CD” is that it allows Windows users who are considering migrating to Linux to give Linux a try without worrying about losing all of their Windows files and settings if they don't end up liking it.

Knoppix 3.6 is the latest Knoppix release, and comes with an impressive array of software, including KDE 3.1. One thing to note, however, is that Knoppix is a German Project, so much of the website and documentation is in German. To use Knoppix, all you need is a working computer with:
-an Intel-compatible Processor (at least i486)
-at least 20MB RAM for Text Mode, or at least 96MB for Graphic Mode using KDE (128MB+ recommended)
-a Bootable CD-ROM drive, or as an alternative a Boot-Floppy and a Standard CD-ROM Drive (IDE/ADAPTI or SCSI)

-Standard SVGA-Compatible graphics card -Standard Serial or PS/2 mouse or IMPS/2-Compatible USB mouse

Travel Coordinator, UTHSCSA

2008-12-08T00:35:00.000-08:00

I've seen this mentioned time and again, and I tend to agree more and more: one of the best ways to get Linux into homes and businesses is to put it on the users' desktops as an OEM offering. I know there are quite a few obstacles, such as the chicken-before-the-egg issue, and "brand-W's" tendancy to bully manufacturers in various ways.

There are several "fronts" going on now that are pushing for Linux on the desktop. The two that come to mind are Linspire's deals with several computer manufacturers (albeit relatively minor players) and resellers, and a local marketing push in Austin, Texas. I'm also intrigued by Ubuntu's OEM installation option and hope this is picked up soon by larger computer manufacturers.

There are longstanding myths about Linux and other open-source software that still need to be answered agressively but smartly by marketing-savvy folk. Putting Linux in front of people's faces is, IMHO, the best way to grow the numbers; the more users, the more that manufacturers will take note and begin writing their drivers and software for Linux, and the more attractive Linux will become.

BACKTRACK 3.0

2008-12-05T00:44:00.000-08:00

BackTrack is a Slackware and SLAX-based live CD with a collection of security and forensics tools.

\BackTrack is a Slackware and SLAX-based live CD with a collection of security and forensics tools.

BackTrack distribution was created by merging Auditor Security Linux with WHAX (formerly Whoppix).

Combining the best features from both distributions, and paying special attention to small details, this is probably the best version of either distributions to ever come out.

Based on SLAX (Slackware), BackTrack provides user modularity. This means the distribution can be easily customised by the user to include personal scripts, additional tools, customised kernels, etc.

How to Install Adobe Flash Player 64-bit on Ubuntu 8.10

2008-12-05T00:40:00.000-08:00

I guess you've heard the good news, that Adobe released yesterday (November 17th, 2008) the first 64-bit version of its Flash Player for Linux-based operating systems.

OK, so let us get down to business, and replace that ugly 32-bit flash player installation from your Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64 edition with the just released 64-bit version.

Until yesterday, 64-bit Linux users had to install the 32-bit version of the Flash Player, which was forced to work with the help of the NSPlugin wrapper package. Moreover, the "grey box" issue in Firefox 64-bit for the Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64 (Intrepid Ibex) operating system is a known and unresolved problem, as is also the fact that users had to reload the web pages to see the flash content, or even to restart Firefox. The following guide is here to teach you how to replace the 32-bit version of the flash player with the 64-bit one, on Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64. It will work with other 64-bit Linux distributions.

LINUX NEWS-Finnix 92.1 Is Powered by a New Kernel

2008-12-05T00:34:00.000-08:00

Finnix 92.1 Is Powered by a New Kernel

he first maintenance release of the Finnix 92.0 Linux distribution was released today by Ryan Finnie, its developer. The most significant feature of Finnix 92.1 (codename Crandon) is the new Debian 2.6.26-7 based Linux kernel. "Finnix 92.1 is a regular maintenance release. New features include Linux kernel 2.6.26, updated upstream software, and x86 boot menu cleanups." - said Ryan Finnie in the release announcement.

Download Finnix 92.1 right now from Softpedia.

Finnix is an operating system designed to be used by system administrators for tasks like network monitoring, hard drives partitioning, rebuilding MBRs or installing other operating systems. Finnix 92.1 includes the following changes since the 92.0 release:

· The Linux kernel packages were updated to version 2.6.26 (based on Debian's 2.6.26-7);
· In the x86 boot menu, a space was added after the boot parameters. In order to add extra boot parameters, select a menu item, press the Tab button, then type the parameters;
· The cheat codes for the x86 boot screen were re-added. Users can access them with the F2 key;
· Added the emad game. emad is an action/adventure side-scrolling RPG platformer game, about a kid and his loving pet pig. The action takes place in the 38th century, Scotland;
· The dvdrtools package was removed, because wodim offers the same functionality;
· dist-upgrade.

The Finnix Linux operating system is equipped with the latest technology for system administrators, with Linux kernel 2.6, LVM2, encrypted partitions, and more. It is over 300 MB, but is dynamically compressed into a bootable ISO image of approximately 100 MB. Finnix is not targeted at the average desktop user and doesn't have features like productivity tools, sound support or any desktop environments. It is available for the following platforms: x86, AMD64, PowerPC, and UML/Xen.

Debugging

2008-12-03T05:54:00.001-08:00

Software Emulation

MPLAB (which is a free download) includes a software emulator for PICs. However, software emulation of a microcontroller will always suffer from limited simulation of the device's interactions with its target circuit.

Proteus VSM is a commercial software product developed by Labcenter Electronics which allows simulation of many PICmicro devices along with a wide array of peripheral devices. This method can help bridge the gap between the limited peripheral support offered by the MPLAB simulator and traditional in-circuit debugging/emulating. The product interfaces directly with MPLAB to offer a schematic display of signals and peripheral devices.

KTechLab is a free and open source circuit simulator for KDE which features simulating some types of PIC microcontrollers besides many other analog and digital parts.

Piklab is a free and open source IDE for developing PIC software on KDE which is able to simulate and debug PIC software using another free and open source tool called gpsim as backend.

[edit] In-Circuit Debugging

Later model PICs feature an ICD (in-circuit debugging) interface, built into the CPU core. ICD debuggers (MPLAB ICD2 and other third party) can communicate with this interface using three lines. This cheap and simple debugging system comes at a price however, namely limited breakpoint count (1 on older pics 3 on newer PICs), loss of some IO (with the exception of some surface mount 44-pin PICs which have dedicated lines for debugging) and loss of some features of the chip. For small PICs, where the loss of IO caused by this method would be unacceptable, special headers are made which are fitted with PICs that have extra pins specifically for debugging.

[edit] In-Circuit Emulators

Microchip offers three full in circuit emulators: the MPLAB ICE2000 (parallel interface, a USB converter is available); the newer MPLAB ICE4000 (USB 2.0 connection); and most recently, the REAL ICE. All of these ICE tools can be used with the MPLAB IDE for full source-level debugging of code running on the target.

The ICE2000 requires emulator modules, and the test hardware must provide a socket which can take either an emulator module, or a production device.

The REAL ICE connects directly to production devices which support in-circuit emulation through the PGC/PGD programming interface, or through a high speed connection which uses two more pins. According to Microchip, it supports "most" flash-based PIC, PIC24, and dsPIC processors. [14]

The ICE4000 is no longer directly advertised on Microchip's website, and the purchasing page states that it is not recommended for new designs.

8/16/32-bit PIC microcontroller product families

2008-12-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

These links take you to product selection matrices at the manufacturer's site.

8-bit Microcontrollers

* PIC10
* PIC12
* PIC14
* PIC16
* PIC17
* PIC18

16-bit Microcontrollers

* PIC24F
* PIC24H

32-bit Microcontrollers

* PIC32

16-bit Digital Signal Controllers

* dsPIC30
* dsPIC33F

The F in a name generally indicates the PICmicro uses flash memory and can be erased electronically. A C generally means it can only be erased by exposing the die to ultraviolet light (which is only possible if a windowed package style is used). An exception to this rule is the PIC16C84 which uses EEPROM and is therefore electrically erasable.

Security in Microchip PIC devices is known to be extremely weak. Reports have been published by Flylogic Engineering about the weaknesses. These weaknesses repeat themselves across the entire line of devices.

ubuntu

2008-12-03T05:47:00.001-08:00

ubuntu is a free operating system based on Debian, a popular Linux distribution. Its name comes from the Zulu word "ubuntu", loosely translated as "humanity", describing the ubuntu philosophy: "I am who I am because of those around me," a positive aspect of community. Ubuntu's goals include providing an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. Ubuntu has been rated as the most popular Linux distribution for the desktop, claiming approximately 30% of desktop Linux installations in a survey by desktoplinux.com.[3]

Ubuntu is free and open source software, meaning it is free to download and use without monetary charge and is free to be modified and improved upon. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd, owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Instead of selling Ubuntu for profit, Canonical creates revenue by selling technical support. By keeping Ubuntu free and open source, Canonical is able to take advantage of the talents of outside developers in projects such as Linux, Debian, GNU, X.org, etc., without developing the entire operating system themselves.

Canonical endorses and provides support for four Ubuntu-based distributions: Kubuntu and Xubuntu, which use KDE and Xfce, respectively, as a desktop environment, replacing the default GNOME system used by Ubuntu; Edubuntu, a subproject and add-on for Ubuntu, designed for school environments and home use;[4] and Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced "Juice"), a stripped-down version of Ubuntu, optimized for virtual appliances.[5]

Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu every six months and supports Ubuntu for eighteen months by submitting security fixes, patches to critical bugs and including minor updates to programs. LTS (Long Term Support) releases, which occur every two years,[6] are supported for three years on the desktop and five years for servers.[7] The current version of Ubuntu, Intrepid Ibex, was released on October 30, 2008.

flash back of ubuntu

2008-12-03T05:45:00.002-08:00

Ubuntu was initially forked from the Debian project's code base.[8] The aim was to release a new version of Ubuntu every six months, resulting in a more frequently updated system. Ubuntu's first release was on 2004-10-20.[9]

Ubuntu releases always include the most recent GNOME release, and come out about a month after GNOME.[10] In contrast to previous general-purpose forks of Debian — such as MEPIS, Xandros, Linspire, Progeny and Libranet, many of which relied on proprietary and closed source add-ons as part of their business model — Ubuntu has stayed closer to Debian's philosophy and uses free (libre) software, making an exception only for some proprietary hardware drivers.[11]

The Ubuntu logo and typography has remained the same since that first release. The hand-drawn,[12] lowercase OpenType font used is called Ubuntu-Title and was created by Andy Fitzsimon.[13] The font is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and use with logos derived from the Ubuntu logo is encouraged.[13] The font is available as a package for Ubuntu.[13]

Ubuntu packages are based on packages from Debian's unstable branch: both distributions use Debian's deb package format and package management tools, APT and Synaptic, although Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, and may need to be rebuilt from source.[14] Ubuntu cooperates with Debian — to some extent pushing changes back to Debian,[15] although there has been criticism concerning lack of occurrence.[16] Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of key packages within Debian. However, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, criticized Ubuntu packages for incompatibilities with Debian, saying Ubuntu had diverged too far from Debian Sarge to remain compatible.[16]

Ubuntu is currently funded by Canonical Ltd. On July 8, 2005, Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an emergency fund in case Canonical's involvement ends.[17]

Before release, packages are imported from Debian Unstable continuously and merged with Ubuntu-specific modifications. A month before release, imports are frozen, and soon after a feature freeze is instated, which allows for packages to work on ensuring that the current software works well, rather than supporting the moving target that is Unstable.

Ubuntu 8.04, released on April 24, 2008, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release. Canonical has released previous LTS versions every two years, and has committed to releasing the next LTS version in 2010, two years after 8.04.[18][19][20] Meanwhile, the current standard-support period release, Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), was released on October 30, 2008.

Features

2008-12-03T05:45:00.001-08:00

Ubuntu focuses on usability,[27] including the widespread use of the sudo tool for administrative tasks.[28] The Ubiquity installer allows installing Ubuntu to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation. Ubuntu also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization, to reach as many people as possible. Beginning with 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding,[29] which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. The default appearance of the user interface in the current version is called Human and is characterized by shades of brown and orange.

The most recent version of Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software including the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, the internet browser Firefox, the instant messenger Pidgin (formerly known as Gaim), the BitTorrent client Transmission, and the raster graphics editor GIMP. Several lightweight card, puzzle, and board games are pre-installed, such as Sudoku and chess. Ubuntu has all networking ports closed by default for added security; its firewall offers fine-grained control of incoming and outgoing connections. GNOME 2.22—the default desktop environment of Ubuntu 8.04—offers support for 46 languages.[30] There are numerous ways to install Ubuntu, outlined below.[31]

Live CD

2008-12-03T05:44:00.002-08:00

Installation of Ubuntu is generally performed with the Live CD, which presents the system to the user as it would run off the drive (albeit with a performance hit from loading applications off the disk). This is particularly useful in testing for hardware compatibility and driver support. The CD also contains the Ubiquity installer,[32] which guides the user through the permanent installation process. CD images of all current and past versions are available for download at the Ubuntu web site. Installing from the CD requires a minimum of 256 MB RAM. Users can download a disk image of the CD which can then be written to a physical medium, or run from a hard drive via UNetbootin.

Canonical offers Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu installation CDs at no cost, including paid postage for destinations in most countries around the world, via a service called ShipIt.[33] Xubuntu is not offered due to lack of demand.[34] After a request for CDs is made and approved, disks are sent via post. Delivery is estimated at six to ten weeks.[35]

A Microsoft Windows migration tool was introduced in April 2007, when Ubuntu 7.04 was released.[36] The new migration tool, called Migration Assistant, imports Windows users' bookmarks, desktop background (wallpaper), and various settings for immediate use in the Ubuntu installation.[37]

Ubuntu and Kubuntu can be booted and run from a USB Flash drive, with the option of saving settings to the flashdrive or running without saving settings. This allows a portable installation that can be run on any PC which is capable of booting from a USB drive.[38]

Wubi, which is included on the Live CD, allows the distribution to be installed on a virtual loop device. This requires no partitioning of a user's hard drive, allowing them to install Ubuntu to a file on their Windows drive. Wubi also makes use of the Migration Assistant to import users' settings. Wubi was initially developed as an independent project, and as such versions 7.04 and 7.10 were released separately from Ubuntu. Wubi was later merged with Ubuntu, and can be found in the Ubuntu Live CD as of the 8.04 release.[39] A related program, USB creator, makes it possible to install Ubuntu on a USB drive, but without the need of burning a disc.

[edit] Remastering

See also: List of remastering software

Canonical encourages remasters of the Ubuntu Live CD[citation needed], which some refer to as a "Custom Spin".[40] Various programs exist to aid in this process, such as remastersys and Reconstructor.

[edit] Alternate installation
Default login screen for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)'s server edition

Canonical also supports an alternate, non-live installation method, the Alternate CD. The alternate install CD is an installation disk designed for specialist Ubuntu configurations by providing a text-based (rather than graphical) installation. It allows for the creation of pre-configured OEM systems, the upgrading of older installations without network access, and installation on systems with less than 320 MB of RAM. The CD also allows the setup of LVM and/or RAID partitions, as well as the encryption of partitions using dm-crypt. The alternate install CD is not a Live CD.

Ubuntu can also be installed over a network via the network install CD. The network install CD installs Ubuntu directly from an Ubuntu mirror. Installation from the network ensures that installed packages are up-to-date at the time of installation, as opposed to having to be updated afterwards. The network install CD contains only the kernel to start the text-based installation.[41]

The final alternate installation method is used to install Ubuntu Server. The server install CD contains all packages needed for installation without a network connection. The server installation does not install a graphical user interface for the OS.

Availability of third-party software

2008-12-03T05:44:00.001-08:00

Ubuntu has a certification system for third party software.[46] Some third-party software that does not limit distribution is included in Ubuntu's multiverse component. The package ubuntu-restricted-extras additionally contains software that may be legally restricted, including support for MP3 and DVD playback, Microsoft TrueType core fonts, Sun's Java runtime environment, Adobe's Flash Player plugin, many common audio/video codecs, and unrar, an unarchiver for files compressed in the RAR file format.

Although Ultamatix (based on the old Automatix) can also install many popular items of software that may be difficult to install in other ways, it shares the same basic flaws that may render the system unusable.[47][48]

Release of ubuntu

2008-12-03T05:43:00.000-08:00

The Ubuntu project makes two releases per year, using the year and month of the release as a version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on October 20, 2004.[49] Consequently, version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed until a different month to that planned, the version number changes accordingly.

Ubuntu releases are also given code names, using an adjective and an animal with the same first letter e.g: "Dapper Drake" and "Intrepid Ibex". With the exception of the first two releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. Commonly, Ubuntu releases are referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name.[50]

Releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME releases, which are in turn about one month after releases of X.org. Consequently, every Ubuntu release comes with a newer version of both GNOME and X. Release 6.06—and recently 8.04—have been labeled as a Long Term Support (LTS), to indicate support with updates for three years on the desktop and five years on the server, with paid technical support available from Canonical Ltd.[51]

how to speed up firefox

2008-12-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

Here's something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!

TOPICS: Technical; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: firefox; mozilla; pc

Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.

I found this info on the Firefox site, and should only be done by broadband users.

I did it myself, and it works wonders!

yWHAT IS GATE ?

2008-12-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an All-India Examination conducted by the seven Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, on behalf of the National Coordinating Board - GATE, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India.

OBJECTIVES OF GATE

Identify, at the National level, meritorious and motivated candidates for admission to Postgraduate Programmes in Engineering, Technology, Architecture, Science and Pharmacy.

Serve as a mandatory qualification for the MHRD scholarship/assistantship.

Serve as benchmark of normalization of the Undergraduate Engineering Education in the country.

After graduation in engineering, all engineering students come to a crossroads, where they have to make a choice – a choice that defines their career for the rest of their lives. To choose one amongst the most sophisticated options of a job, management degree or an M Tech degree.
The “on campus” and “off campus” placement record of engineering and science graduates for the last 5 years is a matter of serious concern. Other than some of the reputed Engineering institutes, most of the institutes are not being able to provide jobs in the core industries.
Further, the competition for getting admission into quality management institutes is at its peak. In management, students come from different domain. The students from science and engineering background have to groom themselves in different subjects which they may not have studied earlier. Moreover a management programme is a self financing one but for studying M.E. or M. Tech one can get scholarship from the Govt. of India

A Master’s programme in Science & Technology, however, is an improved one over bachelor degree based upon student’s choice & preference. Master’s Degree can lead to versatile career options like better and more meaningful job profile, R & D opportunities, academic pursuits, entrepreneurship etc.

syllabus for gate exam

2008-12-03T05:38:00.001-08:00

CS - COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Students of IT will have to appear for GATE CS paper from 2009 onwards

Engineering Mathematics

Mathematical Logic: Propositional Logic; First Order Logic.

Probability: Conditional Probability; Mean, Median, Mode and Standard Deviation; Random Variables; Distributions; uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson, Binomial.

Set Theory & Algebra: Sets; Relations; Functions; Groups; Partial Orders; Lattice; Boolean Algebra.

Combinatorics: Permutations; Combinations; Counting; Summation; generating functions; recurrence relations; asymptotics.

Graph Theory: Connectivity; spanning trees; Cut vertices & edges; covering; matching; independent sets; Colouring; Planarity; Isomorphism.

Linear Algebra: Algebra of matrices, determinants, systems of linear equations, Eigen values and Eigen vectors.

Numerical Methods: LU decomposition for systems of linear equations; numerical solutions of non-linear algebraic equations by Secant, Bisection and Newton-Raphson Methods; Numerical integration by trapezoidal and Simpson’s rules.

Calculus: Limit, Continuity & differentiability, Mean value Theorems, Theorems of integral calculus, evaluation of definite & improper integrals, Partial derivatives, Total derivatives, maxima & minima.

Computer Science and Engineering

Theory of Computation: Regular languages and finite automata, Context free languages and Push-down automata, Recursively enumerable sets and Turing machines, Undecidability; NP-completeness.

Digital Logic: Logic functions, Minimization, Design and synthesis of combinational and sequential circuits; Number representation and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point).

Computer Organization and Architecture: Machine instructions and addressing modes, ALU and data-path, CPU control design, Memory interface, I/O interface (Interrupt and DMA mode), Instruction pipelining, Cache and main memory, Secondary storage.

Programming and Data Structures: Programming in C; Functions, Recursion, Parameter passing, Scope, Binding; Abstract data types, Arrays, Stacks, Queues, Linked Lists, Trees, Binary search trees, Binary heaps.

Algorithms: Analysis, Asymptotic notation, Notions of space and time complexity, Worst and average case analysis; Design: Greedy approach, Dynamic programming, Divide-and-conquer; Tree and graph traversals, Connected components, Spanning trees, Shortest paths; Hashing, Sorting, Searching.

Compiler Design: Lexical analysis, Parsing, Syntax directed translation, Runtime environments, Intermediate and target code generation, Basics of code optimization.

Operating System: Processes, Threads, Inter-process communication, Concurrency, Synchronization, Deadlock, CPU scheduling, Memory management and virtual memory, File systems, I/O systems, Protection and security.

Databases: ER-model, Relational model (relational algebra, tuple calculus), Database design (integrity constraints, normal forms), Query languages (SQL), File structures (sequential files, indexing, B and B+ trees), Transactions and concurrency control.

Computer Networks: ISO/OSI stack, LAN technologies (Ethernet, Token ring), Flow and error control techniques, Routing algorithms, Congestion control, TCP/UDP and sockets, IP(v4), Application layer protocols (icmp, dns, smtp, pop, ftp, http); Basic concepts of hubs, switches, gateways, and routers.

EC - ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Engineering Mathematics

Linear Algebra: Matrix Algebra, Systems of linear equations, Eigen values and Eigen vectors.

Calculus: Mean value theorems, Theorems of integral calculus, Evaluation of definite and improper integrals, Partial Derivatives, Maxima and minima, Multiple integrals, Fourier series; Vector identities, Directional derivatives, Line, Surface and Volume integrals, Stokes, Gauss and Green’s theorems.

Differential equations: First order equation (linear and nonlinear), Higher order linear differential equations with constant coefficients, Method of variation of parameters, Cauchy’s and Euler’s equations, Initial and boundary value problems, Partial Differential Equations and variable separable method.

Complex variables: Analytic functions, Cauchy’s integral theorem and integral formula, Taylor’s and Laurent series, Residue theorem, solution integrals.

Probability and Statistics: Sampling theorems, Conditional probability, Mean, median, mode and standard deviation, Random variables, Discrete and continuous distributions, Poisson, Normal and Binomial distribution, Correlation and regression analysis.

Numerical Methods: Solutions of non-linear algebraic equations, single and multi-step methods for differential equations.

Transform Theory: Fourier transform, Laplace transform, Z-transform.

Electronics and Communication Engineering

Networks: Network graphs: matrices associated with graphs; incidence, fundamental cut set and fundamental circuit matrices. Solution methods: nodal and mesh analysis. Network theorems: superposition, Thevenin and Norton’s maximum power transfer, Wye-Delta transformation. Steady state sinusoidal analysis using phasors; Linear constant coefficient differential equations; time domain analysis of simple RLC circuits, Solution of network equations using Laplace transform: frequency domain analysis of RLC circuits. 2-port network parameters: driving point and transfer functions; State equations for networks.

Electronic Devices: Energy bands in silicon, intrinsic and extrinsic silicon. Carrier transport in silicon: diffusion current, drift current, mobility, and resistivity. Generation and recombination of carriers; p-n junction diode, Zener diode, tunnel diode, BJT, JFET, MOS capacitor, MOSFET, LED, p-I-n and avalanche photo diode, Basics of LASER; Device technology: integrated circuits fabrication process, oxidation, diffusion, ion implantation, photolithography, n-tub, p-tub and twin-tub CMOS process.

Analog Circuits: Small Signal Equivalent circuits of diodes, BJTs, MOSFETs and analog CMOS. Simple diode circuits, clipping, clamping, rectifier. Biasing and bias stability of transistor and FET amplifiers; Amplifiers: single-and multi-stage, differential and operational, feedback, and power. Frequency response of amplifiers; Simple op-amp circuits; Filters; Sinusoidal oscillators; criterion for oscillation; single-transistor and op-amp configurations; Function generators and wave-shaping circuits, 555 Timers; Power supplies.

Digital circuits: Boolean algebra, minimization of Boolean functions; logic gates; digital IC families (DTL, TTL, ECL, MOS, CMOS). Combinatorial circuits: arithmetic circuits, code converters, multiplexers, decoders, PROMs and PLAs. Sequential circuits: latches and flip-flops, counters and shift-registers. Sample and hold circuits, ADCs, DACs; Semiconductor memories; Microprocessor(8085); architecture, programming, memory and I/O interfacing

Signals and Systems: Definitions and properties of Laplace transform, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier series, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier Transform, DFT and FFT, z-transform. Sampling theorem; Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) Systems: definitions and properties; causality, stability, impulse response, convolution, poles and zeros, parallel and cascade structure, frequency response, group delay, phase delay. Signal transmission through LTI systems.

Control Systems: Basic control system components; block diagrammatic description, reduction of block diagrams. Open loop and closed loop (feedback) systems and stability analysis of these systems; Signal flow graphs and their use in determining transfer functions of systems; transient and steady state analysis of LTI control systems and frequency response. Tools and techniques for LTI control system analysis: root loci, Routh-Hurwitz criterion, Bode and Nyquist plots; Control system compensators: elements of lead and lag compensation, elements of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control. State variable representation and solution of state equation of LTI control systems.

Communications: Random signals and noise: probability, random variables, probability density function, autocorrelation, power spectral density. Analog communication systems: amplitude and angle modulation and demodulation systems, spectral analysis of these operations, super heterodyne receivers; elements of hardware, realizations of analog communication systems; signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) calculations for amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) for low noise conditions. Fundamentals of information theory and channel capacity theorem; Digital communication systems: pulse code modulation (PCM), differential pulse code modulation (DPCM), digital modulation schemes: amplitude, phase and frequency shift keying schemes (ASK, PSK, FSK), matched filter receivers, bandwidth consideration and probability of error calculations for these schemes; Basics of TDMA, FDMA and CDMA and GSM.

Electromagnetics: Elements of vector calculus: divergence and curl; Gauss and Stokes theorems, Maxwell’s equations: differential and integral forms; Wave equation, Poynting vector. Plane waves: propagation through various media; reflection and refraction; phase and group velocity; skin depth. Transmission lines: characteristic impedance; impedance transformation; Smith chart; impedance matching; S parameters, pulse excitation. Waveguides: modes in rectangular waveguides; boundary conditions; cut-off frequencies; dispersion relations; Basics of propagation in dielectric waveguide and optical fibers. Basics of Antennas: Dipole antennas; radiation pattern; antenna gain.

EE - ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Engineering Mathematics

Linear Algebra: Matrix Algebra, Systems of linear equations, Eigen values and eigen vectors.

Complex variables: Analytic functions, Cauchy’s integral theorem and integral formula, Taylor’s and Laurent series, Residue theorem, solution integrals.

Numerical Methods: Solutions of non-linear algebraic equations, single and multi-step methods for differential equations.

Transform Theory: Fourier transform, Laplace transform, Z-transform.

Electrical Engineering

Electric Circuits and Fields: Network graph, KCL, KVL, node and mesh analysis, transient response of dc and ac networks; sinusoidal steady-state analysis, resonance, basic filter concepts; ideal current and voltage sources, Thevenin’s; Norton’s and Superposition and Maximum Power Transfer theorems, two-port networks, three phase circuits; Gauss Theorem, electric field and potential due to point, line, plane and spherical charge distributions; Ampere’s and Biot-Savart’s laws; inductance; dielectrics; capacitance.

Signals and Systems: Representation of continuous and discrete-time signals; shifting and scaling operations; linear, time-invariant and causal systems; Fourier series representation of continuous periodic signals; sampling theorem; Fourier, Laplace and Z transforms.

Electrical Machines: Single phase transformer - equivalent circuit, phasor diagram, tests, regulation and efficiency; three phase transformers - connections, parallel operation; auto-transformer; energy conversion principles; DC machines - types, windings, generator characteristics, armature reaction and commutation, starting and speed control of motors; three phase induction motors - principles, types, performance characteristics, starting and speed control; single phase induction motors; synchronous machines - performance, regulation and parallel operation of generators, motor starting, characteristics and applications; servo and stepper motors.

Power Systems: Basic power generation concepts; transmission line models and performance; cable performance, insulation; corona and radio interference; distribution systems; per-unit quantities; bus impedance and admittance matrices; load flow; voltage control; power factor correction; economic operation; symmetrical components; fault analysis; principles of over-current, differential and distance protection; solid state relays and digital protection; circuit breakers; system stability concepts, swing curves and equal area criterion; HVDC transmission and FACTS concepts.

Control Systems: Principles of feedback; transfer function; block diagrams; steady-state errors; Routh and Niquist techniques; Bode plots; root loci; lag, lead and lead-lag compensation; state space model; state transition matrix, controllability and observability

Electrical and Electronic Measurements: Bridges and potentiometers; PMMC, moving iron, dynamometer and induction type instruments; measurement of voltage, current, power, energy and power factor; instrument transformers; digital voltmeters and multimeters; phase, time and frequency measurement; Q-meters; oscilloscopes; potentiometric recorders; error analysis.

Analog and Digital Electronics: Characteristics of diodes, BJT, FET; amplifiers - biasing, equivalent circuit and frequency response; oscillators and feedback amplifiers; operational amplifiers - characteristics and applications; simple active filters; VCOs and timers; combinational and sequential logic circuits; multiplexer; Schmitt trigger; multi-vibrators; sample and hold circuits; A/D and D/A converters; 8-bit microprocessor basics, architecture, programming and interfacing.

Power Electronics and Drives: Semiconductor power diodes, transistors, thyristors, triacs, GTOs, MOSFETs and IGBTs - static characteristics and principles of operation; triggering circuits; phase control rectifiers; bridge converters - fully controlled and half controlled; principles of choppers and inverters; basis concepts of adjustable speed dc and ac drives.

IN - INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERING

Engineering Mathematics

Linear Algebra: Matrix Algebra, Systems of linear equations, Eigen values and eigen vectors.

Complex variables: Analytic functions, Cauchy’s integral theorem and integral formula, Taylor’s and Laurent series, Residue theorem, solution integrals.

Numerical Methods: Solutions of non-linear algebraic equations, single and multi-step methods for differential equations.

Transform Theory: Fourier transform, Laplace transform, Z-transform.

Instrumentation Engineering

Basics of Circuits and Measurement Systems: Kirchoff’s laws, mesh and nodal Analysis; Circuit theorems. One-port and two-port Network Functions; Static and dynamic characteristics of Measurement Systems; Error and uncertainty analysis; Statistical analysis of data and curve fitting;

Transducers, Mechanical Measurement and Industrial Instrumentation: Resistive, Capacitive, Inductive and piezoelectric transducers and their signal conditioning; Measurement of displacement, velocity and acceleration (translational and rotational), force, torque, vibration and shock; Measurement of pressure, flow, temperature and liquid level; Measurement of pH, conductivity, viscosity and humidity.

Analog Electronics: Characteristics of diode, BJT, JFET and MOSFET; Diode circuits; Transistors at low and high frequencies, Amplifiers, single and multi-stage; Feedback amplifiers; Operational amplifiers, characteristics and circuit configurations; Instrumentation amplifier; Precision rectifier. V-to-I and I-to-V converter; Op-Amp based active filters; Oscillators and signal generators.

Digital Electronics: Combinational logic circuits, minimization of Boolean functions; IC families, TTL, MOS and CMOS; Arithmetic circuits. Comparators, Schmitt trigger, timers and mono-stable multi-vibrator. Sequential circuits, flip-flops, counters, shift registers; Multiplexer, S/H circuit; Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog converters. Basics of number system; Microprocessor applications, memory and input-output interfacing; Microcontrollers

Signals, Systems and Communications: Periodic and aperiodic signals; Impulse response, transfer function and frequency response of first- and second order systems; Convolution, correlation and characteristics of linear time invariant systems; Discrete time system, impulse and frequency response; Pulse transfer function. IIR and FIR filters; Amplitude and frequency modulation and demodulation; Sampling theorem, pulse code modulation. Frequency and time division multiplexing; Amplitude shift keying, frequency shift keying and pulse shift keying for digital modulation

Electrical and Electronic Measurements: Bridges and potentiometers, measurement of R,L and C Measurements of voltage, current, power, power factor and energy; A.C & D.C current probes; Extension of instrument ranges; Q-meter and waveform analyzer; Digital voltmeter and multi-meter; Time, phase and frequency measurements; Cathode ray oscilloscope; Serial and parallel communication; Shielding and grounding.

Control Systems and Process Control: Feedback principles; Signal flow graphs; Transient Response, steady-state-errors; Routh and Nyquist criteria. Bode plot, root loci; Time delay systems; Phase and gain margin; State space representation of systems; Mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic system components; Synchro pair, servo and step motors. On-off, cascade, P, P-I, P-I-D, feed forward and derivative controller, Fuzzy controllers.

Analytical, Optical and Biomedical Instrumentation: Mass spectrometry; UV, visible and IR spectrometry; X-ray and nuclear radiation measurements; Optical sources and detectors, LED, laser, Photo-diode, photo-resistor and their characteristics; Interferometers, applications in metrology; Basics of fiber optics. Biomedical instruments, EEG, ECG and EMG; Clinical measurements; Ultrasonic transducers and Ultrasonography; Principles of Computer Assisted Tomography;

A candidate will have to choose any one of the papers listed below:

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PAPER	CODE	PAPER	CODE
Aerospace Eng.	AE	Information Technology	IT
Agricultural Eng.	AG	Mathematics	MA
Architecture and Planning	AR	Mechanical Eng.	ME
Civil Eng.	CE	Mining Eng.	MN
Chemical Eng.	CH	Metallurgical Eng.	MT
Computer Science and Eng.	CS	Physics	PH
Chemistry	CY	Production and Industrial Eng.	PI
Electronics and Communication Eng.	EC	Pharmaceutical Sciences	PY
Electrical Engineering	EE	Textile Eng. and Fibre Science	TF
Geology and Geophysics	GG	Engineering Sciences	XE*
Instrumentation Eng.	IN	Life Sciences	XL*

*Papers XE and XL are of general nature and will comprise the following sections:

XE paper sections (Engineering Sciences)		XL paper sections (Life Sciences)
SECTIONS	CODE	SECTIONS	CODE
Eng. Mathematics (Compulsory)	A	Chemistry (Compulsory)	J
Computational Science	B	Biochemistry	K
Electrical Sciences	C	Biotechnology	L
Fluid Mechanics	D	Botany	M
Materials Science	E	Microbiology	N
Solid Mechanics	F	Zoology	O
Thermodynamics	G
Polymer Science and Engineering	H
Food Technology	I

Candidates appearing in XE or XL papers are required to answer three sections. Sections (A) and (J) are compulsory in XE and XL papers respectively. Candidates can choose any two out of the remaining sections mentioned against the respective papers.

· The choice of the appropriate paper is the responsibility of the candidate. However, some guidelines are suggested below:

(a) Candidates are expected to appear in a paper (one of the listed papers) appropriate to the discipline of their qualifying degree.
(b) However, the candidates are free to choose any paper according to their admission plan, keeping in mind the eligibility criteria of the institutions in which they wish to seek admission.

·The question paper of GATE 2008 will be fully of objective type.

(a) Candidates have to mark the correct choice by darkening the appropriate bubble against each question on an Objective Response Sheet (ORS).
(b)There will be negative marking for wro

TOEFL

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Test of English as a Foreign Language (or TOEFLs, pronounced "toe-full" or sometimes "toy-ful") evaluates the potential success of an individual to use and understand Standard American English at a college level. It is required for non-native applicants at many English-speaking colleges and universities. Additionally, institutions such as government agencies, businesses, or scholarship programs may require this test. A TOEFL score is valid for two years and then is deleted from the official database. Colleges and universities usually consider only the most recent TOEFL score.

The TOEFL test is a registered trademark of Educational Testing Service (ETS) and is administered worldwide. The test was first administered in 1964 and has since been taken by nearly 20 million students.

Internet-Based Test

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Since its introduction in late 2005, the Internet-Based test (iBT) has progressively replaced both the computer-based (CBT) and paper-based (PBT) tests. The iBT has been introduced in phases, with the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy in 2005 and the rest of the world in 2006, with test centers added regularly.

Although the demand for test seats was very high, and candidates had to wait for months, it is now possible to take the test within one to four weeks in most countries.[1] The four-hour test consists of four sections, each measuring mainly one of the basic language skills (although some tasks may require multiple skills) focusing on language used in an academic, higher-education environment. Note-taking is allowed during the iBT. The test cannot be taken more than once a week.

1. Reading

The reading section consists of 3–5 long passages and questions about the passages. The passages are on academic topics; they are the kind of material that might be found in an undergraduate university textbook. Students answer questions about main ideas, details, inferences, sentence restatements, sentence insertion, vocabulary, function and overall ideas. New types of questions in the iBT require paraphrasing, filling out tables, or completing summaries. Generally prior knowledge of the subject under discussion is not necessary to come to the correct answer, though a priori knowledge may help.

2. Listening

It consists of six long passages and questions about the passages. The passages consist of two student conversations and four academic lectures or discussions. The questions ask the students to determine main ideas, details, function, stance, inferences, and overall organization.

3. Speaking

It consists of six tasks, two independent tasks and four integrated tasks. In the two independent tasks, students must answer opinion questions about some aspect of academic life. In two integrated reading, listening, and speaking tasks, students must read a passage, listen to a passage, and speak about how the ideas in the two passages are related. In two integrated listening and speaking tasks, students must listen to long passages and then summarize and offer opinions on the information in the passages. Test takers are expected to convey information, explain ideas, and defend opinions clearly, coherently, and accurately.

4. Writing

The Writing Section consists of two tasks, one integrated task and one independent task. In the integrated task, students must read an academic passage, listen to an academic passage, and write about how the ideas in the two passages are related. In the independent task, students must write a personal essay.

Task iBT Approx. time
READING 3 passages and 39 questions 60 minutes
LISTENING 6 passages and 34 questions 50 minutes
SPEAKING 6 tasks and 6 questions 20 minutes
WRITING 2 tasks and 2 questions 55 minutes

It should be noted that at least one of the sections of the test will include extra, uncounted material. Educational Testing Service includes extra material to try out material for future tests. If the test taker is given a longer section, he must work hard on all of the materials because he does not know which material counts and which material is extra. For example, if there are four reading passages instead of three, three of the passages will count and one of the passages will not be counted. It is possible that the uncounted passage could be any of the four passages.

writing

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4. Writing

The Writing Section consists of two tasks, one integrated task and one independent task. In the integrated task, students must read an academic passage, listen to an academic passage, and write about how the ideas in the two passages are related. In the independent task, students must write a personal essay.

Task iBT Approx. time
READING 3 passages and 39 questions 60 minutes
LISTENING 6 passages and 34 questions 50 minutes
SPEAKING 6 tasks and 6 questions 20 minutes
WRITING 2 tasks and 2 questions 55 minutes

It should be noted that at least one of the sections of the test will include extra, uncounted material. Educational Testing Service includes extra material to try out material for future tests. If the test taker is given a longer section, he must work hard on all of the materials because he does not know which material counts and which material is extra. For example, if there are four reading passages instead of three, three of the passages will count and one of the passages will not be counted. It is possible that the uncounted passage could be any of the four passages.

Paper-Based Test

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Paper-Based Test

In areas where the iBT and CBT are not available, a paper-based test (PBT) is given. Because test takers cannot register at the testing center on the test date, they must register in advance using the registration form provided in the Supplemental Paper TOEFL Bulletin. They should register in advance of the given deadlines to ensure a place because the test centers have limited seating and may fill up early. Tests are administered only several times each year.

The PBT tests essentially the same skills as the CBT, albeit with some differences, noticeably the number of questions (which is higher in the PBT) and the score scales. The test lasts 4 hours more or less. Students can take the test as many times as they wish. However, colleges and universities usually consider only the most recent score.

Listening (30-40 minutes)
It consists of three parts. The first one contains 30 questions about short conversations. The second part has 8 questions about longer conversations. The last part asks 12 questions about lectures or talks.
Structure and Written Expression (25 minutes)
This part has 15 exercises of completing sentences correctly and 25 exercises of identifying errors.
Reading Comprehension (55 minutes)
It has 50 questions about reading passages.
Writing (30 minutes)
One essay with 250-300 words in average.

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Computer-Based Test

Three subscores are obtained, each of which is given on a 0–30 scale: Listening, Structure/Writing (combined), and Reading. These subscores are averaged to obtain the final score, which is on a 0–300 scale.
The score for Writing is a component of the score for the Structure Section. Even though the college or university where the test taker applied did not require a score for Writing, the test taker had to write the essay to complete the test.
The Writing test is scored on a scale from 0 to 6. A score of 6 showed strong writing abilities, 5 average writing abilities, and 4 minimal writing abilities. A score of 3, 2 or 1 showed a lack of writing technique. The essay was read by two testing evaluators. Each one gave the essay a score. The two scores are averaged to produce the final Writing scores. If the evaluators were more than 1 point different in their assessment, a third evaluator scored the essay.

Paper-Based Test

The final PBT score ranges between 310 and 677 and is based on three subscores: Listening (31–68), Structure (31–68), and Reading (31–67). Unlike the CBT, the score of the Writing section (referred to as the Test of Written English, TWE) is not part of the final score; instead, it is reported separately on a scale of 0–6.
The score test takers receive on the Listening, Structure and Reading parts of the TOEFL test is not the percentage of correct answers. The score is converted to take into account the fact that some tests are more difficult than others. The converted scores correct these differences. Therefore, the converted score is a more accurate reflection of the ability than the correct answer score is.

Registration

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* The first step in the registration process is to obtain a copy of the TOEFL Information Bulletin. This bulletin can be obtained by downloading it or ordering it from the TOEFL website.
* From the bulletin, it is possible to determine when and where the iBT version of the TOEFL test will be given.
* Procedures for completing the registration form and submitting it are listed in the TOEFL Information Bulletin. These procedures must be followed exactly.

Methodology

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To write code, concept programming recommends the following steps:

Identify and define the relevant concepts in the concept space.
Identify traditional notations for the concepts, or invent usable notations.
Identify a combination of programming constructs that allows the concept to be represented comfortably in the code - That includes finding a code notation that matches the notation identified in the previous step as closely as possible.
Write code that preserves as much as possible the expected behavior and semantics of the relevant aspects of the original concept.
Many programming tools often lack in notational abilities, so concept programming sometimes requires the use of preprocessors, domain-specific languages, or metaprogramming techniques

Concept programming

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Concept programming uses pseudo-metrics to evaluate the quality of code. They are called pseudo-metrics because they relate the concept space and the code space, with a clear understanding that the concept space cannot be formalized strictly enough for a real metric to be defined. Concept programming pseudo-metrics include:

Syntactic noise measures discrepancies between the concept and the syntax used to represent it. For instance, the semi-colon at the end of statements in C can be considered as syntactic noise, because it has no equivalent in the concept space.
Semantic noise measures discrepancies between the expected meaning or behavior of the concept and its actual meaning or behavior in the code. For instance, the fact that integer data types overflow (when mathematical integers do not) is a form of semantic noise.
Bandwidth measures how much of the concept space a given code construct can represent. For instance, the overloaded addition operator in C has higher bandwidth than the Add instruction in assembly language, because the C operator can represent addition on floating-point numbers and not just integer numbers.
Signal/noise ratio measures what fraction of the code space is used for representing actual concepts, as opposed to implementation information.

Fields of computer science

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Despite its name, a significant amount of computer science does not involve the study of computers themselves. Because of this, several alternative names have been proposed. Danish scientist Peter Naur suggested the term datalogy, to reflect the fact that the scientific discipline revolves around data and data treatment, while not necessarily involving computers. The first scientific institution to use the term was the Department of Datalogy at the University of Copenhagen, founded in 1969, with Peter Naur being the first professor in datalogy. The term is used mainly in the Scandinavian countries. Also, in the early days of computing, a number of terms for the and practitioners of the field of computing were suggested in the Communications are of the ACM—turingineer, turologist, flow-charts-man, applied meta-mathematician, and applied epistemologist.[14] Three months later in the same journal, comptologist was suggested, followed next year by hypologist.[15] Recently the term computics has been suggested.[16] Informatik was a term used in Europe with more frequency.

The renowned computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra stated, "Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." The design and deployment of computers and computer systems is generally considered the province of disciplines other than computer science. For example, the study of computer hardware is usually considered part of computer engineering, while the study of commercial computer systems and their deployment is often called information technology or information systems. Computer science is sometimes criticized as being insufficiently scientific, a view espoused in the statement "Science is to computer science as hydrodynamics is to plumbing", credited to Stan Kelly-Bootle[17] and others. However, there has been much cross-fertilization of ideas between the various computer-related disciplines. Computer science research has also often crossed into other disciplines, such as cognitive science, economics, mathematics, physics (see quantum computing), and linguistics.

Computer science is considered by some to have a much closer relationship with mathematics than many scientific disciplines.[8] Early computer science was strongly influenced by the work of mathematicians such as Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing, and there continues to be a useful interchange of ideas between the two fields in areas such as mathematical logic, category theory, domain theory, and algebra.

The relationship between computer science and software engineering is a contentious issue, which is further muddied by disputes over what the term "software engineering" means, and how computer science is defined. David Parnas, taking a cue from the relationship between other engineering and science disciplines, has claimed that the principal focus of computer science is studying the properties of computation in general, while the principal focus of software engineering is the design of specific computations to achieve practical goals, making the two separate but complementary disciplines.[18]

The academic, political, and funding aspects of computer science tend to have roots as to whether a department in the U.S. formed with either a mathematical emphasis or an engineering emphasis. In general, electrical engineering-based computer science departments have tended to succeed as computer science and/or engineering departments.[citation needed] Computer science departments with a mathematics emphasis and with a numerical orientation consider alignment computational science. Both types of departments tend to make efforts to bridge the field educationally if not across all research.

IEEE Chapter

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A Student Branch gives students the opportunity to meet and learn from fellow students, as well as faculty members and professionals in the field. A good IEEE Student Branch can be one of the most positive elements in an electrical Engineering or Engineering Technology Department. Student Branch activities offer numerous educational , technical, and professional advantages of IEEE membership through special projects, activities, meetings, tours and field trips Listed below are some programs and projects that keep students interested in the branch and its activities and their chosen profession
Participation in Regional Conferences, leadership training workshops and develop leadership, interpersonal and team building skills
Participation in awards, scholarships and project/design programs and student paper contest.
Establishment of a student branch library in the student lounge with IEEE's publication.
Establish a world wide web home page.
Quick Facts
IEEE has
More than 365,000 members in over 150 countries, almost 40% of whom are from outside the united states. -->
Over 68,000 student members .
More than 27,000 society affiliates.
307 sections.
1,446 chapters.
More than 1,300 student branches in 80 countries.
Over 300 student branch chapters.
More than 147 affinity groups.
39 societies and 3 technical councils.

IEEE Members
Branchmentor-Dr.M.B.Srinivas Prof IIIT.
Branch Counscellor-Vijaya Prakhash
Chair Person-Amir Mohinuddin(EEE 4th year )
Vice Chair Person-V.Jaya Dev( ECE 4th year )
Secretary-P.Vinil( CSE 4th year)
Treasurer-V.Vagdevi(EEE 4th year)
IEEE Magazines avaliable at SR Library:
IEE Communications
IEEE Signal Processing
IEEE Robotics Automation
IEEE Power and Energy
IEEE Instrumentation and Measurements
IEEE Control Systems
IEEE Potentials
IEEE Spectrum
IEEE Information Theory Society News Letter

Hostel

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S.R Engineering College has provided the hostel facility for girls in the view of providing a secure atmosphere to girls. The hostel is located in the campus. It has got good facilities and infrastructure which makes students feel comfortable and find a homely atmosphere. Being away from the city hubnubs, the hostel a serene and calm atmosphere

Detailed thought and consideration has gone in to provide utmost comfort to the students with more personal space provided in an ideal location. The students of all programmes live together in the hostels which helps in developing a healthy and cordial relationship among them. Ragging is strictly prohibited in the campus. The hostel has been providing the students with the following facilities:
Telephone Facility
Internet Facility
Nutritious food
Well furnished rooms Every student should have the right kind of nourishment. It is a vital important part of any education system that is usually overlooked. A weak regimen can make a student fatigued and tired and the wrong food can lead to eccessive fat and set leathargy. So S.R. Engineering College takes special care to see that all students get a dite that is prescribed to keep them fit and agile, to study better.

Journals

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Vivek ( A quarterly in in Artificial Intelligence)
The Journal of Indian Writing in English -->

Journal of Computer Science
Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics -->

Dr. Dobb's Journal
IETE Technical Review -->

MASN (The Microsoft Journal of Developers)
Instrumentation and Control Journal

Sys.Admin (The Journal for Unix and Linux Systems Administrators)
Times Journal of Construction and Design -->

Journal of Institution of Engineers: Computer Science Engineering

location

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The college is about 15 km from Kazipet railway station, and about 22 kilometres from Warangal railway station. It is on the Warangal- Karimnagar Highway (towards Karimnagar) about 5 km after Hasanparthy Road railway station. We are midway between Hasanparthy and Yelkaturti villages, on this highway.