Thursday, September 30, 2010

32 and 64 bit versions for Windows 7

The main differences between the 32-bit versions of Windows 7 and the 64-bit versions of Windows 7


Architecture
Windows 7, 32-bit versions
Windows 7, 64-bit versions
System requirements
1-gigahertz (GHz) 32-bit (x86) processor or 64-bit (x64) processor, 512 MB of RAM
1-GHz 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended)
Memory access
A 32-bit version of Windows 7 can access up to 4 GB of RAM.
A 64-bit version of Windows 7 can access from 1 GB of RAM to more than 128 GB of RAM.
Memory access per edition
All 32-bit versions of Windows 7 can access up to 4 GB of RAM.
Windows 7 Home Basic - 8 GB of RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium  - 16 GB of RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate - 128 GB of RAM or more
DEP
32-bit versions of Windows 7 use a software-based version of DEP.
64-bit versions of Windows 7 support hardware-backed DEP.
Kernel Patch Protection (PatchGuard)
This feature is not available in 32-bit versions of Windows 7
This feature is available in 64-bit versions of Windows 7. Kernel Patch Protection helps prevent a malicious program from updating the Windows 7 kernel. This feature works by helping to prevent a kernel-mode driver from extending or replacing other kernel services. Also, this feature helps prevent third-party programs from updating (patching) any part of the kernel.
Driver signing
Unsigned drivers may be used with 32-bit versions of Windows 7.
64-bit versions of Windows 7 require that all device drivers be digitally signed by the developer.
32-bit driver support
32-bit versions of Windows 7 support 32-bit drivers that are designed for Windows Vista.
64-bit versions of Windows 7 do not support 32-bit device drivers.
16-bit program support
32-bit versions of Windows 7 support 16-bit programs, in part.
64-bit versions of Windows 7 do not support 16-bit programs.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 32 AND 64 BIT WINDOWS

The main differences between the 32-bit versions of Windows  and the 64-bit versions of Windows  relate to memory accessibility, memory management, and enhanced security features. The security features that are available in the 64-bit versions of Windows  include the following:
  • Kernel Patch Protection
  • Support for hardware-backed Data Execution Protection (DEP)
  • Mandatory driver signing
  • Removal of support for 32-bit drivers
  • Removal of the 16-bit subsystem
One of the greatest advantages of using a 64-bit version of Windows  is the ability to access physical memory (RAM) that is above the 4-gigabyte (GB) range. This physical memory is not addressable by 32-bit versions . 

Depending on the version of Windows  that is installed, a 64-bit version of Windows  supports from 1 GB of RAM to more than 128 GB of RAM. The ability to address more physical memory lets Windows  minimize the time that is required to swap processes in and out of physical memory. Therefore, Windows  can manage processes more efficiently. This memory management feature helps improve the overall performance of Windows .

Advantages when you install a 64-bit version of Windows 

  • Increased memory support beyond that of the 4-GB addressable memory space that is available in a 32-bit operating system
  • Increased program performance for programs that are written to take advantage of a 64-bit operating system
  • Enhanced security features

What to consider when you install a 64-bit version of Windows 

  • 64-bit device drivers may not be available for one or more devices in the computer.
  • Device drivers must be digitally signed.
  • 32-bit device drivers are not supported.
  • 32-bit programs may not be fully compatible with a 64-bit operating system.
  • It may be difficult to locate programs that are written specifically for a 64-bit operating system.
  • Not all hardware devices may be compatible with a 64-bit version of Windows .

I hope that answers your questions Nikhil. 

Sunday, September 26, 2010

difference between 32 bit and 64 bit windows7

Can anybody tell what is the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit windows 7?
how can i find that windows in my pc is 32 bit or 64 bit ???

Monday, September 20, 2010

Lab Session Experience

I and my partner, Mayank Verma led the lab session 5 for group 2 which included some basic linux commands like ps and top and some other commands for text formatting like grep, sed and awk .Leading the lab was quite a fun and here are some of our experiences:
When Amarjeet Sir announced in the class that no one from group 2 had volunteered for leading lab session 5, we rushed to give our names, to get rid of the burden of leading lab session at a later stage.
Like Nishant said that on the day of training when we initially saw the questions we were puzzled but slowly as the lab progressed we started to get the concepts of grep, sed and awk ,and were at a little ease.After the training we understood most of things, but were not confident on how we would be going to teach these things to our peers.
Iniitially we were expected to lead the lab on 24th august, but due to Raksha Bandhan it was postponed till 27,we were happy as we got some extra time to prepare,but lab was postponed again to 31 august,at that time we were really frustrated,we wanted to finish this task as early as possible but it kept on extending.
Finally the day of leading the lab session came , we were little nervous ,whether we would be able to explain the things to our peers and clear their doubts.We started by explaining some basic linux commands like ps, top, kill etc. and asked the students to try them out .After that we initiated our main task of teaching the commands grep ,sed and awk and their application.After telling them the working of the commands we asked them to solve the problems using the above commands.We tried our best to clear their doubts. Most of the students were very cooperative even when we took some 10-15 min extra.
Just want to sum up by saying that we enjoyed leading the lab session very much and want to thank Amarjeet Sir, TA's and the students for their support.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Our experience of leading lab session -5

I and my partner, Nikhil kumar lead the lab session 5 for group 3.The lab session was the one on Linux commands.We basically discussed some Linux commands and then concentrated on sed, grep and awk commands.Here are some of our experiences :

On the training day, when I saw the questions in the handout , they seemed really tough.But after some time, after we got used to the commands and a bit of help from our T.A. and google ;) , we were able to solve most of the problems. But it took a lot of time , about 5 hours(although we spent 1 hour playing table-tennis).

And now , the "D-day" (as coined by some of my peers) arrived. We were kinda nervous on that day, because we weren't sure if we would be able to explain everything.We started after everyone was on their seats and had a terminal. I started off with the basic commands and then went over to explain basic usage of sed, grep and awk commands.Then Nikhil took over and gave the class the questions to solve . We tried to and hopefully clarified the doubts of everyone.Everyone surprisingly co-operated with us even when we had exceeded the usual time limit of the lab. I was impressed by the enthusiasm shown by some of my friends in learning the usage of commands.
Overall , it was a very good experience and we got to learn a lot from it.Plus , I didn't had to study extra for my lab exam;)

Monday, September 13, 2010

Query

Hi i am having a problem and am not finding any solution to it.
So, it would be really helpful if anyone of you could help.

i installed Linux on my laptop(dual-booted it)
it worked until i restarted it. I get the following error now:

no module name found
Aborted. Press any key to exit.
Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.3.35
Copyright (C) 1997-2009, Intel Corporation

PXE-E61 : Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F : Exiting Intel Boot Agent.
Operating System not found

I dont know what to do. Can someone please help me out.
Thank you

Sunday, September 12, 2010

LEADING LAB SESSION 5

Hi , I am Akshit Gupta of Btech 2010. I got the opportunity to lead the lab session 5 for the Group-1.The topic of the lab session that I lead was "Unix Commands".I did the lab session with Akshay Rajvanshi.
The topic that we were allotted was not only tough but also challenging enough to be taught. Besides that it was also boring as well.
Our training for the lab session that was taken by a MTech  student was not up to the mark as she herself had not prepared well. So before the day when I had to lead the lab session ,we had to refer to various sites to enhance my knowledge  as well as  clear my doubts .
On the day that I had to lead the session , I had viral fever which made the things worse for me. During the lab session as it was boring topic to be taught it was difficult to gather the interest of the students. Clearing many of their doubts as well as teaching them a difficult topic was a challenging task. However many students helped us a lot by leaving the class well before time.
But at the end of the day it was a satisfying experience after I got good reviews from my peers regarding the lab session.

Our experience of leading a LAB Session.

Well,writing a blog over your experiences can sometimes be the hardest task in the world..though in our case that isn't true..


We would first like to tell everyone what we felt about this idea of students leading Lab sessions.It was not a surprise as coming from Amarjeer sir,we do expect some interesting ideas that structure his teaching style.Though we would want to mention that he has his boundations. We all were soo happy that SM course would not have a theory exam,but then there are some college rules(and we all hate them). So,finally SM has it's theory exam.But about the part that SM is focussed about i.e. PRACTICALS , we can just say that students acting as LAB INSTRUCTORS not just gets in a sense of responsibility in us but also it gets us into the instructor's shoes and have the experience,know what an instructor has to go through before and during the session,the hardwork that is put into it. And for sure,now we actually know that it's not just about those 2 hours in the lab..it's much MORE..


And we can bet.. Once one goes through the experience,the training by Arjun bhaiya and Samy sir,feels the heat for 5-6 long hours,and then the practice and structuring of the lab session at home.., he can understand that it is not an easy job.It automatically makes you respect ur peers too when it's their chance to lead the lab session when it's their chance.


We got our chance ,finally, in the 4th lab session that was about
utilities in Linux and windows.Well,at first look,anyone would find the windows part pretty boring,because we've been doing it all these years,though the LINUX part was new to us.
Once Samy sir started,we were a little amazed,both of us never knew that a tast manager could do soo much in windows,or may how can we utilize a task scheduler,it was fun then.However,the LINUX part was much more intensely taught,most of those things that we never knew.It was too not even 2 hours that all of us got so tired that we asked sir for a pool break,we played some pool and then we were back in form.haha..3 more hours after that and we all went back,it was raining and all of us really enjoyed the trip back to our homes.

Well we had almost a week to prepare the lab session as group I used to have it's lab session a week later than every other group. So,the week just went by,and it was weekend already,we called each other up and structurised the whole lab session,we decided that I would do the LINUX part and Apoorv ,the WINDOWS part.We also decided how much time we would spend on each topic and we were done.It took us almost 2 hours to structure that and then another 4-6 hours for getting into the details of each command.Also,we just revised everything we wanted to do the next day.

Finally,It was the D day,23rd August,Lab session 4,Computer Lab -1.We had almost full strength that day and it was really funny when each of them wished us ALL THE BEST before getting into the lab.We started on a very DHAMKI-BHARA note that "Please co-operate with us and grade us whole heartedly,and remember,you will also be standing here sooner or later"..hehe..

We started and felt it was going very smooth,with I and Apoorv doing all the topics together regardless of it was of WINDOWS or LINUX because we were now thorough we all the topics and all the utilities.It was annoying to have Akshit asking funny questions but we never let our emotions let go,it was also making us nervous when Amol or Adway would ask a technical question,but then we could answer all the doubts without fail and it felt really awesome..It was a fulfilling experience to see everyone learning,enjoying and we were the instructors(The best part)..Well,this was something that the two of us would never forget as it was us,who were teaching our peer group,helping them as if we were the bonds of those utilities..

All we can do now,is thank Amarjeet Sir for giving us the opportunity,the chance to experience what he luckily experiences each day.


Thank you.
Arjun and Apoorv
Group -I

Leading Lab session 3

It all started one fine day when me and Utkarsha decided to lead the very first lab session. We figured that since it was an interesting topic which we were probably gonna put to use later on (which we did), we might as well go for it. Also we thought it would be good to get through with it early on.

I arrived late for the training sesssion but still managed to understand just enough so as to be able to understand the language in which the previous handout was written...
:P

We were nervous on D'day but still managed to get through with it somehow...

There were a few hiccups...
We didn't remember the command used in QEMU, some computers weren't working and most importantly, (and i remember this distinctly)it was a very hot day and the AC wasn't working!!!

But overall everything went well. Almost everyone was able to install Ubuntu as dual-boot and also using virtual box(we didn't get to try out vmware tough).

I'm glad we chose to do that lab session as consequent sessions seem to be getting harder and I have no idea how the other group leaders manage.

I would also like to thank everyone in group 4 for being understanding and patient.:)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

My lab lead experience

well, i had to lead the lab on 26th august. our topic was on the linux commands which i frankly found very boring and my group members also approve of this thing...!!!. i had my lab leading 2 saturdays before only because of some holiday i guess....i had  some problems as i didn't have ubuntu installed in my PC. but eventually made good use of institute's computers only..was very nervous before the lab leading.

During the lab,i was really scared about amol and arjun asking tricky questions but it went along fine during the lab.. although there were few computers in which the commands weren't responding but we eventually gave our best shot..the lab timings also got extended till 4:45pm,me and akshit eventually got pretty exhausted by the end of the lab!!..and that day i really understood the effort our faculty puts in to teach us.. hats off to our faculties!!!...
overall it was a nice experience and learning one too!!!

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TCP AND UDP

since, rhea talked about TCP, i would like to throw some light on the advantages and disadvantages of TCP and UDP.

I have only included those points which i could understand after reading . there are loads of points available on google on the advantages and disadvantages of TCP and UDP which you could refer. 


ADVANTAGES OF TCP

(1) TCP always guarantees three things - your data reaches its destination,it reaches there in time and it reaches    there without duplication.
(2) in TCP, since all the work is done by the operating system, so you just need to sit back and watch the show. Even the debugging is taken care of by your OS.
(3) It automatically breaks up data into packets for you.
(4) It is slower in functioning than UDP

DISADVANTAGES OF TCP

(1) since, all the work is being done by your OS, so if there are bugs in your OS, then you will face many problems like problems in surfing and downloading contents from the net.
(2) TCP cannot be used for broadcast and multicast connections.


ADVANTAGES OF UDP

(1) Broadcast and multicast connections are available with UDP which is not the case with TCP.
(2) It does not restrict you to connection based communication model
(3) Much faster than TCP

DISADVANTAGES OF UDP

(1) There are no guarantees with UDP. It is possible that a packet may not be delivered, or delivered twice, or delivered not in time.  
(2) you have to manually break the data into packets


Comments are always welcome :)

WHAT IS A PROTOCOL? (Focus on TCP/IP)

Hi everyone

I was trying to understand the meaning of 'protocol' and the use of TCP/IP with the help of our all-time friend Google. I thought I would write in a blog about the same to save my friends' time searching!

(Just as for most of us, this is my first blog too!)

From all my search on Google, I gathered that:

A protocol is a formal description of message formats and the rules that two or more machines must follow to exchange those messages.

For instance, if two people A & B want to communicate. Imagine the confusion and chaos if they start talking simultaneously. To avoid it, they must follow a set of rules while talking, as to who talks first and for how long etc. This common set of rules would be known as communication protocol for A & B.

Now, there are various protocols used in various types of networks.
TCP/IP is the native protocol of Internet.

These are two separate protocols.
-> TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) deals with the construction of data packets.
(A packet is a sequence of bytes and consists of a header and a body. The header describes the packet's destination and the body contains the data being transmitted.)
->IP routes them from machine to machine.

More technically, TCP provides the service of exchanging data reliably between two network hosts; on the other hand, IP handles addressing and routing messages across one or more networks.
So basically, TCP provides a communication service at an intermediate level between an application program and the Internet Protocol (IP).

-> Basic function of TCP

That is, when an application program desires to send a large chunk of data across the internet using IP, the data has to be broken into IP-sized pieces and then a series of IP requests have to be issued. Here, TCP comes to the rescue. Instead of issuing several requests, the software can issue a single request to TCP and let TCP handle the IP details.

-> Error detection during transfer of data packets

Now, due to network congestion or other unpredictable network behaviour, IP packets can be lost, duplicated or delivered out of order. TCP detects these problems, requests retransmission of lost packets, rearranges out of order packets and even helps reduce network congestion. Once the TCP receiver has finally reassembled a perfect copy of the original message, it passes it to the application program.

Thus, the basic function of the TCP layer is to abstract (recall the concept of Data hiding and abstraction we have studied in programming :D) application's communication from the underlying network details.

->TCP: Accurate delivery rather than timely delivery

TCP guarantees accurate delivery of a data stream from one host to another, i.e., without duplication or loss of data. But it does incur relatively long time delays, for example, while waiting for retransmission of lost messages.
Thus, though it ensures delivery of complete messages, it is not particularly suitable for real-time applications such as Voice over IP. (There are other protocols for such applications, like RTP - Real Transfer Protocol)

AT A GLANCE:

Suppose an HTML file has to transferred across the web. The TCP divides the data into segments and then, forwards them individually to the IP layer. Now, this layer encapsulates each segment into an IP packet, and adds a header containing the destination IP address. Note that even though each packet has the same destination address, they can be routed on different paths through the network. When the segments reach the destination computer, the TCP layer reassembles them and ensures that they are correctly ordered and error free, before streaming them into an application.

I hope this post will help you all!

Any suggestions and comments are always welcome! :)

Friday, September 10, 2010

My Experience Leading Lab Session 3

Even though I didn't have a very challenging topic (Installing Multiple OS), it was very difficult to prepare enough to make sure that I could explain the topic to other students. It took me about 2 hours to prepare for the lab session (I didn't attend the training session), but I didn't know that we weren't going to cover all the methods of installation.

The lab session turned to be surprisingly easy to handle. The teaching assistants occassionally gave some input to us about how we should handle the class. The class didn't misbehave much (mainly because they were afraid of us giving them a bad evaluation when it was their turn to lead :P), and the lab session went along smoothly.

It was great using QEMU and VirtualBox, but I found myself wishing that we could use VMWare Player too. It would also have been nice to have been able to install a version of Windows as a virtual machine.

Personally, I thought that Lab Session 3 was one of the most useful lab sessions because almost everyone used the knowledge they gained during the session later, installing a Linux - based operating system.

leading the lab session (stepping into shoes that were one size too big for me :D)

Hey everyone ! like Karan this is also my first blog on IIIT-D:Systems Management.Enjoy reading about my experience of leading the lab session-3 :)

Well in the first class itself Sir had said that he wanted the lab sessions to be led by students and he also said that it would be better if people come forward to lead the lab sessions and get over with it quickly :)
When Sir announced in class that he needed names of students who were interested in leading Lab session-3 me and Ujjwal thought why not get over with it right now itself. Moreover with the topic of the lab session being 'Installing multiple OS' we thought it would be good to know about it and that would help us in installing Ubuntu on our own systems as well.

We had our training session on Saturday(7th of August) under Arjun. Now let me tell you Arjun was like so well prepared for the training session. I did not know that there were so many ways of installing a OS. Native installation , Virtual installation, VMWare, VirtualBox all these these things were new for me and some of the things went over the head too. But when we finally did things on our own later in the day we felt better but the QEMU part still puzzled me. Then i went home and searched You Tube for installation guides, researched some parts on Wikipedia and got to know new things.

And then started a really tight week with assignments, homework's to be submitted (finally realised why seniors had been mentioning all along that you don't rest at IIIT :) ) . Anyways both me and Ujjwal were very nervous (in fact both of us did not play TT and pool respectively that day during the break). But when things began we started becoming confident and things passed off without any major glitches. I really have to thank Group 4 because they were really understanding of the situation and were really supportive even when things did not actually go according to plan(never does as Karan pointed out).
And i would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ujjwal who is a really good partner.

At the end of the session I just felt that its not an easy job standing at the front of the class and making everyone listen to you and follow your instructions. Also that it does take a lot of preparation to be able to do that and I think that i was definitely not a 100% prepared. I could not answer some questions that were asked by my STUDENTS :p And I thought I would just tell them to write a blog on the very questions they asked :P but the fact was that I felt bad at not having been able to answer there question.
Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt like I had done a ok job that definitely called for a brownie treat for myself from Nescafe's :D

Given a chance to lead the lab session again I would definitely do it and that time hopefully I would be much better prepared having gained some valuable experience :) Because although a tough job it does bring a sense of responsibility on our shoulders and also puts us in command :)


Thank you :)

My experience of leading a lab session

Hey everyone! So this is my first blog post on the IIITD : System Management blog. I will be sharing with you my experience of leading a lab session! I hope you do like it.


I along with my partner Manik turned up for the training on 14th Aug 2010. I was actually late for it because the previous day we had our Freshers Party and that had left me completely tired. Samy sir took our training that day. And I must say he was pretty well prepared for it. He knew almost all the questions that I asked him. We were actually present in the lab for 4 hours barring a 5 mins break in between. And our training wasn't even complete then. We only managed to cover the Windows part. The Linux part was yet to be covered. At the end of the training there was one thing of which I was sure of, 'A huge task lay ahead of me!'.


I sat down with Manik on monday and divided the sub-topics between us. We took alternative topics so that none of us would be speaking for a longer time. We researched a bit 'Wikipedia' and noted down the things that we felt important and should be told to the class. We decided that while one of us would be explaining the topic to the class, the other would be going personally to everyone, asking them their doubts and clarifying if any. So that no one feels left out and everyone is happy with our performance. :P
The main problem that we faced was how to finish a lab session in 1.5 hrs when the training itself took 4 hours. Samy sir had told us that he would be teaching Linux to the class in the last 0.5 hr. 


The day eventually came. And I can't even tell you how nervous I was before it. I had butterflies in my stomach and my face completely reflected the state of my mind at that time. The group 2 people can actually vouch for this! But somehow I suppose, I did manage it. ;)


I started off with proceedings and Manik took on from me really well. It didn't go as planned. Well now I have actually started to believe that nothing in life goes according to plan! But it still went pretty well, I suppose. :P 
We started off as we had decided. The process was quite smooth except for a few hiccups! We did face a few problems, but we dealt with them with ease. The group 2 people were really helpful. They weren't asking much tricky questions. Well, I guess that was due to the fact that their turn was yet to come. But on the whole, they were quite understanding and sympathetic with me! :P 
And before we knew it, we were over with it! :D

They basically had 2 complaints from us. Firstly that we weren't able to finish the lab before 4 p.m.! And secondly that this was the most boring lab session! The first one I accept was in our hands. But the second wasn't! :P 


At the end of the session, I actually felt that I was a bit less prepared. I couldn't answer a few questions that my friends asked. I had to eventually say that I didn't know that and I would have to look that up. And I didn't at all like saying that. :|


To conclude, I would like to say that leading the lab session was good experience. You don't really get to step into your teacher's shoes everyday. I thoroughly enjoyed the leading part, although not the training and the part before it! :P 
But it was nevertheless a good experience. Something which I would surely like to experience again! :)

A La-b-log....

It was 10th of August, 2010 when we guys (me and Kshitiz) had to lead the SM Lab Session. Our group was the one who was the first sub leading group among the whole 2010 batch. Once we gave our names for the same, then only we started realizing that “Kya hoga hamara!”. No experience and had not seen any of the leading groups before as we were the first ones. But with the name of God, we finally decided “Jo bhi hoga, karna to padega...”.


Training session was scheduled on the preceding Saturday (i.e.7th August, 2010). After the training session, I was especially in a complete messy state because Kshitiz had done a bit of all these before but if you talk about me, I was a beginner to all these stuff. But when we started doing all those on our own then ”Jaan mein jaan ayi!”. Yes, we would also be able to do something.


Those 3-4 days were pretty hectic for us. We had to submit few assignments, a test was scheduled and this task of leading the lab session. Finally, the day came and everything went really good. And finally we both were like ”Ah! Finally everyone installed it!”. Everyone left happily but the worst part was that we both had to spent another 1-1.5 hour to uninstall the OS from all the systems. Rest, everything was like a new experience for both of us. It feels great to be in the place of teachers for sometime but on the other side you start realizing that how much effort teachers have to put in to make us understand.


Kshitiz would like me to add here, that being in the teachers shoes was a completely new experience, it was great. But when I ask him would you want to do it again? Silence...

Thank you! :)

Experience of leading lab session-3

Hey everyone!! Its been quite some time I lead Lab Session-3 ( Linux installation)... But I guess its never too late to share experiences...

Let me start with the training part. We reached for training on Saturday around 2:30 pm. And it continued till 6:30 in evening. For the first 2 hours, we were just staring at Arjun (our TA) trying to figure out what he was doing! Finally when we started doing on our own, we got it.

I was so tensed before the lab session. What all are my group mates going to ask? What if I cant answer? And after the lab session was over, i was laughing at whatever happened. It was a mixed experience. On one hand, I felt everything became chaotic. We (me n my partner, Monika) had to go to each table since everyone had reached to different steps. Plus, I felt we should have been a bit more prepared. On the other hand, was happy to see that ultimately everyone had installed linux natively and using virtual machines.
Lab finished in around 1.5 hrs. But that was for others. We had to stay back to uninstall linux now so that other groups can perform lab next day. So we stayed back till around 6:30 pm.
I learnt a very important thing through this process, that its easy to learn something. But to teach that to others, is really tough. But overall a very nice & enriching experience!! :)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My experience of leading lab session-4

My choice of choosing the 4th lab session (with my partner nikhil) was to end up with leading in the beginning of the sem as to relieve myself of tension. And it was really a big task for me to attend the lab session on saturday from 10am to 2pm on the day when I was supposed to reach home by 1pm. The lab session was fine but Samy sir were not much audible so I and others had to surround him while doing the training. I still remember I asked atleast 5 time the meaning of PF usage but samy sir never got irritated and answered clearly everytime. Somehow, the training ended and the first thing i did back home was to download all the utilities that were available on my laptop. I surfed through net to know what all utilities we were taught (only because i had to fill in the lab evaluation form-" what extra you have surfed" and i did not want to leave that remain empty). To be frank, i was not eagerly awaiting the day i had to lead the lab session.

                                                   Finally, wednesday came (the day I had to lead). We (I and my partner) were prepared but were nervous to think what questions would be asked by our group members (though most of our doubts were clarified by samy sir beforehand). the lab started at about 1pm. We started with the task manager and somehow ended in 1hour30min ending with task manager in linux (we were promised of good grades by the group if we end early, but it was not the actual reason why lab ended so early). The lab ended early because many of the windows utilities were known to the group except the utilities from sysinternals.com. After completing the interesting (especially the diskmon and rammap of sysinternals) windows utilities, when we decided to shift to linux utilities, passwords for most of the computers were unknown(blame the last lab group for that), so we had to show the linux utilities on 1 or 2 computers only(where fortunately login got possible).

                                                                   When we ended before time , the whole group was happy(this is what their faces told) and even we were happy as a big chunk of tension was over(my mindset about that is still the same). I don't know the grades i got but it was a different experience of acting as a teacher and trying to order someone(i tried once after i was told by arjun sir that i can do that). Initially, even i was not interested but once you try well, you somehow succeed. All that starts well, ends well.




                                              
                                                   

Question: Intel® CoreTM i5 processors or AMD PhenomTM II Quad-Core processors?

Can someone tell me what is the difference between the 2 processors in terms of performance? No need to post the tech specs as those are easily available over the net.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

My Experience of Leading Lab Session


The week before, when sir announced in the class that the slot for the leading lab session for the next week was open, I and my lab partner Yash rushed straight off to the lab after the class to send sir the mail to lead that lab session which was going to cover some limited LINUX commands.

Not only did we have to put in a lot of effort to first get ourselves acquainted to the commands but also teach them to our fellow batchmates on the lab day though how well or bad we acquainted was yet to be seen.We felt that day that in a batch of as less as 26 students it was very challenging to focus on each and every student's problems and then we thought of the plight of our teachers who take on almost a 100 of us everyday. KUDOS TO THEM!! AND A VERY HAPPY TEACHERS DAY (Sorry, am two days late).

Though, we who had to lead the session were also not very perfect on those commands but we tried our best to understand and make others understand how these commands are formed.Still, most of the students were confused on how these commands work. Most of the students were convinced that they are required to rote learn these long commands which is not the case. What you need to do is form these commands from some elementary commands which are not difficult to learn.The commands that we took on that day were some of the most basic commands in Linux like 'top', 'grep', 'awk, 'sed', 'echo' etc.(it is not my fault if they look alien blame it on Linus Torvalds or for that matter on Blaise Pascal) and we also read about the loops and shell files. Most of the students were not clear about command

$ chmod 755 name.sh

that we used to write before executing the shell file(some asked ,some didn't).I will explain it here once again.This command what it basically does is that it makes the file executable.
What we are doing is that we are setting the specifications of the file to read,write and execute.We use 111 to signify that a file is readable, writable as well as executable.This 111 when transformed from binary to decimal gives the value 7.This is the reason why we write chmod 777 or chmod 755(even this value sets the file to executable which is our ultimate goal from this staement).Now this blog is not the place to explain the commands that we did in lab so I will not elaborate further on commands that students found difficult to follow.

Yash has named it Labmare but what we really did was Labshare!

All in all, leading the lab was really a fine experience to have and should continue in future years too. And I would like to thank sir for providing me with this opportunity.

My post was really boring,isn't it?Let's put in a photograph.















OOPS!! Isn't that a photograph of MAC OS X.What is that doing in here?Well, Whatever.It is vaguely related, isn't it?
Linux->Terminal==Mac->Terminal
True

Look at it and pass your time admiring it at your own risk, after all
THE MID-SEM IS HERE!

Hey what am I doing on net, aren't the mid-sem exams approaching?I think i must get offline and put some of my brains(if I have any) into my five subjects(for one of which I am here).

Labmare!!

Ok... So here it goes...I am about to describe my experience of leading the lab...

If I can describe this experience in two words, I will say it was an enjoyable 'labmare'.Weird it might seem,but indeed, it was a sort of problematic challenge that ended quite well...
The idea of conducting a lab seemed interesting.We were very eager to try it out as early as possible, but got a chance only this past week.We were called for training on Saturday at 10 am, and as some of you might have anticipated, I was late yet again, and so I missed quite a bit of the explanation part...:-)
Soumya, then helped me out.I tried to understand everything that I had missed and simultaneously made an attempt to keep track of what was going on(Multi-tasking I may say).Unfortunately,it didn't help much, I could not understand what was going on.Thankfully, at that very instant,when matters seemed to be getting out of hand, Madhuri ma'am gave us a break...We went to play TT.We had a great,refreshing one hour.Then we returned to business.
The scene was quite different now, I seemed to understand things better now.Soumya and I tried our hands out on the questions along with our friends from the other sub-groups.We all put our heads together, and finally things seemed to be in place.An exciting day,I must say.
Then began the difficult part.Understanding the things, was easy, but explaining them to others was not going to be.So we put in our efforts,tried to understand the concepts, practiced a little more.And got ready for the day.
(Oh boy!!it was tiring...)
With little confidence,I started the lab session.My mantra "tension kis baat ki hai" really helped.Though, my confidence was low, but I managed to bring conviction in my voice :-).
The lab went on quite well.We were able to help our mates out.They had no complains(at least this was what I felt).Moreover, we got to learn a lot from our group mates, who came up with doubts, that needed some on the spot research.(I was ready for it and so I was carrying a book on LINUX commands :-D).
So on the whole, it ended pretty well.But the effort that went into it made me realise one thing-"Teachers ko toh bohot jyada mehnat karni padti hogi!!"
Thank you sir, for this opportunity, but I would not like to do it again.
Being on the receiving end is much easier... :-D

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Thank you!

After all that happened, the performances in the class put up by all the groups were quite impressive. I just thought, I should publish a post showing the positive trend right away for record purpose :).

It was apparent that you guys had put in effort preparing for it. Thank you for preparing the wonderful performances. I hope you continue putting in efforts not just in this course but in your education all through.

Those of you who took the videos and photographs, can you please share them on the blog or wherever you feel comfortable. And the group working on video editing as their project should see if they can create some good video about this course out of these videos.