I said goodbye to Pantnagar on 9th June, 09. I was missing Pantnagar a lot. But after a few days while chatting with my batch mates, I realized that they are missing it more than I do. They prepared a list of words related to Pantnagar or defining the life of a B.Tech student at Pantnagar. This list was formed when Bhawana mam and Kanika were chatting with each other. Poonam and I also contributed to it adding a few more words.

So, here is the A to Z of Pantnagar :-

A:

A.P. (“Academic Prohibition”)

ALUMNI CELL (humare kaam ka!!)..

ACCOLADE (the cultural fest)

AAHLAAD (shayari, poems n all!!)

B:

BOND!!

BHASAD (jaha mauka mile wahi shuru!!)..

BADI (the most common place to hang around with friends)..

BUNK (yeh attendence ka chhakkar nahi hota toh…………….)

BAHUT PYARA (how can we forget that!! Humare yahan k performers hote he aise hain!!)

C:

CHATAAN

CCF (Internet made easy!!)

COLOSSEUM (or coliseum: the tech fest)..

CB (Cultural bureau: Most happening!!)..

CELEBRITY NIGHT!!

CADENCE (singing competition)

CHHOTI (another market, having area lesser than BADI but facilities more than that!!)

CP (conduct prohibition)

CHATNI!!

D:

DUSHTA!!

DANDIA

D.J. NIGHT (fun n masti but restricted!!)

DEAN!!

E:

ETS [Engineering & Technical Society (Former ES)]

ENTRY TIME, ELEVEN:FIFTY NINE PM!!

F:

FRESHER [:)]

FAREWELL [:(]

G:

GATE CALL

GT

H:

HOURLIES

HUNGAMA @ 12 MID NIGHT!!

I:

INTI

J:

JUNIORS

K:

KATAI

L:

LATH MAAR

M:

MAST

N:

NIGHT OUT

O:

ONE NIGHT FIGHT

P:

PP

PANGE

Q:

QUATAL

QUE (AT MESS, AT THE TIME OF REGISTRATION)

R:

RATRI JAGRAN

ROCK NIGHT!!

RICHSHAW RIDE!!

S:

SENTI

SENIORS

T:

TIC

TASHANI

TREATS!!

U:

UTOPIA (dance competiton)

ULLU!!

V:

VIVEKANAND SWADHYAY MANDAL

W:

WAAT (IN HOURLIES!!)

X:

XEROX (DEDICATED TO CS & IT SPECIALY!!)

Y:

YIPPIEEEEE!!

Z:

ZEHER (MOST IMP.)

Of course, this does not completely define life at Pantnagar but you can get a good glimpse of it through this A to Z Pantnagar list.

Hope you enjoyed it!

But in the last couple of years I came across Open Source Softwares. They are great because of the associated freedom with these softwares. I started using Fedora 7. It was a great experience to work on a non-Windows environment. I also tried few application softwares.

I have been using OpenSolaris for quite some time now. I like it a lot and think of wiping Windows off my hard disk but then a thought comes to my mind – “What if I want to use Photoshop?”.  Similarly, there are other applications. This is the only reason why Windows exists on my system.

So, here is my strategy to gain complete freedom and dive into Open Source world. Initially, use Open Source software on Windows and after few months when you are comfortable with these alternatives, say Good Bye to Windows.

For the same reason I am presenting here a small list of Open Source alternatives for Windows.

1. Microsoft Office

Alternative: Open Office latest realease is Open Office 3.0

2. Photoshop

Alternative: GIMP latest version is 2.6.4

3. Notepad

Alternative: Notepad++ latest version is 5.1.4

4. Internet Explorer

Alternative: Mozilla Firefox latest version is 3.0.6

5. Windows Media Player

Alternative: Mplayer, VLC, Media Player Classic

6. 3Ds Max , Maya

Alternative: Blender latest release Blender 2.48a

7. Winrar

Alternative: 7-Zip latest version 4.65

These are not just alternatives but also most of them are much more better than their proprietary counterparts. There are many more other such alternatives.

Now the best alternative for- Windows Operating System

Alternative: OpenSolaris 2008.11

It is secure, powerful, advanced and user friendly.

What is OSUM?

OSUM (pronounced “awesome”) is a global community of students that are passionate about Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and how it is Changing (Y)Our World. It is called a “Meetup” to encourage collaboration between student groups to create an even stronger open source community.

Why should you join Pantnagar OSUM?
1. Sun Microsystems estimates the activeness of SUN Club in our college based on the number of members and their activities in this group.

2. If we have more than 100 students registered, it is easier to convince a SUN engineer for a tech talk in our college.

3. Goodies (CDs,DVDs, Pens, etc) are send in proportion to the number of students registered in the group.

4. Now the candidates for Next CAMPUS AMBASSADOR will be nominated from the Pantnagar OSUM group itself, based upon one’s activeness and participation.

5. All the facilities like books from SUN, discount in certification, goodies, etc. will be given to members of Pantnagar OSUM group only.

6. This is a great platform to clear your doubts and get help to solve your  problems since students from all over the world are its members. Sun engineers are also the members of this community. They are always eager to help.

7. OSUM provides access to online training material free of cost to students and faculty.

Still, if you need more reasons contact me.

Case 1: How to join Pantnagar OSUM group?? ( If you have still not joined OSUM)

step 1: Go to http://osum.sun.com/group/pantnagarosum
step 2: Sign Up
Note: Select University–> Pantnagar Engineering College,
Uttaranchal. ( first select country—> India)
select your role—> student
*Do you want help building your skills and resume? Say yes
and join the Sun Developer Network.—–> check ‘yes’

step 3: After sign up process you will be taken to Pantnagar OSUM group page. You will find following message – “Membership is by invitation only.Pantnagar OSUM is accepting new members. If you would like to join, click here to request an invitation from the Group Creator.”
—–> click on the link “click here to request an invitation”

Step 4: Your request will be send to me. If you wish, you can add me
as your friend too (link on the same page).

step 5: I will invite you to join Pantnagar OSUM group as soon as I
receive your request.
step 6: After 1 or 2 day again go to http://osum.sun.com/group pantnagarosum and accept the invitation. (if you don’t receive any invitation check again after 1 or 2 day)

step 7: If there is Any problem in joining Pantnagar OSUM group either
call me or post here.

Case 2. How to join Pantnagar OSUM group?? ( If you are a member of OSUM, but have not joined Pantnagar OSUM)

step1: Go to http://osum.sun.com/group/pantnagarosum
step 2: Sign In, now follow step 3 to step 7 of Case 1.

Case 3. How to join Pantnagar OSUM group?? ( If you are not a member of OSUM, and want to be directly invited by email to join Pantnagar OSUM)

step 1: Tell me your email id, I will invite you. You can send me your email id by email or by any other means.

step2: Just click the invitation link on email. It will take you to OSUM registration page. After registration you will become a member of Pantnagar OSUM group.

Very Very Important Note:

Our college (College of Technology, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar) is listed as Pantnagar Engineering College, Uttaranchal.
Hope to see all of you at Pantnagar OSUM.

Regards.
Rohendra Singh
Final Year, IT
Sun Campus Ambassador
Cell: 9997707074
email: rohendrasingh@yahoo.com

It all started with a very formal inaugural function. I gave a presentation on OSUG Pantnagar and its activities. All guest speakers gave their brief introduction. HOD sir spoke on the purpose of OSScamp Pantnagar. It was followed by a speech from Dean, Mr. M. P. Singh and inaugural speech by Vice Chancellor. Then followed the Tea-session for VIPs (VC, Dean, HOD, Faculty, guest speakers).

Then we had talks & demos till lunch time. During this session, we had a general talk on Open Source for Warm Up, Talk on JQuery and rationale comparision of Linux with windows.

On request of Sun Club and as a part of Sun Ambassador Program, Mr. Ajay Ahuja was present at OSScamp as a representative of Sun Microsystems under SAI. He works as General Manager (Systems Engineering) with Sun Microsystems India Pvt. Ltd.

He had a detailed meeting with HOD regarding the Sun Academic Initiative. He also discussed various issues related to computer labs like thin client implementation and curriculum.

We had lunch at BC (Brijvashi Canteen). Sun Talk was scheduled just after the launch. The topic of the talk was ‘Open Source & Sun’ and ‘OpenSolaris & its Features’. Mr. Ajay Ahuja waited for about fifteen minutes and then started his talk. Initially, the hall was not crowded but within 15 mins the whole 114 BN hall was packed with students. Mr. Ajay Ahuja is a good orator, which was visible on the smiling and excited faces of students who had just returned from a heavy lunch! It was a very informative and encouraging talk. Goodies like Pens and Key chains were handed to students who answered few easy questions. A special prize- a T-Shirt sporting ‘OpenSolaris’ was won by a girl from 3^rd year Computer Engineering, for the most correct or say perfect answer. OpenSolaris 2008.05 Student pack was distributed to all the 165 students attending the talk. This talk was also attended by our HOD sir.

This talk was followed by a talk on Blender Game Engine. Similarly many more talks and demos took place till 8:30 pm. Yes, entry time for girls was extended from 6 pm to 8:30 pm. While the talks were going in full swing, our HOD sir decided to take Mr. Ajay Ahuja on ‘Pantnagar Tour’. It took more than one hour to cover just a small portion of Pantnagar. It soon became dark and we returned to IGH (International Guest House). Later, at PP(Prince Palace) while having masala dosa, momos etc I had the opportunity to talk in person about the future prospects of IT as a career in general and in Sun. We also had a discussion with other guest speakers at IGH regarding Sun and SAI. Later, we accompanied Mr. Ajay to Haldi Road railway station.

The next morning due to some administrative reasons no talks were held during first half of the day. But students interacted with guest speakers informally. We had talks from  3pm to 8 pm on various topics like ‘PHP and its flourishing bonhomie with Linux and Apache’, ‘An Introduction to OpenGL- 3D Graphics Library’, etc. As Sun Campus Ambassador, I had planned my talk on ‘OpenSolaris ZFS: The Most advanced Filesystem on the Planet’  but due to lack of time, I decided to give it some other time since it was our first priority to let all the guest speakers finish their talks first.

OSScamp event was first of its kind to be held at College of Technology, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar. More than 200 students participated including external participants. It was a great success. OSUG Pantnagar (Sun Club) team did a wonderful job!

List of talks held at OSScamp Pantnagar

OSScamp Pantnagar

I think I learned more from this demo than my audience. It is always the same case whenever a teacher actually teaches. He has to be prepared for any question during his talk. Same was the case with me, which resulted in a deep understanding of NetBeans and its usage.

I would like to write on some of the cool features of NetBeans. Profiler is an Integrated Performance Profiling tool which helps us to analyze the performance of our code. To be frank, till now I have never given it much importance. But this is one of the main reason why we use one software over another. So if you really want your software to be used, better pay attention to the performance factor.

Next on the list is the Mobile Development. Now it is as easy as dragging a few frames, buttons and some code. Thats it! You are ready to deploy your first mobile application. Similarly, it has a Visual Web Development tool which makes creating web application a fun thing to do.

It has a very advanced editor with almost all modern editing features like live parsing, refactoring, smart code completion, insert code and many more.

Regarding the latest version of NetBeans, there have been considerable improvements in performance especially the startup is 40% faster. Support for PHP, Javascript, MySQL, Groovy and Grails have been added.

NetBeans have been awarded the title “Product of the Year” by developer.com. If you want to know more about the features of NetBeans, Netbeans.org is the best place to look.

For next few minutes, I spoke about the interesting history of NetBeans. Students were excited to learn how a final year project turned into such an amazing software. It followed with the overview of its features and the ability to run on any OS with JRE. Students were shocked when they saw the slide showing various technologies supported by NetBeans. A student who have heard of the most of these technologies received a goody.

Then came the real demo, I created a database CRUD application showing how easy it is to create database applications using NetBeans. With this project I also showed how easy it is to develop GUIs with Swing GUI builder(formerly know as Matisse). It was accompanied by demo on advanced editing features.

All the students received a DVD containing NetBeans 6.1, JDK, and other resources. At the end I asked some random questions from the talk and distributed goodies(Pens and Key Chains). Last but not the least, I encouraged them to join NetBeans.org community and explore it.
The demo was successful.

I am a B.Tech.  student at College of Technology, GBPUA&T, Pantnagar. Only few months are left after which I will be forced to leave this place as I will be graduating in mid June, 2009.