Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus
Computer Science
How should a student use Google?
Sep 17th
Don’t just be stunned seeing the post title. Please read on 
. I just want to share some tips on how to use Google search more efficiently. I bet most of you rely on Google when you get an assignment, when you are asked to do a prestentation or even when you are asked to code a program. Of-course in all these scenarios, the first answer would be ‘Google it’. Don’t just type the phrase in Google search bar and wander through the results. Instead learn the tips given below.
1. Searching for a file
- For powerpoint presentations on some topic, type ‘Topic_Name filetype:ppt’.
- For pdf files on a topic, type ‘Topic_Name filetype:pdf’.
- For doc files on some topic, type ‘Topic_Name filetype:doc’.
- Well you can even search for some C programs. For example try typing ‘Binary Search filetype:C’.
2. Searching within a site
Not all sites have a search bar. But still you want to search the every site. No probz.. Just search ‘Search_keyword site:url’ in Google. Example: Try searching ‘Orkut Hack site:ethicalhacking1.com’.
3. Searching for some definitions
Need a quick definition on something. Just add ‘define:’ to the keyword you want to search.
4. Search for an exact word
You might have had times when you got frustrated on seeing irrevelant page results shown by Google, most probably just beacuse those pages had your word here and there. If you require an exact pattern matching, use quotes[eg: Try Googling "amritaayanam"].
Well there goes my first post here… That’s for now.. Wait till my next one!!!!!!!
Google’s Music Service to Include Cloud-Based Locker
Sep 16th
Google’s much anticipated music offering is said to be launching by Christmas, and new information from Billboard suggests that it will be both a digital download store and a cloud-based subscription service costing $25 per year.
Billboard’s sources referred to the cloud service as a locker, a place where subscribers will be able to store and access their music files and downloads, stream full tracks once prior to purchase, and share playlists with friends who would also be allowed to stream full tracks, free of charge, on their first listen.
Locker users would be able to add all their music files — as long as the track is licensed by Google — to their online locker for future streaming or downloading purposes.
“Such tracks could include those purchased at the Google download store or another download retailer, tracks ripped from a CD and even music files downloaded from peer-to-peer networks,” per the report.
Of course, everything — especially the full track-streaming functionality and the storing of peer-to-peer exchanged tracks — is dependent on Google securing the support from the major record labels.
The company is said to be showing label executives a term sheet with these proposals. It designs to get the labels to sign an initial three-year licensing agreement, with a 50/50 split on subscription revenue going to the master right holders. Google is also proposing a 10.5% cut for music publishers, according to Billboard.
With Christmas right around the corner, Google will need to aggressively push to make these deals happen in time for the holiday season. Previous reports on the subject suggest that Google may launch the Android-friendly download service first, with the online subscription portion to follow at a later date. From the sound of it, the cloud-based locker offering has the most potential to be disruptive, and should help Google differentiate its music offering from Apple’s longstanding iTunes store.
Google’s much anticipated music offering is said to be launching by Christmas, and new information from Billboard suggests that it will be both a digital download store and a cloud-based subscription service costing $25 per year.
Billboard’s sources referred to the cloud service as a locker, a place where subscribers will be able to store and access their music files and downloads, stream full tracks once prior to purchase, and share playlists with friends who would also be allowed to stream full tracks, free of charge, on their first listen.
Locker users would be able to add all their music files — as long as the track is licensed by Google — to their online locker for future streaming or downloading purposes.
“Such tracks could include those purchased at the Google download store or another download retailer, tracks ripped from a CD and even music files downloaded from peer-to-peer networks,” per the report.
Of course, everything — especially the full track-streaming functionality and the storing of peer-to-peer exchanged tracks — is dependent on Google securing the support from the major record labels.
The company is said to be showing label executives a term sheet with these proposals. It designs to get the labels to sign an initial three-year licensing agreement, with a 50/50 split on subscription revenue going to the master right holders. Google is also proposing a 10.5% cut for music publishers, according to Billboard.
With Christmas right around the corner, Google will need to aggressively push to make these deals happen in time for the holiday season. Previous reports on the subject suggest that Google may launch the Android-friendly download service first, with the online subscription portion to follow at a later date. From the sound of it, the cloud-based locker offering has the most potential to be disruptive, and should help Google differentiate its music offering from Apple’s longstanding iTunes store.
Internet Explorer 9 Launching on September 15th
Sep 15th
Internet Explorer 9
Internet Explorer 9 Launching on September 15th
It’s finally happening. IE team has just announced the launch of Internet Explorer 9 Beta that will take place in San Francisco on September 15th.
This appears to be one of the most anticipated product launches this year.
Furthermore, this could mark the new era of IE breed with faster and more frequent updates. Who knows, maybe by the time Windows 8 is released, we will already have Internet Explorer 10.
BarCamp Kerala 9 (BCK 9) To Be Conducted in Amritapuri Campus.
Sep 7th
Have any interesting topic to share with others? Do you have the desire to learn something new? BarCamp is the perfect venue.
BarCamp Kerala is back with a bang! BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. There are no registration fees or any charges for a barcamp as this is a user-generated conference. You are invited to volunteer for various activities for putting up a successful camp.
We are fortunate to conduct BarCamp Kerala 9 at Amritapuri Campus on November 14th, 2010.
BarCamps are unconferences, which mean
NO SPECTATORS, ONLY PARTICIPANTS.
BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. There are no registration fees or any charges for a Barcamp as this is a user-generated conference. You are invited to volunteer for variousactivities for putting up a successful camp.
This is not exclusively for techies. This is a meet up of Expert techies, beginners and those who are interested in these subjects but not really into the technology.
Registration: For more information and Registration go to Barcampkerala.
Twitter Hashtag: #bck9 (please include this while you tweet about this event.)
Follow BarCamp Kerala on Twitter: http://twitter.com/barcampkerala
For those who are not familiar with the venue, here are the venue details.
Date: November 14th, 2010
For attendees from Trivandrum Side
For attendees from Alappey, Eranakulam Side
Address
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus
Amritapuri.
Clappana P O
Kollam – 690525
Phone: +91 476 2801280
Contact Numbers
Saranjith. S.
email: saran.cybergost@gmail.com
phone: 980 944 0269
P. K. Binu
email: binu@amritapuri.amrita.edu
phone: 964 567 6453
Amrita ACM ICPC – 2010
Aug 31st
(http://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2010)
The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a multitier, team-based, programming competition operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University. The contest involves a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Participation has grown to several tens of thousands of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines at almost 2,000 universities from over 80 countries on six continents. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.
The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society. The idea quickly gained popularity within the United States and Canada as an innovative initiative to raise the aspirations, performance, and opportunity of the top students in the emerging field of computer science. The contest evolved into a multi-tier competition with the first Finals held at the ACM Computer Science Conference in 1977. Operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University since 1989, the contest has expanded into a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Since IBM became sponsor in 1997, the contest has increased over 800%. Participation has grown to involve twenty-two thousand of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines from over 1,931 universities from 82 countries on six continents. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. The annual event is comprised of several levels of competition:
Most grueling moments @ the contest environment
Battle of the Brains - The contest pits teams of three university students against eight or more complex, real-world problems, with a grueling five-hour deadline. Huddled around a single computer, competitors race against the clock in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance. Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems under the intense scrutiny of expert judges. For a well-versed computer science student, some of the problems require precision only. Others require a knowledge and understanding of advanced algorithms. Still others are simply too hard to solve – except, of course, for the world’s brightest problem-solvers.
Revealing the problem solutions by judges on stage after the contest
Judging is relentlessly strict. The students are given a problem statement – not a requirements document. They are given an example of test data, but they do not have access to the judges’ test data and acceptance criteria. Each incorrect solution submitted is assessed a time penalty. You don’t want to waste your customer’s time when you are dealing with the supreme court of computing. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner.
Amrita in ACM ICPC
ACM – ICPC is the world’s largest programming contest, primarily sponsored by IBM, and this is the sixth year Amrita is conducting the Asia Regional Contest. In India, only two institutions( IIT Kanpur and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) are authorized by ACM to conduct this contest. This year, it is going to be a multisite contest where more than 150 teams are expected to participate from different campuses inside and outside India. In the years 2005 and 2006, the contest was held in Coimbatore campus. Last three years since 2007, the contest is being held in Amritapuri (Kerala) campus. During the past three years, 200 (60 to 65 teams) participants attend the Onsite Contest at Amritapuri Campus and this year, we are increasing it to 450 (more than 150 teams). To attract the participation of mentors (coaches) of these teams, we are planning to announce “Coaches Award”, and for the students, “Special Award for Top Ten Teams”, “Best Performance Award”, etc. The contest is a three day event with lot of excitement, fun and games with an excursion to the nearby scenic places.
Contestants enjoying delicious food
Amrita ICPC Online & Onsite Contest Dates Announced
Online Contest is also called as the “Preliminary Round” scheduled on October 17th 09:30 AM IST. All the teams shall complete the registration process before October 10th in order to participate in the Online contest. For more information on the registration process please visit the site
http://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2010
The teams shortlisted from the online contest will be invited for Onsite Contest which will be held in Amrita University, Amritapuri Campus on 11th and 12th of December, 2010. Two to three teams selected from the onsite contest will participate in the ACM-ICPC, 2011 World Finals to be held in Cairo, Egypt.
Contestants enjoying the scenic beauty of Kerala during excursion
Visit our photo gallery to get more information about the contest – http://picasaweb.google.com/icpcamritapuri/.
2009 ICPC Backdrop
On behalf of Amrita Fraternity, I invite each one of you to participate in this most exciting Battle of Brains contest.
Amrita ACM-ICPC Asia Regional Contest 2010
://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2010
Facebook Privacy: An infographic of a 6 year long Controversy
Aug 27th
Facebook’s problems stretch back to before its founding when then Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg hacked into the school’s network to steal pictures of students for a site that ranked their attractiveness. Below is an infographic tracing the history of privacy snafus that have dogged the platform since its creation.
The graphic below was created for Mashable by Lisa Waananen.
VIDYUT-2011 Registration is open.
Please visit
