SFD Celebrations at BIT : Freedom and the Struggle for it

Exam times (read nightmares) are no time to celebrate , or for that matter to plan for one.
And I was to do exactly that .
Well, mid-semester exams were devastating us full throttle ( i know, it sounds a bit melodramatic) when i began preparing for the event - the SFD celebrations.
Due to the ongoing exams the SFD celebrations had to postponed to 23rd and 24th of September.
Although I had never believed in the cliche " First impression is the last impression. " , I wanted to make the event a success , which was my first assignment as the Sun CA .
And I must admit that it turned out to be a MIGHTY task........
Putting up the intranet site , getting the posters done ( I wonder why the artistic brains of my team from Sun Club also "consulted" me , of all people , about the " looks " of the poster .......),arranging for the seminar rooms , arranging for the refreshments , preparing slides and demos.........Phew....
There had been a lot of buzz about open source and free software in our campus , thanks to the efforts of BIT Linux User Group , and the unprecedented enthusiasm in the juniors to try out "OS other than windows" .
So , with the publicity ( which included a pep talk to the juniors ) and preparation (read scanning sun sites and wikipedia ) in place , it was time for D-day.
I knew turnout would be high , reason being our enthusiastic and ever-willing-to learn juniors , but either due to after-exam-restlessness( which makes you attend any event ) or the lure for goodies , the turnout was higher than i expected..
We kicked off with a presentation on software freedom, open source and free software , their differences and all.....
With goodies being distributed , the session was highly interactive , although I still wonder how many true followers Richard Stallman gained that day...
The other session included a live demo on NetBeans , which was met with similar enthusiasm ..
The second day did had a lower turnout than the first ( low of averages , i guess :-) ), but still , it was a capacity crowd ...
The second day had presentations on Open Solaris and an introduction to the various open source technologies from Sun ( we also "inaugurated" a repository of such software on the local intranet , ie we gave out the link) .
With everyone getting "free " CDs of OpenSolaris,and NetBeans , it really was software freedom ( with due respect to Richard ) . Many students decided to embrace this freedom , or atleast give it a try ....
Thanks are due to my Sun Club team , my juniors Shazor and Abhishek and above all Anuradha Ma'm for making all this possible.
Above all , software freedom it was and exams did make me struggle for it :-)
I hope to keep this place dirty with my scribblings .
So, until my next post .
Cheers.................

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Let Us Robocode !!!!

Robocode is a programming game where bots are programmed in Java and then these bots battle it out in a virtual arena....
Its a great and fun way to learn Java as well as the finer aspects of programming...
It develops your understanding of almost all areas of computer science , be it genetic algorithms , be it parallel programming .
Get started with this addictive (yet educational) game :
Search for robowiki on google and get started.

Here are some of the links you would like to visit to get a feel of the things we are into. Check out the links , explore the technologies that interest you, take up a project , work on it , get involved and become an open source developer !!!!
The likes of Richard Stallman beckon you to their elite community.

• SUN : The mother site of Sun Microsystems.
• OSUM : Sun's unprecedented initiative to bring the opens source community together . We have a dedicated group on it where in all the important activities related to Sun Club will be put up . Host of resources available on it . Make sure that you join OSUM and our group .
• SAI Learning : This site has all the tutorials you need to hone your skills pertaining to Sun technologies like JAVA , Solaris and Netbeans . What's more it has all the materials required for the preparation of certification exams like SCJP , SCSAS etc.You can also avail discounts on these exams if you take these courses .You need to join the BIT OSUM page (link given above ) to gain access to this larning portal.
• OpenSolaris : The OpenSolaris Operating system home page. You can order a free copy of the OpenSolaris Starter kit here (yes, absolutely free!).
• Sun Developer Network (SDN) : This is where you can get all the developer related downloads you may need, like source code, tools, etc.
• Sun India - Code For Freedom Contest : Check this out and be sure to register.
• NetBeans Development Home: The most sophisticated Integrated Development Environment for Java and Java Mobile applications.
• Java Development Home: New on the ongoing development of Java. You can contribute too!
• Java User Groups : Select a Java project you want to work on and create a user group here. The formation of a Java User Group is in progress . Check out the club activity site for more details .
• JAVA Learning: A great site for learning and effectively using Java . An indispensable resource for SCJP.
• Project GlassFish : The home of GlassFish, a highly optimized open-source Application Server, implementing the latest features of Java Enterprise Edition.
• MySQL : MySQL , and world's most popular open-source database.
• OpenOffice :Check out the most complete office productivity suite .
  

Looking to see you on some of these links :)

Cheers ...

Sun Club and the Campus Ambassador Program

To set the ball rolling, let us begin with a little introduction of what we are, why we are and what we do.

The Sun Club is a club aimed at promoting and evangelizing open source technologies from Sun Microsystems.

The Sun Club and the Sun Campus Ambassador ( CA ) program is currently in its second year at BIT, Mesra.

Under this program, a student is selected to be the Sun Campus Ambassador. He/She will then undergo a series of training sessions that will bring him/her up to speed with the latest tools that Sun has to offer for Open Source Development. This knowledge will then be imparted to the students through technical demo sessions conducted by the Campus Ambassador.

The program is mainly geared towards popularisation of the OpenSolaris Platform, NetBeans Development IDE, MySql server , Java applications and other Sun technologies.

The Sun Club spearheaded by the CA conducts various activities to fulfill the goals of the club.

To get a more detailed "feel" of things, visit us at http://bitmesra.ac.in/SunClub

Cheers ...