sista's blog

Service Location Protocols (SLP) in discovering the existence, location and configuration of the networked services in enterprise networks.
Users of network applications have been required to supply the host name or network address of the machine that provides a desired service and making sure that right information is provided to the users and the applications has been a pain. The SLPs provide the solution to this and are already included in many network operating systems.

The operating system installation files are stored onto the server and the SLP helps in finding the existence, location of the installer (on the server).

Going through this file Install PHP, mysql, phpMyAdmin on linux I had a few issues with some mysql and phpMyAdmin installation. Only that these details were not mentioned in the link there.

Additional sources thst would help the phpMyAdmin installation:

The Documenation.txt / Documentation.html file present in the phpMyAdmin folder.
It lets you set up a password for the root user and also lets you know on how to grant permissions to additional users that you create.

Once you create a new user you can log out of the root account on the system and login as ordinary user of the system and enter "mysql -u username -u" and press enter on the terminal.

The MPI boot camp was a well designed and thought provoking seminar for me. It not only introduced me to the world of parallel programming but also showed how MPI was one among the approaches to solve the parallel computing program.

It cleared the myth that more processors on a computer would make a program run faster. A program has to be tailored for it to make use of all the processors on the machine that it is being run on. It also gave enough boost to explore the world of parallel computing with MPI on my own. I think this tutorial would surely serve as a great start for the Distributed and Parallel Computing course I am likely to take the next semester.

Mike Gancarz proves with many examples and illustrations how the Unix philosophy has brought about changes in the world. He packs the entire power of Unix in a few principles and says these are the ground rules to be a good Unix programmer.

There were a few interesting sections which need special mention. He compares a software to a human system and says that it has a youth, mature and old age. This part gives a clear overview into the software industry and I feel is the highlight of the book. It gets you near to practicality. He also explains why some bad decisions are taken in the software development industry. What is the thought process behind them and proves why are those practices wrong. And also illustrates how the unix principles fit aptly in those places.

The caption of the article Web 2.0 sounded to me as something related to new model of web development but it turned out that I was completely wrong and the author starts off with the same too.

The author suggests web is no more to be called a world of connected computers. Its a medium people are in today and if a standard has to flourish here then it better relate as closely as possible to its people. He implicitly states people are as important to the web as the web is to the people. And suggests that a standard developed with this in mind will always flourish and is the way to the future.

The reading has a been a delightful experience as it presents the vague history of the develpoment of Unix throwing light on the more important 'simple goals' of the operating system and the principles in the minds of the people who developed it. It shows the easy ideas that became important granules in the software development.

An interesting part was the 'Small is beautiful' section. It shows the potential advantage of splitting up heavier work into smaller counterparts and how this methodology could be more powerful by making the work less complex and more flexible. I quiet like the idea and agree with most of it but would like to add a few comments.