Rich India!

‘‘With the Indian economy taking larger strides, a growing number of Indian consumers are embracing luxury like never before. If you just look at the Indian rich list today, there are more people in India who can afford to buy Ferraris than the whole of Europe put together,’’ says Satya Bagla, Delhi distributor for Bentley and Porsche cars.

- Excerpt from Times of India, Delhi edition, Sunday Oct 16.

Wow! This is something interesting to hear. Good to see the potential wealth of indians, while it is still the so called 'developing country'. I would be more happy if this wealth brings down the poverty line by providing opportunities for them to come up in the life.

Favourite 10 books

The website www.bookpool.com has collected from various authors about their 10 favourite computer books in the past 10 years. The result is a pretty interesting list of books.

Though the technology has grown very fast and lot more new things have been introduced in the past decade, thanks to the internet, most of the favourite books are traditional ones. Some of these are my favourites too. So here is my list (with the original author ranking in brackets).

1. The C Programming Language, 2nd edition - Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis M. Ritchie (Rank 7): This is my favourite book, the first and my most read C book. I dont remember how I got referred to this book, but when I started learning C back in school, this is the book I started. Though people used to say that it is a complex book, I feel this is the simplest, yet concise book on C. I remember to have read this book atleast twice in full. I would strongly recommend every beginner to read this, as it will lay a strong foundation to programming with them.
2. Writing Solid Code - Steve Maguire (Not ranked) : This is another fantastic programmers, especially for programmers. The author was a Test team lead with Microsoft and he explains the various methodologies of writing code for the programmers to fortify it - so that it will be easy for them trace and fix the bugs. I dont remember whether I read this book completely, but it was very helpful for me then on during all my development, till date. I am sure it will be a very valuable book for any system side programmer.
3. The Design of UNIX Operating System - Maurice J Bach (Not ranked) : This is like learning UNIX the actual way. Though this book talks mainly about UNIX, it is still applicable to the modern day Linux operating system. This book is like the K&R for C.
4. Art of Computer Programming - Donald Knuth (Rank 8) : This one is like bible in computer programming. Though I would recommend this book, I myself havent read this one. This is a collection of 7 books (NOT sure whether all have been published) which will cover the in-out of computer programming. I tried reading this when I was in school, but it was too much for me that time. Probably I will read it sometime soon.
5. The C++ Programming Language - Stroustoup (Not ranked) : A good book on C++ and object oriented programming. Though this book also holds the credit of being written by the inventor of the same programming language like K&R-C , I feel it did not reach the level that K&R-C reached. I have read some chapters in this book, little voluminous but will be very useful for any object oriented programmers.

Apart from these, I would also recommend Computer Networks (Andrew S. Tanenbaum) and Operating Systems (Harvey M. Deitel) for general computer concepts and Code Complete (Steve McConnell - Rank 6) for programmers.

-- edited on 7/7/06 --

I would also recommend Design patterns: Elements of reusable object oriented software for C++ enthusiasts.

Collector Coins

Recently I started collecting coins (quarters). From 1998-2008, the United States mint will be issuing new state quarters that will celebrate the 50 states with a design honoring its unique history, traditions and symbols. These coins are minted in two places - Philadephila & Denver. So they have a 'P' or a 'D' sign on it depending on where it came from. So there are 100 coins from each of the 50 states minted from one of the mints to be collected.

From what I understand from the U.S mint website, out of this 50, so far only 35 states have made it to the coin stage. In this 35, so far I have collected the following states in alphabetical order:

1. Alabama - D
2. Arkansas - D
3. California - D
4. Connecticut - D, P
5. Delaware - D
6. Florida - D
7. Georgia - D, P
8. Iowa - D
9. Kentucky - D
10. Illinois - D
11. Louisiana - D, P
12. Maine - D
13. Maryland - D, P
14. Massachusetts - D
15. Michigan - D
16. Mississippi - D
17. Missouri - D
18. New Hampshire - D
19. New Jersey - P
20. New York - D
21. North Carolina - D, P
22. Ohio - D, P
23. Oregon - D
24. Pennsylvania - D, P
25. Rhode Island - D
26. South Carolina - D
27. Tennessee - D
28. Texas - D
29. Vermont - D
30. Virginia - D
31. Wisconsin - D

That leaves with more 'D's and very less 'P's. That leaves me with Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota and West Virginia to be collected besides coins with 'P' for many states. Coins have been released mainly on the east coast states so far. In the west coast, the coins have been started releasing only from Jan 2005. So west coast states are yet to come.

Besides I have some more special coins (not sure whether they are actually special).

• A quarter with just a 'LIBERTY' and '1776-1976' on the side with the head on one side, the other side with a Drummer's picture with 'E PLURIBUS UNUM' written next to it.
• A five cent with a Keelboat picture on one side with letters 'LEWIS & CLARK' written next to it, released in 2004.
• A five cent with a American Bison picture on one side and the other side with a face next to the letters 'LIBERTY' released in 2005.

More information on coin collection can be found at United States Mint

Freeware

One of my friend has put in a list of freeware tools in his blog. I am adding some more from my use:

Compression: Filezip
PDF creator: Primo PDF
Photo / Picture editing: picasa2
DVD Ripping: Gordian Knot
XWindows: cygwin

My friends list are available at this location.

Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi

Today is the birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhiji as he is famously known is the Father of our Nation. He is the true example of will power. In todays world none of the leaders are able to resolve many of the issues that the country faces, border conflicts, political dramas, goondaism... I wonder how this man with the choosen path of 'Non-violence' together with a mass of illiterate people was able to win over the British East India Company and bring back independence to the country. Sure he saw the destiny when he started his 'Sathyagraha'.

"Forgiveness is the quality of the brave, not of the cowardly."

So much we have grown, we are a nation with great computer engineers, techno savvy people, globally prospective market, all set the take over the world. But even after 58 years after independence, we are still fighting.

• fighting for cross-border terrorism
• fighting against poverty and uneven distribution of wealth
• fighting against rapid depletion of natural resources
• fighting against growing population and the mounting pressure due to that
• fighting against corrupt politicians with whom we rely again to rule the country
• and more ...

One thing is clear, we are still not there. We know what we need, but we dont know how to get that, and many of us dont see the urge to achieve the need. It all clearly says that we need a leader - a leader as powerful as our Father of Nation to lite up the fire.

"Freedom is like a birth. Till we are fully free, we are slaves. "

But is it worth sitting idle to wait for such a leader to come up? No, it is in the hands of every citizen to wake up and feel the need. Rather it is in the hands of the todays generation where the future of the country is. Think what is good at this hour, think big and work towards it - day & night. Have patience, don't stop what you started and I am sure we will head towards destiny.

"God created man to work for his food and said that those who ate without work were thieves."

Quotes are from the Book: Epigrams from Gandhiji

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

This is the third time I rehear the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, delivered at Stanford University on June 12 05.

The extracts that touched me ...

" ... You have to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havent found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle... "

" ... you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever... "

" ... your life is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life ... have the courage to follow your heart and intuition..."

"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."