Favorite pastime websites (Contd .....)

Some of my favorite YouTube channels which keep me occupied on weekends. These shows will help you to cater to “kid curiosity – why, how and why not?” part of your brain.

·         Science

o   Dnews,

o   AsapScience,

o   Vsauce,

·         Life Skills

o   In59seconds,

·         History

o   Crashcourse,

·         And of course, Ted Talks

Favorite pastime websites

I have been trying to collect and keep track of my favorite pastime websites for a long time. As part of this initiative, I have composed the below list. It is a mix of technical and non-technical stuff which have given me inspiration to write blogs and fodder to my thought process. You are also welcome to share your lists and observations.

Date: Mar 26, 2014

a.       1. LinkedIn – Apart from standard features like professional networking, posts and interest groups, the new features like – Influencers, and Pulse help you to further streamline your feeds and keep track of your interest areas constantly. It has overtaken my Facebook usage time drastically in the past three to four months.

b.      2. Youtube

a.       Saurabhschool – Best place to learn complex data structures and algorithms with lucid explanation and examples.

b.      ‘Oru thedi – Oru Seidhi’ – This section of the Tamil channel – Vikatan Web TV provides simple digest of inspiring stories every day to start your day with positive note and a capsule of knowledge along with a cup of coffee in the morning.

c.       3. Online courses

a.       OpenSAP and OpenHPI – In-Memory technology, SAP products, parallel programming, etc.

b.      Coursera – Covers various topics including evolving fields like Data Science, mobile platform, bioinformatics, etc. Also you can pursue courses related to other fields such as business management, music, etc. All courses are provided by professors from highly reputed institutions like Stanford, Princeton, Rice, John Hopkins, etc. The course structure and delivery gives a classroom experience tailored for working professional lifestyle. Moreover, it is free!

Some of my favorite courses

                                                              i.      Algorithms by Prof. Kevin Wayne and Prof. Robert Sedgewick

                                                            ii.      An introduction to Interactive programming in Python by Prof. Joe Warren & others.

                                                          iii.      Specialization courses on Mobile cloud computing with android.

c.       Lynda.com – Provides video tutorials with work out exercises on hot technical topics. The attractive feature of this paid web site is that we are provided transcripts along with the video, which is easy to go through and take notes. Some of favorite courses

                                                              i.      Git Essential Training

                                                            ii.      Design Patterns

d.      4. My favorite java blog - http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/

I admire the way blogger constantly updates on various features and issues of Java and Object Oriented concepts. His write-ups are meticulous and to the point. The associative pattern of the blog structure drives the concept to home for the reader.

e.       5. My daily dose of tech news are supplied by

a.       At home - https://www.yahoo.com/tech

b.      During commutation – Google’s Play Newsstand app which fetches me tech section of Forbes Latest News and The New York Times.

f.       6. Also the ‘On this day…’ section of the Wikipedia main page quenches my thirst of learning about various battles, the strategies adopted by the commanders, the technologies used, etc.

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Forest Thumbs

We often come across the news especially during summer that wild animal like Elephants enter into border villages seeking water and food. Changing climate and human greed are the sole reasons for these human and wild life confrontations which results in severe crop, infrastructure and human life damages. The current approach of simply scaring and chasing them away back into the depleted forest doesn’t resolve the burning issue.

People keep pleading and blaming government and forest officials for this perennial problem. Which government has enough money to cater the needs of animals when they can’t meet the needs of the taxpayer itself? Also it is tough to realize successful private projects like Shamwari group of South Africa at every corner of the world.

Instead of blaming others, the people of the border villages need to pitch in. They need to form self-help groups, volunteer to restore forest wealth (nothing expensive – simply restore and create new water catchments areas, strictly avoid deforestation and forest land encroachments). If possible, the local administration can pool in the needed manual labor from NREGA scheme. May be MNC too can pitch in by buying acres of land near forest, turn it into game reserves and provide it as vacation spot to its employees.  And gradually start demarcating or fencing of the entire forest landscape with help of eco-friendly and energy efficient methods invented by modern technological advancements. It is high time that we play the role of gardeners of forests - guard, prune and tends to its needs. Apart from resolving the current problem at hand, we can reap umpteen numbers of benefits out of it in the long run too.

When people show real earnest in protecting these animals and their habitat, obviously government will enact strong laws to support them.

Do not plead; instead lead by being a Forest Thumb.

Article on Data Quality Management

 "Data Quality Management - The Most Critical Initiative You Can Implement " by
Jonathan G. Geiger, Intelligent Solutions, Inc., Boulder, CO

Describes in detail with example
a. what is data quality management ?
b. what is the need for it in the industry ?
c. what are the skills and roles needed to implement it?

On the whole, a good read to get basic perspective about DQM.