You know what I did last summer

In a few hours I will be leaving for Kharagpur, after spending a vacation of about two and a half months back here in beautiful Dehradoon valley. Before you continue please understand that this is more like a note to myself than anything else. Nevertheless, you are welcome to read ahead. As I was leaving Kharagpur I resolved to make these ninety odd days as fruitful as possible. And even though nothing is ever perfect I like to think I have succeeded in this to some measurable extent. Some stuff I started during the vacations is not yet complete – I intent to keep working on those specific goals once I reach Kharagpur and get settled in my new hall.

1. The Digital Circle

   1. For various reasons I ended up writing up a lot of code in Java. Though no self respecting geek will consider writing code in Java a worthy pastime, I ended up learning a lot. The last time I coded in Java was a around three years back and now I discovered I could do things with Java I previously could not. Specifically I ended up knowing a lot about the Android platform – well, enough to judge how crappy it really is.

   2. I set up this very blog. For the record currently the blog is hosted on a free hosting provider (http://www.000space.com) and the domain name was bought from http://www.dynonames.com. I’ve also, very recently, set up Google Apps on my domain – now I have a really neat webmail interface at http://mail.playingwithpointers.com.

   3. I am having a go at hacking the Linux kernel. Though I am nowhere near to writing full-fledged kernel driver modules or debugging kernel panics, I have learnt quite a few things. Currently I am following ‘Linux Device Drivers’ by Colbert, Rubini and Greg and ‘Linux Kernel Development’ by Robert Love. I know I still have a long long way to go but I know I’m getting somewhere (I know basic stuff about how the kernel memory paging, process management – how the scheduler works, writing a basic driver) and will continue to put in my best efforts.

   4. Learned miscellaneous stuff about GNU/Linux – things ranging from some basic GNU utilities present in a typical distribution to licensing and patenting issues.

2. The Offliners

   1. After two months of debating with so called logical theists I am finally a firm atheist. After a lot of thinking I’ve finally figured out exactly why theism does not make sense. Will probably write more on this in a later post.

   2. Connected with a few of my old friends. Though I could not connect as much as I wished I could, but I did have fun.

   3. Worked out big time. I hit the gym everyday for the past ninety days and lifted weights like an ox.

   4. Tried to learn up new things as much as possible – looked up Wikipedia for every small thing that struck my curiosity.

   5. Rediscovered coffee – I’ve already dedicated a post to this topic I think.