LaTeX help

I discovered a very useful site for seeking help and knowledge about LaTeX. LaTeX is a very rich technological tool for creating professional class documents. Even experienced users get into difficulties while using this sophisticated tool. If you need help, and dont know whom to ask, just visit::
http://www.latex-community.org/ You can also learn a lot by just peeking at what replies others have got for their queries.

To give you an idea, I posted my first query to this forum this morning, and in less than ten miuntes I had half a dozen replies. I could solve my problem,and have posted back the solution I used.


It is amazing, how much of help is available, and yet there is so much of ignorance all around us.


partha

More educational CDROMs

I have been working on two of my pet CDROMs.

The CDROM "Why is Linux good for me ?" is a new avatar of the popular (famous ?) CDROM "Linux in a teaspoon". This CDROM is now fully updated and ready.

I have also created an encyclopedic CDROM on LaTeX. You will find an answer to almost all your questions, or at least find a pointer to where you can get the answers. Good for teachers of mathematics, and students.

You can of course ask for a live presentation of Linux or LaTeX (or both), and get these CDROMs free of cost.

partha

A tool which every maths teacher must know

LaTeX is an amazing tool for publishing technical documents, particularly those which are rich in mathematical content. Teachers, whether in K-12 level, univ. level, or higer levels, need such a tool for all their work. This includes, class notes, assignments, tutorials, question papers, research papers, popular articles etc.

To make it easy for you to appreciate this wonderful tool, I have uploaded a file containing two introductory papers of mine. Just take a look, and let me know if you need help. The file can be downloaded
from here.

partha

Why is India an eternally developing country ?

Why is India an eternally developing country ?

See the attached picture.

Here is an advert by our University Grants Commission (UGC), the
supreme authority created by our government to ensure quality of
education in our Universities. This advert is proof of the
quality they can maintain. They say, UGC will now be renamed as
"University Grants Curses". How apt !

BTW, are we talking of just one scholarship, or just one
fellowship ? Or, are we talking of scholarships and fellowships
in plural ?

It may be recalled that our All India Council of Technical
Education (AICTE) is infected by a bribery scam which saw their top
management being suspended for accepting huge bribes. AICTE is
responsible for ensuring the quality of education in our
technical institutions (engineering colleges etc.). They say,
AICTE will now be renamed as All India Corruption of Technical
Education. How sad !

Now you know the answer to the question :: "Why is India an eternally
developing country ?"

partha

Why I love to teach maths

It is amazing to see how many people love to teach maths. I found one more person in this tribe:

http://www.johndcook.com/blog/category/math/

It is amazing how few people love to learn maths, and really make efforts to learn.

This observation confirms my theory :: "teaching is the only profession where the urge to give is much more than the urge to take". Right ?

partha

Your invisible maths teachers

This item should be useful for my students and colleagues. I found a very nice way to get my doubts on maths cleared. I discovered a bunch of maths teachers, ready to help, at :

http://www.mathhelpforum.com/math-help/

Of course, you must get registered, to post to this forum. You can read the questions/queris and the aswers, without registering. Nice way to discover and learn maths.

Try this (and let me know).

partha

PS: I found a peculiar enigma in the title of this blog entry. Who is invisible ? maths teachers, or maths ?

Are you reading this ?

Yes of course. Now you must tell me, what you feel about all my rants. Just email me at drpartha AT gmail DOT com. You can also post comments on the blog itself -- but prepared to wait as I read and approve the comments. This is the only way I can avoid spam and trash appearing in my blogs. Sorry for that.

Waiting to hear from you.

partha

Prof. Kannan Moudgalya

Prof. Kannan M Moudgalya teaches at IIT Bombay. He is an amazing person. He is highly knowledgable and very accessible. I had the pleasure of meeting him when I attended a course on Scilab, organised by him.

Now I have two of the gems created by him. Last week I bought his book on "digital control". And now I receive a DVD containing a spoken tutorial on Beamer. With these two , I can do much better as a teacher now. You can get copies of this DVD from me. Just mail me.

I hope I will get more "gnan" (knowledge) from him in the future too.

partha

What shameless losers do

Microsoft steals a GPLv2 code. Shame. Shame.

Read the story at:

http://www.serverwatch.com/trends/article.php/3848831/Lack-of-Innovation-a-Commonality-for-Microsoft-Apple.htm


partha

Poland and India

As a fallout of my visit to Krakow, a possiblity exists for AGH Univ, Krakow to collaborate with an Indian University. My first choice was IIIT Hyderabad. I went to meet Prof. Rajeev sangal, Director of IIITH, yesterday. Apparently IIITH is already on the radar of AGH Univ. I am sure something exciting will come up, as a result of these developments. Insha-allah.

partha

Partha is a gangster now !

Dr. Partha has been invited to join "the Answer Gang" of Linux Gazette (LG).

LG is an internationally reputed, web-based journal for Linux. LGis read by millions of people all around the world. LG is published in English and 7 other languages. It is mirrored in 41 sites in 18 countries around the world. I also understand that US Universities give academic credit for publishing in LG. LG is a refereed journal (ISSN: 1934-371X), and is listed in the Ulrichs database.

The "answer gang" is a bunch of dedicated volunteers who answer your questions about Linux. Being part of this gang, is an honour by itself.

See you at LG !

Follow me...on Twitter

And now, you can follow me on Twitter, at

http://twitter.com/profpartha


partha

Thank you, Krakow

Just visited and lectured at the AGH UNiv. of Science and Technology, Krakow Poland. Felt small when I learnt that giants like Stefan Banach (mathematician), Nicolas Copernicus (astronomer) lived and taught in Krakow. Krakow is also the birth place of Pope John Paul II. Krakow was also the site of one of the largest concentration camps of Hitler. There is so much history, so much culture and so much to see and learn here. Thank you Prof. Cetnarowicz.

Wonder why none of our own Indian instiutions even notice my presence so close to them.

partha

About : Two is better than one....

//** It was a pleasure. I can say that with some authority, since I ended up proofreading it myself - given your diction, sense of humor, and technical accuracy, I really enjoyed working on it. **//

This is what the reviewer of my article at LG has to say about my article. Wonder why our Indian friend from LFY did not see any merit. Who is the loser ? Think about it.

partha

Two is better than one (again !)

Letter addressed to Linux For You (LFY) ::::

Hello Sir,

I write, to thank you for a very great service you have recently done for me. In case, you have not noticed, please visit the site : http://linuxgazette.net/167/index.html .

YES, I am now the author of an article in an internationally famous and popular journal -- The Linux Gazette (LG). I owe this glory and fame to you. You may recall that this is the very same article which you found unacceptable for LFY. Unlike the gurus in LFY, the guys at LG did not find anything objectionable or offensive in my article. They published it **verbatim** , without any fuss, and without any frivolous or meaningless arguments.

The reason for their (LG's) phenomenal popularity and image is probably that they a recognise a good idea when they see one. For your information, LG is read by millions of people all around the world. LG is published in English and 7 other languages. It is mirrored in 41 sites in 18 countries around the world. I also understand that US Universities give academic credit for publishing in LG. LG is a refereed journal (ISSN: 1934-371X), and is listed in the Ulrichs database. And above all, ** it does not promote Microsoft tacitly (or, let us say shamelessly) **!

Your decision to dilly-dally on my article, made me try out this option. I am grateful to people like you, who help, us ordinary teachers get worldwide visibility. May your tribe flourish.

GOD bless you.

partha

**************

Two is better than one !

Two is better than one !

My mission is to make Linux "more enjoyable for more people" (MEMP). Here is a simple and effective way to get more out of your Linux box:

http://www.profpartha.webs.com/publications/twoisbetter.pdf

This article introduces the concept of twin-boot (as opposed to dual boot). Twin-boot involves two (or more) Linux distros on the same machine, and two hard disk drives (optional but highly recommended). The distros are cleverly installed, so as to make the best use of the available hardware redundancy. You can do more, and do it faster, with this kind of an arrangement.

Try this, and let me know.

partha

m-LEAD

Learning mathematics through exploration and discovery (code named m-LEAD) is a novel way to help students learn and enjoy mathematics.

Visit the site :

http://www.profpartha.webs.com/m-lead.htm

And, of course, send me your suggestions and ideas and remarks and chocolates.

Thanks,

partha

make My day !

I just took one more step in making Linux more enjoyable for more people (MEMP). Take a look:


http://www.profpartha.webs.com/publications/downloadables.htm

...and tell me how you liked it.

partha

BOSS calling

BOSS calling

Two days ago, I attended a unique event. This event was organised by NRCFOSS, and CDAC, two technology oriented organisations of the Government of India. Usually Govt. organisations are notorious for being bureaucratic, lazy and irresponsible. This event proved that the iamge is not always correct. NRCFOSS and CDAC have created and launched a distribution of Linux called BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions). BOSS draws its roots from Debian, the purest of all Linux distributions (some call it 24 carat gold). The presentation of BOSS was very professional. The lecturers went through the show with all confidence. No one was caught fumbling or ducking a question. All particpants received a free (muft) copy of BOSS DVD, and free lunch and coffee. YES, there is free lunch available in the FOSS world.

Sad thing was the meagre turnout. An event like this should have seen crowds of students and teachers. Sadly there were'nt many. What a shame ! Maybe, the organisers were happy, they escaped casting pearls before s....s.

Thank you CDAC. Thank you NRCFOSS.

partha

*********

Poland calling !

Poland calling !

In a few weeks from now, I will be visiting the University of
Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland. This visit will be for delivering a lecture on formal methods, and for exploring projects for collaboration and cooperation. If all goes well, I
may also visit some other institutions in Germany (confirmation awaited). Insha-allah.

Just why can't our institutions in India recognise a competent
teacher-scientist ?

partha

Nigeria calling

Nigeria calling

A few days ago, I was invited by the Nigerian Society of
Mathematics to referee for their journal. This was a pleasant
surprise and an unexpected honour for a teacher like me. Papers published in the Journal of the Nigerian Mathematical Society are indexed by SCI and are reviewed in Mathematical Review. The Journal is published by the Nigerian Mathematical Society. It started publishing in the early eighties in collaboration with the American Mathematical Society.

I was of course curious how they located me. And this is what
they tell me : "people that are well known in their area of
research are usually not difficult to locate. Our Editorial Board
and Associate Editors usually look out for the best."

When will our own Indians take note of my presence so close to them ?

partha

Bash scripting CDROM -- new version

The next version (Ver. 20090713a) of my Bash scripting CDROM is ready. Take a look. Ask Dr. Partha for a copy.

partha


.

Mega event in Hyderabad

A mega-giga-tera event of mathematics will be held shortly in Hyderabad. The International Congress of Mathematicians will be held from 19-27 Aug. 2010, in our own Hyderabad.

For more details, visit their website: http://www.icm2010.org.in/

This is the event when the greatest mathematicians of the world will be given the greatest awards for their contributions to mathematics :: The Fields medal, the Nevanlinna Prize, the Gauss Prize, and the Chern Medal (new). Be there, to see these great giants of mathematics being honoured. The Registration fee is of course rather steep, but it may well be worth it for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

The website of the International Mathematical Union is at :
http://www.mathunion.org/

If you can't attend the event, at least visit their websites marked above.

partha

PS: This retired Professor, invites kind hearted organisations and individuals to sponsor him or at least subsidise a part of the registration fee. I have no corporate or institutional support.




.

Joining hands

Prof. Partha is now part of the "combinatorial people and groups" website located at :

http://www.combinatorics.org/People/index.html#p

This will help Partha interact better with people who work in combinatorics and discrete maths and computer science.


partha

Web support for my course on discrete mathematics

Now, there is a website from where you can follow the process which drives my course
on discrete mathematics::

http://www.profpartha.webs.com/discmath.htm

This is NOT a website for learning discrete maths. It is a web-support for my classroom course on discrete maths. It will make sense to you, only if you are my student and attend my
lectures on discrete maths.

Feel free to ask me at drpartha AT gmail DOT com, if you have any questions.


partha

More maths material

I disovered yet another source of learning material for maths ::

http://www.numbertheory.org/ntw/gateways.html

And, I found a quotation in one of the links::

"Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics"--Siméon Poisson

Describes exactly why I like maths.

I strongly recommend the abov site to all my students and all my colleagues.

partha

Admire this giant !

Now read about the person who has flooded computer science with his amazing contributions: Prof. G J Chaitin.

Prof. G J Chaitin is at the IBM TJW Research Centre. He is the discoverer of the omega number. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitin%27s_constant for more about omega number/ Chaitin's constant / Chaitin's construction. Omega is often described as a number
that contains all other numbers but
is not itself computable. Chaitin created "algorithmic information theory (AIT)", which combines, among other elements, Shannon’s information theory and Turing’s theory of computability. In the three decades since, he has been the principal architect of AIT. Among his contributions are the definition of a random sequence via algorithmic incompressibility, and his information-theoretic approach to Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. His work on Hilbert’s 10th problem has shown that in a sense there is randomness even in elementary arithmetic.

Prof. G J Chaitin's web site is at ::

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/

This website contains most of Chaitin's published papers, many book chapters, and the LISP, Java, C, and Mathematica software for Chaitin's Springer-Verlag trilogy. It also contains interviews and reviews of Chaitin's books.

(PS :: Some of the material is in French. It helps to know French, to fully appreciate this site)

***

Blame them

Read about the two persons who are guilty of shaking up the software world and giving nightmares to the greedy-bully ::

* Linus Torvalds
* R M S

Here is evidence against the above two ::

Linus Torvalds :: http://www.junauza.com/2009/03/25-mythical-and-humorous-facts-about.html

Richard M Stallman ::http://www.junauza.com/2009/06/15-mythical-and-humorous-facts-about.html

Well done !

partha

More from the Professor -- Linux shell scripting CD

Now there is one more very useful CDROM for you to learn by yourself.

Visit the "non traditional teaching" page of Prof. Partha and browse the "catalogue of CDROMs".

partha

More work for the Professor

And now, Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, invites Prof. Partha, to join its "Ask a Scientist" (AAS) program. ANL receives a wide variety of questions by email or via our web page from all over the World. These questions are assigned as physics, zoology, botany, molecular biology, fabric, cosmetology, chemistry, earth science, astronomy, engineering, materials science, math, computer science, weather, veterinary or they are placed into the general category. Two system operators (sysops) receive questions, jury them and email the questions to those scientists assigned in the category (ies) that best fits the question.

Details of the "Ask a scientist" (AAS) programme are available at ::

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/aasinfo.htm

Try AAS, if you have any questions, and dont know whom to ask.

Prof. Partha will be answering questions on :: Computer science (except those questions related to Microsoft), mathematics (particularly, discrete maths), Linux.


partha

Practising what you preach....

We teach our students the importance of punctuality and of being professional. Yet, we, educationists dont know or don't care about these virtues, ourselves. This morning I had an appointment with GITAM University at 08:00 AM. The meeting time was fixed by GITAM. And yet, till 09:30 there was no one at the appointed place. And nobody had a clue of when the meeting would start. And when the meeting did actually take place, a good 90 minutes after the scheduled time, instead of admitting one's lapse, a learned member had the cheek to state that it was a usual practise to call candidates an hour in advance and make them wait two hours after the scheduled time. What a shame ! Is'nt this what we call "adding insult to injury" ? What right do these so-called institutions have, to expel students when they are late for exams ? What moral right do these so-called institutions have, to talk about punctuality and professional behaviour ? When will we learn some basic rules of decency and civilised behaviour ? Is this the example we are setting for our students ? Have we no shame ?

partha

Forget the chocolates, send me some books

One of the challenges I face, living and teaching in a "developing" country, is the difficulty in accessing good books. Either they are just not available, or they are astronomically priced. There are of course no good libraries where a freelancer like me can go and borrow books. So what do I do ? Simple -- I beg.

My first CDROM on Linux was obtained by begging on the internet. A kindly soul from the US of A donated a set of Slackware CDs and led me into the world of Linux. I will never forget that gentleman (Mr. Naidu). My first book on Linux was also a gift of someone (Mr. Thaths-Chandrasekhar) who responded to my appeal on the internet, several years ago.

I am sure some of my students and my friends who are abroad, are probably reading this blog. I am sure the world is also full of kind hearted people like Mr. Naidu and Mr. Chandrasekhar. I am sure some of you will be willing to donate a book or two, to a honest and sincere teacher in India. I can send you a list of books which I am dying for. Just email me.

Thanks a lot. GOD bless you.

partha

Better explained

Here is yet another example of how much fun learning can be. For me, a teacher, this site shows how much fun innovative teaching can be. Visit this site, if you are teacher, or a student. You wont be disappointed :::

http://betterexplained.com/


partha

PS As usual, dont forget the box of chocolates

Meet some mathematicians

My friend Venkatesh gave me details of two books on "mathematical people". I am trying out possible
ways to get these two books for my own library.

In the meantime, I came across a fantastic website which lets you know mathematicians and their discoveries:

http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/History/People/

Take a look. And then send me the box of chocolates which you owe me.

partha

Professors are also human beings

YES, thats true.

So I have created another blog site for the personal side of my life.

http://partha-the-person.blogspot.com

This will be a news bulletin for personal news about me.

partha

Professors love working in the weekends and late nights

I have added stuff to my website. Go to my website, follow the link ::"Downloadable publications", and enjoy learning.

partha

Time for a change

Back home, means getting to catch up with things you always wanted to do.

My earlier web site provider seems to have trouble, so I decided to locate a new home for my web site. I found a new place. Here it is ::

http://www.profpartha.webs.com

This site is for my purely academic, teaching, and research activities only.

Visit my new site and let me know how you like it.

partha

The first step

This is my first blog entry in the partha-the-prof blog

My earlier blog server seems to have some problems.

Visit my blog as often as you can.

partha