4-2023 What is ISBN ? How does it work ?

Have you ever noticed on the back cover of every book is a barcoded pattern with some numbers ? Ever wondered what could that possibly mean ? According to wikipedia "The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase or receive ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. " It helps librarians and bookstores keep track of books in their custody. The bar code replaces the ISBN for automated inventory control.

The ISBN is structured as in the digram given on the right:

Recently, my new book on Ramanujan got an ISBN: 978-1-5457-5712-3 (shown in the image below).

Also see:: How do barcodes work in the book publishing industry ?

45 / 2012 FOSS for mathematics

I have added a detailed report on FOSS tools for those who use mathematics.

The report is downloadable from ::
http://www.freewebs.com/profpartha/publications/fossmath5.pdf

partha

21/2012 Do you own a telescope ?

NO problem, if you dont have one. You can get a virtual telescope and go star-gazing. You can do it from home, office, school, or anywhere. Do it in broad daylight, if you want. Here is your virtual telescope :: http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/#Telescope



Try CELESTIA :: Celestia is another software bundle which will help you understand how stars and planets work. It is the perfect companion to your virtual telescope.Get Celestia from ::http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Teaching in Nepal

I wish I had seen this earlier ::


http://www.gonomad.com/alternatives/0010/davis_teaching.html

About the great rewards, I agree fully. In fact, I can list out some other rewards too (e.g. Nepalese gifts like "Dhaka topi" , "khada", and lovely objets d'art). And, the experience itself is a great reward.

Thank you Nepal.


partha

PS:: What did I tecah in Nepal ? See here ::
http://www.freewebs.com/profpartha/cryptoatkath.htm

Call Center, Bug Tracking and Project Management Tools for Linux

Life suddenly became a "breezy moonlit night by the beach" when I found this list of tools:
http://linas.org/linux/pm.html

partha

One more cryptography overview (very good)

I found a very good overview of cryptography at ::

http://www.ciphersbyritter.com/GLOSSARY.HTM

Please take a look.

partha

The penguin in the court

QUOTE The Supreme Court of India has directed all courts across the nation to switch over to Ubuntu 11.04 as their pimary operating system. A free SMS channel has also been created to increase awareness about the features and functionality of Ubuntu Linux OS among judicial officers, technical personnel, and other members of the court's staff. UNQUOTE

(Linux for You, November 2011)

partha

PS: This is in addition to the amazing list posted in my earlier blog entry.

Amazing list of Linux users.

Here is an
amazing list of Linux users worldwide.

How much more of dilly dallying do you want to do ?

At least, take a look at this list, and see for yoursel what you have been missing.

partha

PS: I felt proud to notice that India is listed twice --Tamilnadu state (my birth place), and Kerala state )I taught there).

There is hope for Nepal

As long as there are colleges like NEC and teachers like Daya Ram Budhathoki, there is hope for Nepal. Wish them good luck and success.

QUOTE

Dear Dr. Partha,
Thank you very much for your wonderful and expert presentation in Foss for educational institution at Nepal Engineering College. I think your lecture definitely gave some rays of hope on migrating to Linux from pirated version of Windows and other proprietary software.

I hope, NEC in coming days,will be using:
1. GCC compiler instead of Turbo C for C and C++ lab.
2. KOHA for Library Management System
3. Scilab for Matlab
4. OpenOffice.org instead of Micorsoft word.
5. Mysql or Postgresql instead of Oracle
6. Moodle for For Course Management System
7. iTALC for intelligent Teaching and Learning with Computers.
8. Latex for Documentation, Thesis and Report writing.
9.Linux System instead of Microsoft
I would like to appeal all the faculty members, students, management committee and non teaching staff to promote open source movement in Nepal Engineering College. Really, there is no doubt you will feel the liberty in Linux that you will never experience in Microsoft Windows.

Thank you.

--
Lecturer. Daya Ram Budhathoki
Nepal Engineering College
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Changunarayan, Bhaktapur
Nepal
Contact:
Mob. no:977-1-9741213794
+977-1-5090721(O)
Email: dayaramb@nec.edu.np

UNQUOTE

Dennis Ritchie RIP

After a long illness, Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011), father of Unix and an esteemed computer scientist, died last weekend at the age of 70.

Ritchie, also known as “dmr”, is best known for creating the C programming language as well as being instrumental in the development of UNIX along with Ken Thompson.

All of us Linux/Unix lovers owe a lot to this genius who gave us so much.

His death follows that of another prominent figure :: Steve Jobs of Apple computers fame. Perhaps the best tribute to Dennis and Steve is the one which says :: Dennis Ritchie: The shoulders Steve Jobs stood on.

May their souls rest in peace and guide us.

partha

Cryptography at Kathmnadu

Prof. Partha's course at Kathmandu. Take a look :


http://www.freewebs.com/profpartha/cryptoatkath.htm

partha

Ultimate list to download free e-Books

Who does not need books ? Who does not like free books ?

This is where you must start if you are not in the above list of "who"::

http://rrut.com/ulitmate-list-to-download-free-e-books/

Enjoy !

partha

Learn how to use and enjoy Linux

One more neat site, to learn how to use and enjoy Linux ::

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/

Recognising symbols in LaTeX

You found a queer symbol in a LaTeX text. Want to know how to make it in your own document too ?
Just draw it by hand and let this applet classify it with standard LaTeX symbols. Works like magic.

http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html

partha

Looking for great blogs ??

Looking for great blogs written by teachers like you and me ? Looking for some inspiration ?

Start here :: http://edublogawards.com/2009/best-teacher-edublog-2009/

partha

8 Amazing Lessons from Albert Einstein

Simply amazing, and true.

Take a look at ::


http://www.dailyblogtips.com/8-amazing-blogging-lessons-from-albert-einstein/

partha

Tamil+LaTeX+Linux ... end of the tunnel

After almost 2 years of effort and struggle, I am reaching the end of the tunnel. I will soon be explaining how I managed to get Tamil+LaTeX+Linux work togther, to typeset a Tamil + English document.

Watch this space for details.

partha

Honey, I lost that file ...

Honey, I lost that file ... is now accessible at ::

http://www.freewebs.com/profpartha/publications/downloadables.htm#linux

Exercises on graph colouring

This is a sequel to my earlier posting "A tutorial about graph colouring"
I have included two exercise problems (with solution), at ::


http://www.freewebs.com/profpartha/publications/color-exer.pdf

Take a look, and send me the box of chocolates you owe me.

partha

BREAKING NEWS: Microsoft Buys Linus Torvalds and Linux!

The nightmare ::::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voxKmDbnPs4


Thank GOD ! This is not true.

partha