Me Myself and Python

Freemind is the first and best mindmapper application that is known to me. Thanks to Mr. Dhanan for introducing to that software and demonstrating it’s power in various arenas. Freemind is written in Java, that makes it a highly portable application.
Well, a mindmapper is an application which helps you to perform mindmapping. Perplexing, right ?? Then what is mindmapping ??

“A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.” — Says wikipedia.

 Recent days, I have been using Freemind extensively, for the presentations ( yes, I did one “Introduction to programming in Python” presentation in Freemind for HP zone members of Ushustech).  I was really able to convey the “Flow of my thought” using mindmaps in Freemind and I really enjoyed that presentation ( I hope those guys too ).

We can use freemind for designs of applications too.  I have decided to do one small Java ME application to find the Body Mass Index (BMI) . First thing I created is the mindmap of that application and then code it. That way, I can think over the application’s features and drawbacks visually. My BMI mindmap goes like this..

 Next time , when you are going to present something, do it in Freemind . It will be a refreshingly new experience.

Want to design the interiors of your new Home in Gnu/Linux ? or you just need to modify the interiors of your’ home ? … You can do it all using the nice program called Sweet Home 3D.  It is available from http://sweethome3d.sourceforge.net/index.html.

Just download the software from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sweethome3d/SweetHome3D-1.3-linux-x86.tgz. As it is a java based Software, make sure that you have openjdk installed in your machine.  In the latest Ubuntu Hardy Heron release,  the execution of Sweet Home 3D was flawless.

Have a look at my experiements with SweetHome 3D

It’s really cool.. You can make wonders with some sense of beauty and a mind willing to spend hours with this software.

Last Friday, my Uncle called me up for a particular requirement - to buy one PC for Unnikkuttan and Ponnu, my cousins.  He wanted his children to use that Computer for education purposes. I agreed to go with him and help him in choosing the PC configuration.

After some comparison by visiting multiple stores, we have decided to buy the Acer Aspire PC, which costs about 23000 (nowadays, I feel laptops are better than Desktops when we think about our wallet). It had a 1.6 Ghz, 1 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB , Intel pentium dual core processor , 1 gb ram, Intel 945 GC motherboard, DVD writer….

Well, the dealers has installed some games on the PC and just after booting the PC in Windows XP , Unnikkuttan started playing the games, mostly nothing to with education and more to do with the violence. Jose Uncle wasn’t that happy with what unnikkuttan doing with the PC.

Next week, I have visited Unnikkuttan’s home , this time with 3DVDs of Debian Etch Gnu/Linux. I have installed the Debian on the 40 GB partition of that massive 160 GB HDD. Installed the Debian Gnu/Linux. Both Unnikkuttan and Ponnu were amused by the installation steps of Debian.  The whole installation took around 30 minutes (thanks to that high speed processor with 1 GB ram ).

After that it was the time for Education softwares. I have installed GCompris and Kdeedu and asked Unni and Ponnu to use it. They really liked those programs, I could guess it from their fight for playing the games. Again not willing to hurt Unnikkuttan’s desire for Racing, I have installed the Torcs race game for him. He got thrilled by that game anyway..

The PC boots directly into Debian and I have configured the Debian to have a “passwordless” entry to the Desktop to reduce the “password” problem for children. I know they are smart enough to remember the passwords. But unfortunately I dont’ remember my passwords these days. So I have decided to not to take a chance for myself

Nowadays Unnikkuttan and ponnu are proud owners of a Debian Linux ( I have removed the GNU to for ease of the kids) machine. They are the future, let them play with the Gnu/Linux   

( I wonder why people are saying Linux is hard to use while children like Unnikkuttan and ponnu , with ages 4 and 6 respectively are using it without any problem)