Dreams

They say, future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams and I find mine stunning.  Well, my dreams are small desires yoked to form a bigger one. So yes, i am a dreamer and they say a dreamer is one who can only find her way by moonlight, and her punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world, so i do not mind being one.

Making people laugh is one of my fortes and having a comedy channel on YouTube is one of my dreams.  I tried filming a video but it did not turn out well, so may be by the end of Dahain I will be able to bring out a great one.

Who would not like to address a huge crowd without being anxious? My mother is biggest inspiration when it comes to speaking.  Despite being a teacher, my mom says, she used to be nervous when she first started speaking in public. I often get flabbergasted and think how could she blend idioms, society, history and the topic so well, without making preparations?  I am often very nervy when I speak without preparations and the uneasiness lessens when I prepare well.  Nevertheless, I love the chills and I adore the feeling I get while speaking. Hence, I would like to be someone who can speak with confidence in front of a huge crowd, without preparations.  (I know nervousness will lessen with time).  Even though, speaking is new to my wish list, I am working for everything from improving my accent and increasing my vocabulary to gestures and coherence.

Studying in Nepal after alevels has made me know where nepali education stands. We have great syllabus up to high schools but the way of teaching and the question pattern are not so good. The syllabus is never reviewed and the overall system is superficial for bachelor’s level. ( I have a whole  different blog on my encounter with nepali education system). So, I would like work to lessen the gap between nepali education system and the system abroad.

Needless to say I want to be a great programmer, why else would I be studying computer engineering?  There is not much to say about it except I love the challenges I get while programming.

Last but not the least; I want to float on space. This has been my biggest dream ever and someday I am going to be there. (I know computer engineers can hardly ever be astronauts but by the time I get old I am sure people can easily pay and be on space).

Difference between fear and respect

Unpleasant feeling caused by the belief that someone is hazardous, likely to cause pain or a threat is known as fear.       While, an emotion of admiration of someone due to their skills, abilities, or achievements is respect. Fear and respect have a lot of difference though they can sometimes come together.

 Fear is a feeling you get when you are afraid or worried that something bad is going to happen. It is the recognition that someone or something has the potential to harm. For instance, I was very afraid of my social studies teacher. As, he was very strict and did not ever leave a chance to punish us.

However, respect is sense of the value or brilliance of a person, a personal quality or ability. It is something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability. Respect is usually built on trust and honor.  For example, I respect Paulo Choelho for his imagination, philosophy and writing style.

Fear and respect can even come together.  We can respect a person and fear from them at the same time.  For illustration, children usually have both respect and fear of their parents and teachers.  Respect generally involves a little fear. This kind of fear is fear of not letting the respected person down. For example, we do obviously fear a little when we have to work for a respected person. While, we do not respect the person we think will harm us.

To sum up, Fear and respect have a lot of differences but they can even come together. We usually have a little fear of people we respect. While, we do not respect the people whom we think will harm us.

Difference between confidence and arrogance

Confidence is the state of assurance or belief in self-ability and arrogance is attitude of superiority manifested overbearing manner.  There are lot of differences between confidence and arrogance. However, confidence and arrogance sometimes can come together and at other times it also depends on the way we see it.  

Full of trust, self-esteem, belief in power is confidence. It is one of the most important strengths that one can possess, since it determines how one reacts to challenges that influence how fine everything else in life goes on.  For instance, a man is confident about his job. He knows well about what he has to do and does everything in a perfect way. Such man, in most cases has a good personality, career and image.

On the other hand, arrogance is haughty pride shown by a superior manner toward inferiors. Arrogance is exaggerating or disposed to overstate one's own worth. For example, a teacher has a good knowledge about everything he has to teach but he acts like he is superior to everyone. He does not listen to others ideas and is boastful about his own. A teacher like him usually does not have a good image and a successful carrier as he is not liked by most of his students.

Confidence and arrogance can come together in many cases and it also depends on the way people see it. For example, a boy walks into a room full of new people with his chest spread wide, head held high. Then he looks at everyone in their eyes and does not even give a smile.  Is the boy confident or arrogant in this case? Well, he can be called confident as well as arrogant.  Some people might find him confident while others might find him arrogant.

To sum up, being confident is better than being arrogant. Though, Confidence and arrogance have a lot of differences but they can also come together. Moreover, what is confidence for one person can be arrogance for another person and vice versa.

Green IT

According to the article Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices,  green IT  is the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. Green IT starts with manufacturers producing environmentally friendly products and encouraging IT departments to consider more friendly options like virtualization, power management and proper recycling habits. However, manufactures alone cannot bring the change, everyone has to contribute to make green IT to make a difference.

A lot of energy is being wasted, power consumption is increasing and if we do not take green IT in account we are sure to face problems in near future. PCs left on overnight in USA and UK alone wastes twenty billion kWh of energy. This also has resulted to a lot of unwanted carbon dioxide emissions. Total energy usage (of 2007) is predicated to be doubled by the year of 2012. Similarly, energy bills for it data senders have started to approach the cost of infrastructures. IT accounts for roughly 2% of carbon dioxide emissions which is roughly the same as the carbon dioxide emission by aviation industries.

Green IT aims for reducing usage and cost of energy, increasing capacity and performance of computers, maintaining power and cooling issues, achieving social responsibility by reducing carbon foot print. Reducing the use of hazardous materials, maximizing energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promoting the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste are also major goals of green IT.

Recycling is also one of the major parts of green IT. Electronic wastes contain a lot of chemicals. For instance, some electronic scrap components, such as CRTs, may contain contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium, or brominated flame retardants. Thus, recycling of e-wastes is very important.  However, out of 15million tons of e-waste produced only 15% to 20% of e-waste is recycled every year.  Recycling policies for e-waste has not still been made in our nation. In our part of the world only paper, plastics and batteries like things are being recycled. E-wastes are thrown out which is completely against WEE detractive.

We can also contribute a lot to green IT. Powering down all the CPUs and peripherals during extended periods of inactivity saves a lot of energy. Trying to do computer related tasks during contiguous, intensive blocks of time and leaving hardware off at other times also helps IT go green. Using liquid crystal display monitors rather than cathode-ray tube monitors can also makes a huge difference. Besides theses we can contribute to green IT by minimizing the use of paper, disposing of e-waste according to federal, state and local regulations. We should buy recyclable and less energy consuming goods. 

First presentation

        first presentation   


 It was personal development class by Mr.Sanjeev  Udash in the Oxford lab.   When I had just found a computer and turned it on, the teacher entered the lab. He talked about our course works and how we had to do it. Then he gave us week one worksheet, asked us to choose a topic and get prepared to speak about it in front of the class.

As the time given was limited, without any delay I stared to prepare for the presentation. There were seventeen topics out of which I had to choose one. I quickly went through the worksheet and decided to speak on the topic number six which was about simplicity and elegance. I needed to explain how elegance and simplicity are not only useful concepts but also bad and dangerous practices. As I had just finished reading novel named Elegance by  Kathleen Tessaro,  I thought I could speak a lot about  the topic. I started to brainstorm my ideas, which I believe is the most important thing to do before presenting something. Then, I quickly went through Wikipedia and other few web pages. Examples are one of the best ways to explain things, so I thought of examples which would make my ideas even more clear. In a rough sheet of paper, I quickly jotted all the things I had prepared in order.

Students from the autumn semester performed better as they had done presentations several times before. Many of the students from my semester were nervous and did not have clear ideas. However, a boy from my class presented better than anyone. He was loud, clear, to the point and had perfect examples. A few students just elaborated the topic instead of giving ideas while a few were out of the topic. I even learned new things from a few of the presentations.

Then, It was my turn to present and I tried to make my views as clear as possible. I spoke about what simplicity is, how easy it is to understand simple things and I even gave example to describe the point. I also talked about what elegance is, how fun is it to use something that is elegant. Simple things may not be always fun to use while elegant things are not always easy for beginners to understand was also one of my main ideas. I even gave examples of how simplicity and elegance can be bad and dangerous.

The presentation did not go as good as I had expected. I was nervous and at some point my mind went blank. My voice was not as loud as it should have been. I could have talked longer, given better examples and asked for queries.

Though, the presentation did not go well it made me know my strengths and weakness. I am pretty good at generating ideas in short span of time, going through the web pages and finding relevant information. On the other hand I am not so good at speaking in front of the crowd.

Since, I need to do a lot more presentations I have to work on improving my presentation skills. I will watch YouTube videos on presenting things in a better way.   I have heard a lot about Steve Jobs’s presentation skills, so I will go through is presentations. I will try to brainstorm and research more. I will research on ways to increase confidence level and try not to be nervous in the days to come.