About

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Before you start reading this, be informed that it’s going to be informal. I try my best to keep this page updated!

Have patience, though its long, but divided into sections for your convenience.

My One-Line Bio has always been

Open Minded, Rationalist and FOSS Enthusiast

Ideology

I am a spiritualist , believe in superpower but not superstitious, even though I have a respect for agnostics and atheists.  Am a staunch supporter of the philosophy - “Personal Freedom”.

Coming to technical side, I am an ardent believer of Open Source and Free Software philosophy. It’s like democracy where nothing is hidden and the general public is the king. After coming to know that am a FOSS evangelist , some people might make an impression that am a fanboy of FOSS.

To be clear and precise, I am just a believer, not a fanboy. If even Linus Torvalds did something ethically wrong, he can’t expect support from me. Right is right, wrong is wrong. Facts don’t change. I use my own reasoning for judging and fanboyism is a thing which I frown upon.

Background and Present

I was born and brought up in Ranchi which is the capital of Jharkhand, got my first PC in class 8 as a Children Day’s gift. Having affection and attraction towards these powerful beasts, I never looked back.

I live in Manipal, pursuing my Engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology in Computer Science Stream. Even though having a lust for computers, score decent grades even in academics. I have a younger brother who is going to appear for +2 exams next year.

Ubuntu: Turning Point

I am using Ubuntu for last 2½ years. It started when one of my old friend Swaroop Hegde introduced it to me. That marked the turning point in my life and I never looked back. After trying other half dozen distros I settled on Ubuntu. Am am big fan of its community and the support. Some of the plus points of Ubuntu are as:

  • No one expects you to be a geek. Everyone is equally invited. The Ubuntu community considers adding users also as a contribution.
  • The Ubuntu Forums are awesome! Same questions are answered daily in Absolute Beginner Section and none of them are replied with STFW and RTFM. Newbies, Welcome the world of Linux
  • All my hardware has always worked out of box without a single tweaking till date. The hardware support has always been better than Windows - Yes! Really!

Contribution to FOSS

I have tried my best to introduce FOSS to the general public and dispel the FUD prevelent in the society. I founded Linux Users Group, Manipal in fall of 2007 along with two of my friends - Ayush Pranshu and Shubhendra Singh. LUG Manipal is growing in size day by day and its in such a situation that I can claim it to be the “Most Highly Technical Group of  Manipal”. You can check out its site, forum, wiki and mailing lists.

Apart from LUG Manipal I have also been active on Ubuntu Forums and Ubuntu-in mailing lists as a part of my contribution to Ubuntu. I do work actively on Launchpad to make sure that my contribution can also be counted in increasing the awesomeness of Ubuntu.

Technical Expertise and Experiences

  • Fluent with PHP and MySQL with more than 2 years of experience
  • Expertise in Python along with knowledge of PyQt
  • .NET especially C#.NET
  • Microsoft Summer Internship (FOSS never asks you be anti-Microsoft, just that am no big fan of the latter)

Web 2.0

I was never a big fan of web 2.0, since it always looked like a marketing hype to me. Most of the so called web 2.0 sites are nothing other than AJAX these days. The real web 2.0 apps are GMail, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader etc.

I am actually a backend coder will comparatively less knowledge about CSS and AJAX. So I don’t call myself a CSS geek. Actually to be clear, I never call myself a geek. Knowledge is never adequate and you should always thrive to quench the thirst for knowledge.

Social Networking and Online Presence

If you disagree with me, the comments section is always open for you esteemed remarks. Don’t go ranting against me all over the Internet, below is the space to express yourself.

That’s all Folks! Enjoy! :)