A Few Good Fella - Dennis Ritchie!

It is difficult to think a day when I am not using a computer and specially not writing a source code. When writing any program it is a challenge to do it totally different, with a simple logic and shorter than others code. I am doing it last twenty-six years. Some software that I was using then are lost its way like COBOL, PASCAL, FORTRAN but there is one still surviving, going stronger by days and used all over the world. I am talking about 'C'.

After Steve Jobs, Computer world lost Dennis Ritchie the father of 'C' on 12 October. My page is dedicated to the genius who lived and died quietly but his legacy will go on.

Dennis Ritchie

Ritchie was born in Bronxville, New York. His father was Alistair E. Ritchie, a longtime Bell Labs scientist and co-author of The Design of Switching Circuits on switching circuit theory. Ritchie graduated from Harvard University with degrees in physics and applied mathematics. In 1967, he began working at the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center, and in 1968, he received a PhD from Harvard under the supervision of Patrick C. Fischer. Ritchie was best known as the creator of the C programming language, a key developer of the UNIX operating system, and co-author of The C Programming Language, commonly referred  to as K&R (in reference to the authors Kernighan and Ritchie). Ritchie worked together with  Ken Thompson, the scientist credited with writing the original Unix; one of Ritchie's most  important contributions to Unix was its porting to different machines and platforms.

The C language is widely used today in application, operating system, and embedded system development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming languages. UNIX has also been influential, establishing concepts and principles that are now precepts of  computing.  Ritchie was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988 for "development of the "C" programming language and for co-development of the UNIX operating system."

C & UNIX

To help make UNIX portable, Ritchie created a new programming language, called C, in 1972. C used features of low-level languages or machine languages and features of high-level languages. However, because C combined functions of both high- and low-level languages and was very flexible, it was not for beginners. C was very portable because, while it used a relatively small syntax and instruction set, it was also highly structured and modular. Therefore, it was easy to adapt it to different computers, and programmers could copy preexisting blocks of C functions into their programs. These blocks, which were stored on disks in various libraries and could be accessed by using C programs, allowed programmers to create their own programs without having to reinvent the wheel. Because C had features of low-level programming languages, it ran very quickly and efficiently compared to other high-level languages, and it took up relatively little computer time. C was also popular because it was written for UNIX, which, by the early 1990s, was shipped out on over $20 billion of new computer systems a year, making it one of the most commonly used operating systems in the world. Apart from C and  UNIX he also worked on  ALTRAN, B, BCPL, Multics

Dennis Ritchie was found dead on October 12, 2011 at the age of 70 at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey where he lived alone. First news of his death came from his former colleague, Rob Pike. The cause and exact time of death have not been disclosed. He had been in frail health for several years following treatment for prostate cancer and heart disease. His death came a week after the death of Steve Jobs; although Ritchie's death did not receive as much media coverage.

Computer historians such as Paul Ceruzzi said his influence was comparable and I agree with him. I cannot think a computer world without 'C' and 'UNIX'. He will live with us in our program and every moment Unix.

Some Quotation :

"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity."

"C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success."

!!!    #include <stdio.h>

       #include <conio.h>

           void main()

              {

                  int i;

                  clrscr();

                  for(i=0;i<=infinity;i++)

                      {

                         printf(“\n\nRIP Dennis Ritchie, we will miss you”);

                      }

                  getch();

              }  !!!

Impediments? Break and Make[ Part –II ]

 This the concluding part of my last blog. I mentioned only a few famous people but if we explored in our surrounding you will find many unknown faces who are struggling against all odd and getting the success.

Stephen William Hawking

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity. In 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Almost completely paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Stephen Hawking is an academic celebrity known for his theories concerning black holes and his best-selling book “A Brief History of Time.” While few people could completely grasp his concepts without an in-depth explanation, his theories have become as well-known as Galileo, Newton and Einstein in the scientific community.

John Forbes Nash

John Nash is an American mathematician and famous for his works in game theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations. His theories are used in market economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. Nash began to show signs of extreme paranoia and He was admitted to the McLean Hospital, April–May 1959, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Hollywood Movie 'A Beautiful Mind' was loosely based on his life.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet was founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. He eventually went blind due to cataracts. In the last decade of his life despite his failing eyesight, he continued to paint including the famous paintings of water lillies, “Nymphéas.”  Though Monet was not blind during the most productive painting period of his life, his work is still inspirational.

Ray Charles/Stevie Wonder

Both Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder will be known long after their deaths for their lasting impression on Rock ‘N’ Roll, blues and soul music despite both being afflicted by blindness. These Black American men are both Grammy winners and pioneers in the music industry opening doors for artists of color for years after their own time in the spotlight.

Ray Charles Robinson started to lose his sight at the age of five. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma. He is  known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records.  He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums.

Though Ray made his mark in the 50s and 60s, Stevie topped the Billboards in the 60s and beyond.  Either way, they were both gifted musicians who could paint beautiful pictures with music.

Stevie Wonder (Stevland Hardaway Morris) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist. , Stevie was blind since birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records' Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day. Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You".

Marlee Matlin

Marlee Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy nominations. Deaf since she was 18 months old, she is also a prominent member of the National Association of the Deaf.  Also an Emmy winner, Matlin is a prime example of an artist who has succeeded despite her disability; few other actresses have had as much success even without the disability.

Sudha Chandran

Sudha Chandran was born to family in Chennai, South India. She completed her Masters in Economics from Mumbai. On one of her return trips from Mumbai to Chennai she met with an accident resulting in the amputation of her right leg. She was given an artificial leg and despite this terrible disability, she became one of the most accomplished and acclaimed dancers of the Indian Subcontinent. She has received and still receives invitations to perform all over the world. She has been honored with numerous awards and has performed all over the world. She appears often on Hindi television and in films.

!!!Sky is no limits for those having loads of willingness and courage.!!!

Impediments? Break and Make[ Part –I ]

Last week we lost a great innovator and as well as an inventor, the Apple-man Steve Jobs is no more with us. Last eight years he was suffering from cancer but that not prevented him from his inventions.  Sad that great mind always short lived.

Back home we lost a golden voice, it is Jagjit Singh the famous Gazal singer. I don’t think we ever interested in Gazal before he started singing.

Every one born with certain god gifted qualities but then we all failed to utilize it. Sometime I amazed by the people who made it big by conquering the shortcoming. Today and as well as next week I am going to throw lights on the life of these luminaries.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller, American author having overcome considerable physical handicaps and served as an inspiration for other afflicted people. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When 19 months old, she was stricken with an acute illness that left her deaf and blind. No method could be found to educate her until the age of seven, when she began her special education in reading and writing with Anne Mansfield Sullivan of the Perkins Institute for the Blind.

In 1890 Keller learned to speak after only one month of study. Ten years later, she was able to enter Radcliffe College, from which she graduated with honors in 1904. Keller then served on the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Throughout her life she worked and raised funds for the American Foundation for the Blind, and she traveled and lectured in many countries, including England, France, Italy, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, and Japan. Keller was also a pacifist and was active in socialist causes.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein did not talk fluently until he was nine and believed to have Asperger’s Syndrome. He failed his college entrance exam and had a difficulties to remember simple things such as his phone number or how to tie his shoes. He also he was also rumored to have been dyslexic as a child. He was having some problems with language. After having early drawbacks the man was possibly the greatest mind to lived the earth.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 17 December 1770. Beethoven was named after his grandfather Lodewijk, who was a musician too. Beethoven started taking his first music lessons from his father Johann van Beethoven. 

At the age of twenty, Ludwig van Beethoven hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf. Beethoven then used special hearing tubes and felt the vibrations of his piano to compose music. One of the most well-known composers in history, his accomplishments are as dazzling and spell-binding when taken into consideration that he was never able to hear his own work.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down by a form of polio. In August 1921, when he contracted what was diagnosed, after an unfortunate delay, as poliomyelitis. In great agony and completely unable to walk the disease that left him bound to a wheelchair. However, backed by the determination of his wife and Louis Howe, Roosevelt decided to return to his work as soon as possible. Roosevelt is known as one of the greatest presidents in American history leading the population through many tumultuous times. The Great Depression and World War II were two of the worst periods in American history known for their volatility and the loss of both human lives and many Americans’ livelihoods. However, Roosevelt was the man for the job leading America through these times with confidence and grace that was not marred by his disability.

Marla Runyan

At the age of nine, Runyan developed Stargardt’s Disease, which is a form of mascular degeneration that left her legally blind. Marla Runyan is a three time national champion in the women’s 5000 meters. She won four gold medals in the 1992 summer Paralympics. In the 1996 Paralympics she won silver in the shot put and gold in the Pentathlon. In 2000 she became the first legally blind Para Olympian to compete in the Olympic games in Sydney, Australia. She holds various American records such as 20,000 Road (2003), All-female Marathon (2002), 500m (2001) , Heptathlon (1996). In 2001, she co-wrote and published her autobiography ‘No Finish Line: My Life As I See It’.

Today I will end with a quotation of Steve Jobs.

!!!Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.!!!

From Guru’s Doorstep to Down the Wire!!

I was a globe trotter then don’t misjudge me. It was work which took me there, yet. some of my visits were unforgettable. Frankly speaking moving around India gave me more pleasure than somewhere else. The travelogue today I am going to share was one of my best. My destination was north, Kulu-Manali-Simla-Delhi but I decided to drop at Amritsar before going through others.

Specially Amritsar was my idea because traveling through the mountains itself is a tiresome job and Amritsar to Manali was a quite hectic, so my family was against it but finally they gave in to my wish. We decided to stay in Gurdwara, so before traveling I met the people in the local Gurdwara to get an idea. So, we started with Amritsar and the famous Golden Temple.

Amritsar

Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. Amritsar is situated 217 kilometres northwest of state capital Chandigarh and is 32 kilometres east of Lahore, Pakistan and therefore, very close to India's western border with Pakistan.

Harminder Sahib

The Harmandir Sahib, also referred to as the Golden Temple, Construction of the gurdwara was begun by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, and completed by his successor, Guru Arjan Dev. In the early nineteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh secured the Punjab region from outside attack and covered the upper floors of the gurdwara with gold, which gives it its distinctive appearance and English name of "Golden Temple".

It was October and it was durga Puja time. We reached Amritsar by a train with same name. We reached Amritsar around eight in the morning and got bus waiting there that belongs to Gurdwara itself. It was a free ride. Once we reached there we got a room too in Guru Arjan Dev Niwas. After the bath first thing we did was visited the Golden Temple. I was amazed by the beauty and surrounding. That afternoon we had food at the Gurdwara itself. Visiting Gurdwaras and having food at langar is not new for me. I had long association with some wonderful Sikh people but the arrangement in this Langar was exceptional. It is opened to all throughout the day and rich and poor eating together. The other things which fascinated me was the discipline in the temple. There were Kar Sevaks, those are serving the temple in every department, cleaning, washing dishes and helping in other area too. Lakhs of peoples visiting every day yet there is not a single untoward incident registered.

The real surprise was stored when we visited Wagah border, I heard about it but never knew that the experience would be the

Wagah Border

Wagah is the only road border crossing between India and Pakistan, and lies on the Grand Trunk Road between the cities of Amritsar, India and Lahore, Pakistan. Wagah itself is a village through which the controversial Radcliffe Line was drawn. The village was divided by independence in 1947. Today, the eastern half of the village remains in the Republic of India while the western half is in Pakistan.

The Wagah border, often called the "Berlin wall of Asia", is a ceremonial border on the India–Pakistan Border where each evening there is a retreat ceremony called 'lowering of the flags', which has been held since 1959. At that time there is an energetic parade by the Border Security Force (B.S.F) of India and the Pakistan Rangers soldiers. It may appear slightly aggressive and even hostile to foreigners but in fact the paraders are imitating the pride and anger of a Cockerel. Troops of each country put on a show in their uniforms with their colorful turbans. Border officials from the two countries sometimes walk over to the offices on the other side for day to day affairs. The happenings at this border post have been a barometer of the India-Pakistan relations over the years.

We traveled there by a car but then have to walk a kilometer. The mood in the crowds were very charged one during 'lowering of the flags' at sunset. In the evening we came to back to Gurdwara but my mood was remain charged with same emotion.

Next day we explored the places near by the Gurdwara and no need to say that includes Jalianwala Bagh and day after that we left Amritsar by car. Those two days was very special one, one for the Golden Temple itself and other one for Wagah Border.

!!!While standing at the border had a unique feeling, I felt like more Indian than before!!!