The largest Romanian IXP is Interlan . Funny enough, Interlan is a response of the smaller ISPs  to the other big Romanian IXP, Ronix. Because 3 years ago joining Ronix was a complicated affair, a few small companies decided to take matters into their own hands. Currently,  Interlan has 3 times more traffic than Ronix.

Today I’ve received wonderful news! I have been accepted to the System And Network Engineering Master at the University of Amsterdam! Starting from the end of August I’ll be relocating to Amsterdam for one year of full geek experience (hopefully!). I can not thank enough my girlfriend on being such a great support and motivator.Without her nothing could have happened.  Also my teachers (esp prof. Rughinis and prof. Tapus) at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science at University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest have been great mentors and supporters of my admission.

This could be a good time to add this blog to your RSS reader as starting from September I’ll be posting regularly on both geek related stuff and the lifestyle of an international student in the Netherlands.

Having an online presence is no longer such a big deal. With a few dollars a year you can get your own .com (or other top-level-domain) and another few dollars a month get you a hosting plan which provides you a couple megabytes for website storage and a number of email accounts. So with a small investment you can have a decent email like name.sourname@somedomain.com . That’s something that you could put on your personal business card. Few know that you can skip the email service offered by your webhost  and instead use a more reliable service.

Both Microsoft and Google offer domain email hosting as a free service. Microsoft calls this Windows Live Custom Domains ( https://domains.live.com/ ) while Google calls it’s service Google Apps ( http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html )

Using these services is quite simple. You just have to prove that you are indeed the owner of the domain and make some DNS modifications so that emails will be handled by Google or Microsoft. Modifying the DNS records is a process that can be made using the web interface set up by your hosting provider (the one that hosts your DNS records) or by directly edition your DNS configuration in case you manage the DNS yourself. Either way both Microsoft and Google give you directions on how and what to modify.
For the tech savvy readers there are 2 basic steps: add a CNAME record containing a random string to prove that you are the rightful owner and then modify the MX records with the one provided in the instructions. It’s not that complicated.

Why should you do this?
Well both Microsoft and Google provide a better service than a normal hosting company when it comes to reliability. Sure, you don’t sign a contract that mentions any SLA but statistically speaking both offer a kick-ass service. You don’t have to worry about backups, downtime, spam and so on. It just works. For small operations, say personal email or small companies like startups , this kind of service is ideal as it cuts costs and/or gives less headaches.
Using the administration page you can create, delete or reset any email account. If someone messes up his/hers password you can simply reset the account. 
By using either the Microsoft based service or the Google one you get access to other related services like Office Online or Google Docs because the created email accounts serve as Live IDs or Google Accounts. This opens a new world of online collaboration. I know a few startups that use these kind of services.

What are the downsides?
You don’t own your email (carefully read the EULA’s ) and some may not like this.
You are limited to 50 or 100 email accounts and when you hit that limit you have to upgrade to a paid service. Individuals and small companies will just ignore this.
The web mail interface will display ads just as gmail.com or live.com. Adblocker type software could make this a non-issue.
You get little to no tech support. This can be neglected by individuals or small companies considering the advantages.

Access to the email account is made either by browser or by email client. Google Apps email can be accessed by POP3, IMAP and webmail. Unfortunately Windows Live Custom Domains does not offer access using the IMAP or POP3 protocols. To use Outlook you need to install a small piece of software called Office Outlook connector. The advantage of this approach is that besides email you can synchronize your address book and calendars. The IMAP and POP3 protocols don’t allow that. For Thunderbird + live you need a plugin but you get only basic service : get/send emails, no calendar .

With 9$ a year you could get a .com domain. You just need a public DNS server to host your records and that’s it, you can sign up for free email hosting.

Regarding DNS hosting, this is really not an issue. http://freedns.afraid.org/ is a very good option. If you don’t like it you could always ask your geek friend to help you out.

It’s hard to tell which service is best. Right now I’m using both Live Custom Domains and Google Apps and I’m quite happy with either one. It all depends on what you want to achieve.

After a year or more of using Goggle Apps I’m thinking of decommissioning all of my postfix installs (yes postfix is better than qmail) and switching to one of the above options. Having a full blown email server (even if it’s just a virtual machine with just enough resources serving many domains by means of sql and virtual domains) seems more and more a waste of time and resources for small operations.

I have a gut feeling that more and more companies will outsource the email service. I’ve seen this happening on a large scale in a few Universities in Romania.  The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies is using Google Apps to offer email accounts to all it’s students ( that’s more than 20.000 accounts!). Likewise there’s a small implementation of Live @EDU , a Microsoft programme that basically does the same thing, in the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers at the POLITEHNICA University in Bucharest (that’s about 3000 accounts, give or take). 

• ASP.NET (dezvoltare web)
• MS SQL (baze de date)
• Windows Sockets (API de comunicare peste o retea de calculatoare)
• XNA (framework pentru dezvoltarea de jocuri).

Pagina de inscriere este: http://studentclub.ro/evenimente/DetaliiEveniment.aspx?ID=675

O observatie pentru studentii de la Automatica si Calculatoare, UPB: particparea la Summer Activities implica si primirea din partea Facultatii a adeverintei de practica de vara.

SMP – Sisteme cu MultiProcesoare – prof. dr. ing. Francisc Iacob
Cursul e un fel de ASC + PM (proiectarea cu multiprocesoare) + CN (calculatoare numerice).Se prezinta arhitecturi paralele (si componente) de la nivel de fier ( clustere) pana la nivel de procesor ( unitate de arbitraj).In curs apar si diversi algoritmi implicati in sistemele multiprocesor. Cursul e foarte bine actualizat cu informatii cu cel mult 2-3 ani vechime (e o performanta!!!). Calitatea slideurilor e foate buna iar proful stie bine ce preda. Laboratorul se face tot cu proful si pentru a lua punctaj maxim trebuie realizate anumite lucrari de laborator (programe). Tehnolgiile intalnite sunt MPI, OpenMP, threads, verilog. Se poate lua foarte foarte usor nota mare, examenul fiind openbook. Daca exista si disponibilitate se poate ramane cu informatie utila si dupa curs. 8/10

PRC – Proiectarea retelelor de calculatoare – conf. dr. ing Razvan Rughinis
Continuarea cursului de RL (retele locale). Continutul cursului consta in prezentarea mai multor protocoale de rutare (RIP,OSPF,BGP) si a altor tehnolgii/concepte intalnite in retelistica (ipv6, dhcp, nat). Laboratorul se desfasoara pe platforma dynamips (un emulator de echipamente cisco). Pentru linistea studentului este recomandata experienta prealabila cu tehnologia Cisco (se poate recupera totusi). Laboratoarele sunt task-based si se noteaza in consecinta. Atmosfera este mult mai relaxata decat la RL. Pe langa laborator exista doua teste grila si o proba practica. Testele grila au suferit de bolile copilariei (intrebari ambigue) si eu la prima runda am gresit cu nonsalanta intrebari banale. Accentul pe tehnologia Cisco ar putea sa lase un gust amar celor ce prefera alti vendori/organizatii. La examen se pastreaza o mica parte din tendinta de hiper-organizare de la RL. O observatie interesanta: se poate obtine 5-ul dupa un examen ce se da din primele 4 cursuri. Obinerea 5-ului este o optiune finala (nu se poate creste dupa ce te-ai decis ca vrei 5). Util celor care nu au /nu vor sa aiba/nu vor avea tangente cu retelistica.In alti ani se proceda mai simplu (o foaie cu cei ce vor 5) 8/10

UBD – Utilizarea bazelor de date – prof. dr. Florin Radulescu – C5
O reintalnire cu asistentii favoriti de la baze de date. Se studiaza exclusiv administrarea bazelor de date oracle. Laboratorul consta in lecturarea timp de mai bine de o ora a unor documentatii si executarea ulterioara a unor “exercitii” dictate in 5minute. Laboratorul se incheie cu o lucrare ce necesita o doza oarecare de noroc (intocmai ca la BD). Cursul urmareste acelasi traseu ca si laboratorul: fisiere de date, tabele, indecsi, etc. Exista o lucrare de mijloc de semestru (openbook) si un examen final. Notele sunt relativ mari. Personal nu gasesc rostul acestui curs, Oracle nefiind o tehnologie foarte populara in mediul academic. Cred ca se puteau exemplifica mult mai bine conceptele prezentate pe mysql sau postgresql (platforme opensource). Culmea, cursul de Programare Web (sem2) tinut de acelasi profesor foloseste ca suport mysql(+php). Nu imi explic de ce cursul a fost atat de popular, eu peronal neramanand cu mare valoarea dupa terminarea sa. Ce stiam legat de baze de date stiam de la BD si din experienta personala. Poate BD2 ar fi o alegere mai buna prin prisma limbajlui PL-SQL. Am totusi aici niste mici indoieli (vezi echipa de asistenti). Stiu ca multa lume a luat BD2 si UBD tocmai din ideea de a impusca doi iepuri dintr-o lovitura. Nu cunosc povesti de succes. 5/10

IOM – Interactiunea Om Masina – prof. dr. Stefan Trausan-Matu – C4
Cursul e un melanj de chestii tehnice cu psihologie, filosofie si sociologie. Primeaza informatiile tehnice. La laborator se studiaza notiuni legate de XML (DTD, XSLT, XML Schema) si HTML (XHTML, CSS, javascript/ajax) , ontologii (OWL,RDF). Atmosfera de la laborator este relaxata/placuta si poti pleca cu informatii utile dupa fiecare laborator. Examenul este grila (20 de intrebari ) + 3 probleme (openbook) ce au legatura cu ce s-a facut la laborator. Continutul cursului este diferit de ce am vazut pana acum in facultate si schimbarea de peisaj este binevenita. E unul dintre putinele cursuri unde nu m-am simtit stresat. A nu se confunda cu cursul de programare web de pe semestrul 2. 8/10

Bottom line: As alege aceeasi specializare? Da. Optionale ? In nici un caz UBD.

Windows Powershell
Windows Powershell Demo Code

Windows Power Shell

Doritorii sa se prezinte in EG101.

Prezentarea de Powershell e tinuta de subsemnatul. Daca te simti cu bashul pe caciula vino sa vezi ca se poate si altfel!

Pentru inregistrare :
http://studentclub.ro/evenimente/DetaliiEveniment.aspx?ID=655
si
http://studentclub.ro/evenimente/DetaliiEveniment.aspx?ID=656

PS: mai mult ca sigur ca pe 7 mai o sa vedem windows 7 RC1 in limba romana! Tocmai m-am inrolat in programul de beta testing!