Woke up quite early; at around 3:30 A.M. and had to catch a flight from Bangalore at around 6:30 A.M. The destination was Hyderabad. After one hour’s flight journey, I had my breakfast from Greenpark restaurant (a decent one I must add) along with another Sun fellow Raju Alluri and the Chairman of the Holy Mary’s Institute of Technology and Science(http://www.hitscoe.ac.in). In fact the main and the only purpose of my journey to Hyderabad was to conduct a seminar on Java at the aforesaid college. After having the breakfast we travelled towards the college. It was a good one hour drive from the Green Park restaurant. It appears to be me that the college was located in an isolated area and kept wondering how the students commuted. But then, later realized that the college had a dozen buses from the city to carry their students. We were welcomed by the Principal of the college. It was nice to be back in a college; a cherished, nourished and protected environment. Raju gave a wonderful presentation on various Sun technologies that mainly revolved around Solaris 10 and Sun servers. I felt that the initial few minutes were tough for me as the students, who attended the seminar took some time to get into the groove. Raju ran through several slides that talked about some important features of Solaris 10 (that included ZFS, DTrace, FMA and SMF). He gave some good examples of the various ranges of Server that is marketed by Sun. I heard a sigh of wonder from the audience, when Raju discussed about the 25K server. I liked the way he handled the questions from the audience (to my surprise there were lot of questions from the student community). The way he answered the questions clearly reflected the decades of experience he has in the field of Information Technology. A few questions that I am able to recollect are mentioned below:
a) Why should someone prefer Solaris/Linux to Windows?
b) On a scale of five how would rate Solaris, Linux and Windows (in terms of Virus attack?
c) How feasible is to assemble a Sun Server by buying its parts?
d) Is Open Office available for Windows operating system?
e) How would a Sun Technology help an Electrical & Electronics Engineering Student?
My session started at around 2:30 P.M. I was in no mood to have lunch. So I had only a short lunch and rushed to the venue. Students assembled by around 2:30 P.M. As usual I had no plans. But the flow I feel was good and I was personally satisfied towards the end of the presentation. My seminar emphasized on the application of Java Programming Language, its scope and more importantly on the importance of getting Sun certified. I could speak the latter aspect from my heart because I myself got certified on Java Programming Language, when I was in my 7th semester in Engineering College. And I know the level of confidence that I achieved after that. Perhaps, it is that calculated risk of bunking several sessions during my seventh semester and focussing myself on Java Technology and getting myself certified in the same laid the foundation of getting into Sun Microsystems. I know I spoke truthfully and spoke from the heart and I only hope that at least a handful of my younger friends get benefitted by the same and focus themselves for a productive career. I felt really exhausted towards the end of the presentation. Raju and myself rushed back to the City. I was early in the airport. Thank God my flight was on time.