How to make your presentation effective - 10/20/30 rule

 Have you ever presented yourself in front of an audience ? Then you may have use slides for your talk to make it better.

But did it really improve or destroy your talk?

 Lets find out few facts that may be things you will not like to see if you are in an audience. Because that is the best place to give a verdict about a presentation.

Here are few common errors that i have observed in the presentations which you should avoid. 

1) Too much text in the presentation

How often have we seen the entire wikipedia or at least close to that in slides? Slides are not meant to be read. Believe me if you let the audience read slides you loose attention. You loose some of the audience. Once they are out of your story it is not easy to grab them back.  Maximum 10 words would be ideal. If you can find a single picture which gives the idea at once fantastic use that..

2) Too much slides in the presentation

Do not try to overload the presentation. Usually if have lots of slides then you are at the risk of going out of your time limits.  Be careful not to give lots of ideas in your presentation. Usually i follow a rule of 3. Which means pitch 3 key ideas to the audience and make sure they remember that 3 even after the presentation.

3) Slide formatting.

If you have letters in the slides the text size and the text formatting matters a lot. Text should look great in the presentation screen and not only on your laptop/desktop screen. Use bigger fonts as possible and make sure everyone can see without any effort. Use a proper standard font which looks neat ,well spaced and easy on eyes.

Following video describes a better way to optimize your slides or a good framework. Using 10/20/30 rule.

1) 10 -  slides

2) 20 - minutes

3) 30 - minimum font size.

Just watch this short video and you will understand it better.

http://guykawasaki.com/the_102030_rule/

How to use python BOTO framework to connect to Amazon EC2

 Python Boto framework is an excellent tool to automate things with Amazon. You have almost everything to automate Amazon EC2 using this comprehensive library.

A quick guide on how to use it in your project

1) Configure your EC2 credentials to be used by your application using one of the followings.

• /etc/boto.cfg - for site-wide settings that all users on this machine will use
• ~/.boto - for user-specific settings
• ~/.aws/credentials - for credentials shared between SDKs 

http://boto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/boto_config_tut.html

2) Refer the API and choose what you need to do.

http://boto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/#currently-supported-services

3) Sample code for a simple autoscaler written using Boto framework. You may reuse the code in your projects quickly. This autoscaler spawn new instances based on the spike pattern of the load.

https://gist.github.com/shelan/b4a3f3ed0ccf9b4777e5

Perfect Memory.. A Skill developed or a gifted super natural ?

 In the previous post i discussed about the importance of developing a most important gift a human has inside his brain.... the memory.

In this world we have externalized most of the important stuff to external digital world. In a way it has made things evolving faster. We are gathering much more knowledge than earlier. Wait.. Is it knowledge or knowledge pointers?

The most suitable word is knowledge pointers using which we can retrieve knowledge easily. Imagine a world without internet or any other form of knowledge reference. How far can we survive.? We are loosing our capability of retaining information in our brains day by day and making the external storages cost effective at an similar pace.

I am striving to regain that capability if i have lost and see how far i can succeed. Because following video will be one of your eye openers if you are one of the crazy people how would like to travel back to history and master one of the key aspects of a perfect Human being.

This is a Ted talk which you will be fascinated to watch.

"There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique — called the memory palace — and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him"

Handy Mac OSX shortcuts to work with Terminal

Clean up the line: You can use Ctrl+U to clear up to the beginning.

Clean up the line: Ctrl+A Ctrl+K to wipe the current line in the terminal 

Cancel the current command/line: Ctrl+C.

Recall the deleted command: Ctrl+Y

Go at the beginning of the line: Ctrl+A

Go at the end of the line: Ctrl+E

Remove the forward words for example, if you are middle of the command: Ctrl+K

Remove characters on the left, until the beginning of the word: Ctrl+W

To clear your entire command prompt: Ctrl + L

Toggle between the start of line and current cursor position: Ctrl + XX

Source : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9679776/how-do-i-clear-delete-the-current-line-in-terminal

How to Remote Debug Standalone Hadoop

  When you run your map reduce applications you may have hiccups here and there and may need to have a look inside. If you need to remote debug rather going through logs and figuring out what went wrong following is the procedure.

I am using Intellij Idea as the IDE but for other IDE's process is similar.

1) In Intellij Idea go to Run > Edit Configuration and then click on "+" . And then add Remote for "Remote Debugging"

2) You will have following window after clicking on Remote. You can change the port you are using for remote debugging in this panel.

3) Open your Hadoop Root folder and navigate to etc/hadoop-env.sh in your editor. At the bottom of the file add the following line. (Make sure to have the port you given for IDE configuration as the address)

export HADOOP_OPTS="-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=5005"

Now you can start hadoop in standalone mode and it will wait until you attach your IDE to debug process to resume.

Cabo Da Roca - Western Most Cape of Europe

 It is a new country for me and it is full of new places to travel. Luckily we have one friend at the apartment who knows the area pretty well. So we did not have much trouble in locating the places to visit but if you travel by public transport following information would be useful for you.

  If you are near IST you need to travel from Alameda Metro station to Cais do Sodré station which is at the end of Green line. Then you need to get the Train from Cais do Sodré station to Cascais. To travel up to Cascais you can obtain a travel card from Metro station which covers all 4 forms of transportation including Bus, Metro, Train and Ferry. You have different options but it is better to buy  a viva via gem card if you are a non frequent traveller. It is reusable and reloadable card.

source :http://www.metrolisboa.pt/eng/customer-info/viva-viagem-card

Loading this card with 10 Euros would be enough as we experienced and you can top up it from train stations or metro stations conviniently. It is advisable to keep 5,10 Euro notes as sometimes it will issue receipt for balance which you should claim at train stations if you try to recharge from a train station. Believe me it is a hassle :(.

 You should spend some time at Cascais as it is a beautiful area with lots of tourist and local activities. We stayed there before moving to Cabo da Roca.

                  This was truly a beautiful beach...

From Cascais you need to get 403 bus operated by scottrub. It is usually has one hour frequency. It will go via Cabo da Roca to Sentra and you have to get down from the Cabo da Roca on the way. These buses does not have display boards for the stops but Cabo da Roca is a special stop and you know once you arrive there and just enjoy the breathtaking views out side on the way from the bus. (Believe me it is a special stop ;) )

Cabo da Roca is the western most point of the Europe mainland. You will be surely amazed how picturesque the view is. You will lost in your thoughts for a moment when you reach the top. But make sure not to fall out from the top to Atlantic ocean while taking selfies.. Cos' it is a shame that you cannot tell how magnificent it was to you friends :P