What programming language is better for beginners?

For many people who have studied Computer Science, programming is a very normal task. If we decide to classify programming languages, I will categorize them into Business and Academic programming languages. What do I mean by Academic and Business languages? Ok, let's shed the light on them. 

When I was younger and I graduated in Software Engineering. I knew some Pascal and C++. We did some basic jobs with them such as calculation. However, I was wondering how the professional softwares like Photoshop has been created?! For the first time that my friend showed me his windows app which was written in Delphi, I discovered what is going on. I discovered some languages are created for making professional applications. From that time I started to use Visual Studio 2003. It was very interesting for me to write a visual program that its appearance was similar to windows softwares. Business programming languages refers to those programming languages.

For a long time I did not know why there are many academic programming languages. Such as Fortran, Perl and so on. But gradually when I started my higher education I get to know. Because in academia, we are walking on the edge of science and scholar are working on new idea and theories. So, they need strong and simple languages for their implementation. Some of their calculations are so heavy, so why they should use the memory for spacious DLL files?! 

I know you scare when you go in the bookstore and computer sections. You see a lot of programming languages. From C to Python, PHP, JSP and so on. However, in my idea if somebody learns the C++ or Java for the first step of programming career, it would be very useful for his/her future. Because they are very near to machine language and execution of softwares that are written by them is much faster than other languages. By learning C++ or Java you can learn the concept of object oriented programming very well. Moreover, if you want to shift to another language, it would be much easier. For example, the syntax of Python and many other languages are very similar to C++ and Java. Good performance of C has caused that other practical and strong script tool is created by it. For instance, MATLAB and R which are very powerful tools in academic and business. After learning them, based on your goal you can go to other programming languages or script languages.

Maybe you say, I want to be a web programmer, why not jumping to HTML and XML coding. You are right, you can do it. However, at the end you have to do dynamic programming for web pages. For example, with ASP, PHP or JSP. If you go with PHP, your problem is less. Because PHP has a simple syntax, but if you know C or Java,for example, you can learn it super faster. In another case, you have to write ASP with C# or Basic language and JSP with Java. So, in this case you are in trouble. Do not panic from programming, it is fun to order to the computer and keep in mind that C and Java are two brothers that can be helpful for everybody in the computer world.

I hope it could help you to start programming

Confusion in PhD

Confusion always exists in PhD, but at different levels. For people who are fresh or they have a clear and well-defined problem statement, it would be easier. For me it was very tough because I changed my field unintentionally. My BS was software engineering, for MS I shifted to IT management and my Dissertation subject was about ERP Implementation in Steel Company. I wanted to continue my PhD in IT management as well. I applied for some American universities. However, Business is very competitive field in the US, especially at PhD level. My GMAT score was not that much high to compete with other candidates probably. Anyway, I did not have any other options but Malaysia. In Malaysia, after one year and half and changing a supervisor, the condition forced me to change the subject as well. Suddenly, I end up in Data Mining area! Because the new supervisor belonged to AI department! OMG, what am I doing here? It was late. However, there were not other way! If I wanted to move to another university, it was costly and time consuming process. Nevertheless, I liked this new area more than ERP that I was working on it before. So, I decided to learn everything from scratch. The most difficult part was that nobody was here to help me!

Sometime I get a headache. I have some papers that are speaking in advance level and I even do not know the terminology of the new area. It was a nightmare at the beginning. SVM? What is it? Threshold! OMG. It is very, very complicated sometimes. You think that you are a moron in the Neverhood. But, I am thankful that we are living in the world with the Internet. I should confess my teachers were the YouTube, Google and online courses. I do not know what did I do if there was no internet!

I do not know, maybe you that reading this post have such condition and you are in confusion. My advice as a person who was in high pressure and very long confusion is to use the Internet to teach yourself and be patient. I know sometime you are thinking of leaving the PhD and come back to your ex-life. However, I promise you, if you remain strong and patient, gradually this confusion will disappear. I agree it is very difficult, but all of us for a reason stared the PhD. Where there is a will, there is a way. Communicate with other scholar around the world, use the power of the cyber world. We can do it. I am sure.

We should be happy for who we are

Today I went to visit one of my friends. He is doing his PhD as well in KL. At the morning I met him in Yahoo Messenger and he asked what is my plan for today. Because today was a holiday, I decided to go to the swimming pool. He proposed me to join him and swim in their condo's pool. I thought it can be cool and accepted.

My friend was luckier than me and his supervisor had a well-defined proposal and he started to work with her with RA instantly. I always thought he was a fortunate guy. His PhD way was very smooth, he was a married guy and he had the chance to work in Singapore as well.

Finally, I get to his home. An old condo with long and dark vestibule. It reminded me the basement of Gestapo during the second world war that I had seen in the movies. With a row of opaque lights at the center. I saw someone at the end of the darkness is waving his hand. "Yeap it is here". His apartment was sweet apartment without bedroom and very dark. You could smell the dampness in the home clearly. Apparently, his wife had gone back to his homeland.

After a small conversation about the PhD situation, I felt he is not well that much. However, I did not take it seriously. We went to the pool and he said I do not feel well because last night I used a strong pill and after that I drunk alcohol. Last night I got optical illusion and I saw two kids. I was laughing at him. I could not believe him. After an hour we decided to go for launch. When he was wearing his clothes I felt he cannot keep his balance. Suddenly, he went to the kitchen and I heard that he is regurgitating. "OMG what happened?!" even he could not answer. I took a glass of water to him and leave him alone. I felt my presence can hurt his pride and maybe he does not like that I see him in this situation. He came out from the kitchen, but he was pale. Are you alright? Do you need help? Please rest...But he insisted that he is OK and it is because of alcohol. "Let's go out".

With his insists that he is OK, we left the house. On our way he was talking about Stephen Hopkins and his family problems that I saw he fell down on the street. I shocked! He was lucky that at that time we had a distance to the cars and they stopped. I took his arm and direct him to sit on the safety guard. In that time I really felt he is really sick. Still, he said :"I am alright. My foot twisted". However, I clearly saw he was dizzy and all his words about optical illusion was not a joke.

Finally, we got to the mall and eat our KFC. He continued his words and he kept asking some strange questions from me such as "What is your worst memory?". "What is the best for you in the world?",.. He gives some idea about psychology.. I asked about the pills that he had used and he indirectly answered that it was a drug for depression. I heard from a common friend that he is using the medicine. However, I did not have any idea what is his health problem. Usually, in such personal issues, I do not ask that many questions and try to be not curious. I do not like to penetrate into people's privacy and cause pain for them.

When I was going back to the home. During walking, I thought to all the today's incidents. I told myself. Never regret about others' lives. They have many big problems that they do not show to others. Just like an ice mountain, They only show the nice part of their lives to others. Be yourself and be happy. It was a big lesson for me. When I was watching the beautiful sunset in the KL sky, I was thinking how happy man I am...

Academic Discrimination in Malaysia

A few days ago my Iraqi housemate told me about Student Discount Card at Malaysia. It seems that they launched this card for student to live easier during their studying. He had heard this news from his Malaysian classmates. The card gives 60% discount for some services and food. 25% discount for domestic flights and many other useful discounts. I become happy because we thought finally after long time Malaysia has decided to give some facilities to students like other countries. They called it KADS1M.

The day after this news all student got an email in Malay language about this card. It was strange for me why they sent an important email like this in Malay?! In the email it was mentioned that for receiving card please go to your faculty. I was at lab and I went to counter. Yes, Students were collecting their cards. I become happy again and I said yes It was a true news and they did finally noticed to students' life. I stood up at queue. When it becomes my turn she told me are you Malaysian citizen?! I replied No I am not. She told me "We are sorry. This card is only for Malaysian Citizens!". OMG, Why? We are not student here?! She did not have any response. 

It was one another sample of distinction in Malaysia and especially in academic places. Every country has some programs for supporting students because students do not have any job and are weaker than other cast in society. So, when you launch this program why you separate international student from it?! International students in Malaysia are paying double or even more tuition fee. Most of RA and TA positions belong to Malaysians. International students have been promoting Malaysian ranking universities in the world with publishing ISI papers even in some cases with force. But now they assign facilities only to Malaysian citizen.Is it fair? 

These behavior shows still Malaysia is developing countries and do not want to exit from third world. 

Difficulties to Be Iranian Citizen

It is not clear what's going on at Iran economy. During one month Iranian currency lost 25% its power again. It had lost 50% its worth last year. But it was shocking news for Iranian Students which are studying abroad and they have to pay their living cost in foreign currencies. Unfortunately, my money is only enough for this year. If the condition become worst which is not unlikely, because of corrupted Iranian government and  its  sucking regime, I should leave Malaysia forever and go back to Iran. It is very sad when you are living in a rich country from every points of views and because of a rotten ideology all the world should contempt you. ( It is very painful when your nationality make a lot of problem for you. Going back to Iran is also a disaster for many Iranian students. There is no job opportunities over there and inflation rate is horrible. I really I do not know what should I do?! I wish I were citizen of a developed and stable country. I wish there were more hopes to feature. As an Iranian you should live in fear everyday. Under the shade of War. We are afraid of tomorrow because we do not know if we have today's facility or not?! We do not know again Islamic Regime wants to act against who and attack to which embassy?! 

I want a free Domain

Ok, we assume that you have created a website with PHP, MySQL or even with Joomla or pure HTML. You need a domain for example www.sample.com. Usually for having a domain with popular postfix like .com, .net, .org and etc you should pay money for renting these domain for one year or more. If you are going to launch a business website, so you should pay and buy it. Nevertheless, for personal usage or academic usage domain name is not a big deal. When you use from a host service actually that host assign you a free domain name. But these names are not very short and remembering them is difficult for your audiences. For instance www.tobacco.webhostfree.com. So, what is the solution? Fortunately, there are some domain that are free and short. Today I want to introduce one of them to you.

If you are looking for a free and short domain and you want your domain address be just similar to commercial website, you can use Dot TK. With free service of this domain you will have something like this: www.yourwebsite.tk. It is nice, isn't it? The process of membership is very easy and straightforward. Just go to www.dot.tk and register and select a meaningful name for your domain address. You will have this domain at last for one year free. During this time you can be sure if you are successful person in cyber world or not. Do you want to continue your activity here or not? Does it worth to invest on a website or not? 

Do not forget to change the host name of your domain to your host. If you do not do that. Your domain address is not connected to your server and cannot load your website to the browser. Check your host and look for Host name or IP address. Then modify your domain address and change your host name address to something that you have. That is it. Congratulation for your new and nice Domain name. Be successful in cyber world.

If you need Dot TK just click on below banner. Thanks.

My Online Card Sorting Is Ready

It is around two weeks which I working to make my online survey. As you knew there is no free option for doing online survey especially with card sorting technique. So, I decided to design it with PHP and MySQL. It was very interesting and enjoyable activity to build it myself. I love DIY.  You can take a look at it and feel how it will be if you make your card sorting survey yourself.

Absolutely, It worth to do it. However, at least you should have some background in HTML, programming and database designing. Another requirements are PHP, Javascript, Jquery, CSS. If you have these capabilities and you want to build your online card sorting website, you can do it quickly and easily.

Now I am looking for free host and domain. If you know a good one which support PHP, Apachi and MySql version 5 and above please let me to know. Thanks a lot.