Nothing delights me more than great books.
If you like my blog, I'd be thankful for a gift from my Amazon book wishlist. :)
(82 votes, average: 4.46 out of 5)
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My name is Peteris Krumins, I’m 25 years old and I have a degree in physics.
I chose to study physics just for fun. I have never intended to do physics in my life. Physics is interesting but I am much better with programming, hacking and computer science.
There is a good reason why I did not choose computer science as my major. By the time I finished high school I already had several years of real-world experience working as a programmer, Linux sysadmin and a white hat (computer security). If I had chosen computer science as my major, I would have wasted wast amounts of time studying what I already knew. Instead I chose to study physics; and now not only do I know computer science but also some physics and quite a bit of mathematics that is used so often in physics.
I have over 10 years of experience in programming in general, with 7 years of real-world programming experience. I have programmed in a bunch of programming languages such as Awk & Sed, Assembler, C, C++, Javascript, Perl, PHP, Python, Prolog, VBScript, Scheme and probably a few others. I am fluent in C, C++, Sed & Awk, PHP, Perl, Python and I am becoming fluent in Haskell. The next two languages that I want to master are Erlang and C#. My favorite language is Perl followed by C++ and C.
Just recently I imported over 30 of my programming related projects to GitHub - see my profile at GitHub for the full listing. These are the projects since 2007.
My hobby is watching video lectures. A few years ago I started the Free Science Online blog where I post all the free video lectures that I can find online. I also started Free Science Video website where I post various interesting science clips.
The goal of this website is to put all my knowledge and ideas out for everyone to read. I have so many ideas that it would be foolish not to write about them.
I am very passionate about what I do and I have this little dream that my site gets as popular as coding horror or the old new thing. It may take ten years, but I am ready to pursue my little dream. No one becomes successful overnight.
Enjoy my posts and I hope to read your comments and feedback!
Sincerely,
Peteris Krumins
Page keywords: peter bush, pkrumins, peter krummins, peter krumins, peteris krummins, peter krumin, peteris krumin
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August 3rd, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I liked your web site.
All the best for your future! :)
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Thank you!
August 11th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I spent some time trying to figure out how to use xmlhttp to pull a binary and write it out to a file. Your YouTube downloader did the trick. Nice code.Thanks.
August 18th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I’m older than you (only 1 year), but I’m not as mentally efficient as you are.
Like Pradeep says: all the best for your future!
OK, and now, back to work :(
August 21st, 2007 at 4:38 am
Your pretty amazing man, no doubt ull be working for google in no time.
August 21st, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Amen to that… ;)
August 21st, 2007 at 8:34 pm
meow! i’m in your site, viewing your life goals
Personally I wouldn’t have thought to do theoretical physics for fun …
August 29th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
WOW! Just wow… I am now 23 and feel old and unefficient compared to what you have achieved. Your determination inspires me.
Keep up the good work. I will keep checking back on your blog to learn of your new accomplishments.
September 1st, 2007 at 6:16 am
I have greatly enjoyed visiting your free science blog online website. Thanks, Wade
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:23 am
” during summer 2006 (2.5 months) I left my house just two times” - that says all
All the best for your future!
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:07 pm
A Google fan should be using their service instead of StatCounter, don’t you think? :D (I switched as soon as they launched the service.)
Same here!
September 4th, 2007 at 2:30 am
You are a very talented guy, I wish you the best in all of your endeavors!
You should consider throwing together a mailing list for those of us who are interested to get updates on your projects.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
All the best for your future. I hope you will get into MIT.
September 4th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Thanks everyone! :)
September 17th, 2007 at 6:31 am
aw. you sure are very passionate on programming. keep the excellent work coming in!
October 16th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Good luck for getting int MIT. Very prestigious institute, but I’ve heard from one romanian that just returned from there that there is a bit cold (emotionless … don’t know how to exactly express it). Hope you’ll find it diffrent.
October 19th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Hi Peter,
I sent you an email with the following questions but seems like it might have landed in a SPAM folder or is lost in cyberspace.
First of all, Thank you very much for sharing such great how to do stuff. I am a programmer and mainly work in Java, but new to perl and php. I have few questions, if you could answer i would be very thankful.
If the following questions might sound foolish but if you could answer them i would be grateful.
1. What OS do you use, i assume linux ( which flavor and version).
2. Seems like you are hosting www.catonmat.net on your home server as it times out a lot.
3. I am using windows XP media center, can you please tell me how can setup the scripts on laptop
to run my localhost /localserver.
4. What domain service should i register to.
5. If i do choose a hosting service, how can setup your scripts on it to test?
6. What are the best resource to learn perl and php (quick and comprehensive tutorials).
I know you are very busy with studies. If you could give me 10-15 mins of your time by answering these questions
and if you have an advice for me, i would be thankful.
I wish you all the best for the future, please keep sharing your information and keep on creating cool web app,
when you can.
Sincerely,
Shahzad
October 20th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Dear Shahzad, thanks for your questions. I replied back to you by email!
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 am
Thanks a lot for getting back to me Peteris.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:19 am
You’re welcome, Shahzad!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:01 am
Hey there Peteris, sounds like you have the right idea about stuff! I have very similar goals and also love everything about computers, open source, and programming, and have recently started my own blog along similar topic lines. I don’t have it locked down to a specific purpose, but I do have some useful, informational, humorous, and other posts so far. I would like to collaborate with you and others in the scene and would love to trade links, information, and networking opportunities. I am trying to make a popular site as well, and have a few viewers, but I need more traffic and need to meet more people. Please check out my site and let me know what you think. One thing I think could benefit both of us is a review of eachothers site. I would gladly post a detailed review of your site if you’ll post a review of mine, bonus points for encouraging people to take a look :) Please email me or leave a comment on my site and we can work out something.
Thanks,
Locke
November 13th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Best of luck to you! You’ve really been an inspiration and you’ve got great blogs! I wish you luck with getting into MIT.
November 13th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Thanks Paul. :)
November 15th, 2007 at 1:34 am
I hope you get into MIT and do something BIG
all the best
Prasad
December 6th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
[b]Sveicieni no Liepājas![/b]
Sen nebiju Tavu web lapu skatījis, tāpēc manam skatam ir visai daudz izmaiņu un uz labo pusi! :)
Lai veicās !
p.s. Ieskaties iekš draugiem, es tur uzdevu savu “newborn” jautājienu :)
December 17th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
hey…great work man…congrats….
all the wishes….
December 26th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Peteris, I am sure you will make it to MIT :)
Thanks for the lovely blog,
All the best,
Animesh
January 15th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Hey Peter, yep i did prity much base my blog on yours! i found your site a while ago and when i can to moving onto a worldpress platform i remembered your blog and thought, that’s how I want mine to look!
Just out of curiosity, when your programming under *inx what editor do you use. You’ve obviously done quite a bit and i’ve just started writing on that platform, and i cant yet find something that suits me.
Anyway, keep up the good work man, your blogs always an interesting Read.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Hi Peter !
You guy are doing grat job ! I found your website quite useful!
Keep moving foward!
February 1st, 2008 at 1:54 am
I’m glad I found the link to your site in my linuxquestions.org rss feed before the links were edited. You have a really nice page and I also love your cheat sheets. Keep up the good work!
Brian
P.S. I added your page to akregator ;-)
February 7th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Great job, good luck!
February 13th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Wish to see you at MIT some day.
Good luck. Your job is inspiratory.
February 14th, 2008 at 7:04 am
you are really blessed,that what i can say,im gyan from ghana(africa)and a MCSA, i really wanna start a new carrer in linux and programming, i will be very happy if you could tell me where to start from(with the programming).and also if u could be my mentor?im two years older than you but im willing to learn from you.
all the best.
go Peteris Krumins, go
February 24th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
peteris
i am your fan after reading your blog.You are simply amazing. I always want to be like you and have passion about computers like you. I will visit your blog frequently because it inspires me a lot.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:54 am
We-e-ery Good, Peteris!
My congratulations to You. I found much of useful in your blog for myself and for my students also.
Good Luck!!!
March 27th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Hi Peter,
I just chanced upon your blog via your post:Designing RedditRiver.com Website.
After reading your “About Me” section, you really inspires me a lot! I am sure you don’t really need a master degree from MIT, just to be successful in life. You have the single, most important ingredient for success in life - your burning passion.
Keep doing what you are doing! Success will come to you sooner than you might expect!
=)
nmt
March 29th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Latvia? What a pity.
Oh well. I’m sure there’s plenty of cute coder boys here, somewhere.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Peteris,
I like your site. It is nice that you are sharing your knowledge. I too am playing with Physics but with a narrow focus. I am an engineer but I went back to grad school this year. It is odd that MIT did not give you a reason. If you want to focus some time let me know I have a project that will soon need a man like you.
Best of luck.
James
April 19th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Labāk gan izej no mājas biežāk nekā 2 reizes. Tev jau fanu pulciņš saradies. Apsveicu !
April 29th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Amazing blog you got dude. Found it through Hacker news. You are on my reader now.
Cheers
Vaibhav
http://technofriends.in
May 13th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Congratulations for your site, is simple, clear and with lots of good stuff. You are right about studing phisics, because the computer languages comes by quickly, but the universe gonna be (exist) a lot more longer. See ya!
May 14th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Salomao, thanks for your comment! :) Physics truly rocks.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
This site and its content is amazing. I’m more than appreciative of its existence on the web. (:
May 25th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Your blogs and websites rocks. I really appreciate your commitment level. You are my inspiration. Keep up the good work.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Reddit Media is bleeding code. Might want to look at the home page.
http://reddit.picurls.com/
June 7th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Don’t give up on MIT so easily!! You are only just graduating with your BS degree. Many folks go back to school after working a few years. Keep applying until you get in! Good luck!
June 8th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Great webpage and projects
June 14th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Am I here the only one that believes that something is not going on well with this guy?
Seriously, is that the thing you highlight as being the greatest achievement you have done in your life?
Let me ask you some questions…
Have you ever traveled for fun to another country?
Have you ever played with a child and laughed with it?
Have you ever been on holidays to the beach (or similar) with some friends of you?
Have you ever made love to a girl?
Did any girl that didn’t know what’s a subroutine ever make you a fellatio?
Have you ever planted a flower or a tree without the final purpose to dry it and smoke it afterwards?
Have you read the “Le Petit Prince” (The Little Prince)?
Have you ever cried for emotionally hurting someone?
Good luck, thanks for the tips, take care and be happy because life’s probably all those other things.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:22 am
It seems your intentions are good but maybe you should work a bit on your communication skills and selective quoting because what I just quoted seems like a bit of an inflammatory response don’t you think? Nowhere does Peteris call it an achievement, it’s just an indication of his passion for programming.
On-topic: Thanks Peteris for this website, I came here through Reddit and I’m really liking your posts on the Bash shell. All the best!
June 20th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Your enthusiasm is really inspiring! Reading your blog I must realize how many things there are that I don’t know. But I’m sure I’ll learn a lot here. Keep on hacking! :)
June 30th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Peteris,
Really liked the website and will return regularly. I look forward to checking out the online lectures. I to enjoy them. I studied physics at Univ of Michigan and loved it. I have recently found it necessary and most interesting to hack and program in C++ and python with a dash of perl. Java looks fun, but I just don’t have the time. Hope to talk to you again.
Good luck!
July 5th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Peteris,
You really have a very well-trained brain. Universities are just for those who need job certificates. If you have a good brain, no need to worry about money. But you are really like a giant in programming. Keep up the good works. Never give up until you die trying.
P.S. I am 18 years old and going to learn B.E(electrical). If you have some useful websites on Engineering and Programming(other than yours because I just start to learn programming), plz share me some. Good luck again by achieving your AIMS. :).
July 7th, 2008 at 5:40 am
I’m sorry to read that M.I.T. didn’t work out for you! You will be very successful at whatever you put your mind to (as if that wasn’t already evident)!!
All the best,
Lane
July 13th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Never been good at commenting… But, while working in IT since seventeen, studied theorethical physics too, I’ve never seen such a hot lad anywhere near. Always thought of placing one’s picture next to his work as of pointless, irritating self-promotion. And cruelty. Now you didn’t left me any choice but to become your groupie.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Sorry,but you look like a little, cute girl in that photo :(.
Could you add a separate RSS feed that only pulls the songs? I would like to add that to iTunes.
Cheers
July 18th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Men you are some man! You are what I wanna be .I studied physics too for the programmung aspect of it.I love programming a lot but power problem in africa hasn’t helped
Rememeber to keep up the good work when u ‘re at the top.
Good luck believe in you men
July 18th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I’ve got your site from del.icio.us and I’m loving it. I’ve added u in my RSS feed.And going to visit this site regularly.
Keep the good work…
August 6th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
First of all, I love your blog. It’s very useful to the programming community. I’m disappointed that you gave up your dream of going to MIT just because you were rejected once. There were hundreds of applicants competing for few spots at MIT. Those who got in are smart, too. Even though they might not be as smart as you are. From your blog, you come across as immature and one-sided. Your application probably gave off the same vibe. When you’re a little older and understand life outside of programming a little better, you will make a great candidate. Please don’t give up your dream so easily. Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school junior varsity team the first time he tried. It’s true that you don’t need MIT to be an alpha programmer. You are already an alpha programmer. On the other hand, since you don’t need MIT to become an alpha programmer, why should MIT give you that spot? I hope to see you try something that’s hard for you like making friends with average intelligent people. The people you meet on this blog are too like-minded. Go out and explore the other side of the intellectual spectrum and let me know what you think. Please, please, don’t give up your MIT dream just yet.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:07 am
wow! you are an inspiration to me at my middle age… i am beginning to learn programming by myself… I know i can get it and your site beats everything i can find in a book…thanks so much!
August 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
hey peteris!
i like your blog and you seem like a swell guy. all the best! -jn
August 26th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Nice blogs d00d but I have to agree with Ignasi. Seems to be a very unhealthy lifestyle. Kinda scary too - hope it’s not a case of burnout soon. Mate, you’re 23! Go have a life! Passion for programming is understandable but this somehow borders on maniacal. Hope you take it the right way. Peace!
August 26th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Nice blog.. nice to meet you..
August 27th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I love your blog. Your blog is very useful for computer professionals and students.
Thanks.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Your website and your studies is amazing! I too studied in the physics and hope to be one day 1/10 of the programmer you are. Keep it up!
August 28th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I landed here from dzone and found that you have put together a wealth of information on your blog. Am subscribing right away. Thanks for sharing all this stuff and good luck for your future endeavors.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Nice blog… I´m 22 years old and you make me feel useless :p I graduated last year with a bachelor degree in Computer Science, and as you did… I dream of studying at MIT. So, I urge you not to give up, if you once dreamed of going there… you will be there.
You got an A for your work on this blog!!! ;-)
August 29th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Ko lai saka, - VARENI! :)
August 31st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Hi,
please tell me how to run website from my own PC (dynamic IP,broadband 256kbps, dsl) ?
thanks.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
Why every computer passionate ( aka nerd, geek ) want to study at MIT ( including me ) ? :P
hahah… great thoughts, great ideas, great blog!
September 8th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
“August 29th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
WOW! Just wow… I am now 23 and feel old and unefficient compared to what you have achieved. Your determination inspires me. ”
I am 25. And yes I feel old and unefficient too compared to Peter.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I know it is written ‘inefficient’, but love the unefficient’s touristic sound.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:33 am
hi peter, very nice blog. please keep continue posting videos.
and best of luck.
September 20th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Hi Peter,
You could try again at MIT or try Stanford or some others.
Or why go to the US universities or to Universities at
all when you are a university onto yourself!
Take care!
September 21st, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Hey man!
Nice shit you got here!
I’m really looking into it.
you got a beer from me, man!
Keep it up!
September 27th, 2008 at 12:58 am
I love your website and I love you even more .
I hope that you achieve all your targets
God bless you
October 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I’ve arrived to this blog just by chance, as I was looking about an “Microsoft.XMLHTTP + Access is denied” problem.
Then I found the Youtube downloader example, a great vbs utility for me and also helped me to learn more about programming
This blog will be a complete success soon and a reference source for programmers
And I’m really very happy to have found this blog
Cheers!!!
October 10th, 2008 at 5:19 am
wow!! very interesting person.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Nice ego-centric attitude. ;)
You’re able to go without a social life, you self-taught several languages, you’re interested by other subject, etc… Great! It’s just like many other coders/hackers online, what’s new?
Just an advice: if you plan to go onto big software projects with huge code baseline, a bit learning of software engineering (not just programming languages) might help a lot…
October 17th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Most of the thoughts u’ve got matches me but in an opposite fashion. I dreamt of being into physics. Ended as an Electornics engineer. Thought would end up as an efficient Electornics engineer. But, after engineering my dreams of chips were left over to potatoes ;-) Now I ended up being a software engineer though not educated as a software engineer.
I have been reading this space for quite sometime now. Its very interesting nd good. The musicals u got in there are awesome.
October 24th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Ran across this blog in route to looking up other things. I’ve since subscribed which is not something I often do. Keep up the great work and thanks!
October 30th, 2008 at 5:09 am
Thank you for your lecture videos. It’s helpful for me.
I have a same situation like you. I’m a senior for a Mathematics BSc. But I love programming and spend almost time for algorithms n programming.
Best wish for your future!
——–
PS: Wish we’ll be friend :)
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
I love your quote stock-pile!!
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
i love mathematics & computer science too .. (not to physics)..
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Don’t worry, Even I couldn’t get into MIT!
November 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I am a Chinese. I like your website and have learned a lot from you. Thanks for your sharing! Keep going!
November 19th, 2008 at 5:43 am
I must say this is a nice and inspiring blog. Thanks for sharing so much information to internet user and self learning like yourself.
Keep writing…….
November 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Hi Peter,
This is Santhosh Samarthyam from India. Please accept my obesciences to the ‘incredible’ hacker in you. Please post about your most important time management techniques. In this world of incredible complexity, razor sharp tools are required for manageability. Please keep up the good work of helping your fellow beings by documenting your learning process…just like you have been doing. I will try to send you/post as many interesting links as possible.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Sounds like you need to learn a bit of C# since you have all of those other languages down path.
It might not get you the job at Google, but it could greatly help with Microsoft.
Thanks for posting, I enjoy reading.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
dude, I am really impressed with your abilities and what you do…… have a great career, live long and prosper!
November 25th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I stumble across your site all the time and it’s always enjoyable reading what you have to say. Thanks! And no matter what redditers might say, keep the hair.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
hi,i love your web. it’s very nice.i have looking for a blog ASP code for two hours and get nothing.
can you share this web’s code to me ? or can you tell me where can download a such a nice asp code?
thank you very much.i will come here at this time in the following day.sorry.my english is very…
November 26th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I think is great your knwoldge, hobbye, worj…
but also i think is just another one “freak” anb is obsessed with one topic.
I recommend do other things in life: go out with friends, get girlfriend or follow girls, play sports… if not, one day you will see you just know speak about compueters.
luck!
November 26th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I’m adding your blog to my list of favourite blogs !
I wish to you good luck in your future :)
John Mckenzie -> pay attention, geeks may be your bosses one day ^^
TheChatbour
November 27th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Great web site. One of the best blogs I have come across.
I noticed many rude people posting comments. Why do you all assume that he has never had a girlfriend, play sports, or go out with friends? Just because he hasn’t mentioned it in his Internet bio? Please.
December 5th, 2008 at 6:36 am
You mentioned that one of your hobbies was “getting smarter.” …any luck?
December 5th, 2008 at 6:38 am
steve beschakis, yes, I’m getting smarter every day - reading books and articles, watching video lectures, etc. Knowledge only adds, it never subtracts!
December 5th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Citizens, hear me! To your knees at once! All hail His Majesty Peter Krumins the Modest!
December 5th, 2008 at 7:10 am
steve beschakis, silly!
December 5th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I applaud your efforts, but would like to offer you some simple, obvious, but hard to follow advice:
Live a balanced and healthy lifestyle.
It will not only make you a better programmer, more successful, but also a better person and give you perspective. Not leaving your residence for 2.5 months doesn’t sound like it’s balanced or healthy.
Please do not misinterpret my suggestion.
It’s not meant to be critical but instead constructive. You sound like a bright person, so i’m not saying “don’t work hard”…I’m saying work harder - but enrich your life outside of working so hard…don’t waste your youth!
Thanks for your posts.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Bro,
You ROCK!
You’re an awesome resource too, keep up the good work!
Aberstan
Helsinki,Finland
December 9th, 2008 at 10:29 am
All the best for your future… The contents of your website is really very good. I appreciate all your hardwork.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:57 am
All the Best Buddy…..!!
U r An Inspiration For all Of Us..!!
December 15th, 2008 at 2:19 am
best of luck brother …
December 15th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
nice blog -and aggregation. what does delicious call you?
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Well it looks that we have simmilar goals in life, although I don’t know many languages as you do and I am not very creative when programming, and Physics isn’t as easy as math, although I love learning all about the universe and Physics and Chemistry, I al always looking to learn something new, I applied to Harvard and was rejected but that wont stop me, anyways keep posting and keep programming, you’ll get to Google. ;)
December 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
hello peteris best of luck for ur future.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Peter, you rock.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
great site with great resource. thx a lot
You’re a lot better version of me LOL. I love physics, but ended up in Computer Science.
keep the free science stuff coming (and the hacks too)!!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Hey Pete,
Great to know about you! You lead a life different from the stereotype one. All the best for you future.
~ Barun
January 15th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Hi Peter,
I’m sure you will achieve great things - I am 34 and only getting in to programming now, ha ha! I spent half my life partying, travelling, working different jobs, etc but feel like giving my brain a bit of exercise now. Take care buddy.
January 18th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Hi Peteris,
It’s always very nice to read your blog. I have a question that you can help me, do you know the name of a good book in “Discrete Mathematics” that you can recommend me? thank you in advance.
My best regards
/Efrain
January 19th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Hi Efrain,
Thanks for your question!
Do you want to learn only discrete math or do you also want it to be a little computer science oriented?
A good introduction on pure discrete mathematics is Lovasz’s book “Discrete Mathematics“.
A great book on discrete math with computer science is Knuth’s “Concrete Mathematics“.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Hi I’m Japanese University Student.(I’m 22 years old.)
I am studying hard computer science every day like you were.
My writing English skill is very low so I could’t send enough message what I think.
So only message you. Do its best everyday together!
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
it’s good for you to recommend the Free Video Lecture.that’s really a nice stuff
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Ha! I totally studied Physics just for fun, too! No worries, I’m sure Google will snap you up sooner or later :)
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Found your site on reddit and love your posts, subscribed to your RSS as well. I have no doubt you will be as good as a hacker that you want to be.
Cheers!
February 13th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I found your site from your link on macromates.com
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-bash-command-line-history/
However, Safari 3 is redirected to a spam site. Finally got here via FF3+noscript. Thought you’d want to know.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:01 am
hey man .. im a vet and i dont know anything bout computers and programming but i found some of the info to be pretty useful , thanks heaps .. keep it up .
=)
February 18th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Thank You for video lectures:-)I found a lot of interesting for me!
February 18th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Wow, you are so young and knowledgeable, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t somewhat envious. :) Still, keep this site up and running as you have some great articles, I’ve learned a lot already from them in a very short time.
As far as you goals? I am sure you’ll do everything you set out to do and more, you’re a very talented soul. I hope you know and appreciate that.
Regardless, thanks for the site and keep it going! Cool stuff! I am glad I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed.
Take it easy,
JC
February 18th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Hi Ignac,
Can you answer the following questions?
1. What is your definition of “a balanced lifestyle”?
2. Why do you promote “a balanced lifestyle”? What is insalubrious about unbalanced lifestyle, whatever that is?
3. What is unhealthy about not leaving one’s residence for 2.5 months?
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 am
Good luck!
March 9th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Hi Peteris, I stumbled upon your site by accident and I must say I’m really impressed with the quality of the reading material.
You explain things very well and in an easy-to-understand manner.
Great job!
March 20th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Hi Peter, I like your blog very much.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Read through the PV article, haven’t stopped using it since! Thanks.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Great thoughts man…Keep Sharing knowledge and ideas…God bless you…
April 19th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
big hands from me too!
thx 4your work!
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
At this point it doesn’t even matter if you go to MIT or not. You’re already more accomplished than the vast majority of people who were accepted. Higher education is mostly about what you extract from it anyway, not where you go. It sounds like you’re already on a great path that can’t be altered by any number of rejections from any universities.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Yeah the He** with MIT. I have seen many political reasons why great minds like yours get rejected.
It can be because maybe you are too smart. Can that be real? Screw MIT. It is what you can do that matters. There are many even non-degree great minds out there. It boils down to really what you can do and what you feel about yourself. I no longer let rejection or place determine my worth
and I think the world is set up to entrap people to base their worth and abilities on what school they attend. I just read the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. great book at least the first half and then the last half a great insights into what makes people great. It is busting ones Arse and some sparkling talent above others that makes someone suceessful and of course who they know.
and well, looks to me like you are just living life and loving what you do; No one my friend can take that away from you. I too love the subjects fo math and computer science and have done some great things at my job. But one has to enjoy what they do and noone can take that away! not any Google or yahoo or anyone….I saw the HE** with big companies do what you love to do and if by chance you get a chance to take a great job, do it while you are doing what you love to do!
Rock on dude!
Robert
WI, USA
April 25th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Hi…really very nice site..doing nice job!!
I like the way u have explained the Google interview and other topics too..
Best luck!
– Madan
May 6th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Hi!
Nice blog. Thanks for all the stuff you’ve collected here.
Are you fluent in russian?
I assume that you might be accidentally. Been from exUSSR and all.
If that’s so you can apply to yandex.
Yes, it’s not google. Still it’s a good place to be, full of pros. And expirience one can get here is quite close to those needed for google application.
And, no, I’m not from HR :)
Just an ordinary server-side developer who saw an amazing blog of a decent hacker.
May 7th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Hi, how are you? What are you busy with recently? You didn’t updated this blog a couple of weeks d…i miss it :)
May 7th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Hi:
buddy, I just found you blog by goolge for some materials about Introduction to Algorithms.
But I found much more interesting other things on your blog!
Thanks very much!
I will be back frequently in future!
Best wishes to you and your family!
A guy from Xi’an of China
May 14th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Forši ;) Veiksmi tev :))
p.s. tā arī nesapratu, vai tiki googlee strādāt vai nē? :))
June 29th, 2009 at 2:23 am
Best of luck
July 1st, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Great work, Beside a good teacher, you are also my role model, Keep up the good work.
Greetings from India
July 8th, 2009 at 6:49 am
You remind me of a young me. I suck a programming now. I feel like I have my dreams crushed because I’m not good enough, when I knew since I was 7 that I loved programming and computers and I’m gonna be good at it.
Your blog has re-ignited my passion. I’ve just turned 24, and thanks to you, I’m going back to the basics.
Thanks bro :) Wish you luck. I know how it feels to be kicked in the face and told you’re not good enough. Its what we do to come back stronger that makes the difference.
Cheers.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
i liek your site and find it very interesting. i hope i can learn something else …well learn about prog in c++,vb and that languages.
i hope u can visit the my site…
July 18th, 2009 at 10:40 am
i read your blog that is very intersting one in a age of 23 u really get a lots of knowledege that i somethings in age of 24 i really inspire from u wish u all the best for u dream
July 19th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I’v found you from Eric Xu’s blog.It’s a pity that I don’t kown both of you.Now I’m going for a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science.After a whole day preparation for the exam,It’s really good to see something interesting in ur site.
best wishs
a younger guy from China
July 19th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Great site!
July 19th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Awesome site ! hats off..thanks for sharing the treasure :)
You rock
July 29th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Nice site i was thinking you might be some how 30+ year man. But you are 1+ than me. :P
hehe
nice site!
July 29th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Hi Peteris,
A very cool blogosphere :) Glad to see your efforts and Hats off for publishing them.
Shall go through each and keep you posted with comments.
Good luck for all your endeavors.
Cheers,
Raghavan alias Saravanan M,
Bangalore, India.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Sveiciens Peeter, nejaushi uzduuros uz tavu blogu un ir patiess prieks, ka tik interesanta un aktiiva bloga autors ir latvietis.
Zheel, ka tik ljoti iedomiigs. :(
August 1st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
You will not get hired again in several years ??? :)
August 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
y.chaouche, ha ha. fixed. :)
August 1st, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Hey awsome knowledge u have got. Keep sharing ur stuff and enlighten us by the same:-)
You will definitely make it into MIT for sure.All the best!
August 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am
your science lecture vid collection is providing brain food for my corporate job days.
thanks bro. and having taken classes there, i’d say mit is the worse for not taking you.
But you are young, passionate, resourceful, and obviously good at communication. That combo spells success, regardless of a few stumbling blocks now.
Best of luck!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Hello Peter,
I am an ardent reader of your site. I am good at playing with shell, awk and sed. Could you please email me some very good links about perl which should help me nail it in no time !! Please email me with your feedback. Oh yes, if you have some sites which has lot of perl scripts defining system administration tasks, that would be just icing the cake !!!
Rock on!!!
September 16th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Anyone tell you you resemble a mecha engineer named Otacan? =/
September 17th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
ChazZeromus, no, no one has told me that. Have pics?
September 20th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
nice website..gudluck with all your attempts!
September 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
No offense, Peteris, but you’re a cutie. ;-) And thanks for the article on vim-surround, it was a life-saver!
October 1st, 2009 at 11:23 pm
i’m your fan!
i’m aware of you since 1 year, and you helped me a lot with the CS lectures
btw
i’m 24, brazilian,
my first course attempt was Phisics, like you, but i dropped after 1 year
then i did Music for 2 years and dropped again (you can even see some of my modest compositions at myspace.com/vitueu if you’re curious)
now i’m doing CS (although never had dealed with programming and such before) and i’m realy passionate and doing well
i hope to do further studies somewhere else abroad afterwords
well
i just like you :D
best regards
October 1st, 2009 at 11:31 pm
PS: there’s 2 years and a half that i’m in CS. i guarantee you that i won’t drop that one, :B
becouse it’s as beautiful as music and easier for you to get paid for (well, some musicians get rich, but if you consider not depending on God’s good will in giving you inspiration to compose nice music.. then CS is more reliable)
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
you know what? YOU ROCK DUDE!!! I have no doubt google will contact you again. I’m very very sure. Great site! keep it up! :)
October 4th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Hello !
How you add the wish button on your page.
Amazon create this button ?
Thank you .
October 6th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Hello!
I found your website and read some.
I wish you success with your plans you write about!
All the best,
Anders Branderud
October 6th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Hello again Peteris,
Do you have a link to lectures in java network programming?
Please e-mail me in that case. My e-mail is found here: http://www.blogger.com/profile/15696376904417632753
Thanks
Anders
October 27th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Man, I love your site.
October 31st, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Hi Peter,
I like your posts. I very enjoy it.
/edited out/
Regards,
Rheza
Jakara - Indonesia
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:39 am
Hey man,
I got to your website through googling for google interviews. I liked the article about your Google interview experience and your blog post about chrome. I found your blog very inspiring, good job.
I am an MIT masters student (in fact I earned two BS’s in CS & Math both from MIT) and I can tell you with high confidence that you do and know way more than most MIT masters or PhD students. More importantly, you inspire more people than most of them ever will. I think for a person with your experience, doing a masters in MIT should not be a dream– it can be a goal but not a dream. Your dream about your blog becoming famous on the other hand, is a much better dream and I think you are making progress towards that.
Keep on posting cool stuff.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hello Peteris,
I came to your site via a Unix search site…and man I love your site. As ‘MIT Masters Student’ said above, don’t let having a Masters be your dream..it can be a goal..but not a dream.. U are much much better that most MSc / Ph.D graduates I know. I have a B.Sc in Physics like you (obtained in 1985 and it wasn’t for fun :)) and a Masters in IS from University of London and I think I know a little of the real world out there. You a gem and don’t loose that fact.
Keep up the good work…BTW I work for a competitor to Goggle and I am happy you are not working for them.. may be we’ll be able to pick your brains.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Hey guys, thanks for the great comments. :)
November 12th, 2009 at 5:27 am
Nice job on the lecture notes.
One small correction: You wrote, quoting MIT’s rejection of your application, “The Committee doesn’t make it’s reasons known.”
I’m pretty sure they wrote “its” (which is correct), rather than “it’s”.
Don’t worry. Your English is great and the error is common.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Hi Peter,
your website is simply awesome and extremely informative… nice job.. still cannot figure out y google didnt offer u that job..
-abhishek
November 12th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
hy mee too influenced very much by ur website,,i would like to meet you online at any time , if possible mail me to kotteshravan@gmail.com
i want to get advice from seniors those who r fire in writing scripts like u.
becos in future it may become dream to meet u
shravan(student)
computerscience
india .
November 12th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
alb, haha, guess what! I just checked the email and it says “The Committee doesn’t make it’s reasons known” word for word.
November 15th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
first i have to be a boring grownup and say that your motivations and goals help make the world go round and glad to know you exist. BUT what brings me here is my strongest challange every. even though my sites not up, i decided to make a antihack site. for the first time ever, im way over my head and have no control over my machines. the hackings experiences and the glitches that got people confused are part of a main undetectbale worm that psyched everyone out for the intent of a universal backdoor to systems. as before, i thought a tiny little hacker created an exe so i spent a long time hunting it down, then it lead to driver binding to bios alterations, and now im fighting for control of the combination of kernel/bios/firmware which is its stronghold.
the worm is like a virtual machine that runs paralel bypassing any security, takes over your hardrive, operating system, and even your programs with parsings.
after i read your introduction, i felt that i shoud share as much info on the worm as i can.
its very very complex and smart.
when its done and over, i have gained more computer skills in 2 years than my whole life.
in time, ill add it all to www.deepandcrazy.com
right now, yestday was a day of constant reboots in safe mode not just for me. one machine hasnt recovered. the hacker alterered my cdrom in a way where all info is altered and i cant system restore…. but im not given up. and thanks for reading this long boring box of text. lol take care
November 18th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Hi Peteris,
You are wise not to let your schooling interfere with your education. Keep on learning!
On that note, I discovered a neat channel on YouTube which presents lectures on category theory which is a high level metamathematics often used in computer science and potentially useful in physics. The channel is called TheCatsters.
It was mentioned in an issue of John Baez’s This Week’s Find’s in Mathematical Physics at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/TWF.html
November 18th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for the comment and mentioning The Catsters channel. It’s a bit hard to understand, they assume the knowledge of category theory already. I haven’t yet mastered it. I have an excellent book on it (Basic category theory for computer scientists) but I haven’t started reading it yet. I’ll come back to them when I have read that book.
I didn’t know about John Baez’s findings in mathematical physics, though. Excellent material in there. I have subscribed to his rss.
November 28th, 2009 at 5:13 am
Peteris,
Firstly, are you fluent in BOM & DOM? Javascript is predominantly labelled as the “Core.” What about the other two? Secondly, you should not favor Perl, C++, and C. Nonetheless, they will not become obsolete; however we will build on top of them. The future is in the Singularity. JavaScript, PHP, and mySQL are more strategic for the infancy of our future than those. Last but not least, you have not stated any relative interest in AI despite your interest in CS and physics. The online future will embrace strong AI. What is your objective in life?
December 4th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Hey, nice website. A lot of good information. Keep posting.
December 5th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Holy shit, you would annoy me so much if you were American.
But since you are European, it’s ok, because whatever you appear to be is no doubt very different over there.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Conratulations on your work, and good luck pursuing your dream. Your approach is admirable.
December 12th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Let’s see, you didn’t get accepted to Computer Science in Latvia, and were also rejected by MIT. Then Google comes and rejects you. Sorry to be rude, but when are you going to realize you aren’t as good as you think you are.
December 12th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Freak, no, I didn’t apply for computer science in Latvia. I’d get easily get accepted here because of the high gpa. I just didn’t want to study cs in Latvia. Even if you say I am not as good now, I’ll be in 5 years.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Tell u what u look like a scientist as well as rock star…..u r doing a wonderful job…
Keep it up n best of Luck for your future
Love u n take care
December 13th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I’m 25 with very similar background. That’s too bad about MIT, there are just way to many qualified applicants.
December 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
BROTHER I AM NOT GETTING HOW TO GET SHORTEST PATH IN GRAPHS USING WARSHALL’A ALGORITHM …PLEASE TELL ME SOME BETTER WEB SITE TO GRASP THAT
THANKS
December 14th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Junaid, why are you using caps locks? To learn Warshall’s algorithm just try it out on paper for various graphs. Start with a graph with five nodes, and just randomly connect it, put weights and solve. Nothing is better than practice.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Brother in internet terminology Talkin in Caps means talking Loudly,actually i was shouting for help …As i was trying for last three days How to get Matrices of Warshell…But Brother Now i got it But after pulling all my hair on the books…and it was so simple actually every matrix checks path from particular vertex….
any wayz So nice of you as it seems somebody is out there who i can ask help for….
Love u n take care
December 14th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
junaid, there was no necessity to talk loudly. Talking loudly does not follow netiquette. So please avoid it next time.
December 17th, 2009 at 5:27 am
I wish you very best ……..
you will definitely accomplish you dream…
I dream the same for my blog as you but I am not getting too much time for the same but I got a new enthusiasm from your website…..
December 24th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Hi,
Thank you for all the information you make available on your website.
I am always information hungry and this site looks like it will keep me satisfied for awhile :)
cheers!
December 24th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I can’t believe google didn’t hire you…what a bunch of assholes. You sound like a friggin Einstein!
January 1st, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Hello Peteris, just now discovered this site and still into exploring it..It has some fantastic information. The layout is extremely easy and readable and i am truly impressed with your profile as well as everything here.
Great work Peteris, keep it up. I’m getting hooked to this site, if you don’t mind.
cheers.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Peteris is the best white hat!
January 8th, 2010 at 1:36 am
very nice blog ,isn’t it?
January 12th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Nice to find you as one of the top search result searching info on how to deal with google’s job interviews: we share a lot from the BS in physics to the reason we did not choose computer science as field of study at college, and the passion for the MIT video lessons.
I will follow your blogs from now on.
Ciao !
January 14th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
What a nerd!
January 17th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Peteris, Hello and my regards. I stumbled on your blog a few hours back and it has sent my mind racing ever since. You are in your mid twenties, and I guess that almost all the people who have commented on your blog belong to the same age group. Well, I turned 41 a few days back. I am an engineer by training and am working in a plant, where you can get by with occasional interactions with Office software. But I have an inner “love” for programming, and all the mathematics and algorithms that go with it. Your blog will help me turn this love into passion, and one day I will hang up my boots and work from home- reading great books on programming and mathematics and physics and… I strongly support your belief that expertise in one’s chosen field is only a matter of time and effort. You can only get better and better as you practice your craft, and you will really enjoy this pursuit, the long hours, the experimentation.. The journey is the destination! Do please send me a mail to encourage me.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Can’t stop noticing that your pic on the right looks like your are knitting.I strongly recommend you tochange it with another one.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:48 pm
reddit, updated the pic. ;)
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Peteris. I found myself on your blog while surfing about mathamatics. The route I took who knows. I am 76yrs old and 4yrs new to computers. I discovered internet marketing and now thru “outsourcing” I have over 300 web sites. And
I am earning a little over $23,000.00 per month.
I just wish I had your knowledge of computer science. I have been over a lot of your blog and most of it is way-way over my head but I did find it fasinating. It is so awsome that as Arnold says “I’ll be back”. Even if most of it is out of my league.
See Ya George
January 24th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Peter you are a genius keep it up we all do support you!
January 25th, 2010 at 3:18 am
hey peteris
this is saran. i saw ur picture in about me buddy. you are looking cool !!!! where did u took this pic da ???
January 25th, 2010 at 5:40 am
This one is for George Butler- Age is really in the mind. I can tell you that ’cause I am learning about computer science at 41. Also, I am a chemical engineer who has had pratically no exposure to computers while in college in the early nineties. My job does not require me to know programming either- just use Office and you are through. The beauty about computer science is that with books and a pc you can get a rough hold on the subject quite early, if you so desire. Peteris has put quite a lot of resources in this site- they will help you a lot. Maybe George can help us by showing how we can make some money out of this.
I agree with saran- Peteris, you look great in this new snap of yours
January 26th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Would like to speak with you. Sent you an email but don’t know if it is current. My direct line is 417-581-0738. I’m not selling anything. In fact I’m looking for services. Thanks,
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:55 am
I like your profile,Great!
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:29 am
Hi Peter,
i find u’r website when i search for some explanation about vector space. Thank u for the nice posting :)..
Keep u’r good work.
cheers
-Ega-
February 5th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Just out of curiosity, I found awkward that you mentioned Awk & Sed as programming languages. Aren’t they just tools? I may be wrong, I don’t have much experience with them. :-/
February 6th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Raffaello, awk is full blown programming language. Sed is definitely a tool but together with awk they make the perfect text processing couple and I treat them at equivalent mental level as programming languages.
Actually that sentence where I list languages I know needs a revision. It does not matter what languages you know, what matters is what you can do and have done with them.