Hello Reader,

Last week went with a grant beginning of online Python Training, Salsa Dance event and a visit to Toronto Zoo.

• We announced a free python course in Tamil at https://kaniyam.com/python-course-2024/ It went viral somehow. Created a whatsapp group for participants. within a day 1024 members joined and its limit was reached. Went with second and third whatsapp group. Thanks for Writer NChokkan and other who shared the news about the class.

• We explored on what online platform to use to hold 1000+ participants. Meet.jit.is is my favorite as it is Free/OpenSource. But, we need huge infra to self host. There was no time to experiment on that. MS Teams is cheapest. But, Wanted to be away from it. Explored Google Meet. Finally Zoom wins with its Webinar mode, which can hold 1000+ people.

• Mr. Asokan from TalentSprint.com, the one who introduced Python in ilugc meets around 2005, donated the zoom service for the training.

• On the first day, we got 550+ participants. So happy to address to such huge audience.

• Thanks to the trainer Syed Jafer, TalentSprint.com and the participants for making a massive event.

• On the whatsapp groups, people started to post “hi, hello, good morning, I am ABC from XYZ” etc. Muted the group and made them as announcement only groups.

• Asked all the participants to create a blog account at https://dev.to and started to aggregate all their blogs at my FreshRSS running on my desktop in my home. Read ll their writings at https://blogs.kaniyam.cloudns.nz/ Reading their blogs is really interesting. 76 students provided their blogs so far. Will continue asking them to write blogs daily.

• Its a mixed crowd. Electrical/Mechanical/Home making/Baking/PhD Scholars/Designers/Students are attending. Hope ‘A byte of python’ will change their life.

• Asokan explained to me and syed on how to train beginners. Got many insights on the training side.

• Last week, had a discussion with MalaiKannan on Linux, Linux Users Groups, Kaniyam, Tamil Computing, Ebooks, ML/AI etc. Today he published the talk on his youtube channel “Malai Talks” . See it here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLzQTdMK2mw Shhh. It is a 2 hrs talk. Get prepared to hear long stories.

• Sivaprabu, a friend from ilugc, shared a small clip of him seeing the talk on big TV. So happy

• Last Saturday was fun with Salsa Dance Festival 2024 at Toronto. Visited a local library there, as went earlier. Then, danced with Nithya and kids along with 1000s of people. See here for a glimpses of the festival – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTIuHji1qYU&t=1582s ( Got it online )

• Here is a small clip of me and Nithya dancing https://kaniyam.cloudns.nz/clips/video/salsa-dance.mp4.html Thanks to HeartComonos team here for teaching me salsa dance.

• On Sunday, went to Toronto Zoo. Saw Lion, Chimpanzee, Tiger and more animals. Never seen a tiger that closer so far. Kids enjoyed seeing them all. See a small clip of how close we saw the tiger, here – https://kaniyam.cloudns.nz/clips/video/tiger-at-toronto-zoo-with-cubs.mp4.html

See you all in next weekly notes. if you are writing blogs, reply here. Will follow and read them. Blogs and RSS feeds are best alternate to the social media platforms filled with advertisements and random paid contents.