[{"body":" Photo by Imagine Buddy on Unsplash\nThe bug bytes again;\nBeneath the hood, the hidden\nSparks begin to run.\nFrom Digger to DeepSeek: A quest for a local AI model It was June 1988. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev had just wrapped up the Moscow Summit, Steve Jobs was fueling intense industry rumors with his upcoming NeXT workstation, and Tim Berners-Lee was quietly circulating the first informal notes at CERN for what would become the World Wide Web. On the radio, Michael Jackson was dominating the summer charts as \u0026amp;ldquo;Dirty Diana\u0026amp;rdquo; became his record-breaking fifth consecutive number-one single from Bad. Meanwhile, Russia was prepping the launch of its ill-fated Phobos 1 Mars Orbiter, and I was an 8-year-old in Paris getting the bug — the desire to build my own computer.\nIt was June of 1988, a whole summer in Paris! My family and I were visiting my aunt and uncle. My uncle, the only tech-minded person I knew in the entire world, built an IBM PC/XT clone over a weekend. This feat blew my little mind! With just a few parts, some soldering, a hurried run to the local electronics store for an extra stick of RAM after a somewhat smoky start, he had thing running! It had no Winchester drive, just two 5 1/4” floppy drives capable of booting MS-DOS and exactly one program. By Sunday night, the screen came alive with Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Test Drive, Decathlon, and of course, Digger. It must have been so annoying to have an 8-year old peering into the cabinet as he was trying to get it to work. I spent an inordinate amount of time during our stay, attempting to unsuccessfully beat Digger. I left France frustrated yet determined. I was fully aware that I needed a computer of my own so that I could conquer that game.\nBack in India, one of the older boys in my neighbourhood was going away to college, and he put me onto C and TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident programs). He handed me the largest book I had read to that point, full of instructions on how to write a program that could read into other running processes and alter their mapped memory state. I realized that games were just code, storing scores and lives left in specific bytes of RAM. If I could get my hands on a running version, I could write software to beat it. And thus: the bug to build hardware and write software was permanently set. Many years later, it led me to build a very small PC clone assembling business (we built 4 PCs and perhaps sold 2, but it was an incredible summer). Eventually, that led to writing software professionally, and journey that gave an opportunity to write operating systems, protocols, compilers, in-memory databases and such.\nHere we are, about 38 years later, I feel that same feeling again \u0026amp;ndash; the nagging desire to make it work! Running AI on the cloud is great, but I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t see it work. I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t muck with it. Since I had a Mac Mini sitting around (with only 16GB of RAM), I figured it was time to figure out how to run models locally, and then …","date":"Jun 7, 2026","tags":["AI","llm","benchmark","ollama","apple-silicon","mlx","vibe-coding"],"title":"From Digger to DeepSeek: A Quest for Local Silicon","url":"/posts/2026/from-digger-to-deepseek/"},{"body":" Photo by Micah \u0026amp;amp; Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash\nPin drops in the road\nYou apologize again\nThe gap grows wider.\nThe Last 10 Feet Decline doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t announce itself dramatically. Rot sets in slowly; a little less care, a little more friction.\nI wrote this post last year, days after returning from a trip to Singapore and India. The 7-year gap where I sequestered myself to North America made my visit to Asia stark! It felt like an alternate reality — one with a functional approach to adopting technology into life. It is almost as if they still care about how the human experience.\nWhen you call a taxi via Grab from a mall in Singapore, the app knows which exit you\u0026amp;rsquo;re near, suggests a pickup spot you hadn\u0026amp;rsquo;t even noticed, and by the time you reach it, your ride is waiting. Seamless. Human.\nYou call an Uber in Vancouver. The pin drops in the middle of the road. The driver calls. You wave at each other from different corners of Pacific Centre. And for some reason, you\u0026amp;rsquo;re the one apologizing. That gap between what could be and what we tolerate is widening. And it’s not just rideshares. It’s banking, public infrastructure, day-to-day digital services.\nWhen I was eight years old, I travelled to France, the summer of 1988. I still remember the incredible sights I saw on my first trip as our Swissair flight descended at Charles de Gaulle. My incredulity at the organized, orderly ascent atop the Eiffel Tower, the automated tolls, and even the brand new drive-thru McDos (Apparently, they had just launched them in Paris that year). Compared to the roads of my little hometown, where most roads didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t use tarmac, but were often tamped down foundations of planned roads, the super highways of France was a world apart. That trip showed me the wonderful things that the West built, and showed progress is here, and unending.\nThose days of the wondrous West are well behind us. For inspiration, it might be time to look eastward once again.\nRideshare: Grab vs. Uber Grab understands three dimensional space in urban settings. It knows the difference between \u0026amp;ldquo;the front of the mall\u0026amp;rdquo; and \u0026amp;ldquo;Exit D on the 3rd floor near the food court.\u0026amp;rdquo; It routes drivers to where people actually are, not just GPS coordinates on a 2D map. Grab feels like it was made for people1. Uber, increasingly, feels like it was made for stakeholders2.\nBanking: Interac vs. UPI In India, UPI (Unified Payments Interface) has become the backbone of a cashless economy. Launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016, it enables real-time bank-to-bank transfers using only a phone number or virtual ID. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s deeply integrated into every bank app, supports QR payments, and works 24/7 without fees. It has revolutionized India\u0026amp;rsquo;s economy.\nIn contrast, Canada\u0026amp;rsquo;s Interac e-Transfer feels clunky. Transfers are limited, require email or sms. Some banks charge fees, and the experience varies depending on whether your recipient has …","date":"Feb 8, 2026","tags":["enshittification","product management","customer obsession"],"title":"The Last 10 Feet","url":"/posts/2026/the-last-10-feet/"},{"body":"\nCode waits patient,\nDreams gather digital dust—\nUntil machines learn.\nWe all have them—that long list of projects, ideas, and tasks that are left incomplete. Like a cluttered kitchen drawer ignored until you wedge the oversized scissors between the back and the roof of the cabinet, we leave piles of neglected items in the wake of our busy lives. There is a special kind of mental malaise that comes from carrying around ideas and tasks, relegating them to purgatory. That app concept left unfinished just after you figured out how to add 1,700 dependencies to your React app and spent eight hours learning the nuances of MVVM. The data analysis you meant to complete to dispel misinformation spouted by Elon about who did meaningful work based on the number of lines of code committed. The project around the house you need to do every year, but can’t be done because you don’t have the time to do the required research. These orphaned possibilities accumulate over the years. And I have a very long list.\nIn the past month, I tackled two of them:\nI actually levelled my lawn. I used ChatGPT to do all the planning. More importantly, I used it for the deep research required to indulge my obsession with the minutiae of sand types (it’s river sand) and lawn dressing (I gave it the four available options that mygardenbag.com carries, and it chose the best one based on my lawn’s current state!). I cleaned up some of the broken links in this blog—going all the way back to 2004. These clearly don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. You may ask, “What value did any of this add to the world?” In my own life, finishing these projects generates joy, a sense of relief, and a little calm before the dread of other unfinished things sets in. It connects me to all that is good about living, and I am so grateful for that feeling.\nI could have hired someone to do it for me. I just need to learn to delegate, as Tim Ferriss suggests in The 4-Hour Work Week.\nWell, I did.\nIt just happens to be a $20/month AI (ChatGPT), and the free GitHub Copilot plugin in my VS Code editor.\nAI – the enabler There remains an incredible amount of hype around AI—it’s going to replace developers, it’s going to steal jobs, it’s just not good enough, it doesn’t work for deterministic tasks, only stochastic ones. For all the naysaying, what AI enables is the ability to overcome procrastination. It reduces friction and encourages us to get things done. I am the ultimate procrastinator—all I need is a glimmer of an excuse to drop the boring thing in front of me and latch on to the cool, detail-oriented, inconsequential thing that needs to be done before I do the task at hand.\nThe Lawn Project I had a ton of questions about my lawn. I have someone helping me do the major maintenance work for it. I needed to figure out how I could get the most out of the paid services by doing some of the work myself (and save some of the cost). I wasn’t sure what to do after applying lime. I needed to know how to …","date":"Jun 7, 2025","tags":["AI","productivity","possibilities","GTD"],"title":"The undone made possible","url":"/posts/2025/the-undone-made-possible/"},{"body":" Madness spins unchecked,\nEchoes shatter silent minds—\nRuin wakes, and smiles.\nOf all the things that transpired in the last two weeks, this judgement by the Supreme Court in the US will perhaps be the most damaging in the long-term. While the world\u0026amp;rsquo;s attention is focussed on the economic damage of the Trump tariffs, the preeminent court in the US just gave the authoritarians even more power to act with impunity. At this point, why bother with laws? Why pretend like the courts matter? The partian judges who are fine accepting bribes now get to hand over judicial power to the fascists. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent, identified how much is at stake: “The implications of the government’s position” are “that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.”\nGary Kasparov exudes clarity, and he writes powerfully about the need for leadership, and courage that is required in these troublesome times. Writing such as this, gives us hope \u0026amp;ndash; hope that we are worth saving. President Trump’s return to office has already produced chaos: market upheaval, purges of independent civil servants, politicized targeting of perceived critics, and demands for personal loyalty over respect for the Constitution. This is not speculation. And yet, when presented with a rare opportunity to resist the steady march of authoritarianism, the Democratic leadership chose to stand down without demanding anything in return.\nLater, he writes,\nLeadership in times of crisis demands courage. It sometimes means taking a risky move when it is the necessary one.\nAnd, a final indictment of the Decmocrats and their cowardice when the rest of the world needs them to stand up and act.\nHere’s the most important message I can offer: now is not the time for managing decline. It is the time for bold, even risky moves. Schumer had a chance to force a confrontation—to deny Trump his façade of an undisputed mandate, to put his dangerous methods on full display. He chose the illusion of normalcy instead. But there is nothing normal about this moment.\nDemocracy does not die from a single blow. It erodes through a thousand missed chances to stand up. This was one of them. Let’s not miss the next.\nAfter 6 years of being bound to the American continent, I took a vacation this year. This time, we spent 8 days in Singapore, and 14 in India. I was astounded how much AI changed my travel experience, and equally surprised by the progress in Asia 1. I finally found value in paying $20/month for ChatGPT. However, it is useful to ground oneself in the reality of value created by AI, and temper the hype around it. Gary Marcus, demands more that demos and proof-of-concepts, and provides a …","date":"Apr 9, 2025","tags":["chaos"],"title":"The insanity continuum","url":"/posts/2025/the-insanity-continuum/"},{"body":" A mind slowly grows,\nWisdom flows like rivers wide—\nEach step reveals more.\nThis week has crushed my soul - a bit. I am bewildered by the speed at which the majority in the US is willing to shed constitutional procedures, rule of law, long-standing practices in government. The silence by the ruling party \u0026amp;ndash; the Republicans, is deafening. I am despondent, despite consolation, that we are not only enabling kleptocracy, but also cheering on the rise of fascism in the name of \u0026amp;ldquo;efficiency\u0026amp;rdquo;. It has been an appalling week. However, I remain a witness to the attrocities, and will continue to read and write about them.\nThe on-going acceleration of adoption and the race to integrate AI into the technology stack to gain an advantage is not only happening at the company level, but also at the country levels. Chamath notes, AI competition between the U.S. and China will not only be about how quickly China catches up to the U.S. in developing foundational models but also about how rapidly the broader technology ecosystem in each country can integrate and deploy the latest AI innovations. Since breakthroughs can dramatically reshape the landscape and trigger paradigm shifts throughout the entire technology ecosystem, the speed and adaptability with which U.S. and Chinese companies orient themselves around these advancements will be a crucial factor in this competition.\nChamath is the least biased of them, always focused on what matters to his book (I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t mean this in prejorative sense - like a good capitalist, he focuses on how you can create leverage out of a situation). However, as one reads his thoughts, it is clear that he and his colleagues view the world through the lens of self-enrichment. If they can\u0026amp;rsquo;t gain an advantage, if the value doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t accrue in the US, then it must be bad for the world. His associates now exhibit confirmation bias, and can\u0026amp;rsquo;t find anything at all to critque their friends, like they called out the people in the previous administration. They are unwilling to even state that Elon and Trump are ignoring due process, generating propaganda, and destroying any trust in institutions that were left.\nUnlike Chamath, Anil Dash doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t seem to have sold his soul, and is willing to call the corruption as he sees it: \u0026amp;hellip; since you\u0026amp;rsquo;re a dude with hundreds of billions of dollars, it doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t seem fair that the system isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t even more rigged in your favor. How would you \u0026amp;ldquo;fix\u0026amp;rdquo; this system? Well, you\u0026amp;rsquo;d have to capture procurement, so that it was rigged to only buy stuff from you and your friends, at whatever price you guys want. And if it could screw your competitors along the way, and punish them for not kissing your ass? That would be a bonus. Enter DOGE.\nPerhaps all the noise from DOG-E (as ) is merely to get more government contracts and block out competition. These people are willing to destroy 90 years of peace in the world, the established global order …","date":"Feb 23, 2025","tags":[],"title":"Chaos, Bias, and Sadness","url":"/posts/2025/chaos-bias-and-sadness/"},{"body":" New dawn softly breaks,\nhope blooms with every heartbeat,\nnew life starts anew.\nAhh linux. The frustrations and the joy. After a hiatus of 9 years, I have decided to resurrect this blog. Of course, before I wrote anything meaningful it was time for some cleanup. Hugo, the static site generator that I use for this blog, uses the filename as part of the url. The last time I ported the blog from Jekyl to Hugo I made the terrible choice of encoding dates into the file name. Well, as a result, I have a few hundred files with a date prefix thus making the posts immovable.\nRarely do I write a post in one sitting anymore, and ability to move/update the publish dates is now critical. I could use a slug to customize the url, but then each file will have additional metadata that I will need maintain going forward. So, my simple solution (at the potential loss of references from other websites), is to simply bulk rename the files by stripping out the date prefix.\nHere is the sed incantation that saves the day.\nfor f in *.md; do mv $f \u0026amp;#34;`echo $f | sed --regexp-extended \u0026amp;#34;s/[0-9]+\\-[0-9]+\\-[0-9]+\\-//g\u0026amp;#34;`\u0026amp;#34;; done It took me several minutes to figure it out. \u0026amp;#x1f627; It is painful to realize that 9 years of not programming on a daily basis has made me a lot slower.\nOn that note, this blog is now official back up \u0026amp;ndash; write I shall, henceforth. Also, I plan to cross-post this to new substack.\n","date":"Feb 1, 2025","tags":[],"title":"Beginnings, once more","url":"/posts/2025/beginnings-once-more/"},{"body":"Don’t smoke (Stay quit!!) : Doing great! There is no desire to smoke. After being a smoker for over a decade, I quit smoking last year, and stayed quit. I went to Vegas, smoked incessantly for 3 days, and stopped at the end of the trip \u0026amp;ndash; cold turkey. Never went back to it, and quite frankly disgusted by the thought of smoking now.\nSay yes more often: Did well. I have reduced negativity greatly. This is a good one to keep at for the next year.\nRead a book a month: Failing miserably. Multiple incomplete books. Really finished only one book this year - The Drunkard\u0026amp;rsquo;s Walk: How Randomness rules our lives.\nOther books caught my attention this year:\nSustainable Materials - With Both Eyes Open by Julian M. Allwood, Jonathan M. Cullen Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty Domain-Specific Languages by Martin Fowler I need to up my game here. The plan is dedicate the first weekend of every month to a book. I need to read more than one book a year!\nWrite an app a month: Passable. Built a few apps this year. Unlike other years, I managed to finish them enough to launch them into the wild. It was quite satifying to be able to get them of a git repo, and have them running.\nI have learnt quite a bit through the process, and perhaps will write more about deploying node js apps in production.\nThere is potential for a product that simplifies authentication and authorization. All existing solutions that I have tried this year still get in the way of the user. We desperately need a universal interface for identity \u0026amp;ndash; perhaps hardware that can make oAuth more ammenable for login.\nSpellcaster - find that perfect MTG card. Wishlists - maintain a list of wishlists . Was especially useful for Secret Santa this year Blog once a week: Failing miserably. This is going back on the list for next year. I have consumed a lot of content this year, but produced very little.. Most of my posts have been photos on Instagram \u0026amp;ndash; photos of food!\n","date":"Dec 31, 2016","tags":["goals"],"title":"2016 year-end recap","url":"/posts/2016/year-end-recap/"},{"body":"Searching for symbols The product that I work on, has over 22 million lines of source \u0026amp;ndash; most of it a nightmare. I use vim as my editor of choice 1. Both cscope and ctags (integrated into vim), allow me to quickly move between files and lookup definitions of symbols, and help in understanding the challenge-du-jour.\nThrow in fuzzy find capabilities of the most awesome Ctrl+p plugin, and vim becomes the best \u0026amp;lsquo;IDE\u0026amp;rsquo; out there!\nHowever, large code bases result in very large indexes. A fully indexed ctags file for the product I work is several gigabytes. At this scale, searching for a symbols slows vim down substantially. It is vital to isolate and index a portion of the source \u0026amp;ndash; the part that I am interested in on a given day.\nI use the following aliases to build tags files and cscope databases as I need.\nDealing with whitespace I like to strip trailing whitespace. Trailing whitespace, results in confusing diffs between two versions of a file. It increases the congnitive dissonance when reading git-diffs and patches \u0026amp;ndash; it is quite tiresome when reviewing 20-30 commits a day.\nThe following aliases help strip trailing whitespace given a file and keep commits deltas devoid of un-necessary whitespace changes.\nDon\u0026amp;rsquo;t even think of using eclipse or another IDE. A code-base this size, is simply too large for anything except simple text-based tools\u0026amp;#160;\u0026amp;#x21a9;\u0026amp;#xfe0e;\n","date":"Dec 29, 2016","tags":["elixir","language","programming","notes","tutorial","bash aliases","cscope","ctags","git","vim","tutorial","linux"],"title":"Working with large C codebases","url":"/posts/2016/working-with-large-c-codebases/"},{"body":"These are notes from the official Elixir documentation. It a quick walk-through of the unique features in Elixir for someone coming from years of C \u0026amp;mdash; a way for me to remember and use as a reference.\nSummary Types Operators Control Structures Types Atoms Named contants with a value. true and false are atoms.\nStrings Supports unicode string natively! It\u0026amp;rsquo;s about time. 1 You can concatenate strings using \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;gt;. \u0026amp;quot;hello\u0026amp;quot; \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;quot; world\u0026amp;quot;. Anonymous functions Native support for closures \u0026amp;ndash; called anonymous functions. Also, functions are first-class, i.e. can be passed as arguments into other functions. Special syntax is required to invoke ananymous functions.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 iex(1)\u0026amp;gt; add = fn a,b -\u0026amp;gt; a + b end #Function\u0026amp;lt;12.52032458/2 in :erl_eval.expr/5\u0026amp;gt; iex(2)\u0026amp;gt; add.(1,2) 3 iex(3)\u0026amp;gt; mulby2 = fn a -\u0026amp;gt; add.(a,a) end #Function\u0026amp;lt;6.52032458/1 in :erl_eval.expr/5\u0026amp;gt; iex(4)\u0026amp;gt; mulby2.(4) 8 iex(5)\u0026amp;gt; Lists Native support for lists. hd(list) and tl(list). A list of printable characters will be output as a string. Slower linear access to data, but really fast to prepend elements to the list. eg. [ 0 | list].\nTuples Native support for associative arrays. Any pair of values, stored contiguously. Indexes start from zero. mutable put_elem(tuple, idx, \u0026amp;quot;value\u0026amp;quot;). Fast access, but expensive to add or insert elements\nKeyword Lists Lists of tuples where\nKeys must be atoms. Keys are ordered, as specified by the developer. Keys can be given more than once. Useful for making DSLs.\nElixir has special syntax for keyword lists\n1 2 3 4 iex\u0026amp;gt; list = [{:a, 1}, {:b, 2}] [a: 1, b: 2] iex\u0026amp;gt; list ++ [c: 3] [a: 1, b: 2, c: 3] the Keyword module provides methods to manipulate keyword lists.\nMaps 2 For a key-value store, maps are the “go to” data structure in Elixir. A map is created using the %{} syntax:\nMaps allow any value as a key. Maps’ keys do not follow any ordering. Matches a subset of a given value. 1 2 3 4 iex\u0026amp;gt; map = %{:a =\u0026amp;gt; 1, 2 =\u0026amp;gt; :b} %{2 =\u0026amp;gt; :b, :a =\u0026amp;gt; 1} iex\u0026amp;gt; map[:a] 1 Matches as long as a key is found in the map. 1 2 3 4 5 6 iex\u0026amp;gt; %{:a =\u0026amp;gt; a} = %{:a =\u0026amp;gt; 1, 2 =\u0026amp;gt; :b} %{2 =\u0026amp;gt; :b, :a =\u0026amp;gt; 1} iex\u0026amp;gt; a 1 iex\u0026amp;gt; n = 1 1 Variables can be used when accessing, matching and adding keys 1 2 3 4 5 6 iex\u0026amp;gt; map = %{n =\u0026amp;gt; :one} %{1 =\u0026amp;gt; :one} iex\u0026amp;gt; map[n] :one iex\u0026amp;gt; %{^n =\u0026amp;gt; :one} = %{1 =\u0026amp;gt; :one, 2 =\u0026amp;gt; :two, 3 =\u0026amp;gt; :three} %{1 =\u0026amp;gt; :one, 2 =\u0026amp;gt; :two, 3 =\u0026amp;gt; :three} If all the keys are atoms, convienience syntax may be used. 1 2 3 4 5 iex\u0026amp;gt; map = %{:a =\u0026amp;gt; 1, 2 =\u0026amp;gt; :b} %{2 =\u0026amp;gt; :b, :a =\u0026amp;gt; 1} iex\u0026amp;gt; map.a 1 The Map module provides a very similar API to the Keyword module with convenience functions to manipulate maps.\nNested data structures Elixir supported special functions for working with nested structures. xpath like addressing into a specific level in a nested struct\nput_in/2 update_in/2 get_update_in/2 Dynamic variants of the above:\nput_in/3 …","date":"Nov 6, 2016","tags":["elixir","language","programming","notes","tutorial"],"title":"Elixir - A crash course","url":"/posts/2016/elixir-crash-course/"},{"body":"After 12+ years, I built a workstation from scratch. Hardware has come such a long way, but that is a post unto itself. Having always worked with Ubuntu and other debian variants it was time to venture into a more lean distro. I picked Arch Linux, on the recommendation of several colleagues. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s been fun. Pacman and Yaourt are great package managers, and the rolling release model ensures access to the bleeding edge all the time.\nWorking in linux always makes you learn something new. Today, I found out a simple way to shutdown KDE gracefully.\n1 # qdbus org.kde.ksmserver /KSMServer logout 0 0 0 ","date":"Jul 10, 2016","tags":["linux","learning","Arch Linux","KDE","How To"],"title":"Use Linux, learn new things","url":"/posts/2016/use-linux-learn-new-things/"},{"body":"I set myself a goal to write more this year - in fact, I attempted to do so once every week. This required me to look at my blog, which led to the inevitable: small changes in what it looked like, led to general dis-satisfcation with the current solution I have to publish my blog, which quickly ballooned into a whole host of activities.\nLet me step back a bit.\nJekyll is really Hyde I host my blog on github, using a static site generator - Jekyll. It is written in ruby, has some cool features. Overall, it is a decent solution, but I was never satisfied with options it provided. I have hesistated to hack at it, since ruby isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t my language-du-jour, and most of the changes have been quite minimal. It is also extremely slow1.\nAs any self-respecting programmer is wont to do, instead of writing more posts, and meeting my goal, I delved right into fixing \u0026amp;ldquo;bike-shed\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;ndash; in this case, research and use a new static-site generator. Why, you ask? To you, non-existent, ever-questioning inquisitive you, I say \u0026amp;ndash; Why not?!\nAs with any successful hunt, one must make a list: One that shall help determine settle the battle of the generators.\nMust be fast \u0026amp;ndash; I mean blazing. Must be in one of the languages I currently hack in: go, nim, c, c++, javascript, python, rust, erlang Should have good defaults \u0026amp;ndash; shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t need plugins to perform basic features: syntax highlighting, responsive images, theming, permalinks and good markdown support. Should have a few good themes Good community support and/or documents The contenders Scouring the corners of the internet, I narrowed down on two final choices: Hexo and Hugo.\nNew shiny, shiny They\nare faster at generating 300+ pages. are opinionated and hence have good defaults. support most of features I am looking for except responsive images. provide extended markdown support by default. hosted by an active community. Hugo FTW! Both Hugo and Hexo are pretty good. They are fast enough for my use, and are implemented in modern languages that I am actively learning.\nHugo edged out Hexo: It has a few features that look promising and is a bit more fun to hack. It is written in go and this make it ideal. I am switching to Go as a primary language for my hacking needs. A lot of issues, and about 3000 forks is a good opportunity to contribute to a larg-ish project in go!\nThe choice is made. Now to move the herd. I have the daunting task of migrating 300+ posts that were originally posted on different blog engines of the past: blogger, wordpress, and octopress and finally jekyll.\nSlow is relative. I have about 300+ posts, and rendering them into HTML using jekyll, takes a few minutes.\u0026amp;#160;\u0026amp;#x21a9;\u0026amp;#xfe0e;\n","date":"Feb 10, 2016","tags":["static site generators","hexo","hugo","jekyll","reviews"],"title":"Battle of the static site generators","url":"/posts/2016/battle-of-the-static-site-generators-1/"},{"body":"It has not been a great start. It, however, has been a busy one.\nDon’t smoke (Stay quit!!) : Going strong! The urge to smoke still surfaces on occasion. I have, however, been able to avoid every time. I must admit that it gets easier, but it always take a bit of an effort.m\nSay yes more often: Doing ok. I have caught myself a couple of times. Still needs work\nRead a book a month: Failing miserably. Read about 5 pages. Currently reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. It is a very interesting book, but I have not been able to find time consistently. TV, netflix and youtube, usurps time away from other pursuits.\nWrite an app a month: Doing ok. I have managed to write a small app to collect links and text and store those into a database. The app is written in go and is called notedown. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s a lot of fun to hack something together. I am struggling with user authentication and authorization. auth0 is a great service to get started with implementing a good system for any app. At the moment, I have managed to put together a very rough version that kinda works.\nAt the moment, the goal is to get parity with apps like instapaper or evernote. The eventual goal, is to make notedown provide automatic tagging and aggregation of links. For the next month, I will focus on getting this solution deployed with a simple gui that is cross-platform.\nIf you are interested in the idea, you can reach me on twitter, or Gitter or hack at it on github.\nBlog once a week: Failing miserably. As this post illustrates, I have procrastinated all month long. I guess two posts a month is still better than none.\n","date":"Jan 31, 2016","tags":["goals"],"title":"A month flies by","url":"/posts/2016/jan-goal-update/"},{"body":"The word \u0026amp;ldquo;resolutions\u0026amp;rdquo;, feels forced. It feels like a ritual declaration of intent, followed immediately by inaction, and eventually concession that it was all in jest. This year, I am going to have some goals.\nDon’t smoke (Stay quit!!) Say yes more often Read a book a month Write an app a month Blog once a week Goals, feels more friendly, reachable, inviting almost.\n","date":"Jan 5, 2016","tags":["goals"],"title":"Goals for 2016","url":"/posts/2016/goals-for-2016/"},{"body":"In the tradition of joining new social tools on the interwebs, here some thoughts on my experience.\nThe usual steps are:\nThe first few hours \u0026amp;ndash; mostly spent exploring the interface, the features, mired in the comparisons between the \u0026amp;ldquo;old\u0026amp;rdquo; and the \u0026amp;ldquo;new\u0026amp;rdquo;\nAt some point, the lack of interaction and content of previous networks \u0026amp;ndash; the constant buzz of twitter, the inane conversations of facebook etc. \u0026amp;ndash; forces me tp hunt for connections. Rampant, indiscriminate \u0026amp;ldquo;friending\u0026amp;rdquo; of people ensues.\nInvite a few select people, find the \u0026amp;ldquo;old\u0026amp;rdquo; connections from elsewhere, and waddle in the familiarity of all.\nCrickets .. not a thing is said. I realize I have nothing to say most days.\nStart contributing content, and attempt to find the niche for this medium\nAll my kindergarden, high school and college buddies arrive, and make their presence felt\nGet lazy and stop contributing - the content feed become a wasteland.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m just about done with 3 on ello. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s is going to a fun experience! Of that, I am sure. Some things I like on Ello, that I hope will break the pattern of \u0026amp;ldquo;use-discard\u0026amp;rdquo;:\nKeyboard shortcuts!!\nFriends/Noise. This is a great middle ground between the insanity that is Circles on Google+, the unmaintainable mess that is twitter lists, and the unknowable grouping in FB.\nMultiple layout options. Makes the incessant updates manageable.\nMarkdown. Can\u0026amp;rsquo;t thank the developers of Ello, enough for this!!\nAbility to cross-post content between my blog and Ello. Thanks largely, to markdown.\nSome posts from others more articulate than me:\n@thomashawk quips on his thoughts on Ello. A great read. As always, TH has great content, and also copious amounts of patience in letting such tools grow, and helping it in the process (I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve seen him do this for flickr, google+ and zooomr).\n@budnitz One of the founders of Ello makes great points on starting up something new. Nice to see the passion and the vision. Kudos!\nCross-posted on Ello\n","date":"Sep 30, 2014","tags":[],"title":"Thoughts on ello","url":"/posts/2014/thoughts-on-ello/"},{"body":"Today\u0026amp;rsquo;s post by Seth Godin, struck a cord. I am fortunate enough to get an opportunity to build \u0026amp;ldquo;my Eiffel Tower\u0026amp;rdquo;. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m building two DSLs and associated infrastructure to allow storing lots of data in an in-memory database running in an embedded system. Wish me luck! Very excited, I might add!\n","date":"Jul 15, 2014","tags":[],"title":"My Eiffel Tower","url":"/posts/2014/my-eiffel-tower/"},{"body":"I hate passwords. Seems like several smart people are on the case of getting rid of the \u0026amp;ldquo;password\u0026amp;rdquo;\nLucas Gonze, argues the loss of meaning around design of user authentication mechanisms. A world without passwords! How will we identify each other? Exchange tokens. Make \u0026amp;ldquo;forgot password\u0026amp;rdquo; the default. Passwords are the new pay-wall. A non-violent protest against the cruel overlord \u0026amp;mdash; the \u0026amp;ldquo;password\u0026amp;rdquo;. Justin Balthrop, calls for a boycott . Several alternatives to identify users \u0026amp;mdash; promoting password-less login in your apps. Eran Hammer \u0026amp;mdash; OAuth founder \u0026amp;mdash; gave up on OAuth 2.0. (An old link). Tim Bray didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t take kindly to that post. Ahh IETF! You can grind the smartest minds to pulp. :) ","date":"Jul 14, 2014","tags":["passwords","authentication","password","identity","security","OAuth","OAuth 2.0"],"title":"Getting rid of passwords","url":"/posts/2014/rid-of-passwords/"},{"body":"I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t been very good with rotating the inks in the last year. Having accumulated more than my share of inks, it is time to have fewer pens inked and rotate colors.\nI still couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t resist inking 9 pens! There are 3 pens I\u0026amp;rsquo;m excited about \u0026amp;ndash; 2 parker 51 and a custom pen made out of 10000 year-old bogwood (a gift from Christina).\n","date":"Apr 23, 2014","tags":["bogwood pens","custom pen","ink rotation","inks","parker","parker 51","pens"],"title":"Ink rotation - April 2014","url":"/posts/2014/ink-rotation-april-2014/"},{"body":"At any given time, I have a handful of git repositories that I work on. While typing in the command-line is great, it getting tiring when you have a several directories that you have to manually change to and check. The \u0026amp;ldquo;git status\u0026amp;rdquo; command can take the git repo and the working directory as input. That, and a little bash programming to the rescue. The following command, executes git status in every subdirectory that is a git repository.\n1 2 3 4 for d in `find . -name \u0026amp;#34;.git\u0026amp;#34;`; do echo \u0026amp;#34;processing $d ...\u0026amp;#34;; git --git-dir=$d --work-tree=$d/.. status; done ","date":"Mar 31, 2014","tags":["bash","git","unix","unix commands"],"title":"Getting git status on multiple directories","url":"/posts/2014/git-status-multiple-directories/"},{"body":"Update: Apparently, I had accidentally hit a minor bug in pew. This has now been fixed.\nEvery so often, we spend several hours battling an issue, fighting linux or python or people or thoughts. The solution, often, leaps out when there has been a respite in the constant search for the solution. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s the \u0026amp;ldquo;duh\u0026amp;rdquo; moment, that all of us feel. There is a little self-loathing, and relief at having arrived at solution. It is a moment of great pleasure, that I have learned to relish.\nI am currently on a bit of MongoDB binge, and I was setting up a dev environment, using Crunchbang on Virtualbox. Since it is a clean install, I wanted to bootstrap using only pew and pip, which have recently become my favourite part of working in a pure python environment (no more sudo == yay!!)\nI followed the instructions to install pew (which is quite straight-forward). All one should need is\n1 pip install pew However, when I tried the same, the install worked, but I couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t run pew. It couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t find all the libraries it needed to load (virtualenv, in this case)\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 shiva@crunchbang-2:~$ sudo pip install pew Downloading/unpacking pew Downloading pew-0.1.9.tar.gz Running setup.py (path:/tmp/pip_build_root/pew/setup.py) egg_info for package pew ... Successfully installed pew virtualenv Cleaning up... shiva@crunchbang-2:~$ pew ls Traceback (most recent call last): File \u0026amp;#34;/usr/local/bin/pew\u0026amp;#34;, line 5, in from pkg_resources import load_entry_point File \u0026amp;#34;/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources.py\u0026amp;#34;, line 2707, in working_set.require(__requires__) File \u0026amp;#34;/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources.py\u0026amp;#34;, line 686, in require needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements)) File \u0026amp;#34;/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pkg_resources.py\u0026amp;#34;, line 584, in resolve raise DistributionNotFound(req) pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: virtualenv After trying several things, including looking a lot of code in pew, the fix was quite simple. The version of setup-tools that comes default with python2.7 and crunchbang seems flawed.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 shiva@crunchbang-2:~$ sudo pip install -U setuptools Downloading/unpacking setuptools from https://pypi.python.org/packages/3.4/s/setuptools/setuptools-2.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl#md5=3b7d84f496aed8c07b91efba4aa197a4 Downloading setuptools-2.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (540kB): 540kB downloaded Installing collected packages: setuptools Found existing installation: distribute 0.6.24dev-r0 Uninstalling distribute: Successfully uninstalled distribute Successfully installed setuptools Cleaning up... shiva@crunchbang-2:~$ pew ls shiva@crunchbang-2:~$ pew new test New python executable in test/bin/python Installing setuptools, pip...done. Launching subshell in virtual environment. Type \u0026amp;#39;exit\u0026amp;#39; or \u0026amp;#39;Ctrl+D\u0026amp;#39; to return. …","date":"Feb 14, 2014","tags":["invewrapper","pew","pip","programming","python","setuptools","virtualenv"],"title":"Somethings should be obvious, but are not, obviously","url":"/posts/2014/obvious-but-not/"},{"body":"Some interesting links for the weekend:\nMr.Krugman thinks Bitcoin is evil. Why should I turn off my devices for 30 mins, while a hunk of steel and glass is hurled into the upper atmosphere? #first-world-problems Lamdba expressions: something for the nerd in you. America, you make me want to travel! NOT REALLY! We don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really change. Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s not blame it on tech! Truth from Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary fame. ","date":"Jan 27, 2014","tags":["links","weekend"],"title":"Bitcoins, new languages, freedom and other things","url":"/posts/2014/bitcoins-new-languages-freedom-and-other-things/"},{"body":"If you have worked for a large company, you know you have been here. Hilarious\n","date":"Jan 25, 2014","tags":[],"title":"Those wonderful tele-conference meetings","url":"/posts/2014/tele-conf/"},{"body":"Vizify makes a video out of the posts you have made on twitter in the last year. Christina, you are always my #1! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. As any self-respecting nerd would do, I immediately made one for myself. Doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t the world need yet another summary of meee!!\n2013 on twitter\nThanks to my top followers\nChristina Ray Lian Dave Kell ","date":"Jan 2, 2014","tags":["recap","Twitter","video","vizify"],"title":"2013 on twitter - a recap","url":"/posts/2014/2013-on-twitter-a-recap/"},{"body":"Another gem from the always spot-on Dave Winer. Microsoft could have owned netbooks.\nThe pathological need for large companies to focus on the wrong, to their own demise never ceases to amaze me. Why do dominant players lose out? Is it the incompetence of people in these companies? Is it the inability to articulate, convince, and move the masses within these companies?\nMost often, it is the later. Perhaps, the collective, is bound to make safer choices and very often, the simple or obvious option is not the safe one.\nIt always comes down to doing the simple vs the easy. Simple is hard!\nP.S: I work for a large company. It is a daily struggle, irrespective of the domain of the choice \u0026amp;ndash; design, code or cultural.\n","date":"Dec 28, 2013","tags":["fail","microsoft","netbooks"],"title":"Malaise of large companies","url":"/posts/2013/malaise-of-large-companies/"},{"body":"There has been an increase in security breaches this year. This past week, two services I use were compromised - Tumblr and Apple Developer Connection. Both services informed me of the security breach, and one made me feel like they cared, and the other one didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t. Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but at the very least, it illustrates how important language is, in conveying how much we care.\nApple\u0026amp;rsquo;s mail is clear, concise and inspires confidence in their ability to take care of my information. They state the purpose of this communication, tell me what they did about it, and what they were going to do to fix it in the future. Update: Apparently, it was a whitehat security guy doing his thing.\nTumblr on the other hand, makes a whole bunch of assumptions (NO! I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t read your staff blog), trivializes the security issue that was in their software (by ignoring to tell what it actually is), makes more work for me (change my passwords \u0026amp;ndash; for my own good, but none-the-less), insinuates that I should be doing things to take care of my passwords by buying other apps, and finally, throws a completely insincere apology.\nNowhere do they bother to mention:\nWhy they are getting in touch now What the actual issue is (Some searching online explains why, but they should have mentioned it in the email) That it was a Tumblr\u0026amp;rsquo;s fault (Sniffed in transit .. who sends un-encoded password over http anymore?!) The nonchalance of it all, really bothers me. Another small detail that Apple does well.\n","date":"Jul 21, 2013","tags":["apple","Care","Customer Relationship","Security","Tumblr"],"title":"How to apologize to your users","url":"/posts/2013/how-to-apologize-to-your-users/"},{"body":"Have I mentioned the long-standing obsession with stationery, especially, fountain pens? Well, it is a bit of problem, really. In the last few months, I have started hoarding them. It started with one\u0026amp;ndash; a Lamy. Once I discovered how one can procure junk on eBay for very little money, I quickly ended up with a selection. As these things go, I suddenly had the increased \u0026amp;ldquo;need\u0026amp;rdquo; for inks that are not blue, or black. Nay, simple colours won\u0026amp;rsquo;t do for the truly obsessed.\nHere is the result of the latest rotation of inks and pens.\n","date":"May 13, 2013","tags":["esterbrook","fountain pens","hero","hobby","ink","ink rotation","Lamy","obsessions","oliver","parker","shaeffer"],"title":"Inky obsessions","url":"/posts/2013/inky-obsessions/"},{"body":"Reclining airplane seats!! I shake my fist at thee. This one feature on airplanes has caused me untold miseries. Ok! I exaggerate .. a little. I live Vancouver, which is one the other side of the planet with respect to my hometown. As a result, I spend at least 30 hours on an plane, once a year. To compound, my 6\u0026amp;rsquo; 5\u0026amp;quot; (196 cm) frame does not mix well with cramped spaces.\nDan Kois on Slate, says\neveryone on the plane would be better off if no one reclined; the minor gain in comfort when you tilt your seat back 5 degrees is certainly offset by the discomfort when the person in front of you does the same. But of course someone always will recline her seat, like the people in the first row, or the woman in front of me, whom I hate. (At least we\u0026amp;rsquo;re not in the middle seat. People who recline middle seats are history\u0026amp;rsquo;s greatest monsters.)\nMacro and Merlin agree.\nUsually the conversation goes like this:\nMe: \u0026amp;ldquo;Sir/Ma\u0026amp;rsquo;am, would you mind letting me know before you recline? My legs are up against the back of your seat, and if you do, my knees will be crushed.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nPotential Recliner: \u0026amp;ldquo;Sure!\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;hellip;\n\u0026amp;hellip;\n*[2 hours later]: The seat reclines *\nMe: \u0026amp;ldquo;Gaaaa!!!\u0026amp;rdquo;\nIn the four legs of the journey, if I get one \u0026amp;ldquo;recliner\u0026amp;rdquo; in the seat in front of me, I usually spend about 10 hours standing. Yes, I used to pay for my seat, and stand all the way through.\nFor the love of god, next time, maybe a quick check might be a good idea before you decide to recline. This way, you will help save crushed knees of some poor-souls.\nNote: Cathay Pacific has an interesting solution. Their shell seats mean no reclining!.\nLater: I spoke too soon! Cathay has reverted to their reclining seats. Who cares about numb butts. Just get up and walk!\n","date":"Mar 13, 2013","tags":["airplane seat","first world problems","reclining seats"],"title":"Reclining airplane seats : work of the Devil!","url":"/posts/2013/reclining-airplane-seats/"},{"body":"Congrats to Thomashawk on the flickr interview!\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Why? Who?\u0026amp;rdquo;, you ask. Thomashawk, photographer extraordinaire, has taught me a lot about photography. I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve never met him, or gone on a photo-walk (to be fixed some day), but have learnt from his work, nonetheless.\nI am compelled to write this, because, in some ways, there is a certain vindication to Flickr doing an article on him. He has been Flickr\u0026amp;rsquo;s ardent fan, and critic. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s been a long road! From the fun insanity of DMU(s), Zooomr, and flickr censorship to getting some well reserved recognition. Kudos!\n","date":"Feb 27, 2013","tags":[],"title":"Congrats Thomashawk!","url":"/posts/2013/congrats-thomashawk/"},{"body":"Unix. I love thee!\nExtract an rpm without installing in to the current directory (really, the rpm command should support this):\n$ rpm2cpio myrpmfile.rpm | cpio -idmv\n*i: Restore archive\n*d: Create leading directories where needed\n*m: Retain previous file modification times when creating files\n*v: Verbose i.e. display progress\nList contents of an rpm:\n$ rpm -qlp myrpmfile.rpm source\n","date":"Feb 17, 2013","tags":["extract rpm","list contents","list contents of rpm","rpm","unix","unix commands"],"title":"Working with rpms (extract, list contents)","url":"/posts/2013/work-with-rpms/"},{"body":"The great G.B Shaw, in \u0026amp;ldquo;Man and Superman\u0026amp;rdquo; (not that Superman), quipped, \u0026amp;ldquo;There is no love sincerer than the love of food.\u0026amp;rdquo; I had a weekend, that reminded me how much I love being fed. It also, reminded me of my wayward ways, in keeping the waistline in check, but I diverge. For this Christmas, I got the most amazing gift \u0026amp;ndash; the gift of an evening out trying out food that tasted, as good as it sounds and looks. Without much ado, here is the spread:\n[gallery ids=\u0026amp;ldquo;13701,13702,13704,13703,13705,13706,13707,13708,13709,13710,13711,13712\u0026amp;rdquo;]\nThanks to all the hobby chefs for the wonderful delights, and the hospitality. I aspire to such skills in the kitchen, and perhaps I shall be able to pay it forward. Thanks to Christina for the most-awesomest gift ever (yes, we invent words here), and Sophie for \u0026amp;ldquo;subbing\u0026amp;rdquo; for the sick Tina (I owe you one, Sophie!)\nIf you want to know more about Social Bites (and you should), get in touch with the wonderful bundle of energy that is Annika! (@socialbites, Social bites on FB)\nAnd the chefs: @wontongirljojo, @jonesboy\n","date":"Jan 14, 2013","tags":["cassoulet","food","social bites","whiskey","wontons"],"title":"A weekend of culinary delights","url":"/posts/2013/culinary-delights/"},{"body":"Working with git is fun. However, it is easy to get tired of the log list of parameters one has to use to very often. Git aliases are a great way to deal with this.\nFor instance, the standard git log, it pretty much useless in any large project, where there are several hundred commits in a day. Most often, the commit you are looking for in probably several pages deep.\nThe following is from the latest linux.git\nFortunately, git log has options one can use, that make the output look like this:\nAnother useful command is git show, with the \u0026amp;ndash;name-only option. It displays the list of files in a particular commit.\n","date":"Sep 26, 2012","tags":["alias","files in a commit","git","git log","git show"],"title":"Beautiful git logs and listing files in a commit","url":"/posts/2012/git-logs-and-files-in-a-commit/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been using my MBP as the main computer at work for a couple of weeks now. It is not officially \u0026amp;ldquo;supported\u0026amp;rdquo;, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m left to my own devices to figure out any issues that arise.\nConfiguring proxies on the mac for all GUI applications is quite simple. However, most of the *nix tools have trouble with it. Macports, which I love to hate, should read it from the environment\u0026amp;rsquo;s $http_proxy and $rsync_proxy, but for some reason doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t really do so. The simplest fix, is to override system env variables, and use the macport configuration file to provide the proxy. It works like a charm (one of reason to like macports, I suppose)\nEdit $HOME/macports/etc/macports/macports.conf, and add the following.\n(I prefer installing macports in its own directory .. if it ever gets too big, I can delete the directory, and go back to using standard tools that come with the mac)\n","date":"Aug 27, 2012","tags":[],"title":"Macports from behind a proxy","url":"/posts/2012/macports-from-behind-a-proxy/"},{"body":"For the last few months I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been annoyed. Two or three times a week, I get a flurry of emails from Facebook and twitter claiming that I reset my password. Sounds like a first-world problem? It is. However, I have 4 emails linked to my Facebook account and one to my twitter account. I get on average 15-20 mails a week, and I dutifully dis-avow each one of them.\nThen, this happens. It scares the hell out of me, but I procrastinate. After a good two weeks, and 40 mails later, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve finally caved, and enabled it. Now, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s practically impossible to hack my account. Password + token to access from any new device, and I can remotely revoke access to any device I lose.\nNow, what does it have to do with sashimi, you ask? Well, nothing really! That\u0026amp;rsquo;s just the bait to get you to read this most important thing. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t be like me, and procrastinate forever. Enable two-factor authentication on both google and Facebook! You\u0026amp;rsquo;ll be glad you did. Both have very compelling implementations that are easy to configure and use.\nSecurity is like good sushi \u0026amp;ndash; once you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve tasted the good kind, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s hard to go back to just good enough.\nWell, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s your reward for reading this far:\n","date":"Aug 23, 2012","tags":["food","salmon","sashimi","Security","two-factor authentication"],"title":"Two-factor authentication and spicy salmon sashimi don","url":"/posts/2012/two-factor-authentication-and-spicy-salmon-sashimi-don/"},{"body":"I use git \u0026amp;ndash; quite extensively. At work, we have several git repositories, across different organizations. In addition, I also hack for pleasure. Interacting with several git servers means that I need to have different roles and identities for them. The solution is to setup up one ssh key for each domain, and use ~/.ssh/config profiles to control them. Based on the host I\u0026amp;rsquo;m connecting to, a different ssh private/public key pair is used \u0026amp;ndash; make life a lot easier!\nThanks to Karanbir Singh, for this:\n","date":"Aug 20, 2012","tags":["github","identity file","keys","rsa","ssh","ssh keys","ssh profiles"],"title":"Multiple ssh profiles for multiple services","url":"/posts/2012/multiple-ssh-profiles/"},{"body":"BMI, is not the best measure of health, or fitness, but \u0026amp;gt;30 is a definite indicator of lack of care about one\u0026amp;rsquo;s health. After several years of exactly that, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m finally within reasonable limits. My BMI is 24.0; It\u0026amp;rsquo;s official, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not obese anymore.\nIn the last 4 years, I have seen my weight go from 230 lbs to 266 lbs, and back to 202 lbs, as of today.\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s a good day!\n","date":"Jun 1, 2012","tags":["BMI","weight"],"title":"I am fat no more","url":"/posts/2012/i-am-fat-no-more/"},{"body":"Ohh the unix command prompt, I love thee! Can you guess what these commands do?\n1 2 # grep -l \u0026amp;lt;regex\u0026amp;gt; # find . -name \u0026amp;lt;regex\u0026amp;gt; -delete ","date":"May 21, 2012","tags":["coding","programming","unix","unix commands"],"title":"More unix goodness","url":"/posts/2012/more-nix-goodness/"},{"body":"I have been meaning to get into the exciting world of static site-gen. Why, you ask? Well, I will tell you why?! Actually, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m too lazy, and it\u0026amp;rsquo;s late on a Sunday night \u0026amp;ndash; instead, Mick Gardner, can inform you on the virtues of static site-generation.\nAfter an hour of mucking around with several site-generators, I chose Stasis, which is a good compromise to the blog-oriented Jekyll, and options-insanity that is nanoc. With my new-found fascination for Ruby, I wanted to stay away from Hyde (which is Python based \u0026amp;ndash; it\u0026amp;rsquo;s time to try the dark-side, a little)\nHAML, is an interesting markup language. Although it cleanups some of the clutter of html, there are still things that are annoying. For example:\nHTML:\nHAML:\nAlthough, the HTML version has intrusive tags, it is easier on the eyes. It is a relief, not have to code, the end tag for every HTML element. It is much faster to type HAML by hand (especially in vim). In the end, it was a quick, painless process to convert the raw HTML code, to HAML, and generate the same html using stasis.\nLife\u0026amp;rsquo;s good. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m still learning a few new tricks. What more can one ask for?\n","date":"May 20, 2012","tags":["HAML","ruby","site","site-gen","Stasis"],"title":"An hour with HAML and Stasis","url":"/posts/2012/an-hour-with-haml-and-stasis/"},{"body":"Note to Self: Get wine. Lot\u0026amp;rsquo;s of it! ;)\n","date":"Feb 8, 2012","tags":["note-to-self","notes","wine"],"title":"Here, have some wine","url":"/posts/2012/here-have-some-wine/"},{"body":"This saturday, I will be leaving to Sweden for work. It will be an exciting two months! Hopefully, I will have some time to enjoy and experience a new country, and chronicle the (mis)adventures there!\nFor now, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s some music. This song has followed me around for the last 12 years, and when it is time for me to go away, I hear this song playing somwhere. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s corny, but its nice.\n","date":"Feb 8, 2012","tags":[],"title":"My bags are packed","url":"/posts/2012/my-bags-are-packed/"},{"body":"In the wild days of 1996, when I got my hands on a computer (it cost about a year\u0026amp;rsquo;s worth of my Dad\u0026amp;rsquo;s salary, and nothing that I am would have been possible but for that sacrifice he made), I was enamored by the ease of content consumption on a computer.\nIn one year, I went from knowing nothing about the world, to interacting with hundreds of other people across the world, talking about different things, and experiencing new content every day. Ideas in the form of text, video (granted there wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t much back then), music. That desire to learn new things, and to \u0026amp;ldquo;consume\u0026amp;rdquo; content has not abated in the last decade and a half.\nLast week, I was mentioning to a colleague that I had to \u0026amp;ldquo;download\u0026amp;rdquo; a particular album by a new artist since it was unavailable in the US (both iTunes, and in store), and the conversation moved to the ethics of doing such a thing.\nHow can one, in the world today, justify \u0026amp;ldquo;pirating\u0026amp;rdquo; a song, when there is so many ways of getting, said product?\nIn my opinion, the cost of virtual goods (videos, movies, music, pod-casts, articles) are higher than their perceived value by the consumer.\nWith these images on the internet, the cost of storage, distribution, and revenue generation is almost zero. Yet an album is still priced around $10-$20. In such an environment, scarcity is pre-dominantly artificial, whether it created by DRM or regional restrictions or pricing schemes, only serve to fuel piracy.\nIn my case, I would have gladly paid for it on iTunes, but it wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t available there. It was available on Spotify, but of course, that is not available in Canada (it\u0026amp;rsquo;s only been 3 years since the rest of the world has access to it). So my choice is between being denied access to content I\u0026amp;rsquo;m willing to pay for, or fire up a browser, find the torrent, and download it. Guess which one I chose?\nFred Wilson, says it better than I can ever hope to (seems like he had a similar problem, and found the same solution):\nI understand their muscle memory in terms of the scarcity business model. But restricting access to content is a bad business model in the age of a global network that costs practically nothing to distribute on.\nvia A VC: Scarcity Is A Shitty Business Model.\nWe, humans are creative beings, and we will always seek the shortest, fastest, cheapest path to creative content. We can make it illegal, but we can\u0026amp;rsquo;t stop people from reaching out to their fundamental impulses. Perhaps it is time we change the way we have organized how we make money from those impulses.\n","date":"Jan 16, 2012","tags":["artificial scarcity","creative content","Music","piracy","scarcity"],"title":"Piracy for convenience","url":"/posts/2012/piracy-for-convenience/"},{"body":"If you are in a hurry, and need something tasty yet easy to make, this one is for you. The prep time is about 5 minutes, and the cooking time around 10-15 minutes. If you have a small rice cooker \u0026amp;ndash; the kind that plugs into a wall sockets \u0026amp;ndash; you should be able to get the rice done in about the same time.\nIt is also the perfect curry to cook for smaller portions. If you are like me, and have to cook for 1 person, aka me, all the time, it is a no-frills and no-freezer required recipe.\n1. Fry all the onions until soft (5-6 mins) in high heat\n2. add mined garlic, 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp dania powder, and salt to taste, some tumeric powder (1 tsp for each handful of prawns), and chilli powder to taste (I use very little)\n3. add some salt (increases the temp and allows everything to sear nicely)\n4. cook for 4 mins or until the prawns are half-cooked\n5. add diced tomatoes, and salt to taste (remember to taste the sauce before adding the salt)\n6. sear for 1 min and then add 1/2 cup of water (not too much or you will over cook the prawns), and reduce heat, and simmer until the above consistency is reached.\ncook some rice, and you have a decent meal!\nSome pictures:\n[gallery link=\u0026amp;ldquo;file\u0026amp;rdquo;]\n","date":"Dec 14, 2011","tags":["prawn","prawn curry","prawns","recipe"],"title":"Prawn curry","url":"/posts/2011/prawn-curry/"},{"body":"It\u0026amp;rsquo;s my mom\u0026amp;rsquo;s birthday today, and as I scoured the recesses of the internets for something nice to say, I came across this most beautiful poem by the author of \u0026amp;ldquo;Joy Junction\u0026amp;rdquo; about his mom. As most of you who know me know, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not much of a poet, but I am enough of a romantic to steal \u0026amp;ldquo;borrow\u0026amp;rdquo; someone-else work to express what I feel (I know \u0026amp;ndash; lame, right?)\nமழையில் நனைந்துகொண்டே\nவீட்டுக்கு வந்தேன்\n\u0026amp;lsquo;குடை எடுத்துட்டுப் போக வேண்டியதுதானே!\u0026amp;rsquo;\nஎன்றான் அண்ணன்\u0026amp;rsquo;\nஎங்கேயாச்சும் ஒதுங்கி நிக்கவேண்டியதுதானே\u0026amp;rsquo;\nஎன்றாள் அக்கா\n\u0026amp;lsquo;சளி பிடிச்சுக்கிட்டு செலவு வைக்கப்போற பாரு\u0026amp;rsquo;\nஎன்றார் அப்பா\nதன் முந்தானையால்\nஎன் தலையை துவட்டிக்கொண்டே\nதிட்டினாள் அம்மா\nஎன்னையல்ல; மழையை!\nsource: Joy Junction\nMy translation, in the hope that it redeems the \u0026amp;ldquo;theft\u0026amp;rdquo;:\nI came home drenched in the rain\n\u0026amp;lsquo;Why didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t you take the umbrella\u0026amp;rsquo;\nsaid my brother\n\u0026amp;lsquo;You could have waited somewhere until there was a respite in the rain\u0026amp;rsquo;\nsaid my sister\n\u0026amp;lsquo;you are going to catch a cold and cost us money\u0026amp;rsquo;\nsaid my father\nWith the tip of her sari,\nas she dried off my head,\nmy mom was cross\nnot with me;\nbut with the rain.\nYes. We tamilians are melodramatic and sentimental sometimes \u0026amp;hellip; (well actually, all the time. Some of us, just learn to hide it better) Mom. Dad. Grandma, Shankar and Swetha. There are days where I really miss you guys. Today was one such day.\n","date":"Dec 2, 2011","tags":["mom","poem","tamil"],"title":"Happy birthday, Mom","url":"/posts/2011/happy-birthday-mom/"},{"body":"Forget perfect pitch. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m so thankful that I can experience a large range of frequencies, and that I have enough hearing ability to distinguish timbre, and tone. Watch the video below, especially at 7:00 minutes. We all must be thankful that we can hear as well as we do. I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t imagine what life would be like without the ability to sense the warmth of a viola rising up in the Brandenburg concertos (BWV 1046) movement 1, or the horns in the 3rd movement of the same.\nJ.S. BACH BWV 1046 Brandenburg Concertos No: 1\nMovements 1 \u0026amp;amp; 2: http://youtu.be/idvduV2I3o0\nMovements 3 \u0026amp;amp; 4 : http://youtu.be/x8AEGLAyMOc\n","date":"Dec 1, 2011","tags":["Bach","Brandenburg Concertos","BWV 1046","hearing","Music","ted talks"],"title":"music and hearing","url":"/posts/2011/music-and-hearing/"},{"body":"When in doubt, take a poet\u0026amp;rsquo;s thought to your heart. They are, invariably experienced beings, that have spent a great deal of their lives, exploring the heart through the mind.\nStrong Mercy by Rabindranath Tagore\nMy desires are many and my cry is pitiful,\nbut ever didst thou save me by hard refusals;\nand this strong mercy has been wrought into my life through and through.\nDay by day thou art making me worthy of the simple,\ngreat gifts that thou gavest to me unasked\u0026amp;mdash;this sky and the light, this body and the\nlife and the mind\u0026amp;mdash;saving me from perils of overmuch desire.\nThere are times when I languidly linger\nand times when I awaken and hurry in search of my goal;\nbut cruelly thou hidest thyself from before me.\nDay by day thou art making me worthy of thy full acceptance by\nrefusing me ever and anon, saving me from perils of weak, uncertain desire.\nThis poem, expresses a lot of what\u0026amp;rsquo;s on my mind, at this ungodly hour (its 3:39 am), except for the last couple of lines. I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to editorialize a poem, and hence left it in place.\n","date":"Dec 1, 2011","tags":["Poem Tagore poetry"],"title":"strong mercy","url":"/posts/2011/strong-mercy/"},{"body":"\nRain, a gallery by Todd Klassy on Flickr.\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s that time of the year, in Vancouver, when it starts to rain and is expected to do so, incessantly, for the next 6 months (I exaggerate, a little).\nIt is better to be prepared for it, and enjoy it while it lasts (like so many other things in life \u0026amp;ndash; even the moments, that are not exactly the way one wants them to be)\nSo here are a few pictures, that show how beautiful and mesmerizing rain can be.\n","date":"Nov 29, 2011","tags":["flickr","gallery","Photography","rain","Vancouver"],"title":"That time of the year","url":"/posts/2011/that-time-of-the-year/"},{"body":"I just watched the last 30 mins of the movie \u0026amp;ldquo;The green mile\u0026amp;rdquo;. What a beautiful movie! The last few lines was particularly well written. \u0026amp;ldquo;we each owe a death; there are no exceptions; but, Oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long. But if he can make a mouse live so long, I wonder what is in store for me\u0026amp;rdquo;\nDon\u0026amp;rsquo;t we all!\nThe sun is out in Vancouver ! Time to get out!\n","date":"Nov 27, 2011","tags":["movies","quotes","the green mile"],"title":"What's in store for me","url":"/posts/2011/whats-in-store-for-me/"},{"body":"1. Assuming an average car weighs around 4000 pounds\n2. Force required to move such a car (neglecting friction):\nF = ma\nAs per the above,\nm = 4000 /2.2 kg [approx. 1800 kg] a = 1 m/sec^2\n=\u0026amp;gt; F = 1800 N\n3. Since it would be next to impossible to get a rare earth magnet that produced that kind of force, we would be, better served trying to use a solenoid. The formula to get the force generated by a solenoid is given by:\nF = ((N * I) ^ 2 * k * A) / 2 * g ^ 2\nWhere,\nN - No of turns\nI - Current in Amps\nk = 4 * pi * 10 ^ -7 (constant)\nA - Cross-section of the solenoid\ng - distance between solenoid and the metal that needs to be attracted\nFrom the above, assuming a cross section of 0.5 sq m (A), current of 10 A (I), and a distance of 1 m from the solenoid (g), the number of turns required to produce 1 m/sec^2 acceleration on a 1800 Kg car is,\nN ~= 7.568 * 10 ^ 3 ~= 7000 turns\nNow, Density of Copper is 8.92 gm/cm3. We can guesstimate the weight by guessing the length of such a solenoid.\n","date":"Nov 9, 2011","tags":[],"title":"Moving a car using magnets","url":"/posts/2011/moving-a-car-using-magnets/"},{"body":"Sometimes working with an old c compiler brings up painful, yet fun-filled days of making it speak the same language as you, and sometimes you just go \u0026amp;ldquo;*$\u0026amp;amp;%*$#\u0026amp;amp;% you piece of sh** compiler\u0026amp;rdquo;\nI had one such moment today, and after I had returned to Zen (some soul-searching and some google searching), I realized it quite simple.\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 $ gmake ... ... some_file.h:42: badly punctuated parameter list in \\`#define\u0026amp;#39; some_file.h:64: badly punctuated parameter list in \\`#define\u0026amp;#39; Failed to compile $ This was caused by the following:\n1 2 3 4 5 ... ... #define LOG(...) { printf (##__VA_ARGS__); } ... ... This works in most modern C compilers. However, if you happen to use one from the 80s (I exaggerate a little - not by much), it throws the error as above. You can fix this as follows:\n1 2 3 4 5 ... ... #define LOG(ARGS...) { printf (##ARGS); } ... ... source\n","date":"Nov 8, 2011","tags":["pre-processor","badly punctuated parameter list","code","compiler issues","Development","gcc","programming"],"title":"Badly punctuated parameter list in #define","url":"/posts/2011/badly-punctuated-parameter-list/"},{"body":"DeWitt Clinton once wrote\nWhat are the hallmarks of a great engineer? A great engineer is characterized by their intelligence, versatility, creativity, loyalty, passion, experience, vision, dedication, composure, humility, and ability.\nApart from the \u0026amp;ldquo;humility\u0026amp;rdquo; part, which he never cared for, Steve Jobs was the epitome of that description. We shall miss you Mr. Jobs, especially for that keen sense of doing something perfectly.\nRIP Steve Jobs, the maker of beautiful things.\nMe == sad today :(\n","date":"Oct 5, 2011","tags":["apple","eulogy","RIP","Steve Jobs"],"title":"RIP Steve Jobs","url":"/posts/2011/rip-steve-jobs/"},{"body":"Last weekend, I went to my first photo-walk in Vancouver. This one is a yearly affair, organized by Scott Kelby. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s called the Worldwide Photowalk (#WWPW), and it was quite exciting. This was the fourth such event (and my first). I met a lot of very interesting people of varied backgrounds. Can\u0026amp;rsquo;t wait for the next one.\nFlickr groups for the photo-walk are:\nGastown\nScott Kelby\u0026amp;rsquo;s WWPW4\nThanks to Scott Kelby for starting such a wonderful thing, and letting it grow. This was as exciting as last year\u0026amp;rsquo;s Barcamp\n","date":"Oct 5, 2011","tags":["gastown","Photography","photowalk","Vancouver","worldwide photowalk","WWPW","WWPW4"],"title":"Worldwide Photowalk 2011","url":"/posts/2011/worldwide-photowalk-2011/"},{"body":"And sometimes, they barely hold your attention. However, the recent acquisition is the former. I got the mammoth of a book, over the weekend; it weighs a ton and I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll be sleeping with it, clutched tight in my hands.\nIf you already have the tomb by tanenbaum of similar name, the unix programming interface, you probably are not going to glean much value from this one (you can thank POSIX for maintaining a modicum of consistency over the years and some would vehemently contest that). That said, if you write code for *nix systems, it definitely deserves the shelf-space as much as any other programming book.\nIn the few hours I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve spent with it, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve already learnt and have had a few concepts made clear. It is definitely not a linear read and there is quite a lot of interesting things to read about. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m currently working through some fun tests of my understanding of pthreads. Watch for those here.\n","date":"Sep 25, 2011","tags":["books","linux","Linux programming interface","Reviews"],"title":"Sometimes, they are useful for a lifetime","url":"/posts/2011/sometimes-they-are-useful-for-a-lifetime/"},{"body":"If you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t yet upgraded to Lion (slow-coach you !), you might want to read these:\nHow to burn your own install dvd for OSX Lion You didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t read this before you installed lion, did you? Then, follow this thread. ","date":"Aug 30, 2011","tags":["burn DVD","install disc","install disk","Lion","OSX","OSX Lion"],"title":"OSX Lion and jumping through a few hoops","url":"/posts/2011/osx-lion-and-jumping-through-a-few-hoops/"},{"body":"A friend asked what I like about google+, and as I started posting a reply , I noticed there were enough to make a blog post. So here goes\u0026amp;hellip;\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s a quick list:\n1. Mobile app on android and iphone are awesome!\n2. Automatic upload of pics on phone/picasa\n3. Non-crappy photos (allows 2400+px, and g+ renders pictures better, since they don\u0026amp;rsquo;t mess with the image, if it is smaller than the max size)\n4. Easier to mention specific people in a conversation. (auto-completes ppl\u0026amp;rsquo;s profile name)\n5. hangouts (free video conferencing)\n6. Group messaging done right (huddle) on the mobile phone\n7. decent integration with email (I guess this is just coz I use Gmail)\n8. Privacy - predictable and manageable (not that it matters to me)\n9. Much less noise (a - mostly used by techies for now, b - allows asymmetric relationships à la twitter)\n10. Keyboard shortcuts (J, K work. Someone at google like vi \u0026amp;ndash; a lot)\nSo, there\u0026amp;rsquo;s 10 reasons to dump Facebook for G+. There is a lot more in terms of features (new ones are added all the time), but mostly the community is awesome, and the engagement is better!\n11. (bonus). I was going to say games, but they have that here too, but I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not bothered by it, and don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have to see someone\u0026amp;rsquo;s update on buying sheep\nHaving said the above, I miss a couple of FB \u0026amp;ldquo;features\u0026amp;rdquo;. Really, its the of the same: 1. There is no way to start a conversation with someone, unless, you address it specifically to that person (in which case nobody else see it). Facebook does this simply, by providing a \u0026amp;ldquo;wall\u0026amp;rdquo;.\n2. There are no \u0026amp;ldquo;Groups\u0026amp;rdquo;. Ie each circle is local to me, and hence, if I want to have a group for all my friends from university, I will have to add them to a circle. In order to simulate Facebook \u0026amp;ldquo;groups\u0026amp;rdquo;, everyone in that circle, has to add everyone else to a group of the same name. Adding one more person to that group, now means that everyone has to add that person manually.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m sure, google will come up with something to address the above two. We\u0026amp;rsquo;ll have to wait and see how it goes!\n","date":"Aug 28, 2011","tags":["10 reasons","facebook","g+","google","google plus","plus","why"],"title":"10 reasons to dump Facebook for G+. Now!","url":"/posts/2011/dump-fb-for-gplus/"},{"body":"If you write a lot of scripts to automate tasks, you probably already know this. However, if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t, and you are still reading, you are probably a programmer, in which case, you really should be learning how to script in BASH!\nA couple of pointers for you:\n1. Using a -x, in the shebang line \u0026amp;ldquo;echo\u0026amp;quot;s every line before executing. This turns out to be quite useful for debugging shell scripts\n2. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s quite easy to make BASH print a countdown.\n","date":"Aug 28, 2011","tags":["countdown","debug","echo","same line","scripting","shell","shell scripting","unix"],"title":"Life in the BASH universe","url":"/posts/2011/life-in-the-bash-universe/"},{"body":"A couple of weeks ago I started a new project - to shoot random strangers in the streets of GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional Districts - for those of you that are not from here). I wanted to see if I had the guts to walk up to random strangers, and ask their permission to shoot a picture of them. I was also curious to know how they would react to it, and what my success rate would be.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve asked around 14, and 8 said yes. Some of them were not comfortable with their pictures on the internets. I offered them 3 options.\nPictures don\u0026amp;rsquo;t end up on the internet (emailed to them if they send me an email) On the internet for non-commercial purposes. On the internet in public domain. Only 2 were ok with public domain. The rest opted for option 2. One didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t want it on the internet at all.\nIt was an interesting experience, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m looking forward to more such excursions. For the lack of a better name, I chose to call this project : People of GVRD.\nSuggestions are welcome. Do you have a better name for the project? Perhaps, thoughts on how I should approach people. Do you think I\u0026amp;rsquo;m insane? Apart from photos, would you be interested in a short blurb about the person? What would you like to know?\n[![Sue \u0026amp;amp; Family - 5](/images/5972190618_0931941b96_m.jpg)][1][![Sue \u0026amp;amp; Family - 3](/images/5971630139_b1262ef3c0_m.jpg)][2] [![Sue \u0026amp;amp; Family - 2](/images/5972181714_13ffb69f1a_m.jpg)][3][![Sue \u0026amp;amp; Family - 1](/images/5972176262_b86c7d580c_m.jpg)][4] [![Louis](/images/5971615123_ba1a058817_m.jpg)][5][![Louis](/images/5972166850_2a95820ef3_m.jpg)][6] [![Ben](/images/5972162270_e6be65d5dd_m.jpg)][7][![Sol](/images/5971599871_0482b24987_m.jpg)][8] The above is also cross-posted to [google+][9] ","date":"Jul 24, 2011","tags":["People of GVRD","Photography","projects"],"title":"People of GVRD - a photographic experiment","url":"/posts/2011/people-of-gvrd/"},{"body":"Just upgraded to OSX Lion. A very slick interface.\nQuick Review:\n1. Launchpad. Solved previously by Alfred in the GUI, and bash aliases on the command line.\n2. Mission Control. Eye-candy. Will probably use it until I get tired of all the moving windows, and stick to Cmd+arrow keys to switch desktops. Maybe normal users will find it useful. But then, most people don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want anything that increases their workflow complexity. Most of them have trouble keeping track of more than a couple of windows, let alone, 10s of them (which I think is what features like Mission Control will promote)\n3. I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll probably never use gestures (keyboard shortcuts solved that probably elegantly, some 40 years ago).\n4. First real annoyance: the default mouse-axis configuration is inverted. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t get why this was changed?! (refer image)\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s way too late to go into other cool and annoying things. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not sure how I really feel about Lauchpad. Maybe it\u0026amp;rsquo;s not a bad idea to have a full screen view of all the apps - ipad style.\nP.S: Until I figure out how to get all of my posts on Google+ as full content, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m going to double post them.\nhttps://plus.google.com/111413906991391429946/posts/GicFg4bESty\n","date":"Jul 23, 2011","tags":["Launchpad","Lion","Mac OSX","Mission Control","OSX"],"title":"OSX Lion. A first look (at 2 AM)","url":"/posts/2011/osx-lion-a-first-look-at-2-am/"},{"body":" New wordpress theme Optimized website load time (articles about this are to be expected in the offing). P.S CSS sprites are awfkinsome! Upgraded to the latest greatest version Finally, started writing something for the blog! ","date":"Jul 7, 2011","tags":[],"title":"Some major site updates!","url":"/posts/2011/some-major-site-updates/"},{"body":"In *nix systems, you can make the display, the GUI of an application, appear on another machine. This if often required, when the machine you want to run the application on is in a lab, and you have access through a desktop machine that has a monitor.\nYou can do this, by running an XServer on the desktop machine and configuring the client (the one where you run your app) with the XServer details. By default, the XServer instance on your desktop disallows communication from all machines except localhost. Thus, you will need to add the host in the allowed list using the xhost command.\nOn your machine, to disable security checks:\n$ xhost +\nTo allow connections from a single host:\n$ xhost +\u0026amp;lt;hostname/ip\u0026amp;gt;\nOn the client machine where the application is run, set the X Server to display to (for bash shell):\n$ export DISPLAY=\u0026amp;lt;hostname\u0026amp;gt;:\u0026amp;lt;displaynumber\u0026amp;gt;.\u0026amp;lt;screennumber\u0026amp;gt;\nIf you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t changed the display-number or screen-number :\n$ export DISPLAY=\u0026amp;lt;hostname\u0026amp;gt;:0.0\nFor a more detailed description of the\nHow to export your X Display.\n","date":"Jun 21, 2011","tags":["how-to","Tips \u0026 Tricks","unix","X Display","xhost"],"title":"Exporting XDisplay","url":"/posts/2011/exporting-xdisplay/"},{"body":"\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s been a year since I sold my kidneys for an iPad. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s been fun. It has replaced every other device I own (ie, a couple of PCs and the nexus one). It\u0026amp;rsquo;s an outright winner, when it comes to reading, especially long-form articles, and books alike. It has become my go-to machine for everyday news, twitter/facebook, and even for browsing my favorite photographers.\nIt have however remained strictly in the realm of content consumption \u0026amp;ndash; until now. In the last few days, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve added a stylus - the Targus iPad stylus (available quite readily at most \u0026amp;lsquo;best-buy\u0026amp;rsquo;s, and on Amazon), and the iPad\u0026amp;rsquo;s camera connect kit. If you own an iPad (v1 or v2) I would recommend that you fork out the moolah for these two. It will be the best $50 you\u0026amp;rsquo;ll ever spend on accessories for the iPad. Forget the cool looking smart cover. These will be more rewarding than the 2 hours of thrill of watching the smart cover turn off the ipad when you close it.\nThe targus stylus is without doubt the best one in the market yet. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s got good heft to it. Feels comfortable to hold. The only gripe I have with the Targus is the length. I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t but wonder why they didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t make it same as a standard pencil.\nThere is no contest between this, and the Pogo Sketch. (Ten-one design could be the next Wacom, if they get their pressure sensitive stylus right. Wacom should buy them out, now, before they get too big). The targus has an air-filled bubble for the tip, which slides with less resistance against the iPad\u0026amp;rsquo;s screen, than the spongy one of the pogo sketch. The tip is still fairly large, and the level of control you get varies by the app. If you use Penultimate, this stylus will provide much better control. The iPad can now actually replace paper \u0026amp;amp; pen (somewhat). I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t wait to see how good the Wacom stylus is going to be. It will definitely cost more (around $40 if I\u0026amp;rsquo;m right), but for $20, this is the best stylus (that is also readily available) right now.\nThe camera connect kit, is a thing of marvel. It is not like Apple to allow such a wide range of applications for a single piece of plastic (even if it is over-priced for something that should be part of the iPad purchase). I just found out that it works quite well with my camera (a Canon 7D). Importing RAW images onto the iPad are faster than importing them on my MacbookPro (something seriously out-of-whack here \u0026amp;ndash; I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll need to investigate, to confirm this). It also allows connecting any \u0026amp;ldquo;Mac\u0026amp;rdquo; supported keyboard (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m typing this post on my logitech USB Wave keyboard, which I must say kicks the pants off any keyboard Apple currently sells). Of course, carrying a keyboard around is out of question, but it\u0026amp;rsquo;s nice to know it works without any special drivers.\nTip: Both Ctrl+shift+arrows (begin/end of line), and Cmd+shift+arrows (1-word at a time) allow you to select text on iPad. of course, you can navigate around …","date":"May 1, 2011","tags":["Accessories","apple","Canon 7d","capacitive stylus","iOS Apps","iPad","IPad camera connect kit","iPad with keyboard","Logitech Wave keyboard","Pogo Sketch stylus","review","Targus stylus"],"title":"iPad and friends","url":"/posts/2011/ipad-and-friends/"},{"body":"And now you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve done it!! Bah! I thought it was so cool that I could plot of heat map of my location for a full year. With all the cribbing around the internets about how the iphone is not secure because it stores data (ie a cache of your location data), Apple has decided to squash this wonderful \u0026amp;ldquo;easter egg\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nSometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:\nreduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,\nceases backing up this cache, and\ndeletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.\nIn the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.\nWouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it be cool, if someone actually wrote an app that does the exact same thing? I bet it would sell like crazy! I\u0026amp;rsquo;d buy it.\n","date":"Apr 27, 2011","tags":["apple","iphone","location tracking","morons"],"title":"You cribbing bunch of morons","url":"/posts/2011/you-cribbing-bunch-of-morons/"},{"body":"This is a test post from blogsy, an iPad blogging tool.\nThe interface design looks thoughtful \u0026amp;ndash; drag \u0026amp;amp; drop of images from flickr and picasa, videos from YouTube, a built it google search and browser to get at other content. Although there is a bit of a learning curve, it makes the iPad a true content generation device.\nMaybe this will keep me blogging this time around. On that note, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s a cutie pie to bring a smile to you, today.\n","date":"Apr 23, 2011","tags":["blogsy","iPad","Tools","utilities"],"title":"Blogsy - a ray of hope","url":"/posts/2011/blogsy-a-ray-of-hope/"},{"body":"\u0026amp;lsquo;Nuf said!\n","date":"Mar 21, 2011","tags":["cthulhu","geekery","old spice","parody","video"],"title":"Cthulhu is your god","url":"/posts/2011/cthulhu-is-your-god/"},{"body":"To the people of Japan, and the world, Lord Tennyson has these words\nTho\u0026amp;rsquo; much is taken, much abides; and tho\u0026#39;\nWe are not now that strength which in old days\nMoved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,\u0026amp;ndash;\nOne equal temper of heroic hearts,\nMade weak by time and fate, but strong in will\nTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.\n","date":"Mar 16, 2011","tags":["Japan","Lord Tennyson","poetry","Ulysses","video"],"title":"To the people of Japan","url":"/posts/2011/to-the-people-of-japan/"},{"body":"If you weren\u0026amp;rsquo;t in a hole the past few days, you would have heard about the iPad 2 launch. Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s Conan\u0026amp;rsquo;s take on it.\nI must say, the cover is a thing of engineering beauty. Kudos on that, Apple, and thanks for screwing over several thousands of your iPad 1 customers, who forked up 9.5 Billion in revenue in 9 months.\n","date":"Mar 4, 2011","tags":["apple","Conan","iPad","iPad 2","iPad launch","parody","video"],"title":"No matter what we say","url":"/posts/2011/no-matter-what-we-say/"},{"body":"If you are not a UNIX user/not a geek, please turn away right now.\nEvery year, I either chance upon something new, or remind myself of something interesting that I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve forgotten. This is the latter case. On a *NIX shell, you can push a foreground process to background (obviously without terminating it):\n$ ./someprocess ... ... ... Ctrl-Z [1]+ Stopped ./someprocess $ bg [1]+ ./someprocess \u0026amp;amp;\nTo bring the process into foreground:\n$ fg \u0026amp;lt; -- last process pushed into bkgnd $ jobs [1] ./someprocess [2] ./someotherprocess $ fg 2 via Job Control on UNIX systems.\n","date":"Jan 31, 2011","tags":["background process","bg","fg","job control","job control in unix","linux","push to background","unix"],"title":"Job Control on \\*NIX systems","url":"/posts/2011/job-control-on-nix-systems/"},{"body":"[caption id=\u0026amp;quot;\u0026amp;quot; align=\u0026amp;ldquo;alignnone\u0026amp;rdquo; width=\u0026amp;ldquo;506\u0026amp;rdquo; caption=\u0026amp;ldquo;linkedin-visualized\u0026amp;rdquo;][/caption]\nVery cool\n","date":"Jan 26, 2011","tags":["graphs","infographic","linkedin","network","visualization"],"title":"My linkedin network visualized","url":"/posts/2011/my-linkedin-network-visualized/"},{"body":"Need I say more ..\nWatch the full episode. See more American Masters.\n","date":"Jan 26, 2011","tags":["Celebrity","Interview","Jeff Bridges","The Dude"],"title":"The Dude ... Rocks!","url":"/posts/2011/the-dude-rocks/"},{"body":" Shared by shiva\nVery cool!\nAnger is Illogical, a film created by \u0026amp;ldquo;OneMinuteGalactica\u0026amp;rdquo;, takes audio from one of those \u0026amp;ldquo;behavioural\u0026amp;rdquo; films they used to show in schools in the 1950s and 60s and video from the original Star Trek TV series (run through a filter to make them look like they\u0026amp;rsquo;re on 16mm film) and combines them for hilarious results.\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s another amusing little film from OneMinuteGalactica: Luke Skywalker has OCD\u0026amp;hellip;\nThis article also appears in Global Nerdy.\n","date":"Jan 25, 2011","tags":[],"title":"Anger is Illogical","url":"/posts/2011/anger-is-illogical/"},{"body":"Some actors have the incredible talent of keen observation, and Mr Spacey is a master at it. Watch him channeling Pacino around 5:25. In few words, he makes you believe you\u0026amp;rsquo;re seeing the real Pacino. The \u0026amp;lsquo;Christopher Walken\u0026amp;rsquo; is also spot on.\n","date":"Jan 13, 2011","tags":["Actor's Studio","Christopher walken","favourites","impersonation","Kevin Spacey","pacino","video","youtube"],"title":"Impersonations","url":"/posts/2011/impersonations/"},{"body":"DMU (Delete me Uncensored) is a group on Flickr, that was formed because a few people got pissed at Flickr censoring content. It is a very \u0026amp;ldquo;lively\u0026amp;rdquo; place on most days with a lot of colour and personality. Mostly its just a bunch of fine folks that have a common passion (photography), and express their opinions with almost no filters. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s easy to mistake the group for being too rude, but you just have to hang around to \u0026amp;lsquo;get it\u0026amp;rsquo;.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve had a on-again off-again DMU addiction mainly because it feels more authentic to me, mostly because I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve seen how serious they are about the art form, but also take themselves lightly. I chanced upon two very interesting music videos on one of the threads.\nLiving Colour - Cult Of Personality.\nLakeside - Your Wish Is My Command\n","date":"Jan 11, 2011","tags":["cult of personality","DMU","lakeside","living colour","Music","video","Your wish is my command"],"title":"Music from DMU","url":"/posts/2011/music-from-dmu/"},{"body":"\nPhew! What an awesome 23 hours! I\u0026amp;rsquo;m just back from Barcamp Vancouver 2010 #bcv10. (Check out some pictures from the event). It\u0026amp;rsquo;s been a while, since I have been this tired and excited at the same time. There are a thousand threads competing for the processor(s) in my head right now. I met a lot of very interesting people, and learnt about some great ideas. It has been a very educational weekend, in general. For all the great folks I met, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sure there were many more that I couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t chat with. To you, I say, \u0026amp;ldquo;Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s meet on the internets\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nA few great projects/ideas:\nArduino - Open hardware platform for very building very cool things. A very inexpensive way to build your very own robot army. Plumtree Portfolios - Vancouver-based wedding photographer platform. This wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t a talk, but I wish it had been. A very interesting, clean product. Shawn Taylor is the founder, and he is getting geared up. This is has the potential to be huge, especially in Vancouver. HTML5 - a great talk by John Baxall, CEO @ Mobify. One of the best talks, and a great intro into the world of feature detection on browsers. OpenRestaurants - a vision to make restaurant websites suck less. Fingers crossed that this will happen sooner. We can all use better access to data (and not keep it behind walls .. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m looking at you Facebook) FashionQuest - Text-only adventure game engine. Aahh this brought back some memories. A very interesting use of YAML (In my world, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s used as modelling language for NETCONF) Freaking Eyes EyePong- Control an ipad app with your eyes (This stuff just blew my mind. Playing pong with just your eyes is incredible, not to mention the zillion possibilities) Symphony CMS - an XSLT based open source wiki. Another hallway demo. If you work for a large company, and your current CMS sucks, give this a looksie. Some people that I got a chance to chat with. Friend \u0026amp;rsquo;em up on twitter. Check out their projects/websites. It will widen your world, and will make you think.\nStephen Bau: website, @bauhouse, John Boxall: website, @johnboxall Shawn Taylor: website, @stphotos Reilly \u0026amp;rsquo;thejerk\u0026amp;rsquo; Lievers: website, @thejerk Cam Cavers: website, @camcavers Mike Cantelon: website, @mcantelon Craig Hennessey: personal, company Robin H. Johnson: website, @robbat2 Lastly, thanks to everyone who helped put up an wonderful event (and make my first one an incredible experience)\n@RobertShaer, @AGladders, @NickMolnar, @DDrucker, @KK \u0026amp;amp; @MattFriesen\nThe one thing I missed out on is meeting more designers. If you are in Vancouver, and want to meet for a chat on designing interfaces (which I suck at, with a vengeance), give me a shout @shiva.\nUpdate: Found the video for eyePong.\nThe incredible cool hackers behind this are\n_Jon Chui, __Tom Schultz __and Craig Hennessey (founder of mirametrix). _\nJon Chui has written about his experience in hacking eyePong. Check it out.\n","date":"Nov 20, 2010","tags":["Arduino","Barcamp","Barcamp Vancouver","bcv","bcv10","conference","FashionQuest","HTML5","OpenRestaurant","people in tech","Symphony CMS","YAML"],"title":"Barcamp Vancouver 2010 - Roundup","url":"/posts/2010/bcv2010-roundup/"},{"body":"It\u0026amp;rsquo;s been a while since I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve done anything except write code \u0026amp;ndash; lots of it. The last 20 days have been insane, and ofcourse to a take a break from writing code, I like to read code that others write. (You DO know that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m crazy, right?!). In one of my futile attempts at clearing my google-reader reading list, I chanced upon a post by Veerabahu, on finding if a number is a power of 2 (or not).\nAs he writes, there is the simpleton O(n) solution (you will have to click-through for that), and the most elegant (yet) bitwise solution:\n/* */ bool is_power_of_2(int n) { return ((n \u0026amp;amp; -n) == n); } The bitwise way to calculate the power of 2 is probably the most efficient in c like languages. Ofcourse for that, your language of choice needs to support it and should be more efficient that common math functions. The other way is to use some simple math.\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s say N, is the value, and you need to check if it is a power of two. Compute n = log N / log 2. If floor(n) == n, then N was a power of 2.\n/* */ bool is_power_of_2_pure_math_baby(int n) { /* address -ve numbers */ if (n \u0026amp;lt; 0) n = -n; double i = log(n)/log(2); /* i = power of 2 */ return (lower(i) == i); /* check if perfect power of 2 */ } This is obviously, a less efficient way of checking if a number is a power of 2, than using the bitwise method. However, it has a few advantages:\nIt works exactly the same way for all values of n. It works exactly the same way for all integers (ie, n can be int8/16/32/64, long, signed or unsigned, and the same logic would work It is O(1) like the bitwise solution It is less cryptic (ie just basic understanding of math is reqd for grokking this solution) Finally, it can be extended in future to calculate if n is a power of *any value*, not just 2 Of course, the point Josh Bloch was making in interviewing engineers, was that he is interested in knowing the WHY of a solution. It does not matter if the algorithm is marginally less optimal or different. If you are an interviewer in your organisation, and you catch yourself asking a question like this, remember that if an engineer can reduce O(n) to O(1), stop with similar micro-skills test. Find out why she coded it the way she did. It will tell you a lot more about her skills than some algorithms/tricks that can be picked up in acouple a days, if not overnight.\n","date":"Nov 3, 2010","tags":["algorithm","c++","code","power of 2","programming","puzzles"],"title":"Power of 2","url":"/posts/2010/power/"},{"body":"to write a blog post, when someone calls you to tell you that they checked your blog, and there was nothing of interest. Ofcourse, being lazy, I just chose to put some pictures, which have been languishing in the netherworld of pictures on the internet \u0026amp;ndash; Picasa.\nLooks like, Google has improved picasaweb to be almost usable. It is still void of comments, or any real social aspect. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m still well within the free quota, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not forking out money for yet another storage provider, until they provide a way to export all of the content that I generate in a \u0026amp;ldquo;parseable\u0026amp;rdquo; form (That\u0026amp;rsquo;s right, we invent words here). Anyway, I will shut up with the review of another techy thingy, and put some pictures on.\nBowen Island\nDragon Boats\n","date":"Sep 9, 2010","tags":["Bowen Island","Dragon Boats","Photography","Picasa","Picasaweb","Vancouver"],"title":"You know it is time ..","url":"/posts/2010/you-know-it-is-time/"},{"body":"Everything you need to know about cricket, in a series of awesome ads for Adidas.\nand let\u0026amp;rsquo;s see all of them mixed into one beautiful ad (that might make you want to watch this game, after all)\n","date":"Aug 31, 2010","tags":["adidas","ads","cricket","sport"],"title":"Awesome cricket ads","url":"/posts/2010/awesome-cricket-ads/"},{"body":"Since my last post, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve had a couple of replies, a few more tweets, and few minutes of talking about unsigned types in Java, and why it doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t support them.\nI still retail the view that unsigned types are unnecessary for the majority of Java developers. The only kind that should care, are those who deal with network information (like representing an ipaddress or macaddress). Everyone, put down your forks, and do not touch the unsigned.\nhttp://skeletoncoder.blogspot.com/2006/09/java-tutorials-why-no-unsigned.html\nhttp://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book/chapter2/integral_types.html\nhttp://docs.google.com/fileview?id=1hIxg1EAi2QbxLqA-X4kAnQGHpQ1I4B2mIF9db4kk4WLzqnzU42ODeG1Zlm8Z\u0026amp;amp;hl=en\nhttp://teneo.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/java-ip-address-to-integer-and-back/\nhttp://embeddedgurus.com/stack-overflow/2009/05/signed-versus-unsigned-integers/\nhttp://embeddedgurus.com/stack-overflow/2009/08/a-tutorial-on-signed-and-unsigned-integers/\nhttp://embeddedgurus.com/stack-overflow/2009/02/effective-c-tips-2-defining-buffer-sizes/\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signed_number_representations\nhttp://eli.thegreenplace.net/2010/06/11/the-perils-of-unsigned-iteration-in-cc/\nhttp://eli.thegreenplace.net/2004/07/18/cc-annoynace-unsigned-iteration/\nhttp://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=686170\u0026amp;amp;seqNum=4\nhttp://www.gotw.ca/publications/c_family_interview.htm\nhttp://anteru.net/2010/05/17/736/\nhttp://docs.google.com/fileview?id=1W-geK8nWnRfLLwEP00VYNsgVbWLawdRLbV-cEGFuktj6ZL5qTSbI8_3-WC3M\u0026amp;amp;hl=en\nhttp://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t590391-p2-unsigned-long-long-overflow.html\nhttp://embeddedgurus.com/stack-overflow/tag/unsigned/\n","date":"Aug 23, 2010","tags":["c++","coding","design","Development","hacking","java","unsigned arithmetic","unsigned types"],"title":"Unsigned Arithmetic","url":"/posts/2010/unsigned-arithmetic/"},{"body":"An interesting thing for me, is that if I am active on twitter during daytime in India (now that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m here on vacation), I get to have some interesting conversations about design and development. Today, I chanced to talk about the lack of unsigned values support in Java.\nveechand is there unsigned int in #java support your answers 10 Jul 2010 from TweetDeck\nshiva @veechand nope. but use char instead. If you really want a type, you can define your own class backed by char 12 Jul 2010 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to veechand\nveechand @shiva @surendrakumar defining a own class for unsigned..let me think over it.. but my main question is y #java didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t support unsigned ? 13 Jul 2010 from TweetDeck in reply to shiva\nshiva @veechand @surendrakumar the question actually is, why do you need unsigned? 13 Jul 2010 from Seesmic in reply to veechand\nveechand @shiva @surendrakumar my answer so that in given 32 bit I could store wide range of numbers (given my application wont go negative) 13 Jul 2010 from TweetDeck in reply to shiva\nsurendrakumar @shiva a lot of real life applications uses unsigned int. Example sales, money, hours, are all unsigned. 13 Jul 2010 from TweetDeck in reply to shiva\n\u0026amp;ndash; this quote was brought to you by quoteurl\nJava is, by no means, a \u0026amp;ldquo;new\u0026amp;rdquo; language for anyone I know. However, we still try to write C/C++ like code using it. We approach it with all of the training of C/C++, and start micro-optimisation much before it is needed, and end up with hard to comprehend complex code.\nI thought I will write a long-winded post about why unsigned int is not available in Java, and how to emulate it if you really need to, but I will leave that to more able hands.\nThe reason for lack of unsigned types in Java are:\n1. The core of the Java language was designed to be simple. This meant leaving out anything that adds complexity that can be done without. unsigned types didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t make the cut\n2. Someone got lazy and didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t bother to implement them, when the time came to make Oak into Java. (I wish leaving things out like this happen more in the industry).\nNow, let\u0026amp;rsquo;s examine why one requires unsigned types:\n1. Represent business case values like salary or percentile etc\n2. Store bitsets \u0026amp;ndash; each bit representing some state or option\n3. provide the ability to store more value that one can in an signed, thereby requiring lesser in-memory size\nCase 1 is a no brainer: As long as the value fits within the bounds of a 32-bit integer, you shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t care. Unless you need to store a value greater than 2,147,483,647, you shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t care if it is signed or unsigned.\nCase 2 is a hack: This is a typical carry-over from the C world, where there are no true enum or bitset types. If you need this, consider using an Enum or BitSet (as the case be for the problem you are trying to address)\nCase 3 is a delusion, and a sin: To a certain extent this is also something that was necessary and a good thing in C, and …","date":"Jul 13, 2010","tags":["coding","design","java","programming","unisigned int"],"title":"Why does Java not support unsigned int? - Part 1","url":"/posts/2010/why-no-unsigned-int-in-java/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been busy. That doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t explain my silence on this blog, its but an excuse. A lot of things have been happening, both in my personal and professional life, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not at liberty to talk about them. Those are for another day.\nI have been writing code - for money, ie - for 9 years now. This obsession started a good 6 years before that. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have much to show for it (most of it is copyrighted, or lost across several machines, that weren\u0026amp;rsquo;t mine). One thing that hasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t changed is the burning desire to get near some of my idols \u0026amp;ndash; gods even. When I was 15, I promised myself that I will strive to be at the same level as some of these people.\nMashable made a list of people \u0026amp;ndash; fathers of the internet, and so did Dave winer. All of these people have made such great contributions, that it is foolish to not agree with both these lists. However, for me, as a hacker, they interest me less than those who were the developers of software that made the Internet possible. Here is my non-exhaustive list, in no particular order, of the gods I try to emulate, and someday match and surpass (what are we, without lofty goals, eh?)\nKen Thompson rob pike stroustroup guido van rossum Linus torvalds Dave winer jwz Joshua bloch David Heinemeier Hansson james gosling miguel de icaza And some friends, that are equally important to me as hackers (not the kind that break into your computer)\nganesh CS Yuvi panda guru rajasekar (There are couple who I work with, that should be on that list, but I still have to work with them, and don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to make anyone jealous. Sorry for leaving you out guys/gals ;) )\nIf you are a hacker or want to be one, you should look at this list, and pick a few, and engross yourself in their work. That is by far, the best way to get better at what you do. The first step in becoming good, is to find a measuring stick. If anyone from the list is what you measure yourself by, you are bound for greatness. See ya there!\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programmers\nPeace, out!\n","date":"Jun 2, 2010","tags":["Hackers","Lists","Programmers"],"title":"A list to be on","url":"/posts/2010/a-list-to-be-o/"},{"body":"I did it. I said I wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t. I said I will hold out for purely ethical reasons, but it is very hard to resist the iPad. The first impression in-store is simply \u0026amp;ndash; awesome. This of course is not a surprise and is something that one can expect from apple these days.\nWarning: This is a long post ..\nHere are some thoughts, after a day of use:\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s fast. Much faster than the iPhone 3GS. This is good news for the upcoming iPhone. The battery lasts a really long time. It was around 80% and I used it for incessantly until it died 7/8 hours later. The a4 processor is at this point THE chip to kill for. If you have any samsung shares, I would dump them now, and load up on apple (although they are a tad pricy these days) iPhone apps are useless and look ugly on the iPad. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t bother synching any of them The keyboard is a lot more usable that I thought it would be. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m typing this post at about 60-70% of my usual typing speed. (Only true if inclined at an proper angle \u0026amp;ndash; the perfect angle: the one you get with the iPad case). I missed the universal back button. I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been spoiled by the freedom-toting nexus one robot ;) Other small annoyances include URL copy pasting between apps, and how the app store lists apps. Exiting the app store every time I install an app is also mind-numbing. I know I can use a Mac and install all apps at one go, but I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t spend a 1000 dollars for workarounds. Although I could type very well, creating a blog post is not this device\u0026amp;rsquo;s forte. For one, all the switching back and forth, is a nightmare, and there is simply no way to get the links to apps for instance from the ipad. Adding images is a pain as well (which is why this is a purely text-only post). It is really nice until you want to go beyond its function as a consumption device. Even a little, and it makes you want to get to a mac/pc in a hurry. Some apps are just stellar, that make it worthwhile go through the above mentioned niggles. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t feel any remorse at having bought it, but at the same time, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not floored by everything either. That is actually the strength of the device. It is the first time a computing device completely disappears and you interact with data. The experience depends on the app that you are using. Instapaper does a great job, so does the gmail web app.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m not a fan of the drop list widget though. This is the one interface element that gets in the way, and frankly, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m surprised that this got through the apple ui designers. A sliding in from left/right would have been a better option.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m a little cautious about buying a lot of apps like I did for the iPhone and then quitting the platform although I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t see that happening with the iPad, there is no competition in sight for at least another 18 months, and even then it would take an androId tablet a year to get to this level of refinement (if they ever do)\nIf you are a still here, here are some must have …","date":"May 29, 2010","tags":["apple","Apps","iPad","review"],"title":"iCaved","url":"/posts/2010/icaved/"},{"body":"I turned 30 yesterday.\nA whole day has passed since I left my 20s. They say it is a big day. They say it is a dreaded day. It was neither. Just busy (which is good).\nI chanced upon [Douglas Adams\u0026amp;rsquo; post][1] from 1999:\n\u0026amp;gt; 1. everything that\u0026amp;rsquo;s already in the world when you\u0026amp;rsquo;re born is just normal;\n\u0026amp;gt; 2. anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;\n\u0026amp;gt; 3. anything that gets invented after you\u0026amp;rsquo;re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it\u0026amp;rsquo;s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.\n\u0026amp;gt; Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are.\nFor me, Point 3 is intensely scary. I have lived all my life being on the bleeding edge (as much as I could afford, atleast). I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve always been in constant search of tools and technology that will make every living moment better than the one before. It has been an affliction, but one that I have throughly enjoyed, and internalised even!\nI hope that I continue to do that for the next decade (and prove Douglas Adams\u0026amp;rsquo; wrong). A few posts ago, I took a partly political stand against the [ipad][3], and decided to not vote for it with my wallet. I have also been [vocal][2], about my distaste with Apple\u0026amp;rsquo;s lock-down of the app deployment on the iphone and ipad. In the last few weeks, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m starting to question myself. Maybe it is an effect of #3, as DNA pointed out. But then, this is could just be my way out, a way to weasel from [the stand][2] I took ;)\n[1]: http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html \u0026amp;ldquo;Douglas Adams\u0026amp;rdquo;\n[2]: http://blog.shiv.me/2010/02/03/i-too-have-something-to-say-about-the-ipad.html\n[3]: http://blog.shiv.me/2010/02/04/ipad-is-ibad-petition.html\n","date":"May 14, 2010","tags":["age 30","apple","Douglas Adams","iPad","weasel"],"title":"The day-after the \"big\" day","url":"/posts/2010/the-day-after-the-big-day/"},{"body":"This is a test post to see if Dave Winer\u0026amp;rsquo;s OPML editor works with a self-hosted wordpress blog. There is something geeky about seeing crappy fonts on a screen, that makes one want to use a tool more.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve known of the OPML editor for a few years now, and have tried several times to find a neat use-case for it in my workflow, and it never had a compelling enough reason for me to stick with it. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m hoping that this new wordpress editor tool will make me want to use this more.\nThis is the first post that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m writing using OPMLEditor, and here are some of the impressions in the first 30 minutes of use. This is by no means a thorough analysis, and is mostly off the top of my head.\nSome cool things:\nVery simple elegant interface, that let\u0026amp;rsquo;s you focus on writing content Updating an existing post, is as simple as opening a window, and starting to type. This also allows for micro-updates. As I typed this post, I save atleast 3 times. Since my blog has RSSCLoud and PubSubHubBub (sucky name), every time I hit save, you happen to be online, you will receive an update. Some annoyances:\nHTML markup when you decide to mark up your page. Since I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a geek, I guess I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t mind this, although I would like to be able to use my favourite markup syntax, like Markdown. Non-standard menu layout =\u0026amp;gt; I need to search for stuff. This is pain, until I learnt the ropes a bit (all of 15 mins), and I figured out how to use it. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t like to take my hands of the keyboard very often, and I tend to shy away from tools that make me do it. Unfortunately, there are no default shortcuts for the simple functionality like adding a link or making something bold, etc. On the one hand, this means, that I will complete writing all that I want to write and then make it pretty. Although, I might get used to working this way, I would still be able to do most of the annotation using just the keyboard. I hope that there is someway to acheive this. I might be wrong about this, so don\u0026amp;rsquo;t stone me over this. ;) Another really annoying thing, every time I press enter, it OPMLEditor starts a new outline, which is great for outlining, but when I try to create a list of items, it sucks \u0026amp;ndash; big time. For instance, see how it is horrible to view this list in the editor. If need to change one element, I will need to look at much more of the text, just to figure out where to change it. This can be solved by allowing multiple lines in the editor (using shift+enter), and ignoring those when converting to HTML. Images have to handle independant of the post creation. I so, wish that the OPML, can also publish the img with the post, but I think Wordpress doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t provide XMLRPC API for such upload. I posted the image on this post on dropbox, which to a certain extent mitigates this issue, since all you have to do, is use something Skitch to take a screenshot and move it a public dropbox folder. Right-click the image, and you can copy the public …","date":"Mar 24, 2010","tags":["OPML","OPML Editor","review","Tools","Wordpress editor"],"title":"OPML Editor as a wordpress editor","url":"/posts/2010/opml-editor-as-a-wordpress-editor/"},{"body":"A recent conversation about Melody Gardot, and her songs, her recovery and music therapy led to the following thoughts. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s some deep shit, but struck me as something that I should share. If you could care less about such things, move along, and forget that this every happened. If not, read on. It might just inspire some more thought\nPerson 1: You know I\u0026amp;rsquo;m beginning to believe that each time something hits us hard - there\u0026amp;rsquo;s going to be a lovely gift - only thing you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t see it right away. Takes years sometimes. If only people realise this everyone will want to have problems all the time!!\nPerson 2: What you said is true. But here\u0026amp;rsquo;s something to ponder. If you start believing that everything that hits you hard (or for that matter, everything) results in some unknown good, does it then even hit you as hard?! It is a wonderfully recursive mechanism, where a little bit of trust in life removes a little bit of the need to \u0026amp;ldquo;safeguard\u0026amp;rdquo; oneself, which in turn adds a little bit of trust in life.\nOfcourse, the minute you realize this, the whole recursive chain could unfold, and the transformation can be instantaneous. :) So it doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t have to take years, one just needs to reach a critical level of trust in life or a critical level of understanding that life itself is inconsequential and therefore, the only thing of consequence is how well one can live it \u0026amp;ldquo;in the now\u0026amp;rdquo;\nSo what do you think about that? Any comments? thoughts?! Or do you think it is just hippy shit?!\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m fascinated by the beauty of Miss Gardot\u0026amp;rsquo;s voice, and the strength it took to get it back. Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s an excerpt of one of her songs, which kept me pre-occupied for a few hours late last night.\nIf I gave a thought to fascination I would know it wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t right to care,\nLogic doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t seem to mind that I am fascinated by the love affair,\nStill my heart would benefit from a little tenderness from time to time, but never mind,\nCos Baby I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a fool who thinks it\u0026amp;rsquo;s cool to fall in love,\nBaby I should hold on just a moment and be sure it\u0026amp;rsquo;s not for vanity,\nLook me in the eye and tell me love is never based upon insanity,\nfrom Baby I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a fool by Melody Gardot\n","date":"Mar 21, 2010","tags":["deep shit","Melody Gardot","music therapy"],"title":"Some deep shit","url":"/posts/2010/some-deep-shit/"},{"body":"[caption id=\u0026amp;ldquo;attachment_737\u0026amp;rdquo; align=\u0026amp;ldquo;alignnone\u0026amp;rdquo; width=\u0026amp;ldquo;300\u0026amp;rdquo;] So long oppression[/caption]\nThanks for the iPhone, Mr. Jobs. There is a new way to protest the iPhone. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have to sign petitions anymore. I can now take my $500 elsewhere, for a slightly more open experience. I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t ask for much, but I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have to wait on your whim any longer (no offense meant to you personally, Mr Jobs).\n","date":"Mar 16, 2010","tags":["Android","apple","Canada","DRM","google","Google Nexus in Canada","Nexus One","Phones"],"title":"So long and thanks for the \"jailed\" iphone","url":"/posts/2010/so-long-and-thanks-for-the-jailed-iphone/"},{"body":" I have the good fortune of living in a city that is hosting an Olympics!! I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll be posting more pictures in the coming days in this set on flickr.\nYou can also follow by subscribing to this RSS feed.\n","date":"Feb 20, 2010","tags":["olympics","street","vancouver2010","winter olympics"],"title":"Vancouver 2010","url":"/posts/2010/vancouver-2010/"},{"body":"There are several issues that people have uncovered in the last 2 days that it has existed. For me, of all the features that Buzz lacks, one thing really stands out. There is no way to just see a list of the conversations (without the whole list of comments expanded by default). This is the main reason that I *had* to unfollow Scoble, Michael Arrington, Louis Gray and a bunch of others. Take a look at this conversation, and you would understand why.\nEvery time, anyone, replied to that thread (which incidently has been at the top of scoble\u0026amp;rsquo;s buzz list all day), it would become the top post on my buzz view as well. Now you are thinking, \u0026amp;ldquo;Well, Buzz was not meant for long conversations\u0026amp;rdquo;. Go back and read the comments on that conversation .. all 350+ of them, and come back here.\nNote to Google Buzz Developers: Now that truly sucks, and is such a trivial use-case that I wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t be surprised if it gets fixed in a day or two \u0026amp;hellip; it better if you want Scoble to continue to use it (and we all know how vital that is for any social network\u0026amp;rsquo;s success).\nSo here\u0026amp;rsquo;s my humble request: PLEASE LET ME MINIMIZE HUGE-ASS THREADS\nGoogle has already done this with Google Reader, where you can just see a list of items, or see them expanded. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t see any reason why this wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t the case, out of the box, for Buzz. In end, the only conclusion that I can think of is that, this pre-pre-alpha from a user experience perspective, and somehow all the design gurus (the ones who kept the Google page clean all these years), have disappeared into the user.\nGoogle Buzz is by far, the clumsiest google product, with almost zero forethought to how users, will use it. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s almost as if, none of the enigneers/designers on the Buzz have ever used twitter or facebook or friendfeed. Somehow I find that hard to believe. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m hoping they\u0026amp;rsquo;ll fix some, if not all the usability issues very soon.\nIterate guys! Iterate! Fast and hard.\n","date":"Feb 10, 2010","tags":["buzz","google","google buzz","Scoble-proof"],"title":"And another thing about Google Buzz","url":"/posts/2010/and-another-thing-about-google-buzz/"},{"body":"Did anyone else notice that buzz has an RSS feed for everything!!\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s a conversation that @Thomashawk started\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s the feed for that entry\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s the feed for the owner\u0026amp;rsquo;s entries\nTheoretically, one could build a service that aggregates only specific conversations (and keep them updated), or only a small group etc\u0026amp;hellip; No more reading data from a firehose!!\nThat is very nice.\nP.S: also this could be a way to aggregate all your webservices into one super feed, that can then be posted elsewhere (comments and all!!)\nThe power is endless, so be cautious when exercising it\n","date":"Feb 10, 2010","tags":["buzz","feature request","features","google","google buzz","hidden features"],"title":"Google likes RSS .. a lot","url":"/posts/2010/google-likes-rss-a-lot/"},{"body":"http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad\nIf you think that the iPad is promoting DRM of apps that will lead computing in a direction that will undermine the freedom that we currently are enjoying, freedom the seeds of which have been sown over the last few decades, the visit the link above and sign the petition.\n","date":"Feb 4, 2010","tags":["apple","DRM","iBad","iPad","petition"],"title":"iPad is iBad petition","url":"/posts/2010/ipad-is-ibad-petition/"},{"body":"about the iPad, or so I thought. Then I realized with every single one of them writing pages upon pages of commentary, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not going to bring in too much insight. I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve hence, tried to curate some interesting articles that I found. You\u0026amp;rsquo;ve probably read most of them already, but in case you have been in a di-lithium mine on Remus. Yup! That\u0026amp;rsquo;s right, I do like Star Trek. Now do you understand why I loathe - hate - despise what has been done to the iPad!! PADD!! arrrrggghhh! serenity now! serenity now!\nThere mainly 3 kinds of responses to the iPad\n1. grumbling about the lack of features/hardware/standards\n2. Its v2.0 of the tablet that moses used\n3. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s evil. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s the end of computing as we know it\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m not going to bother to classify the links below into the above categories ( some overlap ).\nhttp://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/359224392/i-need-to-talk-to-you-about-computers-ive-been\nhttp://www.zeldman.com/2010/02/01/flash-ipad-standards/\nhttp://lifehacker.com/5458690/the-problem-with-the-apple-ipad\nhttp://www.techcrunch.com/2010/02/02/apple-stanza-usb\nhttp://www.scripting.com/stories/2010/01/29/attnJoeShouldWeTrustIpad.html\nhttp://www.scripting.com/stories/2010/01/30/moreIpadThoughts.html\nhttp://al3x.net/2010/01/28/ipad.html\nhttp://blog.louisgray.com/2010/01/ipad-wins-with-casual-computing-and.html\nhttp://inessential.com/2010/01/27/bad_gravity\nhttp://joehewitt.com/post/ipad/\nhttp://tirania.org/archive/2010/Jan-29.html\nt3rmin4t0r, had something interesting to say, about censorship in Australia. I think it applies quite a bit to what Apple is doing to all those who enjoy the freedom of tinkering with our computers.\nAny country attempting to close its internet borders in the name of censorship should be defeated, for the fear of setting a precedent. Censorship anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.\nI don\u0026amp;rsquo;t believe Apple is evil. Well, at least, they are not the only company that is \u0026amp;ldquo;evil\u0026amp;rdquo;. I do know that they are a teeny bit hypocirtical.\nOh yeah, about the iPad .. I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve decided not to lease buy the iPad until\nThere is a way other than Apple controlled store, Or, Apple open-sources its OS Or, Apple stops rejecting apps (any app - even the crappy kinds) I was but 4 years old when Steve Jobs said\nIt appears IBM wants it all. Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money. Dealers initially welcoming IBM with open arms now fear an IBM-dominated and -controlled future. They are increasingly turning back to Apple as the only force that can ensure their future freedom. IBM wants it all and is aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control: Apple. Will _Big Blue_dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right?\nIt\u0026amp;rsquo;s been 25 years, and I fear that George Orwell might have been right after all!\n\u0026amp;ndash; peace out \u0026amp;ndash;\n","date":"Feb 3, 2010","tags":[],"title":"I too have something to say...","url":"/posts/2010/i-too-have-something-to-say-about-the-ipad/"},{"body":"It\u0026amp;rsquo;s been a while since I last updated, or even had the inclination to do so \u0026amp;hellip; well .. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m back.\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s what I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been doing since the last time I updated:\nwork worry work procrastinate gain weight work quit smoking go to India fail miserably at quitting smoking took a lot of pictures return to vancouver work In the end, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what I have to show for the last month\nP.S: This post is edited to remove some things I said that I shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t have. I eat my words :)\n","date":"Jan 13, 2010","tags":[],"title":"Been a while","url":"/posts/2010/been-a-while/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve lived in India for 27 of the 29 years of my life (moved to Canada in 2007) For almost every year for the last 15 years (that\u0026amp;rsquo;s how long I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been a gadget/tech fanatic), I have lamented the availability or lack thereof of any newly released shiny thingies. Amazon has finally figured out that people outside the US, read books too. Imagine my delight when I heard that there a new version of theKindle (The global wireless edition - no less) (Disclosure: affiliate link).\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s what I get when I checked to see if it available in India\nIsn\u0026amp;rsquo;t that amazing!! The Kindle is finally available in India!! Yay!\nAnd then, I see this\nGAAAAAAA!!! Why? Why? Why?!!!!!\nIf you are in the UK or India, you can still buy the Kindle, using the link below.\n","date":"Nov 6, 2009","tags":["availability","Canada","India","kindle"],"title":"Kindle for the rest of us .. well, almost","url":"/posts/2009/kindle-for-the-rest-of-us-well-almost/"},{"body":"Dave Winer, the inventor of RSS, wrote today about twitter\u0026amp;rsquo;s latest API update for supporting the lists feature\nIt turns out there\u0026amp;rsquo;s an API call that retrieves the timeline for a list, and it works exactly like the API call that retrieves the timeline for an account. So much so that I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t even have to change the glue script, I pass in a different URL and it just worked \u0026amp;gt; orig link\nI wonder if there can be a better award?! Dave Winer applauding twitter?! I never thought I\u0026amp;rsquo;d see the day ;) (Just kidding Dave). Dave\u0026amp;rsquo;s right though. There is a certain high that you get when something just works (as it was intended). That is the high that we programmers live for. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s like a runner\u0026amp;rsquo;s high.\nIt doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t happen very often though. When you work on large enterprise applications where several hundred bugs invariably creep in. Decades of dragging along old code and scars from several re-designs is a norm. But, once every so often, you change a complex module, with nothing but your own understanding of how the code works (it most cases, the understanding itself is small miracle), and the change that you make, works in several of the cases at once \u0026amp;ndash; that moment is pure happiness. It completely makes up for all the months of slogging, and the bug-hunting\nYou cannot be a programmer, if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t live for that!\n","date":"Oct 26, 2009","tags":["fun","holy grail","programmer's high","programming"],"title":"The Holy Grail and the Programmer's High","url":"/posts/2009/the-holy-grail-and-the-programmers-high/"},{"body":"Got a new iPhone app called sketchbook, by autodesk.\nhttp://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=327375467\u0026amp;amp;mt=8\nYou need to check this out. Trust it is really cool and loads of fun\n","date":"Oct 21, 2009","tags":["autodesk","iphone apps","Reviews","sketchbook"],"title":"Fun with an iphone app","url":"/posts/2009/fun-with-an-iphone-app/"},{"body":"\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been waiting for this for a while now! Gary I hope it is all that I expect it to be. If I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t read this the day I get it, and jump up from my bed at 2 AM crying \u0026amp;ldquo;crush it\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;hellip; well \u0026amp;hellip; I bet I will.\n","date":"Oct 14, 2009","tags":["books","crushit","review"],"title":"Guess what I'm getting in a week or two?!","url":"/posts/2009/guess-what-im-getting-in-a-week-or-two/"},{"body":"Google street view is now available for Vancouver, Canada. So, the big G has finally realized that people living outside the US might find use for google\u0026amp;rsquo;s products.\nI work here\nView Larger Map\nAnd I sleep here\nView Larger Map\n","date":"Oct 7, 2009","tags":["google street view"],"title":"Google's on Vancouver Streets","url":"/posts/2009/googles-on-vancouver-streets/"},{"body":"well not really! I just turned on RSSCloud support on this blog\u0026amp;rsquo;s feed. RSSCloud allows the feedreader subscribing to you, to setup a callback address, which your blog will call whenever you publish something. If every blog does the same, it could account for several thousand, if not million CPU cycles due to lesser polling. It is the brain-child of Dave Winer, the man who invented RSS, the author of the ever-popular scriptingnews blog. (If you had started blog back in 1994, you could\u0026amp;rsquo;ve got a domain as kewl as his!)\nThis blog is neither major (by a long shot) nor complete tech, but it does feel good to be a tiny part of reducing the incessant polling on the web.\nIf you want to do your part and have a self-hosted wordpress blog, just download the RSSCloud plugin by Joseph Scott (Thank you, my man) and get the engines started.\n\u0026amp;rsquo;nuf said.\n","date":"Sep 8, 2009","tags":["RSSCloud","software","Tech"],"title":"I'm on cloud number 0.9!","url":"/posts/2009/im-on-the-cloud-number-rss0-9/"},{"body":" via minkyu.co.uk\nFricking awesome! I would kill to have this made for the Canadian and the Indian plugs as well (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m just kidding \u0026amp;hellip; .or am I?!)\nPosted via web from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Sep 1, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Folding Plug System","url":"/posts/2009/folding-plug-system/"},{"body":"\nWith Snow Leopard, Apple has the first time done something that has made me go wow! An almost free OS upgrade. This kinda beats the crap out of paying a couple hundred for Win7.\n[Posted via email from posterous - service no longer available]\n","date":"Aug 28, 2009","tags":["Mac","Mac OSX","OS","Snow Leopard"],"title":"I'm getting an os upgrade for 10 bucks!","url":"/posts/2009/im-getting-an-os-upgrade-for-10-bucks/"},{"body":"1. Put your mp3s on shuffle.\n2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.\n3. Write the song name down no matter how silly it sounds.\n4. Tag 10 people. (I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t do this .. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s called spam)\nsomeone says \u0026amp;lsquo;are you okay\u0026amp;rsquo; you say?\nCat stevens - wild world (hmm\u0026amp;hellip; Note to self .. Delete that song!)\nhow would you describe yourself?\nJulie Doiron - Consolation Prize\nwhat do you like in a guy/girl?\nNotre Dame De Paris - Il Est Beau Comme Le Soleil\nhow do you feel today?\nBrent Spiner - Dreamland - One More Time ( this is an awesome album, check it out)\nwhat is your life\u0026amp;rsquo;s purpose?\nPink Martini - Sympathique - No Hay Problema\nwhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s your motto?\nEric Clapton - Crossroads - Double Trouble\nwhat do your friends think of you?\nBryan Adams - 18 Til I Die - Summer Of 69\nwhat do your parents think of you?\nJimi Hendrix - Bbc Sessions - Driving South\nwhat do you think about very often?\nColdplay - X \u0026amp;amp; Y - Til Kingdom Come\nwhat is 2 + 2?\nRay Charles - Very Best Of Ray Charles - I\u0026amp;rsquo;Ve Got A Woman :)\nwhat do you think of your best friend?\nNorah Jones - Come Away With Me - The Long Day Is Over\nwhat is your life story?\nSimon \u0026amp;amp; Garfunkel - Greatest Hits - Kathy\u0026amp;rsquo;S Song\nwhat do you want to be when you grow up?\nGenesis - Invisible Touch - Invisible Touch\nwhat do you think when you see the person you like?\nRay Charles - Very Best Of Ray Charles - Georgia On My Mind\nwhat will you dance to at your wedding?\nDef Leppard - Greatest Hits - Heaven Is (Uuggghhhh \u0026amp;hellip;)\nwhat song will be played at your funeral?\nNsync - Bye Bye Bye (That was purrrfect)\nwhat is your hobby/interest?\nEric Clapton - Crossroads - Better Make It Through Today\nwhat is your biggest fear?\nTracy Chapman - Matters Of The Heart - Bang Bang Bang\nwhat is your biggest secret?\nBryan Adams - On A Day Like Today - When You\u0026amp;rsquo;Re Gone\nwhat do you want right now?\nTracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman - Fast Car (Let\u0026amp;rsquo;S Make It A Ferrari)\nwhat do you think of your friends?\nEdith Piaf - La Vie En Rose - Dans Ma Rue\nwhat will you post this as?\nIlayaraja (tamil music composer) - Nilavu Thoogum Neram (time at which the moon sleeps) \u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;ndash; it\u0026amp;rsquo;s 10:20 pm though, as I write this\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 20, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Some fun with the IPod's shuffle feature","url":"/posts/2009/some-fun-with-the-ipods-shuffle-feature-2/"},{"body":"\nGoogle reader is one of Google\u0026amp;rsquo;s products, that didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t you didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t realize you needed until you started using it. Heck, pretty much every product they do is in that category. It is one app where I spend a lot of time every day. That is how I still manage to read blogs. Even after twitter and facebook and friendfeed, GReader is still the place, where you can truly control the signal vs noise ratio of content that you read.\nToday, they have turned on a little feature that I have long pained for. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s a little tweak, but a huge convenience. I tend to spend a few days away from reader once in a while, and when I come back, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s a pain to filter out the content you want to read when you have 1000+ items. This little feature let\u0026amp;rsquo;s me choose, which feeds I can ignore completely, which one, I need to read only the last week\u0026amp;rsquo;s worth, etc\u0026amp;hellip;\nThank you Google, for doing the right thing.\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 14, 2009","tags":["google","google reader"],"title":"GReader just saved me a lot of time","url":"/posts/2009/greader-just-saved-me-a-lot-of-time/"},{"body":"Hi Jason,\nI was writing a post very much on the same lines, when I read your mail. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m on my 3rd ipod, 1st iphone and 2nd MBP (one which I ordered just last week). I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think I can in the right mind buy another iphone or ipod for the amount of control that apple gets.\n1. Absolutely. This is a no-brainer, that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m frankly surprised that Steve Jobs does not see?! Well not really. Apple has always been a closed company. I was under the impression that Apple was a *hardware* company. This behaviour of blocking other applications from talking to Apple products is not only insane, and unfair to the consumer, it quite frankly against the interest of Apple shareholders. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m pretty sure that having more ways to access data on Apple devices will have a direct impact on the sales of those products. Any product manager or marketeer who has desgined/sold electronics products will see the sense in this.\n2. Absolutely. And I hope that the FCC hammer comes down quick. With the blocking of the Google App, it becomes a clear case of diminishing the experience of the user. This could be the way out for Apple to end exclusivity deals.\n3. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t think it a question of forgiving Apple. The consumer never forgives, he/she just chooses the product that best suits his/her needs. Apple already went through a round of this with the desktop wars and lost bitterly. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s sad that they haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t learnt their lesson.\nHaving said all of this, I still love their products, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s their product mgmt that I hate.\n(This post is a response to a message on Jason\u0026amp;rsquo;s list. If you are not subscribed to Jason Calacanis, you should be. Go there NOW)\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 8, 2009","tags":["apple","Google Voice","Jason Calacanis"],"title":"\\[Jason\\] The Case Against Apple--in Five Parts","url":"/posts/2009/jason-the-case-against-apple-in-five-parts-3/"},{"body":"Yeah that\u0026amp;rsquo;s right! Myspace was still relevant. I have a theory that the internet usage explosion will not happen in other countries, until the US gives up its share of reserved IP addresses.\n[Original gallery from posterous no longer available]\n(via xkcd.com)\n[Posted via email from posterous - service no longer available]\n","date":"Aug 6, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Map of the internet circa 2006","url":"/posts/2009/map-of-the-internet-circa-2006/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m pretty sure that I am violating some copyright by posting these here but they really are good. (I found these on a facebook album shared by someone I know - thank you if you know who you are). I did several searches on google and bing and couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t trace any restrictions. If you have problems with it, let me know.\nSee and download the full gallery on posterous\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 5, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Some fun things, and some cute ones too","url":"/posts/2009/some-fun-things-and-some-cute-ones-too-2/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m pretty sure that I am violating some copyright by posting these here but they really are good. (I found these on a facebook album shared by someone I know - thank you if you know who you are). I did several searches on google and bing and couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t trace any restrictions. If you have problems with it, let me know.\nSee and download the full gallery on posterous\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 5, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Some fun things, and some cute ones too","url":"/posts/2009/some-fun-things-and-some-cute-ones-too/"},{"body":" The first replicator was the gene - the basis of biological evolution. The second was memes - the basis of cultural evolution. I believe that what we are now seeing, in a vast technological explosion, is the birth of a third evolutionary process. We are Earth\u0026amp;rsquo;s Pandoran species, yet we are blissfully oblivious to what we have let out of the box.\nvia newscientist.com\nA little apocalyptic, but not beyond the realm of possibility. Of course, this does assume memes as fact, when in reality it is quite circumspect.\nPosted via web from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 4, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Evolution's third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what?","url":"/posts/2009/evolutions-third-replicator-genes-memes-and-now-what/"},{"body":"via wechoosethemoon.org\nThis is awesome. I was born a few years after the race to the moon. What a great time it would have been for all those that got to see/hear this live! In the four decades, life on earth has changed so much \u0026amp;ndash; we\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been de-sensitized to the miracle of flight and technology , and yet the spectacle of space travel is exhilarating as ever.\nPosted via web from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Aug 4, 2009","tags":["Apollo","NASA","space travel"],"title":"We Choose the Moon: Launch","url":"/posts/2009/we-choose-the-moon-launch-3/"},{"body":"Over the weekend, I bit the bullet and bought a pair of really good speakers by KEF - the iQ70 series.\nAs I listened to them, for the last couple of days, I realised something that is, quite obvious, yet, goes unnoticed all the time. I wanted to show my parents how great this new set of speakers were. Even with all the advances in science and technology, I could not really convey how great the speakers sounded. It occured to me that there is no way to share experiences unless we share similar quality equipment. You could record video in HD, with a RED camera, but unless the person seeing it uses equally high quality display, there is no way, he/she is going to get the same experience you had. To some extent we have, acheived parity in display quality, and hence can convey images and video without losing much of the experience. However we are nowhere near ubiquitous when it comes to sound. Other factors like touch, thermal state, smell etc and completely beyond our prowess to express. However, we must pat ourselves in the back a little, coz in a matter of decades we\u0026amp;rsquo;ve gone from a select few being able to communicate across great distances to several million all at once, in a matter of decades.\nMaybe in the next 100 years, we\u0026amp;rsquo;ll be able to figure out how to use equipment that we already have in common, equipment that mostly has similar specs across every person in the world \u0026amp;ndash; our brains (some are more active than others, but most have the capacity). If you thought, that living now is cool, coz of all the web 2.0 stuff, wait till you see brain 2.0.\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Jul 29, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Dreams for the next 100 years","url":"/posts/2009/dreams-for-the-next-100-years/"},{"body":"Seen in the wild\nI caught one and had it with my coffee\nPosted via email from shiva\u0026amp;rsquo;s posterous\n","date":"Jul 29, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Left me gaping at the void","url":"/posts/2009/left-me-gaping-at-the-void-2/"},{"body":"The last couple of days has been ablaze with news of Google taking over the world, destroying Microsoft and sticking all of humanity on stakes to collect sunlight and convert it to power. Obviously, some are elated at this proposition, some tentative, and then there are some others who think all of this is just hogwash.\nI have but one thing to show you today. Presenting article number 1, a video by one of the minions at Google.\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s a tip: people on Times Square have no, frigging, clue of what a browser is. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t even get me started on, where the OS stops and the browser starts. The people you are trying to sell this to, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t give a shit. The people who do know what a browser is, think you are just crap-shooting them.\nOh, since I do know what a browser is, considering that I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve used one since 95, I will say, that writing a shell on a linux kernel, and distributing it with only one app, does not make it an OS. It is a linux distro. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sure the following are familiar: Ubuntu, RedHat, Suse (Novell), which are all the same as Google Chrome (or atleast what they say it will be).\nSo Google, stop messing with things that don\u0026amp;rsquo;t make you money and go fix that bug in Gmail or Google reader or maybe you can add RSS support to blogs on blogspot (the rest of the sane world did that only 5 years ago). We, who use your \u0026amp;ldquo;free\u0026amp;rdquo; ad-filled products will be very pleased. Oh yeah, while you are at it, figure out a way to monetize those millions you invested in wonderful companies (Remember youtube, jaiku, jotspot, dodgeball, orkut, grandcentral ?! ). You might also want to consider improving this thing you helped invent \u0026amp;ndash; search. I hear that there is a new-comer. He sounds bad, and has a shitty name, but he\u0026amp;rsquo;s getting better at it.\nNow, that\u0026amp;rsquo;s it for today\u0026amp;rsquo;s rant. Get off my lawn, I need to go google myself (Damn, this is therapeutic).\n","date":"Jul 9, 2009","tags":["Bing","google","google chrome"],"title":"For the last time, its not an OS!","url":"/posts/2009/for-the-last-time-its-not-an-os/"},{"body":"[caption id=\u0026amp;quot;\u0026amp;quot; align=\u0026amp;ldquo;alignnone\u0026amp;rdquo; width=\u0026amp;ldquo;500\u0026amp;rdquo; caption=\u0026amp;ldquo;Father \u0026amp;amp; Son #1\u0026amp;rdquo;][/caption]\n[caption id=\u0026amp;quot;\u0026amp;quot; align=\u0026amp;ldquo;alignnone\u0026amp;rdquo; width=\u0026amp;ldquo;333\u0026amp;rdquo; caption=\u0026amp;ldquo;Father \u0026amp;amp; Son #2\u0026amp;rdquo;][/caption]\n","date":"Jun 11, 2009","tags":["Ashish","Friends","Photography","Ritvik"],"title":"Fathers and Sons","url":"/posts/2009/fathers-and-sons/"},{"body":"This post is a little late, but that has never stopped me from doing it anyway.\nThere are some things that we need to regret \u0026amp;hellip;\nAnd then there are some others, we continue to ignore \u0026amp;hellip;\nHope we don\u0026amp;rsquo;t add more such pictures to that list in another 20 years.\nThanks to WilW @ WWdN: In Exile for inspiring me (as always)\n","date":"Jun 5, 2009","tags":[],"title":"20 years is a long time .. lest we forget","url":"/posts/2009/20-years-is-a-long-time-lest-we-forget/"},{"body":"I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t claim to be someone is really into environment protection, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not crazy paranoid about the junk I produce, but I do care about me, my family, and the future of mankind (mostly in that order). I recycle as much as I can, I try to avoid plastic bags, I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t throw garbage on the streets (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m shaking my fist at you, Shivanand-in-India-who-doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t-live-there-anymore) etc.\nI own a Macbook, and I wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t say that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a big fan of Apple \u0026amp;ldquo;the company\u0026amp;rdquo;. However, I really like their products. The latest version of the macbook \u0026amp;ndash; that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not going to upgrade to \u0026amp;ndash; has given me reason to like it even more! Apple has made a huge stride, in making computer more environment friendly. Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the laundry-list of things they have eliminated from the Macbook (you read it right, ELIMINATED)\nArsenic BFR (Brominated Flame Retardant) Mercury PVC The packaging is smaller by30-40% (on what was already a very small package). Ohhh.. I fail to mention the unibody Aluminium construction, which is not only durable, but also, completely recyclable!\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Oh, but the Apples cost so much more than the average-Joe PC! Why should I pay for eliminating stuff I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t care about?\u0026amp;rdquo;, you ask.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Oh well, let me tell you something\u0026amp;rdquo;, person-that-I-just-made-up-and-bashed-your-face-in-for-asking-such-a-stupid-question (That\u0026amp;rsquo;s from reading Wil Wheaton, btw).\n\u0026amp;ldquo;This is what happens to your average-Joe PC, once you are done with it in 6-months\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nIt gets dumped in third-world developing countries. Well, it is technically called \u0026amp;ldquo;exporting used goods\u0026amp;rdquo;. Used goods aren\u0026amp;rsquo;t much use when they don\u0026amp;rsquo;t work, are they? Of course, as it happens the people who are dealing with scrap, do so, because they have to find a way to eat the next day.\nAnyway, I digress. Back to Apple now.\nI think it is super that they have decided to invest engineering effort in make the products we use more environment friendly. Ofcourse, this doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t mean that you need to run out and get that spanking new Macbook that you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t need. However, the next time you decide to buy a computer, think about this video, and see if you can wait a little longer to save up a little more to be able to buy the Macbook.\nYou can find more details about the environment friendliness of the macs at the following links\nMacbook - http://www.apple.com/macbook/environment.html\nMacbook pro -http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/environment.html\n","date":"Apr 9, 2009","tags":[],"title":"Dealing with electronic waste","url":"/posts/2009/dealing-with-electronic-waste/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a bit of a stickler, when it comes to audio recording. I hate using the mics that come with laptops or the standard desktop mic. Recently, a co-worker asked me about my setup (I record a piano, strictly for my listening pleasure, and NO, MIDI doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t count).\nI couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t find the links for my version of the mic, but here are some equivalents.\nUSB Mics\nMXL .006 USB Mic\nMXL .007 USB Mic\nMixers\nBerhinger 502\nBerhinger 802\nBerhinger 1202\nOnce you start using a condenser mic, and hear the richness of the output, you\u0026amp;rsquo;ll never want to go back to the crappy on-board mics.\n","date":"Mar 9, 2009","tags":["audio","hardware","mixers","usb mics"],"title":"Computer Recording Equipment","url":"/posts/2009/computer-recording-equipment/"},{"body":"All you nerds, be careful before you brag about your new gadget.\n","date":"Mar 6, 2009","tags":["funny","video"],"title":"Latest Communication Technologies","url":"/posts/2009/latest-communication-tech/"},{"body":"Recently I got asked, what the best way to do a join between two large lists, into another list was? I always tend to answer that question with: it depends.\nJust like any other algorithm, there is no silver bullet. It is a trade off between CPU and memory utilisation. Sometimes, we do have to think about these things (this is code in c++ on a device with scarce resources, to say the least).\nOf course, the simplest solution for this would be to use multiple for loops:\n**// merge - version 1** function List\u0026amp;lt;C\u0026amp;gt; merge(List\u0026amp;lt;A\u0026amp;gt; l1, List\u0026amp;lt;B\u0026amp;gt; l2) {\n// oh god! I shouldn\u0026#39;t be doing this for(A a: l1) { C c = new C(a); for(B b: l2) { if (c.foo == b.foo) { c.add(b); } } } } As is obvious any half-decent programmer would shudder at the thought of writing something like this, particularly let it run on a device with limited resources. A simple way to refactor this would be to create an index for one of the lists and iterate through other.\n**// merge - version 2** function List\u0026amp;lt;C\u0026amp;gt; merge(List\u0026amp;lt;A\u0026amp;gt; l1, List\u0026amp;lt;B\u0026amp;gt; l2) {\n// create the index HashMap\u0026amp;lt;Foo, Bar\u0026amp;gt; map = new HashMap(); for (B b: l2) { map.put (b.foo, b); }\nfor(A a: l1) { C c = new C(a); c.add(map.get(a.foo)); } } Conventional wisdom says, that version 2 is much better than version 1. Right? Well, what if you have 128 MB of shared memory across your system, but a dedicated processor for your subsystem?! Won\u0026amp;rsquo;t you want to pick version 1 in that case? What if both the lists can have millions of entries? That would render both these cases useless.\nSometimes, before trying to find a technical solution to the problem at hand, it might help to ask why? What is the need for this requirement? The key is to ask why until you reach a specific use-case. I tend to ask this all the way until I reach either a SOAP request, or a specific component in the GUI that requires this piece of data. Most of the time, we can get by without writing a potentially inefficient solution.\nIn this case, after several \u0026amp;ldquo;why\u0026amp;quot;s, I discovered that this requirement came about, since one of the products in our suite (yeah we have a bunch of products that build on each other), need to display a list of names of object C, as the user searches for a specific one to add items to. If we had decided to write either v1 or v2, every time the user opened that GUI component, we would transport, a possible 10000 records from the device all the way to the GUI (which in our case is several layers above), when we only need a list of names based on a specific criteria.\nThe \u0026amp;ldquo;how\u0026amp;rdquo; of your design depends the \u0026amp;ldquo;why\u0026amp;rdquo;. The only limiting factor is the willingness to ask why, until you can find an alternate solution, or, are absolutely convinced that there is no other way to acheive a specific requirement without writing some inefficient code \u0026amp;mdash; then defend rigorously against doing it. well, atleast you have to get a some kind of limits in place.\nSometimes you have to stand up to your …","date":"Feb 14, 2009","tags":["coding","design","programming","writing code"],"title":"The devil is in the why?","url":"/posts/2009/the-devil-is-in-the-why/"},{"body":"Firstly $1000 is not a jackpot, add a couple more zeros and your in my range of a jackpot. :)\nSecondly, if I did get a $1000, say on the street, or in an envelope by my door-side from a do-gooder, I would buy this http://bit.ly/jcL (70-200 2.8L canon mount lens)\n","date":"Jan 28, 2009","tags":[],"title":"How I'd spend $1,000","url":"/posts/2009/how-id-spend-1000/"},{"body":"\nEver wondered how they keep warm in the cold winter months in Alsace?! They heat really good (most of the time) white wine and drink it like tea! And you can get it pretty much in every square!\nHot, sweet wine\n","date":"Jan 28, 2009","tags":[],"title":"I recommend drinking Vin Chaud when you're in Strasbourg, France","url":"/posts/2009/i-recommend-drinking-vin-chaude-when-youre-in-strasbourg-france/"},{"body":"After several no-vacation years, I ended 2008 with a (short) trip to Strasbourg, France. For much of the last year, I have started doing things that I have abandoned in the last 8 years. The year has been quite eventful, much of it not evident from the lack of posts (which I hope to correct this year).\nAfter a frantic last-minute scramble for the visa, I managed to get to Strasbourg. I managed to escape the record-breaking snowfall in Vancouver. Strasbourg was cold, really cold, but is quite beautiful during the Christmas week.\nVisited the usual places, and added one more little town, called Riquewihr to my \u0026amp;ldquo;places visited around Strasbourg\u0026amp;rdquo; list. I really love the tiny towns and narrow streets in Europe. The eagerness of people to go to great lengths to maintain very old building 100s of years old is simply refreshing. Riquewihr is quite the quaint french town, and very touristy indeed. Mental Note: Need to go spend more time there, the next time.\nA week with family was so much. There is something about being with family, and not knowing the language they speak (I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t really follow french when spoken at the \u0026amp;ldquo;french speed\u0026amp;rdquo;), that lets you feel at home and by yourself at the same time. It was really nice to see my aunt, uncle and cousins after a few years.\nIt has been 16 years since I held their hands as they took their first steps (I was 11 years then), but it still feels like yesterday. It was quite entertaining to let them lead me around their town! (Thanks guys I really enjoyed the places you took me to, and thanks JF for all the wine and cheese :))\nIt was an interesting experience, to see the places through eyes that are a few years older (and possibly a little wiser). The only thing I regretted was not spending more than one week there. Something that I found interesting is that as I grow older, things excite me lesser (quite obvious, I know), but somehow, I think allows me to enjoy the present more, and truly live the experience. I guess life is akin to listening to good music. The highs are not as enjoyable, when there are no lows.\n","date":"Jan 25, 2009","tags":["cathedral","France","Strasbourg"],"title":"A Week in Strasbourg","url":"/posts/2009/a-week-in-strasbourg/"},{"body":"It lasted about 2 years. I made next to nothing, but I owe my software development career to it!\n","date":"Jan 23, 2009","tags":[],"title":"My first job: Building Custom PCs","url":"/posts/2009/my-first-job-building-custom-pcs/"},{"body":"Quintessential road trip songs. The 70s rule!\nroadhouse blues by The doors\nEyes on the road and hands upon the wheel!\nI can\u0026amp;rsquo;t tell you why by Eagles\nCoz I really can\u0026amp;rsquo;t tell you why!\nHighway Star by Deep Purple\nSong about a fast car?! duh?\n","date":"Jan 23, 2009","tags":[],"title":"On the road with some 70s","url":"/posts/2009/on-the-road-with-some-70s/"},{"body":"To air out the feet\n","date":"Jan 23, 2009","tags":[],"title":"When I get home, I kick my shoes off","url":"/posts/2009/when-i-get-home-i-kick-my-shoes-off/"},{"body":"You should be using Open-DNS, if you answer yes to one of the following:\nAre you frustrated with crazy-long wait times before even the website url shows up? Is your ISP is a cheapo-*#$% using a crappy machine for DNS, and you wait enough to count the seconds between pressing enter and the little thingy on the browser status bar says \u0026amp;ldquo;done\u0026amp;rdquo;? Are you subject to phishing attacks? Do you want peace of mind? Do you want auto-correction of urls? Want to block your teen from accessing \u0026amp;ldquo;excessive\u0026amp;rdquo; porn? Do you need a new dog to carry you paper? OpenDNS is for you (well, for the dog, you\u0026amp;rsquo;ll have to move your ass and get one yourself). It is quite trivial to setup and really speeds up your browsing speed. You can can set it up for each computer that you use, or better still, change the configuration on your router, which would apply across all machine connected through that router.\nChanging the DNS server setting on your router, offers a few advantanges. For instance, you can define your own shortcuts for frequently used sites, and they would apply across all machines in your network. You set \u0026amp;ldquo;mail\u0026amp;rdquo; as a shortcut for \u0026amp;ldquo;http://gmail.com\u0026amp;rdquo; and every time you time \u0026amp;ldquo;mail\u0026amp;rdquo; in your browser\u0026amp;rsquo;s address bar, it will be replaced with \u0026amp;ldquo;http://gmail.com\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nOpen DNS also auto-corrects most common spelling mistakes of popular urls. For example, if you type googel.com, it will correct it to http://google.com. It will also suggest urls when it can\u0026amp;rsquo;t find the correct url. Certain domains can be placed in a black/white list. How cool would it be to let your 15-year old know who is boss for a change?! Ground them for a week or so, denying them facebook access, for instance. Grounding 2.0!\nIsn\u0026amp;rsquo;t this enough reason to spend 2 minutes configuring openDNS?! What are you waiting for.. go on!\n","date":"Jan 2, 2009","tags":["networking","open dns","tips"],"title":"Are you using Open-DNS?","url":"/posts/2009/are-you-using-open-dns/"},{"body":" A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke\nrating: 5 of 5 stars\nIf you are on your way to Paris, or on the way from Paris, or in Paris, or \u0026amp;hellip; nevermind\u0026amp;hellip; just read this book if you are associated, in any way, with Paris. You\u0026amp;rsquo;ll love it.\n(If you are French, read this too, get angry, rebel and then revel in the glory! :) )\nView all my reviews at goodreads.\n","date":"Jan 2, 2009","tags":["a year in the merde","books","comedy","Reviews","stephen clarke","travel"],"title":"Review: A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke","url":"/posts/2009/review-a-year-in-the-merde-by-stephen-clarke/"},{"body":"\nFound these guys playing at commercial and Kitchener. If you wanna listen to them head out to cafe du soleil on commercial drive, Vancouver on Wednesday in the evening\n","date":"Dec 14, 2008","tags":[],"title":"Little masters","url":"/posts/2008/little-masters/"},{"body":"Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the the top 3 requested features from iPhone users at large.\nAnd here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what they thought people wanted.\nSome Product Manager at Apple needs to think how much this is hurting Apple\u0026amp;rsquo;s brand. Do they want to be branded, yet again, as a company that completely ignores their customers?! At least give some indication as to why you can\u0026amp;rsquo;t get the top three features in. Sure they have a lot of less demanding, faithful sheep in their flock, but now they are going mainstream, and they need to get their act together. Come on Apple! Stop making me feel bad about choosing a product by a company that doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t give shit about what I want.\nI hope they don\u0026amp;rsquo;t go the way of the american auto companies.\n","date":"Nov 24, 2008","tags":[],"title":"Apple! Are you stupid?!","url":"/posts/2008/apple-are-you-stupid/"},{"body":" Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life by Jamie Oliver\nrating: 3 of 5 stars\nToo much text and recipes are wantonly complex. A bit contrived, but not as bad as it sounds. A lot of comfort food. This book is about eating well, and not for the health conscious\nView all my reviews.\n","date":"Nov 19, 2008","tags":[],"title":"Review: Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life by Jamie Oliver","url":"/posts/2008/review-jamie-at-home-cook-your-way-to-the-good-life-by-jamie-oliver/"},{"body":"I got really sick of using Adobe AIR apps that take up more and more of system memory for an app that does twitter.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve decided to put my \u0026amp;ldquo;coding for myself\u0026amp;rdquo; hat on and write a QT based C++ application (that should be cross-platform). No name as yet, but I will find something soon. QtTwitter is taken. Mebbe, once I have a working version, I can get ownership of the project on google code.\nThat\u0026amp;rsquo;s the proposed GUI. Sorry for the bad light. The iphone cam\u0026amp;rsquo;s not too good with tungsten light.\nAny suggestions?! I will try and post some mock up as I create em. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to be writing my own twitter REST c++ library. Any suggestion are welcome.\n","date":"Oct 25, 2008","tags":["c++","coding","native twitter client","qt","Tools","Twitter"],"title":"Proposed GUI for C++ based twitter client","url":"/posts/2008/twitter-client/"},{"body":"\n","date":"Oct 15, 2008","tags":["Twitter"],"title":"A Thousand Tweets","url":"/posts/2008/a-thousand-tweets/"},{"body":"Several people are shocked to hear that I read 1000+ emails and several hundred blog posts a day. Ofcourse, when I say that, all I mean is that, I process that much content. I read around 30-40% (That is really the signal-to-noise ratio of web content these days\u0026amp;ndash;and that is, if you are subscribed to high quality feeds)\n[caption id=\u0026amp;quot;\u0026amp;quot; align=\u0026amp;ldquo;alignnone\u0026amp;rdquo; width=\u0026amp;ldquo;450\u0026amp;rdquo; caption=\u0026amp;ldquo;google reader trends\u0026amp;rdquo;][/caption]\nOne of friends was curious how I can handle all that data flow, and I emailed her this:\nEveryday, go to bed with a zero count. Use tools to reduce your processing. (use email rules/filters to move mails to manageable folders and Google reader for feeds) Learn to skip-read. I use a 2 parse method. Parse through sets of items (email headers or blog post headlines), and mark the ones your need to pay attention to (usually around 40%). Filter based on short-listed items and then go through them in detail. In the case of blog posts, if something does retain my attention after the first 4 sentences, I skip that item. (only for blog posts) I mark the ones I have to comment on, and then do my commenting after I finish a folder. Sometimes, you just can\u0026amp;rsquo;t squeeze everything in a day, I either bookmark or mail it to myself to be addressed over the weekend. What do you think? Am I missing something that will make my life a little easier?\nUpdate: Thanks to Aswinanand for pointing this out\u0026amp;ndash;I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really get 1000+ emails. I was just exaggerating (which is just another way of saying, click-baiting! :) )\n","date":"Oct 15, 2008","tags":["email","feeds","personal process","RSS","Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"How I handle 1000+ emails and 300+ blog posts a day","url":"/posts/2008/how-i-handle-emails/"},{"body":"One program\u0026amp;ndash;on Food TV\u0026amp;ndash;that I like to watch, is Gordon Ramsey\u0026amp;rsquo;s Kitchen Nightmares. He is such a powerful person, who is into what he does for a living. He has inspired me to get of my couch and cook decent food.\nThis is a recipe from his book, Fast Food. Every guy who wants to cook decent food should have on his shelf. A simple book, with simple recipes that any idiot (aka me) can follow. Most dishes are less than 30 minutes of cooking time. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a very imprecise cook, and subtitute freely when I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t find a specific fish or condiment. I have taken the same liberty with this recipe as well.\nIngredients\n2 skinned Halibut fillets (about 150 gms), or cod, tilapia or turbot 1 tbsp Hot Madras Curry, or any non-sweet curry paste 1 tsp superfine sugar (optional) 1 tbsp olive oil 2/3 cup (150 ml) plain yogurt 2 cucumbers, peeled handful of mint leaves lime juice 2 tbsp of vegetable oil Heat the oven to 400 F (200 C). Mix the curry paste, olive oil, sugar and all but 2 tbsp of the yogurt. Coat the fish with this mixture and set aside for atleast 20 minutes.\nCut the cucumber lengthwise (bâtonnet) and toss in the reserved yogurt, chopped mint and the lime juice. You want to be modest with the lime juice. Too much acidity can mask the taste of the fish.\nSear the fillets on an overproof pan\u0026amp;ndash;setting aside the excess marinade\u0026amp;ndash;for about 1.5 minutes on each side or until golden brown. If don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have an overproof pan, just use any skillet and a pre-heated baking pan.\nSpoon over the marinade and place the pan in the oven and cook until done (the insides of the fish turns white and is flaky to cut). Transfer to a warm plate and serve with the cuccumber.\nNow, wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t that simple. Ramsey\u0026amp;rsquo;s a genius in creating simple foods.\n","date":"Sep 25, 2008","tags":["cucumber","fish","food","halibut","recipe"],"title":"Tandoori spiced fish with cucumber","url":"/posts/2008/tandoori-spiced-fish-with-cucumber/"},{"body":"You know something is seriously out of whack, when you download a 12 MB application that is just a step above an ftp application. I know, a rant at such an ungodly hour! Yup! I have been up 2 hours past bed-time trying to upload a few high-resolution photos.\nI found these shots of fireworks that I captured about two months back, and finally managed to sneak in some time to process these shots. I started my attempt at putting these on my flickr account, and the pitiful uploader V3, has been failing for the last 2 hours! I doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t seem to be the servers, since the 2.5 version works fine. Although, I must confess, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m uploading files that are more than 5MB, and it\u0026amp;rsquo;s really just timeout issues.\nWhat is with this craze for making all desktop applications suck, by re-writing the simplest of desktop apps in javascript and its ilk I\u0026amp;rsquo;m looking at you, AIR)? It\u0026amp;rsquo;s fine to use these heavy-weight stacks as a stop-gap solution. But, to turn a prefectly good app into mush, in the name of multi-platform support is a crime\u0026amp;ndash;no less.\nIf you want to write multi-platform applications\u0026amp;ndash;use Java or some library like Boost. It also, helps to remember the main functionality, and ensure that works well\u0026amp;ndash;really well. An uploader, should never fail, when \u0026amp;ldquo;uploading\u0026amp;rdquo; stuff, an email client\u0026amp;ndash;should have reliable email dispatch, etc.\nI wonder where this will lead us? Maybe 10 years from now, we will end up with a calculator application that will use 100 MB disk spave, and we wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t worry about it, coz our computers will have 10 GB of RAM and several PetaHz processing power or some such crap. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not really looking forward to a future like that. Maybe, I should start that open source project for a native flick app after all.\nUpdate: They are finally up\u0026amp;hellip;phew! Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the fireworks collection:\n","date":"Sep 25, 2008","tags":["AIR-based apps","flaws","flickr uploader","uploader v3","web-technology based app","webified desktop applications"],"title":"Webified desktop applications","url":"/posts/2008/webified-desktop-applications/"},{"body":"Over the last few months, I have re-discovered some unix commands (it\u0026amp;rsquo;s been such a long time)\nEliminate duplicate lines from a file #sort -u filename \u0026amp;gt; filename.new\nList all lines that do not match a condition #grep -v ajsk filename\nCopy contents of two files to one #cat file1 file2 \u0026amp;gt; file3\nAppend output of a command to a file #cat file1 \u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;gt; file2\n","date":"Sep 9, 2008","tags":["coding","unix","unix commands"],"title":"Unix: removing duplicates from a file","url":"/posts/2008/unix-removing-duplicates-from-a-file/"},{"body":"Finally it\u0026amp;rsquo;s out in the open. The ultimate weapon in Google\u0026amp;rsquo;s powerchest to combat desktop applications, render the need for a specific platform meaningless - the browser. I guess this has been in the making for the last decade, and here it is. A browser by a company that downloads pretty much most of the internet every day.\nIf you are still reading this, you shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t be. Get outta here and read this. (Actually just open in a new window, and continue reading this).\nI guess it makes a lot of sense for a company like Google to have an install base of their own, and what better way than, what has become the primary application on most computers, the browser. With Google\u0026amp;rsquo;s data processing and storage capabilities, I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t begin to imagine the things that could be done with a browser like this.\nSome unique things about (I stand corrected, David) Key features of Google Chrome (such a lame name .. come on guys you can be a bit more creative than that \u0026amp;ndash; too many Mozilla hackers @ Google?!), as mentioned in their cartoon booklet (if you care to read thru 40 pages), include:\nTabs to the top (ignore that - such a cosmetic change) - Aparently this has been around for a while in Opera - thanks David Sheen Tabs as separate processes (that\u0026amp;rsquo;s good in a way, but I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not so sure about older machines) New garbage collection engine. New javascript virtual machine, that supports compiled javascript - I want to see the performance on that. Apparently, they have a huge testbed, that can test each browser build automatically using a hundred monkeys. (I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t care too much about this, I just think this is over-engineering, but hey, this is me). Uses Webkit for page-rendering. Persistant tab state, and the tab can be detached as well, into a new window. Standard auto-completing address bar (Firefox 3) Personalised start page with your browsing history, google info etc. As a write this, a huge array of ideas come to mind, that will surely come to be common-place in next few years. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m throwing out some general ideas here, and maybe I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll come back a few years and tick some of them down.\nPersonalised homepages with per-user google content (this is already present in their beta vision) Single sign-on using open id and o-auth using google account information (read as identity management) Social networking (submit to orkut etc), location aware Voice calls from the browser (gtalk, jaiku etc) Content tagging services, using collective intelligence (this could make google searches much better than they already are - something like mahalo + google, just that every click could potentially give google data, thereby bettering the result match for you.) That\u0026amp;rsquo;s my five things google could do. What do you think? What could Google add to their browser, that willl change the way we use it in the next 5 years?\n","date":"Sep 2, 2008","tags":["browser","commentary","google","google chrome","review","web 2.0"],"title":"In the browser lies the power - Wave 2 of the Google takeover","url":"/posts/2008/in-the-browser-lies-the-power-wave-2-of-the-google-takeover/"},{"body":"\nChicken Curry with Eggs served on Rice, originally uploaded by Shivanand Velmurugan.\nThank you Mr. Raghavan Iyer. This is the man, that wrote the book 660 Curries, that has initiated me into making proper Indian food. In the last month or so, since my return from my vacation to India, I have tried eating good food, and have found cooking a very rewarding activity. It helps you think more about what you want to put in your mouth and somehow, also makes you eat less!\nI made some chicken curry last weekend, and here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the recipe: (I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t have some stuff and used some substitutes instead)\n2 tbsp of Canola oil\n1/2 tsp. cloves (Didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t have any of these :) )\n4 green or white cardamom pods (I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t use any though)\n2 fresh or dried bay leaves\n2 cinnamon sticks\n4 medium-size cloves of garlic, finely chopped\n2 slices of ginger (2 tsp of ginger)\n1 large tomato, cored and finely chopped.\n2 tsps of garam masala\n1 tsp of salt\n1 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs cut into 1-inch pieces\n(thighs taste better, but I used chicken breasts instead - lower in fat)\n1/2 cup of chicken broth\n4 tbps of heavy whipping cream\n2 tbps of fresh, finely chopped cilantro leaves and some tender sprigs for garnishing\n**Optional:\n**1 large onion finely chopped (I just wanted some extra flavour)\n4 hard boiled eggs (my addition, ofcourse :) )\nHere\u0026amp;rsquo;s how you make it:\n1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet, and fry the cloves, cardamom, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks until light brown (1-2 mins)\n2. Add the onions, and fry until golden brown.\n3. Add the tomatoes, ginger, garlic, garam masala and salt. Cook until tomatoes are done, but still firm to touch. (3 to 5 mins)\n4. Stir in the chicken and the broth. Bring the curry to a boil and let it simmer until the chicken is done. (10 - 15 mins). Remember not to overcook the chicken breast, since it becomes quite rubbery and hard.\n5. Fold in the cream, and stir to blend the cream in. Make small incisions in the hard boiled eggs and add them to the curry, and roll over the sauce. Cover and allow the curry to warm up again. Be careful not to overcook after the cream, since you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want the fat in the cream to separate.\n6. Serve the curry with the eggs over a bed of steaming white basmati rice.\nIf you want to buy the book from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca, click below:\n","date":"Aug 4, 2008","tags":["chicken","chicken curry","eggs","Indian cuisine","Indian food","recipe"],"title":"Chicken Curry with Eggs served on Rice","url":"/posts/2008/chicken-curry-with-eggs-served-on-rice-2/"},{"body":"In a moment of mild insanity (actually more like boredom), I decided to watch the last show last night. I was plesantly surprised to find that the movie was playing in 2 theatres @ Silvercity, Coquitlam. With all the hype, and the huge revenue generation in the first week, the movie does deliver most of what it promises.\nBefore you start reading the rest of the post, there are few items, that could give away the plot. I wonder if one needs to worry about the plot in Batman. Here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the short version of the review - watch it if you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t done so as yet. NOW!\nSome things I liked:\n1. The movie is a lot more serious than previous renderings of Batman. Finally, a Batman movie, where you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have to laugh at Batman.\n2. The Joker (Heath Ledger) was truly amazing. I liked that he retained the southern sounding voice. Heath shines like diamond, and really stands out in terms of his performance. It is such a pity that the world has lost such a wonderful actor. He could have been this generation\u0026amp;rsquo;s Brando or Pacino. He has set new heights for the Batman villian (Traditionally, the villians have been better actors anyway)\n3. Batman is real, he gets hurt and has his flaws, and I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t hear \u0026amp;ldquo;kapow\u0026amp;rdquo; or \u0026amp;ldquo;zing\u0026amp;rdquo; during the action sequences.\n4. Makeup was wonderful - both the Joker and Two-Face, are more believable and frightening in their own ways.\n5. This movie has one of the best casts in all Batman movies (For a franchise, that has always had a star cast, this one really get the right people for the roles - remember George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger anyone?!)\n6. Thankfully, no robin - nuff said.\nNow for some things that could have been better\n1. 2:35 mins - the show started at 10:00 PM and ended at 1:00 AM! 3 hours is way too long (even for Indians - we get an intermission for our 3 hour movies).\n2. Two villians too big for this movie. I thought the villians didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t get enough screen time.\n3. Two-Face\u0026amp;rsquo;s plot is quite unconvincing, and it\u0026amp;rsquo;s a pity he\u0026amp;rsquo;s killed with such little damage. Aaron Eckhart is no match for Tommy Lee Jones.\n4. I hate the new Batman\u0026amp;rsquo;s voice. What\u0026amp;rsquo;s with the constant growling. I think that\u0026amp;rsquo;s the only flaw with the new Batman. Christian Bale, should learn to show some emotion through his eyes (wrath, anger, hatred etc). I liked him much better in the first movie. He has shown good promise, and if he does a couple more, I can see him as one of the better Batmans. I must say, the best one (my opinion) was Michael Keaton. I always liked the quirky Batman. This more dark Batman, closer to the comic, impresses as well, but yet to prove himself. I think he needs a villian who really pushes him hard.\nAll in all, a very enjoyable 3 hours, if you have the penchant for Batman, and can hold the large Combo in your bladder long enough. Must see movie. Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t miss it! Now, check out the trailer. (Kudos to Warner Bros. for providing an embeddable …","date":"Jul 21, 2008","tags":["batman","Christian Bale","Heath Ledger","movies","Reviews","the dark knight","Tommy Lee Jones"],"title":"Movie Review: The Dark Knight (spoiler alert)","url":"/posts/2008/movie-review-the-dark-knight-spoiler-alert/"},{"body":"\nShooting Star, originally uploaded by shivanandv.\nAs I was rummaging through my old pictures, I found this one and liked the pastel colours of the evening sky. This was shot a few months back, I have over 3 months backlog of images to be processed. Let me know what you think.\n","date":"Jun 29, 2008","tags":["Photography"],"title":"Shooting Star","url":"/posts/2008/shooting-star/"},{"body":"Conversations on the web have evolved quite a bit, in the last 4/5 years. During the late 90s, conversations on the web, was pretty much non-existant, except for a few, who used their websites to engage in conversations. The advent of the blog, made available tools to start and continue conversations.\nIn the last couple of years, there has been several attempts to normalize comments, across the blogging ecosystem, and several ways have been tried. Disqus, is a company, that is in the business of aggregating comments for your blog. Seesmic, a video communications startup, has partnered with them to integrate video comments. Even after all of these innovations, getting people to comment on a blog, is still pretty difficult.\nYou need,\nan engaged audience (the kind that wants to comment)\naccess to a critical mass of such people.\nregular compelling content, to keep your masses.\nfriends who are A-listers, willing to quote or refer you to their audiences.\nNow, with Friendfeed, I see a break away from these restrictions. All you need, is the willingness to be read and comment on a lot of people\u0026amp;rsquo;s content, which will enable a lot of people to follow you, which means you have their attention (one might argue the attention span is very less, but nonetheless, you have a chance).\nOnce you have a sizable following, all you need to do, is write that compelling content, that interests your followers (which should come by, as you comment more and more). Until now, to get people to visit your blog, your content has to compelling enough for them to leave the tool they used to discover your blog, and visit it, and then want to comment. Installing the worpdress plugin for friendfeed comments removes that barrier too.\nThat is exactly what I have done. So, from now on, anyone who follows me in friendfeed, can leave a comment in FF, and it will be autmatically part of my comment stream (although, it is not fully integrated into my comment feed etc)\nHow kewl is that?!\n","date":"Jun 27, 2008","tags":["comments","FF","friendfeed","website updates","wordpress plugins"],"title":"Friendfeed comments for wordpress","url":"/posts/2008/friendfeed-comments-for-wordpress/"},{"body":"The simple way to retreive the list of changed files would be to update the tree, which would then list the files updated.\n#cvs update . \u0026amp;gt; filelist.dat\nThe problem with this, is that if there have been changes to other files after your last update, you will have to manually glean the files that you have changed. I tend face this, particularly during the last couple of weeks before a release, since you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to risk updating your tree everyday, but still have to make 2/3 checkins. I did some googling today, and found how to find the list of files changed without updating your tree.\n#cvs -n update . \u0026amp;gt; filelist.dat\nThanks Jonnay for this. I should used man before I googled, but hey, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m lazy today :)\n","date":"Jun 23, 2008","tags":["code","coding","CVS","Development","Tips \u0026 Tricks","unix"],"title":"cvs - Getting list of files changed in the current tree","url":"/posts/2008/cvs-getting-list-of-files-changed-in-the-current-tree/"},{"body":"\nI am at the end of my trip to India, and I will miss this fella sorely!\n","date":"Jun 10, 2008","tags":["bunty","cats","photo"],"title":"Whaddup Mister?!","url":"/posts/2008/whaddup-mister/"},{"body":"WriteToMyBlog.com, is a web-based editor (with a lot of formatting options), that allows you to write to your blog (from another website?!).\nFirst thoughts go like,\n\u0026amp;ldquo;wtf?!\u0026amp;rdquo;, \u0026amp;hellip; \u0026amp;ldquo;hmmm.. interesting\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;hellip; \u0026amp;ldquo;I am a web 2.0 junkie?!\nThe likes\n1. Simplicity of the UI interface - neat, allows lots of space for text\n2. Integration of Flickr and Youtube (although I would love to see more such services)\n3. Zero account creation overhead. (I wrote this post, before I created the account to publish it, and is a 1-click process.)\nThe dislikes\n1. No keyboard shortcuts.\n2. Too many formatting options. I would rather have more external services (quote pownce or twitter conversations, facebook, vimeo and other photo and video sites)\n3. popups (need I say more.. in this day and age.. popups for functionality is a sin \u0026amp;hellip; almost).\n4. A few irksome bugs. (undo doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t work in-order, flickr requires login name, cursor disappears after including a picture.. etc)\nConclusion\nThe service offers what should be part of any good bloggingsoftware. With recent improvements in Wordpress Dashboard and Editor, I doubt if this tool will be able to keep my attention for long. The whole concept of logging into one site for writing to another, seems a little weird. I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t really understand the use-case.\nUpdate: I found a few more bugs\nEditing an existing post, ignore all previous indentation (white-space).\nTags set are technocrati tags, and not wordpress tags (I guess this is more like a feature request than a bug)\nI couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t find a getsatifaction account for this tool, and hence have sent a traceback to their blog. Mark, if you come this way, do create and account for your product/company at getsatisfaction.com, and do set up some form of bug tracking system, so that your users can be your testers :). Btw, you are welcome for the bugs mentioned here. Ohh.. btw.. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m using Firefox on Mac OSX.\n","date":"Jun 4, 2008","tags":["blog editors","review","Tools","WriteToMyBlog"],"title":"A web based writer for writing to a blog?!","url":"/posts/2008/a-web-based-writer-for-writing-to-a-blog/"},{"body":"I have been away from the internet for most of the last week. There are only a few things that can keep me away from spending hours reading feeds or uploading pictures, and when those things do happen, it is not very pleasant.\nLast week I lost yet another wonderful person from my life. I lost my father-in-law, Mr. Ghanshyam Maheswari. He was a good man, a good soul, a great father, and most of all, someone who lived his life - truly lived every moment of it. I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t find words to express the loss I feel. As the hours on the plane ride half way across the world passed, I couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t begin to accept that he had really passed on. I guess, a part of me was expecting to see him at the airport, telling my wife and me that this was all just a dream.\nLife, and not death, is cruel. It makes us experience a lot of things that we could do without. With the greatest regret and effort, I need to muster the ability to bid adieu, to a wonderful person that has enriched the lives of several who have been left behind. Mr Maheswari, may you find the big black table-tennis board in the sky. Keep a spot open, so we can finish the game we never played, when my time comes.\nYou can send your condolences either in this blog\u0026amp;rsquo;s comments or to the following\nNimesh: nimeshmaheshwari [at] gmail [dt] com\nPriyanka: drmishrap [at] gmail [dt] com\n","date":"May 25, 2008","tags":["eulegy","farewell","GS Maheswari"],"title":"So long and thanks for all the good times","url":"/posts/2008/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-good-times/"},{"body":"I hate having to upgrade software. I truly do. I release a version every 3 months, and it try to make the upgrade as painless as possible. For an application like wordpress, that has been around for such a long, I would expect that they would do something to make it a little easier to upgrade.\nOk. Sorry about the rant, but here is my problem: the download for wordpress 2.5.1 is around 1 MB, but what has really changed is only a few lines. However, according to wordpress, you have to go through a time-consuming process to get your blog up to date.\nThe only reason why the wordpress team would want to do this, is coz they do not want to write an upgrade document everytime. What they really need to do, is stop bothering their blog users with such small updates and allow such updates from within wordpress itself. This is precisely the kinda thing that should by now, be atleast a plugin, if not part of the system.\nThe famous5-minute, 3-step upgrade says:\n0. Take a Backup\n0.5 Disable plugins\n1. Actually it\u0026amp;rsquo;s three steps in this one step\nGet the latest WordPress. Either download and extract it to your computer or download it directly to the server. Delete your old wp-includes and wp-admin directories. Copy the new WordPress files to your server, overwriting old files in the root. You may use FTP or shell commands to do so. Note that this means *all* the files, including all the files in the root directory as well. If you use the default or classic theme and have customized it, then you can skip that theme. 2. Upgrade by calling the upgrade script\n3. Turn back all your plugins on.\nI grew sick of wordpress\u0026amp;rsquo; lazy-ass upgrade steps, and decided about a year back that I would only run the upgrade their way, if it really requires taking down my website, and started doing these simple steps instead. (Ofcourse, I have a script that does this for me :) )\n1. Download wordpress to a temp dir on your server\n[shvelmur@web24 wordpress]$ curl -o wp.tar.gz http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz % Total   % Received % Xferd Average Speed  Time   Time    Time Current Dload Upload  Total  Spent   Left Speed 100 1154k   0 1154k   0    0 5390k     0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 10.8M\n2. Extract the downloaded zipped-tar file to a new dir, called \u0026amp;ldquo;wp\u0026amp;rdquo;.\n[shvelmur@web24 wordpress]$ gtar -zxvf wp.tar.gz 3. Do a diff between the two directories to see what\u0026amp;rsquo;s changed.\n[shvelmur@web24 wordpress]$ diff \u0026amp;lt;current wordpress dir\u0026amp;gt; \u0026amp;lt;new dir\u0026amp;gt; In my installation this is the difference between wordpress 2.5 and wordpress 2.5.1\n`diff ../../wpress/wp-config-sample.php ./wordpress/wp-config-sample.php\n11,12c11,12\n\u0026amp;lt; // so make it long and complicated. You can visit https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm\n\u0026amp;lt; // to get a phrase generated for you, or just make something up. // so make it long and complicated. You can visit http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.0/\n// to get a secret key generated for you, or just make …","date":"May 6, 2008","tags":["Ideas","install","plugin","upgrade","wordpress"],"title":"Hey wordpress guys, have you heard of diff?!","url":"/posts/2008/hey-wordpress-guys-have-you-heard-of-diff/"},{"body":"A few weeks back, I installed Alex King\u0026amp;rsquo;s Twitter Tools for wordpress. Running it for a few weeks, I found that by lack of posting to my blog, became more apparent that earlier. There are now more \u0026amp;ldquo;twitter\u0026amp;rdquo; posts than the number of posts that I have written myself in the last year or so. How pathetic is that?!\nLooks like I have almost lost the need to say something (about anything) and it is about time to shut down this blog. However, I intend to give it another shot (one last time), before I stop hosting my own blog, and move to life-streaming instead (You can already find my at shiva.tumblr.com).\nThere are few projects that I have started working on (in my off-time ofcourse).\n1. Read-later\nThis is a clone of instapaper, written primarily for my own use and to learn django (as I find instapaper, rather limiting). Some features I intend to add include, cross-posting to twitter or del.icio.us, full-feed RSS to enable reading in Google reader. This isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t as yet, production ready, in fact it is in its early stages.\n2. Un-named java app framework\nA framework for running high-throughput java based servers, allowing staged-processing of actions. The framework also provides resilency to failures, low-impact live logging and debugging.\n3. Ex-SideRSS\nAn extension of sideRSS, that allows for displaying and customising RSS feeds for displaying in your wordpress sidebar.\nDo check back atleast every week and hopefully, I will be able to find time to add more coding related posts. The plan is to post stuff that I learn about C/C++ development on unix based systems.\n","date":"Apr 23, 2008","tags":["projects","Short updates"],"title":"Twitter digests","url":"/posts/2008/twitter-digests/"},{"body":"Well, this is a first post to my blog using Jott, which is a very cool service. It allows you to call a number and talk what you want to post, and post it to your blog. I think it\u0026amp;rsquo;s one of the new tools that really enable blogging. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m just going to try it and see how it works out. listen\nPowered by Jott\n","date":"Apr 9, 2008","tags":["blog clients","jott","review","Tools"],"title":"Jott - a voice-based blog client!","url":"/posts/2008/well-this-is-a-first/"},{"body":"I have the very distinct feeling that a bunch of people from India, are going to visit my site today. Maybe, it is too late, but nonetheless, I was compelled to post before I left for work, after staying up the whole night (watching movies). No really - Van Helsing followed by American Gangster - two very find movies, I might add, but I digress.\nI got the honour, of being one of the few listed on a fellow tech-enthusiast\u0026amp;rsquo;s list of \u0026amp;ldquo;twittering\u0026amp;rdquo; Indians. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s not everyday that I make someone\u0026amp;rsquo;s list, and hence the compulsion to blog about it. So, thank you Yuvi. Since he described me as a programmer, on his list, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s only fair \u0026amp;ndash;\nif (knowsYuvi(you)) { Thanks for visiting this [blog][4]; Between [work][5] and [twitter][6], I hardly update this space anymore; Do, [add it to your feedreader][7], so someday, you might see [something][8] [useful][9] :) } else { visit Yuvi\u0026#39;s [blog][2]; follow him on [twitter][10]; send him a tweet, saying hi; } ","date":"Apr 2, 2008","tags":["Twitter","yuvi"],"title":"Welcome new friends from twitter","url":"/posts/2008/welcome-new-friends-from-twitter/"},{"body":"I did it! I finally went out and bought myself a mac. I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t waver. No! Not this time. I knew exactly what I wanted, and I was going to get it, come what may!\nI have to confess that I have been pretty critical of Apple andits policies. I still am. Nothing has changed my opinion of Apple as a company, in particular, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s marketing team. The ipod touch price changes lead me to those conclusions.I liked the ipod touch\u0026amp;rsquo;s interface and engineering, but when I first booted up my MacBook (Penryn-based) I was completely taken aback. The first time I booted my laptop, it was completely usable. Within a few hours, I had a few applications installed (open source ones), tweeted, seesmiced my first video, and was having fun, in general. The Mac experience was very very close to the ideal computing experience ever. (Yeah, it is that big a deal).\nIt is not just the OS, it is the bunch of applications that come with the OS, and others that you can find online, that make that initial user-experience so good. Can you duplicate this experience on a PC running windows or Linux? Of course you can, it just takes a lot of effort, and every application looks and feel different (less so in the linux world) and that is the problem.\nThe Mac presents a very cohesive user interface (different, but cohesive), that makes using the Mac a pleasure. For instance, I installed Textmate (on which I write this post). It is one of the best apps for OSX, but it doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t waver from the basic UI guidelines of native OSX apps. That is its strength. All windows look very very similar, and the whole desktop looks a lot more integrated. There is a keyboard shortcut for pretty much every single thing. Having said all of this, there are some behavioral aspects of Mac that I think are counter-intutive.\nThe counter-intuitive Mac?!\nHere are some things that piss me off.\nYou can select text, using ctrl+shift+arrow, up to the end or beginning of line, but you can\u0026amp;rsquo;t move to end or beginning of line, using ctrl+arrow (since it is mapped to move between spaces). Hmm\u0026amp;hellip; what will a normal user, use most?! move to beginning or end of line?! or move between work spaces?! In the notebook versions of the mac, there are no keys for pg up, pg dn, home, end. Although, these things have lost relevance in the modern day UI, there are still useful. You can use fn+arrows that do the same thing, but only when paging is involved. What else do you need them for , you ask? When I want to go to the beginning of a text field, that is highlighted, or to the end, I use the Home and End keys. That doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t work on all text fields. Some textboxes in safari support it and some don\u0026amp;rsquo;tI know these are minor, but I use them everytime, I use my laptop. Why do the applications minimize when I double click on them? (I know it\u0026amp;rsquo;s a windows thing, but I think it\u0026amp;rsquo;s more intuitive to double click to maximize, since I want a windows maximized only when I am paying …","date":"Mar 15, 2008","tags":["Mac","Mac Book","Mac OSX"],"title":"Biting the \"Mac\" Bullet","url":"/posts/2008/biting-the-mac-bullet/"},{"body":"\u0026amp;ldquo;This is it! Its the final straw. We need to do something about it!\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;ldquo;What is it?\u0026amp;rdquo;, you ask. I am sick and tired of hearing story after story of crazed authority figures, forcing rules upon the common man, rendering life to a boring, monotonous series of security checks and bans and fines. From security at airports, to self-righteous moderation aimed at photographers in public spaces. I am sick of it.\nThere are a few like Thomas Hawk, who continue to risk holding on to their principles in public, at the risk of crazed comments and flak from an audience that could care less. An example, is his post today.\nWhen I\u0026amp;rsquo;m on an airplane, and the flight attendant tells everyone to turn off their cell phones and personal electronics, I never turn my iPhone off. I just leave it on. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not sure why I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t turn it of\nWhy should anyone turn off cellphones? or any electronic equipment for that matter?! every time I get on a plane, all I hear is that, cellphones could cause disruption of air-traffic communication and therefore everyone (usually 500 or more) have to turn off all electrical and electronic appliances.\nThere are several flaws with this rule.\nRelying on voice based communication systems that are frail enough to be disrupted by a few cell phones are not safe enough for critical information. Pilots and Air-traffic control, should switch to more reliable data transfer mechanisms. I am allowed to use my computer and other electronic devices post lift-off but not during it! Is losing communication in the middle of the flight somehow safer that losing it during lift-off? This \u0026amp;ldquo;rule\u0026amp;rdquo; is symptomatic of several rules that we have in modern society: rules that have stopped making sense, but we continue to follow and enforce them senselessly\nTurn cellphones off near petrol stations. No flash in museums or photo galleries (In Canada), if you are the first car at an intersection turning left, and you have a green, move to the middle of the road until you find a space in the on coming traffic. (clear recipe for disaster) Taking off shoe, toothpaste, comb, hair gel etc and displaying it to the world a.k.a your co-travelers, whilst wondering where all the stuff that they collect goes?! Several things caught my eye, as I re-searched after I read Thomas\u0026amp;rsquo; post.\nCheck out this note posted on FCC\u0026amp;rsquo;s website.\nIn March 2007, the FCC terminated a proceeding that it began in late 2004 to consider potentially lifting this ban. The FCC determined that the technical information provided by interested parties in response to the proposal was insufficient to determine whether in-flight use of wireless devices on aircraft could cause harmful interference to wireless networks on the ground. Therefore, it decided at this time to make no changes in the rules prohibiting in-flight use of such devices.\nEssentially, as opposed to proving something is not safe (or safe), the FCC decides to maintain status quo?!\nWikipedia …","date":"Mar 13, 2008","tags":["air travel","phones on planes","Thomas Hawk","travel"],"title":"Can we end the Six Years of Fear ?","url":"/posts/2008/can-we-end-the-six-years-of-fear/"},{"body":"A few days ago, I returned the Ipod touch that I had for exactly 11 days, coz Apple chose to charge me $20. Apart from me being a cheap bas***d, I had this queasy feeling in my gut, about apple products. I felt an unexplainable rage towards Apple, Jobs and the fanboys. I am usually a very moderate person, and it really surprised me that I could harbor such crazy extremism and frustration. I could never place a finger on the source, until I read this article on Coding Horror by Jeff Atwood.\nHe hits the nail on the head with this one:\nSo let\u0026amp;rsquo;s be completely clear: when you buy a new Mac, you\u0026amp;rsquo;re buying a giant hardware dongle that allows you to run OS X software.\nand goes on to state something, that threw the spotlight on that source that I was trying to find within myself\nMaybe I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a hypocrite. Maybe the issue cuts philosophically deeper than mere dongles. Maybe it\u0026amp;rsquo;s not only about the freedom to run your operating system on whatever hardware you wish, but also the freedom to run whatever software you want for whatever purpose you need, in perpetuity. That\u0026amp;rsquo;s Freedom Zero:\nThere are two kinds of us: those who put conviction above convenience, and those who don\u0026amp;rsquo;t. There is nothing right or wrong about being on either of the sides. All that matters is that, one needs to understand, which \u0026amp;ldquo;club\u0026amp;rdquo; one belongs to. Through all this, I realized one thing - I will never be content with a Mac, until I convince myself to give up expecting my computer to do everything I want it to do. Do I want to do that? I have no idea. Do I want an ipod touch that allows me to run linux on it? I sure as hell do.\nI hope, for the sake of computing, that Apple realizes that it has a platform in the Ipod Touch, get off its proud ass, and open-up the touch to third party. However, with Apple, I just know that it will never happen. Why? It takes genius to build something like the iPhone or the iPod and a vision to make that into a platform.\n","date":"Jan 29, 2008","tags":["apple","freedom 0","freedom zero","iphone","ipod touch"],"title":"That queasy feeling","url":"/posts/2008/that-queasy-feeling/"},{"body":"Since I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t enjoyed being screwed over when I buy a $500 product, I said buh-bye to my ipod touch today. One thing that I enjoyed, was the sharpness of the display. I will definetly buy this device again, if I knew for sure that, Apple will not pull another stunt like that with the imminent release of IPOD touch SDK. So until then, I commute for 2 hours everyday with no music to listen, no podcast from CNN to watch :(\n","date":"Jan 18, 2008","tags":["ipod touch","ipod touch SDK","ipod touch upgrade"],"title":"Bye bye IPOD","url":"/posts/2008/bye-bye-ipod/"},{"body":"My ipod touch was upgraded to 1.1.3, after connecting to my computer, and I wanted to downgrade to 1.1.1, so I could jailbreak it and put any app I want on it.\nipodtouchmaster found a way to downgrade it using iPhuc.\n","date":"Jan 16, 2008","tags":["downgrade","iphone","ipod touch","Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"IPOD touch: Downgrade from 1.1.3 to 1.1.1","url":"/posts/2008/ipod-touch-downgrade-from-113-to-111/"},{"body":"Since Apple\u0026amp;rsquo;s is so bent upon disappointing their customers, by introducing paid firmware upgrades, I needed to ensure that I have the option to jail break, my new ipod touch (if need be). (update: the firmware upgrade itself is not paid. Only the newapps are paid). I am going to wait until they release their SDK in February before I jailbreak mine.\nI found a link to the 1.1.1 firmware (thanks to Rupert and who-ever posted this).\nI have a copy on my hard-drive (just in case).\nLet\u0026amp;rsquo;s see how the whole thing works out. Just when I thought, Apple has a killer product, they have to limit the scope of a platform and make it a device. A very sad day for computing.\n","date":"Jan 15, 2008","tags":["apple","firmware","ipod touch"],"title":"IPod touch 1.1.1 firmware link","url":"/posts/2008/ipod-touch-111-firmware-link/"},{"body":"This website, now supports a special interface for viewing using ipod touch/iphone. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m using the iWPhone plugin at contentrobot.com\n","date":"Jan 15, 2008","tags":["iphone","ipod touch","wordpress plugins"],"title":"Ipod touch/Iphone support","url":"/posts/2008/ipod-touchiphone-support/"},{"body":"I discovered today, that twitter+zooomr+a small utility called Cropper, now allows us to put new information about some of the products we use often, out into the blogosphere (I hate that word now), faster than ever before.\nCheck this image that I posted this image on zooomr on 12th Dec and then twittered it.\nI found a blog post, by (I presume) one of the engineer\u0026amp;rsquo;s who made it happen, on the google\u0026amp;rsquo;s official blog. Although, I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t post the exact feature he was talking about, I noticed the feature too on another search I was doing that day.\nTiming is becoming critical these days. Although, I guess more people out there learnt about the feature from his blog entry, it is becoming less relevant from the tech-crowd\u0026amp;rsquo;s perspective. With guys like Scoble, Mike and Dave Winer, it is quite tough keeping an announcement out of the crowds for long.\n","date":"Dec 18, 2007","tags":["cropper","google","mashups","micro blogging","Tech","Twitter","zooomr"],"title":"Google blogs its feature later than I do!","url":"/posts/2007/google-blogs-its-feature-later/"},{"body":"The best thing since .. well a Canon 20D.\nIf this video convinced you to buy a Canon 40D, or Canon 30D or Canon20D, use the affiliate links as provided.\n","date":"Dec 18, 2007","tags":["canon 40d","Digital SLR","DSLR","Reviews","SLR","video review"],"title":"Review: Canon 40D","url":"/posts/2007/review-canon-40d/"},{"body":"The reason for the respite in my blogging, was my move to a new web-host. After several hours of researching, I decided to go with webfaction.com. If you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t already visited webfaction, DO IT right now! It has been simply amazing. I love the one click installer, and within hours of getting billed, I got access to my account. It comes with shell access, SFTP, enough space, rails 2.x (just days after it was release), django, wordpress 2.3.1 and a host of other webapps, all of which you can install with a just a few clicks on their web interface.\n_Note: links provided to webfaction\u0026amp;rsquo;s website, have my affiliate link.  _\n","date":"Dec 14, 2007","tags":["django host","rails host","Reviews","web host","webfaction"],"title":"The webfaction experience","url":"/posts/2007/the-webfaction-experience/"},{"body":"That is a very difficult question to answer (which I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t answer anywhere in this post: go away). Anyone who attempts to do so, must be a genius or a fool, perhaps a little of both. Philipp Lenssen on Google Blogoscoped, observes how one of those is true. Here is a more detailed analysis.\nJohn Watkins, must have been quite a visionary considering the depth of his predictions and how much of it has come true.\nFive hundred Million people\nHe was right about that, but under-estimated the human ability and eagerness to reproduce (and migrate). Based on the US census 2000, the US now has over 300 million inhabitants (that is excluding all the people on H, L and B Visas)\nThe American will be taller\nAccording to this website, the average height of the American male is somewhere between 160 to 180 cms. Now, since he hasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t provided a figure, there is no way to validate this information.\nThere will be no C, X or Q\nHmm.. I did a few searches for words starting with C:\nfindtheword.info = 47831\nwordhut.com = 274 pages of 51 words each (13974)\nNeedless to say, these are just ones that start with one of the letters he mentions. It ain\u0026amp;rsquo;t happening anytime soon.\nHot and Cold Air from Spigots\nA search for \u0026amp;lsquo;home heating systems\u0026amp;rsquo; on google gave about 33 million results in 0.15 seconds. Thankfully, we are way ahead of what someone a hundred years ago could imagine, how we would heat ourselves.\nNo mosquitoes or flies\nNot much of a change there (although, if you are reading this, then you probably live in a place will lesser mosquitoes than 100 years back)\nOne thing, I bet he never, in his wildest dreams, would have conceived was that we will have patents for mosquito repellents\nReady-cooked meals\nWe have found a million ways to feed ourselves, and this includes fast-food, and packaged dinners and Martha Stewart\u0026amp;rsquo;s. Sweet Success!\nNo foods will be exposed\nIn the US, maybe, but there are still quite a few places in the world, where this is not erradicated (hint: take a flight to India and visit Arcot Road, Chennai, Tamil Nadu - also take life-insurance before you go (I can be your nominee - use the contact form for such purposes or tweet me.))\nCoal will not be used for heating or cooking\nWoot! Woot! Google, good for ye. You are trying to do what someone thought of 100 years back. Go tidal power.\nThere will be no street cars in our large cities\nYeah right.\nPhotographs will be telegraphed\n2 cheers here. We even went a step further and invented this thingy called the internet, and we actually have quite a few sites (about 100,000) out there helping us do this. (big business these days uh?)\nTrains @ 150 miles/hour\nSadly, the US has moved away from trains and on to air-traffic in the last 100 years. The fastest train as of 1999 - the Metroliner reaches a maximum commercial speed of 125 mph (slower by 25 mph, dang!). But, there are several fast trains out there, that go over 300 mph.\nAutomobiles will be cheaper than horses\nNo comment. (I …","date":"Nov 30, 2007","tags":["predictions"],"title":"What will happen in 100 years?","url":"/posts/2007/what-will-happen-in-100-years/"},{"body":"I recently got myself a Canon 40D. After a 3 year wait, I can finally afford to buy myself a DSLR, and have been going crazy with it for the last couple of weeks.\n[Larger version previously available on zooomr - service no longer available]\nLargely influenced by Thomas Hawk\u0026amp;rsquo;s passion, I have started carrying the camera everywhere I go: to work, when I go shopping, and even when I am just walking around the neighbourhood. I shot this picture, on my back from work, last Friday. With all the shooting, I am running out of HDD space very quickly. I am ok, for the next month (I have 2 external 80GB HDD + around 60GB in my laptop). After that, I will need to move the old ones to DVDs (something, which I hate doing: easy to lose shots, and difficult to retrieve).\nAny suggestions are welcome (If anyone is reading this!). Oh.. I almost forgot,\nHere are the links to my photostream:\n[Photo galleries previously available on zooomr - service no longer available]\n[RSS feeds for zooomr photostream - service no longer available]\n[Zooomr photo sets - service no longer available]\nZooomr was an amazing photography community with great founders Kris and Thomas who understood how important the community was. The service is no longer available.\nTechnorati Tags: zooomr, dogs, [vancouver][4], [pictures][5], [canon40d][6], [canon][7], [canon 40d][8], [DSLR][9], Thomas Hawk, Kirstopher Tate\nUpdate: I have also signed up for flickr pro account, and will be uploading pictures to that too. So do check that out also.\n","date":"Oct 20, 2007","tags":["canon","40d","DSLR","zooomr"],"title":"Loving my Canon 40D","url":"/posts/2007/loving-my-canon-40d/"},{"body":"Dang! I got stung today, by a bee, for the first time in my life. The little critter was trying to sniff some aroma from the back of my head, and I reached out with my hand, grabbed him (sorry, it must of hurt), and he got pissed and wanked me. Just as any normal, crazed-out geek would do, the first thing I did was to search the net for home-grown, bee sting remedies and I found this post by William Brantley. Being a much braver individual than I can be (when it comes to bee stings), he went through a series of bee-biting to test various remedies, that exists in the market-place and several home-grown remedies.\nSo, how did the home remedies stack up against the pharmaceutical offerings? It depends on the home, I guess. The worst home remedies were worse than the worst pharmaceuticals, and the best home remedies better than the best pharmaceuticals. The Caladryl was the sole pharmaceutical remedy I\u0026amp;rsquo;d use again. If I had to leave the house to go get it, though, I\u0026amp;rsquo;d buy the meat tenderizer instead and use it in the vinegar/baking soda paste. Yet why bother with either of those when you already use, on a daily basis, the two best bee sting remedies? The winners**: toothpaste and ice.**\nI am going to test the above two, and let you know the results. I am hoping that they work their magic. Oooo.. that hurts! and again!\nUpdate: I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know about the toothpaste, but the ice definitely works!! I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t feel my finger (forget the sting), after icing it for 30 mins.\nTechnorati Tags: bee stings, home remedies, bee sting remedy\n","date":"Oct 9, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Sting by a bee","url":"/posts/2007/sting-by-a-bee/"},{"body":"First off, this is a rant. You have been warned.\nI have been banking with ICICI bank for the last 6 years. I have generally had a pleasant experience banking with them, since you could do pretty much everything you want to do with your account through their online interface. With my recent move to Canada, I was pleased to see an branch here in Vancouver.\nI opened an account with them last week, and had used a check to make the initial deposit. A week passed and with no sign of a confirmation of account activation, I called their call center.\nCall 1:\nCustomer care executive(CCE): Good morning, ICICI bank, how may I help you?\nMe: Hi, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m Shivanand and I opened an account with you last week. I see that my cheque has been cleared, and I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t received any confirmation of the same. I would like to know the status of my application?\nCCE: Can you give me your First Name, Last Name and Phone No?\nMe: \u0026amp;lt;I give them the info\u0026amp;gt;\nCCE: I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sorry I am unable to see a record of your account. Do you have your Customer Identification No?\nMe: I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t. I will call you back\nI had left all the documents at home, and had to call the next day.\nCall 2:\nMe: \u0026amp;lt;I give him, my First Name, Last Name, Cust ID, my dog\u0026amp;rsquo;s name, and the exact dimensions of the turd left by my dog yesterday, in the park)\nCust ID: I am sorry, I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t find your account. Can I take a request from you, to send a request to ask for information from your branch?\nMe: umm\u0026amp;hellip; what? Whatever, how long will it take to know the status of my application?\nCust Id\u0026amp;lt;in a very loud voice\u0026amp;gt;: I can send a request to my back office, and it will take 2 days.\nMe:Why?\nCust Id\u0026amp;lt;in a very loud voice\u0026amp;gt;: I have to send it to my back office and it will take 2 days.\nMe: Why? I called the local bank, why can\u0026amp;rsquo;t you just forward me to the local branch, and I will ask them?\nCust ID: We don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have that information?\nMe: whatever.. \u0026amp;lt;and I put the phone down\u0026amp;gt;\nWith billions of dollars worth of technology, in the banking systems in the world, banks can\u0026amp;rsquo;t afford to forward a call to a specific branch, to ask for a some information? I find that absurd, and downright stupid. I am trying to give you business and the first experience I get is inability to tell me why you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve taken my money, but not activated my account?! If such is the level of incompetence, how well can you take care of my money?!!\nWell, being fed up with call centers, I decided to call the branch itself. I called in, using the branch\u0026amp;rsquo;s number, and someone at the branch picked it up. She got my Cust ID, and my phone number, and said, she will call me in half hour. End of call and I am actually happy that I got the thing moving! That was simple, wasn\u0026amp;rsquo;t it? I spent 2 minutes, and got more confidence than a 20 minute conversation with a call center employee, who just doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t care enough about the customer.\nI also sent, this mail to ICICI customer care.\nHi,\nI recently opened …","date":"Oct 4, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Banking woes","url":"/posts/2007/banking-woes/"},{"body":"Twitbin has been my favourite client for twitter. the key thing that attracted me to it, was that I can use twitter, along side my browsing, and that makes life much simpler. Also, it have a very simple interface, to track your friends and their messages.\nI realized how much it mean to my twittering experience, when it went down sometime last week. I presumed, it was due to the upgrades that the twitter team was planning, and want to see if the problem persists. Well, looks like twitter is working fine now, through the web-interface, and I guess twitbin should be operational now, but.. well NO.. I still have to use the web interface and it suck big time.\nJust click on the image, on the side, to see a screencast of how I try to use twit-bin and the errors.\nthat brings us to the next very cool tool I have been using. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s called Jing, and it does screen captures. If you are a screen capture addict like myself, you need this tool. Another very neat thing with this tool, is that it allows you to capture only a small portion of the screen (you can select it), and do, either an image capture or a screencast recording on that selected area. Very nice for showing your users, how to use your software or to help your mom do something.\nThey also provide a service, where you can host your screencast, and it is free for 200MB storage and 1 GB bandwidth.\nTechnorati Tags: Twitbin, Jing, screencast, twitter, twitter clients\n","date":"Oct 2, 2007","tags":["Jing","screencast","Tools","Twitbin","Twitter","twitter","clients"],"title":"Issue with Twitbin, Jing the next-gen screen capture","url":"/posts/2007/issue-with-twitbin-jing-the-next-gen-screen-capture/"},{"body":"After several months of keeping away from updating or changing my website, I broke the fast today. I found a wonderful plugin, sideRSS, which allows display of RSS feeds within a blog\u0026amp;rsquo;s sidebar. As usual, I needed a specific functionality that was not supported the way I wanted it. I hacked it a little bit, renamed the plugin, and posted a custom version for download on my website.\nIf you need to share Google Shared Items, on your blog, but hate to include javascript (like I do), then use this. You can download it here (right-click and use \u0026amp;ldquo;Save Target As\u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;rdquo;) and find install information here.\nAlso, if you like this version, and would like me to add a few more features (I have some in mind though, like ATOM parsing), do suggest them in the comments section.\nP.S: If you are Chris Hatcher, the author of the original SideRSS, and want to take this version down or something, just leave a message here - you will need to merge my changes in your code though :-)\nTechnorati Tags: EXSideRSS, SideRSS, wordpress plugins\n","date":"Oct 1, 2007","tags":["coding","Development","EXSideRSS","SideRSS","wordpress","plugins"],"title":"EX-SideRSS","url":"/posts/2007/ex-siderss/"},{"body":"\nI wrote this a few months back, when I had just starting using facebook, but never got around to posting it. With a recent cleaning spee (of my laptop) I found it lying in a neat corner. If you are not already infected by facebook, here it is.\nFacebook, is a web2.0 app that has the most serious drain on productivity, and got me to waste all of 5 hours on it, doing nothing but organizing, linking, inviting hundreds of friends; and just lounging around!\nWhy? It is not just another application, it is a platform, it is an aggregator of sorts, of not data, but of people. It takes the whole idea of social networking to the next level, and gives people a load of cool things to play with and keeps you and your friends engaged. It can be either as fun or as hip or as geeky or as professional as you want it to be. How? Coz it lets you add the services that you see as best useful for you. So unlike orkut (mostly for the younger ones - a.k.a college kids wanting to just gossip or get in touch or whatever), and very much unlike linkedin (you just create a network and there is no way except good ol\u0026amp;rsquo; mails or thereabouts to interact with people)\nWell, after a serious 5/6 hours with facebook, I really think that is there is one social-networking (somebody find a shorter name for this - how about socNET?!) that I would recommend, it would be facebook. Why ?! Coz, I can promote and show off the following\nMy blog/anything with RSS using feedinvasion. Music I listen to using iLike. Movies that I watch using flixster. Articles that I read Google reader shared items app. Photos that I have taken using photos app. Videos that I have made using Video app. So these are the applications that I use currently, and they change every time I log on to facebook.\nSo you are better served to checking out my profile on facebook everyday or rather, your own, since you will get notifications of what I have done recently, as I do it, instead of my website (that is you are one of the poor souls, who still have faith in my blogging skills - :\u0026amp;gt;) \u0026amp;lt;- (That was my evil grin). That way you get not only what I write about, but also, a whole host of things about me. May I say: One small step for an online app, but a giant leap for web as a platform!\nTechnorati Tags: facebook, web 2.0\n","date":"Oct 1, 2007","tags":["facebook","web","2.0"],"title":"hmm.. facebook apps and bandwidth","url":"/posts/2007/hmm-facebook-apps-and-bandwidth/"},{"body":"I had to compare machine hardware today, and found information on that here.\n**#prtdiag -v - **Gives hardware information about FSB, Sparc Model, CPU speed, RAM, Harddisks, USB drives (ie. PCI and networking slots) etc.\nClick on the image below, for a detailed overview of prtdiag\u0026amp;rsquo;s output\n#psrinfo -p - lists number of physical processors .\n#psrinfo -p -v - list number of virtual processors (cores) per physical processor.\n#psrinfo -v - detailed information for each virtual processor.\n**#prtconf | grep Memory **- displays total amount of RAM.\nTechnorati Tags: unix commands, solaris commands, system configuration\n","date":"Sep 8, 2007","tags":["coding","solaris","unix"],"title":"Unix: how to check system configuration on solaris","url":"/posts/2007/unix-how-to-check-system-configuration-on-solaris/"},{"body":"I use AVG antivirus, which has never ever caught a virus on my laptop. For long, I have pondered if I really need one, since I have been quite fastidious in ensuring the media that I download/execute on my laptop. In my eagerness to try out Dreamweaver CS3 and Photoshop CS3, I slipped in the latest chip-India DVD (July 07) which carries the trialwares, and boom! AVG chucked out its first trojan alert in the last 5 years! That is quite amazing ain\u0026amp;rsquo;t it? I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t had a virus in half a decade and boom one fine day!!\nThere goes my dream of working on windows without security software taking 50% of my computing resources. Oh, by the way, can someone from CHIP tell me if I get anything coz I found a trojan in your discs?!\nTechnorati Tags: chip, trojan, chip dvd, trojan in chip dvd\n","date":"Jul 12, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Trojan alert in Chip-India DVDs","url":"/posts/2007/trojan-alert-in-chip-india-dvds/"},{"body":"It has just dawned on me that I have more work to do, that when I was employed. So many things to catch up on: emails, orkut messages, linked-in invites (ohh. Kristopher Tate is a contact now! Thanks Kris! :) ).\nTalking of linked-in, the pressure from the \u0026amp;lsquo;opening-up\u0026amp;rsquo; of facebook is showing. Linked-in has added several new features and made interaction much easier than it was before. Things are where they should be; A free member can get in touch with someone they know directly. No need for any introductions if you know a person. (you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t need to know their mail id, either). Finally someone at Linked-in realized that they need to accelerate the rate at with the interconnections were formed between people. That\u0026amp;rsquo;s where the money is.\nI kinda like the Linked-in system. It is one of the most unobtrusive social-networking sites. It doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t send me a mail for every single action someone does (by default) and also let\u0026amp;rsquo;s me turn stuff off! I like that in a site.\nTechnorati Tags: linked-in, facebook, social networking, orkut\n","date":"Jun 28, 2007","tags":[],"title":"So many things to do and so little time","url":"/posts/2007/so-many-things-to-do-and-so-little-time/"},{"body":"I recently quit my job at Novell. After more than half a decade of working 5 days a week and several hours a day, I get to spend my time doing only things I want to do. No more tasks that I have to complete, no more deadlines, no more betas to release (atleast for a few more weeks). I get some time to myself before take a deep dive into the job of chucking out code day-in and day-out.\nHere are some thing that I thoroughly enjoyed doing in the first week :\nStarted learning RoR. Check my email and respond! Read all my feeds the first thing in the morning. Install all required software on my laptop. Uploaded some pictures on zooomr. (yeah they are up and stable now) I have started work on a small project in rails, which I shall announce once I have a working prototype.\nTechnorati Tags: novell, unemployment, ruby on rails\n","date":"Jun 27, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Happily unemployed (for a while)","url":"/posts/2007/happily-unemployed-for-a-while/"},{"body":"Zooomr, for those of you, who don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know it, is a photo-sharing site, that is developed and maintained by a single developer, Kristopher Tate. Thomas Hawk, the CEO, is a wonderful photographer, and writes a great blog, which you should check out.\nIf Flickr started web2.0 photo-sharing, zooomr is slowly moving the game forward. The latest version of zooomr, offers a bunch of new features, that are nothing short of amazing. Now, they are offering free pro-accounts for bloggers who use zooomr. (Marketing tip #1: Befriend the blogger). Ohh, btw, you can choose to use zooomr, on any blog service that allows you to add html to your post. I guess, that includes every single blog service out there!\n","date":"Jun 24, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Zooomr offering free 4GB accounts!","url":"/posts/2007/zooomr-offering-free-4gb-accounts/"},{"body":"It is comical to see how the country, in other words, the ones who rule them ridicule one of the most important posts in India. How can the political parties choose to gain mileage by being so very fragmented in choosing the next president. How can they even propose to elect people who probably have very little to show for themselves as imminent achievers in their respective fields?! For God\u0026amp;rsquo;s sake, you are going to elect a president!\nWell, in this fragmented, partisan election for the president, someone has the guts to root for Kalam, again! This was announced last evening, and by night fall, Shekawat hints at allegiance to Kalam. I think, by the time I leave office, Kalam would have retained his!\n*[Poll results showing overwhelming support for Dr. Kalam for President - image no longer available]*I saw an interesting poll, which pitted Kalam, against the other candidates. Check out the results for yourself. when in this country a huge cross-section can agree on something, then why don\u0026amp;rsquo;t the politicians agree with it?! Why can\u0026amp;rsquo;t we put rules, to ensure that every applicant to the post of the President, should have not contested in any elections, what-so-ever. Also, why can\u0026amp;rsquo;t the people choose their president for themselves?! I think, it is about time that we revisited some parts of the constitution and ensure that we can use it to get our politics back into some decent shape.\nWell, in the mean time, we need to watch the rigamarole that unfolds before us in the name of electing another president - Who shall it be?! That is the big question these days.\nTechnorati tags: [election][3], president of india, presidential elections, president, Kalam\n","date":"Jun 19, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Who wan[2]: http://technorati.com/tags/election [3]: http://technorati.com/tags/president%20of%20india [4]: http://technorati.com/tags/presidential%20elections [5]: http://technorati.com/tags/president [6]: http://technorati.com/tags/Kalam be the president?!","url":"/posts/2007/who-wants-to-be-the-president/"},{"body":"Here is a wonderful way to spend about an hour of your time, particularly if you are in anyway associated with software development. Listen to Grady Booch talks about \u0026amp;ldquo;The promise, the limits, the beauty of software\u0026amp;rdquo;. Apart from that he also talks about pimped out laptops, being half dead, and fun stuff like,\n\u0026amp;ldquo;I looked at a machine from Siemens, and thought, Damn, I know the guys who wrote the software for this machine.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nApparently, they used UML to design that machine, that was used to scan him for his aneurysm. He talks about several such fun stuff and also about a lot of serious stuff about what\u0026amp;rsquo;s wonderful and also scary about software and the process of development.\nAlso, it is quite nice to see that the father of UML, is in with times (was it like 30 years ago he did that?!), and is in support of agile and iterative development methodologies.\n\u0026amp;ldquo;We have build systems as an industry that are in the interstitial spaces of the world, and I believe that in the coming decade we will reach the point of no return.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nA few more gems\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Challenge for us as an industry is, how do we express the excitement, to the people that follow us,as to the beauty and elegance of the things we have done\u0026amp;rdquo;\nA special mention of Cisco IOS:\n\u0026amp;ldquo;The initial version was apparently about 30000 lines of code and was donated by the developer (employee #4 @ Cisco), and the current version is about 30-50 million lines of code. Some of the early elegance is disappearing and is a very very brittle system.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nand of Britney Spears\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Software creates new forms of artistic expression. They allow people like Britney Spears who have no musical talent, to make lots of money\u0026amp;rdquo;\nNow who else can talk to you about Cisco IOS and Britney Spears in the same presentation! Also he plays Halo 3! Now go see it!\nTechnorati tags: Grady Booch, software system, beauty of software, video, software\n","date":"Jun 7, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Grady Booch talks about Cisco IOS, Britney Spears and Halo!","url":"/posts/2007/grady-booch-talks-about-cisco-ios-britney-spears-and-halo/"},{"body":"Rich Skrenta elucidates the power of less code.\nI ask you, grasshopper, which is better: flexible code or tiny code?\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Ah,\u0026amp;rdquo; you exclaim, \u0026amp;ldquo;Learned master, it is a trick question: code which is tiny yet flexible is best!\u0026amp;rdquo;\nWRONG! Tiny code is always best. Now you must carry water up the hill for the rest of the day.\nFor sure, he can\u0026amp;rsquo;t think up of good stories. Just Kidding! Every time we, developers, make a change or fix a bug, we decide the fate of that particular code flow. We take a call on how the module or component is going to behave for the rest of the life of that application.\nWhile I agree that writing reams of code for something expressed much more simply, is evil, is it really the amount of code that you put in a file/class/function that influences the manageability of code. I personally am convinced that number of conditional branching clauses (more simply put if..then..else) that you use is evil(er). The lesser if..then clauses you have in your code, the lesser bugs you will produce.\nHe then, goes on about something that is totally a different beast. Abstraction in the name of flexibility:\nWhen most people learn objective languages, the first thing they do is go ape. I mean, they create superclasses that have one method, which is stubbed out, and twenty children classes, each of which varies by one line of code. They fall so in love with objects that they think everything needs to be its OWN TYPE of object.\nOften this is done in the name of flexibility. \u0026amp;ldquo;Look, I have this abstract superclass which currently does the drawing for all my buttons, but you could subclass it to, say, draw 3D text!\u0026amp;rdquo;\nThis is something, that I just couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t believe is a real problem. Why? Well, I have, in my last 6+ years of development in both, service and product companies, never ever had to stay awake because of too much abstraction.\nMost of the time, I find the converse is true. Apparently anyone (who write code for money: (Ohh.. by the way, the word apparently is a very convenient word, it lets me state something, without having to really prove it with some hard facts :) - I learned this from Douglas - we miss ye)), seems uninterested in abstracting code, care less for code re-use.\nLet us just step back and think, why do most people want to be **this evil! **Human tendency is to achieve a goal, with the least amount of effort possible. (I can bet my head on this: Say we find someway to automate the ability to ingest food, and excrete it, most will gladly adopt it! )\nWell, it is always much easier to write a function yourself, to achieve that day\u0026amp;rsquo;s goal to fix X number of bugs or getting a feature Y done and commit the code, than to go hunting for abstractions and re-factor already tested code.\nTrust me, Rich, I have **never ever **found an unwanted abstraction, or even class hierarchies that run more than a few classes deep. Do I wish, what you were stating is true in the industry? I most truly will be …","date":"Jun 1, 2007","tags":[],"title":"One cat and lots of code","url":"/posts/2007/one-cat-and-lots-of-code/"},{"body":"Over the last couple of years, the onslaught of web 2.0 apps has almost made the desktop irrelevant. With a service offering for almost every kind of application that a normal user would use, the age of installing applications is near its fag-end.\nIs this good? Is this the direction we want to head towards? More importantly, does it make real sense for end-users? Ok let\u0026amp;rsquo;s see what you pay for a normal laptop these days.\nDell Inspiron E1505 Notebooks\nIf you get the above mentioned laptop, you pay around $1000 for the OS (Vista), a bunch of useless programs that you will never use, 1 GB of RAM and tons of HDD space. Now, let\u0026amp;rsquo;s see what are the other costs of using online apps. (assuming that you use only open-source/free applications like I do, that would be the cost of using desktop apps)\nPay for broadband services Cost of working online. The second part is something that we never measure. Let us say, you want to write a really lenthy document, say, you are student and want to do your assginment using an online writer (like Zoho or Google Docs). How long does it take for you to get your work done vs the time is takes whilst using Open Office ro MS Word. The whole process of getting on the web, signing into your application of choice, clicking on a zillion things, your document loading along with a few MBs (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m exaggerating, a few hundred KBs if not more) worth of javascript, on your browser that leaks memory like a sieve.\nOver time, you see that you end up losing quite a bit of time, not to mention energy, waiting for web-apps to load up and for you to get your work done. Well, one thing is easy with web-apps and that is collaboration. You want to share your documents with a couple of friends, or maybe be your class, then it usually takes just a click, and you can share it with the world if you please and get it indexed on a search engine in a shorter time. That has been the key advantage, more than the claimed, ease of use, simplicity and the lack of install. Another thing that is very attractive is versioning capabilities that most tools have today.\nCheck out this article on how much RIA matters to the common man\nAlso, check out this comparison of Webified-Desktop Apps Vs Browser-based Apps\nPersonally, as an end-user, I could care less if I am oblivious to the context of an application, whether online or offline. I need to be able to\nGet access to my data, whether I am online or not. Open and work with my data instantaneously (ofcourse, this is currently not available with either online or desktop apps) Share the content that I have created with my colleagues Keep a log of changes that will make it easier for me to get my content back in case I screw up When all of that happens, whether on the desktop or from within a browser, I would be one content user, and computers would have done what they were supposed to do in the first place. DO MY WORK FOR ME, so that I can GO BE CREATIVE!\nTechnorati tags: web 2.0, online …","date":"May 28, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Computing webified a bit too much","url":"/posts/2007/computing-webified-a-bit-too-much/"},{"body":"Finally upgraded to wordpress 2.2.\nGeez!! It was released almost a week back and I hadn\u0026amp;rsquo;t upgraded!!! I know, I know! I am a little paranoid!\nI wonder why, that every time I update my wordpress version, I need to go through this very laborious task, of backing up my database, the entire wordpress folder, the last underwear that I wore, etc. Scripts guys! I need a script that does all that. Installing wordpress takes 2 steps, but upgrading 5?!\nYour concise 5 step upgrade, cost me almost an hour (check and recheck everything)\nI understand that you need to change a lot of things in a release, but atleast, you can stop fiddling with the database schema, for every single release?! Or maybe, you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t! I have no way of knowing. Do let me know, if I really require to backup, when you make a release.\nIf I do, give me a script that I can run, a UI would be nice, that would tar/zip the directories, replace all files that require replacing. You know what? I would really like it if I can run a cron job, that will contact the wordpress website, download the latest patch and upgrade my blog, all when I am doing my laundry (Then I can forget about my blog, and wash my underwear!)\nI am willing to write a plugin for this if someone can work with me! Anyone?\n(Update: I\u0026amp;rsquo;m moving to (trying out) Technocrati tags. Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s see how these work!)\nTechnorati Tags: wordpress 2.2, upgrade plugin, patch management wordpress plugin\n","date":"May 24, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Upgraded to Wordpress 2.2","url":"/posts/2007/upgraded-to-wordpress-22/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been on a reading binge lately. With quite a few hours of flying time, and long waits at airport lounges, I got the chance to catch up on my reading. Went through two books this time around, the placid, but mildly interesting \u0026amp;ldquo;The Namesake\u0026amp;rdquo; by Jhumpa Lahiri (skip the book and watch the movie.. way better) and the exhilariting final masterpiece, \u0026amp;ldquo;The Salmon of Doubt\u0026amp;rdquo;, (wikipedia entry here) by the new age, space comic, Douglas Adams.\nThe Salmon, is a collection of various bits of Douglas\u0026amp;rsquo; writing, and it reveals the quirky, and funny guy that he was. I couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t resist putting this anecdote online (although it might be breaching some copyright - so please don\u0026amp;rsquo;t copy it any further and if someone wants to take this down, just drop me a comment)\nHow to brew Tea - Douglas Adams\nGo to Marks and Spencer and by a packet of Earl Grey tea. Go back to where you are staying and boil a kettle of water. While it is coming to boil, open the sealed packet and sniff. Careful - you may feel a bit dizzy, but this is in fact perfectly legal. When the kettle has boiled, pour a little of it into a teapot, swirl it around , and tip it out again. Put a couple (or three, depending on the size of the pot) of tea bags into the pot. (If I was really trying to lead you into the paths of righteousness, I would tell you to use free leaves rather than bags, but let\u0026amp;rsquo;s take this in easy stages.) Bring the kettle back upto a boil, and then pour the boiling water as quickly as you can into the pot. Let it stand for two or three minutes, and then pour it into a cup. He continues, \u0026amp;ldquo;Some will tell you that you shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t have milk with Earl Grey, just a slice of lemon. Screw them. I like it with milk.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nnow, there it is. That\u0026amp;rsquo;s how you make a wonderful pot of tea for yourself. Earl Grey at that - the English Way. And, what do you know, he likes it with milk, just like I do! Now, go make yourself a pot of tea and sip at it!!\n[tags]making tea, Douglas Adams, The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri[/tags]\n","date":"Apr 24, 2007","tags":[],"title":"How to brew tea (Earl Grey) - The English Way","url":"/posts/2007/how-to-brew-tea-earl-grey-the-english-way/"},{"body":"And the timing is perfect. Mr Dell, as it turns out (a little Douglassy, eh? Don\u0026amp;rsquo;t get it, read \u0026amp;ldquo;Salmon of Doubt\u0026amp;rdquo;, the last book by Douglas Adams, pg 27), runs Ubuntu, Feisty Fawn on his home PC. Well, one of his PCs, he has four mamoths with 4GB RAM and a Quadro FX 3500 et al, costing well over $4000. Aparently, he also runs windows as well. Hmmm\u0026amp;hellip; living the high life.\nNeed to restain myself from owning more computing equipment.. grrrr..\n","date":"Apr 24, 2007","tags":["Ubuntu","Dell","Linux","Random","Thoughts"],"title":"Linux, preinstalled on PCs - It about time","url":"/posts/2007/linux-preinstalled-on-pcs-it-about-time/"},{"body":"Philipp Lenssen, has an interesting (scary) thought about the day that google acquired the world (aka internet :) ). The date that he has chosen, 12 May 2017, sent a shiver up my spine. I, definitely, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to see the world taken over by the most efficient search engine on my birthday!! :) That would be some scary stuff to wake up too.\nSince we are on the subject of acquisitions, google paid over $3 billion for doubleclick, a company that google didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t beleive in when it wanted to serve ads in the first place. How ironic! You pay more than what you invested in your company, to acquire something you didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t believe in! I find that a little absurd, and you?\n[tags]google, acquisition, Random thoughts[/tags]\n","date":"Apr 16, 2007","tags":[],"title":"The day that google acquired the world","url":"/posts/2007/the-day-that-google-acquired-the-world/"},{"body":"Me and thousands of other people, continue to use wordpress, one of the leading blog management systems (sounds kewl, eh? ;) ), and proof that is it in fact leading is here.\nApparently, Wordpress.com, has the least spam, compared to other free blog-hosting services. The honored list of competitors, include the likes of google, myspace and AOL, each one of them goliaths! Matt Mullenweg, the creator of Wordpress, associates the success of wordpress.com spam protection to Akismet. This is something that I use now. I used spam-karma before this, which was pretty good, but with Akismet, it is almost zero-management.\nGoogle, with its wonderful, spam filter on gmail, should be able to do much better, but then, comment spam is a very different ball game.\n","date":"Apr 11, 2007","tags":["wordpress","akismet"],"title":"Wordpress commended for lack of spam","url":"/posts/2007/wordpress-commended-for-lack-of-spam/"},{"body":"I have a dual-boot PC at home, which boots to OpenSUSE and Windows. After a very tiring 7 hour journey, I came home to a GRUB failure. After searching for help all over the web, I found some help here, here, here, here, here and here. :)\nIt turns out, that GRUB stage 2 was not being loaded. So here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what I did.\n1. set the root partition\n2. run GRUB setup on the MBR.\n3. load the os using chainloader.\nTo set a partition as root, it is required to know the device where the root partition resides. This can be found using the following command\ngrub\u0026amp;gt; find /boot/grub/stage1 grub\u0026amp;gt; root (hd0,0) grub\u0026amp;gt; setup (hd0,0) grub\u0026amp;gt;chainloader +1\nThis got my system back to normal. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m wondering where I can get some more information about GRUB, I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t understand GRUB much and would like to change that. Links to tutorials anyone?!\nUpdate: Since there is hardly any audience that read my blog, it\u0026amp;rsquo;s only fair that I stop asking questions.. :) So here are some links that I found\n[tags]boot problem, GRUB failure, GRUB, GRUB corrupted[/tags]\n","date":"Apr 6, 2007","tags":["Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"Recovery from GRUB Failure","url":"/posts/2007/recovery-from-grub-failure/"},{"body":"Yipeee!! Just one word - Fantabulous.\nThe most painless install ever. Well, actually, I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t yet completely migrated to Ubuntu, but I just might. Today, I downloaded the latest beta of Ubuntu codenamed\u0026amp;quot;Feisty Fawn\u0026amp;quot;. The thing that amazed me was that it had to use a restricted driver to get my Wireless working, but it did detected it and also most other hardware on my laptop. Amazing how far linux has come in the last couple of years. No wonder, Ubuntu has captured significant market-share from other linux distros. Now what is required to push wide-scale adoption, is to make a slicker interface. I know there is Gnome and KDE, but we need to rethink requirements. Greedy as I am, I fail to be satisfied by \u0026amp;ldquo;better than windows\u0026amp;rdquo; performance. It would be great if the Ubuntu developer push the envelope further, and develop something that can compete with MAC OSX.\nBeagle, Banshee and Mono integration would be great. Also, I sorely miss voip functionality that skype and gtalk provide. What is my alternative? Anyone out there with a good app for voip? A developer edition anyone?!\nIt is amazing how much a little money and the eye for perfection can achieve. Kudos to Mark shuttleworth and his millions! :). Here are some of the features of the new release:\nA migration-assistant, which helps you move your data from your \u0026amp;ldquo;old\u0026amp;rdquo; OS into Ubuntu. Read old as Windows; Wink. New Games: Sudoku and Chess Disk Analyzer VMI enabled kernel, for improved performance when running on VMware hypervisors All new artwork New Graphical Desktop Effects Update: I just installed Ubuntu on my external USB drive using the QEMU processor emulator. There are several ways to run it off a USB drive.\nCreate a vfat partition on the USB drive and install using the a special boot sequence as detailed here. Install on the USB drive and boot using GRUB - A how-to by DougLy. Run Ubuntu using QEMU. I went with this option, since I can switch between windows and linux without a reboot. Also, installing a small add-on , kQemu, increases the performance to almost that of a native install. There is a wonderful how-to here. run Ubuntu on Vmware. Do you want a how-to? I need to have access to gtalk and skype for atleast the next few months, so that has prompted me to stick with an emulated version. I hope to move completely to Ubuntu around mid May. So let\u0026amp;rsquo;s see what happens then!\n","date":"Mar 30, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Blogging from a linux desktop","url":"/posts/2007/blogging-from-a-linux-desktop/"},{"body":"I ought to resist the temptation of writing posts full of only links to other blogs .. but this one is good\nhttp://www.douglaskarr.com/2007/03/25/selling-news-is-dead/\nHe talks about how \u0026amp;ldquo;selling news is dead\u0026amp;rdquo;. I thinks he hits the nail on the head with this one. When was the last time, that you read/saw, a news items that was worth buying the newspaper for?\nI can hardly remember the time, I needed to pick a newspaper, let alone buy one. Well, I do read a couple of articles once a week, on the papers that lie around in my office reception.\n","date":"Mar 29, 2007","tags":["random","thoughts","news","is","dead"],"title":"News?! Why buy","url":"/posts/2007/news-why-buy/"},{"body":"Marius Oiaga of Softpedia News argues that Windows Vista is more secure than MAC OSX, on the grounds that there are more security patches for MACOSX in a 1 month period. Now, how naive is that?!! Developers at Microsoft are probably just catching their breaths after years of trying to get Windows Vista out of the \u0026amp;ldquo;window\u0026amp;rdquo; (excuse the pun).\nNow, why is Mac OSX more secure that Windows. Well, you never need to run as administrator (root, in unix speak) to get all applications to work efficiently. Since it is based on BSD unix (FreeBSD), Mac OSX\u0026amp;rsquo; architecture is definetely much more secure. Also, take into account, the fact, that there are only 6% of users on Mac OSX, and hence proves to be a very unlikely target for security breaches.\nI guess the answer to your security woes, go use an absolutely obscure OS. No one will ever trouble you or you can switch to almost any linux platform (Think FreeBSD, OpenSuse or Ubuntu)\n","date":"Mar 17, 2007","tags":["security","windows","vista","opensuse","linux","ubuntu","freebsd"],"title":"MS Vs Apple: Which is more secure?","url":"/posts/2007/ms-vs-apple-which-is-more-secure/"},{"body":"After moving to bangalore (it\u0026amp;rsquo;s been 3 months already!!), I never had an opportunity to got visit good friends who have moved here. Last weekend, I managed to find time to meet up with my old pals.\nKoushik (Photo no longer available) Introducing, Koushik. a very good friend from Pondicherry. He is currently work as a Project Manager (yup, the youngest there!) at Accenture. This giant of flesh and bone (much like me) is a strict veggie and drinks non-alcoholic wine only (I tried it but \u0026amp;hellip; ugh).\nIf you want to know anything, I mean anything at all, about western music, especially rock, jazz, instrumental, classical go to this guy! He is a huge encyclopedia of music. Everytime I meet with him, I end up getting introduced to new kinds of music. Off late, he is into John Mclaughlin, Sakthi, Mahavishnu Orchestra.\nThanks Koushik for the great lunch, and also the wonderful music you have introduced to me through all these years. If you want to get in touch with this guy, use the comments section.\n**Dinesh \u0026amp;lsquo;SPB clone\u0026amp;rsquo; Sivaraj ** Another good friend, Dinesh (photo no longer available) fed me dinner on Sunday. Dinesh is the god of all things in networking (atleast for me :) ). He has completed his CCIE qual, and is currently working at Juniper Advanced TAC. He is also a great singer/composer/arranger/ ohh a lot more! Great skill at mixing music using his Nuendo-enabled, JBL speakered-workstation. He has a stunner kid, Shaan.\nI had a great time with you guys this weekend. Thanks for the yummy chicken you fed me! :)\nHe is a great guy in general (Dinesh, you have to give me more food, if you want more of this kind of praise :D). You can get in touch with this guy too, via the comments section.\nP.S: If you are from ODC, please, I say, please, refrain from teasing dinesh (:x\u0026amp;gt; wink, wink)\nMore photos of Shaan, and his baap were here (images no longer available)\n[tags]Dinesh, koushik, shaan, friends[/tags]\n","date":"Mar 13, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Meeting old friends","url":"/posts/2007/meeting-old-friends/"},{"body":"I have been rambling for the last month or so, about the need for better photo management. Having acquired a N730 recently, I have started shooting more and more pictures, and the chore of organising them, and sharing them has been such a bore, that I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t uploaded a single picture.\nWell, to change that I launched into building one myself to suit my own needs, only to discover that someone has already thought of most of it and has built a product and a service around it.\nIntroducing SharpCast\u0026amp;hellip;. the ultimate photo management solution. Unlimted space, web 2.0 website, client for syncing multiple image sources like, your mobile phone, Laptop, PCs.. and the list goes on.\nGo ahead, try it. Check out my photos here.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m going to try and see if we can leverage the photo management infrastructure that is provided by SharpCast and build something out of that.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m thinking,\nPlugin for wordpress AJAX based slideshow Photo blog sync I have posted a request on their forums, and will keep you updated on that.\n[tags]photo management, photo organisers, #Album, SharpAlbum, SharpCast[/tags]\n","date":"Mar 8, 2007","tags":["Tools"],"title":"The zen of Photo Management","url":"/posts/2007/the-zen-of-photo-management/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been hosting this site for over 2 years now. Nothing much has come of it, except satisfying my own ever-growing obsession with all things that are related to \u0026amp;ldquo;The Web\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nOver time, I have managed to accumalate a lot of unwanted scripts, html files, tools and code snippets, that I have randomly uploaded to my website. It is a junkyard of sorts, and several attempts at clean it up has ended in adding more crud.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m attempting to clean up my online junkyard, yet again, just as Mahmud of Ghazni invaded the Indian sub-continent 17 times. Here are few things that I\u0026amp;rsquo;m doing, which are keeping me from posting, not to mention a 1000 entries in my google reader, loads of work at office, the impending release of #Album and not to mention Mr. Scoble, who doesn\u0026amp;rsquo;t let me sleep.\nConform to . Remove all static html files Separate tech items from normal blog. (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m thinking of using wordpress categories to do this) Install google-apps on a sub-domain. Uninstall all tools (photoblog etc) Apart from those, here are a few ideas that continue to crowd my mind.\nGadgets for google desktop to connect with google notebook Plugin to publish google notebook to blog (think WLW and Wordpress) Extend wordpress extended RPC to support getTagSuggestions() Feedmap plugin for wordpress. So If you are interested in working on any of the ideas listed above or listed here, or if you have a solution that solves some of the stuff I\u0026amp;rsquo;m trying to do, do get in touch with me.\nIn other news\u0026amp;hellip;.\nAlso, in my online surfing adventures (on Google reader), I came across this gem. Finally, there seems to be some sanity out there. Product Manager(s) of Ms Office have realised that it is not enough if they make good products, but also keep customers happy in doing so. OpenXML is now finally \u0026amp;ldquo;open\u0026amp;rdquo;, thanks to Novell (\u0026amp;lt;\u0026amp;ndash; I work here :) ), which has created a OOXML plugin for open office (I guess I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a little late to the game here).\nAs usual, the nay-sayers, who now seem to be persistent upon the idea that companies need to be charitable organisations instead of making money for their shareholders. To them , I say, \u0026amp;ldquo;Go buy some Novell or Microsoft shares, hold them for 2 years and then talk of product strategy. They will listen to you then :) \u0026amp;quot;\nOk. No more talk. Pressing Publish!!\n","date":"Mar 7, 2007","tags":["ideas","tools","wordpress","WPexAPI","wordpress","extended","RPC","Novell","ODF","OpenXML"],"title":"Website clean up","url":"/posts/2007/website-clean-up/"},{"body":"Thanks to the person who has compiled this huge list of addresses of establishements in bangalore. I have no clue how currrent this list is, but here it is.\nBangalore Hangouts - download files no longer available (HTML, Excel, ODS, PDF formats)\nUsual disclaimers apply. DO NOT get in touch if your dog dies because of an error in this\ndocument.\n[tags]bangalore, bangalore hangouts, restaurants, blore, pubs, clubs[/tags]\n","date":"Mar 4, 2007","tags":["Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"Bangalore Hangouts","url":"/posts/2007/bangalore-hangouts/"},{"body":"Nishabd is a re-make of the very famous russian movie, Lolitta. I know, that the flavour of the day is re-mixing movies, but I must confess.. what a re-make? Amazing movie! I was simply blown away by the pathos of the story, the power of Amitabh\u0026amp;rsquo;s eyes and the great performances of every single character.\nPersonally, I think, this is the best performance by Amitabh. yes.. even more than Black. He has truly scaled peaks that probably most actors in the world can ever see. Finally, a movie that has created some hope for bollywood and the Indian film industry. We have class, we are the masters of pathos. We can do with more Nishabd\u0026amp;rsquo;s. Mr. RGV, are you listening?\n[tags]movies, Nishabd, reviews, Amitabh[/tags]\n","date":"Mar 4, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Movie Review: Nishabd","url":"/posts/2007/movie-review-nishabd/"},{"body":"Pictures of Hiroshima post the 1945 bombing\nhttp://www.gensuikin.org/english/photo.html\nIt is sad how destructive we human beings can be. I wonder how they will judge us, say 1000 years in the future.\n[tags]Random thoughts, hiroshima, World War[/tags]\n","date":"Feb 26, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Blast from the past","url":"/posts/2007/blast-from-the-past/"},{"body":"[Email screenshot showing Sify broadband complaint - image no longer available]\nI had a hell of a time connecting using sify \u0026amp;ldquo;narrow\u0026amp;quot;band connection. After umpteen calls to sify call center, I decided to send mails to the CEO,CTO and Communications Officer of Sifycorp, to let them know of the pathetic state of affairs, and horrible experience of being a sify broadband user. I have attached a snapshot of the mail that I sent to them.\nHere is the content of the mail in totem.\nHi Ranjith,\nFirstly, my id with satyam broadband is SHVELMUR\nI own a sify broadband connection for over the last one year.\nI have spent more time contacting your technical staff than using your Internet connection in the last few months. Today, I had to sign in through your connection to attend a conference call (work related). I was unable to do so since my account was inactivated. So I called up your customer service 3 times (that\u0026amp;rsquo;s how many time you need to try to give you some business)and finally got hold of a customer executive, who took a request for renewal.I was initially impressed that only 3 calls were required to get some work done.\nI was proved to be wrong. Five minutes after I started using your connection, in the midst of a chat with my customer, I lost connectivity. Not to be discouraged, I attempted calling your dreaded call center for a resolution. In 3 more tries, I got through to your customer care executive, and explained my urgency, raised a ticket and asked for a quick resolution or the phone number of the local operator in charge of my connection. Apparently, the information is not available to your agents, and hence was denied the phone number.\nI waited for 2 hours, and called again, to get some status on the ticket and had a skill set abort. (your agent essentially cut the call on me)\nI called yet again, in about 20 mins time, and got in touch with Ms Latha, who provided me with your mail address.\nAfter multiple interaction with your company in the last year, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m completely disillusioned with your service, and hence I\u0026amp;rsquo;m copying the CEO, the CTO, and the HR Head, hoping that they would be to some extent concerned about the pathetic situation at your enterprise.\nBy any chance if you want to reach me, you can respond using the following:\nweb link : [I posted this mail here.][1]\nphone: 0413 2243583\nweekend mobile: +91 9894545527\nweekday mobile: +91 9901066344\nIf you can resolve/provide my with some status/the phone number of the local service provider (in my area - Pondicherry). Please send me the details.\nregs\nShivanand Software Consultant\nNovell Software Development Ltd.\nwebsite: http://shvelmur.com\nMark Twain - \u0026amp;ldquo;Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.\u0026amp;rdquo;\nI will keep you posted as to how responsive (or not) the sify guys are. Let us see if we can drive some efficiency and responsibility into our so-called giants of Indian IT.\nUpdate: I guess to get prompt service, we need to raise a …","date":"Feb 24, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Hell via Sify Broadband","url":"/posts/2007/hell-via-sify-broadband/"},{"body":"Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, has been, by far, the best president that India has ever had (atleast in my humble opinion). More than that, he has been one of the greatest ambassador of India and its culture.\nHe is the most energetic motivated I have known in my life. He is about to complete his term at the office of the President, and the following is a petition to extend his term at the helm of the country. I personally can\u0026amp;rsquo;t think of anyone who can do justice to that role, better than him. So please, let us join together and raise our voices, so that someone who has done the country a lot of good, can continue to do so.\nhttp://www.petitiononline.com/apj/petition.html\n[tags]APJ, president, petition[/tags]\n","date":"Feb 24, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Let's raise our voice for our president APJ","url":"/posts/2007/lets-raise-our-voice-for-our-president-apj/"},{"body":"One of my good friends, James (who wants to remain anonymous), asked me how I lost weight. So for his benefit and hopefully to inspire others here it is.\nLearn to ride a pulsar 180 at low speeds\nRide around town until you find a road with some engine oil on it.\nApply brakes (disc brakes are the most prefered) as soon as you ride on the oil. (Not mandatory, usually ride on the oil suffices, but just in case)\nAs you fall off the bike (you will, trust me on this one), use your elbow to soften the blow on your fat-saturated body.\nThe above step, will result in you waking up in post-op in an orthopaedic hospital.\nOnce your head is clear, call your manager and ask for a month off.\nOnce you have got leave clearance, the natural proceedings will help you shed those extra pounds off. Any of the below mentioned acitivities will help ensure that you DO NOT try to reach for that extra cup cake/ snacks (which ever is applicable).\nGrow a cat, which inadvertedly jumps on your broken arm, atleast 5 times a day.\nTry eating with a cast on your arm\nPlay need for speed (NFS) with two fingers\nWell, there is it. Everything mentioned here, happened, and results are guaranteed for those who are brave enough to attempt it!\n[tags]random thoughts[/tags]\n","date":"Feb 22, 2007","tags":[],"title":"How I lost 4 kilos in 1 month","url":"/posts/2007/how-i-lost-4-kilos-in-1-month/"},{"body":"What should one do to get Google to listen to them.. Everyone gets an idea, but not everyone has the guts and the determination that Aaron has. Aaron has an idea, which he is trying to pitch to Google, by going to the googleplex. Already, he has had success in finding a few ears there, and thousand others worldwide. Check out his blog here.\nhttp://www.cangooglehearme.com\nTruly inspirational. (Speechless)\nAll I can say is, \u0026amp;ldquo;Way to go, dude\u0026amp;rdquo; like a thousand others have already wished you. I hope that your pitch to Google, gets us yet another cool Google product, and I hope to see the day an announcement is made on some Google blog.\n[tags]google, ideas, kewl stuff[/tags]\n","date":"Feb 22, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Knocking at Google's door","url":"/posts/2007/knocking-at-googles-door/"},{"body":"I wonder what\u0026amp;rsquo;s happening to me. This is the third post in the last one hour. I must be going crazy. Anyway, this must the least used blog on earth, so what the heck. (I know there are a few of you out there, but you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t say much on my blog!! :( )\nBefore I bore you into leaving this page, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s what this post is about:\nHave you seen this somewhere?\n(Ohh.. for those who can\u0026amp;rsquo;t place that photo, isn\u0026amp;rsquo;t that a wallpaper that comes with Windows XP?!)\nNick Toshces, asked himself that, and didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t stop at that. He went about asking half the world. He bullied Microsoft, Bill Gates, a few of his friends and the photographer himself. So where is this place? Find out here.\nThis is one problem that you wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t face with Windows Vista. Check out this and this.\nJason Kottke, put me onto this. Thanks to you, Jason, for a wonderful feed. You are my link to the world (pun intented).\nBtw, if you find it difficult (lazy/bored), to load up my website, please use a feedreader. There are several out there. I use Google reader, which is probably google\u0026amp;rsquo;s best app till date, apart from search and gmail. You can read it from anywhere, including my new Nokia N73, which I think is a pretty amazing feature. (I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t share from my mobile - such a drab)\n[tags]windows wallpapers, XP wallpapers, Nick Toshces[/tags]\n","date":"Feb 22, 2007","tags":[],"title":"That's what I call a \"search\"","url":"/posts/2007/thats-what-i-call-a-search/"},{"body":"Some news from the Kolloywood.\nCheck out the latest pictures of Kamal Hassan in Dasa here.\nIn other news, Vijaykanth is infurious..\nVijayakanth: Naan Jaya TV mela Case podanum..!\nPolice : Yedhuku Captian?\nVK : Naan Katchi arambichathai \u0026amp;ldquo;Vilaiyaattu Seithiyila pottu irukiraanga\u0026amp;rdquo;\nEnd of the world nearing, doomsayer cry\u0026amp;hellip;\n_First world war 1914 \u0026amp;mdash;\u0026amp;mdash;- DEATH: 10000\n__Second World war 1943 \u0026amp;mdash;- DEATH: 150000\n_Ajith\u0026amp;rsquo;s ALWAR 2006 \u0026amp;mdash;\u0026amp;ndash; Apocalypse \u0026amp;hellip; end of the world\nYamen on Holiday in Yemen..\nYamen: Poona Maasam Dengu Vitten.. 400 peru out..!, Indha maasam Chikungunya Vitten,.. 250 peru out..! Next yenna pannalam..!!!\nCitraguptan: Vendam raaja, indha maadham neengal satru voiyvu yedukkalam..! Aalwar F ILM a release panna pooraanga..!\nShocking revelation .. CBI inquiry requested..\nThondan : Thalaivaa..! Naama moosam poittomm..!\nVijayakanth: en? yenna aachu?\nThondan : Unga latest padam \u0026amp;ldquo;Dharmapuri\u0026amp;rdquo; ya indha vaaram \u0026amp;ldquo;POGO TV\u0026amp;rdquo; la pooduraangalam..!\n(All the above has been said on a lighter side\u0026amp;hellip; I in fact happen to enjoy watching the films of all of the above mentioned actors.. if you are hurt or have any harsh feelings.. please forward all of that to my sister (who sent me these jokes ) \u0026amp;hellip; no .. better still unkaiyala un kannaye kuthiko! :)\n","date":"Feb 16, 2007","tags":["movies","humor"],"title":"Filmi funda","url":"/posts/2007/filmi-funda/"},{"body":"I dropped my trusty ol\u0026amp;rsquo; Nokia 6610, from the third floor, at my office. After scourring the gazillion models and options that are available out there, I settled on two phones.\nSony Ericsson K790 Cybershot\nNokia N73\nguess what, although the other phones seem to catch up on paper, in reality nokia still wins hands-down. Just hold the two phones in your hand, and you know that the Nokia oozes quality. There are a few gripes though, which I will reserve for later.\nWithout anymore blabbering, here are some images that I took, without tweaking anything. Be warned that I have left exposure, white balance, flash and iso, all at auto mode.\n","date":"Feb 15, 2007","tags":["nokia","N73","nokia","N73"],"title":"New phone - Nokia N73","url":"/posts/2007/new-phone-nokia-n73/"},{"body":"I have been twidling with HTTP Persistent connections in the last few weeks. Let me start at the beginning\nI needed to replace CORBA in a legacy application with something new. Ofcourse, there are a few alternatives out there, but I needed something very lightweight. The problem had two major parts\nCommand Execution - Let the client, execute a function on the server-side and process the output data Eventing - Make clients register for events and wait until some events occur and the server transmits the required objects to the client side. The Command execution was simple. Expose all services provided by the server as SOAP services and make the clients talk SOAP/XML, however SOAP involves a lot of overhead in terms of serialising the object into an XML stream and later decoding that. Since both the client and server were completely in Java, I just had to transport the Java object itself\nThe event part, however, provided a challenge. I had restrictions on opening ports on the clients (Issues like firewalls, NAT, SSL support etc etc). So I chose to use HTTP itself to do eventing.\nSo how do we do that?!\nYou will need a servlet container like Tomcat. Tomcat supports HTTP 1.1 connections and sends a keep-alive until the servlet servicing is complete. Doing eventing requires the following:\nThe connection between client and server should remain for the entire life of the client or server (whichever is shorter ;) ) Both ends should listen at the ends of the connection for any event. Server should have an eventing mechanism to forward events to the required clients. ","date":"Feb 14, 2007","tags":["coding"],"title":"Eventing mechanism between two java processes using HTTP persistent connections","url":"/posts/2007/eventing-mechanism-between-two-java-processes-using-http-persistent-connections/"},{"body":"After a long ride from Bangalore, whilst I was sleeping blissfully, some rascal, ran through our house, ate an apple, stole a couple of jars of Pickle (good ones at that), helped himself to the following:\nMy Philips DVD player (it was skipping at most DVDs anyway) An old Sony Tape recorder/player (apparently, some was wrong with it, and needed replacement) 1 apple (worth Rs 25, but actually priceless since my wife got it for me) 2 bottles of mushroom pickle 1 bottle of mushroom, and 1 bottle of (the famous) panchranga pickle (five types of fruit and vegetables) Ohh.. also he chased my cats out.\nWell, looks as if nothing else is missing. Only the hollow feeling that someone invaded my den when I was sleeping. That kinda robs the secure feeling that one feels, when one is at home!\nWhoever you are, you better not get caught, coz I really loved those bottles of pickle! (They were from Punjab - you see) :)\nUpdate: Apparently, he flicked a pack of cigarettes also!! (He\u0026amp;rsquo;s even helping me quit smoking!!). Also a bottle of after-shave that my wife bought for me!\n","date":"Feb 11, 2007","tags":["thief","rants"],"title":"Goldilock's at my place","url":"/posts/2007/goldilocks-at-my-place/"},{"body":"It is quite surprising that there are hardly any open-source to validate XML out there. I had the need to validate a auto-generated XML output against a valid xsd, to see if the code that I wrote to generate XML was producing not only syntactically correct XML, but also XML that was data-valid. XML Validator, provides an UI that allows you to check the validity of any XML, in with reference to its xsd. It is free for Personal and Commercial use without any warranties. So don\u0026amp;rsquo;t come to me if it makes your dog barks all night, or if your computer commits suicide.\nDownload XMLValidator.zip - download no longer available\n[Screenshot of XML Validator application interface - image no longer available]\nFeatures (more like limitations now - :) ) Compare syntactically valid XML against its XSD. Select files by using windows controls. No install required. Known behavior Stops level traversal upon error. Uses MSXML parser/validator. Expects sub-elements to occur in the same order as defined. Both XML/XSD should be local files. If a namespace is used for the XML, it should be provided as input. Features in future releases Support for multiple parsers xerces xpp JDOM CLI support for integration with test scripts. Validate XML syntax. Pick XSD from the URI (if mentioned). Read namespace from XML/XSD. Allow copy/paste XML/XSD. Allow URL as input source for XML/XSD. This is a result of 30 mins of fiddling around with SharpDevelop, so it is not very complete nor does it have a lot of features. I would like to take it there. Your comments and suggestions for new features are welcome.\n","date":"Feb 8, 2007","tags":["XML","XML","Tools","XML","Validator"],"title":"XML Validator","url":"/posts/2007/xml-validator/"},{"body":"Firstly, thanks Scoble.. I think I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll stop reading other gadget/tech sites .. you are my new feed filter.\nSecondly, I got a whiff of yet another web 2.0 (does that even mean anything these days!) application site. Nexo is a wonderful wonderful site. just as Scoble says \u0026amp;ldquo;It\u0026amp;rsquo;s Yahoo Groups done right\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nIt took me the whole of 1 min to create my account, invite a few friends and setup my own group. Oh yeah, it also provides me with web-space to put my photos etc.\nOne thing I would have loved to see, is a way to integrate this with my exisitng site. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s great that I have a nice dashboard, a place to interact with my friends, but I also want them to read some custom content. If only, I could provide a space where my network could read my RSS from NEXO. I know that\u0026amp;rsquo;s being a bit demanding, but hey it\u0026amp;rsquo;s Web 2.0 time. Integration is the key?! no?!\n","date":"Feb 6, 2007","tags":["tools","nexo"],"title":"Nexo - The tool you'll remember for a while","url":"/posts/2007/tools-nexo-the-tool-youll-remember-for-long/"},{"body":"Yesterday, I was watching an interview with Mr Ankit Wadia (His website describes him as \u0026amp;ldquo;The Computer Security guru. The Ethical Hacker. The Author. The Intelligence Consultant. The Entrepreneur.\u0026amp;rdquo;)\nHe was talking about how the web is unsecure today and how easy it is to crack passwords. Whilst, I was eagerly awaiting in anticipation to see how he hack into a yahoo password, he pulled a bluff on me, when he asked the presenter to enter his password and then he went about using Revelation to read the password from it!\nNow, Mr Wadia, do you really think that the Indian IT guys are so very dumb that you have to show how to use revelation?! I agree that most users in India are blissfully oblivious to the potential hazards and lack of privacy on the net, but come on! Can\u0026amp;rsquo;t you find any oft repeated behaviour that people use that you can show case?!\nI am no security guru or even an ethical hacker or author of a book, but I can think of a few things that people often do that can be avoided.\nUsing low strength passwords (children names, wife\u0026amp;rsquo;s name, dog\u0026amp;rsquo;s name etc) Using the save password option in web-cafes Using the same password across all accounts reply to spam and phishing attacks with sensitive information Giving away CVV numbers freely on the net Publishing phone numbers and address on social networking sites like orkut/gazzag/yahoo profile etc. I wish that apart from getting on air to promote stuff that you do, you can also give some real examples of lack of common security practices, so that people really do benefit (so that they feel a little bit more justified in acknowleding you as India\u0026amp;rsquo;s only security guru - a wee bit self-proclaiming, wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t you say so?!)\n","date":"Feb 1, 2007","tags":["crap","on","tv","ankit","wadia","security"],"title":"Crap on TV - Is that even news?!","url":"/posts/2007/crap-on-tv-is-that-even-news/"},{"body":"My site is probably one of the least visited blogs in the world! Trust me on that one! ;) by linking to the following set of youtube videos, I know I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t do much in making it reach more people, as it rightly deserves.\nNonetheless, I consider it my responsibility to do it. and those of you who do read my blog, please do visit these vidoes and tell the author what you experienced.\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc\u0026amp;amp;mode=related\u0026amp;amp;search=\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn70gPukdtY\u0026amp;amp;mode=related\u0026amp;amp;search=\n","date":"Jan 31, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Let's re-wire our minds","url":"/posts/2007/thoughts-lets-re-wire-our-minds/"},{"body":"I have always wanted to be good at public speaking, especially in front of large audiences. Although, I can address a gathering without a shiver in my voice, I nonetheless feel butterflies in my stomach all the time!\nI found some interesting links that might help soothe those tense moments!\nhttp://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/presentations.html\nhttp://www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html\nhttp://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/dept/Tips/present/present.htm\nMost times, one hardly derives anything at the end of an hour long technical presentation, and more often than not, the content of your presentation is lost after your audience exits the room.\nhttp://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/presentation_humor.htm\nThe author in the above link suggest that how adding some humor, may help in retentivity of the subject in the minds of your audience.\nVery nice link that tells how humor is hidden in content more than in a few one-liners that you add to your speech.\nhttp://www.fripp.com/art.addhumor.html\nAnother nice essay on FUN-talking\nhttp://humorcenter.umd.edu/Essays/culbertson4.htm\n","date":"Jan 31, 2007","tags":["presentation","tips-n-tricks"],"title":"Tips: Presentation","url":"/posts/2007/tips-presentation/"},{"body":"Been using Windows Live Writer as my blog writing tool. Here are some plugins that I would definetly make my life much easier. If you are insterested in writing a plugin or would like to add to these requirements, do get in touch.\nExtended Link insertion Link to different Search Engines (Google, Google Blog Search, Code search, Sun API search, Technocrati search etc.) Link to various product sites (Amazon, RitzCamera etc) Link to previously exisitng Posts Recent Links Links from clipboard Auto-link insertion based on certain keywords Multiple link inclusion - when this mode is enabled every word that is clicked on / selected should be added to a bucket, which can then be used to create links on. Note-taking Separate interface for storing notes/ideas for blog entries Allow search across notes Auto-complete using phrases from existing notes (optional) Plugin for Firefox and IE to enable addition of notes by selecting text on browsers Monetize # Support for various ad tools like adsense, amazon associate etc. Wordpress Style Support# Review Publishing#* Wordpress plugin that allows to create a set of reviews for various products Allow access of reviews separate from posts. (can use a set of categories for this - similar to asides plugin) Allow posting to this through categories, or allow through a plugin in windows live writer as \u0026amp;ldquo;write review\u0026#39; Drafts sync# Allow multiple instances of windows live writer to share drafts. upload selected drafts to wordpress check-box for using wordpress drafts instead of local drafts button for pulling drafts from wordpress and adding them to local drafts # - might require extending existing XML-RPC (should be possible with wordpress)\n* - might require wordpress plugin\n[tags]windows live writer, wordpress, plugins, ideas[/tags]\n","date":"Jan 30, 2007","tags":["coding"],"title":"Ideas: Plugins for Windows Live writer","url":"/posts/2007/plugin-ideas-for-windows-live-writer/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m now officially one of the self-obssessed techie guys, sitting in public places and completely ignoring all the life-forms around me. Got a very nice deal from HP. Here is the config!\nHP Pavillion DV2124TU\nIntel Pentium Core Duo 1.6 Ghz\n1 GB (2 X 512 MB) DDR2 SDRAM\nIntel 945 800Mhz FSB Motheboard\n14.1\u0026amp;quot; Widescreen Display\nLightScribe DVD-RW drive\n802.11 a/b/g wireless\nBluetooth\nInfrared\nAltec Lansing Speakers\nBuilt in modem and ethernet ports\n3 USB ports\n1 DV based USB\nSD/MMC-Pro/MS/XD card reader\nRemote control for DVD player\nWindows XP Media Center Edition\nIt costs around Rs. 56000 in India. Since I bought the laptop before the 31 jan 2007, I get the following freebies\nHauppage USB TV tuner card\nReliance USB Internet Data card\nThis is essentially the dv2000 branded as 2124 in India. oh yeah, since I bought it betwwen Nov 06 and Mar 07, I get a free upgrade to Windows Vista when it is released.\nIt took me the whole of the weekend to get it into working shape, installing all the necessary open source tools that I use. Still a lot of work ahead. I hope to blog more since I have access to decent computing power where ever I go.\n","date":"Jan 29, 2007","tags":["laptop","hp","hardware"],"title":"Got myself a new Laptop","url":"/posts/2007/got-myself-a-new-laptie/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m now officially one of the self-obssessed techie guys, sitting in public places and completely ignoring all the life-forms around me. Got a very nice deal from HP. Here is the config!\nHP Pavillion DV2124TU\nIntel Pentium Core Duo 1.6 Ghz\n1 GB (2 X 512 MB) DDR2 SDRAM\nIntel 945 800Mhz FSB Motheboard\n14.1\u0026amp;quot; Widescreen Display\nLightScribe DVD-RW drive\n802.11 a/b/g wireless\nBluetooth\nInfrared\nAltec Lansing Speakers\nBuilt in modem and ethernet ports\n3 USB ports\n1 DV based USB\nSD/MMC-Pro/MS/XD card reader\nRemote control for DVD player\nWindows XP Media Center Edition\nIt costs around Rs. 56000 in India. Since I bought the laptop before the 31 jan 2007, I get the following freebies\nHauppage USB TV tuner card\nReliance USB Internet Data card\nThis is essentially the dv2000 branded as 2124 in India. oh yeah, since I bought it betwwen Nov 06 and Mar 07, I get a free upgrade to Windows Vista when it is released.\nIt took me the whole of the weekend to get it into working shape, installing all the necessary open source tools that I use. Still a lot of work ahead. I hope to blog more since I have access to decent computing power where ever I go.\n","date":"Jan 29, 2007","tags":["laptop","hp","hardware"],"title":"Got myself a new Laptop","url":"/posts/2007/got-myself-a-new-laptop/"},{"body":"After a whole month, of wearing a cast, I got my hand back today. This is the first time, in 30 days that I am using both my hands to type and it feels good to be back (atleast partially).\nHere are some pics of my hand.\nThat is the result of a 4 cm incision on my elbow, to re-align a 3 cm X 2 cm piece of cartiledge that had broken and had torn into my tricep. The doc says, that upto 10 cms of the tricep was torn by this piece. They have affixed this piece to my elbow with a screw to keep it in place.\nI have to undergo a minimum of 5 days of physio therapy. I went for my first session today, and by far the worst part of breaking a bone, is doing physio! God it is painful to stretch your hand, after not moving it for a month. It is also very liberating that we get the faculty of using both hands!\nI can imagine the struggle that those who are unfortunate to lose a limb, go through, to get through daily activities. I must thank my stars and all those who took great care of me.\nOnce again, at the risk of sounding very soapy, I thank all of you who kept me going.\nHere are some more pictures.\n","date":"Jan 26, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Got my hand back, finally!","url":"/posts/2007/got-my-hand-back-finally-3/"},{"body":"Trying to get the Sony Ericsson W800i has been by far the most traumatic experience of my life. I tried everything possible, but still was unable to get it recognised on my home PC!\nSo, finally I decided to resort to the most reliable way to get anything to work with a PC. Do a google search!!!\nFound a wonderful link, (on a forum that solved the issue). Here is the fix suggested, (I have organised in to be more of a step-by-step guide.\nThe following involves tampering with the Windows Registry. Kindly take a BACKUP of your registry using regedit before attempting any changes. Oh yeah.. you are on your own in case you screw up something.\nEXPORT ALL THE KEYS MENTIONED BELOW BEFORE DELETING THEM! ALWAYS BEST TO HAVE A BACKUP\nMake sure your phone is NOT connected to your computer. Run Regedit. Browse to \u0026amp;ldquo;My ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetEnumUSB\u0026amp;rdquo; Delete all key that start with \u0026amp;ldquo;Vis_0fce\u0026amp;amp;Pid_d028\u0026amp;rdquo;. You should be back to a stage where no w800 is installed on your machine. Download the drivers (Approved ones) from SE\u0026amp;rsquo;s website under Support. Run the EXE file and let it install. Connect your phone through the USB cable. Link to the orginal post can be found here.\n","date":"Jan 25, 2007","tags":["SE","W800i","Sony","Ericsson","W800i","mobile","phone","pc","connectivity","tips","n","tricks"],"title":"Trouble with Sony Ericsson W800i - Phone not detected.","url":"/posts/2007/trouble-with-sony-ericsson-w800i-phone-not-detected/"},{"body":"With advent of web 2.0, and some habits cultivated over the last decade, I have a certain list of tasks that I do everyday. I current visit a bunch of websites more than once a day, and an integrated interface would do me so much good.\nmail, a whole set of accounts, gmail, yahoo, etc feed readers blog editor orkut del.icio google notebook What is lacking, is the ability to have a single sign-on/account mgmt capability, a common dashboard, ability to cross-launch/cross-post content.\nOhh yeah, I want to do thiss all from either my desktop or from my own hosted page.\nSo there are some deep implicating requirements for my latest craze - get more done with less clicks!\nI christen it Common Access Portal (Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s put a CAP on things we use!)\n","date":"Jan 20, 2007","tags":["tools","design","wordpress","plugins","development","ideas"],"title":"Common Access Portal","url":"/posts/2007/common-access-portal/"},{"body":"On the 2nd of Jan, I fell off my bike and fractured my elbow. Been out of action since then. Thanks for all you guys, who kept me company.\nSpecial thanks to Guru, Tanigai, Rajsekar, Shankar (my bro), Swetha (my sis). My mom, granny and dad, for nurrsing me back to health and for putting up with me (I know how much of a pain in the ***, I can be!)\n","date":"Jan 16, 2007","tags":[],"title":"A broken elbow","url":"/posts/2007/a-broken-elbow/"},{"body":"The following is something I wrote 14th Dec 2005, on my trial account with one of the earliest Web 2.0 spplication services, called backpackit.com\nThe site still continues to be a hot seller, with over 200,000 subscriptions. You can find the link to the original article here.\nI post the whole content here, well coz I like my content in my own space! Now there is a feature that no web 2.0 application allows. Why can\u0026amp;rsquo;t content reside separate from the service? Every application from gmail to backpackit, want you to trust them with your content. I think that should change, mebbe we shoul called that web 2.5?\n\u0026amp;ldquo;What can people do with the web?\nWhy did this ubiquous concept of sharing information for free (and paid) catch so rapidly, that is is now considered the next greatest thing since sliced bread? What makes it so very exciting for millions across the world to share the small section of expertise that they possess with the rest of the world?\nI have had the good fortune, to have been exposed to the web in its very early days (1994-1995). Back then, if you had the chance to browse a website, you were considered super-cool and you would be the talk of the school (yup, I was in high school at that time) for a whole month! You finally were considered a super-geek, who KNEW the NET! Pretty interesting when you consider that these days you have scores of 6th grade kids that scream, HTML and Javascript in their sleeps (I actually happen to know at least 2 13 year olds who do that!).\nHumble beginings\nWe would use this hyper-cool browser called Lynx. You will have to manually establish a ppp connection to your local ISPs gateway (whose root password was usually set to root or root123 or thereabouts) using hyperterminal and then you would need use unix programs to access your mail, browse the net and that was about all you could do (once you discovered root access it was a different ball-game altogether though â€\u0026amp;rdquo; think VPNs… meaning to say we ran our own ISPs! ). Security was of no concern since most of the hardware failed to provide connectivity forget security. Anyway a modem would cost around Rs 4000 (I usually got Rs 50 a month as pocket money â€\u0026amp;quot; I would save 50% of that ) so no one was really connecting in and exploiting the gateway!\nWhat made the web exciting then, was the ability to check out, what was there on some machine somewhere â€\u0026amp;quot; the ability to access information from sources (mostly universities) that were located far beyond the realm of a 15 year old kidâ€(tm)s imagination. The excitement of finding a small exploit or a getting access to some cutting edge research material was enough to keep us making endless tries to get a stable connection and our eyes glued to our text-based browsers.\nWeb 1.0\nThen, it was the rise of Netscape that redefined the NET as we knew it. Suddenly we could see images, we could hear music (mostly MIDI - that idea never struck on much), we could chat with people across the globe, …","date":"Jan 16, 2007","tags":[],"title":"Web 2.0 : The Next generation Web","url":"/posts/2007/web-20-the-next-generation-web/"},{"body":"Having broken my elbow, I have spent the last two weeks typing away with a single hand. With nothing much to do, I went about looking at ways to improve the capabilities of blog editors. I use BlogDesk for my blogging needs. It is a wonderful editor, that let you do all operations provided by MetaWeblog API. However I wanted to do more than what was provided there. I wanted to add some features for plugins that I used.\nThe following is a propopsed list of extensions:\nCreate/edit posts define post passwords (Thanks to Johannes Oppermann, developer of the wonderful blog client, BlogDesk) image insert from different services (flickr) tagging support Similar to QuickTags plugin Support for Ultimate Tag Warrior\u0026amp;rsquo;s features Adsense integration Admin Support\ndisplay a dasboard Spam Karma comment moderation Adsense data In my search I found some interesting links.\nTutorial on hacking XMLRPC\nLinks for writing XML-RPC clients\nhttp://ws.apache.org/xmlrpc/client.html\nhttp://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/xmljava/chapters/ch03s04.html\nhttp://www.wordtracker.com/docs/api/ch03s02.html\nJBlogEditor svn trunk\nWell, the end result, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the pre-Alpha version of WPexAPI.\n","date":"Jan 15, 2007","tags":["Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"Hacking Wordpress - An extended XML-RPC API","url":"/posts/2007/hacking-wordpress-an-extended-xml-rpc-api/"},{"body":"Though many disagree, and think of software development as a mundane, non-creative task, as Kevin Carlson@DDJ puts it aptly, it is a work of art!\n\u0026amp;ldquo;I suppose the question is this: \u0026amp;ldquo;where are the limits of the scientific approach in software development?\u0026amp;rdquo; I mean, we are, ultimately, talking about an act of creation\u0026amp;rdquo; - Kevin Carlson\n(note the nested quotes! ;) )\nMany of my non-IT friends have asked, how I keep myself interested and how I stand to sit (pun intended) in front of the PC for such long hours and not get burned out?! The reason for this question is partly, I guess, because not every developer that writes software, thinks of it as an art form, and hence most software automate mundane tasks .. users often do very boring stuff with computers .. stuff like filling forms, writing email etc.\nFor me, development has always been a joy. The sheer magic of creating something out of a void! Seeing an application morph from a bunch of requirements into a working product, and addressing the needs of a set of users (the users feeling their needs are addressed) is perhaps one of the greatest feeling one can experience.\nIt has been my good fortune to have done (atleast a little) good work in the last half-decade. Hope many more of such half-decades are yet to come.\nOh yeah! Managers, please stop trying to over optimize your estimation techniques, remember: An artist needs space; A team of artists, need space, time and money!\n[tag]software development, blah-blah[/tag]\n","date":"Dec 29, 2006","tags":["coding"],"title":"The art of software development","url":"/posts/2006/the-art-of-software-development/"},{"body":"Nice idea this one. So, here is my list\nChennai, TN*\nPondicherry, PDY^\nBangalore, KN*\nDelhi, DL\nMadurai, TN\nKodaikanal, TN\n^- weekend visits\n* - multiple times (weekdays) ;)\nI have another idea. A chronologically organised milestone-events list for a year. Maybe that will take some time to compose! Good for another post eh?!\n[tags]2006 summary, year in cities, travel[/tags]\n","date":"Dec 28, 2006","tags":[],"title":"My year in Cities - 2006","url":"/posts/2006/my-year-in-cities-2006/"},{"body":"I just downloaded Windows Live Writer\nAt first look, it looks good! I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t been able to say that about most Microsoft products off late. The last product that was awe-inspiring was perhaps VC++ 6.0 (such wide range of features), IE 6.0 (it was big deal when it came into the market) and maybe, to some extent Office 2003 (a lot less buggy and smaller file sizes than previous releases).\nIt is perhaps one of the few blog editors that provide an intuitive interface for adding links and particularly images. This is feature alone is reason enough to use this editor. (That is how painful, other editors tend to be).\nI have a personal blog, using wordpress as my blog-engine, and would like to store pictures on my own server, that uploading them to some service that decides when to throw my stuff away! Live writer a is pleasure to use in this department. Just select your image, using the all too familiar File Open Common Control, and insert it in your post.\n[Image: Screenshot of Windows Live Writer interface - no longer available]\nInserting the above image, took just a coupla seconds (finally, I can do something useful using a M$ product, and I can do it very quickly too - Note to developers of M$ products - sorry about being soo sarcastic, but that is how exasperated I am using products that are way too generic. What we need these days are very focused and compact solutions, that don\u0026amp;rsquo;t attempt to solve a zillion use-cases using a single product)\nSome of the kewl stuf that can be done with Live writer and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m talking just image manipulations! (Stop it with images!! \u0026amp;hellip; Can\u0026amp;rsquo;t control it \u0026amp;hellip;.. Need to write about other features too!!)\nImages - a lot of very kewl and easy to use options\n[Various image effect examples were shown here - images no longer available]\nThe editor provided options for:\nCustom sizing Small, medium, large preset sizes Black \u0026amp;amp; White effects Sepia tones Warm/Cold color temperature adjustments Color Pop effects Sharpen and Gaussian Blur Emboss and Watermark effects Maps - Another kewl set of features. However intergrated only with Microsoft live services\n[Map screenshots were shown here - images no longer available]\nThe editor could display:\nHomestead, Milpitas - Map View Homestead, Milpitas - Bird\u0026amp;rsquo;s Eye View Homestead, Milpitas - Satellite View ","date":"Dec 26, 2006","tags":["Tools"],"title":"Windows Live writer - Growing pains","url":"/posts/2006/windows-live-writer-growing-pains-2/"},{"body":"It is not just M$ that struggles with frequent patches for its products. Mozilla just released a whole host of bug fixes in a new release 2.0.0.1. You can download it here or use the direct links below.\nHttp Direct Links to Oregon State University\u0026amp;rsquo;s Open Source Lab\nWindows\nLinux\nMac\nFtp mirror: ftp.osuosl.org\nFirefox 2.0.0.1 home dir: /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0.0.1/\nwindows: $home/win32/en-US/Firefox Setup 2.0.0.1.exe\nlinux: $home/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-2.0.0.1.tar.gz\nmac: $home/mac/en-US/Firefox 2.0.0.1.dmg\nThere are some issues upon upgrading. Some plugins have trouble working, notably Google Accelerator. You might want to disable that for a while and wait around for an upgrade.\nAlso, the upgrade sometimes causes an infinite loop, when upgrading from Firefox 2.0 using the built-in auto-updater. Firefox restarts and starts to download the upgrade, and throws an error about lack of file permissions, the updater terminates and starts again. The only way to get out of that loop is to either log off from windows or terminate your network connection (don\u0026amp;rsquo;t try this at your workplace :) ).\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m yet to confirm it as a bug, but just in case you are also facing the same, do let me know. For 2.0.0.1 upgrade, please use the download links to download the Firefox installer and upgrade offline. This I have found to be the safest route for now!\n","date":"Dec 24, 2006","tags":["Tools"],"title":"Firefox upgrade!","url":"/posts/2006/firefox-upgrade/"},{"body":"Having joined Novell recently, the opportunity to learn a bunch of new development skills has come up. Novell products make extensive use of the mono platform for applications development.\nAfter 4 long years, I find myself in need of re-learning some windows application development. I tried setting up mono on my windows pc, and encountered some peculiar issues. I had installed mono and then went looking around for an IDE. Well, monodevelop sounded kewl, and tried to get in compiled on windows. I found that I needed to setup cygwin if I need to build it, and another 100 MB download is not what I wanted to be doing.\nSo I pulled Sharpdevelop 2.1.0, (monodevelop was apparently forked from sharpdevelop), off here, and I installed it. As per the instructions found here, I tried to compile the application, but SharpDevelop, threw a twister at me. It said \u0026amp;ldquo;mono is not installed\u0026amp;rdquo;. I tried hunting around for some options somewhere that told SharpDevelop where to look for mono, but was able to find no help.\nWell, I did get it fixed. All I had to do was re-run mono install.\nAparently, the order of installation of the IDE and mono is:\n1. Install the IDE\n2. Install mono\nI always thought that it had to be the other way around. Nice curve ball that one!\nAnyway, here\u0026amp;rsquo;s the very first application that I have written in C# running on Mono!\n[Screenshot of first C# application running on Mono - image no longer available]\n","date":"Dec 24, 2006","tags":["coding"],"title":"Mono and Sharpdevelop - A baby step","url":"/posts/2006/mono-and-sharpdevelop-a-baby-step/"},{"body":"\u0026amp;hellip; that, my friends, in Italian means \u0026amp;ldquo;Good bye! We have arrived!!\u0026amp;rdquo;.\nI have recently movd from my 4 year old job at HCL Technologies, Chennai to Novell, Bangalore. The first day at Novell was nice. The experience exuded professionallism on the part of the company and the people that I am going to work with.\nLife seems exciting. On the very first day, I have a machine, access to email, food coupons, bank account, an airtel connection, travel info and more than I can remember. Amazing how quick things can be done these days! ;)\nFinally, I did feel the loss I should have felt when I left HCL, my colleagues for the last four years! This quantum change, I hope will bring more challenges and exciting engineering problems for me to work. (God I sound cliched!)\nI have a lot of documentation to read in the next coupla days! So off I go!\nTechnorati Tags: novell, work\n","date":"Dec 19, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Arrivederci! Siamo arrivato!!","url":"/posts/2006/arrivederci-siamo-arrivato-3/"},{"body":"As with Discovery, after a lot of hurdles (some within me and some otherwise), here I am about to take-off on yet another journey, that, I hope is going to be as exciting as the last one that I took, when I joined HCL-Cisco ODC. I has been an amazing experience in the last week or so, when I have been reminiscing about what I am about to do, what I have done, the wonderful people that I encountered and worked with, and the good and bad times.\nLoads of work ahead! So I\u0026amp;rsquo;m hoping that I will get a day to myself. I got too many people that I need to say farewell to, in person!\n","date":"Dec 14, 2006","tags":[],"title":"2 days to lift-off!","url":"/posts/2006/2-days-to-lift-off/"},{"body":"Not that many are reading this blog, but hey, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m back nonetheless!! Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s see if I can sustain my blogging! I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been getting ready for a change from my current job. For those who don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been working at HCL Technologies, Chennai, Cisco Offshore Development Centre, for the last 4+ years.\nReasons\n1. my wife\u0026amp;rsquo;s moving there!\n2. My WIFE\u0026amp;rsquo;s MOVING do you need more!! ;)\nI hope to start work with a company in Bangalore. So you guys in cool B\u0026amp;rsquo;lore, here I come!\nI have another coupla weeks to go, so I might be absent from the blog for the upcoming weeks! Then again, I will try to blog my experience quitting a company! That\u0026amp;rsquo;s a nice sustainable idea!\n","date":"Dec 4, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Me! Back!","url":"/posts/2006/me-back/"},{"body":"JavaScript, MochiKit, PHP, X, TinyMCE et. al.Nice article comparing some AJAX toolkits that are talked about these days. Also Anant is doing a very kewl project for Google Summer of code, called GuideXML, an online AJAXified XML editor that is sponsored by Gentoo! Way to go Anant.\n","date":"Nov 1, 2006","tags":["coding"],"title":"AJAX toolkits that are hot!","url":"/posts/2006/ajax-toolkits-to-use-that-are-hot/"},{"body":"JSON Resource Guide\n","date":"Nov 1, 2006","tags":[],"title":"JSON Resource Guide","url":"/posts/2006/json-resource-guide/"},{"body":"Male Restroom Etiquette\nAll men of the world can find common ground in these simple rules of \u0026amp;ldquo;evacuation\u0026amp;rdquo; etiquette.\nAuthor: zsOverman\nKeywords: machinima overman sims restroom etiquette rules men toilet bathroom humor\nAdded: September 13, 2006\nYou must see this!! Wonderfully done and hilarious yet thought provoking!! ;)\ntechnorati tags:fun, humor\n","date":"Oct 3, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Male Restroom etiquette","url":"/posts/2006/male-restroom-etiquette/"},{"body":"AJAX Toolkit Shootout « Summer of Code â„¢ 2006\n","date":"Oct 2, 2006","tags":[],"title":"AJAX Toolkit Shootout","url":"/posts/2006/163/"},{"body":"First Images of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Cabin\nVirgin galactic is a spaceship/commercial aeronautic vehicle that is being designed to let ordinary people like you an me (well ones with $200,000 spare change) to travel to space and conduct \u0026amp;ldquo;scientific\u0026amp;rdquo; experiments (kiss in space? marriage in space? ahem \u0026amp;hellip; in space? **pervert**)\nand I wanna get my ass off to space in just that \u0026amp;hellip; 3 days out of the earth! That will mean a lot less coding. Maybe I will come up with the first-ever \u0026amp;ldquo;out of the world\u0026amp;rdquo; open source software, or maybe even a yahoo widget or two!!\nNow that\u0026amp;rsquo;s a thought, maybe we should have a coder\u0026amp;rsquo;s meet in orbit! I can apply for \u0026amp;ldquo;work from orbit\u0026amp;rdquo;. You wanna sponsor my trip?!\ntechnorati tags:kewl-stuff, technology, space-travel\n","date":"Sep 28, 2006","tags":[],"title":"I wanna get on that plane","url":"/posts/2006/i-wanna-get-on-that-plane/"},{"body":"New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud\nThat is what someone needed to do, build an abstraction layer over the various DVD/DVD-like media so that as a consumer, when I am choosing between Star Wars and Star Tre, I don\u0026amp;rsquo;t need to bother with the media type and the version etc..\nJust let me but the disc and get home to watch on the blu-ray drive or at a friends place on HD-DVD drive.\nNow, although it is a gross waste of disc space, it is still better that having to own multiple copies due to some corporate hangup!\ntechnorati tags:technology, geeky\n","date":"Sep 27, 2006","tags":[],"title":"HD-DVD and Blu-ray unite!","url":"/posts/2006/hd-dvd-and-blu-ray-unite/"},{"body":"\ndapreview.net: content / meizu m6 (stand-alone review)\nThat my firengi friends is why one needs to be in China!! Damn that is a kewl gadget, and that if built with good quality can beat the sh** outta any pod that any fruit in the computer industry can make! (for the uninitiated read fruit as \u0026amp;ldquo;apple\u0026amp;rdquo;). Check out the reviews at the link mentioned above\n","date":"Sep 27, 2006","tags":[],"title":"You gotta gimme one of these - Part 1","url":"/posts/2006/you-gotta-gimme-one-of-these-1/"},{"body":"10-week AJAX Training Course by Sang Shin\n","date":"Aug 24, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Online AJAX Training","url":"/posts/2006/online-ajax-training-2/"},{"body":"The much talked about and often cursed part of Java development is Garbage Collection.\nI often say, \u0026amp;ldquo;Writing code in Java is easy, but writing good code is extremely hard\u0026amp;rdquo;\nI have listed a list of links at the end of this article that provides more detailed information.\nResources:\nhttp://java.sun.com/docs/hotspot/gc1.4.2/index.html\nhttp://java.sun.com/docs/hotspot/PerformanceFAQ.html#1\n","date":"Aug 22, 2006","tags":["coding"],"title":"Tuning Garbage Collection","url":"/posts/2006/tuning-garbage-collection/"},{"body":"After what has been ages, I have returned. Not that many are reading this, but I intend to use this for future reference in any case\nI have wanted to learn javascript, and this time I found a sustainable way. Learn a language by implementing something very huge in it. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m writing, what I must say a very kewl application at work, and am learning quite a few tricks in javascript.\n1. Associative arrays in javascript:\nAlthough, the Array() datatype, looks like a juicy candidate for building associative arrays, that is one of the most harmful things you can do. Particularly if you are using the prototype library. For more information read this post The solution: use the Object datatype\n**2. How to iterate an Object in javascript:\n** There are a couple of really kewl ways to iterate objects:\n1. for .. in\n2. for each .. in\nCheck out the object manipulation guide\nWill add more as I go along.\nBtw, JSON rules - the following links on list libraries that aid in creating JSON based AJAXified applications.\n1. JSON in javascript (client-side stuff)\n2. JSON in Java (server-side stuff)\n","date":"Aug 10, 2006","tags":["Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"Return of Javascript!","url":"/posts/2006/return-of-javascript-2/"},{"body":"Nice website this one!\nCounter Counterfeit Commission\nIf you are enraged at people selling counterfeit Minis on Ebay, check out this link to vent your anger\nhttp://www.counterfeitmini.com/main.swf\n","date":"Jul 5, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Detect that counterfeit and slap it!","url":"/posts/2006/detect-that-counterfeit-and-slap-it/"},{"body":"The Alchemy of Desire\nby Tarun J. Tejpal\nThis is an amazing amazing book. What prose?! and what a story?! This has rekindled my faith in Indian authors, Finally a book in “english” by an Indian author, without a thousand transliterated words from Hindi.\nIt has made me see a few things I had forgotten, made me look and find new things, that I didnâ€(tm)t knew existed.\nThank you Tarun, you need to write more!\nSee more about The Alchemy of Desire\n","date":"Jun 5, 2006","tags":[],"title":"How \"The Alchemy of Desire\" changed my life","url":"/posts/2006/how-the-alchemy-of-desire-changed-my-life/"},{"body":"I was listening to the song \u0026amp;ldquo;Piya Bole\u0026amp;rdquo; and couldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t figure out meanings of some words \u0026amp;hellip; so I googled it and presto!\nBollyWHAT? presents THE TRANSLATED LYRICS of PARINEETA\nenjoy.. nice lyrics eh?!\nBtw, You can find guitar tabs for that song here and here\n","date":"Jun 5, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Piya Bole - Pareenita","url":"/posts/2006/piya-bole-pareenita/"},{"body":"The Da Vinci Code\nby Ron Howard\nWell, finally managed to catch the moview! The moview has been banned all over Tamil Nadu (Drat!!!), but I chanced to catch it. IPrehaps because I have read the book, the actors seem to be mere narrators of the script. I could hardly accept Tom Hanks (guess he is getting a little old these days), as Robert Langdon. I like Silas though, but would have expected a more burly man!\nAringarosa, fails to convey the passion that he felt for christianity!! But nevertheless, the movie is a must watch, atleast for you to realise, you are better off reading a book, than watching it!\nSee more about The Da Vinci Code\n","date":"Jun 5, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Why it's taking me forever to finish consuming \"The Da Vinci Code\"","url":"/posts/2006/why-its-taking-me-forever-to-finish-consuming-the-da-vinci-code/"},{"body":"One more little thing that is painfully difficult to do in Java. (I love Java though ;) )\nThere are two ways of getting it done.\na. Cryptic but sweet! bring on the bit manipulators!\nprivate long getLong(byte[] mbytes) { long lValue =0; for (int i : mbytes.length) { lValue = (lValue\u0026amp;lt; \u0026amp;lt;8) | (mbytes[i] \u0026amp;amp; 0xff); } return lValue; } b. painfully slow and created a gazzillon objects (sooo typically Java)\nwrite byte array to DataOutputStream, and read from corresponding input stream using readLong()\n","date":"May 23, 2006","tags":["coding"],"title":"Convert byte\\[\\] to long in Java","url":"/posts/2006/convert-byte-array-to-long-in-java/"},{"body":"Check out the news item!! The height of hypocrisy! When there a thousand things we can raise hue and cry over, all we can manage is go on a hunger strike to avoid screening a movie?!! We got to be better than this.. someone please tell me .. we got to be better than this!\nTop News | Reuters.co.in\n","date":"May 18, 2006","tags":[],"title":"The \"Da Vinci\" Debacle!","url":"/posts/2006/the-da-vinci-debacle/"},{"body":"The ability to put together a set of innovations into real-life use and build something that reaches the lives of common men, making it a tad easier, a tad more fun .. that I think is the most amazing ability that a person can have. We were discuss this among many other, at office the other day, when we decided to go to a movie.\nNow, I have this habit of watching a movie at \u0026amp;ldquo;Satyam\u0026amp;rdquo; - chennai\u0026amp;rsquo;s very own sofisticated multiplex. Aparently, they have a website through which you can book tickets. It is one of the few usable flash based sites, that I have seen. What was amazing for me was that, they also have an option for you to choose the snacks that you would like to eat when you are there!! Kewl uhh?!!\nWell, all you need to do is book the tickets, choose the grub that you wanna munch on, and use a credit-card. You can collect your tickets at a counter at the movie hall. During interval, your grub will be delivered to your seat!! Now that\u0026amp;rsquo;s what I call personalised Integrated Services!!\n","date":"May 17, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Integrated solutions for an easier life","url":"/posts/2006/integrated-solutions-for-an-easier-life/"},{"body":"I was always intrigued and amazed by the ability of human beings to give up their lives at some of the most beautifiul places. Why do people like to jump of cliffs that provide a breathtaking view, or bridges like the one at SFO with its capability to produce \u0026amp;ldquo;suddenly-surreal\u0026amp;rdquo; images!\nCheck out some statistics on the suicides at the SFO gate\nSF Gate: Multimedia (image)\n","date":"May 10, 2006","tags":[],"title":"SFO bridge stats","url":"/posts/2006/sfo-bridge-stats/"},{"body":"There is an issue with installing the latest version of boast machine v3.1.\nThe message displayed during install is this\nError message : Invalid default value for \u0026#39;author\u0026#39;\nThe problem is due to the following code in install.php\nauthor INT(10) NOT NULL default \u0026#39; \u0026#39;,\nThis should be changed to\nauthor INT(10) NOT NULL ,\ninstall patch for Boast Machine 3.1\n*Note: Right-click and save target as / Save link as\n","date":"May 9, 2006","tags":["coding"],"title":"Bug Fix: Boast Machine 3.1","url":"/posts/2006/bug-fix-boast-machine-31/"},{"body":"Crash (2005) (Widescreen Edition)\nSome one tell me what the hell are they talking about in this movie!!!! It is the mind-numbing experience of watching 7 movies at one go.\nI must give it to the director though, for tying together each of the sub-plots, but man.. you gotta tell me something by the end of the story!!\nSee more about Crash (2005) (Widescreen Edition)\n","date":"Mar 24, 2006","tags":["movies","reviews"],"title":"A review of \"Crash (2005) (Widescreen Edition)\"","url":"/posts/2006/a-review-of-crash-2005-widescreen-edition/"},{"body":"well, about a coupla months back, I got myself a guitar and having been since then, utting my fingers at it on and off (mostly after midnight).\nI have finally learnt how to play a few bars of \u0026amp;ldquo;Ilaya Nila\u0026amp;rdquo;, the song that really pushed me towards learning the guiatr in the first place.\nAfter numerous attempts to find the notes myself and failing quite miserably at that, I found this amazingly true reproduction of the original, Guitar Lesson #8646 at WholeNote: Ilaya Nila by Ananth Narayanan. Kudos to you dude!\nI simply love that song. Ohh yeah, btw I just turned my fingeres sore, over that last interlude!\n","date":"Mar 3, 2006","tags":[],"title":"My Guitar","url":"/posts/2006/my-guitar/"},{"body":"Thanks to kottke.org, I found a very engaging game, to keep my busy during the long hours of installing applications at work!\nCheck out Fastr. Oh Yeah, btw, it uses AJAX to update the scores. Welcome to Web 2.0\n","date":"Feb 17, 2006","tags":["Tools"],"title":"Fastr","url":"/posts/2006/fastr/"},{"body":"I have been away far too long this time around. But, I finally find some time to do my bloggy thingy!\nI managed to finally migrate to Wordpress 2.0 with the latest K2 theme. (btw great work with the theme guys)\nIt has been a very hectic month, and very busy and interesting start to the year! Some of the stuff I have been dabbling in since the begining of this year\na framework for implementing a control plane in a java application (see JCtrlPlane) attended the Sun Tech Days conference at Chennai on 7th, 8th and 9th of February (more on that below) a kewl Java Jacket lots of architectural work, at work thinking about where my life is going The Hitchhiker\u0026amp;rsquo;s Guide to the Galaxy Catching up on old friends Finally\u0026amp;hellip; started working out (my abs that is ;) ) ","date":"Feb 14, 2006","tags":[],"title":"I'm back","url":"/posts/2006/welcome-wordpress-20/"},{"body":"Nice sunny day, and a huge auditorium filled with half of Chennai\u0026amp;rsquo;s Java crowd\u0026amp;hellip; well mebbe not exactly have, but close 2500 java programmers attended this year\u0026amp;rsquo;s Sun Tech Days held at Chennai,India. This is my first time at a Sun conference.Well, it is not a JavaOne kinda event, where it is all techie, but atleast you do get to meet a few like minded, hard-core, think-OOAD-in-the-shower guys. There were some very kewl speakers. I especially enjoyed\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Real-Time Java\u0026amp;rdquo; by Peter Kessler \u0026amp;ldquo;Performance Tuning of Javaâ„¢ SE Applications\u0026amp;rdquo; by Chuk-Munn Lee I loved every session by those guys, and was really impressed by the breadth and depth of their knowledge (kudos to you guys)\nThe free Solaris day was as interesting as the rest of the days. There was a lot of marketing talk, but that\u0026amp;rsquo;s what the coffee machine\u0026amp;rsquo;s always on for!\nAnyway, learnt a bit, interacted with a lot of Java developers and oh yeah!! I won the Java Jacket!! (One size small, but hey, it is kewl!!)\nWill post a picture of it soon\n","date":"Feb 14, 2006","tags":[],"title":"Sun Tech Days 2006 at Chennai","url":"/posts/2006/sun-tech-days-2006-at-chennai/"},{"body":"I have been wondering for sometime now, how K2, added an entry in pages, but the content was controlled from the one of the php files in the theme directory.\nIt turns out that is is very simple (yet elegant \u0026amp;hellip; hat\u0026amp;rsquo;s off to wordpress guys). I used this to integrate FAlbum into K2.\nOkay, let\u0026amp;rsquo;s get on with the tutorial:\n*WARNING*: Take a backup of your database before you proceed with the following\nStep 1 : Open the wordpress database in phpMyAdmin\nStep 2 : Add an entry in the \u0026amp;ldquo;wp_posts\u0026amp;rdquo; table, ensuring that the \u0026amp;ldquo;guid_id\u0026amp;rdquo; field is empty.\nINSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (\n123,\n1,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;2005-11-16 15:27:21\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;2005-11-16 10:27:21\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;Do not edit this page\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;Photos\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n0,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;static\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;open\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;open\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;photos\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;2005-12-15 02:29:33\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;2005-12-14 21:29:33\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n0,\n\u0026amp;lsquo;\u0026amp;rsquo;,\n0);\nStep 3 : Now create a php template file in your theme\u0026amp;rsquo;s directory.\nThis is easily acheived by adding the following at the begining of the new php file\n\u0026amp;lt; ?php /*\nTemplate Name: Archives (Do Not Use Manually)\n*/ ?\u0026amp;gt;\nStep 4 : Add code to display whatever content when the page link is clicked.\nStep 5 : Go to Manage\u0026amp;gt;Pages, and edit the page entry for the newly added page.\nStep 6 : Change the page template to the newly created template.\nThing to note:\nEnsure that the entry for the page link in the database does not have the \u0026amp;ldquo;guid\u0026amp;rdquo; field filled. This would cause the page to load the content of the page entry in the final output.\n","date":"Dec 15, 2005","tags":["wordpress","falbum","k2"],"title":"Page link in wordpress","url":"/posts/2005/page-link-in-wordpress/"},{"body":"I wanted to get the pod nano initially, but I chose to get the Creative Zen Micro instead for reasons listed below:\nWhy the Nano is a piece of junk\n1. Cracked screens \u0026amp;ndash; heard quite a few reports of that and since I live in India and the Nano cost about 2 as much as it is in the US, I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to risk it\n2. Flimsy \u0026amp;ndash; the entire player bends with little pressure applied, a little more I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sure I\u0026amp;rsquo;d end up with two pieces! (Definitely not suited for 40deg C and extremely dusty conditions that I have to go through everyday to work and back)\n3. Battery replacement costs half as much as the player\n4. about 25% more cost than the zen micro which has about 20% more space\nSee more progress on: get an ipod\n","date":"Dec 14, 2005","tags":["zen-micro","mp3-players"],"title":"Actually I got a Creative Zen Micro instead","url":"/posts/2005/actually-i-got-a-creative-zen-micro-2/"},{"body":"Yippeeee!!! Last weekend I finally got my long-awaited very won Suzuki Swift ! The delivery of the Swift is by no means swift!\nAnyway, I had a ball of a time. Here are some pics! (WARNING: eye-candy)\nSome pics of Bunty and Bubbly too:\nSome pictures taken on the wya back to Chennai (a coupla weeks back):\n","date":"Dec 13, 2005","tags":[],"title":"The Swift is here!","url":"/posts/2005/the-swift-is-here/"},{"body":"PHP is an incredibly easy to use scripting language and yesterday I had my first meeting with it.\nYeah, I know I support and fix some issues in wordpress, but that just requires programming knowledge, and not exactly great php exposure. But yesterday, I wrote a small tool to track some timesheet info, in php and the whole thing took about 1.5 hours to complete. Slick UI, storing and retreiving from DB et al!\nSimply amazed by the depth and breadth of support for other resources like databases, network protocols etc by the default implementation of php! Truly a programmer\u0026amp;rsquo;s paradise has to have a webserver running with php support!\ntechnorati tags: php, ramblings, web-development\n","date":"Dec 9, 2005","tags":["coding"],"title":"The wonder that is php","url":"/posts/2005/the-wonder-that-is-php/"},{"body":"I have been wanting to integrate photos that I take into my Wordpress blog for over 6 months now!\nI finally found the best suited solution for me. Well almost! Probably the second best thing\nI can now do the following:\nInsert images from my flickr stream into my blog. Present a gallery of images based on my sets The visitor can now search images based on flickr tags Check out my fair lady getting irritated with me for click too many pictures of her!\nAnd introducing \u0026amp;hellip;\u0026amp;hellip;.\nBunty\n\u0026amp;hellip; and Bubbly\nThese three together constitute my much enjoyable weekends these days!\n","date":"Dec 1, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Yabadabadoo!! flickr's in my blog","url":"/posts/2005/yabadabadoo-i-got-flickr-integrated/"},{"body":"I found a very interesting bug report on ubuntu! If you haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t heard about Ubuntu, then this bug report is definetely a must read. Check it out!\nMicrosoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.\nBug #1 in Ubuntu - Microsoft has a majority market share\nI tried to see how the latest release of Ubuntu has addressed this particular bug, and I see that it is still pending. Although, the open-source OS guys are striving a lot for features, but somehow everyone has forgotten the root-cause that made unix so popular.\nBoth System V and BSD version allowed the user to quick execute a set of jobs, allowed users to stitch small applications to make bigger equivalents of them. I see that no one is trying to challenge the notion of UI that Windows introduced back in the last century! A lot of that is happening on the web, but we need that kind of radical rethinking of UI, if you want to kick Microsoft\u0026amp;rsquo;s share down!\ntechnorati tags: OS, [UI design][2], [Windows][3], [Ubuntu][4], [Linux][5]\n[2]: http://technorati.com/tag/UI design [3]: http://technorati.com/tag/Windows [4]: http://technorati.com/tag/Ubuntu [5]: http://technorati.com/tag/Linux\n","date":"Nov 30, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Bug \\#1 in Ubuntu","url":"/posts/2005/bug-1-in-ubuntu-3/"},{"body":"Yet another wondeful ride on my bike, and I\u0026amp;rsquo;m road wiser !!\nI rode to Pondy last Friday, (the usual weekend get-away). Having been long since my bike stretched its engines, this ride was a nice change for both me and my bike.\nPitck black, it was, that night, but very little traffic on the roads. A cool breeze was working its way up my spine. Frequent drops of impending rain, threatened to drench me, my soul and my bike, as we streamed past Mahabalipuram. Stopped momentarily at Kalapakkam for a tea. The warm tea, quenching my raving hunger, the news that india lost miserably (yet again!) to South Africa, set my my pulse raving to get to Pondy to catch the highlights of India-trashing! (just wanted to see how badly our team can perform)\nthe rest of the journey, was fairly eventless (for a change!) and the ECR seemed deserted. Passed hardly a dozen vehicles on my way home! That is weird for a Friday night you know! The ride lasted 2 hours and 30 mins. (btw I managed to miss the highlights, thanks to some movie on Sony - never seem to be able to win an argument over the possesion of the remote :) Pinky wins round 1)\ntechnorati tags: travel, [bike rides][1], [pondicherry][2], [ECR][3]\n[1]: http://technorati.com/tag/bike rides [2]: http://technorati.com/tag/pondicherry [3]: http://technorati.com/tag/ECR\n","date":"Nov 26, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Bike ride -Chennai-Pondy","url":"/posts/2005/bike-ride-pondy-chennai/"},{"body":"HTMLSource: HTML Tutorials\nI know I need to refrain from this incessant habit of link-blogging, but hey, somethin\u0026amp;rsquo; better than nothin\u0026amp;rsquo;. A lot has been happening lately, but no time for that now!\nThis is a wonderful site, by far the most useful and easy-to-find-info site for HTML and Javascript. They don\u0026amp;rsquo;t assume that you have a PHD in web-develeopment before talking about some of these kewl technologies. Check it out!\ntechnorati tags: links, [javascript][2], [tutorials][3]\n[2]: http://technorati.com/tag/ javascript [3]: http://technorati.com/tag/ tutorials\n","date":"Nov 25, 2005","tags":["Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"Learn HTML and Javascript","url":"/posts/2005/learn-html-and-javascript/"},{"body":"Atlast!!! Finally!! I got to lay my hands on the Creative Zen Micro I have been drooling over all these days! One of Guru\u0026amp;rsquo;s friend\u0026amp;rsquo;s finally agreed to get it here.\nIt is much smaller that I thought it would be, but it is one of the coolest gadgets I have laid my hands on. None of the images on the web do any justice to the drool value of this pod-killer. The only disappointment until now, has been the need to shell out $40 for the charger, which I haven\u0026amp;rsquo;t bought as of now. Need to find out how much they would fleece me for it in India.\nAlong with the zen, came the really kewl Sennheiser. All I can say is that, it is german audio engineering at its very best. The audio fidelity of these headphones are simply amazing.\nCheck out these links for more information on the above mentioned kewl gadgets:\n**Creative Zen Micro **\nreview 1 review 2 wikipedia link Sennheiser HD 202\nReview Sennheiser site ","date":"Nov 4, 2005","tags":["creative","mp3-player","gadgets","headphones","sennheiser"],"title":"The zen feeling!","url":"/posts/2005/the-zen-feeling/"},{"body":"Wowie!!! Yippeee!!! Yikes!!!\nThat\u0026amp;rsquo;s the sequence of emotional states that I have transitioned through over the last couple of days. Getting some rains after a long period of drought was nice, but then like most things in Chennai, it turns out a teeny weeny bit much, when I have to waddle through knee deep slush!\nTorrentials rains have gripped Chennai, for the last couple of days and today life came to a stand-still! Water logging everywhere, no power, nowhere to go to eat! More has been predicted for the weekend! Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s hope chennai is not submerged by the time I get back from Diwali holidays\nLike my new found pals in TAC put it, \u0026amp;ldquo;This is a city of extremes!!\u0026amp;rdquo;. He was telling me today, about the food you can get in chennai, it is either way to spicy, or no spice at all, the deserts are way to sweet to have a second bite, or absolutely zero sweetness?!\nYup mate, it a city of extremes, it can be 45 degrees C in summer, the will dry up the moisture in your blood (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m just exaggerating here), or it can be torrential rains like this!! Well, despite all this, the city has a charm that most cities I have seen seem to have a lost. It is a big city, and yet you would still find that odd gentleman, who takes the time to stop and give you directions when you are lost, that friendly auto-rickshaw guy, you can within the span of 15 mins give you all that has been happening in Chennai in the last month!\nChennai, I have fallen for thee! Yup you are the \u0026amp;ldquo;Venice of Asia\u0026amp;rdquo; although it might be so for only 3 days in 10 years!\n","date":"Oct 27, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Nature's wrath #2","url":"/posts/2005/natures-wrath-2/"},{"body":"Have you heard about the latest ipod.\nhttp://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/01/new_ipod_implant.html\nhttp://news.com.com/5208-7354-0.html?forumID=1\u0026amp;amp;threadID=4129\u0026amp;amp;messageID=24004\u0026amp;amp;start=-1\nThis is amazing.. Imagine being able to have a device implanted in your body, with which you cantrol with your thought, and which will use your brain as a hardrive, and use blood sugar as a battery cell.\nEerie thought envelop me, when I think of what could be?!! Living the matrix ?!!\nIt is not only the body heat that can be a source of energy (like in \u0026amp;ldquo;The Matrix\u0026amp;rdquo;), even human blood sugar can be harnesed!\nThis better be a hoax, or I will have to shave my head for that pod implant and create space on the back of my skul for a USB port! Scary to think, that the next upgrade will have to be my brain (for lack of storage space!!)\n","date":"Oct 26, 2005","tags":["apple","weird-tech","news","gadgets"],"title":"Apple iMplant","url":"/posts/2005/apple-implant/"},{"body":"What are we humans against the over-powering wrath of mother nature? Time and again, she warns, and tests the best of us, and ceases to amaze us with the brute diplay of power. With all the technology in the world, man still has to grapple with reality of the powerlessness of the human being against forces of nature.\nThe recent display, in Pakistan and its surrounding, is simply astounding. One cannot, but feel empathy towards the innocent thousand (maybe millions) that have been trampled upon by the brute force of a 7.2 Earthquake.\nCheck some really thought provoking and heart kindling articles on the net\nBBC new story\nPast history of quakes in the Himalayan region\nReaction to the quake from around the world\nMy heart goes out to all the innocent souls that have lost their homes, their livelyhood and dear ones to one of the worst quakes in the last decade.\n","date":"Oct 10, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Nature's wrath","url":"/posts/2005/natures-wrath/"},{"body":"SNMP being the bread and butter for me, I decided to dig up some tutorials and links regarding the same.\nFor the uninitiated, SNMP is short for Simple Network Management Protocol, and is a protocol used to manage network devices such as routers, switches etc.\nSimple Web - Introduction to SNMP, and good set of tutorials Simple Times - technical articles and featured columns Cisco - SNMP Overview Cisco - whitepaper SnmpLink - Links to almost every possible SNMP resource ","date":"Oct 6, 2005","tags":["SNMP","books","tutorials","networking"],"title":"SNMP tutorials","url":"/posts/2005/snmp-tutorials/"},{"body":"I need some ideas for my website and blog. I still have not been able to integrate and modify my blog well enough. Wordpress is great, but it sorely lacks some core CMS functionality, like for instance the ability to add pages to my site. I know you can add static pages, but I need to be able to create another changeable content page like what php-nuke provides for instance.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m trying to organize some of the plugins and features I would like in my blog:\nDrop-down javascript box displaying relevant content - quickSub A plugin for displaying my bookshelf what I have recently read/ reading and going to read) link to my reviews if I have made any create a new review for a book A front page like that of Alex King Link my pixelpost photoblog to wordpress I have no idea if there are any plugins that do what I want. while I keep searching for them, let me hope that someone leaves a link or two along to shorten my quest. Or else, one of these days, I might finally choose to get off my butt and learn php and hack away at wordpress\n","date":"Oct 4, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Website Sruce UP","url":"/posts/2005/website-sruce-up/"},{"body":"What a lousy week it has been\u0026amp;hellip; I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve had this fever all week long, and is still poking its head around me now and then..\nI have been down for the last few days with a viral fever. I also made the mistake of calling my family and telling them that I am unwell. They got very worried and came to Chennai in a taxi to pick me up (my mom). (That was embarrasing \u0026amp;hellip; but did feel well pampered).\nI will be getting my new Creative Zen micro (mp3 player) next week. Guru tell\u0026amp;rsquo;s me it sounds awesome. I hope he has got the Sennheiser HD 202 headphones I had him asked to buy. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m gonna have a ball of a time next week, when I can finally lay hands on some kewl gadgets that I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve been wanting to buy!\n","date":"Oct 2, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Down with a viral fever","url":"/posts/2005/down-with-a-viral-fever/"},{"body":"As technology enters our lives, dare I say, invade our lives, the concept of radical design has been ubiquitous. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s design, design and more design, for last few days for me. I came across quite a few very kewl interfaces and design concepts (a detailed listing below). Some much of what we do, is so dependant on how efficiently a product has been designed. How minimal and useful the interface is.\nsome kewl sites and resources\nUse play-doh to control media content\nApps on AJAX Meebo Netvibes Kiko\nCheck these websites out. Some insanely kewl and creative stuff.\n","date":"Sep 23, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Talking about UI interfaces","url":"/posts/2005/talking-about-ui-interfaces/"},{"body":"There was once a wondeful browser called \u0026amp;ldquo;Opera\u0026amp;rdquo;. The lucid interface, the smal memory footprint - it was simply browsing heaven.\nThen came the version loaded with ads, heavy, sluggish UI and a hug memory footprint in the name of new improved UI. The ads loaded version of opera turned out to nag-ware and I totally detested it and moved to other browsers (read Firefox). Get online and check websites out became \u0026amp;ldquo;swimming\u0026amp;rdquo; and not \u0026amp;ldquo;surfing\u0026amp;rdquo;\nFinally, the good old days are back! get the latest version of Opera sans ads for free.\nEnjoy! Welcome back to the internet -let\u0026amp;rsquo;s go surfing\n","date":"Sep 21, 2005","tags":["Tools"],"title":"Opera for free! Yipeee!","url":"/posts/2005/opera-for-free-yipeee/"},{"body":"After a week long battle with my host sending email back and forth, I managed to get my site back online!\nHopefully now, I can start posting some of the events of the last two weeks. Very eventful mind you. Check back in a couple of days.\n","date":"Sep 9, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Back Online","url":"/posts/2005/back-online/"},{"body":"Another wonderful tool and a new area that Google has strolled into and stormed!\nCheck out the new IM from Google.. neat sparse interface as usual. Extremely intuitive and very light on system resources. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m lovin\u0026amp;rsquo; it!\nDownload Google Talk\n","date":"Aug 24, 2005","tags":["Tools"],"title":"Google Talk","url":"/posts/2005/google-talk/"},{"body":"OBL - Out about learning, the second time to the same place, same people, but totally a new experience. On a deeper note, I rediscovered myself! Quite a few things about myself, that I hadn\u0026amp;rsquo;t noticed before came to light.\nI had a great time too, meeting a few new people, and a few new versions of old ones!\nThe day we were returning to Chennai, we went to a kewl pub called \u0026amp;ldquo;Alibi\u0026amp;rdquo; in Church Street, where we managed to get two free pitchers of beer (try the Castle beer there \u0026amp;hellip; really neat!)\nI am in the process of selecting and uploading some photos. Comeback later for the url\n","date":"Aug 19, 2005","tags":[],"title":"OBL 2005","url":"/posts/2005/obl-2005/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m at office, after an all-nighter! I chanced to come by this amazing un-put-downable book by name \u0026amp;ldquo;Five point someone\u0026amp;rdquo; by Chetan Bhagat (Check out the book\u0026amp;rsquo;s site). Not many books that I read get read, in a day.The amazing story of three friends through life at IIT, brought back memories that had been shelved for the past four years. Of the gazillion trees that were felled for the books I have bought, read and enjoyed, the trees that made this book lost their lives to a worthy cause.\nBhagat, hats off to you, for\nputting a smile on my face kindling some of the fond memories of collegiate life Hari, Alok and Ryan, my friends for a lifetime being such a gifted writer getting me back in touch with life There.. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a five pointer too! ;)\n","date":"Jul 29, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Book review: Five point someone","url":"/posts/2005/five-point-someone/"},{"body":"I encountered, by far, the sickest website I have seen in my entire life.\nKittyculture is the act of stuffing a sweet little kitten into a jar, sealing its anus shut and feeding it to a tube, and keeping it that way for 4 weeks and more, so that it may be given \u0026amp;ldquo;fair\u0026amp;rdquo; treatment by giving it an \u0026amp;ldquo;unique\u0026amp;rdquo; shape that nature has denied it!! Wow, I just read what I wrote and the absurdity just baffles me! How can anyone in their sane mind can even dream up something like this!!\nI personally feel very ashamed having to link to this site, but do so with great melancholy, just so that you can see it too, and sign this petition and stop it.\nPlease do visit it here, but only for the purpose of understanding how heinous man has become! How torturous we are towards our fellow creatures that nature has created.\nand sign the petition against it here\n","date":"Jul 19, 2005","tags":[],"title":"attrocious site - bonsaikitten.com","url":"/posts/2005/attrocious-site-bonsaikittencom/"},{"body":"Check out the future of google here\nGoogle Suggest is in BETA testing (as all other kewl features of google ;) ). Just go to the link above and search for your favourite search text and wait for a second before pressing \u0026amp;ldquo;Enter\u0026amp;rdquo; and voila!\n","date":"Jul 19, 2005","tags":["Tools"],"title":"The new face of google","url":"/posts/2005/the-new-face-of-google/"},{"body":"We went for team-lunch at this amazing restaurant called \u0026amp;ldquo;Kadaleevanam\u0026amp;rdquo;. It is a health food restau, at Mugappair, Chennai. The food there is based on naturopathic principles and it actually tasted quite good. They explain the food that you eat, and enforce (read, beware of the order in which you eat, or else they\u0026amp;rsquo;ll make you eat it again ;) ). A small tip, check out the ice-creams there (Yup, healthy ice-cream!! quite an oxy-moron eh?! ). Quite an interesting choice of ice-creams, like tender-coconut, ginger and honey, guava!\nRemember to reserve your spot there atleast a day ahead, coz the food is freshly prepared and no refrigeration and reheating. It is a must try if you are in Chennai. You can check out their site at here\n","date":"Jul 15, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Lunch at Kadaleevanam","url":"/posts/2005/lunch-at-khadalivanam/"},{"body":"What are the odds of meeting a violinst and a chartered accountant (two people, ofcourse ;) ) in the same city on the same day, at the same cafe? Well, I did just that. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sorry to say that I managed to forget the name of this very interesting violinst, who educated me at the finese of Bach\u0026amp;rsquo;s compositions and also taught me a coupla chords on the guitar (Aparently he plays that too!! )\nWell, I also met this kewl dude (deprived of rock since he arrived in Chennai). He calls himself Nitin, and is studying to be a chartered accountant. (Yo Nitin.. there I kept my promise.. I blogged about you).\nFinally, I managed to drag my butt outta office before 10 PM. Let\u0026amp;rsquo;s hope this keeps up!\n","date":"Jul 8, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Couple of guys and a cuppa","url":"/posts/2005/couple-of-guys-and-a-cuppa/"},{"body":"I just found this link on an orkut forum \u0026amp;hellip; yeah , I\u0026amp;rsquo;m part of orkut too!!\nCheck out Firetune. It is supposed to make Firefox quicker.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m testing it as of now.. and will post some results\n","date":"Jul 7, 2005","tags":["Tools"],"title":"Firetune - speed up your firefox","url":"/posts/2005/firetune-speed-up-your-firefox-2/"},{"body":"You Are a Life Blogger!\nYour blog is the story of your life - a living diary.\nIf it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.\nWhat kind of blogger are you?\n","date":"Jul 6, 2005","tags":[],"title":"What kind am I?","url":"/posts/2005/what-kind-am-i-2/"},{"body":"I booked a swift this weekend. Seems like it will take almost 5 months for delivery! I hate this BS dished by Maruti to its customers. Why introduce a car, which is by far the most economical in its class, packed with features and expect it to sell only 5000 a month?! Well, the sales rep at a Maruti Dealer told me the production capacity was just 5000 a month, and they already have booking close to 30000?!\nI can\u0026amp;rsquo;t fathom how such a blunder can be made by a company that is considered to be at the forefront of the Indian auto industry. It is quite irritating, having to wait for 5 months, but I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sure the end product is work the wait! Itching to get my hands on those wheels!\n","date":"Jul 5, 2005","tags":[],"title":"swift booked!","url":"/posts/2005/swift-booked/"},{"body":"Law 1.Every Software Engineer continues his state of chatting or forwarding mails unless he is assigned work by external unbalanced manager.\nLaw 2. The rate of change in the software is directly proportional to the payment received from client and takes place at the quick rate as when deadline force is applied.\nLaw 3. For every Use Case Manifestation there is an equal but opposite Software Implementation.\nLaw 4. Bugs can neither be created nor be removed from software by a developer. It can only be converted from one form to another. The total number of bugs in the software always remains constant.\nCourtesy Lenin\n","date":"Jun 28, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Newtons Laws For Software Engineers","url":"/posts/2005/newtons-laws-for-software-engineers-2/"},{"body":"I took the Swift for a test drive last weekend. Amazing feeling I must say! The gear changes are soo slick, spot on .. like a hot knife through table butter!\nThe acceleration is smooth, and yet let\u0026amp;rsquo;s you know it is there if you want to leave in a hurry. Perfect seating position for me (I\u0026amp;rsquo;m 6\u0026#39;5\u0026amp;quot;).\nThe vehicle took my heart away. It\u0026amp;rsquo;s now a Swift or nothing at all! I\u0026amp;rsquo;m booking it next weekend. Let me get my bonus!! pllluueeessse God pluuueeesse!\n","date":"Jun 27, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Swift!!","url":"/posts/2005/swift/"},{"body":"I happened to read some very interesting scary (to say the least) articles on how life as we know it may come to a standstill.\nCheck out some articles on the net about the Whats and the Whys of the Oil Crisis we are in today and what the implications are:\nLife After the Oil Crash\nTHE PARTY\u0026amp;rsquo;S OVER\nNine reasons the peak now looks more imminent\nEconomic \u0026amp;ldquo;Armageddon\u0026amp;rdquo; Predicted\n","date":"Jun 22, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Oil Crisis galore! The End as we know it?!","url":"/posts/2005/oil-crisis-galore-the-end-as-we-know-it/"},{"body":"I\u0026amp;rsquo;m planning to get a new car in the offing.\nThe brand new Maruti Swift ! yup! It is quite a kewl car, modelled quite a bit on the new \u0026amp;ldquo;Beetle\u0026amp;rdquo;\nCheck it out here\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m planning to get the VXi variant without ABS. It has got a kewl 87Bhp@6500 and 113 Nm@4500! Detailed specs here\nCurrently, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m working out the financials, let us see how it goes.\n","date":"Jun 13, 2005","tags":[],"title":"The New Ride","url":"/posts/2005/the-new-ride/"},{"body":"Check out nerdtests.com and find out if you are a nerd indeed!\nThis is what I got! ","date":"Jun 9, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Am I a Nerd or what?!","url":"/posts/2005/am-i-a-nerd-or-what/"},{"body":"http://techbooksforfree.com/\nNice site .. simple and has a loads of content.. Quite a collection I must say\nsource : http://www.uneasysilence.com/index.php?p=1049\n","date":"Jun 8, 2005","tags":[],"title":"More links to e-books","url":"/posts/2005/more-links-to-e-books/"},{"body":"Started working in VC.NET. The Visual Studio 2005 BETA is out! really kewl stuff. I simply love the IDE enhancements\nI had to port an application from VC6 to VC.NET. It was such a breeze. a little googling and most of the issues are under control\nWill post an article on it sometime\nI also got myself, the GoF Design Patterns book! simply amazing and such a great read, I must say\n","date":"Jun 8, 2005","tags":["coding"],"title":"VC++ Time","url":"/posts/2005/vc-time/"},{"body":"Visual Studio .NET 2003 is kewl.. I mean really kewl! The work flow is a hugely improved. Quick, a breeze to install and work with.\nand VS 2005 sounds even better, Check out the Express editions at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/\n","date":"Jun 3, 2005","tags":["coding"],"title":"Visual Studio .NET","url":"/posts/2005/visual-studio-net/"},{"body":"I simply love that plugin - Batch categories, like a myriad of other wordpress users. (A thousand thanks to Stephanie Booth wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t suffice ;) ), but I had problems getting it to work in 1.5.1\nLots of results out there, that explain how to fix it, but none that lets a newbie get it up quickly. I know this is a repetition, but it still took my more than a day to get it fixed (mebbe it\u0026amp;rsquo;s my dull head.. but then again)\nIf you are brand new to Word press, here it. As simple as it gets (or atleast I think so\u0026amp;hellip; do get back in case you have doubts)\n1. Download and install Batch-categories (0.9) from here.\n2. Installing implies, that you copy the batch-categories.php file to /wp-admin/\n3. Edit /wp-admin/batch-categories.php and do the modifications as detailed below\n**Change this:\n**\n$title = __(\u0026amp;lsquo;Batch Categories\u0026amp;rsquo;);\n$parent_file = \u0026amp;rsquo;edit.php\u0026amp;rsquo;;\nrequire_once(\u0026amp;lsquo;admin-header.php\u0026amp;rsquo;);\nto this:\n$title = __(\u0026amp;lsquo;Batch Categories\u0026amp;rsquo;);\n$parent_file = \u0026amp;rsquo;edit.php\u0026amp;rsquo;;\n**require_once(\u0026amp;lsquo;admin.php\u0026amp;rsquo;);\n**require_once(\u0026amp;lsquo;admin-header.php\u0026amp;rsquo;);\nSave batch-categories.php. Now launching it in your browser directly, will give you the required functionality (batch editing categories ie )\n4. If you want to include it as part of your admin screen, then open ****/wp-admin/menu.php\n**Below this:\n**\n$submenu[\u0026amp;rsquo;edit.php\u0026amp;rsquo;][30] = array(__(\u0026amp;lsquo;Files\u0026amp;rsquo;), 8, \u0026amp;rsquo;templates.php\u0026amp;rsquo;);\n**Add this:\n**\n$submenu[\u0026amp;rsquo;edit.php\u0026amp;rsquo;][40] = array(__(\u0026amp;lsquo;Batch Categories\u0026amp;rsquo;), 1, \u0026amp;lsquo;batch-categories.php\u0026amp;rsquo;);\n**5. Edit /wp-admin/batch-categories.php and delete the following:\n**\n\u0026amp;lt; ul id=\u0026amp;ldquo;adminmenu2?\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt; li\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; a href=\u0026amp;ldquo;edit.php\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /a\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /li\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt; li\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; a href=\u0026amp;ldquo;edit-comments.php\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; ?php _e(\u0026amp;lsquo;Comments\u0026amp;rsquo;) ?\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /a\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /li\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt; li\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; a href=\u0026amp;ldquo;moderation.php\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; ?php _e(\u0026amp;lsquo;Awaiting Moderation\u0026amp;rsquo;) ?\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /a\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /li\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt; li class=\u0026amp;ldquo;last\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; a href=\u0026amp;ldquo;batch-categories.php\u0026amp;rdquo; class=\u0026amp;ldquo;current\u0026amp;rdquo;\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; ?php _e(\u0026amp;lsquo;Batch Categories\u0026amp;rsquo;) ?\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /a\u0026amp;gt;\u0026amp;lt; /li\u0026amp;gt;\n\u0026amp;lt; /ul\u0026amp;gt;\nWell, I always beleive that if you want to learn, then you need to do things the hardest way possible. Then, the next time around you can eliminate that way and go on to more efficient ways. On that note, if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t want to do all the editing yourself. You can find the files here. Just download them and put them in you wp-admin directory, and enjoy! Ofcourse, you better take all the backups required and don\u0026amp;rsquo;t spam me if something is screwed up in your database.\n[batch-categories.php][1] [menu.php][2] Note: 1. Do not use left-click on the above link. Use right-click and \u0026amp;ldquo;Save Link As..\u0026amp;rdquo;/\u0026amp;ldquo;Save Target As..\u0026amp;rdquo; and rename the file to *.php instead of *.php.txt\n2. The above files are valid for 1.5.1 Wordpress only. …","date":"May 27, 2005","tags":["Tips \u0026 Tricks"],"title":"getting batch categories to work with Word press 1.5.1.1","url":"/posts/2005/getting-batch-categories-to-work-with-word-press-1511/"},{"body":"Hip hip hurrah! (applause ..) I finally managed to get my site up using wordpress. A truly wondeful peice of software. Thanks to all those developers and plugin-authors for their wonderful contribution to the world of blogging! I know that blogs are becoming less fashionable, but I have always been more into what is functional than fashionable.. It server my needs and that\u0026amp;rsquo;s all I care about. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m trying to make it look more static, like a normal website, but that is beside the point.\nAnyway, I still need to get the main page going, and also transfer my photos, to this interface. I also, am not very content with the way photo organisation is handled by most of the plugins.. Looks like the start of learning another scripting language. I\u0026amp;rsquo;m kinda occupied now, with the preparation for my CCNP switching exam.. but let us see how it goes. Meanwhile, I need to learn to blog a lot more!\nbtw, just in case I forget, I need to setup up a new section for the what\u0026amp;rsquo;s happening in my life right now (books being read, etc), also a section for orkut , yahoo, etc profiles and integrate orkut into my site. (Another plugin? ) today must be some kind of a light blub day!! ;)\n","date":"May 26, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Hurrah! to Wordpress","url":"/posts/2005/hurrah-to-wordpress/"},{"body":"Roaches have attacked the toner in laser printers .. or so some judges claim! however the infrastructure team claim that they have found yet another effective way of dealing with them.. the heat and the laser killing the roaches!?\nNow how weird is that. Check it out here\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s next, the spider that weaves a web that disconnects the US and Asia and disrupts outsourcing ?! ;) (touch wood)\n","date":"May 26, 2005","tags":[],"title":"roaches kill laser printers","url":"/posts/2005/roaches-kill-laser-printers/"},{"body":"Wordpress is a nice small CMS written entirely using php and mysql!\nIt makes using blogger, MT and other such services entirely useless!! If you have a website and would like to manage your website effectively go for this!!\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m planning to switch to it in the near future! I\u0026amp;rsquo;m working on choosing a nice skin and customising it for my site!\nDo check back soon!\n*Update 13-Nov-2009* You shouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t be here if you are looking for me. Well, considering that you are reading this, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve messed up somehow. You can find my latest ramblings at http://blog.shiv.me, or if you are the micro-blogging kind, head over to http://twitter.com/shiva or http://facebook.com/shivanand.\nYou are so inclined, you can drop me an email at shvelmur [at] gmail\nOhhh.. I forget, when I last wrote this wordpress was a nice small CMS, today, I would suggest you move to HiSlain. Written and maintained by a cool kid from India, Yuvi\n","date":"May 19, 2005","tags":[],"title":"word press!","url":"/posts/2005/word-press/"},{"body":"The latest update to gaim is out! These guys are churning in version after version .. nice and kewl\u0026amp;hellip;\n1.3.0 is more of a bug fix release .. not many features\nversion 1.3.0 (5/10/2005):\n* Removed parts of the font selection dialog that were not respected\n* Fix being invited to a multi user chat on MSN\n* Multiple SILC accounts should work now (Pekka Riikonen)\n* Fix times on jabber chat backlogs\n* Fix gevolution plugin to compile with e-d-s 1.0 or 1.2\n* Fix gevolution plugin to remember buddy name when someone added you\nand you then add them\n* Formatting in jabber chats works\n* Fix to prevent MSN disconnecting if you change status while connecting\n* Fixes for two remotely exploitable crash bugs. See\nhttp://gaim.sourceforge.net/security/ for more information.\ndownload the latest version here\n","date":"May 18, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Latest GAIM is out!","url":"/posts/2005/latest-gaim-is-out/"},{"body":"Well I confess, I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a tool fanatic . Before you get werid ideas let me tell you that what I mean is that I like to use small, efficient utilities, that help me get my work done quickly. I have been on a perpetual hunt for THE best utility for almost all tasks.\nA lot of my colleagues and friends seem to share this fascination for \u0026amp;ldquo;those quick little things\u0026amp;rdquo;. So here is a list of some that I use quite regularly.\nw.bloggar - Blog tool for Blogger.com\nPutty - SSH, SFTP client\nKeyNote - Content Management software\nCrapCleaner - cleans unwanted files created by windows\nExplorerXP - File management\nFileZilla - Ftp client\nHtml-Kit - HTML editor\nJAlbum - Photo album creator\nPicasa - Photo Organiser\n","date":"May 6, 2005","tags":[],"title":"A collection of tools that I have come to use","url":"/posts/2005/a-collection-of-tools-that-i-have-come-to-use/"},{"body":"A one stop shop for all your google needs!\nhttp://www.google.com/downloads/\nThese guys are doing awesome stuff aren\u0026amp;rsquo;t they?!\nWhat\u0026amp;rsquo;s next? a self-aware OS?\n","date":"May 6, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Google downloads","url":"/posts/2005/google-downloads/"},{"body":"Yup, been a very long time since I blogged!! but I am back again!\n**Thanks to my fellow util-seeker Sudhin for this bit of news\n**\nAdobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia (Nasdaq: MACR) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by both boards of directors, Macromedia stockholders will receive, at a fixed exchange ratio, 0.69 shares of Adobe common stock for every share of Macromedia common stock in a tax-free exchange. Based on Adob \u0026amp;rsquo;s and Macromedia\u0026amp;rsquo;s closing prices on Friday April 15, 2005, this represents a price of $41.86 per share of Macromedia common stock.\nThe combination of Adobe and Macromedia strengthens our mission of helping people and organizations communicate better. Through the combination of our powerful development, authoring and collaboration tools \u0026amp;ndash; and the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash \u0026amp;ndash; we have the opportunity to drive an industry-defining technology platform that delivers compelling, rich content and applications across a wide range of devices and operating systems.\nBy combining the passion and creativity of two leading-edge companies, we will continue driving innovations that are changing the ways people everywhere are experiencing and interacting with information.\nInfo here\nWhat willl happen to FrameMaker, DreamWeaver, Flash and the other good technologies?\n","date":"Apr 19, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Adobe and Macromedia to merge","url":"/posts/2005/adobe-and-macromedia-to-merge/"},{"body":"Free ebooks are available for download from Apress.\nA Programmer\u0026amp;rsquo;s Introduction to PHP 4.0 Dissecting a C# Application: Inside SharpDevelop Writing Perl Modules for CPAN Programming VB .NET: A Guide For Experienced Programmers COM and .NET Interoperability NJoy!\n","date":"Mar 9, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Free e-books from Apache!","url":"/posts/2005/free-e-books-from-apache/"},{"body":"Started reading \u0026amp;ldquo;Illusions\u0026amp;rdquo; by Richard Bach. Often, I feel, that a book comes in your life, when you are ready for it. It presents itself, in ways you never would have imagined. I have heard of this book for the last 10 years. There has been a sopy at my parent\u0026amp;rsquo;s place (where I stayed for the better part of the last 10 years) and it never occured to me, to pick that small book (of about 200 odd pages) and give it a read.\nThis weekend has been a little disturbing, and when I was there lounging in my hall, on a Sturday hot afternoon, something caught the corner of my eye. This small book was jutting out admist the pile of rubbish that I have come to collect. It was odd. It was as if it was beckoning me to pick it up.. Urging me towards itself, a weird, yet sensible and completely discernable gravity\u0026amp;hellip;\nI finally gave in, snapping out of the half-slumber, I picked it up and as the pages unfolded, so did the solutions to my worries. It was as if, this book was written a good 3 decades ago, with the full knowledge that a soul such as myself would want it, would benefit from the contents (immensly). Long live the hope of fateful coincidences!\n**Links to some reviews **\nRichard Bach\u0026amp;rsquo;s Site Wikiquote - Richard Bach Quotes from \u0026amp;ldquo;Illusions\u0026amp;rdquo; by Richard Bach More Quotes from \u0026amp;ldquo;Illusions\u0026amp;rdquo; by Richard Bach Review of \u0026amp;ldquo;Illusions\u0026amp;rdquo; by Richard Bach ","date":"Mar 7, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Journey with a book","url":"/posts/2005/journey-with-a-book/"},{"body":"FIR of a virus on a phone! A very warm welcome to the world of computing! Soon we will need antiviral software running on our phones all the time and that would mean that your phones will get more processing power. If phones take the way PCs have, the day when we will have a phone with a huge Pentium or whatever processor and tons of RAM won\u0026amp;rsquo;t be too far away.\nA little over-engineering I say. Today, I can\u0026amp;rsquo;t get a system, that can do a bare minimum of tasks, everything has everything else built-in. This, of course, is a double edged sword! Although it helps to bring the cost down, I will end up paying for things that I might never use! What is the use of a graphics card (on-board intel810) for a system that I shall primarily use for word-processing, email and some browsing!\n","date":"Feb 22, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Your phone might catch a cold","url":"/posts/2005/your-phone-might-catch-a-cold/"},{"body":"What a lousy feeling it is, when you hold shares of a company, whose customer you have been for more than 2 years and have paid everyone of the bills in time, and when you have an issue, you are brushed under the carpet!That\u0026amp;rsquo;s what happened to me today.\nI have been with Airtel (cell phone service provider in Chennai, India - for the uninitiated ;)) for the last two years. I had an automatic debit facility enabled. In January, the credit card I had enabled the auto-debit facility on expired. Airtel, promptly disabled the facility and disconnected my service asking me to call customer support. Well, I tried to do just that, but you know what?, the call to customer-care wouldn\u0026amp;rsquo;t go through coz they disconnected me!! Wonderful!\nI travel to Pondicherry in the weekends, and incidentally it happened just after I boarded the bus on Friday. I managed to find an Airtel connect that was open on Saturday and paid my bill. However it took the whole of 3 working days to enable my account again! So much for being on a corporate plan!\nNow comes the best part \u0026amp;hellip; (hold your breath ;) ). I wanted to enable the auto-debit again and guess what you need to do? This being the age of the paperless office, you need to fill a two page form (about 30-40 fields in all), attach a photocopy of your card and submit the form at Airtel connect or you have the option of calling your corporate customer care executive to collect it from your office. Now that seems simple enough\u0026amp;hellip; Except that it takes four calls to person concerned and loads of cajoling to get him in the vicinity of your office, but then ofcourse he/she chooses to disregard your plight and ignore you. After the ignominy of such sorts, you brave to drive to the nearest Airtel connect office, which incidentally has been so well dispersed across town, so as to avoid proximity to any office building! (Good design always pays off you see)\nYou get there, finally after the torture of Chennai\u0026amp;rsquo;s traffic (see my old article on Chennai\u0026amp;rsquo;s traffic) just to find out that you are late by 30 seconds and you have to do the whole trip again. By this time, you are so fed up that the guy across the counter decides to leave his seat coz it gets really hot with the steam that is the result of your brain getting cooked, thanks to the wonderful, delightful service rendered to you after paying your bills in time for the last two years, having invested in the company coz your thought it was professionally run!\nWhat you learn out this life changing event - STOP USING CELLPHONES - THEY ARE INJURIOUS TO BODY AND MIND!\n","date":"Feb 17, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Woes with airtel services","url":"/posts/2005/woes-with-airtel-services/"},{"body":"Hi folks!!\nThis weekend I got myself a website and a domain name.\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;m yet to get my site up and running. I am looking for ideas for my site content.\nkeep checking http://www.shvelmur.com\n","date":"Feb 2, 2005","tags":[],"title":"New website launched","url":"/posts/2005/new-website-launched/"},{"body":"Today has been a very sad day. I bid farewell to Mr Subramaniam.\nHe was my grandfather\u0026amp;rsquo;s nephew and has been my a great inspiration to me in my life. One of the bravest and knowledgeable persons I have known. One who lived through life with conviction and was as clear at heart as they come.\nHe has always been there for my family at good and bad times.\nA devout and practising Hindu, and a learned man in vedic chants, I have always envied him of having lived in my grandfather\u0026amp;rsquo;s company. I think, what I know about my grandpa, is what \u0026amp;ldquo;mani thatha\u0026amp;rdquo; (what I used to call him) has told me of. Having lived in the pre-independance era, he has offered many insights into the lives of my forefathers.\nYou shall be remembered and your words cherished forever in our hearts. I wish your soul to rest in peace. Adieu my dear \u0026amp;ldquo;mani thatha\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;ldquo;Could we see when and where we are to meet again, we would be more tender when we bid our friends goodbye.\u0026amp;rdquo;\n\u0026amp;ndash; Marie Louise De La Ramee, [Ouida]\n","date":"Jan 22, 2005","tags":[],"title":"Eulegy for a good heart","url":"/posts/2005/eulegy-for-a-good-heart/"},{"body":"http://www.microsoft.com/resources/design/\nThis site deserves a visit, but don\u0026amp;rsquo;t try it with anything less than a T1 line! ;) (T1 = high bandwidth high speed - for the uninitiated)\nA very new refereshing interface. Quite an enjoyable experience.\n","date":"Dec 15, 2004","tags":[],"title":"A very kewl site from Microsoft","url":"/posts/2004/a-very-kewl-site-from-microsoft/"},{"body":"JavaScript Tutorial\nThis site has the most comprehensive tutorials for almost everything that I have seen offlate!!! Really work a visit!\nIf you are looking for anything related to the web from HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, DHTML, SQL, ASP, .NET, VBScript, SOAP, RDF,WAP ..etc.. and the list goes on forever, you can find it at the aforementioned site!!\nhats off to whomever that maintains the site!\n","date":"Dec 13, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Tutorials for the uninitiated","url":"/posts/2004/tutorials-for-the-uninitiated/"},{"body":"This is a very kewl gui toolkit for J2se, .NET, J2me .\nVery neat and neat indeed.\nZaval Light-Weght - Visual Component Library\nIt is available under GPL and comercial license.. Need to try using it with a coupla tools I have in mind. I know that there are zillions of open-source utilities out there, but I am looking for ideas for applications and utilities that you would liket o use at home/work.\nAny suggestions are welcome. I develop using the following\n1. J2SE\n2. J2EE\n3. .NET\n4. VC++\n5. eVC++ (pocket pc)\n6. J2ME\n7. Perl/CGI\nSo if you are here, by doing a google search then do send me requests for tools that you would like to use and let me have a go at them. Who knows? we could be thinking of the next netscape!? ;)\n","date":"Dec 9, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Zaval Light-Weght - Visual Component Library","url":"/posts/2004/zaval-light-weght-visual-component-library/"},{"body":"Been offline for quite a few days now!!\nWork, work work!!! Loads of it!! and I am luvin\u0026amp;rsquo; it!\nBtw, my latest acquisition in my digital brigade is my new (well not so!) Delll Axim X3 handheld!!\nCheck out these sites for kewl development utils for the pocket pc\nhttp://mifki.ru/pocketgcc/index.html\nhttp://mifki.ru/pcsharp/index.html\n","date":"Nov 30, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Pocket GCC @ mifki.ru","url":"/posts/2004/pocket-gcc-mifki-ru/"},{"body":"Wired 12.11: How I Learned to Love Larry\nThis article by the former CEO of RIAA is quite intriguing. In today\u0026amp;rsquo;s world of \u0026amp;ldquo;digital creativity\u0026amp;rdquo;, are the copyright laws really as relevant as in yester-years? Does copyright laws curb creativity or are they in place for safegaurding the poor content creator from being cheated out of their pride possessions by 12-year-old, computer weilding school kids?!\nCheck out these links too\nhttp://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96797,00.html\nhttp://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/09/music.swap.settlement/\n","date":"Oct 28, 2004","tags":[],"title":"copyrights!! that's the in-thing these days !! Wired 12.11: How I Learned to Love Larry","url":"/posts/2004/copyrights-thats-the-in-thing-these-days-wired-12-11-how-i-learned-to-love-larry/"},{"body":"Google Desktop Search Download\nCheck it out!!! I love thee Google, \u0026amp;ldquo;Lord of Search\u0026amp;rdquo;!!\nReally really neat way to access information. Very quick, a little scary considering that Google can go on to become the next MS! We the users of technology (particularly developers, testers etc) are going to have more exiciting times!!\nGoogle Desktop is a like have the Google search engine installed for searching your system. it indexes your system, and ofcourse it currently supports only Microsoft products, but hope that a few of the open source software liek thunderbird and firefox are also supported soon.\nLooking for that file that you know is about something , but just can\u0026amp;rsquo;t remember where you put it on your system.. no probs, just load up a browser with GDesktop and it\u0026amp;rsquo;ll find it for you!\n","date":"Oct 21, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Google Desktop Search Download","url":"/posts/2004/google-desktop-search-download/"},{"body":"Wired News: Plasma Beam Eyed in Space Travel\nNow that is what I can advancement in technology!!! Way to go prof Winglee .. let\u0026amp;rsquo;s get ourselves moving to other galaxies \u0026amp;hellip; maybe in my lifetime!!!\n","date":"Oct 19, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Wired News: Plasma Beam Eyed in Space Travel","url":"/posts/2004/wired-news-plasma-beam-eyed-in-space-travel/"},{"body":"Well, are you really bored with life and have a net connection, but none of the sites do anything for you?!! Well, here is one nice site that caught my attention when I was googling (= verb. searching aimlessly on google with anything that comes to your mind!)\nNeat interface and no \u0026amp;ldquo;signup with us if you want to use\u0026amp;rdquo; thingy, gives good trivia and lots of news about the Indian job scene (if you would care to look at it!)\nBoredGuru.com : Home\n","date":"Oct 11, 2004","tags":[],"title":"BoredGuru.com","url":"/posts/2004/boredguru-com/"},{"body":"daily dose of imagery is a very nice site .. wonderful site with great pics that are inspiring. Check it out every single day\n","date":"Oct 7, 2004","tags":[],"title":"daily dose of imagery","url":"/posts/2004/daily-dose-of-imagery/"},{"body":"ultimate boot cd\nCheck out this link!! Really useful for those like me who invariably end up doing something to their OS that they have to reimage their pc atleast once in two months!! I have CD writer and I back up most of my work, so I get to fiddle with whatever, but my data is safe!!!\n","date":"Oct 7, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Ultimate Boot CD - Overview","url":"/posts/2004/ultimate-boot-cd-overview/"},{"body":"As I have mentioned earlier, I have recently moved to a new team at office.\nThis weekend, we went on a team outing to Mahabalipuram. Well, if you are in India and happen to visit Tamil Nadu, do not, and I say again, DO NOT forget to make a trip to Sterling Resorts ( and no, I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t take money from them to say this )\nThey have this kewl package to offer. They take you on a boat ride, into the sea (3/4) kilometers and, they throw (not literally) you into the water. Actually,it is more like they help you into the water. You get to hold on to your dear life at the end of a rope! It is great fun to swim in the sea, with nothingness for about 70/80 feet below you. It scares the shit out of you, if you don\u0026amp;rsquo;t know how to swim i.e!\nWe had a real great time\u0026amp;hellip; ofcourse there is the usual, TT, volleybal etc, but the boat ride was the icing on the cake..\nIf you are as lucky as we were, you can hear music from a divine voice.. You can contact me for that\u0026amp;hellip; maybe I can cajole Dinesh (ODC\u0026amp;rsquo;s own SPB!) into make a trip with you and sing for you\u0026amp;hellip; ;) just kidding !!\nDinesh you\u0026amp;rsquo;ve got one helluva voice man!!\n","date":"Sep 27, 2004","tags":[],"title":"cm-dev's day out!","url":"/posts/2004/cm-devs-day-out/"},{"body":"Had to dump Frequency! :( No support for titles! Based on the old Blogger 1.0 API and free only for 15 days!!. Desperately in need of another client based interface, after moving to opera. It is such a pain, to browse in one environment and having to open IR just for blogging.\nI think I should write a client myself based on the atom API. Now that I have a VC environment with me, I might just do that! If at anyone reads this blog, please do get in touch with me if you are interested in write a small VC++ application that will sit on the taskbar, and will let you post to blogger.\nBtw, I found a really kewl photo site\nphoto.net\nA very nice quote on the website -\n\u0026amp;ldquo;I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn\u0026amp;rdquo; \u0026amp;ndash; Pablo Picasso\n","date":"Sep 22, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Had to dump Frequency","url":"/posts/2004/had-to-dump-frequency/"},{"body":"Frequency - client for weblog postingFound a very neat client for posting a blog item on Blogger and other weblogs available!! This is really neat. It let\u0026amp;rsquo;s blog quite comfortably without disrupting my workflow! Not much time wasted in waiting for UI to get loaded and no timeouts and multiple logins in a day!\nAnyway, I hope this gets me bloging more regularly!\n","date":"Sep 21, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Found a client interface for posting blogs!! Frequency!","url":"/posts/2004/found-a-client-interface-for-posting-blogs-frequency/"},{"body":"and yeah!!! the day has come, when I get to get my hands dirty with some VC++ coding!!\nThat has been the primary reason for me not blogging for such a long long time. Anyway, after about 15 - 20 days of a good dip in VC++, life is good.\nLast week, Priyanka and me, we celebrated our marriage\u0026amp;rsquo;s first anniversary! I drove down to Pondicherry that night (8-sep-2004), on Shankar\u0026amp;rsquo;s bike! The bike is really trashed I say\u0026amp;hellip; At the end of the drive my hands were swollen and red. Gosh, I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve never felt so much vibration on a bike.\nOn the way, I got to meet a coupla guys, who were fascinated with my helmet!\nHad a great time the last coupla weeks. Hoping the good run continues!\n","date":"Sep 16, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Working my ass off on VC++","url":"/posts/2004/working-my-ass-off-on-vc/"},{"body":"Tech Crazy � Internet connections will hit 10Gbit by 2010 in Japan\nNow that is what is happening in this world. Japanese gov is talking about getting a 2 hour moving into their people\u0026amp;rsquo;s homes in just 35 secs apiece! Is the Indian government listening ?!!\n","date":"Aug 30, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Tech Crazy Internet connections will hit 10Gbit by 2010 in Japan","url":"/posts/2004/internet-connections-will-hit-10gbit-by-2010-in-japan/"},{"body":"Matthew Yglesias: June 20, 2004 - June 26, 2004 Archives: \u0026amp;ldquo;The Dialectic of Inaccuracy\u0026amp;rdquo;\nCheck that article out. One of the most well-written, thought provoking articles in some time!\nAnyway, I drove down to Pondy on my bike on Friday! Night ride with Tanigai and Prem. Peaceful, uneventful ride home. Was feeling very happy about it! Not for long. I met with an accident on Sunday morn, thrashed (well, almost. gonna cost me 2500 and upwards).\nI was driving along one of the exits from Pondicherry, towards Villanur(my wife\u0026amp;rsquo;s College is on the way), and there was some ongoing repair work. A carrier auto, stopped for me (he was turning right). I went through to cross him, and there he was, 15 to 17 years of age, an idiotic blank grin that was telling me, oops sorry , I didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t mean to but I\u0026amp;rsquo;m stupid, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have a license to drive, but have a license to kill you! He was right there, stick his head out from behind the auto ( and his bike too) just a foot in front of me.\nWham!!! The next thing I knew was, I was standing there, blood oozing from my left foot, and one bystander and one policeman defending the stupid kid, just coz he is younger and has a smaller bike! \u0026amp;ldquo;Get a life people\u0026amp;rdquo;, I thought and blew my lid off at the police guy for being such a whimp and at encouraing such bad driving practices on the roads.\nwell, wonder when, people on the roads be accused for their error in driving, rather than based on the size/cost of their vehicles!\n","date":"Aug 30, 2004","tags":[],"title":"The results of Correctness","url":"/posts/2004/the-results-of-correctness/"},{"body":"\u0026amp;ldquo;Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn\u0026amp;rsquo;t do than by the ones that you did. So throw off the bowline. Sail away from the safe harbour. Dream. Explore.Discover\u0026amp;rdquo;\nMark Twain ","date":"Aug 26, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Quote by Mark Twain","url":"/posts/2004/quote-by-mark-twain/"},{"body":"charles statman - hiya Charles!! Well this is a must read blog! This guy is really really living life! Way to go Charles!\nI\u0026amp;rsquo;ve known him through Kandan ( you are kewl too Kandan no offence ;) - set up a blog and I\u0026amp;rsquo;ll host you too on mine!)\n","date":"Aug 25, 2004","tags":[],"title":"charles statman - you don't know me but I know you~","url":"/posts/2004/charles-statman-you-dont-know-me-but-i-know-you/"},{"body":"Come on people! What\u0026amp;rsquo;s up with Chennai roads these days.. yeah I can understand that since the city is growing blah, blah, blah, it is going to be congested\u0026amp;hellip;. but you know there is this thing called sanity that departs you when it takes you an hour and half to get from Numgambakkam to Vadapalani!!\nI hate it and I hate it and I hate it!! grrrrrrrr!!!\nWell, it is madness I say, what\u0026amp;rsquo;s the point in selling bikes over 150 cc and cars the size of a Cessna if there is hardly any room for people to use their vehicles on! Our roads got to go bigger! I know, I know, don\u0026amp;rsquo;t you ask me how?! Figure out how, Corporation of Chennai!\nRemove those stupid barriers that is supposed to regularize traffic! All they serve is to congest the roads even more. Take our infamous Arcot road! Who is that brainy road-designer (is that what you call \u0026amp;rsquo;em?) who thought that have a 8 feet road separator on a 40 feet road would ease traffic?! duh?! Get real guys!!\nWhy is that one has to ride through every conceivable road encroachment from your friendly petty shop to barricade perpendicular to traffic direction ( now, that must be the ingenuity of the Chennai Police! how does reducing the area usable by traffic, help control it?!) to dust bins to every thing that the Almighty created, smack on your path back home , right after you have negotiated, lane cutting autos and practically standstill rickshaws (bang in the middle of the road, not to mention!)\nWell, I guess I\u0026amp;rsquo;m a little stressed out, so out for a smoke me go! Gotta quit that one of these days, maybe will help do away with a few petty shops and a few more cig butts on our chennai roads!\n","date":"Aug 25, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Damn I hate the traffic in Chennai","url":"/posts/2004/damn-i-hate-the-traffic-in-chennai/"},{"body":"Indian scientist working on $250 PC-phone-TV\nNow that\u0026amp;rsquo;s gotta be good news ;). The world needs such kind of low cost devices. The more people have these devices, the more jobs we get to explloit .!! hehhehe ;)\n","date":"Aug 19, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Indian scientist working on $250 PC-phone-TV","url":"/posts/2004/indian-scientist-working-on-250-pc-phone-tv/"},{"body":"mozilla.org - home of mozilla, firefox, thunderbird and camino\nCheck out this site!!! Mozilla Thunderbird rules. Finally, a mail client that can handle about 500 MB of mail, blogs, newsfeeds etc. and it is customisable and there are some very neat plugins on the net, if you are interested.\n","date":"Aug 18, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Mozilla Thunderbird rocks !!","url":"/posts/2004/mozilla-thunderbird-rocks/"},{"body":"The Onion : CIA Asks Bush To Discontinue Blog\nCome on old man! Get your grips on. You go on to tell the entire world that you have to attend a secret meeting?! Duh?! That kind of beats the purpose of a secret meeting uh?!\nWell, one has to appreciate the efforts of a president, if he thinks that he wants to tell his unedited opinion about things to the people of the world. That is worth applause. It is not that I concur with all his opinions, but if we had a leader or two, who would pick up blogging and will read through the comments that the people give to his opinions, India can become a far better place?!\nDon\u0026amp;rsquo;t you think so?\nIf you are interested, here is George W. Bush\u0026amp;rsquo;s blog\n","date":"Aug 18, 2004","tags":[],"title":"The Onion : CIA Asks Bush To Discontinue Blog","url":"/posts/2004/the-onion-cia-asks-bush-to-discontinue-blog/"},{"body":"This blogging thing is turning out to be good. It let\u0026amp;rsquo;s you interface with people and take a sneak peek into their minds, (which btw, I think has been the most characteristic search of humankind in the last century - a peek into the evolving human mind) without tramping on their time or egos!\nanyway, on my wayward browsing adventure, I happened to look at a quote posted on one of the blogs by Heather\n\u0026amp;ldquo;I\u0026amp;rsquo;d say I\u0026amp;rsquo;m sorry to disappoint you, but I\u0026amp;rsquo;m not. I excel at not giving a shit. Experience has taught me that interest begets expectation, and expectation beget disappointment, so the key to avoiding disappointment is to avoid interest. A equals B equals C Equals A, or whatever. I also don\u0026amp;rsquo;t have a lot of interest in being a good person or a bad person. From what I can tell, either way, you\u0026amp;rsquo;re screwed. Bad people are punished by society\u0026amp;rsquo;s laws, and good people are punished by Murphy\u0026amp;rsquo;s Law. So you see my dilemma.\u0026amp;rdquo; - Georgia Lass\u0026amp;quot; - **Dead Like Me **\nNow, how true is that. How many times, have we thought that everytime that we do something real good, we get screwed up for it, and the smallest of demeanors that we are put under the microscope! - well that\u0026amp;rsquo;s life for you!!\nand Heather - that you quote, probably echoes the sentiments of most of us in the last two and half decades, with world we live in turning more and more cynical by the day!\n","date":"Aug 16, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Getting screwed for doing the right and wrong","url":"/posts/2004/getting-screwed-for-doing-the-right-and-wrong/"},{"body":"The Da Vinci Code - FAQs - Official Website of Dan Brown\nThis book , \u0026amp;ldquo;The Da Vince Code\u0026amp;rdquo; (DVC), by **Dan Brown **is a must read by every person who has ever read a fiction novel. The most gripping tale that I\u0026amp;rsquo;ve heard/read in quite some time.\nThe audacity of the author to lay questions about the foundations of the one of the most populous religions in this world has to be applauded. Further, he raises questions that make you question yourself!. Now ever, heard of a fiction autor make you do that.\nA paperback that makes you think! Now that\u0026amp;rsquo;s a new one.\nBtw, if you like the DVC, you might also want to take a peek at \u0026amp;ldquo;The unauthorised guide to the DVC\u0026amp;rdquo; by Dan Burstein\n","date":"Aug 16, 2004","tags":[],"title":"The day Vinci Code - Official Website of Dan Brown","url":"/posts/2004/the-day-vinci-code-official-website-of-dan-brown/"},{"body":"I received a mail about the diffrences in the roles of a Leader and a Manager.\nA quote from therein - \u0026amp;ldquo;Ethics is the maintaining of life at the highest point of development\u0026amp;rdquo; - A. Schweitzer\n","date":"Aug 15, 2004","tags":[],"title":"A novel definition of Ethics","url":"/posts/2004/a-novel-definition-of-ethics/"},{"body":"Check this out!\nIs it true that Google is offering a terabyte of space or is it a marketing gimmick as hardly any would cross the 1 GB mark?!\n","date":"Aug 15, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Google offers a terabyte of storage space!","url":"/posts/2004/google-offers-a-terabyte-of-storage-space/"},{"body":"Chennai Online News Service - View News\nPerhaps the dawn of an era, where Indian software companies will start developing products and not stop with providing services to US software giants. Good news for all Indian developers, maybe in the future, we can truly claim second place in software innovation.\n","date":"Aug 4, 2004","tags":[],"title":"Chennai Online News Service","url":"/posts/2004/chennai-online-news-service-view-news/"}]