digital utopia or something like it

Moved ...

2010-07-18T19:44:00.001+09:00

Ive moved my soapbox to another corner of the net ... drop by if you care to read my incoherent ramblings. http://stevenjoseph.in ciao

Finding yourself on the internet

2009-09-08T18:59:00.002+09:00

You find yourself following ideas that you know will not work, but u persist for the idea of it.

Adaptability is subjective to the adoptee and the adopter, like they say it takes two to tango.

And the sitting, how do starfleet officers program systems standing, maybe thats an interesting hint to staying on focus. A standing person is more alert and aware than when seated. If you are as curious as I am and addicted to little intellectual conquests, you'd be able to relate to the satisfaction of having solved a simple irrelevant problem,,,,,,,,,, of no value. But you do it beacuse you are addicted to it. But taking a wider realm of human activities almost everything is an addiction aquired over repeated use or abuse. Hey then you're saying that you can get addicted to anything and life is just one big addiction to being here, within which is a series of uppers and downers. To avoid sounding overly pessimistic, i think the word habit would be more appropriate to use than addiction. By that rational life is a habit ? makes sense considering that we live in a 'habitat'. That lead me to whether we are just creatures of habit, enslaved by our habits or just aware of it ? if we are enslaved by it we become very predictable and vunerable, but on the other hand being aware of it makes life more interesting. Life becomes a series of intresting devious plots of your subconcious, which the person that others know as you, has very little control over. I cannot comment on the nature of the silent observer, its just ..... TINGGGGG :)

back in a rick ...

2009-07-31T18:17:00.001+09:00

Here i am back in a rick and blogging ... A bit of a bumpy ride today ... An over enthusiastic autowalla. Its roller coaster ride to work ... No safeties though

Racing autorikshaw ...

2009-07-30T14:26:00.003+09:00

Blogging in the autorikshaw is awesome .. Especially if you have a crazy impatient rikshaw walla ... Speeding over the open flyover bridge, typing faster as we go faster, yeah its a trip and im a geek.

ok i've relocated again ...

2009-07-30T14:26:00.001+09:00

Done settling into a new appartment. Enjoying the luxury of having 24/7 water supply, and more space. Forget post human even the most human have not been addressed to. BTW whats the beef with building society and ISPs. Internet delayed for 12 DAYS hence. Feels like im living in a village, oh wait I am living in a village ... Thakur Village. Hmm note to self - read asterix and obelix ... Again. Ok gotta run ... Rikshaw hunting to do ... Gotta catch me one of them rikshaws to ride to work.

One of the coolest feature in Kde4 - Highlighting in okular

2009-03-23T15:07:00.002+09:00

Text highlighting in okular the pdf viewer included with kde4 is so cool. By the way it also remembers the hilights.

New life ....

2009-03-20T18:21:00.001+09:00

Right out of my window sill... Its been a week since eggs hatched. Two healthy looking ugly little hatchlings. The mom bird was more paranod than ever, ruffled dads feathers one early morning with an unexpected interuption. Looks like my window has gone up in the pigeon housing and maternity market. Another couple has started setting up nest on my living room window. Coupla them were bold enough to evaluate my kitchen storage for nesting space, scared the shit out em ;) .

i saw the kite again ...

2009-03-07T23:36:00.002+09:00

this time it was sitting on the corner of the building .. the pigeons kept away ... sitting on the other side of the building ... as i was watching the kite .... i noticed that a coupla pigeons walking up to the kite .. they came about 10 meters to the kite ...freaked out, and flew away. The kite seemed not to care ... just sitting there aware it was being watched... his wings were creating lift in the wind ... but he was firmly perched. Then two crows approached the kite from both sides of the building ... when the crows reached pecking distance to the kite, he took off as though he did not notice the crows coming up to it.

still the same

2009-03-03T18:14:00.002+09:00

nothing has changed .. there is no shining new india ... its still the same medieval attitude ... i think im gonna take my zafu and go into the woods and sit under a tree ... and watch the fireworks as the same thing happens all over again ... the cycles

2009-03-03T11:43:00.000+09:00

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs forever bent."

the pigeons have come ...

2009-03-03T10:34:00.004+09:00

no sign of the crows yet ... i know they are watching me ...the come to my window and caw, 'what is this creature, a random number generator?' ... they always prefer to take strategic positions ... on top of the pole ... good visibility, corners of the building. Is it time for the kite to come ... looks like it ... the pigeons and the crows are alert ... the kite spirals down gracefully efficient, the pigeons scatter ... in groups of course unless one of them gets singled out ... but there is still salvation for the pigeons ... the crows don't seem to like the kites coming around ... u can tell the age of the kite by seeing his once beautiful wings missing a few plumes. ... hmmmm where are the dragons ??

A monkey mind to stimulate monkey minds ?

2008-12-08T14:55:00.001+09:00

I was really annoyed by the cnn/ibn presenter (raj). What a monkey mind ... Insteae of making the discusion a calm and mature conversation and discussion. That man was provoking both sides and confusing, and distracting the viewers. What bull shit . . .That guy sucks he fits in a kindergarden debate team. CNN IBN... is India's fox and this guy seems to be the bill o'riely of Indian media. My personal opinion ...

We need more security ...

2008-12-08T00:10:00.001+09:00

After getting seated ... I was searching for the seat belt buckles ... Hey wait a min... Im not in a flight ... Damn im getting even more absent minded than before. Guess its becuz of having a long transit flight from birmingham to mumbai via dubai, guess i got so used to the frisking and emptying of pockets that when i had to do the same thing to watch a movie ... Some sort of conditioning to look for the seatbelts when getting seated after security checks. Hmmm no more bindass mumbai

Pay as you go subscription to life.

2008-12-08T00:09:00.001+09:00

Its funny when you look around and contemplate, have we gotten so used to the human condition that we have forgotten, that we are in the human condition. Life now comes with many exciting new offers, all designed to make your stay in this dimension as exciting as possible. Hey but what happened to the basic package.

Maya ...

2008-12-02T05:48:00.001+09:00

Maya is the illusion of this world. We move in strange democracies . . . A million masks of god. If one has to understand India one has to accept this. Strange that study of fundamental particles in physics ... Well i am no physicist but i guess singularity is what they call it . . . We live in an illusion ... Maya. We think that this is a material world but any physicist would tell you that what we precive as this material world is all just concentration of energy. In india you are constantly reminded of the illusion ... Symbols and words reminding u of it every where. So for a person who is unaware of these myysteries of the universe, India might be living hell. I knew mumbai devi was going to slap me on the face and bring me back to the 'reality' and discard the illusion. But from my experience in the west ie Coventry/UK i see that it is very easy for a person to be completely oblivious to the 'reality'. There are a million illusions being being propagated but very few reality checks. Its very easy for one to be an apyarthana buddha (unsure of spelling but what it means is a private buddha). Such a person wanders of into his own world and is lost never to be seen again (respect to Sir Alan Watts and youtube for educating me on this). But as it is in the west it is in the East. Maya surrounds you this illusionary world. But my first fews days in mumbai i am reminded of what is reall in this world. I am humbled by the one. Butterflies are never born as butterflies intresting if you apply this prespective at a cosmic level. ;-) Oh well ...

Super jumper dream

2008-12-01T23:30:00.002+09:00

I had a most intresting jumper dream. This is by far one of the most vivid jumper dream i've ever had. I was having a siesta, one hot humid mumbai afternoon, after a heated arguement with my fiancee. I dreamt that i was in the UK and i was frustrated with life. So to vent my frustration i decide to go for a run. So i start running as im running im thinkin of all my frustrations, which pumps me up and soon im running really fast. But im in control im able to slow down or come to an abrupt stop when there are obstacles like people and cars on the way. Ocassionaly i grace a few people, but too badly i dodge cars and buses and keep on running. Then i start leaping obstacles like low fences and stones, park chairs etc. Soon im leaping like crazy. Like im on a low gravity planet. I feel the power in my legs as i ran through the town leaping over everythin , running through the cathedral, leaping over a whole row of chairs in the cathedral, to my own amazement and to the amazement of people around. So i pretty much cover the whole town leaping and running scaling walls, roads, cars, people. Then i reach a park where i keep jumping upwards for sometime, jumping really high and trying to do backflips. Soon i rwalize that other people who are looking at me start doing the same and they too try jumping higher. Feeling a bit concious, i leave the part and continue jumping towards the place wher i used to stay in coventry. Ok it gets a bit wierd now , im leaping and bounding along the road, running along the high wall of earth along the road. All of a sudden i totaly break free of gravity ! I loose control and float into the middle of the road. Despratly trying to get some footing so i could dodge the double decker buses speeding by. So some how im able to bounce of some buses and get to the wall opposite to the place where i used to live, where i'm able to pull out some wiring from the wall and hold on. While im trying to figure out whats up, i see that next to my place ther is a brothel. The upper window of the brothel seemed to be a talking red gory hole. It was a talking red anus! And it was screaming at some guy along with some hookers who wer around. They were cursing and threatening the guy. I just hung on to my wire in the wall and watched in amusement. Then i woke up. Wierd huh?

Nokia n810

2008-10-25T10:24:00.001+09:00

After years of dreaming of the perfect linux pda, i finaly have something thzts pretty close. The Nokia n810. Its got linux!! First thing i did was look for the terminal and got down to hacking it. Got the flasher tool for linux and reflashed to the latest version of the OS2008. Got maemo repositories enabled and pulled in all the tools. Easy peasy ... Since the tablet has apt package management. Found some greatapplications to do things and most of the usual linux stuff like vim, bash, mc etc. But i am rather dissapointed with the pim functionality. But there is a way using gpe pim which is availiable in the repo. Syncronisation with kde is very flaky still but im hoping it gets sorted out soon. Voice chat using skype and gtalk works, although video option is availiable in gtalk, i haven't got it working, hope to have video functionality soon. I have also pulled in the python development env for the device. Waiting for the memory card to arrive so i can tryout kde and debian!! But this device definitely opens up a lot of possibilities.

Skype calling card script

2008-07-30T04:06:00.005+09:00

Heres a small python script to call a number through skype using a calling card.

It uses Skype4Py
updated !!

Sample Usage:




#!/usr/bin/python
import Skype4Py
import time
import sys
import re
from optparse import OptionParser


access_number="+000000000"  #"access_number"  #number of the calling card 
pin="000000000"   #""       # calling card pin

contacts={ 
  'someone':["0000000000000","0000000000000"] , 
  'friend':["000000000000","00000000000000"],
  'skype':['echo123']
 }

def DTMFDial(call,number):
 try:
  for i in number:
          call.DTMF=i
          time.sleep(2)
 except Skype4Py.errors.ISkypeError:
         print "Error dialing!" + sys.exc_info()[0]
 
         

parser = OptionParser()
parser.add_option("-c", "--contact",  dest="contact", action="store", default="skype",help="Vodafone number")
(options, args) = parser.parse_args()

try:
 x = contacts[options.contact]
except:
 print "Contact not found."
 exit()

print "Which number would you like to dial?[0]"
for y in range(len(x)):
 print y, x[y]
number="0"
number = x[int("0"+sys.stdin.readline())]
skype = Skype4Py.Skype()
skype.Attach()
if re.match("^\d+$",number):
 number+="*"
 call = skype.PlaceCall(access_number)
 while call.Status!=Skype4Py.clsInProgress:
  time.sleep(1)
 time.sleep(2)
 DTMFDial(call,pin)
 time.sleep(5)
 DTMFDial(call,number)
else:
 call = skype.PlaceCall(number)

MSN Sucks

2008-07-09T00:15:00.001+09:00

yes, the only reason im saying this is cuz im a Linux user and i cant connect to my friends on msn using my favorite client kopete ... i used to be able to but they changed something in the protocol that broke it ... proprieatary software sucks ... :(

the digital yogi

2008-06-03T18:43:00.003+09:00

I learnt yoga a long time ago ... one of the fondest memories of childhood, being taught to meditate in the cool earthen ashram in trivandrum ... but path of yoga took a back seat in my life through out my school ... where i learnt to jump over sticks and run like a dog ... now i look back and see that these are all atempts to tame the body ... now im a computer scientist ... im not jumping or running i dont have the convenience nor the energy. But now that im a computer scientist all i do most of my day is to sit.... and sitting ... im glad i was exposed to yoga as a child ... after working like a dog in chaotic mumbai i ended up with pylonoidal sinus commonly known as jeep disease .. a disease called so because it was common among world war jeep drivers .... as their job also involved sitting in one position for long periods. Ok the deal with this situation is that ... there are tiny hair growing on the lower edge of the back ... the butt crack... these hairs are more in case of men in the age group of 20 - 30 s something .. due to prolonged sitting and heat and sweat ...some of the pores of the sabacious glands present at the base of these hair get blocked ... the blocked pore along with the hair gets infected due to bacterial growth and forms a reoccuring cyst .. the only solution at this point is surgical removal which i underwent ... but it was of no use cuz as soon as i got back to the job ... it sarted forming again ... so i started exploring alternative ways of sitting with out compressing my arse ... and i ended up concluding tht indian cross legged position was the best in the fact that it balances the weight of the body on the leggs rather that focusing it on the arse like the conventional way of sitting ... ever since i have been sitting with my legs crossed ...and with practice i have been able to sit for longer periods of time before my legs go numb and i have to reposition ... folowin on this thread of thought ... i started pursuing yoga too ... which is proving to be very useful for my lifestyle as a computer programmer ... it has helped me a great deal ... only now im wondering how im gonna convince a potential employer that i need to sit in office with my legs crossed .... ;)

related reading : on yoga and computers, on pilonidal sinus

HOWTO: Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth)

2008-05-30T11:24:00.002+09:00

this is for thos ewho are having difficulties with apple wireless keyboard on linux originally posted on

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5075001#post5075001

Hi right from the start there has been problems with the keyboard
reconnecting after a period timeout. I seem to have stumbled upon a way
to do this ... but it may not be the best practice ... anyways .. i
found that the hidd was not running as a daemon as it was supposed to
after a little mucking around this seems to work

chmod +s `which hidd`

i havent experienced much problems after this ... some i feel this is not the best solution because u r setting it to suid, but it works for me ...

also in here is the configuration in /etc/default/bluetooth

HIDD_OPTIONS=" -t 5000 --server --connect=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX"

lastfm for firefox 3 beta

2008-05-30T09:45:00.001+09:00

Got lastfm protocol handler for firefox beta working
in the addressbar type:

'about:config'

then create a string entry by selecting string from the right click menu and enter

'network.protocol-handler.app.lastfm'

click ok and in the next dialog box enter

'/usr/bin/lastfm'

done ... now when you click on a link to a station in lastfm the link will be opened in the lastfm software.

ref:

http://www.last.fm/forum/21714/_/42837/0

wake and bake ... its a bank holiday

2008-05-26T17:53:00.002+09:00

Finally caught up on sleep ... a full nine hours of nothing :). went out for a walk trying to calm the waters of the mind. Thought about a lot of stuff after watching The Yes Men. A miscellaneous application on orkut identified me as an 'Indian Born with a silverspoon' and I should stop complaining about the system and start working towards making our country beter. hmm ... well ya thats true ... but hey there are others with bigger spoons than me :) and hey what do you know none of them are sitting on their asses in a 6x4m room and working on their comp ... till their asses fuse with the chair. ok before i ramble on with more nonsense ... im off ...

Last.fm

2008-05-17T16:16:00.001+09:00

My Dashboard – Last.fm

Ahhhh.... i feel ecstatic, its 8 hrs since i woke up .. 8am. got my vappy on and checking out some asian underground tunes on lastfm and writing this blog in the spankin new flock browser ... hours to go before i sleep ...

Blogged with the Flock Browser

gods own speed way

2008-04-19T22:34:00.005+09:00

Mallus are genetically inclined to politics . . . concluded me and my british mallu bro. here im having a long drawn political, mostly one sided conversation with my dad's driver about the state of kerala after the communist rule. most of my responses were . . ahh hmmm athe ... athe. but then again it is intresting, the state of affairs in kerala .. . hmm looks the ghosts of Lenin and Stalin have found refuge in 'gods own country'

heading chennai

2008-04-01T23:10:00.000+09:00

11:10 southindia
im on my way to chennai i've made a last minute booking on a 'volvo' which turned out to be a ordinary bus with air suspensions . . . any ways i was in no state to argue . . .besides the ticket was 550 bucks . . . so i reach the bus stand and do a little running around to get my my bigfat pink 1000Rs note broken . . . settle into a comfortobale seat . . .help out my confused 'brother' out to adjust his seat . . . then get settled after which i chill out thats whenm i starter flowing with the music . . .when i realized it was one of over romantazized tamil songs but . . . man the tamilians have refined their crooning . . . it was pretty good . . .like chill out . . . any ways the video was equally chilled . . .the couple dancing around in beautiful . . . probably in some hill station . . .but as iwas already captivated by the music i found the music and video really relaxing . . .as i watched the couple dabce around assuming several poses . . . some of which left a hell lot to your imaginatuion . . . images from the kama sutra come to mind . . . im taken back to the time when me and shaf used to spend in lovers park in mangalore . . . making out in the green fresh jungles of nitte. . . i took a deep breath relaxing . . . slowly realizing tha it was getting harder to breath . . . the temprature in the bus had dropped . . . i had started to get a runny nose again . . .why . . why do they make it so frikin cold . . .maybe it helps to sleep properly. . .

mumbai airport

2008-03-30T06:45:00.001+09:00

the spankin new domestic terminal in mumbai

mumbai local

2008-03-28T15:30:00.001+09:00

Bandra Station view from over bridge.
28th 3:30

im on the train to bandra. the train surprisingly not so crowded . probably cuz its not office hours . . there are a bunch of rambacious teen boys fooling aroung making a lot of noise. getting their kicks hanging precariously out of the speeding train . . 'abhay chalna . . . aaa bhaya . .' the rest of the crowd lethargically drooping in their seats. . . ' aaa bandra agaya' 'aaa teri ma ke' . . . ok i better get ready to hop off before i get pushed in.

shit why did i come to linkin road . . . i dint need to buy anything in particular. mmm nice . . . i was checking out this tatooed hottie and strolling along . . . when i heard 'o brother your shoes are dirty, i will shine your shoe for 2 rupees.' . . . 'nahi nahi . . . nahi chahyaa' 'please brother 2 rupees thats all.' . . . 'but my shoes are sueude . . . how will you shine them.' ' dont worry brother i have the polish.' 'ok'

while he polished my shoes which i knew was beyond polishing . . . i was pretty surprised that he spoke pretty good english . . . so i asked him what he was doing polishing shoes. . . he told me that he had moved in from rajastan with his mother and sister 2 months back. he could not find a job because he did not have any residencial proof in mumbai and that any job in mumbai requires you to have a address proof. 'my mother and sister are begging in bandra station and i am trying to make some money by polishing shoes but i dont have enough money to buy a polish box, if i have a polish box i can earn more.' 'hmmm what about your father? ' i enquired. 'he passed away' he said lowering his voice and eyes. Looking at the hot tatooed girl walk by, i decided that i will give him a note , not a few coins that i owed him for cleaning my shoes, with that thought i comforted myself and felt pride at my generousity. so once he had finished cleaning my shoes i pushed a fifty into his hands. He looked at me and said 'sir, change nahi hai sir'. 'nahi tu rakho' i said sounding like a high priest offering a blessing.. He thanked me. I thought i had rid my self of this inconvenience but he continued to walk with me talking in english. 'sir for u this amount is nothing, aap log ek dinner ko 300 - 400 detha hai. meriko woh paisa se ek shoe polish box le saktha hai our woh leke station mai bait ke 500 kamaa saktha hai.'. At this point i wondered if it was coincedence that a certain proverb had come to my mind as i was walking from the station somethingabout teaching a man to earn by himself. Alright anyways i was wandering aimlessly this would be interesting. After all thats just 4£. So i tell the guy that i cant give him the money but if he took me tot the place where he can buy the box i shall buy it for him. He was birming with happiness which was quite contagious as i myself felt great 'big brotherly' goodness overflowing. As he took me through the nice streets of bandra west through the crowded station entrance and through the narrower lanes of khar east. We talked about many things about religion, politics how the present 'ruler' of his state only helped her people. He explained that he was a mufti whichwas a cobbler class something. he explained the difference between west and east of khar. how things were cheaper in the east. I explained to him the riches of the 'west'. Surprisingly though we were talking from two different prespectives there there was an uncanny resemblence in both cases. After about

(cool i got my apple bt keyboard to work with mapple keyboard now imsitting in mumbai domestic and typing out the rest of this blog this is way cool.)

45 mins walk through much of the common mumbai sights, the local train crowds,the hawkers te dirt . . . we come to khar east the streets are less crowded smaller . . . he points out to me. we then come to a small 'galli' leading into the 'slums' there we climb up a steep narrow metal flight of stairs emerging into a small cool room with a tv a fan and a few shelves filled with some utensils and what nots. The oldman sitting in front of the tv trurns back quite surprised to see me, after a moment of hesitation he greets me with an nod and invites me in. i sit down on the floor, cross legged (quitely congrajulating myself for having learned to sit with my legs crossed in yogic position) Then he calls out for his son (probably) whos is the person from whom 'my bro' (i dont remember the guys name so ill just refer to his as 'bro' as in brother since thats the name he first addressed me as.) would be buying his shoe shine box. The younger man introduced himself as suresh a mumbaite born and brought up in mumbai. THAT MADE me a bit uncomfortable as i knew i was dealing with a guy who knew how to deal with t'tourists' and my hunch turned out to be true and since im used to guys who are used tondealing with tourists> he directly quoted a price of 1000 rs # which was way above my generosouty< so i quoted price of 500. 'too less boss' finalyafter all the bargaining we settled on 750 bro gave in all that he had.which was around 80 bucks. so we got ourselves a shoe shine box.On the way back our conversation continued, Suprisingly he asked me for my emailaddress. i was wondering how i was going to know if my little investment would pay off. how do i know if what i did was worth it, there was only one sure fire way for someone to reach me that was through email. i never thought that bro would have thought about that.
As we parted i experienced a 'high', intense feeling of wellbeing from inside, something i have never felt from any thing else. I might get addicted to this rush of doplamine i felt when i shook hands with 'bro'. But it is intresting that if each one of us white, blue collared workers could put aside one meal we could provide a means for our less fortunate brothers to earn thei meals. Anyways i will only know of the out come of my little 'investment' only when and if 'bro' mails me , then i intend to find his real name also.

pranav - breath

2008-03-23T22:25:00.000+09:00

pollution.
the city's pranav is poisonus. the most essential nessisity for life air has been defiled by fumes from vehicles. . the air is practically un breathable. constant inhalation of fumes .. . ithink you'll live longer as a smoker in this town.

why dont they educate people, show them some solid understandable immediate effects of pollutants on their children, i refuse to believe that indians are insensitive to the health of their childern.

all public transport should run on cng or alternative fuels.

i keep wishing i could make a full conversation with the autowalas, if i could talk in an intresting manner im sure he wouldnt mind the conversation.

return to the source

2008-03-21T22:17:00.004+09:00

21st March 2008

in flight to mumbai from brussels

in flight entertainment had a good selection of indian classical music ... not that im an orthodox fan ...

indian classical music :
ustad rashid khan
shoba gurtu uu shrinivas ustadustad amjad ali khan
kumar gandharva - raga roopali

Thoughts after watching some violent scenes in the movie 'gandhi my father'

"poetry opinion of the soul
if only they were christian in their actions, blood stains the heart of every indian.
why,
now the wonds heal, dry blood
she awakens, every one of us hear her breath, the glint in every man's eye i catch as i pass.
hope, the edge of the future .
fear lay bleeding, killed brutal
tomorrow is ours,
the beast is slain,murdered shame

cold, and weary are the hearts
dare to look deep, face the pain
lived by the sword, you know the words
no drug, no drink, no woman
death wont wash the bloody shame
seeds sown, you shall now reap.

anger is dead, numb to pain
machines of war, an guilty child's toy
design the machine to kill the pain

we know

strange sounds, ancient word
music to an ancient inner world
fluid curves, . . . vibrations"

trying out blogger on p990

2007-12-19T21:43:00.000+09:00

birmingham christmass

mumba devi

2007-08-19T06:02:00.001+09:00

i was listening to the doors on a drizly mumbai morning ... heading to andheri station got into a poetic mood ... well here goes ....

potholes scattered along the street
glances from a nearby place to meet
indians wearly make their way
stern faces three eyes but nothing to say
feel the life smell the death
rebirth to nirvana break the sheath
the cages empty, idly await
first yawn of a hungry beast
slithering through its veins
disease, sick men pull its reins

listen to the gleeful cackle
petite showcase indians

brace youself,legs apart, stance sturdy
the beast of no mercy, fast and blurry
oh the thrill for the young and light
swiftly from its belly nimbly alight.
muscle and bone, sweat and girth
voices of exertion, push hard lest u be swallowed again.
the impatient serpent of the goddess mumba

queens of subtle seduction l
queens of suttle seductiona

Jazz by the bay

2007-08-10T22:23:00.000+09:00

quod me nutrit me destruit

air deccan redefining bad service as low cost service

jazz by the bay.
serves good pasta. beautiful location with beautiful people all around. the ambience is really casual nice feels realy relaxing with the view of the sea front. lots of beautiful people . . . stark contrast to the belly of mumbai. no beggars around . lots of coulour ful primmed up women cackling. mostly youngsters and corporate boys. a woman mumbait probably from the less beautiful kind with her child is refused her basic right to stand aroun in a public place.
an arab with his veiled women stand out side the eatry. trying to figure out the culture of jazz by the bay. the place seems to be swarming with teen to midlife wifes. what is it with women and pasta?
all the big boys with their shiny toys catch a glint in pretty eyes.

2006-10-17T04:32:00.000+09:00

thinking of creating something like kblogger for orku ... found liborkut a python script ... might be able to start something ... hmmmmm

2006-10-17T04:28:00.000+09:00

thinking of creating something like kblogger for orku ... found liborkut a python script ... might be able to start something

caffeine kicks ...

2006-09-19T05:46:00.000+09:00

Gotta stop this caffeine induced insomnia ... wish i had job control for my brain ... Ctrl Z ; bg ; or better yet ... Ctrl C...
COP OOP Inversion of control ... inversion of brain ....

2006-08-01T00:41:00.000+09:00

hey cool this application works ... kblogger all u kde fans out there should really check this out

2006-08-01T00:39:00.000+09:00

adsdasd

Orkut Communites ....

2006-07-22T07:10:00.000+09:00

Orkut communities a real good idea ... hmmm ..
coud'nt help but drop a few teasers ... he he ...

True to its name Konqueror

2006-07-02T15:30:00.000+09:00

All this time i was a die hard fan of twin panel file explorers like Krusader or MC ... My recent experimentation with Konqueror has made me review my prespective ...
Konqueror is realllly powerful ... with the help of kparts, managing your file is a totally new experience. Since u can open almost any file inside the Konqueror view itself .... there is no break in your file navigation.... as i an writing this blog ... i have two other tabs in the same window one for exploring file and one for exploring image files...

This screen shot gives a tiny preview ... but u can get more creative .. there's no limit.

Also Kde has a GREAT interface design .. i'vecompletely stopped using the mouse.... on my laptop using the touch pad can be a reall pain... now i do everyting using the keyboard ... the best part is that once u get the hang of it ... the it becomes almost automatic ... an example of how ..
[Key Sequence] [explanation]
Alt + F2 // open run dialog
konqeror //start konqueror
Ctrl + Home //go to home dir
Ctrl + L //Focus location bar
www.google.com //type in location
Enter
Ctrl //displays all the links as A B C ....
A // go to link A

You might have noticed that almost all forms in kde have the Alt accessor key for every control
For example in a save dialog we can see that the button label is "Save" with an S underlined .... so u press Alt + s to activate that item.
Most of the forms are well designed ... so u wont be playing finger twister
Learn to use the key board then u can dance with KDE ... Its amazing ... im toying with the idea of making a video to display the speed of using keyboard shortcut... hmmm

ok
Ctrl //show accessor keys
P //p link to publish post
Ctrl + Home //done Go home dir

.directory files in Konqueror

2006-07-02T15:14:00.000+09:00

I just discovered that if you edit the .directory file and add the line
Icon=./.folder.png

you can set a icon for that particular folder..
i know that this is possible through the properties of the folder... but that sets a absolute path which will be broken if u move the folder.... cool now ... i've got to get images for all the music albums that i have.

the common denominator thory

2006-05-16T05:09:00.000+09:00

This is an observation that i made during codin.... probably a very obvious one too. If you try to find the common denominator of all the logical procedures in the code you ca n make generic functions to carry them out. Usually people do write generic functions but they focus primarily on the technical aspect and not the logical aspect ie mostly i see generic functions to do some system related operation like doConnect() writeToFile() .... and the main logic ... the business logic gets repeated again and again. We might be writing code for several big business logic procedures ... for example SellOrder() BuyOrder() have different logic and different outputs ... but if we analyse the code more in depth ... ponder on it repeatedly ... it becomes evident that we are repeating several parts of the logic. It becomes obvious that we are placing Orders so we can have a PlaceOrder() function, which is generic ... using which we can place any type of order. And we can have several specific Order functions like Sell, Buy, Cancel, which depend on the PlaceOrder() funct......
But this is a really dumbed down example ... given any complicated procedure ... one can deduce the common denominator ... intresting ...but most coders dont take the pains to understand completely the logic and take a completely linear approach which makes the code .... a pain to maintain ,understand and to code... its like digging your own grave.

My desktop

2005-12-23T08:58:00.000+09:00

My workspace, notice the Tango project icons.
The panel on top autohides ... ;-)

every one needs a change.... sez who?

2005-12-10T23:47:00.000+09:00

We are all moving towards a digital world ... almost every home has a computer now ... almost every one uses the internet ... and almost every one has windows on their computer.
We are talking about eBanking eCash eShopping ... so we are talking about managing our lives using a computer. So in other words our computers are going to be holding a lot of valuable information about ourselves.
Sure all esolutions offer secure transactions high encryption ... etc. ok let me put it this way ... you are at home and you have some valuable things that has to be transported to the bank and back ... you get an armoured truck to get it there and back. But whats the point of all this if you have a thief right in your home having access to all your stuff.
One significant problem that windows users have always faced is spyware. Question. Why has microsoft still not been able to combat this situatioin? Inspite of all their glory why is it so difficult to secure windows ... the answer is ... the basic design of windows is flawed.
Dont believe me well then read this article about windows versus linux security. Anybody who has used a unix system and with understanding of the most basic unix security features will understand clearly.
In a digital world, our computer would be our digital office or home. But hey why not let microsoft manage our digital home... im sure all we have to do to live a successful digital life is accept to the conditions in the agrement .... which is as simple as clicking a nice cute looking button ... and sit back and watch as our digital home is being setup. Now we can do every thing the Microsoft way ... the butterfly flies around everything looks pretty in blue. Im sure Bill's got everything under control he's gonna take care of you in your digital life.

The undying RX100

2005-09-29T18:15:00.000+09:00

There is no other bike in India that gives you the wild feeling that the Yamaha RX 100 gives you. In India navigating traffic is a nightmare, on any other bike, but with an RX its always been a pleasure for me to rip through the traffic. The bike has good acceleration, and the size of the bike makes it very easy to maneuver even in tight situations. The thing is not about going fast, the bike does not have a great top speed, my bike, around 8okmph is the tops. Thats my bike not all RX , my bike has gone through a lot, had a couple of engine blowouts and an accident. But it still performs good enough. I had my engine rebored, this is a process of enlarging the cylinder size. There's are two occasions when which you 'll have to do a rebore 1, you want more juice 2, you got scratches or a damaged cylinder probably due to a engine faliure. My situation was the latter, i have a friend of mine to blame for that.
I realized how easy the RX was in traffic when i had a chance to ride my friend's Pulsar 150, which is a 4 stroke 150cc bike, i found that the the pulser's enlarged fuel tank rather cumbersome. I found it rather obstructive, but dont take my word for it. The pulser is reall smooth on the high end of the speedometer. Its a performer at higer speeds and straight roads, but in the middle of chaotic midday bangalore traffic, I wished i could've dumped for an RX. The weight, the lower acceleration at low speeds, and the hot sun on my black helmet. And talk about weight, if I had to park my RX in a tight spot , I could jus lift it and put it there, but u need to be like the governer of calif to do that with the Pulsar.
The pulsar is definitely a more mordern bike than the RX, better mileage, higher speed, cool looking. But when it comes to sheer lightining fast pickup and maneuverability i'd pick an RX any day.
There are a lot of guys in my town of Trichur who are into racing. They, mostly use RX 100s and shoguns.

Right now I've got some major repair work to do, the problem is that they stopped production of the RX100 b'cause of the law on 2 strokes. So getting parts is difficult. Had to get the parts from 'Pattalam' the local secondhand parts market in trichur. Ok the thing about buying second hand parts is that you gotta have the mehanic's eye for whats hot and whats not. I realized that i dont have it. The dealer is a stubborn ass he shows me the remains of what looks like a fine 85 model RX100. Most of the inessential parts were stripped away, but the important ones were still there, the engine, the front wheel, and the front forks. What i was intrested in was the front forks and the front wheel. It seemed pretty good to me, he said that whould cost me 1100Rs for the forks and 950Rs for the front wheel. I tried bargaining, but like I said the dude was stuborn as hell. anyways I decide to take it and me and my driver take the parts and head over to the garage.
The mechanic takes one look and he says i've been conned. "F**k that F*****g b*****d s** o* a B**** " I shouted, in my mind. But i stayed calm, the chief mechanic came and gave the final verdict. The forks were in worse condition than the ones that I had on my bike, and the tyres had been rethreaded, and there was some minor damage with some bearing casing. So off we go again, we head back to the 'Pattalam' and i tried really hard to keep my calm and reason with the guy. The f****r did not want to return the money. Finaly after a lot of discussion hes says that he can only take back one item. I had no other choice , so i decided to take the wheel and tyres. Thats ok i guess the front wheel was in ok condition the only thing was that the tyres were rethreaded, and my old tyres were bald.
The next time i'm goin parts shopppin i'm definitly going to drag one of the mechanic's along. Giving the mechanic 20rs would be better than getting conned.

The ultimate tweak

2005-09-28T09:36:00.000+09:00

Adios to FedoraCore 4, I installed gentoo on my system, and there is no turning back for me now. It took me almost two days to get my system fully running with kde.
Installing gentoo was not easy, the installer downloads the latest stable version of the packages and compiles it on ur system. Its pretty straight foreward though just follow the hand book to the dot and you wont have any complications. I compiled my system, bottom up, I have optimized the whole system for my athlon-xp processor, using some gcc optimization. These make sure the compiler is aware of my processor specific speedups. Generally the binary packages used by other major distros are optmized for the i386 arch, which is compatible with all mordern processors. Optimization specific to your processor can speed up execution 15-20%.

To add to this ... i have 2 hard disks so I decided to raid them using software raid. I set up raid 0 on my system, combining the first partitions on both my disks into one raid partition. Raid0 is stripped raid so you get paralell access to the hdds. That is if one word is being stored in the hdd it will split and half will be stores on one disk and the other half on the other. The advantage is pretty obvious, the speed is supposed to increase t fold. Though i havent tested its performance in relation to non raid partitions .... hmmm i gotta do that.

At this point i havent slept for a whole night ...setting up the raid was a pain .. I had to recompile my kernel atleast 3 times just to get the raid working. The problem was having root on raid, i had to make a seperate boot partition so that the kernel can load. Once the kernel loads off the boot partition th module for Raid 0 is loaded and only then the partition can be used. I had no idea how to do this, but after a lot of trial and error and googling i got it working.

3hrs 2coffees later ... i get the whole show running ... and i had a contented smile on my face .... ahh the sense of acheivement. I have a super fast desk top. Kde loaded so quickly unlike in fedora, where i had to wait and watch each of the icons in the splash blinking. Now it just races through ... i dont even get to see the splash screen... he he. Windows pop up reall quick there is no significant delay. I later learned that kde installations which are compiled on the system are a lot more faster than binary distributions. But i wanted more, I foud out that prelinking the binaries can reduce the loading time significantly. What it does is it stores linkage information inside the binary, hence the time taken to determine the library dependancies is reduced. This is specially helpful incase of frameworks that have a lot of libraries.

Now i had to configure all the system settings manually. So the first thing i did was 'emerge vi'. gentoo comes with nano editor builtin, but i prefer vi. Then got down to configuring system settings like network, fstab, rc, adding users.. etc. There is no gui way of doing it there maybe but i didnt check that out. It was not that hard most of the settings are standard and i didnt have to make any major changes. Be sure to set your hostname in resolv.conf .. it can interfere with smooth operation of kde.

Installing applications ... much more easier than winblows you dont even have to click click or ./configure .... just say the magic words, for example if i wanted mplayer just `emerge mplayer' thats it. The portage system downloads and compiles the package while u sip ur coffee. Another example 'emerge mplayer xmms kmplayer mpg123' .for most of the multimedia apps

End result : stable, super fast system with loads of easy to install software, the gentoo portage system gives you access to a large repository of software, which can be installed with emerge.

If you want squeeze the last drop of performance from your computer then www.gentoo.org

My first blog ever ...

2005-09-28T03:57:00.000+09:00

This is my first blog ever ... hmmm nothing much to say ... I am pretty impressed by google. Their whole minimalistic approach seems rather refined. Keep up the good work. It was a breeze signing up, none of the usual CLICK HERE or SELECT THIS or PREMIUM OFFER he he.