My Brain Served !

flash plugin latest 64bit ubuntu 11.10

2011-08-22T14:34:00.001-07:00

use this ppa https://launchpad.net/~sevenmachines/+archive/flash

awesome wallpapers

2011-08-17T15:16:00.001-07:00

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/07/28-beautiful-hd-wallpapers-youve-seen.html

ubuntu 2d (unity 2d ) ubuntu 11.10 natty

2011-08-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

I always had issues with vnc refresh .. i had to finally settle down to using the "Force update ... " option in workarounds in ccsm.
Use ubuntu 2D and it has awesome performance when used via VNC, which i do a lot ! So well done ubuntu 2D team !

fixing issues with eclipse - ubuntu (eclipse 3.5.2 from repo)

2011-08-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

Add the update site for the release .. that will get dependencies .. for galelio it is
http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/
maven - http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/sites/m2e
subversion - http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.4.x

gnome 3 shell extensions

2011-06-29T12:42:00.001-07:00

install gnome shell extensions on ubuntu 11.10

cd
git clone http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-shell-extensions
cd gnome-shell-extensions
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
make && sudo make install

I am now using this ppa rather - https://launchpad.net/~ricotz/+archive/testing

ah noisy facebook intern buses

2011-06-21T08:37:00.000-07:00

facebook has interns in our apartment in santa clara. They have used these buses that make a lot of noise (engine) and these buses keep making rounds ... very irritating .. facebook stop this you are causing noise pollution

Great doc on how to change title and shell theme in gnome 3

2011-06-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/change-gnome-3-gnome-shell-or-classic.html

Now that gnome 3 made its way into ubuntu ! here you go ...

want mint theme for ubuntu ?

2011-05-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

There is a new PPA that has come up .. with great collection of themes that didnt find its way into any ppa's... look at this https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/themes

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/themes
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mint-x-theme

There are other themes there check it out ..

want more software for ubuntu !

2011-05-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.getdeb.net/welcome/

install gedeb and then update your apt-get and thats it .. you can install a lot more software.

memory tools !

2011-04-18T20:19:00.001-07:00

Wow,i like htop

sudo apt-get install htop

its basically like top, but better.

1. htop

2. top

3. free -m

4. df -k (to see drives)

screensaves for kubuntu

2011-04-18T19:09:00.001-07:00

sudo apt-get install kscreensaver-xsavers

GIMP tutorial - short one... but very good ...

2011-04-17T23:23:00.001-07:00

found on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbFVFrEYXjk

kde and qt development with c++

2011-04-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well a lot of blogs start about hello world !!! but what about people who have just installed kubuntu and what to do devlopment ?

Here is what you need

1. A development IDE you are comfortable with

for emacs - sudo apt-get install emacs

you can use vi or kate they also work great.

There is KDevelop which is much better ! install using sudo apt-get install kdevelop

2. Libraries

sudo apt-get install kdevelop kdelibs kdebase-workspace-dev build-essential cmake

Now go grab the QT hello world !

Python development on Kubuntu or Ubuntu with emacs !

2011-04-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here is what you have to do

1. Get the python mode files from https://launchpad.net/python-mode , it is a gz file with 4 files and 1 readme in it.

2. unzip that and put the files in your home folder (~/)

3. Now create a file .emacs in your home folder (if you have it already its fine). Add this to the file

----

(load "~/python-mode.el")

;;python

(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.py$" . python-mode) auto-mode-alist))

(setq interpreter-mode-alist (cons '("python" . python-mode)

interpreter-mode-alist))

(autoload 'python-mode "python-mode" "Python editing mode." t)

(global-font-lock-mode t)

(font-lock-mode +1)

----

4. Now restart emacs.

5. Write python code and then C-c C-c for executing it .. C-c ! for the shell ..

Have fun !

Languages !

2011-04-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

Gosh ! why are there so many languages ! Personally I feel the world can do everything with just c. All these new languages are interesting ... but to me as long as there is c++ and java, everything else is just for hobbyists !
Python is getting traction because of google .. otherwise there are so many languages out there ...
I used to work on python in 2001, now ... well should i try it out again ? Maybe !

Netbeans & ubuntu 11.04 with KDE

2011-04-16T22:33:00.001-07:00

Well i am always amazed at how great netbeans has got to become ! Its certainly a pleasure , it has been working efficiently for the small things i have been doing , i am officially supposed to use eclipse as we have the .project and .classpath files, though i guess its time .. i try netbeans for official work too ! But ah .. there are so many things. ..

Jdk 7 beta released ! awesome ... well done ...

Well tired of unity - somehow i feel compiz has become a beast ! , i am not finding kwin to be better ! am on KDE at home ... (kubuntu .. thought ubuntu treats everything else other than unity .. badly), but KDE has been working fine ... No hangs etc !

canonical launchpad !

2011-04-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

launchpad is an awesome platform .. it enables development , collaboration, bug reporting etc ... its an awesome collaboration platform , however small quirks

If you unsubscribe a bug by mistake, there is no way to resubscribe to the bug, even if you had raised the bug .. solution wait for the LOSA's to reenable it for you !

Firstly if I have raised a bug, there should be no way to unsubscribe from the bug, obvioulsy because i raised it .. i would want to know the status, otherwise why would i raise it in the first place. Even if i have to unsubscribe, most likely in cases where i raised the bug on behalf of someone, it should warn me and force me to give the name of some other person on my behalf who will represent the bug owner !

Strange, small issues ..

xournal pdf editor

2011-04-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

awesome pdf editor (though really like an image editor).

on ubuntu/debian systems
sudo apt-get install xournal

open xournal and then open pdf .. then make changes. Not really like adobe writer .. but we can edit pdf ...

gnome-do is great !!!!

2011-04-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

I have been using gnome-do and trust me its the best productivity tool i ever had ... always looking for something similar .. got if for the first time.

If you are on ubuntu ...
sudo apt-get install gnome-do

and read the tutorial (online) and see how powerful it is.

ubuntu 11.04 customizations

2011-04-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

some customizations ...
1. sudo apt-get install elementary-icon-theme murrine-themes ttf-droid
2. Change the icon theme .. its great.
3. Install (sudo apt-get install gnome-do) its a great application , launched by super+space. It can be used to launch apps, browser url and files.

-- more to come ---

ubuntu 11.04 fresh beta - installing skype 2.2 beta

2011-04-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well here you go .. after a long time skype has finally released an update of its software for linux !! thanks skype finally ...

To install in general you need to first make sure you have th dependencies .. First download the deb from skype website
1. Try this
$ sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu_2.2.0.25-1_i386.deb
I got some error at the end ...

So i did this
$ sudo apt-get install -f
This resolves all the missing packages and installs them for you.

Now repeat
$ sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu_2.2.0.25-1_i386.deb

It will be successful !

Gnome3 and Fedora 15 rawhide

2011-04-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

Alright , i am on fedora now ! Do i like it .. definitely, i havent seen a crash for the past 2 days i have been using, it is pretty stable. The only issue i have is with gnome 3 usablity. It is pretty stable and looks great, but it has left out a lot of customizations that a user used to have ..

Some of them

1. Cannot change themes (Nothing at all) except background wallpaper.

2. I dont think i like the notifications system, it just pops up and then dies down .. until we go and put our mouse in the bottom right corner .. that is bad design ... as there are times i am not in front of my computer and when i come back , i am not sure if there are notifications, so i have to go and see .. and that is repeated every 2-3 mins .. it is important to leave the decision to end user !

3. Still seeing how to activate screen saver ...

More updates soon, the only thing i really like is the stability ... it is sort of crash free ... touch wood !

ubuntu 11.04 beta

2011-04-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

well, come on .. why does compiz crash so often ! But good, that it restarts, there were times in alpha, i was logging into unity with a wallpaper .. nothing else .. that shows up ! :)

ssh and scp slow to prompt for password ubuntu 10.10

2011-03-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

I had my ubuntu very slow in giving me password prompt .. i had a tough time to fix it. But here is the solution - my issue checked via ssh -vv was a delay in gss.

$ sudo vi /etc/ssh/ssh_config

Uncomment or add

GSSAPIAuthentication no

GSSAPIDelegateCredentials no

Thats it ... now run your ssh and scp, they should prompt for password immediately (ssh loads the config from ssh_config). Atleast that was my issue .. people did ask to change sshd_config and restart sshd , but that didnt help, i had to do it in ssh_config.

ZAGG invisibleSHIELD is a scam

2010-07-14T10:28:00.001-07:00

Something worth just 1-2 dollars they sell for 25$. It is bad , i ordered two iPhone 4 skins it took 10 days to come to my place . cost me about 52$ and what do i get ? Two motorola droid full body skins ! So i called them .. wait time 40 mins .. yes i was on call for 40 mins . finally i was given an RMA and told to return , but with a tracking method , and well you guessed it right, they said i have to pay for the return shipping .. well crazy , i think it was their fault they should return me the money for shipping too .. I realized they are there to make huge profits thats right .. they are cheats .. AVOID them at all costs. I have ordered from best skins ever which is 7.99$ a piece, lets see how that order goes through.

ubuntu 10.04 good .. but sad due to kernel issues

2010-03-27T16:58:00.001-07:00

My dell studio 1555 always has some issue or the other with kernel. 2.6.31 which came with ubuntu 9.10 did not allow me to change brightness .. ACPI bug. Now that it was fixed in 2.6.32 i was happy with lucid alpha's , but later i came to know that when i was resuming my computer from sleep, it was having ACPI thermal was having an issue, so it shows 0 temperatures, hence fan doesnt start, so the computer runs very hot for some time and then dies. Very very bad. Now yes the fix is in 2.6.33 , but hey ubuntu sticks to 2.6.32 and i dont think there is a plan to backport .. well this is the problem with open source development, it is good, but it leads to lot of bugs and noone responsble for anything. ACPI bugs are not acceptable with laptops in play. So the solution !!! Back to windows !!! yay
Or rather i will try the daily kernels and upgrade my kernel.

No backup in Vim

2010-02-11T14:20:00.001-08:00

Ever wondered why these files with *.*~ get generated and if there was a way to avoid that ?

1. Open vim
2. Esc : e $MYVIMRC
3. add the following lines after the "source " commands.
set nobackup
set nowritebackup
4. esc : wq

Thats it .. now your vim should stop writing backup files.

bluetooth in ubuntu started working !!!!

2009-12-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

I am surprised at the accidental solution.

I run ubuntu and i was never able to get the bluetooth working. I went into windows (since i have a dual boot), and i saw that i didnt install the drivers, so i installed the drivers there and then i rebooted into ubuntu and viola , bluetooth works :) looks like the card got enabled when i installed the drivers on windows ! I am sure its not a firmware kind of thing that went into the drivers .. but who knows, this could be the only documented case where windows driver in windows installation, causes a device to working in ubuntu linux !!! Convergence isnt it.

[solved] USB powered on during suspend/sleep

2009-12-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

I had a problem with my laptop where my USB powered laptop cooler was on even when the laptop was on sleep.

To solve this its pretty simple... on dell studio 1555

In bios, there is USB, and disable the option that says "Wakeup on suspend" . Thats it .. on suspend, next time USB will also sleep.

Goldman Craps no Sachs and other such companies ???

2009-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

I dont understand the rationale behind such huge bonuses. They are stealing money - sort of. I would say when they consider bonus as a way of retention, then i think the problem can be solved easily if govt restricts the maximum bonus to realistic values. So if someone gets 300K bonus in GS, that person cannot go to any other place for want of better bonus as there is a limit. So now people will value the company for what it is and they will be loyal to it. For now its loyalty to money and thats what they see, after doing an MBA , is that what they are taught ? What sort of ethics are they working on ?

Why Google OS ? Why not Ubuntu

2009-11-30T18:30:00.000-08:00

I think i am in love with Ubuntu, having used it for a long time, coming back to using it with 9.10 i have really liked it more and more ... I think we dont need a new OS, we need someone to build a standard OS like ubuntu. Google OS is only for netbooks and its not for PCs and if people think its the future .. yes we already have the future, we have linux distributions. All we have to do is start using it, then automatically you will find hardware manufactures building drivers for it.

I am using Dell studio 1555 and ubuntu 9.10
- I have a lexmark X2600 all in one printer and i got the driver from lexmark website and it works great, just took seconds to install, it was much faster than standard windows install.
- My SD card was recognized and i was able to read it, out of box.
- Everything works, except bluetooth, which i will check.
- Brightness control issue has been rectified with new kernel which is in RC stage.
- I have been using it for the past 5 days didnt have to restart even once. Windows 7 had to be restarted more than once a day, thanks to issues with flash player and skype not working.

Google Wave - Crap ?

2009-11-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

Here are the different emotional stages i went through

Stage 1 - Begging for invites.
Stage 2 - Now i have an account, what do i do, i need more friends to join.
Stage 3 - Wait for others to join.
Stage 4 - Start waves to discuss on what to do with waves.
Stage 5 - Boring ....
Stage 6 - Forgot i have a Google wave account ...

This is too much. I hate being kept in suspense only to see i cannot do anything with it.. Looks like lot of people in world like wasting time.

Lost Trust ? Indians huh .... AMWAY SCAM ...

2009-11-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

I am tired of the pestering indian desi's who are scouting for "AMWAY" "QUIXTAR" talents !!! I have lost trust now, any indian approaching me in a store , it feels as though everyone is running behind with a business and want to recruit you ... so simply whether its your business or anyone elses business , whether you are amway or any other company thats hiding behind it or looking like it .. Some do it alone, some involve their wives into it ... please please STOP THIS , dont let people lose trust on each other .. i am sure now i will be very critical and aggresive if someone tries to befriend me for a business idea ... stop the scam.

ubuntu 9.10 the best ever

2009-10-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

I am impressed by ubuntu 9.10 to be true, it just worked out of the box, everything works .. my machine is dell 1555 studio and yes everything works ... (except i have to activate bluetooth) . Since i have ATI graphics i might have to hunt for ATI linux drivers. Otherwise this is probably the only linux version (even from ubuntu) that works out of the box (sound, brightness, suspend etc). ...

Sale - at a higher price :)

2009-08-27T17:55:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen a sale at higher than normal price !!! Here we go ..http://www.pelltechnology.com/IBM-Parts/Notebooks-and-Handhelds/IBM-ThinkPad-T-Series/IBM-ThinkPad-T61/IBM-ThinkPad-T61-8891/Motherboards-&-LCD-Screens

finally a PC after all

2009-08-23T18:36:00.001-07:00

So finally decided on PC

Delivery date - 9/4/09

-- Dell Studio 15 1555 Notebook
-----------------------
-- Processors --
-- Intel® Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
-----------------------
-- Memory --
-- 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
-----------------------
-- Keyboard --
-- Back-lit Keyboard
-----------------------
-- LCD Panel --
-- 15.6” Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera/Facial Reco
-----------------------
-- Video Card --
-- 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
-----------------------
-- Hard Drive --
-- Size: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
-----------------------
-- System Color --
-- Black Chainlink
-----------------------
-- Operating System --
-- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
-----------------------
-- Combo or DVD+RW Drive --
-- 8X Slot Load Super Multi (DL DVD+/-R Drive + RAM support)
-----------------------
-- Sound --
-- High Definition Audio 2.0
-----------------------
-- Wireless Networking Cards --
-- Intel 5300 Ultimate-N Half Mini Card (3x3) with MyWiFi
-----------------------
-- Battery --
-- 56 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
-----------------------
-- Bluetooth Option --
-- Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.1)
-----------------------
-- Processor Branding --
-- Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor
-----------------------

Laptop - which one .... huh - Mac or PC - PC or PC

2009-08-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Laptop choosing becomes more complicated with the more knowledge and research a person does.

For me its a tough choice, i am sure about what i want but i keep getting confused with choices ... and now its Mac vs PC that has added to the confusion.

My wishlist
Primary - 13.3 , 14.1 or 15.4/6 only Better screen since that what we use more - so i want a WSXGA+ kind of thing.
Secondary - Core 2 Duo - P models ones preferably, T would be also fine.
HD - >= 160GB
Ram - >=2GB
Certainly a Video connector - HDMI or DisplayPort should do
Quick delivery - Cant wait more than 4 weeks or so .. as some lenovo y450 and y550 show, its too much.
Of course a DVD writer and SD card reader
Wireless N for sure

Dont care about firewire
Hate HP.
Prefer value for money over features

Ok so i have my list
1. Thinkpad T500, No T400 since no video connector there.
2. Lenovo Y450
3. Macbook Pro 13.3 - 2.26Ghz
4. Dell Studio 15
5. Toshiba M500

So now i am again confused .. i think i have done enough research and i should just randomly choose one, thats better than educated research, given the market, with so many confusing options, ignorance is a bliss, especially in laptop hunting.

Is your touchpad jumpy and erratic

2009-08-10T07:56:00.001-07:00

well think about what changes did you do to software, if you didnt do any change, and no new softwares were installed, you can most certainly put your head on hardware. I have a lenovo y410 and my touchpad was jumpy and it used to get stuck every 5 seconds. Finally i realized it was due to the power supply i purchased newly from ebay. The supply was good, it was shorter than the OEM though, but the difference is the fact that it had only 2 pins. Seems static is building up and disturbing the electro-static touchpad that my lenovo has (most laptops have that). So the solution was to get the three pin AC power supply. See how power supply can affect the functioning of a laptop !!! interesting isnt it. Ebay has a small section for feedback, i wish i could have given more feedback there , not necessarily that the product is bad, but it is not suitable for me for sure.

Ant and Grasshopper

2009-08-01T17:54:00.001-07:00

Got a forward - nice one.

Ant and the grasshopper (Reality of INDIA under any rule)

An Old Story:

==========

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

===========

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for ' Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later.....

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ,

...AND

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers,

India is still a developing country !!!

Twitter & Facebook - Good or Evil

2009-07-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Well i am still trying to see how they are useful ! They do increase internet traffic :) Will be writing more on my useless reasons ..

PayPal dispute resolution

2009-04-21T11:36:00.001-07:00

Contacted pay pal to inform about the fraudulent website salonhive.com and Karmin Electronics.

They will need to respond within 10 days about the tracking information of the purchase, till then the payment will not be released.

Looks like atleast paypal is going to followup with them. I dont know these crooks have their other websites

Update: Resolved in 4 days - Dealer mailed and apologized, sent money back !!! yippie .. thanks paypal.

SalonHive fraud

2009-04-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

salonhive.com karmin electronics, etc are all FRAUD. I placed an order and i used pay pal, and pay pal confirmed it and also it shows in Salon Hive as processing. It has been 4 days, and there is no way to contact them. Their 1 800 phone doesnt work, they live chat is always offline. They are total cheats, and the store front is there for just taking money .. be careful. This is a fraud.

Safari 4 - fastest ? ! IE8 RC nowhere close its slowest

2009-02-24T19:54:00.001-08:00

So now that Safari 4 beta has come , i know its supposed to be the fastest, so i am seeing if google chrome 2 which is in pre-beta breaks safari 4 beta. I used Safari4 beta today and i can see it is really fast.

Sad that though i am using IE8 RC, its so slow that its sad to see the gap, its nowhere close to Safari4. Chrome, Firefox (though firefox new version which is in beta will be also very fast), and also Opera.

I have done some benchmarking, see the comparision its surprising how far away is IE8

This is on Windows 7


TEST                   COMPARISON            IE8 RC               Chrome 2.0.164 (nightly)   DETAILS

=============================================================================

** TOTAL **:           5.83x as fast     12379.2ms +/- 0.8%   2122.6ms +/- 4.0%     significant

=============================================================================

3d:                  4.49x as fast      1370.4ms +/- 1.8%    305.0ms +/- 14.1%     significant
cube:              6.37x as fast       473.6ms +/- 4.9%     74.4ms +/- 16.7%     significant
morph:             3.29x as fast       411.4ms +/- 2.8%    125.0ms +/- 28.8%     significant
raytrace:          4.60x as fast       485.4ms +/- 3.8%    105.6ms +/- 15.9%     significant

access:              9.59x as fast      2042.2ms +/- 1.3%    213.0ms +/- 8.6%     significant
binary-trees:      18.3x as fast       329.4ms +/- 4.1%     18.0ms +/- 19.5%     significant
fannkuch:          13.1x as fast       867.6ms +/- 0.8%     66.4ms +/- 14.8%     significant
nbody:             6.19x as fast       494.8ms +/- 2.3%     80.0ms +/- 10.1%     significant
nsieve:            7.21x as fast       350.4ms +/- 1.2%     48.6ms +/- 26.5%     significant

bitops:              9.17x as fast      1731.2ms +/- 3.8%    188.8ms +/- 14.3%     significant
3bit-bits-in-byte: 17.7x as fast       283.8ms +/- 17.4%     16.0ms +/- 18.2%     significant
bits-in-byte:      10.1x as fast       309.8ms +/- 4.4%     30.6ms +/- 2.2%     significant
bitwise-and:       10.1x as fast       637.8ms +/- 9.4%     63.0ms +/- 10.7%     significant
nsieve-bits:       6.31x as fast       499.8ms +/- 3.8%     79.2ms +/- 28.0%     significant

controlflow:         27.3x as fast       256.8ms +/- 1.1%      9.4ms +/- 15.1%     significant
recursive:         27.3x as fast       256.8ms +/- 1.1%      9.4ms +/- 15.1%     significant

crypto:              6.11x as fast       813.6ms +/- 4.5%    133.2ms +/- 16.6%     significant
aes:               9.26x as fast       372.2ms +/- 9.6%     40.2ms +/- 40.3%     significant
md5:               4.16x as fast       222.8ms +/- 1.1%     53.6ms +/- 14.5%     significant
sha1:              5.55x as fast       218.6ms +/- 1.3%     39.4ms +/- 41.9%     significant

date:                2.82x as fast       823.6ms +/- 3.2%    291.8ms +/- 7.3%     significant
format-tofte:      2.91x as fast       439.6ms +/- 5.8%    151.2ms +/- 8.2%     significant
format-xparb:      2.73x as fast       384.0ms +/- 2.2%    140.6ms +/- 11.1%     significant

math:                4.67x as fast      1169.2ms +/- 3.7%    250.2ms +/- 6.2%     significant
cordic:            4.24x as fast       504.0ms +/- 3.6%    119.0ms +/- 14.3%     significant
partial-sums:      4.06x as fast       342.8ms +/- 14.3%     84.4ms +/- 11.3%     significant
spectral-norm:     6.89x as fast       322.4ms +/- 1.4%     46.8ms +/- 7.1%     significant

regexp:              12.3x as fast       668.0ms +/- 6.7%     54.4ms +/- 46.0%     significant
dna:               12.3x as fast       668.0ms +/- 6.7%     54.4ms +/- 46.0%     significant

string:              5.18x as fast      3504.2ms +/- 1.5%    676.8ms +/- 2.8%     significant
base64:            17.9x as fast      1762.0ms +/- 1.8%     98.6ms +/- 22.4%     significant
fasta:             6.04x as fast       548.4ms +/- 5.1%     90.8ms +/- 21.4%     significant
tagcloud:          3.80x as fast       448.0ms +/- 4.4%    118.0ms +/- 5.4%     significant
unpack-code:       1.60x as fast       371.6ms +/- 4.0%    231.6ms +/- 7.9%     significant
validate-input:    2.72x as fast       374.2ms +/- 7.6%    137.8ms +/- 11.2%     significant

--- Now between Chrome 2.0.164 and Safari 4 beta

TEST                   COMPARISON            Chrome             Safari 4             DETAILS

=============================================================================

** TOTAL **:           *1.45x as slow*   2122.6ms +/- 4.0%   3076.8ms +/- 12.5%     significant

=============================================================================

3d:                  *2.28x as slow*    305.0ms +/- 14.1%    695.8ms +/- 19.8%     significant
 cube:              *4.53x as slow*     74.4ms +/- 16.7%    337.4ms +/- 18.8%     significant
 morph:             *1.53x as slow*    125.0ms +/- 28.8%    191.6ms +/- 19.7%     significant
 raytrace:          *1.58x as slow*    105.6ms +/- 15.9%    166.8ms +/- 25.4%     significant

access:              *1.75x as slow*    213.0ms +/- 8.6%    373.6ms +/- 19.8%     significant
 binary-trees:      *2.13x as slow*     18.0ms +/- 19.5%     38.4ms +/- 1.8%     significant
 fannkuch:          1.52x as fast       66.4ms +/- 14.8%     43.6ms +/- 31.4%     significant
 nbody:             *3.30x as slow*     80.0ms +/- 10.1%    263.8ms +/- 24.6%     significant
 nsieve:            1.75x as fast       48.6ms +/- 26.5%     27.8ms +/- 3.7%     significant

bitops:              1.28x as fast      188.8ms +/- 14.3%    147.8ms +/- 17.8%     significant
 3bit-bits-in-byte: 1.67x as fast       16.0ms +/- 18.2%      9.6ms +/- 26.9%     significant
 bits-in-byte:      1.59x as fast       30.6ms +/- 2.2%     19.2ms +/- 39.8%     significant
 bitwise-and:       2.22x as fast       63.0ms +/- 10.7%     28.4ms +/- 2.4%     significant
 nsieve-bits:       ??                  79.2ms +/- 28.0%     90.6ms +/- 28.0%     not conclusive: might be *1.14x as slow*

controlflow:         ??                   9.4ms +/- 15.1%     11.2ms +/- 42.6%     not conclusive: might be *1.19x as slow*
 recursive:         ??                   9.4ms +/- 15.1%     11.2ms +/- 42.6%     not conclusive: might be *1.19x as slow*

crypto:              *1.71x as slow*    133.2ms +/- 16.6%    228.4ms +/- 10.6%     significant
 aes:               ??                  40.2ms +/- 40.3%     45.8ms +/- 17.3%     not conclusive: might be *1.14x as slow*
 md5:               *1.76x as slow*     53.6ms +/- 14.5%     94.4ms +/- 22.5%     significant
 sha1:              *2.24x as slow*     39.4ms +/- 41.9%     88.2ms +/- 20.3%     significant

date:                1.14x as fast      291.8ms +/- 7.3%    256.8ms +/- 12.6%     significant
 format-tofte:      1.72x as fast      151.2ms +/- 8.2%     88.0ms +/- 9.0%     significant
 format-xparb:      *1.20x as slow*    140.6ms +/- 11.1%    168.8ms +/- 19.3%     significant

math:                *2.20x as slow*    250.2ms +/- 6.2%    549.4ms +/- 13.9%     significant
 cordic:            *1.91x as slow*    119.0ms +/- 14.3%    226.8ms +/- 20.0%     significant
 partial-sums:      *2.59x as slow*     84.4ms +/- 11.3%    218.8ms +/- 7.3%     significant
 spectral-norm:     *2.22x as slow*     46.8ms +/- 7.1%    103.8ms +/- 18.6%     significant

regexp:              ??                  54.4ms +/- 46.0%     77.2ms +/- 25.0%     not conclusive: might be *1.42x as slow*
 dna:               ??                  54.4ms +/- 46.0%     77.2ms +/- 25.0%     not conclusive: might be *1.42x as slow*

string:              *1.09x as slow*    676.8ms +/- 2.8%    736.6ms +/- 8.5%     significant
 base64:            -                   98.6ms +/- 22.4%     86.8ms +/- 21.2%
 fasta:             *1.36x as slow*     90.8ms +/- 21.4%    123.4ms +/- 4.2%     significant
 tagcloud:          *1.90x as slow*    118.0ms +/- 5.4%    224.0ms +/- 3.2%     significant
 unpack-code:       1.52x as fast      231.6ms +/- 7.9%    152.8ms +/- 11.2%     significant
 validate-input:    ??                 137.8ms +/- 11.2%    149.6ms +/- 26.3%     not conclusive: might be *1.09x as slow*

Microsoft training ? Am I am PC ?

2009-02-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

how sweet you think isnt it ... By chance are the going to teach linux internals and java ? And if they teach .NET and Visual Studio, i will consider it wrong, since thats forcing technological choice on people. its like the kids saying i am a PC in the Ads !

People should be taught computer science independent of vendors like Microsoft or Apple or Linux. I would be critical if it is a way of promoting microsoft products in the guise of training.

I am 1 year old and i am a PC ! how much impact does that make ?

Life with windows 7

2009-02-22T22:28:00.000-08:00

Well its been long since i have been using windows 7, though i still wonder why there are times when if something is not responding, it leads to a total chaos, and the whole system fails to respond, and the only way to fix it is hard booting.

I guess the killing process is screwed up somewhere. It seems like they are trying to restart properly, sort of seamlessly but that isnt working that well. Also this dwm.exe and explorer.exe, sometimes they grow and shrink on their own, i dont know whats with those two guys, trying to control the look and feel they are having a tough time.

Now getting back to features, well to be true, its a natural progression from windows vista, which was really badly recieved. Also with the fact that OSX doesnt allow legal installations on PC's , and no real big corporations planning and marketing linux, we are having nothing else. I mean there is nothing that can kill windows, even if they release crap, there are people who will feed off off it.

The true competition would be when
1. OSX is also allowed on PC's and Netbooks.
2. Ubuntu is aggresively marketed.
3. Japanese companies concentrate on building not just hardware but also software (OS i mean).
4. IBM aggresively markets and creates AIX for desktops and servers.
5. Sun solaris.
6. Google android for PC.

I guess an OS that universally works on all platforms, would be a true OS. Google has a better strategy since they built a modified version of linux for mobiles, that made them think of conserving space, and if they are able to use that OS with little modification onto PC's we have a great OS with a lower memory footprint.

Slumdog wins !

2009-02-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

Well interestingly Slumdog won so many oscars ! my god !

Ram Sena Terrorists, A new breed of shameless terrorists ....

2009-01-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

The recent attack on a pub in mangalore, is a certain reminder that if we let relegious groups operating on the pretext of cleansing, it will go out of control. I am a hindu and i am certainly distressed with what happened. I consider this, shiv sena, MNS (of useless guy Raj Thakrey) and all other such organizations as terrorist organizations.

1. Who gave them the right to go out and hit people ?

2. As a hindu if you are cleansing others, are you sure they are also hindus you are trying to clean or is it cleaning everyone ? Why hit the girls, and not the men there ?

3. Do Ram Sena goodas know what they want , or they just wanted to have fun at the pretext of hinduism ?

4. Our constitution gives us freedom, and who are these goons to over power that.

5. Who are they to clean society, they are themselves corrupt, otherwise they would learn to respect people.

6. What about hindus around the world, are you not sending your sena out there, since i am sure there are more opportunities to sin in europe and america isnt it.. Or is it funding problem.

If police doesnt take serious action, i would except common people to take action against them, by firing at them or killing them. This is required to keep them in control, and when common people take arms, we know what happens.

Islamic terrorist groups gained traction since there was a general sympathy that they got from muslims, but such sick attacks by sena's on the pretext of hinduism and localism, is strongly condemned.

Ban Shiv Sena, Ram sena, Bajrang Dal, MNS and every other offshoot of these useless groups. Jail their members.

Windows 7 is also Windows Vista, just like Mojave :)

2009-01-08T19:23:00.001-08:00

Well with the mojave experiment fooling a set of dumb ignorant , illiterate users, Windows 7 is an attempt to fool a larger set of audience. Soon you will start using it and it will not take long to realize that its nothing more than Windows Vista , with a reworked taskbar, and "some other" so called as funky things which are not visible to the user. As such it is still vista, nothing better.

I still wonder how a new OS can be released, even before the current OS is stable. And if the current OS is stable, why arent so many people using it yet ! Why release something for the sake of releasing. How can a good OS be written in a year when it took 5 years to spoil XP.

I would say, i would like to see Vista SP3 and Sp4 and Sp5 and maybe many more SP's till it starts working properly. A lot of people like me were forced to buy it with laptop, i did start using ubuntu, but yes i have an OS for which i paid, and which is soon being replaced, even before i start reaping the benefits of my bought OS. Its like putting money into a river, thats flooding.

We deserve quality for the OS we bought, or else take back the OS and repay everyone.

at the end of the day, it seems not just Mojave, even 7 is also windows vista, everything is windows vista ... everything.

faster firefox - and stable too... in ubuntu

2008-10-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

Make sure you visit this site http://getswiftfox.com/
Swiftfox, is running on firefox codebase, though its optimized for the processor we have. make sure you make the right choice there. If you have centrino etc .. core duo/solo choice should be fine.

Thats its pick the shell script that is closeset to your processor, then execute the shell script as root (sudo) and then it will do everything, downloading, and installation, just a single script that does everything.

enjoy !

restart alsa in ubuntu

2008-10-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

if that doesnt help use this
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

Lack of remoting into Vista home premium

2008-09-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

Well being a home user doesnt mean you wouldnt like to remote into your machine isnt it. Just to remote in why should i buy a business edition, thats crappy.

Anyways i googled and i was able to get a way to enable rdp on vista home prem, but i dont think that works.

ok finally released !

2008-09-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

finally chrome is out now ...

www.google.com/chrome

Its way way faster than IE anyways IE is nowhere close, the competition is firefox.

Anyways chrome uses a lot of open source components and thats why its open source itself.

Here is what i see it uses officially at http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=100336

----------------------

Official Build 1583

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13

--------------------

Enjoy !

Coming of google chrome !

2008-09-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Here comes "another" open source browser , to be released on wednesday, possibly at http://www.google.com/chrome

It has components from different places , notably a new java script engine V8 from denmark and of course it has firefox components etc and hence it will also be open source ! lets see how this goes on ...

I guess the only thing remaining is google OS, based on linux that would be the complete cycle. Anyways now i am using ubuntu with a huge success for a long time, though i guess with all those patches etc, i am keeping my vista too upto date.

And this mojahve experiment was just crap.

Do I like IE 8 Beta 2 ?

2008-08-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Well my answer is "NO". I will get down to the points
1. Private mode is nothing great as a technology, firefox also provides a way in which you can delete on close. But yes this will not affect history but only the browsing session, so as such i dont consider it as a great "innovation".
2. Bloated, its memory footprint is high.
3. The so called "tab isolation" is crappy, i mean its nothing great, each tab is now an iexplore.exe process, so if you have 5 tabs you will have 6 iexplore.exe processes.
4. "tab isolation" has promised to make sure that even if a tab "hangs" others will work fine and the tab will be restored or killed without affecting other tabs, but i found myself in a situation where there were lot of hangs and everytime, the whole IE processes die together.
5. There were some sites where i found the website getting into an infinite loop, where it loads the same image(s) again and again and again ... which works perfectly fine with firefox.

I never liked safari too either, i would still rate firefox as the best and no doubt IE8 offers very little advantage over firefox. I know its beta 2 lets see how the final version looks like.

Netbeans 6.5 impressive ~!

2008-08-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

I checked the beta version for C++ development, and it is really really impressive, since it has excellent code completion, and instant error is visible for any syntax error, just like java development.

It seems impressive, frankly much better than VC 2008 that i use for c++, lets see how it performs better in the longer run !

So go ahead and start using it to see the difference. Though of course VC's have a great advantage of using lesser RAM (if you use the express editions though).

Change is good but !

2008-08-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well somehow again, i feel there needs to be a lot of improvement to Blogger, since i still feel writing on a wiki is more of a fun experience.

I am starting to like visitor pattern :-)

pidgin is a better IM

2008-07-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

well recently on linux i was using pidgin so i thought i start using it on windows too .. and boy i am more than happy, atleast its good for what it does .. just text .. no video/calls but thats fine, since most of the time in office we use it to communicate via text.

try it .. its free at http://www.pidgin.im/

Hadoop ! Breaks records

2008-07-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/hadoop/2008/07/apache_hadoop_wins_terabyte_sort_benchmark.html

Interesting - http://hadoop.apache.org

Its an excellent software for distributed computing on the lines of map/reduce from goog. Anyways normally we wouldn't need it unless, we need to do analytics or things like indexing TB's of data.

This person works for google !

2008-07-28T23:08:00.001-07:00

Really inspirational ... Parents illiterate and doesnt have legs , read this story , an IIT madras grad and now works for Google !

http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/28sl1.htm

Whats the next ! after web

2008-07-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

yes web is innovating and reinnovating itself, whats the next now. I am sure its not mobile as many think, since mobile has been too much over hyped, its just a device, i want to call people thats all, nothing more, nothing less. I guess yes there is this iTablet that would be intersting to see.

Look at the difference, people wanted cellphones to get smaller and smaller sometime back now they want to watch /browse and hence small isnt cool, they would naturally want it big, but then where is the end, how big is big and how small is small. We used to ask how big is your TV and the bigger the better, isnt it .. And innovations were on making TV's bigger and bigger and at the same time there were innovations to make cellphones smaller and smaller :) so everybody has work , the ones who make things smaller and ones who make things bigger - best of both worlds.

But in the end, here is what i think will be real innovations or what i guess i will consider as the next in devices
1. Foldable laptops / Foldable displays.
2. A renewable source of energy that can be used anywhere (like what we see in iron man) , that would really change things.
3. Green revolution - Better recycling techniques, reduction of green house gasses.
4. Of course, lesser dependence on fossil fuels, that will be a power changing equation, since then mid east would be uneasy, as their monopoly would be lost, but useless ideas like corn methanol should be avoided.

What else ? I wish i have another dream ;-)

Aha here comes cuil ?

2008-07-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well as usual here comes "another" search, just that this has got a lot more publicity due to the perceived capabilities of the creators. I guess this must be interesting, though i am used to the way the standard search engines return results.
www.cuil.com or www.cuill.com

This one returns results in a different way, like a newspaper layout kind of thing. It claims to index a lot of millions of pages, though google doesnt publish anymore about its index size.

I guess thats valid, since index size is no more a valid comparision of strength. Whats important is whether i get what i want. I couldnt atleast find it as useful as google, since most of my results gave me some unpopular sites with lesser information. As such this is certainly not at attempt to build another company but an open book to come and aquire. this is a nice process, like they did before, build a company, show as though you are going to attack the king. The king will buy you, or alteast someone who aspires to be a king. And in the process the creators fill their pockets with billions of dollars.

Is this good ? I mean are people starting ventures to nurture it or sell it ? Atleast i will never trust someone who starts a venture in the hope of being bought by a bigger company, well that might be good for the investors, but is that really an indication of love of their babies , will they do this to their kids, isnt a startup like a kid for the creators ?

As such i hope this doesnt turn out to be another sale story, it would suck then.

generics in java

2008-07-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

generics in java has more to it than whats visible. what happens behind the scenes is really great to understand and know. things like type erasure and reification , pretty interesting. But its one of the most used features now, its there in almost every code that I write (though i had lived without it).

love java

2008-07-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

recently i have started doing a lot of c++, and well yes after a long long time, and now i really appreciate how cool java is :) Java is the best language out there, and i guess its the best thing that happened to the computing industry !!! Java is great !!! (Not that i dont like c++) , c++ and Java are the two languages that i like love and appreciate.

terror attacks on india !

2008-07-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

2 serial blasts in 2 cities lots killed and injured .. (in Bangalore and Abhmedabad) .. where has india gone wrong ? I have quite a few muslim friends, and i am sure they are good, somehow it seems a few fundamentalists are misusing religion and trying to instigate instablity.

My question to terrorists
1. Does attacks increase love towards them ? Like yes today there was an attack, i started loving muslims from today .. Is that what they want ?
2. Attacks increase hatred, its simple thing to understand if they have a brain. If they want to reduce hatred, attacks have increased it (was this what they wanted ? )
3. Avenging bad treatment with bombs ! Well interesting, they need to get a life and understand that a lot of love and appreciation comes with helping others. Why dont terrorists open shelters for poor, or donate money, or food etc. That will surely help in building bonds.
4. A lot of muslims should come out openly and condemn it (of course only if they are remorseful), and muslim leaders in india should strongly condemn it. This is really not the right solution and it will only lead to increased hatred ..

thinking of that, actually do the terrorists even know why they are doing it ? or what exactly they want ? if they tell that, atleast they can get what they want, but if their desire is playing with blood, they are surely not going to have a happy time themselves. GIVE RESPECT and TAKE RESPECT, i hope something like this was there in their holy books. Terrorists are enymies of everyone, including muslims.

India is strong and united and no terrorist can change that.

what is google doing - lively sucks and so does knol

2008-07-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

Seems they are out of ideas ! That is what happens when "so called intelligent" people think of that as "heaven' , yes free food wow thats great isnt it - as though eating is a good thing.

Anyways here is the point
1. lively is only for windows ! well that sucks .. anyways when i tried, i would say second life is million times better , why clone second life ? Google is trying to drive other companies out of business, by bringing bad products, but they do sell, due to the brand name, anyways they are hurting their brand name.
2. I dont use lively now, but i dont use second life too :) , after all these are things which someone who has a lot of time to waste would do. Already social networking seems to be a burden ( i mean text one), why would i spend my life in virtual world, we need to get a life and visit places and not be in virtual world ! Later sell virtual gym too !
3. Yes it would be like Orkut, thats losing its shine and a low performer, so would google news.
4. I wonder people are taking social networking to too much extent, they are just adding to internet traffic. Who has time, i wonder !!!
5. Knol !!! well another great useless product, wasnt wikipedia great ? I dont know why another clone of Wikipedia, and that too a bad one ? Intelligent, they masked it in knol.google.com so that alexa cannot tell the traffic, though lively shows traffic improving and then dropping, people are attracted to it due to the fact that its goog, but unless the product is good, and innovative it will fizz out, there is nothing innovative in this.

Google, is a search engine provider, and they should stick to that, there are lot of things in search that still needs to be solved, and all these seem to be more or less ways of trying to earn more money with ads.

I hate facebook too, its again a huge waste of time, i would say linkedin is the best , they could add more features, like scraps etc, but as such it serves the purpose , being connected. everything else can be done through mails.

True good ones are like twitter, myspace, linkedin, ebay and amazon, google search, ask news according to what i feel.

Deal or No Deal is TOTAL CRAP

2008-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

This is one game show, thats just nothing more than crap, actually crap also might be better.
This is the only show where you dont have anything to do, and still you are asked to think carefully on which box to choose, well isnt that funny ? Whats there to think hard and choose carefully ! Anyways the worst show , i wanted to write this for long, though i stopped seeing it long time back ..

poor twitter struggling !!!!

2008-07-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here is what i see ... I guess twitter should have started using Java instead of Ruby on Rails ;-) anyways i know thats not to blame for :) but they are now doing the right things, but their messaging infrastructure seems to be really overburdened.

Here is what i see .... though it was temporary - I mean i couldnt see it later, so i thought i will capture it - >

multiply.com interesting ...

2008-07-24T19:48:00.001-07:00

Well recently i opened an account on multiply.com , yes thats the site thats now accusing facebook of copying and facebook is busy accusing others of copying :) interesting.

Anyways this site is like one in all, everything from photos to videos to blog to calendar and yes to social networking .. everything is there , i liked it and i am sure anyways i was never a facebook fan, i would like to see it more.. It also gives option to import blog ;-) from blogger too .. so here you go .. maybe i would import it there .

my vote now goes to multiply.com - down down facebook, which is somewhat like a ms slave (well or the other way ! not sure).

orkut hacked

2008-07-21T18:07:00.001-07:00

now orkut is down ..
someone seems to have updated my profile, with everything in brazilian and my location is brazilian .. seems a lot of others had the same problem, though i didnt click anything , it just happened behind the scenes. anyways, soon i modified it back, but within 10 mins the site was down .. whether it was brought down or it came down due to the attack, not sure. ...

Rubified

2008-07-21T18:03:00.001-07:00

Finally over the weekend , i learnt Ruby and also Rails ;-) so now it would an interesting challenge to find someone who wants me to work on that ;-) yes ! i just found one .. otherwise i will have to create a project for myself.

wiki style blog

2008-07-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Am on the lookout for a wiki style blog, since somehow i feel blogger is limited. Wiki style blogs like confluence etc have changed the way in which corporates share documents/knowledge. Its like knowledge management used to be an additional activity of a company, now knowledge management is a by product of what you do.

Isnt that fun ? Lets say you write design document in word. Here you will have to worry about sharing, versioning, tracking comments and finally releasing it and maintaining it, its a bigger challenge if there are 2-3 contributors. Also if others want to see, you will have to mail it to them or share it in a file server (where its usually an obscure file path), and people need to be told where the document is and there are times you might re-write something thats already there. Wheras in a wiki style, you actually work with the presumption that document is always shared and formatting is not propretiory but globally agreed upon wiki style. Here versioning, sharing, writing and searching is more intutive and well defined, and its easy to implement corporate style conventions. Also its easy for others to peek into what other projects are doing and see if they can contribute. It increase communication across teams.

I guess it can be implemented in all companies, and its the new wave of collaboration. I guess its been 8 months since i used word :) and i love wiki style documentation.

Check out confluence at http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/ , its commerical though.
and also mediawiki, that powers wikipedia, it can be used to power any corporate intranet wiki http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki and its free.

lively ?

2008-07-10T22:56:00.001-07:00

Well why copy second life now ? Anyways i still like second life, that has a linux viewer too ... second life is the best ... i guess google should stop trying to enter other spaces and kill others ..

Gmail - Memory killer

2008-07-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

I have observed this quite often. In a quest to provide everything through javascript for better "speed", i think gmail does a lot of caching. So whenever i open gmail i guess i get a 50K memory jump (delta), and usually even if i close the site (tab) in either firefox or IE, the memory doesnt go down. So gmail is actually killing my browser :-(

Quota system is going to kill india ...

2008-07-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

India now has >50% quota for (SC. ST. OBC.) well that means atleast in US they should certainly check if there is someone coming from india .. if they are any of those they shouldnt be allowed, since soon they will accumulate in US and then again they will fight for quota ..
well what is this quota after all, is it an indication that they are not intelligent ? Well certainly not , if they are not intelligent, then they would need quota all through their life .. right from school to promotions .. They are more like parasites. I would say lots of people in higher "castes" too are not intelligent .. I would say if there needs to be sincere effort in growth of a country we should have quota based on intelligence.

1. See the entrance rank.
2. If there are 200 seats, give 100 to first 100 and last 100, that would take care of both the ends of world .. no need to be creamy layer etc ... just this criteria (of course leaving blank sheets etc will be disqualification) , if there is a sincere effort to write and still you score the lowest and then your education history justifies the pattern, you are in.

Isnt this simpler ?

I guess its the volume, we have so many SC ST and OBC and they are the ones who vote, so politicians need to make them happy but 50% quota is CRAZY !!!! God save india .. Its a good motivation but its not the right thing, we need to work hard to succeed and there is no shortcut. You cannot live your life relying on quotas ...

wall-e trailers and promo

2008-07-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Nice onces ..

1. http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/04/22/must-watch-wall-e-meets-a-magnet/
2. http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/05/30/must-watch-wall-e-meets-bouncy-balls/
3. http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/04/29/wall-e-and-the-hula-hoop/
4. http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/02/03/must-watch-wall-e-meets-a-vacuum/

And a lot more on this site ..

Wall E ?

2008-06-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

well i just saw this movie and it was beyond my imagination. It was truly truly wonderful !!! How cute can they make cartoons ! Animation has really come into mainstream and i guess i prefer going to a watch an animation movie to any other movie.

Evice vs xpdf

2008-06-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well Evice is supposed to be gnomes (all round viewer - its supposed to be a universal viewer). though i had issues with a large PDF, i had that open for 2-3 hours and i see memory going to 500MB !!! well then i installed xpdf, its truly light and believe me for the same file it takes <20mb>

Install like this

$ sudo apt-get install xpdf

Firefox 3 or Opera 9.5

2008-06-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well i have personally seen on my ubuntu 8.04 that FC 3 (final) sort of leaks memory. Sometimes with 10 tabs open and 2-3 windows of FF open , memory shows 90MB and sometimes with the same windows and the same sites open, it shows 250 or 300 MB. Even closing windows and tabs, does not reduce memory (not virtual or resident mem) , so it seemed irritating. I have hence started using opera (though sudo apt-get install opera installs an older version, hence its better you go to opera.com and download the latest 9.5 version). Opera seems to be better , lemme see how it works.

Just download the latest version of opera, and download it as a .deb package. Now open nautilus and go to that .deb package, right click and open with package manager, that will allow you to install. its very very easy.

Pretty GNOME clock !!!!

2008-06-28T13:06:00.001-07:00

Wow this is great , look at this and see how the clock looks .. you can modify more to suit your taste...

http://bomahy.nl/hylke/blog/pretty-gnome-clock/

Compare languages ... Ruby vs Python vs PHP vs Perl

2008-06-25T18:16:00.001-07:00

Anyways this is an interesting topic and can go into lengths. I personally use Java and i love it. I also did Python way back, and it was interesting too, but now it seems Ruby has gained traction though it was there from 1995 but mostly in Japan. I have gone back to relearning c++ since that was something i did long time back and i really loved it .. though i worked more with c. But after Java, i would say i really like the matured IDE's that Java world has (Eclipse and Netbeans and also IntelliJ) ...

Here is a list to reduce confusion.
1. Firstly dont worry that there are so many languages out there. All have similarities and differences.
2. Fundamental is important, so as long as you have a base of c++ or java you are safe, everything else is more like extra whipped cream.
3. See what suits your needs, but make sure you have the fundamental languages in your grip, only then move to the other language - its much easier.
4. If you are aware of algorithms, conversion into programs is just a mundane task. So language is not important - algorithms are.

See these benchmarks, they might feed your appetite http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/index.php

What should bill gates do next ....

2008-06-25T18:01:00.001-07:00

Well interesting enough, now there is a huge speculation on what he will do next. As such China will be his first stop.

Anyways i guess he will have fun, now that he is relaxed. I wonder what would happen 20 years down the line when many computer nerds will retire !!! what will happen to the world ..

Back to Ubuntu - SegoeUI on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

2008-06-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well now i am back to Ubuntu .. due to a couple of issues, and the most prominent being that vista freezes my touchpad, after it comes back from sleep (suspend) and sometimes it comes back in 3-5 seconds , sometimes a min, and sometimes it doesnt come even after 10 mins. I usually connect my wireless mouse if that happens, but this is irritating. Also had a few firefox crashes.

Now after being in vista for sometime, i somehow started liking SegoeUI. Its a good font. I have brought that into Ubuntu so now system has Segoe UI. Its a very simple process for those who wish to do the same (It might not be legal though , but since i bought vista, i think i should have the right to copy it to my own system). Its pretty similar to the way Tahoma etc are copied. There is a good document at http://www.howtoforge.com/sharp_fonts_gnome_p2 which gives the general idea. Actually i like smaller screens so i live is 72 - 80 DPI range, since for me 96 DPI seems too big and dialogs etc tend to be too huge.

Here is specific for Segoe.

1. Copy the four font files (segoeuib.ttf segoeuii.ttf segoeui.ttf segoeuiz.ttf) from c:\windows\fonts to /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom (you need to sudo for this or open nautilus as root, if "custom" folder is not there create it).

$ cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom
$ sudo nautlius .

2. Now once thats done, we need to modify a file custom.hints

$ sudo gedit /etc/defoma/hints/custom.hints

3. Put this in the file (if it already exists, append to it)
--------
begin /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom/segoeui.ttf
Family = Segoeui
FontName = Segoeui-Regular
Encoding = Unicode
Location = Magyar Dutch Spanish Czech Russian English Catalan Slovak Italian Turkish Danish Slovenian Basque Portuguese German Polish Swedish Norwegian French Finnish Greek
Charset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712 ISO10646-1
UniCharset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712
GeneralFamily = SansSerif
Weight = Medium
Width = Variable
Shape = NoSerif Upright
Foundry = Microsoft
Priority = 20
end
begin /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom/segoeuib.ttf
Family = Segoeui
FontName = Segoeui-Bold
Encoding = Unicode
Location = Magyar Dutch Spanish Czech Russian English Catalan Slovak Italian Turkish Danish Slovenian Basque Portuguese German Polish Swedish Norwegian French Finnish Greek
Charset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712 ISO10646-1
UniCharset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712
GeneralFamily = SansSerif
Weight = Bold
Width = Variable
Shape = NoSerif Upright
Foundry = Microsoft
Priority = 20
end
begin /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom/segoeuii.ttf
Family = Segoeui
FontName = Segoeui-Italic
Encoding = Unicode
Location = Magyar Dutch Spanish Czech Russian English Catalan Slovak Italian Turkish Danish Slovenian Basque Portuguese German Polish Swedish Norwegian French Finnish Greek
Charset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712 ISO10646-1
UniCharset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712
GeneralFamily = SansSerif
Weight = Medium
Width = Variable
Shape = NoSerif Italic
Foundry = Microsoft
Priority = 20
end
begin /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom/segoeuiz.ttf
Family = Segoeui
FontName = Segoeui-Italic-Bold
Encoding = Unicode
Location = Magyar Dutch Spanish Czech Russian English Catalan Slovak Italian Turkish Danish Slovenian Basque Portuguese German Polish Swedish Norwegian French Finnish Greek
Charset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712 ISO10646-1
UniCharset = ISO8859-1 ISO8859-2 ISO8859-3 ISO8859-4 ISO8859-5 ISO8859-7 ISO8859-9 ISO8859-10 ISO8859-13 ISO8859-14 ISO8859-15 KOI8-R KOI8-U CP1251 VISCII1.1-1 TCVN-5712
GeneralFamily = SansSerif
Weight = Bold
Width = Variable
Shape = NoSerif Italic
Foundry = Microsoft
Priority = 20
end
--------

4. Now do this to complete the process .. this will register and refresh font cache, without this step you will not see it in fonts list.

sudo /usr/bin/defoma-font -v register-all /etc/defoma/hints/custom.hints
sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig

Thats it ... you are all set, now make sure you turn on the anti alisaing and hinting .. (as shown in the link http://www.howtoforge.com/sharp_fonts_gnome_p2 )

Happy good looking fonts :) , since fonts influence you a lot, especially if you are used to some font, it will take time to get used to another font, so why not take the font with you whereever you go, on whatever machine you are in .. though i am not sure if copyrights prevent that, so take your own risk, or atleast have a legal vista version)

I hate amitabh

2008-06-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

At the cost of being controversial, i am openly stating that i dont like Amitabh ! yes the "Big B". I guess its time, and he should stop acting further. He still needs limelight and if you dont give him limelight he will be sad and unhappy. He should rather direct movies, instead of acting and trying to be a hero even now !

I hate valerie ...

2008-06-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

The one who comes on Jenny craig, since she is really irritating, not just looks but the way she speaks etc .. everything is irritating. I am sure she has undergone massive reconstruction surgeries and also operations. Everything is short term, soon she will get back to her original self and then she will be silent !

Stop her ads please.

Microsoft crashes firefox 3 !!!!

2008-06-22T09:16:00.001-07:00

I can see this consistently on my vista laptop. Visit this site http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us and thats it ... firefox just crashes and the crash reporter opens !!!

Too bad !

Best XP theme ever ! Old Reluna with Shellystyle

2008-06-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

I have used a lot of themes and the only theme i always liked was Reluna. It was made by Bant, though after sometime he took it out and brought another version, without the shell style etc and frankly i always liked the original (first) creation of Bant, so here is it .. i have kept it with me from 2003, and i thought it makes sense to share it. Its not my creation, its Bant's (http://bant.deviantart.com/). Here is the link to the newer version (http://bant.deviantart.com/art/Reluna-3-14801572) , though it doesnt have a shellstyle, which can be obtained/reused from the .rar file i attached.

Download from here.
( http://www.esnips.com/doc/1367844b-8606-4db0-ad91-56e92d36c984/RelunaOldFromBantXPVisualStyle )

You will love it .. thanks to bant !

ps: Bant, if you want me to remove it please let me know, i will.

I hate Nancy Grace !

2008-06-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

she thinks of herself as god. She jumps on issues, and takes an hour of CNN's time and all she does is call, people . shout at them and scold them for what they have done. And she would talk to victims and show that she is very very very very concerned and tries to get the story , and makes the victim feel more and more victimized. Even if the victim is fine .. she would remind that he/she is a victim and very unfortunate ... She should be out .....

Moving from Visual Studio c++ 2008 Express to Eclipse C++ and Netbeans c++

2008-06-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well, its been sometime, i have restarted doing c++, something i did quite a little when i completed my studies, though i wont say i was an expert, there since most of my c++ coding tried to emulate functional programming that i knew from c (that was something i did a lot during my studies), now i am getting to appreciate the OO concepts in C++ , though i love Java, its the best language.

So i downloaded VS 2008 c++ express edition, but except the fact that it is lightweight, i didnt find a huge advantage. I would say eclipse/netabeans are much more powerful and well featured. I have VS .net 2005 in office, that isnt as good too. i mean i had hopes with visual studio, but atleast it doesnt give a person enough kick :)
Yes VS is too light ! Its as light as MS word .. amazing , that really helps ..

I will see how my experience goes with netbeans (its too heavy), and eclipse (getting heavy). on Vista ... c++ here i come !!

Cisco VPN client on Vista and Ubuntu !

2008-06-18T08:09:00.001-07:00

Well cisco has this bad product, Cisco VPN that is really really bad, it doesnt work properly with Vista, i have seen it taking about a 1-2 min to connect, that too when it does ..thats 1 out of 5 tries. Also once connected sometimes there is no traffic ! On ubuntu, it actually causes kernel panic when i try to remote into another machine .. hence i use vpnc and gnome-network-connect, and they work perfect and it takes about less than 2 seconds to connect !

Recently i saw this new software called as Juniper Network Connect (supplied by Juniper networks) , its much much better than Cisco VPN ! Here is a link on how to install on ubuntu http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=232607 , though i havent tried on that and i didnt import my pcf (cisco settings) file. Our IT supports it and hence i am able to connect, but i dont know if it supports cisco imports etc .. though yes it works great !

True solution - Making sound work on Lenovo Y410 with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

2008-06-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well i had recently struggled with making sound (audio from speakers and headphones) and mic (external and internal) work with Ubuntu.

Here are my observations, there are some sites that indicate that alsa has to be rebuilt .. here is the link which will help you start
1. http://jaux.net/2008/04/27/solution-to-lenovo-y410-sound-problem-ubuntu-804/ run the shell file thats there. (

chmod +x y410_sound-20080427.sh
sudo ./y410_sound-20080427.sh

)

2. Now that solves some problems, with people indicating adding this to the end of alsa-base file.
"options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=fujitsu"

And most people agree that this is the solution, though headphones wont work and internal mic wont work ..

3. Making internal mic and headphones work ! Ok here is the issue, adding fujitsu solves some issues but here is my solution thats probably not right but the best.
a) dont have any options (the line which indicates fujitsu) or anything ..
b) restart alsa, or restart system.
c) Now for every restart, you need to suspend and come back from suspend.
d) this will make headphones work, just that headphones wont automatically disable speakers .. for that go
to sound settings or alsamixer from shell, and mute "Front speakers" (no use of reducing to lowest volume .. mute is necessary).
e) similary select Front mic (internal mic) everywhere that asks for the source of input.

I am now in vista, so i am unable to post ubuntu screen shots, but i will certainly be looking forward to posting the screenshots.


But yes, sound does work well, with certain tweaks, and i dont like the fujitsu option, since
though that start the sound on its own .. it fully kills headphones.

Acrobat failed on me ... Linux products seem like social service !

2008-06-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well after a 40 day happy uncrashed sessions on ubuntu 8.04, my ubuntu started crashing (thank god, not on its own) , but when i open a pdf and then another pdf, which is a bit large (not that much though). Yes, it kills ubuntu, and it restarts ! Too bad .. Gnome doesnt even let me save my work etc .. its just blank screen and then dead ! Anyways that made me look back to my vista partition again, though i never liked to be on vista, but thank god it hasnt as yet crashed on me while working. It did sometimes no respond, when it came back from sleep and all that .. but atleast it didnt die due to a bad application.

The problem is the fact that product companies, have considered windows as mainstream for a long time and now its osx thats also getting its share of importance, thanks to some vista issues. Linux for lack of a powerful company backing it, creates marketing issues, and product companies either dont release products for linux or even if they release, they release it as though they are doing some social service ! I guess with mainstream companies like google and amazon using linux on their desktops, its time they contribute to it .. instead of considering it as an alternative !

Anyways i was able to do everything without issue on Linux, though i think frankly its being treated wrongly ! Anyways now I am back to vista, and i am pretty much happy. I am certainly not going to use OSX, since i think apple is too closed, and they are certainly not doing the right thing forcing people to buy the over priced mac laptops !!!

I Hate - Jenny Craig Ads / valerie

2008-06-14T13:44:00.001-07:00

i dont know why ! but i hate it ... it seems too fake. moreover they do operations and say it because of exercise. now see queen latifah is struggling, soon she will undergo a secret operation to keep up jenny's name ... its fake.

Interesting problems !

2008-06-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

What constitute interesting problems ? Interest is relative and hence we cannot generalize interesting problems isnt it. For someone working with large data sets, interesting problem would be faster execution with multiple processors/machines. For someone working on a thick client interesting problem, could be related to UI transitions, etc. For someone working in a garbage disposal industry, interesting problem would be how to recycle efficiently.

I would say, people generally test others with problems they consider interesting to themselves, which might not be globally interesting or challenging enough.

www.glassdoor.com

2008-06-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

interesting website ! Sort of peek into companies, something always desired but it wasnt there free anywhere. Just that such things are risky as its though to validate the information. Anyone can write bad about any other company, just for fun ! So there needs to be some validation i guess, otherwise it will be a playground of spammers !

Piclens might come for Linux !!!

2008-06-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Just waiting for it .. its a great way to browse through videos/images or actually it can be applied to anything . I hope its incorporated into expedia searches, so that searching is more intutive !

Well done for the tool .. but bad that its not cross platform !

Here is what i found from the FAQ, the website is www.piclens.com

Will PicLens support Linux anytime soon?

Our ideal plan is to eventually make our Firefox version work cross-platform, but its timing is not yet clear due to our current resource constraints. We're trying to make sure our currently supported platforms are fully stabilized and robust before supporting other platforms. We appreciate your support and understanding.

Netbeans 6.1 ... for linux ! Yippie

2008-06-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well just installed Netbeans latest version from www.netbeans.org, and it works great ! on Linux its fast and excellent .. thats my first impression. Lemme run it for a few days and see ! Go ahead and try its a great way to do everything in Java including Java ME, J2EE , SOA and it also has embedded application server, tomcat and open ESB.

Update - IT shows 700K ram being used !!!! well is that good ? Anyways it didnt lead to any performance degradation of my linux system, so i guess its fine .. (i have 2gb ram FYI on my lappy)

Firefox plugins (addons) !

2008-06-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well i was just trying to add something (better Ctrl-Tab kind of tabbing between tabs !) , i realized there are so many great addons out there ...
Website is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/recommended

I installed some interesting ones, and they are great ! Things like an addon that changes the color of the tab based on its age.

I liked this one http://www.piclens.com , check out this website... you can also get in the addons site ( unfortunately its not available for linux, had to check it on a windows system) !

(News) iPhone 2.0 - Breaking News

2008-06-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, now the question being, whats breaking in it. It was expected though.
Here are the features worthwhile
1. App store - Interesting enough, the mantra of modern world ! Create a platform, and let others build, something Facebook started. So all you have to do is give API's and SDK and thats it, the world will do you work !
2. GPS ! Well now start wondering what will happen to Garmin, Tomtom & Magellan ? Dont worry, i am sure they are more feature oriented, since they are specific to function as a GPS device. In a phone its a nice to have feature, which will primarly be used for presence features, that will help you be more locatable, for searching directions and also, things like pizza places around you ! where you dont need to worry about defining where you are, thats almost like a GPS in hand ! But then does it reroute, does it speak out directions, does it show traffic yes it does, it does show the speeds too (by color conventions). Interestingly enough, this is possibly the best feature for a 200$ phone !
3. 3G - How does that help us ? we are tied to the useless and costly AT&T, thats bad in US, mobile companies tie you in contracts ! India is better , your device is what you buy and then you choose providers ! I am sure i wont use this feature, unless i am in europe. I guess its primarly for the european buyers.

Everything else is the same old iPhone ! Well now the question is it a worth buy ? I would say the price of 200$ for 8GB seems attractive, but i might not yet buy, since i feel it seems bulky, and we are forgetting the basic reason for the device, we wanted a decent phone, everything else is anyways portable, with smaller and better laptops !

I would say, OSX should think about opening up to PC's. Anyways i would still say Linux is the best, i am using it and i enjoy it. Its come a long way, even though its just community supported ! But if there was no Vista, i would certainly say that XP did rule for quite a long time, and it still does, dont know why package XP add crap on it and call it Vista .. anyways that going to be another post ..

Sewing Machine !!

2008-06-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well my mom had bought a sewing machine (Singer) that was supposed to be refurbished and on display, that was some 4-5 years ago ! That was a nice investment, supposed to be a fashion machine, that can do embroidery etc .. well interesting enough, that was for 5000/- , and it was pretty advanced. The salesman seems to have convinced my mom, especially when we see the difference between the original price and the sale price, it seemed like a steal. She did have a decent hand sewing machine, that has been working flawlessly for the past 20 years !
Now the true woes begin, it was a huge struggle, it kept failing and failing, finally my mom spends about 1500/- per year to maintain it .. (sometimes more). Sometimes that makes me think, refurbished products, sometimes don't work well ! or is it always ?

Here is what i propose, she should buy ..its a 2200/- USHA machine ! Simple mechanical sewing machine !

(News) - The series - The introduction

2008-06-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here i will be discussing about the news that i feel worth discussing (or rather news where i have viewpoints on) ...