love and machines - my thought store

Moving to LiveJournal

2005-10-26T00:50:00.000+05:30

I am moving my daily(?) taking of notes to LiveJournal.

You can check it here:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/phoe6/

XML Feed: http://www.livejournal.com/users/phoe6/data/rss

I have notes,tips on Vim,Linux,Fedora etc here. So you can search for them using the Google Search below.

See you at LJ.

Fwd: appending and incrementing the numbers from a particular point

2005-10-24T02:00:00.000+05:30

From: Tim Chase
Subject: Re: appending and incrementing the numbers from a particular point
To: Senthil Kumaran

> My requirement is to add more rows with incrementing numbers upto say 2300.
> like:
> 2191 Default SomeText
> 2192 Default SomeText.
> 2193
> 2194
> 2195
> .
> .
> .
> .
> .
> 2300
> ~
> ~
> How should I go about doing this in vim.

Well, there are several ways to go about it (as usual...this *is* vim ;)

The first that comes to mind is something like the following:

:let i=2193 | while (i <= 3000) | put =i | let i=i+1 | endwhile

When executed on the "2192" line, will add a whole bunch of other lines
afterwards. If you want your default text stuff in there too, you can
simply change the "put =i" to

put =i." Default Some Text"

which will pre-populate it with values if you want. If you like to be
left at the top of that inserted stuff, you can try the inverse. On a
blank/emtpy line below "2192", you can do

:let i=3000 | while (i > 2192) | put! =i | let i=i-1 | endwhile

This would be a direct answer to your question of "how to add more rows,
incrementing a number each time".

If, however, you'd like to have it auto-number, something like this
mapping might do the trick for you (all one line):

:inoremap <cr> <cr><c-o>:let i=substitute(getline(line('.')-1),
'^$\d*$.*', '\1', '')<cr><c-r>=i>0?(i+1).' ':''<cr>

It can be done without a holding "i" variable, but it becomes about
twice as large, as both instances of "i" would be replaced with the
entire contents of the "substitute()" call.

It should gracefully handle lines with numbers and lines without numbers.

Help on the following topics should give you more details on what's
going on there.

:help getline()
:he line()
:he i_^R
:he while
:he let
:he :put
:he substitute()
:he /\d

Hope this helps,

-tim

Gnome Easter Egg (Wanda the Fish)

2005-10-21T16:12:00.000+05:30

mricon: : "Gnome Easter Egg (Wanda the Fish)

Hit Alt-F2
type 'free the fish'
hit enter

VisVim

2005-10-20T01:53:00.000+05:30

its fun! like when you are using VC++ and you are so used to and like vim, then you want your vim as an editor whereever any editing function is needed.
yeah. Go to your Windows installation of vim. (You dont use it? Hey, get it now at www.vim.org and start using it. In a year or so, you might start appreciating it). yeah coming back, go to your windows installation of vim, which had OLE enabled and read the file called README_VisVim.txt. It gives the directions as how to integrate vim as an editor to your visual studio.
Found it One way. Debug mode is not possible. Big miss. Visual Commands are not recognized. But found a link in web to come around this. ( have not tried it) And the vim editor stands out of the IDE, it does not embed itself into the visual studio framework.
After you enable it as your editor, basically you can disable it with a hot-key and return to the normal editor, toggle its usage, after the debugging is over, you can load it again to vim using some hot keys. that readme explains them well.

So, I just started with both. Vim has lot to go :) getting to start liking it,what might take to go more into it! :D

GnomeTinTin

2005-10-15T00:56:00.000+05:30

You like Gnome and you have always loved reading TinTin. Get a feel of both with this wallpaper.

Gnome-look.org submission
Awaiting feature at art.gnome.org

tried new default apps with linux

2005-10-08T00:21:00.000+05:30

Happened to try a lot of new Linux apps today. Basically it started with ripping the Swades CD Songs using the Sound Juicer to Ogg format.
Now Ogg happens to be something which most of the linux multimedia application should understand, so Helix Player played it. Helix does not have a playlist kind of facilty. So, tried if any other application can player this, my often wondered question of why the hell totem-player is present in the distro was answer as it played Ogg without requiring any external plugin :D Btw, thats sound,I have not seen a video yet on Totem.

We often use the mount command to mount a particular windows share on Linux:

mount -t smbfs -o username=<username>,password=<password> //<server-ip>/share /media/<mount-point>

And have always struggled with Connect to Server option presented by the Gnome Nautilus.
Tried it again today. But gave only the following:
- Service Type: Windows Share
- Server: IP
- Username
And Connect. And it established the connection. Had so long tried in vain with providing share name,folder, name to use blah blah blah..
mount command always seemed to require a second level directory, so I was always trying giving the share name in the Connect to server dialog box.

Now after the smb connection, that network share comes as an Icon in the Computer as well in Desktop. Thats become easy.

What else: Yeah, rhn applet was constantly blinking. Which I have no requirement for as I am over Fedora Core4. (Why is Fedora Distro carrying rhn applet??) So, I did.


 rpm -e up2date-4.4.23-4 up2date-gnome-4.4.23-4 rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-1.0-1 rhnlib-1.8-6.p24.1 rhn-applet-2.1.17-3 firstboot-1.3.42-1.noarch

Now its clean.

Yeah, used Dia too effectively.

Endianess

2005-10-07T21:24:00.000+05:30

Endianess refers to the ordering of bytes in a multi-byte number. Big endian refers to the architecture where the most significant byte has the lowest address, while the opposite Little endian, the most significant byte has the highest address.
You can find the endianess of your architecture using the following programming snippets:


int x = 1;
 if(*(char *)&x == 1)
  printf("little-endian\n");
 else printf("big-endian\n");


#define LITTLE_ENDIAN 0
#define BIG_ENDIAN    1

int machineEndianness()
{
   short s = 0x0102;
   char *p = (char *) &s;
   if (p[0] == 0x02) // Lowest address contains the least significant byte
      return LITTLE_ENDIAN;
   else
      return BIG_ENDIAN;
}

Endianess Wiki page for #c on FreeNode.

Tip for MediaWiki Users: mediawiki recognizes hot-keys ( thats php, not ajax) and play with alt+x on your favorite wiki site.

Doom3 the linux

2005-10-07T20:33:00.000+05:30

There is Doom3 for Linux from id software. Tried on my Fedora Core 4 having 1 GB Ram. The Game was still very slow. The reasons I read at some performance comparisions that Doom3 was written using VC .Net and GCC optimization was not perfect. So there will always be 10% different.
Adding to this was the inbuilt video card of my machine.

VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01).

At #linux IRC channel while discussing this issue, came to know that this inbuilt video card does not support OpenGL graphics well and might have performance lags. The suggested ones are nVidia and ATI.

After downloading the game id software's ftp server.
- The Installation was breeze,using ncurses. Cool way for Linux for a big application.
- Had to change some settings in my X.org conf file. Increased the Depth to 24.
- To improve the performance on Linux with inbuilt video card,Added something called VideoRam 128000 under Device section and turned off all the advanced options from the game.

Now, its playable, but I need to figure out how to play it :)

brace expansion in BASH

2005-10-03T18:08:00.000+05:30

mkdir {A..C}{a..c}{1..3} did a nested brace expansion and created the 27 directories. that was cool.
rm -rf {A..C}{a..c}{1..3}

Tip source: aplawrance

September 27

2005-09-28T10:30:00.000+05:30

shell pi

2005-09-27T00:07:00.000+05:30

pi=$(echo "scale=10; 4*a(1)" | bc -l)

ok; bc -l gives floating point value.
a(1) returns arc tangent of 1.
scale is the scable you assign to the bc.

how 4 * a(1) is pi?

cowsay

2005-09-23T21:53:00.000+05:30

Cowsays


 ______________________________________
/ Don't worry about anything... Go out \ and have a good time.                /
 --------------------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/                ||----w |
                ||     ||

nice quote

2005-09-20T08:58:00.000+05:30

Dealing with failure is easy:
Work hard to improve.
Success is also easy to handle:
You've solved the wrong problem.
Work hard to improve.

Patch How To

2005-09-20T02:22:00.000+05:30

The command you need is:

# diff -ruP libsmbios-0.10.0_beta5 libsmbios-0.10.0_beta5_SENTHIL

Where the libsmbios-0.10.0_beta5_SENTHIL/ directory has your
modifications. Make sure that you run a "make distclean" in both
directories and look at the patch to ensure no stray files got in.

After this, go ahead and send it as an attachment. Doing the patch
inline is excellent for reviewing, but because of the line-wraps your
email client puts in, it is not possible to apply it this way.
--
Michael

getup to oo

2005-09-19T16:50:00.000+05:30

"'Well, grok bugzilla / your personal collection of tricky MS files, find some scab and pick at it' he says. He continues, 'the first thing to do is to download the latest ooo-build, and build it yourself, then go over the My First Hack page. Be sure to pop onto IRC and ask for help."

using rdesktop

2005-09-05T16:49:00.000+05:30

rdesktop seems a nifty tool.

To use it,invoke with the options:

rdesktop -u <user_name> -d <domain_name> -g <resolution> <windows_machine_hostname/ip>

I used resolution as 800x600. the -g option is a must I guess;I googled for usage of it, cause I could not figure out using it by running the tool, using --help,man etc..

rdesktop on your linux and Cygwin/X on your windows might make a nice handshake!

libsmbios

2005-09-03T18:05:00.000+05:30

[PATCH] checkSkipTest for Skipping unit_test failures.

trying for an entry into libsmbios.

cprogramming.com now has uthcode as a resource

2005-09-02T11:36:00.000+05:30

now links

In the C Source Code Resources Directory.

Thanks! and a good step forward.

Steve Waugh

2005-08-31T21:12:00.000+05:30

"I see myself as an average guy who tries to help out my mates and loves my sport. I think in some ways, I'm sort of an underdog and a bit of a battler. I've always had to fight hard for my spot and to achieve what I have, and I've had to give 100%. I think Australians like to see that in people and they like to recognise it." - Steve Waugh

Quote for the day

2005-08-31T11:28:00.000+05:30

"I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it— but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

bootchart of my linux pc

2005-08-26T18:17:00.000+05:30

BootChart [1]

talk to wumpus

2005-08-25T01:04:00.000+05:30

Everying is talking about talk.
Check About talk by Right Clicking on the talk Icon in the windows panel.

Google Blogoscopednoticed something interesting there.
It reads: “play 23 21 13 16 21 19 . 7 1 13 5”.
Interesting.noticed these were all numbers that could represent letters from the alphabet (a = 1, b = 2, c = 3 and so on).
gives "play wumpus.game"

Felt very excited when I came to know about this. Tad tried with Wumpus sometime ago. Glad that Google has brought it back to spotlight!.

Wumpus Page has the C code as well. You can try it on your Linux/cygwin/windows(not sure) box.

GAIM does not seem to play wumpus.game on talk!

web updates

2005-08-24T09:08:00.000+05:30

Home Page: http://puggy.symonds.net/~senthil/
UnixBlog: http://puggy.symonds.net/~senthil/unixblog/
NECSUS: http://puggy.symonds.net/~senthil/necsus/

why did'nt they ask evans?

2005-08-22T13:48:00.000+05:30

Thats an Agatha Christie title! Read the book over the weekend and got a glimpse at the talent of Queen of Crime. this was my first entry into the world of agatha chritie. she has got a very nice writing style, attention to the details and seems an excellent story teller :)

similar minds - take this up!

2005-08-19T21:10:00.000+05:30

What Famous Leader Are You?

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

visual treat

2005-08-19T11:57:00.000+05:30

Copy of IMG_22231, originally uploaded by gdatuk2k.

A good capture by Giri

Same Hot-Key (F) for two fields in Evolution

2005-08-18T13:32:00.000+05:30

Bug!

Install Java Plugin for Firefox in Linux

2005-08-17T16:16:00.000+05:30

Browser: Firefox 1.0.4
Distro: Fedora Core 4.
Need to Install Java Plugin.
- Download J2SE 1.5.0
- Install the RPM.
- Open a terminal and change to the Firefox plugin directory and symlink it the jre plugin just installed.


cd /usr/lib/firefox-1.0.4/plugins/
ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_04/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

Help available at FireFox FAQ points to ns7-gcc29; linking to it Crashed my FireFox. So you need to link it to the correct plugin.
Faced problems like, only the root mode firefox displayed applets, but I tried again with uninstall and install and taking some care to be as user and then su to symlink and luckily the Java Plugin is installed for my FireFox!

Flash Player Installation for FireFox on Linux

2005-08-17T15:21:00.000+05:30

Automatic Installation of Flash Plugin Failed.
After checking that Macromedia Flash was missing, giving the option to install,License Agreement etc.when proceeded to install. It failed and informed me to do a manual install.
- Flash Plugin can be downloaded here.
- extract and run the flashplayer-installer.
- it will ask:


Please enter the installation path of the Mozilla, Netscape,
or Opera browser (i.e., /usr/lib/mozilla):

Giving anything other than your Installed Browser's lib directory will fail.
Here,after googling and checking few forums, I did locate firefox | grep lib and got the answer as /usr/lib/firefox-1.0.4/. Yeah, Firefox
lib directory is at /usr/lib/firefox-X.X.X where X.X.X is the version number and plugin directory is present inside this.
-Verify your flash-plugin installation by checking this.
Note: I did not have to close my firefox browser when I installed the plugin.

Hollywood at its Best

2005-08-16T16:06:00.000+05:30

Warne has survivied and excelled under conditions which are very different and not so normal.
Read the Nirmal Shekar's article here.

Troubleshooting X server resolution problem in Linux

2005-08-12T15:02:00.000+05:30

X was in a very bad shape after I followed the workaround for the problem in FC4. Only 600X800 resolution was available. tried many things(Xorg -configure,system-config-display..etc),upto the downloading a new X11 and not knowing what to do. Finally went to the 600x800 mode only went to display resolutions and saw that video card is incorrectly indentified. Changed it to Intel 815e and restarted X. Now its working. I was thinking of reinstall FC4 to FC3 itself for this. :(

Library installation in linux

2005-08-01T11:39:00.000+05:30

Libraries have been installed in:
/usr/local/lib

If you ever happen to want to link against installed libraries
in a given directory, LIBDIR, you must either use libtool, and
specify the full pathname of the library, or use the `-LLIBDIR'
flag during linking and do at least one of the following:
- add LIBDIR to the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH' environment variable
during execution
- add LIBDIR to the `LD_RUN_PATH' environment variable
during linking
- use the `-Wl,--rpath -Wl,LIBDIR' linker flag
- have your system administrator add LIBDIR to `/etc/ld.so.conf'

See any operating system documentation about shared libraries for
more information, such as the ld(1) and ld.so(8) manual pages.

Most of time, I have been adding the path to the /etc/ld.so.conf and doing ldconfig. Need to understand the other options.

Re: Assignment for July 19

2005-07-20T08:54:00.000+05:30

Senthil wrote :
> Write a Linked List Program in C and C++.
> Single Linked List only.
>
/* Linked List program. A very simple one to understand the basics */

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

struct node {
int data;
struct node* next;
};

int main(int argc,char **argv)
{

struct node* head=NULL;
struct node* second=NULL;
struct node* third=NULL;

head=malloc(sizeof(struct node));
second=malloc(sizeof(struct node));
third=malloc(sizeof(struct node));

head->data=1;
head->next=second;

second->data=2;
second->next=third;
third->data=3;
third->next=NULL;

return 0;

}

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

/* Linked List Program in C Plus Plus */
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

class list
{
private:
struct node {
int data;
struct node *next;
};
struct node *head,*first,*second;
public:
list();
~list();
void addnode();
};

list::list()
{
head=NULL;
first=NULL;
second=NULL;
}

list::~list()
{
while(head != NULL)
{
node *temp;
temp=head;
head=head->next;
delete temp;
}
}

void list::addnode()
{
head=(node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));
first=(node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));
second=(node *)malloc(sizeof(struct node));

head->data=1;
head->next=first;

first->data=2;
first->next=second;

second->data=3;
second->next=NULL;
}

int main(int argc,char **argv)
{

list listobj;
listobj.addnode();
}

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Observations:
- Struct node * head,first,second; does not serve the purpose. Either
they should as in the first program or as in the second program
- Allocation of memory, the first program accepted without typecasting
to (node *) whereas the second cpp program did not.

--
O.R.Senthil Kumaran
http://uthcode.sarovar.org

Unix Blog

2005-07-11T20:48:00.000+05:30

http://unixblog.port5.com/
where I plan to put my unix learnings while working from home. Coz, I need to do ftp/rsync from the shell where the local unixblog folder will be present.

Its powered by Nanoblogger.
If you have a Unix Machine online, give it a try.

War of the Worlds

2005-07-04T17:33:00.000+05:30

Was thinking all the while ( in a vim style)

:s/Steven\ Spielberg/Manoj\.N\.Shyamalan

Maheswata

2005-06-26T16:34:00.000+05:30

Maheswata is a story of a beautiful girl called Anupama, who suddenly has to face life in all its cruel possiblities. After suffering enough,she starts to take things in her stride, fights back with courage and finally takes on to bring meaning to her life.

There are too many life-lessons in this novel. This novel brings forth many subtle issues of human mind with regard to beauty; the issue of security of a woman in this male dominated society of India;what does mans love for a beautiful woman might mean; the plight of talented, motherless girl when born in a poor family; how sometimes a good person has undergo a lot of suffering for no fault; even through all these bleaks there are ofcourse good people living in this world. There are many a issues presented which might lead you to introspect.

Thank you, dearest Madam Sudha Murthy for such a wonderful Novel.

Re: Ant: Re: Ant: Re: link checker task ?

2005-06-25T03:32:00.000+05:30

#include<stdio.h>
#include<expat.h>
#include<string.h>

#define string_t char *
#define XML_BUFFER_BLK 8192

void *
memalloc(size_t n)
{
void *mp;
int errno=0;
if((mp=(void *)calloc(n,sizeof(string_t)))==NULL)
fprintf(stderr,"Out of Memory");
return mp;
}

static void
link_start(void *data,const char *el,const char **attr)
{
int i=0;
printf("\n<%s>",el);

for(i=0;attr[i];i++)
printf("\n%s",*(attr+i));
}

static void
link_end(void *data,const char *el)
{
printf("\n<\\%s>\n\n",el);
/* why do we need this function */
}

int
link_parser(string_t filename)
{
XML_Parser parser;
char *xml_buf;
int flag;
size_t length;
FILE *fp;
string_t msg;

if((fp=fopen(filename,"rb"))==NULL)
{
fprintf(stderr,"Could not open the file");
exit(-1);
}

if((parser=XML_ParserCreate(NULL))==NULL)
{
fprintf(stderr,"Could not create the parser");
exit(-1);
}

XML_SetElementHandler(parser,link_start,link_end);

/* parse the document */

xml_buf=(string_t)memalloc(XML_BUFFER_BLK+1);

do
{
length=fread(xml_buf,1,XML_BUFFER_BLK,fp);
flag= length < strlen(xml_buf);

if(XML_Parse(parser,xml_buf,length,flag)==XML_STATUS_ERROR)
{
fprintf(stderr,"Parse Error at line %d\n%s\n",XML_GetCurrentLineNumber(parser),XML_ErrorString(XML_GetErrorCode(parser)));
exit(-1);
}

}while(!flag);

return 0;
}

int main(int argc,char **argv)
{
link_parser(argv[1]);

return 0;
}

Hi Alan,
Greetings!

I could manage to write a basic outline of the link-parser(self-contained).
I have output the tags and the way of identifying links. It will display
tags <a> ,href and URL. Got enormous help from expat doc,files as well as
digestp.c.

But these are yet to be done.
- Check to See if the resource being pointed exists.
- Generate link Report
I shall be working on it as well.

Please find my linkparser.c below (and as an attached file):
Let me know your comments:

---
#include<stdio.h>
#include<expat.h>
#include<string.h>

#define string_t char *
#define XML_BUFFER_BLK 8192

void *
memalloc(size_t n)
{
void *mp;
int errno=0;
if((mp=(void *)calloc(n,sizeof(string_t)))==NULL)
fprintf(stderr,"Out of Memory");
return mp;
}

static void
link_start(void *data,const char *el,const char **attr)
{
int i=0;
printf("\n<%s>",el);

for(i=0;attr[i];i++)
printf("\n%s",*(attr+i));
}

static void
link_end(void *data,const char *el)
{
printf("\n<\\%s>\n\n",el);
/* why do we need this function */
}

int
link_parser(string_t filename)
{
XML_Parser parser;
char *xml_buf;
int flag;
size_t length;
FILE *fp;
string_t msg;

if((fp=fopen(filename,"rb"))==NULL)
{
fprintf(stderr,"Could not open the file");
exit(-1);
}

if((parser=XML_ParserCreate(NULL))==NULL)
{
fprintf(stderr,"Could not create the parser");
exit(-1);
}

XML_SetElementHandler(parser,link_start,link_end);

/* parse the document */

xml_buf=(string_t)memalloc(XML_BUFFER_BLK+1);

do
{
length=fread(xml_buf,1,XML_BUFFER_BLK,fp);
flag= length < strlen(xml_buf);

if(XML_Parse(parser,xml_buf,length,flag)==XML_STATUS_ERROR)
{
fprintf(stderr,"Parse Error at line
%d\n%s\n",XML_GetCurrentLineNumber(parser),XML_ErrorString(XML_GetErrorCode(parser)));
exit(-1);
}

}while(!flag);

return 0;
}

int main(int argc,char **argv)
{
link_parser(argv[1]);

return 0;
}

---

Warm Regards,
Senthil

> Thanks for the update - I realise that it will take time to get up to
> speed (there is a lot to read through ;)
>
> All the best,
> Alan.
>
> senthil@puggy.symonds.net schrieb:
> Alan,
> Just to keep you updated. I am still reading the code,understanding and
> trying to get started.
> Understood the recent updates,which I viewed using cvs diff.
> I shall email you with things I can puttogether and with the questions I
> have.
>
> ~, just to keep you updated...
>
> Thanks a lot!
> Senthil
>
>
>
>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> In that case I will assign you the link task. Don't worry about the
>> other
>> bugs (incl. -d) option for now as these are code stability details
>> (rather
>> than features) so I will clean them up as I would like to create a
>> workable distribution tarball reasonably soon.
>>
>> Now that you have installed, configured and got rapple to run then any
>> feedback concerning the documentation on the web would also be useful
>> (or
>> indeed anything you think needs to be added to the faq).
>>
>> Regards,
>> Alan.
>>
>>
>> senthil@puggy.symonds.net schrieb:
>> Hi Alan,
>>
>> Yeah, I would like to work on this module.
>> I have updated the rapple cvs and saw the digest file as well. But did
>> not
>> check the functionality yet.
>> I shall work on both the parser and handler part. I was also looking
>> into
>> the -d option feature request.
>>
>> I shall start the work on Monday, if it is ok with you. else, u can
>> assign
>> me any other other task as well.
>>
>> I am going to attend my friends wedding tommrow and I will be back home
>> only on Monday.
>>
>> Thanks for explaining this to me. I have come across and coded few
>> parser
>> related snippets from K&R, Together with that and with the other rapple
>> files, I think I should be able to do this.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Senthil
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Senthil,
>>>
>>> Here is a suggestion for a self contained but
>>> challenging task you might be interested in: do you
>>> want to give a try at writing the link checker parser
>>> (Task 115866) ?
>>>
>>> The idea is that there are two files involved: a
>>> parser and a handler. The handler invokes the parser
>>> and passes files to it, e.g., the handler would
>>> recursively traverse a directory tree and invoke the
>>> parser on each transformable file it can find.
>>>
>>> The parser is limited to processing inndividual files
>>> but would work like this: it reads the input file and
>>> scans it looking for certain elements that have
>>> attributes that link to resources (e.g., "img", "a").
>>> When it finds such an element it checks the
>>> appropriate attribute (e.g., for "img" it is "src" and
>>> for "a" it is "href") and checks to see if the
>>> resource being pointed to exists (e.g., is the "src"
>>> or "href" file present in the datastore). For now I
>>> would not propose you check external links (e.g., if
>>> "href" begins with "http://" then just ignore it and
>>> also ignore "mailto:" links etc.) The parser should
>>> generate a link report as it goes along (perhaps just
>>> naming files that are missing).
>>>
>>> If you have never worked with parsers before (they can
>>> be a bit confusing at first) then take a look at
>>> "digestp.*" files (which are the parsers) and
>>> "catalog.*" (which are handlers) for the digest parser
>>> I wrote last weekend (you will have to update your
>>> local working copies if you have not done so
>>> recently).
>>>
>>> If you like I can write the handler for you so that
>>> you can focus on the parser - other parser examples
>>> can be found in the examples directory of the expat
>>> source code.
>>>
>>> Let me know what you think.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Alan.

Cntl + Alt +Fn* Does not work in Fedora Core 4

2005-06-23T21:54:00.000+05:30

Yeah, I faced it and there was a discussion about this at the Fedora Core list as well.

But thing is this is a bug in Fedora Core 4.Quite a serious one dude, especially if you cant switch to Virtual Terminal after X has loaded using Cntl+Alt+Fn.Finger poining to Somebug in latest X.org offering will not do.

For people who have stumbled here, try the below suggestion. It worked for me.

From Mike A. Harris
Bojan: Please try replacing the libvgahw.a module (after backing up the
original), with the following one:

ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris/libvgahw.a

This one is taken from the latest FC3 errata release, and many people
claim it solves the problem. If you could confirm this for me, it would
help us in solving the problem for a future update.

Thanks in advance.

Genesis

2005-06-23T20:11:00.000+05:30

Imagine a world as being covered with a dark atmosphere, choking with smoke and clouds, air so thick that no light could glimmer through it - well, this is what our earth would soon look like. The black background symbolizes this darkness, pollution, smoke and all the bad elements arising out of man's creation.

With growing temperature, rising global warming, ozone layer depletion, and the earth is becoming a ball of fire. The varying shades of yellow, orange and red in concentric circles depict the exponential growth of the intensity of fire with time.

To prevent his cherished creation going in perils, God comes to rescue. This super human power extends his hand to help mankind. His touch creates a spark, giving rise to a strong thought of a new green revolution on earth. Man needs to be aware of this to bring back the old greener earth where he lived. As this small thought gets created on each human mind, the beautiful twigs sprout into tender green leaves.

Let this GENESIS of thought for a "green revolution" be deep rooted in the human mind.

- Collage by Praveen,Aarthi,Raj and Senthil prepared for the Environment day.

To known only uncommented lines

2005-06-22T16:24:00.000+05:30

Whenever I look at any config files, it has some settings as well as comments on it.
Now I want to extract only the settings to a different file to concentrate on it,add more,delete etc. and keep the commented file for reference only.
How do I separate the settings from the comments.
For eg, In /etc/Muttrc
#
# System configuration file for Mutt
#

# default list of header fields to weed when displaying
#
ignore "from " received content- mime-version status x-status message-id
ignore sender references return-path lines

# imitate the old search-body function
macro index \eb '/~b ' 'search in message bodies'
---------------------------------------

Separate the following lines from above.

ignore "from " received content- mime-version status x-status message-id
ignore sender references return-path lines
macro index \eb '/~b ' 'search in message bodies'

:g/^#/d

and then saving to a different file should do.

man page under vim

2005-06-22T11:21:00.000+05:30

<leader> K - thats it!

which means that the cursor is under the topic and you press Capital K.

ctags and some vim stuff

2005-06-20T23:13:00.000+05:30

If you are editing a C program using vim, then create a tag file using ctags

:!ctags . [ . for the current file ]
OR
:!ctags * [ * for all the .c and .h files, if you are in a src directory]

Now, the next time you stumble across a function name,variable name and you want to know its declaration, then just do a CNRL + ]. Thats it! Quite useful.

Another feature of Vim is Auto-completion. for example
#include<expat.h> has number of XML related declarations typing the first few characters of variable and then doing CNTL+N
should provide you list for the auto-completion. Interesting, huh?

XML_ERROR_JUNK_AFTER_DOC_ELEMENT
XML_SetProcessingInstructionHandler
XML_SetUnparsedEntityDeclHandler
XML_SetExternalEntityRefHandlerArg

I could have never typed the above properly (without losing my sense, CNTL+N helped me)

...creating a tags file is the first thing I do when browsing a program
- Bram Moolenar in Vim: Seven habits of effective text editing.

gt

2005-06-20T23:04:00.000+05:30

This is gt a shell script in my /usr/local/bin


#!/bin/bash

# Calling gnome-terminal which fills the display area
# hides the menu bar
# when used as a startup, this would give a terminal over the X
# Thus helping the people who have the habit of opening the gnome-terminal the first thing, they login in init 5.
# Those kind prefer init 3 in the /etc/initrd, but this script should help provide a near possible setup ;)

exec gnome-terminal  --geometry=125x39+0+0 --hide-menubar --tab --active  --tab --tab

exit 0

I have put this script to load as a startup program in GNOME using gnome-session-properties.
looking for command line way to include scripts / bins in the startup (when X starts).
Peeking through. the .gnome2 in the ~/ had some file called session-manual which had

[Default]
num_clients=2
0,RestartStyleHint=3
0,Priority=50
0,RestartCommand=/usr/bin/firefox
1,RestartStyleHint=3
1,Priority=50
1,RestartCommand=/usr/local/bin/gt

As always, there should be a better way, a more understandable way, to include a script/ bin to start automatically at the startup.

~

Commenting Lines using vim for bash,conf file etc

2005-06-07T17:57:00.000+05:30

It was needed that I comment a number of lines in a file. The comments of a configuration file are usally like a # in the begining of the line.
So
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Should become

#Line 1
#Line 2
#Line 3

HOWTO:

1) Go to the First Column of the First Line.
2) Select the Block using cntl-v (for Linux) and cntl-q(for Windows, because cntl-v is mapped to paste function in gvim under windows)
3) With the Selected test, give the command :s/^/#/
4) That should do!

But vim users always look for yet another way, so I am.

Changeformat.sh

2005-06-06T17:36:00.000+05:30

#!/bin/sh

# Change the Format from the ogg files in a directory to aiff

for i in `ls -1 *.ogg`
do
sox $i `echo $i|sed -e "s/ogg/aiff/"`

done

exit 0

Rapple

2005-06-06T01:29:00.000+05:30

Rapple is Lightweight XML based transformation tool written in C that builds upon expat, tidylib and XSLT to tranform authored web content (incl. Word processor generated HTML) into styled web content suitable for publication.

Its a nice feeling when becoming member of a sourceforge project.
Thanks a lot Alan, for including me in the development list.Try the Rapple Demo now!!

NECSUS

2005-05-29T17:05:00.000+05:30

So the NECSUS website is up and running. After a long time, I have donw something with webthing now.
Hi NEC'ians please have a look at NECSUS.

Forming a Habit

2005-05-28T19:22:00.000+05:30

Somewhere I seem to have read that doing something regularly for 21 continuous days forms a habit in you.
Well, I am going to try it from today. Long desired habit and somewhat tough.
So. trying to get my arse pained by sitting at the same place continuosly for some defined number of hours.

Tried with Google Adsense at number of places today. This blog. At
necsus and would be making the Uthcode thing as well. I had put Uthcode in my resume, but I would like to remove it. I would like to concentrate on it a different entity in itself.

The Revenge of the Sith

2005-05-23T13:19:00.000+05:30

Got interested after these much hype over the StarWars thingy. The Movie was interesting indeed and gave some reminiscences of, especially the Galatic Congress, the previous phantom Menace I watched at the Same theatre( Mappilai Vinayakar at Madurai).

Train to Pakistan

2005-05-23T13:10:00.000+05:30

Train to Pakistan is a descriptive account of incidents during the partition at village called Mano Majra at the Borders of India and Pakistan. The novel is a satire and sometimes gives you a feeling as why Kushwant Singh needs to unncessarily explain all these vulgarities.But they try to give a real picture of what had happened. The book might as well leave an impact on your thoughts.

Is ``int* p;'' right or is ``int *p;'' right?

2005-05-16T21:46:00.000+05:30

Both are "right" in the sense that both are valid C and C++ and both have exactly the same meaning. As far as the language definitions and the compilers are concerned we could just as well say ``int*p;'' or ``int * p;''

The choice between ``int* p;'' and ``int *p;'' is not about right and wrong, but about style and emphasis. C emphasized expressions; declarations were often considered little more than a necessary evil. C++, on the other hand, has a heavy emphasis on types.

A ``typical C programmer'' writes ``int *p;'' and explains it ``*p is what is the int'' emphasizing syntax, and may point to the C (and C++) declaration grammar to argue for the correctness of the style. Indeed, the * binds to the name p in the grammar.

A ``typical C++ programmer'' writes ``int* p;'' and explains it ``p is a pointer to an int'' emphasizing type. Indeed the type of p is int*. I clearly prefer that emphasis and see it as important for using the more advanced parts of C++ well.

The critical confusion comes (only) when people try to declare several pointers with a single declaration:

 int* p, p1; // probable error: p1 is not an int*

Placing the * closer to the name does not make this kind of error significantly less likely.

 int *p, p1; // probable error?

Declaring one name per declaration minimizes the problem - in particular when we initialize the variables. People are far less likely to write:

 int* p = &i;
 int p1 = p; // error: int initialized by int*

And if they do, the compiler will complain. Whenever something can be done in two ways, someone will be confused. Whenever something is a matter of taste, discussions can drag on forever. Stick to one pointer per declaration and always initialize variables and the source of confusion disappears.

Bjarne Stroustrup

Marathon

2005-05-15T13:27:00.000+05:30

I was there running the celebration run of 7km with few friends and thousands of lively Bangaloreans.

You and Your Research

2005-05-14T19:09:00.000+05:30

Question: Would you compare research and management?

Hamming: If you want to be a great researcher, you won't make it being president of the company. If you want to be president of the company, that's another thing. I'm not against being president of the company. I just don't want to be. I think Ian Ross does a good job as President of Bell Labs. I'm not against it; but you have to be clear on what you want. Furthermore, when you're young, you may have picked wanting to be a great scientist, but as you live longer, you may change your mind. For instance, I went to my boss, Bode, one day and said, ``Why did you ever become department head? Why didn't you just be a good scientist?'' He said, ``Hamming, I had a vision of what mathematics should be in Bell Laboratories. And I saw if that vision was going to be realized, I had to make it happen; I had to be department head.'' When your vision of what you want to do is what you can do single-handedly, then you should pursue it. The day your vision, what you think needs to be done, is bigger than what you can do single-handedly, then you have to move toward management. And the bigger the vision is, the farther in management you have to go. If you have a vision of what the whole laboratory should be, or the whole Bell System, you have to get there to make it happen. You can't make it happen from the bottom very easily. It depends upon what goals and what desires you have. And as they change in life, you have to be prepared to change. I chose to avoid management because I preferred to do what I could do single-handedly. But that's the choice that I made, and it is biased. Each person is entitled to their choice. Keep an open mind. But when you do choose a path, for heaven's sake be aware of what you have done and the choice you have made. Don't try to do both sides.

Richard Hamming

PSLV-C6 and Our Dear President.

2005-05-07T00:10:00.000+05:30

With President Kalam as witness, PSLV-C6 puts two satellites into polar orbit.

Did a Bungee

2005-05-02T01:31:00.000+05:30

Did a Bungee Jump today. Me and Raj.

The first free fall from 140 meters above was terrific. I watched and felt the surroundings when I went up. The night lights, the traffic,the road and people far below. Just when I got ready, the guy incharge of the Jump pushed me down.
It was like Woah.....

Notes

2005-04-24T13:14:00.000+05:30

Two hardware problems were in my mind before I slept. It did not trouble me though.
One was iPod suffle light blinking red-yellow on pressing any button and no play of songs. Wondered what had happened. Did I dosomething wrong when disconnecting? Any USB related issue traveled from my comp to ipod? Well, decided let me figure out tommorow and left it.
Went home, saw a burn kind of display around my monitor. The lower right corner was faded. whats happened here.? Carried on and did not much bother and slept.
Morning reconnected everything with the computer. Reset stuffs and booted up, Noticed the same again.Showed this to Karthick and while we were talking about that. I switched off the monitor completely using its switch and then switched back again.
Now it is proper!. left it. Hey Monitor are you ageing? barely you are 2 years old man!

Ipod suffle: googled for ipod shuffled troubleshooting.
The same symptoms were present. Noticed something that iPod shuffle songs were not being shown my.
Previously I had cleaned iTunes Playlist to remove all teh songs and was adding songs in small quantities.
This way I had cleaned the Library.
Ipod shuffle reference card showed that for error kind of behaviour, load songs or reset Ipod.
The problem was detected. Load Songs.
How did it go?
well, I and iTunes sync with iPod and when I had connected it for charging, it had synced with iTunes Library (which is empty).
So thats it, Now playing " September Matham.September Matham.. Valzhvin thunbattai tholaithu vittom "...

Network Install of Fedora Core

2005-04-17T17:51:00.000+05:30

Tried with a Network Install of Fedora Core 4 Test 2. Not from the Fedora Download Server, but from the internal server where Linux isos are kept.

Network Install is easy as breeze.
There was directory called os where all the rpms,srpms where located.

1) Download and Write boot.iso. This was present inside: /os/images/
2) Boot using boot cd and select Network Install option ( I selected http)
3) Determines the DHCP, prompts for the Server name or IP and then Folder in which the Fedora Packages for the architecture are located.
4) Rest of Install is same as you with the cd.

Difference between network install and cd based install is, you dont have to download and write CDs and the network install is slower than install using cds. ( you can start the install at night,go to sleep and get the Fedora System up in the morning).

Queen's Gambit Accepted

2005-04-16T16:43:00.000+05:30

Wikipedia Entry "The Queen's Gambit Accepted, commonly abbreviated to QGA, is a chess opening characterized by the opening moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4. Black's capture of the white c-pawn may also occur one or two moves later.

The Queen's Gambit is not a real gambit, since Black cannot count on keeping his extra pawn. If White wants to take the pawn back immediately he can play 3.Qa4 Nc6 4.e3 and Black cannot hold on to his extra pawn. However, since playing like this develops the queen somewhat prematurely, White usually plays a bit more patiently"

I,II and III WW

2005-04-13T19:17:00.000+05:30

Its been said that the First World War was chemist's war,because mustard gas and chlorine were employed for the first time, and that the Second World War was the physicist's war,because the atom bomb was detonated. Similarly, it has been argued that the Third World War would be the mathematician's war, because mathematicians will have control over the next great weapon of war - information.

Started with a good book...

Internet through Tata Indicom

2005-04-12T10:36:00.000+05:30

Using LG LSP -345
To Connect to Internet, got the help from avinashbrathod's page.

On Fedora Core 3:
Step 1: Setup wvdial.conf
#cat /etc/wvdial.conf
[Modem0]
Modem=/dev/ttyS0
Baud=115200
SetVolume=0
Dial Command = ATDT
init1=ATZ
init2=AT+CRM=1
FlowControl=Hardware(CRTSCTS)
[Dialer Indicom]
Username=internet
Password=internet
Phone=#777
Stupid Mode=1
Inherits = Modem0

Step 2:
#wvdial Indicom

[root@localhost Modem]# wvdial indicom
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
--> Sending: ATQ0
ATQ0
OK
--> Re-Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
--> Sending: ATQ0
ATQ0
OK
--> Re-Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: AT+CRM=1
AT+CRM=1
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT#777
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT#777
CONNECT
--> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.
--> Starting pppd at Tue Apr 12 10:43:17 2005
--> pid of pppd: 3613
--> Using interface ppp0

Ip addresses will be displayed.
This will have Primary DNS and Secondary DNS Addresses as well

Step 3: Copy the Primary DNS and Secondary DNS address to /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver [primary DNS]
nameserver [primary DNS]

Step 4: Shoot your FireFox and Go.

iPod Shuffle

2005-04-05T02:02:00.000+05:30

Shuffle, originally uploaded by phoe6.

kihon- kumite-kata. Hosu!

2005-03-22T21:50:00.000+05:30

私は空手道学び始めた .

The Man who became one with Universal Being

2005-03-20T11:01:00.000+05:30

Mahatma Gandhi,
The man who became one with Universal Being.

This book describes Mahatma in the views of a western thinker,philosopher,disciple and friend in Romain Rolland.

The book begins with praise for Mahatma, is filled with lots and lots of details surrounding Gandhi,Tagore and others and ends with absolute praise.

It says:
" This was Gandhi's message, The only thing which is missing is a Cross."

Awe!

Also gives details about Gandhi's thought and methods which could be said ( and many criticized) as medieval ways.

Other details which are described as Gandhi toiled for 20 years in South Africa before coming to India or being public known is worth knowing as Rolland points out ( well in 1920) that day's politicians are short-sighted and people yearn for immediate results.

Gandhi pulling out of Bardoli andolan when violence broke at Chauri Chora; the plans had united the whole India against British and for Swades. Many people opposed Gandhi for bringing down at such a stage.
Gandhi keeping on to his philosophy with the means ( as Non-Violence and civil-disobedience) should be met and did not keep the thought at End (India against British).

Points out well that: " Days were when Might was powerful over Right. And today (1924!) Might is Right. And this man is proving otherwise."

Captured Unix time 1111111111

2005-03-18T12:21:00.000+05:30

Well its like being there during 22/2/2222! Just for a rough comparision to Gagan whom I found very difficult to persuade as to whats so special in this.

Unix time 2222222222 will be on Sat, 02 Jun 2040 03:57:02 GMT

1111111111

2005-03-18T03:26:00.000+05:30

#!/bin/bash

while [ $(date +%s) != 1111111111 ]

do
echo "Not Yet!"
done

echo "Unix Time"

date +%s

echo "on `date`"
echo "so we captured the history!"

exit 0

Web Search -- India

2005-03-16T15:18:00.000+05:30

CIA - The World Factbook --India is coming up as the first link for India for search. Thats ok.
I just dont want Times of India site to comeup when I search forIndia

doing my bit.

Jonty Rhodes

2005-03-13T18:11:00.000+05:30

Rhodes should be a favorite of any cricket lover. During his times he had elevated fielding to un-believable heights. That famous 1992 World Cup poster of Rhodes flying almost parallel to the groud is still in the minds of the most. He has some magical glimpse in his eyes and in his smiles and I found enough reasons for it today.

Here's an excerpt of the wonderful piece I read in The Hindu.

"Rhodes has enjoyed immensely his visits to the City of Joy, and Mother Teresa has remained a source of much inspiration.'The example she has set, it is not about religion. It is about caring for people. The concern that she showed ... you can talk the talk, but do you really walk the walk? She sacrificed so much of her life whenever she found there was a calling. She probably didn't feel there was a sacrifice involved. She was a real motivator. She gives you hope. It's certainly difficult out there. But if you can put the other people first, you certainly can contribute.'

The tsunami tragedy, all the suffering and the pain, left him disturbed. Rhodes did take part in the three one-dayers in New Zealand to raise funds for the Sri Lankan relief fund. Again he is able to glean the bigger picture. 'It's not just about rebuilding houses and roads. It is about rebuilding people's lives. That is going to take much longer.'

He goes on: 'The frightening thing was that there weren't too many visuals that came through on the first day. When the visuals started coming in, it was hard to bear. You had heard the news, you heard the casualty figures, and now you saw the trauma that the people went through. Regardless of your culture or the country you came from, it moved you. There has been so much destruction, there have been so many deaths that it will take everyone's combined effort for a long time to heal the wounds.'

On Hansie Cronje

Rhodes has been through several testing periods in his life and one of them was when his good friend and captain for long, Hansie Cronje, confessed, after the match-fixing scandal broke out in 2000, to accepting money from the bookies to alter the course of some contests. 'What he did was wrong. But I never made him feel that he was not my friend. That's what friends are for. Our wives are best friends. What Bertha (Cronje's wife) went through after Hansie's death (Cronje died in a plane crash in 2002) ... it was sad. The King Commission proceedings were televised live in South Africa and my wife and I, we couldn't watch it. To see the sadness in him, and how badly he felt for what he had done, we really couldn't watch it.'"

How to print * continuously in vim

2005-03-12T20:15:00.000+05:30

/***********************************************/

These kind of lines might be required while commenting

/***********************************************/

The Command to use is simple appending the text.

[count]append[char]

- Press Esc to make sure you are in command mode.

- Press count. For eg: 10

- Press a. Mode changes to insert.

- Press the character to repeat. here it is *. one * will be inserted

- Press Esc. You will see the command take effect.

**********

Blogger Suggestion

2005-03-10T15:33:00.000+05:30

When someone leaves a comment on my post, I get a notification mail. The comments can sometimes and most times lead to some discussions.
The comment poster is never notified if someone has replied to the conversation thread he started. He should volunterily keep track of his post for the conversation. Thats a bad thing.

Having a selection to get notified when someone posts a reply on the comment will be a great feature.

LiveJournal has this good feature already.

I had this in my mind for a long time and today I just suggested this to the blogger folks

jwz's censorZilla

2005-03-10T15:19:00.000+05:30

Never thought programming can be so much fun.

ns/config/mkdepend/include.c                     /* only bitch if ip has */
ns/include/allxpstr.h                            /* This SUCKS!! */
ns/iclude/bkmks.h                                defined in ntypes.h, and some compilers bitch and moan about seeing it
ns/include/libevent.h                               *   until necessary.  Yow, there is a lot of shit in here now
ns/include/proto.h                                * this shit shouldn't have to exist anyways.
ns/include/xp_mcom.h                             /* this sucks, should I really include this here or what? *?
ns/js/jsj/jsjava.c                               /* XXX extremely fucking lame - there should be security */
ns/js/jsj/makefile.com                           #// Win16 Sucks so BAD!!!
ns/js/src/jsapi.c                                   if (nbytes == 0)  /*DSR072897 - this sucks, but Microsoft allows it!*/
ns/lib/layout/edtbuf.cpp                            // LTNOTE: what the fuck. This crashes sometimes??
                                                     // we are fucked! try something different.
ns/lib/layout/edtele.cpp                         // if we get an Exception in this loop, the tree is fucked up!
                                                  // out of memory, we are really fucked.
ns/lib/layout/layblock.c                           /* Get the OVERFLOW attribute.  (Fuck yuo, W3C.  Fuck you.) */
ns/lib/layout/laytext.c                          /* we're long aligned, write the sucker */
ns/lib/layout/laytable.c                         * Prevent idiots who set colspan=20000000
                                                  * width then we grow the sucker.
ns/lib/libcnv/writegif.c                            /* evil globals to satisfy the PBMPLUS library crap that I stole this from*/
ns/lib/libmime/mimehdrs.c                           # define terry_has_lost_his_mind_and_also_macs_suck 0
ns/lib/libmime/mimei.c                             /* #### TOTAL FUCKING KLUDGE.
                                                    /* "Object oriented?  Fuck that shit!  Pabst Blue Ribbon!" --Dennis Hopper */
                                                  Life sucks when you don't properly think out things that end up turning
ns/lib/libmisc/bkmks.c                              /* fuck bogus type.  Who knows what's going on.  Just quit and get out */
ns/lib/libmsg/msgcpane.h                            /* This sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks. */
ns/lib/libmsg/msgdbvw.cpp                        // Because HPUX10 native compiler sucks, and we suck (for using ints instead
ns/lib/libmsg/msgglue.cpp                          // They'll never fix the damned warnings.  To hell with quality:
ns/lib/libmsg/msgpane.cpp                           // will result in a general "Piss on you complaint" and bring you back to the
ns/lib/libmsg/newshost.cpp                         // first of all, this sucks. And second, no need to diddle folder pane
ns/lib/libmsg/prsembst.cpp                       /* More fucking const short-circuitry... */
ns/lib/xp/xp_tracker.c                             /* this sucks to research the hash table, but I don't want to eat more */
ns/lib/mac/MacMemoryAllocator/src/StdCLevel.c    /* now, if we don't have any memory, then we really suck */

Savior - movie

2005-03-10T11:32:00.000+05:30

Turned on ZMZ yesterday and saw that there was some war movie going on. Glimpses itself showed that it could be a decent movie, worth spending sometime watching.
soldiers are all over the place, hiding,shooting planning etc.Saw the signs of UN and thought that it could be UN peace keeping force in act at some war torn nation.
A scene was, a soldier taking rest in his camp and sees a young girl coming, he emphatically and calls her to have chewin gum. She gives a smiles and throws some object at him and runs away. Blast!
Next scene was two soldiers captivating two people and take them in a car, one soldier ( the main character called Guy) drops in between and moves up a hill and takes aim at some bridge. The Car stops near the bridge and people are exchanged on the either sides. The soldier who got down is carefully watching all the people from the hill top. The focus is on a pregnant woman.( I began to think that she could also be carrying a bomb). But later, the women is taken along in a car with these two soldiers; one of them is a native and asks her to speak with him. They speak serb. She refuses and the soldier begins to harass, kick the pregnant women in her stomach. The woman shouts that he is coming out and the brutal soldier cares no more and is ready to shoot the baby in the womb. The Guy sitting in his car and watching, asks him to stop this and he does not seem to understand, Guy kills this soldier.
The Woman is already suffering and is at the verge of the delivery. Guy helps the woman deliver her child. He shows the woman his child and while cleansing the blood of the new-born, the mother is ready to shoot herself. Guy prevents this and takes them both to their home.

Guy now plays the savior of the Mother and the baby. He is one who speaks English and woman does not speak to him for a long time. Her father and brother,trace her to kill the mother and the child, they end up injuring this soldier and she protects him and speaks with him in English for the first time.

They return to see her family capivated and most of people in the town killed.

Guy takes the pledge of saving the mother and the child and when the plan for returning to a safer place, the tram which is carry people and which the woman has boarded so that she could carry along Guy and her baby along the way is captivated by soldiers and all the passengers are killed ( some brutally by hitting with a sledge on head). Mother sings her lullaby to make her child silent (who is hiding with Guy nearby); she is also hit in her head and dies.

Guy with great efforts manages to save the child. He cries and seeks rest.

Well, this was my view, the reviews tell the story reasonably and with lot of other details. Worth watching.

Mozilla FireFox Extension - Linky

2005-03-09T17:05:00.000+05:30

In one the the previous posts, I had mentioned about a need to select a portion of the page, right click and open the hyperlinks in tabs.
Found something called Linky.

tough call

2005-03-05T01:55:00.000+05:30

tough call with jeff. like in all-hands. someone asked about Innovation at Dell and he was explaining.

at some point, I raised my hand and shouted " but jeff, they are marketing innovations, not the ..." he had already interrupted me " No No No"," Not marketting innovation, Bullshit! they are technical by engineers." made others laugh and me dumb. I could not argue forward and he explained something abt BluRay and dvi etc. never knew, but I missed arguing more,simply because he knows more than I. I cannot present my arguments in all the angles he may counter with.

Even at helm, he is very deep technical guy and good at marketing and convincing people as well.

--

As we cannot change the way our minds work, we must change the interface design. - Jef Raskin

Industry and Research

2005-03-04T00:46:00.000+05:30

"Profit is every CEO's major focus. Research almost always benefits an entire industry more than any particular company. And research doesn't have immediate results.

Sometimes it doesn't have the results that CEOs want. You invent a product that has a longer life-cycle, that doesn't need constant refills or upgrades. Research is expensive and unpredictable. Things that today's business world frowns on.

New technology typically has a five-year development cycle. The U.S. technology business stopped being serious about research in 2000 and the results are showing now.

People have a little more money but there's nothing they want to buy. There's nothing that makes you say, 'Wow.' Ten years ago I was seeing something interesting every month, but now we're touting bloated software and cute case designs as innovation.

The damage to HP and the U.S. technology industry at large may already be irreversible. If we start investing today and let our engineers play we might have something exciting to show people in 2010. That's a long time to wait for the next big wow.

To me, this rabid fixation on short-term profits is a bigger threat than outsourcing -- it is killing our ability to make astonishing things."

Tech Review Link:

Jef Raskin passes away

2005-02-28T02:12:00.000+05:30

I remember we have shared much about Jef at hexadeicmals and I have stumbled and amazed at his site and amazed by his UI related thoughts more than once.
I was totally surprised when, when I had heard about The Humane Interface Project from this Master creator of Machintosh and the real surprise was the project was hosted at SourceForge and Jef invited others whoever cared to Join this. Boy, thats a master coding his creation and you got to be careful with the invitation.
Came to know later that Jef got $20 millon to develop the project and thought that, his work and dream is not going vain and he's got some support, would be quickening his effort and we could probably see something new when its ready..

but today... Alas!

With Respect, thanks Jef for the UI advances and GUI breakthroughs.

something new

2005-02-27T20:25:00.000+05:30

So, Love and Machines is just usr.blogspot.com and I feel its fitting because, it so far has been my thought store. You could get this Kubrick design here.

Sun Solaris 10

2005-02-25T03:20:00.000+05:30

Tried Solaris today as Solaris 10 is now available for download and is applicable for x86 architecture.Dont really plan to move it, but wanted to check how it really looks.
Got a feel fo Java Desktop System ( thats Gnome!) and other things.

I will be getting more fam with Freak though.

Matt Domsch

2005-02-23T23:22:00.000+05:30

Matt is one of my hero. One of the great guys I have come across and an inspirational figure.
Felt very excited when I realized that he knew me. I felt wow and very happy.

Freak

2005-02-23T17:34:00.000+05:30

Why would I want an LFS system?

There are a lot of reasons why somebody would want to install an LFS system. The question most people raise is 'why go through all the hassle of manually installing a Linux system from scratch when you can just download an existing distribution?'. That is a valid question which I hope to answer for you.

The most important reason for LFS's existence is teaching people how a Linux system works internally. Building an LFS system teaches you about all that makes Linux tick, how things work together, and depend on each other. And most importantly, how to customize it to your own taste and needs.

One of the key benefits of LFS is that you are in control over your system without having to rely on somebody else's Linux implementation. You are in the driver's seat now and are able to dictate every single thing such as the directory layout and boot script setup. You will also know exactly where, why and how programs are installed.

Another benefit of LFS is that you can create a very compact Linux system. When you install a regular distribution, you end up installing a lot of programs you probably would never use. They're just sitting there taking up (precious) disk space. It's not hard to get an LFS system installed under 100 MB. Does that still sound like a lot? A few of us have been working on creating a very small embedded LFS system. We installed a system that was just enough to run the Apache web server; total disk space usage was aproximately 8 MB. With further stripping, that can be brought down to 5 MB or less. Try that with a regular distribution.

If we were to compare a Linux distribution with a hamburger you buy at a supermarket or fast-food restaurant, you would end up eating it without knowing precisely what it is you are eating, whereas LFS gives you the ingredients to make a hamburger. This allows you to carefully inspect it, remove unwanted ingredients, and at the same time allow you to add ingredients to enhance the flavour of your hamburger. When you are satisfied with the ingredients, you go on to the next part of putting it together. You now have the chance to make it just the way you like it: broil it, bake it, deep-fry it, barbeque it, or eat it raw.

Another analogy that we can use is that of comparing LFS with a finished house. LFS will give you the skeleton of a house, but it's up to you to install plumbing, electrical outlets, kitchen, bathtub, wallpaper, etc.

Another advantage of a custom built Linux system is added security. You will compile the entire system from source, thus allowing you to audit everything, if you wish to do so, and apply all the security patches you want or need to apply. You don't have to wait for somebody else to provide a new binary package that fixes a security hole. Besides, you have no guarantee that the new package actually fixes the problem (adequately). You never truly know whether a security hole is fixed or not unless you do it yourself."

I had my Freak ready on Feb 22, 2005. Excited!

LFS User ID:14897

P Harikrishna

2005-02-21T21:35:00.000+05:30

P. Harikrishna is chess player from Andra Pradesh in India. He is considered third amongst the top players ranking next to Vishwanathan Anand and Sasikiran. Harikrishna became the youngest grandmaster from India in 2001. In November 2004, he won the world junior chess championship.

But the thing in this Real World is

Lack of sponsors may force Harikrishna to quit chess

Another Good Source

jwz speaks

2005-02-19T14:33:00.000+05:30

"If you want to do something that's going to change the world, build software that people want to use instead of software that managers want to buy."

jwz

Re: [quiznet] I.T Quiz

2005-02-15T16:15:00.000+05:30

1) Mozilla firefox (the fandu open source web browser ) also known
earlier as phoenix and Mozilla firebird was made by two computer geeks
. pls name them ?

Blake Ross and Ben Goodger

2 Name the new search engine started by amozon.com ? (I want the site name)

A9.com

3) Name the founder and company name from which google purchased blogger.com

Evan Williams and Pyra Labs

4) With response to Google news Microsoft has also started a news
service will let visitors create their own customised news feeds ,
name the service ?

M$ Newsbot

5) Two big giants started mass production of E-paper , can u name them ?

Xerox PARC and Lucent

6) Name the code name of the mozilla firefox 1.1 and give the funda
behind the nomenclature of other version .

Deer Park. Funda behind nomenclature could not find.

7) Macintosh had done some change in its configuration to promote mouse
. What ???

GUI, Right Click Menu?

Senthil
http://usr.blogspot.com

--
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. -- Blaise Pascal

Albert Einstein -

2005-02-13T00:25:00.000+05:30

"Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice. To this, Neils Bohr, who sparred with Einstein on the Quantum Theory retorted, 'Stop telling God what He must do!'"

Just Enough...

2005-02-08T18:27:00.000+05:30

HBS Working Knowledge: The Leadership Workshop: Defeating Overwhelm:

"An executive vice president of a several-hundred-person company decided that she hated her job. So she decided to downshift to a director-level position that gave her just enough status. It worked like a charm. She later downshifted again, spending a year climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and leading safaris in Africa. 'Just enough' gave her the freedom to create a much richer life."

Dr. Devi Shetty's letter

2005-01-31T19:04:00.000+05:30

My Dear Children,

I have been planning to write this Letter for quite sometime. Maybe, I just waited for all of you to grow up to understand what I am trying to convey. The story goes back many years. When God sent you to this world, it was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to your parents.

Every little nudge and kick in your mother's womb opened up a new world of happiness and expectations. Then, one day, a miracle happened. You were to begin a new journey from the warm, happy, secure world of your mother's womb to a world that is cold and full of insecurities. Nevertheless, the joy that your parents felt after this journey knew no bounds. They were on top of the world. But, unfortunately, this happiness was short lived. That very day you started turning blue in color. The doctors had found a hole in your heart which shattered the dreams of your parents. They were devastated and could not understand why they were being punished in this way. They had no choice but to accept the inevitable and decided to give you the best possible medical care.

Before that, they had to overcome two major hurdles. They could not afford the cost of your heart operation and they could not wait since you were turning blue every time you cried. I guess this is a penalty you have to pay for being born in a third world country. Yes, when you were ten days old you had a price tag on your life. If your parents paid the price, they could have you, if not, you would have to go back to where you came from. Your mummy and daddy went through phases of self-pity, denial, mutual accusations and anger towards the society which was indifferent to their problems. Your daddy was upset since he knew that the price tag on your life was less than what his boss would spend on a Saturday evening party. But that is life and one has to accept it. Time was running out and your daddy was getting desperate until he came to know about me. The first thing he told me when we met was "I heard you love children". Yes, I love children and I have four of my own. My profession is giving hope to those suffering from heart diseases and giving them a chance to start life in a fresh new way. I am essentially a technician who can cut and stitch people's hearts; they call me a heart surgeon.

When I met you first, you were barely 10 days old, cuddled in a warm blanket close to your mother's heart. Except for a bit of rapid breathing and bluish nails on your finger, you looked like an angel. I am sure you cannot remember, but I asked you a question "Do you want to be my friend?". This is the question I ask all the children I see. I did want to be your friend and I worked so hard to gain your friendship. I clearly remember your mother's face when she was handing you over to the operation theater nurse. She kissed you and looked at my face with an expression that she is handing over her most precious possession to me, also with the total confidence that I will take care of you.

It was a different sort of love triangle between your father, mother and myself, with you at the centre. We would have done anything in this world to get you back. It took me 6 hours of intense concentration to operate upon your heart and so many sleepless nights before you started smiling again. God was kind to you that time and you made a marvelous recovery. It was a big day for your family when you were being discharged from the hospital. Both your mummy and daddy would have thanked me a million times before they left the hospital. But you were blissfully unaware of what was going on and you were happily clinging on to your mother's chest. My eyes began to swell with tears and I turned my face the other way, since a cardiac surgeon is not supposed to cry. Through the corner of my wet eyes, I saw your face one more time and I knew, I had found one more friend. Your friendship and love is the only fee I expect for treating you.

As a heart surgeon, I have performed more than 4000 operations on children like you suffering from heart disease. Most of them came from poor families. Despite their backgrounds, I treat all for free. I think this is the best way I can repay God who has given me everything I wanted, a good family, a wonderful wife and loving children. For me this world is such a happy place to live in and in my own small way, I strive to make it happy for others around me who are not so fortunate.

You must be wondering what inspired me to take this path. I guess, I became a doctor because of the recurrent illnesses of my parents. My childhood was spent with the fear of losing my mother. My father, who was a diabetic had multiple episodes of diabetic coma. In the lives of the nine of us, God was a distant image and his clear image was that of a Doctor who could save the lives of our parents.

Another childhood incident left a lasting impression on my young mind. I remember, it was a Saturday afternoon. I was trying to build a car, I think, out of match boxes and sticks, like all the other children in my village while, my mother was speaking to a distant relative of ours in Mumbai. This lady was telling my mother about a particular surgeon who apart from saving her child's life also offered his service completely free of cost. I could hear my mother blessing the mother of that surgeon for giving birth to such a wonderful person and ended up saying that this world is still a wonderful place because of people like him.

That was the time I found the purpose for my life, the purpose of bringing happiness to all the children of this world. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I was trained to be a heart surgeon at Guy's Hospital, London. My colleagues there called me an "operating machine", since I loved heart surgery.

I left England in 1989 to start a state-of-the-art heart hospital called B.M. Biria Heart Research Centre at Calcutta. It was a great experience to set up a heart hospital which soon became one of the best heart hospitals in India. And almost immediately after we set up the research centre, we started the paediatric cardiac surgical facilities to take care of children suffering from heart diseases. Little did I know that this centre was to rewrite medical history. My mother at that time was living in a small town near Mangalore. It was my father's death anniversary and she spent almost the entire day in the prayer room. In the evening, my sister who was watching the news on the national network, all of a sudden screamed out for my mother. My mother hurried to the living room to see her son on TV, with a nine day old baby who underwent a successful open-heart surgery. He was the youngest baby at that point of time in India to undergo this procedure. It was the beginning of heart surgery on newborn babies in India. I guess at that time, many mothers would have prayed for my mother's well being too.

Let me tell you about another incident. Do you know the definition of a paediatric cardiac surgeon? The dictionary says he is a surgeon who specializes in the treatment of heart ailments in children. A few years ago, when Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack, I was put in charge of her heart care. One day, Mother, who at that point of time was convalescing in the intensive care unit of the hospital, saw me examining a blue baby. After few minutes of thought, she turned towards me and said, "Now I know why you are here. To relieve the agony of children with heart disease. God sent you to this world to fix it". To my mind, this is the best definition ever given of a paediatric cardiac surgeon and perhaps the best compliment that I have ever received.

One day you will become an adult and probably a very important member of our society. You will have lot of responsibilities and commitments. All I ask of you for is, can you spare a few moments of your precious time every day for someone who needs it and that too without expecting anything back in return. Did you know that, to save your life, a few hundred people worked sincerely without expecting any remuneration other than the joy of making your family, friends and relatives happy?

Dear Children, we are all created by God and He is in control of all the events happening in this world. Unfortunately, He is not supposed to be seen, heard or felt. So, He runs His world using people like you and me. And when you do your work without expecting anything in return, just for the joy of bringing happiness to others, that's when you'll realize it is not your hands which do the job it is the Hands of God. God bless,

Dr. Devi Shetty April 1997, Bangalore

- This letter was written by Dr. Devi Shetty in the year 1997 after he had completed 4000 surgeries on children.

Love Story

2005-01-31T15:23:00.000+05:30

While I was reading this, I was thinking how ameerican... how ameerican, but carried on as this was a quickie read and later began to enjoy the bitch,bastard slangs of this goddamn good Love Story between Oliver Baratte IV (Ollie,prepie,a talented-all Ivy- Harvard law student) and his love Jennifer Cavilleri ( Jenny,good natured-fun loving-radcliffe).

Got to know that its a famous one which many have read.

Vaishnov Jan

2005-01-31T13:46:00.000+05:30

Vaishnov Jan to taynay kahyeeye
Jay peerh paraaye janneyray
Par dukkhey upkar karey teeyey,
man abhiman na anney ray

Sakal lokma Sahuney bandhey,
Ninda Na karye kainee ray
Baach kaachh, Man nischal Raakhey,
dhan-dhan jananee tainee ray

Samdrishi nay trishna tyagee,
par-stree jaynay mat ray
Vivihva thaki asatya na bolay,
par-dhan nav jhaley haath ray

Moh maaya vyaayey nahin Jeynay,
dridth vairagya jana manma ray
Ram-nam-shoom taalee laagee,
Sakal teerth seyna tanma ray

Vanloohee nay kapat rahit chhay,
Kaam, Krodh nivarya ray
Bhane Narsinhyo tainoo darshan karta
kul ekotair taarya re.

~~~~~~

A godlike man is one,
Who feels another’s pain
Who shares another’s sorrow,
And pride does disdain.

Who regards himself as the lowliest of the low,
Speaks not a word of evil against any one
One who keeps himself steadfast in words, body and mind,
Blessed is the mother who gives birth to such a son.

Who looks upon everyone as his equal and has renounced lust,
And who honours women like he honours his mother
Whose tongue knows not the taste of falsehood till his last breath,
Nor covets another’s worldly goods.

He does not desire worldly things,
For he treads the path of renunciation
Ever on his lips is Rama’s holy name,
All places of pilgrimage are within him.

One who is not greedy and deceitful,
And has conquered lust and anger
Through such a man Saint Narsaiyon has a godly vision,
Generations to come, of such a man, will attain salvation

FireFox and Slashdot

2005-01-26T01:53:00.000+05:30

I guess Firefox and Slashdot are very poor companions!

First is this bug which I often face, while trying to submit a story or while commenting!


Invalid form key: Q9jRDo9JhK



Chances are, you're behind a firewall or proxy,

or clicked the Back button to accidentally reuse a form.

Please try again. If the problem persists, and all other options

have been tried, contact the site administrator."

I've mailed this to the Bill Cowboy as well.
This is not observed /encountered if using M$ ie.

And the next most irritating thing I am facing with FireFox + Slashdot is: My Login is not retained.

I login to slashdot and have customized light-weight outlook with reading only +5 comments. But I tend to lose the logged in account inconsistenly. Sometimes, just hitting the refresh button. sometimes while doing "Read More" in a new tab, times when trying to submit a story, times when commenting.

If this happened to you, would you not be irritated?
I thought it was some cookie related, but set things right ( to accept all cookies and retain cookies from parent site) but nothing worked!

Has anyone else faced the same problem? Am I alone in this world?

It was five past midnight 2nd to 3rd December 1984, Bhopal.

2005-01-19T05:38:00.000+05:30

Had stumbled across a detailed information on this incident on Dec 3 2004, when I decided that I should be reading this book.

Begins with the story of Ratan Nadar, a typical Advasi Indian peasant and the story follows his and his family's destiny. Without any kind of rhetoric nature, the story goes in a detailed manner presenting most of the information objectively. Ratan Nadar's children aged 5,6 and 8 going to work a match factory and handling toxic chemical which onces catches fire and padmini, the eldest discovers her brother dead.
Ratan like many others continuosly faces hardships in his village. He moves to Bhopal,a big city,gets a job as a worker constructing the Bhopal Railway station.

Union Carbide discovers sevin pesticide,which can improve the crop productivity. Plans to establish a factory in India, Bhopal. The chief architect Eduardo Munoz doubts the need for UC like factory in India, feeling the nature of India and its problems, but UC's board of directors get better of him.

The motives are profit! But story reveals several earnest people establishing and working at the UC Plant in India and how Union Carbide is a dream company.

Things take a turn.

The book is about the people living at Oriya Bustee, Kali Ghats, their custom and their work and their relationship with UC. How things change. How people help each other when the real need arises. How people are indifferent to each other. How can some indifferent attitudes prove too costly.

Concern for man himself and his safety must always form the chief interest in all technical endeavours. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

- Albert Einsten

Delicious Company

2005-01-16T22:17:00.000+05:30

Delicious Company The website asked me to blog it,pressed a button from their page and here it goes.

But interesting story indeed! Seven guys working at at coffee shop which is their office.

Fedora Core3 Media Check Failure Disk 2 and Disk3

2005-01-15T01:58:00.000+05:30

If you face the Media Check Failure for Disk2 and Disk3 of Fedora Core3 and be adviced by the Media Check Tool as it would not be safe to continue installation, don't despair! Yeah, I understand the frustation caused when you try to install latest FC3 after a download/ purchase.
But remember that you are not alone, Bugzilla Bug#139213

This is a not a Real Problem, your media is proper and you will be able to install the system completely.
The issue here is, during the install DMA ( Direct Memory Access) mode is entered for faster installation ( + others) and Installer is trying to communicate with your Devices directly and your CDROM did not have a proper DMA working and hence this result. ( this is what I came to know,references below)

So to solve this problem,during the Installation, give:

linux ide=nodma

Now you might find that CD2 and CD3 Media check Passes!

Refer the following for some discussions:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-September/msg03073.html
http://www.exocore.com/linux/rhl71dma/

The Right to Read

2005-01-12T21:48:00.000+05:30

Very Interesting account, especially if you are aware of this philosophy

The Right to Read by rms

This article appeared in the February 1997 issue of Communications of the ACM (Volume 40, Number 2).

(from "The Road To Tycho", a collection of articles about the antecedents of the Lunarian Revolution, published in Luna City in 2096)

For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college--when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she dared ask, except Dan.

This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her--but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong--something that only pirates would do.

And there wasn't much chance that the SPA--the Software Protection Authority--would fail to catch him. In his software class, Dan had learned that each book had a copyright monitor that reported when and where it was read, and by whom, to Central Licensing. (They used this information to catch reading pirates, but also to sell personal interest profiles to retailers.) The next time his computer was networked, Central Licensing would find out. He, as computer owner, would receive the harshest punishment--for not taking pains to prevent the crime.

Of course, Lissa did not necessarily intend to read his books. She might want the computer only to write her midterm. But Dan knew she came from a middle-class family and could hardly afford the tuition, let alone her reading fees. Reading his books might be the only way she could graduate. He understood this situation; he himself had had to borrow to pay for all the research papers he read. (10% of those fees went to the researchers who wrote the papers; since Dan aimed for an academic career, he could hope that his own research papers, if frequently referenced, would bring in enough to repay this loan.)

Later on, Dan would learn there was a time when anyone could go to the library and read journal articles, and even books, without having to pay. There were independent scholars who read thousands of pages without government library grants. But in the 1990s, both commercial and nonprofit journal publishers had begun charging fees for access. By 2047, libraries offering free public access to scholarly literature were a dim memory.

There were ways, of course, to get around the SPA and Central Licensing. They were themselves illegal. Dan had had a classmate in software, Frank Martucci, who had obtained an illicit debugging tool, and used it to skip over the copyright monitor code when reading books. But he had told too many friends about it, and one of them turned him in to the SPA for a reward (students deep in debt were easily tempted into betrayal). In 2047, Frank was in prison, not for pirate reading, but for possessing a debugger.

Dan would later learn that there was a time when anyone could have debugging tools. There were even free debugging tools available on CD or downloadable over the net. But ordinary users started using them to bypass copyright monitors, and eventually a judge ruled that this had become their principal use in actual practice. This meant they were illegal; the debuggers' developers were sent to prison.

Programmers still needed debugging tools, of course, but debugger vendors in 2047 distributed numbered copies only, and only to officially licensed and bonded programmers. The debugger Dan used in software class was kept behind a special firewall so that it could be used only for class exercises.

It was also possible to bypass the copyright monitors by installing a modified system kernel. Dan would eventually find out about the free kernels, even entire free operating systems, that had existed around the turn of the century. But not only were they illegal, like debuggers--you could not install one if you had one, without knowing your computer's root password. And neither the FBI nor Microsoft Support would tell you that.

Dan concluded that he couldn't simply lend Lissa his computer. But he couldn't refuse to help her, because he loved her. Every chance to speak with her filled him with delight. And that she chose him to ask for help, that could mean she loved him too.

Dan resolved the dilemma by doing something even more unthinkable--he lent her the computer, and told her his password. This way, if Lissa read his books, Central Licensing would think he was reading them. It was still a crime, but the SPA would not automatically find out about it. They would only find out if Lissa reported him.

Of course, if the school ever found out that he had given Lissa his own password, it would be curtains for both of them as students, regardless of what she had used it for. School policy was that any interference with their means of monitoring students' computer use was grounds for disciplinary action. It didn't matter whether you did anything harmful--the offense was making it hard for the administrators to check on you. They assumed this meant you were doing something else forbidden, and they did not need to know what it was.

Students were not usually expelled for this--not directly. Instead they were banned from the school computer systems, and would inevitably fail all their classes.

Later, Dan would learn that this kind of university policy started only in the 1980s, when university students in large numbers began using computers. Previously, universities maintained a different approach to student discipline; they punished activities that were harmful, not those that merely raised suspicion.

Lissa did not report Dan to the SPA. His decision to help her led to their marriage, and also led them to question what they had been taught about piracy as children. The couple began reading about the history of copyright, about the Soviet Union and its restrictions on copying, and even the original United States Constitution. They moved to Luna, where they found others who had likewise gravitated away from the long arm of the SPA. When the Tycho Uprising began in 2062, the universal right to read soon became one of its central aims.

Copyright 1996 Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

There is also an Authors Note and some references in the main article.

Finished reading Five Point Someone

2005-01-10T02:45:00.000+05:30

Well, it should have not taken so long to read it full. But had got that book when I was not in touch with reading books.
Had met Manish at one of our BLUG meets and he had that book, I kindda wondered what this new book was and was looking through it. Just expected not another kind of "Count your eggs before they chicken" kindda crap. I have not read those, but really dont like to. Dont know why. Perhaps try to read them some time :)
But Manish's review was, if you have enjoyed Dil Chata Hai, you might like this as well and he offered to lend this book to me to read. I am sorry Manish it took this long and I have not met you next time.

Lot of friends seem to enjoyed this one. Indeed it was. Gowri is having this, shall check with zulfi and pass on to him a copy if he has not one already.

Ode to a School Computer

2005-01-06T17:59:00.000+05:30

( a fav one :)

Ode to a School Computer
By David Ahl

I was stay'in after school a week or so ago
'Cause I told a teacher where she could go

She had me settin' in this big old room
With a bunch of machines that just looked like doom

There's this big Mutha machine with flashing' lights
And a couple of funny-looking' electric typewrites

Well I thought I'd type somethin' for the fun of it
So I hunted and pecked out just one word - "shit"

Before I could lean back in my chair and get steady
That machine typed WHAT, and then it said READY

So I typed a whole line of them four-letter words
But it just replied WHAT and READY like it hadn't heard

Well I figured since I couldn't go out fishin'
I'd teach that stupid machine to listen

So I picked up this book called Teach yourself BASIC
And sat down at that Teletype prepared to face it

First I found to make that machine type my bit
I just had to put a PRINT in front of it

And then I found out that thing could add
And subtract and multiply and divide like mad

I found out too it knew all kinds of games
Like craps and blackjack and a cannon to aim

I was havin' all kinds of fun when that teacher walked in
She just looked at my output and started to grin

I kind of sheepishly asked if I could stay a while more
She said: "Sure; when you just shut the door".

I tried some more games like football and poker
And a parachute jump written by some kind of joker

There was one where I could try to land on the moon
It would crash and blow up if fired the engines too soon

Well, I played on through supper and into the night
And then finally quit when I saw dawn's first light.

Some girls, I know are while lot cuter
But I found a new kind of high with that computer.

jff

2005-01-06T07:11:00.000+05:30

The Linux newsgroup kept creeping up the chart.At one point it made the top forty and I was happy. That was pretty cool. I seem to remember having written a fairly gloating article to comp.os.linux in which I basically listed the various os(operating system) newsgroups, including Minix, and said, "Hey look at this,we're more popular than Windows." Remember that, back then, people who liked Windows were not on Internet. We made it to the top give sometime in 1993. I went to bed that night brimming with self-satisfaction,excited by the fact that Linux had become almost as popular as sex.
- Linus.

Just completed the jff (just for fun).

Had nothing to take from it and it was wonderful.

Firefox again:

2005-01-06T03:00:00.000+05:30

Went to about:config and replaced
Google:
http://www.google.com/search?lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=

to:

Dictionary:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=

realized that lot of times I was searching for word-meanings when
browsing through the pages and often, I did this using right-click on
the highlighted page,googling it and then using the definition link on
the top bar.

So now its reduced to a single step process.

-Time to work on /get knowledge of some extensions. The one discussed
previously and having a google right click menu,wherein on the chosen
word, I could chose to Search web,do Image search,do define: or simply
check the denition from dictionary.com from the right click menu.
Choosing a word and having Google deskbar and using key-combos is a
multiple step process and I dont want to google deskbar or transfer the
highlighted to the FireFox search box at right, I rarely use and often
use the extension to disable it.

find in linux

2005-01-05T20:28:00.000+05:30

find / -name "regex"

find / | xargs grep -r -A5 -B5 "regex"

Some Refreshing Quiz

2005-01-04T21:15:00.000+05:30

She once famously said, “I'm just like a menu for my male fans. They look but they can't afford me.” Featured in a famous ad campaign for a sports product that had an even more famous tagline, she found herself embarrassed by a nude fan who sported the tagline on a placard and streaked into one of her matches. Who is this fading beauty?

Anna Kournikova The ad was a campaign for a sports bra and the tagline went, “Only the balls bounce.

She was the winner of the 1999 Sony Viewers’ Choice Miss India Award. Her debut in Bollywood was tagged with a contractual obligation which prevented her from signing any other movie until the date of release of the movie.The director of the movie offered this as explanation – “If she signs up another movie, the makers might want to flash her in minis. Now that doesn't necessarily suit the character of _____ that I'm trying to present in the film.” She was seen on the idiot box in a show called ‘Close Up Antakshari’ along with Annu Kapoor.Who are we talking about?

Gayatri Joshi (Swades)

A stunning Assamese beauty, she defies the model norm by expressing a fondness for Mathematics and solving puzzles during breaks in shows. Known at one time as possessing the ‘best pout’ in the country, she had fair success on the small screen through the Gabbar Remix video with Nirmal Pandey. Which stunner?

Namrata Barua

She has been chosen to endorse the Arisia range of diamonds and was the first Indian politician to be included in the Guinness Book of Records for ‘Margin of victory.’ Who are we talking about?

Gayatri Devi, who once made it to a list of the Ten Most Beautiful Women in the World.

She was responsible for bringing the first Apple Macintosh into India. However, she has seen days when obtaining a font in 3D meant cutting it out in wood, painting it and then photographing it. Her company was responsible for the brand building of the Himalayan Drug Company and MTR Food Products. Who are we talking about?

"The Real Salute" is a ten minute long documentary about whom?

Kiran Bedi

This lady held the title of Most Powerful Business woman every year since fortune magazine began it's annual list of most powerful women in business in 1998.But this year she was beaten for the top slot by e-Bays' Meg Whitman. Who's she?

Carly Fiorina

The British Royal Mint in Wales, U.K. released a new coin series honoring a particular movie which had 48 deifferent coins all showing different charachters from the movie. The values ranged from 50 cents to 10 dollars and they can be used for real money in New Zealand. Now u have to tell me which movie and why this particular favor for new zealand?

LoTR

For every 1% growth in China's GDP, Indian exports fall by?

0.13%. Three international economists conducted this piece of research. The research found that the more a country's exports are composed of intermediate and capital goods, the less affected that country is by Chinese exports.

http://usr.blogspot.com

FireFox Extension Idea

2004-12-29T22:49:00.000+05:30

I select a portion of the website, which has lots of links and choose to
open the links as tabs.
All the links should open as in the multiple tabs.

I guess this would help me while reading slashdot and similar sites
which has lots of hyperlinks.

http://usr.blogspot.com

All true wisdom is found on T-shirts.

2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake

2004-12-28T16:58:00.000+05:30

Check for the Infomation and news here.

Calling for some Immediate Action:

Large amounts of humanitarian aid are needed due to widespread damage to infrastructure, food and water shortages and economic damage to the fishing and tourism industries. Epidemics are of special concern, as they are highly likely due to the high population density and tropical climate of the affected areas. The United Nations has stated that the largest relief operation in history is underway.

The overwhelming concern of humanitarian and government agencies is to quickly identify and bury the dead before they become a health issue and contribute to the spread of diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, dysentery and typhoid. Other high priorities are delivery of medical supplies and personnel to overwhelmed hospitals and clinics, tent shelters and clothing to people who have lost their houses and belongings, and potable water. Many usual sources of water were spoiled either by salt water, broken by the force of the tsunami, or contaminated with bodies of dead people or livestock, requiring water purification equipment or trucking potable water into the affected region. (Information from wikipedia)

These are the following sites which are accepting donations for relief efforts:

The Hindu Relief Fund
(Accepting Online Donation using CreditCard)

Indian Prime Ministers Relief Fund

Tamil Nadu Cheif Ministers Relief Fund

Others