from this day onwards, my tech posts with *less casual* writing style will go on gadget7
all work and less play drives kiran varghese to start off such things. and am saying that in a positive, productive and industrious sence. :)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Rough tide leads to pleasant discovery
The last month was a period of experiments with my computer, starting with the fact that I was running on a ‘going to break’ HDD and the DST short test was failing repeatedly. So before anything, I backed up all my data (which also includes my windows partition) after running openSUSE in recovery mode; and trust me it was quite a breeze, reinforcing my crush on Linux. Later that day I called DELL support and they promptly shipped me a replacement hard drive one working day later, but the OEM OS that id also asked them to ship was going to take a few days longer as the package which includes WinXP, device drivers, sonic, win backup and a few others were flying in from Netherlands. Nevertheless I was happy with their prompt and ‘no questions asked’ service, afterall I guess ive already paid them quite a sum when I took the 3 yr complete care support for my inspiron 6400.
A few months before this day I had installed the vista transformation pack just to see what the hype was all about. Must say, I was impressed by the freshness it gave to the aeging, yet stable XP. So I decided to head to the nearest and dearest electronics shop to get the Vista Home Premium. I like the way it installed, M$soft finaly decided to keep it simple and voila!! I also have my disk management utility inbuilt right into the installer, and without second thought retained 20gigs of free space for Linux. Two weeks passed and I liked the way vista felt, till I realized that I need more memory for what started to seem like a dying computer. I think I can quite easily point the finger at vista that required ~500 MB just to boot and get running. I ‘tried’ installing Halo for vista, and not to my surprise it didn’t quite go on well. You already get the picture, don’t you? Nevertheless 2Gigs of memory is on its way..
A jobless Sunday afternoon, and what more could I do when I find the ubuntu feisty fawn media lying around, 10GB of free space and a geeky mind. No prizes for guessing right, im now happily ubutun’d with a fresh and functional desktop. And here is a trailer of what could be done with Ubuntu and Beryl
Tell me that you still aren’t impresses by just the eye candy, and then here is more from a functionality pov. The ubuntu installation is done with a couple of user inputs that loads off a Live CD making life much easier, then comes the best part, the apt-get application is used to install any application from the command prompt, all u need to know is the name of the application and a simple `apt-get app_name` will look for the application online, download it, resolve dependencies and install the app. Ive got two words, “luvin it”
Next adventure would be tweaking and compiling the G15 drivers to get my Logitech Z10 working, and then Vmware to get virtual servers running. More later …
Live free, or die.
Linux!!
A few months before this day I had installed the vista transformation pack just to see what the hype was all about. Must say, I was impressed by the freshness it gave to the aeging, yet stable XP. So I decided to head to the nearest and dearest electronics shop to get the Vista Home Premium. I like the way it installed, M$soft finaly decided to keep it simple and voila!! I also have my disk management utility inbuilt right into the installer, and without second thought retained 20gigs of free space for Linux. Two weeks passed and I liked the way vista felt, till I realized that I need more memory for what started to seem like a dying computer. I think I can quite easily point the finger at vista that required ~500 MB just to boot and get running. I ‘tried’ installing Halo for vista, and not to my surprise it didn’t quite go on well. You already get the picture, don’t you? Nevertheless 2Gigs of memory is on its way..
A jobless Sunday afternoon, and what more could I do when I find the ubuntu feisty fawn media lying around, 10GB of free space and a geeky mind. No prizes for guessing right, im now happily ubutun’d with a fresh and functional desktop. And here is a trailer of what could be done with Ubuntu and Beryl
Tell me that you still aren’t impresses by just the eye candy, and then here is more from a functionality pov. The ubuntu installation is done with a couple of user inputs that loads off a Live CD making life much easier, then comes the best part, the apt-get application is used to install any application from the command prompt, all u need to know is the name of the application and a simple `apt-get app_name` will look for the application online, download it, resolve dependencies and install the app. Ive got two words, “luvin it”
Next adventure would be tweaking and compiling the G15 drivers to get my Logitech Z10 working, and then Vmware to get virtual servers running. More later …
Live free, or die.
Linux!!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Triangle: More to it than a polygon with three sides.
The triangle is indeed fascinating for the fact that it is so simple a figure to have inexhaustible properties and theorems associated with it. Leaving the world of geometry behind, the triangle still has many mysteries and tales to tell.
The first thing that would come to my mind is the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
"It is the greatest modern mystery of our supposedly well understood world: a region of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the disappearance of ships and planes continue to defy explanation"
A complete paradigm shift into the field of Management and Organisational Behavior will lead us to what I would consider one of psychology’s best theorys’ proposed by Abraham Maslow, “Maslow's hierarchy of needs”; and is something which im more interested at this point of time. Wikipedia has a whole lot of information relating to this, the crux of the matter being: people have needs starting from the lower level deficiency needs to growth needs which they realize with time until they reach a level of self relisation/actulisation.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs would apply to induviduals, but there probably could exist (or coexist!!) another triangle that could represent organizational structure, the apex being the chief, and the base of the triangle being the naïve new entrants to the organization. The employees at the base are the ones who have physiological and safety needs, they probably would want to first attain a state of financial stability and responsibility, slightly sidelining the other ambitious desires and needs. Progressions up the organization however fast or slow paced it might be, would take the individual to a state where his safety needs are satiated and then would arise the previously sidelined growth needs, till superiority is attained.
The best of the organizations’ would have a common goal and its employees would work towards the same in which case these two triangles shoud coexist. This could probably also justify the base for my comparison between the triangles of an individual’s needs and an organization’s structure.
As the organization grows in terms of manpower, maintaining the linearity of the leaning sides of the triangle would be a challenge for reasons more than one that needs to be addressed. Probably with time I might be able to figure out factors that influence the linearity of the leaning sides’ or probably end up justifying that a bulge in the organisational structure is the only profitably feasible way. The bottomline is however the fact that both the employees’ needs and the organizations’ goals are to be satisfied and that is what makes a successful organization and also a great one to work for.
There are already a couple of new thoughts in my mind right now, but ill put them here later, till then, its black, white and everything in between.
The first thing that would come to my mind is the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
"It is the greatest modern mystery of our supposedly well understood world: a region of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the disappearance of ships and planes continue to defy explanation"
A complete paradigm shift into the field of Management and Organisational Behavior will lead us to what I would consider one of psychology’s best theorys’ proposed by Abraham Maslow, “Maslow's hierarchy of needs”; and is something which im more interested at this point of time. Wikipedia has a whole lot of information relating to this, the crux of the matter being: people have needs starting from the lower level deficiency needs to growth needs which they realize with time until they reach a level of self relisation/actulisation.
Image Source: http://steves.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/16
Maslow's hierarchy of needs would apply to induviduals, but there probably could exist (or coexist!!) another triangle that could represent organizational structure, the apex being the chief, and the base of the triangle being the naïve new entrants to the organization. The employees at the base are the ones who have physiological and safety needs, they probably would want to first attain a state of financial stability and responsibility, slightly sidelining the other ambitious desires and needs. Progressions up the organization however fast or slow paced it might be, would take the individual to a state where his safety needs are satiated and then would arise the previously sidelined growth needs, till superiority is attained.
The best of the organizations’ would have a common goal and its employees would work towards the same in which case these two triangles shoud coexist. This could probably also justify the base for my comparison between the triangles of an individual’s needs and an organization’s structure.
As the organization grows in terms of manpower, maintaining the linearity of the leaning sides of the triangle would be a challenge for reasons more than one that needs to be addressed. Probably with time I might be able to figure out factors that influence the linearity of the leaning sides’ or probably end up justifying that a bulge in the organisational structure is the only profitably feasible way. The bottomline is however the fact that both the employees’ needs and the organizations’ goals are to be satisfied and that is what makes a successful organization and also a great one to work for.
There are already a couple of new thoughts in my mind right now, but ill put them here later, till then, its black, white and everything in between.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
And then Norway happened: In Cod we believe
I'm beginning to wonder whether there is some force influencing my travel that tend to make all the planning and associated logistics start and flow right into place just a week before the real thing happens. But i must admit that i loved the way how a random take while flicking pages over this good Lonely Planet guide took us to a spectacular island in Northern Norway surrounded by mountains, fjords and islands in all directions. Tromso, is connected by picturesque roads to numerous villages with fishing being the major occupation of the yesteryears from where they coined the phrase, “In Cod we believe”. (Yes, Mr.RamantheB there was no typo there ;))
We flew in to Rovaniemi, the capital of the province of Lapland, to get closer to Santa “who really lives deep in Finnish Lapland in Korvatunturi (Ear Mountain)”, which i discovered here. But we had the privilege of meeting him at the Santa Claus village and official post office in Rovaniemmi, which made it easier for us to get started on the real adventure we were about to embark on and crossing the arctic circle and into what quite easily could be termed as “paradise land”.
To admit, i was quite nervous about the whole thing as i self assigned myself to be the one behind the wheel for this ~1500 Km drive across international borders spanning three days, considering the fact that this was my first drive over 100 kms in videsi land.
But nevertheless i always had the itch for adventure and exploration, and there i was taking delivery of our car that delivered in excess of 150 horses that empowered us to maintain an average speed in the whereabouts of early three digit figures for most of the trip. First destination was the western Finnish bordering city of Pello when we were cutting through what 'at this point of time' i would call boring lakes and countryside for the fact that what lay ahead of us was awe aspiring splendour for which two eyes were just not enough to admire.
The drive trough the snow peaked mountains, crystal clear and serene lakes alongside plush green meadows after the Finnish border, along Sweden and into Norway just took our breath away, the feeling which might be justified by the phrase, “The Journey is the Destination”
At this point i sign off leaving you to do all the imagination. Ah silly me, how can i forget to mention the whale safari where we cruised to the edge of the continental reef in the Baltic sea in search of sperm whales, seals and sea eagles.
We flew in to Rovaniemi, the capital of the province of Lapland, to get closer to Santa “who really lives deep in Finnish Lapland in Korvatunturi (Ear Mountain)”, which i discovered here. But we had the privilege of meeting him at the Santa Claus village and official post office in Rovaniemmi, which made it easier for us to get started on the real adventure we were about to embark on and crossing the arctic circle and into what quite easily could be termed as “paradise land”.To admit, i was quite nervous about the whole thing as i self assigned myself to be the one behind the wheel for this ~1500 Km drive across international borders spanning three days, considering the fact that this was my first drive over 100 kms in videsi land.
But nevertheless i always had the itch for adventure and exploration, and there i was taking delivery of our car that delivered in excess of 150 horses that empowered us to maintain an average speed in the whereabouts of early three digit figures for most of the trip. First destination was the western Finnish bordering city of Pello when we were cutting through what 'at this point of time' i would call boring lakes and countryside for the fact that what lay ahead of us was awe aspiring splendour for which two eyes were just not enough to admire.
The drive trough the snow peaked mountains, crystal clear and serene lakes alongside plush green meadows after the Finnish border, along Sweden and into Norway just took our breath away, the feeling which might be justified by the phrase, “The Journey is the Destination”
At this point i sign off leaving you to do all the imagination. Ah silly me, how can i forget to mention the whale safari where we cruised to the edge of the continental reef in the Baltic sea in search of sperm whales, seals and sea eagles.Tuesday, March 13, 2007
work (un)culture!!
Lets pick some lines from few techies' jabberwocky conversation.
“Man!! Im simply too busy for nethin right now”
“Im slogging my arse off”
“Ive got no time to do that, all i can think of is that harsh deadline”
Mr. Techie is working hard towards meeting aunrealistic deadline; sweat and toil, and finally with a heroic effort the target is achieved with all might and valor. Victory!! one might say. Accolades flow in from all directions and further motivate Mr. Techie to stretch. Now, people around Mr. Techie realize the magnitude of effort he put into this war against time, not to mention his unique ability to stretch, and motivate him to keep up the good work done. He is now considered an integral member in the team and soon becomes a stimulant inspiration for the new techie to follow suit.
Thevicious glorious cycle is thriving.
All this, at the expense of what?
Merriam Webster defines “culture” as “enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training. acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills”
Now its up to *you* to define “unculture”.
“Man!! Im simply too busy for nethin right now”
“Im slogging my arse off”
“Ive got no time to do that, all i can think of is that harsh deadline”
Mr. Techie is working hard towards meeting a
The
All this, at the expense of what?
Merriam Webster defines “culture” as “enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training. acquaintance with and taste in fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as distinguished from vocational and technical skills”
Now its up to *you* to define “unculture”.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Frozen
You try to walk outa your den precariously,
You try to shield yourself,
You try to fight it off.
You try, just try and never succeed.
Its time to feel it, time to feel something that has fascinated us whenever we used to see those romantic bollywood songs with scantily dressed actors who rock and roll amidst white landscapes and snow peaked mountains.
Welcome to reality folks. Its that time of the year when you prepare to leave the cozy warmth of your home and clad yourself with numerous layers of clothing in your desperate attempt to keep your privates from getting frozen. Its that time of the year that comes after partial Polar Night (when the sun is almost below the horizon and a lingering dusk will be pretty much the best thing that can happen). Its that time of the year when you see the Midnight Sun ( the opposite phenomenon to Polar Night. A phenomenon that occurs in latitudes north of the Arctic Circle where the sun is visible at the local midnight as a result of the tilt in the Earth's axis w.r.t the ecliptic). Its that time of the year when your planning/estimation/forecasting skills are tested to its very limits while you precisely plan your bus connection to office and back.
Yes, its winter, -18 degrees centigrade, and in contradiction to what you might be thinking, “Im Enjoying It, enjoying every bit of it”. The kids, all protectively covered and playing with their sledges and shovels, building snowmen who can whether the winter. The people hurrying home to have that hot cup of chocolate. The heavy machines that clear inches of snow off the road and walkways and spread grime for grip. The pure white expanses wonderfully spoilt by those tree barks in contrast coloring. These scenes will remain fresh in my mind for many years to come. Or at least till the snow melts ;D
You try to shield yourself,
You try to fight it off.
You try, just try and never succeed.
Its time to feel it, time to feel something that has fascinated us whenever we used to see those romantic bollywood songs with scantily dressed actors who rock and roll amidst white landscapes and snow peaked mountains.
Welcome to reality folks. Its that time of the year when you prepare to leave the cozy warmth of your home and clad yourself with numerous layers of clothing in your desperate attempt to keep your privates from getting frozen. Its that time of the year that comes after partial Polar Night (when the sun is almost below the horizon and a lingering dusk will be pretty much the best thing that can happen). Its that time of the year when you see the Midnight Sun ( the opposite phenomenon to Polar Night. A phenomenon that occurs in latitudes north of the Arctic Circle where the sun is visible at the local midnight as a result of the tilt in the Earth's axis w.r.t the ecliptic). Its that time of the year when your planning/estimation/forecasting skills are tested to its very limits while you precisely plan your bus connection to office and back.
Yes, its winter, -18 degrees centigrade, and in contradiction to what you might be thinking, “Im Enjoying It, enjoying every bit of it”. The kids, all protectively covered and playing with their sledges and shovels, building snowmen who can whether the winter. The people hurrying home to have that hot cup of chocolate. The heavy machines that clear inches of snow off the road and walkways and spread grime for grip. The pure white expanses wonderfully spoilt by those tree barks in contrast coloring. These scenes will remain fresh in my mind for many years to come. Or at least till the snow melts ;D
Sunday, December 17, 2006
A Three day affair with Paris
It had been just a week since i landed here in Finland and sparks were flying about a trip to Paris, quite easily one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world. All the initial ticketing and reservation happened in a jiffy, thanks to all those enthusiastic souls, Ramapriya, Shruthi, Preethy and Syed. As far as im concerned i really need something like this to satiate my thirst for discovery and travel.
The day had come, 7th December 2006, packed my bag and all set to go, after a quick purchase of snacks, took the taxi to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Ah yes, remember guys, the best way to fit all those places of significant interest into a tight schedule is to squeeze out the food breaks, carry your food and eat while you shuttle between places (read Paris metro). So there we were, in the airport fiddling around with the newly acquired Euro 26 youth card that not only helped us get the air tickets at a marginally lower price but also reinforced the fact of us still being classified as youth ;)
So all said and done we were set to execute a carefully marked up plan to discover the city renowned for its neo-classical architecture and host for many museums, galleries and cathedrals. Not to mention its active night life and fine French cabarets. An airport shuttle transported us from terminal 1 of CDG airport to the nearby Metro Station. Paris has two types of underground trains, the color/numbered lines or metros that operate within city limits and the RER trains that operate even in the outskirts . The ticketing system is very good wherein you will use one ticket for one end to end transit. The RER tickets will cost around 5 to 10 euros based on the destination, and the local lines will cost you around a euro for a trip. We did not want to try the Metro at 11pm so we conveniently took the taxi to the hotel.
All the folks crashed into bed, while i still had some energy and wanted to explore the streets of Paris. End of day was at 2pm that night. Next day a quick breakfast constituting croissants, bread, butter, jam, hot chocolate and a glass of pineapple juice. We had to walk to the taxi station and a half hour wait before we got the taxi and met up with Shruthi at our hotel at Louis Michel who flew down from London. We took 10 metro tickets for 10 euros (which IMHO is more than sufficient for a three day trip like ours) and the metro map
We took the metro to Anvers and a 15 mins walk from the station to Sacré Coeur Basilica. The interior of the church contains one of the worlds largest mosaics, and depicts Christ with outstretched arms. Completed in 1914, it was not consecrated until 1919 after World War I had ended. From the top of the Dome, there is a panoramic view in all directions extending over 30 kilometers. Here we encountered strong winds which almost blew Ramapriya off the compound, the rain didn't help either. No pix of panoramic paris from here :(
Next on the itenary was Notre Dame cathedral which was seminal in the evolution of the French Gothic style. It is 110 ft high and the first cathedral built on a truly monumental scale. We took line 4 to Cite, then a 10 minutes walk past St Chappels and on the right is Notre Damm. We took the audioguides which is very informative and in my opinion an absolute must if you want to enjoy this monumet. It was late afternoon and we really wanted to spend the rest of the evening in Louvre. The pink line to Chatlet, thereon the yellow line to Royal Musee Du Louvre took us on a trail of Da Vinci code into the Lovre museum, the largest, oldest, most important and famous art gallery and museum in the world. The Pyramide Inversee got us all excited and offered a skylit though which we can see the Louvre itself.
Five hours inside the louve though all those never ending passageways cluttered with monuments from all over the globe finally brought us to Monalisa herself, our thirst was quenched!! We called it a day and exited from the Pyramid exit just to be awestruck to see the Louvre itself in all its splendor in the night, a kilometer on the right we were greeted by the charm of the Paris Opera house. But as always the night was young and so was i, Ledo was on the charts. The stage, the performers and the whole ambiance was something ill never forget and never witness anywhere else.
The day had come to an end and as one wise man said: “I have miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep”... ah, ignorant and decided to sleep instead, and save those miles for the days to come :D.
Day 2: a bright sunny day perfect to see the glamor of Chateau De Versailles, the place for the royal family till 1789. We took the RER from Saint Lazare just to witness scenes of a lifetime starting from the expansive palace entrance to the numerous drawing rooms (the Hercules drawing room is a must see), Opera House, bedrooms to the Palace gardens. The ceiling of every room are picturesque anecdotes in time. We took the audiophones which briefed us on the history behind this lavish splendor.
We left the glamorous versailles behind us and proceeded to get a glimpse of the 81 storied, 7300 ton, 1070 ft tall iron structure built next to the River Seine, commonly known as the Eiffel Tower :) Four queues extend from each foot foundation of the Eiffel lined with folks
who want to get atop this most visited monument in the world. We took the stairs to the first level and thereon took the elevator to reach the third and final platform from where we got to see the spread of nightlight Paris that extended far into the horizon. Words can not explain to sight from here. After spending two hours we moved on to the Arc of Joan, we took the green line to Charles De Gaulle. The arc is located in the near center of Paris and from the top of the arc tower we got the see the quite evident nightlife of Paris and one of the most crowded and well lit, Charles De Gaulle street. After a couple of hours here we called it a day and retired to our hotel rooms. The next day we took the RER to Disney Land, we were quite prepared to wait in long queues with waiting times that stretched to an hour and a half. But every minute of waiting only added on the anticipation of witnessing something enchanting, and trust me, we were not disappointed :)
It was around 4pm when we had to rush back to our hotel rooms, pick up our luggage and reach the airport. All the connecting trains fell right into place as we boarded them in the nick of the moment, proof enough that we mastered the Paris metro system ;) All the sights are still fresh in my mind. Im writing this trip log to make sure that some day ill relive all those moments i spent in the awe aspiring monuments in Paris and in that nostalgia of the memory lane ill ride.
The day had come, 7th December 2006, packed my bag and all set to go, after a quick purchase of snacks, took the taxi to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Ah yes, remember guys, the best way to fit all those places of significant interest into a tight schedule is to squeeze out the food breaks, carry your food and eat while you shuttle between places (read Paris metro). So there we were, in the airport fiddling around with the newly acquired Euro 26 youth card that not only helped us get the air tickets at a marginally lower price but also reinforced the fact of us still being classified as youth ;)
So all said and done we were set to execute a carefully marked up plan to discover the city renowned for its neo-classical architecture and host for many museums, galleries and cathedrals. Not to mention its active night life and fine French cabarets. An airport shuttle transported us from terminal 1 of CDG airport to the nearby Metro Station. Paris has two types of underground trains, the color/numbered lines or metros that operate within city limits and the RER trains that operate even in the outskirts . The ticketing system is very good wherein you will use one ticket for one end to end transit. The RER tickets will cost around 5 to 10 euros based on the destination, and the local lines will cost you around a euro for a trip. We did not want to try the Metro at 11pm so we conveniently took the taxi to the hotel.
All the folks crashed into bed, while i still had some energy and wanted to explore the streets of Paris. End of day was at 2pm that night. Next day a quick breakfast constituting croissants, bread, butter, jam, hot chocolate and a glass of pineapple juice. We had to walk to the taxi station and a half hour wait before we got the taxi and met up with Shruthi at our hotel at Louis Michel who flew down from London. We took 10 metro tickets for 10 euros (which IMHO is more than sufficient for a three day trip like ours) and the metro map
We took the metro to Anvers and a 15 mins walk from the station to Sacré Coeur Basilica. The interior of the church contains one of the worlds largest mosaics, and depicts Christ with outstretched arms. Completed in 1914, it was not consecrated until 1919 after World War I had ended. From the top of the Dome, there is a panoramic view in all directions extending over 30 kilometers. Here we encountered strong winds which almost blew Ramapriya off the compound, the rain didn't help either. No pix of panoramic paris from here :(
Next on the itenary was Notre Dame cathedral which was seminal in the evolution of the French Gothic style. It is 110 ft high and the first cathedral built on a truly monumental scale. We took line 4 to Cite, then a 10 minutes walk past St Chappels and on the right is Notre Damm. We took the audioguides which is very informative and in my opinion an absolute must if you want to enjoy this monumet. It was late afternoon and we really wanted to spend the rest of the evening in Louvre. The pink line to Chatlet, thereon the yellow line to Royal Musee Du Louvre took us on a trail of Da Vinci code into the Lovre museum, the largest, oldest, most important and famous art gallery and museum in the world. The Pyramide Inversee got us all excited and offered a skylit though which we can see the Louvre itself.Five hours inside the louve though all those never ending passageways cluttered with monuments from all over the globe finally brought us to Monalisa herself, our thirst was quenched!! We called it a day and exited from the Pyramid exit just to be awestruck to see the Louvre itself in all its splendor in the night, a kilometer on the right we were greeted by the charm of the Paris Opera house. But as always the night was young and so was i, Ledo was on the charts. The stage, the performers and the whole ambiance was something ill never forget and never witness anywhere else.
The day had come to an end and as one wise man said: “I have miles to go before i sleep, and miles to go before i sleep”... ah, ignorant and decided to sleep instead, and save those miles for the days to come :D.
Day 2: a bright sunny day perfect to see the glamor of Chateau De Versailles, the place for the royal family till 1789. We took the RER from Saint Lazare just to witness scenes of a lifetime starting from the expansive palace entrance to the numerous drawing rooms (the Hercules drawing room is a must see), Opera House, bedrooms to the Palace gardens. The ceiling of every room are picturesque anecdotes in time. We took the audiophones which briefed us on the history behind this lavish splendor.
We left the glamorous versailles behind us and proceeded to get a glimpse of the 81 storied, 7300 ton, 1070 ft tall iron structure built next to the River Seine, commonly known as the Eiffel Tower :) Four queues extend from each foot foundation of the Eiffel lined with folks
who want to get atop this most visited monument in the world. We took the stairs to the first level and thereon took the elevator to reach the third and final platform from where we got to see the spread of nightlight Paris that extended far into the horizon. Words can not explain to sight from here. After spending two hours we moved on to the Arc of Joan, we took the green line to Charles De Gaulle. The arc is located in the near center of Paris and from the top of the arc tower we got the see the quite evident nightlife of Paris and one of the most crowded and well lit, Charles De Gaulle street. After a couple of hours here we called it a day and retired to our hotel rooms. The next day we took the RER to Disney Land, we were quite prepared to wait in long queues with waiting times that stretched to an hour and a half. But every minute of waiting only added on the anticipation of witnessing something enchanting, and trust me, we were not disappointed :)It was around 4pm when we had to rush back to our hotel rooms, pick up our luggage and reach the airport. All the connecting trains fell right into place as we boarded them in the nick of the moment, proof enough that we mastered the Paris metro system ;) All the sights are still fresh in my mind. Im writing this trip log to make sure that some day ill relive all those moments i spent in the awe aspiring monuments in Paris and in that nostalgia of the memory lane ill ride.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
linuxed !!
Joblessly sittin and watchin tv post mindnight. Thought id might as well spend the sleepless night and do somethin productive. Rbered that i got the ubuntu media a few days back. Ok, good thing to start off with. did the needed partitions and linuxed the lappy. Its 2am now and all excided. It came with OpenOffice as well, neat, but missed the windows fonts, but no issues, simple solution ..
sudo apt-get install msttcorefontscd /homewget http://www.auriance.com/docs/fonts/fontconfig.tbz
tar -xvjpf fontconfig.tbz
ok.. done, and now thought id set up the networking , figgerd out that ubuntu is built on Debian. now i have no clue as to where to start fiddling arnd, so ditched that and reserved it for the last. All devices were funtioning fine and so was yappy.
remote logged into the office, xterm, clearcase, clearmake .. eyerythin works. cool.. and then ...
% make love
Make: Don't know how to make love. Stop.
crashed into bed. eod.
sudo apt-get install msttcorefontscd /homewget http://www.auriance.com/docs/fonts/fontconfig.tbz
tar -xvjpf fontconfig.tbz
ok.. done, and now thought id set up the networking , figgerd out that ubuntu is built on Debian. now i have no clue as to where to start fiddling arnd, so ditched that and reserved it for the last. All devices were funtioning fine and so was yappy.
remote logged into the office, xterm, clearcase, clearmake .. eyerythin works. cool.. and then ...
% make love
Make: Don't know how to make love. Stop.
crashed into bed. eod.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Da Machhi Code,
Thanks to the stupid politics (stupid is an understatement), I will not get to watch the flick in the theaters. Many states including Punjab, TN and AP have banned the release of “Da Vinci Code” even though the censor board has given a go ahead after adding a disclaimer stating that the film is a work of fiction.
So now im waiting for the DVD release and in worst case for the tamil remake starring Gaptain Vijayakanth in Da Machhi Code ;-D
So now im waiting for the DVD release and in worst case for the tamil remake starring Gaptain Vijayakanth in Da Machhi Code ;-D
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
tagged !!
I consider tagging a more criminal act than spam. The recipient of spam usually needs to take the effort of simultaneously depressing ‘cntrl + D’ (in most cases), but in tagging, the whole blo*dy subject needs to be thought over and keyed in. You must be wondering why I am writing this piece even though ive established my hate towards spam and a higher degree of hate towards tagging, its because im jobless this afternoon ;)
Wokay, here it goes.
Simble Bleasures (intentional misspell for obvious reasons understood by most cec ece junta)
1. Good sleep from 5:30 am to 7:30 am You will realize the pleasure associated with this if you went through those grueling last minute night study sessions during bachelor of engineering course.
2. Cold water tub bath/sleep during the summer.
3. A day of no work at office after a hectic month of sweat and toil.
4. Skinny dippin
5. A drive on a rainy day
6. Sleeping on my office chair during working hours ;)
7. Riding my bike on an empty well laid road after midnight.
8. Lazing around at home and listening to music.
9. Persuading folks to throw a party or treat.
10. Bird watching (u know what I mean)
I am ending this tag here. But just incase u guys are jobless do let me know, ive got free tags to give away :-D
The junta in US of A should be enjoying summer vacation after graduating, so any takers? Ah yes, those corporate benchers are also most welcome ;)
Wokay, here it goes.
Simble Bleasures (intentional misspell for obvious reasons understood by most cec ece junta)
1. Good sleep from 5:30 am to 7:30 am You will realize the pleasure associated with this if you went through those grueling last minute night study sessions during bachelor of engineering course.
2. Cold water tub bath/sleep during the summer.
3. A day of no work at office after a hectic month of sweat and toil.
4. Skinny dippin
5. A drive on a rainy day
6. Sleeping on my office chair during working hours ;)
7. Riding my bike on an empty well laid road after midnight.
8. Lazing around at home and listening to music.
9. Persuading folks to throw a party or treat.
10. Bird watching (u know what I mean)
I am ending this tag here. But just incase u guys are jobless do let me know, ive got free tags to give away :-D
The junta in US of A should be enjoying summer vacation after graduating, so any takers? Ah yes, those corporate benchers are also most welcome ;)
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Reunion
It seemed like ages had passed. Long ago, sometime around the prehistoric time, I knew a fellow dinosaur called CS. Yesterday, thanks to orkut, after ages, we got back in touch as men. It was quite a pleasant reunion and a very memorable day in my life. We did not speak for long as it was way past bed time, but caught up with most of the old times and the happenings in our lives.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Outa hibernation and posting …
It has been a cold winter, but eventually im outa my 5 month blogger hibernation. The temperature outside is peaking at around 40 degrees centigrade now. It has taken its toll on the better half of my life, riding has come to end this summer with hampi and kanha tiger reserve (http://vinay.rides.fotopic.net/c850263.html) Time has come to stay indoors and experience the pleasure of the HVAC system designed by Willis Haviland Carrier, roll cold waterbottles on your face, consume a lot of fluids and also expel them …
Koshun: What will a soul like me do when confined indoors?
Anser : Movies, Music, Party and Play on the comp...
Never was a reader of books, always preferred watching the movies. You never get to hear all those SFX and see those visual masterpieces by flipping over the pages of the book.
I have to tell you guys how badly I felt missed-out when I could not read the book that was termed, as a mandatory must read, The Da Vinci Code…but viola its here on 19th of may this year (http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicode/website/home.html).
Talking about movies but on an entirely different plane compared to the above, we have our very own Captain India, Vijayakanth, the brilliant jewel of the south. His most electrifying performance is captured in the “Karent Saak” video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=7nOhiKwZWdU&search=vijayakanth). He has kept up his mind blowing image in the latest movie Sudesi where he has captivated his fans yet another time. I haven’t watched the movie but I head that people go brain dead after seeing it. Though captain is the best and famous for his visual effects and punch dialogues we can not forget out “fur”-gotten “hair”-o, TR. I happened to come across one of his all time best couplets, “Vaada Machhi… Vaalakka Bhajji” (http://youtube.com/watch?v=o4t87odQvxY&search=TR)
This much is enough for now. After seeing the above two videos you probably can not read what is written below inbetween the quotes.
" "
Koshun: What will a soul like me do when confined indoors?
Anser : Movies, Music, Party and Play on the comp...
Never was a reader of books, always preferred watching the movies. You never get to hear all those SFX and see those visual masterpieces by flipping over the pages of the book.
I have to tell you guys how badly I felt missed-out when I could not read the book that was termed, as a mandatory must read, The Da Vinci Code…but viola its here on 19th of may this year (http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicode/website/home.html).
Talking about movies but on an entirely different plane compared to the above, we have our very own Captain India, Vijayakanth, the brilliant jewel of the south. His most electrifying performance is captured in the “Karent Saak” video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=7nOhiKwZWdU&search=vijayakanth). He has kept up his mind blowing image in the latest movie Sudesi where he has captivated his fans yet another time. I haven’t watched the movie but I head that people go brain dead after seeing it. Though captain is the best and famous for his visual effects and punch dialogues we can not forget out “fur”-gotten “hair”-o, TR. I happened to come across one of his all time best couplets, “Vaada Machhi… Vaalakka Bhajji” (http://youtube.com/watch?v=o4t87odQvxY&search=TR)
This much is enough for now. After seeing the above two videos you probably can not read what is written below inbetween the quotes.
" "
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Photography or Photoshopy !!!
Tushal had come down from Baroda
Where?: default for our meets: Fauzi dhaba, ~50 kms from city onNagpur
When?:7 pm
What?: Sweet milky chaai and mouth watering aloo parathas with dahi.
Where?: default for our meets: Fauzi dhaba, ~50 kms from city on
When?:
What?: Sweet milky chaai and mouth watering aloo parathas with dahi.
But I have my share of 1's and 0's camera on my phone, N6230. So I decided to see what the VGA camera (<1 MPx) was capable of. First expression, bad light, but a fairly good snap. EOD, crashed into bed.
Next morning, no work, all friends outa town for Diwali and Eid… Oh yeah, wish you a happy, safe and prosperous Diwali and Eid Mubarak :) …As I booted my comp, bulbs flashed, tubelights lit bright $) So transferred the snap to the comp and clicked my way to Photoshop. Did some fiddling around, pretty good outputs.
Towards the end of the day I realized that more than the camera and the lenses, it’s the 1s and 0s that give us the power, that edge over chemicals and film. After all this, the F70 with the other gibberish has lost its importance, so now it’s a 5 MPx with a good optical zoom, somewhere around 10-12X, >1Gb memory, image stabilization and rechargeable batteries is all I need. Still sounds a bit on the higher end ;)
Photos speak louder than words, though they consume thousand times more memory and so leaving you with a few outcomes from todays experiment.
-Smile and keep clicking.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Platinum : Gold : PETROL
The title says it all... but still there are finer aspects to this. The prices of fuel have now hit a mind blowing Rs 49.81 here in
47.32 (petrol price in
19.64 (value at supply point) +
14.86 (excise duty + edu. cess - Central Govt.) +
11.91 (States sales tax) +
0.77 (dealer commission) +
0.14 (other charges)
Now i can understand the value at supply point but the other charges seem to make no sense to me. The biggest question to me is to where this money is going? I still am negotiating potholes (and all the other inherent aspects of Indian roads), i still am riding in badly lit roads w/o road dividers, I still am running on standard 87 octane fuel (sub standard in many other countries) …
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Royal Enfield's R&D is working.... FINALLY !!!
After the success of the Bajaj Pulsar, R.L.Ravichandran, former marketing head of Bajaj Auto has moved in as the CEO of bike maker Royal Enfield (RE). Subsequently RE announced the launch of two new variants; Bullet Electra 5S and a new variant of its cruiser ‘Thunderbird’. The new Bullet, with gearshift on the left, comes with gas-filled shock absorbers, glass wool silencer, multi-focal reflector lamps with option of disc brakes and electric start.
Ravichandran said the company would also come out with a new integrated 500 cc engine in next six months. This is most probably gonna be the AVL 500, a definite thumping bull and my next bike upgrade (plans subject to change if a better bike is in the pipeline).
Judging by the way Ravichandran and BAL launched almost 5 variants of the Pulsar in 2 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if the existing Thunderbird is upgraded in versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and finally version 2.
RE is also working on a completely new engine platform. Its widely spoken that this one is gonna be more sporty (the RD 350 just crossed my mind ;) The integrated engine will give the riders the advantage of efficiency, an absolute necessity owing to the steadily rising fuel prices (currently Rs 49.81 in Hyderabad)
So its good that the R&D team has atlest woken up, and I just hope that they design bikes and not just new stickers (an inherent characteristic of a few Indian bike makers… read “Hero Honda” ;)
Ravichandran said the company would also come out with a new integrated 500 cc engine in next six months. This is most probably gonna be the AVL 500, a definite thumping bull and my next bike upgrade (plans subject to change if a better bike is in the pipeline).
Judging by the way Ravichandran and BAL launched almost 5 variants of the Pulsar in 2 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if the existing Thunderbird is upgraded in versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and finally version 2.
RE is also working on a completely new engine platform. Its widely spoken that this one is gonna be more sporty (the RD 350 just crossed my mind ;) The integrated engine will give the riders the advantage of efficiency, an absolute necessity owing to the steadily rising fuel prices (currently Rs 49.81 in Hyderabad)
So its good that the R&D team has atlest woken up, and I just hope that they design bikes and not just new stickers (an inherent characteristic of a few Indian bike makers… read “Hero Honda” ;)
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
the future is OPEN
Gone are the days of monopoly; OPEN SOURCE is in. All you have to do is to log onto the web page (which obviously will be slow if you are on IE), download the small installer, install it in a flash and live happily ever after..... story does not end here, feel bored or wanna do some fiddling, download the source code, get the compiler and an editor, all windows are broken, doors open and its a wide open world out there.
Ever since i migrated to Unix and subsequently to the flavours of Linux, life has become so easy without the need for using my microsoft leg pad (a small leg pad having the three most important keys ==> Ctrl, Alt and Delete). The first open source freeware i fell in love with is Firefox. A review called it "Best of 2003", no doubt.
FIREFOX is a free alternative web browser that is faster, safer and easier to use than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Recent security exploits make Internet Explorer unsafe. Reduce the risk of viruses, worms, spyware and other malicious software by switching to the most customizable and secure browser in the world! Enjoy features such as tabbed browsing, a popup blocker, built in search and a feed reader (RSS) to keep up with the latest news headlines.
THUNDERBIRD is the perfect companion for Firefox, featuring one of the most advanced junk mail filters available. Both Firefox and Thunderbird can be easily customized for the way you browse the web and read your e-mail.
http://www.mozilla.org/
Ever since i migrated to Unix and subsequently to the flavours of Linux, life has become so easy without the need for using my microsoft leg pad (a small leg pad having the three most important keys ==> Ctrl, Alt and Delete). The first open source freeware i fell in love with is Firefox. A review called it "Best of 2003", no doubt.
FIREFOX is a free alternative web browser that is faster, safer and easier to use than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Recent security exploits make Internet Explorer unsafe. Reduce the risk of viruses, worms, spyware and other malicious software by switching to the most customizable and secure browser in the world! Enjoy features such as tabbed browsing, a popup blocker, built in search and a feed reader (RSS) to keep up with the latest news headlines.
THUNDERBIRD is the perfect companion for Firefox, featuring one of the most advanced junk mail filters available. Both Firefox and Thunderbird can be easily customized for the way you browse the web and read your e-mail.
http://www.mozilla.org/
Friday, August 26, 2005
a voice i heard on a deserted road...
Treat me good, I’ll treat you better.
Treat me bad, I’ll treat you worse.
Yours faithfully,
Your VEHICLE.
Treat me bad, I’ll treat you worse.
Yours faithfully,
Your VEHICLE.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Saturday, August 20, 2005
My next phone upgrade: Choice No.1
The Nokia N91 is in..... 
With the N91 in my hand i can stand up the mast of the biggest ship and shout out "I'm the king of the World" and yet be able to click a snap of the most beautiful lady on the bottom-most deck of the ship ;)
Operating System:
Symbian OS 9.1
Developer Platform:
Series 60 3rd Edition
Java Technology:
Web Services API (JSR-172)
Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177)
Location API (JSR-179)
SIP API (JSR-180)
Wireless Messaging API (JSR-205)
Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API (JSR-226)
Advanced Multimedia Supplements (JSR-234)
Bluetooth API (JSR-82)
CLDC 1.1
Wireless Messaging API (JSR-120)
Mobile Media API (JSR-135)
Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR-184)
JTWI (JSR-185)
FileConnection and PIM API (JSR-75)
MIDP 2.0
Nokia UI API
Browser:
HTML over TCP/IP
WAP 2.0
XHTML over TCP/IP
Sound Formats:
AAC+
eAAC+
M4A
MIDI tones (poly 64)
WMA
AAC
AMR (NB-AMR)
MIDI tones (poly 64)
MP3
RealAudio
True Tones (WB-AMR)
WAV
Band Functionality:
GSM 1800
GSM 1900
GSM 900
WCDMA 2100
Screen Display:
Color Depth: 18 bit
Resolution: 176 x 208
Memory:
Unlimited Heap size
Shared Memory for Storage: 29 MB
Unlimited Jar size
Local Connectivity:
Bluetooth
USB
WLAN
Video Support:
3GPP formats (H.263)
MPEG-4
RealVideo
Network Data Support:
HSCSD
WCDMA
CSD
EGPRS
GPRS
Extra Features:
2 megapixel camera with 20x digital zoom
4GB HDD
Music player
USB Mass Storage
Instant Messaging
IMAP4 email
POP3 email
PoC
Presence
RealOne player
SMTP email
Stereo FM radio
SyncML
Themes
need anything more ?
Not for now at least ;)
With the N91 in my hand i can stand up the mast of the biggest ship and shout out "I'm the king of the World" and yet be able to click a snap of the most beautiful lady on the bottom-most deck of the ship ;)Operating System:
Symbian OS 9.1
Developer Platform:
Series 60 3rd Edition
Java Technology:
Web Services API (JSR-172)
Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177)
Location API (JSR-179)
SIP API (JSR-180)
Wireless Messaging API (JSR-205)
Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API (JSR-226)
Advanced Multimedia Supplements (JSR-234)
Bluetooth API (JSR-82)
CLDC 1.1
Wireless Messaging API (JSR-120)
Mobile Media API (JSR-135)
Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR-184)
JTWI (JSR-185)
FileConnection and PIM API (JSR-75)
MIDP 2.0
Nokia UI API
Browser:
HTML over TCP/IP
WAP 2.0
XHTML over TCP/IP
Sound Formats:
AAC+
eAAC+
M4A
MIDI tones (poly 64)
WMA
AAC
AMR (NB-AMR)
MIDI tones (poly 64)
MP3
RealAudio
True Tones (WB-AMR)
WAV
Band Functionality:
GSM 1800
GSM 1900
GSM 900
WCDMA 2100
Screen Display:
Color Depth: 18 bit
Resolution: 176 x 208
Memory:
Unlimited Heap size
Shared Memory for Storage: 29 MB
Unlimited Jar size
Local Connectivity:
Bluetooth
USB
WLAN
Video Support:
3GPP formats (H.263)
MPEG-4
RealVideo
Network Data Support:
HSCSD
WCDMA
CSD
EGPRS
GPRS
Extra Features:
2 megapixel camera with 20x digital zoom
4GB HDD
Music player
USB Mass Storage
Instant Messaging
IMAP4 email
POP3 email
PoC
Presence
RealOne player
SMTP email
Stereo FM radio
SyncML
Themes
need anything more ?
Not for now at least ;)
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