I just figured out how to use the plugin features of GAIM. So no more ugly source code hacks. I just followed the simple.c sample in their plugin folder and voila ! Lo and behold, you now have fortunes in IM. I've simply used fortunes cookies from linux and routed them to GAIM through a pipe. So far it looks stable enough. Actually havent really stress tested this, but what the heck, it aint no big thing. My TODO things for this would be, to add GUI support for different fortune databases (the simpsons one is really cool).
How does it work?
Now that the interface is clean and all, to enable this, you just need to select the plugin through preferences. Of course you need to compile the source (make ashbert.so) from your source trees plugin folder and then copy it to the systems plugin folder (generally, /usr/lib/gaim). Restart/start Gaim, and you will see my plugin there. Just tick it.
Then when someone opens up a conversation window with you, and types fortune , he will get one ultra cool fortune. Of course in this case, its like _you_ are the fortune server. If you want to see the fortunes, either add yourself to your list and IM yourself OR tell your friend to install this plugin.
Here's the source code. I will also convert the Haddock insults patch(See links) into a plugin when I find time.
Till then Happy hacking.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Apple freak
Holy sheeaaat ! I just stumbled upon this site ..
http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/gallery/
As I see the pics in their gallery, I'm thinking, daaayum I was RIGHT THERE ! Infact thats where I got my mini ipod from, thats _also_ the place from where I logged onto amazon.com (UK) and cancelled my order for the same, coz they were out of stock with the minis, and I just happened to go to London around that time. And all I can say is, Apple rocks with their decor, sure way of attracting folks. Check out the store pics, and then check out the grand opening pics. B E A utiful !
Another thing I must add : When I reached London, I was searching for this store. Someone told me its on Oxford Street. Its actually _near_ oxford street, Regent street to be more precise. So anyway, I took a tube to Oxford street, got above the tube station, and was simply dumbstruck. The damn street was soo long, soo many shops, soo much crowd. Anyway, I decided to walk on, since I had all the time in the world, hoping I had taken the right turn towards this store. Anyway, as these convictions of street senses go, I was wrong, had to walk back about another kilometer. The funniest part is, I kept walking in the right direction, then I suddenly stopped, thinking damn I must be wrong again, must ask someone, and then, look behind me, blam, I was right at the fscking entrance of this huuuuge Apple store.. all glass store. I remember saying to myself, D'oh, how could I have missed this !
http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/gallery/
As I see the pics in their gallery, I'm thinking, daaayum I was RIGHT THERE ! Infact thats where I got my mini ipod from, thats _also_ the place from where I logged onto amazon.com (UK) and cancelled my order for the same, coz they were out of stock with the minis, and I just happened to go to London around that time. And all I can say is, Apple rocks with their decor, sure way of attracting folks. Check out the store pics, and then check out the grand opening pics. B E A utiful !
Another thing I must add : When I reached London, I was searching for this store. Someone told me its on Oxford Street. Its actually _near_ oxford street, Regent street to be more precise. So anyway, I took a tube to Oxford street, got above the tube station, and was simply dumbstruck. The damn street was soo long, soo many shops, soo much crowd. Anyway, I decided to walk on, since I had all the time in the world, hoping I had taken the right turn towards this store. Anyway, as these convictions of street senses go, I was wrong, had to walk back about another kilometer. The funniest part is, I kept walking in the right direction, then I suddenly stopped, thinking damn I must be wrong again, must ask someone, and then, look behind me, blam, I was right at the fscking entrance of this huuuuge Apple store.. all glass store. I remember saying to myself, D'oh, how could I have missed this !
Monday, October 31, 2005
My house: Bachelor pad + WiFi hotspot
Why bachelor pad? well, I'm not saying anything about that here. Those who were present will know :p
Wifi hotspot ? Its obv. only for me, so hotspot isnt really the right word. Lets just call it the Zone(2). Coz Zone(1) is another place.(read: tapri near my place, where we hang out for "coffee").So, I bought this and it has arrived ! Woohoo !!
Its really sweet, extremely compact, and packs a whole bunch of features like 802.11g , has mixed mode too, wpa, wpa2, firewalls, 4 port switch, and shit loads of admin. stuff. I already had the BSNL dataone 256kbps modem, so all I did was hook it up to the AP, configure it for auto-dial, and route it through the AP, to the clients through dhcp. So, all I need to do is just power it ON, and voila, we have Wifi ! Since its soo compact, my guess is that Linksys must have used a standard mini-pci card in there, with its own antenna. So, there's no pointy black things sticking out of it, although if you need range big time, they've got another slot which is nicely hidden away, for attaching another antenna. So, all in all, its pretty neat, I get really good connectivity throughout the house. On the terrace, its a little problem, I need to place the AP near the window to get range. Actually, I think its because of the encryption mode, and power saving mode on the laptop. I get 55% sig. strength, but I cant ping. So, putting it in Open mode, should do the trick. With WPA , the shared key is reset every (configurable) ms. So, some bandwidth goes in that itself, to keep the connection alive. Also, powersaving mode, keeps the Tx off , and is alive only in the recv. mode after some intervals( like reduced bandwidth usage). So, time is spent in kicking the transmitter out of sleep. Therefore, perhaps, there's some packet loss in there, and causes for timeouts and retries. Anyway, its working really fine now, and I'm having a great time !
Wifi hotspot ? Its obv. only for me, so hotspot isnt really the right word. Lets just call it the Zone(2). Coz Zone(1) is another place.(read: tapri near my place, where we hang out for "coffee").So, I bought this and it has arrived ! Woohoo !!
Its really sweet, extremely compact, and packs a whole bunch of features like 802.11g , has mixed mode too, wpa, wpa2, firewalls, 4 port switch, and shit loads of admin. stuff. I already had the BSNL dataone 256kbps modem, so all I did was hook it up to the AP, configure it for auto-dial, and route it through the AP, to the clients through dhcp. So, all I need to do is just power it ON, and voila, we have Wifi ! Since its soo compact, my guess is that Linksys must have used a standard mini-pci card in there, with its own antenna. So, there's no pointy black things sticking out of it, although if you need range big time, they've got another slot which is nicely hidden away, for attaching another antenna. So, all in all, its pretty neat, I get really good connectivity throughout the house. On the terrace, its a little problem, I need to place the AP near the window to get range. Actually, I think its because of the encryption mode, and power saving mode on the laptop. I get 55% sig. strength, but I cant ping. So, putting it in Open mode, should do the trick. With WPA , the shared key is reset every (configurable) ms. So, some bandwidth goes in that itself, to keep the connection alive. Also, powersaving mode, keeps the Tx off , and is alive only in the recv. mode after some intervals( like reduced bandwidth usage). So, time is spent in kicking the transmitter out of sleep. Therefore, perhaps, there's some packet loss in there, and causes for timeouts and retries. Anyway, its working really fine now, and I'm having a great time !
Sunday, October 09, 2005
The Tao... of programming
For the uninitiated mortals .... Tao is a chinese philosophy about "the way and its virtue".
Over the years its principles are applied everywhere possible, but I'm referring to software, the land of confus-ion. I've made attempts to read the real Tao book, its the basis of the Buddhist way of life. But, the book seemed so damn confusing, I could'nt even get the gist of it. Now, I realise, thats what the Tao is! Its wierd, yet sensible, not stupid, seems strange, but is wise. I've just found the perfect link to what The Tao of programming is. clickey
Its a little long, but entertaining too. I've come across several quotes and jokes in the geek world that adduce the Tao, some of the hilarious ones are in that link above. For those too lazy to read the whole thing ( although recommended ) here are some excerpts:
Over the years its principles are applied everywhere possible, but I'm referring to software, the land of confus-ion. I've made attempts to read the real Tao book, its the basis of the Buddhist way of life. But, the book seemed so damn confusing, I could'nt even get the gist of it. Now, I realise, thats what the Tao is! Its wierd, yet sensible, not stupid, seems strange, but is wise. I've just found the perfect link to what The Tao of programming is. clickey
Its a little long, but entertaining too. I've come across several quotes and jokes in the geek world that adduce the Tao, some of the hilarious ones are in that link above. For those too lazy to read the whole thing ( although recommended ) here are some excerpts:
Thus spake the master programmer:
``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.''
A program should follow the `Law of Least Astonishment'. What is this law? It is simply that the program should always respond to the user in the way that astonishes him least.
A novice asked the master: ``I have a program that sometime runs and sometimes aborts. I have followed the rules of programming, yet I am totally baffled. What is the reason for this?''
The master replied: ``You are confused because you do not understand Tao. Only a fool expects rational behavior from his fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have constructed? Computers simulate determinism; only Tao is perfect.
``The rules of programming are transitory; only Tao is eternal. Therefore you must contemplate Tao before you receive enlightenment.''
``But how will I know when I have received enlightenment?'' asked the novice.
``Your program will then run correctly,'' replied the master.
A master was explaining the nature of Tao of to one of his novices. ``The Tao is embodied in all software - regardless of how insignificant,'' said the master.
``Is the Tao in a hand-held calculator?'' asked the novice.
``It is,'' came the reply.
``Is the Tao in a video game?'' continued the novice.
``It is even in a video game,'' said the master.
``And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?''
The master coughed and shifted his position slightly. ``The lesson is over for today,'' he said.
When managers hold endless meetings, the programmers write games. When accountants talk of quarterly profits, the development budget is about to be cut. When senior scientists talk blue sky, the clouds are about to roll in.
Truly, this is not the Tao of Programming.
When managers make commitments, game programs are ignored. When accountants make long-range plans, harmony and order are about to be restored. When senior scientists address the problems at hand, the problems will soon be solved.
Truly, this is the Tao of Programming.
Hardware met Software on the road to Changtse. Software said: ``You are Yin and I am Yang. If we travel together we will become famous and earn vast sums of money.'' And so the set forth together, thinking to conquer the world.
Presently they met Firmware, who was dressed in tattered rags and hobbled along propped on a thorny stick. Firmware said to them: ``The Tao lies beyond Yin and Yang. It is silent and still as a pool of water. It does not seek fame, therefore nobody knows its presence. It does not seek fortune, for it is complete within itself. It exists beyond space and time.''
Software and Hardware, ashamed, returned to their homes.
A master programmer passed a novice programmer one day. The master noted the novice's preoccupation with a hand-held computer game. ``Excuse me,'' he said, ``may I examine it?''
The novice bolted to attention and handed the device to the master. ``I see that the device claims to have three levels of play: Easy, Medium, and Hard,'' said the master. ``Yet every such device has another level of play, where the device seeks not to conquer the human, nor to be conquered by the human.''
``Pray, great master,'' implored the novice, ``how does one find this mysterious setting?''
The master dropped the device to the ground and crushed it underfoot. And suddenly the novice was enlightened.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
One of those "Been there done that" things.
Last sunday, we _finally_ hauled ass and went to Tamhini ghat. Its around 75 Km from Pune. Mihir and I drove on my Hero Honda Passion, which was exciting, more so coz the horn didnt work, and the engine would randomly bail out on us. All in all, it was an absofsckinglutely rockin time. Here are some snaps from the trip.
We went right upto these waterfalls, and got drenched.
The clouds coming down. Within the next few minutes, one couldnt see
beyond 5 feet ahead.
(From L to R) : Me, Amol, Mihir, Arun
What can I say ? Empty roads give us the kicks.
Treacherous roads of the ghat.
One of the many random waterfalls on the way.
We went right upto these waterfalls, and got drenched.
The clouds coming down. Within the next few minutes, one couldnt see beyond 5 feet ahead.
(From L to R) : Me, Amol, Mihir, Arun
What can I say ? Empty roads give us the kicks.
Treacherous roads of the ghat.
One of the many random waterfalls on the way.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Holy shit ! I'm tagged :p
Carrying on the tagging tradition. Parag tagged me to answer 10 turn on's and 10 turn off's.
Here goes nothing.
Turn On's:
Ahem
0. Women :p (not all) *
1. Peace of mind. In-the-zone or whatever you may call it. The state of mind where one feels above or below nothing, but still carries on with life without a hedonist attitude.
2. Creativity. People who can see art in little things.
3. Guitar pros. The chaps who play it with effortless ease. Its as if the guitar talks to them.
4. Flexibility. I should say "balance", coz some people _live_ life to fullest in every possible way.
eg. There's many of them actually, who have fooled around in their life and yet are
respectable personalities in the world.
5. Text formatters: (lol) kidding kidding..I suck at formatting my text. But I rock with my code
formatting, mind you :p
5. Selflessness: I think that explains it.
6. Open source code. :)
7. Tech stuff , Gizmo's etc . I'm in love with my iPod.
8. Engineering. Colossal structures, machines. Raw power, the whole testosterone thingy.
9. England. I just loved the place. The whole natural personality.
**Okay, right about now I'm struggling to come up with something ...
10. Hot chocolate brownie.
Turn off's:
1. Bad temper.
2. Cowardice.
3. Educated people making irrational decisions, and unwilling to at least listen to others.
4. Burger snatchers. I think its a valid term. It basically means, people who just suck up to others (read: superiors) to claim credit for what they've not done.
5. Fake people. The always "yes" people. Or even the elevator-eye syndrome.
6. People with bad empathizing/listening skills.
7. Show off's. People with attitude.
8. Paranoia.
9. Seg faults and kernel panics.
10. MSEB. coz when they turn off, everything shuts off. :p
* Notice how I started with 0 and end with 10. Thats coz not only am I geeky, but the 0th point was just an attempt to be funny. So laugh people, laugh, for I shall like you for it :p.
Meanwhile as I ponder upon whom to tag, check out this link. I think this bloke was in Loyola ?
Here goes nothing.
Turn On's:
Ahem
0. Women :p (not all) *
1. Peace of mind. In-the-zone or whatever you may call it. The state of mind where one feels above or below nothing, but still carries on with life without a hedonist attitude.
2. Creativity. People who can see art in little things.
3. Guitar pros. The chaps who play it with effortless ease. Its as if the guitar talks to them.
4. Flexibility. I should say "balance", coz some people _live_ life to fullest in every possible way.
eg. There's many of them actually, who have fooled around in their life and yet are
respectable personalities in the world.
5. Text formatters: (lol) kidding kidding..I suck at formatting my text. But I rock with my code
formatting, mind you :p
5. Selflessness: I think that explains it.
6. Open source code. :)
7. Tech stuff , Gizmo's etc . I'm in love with my iPod.
8. Engineering. Colossal structures, machines. Raw power, the whole testosterone thingy.
9. England. I just loved the place. The whole natural personality.
**Okay, right about now I'm struggling to come up with something ...
10. Hot chocolate brownie.
Turn off's:
1. Bad temper.
2. Cowardice.
3. Educated people making irrational decisions, and unwilling to at least listen to others.
4. Burger snatchers. I think its a valid term. It basically means, people who just suck up to others (read: superiors) to claim credit for what they've not done.
5. Fake people. The always "yes" people. Or even the elevator-eye syndrome.
6. People with bad empathizing/listening skills.
7. Show off's. People with attitude.
8. Paranoia.
9. Seg faults and kernel panics.
10. MSEB. coz when they turn off, everything shuts off. :p
* Notice how I started with 0 and end with 10. Thats coz not only am I geeky, but the 0th point was just an attempt to be funny. So laugh people, laugh, for I shall like you for it :p.
Meanwhile as I ponder upon whom to tag, check out this link. I think this bloke was in Loyola ?
Sunday, August 07, 2005
The Southpark me
Well, almost me. The guitar I _really_ have isnt like the one here. But soon, I shallz buy me one of em Fender Strats, to be precise
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Wahoo ! Surfs Up! Of the wireless kind.
Let me start off by catching up where I left. So, I'm back home, been a month now, swarmped by work, but tackling it all with new zest and ethusiasm. Wonders of a vacation.
So I've been watching a lot of movies, listening to a lot of music, and working my ass off. Meanwhile, since I got sick of using a dial up connection, I got myself BSNL's Dataone 256kbps line. I think it rocks coz I invariably get 35-40kbps downstreams. Anyway, dowloading stuff wasnt my intention. I just wanted a fast, always ON internet lifestyle ; )
So, first I got this working on windows, no sweat at all. The router that they give can be configured to dial-up internally [PPPoE] with DHCP and DNS, so all you have to do is power it up and connect the LAN cable. No need to use the WAN miniport driver on Win. Then I thought I should try this on Linux.
A little googling around shows how to setup PPPoE in Linux. Well, you can do it without PPPoE. Here's one of my HOWTO articles : )
My config:
1 really old Toshiba Portege
1 Ethernet pcmcia adapter [ This toshiba didnt come with an inbuilt port]
1 WUSB 54g (802.11g) WiFi adapter
Red Hat 9 , with kernel 2.6.12 .
I just HAD to setup this bband over WiFi !
Of course I had another WiFi client (
On the Toshiba:
ifconfig - a : shows two interfaces
eth0 subet [192.168.1.x]
wlan0 subnet [10.0.0.x]
Most Linux distro's come with dhcp clients, so on the Toshiba I did dhclient eth0 and got a 192.168.1.x IP assigned.
The wlan interface is all yours to configure, so set it up as you like. In my case, the 11g drivers for linux are discontinued , thanks to Connexant for not providing the programmers manual for Prism GT. So anyway, I used ndiswrapper , and installed the WinXP driver for the dongle on linux. Fired it up for Ad-Hoc mode.
On the client side, started Wifi similarly and got associated instantly.
Now that I was through with WiFi, I only had to bridge these two interfaces on the Toshiba.
This can be a bitch, coz it involves iptables. The whole netfilter code in the mainstream kernels has caused several pre-releases since 2.6.11
So anyway, albeit its really powerful, I just wanted to get surfing.
So all I did was, enable IP forwarding,
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
Set up chains in the NAT.
iptables -A FORWARD -i wlan0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o wlan0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
and voila !
Surfs Up !
Of course you need to setup various firewalls along with this. I had configured the router firewall, plus if I used WiFi on Windows, I had another firewall burning hot. :)
So I've been watching a lot of movies, listening to a lot of music, and working my ass off. Meanwhile, since I got sick of using a dial up connection, I got myself BSNL's Dataone 256kbps line. I think it rocks coz I invariably get 35-40kbps downstreams. Anyway, dowloading stuff wasnt my intention. I just wanted a fast, always ON internet lifestyle ; )
So, first I got this working on windows, no sweat at all. The router that they give can be configured to dial-up internally [PPPoE] with DHCP and DNS, so all you have to do is power it up and connect the LAN cable. No need to use the WAN miniport driver on Win. Then I thought I should try this on Linux.
A little googling around shows how to setup PPPoE in Linux. Well, you can do it without PPPoE. Here's one of my HOWTO articles : )
My config:
1 really old Toshiba Portege
1 Ethernet pcmcia adapter [ This toshiba didnt come with an inbuilt port]
1 WUSB 54g (802.11g) WiFi adapter
Red Hat 9 , with kernel 2.6.12 .
I just HAD to setup this bband over WiFi !
Of course I had another WiFi client (
On the Toshiba:
ifconfig - a : shows two interfaces
eth0 subet [192.168.1.x]
wlan0 subnet [10.0.0.x]
Most Linux distro's come with dhcp clients, so on the Toshiba I did dhclient eth0 and got a 192.168.1.x IP assigned.
The wlan interface is all yours to configure, so set it up as you like. In my case, the 11g drivers for linux are discontinued , thanks to Connexant for not providing the programmers manual for Prism GT. So anyway, I used ndiswrapper , and installed the WinXP driver for the dongle on linux. Fired it up for Ad-Hoc mode.
On the client side, started Wifi similarly and got associated instantly.
Now that I was through with WiFi, I only had to bridge these two interfaces on the Toshiba.
This can be a bitch, coz it involves iptables. The whole netfilter code in the mainstream kernels has caused several pre-releases since 2.6.11
So anyway, albeit its really powerful, I just wanted to get surfing.
So all I did was, enable IP forwarding,
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
Set up chains in the NAT.
iptables -A FORWARD -i wlan0 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o wlan0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
and voila !
Surfs Up !
Of course you need to setup various firewalls along with this. I had configured the router firewall, plus if I used WiFi on Windows, I had another firewall burning hot. :)
Thursday, May 26, 2005
A really long time since that happened !
I remember back in school days, there were some times (read as many times or even almost everyday :) ) when I'd wake up from bed and just hate the feeling of actually going to school. Starting my day off like that, would rub off on pretty much everything from brushing my teeth , having a bath, breakfast etc etc. I'd just hate it.
Now, its pretty much how I feel ! I just got back from London and what I'm feeling now is just incredible. I stayed at my "favourite" aunts place. "Fav" coz she's too cool, she knows how to cook all cuisines, knows where to shop for stuff, and is really more like a close friend to me. Anyway, when I arrived at her place, she gave me the map of the Underground and said look this is how its going to be. You go on your own, travel by yourself, these are the numbers in case of any emergencies. My mom almost died when she heard all this :p But anyway, all this independence was the main reason why I feel soo different now. I didnt quite realise this while I was alone travelling the streets of London ! Funny that !
So, I was saying, I've enjoyed soo much in the past few days mostly in London, that I dont feel like going back. Alas, another 4 days and I will be on my way back home.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Anekh-dotes
Alright, so was in NewCastle this afternoon, just walking back from this
(the millenium bridge) to grab a bite, waiting for the pedestrian signal to glow green, this chap walks up behind me * brief attempt to be funny here * ... tall, maybe 6'4" , fair, faint beard, not-so-well-dressed, looked much older than me, so I guess he's 18 :) ....says "Excuse me Sir, blah blah blah passport ? " .....this is exactly how I heard it .... So I say "I'm sorry ? you want a passport ? " .... He stoops down a bit and says softly this time " No sir, but do _you_ want one, I want to sell you one ! " .... I'm like "No thanks" ... I turn around coz the signal begins beeping when its green, then I turn back and this dude is already seen accross the street disappearing into the crowd.
Hmm, it happened so quick, it was wierd, but I didnt feel scared, but instead I was amused ! New castle has many of those typical crowded streets around the town centers, and I was told to be careful of such goons. But it really isnt suprising, coz when you enter a town center, there's soo much crowd, if I were a thug, this is the place I'd be :p , so it didnt come as a suprise to me that I'd come across something like this.
A little later, as I was munching on my super meal deal ( a sandwich + free coke) , around the same area, I see this couple, maybe in their early 30s, tatooted right till their faces, a lot of peirced stuff (Im sure they'd drowing if they were to go swimming coz of the holes in them) ... they seemed happy with it. So they were walking in front of me, suddenly turn into this magazine shop and start browsing pRon magazines together. I guess there's nothing wrong in that. But if Obelix was real , he'd say "these Britons are crazy".
(the millenium bridge) to grab a bite, waiting for the pedestrian signal to glow green, this chap walks up behind me * brief attempt to be funny here * ... tall, maybe 6'4" , fair, faint beard, not-so-well-dressed, looked much older than me, so I guess he's 18 :) ....says "Excuse me Sir, blah blah blah passport ? " .....this is exactly how I heard it .... So I say "I'm sorry ? you want a passport ? " .... He stoops down a bit and says softly this time " No sir, but do _you_ want one, I want to sell you one ! " .... I'm like "No thanks" ... I turn around coz the signal begins beeping when its green, then I turn back and this dude is already seen accross the street disappearing into the crowd.
Hmm, it happened so quick, it was wierd, but I didnt feel scared, but instead I was amused ! New castle has many of those typical crowded streets around the town centers, and I was told to be careful of such goons. But it really isnt suprising, coz when you enter a town center, there's soo much crowd, if I were a thug, this is the place I'd be :p , so it didnt come as a suprise to me that I'd come across something like this.
A little later, as I was munching on my super meal deal ( a sandwich + free coke) , around the same area, I see this couple, maybe in their early 30s, tatooted right till their faces, a lot of peirced stuff (Im sure they'd drowing if they were to go swimming coz of the holes in them) ... they seemed happy with it. So they were walking in front of me, suddenly turn into this magazine shop and start browsing pRon magazines together. I guess there's nothing wrong in that. But if Obelix was real , he'd say "these Britons are crazy".
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Dreams
When was the last time you dreamt of something and really achieved it ?
I was watching the McLibel case on TV last night. Two people from UK fighting against McDonalds , a gigantic corp. Here's an excerpt from the article ...
The verdict was devastating for McDonald's. The judge ruled that they 'exploit children' with their advertising, produce 'misleading' advertising, are 'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals, are 'antipathetic' to unionisation and pay their workers low wages.
They showed how detemined these two people were to bring down the corp. and how they just refused to give up, against all odds ... for two and a half years ! Undoubtedly the longest trial ever.
After the case was over, they went off to Europe and fought against McDonalds there ! Since europian human rights laws are taken very seriously, they won there too. McDonalds had good reason to fear, and so did the other junk food corps.
What was most interesting was the way these two people handled it all along. Both of them lived in single room apartments, filled with documents, posters of protest, signboards etc etc. Yet they were very efficient at what they were getting at.
The last time I dreamt of something and got it was the flight till middlesbrough from India. I've always loved airplanes. And the jets noise, the G forces during take off and landing give me the kicks. Its been a year since I've been working as an embedded systems engineer, and the novelty of spending cash on general stuff was wearing off, until I could pay for my own trip and household bills. I could take pride in that, it only hurt when I had to shell out for those damn LIC bills. That was not in my plan :p Its these pleasures that keep me driven.
But this is so small as compared to what people do to feel good inside themselves. I crave for that sense of achievement that a team feels when they crack a nasty bug, or come up with an ingenious solution to a problem. I've been in these situations and theres no feeling like it.
However, most of it has happened at my work place, which is good I guess, coz it means I'm enjoying what I do. But I havent done anything or participated in anything that has made a difference on a large scale ...yet. I can only imagine what the engineers at google must feel when they realise millions of people use their search engine out of choice just because its the fastest most accurate thing of its kind, or even what the guys who contribute to the open source world, especially linux kernels and find their code running servers in massive corporations.
I was watching the McLibel case on TV last night. Two people from UK fighting against McDonalds , a gigantic corp. Here's an excerpt from the article ...
The verdict was devastating for McDonald's. The judge ruled that they 'exploit children' with their advertising, produce 'misleading' advertising, are 'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals, are 'antipathetic' to unionisation and pay their workers low wages.
They showed how detemined these two people were to bring down the corp. and how they just refused to give up, against all odds ... for two and a half years ! Undoubtedly the longest trial ever.
After the case was over, they went off to Europe and fought against McDonalds there ! Since europian human rights laws are taken very seriously, they won there too. McDonalds had good reason to fear, and so did the other junk food corps.
What was most interesting was the way these two people handled it all along. Both of them lived in single room apartments, filled with documents, posters of protest, signboards etc etc. Yet they were very efficient at what they were getting at.
The last time I dreamt of something and got it was the flight till middlesbrough from India. I've always loved airplanes. And the jets noise, the G forces during take off and landing give me the kicks. Its been a year since I've been working as an embedded systems engineer, and the novelty of spending cash on general stuff was wearing off, until I could pay for my own trip and household bills. I could take pride in that, it only hurt when I had to shell out for those damn LIC bills. That was not in my plan :p Its these pleasures that keep me driven.
But this is so small as compared to what people do to feel good inside themselves. I crave for that sense of achievement that a team feels when they crack a nasty bug, or come up with an ingenious solution to a problem. I've been in these situations and theres no feeling like it.
However, most of it has happened at my work place, which is good I guess, coz it means I'm enjoying what I do. But I havent done anything or participated in anything that has made a difference on a large scale ...yet. I can only imagine what the engineers at google must feel when they realise millions of people use their search engine out of choice just because its the fastest most accurate thing of its kind, or even what the guys who contribute to the open source world, especially linux kernels and find their code running servers in massive corporations.
Friday, May 13, 2005
Sheer genius
I just had to post this up.
Nothing but creativity and skill at its best.
Check out Guess-the-google & Montage-a-google.
Clickey
Nothing but creativity and skill at its best.
Check out Guess-the-google & Montage-a-google.
Clickey
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
After the haitus ...
Yes my beloved blog readers ... i yam back. bah who am I kidding, I know how many people read my blog. But anyway, I thought I'd post some gibberish, now that I'm on VACATION.
So, I took leave for a month, for the whole of May, and went to the land where beer is cheap, it rains, snows, and there's bright sunlight all in one day, where people never say "Hi"/"Hello" but greet each other by saying "awryt/cheers" sometimes "Heya"...and where it is considered strange and impolite if you dont greet them back. This can happen only in England. I'm currently in the middle of this country which is the size of two Indian states, probably thats why its called Middlesbrough. Its been a week into my vacation and I'm having a ball of a time. Feels good not to think about code, bugs, projects, work pressure etc. I yam loveeng it.
So far I've been to Scotland, Whitbey, crossed over New Castle and some few other places. In the coming weeks I plan to go to London for a couple of days. So if I were to write about each of these places and what I did there, that'd be boring, so I'll just skip it and get to the interesting parts.
People in this country have major problems ! 90% of their youth are obese. 90% of people over 60 who can barely walk straight smoke ciggarettes like there's no tomorrow. And their ciggarettes smell really bad. If you come here, you can see why the youngsters can barely put their pants on. Every ten feet you will find a shop, bakery, or junk food stall, that gives out this lively aroma with hands, that pulls them, like they show in cartoons. ( Yes I watch a lot of cartoon network here, coz its in English)
Somehow every mall or towncenter you go to, you find more females than males, which is awesome make no mistake, coz the other 10% youth is real eye candy .. AND ... its summer time here, so off with the tops :p.. I must say, I find it reeeeallly strange that in this weather, some people wear warm clothing, while some wear em like they're off to a beach ! Also, it seems to be some kind of a fad going around here... I mean I've seen girls wear this sort of apparel only on new years day or some night out to the local clubs. Anywho, no matter what you hear about racial discrimination, Britons are really well mannered and polite. Be them senior or even toddlers ! When I was in Scotland, it was nine at night (O yeah did I mention these Britons have dinner at 6:30 pm and the sun doesnt set till 9:30pm ?) , I was off for a walk along Loch Long ( lake near our hotel) this couple with their kid passed by from the opposite direction, the kid was probably a year old, but when I was near her, she looked up and with a radiant smile said "Heya!" with one hand in the air. I was like Awww choo chweeet. no seriously, I did.
Their transport system is excellent and so is the traffic management. Their driving license exam is supposedly the toughest exam for anyone. And I can see why, I mean its hard to be under 15 minor and 0 major faults when a major fault is like crossing your hands on the steering wheel when you're turning! and one minor fault is not looking over your shoulder when you're reversing inspite of looking in the rear view mirrors. However all these ridiculous rules last only through the test. But its hard, our neighbours here have tried 5 times ! and they're only in their early thirties. But people get through it eventually in their lifetime, and you do see an occassional Ferrari scream past you. I hope to see the McLarens/Aston Martins someday. So, I always keep my camera ready to shoot.
The real meaning of driving/biking to the country side can be experienced here. Lush green valleys, farms, endless pastures and a hell lot of sheep and the Brits are very proud of it and make sure that its kept that way. Its got everything you've read about in novels, seen in movies, heard about; the works ! Really feels different. There are several villages scattered about, each with their own personality. I felt very much at peace when I was at Whitbey and Oban, both of which are small towns with a population of about ~50,000. You see small alleys, leeways, narrow roads intertwinned between buildings, the local florist arranging her shop to attract visitors meanwhile as the painter is doing some job on the house accross the street, a few people walking their dogs, someone leaning against the wall smoking to glory or even some kids playing on their bikes, very picturesque. And whats more amusing is, everyone passing by exchanges greetings or even waves from across the street to each other. Its like, these people probably havent seen any voilence, anger, or bitterness. Theres just soo much peace around them. Ive taken some snaps of these scenes, which I shall put up soon with some description.
So after travelling around the country in buses and seeing these celestial sights I knew I was missing something. Music. To feel it completely, I decided to get me one of em iPods. Its yet to arrive, but it should be here within the next couple of days. So, a camera, iPod and something to chew on should get you "there".
More coming soon...to the ISP(internet service provider) near you :p
So, I took leave for a month, for the whole of May, and went to the land where beer is cheap, it rains, snows, and there's bright sunlight all in one day, where people never say "Hi"/"Hello" but greet each other by saying "awryt/cheers" sometimes "Heya"...and where it is considered strange and impolite if you dont greet them back. This can happen only in England. I'm currently in the middle of this country which is the size of two Indian states, probably thats why its called Middlesbrough. Its been a week into my vacation and I'm having a ball of a time. Feels good not to think about code, bugs, projects, work pressure etc. I yam loveeng it.
So far I've been to Scotland, Whitbey, crossed over New Castle and some few other places. In the coming weeks I plan to go to London for a couple of days. So if I were to write about each of these places and what I did there, that'd be boring, so I'll just skip it and get to the interesting parts.
People in this country have major problems ! 90% of their youth are obese. 90% of people over 60 who can barely walk straight smoke ciggarettes like there's no tomorrow. And their ciggarettes smell really bad. If you come here, you can see why the youngsters can barely put their pants on. Every ten feet you will find a shop, bakery, or junk food stall, that gives out this lively aroma with hands, that pulls them, like they show in cartoons. ( Yes I watch a lot of cartoon network here, coz its in English)
Somehow every mall or towncenter you go to, you find more females than males, which is awesome make no mistake, coz the other 10% youth is real eye candy .. AND ... its summer time here, so off with the tops :p.. I must say, I find it reeeeallly strange that in this weather, some people wear warm clothing, while some wear em like they're off to a beach ! Also, it seems to be some kind of a fad going around here... I mean I've seen girls wear this sort of apparel only on new years day or some night out to the local clubs. Anywho, no matter what you hear about racial discrimination, Britons are really well mannered and polite. Be them senior or even toddlers ! When I was in Scotland, it was nine at night (O yeah did I mention these Britons have dinner at 6:30 pm and the sun doesnt set till 9:30pm ?) , I was off for a walk along Loch Long ( lake near our hotel) this couple with their kid passed by from the opposite direction, the kid was probably a year old, but when I was near her, she looked up and with a radiant smile said "Heya!" with one hand in the air. I was like Awww choo chweeet. no seriously, I did.
Their transport system is excellent and so is the traffic management. Their driving license exam is supposedly the toughest exam for anyone. And I can see why, I mean its hard to be under 15 minor and 0 major faults when a major fault is like crossing your hands on the steering wheel when you're turning! and one minor fault is not looking over your shoulder when you're reversing inspite of looking in the rear view mirrors. However all these ridiculous rules last only through the test. But its hard, our neighbours here have tried 5 times ! and they're only in their early thirties. But people get through it eventually in their lifetime, and you do see an occassional Ferrari scream past you. I hope to see the McLarens/Aston Martins someday. So, I always keep my camera ready to shoot.
The real meaning of driving/biking to the country side can be experienced here. Lush green valleys, farms, endless pastures and a hell lot of sheep and the Brits are very proud of it and make sure that its kept that way. Its got everything you've read about in novels, seen in movies, heard about; the works ! Really feels different. There are several villages scattered about, each with their own personality. I felt very much at peace when I was at Whitbey and Oban, both of which are small towns with a population of about ~50,000. You see small alleys, leeways, narrow roads intertwinned between buildings, the local florist arranging her shop to attract visitors meanwhile as the painter is doing some job on the house accross the street, a few people walking their dogs, someone leaning against the wall smoking to glory or even some kids playing on their bikes, very picturesque. And whats more amusing is, everyone passing by exchanges greetings or even waves from across the street to each other. Its like, these people probably havent seen any voilence, anger, or bitterness. Theres just soo much peace around them. Ive taken some snaps of these scenes, which I shall put up soon with some description.
So after travelling around the country in buses and seeing these celestial sights I knew I was missing something. Music. To feel it completely, I decided to get me one of em iPods. Its yet to arrive, but it should be here within the next couple of days. So, a camera, iPod and something to chew on should get you "there".
More coming soon...to the ISP(internet service provider) near you :p
Thursday, February 03, 2005
my Haddock Insult patch
Gone are the days when QuackBot* was born, thanks to MS for changing their MSN API, that C# code is unmaintenable. So I officially announce the sad demise of our beloved, pedantic QuackBot. But, this time I've done it in GAIM. It would be too boring if I didnt do anything new to it , right? So, no GRE wordlists or any of that crap. This time its Captain Haddocks endless, ever creative insults. Suppose you feel like abusing someone, but dont want to be too harsh, just type "!@# " or anything that ends with a "# " , in your sentence, and voila.
eg
The other chap sees:
(04:39:26) Tyler durden: hello ?
(04:39:29) Tyler durden: you Pithecanthropus
(04:39:41) Tyler durden: damn you Gangsters , sob, Bashi-bazouk
when you type:
hello ?
you !@#
damn you !@# , sob, !@#
kewl eh?
Patch:make it, test it, break it, have fun. (Thanks Parag)
Whats more cool is, since the send_messages protocol is generic, you could use this patch to have fun with any other IM client ( MSN/Yahoo/Napster/Zephyr/Jabber etc )
What you need is the GAIM source package, get it from gaim.sourceforge.net, then patch it with my file, and make.
Another kewl google idea.. Check this out ..
And while we're on the topic of GAIM , also check this out ...
*QuackBot was a MSN bot, made in C#.net and could give you random GRE words , their meanings and sentences using those words, when you typed GRE.
eg
The other chap sees:
(04:39:26) Tyler durden: hello ?
(04:39:29) Tyler durden: you Pithecanthropus
(04:39:41) Tyler durden: damn you Gangsters , sob, Bashi-bazouk
when you type:
hello ?
you !@#
damn you !@# , sob, !@#
kewl eh?
Patch:make it, test it, break it, have fun. (Thanks Parag)
Whats more cool is, since the send_messages protocol is generic, you could use this patch to have fun with any other IM client ( MSN/Yahoo/Napster/Zephyr/Jabber etc )
What you need is the GAIM source package, get it from gaim.sourceforge.net, then patch it with my file, and make.
Another kewl google idea.. Check this out ..
And while we're on the topic of GAIM , also check this out ...
*QuackBot was a MSN bot, made in C#.net and could give you random GRE words , their meanings and sentences using those words, when you typed GRE.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Ramble in the bronx
A month without weekends and an extracted tooth later, it doesnt feel so good now. However, losing an inch and a half from my waist and a sexy tuned motorcycle more than makes up for it. I've attained a strange homeostasis :p
After a long hiatus from blogging, several thoughts are waiting to be put into words. So here goes ..
On the geeky side of life..
I think Linux rocks, coz I could succesfully run my USB wifi dongle in 2.6.10 using its windows XP drivers.
Broke your head thinking about it didnt ya!? Well, the fine folks who wrote the ndiswrapper does that. Simply awesome. Now only if it could be ported on ARM, that would save a lot of effort of many embedded systems Co's.
The VoIP team needed the bandwidth so they got the leased line all to themselves through the Access point. The rest of us had to surf on a sucky ISDN line like lusers. So now you see where ndiswrapper came to the rescue. The drivers for that device for linux arent ready as yet, but till then ndiswrapper works like a charm.
Im working on porting a kernel thread sample from 2.4 to 2.6, just for the heck of it. Its interesting to see how task queues have been changed to work queues. The code is done, but has issues when insmod-ing it.
Now onto the other parts of life..
Want to lose some weight ? Just eat rice and dal for a week and a half. Excercise Schmekercise ... not needed.
I think photography is a random hobby for any guy. Give a digital camera to any guy and you'll see what I mean. Googling for photography lessons leads you to some self proclaimed photography pro's galleries .. even I think I'm better off than some. (Although I dont have a digi cam) heehee.
Thought I needed to add something more ...
Its 1:30am , and I'm at work ! gawd whats gotten into me.
This makes me think about what my boss told me. He asked me my birthdate, and concluded that since I'm a sagittarian, I'm impatient and persevere a lot.
Impatient ... I am, but I just cant put down something thats on my mind. I just need to get the answer sometimes. So here I am...trying to get Jffs2 working on AMD and ST flashes.. a thing which I had successfully done two weeks back, but it backfired and started acting strange. However, at the end of the day, or should I say beginning ... alls well that ends well. *for those interested* I was mounting the filesystem on an MTD partition on which data was mysteriously getting corrupted coz it overlayed with the ramdisk. So now with a completely clean partition set aside for jffs2, all works great !
With that note, I shall endeth my post and go home.
After a long hiatus from blogging, several thoughts are waiting to be put into words. So here goes ..
On the geeky side of life..
I think Linux rocks, coz I could succesfully run my USB wifi dongle in 2.6.10 using its windows XP drivers.
Broke your head thinking about it didnt ya!? Well, the fine folks who wrote the ndiswrapper does that. Simply awesome. Now only if it could be ported on ARM, that would save a lot of effort of many embedded systems Co's.
The VoIP team needed the bandwidth so they got the leased line all to themselves through the Access point. The rest of us had to surf on a sucky ISDN line like lusers. So now you see where ndiswrapper came to the rescue. The drivers for that device for linux arent ready as yet, but till then ndiswrapper works like a charm.
Im working on porting a kernel thread sample from 2.4 to 2.6, just for the heck of it. Its interesting to see how task queues have been changed to work queues. The code is done, but has issues when insmod-ing it.
Now onto the other parts of life..
Want to lose some weight ? Just eat rice and dal for a week and a half. Excercise Schmekercise ... not needed.
I think photography is a random hobby for any guy. Give a digital camera to any guy and you'll see what I mean. Googling for photography lessons leads you to some self proclaimed photography pro's galleries .. even I think I'm better off than some. (Although I dont have a digi cam) heehee.
Thought I needed to add something more ...
Its 1:30am , and I'm at work ! gawd whats gotten into me.
This makes me think about what my boss told me. He asked me my birthdate, and concluded that since I'm a sagittarian, I'm impatient and persevere a lot.
Impatient ... I am, but I just cant put down something thats on my mind. I just need to get the answer sometimes. So here I am...trying to get Jffs2 working on AMD and ST flashes.. a thing which I had successfully done two weeks back, but it backfired and started acting strange. However, at the end of the day, or should I say beginning ... alls well that ends well. *for those interested* I was mounting the filesystem on an MTD partition on which data was mysteriously getting corrupted coz it overlayed with the ramdisk. So now with a completely clean partition set aside for jffs2, all works great !
With that note, I shall endeth my post and go home.
Monday, January 10, 2005
On the frayed ends of sanity
Who could just stare into Winamps playlist as it populates 1816 mp3 time tags ? *me*
God, O Almighty , father of all, creater of all, why !? Just ........WHY?
Hey come to think of it; WHY could be an abbreviation for Why the Hell Y ?
And then you could recurse it, just like LAME( LAME aint an MP3 encoder) , or GNU ( GNU's not Unix).
On a different note ..
Do you believe there is some sort of energy out there in the cosmos, that one can connect to through meditation ?
Deepak Chopra believes so. I've read his articles, books.. its all enticing till he says you need to meditate 2 hrs at a stretch everyday.
He keeps saying , we need to take a break from our internal conversations. The world we live in causes us to think too much and in the midst of this rigmarole, he fears, we might lose ourselves. And by connecting to that cosmos, we should realise our real essence, our real purpose, the ulterior motives. Somehow , I see some wisdom in that. But I know I would never be able to follow his advise.
I think most of us , at some point of time, get a grip inside, and develop our own ways of dealing with things, which gives us that satisfactory feeling.
I need to ask someone who meditates religiously, if its absolutely necessary to be completely blank mentally, to start off meditation ? or could imagining something that makes you feel good do the trick, eg in my case, I could just think of the perfect place to live in ..like endless grasslands, small house, perfect relationship, xbox, unlimited electricity, food, and voluntary human interception... uptopian ideal, but feels good...coz if this is good enough to switch to that meditation mode , I could do it with my eyes open, no troubles of shutting down, quiet place or any of that :))
hmm time to sleep...
God, O Almighty , father of all, creater of all, why !? Just ........WHY?
Hey come to think of it; WHY could be an abbreviation for Why the Hell Y ?
And then you could recurse it, just like LAME( LAME aint an MP3 encoder) , or GNU ( GNU's not Unix).
On a different note ..
Do you believe there is some sort of energy out there in the cosmos, that one can connect to through meditation ?
Deepak Chopra believes so. I've read his articles, books.. its all enticing till he says you need to meditate 2 hrs at a stretch everyday.
He keeps saying , we need to take a break from our internal conversations. The world we live in causes us to think too much and in the midst of this rigmarole, he fears, we might lose ourselves. And by connecting to that cosmos, we should realise our real essence, our real purpose, the ulterior motives. Somehow , I see some wisdom in that. But I know I would never be able to follow his advise.
I think most of us , at some point of time, get a grip inside, and develop our own ways of dealing with things, which gives us that satisfactory feeling.
I need to ask someone who meditates religiously, if its absolutely necessary to be completely blank mentally, to start off meditation ? or could imagining something that makes you feel good do the trick, eg in my case, I could just think of the perfect place to live in ..like endless grasslands, small house, perfect relationship, xbox, unlimited electricity, food, and voluntary human interception... uptopian ideal, but feels good...coz if this is good enough to switch to that meditation mode , I could do it with my eyes open, no troubles of shutting down, quiet place or any of that :))
hmm time to sleep...
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