mann

Releasing Desktop Flickr Organizer

2007-06-26T14:58:00.000+08:00

About

Desktop Flickr Organizer is a flickr photos organizer right on your own desktop.

Why should you be using it?

Flickr's web based organizr is slow, updates take time. You can only use it when you're online. DFO on the other hand, stores all the updates offline, and with a simple and intuitive graphical interface, allows you to be way more productive. You'll never dread having to organize sets, edit titles, descriptions and tags for the hundreds or thousands of photos you've accumulated. And you can do all this editing, when you're just trying to kill your time in train, or that long plane trip.

What all does it provide?

1. Uploading and downloading of photos. You can download selected photos or the entire sets.
2. Edit information attached to photos; delete photos from stream.
3. Add/Remove tags associated with photos.
4. Create new sets, edit set information, add/remove photos from sets, delete sets.

More about it on its homepage http://code.google.com/p/dfo

अब तुम हिंदी में ब्लोग कर सकते हो

2007-04-13T18:21:00.000+08:00

कभी सोचा है कितना fundoo होता अगर आप "Haal kaisa hai janaab ka" टाईप करते और वह अपने आप जादू से "हाल कैसा है जनाब का" में convert हो जाता? हमने आज वह संभव कर दिया है अपने नए blogger transliteration feature से। अब आप अपने विचार, अनुभव, और तो और अपने पसंदिदा bollywood गाने भी publish कर सकते हैं।

Transliteration option को enable कर आप हिंदी के शब्द टाईप कर सकते हैं, उनकी अंग्रेजी धव्नी के समान शब्द लिख कर, और अपनी आंखों के सामने आप इन अंग्रेजी शब्दों को देवनागरी में बदलते देखेंगे। और तो और, आपको अंग्रेजी शब्दों से हिंदी शब्दों कि mapping भी नहीं याद करनी पड़ेगी। इसका मतलब आपको WeiRD UpPerCasEing कि चिंता करने कि ज़रूरत नहीं सही हिंदी spelling के लिए। बस वैसे ही टाईप कीजिये जैसे कि आप करते हैं, अपने style में, और गूगल को आपका मन पढ़ने दीजिए। ह्म्म्म, लगभग। हमने जाना कि सबका हिंदी शब्दों को अंग्रेजी में लिखने का अपना अलग तरीका होता है -- इसलिये हमने एक personalization mechanism डाला है जो आपका लिखने का तरीका याद रखता है। एक बार ठीक किया, और अगली बार से आपको वह शब्द सही मिलेगा।

हम प्रष्ट्भूमी में machine learning technology इस्तेमाल करके आपको सबसे उत्तम transliteration देते हैं। इस तरह से, आप अपने लिखने और अपने आप को express करने पर ध्यान दे सकते हैं, ऐसी भाषा में जो आपके दिल के पास है। तो हो जाइए creative, इसे try कीजिये, और यहाँ discuss कीजिये। हमें उम्मीद है आपको इसे इस्तेमाल करने में उतना ही मज़ा आएगा, जितना कि हमें इसे बनाने में आया है!

नोटिस: ये translation लेखक मनीष ने गूगल कि original post से अपने हिंदी भाईयों के लिए किया है, इस उम्मीद में कि यह useful होगा। यदि इस translation में कुछ गड़बड़ हो तो लेखक क्षमा याचना करता है।

New Flickrfs release v1.3.9

2007-02-02T18:46:00.000+08:00

After some long time, I again had a chance to work upon my favourite filesystem after reiserfs, flickrfs. This release doesn't add nice cool features, this one is targeted towards robustness, resource utilization and efficiency. The previous versions of flickrfs had various issues, namely:

Slow internet connection, time-outs or other errors, would grind flickrfs to a halt; forbidding it to download information about sets, and stream.
If the number of images grow, in order of thousands, flickrfs would start consuming tons of RAM and eventually swap space; and would literally make my old thinkpad R40 crash.
Retrieval of full metadata information for each image was time and network resource consuming, and mostly not required.
Sometimes flickr response would return error, even if the uploading of image succeeds, making flickrfs generate false error report; and confusing the end-user, who would then end up uploading the same image twice. (confusing huh? ;-))
For developers, a.k.a. me, flickrfs code was huge, all in one file, with lot of boilerplate code sections.

This version v1.3.9 of flickrfs tackles all these issues (also see features list):

Robustness - Flickr operations, as in, interactions with flickr server are now fail-safe. flickrfs handles the URLError exceptions thrown by the operation, checks its result, and retries the operation multiple times in case of failure. Thus, even if connection is lost temporarily, flickrfs would continue its operations unaffected.
Efficiency - flickrfs retrieves the sets information in parallel, background threads. Hence, the directory structure is created quickly, allowing users to start working. If some sets couldn't be retrieved the first time, they'd be taken care of when *syncing* kicks in. Secondly, full metadata information of images would only be retrieved when asked for; though they'll always be listed in the directory. Its just like the way flickrfs handles images.
Resource Saving - flickrfs would now store the image information in Berkeley db database, instead of storing it in memory. Let come millions of images, flickrfs would still consume only negligible amounts of RAM; regarding hard disk space, it would be in 10s of Megabytes; not an issue for today's computers.
Refactoring of code - Developers, again a.k.a. me, the code is now divided into 3 different files and... wait! hmm.. you shouldn't care about it. Just know that its more beautiful :-).

So, just give it a whirl. I'm sure you'd like it. More about flickrfs on its homepage.

Lost memories : Tech Talk by Guido in Google

2006-12-01T03:01:00.000+08:00

Some time back there was a tech talk in Google given by Guido about Python 3000. I blogged live from the talk, but never came around to publishing it publically. So, here's it, copying as it is.
---------------
"Hi, I'm Guido. Creator of Python Programming Language. I joined Google last december, and its great working here."

Idea behind Python 3000:
- Dun design a new language.
- Lot of bug fixes, even old ones from 90~91.
- Dun become Perl 6

Concerns:
- backward compatibility
- migration of code from 2.x to 3.x

Process:
- Certain python features from 3.x will be provided to 2.x as well
- Development of 2.x and 3.x will go parallel
- 2.6 - certainly, 2.7 likely, beyond 2.9 never!

Features:
- All string unicode by default
- dict.keys(), range(), and zip() won't return List
- keys() shd have iterator
- Drop <> as alias for !=
- Redesign I/O library. Currently based upon C I/O library. Core dump in C is fine, but not in Python. Need to know how many bytes are already buffered, while doing I/O (?).

NOT going to DO:
- change hash, keys to attributes - dict.keys() to dict.keys
- have programmable syntax / macros
- change look and feel of language
- add radical new features (can always do it later!)

Migration:
- Use pychecker to do an 80-90% job - but can't do it with certainity.
- warns about doomed code - like dict.keys().sort() (Note, dict.keys() is no longer a List. Its an iterator. Do I agree with Guido on this? Probably not!).

Some operations:
- In 2.x -> x//y will return float, not x/y!
- In 3.x -> If x and y are Integers: x/y will return float.
- Say "if key in dict" rather than dict.has_key()

Cleanup:
- Kill classic classes. Classic classes will no longer exist in 3000
- Exceptions must derive from BaseException
- Remove last differences b/w int and long
- Scenario: Suppose you have a sub module named sys, whenever, you say "import sys", it will utilize the sub module, rather than the python library.
3.x - When you say "import sys", it will always get python library. To utilize your sub module named sys, you need to say "import .sys"
- Kill ancient library modules

Minor changes:
- exec becomes function again
- [f(x) for x in S] is a syntactic sugar for list(f(x) for x in S)
- kill raise E,arg in favor of raise E(arg)
- print no longer a statement!
- print x,y,z becomes print(x,y,z)
- print >> f, x, y, z becomes print(x,y,z, file=f)
- alternative to skip the space/newline:
- print (format, x, y, z)?
Why not f.print(x,y,z):
- some file types dun have print method. they have write method.

Inequalities:
- x == y. If x is completely diff type than y, return false
- x < y. has a random decision based upon location in memory, but its problamatic in jython, where objects can move in memory.
- Raise TypeError exception

Check PEP245/246 - take an object to the type, so that the return object is either the same type, or at least behaves as that type.

References
- Read PEP 3100 for a much larger laundry list.
- follow the list: python-3000@python.org
- artima.com/weblogs
- range() no longer returns list, use xrange
- bytes and str instead of str and unicode
- bytes have some str-ish methods like b1.find(b2), but not others like b1.upper()

I/O Stack:
- C stdio has problems:
- dunno how many bytes are in the buffer

Lambda lives!
- Last year Guido wanted lambda to die!
- lambda has hard core following of people, who tried convincing.
- We still dun have a better version, even after an year of trying!
- lambda lives!

Quotations by Guido (including random jokes):
- "I had no life, so I created Python!"
- "To start developing a great software, you'd be having no life outside!" (i lost the essence! :()
- "I'm going to believe my gut feeling on this, and its getting bigger!"

Python Sprint @ Google
Aug 21 - 24. Where: NY, and MV
What: Hack Python 2.6 and Python 3000, 2.5 bug fixing

Update: Ola pointed out that the video is available on Google Video.

Thousands of mails? You need a powerful Genie!

2006-11-19T09:57:00.000+08:00

My home doesn't have internet connection. Though this is generally fine, because I spend most of my time in office, enjoying Google's bandwidth and food. But, lately, I had couple of problems with my health leading me to spend time in my room. Its crazy spending time in a dark dungeon (hi friend!) like room, no T.V., no internet connection, with just a standalone computer and myself. Gossip magazines, which btw I am fond of, talking about Brad Pitt, sexy Angelina Jolie and their (almost always?) newly adopted kids is fine for some time, but then it has its limits. It was then that this idea occured to me, of pushing some of my online interests offline. Totally not a new idea; but isn't it true, that you get them, only when you really need them.

This was the time when I thought of installing Thunderbird, to download and crank upon the thousands of mails I need to browse through while at work. Thunderbird is open source, and a great mailing client, but my love for easy on RAM command line stuff just doesn't seem to like it. This also removes out Evolution. PLUS, I always wanted to be able to mail my attachments without having to open up firefox, login to Gmail, and waiting for the file to be uploaded to the server. Nautilus send can serve the purpose, but again, its not command line. My first intuition was to use libgmail, and write up a script to send mails. But then, it has limited usage. That's when, the age-old powerful client showed up to my mind, there is Pine, there is Elm, but there is nothing like Mutt. So, serving my old love for Gentoo (replaced practically by Ubuntu, but it can never even come close in terms of documentation. hmm.. shd I add yet?!), I browsed through its docs to configure Mutt with Procmail, Fetchmail, and msmtp. Took some time, to configure it exactly, but things worked up fine. And I got myself a Genie!

Know that, I had to download 27,000 mails over one long evening and night, when I replaced my mailing solution for Google internal mails, with Mutt. However, somehow the number of mails I get now, just doesn't seem to be enough for what I'm capable of! And talk about it, just a week back, I was complaining about the huge volume of mails I've been getting.

Edit, Addition: My initial intuition for Mutt was to just use it for reading mails occasionally, and send attachments. But then, there is something more to it. There is no doubt that web-based clients are portable, but the problem is that almost all of them take their own loading times, when showing mails. Its not that this is wrong or unexpected, but when you have so many mails which you need to just browse for your reference, the time adds up. On the other hand, desktop based clients download these mails in the background, and provide you with a smooth and quick browsing experience. Very productive! So, I have decided to give Mutt a shot as my sole email client. It would be interesting to try it out for a couple of weeks, and see if it suits well. As it goes, I'll keep you posted on my experiences with Mutt.

Printing beautiful code

2006-11-12T06:38:00.000+08:00

While writing beautiful code is an art, printing it beautifully is a frustation. I've long been bugged by this problem, and interestingly Dr. Google has been silent about my query. So, here's my search results for the world:
Use enscript, which is installed by default on linux systems.

$ enscript --help

will show you a whole list of options to choose from. If you're as lazy as me, just rely upon the configuration which I found most useful:

$ enscript -2rGC --color -Ec code.c

The options passed along with what they do is as follows:

-2 : 2 columns. To have single column, you can use -1. Use --columns=NUM, if you want to specify more than 2 columns.
-r : landscape view.
-G : cool fancy looking header, which includes file name, page number and creation time.
-C : print line number in front of each line.
--color : colored output
-Ec : formatted using C syntax. Though enscript supports various coding syntaxes, which range from Java to Python to Tcl etc., it is not intelligent enough to understand which language is the code written in, so you need to pass this flag. For e.g. To get the code formatted using python syntax, use -Epython.

By default, the output will be sent directly to a printer. However, you can retrieve a postscript output by specifying '-p filename.ps' flag.

$ enscript -2rGC --color -p testing.ps -Ec code.c

That's it! Enjoy code reading!

Interesting discover about pys60 v1.3.1

2006-09-20T14:54:00.000+08:00

To store a list of names in the database against a key, I use marshal.dumps(list). I got an interesting error while doing this:

len(l)
128
>>> db['check'] = marshal.dumps(l)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in ?
File "C:\system\libs\e32dbm.py", line 145, in __setitem__
self._dbset(key,value)
File "C:\system\libs\e32dbm.py", line 100, in _dbset
self._execute(u"INSERT INTO data VALUES (%d,'%s','%s')"% (hash(key),sqlquote(key),sqlquote(value)))
UnicodeError: ASCII decoding error: ordinal not in range(128)

If the length of the list is 127, it stores fine in the database. Strange, huh? No! Doing, a db['check'] = unicode(marshal.dumps()) doesn't work either.

Workaround?
db['check'] = ';'.join(list)
list = db['check'].split(';')

Symbian, Python and ubuntu

2006-09-17T06:53:00.000+08:00

My fyp deadline is coming and I didn't work on my fyp for a long time now. Realizing that this is a do or die situation here, I finally started setting up my nokia phone for hacking.
So, I borrowed Nokia 6620, which has 2nd edition of s60 (way better for hacking than 3rd). My first aim was to connect btconsole to my laptop, so that I can execute and test my code on the fly. This console creates an interactive shell for you on the pc, and the actual commands are run live on the mobile. Very handy for quick testing.

My attempts at getting Windows XP to work with btconsole went all in vain and caused much frustation. "socket not found", to "Connection Refused" errors, I got them all repeatedly. After all this trying, I thot of giving linux a shot (which I love to do anyway). My laptop doesn't have a bluetooth, so bought one for 45USD, quite expensive by very powerful; and that was the only one available at RadioShack anyway. After quite some attempts and struggling through random how to's online, I finally found my way to connect to my mobile through ubuntu (Dapper). Makes sense to document the precious pearls, for myself in future, and for others who won't like to be frustated as well. So, here goes:

1. Install bluez-utils, cu, gnome-bluetooth packages.

2. Restart ur bluetooth service.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/bluez-utils restart

Scan for other devices
$ hcitools scan
This will be able to locate ur mobile, and provide you the address which you need from now on.
Also, pair up your device w/ the pc, by going to Tools->Connection->Bluetooth. In options, add a new paired device. It will search and then be able to find ur laptop.

3. Check if your mobile supports OBEX based message transfer.
$ sdptools browser

... verbose output ...
Search for "OBEX File Transfer", and note down the channel (say 3), and rfcomm port (say 3).
In /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf, add a section
rfcomm 3
{
bind yes;
device 00:02:EE:6D:0E:58; #replace with your address
channel 3;
comment "OBEX File Transfer"
}

Also, another section

rfcomm0 {
bind no;
device 00:02:EE:6D:0E:58; #replace with your address
channel 1;
comment "Hacking on Nokia 6620";
}

4. Restart bluetooth service:
$ /etc/init.d/bluez-utils restart

Bind to your mobile
$ sudo rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0
$ sudo minicom -m -s
This will open up a configuration editor. The only thing to do is to set the name of the device to connect to as /dev/rfcomm0. Save the new configuration as the default configuration and invoke:
$ sudo minicom -m

{Shamelessly copied from [1] }
Minicom is now ready to talk to your phone! Type in `AT' and the program will respond with an `OK'. Say you wish to make your phone dial a number. Just type:

atdt 1234567;

There are many other AT commands you can experiment with; try googling for say `mobile phone AT commands' or something of that sort! After you have finished with your virtual serial port manipulations, you should run:

rfcomm release /dev/rfcomm0

to `release' the serial-bluetooth link.

{ Copying finished }

5. Now, time to connect to btconsole:

$ sdptool add --channel=1 SP // add service. Note that this channel is the rfcomm0 channel.
$ sdptool browser local // view the current services if you want to confirm it
$ sudo rfcomm listen /dev/rfcomm0 1 // listen on channel 1, bind to /dev/rfcomm0
This command would block the terminal. In other terminal, run
$ sudo minicom -m

You shd be able to connect to your mobile device now.

>>> 2+2
4

Yeah! Python works. :)
This information is a mix match of various howto's + forums. Adding references to the ones that are still open in my window.

References:
[1] http://pramode.net/articles/lfy/mobile/pramode.html
[2] http://discussions.forum.nokia.com/forum/printthread.php?t=63435

Tidbits from Google.com

2006-06-25T07:43:00.000+08:00

New set of ramblings on Google:
1. Naan at Indian cuisine is hard to bite, their cheese curry is delicious.
2. Mexican and Italian food rocks! Nachos with salsa sauce and cheese, and italian vegan pizza
3. Google scooter is fast and fun!
4. The huge monitors on the desk are productivity boosters.
5. Nap on Massage chair is refreshing.
6. I have huge desk space, friends in other bldgs are crying for space :D. My bldg totally rocks!
7. Showers in restroom, comfortable chairs to sleep off, and electric toilet seats which maintain seat and spray water temperature, so that you feel extra comfortable while answering your natural call ;). I just need my toothbrush now to start living in Google.
8. Color printer is useful for printing photos from flickr, and hanging around your desk. Makes environment colorful.
9. Ergonomic keyboard and mouse
10. The best one: Starbucks Iced Mocha Frappuccino bottles all filled up in the fridge. Drink as much as you want for free! I'm loving it =).

Tagline: Google Rocks!

Latex snippets: Add image, wrap long lines in table

2006-06-12T08:58:00.000+08:00

Using Latex to create an interim report to submit for my FYP. Its pretty useful, though today I got caught in a weird error. When trying to include an image, using \includegraphics, it showed me:
Undefined control sequence. \includegraphics

Its pretty obvious now, that this is a valid instruction in Latex. After googling I found out that:

You need to add \usepackage{graphicx} in the preamble, for this instruction to work.

You need to provide complete path of the image file

Don't include the extension of the image. Latex will search for it automatically. Not sure the sequence, but, I believe its .png, then .gif, ...

My code:
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=150mm]{/home/username/report/fuse}
\end{figure}

Another interesting thing was to use tables which can word wrap long lines without cropping the table. I couldn't find any working example of this online, so putting it here, for reference:

\begin{tabular}{|c|p{5cm}|p{5cm}|}
topic & long line 1 & long line 2 \\end{tabular}

Sergey Brin live

2006-06-10T11:02:00.000+08:00

[Post delayed. Reason? laziness] So, today I attended my first weekly TGIF (thank God its friday) meet of Googlers here at Mountain View, and saw Larry and Sergey live for the first time. They're pretty cool and fun guys; much younger than people around them. One thing I noticed, Sergey had this european accent when he pronounced some words, which I initially thot, he's just having fun with; though it was constant. Anws, for us, we were quite a bunch of Nooglers, who were given weird caps to wear, and provided free access to unlimited beer ;). ah, it rhymes!

Releasing flickrfs sync

2006-05-28T17:10:00.000+08:00

Last year november, I released flickrfs and its awesome how popular it went in the flickr community. Currently, the flickrfs page (replaced by new site) is rated 7/10 by Google PageRank, arnd 14,000 photos have been uploaded using this fs, and flickrfs has scored 2,000 downloads. I thank all the users, and especially those who reported back the bugs, and their experiences of using this filesystem, which helped me further improve and enhance flickrfs.

Its time now to release a new version of flickrfs, and here it is. This version includes lots of bug fixes, and new functionalities, which I'm sure you'd like. Here's quick excerpt:

Automatic periodic syncing of flickrfs with online server.
Directly link photos from your stream and tags to sets, without downloading
Automatic resizing of photos while uploading
Robust Unicode Support

Do try it out!

P.S. Realized this is my 50th post, now I officially announce myself a blogger! Hope to soon make to the 100th mark :D.

Flickrfs continued

2006-05-19T01:20:00.000+08:00

After soo long that I released the version meta alpha (I like that name), did I find time and interest to continue development. And luv you python, I did quite a lot of bug fixes, as well as 2 new enhancements to flickrfs, all in the span of 1 day. I realized that I had almost forgot how beej's flickrapi worked. The prominent bug which caused frob and token authentication failure was originating from that; and took most of my time. That fixed, unmounting became a cakewalk.

Image resizing was one thing which I wanted to implement right from the beginning. Yesterday that came true. A big obstacle was to find a simple python code, which can resize images. And quite surprisingly, I cudn't find one! The nearest thing was huge Python Imaging Library (PIL), which interestingly chucked out EXIF data from images while resizing. Now that's sad!

So, anws, I moved onto a linux solution to the prob. Imagemagick's convert command resized the photos while retaining both the sharpness, as well as the EXIF data. Integrated that as a os.system call in the fs, while allowing a dropback to original size in case the package is not installed. Though, installing it is just a 2-mins job ;).

I have posted on the flickrfs-users list to check out bugs before I release this version as a stable one. Do try it out from cvs. And as always, any feedback is welcome :).

Flickr's changed look

2006-05-17T12:12:00.000+08:00

I finally went pro on flickr yesterday. Spent 5 hrs recreating all the sets I had to delete because of the 3 set restriction in normal flickr account. Creation of a flash badge showing my photos was the best part of it. It looks cool on my blog.

Today morning, to my delight, found Flickr's interface revamped. The front page now accomodates 2 photos in a row, and the sets are all moved on to the right. Organize now has tabbed browsing which allows editing of multiple sets together. Secondly, it also allows batch editing of randomly chosen photos. All the photos are by default shown in a horizontal bar located at the bottom. A mouse-over shows the date on which the photo was uploaded. While dragging photos to do batch editing, a nice message pops up on the top right side, with a cool fading effect. To remove the photo, just drag it back to the bar, which automatically fades to act like a trash.

There are links on the top, which provide access to any functionality within 2 clicks. The coolest thing I found was Explore->Calendar, which shows the month with the most interesting photos uploaded on that date. End result is an awesome calendar; which I'd surely like to buy if they put it on sale!

There is a lot interesting stuff in the new interface. Conclusion, I found the new interface to be much more usable; and obv. has more eye-candies ;). In all, flickr is utilizing AJAX to its max limits; and becoming unbeatable as an online photo sharing service.

Call me V

2006-05-13T10:50:00.000+08:00

"V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Quote from "V for Vendetta". I'd been searching for it since I saw the movie. Thnx Caffetteria src.

My friend just told me that it is available on the official movie website.

Gadget Man and Google - 2

2006-05-11T12:17:00.000+08:00

Staying in Mountain View! After spending hours on craigslisting, and sending hundreds of emails searching for the right house in San Francisco; realized its just not worth the deal. Especially since, Nasa Ames Hostel located in Mountain View came up with WiFi access. The rooms look great, and there are loads of interns staying there. It wd be much more fun being with so many interns arnd.

Gadget#1 : Finally bought Sony NC50 headphones.
Checked out Bose Quietcomfort2. The headphones were comfortable, noise cancellation was good. But, the price rated was a floated SGD 690/-. Though in US its rated USD 300/-. Conversion comes out to be SGD470/-. A direct 220 dollars difference?!! Completely insane.

Sony NC50's comfort and noise cancellation is equally amazing. I tried it in MRT for 2 hrs commute; and it cancelled out the background noises made by the train. I cud hear the person sitting next to me; though the noise from the songs he was playing on his loud mp3 player were completely removed. I checked out in buses, same result. Background noise is gone, sounds from the mobile TV in buses were effectively reduced, though you cud still hear most of it. Thirdly, I checked it out in a gaming arena. Sittig next to an FPS game, and a street fighting game; which produces most of the noise, NC50 cancelled the background noise (mostly from music and cheers) part of it. The loud bangs were audible. Turning on the music a bit higher worked though, and I was able to enjoy the music oblivious to surroundings.

The music quality is simply amazing, satisfying what you expect from a Sony product. I found it to provide better quality to the songs I had, than bose. Though I'm sure there wd be people who wd like to disagree.

The downside is that the music loudness is reduced. The music becomes more soft. Though my powerful mp3, Cowon A2 handled it quite well. Secondly, because outside noise is cancelled, so, dun have to maximize volume to counter noise. The volume level which didn't sound loud before, works great now! I'm listen to music at max volume, and found the headphones awesome! No crackling sounds; and music was perfect. Still, recommendation is to try it out with your mp3 player before buying.

They still have to be tested on flight. Which I'd most eagerly looking fwd to.

Pros: Great music quality, Effective noise cancellation, Comfortable, long battery life(30hrs), Value for Money (costed SGD 270/-) with no compromise on quality.

Cons: Music gets softer. Check out with your mp3 player. 2nd, Carrying bag is big. Of size of 100 CDs case.

Gadget man and Google

2006-05-07T12:29:00.000+08:00

Yes! I'm interning at Google Headquarters these summer vacations. From end-May to end-August; staying in San Francisco. Initially thought of staying at Mountain View, but when came to know about Google's WiFi enabled shuttle bus, commuting b/w San Francisco and MV; plans changed. Would be the best use of time to surf/read blogs while on commute everyday.

Now about Gadgets, I'm planning to buy. This is going to be a series of posts, about a number of gadgets that I'm going to buy in these 3 months. So, starting with the first one, on top of my mind.

Gadget#1
Since I bought Cowon A2, I had been vaguely thinking about buying better quality headphones to go alongwith. Now that I'd be on an 18-hrs flight from Singapore to San Francisco, decided to buy noise cancellation headphones. The best ones arnd are Bose Quiet Comfort 2, Sennheiser PXC 250, Sony MDR NC50. Out of these Sennheiser comes with a torch-size noise cancellation circuitry attached to cord, which is quite cumbersome. Especially, when I've a habit of pulling hard on cords; it may break soon. So, that's out of picture.

Sony, and Bose look more convincing. The cords are detachable. So, you can easily turn on the noise reduction, and sleep. Also, can be easily replaced even if broken; quite safe and comfortable. Their noise cancellation circuitry is located inside headphones itself; no extra box to carry arnd. The choice now is based upon the sound quality, and price. As most of the mp3s that I own are medium quality 128kbps, Bose may not sound much diffrent from Sony. The differences are more audible in 256kbps. Though, I still have to test and confirm this. Bose is obv. much more expensive than Sony.

Am going to the Bose store at Plaza Singapura, and Simlim Square today to check them out. Stay tuned to know what I bought, and the next gadget on the list :).

Say No to Quota in IIT

2006-04-10T16:09:00.000+08:00

While Indian students overseas proudly look back at their world famous university IITs and IIMs, because of their highest intelligence levels; things may not be the same a few years downstream. A 50% quota for students from reserved categories may alter the image of these institutions forever. Till now, only the most intelligent students could make through the tough entrance examinations; but if the bill is passed, being from the reserved categories may provide you easy admission. And the 'eligible deserving' candidates may have to look forward for admission to other universities.

As absurd as the bill sounds, it also proves the high voltage politics going on in India. While giving food, shelter, educational and medical facilities to poor/reserved categories is a benefiting action, I fail to understand how providing admission to the most reputed university can help these people.

Simply put, a person who can't crack the entrace exam of these institutions, probably is not even suited for the challenging level of education provided by the institutions; and mostly would not be able to cope up with the level of stress that follows on taking up such endeavour.

Then the only way out is more quotas. 75% Quota for reserved categories to pass 1st year exams, 80% quota for 2nd year, and progressing to 100% for final year.

Such insanity can only be laughed at. And that was my first reaction to the quota system. However, as the bill is being seriously considered by the govt., we need to stand up and raise our voice against it. Most importantly, do not just assume that it would not go through.

There is an online petition being made to President against the quota bill. If you care about the Indian Education system a bit, do cast your vote here.

Microsoft creates iPod (What if that is)

2006-04-08T22:31:00.000+08:00

We have all seen the simple and nice packaging of iPod by Apple. Now what if Microsoft was to market the iPod.

Check it out here!

Microsoft claims that she herself created the video to share among the packaging team for fun??!!

M$, whether you created it or not, is doubtful, but anws, we surely had fun!

Google Query: 403 Access Denied

2006-04-07T14:14:00.000+08:00

While surfing in NTU, don't be amazed if your favourite blog can't be accessed because it goes www.sexycoder.blogspot.com, and normal Google query instead of showing you the desired results, provides you with a 403 Forbidden : Access Denied.

In their bid to block access to porn sites, Centre for IT Services or CITS has recently installed a highly inefficient filter in the firewall. This simple word matching filter forbids access to the web page if the url contains any word remotely referring to porn. This includes disallowing a normal "sexy tshirt" query in Google as the url being accessed contains 'sexy'. It even disallowed me to access a paper on sorting algorithm because the url had an 'xxx' inside it. God forbid if tomorrow CITS decides to go one step fwd, and block access to webpages if their word search filter finds inappropriate words in it.

While spending millions of dollors on Microsoft products, why can't CITS buy a decent trustworthy filter to disallow access to porn, and not to words. Or if they are incapable of doing so, spend money on hiring hackers who can, and not A grade computer engg. graduates talking financial crap all the time.

little coo-coo sounds prior to..

2006-04-05T10:45:00.000+08:00

Just realized that I spend 70% of my blog reading time on engadget, which is one of the arnd 40 feeds that I'm subscribed to.
Here is the most interesting post I've come across:

Thomas Ricker at engadget about Japanese RI-Man, a robot destined to care for elderly:

...[useless stuff before punchline]...
"This allows it to perform such delicate work as lifting perplexed patients into its arms where presumably it will whisper little “coo-coo” sounds prior to crushing its victim into a liquid fuel beverage – which of course all robots will do once they obtain consciousness, right?"

-from engadget

Now, do I need any more reason to love engadget!

Google Romance?!

2006-04-01T17:40:00.000+08:00

Now applying advanced text mining algorithms to find the perfect match for you; Google is surely and quickly monopolizing entire computer world. Google products quickly recaped:

Internet: Google Search
Web presence (blogging): Blogspot
Online word processor: Writely
Photos: Picasa
Mail : Gmail
Chatting: Gmail Talk
Desktop: Google Desktop Search
Scheduler/Calendar: CL2
Multimedia: Google Video

What's missing is the release of an operating system by google, perceived to be a modified version of ubuntu -> Goobuntu!
And obviously a highly efficient file system for Goobuntu: GoogleFS

So, when are you releasing them Google?

Processors of future: Exponentially Dynamically

2006-03-31T18:26:00.000+08:00

A share from a 20 min discussion with Prof. Tay Joc Cing today afternoon.

"I believe that by the end of this century, we won't need computers anymore for computation" -Tay

"Complex computations will be done by biological beings (read nano particles/molecular machines)" -Tay

"In this century, we're going to have such fast computers, where we don't have to worry about the slowness of the language we're going to use. The most complex problem for computers to process today is a problem with exponential space-time complexity. Our processor speeds are increasing linearly. We are progressing from 1GHz to 2GHz to 3, 4, and 5 GHz. So, the problem continues to be exponential. Consider a possibility of a processor whose speed can increase exponentially dynamically, it can solve a problem with exponential space-time complexity in linear time, which depending upon the problem would essentially be a constant.

Now, if each bio molecule can process fixed set of instructions, knowing that they grow exponentially and assuming that they can distribute the work to their offsprings, a biological molecular robot which can direct n such molecules to solve the problem, can become our first exponentially accelerating processor." -Manish

Cowon A2 source code released

2006-03-30T00:46:00.000+08:00

Fascinated by portable multimedia players (PMP), I bought Cowon A2 early this month. I'd be doing a comparison analysis later, but, for now, the biggest news. A2 has released its entire source code under GPL. Though there is no documentation/notice regarding the code on company's site, it is speculated to be the code of its firmware 1.59, while latest stable release is 1.61. The code is huge taking 467MB on hdd(80 MB in compressed .tar.gz format), with little comments/documentation, but quite clean.

Now, is this release a goodwill sign to OS community, and going to expand to other iAudio products? I don't think so. To answer, the code release was never officially announced by the company, as the post here reveals. Such a big move like this surely needs announcement and publicity, telling and inviting hackers to submit patches using the available source code. Google Desktop Search SDK, Nokia 60 series' python support, flickr, and many others are examples when the respective companies willingly announced their open source motives to engage the Open Source community. But, cowon's muteness kind of seems to indicate that the decision to release the code may not be entirely the 'open source angel dawning on the company'. And as per GPL:

Section 2 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

where 'Program' means the section of the code licensed under GPL.
And A2 is based upon GPLed Linux kernel 2.6.5. This section may be a reason enough for the company to release its whole code under GPL.

Whether willingly or not, this move has opened up the gates of this amazing player to hackers. Though A2 gets a lots of upgrades by its dedicated developer team, it won't be long before there will be a flood of patches from hackers worldwide, jumping mainstream making cowon a2 able to play 'anything you throw at it'.

For me, for now, I'm planning a quick hack to display my name on the screen :).

Prags draws Super Commando Dhruva

2006-03-18T22:57:00.000+08:00

After having long forgotten about her old drawing skills, Pragyan took up her hobby back again recently. This is a sketch of my favourite comics character Super Commando Dhruva by her.

She just used pencil and eraser for this. Ah! How much I love pencil sketches!

M.A.N.I.S.H. C.Y.B.O.R.G.

2006-03-09T10:23:00.000+08:00

----->>>>> LOOK ----->>>> LOOK

I hope you saw a change in the site. If not?!?!, you need to immediately redesign your _vision_ of life.

Thanks to Boing Boing for providing link to this cool website The Brunching Shuttlecocks. I got my own C.Y.B.O.R.G.ed name which presents itself on the blog now. How to post your cyborged name? Here are the steps:

1. Go to cyborg site -> insert your name -> choose your fav cyborg -> click on Submit.
2. Read, reread your name's definition. Call your friends to tell them what exactly your name means. Ctrl+C the html code provided.
3. Login to blogger -> Dashboard -> Edit Settings -> Template
4. Search for Begin #profile-container
5. Please _Replace_ <$BlogMemberProfile$> with the html code you had copied.
6. In the html code you just copied, replace href='..cyborg..' with profile link location. (mine is http://www.blogger.com/profile/11087998)
7. Click on Preview.
8. Whoa! Your inspirational message about yourself is gone! Dun worry! People wd be infinitely more interested in your cyborg image than your rambling about yourself.
9. Save the template -> Republish index.
10. Done! Enjoy!

Experiences with OpenSolaris

2006-03-07T12:28:00.000+08:00

As most of you already know, Sun Microsystems had released Solaris's source code, under CDDL as OpenSolaris distribution. The company is very busy these days promoting Open Solaris in Universities, on the net, to create a community; and has been quite successful in doing that as well. A one-hour login to #opensolaris channel at irc.freenode.net, is enough to prove to you that there is surely a strong community working on the OS. One of their best endeavors was to kick start Solaris University Challenge.
Quite obviously, I am participating in it. Well, think of it! That's the whole point of writing this post. These are the things I've come across:

1. Couldn't get Solaris to install on my Pentium III machine, as it required more RAM than my 256MB wd provide. This is owing to Java Desktop System being quite heavy.

2. Solaris comes with Star Office 7, and Mozilla 1.7 (yup! No OpenOffice, and Firefox?!). I still can't understand the reason behind their opting against these two most popular Open Source Softwares; going with things people have forgotten or not known at all, buried in history books (or blogs :-D).

3. There is no Software Package Manager. The default one that comes is a pkgadd command. The essential packages are provided in 4th cd of Solaris, their names prefixed with SUNW (for e.g. man pages - SUNWman). I inserted the CD, and there was no automatic mounting. I tried to use my easy linux ways to mount, but no use. After finding no way to mount it, and checking online for an hour or so, got this command:

#/etc/init.d/volmgt stop
#/etc/init.d/volmgt start

There is no 'restart' option?! However, these commands restarted the volume management which is responsible for mounting the devices. Once restarted, it recognized my cd, and mounted it. So, I cd into the packages directory, and tried to install the package:

#cd /cdrom/sol_11_x86_4/Solaris_11/Product
#pkgadd -d SUNWman
pkgadd: ERROR: no packages were found in

Wao! Now what to do? So, after some searching, I came across this:

#pkgadd -d /cdrom/sol_11_x86_4/Solaris_11/Product SUNWman

And exactly opposite of my expectations, the command worked, and the package was installed!! I've no clue why on earth wd someone have a *constraint* like this one.

4. Thankfully someone has taken these problems in account, and created a centralized package system online at http://blastwave.org. You can download 'pkg-get' package, which provides similar functionality as apt-get, retrieving packages from the blastwave packages list. Though it has a very primitive way of 5-6 step installation, but it surely does _work_ after that. Helped me to install my saviour firefox, and vim editor.

#pkg-get -i vim

Ya! Solaris only has the old vi editor. For those who dun know why vim is better; imagine you can't use your arrow keys to browse thro the code, or use your backspace button to delete. Though backspace still doesn't work fine for me even in vim :(.

5. Crap fonts!

6. _Amazing kernel_. The solaris kernel code is very neat. The more I'm understanding filesystem implementation in solaris, the more I'm appreciating it. I'd like to mention here that ZFS is beyond doubt the most advanced filesystem available today.

Conclusion: Solaris/OpenSolaris is powerful Operating System with amazing kernel and fs, though its ages behind becoming a desktop OS.

Technorati Tag: OpenSolaris

Too techy for lecs

2006-03-01T12:37:00.000+08:00

Its long I have been to lectures...
Its even longer that I've gone to lecture, and listened to the prof...
Its ages I've felt bad about bunking them...

So, where does my life revolve arnd? Here are top priorities:
1. Sit in canteen, with a cup of tea, and jobless friends.
2. Check, Double Check, Check if I double checked mails, blogs and engadget while listening to music from the music server running on my _ubuntu_ machine through library computer (for those who know what I generally use _hint:gen2_, yea! I switched to ubun2!)
3. Look at my mobile, new sms, old sms, contacts, and alarm clock.
4. Work on cool projects involving C/C++, Python, Ruby, kernel; dream about working in techhie companies.

Lately I've also been calling up people to tell them about the Portable Media Player that I'm buying soon. Just to let you know, the date falls today. Enjoy 'friends' in MRT. Wao! One more reason to sustain life. I'm loving it!

Flickrfs crosses 10000 mark

2006-03-01T08:34:00.000+08:00

Flickrfs got itself tagged by 10035 photos, an indication of how many photos are uploaded using this virtual filesystem. So, that makes 10035 photos within 4 months of its release, which calculating linearly comes to be 2508 photos per month. Isn't that great!

Another interesting news is that two people has joined as developers, R. David Murray and Fabio Spelta; both members of flickrfs-users group. Flickrfs is now undergoing major bug fixing, and thorough testing. The code is uploaded into cvs, and is available through CVS anonymous access, so you can have a quick browse through the code. Enjoy!

The IT Crowd - First Impression

2006-02-26T02:53:00.000+08:00

There has been a lot of buzz about UK's Channel 4 sitcom 'The IT Crowd'. The sitcom focuses on the life of a 3-strong IT Team, where a computer-illiterate becomes the head of 2 geeks, all working in an untidy basement of a 34 storey building. Its being made available on the internet for download 1 week before the original telecast on TV. Learning that, I tried to download it from the main website, but strangely was disallowed access. Reason being that I was accessing from outside UK. The second approach, of using bittorrent to download the episodes also failed, thanks to NTU proxy and firewall. Seeing no other way out, just thought of giving google videos a try, and whoa! It had all the five episodes available, along with download access. So, with lots of hopes and visualizations about the geeky stuff, I started up the download of all 5 episodes, but due to slow connection, finally managed to get only one episode 'The Red Door'.

My expectation of the geek characters was completely thwarted, when they showed 'Roy', the main geek, without any computer on his desk! The only electronics item present on his desk was a telephone. Even the room didn't seem a 'typical geek' room. On the background, there were some brand new monitors laid out very neatly, which deluded the whole concept of dark, stingly and untidy. No hanging wires, no opened up gadgets, screwdrivers, printers, anything! The comedy lacked common sense, originating from childish actions, rather than intelligent taunts. Though I liked some of the dialogues where Moss, the second geek in his 'computerized voice' talks to Jen, the IT head. Concluding the post, the show makes a good time pass, and surely will improve in the coming episodes.

Don't rape her!

2006-02-19T13:51:00.000+08:00

Quoted from Xenoflare:

A lot has been said about how to prevent rape. Women should learn self-defense. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Fuck, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all.

Instead of that bullshit, how about:

If a woman is drunk, don't rape her. If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her. If a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her. If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her. If a woman is jogging in a park at 5AM, don't rape her. If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her. If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her. If a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her. If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her. If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her. If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her. If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her. If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her. If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her. If your step-daughter is watching TV, don't rape her.

If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her. If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend. If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police. If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and report him as a rapist.

Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, and sons of friends that it's not okay to rape someone.

Don't just tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape. Don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x, y, or z. Don't imply that it's in any way her fault. Don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl. Don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions. You can too help yourself. Rape is not about sex, it's about control and power, and what kind of power comes from taking advantage of others? No power anyone should ever desire.

If you agree, repost it. It's important.

This is the most strong fabulous statement I have come across. Hats off to the author!

Dhruv hatyara hai!

2005-12-08T14:05:00.000+08:00

Super Commando Dhruv's a killer?!

Profile.
He was my role-model when I was kid, my all time favourite. That time I didn't know any other brand than Raj, all the popular ones, Nagraj, Doga, Bhokal were Raj's. I didn't like them so much as they boasted of super-natural (or un-natural) powers which I didn't believe in. On the other hand, Dhruv was a perfect human, with his amazing brain, fast reaction, and strong punches. And ya! Never forget the way he cud ride the bike on a rope! Which he learnt owing to his murdered parents being part of a Russian(?) Circus.

The most interesting part was his equally brilliant team, and his sister, who without Dhruv's knowing abt it, was also a super-woman(?). That was the best part when she wd suddenly pop into action whenever Dhruv was in danger.

Am remembering all these again, and feel like enjoying them once again. This time when I am back, will surely go and order at least a dozen comics to make up for the missed episodes. Almost forgot abt him!!!

2.0 web!

2005-12-02T14:09:00.000+08:00

"They are the crux of it, whatever it is."

Just found this 2.0 link: http://web2.0bingo.com/

Forces me to do a checklist upon myself, so here it is:
tags: Got a flickr account!
Ruby on Rails, AJAX: Will surely(adamant) use in next project!
Integrates with Flickr: haha! All over me!
Beta: will soon release one!
Adsense support: emm! no visitor, no money!
Candid Blog: Highly partial towards technology
OTHERS: Dun understand! OOPS!

haha! love this! :)

Version meta alpha - Reason to like Flickrfs

2005-11-16T00:26:00.000+08:00

For those who love flickrfs, this is a 'must have'.
For those who dun like flickrfs, rethink!!!

Why? Here are the reasons:

Direct access to Metadata! Right from the comfort of command line. Just fire up your favourite editor and you can modify the photo title, description, tags, and license.

Direct access to your photostream! Just create a directory 'stream' at your mountpoint root, and your whole photostream (upto 500 photos) will be accessible.

Don't like the permissions of your photos? Do a 'chmod' and voila! the perms are changed!

No longer need to be root to mount/access/unmount flickrfs. Enjoy normal user account luxury.

Downloading media from webpage?

2005-11-10T12:29:00.000+08:00

"just use Firefox to accomplish this. "Tools -> Page Info -> Media" shows you a list of all the media (audio, stills, video, Flash, etc) in the page. Just scroll through until you find the Flash and either hit Save or copy the URL..."
Hence says Cory Doctorow

Flickrfs version 1.1 out

2005-11-09T11:58:00.000+08:00

Flickrfs is popular and in business, so here is the new release, with the following changes:

* fixed bugs (if photo title=='', then flickrfs crashes)
* Including API Key and Shared Secret. (Why? Keep following)
* Support for spaces in tags while uploading
* Permissions support while Uploading (mode=abc - a=7(always), b=(friends=5 | family=6 | none=4), c=(5=public | 4=private)

The API Key distribution in open source code is a debate. Here are the excerpts:
1. The API Key issued is actually per application instead of per user.
2. The main idea is just to track the usage of Flickr API.
3. Though, it is retrieved in the developer's name, Yahoo has intelligent methods to determine its bad usage.

Second comes, the much awaited support for permissions. While uploading, you can specify if you wish to make your photos public or private, and in private, friends, family or both.
Here is a quite tut:
755 - public
754 - friends (only)
764 - family (only)
774 - both friends and family (not public)

So, just change the permissions of photos, and upload them. And yope! Here are your private 'bikini' photos ;).

As the popularity of flickrfs is increasing, so are the problems encountered. I have started a mailing list to keep track of these problems/bugs along with usage tips etc. Please do subscribe to the list here.
Also, do include '/var/log/flickrfs' when you are reporting abt some problem. This will help me reproduce/diagnose it easily.

People surely are trying it out at different platforms. It will be great if you can create an account of how to install, and what has been ur experience, it will surely help other users. Let me know, and I will include it in the docs page, just like this one

All in all, do let everyone know abt ur experiences, struggles, your success, and joy when it worked (if at all ;). The means may be your blog, my gmail account, or best of all, the users mailing list :). Thanks to all!

Tags: flickrfs flickr

Announcing Flickrfs!

2005-11-03T22:27:00.000+08:00

Always wanted to create a virtual filesystem for Gmail in Linux. However, someone stole me of that privilege. Now that festival holidays were coming near giving me some time to do some hacking, I decided to go for the most popular online photo sharing service, Flickr. What other way can it be when you want a prototype up and running rapidly; hence, Python.

Flickrfs is a virtual filesystem based upon FUSE for Linux. It can be mounted on your computer and then can be accessed using the standard commands. But, here are the twists. The filesystem uses threads, and hence, improves usability and speed. When you mount the filesystem, it will create 2 directories automatically: 'tags' and 'sets'. 'sets' will automatically retrieve your photos (only metadata information, hence fast) and will show you all the photos available in your sets. You can then easily copy images to your hdd. And here comes the nicer part, If you want to add some more photos to these sets, just copy them to the folder, and they will be uploaded to the respective set.

'tags' directory allows for searching functionality. It contains 2 directories, 'personal', and 'public'. To search for any tag, just create a directory inside, with separating the tags with ':'

# pwd
/tmp/flickrfs/tags/public
# mkdir linux:ubuntu

This will start searching for photos available in public domain matching these 2 tags, and will provide a list of all these photos. And all this will happen in background, with the help of threads, so dun have to sit and watch while results come.

Now, if you want to upload your photo with tags 'opensource', 'party', 'sfd', then just do this. In either tags/personal, or tags/public, create a directory

#mkdir "opensource:party:sfd"

and then just copy over the images to this directory, they will automatically be uploaded with these tags. And ya! An additional tag 'flickrfs' ;).

For those who will be wondering how long is it going to take to search and 'download' the files over to local disk; Dun worry! Flickrfs doesn't download anything till you either open the photo for viewing, or copy them to some other location. Its a purely virtual filesystem, even the files and directories that are visible to you don't exist on your hdd.

And here comes a trick:
If you searched for say photos with 'linux' tag, and like a particular photo, want to post it online on flickr; just do this

# cd /tmp/flickrfs/tags/public/linux
# cp Penguins\ Austin ./Penguin_Austin

And whoa! The photo is straightaway uploaded to flickr with tags 'linux' (and 'flickrfs' :D).

With Flickrfs, you don't have to worry if you have the photo or not, just upload from where you find it. And those who are mad about 'Flickrlicio.us' (like me), what other way to copy over all those *beautiful* photos to you hdd. Flickrfs is made to provide maximum functionality possible using the general linux commands. If time permits, I will probably be adding a 'gmail' folder, which will allow uploading of photos/files to gmail as well.

The project is hosted at sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/flickrfs. Check out the Installation instructions at the home page: http://flickrfs.sourceforge.net. To the fans of Flickr out there, Do try it out! :)

I would surely like to thank the Open Source Community for allowing the creation of such a FS. Used flickr api by beej. Though debugged and modified it to allow for uploading through proxy as well. Richard's (the someone) Gmailfs code came in handy as well, to create all those virtual inodes. And especially thanks to my prime inspiration for flickr Deepak's pyflickruploader.

Tags: flickrfs flickr

Hrithik on top of Food Court?

2005-10-20T21:51:00.000+08:00

"Hrithik Roshan is no ordinary eater. He loves his lunch when standing right at the top of food court."

Lau Pasat was much more crowded today than any other day. Reason: Krrish action sequence was being shot. Half of the road was blocked by Police where huge cranes were standing. Hrithik's duplicate first went fwd and did a testing of the equipment followed by Hrithik himself doing the shot. In the sequence, our 'super-duggu' was supposed to fly from one building to another.

When I reached the spot, he was back at ground zero, and was enjoying his 'Subway meal'. No photos were allowed because of his special make-up. Still, it was really a tough time for his guards to stop people who were flocking from the food court to see their favourite superstar.

I as well met some of my friends from the crew. Kamal was standing in front of Hrithik taking care of arrangements and shooing the photo-shooters away.

Manoj (Right)- Member of crew, A freelancer from Mumbai

Manoj, on the other hand, scared me by suddenly jumping on me. He pointed to the creamish van standing.

Hrithik's Van

"Yeh hrithik ki van hai. Yahin par woh dress-up karta hai. Uska sab saaman yahin rehtaa hai"
[This is Hrithik's van. He dresses inside and everything is kept inside the van only]
Also, came to know about Priyanka's duplicate from him. What for? No one knows. Still dunno if it was true or he was just joking. But, this time it was a bit faster when enquiring about where is the shooting going to be held next.

"Jurong mein."
"Jurong mein kahaan? East or West?"
"Woh nahin pata. Jurong mein bas"

["In Jurong", "Where in Jurong. East or West", "Dunno! Just know that its in Jurong"]

Tags: Krrish

Gift from Google

2005-10-18T14:34:00.000+08:00

"A Google T-Shirt?"

That was my aim and my insentive probably when I started working upon an indexing plugin for Bioinformatics databanks. Though I am not interested in Bio related fields; for me it was more of technology involved.
After trying with c++.net; I finally realized that as the plugin expands, it gets more and more complicated. So, with great suggestions and cool googling from deepak, I decided to switch to C#.NET. Though I had never worked upon C# before, but realized that it was just a reformatting of Java. There is no much difference b/w the 2 languages just that Java uses CamelCase while C# uses lower case letters.

Finally after packaging, submitted the plugin which got accepted by Google within 2 weeks :). The plugin is now at their downloads page: http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/genvea.html
Apart from the company's name being posted up on Google due to which a search will show you Genvea on the top results; I got presented a cool 'Google Desktop Search Developer TShirt', TOTALLY FREE!

Well, that's a 'googly' ;).

Krrish and Rain

2005-10-17T13:52:00.000+08:00

"Priyanka is not here."

That sentence and half of my incentive to cover Krrish shooting gone. There goes my chance to meet one of the most beautiful ladies in the world.

After much research, and tracking of the Krrish shootings, finally came to know the location they are going to shoot. Its was my own Robinson Road where I go everyday to have lunch. It was raining heavily when I left from NTU, met my friend Rochak at Jurong East, and together we left to meet Indian superstar Hrithik Roshan and ex-Miss World Priyanka Chopra.

WAITING for the rain to stop

The whole road was blocked by Singapore Police, their vans and motorbikes and a big truck on the other side. Amazing to see the otherwise crowded road so deserted. It was raining and they had paused the shooting. The sequence they were planning to shoot was of a kid jumping from a building and our superman 'Duggu' (nickname of Hrithik) saving him. They had already shot some parts of it in the morning when it was sunny.

Hrithik was sitting inside an air conditioned van when we saw him. We tried talking to some crew members to get us an interview from Hrithik so as to publish it in NTU magazine; who redirected us to the line producer Kamal.

Kamal didn't allow us to meet Hrithik as they didn't want to disclose his special make-up. He was quite angry by a popular media channel who according to him after being rejected an interview with Hrithik, took a photo of 'Krrish shooting' from the top of a building.
But, he was a nice person to chat to. He and Manoj (another crew member from Mumbai); both started off their long stories on how the people from Uzbekistan had given them a warm welcome when they shot for 'Bose -A forgotten Hero'; to some cheap naughty clips on his mobile. Ending with Sardarji jokes and an audio clip of 'Bobby' (Bobby who? Bobby Deol). All of them were in relaxed moods while the rain continued to pour.

Rakesh Roshan popularly known as 'the father', was sitting in front of MPH, Robinson Road with his other friends. Though he didn't say anything, while just nodding to our 'hi's; initially seemed a bit cold. We requested him to allow us take a photo and he quite generously offered us a chair to sit and click.

Me and Rakesh Roshan

After a while he himself got restless and came towards OCBC at Singapore Airlines office where the cameras were set. The Stunt Director 'Tony Cheung' from HK was sleeping inside Standard Chartered bank, and he started teasing him, took a photo as well.

Rakesh teasing Tony Cheung

As we were feeling hungry, so went over to Amara and had lunch at Subway. Came back at arnd 4:30 pm, and found out that they are already packing up, lost their hopes for rain stopping. Saw some other fans at the set (who became friends), jumping of joy; as they had got autographs from Hrithik.

"He just came and sat with us and gave autographs. He was so near you cud just take out your mobile and click his photo."
But anyway that didn't happen. We tried to convince our crew friends to allow us take a photo as he must have removed his makeup by now, but, by then Hrithik had already left on this white van. Also, the crew was discouraged by seeing the rain. It costed them $25000, all loss.

"He is the hero. The last one to come and the first one to leave" - Crew

Where they are shooting next is a big issue no one knows about.
"Director saab shaam ko hi batatey hain ki kahaan shooting honey wali hai. Pehley se maaloom nahin rehtaa" -crew (The Director only tells abt next day's shooting location in the evening. No one knows abt it beforehand)
But, as the day was packing we came to know that the shooting will be held in National Library again on Monday. And back on Robinson Road next Weekend.

Priyanka is back in Mumbai enjoying her holidays. Apparently, she doesn't have any more scenes or this is what they told us.

Chinese Lantern Festival in NTU

2005-09-24T12:04:00.000+08:00

After around 1.5 years of renovation of the Chinese Heritage Center in NTU, finally they opened it for public on occassion of the Lantern Festival. Last years festival saw it closed only. However, this year was slightly better in that the center looks cool from inside with a red-creamish appeal. And ya! this poster there as well.

Nanyang Lake Decoration

The performances were quite few; and Nanyang Lake was quite dark with minimal decoration. Crowd was still quite okay; just that didn't see any of my 3rd and 4th year friends over there; probably because of the steadily decreasing quality of Lantern Festival.

Blog Spam?

2005-09-23T01:15:00.000+08:00

Surprised by sudden activity in my blog, I checked out the comments, and this is what I got:

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Photo Shoot at Chinese Garden

2005-09-18T02:11:00.000+08:00

The ClubSnap members meet was organized at 6:00 pm. And 5:45 still, I was in my room only. Just rushed when I woke up, took my tripod, camera and ran for the bus. When in MRT, just did a regular checking of my camera. And phew! didn't charge my battery. The monitor show 2/3 :o. Anyway! can't do much.

Met the other members at MRT. Very nice group of ppl, very friendly. Especially, when seeing me carrying a small FZ5 camera, they instantly recognize that I am a starter; and start giving tips and all :). Esp. this guy I met today, who is a Unix administrator in HP, and has been clicking for more than 4 years. Very enthu, and very keen on getting the basics and techniques of photography correct. His details on each and every minor thing were just amazing.
The garden was very well decorated. Pagoda was looking very beautiful. There were also statues of humans and animals, which I suppose narrated the old chinese stories. While roaming arnd, we met across this group of kids who were burning crackers. What caught attention was this girl in the middle, very innocent looking, very quiet. The look at her face along with the light of candles in front of her made it really nice.

After clicking a lot of photos of the girl and her friends, I headed towards the lake in front to take reflections. And then suddenly, battery went dead. Arrghh!! Not now; we just started only! Anyway, I resolved to buy spare battery pack asap; and keep it always charged.

From that point onwards, I just roamed arnd and tried to learn from other ppl. I took my friends huge canon DSLR in my hands and clicked some photos. He was using a tele-lens; that's why huge. Also enjoyed learning from these ppl abt photography; its various techniques, ways of learning. And the quote as always "Its not camera that matters, its the person behind the camera who is important".

Its fun going over to these meets. Probably, if my battery hadn't gone out today, I wudn't have checked out what others think abt photography, and wouldn't have tried hands on that huge DSLR as well. Today I got lot more than what I wd have got otherwise. And, it was a very great experience. For now, I am just too eager to read the book on photography I am carrying in my hands :D.

Finally flickr!

2005-09-17T01:06:00.000+08:00

After having lotsa doubts and checking out all other photo sharing systems; finally tried flickr. Installed its uploading tool. Liked it instantly. Just right click on any photo and upload it.. very friendly.
The tool can upload lots of photos coz it reduces the size of photos to arnd mere 100kb.
For all these reasons, and that I dun have to pay anything right now, I created an account. Here's the link
www.flickr.com/photos/tuxmann
And also a group for open source enthu ppl to link their flickr photos:
www.flickr.com/groups/opensrc

2005-08-28T22:44:00.000+08:00

Visit to Msia

Last wednesday had a chance to go for a 1-day trip to Msia. This was a industrial site visit organized by SCS in collaboration with SCE, NTU.

Well, the first thing it reminds me is that I only had 3 hrs sleep; needed to complete some stuff of IA. However, woke up at 5:30 and left off to Kranji. We started off at 8:00 and crossed the border from woodlands checkpoint.

Reached FLEXITRONICS at Johor Bahru at arnd 10:00. We weren't allowed to take cameras in. However, didn feel much disappointment abt it; coz wasn't really interested in the factory. They took us arnd the production unit where the production of chips was going at the rate of millions/month. The whole huge room was filled up with workers; as if the crowd of JP is all over there ;). Our tour of the company ended at arnd 12:00 from where we started off to Fruit Farm.

It took us more than 2 hrs to reach the farm during which I had my full quota of much wanted sleep. I was expecting a good scenary and vegetation however, caught something equally interesting. The first 15 mins of tour of the farm took us to their mini-zoo. I saw Ostrich for the first time; just like my friends who hadn't also seen them. Everyone started clicking to their best ability while the ostrich seemed to get excited after seeing so many humans arnd. There were other animals as well including rabbits, small goats, and others.

But something really fascinating was waiting to be seen. As we were roaming arnd, we saw this small glass box. And it had a big Cobra inside it! It was the first time we saw it so near to us. Unlike Ostrich, Cobra didn't like to get teased by so many arnd. It got angry and hissed at one of the dareable one arnd while also tracing the guy face to face as if it were a reflection of the guy. Was just amazing to see it...

We had a nice fruit buffet along with original honey dew juice. As for me, I was more than happy as that was the only veg thing I got since morning. Had my full share of fruit meal :). Just roamed arnd for some more time and clicked more photos. We left at arnd 6:00 for our next destination, the seafood restaurant.

It rained very heavily during our way to the restaurant. Took us arnd 1:00 hr to reach the restaurant. Knowing that I was a veggie, was served fried rice. Not nice, but anyway, more like I was giving company to others at the table. It was sunset time; so just thought of taking one or 2 more photos before leaving. But as soon as I came out, I was taken by surprise. I hadn't noticed before, but in front of the restaurant was Sea! And with the rain that just got over, the view was amazing. The best one I had ever seen till now. I got some very nice ones. However, it soon became dark and the exposure started lasting for 6 secs. And I had forgotten to take my tripod with me. Felt disappointment on missing out the after sunset view :(.

However, the ones I took made my whole trip more than perfect :).

Reached at woodlands checkpoint at arnd 10:00. Too much rush, so took long. Reached my room at 11:30 ready and energized for next day's work after a refreshing day at Msia.

2005-08-21T15:06:00.000+08:00

Hi... Am trying from BloGTK which is a cool blogger for Linux Desktop. And, it has support for proxy also :). Hence, my search reaches a destination ;).
But, I can't change the title apparently.. :(.

food at tanjong

2005-08-19T13:53:00.000+08:00

"I was not feeling like eating the same old thing i.e. naan, chapathi and rice". Well this can tell you the kind of food we get at Tanjong area. I never expected Singapore to have such amazing Indian food quality. Went to 'pangat' today to have Indian paranthas. Really nice food ranging from puri, chapathi, naan and aalo, methi and plain paranthas. Having all these stuff here in Singapore just gives a joy which can't be expressed. All my talks back home used to be 'no food'. But, this time surely I have much more to say.

Yesterday, I got one of my photos printed and framed as a gift for my friend. Though, I am not so good at photography currently, but, that one came out quite nicely. Even in print. My friend liked it too :). Hence, my first success at photography :D.

My experience with novels...

2005-08-17T20:56:00.000+08:00

These days am practising on my novel reading habits. Till now I had no time to read them. But, now I have so much journey to perform everyday; going to company; that novels are the only choice. And, they very much fit in also. Generally my reading is limited to scientific fictions, and murder, mystery. These are probably the only novels I can concentrate upon. Coz, last time, for a change, I tried my luck on a romantic novel. First 2 chapters, and I was already bored. The novel was just too slow; and it was not happening also anyway ;). So, I came back to my types only.

All my attempts at getting 'Da Vinci Code' and its bro's like 'Angels and Daemons' etc. have been fruitless. Every other person on road is carrying one which belongs to his friend's friend's friend. So, Am currently reading up John Boyne's 'Crippen'. Abt a doctor 'who likes to see blood flowing out'.... Well, I am sure you wd agree that this is nothing new actually. Last novel I read was abt a brilliant psychiatrist who killed ppl if they refused to tell him 'everything' abt themselves. But, even if the characters resemble, still there is enuf material to make u keep flipping thro the pages. Though I am longing for more scientific fictions now.

Desktop blogging

2005-08-09T18:23:00.000+08:00

Have been looking for a 'right from desktop blogging' app. Checked out the linux apps out there. There is a bunch of nice apps; esp. gnome-blog. It allows you to write, and keep editing your 'to-be' post; and then, finally whenever you feel like it; just post it over. And more than that, it will stick to your gnome desktop in front of ur eyes. But, its still amateur. There is no proxy settings. Hence, ppl in universities or offices with an intranet, won't be able to blog.

In windows, there are quite a number of good apps. One is this w.bloggar which I am using now. Its quite nice GUI and supports proxy also; on top of that is its amazing speed. You can post, you can edit your posts and all that within a few secs of the keystroke.

Apart from blogging; there is another very fast and easy-to-use app known as 'Gmail shell'. This app will create a drive on your 'My Computer'. You can drag and drop / Copy-paste your files etc. to this drive and it will automatically send these files to your Gmail account. Convinced huh? Not so much. Keep listening then. Apart from this drag-drop interface, it uploads ur files to Gmail in very less time. I have had success even with 9 MB files; while in contrast doing thro' my browser will take forever.

Conclusion: There is an faster app for each mechanical work to be done. Just go find it out :P.

da vinci movie?

2005-08-07T01:27:00.000+08:00

Heard that they are creating a movie on the novel 'Da Vinci Code' starring Tom Hanks. Well, for all the predictions; that must be a superhit movie. Too eager to see it... Btw, there are so many other novels also that deserve attention with stories so dramatic; that you can easily imagine how they will look with the special effects that hollywood can provide. Prey probably is one of the best examples. But, in all cases, movies based on novels have proved to have better success rates on box office than the movies with a tailor made story. The reasons may lie in the imagination power of a novel writer along with the years of experience with more focussed attention. This is in contrast to those movie writers who think of their characters in terms of box office profit.

A new Photo blog

2005-08-06T13:36:00.000+08:00

So, I started clicking now. Thought of making a blog dedicated to my photos. So, here's it
My Photo Gallery

finally.. Panasonic FZ5

2005-08-05T23:17:00.000+08:00

So, finally I bought the camera. How much for? Well simlim came out to be very sad in terms of ultra-zoom cams. There was only 1 shop which cud have given these cams cheap; but, it went out of stock of Panasonic; and Canon one was coming out to be very eX.

I got this camera for $660; along with 256MB SD Card, an original Panasonic camera holder(cover); and warranty card which though is for 1 year; but, has its date of purchase slot empty. So, I can put a later date of purchase and claim it ;) haha!

Now, I am all too eager to click some photos. Here in blk 44, hall 8; we got a nice roof top; very high. Will click some views from there :). Just waiting for my batter to get charged.

Rest with real photos; too much of talking done already!

today.. lotsa things

2005-08-04T16:51:00.000+08:00

National day is coming soon; saw 3 soldiers walking down Tanjong Pagar MRT with long guns which looked very polished; more like toys than real guns. But anyway, was very exciting; wanted to hold one myself and try out ;).

Just one day before I saw some air show practise going on for National day; with fighter planes doing a vertical climb up in sky; and nose-diving. Oh man! it must have been very challenging to do so. More than enjoying that, I was already missing the would be 'mine' camera. Cud have taken some pics over there itself. Anyway can't go to National stadium; dun have bucks to spend.

Went to simlim again today. Checked out the price of Canon S2 IS. It appeared a bit fixed price over almost all of the shops; probably coz of its quality and demand out there. Anyway; the cheapest I got was $700. However, considering the quality of pics and all; panasonic FZ5 is more than just equal. And its much cheaper also at rates starting from $650. So, decided to buy Panasonic rather. Am going this friday to get that; lets see how it comes out to be.

Went to Sun Microsystems office today for a meeting along with Amey. Apart from the technicalities that we discussed and excited me; what caught my attention more were those cool chairs we were sitting on. You cud adjust the hand-rest; cud turn it arnd making it more comfortable; it also had some more complex mechanisms which I wanted to find out; but cudn't just start engineering them coz of the fact that I was in a meeting :p. But, still enjoyed twiddling with the chair hahaha... Hope no one noticed that :D.

And now, my IA. I would like to spend hours explaining how my IA is really cool and hectic; but anyway not now. Other cool things abt it is the tea shop I go to every morning. As soon I step over in the vicinity of the shop; that guy would just shout out "1 Tea. Have a seat!" hahaha... Nice morning tea with lotsa smiles :). Luv it that regular way.

feeling lonely?

2005-08-04T14:02:00.000+08:00

Listen to smooth jazz. That's what I do whenever I got work to complete as well as want to keep myself stressfree.
Like this one: http://www.wssm.com/player/player.php

Mum-bhai ekdum danger place

2005-08-03T01:43:00.000+08:00

where you survive if you got the pace...

Though I never went to Mumbai; always want to go over there and see the so most famous Juhu and chaupati and all. Was just reading up on the flood in Mumbai; and got across this eye-witness. Though I cudn't understand his this lady drove in Mumbai when the water is 5ft deep; "You can drown if you are 5ft tall".

Let's hope it comes back to normal soon.

held Panasonic FZ5 in my hands

2005-08-02T14:15:00.000+08:00

the first time I held 12x optical zoom camera in a professional way... looked really cool. I focussed on some ppl from so far away; and it clicked very nicely. Panasonic compared to Canon S2 IS is small; very handy; light also. It has got Lithium batteries(or Nickel is it?); so you can put an
AC Adapter and charge them; unlike in Canon where you got to put 4 AA-batteries. Replacement will be costlier; though can always get rechargeable cells.

Comparing the lens of both, Canon S2 IS's lens is based upon the SLR (as the site says); and its got really good reviews from every site as well as every photography expert arnd. Panasonic got a german made lens which is cheaper. So, you can save arnd S$200 for almost the same quality. What I am looking at is quality at night views; which require more exposure; and better lens also; for which Canon one is supposedly better.

Anyway; now my final comparison comes down to a lot of things besides lens only. Handiness; batteries; memory cards; weight. Both cams use cheaper SD cards; so no worry. Handiness, weight and looks are with Panasonic. With its black body it just looks cool; fits very nicely in hands and you can easily carry it arnd also.

The one field where canon obv outperforms Panasonic is video capture. Canon has a very high quality video in this class of cameras. So, now the only thing left is to go to Simlim again and check if I can get Canon one cheaper; otherwise go and buy a Panasonic.

more abt cams

2005-08-01T17:15:00.000+08:00

Am still checking up on cams, and after checking out Ricoh R1V and R2; I want to go for image quality. So, thot of checking up on the compact ones (Ricoh is still considered ultra compact; though it is big when it comes to Compac IXUS 50).

Canon Powershot S1 IS shows up as one potential dig cam. With 10x optical zoom; 3.2 megapix. Its successor which looks really cool is S2 IS; which has got 12x optical zoom; 5.0 megapix. The close competitor is Sony Cybershot DSC-H1. Here's a comparison.

There are other models too which I have to check once I go to simlim again. Probably, if costs okay; I may be carrying a camera on my neck rather than in my pocket ;).

here is a photo of moon taken from Canon S2 IS using a converter.

cams and simlim^2

2005-07-31T14:09:00.000+08:00

Jurong Point: My original idea of cam was obv. Canon IXUS 50 ultra-compact. Cool looking, 3x Optical Zoom, and 5x Digital Zoom. I initially checkedout Harvey Norman -> "just enter and find everything double priced" shop. You can get this cam at $699 with 2 256MB SDCards; and tripod. Anyway, not my choice of shop.

Funan IT Mall: I had heard abt this shop in Funan, John which is on 2nd level I believe. A very small shop with long cameras, very long tripod stands, and a amazingly cheerful guy Sam("they call me John"). Prices were quite nice. The same cam he was giving for $650 along with other stuff like a leather case, 256 MB SDCard, tripod stand. well! here I get an advantage. I came out quite cheerful; deciding to buy asap. But, then! there is this place in singapore you can never leave. Hence, my way to Bugis.

Simlim Square: Enter simlim; make a student "dun have any money" look; dig them up with ur info abt the products; and talk low, at the end where no other customer is -> Simlim prices will stun you! The second shop I went into, I met this elder shopkeeper; and he introduced me to the outside of ultra-compact world with a new name -> Ricoh.
Ricoh : Model -> Ricoh Caplio R1V 4.8x Optical Zoom, 5x digital zoom, wide lens, amazing startup speed; and seemingly got singapore's best award. Made in Japan.
Anyway, that time I was not interested in any crap he tells me; I wanted a deal on old friend ultra-compact Canon IXUS 50. So, here's the deal -> will give you a leather case, a 256MB SDCard, a tripod, and software that's all for $450. emm... did I hear you right???

Ya! shop #01-35. Meet this guy and you can finalize a cool looking IXUS 50 for yourself. Kick those Harvey Norman f*ers.

Went a bit more here and there. Till now, 4.8x optical zoom had started ringing in my head. Next shop, compare both of them. 4 out of 5 shops I asked; Ricoh is Obv. the best to them. "And it got award also!" The old guy was saying it right! The 5th shop didn't have Ricoh; and obv. it was the most weird thing they had ever seen.
Went arnd; and checked for more Ricoh's. By now, I knew how to impress them by my knowledge on Ricoh. I started entering into deals.
Ricoh Caplio R1V
#01-43B : $550
#02-91: $485.
#01-25(Simlim Entrance): $500.

Got to pursue them for some time; and stand there staring; till they suddently type something on their calculators and the figure stuns you. One piece of advice: Never go off the shop too soon. Hang arnd!

Did I buy Ricoh? No! I came back to check out what net has to say abt it. Got quite some links.
Ricoh Caplio R1V review
another one

I liked the black body of R1V though I didn't see it in Simlim.

Well, I am after quality. I didn't really like the body of Ricoh, but, its image quality and its speed was very nice. Its got the world's fastest shutter speed; with amazing startup time. You have got to see it urself to believe it. I am carrying a bag pack; and can put the stuff inside it anyway! So, can compromize on ultra-compacts. The single most imp. thing I want is nightview of buildings. There is nothing better than that in a cool place like singapore. And, I am for ricoh, till I find a better one.

Btw, my research told me that the newer version of R1V is out, its called R2. Got the same features; but, has got 2.2" LCD display in comparison to 1.8" LCD in R1V. Also, has got a better look in terms of buttons; got more buttons, more shortcuts. Easier interface and all. Probably, can check that out, looks better than R1V. Here's it...

computers and an NTU[IIT]ian...

2005-07-30T11:34:00.000+08:00

Technical things always excite me. I dunno when it all started; but, probably, my love for computers is since the time I came to know there was a machine I cud control. For me it was like a slave I cud give commands to; and I say that coz, till now I feel like a master typing commands and seeing it execute them with perfection. Adding spice to it, sometimes I even feel angry if it doesn't obey me... Well, that's how my relationship with computer has been. I never really thot that I wd pursue it as a career, even as late as I was in +2. That time Aerospace and NASA was my only fantasy. I never wanted to be an astraunaut; esp. when my physique eludes me; but, being a NASA scientist and doing loads of complex things was my dream. Well, my IIT rank didn't allow that to happen, otherwise, today instead of being over here, I wd have been in Bombay or something, reading up all abt rockets and missiles. 1 year works wonders; and the year that I dropped to pursue my only dream that time (which was only IIT) changed my prospective towards my future also. Dreaming of being a very rich software engineer getting more than US $50,000 after studying from MIT or Stanford, I went random ways. Obv, it was the effect of staying with a rich family for the time when I was studying in Vidyamandir classes, Delhi. My studies were completely bonkers, didn't even study for 2 hrs a day; but, ya! all the embassies and overseas studies organizations I have visited. After being invited to University of Melbourne, Australia, ironically due to my still cool rank in IIT(first time, 2807); I was just too eager to go abroad. But, anyway, I had come to know abt NTU thro one of my (IIT Counselling) friends. Well, probably, that was my way to go if my IIT doesn't go well, I told myself. Second IIT Exam went crap! No hopes; probably not even the rank I got first time. But, anyway, I got selected by NTU and was just too happy to go to singapore and criticize IIT... hehe... But, IIT has its own position and it proves itself again and again in random ways. 2nd time I got 572. When I saw my rank, I got a shock. No more happiness, it was more like Why now? It was just too late for me to accept it anymore. I had spent 3 years for that; and now my prospectives had changed. After everyone told me to go to IIT, I came here. Its 2 years here, and I am still struggling to get good grades. Have done anything and everything; no use. The way of education over here goes exactly like in BITS pilani; something which I had never liked coz of its emphasis on core memory based learning. Probably, this place is even one step ahead than BITS Pilani.
Am I lamenting? No way... But, have surely learnt the most imp. lesson of my life.

Photography... hobby?

2005-07-28T16:30:00.000+08:00

	I like to click on photos esp. of those high rise buildings and the view from them. Last time, in Jan. I actually went to iDA building at Suntec Tower level 14 something. And, my mobile E398 is quite clear when clicking photos. There was this amazing view from their window; which I captured. Here it is...
I like this pond while going over to Suntec City from MRT. Just took a pic; but, not that nice actually. Am planning to buy a digital camera to have better views. Probably, will buy it before I go off to M'sia. Get a view from Petronas will be probably my priority (over work?) hehehe....
	This ultra-compact Canon SD400 looks really cool; the pic quality and all is really nice. Deepak sent me this link which actually compares 4 popular ultra-compacts. Sony ultra-compact looks really cool with black body and all; but, not having a space for docking on a tripod stand; think is not that nice. I had clicked some photos of Esplanade from a cool 5 MegPix camera but, they didn't come out clear; always shaky. Tripod is the only way out for clicking these lighted buildings. Anyway, just waiting for a first hand experience now :).

DayOne of bloggin

2005-07-27T03:46:00.000+08:00

Its early morning at Genvea and I am supposed to work ;). Deepak was all too excited abt this blogging stuff and he dropped me into it as well. And it seems nice also.
These days there is a lot of time for me to read novels coz of long travelling in MRTs and buses. So, I finally started after 'Prey'. I heard abt it in my first sem and wanted to read it; just cudn't anyhow do that till now. Probably, something similar is going to happen to 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons'. Anyway, so, I was just reading this book while going back to NTU in 179; and got so involved that didn't have any account of time. Suddenly at the end of chapter I realized that the bus reached my stop and I had to rush towards the gate before they closed... hmmphh... Really cool book man! Grasping.