The apple pie

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

This is the same place we had stopped at when we drove down the same
route on dec 17th 2007.

Sinful pit stop I say. Pooja is busy licking off the last bits of ice
cream and the pie.

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/496.

Apple crisp with vanilla icecream

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

–
Lunch break

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/495.

Another pic of the ultralight

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/494.

Pit stop

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

Myrtle creek airport. Ultra light weighs 170 lbs. Surprisingly, No FAA
licence needed. This one cost $7000.

Ok, back on the road

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/493.

Truck driver’s view

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

Fun!

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/492.

Mmmm breakfast

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

Our last breakfast at Sharis and in Oregon.

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/491.

The trucker’s clan

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

80 miles done. 570 more to go. This thing is a fuel drinker. Barely 8
miles to a gallon.

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/490.

गूगल बाबा की सौगातें हिन्दी के लिए जारी हैं. गूगल डॉक्स में कुछ समय पूर्व उपलब्ध हिन्दी वर्तनी जांच की सुविधा जो वापस ले ली गई थी, उसे बहाल कर दिया गया है और क्या ख़ूब किया गया है. यह एमएस ऑफ़िस हिन्दी की वर्तनी जांच सुविधा से सीधे टक्कर ले रहा है, और किसी मामले में कम नहीं है. बल्कि यह कहा जाए कि एमएस वर्ड से हिन्दी वर्तनी जांच से कुछ मामले में यह बीस है तो अतिशयोक्ति नहीं होगी. हाथ कंगन को आरसी क्या? नीचे स्क्रीनशॉट देखें.



हाँ, पर इसमें एमएस वर्ड हिन्दी में उपलब्ध थिसॉरस की सुविधा नहीं है. पर, उसकी जरूरत आम प्रयोक्ता को उतनी नहीं है जितनी मूलभूत हिन्दी वर्तनी जांच की. हिन्दी वर्तनी जांच की यह सुविधा जीमेल में भी उपलब्ध है. यानी मेरे ईमेल में वर्तनी की गलती अब नहीं होगी. हाँ, ये लिखते लिखते ही वर्तनी नहीं जांचता. पूरा लिखने के बाद वर्तनी जांच पर क्लिक करने पर यह जांचता है. वर्तनी जांच हेतु विकल्प में हिन्दी भाषा चुनें. नए शब्दों पर क्लिक करने पर यदा कदा यह वैकल्पिक शब्द भी सुझाता है तथा आपके शब्दकोश में जोड़ने की भी सुविधा प्रदान करता है जिससे इसके डाटाबेस में शीघ्र ही प्रचुर शब्द भंडार एकत्र होने की संभावना भी है.

तो, अब ब्लॉग पोस्ट प्रकाशित करने से पहले उसे गूगल डॉक्स में जांच लें. निकट भविष्य में सीधे ब्लॉगर एडिट बक्से से यह सुविधा उपलब्ध होनी ही है.

पर, व्याकरण का क्या करूं? लिखते लिखते, कहीं कहीं जाता हूं के बजाए जाती हूं हो जाता है. उम्मीद करें कि इसकी भी सुविधा हमें जल्द मिलेगी.

Pilot truck driver

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

–
Photographer : Mrs pilot truck driver

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/489.

Ok! Here we go

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/488.

पिछले हफ़्ते भारतीय भाषाओं के खोजक गुरुजी खोज द्वारा भारतीय फ़िल्म संगीत खोज के लिए एक नई सेवा प्रस्तुत किया गया.

वैसे तो हिन्दी फ़िल्मी गीतों को इंटरनेट पर ढूंढने के लिए कई प्रकल्प हैं, जिनमें एक प्रमुख, बढ़िया सेवा की कड़ी इस चिट्ठे की बाजू पट्टी में उपलब्ध है. यह सेवा भी अच्छे परिणाम देती है. परंतु आरंभिक जांच परख में गुरुजी संगीत खोज के परिणाम ज्यादा बेहतर रहे.

मैंने एक हिन्दी गाना उसके बोलों से ढूंढने की कोशिश की. जिसके बोल हैं – रेखा ओ रेखा जिसने तुम्हें देखा.


गुरूजी संगीत खोज इस गीत की कोई तीन कड़ियाँ खोज लाया और उसमें से कोई दो कड़ी पर उसके ऑनलाइन प्लेयर पर सुना भी जा सका. तीसरी कड़ी, बस देर तक लोड होती रही और बजी नहीं.


गुरुजी संगीत खोज में आप गानों के बोल, गायक, संगीत कार, फ़िल्म, गीत कार, कलाकार (एक्टर), एलबम इत्यादि के आधार पर भी खोज सकते हैं. 1932 से लेकर 2008 तक के हिन्दी (अन्य भारतीय भाषाओं के गाने भी) आप ढूंढ सकते हैं.

गुरुजी संगीत खोज में अभी आप हिन्दी गानों को सिर्फ रोमन में ही खोज सकते हैं. इसके पीछे कारण ये है कि अधिकतर सर्वरों में इन गानों को इनके रोमन नामों व उच्चारणों के आधार पर सहेजा गया है. जिससे यूनिकोड हिन्दी के द्वारा खोजा जाना अभी लागू नहीं हो पाया है. संभवतः भविष्य में रोमन-देवनागरी परिवर्तन के जरिए शायद ये भी संभव हो जाए.

कुल मिलाकर, यदि आप मेरी तरह संगीत के दीवाने हैं तो आपके लिए निश्चित ही काम की सेवा. अभी ही बुकमार्क कीजिए.

All packed and ready to go

Originally uploaded by Dalfry

From the looks of it this is going to be a fun trip. 600 miles at 50
mph and the loong load. I am all excited already.

Thanks to iPhone to email to flickr to wordpress to livejournal, plan
is to keep updating this blog all along the way.

Originally posted at http://vsharma.net/487.

I’ve been looking for some really light games, ones that don’t suck up too much of time and are yet fun to play. I’ve already played the standard games you usually play on Linux: TuxRacer, BZFlag, Neverball, Armagetron AD, Frozen Bubble, Battle for Wesnoth, Pingus; and DotA was getting a little too heavy. I highly recommend these games if you haven’t played them, by the way.

I was reminded of the Win’ 95 days (my first computer) - we used to have a lot of great DOS games back then which had no eye-candy, but great gameplay. After a little Googling, I came across DOSBox, and its smooth OS X wrapper, Boxer. DOSBox is an emulator that can be used to play DOS-based games - neat, eh? I managed to get some of my really old favorites: Bio Menace, SkyRoads and Major Stryker. I used to play shareware versions of Apogee games before, but was really happy to know that Apogee (now 3DRealms) released full versions of Bio Menace and Major Stryker for free (as in beer). SkyRoads is also put up as a download on the creator’s website. Yay, now I can play those fun-filled levels that were previously hidden to me

   

While we’re on the topic, I should also mention Alex 4. Alex the allegator is a series of games by Johan Peitz (of Free Lunch Design fame - I still can’t forget Icy Tower!). The Alex series is special in the sense that the source is also available (it’s written using Allegro), so it has been ported to Mac OS X and BeOS

Have fun!

To configure printer in Samba (For CUPS):
1. Install Printer in CUPS and test it.
2. Use following configuration in smb.conf:

In "global" section add following -->

printcap name = cups
lock directory = /var/lock/samba
printing = cups
print command = 
lpq command = %p
lprm command = 

In "shares" -->

[printers]
	comment = All Printers
	path = /var/spool/samba
	guest ok = Yes
	printable = Yes
	browseable = No

[hp_LaserJet_1320]               -------------> You can give any name to share
	comment = hp_LaserJet_1320
	path = /var/spool/samba
	read only = No
	guest ok = Yes
	printable = Yes
	printer name = hp_LaserJet_1320  ----> Use Printer name
	use client driver = Yes          ----> This is very IMP otherwise u can get
	oplocks = No			       Error of access denied in windows.
	share modes = No

And Restart Samba

Enjoy.....

Thanks to Rodrigo’s work, simple-ccsm now has a switch to easily enable/disable Compiz.

On openSUSE 11.0 users will not have to fiddle with any commandline, hack scripts or xorg.conf to enable Compiz. AIGLX is enabled by default on all the supported hardwares, and as soon as ATI/NVIDIA drivers are installed via 1-click, so all that is required is launch simple-ccsm (Desktop Effects) application and enable compiz.

In case you are wondering what theme I am using, it is just the default openSUSE gilouch theme, greened just the way I like it. Download and drag and drop the tarball on “Appearence” caplet if you want it too.

There have been many times where I’ve been asked for “career advice”, especially after a talk. I usually suggest them to ‘build a repertoire of things you have done, things you are capable of, things you like to do’. But I’ve never really been sure of this advice nor do I feel I have the credibility to answer such questions.

The good thing is that I have now found something to point them to - Garr Reynolds‘ presentation on a career advice book. This presentation explain things very well and is so beautifully done that it can capture the attention of a young mind:

The other resource I have found useful is Aaron Swartz’s “How to Get a Job Like Mine”.

---

Cultivating a good career is like creating the Mona Lisa. The right tools and strategies will only get you partway there - the soul of the artist is necessary to create something worthwhile.

– Steve Pavlina

---

© Swaroop for Swaroop C H, The Dreamer, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | Want more on these topics? Browse the archive of posts filed under Life, Work.

There are days when one takes a step back and thanks whosoever is watching above us for being generous, kind and making magic happen. Magic has been happening for a decade now

Life is never easy for an open source evangelist. The OOXML drama came to a close on 2nd April 2008 and we were on to our next issue -- software patents. The Draft Patent Manual might end up bringing software patents through the back door. this would be surprising because the Indian parliament explicitly rejected software patents in the Patent Amendment Act 2005. In this blog, I am including extracts from a letter that I sent to the Patent Office on 11th April 2008. The deadline for comments was 15th April 2008.

Software patents in India as per Clause 3(k) of the Indian Patent Act

We find that the Draft Patent Manual seeks to introduce software patents and we believe that this is not in consonance with the current legal situation India where Clause 3(k) of the Indian Patent Act clearly says,

“A mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms are not patentable”.

You may recall that the Patent Amendment Act 2005 sought to introduce software patents. The amendment proposed in the Patent Amendment Act 2005 for Clause 3(k) was,

“a computer programme per se other than its technical application to industry or a combination with hardware; a mathematical method or a business method or algorithms.”

However, this amendment was rejected by the Indian Parliament, which chose to retain Clause 3(k) as it is. On reviewing the Draft Patent Manual, we find that it seeks to make technical applications of software patentable. As you can see from the above, this approach was explicitly rejected by the Indian Parliament. The relevant section of the Draft says:

Draft Manual 4.11.7
4.A mathematical method is one which is carried out on numbers and provides a result in numerical form (the mathematical method or algorithm therefore being merely an
abstract concept prescribing how to operate on the numbers) and not patentable. However, its application may well be patentable, for example, in Vicom/Computer-related invention [1987] 1 OJEPO 14 (T208/84) the invention concerned a mathematical method for manipulating data representing an image, leading to an enhanced digital image. Claims to a method of digitally filtering data performed on a conventional general purpose computer were rejected, since those claims were held to define an abstract concept not distinguished from a mathematical method. However, claims to a method of image processing which used the mathematical method to operate on numbers representing an image can be allowed. The reasoning was that the image processing performed was a technical (i.e. non- excluded) process which related to technical quality of the image and that a claim directed to a technical process in which the method used does not seek protection for the mathematical method as such. Therefore the allowable claims as such went beyond a mathematical method.

Open Source Software and software patents from a national perspective

We would also like to add that the Government of India has identified open source software as a strategic tool for e-governance and for bridging the digital divide in India. The Department of IT's 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) says,

“If computer adoption has to reach from current 1% of population to say 5% in next five years, we have to seriously pursue some other route, viz., that of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS).”

The National Knowledge Commission, in a report submitted to the Prime Minister of India, says,

“Because of the enormous size and scope of the E-governance effort in India and because of the availability of globally recognized software talent of Indians, we must actively encourage open source software implementations and open standards wherever possible.”

Open Source Software is built in a collaborative manner by developers spread across the world who share source code and build upon each other's works. In his book, “The Success of Open Source,” the noted political scientist, Prof. Steven Weber, Director of the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, says,

“The conventional notion of property is the right to exclude. Property in open source is configured fundamentally around the right to distribute, not to exclude.”

The GNU General Public License, which is used by almost 60 percent of open source software explicitly states that if you modify and redistribute source code licensed under the GPL, you have to share the resultant changes with others. This legal framework has lead to enormous innovation and technology collaboration on a scale that's never been witnessed before. For example, the Linux operating system, which began life in September 1991 has now grown into more than 100 million lines of code.

The freedom to modify the source code and share the changes has benefited India immensely. Many linguistic groups have localized the Graphical User Interface of Linux into more than 11 Indian languages so that non-English speakers can also benefit from the power of digital technology. Open Source Software like Orca help the visually handicapped use computers with ease and skill. Many national mission-mode projects in e-governance make extensive use of open source software. In almost all fields of IT, open source software has emerged as a powerful alternative to expensive, proprietary software, which have restrictive licensing schemes. Developing countries, across the world have therefore embraced open source software with open arms in light of its strategic long-term benefits.

It is for these reasons that the respected technologist and past president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, said,

“In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people."

Open source software is one of the most dynamic, innovative sectors of the global economy, but the patent system is a costly hindrance to open source innovation. We believe that although the patent system was created to foster innovation, it’s simply not an engine for innovation for open source. Software patents were barely recognized when open source began, and so the hope of obtaining a patent did not motivate the first developers. Those pioneers were generally opposed to software patents. The open, collaborative activity at the heart of open source is at odds with the patent system, which excludes the public from making, using or selling a patented invention. Open source developers seek to contribute code to the community – not to exclude others from using the code.

Today the patent system is, if anything, a hindrance to open source. Developers face the risk that the original code they have written in good faith could be deemed to infringe an existing software patent. Software patents are difficult to interpret, even for experts in computer science and software engineering. Experts often disagree as to whether a particular patent claim covers a particular program. Thus, a risk of litigation exist for every open source project, and the potential cost of patent litigation can be ruinous, especially for startup companies.

Given the litigation risk, some open source companies, including Red Hat, acquire patents for the sole purpose of asserting them defensively in the event they are faced with a future lawsuit. Despite the hindrances of the global patent system, open source continues to expand at an exponential rate. One can only imagine how that expansion would accelerate if the braking effect of the patent system were lifted.

Given the fact that (a) that Indian legislators have clearly chosen to exclude software from the list of patentable inventions (b) that open source software is important to India's long-term strategic interests, and (c) there is a growing global outcry against software patents, we hereby request you to ensure that the Draft Patent Manual reflects the will and intent of the Indian Parliament.

LETTER ENDS

We will keep track of the developments around the Draft Patent Manual. This might prove to be a challenging task because I hear that there is a powerful pro software patents lobby at work. Keep watching this blog.

I finally know what a bee sting feels like!

ग्रांड थेफ़्ट ऑटो 4 : हिंसा व यौन अपराधों से भरपूर, नया ताज़ातरीन वीडियो गेम

स्पेस वार और पांग जैसे शुरूआती कम्प्यूटर और वीडियो गेमों के प्रेमियों ने कभी ये अनुमान नहीं लगाया होगा. वीडियो गेम के पुरातन हीरो मारियो ब्रदर्स जैसे प्यारे व्यक्तित्व का ग्रांड थेफ़्ट ऑटों के आधुनिक निको बैलिक जैसे अपराधी और कामुक ख़ूनी के रूप में परिवर्तन - जिसका काम ही, यथा-नाम-तथा-गुण, मोटर-बाइकों और कारों की चोरी से प्रारंभ होता हो – निश्चित ही हाहाकारी है.


मगर, खेल प्रेमियों ने इसे हाथों हाथ लिया है. ये सचमुच आश्चर्य है कि दुनिया अपराध से इतना प्यार क्यों करती है? 29 अप्रैल 2008 को इसके जारी होने के पाँच दिनों के भीतर ही प्लेस्टेशन और एक्सबॉक्स 360 के लिए एक साथ जारी ग्रांड थेफ़्ट ऑटो 4 की 9 लाख 26 हजार प्रतियाँ हाथों हाथ बिक गईं और यह वीडियो खेलों में अब तक का सबसे ज्यादा बिकने वाला वीडियो गेम बन गया. चंद शुरूआती दिनों में ही इसके निर्माता रॉकस्टार नॉर्थ को कोई 200 करोड़ रुपए की आय हो चुकी है. एक अनुमान के अनुसार यह पाइरेट्स ऑफ कैरिबियन श्रेणी की सबसे सफल फ़िल्म से भी ज्यादा का व्यवसाय करेगी. यह ग्रांड थेफ़्ट ऑटो श्रेणी का ऐसा पहला वीडियो गेम है जिसे ऑनलाइन मल्टीप्लेयर मोड में भी खेला जा सकता है.

ग्रांड थेफ़्ट ऑटो में रॉकस्टार नार्थ का रेग तथा यूफ़ोरिया गेम इंजिन है जिसमें खेल का संचालन पहले से लिखे गए, तयशुदा दृश्यों पर चलने के बजाए कृत्रिम बुद्धि का प्रयोग कर खिलाड़ी के चाल व मौजूद दृश्यों पर निर्भर करता है. इससे गेम खेलने वाले को हर बार एक नया सा अनुभव तो होता ही है, यह वास्तविक दुनिया का सा रोमांच भी देता है. तो जरा रोमांचित होकर सोचिए कि आप अपने किसी प्रतिद्वंद्वी का गला रेत रहे हों, वह तड़प रहा हो और उसके गले से भल – भल ख़ून बह रहा हो...

आमतौर पर, अभिभावक अपने बच्चों को वीडियो गेम खेलते देख संतुष्ट हो लेते हैं कि इससे ज्यादा नुकसान नहीं है, और यह एक तरीके का स्वस्थ मनोरंजन है, और कुछ मामले में इसके फ़ायदे भी हैं. मगर ग्रांड थैफ़्ट ऑटो 4 (इसके पूर्व के संस्करण भी ऐसे दृश्यों से भरपूर हैं) जैसे खेल जो अपराध, सेक्स और हिंसा के ताने बाने पर बुने हों, बाल मन पर किस तरह उलटा असर डाल सकते हैं इसकी कल्पना नहीं की जा सकती. वैसे तो ग्रांड थेफ़्ट ऑटो को वयस्क खेलों की श्रेणी में जारी किया गया है, मगर भारत जैसे देश में जहाँ चीयर गर्ल्स या सानिया मिर्जा के ड्रेस पर तो हो हल्ला मचाया जाता है, मगर इस तरह के वीडियो गेम बिना किसी सेंसर के वैध और अवैध (नकली, पायरेटेड) हर कहीं हर किसी को बेरोकटोक उपलब्ध हो जाते हैं. और इन पर किसी को कोई आपत्ति भी नहीं होती है. जाहिर है, इस क़िस्म के वीडियो खेलों में कहीं ज्यादा हिंसा और नंगई होती है, और वे कहीं ज्यादा नुकसान कर सकते हैं.

इस वीडियो गेम को ऑस्ट्रेलिया और न्यूज़ीलैंड में जारी करने से पूर्व (वहां के कानून के पालनार्थ) इसमें निहित अत्यधिक हिंसा और उत्तेजक यौन / मैथुन दृश्यों को हटा दिया गया है. भारत में इस तरह का कानून वीडियो खेलों के लिए नहीं ही है – वीडियो गेमों के लिए सेंसर बोर्ड जैसा प्रकल्प नहीं है जो खेलों में निहित इस तरह की चीजों की जांच पड़ताल कर इन्हें जारी करे. और, यदि ये जांच पड़ताल होती भी हैं तो पाइरेसी के चलते वैसे भी इस तरह के कदम निष्प्रभावी ही रहेंगे.

इस तरह के हिंसा व सेक्स से भरे खेलों पर प्रतिबंध के लिए तमाम तरफ से विरोधों के स्वर उठते रहे हैं. फ्लोरिडा, अमरीका के वकील (ग्रांड थैफ़्ट ऑटो – न्यूयॉर्क शहर के नए, नक़ली रूप लिबर्टी सिटी पर आधारित है) जैक थॉमसन बहुत पहले से ही इस अभियान में लगे हैं कि बच्चों व किशोरों को ग्रांड थैफ़्ट ऑटो जैसे यौन दृश्यों व हिंसा से भरपूर खेलों की बिक्री किसी सूरत न हो सके. मगर इस खेल की रेटिंग वयस्क कर दी गई है परंतु इसके अवयस्कों द्वारा खरीदने बेचने पर पाबंदी नहीं है. ग्रांड थैफ़्ट ऑटो 4 भले ही भारत में अभी वैध रूप से विक्रय हेतु जारी नहीं किया गया हो, मगर इसकी पायरेटेड कॉपियाँ पालिका बाजार जैसी जगहों में आसानी से उपलब्ध हैं. जाहिरा तौर पर, बच्चों व किशोरों के पालकों को ही खबरदार रहना होगा.

Yesterday, I wrote my last examination; and that would mean that I am a Bachelor of Technology now*. It reminds me of my last board examination in Class XII, a little over 4 years ago. That was the first major crossroad in my life, and here I am again at my second. Looking back on the last 4 years of college life, I can easily conclude that they played the most significant role in shaping me into the individual I am today - technically and socially - and I am confident that I made the right choices along the way.

* (Conditions Apply)

What now? A graduate in my position has two choices: a) To work, or, b) To study further. Now, this one is a difficult choice to make, and there’s no saying what’s best for you. I haven’t thought about it all that much, but I am definitely more inclined towards earning a Masters degree at a minimum. To that effect, I had applied to several colleges in California (you know why), in addition to the Vrije Universiteit and EPFL. I got acceptances from UC Irvine and VU - I think I will fit better at VU because the course (Masters in Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems) looks really interesting to me - and also because Amsterdam is a better city than Irvine :p

I also have plans for the summer: I’m really excited to be a part of the Mozilla Interns program this year. My VISA was granted a few weeks earlier after a (to my surprise) really brief interview at the US Embassy in New Delhi. I’ll be joining the team at Mozilla Labs to hack on Weave, beginning May 19. This summer is going to be really fun, because apart from the awesomeness of being paid to write open source code at one of the best organizations in the world, this will also be my first trip to the land of opportunities. Hooray

Well, I still have 7 days more to spend at college. The parting is going to be bittersweet - while I’m going to be sad to leave my friends and college life (which is way more cooler than normal life, if you didn’t know), I’m also really enthusiastic and curious about where my future is going to take me.

Kurinji raga is derived from the 29th melakarta Sankarabharanam. It is a sampoorna raga with vakra sancharas (needs a separate post) in the arohana and avarohana.

A: s r g m g m p d n s
Av: s n p n d d p m g r s
The notes taken by the raga besides Shadjam and Pancham are :: R2-Chatusruti rishabham, G2-Antara gandharam, M1-shudha madyamam, D2-Chatusruti daivatam and N2-kaishiki Nishadham. Jiva and nyasa swaras are G, P, N. The phrase “snNS” has N as tevra swara and the upanga raga has all the notes rendered with gamaka.

Since the svara sanchara is limited, it is sung in madhyama (slow tempo) shruti in vilambit laya to enhance feelings of compassion. Kurinji is actually a Tamil folk tune adopted into Karnatic music.

[1] Kshirabdi Kanyakaku | KhandaChapu (29MelaJanyam) | Annamacharya | Telugu |
[2] Muddugare Yashoda | Adi | Annamacharya | Telugu |
NotreBene : Time permitting, I shall add data, so consider the raga-series a perpetual work-in-progress. Thanks for using a track-back to this original blog entry instead of copying!

That's right! You can go and attend The great Indian Developer Summit. Last I checked they had about forty sponsors. Seems just like the conference one should run away from. The dopes don't even know how to write JavaScrip, try the menus.

I happen to be currently reading Robin Sharma's "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" (in addition to a couple of other books in Fantasy & Management generes). This book preaches some of India's ancient wisdom in a story format that makes it more appealing to the masses & as well as makes for a good read. The format immediately reminded me of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead.

"The Monk ..." encourages people to dream and advocates following ones deepest desire to be happy in life. It makes us think back to our childhood days when we had big & small dreams and the times when we were elated and full of life because of these dreams. Makes sense to me personally, don't know what others feel about it. People might however claim that this is in stark contrast to Buddhism which states that desire is the root cause of misery. Well, each to his own philosophy. ;) And we will come back to the book a bit later.

Today I came across a blog post by Seth Godin, a well known author of many marketing books. (In fact wikipedia claims his blog to be the most famous marketing blog.)In this post called "The Media markets", Seth claims that the product the Media companies sell is not news but drama.

And he goes on to prove it with this sample image (on the right) which he has marked with green ticks next to every statement on the page that might be considered 'true' but could certainly be considered irrelevant, or at least unimportant compared to the actual 'news'.

I can not help but agree to what he says next:

The page would have been more accurate if it had said things like, "Obama gains more than 200,000 votes over Clinton" or "Obama campaign further extends delegate lead, picking up 12 more delegates" or even "Obama pummels Clinton in the bigger state."

But what struck me hardest was this piece of information: "That's not dramatic, though, and as William Randolph Hearst taught us a long time ago, the goal is to sell newspapers, not to report the news."

This triggered me to remember the last book I have completed, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series' 10 book, Moving Pictures.

The book takes place in Discworld's most famous city, Ankh-Morpork and a town called "Holy Wood". And yes, its all a hillaric roller coaster parody of what Hollywood is all about - selling larger than life dreams.

In the story, which is set in a world that is shaped like a disc carried on the back of four gigantic elephants standing on the carapace of a star sized turtle, holy wood brings a new kind of magic to the discworld that is powered by people's belief in the larger than life dreams woven by the movies. In the puntastic climax ;) the protagonist - Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little." ... obviously a caricature of Fred Astaire) summons a horse, leaps from tall buildings, runs up an ancient tower that obviously has many missing steps, does not lack stamina, etc. by just making the camera roll. He is magically transformed by the power of the belief that people have in the make believe world. People believe that he really jumps from cliffs, people believe that he really does all those heroic deeds in the movies.

Now cut to the IPL. Everybody agrees its no longer about the Cricket. Its about the glamor, the aspirations they sell. It is no longer a game, a sport. It is all about selling drama.

And drama is nothing but someone else's dreams that are sold to us in a manner that they resonate with our own dreams.And people aremaking huge bucket loads of money by selling us those dreams that we should have been dreaming in the first place.

"The Monk ..." says that our brain has huge unleveraged potential & powers that are beyond us in the normal course of life. This has also been proven by recent scientific studies. So its not merely a word of mouth cultural philosophy of us Indians. It is not the first time I have read about it. Even Dr. Abdul Kalam asks us to dream. The mental images formed out of our dreams have huge power in the real world too, if we hold on to them strongly for long enough.

Well, some people go further and claim that the seances that some clairvoyants have are because of the power of their thoughts. And with those mental prowess they can even make things out of the air! Psychokineis, Thoughtform, Levitation, etc. etc. are controversial paranormal claims that though unproven depend on the power of the mind.

Irrespective of our stance on the paranormal theories, we have to concede that our dreams have huge capabilities. Japan bounced back from its nuclear holocaust in merely a couple of decades. Singapore & other ASEAN countries, in abject poverty worse than ours, went ahead of India in the matter of mere decades again.

Crass commercialization is all because of people selling us their dreams to us. All because we have stopped dreaming for ourselves!

Dreams have the potential to unlock the hidden happiness in our lives. Don't let others dream for you.

So we (some of us students) met and decided to do something about the sudden implementation of the Internet shutdown from 0000-0600. Some updates:

The intimation about doing this was sent at 2357 hours today (yesterday, to be precise) to all. The notification basically stated that because of “undesirable activities”, Internet will, with immediate effect, be disabled from 0000 to 0600 every day. And that’s it -- poof. The hostel network is disconnected from the rest of the Institute, thus making sure that nobody can access the Internet (or even the Institute’s own computing facilities). To compensate, the Computer Center (with a capacity of <200 computers) is to be kept open 24x7.

Of course, this was unacceptable, so a bunch of us decided that something needs to be done. There are 2 issues -- the decision, and how it was implemented. While the decision itself needs discussion (more about this later), the implementation is of immediate concern. People were not prepared, and work on several people's theses were affected. Plus, this has been done just a little after the end-semester exams, when most students are not on campus. This sort of fascism usually rears its head under precisely these circumstances. We decided that what needed to be addressed right now is the implementation -- the Internet has to be made available this night.

A couple of our student representatives spoke to the Dean of Student Affairs (the DoSA -- the official channel between the students and the administration). The DoSA basically said that they, the various Deans and the Director (and Deputy Director?) have made the decision at nothing would be done about it. More precisely, the Director, as the highest power in the Institute has taken the decision and that's that. Further discussion may be taken up with him.

About 60-70 of us went to the Director's house at about 2:30 (the entire process was peaceful -- there was not shouting or slogans). We met with the security, who called the Head of the Computer Center (CC) and the DoSA to the place after some attempted dodging.

The CC Head turned up first and started asking what our problem was. He offered such resources as a vehicle to transfer us from hostel to CC as well as as many pen-drives as we require to transfer data from our machines to the CC machines. The DoSA just said that we’ve given you 2 years to think about whether this should be implementing it, and now we will be implementing it, so there.

Our student representatives (who did a pretty good job), after some dialogue, got the connection reinstated for tonight. They will be further taking up the issue later today.

The decision itself is extremely foolish, of course. Moreover, the dictatorial way in which this is being done is just as shocking. Let’s see how things pan out in time. Perhaps sense and sanity will prevail.

It all started on Monday last week when Lakshman tweeted if anybody was game for a weekend trip. Ashwin tweeted back saying yes.

Later they asked me over email. My reply was “Why Ooty!?”. They replied saying “It doesn’t matter. We’re going for the drive.” Two days later, we three were driving to Ooty on bikes at night.

My descriptions below are in twitter style as an ode to how the trip happened. ( But of course, my usual writing style will resume after this post )

We started off at 8 at night. First stop was some lip-smacking food at Kamat Lokaruchi:

9.10 pm : We’re on the way! 3 twitterers on bikes.

9.25 pm : Getting out of Bangalore is the toughest thing.

9.30 pm : @scorpion032 says 2020 will also be the year of the linux desktop.

10.32 pm : @cruisemaniac and @scorpion032 are tweeting away…

1.40 am : Taking a break.

2.33 am : Admiring the mysore palace…

3.16 am : Sleep getting to me… But we’re taking breaks and having fun. In Nanjangud.

3.20 am : Another break.

3.34 am : Listening to My Sacrifice at 330 am at 70 kmph on bike with the wind in your hair is something to be experienced.

4.10 am : We find a freakin’ coffee day in the middle of nowhere. Waiting for capuccino.

6.15 am : Mudumulai forest.

6.20 am : Animals! Elephant, deer, peacock, mongoose, eagle, woodpecker, … All right there next to us… Thank heavens the elephant didn’t think we were pesky…

6.45 am : Exiting Mudumulai forest.

My favorite photo from this trip (notice the clouds and the bike):

Read the rest of the story »

---

© Swaroop for Swaroop C H, The Dreamer, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Want more on these topics? Browse the archive of posts filed under Community, India, People, Photos, Tech, Trip, Web.

So it’s done, then. No Internet access in hostels between 12 midnight and 6 am. This is the most idiotic and regressive thing our administration has done in ages. This with absolutely no discussion with the students.

I don’t know how this college (IIT Kanpur) got to be administered by a bunch of fucking neanderthals.

to my utter surprise found that Debian lenny DVD-1 didnt have wvdial on it!
one explaination by kart_ was that most debian folks use something better than dialup.. so wvdial probably went out of the priority!

आपसे मेरा एक छोटा सा सवाल है - धनवान कौन?

प्रसंगवश, आज ही डॉ. अनिल चड्ढा ने अपने चिट्ठे में पूछा है - भिखारी कौन?

भिखारी कौन है ये जानने के लिए आपको डॉ. अनिल चड्ढा के चिट्ठे के ऊपर दिए गए लिंक पर जाना होगा. और धनवान कौन है ये जानने के लिए शेयर बाजार के खबरों व विश्लेषणों पर आधारित विश्व के पहले हिन्दी पोर्टल मोलतोल.इन पर जाना होगा. यदि आप समझते हैं कि आप धनवान नहीं हैं, तो धनवान बनने के लिए टिप्स और युक्तियाँ पाने के लिए यहाँ जाएं. और यदि आप समझते हैं कि आप धनवान हैं, तो अति-धनवान बनने के लिए, और अधिक धनवान कैसे बनें इस हेतु जानकारियाँ प्राप्त करने के लिए उपयोगी मोलतोल.इन से बेहतर कोई और जगह हो सकती है भला!

मोलतोल.इन का आरंभिक कलेवर और सामग्री स्तरीय दिखाई देता है. पाठकों व निवेशकों को शेयर बाजार में निवेश के प्रभावी तरीकों के बारे में, उम्मीद करें कि यह साइट नियमित रूप से अपडेट करती रहेगी.

मोलतोल.इन को शुभकामनाएं.

तो फिर, अब जरा सोच समझ कर बताएं, आप अपने आप को धनवान मानते हैं कि नहीं?

santhoshtr has been looking for volunteers to help him out with Dhvani in Bengali. You need to be fairly skilled with programming in C, a native Bengali speaker (reading, writing, comprehension and understanding of correct pronounciation skills) and of-course excited enough to work on an award-winning project. Catch hold of Santhosh and do let him know if you like to participate in the project.

How to get Recycle bin in samba ?

Put following lines in smb.conf under shares.

=================
vfs objects = recycle
recycle:keeptree = yes
recycle:versions = yes
=================

and dont forget to restart samba whenever we make changes in smb.conf.

It will create .recycle directory under the main dir. In that you can find all deleted items.

Enjoy.....

I found some parameters for tuning Samba. They are as follows:

===================
use sendfile = yes
strict locking = no
read raw = yes
write raw = yes
oplocks = yes
max xmit = 65535
deadtime = 15
getwd cache = yes
socket options = IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY SO_SNDBUF=16384 SO_RCVBUF=16384
===============

All these are global parameters.

The more I talk to my friends in industry and the free and open source
software communities, the more I am convinced that one of the most
important things we can do is to get open source software a part of the
syllabus.

One of the first things we need to make this happen is to rid the
syllabus of its proprietary bias. If you or your friends come across
examples where the syllabus mandates proprietary software, please report
it at the Syllabus Change page (thanks to Anivar for setting this up):

http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Syllabus_Review

Wherever possible, add links to the syllabus and descriptions of the
proprietary bias in the syllabus. We will take this issue up with the
education ministry and all the major political parties in India.

Let us ensure that the next generation of Indian students grow up as an
open source generation!