Techie Talk

This is a post which had been emailed to get posted on my blog

2006-11-28T08:01:00.000-08:00

This feature is cool :D
You can now email your articles to an email address
which will in turn post them on your blog.

This is one of the many ways to post a blog :D

Happy blogging !!!

vg...

Internet 2.0

2006-11-28T04:13:00.000-08:00

World Wide Web saw a great revolution which changed the way we surfed websites and used the Internet.

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a supposed second generation of Internet-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.

Major websites which got famous and widely used are orkut.com, maps.google.com, live.com, skype.com, youtube.com, flickr.com, youos.com and many more.

This revolution also gave us a new place: network computer. PC is being dominated by network computer. This is nothing but a website where you can edit documents/spreadsheets, upload and browse photos or videos, share information thru' wikis, send mails. There is a wide spread spectrum of services available.

You think of it and it is there. If it is not already implemented, people are coming with bright ideas and implementing them to make netizens life easier.

Good part of these services is: they are FREE. They survive by the revenue through ads mostly. Best example is Google. It has been the biggest beneficiary of Web 2.0. Starting from gmail, orkut, maps, calendar, everything is a creation of web 2.0.

The best thing is yet to come.

Future will be for those who offer fast and free communications/networking services. They include talking, photo sharing sites, video sharing, social networking sites. The list is not exhaustive and can include more.

More about this topic in future blogs of mine :)

vg...

Static Shocks

2006-02-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

Many people ask about shocks experienced when they touch the door, filing cabinet, lift, or other metal object.

Here is a simple know-how about it:

Static electricity is generated whenever two materials are in contact with each other. All materials are made of electrical charges in the material atoms. In the universe there are equal amounts of negative electrical charge (electrons) and positive charge (protons). These generally try to stay in balance of equal amounts at every location.

However, when two materials are in contact, some of the charges redistribute by moving from one material to the other. This leaves an excess of positive charge on one material, and an equal negative charge on the other. When the materials move apart, each takes it's charge with it. One material becomes charged positively, and the other negatively.

If the materials are able to conduct electricity away the charges will dissipate and eventually recombine. In this case, static electricity effects may be too small to be noticed. However, if the charges are separated faster than the material can dissipate them, the amount of electrostatic charge builds up. Eventually a high voltage, and the effects of static electricity, may be noticed.

If you experience static shocks while working in an area where flammable atmospheres (solvent vapours or dust clouds) might be present, seek advice immediately. There may be a fire or explosion risk.

Why do I get shocks when I touch the door knob or filing cabinet?

Most modern shoes have highly insulating rubber or plastic soles. As you walk, static charges can build up on the soles of the shoes. This is especially true if the floor is also insulating. Some older nylon carpets are particularly good at generating static electricity.

The charge on the shoes soles induces static electrical charge on your body, and this charge appears as a high voltage. Under severe conditions, more than 15,000 Volts have been recorded. It is quite common to experience 5,000V. In fact, many people do not feel a shock from a static electricity discharge less than about 2,000-4,000V.

If you are indoors, the point can be proved by walking around for a while with no shoes on - you will probably not experience shocks
I get shocks when I'm sitting, or get up from the chair - and I haven't walked anywhere!

When you sit in a chair the contact between your clothes and the chair can generate a lot of electrostatic charge on your clothes. While you stay in contact with the chair your body voltage stays low. If you lean forward so you back moves away from the chair back, or if you get up out of the chair, then you take the electrostatic charge with you. Your body voltage can rise very rapidly to a high voltage as the charge is separated from it's counter charge on the chair.

Why do I experience shocks, when my colleagues do not?

There are many reasons why this might be so. Firstly, some people are more sensitive to shocks than others. For most people, the threshold for feeling shocks is in the range 2,000-4,000V.

Secondly, you may be storing more static electricity than others. This depends on the size of your body and feet, and the thickness of your shoe soles! A bigger body, bigger feet, and thinner shoe soles, means more charge has to be stored to produce the same voltage. This gives a higher energy electrostatic discharge.

Thirdly, you may be generating more charge than others. This may be due to the material of your shoe soles, or the way that you walk. If it happens when sitting, it may be due to the material of your clothes, and the amount of static they generate against your chair.
Does the weather affect static electricity?

Static charge build-up is enhanced when the air is dry. So, static problems and effects are often noticed in dry air conditions. The air outside can be very dry when the weather is cold and dry. Indoors, central heating or air conditioning can give very dry conditions which promote static electricity. Heating warms the air and reduces its humidity.

Static shocks are often noticed in cold dry weather, especially when in a centrally heated environment, and may disappear when the weather gets more humid. Static shocks may also be encouraged under air conditioning in hot weather.

How can I stop static shocks?

Unfortunately cure is not always easy. Indoors, you can try raising the air humidity to 40-50% rh with a humidifier. (You can check the humidity with a cheap humidity meter from a gardening shop.) Also, look for shoes with natural material soles (e.g. leather). In the electronics industry, and in areas where electrostatic sparks could cause a fire hazard, people often wear specially designed static dissipative shoes to reduce electrostatic charge build-up on the body. It is less likely that problems will be experienced with non-polymer floors, such as cement or wood (although varnishes can cause problems). However, replacing the floor can be expensive!

It is possible to treat some floors with static dissipative treatments - but the benefit of this will probably wear off after a while.

I get shocks when I'm shopping - how can I stop this?

Once again, you build up electrostatic charge as you walk around. However, if you're pushing a trolley, the wheels of the trolley can also generate static electricity. As you walk around, you and the trolley both store charge and reach a high voltage. When you reach to touch something, you get a shock.

These effects are made worse by the warm dry air in many shopping areas, and the floor coverings which are used. Even if they were treated against static electricity when installed, this treatment may have work off.

As before, if you wear leather soled shoes while you shop, this may help. Otherwise, you could try holding a key and touching some metal rack with it, to discharge the static electricity painlessly before you touch things by hand.

Sadly, the cure is probably in the hands of the shop facility managers, who may need to maintain or replace the floor covering or trolleys.

Are static shocks a health risk?

Fortunately there is little risk attached to such electrostatic discharges. In most cases they are just a common nuisance.

The biggest risk is that a shock could cause you to have an accidental injury. For example, you might withdraw your arm suddenly and hit it against something.
What about shocks when I get out of my car?

Many people experience shocks when they get out of their car. Often they believe that the car is charged - but this is not normally so.

Sitting in the car, electrostatic charges are generated on the car seat and the person's body, due to contact and movement between the clothes and the seat. When the person leaves the seat, They take half of this charge with them. As they get out of the vehicle, their body voltages rises due to this charge - a voltage of 10,000 Volts is not unusual.

When they reach to touch the vehicle door, the electrostatic discharge and shock occurs as their hand approaches the metal door.

The voltage build-up can often be avoided by holding onto a metal part of the door frame as you leave the seat. This provides a return dissipation path for the charge on your body.

If you have forgotten to hold the metal door part as you leave the seat, a shock may often still be avoided by touching the glass window before you touch the metal door. The glass may be conductive enough to dissipate charge, whilst preventing the rapid discharge which is felt as a shock.

Gmail Tips - The Complete Collection

2006-01-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is one cool article i have read after a long time.

And by the way, i am updating my blog from a blogger extension embedded into my firefox browser.

Now i can update whenever i want and add comments quickly.

This is one of the many advantage s of Open Source :PAnd now coming to this gmail tips link, though everything is not new to many, but some tips may be time-savers.So, happy gmailing :Dvg...

Flock 0.4.8 Review

2005-10-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

A cutting edge Firefox-based Web browser dubbed 'Flock', which integrates next-generation Web technologies such as RSS content feeds, blogs and bookmark and photo sharing, was launched today.

The browser was developed in California by a small team Flock of developers spearheaded by Bart Decrem, who is well known in the open source community due to his involvement in the Mozilla Foundation and his ill-fated startup Eazel, which from 1999 until its demise in 2001 aimed to bring greater usability features to the Linux desktop.

The browser's new features are all based around new Web technologies fast attracting fans in the online community, as part of a movement which has come to be known as Web 2.0.
Flock includes a built-in RSS reader, close integration with http://del.icio.us/ , "Create a blog post" button, and a sophisticated drag and drop button for photos from flickr website.

And more info abt flock will be updated soon.

happy programming,

vijay…

GPS: Government Portals Sux

2005-10-17T02:01:00.000-07:00

hi,

Me again.
And this time around i want to share my bitter experiences about govt portals.

Today was the last date to pay my electricity bill.
I went to pay that at eseva centre.
Seeing many ppl around 50 odd before me, i was scared.
I went to my office.

I tried to pay the bill from my citibank online account.
This too was accesible only from IE v5.0 or higheror netscape v4.6.
what the crap. It is disgusting to see ppl, who think there is only one browser in the world.

hmm,
after refreshing umpteen times in my IE, i got the account.
and i paid my electricity bill.

Now i have to verify whether eseva database got updated with my payment.
i went to http://www.esevaonline.com
i logged into my account and tried to find my electricity bill account.
Let me explain you about the eseva online website.

It is a govt portal. It is being maintained by someone with mail id: jagadees@raminfo.com
hmm,
i got this email id when i tried to access my account.
it said :
________________________________________________________

Sorry Could not Process your Request

ErrorCode: 178111
Please Mail the Error Code to Web Administrator

jagadees@raminfo.com

__________________________________________

hmm being disgusted and smitten by this type response, i created a new account.
i tried adding my electricity bill details in this new account.
the same good old dialogue and email id to contact. :P

this website is scrap and also crap :D
It has no good gui and no intuitive design.
And worst of all, if u happen to visit homepage after you login then you are signed off.
you have to login again to access your service.
Also there are no links to access your created electricity bill account or anything.

this is the case with the govt portals.
the GPS :P

haffun,
vg...

vijaya dasami 2005

2005-10-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

It was just another day at office, i thought. But it was not "the-just-another-day" at office.
It was dussera, also called vijaya dasami.

I came to office at 9.45 am. The office was fully decorated with flowers(banthi poolu aka marigold). When i reached my pc, i discovered that it was decorated too.
There were flowers on the monitor and kumkum and gandham put on the monitor.

When i turned around, i found the same on every PC. I started working after having a cardamom tea. Mail box was filled with greetings.

After a while, office boy came and applied gandham on my forehead and invited me to the "Durga Puja". It was set up in the reception of our office. There was a photo of goddess Durga, embraced with a golden yellowy garland. The place was filled with bananas, incense sticks, karpooram, coconuts, and deepam.
Our administartor Lt. Col. Prasad started the pooja with sanskrit shlokas. After that he broke the coconut and offered aarathi. We prayed Goddess Durga. Sweets distribution marked the end of the Durga pooja.

It was a nice moment and i felt nostalgic.

The funniest part of the whole is when the smoke alarm in our office was activated due to aarathi. Thank God, they are working :P

C ya,
vg...

Joined Bell labs !!!

2005-08-21T02:13:00.000-07:00

It feels great to be a member of Bell Labs!!!

Looking at the great history, or 30,000 patents or 9 nobel laureates or ....
I want to do add a bit for that !!!

Anyway, i am recruited into Bell labs R&D on august 16th 2005.

I hope there's a great career ahead for me !!!

bbye for now :D

Find Found

2005-03-19T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Let me find something interesting!!!
Finding a file in GNU/linux has never been easy without find and locate.
In case you just want to know where a particular file exists on your system,
and nothing else is required, then use locate tool.

Here's Find Demystified!!!

Here are a few ways to use find

-

$ find / -name 'program.c' 2>/dev/null
$ find / -name 'program.c' 2>errors.txt

/		Start searching from the root directory (i.e / directory)
-name		Given search text is the filename rather than any other attribute of a file
'program.c'		Search text that we have entered. Always enclose the filename in single quotes.. why to do this is complex.. so simply do so.

Note : 2>/dev/null is not related to find tool as such. 2 indicates the error stream in Linux, and /dev/null is the device where anything you send simply disappears. So 2>/dev/null in this case means that while finding for the files, in case any error messages pop up simply send them to /dev/null i.e. simply discard all error messages.

Alternatively you could use 2>error.txt where after the search is completed you would have a file named error.txt in the current directory with all the error messages in it.

-

$ find /home/david -name 'index*'
$ find /home/david -iname 'index*'
The 1st command would find files having the letters index as the beginning of the file name. The search would be started in the directory /home/david and carry on within that directory and its subdirectories only.
The 2nd command would search for the same, but the case of the filename wouldn't be considered. So all files starting with any combination of letters in upper and lower case such as INDEX or indEX or index would be returned.

-

$ find -name met*
The above command would start searching for the files that begin with the letters 'met' within the current directory and the directories that are present within the current directory. Since the directory is not specified as the the second parameter, Linux defaults to using the current directory as the one to start the search in.

-

$ find /mp3collection -name '*.mp3' -size -5000k
$ find / -size +10000k
The 1st command would find within a directory called /mp3collection, only those mp3 files that have a size less than 5000 Kilobytes ( < 5MB)
The 2nd command would search from the / directory for any file that is larger than 10000k (> 10MB)

-

$ find /home/david -amin -10 -name '*.c'
$ find /home/david -atime -2 -name '*.c'
$ find /home/david -mmin -10 -name '*.c'
$ find /home/david -mtime -2 -name '*.c'

The 1st commmand searches for those files that are present in the directory /home/david and its subdirectoires which end in .c and which have been accessed in the last 10 minutes.
The 2nd command does the same but searches for those files that have been accessed in the last 10 hours.
The 3rd and the 4th commands do the same as the 1st and 2nd commands but they search for modified files rather than accessed files. Only if the contents of the files have been modified, would their names be returned in the search results.

-

$ find / -mount -name 'win*'
This command searches for files starting with the letters 'win' in their filenames. The only difference is that the mounted filesystems would not be searched for this time. This is useful when you have your Windows partitions mounted by default. And a search for 'win' might return many files on those partitions, which you may not be really interested in. This is only one use of -mount parameter.

-

$ find /mp3-collection -name 'Metallica*' -and -size +10000k
$ find /mp3-collection -size +10000k ! -name "Metallica*"
$ find /mp3-collection -name 'Metallica*' -or -size +10000k
Boolean operators such as AND, OR and NOT make find an extremely useful tool.
The 1st command searches within the directory /mp3-collection for files that have their names beginning with 'Metallica' and whose size is greater than 10000 kilobytes (> 10 MB).
The 2nd command searches in the same directory as above case but only for files that are greater than 10MB, but they should not have 'Metallica' as the starting of their filenames.
The 3rd command searches in the same directory for files that begin with 'Metallica' in their names or all the files that are greater than 10 MB in size.

-

The exec option is probably the most important feature of the find tool. The exec command allows you to execute a particular command on the results of the find command. A simple demonstration of this feature is shown below. Its upto your imagination to make maximum use of this feature. Suppose you wanted to see the details of the files (read, write, execute permission, file size, owner etc..) that have been returned as a search result you could do the following

$ find / - name 'Metallica*' -exec ls -l {\}\ \;

This command would find all the files on your system that begin with the letters 'Metallica' and would then execute the 'ls -l' command on these files. So basically you would be able to see the details of the files that were returned according to your search criteria.

The words following the -exec option is the command that you want to execute i.e. ls -l in this case.
{\}\ is basically an indicator that the filenames returned by the search should be substituted here.
\; is the terminating string, and is required at the end of the command

c ya,
vg...

cscope: code browsing made easier

2005-02-28T23:55:00.000-08:00

hi,
When i first looked at the source code of linux kernel, it was some c code: obscure, unintimidating, and wierd ;-).
Then i came across this "cscope", a boon for all code browsers.

Cscope is a developer's tool for browsing source code. It has an impeccable Unix pedigree, having been originally developed at Bell Labs back in the days of the PDP-11.
Cscope was part of the official AT&T Unix distribution for many years, and has been used to manage projects involving 20 million lines of code!
The fuzzy parser supports C, but is flexible enough to be useful for C++ and Java, and for use as a generalized
'grep database' (use it to browse large text documents!).
Has a command line mode for inclusion in scripts or as a backend to a GUI/frontend. Runs on all flavors of Unix,
plus most monopoly-controlled operating systems.
The tutorial would make you clear how to use cscope.

Its features include :

Allows searching code for:

all references to a symbol

global definitions

functions called by a function

functions calling a function

text string

regular expression pattern

a file

files including a file

Hope this would make code browsing a great place on earth. :P
Happy code browsing!!!

for more details :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cscope/
http://cscope.sourceforge.net/cscope_man_page.html

Keep coming to this blog!!!
vg...

The ix86 Game !!!

2005-02-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

 The ix86 Game!!!


I was thinking what to write today, but when i was downloading
wine it asked for architecture type and gave all ix86's
We know our cpu's as pentiums, amds or powerpcs
So i thought let me clarify this issue
So here goes the "ix86 game" ..

This question came up internally, in the context of picking which binary
package to use for some modern hardware. One incorrect answer is
"non-Intel Pentiums", lead by AMD's mind tricks with numbering schemes
going back a few years. When AMD say "6", think "5" :-)

There's a cpuid database in the Linux kernel. gcc also knows about
cpus. Poking about between the two gives some answers. Here is my software
person's perspective on what these labels mean:

i386 is just what it says, one of the 80386 product lines.

i486 ditto.

i586 is all Pentiums up until but not including the PentiumPro, and AMDs
K6 series (including the AMD K6-2) and Cyrix (now VIA/EDEN.) You can add
MMX instruction optimisation to some i586 compiles.

i686 is AMDs Athlon and all Pentiums after the PentiumPro including II,
III, IV and Celeron. You can add some chip-specific optimisations to some
i686 compiles too.

http://www.freehackers.org/gentoo/gccflags/flag_gcc3.html gives a bit of a
summary. gcc resources go into this stuff in exhaustive (exhausting)
depth.

In my experience having an i386 distribution on i586-or-higher hardware is
noticeably slower. I have never compared an i686 distro against i585 on
the same hardware but I'd be surprised if it makes too much difference.

About Free Software and Open Source

2005-02-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

hi,
Lets start with it !!!
As we are a bunch of GNU/Linux geeks, it is our minimum responsibility to know about this.

This is only newbies and it is not my theory, i am just collecting information and sharing with you.
Here i am sharing my views with you all and if i went wrong anywhere please inform me so that i could correct them.

``Free software'' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ``free'' as in ``free speech,'' not as in ``free beer.''

Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

For more info http://www.gnu.org Why ``Free Software'' is better than ``Open Source''

Coming to Open Source:
Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. Open Source Definition.
The basic idea behind open source is very simple: When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development, seems astonishing.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community, specifically through the OSI Certified Open Source Software certification mark and program .

Thats all for now !!! tata !!!

vg...

Techie Talk

2005-02-22T20:37:00.000-08:00

As i wrote these lines, we had a hot debate of what would be the appropriate name for my blog.
Techie vision ... or perspective from my side of what technlogy is or my experience with getting hands dirty with technology or ... oh my god so many "or"s.

My favorites include GNU/Linux, mozilla, firefox, and all those free software (open source also).
Let me start my discussion tomm with difference between free software and open source.

So stay tuned ...