Ramesh L on Technology, Travel and Life

2010-02-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

One important step in my Getting Things Done Weekly Review is backing up my computer. To ensure that I have a most recent copy of data, even if my computer's OS goes awry one bad day.

Initially I wrote a shell script to take backups. But since I was not following GTD, I was not quite regular at backups and so when my computer banged, I didn't have all recent data to work with. Even if I take regular backups, reconfiguring the backup script was quite difficult.

Recently, I discovered Back in Time, an amazing one click tool (on Linux) to do periodic file backups. The good thing about this tool: When only a few items change in your to-be-backed-up folders, then it copies only that stuff, but creates hard links for the existing folders.

My backups are never been better!

A trivial update of personal events

2009-01-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't touched this site for ages. First, a few updates from my personal life:
- I have joined twitter. It is fun, but not yet convinced about the usecases people cite for this site.
- I have enrolled for an online DVD rental service in India called BigFlix. The site has pretty decent English movies collection for India, but not as much as the American biggie Netflix. Have enjoyed a dozen movies so far. Did not find delivery service very fast and the subscription is expensive for Indian standards (Rs. 299 or about USD 7 a month for renting one DVD at a time. A cable TV subscription costs about Rs. 250 or USD 6 a month in metros).
- I purchased a Sony Handycam, but no use for it so far, as there is not much travel.

British Band sells its album directly to consumers

2007-12-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Strait Times Digital Life carries a the story of a band that has managed to get fans pay for music, but without restricting them. Just opposite of what popular record label companies do. A noteworthy snippet from this article:

Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman told a conference...
"We expected our business will remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and filesharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong."

Let me diverge from Digital Rights Management to affordability. The above article makes me think of India, which is one of the countries where pirated music (and software) make a good business. Why is that? Despite the emergence of multiple means of accessing music, record labels are unwilling to reduce the price of their CDs, so clearly common man cannot afford them and goes for cheaper pirated copies. The same is true for software and printed books.

I understand that these companies are existing not for charity, but to make a profit. Only if they understand that making these goods more affordable increases volume and drives more business to them & reduces piracy...

(Note: using google cache as I could not link directly to the story. The Strait Times requires an online subscription for Digital Life. It is a wonderful weekly print edition though).

Amazon can "Kindle" the Future of Reading: NewsWeek

2007-11-25T23:08:00.000-08:00

A great weekend read from NewsWeek for people who are both book-lovers and Web 2.0 enthusiasts. This story talks about kindle, a new electronic appliance (& service) from Amazon, which is to reading as I-Pod is to music. Buying books for Kindle would be as easy as buying new songs from Itunes. So, Kindle is everything a normal book is (its shape, texture and size are that of a paperback) plus also the following additional features:

* A book that holds several hundreds of books in it
* A book that is connected in real-time to other books and the web. Making a book connected enables real-time updates/changes.

I'm going to grab a gadget as soon as I can afford it. My only worry is the Digital Rights Management around the service (which in case of music industry has led it to destruction instead of flourishing it).

Ranting after some break

2007-11-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't touched this blog for months together. For one, I was travelling like crazy or busy with work or busy with chores. Now, in another country, but not yet settled, thought I would just rant something.

I want to write about the previous and current travel experiences, but it will take some time to consolidate, so let me talk about Ubuntu (my favourite OS) again.

I was running Ubuntu 6.06 without any issues, but one fine day I did stop the OS forcefully when I think it was doing something serious, then that's it, the kernel went panic.

Then I decided to try Kubuntu 7.10. While KDE is highly configurable, after sometime I decided that I should also have a GNOME. So I installed GNOME on top of Kubuntu. Then read about Xubuntu, also wanted to try it, so installed Xfce on the top of Kubuntu. So, now I had one OS with 3 desktop environments, bloating each other.

I found myself almost always booting to GNOME. It also turned out that GNOME and KDE were not that interoperable, with my favourite K programs (for eg., Korganizer & Konqueror) often hanging in GNOME. After some time, I ran out of space, so I uninstalled xfce.

One fine morning, all of my K programs stopped working under GNOME. And GNOME was an irresistible environment for me (I am aware of fiery KDE Vs. GNOME war and that KDE almost always wins).

So I had no choice but to uninstall KDE Desktop altogether. So, it was a kind of reverse migration (Start with a full blown Kubuntu desktop and end up in a Ubuntu desktop).

But till today I didn't regret my decision. I'm able to run the latest version of Lotus Notes on Ubuntu and new Lotus Symphony Editor from IBM. I'm able to access my encrypted Wi-Fi from Ubuntu currently sitting in my bedroom.

So the conclusion, Ubuntu Rocks!

Latest Kubuntu should be more usable

2007-04-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for months: mostly because of two exams that I have taken, a project at office that was plagued by so many problems, which came to some shape only recently.

Got a few days to try out new things and this time it is the recently released version of Kubuntu (Feisty 7.04). I already have a dual boot on my computer (Windows XP and Ubuntu 6.06). With a 40 GB hard disk having 2 Operating systems, there is absolutely no space. So I decided to try out Kubuntu in a VMWare Virtual machine, with the VM sitting on an external hard disk.

Downloading Kubuntu 7.04 and burning a CD with the iso image are straightforward. You get a live CD along with the install image out of this. Live CD allows you to try out the OS without any changes to your existing system.

Install within a VM was a breeze too and you get a pretty KDE Desktop with all bells and whistles. But is that good enough? I found that it is not so. (K)Ubuntu claims to be the OS for human beings, not for geeks. So, this means there should be minimal configuration to get a workable system. Ubuntu 6.06 lacked a lot of stuff out-of-box for reasons beyond the scope of the normal users (playing windows codecs, java enabled browser, flash plugins). But, people have made it really easy to install them in one shot. Check out EasyUbuntu and Automatix. With a click of few buttons, you can download and install all these third party stuff.

However, there is no such facility for (K)Ubuntu 7.04 yet (perhaps because it is pretty new). As a result, I have to do a few tweaks to get my new Kubuntu to the same level of my original Ubuntu. And I'm not successful in all the steps.

For those people who try the latest version of Kubuntu, I'm listing what I tried out to make it more usable. This is not a complete list, but will get you going:

1. Install Kubuntu Feisty.
2. Adept Manager is the default software package manager for Kubuntu. It may have a problem opening, despite entering the right password. Do these steps to fix it:

Open file: /etc/sudoers
sudo cat /etc/sudoers
and check for your username. If it is not there, add an entry by running
sudo visudo. The entry should look like:
ALL=(ALL) ALL

3. Install ntfs-3g (If you want NTFS read/write support)
4. Install libxine-extracodecs (if mp3 files won't play)
sudo apt-get install libxine-extracodec
5. Download flash from Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

6. To add Flash support to Konqueror
mkdir .mozilla/plugins
Install flash which should detect the above directory and add a few files to it.
Go to Konqueror Plugin Configuration Window and add the above folders in Netscape Plugins section and scan for plugins. It should find the flash plugin.
7. Install StreamTuner (for Internet Radio)
8. Install XMMS (This is used by StreamTuner by default)
9. A biggest drawback of default KDE menu is, it does not have recently/frequently used applications. Installing Kickoff will fix it. It is available for
download from here:
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Environment/Tools/Suse-Kickoff-for-Kubuntu-20919.shtml
To install it use this command:
sudo dpkg -i kicker-kickoff_1_i386.deb
Kickoff is not that pretty, however it does the job.

End note: The above configuration apart, I have noticed a few more problems with KDE as such. My desktop freezed twice when I was creating some shortcut from the KDE menu. This never happened to me when I use Gnome. Not to say that you will have the same problem, just watch out.

Update: Oops!! I failed do a good research before claiming that Automatix is not available in Kubuntu Feisty 7.04. I just figured it out and I can now play mp3, avi, VCDs and DVDs without any problem. Detailed installation instructions are available.

However, my endnote still stays.

How IT enabling a business can make it worse

2007-02-12T07:15:00.000-08:00

Banks have various types of accounts. In India, Recurring Deposit (aka, RD) is a popular means of saving every month. It's not as attractive as stocks, mutual funds or Systematic Investment Plans, but it is one of the safest and regular means of saving (as long as the credit rate of the bank is good).

Bank of Baroda, where I have an account has a special type of RD scheme. With an normal RD scheme, you can only save a fixed amount every month. For instance, if your installment is Rs. x at the time of opening an account, it should always be Rs. x, nothing more, nothing less. But the uniqueness of this special account is, you can deposit anything equal to or more than the minimum installment (of course, there is an upper limit, but that is very high).

I found this scheme very attractive, because my expenses vary every month and I can't really predict how much I can save. So, I jumped to the sky and opened a "special" RD account for the minimum installment of Rs. 6000.

For quite a few months, I was happily depositing Rs. 6000, Rs. 8000 and even Rs. 10000. So far, so good.

One fine day, when I attempted to pay Rs. 8000 as the installment, I was stopped by the teller. She told me that I would have to pay in multiples of Rs. 6000 only. I was surprised and showed her all my past receipts paying various amounts. Know what her response was?

It could have been like that in the past, but not any longer.

Me: But why wasn't there a notification to me, either through mail or phone?

She: I don't know about that, but that is the policy now.

Me: (wanted to probe a little) Can you tell me the real reason of why it changed now?

She: Sir, we have deployed a new Core Banking Solution called ******* and it does not allow paying different amounts. Even if we allowed it, we will end up doing a lot of calculations and that means a lot of trouble for us.
(Funny, I thought doing a lot of calculations was bankers' bread and better)

Me: Okay, please allow me to pay Rs. 8000 this time only. From next month you can enforce the new policy.

She: Sorry Sir, nothing can be done about that, you got to comply to what our IT system dictates (She started sounding very rude here and raised her voice), there is no way that our IT system can be modified.

I would not budge. I ran from pillar to post to prove my point (talked to her boss, talked to his boss). I explained to them how it will make things very difficult for me and I'll be forced to save either too less or too much every month. But instead of listening to me, everyone was trying to educate me on how to go with the bank's dramatic policy changes without complaints!

Finally I asked why the branch can't push the management to abolish this scheme as soon as they can (so the customers will not mistakenly believe that they still have a special RD account) or force the IT vendor to make provisions of the special scheme. Since they have implemented the IT solution in hundreds of branches and presumably paid a lot of money, I didn't think it is difficult for them to raise the red flag with the vendor. The response was simple: Sorry sir, we are powerless to even escalate this to our management. Already we have lost many customers, please don't publicize this.

Later, I was analyzing the key issues the bank has (discounting the rude behavior of the staff):

1. The bank may have posh interiors and state-of-the-art Core Banking Solution. However, there is no CRM or formal feedback system in place.

2. I'm not sure if the branch staff are taking the issues to upper management. Even if they do, I'm not too sure if they are taken seriously. In my case, the best response could be to ring up a higher official (maybe sitting in the head office), escalate this and ask how to handle this case. The next best response could be to just give me a piece of paper to vent off my anger and then promptly send it to the head office. While this may not have changed anything on their side, it would have at least pacified me that I'm heard.

Now you can guess if I'll ever do anymore business with this bank!

How IT Enabling a Business can make it better

2007-02-02T09:05:00.001-08:00

In India, customer service is often overlooked, especially when the customer is a consumer (individual) rather than a corporate entity. This story is about a bank in India, which recently made me rejoice because of its IT systems.

Indian Bank is a public sector bank in India. A decade ago, almost all national banks in India looked like Government Offices. People living in India will not find it difficult to visualize the scene. The bank would typically operate in an old building, with long hanging fans; people crunching numbers between piles of paper; common man waiting for their service forever. However, it is all changed now and many banks are IT enabled, at least in cities. Indian Bank is no different.

My requirement: Send money to someone who got an account in the same bank but in another town. So, I visited a local branch in Bangalore.

The first appearance of the bank made me wonder if it was a private bank. The ambience was pretty good.

The moment I entered, there was a machine which gave me a token on pressing a button. It had a serial number. I had to simply wait for my turn whch would be announced by a voice and show up in a LED display along with the counter number. The way they have integrated this machine with their workload and the way they juggle the counter numbers based on the traffic is amazing for a national bank!

The story does not end here. Usually if we want to send cash to someone in another part of India, we typically get a Demand Draft (DD) from the bank in the recipient's name, seal it in an envelope and send it across using courier/mail. As such, getting a DD is not difficult, but you have to pay a hefty commission and also do some effort to send it yourself. But, now it is all easy, thanks to a Core Banking Solution deployed by these people. All I needed was the recipient's core banking number and the money was instantly credited to the recipient's account. No commission, no need to send it through (snail) mail and no delay.

Total time to send money: 20 mins. Life has been definitely made easier!

Do you have a story where you got good service or saved time because a business was IT enabled?

New look

2007-01-21T22:39:00.000-08:00

Friends, I agree, the layout and colors of a blog matter.

Changed the look and feel of my blog as per the request of few of my readers.

Pizza Corner's IT story

2007-01-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

Pizza Corner is a Pizza restaurant chain in India. Started as a single branch in 1996, now it has around 50 locations all over India and can compete with MNCs such as Pizza Hut.

Benefit, a magazine which focusses about the IT side of businesses, runs a story on Pizza Corner's business, IT enablement and directions. (free pdf download)

The unique thing here is, unlike other magazines, which hardly cover anything more than the current IT scenario of such a business and their future IT plans, Benefit goes one step ahead and suggests a few best practices to the business too.

I have summarized what the magazine suggests to Pizza Corner:

1. Have options like mobile telephone exchange and off-site data repository for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.

2. Utilize Supply Chain Management, as a Pizza requires specialised ingredients.

3. Let customers pay using SMS (A popular restaurant in Mumbai has already started this service).

4. Secure your premises using IP based CCTV and security systems.

5. Leverage Google Earth in your website, so people can easily locate your outlets.

My two cents addition:

6. Use a good CRM system, value customer feedback and use it for service improvement.

Lessons from a performance appraisal

2007-01-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

If you are working for any organization, whether big or small, you have to go through the ritual of performance appraisal at the year end or start of next year.

This can be both good and bad. Good because, you get an opportunity to know your strengths and weaknesses as perceived by the management.

But it can be bad as well, especially if your boss only talks about the areas of improvement and can't see any good things that you have done. It shatters your morality and confidence level.

I recently got a similar feedback, which was more crucifying rather than pampering. Initially I attempted to prove my side, pointing out a few exceptional things that I had actually done. But I'm not sure if he saw them, as the argument never seemed to end. The discussion ended coldly.

After the usual emotional reaction of "it should not have happened this way", I slowly began to accept the situation. Accepting the situation immediately set me free and I started thinking forward.

Then I was randomly browsing tips on how to win in business and in life from an entrepreneur and he linked to some advice on how to handle failure and learn from it. It was a timely advice! Here is how I used this article to get good insight into my problem.

What is the problem?

Performance rating is not great.

Problem Divided into chunks

(Note: I'm in a customer service organization)

I...

1. did not liaise with the sales people very well.

2. did very few high value assignments.

3. (Surprisingly, in the process, I figured out a few exceptional things I had achieved, but unfortunately) did not market them very well, so my manager failed to see them.

4. did not attend a lot of conferences where I can get good sales leads.

Solutions (Things in my control)

1. After each assignment, follow up with the sales team and get a holistic picture of the deal.

2. Network with the sales team to figure out new opportunities and to know more about our important customers.

3. Keep track of customers' wish-list in our products and constantly communicate the same to developers. This can be an excuse to develop good rapport with the development team.

4. Actively seek key conferences/events in my domain and showcase good solutions there.

5. Engage in continued learning and education.

Things beyond my control

1. The opinion of my boss about me. No matter how much I try to prove myself, he is going to be himself. No point in trying to change him.

What to do immediately?

Try #2 and #5 in solutions.

So, the ritual has indeed taught me a good lesson.

A lighter editorial

2007-01-16T13:13:00.001-08:00

Editorials in newspapers are typically perceived to be serious and typically (atleast stereotypically!) read by nobody except those with grey hair who don't have a better job to do or political leaders who have got so much to do. For example one may start like.

The ongoing war on terrorism in pursuit of the fundamentalist ethnic groups is a commendable behaviour in the light of continuous attacks on civilians and high valued soft-targets instead of judicial scrutiny on the mushrooming militant movements....

I think such a heavy text and serious tone is what is driving away people. For a change, Vijay Times, a newspaper from Bangalore reports this in their Op-Ed page:

Title: Giants Refreshed

The Bangkok municipal office is reported to have "sanctioned" siesta time for its staff in order that they may wake up invigorated and work harder in the second half. But wait, they won't be sitting in their chairs for a quick nap but in a separate room with the fragrance of freshly-cut flowers and soft music...

Our babus (pet name for Government or Administrative staff in India) will be pleased if such a step is introduced here too. To sleep and to .... snore! However, for them this may not make a difference, as they have enjoyed this facility quietly for years....

A better way of conveying the message, in my opinion.

A (Pseudo) Desktop Blogging Tool on Windows

2007-01-10T01:02:00.001-08:00

Availability of a desktop blogging tool is the reason for me to edit my blogs on Ubuntu. Without such a tool, I would not have the freedom to jot down my thoughts whenever I like and post them later. Somehow I have a feeling that my mind works less when I'm on the net and constantly looks out for something, rather than thinking creatively.

I had been looking for a good and free (free as in free beer) desktop blogging tool on Windows, but did not have much success. There were a few results by googling, but none of them were freeware, nor did they have a clear description of what functionality they have or what sites they support. I was frustrated on why MS (or other companies) haven't come up with some good blogging tools for the most popular OS on earth.

Today I was delighted to learn about a Firefox add-on called Performancing which is more or less what I was looking for. It is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your browser and lets you post to your blog easily. It's very easy to drag and drop text from the browser to your post or format text. I'm using this editor to write this post.

As a bonus, I have also found another Firefox add-on called Sage which is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed reader. The best thing I like about this is its Newspaper like format. Here is a screenshot:

Online photo print site from India

2007-01-08T04:52:00.001-08:00

I'm not an ardent fan of non-technical blogs, however there are a few I follow quite regularly. Kiruba's blog is one of my favourites. He is one of the most popular bloggers in India, operates from Chennai and runs his own site.

I have been recently hunting for podcasts and I tried his interview with an emerging business in India. This is about a website that will print and deliver digital photos posted on it to anywhere in India. While listening to Indians talking online for the first time made me feel good, I felt better to learn the new business models emerging in the country.

One cool thing that I noted with this interview was that the voices of the interviewer and interviewee(s) appeared to come from different tracks (say from different sides of a headphone) and that gave a feel of a real interview.

Check out the interview or read the transcript.

How to build audience for your Blog

2006-12-10T21:37:00.000-08:00

Robert Scoble, a former Microsoft employee and a famous blogger writes on how to build audience for your blog or how to drive more traffic to your blog. Excellent post. Also links to more such help. Personally I've changed my blog title after reading this post and I have more to learn.

Get the most out of your e-mail, IM and blogs

2006-12-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

Since I purchased a cute little mp3 player (not an iPod, just 2 GB, but serves my purpose), I have been actively seeking out podcasts. Especially the technical ones. The ones I have currently subscribed to include IT Conversations and IBM's Podcasts, but I'm sure many more are out there.

Talking about the information that is available over the Net, we have zillions of blogs and podcasts. Then tons of other web-sites, wikis, manuals, articles, videos etc. We are overwhelmed with the amount of information available and it is a daunting task to decide what to go through and what is useful. Though we have more gadgets to automate things and simplify life, there seems to be no end of things that we will keep us busy.

In such a situation, I recently encountered a series of podcasts called Shortcuts. This is actually a weekly podcast to help you make the most out of e-mail, Instant Messaging, blogs and other great tools.

The unique thing about these podcasts is that, they are small in duration so easy to go through (usually not more than 5 mins of talk). Transcript is available as pdf download (hardly 200 KB size) for each podcast too.

To sample, learn how to manage e-mail storage limit or read the transcript.

You can subscribe to Shortcuts by copying this link to your Blog Reader.

That is not all, looks like you can even contribute to this site. Check it out!

How can I improve my blog?

2006-11-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

A reader of my earlier post commented that while the entry was readable, it is almost like a fact file. So, I went through it once again and felt the same too.

I think I gathered too many facts in an attempt to make the post look bigger and informative. What could I have done to make it really better?

I could have added more personal touch. More experiences which are fun to read, rather than the encyclopedic information which can be found anywhere else. Unless, I'm posting hard-core technical topics, which are arduously followed by geeks.

However, too much of personal touch will also be a problem. It will make the post a sort of opinion/editorial. Not sure how many people will be able to enjoy opinions or an individual's experiences all the time. Perhaps they also want get something out of it. Mostly fun and the pleasure of reading, but occasionally something useful as well.

So, I think the middle path is best. Having a fine balance of facts (neutrality) and experiences (personal touch). I just realized that I need to master this art.

Hello, fellow bloggers, what are your thoughts on this? How do you handle the situation, when you attempt to write about something and it ends up as one of these extremes?

Skytrain in Bangkok

2006-11-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

During my Bangkok trip, I extensively used BTS Skytrain to commute. While there were options of using a taxi, car or bus, I chose Skytrain. Because the stations were nearer to both my starting and end points and I heard that Bangkok traffic can be awful in peak hours. I never regretted my choice because my commuting was fast and efficient.

There are 23 stations in total. Average waiting time for a train is 3 minutes; It is estimated that more than half a million people use Skytrain everyday for commuting.

Tickets for each trip are available from a machine near the station, but you have to remit the exact change. While there are people sitting at the station to give you change, you have to usually wait in a long queue to get change. I got a 30 days pass so I don't have to do this everyday.

(I heard that Skytrain will soon introduce a contactless ticketing system wherein the passengers can use their RFID powered smart cards to buy the tickets. This kind of contactless payment is emerging in a big way in Asian nations. An extension of the smart card technology is to use one's mobile phones to buy tickets and other things. Whereas smart cards require an intelligent card reader somewhere near the location, say train station, mobile phones will not require any extra infrastructure. And that makes things much more convenient)

This is an elevated train. The first level is a concourse (where tickets can be obtained and you use the tickets in one of the automatic access control gates to enter). Then you go to the second level to take the train. Some nice pictures are found here.

The trains are unusually small (only 3 cars) but look neat. (We in India, have trains that easily span about a kilometer. Our cargo trains are even longer). The design of the trains is in such a way that you can't easily see inside but one can see outside from inside the train. It has sliding doors which open only for a minute in a station.

Where the doors will actually arrive for each car is clearly marked on the floor. So when Thai people gather to get a train, they quickly form two queues at each door (This is something I wish that the people from my country learned). The people who get out of the train do so at the center.

Inside of the train is similar to the subway systems I found in the US. An extra thing was LCD TV Panels on the side walls, almost always playing Thai pop videos. (Pop music, that I happened to listen/watch in the Far East is surprisingly similar to the western ones. Often I can't make out if I'm listening to a Thai or English words, unless I observed carefully). Another unique thing that I found was, a security personnel on duty on each platform at all times.

As in the past, I initially got confused with the routes on the first day and once started to go in the opposite direction. But soon things were fine.

Saladaeng, the station where I board the Skytrain everyday, is also the interchange point for Bangkok Mass Rapid Transit System, which is a subway. There is a thoroughfare which connects the Skytrain station to MRTS. Now, you exit out of Skytrain station in the 1st Floor level. MRTS, being a subway system, is in the 1st Basement level. Note: If you are reading this from the US, 1st Floor in India = 2nd Floor in the US. There is Street level in between. There is an elevator connecting these three levels.

On the 1st floor, the elevator door opens from the station side. But when I get out in the street level and wait for the same door to open, another door at the opposite side opens unexpectedly! It was funny and I have never seen anything like this!!

Energize Windows

2006-11-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

While Linux platforms are already making deep inroads into the Desktops, are you still unwilling to give up your Windows box despite its bloated applications?

Going to use Microsoft Windows Vista, but worried about the alleged extra resource requirements of its applications?

Stick to your Windows, but give Open Source a chance! Jason Parlow excellently describes the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) available for Windows. (Free Registration Required)

Though not free or open source, Microsoft's Services for Unix is also mentioned for its usefulness.

In addition to getting to know what great software is available out there, you also get to read funny comments like:

GNU/Win32 is an absolute treasure trove of Unix and Linux-style command-line utilities for Windows, courtesy of our long-haired friends at the GNU project.

A different bug

2006-11-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

Since I've started using Ubuntu, mostly at home and sometime at office, there is no going back. I haven't had success using Lotus Notes, but most other applications work.

I do almost everything on Ubuntu: chat, browse, use office suite, watch DVDs, organize, play games and even blog using the desktop client.

When I visited Ubuntu bugtracker, saw this amusing bug:

Bug #1:

Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.

Importance: Critical

Status: Confirmed

Description:

Microsoft has a majority market share | Non-free software is holding back innovation in the IT industry, restricting access to IT to a small part of the world's population and limiting the ability of software developers to reach their full potential, globally. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry.

Steps to repeat:
1. Visit a local PC store.
What happens:
2. Observe that a majority of PC's for sale have non-free software pre-installed
....
....

It is funny, check it out...!

Application Delivery Infrastructure

2006-11-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

Tony Waltham writes about a new concept Application Delivery Infrastructure in Bangkok Post (Paraphrased):

Web Applications often tend to replicate the features found in client-server applications, which make them consume more resources. This brings a need to optimize these applications. Web applications also demand high security.

A new intelligent Networking Layer called Application Delivery Infrastructure has emerged to address these needs.

This is a new concept and it aims to

Understand the users

Understand the application and content

Apply creative approach to Bandwidth management, caching and compression while minimising the sluggishness of protocols that were originally designed for LAN

From a simple set of Web objects (like links, buttons), web applications have become complicated CRM or Inventory Management applications and people increasingly find it difficult to use them. The quest for more functionality has made these applications very slow.

Different approaches to address this problem:

F5 Network's Intelligent Browser Referencing: Eliminates the need for the browser to download repetitive or duplicate data, by increasing the number of connections. For example, when you visit a website with 50 objects, browsers like IE or Firefox usually have to make 25 round trips to get the data. Whereas, F5's Technology allows applications to open up more than just two connections at the same time.

Avoiding downloading unnecessary data. For instance, just downloading pages of a PDF rather than entire document.

Instead of a Web Server saying to the browser, 'Hey! to get the more current data, check back to me in 10 seconds', it can say, 'I can tell you what you never have to check back with me on, and I can tell you what you have to check back with me on x seconds later.'

The story also references other players in this area: Juniper Networks and Citrix Systems.

Me Vs. Them

2006-10-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

I often compare myself with others. I think most of us compare, for good or bad. Recently I caught myself doing this. I was silent for sometime then wondered what others must be thinking about this. Within a few minutes, I was reading this excellent post: why we should not compare ourselves with others. Especially these words:

A fourth reason to stop comparing ourselves is that the one who compares him/herself with others is judging........ Nobody knows the internal reality of the other; nobody knows his/her story and his/her most deep intentions.....

How true! The more we compare with someone, the less we know about the true internal reality of other person and his her/story.

The last but most important reason to avoid comparing ourselves with others is that when we do, we can be tempted to copy them, to do the same things, and to act and think like them. The problem with this is that if we copy someone, we will never know who we really are and what we really want, and then we will never grow spiritually.

Yes, I think we lose our originality/uniqueness when we compare. Each one of us have their own pace of development or improvement, no matter how slow that seems to be. If we realize this we can be happy.

What do you think? Do you have an antidote for comparison? Feel free to comment!

Information is free, but food is not

2006-10-30T07:35:00.000-08:00

Instead of giving the same boring title like Travel to Bangkok, for a change I decided to strike it different (at least in the title!). The hotel where I stayed said they have a deal with my company and as per that the Internet access at the room is complimentary, but not the breakfast! But that is a blessing in disguise, because being one of those minority people in the world (vegetarian) and somewhat picky about other tastes, I doubt I would have enjoyed the breakfast anyway.

This is my first Bangkok visit and the flight landed in state-of-the-art Suvarnabhumi Airport. When I arrived, I had a feeling that I was entering a big shopping mall, not an airport. It was so posh and so efficient that I took only 10 mins to finish immigration, collect my baggage and clear my customs (In fact I did not even talk to the man at the immigration checkpoint). Now, it took me more time to take a free shuttle bus to Public Transportation Center (which is a couple of miles away from the airport and is really a bus-cum-metered taxi stand). Those people who can pay more can get a ticket and board a limousine at the airport itself. There were a few people at the airport pestering me to take their taxi service, but I politely refused them.

Contrary to what I expected there was no fight among the taxi drivers to get a passenger. Rather the taxis were neatly parked in a row and I got the first available one to the hotel.

Now, a few quick facts about the Suvarnabhumi. It is the most modern in the world, covering an area of about 200,000 square meters. It can handle around 9000 people and around 80 flights per hour, has the tallest control tower in the world (132 meters), has two parallel runways each running about 4 km. They are aiming to build two more runaways by 2020 and then it can handle 100 million people per year, amazing!

I enjoyed the Expressway to Bangkok and it all cost me 300 Baht at the end (actual meter + service charge of 50 Baht charged from airport + toll tax of 40 Baht).

(Next: Skytrain: The easy way to commute in Bangkok)

Bangalore to Jakarta - 3

2006-10-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

Indonesia is a big country (there are thousands of Islands and three timezones. We have only one timezone in India). It can easily take months to tour the whole country. Jakarta itself has so many attractions and with my work commitments I could not play a tourist. So just sampled the city.

When I asked my local manager to take me to a single place which will embody the country's culture, I thought he would take me to some museum. I was very pleasantly surprised when he took me to not one museum, but a handful of them. "Taman Mini Indonesia Indah" (Literally, Park Mini Indonesia Beauty) is actually a theme park, a wonderful attempt to showcase everything from a single country. I have never seen anything like this. This place has got at least a dozen museums (each on various themes: culture, energy, post [mail], transportation etc.) and different kind of dwellings and structures replicating various regions of the country (Personally I liked the ones from Bali & Java). Some photos are available at my flickr page along with the captions.

We first visited "Museum of Indonesia". Two things interested me the most here. (1) Statues wearing variety of ethnic wedding attire (There were hundreds of them!) (2) Influence of Indian culture through the early Hindu Kingdoms. The most noted one is the shadow puppet theater called Wayang. Incidentally, we still have it in India, though restricted to our villages.

After wandering a bit, we took a cable car which offered us a bird's eye view of all museums and structures. From the cable car, we could see an exact replica of the Indonesian archipelago.

While this trip was only a glimpse of Jakarta, it only made me wish for more in the next trip! Till then, Terima kasih (Thank you), Indonesia!

Bangalore to Jakarta - 2

2006-09-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Indonesians are warm people, usually soft spoken. I'm not just getting this notion from the deluxe hotel where I was treated nicely, but in my opinion, everyone whom I met here was nice to me! My experience only strengthened this notion.

Even the newspaper that I read regularly (Jakarta Post) did not use very strong words. Criticisms, if any was also mild. (I could not avoid comparing our country's very aggressive media!)

Despite devoutly following their own religion(s), people do not show up their religion or spirituality. Not just that, they also show curiosity in other religions and cultures and that is a commendable behaviour. (The majority people are Muslims, but Christianity has good presence and so is Hinduism, though restricted to a few places like Bali).

Before coming, I read in many travel websites about the Taxi drivers at the Airport who would chase you to go with them. Of course, so many drivers/people asked me if I need there service. But what surprised me was, when I politely declined, they just gave in and went away.

There are many taxi companies, but the most reliable ones are Blue Bird and Silver Bird both operated by the Blue Bird Group. SilverBird is the executive taxi. BlueBird is the economical and good one. I'm not familiar about the other modes of transport, as I always took a BlueBird.

At the first sight, Jakarta is very attractive, big city and has good roads. But I heard from the locals that frequent traffic jams and pollution are major problem.

Cars and Motorcycles are the most common vehicles found on the street. I found that we can even hire a motorcycle (with a rider, as we would hire a taxi), but I never tried it. I did not see many trains. I heard that they have long distance trains too, but no sleeper coaches.

Food is the only problem I had in this country where vegetarianism is not very well understood. I am "lacto-vegetarian" (that is, can eat vegetables and dairy products). So every time I had to either literally plan my meal or starve (Thanks to my local colleagues/bosses, who took care of me as if I were one among them and made sure that I get good food when I was with them. But the side effect was that they also had to learn what it takes to be an Indian vegetarian).

Also there were some contrasts. In my opinion, the people dress in a conservative way, however they tend to be very modern in their outlook. Before arriving, I also heard that Jakarta and the surrounding regions are densely populated, which I mistook as very crowded. Yes, it is, but not as much as the Indian cities.

I found another thing that is different from India: only one language (Bahasa Indonesia) is used for commercial and official communication, at least in Jakarta. English is used to only with people from other countries. It is very difficult to find boards or even signs in English. While Indonesia also speaks hundreds of languages, I could find that the nation is somehow unified with Bahasa. I obviously had language problem, but most people seem to understand some English (And whenever I had tough time asking/explaining something, I would make some gestures to make them understand and the other person and I thoroughly enjoyed it!).

(To be continued)

Bangalore to Jakarta - 1

2006-09-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this blog for long. I recently visited Jakarta on business and I'm going to use that as an excuse (and opportunity) to update the blog!

(I originally wanted to make a dozen posts about my visit, then it occurred me that, it should not become an excuse for people to go away from my blog, so I'm going to do only three!)

While I have travelled to US a couple of times, I've never visited any Asian country. Not even Singapore which people from India often visit. So, with some pre-conceived notions about my destination, I was sitting in the flight to Thailand (The country of my transit).

After an easy flight, I landed in Bangkok. However, the big terminal confused me. While immediately heading for transfer, I was misled by a Monitor Display and went to a gate where I should not have reached before getting a boarding pass. So, I anxiously returned to my starting point but alas..I got lost and ended up in a different place! It was a Posh Business Class Lounge. With only short time before my next flight, I went here and there before somehow managing to locate a correct queue for "Transfers"!

I hope that Bangkok, while opening their state-of-the-art Suvarnabhumi Airport, also put up clearer signs (For instance, instead of just saying "Transfers" and opening multiple counters without any signboards, put signs like like, All Thai Airways Flights or All Flights to Jakarta etc.)

Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is not as big as Bangkok, but it looked very different from any airport I have ever seen.

Getting an Indonesian Visa was a breeze. I didn't have a visa before my arrival. Indians are allowed to take a Visa on arrival (you pay $25 for a 30 days tourist visa, Business visa is not any different, except that it is safer to bring your documents - like invitation letter etc.). Once immigrated and clearing customs, I entered this fascinating country...!

(to be continued)

Knowledge is Power

2005-05-23T04:29:00.000-07:00

I have a bad habit. I'm sure many of us have it too. Anything that I acquire, I'm very excited about it initially. It could be a DVD player or a dress. As Marshall Brain sums it up beautifully, we have the excitement for material things sometime and eventually it dies.

Often, the main reason for this initial excitement is that the object is "hot" in the market. Yes, we fall prey to ads and peer pressure to go on acquiring new things forgetting we already have a lot more with us (as well as *in* us, but that is altogether a different topic).

By the way, some people (including myself and an avid reader) acquire books like that.

It applies to software too. When I hear about something hot, I go out of the way to buy or freely download, install and use it. But after a short while, something else becomes hotter and I totally forget that I have this one available.

This is how I recently discovered Microsoft Reader which I had installed almost two years ago and forgot. I was exploring my desktop programs aimlessly and suddenly stumbled on Reader. So, I opened it and somehow started reading a short story which I had read when I first installed the software. Titled "Knowledge is Power" written by Freeman Tilden, it is a quick read, entertaining and the theme is as relevant today as it was in 1900s, when this story was written. Incidentally, the theme closely matches with that of this post. I recommend reading it, available as free download for MS Reader. For those who don't want to install MS Reader, a web version is also available.

2005-05-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Checking email post option.

w3schools.com

2005-05-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

Found W3Schools when I was stumbling to learn XML at my work. I found the XML Tutorial at this site very easy to read and comprehensive. There is a lot of information and links to related technologies (such as DTD). Highly recommended resource for web developers and those who work with Web Services.

Free Software Magazine

2005-04-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

I was delighted to read the first issue of Free Software Magazine - Courtesy Digit Magazine April DVD. The editorial says:

"Free software’s popularity is growing daily.
Even non-geeks are discovering that most of the web sites that they visit run on free
software (Apache); there is a valid alternative to Internet Explorer (Firefox); and their internet provider’s network is secured by free software (Nexus, free firewall, etc). And yet, until today there hasn’t been a single magazine dedicated entirely to free software.

Now, this project (publishing a magazine) is not risk-free. In the publishing industry you need numbers to make everything work. The more you print, the less you pay. The more readers you have, the more likely you are to get paying advertisers and so it goes on. At the moment, nobody really knows what these numbers will be for a magazine on free software, simply because there’s never been one.

If you believe in this project, please let the whole world know about it, use all those means that made great free software projects successful: talk about Free Software Magazine in your blog, user group mailing lists, social networks, professional web sites, IRC, etc. This way, you will help the magazine gain momentum and obtain the exposure it – and free software – deserve."

The first article, about File Format Wars was a good read. The author argues that [proprietary] file formats have been used to avoid free market competition, making it harder to customers to switch to newer
and better products. Read this story for example:

"When it comes to engineering, many projects for buildings, mechanical parts, furniture and bridges are stored in the DWG file format of AutoCAD, produced by AutoDesk. In 1998, competitors launched cheaper products based on an equivalent format. AutoDesk’s reaction was not limited to improving features, service and discounts. Their advertising campaign focused on reminding people that only AutoDesk’s products were 100% capable of keeping existing projects completely accessible."

The first issue of the magazine is available for download (pdf).

Book clubs and meetings

2005-04-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here in Bangalore, we have a book club to discuss what we read. While we have only a few colleagues participating and the meetings are not that regular, they are real fun and informative. Depending on how people drive it, the meetings can turn into heated debates or hilarious discussions. It is here I observed that despite the proliferation of new media, almost all people have a soft corner towards books and reading. You get to know ardent book-lovers in such meetings. In addition, people who are otherwise silent can easily open up here.

Recently a friend of mine asked my suggestions to coordinate a book club of his own. Here are some possible discussions that we took up that he would want to look into.

1. First decide on how we want to organise the Club, how often to meet, what we want to read, etc. Other topics:

2. What do you plan to read in 2005?
3. Do you have a list of books you want to read?
4. What were the best books you read in 2004?

5. Have some book categories (or genres). I have these:
Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Investing, Children's Books, Computers & Internet, Food & Cooking, Health, Mind & Body, History, Home & Garden, Literature & Fiction, Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology, Sports & Games, Travel, General, Mathematics, Language, Books & Reading, Romance & Relationships, Humour and Philosophy.

A site such as amazon.com can have an exhaustive list. Find out who is interested in what topic. It will be amusing (& amazing) to know that people have varied interersts.

6. Each one of you can discuss or talk about the book that you've just read.

Have the meeting informal and provide snacks and drinks. You can have the meeting at any frequency, but we find it convenient to have it every fortnight.

India and Wi-fi

2005-04-08T02:18:00.000-07:00

It's long since I wrote. I'm happy that many of my friends are catching blog-fever.

I was surprised to read this from Malayala Manorama YearBook 2005:

India is fourth largest in the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in Asia just after Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. It has around 180 hotspots. Of that, 130 are in Bangalore.

Living in Bangalore, I'm yet to figure out which places are hotspots. At my workplace, I'm able to connect to Wireless LAN. I should take some time to get to one of the published hotspots and try connecting to it with my laptop.

I heard that Chennai, the southern Metropolitan city, has one in Airport and one in Central Railway Station.

Allconsuming.net

2005-01-19T04:24:00.000-08:00

Lateral Thinking

2005-01-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

Recently I came across the book How to have a beautiful mind by Edward de Bono. This book claims to improve your thinking skills by introducing different thinking topics. The author is known for his books, courses and techniques on Lateral Thinking. For starters, Wikipedia has a brief introduction and some examples of Lateral Thinking.

Living in fear

2005-01-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

A blog talks about living in fear of getting exposed in the online world. I guess many people including me have this fear, as it's a question of our privacy. There are measures that we can take to protect ourselves.

Yet some people think that privacy is okay to an extent, but may not always be good.

Writing a blog

2005-01-07T02:42:00.000-08:00

I orignally started this post as, "It is Friday and I'm already in the weekend mood". Too conventional to start a post. Isn't it? What to do, despite staring at my desktop for so long, I could not produce anything else beyond this. I realize how tough it is to produce a material which is readable, entertaining and/or informative (If it is for my consumption only, such as my personal diary, that is a different story). Given my starting trouble, I'm amazed how on earth people can produce posts as big as a modest proposal for making India 100% literate within three years.

The main problem with me seems to be the topic. What should I write about? Should it be the recent Tsunami disaster? Or a book on Software Enginnering? Or a sensational singer who passed away recently? I'm confused.

But the bottomline is, blogging has turned out to be more difficult than I thought it to be.

Reading list for 2005

2005-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here is my reading plan (just plan) for 2005. Subject to revision!

Beloved - by Toni Morrison, an novel about an Afro-american lady and her kid, that happens around the time of Civil War

Laughing together - Tales from countries of Asia-pacific - Written for young reader, but can be enjoyed by all.

Swami and friends - A novel about a schoolboy and his friends set in the mythical South Indian town of Malgudi.

Straight from the gut - Autobiography of GE's former CEO Jack Welsch

Wild women don't wear no blues - Essays by Afro-american women writers on love, lust and freedom

Why men can't listen and women can't read maps - A book about men-women relationship

Asimov's new guide to Science - A wonderful book expounding various aspects of physics
and biological science, a bit outdated, as science is a fast-changing subject, but still a good read.

Teach yourself Digital Photography - Introduction to digital photography for an
Ameteur.

The power of intention - By Dr. Wayne Dyer - A book that shows how to use the so called "Intention" (the highest spiritual force) to achieve whatever you want.

Life & death: excerpts from Bhagavad Gita by Swami Prabhuphada.

How to have a beautiful mind - New book by Dr. Edward De Bono, author of "Six thinking hats".

My first Blog

2004-12-29T04:36:00.000-08:00

I liked this essay, Robotic Nation by Marshall Brain, the creator of Howstuffworks.com.