Nostalgic Weekend – PSG Tech DOMCA Alumni meet

December 29^th and 30^th had been marked as two exciting and important days in many of our calendar. No guess why? Department of Mathematics and Computer Applications (DOMCA) held their Alumni meet. Most of us got the news few months back from our beloved HOD when we went there for Login 2007 as guests. Ticket booking and preparation :-P started for many asap.

In these two days we rejoiced most of our memories from meeting our 3^rd God guru (teachers), evening entertainment, hostel cricket and a nice small one day trip served with instant dosa, malagai bajji, vaalakai bajji, onion pakoda and some delicious chicken biryani. Not last but, meeting my beloved class friends. We relived those good old days.

A note of thanks, to all faculty members, dear DOMCA juniors who made arrangement for every sec of this meet. Also a special thanks to the senior Alumni’s who filled our stomach with some delicious food.

Thank You

Thanks to all for your wishes!
Wishing you all a great year ahead.
~ Vijesh

Elephant Procession

Elephant procession is a unique ethnic tradition mainly followed in many temples in Kerala. It is a major attraction in Tirsur temple. I witnessed this in my neighborhood on a small scale for swami 'Ayyiapan'. A mahout stands by instructing the animal. Two-three swami's sit atop of the elephant holding the God's idol. People water the street on their respect and occasional devotees feeding the elephant with banana's and in return being blessed by the elephants trunk.

Skandagiri Trek

On Cloud 9.

Skandagiri trek or famously called as the Moon Light Trek is small trek that all nerds can try out. Skandagiri or Kalavaarahalli betta is 70 kms from Bangalore near Chikkaballapur. Take a left from main road and head straight hit the end, take left hit the end, take left again to hit the foot hill. If its going to be a night trek, a guide is advisable (bargain your rates with them). Carry a white light torch (since yellow light does not penetrate fog/mist much) with good batteries. Carry snacks and water. The climb is less than 2hrs even for a new trekker. Reach the top before sunlight, to witness the amazing spectacle. Though we did not watch the sunrise properly due to heavy December fog, we had our own nature's artistic movements. I feel March would be a good time to visit.

The cloud cover that surrounds the top is a spectacle to watch. A heavy meal for photographers.

kumara parvata trek

Mission Accomplished.

Yes it was a grueling 2 days for few nerds to trek in kumara parvatha. Kumara parvatha is in western ghats. Its the second highest peak in Karnataka where its near the temple town of Kukke. Kukke is famous for its Sri kukke Subramanya temple. My team comprised of Gorantla, Guru (Gorantla's friend), Harshad, Ravi, Nataraj (Ex Novellite), Vishal, Shashank, Me...

AirBus-Bus: Bus journey in air:
We are all set to go to Dharmasthala from Bangalore, the seats were separated 2+2+4 but eventually all are last row in different buses. How many times would we love to travel in last seat? Still myself and Vishal were in one. Around 2:30 the bus makes a stop for refreshments. Please make sure you refresh yourself. Visal spoke out, "The journey so far was good" Did some one over hear it, or we spoke early. Right after that refreshment break, it goes to a detour into a forest. OMG! Its 2 stories high bushes and in between in a path. It had all the bumps that keep the passengers in the last seat in air most of the time. Crazy driver speeds up in those road and manages an overtake. Morning when we got down it was like your back hammered.

Blessings before our start:
Then we refreshed in Gangothri (Not a river, but a lodge). We then soon reached Manjunatha temple in Dharmasthala. Had a good darshana. Then we buckled to goto Kukke. Since thats the place from where we need to start our trek. By the time we reached its lunch time. Then few of us went to Kukke Subramanya temple for the darshan. By the time we came back, it was already 20 min behind schedule for the trek. In a hurry we packed some snacks and fruits and all set to go at 4:20pm.

Advice:
Tring Tring... Tring Tring...
I picked up the phone, it was by friend who trekked the same place a week back. Then I briefly sketched him whats our plan for the trek and how we started. Then came his reply, "You have taken a bad decision. Its very tough to climb and you will not reach on time." buuusss(Flat tire) there goes all my hope of completing the trek. :) But then you will be hearing all such advices all through the trek, its left to one on what to take.

Leech Paradise:
The first stretch from base to our first check point (Bhattara Mane - meaning Bhatta's home) is around 5km, steep climb through the dense forest. This particular forest route from Kukke is a very tedious and demanding with high climb. But fortunate thing for us is we were on a non-monsoon season. So leeches would not be there. But the humidity within the woods was taking a toll on us. We were drinking water at regular intervals to keep us going. By the time we came out of the forest, sun began to set by 6:00pm. Crossed the grassland in dim light and by the time we neared Bhattara Mane it was dark and we need to use the possible source of light to make out our path.

Bhattara Mane (Heavenly):
In brief Bhatta's is one individual who has made his settlement in that altitude. For years he had been a retreat to all the trekkers who come across. You get food (rice with sambar/rasam & pickle) which is no match to anything you get there. Shelter is available but on FCFS basic. All other basic amenities are also available. Even electricity is available through solar power. He's said to be a 'One man Army', a separate Aircel tower has been put up for people to reach him. At times Airtel also reaches there.

Night:
Had a very good dinner for the tiredness we had and packed ourself with what ever warm cloths we had to protect us from the cold. Survivors would be Harshad & Shashank who were all prepared with their sleeping bangs. Others had a night to forget in the cold with the aroma of cattle parking next to us. We planned to get early in the morning and finish our breakfast and start around 6am. Somehow we managed to convince Bhatta for a quick breakfast and we were all set to start around 7am. It was a mild morning yellow sunlight.

Playing hide & seek with the Sun:
With fresh legs we soon reached the small stream of water near the mantap crossing the forest office where the toll is hiked to Rs 115. Pitstop1, after a nice refresh we reached the mantap. As usual Vishal was the first to climb it and followed by Venkat. After few clicks of photos we proceeded in the left side of the mantap. The sun has identified us and started to stimulate our sweat glands. The morning was an ideal time for the climb. Follow the trail to reach the false peek. From there we passed through the thick vegetation at the foot hill to reach the waterfall. During monsoon season this is the most dangerous section of the trek because of the slippery rocks. But we were playing hide and seek from the sun, either in the shadows of mountain or clouds. Lucky us. Finally nature was the winner when it roasted us at the top.

This small moment: "I call it Happiness"
It gives you such level of achievement once you reach the top. A small ruined temple with a good big donated bell can be found. Did a small prayer before we started with some snacks. Then discussion on whats good, where's the other route, photography and a nice sleep in the shade. In 3hr 30 min we reached the top. :) Time is up for us, we had been pushing ourselves so much for this small moment of Happiness.

Strangers but Friends:
Then we began our way down. I was leading the pact for some time, but as usual was overtaken. On the way up and on the way down there were lot other trekking gangs to whom we passed by, each one giving others suggestions on how much it would take them to cover the rest of the distance. Some were really misleading, some were close. But 90% of them are software engineers for a weekend retreat from their desk. It was evident that Novell has become bigger, we met one of our fellow folks also. While we were nearing the Bhattara Mane it was almost 3pm and my skin was burning. It was the toughest part in the trek. 3hrs to climb down alone, though we came in a decent pace.

Last section of the Descent:
From Bhattara Mane to Kukke was the last section on our decent. We already started making friends with other gangs and mingled groups when we were coming down. We started at 4:30pm, so we had at the max two hours to complete the descent before day light fades out. So we were trying to be slightly quick. It was tough like climbing two steps in a staircase with uneven base. You need to control your entire body weight in your knees and ankle.

The Pace setters:
All through the trek, we were mostly divided into Hares and Tortoises. Hare's include Guru, Vishal, Shashank, Venkat. Fortunately or unfortunately I was part of the pace setting gang when we climbed down. Oh my God. They were sliding, twisting ankles, thudding their foot in tree roots, sweating and still moving in great speed. After my intervention they insisted to take first break. After 6 minutes another one at 2kms mark. Then I decided to seal my mouth and see if they have an idea of stopping. But they did not, I too followed them in good pace and we reached the base at 6:05 which was 55 minutes before the next gang reached level zero. I wish I had the power to give them imposition on "I will walk slow". But still thanks to those guys for bringing me out before it was dark.

What a bath?:
As soon as we reached Kukke, searched for hotel rooms to refresh us from the downpour of sweat, but due to the amavasa karthika festival, all prices were hiked up. They demanded 400 bucks for 2 hours. They a spark in someone took us to the lake nearby which was easily reachable by an auto. It was a wonderful bath in those water after a tiring day. :-P Then had our dinner and set back our journey to Bangalore. It was again bumpy ride though.

Green Team:
As one of the Novell initiatives as Green Team. We were proud to say that we did not litter even a single plastic paper and carried them all down. At times I even picked up some plastic waste on the way and stuffed in my pant pocket. Some left out water bottles by other trekkers was also picked up. I would also complement the effort put by other fellow trekkers in doing the same. This is a small thing that we give back to nature.

365

As one of my friend wrote, "I wish life had an undo() function". How would it be when you are given an option to rewrite the last 365 days in your life? I would the first to implement that interface. For few its a success for sharing sweets. For few its like writing this post...

It has been an eventful days in my life. Somethings to remember, Somethings to forget. Life goes along as looking forward for a better and another eventful future.

Lost in ... ,
~ Vijesh

Challenge

The Challenge of my Job is not as challenging of making enough time for my loved ones!

Parking lot

Wondering, what data structure can be used?

Traffic Jam - Bangalore

Here is an article that hit my mail from an unknown author. I wish I can buy him a coffee for this hilarious compose.

JAM...IT..

Over these last few years of living in Bangalore, I have slowly grown to like the jams, which this city provides in abundance.

These jams do build your patience and character. Is it a coincidence that India's most patient cricketers, Dravid and Kumble, hail from this city of jams? (Dravid is even nicknamed "Jammy"). Does it tell you something? Sri Sri Ravishankar...does he get his daily dose of spiritual inspiration while in a jam?? And will I also get a halo after a few more years of this "character building"?? There are, I am sure, thousands of future stars stuck in the Adugodis and Anand Rao circles, who are plotting their moves against future Kramniks... those poor little Kramniks stand no chance. And if you see a professor-like guy prancing around the Palace road jam, you can deduce that a postulate in Physics has just been proved.

A few days back, I had a thought - If we can have reviews of movies, which occupy only a few hours of our life in a month, why not reviews of traffic jams, which takes up significant hours of our day?? So here is my review of some of Bangalore's famous and not-so-famous jams(in no particular order).

But before that, a general comment - As they say, the taste of food in a restaurant is dependent on the ambience ; similarly, the way I see jams, cozy inside the office shuttle or public transport, is different from the way the owner of the swank new SUV sees it. (btw, if you are the owner of the swank new SUV, don't run me down).

1. The Hosur Road Jam - Unarguably, the mother of all jams.People proud of being associated with a great companies, are equally proud of contributing in no small extent to this jam. This jam gives a great glimpse of the Other India - colorful music-blaring
interstate buses, garment factory workers, highway trucks, smoke spewing lorries and such. Provides ample food for thought for socialist minds.
(Rating: ***1/2)

2. The jams around K'mangala/Forum mall - Definitely the best jams in town. PYTs (Pretty young things), fancy cars, and fancy restaurants; this has it all. But you can't afford any of those. Never mind!! Your sadistic brain can take pleasure in the fact that the guy in the fancy car next to you is cruising around for a parking space, feasting his eyes on the PYTs , while his family is having dinner in one of the fancy restaurants. (Rating: ****1/2)

3. The KG Road jam - To be experienced in the evenings before a long weekend. Every auto/taxi in town seems to be stuck while going towards the City railway station - your hair stands on end, you start sweating, the heart beats faster, and you get the rush that a Michael Schumachaer gets on his last lap. And just as the auto moves, a movie show ends and a few hundred more vehicles pour out... Which was the train that hooted
just now?? (Rating: ***1/2)

4. The Jayanagar jam - The puzzle-lovers jam; Jayanagar is maze of bylanes, one-way streets, no right-turns, no left-turns, traffic signals and whatnot. It is an establised fact that Point A to point B, in Jayanagar, can be reached in 6436 distinct ways. But whichever way you take, you are left with a hollow feeling that another route had a better and bigger jam? (Rating: **1/2)

5. The jams around Marathahalli/Whitefield - The IT professional's dream jam; As she sits in the office shuttle looking at other office buses, she can make her career plans. A typical evening in this jam goes thus: Voice from Company A bus : "Any J2EE developers in your bus?". Three guys from Company B bus respond "Yeah" and get down. By the time, the bus crosses the Marathahalli bridge, the first guy is hired as a J2EE developer. The second guy, who didn't know what J2EE meant, is hired as a project manager and the third guy is rejected as he realised late that he has already worked for Company A last year.
(Rating: ****)

6. The Airport Road jam - Similar in taste and character like the Koramangala jam but has socialist twist. This jam treats the rich businessman, who will later travel business class on Jet, the same as a poor programmer, who had unusually come to office early in the morning, 3 months back, to buy one of those cheap airline tickets.
(Rating ***)

7. The BTM 7th Main x 7 Cross jam - Close to my home, so close to my heart. But alas, the spoilsports at BDA finished the flyover at the Jayadeva circle and brought an end to this jam. But for a couple of years, this jam used to give me pure joy as vehicles of all types created a tangle in the small bylanes of BTM layout. The BDA is now
planning a new flyover at the Udupi Garden junction; so there is still hope
(Rating ***1/2).

8. KR puram Jam- EverGreen Jam.Come what may.. Who can stop this!!! Sorta daily dose.. Nothing to think..about..only sleep..ZZzzzzzzzzzzz.... We jam lovers - have petitioned the government to protect and preserve traffic jams as a cultural asset of Bangalore. Just so that traffic jams are not endangered in the future, we have these suggestions:

1. Build more flyovers - Flyovers do not reduce jams. They just transfer it to the next junction. And in the 2 years that it takes to build them, you are assured of some joyous jams. I am drooling...

2. No public buses - If everybody goes by buses, where will our culture go?

3. Make Tata's 1-Lakh car cheaper by making it tax free - Imagine every two wheeler replaced by a car...The prospects are mouth-watering.

Barcamp Bangalore version 5.0

Barcamp Bangalore version 5.0 was yet another success. I was there live and kicking. Even before the kickoff, I wanted to volunteer few tasks. But then you got your priority work.

This time campers that came from our office was considerably increased Jumbo, Natraj & Raghu (quiz winners), Suresh, Prem. I started camping by tying the front gate banner. The stickers were cool, I stuck one on my t-shirt (like all) and one on my pant. Audi was not available this time around. :( Right away the sessions started and I was in Web analytics session. Then jumped to a hot discussion on pair programming. It was interesting though. On listening from suresh a collective on adhoc wireless network was also interesting. Then a strange collective on "Generic guys & gals".

Day2 was pretty much deserted when compared to Day1. I organizers should have not given the t-shirts on the previous day! :) Indic languages was good, heard that some sessions on bloggers collective was good. But was not able to pitch in because of a confused (confusing) collective on semantic web. Missed two interesting sessions on Photography & Designing Barcamp. The SMS that hit made me excited that I should have been there. Lose one get one, was finally able to grab my new mobile, A Nokia 6300. It fits my pocket well.

Overall I rate this barcamp lower than the best barcampbangalore4. BCB4 had more interesting sessions and were organized. Also the SMS that floated were minimal. But IIM and its food it getting better and better. I liked the food they served.

Desktop

Desktop has many interpretations. Here I refer to the graphical home page when every operating system boots up. Literally, its the first screen from which the users starts using the system and will the last screen from where the user stops using the system. A desktop would contain a background, few icons, taskbar and few widgets (occasionally). Have a look at what one of my colleague's desktop.

Its an art to maintain a Desktop. Just ask your friends to send their desktop snapshots, you can keep on enjoying it for hours. There are so many different kind of desktops that are around us, some I have observed are, Default desktops are ones those have their default wallpaper and settings when they are shipped. There would be icons flooding around the screen. Many project managers and HR's would be having this (You can wonder why... :)). Default - but changed desktops they are those where the wallpaper of the desktop would be changed but set to some of the default set provided already. I guess managers would have this kind of desktop. Plain desktops are those with a plain background (may be a selected color is filled, usually would be a dark color) and few set of icons will be are present. This gives a clear visibility of the icons that are present. I guess technical lead would have such desktops. Next would be some self portrait desktop where a picture of yourself that came around good in the last picnic or last family party would be seen. Come on no guesses, only a girls desktop would look like this. Some times they keep flower occupying the screen, cute puppies and kittens also get a place. A guys desktop would have a cool sports car or a freighting bike poster else a sports person or some latest bollywood heroine. Mr.Organized desktop, this is some kind of professional desktop that has things organized. Like similar icons are grouped and pushed to one end of the screen. Recycle bin in bottom right corner and few set of application launches are at one corner. These kind of desktops can be seen with some experienced software engineers who are slight geeks who doesn't want to waste time in searching. Also many are launched using keyboard shortcuts, since mouse clicks are costly. What a mess desktop, ah ahh here is the famous category of desktops. They can be spotted at developers pc's. :)

There are lot of tools available to organize them and give a new look and feel often. But only a few are using them. Finally if at all these 2D desktops are bored, try looking at future desktops like bumptop

You got some more interesting desktops, write back to me!

kannada kali

In spite of my Kannada & Tamil classes happening in my office. I got an interesting article on "Learn Kannada". It seems to cover good basics. Take time to read it.

Article link here.

P.S. I'm not responsible of the contents on the document or rather don know who authored it. If it doesn't comply cc, get back to me!

Barcamp Bangalore 5

Date: Nov 17th - 18th, 2007
Venue: IIMB
Registration: open
Know more

Nov 1st - Testimonial

Here a short sweet summary of what people got to say! They are extracts from internal mail thread.

Vignesh
First of all Thanks to Peeps who made the initiative for the Trip.
He was the one who kept alive "the thread" regarding the Trip.
Also thanks to Jayakumar for Cab Arrangements.
Spl thanks to Santy for Choosing the place and making required arrangements for the same (Also thanks for his Shoes)
Thanks to Daams and Tom for bringing their Cool Hi fi Cameras which captured the moments of the Most Exiting day
Thanks to Vijesh for Capturing those Unforgettable Moments and breathtaking Snaps During the whole day ... Great Skill Vijesh
Thanks to my class guys Prashanth, Vinodh, Kishore, esp Tom(Who came directly from cbe and came for the trip) , Jayakumar who all made the trip the most unforgettable day in Bangalore
Enjoyed to the core...

Srihari
It was great fun. All the 3 paintball activity , swimming , food & not but the least volley ball was great
So to keep this going we need to arrange such trip atleast once a month :-)

Arun Rag
Thanks 2 all guys!! It was a great show yesterday..
@Santy
Thanks for suggesting the place... (don't forget to include other company names during the next trip... ;) )

Jaya Kumar
Trip super ah irunthuchu....
But Kaal vali thaan thaanga mudiyala.....
;( ;(
Thanks all for arranging a great great trip.

Krishnan
Nice Pics da... I missed it... but great that u guys rocked yesterday... will not miss any next time

Kishore
Had a very nice time and enjoyed a lot yesterday.. thanks for all the guys who made the trip a memorable one..

Prasanth
besting outing for me in bangalore so far....

Jaya Kumar again
Solla maranthuttaen...Yesterday wen i closed my eyes after going to bed, I was able to feel somebody shooting at my eyes...takkunu muzhichutaen...
:)
Cant identify who shooted... Summa sallunu straight ah kannukae vanthuruchu...

Dams
am enjoying at home.
trip super da. as sri said, lets go often. peeps vidave illiye, vida muyarchi :)
ellorume vara mudincha mathiri, place, time/date, budget ku suggest/arrange panna santy ku oru O.
paint ball game, volleyball, vijesh photography skills, meen varuval
ellam mention pannungo.
advance happy deepavalli wishes to you all :)

Finally Vijesh
Others who were there are tom, pradeep, santy, vinod who were not able to send in their testimonials due to tight schedule at work! :P Due course I might silently push them in. Well for me...
peeps held the plan together.. santy nailed the execution.. with JK pitching in with his managerial skills for the transportation.. the shouting in the field of paint ball (my throat is still recovering).. arguments off the field.. peeps & myself head on head shooting.. nice take away coffee mugs.. swimming pool & santy.. TT.. shuttle.. lunch & ice cream.. awesome volley ball, credit goes to all esp tom, kishore, santy.. not last by least Canon powershot S5 IS..

Then I went home, took a bath and silently slept :P

Hathway WTF

Good news is that we have got a new Sony Vega for our home. :-) A Diwali purchase planned long back. But the bad news is that we need to get a Hathway cable connection. Why bad news, whats with it?

I stay in the Koramangala area! Today morning, got the hathway agent number and dialed him. Zoom he was right there in the next 10th min installing the cable connection to us. On having a conversation with one of the guy who came to installation, I was surprised with what he said. Here is their tarrif,

Installation charges - Rs 500
Non refundable deposit - Rs 1000
Monthly rental - Rs 275

The second component was interesting, this will be used to register the customer name for paid channels, but we need to repay this amount if we need a change of address. The deposit amount is valid only for Koramangala area. Say if we move to Indra nagar, repay and re-register. I did not understand what the system is. Also I asking others, it seems that this area is monopolized with Hathway! Seems that there are multiple private cable operators co-exist in the same area. Do a Google, you can find ppls love towards hathway! Can you do something...

Don argue with a fool, he will bring you down to his level and beat you with his experience!

Paint ball Yuyutsa

Wow it doesn't get better than this! On Nov 1st I went with my friends for playing paint ball game in yuyutsa. Its an adventurous, physical and a strategic game of two teams who are put into a military training field like with guns (that shoots paint balls). Its about defeating other gunman's team.

We were a bunch of 13 guys! The instructor gave us the safety instructions on how to play. We geared with minimal protection gear and a face mask. We were given a gun that fire based on compressed CO2. The range the gun covers is good. But takes an elliptical path when shot for a long distance. The so called pellets are soft biodegradable plastic balls filled with vegetable oil. The pellets when hit a rigid target it splats and the color spreads on the target. There are two mode of guns available automatic and manual. We went for the manual mode. Here you need to load the pellet into the feeder and then fire. We were ready to go!

Now its time for some action.

Game1: Shoot out Aim of each troop is to shoot out the opponents and kill them. A player is killed if the pellet splats on the player anywhere spreading the color. Each team needs to start from their bunkers which are on the opposite end. Simple strategy to play is attack from second one. Kill and get killed. Spread across the field and attack. Have one guy as your last man standing by conservative game.

Game2: Center flag A flag will be placed on the center of the field. Each troops objective would be take the flag from center and hoist it on your enemies bunker! When carrying the flag, if you are killed keep the flag in the place where you killed. Its left to your troop or enemies troop to recover it. Winning tip for this game is capturing the flag from the center. You take the flag first, there are more chances of winning.

Game3: Double flag This is the exciting game of all, Aim of each troop would be to go and pick the opponents flag and bring it back to your territory and hoist it. In case you want to recover your stolen flag, you need to get the flag and make a run to your bunker. You are not supposed to hide and shoot when you are recovering your flag. Play slow, play a conservative game. Let the enemy make the move and enter your territory. Kill one by one and strengthen your troop. When the enemy is weakened attack on his bunker.


Altogether it was terrific fun. Running, Sliding, Crouching, Shouting, Shooting, being in stealth mode and the fear about the enemy's standpoints. Its a good team building activity on the field. But it can even become a team breaking activity if discussed off the field. :-) I think a good spot of a team outing including all those resort facilities. Lots of Tips & Tricks are learned like making an empty fire to scare the enemy without wasting pellets. Share pellets when other member needs it. Worth for the money!

Then we moved to the resort summing pool and then for some large scale chess. We had a good lunch and the post lunch starting with some portraits pose for Orkut gallery. Then relaxing out with card games and few with badminton. Grand finale with some volley ball. Lot other options will include TT, cricket, football, snooker etc. Had our evening snack with tea and start back.

P.S. Flash enabled browser is needed, else goto the album directly here.

Don wish, you wont get!

Its Halloweens Holiday now, even its the same date in Cuckoo's Egg - a book I read (when ever Mr. Time permits me). Even life of person reading the book and the person in the book are same! Cliff has been fed up in searching the hacker, since none really wanted to help him. Even I feel the same now, I had even been in search of something for a long time and no one is really fruitfully turning up. But still I go by the book!

~ Research is not just finding results ~

Energy Conservation - Update

I wonder if the Infrastructure maintenance team here in Novell, Bangalore just read my blog post on Energy Conservation. OMG - There was a complete black out in our office around 6:45 :-) First the lights went off, then bamm every system, monitor, phone got powered off. Every inch was dark.

I could hear everyone cursing! I can hear ppl saying, "Oh God - I din save it. Finally I can stop working. Go home. You cant even call anyone, even the Phone is gone!" When things resumed and went off again think what my neighbor would do! :-)

But still, "To Err is Human..."

Energy Conservation

Here is a mail that hit my mailbox this afternoon. With prior permission from its owner taking it online. Thanks Harshad for taking effort and sending this across. We will do our part! As a part of this, I will create a notification program initially to remind people to switch of their work stations during evening hours by sending out an email. Just in case you want to be on the list, just drop me a comment or mail - kvijesh at gmail dot com

>>> Harshad Sovani 10/25/07 12:17 PM >>>
Hi folks,

You may have heard about the global warming process umpteen times. But, now these words have become so common that we turn a deaf ear to the appeals made to us to conserve energy.

I routinely come across so many systems in our office where our colleagues keep their systems and monitors turned on when they've left office. I've been turning off all the monitors I come across on the way to the exit. Sometimes, I'm tempted to just press the power button and just switch off the systems, but obviously cant do that! I'm amazed at how ignorant and careless we could be! I asked one of our colleagues why he wont shut off the system as left office for the weekend, and pat came the reply 'Ah.. who will do that man? Why should I do it? I've to anyway use it on Monday!! '

Would we do the same had it been in our homes? Definitely not! Why? To cut down on our electricity bills. So, why not here? Electricity bills will be cut down definitely, but more than that it should be done as a part of an effort towards conserving energy.

There are a number of articles out there on the web on global warming and energy conservation. Just to list a couple of them:

Natures-Switch
How-Your-Computer-and-TV-Add-to-Your-Energy-Bills
Wiki

Some of the many things that we can do, we must do:

• Switch off your monitor when you dont require - when going out for meetings, when going for lunch, when checking out of office. An easier solution is to use power management in your system to switch off monitor automatically after inactivity of 2 to 5 minutes.
• Hibernate your systems / put them in sleep mode when you leave office.
• Switch off monitors in other cubes when you see that there's nobody occupying the cube (doesnt matter whose cube it is, wont do any harm!).
• Try to conserve energy everywhere.. not just in office.. but at homes.. yours and others.. switch off fans, lights, TVs when not in use.
• Spread the word and follow it religiously
  

I hope none of us will simply ignore this mail, and will do our bit as a responsible human being to save our planet from meltdown.

Cheers!
~ harshad

Black Out

Yes, this would be my first step towards energy saving. Its obvious fact that white pixel (RGB - FFFFFF) consumes more power than dark pixel (RGB - 000000). Hence even Google made its Homepage blacked out for one hour in San Francisco Bay Area. This is an on going effort with lightsoutsf if you fellow bloggers also are interested join us. I will remain like this for some time!

Further on this effort I thinking on ways to save power, I created a custom theme on Gnome that blacked out 80% of my monitor display. Now other applications also have a view like my favorite terminal. What else can you think of saving energy. Open to comments.

Ice Man Magic

What a race it had been, its been so long since we had such an eventful race and drama. Finally Kimi Raikkonen crowned as the Formula1 World Champion 2007.

This race had all expectations, stunning qualifying, superb driving, over taking, strategy, professionalism, sportsmanship, retirements and of course tears. Myself and my friend was thinking where to watch this grandprix. Either enigmatic or the Legends way! After lots of struggle, the screen was clear and was able to watch it with ease. We even were not ready to miss the qualifying even. Like an engineer in the pit, we were watching the drivers race timing sector by sector. It was real fun, try it once! (Image: planet-f1.com)

My highlighted pick of this race were these,

• Massa start - What a drive to the first corner. Forcing Lewis Hamilton to slow down and allowing kimi to over take him before the first corner.
• Alonso move - Alonso using this Ferrari move on Hamilton took the outside curve and over took him. This is what a team rivalry can do!
  
• Hamilton's mistake - What else can this rookie do, push hard and overtake Alonso. Risks are costly at those high speeds. He paid penalty on loosing track positions.
• WTF - I expected a problem on Lewis car later on the race. But this were worse earlier itself. But his never quit strategy was great and he did his best.
  
• Kimi first pit stop - This changed the game for both the Ferrari drivers. Kimi was given slighty more fuel than Massa so that he can have more time on track before the second pit stop.
  
• WTF again - Why was Lewis given such a small pit stop? Is it to give him a drive on traffic free track, different compound tyres or less load on the car to fly faster. I was not able to understand what went into Mclaren's team radio.
• Kubica's cocktail punch - Alonso was gaining track position, while out of the blues came Kubica making a drive of his lifetime to say Alonso, "Buddy you are not the champion this time, so move away, I will try a podium finish." It was the best overtaking maneuver of the entire race!
• Kimi's championship laps - As soon as Massa entered pits, kimi had a fire in his tail. He was breaking sector timings and had the fastest lap of the race to come out of the pits ahead of Massa who was struck by traffic.
• Times up for Hamilton - As soon as lewis took his 3rd pitstop it was evident that he will not be getting his championship, he was 20 sec behind the Williams driver in 6th place with just 9 laps remaining. Kimi did not even celebrate as soon as crossed the finish line, he started only after confirming Lewis was in 7th place.

To roundup, it was an wonderful year for racing fans. The points tally says it all. Kimi - 110, Alonso - 109, Hamilton - 109. Kimi who deserved a win last year proved he was the best this year too. This rookie sensation Hamilton (My Hero) was impressive and sure will be a title contender for the coming season. Next season is all set for a bang with a three horse race with Alonso moving to Renault. More interesting is Dr. Vijay Mallya entry into F1. He's planning to rename this acquisition as team "Force India" which is subject to approval of FIA and other teams. This will push motor sport to next scale in India. Even more interesting was F1 image gallery showed picture of Vijay Mallya walking with Ralf Shumacher. Last but least, just before the clash between the Mclaren & Ferrari fans broke out in the place we watched. The commentators said, "Massa & Kimi are real team mates."

Chalo, Got office tomorrow morning. Good night.

Winter...

Yes last weeks rain has confirmed that Winter has begun. Mornings have started to become chill and day by day its getting lazier to get out of bed. :) Even Barcamp Bangalore winter edition is announced as Nov 17 & 18th. Subscribe to mailing list or keep looking at website/blogs for more updates. What else in winter, started to dig my warm cloths and wear it to office.

As a Software Engineer in Bangalore, what concerns me the most for winters. "Dogs, dogs and dogs..." Yes the stray dogs have increased drastically. Take a night drive in a car (def not in your two-wheeler) you will know the difference. Precaution to me as well as my other dear engg, when you return back working late from office. Do ask your respective cabs to drop you at your door step. Even though its the usual dark road you have walked several times, avoid it at late nights. Also please don hurt dogs, they don harm us, until you make the first move.

Happy Winter!

Dandiya Night

I have lots of backlog items for my blog. Let me burn them one by one in chronological order. I was there to palace grounds in Bangalore on Tuesday. But not for Red Eyed Peas, but for the Dandiya night that was happening near by! I was not intended to be there, but still. I was sitting in my silent office experimenting my LAMP setup with guidance of Dams. Within few min, calls came in, my Groupwise messenger popped up. I was in the truck (Rohit's Safari) planning and picking people along. The place was so colorful with all those boys and girls dressed up in their traditional dress with sticks in their hand.

We formed concentric circles each moving on one direction, and danced for almost an hour. After which we shifted to free style of dancing, which was tough for me. :) Though many was elegantly doing it. This was my first time for a Dandiya night and it was good. There were people from all forms of the society, all ages. They danced & had fun.

Even more interesting part was in stake for me. I had a chance to taste, "kata mitta" or "ice ka gola". It was heavenly, but only thing next day you have a soar throat. No problem yaar!

I'm a Mafia

Not a real mafia :). But play a game called - Mafia. In my own words, its a personality game were a group of people take up undisclosed roles (Mafia (bad guy), police, doctor, villagers). They brainstorm and create conversation within the group in eliminating the Mafia. This would involve lots of logistics in finding out who the bad guy is. The way you speak, the way you react, your gestures everything counts. Collect fact and infer upon to find bad guys. I got a great set of expert Mafia's in my office. I promise you, its addictive.

A game with average of 9-12 people would run for several hours. This wiki page, makes you learn more. Even Princeton is addicted. Google around to find more links. Got a question, or wanna to become Mafia. Shoot back...

Oct 6th - Oct 7th

This week has been calm so far! :) I came down to Bangalore with poor health and slowly recovering. Still, I'm not in great spirits to move around, work and be normal. Tiredness shadows me always. Still, collecting my best spirits and getting ready for my Department picnic to Wayanad. I had already been there last year with my college guys (read here). Only one new place I'm going to visit from my last trip. So its not that much fun. Still my Canon is pending so my eyes and fingers don't have much work again in this trip. Will write my travelogue if it was interesting. :P

Will be missing the Alumni meet in Bangalore. (Esp Tekmusic). Even the weekend cricket planned with Juniper Network employees.

Signing of from a sluggish Friday evening! Cheers

ELCOT Student Laptop / Desktop Schemes

Good news finally for all students of schools and colleges of Tamilnadu (state) India. ELCOT (Electronic Corporation of Tamilnadu Limited) has announced "Student Laptop Scheme" that sells laptops with decent configuration with reasonably cheaper price when compared to the Indian market. All of the are preloaded with Suse Linux (yeppee its from Novell) and many other open source software bundles like Open office, Mozilla, GIMP, Postgres and more. This is good news for the student community where they can save nearly 10,000/- when compared to market price.

• Intel Core duo T2300 @ 1.66Ghz(Intel Core Duo Processor / 1.66 Ghz Clock Speed with 2 MB L2 Cache running at 667 Mhz FSB.)
• LCD : 15 XGA
• Chipset : Intel 945GM
• 1 GB DDR II Memory
• 120GB HDD
• Opticals : DVD+/-RW
• FSB : 667Mhz
• Gfx : Intel GMA 950
• HDDs : 120 GB
• bla bla bla accessories
  

This cost Rs 31,250.00 which is very attractive.

They also offer Desktops, Laser Printer, Projectors, Digital cameras at a cheap price when compared to market. Thanks for the Tamilnadu government to taking such initiatives. Rush for your piece, FCFS basic. Students, are you planning for a Sony Viao, DELL Vostro? then think again. :)

Sankar earlier wrote on ELCOT adopting Suse Linux and cost containment for it.

Graduate Studies

Recently I have been more nocturnal. Just because more loved souls across the globe. They are either for their official travel or their Graduate studies. Here is a remarkable work by Jagan. Jagan did his Bachelors from Tech. Now doing his PhD from UCLA. He has drafted a document on the Graduate Admission procedure. Read it if you are more interested.

Heart in my Mouth (Ind vs Pak)

Dramatic Beginning
For the match as well as for me. Sehwag did not pass the fitness test, but more surprising was Dinesh Karthik was not in, instead Yusuf Pathan took the spot. For me, started from my office around 5pm. My access card did not work and there was surprisingly heavy traffic in Hosur road, due to a road block. Applying my driving skills reached silkboard. We(myself & Natraj) are almost in no-mans land now, 100's of vehicles standing still on both sides. Natraj's mobile says "India won the toss and elected to bat". I cannot hold it anymore, we literally lifted the bike across the road divider and took ORR to reach Koramangala. As soon as I reach my destination, I can hear a huge roar. I knew I should have been a six. The excitement was already in air.

Malik's thinking hat
By the time I reached, India were one down. But then Gambir played a sensible knock by hitting constant boundries. I was in my old PG, where a crowd of young aggressive supporters were seated in the room. Pakistan captain was intelligent and he wanted to use his 5th bowler soon. So made a radical move in bringing in Hafeez to bowl. This paid off, India found the boundaries hard to come. Finally we paid for this frustration by some poor shots from both Dhoni and Yuvraj.

Sensible Gambir
Finally it was on Gambir & Rohit Sharma to lift India's score to a decent total. But still Pak was always on the top by restricting India game play. My friends started to become geeks in statistics and probability. But they always over predicted. From their initial estimation of 200 with 12+ runs/over they settled to less than 150 :).

Devastating Imran Nazir
For the break, we guys went for a snack bite. By the time we have planned to return to watch the next innings, we hear a huge huge roar. We knew something was happening and started to gallop back(sorry about that burger santy). Yes Pakistan has lost a wicket for a superb ball from RP Singh. Next over was Sreesanth. He is one player who gets all praises and next ball gets all the curse. We were hoping for a good over from him. But first ball in, bang rockets to the boundary line. Huuus start to come out. Next ball, wack sails across for a six. Next ball, six again. It was pin drop silence, we could hear the fan running. No one wanted to comment. By the end of the 2nd over, few felt the match was out of our hands. Nazir was hitting all he could, he was rushing for a quick finish.

Pathan steadies the Chariot
Well, India definitely need some good overs. Sreesanth bowled well then. Pakistan lost wickets on one end. But Nazir was going at the bowling on the other end. Now Nazir was the target both to Indian cricket team as well as its fans. Sreesanth bowls a slower ball to Younis khan, flicking it to mid wicket starts for a run. Nazir struggles due to his cramp and fails to get into the crease. We just waited for the first reply, just after that the celebrations began in the room. Everybody were punching the air, clasping hands and were charged up. I can still remember for Afridi's wicket, once the ball went high up in the air. We literally jumped into the TV screen to see what happened. Within a flash 5-6 guys came near the screen. Its was all happening, Afridi is gone and celebrations start again.

Adding spice
We had a neat spell from Pathan, taking some crucial wickets. Pak needed 54 runs from 24 balls. Misbah-ul-Haq, lifts bajji for 2 consecutive six. Next over Sreesanth to Tanvir SIX again. 3 balls 18 runs have gone. SIX again. We started losing hope, looking each other perplexed. Few were telling "get his wicket, get his wicket", but were not ready to hear them too. Tension in the air was so high.

One last time
It has come down to the wire, we keep our fingers crossed that Bajji should not bowl the last over. Dhoni decides to go with Joginder Sharma. First ball, way out side the off stump. Heck, a series of *&^%$ I can hear, as vadivel says, "Total family damage". :) Once the SIX in the 2nd ball has gone, we almost decided its lost now. You can't recover from here. Pak just need 6 to win from 4 balls. Everyone hold their nerve, hands clasped we sit. 3rd ball, Joginder Sharma to Misbah-ul-Haq he move to his right and tries a chip towards fine leg, the camera man follows the ball. As the ball descends down there comes Sreesanth in the frame. Its a catch and India win. It was like the roof coming down and the next few seconds was 'Alice in Wonderland'. Hugging, Jumping, Screaming, Laughing, Crying and doing all mad things. India have one the T20 inaugural world cup. I wish I had a heart attack. (Goose bumped, as I write this)

What
Whats he talking in presentation ceremony? I know it, you know it. Lets not discuss further.

Ramp Up
I was not a big fan of Twenty-Twenty cricket. Just because, I initially felt this disrespectful part of the game for bowlers. Day by day rules change in favor of batsman. But then finally understood that T20 is a bowlers paradise than a batsman. This inaugural world cup is to be recorded as the best tournament ever played. After England winning the Ashes, this is the next best time I had enjoyed cricket. This world cup had every thing, Bowl out, Six Sixes, stunning catches, Nerve racking finishes to games. As far as India is concerned, it was a good find for the bowling lineup in terms of RP Singh and Pathan making a successful comeback. Dhoni proved to accepting his new job. But, this was a small step for him. He has a long tough road ahead. Indians have improved a lot in the field with stunning saves, catches, run outs. Esp in batsmans point of view, they were really quick and good between the wickets. This form of game has reached a larger audience. Even my mom has watched the entire match. But will it kill the longer form of game? My view, definitely not. One day cricket still has its own charm.

Signing off.
Have a shout, comment it.

Status

My recent status msg was this, "Action speaks louder than words, So don try it with your status msg". Messengers are one such application second to our email clients, that we use extensively. Having status msg in those messengers are the latest pass time of young software engineers. That too esp gmail, Even I'm addicted to it. Not to put one, but to read one. Every time I pass my chat windows, I quickly scan the contacts if something is new. Some reasons I can think of why ppl have status msg

• Greetings from Good Morning, Birthday wishes.
• Notify on the new things they have got.
• Tease someone!
• Most interesting would be abstract messages that are intended to someone!
• At times people even exchange words with their status msg. :)
• Selling their blog url (inc me)
• Noolu vidradhu :)
  

Have fun! (Below is a shock wave flash object. If you can't see it, configure accordingly or click here)

Disclaimer: This post was pun intended. If any snapshot is not to be shown they can write to me!

Office Suite - Battle Ground

Few years back, I used to hit the browsing center to get some materials data from internet for my Assignment or Packages (I know it might sound ironic, but still believe it). I need to do it quick and save money. But as soon I have opened multiple sites and try copying the contents to a word processor, so that I can save it as a single file! Baammm! You will get a prompt saying bla bla bla. The software would actually not work. Which will screw you up! I visioned those times, why can't I do this editing, processing online and save the file to my floppy. But now I can.

Yes its possible through online web applications like Google Docs, Zimbra, Writely, Zoho and more. I would say they are coolest online apps available on date. With the internet infrastructure they work like offline apps. Responsive, neat and more cool sharing options that you don find in offline apps. I mostly use Google Apps for the majority of the time. I like the latest addition of Google Presentation. I quickly created a presentation and published it here. Have a look at it.

Here are some of the points I infer:

• Offline Office applications are becoming bulkier and costlier for user to get and deploy.
  
• It is very evident that almost 80% of the offline apps users use only the basic options available in those spreadsheets, Word processors, etc,.
• Growth in Internet infracture has mode offline apps a step behind.
• Online apps are Free! :)
• Good tools for startups to save money.
  
• They are quick and contains most of the basic feature needed for a primitive user.
• Better sharing which is well explained in this Google video.
• Popular vendor are migrating their softwares to online clones. IMB made its Lotus Symphony free. Yahoo buys Zimbra. Microsoft brings Office live.

Now my vision would be a computer as a hardware device without a software preloaded on it. Let your operating system be online, switch on the machine and connect to your online space and work. Windows becomes Windows Online, SUSE Linux online why not even Google OS.

Yahoo Hackday - Bangalore

Yahoo hack day India is announced. It happens right here in Bangalore. This is the first external hack day in India I guess. So block your seats soon. If I get it right, I will meet you there.

Register here

Hello World சாம்பார்

Every time, I venture into a new language I try to print "Hello World". Thus here were are trying out our first "Hello World sambar". Here is our log.

Recipe: Hello World Sambar
Targeted Audience: Entering kitchen for first time for activities other than eating!
Distribution License: Creative Commons.

First and foremost you need to make sure you got all the necessary ingredients. Come on lets go for shopping! Few of the mandatory ingredients are Thoor dhall, Tamarind, Sambar Power (CBR or sakthi malsala and many other brands are available), 1 kind of vegetable like onions, brinjal, potato, drumstick (Preferably don go for lady'sfinger, since we are trying to avoid any kind of female intervention). Some tips here, don get into a departmental stone, rather get it at your nearest grocery store. Since large departmental are targeting families and they provide all in large quantities. Also for vegetables you get it where ever you find it. Since thinking of getting it nearest shop might be a flop!

Now lets start cooking. Remember we need to do parallel processing. First cook the dhall in a pressure cooker. In case you don have one no problem, you can still go ahead and cook it in electric cooker. Side by side chop a big onion into pieces. Wait wait wait don be in a hurry to start, then you will end up cutting your finger (like one of us) so since its your first time. Cut it slowly and carefully. Yes yes, you need to shed some tear for cutting this. Now add 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and let it heat for few seconds and then add kaduku. Once that bursts out add those chopped onions in it and fry it for some time. Until the onions become golden brown. Vegetables can also be added in this. By this time dhall would have got cooked. Now add 4 cups of water in the pan, add 2 tea spoons of sambar power, salt, tamarind water, cooked dhall and vegetables into it. Stirr for few min and leave the stove in medium so that the mixture will boil for some time. By this time you should have stared to boil rice as well.

After 5 min, you will start to get the Aroma of Hello World Sambar. Once you feel that it has got the state just bring it down and pour it into a vessel and serve it hot.

Defects Found:
1) You might add less salt, no harm add a pitch of salt and let it boil a min more.
2) If you added more salt, add half cup more water and let it boil a min more.
3) If its more spicy, add a pitch of salt and water, let it boil few more min.
4) If you missed out to buy something. Just keep a junior with you, you wont feel the pressure.
5) Don ask help from your fellow class girls, they confuse you by saying 2 measurement.
6) More water, keep flame high and boil for few more min.

Post your comments and Feedback
(Kishore, Santy, Shrihari, Vijesh)

New Orkut

Like a child that gets attracted to colorful new things, my mouse pointer often moves to my Firefox tab where my Orkut is logged in. Yes days back in the old UI, there was a faded out image saying New Beta UI. Now its in action. Haven't tried it out yet, play around soon. After carefully playing around with it here is my review.



Things I liked:

• The Layout - Its really a cool one. Highlights would include rounded corners, clear separation of various panes with enough space between each.
• Trusty, Cool, Sexy are neat. In the OLD UI they extend based on number of friends they mark it. Now its simple 3 level for each.
• Horizontal alignment of birthdays is good.
• Under 'Manage Friends' we can clearly find open invites.
  

Things I would like to change:

• When we accept a friends request, the separation of haven't met, acquaintance, friend, etc are good. But they have an old look of multi colored rectangles. They can be given rounded corners and clear separation.
• My communities pane is not getting refreshed with the latest updated community. If not frequently they could be done at intervals of 30 min or so.
• In case of landscape photos for profiles are aligned to the top, which doesn't look good because there is space between photo and name. The old way of alignment to bottom near name was good.
• Frequently updated users & communities like it happens in Youtube! Videos that are currently being watched.
  

Comment on what you think about the new Orkut UI?

Yuva

For a Cause!

Yes I think its a nice time to write about it. Lately, one of the Yuva co-coordinators were contacting me for fund raising. So I decided to write up in this space.

Here is an extract from their mission, We aim at universalizing the unprivileged access to, retention in and completion of quality education. We aim at :

• Building equal opportunities for education for all
• To progress the ideal of equality of educational opportunity
• Achieving the right to basic education for all is thus one of the biggest moral challenges of our times and we are committed to it.

What is all that we are supposed to do?
Enjoy a musical Saturday evening. Listen to sitar of Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh. He is one of the very few practitioners of traditional Music Therapy using the 'Healing Music' of his sitar. Get a ticket, help a child's education. Extend your hand.

You can reach me at kvijesh[at]gmail.[com] or +91 9900185925

BCB4 Podcast

Well, I decided to move the podcast from the widget window to posts. Here are some of podcast made using a small transcend music player in Barcamp Bangalore 4. The audio recorded was bit low and lots of noise over lapped. But then with my best efforts I made some post processing using Audacity. Audacity is an open source music editing software. For basic users like us it helps a lot, unlike the proprietary Audio editors in demo version. Ok, now the audio is ready, initially I thought of using the space available in Google pages to upload the audio, But the tiny 100mb was insufficient. Then tried odeo. But for some unknown reason I was not able to save a audio in it. The script hangs or I din do them in right way. Then imeem came to the rescue. I upload was swift and playlist widget was cool. So here is the audio to listen.

Techbits Podcast: To my knowledge a podcast is streaming of audio in the web. It is a derivation of a webcast where only audio is shared. The popular podcast format is mp3. There are numerous site that supports podcast say odeo, imeem, last.fm etc. They also provide handy javascript players that help to embedded audio in blog, webpages.

Nokia BL-5C

Recently SMS are flooding with this text. "BL-5C" - It has been reported by Nokia that certain set of batteries manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006, dislodge on some short circuit scenario. Relax, first lets confirm if its not a hoax! This official report from Nokia confirms that its not a hoax! Wait, now don rush to the nearest Nokia showroom for an battery exchange, your request might be declined. In Nokia's official announcement, he has given a simple way to check if your batteries belongs to a replaceable category. You can send Nokia your battery identification number and verify it. You can do that the end of this page. Fortunately mine, dad, mom mobiles are not inc in the replaceable list.

Mobiles have become part of everyones life. They always stay close to us than any other electronic gadget. When you talk of mobiles, here are few things to remember. Not just Nokia, anything.

• Never use Mobile in Driving (THUMB rule)
• Never use them in Gas stations.
  
• Never use them in when they are in Charging. Contradiction (When your loved ones are at the other end, you don wanna to disconnect the call by putting it in charge and cont speaking)
  
• Use branded chargers to charge them. (We have the habit of saving money by buying a duplicate, which ultimately can cost your mobile life)
• Replace damaged parts with genuine parts.
  
• Do not keep them in pant pockets (I don have a reliable source to support this)
• Do not keep loud weird ring tones and annoy others. (courtesy: Srihari)
  

You want to voice on any more things to remember, write a comment to get added in the list.

English Premiership

I second Srihari and write this post.

Disclaimer: You don't have interest in Football & sports, better skip this post. (Esp girls)

Yes, now I have found a useful way to spend my boring Bangalore weekends excitingly. If F1 was exciting, EPL is nerve racking. I love these lines from Sri's blog "Ohh ahhh , Wat a goal , hits the Cross bar , watta save from the goalkeeper". This is how this season is plotted for me. I'm behind the "Red Devils" - Manchester United. Cheering for them as never before. Still the 116th min goal in the last FA Cup final that took the cup away from us is still in my eyes. The Blues will pay for it. Clubs God Father Sir Alex Ferguson is leading the club for the record 21 seasons. The players are in good form. We got Ronney & Saha upfront, best midfield of the league with Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, hargreaves and solid defense of vidic, ferdi & O' shea. If you penetrate the ball those all there legs. You got one more big hurdle to cross Edwin Van der Sar.

The lows of this season would be missing the magic of Hendry who was transfered to Barca. The season kicks off today (fixtures) So far its been a wonderful season of sports, wishing to get more treat in the coming days. Wishing Man U retains the Silverware.

FOSS.IN - They Are Back

It was Barcamp last month! Here is one such announcements. FOSS.IN is one of the world's largest and most focussed FOSS events, held annually India. Over the years, it has attracted thousands of participants, and the speaker roster reads like a "Who's Who" of FOSS contributors from across the world. Held at IISc, Bangalore. Here is the official announcement. Subscribe to their feed more updates.

Note: Extracts from http://foss.in/

Inbox Zero

I write, read, label, filter, archive, DELETE my mails. But still I wonder whats happening. Even Google still claims their Gmail slogan.

Lots of space
Over 2885.658874 megabytes (and counting) of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message.

Ironically we know boundaries will be reached one day.

Google came to my rescue with its techtalk. Thanks to Merlin Mann, author of 43Folders for his talk on Inbox Zero! You can listen to podcast or view this video.

Its a girls thing

I was taken back to my childhood, where my grandmother applies mehndi to my cousins because of its medicinal values. But now, its become an another dimension of fashion for new generation girls. The amount of details and specification in the design that is applied on the hand increases exponentially. I was awe stuck when satya showed her hand. She did it personally without anyones help. I would never have the patience to help anyone out. So I jumped into her cube and shot it.
More from Nikki's wedding collection... Both shot with Nokia 5300.

BCB4 log

Yes, Barcampbangalore4.

Oh! for the people who are hearing it for the first time. Let me clear a few, it got noting to do with Bar's in Bangalore intended to throw a big beer party out there. In simple its an unconference, one of its kind. Still confusing is it? Its an open gathering of people with similar interests to share, discuss, learn and have fun. This was my first Barcamp in Bangalore. Here is my unconference logs.

Friday, July 27:
20:00 - I was supposed to go alone for it, but now I found company.
22:00 - Bored at home with my Sh** hathway broadband connection. Called my friend and tell her how excited I'm about next two days.

Saturday, July 28:
07:00 - Woke up! Never felt so great to get up so soon on a Saturday morning. I will curse my mobile if it wakes me up soon.
08:40 - Drove through the moderate traffic Banergatta road and reached IIMB.
08:45 - Security check. First verification for the Unconference.
09:00 - It was nice to meet one of my earlier Intel friends to stand right in the reception. Also meet Vishnu who came there to talk in the Mobile Collective. Good, few known faces.
10:00 - Let the unconference begin, No welcome address, so chief guest, no lighting of the kuthu velaku as we followed for our house warming ceremony. But it was all informal fun. Random ppl came there and spoke about themselves and what they are looking out in the Barcamp. The turn out to this barcamp was the highest ~550. Some thoughts were from Advanced Programming languages to a low cost dating model. :)
11:00 - A main attraction for me was the Bloggers collective. To brief on this collective it was to discuss on blogging, bloggers and more blogging. Had session on Podcast by Sridhar, Blogging platforms by AJ, How to make your blog popular by Umesh, Firefox widgets by Jerry, interesting sessions on Mobile Blogging and photo blogging by Arun and SEO by Events Bangalore Tejish. Thanks to Sanjuktha to make it all possible with her nice leadership.
14:00 - Break for lunch, Collectives did not stop there. Food Collective made up a ranking board asking for best pubs to restaurants in Bangalore. Interesting to people right.
15:00 - IIMB hostel. I meet my school buddy Anith after 5 long years. Had a nice chat with him recollecting school stories and learning a more on IIM :P
16:00 - Approx the Photography collective gathered so called a stand up meeting. Lots of tips was given by Venky, Hari, Balaji, Jace and many more. Venky spoke about street photography. Kinds of camera right from mobiles to DSLR's. Also lots of human expressions were clicked. Before this I joined the bikers collective near Cafe Coffee day to know more about biking and kinds of bikes. Firefox, trex and more. Chennai favorite Kiruba was there.
18:00 - Unband. One of the best collective. Shourya & Jayanth rock in the strings.

This was day one for me! I really tried to connect and post this on Saturday night. But as usual hathway screwed me up with the entire night. No option other than to sleep after some refreshing data structures (def not for me).

Sunday, June 29:
08:30 - Left home for another day @ BCB4. This time too we landed up early and unconference began late.
11:00 - First session that interested me was by Ashwin. "What all rules can we break to make a start up!" . Nice idea shared by Ashwin. Who is an inspiring person for every young blood out there.
12:00 - Adobe Air by our low cost dating model inventor. he demonstrated few of the cool technologies. But trust me, he disappointed me. Some how the session was suppose to cover on Google gears also to go with the title. but he din look into that.
13:00 - Early lunch today. Instead of the canteen, they took us to the lawn. Better food than yesterday. Then went around the campus and clicked a walls, trees and people. Then vivek and his friends invited too see the water tank of IIMB. On the way to water tank we felt why its hard to concentrate and study in IIMB LoL. Rest on water tank is ...
15:00 - One of the interesting talks I was listening, was Mobile blogging and photo blogging by our respected most God father of BCB4 Arun. Thanks Arun, still I have a pending activity of changing your Photo Blog look & feel as u asked for.
16:00 - Another interesting speaker, Umesh who spoke on how to make your blog more popular. The theme on his session was simplicity. He did not talk about technocrati or SEO, its was a KISS (Keep it simple stupid).
17:00 - One of the last session I attended also my favorite Photography collective. Again Venky led the way talking on theme photography. Hari spoke on ISO, Night photography, Firework photography etc. Also they shared a lot of photos which were really cool with post processing.
18:00 - Concluding the unconference. Again lots of noise, clicks and people. We will meet again this November.

Thanks to all, who made this possible! BCB Rocks!
More to write, time and tide wait for none.