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.