Spreading the love of Ubuntu

On Sunday, I had to visit a photo studio to take photographs for the visa processing. I landed up around half an hour earlier to find an old studio with wooden doors with a peeling paint. I had second thoughts about going to another studio but then decided what the hell. All I need is a good photographer and my face. I decided to give it a shot. So i wandered around, took pics of BEST buses with my w800i, found Borivali Biriyani Center (BBC) in Goregaon and came back to the studio when the photographer called up. His studio was a small room converted into a studio with his umbrellas and lights and background scenery. We settled down for the shoot and I went through the process while he twisted my head to left and right and up and down and corrected my posture till he was satisfied and shot two blinding shots with his flash remotely controlled. I took notice of the camera. It had a hot shoe for external flash which can be configured to connect remotely and had that unmistakable 'L' symbol. It was a Lumix!. I couldn't notice the model but it said 12x zoom on the side. Google says its a FZ20. Anyways, thats not the point. After everything was done I asked him about the digital copy of the picture. I told him that I wanted it on my thumb drive. To which he expressed his concern about viruses and it needs to be scanned and all that. And i said somewhat reluctantly that I use linux and it doesnt have any virus as I havent used it on windows machine yet (not the whole truth... thats my bootable SLAX drive made in windows. i had that in mind but now i cant find it in my bag!!). The mention of Linux interested him. He told how his friend is using Linux and claims there is no virus. He wanted to confirm that with me. I said yes, your friend is right. No virus with Linux. Then he started asking how user friendly linux is? how are the applications in that? Since he primarily uses Photoshop he was keen to know about any photo editing tools in linux. A windows user wanting to test the linux waters. Perfect. This time around I didn't push linux into his throat. I answered his queries. Didn't dumb down windows. Just told him why windows seems to be the most friendliest OS for him as he has not seen anything else. Once you go around in Linux he will be comfortable with it too. Told him about GIMP. And in the end mentioned about the Live CD. He wasn't too sure of the Live CD so I promised to get him one so that he can try it out without installing on his machine. My initial idea was to burn the Ubuntu 8.04 CD I already had but remembered that 64 bit is not common. Good that I didn't burn the CD as I got the Ubuntu 8.10 CD today. I think its a 32 bit CD shipped by default. Have to check and supply a copy to the photographer and walk him through the Live CD. Must remember to leave my number incase he decides to wet his feet in Linux. I hope he does. :D

My Lifestream

Trying out a new concept of Lifestreaming. I was inspired to do this after coming across this post . Went through one of this article on lifestreaming which incidentally is the topmost result on Google for "lifestreaming". The idea of aggregating all the feeds in one place sounded attractive but using one extra web service to feed my online life wasn't so attractive. Nowadays, I tend to forget the passwords for the services i am already subscribed to. Add to that the misery of one more service and one more account to manage things. Labnol's method using Google Reader sounded good enough. No extra password and a nice way to manage the feeds as well. I previosuly used firefox as my feed reader but as the list of sites grow, it slows down the firefox considerably on startup and so shifted my feeds as well to the reader. So here I am with my Lifestream. I am not that active on the web 2.0 space. I use the blogger, twitter and picasaweb only and have made the lifestream using these three. Hopefully twitter will get a boost as soon as i get the GPRS. Blogging is picking up slowly but picasaweb is gonna take some time until I get a nice broadband connection. The sidebar went through some changes to accomodate Lifestream feed link and email subscription box. I have removed my blog feed links as keeping both lifestream and blog feed link doesn't make sense. Hope somebody subscribes to my boring lifestream :).

Objective Review

As said I am here to review the objectives I set for myself two weeks back and the result is no surprise. I fail miserably.

#1: Didn't go out for shooting pics. Was in bed half of the day sleeping and reading Dilbert and Asimov. The only photos I took were those of my roomies b'day.

#2: Just explored some brightness, contrast, level and curves but not enough to get nice images.

#3: Blogging is picking up rather slowly. Also thinking of modifying the sidebar to include recent comments and new calendar controls.

#4: Finished Dilbert and started reading Asimov. Some of the sf stories are extremely good. The current story I am on is the longest one till now and extremely boring. It takes a long time to understand what the hell are the characters speaking. Looks like it would suit a movie rather than a book.

Photography needs some Special Attention. Laziness won't do. Mornings/Evenings are the best and I must not miss them. Like today there was a procession of Jains complete with an Elephant and a group of ladies draped in their characteristic colorful sarees following it. "I-wish-I-had-my-camera" moment. Missed!.

I am listening to...

1. Bachna Ae Haseenon - This title track is also my ringtone presently. There is something irresistible about this song. Whenever I listen to this I end up dreaming this - A little bit of Bipasha in my life.. A little bit of Deepika by my side.... (ala Mambo no: 5!)

2. Jaane Kyun - Absolute rocker... makes me tap my two left feet. I just hope they have filmed it on Abhishek and John and its just a "Dostana" song and not a Love song. Jaane kyun dil jaanta hai... tu hai to I will be allright. really.

3. Dost - Melodious. The maestro hits the right notes to hum along day and night. The texture (i am missing the right word.. not into music very much you see) of the song feels smooth. The song just flows along. Sample this:

aawaz ka dariya hoon
behta hoon main meri raaton mein
main jaagta rehta hoon
neend bhari jheel si aankhon mein
aawaz hoon maiiiin"

Accessing Blocked Sites in Office

We all know that companies usually block access to certain websites so that people can concentrate on work rather than on some obscure websites. There is an added advantage that it reduces bandwidth usage as well as minimizing the chances of a virus attack. The ones that usually gets the stop sign are webmail, social networking, download centers, porn, music and file sharing websites. But every now and then the filters that our friendly network guy uses goes a step ahead and blocks some "innocent" sites also. Like they do it in my office with the news sites and one particular technology blog (www.labnol.org) that I read regularly. And today I re-discovered one old trick to access these sites :D. The trick is to use the Google cache.

I subscribe to RSS feeds of most of the sites I need to browse as Bookmark Toolbar in my Firefox. The RSS feeds will list down in a drop down fashion. I right clicked on one of the recently updated article and clicked copy to copy that article link. Then, I typed cache: in the Google search bar on the right hand corner of Firefox and pressed enter. Magic!!.. the article was there in the cache mode!!.. This method has some limitations. Major one being you can't view those webpages that has not been cached yet. But take heart, last time I checked an IBN Live article at 2:45 pm, it was updated at 12:15 pm. Also, the cache was also showing a latest article on www.labnol.org which wasn't visible in the Toolbar. So, cache is somewhat reliable and updates faster and is latest compared to the time mentioned on the top of the cache frame which might indicate an earlier time. And of course, you can't click on links to navigate. You have to copy the link and then do a cache: to get going. And no, you can't check Orkut.

Objective Setting

Days can become seriously drab if one doesn't have anything to look forward to. With the present state I am in, I run the risk of breaking somebody's bones or wasting myself to death soon if I don't channel my energy into something more useful and feel alive rather than just being a vegetable. At work we set objectives for a project and strive to achieve the objectives throughout the year. I have thought of following the same for myself to get my lazy ass moving. And since, I need to break the inertia first I will keep my objectives simple in the beginning. So, here are the objectives I set for myself for the next two weeks:

#1 : Prowl the streets of Goregaon in the morning on Saturday and take snaps. I have been experimenting with the manual mode in my camera (Lumix FZ-18) recently and reading a bit on photography in manual mode. Its time to take the plunge into serious photography.

#2: Teach myself GIMP for editing photos. Its amazing how simple adjustments can improve one photo.

#3: Blog regularly. I have been careless about my blog. Time to change that and retain this layout as far as possible.

#4: Finish reading "Dilbert: Way of the Weasel" and take up Asimov's book.


After two weeks, I will evaluate myself and see where I have reached in fulfilling my objectives. And for now, its time for a cappuccino.

Marooned

This is exactly what I feel without the internet to connect my lappie to. Thanks to the Reliance guys who won't accept the address proof printed on the company letterhead. They require a phone bill or ration card or electricity bill from me who has barely been a month in Mumbai. Browsing in office is one harrowing experience. Nothing compares to the awesome secuirity policy here which blocks 98% of the sites after 9:30 am. Imgaine even the news site getting blocked!. I can understand the need to block any distraction for developers working their ass off on projects but seriously, there ought to be some concession for out-of-work-poor-developers like me. Maybe I should hold dharna to get the managements attention. I should hold a placard with "Meri Maangein Poori Karo" slogans and all. Or maybe I should write a threatening letter to the management demanding fulfillment of my rights or to face dire consequences.

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To whomsoever it concerns

Dear Sir,

As an useless-out-of-work-poor-developer warming the chair who have nothing else to do other than documentation, I demand the right to browse and download and copy stuffs to my USB. You will appreciate the fact that I don't visit any po.. ahem.. objectionable sites whatsoever in office. I also assure you that I don't visit any obscure sites waiting to infect the machine with virus and spywares which anyway in all eventuality will surely by detected by the state of art bloated antivirus software you have invested in. I also give you my word that I shall download only open-source free softwares for my linux lappie and nothing else and won't ever install anything on this machine. In keeping in mind the economic downturn we are facing I am also ready to leave the monitor powered off and save valuable power and thus utilizing the time to take powernaps to recharge myself after a sumptuous meal. I consider it as my duty to warn you that in case my demands are not met I will resort to one extra cup of cappuccino in addition to the two I have daily in the morning and evening and thus depleting the coffee beans faster and depriving one of your developers from that coffee which indirectly will reduce his productivity.

Thanking you,

Yours Truly,

an useless-out-of-work-poor-developer

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The upside of NOT having an Internet at the PG is that all of us in the PG can communicate face to face instead of the IM. And our owner being a very nice and considerate human decided that we should communicate even more and stuffed one more person in the already congested room of mine. Now I don't have any place to keep my bag but its ok I can communicate more. It doesn't matter that I have to bend like a gymnast to get to my cloths now but its ok I can communicate more. Imagine the level of communication the seven of us will be having after 17th of this month when my previous roomie whom I have never seen will be coming back after a business trip to France. The communication dam might overflow when he finds that he doesn't have a bed anymore and no place to keep his bags too. Such fun!!.

PS: Bless the person who developed the Blogger Gadget through which I am posting this.