Archive for October, 2006

WiFi @ Bangalore Airport

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

I was denied entry for Security Check at Bangalore airport today for my flight to Chennai.

Reason: I was too early unusually :)

Sitting at the lounge I decided to scan for any wireless network around. I figured out two networks. One a AIRTEL one and another a TATA INDICOM one. I decided to choose the Airtel. Hmm I do a “iwconfig” and fire up my firefox. A Airtel loging screen pops up. Interesting. Where do I go and get a CARD now. Cant see any damn Airtel Showroom around. Err. Wait I see something purchase online. I click it and it asks for my Credit Card Number (ICICI payseal) and it takes away 25 Rs for 30 minutes of online time. Nice. And here I am sitting and typing this blog. :-) Never thought getting internet access would be so simple.

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Photography using K750i

Thursday, October 26th, 2006

I began my K750i Experimentation as I walked around my office for the routine relaxation :D . I liked this macro mode shot. Especially considering the fact that its a mobile phone :D
Macro shpt wth K750i

Just cant wait to blog about this Sony Erricson master piece. But the blog could wait till I get the K750i connected to my laptop using Bluetooth (Now I have to get a USB BT Dongle first)

Here are some more photographs that I took with this phone. Am impressed with the buy. “Good Value for Money”
techno_freak and mbuf Anurag Lunatech Anurag Anurag and techno_freak Lunatech waiting for his Anurag before enjoying a delightful Hyderabad Briyani The F00D!!

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Enters Beryl

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

This post has been long pending ever since I moved to beryl last weekend removing all Compiz related stuff. The procedure was dead simple.

This is what I did.

1. Make sure you have the latest Edgy stuff by doing a apt-get upgrade

2. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add third party repos. There are a list of repos that can be added but I added this one.

deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz edgy main-edgy

3. Add Quinn’s key to your trusted repos list.

wget http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz/quinn.key.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -

4. Do a sudo apt-get update

5 . sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

6. Make sure beryl-manager gets installed. Also to have more themes check whether the Emerald theme manager is installed.

7. Make these following changes to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. (Note: For Intel boards only)

To section “Device” add

Option “XAANoOffscreenPixmaps” “true”

Add this new Section at the end of the file

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “true”
EndSection

8. Add beryl-manager to your startup programs if you want it so.

9. Logout and relogin. You find the nice Beryl splash coming up if you have added beryl-manager to the startup programs. Else manually do a “beryl-manager” from a terminal.

One problem that I had was “blinking Window borders” but that was solved once I changed the theme. But this problem reoccurs sometimes and vanishes once I logout and do a relogin. Have to report this issue to Quinn and her team.

Customise the settings to your likes/dislikes. I personally hated the river like minimize/maximize effect :( And the wobbly opening of Menus. So added some neat stuff instead. But take my word “Beryl is way better than Compiz in terms of Performance and features “. For other graphics cards and stuff you can either visit the Beryl Project Homepage or this Ubuntu Wiki.

I have uploaded a short 30 second video of Beryl on my laptop. It can be downloaded from here. http://www.tuxmaniac.com/work/beryl.ogg

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Request for Sponsorship for HiPC Conference 2006

Sunday, October 22nd, 2006

This Sunday 22nd October 2006 morning, when I opened my mail box I saw a mail from one Mr. Rajesh, co-ordinator for HiPC Conf happening in Bangalore this Mid-December. It said one of Our (Casanova and me) Paper submissions have been selected for Poster presentation!!! Y0! Then something really struck me hard. To be present at the conference one has to pay a whopping 22,500 Rs. and this is the fee if registered before Nov 7th 2006 (which also happens to be my birthday) I dont know if my organisation would be ready to sponsor as they are in no way involved and thats one _primary_ question _big_ MNCs see when they sponsor their employees for Conferences. Its time now to figure out how to get hold of this money. Also I just got a new mobile, which I could have postponed if I had known this earlier. But “Murphy’s Law” :( I badly wanna be at the conference and somehow I need to gather up this sum and I definitely hope I will. If some organisation/individual(s) are ready to contribute I would be very pleased and grateful to them. Some details about the conference can be found at the following links

HiPC Website : http://www.hipc.org

Registration Details: http://hipc.org/hipc2006/india.html

For more details you can get in touch with me by just throwing up your comments here or email me at aanjhan at gmail dawt com

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This is why M$ still stands strong…..

Sunday, October 15th, 2006
This is the message that pops up when someone tries to take a TOEFL On line practice test. btw TOEFL is Test of English as Foreign Language which is mandatory for anyone willing to study in the US. Parts of Europe also accepts TOEFL as a pre-requisite for applying for higher studies. What will a person not using Windoze do to take these practice tests!!! :-( Incidentally all the TOEFL / GRE Practice CDs / tests run only on Windoze. This is a sad state of affairs.. :-(
Your system does not meet the minimum requirements for the TOEFL Practice Online site. Please see below for more information.
Your…
Browser Your browser version is not supported by this site. This site requires Internet Explorer V5.01 or later, or AOL V6.0 or later. Please click one of the following links to upgrade Internet Explorer or AOL to the latest version.

Internet Explorer Download Page - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx
AOL Download Page - http://free.aol.com/tryaolfree/cdt.adp?139331
Operating System Your operating system is not supported by this site. This site requires one of the following operating systems

  • Windows 95
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  • Windows 2003 or later
Media Player Windows Media Player is required by this site, and does not appear to be installed on your system. You can download the latest Windows Media Player from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/

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Bharathiyaar Songs to a GNU/Hurd hacker

Friday, October 6th, 2006

This is a mystery really..

Oct 06 19:43:46 * ams has a great mystery to solve.
Oct 06 19:44:25 whassat?
Oct 06 19:44:48 I recived a letter today.
Oct 06 19:44:53 Domestic one.
Oct 06 19:44:56 With a CD in it.
Oct 06 19:44:59 Addressed to me.
Oct 06 19:45:09 Hmm
Oct 06 19:45:12 The CD is some Indian stuff.
Oct 06 19:45:25 ams> :) Indian!!! There are very few Indians You know
Oct 06 19:45:27 :D
Oct 06 19:45:30 tuxmaniac sent you a present? :)
Oct 06 19:45:31 tuxmaniac: Yes.
Oct 06 19:45:37 what was there in the CD?
Oct 06 19:45:45 bddebian> bah..
Oct 06 19:45:47 :|
Oct 06 19:45:49 tuxmaniac: It is a music CD, I haven’t listened to it yet.
Oct 06 19:46:00 From which part of India has it come?
Oct 06 19:46:02 ams>
Oct 06 19:46:09 I have no clue!
Oct 06 19:46:16 It has squigly writting on it.
Oct 06 19:46:22 Something volume 1.
Oct 06 19:46:37 2000 SAREGAMA INDIA LTD
Oct 06 19:46:49 Saregama is a Indian Music Company
Oct 06 19:46:53 ams> Whats the title?
Oct 06 19:47:00 tuxmaniac: Squigly lines.
Oct 06 19:47:06 :|
Oct 06 19:47:07 heh
Oct 06 19:47:11 tuxmaniac: I don’t read this language.
Oct 06 19:47:19 There is a indian flag in the middle.
Oct 06 19:47:28 * tuxmaniac suspects it to be Hindi
Oct 06 19:47:34 A man in a turban on the right, with a dot on his forehead… And a muschtashe.
Oct 06 19:47:34 :) )
Oct 06 19:47:42 hehe
Oct 06 19:47:44 And there is some statue on the left..
Oct 06 19:47:52 Maybe it’s an Al Qaeda training CD? ;-P
Oct 06 19:47:59 From India?
Oct 06 19:48:00 bddebian> =)) =)) =))
Oct 06 19:48:39 It was sent today I think.
Oct 06 19:48:42 Oh, right, maybe it’s anti-Pakistan propoganda then? ;-P
Oct 06 19:48:46 Which makes it all that more interesting.
Oct 06 19:49:14 ams> It should be Vandemataram Album by A.R.Rahman
Oct 06 19:49:16 :)
Oct 06 19:49:18 So it must be someone in this town, I think.
Oct 06 19:49:28 But I can’t think of anyone i know in this town that would send me CD’s.
Oct 06 19:49:29 ams> your birthday today?
Oct 06 19:49:37 Let alone ones with Indian stuff one it.
Oct 06 19:49:41 :) )
Oct 06 19:49:46 No.
Oct 06 19:50:06 There is a serial number on it.
Oct 06 19:50:14 CDNF147534
Oct 06 19:50:24 I don’t have a CD player to listen to it…
Oct 06 19:50:34 Anyother info.?
Oct 06 19:50:47 * tuxmaniac will try to solve some mystery related to what CD it is
Oct 06 19:50:49 No.
Oct 06 19:50:56 Volume one of something…
Oct 06 19:51:26 13 letter title, I think.
Oct 06 19:51:46 Starts with something that looks like Lo
Oct 06 19:51:53 Hm.
Oct 06 19:52:03 Maybe I can start Emacs, and switch to hindi mode and see if I can type the title.
Oct 06 19:52:13 ams> heh.. Please do it
Oct 06 19:52:23 * tuxmaniac gets involved whenever he solves mysteries
Oct 06 19:52:24 :D
Oct 06 19:52:59 What is the alphabet called?
Oct 06 19:53:01 Devangari?
Oct 06 19:53:04 yes
Oct 06 19:53:57 Everything uses it? Even hindi and bengali (thats one of the other languages, no?)?
Oct 06 19:54:40 Hm.
Oct 06 19:54:41 No fonts.
Oct 06 19:54:52 yes very much
Oct 06 19:55:06 Remove X.
Oct 06 19:55:11 remote X
Oct 06 19:55:15 * techno_freak (n=techno_f@59.92.83.64) has joined ##hurd
Oct 06 19:55:26 tuxmaniac: That is very good, one thing less for me to worry about :-)
Oct 06 19:55:38 ams> which is very good?
Oct 06 19:55:51 Yes.
Oct 06 19:55:53 Hm.
Oct 06 19:56:00 I can’t type this… I don’t see the fonts.
Oct 06 19:57:35 * techno_freak joins tuxmaniac in his mystery solving :D
Oct 06 19:57:50 You also from India?
Oct 06 19:57:54 ams: does it look like the one in this ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vande_Mataram
Oct 06 19:58:13 ams: yes, am tuxmaniac’s friend
Oct 06 19:58:14 Damn, first the French, now the Indians are taking over..
Oct 06 19:58:43 * tuxmaniac asks bddebian to praise all Indians
Oct 06 19:58:48 Indian rock :D
Oct 06 19:58:57 techno_freak: Cool.
Oct 06 19:59:00 bddebian: no taking over, tuxmaniac told me about the CD, just curious to know what it is actually
Oct 06 19:59:02 :)
Oct 06 19:59:08 techno_freak: And let me see, must start firefox over a ssh link to look at it.
Oct 06 19:59:15 oh ok
Oct 06 19:59:24 ams> get a X running man!
Oct 06 19:59:26 :|
Oct 06 19:59:31 tuxmaniac: Never1
Oct 06 19:59:40 ams> Ugh!! You and your philosophy
Oct 06 19:59:41 :D
Oct 06 19:59:59 tuxmaniac: Fix gnumach and Hurd and I’ll praise you ;-P
Oct 06 20:00:09 ????? ??????
Oct 06 20:00:32 tuxmaniac: can you see it ?
Oct 06 20:00:35 ams> ^^^ seeing it? Does that look likeit?
Oct 06 20:00:49 Meh..
Oct 06 20:00:54 No, not seeing it..
Oct 06 20:00:57 Seeing stars…
Oct 06 20:00:58 No font.
Oct 06 20:00:59 ahh
Oct 06 20:01:34 Are there some fonts for devangari?
Oct 06 20:01:44 ams: then, you have to look at the web site
Oct 06 20:02:00 tuxmaniac: but this is not 13 letter word
Oct 06 20:02:02 techno_freak: I did, I don’t have fonts for it to view the thing.
Oct 06 20:02:11 oh ok
Oct 06 20:02:25 And don’t trust the 13 letter thing, I don’t know how devangari looks like.
Oct 06 20:02:35 :)
Oct 06 20:02:39 For all I know I could be counting one letter as two, or two as one.
Oct 06 20:02:49 what i typed is a 7 letter word
Oct 06 20:02:59 Does intlfonts include devangari fonts?
Oct 06 20:03:10 should be
Oct 06 20:03:13 Yes, yes it does!
Oct 06 20:03:33 * ams installs.
Oct 06 20:03:39 * tuxmaniac wanna see how ams looks in real world!! :D
Oct 06 20:03:57 www.update.uu.se/~ams/home/.bild
Oct 06 20:04:00 * tuxmaniac saw a lot of GNU/Hurd hackers yesterday but not ams –> The dude
Oct 06 20:04:00 ;)
Oct 06 20:06:47 Tap tap tap…
Oct 06 20:06:51 Big file this…
Oct 06 20:09:33 Installing..
Oct 06 20:10:06 ams: i suppose there should be some english on that CD… which can help us
Oct 06 20:10:33 techno_freak: Not much.
Oct 06 20:10:59 CDNF 14734 COMPACT disc DIGITAL AUDIO
Oct 06 20:11:03 alteast the audio company who made that CD?
Oct 06 20:11:06 MADE IN INDIA
Oct 06 20:11:14 SEE INLAY CARD FOR DETAILS
Oct 06 20:11:27 (P) & (C) 2000 SAREGAMA INDIA LTD
Oct 06 20:11:27 no inlay cards ?
Oct 06 20:11:37 hmm..
Oct 06 20:11:39 Vol. 1
Oct 06 20:11:56 Some annoying all rights restricted bit around the rim.
Oct 06 20:12:01 No, no inlay cards.
Oct 06 20:12:02 WTF
Oct 06 20:12:14 techno_freak: It seems like the CD is full.

ams: is the CD somewhat orange in color ?
Oct 06 20:19:06 techno_freak: No.
Oct 06 20:19:08 techno_freak: Greenish.
Oct 06 20:19:21 The top is dotted orange.
Oct 06 20:19:25 The bottom dotted green.
Oct 06 20:19:28 is there color like.. safron - white-green
Oct 06 20:19:36 Hm.
Oct 06 20:19:38 Yes.
Oct 06 20:19:47 There is a flag above the whole, the indian flag.
Oct 06 20:19:56 On the right of it is a face of a man.
Oct 06 20:20:03 ams: your most probably having one of the national songs of India called Vande Mataram
Oct 06 20:20:04 With a turban, a dot on his head, and a muschtace.
Oct 06 20:20:23 On the left is a statye, female looking, no idea which one.
Oct 06 20:20:30 turban is white and he is wearing a black coat ?
Oct 06 20:20:57 techno_freak: Turban is white, no coat. Just the face, almost no neck, and it looks like there is a white scarfe.
Oct 06 20:21:45 I’ll go for a walk whilst this runs
Oct 06 20:21:53 ams: is the pic something like this http://www32.brinkster.com/famoustamils/story/bharathiar.jpg
Oct 06 20:22:53 I don’t think it is a national song thingy… Unless you have a couple million of them and you publish them in volumes.
Oct 06 20:23:40 Yes yes!!
Oct 06 20:23:43 Thats the man.
Oct 06 20:23:49 Same person at that.
Oct 06 20:23:50 techno_freak> good job mate
Oct 06 20:23:52 ahh
Oct 06 20:23:55 :)
Oct 06 20:23:56 its vandemataram
Oct 06 20:23:59 :)
Oct 06 20:24:07 tuxmaniac: i guessed with the turban and dot in the middle
Oct 06 20:24:12 :) )
Oct 06 20:24:30 its proly first volume of Bharathiars patriotic collection
Oct 06 20:24:34 probably in tamil :D
Oct 06 20:24:39 may be :-)
Oct 06 20:24:45 Strange strange people…
Oct 06 20:24:50 then its not devanagiri, its tamil :)
Oct 06 20:24:51 ams> enjoy @!!!! But I wonder why they sent you???

ams is “Alfred M. Szmidt” - A GNU/Hurd Hacker in Sweden.. The detectives are tuxmaniac (Me) and technofreak (Parthan) [Parthan hopped in to resolve this mystery :D ]

It is “Bharathiyar padalgal” CD Volume 1.. Just cant stop wondering..

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The Edgy EFfecT!!!

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006

Voila!!! Ubuntu Edgy Eft Beta was released on September 28th, 2006. To know more on the release schedule of Edgy Eft visit https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EdgyReleaseSchedule

Well the fun started when I decided to go for the Distribution Upgrade from my very stable Dapper Drake . The Download begins at around 30th of September 2006 and due to my highly mobile nature I could get all downloaded and installed only around October 1st 2006. Ahh!! Did it actually complete..????? Well I made myself sure that the ubuntu-desktop package and the kernel (2.6.17) was properly downloaded, so that I am not stuck up with something in between :D

Rebooted my system with great curiosity… I chose the 2.6.17 kernel at the GRUB. W00w.. The new Bootup Splash welcomed me.. :D

Then a very familiar *Blue screen* popped up saying X is not properly configured. O_o I got some task on hand.. Irssi and lynx came to my rescue of keeping in touch with the World wide web. Systematic analysis of the issue led to the identification of the Culprits and rectifying them.

Let me introduce culprit Numero Uno :

My AIGLX indirectly… :( I had put in gdm.conf-custom for my AIGLX. This was causing all the freaking problem in the world. I moved it to .bak and O_o I was welcomed by a wonderfully modified HumanCircle Login Screen. I Liked it straight !!!!!

Culprit Two:

The pUbuntu24 Mouse pointer. God knows how it got itself dumped into .icons directory. and whats even more puzzling is how this became my icon theme. gnome-settings-daemon was unable to understand this stupid pUbuntu24 Mouse pointer type as a Icon theme (Obviously!!! ) and nothing happened after the sexy bootsplash screen and that amazing Congo kind of Startup sound.. Too good!!! A change in the gconf put back everything to normalcy and AbraCadabra —- Its Edgy time on my lappie!!!

Now for some salient features:

-> gnome 2.16

-> F-Spot and TomBoy notes installed by default

-> Bon Echo

-> Oo.o 2.04 RC

-> Anjuta 2 (Special Mention) (Great going Naba)

-Lots lots more..

Its just been a day or so on my Edgy and already in Love with Ubuntu (Err.. I have always loved it and it just increased a bit more) :)

Posted in FLOSS, ubuntu | 1 Comment »