Allahbaksh in Tech World

Will HPCC System kill Hadoop?

2011-06-27T10:24:00.005+05:30

HPCC System has jolted the whole community who were working on Apache Hadoop. The new developers are in confusion and start ups around Hadoop product are feeling nervous. HPCC System which claims to be better solution than Hadoop has some set of advantages as it claims to be faster than usual Hadoop MapReduce. Also developers who are comfortable writing in C++ application use to use pipes to compute the data now can think of using HPCC System directly. With Oracle taking over the Sun and Apache not being part of JSR committee what would be the future of Hadoop is the question.

I still prefer working on Hadoop as compared to any systems as Hadoop is strongly backed by Yahoo. The Apache community is one of most powerful community around. The community support in Apache project is highest. Hadoop has penetrated into the bloods of the developers and spreading like blood cancer. Yahoo organizes yearly events on Hadoop. We have so many Hadoop Community around the world. Cloudera has commercial distribution of Hadoop. Lot of commercial training on Hadoop is available by many vendors. Not only there are lots of machine images of Hadoop available for Amazon EC2, Eucalyptus, Open Nebula, OpenStack etc. There whole bunch of commercial systems which are built on top of Hadoop .

Given this popularity will HPCC System will kill the Hadoop. I have strong doubt about the same. Might be I am supporter of Yahoo and Apache community but overall if you consider the ecosystem to evolve it takes time.

For now LexisNexis need to release whole source code of HPCC System and then a community will start building.

Planet Search

2009-05-05T22:47:00.004+05:30

I have started posting about lucene, solr, minion and other search library on http://planetsearch.wordpress.com. This PlanetSearch blog will give you information. about search libraries and other important information concerned with them Please feel free to send me your inputs about lucene, solr, minion or anything which you feel would improve the blog.
Right now the blog may not contain much of articles or information but I will update it once I get bit free from my office work probably on next Saturday or Sunday.

Call for volunteers by Karnataka Election Watch 2009

2009-04-09T07:58:00.000+05:30

The Elections to the 15th Loksabha are right round the corner and politicians have started filing their nominations. We complain about bad roads, corruption and criminalization of politics; Here is your chance to do your bit to fight against crime and money power in politics.

NEW is a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 NGO and other citizen led organizations working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India.

National Election Watch is active in almost all states of India and has done election watches for all states and Lok Sabha elections since ADR (www.adrindia.org), along with couple other organizations, won the PIL in Supreme Court in 2002 to making disclosure of educational, financial and criminal background of electoral candidates mandatory.

For the upcoming lok sabha elections, NEW at Karnataka needs volunteers for the following activities:

1. Transcribing the affidavits filed by candidates in Karnataka and analyzing the contents of the affidavits.
Skills needed: Kannada reading, Basic Computer Skills for entering the data in English onto our reporting portal.
Timings: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, in 4 hour slots

2. Preparing and managing press releases in English and Kannada
Skills needed: Writing skills Kannada or English
Timings: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, in 4 hour slots

3. Answering calls on a help-line. Answer questions coming from various parts of Karnataka on candidates based on the affidavits filed by them.
Skills needed: Spoken Kannada and English
Timings: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, in 4 hour slots

The Karnataka election watch process will begin on April 2nd and will continue till April 23rd.

Kindly get in touch with Sridhar at 9916298421 or Sindhu at 9900191517 for further details or clarifications .

Our office is located at
Hundredhands
9/2 Madras Bank Road
(Behind India Garage on St. Marks Road)
Bangalore 01
(Directions at the bottom of this mail)

Warm Regards,
Sridhar
For National Election Watch- Karnataka

Directions

From Residency Road: Take a left after Josephs Science College coming up towards St. Marks Road. After you pass Museum Road on the right. You will see Shankar Book Store and soon after that, there is a mud road with lot of sign boards on the outside. Get into that road and look for Small wonder Play School. We are in the same compound on the ground floor.

From M.G Road. Take a left on Museum Road. Come all the way down till you hit a T junction and you have to turn right. Look for Shankar Book Shop and follow same directions as above.

Please call hundred hands land line 25593606 for any more additional directions.

OOPHM with GWT 1.6 Trunk

2009-03-25T12:10:00.006+05:30

With the wiki article on the gwt project I thought it is nice time to write what are the advantages and of GWT OOPHM.

Here is experience of any young developer.

1) The Firefox plugin has some problem on windows. When I started my Hosted mode it threw a dialog box displaying message that OOPHM plugin (blah blah) not found though I have installed the plugin from the location pointed by wiki.

2) As I had the plugin available I installed the plugin from my built. (I just searched for *.xpi) I installed both the *.xpi file.

3) I installed IE plugin using the procedure described and it threw the following diaglog.

4) When I started debugging I could see the Hosted mode now supports Jetty. Below is the image of the same.

5) In firefox it worked fine. But in IE I was getting some problem. In short I was not able to get the desired application running in IE.

Good Things about OOPHM

1. It is very light weight and works fantastic.

2. Supports IE, Firefox on windows (I have not checked how install plugin for Safari.

Some Things which we expect soon

1. Compile button enabled

2. Should support Chrome (Fastest Browser), Safari on Windows and Opera.

3. The annoying message in Firefox about plugin not found should be removed.

4. IE plugin and other issues on IE to be fixed.

My wish list for Google IO

2009-02-21T11:05:00.002+05:30

Google IO is due in two months. As it is one of the best developer event and Google comes up with latest releases of tools and new tools I am expecting following tool releases this time.

1. Proper Chrome Build for Linux
2. GWT 1.6
3. Out of Process Hosted Mode Debugging (GWT)
4. Google App Engine programming using Java

What would you like to have?

Building GWT OOPHM from Source

2009-02-19T23:23:00.001+05:30

Checking out GWT Source code from the SVN

1. Check out OOPHM Code from http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/svn/branches/oophm/ into d:/oophm
(Use SVN http://www.collab.net/downloads/subversion/)
2. Check out GWT tools from http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/svn/tools/ into D:/gwt_tools
3. Download Ant if you don’t have it. http://apache.hoxt.com/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.7.1-bin.zip and unzip it into d:/ant folder

Note: GWT Tools is a big project. If you already have it because you have built GWT project from SVN then use the same.

Setting Path

1. Create user’s variable and Name as GWT_TOOLS and Variable value as D:/gwt_tools
Optional depending upon if you have already configured the ANT on your machine.

2. Edit Environment Variables. In System Variable append;D:\ant\apache-ant-1.7.1\bin; to your PATH variable.
3. Create user’s variable and Name as ANT_HOME and Variable value as D:\ant\apache-ant-1.7.1

Building GWT OOPHM

1. Change directory to build tools by typing ‘cd d:/oophm’ on Command prompt
2. Type ant on command prompt. (D:\tools\oophm\oophm1\plugins\xpcom\prebuilt)
3. In d:/oophm/build/staging the complete gwt build is available. Please note the plugin folder contains the Firefox and IE plugin. There is plugin in D:/oophm/plugin/xpcom/prebuilt/ oophm-xpcom.xpi.
4. You need to install the appropriate plugins to the browsers.
5. If you are using Firefox as default browser then just drop oophm-xpcom.xpi in it and it will install the plugin for firefox.
6. Include gwt-dev.jar in classpath and remove previous gwt-dev-XXX.jar.
7. Start debugging the project as usually you use to do. You will see different shell which popsup. It will try to open firefox or the default browser with the URL which gets printed in bottom Console. (In my case the firefox could not open by default. So I copied the URL in the browser navigation text bar and it worked).
8. You can now debug your application and get all the advantages.

Advantages of Out of Process Hosted Mode Debugging

1. The Debugging is fast.
2. You can use browser of your choice for example Firefox, IE and the you can choose any version of the browser.

Disadvantages

1. As of now the compilation does not work from Hosted Mode Shell.

Building GWT from Source

2009-02-16T20:03:00.004+05:30

Checking out GWT Source code from the SVN

Check out GWT Code from http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ into d:/gwt

Check out GWT tools from http://google-web-toolkit.googlecode.com/svn/tools/
into D:/gwt_tools

Download Ant if you don’t have it. http://apache.hoxt.com/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.7.1-bin.zip and unzip it into d:/ant folder.

Note: GWT Tools is a big project

Setting Path

Create user’s variable and Name as GWT_TOOLS and Variable value as D:/gwt_tools

Optional depending upon if you have already configured the ANT on your machine.

Edit Environment Variables. In System Variable append;D:\ant\apache-ant-1.7.1\bin; to your PATH variable.

Create user’s variable and Name as ANT_HOME and Variable value as D:\ant\apache-ant-1.7.1

Verify whether ant is set up properly by typing ant on command prompt.

Building GWT

Change directory to build tools by
typing ‘cd d:/gwt/build-tools’
on Command prompt

Type ant on command prompt.

Three Jar files will be created in d:/gwt/build/lib

i. ant-gwt.jar
ii. ant-customchecks.jar
iii. gwt-doctool.jar

cd d:/gwt/dev

Type ant on command prompt

gwt-dev-XXX.jar file for respective, linux, mac and windows are
created in d:/gwt/build/lib

XXX stands for the OS

Another jar is created name gwt-dev-oophm.jar. This is the Out of Process Hosted
Mode debugging.

Type cd d:/gwt/users and build using ant

gwt-user.jar

Type cd d:/gwt/servlet and build using ant

gwt-servlet.jar is created

You can use GWT Latest build and experiment on coolest features of

Google Chrome

2008-09-03T05:16:00.002+05:30

Google decision to come up with its own browser was definitely expected but I had not thought it would have been so soon. One of my friend who works in Google had informed me during a conversation in February 2008 that Google is going to come up with its own browser. But I had not taken it so seriously because release of Firefox 3.0 made me think that Google is going to contribute towards improvement of Firefox browser. Firefox is my favorite browser and I still vote for Firefox because it is not trying to dominate the Internet as Microsoft was doing and Google is trying the same.

Having Google Gear integrated with the browser and other cool stuff like history of recent site visited is definitely are added feature of Google Chrome but when you consider this with Mozilla Ubiquity or number of other great plugins, Google Chrome doesn't fit the picture.

Google also disheartened Linux user by not releasing Google Chrome for Linux. Whether Firefox will survive its market share or not is different issue but the greater issue is one more Browser War will start. Microsoft IE 8, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome who will win the battle is a question which is difficult to answer. Definitely IE 8 will be out of picture in few day. The other two big guns probably will have equal market share in near future.

Leaving Mumbai

2008-07-21T18:48:00.000+05:30

Leaving your birth city is always difficult. The city which gave you shelter, food when you just opened your eyes remain always close to your heart. Same was the case with me for Mumbai. Being born in Mumbai I always loved it. Though personally I don’t like the climate of Mumbai but given the fact that it home to millions of industrial worker the heat is very minimal.

20th Morning was the uneventful day. I woke up early in the morning and started chatting with Minh on GTalk. The other famous past time for me now has become writing and reading blog. So I was busy in that till 8:45. Breakfast call came from my Mother who was feeling that I have become aloof from the time I have got laptop. Many stories were told in my college days by my friends and relatives about my Computer and me. Few even made comment that I would give my heart the sleekest and powerful computer rather than a beautiful girl. Any how on the breakfast table every one was quite. My father was supposed to leave on that day evening, so the mood was upset. My father spoke less as he was also feeling home sick. Shams was as usual boosting and talking about his college. I was listening to the conversation and mentally deciding what to pack and how? I handed over the medicine to my father (Blood Pressure) and suddenly remembered that I had to still eat Mango. I was not able to eat mango last night because I was feeling nostalgic about the time we spend in Ujjain. It was nice trip and we had enjoyed it a lot. After eating Mango I kept my cell phone for charging and started packing my baggage. I removed my T-Shirt because it was not fitting in my bag (as T-Shirt place was occupied by two shirts which I had left in Hubli). We all moved to master bed room where my father spoke to us on general topic. It ranged from Arabic literature to Cultural differences. It was informative session.

The clock struck 10.00 when I decided to start getting ready. After getting ready and putting my laptop in the bag I spoke to my mother who was complaining that I didn’t spend much of my time with her. At 10:20 my father, Taha and me left hotel. I was supposed to buy sweets for my friends who have asked for it. The sweet shop was next to the hotel. My father wanted me to buy some thing more but he could see that there was absolutely no place in my bag. I kept the sweet in my bag and we crossed the road. I fixed a Taxi to Sion and said Adie to all. I was feeling very sad. I had met my father after a long time. It was very short stay with my father which often makes me feel guilty.

The Taxi zoomed. The driver was in his early 40s. His moustache was prominently visible and it was looking that it has underlined the most important part of him, his nose. His nose was straight and it looked perfect on his face. Some of his hairs were turning gray. His hands were thick and were covered with hairs.

We reached Sion at 11:00 A.M and I went to medical store to buy Gelusil tablet. This was the same place from where most of the buses depart. The big mall which houses multiplex was prominent there and youngster were buzzing there to buy the tickets.

Find more on my next post

AirTel Mumbai Network Down

2008-07-18T18:10:00.001+05:30

This was second time in my stint with AirTel service provider. The AirTel network is completely down. The first time it was early Saturday morning. I had tough time to contact my mother. The network was repaired in few hours. By 10A.M that day I was able to contact my friends.

But today it is difficult. Though whole family is together so there is not a tension about contacting each other but then too I don’t why we feel so unsecured with out our mobile phone? Is it phobia?

AirTel network was used by whole of our family member. I don’t know the reason. For me it was the connectivity and service for others too I suppose it was same. But things like complete network black out would result in breaking our confidence, trust with the service provider.

Google’s Android on Nokia N810

2008-07-14T15:19:00.000+05:30

Getting Android based mobile phone is my dream but how about trying to install Android. This thought came to my mind in BarCampHubballi. So finally it lead me to search. I came through series of post where people have installed Android on Nokia N810. It is cool. It is good is the response in the forum. I will also one day buy Nokia N810 and install Android on it. Being a fan of Nokia from long time I still think it is better to try my self to install the operating system rather than waiting to buy the new HTC phone.

The only thing I am worried is whether I am going to use all the feature of it? Whether I bought the laptop for no good reason? What is actual use to that Android based phone when I rarely use my mobile phone application? The cost of N810 is roughly 20000 INR.

My new Laptop

2008-07-05T20:41:00.000+05:30

Finally two week back I decided to buy a Laptop with 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM with Blue Ray disk and 256Mb graphics memory. Surprisingly there was no change in the configuration which I ordered and what I have received. I have changed my mind about buying a laptop from past one year. My father was really bored and frustrated the way I use to give him assignment of finding the cheapest laptop with my configuration. Before buying my Laptop 4 people bought laptop with my help and all of them were happy. So I thought my technological skills are good enough to order a Laptop for me.

So my Laptop arrived in Hubli with the help of my cousin Kaisar Ahmed Khatib who also had written formulae for me in my Ist year PUC. Thankfully he brought the laptop with utmost care.

When I opened my Laptop I saw it only has 3GB RAM. I was sad, because getting a 4GB laptop was my dream from the time when I had visited Microsoft Tech Vista 2007. The person there had 8Gb of RAM. I informed my father and he immediately called the shop. The shop owner informed that check it in Bios. Later I figured it out that was because I was using 32 bit windows Vista (genuine first time). After finding out from the forum I could figure out the best way to use maximum RAM on 32 bit machine is to install Vista SP1. Though you will not able to use the entire 4GB RAM but it really improves performance and you can use 3.2 odd GB of your RAM.

Infosys bulletin board was great help to get the Vista SP1. I have to install it on my machine and my friends machine to whom I had asked the same.

Thanks to my father for his effort and time to get the Laptop and Kaisar Khatib to get it to Hubli from Sharjah undamaged.

Infosys bulletin board was great help to get the Vista SP1. I have to install it on my machine and my friends machine to whom I had asked the same.

Thanks to my father for his effort and time to get the Laptop and Kaisar Khatib to get it to Hubli from Sharjah undamaged.

Google Gears Finally installed on my Office Machine

2008-06-19T21:01:00.000+05:30

Getting Google gears installed on my machine was more than a Hurricane task given our network constraint. I tried several times downloading gears setup but it was not able to connect to the gears install server to install it properly.

I should Thank to Kishore one of my best friends. I don’t know I am so much obliged by god who had given me friend like, Kishore Indukuri Varma, Sai Deepak, Sunil Vuppula, Adi and Siva I can’t forget them for whole of my life. Though these guys are from premier institute of India they are down to earth and

No Use of Blogger Tool Plugin in Infy Network

2008-06-08T08:09:00.000+05:30

Thought of having Blogging plugin. So that I can more often blog. But Infy network had blocked all bloggin website. So was unsuccessful with the plugin. Now finding a plugin for MyCantos. It will be really cool to have a plugin for something like MyCantos.

Twitter Plugin for Firefox

2008-06-08T07:47:00.000+05:30

I was very much disappointed two week back when I was not able to see twitter in Gmail IM client. I don't know what is the problem. Still I am unable to see the same. So decided to add once again twitter as a friend. But to my disappointment it was still showing gray. Finally installed a plugin for Firefox (I love firefox for this).

BarCampHubbali

2008-06-08T07:11:00.001+05:30

Finally I gave shape to my thought to have a BarCamp at Hubli. Please follow the link below and help the community. Again as usual it is my open source spirit which is making me work late night and early morning.

My friend Nanditha gave me a great support. She agreed to help me out in organizing BarCamp. Hope her spirit and dedication remains the same till BarCamp is finished.

Prof. Rohini Jyoti and Patanshetti were also of great help. Because they readily agreed on my suggestion.

Hope we keep you people updated and conduct a successful BarCamp in Hubli

Visit BarCampHubbali wiki and contribute http://barcamp.org/BarCampHubbali.

Whether we aping American in all walks of life?

2007-12-17T16:47:00.000+05:30

The recent killing of a student in Gurgaon the IT capital of North India was an eye opener for Indians. There are many faces to the scene. Here are a few of them.

I am not sure whether we are trying to ape American or aping some customs of America which is affecting us adversely. The Virgina Tech Massacre and the Gurgaon incident are having similarity. Both the incidents involve youth in a major crime such as murder, but this is a bitter truth. The Indian kids are becoming mentally imbalanced and this is a serious concern to the society at large. We are called as International standard compliant and to show the same our kids are demonstrating their skills in a totally wrong direction. Academic progress has relegated into the background.

The kids needs attention and as both the parents work and there is no one to take care of them properly the kids gets affected. This is the apparent reason why pschyo killer are in greater number in the US. Parents are an integral part of the children day to day activity and if children are denied attention, it is like mal- nutrition to kids.

A child picks up many traits from the parents without their knowledge. Parents should devote more time to their children and understand their problems. The mental problems with Indian kids have started from past two to three decade. For generations we didn't have problem with Indian kids. The reason is the change of culture. In India women were treated with respect and were never considered as bread earners. Though I am against gender bias but I still think it is better for woman to take care of house hold things rather than opt for a job outside the house. The women should understand the primary and most important job for them is to bring up her children. The success of a woman is measured by achievement of her children not by her earnings.

A working woman can bring happiness to the family but it can also vulcanize the family. Now it is up to us to choose our way.

Is Android really Cool?

2007-12-13T12:12:00.000+05:30

My earlier articles have always been on Google, so if you don't like them then probably this will make your taste worst. Yes this article too is on Google. Recently Google came up with its new open source operating system for Mobile. I am fan of open source and have always thought of contributing to it by writing code and fixing bugs. Till now I have not done it and the future looks bleak. I contribute to open source in a different way. My way is to inform people about open source and then asking them to try out the same. I am known as the marketing agent of Firefox in my company.

Android will defiantly change mobile computing world. The mobile vendors can now concentrate on making their hardware compatible with Android, which will cut down their the cost on the operating system. I am postponing my plan to buy mobile till I see Android on mobiles. This in a way is a contribution to open source, also it will reduce the cost price of my mobile.

I could get Android on my system after a bit of difficulty. Yesterday I installed the Android plugin for eclipse. So I am thinking of writing some real time application for Android but thoughts should not remain only thoughts because of scarcity of time.

Who Contributes to Indian Economy?

2007-12-12T09:13:00.000+05:30

The Bull Run market answers the question with Y as first letter but I am not with it. What makes me think the other way is that we are just increasing the number of millionaires in India; we are not decreasing the number of people below poverty line. Increasing the number of millionaire may or may not decrease the people living below poverty line, but definitely it will not make the country richer. To make a country economically sound we have to look at people who contribute maximum to population. Do millionaires contribute to population majority in India?

The inflow of foreign exchange over the years was from Indian's who earned peanuts for their sweat. Majority of workforce works in the Gulf as daily wage worker. The daily wage workers are the one who contributes to Indian economy. They remained with our economy during thick and thin times. Investing money for a higher return is a good thing but it doesn't mean that you should not help your own motherland during its thin times. So who contributed to build economy? Millionaire or daily wage workers?

So to improve our economy we should not count the number of Indians in the millionaire list but we should try to improve the per capita income of the common man. Make people live above poverty line. The Indian economy will then increase in the true sense.

India Knowledge Hub?

2007-12-09T19:48:00.000+05:30

India is portrayed as a Knowledge hub but the real myth is some thing different. Indian working in IT giants like TCS, Infosys, Satyam mostly work on maintenance project. Very few of the Indian are really involved in hard core coding. This is evident from the Indian contribution to open source. There are few who really contribute in sense of code to the open source project and these open source contributor are sucked by US. I am not against brain drain but I am against companies who pay hefty pay cheque for brand building to westerner. When they are asked about the same they portray it as diversity. Yes it is diversity but there should not be any diversity on basis of cast and creed. The same work can be done by our open source contributor but they are never paid handsomely for their efforts.

The main reason why we Indians lag behind is we are self centered. We should bring an attitude change in Indians to make contribution to global knowledge center. This attitude change should be brought during childhood. But most of us can't help right so the next step should be at the institute from which they draw the bread. If try imbibe positive attitude in people defiantly there is going to be reverse brain drain. Most Indians love India but they don't love Indian attitude.

Hats off to Manmohan Sigh, Montek Ahilwaliya, P. Chidambaram, these people are qualified but have spent their life in India. These people tried to make India a better place to live for other Indians. There are always some exception to the rule in every feild and I want to see these exception becoming a norm. I want India to be a truly global temple. We need people who dedicate their life more for the underprivileged people, come out with strategy and improve India. We need many Manmohan Singh and Montek Ahilwaliya who can earn billion abroad but still prefer to serve their own country. We don't need people who earn billions with the help of Indian economy but when it comes for the contribution toward politics they abscond. Yes I am pointing to N. R. Naryan Murthy. I admire him as he laid down the foundation of a great company Infosys but I would have admired him more if he would have made contribution like Manmohan Singh.

Criminal: General Public or Auto Driver

2007-12-03T21:40:00.000+05:30

Fighting for wrong with Pen is in my blood, this is a hereditary trait. So let me get to the point of fighting. Is fighting really a good job? The answer to it is big NO. But in few of the cases it is necessary. The same was the case with me on 27^th November. I had been out and was hiring an auto. Most of the Auto Drivers were not ready to go on such a short distance. Though I could have fought for the same but I didn't. But real pain was when the Auto Drivers asked for 1.5 times the fare or 20 rupee extra on meter.

Yesterday the same thing happened to me. The drivers were really adamant and I also got the same fever as they had. Though my view is to earn money the right way, what we call as "Halal Ki Kamai" in Urdu. I also have thought as far as possible that I should not let other cheat me knowingly (Earn Harm Ki Kamai). Yesterday when the Auto Drivers asked for 1.5 times the fare or 20 rupee extra I refused. I was getting late but my point was no one pays me extra. They will neither tell me" Allahbaksh today you can take 10 rupee extra" nor I can ask that today you give me 1.5 days salary or 10% higher salary than the previous day.

I tried to put my point to several auto drivers and finally one agreed and charged me by meter. I have a point to make here is why people don't fight for their rights. They just give some extra money and make society a worse place not only for them for others too.

Google Gears In Action

2007-09-20T13:58:00.000+05:30

Google has revolutionized the cyber space. When Google is spelled the first thing comes to our mind is search though Google has other applications which are best of its kind in the industry. The Google application popular in our life depends upon our role in life. For example for a Web Developer Google Web Toolkit is the best thing.

Any how I am always fascinated by the Googler’s way of thinking. I worked for some time with Google Web Toolkit and now my focus is toward the latest buzz i.e Google Gears.

Though it was released few months back I could put my hand on it recently because it didn’t had authenticated proxy support for installation. I had to wait and I had thought that my wait is over when I had a project burden. So finally it was yesterday that I could install the application.

When I was learning Google Web Toolkit there were no good books available which could give details. Thanks to Manning recent release of GWT in Action which changed the way people use to look at GWT. I personally got fascinated by the fact of modularization. I would strongly recommend that book.

I am now looking forward for a Google Gears in Action. Though I am not sure whether it is right time to write a book but any book on Gear would be best seller. I suppose Manning Publication would wait for some more release of Gear and may be they combine Gears and GWT book.

Clear Type Fonts

2007-04-16T09:24:00.000+05:30

On Doug Schaefer blog I read his description of clear type fonts. Never before this, I was aware of Clear type fonts for which Microsoft has patent. Probably it is a good habit to write and read blogs which add to your knowledge this kind of things. Microsoft monopoly on Clear Type font may help them to get user like Doug or other who have spent their entire life in front of their system programming or reading and have bad eyes but it would definitely make them feel bad in long run. Yes I know it is all about the money which matters to any company let it Infosys or Microsoft but I suppose there is something called as moral binding to the community. The moral binding may not help Microsoft or any other company in world to improve their revenues but it would definitely make things better in long run.

I am pretty much impressed with Knuth the author of Theory of Computation whose books are not only hard to understand but hard to put away also. I downloaded his three volumes and was amazed by the fonts. Knuth may come up with something that can beat Microsoft clear type fonts. But he is busy with Volume 4 and 5. LaTex demonstrated Knuth’s dedication and interests in fonts.

Oh sorry I deviated from the fact of Clear Type fonts and it effects on me. Yes Doug blog hit me hard to try out clear type fonts on my system. Yes I downloaded the Clear Type fonts from Microsoft from their website and run the wizard. It worked fine. I didn’t feel much of difference or probably my eyes are good J. The second statement is just to convince that my eyes are good and I am in good health but I know it very well that that is not the case with my eyes. Yes I installed it and recommended the same to my friend Vishal Diwidi (whom people call DVD). To my surprise he too didn’t find it better than the earlier though his lenses are more powerful so his eyes are not as good as mine. Any how I don’t think it matters much here what it matter is he is Junior Research Assistant with M.S from IIIT – Hyderabad and is preparing for his GRE for his PhD at Georgia Tech.

Any how people can also try it out and let me know whether the clear type fonts work with you or they have the same effect as the earlier fonts have.

The Case of Mistaken Train Identity

2007-01-31T10:32:00.000+05:30

It was 9:45 of cold January night when I bid adieu to my family member and left with my brother to Auto Stand. While we were moving to the auto stand my mobile started buzzing. An unknown STD code with followed by number appeared on my handset. As usual I answered the call in polite manner. On line I could recognize my cousin’s voice. She was calling from Sirsi. Her voice was full of emotions. I could make out from her voice that something has gone wrong and she in need of help. She told me that she immediately needs to charge her cell phone. As usual I could not say no to her and asked her to wait till I reach station. My brother dropped me to Auto Stand from where I took an Auto to reach Railway Station. The wind was blowing smoothly and the there were few vehicle running on the road. My grey matter was bit working on getting my cousin’s telephone charged who had just called and asked for help urgently.

The auto driver was a mid age guy who was driving at quite reasonable speed. I looked at my clock which was 7 years old and was serving continuously from that time. The hour hand was at 10. So I guessed by 10:12 I should reach railway station. For few moments I thought about the road which was improved recently by corporation. The auto took sharp turn at BSNL office near Station and I became aware that in a moment or two I will be able to see the station. I asked auto driver to stop the auto near a medical shop. The medical shop was about to close. One of the shutters which were painted with Hutch Logo was gleaming. It was the logo which attracted my attention and I suddenly remembered about my cousin’s mobile recharge. After handing the driver the fair and I entered the shop. The shop keeper attention moved from his calculator to my face. A sudden feeling that someone is staring at me incubated. I moved back and could see a girl in her teen staring at me. She was dressed in white top and blue jeans. She was bit over weight for her age and height. I handed over the shop keeper 100 rupee and asked him to e-recharge. He did the same. I called my cousin and asked her to confirm if her mobile currency has been charged. She responded that she will call me back once she receives sms. After disconnecting the telephone and was about to leave the shop my mobile phone started ringing. My father’s name appeared on the lcd of my mobile. The call lasted for 1.31 minutes in which my father asked to inform home that he will not able to chat today with my Mom. I decided to call my mother and tell her the same but then thought against it as I would do the same when I will reach on platform.

I reached the platform no 2 which where I could notice lots of people, most of them in their mid 20’s. I checked my ticket and located the place where my boogie would arrive. Few of my E&C juniors spoke to me. Immediately it occurred to me that I should inform my mother regarding the call (my father’s). I called home and spoke to my mother. Her tone again brought tears in my eyes but I managed to stop them immediately. The train arrived and but my boogie was still far from the expected place. My legs started moving towards S4. There were other people who were moving and hence my speed was low. While moving toward the target I could see a figure in front of me. The pony tail looked familiar to me. Yes it was, in front of me, my ex classmate Pavitra was walking briskly. My tongue took a twist and my vocal cord move to put sound “Hi Pavitra”. She too greeted me with sweet smile. Pavitra was one of classmate and was Class representative in 2^nd year of engineering. We had quite a lot difference of opinion but we both had put it back one year ago when we had met in Mysore. I asked her boogie number and she replied S5.

I entered the train and located the 38 berth. To my dismay someone had kept his luggage on it. My mind was racing toward throwing the luggage down and sleeping on it but heart was against the same. Heart won the game and I kept my luggage just beside the one which was kept and started reading the novel. After 15minutes a person who was looking like illiterate was standing below my berth. I asked him whether the luggage was his, his answer was positive. I asked him to remove the luggage and told him that this seat is mine. On this he told me that he too has a ticket. My mind thought that this person may not have a valid reserved ticket so I asked him to show me his ticket. He showed me ticket which was like a Mumbai suburban ticket or unreserved ticket. I informed him that this is unreserved ticket and this boogie is reserved boogie so take your baggage and move out of here. My word made big impact to him and the other who were there. The other person asked me for my ticket and verified it. He said this person has booked the ticket on 12^th while you have booked the ticket on 13^th of January. So his is valid one.

I moved outside the train to check my name on the list but there was nothing on it but I could locate the Ticket Checker who was getting in. The moment the ticket checker got in I asked him to vacate my berth which is occupied by someone else. The Ticket Checker gave me weird look and started checking the ticket of berth no 1 onward. This made me angry on the ticket checker and was about blast but my inner consciousness told me not to do so. Finally the ticket checker became aware of my thoughts and asked me to take me to my berth. I showed him the ticket and moved up (on my berth). The ticket checker checked my ticket and asked the person to show his. Then he showed his suburban kind of ticket to him. The ticket checker checked his ticket. I said to Ticket Checker that this is General compartment ticket. On this TC informed me that in Suburban place people issue this kind of ticket. This is one is reserved one but you have computer ticket so yours is valid one. He asked the guy to move from the place to which the guy refused. The ticket checker who had become aware of the fact that the person is well built and many are backing him asked him to leave by the time he checks S4 boogie otherwise he would ask police personal to take course of action. I was happy and gave the person a smirk. About five minutes may have passed when ticket checker came back and asked me to show my ticket once again. Then he pointed out something which took me by surprise. The train which I had boarded was wrong one!!

It took me some time regain my composure and then ask for sorry to the TC and others. They were kind and said “No problems, it happens”. My thoughts came to immediate problem and they shot a question what to do next? One thing was to travel in the same train in General Boogie which was out of question for my physique and upbringing the other was to get down and go back home from the nearest station. The second thing was better as it would make everyone at home except my dad happy. My thoughts were interrupted by the TC who asked me to get down at Haveri station and board my train which will reach Haveri fifteen minute after this train reaches. He also informed me that it would take 45 minutes from now to reach Haveri.

I moved myself and luggage near the exit. I could smell stink from the Bathroom. To divert my attention and to cool down my head I removed my novel from my bag. After reading for a while I was interrupted by police officer who asked whether you boarded the wrong train to which my answer was Big YES (as our VDK sir use to put it). I saw the seat berth number 7 was empty and moved there. I was glancing out to make sure I get down at right time at right station. There was a girl in front of me who was in her sleeping position. She was wearing blue jeans and Blue jacket. Her eyes were on magazine which she was reading. I thought for a moment whether the girl is Pavitra? Then I answered that she is in S5 and this coach is S4 so I she must be someone else. I could see one lady’s hand which had a gold ring in her finger and bangle. The hand was projecting outside the berth. The lady was sleeping on berth number 6^th. Suddenly I could see one hand rising upward from berth number 5 toward the hand of lady. Then suddenly the hand from berth number 5^th gave a jerk to lady hand. The lady acknowledged and took her hand inside the bed sheet. The berth number 5^th was occupied by relative of berth number 6^th I suppose daughter.

It was 11:55 when someone came and asked when we will reach next station to which I answered “I don’t know”. The girl who was reading her magazine jerked and faced me. She was Pavi as one of her close friend use to call her. I informed her in brief the whole story and was now sitting on her berth. I asked her about her regarding coach number 5 on this she informed me that her was in Waiting list or RAC ticket and one of her friend’s father who was in Railway has made an arrangement for her. I knew who was the friend? Before I could give acceleration to my vocal cord Pavi told the name. For a moment or two my mind wandered back to my engineering day and then was back. We started speaking about things and laughing to which the girl of berth number 5^th took objection. We both moved to the place where I previously standing. I told Pavitra about my luck and she was in good mood to listen. Our conversation was about our living place in Bangalore, our project and previous travel experience. Behind my mind I was thinking about myself as Absent Minded Researcher who could not board the right train. Pavitra was feeling sleepy but was refraining to do so just to make things easy for me. I was well aware of the fact but she denying the same. I informed Pavitra that I am afraid that I may lose my berth in Bangalore Express as the TC would allot my berth to someone else because I didn’t turn up. She responded with a broad smile and asked me to contact TC of this train and take berth here. It was impossible because there were lots of ticket which were running in Waiting list. So my chance was slim. So I decided to get down at Haveri and take usual course which I had planned couple of minutes back. Finally the train halted at railway station and I got down. I bid adieu my companion at a distress moment of time and started moving toward the railway enquiry office. I asked the railway staff regarding Bangalore Express and they said it is expected to arrive in another 15 minutes on platform number 2. My brain which is very good at approximation quickly calculated that it would take me 5 minutes to move platform number 2 from 1 and then 10 minutes I can talk to my brother and inform regarding the developments.

When I moved to platform number 2 I was feeling hungry and sleepy. I spoke to my brother and felt little bit comfortable. In 8 minutes the train arrived and I boarded the boogie number 6. I moved to coach S4 and kept my luggage on berth numer 38. I went to TC and informed the matter. He asked me to be there on my berth. The TC arrived at 1:45 a.m and check my ticket. I went into my dreams and woke up to see the train was in Yesvantpur. Rest of journey was normal.

I got pissed of with .NET

2006-11-01T15:20:00.000+05:30

From my college days I always use to hate Microsoft Technology. Though I use it. The reason are many one being they are not secure.

Any how I was trained in J2EE Stream (Infosys Mysore). Really I don't know what I did in Mysore because I know I don't know any thing about J2EE or Java. This is different matter.

When I came to Bangalore and joined SETLabs (Software Engineering and Technology Labs) I was asked to search for a good Visual Basic parser for designing search engine. My mentor Krishnakumar P. who is Principal Architect asked me to do some search and come up with results. I tried searching the huge information base but could not find anything which we were looking for. Finally he told me to learn Visual Basic .Net and develop a plugin for Visual Studio .Net 2005 IDE. I was really taken aback because I was not knowing what is plugin? I took a day to know what is plugin and how I should design the same. Finally I installed MSDN and started learning the about plugin. After three days I came to know that I in VS.NET 2005 and other version of the IDE they call plugin as AddIn.

That time I was not aware (now also) what all feature an IDE provide me. What are the feature of good IDE. Truly speaking I had no idea how to debug a piece code. I was not knowing whether code completion can be used or know. I spent almost 1 month in developing a small Add-In for Visual Studio .NET which use to POP up a message.

After this small work my mentor asked me to write a parser using Visual Studio .NET API which should able to parse the code and extract key information about the code. I tried a lot and could only get few things out of it. Visual Studio .NET does not provide you with a open Visitor Pattern which can be used. I was really pissed of by that.

Any how now I really hate .NET. If I am hurting any body's feeling except Microsoft I am sorry for the same.

Me in Bangalore City

2006-11-01T14:57:00.000+05:30

I arrived in Bangalore on 6th of June after finishing my training in Mysore. Though I joined on 19th December I went home. So coming to Bangalore I was happy but also sick because I need to search house. On 26th of June. Earlier I stayed in Hotel, PG and finally I took a small house near to my Office. It takes just 1.5 minute to reach my house from Multilevel Parking of Infosys. In short my house is very near to my Office. There were more than one reason to go for this kind of accommodation.

It is very near to my Office so I save a lot of time and energy. Bangalore traffic really make you sick.
I need not buy a computer and have internet connection at home. Because I can use office computer and Internet at point of time. (I have two machines in Office. One having Linux OS and the other having Windows (really sucks). The configuration is really good, thanks to Narayan Murthy. My PC configuration is 3.0Ghz, 1GB RAM, 80 GB SATA hard disk and 17" TFT Screen.)
I can wash my clothes in Laundry (Infosys hostel).

This being the point I stayed near campus.