External mouse for laptop

In my cyberayya(laptop's pet name), I generally use the touchpad for mouse operations. I got acquainted with it after 3 yeas of using my laptop. For long hours of usage, I thought it is not ergonomic to use just two fingers for mouse operations. It is true. I bought an external USB mouse yesterday. The mouse operations looks easy now with the external mouse connected. I am able to navigate and click faster. Things seems simple, and I like it.

Hummaa

I am not that person who download all the songs from net. I usually listen songs online and leave it. If its very nice, I try downloading. I had been using the raaga.com to hear online. The sound quality was very gud. In Ubuntu, I could not really sync real player with the raaga.com. Then I discovered the www.hummaa.com [Beta version]. This has nice GUI interface. Almost all the new tamil songs are available here for listening. I hope it has all latest hindi and Telgu songs too. Sound quality is also gud. The other gud thing is no advertisements while listening to songs.

Debugging Tip: Take a break

In a Programmers life, debugging is an indispensable part. Many of the debugging are interesting, and sometimes addictive. It becomes so addictive that u cant concentrate on other works, until that bug is fixed or that problem is solved. Sometimes the debugging can take u to one more level namely "frustration". This happens for the most complex problems, less reproducible issues. If u see that the issue takes u in a recursive ride, landing in the same problem again and again, and no window of resolution, u might get bogged up in the same "square 1" position.
One better way to handle this situation is to "take a break". Depending on the level of frustration, u got to take a break. If its minor issue, u can just step out from ur cubicle, have a chat with ur friends, Go out for a walk, Grab the newspapaer in the reception lobby and spend some time in TT room. If it is very complex issue, and u had spend many days fighting at the issue, take a long break, half a day or a day. Change ur mind, so that u forget the code that u are looking for days. When u comeback from such break, I bet u, u wud find a break through in ur debugging.
Happy Debugging !

Konqueror

I was using the Mozilla browser that comes with Ubuntu. It is quite good, and very useful compared to Windows IE. Its useful features such as multiple tabs, search sub window, highlight feature, are very handy. But I had a problem, while reading Tamil web sites and blogs. Those web sites were displayed, but not so friendly readable format. All the "ooharams" in Tamil were misspelled. Then I came to know about the Konqueror. It is the browser that comes along with KDE. It has rich fonts support for displaying unicodes in native format. Nowadays, reading Tamil blogs became easy. Thanx Konqueror!

Young Guns of India took a sure shot

I happened to watch a full cricket match, after long time. Thanks to the concept of Twenty 20 matches. They are very interesting, since it is short duration and very aggressive. The young team of India well fit in the 20-20 concept to blast the rest of the world and clinched the trophy. The secret of India's winning are "no-fear cricket" and "keep cool head, whatever happens" attitude. This is something anyone should take from the Indian cricket team that player 20-20.
One more nice outcome from the recent matches is that, all the Indians had hope again on the team. This united everyone, irrespective of ideologies, religion, etc.,and wish for a single goal, ie Indian team to win. In some time, the 1dayers shall also vanish like the test cricket, and 20-20 will stabilize with something "25-25".

BOSS linux

BOSS - Not the Shivaji's "Bachelor of Social Service".
I just came across this new BOSS. It is "Bharat Operating System Solutions" Linux distribution by CDAC, Chennai. CDAC is Indian government controlled software development organisation. BOSS has lot of special packages in regional languages. Currently its fully functional versions are in Hindi and Tamil (latest completely localized tamil version of BOSS 2.0). CDAC's ultimate goal is to have in all the 22 indian offcial languages. BOSS also comes in live CDs. And all this for free ! Got to try out when I get free time space. www.bosslinux.in

Inspiring Oration by Vineet Nayar

Today we had annual business meet in HCL. This was the second time, I had an opportunity to hear from Vineet Nayyar, President of our company, HCL Technologies Ltd., The previous time was one year ago. We were a crowd of leads and managers gathered at St John's auditorium.
The speech given by Vineet was so much inspiring and thought provoking that it made me a fan of Vineet, so did for most of the HCLites. The talk were not completely focussed on Business strategies alone. It was personality centric too. I got a lot of points to improve myself and evolve myself to innovate.
The concept of Focus, Lead, Dominate that he introduced 1 year before, can be applicable for any industry and market. First we got to focus on our goal, try to Lead the market, and dominate in space.
If we are working in a group, say we are playing a match, say a loosing side, one should be a Transformer, so as to act as a catalyst and boost for the teams comeback and victory.
I always liked aggressive leaders like Nethaji Subash. I like Vineet's aggressive spirit too. The concept that we have to deliver more value rather than volume, holds good in any of our day to day activities, even in personal life.
The attitude of approaching a customer was explained well. When u see a customer, do not try to sell the stuff u already did, or do not show the solutions, instead speak to him understand his pain, his problem and then try to sell the cure.
Vineet encouraged that its ok to make mistakes, infact we should be courageous to do something and make mistakes, but learn from them. If something you did and it suceeded, try to analyse what unique point made the success.
For all those aspiring guys like me, Vineet's philosophy are practical, very doable, and inspiring !

Idly

Idly had been one of my favourtite dishes, since child hood. Last week end, My mom served Idly with Malli chutney at home. My favourite combination too.. It was Amazing.. Thought of writing something about this delicious food.
Idly came from Thamizh phrase "Ittu Ali", which means "prepare and serve". It contains rice and grams at right proportion, so as to give carbs:protein in a right ratio. Its not prepared by boiling or heating or frying.. It is steam cooked. This makes it so soft and most importantly hygienic. Usually taken as breakfast.. There are various types of idlies, based on what chutney is taken as side dish.. like Malli chutney idly, podi idly, thengai chutney idly, thakkali chutney idly, sambar idly, mor-idly, off late, beer idly ;)

Have fun tasting this delicious breakfast that was invented by our ancestors !

Ambulance coming... Act Responsibly

I had been to Chennai last week end. I was goin with my friend in his bike in the Mount road. We were near Saidapet on the Mount road. The road was filled with vehicles and suddenly sound of an ambulance aproaching, attracted everyones attention. It was an Ambulance from Hindu Mission Hospital.
My friend moved the bike to the right extreme of the road. So did the other 2 wheelers. To my surprise, everyone gave the way. A guy in Honda City car was in the left end of the road. Without thinking anything, he went in to one of the cut roads to give the way for ambulance. A Tata sumo tried to climb its two wheels on the platform. The ambulance went passed us without trouble. Then the traffic police guy at the next signal stopped vehicles in other directions to allow this ambulance.
I was impressed to see how people were so responsible for the Ambulance. They gave way at any cost. Asked abt this, My friend told that this scene happens many a times in mount road. Hats off to everyone who give way for Ambulance and respect the people in utter emergency.

Installed Ubuntu

I wanted to install a linux OS in my laptop (pet name cyberayya). Cyberayya had single partition 100GB in C:. I know it is foolish to have such arrangement, but, thats what CircuitCity gave me, when I bought it.
I tried to resize the partition and install Ubuntu in the newer partition.
I chose Partition magic for that. Some website offered a free download of it. I did not notice that it had a disclaimer "Demo version. Non functional". Literally, it was a demo with GUI and the actual resizing did not happen.
Then started searching for some free tools. My friend suggested the Gnome partition tool (gaprted). I downloaded from gparted.org. Created a live CD and then tried to resize using it. But unfortunately it did not recognize the NTFS file system, which housed 100 GB.
I somehow managed to get a copy of partition magic from the neighbourhood software installer. The resize operation in PM failed with error 983. Later I learnt from Web that it is due to the errors in the hard drive. I used chkdsk \R utility in windows XP to check the disk. This command will even fix the errors if any in disk. Then I retried the resize of Partition magic. Bingo. It worked and resized the partition.
Then installed the Ubuntu OS. Currently using Ubuntu for all the day to day computer activities. I shall blog more abt Ubuntu later. For now, Ubuntu rocks !

Revamped SETC is neat

The Thiruvalluvar buses in 80s & 90s enjoyed a special status among people of Tamilnadu. These long journey buses were famous for their big convenient seats, long buses and importantly tokenized reservation system. They lost their status when the maintenance became poor and local omni buses were fast and reliable than Thiruvalluvar.
People travelling from cities now a days use the omni private bus services. Many do not know that the good old Thiruvalluvar transportation is back with a new avatar "SETC". Especially in the last year, they had come up with Ultra Deluxe buses (hi-tech air buses). They have very decent push back seats, with seats arranged in pairs. The engines of these buses are good, as judged from the way it overtakes other buses and the speed pickup. As the buses are new, they are neat and clean. No 'Standing' is admitted in these buses.
Most of all, the cost of the ticket is at least Rs.100 lesser than the leading private omni bus service.
Thanks to the Govt transportation department for revamping a vital service. Wishing a gud luck to grow. Hopefully the services are done properly and the buses ply at good conditions through out. Lets watch and see.
For details on booking centres chk out http://tnstc.in/information.html
Online reservation is yet to come

Make-up ur mind

I have seen versions people say in movies "Im in a bad state of mind and sweetest fruits tastes bitter, ice feels hotter".
I have not realised it till I faced such state of mind and the mental mood.
In such bad states, u feel even ur favourite songs, hateful; eating ur favourite dishes becomes a burden; and u dont like to watch ur favourite actors and comedians; the best jokes u enjoyed looks like a piece of waste; because of all these, u would like to spend a solitary life.
To come out of this, the only solution is "Makeup ur mind". Think of the jobs u have in ur life, think of responsiblities that u need to uphold, think of urselves and others... make up ur mind.
Digress ur mind away from the activity that made u in such a state of mind... Life would look simpler.. U would start doing things normal and easy..
Not to mention, "Saying is easy.. Doing is not that easy" :)

Develop Yourself. Share the Development. There u see... India developed !

Happy B'day India !


In the freedom fighting days, people died for the country, not caring about their home and children. I am now calling for the reverse. Care for urself, care for ur home, and automatically u begin to care for ur country, because the patriotic spirit is always in our blood. It is obsolete or a old idea to induce patriotism in ourselves.

In order to see a developed nation, First develop yourself , morally, potentially, in ur field of work. Try to show off to the world ur cultural heritage and national pride, where ever u can, on the way of ur achievements. Current leaders like Abdul Kalam, business giants like NR Narayanamurthy are now represented as Icons of modern India. They had certainly contributed to the national development. Did they have national development as the only goal, when they were in struggling years? No; National development might not be in their mind at all. They were into self development. They raised their individuality, potentiality, their family, then the company, and hence the nation now. Once u have become a developed You, try to share with the nation. Sharing the success can be done in a number of ways like paying proper taxes, helping others to succeed, helping organizations to fight against poverty, and other social illness.

Develop yourselves, Share the development with fellow citizens, And U see a developed India !

"Do or Die" days are gone. Now "Do and Die".

Jai Hind !

Dhakshin Chitra

Had been to ECR(East Coast Road), the entertainment corridor of Chennai. It is filled with lot of beach resorts, open air theatres, pubs, theme parks, malls and not to forget lovely beaches. Amidst all these is situated "Dhakshin Chitra". My friend told very good about this non profitable organization and then he took me there.

"DakshinaChitra is a center for the living traditions of art, folk performing arts, craft and architecture of India with an emphasis on the traditions of South India" says http://www.dakshinachitra.net/index.htm.

Initially we were hesitant to enter, thinking that we may waste our time seeing things like in museum. When I stepped in, my opinion changed. They had depicted the cultures and life styles of people who lived in classic times. I say classic because they dont depict very old times, but a classic times with out modernity. They show how people lived in various states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra pradesh. The campus is divided and dedicated for each of these states. First we entered Tamil Nadu. They have streets and houses as in the villages, showing the different cultures. We went in to the streets of Karaikudi streets, farming villages of Thanjavur, and other places. Each houses are replicas of the classic houses. Some are bought directly and transported here. Details of the culture and the details of the rooms and amenities of the houses are described. We saw a weavers house, a potter house. You can also see people working there (mocking). We saw a potter making pots. After he was done, he received aplause from the foreign crowd present. Other activities include "Kili Josiyam", "Pallanguli playing", "Pamabaram playing", etc., Kerala style houses were also present with authentic finishings. Similarly we also saw the houses and cultures of Karnataka & AP.
I would strongly suggest you to visit this place if u go to ECR. This is refreshing, as it takes you away from monotonous city life. The atmosphere inside is calm, green and clean. We also slept there under a tree for some time ;-)

Note: No advertisements to any company intended. Just reflecting the personal experiences

Movie Theatre freshened up

I had been to Chennai last week end. Chennai has improved a lot, with new infrastructures coming in, various malls & entertainment and most of all, the traffic moves, always:).
Happened to go to Satyam theatre with friend. Impressed with the facilities provided there. We went straight to the check out counter with fuel card provided by them. Through this, u can book the movie online, even with the snacks u want. You need not wait in the queues.
Since Shivaji was running house full, we went for Pirates of Caribbean. No big plus comments abt the movie as such, but sure abt the ambiance of theatre. The seats were royally huge with leather seats, and push back. The sound system was as usual as in old Satyam, very good effect. There were lot of LCD screens posted on the walls inside the theatres. Before the movie started, these screens entertained with ads and trailers and making of movies. The restrooms were neat with jazzy floors & walls. They had even LCDs all over the walls ;-).
As we booked snacks online, the snacks & soda were served to our seat, which was a another service-add. Though the movie we saw was not so good, we were with a good feeling while coming out of the theatre.
Most important part of all: For two people including their snacks, it costed just Rs250. You cant imagine comparing the prices with other leading cinema complexes in other cities. Thanks to the rule from government that, price of tickets should not exceed Rs120 in Chennai.

Note: No advertising to any company intended. Just sharing the personal experiences.

Organizer: Have one at ur google home

There are lot of Google gadgets that are very cool. This one is very handy, in organizing the day to day tasks and planning the tasks. I was trying different free-wares, that would be useful for day to day planning. This one was best among them so far. This is called "To-Do List+". It is simple. You can add this gadget in your google customized home page.
Daily, in the morning, when you go to office, you can login to Google. You can think of the tasks of the day and Just add them on to the To-do lists. As the day progress, u can keep on adding the new tasks. You can even set priorities and dates for the tasks. As and when you complete the tasks, you can close the tasks. This is very handy on-the-fly organizer.
At Office, you may think of doing some personal works at home, on the same day or the next day. You may forget it when you go home. Using this "To Do plus" tool, you can add the tasks to be done at home. At home, you can login to see the tasks that you saved in the morning. This way, you wont miss anything. And most of all this is very simple, fast and handy.
Happy Organizing and accomplishing!

To Boston, with Buddy

Going to a new place is nice, that too with one of the closest buddy is a blast. This time of the US trip, I was not interested in visiting new places. I decided to see my college buddy, Thirukkumaran. We spent a weekend in Rhode Islands and Boston. The richest guys in NY used this location as a place to spend their summer times. The houses are so expensive, built with stuff imported from foreign countries, similar to Karaikudi Chettiyar veedu. Most of the architecture were from French. These huge palaces are now opened to public now. Then on the Boston, went to Whale Watching on the Atlantic. More than the new places, we discussed lot of old memories and repeated comedy scenes from Vadivelu movies. The visit was indeed very rejuvenating, as I was recovering from a personal mishap recently.

Daily retrospect

In bachelor's life, mostly, we don’t spend time alone, as we are always in a circle of friends. I realized that, one must spend some time alone, may be a 30 minutes daily for retrospection. A 30 minutes seems to be very easy, but is not. Most of the time at office we are with colleagues. At home u are always surrounded by friends, room-mates or some one in phone.
A retrospect in that 30 minutes would keep one always accountable for himself. Personally I feel these retrospect would help individuals to identify his strengths and to help work out his vision in practice. One can plan things that are needed for long run as well as to accomplish short term goals like “doing tomorrows work”.

Spring Times

It is my second spring time in US of A and on my fourth trip to this country. I started writing this blog now.
I have wondered why flower shows up first in a tree, even before leaves.
Is it because that the tree has spent a long period in suffering cold? or Is it because it gave a cold face to the viewers all the time & now it wants to show up with its smiling face? or Is it because it is selfish & wants to be productive as fast it can?
I wish all the good times to come, starting with this spring time.