tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195879282024-03-14T00:40:46.184+05:30slipshodIdle mumblings, Tech stuff, Life and some sloppy work.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-6966316239893728092016-03-03T23:40:00.001+05:302016-03-03T23:40:30.659+05:30Finally Renault comes with an AT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Renault, Nissan and Fiat have been the biggest laggard in Indian market. Renault has been happy with its success of Duster but was caught napping with the onslaught of Suzuki and Hyundai's cross over vehicles. Even though Creta from Hyundai and X-cross from Suzuki are smaller than Duster, there appeal and build quality has made them favorites of the Indian customers.<br />
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Renault took a long time (more than 2 years) to bring its next generation Duster in India. The only interesting thing in this launch is the fact that Renault has come up with a automatic transmission in its Diesel variant. There is almost no competition in the Diesel AT space at this price range in India. There are only four options (below) and none of them is a cross over vehicle.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Skoda Rapid</li>
<li>Volkswagen Vento</li>
<li>Hyundai Verena</li>
<li>Tata Zest</li>
</ol>
Good luck to Renault, the last slump in sales hopefully brought down the snobbishness from there sales staff !<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiandrives.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Renault-Duster-in-India.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.indiandrives.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Renault-Duster-in-India.jpg" height="198" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<a href="http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/123824-renault-duster-official-review.html">Team BHP review of Duster</a> </div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-81409905887031825302016-03-02T22:10:00.000+05:302016-03-02T22:12:16.151+05:30Nano converted into a driverless car <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our own Dr Roshy John who works for TCS in Kerala has converted his Nano into a driver less car. The car can autonomously change lanes, navigate traffic, brake and is also equipped with an emergency stop switch. Dr. John has also confirmed that the development has been in a form of a kit that can be installed in any other car with slight modifications. Check out the video details below where he <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">discussed <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">in </span></span>great detail on how his car was built:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5mPanjv50TM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5mPanjv50TM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though we can see that the car has not been tested extensively on the roads but in true Rajnikant style Doctor John comes in front of the car to show its auto stop capability.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Made with LOVE in India !</b></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-34956185792369266632016-03-02T21:03:00.004+05:302016-03-02T22:10:52.532+05:30Google Car hits a bus and this time it could be at fault<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Probably the first time ever Google car has hit a bus in California the test driver in the car mentioned that he was expecting the bus to yield and that is why it did not override the car's controls. If the DMV ruled this against Google this will be the first time that Google would have been at fault in a Google car accident.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> I think the bus might have purposely not slowed down - with Google's ambition to come in public transport there are lot of enemies out there !</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://techaeris.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Google-Street-View-Car-Crash-File-Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://techaeris.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Google-Street-View-Car-Crash-File-Photo.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Google's report with incident statement is available <a href="https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//selfdrivingcar/files/reports/report-0216.pdf">in this report</a></span>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-22922664136802162782016-03-01T14:33:00.002+05:302016-03-02T15:43:33.819+05:30BMW 3 Series vs Volvo S60 vs Audi A4 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">India
has seen an onslaught of entry level luxury cars, the Audi, the BMW and
the Volvo are the top three contenders for sub-40 lac space. There is
no definitive winner out of these three as the ride and handling are
very subjective. All the three cards provide the best of European
engineering and the pros and cons of each car are an individual nuance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>TLDR;</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My choice BMW series 3 - it has more room then Audi, better handling and best after-sale out of the three models.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Audi A4</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nOaqf-KxW8c/VWPLyvrg4HI/AAAAAAAAAd0/c1Z1fumRjjU/w800-h800/Audi4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nOaqf-KxW8c/VWPLyvrg4HI/AAAAAAAAAd0/c1Z1fumRjjU/w800-h800/Audi4.png" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pros</span></b><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Like all the other Audi's this one provides the best water wadding capabilities in the Indian roads :)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The super-fast S4 </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">is
the gem of a ride. The CVT engine does the job well, however if going
for the sports model for the joy driving A4 does a great job.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Taut and stable handling - for people who prefer this style, no other car beats A4. Though I prefer the softer handling of BMW.</span><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></li>
</ol>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cons</span></b><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The</span> most cramped back seat of the three cars, once the novelty of the new car wears out this would become an irritant for many.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Despite
the high-quality construction, there's more black plastic on the dash,
buttons, and controls than you might expect, and not all of it feels as
good as the rest of the cabin. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hit or miss suspension and handling.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Brake on A4 do not perform very well at low speeds, <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">after few months users have complained of grinding noise and need of extra pressure. Though they work fine when the speeds are a<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">bove 40 kmph.</span></span> </span><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></li>
</ol>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Volvo S60</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2014/04/14/17/49/2015_volvo_s60-pic-4412718575183050851-640x480.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2014/04/14/17/49/2015_volvo_s60-pic-4412718575183050851-640x480.jpeg" height="217" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Pros</b></span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Volvo has been known for safety and this one is no exception.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The most comfortable driving stance and seating of the three.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Adequate power and muscular feel. The supercharged engine is one of the latest ones in Volvo.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Cons</b></span><br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not flashy enough - even with all the design enhancements this is the most understand car of the lot.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is no sports model available in S60 which is a definite no for many people.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Very large turning radius, a personal turn off for me.</span></span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>BMW 320d</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://cdn1.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/autoexpressuk/files/styles/article_main_image/public/1/64/dsc_2734_0_0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn1.autoexpress.co.uk/sites/autoexpressuk/files/styles/article_main_image/public/1/64/dsc_2734_0_0.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></span> </a></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Pros</b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sporty looks, feel and the brand. BMW evokes an adrenaline rush by just looking at it !</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">More
balanced then its previous avatar, crisp suspension and smooth drive.
None of the cars in the list can beat BMW 320d in its deft handling. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Airier cabin and loads of standard/optional gizmos will satisfy any auto-geek. We can safely say this has best in class gadgets.</span></li>
</ol>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Cons</b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tough
ones - nothing really except probably your will not get a lot of
discount on this model and may be just may be the Volvo has more space
at the back then 3 series.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As with all luxury cars, do take out time to check out the special insurance packages available with the dealers.</span><b><br /></b></span><br />
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</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-45511679287638047672009-06-16T12:33:00.010+05:302009-06-18T11:01:45.734+05:30Why I love my office<a href="http://www.greatplacetowork.in/best/list-in.htm">"Great Place to Work"</a> has come out with its latest survey result and unfortunately we did not see our name in the list. I guess we did not participate, but who knows? With recession on, it is any ways extremely difficult to be in good book of employees. <br /><br />So, I thought why don't I list down a few things that I think make my company great? There have to be some reasons to stick with it from last 6 years !!. I am not saying there are no problems that I see here, if I had to rant against I will have quite a mouthful. But I aiming to bring out as much positivity I can with this post.<br /><br />This gives me a chance to go in anti-cribbing mode.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">-1 I can walk in my office in Denims and T-Shirt any day of the week.<br /></span> <br />As trivial as this may look, but it is a huge advantage over anything else. Now I can not work in an office with a crisp shirt and a tie on. I haven't worn formal trousers in last 3 years to office, and I would not want to wear it for next 3 too.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">-2 Real Open Door Policy. </span> <br />Not saying we are the best, but I am more than satisfied with my relationship with my superiors, and looking around I see the culture every where, with its ups and downs, but it is still there.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">-3 Good brains around me. </span> <br />I feel great being awed by intelligent souls. Its the catalyst that keeps me going.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">-4 Flexi Time. </span> <br />Rumors are that this may change, but rumors are rumors. I do not need to justify my time in any other way than my work. The expectation of ethical behavior from employees fuels in the desire to behave ethically. This culture may be on a shaky grounds because of our explosive growth in last few years, but as far as the cocoon that I live in is concerned, its rocking!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">[Update] As <a href="http://woolverinesden.blogspot.com/"> Sameer</a> said <br><br />-5 Its in NCR </span> <br />I get to stay in Saddi Delhi !!! What else do I want. <br /><br />So what are your reasons to love your Job?<br />Post in comments.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-60406119655385922262009-05-21T15:08:00.011+05:302009-05-22T14:24:09.924+05:30US Serial Killers in India !!Although I am an avid reader and own around 100 paperbacks/hardbacks, but I am not the kind of person who picks up books full-priced from book shops. I rely more on libraries and the ubiquitous used-book network. having said that, I still picked up <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399155023?ie=UTF8&tag=slipshod-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0399155023">Foreign Body</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=slipshod-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0399155023" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />, by Robin cook from New Delhi Railway Station last week.<br /><br />I have admired Cook from the day I read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451207394?ie=UTF8&tag=slipshod-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0451207394">Coma</a> and have followed up every book he has written after that and after each book it seemed his writing has deteriorated. I guess <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399155023?ie=UTF8&tag=slipshod-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0399155023">Foreign Body</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=slipshod-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0399155023" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> is the final nail in the coffin. It can not get worse then this. Find it out yourself by buying the book :)<br /><br />Any ways the real story was the reason for picking up the book in the first place. The summary at the back presented itself as a story on Indian medical tourism and the deaths being caused in India. I was jolted into action by the thought of my fav author writing against my country.<br /><br />All that anger vanished within the first 30 pages after seeing that the entire sub plot revolves around some American surgeons trying to dis-credit Indian medical industry. I guess all the fun was over just then, the suspense gone and the story ended there for me. This is the first Cook's book that I will be leaving unfinished (And damn I bought it !)<br /><br />I am off to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VLXNO2?ie=UTF8&tag=slipshod-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001VLXNO2">Paths Of Glory</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=slipshod-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001VLXNO2" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />. Hope it turns out good.<br /><br />BTW if you are wondering what the title has to do with the post, this is to let you know how I felt after reading the first 30 pages :)<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-14674262163263574332009-03-25T21:08:00.004+05:302009-03-25T21:26:02.854+05:30Barack Obama is my Twitter FriendSo finally I thought I will revive my <a href="http://http://twitter.com/naunidh1">Twitter account</a> created an year ago.<br /><br />I will be honest and acknowledge that I was always jealous of hearing so much of twittering in media and not able to do anything worthwhile with it, so finally I searched around the net and sat about to make sense of it all.<br /><br />There are two things that came out of my googling, either you have a group of friends that uses twitter excessively, which I don't, or start following popular twitters to get some friends and some activity on your home page.<br /><br />The second option got my followers/following counter to bump up substantially in about 10 minutes :).<br /><br />Try <a href="http://twitterholic.com/top100/followers/">http://twitterholic.com/top100/followers/</a> for starts, and see what Barack Obama has to say to me !!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-5120859953631173822009-01-27T19:06:00.006+05:302009-01-27T19:25:07.457+05:30If I were laid (off) :)<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SX8REOlmrcI/AAAAAAAAAB0/IzqmYKlEAD8/s1600-h/fire.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 170px; height: 180px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SX8REOlmrcI/AAAAAAAAAB0/IzqmYKlEAD8/s320/fire.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295970451143962050" /></a><br />No pun intended in the Title :).<br /><br />But seriously, have you ever wondered what will you do if for some reasons you were handed a pink slip tomorrow morning ! Not an unexpected scenario in these troubled times.<br /><br />I have.<br /><br />The list of five things I may opt for if I am laid off work tomorrow morning:<br /><br />1. Take my family to a nice but not-so-expensive vacation (probably a day long ) before I break the news to them.<br /><br />2. Start looking for a new job from day 0.<br /><br />3. Start an Internet venture, because it needs almost zero investment and potentially can keep me occupied and productive forever. (I have ideas)<br /><br />4. With bad market conditions lease a commercial space on bargain prices. Now start selling some stuff (Basic Food, Education, and Health are recession proof products).<br /><br />5. Start pedalling stuff on ebay and start looking up on inventing low-risk cyber-scam (always wanted to do this !!!)<br /><br /><br />Do I sound looking up to a pink-slip. Maybe.<br /><br />What are your five things to do after a layoff? <br /><br />Leave comments.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-38647325567838012472008-09-13T19:36:00.005+05:302008-09-13T20:10:46.480+05:30Those Bastards - Delhi Bomb blastIt started as a good day, after four weeks I did not have my mysterious weekend fever. I was thinking about reviewing the amazing Chrome from Google or just write about my best friend, <a href="http://dotmsb.com"> Monu's </a>, engagement. And then as the French said, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/">Le temps détruit tou</a>, Delhi was shattered by the Bomb blasts, as of now I am not sure if the mayhem is over, there were four Blasts around Delhi and it was, mildly put, Sickening.<br /><br />Suddenly my gut twisted, as I saw the places where I have spent most of my times shopping, having fun, hanging around since my childhood, turned to hell. Twisted metal, blood, wounded injured bodies, Fear and tears in everyone's eyes. These places were frequented by young people, all of them were in prime of their lives. Many are dead, some will be disabled, some will go back home with memories of this evening haunting them for ever. <br /><br />It saddens me, I am not sure if I ever had this feeling before - the anger, the fear of uncertainty, the sorrow, the ache in my heart and the occasional tear down my eye.<br /><br />These were places where I had memories, my first Date, my summer vacations spent in Palika Bazar, The festive shoppings, Friends that I made in these markets, my first step into business, areas where I got lost, where strangers helped me, where I helped strangers, where I lost my wallet, had street fights, had accidents, had some fond dinners. Places where I felt safe. Places where I always wanted to be, where I wanted my friends to be. All wiped out, with images of blood and gore. <br /><br />Not that anyone close to me was injured (I am still frantically calling up my friends and family). The whole episode is making me wonder in the kind of world we are living, how can some one be so cruel, is humanity dead for ever? What paltry purpose will this solve and at what price? <br /><br />I feel sorry for the victims and their family. May be we all are also responsible for this as we are part of the same society that breads these insane minds. As for the people responsible for this, more than punishment I hope God gives them sense to see what they have done.<br /><br />Amen.<br /><br />- <br />A sad and disgusted soul.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-10298650373304176282008-08-29T10:22:00.010+05:302008-09-01T09:18:26.540+05:30Pakoda mail - tutorial ?<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfGp8uk1BI/AAAAAAAAAAU/PjSIhrn_uxk/s1600-h/BreadPakoda.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239875115447276562" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" height="156" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfGp8uk1BI/AAAAAAAAAAU/PjSIhrn_uxk/s320/BreadPakoda.jpg" width="279" border="2" /></a><br />Once in September of 2006 when the North Carolina weather was in a cusp of thundering rains and dry autums, I ventured to my kitchen to fry up some snacks. Here is the writeup on that effort and the thought proess behind the courage :)<br /><br />One fine day the gods above blessed me with about 200 gms of 'Baisan'. Not to waste such a fortunate opportunity, I pondered over the best way to use this yellow, weired smelling, soft powder. My first thought was to use it on my face and get a better complexion. After a quick glance in the mirror I realized I was already looking quite handsome, and the pseudo-brown complexion has quite a charm of its own here in US. Then I invited some of the not so great brains from all over the world to help me put this thing to good use. After some brain storming with my friends in Raleigh, California, Gurgaon, Delhi and even B'lore, I quickly realized that I needed some more grey power to get me over this predicament. So I followed the advice given in the book "The Monk who sold his damn red thing", and sat down to meditate (I watched WWE, undertaker v/s the new Indian giant from Punjab). After some highly focused session of deep concentration it dawned upon me that I should use this besan to make 'bread rolls'. Yes that was it, the answer from an enlightened mind. As they say 'Common sense is most uncommon'.<br /><br />Now bread rolls have a special place in my heart, they were my staple diet when I was a kid, maybe that's why I have got fashionable crooked legs, and a stooped shoulder. Not like all the other abnormal people with straight postures and head so up high they miss the next man-hole in the street. Plus the bread rolls also take care of the bread that I bought a month back. It was still lying at the least accessible corner of my refrigerator. So what if I need to use a butcher's knife to get the slices apart....Any ways the attentive souls might be wondering (again?) that this mail is titled 'bread pakoda' and why o why is this guy rattling about 'bread rolls'. I will answer this in next para (A technique copied from Ekta Kapoor, to get most eyeballs).<br /><br /><br />Here below is my unsuccessful quest to make the perfect bread roll, follow the pics with the commentary mentioned ,<br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfHJFncrTI/AAAAAAAAAAc/HOgU-I4lls8/s1600-h/step+1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239875650409246002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfHJFncrTI/AAAAAAAAAAc/HOgU-I4lls8/s320/step+1.jpg" border="2" /></a><br />Step 1: The two opposite sides have been prepared and are awaiting the awesome force of my fingers for amalgamation.</div><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239905507026831490" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfiS-LyiII/AAAAAAAAAAs/KR61heu0zf0/s320/step+2.jpg" border="2" /> Step 2: The stage is set, Kitchen is already so<br />messy. But I am 'The One', so doesn't matter.</div><br /><br /><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfi55tmxuI/AAAAAAAAAA0/QdhxCC2pKDE/s1600-h/step+3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239906175841388258" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand; border=1" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLfi55tmxuI/AAAAAAAAAA0/QdhxCC2pKDE/s320/step+3.jpg" border="2" /></a><br />Step 3: The first specimen is out, it tastes better then it looks, The onions are holding out to there dear lives, lest they fall down. Some of the Onions sacrificed themselves in the pan.<br /></div><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLtj0KmLK1I/AAAAAAAAABk/7b0gLKKzKVA/s1600-h/step+4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5240892339224521554" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLtj0KmLK1I/AAAAAAAAABk/7b0gLKKzKVA/s320/step+4.jpg" border="2" /></a>Step 4: The second specimen is out, this looks better and even tastes better. The Onions are still not that secured. 'The One' is tired now and is almost giving up the quest.</div><br /><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLtkTEb-A-I/AAAAAAAAABs/0QDTprNWK08/s1600-h/step+5.jpg"><img style="; float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLtkTEb-A-I/AAAAAAAAABs/0QDTprNWK08/s320/step+5.jpg" border="2" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5240892870147048418" /></a><br />Step 5: Here it is, the answer to all questions, total security for onions and their allies potatoes. A sealed bread pakoda.. atleast things will not spill out this way, and it is easy to manage too :) Bread rolls, I lost this time, but will take you up in the reloaded version !!</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong></strong><div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-17925880917884400512008-08-28T10:29:00.011+05:302008-08-29T09:01:24.793+05:30Clean your tracks well<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLZuzdDQaQI/AAAAAAAAAAM/8RSI6iaBtSY/s1600-h/ClearHistory.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239497046742821122" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 115px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 120px" height="120" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vMjDaTbhVFg/SLZuzdDQaQI/AAAAAAAAAAM/8RSI6iaBtSY/s320/ClearHistory.gif" width="115" border="1" /></a> I have been doing lots of mischievous stuff on a Linux machine , and had to be sure that I clean my tracks properly. While playing with bash history every one seems to know that "history -c" command clears the history. But on seldom occasions I could see that my bash history was getting restored magically sans few last commands.<br /><br />Digging deeper in the man pages, I realized that bash history is stored in not one but two places.<br /><ol><li>.bash-history file in user home.</li><li>As an in-memory file.</li></ol><p>Now this brings some interesting possibilities as the in-memory file is written back to the .bash-history at times (when a user terminal closes for once). With the new found knowledge I devised a way to wipe out my bash history for sure. You need to take care of three things,</p><ol><li>Open only one terminal for the user whose history you want to remove.</li><li>Delete ~/.bash-history file.</li><li>run <em>history -c </em>command</li></ol><p>Ta da !! I haven't seen the history coming back again ever. Back to my mischievous stuff :)</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1175962480038748882007-04-07T21:39:00.000+05:302007-05-15T15:43:28.318+05:30Void your warranty in style !!!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/4618/1941/1600/203331/appletv-opencase-500w.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/4618/1941/320/743421/appletv-opencase-500w.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Ha Ha I liked the above line, ending <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2007/04/appletvhacks_0406">this amazing piece of news</a>.<br /><br />What these hacker dudes have done is pretty interesting. They bought a $300 Apple TV and after “hacking around” the machine, installed OS X on it. <br /><br />Sure to give Jobs some jitters, this makes The hacked up Apple machine the cheapest Apple PC in town. Apple was always expensive, over valued for its sleek designs and feature-less equipments.<br /><br />Good going fellas !<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1156460356474260672006-08-25T04:10:00.000+05:302006-08-25T06:25:08.690+05:30Bygone days !!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4618/1941/1600/images.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4618/1941/320/images.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />I had planned to start updating this blog only when I get a broadband at home. Had been wasting precious time at office on this. But it seems that it will take ages for me to get a broadband, reasons vary from bureaucracy in public sector to selfish economic interests of Pvt. Sector :)<br /><br />So here I am with nothing new to say, so may be we can discuss past. I was in one of my MS classes, the ‘supporting-your-eyelids-with-your-hand-lest-they-close’ kind of class, when our teacher narrated this interesting purchase by NCDC, India somewhere in 1980’s. <br /><br />NCDC stands for National Cooperative for Development Cooperation, one of the numerous government organizations setup primarily to spend money and make there bosses rich :). So NCDC ordered a computer with following configuration in early 80’s<br /><br />RAM 128 KB<br />HDD 10 MB<br />FDD yes, supported 360 KB floppies<br /><em>(now comes the best part)</em><br /><strong>Speed 5 MHz in Turbo Mode </strong><br /><br />I did not ask for more information, as speaking up generally attracts attention, and that is not a good thing happening to the most lazy guy in class.<br /><br />But all in all the above system was orderd from HCL and they were paid cool Rs. 16,000,00 for this, yes that is around 35600 USD, I could probably buy around 50 Dual core laptops from this kind of money.<br /><br />Now I am not really sure what they did with this system..but $35,600 that’s too much man..<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1150455716768107152006-06-16T16:13:00.000+05:302006-07-04T11:27:34.746+05:30Same problems again !!<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4618/1941/1600/duh_Garfield.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4618/1941/320/duh_Garfield.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Recently a group of fresh engineers joined our team. These young people are bubbling with so much excitement and enthusiasm, it is such a pleasure to welcome a new group in. But with all the hurly-burly come those typical problems that people bring to me (or whosoever they find free, I must be the laziest guy around :-) ). <br />A regular feature when new people are put on to work in Java is the problem of their code not being able to find corresponding <i>jar</i> files in the <i>CLASSPATH</i>. Now they swear that their path settings are correct and that they have put in correct libraries at the right places. YES, most of the times they are right !! What they fail to check is that at times their libraries are corrupted and that is a good reason for <i>javac</i> not being able to find the required classes.<br /><br />More often then not the problem boils down to downloading libraries using ftp in ASCII mode (ftp is not extensively used in colleges so people are not used to it). <br /><br />I am blogging this because today some one came to me with a similar problem, before he completed mouthing his issues, I had him running back and downloading the file again :-)) ! It never fails to amaze me how every one makes this one mistake at least once in this line of work. (Many do it again.... now thats bizzare!)<br /><br /><i>PS: I am also trying to shorten my posts, this one seems OK.</i><div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1149852764231284132006-06-09T16:49:00.000+05:302006-06-14T10:56:49.500+05:30Boot ProcessLately lot of people have been asking about how a system boots at reall…llly low levels, I have no idea why the sudden interest in this topic. May be it's just that I read about the subject few weeks back, and it's me who is unintentionally :) prodding them to ask this question. Whatever is the reason here is my two cents’ worth on this topic.<br /><br />We will talk about boot process of x86 system running Linux/Windows, though booting sequence in most of the architectures is more or less similar.<br /><br /><B>Steps to Boot a machine.</B><br /><br />- Well as soon as machine is powered on BIOS code is copied from EPROM onto system memory, CPU looks for BIOS code at the end of system memory and executes it.<br /><br />- POST (Power On Self Test) is run, initiated by the CPU and BIOS.<br /><br />- BIOS looks for all the valid devices it can use to boot, it uses the boot configuration data to decide which device to check first for bootable code. A device is 'bootable' if it carries a boot sector with the byte sequence 0x55, 0xAA in bytes 511 and 512 respectively (The boot sector is generally of 512 bytes in size, this limitation is mostly not imposed by the hardware, this gives rise to some interesting possibilities to misuse the system, maybe more on it some other time). When BIOS finds such a boot sector, its code is loaded into memory at a specific location; this code is called <i>boot loader</i>. Execution will then transfer to this freshly loaded code.<br /><br />The boot sector could be MBR i.e. Master Boot Record (for partitioned discs) or VBR i.e. Volume Boot Record (for floppy’s, CD’s or non-partitioned hard drives). For details check out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBR">wiki: MBR</a><br /><br />Up to this point boot sequence is not dependent on the operating system, the next steps are dependent on OS and the file system.<br /><br /><b>Linux (Red Hat)</b><br /><br />Under Red Hat Linux we have two kinds of boot loaders, GRUB and LILO. GRUB is the more advanced of the two; the major advantage of GRUB is that it can access both ext2 and ext3 file systems and it can load its own configuration file (grub.conf) at boot time. <br /><br />Both the boot loaders are written in two stages the primary purpose of the first stage boot loader is two locate the more complex second stage boot loader and load part of it in the memory. The second stage loader is responsible for GUI display and mouse/keyboard control that allows the user to choose from multiple options or give commands to the loader/kernel.<br /><br />Once the user decides to boot the boot loader places the corresponding RAM disk image (initrd) into memory. This is used by kernel to load required drivers. As soon as the kernel and initrd are placed in memory, loader passes the control to the kernel.<br /><br />Happy booting :)<br /><br /><b>Windows NT/XP</b><br /><br />We are talking about booting from MBR in this case as you would generally boot Windows in this setting. As mentioned earlier we are talking about boot loaders here (pay some attention!). The first three bytes of FAT loader (Win 9x) would contain a jump instruction that will skip the non-executable portion of the code and take the control to next executable block. In between are OEM ID and BPB (BIOS block parameter). These contain values for different parameters at fixed offsets (like file system type, number of cylinders and all that crap). You can read all about this on Microsoft’s support site.<br /><br />Now the first stage of boot loader locates and loads NTLDR file. NTLDR, for us does the job of second stage boot loader. It reads the boot.ini file (should be at c:\ root) and presents the user with boot options as mentioned in the boot.ini file. Once selected, appropriate kernel image is loaded into memory and Vola!! We have a running system.<br /><br />The purpose of ‘my two cents’ is to give a brief idea on this subject, please look up relevant resources (read Google) for details.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1147270649177423732006-05-10T19:43:00.000+05:302006-05-11T10:16:28.230+05:30Vim 7 !! LaunchedFinally after a long wait Vim 7 was launched on May 8, 2006. <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vimannounce/message/161">(Announcement) </a><br /><br />The latest version boasts of many cool additions and improvements. The best one being the new tabbed interface and in built spell check. I installed the 7+ MB installations on my PC as soon as I could get my hands on it. Let us say that now I love vim7 more than its previous version.<br /><br /><b>Tabs - long due overhaul</b><br />With desktop/taskbar space becoming a precious commodity, tabbed interface was bound to come to Vim. Though it took some time to come. To enable tab support you need to start vim with -p argument. After that things are cool. Working with tabs is relatively simple. Its as easy as using split.<br /><br />Use<br />tabnew - to open new tab<br />tabf filename - to open a file in a new tab<br />Ctrl + PgUp, Ctrl+PgDn - Browse between tabs<br />That’s it, there are many more options check the help files, but these will get you started. There is nothing against this feature, except if the default behavior of a file opening in a new vim instance could somehow be changed to new tab (like in editPlus on PC), it will make life more beautiful :)<br /><br />One more thing, maybe a bug :) If you are at ':' prompt, then clicking on tabs will not work :(<br /><br /><B>Spell Check - Yes it works </B><br />The spell-check feature which is off by default does an awesome job. It detects spelling mistakes and highlights them with cute curly lines on the fly, just the way MSWord does, it somehow looks better when Vim does that. The default dictionary is very comprehensive. Adding and deleting words in temporary 'internal-dictionary' or the spell file is also easy. Get started..<br /><br />set spell - enable spel check<br />set nospell - disable spell check<br />]s - jump to next mistake<br />[s - jump to previous mistake<br />z= - suggests correction<br /><br /><B> Auto Complete alias Intellisense (TM) </B><br />Since Vim does not want to mess with the trademark owners it calls its 'Intellisense' Omni-Completion. I will not lie; I couldn’t get it to work. With all the options and everything set I could not get vim to do auto-completion in my C code file. Will try again and update if things get better. <br /><br />Though it’s simply Ctrl+X Ctrl+O in insert mode that does auto-completion.<br /><br />We got some other cool features like parenthesis match, undo branch history, remote file operations, and internal grep. <br />I am writing a plugin for vim, It seems that new features like Lists, dictionaries and Function Pointers are going to be usefull there :)<br /><br />All in all it will be a popular vim upgrade.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1145515182036358662006-04-20T11:33:00.000+05:302006-05-04T11:31:24.323+05:30My First Perl Script - The StoryWe guys at office are pretty lazy at doing whatever we are asked to do, at least most of us. <br />So the other day this friend of mine was presented with a baffling problem. He had to download around 50 RFC's from net for his upcoming project. Now I would be more worried about reading those 50 documents but he thought that getting each one of them individually from Internet was tough. This guy wanted a solution wherein he could sleep on his desk and all the documents would come automatically to his folder. So here is a perl script I wrote to help him out. This script downloads RFC's and places them in current folder. This script can be used to download RFC's in batch from command line. Neat?<br /><br />Dont know how much sleep he got, coz it worked pretty fast :)<br /><br />Since this is my first perl script, it might be a little messy.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/N/NA/NAUNIDH/GetRFC/getRFC_3.pl">Download the Script from CPAN</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19587928.post-1145442601330550772006-04-19T15:32:00.000+05:302006-05-01T13:56:35.916+05:30The First Post - NaunidhLets start this blog with a technical flavor, I spotted these interesting languages on net today,<br /><br />- Jython<br />These days anything that starts with 'J' is associated with Java, and this is also true for Jython. It’s a pure Java implementation of Python language. Seems to me that Java is becoming more and more 'geeky' (the way C-guys would put it). <br /><br />Rush, check it out on http://www.jython.org. And yes it’s a seamless integration. I will try some more complicated scenarios and report if anything is a miss.<br /><br />- Groovy<br /><br />This doesn’t start with 'J', but who is stopping it from being the most talked about scripting language for Java.<br /><br />Checkout http://groovy.codehaus.org/<br /><br />-<br />Naunidh Singh Chadha<div class="blogger-post-footer">Java Perl tips and tech humor</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1