Adventures of an High Elf Sorcerer

Yahoo ... got Mandrake 9.1 installed at Infy. Its a nice break from the nuances of Windows. Nice to be back in business. Its so much better when your job is a programmer. God knows why people insist on working on a non-programmers system. Also downloaded Openoffice 1.1. Yes its much better and faster than version 1.0. Looking forward to some good programming out here. :)

Haaa ... long time again. However I must say that I am pretty plased today. Got GAIM working on the computer. Now I can look forward to some good chats! I wish people wouldn't keep changing protocols so often. So much for standards!

hmmm ... it's a loooong time since I posted. Well, nothing very interesting has happened recently anyway, except for 'Matrix Reloaded'. Contrary to the general opinion, I loved the movie. In fact I saw it twice. It has all that I had expected from it. Great fight sequences, amazing special effects and a very good concept very well explained. The most important part is that they have got the triology to a logical conclusion. I must say, if you have an eye for details, then you will really enjoy the movie. Some dialogs are mind boggling and make you think (as always). So dont go according to the general reaction. See the movie and make up your own mind. Everything that has a beginning must have an end.

Is GNU/Linux (technically) better than windows? This seems to be an eternal question. There are many valid arguments on for both sides of the debate. I think that it is fundamentally wrong to ask such a question. Such a question is incomplete. The environment and purpose of existence of the OS must be mentioned before making any judgement. It is *wrong* to say that Linux is better than windows. Believe me, it is very easy to make any Unix system as suceptible to attacks as Windows. I agree that it is very difficult to make Unixes crash as easily, but it can be done. If the system is an online system with a dedicated administrator having some common sense, it is very easy to make any Unix much better than any Windows system. That is ensured by the simple and robust design of Unixes. But the big debate is about the desktop at home. Which one is better? Today, there is no difference in the functionality that can be achieved on both systems. Perhaps free software has an advantage i

Long time since I have posted to the blog now. I was actually wondering how to post a story that I have written. The story has turned out to be very long. So I think it will be better to post it chapter by chapter. Watch out the first chapter in the next couple of days. We have this 'comprehensive' test about which at present I am pretty apprehensive. Let's see how it goes. Wish me all the best, everyone!

BLOGGER This is the first time I got a decent chance to use the internet computer at Infy. Actually, decent is too generous. The Internet Explorer does not work, neither does the 'o' key on the keyboard. But then I found Mozilla !!! :) :) And then things started working. IRC however is still not working ... but maybe thats because of the firewall. Well, right now I actually have nothing to. In fact I am doing nothing productive for the past one hour or so. Anyways, I guess thats enough for now.

BLOGGER HOME SWEET HOME My previous article was about Red Hat Linux and how simple and user friendly it is. Well after using it as my primary system for about a week, I felt compelled to write this one. Why one week? Well, it just does not feel the same as my first system - Debian Woody 3.0. So, here is a brief description of what it feels to be working on a Debian system. Mind you, I am comparing a well setup Debian with a well setup RH distro. Also, I have a comparitively slow processor - a AMD 500 with 128 MB of RAM. First the boot process. Red Hat makes you go to the kitchen and hunt around for something to ruminate on (pun intended). Debian on the other hand makes you feel sad that you left your seat (if at all you do). In about 30 seconds, I have the screen asking me for the username and password. Now KDE starts loading. On RH Linux, it's time for another visit to the kitchen. If you are on Debian, I would seriously recommend a visit to the

BLOGGER just trying out this new way of posting to the blog ...

/home/aditya/rhpart.htm Red Hat Linux 9 - A comparative review There is a lot of speculation and debate whether Linux based systems can become the preferred desktop OS configurations. So here is a comparative review of the latest from Red Hat - Red Hat Linux 9 and MS Windows XP. The cost - Lets start from the beginning. a very important place to start. Red Hat Linux comes as a 3 CD set that costs Rs. 900. As compared to the per license cost of about Rs 4000 for MS Windows XP Home edition, this is really a good deal. Plus there is one major advantage. Linux based systems are (more or less) free software (for an introduction to free software visit href="www.gnu.org">The GNU organisation ). Red Hat, to the best of my knowledge, is free software. So you don't have to buy multiple licenses if you have multiple setups. Of course, for developers free software or even open source software is invaluable, but since I am cons

Well, today I spent most of my time wondering why the Linux kernel needs two lists of file structures. But it is pretty good fun. ell, back to some more fun ... :-)

Very recently I had been to the Sinhagad fort. Actually we had a very casual trek up to the fort (we took a hour and a half) and it was more a picnic than a trek. The thing I would remember most is the wind at the famous "wind point". Only once before in my life have I felt so much wind.It was actually difficult to walk against the wind. We tried to hold our wind-cheaters open like wings and it was almost impossible to walk forward. In fact I believe, at a particular instant I was leaning against the wind, inclined at at least 30 degrees. And as always, the food up there was really good (which is basically why I go there in the first place). Today I had gone to meet my teacher (guru would be a better word, I think) Dr. Patankar. The satisfaction I got after talking to him is only to be experienced.Well, it's a bit difficult to write about him, because it would take a lot of time and effort to come up with something that that can do justice to his wide spec

Well, its been a while since I posted. There have been quite a few developments since then. For starters I got my name published in the Times of India for fooling a reporter into believing that my project was something out of the ordinary. Actually, the project exhibition at the Institute of Enginners was fun. I was especially 'impressed' with a girl who claimed to have made a multi-layerd motherboard-like printed circuit board all by herself. I am still waiting for the results of that competition. Anyways, I am now waiting for my call from Infosys nad currently doing nothing. If anyone can come up with something worthwhile to do till then, please tell me.

If anyone out there has a properly installed GNU/Linux distribution and wants to have the time of his | her life, type "fortune linux" or "fortune science". You could spend hours doing this, I have. Of course, if you don't have the 'fortune' package installed, check your distribution CDs. It's sure to be there. And if you dont have a GNU/Linux system altogether ... here is what you are missing "... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily removed the floor under your bed." - Unix for Dummies, 2nd Edition -- found in the .sig of Rob Riggs, rriggs@tesser.com For those who do know what the above experience is all about ... here is another one-liner "Less is more or less more." God, give me

A short story for computer buffs- THE VIRUS "Where the hell did this come from ?" shouted Tony. In all of his 12 years of service with InSys as expert in system software, he had never come across anything like this. The year was 2028 A.D. InSys had, over the last decade slowly but surely obtained monopoly over the software market. The open-software revolution had broken the spine of Microsoft and had spread like a craze among the professionals. But a few people from the software giant had broken off to start their own company at that time and it had payed off, literally. One thing was certain, these few had not forgotten a very important skill they had learned - the art of doing business. In less than a decade they had managed to get their operating system on about 80% of the worlds servers. Only the most critical of them still ran GNU/Linux; a few of the top level nameservers still ran UNIX. But these were tough days for InSys. The heart of their tro

I am posting this from Cummons college. I have registered for the project competiton in the hardware category. You know the best hing about hardware ... it never works at the last minute. Mine didn't either. Luckily I had my third year project as a backup. I am waiting for the results now. Lalit has already started packing up and screaming down my neck to do so. So ... ill stop now.

Cars Vs. Computers For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon." In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics: 1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day. 2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. 3. Occasionally your car would stall on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before y

WHAT A DAY! First, my microcontroller program works successfully for the first time. I was really very sceptic about using C to program the controller. But thanks to SDCC it was a cake walk. As a rough estimate, SDCC and the allying tools reduced development time by at least 80%. SDCC is an optimising compiler derived from GCC. It comes along with a simulator - S51 and a source leveldebugger - SDCDB. Really good tools, also available for Windows. I had heard that cross compilers bloat up the code a lot. However the code produced by SDCC is certainly better and compact than I could have written in assembly. And, where it beats most of the other tools is that it is free software and doesn't have any restrictions on code size. Thank God for free software ... or should I say ... RMS? Today was also the day India won against Pakistan. Sachin Tendulkar made short work of plans a, b, c .... (how many letters do we have?) of the Pakistan bowlers. Boundaries were coming at will. Shoab

Had a real hectic week. RMS was fantastic. He is a phenomenon. What was most striking about him is that he is a king who mingles with the commoners. He replies to each mail personally, eats and drinks with his audience(whatever they eat), doesn't bother on insisting on things like mineral water and has a good, analytical brain. And unlike other great people who can give great speeches, he usually talks sense. You can rarely catch him on the wrong foot. He really had me convinced about calling the system GNU/Linux. But saying "guh-noo slash leenux" everytime is a bit tasking on the toungue. Also "Linux" sounds cool ... although "guh-noo" is not bad either. I think I will go with GNU. It would also make it easier to adapt when the 'hurd' begins to stampede. My project now has an official one-word name. It's called AppCon for "appliance control". I think it's the best I could do when told to choose a name in half a minute. It

Posting this from GNUnify at SICSR. Supposed to be doing a RH 8.0 installation ... but there are better things to do like 'nothing'.

I hope all the GATEs open up to me :-)

Just had a passing thought - do we all see the same colours? I mean, it could be possible that one person sees green what another sees red. There is no way to tell really, because an individual has been told that "leaves are green" and "sky is blue". He will associate the colour he sees the leaves with 'green'. Is it possible to tell what he really sees? It could very well be the sensation I get when I see red, for instance. No wonder then ... beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder! Doesn't matter really. Beauty is relative. And the beautifull things will even then seem relatively beautifull ... or will they? Again, how do we decide if something is relatively beautyfull without taking into consideration the sense of colour? God, this is a recursive cycle. Frankly, I would rather do factorials if recursion is the way to go!

The IIT techfest was beyond words. The best technology from the country was at display and the lecture series was also amazing. The best part was perhaps the laser show. Then there was the 'Robo-cup' - dog like robots playing football match and then dancing in synch to "Who let the dogs out". There were so many amazing things that it would require a full fledged report to describe them all. Maybe www.techfest.org would be much better. One thing that 'stood' out was a 6 foot tall, six legged walking robot (Natraj). It's manufacturing price is about 13 lakhs ... compared to $2 million of its US couterpart with the same functionality. There was a lecture by RMS (teleconference from Boston). Thankfully, he spoke not on free software, but on current copyright laws and their ill effects. It's sort of sad that the space shuttle had to crash during the event though. Maybe NASA should have thought about an abort after something went wrong during the launch.

Well, it's been a while ... I had my foundations of C programming shaken up a bit, and I am still recovering from the shocks. I got the hang of the .bmp file format finally, and I am now seriously hooked on to image processing. I am leaving for the techfest at IIT Mumbai tomorrow. Looking forward to a few days of good, fascinating technology.

Thinking of positive feedback, you should see a white screen if you hold your webcam in front of the computer monitor. Maybe this can be used for something useful. And by the way, damn the bitmap file format ... at least till I can get things right with some images.

Managed to get a net connection here at the CMDA exhibition. Others are breathing down my neck ... so the rest of the stuff later :-)

I'm about to leave for the CMDA exibition to help out at the PLUG stall. I beleive its the least one can do to support a good cause. Its a bit (literally) ironical that the stall is positioned next to the Micro$oft stall. Hopefully we will be successfull in promoting the linux philosophy and the use of the GNU/Linux operating system. Linux - The choice of the GNU generation :-)