My stint with the penguin

For some time I have been playing with this penguin... if I tell you that I am in chennai, India... it will make you wonder where and how this guy played with penguin... OK no PJ but cannot help it...

The penguin I am talking about is LINUX... I being too much tech experimenting fellow... I was getting this itch in my hand to use the full power of my 64 bit AMD turion process... The windows 32 bit which came pre-installed was using half its potential... Like typical manager I wanted to extract full power and make it peak productive... so, I explored the net to get a version which can utilize the power... of 64 bit...

I went to one of the linux site and found something there are so many distros... (refer to the wikipedia and you will find it is a linux distribution).... I was searching for the best and linux site stated currently something called as ubuntu is on top... I went to their site and there where more flavors of ubuntu... (now this is what I call as full menu... there are so many choices...)... I choose Kubuntu compared to Ubuntu... may be because Kubuntu was sweet sounding...

I downloaded the CD and installed the 64 version... my first impresession was that it was good but was taking long time (compared to M$) to boot... Now, I have got used to the ususal time but still am experimenting with the boot time... being curious (like curiosity killed the crow...) I like it best ... do stuff, break something and then patch it up and the satisfaction you derive by getting it right by your own (with help from linux community) is very satisfying... and makes me happy...

OK the sore part, my acer laptop is containing graphic card from SiS and wireless card from broadcom... both these companies do not believe in open source it seems and they do not publish their drivers for linux... in the world of convergence and globalisation I cannot believe there are companies like this... damn them... my next laptop will not have any product from them...

So, to get these two working was a huge task... I have got the wireless card now working but the SiS graphic card would not render 3D acceleration and the software 3D acceleration sucks big time...

What is most I liked about Linux is...

1. uses my 64 bit computer :-)
2. there are thousands of softwares and yes all of them are free... free as in "free beer"... now what that term means I do not know... am too lazy right now to find it out...
3. if there is a software upgrade available it will notify you that a new version is available and again being curious and keeping myself using latest and greatest I find it cool... windows you have to buy software to manage your software... :P
4. the software you install falls in its appropriate bucket and you do not have to organize the start menu or whatever you call it in M$... This is another cool feature.
5. you can customize it like anything... for UI itself you have so many choices... KDE/GNOME/XFCE being the main... I prefer KDE... and no I do not want to start the GNOME/KDE war...
6. you make your own kernel... if you want you can compile your own OS... sounds interesting right... this will make your system respond at peak ... again my idiosyncrasies ;-)...
7. No virus and no threats... there is virtually no risk of any viruses... for modifying any of the system files you require a super user privilege and the at the most you can loose would be your home folder...
8. From home folder ... Linux gives you capability of installing your home folder in a separate drive... so even if you reinstall or format your OS and reinstall all your customization and setting will be preserved and you will not waste your precious time in making your OS like it was previously...
9. No registry ... you can install all your applications in a separate partition and reinstall your OS still your applications will work provided required libraries are kept correctly... i think that too can be configured... but haven't tried so much... :-)

Over all I am starting to like Linux for its free nature and too much customization... if only my graphic card was not SiS...

Please do not take this as my word for jumping into Linux... if you are ready to invest some time for free software then do jump in... :-)...

for those noob who want everything to work out of the box and do not want to use their precious grey cells... wait for another 5/10 years before you are cured of something called as M$

Wheels Apart...

After returning to India, I got a car as I developed a mind set that car is one of the basic necessity. Well its quite true, the only problem is in India not all can afford it unlike US where every tom dick and harry has a car.

Till now I was driving toyota corolla (1995 model), now I am driving Maruti 800... no where close to even a 1995 model car... there are totally wheels apart...

Consider this... I sold my corolla for $2400 (Rs 108K)... I got my 800 for $ 3933

Now let us consider their features...

Feature: Corolla | 800

Dimension : Mid Size | Mini Size if there is one :-)... am too lazy to measure it ...
Engine : V4 | V2
Transmission : Automatic | Manual (good for India)
Features : Fully loaded - power locks, windows, AC, rear defrost | hardly anything except that I got a steering wheel, AC :-)...

won't bring down my sweet little maruti so much... but makes me wonder how is that a country of 1 billion not able to make a good quality product at a cheaper price... the labour is cheap ... so are the raw material... probably some intricacies which I do not understand...

Brain is intelligent camcoder :-)

Well... I got this new camecoder as I am wrapping up my stay in US of A... I recorded some stuff and then edited them....

And it occured to me that brain is such an intelligent camcoder... you keep on recording everything from your child hood... and you actively keep on editing your recording... you keep whatever you feel is significant to retain in your limited GB of memory available in your brain... and you actively keep on removing which is trivial or insignificant or will not be of any use to you in future...

the point is mootable whether the memory available is limited... can we measure it... I believe it is limited... there might be poeple who will strongly agree to disagree on this point... but they will violently agree that brain is a intelligent camcoder... :-)...

well it depends on person to person what to retain... if you are very religious you will probably keep in your mind trip to scared place... you will not recall a trip to disc...(why the heck did you go to the place first of all??? ;-))... if you are very fond of friends... you will cherish those sweet memories spent with friends... if you are selfish like me... you will keep only things you which you want to... but who is not selfish...

seems i have digressed from the topic... for me brain is intelligent camcoder... do not know what other thinks... but who cares... i always do what i want to do :-) ... and i am proud of it...

Sudh Hindi Ka Prayog Kijiye...

Time and again I get this craving to start translating english words to pure hindi just to bring some change to this monotonous life of mine... Here are some of the words... some coined by me... some by my friends... some are genuine hindi words but not used normally in our day to day conversation... well no credits given and none are taken... only some humour is given.

Actually currently there are hardly any words in the list... you can count on your fingers... even if you have four of them on your hand... but as usual I am thinking of long term when this post will contain a long list of words....

I will keep on adding to this list so watch out... if you understand hindi I bet you will have fun!!!!

sukhsm laher - microwave
karn dakhi swarn yantr - head phone
karn ghusi swarn yantr - ear phone
kimkartavyvimudh - vacillating mind

following is contribution from Raj Beniwal
Lowh path gamini - train
Lamb dand gol pind dhar pakad pratiyogita - Cricket

~MJR

PS:note haven't used a suffix of 'a' after each word as it is done like in "yoga"... it is actually yog... sticking to sudh hindi again :-)

I am sure my south indian friends will beg to differ... they even put an 'a' after proper english words too... lefta... righta... no offense please... :-)

Handicap Parking...

"Handicap parking is the mirage of the parking lot" Sienfeld in one of his episodes...

How true... You are running late for a meeting you desparately need a parking spot... you circle around the whole parking lot once ... twice yet you do not find a parking spot near to gate.... so sad... then you see there are 5 parking spots free but alas.... THEY ARE HANDICAP PARKING ... what the ... You then circle around and find a spot which is nearest possible to the gate ...

Then you walk towards the building... in a hurry... you see those free parking spots and curse them ... or pray to god... please make me handicap... atleast I do won't have to walk this much...

Well this is OK... on top of this let us add snow with wind speed which is blowing directly in to you face... if you haven't experienced this come to Detroit, MI in peak winter ... you will curse even more ...

I have known people who go and park in the handicap parking just for the heck of it ... my ex-account manager is one of them...

I have known people who go and park in the handicap parking spot as the handicap parking spot lines (usually they are blue in color) were not visible ... well thats the reason I got ... I too was driving my corolla and parked my car in proper normal parking spot (read NON HANDICAP PARKING)... well that was quite a reason ... anyway who want to argue on that...

Some time I think I will get my leg amputated or probably slightly cracked or with connections in DMV or SOS get the handicap parking number plate ... a fracture would be ideal as I will get the plate temporarily ... though...

Handicap parking murdabad... murdabad.... !!!