Khaman is NOT Dhokla

I am from gujarat and I am proud gujarati like millions around the world. Every gujarati would have eaten khaman and dhokla at some point of time in their lives. For those who are not aware what is Khaman and Dhokla, you can visualise the same from the picture given on the side. The one top (white in colour) is dhokla and Khaman is on the bottom picture ( yellow in colour).

I have lot of friends who are from India outside of gujarat who also love khaman and dhokla. While they love it, I only have one request not to say Khaman as Khaman Dhokla as Khaman is Khaman and IT IS NOT DHOKLA. It is the wrong packaging done by Gits and likes of those companies who have created this misconception by printing Khaman as Khaman Dhokla on their package.

So, please next time you are savouring your taste buds with these two delicious dishes, please do remember which one is what... Happy hogging khaman and dhokla...

After 3 years....

I have been using linux for over 3 years. Now that I look back at it, I have mixed feelings of using linux. On one hand I am happy about things which I have found, learnt and over a period of time experienced. My first install of kubuntu 6.06 on my amd64 laptop to my current install of ubuntu 8.10, I can see so much maturity in linux desktop/laptop whatever you want t say. I sure feel happy that linux system has matured and has become very userfriendly. The other day I was at my friend's place installing linux on his laptop, and I was pleased with how linux (might be a ubuntu usability feature) recognized the printer and configured it for me even without touching anything, no add hardware, no cd required. That was one of the most wow moments of my life where in I could see my friend appreciating the usability features of linux. I am also happy looking at the number of software updates I do not have to keep. I being a geek and always experimenting with latest and greatest I used to keep downloading winamp, firefox and tons of other softwares and installing them to keep the updated. This is no longer the case, well atleast not searching independently. I just update the ubuntu version and I kind of get latest and greatest of all the software. I do not have to hunt down the net for latesst version, I just type some command (I prefer that) or open up synaptic and I am all set. So, over all I am very happy with my system.

On the other hand, I miss out those games which are windows only... I know I know there is wine but still it is not capable enough to play all the games. I loved playing Age of Empires, Caesar etc... while I am able to play Caesar with wine, I was not able to make AOE work. Also, the company that I work for has all its internal application drenched with MS stuff. This does not allow me the flexibility to work on my linux computer in office. Also, I do hate linux some times when things go all messy, and I am not able to figure out wtf I did wrong or what has messed it up... but I do feeel happy when I do a clean install and I am all set with some minor tweaks...

Overall it has saved me time ... I would say naahh due to my company policies of using properietary softwares... but I have learnt a lot... so much so that I always try to spread the word of using open source eg. ubuntu, open office etc to my friends and there are some friends who are pretty darn satisfied with ubuntu installs I have done for them...

Why I do not use Chrome and Stick to Firefox

I tried out google chrome, it is slick, minimalistic however I still stick to firefox for many reasons some of them I am giving here.

1. It does not have adblock, this one is no bummer as google wont block its main source of revenue ;-).
2. No stumble upon, I am one of them who is now addicted to it and there no such thing for chrome yet.
3. No keyword or tagging of bookmarks. I use keyword shortcuts to go to pages quickly, chrom does not have such provision.
4. New process for new tab is memory hog, try opening 14+ tab in chrome and it crashes my computer while firefox crash around 25 or so tab. I know not all will open so many tabs :-).
5. Mouse gesture, I love them esp when I have mouse connected to my laptop.
6. No extension framework or I am not aware of. This does not allow things to be added to chrome.
7. I have used 3.1 version of firefox with new javascript engine it seems much faster compared to chrome in processing the sites like gmail, docs etc.
8. It does not have bookmark syncing between computers. I use foxmark to sync my two laptops and work pc with the same bookmarks.

So, all in all I will stick to firefox :-).

A note in the men's room... quite funny...

Just saw a note in the men's room

AIM

Whoever missed twice this week

1. Get a vision test
2. Open your eyes
3. Aim at the Urinal
4. Sit down on the toilet



I was not able to control my laugh... hope this put atleast a smile on your face...

And the stint continues....

Well well... my stint with penguin continues and I seem to like it very much... this Ubuntu thing is really catching up... the more and more i use it... more and more i think that people should start using linux and make it their primary OS... I know there are apprehensions and misconception in mind of people about linux that it is not user friendly and everything has to be command line and what not...

Trust me i have been using linux as my primary OS for around 6 month or so... I do go into M$ for my vpn connection and downloading emails to my box.

I too used to think that linux is all about command line... but not any more... linux is evolving... i know it still has long way to go... but then it has all the features that a common person would expect from an OS....

1. media players.
2. web browsers
3. chat client
4. voice chat clients
5. software installers
6. themes and other customization (this i think is cool as it allows you to customize almost every aspect of the UI)
7. No antivirus (well technically every OS can have virus but I havent been infected... but then it is always good to have antivirus installed even in UNIX/LINUX OS)


OK I will not harp much on this... but those who do want to try ... check out http://ubuntu.com and download a CD. Burn it and run it directly from your comp.. you can experience and see if you like it... and if you then go ahead and install... if you do not then let the CD remain with you.. :-).. may be some day... some day....

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...