Hurray for odf !!

I have been trying to switch from windows to Linux for some time now. The fact that i paid $ 150 for my Windows XP(last year when vista was free with a new dell and i wisely decided to be smart and invest that money) made it difficult. I had to get my moneys worth before making the switch. (and I was lazy to get a dual boot system).

My attempt over last few months has been trying to use as much open source software as possible. I switched to thunderbird from outlook, also i was using open office suite for all my text presentation needs. However all my submissions were required to be in .doc format. Open office allows saving in .doc format but this almost always messes the document formating. I had to make change to my source file and check for proper formating by opening it in word viewer.

And then for my last report I had to insert lot of equations. I used OOOLatex with open office and then decided to hand in a printed report. My professor liked the whole thing so much he asked me to submit the report as .odf and made up his mind to give open office a try. I consider this a victory for .odf and takes me one step closer to converting completely to Linux. Hurray for .odf!!

The International Space Station

The International Space Station(ISS) is a research laboratory being assembled in outer space. The ISS is a joint project carried out by the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, EU, Brazil and Italy.It is a fine example of international cooperation in science and space exploration. Here is nice presentation which shows the ISS construction and its modules. An interesting perspective of its size comared to the scifi ships can be found here another nice shot showing the scale of astronaut against the backdrop a section of ISS can be found here.

India off to the moon..

India's doing something new.. ISRO(Indian Space Research Organization) will launch an unmanned mission to the moon. The mission christened Chandrayaan-1(details) can be directly translated as "Space Craft to Moon".

The mission to be launched on 22nd October 2008 will carry nine payloads; five instruments entirely designed and developed in India, three instruments from ESA , one from Bulgaria and two from the United States. A modified PSLV would be used to boost this into space.

This mission would be followed by one in 2010 which will carry a lunar rover. Great job guys we are so proud of you!!

Stay tuned for live webcast on 22nd Oct 2008 0550 - 0650 Hrs (IST) (here)

Open Office 3 is here

The latest version of Open Office, version 3 is here.. Its free and its odf. I downloaded it today and its much better than 2.4 before. It includes whole gamut of MS Office repalcements

1. Writer word processor
2. Calc spreadsheet
3. Impress presentations program
4. Base database program
5. Math equation editor
6. Draw graphics program

The UI looks great and the documents load much quicker. You can save and edit your documents to MS Office XP/98 formats. It doesnt support the MS Office 07 versions though.. but neighter does older MS Office.. ( how many people use it any way?). Other useful features.. it enables direct export to pdf and also advanced features like mail merge. (Lets see if i can configure it with my thunderbird)

If you want to try it download from the site or the mirror.

Youtube reads back your comments

Well the guys at Google have done it again.. what am i talking about? well now you can actually have all your youtube comments read back to you before posting them.. a kind of stupidity check.. Coming on heels of of drunken test on gmail (details) which i thought was pretty lame.. this one really gets full marks in my books.. Its inspired by this xkcd cartoon. Just another example that googles the best when it comes to innovation..

A quicker firefox

Some great tricks to speed up your firefox browser here
Here a few in the list I tried and that real speeds up the browsing

1. Access the firefox config by typing about:config in the address bar
2. Change network.http.pipelining to true
3. Change network.http.proxy.pipelining to true
4. Change network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 8
5. Create a new variable content.notify.interval (right-click in the window and select New -> Integer). Click OK and enter value as 500000
6. Create a new variable content.notify.ontimer (right-click in the window and select New -> Boolean). Click OK and enter value as true
7. Create a new variable content.switch.threshold (right-click in the window and select New -> Integer). Click OK and enter value as 250000

For details on how this works go to the source which is here.

The Beginning..

July1, 2008 (Delhi, India) – Guri dressed in her beautiful green dress says a tearful bye to her parents and starts looking for Geet. Delhi Airport is in a mess due to continuous downpour outside. It has been raining since last two days. Guri wanted to do some more shopping but time was short. She got to know about her travel plans only a week ago.

There, standing next to ticket counter, she spotted Geet as usual talking over her mobile. She was parallel trying to pull the Red suitcase on to the trolley. But it was falling side ways time and again.

Geet had a small frame and long black hair pulled back with a black clip. She was very touchy about her hair and took lot of care. She also got to know about the travel only last week. She is very happy about this trip as since long she was wishing for a short trip to US.

Guri pushed the trolley loaded with two big suitcases and a laptop, and moved towards Geet. By the time Guri reached Geet, she was done with her call. They greeted each other and started moving towards immigration counter absorbed in their thoughts.

July 2, 2008 (New York, USA) – After a tiring journey of 14 hours, Geet and Guri came out of New York Airport. Guri is all smiles and happy about being here. This was a dream come true for her. Both of them are here for a project assignment. She can feel the air of independence around her. They hired a cab and started their journey towards hotel Grand Hyatt. Guri with her beautiful eyes wide open is trying to absorb each and every scene around her. Big tall buildings disappearing in to sky, fast moving cars on busy roads and people from different ethnic origins. Everything is so new and different to her. She is feeling as if she has been yearning for this throughout her life.

Geet tapped Guri on shoulder when she found her smiling all to herself. ‘I am soooo happy today.’ Guri said. Geet smiled. She was happy for her too. Soon they reached the hotel and were settled in their queen size beds after a hot and lavish bath. This was second time for Geet in US so she started telling Guri about few pieces of information which will be required initially. They soon slipped in to a peaceful sleep with smiles on their face getting themselves ready for a challenging day ahead.

July 3, 2008 – Geet dressed up in her black skirt and light blue shirt, is busy reading newspaper. She loves to keep herself updated with the latest happenings. It is 8:30 Am and they need to reach office by 9:00 Am. Office is just across the street so she is not bothered. Guri comes out of bathroom with a comb in her hand. She is dressed up in her favorite black trousers and off white shirt. ‘Do I look fine?’ Guri asked. She had a worried expression on her face. This is her first day in a client office. She is tense and excited at the same time. ‘Yes, you look stunning. Now stop bothering yourself too much. I am sure you will do well today.’ Said Geet with a cute smile on her face. Guri smiled too but she had a lot of things going on in her mind.

It was not long before they were absorbed in the days work. Before they could even catch their breath, it was time to leave back for hotel. The day had been very fruitful and client was very satisfied with their presentation. They planned to go for exploring near by areas before going to hotel. Guri was very much relaxed now and a feeling of comfort and belonging was already settling down in her. Guri and Geet talked about their days activities and cracked jokes about the smart manager who was all the time eying Guri. She had handled the presentation very well. By the time they reached hotel they were too tired to change and slept in their office clothes.

Life moved on very fast from this day. Guri had found a new world here. They had explored a lot of places by the end of one month. Guri had even started driving a car there and now she was completely independent. Geet is going back to India tomorrow and is picking up her stuff, which she has thrown all over the place in last one month. Guri is helping her do the packing. They talked about all the fun things they had done together and how much they enjoyed each other’s company.

July 31, 2008 – Guri dropped Geet to Airport before going to office. Guri is going to be here for few more months. She has made a few good friends in the office. One of them is going to move in with her by next week. “I will miss you’, Geet said while giving a big hug to Guri. “I will miss you too”, Guri said. “Don’t miss me too much else people will doubt”, Geet said with her mischievous smile. They parted their ways and started moving towards their destination. Guri came out of the Airport. She was ready to spread her wings and carry on with the flight of her dreams. Life moves on…..

Heres a a good initiative

With all the political ruckus in the country here is a nice initiative by a group of students and some young working professionals to try and remedy this. They have come up with a website to educate the educated section of the society to go out and vote. They also have some data which shows how narrow some of the victory margins in past elections were.. which means every vote counts. Here is the website. www.voteindia.in

And now reservations for IIT faculty..

Can you imagine reservations for IIT Faculty?
Reservations for students is a big issue as it is and now this. A below standard instructor would lead to the whole batch being potentially substandard.
The biggest fear is that if IITs adopts such a policy it would fuel a race among the other educational institutions to join the bandwagon.
Heres a link to petition opposing this move by the HRD department Revoke IIT Faculty Reservation Petition.
Do sign it. This is an important issue.

firefox v3 first impression

i was waiting for FF3 to go live. After trying to connect to firefox.com for an hour.. (yes it went down under briefly) i got my new firefox.. All the promises made.. and kept.. My first impression its blazing fast.. kudos to the firefox team.. still have to try all the plugins but its so much more satisfying to browse the web.

Move over from outlook to thunderbird

After using outlook for a very long time I finally thought about moving on to thunderbird. The process of setting this up turned out to be surprisingly easy..

After downloading thunderbird the installer automatically imported my existing outlook psts from my desktop(my biggest concern about the shift was loosing my old mails).

It did not migrate my email accounts though. However adding my gmail account to thunderbird was a breeze. Unlike setting this in outlook there was no need to set up the incoming/outgoing servers.. just my account id and password did the trick.

My next concern was i could not minimize thunderbird to tray icon like i was used to for outlook. A google search led me to this nice plugin which fixed this..

Importing my contacts from outlook address book was straight forward too.
Thunderbird asked me on start up whether I wanted to use it as default. Marking this as yes means i can right click any document and now the send to email recipient uses thunderbird instead of outlook.

One thing which nagged me was all that all my old mails showed as unread.. A simple "ctrl a" (select all) and right click followed by mark as read in each of my folders solved this issue.

As a final word i love what i got.. Its really light and does not bother my machines memory the way outlook used to.. Next am going to try using open office.

The definition of language

A few years back in the year 2002 I was completing hand written applications for my first job . There always was a field called languages known. My standard entry was English,Hindi,Marathi followed by a joke to whoever was around "can i enter C as one of the options?". Usually this resulted in a light hearted banter.

Fast forward to 2007. Am on a website filling up job applications. Theres a drop down titled languages known. What do i do? I start looking for Java(by pressing J repeatedly.. its a drop down you know) and then i see that the options started with Afrikaans.. "J" got me to Javanese..

I thought of that incident 5 years hence. It brought a smile to my face. The world has come a full circle or is it me who has?

Strange things technology makes you do or should i say strange things technology does to you?

scrubit unavailable...

i was using scrubit proxys as my dns.. today around 430pm est all my webpages started showing 404s.. after some debugging found that scrubit was down.. had to change my dns to local to make my internet work... was a dreadful hour being without internet

Battle Star Gallactica....

Let me begin by saying that BSG is simply the best series out on the tube right now. I watched the series so far in rerun and liked it immensely. Not only does it cater to a thirst for sci fi but also has a strong drama.. a story which could as well be unfolding at capitol hill…

Humanity and tenants of its behavior may not change just because of advancement in civilization is a significant point this series puts forth, looking back at our history so far makes it seem plausible...

Past sci fi series like Star Trek portrayed an advanced civilization (including humanity) as an enlightened race... free from sins and with higher sense of morality. However how much have we changed in the past 500 years or so of our advancement? We still wage wars for trivial reasons; look upon life as expendable and with a patchy view of morality.

BSG builds on this fact in a very realistic manner. Looking forward to the final season this Friday….

paris hilton you let me down....

paris hilton... i was a fan.. not because of the way she looked nor the films she appeared in and definitely not because of her singing.. then why??

well thats why.. she was famous without any reason.. it intrigued me how one can just be famous without any world topping talent.. and ya no great family fortunes were officially coming her way either..

so there i was quibbling at her earnest quotes( i had a Google news alert set for her name ) and pitying the media.. man thats like picking garbage for them.. but i did enjoy reading about the diva with no light of her own.. she was just projecting the light they shone at her...

and then i read a disturbing quote from her "Pakistanis are hot!"

wow she has lost it completely.. am not a paki basher but i got my pride.. maybe i am overdoing it.. maybe i already did..

bye girl am deleting the news alert on your name..

The "online" dog ate my homework

With home works moving from paper to word pad the reason of "my dog ate my home" can no longer be applied.. Well thats what you think...

Check out http://www.xnet.se/fd/ the file destructor... It gives you a file of a format and size you want.. Its up to your professor to try and open it :D

If nothing else its a nice tool to get that extra day or two.. akin to saying "the dog ate my homework and i need to do it again.."

really loved this....

Google rocks

You know an internet company is really making it big when you have a multi tabbed browser and every tabs opening a site owned by the same company...

i have search,orkut,gmail,maps,and this blogger.... yup they seem to be doing it right...

back to school first glance

being back to school has been such a weird experience.. its so much like doing a new project in a new technology in which your pm has advertised your proficiency and you really just know a knot; yet its also so different..

it has all the thrills of a project for sure.. there are the weekly deliverables(hence forth called home works) the status checkpoints(hence forth the bi weekly tests) and yes the weekly meetings(those are the lectures)

and yet its so different.. there are all those honey eyed guys n girls with dreams to land up a perfect job.. there are the professors who make you stand in their cabins while they sit talking on the phone in front of you and finally there are the smart ass fresh graduates who think they know everything.. lol

am really enjoyin the experience...

The "new 7 wonders" thing

This whole new seven wonders thing is getting on my nerves.. Some commercial organization launches a money making campaign and so many fall prey to it is amazing...

I just can not fathom the need to have a v2.0 of the book called "Seven Wonders". Maybe its the name that doesnt agree with me; maybe they should have named it differently.. "Great Places to See" or something.. atleast that would have made the commercial aspect very clear akin the "Miss Worlds Universe" contest..

Whats interesting is choice of candidates for this new seven wonders.. newly developing nations with strong IT infrastructure.. always ready to pride up that little piece of meat in the global theatre.. sending a single vote by sms is an absolute waste of money.. and these countries have millions who will just do it for national pride.. A million bucks for the mobile operators.. Am sure the new7wonders foundation gets a cut of the money and not the votes alone..

Then there was this "google voting gateway" .. Gave me an mailer dameon when i tried using it.. ordes of ppl trying to use it and i dont see a single mail on the forwards i receive proclaiming its non utility.. People are going crazy..

Less he be outdone the president of some country installs computers at public places to facilitate voting.. maybe he should donate those to a school and have some kids learn some thing useful off it..

Celebrities and self proclaimed heritage gurues blaming govt not promoting our national monument when UNESCOs dissassociated itself from the whole campaign.. i would say one sane thing the govts doing for a change...

The party at Lisbon on 07.07.07 will no wonder boost the tourists for that city but how much will the winners stand to gain? I am convinced zilch !!