tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-223781592024-03-08T00:51:44.960+05:30Indro's WeblogIndrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-90189636609356208752009-12-08T06:37:00.003+05:302009-12-08T06:54:22.894+05:30Playing around with your system's Init scriptsNowadays with so much focus on usability in Linux, all the administration tasks can be done in GUI. Consequently, when things don't work, people are clueless where to look to resolve the error. Hence it's pretty much important to know the innards of system. I had a couple of tasks like disabling a couple of services & changing the cpu frequency governor. I decided to find to the most low level way of doing the same. Well, here it goes. And yes, these all all from a latest Fedora distribution perspective(I se F12).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Changing the CPU Frequency Governor in Fedora:</span><br />Assuming that you usually run in init level5, edit the file <span style="font-weight: bold;">/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S06cpuspeed</span> and change the line <span style="font-style: italic;">default_governor=ondemand</span> to <span style="font-style: italic;">default_governor=performance</span>. Save and quit.<br />When you reboot next time, you'll notice that the CPU is running at full speed from the start.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">En/Disabling a service in Fedora:</span><br />Whatever you accomplish from <span style="font-weight: bold;">System->Administration->Services</span> can also be accomplished by just removing a link from a particular file. For e.g. if you want to disable the Smolt service, you just need to remove the link <span style="font-weight: bold;">/etc/rc5.d/S90Smolt</span> by typing "<span style="font-style: italic;">unlink S90smolt</span>". Once you reboot, you'll observe that the Smolt service is disabled.<br /><br />NOTE: There are other saner ways of doing these from the command line.Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-12236710248408681182009-09-05T01:07:00.002+05:302009-09-05T01:13:15.678+05:30Auto login without password on Fedora 11In case you want to automate your user login in Fedora, just follow these simple instructions.<br />Add the following text to /etc/gdm/custom.conf(replace 'indro' with your user)<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">[daemon]</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">TimedLoginEnable=true</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">AutomaticLoginEnable=true</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">AutomaticLogin=indro</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">TimedLogin=indro</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">TimedLoginDelay=0</span><br /><br /><br />And in case you also have a Wi-Fi network connection, just execute the following additional commands.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">#rm /home/indro/.gnome2/keyrings/login.keyring</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">#reboot</span>Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-84037352439832305272009-07-30T21:27:00.004+05:302009-07-30T23:25:58.928+05:30Installing Fedora 11 on Dell Inspirion Mini 10Last week i got my hands on a friends' Dell Inspirion Mini 10 and the chance to install Fedora 11 on it. The Dell Mini's a really a nice piece of hardware with truly small dimensions and big battery life.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PROS:</span><br />Dimesions - Just amazed to see what can be packed in such a small box these days). Weighing under 1Kg.<br />Screen - Though it's a very small screen compared to what we're used to, it's very decent.<br />Battery Life - 7-8hrs!!<br />Keypad - Very nice and comfortable for a device of this size.<br />Performance - o complaints for the portability it provides.<br />Fedora 11 works beautifully with the slightest effort :))<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CONS:</span><br />Touchpad - The Touchpad kept behaving weirdly(Was it the drivers..hmmm..) and i had a tough time using it.<br /><br />Now coming to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fedora 11 installation experience.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1.</span> Download the Live CD iso using a torrent from <a href="http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/torrents/Fedora-11-i686-Live.torrent">here</a>.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />2.</span> Prepare a bootable USB by ext2 formatting the USB stick, making the partition Bootable and then installing the iso to the USB as follows:<br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#yum install livecd-tools</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#livecd-iso-to-disk Fedora-11-i686-Live.iso /dev/sdb1<br /></span><span>(Assuming sdb1 is the bootable USB partition)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />3.</span> Boot using the USB and DoubleClick on the Install to HardDisk Icon.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />4.</span> Partitioning and Installing - Fedora 11 uses EXT4 as the default FS and expects an EXT4 rootfs. But, the version of GRUB supplied by Fedora does not support EXT4. So, we need a separate EXT3 /boot partition of around 20MB. The Installer crashed many a times and we observed that the installer is unable to format a swap partition into any other FS format. We had to boot using the USB and change the partition table using fdisk, then then use mkfs.ext3 to partition it. This left with the impression that Fedora needs to work on the LiveCD installer, at least providing less cryptic messages when it comes to getting the partitioning right. I wonder if a newbie could figure her way out of the cryptic error messages and weird behaviour of the installer.<br />Apart from that, the installation was a breeze and got over in 5 minutes flat.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Configuring FEDORA11 on the Mini 10</span><br /><br />Enable the rpm fusion repos as follows:<br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:monospace;" ><br />#</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">rpm -ivh</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:monospace;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:monospace;" ><br />#</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-*<br /><br /></span>The first thing that needs resolution is the inordinately large font that makes usability Zero.<br />GoTo <span style="font-weight: bold;">System->Preferences->Apprearance->Fonts->Details</span> and change the Dots Per Inch to 80. Use Alt-C to close the window. This makes the system much more usable.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Touchpad:</span> Behaves weirdly and is a tad too sensitive. GoTo <span style="font-weight: bold;">System->Preferences->Mouse</span> and reduce the sensitivity by playing around a bit. Also enable the 'MouseClick with TouchPad' and Vertical Scroll features.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wireless:</span> Doesn't work by default as the Broadcom drivers are non free.<br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#yum install kmod-wl</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#reboot</span><br />And wireless works!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Audio & Video:</span> Just install the normal codec packs and mplayer.<span style="font-family: monospace;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#</span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-libs gstreamer-ffmpeg libmatroska xvidcore</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">#yum install mplayer smplayer<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Increasing the Screen Real Estate:</span> By default it's difficult to browse. In Firefox, remove the Bookmarks Toolbar. Also set the Top & Bottom Panels of your Desktop to AutoHide giving you a very comfortable viewing.<br /><br />Stop unnecessary services from <span style="font-weight: bold;">System->Administration->Services</span>.<br />Also remove programs like imsettings-start, Login Sound, Print Queue Applet, Remote Desktop etc. by going to <span style="font-weight: bold;">System->Preferences->StartupApps</span> and reduce the number of programs that start at boot up.<br /><br />All in all this gives you a pretty fast booting and responsive system running your favourite Fedora 11 :)Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-41750890662921174932009-07-24T19:58:00.003+05:302009-07-25T00:38:21.771+05:30Non vegetarianism and ethics - an antithetic viewNow this piece might just manage to raise some eyebrows. So, let me clear the air at the onset itself - I'm a Vegetarian. This article is just a free flow of thoughts where I've tried to think against the current ...<br /><br />It all started at lunch today, when we had a spirited discussion on the 'Non Vegetarian Way of Life'. The common view point is that eating Non Veg food and killing of animals for the same is unethical. These days all over the world celebrities are calling on people to eat & think Green. The vegetarians usually take a morally upright position in this regard and feel that their way of life has to be right. Isn't it obvious? Well, apparently to many it isn't. And that is what stoked the debate.<br />The Veggies basically had three things to say:<br />1. It's <span style="font-weight: bold;">unethical to kill</span> animals and eat them.<br />2. Eating <span style="font-weight: bold;">flesh magnifies your carnal instincts</span> and so is again bad (but isn't that natural Viagra!)<br />3. If man wants to attain a <span style="font-weight: bold;">higher state of self consciousness</span>, one of the pre-requisites is that you gotta be a Veggie. As a corollary, being a Veggie is right.<br /><br />I've tried to come up with some interesting counter thoughts to all the three above.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rebuttal One -</span> The ethics of killing and eating - Strip man of all the socio-cultural influences and what do you see? An animal who's probably somewhere near the top of the food chain. The earliest fossils of Homo Sapiens found in Africa date to around 200000 years ago. The earliest evidence of agriculture found is about 10000 years ago. Agriculture started in America only around 5200BC. Then how did man survive for the thousands of years before agriculture was practised? The obvious answer is Hunting. Even the earliest cave paintings show man hunting animals(not growing tomatoes and potatoes). The simple point is that stripped of every other influence, man is an animal who needs to hunt for survival, hunt for protection. So what the Non Veggies exhibit is just the primal instincts, the natural instincts. There is no question of ethical or non ethical. The ethics have not been made in consultation with all the Animal & Plant Kingdom. Ethics are man made and in some ways show the high handedness of our species.<br /><br />Here's some more food for thought for the veggies:<br />(a) Agriculture uses pesticides to kill millions of insects.<br />(b) The forest habitat of millions of animals is lost due to the conversion of forests to agricultural lands.<br />(c) Where does Honey come from?<br />(d) The pest control that people do at their homes isn't exactly vegetarian.<br /><br />So even if not directly killing the animals, people tend to kill and maim uncountable creatures during their day to day life. The Veggies therefore can't exactly take a morally high ground. Life's complex..far too complex and our lives are all entwined in unfathomable ways.<br /><br />Promoting vegetarianism is in some ways against the natural way of life. If a Lion is hungry it will hunt and eat. So why should it be not true the other way round? What about people living in extreme climes like the Tundra/Taiga regions or the arid deserts? The natural way of life there is hunting.<br /><br />Killing for meat was always acceptable in the wild. In this game called Life, for a very long time killing was equivalent to survival. What is wrong is the rearing of animals just for the purpose of killing and eating them(the term used for animals such bred is Livestock). That's not natural because that is altering the food chain, altering the natural way of how things should be. Slaughter houses should be banned but maybe not hunting with bows and arrows only. A rather nice thing to do would be to ban guns. Guns gives the hunter an unfair advantage over the hunted.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rebuttal Two -</span> Flesh eating and carnal instincts - The main argument forwarded here was that flesh eating accentuates carnal desires. Now who can for sure tell that what's the purpose of life? Oops!! Looks like nobody's found an answer to that question yet. But except man, all other species seem to have a simple purpose - survive and pro-create. So, why does man to be any different? However depressing it might sound, but i feel that man has neither found nor will ever find the Purpose of Life. Such questions are just to difficult to answer in the vastness of this Universe. So if the Veggies think that they know the purpose of Life and are working towards it by curbing their natural instincts, well, all i can say is "God Speed" them towards that ultima thule of theirs.<br /><br />Health may be a reason to go veggie, but curbing of carnal instincts!! That's again like altering the natural course of things. That's again stupid.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rebuttal Three -</span> Vegetarianism helps to attain a Higher State of Consciousness(get rid of the Taamsic feelings) - A very simple question - What's the Higher State of Consciousness and who's to decide that? If man alone decides that, then by corollary he becomes the imposer and then it doesn't remain the "The Higher State of Consciousness". Shouldn't such things be decided in consonance with all the beings, with agreement with all the Animal & Plant Kingdoms? So maybe rather than try to attain Higher Consciousness, man should first try and find ways of communicating with the beings of the Animal & Plant Kingdoms. That definitely sounds like "Higher State of Consciousness".<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Then why am i a Veggie?</span><br />Rearing of Livestock just for getting their meat is unethical. Such rearing of Livestock in appalling conditions for meat production should be stopped. Humans have become masters of the planet. They've forgotten to co-habit and co-exist. The balance that existed in the nature between the Hunter & the Hunted is now gone.That's why we gotta stop eating meat - to attain equilibrium.<br />The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that direct emissions from meat production account for about 18% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. That's another thing you should keep in mind when you order your next meal.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bottomline:</span> Killing for meat was, is and will be a way of life and survival. But the beautiful natural balance between the Hunted & the Hunter should not be tinkered with.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TRIVIA !!</span><br />There's more than the 2 basic diet styles of Vegetarian & Non Vegetarian.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vegan -</span> diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lacto-vegetarianism -</span> diet that includes dairy products but excludes eggs.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ovo-vegetarianism -</span> diet that includes eggs but not dairy.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lacto-ovo-vegetarianism -</span> diet that includes both eggs and dairy products.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Semi-vegetarianism -</span> consists of a diet largely of vegetarian foods, but may include fish and sometimes poultry, as well as dairy products and eggs.<br /><b>Pescetarianism</b> - diet<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_%28nutrition%29" title="Diet (nutrition)"></a> that includes seafood and excludes mammals and birds.Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-22277032336045521242009-07-23T19:06:00.000+05:302009-07-23T19:12:48.242+05:30Stop mail message from /var/spool/mailIf you're tired of the message "You have mail in /var/spool/mail/root" and it's eating up precious bytes on your disk, you can stop them like this:<br />On Fedora Linux:<br />Edit the file /etc/crontab and change the line MAILTO=root to MAILTO=""<br /><br />That's it!!Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-88124479630324525162009-07-20T20:39:00.000+05:302009-07-20T21:07:14.935+05:30Stupid, stupider and stupidestWith every passing day, my belief in FOSS is just strengthened. Just to give you an example of how bad proprietary licensing can be, consider this. One of my friends asked me for a Linux install. While installing we discussed about virtualisation and he asked if i can demo it to him. I said "Sure buddy!". And made a VMware setup on his PC to demonstrate the concept of virtualisation. Every thing went well...almost. Just before the login screen, Windows XP spewed out a message saying that i need to re-activate my copy of XP. Amused, i asked my friend if his copy of Windows XP was genuine and he replied in affirmative. A bit of googling and to my horror this is what i found - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Microsoft believes that running a Virtual m/c counts as two copies of Windows!</span>. Well, what kind of stupid licensing is that. I mean, i didn't perform another installation, so how can this be a second installation. It's the same m/c dude!. To top it up, i also found that going back and booting Windows XP natively again requires an activation. And the icing is that you only have a limited number of activations available(2). Well, so much for what? Prevent piracy? Wake up to reality you guys up there at Redmond. With such a stupid WPA(Windows Product Activation), you'll end up nowhere.<br />So, i just suggested my friend to shun using Windows and enter the brave new world of FOSS.Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-58300016894869968342009-06-28T01:36:00.000+05:302009-07-20T20:39:41.319+05:30Fedora 11 on HP Pavillion tx1000 - works magically :)Well, one more edition of Fedora and i had lots to look forward to. With every Fedora release things have been better & smoother. So i was eager to see how much better thing have gotten better. I still remember the first Fedora install on my HP Pavilliion tx1000, a Fedora Core 7 install. Installation itself was a pain, with the install DVD not even booting normally. Once the bare minimum install was done, i struggled to get the features(audio, wireless, video accel. etc.) up and running. Things slowly got better with the next 3 editions of better. And i hoped that the Fedora 11 experience would be even better. Apart from a couple of minor problems, Fedora 11 has been a great experience altogether.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Basic Install:</span> I downloaded a DVD using the jigdo downloader and the install was pain free. Even though Fedora 11 provides the option of EXT4 based partitions, i stuck to EXT3 based ones, partly because of the peculiar requirement that the / partition cannot be EXT4 as GRUB still can't understand EXT4. So, if you want a EXT4 based root partition, the solution is to have a separate /boot partition of approx. 100MB. But i stuck to the good old EXT3 itself.<br />Once Fedora 11 booted, i started checking each feature.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Audio:</span> Well, Pulse Audio just works for me. But i did notice some glitches in the audio when switching b/w applications.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Display:</span> Was fine, but again their was some latency when switching windows. I decided to install the NVIDIA proprietary driver module. For this i used an excellent application that does all the hard work for me. You can download this application called AUTOTEN from <a href="http://dnmouse.org/">here</a>. Just select the NVIDIA drivers checkbox and it's done. Voila !! The display can not get any more snappier. This gives you all the muscle power you need for the jazzy Desktop effects. Just go ahead and install stuff like compiz now incase you want some bling.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Wireless:</span> Well just use <a href="http://dnmouse.org/">AUTOTEN</a> again. It just works. And the Network Manager does a great job at managing your n/w connections.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Touchpad:</span> That's been the only piece of hardware that's given me some problem on Fedora 11. The Vertical Scroll was not working properly and the scrolling was area was somewhat displaced to the extreme right of the Touchpad. I fixed the problem as follows:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(a)</span> Generate your Xorg.conf with the following commands.<br /><br />#yum install system-config-display<br />#system-config-display --reconfig<br /><br />Now you have the xorg.conf in /etc/X11.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(b)</span> Edit the xorg.conf sections<br /><br />In section "ServerLayout" add the follwoing line<br />InputDevice "Synaptics" "CorePointer"<br /><br />And make an altogether new entry for the touchpad<br />Section "InputDevice"<br /> Identifier "Synaptics"<br /> Driver "synaptics"<br /> Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"<br /> Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"<br /> Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"<br /> Option "RightEdge" "5000"<br /> Option "SHMConfig" "true"<br />EndSection<br /><br />The "RightEdge" param is the fix for the Touchpad problem, defining the boundary of the Right Edge.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Codecs:</span> Installed all the codecs(both audio and video) by following instructions from <a href="http://www.my-guides.net/en/content/view/161/26/1/0/">here</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. Suspend-Resume: JUST WORKS !!! :) :)</span> ..Yes, i can't stop smiling as this feature has never worked for me prior to Fedora 11. I haven't tried hibernation though, because i don't have a swap partition.<br /><br />With fedora 11 other problems like the cursor freeze have also vanished for me.<br /><br />So, all in all - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fedora 11 Rocks !!<br /><br />UPDATE: </span><span>TX 1000 has a 64 bit AMDTurion processor. So, i upgraded to the Fedora 64 bit edition. Well, it's just as good as the 32 bit edition. The installation issues were the same trivial ones as that of 32 bit. So, sorted them out in a jiffy. The only difference i noticed was the battery life. The battery life for the 64 bit Fedora isn't as good as the 32 bit's. Wondering if it's due to the h/w or s/w...<br /></span>Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-11333599872334072402008-10-04T16:43:00.000+05:302008-10-04T20:51:22.997+05:30Pedalling an adventure !!Whew! Just came back from one of my most amazing trips. Bangalore - Maddur - Bangalore on my bicycle. Covered a distance of ~180 Kms pedalling alone in about 32 Hrs! 'Twas a mix of fun, adventure (sometimes bordering to mis-adventure) and lots of hard work pedalling on State Highway 17 . The moment i proposed the idea to my friends, the unequivocal reaction was - Are you nuts?? Well, here's what i have to say to the ones scratching their heads (penned this at Maddur)..<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong><em>Some people like to hitch and hike,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>But i have an itch for the pedal bike.</em></strong><br /><strong><em>Out on the winding roads, sweating drop by drop,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>On the pedal bike you don't stop even for the top cop.</em></strong><br /><strong><em>Grime, dirt, dust and gravel,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>All for the thrill of highway travel,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>For once i'm one with the na-ture,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>Feeling that my 27 Yrs is not ma-ture!</em></strong><br /><strong><em>On the way i meet a motley crew,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>And with them, sip a hot brew.</em></strong><br /><strong><em>And to Michael this is what i say,</em></strong><br /><strong><em>One more trip on my cycle, that's all i pray :)</em></strong><br /><br />Don't have the photos yet. Should get them washed by Monday.<br />Originally i had calculated the distance to be around 140 Kms, Maddur being 70 Kms from Bangalore, But then it takes cycling upto 20 Kms just to get on the Highway.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>What was the stimulus for the trip?</strong><br />Go to the Cafe Coffee Day at Maddur, sip some coffee and catch up on some reading. Yes, it was as simple as that!!<br /><br />Travelling out of Bangalore through the City Market was easy as it was a Holiday(Gandhi Jayanti). Once i was out on the Highway, i realised that the journey will be testing as the roads are not level. It was miles and miles of undulating highway in front of me. So, 'i'm on the Highway to Hell'. Well, things were a bit easy as the skies were slightly overcast. Crossed Kengeri and made a pit stop at the Go-Karting track. Rested for a while, clicked a few pictures. And yes discovered that Sprite with Glucose is actually an awesome thirst quencher:). From there reached Bidadi. The fun was on but one thing was really annoying me. Turning back every few seconds to check if some thundering Truck/Bus was approaching at break neck speeds. So, here's <strong>Lesson 1</strong>:<br />When you go on the Highway, ensure you have a nice rear view mirror!<br />Well there was more in store for me. The sun was now beating down with full fury and i was heating up pushing my cycle over those up - down - up highways. So here's <strong>Lesson 2</strong>:<br />When you go hiking/cycling, start early. Make Hay BEFORE the Sun shines! Hey!! Hey!!!<br />Lesson imbibed and i kept trudging along and pretty soon crossed Kengeri and Bidadi. Beyond Bidadi was Ramanagaram, the famed hills where the famous Gabbar sequences were shot in Sholay. The sun was slowly setting and i stopped by to grab some pics of flora turned into Fields of Gold by the dazzling Sun. In between all this the Sun had almost settled and i was still a good 8 Kms from Ramanagaram. So here comes <strong>Lesson 3</strong>:<br />If you're on the Highway aft Sunset, you need HeadLamps even when if you're crawling on your bicycle. Or else your adventure becomes a mis-adventure :(<br />Well i tumbled and fumbled in the dark with a prayer on my lips. Finally i made it to Sagar Lodge for the night halt. The place wasn't a pretty one but i was more than happy to be there. Aft dinner met a guy named Manoj Pandey, a business traveller from Delhi. Heard him rant against his Boss and he also mentioned some facts: (a) Ramanagaram in called the Silk Town. (b) There's lot of export oriented Textile industry, the big one being Madura. (c) My lodge was notorious for being a safe haven for one night stands right under the nose of the Commisioner of Police's Office!<br />Unperturbed by any of this, i rested and re-charged and started for Maddur at day break. Mission/2 accomplished as i reached Maddur Coffee Day. It is a nice building on the Highway with lots of greenery around. The Coffee was actually awesome and the Corn sandwiches were one of the best i've had in a long time. Well, a filled stomach, some nice coffee and Ogden Nash for company - i think that's all i'll ever want. And in a flash i realised that when people ask you questions like why you want to go on such an excursion, you really can't explain it. The journey has to be undertaken to get the answers. As for me, this is all that i can say(i read this in Grade 6) :<br /><br /><strong>A Little Song of Life (by Lizette Woodworth Reese)</strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>Glad that I live am I,<br />That the sky is blue.<br />Glad for the country lanes,<br />And the fall of dew.<br />After the sun the rain,<br />After the rain the sun.<br />This is the way of life,<br />Till the work be done.<br />All that we need to do,<br />Be we low or high,<br />Is to see that we grow,<br />Nearer the sky.</em></strong><br /><br />Even though i spent quite some time over there, it seemed to be a fleeting moment. I started on my way back knowing that it was going to be a long and arduous journey - getting back to Bangalore before dark. Had a quick lunch at Ramanagaram and headed for Bidadi. I was covering the miles in good ime but felt exhausted a few Kms from Bidadi. All the cycling over the past 24 hrs was taking its toll on me. I was tempted to hitch hike some of the distance in a Lorry or something similar. But then it wouldn't remain a purists bicycling trip! Ah,<strong> Lesson 4:</strong><br />You don't need to be a purist in every aspect of life. It's sometimes wise to adopt a give and take policy. Bangalore was still far, i was tired and it would soon be dark.<br />I decided to HicthHike and was lucky to get a lift upto Kengeri. That's -25 kms +big saving on time. The Truck Driver Nagaraj was a nice fellow and i ended up clicking some pictures of him and promised to post them to him. Kengeri to CMH Road was monotonous with the traffic being just crazy. At around 7pm it was KFC @ CMH Road. I was a tired but a happy man. Gobbled up a Chana Snacker and headed home to catch some much needed rest and sleep.Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-65283527026431940712007-12-25T00:29:00.000+05:302007-12-26T13:17:31.975+05:30My Blog is Blocked !!And so might be yours!! From the past few days i'm unable to access any blogs with the yourblogname.blogspot.com URLs. All indications point to just one direction - the mindless censorship brigade is at work again. My ISP Aircell must be surely blocking the blogspot URL. A quick googling on the net shows that something like this happened in 2006 as well. But inexplicably the parent site blogger.com is available. I can view and edit myblogs from there(that's where this post is coming from). There are other simple ways to bypass the block like using proxies like youhide.com.<br /><br />So what's the point of blocking off blogspot? It might be an attempt by some stupid admin at my ISP to block some nasty blogs gone awry and ending up with blocking the entire URL itself. First thing tomorrow morning is to check if the blogspot URL is accessible from my Office. If not, then this might be one of those ill conceived ideas of our Ministry of Information Tech. That's gonna be really BAD.. I just hope it does not end up that way. So this just might be a worthy cause to investigate and set right. In this age of free flow of information how can such ghastly censorship be imposed on bloggers? Blogs are mass media these days and i consider censoring a blog equivalent to censoring a Newspaper.<br />So time for action at the break of dawn tomorrow...<br /><br />Update: 27/12/07 1.18PM<br />The URL blogspot.com is accessible from my Office. I'm trying to contact the guys from my ISP(Aircell) and ask them a few questions. But ther're still not reachable...Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-69114509592992130142007-10-06T23:54:00.000+05:302007-10-07T01:00:53.873+05:30Java Install on Fedora 7 - simplifiedDuring an attempt to install Azureus on my Fedora 7 based lappy, i noticed that there aren't too many simple and easy to follow guides for Java(JRE) Install on Fedora 7. Here's an attempt to do so. Based on tutorial available <a href="http://linuxbraindump.org/2007/08/07/howto-install-java-in-fedora-7/">here</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1.</span> Download Java Runtime Env (JRE) from <a href="http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp">here</a>. Choose the self extracting package of your choice(32/64 bit). I had downloaded the JRE 6 Update3 version called jre-6u3-linux-i586.bin.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2.</span> Login as root<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">$su -</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3.</span> Move files to a install location like /opt.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#mv jre-xxx-linux-i586.bin /opt</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#cd /opt</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4.</span> Install as follows.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#sh jre-6u3-linux-i586.bin</span><br />This will install the JRE in the same directory(/opt).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5.</span> Now Fedora 7 comes with a default version of GNU Java called GCJ. We want to have Sun Java as the default Java instead of GCJ.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#vi /etc/profile.d/java.sh</span><br />Add the following 2 lines to the file.<span style="font-family: monospace;"><br /></span>export J2RE_HOME=/opt/jre1.6.0_03<span style="font-family: monospace;"><br /></span>export PATH=$J2RE_HOME/bin:$PATH<br />Save file and exit.<br />Now run the following commands.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#source /etc/profile.d/java.sh</span><span style="font-family: monospace; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">#alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.6.0_03/bin/java 2</span><span style="font-family: monospace; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">#alternatives --config java</span><br />Type '2' when asked to enter an option and hit Enter.<br />This makes Sun Java the Default Java Installation. You can revert back to GCJ as the default Java using the alternatives command as shown above.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6.</span> Setup the Java Firefox Plugin.<br />Install libcompat as the Sun Java is compiled using a different version of the libraries than the one available with the Fedora 7 distro.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#yum install compat-libstdc++-33</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">#ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_03/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so</span><br /><br />Done !<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7.</span> Now we can test our Sun Java Installation by entering the following URL in the Browser's Location Bar after Restarting your Browser.<br />http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp?detect=jreIndrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-40046663721546926822007-09-25T21:57:00.000+05:302007-09-25T23:48:05.262+05:30Playing Audio/Video on FC7 ( Fedora )Apart from surfing and editing documents, most of us these days use our machines for listening to music or watching videos. Here i try to detail my experiences in getting audio and video working on my FC7 installation on the HP Pavillion tx1000 tablet. I hope that this becomes a easy reference for people who want multimedia on the Linux Desktops/Laptops.<br />Also provived is misc. info on other useful topics like package conversion etc.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Playing mp3 files on XMMS:</span><br />The MP3 plugin for XMMS doesn't come bundled by default with the distro due to some licensing issues. Download the xmms-mp3-1.2.10-16.fc7.i386.rpm plugin from <a href="http://moonshine.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=322">here</a><br />Install as follows:<br />#su -<br />#rpm -iv xmms-mp3-1.2.10-16.fc7.i386.rpm<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Playing vcd, dvd, .dat, .mpg, .wma, .avi, .divx, .mkv files in FC7</span><br />Enable the Livna Repo using following command:<br />#rpm -ivh <a target="_blank" class="ext" href="http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-7.rpm" title="http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-7.rpm">http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-7.rpm</a><br />Download necessary plugins as follows<br /># yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly<br />Remove existing totem player from your system(there are install issues with xine)<br /># yum remove totem totem-mozplugin totem-plparser<br />Install the player afresh with other addons using:<br /># yum install totem-xine totem-xine-mozplugin totem-xine-plparser libdvdcss libdvdnav libdvdplay xine-lib-extras-nonfree rhythmbox.i386 0:0.10.0-8.fc7<br />That's it! Now you can play most of the formats.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Flash plugin for Firefox on Linux:</span><br />Download the rpm from <a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">here</a><br />Install as follows:<br />#rpm -iv flash-plugin-9.0.48.0-release.i386.rpm<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RPM-DEB package inter converter:</span><br />There are times when a package is available for as a .deb package but no rpm. A nice utility for doing the same and vice versa is alien. You can install it on FC7 as follows:<br />1. Download alien from <a href="http://www.hccfl.edu/pollock/AUnix1/alien/">here</a>.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span>2. Ensure you have perl installed. I have 5.8.8. Other versions should also be fine.<br />3. Download html2text from same place as you downloaded alien in step 1.<br />4. Install html2text with<br />#rpm -i --nodeps html2text-1.3.2a.i586.rpm<br />The --nodeps option is required as it cribs about some missing dependency.<br />5. Extract alien.<br />$tar -zxvf alien_8.64.tar.gz<br />6. Install alien<br />$cd alien<br />$perl Makefile.PL<span style="font-family:monospace;"><br />$</span>make PREFIX=/usr<br />$su -<br />#make PREFIX=/usr install<br />#cd /usr/lib<br />#ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so libcrypto.so.4<br />#ln -s /usr/lib/libssl.so libssl.so.4<br />#exit<br /><br /><br />Now you can convert a .deb package to rpm and vice versa like this:<br />$alien --to-rpm your_deb_package.deb<br /><br />I would like to thank:<br />http://lampcomputing.com/node/5 (playing video on fedora).<br />http://www.hccfl.edu/pollock/AUnix1/alien/ (provides alien).<b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br /></b></b>Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-53405615240023088502007-09-20T23:20:00.000+05:302007-09-26T22:01:05.946+05:30Install FC7 (Linux) on HP Pavillion tx1000<span style="font-family: times new roman;">Got a brand new tablet tx1000 this month and i've spent a lot of time intalling and configuring Linux on it. I'm sharing my experiences here. I installed Fedora(FC7) on my tx1000. The exact model of my tablet is tx1201AU and it was bought in India. Got Vista pre-installed on it.</span><br />Note: There are other sites providing help on the same. Some info might seem repetitive but here i document only the portions i have used and tested personally.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">Free space creation on disk for Linux.:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Didn't use any tool like cfdisk. Simply used options available in Vista control panel to shrink the partition. The max. compression obtained is 50%. So, after doing this, i had ~70GB for Linux. Good enough!. And yes, <span style="font-weight: bold;">don't forget to create backup disks for your Vista before you play around</span> with your system. And during the installation i also got rid of the other factory default partition used as a recovery partition.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">FC7 Install:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Used a FC7 DVD that i got free with LinuxForYou (July 2007). As the install starts, the screen freezes. I thought that was the end of it. I hit the Power button. But wait! The installer moved ahead as i hit the Power button. Rest of the install was pretty normal. After installation, the kernel seemed to hang while booting again. Use the Power button OR touch the mouse pad to boot into the prompt. First things first.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#su -</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#yum upgrade kernel kernel-devel</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">After this edit your grub.conf and change the kernel boot cmdline of the upgraded kernel to the following:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">ro root=LABEL=/1 noapic nolapic irqfixup pci=nommconf</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">This should fix your kernel freezes at boottime.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">NVIDIA Graphics Card Setup</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Next comes the NVIDIA graphics driver. The NVIDIA driver is a proprietary binary only module. Get it from <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html">here</a>. Be careful about the version (IA32/IA64/AMD64). I chose IA32 version as the FC7 DVD provides a 32 bit kernel(no 64 bit goodness for me yet:( ).</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Backup your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Login as root</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#init 3</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">This will stop X and take you to run level 3.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">It will re-build the kernel module for you. The kernel-devel package should be present. If you ran the yum command mentioned above, you should have no problems. It also runs the nvidia-xconfig.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Add following lines in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf's Section "Module" if they are already not present.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Load "extmod"</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Load "glx"</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#init 5</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">You are ready for some mind blowing eye candy now. Go to System->Preferences->LookAndFeel->DesktopPreferences and switch On Desktop Effects for some nice effects.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">I've also tried SecondLife Client (requires 3-D support from your Graphics Card )and it works absolutely fine. By the way it doesn't work on Vista(no SecondLife client support on Vista yet).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">Audio</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Audio doesn't work by default. Download the latest alsa package from:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/alsa/snapshot/driver/</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">$tar -jxvf alsa-driver-hg20070904.tar.bz2</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Go to the untarred folder.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">$./configure</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">$make</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#su -</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#make install</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#yum install xmms</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Launch XMMS and set Options-Preferences->OutputPlugin->Configure->AudioDevice to hw:0,0</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">That gets your XMMS working and also provides headphone jack detection.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">Webcam:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">$svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br />$</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">cd trunk</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br />$</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">make</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#make install</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br />#</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">modprobe uvcvideo</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Run Ekiga and select V4L2 as configuratiion option.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TouchPad</span><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">By default the TouchPad is hyper sensetive. You can reduce the sensitivity of the TouchPad by installing gsynaptics and fine tuning the sensitivity.<br />#yum install gsynaptics<br />Now edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and in the "Input Device" section for "Synaptics" add the following line at the bottom.<br />Option "SHMConfig" "true"<br />Now restart X as follows:<br />#init 3<br />This will take you to the console login. Login as root and start X with following command:<br />#init 5<br /><br />Now you can adjust the TouchPad sensitivity from the link System->Preferences->TouchPad<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman; font-weight: bold;">Extra Keys:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">You can configure the DVD and the QuickPlay keys on the right hand side of your screen as follows:</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#yum install xbindkeys</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Edit your /etc/rc.local file to add following</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#DVD button</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">setkeycodes e00e 144</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">#Media button</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">setkeycodes e008 136</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Add following lines to your user's ~/.Xmodmap (if you don't have one create one)</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">keycode 198 = XF86Launch0</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">keycode 122 = XF86Launch1</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Add following lines to your user's ~/.xbindkeysrc (if you don't have one create one)</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">"totem"</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">XF86Launch0</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">"xmms"</span><span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:monospace;" ><br /></span><span style="font-family: times new roman;">XF86Launch1</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Now add the xbindkeys command to your session. Got to System->Preferences->Personal->Sessions create a new entry and add xbindkeys</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Next time you log in, pressing the DVD button should start totem and pressing the QuickPlay button should start xmms, assuming you have them installed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Doing the above should give you a pretty much functional machine though without much fluff. Suspend (to RAM) works fine out of the box as does smart card. Sometimes the SmartCard might not be mounted automatically, this can be done manually as follows:<br />#mount /dev/sdbx /media<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TODO</span>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">1. Haven't got Bluetooth working yet though i tried once.</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">2. Touchcreen</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">3. Wireless</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">I would like to express thanks to the following for their great work and providing initial leads to sort out the installation problems:</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">http://www.cnpbagwell.com/Tx1000/HomePage</span><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">http://www.kellyandsopho.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=LinuxOnHpPaviliontx1000z</span>Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-1139994728181463512006-02-15T14:10:00.000+05:302006-02-15T15:06:58.960+05:30Bulls or Bears ?The Indian stock market (Bombay Stock Exchange or BSE) has touched dizzy heights in the last fortnight crossing the psychological 10000 mark. The rate at which the sensex has climbed is also noteworthy, taking just under 2 months to jump from the 9K to the 10K mark. After the Dot Com bubble burst in 2002, the Dow Jones never managed to touch it's peak which it attained during the boom, but the BSE has not only touched the peak but has also gone on to record new highs. So what does all this mean to the investor who invests his savings and anxiously waits for quick and better returns on his hard earned money?<br /><br /> In the stock market setup there are basically three entities that are involved - the buyer, seller and the stock broker. When the markets are bullish lets see who all benefit from the climate. The seller benefits by reaping good returns on investment, the broker benefits because of all the trading activity, the companies listed on the exchange benefit as they get an easy opportunity to raise huge capital sums easily, the investment bankers benefit as they get the business of bringing out IPO's and of course the politicians who can boast of a thriving economy. But is it good for the common man who wants to invest his savings in stocks?<br /><br /> Simple mathematics will suggest that the value of the investors money is reduced and the stakes become very high for him. Given the volatility of the stock market, it is very difficult to predict if the markets will go higher and higher and bring in returns for the investor who has invested when the markets were bullish. The Indian economy with its dependence on the monsoons cannot be expected to perform well under all circumstances. This maybe a pessimistic view when all around us people are rejoicing and the economy is flush with liquidity. But then i feel that these are genuine concerns that a wise investor should think of before investing bigger sums of money in the stock market. Every company into which your investment goes should be carefully checked for its past trends and its roadmap for the future should be carefully scrutnised. Given the flurry of investments made by MNC's in the Indian economy, there should not be much concerns about the markets doing better. But then the wise will investor should be prepared for the lean season as well.<br />Or are we better off praying for a bearish market in 2006? Ouch !Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-1139917492016579382006-02-14T14:48:00.000+05:302006-02-14T17:16:47.896+05:30Loose Control !The weekend was happening and the underlying theme was 'Loose control'(will come to this later). That's what we did when myself, Geeson(my roommate) and Akash started off on a early morning bike ride. The plan was to see Geeson's work place(actually a chemical factory) at Hoskote and then grab some breakfast before returning home. So we got up at 5 A.M. and dressed up to venture out in the chilly morning. Just to warm ourselves up, we played some indoor football(for which we faced our landlady's wrath later in the day) before we set off.<br /><br /> The morning air was chilly and crisp and the empty roads were a welcome break from traffic jams in which we get stuck in Bangalore. Geeson forgot to get his driving glasses and had a tough time driving through the chilly wind. The scenery on the way was not very spectacular. Although the two lakes on the way were a visual delight (also a treat for bird watchers and photographers). Sadly we did not have a camera. We saw a couple of dead dogs lying on the road that were run over by Lorries. It was a disturbing sight to see the birds scavenging on the poor dog's squashed dead body. As we entered the Hoskote Industrial area, we passed by the Glas Fibr Ltd. who are the only manufacturers of wind mill blades in India. It was an awesome sight seeing those giant blades so closely. We reached our destination Akzo Nobel Coatings Ltd. in about 40 minutes time. We parked our bikes, took out visitors passes and started the tour.<br /><br /> The factory was a pretty sight considering that it was a chemical factory. The beautiful lawns and the shiny architecture made the place look like one of those new economy businesses. Geeson showed us around the manufacturing unit and explained how the powder coatings are manufactured and applied. We wondered how much the technology has advanced and processes have matured. We spent about 45 minutes in the factory and then started our journey back. Before setting the pace we stopped at a roadside tea stall and had some hot tea. I enjoyed the return trip much more as the sun had come out and it was not very cold. On the way Geeson suggested that we could drop in at our friend Ankur's place and if lucky might have our breakfast there. This turned out to be a good idea and we reached home by 10.45 A.M after our breakfast with Ankur and Priyanka.<br /><br /> During our breakfast conversation in the morning we planned to watch the movie Rang de Basanti in the evening. The movie turned out to be a nice tale of a hedonistic bunch of guys transform to rebels to stem the rot in Politics and in the Society. It also highlighted another important issue, i.e., of bringing out the nexus between politicians and middle men in defense deals which has cost India 206 MIG planes and the lives of 76 young pilots. The movie's soundtrack by A.R. Rehman is awesome and the 'Loose Control' theme was a big hit among the crowd. Well, not one to be left behind, we chipped into the theme in our own way and went to 'The Dhaba' and talked of the ills plaguing the society. The party ended with each one of us getting sloshed after all those beers. It was in the truest sense - 'Loose Control'.Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22378159.post-1139829739815530832006-02-13T16:45:00.000+05:302007-09-20T23:19:28.140+05:30Finally .. !.. i have a blog of my own. And what's it going to be all about ? Well, mainly my ideas on how technology is influencing our lives. Also some tips and tricks for Linux. And of course, things might be somewhat opinionated. But then isn't it all about the power to express yourself?Indrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15876860350859997137noreply@blogger.com0