There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact!

New Kid in the block

2012-01-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

I was getting a little frustrated with how Ubuntu was becoming bloated (with wrong choices of UI shell and basic stuff like media player ) and "un-userfriendly". My quest for a faster/better ubuntu alternative took me to Linux Mint. And what a pleasant surprise. Though based on ubuntu itself, this avatar impresses with performance - especially on a lower end hardware like the cr-48 or my co-worker's age old Dell latitude.

The first remarkable feature that you will note (of course after responsiveness) is the improved user interface. It is not only the theme, that makes the user comfortable but the improved menu. Ignore if there is some resemblance to windows 7, but the menu is far more organized and user friendly.

This is one of the best application menu I have seen in recent Linux systems. The feel is more windows like - something that I do not like personally. But if you are a recent switcher, you will feel at home and find that the UI work flows are simplified for good. For the usual Linux user, this distro is also as flexible as anything other. You can turn around things depending on your taste and usage.

Plus, it takes care of installing all necessary basic applications and codecs that you need. It will not trouble you with a cryptic message box about codecs and copyrights when you try to play mp3 for the first time. The default music player seems to be banshee, personally I like rhythmbox.

Another is the software updates. It follows the tried and tested Ubuntu/Debian style of package management, which is pretty solid. The update management is very user-friendly.

You may even like the little "geeky Easter eggs" that shows up as you open terminal session - if you ever do it.

And what more, the recent release supports "mate", the gnome2 fork for people who think gnome 3 is a bloat.

Go ahead try it as your next Linux installation.

Another step towards disaster

2011-11-27T09:56:00.001-08:00

The decision to allow FDI (foreign direct investment) in Indian retail sector is going to kill all small scale store businesses in a few years. Corporate retail giants like Walmart will not think twice before opening their acre long stores in every nook and corner of India as the customer base is so enticing. No matter what they invest, the are going to make a profit - such is the the Indian consumer base and greed to certain extent.
Memories about the "main road" back in my home town is associated with a long array of small individual stores that sells only stationary or house hold items or grocery or vegetables etc. Once the big retailers open their "everything-under-one-roof" style stores, all these stores will be out of business and the whole "main road" is going to look like a zombie strip.
On the positive side, those who have money can plunge themselves in to shopping bliss for hours in those retail stores. There may be an initial price discounts to help such businesses catch up. Hopefully the government will introduce some regulations to these big retailers that they can not operate all over the place and kill local businesses.
Thinking about this, India is emulating that is bad America - like the saggy pants that show your under pants - like focus on celebrity personal life etc. In India, it is capitalism mixed with "license raj" and corruption at each level. We do have all the ingredients to head to an economic situation similar to what USA is in right now. To a worst kind where the poor and unemployed will be a great part of the population and 90% of the wealth will be with nation's 5%.

Linux thoughts

2011-10-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

I closely follow updates happening in Linux desktop software releases. Especially Ubuntu, which has reached 11.10. It is hard to believe that I had been using - or trying so to speak - Ubuntu since 5.10 - the breezy "badger".

Good stuff - things that improved along the way :

Font rendering (anti-aliasing) - Current on-screen font rendering beats Windows and OS x by miles.
Speed - yes most of the OS's had been focusing on this and Ubuntu also has improved it constantly. Currently 11.04 boots up in 20 seconds in my Intel Atom based Netbook.
Multimedia/flash - Nothing to credit Ubuntu, but these work better in Ubuntu than other (Fedora) notable distros. Also plenty of free tools to manipulate all kinds of media.
Updates - If you like living on the edge, Ubuntu can offer you about two OS releases every year.
Gnome2 - The Gnome user interface and applications were maturing in a nice way.

Now to the bad stuff.

Do you remember the days of Compiz vs Beryl days ? Gnome vs KDE arguments?

If not, don't worry, it is all stories from the past. Welcome to the Unity, Gnome Shell and Gnome2 melting pot. The confusion around next big user interface is definitely going to impact popularity of Linux as a desktop operating system. Most of the Linux fans dislikes It is going to be more of an OS for "interest groups".

Big names like Linux Torvalds have already despised these.

Since this is my blog, I am going to air my opinion. Gnome Shell and Unity were a bad move. It not only discourage new users but slows things a bit too. All the applications (such as Nautilus, Ubuntu update managers etc) looks really armature and confusing. Compatibility is completely broken between Gnome2 and 3 themes. There are great theme engines and themes that were created since 2006 - all will go waste unless someone spends time porting those. Instead, more focus should have gone in to improving performance of Gnome2 and polishing already existing applications.

I just hope that Ubuntu spends more time in fixing quirks of Unity and making all over user experience better in the platform. As long as Gnome Shell is concerned, I have serious doubts about its future unless it undergoes some radical changes.

Goodbye Chrome OS - Wiping CR-48 off and installing Ubuntu

2011-08-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

After 7 months of trying out Chrome OS on google's generously distributed CR-48, I am totally disappointed in the software. It is probably because I am not the casual internet user that google expected. After latest software updates, the touchpad became so 'non-usable'. The user experience was beyond annoying.

Considering that I had uploaded at least twenty bug/usage reports, I guess my part in evaluating Chrome OS was done. So the decision was to wipe chrome OS completely off and install Ubuntu.

First, let me warn you that if you do not like to crack open stuff, do not attempt this. First step is to flash CR-48 with a custom BIOS(InSyde H2O). For this follow steps here. Note that it involves opening up the back casing of CR-48. So make sure you have philips screwdriver set handy before you start.

Once the custom BIOS (InSyde H2O) is installed, you are basically ready to install any operating system. For optimal performance, consider Ubuntu desktop, netbook editions or Jolicloud (ChromeOS's better cousin)

I chose to go with Ubuntu Desktop edition.

Things you need :

A USB Stick with at least 2GB storage

Internet access on a Windows/Mac/Linux System

Step1: prepare USB Ubuntu bootable/install disk

Download Ubuntu. Now keep in mind that InSyde H2O some how fails to load newer Ubuntu OSs(Meerkat and Narwhal). That means you need to download Lucid Lynx(10.04) and follow steps here

Step2: Plug in the USB stick to your CR-48 and power on

With custom BIOS on, CR-48 will boot from the newly prepared Ubuntu USB drive

Step3: Once ubuntu started, click on the desktop icon to Install the software

During the install, you will be presented options to retain existing OS's. But I chose to completely erase my SSD. That means if you change your mind and wanted to go back to ChromeOS, you need to restore BIOS and have ChromeOS restore disk handy.

Step 4: Installation completes, as system reboots remove the USB drive and the system boots in Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. At this point connect to Internet (wireless or otherwise - everything works out of the box) and update your system.

Step 5: Fixing the "touchpad" - Touchpad acts crappy under Lucid Lynx. So upgrade Lucid Lynx to "Maverick Meerkat" by enabling release upgrades on your Synaptic Upgrade manager as described here.

This will not only upgrade your CR-48 to Maverick Meerkat but will install necessary software for configuring the touch pad. The touch pad can be configured by "Touch Pad" tab on System->Preferences->Mouse. This lets you enable double finger scroll, disabling tap click etc. ( very important for usability)

I am totally enjoying my CR-48 now, with great free software, iPod integration and about 10G free SSD space to store things locally.

I stopped my upgrad e at Meerkat and did not go to Narwhal as it might be a bit slower on CR-48

End result (with awn dock, global menu and Fusion Blue theme) :

Update : Updated to Natty using package manager by turning on release updates, no issues everything working smooth including the synaptic touch pad.

Cricket Thoughts

2011-03-21T07:22:00.001-07:00

For those who do not know, there is a Cricket World cup in progress. I had been watching India's matches live and I had some random thoughts in my mind.
Why this series is interesting? Is it because it is being held in the Indian sub-continent? Is it because India has a shot at the finals? Is it because technology and analysis has so advanced that there is an interesting statistics at every ball of the game? No it is because there are two players involved, who are playing their last world cup matches.

Sachin Tendulkar

Well, my writing prowess are not just enough to write about him. And so much is already written an spoken about him! Anyway, to put in my humble way, the only player I like in the current Indian team is Sachin. Also, he has not disappointed me in the recent world cup games. I am just hoping that the rest of the mixed talent (or horribly talented at bowling) Indian team will put their heart out there and give the little master the adieu that he deserves.

Shoaib Akhtar

Plain and simple, raw pace and aggression fitting to a fast bowler. Though he sucks with his discipline and fitness, he entertained us with his superb, sometimes brutal yorkers. He may not be a smooth operator like McGrath or fit like Brett Lee. But the game is alive when he is out there running up like the 'Rawalpindi express'. There are many memorable yorkers and reverse swings from this man that bowled out batting maestros like Dravid and Tendulkar.

Good luck you both!

Where is ChromeOS headed?

2011-03-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

About one and a half months with my CR 48 - Thank you google - but I think that ChromeOS is not going to make it big.It is another thing that I use it daily. But I don't see ChromeOS finding too many consumers. It can but only if someone releases hardware below $100.00 for it. Otherwise it is going to go down the drain or end up as an "enthusiast" platform. Here is why:

Good old PC mind set.
We all know, people resist changes. Average PC user has learned the quirks of computer GUI with great difficulty. It will be hard to unlearn start menu, the explorer, folders and files. Then, a radical change in perspective. A perspective that of ChromeOS where you do not have any obvious explorer, no files (yes there are, but you will not see them unless you are ready to tinker with the OS) or the "start" menu. Now whatever I said in terms of Windows applies to Mac users as well - may be in a harder way because Mac users are seem to be more fanatic about the desktop operating system.

I need it and I need it in my disk.

This is again a human nature. Every one wants to "own" things. I will not settle down for the fact that my favourite songs are sitting somewhere in the "cloud", Pandora or youtube.

When I have it on a CD, I have it in my iPod, I have it in a hard disk - I own it! Oh the materialistic world we live in! But that is true. I am not satisfied with my photos that live safely some where in the cloud either - even if it is full resolution on flickr. I still need them on a DVD backup or on an external hard disk. If you already don't know, ChromeOS does not give you an interface to access a CD/iPod or an external Hard disk(at least not now). The operating environment is just not for that. You are supposed to be on the "clouds" always.

Does everyone trust google with their documents?

Well that is another question. Google suggests that you can keep all your documents, spreadsheets and presentations in online "work" softwares like the google docs. I regularly use it, and I am a big fan of it. If you do not use google docs, you are pretty much left with no option to work on documents and spreadsheets on ChromeOS. It even saves certain personal data in the "cloud". But what the skeptics think of trusting google with your data? do you feel comfortable? And note, google is just another company.

Consumers crave for an iPad than a mini notebook when thinking of a "net" device

Just to quote Steve Jobs, 2010 was the year of the iPad. Yes, no doubt about it. Though Android tables were released, none caught up. Some even died an ungraceful death (streak, I am looking at you). But when you picture a "personal post-PC" device of 21st century, it is a 'pad' rather than a 'book'.

ChromeOS netbooks are going to face fierce competition from all the pads that other companies are going to release along with Apple's revised iPads. I think it is a losing battle for ChromeOS even if someone comes up with a ChromeOS pad. It will not be compelling enough on a tablet in comparison to Android or iOS goodness.

Nokia - heading for the cold Atlantic waters?

2011-02-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

If you are reading this post, you must have read what Mr. Elop of Nokia had "honestly" stated a few days ago about Nokia's current state of affairs. He compared the company to a burning rig and for life they had to take a plunge that could either kill them or miraculously rescue.
The plunge is to build devices for Windows Phone 7 platform. I had been hoping that Nokia would rather fork or create devices for Android. The strategy sounds just dangerous. In the 90s PC manufacturers such as IBM, Dell, HP etc stuck with Windows and made huge profits/sales. May be the same works for Nokia. But the markets and consumer mindset has changed drastically. During PC days consumers just wanted something cheap and easy to use. There weren't too many alternatives except for geeky or enthusiast OSs. But these days an average phone user wants more of everything. Also, Windows Phone OS does not seem to have the perfect application/developer/platform ecosystem as iOS or the Android. For me it seems that Nokia is heading for the cold waters.. Good luck!

Yay! CR 48 is here!

2011-01-28T20:10:00.000-08:00

.. and I am blogging from it. The hardware seems alright. Getting a feel of the operating environment - called 'chrome OS'. So far, pretty snappy and looks good for internet addicts - especially if you use gmail, google docs, google reader, flikr, pandora, facebook and youtube like me :)
More reviews later.
And, yes the tracker website(in my previous post) showed that a CR 48 was being shipped to my area code! so the site seems to be working. However, there was no indication from Google whether they are sending anything my way.

Eagerly waiting for cr-48

2010-12-19T23:53:00.000-08:00

OK, so what is Cr-48, if you are geek enough you would know that it is the name for google Chrome OS test laptop, that is being distributed to testers. I signed up, and I am eagerly waiting for mine. Well, I am not even sure if I would get one. However, this site claims to be the best possible tracker for UPS shipments of Cr-48s. This site shows that there is a pending shipment to my Zip code, with ETA of 12/20! and that is exciting. Something to get excited over the Christmas weekend. I am just waiting for some Christmas miracle to happen. :)

Apple iPhoto '11 fails to impress

2010-12-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

That more sounds like a movie review. However, Apple iPhoto '11 seems to be one of the worse 'improvements' that apple has came up with so far. I have about 40G worth of pictures that I had to painfully move in to new iPhoto '11 - I lost some pictures during this process - that is another thing.
I totally hate the way apple is pushing the iPad agenda to laptop/desktops. Laptops or desktops are more feature rich, the interaction model is different and so, people like me expect more controls on the application. For example the slider to resize images (specific images) is gone! and the new context menu!!! the whole thing appears to be designed for kids. Even if you go to edit using full screen, you have an annoying bar of pictures at the bottom - and few other elements that steals screen real-estate.
The UI polish has gone bad too. The events folder icon seems a copy of Windows XP, and the minimalistic approach has just went against the "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." principle.

Windows 7 vs Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

2010-06-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

Let's kill the suspense. Ubuntu is the winner, hands down or is at least on a virtual machine.
I installed Ubuntu and Windows 7 on oracle virtual box, on Windows XP.
Windows 7 (in its vanilla form, extreme edition) has a wait icon on mouse pointer on everything I do, and visible lag on opening anything.
Ubuntu, with all bells and whistles turned on (compiz/etc) works extremely fast and feels snappy.
I wish if some company properly designed and marketed laptops with Ubuntu for end-users and provided appropriate support!
Microsoft and Apple would have to run for their money on OS market.

Things that die out .. part 1

2009-09-19T18:57:00.001-07:00

In 2009, I had a train ride from Bangalore to Madras(Chennai). To be honest, the trip was really good. I was impressed by the comfort and feel of the A/C chair cars in the "Shatabdi express" that hardly stopped anywhere during the 1000 km journey.
I felt this way because I am from the "railway-deficient state" Kerala. Back there, we still have the diesel locomotives for the northern part (North to Shornur Junction). Even the tracks were just single track almost 5 years ago. That was fun. Your train would suddenly stop nowhere for no apparent reason. You look out of the window and notice another track running parallel to the track you are in. You may wonder where the parallel track appeared from? Suddenly a thundering WDM-2 loco will roar pass pulling numerous brown cars -and you realize that you were giving way to another train...and the double tracks were just to deviate for such good times.
Like any other kid I was also a big fan of trains. During our road trips from Kannur to Kozhikode ( through national highway with 4 railroad crossings) I would pray that we get stopped at least in one of those so that I can catch a glimpse of those wild trains. Though trains in Kerala still suck, all over India, it has improved a long way. WDM-2, the massive diesel beast is not to be seen in most of the places.

The new Netbeans look on OS X - Part II

2009-07-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Earlier, I had mentioned about the impressive UI improvements for OSX in the latest release of Netbeans( "The new Netbeans look on OS X" )

If you are a look and feel freak like me, you will notice that the toolbar is not just right under OS X 10.5, when running with default java 1.6, which is "1.6.0_13". The toolbar does not appear as "unified" and it will sooner or later turn out in to an eye-sore.

The way to work around this is to edit your netbeans.conf and tell netbeans to use JDK 1.5 instead of 1.6 for running. Put the following lines in to netbeans.conf (Probably at /Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans\ 6.7.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf)

netbeans_jdkhome="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Home/"

This will use your 1.5 version of Java, and it gives the right Unified toolbar look to netbeans. You can always set project specific JDK for each project in Netbeans.

So, here are couple of screen shots for comparisons.

1) Running with Jdk 1.6, non-unified

2) Running with Jdk 1.5, unified

If you don't want to edit the netbeans.conf file, just set your default java preference using "Java preferences" dialog in OS X. Select Java SE 5 as your default application Java, and you are all set.

Ubuntu 9.04 on OS X via virtual box

2009-07-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Virtualization and virtual machines are a great concept and it is here to stay. I tried installing virtual box (from Sun) on my OS X 10.5, and the experience had been smooth, smoother and the smoothest. I am running Ubuntu on top of my Mac OS, with full screen enabled. For tips to enable fullscreen, visit this link. Though it was written for vista, applies to other OSs as well.

The next step was to bridge the network adapter to use the wired connection en0 on mac.

For this,

Shut down your guest OS (ubuntu)
Click Network option in the details tab of Sun Virtualbox
It will show a small dialog with Adapter1 as selected tab as below

Change the settings to look like what I have in the above picture.

Also, after installing - "Vbox additions" I have noticed the automatic mouse capture and release whenever you move your mouse in and out of the Virtual guest OS window - too cool.

Oh yes, sound works right off the box.

Here is a screen capture of Ubuntu running on OS X

Chrome OS? what the heck?

2009-07-09T04:46:00.000-07:00

Headline in one of India's English news paper read : "Google to challenge Microsoft with new operating system" - as I read the piece I had this strange feeling of mixed emotion that ranged from being pissed-off to starting to LMAO. First off, Chrome OS targeted for netbooks/nettops can't even be called an operating system - it is a shame to the years and years of human labor and hard work involved in developing other great OSs. It may be an operating environment. And god, it is going to be based on chrome? well, who uses chrome? how soon does google think to capture the internet browser market share from IE/Safari and Firefox? - and what is the market share of netbooks? Who even cares? it may be around 5% of the whole computer/mobile device market - I know how many people in India uses netbooks - "0" - that is how many. - Oh well, that is where Google is going to give M$ for a run for its money.
Pissed off both at the Newspaper as well as google's lack of imagination in projecting Chrome OS as the next Microsoft basher....

Downloading free software

2009-07-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

Life in software development would have sucked without all the free/open tools available from soureforge or code.google.com or even netbeans

But at times your exciting rush to download your favorite tool is cut short by the firewall/proxy server at your work. So, here are two alternatives.

One is source forge mirror that would go under the radar(all source forge projects are indexed and served here)

SF Mirror1

Another is netbeans FTP sites just in case your firewall prohibits download sites

The new Netbeans look on OS X

2009-03-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

I keep a tab on the IDE scene. So, I downloaded the latest development build of Netbeans and lo!

The UI look on OS X - is by far the best I have seen for Java IDEs

I have not used it enough so, I can not tell you about how it feels. Look-wise it rocks.

So, if you run OS X and you been complaining about the Netbeans look, it is the time to play with the development build. Go ahead

Google search - hacked or bug?

2009-01-31T08:44:00.001-08:00

I was surprised to see the new "feature" on Google search result page this morning. Have a look at the following image.

Apparently google is tagging every search result as a potential harm. Clicking on the result will take you to one annoying page, instead of the result. Interestingly, lists.apple.com and sun.com are potential harm?!

Bug or not, this is removed by now.

Snow storm time!

2008-12-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

A tale of three IDEs

2008-11-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

I think I should tell a little bit about the environment I am in. I am sure all Windows users can safely ignore everything below.

OS X 10.5.5
Default Java - java version "1.5.0_16"
Also have the latest (and buggy) apple Java 1.6.0_17

IDE	Version	Problem	Fix
Netbeans	6.5	As soon as I launch, the netbeans icon jumps on the dock and then crashes. No error message on screen.	This is due to some but in Apple's Java and updates. To address, you will have to edit file : `Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 6.5.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/ platform9/lib/nbexec and change eval ${_NB_PROFILE_CMD} "\"${jdkhome}/bin/java\"" -Djdk.home="\"${jdkhome}\"" -classpath "\"$cp\"" \` `$jargs org.netbeans.Main "$args" '&' change it to: ARCH_CMD="/usr/bin/arch -i386"; eval ${ARCH_CMD} ${_NB_PROFILE_CMD} "\"${jdkhome}/bin/java\"" -Djdk.home="\"${jdkhome}\"" -classpath "\"$cp\"" \ $jargs org.netbeans.Main "$args" '&'`
Intellij IDEA	8,7.x	Compiler internal error. Process terminated with exit code 139 - This occurs whenever you try to build your project	Not sure how this gets fixed by my work-around, but all you have to do is : launch compiler properties- Intellij IDEA->Preferences..->Compiler->Java Compiler and put a valid option in "Additional command line parameters - for ex: -verbose
Eclipse	Ganymede	None so far

The fix for Netbeans issue is specified in netbeans issues
However, I had to figure out fix for issue with IDEA through trial and error(accidentally)

Screenshots for fixes mentioned above.
Netbeans :

IDEA

India Under attack(Again)

2008-11-26T21:17:00.001-08:00

Well, this is the umpteenth 9/11 for india, but our laid back attitude will allow these terrorist factions to grow bigger and bigger. I am waiting for the day when our government will declare "the war on terror". Wonder if that will happen in my lifetime.

At the same time this is the message for the stupid fanatics who were trying to eliminate North indians out of Bomaby. Wake up and face the "real music" you morons.

India as it is..

2008-10-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Though I am in USA these days, I closely follow what is going on in my "Des"(Hindi word for Country). Most of the media today focuses on spreading bad news, that would let you down for the day. Just for this reason, I go through the Indian online newspapers only in the nights.

These days, the fight between thoughtless natives of Bombay and people from other states are spreading like wild fire. This leaves me thinking if our country of billion people is going to be the next Congo. Today's headline news is that a man from U.P( northern Indian state) was beaten to death (Well, what a nice way to showcase our 3000 years of culture and tradition!) in a commuter train. Bombay, as of today is built by men from all states all over India. There is no reason why a Bombay-native should have preference over an outsider. Everyone in the country is entitled for his dreams and fortunes in the so called "commercial capital of India". What has Bombay-natives given to Bombay except for renaming it to "Mumbai"?

Leopard-like toolbar buttons in Java Swing - part 2

2008-09-14T15:25:00.001-07:00

I had been trying to create "leopard-like" toolbar buttons. This required a lot of Swing coding and a bit of imagination. Apple, with its Apple JDK 1.6 features, has introduced ways to create many different kinds of Apple buttons. Namely : square, gradient, bevel, textured, roundrect, recessed and help.

This greatly reduces the work that you need to do. However, the look will not carry forward to other platforms. For that, you need to paint your own buttons as I mentioned in my earlier blog.

The technique for rendering leopard like toolbar button is :

Create a transparent PNG icon for the button - for example, a plus sign
Create a JButton and set button.putClientProperty("JButton.buttonType", "segmentedTextured") and various other options in apple's technical note website.

State of clientProperty in OS X Java 1.6

2008-09-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Started looking at my pet Java Swing application - jSpent. This time the attempt was to create a leopard-like unified toolbar. I was so excited to see that there is a clientProperty "apple.awt.brushMetalLook" - By setting this as :

myFrame.getRootPane().putClientProperty("apple.awt.brushMetalLook", Boolean.TRUE);

This will cause OS X to render the title bar in the unified style. But unfortunately, there is no good clientProperty setting for the toolbar itself. So we end up with a light gray window title bar. The toolbar appears like a gray box, painted in different color. Not sure if this is a bug in Apples Java. However, I had to again resort to pick and choose and paint my own gradient just below the window title bar to make it look "Unified". So, here is the output.

But oh well, I need to repaint the toolbar in ligher gradient when the window goes out of focus.. hm.. that's too much to do!

Why OS X is sweet..

2008-08-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Since I am a guy who moved from MS Windows/GNOME world to OS X, I used to miss the "start menu". But soon I discovered how handy the spotlight search is.

I started discovering interesting features and applications as I continued to use mac. For example, for ripping a DVD, we have Handbreak. For video format conversion there is iSquint. But how on earth would you remember these names when you need it. I installed iSquint and one day I was racking my brain to find what was the name of that application that would convert one video format to another in Mac. At last, I had to google it though I had the software on my desktop. Then I thought hey! the spotlight must have a feature to tag an application with whatever keywords you want. And yes! there is.

Select the application from Application folder, right click and goto info dialog. There is a top text area called "Spotlight comments" enter your keywords. Now, if you type just the key words in plain English on spotlight, it lists the application that will match your keywords..awesome!!

So here are the screenshots with what I did for Handbreak. Right click and invoke the info dialog. Enter the key word:

Now when you want to rip a DVD ( hey its illegal!), type rip DVD on your spotlight search textbox and here is what happens

This is far far better from searching through your program in a startmenu with 100 different shortcuts. And may be its just me, I like keyboard short cuts ( apple + space bar for spotlight search) and a little typing.

Yet another test for syntax highlighting

2008-07-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

This time the code is a piece of HTML created using Vim's Syntax->Convert to HTML feature.

/**
 * @author ranjith
 * @date May 13, 2008
 * JPA Persistance in action
 */
public class MessageJPATest {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       EntityManagerFactory emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("jpa-learn");
       EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
       EntityTransaction tx = em.getTransaction();
       tx.begin();

This seems to be working? Yes - only when your Vim color theme matches your blogger background color.
Plus, too much work to paste code snippets.

Does Blogger(blogspot) support code formatting?

2008-04-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here are some attempts..

This is using format my source code for blogger utility.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
       http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
        version="2.5">
 <filter>
     <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
     <filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-class>
 </filter>
 <filter-mapping>
     <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
     <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>

</web-app>

Some trial with an excellent web based tool provided at http://www.manoli.net/csharpformat/

I copied the CSS given by this site to my blogger template.
The results are good. But needs tweaking as default blogger linespacing is kind of messed. Then I tweaked it a little bit and mixed with the pre tag in above code formatting style. Works to certain extend. But I am not satisfied with the output. May be I need to change my Blog's basic template to a wider one to accommodate the source code. Thats for later!!!

Work in progress - my very rich swing application - part 6

2008-02-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Recently, I got some free time to re-visit my rich swing application. The target was to implement in-place table cell editing with focus running on tab key and getting the table cell "edit-ready" up on focus. This requires a plenty of nasty work around, but works nonetheless.
If you are interested in the code, it is available at jspent - Google code.

Here is a closer look:

Recently updated my Mac to 10.5 ( leopard ) and no Java 6 for further work on Mac :(
When will apple release Java SDK 6 for intel core duo based Macbooks? no idea.

Most beautiful Swing look and feel

2007-12-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Its not Nimbus. Its not JGoodies or Substance. It is Synthetica - white vision look and feel.
Its plain beautiful and usable. I appled this to SQuirreL-SQL client and it is look so awesome that I had to blog about it. Here is a screenshot. Only gripe is that it has Vista folder icons for tree nodes.

Leopard-like toolbar buttons in Java Swing

2007-12-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Java2D and Java 6 speed, it is easy and less-expensive to create modern User interfaces. Here is my attempt to create a "leopard", that is OS X 10.5 like buttons. This is fairly easy to create. For source you may check out my google project jSpent. (I haven't checked in the source for these yet. But soon I will, after some refactoring is done)

Work in progress - my very rich swing application - part 5

2007-11-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

Yet another close look:

Features added :

Rendering proper table header icon/color while sorting
Initial stages of OFX import
iTunes look

I am also working in building "leopard" like toolbar buttons. Once that is added, the application will be OS X 10.5 ready. But not sure when Apple is planning to give out Java 6 for OS X 10.5. I happen to be one of the lucky guys with Java 6 developer preview.

Work in progress - my very rich swing application - part 4

2007-11-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

Recently, I shifted focus from the "swing" factor. As I was building and polishing the application, I realized that most of my expenses are covered using my bank card. So, if the application just accepts journal entries, it is useful only to students and kids.

So, I started learning about the bank statement formats - yes, OFX - the open financial exchange format. The format is in SGML to my dismay - and there is NO SGML Parser in Java. SGML is a loosely structured but complex language to express data - and XML has replaced it in most fields.

But anyway, I need to parse OFX. So, I turned to ANTLR - the excellent parser generator. I am in the initial stages of learning curve, but it is really interesting and simple. I think any student who is learning compiler theory should use ANTLR as the learning tool. Oh, coming back to my application - right now, the focus is on parsing only bank statements.

Leopard - No Java 6

2007-10-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

So, I went, stood in line, got T-Shirt and checked out the latest and greatest OS X - Leopard at the Providence Apple store.

Ran a terminal and typed java -version.

Sad, but true, it returned version 1.5.

The java in OS X is officially still at 5, and no idea when apple will release Java 6. Btw, leopard looks way cool and pretty fast just like Tiger.

More to Awesomeness!!!!!!!

2007-10-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Came across http://www.goowy.com accidentally during a Google search and I was totally taken in!! This is an "on-line desktop", your own personal computer over the internet. They call it a "Web Top".
The user interface is so cool that it can compete with any modern desktop environments. The beauty is that you have all your apps - mail, calendar, chat, widgets of interest available on an online deskop no matter where or from what you are accessing it. Here is a screenshot from Firefox.

2007-10-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

This can not be considered as a blog. But however, I wanted to record this somewhere so that it gets picked up by search engines and provides a useful clue to a developer struggling with setting up IBM DB2 CLI (TYPE 2) JDBC XA Connection pool.
Scenario:
Setting up an XA Connection pool with "COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.DB2XADataSource"
Database server on remote host. You have IBM DB2 client installed.

Exception:
DB2 DSRA8100E: Unable to get a XAConnection from the DataSource
Root Exception:
[IBM][CLI Driver] SQL1032N No start database manager command was issued. SQLSTATE=57019

If you got this error, got to your command prompt and issue "DB2START" command.
This is a hidden action associated with CLI drivers to work. Hm!

Apple to Ship Mac OS X Leopard on October 26

2007-10-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

A follow up on my previous post. Story here:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/10/16leopard.html

Where is leopard?

2007-10-13T17:08:00.001-07:00

Where is Apple's new version of OS X? Its been a while since I heard anything about it and I eagerly check my regular Mac web resources for any updates. Looks like Apple is getting it ready - as per the last announcement, its release has to happen somewhere this month.

No signs, whatever!

Anyway, I am not going to install Leopard unless it is absolutely necessary for latest Java 6. OS X tiger is the ultimate operating system on Desktop that one can imagine.

Work in progress - my very rich swing application - part 3

2007-10-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Writing UI has always been a very interesting task for me. Plus the very extensible java swing and java2d, it is instant gratification. Here is a screenshot of my application. Latest addition, iTunes like table, table header, light gray separator lines - yes that all matters in a UI. Have a look:

My x12 syntax highlighter for vim/gvim

2007-10-11T06:58:00.001-07:00

I have always been a big fan of "vi", "vim" and "gvim" - or any other tool like "vimdiff" that vim.org provides. If you are a little fast with the "qwerty" keyboard, vim is the editor for you. It is the least distracting and most extensible text editor available on all platforms.
So, it was time to contribute something for this great editor. I created my X12 syntax highlighter, a very basic syntax highlighting for ASC X12 files. Currently, I have covered most of the common segments used in health-care industry. Please feel free to use it if you use vim and deal with X12 files.

Work in progress - my very rich swing application - Part 2

2007-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

I got some "free" time over the weekend, and I made some good progress on my "very rich" swing application. Here is a screenshot for your viewing pleasure. On the course of my development I learned a lot of new Java Swing techniques. Thanks to the swing/UI design gurus like Romain Guy and John Lipsky.
I have added basic features of "CRUD" - create, read, updated and delete; so I will say that the application is in early beta stage. I am yet to finalize further requirements, ideas etc. If you have any suggestion, please post.

Work in progress - my very rich swing application

2007-09-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

Here are screenshots of work in progress so far. Right now, the code is open and available under google project called "jSpent".
But be aware of the fact that the code is still in some primitive shape, requires some refactoring etc.

Here is screenshot from a windows
environment. Sad but true, java Swing ( Java 6) in Windows looks better than compared to OS X.

A simple plugin framework in Java

2007-09-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

As part of my hobby project, I thought of coming up with some sort of a plug-in mechanism. Though I have worked in a "plug and play"-like J2EE project, I have never done a desktop application with plug-in nature.
I like the way plug-ins work in eclipse. Just extract your plug-ins in to a specific folder. So, my application also would have a similar plug-in mechanism.
Following is the way I have implemented the plug-in manager:


Get to plugins directory
      For each file in plugins directory
          If file ends with ".jar"
            See if there is a plugin-manifest.xml inside the jar
            If found read the XML and get data about the Plugin
                Save plugin data to a list/map for future use
                Add the jar to current classpath as plugin may be used.
            End if
          End if
      End for

Putting together a modern UI using Java swing.

2007-09-11T14:25:00.001-07:00

I had been working a lot with Java2D and graphics in my free time. So, when I thought of a little utility application for myself, I thought of applying all sorts of "Swing hacks" that I came across so far. Thanks to swing gurus like 'Roamin Guy' and 'John Lipsky', I am able to build somewhat beautiful UI. A lot of time is being spent in putting all the components together and testing while I am losing focus on the real task in my hand - building my little utility application. Hm.. some day I will build it. Here is a screenshot of the work so far for now.

Java has come a very long way in terms of UI and graphics performance. I am only an entry level programmer when it comes to graphics and swing painting. But this application is running pretty smooth on both windows and OS X and it only can be attributed to Java 6's performance.

How to: Using thirdparty URLs in Netbean's Update center

2007-08-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

In my free time, I was playing around with Netbeans and I wanted to add the JS and CSS editor plugins at http://www.liguorien.com/javascripteditor/#download to my Netbeans. I am impressed by the ease at which you can add a thirdparty update center to Netbeans. Here are the steps that I followed based on my intuition.

First, Know your URL. In this case, the URL was http://www.liguorien.org/download/jseditor/updates.xml

Launch the Options dialog. By Tools->Options menu.

This shows the Options dialog. Click on the "Advanced Options" as we are "advanced users".

In the advanced options dialog,
choose IDE Configuration/System/Audoupdate Types from the options tree on left hand side.

Add a new thirdparty update center. For this, right click on "Autoupdate Types". From the context(popup) menu, choose New->General Update Center.

A dialog appears that prompts for the 'update center name'. Enter a name that you will recognize. In my case, "JS and CSS tools".

Click on the "Finish" button and it will add a new node( with a globe icon) on the left hand tree under "Autoupdate Types". The name that you just gave will appear along with the node.
Click on the new node and it will open up a simple form on the right hand pane where you can insert details about the plugin/update that you are interested in. Fill values as required. In my case
Server URL: http://www.liguorien.org/download/jseditor/updates.xml
Enabled: checked(checkbox)

Close the dialog, close Options dialog and go back to main window.
Now, choose Tools->Update center from the main menu

This will show the update centers available. Note that your new update center is available in the list. Check that and proceed for your updates.

I was using Netbeans 5.5

Ruby? hmmmm!

2007-07-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well, another day with Ruby and here is something that was bothering me right from day one.

If you have ever written something in Ruby, you might have noticed that Ruby is SLOW. I would go ahead and say that it is "pretty darn slow". May be this is the price you pay for all that 'syntactic sugar'?

A very simple bench mark - I created a class, added a to_s method, tried to print contents of the class, It took 10X time compared to Java 5 & Java 6 on Windows.

Oh by the way, I have to check out if this is same in OS X too.

Attempts to learn Ruby

2007-07-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Long time since I seriously looked at a programming language. I was thinking of which one to select. Given all the hype around Ruby, I thought of studying Ruby in a structured way. Why I say "structured" is, because I have had enough dabbling experience with Ruby already.

So, I came across this very interesting construct called "symbols" in ruby. It is just like a variable, a name that starts with a colon - ':'

For a clear understanding I read through a lot of forums about symbols, and all I found is that this is a very confusing idea for new comers. As you can see, Ruby symbols generated a 100+ post thread on the ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org mailing list - and some of them are really heated.

Anyway, my take for now about symbols is:

In ruby, if you say, "some double quoted string" a thousand times, ruby creates different objects for it. But if you use a "Symbol"-ised reference to it, as :"Some double quoted string", it is a symbol and it is created only once. This seems to be useful in places where you create hashes.

Anyway, I agree, this is not a very satisfying explanation of Symbols(or at least their usage). But for a Ruby newbie, this should hold good enough.

Status changed!

2007-06-04T22:08:00.000-07:00

One month, and now, I am married. So, that explains the 1 month long silence! more to come soon..

2007-05-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hm! I had been very busy this week, did not get enough time to check my new mac book pro out. First, I was away in NYC on the weekend. The visit bled over to Monday and I was late to get to work, and the usual snafu followed. Anyway, here are my first impressions of mac book pro and OS X

Ups

Ease of use - things just work (may be it is so in Windows too;but prolonged use of Linux makes me say this)
Beauty - everything is beautiful
Scrollpad - very very very innovative way of user input
Speed - very fast, and very smooth graphics
Very sleek

Downs

Heat - the core duo gets hotter and the SMC fans wont cool it down until it is really hot. I can not think of using this in a country like India.
Font rendering - I find Apple's font rendering ( sub-pixel smoothed) a little inferior to Microsoft's Cleartype.

A passing thought

2007-04-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

As I am switching to Mac Book, I would like to register my high regards for IBM's T - Series Laptops - In "wintel" world, IBM is the best laptop one can get.
I had/have a T42p, pimped up with 2GB RAM; the computer came with default 7200RPM 60GB Hard drive and 2.0 GHZ Pentium M. Though the video card ( ATI FireGL Mobility T2) was kind of lower end, I happily completed "Far Cry" and "DOOM 3" on this laptop.
I just love the Hard shell, hinges and parts of IBM thinkpad, Minimalistic and professional design, innovative track button located above the 'B' Key, which is very very useful once you get used to it. I may miss this one in Mac.
Love you thinkpad!

At last..

2007-04-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today I ordered a 15" Mac Book Pro. Lately, I had been checking out so much of Apple related stuff, that I had to succumb to the temptation. I had been frequenting the Apple stores so many times - enough to create suspicion for the security guards.
Strange coincidence, Ubuntu has released their latest version of Linux - Feisty Fawn - today. Though Ubuntu being my favorite OS, I am not going to install this version. Instead, I am waiting to start my life on Mac. Anyway, this month on, my life is going to change in a big way :)
May be when Apple releases leopard in October and if it is very highly priced, I will think of dual booting Ubuntu on my pro.

Screencast - creating round gradient button in Inkscape

2007-03-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a demo of how to create professional grade rounded button for your website using Inkscape.
By the way, in order to create this video, I learned how to do screen recording in Ubuntu Linux. Well, soon I will post that how to :)

How to create beautiful button using Inkscape

2007-03-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

For the un-initiated, Inkscape is a very powerful, free, open source and friendly SVG graphic editor. When I was browsing around Apple's web store, I saw a beautiful "select" button. That is a typical apple-ish button with gradient and rounded edges. I did some research to find how to create such a nice button in Inkscape. I could create a nice professional looking button in a few minutes (not as good as Apple though). Here it is:

Watch for a step by step tutorial on how to create this - over the weekend.

The new way of technical presentation.

2007-03-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

Recently, I came across a discussion on presentation and content delivery in the web 2.0(whatever that is) world.
With fast computing resources and huge availability of graphics and other media ( who cares about licenses anyway), the face of presentation has started changing.
If you are still stuck on the old way of textual/animated text presentations(PowerPoint, keynote or whatever), you should take a look at the presentations by Dick Hardt and Lawrence Lessig. Very innovative and capturing.
But the point is you cannot effectively convert any presentation in to this genre. Though you might succeed, the audience may not be ready yet to accept the quick and "on-your-face" mode of delivery. I guess this suits generic introduction kind of talks.

Pimpin' Netbeans UI in Linux (laptop)

2007-02-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

This assumes you know how to do stuff around Netbeans and Linux.
I have the following in my Laptop.
Ubuntu Dapper Drake - Running GNOME 2.14 and Sun JDK 6.
Default X11 font rendering sucks a little. So, I applied sub-pixel smoothing patches.
I downloaded and started using Netbeans 5.5, which is pretty good. But by default it has the "Metal" look and feel, which is not very exciting. So, I decided to make Netbeans look "better".

I tried enabling the GTKLookAndFeel so that it looks native. But I must confess, the Java font rendering on GTKLookAndFeel is just plain horrible. My next choice for look and fee was JGoodies. JGoodies is a pretty neat and simple Look and feel library.

So, first you need JDK6 for better UI and Font rendering.
Download JGoodies look and feel and place the looks-2.1.3.jar in to your netbeans-5.5/core folder.

Now, edit your netbeans-5.5/etc/netbeans.conf file so that your netbeans_default_options value looks like :

netbeans_default_options="-J-Xms32m -J-Xmx384m -J-XX:PermSize=32m -J-XX:MaxPermSize=384m -J-Dswing.aatext=true -J-Xverify:none -J-DPlastic.defaultTheme=ExperienceBlue -J-DmarkContentBorders=true -laf com.jgoodies.looks.plastic.PlasticXPLookAndFeel -J-Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true"

Here, important lines are

J-DPlastic.defaultTheme=ExperienceBlue - this is a good theme on eyes
-laf com.jgoodies.looks.plastic.PlasticXPLookAndFeel - XP like look and feel.
-J-Dswing.aatext=true - Force font anti-aliasing options.

Start your netbeans with these options and it will look much better. But the tab headers are grayish and they look really horrible:

So, here is a fix for that. Download the tab header netbeans module from this site, and install it in your netbeans - by the following steps.

From Tools -> Module Manager, Click update button.
In Update center wizard, select Install manually selected downloads, and add and install the downloaded nbm module.

Restart your netbeans, and it should look pretty good. ( Here, I have included my Ubuntu Menu text to show how the font still sucks a bit)

Now, for editor font, get "Consolas" ( it is a Vista font so get it by hook or crook) and use it as your editor font. It looks nice - as nice as Apple's Monaco.

Exploring the infinite

2007-02-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Lately, I have been doing some research in art, one of my passions. I am a big fan of impressionism and post-impressionism. I am equally intrigued by deception artists like Dali and the great M.C.Escher. So, with GIMP, I thought of taking a shot at my own version of Escher's self "repeating patterns" or the tessellations. Here it is. Yes, I agree it is very primitive - I did it on my laptop with 2hrs of effort - if that makes this look any better :)

Fish, bird and some weird lizard taking part in my tessellation.

Java swing components library

2007-02-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

Just a random bookmark post!
I came across JIDE http://www.jidesoft.com/
Ran an instant online web start demo! quite impressive.

Expensive software and yucky user interfaces

2007-02-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

An interesting software tool that I came across last year is "Ascential datastage". This software is bought over by IBM and given some name change. This is basically a data integration software, that provides connectivity across wide platforms and has a handful of utility functions and adapters.
But there is an aspect that really sucks. Its UI. The "designer" UI is so cluttered that you feel like running away from it. It has umpteen number of docking windows that distract and confuse you. And a useless company banner image shining on top of the tool bar just takes away a lot of your screen real estate.( I figured you can disable this, but come on guys!). The integration flow designer's Icons are anything but user friendly. The stand alone components and the executable components has the same basic design. The only way to tell the apart is one is blue and the other is bluish gray! well, if your monitor is not tuned up well, you will never tell it apart. Just for example look at this dialog box that shows successful build.

Hell? what is that "Cancel" button for? Will it rollback all my builds and delete the target code generated? Why the heck this dialog has to be this big? and, why the heck you don't use some graphics to convey the result. They got to read the apple human Interface guidelines.

Best GNOME audio player

2007-02-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

At last! a very robust audio player for GNOME.
Banshee. Go check it out. I installed it from source and it was a cake walk. Interestingly, this is written in mono ( the Open source implementation of MS dot net c#). I am a Java fan, but when it comes to interfacing with the powerful gstreamer engine, Mono is a little ahead of Java. Java do not have a JNI implementation layer on top of gstreamer as of today. It is very easy to build Banshee from source. RTFM at Banshee website and you are good to go.

Cool Features:

Cool user interface
iTunes and other player support
Album art
Tag filling
Podcast support
Music sharing
Music recommendations
A lot of plug-ins like: meta data search, Mini mode, Tray based player etc.

Banshee Still lacks the following. But these are not very necessary.

Graphic equalizer
DSP effects
Funky skins(who needs it anyway while GNOME themes satisfy all your aesthetic whims)
Funky Visualizations

Here is a screenshot from my desktop. Note that I am playing a song in my native tongue while Banshee is suggesting similar Indian singers and songs to me in the bottom panel...this is awesome. I haven't seen iTunes doing this yet.

Phish proof

2007-02-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

Dark forces that employ phishing occasionally use paypal email as their Trojan horse.
But there is a very easy way to identify between a "scam"-paypal email and the real paypal email. Original paypal email would have your first name and last name in the email body. Phishers would not have that information.
So, today, I saw yet another fake paypal email sitting in my inbox saying:

We have reason to believe that your account was accessed by a third party. Because protecting the security of your account is our primary concern, we have limited access to sensitive PayPal account features. We understand that this may be an inconvenience but please understand that this temporary limitation is for your protection.
To remove the limitation click on the following link:

Followed by a link. Just out of curiosity I clicked on that Link and my "Thunderbird" advised me not to follow the link. Here is a screen shot

And I did not have any intentions whatsoever to got to bubblewebdesign.ch and give away my paypal credentials.
So, my advice - Be smart.
Use smart tools like Firefox, gmail and thunderbird, that would alert you about such scams.

My Favorite war movies

2007-01-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Time for some movie talk, I had been watching a lot of English movies. For this weekend, I chose some war movies. However, here is my fav. list.

Saving private Ryan
Black Hawk Down
Stalingrad
Apocalypse Now
The thin red line
Where eagles dare
And .. I am looking forward to catch - Das Boot, Letters from Iwo jima ..

Completely out of windows

2007-01-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

It has been a while(2 months to be exact) since I started my computer in Windows XP.

Desktop - GNOME
Internet -
FireFox
Thunderbird (emails)
Gaim ( no Audio video chatting - I don't waste time on that anyway)
Office suite - OpenOffice.org (Document editor, Spreadsheet, presentation ...)
Text editing - Gvim
iPod management - gtkpod
Playing music - Rhythmbox, Amarok, ...
DVD/VCD/Movies - MPlayer, GXine, VLC
Dabase - My SQL.
Java - Sun's Java 1.6 - which ever is latest.
Flash - Flash Player 9 for Linux.
Acrobat reader/Document Viewer - for PDF
Inkscape - for SVG image creation
GIMP - for serious image editing

And above all, the cool feeling ...

Holiday gift from Bush and Co.

2007-01-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

"deplorable" video of Saddam's execution
Why? why it has to be on at this particular time? as if someone had placed a bet saying 'Saddam will never see 2007' - may be it would make some sense to investigate if some betting mafia was involved behind this sudden and calculated 'punishment'.
Now that Saddam is done with, .. next in line please, uncle Sam wants your head.

I can only hope...

2006-12-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New year all!.. I can only hope.. let there be peace.

Things we take for granted

2006-12-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

Late night, and I was finishing off my daily "surfing entertainment". I went on to check on of my favorite mp3 hosting blogs(Don't wanna share the name, sorry) based out of Singapore. The website just refuses to load. I hit refresh and it keeps loading forever. I "what ev"d it and went to sleep.
Today morning I happen to read this news. An earthquake has disrupted Internet connections in Asia. After all these days of my wifi, hi-speed Internet access, I kind of started to take Internet connectivity for granted. This event just reminded me of the bandwidth crunch that we have in public Internet in India. Basic Internet access such as checking yahoo emails used to be a "crawling experience" back in my hometown. Hm!
So, it is time that I took all the comforts that I enjoy a little seriously!?

Java 6 runtime on Ubuntu dapper

2006-12-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

As Java SE 1.6 is officially out, I thought of getting JRE 1.6 to be the default in my Ubuntu.
Java 1.6 is super fast with a lot of UI related improvements. So, always good to have.
So, if you want to have it, do the following:
1. Download the *.bin file from sun's dowload location.
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
If you are not a "Java dude", just choose to download the "Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6"

2. Run a terminal session, and goto the folder where jre-6-linux-i586.bin is downloaded.

3. make sure that it is "executable"
chmod +x jre-6-linux-i586.bin

4. Run the installer
sudo ./jre-6-linux-i586.bin

5. This will extract the JRE in to its own folder(called jre1.6.0. Now, put this into appropriate library location

sudo mv jre1.6.0 /usr/lib/jvm

6. Set new JRE as one of the "java alternatives" as (all in one line)
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0/bin/java" 1

7. Set the new "alternative" as the real java to run (all in one line)
sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0/bin/java

This should print a message - Using `/usr/lib/jvm/jre1.6.0/bin/java' to provide `java'.
We are all set!
Oh and, happy christmas! let there be peace and joy - forever!

Eye candy - second thoughts

2006-12-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

After a visit to the apple store last Friday, I decided that I need XGL on my Ubuntu desktop. So I compiled and installed XGL and beryl on dapper. Everything works great, wobbly windows, "dream" effects, desktop cube etc.
On a second thought, I started asking myself "Do you need all these special effects on your computer?" - Well, with XGL/AIGLX Linux seems to stretching things a little too far. Too many "on your face" kind of effects (Which are unstable at times). Things like the "dream" effect on Menus and tool tips are distracting. Thank god, like anything else, beryl is highly configurable. I disabled a lot of settings and running only necessary effects I like:
Drop shadow - Gives a real feel of focus on top most window
Desktop cube - Rarely do I switch desktop, but while I do it, it is fun.
Expose' like effect - I have stopped using the old "alt+tab". Instead, I press F9 or move mouse to a hot-spot corner, and I get tile of all open windows, from which I can chose from.
Everything else, disabled! Here is a screenshot:

Cross platform nightmares

2006-12-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

I had to volunteer to support a customized CRM software release the other day. Since it is CRM-call center related software, it had critical time lines for implementation and rollback if anything got messed up.
First of all, I want to vent my anger towards this software that costs a few millions.Its production deployment involves running 1000 different scripts and copying over 1000 different files - stone age kind of way to deal with an Internet age solution.
But the actual nightmare was related to cross platform voes. There was a bunch of SQL scripts that needed to run against a DB2 database. Unfortunately, this database happens to be in a Mainframe computer. For tests, we could always run these scripts from our development PC using any damn client. But due to "processes" this has to be run via a JCL on the mainframe itself. There starts the nightmare.
Mainframe does not like a file which has more than 80 characters in a line- or at least the damn JCL was set up to behave like that. Now, we sit down and format the whole bunch of scripts ( yes, we were too short on time to write a script now) and then "upload" it to in to the Mainframe. The JCL again "Abends". One person informs that the JCL expects 72(what the heck?) characters per line. Well, we go reformat again, and upload it to mainframe "datasets". Hm! oh as I am writing this, I just realized that it was not the Mainframe to be blamed.- I got to change the title of this post.

Long time...

2006-12-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I had been busy..
with what?
Kahlua
vodka martini
Budlight
Merlot
Jack daniels
Jim Beam

Hic!... ;)

Netbeans 5.5 litmus test..

2006-11-19T07:18:00.001-08:00

Netbeans 5.5 is fast,responsive and makes best use of desktop real estate.

Netbeans (against Eclipse) .. warning: a bit of rant follows.

I created a new class, added a method and typed something like this


public void litmusTest() throws CustomException {

Red underline appears for "CustomException" - Error, yes accepted.
But where is the option to create "CustomException" on the fly?

In eclipse a bulb appears on the left gray marin, clicking which presents you options to create a "CustomException" class that extends Exception - some additional intelligence going on - and really very useful to a rapid dev. environment. WHERE IS THIS FEATURE IN NETBEANS? I had been looking for something similar across last 2-3 releases.

Another random problem.The File header documentation appears below the import statements by default.

something like ..


import java.io.File;
 /*
  * NetBeansLitmus.java
  *
  * Created on November 18, 2006, 2:07 PM
  ....

I am open to any IDE but I guess nothing wrong in being inclined to one that is more intutive..

Eclipse - better usability than ever

2006-11-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

While I was stuck with an old version of WSAD at work, a lot of action had been happening on IDE world.

Netbeans is going to come with version 6.0, on which ton of editor improvements are promised.

Meanwhile, I had been doing my fun stuff on eclipse. I have version 3.2.1, and there are very noticable improvements in simple things as:

the intelligent auto completion/import feature when used for commonly used class as "List" inserts Java instead of alphabetically preferred java.awt.List. Who is using java.awt.List anyway? - way to go.

Somehow, I always liked slickness of swt over swing in case of IDEs. But still, I am waiting to see what netbeans 6.0 has got. The matisse GUI builder in Netbeans was an unprecedented improvement in Java IDE history and it for sure has whet my appetite.

iTunes Copy protection "Cracked"

2006-10-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

The breaking news was "iTunes Copy Protection "cracked""
The person who cracked it is none other than DVD Jon
Now, I am wondering what is Apple going to do about this. I haven't read any news about Apples reaction on this yet. But I strongly feel that noone can stop music piracy. If a person can play song on a device, he can create a copy of it by 100 different ways. At the least, he can put the output jack in to a hi-fi stereo recorder and create an excellent copy. Or one can develop programs that will grab data from sound outpt device on your computer and create audio files.
Now if he is free to do that or not is a different question.

Highway of death

2006-10-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

Watched the movie Jarhead to night. It is about US marines at first gulf war. Typical Hollywood war movie. But the main theme is disturbing - a soldier (human being) at war just wants to kill something - he and his group is sad and dejected that they didn't get their "kill" - the air force and other military groups stole it from them.Excellent US marine!
The movie has a scene that reminded me of the "Highway of death" - a shameful atrocity that Bush sr. had succeeded in hiding from rest of the world. I remember hearing about that in my college days. Attacking withdrawing troops!! If I say that is animosity, even animals would feel ashamed. Hang your head down in shame you rats! You are not doing any good in Gulf war 2 either.

My Experiment with the "Extreme Swing app"

2006-10-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

"The Extreme Swing App is" Aerith

This application for sure showcases the power and features in Java2D in JSDK 1.6.
Setting up this project on Netbeans is very simple, given that you satisfy the dependencies properly. I will write the steps in next blog - assuming someone would read some day.
I tried setting this up in my Ubuntu Dapper with lastest Java and a little old swingx library.

Aerith ran, fetched pictures from my flickr account, but apparently due to bugs in ATI Linux drivers, the "eye candy" did really not work. Hm!

Google code search

2006-10-15T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hey! you all lazy programmers....google is here to save your day.
If you search around internet for code, google code search would be a your best tool.
Apparantly, when indexing webpages, google indexes things that looks like source code and makes them available under code search. Good idea and very useful for programmers.

Meh!

2006-10-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

Tiger - Java SE 5
Mustang - Java SE 6
Dolphin - Java SE 7

Sun has decided not to use cool animal names anymore !
Whatever! meh!

The Departed

2006-10-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Watched the latest Scorsese flick 'The departed' this weekend.
Man! this movie is a 100% entertainer. A gangster suspense story, with almost everybody in their best form. The movie keeps you drawn till the last scene. I dont want to say too much detail and spoil the suspense. Enjoy it yourself!

Welcome to eye-candy age!

2006-09-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

One big trend in user interface world - eye candies! yes, we are no longer interested in green and black screens or flat/chiseled windows. We need action on our application, a little 3D and animation everywhere! because life isn't flat and linear after all! Here are some observations

From Linux world

XGL + Compiz
Gnome 2.16

Apple OS X and iTunes

Leopard and bundled cool apps
Latest iTunes

Windows Vista

Don't know when it will come out, but offers a lot of graphical UI improvements

Java 6

Better support for open GL, 3D and Font rendering

New age web applications

Check out web reloaded

Apple rules my world!

2006-09-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Though I am a linux fan, nothing compares with Apple when it comes to user experience. Look at the new iPod shuffle and iTunes 7 they have just released!
A perfect example of simple and pleasing design - both in Hardware and software. I just downloaded iTunes 7 and it forces me to go back to windows. Man! what a nifty UI!!! The album art(Cover art) show case view is just out of this world(only OS X matches this). By the way, Romain Guy had a very similar java(swing! yes) application, which did a neat animation with cover arts. Check it out!

JDK 6.0 Fonts and Quaqua Look and Feel

2006-09-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this excellent look and feel library. This is called "quaqua" and it is designed for swing applications on OS X. Well, since this is java, you could use the look and feel on M$ Windows or any other java platform as well - but ofcourse, you can't complain if it breaks on your OS because, it was originally designed for OS X. Also, there are legal reasons why you should not use it on your platform(this is what I heard from its author).
However, I patched up the jEdit look and feel plugin to draw my jEdit using Qaqua look and feel. Actually, I did that for quite a few java swing apps that I use frequently. Yes! you heard it right, I use swing applications on my desktop. Here are the screenshots how it looks on my win XP workstation.
Oh! coming to JDK 6.0 (otherwise called the 'mustang'), it has some major face lifts for swing. One thing that will catch your eyes is Sub pixel smoothing or anti-aliasing that it supports. Way to go!

Viewing Malayalam web pages in Ubuntu (or any Linux)

2006-09-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

After a long time, I thought of checking out some local news in a newspaper website in my native language - that is Malayalam. I thought Ubuntu - Firefox would show the fonts without any additional effort. But I was wrong. A couple of minutes after googling, I got malayalam pages working for me. So here's what you need to do.

Make sure you have installed "ttf-malayalam-fonts" in your PC.
If not, for ubuntu, do the following


sudo apt-get install ttf-malayalam-fonts

Got Firefox's Tools->Extensions and click on "Get More Extensions" - in the extensions page, search and find "padma" extension.
Or use this link if it works for you :)

Install this extension and re-start firefox. You should be able to see Malayalam pages as shown below:

My First Post in Blogger, a copy from my MSN space

2006-08-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

New Google online apps and APIs

Did you notice the new applications available for you through on your google page?

Well, if you haven't, they are giving you google calendar and google spreadsheet along with your gmail. I checked these applications out, and they are pretty cool and powerful. You can even configure alerts on your google calender, that will send messages to your mail or mobile(only verizon). The spreadsheet app is yet another powerful application from google, but I guess some experience with a spreadsheet app is required before really using it.

Now, coming to tech related stuff.

First is gwt - that is google web toolkit. This toolkit is a Java API to write AJAX applications. That means, you do not have to worry about writing bunch of javascript to get cool web widgets to working - such as tables, list boxes, navigation trees etc. Go checkout

Second is the the project hosting space - called google code. This is something in the lines of sourceforge. If you want to host an open source project, say with in 15 minutes, this is the choice. You get a project homepage, issue tracker(bugzilla) and sub version based version control. I guess they are targetting small individual projects unlike huge projects hosted in sourceforge. Go create your project and check in some impressive code, who knows, may be google would hire you.

Good luck!