Monday, April 03, 2006

Schrödinger now and then


He is now 4 1/2 months old, and the older photo was taken when he was around 1 month old. Now you might want to know his breed. Im fed up of hearing this question, so im gonna let it out. He is of Dan breed, more precisely NaDan.


V for Vendekka

Saw Vendekka on friday. It reminded me of The Mask of Zorro for obvious reasons.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

XPS 600 Renegade

Dell just announced the XPS 600 Renegade. It is one of the most expensive pc's out there, and costs around $10000. Lets see what it has
Pentium D 965 Extreme Edition dual core processor overclocked from 3.73 to 4.26GHz
2GB DDR2-667
Dual 160 GB 10,000 rpm Western Digital drives in RAID 0 configuration
Secondary WD 400GB 7200GB Hard Drive
and now the main part
Quad-SLI system with 4 GeForce 7900 GTX graphics card with 512MB mem each .. my dog :0
The 7900GTX was released just some weeks back!
Ageia Physx processor for physics
DVDBurner, Klipsch Pro Media 5.1 speakers or Logitech Z-5500 500 watt 5.1 digital surround speakers, Sound Blast X-Fi Fatality sound card with front-side controller, 30" LCD with resolution 2560x1600, 10 USB 2.0 ports

links 1 2 3
Zeus (or is it USMAN?) come on!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Monday, March 13, 2006

F1 Season


The Three Stars

Hats off to Kimi for finishing third after starting from the last .

Alonso said - ''I'm surprised he was on the podium because he was starting from the back, I thought Jenson (Button) was third. I think he did a good from where he was starting.''
Michael said - "He's very quick. How quick, we'll find out''

Also nice to see newcomer Nico Rosberg scoring the fastest lap. Seems like its a good season ahead.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Friday, February 24, 2006

Irréversible

The Horror! The Horror!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

online tools

Web has progressed so much that some people have coined buzzwords like Web2.0 .I will explain some tools which i found interesting
Blogs.
blogger, wordpress ..
If you are reading this, you already know this. If you dont have one, start one now!
RSS Feeds.
Dynamic content sites like news sites, blogs supports something called RSS feeds. You can subscribe to these feeds and use a feed reader to read them, just like mail. I think Joel Spolsky once remarked the difference between reading a feed and going to the site. Its like looking every second whether it is 3'o clock / setting an alarm for 3'o clock. There are many varieties of feed readers ranging from desktop clients, browser integrated to online ones.
Desktop.
RSS Bandit, Omea Reader etc.
These readers also support tabbed browsing.
Browser Based.
Firefox builtin live bookmarks, Opera, IE7 If you are using Firefox, you can get good plugins like Sage. The builtin live bookmarks are pretty primitive. Opera has a very good feed reader integrated. These tools have added advantage that if you are browsing a site having feed, a button will be shown in the address bar which you can click to subscribe. In desktop/online clients you have to manually copy paste the rss link.
Online.
Bloglines, Google Reader, Newsalloy
Advantage is that you dont have to install any client side things.
Opml
Most of the readers support something called Opml format. This represents your collection of feeds. You can import/export opml. Once you create your opml, you can experiment with various clients. (opera9 supports importing/exporting of opml). Try out some opmls from http://indibloggies.org/nominations-2005/
Bookmarking.
del.icio.us, furl, scuttle, google bookmarks, yahoo myweb2.0
These sites support saving your bookmarks online. There are many advantages like being able to access yor bookmarks from any computer, accessing others bookmarks etc. Many of them allows accessing others bookmarks as rss feeds. For eg you can access my bookmarks here. So if you have any interesting links to share, share it using these tools Posting a bookmark while browing is easy. You just need to get the bookmarklets from these sites and click on them. del.ici.ous supports firefox extension which is little more easy. Also there is another browser called Flock (built on top of firefox) which makes it very easy to add bookmarks. It also support client side caching of your bookmarks
Many of these tools (blogs, bookmarking sites etc) support something called tags. This is the category which the link belongs to. You will be able to access the popular links for that tag etc. For eg this is the link for popular links tagged with name ai in del.icio.us
Online chats.
gtalkr, meebo
Again advantage is you dont have to install any client side things. meebo supports multiple chats like yahoo, aim etc
Picture Sharing.
Flickr
Here you share your pictures. Flickr has tagging mechanism like del.icio.us
Blog Searching
Technorati, Google Blog Search, Icerocket
pretty much self explanatory
Dictionary
Answers.com, wikipedia
If you need to know about anything, just go to these sites and search. Most of the browsers support adding search plugins to these sites.
News sites
digg, slashdot, reddit
Of course i will link only technology sites :). digg is one serious contender for slashdot. You have to subscribe to the feed because it spits out tons of news items in a day.
Im not saying anything about podcasting as i dont use it now.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

onlisp

Pleasant surprise in the morning. Paul Graham's OnLisp is now free. Go get it http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html

Monday, January 30, 2006

emacs

I was a vim user. But i always wanted to switch to emacs. I ve heard that vim can do whatever emacs can. Anyway .. after i started exploring lisp, i heard from lisp community that how good emacs was. So i bought "Learning GNU Emacs" in the hope that one day i will learn it. I use command prompt (windows) quite often in my office. One thing that bothered me was running so many command prompts and switching between those. So for all those ppl who suffer these things, im going to write how to use emacs. Start using it. Get the installation from here (windows).
After extracting, run addpm.exe from bin.

note:
C means Ctrl and M means Alt. So C-x means pressing Ctrl + x. C-c C-x means pressing Ctrl + c + x (ie hold Ctrl and type c and x). C-c x means Ctrl + c then release Ctrl, press c

Useful Commands

Opening a file - C-x C-f
A prompt comes below (near status bar) asking for file. you can use TAB for navigating directories or files.
Quitting a Command - C-g
Often you start typing some command and want to quit (ie escaping .. note ESC doesnt work that way). Use this.
For eg. you wanted to open file and did C-x but but you want to cancel it. do a C-g
Quitting emacs - C-x C-c
Saving a file - C-x s
Saving to another file (Save As) - C-x C-w
Saving all opened files (see buffers) - C-x C-s
Windows Commands
Emacs can open many windows inside it. Often it happens that some command or command completion opens a new window and your window splits. This will be annoying in the beginning. Use the commands below to navigate windows.

Going to other window - C-x o
Maximizing current window (current means where cursor is) - C-x 1
Splitting current window - C-x 2
Note that if you open new file after this, file will be opened in that window.
Splitting current window Vertically - C-x 3
See that C-x 2 opens window horizontally. Also you can use this and previous command inside a subwindow also.

Buffers
Buffers represent all the open files and buffers not connected to files ;). If you are using the GUI version, you can see the buffers in the menubar. You can switch to the buffers from there.
Going to another Buffer - C-x b
Press enter. This will go to the previously used buffer
Listing Buffers - C-x C-b (see the difference between previous and this command. In previous you needed to release Ctrl after x was pressed, and in this you need to use Ctrl for both x and b)
This will open another window listing all the buffers. To move to that window use C-x o, or use mouse. You can navigate through lines using 'n' and 'p' (next and previous .. You can use C-n instead of downarrow or C-p instead of uparrow. In Buffer List you need not use C-n, instead you can use n itself .. similarly for p). To select any buffer you can press '1'. This will make that buffer in a maximized window.
There are some other useful things to do in this buffer list. Like if you want to delete some buffers press 'd'. A 'D' will come next to that buffer. To undo anything press 'u'. Finally to execute these press x.

Closing a buffer - C-x k
Press enter. To close many buffers see above

Editing Commands.
This section will represent all the basic things like cut, copy, search etc.

Up Arrow alternative - C-p
Down Arrow alternative - C-n
Left Arrow alternative - C-b
Right Arrow alternative - C-f
(i suggest to use these once you get comfortable with emacs, otherwise all these will garble your brain)
Refreshing screen with current line in middle - C-l

Moving to start of line - C-a
Moving to end of line - C-e
Moving to start of file - M-< Moving to end of file - M->
(use shift key for '<' or '>')
Selecting some text (for copying or deleting).
Use C-space for setting a mark. Use arrow keys (or alternatives) to move to the location till you want the text to be selected. (By default it will not show selected region highlighted. See using .emacs file (below) to how to change the behaviour)

Once you have selected your text use below commands for copying, pasting etc
Copying Text - M-w
Cutting Text - C-w
Note that C and M (ctrl and alt) have many similarities in commands
Pasting Text - C-y (this is called yanking. in vim teminology yank means copy, but here it means paste)
Undo - C-/ or C-x u

Incremental search - C-s
Incremental search backwards - C-r
(note use C-s or C-r multiple times to find previous thing)
Ordinary Search - C-s enter

Running any command - M-x
I heard you can run any command using this. Type M-x and press TAB to see various commands. One example would be killing current buffer by M-x kill-buffer. Renaming buffer by M-x rename-buffer

Running command prompt or shell - M-x shell
enjoy. you can rename the shell to some other thing using M-x rename-buffer, and open as many shells as you can
Previous/Next commands in shell - M-p and M-n

Telnet - windows telnet doesnt work in shell. You need to dowload say jtelnet
(a java app). put the jar in CLASSPATH, and run
java thor.app.tenet.
One good thing is autocompletion of directory/files work probably because in shell.

.emacs file
In *nix .emacs resides in your home. in windows if you do a default installation, i think it takes from C:\. See the windows installation faq. Note that in windows it is named _emacs not .emacs (windows wont allow you to).
You can highlight the selected region by appending this in your emacs file
(transient-mark-mode t)
You can use syntax highlighting always by using
(cond ((fboundp 'global-font-lock-mode) (global-font-lock-mode t)
(setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t)))


Im a little bit tired now (no breakfast and lunch) .. if you want anything else do comment, i will update

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

rant

After all the comfort i had, im finally moving out of campus. New project, new manager, new place, new everything. I'll be moving to nearby location where neo was earlier.. slightly depressing. Since its last day in campus, we went outside for lunch. It was a good restaurant .. we had crab, squid, prawns and whatnot .. quite a feast.

I saw doom on monday .. it was ok. At least someone liked it.


Its a good four day weekend coming .. and am planning to watch the videos (around 10GB of divx) of sicp (book is available online). If you are a computer science student, do watch/read it. This is what they teach in MIT

Friday, January 20, 2006

garbage

Occasionally i go through python dev mailing list for interesting things. Today i came across this
where Guido says
>> FYI: Real libreadline is GPL, and rms made a point of forcing
>> (Aladdin-licensed) Ghostscript to remove stanzas from the Makefile
>> that allowed linking to it as a user option. Ie, this particular pain
>> in the neck is deliberate FSF policy, to encourage use of the GPL.

>Can we just all agree that RMS is an asshole now? Bah.

I respect both RMS and Guido and its funny how Guido doesnt like RMS. Another one here
"Citing RMS's insanity is a great way to get my blood steaming." --GvR

I remeber Guido getting an award from FSF. Some links 1 2.

Long before when ppl where using Tcl as glue language, RMS wanted to get a real language(he didnt like Tcl), Python was suggested. I think it was dropped as it was not under GPL. They set out to write Guile. I wonder where python would have been if it was chosen ..

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Zinda

Last week my original intention was to watch the movie Zinda, which ended up with collectivechaos. I felt the need even more so me and my friend sneaked out of the office yesterday at 3:30 to watch Zinda. nowrunning showed the move time as 4:40pm in PVR. We reached PVR only to find out that it had already started at 4:10. Since the website usually doesnt go wrong, we checked other classes and needless to say, it was there in gold class. The tickets in gold class will cost you 500Rs. We felt dumb to leave after all these efforts and decided to watch it from gold class. Out of the 500, you can claim 150 for food (i bought a 150Rs chicken roll .. wonder there was any chicken in it). The seat was great with buttons to adjust the positioning. You can make it a bed .. anything.


Coming to the movie .. well it was good. I always like dull colored movies ;). John Abraham was great.. and so was his hair. I remembered seeing a particular fight sequence in some movie (i think Zeus got it sometime back) .. and yes it seems Zinda is a ripoff of oldboy. Anyway good going Sanjay Gupta.

updtate:
My friend forwarded me an article on rediff
What i want say to these kind of people is just to shut the fuck up. If you dont like the idea .. dont watch it. Im tired of watching the silly bollywood movies. Zinda was an entertaining movie and i liked it. If its copied from somewhere, well i say it has been copied good. Without Zinda, i would have never came to know about oldboy or its concept. So its much better than watching nothing. All you pathetic critics out there .. eat shit and die!

Monday, January 16, 2006

spring summer fall winter ... aah crap

After one day of procrastinating over going for a movie, we set out yesterday for an ambitious goal of obtaining tickets from pvr on a sunday evening. It ended up with me, prashant, his friend and his friend's friend going for an "art movie" as i would call it (note: except for me, all others are regulars). There are a bunch of people called collectivechaos conducting this. Neo and Zeus .. you miss this crap :D
So what was the movie? .. it was called spring, summer, fall, winter...and spring. Here is my rather intellectual understanding of the movie


master and student - student harass animals - master punishes - student grows, so does master - girl comes for treatment - student screws girl - student screws girl multiple times - master sends girl away since she is recovered (of course because of screwing) - student runs away to find girl - girl runs away with another man - student kills girl - student returns - master punishes student - detectives come to catch student - student taken - master commits suicide (to a snake :? whatever) - student returns - student repents - lady leaves boy to student - lady dies - student the new master, boy the new student - loop

That would quite sum it up. Anyway i liked it and might go for it again. Hopefully no one from collectivechaos reads this blog, lest i might be burned alive!

Thursday, January 05, 2006

reverend blogs

reverend has a blog. He also has a site. Read his "Shadows in John Carmack's next engine" post.
I installed Quake4 in my work machine and it didnt work :( . Then i installed it in my laptop .. and it works!! . The graphics is pathetic, but playable. I didnt find any single player deathmatch, did they remove it? (i installed demo)

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Who are You?



You scored as James Bond, Agent 007. James Bond is MI6's best agent, a suave, sophisticated super spy with charm, cunning, and a license's to kill. He doesn't care about rules or regulations and somewhat amoral. He does care about saving humanity though, as well as the beautiful women who fill his world. Bond has expensive tastes, a wide knowledge of many subjects, and his usually armed with a clever gadget and an appropriate one-liner.

James Bond, Agent 007


75%

Batman, the Dark Knight


71%

Lara Croft


63%

The Terminator


63%

Indiana Jones


63%

Neo, the "One"


58%

William Wallace


54%

El Zorro


42%

The Amazing Spider-Man


33%

Maximus


33%

Captain Jack Sparrow


33%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Friday, December 23, 2005

Guido Hired

Wow .. Google hired Guido Van Rossum!!! see the news here
Ive been wondering when this will happen .. Hope this will fast forward python development.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

As Good As It Gets

I saw As Good As It Gets . Its a good movie. I loved the scene where he looses the dog and starts playing piano and then laughs at himself saying "for a dog". And yes how can you forget "You make me wanna be a better man" dialogue.


Monday, December 19, 2005

Dog

Dog in the house
buhahahaa

world is my loo


hydraulically pressed fake bone and joy


wine? .. hmm


better off with milk


closeup


yum .. sudoku

Not named it yet, i have suggested the name Schrödinger

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

PathFinding 2

I had earlier promised of explaining pathfinding through obstacles. Well i just wrote a quick applet to show it (using astar algorithm). Unfortunately its time for me to leave, so will explain later :).
Use
CTRL + left click to set predator
ALT + left click to set prey
click and drag to create walls
right click to solve

To clear use ALT + right click

yeah, i know that i should not be a ui programmer