Manav Gupta

A review of digiKam

2010-12-14T01:25:00.000Z

After an epic (but failed) struggle to get Canon EOS Utilities to work on XP on Virtualbox, I started looking around for a suitable alternative on Ubuntu. Quick googling took me to a fantastic page on photography-on-the-netThe page lists a number of options, such as:digiKamShotwellF-SpotGoogle PicasagThumbI have already tried F-Spot (which is incidentally the default graphics editor on

Why ScribeFire has a long way to go

2010-12-13T22:06:00.001Z

Scribefire is an extension to Firefox, Chrome and Safari web browsers. I had used it in the past circa 2008 (so, an era, in Internet times). While it beats Blogger's (and a number of other, free blogging websites tools including wordpress), I had given up on it last time since I had run into intermittent problems (specifically around upload of images, losing posts while editing, etc)Fast forward

Amazon EC2 Costs - A reality check

2010-12-01T22:48:00.003Z

Ever since Amazon introduced its EC2 virtual computing environment, the disruptive pricing has been crucial to disrupting the market. However, it is quite easy for vendors / System Integrators to think moving to "cloud" would dramatically lower the costs, while in some cases, the costs may go up! Here's what you see you on the EC2 website when you want to find the costs: Looking at the pricing in

rsync / grsync and exclude files

2010-06-20T12:51:00.002+01:00

You'd think that these tools would be straightforward to use. Took me over 30 minutes to get grsync to work correctly for excluding some files from source.This is the syntax you need (you can add this to "additional options" in grsync)--exclude-from=In the exclude file, you need patterns in the order:*.exe*.htm(they don't work without the leading asterisk. go figure)

Service Management

2010-01-08T15:01:00.002Z

First in the articles in the series of Service Management, I have started delving into detail on IBM Service Management, called Integrated Service Management, or ISM. ISM is defined as the methods and software needed to assure quality service delivery and reduce infrastructure costs.Benefits of Service Management include:Improved service quality Seamless Integrated processes across the

Components of a Cloud Computing Model

2009-09-10T14:47:00.004+01:00

This article provides the architectural overview of a Cloud Computing platform to communicate a brief and clear overview of the target IT system in a Cloud. At the topmost level, every cloud can be viewed as: Starting from

Test Drive the IBM cloud

2009-09-02T15:45:00.004+01:00

In this article we will test drive an IBM cloud. First, get your account at IBM Developer CloudApart from the demo video on that page, the bottom of the page has nice stats about the cloud such as:Sign-up to create an account. Please note there's a delay between your account being created and it actually activated for you to be able to create any instances. To find out if your instance is active,

Types Of Cloud (Computing)

2009-09-02T13:17:00.001+01:00

The long-held dream of utility computing has arrived and is here to stay, with some of the biggest players in the industry investing significant dollars. IBM has announced a raft of cloud computing services, and so has Amazon.Fundamentally, all cloud services are derivatives of the following types:1. Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) - A typically virtualized platform is delivered as a service.

From ASP to Cloud

2009-08-27T09:50:00.004+01:00

10 years ago, ASP (or Application Service Provider) model was the hottest thing in Silicon Valley. All sorts of names were into play - incumbents were soon followed by stalwarts of the industry in delivering software services over the web. Like most fads, it didn't last long, however, it did pave the way for its new avatar - cloud computing.So what's changed?For one, The Internet. It's more

Cloud Computing

2009-08-27T09:04:00.002+01:00

One of the biggest buzzwords in the industry today (after web 2.0) is cloud computing. It is typically defined as a type of computing with the following characteristics:1. Scalable2. Virtualized3. Delivered over InternetPut simply, cloud computing removes the burden of installation, maintenance and to some extent support, of IT services/resources that are required by a business to deliver the

mySQL vagaries

2009-08-20T15:51:00.001+01:00

So having to mess around with mysql, I picked up a few things of interest:Stopping and Restarting MySQL ServerTo stop your mysql server:mysqladmin -u root -p shutdownTo start your mysql server:mysqld_safe &

Terminal too wide - vi error

2009-08-14T14:58:00.005+01:00

I always used to face this problem while trying to use a maximised Putty window and editing a file with vi:Finally, I found a solution:stty columns 120Works like a charm now!

How to avoid midnight conf-calls

2009-08-07T18:02:00.001+01:00

Ten tips to get a good night's sleepTrain and explain - Show others how to restart servers and services, on production platforms. Not dev, not test and not a replica. Allegedly replica or "reference" platforms have a habit of not being in sync.Accept Outsourcing models - wake up and smell the cheese. Outsourcing is here to stay. To Vietnam if not India. The sooner you accept and share vital (for

Solaris 10 on Vmware - failed attempts

2009-08-06T17:51:00.004+01:00

Its official. After 2 days of messing around with various version of VMware (server as well workstation) and Solaris (9 and 10), I've given up trying to install Solaris 10 on VMware.The problem started when I couldn't get VMware tools installed on my Solaris 10 image, since it couldn't find "svcprop" binary. A system-wide search didn't reveal anything either. Google didn't help much.So, I upped

Citation Management tools

2009-08-05T12:16:00.001+01:00

When I started writing out my thesis last time around, I ended up experimenting with various tools, open source as well as commercial:JSTOR - allows you to export citations to bibliographic softwareEndNote - probably the best commercial software in the category.However, I didn't quite get to grips with working in a RTF file that EndNote wanted and then trying to manage my citations that way. I

Proliferation of passwords

2009-08-04T14:07:00.003+01:00

We all have passwords for something or the other; more so in today's world. Currently, I have the following passwords:Gmail and hotmail accounts, and for Yahoo Flickr accountThe AT&T VPN client to login to the corporate work networkLotus notes passwords to log into ..well Notes, to view emailCorporate Intranet SameTime for corporate instant messaging (which is thankfully the same as the Corporate

Developing an intelligent framework to play finite-information board games

2009-08-04T13:49:00.005+01:00

Computer or video games employ artificial intelligence to provide more interesting and challenging experience. Most AI is achieved by pre-scripted routines. However, designing programs that can play real-life games with human-like ability are a growing area of interest, since the better we become at designing such programs, the more we can learn to apply learning tactics in machines.The meta-game

Perl one liner for dos2unix

2009-04-16T12:35:00.004+01:00

So we have all come across the situation: you copy a bunch of files from DOS/Windows to Unix and the newline characters are all messed up (in other words, you see a "^M" at the end of each line). So the scripts you wrote lovingly, are all messed up now.There are two choices:Use dos2unix - this will change the newline characters one file at a time. Trouble is, that dos2unix writes to stdout, so

Back again

2009-04-16T12:32:00.002+01:00

Wow, it's been a while that I've been here... there's just been way too much travel..I'm currently in Romania, after surviving a near death experience in a local taxi (which of all things, was about to hit a Police car, or maybe it was the other way around)... no one was hurt, though I was shaken... a lot!I'm going to try to be more regular here now.

Sunshine, you are my sunshine!

2008-09-21T23:22:00.001+01:00

Sunshine, you are my sunshine!Originally uploaded by Manav GuptaI am really proud of this shot! It took me a long time to compose it just the way I wanted it, with a nice clear subject, and a blurry background, and I wanted perfectly clear fleurs.Hope you like it too!

Nigella damascena, White

2008-08-29T22:49:00.002+01:00

Nigella damascena, WhiteOriginally uploaded by Manav GuptaFound in my neighbour's garden, one windy London afternoon.I had no idea what this was, but one of my friends on Flickr (jacilluch) pointed out very kindly that it was Nigella damascena. Quick googling revealed its also called devil-in-the-bush, presumably because of its beauty! :-)

Look at me! Look at me!

2008-08-25T12:18:00.001+01:00

Self PortraitOriginally uploaded by Manav GuptaSo, I venture out on a typical wet & blustry morning, and I remember to take my camera with me... my neighbours invite me to go through their shrubs, and voila! I find this lil fella going "look at me, look me!"...He allowed me to get in pretty close, and if you view this in the large version, he seems to be enjoying the attention :-) And while I'm

Freeze Action!

2008-08-24T10:31:00.001+01:00

Freeze Action!Originally uploaded by Manav GuptaI went to the Bushy Park in Hampton with my parents yesterday. The weather was great, and the geese were more than happy to have us, especially for food. One of them even snatched an apple off my mom's hands

Hmm...maybe there's some nectar left in there...

2008-08-22T21:25:00.001+01:00

Hmm...maybe there's some nectar left in there...Originally uploaded by Manav GuptaOne of my most recent shots. I bought a canon 60mm macro lens for my camera a few days ago, and off I went with my mom in two, looking for some ripe subjects. Of course, as usual my mom knew better places than me. So I found myself outside this house, with wonderful flowers in the garden, and a low-low fence, so I

Word Tables and cells with VBA

2008-02-22T17:51:00.008Z

I cannot believe how hard this was (took me 3 to 4 hours) - working with Word tables and cells, and here's a synopsis of what I had to go through.Objective:INPUT FILE Header text to be copied on every output file Second line of header text to be copied on every output file (if having more than one line screws things up I can have just one) Column Heading 1 Column Heading 2

Installing Ubuntu from USB flash drive....

2008-01-29T21:17:00.000Z

So, after countless failed attempts, here's another go.Turns out there are several people in the same rut as me, not to mention the countless on Ubuntu forums begging to know what to do once thrown to the BusyBox console (what's up with that name anyway?).However, I did find a couple of new URLs:http://learn.clemsonlinux.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Install_from_USB_drivehttp://kmandla.wordpress.com/2006/12/

Booting from USB drive

2008-01-28T12:51:00.001Z

I know its been a while since I came back to my blog. Things have been quite bad, but more on that later...So then, I got a new Thinkpad t61p, with 2 GB RAM and 100 GB HDD pre-installed. Another 2 GB RAM was provided later, as well as a 200 GB HDD (wahey!). However, now that I have 300 GB HDD (I got rid of the DVD/RW drive), I wanted to install Ubuntu. So, off I went and downloaded all ~700 MB of

More Tulips...

2007-11-05T00:29:00.001Z

More Tulips... Originally uploaded by Manav Gupta Here's another picture from the same set...

More Tulips...

2007-11-05T00:27:00.001Z

More Tulips... Originally uploaded by Manav Gupta One of my very old pictures, from the "flowers" set on my flicker account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14621919@N07/), I'm quite pleased with the sun on this photo.I took over a dozen shots to finally get something useable.

VOIP Network Elements

2006-04-22T11:08:00.000+01:00

Service providers or enterprises can develop a Voice over IP architecture in one of three ways: —By IP-enabling an existing telephony network —By voice-enabling an existing IP or other packet network —By building a pure IP telephony network from scratchRegardless of a service provider gets to a Voice over IP architecture, the end result is the same. Whether the network is a pure

Telecom resources

2006-03-09T01:17:00.000Z

So, in my quest to read-up more (I will make a separate section on this sometime), here's more telecom resources:International Engineering Consortium, Tutotials Next generation networkingTelecom resourcesEricsson - Understanding telecommunicationsNote to self: Submit info on the following Wikipedia stub:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_traffic_engineering

Latest books ordered

2006-03-09T01:06:00.000Z

While looking for some new material to read, I came across the following:Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character - Richard FeynmanMen of Mathematics - E T BellWhile I've ordered these two, others that I'm contemplating are:The Art of Computer Programming: Vol 1-3 by Donald KnuthThough I've read at least the first volume, I didn't know the following:In addition to

Quality of Service

2006-02-26T12:46:00.000Z

quality of service In the fields of packet-switched networks and computer networking, the traffic engineering term Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the probability of the telecommunication network meeting a given traffic contract, or in many cases is used informally to refer to the probability of a packet succeeding in passing between two points in the network. In the field of telephony,

vi 'ed

2005-06-02T13:44:00.000+01:00

I've been using vi for quite a while now, however, never really bothered to trawl through the man pages to learn its more esoteric capabilities. Besides, the usage wasn't very high, and I resorted to the usual 'copy over to windows, modify in Word' strategy.Now that I had some time, I've been able to explore a few things:Search and ReplaceSearch: as we probably all know, a pattern can be searched

Managing PuTTY settings

2005-06-01T12:24:00.001+01:00

On windows, PuTTY settings are stored in the following registry key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SessionsTo export settings to a file:regedit /e putty.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SessionsTo import settings:regedit /s putty.reg

Oracle for Unix - I

2005-05-18T08:46:00.000+01:00

oratabFound usually in /etc or /var/opt/oracle.oratab is used by ORACLE utilities. It is created by the root.sh script (a part of Oracle installer), and is updated by the Database Configuration Assistant when creating a database.Entries in this file have the following format:$ORACLE_SID:$ORACLE_HOME::A colon, ':', is used as the field terminator. A new line terminates the entry. Lines beginning

Cisco SAA

2005-05-10T08:48:00.000+01:00

The Cisco Service Assurance Agent (SAA) is a Cisco IOS feature that allows users to monitor network performance between a Cisco router and a remote device (which can be another Cisco router, an IP Host or an MVS host). Performance can be measured for real world scenarios through the configuration of SAA operations that are executed periodically. Metrics measured include round trip response time,

Layer 2, 3 and 4 switching

2005-05-09T10:00:00.000+01:00

OSI LayerPhysicalComponent 7-ApplicationApplicaton SoftwareLAN-Compatible SoftwareE-Mail, Diagnostics, Word Processing, DatabaseNetwork Applications6-PresentationData-Conversion UtilitiesVendor-Specific Network Shells and Gateway™ Workstation Software5-SessionNetwork Operating SystemSPXNetBIOSDECnet™TCP/IPAppleTalk®4-TransportNovell® NetWare® IPX™PC LANLAN MgrDECnetPC/TCP®VINES™NFSTOPS®AppleShare

MPLS

2005-05-09T09:36:00.000+01:00

MPLS is an IETF initiative that integrates Layer 2 information about network links (bandwidth, latency, utilization) into Layer 3 (IP) within a particular autonomous system--or ISP--in order to simplify and improve IP-packet exchange. MPLS gives network operators a great deal of flexibility to divert and route traffic around link failures, congestion, and bottlenecks. From a QoS standpoint, ISPs

Perl - delete empty directories

2005-04-12T12:17:00.001+01:00

The Program use File::Find;finddepth(sub{rmdir},'.') But wait, there's more!To save the time of copying that to a file before running it, use Perl's lazy feature whereby one can run a whole program from a string. Simply, on the command prompt, type perl -MFile::Find -e"finddepth(sub{rmdir},'.')" Cool, huh?!

RegEdit, RegEdt32 Fun!

2005-03-29T16:06:00.000+01:00

Here's something that I didn't know about:RegEdit /s - Imports a registry file into windows registry. (-S = silent import)RegEdit /e - Exports a registry path to filename.Cool, huh?Ideal for passing around PuTTY settings :-)

Oracle space management

2005-02-17T10:10:00.000Z

List all tablespaces and the files that belong to themCOLUMN TABLESPACE_NAME FORMAT A40COLUM BYTES/1024*1024 FORMAT 999,999,999,999SELECT FILE_NAME,TABLESPACE_NAME, BYTES/1024*1024FROM dba_data_filesArchive Log Mode Status/* log mode of databases */SELECT name, log_mode FROM v$database;Find overall size of the databaseCOLUMN sum(bytes)/1024/1024 FORMAT 999,999,999,999select sum(bytes)/1024/1024

Solaris run levels

2005-02-16T14:04:00.000Z

Solaris init states refer to the services provided by the system. The exact services and processes run at each init level are determined by the scripts in the /etc/rc#.d directories. The default service levels for each init state are: 0: The system is at the security monitor (>) prompt. It is safe to shut down the system when it is at this init state. 1, s or S: This state is known as "

Ipswich and Adastral BT

2005-02-14T12:10:00.000Z

Ipswich is in the heart of East Anglia and the heart of Europe. It is the regional centre for business, shopping, sport and entertainment. Ipswich is home to IP-City and is one pole of the Cambridge/Ipswich Hi-Tech Corridor. It is proud of its 800-year Royal Charter and its long maritime tradition and also possesses a magnificent heritage and fine parks.Adastral Park is a large campus in the

Week II in France

2005-02-03T13:31:00.000Z

The Indian from England with quasi-American accent was back in Paris. Yay! Guess the French weren’t so happy as the grumpy official at passport control was brusque enough to wipe my helpful (slight nervous?) smile. The taxi driver could speak some English though. Another yay! Not that it was of much use – the splitting headache and his hands-free mobile made quick work of whatever appetite I had

A week in France

2005-02-03T13:22:00.000Z

A week in France So finally the visa problems were sorted out and I was off to France. The flight was uneventful, however, upon arriving in France I found that my mobile wasn’t working. After some interesting conversation with the taxi driver at the airport (and abortive attempts to pronounce the name of the place I had to go), I somehow managed to reach Porte de Saint Cloud. The hotel wasn’t

Swastika

2005-01-18T22:05:00.000Z

I've had a lot of stick about this with my (mainly western) friends - The Swastiska. Made popular by its association with Hitler's nazism and racism. Which always made me want to shrivel up and implode, since that symbol of hatred was ever present in innocuous little forms in my house all year-round. Of course, these were the days before The Internet and its panacea, Google. Days which relied

Airbus A380

2005-01-18T16:44:00.000Z

It is rather ironic, and perhaps a sign of times, that a new passenger aircraft has been launched favouring the masses, when the one favouring technology and human excellence had to be taken off the skies. Below are the specifications for this monstrosity that shall soon be let loose upon humanity. Length: 73m Wingspan: 79.8m Height: 24.1m Typical capacity: 555 Max capacity: 840

Hindi music and DVD websites

2005-01-11T11:06:00.000Z

It's always a pain finding a decent hindi radio station, among the hive of bhangra spewing bollywood/asian "transition" stations, which play pretty much the same music. This page lists such resources, along with websites that stock hindi DVDs not just from the current releases, but the real stuff of the past Radio stations DeSi-RaDiO (Listen now!)- plays indian/pakistani songs. This is

More webcams on google

2005-01-11T02:09:00.000Z

No, not the naughty kinds Following my earlier post on this, I fiddled around with documents types and found some more interesting stuff on Google. Here's another query that gives you URL to webcams online. Voila! The results are even better this time! Not only are there cams available for public viewing, but there are cams that you can pan and rotate, and even with sound! : This one seems to

Publicly accessible online webcams

2005-01-10T17:07:00.000Z

I'll never tire of being amazed at the kind of stuff that I find on Google. Here's a Google query that retrieves a list of online web-cams - some of which are probably not meant to be publicly accessible. For example: a Shoe Store, an airfield (Grenchen, Switzerland), and a regional airport (Stuttgart). Most of the cams have pretty boring stuff on them, like this gas station, or this

"Extremely critical" IE6/SP2 Exploit Found

2005-01-09T14:31:00.000Z

Another day, and brings another not-so-cheerful news... Secunia is reporting three vulnerabilities in IE6 running on XP SP2. Any of these, in combination with an inappropriate behaviour where the ActiveX Data Object (ADO) model can write arbitrary files, can be exploited to compromise a user's system. Moreover, the vulnerability can be used to delete files from the user's system Insufficient

Real life newspaper Ad

2005-01-07T23:16:00.000Z

Authenticity doubtful, but funny nevertheless --- The following is an ad from a real-life newspaper, which appeared four days ina row - the last three hopelessly trying to correct the first day's mistake. MONDAY: For sale: R.D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Phone 948-0707after 7 PM. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who lives with him cheap. TUESDAY: Notice: We regret having erred in R.D. Jones'

Microsoft Anti-spyware

2005-01-07T14:23:00.000Z

Is this a new approach for thwarting bugs, malicious and unwanted programs, or is it a dubious attempt for revenue generation from an industry it helped to create? It's nice to see the software giant attack the persistent problem head-on, rather than incomplete and inappropriate response (including XP SP2, which is more or less a bunch of "hotfixes" bundled together). The Anti-spyware program,

Silent remembrance

2005-01-05T13:30:00.000Z

There was a 3 minute silence observed today to remember the 150,000 killed by tsunami in SE Asia. Stock exchanges stopped trading, cars remained motionless in the streets of Stockholm, and mourners stood shoulder to shoulder in Paris. Flags flew at halfmast in UK, and even the royal household observed the silence. As always, there were a few voices of disquiet. Why silence? What does observing

Gmail invite

2005-01-04T10:43:00.000Z

OK, here's the deal. After giving away all the invites that I had so far, I still have 10 remaining. I'd hate to see them go waste, so I'm offering those to anyone who wants them. Please leave your first name, last name and email address as a comment to this post, and I'll send you an invite. EDIT Jan 20, 2005: 4 invites remaining

Indian cinema: We never learn

2004-12-24T10:31:00.000Z

I saw a Bollywood film last night, after a long time. Sadly though, not much has changed during the time I didnt watch one. Why is it that one never has a truly endearing moment in a Bollywoord film -a moment where you conjoin with a character as if the events unfolding in front of your eyes, are a recollection of events in your past depicting exactly how it all happened? Or that it was just how

Same old, Same old

2004-12-22T11:14:00.000Z

So then, another day, and the hypocrisy in India is never ebbing. Two high-school students from Delhi Public School were filmed having oral sex. Well, apparently the boy filmed (or his associate, I dunno, I haven't seen the film) it using his camera phone. Wicked. Only, reports say the girl is smiling and all happy in it. Now though that reminds me of a certain joke, one never truly knows the

London Attractions

2004-12-21T13:48:00.000Z

I'm planning to take my parents around London during Christmas holidays this year, so I started looking at different websites for the available attractions, places to see and things to do! First of, London is expensive! There are few attractions that free, and for the rest, the entry fee is quite a lot. Here's a small list: Attraction Price Duration Remarks Location London Eye 10.9 30 mins

Installing and configuring CUPS

2004-12-20T11:07:00.000Z

In my new office, most of the workstations are NT/2000 boxes on a separate LAN (called CH2M), while there are a few development machines on a separate LAN (called OSE). The two networks can talk to each other via the host Matrix (Linux 2.4.18-14), which also has Samba (2.2.5) installed on it. There is a network printer (LaserJet 4050 TN), among others, available for printing. I wasn't sure how

Serialization and JSP taglibs

2004-08-12T11:54:00.000+01:00

Why would one want to have tag libraries serialized? This is what the spec says for TagSupport: public class TagSupport extends java.lang.Object implements IterationTag, java.io.Serializable A base class for defining new tag handlers implementing Tag. The TagSupport class is a utility class intended to be used as the base class for new tag handlers. The TagSupport class implements the Tag and

Java - instaceof vs equals()

2004-07-28T13:17:00.000+01:00

Java instaceof vs equals() I've been doing some code reviews lately and found that programmers across the team have used different means of comparing object instance equality. 1. There are those who use "instanceof" of check if an object is an instance of a given concret type: if (theObject instanceof TypeA) { // do something based on TypeA } else if (theObject instanceof TypeB) { // do

First Musing

2003-09-16T20:22:00.001+01:00

I quite hate the fact that blogger is supposed to be this online diary where one can just put in whatever their current musings are. Its good to have something to pen your thoughts in, but writing a detailed account of what one did since getting up in the morning, IMO, is an obsession. phew!I'm trying to do my essay for stanford mba, and this is the current draft:What matters most to you, and why