Movie Time
Went to see Rang De Basanti yesterday. It was a nice movie and fun filled. Nostalgia of my attempt to join defence forces also came to me.
Reading python now.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
More Javascript
More on javascript and investigating on opening new window with customized content. Initial research is done and now I have to generate the necessary html content.
Was searching and reading on bots. I have a plan for a long time to write a bot that will collect the NAV of various mutual funds and help me to track my fund growth and decide on investing new funds. In design terms, it is in the conceptual stage. Hope to finish that by feb end.
I am feeling sleepy....
More on javascript and investigating on opening new window with customized content. Initial research is done and now I have to generate the necessary html content.
Was searching and reading on bots. I have a plan for a long time to write a bot that will collect the NAV of various mutual funds and help me to track my fund growth and decide on investing new funds. In design terms, it is in the conceptual stage. Hope to finish that by feb end.
I am feeling sleepy....
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Flirting with AJAX
Finally I have conquered ajax. It is an architecture or sort of design pattern. I knew little javascript before and that helped me in. I am building a site for MQSeries monitoring. The backend model is driven by php and the front end view powered by javascript. The application response is better than old load/refresh type of pages. Had tough time in making it work in IE6 since the support for CSS standards is poor.
Drop me a mail if you want/need details on how I had done it.
Meanwhile my new year resolution of fitness regimen is going on well.
I have to make a habit of updating my blog regularly.
Finally I have conquered ajax. It is an architecture or sort of design pattern. I knew little javascript before and that helped me in. I am building a site for MQSeries monitoring. The backend model is driven by php and the front end view powered by javascript. The application response is better than old load/refresh type of pages. Had tough time in making it work in IE6 since the support for CSS standards is poor.
Drop me a mail if you want/need details on how I had done it.
Meanwhile my new year resolution of fitness regimen is going on well.
I have to make a habit of updating my blog regularly.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Switched over to SUSE linux 10.0 OSS
Yesterday I downloaded SUSE and installed on my laptop. It was a breeze and it works quite nicely. I had to do this since it has become a pain to keep Fedora Core 4 working. To finalize, I screwed up the rpm db but unable to restore to any state. SUSE is good and I am a first time user. Really impressed.
I installed gnucash and now trying to sort out my Dell Truemobile 1300 WLAN. As I am writing this, I am installing gcc, ndiswrapper to make it work. Broadcom 4306 is setup successfully.
I am trying to understand and use Gnucash, which is quite complex.
Yesterday I downloaded SUSE and installed on my laptop. It was a breeze and it works quite nicely. I had to do this since it has become a pain to keep Fedora Core 4 working. To finalize, I screwed up the rpm db but unable to restore to any state. SUSE is good and I am a first time user. Really impressed.
I installed gnucash and now trying to sort out my Dell Truemobile 1300 WLAN. As I am writing this, I am installing gcc, ndiswrapper to make it work. Broadcom 4306 is setup successfully.
I am trying to understand and use Gnucash, which is quite complex.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Enabling GD in windows for php
There was no clear cut document for the issues I faced today. So, I am writing this for my own reference also. This document is intended for php version 4.3.x and above running on Apache2 and the gd bundled with php itself.
Make sure after installing/untarring the php in a location other than server root/document root. Create a directory called php under c:/ and copy the following files to php4apache2.dll, php4ts.dll, php.exe and php.ini (php.inst-dist from the php installation dir).
Enable php in apache. Open the httpd.conf in your favourite editor (vim) and add index.php to DirectoryIndex directive.
DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var index.php
Add another line to addType directive in httpd.conf
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Load the php SAPI as a module by adding this in httpd.conf
LoadModule php4_module “c:/php/php4apache2.dll”
Edit the php.ini file accordingly. The following should be updated. extensions should point to the extensions dir inside the php installation dir. If temp is not present, create temp folder.
doc_root = c:\apache\apache2\htdocs
extension_dir = c:\php\extensions
session.save_path = c:/temp
Uncomment the following line in php.ini.
extension=php_gd.dll
Finally copy the php.ini file to c:/windows dir.
Write a php file with the contents as below to check.
var_dump(gd_info());
There was no clear cut document for the issues I faced today. So, I am writing this for my own reference also. This document is intended for php version 4.3.x and above running on Apache2 and the gd bundled with php itself.
Make sure after installing/untarring the php in a location other than server root/document root. Create a directory called php under c:/ and copy the following files to php4apache2.dll, php4ts.dll, php.exe and php.ini (php.inst-dist from the php installation dir).
Enable php in apache. Open the httpd.conf in your favourite editor (vim) and add index.php to DirectoryIndex directive.
DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var index.php
Add another line to addType directive in httpd.conf
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Load the php SAPI as a module by adding this in httpd.conf
LoadModule php4_module “c:/php/php4apache2.dll”
Edit the php.ini file accordingly. The following should be updated. extensions should point to the extensions dir inside the php installation dir. If temp is not present, create temp folder.
doc_root = c:\apache\apache2\htdocs
extension_dir = c:\php\extensions
session.save_path = c:/temp
Uncomment the following line in php.ini.
extension=php_gd.dll
Finally copy the php.ini file to c:/windows dir.
Write a php file with the contents as below to check.
var_dump(gd_info());
MQ and php and perl
Finally I managed to write monitoring scripts for MQ. The architecture is a simple client-server architecture. Since the commands need to run as mq, there is a socket based server program which runs on the boxes where queue manager is hosted. I wrote this in perl since I dont have a standalone php installed in my middleware boxes. The web client is written in php, which will query the perl socket server for the details and get back the results in xml format. The xml format is parsed through and displayed as a simple table. The background colour of a row in a table indicates the health of queue/channel. It is a poorly written dirty script with all necessary blocks for security but still unfit to put in internet due to poor comments and unelegant style. If anybody wants a copy send me a mail nsupathy at gmail dot com.
Finally I managed to write monitoring scripts for MQ. The architecture is a simple client-server architecture. Since the commands need to run as mq, there is a socket based server program which runs on the boxes where queue manager is hosted. I wrote this in perl since I dont have a standalone php installed in my middleware boxes. The web client is written in php, which will query the perl socket server for the details and get back the results in xml format. The xml format is parsed through and displayed as a simple table. The background colour of a row in a table indicates the health of queue/channel. It is a poorly written dirty script with all necessary blocks for security but still unfit to put in internet due to poor comments and unelegant style. If anybody wants a copy send me a mail nsupathy at gmail dot com.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Support Vs Development
After working in support for more than 2 years, I am of the view that each developer should go through a support phase in his/her career. The support point of view of the application is not given the importance as the maintenance of code base is given. The support personnel toil to know the inner workings of the application and sometimes resort to round about methods to do their work. Sometimes the errors are vague and misleading. The error messages thrown should be clear and legible for the support to find out the issues. If a developer has got enough experience in support, then they will know what the support people need.
I am not talking about product maintenance here. It is the support of custom built applications with a company. These applications never help the support people enough to do their job effectively.
I am not putting enought points or evidence here and leave it as a seperate article.
After working in support for more than 2 years, I am of the view that each developer should go through a support phase in his/her career. The support point of view of the application is not given the importance as the maintenance of code base is given. The support personnel toil to know the inner workings of the application and sometimes resort to round about methods to do their work. Sometimes the errors are vague and misleading. The error messages thrown should be clear and legible for the support to find out the issues. If a developer has got enough experience in support, then they will know what the support people need.
I am not talking about product maintenance here. It is the support of custom built applications with a company. These applications never help the support people enough to do their job effectively.
I am not putting enought points or evidence here and leave it as a seperate article.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
php bug
php bug has bitten me. Learning php and trying to write some scripts to automate my support work. perl is also getting mixed. It is a nice work and keeping me busy. Also planning to write a php interface to MQ. This will enable to administer MQ from the php enabled web front. It is in very nascent stage and the learning, implemetation curve is steep. This is currrently stopping me from reading my favourite books. Davinci Code is lying there in my table followed closly by Digital Fortress and yet to be read.
php bug has bitten me. Learning php and trying to write some scripts to automate my support work. perl is also getting mixed. It is a nice work and keeping me busy. Also planning to write a php interface to MQ. This will enable to administer MQ from the php enabled web front. It is in very nascent stage and the learning, implemetation curve is steep. This is currrently stopping me from reading my favourite books. Davinci Code is lying there in my table followed closly by Digital Fortress and yet to be read.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
DCE becomes free
DCE is now released under Open Source licensing. The news is here http://www.opengroup.org/comm/press/05-01-12.htm. It is good for the old enterprise proprietary market. If someone ports dce to linux, then linux can truly break into enterprise middleware. Eventhough most of the companies switched from DCE to other latest technologies, it still lives in the back yard of many fortune 500 companies. Let us wait and see.
When I am writing this, it is snowing in Bristol.
DCE is now released under Open Source licensing. The news is here http://www.opengroup.org/comm/press/05-01-12.htm. It is good for the old enterprise proprietary market. If someone ports dce to linux, then linux can truly break into enterprise middleware. Eventhough most of the companies switched from DCE to other latest technologies, it still lives in the back yard of many fortune 500 companies. Let us wait and see.
When I am writing this, it is snowing in Bristol.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Boxing day nightmares
I dont know, when I actually wrote I was feeling peaceful about the Christmas day passing good. The next day huge waves struck south east asia and India and took away many lives. My home state (Tamil Nadu) was the worst affected and I remained glued to television, called up friends to check whether they are safe. It was really a nightmare. Not finding suitable words to explain the situation.
I dont know, when I actually wrote I was feeling peaceful about the Christmas day passing good. The next day huge waves struck south east asia and India and took away many lives. My home state (Tamil Nadu) was the worst affected and I remained glued to television, called up friends to check whether they are safe. It was really a nightmare. Not finding suitable words to explain the situation.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Christmas Day
Christmas day remains peaceful till now with the systems I support are running quite good :-). Refreshing my knowledge and forgotten details of TCP/IP. Continuing reading hackers and painters. Having finished the chapter 1, I realise that I had come through almost the same path and Paul Graham managed to realise it fully. The nerds as always are not popular among students but are popular among teachers. But there are some students who neither belong to a group nor so intelligent rely on these students for continuous support for study. This also varies for the educational institutions based on the standard of teaching. In India, some schools admit only bright students and the situation is different there. Of course, there is continuous rivalry and occasionly a rich guy gets admitted somehow and plays the role of villain for the nerds.
I read SCO is coming to UK to threaten people about linux. Will those folks wont give up till they are completely annihilated
Christmas day remains peaceful till now with the systems I support are running quite good :-). Refreshing my knowledge and forgotten details of TCP/IP. Continuing reading hackers and painters. Having finished the chapter 1, I realise that I had come through almost the same path and Paul Graham managed to realise it fully. The nerds as always are not popular among students but are popular among teachers. But there are some students who neither belong to a group nor so intelligent rely on these students for continuous support for study. This also varies for the educational institutions based on the standard of teaching. In India, some schools admit only bright students and the situation is different there. Of course, there is continuous rivalry and occasionly a rich guy gets admitted somehow and plays the role of villain for the nerds.
I read SCO is coming to UK to threaten people about linux. Will those folks wont give up till they are completely annihilated
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Friday, November 05, 2004
Alternate Power
There is a burning need to find an alternate source of energy now. And that has to be found out before the oil storages expire. The level sophistication reached in storing and using electricity at this stage is immature and not powerful enough for our even day to day travel. Hydrogen abundant but hard to control, produce as well as consume. No way we cant replace every engine with a nuclear reactor. What is the way to go?
Science fiction most of the times, paves way for the actual discovery. But psychic teleportation is something that only magical folks (Harry Potter kind) can only do as far as our knowledge and experience with physics goes. But is there any possibility, if we think by shedding our inhibitions and firm belief on the laws of physics which we have formulated albeit incomplete ones. True, the unifying theory is yet to come. There are many things in this world which we cant see and they will fall outside of our visibility range in the electromagnetic spectrum. Long way to go...
There is a burning need to find an alternate source of energy now. And that has to be found out before the oil storages expire. The level sophistication reached in storing and using electricity at this stage is immature and not powerful enough for our even day to day travel. Hydrogen abundant but hard to control, produce as well as consume. No way we cant replace every engine with a nuclear reactor. What is the way to go?
Science fiction most of the times, paves way for the actual discovery. But psychic teleportation is something that only magical folks (Harry Potter kind) can only do as far as our knowledge and experience with physics goes. But is there any possibility, if we think by shedding our inhibitions and firm belief on the laws of physics which we have formulated albeit incomplete ones. True, the unifying theory is yet to come. There are many things in this world which we cant see and they will fall outside of our visibility range in the electromagnetic spectrum. Long way to go...
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Come back
Well after a long hibernation. I am back to reading Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick. It is a very good book in its own sense, explaining the nuances and the way crackers work. Actually that book made me so security conscious and made me a non believer of people (in the right way :-)).
Reading Six Easy pieces by Feynman where he explains about the relation between bilogy and physics. Still wondering how that complex DNA manages itself and reproduce on certain patterns more complex in combinations than a chess board. The relation between astronomy and physics brought me back my good old days where I keep on gazing at the sky for stars and constellations. The birth of physics came from astronomy and later on astronomy grew with the help of physics. You cant really differentiate astronomy and astrophysics (if you include mathematics with astronomy, you get astro physics.)
This was a great site which I came upon and a lot of books to read. http://www.techbooksforfree.com/linux.shtml
At the time of this writing, USA is in the process of electing its leader. Fingers crossed.
Well after a long hibernation. I am back to reading Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick. It is a very good book in its own sense, explaining the nuances and the way crackers work. Actually that book made me so security conscious and made me a non believer of people (in the right way :-)).
Reading Six Easy pieces by Feynman where he explains about the relation between bilogy and physics. Still wondering how that complex DNA manages itself and reproduce on certain patterns more complex in combinations than a chess board. The relation between astronomy and physics brought me back my good old days where I keep on gazing at the sky for stars and constellations. The birth of physics came from astronomy and later on astronomy grew with the help of physics. You cant really differentiate astronomy and astrophysics (if you include mathematics with astronomy, you get astro physics.)
This was a great site which I came upon and a lot of books to read. http://www.techbooksforfree.com/linux.shtml
At the time of this writing, USA is in the process of electing its leader. Fingers crossed.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Unix Haters
There is one handbook for unix haters. I have never heard of that. My friend forwarded this link http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf. But that is full of spate and repeated glug. I am reading through it. The fact is it is all from learned(!!!) persons who behave like laymans and who are more interested in the world of colours and graphics. Thus said, they should have gone ahead and created their own OS. Who stopped them??
There is one handbook for unix haters. I have never heard of that. My friend forwarded this link http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf. But that is full of spate and repeated glug. I am reading through it. The fact is it is all from learned(!!!) persons who behave like laymans and who are more interested in the world of colours and graphics. Thus said, they should have gone ahead and created their own OS. Who stopped them??
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Sports Day
It was good fun. I broke my leg when playing football. Was in hospital for 2 days (50 hours) and didnt touch my laptop during that period. Used that time to read Feynman's book and Eric Raymonds book on Art of unix programming. More to put my thoughts on above.
My friends here are taking a good care of me. I am deeply indebted to them. I can payback this gratitude in any way.
It was good fun. I broke my leg when playing football. Was in hospital for 2 days (50 hours) and didnt touch my laptop during that period. Used that time to read Feynman's book and Eric Raymonds book on Art of unix programming. More to put my thoughts on above.
My friends here are taking a good care of me. I am deeply indebted to them. I can payback this gratitude in any way.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Weekend update
Birthday reminder script is complete. For the current month, the script generate messages and sends it to my gmail account. I configured my anacron to do the job.
Updated http://www.geocities.com/nsupathy/Redhat_9_0_Linux_on_Dell_Inspiron_8600.html with ACPI details, which I worked on last week.
Birthday reminder script is complete. For the current month, the script generate messages and sends it to my gmail account. I configured my anacron to do the job.
Updated http://www.geocities.com/nsupathy/Redhat_9_0_Linux_on_Dell_Inspiron_8600.html with ACPI details, which I worked on last week.
Friday, September 10, 2004
linux users
Was reading through this article http://www.desktopos.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=33. Agree with the author completely. Whatever I think of linux, he has put in words completely. I am also a second generation linux user, who strive to be part of that powerful first generation user, but missing those vital knowledge spanning the history of linux development. Nice one to read.
Was reading through this article http://www.desktopos.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=33. Agree with the author completely. Whatever I think of linux, he has put in words completely. I am also a second generation linux user, who strive to be part of that powerful first generation user, but missing those vital knowledge spanning the history of linux development. Nice one to read.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
good, bad and ugly
I got the dvd as a bday gift. It was cool. When tried to play on the gxine, it was reporting for encrypted dvds. Downloaded libdvdcss, installed and sorted the issue. I am waiting to see the movie.
It was a fun filled bday party. Most of the friends around. I am in the process of uploading photos to http://community.webshots.com/user/nsupathy
I got the dvd as a bday gift. It was cool. When tried to play on the gxine, it was reporting for encrypted dvds. Downloaded libdvdcss, installed and sorted the issue. I am waiting to see the movie.
It was a fun filled bday party. Most of the friends around. I am in the process of uploading photos to http://community.webshots.com/user/nsupathy