fossphosis: My tech blog

After two years of mixed blogging, and with lots of opportunities to publish the confused jugglery I perform in GNU/Linux on technical grounds, I have streamlined the posts by channelizing GNU/Linux related technical posts to a new blog at the url
http://fossphosis.blogspot.com/

net-works-by-gnu-linux @ fossphosis

fossphosis, is a an abbreviation of two different terms, which I came up with for use in a different but related context. Nevertheless, for now, I shall be using it as the URL to this blog.


free and open source software (foss) + metamor(phosis) -> fossphosis; 

Well, let me clarify that I shall not be logging very geeky posts out there, for my abilities with respect to coding are minimal. I shall be chronicling mostly details pertaining to minor tweaks and variety of applications, targeted at consolidating the rich and fascinating FOSS tools I come across and personally use to perform my work (related to computer networks).

The motive behind this new blog is primarily selfish - for, I forget the nuances of the configurations and applicability of tools in an almost volatile manner. It is mainly to facilitate my short term memory in retrieving these details, that I shall be blogging at fossphosis.
In turn, I also believe these posts will be helpful to at least a small set of people to ease their tasks of networking using GNU/Linux.

net-works-by-gnu-linux :)

It's only a profound mumbling...

I lay afloat, but still drown in a sea of impulsiveness,
My body is tired, but my mind is bubbling in randomness;
Inhibitions are set free, made unconditional, with no boundary,
Thoughts emanate,surpassing the aura of the smelting iron within a foundry;


The day's life slips me into a shield of cowardice,
Making me grow numb and blind towards my own real needs;
Undaunted questions recursively haunt me,
For, all of this I did, to please me, or the rest of thee?


When I'm lost, and unaware of my existence,
That is when I see the futility of all thy acceptance;
I don't boast of any possession abnormal to humankind, 
Not an open heart, or not even a fearless mind.


All I own is a struggling mind and a compromising heart,
And this realization has what made me rise and start,
To push the envelope beyond the obvious,
While striving not to make my reality oblivious.


Filling the flaws within, with and with alone my passion,
Knowing it's done, only when it turns to be an obsession;
For, the best of me is not what I now confess,
It is more to do with what I shall go on to possess.

Godly Chauvinism: Who is to be blamed?

Ubuntu logo: Humanity to Others:: Tweaked Ubuntu Logo; Humanity amongst Indians! (colors symbolize 3 major religions in India)

I have spoken furiously about the highfalutin mobs who are observed consistently in all sects, more appropriately communes of people. I used to believe that education would better this dreadful and communicable logic/reasoning deficiency disorder of the masses, but the recent Telengana issue proved me wrong, where it was the students who went berserk.

Religion is one of the wisest creations of man, which was initially invented to wrap up the ignorance he was shameful to admit, by attributing it to God. Subsequently, with increased use, he discovered the potential of a weapon which he had unintentionally invented. A weapon that could directly attack the mind, and collapse the ability to reason in the person's belief system, replacing it with a fabricated tell-tale story of legends and myth (true to all religions being practiced). This was so successful in masquerading the truth that it has made people to believe the 'untruth' more than their own reality and existence. Yeah, Inception works, and well on large scale!


Talking about how this became the 'Magic Weapon' of the power-seeking leeches is a known and clichéd reality, which we have grown blind towards.

From the Ignorance of softheads breeds fear, and this fear is transformed into havoc by the wiser softheads.

Except for in text books, I have never seen compelling and consistent public instances of India being secular or tolerant. Forget about being tolerant, people can barely bear each other (other as in, other religion/caste/state/or any trivial segregative clause). And, that, my friends is the reality.

Prejudices, media-fed opinions and zero self reasoning are the main causes for this deteriorating state of affairs in India. The ultimate winner though is the power-seeker, who successfully capitalizes on the stupidity of his subjects and further uses them as assets (? or stocked ammunition !) when need be, by instigating or encouraging more of atrocities.

The eternal losers are the people, who fail to live a life, but forever remain pawns in the hands of exploiters.

Amidst all this chaos, if there was a genuine motive ( I believe, there was at least one), behind the conception of God and Religion, those noble ideas are being lost, after having swollen with the increasing events of disgrace to these identities due to the ruckus created by the morons and mindless maniacs.

When the reality is so clear in front of people, with their life and a universe of opportunities at their disposal, I cannot still, and maybe never fathom the need for people to go wayward, ruining their own lives and the society as a whole.

Just an open and shrewd mind is what is needed; A shrewd open mind....
The question is how each of us could  get to possess one such rarity!

Why Software Freedom?

This is one question not many of us, who are not involved with the Free Software Movement would be even aware of.

When knowledge becomes a commodity, the society built around such a knowledge market is prone to grow diametrically polarized. This in turn, perilously reflects on the economic status of the involved sections of people. Depriving knowledge from people puts them in a handicapped position, and renders them a life, which is more of a struggle against unequal opportunities for survival. This, on a prolonged period of time, culminates into a society which has nothing but a glaring disparity in the conditions of its population, staring at a bleak future. 

India, is the best example that can be taken into consideration. 

With the Digital revolution at its zenith across globe, and also in India, the knowledge we just spoke about has/is being digitized. Apart from the commoditization of knowledge in its real form, the extra commoditization of its digital form inherently has been more successful, only in a capitalistic point of view.

In a nationalistic. or a humanitarian perspective, all that has come to be of Digital Knowledge is that, it is a costly commodity, like a sports car or a posh flat. 

In India, or any developing country, enabling people by imparting them skills that will help them lead a decent life is what is most required. In today's world, it naturally converges to using technology. But, when the knowledge behind the technology is being used to create a gradient in the society, as it is a commodity in the hands of profit makers, it is imperative that all the knowledge is brought back into the community, and used for the betterment of the community. 

Free Software Movement, has this far succeeded in its attempts of setting this knowledge free, free as in freedom (also in monetary terms, either zero or little cost).  When the society owns the knowledge, it knows what it has to produce for its growth, rather than some monopoly deciding what the society might need. 

Talking on these important lines, Freedom in the Digital world is very much necessary for the society to grow equal, so that we do not allow deep opportunity gradients created everywhere.

Freedom at a user level in terms of privacy and security are also facets of the movement. But, in an Indian context this Freedom makes more sense in the 'gradient lessening' aspect. 

Freedom Matters with Eben

Prof.Eben Moglen, Founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, and also the architect of GPL v3 is in Bangalore doing a series of talks and interactions pertaining to the freedom in the digital world.

Today, Prof.Eben visited St.Joseph's College, Bangalore in an event organized by FSMK. FSMK has come up with a Free Software course of 120 hours with an elaborate introduction to the world of Free Software in an application oriented approach. The syllabus can be found at this link.

Prof.Eben delivered the first lecture of the series, and hence inaugurating the program officially.

In his talk, Prof.Eben introduced the concept of Free Software to the keen but novice audience, drawing analogies from Free Science to Free Software, with emphasis on the Freedom aspect. Talking about the course proposed by FSMK, Prof.Eben said that it was the best course currently in the world for such a cause, which can be emulated world across to incorporate Free Software in the education system. He urged students to take up this course, for it would also prepare them for the industry.
This talk went on for 20 minutes.

In his second stint, during the interaction with the audience, for my question about "Monetizing Free Software", he ended up by saying "Put some free software into your brain, and that brain is much wanted by all major players!".

Later on, when asked about the Google-Oracle law suit, Prof.Eben dramatically elucidated the case going on, the benefactors, the temporary allies and the losers of the lawsuit. He apprehended about a prospective Oracle-IBM lawsuit on JAVA lines, for that would hurt the freedom of users.

He also spoke about the reasons for the current state of M$( failure of Windows Vista, 7...), which has grown obese with its baggage of proprietary applications. He also touched upon the architecture specificity(/rigidity) of M$ which hasn't been able to compete with omni-architecture supporting GNU/Linux.

He gave insights into the Intel Atom and the Nokia 'cynical' deal that is going nowhere, and the troubles Intel is facing with its Meego and Atom projects.

Most importantly, Prof.Eben also spoke about the cause he is batting for, with respect to 'securing privacy of users', with the OpenPlug,GNUplug like devices with a Free Stack, to curb the privacy infringement by the cloud and cloud application developers.

It was an amazing experience, witnessing Prof.Eben; As one of our FSMK activists mentioned "He is one of the 100 Most Influential Speakers of contemporary world" ,and not surprisingly he pleasantly overwhelmed us, by getting us acquainted with the different facets of the Freedom Struggle in the digital world. Every interaction with Prof.Eben transforms into a strong motivation, which would drive us to take up the Movement further, in creating a "Free World( Free,as in Freedom)"

Software Freedom Day-2010

Dear Friends and Patrons of Swatantra Software,

Software Freedom Law Centre, New Delhi(SFLC-ND) and Free Software Movement-Karnataka (FSMK) are celebrating Software Freedom Day, by organizing Talks and events by one of the mavericks of the Knowledge Freedom campaigns and an affiliate of SFLC-ND - Prof.Eben Moglen,Founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center. SFD with FSMK

In this visit to Bangalore, Prof.Eben Moglen will be participating in three separate events organized by FSMK.

1. Inaugural Lecture of Free Software certificate course at St.Joseph's College,Bangalore on the 15th September 4 p.m.

St.Joseph's College, Bangalore has incorporated 120 hours of free software sessions to be handled by FSMK and other like-minded Free Software Enthusiasts. 

2. Prof.Eben at Ambedkar Community Computing Center (AC3) at 5pm on the 16th of September

Before two years, RMS and Prof.Eben visited AC3 with only a few students who were being taught computers using Free Software. Today, these handful of young free software activists from the community are running three other Community Computing Centers completely on their own. Prof.Eben will visit AC3 for a community discussion.

3. Interaction with Prof.Eben Moglen on the Freedom in the Cloud at Indian Institute of Science, on 17th September , 3p.m – 5 p.m, faculty hall IISc. 

Abstract:

Everyone wants a piece of you these days: Google, Facebook, Flickr, Apple, AT&T, Bing. They'll give you free e-mail, free photo storage, free web hosting, even a free date. They just want to listen in. And you can't wait to let them. They'll store your stuff, they'll organize your photos, they'll keep track of your appointments, as long as they can watch. It all goes into the "Cloud."

How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. This talk will discuss how much worse things have become since the pre-cloud era and explain what you can do to reclaim your freedom in the era of Web 2.0.

I cordially invite you all to come and celebrate Software Freedom Day along with us at FSMK and SFLC-ND during these events. 

Why innovate?

Those of you who have been following this debate on my social networking profile, might already know the stand I have taken on this debate. Before I reiterate my stand on this forum, I would want to elaborate the premise and context of my opinion. And before I get into my argument, I would want to re-quote NRN:

"IT companies must innovate to beat US outsourcing curbs"

For a moment, let us imagine that we are US citizens, and also acknowledge the fact that we still haven't grown enough to seek "Universal Fraternity", and are mature enough only to reach only a nationalistic feeling ( with forced efforts of course).

So, what would I want to do when more than half of the jobs which could employ my own fellow countrymen are being directed to another country where labor is cheap, so that the monopolies make more profit, with an addendum of tax evasion. I wouldn't happily let it go, even if I were the USA.

Now, let us get back to being Indian citizens. We very well know what the IT has given - Accelerating disparity ( ubiquitous vistas of IT parks adjoined to slums!) and a mediocre and servile work force (no apologies on this rudeness), which seldom gets opportunity to do anything new with the "Please the (their) customer motto". This being the harsh truth, not all of us want to see what has become of a couple of generations of youth in India. Entrepreneurship is discouraged and servility to monopolies is much encouraged, starting in the education system, and unfortunately has also penetrated the family system.

Also, let us look at what tangible technology IT force has returned to our own country, which meets the real needs of India. It has always been outsourced work which has been done prominently, and 'most' of that work doesn't apply to our system's realities. In fact, almost all of it is of no use in the Indian context  ( we have the least developer for every 1000 individuals, only after China in the FOSS community, and we still are struggling to get a stable OS and applications in our regional languages!)

Talking about Innovation, not all innovators are mavericks who can rise out of any circumstances. When we train minds to appropriate conditions with the necessary facilitation, the number and quality of innovators will certainly increase.

Lack of innovation ( also innovation in Indian context) in the IT sector has been transparently visible to everyone for all these decades of its reign in India. Now, when US wants to curb outsourcing, you can't spontaneously transform this crowd into innovators. We should have been conscious of this from the start, and must have given more importance to "innovation to excellence", rather than using it as a back-up plan after the failure of political gimmicks.

Innovation is a trait emanating out of refined and independent minds. And, I do not want to comment on the quality of the subjects under the scan, for it is evident.

What we need is a renaissance in the work culture and a reformation in the context of the work we will be doing. And, this discovery shall lay the foundation to innovations.

The Legend of Hindu Mythology

With Gowri-Ganesha festival in an hour, recollecting the legacy of Indian mythology would be appropriate.

The greatness of these epics are the time periods when written and the grandeur of imagination incorporated into them.

To start with, the roles of the Trimurtis: Brahma-The Creator, Vishnu-The Sustainer and Shiva- The Destroyer, and the legends behind each of these deities are excellent pieces of literature, and unsurpassable for the variety and the logical intricacies in them.

I personally love the the stories of Vishnu, and his ten incarnations, which have intriguing stories interrelated in multiple frames of time.

Of all the incarnations of Vishnu, obviously apart from the versatile Krishna, I personally like Narasimha (a futuristic hybrid of man+lion, of the recent likes of liger!). The cause for his incarnation- Demon king Hiranyakashyapa, and his son Prahlaada, and the immortality boon and the shrewd cracking of the boon to kill him, awe me for the sheer diligence in the work that is so ancient.

Talking about the two major epics from Hindu mythology- The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, the latter easily beats the former with its grand scale, plenty of rich and complex characters, in an elaborate but meticulous plot. In Mahabharata, the negatives of the dominating positive, and the positives of the wronging negatives are exemplified in an impeccable manner. For, it is usual to show the right as right,and the wrong as wrong  throughout. But, if observed in Mahabharata, all the facets of all the characters are excellently presented, without the prejudice of them being principally right or wrong. The various facets of characters manifested throughout the epic, with all their nuances and subtleties make it undoubtedly the best Epic written hitherto in any country in any period of time.

Although, I haven't read these, but have heard, and been hearing the stories, or watched them on TV. They have had tremendous positive influence on me. Mahabharat, Jai Hanuman,Sri Krishna and numerous other mythology based chapters in Indian TV have come by. But, today I apprehend, even with hundreds of channels there is very little of accurate mythology being shown, and more of fabrication even in the little of these classics, to fit the imperfect society of today's world.

With the growing global convergence, we seem to be losing firstly the cognizance of, and secondly the authenticity of such mastermind epics. Colleagues mentioned that in Chota Bheem, Bheem plays 20-20! Hope he's not on Facebook too, else the kids might include FB to be part of the Hindu mythology...

Creativity in the real sense, is lacking today, and by properly infusing the Hindu Mythology to the newer generation we could expand their realms of imagination. And, not to forget the diverse stories from these classics which are eternal in the truest sense.

PS: Well, if you were thinking I was talking religion - Nope, it was about creativity...

Time Swift

Time flies.. Yes, it does.

But, when does it fly? 

Not when you are stuck on a lazy afternoon, or while conversing about irrelevance of relevance,or vice versa with a seemingly irrelevant person, or when you are at the troughs of your personality.

Time does fly, but only when you most need it to slow down. And yes the famous analogy of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity does hold good in many cases. But, it more often flies when you have lost yourself in your endeavors. 

Like recently, when I was on work, and was doing something really cool for the first time ( Load Balancing  for Servers:). As it was something new and with monstrous machines to work with, I was so engrossed in my task that, in a reverse inception-like situation, I was feeling that one hour had reduced to ten minutes, and continued to till the end of the day. 

This is only one recent instance of accelerated time. I'm sure all of you would have experienced this many times. The beauty of such phases of time is the gratification, but at the same time the insatiability it renders.  

Now we can analyze further sating that the rate of time acceleration purely depends on the individual and his interests, and that again is relative. But, we can very well do only things which we are interested in, so that we are always in this ecstatic time-swift... 

People [Live]

Off late, if you have been reading my posts, there has been a lot of open criticism and cynicism about the News and Media houses, for all the hampering they are rendering to the opinions of people and running of the country. Let this not imply that I am getting all to obsessive about this attack. These are only small vents of my disappointment from the anomalous consequences of Free Press and Free Media.

In such a grim situation, an attempt like Peepli [Live] is important within the realms of the real Indian scenario. Kudos to the team for such an effort. It can be genre'ised as a 'dark satirical comedy', but it does more than that by throwing some much needed light upon the mechanism behind the news manufacturing process, and the apathy of the politicians towards the real people.

By real people I mean people, who are not influential enough, but are only daily-bread seekers: That alone is their ambition in life -Mere Survival.
We can rule out most of the urban population from this discussion, and entirely confine on the rest of the huge population from the rural corners of India. The worth of these people to politicians is 'One Vote' during elections, and a hot-selling story for the media. These people are like Use & Throw commodities.
People who have no idea of their rights and who are naive about the exploitation they are being done to.

From mining scams to land acquisitions, the corruption feeds on not only the resources of these people, but on their lives. Literally, driving them to suicides as a political gimmick.

People like P Sainath, who brought to light these haunting issues are needed in more numbers. We need to do our part in clearing this sewer-like filthy system..

PS: Read P Sainath.

Ideal Insomnia

Rarely it happens to people that the pursuance of an idea keeps them awake, while the desire to go for it pulls them repeatedly out of bed, starting from the latest of nights to the earliest of the mornings.
Being in such a wave of euphoric enthusiasm is the best feeling; Nah, the best experience :)

Infatuation towards certain one or two, has yes, kept me anxiously happy and awake, and those I call were consequences of naivety, which i wouldn't repent about. Whereas, insomnia because of the train of thoughts and blasting mines of ideas within the mind is inexplicably enjoyable, and is the impeccable driving force (The force is so much so that it can defy the drowsiness of paracetamol!)

Undying urge, mixed with a dosage of patient pragmatism and efforts to suffice, is what I prescribe myself for this adventure.

Ideas aren't immortal alone, they're insomniac as well :)

Unsocial social beings!

We the Homo sapiens call ourselves social beings. Don't we? Or at least that is what has been told to us right from the beginning of our social journey.

But, as I get to meet more people, I seem to get alienated from this idea of us being "social"; Actually, we are quite the opposite, I'd say. Few of my personal observations could substantiate this accusation of mine, if you are unconvinced.

Firstly, the infamous lack of eye-contact.
Now, we needn't deny this fact. I have traveled a lot (for my age) within India, meeting hundreds of people (mainly students) and there has been seldom good eye-contact with a voluntary greeting, or an acknowledgement to my greeting. Most of the times, it is only after I have given my talk, or been on stage is when people seem to interact, and that is because they know me. As a stranger, they want me to be a stranger. This is very disappointing!

Secondly, the lack of will, or motive, or incentive , or I don't know what else could be the primary cause for the reluctance; The reluctance which prevents people from coming together and gathering for a social event. In case, there is a celebrity in the proximity, or some notoriety happening, people throng, but for their own cause, or for some genuine social cause, it has been very few who have had the humane aspect in them. This again, is a conclusion from the various social events I have organized and have been part of. Further disappointment!

Adding to this is the apathy we have towards fellow beings. With this, and more such anti-social animosity filled within us, I totally deny the concept of us being Social beings!

A paradigm shift about mutual perception is what the society requires, not just a superficially modified etiquette.

Encore for the Blogger fiesta?

Blogger Fiesta yesterday, wasn't the best of the executions, I agree. But still, it was fun to have met up and the proceedings of the event made it all the more memorable.

To start with , the famous CCD on MG Road, which I had visited even before a couple of months was gone! Imagine the shock I was faced with... To add to this confusion, not everyone who was meeting up had given their contact numbers. The ones I had I could redirect them to a different place.

But, still we started wondering what if the others come to this place? How do we reach them?

Idea was to hold a placard ( like in the Airports!), asking if people were some of the interested ones. In this process we also met some new friends . After waiting for sometime and grabbing some public attention, the ones who had gathered alone met up at a different venue and have proposed to conduct a more organized Meet Up soon.

The idea of having a community of bloggers, who can cooperate and contribute efforts on a channelized manner is also being floated. Let us see, how far we get with this.

Decentralization and Redistribution

Decentralize and redistribute:
This should form the slogan; a slogan representing the need of the hour. The need being, a revolution which would enable the dis-empowered individual, while redistributing the concentrated powers from monopolies. Individuals as entities are losing the little bit of foothold and control over their lives, and are more so becoming functions of the elaborate plays by few corporations surrounding them.

Every field invaded by humans has now transformed into existences of monopolies alone, comprising of few individuals who are effortlessly,facilitated by the system, controlling and manipulating the rest of the population . A grim situation projecting a bleak future...

It has been well proven that, the salvation for the community from the clutches of this exploitative system would come only by "Elaborate Decentralization for uniform Redistribution".

Models like the Free Software Movement, where the individuals and the togetherness play important roles in producing quality work, generating alternatives to the monopoly products in the society are to be emulated on wider scales, with necessary modifications applied to the different fields of application.
This empowers the individuals, and adds the community spirit: A holistic feeling, instead of the ever increasing antagonism between the lucky few and the not-so-lucky rest of us.

Another, important alternate means manifested in today's world is empowering individuals in the media and information domains. Wikipedia, Open libraries and blogging have increased the unbiased spread of information in an almost ideal manner, without getting constrained by influences of any other aristocracy or bureaucracy.

Blogging, particularly has increased the disemination of personal opinions, and formulation of unbiased community opinions so that people can still make themselves heard in the deafening chaos of the paid news and media frenzy.

We need to tackle all aspects of the monopolized perils in the society. Individuals having their role to play in the formulation of the community facet is the need of the hour. If things are left with the monopolies and the certain elite, it is going to worsen and the individual as such is going to remain the silent puppet in the hands of the system, while the system is busy exploiting us.

Decentralize and redistribute!

Applying a comprehensive approach with elaborate planning and meticulous execution, with the above principle as the motive behind is what is required for the genuine betterment of the things all around us.
A little freudcheying on these lines will help for sure....

Oblivious to growing up?

We all have ideas about us being grown-ups. Not many times we can remember well as to what we wanted to become, like in my case, as in the case of many of you.

I am not exactly talking about the profession each of us wanted to grow into, but about the way we would go on to be percieved in the society by the virtue of our personalities. This, I bet has been non-convergent to most of us, for, the immense possibilities which we were unaware of while younger have surfaced subsequently, and we have endorsed a lot of many of them in the due course of our growth until today.

Okay, why am i suddenly getting all retrospective and nostaligic?

That's because, recently I happened to have a serendipitious encounter with a bunch of my old mates on a social networking site and also happened to meet one of the recent old mates. On the realms of such encounters, you suddenly seem to see the reflections of your past in them, which you have grown over. A hint of my older being, when seen through them is surprising, for I seem to have forgotten some bit of me and it is nice to witness the growth, or as I call Evolution through the frozen perceptions of others.

Now, I begin to wonder, if things will be the same with respect to my today's being in about a decade. Will I have the same oblivion about today then? May be or may not be.

The best thing of life is the beauty of the present, while the grandeur of the unseen future is beckoning at us, with sweet past memories in the background. And when you are able to relate to all the three phases of time with a personality which hasn't stopped getting better, there's nothing more to the being of being what we are!

Varying perceptions...

Well, it might sound like an oxymoron, when i use the phrase "Varying Perceptions". For, perceptions are meant to vary. With changing circumstances, the only trait of ours which helps us to cope up with the change is to modulate our perceptions, conditioned by the circumstances, so that it eases the blending of our expectations from the change.

For instance, sometimes, the way we percieve people undergoes a metamorphosis, almost in a spontaneous manner, by the virtue of realizing something special out of them, attributable to the set of circumstances both the individuals are in.
Simply put, a subtlety becomes accentuated; Unsaid is said.

This has been the case with a few close people around me. I seem to have seen them grow into me, within me. A revelation of sorts happens at some particular instant of time, when each of those seem to gain an increased importance. The only sensation left behind is that of having gotten more special.

Time and timing play important roles in this game of varying perceptions; We see what we see now, only becuase we saw it in manners differently when we saw it before.

Confused Volvo!

Date of occurrence: 09/08/2010

It's early morning, and we are entering the borders of Bengaluru in a KSRTC inter-city bus ( B'luru - Pune) after the two-day Debian Conference.

Well, i wake up just then, when the sun starts hitting me through the tinted glass, and my uncomfortable back was seeking some relief after about 13 hours of journey. And I realize we are in the proximities of B'luru, and in another 40 minutes we would reach the city.

Just then I observe something strange: When almost all the vehicles were taking the service road at a particular junction, the genius of our bus driver and a couple of other four-wheelers, took an under-construction Express Highway, which seemed to be complete till the horizon. Given that, the driver drove 750 km, navigating three states, up and down the Western Ghats, I presumed he knew better than the rest of the traffic who obliged to the signboards and did not take this path.

It was nice to see that because of the smart move of our driver, we were cruising on the new express highway, going up and down on at least three elevated sections for about 4 km, while the traffic seemed clogged up in the service road adjacent to us. But, this joy of being smart was short-lived.

For, at the end of it, we see huge barricades, cranes and other heavy machinery parked in the yet-to-become road appearing in front of us. The few vehicles in front of us, took a small curve through an open section in the divider and reached the service road. Those were four wheelers, which were one-third the length and less than half of our bus.

We were all hoping that the driver had maneuvered this before, but when we came real close to that gut on the road, no moron would have thought it would be doable. So, did our driver; Although he tried to do a little bit of left-and right- twist and shake- up and down- front and back- but, with no respite.

Even when the bus was diagonal on the road, it would stretch between the extremities of the road. When he had to succumb to his naivety (I'm being euphemistic;) , he rode back the bus full distance backwards, in reverse gear, down and up the elevated sections of the road. He must have come about 3 km backwards, then he finds more space and makes a 180 degree turn and we head backwards, from being back backwards...

An amusing experience, ultimately, but it could have gone wrong at some places. Nevertheless, I bet the ones who were plying to B'luru for the first time would relish this experience forever, like the rest of us would do as well...

And I can't deny this fact though: It happens only in India ;)

Mustaffaa mustaffa...

Like you all know, I do not indulge in specific days for celebrating specific emotions ( love or friendship!). But, I have decided to commemorate my perception of friendship today, by dedicating this post to one of my closest (of the very few) buddies - vikku.

Sometimes, we meet people who are so not like what they would go on to be; Be it in their appearance, or in their influence on us. This pal of mine was one such weird creature( during our first encounter) - well built and long hair; He was soft spoken, which still didn't help me  from getting intimidated.

Then there was the revelation of him being a descendant from the brains of IISc; The plot thickens, now you got to be intimidated by his intellectual abilities too. I get hold of his resume then, and I see geeky projects put up in it, which testify my awe. We are until then just hi-bye pals.

Then suddenly, out of the blues, he comes asking me to be part of some student satellite making project ( I'm like what?), and I hopped on, and there starts the journey of these dosts.

Ever since we started working on the Student-Satellite project as teammates in the same sub-system, we started growing as the friends we are today. This is one other good thing, being part of the project has given me.

Our ideologies have been I should say, 'Vertically Opposite', but still the rapport between us goes parallel; Admiration mutual, and the zero ego, makes being friends with you one of the nicest things in life.

I know you are just going abroad for studies, and with the voice and video chats we won't feel distanced, but still venting out my perception about friendship, keeping you in the epicenter makes it special and appropriate da :)

PS: The record of watching bad tamil movies ( Naan Kadavul, Kandasaamy and Aayirathil Oruvan) has to broken when you are back da;)

ಅಭಿಮಾನವಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ಇದು ಅಗತ್ಯ

ಆತ್ಮೀಯ ಓದುಗರೇ,

ಸುಮಾರು ಮೂರು ತಿಂಗಳುಗಳಿಂದ ನನ್ನ ಬ್ಲಾಗಿನ ಓದುಗರ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಗಮಿನಿಸುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಆಗ ಒಂದು ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯಕರ  ವಿಷಯವೊಂದು ಗಮನಕ್ಕೆ ಬಂದಿತು: ನನ್ನ ಬ್ಲಾಗಿನ ಲೇಖನಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಅತಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಒದಲಾಗುತ್ತಿರುವ ಲೇಖನಗಳು , ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿರುವವು. ಇದು ಬಹಳ ಸಂತೋಷದ ವಿಷಯ , ಹೌದು.

ಆದರೆ ನಾನು ಬರೆದಿರುವ ೩೦೦ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಲೇಖನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಕೇವಲ ನಾಲ್ಕಯ್ದು ಮಾತ್ರ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿರುವುದರಿಂದ , ಇನ್ನು ಮುಂದೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಕನ್ನಡ ಲೇಖನಗಳನ್ನು ಬರೆಯುವುದಾಗಿ ನಿಶ್ಚಯಿಸಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಹಾಗೆಯೇ, ನನ್ನ ಗೆಳೆಯರಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಕುತೂಹಲವೂ ಮೂಡುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಅದನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ಕೆಲವರು ಕೇಳಿಯೂಬಿಟ್ಟರು.
ನನ್ನ ಮಾತೃಭಾಷೆ ತಮಿಳಾಗಿದ್ದರೂ, ನನಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಇರುವ ಆಸಕ್ತಿಯ ಹೇಗೆ, ಎಂಬುದು?
 ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಹಜವಾದ ಒಂದು ಸರಳ ಉತ್ತರವಿದೆ.
ಸಹಜ ಏಕೆಂದರೆ, ನಾನು ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಯಾಗಿ ಶಾಲೆಯಿಂದ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನವರೆಗೂ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ನನ್ನಂತೆಯೇ ಬಹಳಷ್ಟು ಜನ ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಓದಿದ್ದರೂ, ಏಕೋ ಅದನ್ನು ಮರೆತವರಂತೆ ವರ್ತಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಈ ಟೀಕೆಯ ಮಾತನ್ನು ನಾನು, ಉಪಯೋಗಕ್ಕೂ ಮೀರಿ ಆಂಗ್ಲವನ್ನು ಬಳಸುವ ಎಲ್ಲರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.

ಆಂಗ್ಲ ಭಾಷೆಯು ನಮಗೆ ಹೊರ ಜಗತ್ತನ್ನು ನೋಡಲು ಸಹಾಯಮಾಡುವ ಒಂದು ಕನ್ನಡಕವೇ ಹೊರತು, ನಮ್ಮ ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳಲ್ಲ. ನಮ್ಮ ಕಲೆ, ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ, ಪರಂಪರೆ, ಕಲಾಚಾರ ಹಾಗು ಜನರನ್ನು ಅರಿತುಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಬಳಸಲಾಗುವ ಅತ್ಯಮೂಲ್ಯ ಸಲಕರಣೆಯಾದ  ಸ್ಥಳೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಯೇ ನಮ್ಮ ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳು. ಈ ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲದಾಗಿಸಿ, ನಾವು ಯಾವುದೇ ಕನ್ನಡಕವನ್ನು ಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡರೂ ನಮ್ಮ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಗೆ ಕಾಣುವುದು ಮಂದವಾದ ಬಿಸಿಲು ಕುದುರೆಯೇ ಹೊರತು ನಿಜಸ್ಥಿತಿಯಲ್ಲ.

ಇತ್ತೀಚಿನ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದಲ್ಲಿ, ನಮ್ಮ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರದ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಭಾಷೆಗಳೂ ಕಷ್ಟವಾದ ಒಂದು ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಲುಕಿಕೊಂಡಿವೆ ಎಂದು ಪರಿಗಣಿಸಬಹುದು. ವಯಕ್ತಿಕವಾಗಿ ಹೊರಭಾಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲಿಯುವುದು ತಪ್ಪೇ ಅಲ್ಲ;  ಆದರೆ, ಸಾಮೂಹಿಕವಾಗಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷಿಸುವುದು, ಸಾವಿರಾರು ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಬೆಳೆದು ಬಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ಕಲಾಚಾರಕ್ಕೆ ನಾವು ಮಾಡುವ ದ್ರೋಹವೆಂದೇ ಹೇಳಬಹುದು.

ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ನಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಳೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಈ ಗಣಕ ಯುಗದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ಬಳಸಿ, ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು ಕಾಪಾಡಬೇಕು. ಇಲ್ಲವೆಂದರೆ, ನಾನು ನನ್ನ ಹಿಂದಿನಿ ಲೇಖನಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹೇಳಿರುವಂತೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷೆಗಳೆಲ್ಲವೂ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತದಂತೆ ಸ್ಮಾರಕ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ ಪಡೆಯವುದು ಖಚಿತ.

In-dependence !

I sincerely wanted to post something positive for India's 64th Independence Day, but, things all around, for so long, without yielding any respite, compelled me to criticize and bring out some important aspects, which I feel have gone wrong with India and us ( now don't read 'us' as US, they aren't yet us !).

As you would have already noticed, this post, I call it "In-Dependence".

Being honest, let us question ourselves,as to what is the significance of celebrating Independence Day every year?

I don't think it is only commemorative in nature; If it is, it shouldn't be. We need to use every 15th August to gauge the proportion of growth India has undergone all these years, and the degree of India's independence in today's world.
I believe we are more enslaved today, although in a subtle manner, but with heavier helplessness.

In the name of Globalization, we seem to have voluntarily offered opportunities to colonize ourselves, in return for increased dependency.

Dependence between entities, be it, individuals or countries must be symbiotic ( mutually beneficial), and  not parasitic (unidirectionally exploitative). On the same lines, India has been the market for all the major brands of major countries, for ages, and nothing except the IT from here makes it's presence felt in rest of the world. This is what is my, and many other Indians' apprehension. The state of India being in-dependence, and in a unidirectional way.

And, the international image in the contemporary world media of India is all wrong (Poverty? Population? Corruption? Computer geeks? Bollywood?)
I would not worry if it were just an image miraged by the media; The problem is even we seem to have started making such an India, and living in it.

Blaming the Government and policies can go on forever, another important blame game should be with the object in the mirror. Every Indian has a role to play, in which we have failed miserably.

Complacence for the wrong reasons: We seem to have got adjusted with an India which would even in ideal conditions be imperfect . We don't seem to bother much about 'the Individual and the Individual in the Community' interaction anymore.

Irrelevant pride: We are not proud of our culture, linguistics, art, tradition and heritage, or most of our talents. Anything, from the West is treated as something primarily superior than ours. We take pride in showing ourselves down!

Emulation of the other guy: We don't stop at comparing ourselves with others, we emulate them, in a nonsensical way, which is absurd for our conditions.

Impulsive patriotism and inconsistent nationalism: We feel united only in times of calamity, or when we absorb a terror attack. I fail to fathom as to where these traits vanish from us, under normal circumstances.

Independent ? 
No, not at all. We are the manufactured modern slave army, like the Uruk-Hai of Saruman's army in the Lord of The Ring, and we wouldn't know what's happening to us, for we cannot relate to the big bad picture we are in!

Every Independence Day, as I have grown to see India, has made me sadder and sadder.

Blogger Fiesta Meetup in Bangalore

Hi,
Bloggers and aspiring bloggers.

Blogger's birthday is being celebrated world across, in different cities by the bloggers. It'll be invigorating to meet more bloggers in person. Also, it is an opportunity for us to network together and use our skills to accomplish something relevant in today's "paid news and media" world, which feeds only fabricated stories.

In Bangalore too, there will be a Blogger Fiesta Meetup. As if for now, I've scheduled it to the 29th,Sunday, August 2010. Being a Sunday, I hope the ones who want to come, can make it.

The place and agenda for the meetup is yet to be decided. Let us not just meetup to celebrate Blogger's 11th birthday. On such an occasion we should be able to do more than that.

Confirm your participation by visiting the Meetup page on the side bar of my blog. Post your suggestions for the venue and agenda.

Let the people behind the words come together, to show the power of  "Alternate Media" like blogging :)

The Travel Teacher...

Historically, Travels have been rightfully attributed to have imparted great experiences, which culminated into life changing enlightenments to people who have looked for something beyond their usual routine.

Gautam Buddha, Swami Vivekananda,Gandhiji, Che Guevara, and numerous other mavericks who have arisen in the world have been uncovered by the process of their voyages, and the mind boggling experiences each of them had had during their journeys.

Journeys of the few common people on the roads less traveled have made them great, and more importantly given the world some indispensable role models applicable at various strata of the society.

The Voyage beckoning...

During my latest trip to Pune, the first thing which flashed in my mind after looking at the tall and lush greenery was : "I should be on the top of that green mountain, at least for a week with no contact with the rest of you, with just me and me", like in the movie "Into the Wild". It is so natural to have such a feeling,and I might soon enter such a hibernation just to reclaim the lost self in me... Not to be confused with me as being a recluse, or a hermit, but just an aesthetic.

This inherent character of travels, which beckons at each of us, to instigate such a process of introspection happens to everyone, but the ones who take up this call wisely are the ones who benefit the most from it, and are the best students of the teacher called "Travel".

Mini Debian Conference, Pune, Day-2

After the first day of enthusiastic activities like talks and hands on workshops, the momentum had been set for the second day of the MiniDebConf. The proof for it was the missing students in the Seminar Hall, who were all busy in the lab since morning trying out packaging and other technical skills.

Although, the intervention was made by us, moving the talks scheduled for the day to the lab.

The first talk for the day was highly important, which was about Free Software in Education: The scope and necessity for usage of Free Software (Technology in a broader scale) in the education system.

Mr. Vikram Vincent accentuated on the need for using more technology in the Indian Education system quoting anecdotes from mythology like the Ekalvya, Akshaya Patra and the 'Five loaves of bread and two fishes' from The Bible. This entire talk was very necessary to add a social paradigm to the contributer mindset of the participants; It was well recieved by the audience.

I, then touched upon the lack of a structured mechanism to fill, what i called The PPP (Propagation, Percolation and Perpetuation) deficit with respect to the spread and usage of Free Software in a polarized country like India. This was again discussed well, with active participation from the participants.

The rapport between Debian and derivatives like BOSS was debated, and it was conveyed to CDAC that contributing their changes upstream was essential to be part of the movement. This has been a long standing issue about the lack of upstream contribution by CDAC in terms of changes and packages.

After a lunch break, filled with charged up interactions with the participants who were keen on involving themselves with the movement at different levels took some well needed mentoring from the organizers and guests. The much needed non-technical, i.e., socio-political flavor of the Free Software Movement as a whole was imparted during this interaction.

Post lunch, there has been another hands on session targeting the packaging going on now, while the technical head gear has been worn by all of us.

Ultimately, like the previous major events of Free Software, lot of energy and synergy has been churned out during the conference, making it a great experience all of us.

MiniDebConf, Pune, Day-1

The National Conference on Debian, for budding developers and Free Software enthusiasts is going on in the College of Engineering, Pune.

Free Software Movement-Karnataka (FSMK) is being represented in the conference by my mentor Mr.Vikram Vincent and myself. Like FSMK, there has been active participation by other regional groups and Free Software groups in the conference apart from the good turn out by students. Also, CDAC has been participating in the conference propagating their version of the Debian derivative "BOSS" ( Bharat Operating System Solutions).

On the first day of the conference, there were numerous talks. The conference started off with talk by a CDAC official, followed by an Introduction to Debian, both general and technical queries were handled during this elaborate session.

The prominent issue of Internationalization and Localization was handled by Mr. Kartik Mistry and Mr.Vikram Vincent, emphasizing on the necessity for their i18n and l10n projects. A brief overview of the process of getting involved in these processes was introduced.

With the motive of instigating students to start contributing to the Debian Package development and maintenance,the next session concentrated on hands on sessions of reporting bugs systematically and getting packages upstream and downstream for development. This hands on session consumed the rest of the day, which I believe the students seem involved in after some initial glitches.

Off line discussions with students and other Free Software enthusiasts has been very educative and motivating.

Personally, I too have made up my mind to maintain certain packages...

If you are willing to please visit http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp

Tall Wall of Shames!

Scandals and corruption have become so common these days, that there is little of remorse or guilt in the vandals involved in these embezzlements. A project undertaken and executed in an honest manner, has ironically become a rarity, and seems like an abnormality. Malicious money making has become the only goal riding on the wicked minds of these leeches (this comparison is a disgrace to the leeches I believe!), who easily suck out people's money, to fill their bottomless greed basket.

With so much corruption in the system, it has almost become impossible to see a single clean project being implemented. Politicians, officials and all the people associated with a project seem to claim stakes in the funds of the project, as if it is their right!

When the legal system is as weak and disoriented as in India, there is not much prevention that can be done, to curb such atrocious actions by these avaricious and selfish syndicate of goons!

There is no point mentioning only the headline making scandals like the BMIC, mining scandals in Karnataka, or the 2G spectrum row, or the shameful Common Wealth Games' infrastructure mishandling; for, almost every large scale project being undertaken here is either inferior than the supposed quality, or is costlier, or both. The lethargic approach towards projects of such import is another addendum to this perverse saga of fiascoes.

It is a matter of utmost shame, embarrassment and anguish for each and every responsible citizen of India, to have to bear with this amount of open corruption. Adding to this deep anguish is the manipulative media, who change course of the volatile public opinion as required by them, in a manner guided by the culprits themselves (where are the breaking news or exclusive reports  about fresh scandals like 2G/IPL rows now!).
But, nothing can hurt more than the failing legal system, which repeatedly flops in its actions, again succumbing to the influence of power.

Living in such a bleak and grim situation, there is little hope for an individual to fight for his/her rights.

Position and/or responsibility

Every individual acts according to his/her relative status in the society. By which, I intend to bring out the integral interdependence between an individual's actions and the role he/she is performing in the society.

For example, I have had to inculcate certain extra traits in myself, which were demanded of me, because I am perceived to be 'Me' in the world. This is not artificiality, but I call it 'response to external stimulus'. Within my own realms of interaction with the rest of you, I am someone who is a fusion of my personal aspirations and external inspirations. When I respond to the 'positive' external influences, it could be attributed of me, as being responsible ( able to respond).

Now, this being the case, each of us are expected to grow with ascending positions we are being placed in the framework of the society. For, not always we are ready to be the ones, who we are expected to be. But, this isn't the problem, the problem is when we are reluctant and do not grow even after having ascended in the social ladder.

So, let me come to the point: "People need to be more responsible in being responsive, with their ascensions in the social ladder". As we all, well have a role to play at every level. But, by being less responsible, we could contaminate and even go on to topple the system dependent on us.

For instance, even if I were the President of India, the ideas I profess and preach must be verified to be pragmatic and sensible. For, idealism works well only in literature. While dealing with real people, real solutions to real problems is what is required. I cannot go on to build a palace out of smoke, even though it might be beautiful at that instant!

PS: Recently, in a programme organised by my employing company, former President of India Dr.APJ Abul Kalam happened to give the Chief Guest speech, stressing on the need for more innovation and inventions in India from 'wider sections' of people.

Enjoy Enthiran :D

I still cherish the first music album I purchased for myself : That was Shankar's Boys in 2003... And needless to say what a rage that music had become then, and still is one of the best albums by A R Rahman with Shankar.

Now, here comes, the latest project of Shankar : Enthiran-The Robot, with Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai, something unprecedentedly extravagant and massive in Indian Cinema.

And A R Rahman delivers what could be called his best "Commercial Album" in Enthiran. It has amazing quality to it with lots of technical sound, powerful beats and superb tunes, sung by a varied genre of vocalists. With seven tracks in the album, it is nothing less than a feast to an ARR fan.

1. Puthiya Manidha: This is the first track in the album, and sets the premise for the rest of the album and the movie as well. It starts off with synthesized vocals, followed by ARR, then his daughter Khatija's first performance. She has soothing vocals, would be listening more of her soon, and would like to. ARR's portion is like a 'boot sequence' framed into a song :) Then comes the main course of the song with SPB rendering some characteristic magic of his, making this track the ideal introductory track.

2. Kaadhal Anukkal: An eloquent track. Starts with superb acoustic guitar and mouth organ. Then Vijay Prakash joins in with a weird tone, and then mellows down to his normalcy, complemented by awesome beats. The best part of the song starts when Shreya Goshal joins in, and both then carry the song in a superb manner, singing some mushy Vairamuthu lyrics.

3. Irumbile Oru Idhayam: A high techno and gizmo(!) kind of a track. Has a space travel effect to it! ARR has done the vocals along with some enticing vocals of Kash'n'Krissy. Although the beats make you go foot tapping, ARR's portion is my favorite in the track... Reminds me of Maramkothiye from Anbe Aaruyire ;)

4. Chitti Dance Showcase: A medley of different music genres. Not a full fledged track though. A peppy party number...

5.Arima Arima: An epic song! It is of the likes of Kappal eri poyache from Indian. Hariharan, along with the additional male vocalists make it a song which is as if chronicling a legend. Sadhana Sargam does some mellowing to this powerful track.

6. Kilimanjaro: The magical number of the album. This is the track you'll start liking from the very instant you start listening to it, and it would certainly keep ringing in your head. Javed Ali and Chinmayi are excellent with their playful vocal variations in this track. It also has a lot of tribal chorus and beats, making it all the more special.

7. Boom boom robo da: I was expecting Yogi B to sing for ARR soon. And here he comes with a racy track with great beats to it. The female vocalist Shwetha gives it another different mood to it, making it all the more likable :)

Altoghther, here's an album from A R Rahman which will go on to become one of his best and best selling:) This will be on my playlist for months now ;)
Enjoy Enthiran :)

Memory Loss...

I was contemplating some compelling post for today, while I was walking into my room. By the time I could get life running into my laptop, it was, Phufffff and gone!

Not once or twice, and not just about a blog post idea; numerous times, I've had to struggle to retrieve many small things from memory. It might be common with people to forget things. But, those of you who know me closely, would also know my syndrome of forgetfulness, when it comes to names, numbers and most trivial of the details like, my keys, books and, off late helmet ! But, nothing can beat my lack of remembrance of voices ! I've almost never recognized a voice accurately, even when a well known person is calling from a new number.

These amnesic syndromes seem to accentuate, with the increased consciousness I put towards it. And this doesn't seem to help me little.

The worst ramification of this syndrome, personally is, when I'm not able to recollect a word for a situation, or when I'm not able to relate to some content I would have piously professed either in my blog / while in conversation!

Although, it is said that a bad memory and a happy attitude keeps you blissful, I don't seem to enjoy that privilege, for, I never forget certain things. Certain incidents are afresh, even after many years. I can even remember the quality of the ambiance, with the aroma in the air!

It is fun to forget things (sometimes even people:)
Hope I don't get into some irrecoverable trouble because of this selective amnesia ;)

"Error generating folder list" in Evolution

I've been using Evolution mail client in Ubuntu for quite sometime now,without much hassle. But recently, I performed a hard restart on my Laptop and when I tried accessing Evolution, it could not retrieve mails from one of the local folders used to store my official mails from M$ Exchange.

The status bar would show "Error generating mail list", and when I checked the debug reports, it attributed an error stating: "Database image is malformed".


After looking up at launchpad's  bug report , it was hinted there that the problems in the database folder file 'folder.db' would result in this error.
I followed the following steps to correct it:

• Run this command in the terminal to verify the status of the folder.db files 

cd ~/.evolution/mail ; for i in `find . -name folders.db`; do echo "Rebuilding Table $i"; sqlite3 $i "pragma integrity_check;"; done

• As I did not have sqlite3 installed, I installed it from Universe repositories, 

 sudo apt-get install sqlite3

• After installing sqlite3, I ran the first command again. This time, the command rebuilt the missing folder.db files, and also showed erroneous folder.db file. 

Rebuilding Table ./vfolder/folders.db
ok
Rebuilding Table ./pop/raghavendra@xyz.com@mail.abc.com/folders.db
ok
Rebuilding Table ./local/folders.db
*** in database main ***
On page 4 at right child: 2nd reference to page 218
Page 420 is never used
Error: database disk image is malformed

• After you find out the erroneous file, delete it from its location, and close all evolution processes including evolution-dataserver and evolution-alarm notifier. 
• Now execute the first command again, and verify if there are any more errors by running

sqlite3 ~/.evolution/mail/local/folders.db "pragma integrity_check;"

•  After these steps, I started Evolution to find the error resolved.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie....

Ironical depiction of the pompous and hypocritical bourgeoisie lifestyle at its best, in "Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie"; what is called a surreal movie, and is a genius of a mockery at the bourgeois by Luis Buñuel. 

The simple but meticulously manifested instances throughout the movie depcit the artificiality and unnecessary etiquette superficially endorsed by the supposed elite class of the society. The characters portray the caricatures of the products of the system: People who give little value to people, but only to their possessions. 

Lots of instances in the movie remarkably tease the lives of the ones who have endorsed this hypocrisy. Like,

• The inn where they are willing to serve these people the dinner, even while waiting for the undertaker to do away with with their dead manager.
• The priest being recognized only in his attire, without giving heed to his words when dressed different.
• The ever curious gaze of the house maid, who looks 25 but is 52 years old!
• As a trait, their inculcation of adultery. 
• The evasion of the Ambassador from explaining the poor living conditions in his country.
• The priest who kills the one who has just confessed to him! 

Numerous other instances in the movie, gloriously ridicule the futility of the bourgeoisie lifestyle and the bourgeois as a whole. Of the other movies I've watched by Luis Buñuel, this is the one which makes a uncompromising point to the audience.


And not to forget the story-telling pattern in this 1972 flick: Dream within a dream, and dream within another. These dreams are more congruent to the natural dreams people have, conforming to Sigmund Freud's theories, unlike the contradictions of the latest mind-flick Inception...

Savor the Season

Impeccable is the closest word which can rightfully attribute this encore of lovely weather in Bengaluru. After a hiatus of about four years, as far as I remember, the weather in the past month and still going has been the heavenly haven Bengaluru has been famous for.

The reluctant sun seldom peeping through the ever expanding cover of gray clouds,
The cool air along with the feeble songs of birds enhancing the awesomeness in the ambiance,
The remnant greenery scattered in the city looks lush and exquisite,
Thin sheets of rain,spraying regularly, seem to rinse us in reminiscence of younger days,
Chills of the frigid breeze instigate regular armies of goosebumps, making you aware of your own warmth;

If romance is what's on your mind, the place is right here;

With such pleasantness all around, while the senses are indulged in this delightful treat, the mind goes voyaging, gliding over the innumerable notions of its imagination seeking company and solitude...
 Savoring this season in Namma Bengaluru...

Mass Media-aaaah!

The power of print media, with it's far reach and deep impact, in the form of press, books and newspapers needn't be questioned at all.

Since the times of Gutenberg, print media has been a crucial tool in the making of every epochal event in the History of Mankind. It continues to play an important role till date. But, with the advent of other forms of media the "Mass appeal" of print media has unfortunately, in a substantial manner subsidized and has acquired a new trait to it.

So, whom are we attributing by the term Mass Media in today's paparazzi prone paranoid society?

We'll try to answer the above question in a more elaborate manner, with the routine interrogatives:  What? Why? Who?

What?

Mass media, today, collectively comprises of the innumerable means, fluently used to accomplish 'extensive misappropriation of facts, fabrication of stories, inclusion of cheap gimmicks and not to forget the chatterbox characters',chewing out stereotype hype for every "Breaking News", which in most cases is plain gibberish.

The Television with it's hundreds of News-Entertainment channels, and the Internet have, YES, as the cliché goes: Revolutionized the world!

With such drastic revolution, they put the print media's existence under threat; And the print media faced with this option to survive, wholeheartedly has endorsed this syndrome and now is now a derivative of today's plague-like Mass Media.

So, I converge to a definition where Print media, Television and Internet together form the vicious Mass media in today's world, which the masses are supposed to beware of, instead, the masses have taken them to be the references for their lives.

Now, from a retrospective arrival at today's ingredients of the Mass media, we can analyze the character of this collective entity.

Why?

We are being fed with major proportions of negativity, anxiety and futility in the form of news and entertainment from the previously described sources of Mass Media.

Why are they doing that?

Because, we seem to like it. Or maybe, they have made us start liking it.
Just like an addiction: You instigate and initiate, it will self sustain. The same is true about media,when it comes to the question as to why it feeds us little of the Good, and most of the Bad and the Ugly. Look at all the unnecessary importance given to the Breaking news, reality shows and the paparazzi updates forever on these.

Who?

If I own lots and lots of  money, and I am an influential person in the society, and if it also happens that I own a print or media channel( like it is in the case of many), I would use it as an implement to facilitate my activities: A secure carapace.

This is what 90% of the media channels are being used for today. Either a bureaucrat or a politician, running one media or print channel, uses it efficiently to strengthen or misguide the position of himself, or of some real close 'buddies' of theirs, at the expense of factual truth.

Lack of responsibility and ethics in information dissemination has been the vice in the voice of the today's glossy media.

As an appropriate conclusion to this post, I recollect Dr. Kalam's words about the role of media:

"Unless media emphasizes on the positivity in daily life, rather than accentuating negativity, and unless media becomes the voice of the rural, the poor and the downtrodden, today's media can never be called as "Mass Media"!

ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಮಾಡಿದ ಭಾರತದ ಮೊಟ್ಟ ಮೊದಲ ಪೀಕೊ ಉಪಗ್ರಹ - ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್

" ಮೂರ್ತಿ ಚಿಕ್ಕದಾದರೂ, ಕೀರ್ತಿ ದೊಡ್ಡದು", ಎಂಬ ಗಾದೆ ಮಾತು ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ಉಪಗ್ರಹಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಂದುತ್ತದೆ. ಏಕೆಂದರೆ, ಇಸ್ರೋ ಬಾಹ್ಯಾಕಾಶಕ್ಕೆ ಕಳುಹಿಸಿರುವ ಉಪಗ್ರಹಗಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಇದು ಅತಿ ಸಣ್ಣದು. ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ಕೇವಲ ೧ ಕೆಜಿ ತೂಕವಿದ್ದು, ಸುಮಾರು ೫೦ ಲಕ್ಷ ವೆಚ್ಚದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಡಲ್ಪಟ್ಟಿದೆ.

ಇದರ ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಬಹು ಮುಖ್ಯವಾದ ಗುಣವೆಂದರೆ, ಇದು ಸ್ನಾತಕಪೂರ್ವದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಮಾಡಿದ ಉಪಗ್ರಹ. ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ತಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಮಾರು ೪೦ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು, ಭಾರತದ ಹಲವು ರಾಜ್ಯಗಳಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದರೆ. ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಿಂದ ೪, ಹೈದರಾಬಾದಿನಿಂದ ೩, ನಾಗಪುರದಿಂದ ೧, ಹಾಗು ಪೂನೆಯಿಂದ ೧ ಕಾಲೇಜು, ಒಂದುಗೂಡಿ ಈ ಉಪಗ್ರಹವನ್ನು ಮಾಡಿ ಇಸ್ರೋಗೆ ಕಳೆದ ತಿಂಗಳು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ರಾಜ್ಯಪಾಲರ ಸಮ್ಮುಖದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ ಒಂದು ಸಮಾರಂಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಇಸ್ರೋ ಗಣ್ಯರಿಗೆ  ಒಪ್ಪಿಸಲಾಯಿತು.

ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್-ಅನ್ನು ಕಳೆದ ವಾರ, ಶ್ರೀಹರಿಕೋಟಾದಿಂದ ಬಾಹ್ಯಾಕಾಶಕ್ಕೆ ಹಾರಿಸಲಾದ ಪಿಎಸ್ಎಲ್ ವಿ ರಾಕೆಟ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಹೊಯ್ದು, ಭೂಮಿಯಿಂದ ೬೪೦ ಕಿಮ ಎತ್ತರದಲ್ಲಿ, ಭೂಮಿಯನ್ನು ಸುತ್ತು ಹೋಗಲು ಬಿಡಲಾಗಿದೆ.  ಈ ಉಪಗ್ರಹವು ಸಣ್ಣದಾದರೂ, ಇನ್ನಿತರೆ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಉಪಗ್ರಹಗಳು ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಯಂತ್ರಾಂಶಗಳನ್ನೂ ಇನ್ನೂ ಸಣ್ಣ ಗಾತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್-ನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾವನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್- ನ ಈ ಕ್ಯಾಮೆರಾ, ಭೂಮಿಯನ್ನು ಸುತ್ತು ಹೋಗುವಾಗ, ಚಿತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದು, ಭೂಮಿಗೆ ಕಳುಹಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಈ ಶ್ರೇಣಿಯ ಉಪಗ್ರಹಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಅತ್ಯುತ್ತಮ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ತೆಗೆಯುವ ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯವಿದೆ.


ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ಉಪಗ್ರಹವು ಹಲವು ವಿಭಾಗಗಳನ್ನು ಒಳಗೊಂಡಿದೆ. ಅವುಗಳು ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುತ್ತವೆ. ಈ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ವಿಭಾಗಗಳನ್ನು ಒಂದು ಸಣ್ಣ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ತಂಡವು ಮಾಡಿದೆ.

ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ಬಾಹ್ಯಾಕಾಶದಿಂದ ತೆಗೆಯುವ ಭೂಮಿಯ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಸ್ಪರ್ಶತಂತು ಅಥವ ಅಂಟೆನದ ಮೂಲಕ ರೇಡಿಯೋ ತರಂಗಗಳನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿರುವ ನಿಟ್ಟೆ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಉಪಗ್ರಹ ಸಂಪರ್ಕ ಕೇಂದ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೆರೆ ಹಿಡಿಯಬಹುದು. ಈ ತರಂಗಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬರುವ ಮಾಹಿತಿಯನ್ನು ಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸಿ ಚಿತ್ರವನ್ನು ಮರು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಬಹುದು.

ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಬೆಳಕನ್ನು ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ತಾಗಿ ಪರಿವರ್ತಿಸಿ, ಬ್ಯಾಟರಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಶೇಖರಿಸಿ, ತನ್ನ ಕಾರ್ಯ-ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ನಡೆಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್ ಸುಮಾರು ಒಂದು ಲೀಟರ್ನಷ್ಟು ಗಾತ್ರವಿರುವುದರಿಂದ, ಹೆಚ್ಚು ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ ಉತ್ಪನ್ನಗೊಳಿಸಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗುವಿದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇರುವಷ್ಟು ವಿದ್ಯುತ್ತನ್ನು  ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಳಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಉಪಗ್ರಹವು ತನ್ನ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾಗಿ ಮುಗಿಸಬೇಕು. ಇಂತಹ ವಿನ್ಯಾಸ ಮಾಡುವುದು ಈ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ತಂಡಕ್ಕೆ ಒಂದು  ದೊಡ್ಡ ಸವಾಲಾಗಿತ್ತು.


ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್-ನ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾರ್ಯಗಳನ್ನು ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸಲು, ಉಪಗ್ರಹದಲ್ಲಿ ಒಂದು ಇಲೆಕ್ಟ್ರಾನಿಕ್ ಮೆದುಳನ್ನು  ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಅಳವಡಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಈ ಮೆದುಳು ಉಪಗ್ರಹದ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕೆಲಸಗಳನ್ನು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ನಿಯಂತ್ರಿಸಿ, ಸರಿಯಾದ ನಿರ್ಣಯಗಳನ್ನು ತೆಗೆಯುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಇದನ್ನು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಇದನ್ನು ಒಂದು ಸಣ್ಣ ಕಂಪ್ಯೂಟರ್ ಎಂದೇ ಕರೆಯಬಹುದು. 

ಈ ಉಪಗ್ರಹವನ್ನು  ಮಾಡಿದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು  ಮತ್ತು ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳ ತಂಡದ ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಪ್ರಶಂಸೀಯ ಗುಣವೆಂದರೆ, ಇದು ಯಾವುದೇ ಒಂದು ಕಾಲೇಜಿನಿಂದ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಲ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಸುಮಾರು ಹತ್ತು ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು, ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳ ಸಾಮೂಹಿಕ ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ನೆರವಿನಿಂದ ೫೦ ಲಕ್ಷದಷ್ಟು ವೆಚ್ಚವನ್ನು ಶೇಖರಿಸಿ, ಕೂಡಿ ಈ ಉಪಗ್ರಹವನ್ನು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಿದರು. ಇದು ಯಾವುದೇ ಒಂದು ಕಾಲೇಜಿನ ಕೆಲಸ ಎಂದು ಹೇಳಲಾಗದು; ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಾಲೇಜುಗಳೂ ಒಕ್ಕೂಡಿ, ಇಂತಹ ಒಂದು ವಿಸ್ಮಯದ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ೪೦ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಇಂತಹ ಒಂದು ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಯುವ ಜನಾಂಗಕ್ಕೆ ಒಂದು ಮಾದರಿಯೇ ಹೌದು. ನಾವು ಒಂದು ಕೂಡಿ, ಏನೇ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದೊಕೊಂಡರೂ, ಅದನ್ನು ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿ ಮುಗಿಸಬಹುದು ಎಂಬುದರ ಉದಾಹರಣವೆ ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್.

"ನಮ್ಮ ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳು ಆಕಾಶವನ್ನು ನೋಡುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ,
ಆದರೆ, ಅದನ್ನೂ ದಾಟಿ ನಾಟಿದ್ದೇವೆ ನಮ್ಮ ನಿಟ್ಟನ್ನು", ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾ ಈ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಆಕಾಶವೂ ಸೀಮೆ ಇಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಿರೂಪಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಈ ತಂಡದ ಒಂದು ಸದಸ್ಯನಾಗಿ, ಸುಮಾರು ಎರಡೂವರೆ ವರ್ಷಗಳು ಕೆಲಸಮಾಡಿದ್ದೇನೆ ಎಂಬುದು ನನಗೆ ಅತಿ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ವಿಷಯ.

(ಒಂದು ಕನ್ನಡ ವಾರಪತ್ರಿಕೆಗೆ ಸ್ಟುಡಸ್ಯಾಟ್-ನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಾನು ಬರೆದ ಒಂದು ಲೇಖನ)