New Mobile.
Hmmm.. Last week i did one important thing. i bid bye bye to my soap dabba( nokia 2600) tht i had been using since my first yr. It was pretty much in a bad state but i cant expect to have it in some better condition after all the illtreatments i have put it through.For example , i never spent a day without putiing it down . My highest count had been seven times a day . And each time it falls down it goes Quack. The keypad goes in one direction, front panel into one., battery into one direction and then i need to restore it back to its previous state so tht i can drop it some other time..:-)..so after all these treatments it was so nice of my mom to come forward and accept it as her new soap dabba( she had a even bigger dabba.. the first phones tht nokia released.) So after all these exchanges i managed to grab a Nokia 6300 with a 2 M P camera.. And one significant difference being tht its really slim and not like the soap dabba i had previously:-)
Week of Agony
Yeah i am done with it now. . Now finally over , i feel how much i had a to push myself for this ct(cycle test). And to add to all these i went home just two days before the ct and started my preps just a day before..I feel bad for it..After all the preps tht i did . all i hope to get is a couple of single digits and may be cross ten . So After all this gruelling experience i have decided enough of experimentation with ct . I am not gonna go home for atleast a month .But the funniest part was the way i prepared for Comp Arch. Half the time i was explring my new mobile and half the time i was craacking jokes with venki tht all i could do in the exam hall was to keep staring at the examiner. Now tht ct are over i feel better.. like being released out of a prison(aiy … no i am not tht sort of a guy). 
I klnw this post is really a mokkai. But no other choice… I have nowhere else to vent all theese because no one beleives i have done tht bad ;-(
Two GUYS
Classes have always been boring this semester(except the automata class)and this particular incident happened during the automata class this monday..it was a double hour(i am sorry to say this being a comp sci) and both the lecturer and we were feeling drowsy when these two mates gave a soggy entry … they had missed the first hour and had come for the second hour of the same class and the prof took it lightly…
Following is the conv… no double meanings please
Prof:Why u guys late..
Guys: M’am we slept in the after noon and didnt manage to get up…
Prof to other guy: couldnt u wake him up on time….
Second guy: M’am we both were actually sleeping together !!!!
Now the first person to laugh was the prof and then the whole class went on with her,,,,
After all these they both went on to sit in the same place…. (poor guys ,,must have been really ssleepy when they had those words out of their mouth)
Linux and Tom Sawyer
There’s one big factor in why Linux isn’t popular on the desktop. Linux is free. I know this sounds like complete dog’s bollocks, but hear me out before judging my sanity.
We can all remember the story of Tom Sawyer. At one point, Tom had to whitewash a fence. When one of his friends happened along, Tom tried to persuade and bribe the friend to help him. Needless to say, it didn’t work.
A few moments later, as Tom was unhappily whitewashing the fence, another friend stumbled along to jeer at Tom’s misfortune. This time Tom decided on a cunning plan. He ignored the friend, and seemed very absorbed in the whitewashing. Soon the friend became intrigued, because what could be more interesting than talking to a friend? Shortly thereafter, he started begging Tom to let him whitewash a bit of the fence. Tom wouldn’t give in.
The friend offered Tom some of his most valuable possessions if Tom would just let him whitewash a little bit. Tom reluctantly agreed, secretly jumping with joy on the inside. More friends happened along, coming to laugh at Tom for having to whitewash a fence. Tom simply did his act, and they all stayed to help whitewash, and paid for the privilege!
The above story illustrates a basic human nature. We don’t value things we can get easily. Yet we’d climb mountains, cross rivers and travel across deserts just to reach something we can’t easily get our hands on.
The computer world
The same thing applies in the world of computers. Humans are naturally suspicious of that which comes too easily. Imagine you were promoting an expensive brand of champagne. If you were running around forcing free samples into people’s hands, they would be very wary. But if you set up a stand where you would offer small samples for 1000bucks each (“Special promotional price! Normally costs three times as much!”), people would see your champagne as posh and valuable.
It’s still the same champagne. Yet your presentation radically changes people’s perception of it.
Which brings me to Linux. There’s one problem with Linux getting to new users. It’s free.
That’s right. Linux being free is a problem in reaching new customers.
sudo in Fedora 8
Most of u who have worked in ubuntu must be familiar with th sudo command which i really liked a lot when i switched to fedora 8 i had to login as root using su each and every time to execute small commands.. so i set out to search for a solution for sudo .. Fedora has sudo by default but u need to cinfigure it a bit to make it work like sudo in ubuntu..
when u do a sudo in fedora and give ur accnt passwd it wud give a message saying ” users is not in sudoers list “
So wht we do is add our user account to sudoers list which maps the privelges tht a user get by executing sudo command.
open sudoers which is in /etc/sudoers using the command visudo.. if it says command not found, then execute it from /usr/sbin/visudo ( u can add this permanantly to ur path varible using the previous post in my blog )
in the last line add the following line
user ALL=(ALL) ALL
where user is ur user name.. suppose my user name is sathya i wud do
sathya ALL=(ALL) ALL
sudo has an expiry time of 5 minutes by default to change tht add timestamp_timeout=0 to timestamp_timeout=0 to Defaults env_reset line….
now press esc and :wq and now sudo is ready for u !!!
New additions to dictionary
Bucknor: (n) (adj)
1. Temporary blindness leading to missing out on the obvious.
2. To be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
3. Situations leading to grave judgemental errors.
Usage: I feel bucknored by my boss;
Life often throws a bucknor at you.
Benson: (n) (adj)
1. Something that legitimises a severe bucknor.
Usage: First they bucknored me and then they bensoned it! I am toast.
[Also see: bucknor]
Ponting: (n) (adj)
1. A substance or entity or even a person of unquestionable integrity
2. An act of uncivilised behaviour. [ Also, pontingness (n)]
Symonds: (n):
A subset of the monkeys, Symonds are long-tailed primates found in the interiors of Australia known for wailing and crying at being called names. Symonds are extremely sensitive creatures and need to be handled with extreme care or else they’ll break down at the mere exposure to the Indians (who happen to be higher up in the food chain). They are usually nestled by them Pontings in their little chest pouch which gives them additional protection against Indians…
Symonds: (v):
Randomly wail and weep at every whichever chance one gets.
Present Continuous: symonding
Usage: The child took to symonding when the mother denied him money to
buy a kite.
Issues on Fedora 8
Since i hav been actively using fedora 8 and exploring its features for the past one month , i thought i could share some of the small problems for which i could find solutions…
1 >First one, Fedora 8 doesnt play a login sound .. To Sort tht out u need a player tht runs without GUI.. and so does “mplayer”..So
*Download what ever sound you like from www.gnome-look.org and go to system sounds.
*Leave your sound in the home directory (unless some else can help with this).
*In order for sound to play in the background you need to install mplayer.
*Go to preferences >more preferences >sessions >startup programs and add this command:
mplayer Startup1_4.ogg
2> The next one is working on grub prompt from ur terminal in fedora …Actually fedora has its grub prompt in /sbin … it has a lot more things in this /sbin… so wht we do is just add the /sbin path to our system PATH variable…
to do this add the following to ur .bashrc or .bash_profile file in ur home directory( . indicates it is hidden)
path=/sbin:$PATH
should work..
and similarly add /usr/sbin for manymore commands like tcpdump and stuff….
Once u r in ur grub prompt u can reinstall ur grub and use lot of of other options like md5 encrytpion and things…
3>To have the Fonts tht u use in windows , just copy them and paste in the /usr/share/fonts directory in ferdora ..
When u downlaod any themes from net just paste them on to ur /usr/share/ gdm for login managers
/usr/share/themes for ur window borders and application themes…
/usr/share/icons for icon themes
4>What happens when u dont safely remove ur pen drive from windows and plug it in FEdora… It reports tht the device is still mounted to ntfs connection to mount it in ur linux use the following command
give a su and ur root password..
now create a directory with ant name(here My-Pen-Drive) in /media using the command
mkdir /media/My-Pen-Drive
now mount using
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/My-Pen-Drive/ -o force…
if u want to mount a hard disk use sda1 or 2 or 3 accordingly instead of sdb1….
will put up more in the coming days…
Why Linux
WARNING: The following is from my small knowledge on Linux and FOSS so pardon me if i have put up anything wrong..
Lots of ppl have this question in their mind abt Linux …. Now Software technology has taken this world into its own realms tht each and every organisation depends on it some way or the other… Now when it comes to OS and the software market ppl still think microsoft has the edge over others… Wht microsoft gives : A sort of OS tht runs properly but has some bugs(security fixes) for which u need to pay a third party organisation for getting it fixed.. in this way microsoft earns the goodies of all these third party organisations …and microsoft itself invests lots of money on research to try and analyse how to emulate MAC OS as a brand new OS Vista…To speak more on the “differences” between MAC and Vista needs a seperate post…Now coming back to the issue wht microsoft gives u is an OS for which u gotta pay(excluding the indians who give a damn abt copyright stuff) and still has lots of loop holes to exploit …
Now when u come to Linux , wht Linux gives you is a platform on which u can builld and reconstruct yout Os to suite your needs and stuff and all of this costs you nill… Now in my opinion the main difference between microsoft and Linux disttibutions are the ease with which u can report a problem or rectify a problem…Can u compare the millions of ppl who scratch their heads to create a new Linux OS to the thousands of the so called intelligent guys wiith heavy research funding who emulate a existing OS and give it a brand name and release…
Lets analyse the bug point of view… Wht happens when u get a bug in Windows.. All u can do is send a bug report to them back and sit back and relax… Wht Linux gives u is the freedom to Analyse the bug and sort it out and release it back as a new one with your own credits… Though linux has its code open ,turning it malicious for hackers.. there hasnt been much for the viruses to do in Linux because there are lot more ppl who work on the source code to find out the loop holes and correct them so tht u dont have any security threats.,..
When it matters to money … Where do the Linux organisations get their money if Linux is for FREE..
1.Though linux is for FREE when u buy an Enterprise Edition from the organisation u pay them in case u have any service requests…
This is a meagre income if u consider the next one
2.Govt Organisations.. Think on how much money Govt spends on Software.. its just about 1600 crores per year on various levels and features …. Thanks to the popularisation of Linux now Govt is hifting to FOSS and Linux and so where does this 1600 crore go..(into some politician’s locker!!!) A part of it govt makes sure tht it reaches the FOSS organisations..
For ppl who dont beleive just visit the Reservation centre in Trichy bus stand .. the comps there are running onLINUX!!!
“In a world without wall or fences, who needs Windows and Gates?”
Laugh and Roll
These are few of my sms jokes tht really made me laugh….Since some of them are in tamil lemme put them in the best possible english tht i can afford to …
Warning: few of them might turn out to be mokkais ….
Student says ..
Sir,Tea MasterTea Podraru
Parotta Master Parotta Podraru
Maths Master Maths Podraru
Neenga Head Master Eppo sir “Mandaya” Poduveenga!!!
And this one is from a sardar
Sardar says to his friend: My wife is angry on me ?
Why??
Sadar says : I didnt take her with me when i wemt for honey moon..
