RIP Irvin Kershner

One of Hollywoods better directors passed on today :-(

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/29/3079920.htm

Setting Up The Perfect Kubuntu 10.04 System

Having shifted from Windows to Linux two years back and having installed multiple versions of Kubuntu since then, I think I have perfected the art of installing the software that I need after a fresh install. You can follow the guide below to get your multimedia etc working.

All the commands at the $ prompt are to be entered on console. Do not copy and paste the $ command, thats the shell prompt. Whatever is listed below can also be performed on the GUI Synaptic package manager, but it is easier for you to copy and paste the commands on shell.

Aptoncd:

First install aptoncd, its a handy utility that will allow you to transfer downloaded deb files to another machine so you do not need to use up bandwidth

$ sudo apt-get install aptoncd

Firefox:

Kubuntu contains a menu link to install easily install Firefox from the net. Click the get firefox sub menu item from the Internet menu.

Basic Multimedia Codecs / Support for Multimedia in Kde's Disc Burning App K3B:

Launch the konqueror browser the comes with KDE. The first time you open it, it prompts you to install basic multimedia codecs. Click yes to install.

Setting up the Medibuntu Repository: -

The Medibuntu repository contains all the non free stuff like Windows video codecs and fonts etc. Set it up by running the following two commands: -

$ sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

$ sudo apt-get --yes install app-install-data-medibuntu apport-hooks-medibuntu

Install the Windows 32 Codecs: -

Now that the Medibuntu repository is setup, you can go ahead and install the Windows multimedia codecs: -

$ sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Install DVD Decryption Support for Playback: -

$ sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

Install other non free stuff, including MS Fonts:

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Install Open SSH: -

I use scp to transfer files between my various machines, for scp to work a SSH server must be installed. Also the ability to SSH to my various machines on my LAN is a necessity.

$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server


Install the Xine video player UI: -

sudo apt-get install xine-ui

Install Deluge: -

Deluge is my favourite bit torrent client, it resembles uTorrent on Windows.

$ sudo apt-get install deluge

Install Mplayer: -

To play video successfully on Linux, you need both Mplayer and Xine installed. If one can't play a specific format, the other will.

$ sudo apt-get install mplayer

Install other Video Players: -

Kmplayer and SMplayer are light weight video players which are awesome. VLC is another amazing player that has built in Video codecs.

$ sudo apt-get install kmplayer smplayer vlc

Thunderbird: -

Thunderbird is my favourite mail application :-

$ sudo apt-get install thunderbird


GIMP: -

GIMP is a freeware Photoshop clone. For some reason the they removed GIMP in this release of Ubuntu / Kubuntu. I need GIMP so install it as follows.

$ sudo apt-get install gimp

Install File Roller: -

The KDE compression tool ark does not do a good job of password protected zip files so I use the Gnome compression tool File Roller.

$ sudo apt-get install file-roller

Virtual Box: -

Virtual Box is a virtualization software. You can run Windows in a virtual machine rather than dual boot to it. Handy for some of those Windows apps you can't find Linux replicas for. My share trading app unfortunately only works on Windows.

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox*

Pidgin:

Pidgin is my favourite messenger tool. The default Kopete that comes with KDE is good but I am more used to Pidgin since I have been using it from a long time. Pidgin supports the MSN Messenger, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger protocols.

$ sudo apt-get install pidgin

Google Earth: -

Google Earth can be found in the Medibuntu repositories. My favourite time killer.

$ sudo apt-get install googleearth*

Blender 3D:

Blender 3D for 3D graphics.

$ sudo apt-get install blender

Dia: -

Dia short for diagram. Handy flow charting and diagramming tool I use at work.

$ sudo apt-get install dia

Inkscape: -

A free handy vector drawing tool, think Corel Draw clone.

$ sudo apt-get install inkscape

HP Printer Support: -

$ sudo apt-get install hplip

Scanning Tool:

$ sudo apt-get install xsane

MP3 Player:

MP3 player that looks like Winamp.

$ sudo apt-get install audacious2

Gnomes CD / DVD Burning Tool: -

$ sudo apt-get install brasero

DVD 9 to 5 Compressor: -

$ sudo apt-get install dvd95

CD Ripping Tool: -

$ sudo apt-get install acidrip

Miro: -

Search and download videos from YouTube and other video sites.

$ sudo apt-get install miro

Rhythmbox: -

Itunes clone

$sudo apt-get install rhythmbox

Banshee: -

Itunes clone

$sudo apt-get install banshee

DVD Authoring Tool: -

$ sudo apt-get install qdvdauthor

Video compression tool: -

$ sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

K9Copy DVD Compression Tool: -

Compresses DVD Rips to either DVD 5's or xvids.

$ sudo apt-get install k9copy

CHM Viewer: -

$ sudo apt-get install kchmviewer

Windows Emulator: -

$ sudo apt-get install wine

Mysql Database : -

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-client

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Apache Webserver: -

$ sudo apt-get install apache2

PHP 5

$ sudo apt-get install php5

Gnome Network Manager Applet: -

I can't stand the Network manager that comes with KDE, so i replace it with Gnomes. Another good alternative would be WICD.

$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

Subversion: -

$ sudo apt-get install subversion

Netbeans IDE: -

$ sudo apt-get install netbeans

Printer Support: -

Surprisingly Kubuntu doesn't come with the printer support required built in on install. We need to install CUPS.

$ sudo apt-get install cups*

C++ support for gcc: -

$ sudo apt-get install g++

Vi Improved: -

I don't like the version of vi that comes with the debian series of Os's hence I install vi improved.
$ sudo apt-get install vim

If you install the software above, you will find that you have everything you require to be productive in a Linux environment and never need to boot to Windows.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I finally finished reading the first Percy Jackson book and saw the film today as well.

The book is written really well. Rick Riordans style of writing really emotes twelve year old Percy's rebellious attitude as a kid who has trouble fitting in and following the rules. I really liked the first half of the book where Percy discovers that he is a Demigod. The book got a bit monotonous once Percy embarks on his quest. The quest basically had Percy face one Greek mythological character after the other on his travels. I really didn't enjoy the quest part of the book. The book ended pretty well though, however I had guessed who the villain was half way through. The end was predictable but nice. Even though the book has some flaws, by the end of the book I did find myself wanting to journey with the characters again, so I guess I will read books two to five as well.

Now for the movie. Director Christopher Columbus changes the sequence of events and some of the major plot points. In fact he goes so far as to change one of two villains (no spoilers ahead, I won't spoil either the book or the movie for you.) and some of the locales where battles in the book take place. He even changes the sequence of events as to how Percy obtains a magical talisman that helps him escape the underworld! Die hard fans of the book would be disappointed but the movie is a lot of fun to watch as a whole. Frankly I preferred it to the Harry Potter movies. The kids playing the main characters in the Harry Potter movies are frankly quite stiff and painful to watch.

Self Analysis of a Self Proclaimed Geek

Lately I have been controlling this urge to buy an Apple iPhone. The people at Apple are very good at designing human interfaces. The phones touch screen interface is bloody brilliant and the phone is simply beautiful to behold. Cost aside, I just can't bring myself to buy a phone that I need to hack to use and need to send back to Apple every time that the battery needs replacement. The open source evangelist in me takes over every time I come across a product that has some kind of vendor lock in and keeps me from purchasing it.

Having convinced myself into sticking with my old Nokia E61, I came to the realization that I love my current phone. I have found the Nokia E61 to be one of the most functionally usable phones that I have ever owned and the fact that I was willing to blow a hell of a lot of money on a new phone that I really didn't need put me into an introspective phase. I needed to sort out why I had this tendency to spend money on things that I really don't need. Maybe buying new things has the same effect on me that comfort food has on some people! This blog entry is my way of bringing to the surface what is inside me. Self analysis is a really difficult thing to do.


What is it that makes me want to buy a new product?

Looking back at gadgets that I have bought in the past, every time I have bought something I have always thought that it would improve the quality of my life in some way, make me happier and make me more productive. Guess what, it never did! What I have now learned from this is that when you have your heart set on something, your mind automatically creates justifications for it. The mind is really finicky in that way, always jumping from one desire to the next.


Advertising is a source of desire and evil!

Yes I like to make my section headings dramatic and will now tone down the rhetoric to advertising is a source of desire. Whenever I have bought a new gadget it has been after seeing an ad for it online or on TV. Companies like you to know they have a new product out and they like to package it to appear all shiny and pretty.

Most ads make you believe that buying the advertised product will make you cooler, make you more desirable and change your life in some way. You know that hot babe in the ad, she doesn't come with the product and there is no guarantee you will bag one such as her if you buy it!

The “Axe Effect” ads are the worst offenders. I pity the poor sod who believes that spraying himself with a product from Axe will get all these hot women to chase him. What about the fairness cream ads? Does the product work as advertised? What is this sick obsession our society has with fair skin! My friends maid spends a major chunk of her salary on fairness cream. That money I believe would be better spent on the small irrelevant things like food, education and housing!

Its all in the packaging people! What I suggest is ignore the hype and look at the product beneath the packaging, its just all just plastic and circuits. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating not buying these products at all, that would be bad for the economy and that would translate to loss of jobs. I'm just suggesting that we make intelligent purchases. See if the product is really needed and then go ahead and make the purchase. For example if you have children, disposing of your old black and white phone and buying a new one with a five mega pixel camera might actually make sense. You don't know when your children will be up to something that makes them look adorable and carrying a digital camera separately with you all the time is a pain.


Companies create a hype and will have you buying the same product again and again!

If companies had their way they would make us re-buy what we already have. I have a big collection of DVD's and these same companies would have me buy the same titles again in a more high definition format. Forget a new high definition format, companies release multiple versions of the same movie on DVD itself. Look at the multiple editions of “Lord of the Rings”, they first released a two disk version and went onto release a four disk version! They released the two disk version first and the four disk version a lot later so die hard Tolkien fans who could not wait to own it, first bought the two disk version and later went on to buy the four disk version which they packaged very well. The movie “Blade Runner” has three editions that I know of – the theatrical version, the directors cut and the final cut. I can assure you that die hard “Blade Runner” fans have purchased all three editions.

I for one am guilty of purchasing the different editions of “Star Wars”. George Lucas, you have made a succor out of me!


Now back to the self analysis of narcissistic old me!

If I sum up all that I have spent on impulsive purchases that I have felt would make me happy, I'm sure that it would be a significant amount that would have been better allocated to something like mutual fund investments. Not only did I fall for the hype but wasted a lot of time researching the tech specs of the product / reading reviews to make sure it was the best purchase etc. This is time and money that I will never get back!

I think this flaw in me of impulsive wasteful purchases comes from the fact that I spend long hours in office in front of a glowing screen working on complicated things. Work is worship but not having the time to do much outside work is also sensory deprivation and also has lead to burnout. In the little free time that I have I try to get as much sensory pleasure as I can. My mind goes on fooling me into thinking that a certain new purchase will help me get the best experience in the little free time that I have. Hey for some people the temporary fix is stuffing themselves with junk food ... for me it has been cool new gadgets and DVD's.

Materialistic pleasures are only temporary. The day the Apple iPhone was released, people waited the entire night in line to be amongst the first few to purchase it. It seems this problem is extremely widespread and says a lot about the direction that society in general is headed. I think we all should make a sincere attempt to live less materialistic lives.

I for one am now making a sincere attempt to list the non materialistic things that make me happy and be truly grateful for them. I just made my first entry today. My niece and nephew are staying with us in Pune for a couple of days. When my niece Vyndhia laughs, she really glows and it makes me feel all mushy and happy inside.

Microsoft Windows Deserves to be Thrown Out of the Window!

I spent the whole of last Sunday trying to clean a couple of hundred viruses off a family friends computer. The installed anti virus claimed to have quarantined the viruses but they kept on coming back. There was a virus that created an autorun.inf file in the root directory of all the drives that went on calling an executable that had some control characters in it so I could not delete it (or maybe the files were locked or something.) The only alternative was to do a complete reformat of all the drives. A fresh install of Windows without the reformat would just bring the viruses back.

Now my family friend had all his data on this machine and as most non geeks never considered backing any of it up (most non geeks have this idiotic notion that computers are magical machines that never fail, go on chugging on and on and can magically generate all of their accounts for them.) The machine was so badly messed up that I could not even get the data written to a cd. The cd writing application went on failing (was probably infected badly) and after creating a couple of coasters I realized another approach was required.

I needed to get rid of all the files that Windows would not allow me to delete and yet preserve the data. My solution was to use System Rescue cd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). The is a Linux boot disk that comes with utilities to help you recover from a disaster. It even lets you mount a NTFS partition and perform rescue operations on it.

I first booted into Windows and copied all the gentleman's files from the desktop and his other folders into one common directory. This was to ensure that I wouldn't lose any of his files on the desktop etc when I deleted the Windows directory. I then booted in System Rescue cd, mounted the NTFS partitions in Linux and deleted the Windows directory, Program Files directory and all the dlls and vbscripts the viruses had left in the root of all the partitions thus deleting only Windows, the viruses and leaving the gentleman's data intact.

I then booted off the Windows XP disk and did a clean install (installed all the drivers etc.) Made sure the computer was not connected to the broadband connection (unpatched Windows on the net is a no no), installed a couple of hundred patches that Microsoft has released since XP SP2 (from a disk I had), installed an anti virus (AVG), connected the broadband connection, updated the anti virus signatures, did a hard drive scan once more just to be sure and was done! I rescued a Windows system with a Linux cd, isn't it ironic!

This left me thinking. Critics of Linux claim it is not ready for the desktop, I however contend that if we install Linux desktops for people who aren't familiar with the best practices of keeping a Windows installation spyware and virus free, we will have less infested machines spreading malware on the net thus making the world a better place. The Linux desktop has evolved over the years and you can be as productive on KDE and Gnome as you are on Windows.

Before going on, I'd like to confess that I have been an evangelist for Linux myself, I like the idea of people around the world building something amazing and giving it back to the community for free. I love the concept of the free exchange of ideas. The hippie in me believes this is the way the world should be i.e. the unrestrained flow of knowledge and ideas for the betterment of everyone. I have a Windows desktop (a dual boot with Linux actually.) Some of my favorite applications are on Windows and that is what has kept me from taking the complete plunge to Linux. There was something that kept me booting back to Windows, that is until I found this article: -

http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_fedora7

The author lists alternative applications in Linux for the functionality he can't do without in Windows and goes on to show how to setup Fedora Core 7 with these applications, making it the perfect desktop for home or business use. I found that the applications I cannot do without are a subset of the applications listed in the article and I could actually stop using Windows.

For an office application I am already using Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org) on Windows. MS Office is too buggy and prone to viruses for my liking. Yes feature wise Open Office is not a par with Office 2007, it is more comparable to MS Office XP. I have never used or needed to use all the functions in MS Office XP anyway and nor do I use every feature available in Open Office so I have no problem with this and it is completely functional for me.. Open Office is also available on Linux so I am all set on the office front.

For email, I use Mozilla Thunderbird. That's is available on Linux, so I'm good to go there as well.

My browser of choice is Mozilla Firefox, also available on Linux. Awesome!

The application most used on my home computer is Azureus, the bit torrent client, it runs even when I don't (I leave it downloading in the night when I'm asleep.) Available on Linux as well! Great!

If you are a user who uses his computer for browsing, mailing, printing letters etc. (soho apps), Linux comes with everything you need (at OS installation time). However if you are a professional who is used to certain dtp apps, photo editing apps, etc, you will find good alternatives in Linux but don't expect your favorite applications from Adobe / Macromedia to be available on Linux anytime soon. You guys are better off migrating to Mac OSX if those apps are required. Also gamers are better of sticking to Windows, most game companies don't support Linux. For gaming a console would be a better choice.

Microsoft was heavily promoting the security features of the new Windows Vista, yet a five year old virus can infect it! After six years of development, the capitalist monkeys at Microsoft have come up with the abomination that is Windows Vista. I say “Hasta la vista Microsoft”, I'm off looking for greener virus and malware free pastures. Years of development have only produced more eye candy in the OS and eye candy that requires an unbelievable amount of horse power to run. If eye candy is important to you, google search for the screen shots of KDE 4 (still under development), looks much better than Windows Vista I think.

Thanks to the good people at http://howtoforge.com for that excellent write up listing alternatives for all my favorite Windows apps, I'm finally taking the plunge to Linux (avoiding booting to Windows for everyday tasks). I will update you on my experiences as I go along.

As you can tell from my previous posts, I only post a blog entry when I feel passionate about something or I'm pissed off about something. So thank you Microsoft for ruining my Sunday trying to fix that abomination of an operating system you call Windows. People are migrating in masses away from you to Mac OSX and Linux, serves you right for creating crap and trying to sell it to us for a shit load of money!

Skin and Bones

If everything could ever feel this real forever. If anything could ever be this good again. The only thing I'll ever ask of you ... you've got to promise not to stop when I say when.

Thats not me getting poetic, its the lyrics to the Foo Fighter's song ”Everlong” and also the way it makes me feel while hearing it. Actually I'm hearing the acoustic version of it from their live acoustic album – Skin and Bones.

I have to admit, I have rocked to Foo Fighters songs in the past but have never until this very moment realized how deep their lyrics are. I never really gave the album version of “Everlong” much thought. I don't know if it was the weird video that put me off or the fact that Dave Grohl is screaming his lungs out which completely ruins the sentiment of the song for me.

A band shows its true metal on an acoustic performance and this is where Foo Fighters shines. I have to say Skin and Bones is one of the best live performances I have heard. The band puts so much energy into their live performance that you can even feel it off a pre-recorded cd. Dave's voice takes you through a range of emotions and on some of the tracks he goes from slow and peaceful to hard and heavy seamlessly. This live performance will take you through a gamut of emotions, from love, to heart break, to betrayal, to sentimental.

The acoustic version of Everlong has hit a chord with me, it makes me want to laugh, cry, be in love, all at the same time! I can't make up my mind if the song is that brilliant or I am going through a hormonal change!


Some of the other notable tracks on the disk: -

Best of You -

I've got another confession to make, I'm your fool. Everyone's got their chains to break, holding you. My heart is under arrest again, but I'll break loose.

I think we all have been under someones spell at some time or the other and needed to break loose. I can relate.


Walking After You -

If you'd accept surrender, give up some more. If you walk out on me, I'm walking after you.

Poetic!


My Hero -

There goes my hero, watch him as he goes. There goes my hero ... he's ordinary!

I can't quite figure out if Dave means ordinary people are heroes or he means that we worship people / celebrities and they turn out to be ordinary people. Either way, an awesome song!


Times Like These -

It's times like these you learn to live again. It's times like these you give and give again. It's times like these you learn to love again. It's times like these time and time again.

A song about recovering from ... whatever. I love this song, second only to Everlong.


People do yourselves a favor and go out and buy this disk. Buy it, download it, rip it, steal it, I don't care! Just get it!

But seriously, this is one of those few disks worth burning a hole in your wallet for. Heres a link to it on Amazon.com: -

http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Bones-Foo-Fighters/dp/B000IU3XTW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-6015631-8622846?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1190048335&sr=1-1


My mood today: Manic depressive, questioning my place in the universe ... yet singing Everlong at the same time. Can't get the damn song out of my head.

Communal Identity

A Sindhi gentleman posted a comment on my first entry saying that he found my blog very depressing and that he didn't like the fact that I referred to myself as a cheap Sindhi. I was offended that this man would be so quick to judge me. My first thought was that if this gentleman cannot see the humor in my writing style, he must be an extremely stuck up person! My impulsive, take no nonsense side immediately took over and sent him a stinker of an email telling him that he had no sense of humor (I was a bit more rude actually.) He responded by telling me that sense of humor at the cost of my community was not right.

After this event, I just feel the need to say that my writings were never meant to offend anyone. This event has also led me into an introspective phase on how I see myself in the community and I finally have the answers.

I see myself first as a child of God, then as a self aware intelligent being, then as a citizen of the Earth and finally as an Indian. I wonder why the word "Sindhi" is only a label to me. Is it because of the fact that I went to a Catholic school? Is it because my closest friends are from different communities, some Hindus, some Christians, some Muslims and some Parsis? Is it because most of my colleagues at work are from all over India? Hell most of my own team at work is made up of South Indians, some of whom I have grown to respect a lot.

While growing up I always disliked the fact that my father was a member of a Sindhi banking association and not just a banking association. Then there is also the fact that two of my closest friends - Arif and Nalini, a Muslim and a Sindhi (half Gujarati actually) fell in love and got married against some of their parents wishes. One of my oldest / closest friends Dev, his father is a Sindhi, his mother a Muslim and his wife is a Christian. I feel blessed to have grown up being exposed to people who can see beyond the artificial boundaries of community.

The fact is that the way the world is progressing, we are all becoming one big global community. Yes there will still be wars and communal riots etc., but big business, outsourcing and the Internet are ensuring that the world is one big global village and a person who sees himself as a Sindhi first is in my opinion archaic.

As for the post where I call myself a cheap Sindhi. That comes from some of my friends who have called me that at the rare times when I have acted miserly. I known they meant it in jest and there was no way that that old Sindhi goat (errr I mean gentleman) who posted that comment could know the history behind it and why I used that term.

Lesson to be learned from this event: Not to get affected by someone posting a negative comment on my blog and not waste one hour of my very limited personal time writing about it.

My weight today: Oh damn!

Calorie Intake Today: Uh oh!