Windows XP Performance boosting tips

Here is the link.

V.I. Arnold on Modern Mathematics

Here is an article deploring the over-stressing of "abstract formalism" in mathematics. It is by a great mathematician too!

BSNL stinks

I recently shifted from one major city to another in India and was looking to get a new mobile connection. I was interested in getting a new BSNL mobile connection. For this, I trawled through the website for information. As usual, the requirements for residential proof were set of documents like passport/ration card/voter card which unscrupulous people and terrorists easily forge with the connivance of corrupt employees in government agencies, but which are a hassle for normal citizens. I was searched the web to get some BSNL helpline number. The number 9400024365 does not work from non BSNL connections. I looked for some email ID or any number for information. As is to be expected from government organisations, there was none. Also the list of customer service centres had number which are useless. I have decided to opt for some private provider. There is no way a customer can ask about new information! No wonder they lose customers and I hope they get shut down and the lazy assholes sitting there are kicked out of jobs.

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo

Microsoft and yahoo have made a pact. Let us see how Google deals with it. Knowing Google, its cunning response will be well camouflaged by a functionality useful which will prove to be indispensable to many!

Code auto completion in emacs

I have been looking around for a tool in Emacs which does autocompletion, shows function declaration. I came across a package called CEDET, which promised all these things. It also comes by default in the CVS version of emacs. However, I found the documentation to be piss-poor, worser than most open source projects. There is a "gentle introduction" to CEDET, but I found it useless. Most things like
(require `semantic-ia)
did not work because it was not found. I am now looking for other options.

Mathematical Formalism and learning

This blog entry results from my successive attempts to learn mathematics. Without going much into philosophical discussions on what constitutes "learning", I will merely mention the obstacles and my comments. My basic degree is in engineering from a Regional College of Engineering, electrical to be specific "EE" as it is fondly known. 

Anyways, what has always bothered me and perhaps hampered my learning is the sudden jump in formalism from the undergraduate mathematics which is taught in most colleges in India, never mind their claims to be "premier institutes" to the graduate level mathematics needed for decent research work. Worse, there are very few courses for spanning this bridge. The engineering professors teach the subject from application point of view while the mathematics people look down upon "applications". This is another pet peeve of mine. When mathematicians get hoity-toity about their "abstractness" and sneer down upon applications, I think they should be made to attend a compulsory course on history of their branch of maths. It will be seen that immediately some practical application has stimulated their field. This is not to say that theorists should not be encouraged but acting hoity-toity is not going to help. Most great mathematicians have helped, in form of books/notes/lectures to bring understanding to, if not actually thrill the engineering audience. Point is, maths guys should run some "pep up" course in India and people who cannot make such course should perhaps look reconsider their PhD aspirations.

Let us come back to the point on the gap between mathematical formalism in graduate level and the lack of rigour in undergraduate levels. From personal experience, I think some amount of rigour is needed to build one's confidence, especially if it has taken a beating in the morass of UG maths. The newer approach to learning mathematics should revive interest in mathematics and help in the newer and more mature perspective in mathematics. The crucial point here is the emphasis on formalism. In my humble opinion, mathematical formalism has come to dominate the proceedings to badly that an ordinary engineer is rattled by the formalism which has come to dominate simply things. Talking to most people in mathematics, it gives the impression that they revel in formalism. I do not for one moment doubt the necessity and importance of formalism. To some, building formalism may also be interesting and their life-goal. However, one cannot expect an engineering background student to build his theory, from his point of view to make it ("the theory") useful for his dealings with the practical world. Any recourse to some commonsensical explanations are now classified as "classical" and mumbo-jumbo formalism, almost like legalese is used for proofs.  I was and still am hesitant to air these views in a general audience. However, I recently found another person who also has similar views.  He has made his displeasure known in trigonometry. I quote "Set notation and set language have pervaded all discussion, with the result that a relatively simple subject became obscured in meaningless formalism." He attributes this to the sarcastically titled(in my humble opinion), "New Maths" which was imposed on America by Americans in response to the Soviet launch of satellite to space.

Now, I do not know much nor care about USA. They seem to be doing great, New Maths or otherwise. We in India need to look into our system, at least for the graduate level if we are to produce people of any intrinsic value to themselves and society. For this, a major reform is needed in the teaching and presentation of mathematics at a graduate level. This is the summary of the blog entry!

ITK Appls compilation on Windows XP

Steps for compiling ITK-Applications using VS 2008
1. Build ITK using "Release" mode as well as "Debug" mode.
2. Build FLTK. I used 1.9. Things to worry about building FLTK:
a) go to the VC 2005 directory and double click on fltk.sln. it will
want to convert the 2005 files to VS 2008. let it do it for all the
files.
b) Choose the "Release|Win32" option for building. Choosing the
"Debug" build gives errors like "fltkd.lib" not found. i experienced
it on fltk-1.10rc3. Also, remember to make the entire folder
writable.  while unzipping i found that the folder where fltk was
extracted was only readable and led to some time waste before
figuiring this out.
3. Using the usual CMake route used for building itk core, configure
itkapps. check the "use fltk" box abd immediate a whole list of fltk
dependencies will pop up as "not found". in the fltk core library
path, put the path/lib/fltk.lib, where path is the base path for fltk.
fill in the other fields as per common sense, you will find the
libraries in the lib directory. One thing you need to be careful is
that for the FLTK include parh, put the base directory where you
saved the FLTK. Do NOT put the subdirectory "FL" as it will lead to
"global namespace" errors while building ITK Apps.

A tale of two murderers in contemporary india

Here is a short tale, real-life of two murderers in India. There are both recent and their crimes were not too far apart, considering the general scheme of things. Both the crimes were heinous as I will outline shortly.
Murderer D was a watchman who raped and murdered a girl. She resided in the apartments where he was employed. Hue and cry was raised and after a court trial and due procedure; he was hanged to death. Justice served? Perhaps, yes.
Murderer M was drunk and wanted more. The female serving drinks at the bar refused him and was shot dead for her impertinence etc. Hue and cry was raised; court case was long drawn. I am not even sue about the quantum of punishment, if at all, given to the bastard. Anyways, I was frustrated enough to write this entry because the above mentioned murderer was let out on parole and was having a nightout with company. As things happen in Delhi, people love power and using it just for the sake of it. This statement comes into play because Mr.M got into a tiff with some Mr.X who turned out to be the progeny of a police official. Enter policemen and so on. Result: parole cancelled or perhaps discretion was the better part of valour. After things have quietned down again, he will come out no doubt. So, the Chief Minister says that it was routine and she signed on the paper. Which makes me wonder if she is in the habit of signing papers put to her without reading or thinking over it?
Please find the stories here and here. I think that the death penalty should be abolished if it can only hang the poor people. For that matter, why have the law? Let us revert back to "each man for him, god for all" ASAP, remove the courts, reduce taxes and hire private muscle for settling disputes.

Why I love The Register

See here

Orkut revamp?

Here is the link to one of the many articles floating around on the supposed revamp of the Orkut site. Apparently, what prompted this was the high migration of users from Orkut to Facebook. Admittedly, Facebook is "snazzier" but personally I find it too much "in your face". I do not want barely known acquaintances updating me about the number of camels on their farm and neither am I interested in the doings, musing and pondering of people with whom I have a mere passing acquaintance. That way Orkut is better! Moreover, some sites say that the new interface is "invitation only". Nobody knows how to titillate the user better than Google.
However, it will be more interesting to see how Google moves against FB. I simply love the way Google moves in and introduces new services; let us see how it hits back at Facebook. Keeping in mind that Orkut is more popular in India & other developing countries, it should be interesting to see how long or sustained Google's fight back lasts. I would not be too surprised to see Google burying or making Orkut moribund after sometime.
Now Google Voice is something to watch out for.. It is for sure that Google would have added something extra to the voice services as well. Google's innovations are always interesting, to me at least!

Music Links

This seems to be a nice website for Carnatic music "scene"!
Also, All India Radio is selling CDs and tapes from their archives. Information about the collection is here.

OpenCV Wishlist

OpenCV has an extensive set of image processing and vision algorithms. Everyone will have their own pet list of things which they would like to see in this. Some of mine "requests" are

1. Level Sets; even a base level implementation; there are a number of libraries out there, integration will be a huge headache/challenge!
   
2. Colour Edge detection, without taking recourse to grayscale conversion. Maybe DiZenzo's algorithm could be a used.

Regarding the general development of OpenCV and computer vision algorithms in general, I think that research groups should be more proactive in contributing code, rather than issue MATLAB dll which would work only on certain versions. After a ll, knowledge is for sharing and it would also increase the citation count if the code were available. Rather than churning out paper after paper using a mysterious black code which is available only to the select coterie, it would be nice if the code were freed up. After all, publishing in academia is about sharing knowledge. If it were an industry code, then perhaps the information hiding is perfectly understood.

OpenCV 2.0 VS 2008 Compilation

A very concise method for building OpenCV 2.0 using Visual Studio 2008 is given here. One can follow the instructions blindly; however there is a problem building the highgui libraries. The error is as follows:
Compiling... ffopencv.cpp Linking... LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libgcc_.a'

Have posted to the developers as well as yahoo groups.. awaiting response. Will update as soon as i get some reply.

Laptop and Fedora 11

Finally, I achieved my major goal of buying a laptop. I acquired an Acer 5738G, since it had reasonably good configuration at affordable price. Also, there were no reports of the model coming apart within a few months, though this might be because it is a relatively new model. Acer has played a dirty trick regarding the installation media but more of that later.
I managed to shrink the original C drive to 160GB and create a new partition for installing some version of GNU Linux. I finally installed Fedora 11, 64 bit version. Funnily, there are no Latex packages available on the installation DVD. Also, some programs crib about the non availability of some gdk header files. I did a lot of searching for the missing latex/tetex/texlive packages on Google, but drew exactly blank. If some kind soul could clarify the mystery of Missing Latex packages, I would be eternally indebted. Perhaps the packagers in their infinite wisdom thought that latex packages are too "geeky", and put in exotic language support as default rather than this...
Update
So, I partitioned the original hard disk to get a 100GB partition. The Vista disk partitioner did a great job of it; creating a new partition while the OS is actually using it. I am not aware of any tool for GNU/Linux which does the same job. Anyways, there is a size restriction on the base partition that it should not be below some X GB; I think X=160/120. Fedora installation was also fine. The major problem is that running Fedora 11 gives just the 50% of the battery life of Vista. Is this a problem with the OS? Seems to be so....

OpenCV 2.0 released!

Downloads available at Sourceforge...

Equations for PPT

Here is a beautiful tool for creating equations within Powerpoint using Latex.

compilation of recent versions of opencv and ffmpeg

I downloaded a recent version of OpenCV from SVN. I also downloaded a recent SVN version of ffmpeg. This is an informal log of the installation “pains”. I have been using OpenCV since version 0.9.6 and my work fully relies on it. What follows is true for ffmpeg 0.5 also.

Short Version of how I did it

Install ffmpeg with ./configure –enable-shared. Then do ‘make’ & ‘make install’. Do ‘ldconfig’ after installation. check the ffmpeg version by ‘ffmpeg -version’. Note that ffmpeg dumps its header files in 5 header files like libavformat etc. Make a directory called ffmpeg under /usr/local/include., i.e., ‘mkdir /usr/local/include/ffmpeg’. Go to /usr/local/include. Copy ‘avcodec.h avformat.h avio.h avutil.h swscale.h’ from respective ‘lib’ directories to ffmpeg. I prefer sym-linking it.

Then download the latest SVN version of opencv from sourceforge. It is available as a tarball in case you do not feel inclined to run the SVN from command line. After gunzipping and untarring it, we get a directory called opencv. Change directory to opencv. Make the file ‘configure’ by doing ‘chmod +x configure’. Then do ‘./configure –without-1394libs –without-python –disable-apps’. These arguments disable 1394/Firewire libraries, python support and building of applications. I have not faced major limitations by disabling these. There should be a series of messages. Confirm that ffmpeg is recognised and will be used. This will be indicated by a line “Use ffmpeg: yes”. If this does not happen, go back to the step of ffmpeg installation. If you are sure that ffmpeg is installed correctly and you are able to see files in /usr/local/include/ffmpeg/, then one way of checking whether opencv finds the header files is that you search for the keyword ffmpeg in the output of ‘./configure’ typed exactly as previously. In other words, you do ‘./configure –without-1394libs –without-python –disable-apps | grep ffmpeg’. You should get the lines which confirm or deny the existence of the headers ‘ffmpeg/avcodec.h’ availability. If these headers are not found, then your linking or copying is not ok. If on the other hand, ffmpeg has been found, do ‘make’ and ‘make install’ and then ‘ldconfig’.

** For x86-64 users: the configure script has a peculiar tendency of identifying all intel CPUs as pentium4. if you run ‘make’ after ‘./configure’, then you will run into compilation errors saying that architecture specified cannot be compiled. Do not lose heart but open the config.status file and search for the word ‘pentium4′ in this file. You should get something like ‘-march=pentium4′ along with other options. Change ‘-march=pentium4′ to ‘-march=native’ or you can even delete the whole thing. If you have a recent version of gcc, you can enable openmp by adding ‘-fopenmp’ in the same line where you found the previous expression.

The above worked for me. I hope it does for you.

Profile views

Blogger apparently counts one's own profile views. Strange.

Slackware funny

From some of my earlier posts, a reader can guess that I am a die hard Slackware fan. I especially love the fortune program. Also, Slackware is probably the only distribution which can generate extremely racist, sexist quotes. The "-o" option stands for offensive. A hugely funny incident happened a few months back. A visiting professor had come to our lab and I suppose he had some familiarity with GNU/Linux distributions. I do not think he has heard of the fortune program.

So, I created a login for him on the lab NIS and asked him to test it. After he had successfuly logged in, the fortune cookie popped out was this,

"This is not your computer. This is your ass."

I read it, asphyxiated with controlled laughter and typed startx as fast as I could and while the XFCE mouse started blinking, I managed to control my guffaw. The professor was however perplexed. He turned to me and said

"I saw some message on the screen. What was it?"

I said that the computer emits random login messages and pointed out that his screen was up and running, it took me an aching jaw and cheek muscles to keep it down to a smile. However, he was not convinced. Scratching his beard, he asked me to show the message again; he wanted to read it. I was pulverised, however I logged off. The professor bent down to have a better look, read the message again. I was shaking with with silent laughter; he turned to look at me. I think he suspected that it was a prank or something. However, he said nothing further. I still get crippled with laughter recalling this incident.

It may not seem very funny, my English is not that good but the spontaneity of the whole incident will remain in my mind till I pop off.

test post

written using elinks, a text browser

Emacs multiple buffers management with tabs

I use GNU Emacs fully for programming. When one has a number of files open, called buffers in emacs terminology, it is a major hassle while switching. So, I searched for tabbed windowing within emacs. Unfortunately, in Google if one types "emacs tab windows" or some simple term, the results thrown up deal with setting the size of the tab character. However, here is a link to a blog post which I found to be pretty useful. I am trying out the ido package.

Caravaggio

Randomly trawling through the Net, I ran across this page on Wikipedia. Some of the paintings are superb! The sense of realism is fantastic. I wonder what goes on in the brain when the artist makes the connection between the imagery in his brain and the movements of the hand on paper/canvas.

Minneapolis, part 2

In continuation to my earlier post in another blog, I recount my experiences on the trip I made to the wonderful city of Minneapolis.

Mumbai-London Leg and Beyond

So there I was sitting comfortably in the plane and literally feeling amazed by the turn of events. I enjoyed the Johnny Walker, had the reasonably good dinner pulled up the blanket and slept. The flight was uneventful. We landed at Heathrow as per schedule. I was sitting in the middle seat and there were vacant window seats nearby. I could have wangled a seat there, I suppose. So I did not get a very good view of London as we were landing. I disembarked and wandered into the labyrinth that is the Heathrow.

For international flights, as we all know there is the transit terminal with shopping and stuff. To enter that, one must again undergo a security check. Many passengers, no doubt from the various flights, made a rush for it, I was slightly puzzled at this because Western airports are supposed to be quick efficient and the people disciplined. Hence this gentle rush was not expected. Still, I went on with the crowd and at at a certain point got a bit confused as to where I should go. Of course there were overhead signs and gut instinct told me to follow the herd. Still I went to an exit where I asked the way to the transit thing. The sharp woman at the counter told me the way, it was of course the route taken by the crowd. I also quickened my pace a bit and saw that the queue had stretched quite a bit. There was a elastic ribbon kind of a thing to separate out two queues and one of these seemed empty. I thought I would stand at the empty one but thought it better to confirm with some employee. I spotted one moving with great bustle and stopped him or rather stried to stop him with a humble “Excuse me Sir”. He rushed on nevertheless and I followed him. He condescended to stop at a door in the corridor and asked me to be quick as he was in a hurry. I then asked him about the two rows and he asked me to join the longer one. So I did.

Security check was marked with incidents where the terminal authorities took a pleasure in being rude and impersonal. As we were standing and awaiting our turn, I saw a airport terminal employee walking down the queue and announcing in the typical British accent “One bag only, please join counter X for transit”. So, the people in the other queue made a rush for our queue. Then he spotted an elderly woman with two bangs and a handbag. She had started stuffing one bag into the other and had managed the feat and had a handbag and a big bag. He stopped and said in the same monotone “One bag only please”. The lady said that it was a standard ladies handbag and was allowed. The person continued on blithely “I can see TWO bags, one…two. Only one bag allowed.”, pointing out the bags one by one as if the lady was an imbecile and could not count. She protested or rather bleated again and the person repeats the same set of antics “one.. two.. I can see two, only one allowed, please move out and take only one bag”. So she went out and I do not know how she managed but she did turn up later. Of course, my contact lens bottle, a brand new one got pinched during the security check. I had carried a brand new one and a used one. Funnily, the new one got pinched; I was expecting the used one to be confiscated. Anyway, that could not be helped and I went to the ticketing agent and got my seat. I confirmed my food, apparently its called Hindu non-vegetarian. It makes me wonder what Muslim and Christian non-vegetarian fare would be like. Then I went to the shopping area and roamed around. I had started to ponder very seriously about where I was to stay at Minneapolis.

I had made a search of the low cost hotels in Minneapolis and saved it in my email. However, I did not have a laptop but I was fairly confident that I should be able to get some Internet terminal somewhere, after all this was Heathrow. So, I made a leisurely stroll across the terminal, admired and coveted a Porsche vehicle kept as the prize for a lucky draw. Then, I spotted the welcome signs, Internet connections and phone booths. The cost was extortionate, a pound or so for 10 minuted of connectivity. One needed to put in a coin. I had dollars and no pounds, so I bought a coffee which cost around 4 dollars and a pint of my blood and sweat. Back with the change, I occupied the seat when it got empty. Logging onto my GMail account, I saw Vivek online. I searched around for some hotels again in case I got something cheaper. Nothing cheaper than the one I had seen earlier. No avail, one coin went in and so did another. This was the cheapest place and seats/beds were available. Now I had to do the booking and I had no credit card with me. I was getting a bit sweaty then I spotted the Hound from Hell aka Vivek Krishna online. No doubt he was justifying his out of the world salary at the world’s leading software merchant by surfing porn and chatting with friends. I pinged him and told him I was in Heathrow and I wanted him to do a booking for me at Minneapolis. To his credit, he did not think I was pulling his leg, for there was no reason for him to suspect I was no at my usual seat in Mumbai. I forwarded him the link and he set about doing the needful. I was at the last pound and waiting for his reply. The clock was ticking and I just got the message from him that he was waiting for the credit card site when I got disconnected. I hoped that his credit was alright and that the booking would go through. However, I made a major blunder and did not take the address and phone number of the hotel. I was hoping that I would be able to do that at Minneapolis airport. The rest of the wait was uneventful. However, I felt a ticker of unease at the lack of confirmed accommodation there. Moreover, I was reassured by the fact that there was a person, a coauthor, also headed for the same place. At the worst case, I felt that I could stay with him; this he had already mentioned earlier. However, despite my repeated mails after getting the visa, I got no response. This was a bit disappointing. I must here express my unreserved gratitude for the Hound who promptly did as asked. As a blessing, I hope that his marital duties may forever remain fruitful.

Anyway, after the waiting period of 2.5 hours approximately, we were called for the security check(again!) for boarding. I was naturally screened aside for special patting down and here my smelly shoes came handy. While patting me down, the agent asked me if I had any inflammables with me and I replied that I sincerely hoped not with a smile. He also laughed and while checking me down, he got a whiff of the good old Indian smell at the knees. He caught his breath and motioned me to move on while he recovered his breath. “Heh, heh” I thought! A funny incident also happened. A couple of middle aged or perhaps slightly more aged British ladies had also been selected for special screening just behind me, no doubt to assure me that it was not me alone they were selecting. Anyway, the ladies for really irritated by that and after the checking was over and while we were waiting for the boarding call, they took turns in imitating the American accent. All very droll.

The flight itself was uneventful. I had got a window seat and was seated next to a young female. I was the only non-white in the plane and people tried not to stare, or at least that was my feeling. My height, unshaven look perhaps did not inspire confidence, The only saving grace was that I was alone. Otherwise, the captain might have deplaned me! Anyway, I got into the seat and watched some movie. I tried to make some eye contact with the not unattractive young woman beside me but to no avail. The food was atrocious, though they had taken the special pains to prepare a Hindu vegetarian meal. Compared to the food on the Jet Airways, this was pathetic. However, hunger beckoned and I ate off everything edible. There was a collection of some peculiar leafy stuff, which I deduced to be lettuce. I looked at the regular meal served to the above-mentioned young lady and was aghast at the variety and the quantity. The lettuce was more there!

Now, I must come to a part which some might consider to be a bit racist, however these are just observations and nothing need be implied from it. It is regarding the body odour. Indians are notorious for their body odour and especially infamous in the West. Now, I am sure that after the flight to London, the wait there had turned me into a horror for the delicately nosed. However, I must defend myself and possibly fellow Indians that even the white woman beside me niffed to heaven. I am sure that other whites do not notice it and may on occasion find it stimulating and amorous. However, I could barely turn my face toward the lady when the smell would hit me like a wall. No doubt the lady felt that I was a mobile spice merchant and I can assure that I could smell raw meaty odour emanating from her. Well, perhaps this mutual exchange of noxious fumes served as a dampener to any conversation.

I did talk to her before we were landing when there were some forms to be filled and I had a doubt. We were landing at Chicago O’Hare and I had to take a connecting flight to Minneapolis. Once we got started, we made nice conversation and she told me that she was coming back from some kind of missionary work from some country in Africa. I do recall that she was from Arkansas. I offered her my email ID in case she came to India, she was planning to she said. However in the hurry of going our separate ways, I forgot to give her.

Chicago O’Hare was big! It was wide big and spacious. I fell into the queue and promptly was jostled by and an attempted to overtake me was made by a veiled woman of Indian origin. I told her to get back in line and she gave the preposterous explanation that there were two lines for immigration. I muttered that even after coming to the US, some people thought it was the local train entry. She got miffed and asked to get ahead which I did. I had about 1.5 hours to catch the connecting flight to Minneapolise. 40 minutes later I realised that I had no chance of catching the connecting flight if I remained there. I waited for some more time and then I cut across the elastic separators and requested the agent directing the queue to let me in for I had a connecting flight in 30 minutes or so. He looked a bit irritated but let me in. I was a bit surprised by his reaction to what I thought was a legitimate reason; however contrasted to the behaviour at Heathrow(to come in a later installment) this was nothing. I was directed to a counter, the lady there asked me the reason for coming and on being told that I was coming for a conference to present my work, she asked with a smile whether I was nervous. I told her that I had presented earlier so not unduly so. She waved me in with a smile. Wow I thought. Pleasant people and a warm welcome for someone who has no one over there in the US. I would here like to mention special thanks to her, for she might have checked hundreds of people and yet gives mme a smile!

So I was in!! However, the time for the next flight was almost over and I rushed toward the domestic terminal for O’Hare. One has to take a
train. I duly boarded that and found the domestic terminal. That was a shock, for it resembled the slightly more disciplined railway platforms if India. People, people and more people! On reaching I found that my flight was delayed by at least an hour. I took the opportunity to go to the toilet and wash my face at least. People were barely using the wash basin and one or two weer puzzled at my face washing and a horrible towel. One peculiar and funny situation was that the urinals was just an elevated stand. There were no “cubicles” ot the walls to separate out people, which meant that every person went on his business with a skewed position!

Anyway, after the usual delay of two hours, I boarded the flight, greeted by plastic smiles and welcomed. What I had begun to dislike was the extreme false nature of the welcoming smile, perhaps toward me. I felt like telling them that I had paid for the seat and was happy to have it without the false welcome. We landed in Minneapolis at 9PM and I collected my baggage.

Now, I was dead tired and had dropped off a number of times on the shoulders of a kindly man who did not seem to mind a smelly and unshaven Indian! He had also pointed out the Mississippi river. However, I did not know the address and at 9PM the airport was deserted and people thinned out after collecting their luggage. I looked around for some Internet connectivity and found no computers. Staff told me that Wi-Fi was there but possessing no laptop, it was useless for me. I asked an Indian who had been on the same flight if he had a laptop. He replied in the negative and said that he himself was headed to a friend’s place quite outside the city and went his way. Now, I was panicking. No address at all with no idea where to go…

Minneapolis Travelogue(from another blog of mine!)

I have been wanting to write about this entry for an year now! Somehow, things keep on coming up and blog entries seem too trivial. However, having made a major submission, I thought I should find some time to finish the task, before memories fade…so here it goes….

The Reason

I was fortunate enough to have my work selected for a major conference. So, after the results were declared, I immediately applied for funding, and promptly got rejections from the government institutions. However, I got partial funding from the institute and some more money from the organisers of the conference.
The Visa Process
Getting the visa for the USA is an interesting process, however I successfully managed to navigate through the entire process and get an interview date. I did not really like the attitude of the security people at the US embassy, though considering the crowds and the heat, they might get a bit snappy at times. Of course, the incredible idiocy of some of the people, who bring in cigarettes, cell phones and even chewing tobacco would no doubt rile tempers. However, I do have a specific grouse that the pricing of the foodstuffs inside the embassy is nothing short of robbery. Water is free but sandwiches costing 50 or 75, made me wonder if within the Embassy, American rates prevail. So, coming back to the interview, I waited for an hour or so before my number was called up. The person at the counter verified my information and wanted to know the reason for travel, which was clearly enough written. I told him that my work had been accepted at a major conference in my field, and that I naturally enough wanted to present it and also that none of the co-authors could make it. After about 15 minutes of talk of this kind, I was told that my application would be sent to the USA for further processing. I asked the person politely the reason, because several of my friends had been sanctioned visa within 5 minutes of talk. The interviewing officer told me that he was sorry but considering my area of work, this was mandatory. This surprised me because my work was as far away from any sensitive area as possible. However, these things cannot be helped. It was now about 4 weeks to the conference date. The visa officer also told me that since there was some time till the conference, he was sending my visa for this process otherwise he would have rejected it outright. I thanked him and shut it out of my mind.

Visa Arrives and I leave!

After about four weeks, I do not recall the dates exactly, I got a call on my cell phone and an email from the embassy. I do remember the day however, it was a Friday. The mail came after lunch at around 3PM. The mail informed me that my visa application had been scrutinised and I was to go with a week or 10 days at 9:30 AM. I need not stand in the general queue again but there was no assurance that my visa would be granted. I was asked to bring the relevant papers again. I was not very pleased, the visa office was located quite far from I.I.T and my friends know that I as a rule do not leave the campus. Also, to reach the embassy at the specified time, I would have to leave the campus really early if I wanted to avoid the morning hour rush. Anyone who has travelled in Mumbai/Bombay local train at around 8AM would fully sympathise with me!
Moreover, even if i got the visa on the following Monday, I would not be able to leave before Monday night and the first day of the conference would already be over. I asked my professor(who was abroad) if it was worth going and he urged me to give it a shot. I then rushed to the nearest well known travel agent to block a ticket. I also explained the situation that I would not be there at the office to make the payment but would send someone to do it. Little did I know the hassles and small but crucial details involved! Anyway, the lady at the counter being very helpful and nice, I blocked the ticket for the flight leaving India Monday night. I would bemaking a 5 hour halt at Heathrow, and would enter the USA through Chicago. Even as I was doing this, I really had no intention of travelling. I had lost the enthusiasm by then. Besides, two days(Saturday and Sunday) is really too little a time for a 1 week trip abroad. I did not even have proper luggage, clothes and other miscelleneous items.
Then I called up home sometime in the evening and told them about my tentative plans that I would be requesting a friend to be on standby to go to the travel agent while I came back with the visa in the evening. However, on Sunday afternoon, I got a call that my brother would be coming by a late night flight to Bombay to see me off. I did demur a bit at the unnecessary trouble but as the tickets were done, there was no point in fighting it. This was to be extremely crucial, because I believe that I would have been in a lot of troble without his guidance. His flight was due at 10:30 or so in the night and by the time we returned it was nearer to 12:00. It was raining as well.
The next day morning, we had to wake up early at 5:00 AM. I wanted to leave IIT by 6:00 so as to reach the train station by 6:30 to catch a relatively empty train. Of course, taking into consideration the Indian Standard Delay, I think i reached the station nearer to 7:00. However, the crowd was not too bad. Of course, getting down at Dadar is always like the cork shooting out of the champagne bottle. The rest of the trip to the embassy was uneventful. I stood in the sultry weather promptly at 9:00 AM. I went in at around 10:00 AM, got the ticket number, gave the thumb print. Then, there was nothing to do but wait. People came, people went, happy people, sad people, disappointed people and I waited. Finally at 1:00 PM or maybe it was 2:00, my turn came. The officer asked me the usual questions, I gave the usual answers. Finally he askd me about the conference dates. I told him that it began the next day. He said, “Wow! what are you doing here. You should be on the plane by now.”. I started to tell him that there was something called a visa which I needed to have first. He continued” Oh, but you dont have a visa.”, and gave me the news that I should collect mine at 5PM from the office. I wanted to ask him whether he could give it to me(stamped and all) over the counter then and there, but decided not to push my luck too much. I came out, fairly drained and gloomy at the prospect of waiting for 3 more hours under the sultry sun. I called up my brother who went to the agent and got the tickets. Then followed another irritating, apparently interminable wait. I had asked the securty guard regarding the timings for visa collection. He told me that the collections began at 5:30 PM or so. What he did not tell, despite my queries that there would be a big queue for that as well. Curse his shallow soul for that. I went here and there, had a few cups of coffee etc and luckily I strolled back at 4:30 PM to see that a queue had already started to form. There were about 10-15 persons. I may have glared at the sorry bastard of a guard but did get into the queue. Of course, it had to drizzle then and having no umbrella I got soaked like a bull tied to a cart. Anyway, we went in and I was lucky enough to be in the first batch. I collected my stamped passport and rushed out. I tool a taxi to Dadar and somehow boarded a train. When I got down at the appropriate station, it was raining. My cursings must have riled the rain god for then he really turned it on. I managed to reach IIT by 8:00 PM, tired and soaking wet. I had to pack, change into new clothes, get money. Luckily my brother had done most of these. Still I was dog tired and got irritated by the small but crucial things needed to be done. There was one major blunder, in case you have not guessed already. I had nowhere to stay in Minneapolis! However, there was nothing to be gained by telling that to my brother and causing more stress. So, I simply lied and said that I had someone with whom I could share accommodation.After a hasty dinner, we left for the airport at around 10:00 PM. I was still wearing the sodden shoes and I suspect they were smelling, but I felt that the other passengers and especially the American citizens could lump it, considering the amount of trouble. I had to face. Security checks over, finally it was boarding time.
I sat in the plane and then it sunk into me that I really was going abroad. Much cheered by the idea, I perused the menu given to me by an air hostess. I spotted Johnny Walker, JAck Daniels and other stuff. I debated having a beer or something less or non alcoholic. Also, I was worried about airpockets disturbing my equilibrium with disastrous results for the neighbours. However, I succumbed to the temptation and asked for a JW. The airhostess asked my whether I wanted Thums Up with it, probably guessing from my freak rain soaked attire and unshaven mug that I was one of the proletariat. I looked shocked and said “Soda of course!”. At this, she took heart and poured out a measure. I sipped that and immediately was transported into Nirvana.

Mandriva 2009 sucks in lab environ.

Tried to install Mandriva 2009.0 on Xeon server in lab. Installation went off smoothly enough, no major surprises. Minor things were that some packages were getting installed after I entered some user information.
Major stupidities
1. compulsory creation of some dumb user login. No doubt this is meant kindly for the benefit o dumb porn surfers and gamers with just enough intelligence to press the power button and slobber over keyboards while watching porn, this is massively irritating. Also, by default NIS is turned off, or maybe one has to wade back to package selection to install NIS tools. what angers me and frustrates me is that packagers put is solid 1GB of crapware bu have dysentry if they include these small but essential packages by default. Installing and configuring Linux in a lab environment is becoming messy because of the concentration of developers toward Joe User, who can just distinguish between porn and viagra ads.
2. Configuring network is another pain in the nether regions. All information was there yet I had to do ifup and ifdown a couple of times to get the network on the next reboot.
3. At this point of time, I have successfully mount NFS files. I learnt linux the "hard way" by trying to think what the programs do and how they do it, on a very superficial level. The magic of GNU/Linux is precisely this; it is designed toward a commonsense approach without needing to go into the details. If you want, you can but it is not needed. I believe in reading man pages and tweaking settings by hand, naturally I am old fashioned because I do not like exotic configuration tools which hide the original system files behind the distribution idiosyncracies. So, I edited /etc/fstab and mounted 4 NFS points using nfs as protocols. next reboot nothing happens, sigh.. i have to scour some stupid system file and see that it mounts only nfs4 file types in /etc/fstab and not nfs. sure i can tweak it etc. I do not see the problem of the script writer if he had kept nfs also. It saves considerable heartburn and time. Protocol versions may change and it is appreciated that distributors and maintainers strive to give the latest, but IMHO this is stupid.
4. Now come to the best(worst) part. I enable nis, of course, as mentione earlier, i have exotic fonts, 5 different programs for playing media all by default but including nis-utils is a problem! so another urpmi command later these are installed. I set the domainname etc and check by su - in a terminal and all seems to be Ok. Now, i go to console login and enter the NIS user, "wrong password". my eyes pop out. i login as root and do su - user_name, i am logged in! but console wont let me in, gdm/kdm wont let me in. The stupidity of the whole thing is paralysing and I shall now erase the accursed thing. How I wish Slackware had a proper 64bit version.