Google OS 2.0

There has been talks for long time that Google is secretly developing an OS of its own. If you think that i am going to talk about that OS, then you are wrong. This is about a OS developed by a startup company called Good OS. This is basically a distribution derived from Ubuntu and lots of cool new features it boasts of. It has an eye-candy look because of its desktop which is based on Enlightenment . And the main reason behind the name "gOS" or sometimes called as Google OS is because of its integration with Google and lot of web application.

Recently they have released the Google OS 2.0 "Rocket" which has lot of new feature that integrates so well with Google applications and may be thats the reason behind the name. "Rocket" is packed with Google Gears, new online offline synchronization technology from Google that enables offline use of web apps; gBooth, a browser-based web cam application with special effects, integration with Facebook and other web services; shortcuts to launch Google Reader, Talk, and Finance on the desktop; an online storage drive powered by Box.net; and Virtual Desktops, an intuitive feature to easily group and move applications across multiple desktop spaces

For more details:
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/linux/15642/linux-based-gos-2-0-will-debut-monday

Celebrating my first year anniversary

Exactly on this very day, one year back i had this surgery done on me for fixing my hand. All that starts as a fun can end up into something miserable with time. This is one such incident in my life.

Date 17/12/2006 :
The previous day night Lokesh came to me and asked me for a trip to Munnar, that too at 11pm in the night. So i agreed to the trip , which is supposed to be a road trip from our college in coimbatore to Munnar in Kerala ( a 4.5 hour drive from coimbatore). I got up at early morning 4 and got ready for the wonderful ride which is waiting for me. We started our journey from my friends house at around 6am. Since this was not a well planned event, i didn't even had time to inform many people (mainly parents) about the trip, which turned out to be a bad idea later.

It was a clear morning and the weather was perfect for the trip. We took some little bit of snacks and water bottles started our cruise with the pulsars. We reach Munnar in about 4.5 hours. It is a wonderful place which was fully covered with tea estates and lush greenery. That day was full of sight seeing activities and some boating in a nearby lake. And also went to the peak of the hills which was the most enjoyable experience.

Date 18/12/2006:
The next day was a fine day and a fine morning. All were tired from the previous days activities and we managed to get up only late and we got ready for the sight seeing. We went to a falls which was nearby and then to the suicide point. After lunch we planned for the descend from the mountains hoping to reach coimbatore by 5PM. So as usual we started our bikes and started descending the mountains. The roads were very curvy and the slopes were too much in the mountains. Everything was going fine and we almost traveled half the way down the mountains.

It was around 2.30 in the afternoon. Little did we realize that we were traveling bit faster due to the slopes in the mountains. Then suddenly came a sharp turning, and we were not able to maintain the balance of the bike. We somehow tried to control it , but it was out of our control. The next second myself and lokesh both were lying on the road. We were unable to realize what had happened to us. The bike was on one side of the road and we were lying in the middle of road. Its good that no other vehicle passed by that time.

It took me few seconds to realize that i am lying on the road and lokesh at a little distance from me. Somehow i got up and went to the safer side of the road. Only then i realized that something was wrong with my hand. I was not able to fold it easily. I just thought it would be a sprain or swelling due to the fall. Then somebody was shouting and yelling like anything as if he has lost his life. It was none other than lokesh. I could see the fear in his face. Everybody was little confused and don't know what to do. Suddenly Vamsi and Srinivas came to rescue. Srinivas brings the spray from somewhere and applies it on my hand. Mohan and Sandeep made lokesh to settle down.

Then only Vamsi slowly told me that it could be a fracture by seeing the swelling on my hand and the mysterious shape of it. I was very much shocked by hearing that. And Srinivas brings his sweater and ties it around my neck and made my hand to rest properly. I was even more frightened by seeing the reactions of lokesh at that particular moment. Then i felt a little bit of giddiness mainly because of my fear. Vamsi brought some water and made me sit properly.

Now starts our real adventure and series of events that i could never forget in my life. Vamsi slowly came near me and asked whether i am ok. I said yes , still feeling my giddiness. Then two local villagers who happened to pass by that way , told us there was a small clinic nearby. So Vamsi told me to sit on his bike. I somehow managed to get on the bike and i was holding him tightly, so that i wont fall from the bike. So we start first. And lokesh was taken care by srinivas and sandeep. So we came to a nearby clinic. But i was terribly disappointed when there was no doctor available. There was only a lady, who was supposed to be a pharmacist. Not knowing what to do, she just gave me a tablet of pain killer and advised us to go to the doctor in Munnar. But already we were half the way down and going back would take more than 2 hours. Then we started to move from that place expecting to meet someone. To my surprise Lokesh , srinivas , Mohan and Sandeep had managed to find out a doctor who was on leave and in his house. So i was taken there. By seeing my hand he told me , it was a fracture and he told even more shocking things. "It could be a multiple fracture also" said the doctor. I was taken aback. He adviced us to go to either Munnar or to Udumalpet for the treatment.

Then started my worst of the fears. I have not even informed my parents about the trip and i didn't know what to do. Then someone gave me some stupid ideas and all. But finally we decided to go to Coimbatore before the evening. So i got on to the bike while Vamsi was driving it. They made arrangements so that my hand was properly protected from the jerks of the bike. And Vamsi managed to drive the bike at a dead slow speed so that the jerks didn't disturb my hand. From time to time we stopped to synchronize our bikes and spray the pain killer spray on my hand. Within 2 hours my hand had swollen like anything and the pain was increasing a bit. But finally we managed to reach the coimbatore by around 7.30 in the evening. We get to Ganga hospital and the doctor told me to take an X-ray. Taking an X-ray was the most painful thing , that too with the broken hand. And i was getting irritated with that lab attendant. After the X-ray the doctor said that its was a single fracture and it had to be operated. Not knowing what to do i called my father. With little bit of anger, frustration and care my father told me to do the first-aid and come to my house, so that i can take treatment in CMC, Vellore. After getting my first-aid and plaster of Paris on my hand , i caught the next train along with lokesh accompanying me.


Date 19/12/2006 :
The next morning , we visited the doctor and he said that a surgery had to be done and a plate had to be fixed in my hand. So i get admitted the same day and got operated the next day. The surgery was another gruesome experience. Even though they gave me sedatives during the surgery , i woke up in the middle of the surgery. I could clearly hear the sound of drilling that is being done to my hand and doctors were talking in some technical terms. Again i went back to sleep and lost consciousness. After the surgery i had to stay in the hospital for a day and then got discharged.
The recovery from this was another terrible experience. I had to do physiotherapy regularly in order to use my hand properly. It took nearly 1.5 months for me to use the hand as usual. Even the folding of hands would be difficult and caused lot of pain to me.
The accident gave me lot of experiences in life and memories which i ll not forget for life. It was my first accident and a fracture. But in a way, i am happy that i escaped with just a fracture and nothing seriously happened. And something which starts as a fun can lead to something terrible in life, which we may not realize at the time of enjoyment.

World without women

A blog from me after really long time and lots of pestering from varalu :) so thought of writing about a social topic.

Recently came across an article somewhere about this topic. So just thought of writing about it. Imagine a world without women. What would happen ....

This is what is happening in come parts of our country. There are lots of villages where there are no girls for the men in the village. The basic reason behind this is the sex selection and the gender bias towards getting male child. These things are still happening in some villages in our country.

There have been lot of incidents in the state of UP especially. These are the after effects of events that happened in the 80's and the 90's. Families preferred only male child and they killed the female infants. Also with the advancement of technologies sex determination using techniques like scanning led to selective abortion of pregnancy. So what are the consequences of this...

Men are buying women from nearby villages and states for marrying. Usually the parents of the boy used to get the dowry in olden days. Now its the reverse. The parents of the boy pay to the girl's parents for marriage. That much is the demand for girls.
The wealthier families in the village are able to buy girls from neighboring village or states. Some families even get girls from as far as Punjab. So what happens in case of a poor family. There are cases where a single girl is being shared by all the men in the family and reports of rape and murder associated with these. And the violence against women in these parts of the country are increasing day by day.

This is not the case in India alone. Even china is facing such a crisis these days. China introduced the scheme of one child per family some years back. Because of this the sex ratio in the country is somewhat bad. It seems that there are 20 percent more boys than girls in the country.

So where does this lead to ?? it creates an imbalance in the population ,the crime rates go up , and violence against women increase like anything.

There might come one day when parents want only girl child and start avoiding male child.

Anatomy of a Search Engine

Here is the paper published by Sergey Brin and Larry Page about the architecture of the Google Search engine and various other technologies they hav used like Page ranking,etc ...


http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

Why Java is Slow ?

Came across a very good article on why Java is slower. For a long time i used to wonder why java is very much slower than other languages. Can java be ever faster than c++ ? There are various issues to be concerned.
here is a good article which tells about all the drawbacks of java language .

http://www.jelovic.com/articles/why_java_is_slow.htm

a visit to the world of 'Evolution'

Long time since i have blogged. Today spent a lot of time surfing the net and coming across various new things. After a loooooong time i had been to the Evolution site to see the changes going on there. Atlast they have commited my patch. The patch had been previously approved by NotZed. But noone had taken care to commit it , after NotZed has left evolution. I had been to the bugzilla.gnome.org and found both my patches commited to the Head by Sreenivasa Ragavan(srag). At last they hav included it in the ChangeLog also.

http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/evolution/filter/ChangeLog

Here are some of the interesting blogs which i found out while surfing :
http://basicsuncovered.blogspot.com/
http://smartypeeps.blogspot.com
http://cplusplusgems.blogspot.com/

Photos at Porthy Mund

Im posting some of the photos which we took during the trekking at Porthi Mund




A view from the bus ... The ghat roads which led to the lake...










Can u spot something there ???
Look closely... Can u see the moon ???
This photo was taken at 10.30 in the morning
how amazing ???
























Myself along with varalu , raga, varun , paramesh from left to right..















































The place where the trekking started ... the road which lead the beautiful porthi mund dam



























Myself near the lake












The path which we took into the deep woods ...


























Myself , varalu , paramesh , varun , along the way with our sticks in hand....




























The places where we had to creep into the bushes... In some places we had to go like this for about 100 metres...










Myself along the shores of the Porthy Mund lake













People who started pelting stones at the waters.. Then it turned out to be a game which we all enjoyed ...













A group photo along with Kannan












Myself holding to a stick , which we used for the trekking ....













See the crystal clear waters of the porthy mund lake.. The exotic untouched part of nilgiris ..











The wild forest ....











My friends along with Kannan
















A rare photo which captures the sun on the camera.. It shows the scenic beauty of the Pothimund Lake











The forest security guards who accompanied us through our trip and answered all our stupid questions patiently...
These guys have caught many poachers , Ganja Planters and illegal intruders ..







The way that leads to the porthi mund lake ...
A path where only man can walk through ....

Trekking

Yesterday had been a wonderful day as i was part of the trekking which was organised by the CAP and Nature Club of the College. The whole trip was fun filled and exotic one. We had been to place called "Pothi Mand" which is in the interior forests of Nilgiris range. It is a one and a half hour journey from Ooty.

We started the journey at 6.30 with bus( PSG bus) full of guys from various departments. Then proceeded to Ooty and then the "Pothy Mand" , which is a restricted forest area known only to few people. People say that it is the Maniratnam's favorite spot and been in movies like Roja and Alaipayuthae. We started the trekking at around 1 in the afternoon. The place was exotic location untouched by common people. It was wonderful to see such a place where no pollution has peeped in. The air was fresh and the climate cool and no words to explain the happiness which i got after seeing those places..

It was a dense forest totally covered with the trees everywhere , and we had to go in places where only there was way for a man to go. It was nice to have an adventurous journey inside those dense forest area. First we went to the Pothi Mand Water Reservoir , which was an amazing dam with very steep walls and the amount of water it was holding was tremendous. As crossed it we entered the jungle.. From there we had to go in to the deep forest which was a 4 km walk. It was an adventerous walk all the way , with streams of water gushing along the way and a mini water fall in the way. From there we reached a place they call it as "hut".. Took rest there for sometime. Then we proceeded to the lake which the Pothi Mand Dam preserves. The lake was an exotic location like which i have seen only in Discovery and NGC . I wondered such a place existed in India. Why should we go for Hawaaiian islands when we have such places here itself..

The we had to return back. We all were totally exhausted during our return from the place. It was very cold and dark as it was nearing 5 o clock. The chillness was extreme and the jungle full of noices from the insects.. When we were returning from the Dam we had a wonderful scene of a herd of Bisons, around 20 to 30 on the way. It was nice to see such animals at the night time. Atlast we have seen some animals in the forest.
It was around 12 when we reached the Hostel. We all were totally exhausted , no energy. Had a good night's sleep..

A Wonderful Weekend

The weekend had been a wonderful one.. Lot of events participated and a weekend of fun..
On Saturday we had our regular aps session followed by my seminar on "Pointers" . Eventhough the strength was very less , i enjoyed taking seminar , as it is one of my favourite topics. In the mean time we decided to participate in the competition conducted by the CSE dept. Daya and myself took part in Debugging Contest .. We didnt make thru in the prelims( eventhough we had the mark , the politics was there ).. So we daya and myself went on to participate in the Kaun Banega Code Pathi. The prelims was again an aptitude in C , like the one we had for the previous event. But this was far easier and not of very high standard. So we easily made thro.. The Final round was the most interesting part of the round .. We were given 4 problems , for which we need to frame the logic and do the coding.. We could finish only 2 problems out of these.. The problem which i enjoyed doing was the "Cat and the Rat" problem.. This was to do with the general tree of order N and the various tree related calculations.. This was fun.

Sunday the day , we ran and ran and ran and ran .....
Yes , it is the PSG Mini Marathon Conducted by the physical education dept. Since we had already participated in the Marathon the last year also , we were eager for this event.. Got up at 6 o'clock itself.. After a long time i got up so early.. Then we all assembled in the ground. Myself, Varalu , Varun,Sreekanth,Paramesh and Vasanth were there.. We had to cover a distance of 10.5 kms. First we had a run around the hostel ground and proceeded to avinashi road. Myself and varun were running together for the whole race. First we had to cross Lakshmi mill , then INS agrani , then Niramala college, Sowripalayam , PSGIMS, then our ladies hostel gate and then to the Hostel. Sreekanth , Varalu, Paramesh,Varun finished before me . I finished in 120th position .. We all got the certificates and T-shirts for the race. After the race , we were all very tired. Body pain for all of us.. It was very difficult even to walk.
That day evening we had been to tek music show along with seniors ( damu and karthi) .. This show is one of those shows i really enjoyed .. In between the show rain started pouring .. There had been movements all around .. Finally some of them got shelter under the Y block and the girls under the A block .. Then the show started again after a gap.. Now it was very interesting to see the people performing even in the rain..

Arula ( the past and the present)

Here are some of my photos :

This is my present


When i was 13





this one , when i was an infant

Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications

Ajax is a new approach to the web applications. In tradtional web environment , the working of the web is a something like this : Whenever you do something the browser sends a HTTP request to the web server , then the server processes the information and sends the data back to the client .
Ajax stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML . This is a novel new approach to the web applications. It is one of the hot topics now. Here there is an intermediate engine called as AJAX engine which sits in the browser of the client and processes all the requests and sends them to the server . The Ajax engine is a little bit intelligent , ie it does some basic processing on its own and does not entirely depend on the server.
A very good example for this is the Gmail. If you are familiar with the working of Gmail , you would be able to appreciate this. This is how the Gmail works : whenever the user logs into the mail account , the browser downloads a very pretty big Javascript of about 250 KB ( this is why it takes some time for the initial loading) . And then on , it keeps flying .. Yes now the Javascript which was downloaded does all the processing like proving the UI , validations and other details.. It just downloads the necessary information like (mail , contacts from the server ) .. So the overall performance is increased .
Now this approach is being follwed by google for many of its applications . The Google maps is a classic example for this .. There are other such wonderful sites like meebo ( a web-based IM client ) ..
The future for this AJAX technology is vast and yet to be explored ..

For further references :

http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX

Have a look at these wonderful creations which use AJAX :

www.meebo.com
http://maps.google.com/
Google Suggest

The DotGnu Project

Have a look at the DotGnu Project .. It is interesting to see that the c# applications can be ported to the *NIX/MacOS/FreeBSD , etc .. environment ... What Microsoft is not able to achieve ( Platform Independency) ,these people are able to bring in ...

This gives an intoduction about the dotgnu project
http://www.dotgnu.org/
For more discussion about this , have a look at the wiki page ,
http://wiki2.dotgnu.info/
Here is the view of the Microsoft Vs DotGnu :
http://wiki2.dotgnu.info/DotGnuVsMicrosoft

the last day of sem 5

this is the last day of sem 5 ( still 2 days left for the internals) . seniors had been to our class and had a photo session. Had lots of fun scribbling on their shirts( a usual thing with the final years on the last day ).
Being the end of the semester , i ve lots of work pending to be done . lot more packages to be done.
Today sat for a while designing the UI for the unix package( chess game ) . The remaining work is to integrate the UI with the backend , i m making a client server application out of this , so that 2 players could play . Also had some fun with the glade UI designer , a fantastic tool ofcourse .
today learnt a little bit of socket programming . have a look at this link :
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/courses/sysprog/sockets/sock.html

unix package

started off the unix package today . This is a two player chess game which uses sockets .
I successfully completed my tests with the sockets and they are fantastic , very easy to learn. I created a sample chat application for the testing purpose. This uses the STREAM socket .
The next phase involves the UI development. i think this is the tedious process. Glade is the one im using for UI design for gtk . And glade is wonderful for creating the UI . it creates code on the fly . And now its just the integration work to be done .

Create your own Linux Distribution

bored with the same old distros available ????

do you want to learn the in-core details of working of a linux system ???

can u create a linux distro which is just 5MB in size ???

If u are wondering how these are possible . then visit :
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

This site give u full details of building a linux distribution of your own. The famous distributions available usually occupy lots of ur valuable disk space and wasting them . Now you can build a complete linux distribution which is less than 100 MB. There are certain areas like embedded systems where there is need for a small OS. It is possible to have a linux which is just 5 MB in size after stripping all those unnecessary parts of the OS.
Have fun creating ur own linux distro ....