That IS Motivating!

A look at the life of the new president of the United States, Barack Obama.

Eid 2008/Eid 1429!

Eid Mubarak to Everyone! Happy Eid Ul-Fitr!

Celebrating Eid in Kolkata this time. 

I guess Eid is celebrated here last compared to the rest of the world. The Middle East, U.K and Australia had it on tuesday, 30/09/2008(day before yesterday), the U.S and some parts of India celebrated Eid-Ul Fitr on wednesday, 01/10/2008 (yesterday) and the remaining parts of India including West Bengal is celebrating Eid-Al-Fitr today, 02/10/2008. 

The reason for these differences is because the Islamic/Hijri Calendar is based on the Lunar Calendar. The start/end of months are based on the sightings of the crescent moon. 

More Info:

Question: If the moon is sighted any place on earth, then why all Muslim Ummah(nation) cannot start the Islamic month on the same day.

Answer: When the moon is sighted in a place on earth, right at that moment there are two days and dates prevailing all over the globe. Some places have already started their next day. Those places can not start the month at that time. They have to wait for the next sunset time to start new month, and hence their month will not start on the same day as the place where the moon was sighted.

Suppose the moon is only possible to be seen in Hawaii and nowhere in the world. Even if we know ahead of time that the moon will be sighted in Hawaii, the time of starting Islamic month will be after sunset in Hawaii (around 6:00pm). At that time in Tokyo, the time will be 1:00pm of the next day. If this was month of Ramadan, this is way past Suhoor time in Tokyo. They cannot start fasting 9 hours before the month can begin anywhere in the world e.g. in Hawaii in this case.

The above transcript is from http://www.central-mosque.com/fiqh/FAQMoonSighting.htm

There's the hype of Durga pujo comin around so there's not any less of celebrations. 

2nd of October also happens to be Gandhi Jayanti, birthday of Mohadas Karamchand Gandhi, Father of Nation, India. 

It is the season of festivities here in India. 

Many holidays have passed and many more celebrations in the pipeline.

Festivals in the near past:

Onam : 12th September

Eid-Al-Fitr : 2nd October(Differ in different parts of the World)

Gandhi Jayanti : 2nd October

Coming-Up!:

Dussehra : 9th of October

Durga Puja : 6th October

Diwali : 28th October

Onam is celebrated by the people of Kerala(I am a Keralite myself). 

Eid-Al-Fitr is also celebrated by muslims all over the World,(I'm a muslim too) 

And Gandhi Jayanti is a happy day for all Indians alike(Yes, I'm an Indian too. :)).

Dusshera is a celebrated over entire North-India. Durga Puja is celebrated with greate enthusiasm in West Bengal. 

Diwali is a very colourful festival observed over all parts of India . 

Thats Unity in Diversity!

Ok, Back to Eid talk, here's a very good song by Zain Bikha praising God on Eid-Al-Fitr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0FLE6zBFRY

I liked it and hope that you'll like it too.

More later.

Happy Eid Again!

Google Phone G1 Unveiled!

First Google Android Phone unveiled.

I heard about Google Android through Vipin Sir(faculty at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) sometime in December 2007. Google introduced the Android Software (Operating System) for designing Mobile phone devices last November, in a move they said "could help the cellphone industry make the Internet work as smoothly on phones as it does on computers". One of my seniors at college had taken up this cellphone-industry-transformer and was developing on it using Eclipse. 

He showed me some of the features of Android and its graphical capabilities. Most of his exhibits to me were Google videos and some code fragments of the SDK. I also checked out the Android Architecture at the Google Android site and it did say a lot of things.

But it was not yet implemented then and I wanted to see it in action.

So now, here it is: First ever Google Android Phone: G1 was launched on 23/09/2008 

This promising event may trigger significant progresses on the multimedia face of Mobile Devices. 

Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone based on Google Inc's Anroid Software, according to a New York Times report.

I guess everyone who has the Apple iPhone or thinking of buying one will be in a state of dilemma after the "gPhone"'s inception. 

Have a look at this article if you need a little help.

Hey, and for everyone in India waiting for the Android Phone, this news article says that the Android Phone will enter India in December. The phones will be sold by HTC which is partnering with Google for the products.

I still dont know about the cost of the gadget or any other technical specs. However, the article says that the gPhone will be priced above Rs.20,000. 

Get latest news of Google Phone here.

By the way, the Android system is open source and anybody can get their hands busy on it, if they wish to. 

Want to develop a phone of your own? Download the Android SDK here.

Anyone out there owning a G1? Please comment your experience with it. 

Derby:Reported Bug Resolved

Anyone who has read my very first post would know that I have been involved in the development of Apache Derby for a very brief amount of time.

At the time, I had reported a bug and was quite excited about it since that was my first 'Bug Discovery' and was a student then.

But then, after I joined the Industry and started working as a full time developer, I realized that reporting a bug was no big deal even though it is very important.

Nevertheless, I am happy to tell that, that very bug:

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/DERBY-3408 has been fixed today by Bryan Pendleton in the latest version of the Apache Derby.

I'll be soon contributing to the Apache Derby Project again if God wills.

Whoa! Google Chrome has Crashed

That's the message that Google Chrome gives out when it real crash. Yes, It does Crash, says Rishi Narang from Evil Fingers

 According to Narang’s advisory :

“An issue exists in how chrome behaves with undefined-handlers in chrome.dll version 0.2.149.27. A crash can result without user interaction. When a user is made to visit a malicious link, which has an undefined handler followed by a ’special’ character, the chrome crashes with a Google Chrome message window “Whoa! Google Chrome has crashed. Restart now?”. It crashes on “int 3″ at 0×01002FF3 as an exception/trap, followed by “POP EBP” instruction when pointed out by the EIP register at 0×01002FF4.”

There are couple of glitches reported too but I thought I should post this one since I pointed this special feature in one of my earlier posts.

Another problem with Chrome that I encountered is this:

When You want to open a link in the new tab, You usually either hold down CTRL and click the link or you press the scroll button on the link. These shortcuts doesn't work in Chrome. When you do this, a new tab is opened, but both the tabs will have the new URL in the address bar. However, Please note that this happends only for pages that contain frames.

Ramadan 2008/Ramadan 1429

The last 3 years, I was in Kerala, India during Ramadan when I was studying at College. and before that I used to be in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. And this time I am in Kolkata. This is the first Ramadan after I joined my first job.I had heard that there are lots of beautiful mosques in and around Kolkata. Though, I am having a tough time finding them. Everytime I check my mail and Orkut scrap, people are asking me how's work during ramadan and what are the timings, et cetera. I pointed out to them that here in India, there are no changes in job timings(like you have it in the gulf countries).

Nowadays, I am making an effort to understand the meanings of the verses in The Holy Quran. I rely on a a new publication of Abdullah Yusuf Ali's 1934 Translation of the Quran. I used to read the Quran in it's Arabic script without really understading its meaning. But now, when I am getting the essence of the Holy Book, I am realizing that Its really Amazing! Its answering a lot of questions.Really!

Later on, through the internet, I found out that there are lot of people evangelizing Islam through music. I had already been a fan of Yusuf Islam(A.K.A Cat Stevens),a prominent convert to Islam and loved most of his songs and Nasheeds(Islamic Songs) and his previous songs such as Moonshadow,Father and Son, Wild World.. He really got this beautifull voice. I first found him through the "A is for Allah" song.

Then, the internet searches introduced me to Zain Bikkha and Dawud Wharnsby Ali,another convert. Zain Bikkha and Dawud Wharnsby Ali have really nice numbers to their credit.
This particular song, "No, You can't take it With You" is a real good example of showing how pure messages can be communicated through music.
I hope the whole or atleast the majority of the music, media, etc portray such meaningful and useful messages.
I listen to Talks of Yusuf Estes when I get time. He has got this way of keeping you awake [:-)] throughout his speech. His style is excellent and I really enjoy and learn while listening to him.

My top 10 Songs/Nasheeds:
Welcome O Ramadan (English)
The Articles of Faith(Arabic/English)
Don't Talk to me about Mohammed(English)
What Did I do Today(English/Arabic)
Allah Knows(English)
Not Afraid to Stand alone(English)
Ramadan Moon(English)
I look I see(English)
Animals Love Quran(English)
Sing Children of the World(English)

Videos to Learn From:
Talk by Yusuf Estes regarding Ramadan - Part 1
Talk by Yusuf Estes regarding Ramadan - Part 2

Talk by Yusuf Estes regarding Ramadan - Part 3

Talk by Yusuf Estes regarding Ramadan - Part 4

Talk by Yusuf Estes regarding Ramadan - Part 5

Talk by Yusuf Estes regarding Ramadan - Part 6

Lets pray for peace and harmony in the world and to eradicate poverty.
May Peace be Upon You!

Google Chrome!

I saw.I downloaded.I smiled.
This is one of those good things that happen to you when you keep getting those Fatal Errors on your browser and then the whole set of tabs that are open disappear just like that when the IE crashes. Well, I did get an error of some sort while using this beauty but guess what, all my other tabs remain! Guess what! This thing never crashes! That really kept making me use Chrome.
I noticed that Orkut and Picassa photos load much faster in Chrome. So, I guess it should be a faster browser too.
But I also observed that YouTube videos are loading a little slower compared to IE. But need to check it out again.
Another thing worth noting is the Large area in which a lot more Information can be fit in.

Later on, I went through the WebComic. I did try some of those tips in it. The way it works too is Xcellent. A product of Pure Simple Thinking.

But a serious problem remains. I miss my add-ons that I used to use on Firefox and IE. Most importantly, a google product again- Google toolbar because of which I can't bookmark the pages into my google account anymore.

I hope the guys at Google or someone comes up with these add-ons real real soon if they need people to hook on to GChrome completely! Anyways, I'm lovin it.

Well, I want to carry on this post a little longer since I want to showcase some of the best features of this browser:

1. Task Manager : Google Chrome has its own Task Manager! It will list down all the open tabs and windows just like they are processes running. Well, they indeed are different processes running. Check it out on WebComic and you'll get it. Press Shift+Esc to get the Chrome Task Manager.
2. Dynamic Tabs : You have this tabbed browsing capability in Google Chrome. But thats not all. You can carry around your tabs anywhere you wish. You can go ahead and make it a separate window if you wish. No need to Copy/Paste the address after opening a new window. Just drag it outside the "Tab Place-holders".
3. UnderCover browsing : The Google guys call it Incognito browsing. When you are browsing incognito, all recording of your activities on the web using Chrome gets blocked. That means, if you access sensitive data through the browser and forgets to clear the history, that would'nt be a problem. Morever, no cookies and form fields will be saved on Chrome leaving no trace of where you have been on the net on the computer. Really useful on shared computers.
4. Arrangement of History and the default new tab contents : Whenever, you open a new tab, it gives thumbnail views of screenshots of web pages from your history. Also, the arrangement of items on the history page resembles that even that is a web page. This last feature is present in Opera too.
5. Large area : Google chrome gives you a very large Information displayable area which minimizes the usage of scroll bars. Browser Developers too are aware that scrollbars are a pain and not only the Web Designers.

There are many more which I've not yet explored. Please add comments if I've missed any.

And the best part of Google Chrome has not yet been spoken of in this post. IT IS 100% Open Source! Get the source here!. Hmm..Thinkin of building your own browser?! Better than the best,eh?

A day-long trip around Kolkata

I have been in Kolkata for almost 3 months now and yet I've not seen much of the "Old Calcutta". The first things that come to mind when I hear 'Calcutta' are Mother Thereasa, the British buildings, Rabindranath Tagore, etc.
But My friends here and I have not yet been to any of these great personalities' locations of activity and our views were thus confined only to the Salt Lake area and some parts of "New Calcutta".
However, Last week, a friend and professor at Amrita University,Amitapuri Campus Mr.Probal Ray Choudhury was in his hometown(ThakurPukur in Kolkata) for the Onam vacation. He offered to take us for a ride across Kolkata. We jumped at the offer.

So, it happend that we visited Belur Math.
Belur Math is the headquarters of Ramkrishna Mission and houses the things used by Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramkrishna and the like.
It contains an exquisite museum which tells us the Birth of the Organization and the Travels of Swami Vivekananda to the West, his life there and a variety of other things.
It is a beautiful place that any person who is visiting Kolkata should see.
We were able to admire the beauty of the River Ganges. Across Ganges, we could see another temple and a boat service from Belur Math to that temple is available too.

Later in the day, we took a long drive to a place called RaiChak. Raichak has nothing special except that you can admire the beauty of River Ganges to the core. From here, You can see the Bay of Bengal in a distance.
From Raichak, we went to Diamond Harbour. Here, You can feel the calm sea breeze on your face.
It is a good place to read a book provided there is not much traffic on the adjoining road.
For dinner, we went to Mr.Probal's house. His mother had cooked some excellent Bengali Food and I had the best food that I've had in 4 months.

Now, that was a sunday spent well.

Journey through the Rain

Dear All..
Sorry for not posting here much...

Anyways, here's something for you..
These were the photos taken while coming to Kolkatta from Chennai..
We got stuck at a place called Contai Road. The train would move no further from this station since the rails were under water. We had to then, find another mode of transport. The roads were also inaccessible for sometime.
I was able to see some of the views of the Orissa and WB floods first hand...

The journey was an adventurous one and I made quite a few friends...

Have a look at the photos...

Electric Tower


Electric Tower


Fields


Road Blocked!





High Water



Trees under water





Raining Hard


Bare Path!





Windy and Rainy


Flowing Away!


Come Here!!


With a friend,Atul I met at Train


Trees under water again


Well..Well..


Yeah..Those are trees


Yes..Them too..








A building and trees






Road(National Highway) to Kolkatta from Conatai Road

The pictures above were taken by Atul and me. The ones without dates are in Atul's credit and the ones with dates are mine.

..so finally how did we reach Kolkatta?

We, i.e Atul(the stud we met in train), Sumit (my colleageues and friend) and I, got off the train and went to the streets to find some bus or anything..For sometime, there were no transport going to that part..Then, a bus went off and once the acknowledgement from the first bus was recieved, the rest of the buses were also going.Railway authorities were announcing that there were private buses going from the place.. But we could'nt get onto any of them since there were people sitting even on the roof of the bus and hanging onto the doors also!!Then, there were 2 elderly(not too elderly) couples with us,one couple wanted to reach Kolkatta and the other, Howrah (railway station close to Kolkatta). So, we decided we'll all go together..So , now it became a family of 8 people: i.e. atul,sumit,priya(colleague and friend), I and the 2 Couples. There was hell of a lot of luggage for all of us. We got an Armada Cruiser and after a bit of bargaining, the driver told us he'l take us till Kharagpur(its in between contai road and Kolkatta). Ok..so we thought "Something is better than Nothing" and the whole 'family' got in. Once at Kharagpur, we again had to hunt for transport. But one of the uncles with us had a contact in Khargapur and he arranged a Bolero. That was enough for us to reach Kolkatta...

It was a journey made up of a lot of emotions.

CFF Results Out!!

Amrita University has just been declared the Winner of Sun's Code for freedom contest.
2 guys from our college are getting a Laptop form Sun. Well, guess who.. You should have guessed right if you would've read my previous post.

Ok..Its none other than Rishi and Avinash - the most avid student bug fixers on OpenSolaris of the country...
The last time I saw Rishi, he was hiding under a table so that we don't give him the regular bumps we give when he gets something good. But anyways, we managed to find him and give a nice one...

15 of us are getting ready to attend the Sun Tech Days to be held in Hyderabad this 27th, 28th and 29th..

Looking forward to it....

My First Post and CFF

Well, this is first post on my blog...
The feeling that I need to create a blog was in my mind for quite a sometime now. But there's a very good reason why did'nt I do it. I've been busy with Code For Freedom - a contest conducted by Sun Microsystems as part of it's University Program. It really has been a period of learning and recreation for me the past 3 months or so. My college Faculty, Vipin Sir was the one who introduced me into this contest. He said that there were 5 technologies that you could work on and it will be a good learning experience. There were already some people like Avinash and Rishi working on OpenSolaris - Operating System from Sun. He also told me that Apache Derby will be a good option and that it is written completely in java. He's got me there...!!
Java always had been my favourite programming language. And the prospect that apache derby is a Relational Database drove me for that. I had learnt Oracle and used MySQL and have wondered how does the query optimizer,etc. actually worked. I wanted to see the source code but never really tried for it....
Now, HERE IS THE CHANCE!!!
There was one more reason why i took up Derby : I'll be doing something different from everyone else ....

I got the derby source and build it..it all worked FINE...BOY! Where was my confience level?
Then, I got a mentor from Sun, a guy called Mayuresh Nirhali (his blog here). It started off with a simple mail from him saying that he will be my mentor for Derby for Code For Freedom(CFF).
Then, I tell him the problems I faced in Derby and then, sooner or later, I get the answer. The good thing about him is that he wanted me to do the core work and he'll just tell me the general things of derby, debugging, testing.etc. My friends and me have learnt a lot because of this. I assigned myself a simple bug(it looked simple!) at the jira website. I started working on it and it was this time that I learnt how OPEN the OpenSource community is. Suddenly, I liked everything about Opensource. There is this lot of people who don't even know you helping you out when you are stuck somewhere in the fixing procedure. I post a query to derby-dev@db.apache.org and within 24 hours, a bunch of replies are there in my inbox. "THIS is AWESOME"...

After a week or so, a couple of college mates - Sandeep and Abishek also joined the race. I took up another bug to work on and on 30th of Jan, 2008 I made my first contribution to the Opensource world. I attached the diff file for DERBY-2239. It got committed the same day. "That was FAST!!".
Mayuresh's entry on his blog about this really boosted me...
Thanks a lot, Mayuresh....

A lot of students also came into the scene...Solaris bug fix-ers also started fixing up bugs in derby and everyone was suddenly busy.
I also laid my hands on some OpenSolaris bugs too with the help of my good friend and Star Bug Fix-er of Amrita, Rishi.

The whole contest was fun. It was fun listening to Rishi's and Avinash's strategies. It was fun, when a build or test comes right after about 2 days of trying. It was fun instructing the others. It was fun finding bugs and reporting them. It was fun watching guys working "even on Valentines Day". SUN made it all FUN.

On Feb 14 at 12:00 am, the contest was closed.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham(Amrita University) has contributed a total of 87 bug fixes on OpenSolaris, 16 bug fixes on Apache Derby and also some on OpenPortal.

Team Amrita:

Avinash T Joshi

Rishi M Nair

Archana R

Meera R

Chitra B

Abhilash T G

Deepthi Devaki

R Vidyalakshmi

Sandeep

Abishek

Jazarine Jamal

Arjun Vasudev

Indu Vijayan

Sajith K

Venugopal M

Krishnakumar

Rejeeshnath

Vishak M R

Lekshmy G. Pillai

Balagopal R

Sindhu Vidyasagar

Parvathy S

Jayahari K R

Rohan S

Vishnudatha Kanjur

Man, am I proud to be part of the winning team!