Backing up files

Making a big backup and cleaning up some old data on my PC, I realized I had accumulated about 6 GB of data inspite of (inconsistent effort I have to admit) to delete stuff that I thought was no longer needed. Most of the stuff, were pdfs and html files that I thought were interesting and downloaded to read later, but I never got around to reading most because they lost their interest at the time. Anyway I deleted about 2 gigs, and I still have about 4 gigs left, which I'm now transferring to another computer. I'm pretty sure there is plenty of junk in that 4 G that I probably should get rid off. In other news, I download the new iTunes software that supports pod-casts, and it deleted all my playlists. I'm kinda pissed right now.

Paying Bills ...

Obviously, I don't have much to say right now.

Do neophytes have an aversion to command-line tools? (Redux)

I wrote a comment about people not using command-line tools to learn different languages and prefering IDEs (click on the thiss to read it).

Here's another reason why someone should prefer command-line tools to IDEs. IDEs tend to provide features for coding, building and debugging that are used most commonly, i.e. tool developers tend to focus on the lowest common denominator. More often than not, tool developers totally dumb down the tool, and many cool features that should be part of the tool set get obscured behind a slick IDE user interface.

For example, I just wrote a four different modules in C++ and C#, for a little project I'm working on. I tried to figure out how to add C# modules in one assembly through the IDE, but the C++ compiler that I was using to link the four modules with, kept telling me that it could'nt add the C# modules because they are already assemblies. Finally, I gave up and wrote a small makefile to manually compile and link all my modules. It took me about ten minutes. The ten minutes I should have spent before the forty minutes.

On a high tonite ...

Just came back from a Junoon concert. Great Music, Great Food, Great Time, and feeling nostalgic about a great time I once had in circumstances similar to tonight. Good Night!

Project Aardvark

I've been following this blog pretty regularly. I liked this post about the End-to-End demo. I just went through one yesterday. Fortunately, mine did'nt crash when demo'ed for the for the boss, and is feature complete for the current milestone. Its late by about 3 weeks though (:-$)

Movies in in 30 seconds with bunnies.

For those of you who only have 30 seconds to watch a movie Jaws Pulp Fiction or the Exorcist

Finished Reading ...

"Life of Pi" (Yann Martel)

I had mixed feelings when I finished reading this book. I'm not sure what to make of it. I've always been ambivalent of books that espouse a spiritual story. I was raised to believe that prayer and contemplation have a role to play in a person's life. It was meant to give you a more contemplative view of life and the world. I always nodded my head in agreement but I had a nagging hunch this spiritual stuff was a just a scam to make me adopt a fatalistic view of life, to accept one's lot in life, to suffer in silence.

Yet this story does have a resonance with me. Its Pi's unflinching faith in his spirit, in various deities, and in the forces of a (benign?) natural order, that gets him through the long crossing through the Pacific. Perhaps, Yann Martel in this story, is hinting that people should not limit their spiritual exploration to some exclusive and absolute belief set, but to have a more utilitarian view of religion and worship. In other words, an adaptive religion. Pick a religion for the occasion and run with it. Because no one has a monopoly of the whole truth (if there is one).

Do neophytes have an aversion to command-line tools?

An excellent posting that mentions how people have an aversion of using SDKs and command-line tools! My sentiments, exactly! I think people need to get to a more command line mentality. Its time to take back the art of computer programming and to make it the way it was originally meant to be! A black text-mode screen with glowing green letters and cryptic command line tools. I'm sick of these wannabe programmers who can only program using an IDE.

Currently Listening to ...

White Shadows from the album "X & Y" by Coldplay Talk from the album "X & Y" by Coldplay A Message from the album "X & Y" by Coldplay This album is just fabulous. :-)

Firefox on Mac OS X

When I fired up my Mac and waited it for the OS to load up. While I waited for it to boot. I hooked my iPod to the computer. The desktop came. OS X launches iTunes automatically as soon as it detects that an iPod has been attached. This gets a little confusing for me because icons for Firefox, Safari and iTunes and side-by-side in Finder. And so I accidently clicked on Safari. Before Firefox was released I used to use Safari. I thought it was a nice simple, slick browser for the Mac. The reason why I finally switched from Safari to Firefox, was because of the A9.com toolbar. Today, when I launched Safari, instead I realized how smooth and effficient its rendering was and that it did'nt have any of the "cluckiness" and unresponsiveness that Firefox has sometimes.

I kind of miss that now ...

And so it comes to pass... Mactel is here! :-|

Read all about it

What Video Game Character Am I?

I am a Breakout Bat. I am an abstract sort of creature, who dislikes any sort of restraint. If you try to pigeonhole me, I'll break the box, and come back for more. I don't have any particular ambitions, I just drift, but I am adept at keeping life going along. What Video Game Character Are You?

Musings on a hot Sunday Morning...

Its a very hot Sunday today at 8:47 am. Whoever might be reading this must be wondering what I'm doing up so early on a Sunday morning anyway. I don't know either. I've never been able to figure out what motivates me to get up early on an off day and yet I can't seem to wake up on working day. When I was a kid, I always woke up before 9 am in the morning to watch the 9 am cartoons that were on televisions without anyone waking me up. On a school day getting out of bed was the worst thing to happen and it happened 5 days a week...

Anyway, having woken up so early, I just threw in my 2 week old laundry in the washer. While putting my clothes in, I wondered the why the management of my apartment complex just put in three washers and three dryers. Three doesn't make any sense. An average person would generally use at least 2 washers. One for his or her white clothes and one for his or her colored clothes. This means that only one person can use the washers at any one time, because another person trying to use the laundry facilities will on average not use the facilities for half his or her load in the washer and then wait for another washer to be free to wash the next half. The potential user would rather wait for at least two washers to become available before it becomes viable to do laundry. So effectively, only two washers are used at any one time on average. The management should either remove the third washer or add another one.

Follow up on my last post about Apple switching to Intel chips

One of the readers of this blog commented about the rumored switch like this

" I think they will come out with a tablet PC using Intel XScale chips. It would be bad if they make an announcement that they are switching to Intel platform coz' then nobody would buy anything untill they actually come out with something. If they do come out with a machine right away then they won't have any programs that run on it. But, for a tablet PC you don't need that many programs, not like people are going to use it for Adobe Photoshop. So, they can start selling this and indicating to the developers that they start porting their applications to x86, leading to a smooth transition... But well, all this is just a guess."

I'm more inclined to think Apple will be moving their mobile products like an "iTablet" or a "PowerTablet" to an Intel Platform. Even if they do an announcement, I dont think its going to happen until next year or even later. The main problem Apple has is that the PowerPC processor is just not suitable for those kinds of devices because of the heat the processors generate, and IBM does'nt have the business incentive to make that happen given the low volumes of computers, Apple ships.

Having said that, the situation might change by next year. Both Sony and Microsoft are coming out with new consoles. The Playstation 3 has the new Cell processor developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba. The XBox 360 has the a new processor developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft. Both of the these processors are based on PowerPC technology. So there is a chance that the Apple will announce that it will be building new Macs on the Cell to take advantage of low-power consumption of the Cell processor. These consoles are definitely going to sell and give IBM the sufficient volumes to make the necessary enhancements to the processors that Apple needs.

In any case, I think Apple is in a much stronger position now with its OS than it was 10 years ago when it switched from 680x0 processors to the the PowerPC processors. Given the BSD core of the Mac it should'nt be too hard to move to any processor. I read somewhere that original OS on which the Mac OS X is based is the NeXT operating system which was originally running on an Intel platform when it was acquired by Apple. And internally they have versions of the OS X on an Intel machine.

The Apple WWDC will be happening soon, and hopefully everything will be cleared up soon.

Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | CNET News.com

Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | CNET News.com This is interesting! Here I was debating whether I should get the new the PowerMac G5, and then rumors start swirling that Macs will be going to Intel. The main reason why I wanted a new Mac was to replace my iMac. I think its by far a better computing platform, in terms of looks and functionality. The fact that it takes care of my music, and pictures and videos seamlessly is amazing. As a developer, who prefers to work on open architectures like Linux and BSD, I think Apple delivers a lot more to the C/C++ coder in me than say an equivalent product from Microsoft. One a more personal level I really don't care. After all, I almost never program at a level where I have to deal with assembly. As a rule I prefer to program in simple vanilla C or C++, that I think should be portable across all compilers, so as long as a good compiler implementation is around, I really don't care if the underlying platform is from Intel or IBM. To me the big 100-million dollar question is whether I should go ahead and buy a copy of the OS X knowing that its going to be obsolete by next year or in 2007, when they come out with a new version of the OS, or wait until the next version come out. I wanted to buy a Windows Box too, but I think I will wait until Longhorn is released. I've read some reports that its going to be spectacular. This is what another Robert Scoble had to say about it and another post from the him. and here's what Russel Beattie had to say. and another blogger who says that the rumor is wrong. Shit more decisions to make.

Blogthings - Your Geek Profile

Your Geek Profile:

Movie Geekiness: High

Music Geekiness: High

Academic Geekiness: Moderate

Fashion Geekiness: Moderate

Gamer Geekiness: Moderate

Internet Geekiness: Moderate

Geekiness in Love: Low

General Geekiness: Low

SciFi Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?