CUSAT site cracked

The official website of Cochin University of Science & Technology got defaced by crackers. I guess they're trying their best to restore it. The crackers call themselves "ProgenTR JAWNAX TEAM".

Why is there no broadband in India? :(

Happened to read this at Slashdot :

An anonymous reader notes that Comcast is offering a new 50-Mbps / 6-Mbps package for residential customers for $150, starting in Minneapolis-St. Paul and extending nationwide by mid-2010. The new service will use the DOCSIS 3.0 standard, which is nearing ratification. We've recently discussed Comcast's BitTorrent throttling and promise to quit it, and their low-quality 'HD' programming. How attractive will $150 for 50 Mbps be compared to Verizon's FiOS offerings?

http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/04/03/1427227.shtml

This is crazy!!! And totally unfair! :( Here in India the fastest "broadband" that we can get is a 2Mbps ADSL connection that comes to around 500 rupees (excluding tax). And just compare prices. Makes my heart break :( I've heard that broadband services are better and cheaper (than in the US) in some other countries (Korea? Japan?).

I wish affordable Broadband comes to India. It isn't like there is no market here for proper broadband. The demand is there, the supply is absent.

The International Organization for Standardization(ISO) has approved Microsoft’s OOXML as a standard.

ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML file formats, has received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC International Standard.

Approval required at least 2/3 (i.e. 66.66 %) of the votes cast by national bodies participating in the joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, to be positive; and no more than 1/4 (i.e. 25 %) of the total number of ISO/IEC national body votes cast to be negative. These criteria have now been met with 75 % of the JTC 1 participating member votes cast positive and 14 % of the total of national member body votes cast negative.

http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1123

Lots of us in India were happy that BIS had decided to vote against OOXML. Short - lived happiness as it turns out.

It's been a long time since I blogged. What made me come out of hibernation?

Demonoid, the popular BitTorrent tracker has been shut down. It says :

The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.

It's come up on Slashdot and Digg. CRIA is apparently -

The Canadian Recording Industry Association is a non-profit trade organization that was founded in 1964 to represent the interests of American companies that create, manufacture and market sound recordings in Canada. The organization is based in Toronto.

CRIA is governed by a board of directors who are elected annually by CRIA members. To be eligible for election a candidate for the board must be among the chief executive officers of member companies of the organization. Graham Henderson (Universal Music Canada) is the current president of the CRIA.

according to the Wikipedia article. There are subsections in the article on the 1st Demonoid shutdown and the second Demonoid shutdown. Vandal edits (technically they're not Vandal edits because policy says "Even harmful edits that are not explicitly made in bad faith are not considered vandalism. For example, adding a personal opinion to an article once is not vandalism — it's just not helpful, and should be removed or restated.") are already appearing in the Wikipedia :D ( examples 1 , 2 ).

Down with CRIA.

Using Windows partitions from Debian GNU/Linux

My friend Arun recently blogged about Automounting filesystems in Linux from a Fedora perspective. For those of you who want an alternative method (especially Debian users), here goes...

I'll explain how I did it - it's much easier to understand from an example.

First of all, I used fdisk so I could know which were all the partitions in my system and what they were called.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40060403712 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1912 15358108+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 1913 3960 16450560 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 3961 4870 7309575 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 1913 3187 10241406 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 3917 3960 353398+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 3188 3916 5855661 83 Linux

Now take the first entry. That partition is called /dev/sda1 and is the C: drive on Windows. Now I use the mount command to mount the partition. Mounting means that I attach a physical device to a directory, so that the directory itself becomes the device. It's a concept that you get used to once you are familiar with all this. To mount the partition, I need a mount point. This is any directory that I create.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# mkdir /disks/c

Now I mount /dev/sda1 to /disks/c

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# mount /dev/sda1 /disks/c

You can check if it has been mounted using the df command.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 6.9G 4.7G 1.9G 71% /
tmpfs 253M 0 253M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda5 9.8G 7.9G 1.9G 81% /disks/d
/dev/sda7 5.5G 4.6G 702M 87% /disks/s7
tmpfs 10M 716K 9.4M 7% /dev
/dev/sda1 15G 13G 2.4G 84% /disks/c

See the last entry? That shows that /dev/sda1 (the C: drive) has been mounted on /disks/c. Its total size is 15 GB of which 84%(13GB) has been used and 2.4GB is available.

Now there's a file called /etc/fstab that comes in very handy. This mounting business is temporary. It gets "unmounted" after I shutdown. I would like to automatically mount it each time. I do that by modifying the /etc/fstab file. The /etc/fstab file keeps static information about the filesystems(refer $man fstab). Another file that comes in handy is /etc/mtab. This file keeps info about all the devices that have been mounted. After I mount /dev/sda1, an entry is made in /etc/mtab automatically.

/dev/sda1 /disks/c vfat rw 0 0

Now I copy this line into my /etc/fstab, with some modifications.

/dev/sda1 /disks/c vfat auto,exec,rw 0 0

Now each time the system boots, that drive will be mounted automatically.

Now, suppose I don't want it to be mounted now? I use unmount.

debian-indraprastha:/home/anirudh# umount /dev/sda1

To disable the mounting of the paritition automatically, just remove that particular entry from /etc/fstab or uncomment it.

Have fun :-)

See no Evil, Hear no Evil

The Hindu is a respected newspaper in India. It carried a rather interesting report on its front page on December 1,2006. "A controversial judicial appointment", it said. The report notes :

New Delhi: The appointment of Justice Vijender Jain as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court took place under contentious circumstances. According to an appointment file noting by President A.P. J. Abdul Kalam, these included "divided opinion at the level of the [recommending Supreme Court] collegium"; a collegium that was expanded, in the first instance, from three to four members "in departure from" para 5.1 of the relevant Memorandum of Procedure; "dissenting" and "deprecatory" written remarks against the appointment by three Supreme Court judges; and reservations expressed by the President, who returned the file to the political Government for reconsideration.

However, these hurdles were fairly quickly overcome and the notification for Mr. Justice Jain's appointment came on November 27. He was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 28.

The report also comes with excerpts from the President's file on the appointment. This kind of stuff should've made it to the headlines of every newschannel and caught the attention of the media. The Parliament is in session and the opposition should've raised the issue. The only channel I get is Doordarshan and Doordarshan news. Nothing was mentioned in DD News. I do not know if other newspapers or newschannels have reported this. How come there is no noise on this issue?

Is it just me or is something happening behind the scenes that we're not aware of? Is there something wrong with the report or is someone preventing the media from reporting this? Can somebody please tell me???

Google alert for Debian Etch

Well... :-)

I created a Google alert for "Debian Etch" some time back. Which is how I saw the blog alert that led to my earlier post on Etch. Today morning I checked mail and saw this with the alerts...

I'm waitin.........
By Anirudh(Anirudh)
The latest version of the GNU/Linux distro Debian, Debian Etch (currently in testing), is likely to come out this December. yayy!!! Test rides say the all new Debian is, well... all new :-) ...
Hello World - http://gingerjoos.blogspot.com/index.html

Interesting :-)

I'm waitin.........

The latest version of the GNU/Linux distro Debian, Debian Etch (currently in testing), is likely to come out this December. yayy!!! Test rides say the all new Debian is, well... all new :-)

Here's one report : http://distroshack.livejournal.com/4832.html .Steve says the new Debian Installer is very user friendly as is the overall experience of using Debian. That's good news :-) I just can't wait to get my hands on it.

New Blogger Beta

Blogger has now introduced a beta of its Blogspot service. I switched to the beta service today. :-)

All you need to publish a blog now is a google id. Now there's a closer integration between blogger and rest of Google.

You will have noticed that the template has changed. Blogger now comes with newer templates. The servers are also new too. The older blogger servers kept having problems, so they've switched to new servers which follow Google prescriptions. I had been having trouble accessing the blogger site, now I can access the beta site without trouble. Cool! And once the exams get over, I hope to be back blogging really strongly. :-)

Have fun :-)
~~~~Me

Damn the loudspeaker!

Loudspeakers are a wonderful invention. We couldn't have big meetings, speeches, concerts and things like that if not for loudspeakers. However, they are misused to a great extent. (Just like mobile phones are?)

Right now I'm having great trouble doing anything. Why?

Tomorrow is when the harvest festival of Kerala, Onam , begins(sort of, explanations for another day). Tomorrow is onnaam onam or uthraadam. It's holiday time all over Kerala. Schools and colleges have closed for a week or so. Offices close for a few days at a stretch. Uthraadam is the day before the main day of Thiruvonam. Celebrations all around....

Some take this as an excuse to do anything. They get 'fit' ( i.e. drunk) and go about causing a nuisance. Some others play the horriblest songs imaginable on loudspeakers...

They're playing some pathetic remixes of old songs now. Annoying is a thorough understatement. Headache is killing me. I'm sure they're dancing in an alcohol induced carefree attitude. Not a tiny thought to the rest of the population who must bear it with grit teeth. I was hoping to study something for the exams that are approaching. It's difficult to study about the 8085 when you have a headache induced by blaring music, don't you think?

Like I said, loudspeakers are misused too much...No wonder there is a ban on loudspeaker use between 10 pm and 6 am. I only wish they had not relaxed the ban.

Happy Onam to all........... :-)

Yipppeeeeee!!!

yayyyy!!!! Here I am in college checking out if my email post worked. Apparently it has. And now I should be able to blog much more regularly, I guess. Good! I've been waiting to blog for so loooooooooonnnnnnngggggggggg..... :-)

Watch this space for more....

testing.......

Hmm...long time no post....

I got a VSNL/TATA Indicom 64kbps connection recently. Ever since I am not able to access blogger or my blog or any blogstpot blog. Anyone got an idea why?

Then I remembered I could post using email...decided to try it out. So if anyone can see this, please tell me so. :-)

Thanks....

Some movies...

Saw some movies recently...Some bits on them...

"The Evil Dead" is a 1981 film. One of those classic horror movies. Lots of blood and gore. When you see the movie, you know at once that a lot of the later day horror flicks were heavily influenced by it. The classical elements are all there. A group of guys and gals staying in some desolate place. Ancient evil magic invoked accidently by them. The magic then hunting them down one by one. Evil trees and evil laughs. Cellars and axes. Evil books and burning them. Name it and you have it.

"V for Vendetta" is the latest offering from the Wachowski brothers. It is based on a graphic novel of the same name created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Personally I liked it, but all the reviews haven't been that superb. The film is very dark in its outlook. Hugo Weaving as the protoganist V is simply superb. He meets the challenge of doing a role behind the mask with amazing success. His voice is superb as ever. This role of his will be remembered for long along with that of Agent Smith in the Matrix Trilogy. Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond. The movie is beautifully made and is sure to be counted as one of the best ever.

I managed to get DVDs of the original Star Wars Trilogy (Episodes IV,V and VI). I had seen the newer trilogy already. Pretty good...Nice story, nice effects (for that time). Harrison Ford as Capt. Hans Solo is brilliant. Too bad, they didn't have those excellent sabre duels as in the newer ones. I rather liked the last sabre duel in Episode I. :-)

Nothing more of significance...

>>>Anirudh

PS : The church bells are ringing now. Guess it's Easter already. Happy Easter...

SSA Gobal recruitment drive

Today SSA Global visited the campus for a recruitment drive. The particpating colleges in the placement drive were Model Engineering College, Govt. Engineering College Thrissur, TKM College, School of Engineering Thrikkakara and CUCEK Pulinkunnu. The tests were conducted online. It featured a lot of tough questions on Java and C/C++. The interviews have begun and are scheduled to continue tommorow.

SSA Global is the third largest ERP company in the world. The recruitment is towards its Hyderabad centre, which is one of the largest centres of SSA all over the globe. This office was formerly a part of BAAN and many of the employeers were part of it too. SSA uses a lot of the BAAN tools and believes in acquisitions that make it expand. Its most recent acquisition is that of Epiphany.

One of those who arrived as part of the team from SSA was Vyas Thottathil. A really nice guy, Vyas is what I would call a 100% pure MECian. Even after so much experience in the industry, Vyas still keeps the MEC spirit burning within him. Vyas...we are all proud of you. Thanks for being what you are. :-)

So long then...watch this space for more news.

April Fool!

The day is here once again. The day I had been hoping for.

I was chatting away with a friend on my Instant Messenger at 12 o'clock at night of March 31/April 1 when I got this message : Happy Birthday. The celebrations had begun. It was All Fool's Day.

I log off some time later and I log on back some time ago. I get this offliner from the same person. http://www.google.com/romance . I had been pretty much hoping to see Google's April Fool joke and here it was. It made me go ROTFL. Way to go GOOG. :-) And here is the press release about it.. http://www.google.com/romance/press.html . :-)

I looked at the "News" section of my GDS sidebar. I see this "Microsoft buys Office.Org" - Slashdot. Wow! Superb. Slashdot pitches in too...

Happy All Fool's Day!

Wipro Technologies Campus Placement Process 2006

Wipro Technologies ( info from Google Finance ) became the first company to recruit students from the current Semester 6 batch of Model Engineering College. Wipro selected 75 students ( 13 to VLSI and the rest to the software division ) in all. The selection process started off with a test in the morning of the 20th. This was followed by technical interviews. Those who cleared the technical interviews were asked to attend the HR interviews. A few ( 18, I believe ) of the HR interviews were conducted on the 21st. The number of selected students are more than last years intake of about 60 from MEC. Clearly the software industry is still riding on a boom and MEC students are as good as ever.

>>>Anirudh

Excel2k6

Back after a long time!

My college (Model Engineering College) is conducting a technical festival on February 2,3 and 4. It is called Excel2k6 and it sure looks like it is going to be fun. This edition of Excel is much bigger than last years. Lots of intersting stuff.

The organisers have decided to go in for some really big sponsors. The main sponsor ( Platinum sponsor) is HP. The first news channel in Malaylam, Indiavision, is the media sponsor. Other sponsors include Larsen and Toubro , Linux For You and Electronics For You.

The speakers this time are big too. Mr. Anand Parthasarathy, well known IT journalist of The Hindu, will speak on Technology trends in the information age. Dr. Ravi Kothari of IBM Research Labs will speak on Data Mining. The Indian Navy is holding a lecture too. I am told they do not do usually hold lectures or go visting colleges. This was a special case, it seems. There is a lecture on Avionics by Mr. P Radhakrishnan, a retired ISRO scientist.

I am looking forward to the ethical hacking workshop. Mr. Kalyan Varma, renowned security expert and Linux Guru, has agreed to conduct the workshop. Toonz Animation, one of the leading animation companies in India will conduct a workshop on Animation. S.P.A.C.E, a society that promotes Free Software under the IT Department Government of Kerala, will do a workshop on doing projects the Open Source way. Besides, Trident Tech Labs will hold a workshop on VLSI and VHDL.

School students can also join in the fun. They have contests too.

The contests for Engineering students are going to be very competitive. The papers selected for the paper presentation have already been put up. Partcipants come from Kerala and outside.

Boy, I am really gonna enjoy this. Hope I get some prizes too!

Wish me luck!
GJ

Google Pack

Google Pack

HappY New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Let the blast begin....

Wish you all a very Happy New Year.

>>> 12:00 am January 1,2006 Indian Standard Time

New Year's Eve Post : Eminem and the music of conscience

Hello Everyone,

I decided to celebrate the transition of 2005 to 2006 blogging. I'll make a post on December 31 and a post on January 1. So here goes...

What has Eminem got to do with conscience, you ask... Well, I believe him to be one of the greatest singers of this age and someone who composes music with his conscience as an inspiration.

These days MTV plays an Eminem song all the time. It is called "When I'm gone" and it's from his new album "Curtain Call - The Hits" . If you get an oppurtunity to listen to it, do it. And listen closely to the lyrics.

This song is about his daughter Hailie Jade Scott. It tells of how his daughter doesn't want him to sing and instead spend time with her. He refuses her attempts to draw attention , but he realises his mistake. He decides to spend more time with his family .

It sounds pretty stupid and dull when I say it, but this is one of the most heart-warming songs there is. Listen to it and you will be moved.

This is not the first time that Eminem has sung a song that has meaning in it. In fact most of his songs are a commentary on social life today.

Keep up the good work Eminem... We all love you.

#Wikipedia article on Eminem :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem

>>>I finished this post on December 31, 2005 11:45 pm