barber - barbaric

I usually have my hair cut in my native place (after I moved to Chennai; very difficult to communicate for me where to trim and how much to trim in Tamil) - some times in Vizag too.


This time when i was in Vizag I went to a saloon nearby and was waiting for my turn (on Sunday). Next to the saloon couple of butcher shops were selling meat. Because of more demand, the meat was finished in no time. At this point, a boy of aged around 12-15 years of age was killing the chicken & lamb in a barbaric way. I couldn't see it and didn't want to explain - it is barbaric and savage killing. whatever is the reason - irrespective of hunger or taste for meat. it is cruel and couldn't stop myself to slap that bastard - didn't do it and didn't want to singled out at that point. Coincidentally a temple (Durga goddess) is just opposite to the butcher shop.


In another situation during lunch at office - one of my colleague is favoring to allow beef meat or any animal (who are willing to eat) meat to fill the gap.

I don't want to argue as i have no answers - this is the only place :)


/Srinivas

a tip on pivot charts

when plotting bar charts using pivot tables, it is little difficult to hide/delete unwanted rows:

for example the below pivot chart shows some data for years 2012 and 2013 spreading over months. But it is not important to show the data for future months - or other wise any month which is not important. If we try to delete a row for a month let us Jan or Feb of 2013, in pivot chart or table, Jan or Feb of 2012 will go out of the bar chart.

To get the correct representation, go to pivotTableOptions->Display-> select "Classic pivot table layout"

The table will be shown in expanded form with years and months. copy the pivot table data and paste into another sheet (only values). Delete the unwanted rows. and plot a bar chart . Then you will get like this: for example, i dont want to represent the data of Sep 2012, and March to Dec of 2013.

September 2012,, and March to Dec of 2013 are not shown in the above chart.

This is one easy way of getting bar chart when we wanted to show data with zero values.

I faced lot of issues to get this done, in the mean time i had to do some image manipulation. but this one is clean.

child hood memories

Some child hood memories:

Until higher secondary education, i had no specific interest in watching particular movies or songs.. of course one reason is we had no television in my home - it happened like that. So, to me and to my family very little interest over movies or entertainment. but some part of this is compensated by reading some novels, books, engaged in playing activities.

During my school days, we used to have tut ions after the school hours - one girl of my class will never come on time (our homes are near-by and used to go all-together). We had to wait at her home until she finished watching some of her favorite movie trailers - one such movie is "Gulabi". the movie has great songs, i realized very lately. Myself and my friends were so frustrated waiting  for her and could not find out why she is so obsessed with the movie and songs of that movie - i missed those moments, whatever is the reason first impression is the best one.


the other similar situation had happened with the movie - Gitanjali by Mani ratnam. During those days our neighbors bring VCD's and play during Sundays. Of all movies myself and my sister request my neighbor girl(we call her "akka" - elder sister) to play "Jagadeka veerudu athiloka sundari" - one of the greatest movie of all time in Telugu industry, a nice movie to watch by children at all times. But she used to play Gitanjali several times. i had to watch this movie "Gitanjali" with patience so that she will play the other one after she is bored with "Gitanjali" . no action, and the movie is very dull to my brain. I could not follow one song in "Gitanjali" - "ohh priya priya" - my brain is so small and absolutely no idea why the song is so sad and is so different from the context. Anyways, again this is another nice moment and missed great first experiences of such movies and songs in my child hood. of course age and exposure (circumstances) make difference.

Now, i am a different person :)

Working with Pi

Few months ago, i bought Raspberry pi (mini computer without limbs :) ).

With lot of struggle, especially in Chennai ( i stay in Chennai), where there is no proper internet connection, difficult to get needful accessories, finally made some thing work using this tiny device.

Although the intent is nice, but in reality the accessories and availability in India is very difficult, also very pricey.

This tiny device is a mini computer + micro controller with no real time clock.

Primary information:

1. Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB RAM. Costs 2750/- from Element 14

2. The device has only two USB ports and can not drive external devices (except keyboard and mice) - so one has to buy a Powered USB hub, costs Rs 1000+.

3. The device clocks at 700MHz and ram is very little 512MB/256MB. So processing power especially browsing and playing multimedia files (of course the purpose is not do this) is very slow. On top of that Memory read/write speed is less, it will be very much sluggish to use. So again with a good reading speeds, one has to shell out some Rs. 500 -1000.

4. Now, if some body wants to use with the device with wi-fi, (very few devices are recommended) again one more thousand is required to buy a working wi-fi adapter. I have purchased Dlink DWA-131 (recommended to use even without using Powered USB hub). Also, i have tested with my Belkin Wireless G adapter with powered hub, it works.

Al-together atleast INR 7000/- is required to get started working on it. Of course this can be minimized if people are available to work in groups!  ( i did not mention about the display).

Now coming to the main part, most of the communities are targeting for multimedia & programming, but again some are focusing on education and the projects with raspberry pi are very nice . I am trying to build some interesting things which stimulate children.

How nasty it is !

Some thing to chill out !

without much delay, i received raspberry pi today (ordered few more). I failed to do much with beagle boards as they demand specific display (dvi-d), but not keeping them dead. But i wanted to do some interesting good things with raspberry pi instead of focusing on robotics.

The other good thing is my motorola defy power adapter is best suitable to power-up the raspberry pi. Specs say the laptop USB cannot drive (500mA) the pi as it needs relatively higher current (700-1200 mA).  That is good. Every time i used to buy power adapter for every board.


btw, i almost ready to buy raspberry pi boards on ebay. But waiting for couple of days gave me a big price saving. Element14 charged 3k including tax and shipping charges.

will have to see how long my interest sustains on this. :)

/Srinivas

Mistakes

I keep seeing people either doing things manually (or repeating the process from scratch again & again) or doing semi-automated.

This process is very tedious to make sure every thing goes right. Recently, at a fruit shop store-keeper is billing using a semi-automated machine for billing the fruits. He presses some code based on the item and the bill automatically generates based on the weight and the code. Because of the huge rush at stalls these days, it is very difficult for him to remember the codes. So, by mistake the store-keeper pressed the code incorrectly for apples (usually a Kg of apples cost around 150) and because of the wrong code the bill shows only 24 rupees.

A huge loss for him. The hard earned money for him just goes away by simple mistakes and unnoticed some times.    For these they should trust technology (like bar-codes) even though it is costly but at the end of the day we will live with 0 mistakes. Make NO Mistake.


/Srinivas

Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

I have watched this some time back, wanted to put down the funny dialogue here:
==

Muffley:

Hello? Hello, Dimitri? Listen, I can't hear too well, do you suppose you could turn the music down just a little? Oh, that's much better. Yes. Fine, I can hear you now, Dimitri. Clear and plain and coming through fine. I'm coming through fine too, eh? Good, then. Well then as you say we're both coming through fine. Good. Well it's good that you're fine and I'm fine. I agree with you. It's great to be fine. laughs Now then Dimitri. You know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the bomb. The bomb, Dimitri. The hydrogen bomb. Well now what happened is, one of our base commanders, he had a sort of, well he went a little funny in the head. You know. Just a little... funny. And uh, he went and did a silly thing. Well, I'll tell you what he did, he ordered his planes... to attack your country. Well let me finish, Dimitri. Let me finish, Dimitri. Well, listen, how do you think I feel about it? Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dimitri? Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello? Of course I like to speak to you. Of course I like to say hello. Not now, but any time, Dimitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened. It's a friendly call. Of course it's a friendly call. Listen, if it wasn't friendly, ... you probably wouldn't have even got it. They will not reach their targets for at least another hour. I am... I am positive, Dimitri. Listen, I've been all over this with your ambassador. It is not a trick. Well I'll tell you. We'd like to give your air staff a complete run down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes. Yes! I mean, if we're unable to recall the planes, then I'd say that, uh, well, we're just going to have to help you destroy them, Dimitri. I know they're our boys. Alright, well, listen... who should we call? Who should we call, Dimitri? The people...? Sorry, you faded away there. The People's Central Air Defense Headquarters. Where is that, Dimitri? In Omsk. Right. Yes. Oh, you'll call them first, will you? Uh huh. Listen, do you happen to have the phone number on you, Dimitri? What? I see, just ask for Omsk Information. I'm sorry too, Dimitri. I'm very sorry. Alright! You're sorrier than I am! But I am sorry as well. I am as sorry as you are, Dimitri. Don't say that you are more sorry than I am, because I am capable of being just as sorry as you are. So we're both sorry, alright? Alright. Yes he's right here. Yes, he wants to talk to you. Just a second.

======

tips related to beagle board

those who wish to buy a beagle board, buy beagle board xm, not the c4 version which is widely available outside compared to xm version.

c4 version needs a powered usb hub to connect a key board and mouse. Also, for ethernet connection, a usb to ethernet adapter is needed.

For all these days, i am searching for a dvi monitor to see the beagle board booting process. But the better solution would be to use a remote desktop option using x11vnc or some vnc server application on the beagle board.

minimal things required:

1. xm version board
2. one straight cable db9 to db9 (male to female)
3. although 4gb card is available with the purchased version, it is better to start with 8gb.
minimal software: x11vnc server to see the booting process remotely.

that is all for now.

an update:

some other development boards: panda board (174$) , st-ericsson snow ball. these new ones include wifi, bluetooth also. great !!

ubuntu installation on beagle board

Today i just finished installing ubuntu 11.04 ompa3 version on my beagle board. it is quite simple and took couple of minutes. I am wondering if there is a way to partition the sd card on windows machine. Every time i need to partition the card on linux machine. Anyways, it is good to see the complete gui installation screens on the little serial monitor winodow.

I have used 4Gig sd card.

Download from : http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.04/release/

link: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.04/release/ubuntu-11.04-preinstalled-headless-armel+omap.img.gz

on a linux machine: execute this command after inserting the card.

1. gunzip -c ubuntu-11.04-preinstalled-headless-armel+.img.gz | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/ 2. sync

code generation scicoslab/scicos

c/c++ code generation from system blocks (Matlab/Simulink, Scilab/xcos, ScicosLab/Scicos) is really helpful for rapid-prototyping.

some documentation available here: http://www.scicos.org/CodeGen_doc.pdf


ScicosLab/Scicos provides (also Scilab/xcos) code-generation facility for generating a stand-alone “c” code. The generated file can be linked to various interface modules.


Create a block diagram in Scicos. Select the relevant blocks and make them as super block. And make it as super-block for code generation. Select “code generation” from the tool bar and generate the code for the super-block.



xxx_standalone.c
xxx_act_sens_events.c
libxxx.lib

where xxx is the name of the workspace.

Include these files in the visual-studio and create an executable.

Open loop response of 2nd order system:

I have given some constant input 1.0 in the “xxx_act_sens_events.c”
*((double *) y+(k+l*(*ny1))) =1.0;

Otherwise the program will be asking the input continuously for every iteration.


Ol1.txt is generated from the “generated code”
foo.txt is from the scicos generated output.

Beagle Board

After some struggle, I could able to boot the beagle board (version c4) with Angstrom OS.
Initially, I felt it is very difficult to test the board without the OS.

All we need: 3 wires and a USB mini cable/5v adapter : To test the board with out OS, we just need 3 wires if the correct cables are not available : ATI/everex IDC 10 cable + female to female DB9 null modem cable).
rs232 Pin out structure of beagle board:1. Connect the Rx pin of the beagle board (#2) to the Tx of the computer serial port (#3).
2. Connect the Tx pin of the beagle board (#3) to the Rx pin of the computer serial port (#2).
3. Connect the ground pin of the beagle board to the ground pin of the computer serial port (#5).

Beagle board c4 with IDC 10 cable:
The red color of the IDC 10 cable should be connected near to the pin #1. Also, the cable will have 9 holes (make a hole using a small pin).

Serial cable (Db9 female to female)

Open the hyper terminal, and configure the com#1 (usuall com#1) with 115200 baud rate and flow control: none
By using either the cables or self made configuration cables, connect the board to the serial port of the pc and power it on. Beagle board will boot with the boot loader existing in the NAND memory.

Beagle board with Angstrom OS:

The board I have is Beagle board rev c4. So, I need to make to some changes in the loader.
1. Follow the instructions mentioned in this link: http://beagleboard.org/challenge

2. Copy the necessary files (MLO, u-boot.in) and angstrom files to the SD card. I have used 1 GB SD card. Follow exactly the instructions mentioned here:
1. format instructions: http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/LinuxBootDiskFormat
2. section 2 of this : http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/HowToGetAngstromRunning

Beagle board with Angstrom OS:

Only thing left is connecting the Beagle board to the video display. I tried connecting to a monitor using HDMI male to DVI female + DVI female to VGA. But didn't work.

Update: Luckily I found dvi male to male converter and dvi monitor. Connected the board to the dvi monitor:

Here is the beagle board c4 with angstrom OS:
Booting phase:


Angstrom OS:
Still keyboard, mouse are not connected. May be USB port needs a powered USB hub. Will update it soon.

more on Kindle

I have been using for a while (finished reading one Novel).

1. it is good and nice to read a hard-copy. it is quite boring to read the whole world on a slate always. it is obvious that we will get a feel with a new book always.
2. reading news is really a boring thing on Kindle.
3. updated the kindle software, but still not getting the page numbers for kindle based content. (may be, not updated for the novels, i bought).
4. people around me are still thinking that i am holding a gadget. so my wife throws it whenever i am holding it all the time. she doesn't say anything if i hold newspapers, books all the time. (see the real difference).
5. i can not use it anywhere i want (what if it fells down from my hand). but you can read a hard-copy book wherever you want.

so, better buy an ipad kind of a device.

Reactive

Some times I used to watch people's behavior crossing the roads. They walk slowly with great confidence in them. Like, "the driver will be killed if I am hit". isn't it funny.

/Srinivas

Stirrer

I surprised my wife with a gift. She is also very much surprised after looking at. (she thought it must be some kind of gold jewelery).

I presented a plastic stirrer (during flight journey I was served a drink with a stirrer). I kept it in my pocket without throwing it into the dustbin.

Whenever I go to hotel with my wife, she always asks me to steal the stirrer served with the drink. I have no courage to do that simple stupid thing for my wife.

Kindle wifi

This month, I bought one gadget Amazon KINDLE wi-fi. Few things I wanted to put here straightly,
1. Buying books and the Kindle content is very tempting.
2. KINDLE content is very costly for Indian customers. We can get almost 5 news papers (hard-copy, 500 INR) for the one KINDLE e-news paper. And BTW, only few Indian news papers are available in KINDLE version.
3. It is meant for KINDLE content, I can say the best for reading kindle books.
4. The experimental browser should be good for at least micro-blogging. The browser should be rich, so not at all good for reading the content.
5. -- I wish it can be a quick-note taking application, an organizer in future versions of KINDLE.

Will post more on this, as I am still exploring with it.

/Srinivas

Waiting List -> Confirmation??

Usually, I never rush to book tickets (even if available) for holiday trips. So this time for coming Ugadi (March 16th), I have booked a train ticket well before for 3A . But no luck, waiting list.

The problem is there is only one suitable train goes from Bangalore to Vijayawada (Howrah- Yeswantpur), which takes around 12-13 hours night journey. It's a comfortable coach if you are lucky enough to get tickets.

Since my 3A ticket is in WL, I have booked TATKAL ticket for the same date. I always fail to book a confirm TATKAL ticket. Again Tatkal WL. So, from the past two days, for every one hour I am checking the chances of confirmation for both the tickets. Another interesting thing is my wife gave one confirm ticket of his colleague. But I am very much scared to go with this ticket.

The fact is like me many people might have booked several tickets for the same train. On top of that they will book bus tickets if the chances are very less for train ticket. Because, WL tickets including TATKAL tickets will be automatically cancelled (IRCTC e-ticket) and remitted to their account if not confirmed.

Last time, I have booked one train ticket (WL) and a bus ticket. Thinking that WL ticket will be automatically cancelled I decided to board the bus. Just before boarding the bus, I called my friend to confirm the status. Unfortunately, the ticket got confirmed. But I couldn't do much at that point. Because of so much uncertainty (may be because of bad-planning, demand) people book several tickets for the same journey. This causes very much inconvenience and trouble to a common passenger. Because of this travel services are making so much money. For a sleeper class ticket train fare is around 280/- and for the same VOLVO ticket costs more than 1200/- .

Anyway, my wait is going to be over by tomorrow.

/Srinivas

My early days of playing with 'Kites'

I think I was in 3rd standard when our family shifted to Vijayawada. In those days every evening I used to watch kites flying over the sky. It was very much amazing (of course even now) to my eyes whenever a kite appears in the sky. During that time my parents used to beat me whenever I ask money for buying a kite (at that time a small one costs 25 paise). Especially my mother treats as a rogue whoever plays with kite. So couldn't get chance for a long time until my cousin visited our house during summer holidays. My cousin is a crazy fellow and I admire him a lot on creative side.

At that time he also doesn't know how to make a kite to fly. So we had wasted almost a dozen kites for the first one to fly. So we used to request, not request, used to beg our 'street kite masters' to make our kite to fly. We call it as "sutram" (formula) for connecting thread (a stranded thread will be connected to the kite in an equilateral triangle) on to the kite.

There was a myth in our minds. If our formula doesn't work we used to run along the street for lifting the kite into the air. So whoever does this we tease them as "parigethe galipatam" and we say it will never fly as its own as the kite learned flying only by running.

It took almost 3-4 years for learning kite dynamics. There is lots and lots of fun in this. We used to fly kites for competitions and for making different and interesting trajectories in the sky. I used to climb tall buildings and making noise over the terrace and finally beaten up by mother.

And now I used to make and balance any kind of kite on my own. Here is a photograph of mine during Sankranthi, playing with kite at RK beach, Visakhapatnam. It was wonderful and fun after a long time.

scary insurance stories

Last Saturday I have asked ICICI prudential insurance agent for better plans and health cover. So, I have asked him to come down to my place to discuss further.

He is an associate financial manager. But he didn't know the simple math to explain the options. Only thing he could say is "This scheme covers for a long period and will give you better cover for you". For every question, he says " I will give you in written form (on a white paper) if some thing is not covered under the policy".

So finally I asked for two days to study the policy terms. Then he started telling one hypothetical scary story. He had issued one policy to one fellow some time back. The policy holder completed all the forms and only pending thing is the cheque collection. So, this insurance agent is about to collect the cheque on the next day. But the policy holder had got cardiac arrest.

Although this is a nonsense story but I could sense the aggressiveness of the insurance agent. His business unit might have targets but this kind of aggressiveness and creating some scary stories to meet his targets is totally nonsense.

The bad thing is I couldn't sleep well that night.

Pro'T' or Anti'T'

Finally, after a long time I went to my mother's work place (Ethipothala, near to Nagarjuna Sagar) and wife's home town, Visakhapatnam.

As usual (even after marriage) I haven't planned for the entire trip. I thought I could manage in Andhra Pradesh. But during this Sankranthi all the routes were very busy. 3 people for every sleeper class berth. I had a funny conversation with Train Ticket Collector while traveling in Visakha express. For berth request he was questioning several times that whether I am Pro-Telangana or Anti-Telangana. I was very much surprised at that moment as I was very much tired and sleepy (time is almost hitting 1 AM). I said "I belong to Vijayawada". He kept silent for a moment and asked the same. I haven't changed my answer. May be he got my opinion, immediately he allocated a berth for my wife.

Anyway, I had a safe and happy journey during this trip for almost 10 days.

jing jing

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becoming lethargic day by day. couldn't even connect washing machine pipe to tap.

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trying to find out water saving methodologies for daily chores including power saving.

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Telugu TV channels strategy changing; from sick serials to singing competitions... and now dancing and realty shows. singing competitions were good and refreshing.. may be tough to gather talent in this area.

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