Johnny [Life & Code]

July 4, 2009

openSUSE 11.1 on PS3

Filed under: CODE, GNOME, LIFE, Linux Fun, PS3, Tech, suse — Johnny @ 10:41 am

Woohoo ! After a long delays and issues (in the last few days) I’ve managed to install openSUSE 11.1 in my PS3.  Running a full blown desktop is very sluggish. Reminds me of my first computer (amdk6 500mhz). Some screenies :

6 SPEs

Now onto get the Cell SDK running … Synergetic Processing Elements (SPE) here i come !

July 3, 2009

3 Years in Novell, Bangalore.

Filed under: LIFE — Johnny @ 8:09 am

This seems to be considered as a milestone here (Actually i’ve been involved with Novell for about 3.5 years).

It has been a interesting journey for me. Met a lot of *different* (sometimes weird / highly skilled / not so skilled) people. Realised how different I am, the good and the bad. I learned how to do and how not to do certain things. Amazed at people’s survival skills in the corporate jungle.

But above all, Itz been a pleasent journey and i’ve enjoyed it very much. Met some of the best engineers in the world and had oppurtunity to work with a few.

Digging into my blog archives I realise how much I’ve changed. A silent low profile student -> an intern ->  engineer ? (that is a honourable title. But have I earned it ?)

And how ‘work’ changes you.

Looks like the next milestone is 5 years. Have lot of ideas! Lot of things that I want to learn! So many books to read! DIFFERENT things to try out! And i’m excited about it!!!

I feel like i’m just out of school and the best is yet to come!

May 9, 2009

A fun ride to ‘Jain Farms’

Filed under: LIFE, Trek 3700, cycling — Johnny @ 1:37 pm

Around 12 bikers started by 6:00 (i guess) at Sarjapur ORR junction. Series of climbs. Fun. I was impressed by my pace it was bit more than my morning rides. So riding in groups make a lot of difference. Reached Jain Farms after 80 minutes.I didnt’t know that we would be crossing into TamilNadu !

Guyz went for a 10k run. Breakfast, Table tennis (I’m awesome at it. Right! ;-) ) and swimming.(big no no for me)

Head winds added a extra 30 minutes on the return ride. At some part of Sarjapur road I lost sight of the lead pack. I knew that one rider was behind me. I was so tired I thought I was on a highway to Delhi till I saw some familiar apartments on the horizon .

People were talking about TFN. Me ? I dont know  yet !

Thanks a lot Ravi, Anil and everybody (:) )

Had fun !

Update : Report by Anil

Update : Pictures from Prashant

May 5, 2009

24.

Filed under: Thoughts — Johnny @ 11:58 pm

24 awesome years in planet earth! 24 years !

When are we going to mars ? :)

April 18, 2009

Lessons on a friday evening

Filed under: LIFE, Thoughts — Johnny @ 3:13 pm

Last Friday evening I had to go through 20 minutes of verbal blah blah and haha haha . Yes I was the object of ridicule. I was angry but wore a mask of fake smile. I wanted to punch few faces and also considered using a GoW Lancer . But thank God I did not do that because I was either polite / a coward. Walked away. I hoped that my rage would go off after 10k of biking. It did not. I tried ranting to a few. It did not. Then in a moment a realization : “nobody is perfect that includes me”. Started looking at this in a different point of view. I had lessons to learn from this :

  • If you don’t understand something, take your time and learn about it. Don’t utter STUPID words and advertise that you are a FOOL.
  • Don’t make money as the object of living.
  • If somebody does something and it looks stupid according to your life’s code, share your opinions. And try not to be a IDIOT claiming that what you are doing is the ideal way to go.
  • Every right word that is not said and ever wrong one that is shouted is going to hurt somebody. As you sow so shall you reap.
  • Just because I’m friendly doesn’t mean that I’m your friend. Trust once broken, hard to mend.
  • Understand your relationship and choose your words accordingly.  If you are just a work mate, then you CANNOT speak like my brother / father / friend. KNOW YOUR LIMITS.

Thanks to you : when you buy that dream house or go about buying nonsense expensive gadget or a new motorcycle, I will smile and _try_ to share the joy brought by those stupid things (stupid according to my life’s code) even though I don’t understand it.

Today’s prayer would be : God,  help me to remember and use these lessons. And help me to be a better person.

Note : There were 4 -5 of you standing around and *having fun* . This is not for all. I appreciate a few who actually tried to bail me out of that ‘bully session’. Not expecting this but please don’t come and apologize. It is better the way it is (as of now )

“Do you see someone who thinks himself wise? There is more hope for a fool than for him!”

update : Comments closed.

April 12, 2009

Dirty bike.Yay ! (STR Apr 11 2009)

Filed under: LIFE, Thoughts, Trek 3700, cycling — Johnny @ 2:08 pm

This weekend wanted to go for a ride. STR (Staurday Trail Ride) was interesting. Saw some pictures from their previous rides and was wondering whether I would be able to actually match up with their pace. Anyhoo we (me & Kalyan) started @ 0545 and reached the rendezvous point @ 0600. Met the other riders and off we went. Well, i saw the black tar road only for few minutes. The lead pack jumped off the road and it was dirt road (most of the time).

We were tailing and was slowing down the group. Awesome group of riders. Very patient with us :)

I simply loved the ride. Some of the stretches had surprises. Then tried some jumps (ahemm ;-) )

And my bike is dirty ! Finally .. felt like i did some justice to trek over this ride .. Hoping to do more.

Paro’s report : http://ride-bike.blogspot.com/2009/04/off-sarjapur-road-11apr09.html

Abhi : Some pics / Vids /Trail route : http://bikeszone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2677#p23152

Some lessons :

- Carry more water and some chocolates.

- Train more.

- Be with the lead pack ..  :)

- And try to take some pictures :)

April 9, 2009

Commute to office : A Test Ride

Filed under: LIFE, Thoughts, Trek 3700, cycling — Johnny @ 12:32 pm

According to plan, I was supposed to go for a long ride in morning (XT – running) before going to office. But thanks to mosquitoes I couldn’t get enough sleep and woke up bit late. So i decided I’ll do a test commute to office. Just wanted to know how it feels. Started from home @ 0635 and reached office by 0710. Stopped to check saddle height and front tires (I think the brakes are not aligned)

Thanks to Kalyan & Nikanth for letting me park it in their house. I’m not confident of parking in office (yet) .

Firefox Cyclone & Trek 3700

Kalyan's Firefox Cyclone & Trek 3700

Left office earlier and rode back home. Loved the ride and would be commuting to office in my bike :)

April 7, 2009

Makespace – Plugin for GNOME Evolution

Filed under: CODE, GNOME, Programming, Tech, suse — Johnny @ 3:59 pm

I’ve written (incomplete) simple plugin for Evolution which provides a combo box + menu for switching folders. Now you can hide the sidebar. This really helps in freeing up some space in your screen and can have good vertical view layout. This would help computers with smaller screen size.

Screenshots :

makespace-thumbSidebar hidden. Small combo box in top left corner

makespace-expanded-thumb1

Switching folders

To try out this plugin / For more information :   http://www.johnnyjacob.org/makespace.html .

One other feature that I would like to have is simple folder bookmarks. Bookmarked folders would appear in the top of the menu (You don’t have to navigate all the way down in the menus)

Let me know what you think and if you would like to have any features put it down in the comments. :)

April 4, 2009

Life += Trek 3700

Filed under: LIFE, Thoughts, Trek 3700 — Johnny @ 4:43 pm

Bought a Trek 3700 today.

A beautiful machine in ‘Acid Gold’ colour. Will be using this for cross training and some fun rides on weekends. Have to assess about commuting to office. (Distance is not a problem . Parking is ).

Trek 3700 Acid Gold

Initially I was looking at a Firefox Target. But when i tried out the Trek i just had to get it. Its definitely worth it.

Rohan from BOTS suggested that I go for a 4300. But itz a bit over my budget. so settled for a 3700.

This Trek 3700 is from BumsOnTheSaddle.com .

Why BumsOnTheSaddle.com ?

  • Passionate people. (Differentiates lot of other stores)
  • They know what they are talking about.  (They are real bikers!)
  • They are building a nice community.
  • Have very good online presence. And very good on emails :) (important to me .. and i didnt have to make a single phone call!)
  • Good amount of material about bikes : notebook.bumsonthesaddle.com (i’m impressed by this)

Thanks a lot Rohan, Nikhil and umm ForgotHisName! It was a good experience. A nice run through the bike and personalizing it for me!

I rode all the way from Jayanagar (BOTS) to Koramangala 1st block (6km ?). Was worried about the traffic a bit .. But it was not a problem at all. The ride was smooth. Was learning about the gears and really understood why people stress on consistent cadence ! After that had a quick lunch and started off to CV Raman Nagar (10 km) . It was around 1430 and the sun just drained me out when I went over Domlur flyover. Reached Kalyan’s place. Went out with Kalyan and he bought a Firefox Cyclone.

Later in the evening we (Me and Kalyan) went out and explored CV Raman nagar a bit.Was learning about gear ratios all along. Realized the importance of  saddle height. It dropped down and my knees started hurting. Stopped and fixed (Yup carrying Allen keys proved very useful :) ).  Would leave CV Raman nagar in morning (of course .. on my Trek 3700 ! ) (10 km)

I should have got a bottle cage along with the bike. Stopping and drinking from the bottle in the backpack wasted time.

I’m going to enjoy this part of my life.  Yay!

Random words :

  • New would be  bikers : Please do your own research before getting a bike. It helps you a lot in understanding your equipment.
  • For calculating gear ratios : http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Hmm … big post. Been a while ..

Update :  19 Hours after buying :  Pedaled 30+ Km

March 19, 2009

Evolution MAPI update release. (0.26.0.1)

Filed under: CODE, Evolution, GNOME, Tech, suse — Tags: , — Johnny @ 10:55 am

Hello,  I just released a update to evolution-mapi. 0.26.0.1 has fix for Bug 574784 without which the package is totally unusable.

Thanks !

Untitled

Filed under: Evolution, Linux Fun, Tech, Thoughts — Johnny @ 9:48 am

Comments like http://blogs.gnome.org/sragavan/2009/03/18/announcing-anjal-the-new-mail-for-netbooks/#comments makes me do more at times like this :)

Proud to be part of Anjal (Pronounce as “An-jal” similar to “Brin-jal”).

Awesome !!!

February 8, 2009

1 reason to run GDB & 2 reasons to run emacs from source

Filed under: CODE, Emacs, Linux Fun, Tech — Johnny @ 1:08 pm

CODE :

GDB : Compiling from Project Archer, you get to have python scripting inside gdb. This opens up numerous possibilities and nice tricks that helps you to debug  faster. http://tromey.com/blog/?cat=17 has few example + demo scripts.  Falling in love  with these ..

EMACS : emacs 23 (in cvs) gives you MultiTTY Support , XFT Font rendering (and more). Looks better with XFT and multitty support rocks !

LIFE :

??

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