Heavy Duty Work at Office

Haven’t posted since a long time. It absolutely does not mean that boredom has caught up with me, just like with my numerous other initiatives ;-) On the other hand, my interest in blogging is only increasing. Only that work load at office has zoomed up.

My BSNL broadband connection has finally arrived. So I am going to be online from home as well from today. Got to get back and check connectivity, stability and stuff.

Me has one more big meeting today before I can head home. Should be around 9-9:30 before I can get there…..

Blade Server ah - illa Blade ah?

I am making comparisons between IBM and Dell Blade Servers and am going nuts!! For a pretty much similar configuration, there is a $6000 difference between IBM’s and Dell’s machines. Take a guess on which one is on the higher side (

So me back to my research table now to see if I am missing something really obvious with the Dell configuration leading to that huge difference.

Like they say in Kannada…..6000 difference andare….nijavaagalu Blade-eh (

Testing the Word Blogger plugin

Ok I found the new plugin for Word which enables publishing – myself. Sample blog to test how well it works…..

Resizing my NTFS partition

So I finally worked it out. Will wait for the broadband connection to appear at home. There are a couple of Linux based utilities which are freeware and can pretty safely repartition my NTFS data drive. Need a 100MB mini distro though. So, I am gonna download that from home and then get Linux setup :-))

Which brings me to the topic of broadband connection. I got Tata Indicom disconnected because of their pathetic service (they have not even come home to take back the router), and Airtel and Hathway are not alive in my region, so had to settle for BSNL. Now, I have paid for the connection about a week ago. But my area office has not yet got the "work order" from the head office and they will only request the work order if I call them up and request for it. So, my polite enquiry call yesterday turned into a request logging session and I have been promised the connection "as soon as the work order comes". Some inside sources told me that the work order comes only after the modem is issued and that they have a perennial shortage of modems.

Phew....so in short.....not sure when I will get broadband at home.

Spot a nerd

Sripathi contributed these...I am just putting it up on the main site instead of comments.

1) mutt is the best mail client because it is fast (!!!) and powerful. Because mutt is faster, I get extra 10 seconds of time every day that that you (put_your_graphical_mail_client_here) users dont.

2) I get a kick out of editing configuration files.

3) Your application may be 1000 times better, but mine is open-sourced and hence superior ;-)

4) They said my Linksys router runs Linux. I want to test if my new kdump feature lets it take a dump when it crashes.

Also, if you question the main difference b/w mutt and other clients (after you have easily managed to demo that other clients are equally good speed wise and with great difficulty managed to get them to accept that), the standard answer is "Mutt is Light". I have still not managed to understand how saving 40-50kb on a machine with 1GB RAM is such a great achievement. Anyways...they are not geeks for nothing.

Meetings

It is just awesome how many meetings I am having to attend these days. Not a single day passes by when I have not attended atleast two of them. In my previous life, I always thought meetings were completely unproductive and useless. I have been proved wrong. The problem back then was that the meetings used to be run so badly and without any agenda.

Here though, we seem to manage to get a good amount of discussion going. Meetings happen along the line of the agenda and finish pretty much on time.

Attending meetings, although, would be low on the "get nerdy" factor.

Which brings me to the thought - What are some tell tale signs that someone is a nerd or is getting nerdy....hmmm....let me see if I can think of some..

Atom feed

Ok, atom feed is enabled for my site. Use the link on the side bar to get the feed.

If you do not know what I am talking about, google for "atom feed" and read the blogger.com help site.

Got my laptop...finally!!

I finally got my laptop yesterday. Its a cute-looking Toshiba. Now my big headache is of course to get Linux installed on this. Need to figure out how to re-partition the disk (I know Partition Magic will do it - that's not what I am thinking abt :-) ).

I may also succeed in getting RSS feed facility enabled for my blog. So then all of you can just subscribe to it and wouldn't have to visit my site everyday (not that I mind).

I think the kannada gaade effort is gaining decent traction. Chinmay sent me a few yesterday. Will put them up soon!

I am also on the verge of starting a technical blog related to my work here. Watch out guys!! Gyan on the way soon.

Chat with Girish

Girish and I had a long useful discussion today. Along with numerous other things, we also increased our motivation levels to do more for Kannada. He liked my Kannadagaade idea. He has promised to contribute to it. I am adding him as an author. Welcome Girish!

Girish also ended up creating his own new blog. We also discussed several plans to do our bit in preserving/promoting Kannada. Its a secret at this point in time :-) You will know over the months. All I can say is that we have ambitious plans and serious intentions.

True Friends

I have seen sevaral of my friends getting upset over someone not calling or inviting them for a certain ocassion. "He doesn't remember me in good times" is a common rambling I find amongst many people. I though think its far more important for a person to remember you when he/she is in trouble. I will be happy if I am the first person people think of calling when are in trouble or when they need help. It means that the person has the trust and belief in you that you will help him/her out. True measure of friendship is, I think, measured by how much you are remembered in troubled times.

And I am happy to announce that I am the troubleshooter for so many friends I know. Well...some people think of me as an errand boy probably :-) but then I always look at these things differently. So folks! keep those "help needed" calls coming.