Harry's Blog

My Blog has moved

2006-02-27T13:51:00.000+05:30

I have my own blog now at http://nellitheertha.com/hariblog

And my own personal website is at http://hari.nellitheertha.com/

Storing bookmarks online

2006-01-31T11:03:00.000+05:30

I recently blogged about my requirements for an online bookmark repository. I am now feeling ashamed that I didnt figure out that it was a very obvious requirement and that there must already be many providers of this service. Today I discovered http://del.icio.us/

Seems to be impressive and gives me just what I wanted.

Bloglines

2006-01-25T20:49:00.000+05:30

I have been using bloglines regularly for a while now. Extremely handy tool to read news and blogs. I was thinking of sharing all the links I subscribe to (to my gang - Ananth, Sripathi, Chinmay, Girish et al) and found out that setting up a blog on bloglines (yes, I have one more now ;-) ) automatically puts out my blogroll.

So, guys, do give this a look and see if you find any of the links interesting. Would be eager to know about some of your favorite sites and blogs.

More Pics from Mauritius

2006-01-24T15:13:00.000+05:30

Trou De Aux Cerfs

The amazing power of blogging

2006-01-24T15:06:00.000+05:30

It is really amazing to see how powerful a tool Blogging has become. As part of my day-job, I am trying to learn some stuff related to virtualization and was amazed to see that there are numerous blogs dedicated solely for articles about Virtualization. While some of these offer you links to articles about Virtualization elsewhere on the web, many have exclusive articles by experts on the area.

This blogging is quite something macha!!

P.S: Read http://virtualization.info to get started.

Microsoft working with Apple on future of Virtual PC

2006-01-18T09:57:00.000+05:30

Microsoft working with Apple on future of Virtual PC

The power of community creation

2006-01-13T15:23:00.000+05:30

I decided to put Nellitheertha on Wikipedia today. Got an account created and, after a little struggle and studying, created a page. Had just put in some placeholder comments there. Within ten minutes, some one checked that page, went and read my website and edited that page to make it appear more professional and wiki-like. Of course, its still only 2-3 lines, but thats not the point. This whole community contribution thing is really powerful.

Watch out for more information on the Wiki in days to come.

Bookmarks

2006-01-09T14:15:00.000+05:30

Since I am having to work on multiple operating systems and multiple machines on a regular basis, I face this problem on trying to keep my bookmarks in-sync. I just wonder if there is any tool that I could use to maintain my bookmarks over the internet and that I could download on to the browser everytime I log on. Something like that (along the lines of, say, bloglines) would be very useful. Irrespective of which machine I am using, I could just log on to my "bookmark account" on the net and get my latest bookmark list.

Does anyone know of any similar stuff that already exists?

Blogging From Firefox

2006-01-05T16:24:00.000+05:30

Now I can blog from Firefox. Have you guys tried the latest "Performancing" extension for Firefox. Its really cool! Lets you blog to your favorite account from firefox itself. And you can also blog any web-page straight into your blog page.

Mauritius is really picturesque

2005-12-27T18:22:00.000+05:30

I will try and publish some photos from my trip the next few days. Here is one of them. This is from the beach of Hotel Bougainville.

Shiv Temple in Mauritius

2005-12-26T20:13:00.000+05:30

On our recent visit to Mauritius, Sam and I visited the Shiv Temple at Ganga Talao. Very beautiful temple. Its right in the middle of a national wildlife sanctuary. Apparently all the hindus in Mauritius (upwards of 50% of the population) walk up to the temple during Shiv Raathri and worship Lord Shiva. The hindus here are deeply religious.

The pandit at the temple asked us if we were from India (Bharat, as they call it - in fact, more people call India as Bharat there than over here) and then let us perform abhishek to Lord Shiva. It was a very spiritual experience!!

Marriage Pics

2005-12-26T10:13:00.000+05:30

Blog or Wiki

2005-12-06T12:52:00.000+05:30

I recently tried out creating a wiki page. Seems pretty cool and easy to use. I basically wanted my notes to survive my constant shuffle with Windows and Linux and so wanted something on the net. Wikispaces suited my requirement just fine (I am keeping my page private - so no links here ;-) ).

I have enabled access to no one else. Sometimes I wonder if its more convenient than blogger.com because I dont need to make new "posts" with new subject lines and publishing and all those fundas. Just edit and save. Hmmm...it will be interesting to compare the two technologies.

Xen 3.0 is finally out. My work involves using and developing Xen and so me looking forward to trying out the new release. Pretty cool work those guys do!!!

Infrastructure

2005-10-26T15:56:00.000+05:30

Looks like nature agrees with the average Bangalorean!! Infrastructure in India's IT capital is bad. Period.

None of the cries of the citizens was falling on the ears of the "soil people". Mother nature has proved it beyond doubt that Bangalore is crumbling. No, the problems of the past few days are not because of heavy rains. Make no mistake, its all because of bad/non-existent roads, badly planned localities, closing of lakes and poor quality of construction. The overall rain per day has been about 1/10th of what it was in Mumbai on July 26th. So.. sorry... "it all happened because of heavy rains" is not a valid excuse.

Which brings me to another topic...I have been commuting on Hosur Road for the past few months...and come to realize that a few very simple things can make traffic on that road much more manageable.

- There is never a jam as such on Hosur Road. Its almost always slow moving traffic. In such situations, discipline becomes paramount. The police need to figure out a way to stop motorists from criss-crossing.

- If you want to ask me the one big reason for traffic woes on Hosur Road, its because of the vehicles that take the service road and then try to rejoin the main road. Ban such diversions, punish the offenders, device ways to ensure only the genuine users of the service roads get on to it.

- Put up some bridges for people to cross roads...and ensure that they cross it only at those designaged junctions. You are forced to brake atleast 10 times each way because of some idiot wanting to cross the road and not bothered about the fact that he may lose his life.

- Forget the idea of an elevated road or whatever. It seems they are planning it with a toll booth in mind. Imagine guys, the jams will be at the toll booth instead of the road. Spend 90 minutes in a queue approaching the toll booth and then reach Ecity in 10 minutes!!

- Just build underpasses or road over bridges at the three bottlenecks between Silk Board and E-City. It will work...believe me!!

- Please put educated folks to manage traffic at the junctions. They never seem to get the point that if the traffic on the main road is about 10 times more than that on the cross-roads, the traffic on the main road needs to be allowed about 10 times longer than the cross-roads. The pile ups are almost always because of the empty space between the ears of the people managing traffic!

Any more suggestions??

Its pouring in Bangalore

2005-10-24T14:34:00.000+05:30

The past couple of days has been horrible for Bangalore. Apparently, we are breaking all kinds of records when it comes to the amount of rain we've received this year. October has been particularly harsh. Wipro office on Hosur Road has several feet of water and the Silk Board flyover is completely flooded.

I could not make it to office till noon. Luckily, I obtained a RSA SecureID card last week and am now able to connect to office from home. So, was working from home in the morning. Which reminds me...the 'work from home' policy/facilities/resources over here are vastly superior in quality from what it was in a certain three lettered company that I worked for in my previous life ;-) especially the policy...there is a certain criteria for being eligible for such facilities...and once you are eligible...your manager (or the other evils) have no control over it.

Anyway, coming back to the rains...me managed to drive through 2 ft of water near the Silk Board flyover. But they have now closed the E-city to Silk Board road. So I need to take the Anekal-Bannerghatta road to get back home. Getting ready for a long long drive back.

I read a strange item today in one of the newspapers. There was a writeup about what famous personalities do when they are stuck up in traffic. One of them apparently keeps gulping litres of water when he is in the car. Absolutely amazing!! One of my big worries while driving is how to keep my bla*&** under control till I reach home ;-))) Hez got a setup in his car or what :-)

Linux Desktop

2005-10-14T08:58:00.000+05:30

Sripathi talks about some interesting reasons why Linux Desktop is getting closer in performance (or the lack of it) to Windows :-) LWN today has pointed out two projects which are trying to do something on this front. It does seem like we will have a good desktop a couple of years from now.

Read these - BetterDesktop and Tango Desktop Project.

Conferences

2005-10-12T14:33:00.000+05:30

November to January looks like will be a very hectic phase for me at work. Working on a paper for the CCGrid conference to be submitted by November 15. Then there is this new idea I am working on which we are targetting for a paper submission by January.

Of course there is also the Linux Bangalore 2005 conference in the first week of December. We may have talk or two on Grid Computing and Virtualization.

I recently read about an IBMer having to resign from his job because of his comments about IIPM on his blogsite. IIPM has sent him a legal notice and apparently threatened IBM that they would stop using Thinkpads if the employee did not take his comments back. What a sick thing to do!

Read more here.

Increase in latency

2005-09-12T16:56:00.000+05:30

My life is very hectic now….and I am fully enjoying it..

Blogging has taken a backseat for the moment….not sure how often and on what topics I am gonna update….but do keep coming back…I may have some interesting episodes to narrate…

Murphy's laws

2005-09-02T21:40:00.000+05:30

Murphy's laws have struck me in my office work. Whatever can go wrong has gone wrong ;-) Had a horribly heavy work week. Had to slog all five days. But its leading me to a great great weekend, so its all fine.

I think I am bullshitting quite a bit nowadays on my blog, but the good news is - I have begun to recognize my own shit ;-)

Heavy Duty Work at Office

2005-08-31T17:26:00.000+05:30

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?

2005-08-22T16:02:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-19T16:01:00.000+05:30

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

Resizing my NTFS partition

2005-08-19T13:17:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-14T19:53:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-12T16:04:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-05T17:36:00.000+05:30

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!!

2005-08-05T17:06:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-04T16:34:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-02T08:22:00.000+05:30

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.

Amazing apathy

2005-07-28T12:57:00.000+05:30

The road users of Bangalore show an amazing contempt for the traffic rules of the city. It is well known that pedestrians care a damn about following traffic rules while crossing roads (or for that matter walking on the footpath), it is horrible to see motorists blatantly violate traffic rules.

And the *most* blatant forms of these violations happen early in the morning. Till a cop reaches the spot and _forces_ people to follow the signals, the signals are an electronic display which people look at, admire and move on. And if you happen to be one of those who dares to stick to the rules, you are scorned upon, abuses are heaped on you, not to mention that ridiculing look from almost all other drivers.

Any signal would qualify here but if you want to have special fun, visit the Family Mart junction on Kanakapura Road or the Deve Gowda petrol bunk near Padmanabhanagar before 8am.

Trying out the blog-by-email thing.

2005-07-21T09:17:00.000+05:30

This may turn out to be more convenient for me.
-----

I recently got to witness first hand the tricks that the police play
to extract money from the public. Dad, Mom and Puttu had applied for
new passports and it had come to the police station for verification.
The inspector (or whoever it was) had kept away Dad's application
inside the cup-board and kept saying he will finish it later. Though
he prepared documentation for all three, we could see only 2
applications. Apparently, he needed to dig out the third application
and that was "extra work" for him. Hence they need some "fees".

I must also add that the atmosphere inside the station is just too
suffocating! Hardly a place where you would feel like you'll get
justice.

My attempt at "micro" mode photography

2005-07-19T16:31:00.000+05:30

Shot this at my home at Nellitheertha.

Linus' comments

2005-07-15T09:26:00.000+05:30

There is a huge discussion going on making the timer interrupt frequency selectable from the default 1000Hz now. Yesterday, Linus got involved in the same. The result - some amazing comments on lkml :-) I am posting below some of his non-technical comments. Enjoy maadi!!

======================================================

- I have to say, this whole thread has been pretty damn worthless in general in my not-so-humble opinion.

- But if somebody is doing this because they think "jiffies" are evil, then that somebody is being a total idiot. Jiffies aren't evil.

- The stupid way is simpler, but anybody who doesn't see what the problem is has some serious problems in kernel programming.

- Jiffies are here to stay, and they are here to stay for some very very fundamental reasons. If you hear somebody arguing for removing jiffies, you should piss in their general direction, and realize that they don't know what they are talking about.

- And I claim that you _cannot_ do better.

- Dammit, I want a real user who says that he can noticeable see his DVD stuttering, not some theory. I'm incredibly fed up with the theoretical whining.

- Really. I dare you guys. First one to send me a tested patch gets a gold star.

- I'm -right-. I'm always right. This time I'm just even more right than usual.

Temple under renovation

2005-07-14T13:21:00.000+05:30

They are rebuilding this ruined temple from scratch at Talakad. They are going to use the same material for the rebuilding process. The renovation is expected to take 4 more years.

Preserving/Promoting a language

2005-07-14T13:04:00.000+05:30

I asked Ananth to join me in growing kannadagaade. He has readily agreed. I think its worth jotting down my thoughts on this whole issue of linguistic patriotism.

I attended Bhoomi Jaatre a few months ago and ended up giving my email ID to some campaign there. A few weeks later, I got added to one of those Kannada yahoo groups. It took me only 3 days to realize that this was one of those similar groups. Bashing other languages is their primary goal. Comparing how other languages are inferior when compared with ours (in terms of history, script, etc etc) was what was happening.

People even came up with amazingly stupid ideas about promoting Kannada. There was a call for people to buy only local "English" newspapers and boycott Times, IE, etc. Come on folks!! Grow up!! We can't grow kannada by condemning other languages. And are we inferior in any way to be suppressing other languages to promote our own? Are we scared ??

Lets do some serious constructive work to promote Kannada. The internet is a wonderful piece of technology. Lets make full use of it.

These thoughts are what led me to create Kannadagaade. Hopefully, we will be able to build a huge collection of Gaades with their interpretations and meaning. These golden sayings are the true heritage of the Kannada language.

Amazing Carving

2005-07-13T13:49:00.000+05:30

Check out this photo. The bangles have been carved out of a single stone. I saw it sway when it was windy. Shot at Talakad near Bangalore.

One more trip to Nellitheertha

2005-07-11T13:08:00.000+05:30

I had been to Nellitheertha during the weekend. Driving a qualis was a great experience, especially in the ghats. Some amazing work has happened at the nelli temple. The ceremonies over the two days were awesome. I shall soon put up my photos at my fotopic site.

I am too tired today to write more....

I am now a Rotaractor

2005-07-08T16:43:00.000+05:30

I joined the Bangalore West Rotaract group yesterday. I was "inducted" into the team at a formal event yesterday. I was surprised at the formality of the whole ocassion but learnt that's how it has been for many decades now. Suresh Hebliker was the chief guest. He spoke very passionately about the water problems facing the world. I realized that there are simply too many problems in this world.

As a side benefit, I got to eat Idlis and Vadas from Veena stores at Malleshwaram. Awesome taste!!! Comes very close in competition to "Brahmin's tiffin room" at Chamarajpet.

Me created a website

2005-07-05T14:29:00.000+05:30

At http://www.nellitheertha.com/

Although it was quite an effort to get the webpages ready, its brought me great satisfaction. Its been my wish since many years to bring out a website about my village temple. I believe a wonderful place like the Nellitheertha temple needs more visitors. The website is my way of popularising the place. More visitors to the place will automatically mean more revenues, more improvements making it a better place.

Starting today, an 8-day Brahmakalashotsava festival is happening at the temple. Would have loved to be there but can't get leave at my new office. Most of the folks from home will be there during the weekend.

There is news that a nearby place called Kompadavu will be taken away by the MRPL guys as part of their expansion plans. Its really sad that these folks don't bother a bit about the environment before taking such steps. Also the culture and history associated with the place means nothing to them. By sheer luck, Nellitheertha has avoided coming under their radar. I hope that never happens.

Everyone writes the same stuff about Grid

2005-07-04T16:39:00.000+05:30

One thing I have realized after having started my massive reading exercise on Grid Computing - everyone writes the same stuff. Its still a vastly unexplored area.

Nearly 35 members of our family went on a picnic yesterday. Shivanasamudram - Talakad - Kollegal. The excitement on everyone's face when we reached Kollegal was seen to be believed. Most of them got nostalgic. "Bhatta's" friends arranged a party for us :-)

I think you will see a massive degrade in my blogs for the next few days.

Last week at IBM

2005-06-07T14:30:00.000+05:30

Me finished burning my photos onto CDs over the weekend.

Sripathi read my blogs and confirmed that they make no sense......my caption itself proclaims that...

Kdump is making very good progress and me is very happy seeing it....I have done a bit of the x86_64 port. Not sure how much I will be able to complete by Friday.

Sripathi, PP, Seema, Chins and I went out for dinner yesterday. Little Italy is a nice little place. All of us really liked the pizzas they served. Its a bit on the expensive side though...

Me going to Sonda this weekend. Kind of liked the place the last time I visited it....

Nelli family is planning a trip to Kollegal some time first week of July. We may also visit Shivanasamudram then....

Around the 20th I will be at Nellitheertha attending a marriage and praying at the temple.

It rains again in Bangalore!!

2005-06-01T10:29:00.000+05:30

Unbelievable rains yesterday in Bangalore. 52.9mm !!!! Me had gone to EGL to pickup a jackfruit which Umesh had got for us. Got caught in Koramangala after that. Nearly 2 feet of water near Hosur Road. Luckily I remembered what Umesh had told me about not stopping the City in water else the exhaust pipe gets flooded immediately. Went 200 metres in 1st gear. Took about 100 minutes to reach home!!

Have told Sripathi about my blog-site. First publicity for the site :-))

Subramanian does WS management, Resource mgmt etc etc after PGSM. Seems to be enjoying it. Not sure if its my cup of tea.

The car loan cheque is finally deposited now. Need to obtain the NOCs and other clearances from finance and admin.

Have written to VSNL to disconnect my broadband connection. I think I will go for Reliance R Connect Data Card.

PP has come back after his stomach ailments yesterday. Looks tired.

Need to get Annie's car serviced on Saturday. That reminds me....book the slot Harry!!!!

Mad Monday!!

2005-05-30T12:04:00.000+05:30

Start of the week couldn't have been worse!! Me needed to drop Puttu at the bus-stop today as Guru wanted to leave early. The bus turned up only at 9. Left for the bank at 9:15 to post the cheque I got from the bank only to realize that the bank is closed on Mondays!! Had to postpone my SA plan for morrow. The drive to office was horrible. Traffic jams all over. On top of that, some idiots are in charge of traffic today. Me waited nearly 30 mins if front of office to take the U-turn. Finally made it to office only to be told by security that all the slots for longer cars have been taken. Me lost it and started shouting at them. Got back a "We can't think" smile in return. Idiots...

Someone banged my City in front of Leela Palace. Luckily, the dent "came back" so to say. Not much damage....

The car guy at office now wants me to drop the cheque in a drop box instead of handing it over to him. Keeps changing the procedure. So, me will visit the bank early morning morrow and then drop the cheque later noon.....Checked with Chins on the CD-RW drive. Am getting it during the weekend to backup my archives, docs and photos..Yahoo!!!

Weekend was pretty relaxing. Attended NVGK's birthday party yesterday. Entire family turned up and was good fun.

Only 9 more days in IBM :-(

When I finally started cleaning my drawer

2005-05-27T10:16:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, me did a lot of cleaning of my drawer. Found tons of documents to shred. And a couple of spectacles which I promptly carried home. Found one of my old remix-collection CDs as well. More cleaning to be done today.

Wrote to Leena and Neetu about my move. Both were surprised (and happy).

Became member of a yahoogroup called Hasire Usiru. The group works on environment related issues in Bangalore city and around. I can contribute some time and effort during my weekends.

I am planning a nelli family outing one of these weekends. Need to check with all on their availability. When it happens, it will be the first time ever. BTW, Nirmala (or nirmala-ben, as dad calls her) got added to the nelli group today.

Got a marriage lunch to attend today and another reception dinner in the evening. Guess every other person in Bangalore is getting married these days. Attended a reception yesterday as well. Phew....

Some time second week of June, me planning a two day trip to Nellitheertha. Just to survey whats happening in the temple and of course to pray as well. Maybe I will visit a couple of other places as well. BTW, naxal activity has increased in Udupi-Kundapur. Read about it in the papers today. Not sure where this is all heading. But it can't be good at all. Such beautiful places...turning out to be hotspots now.

More winding up stuff

2005-05-25T13:41:00.000+05:30

The company says they wont give any doc till the dues are settled. The bank wants the docs to make the payment. Had to shout at the bank folks to get them to agree to pay. Seems like my loan amount will arrive day after.

Saw more photos from the trip today. They've come out good. We are planning to create a common album and burn them on CDs for all. That should be quite a collection!!

I'll probably visit my village during the 13 day break thats coming up once my last day here is over. Time for another photo-shoot then :-) I haven't been regular with "Jugari Cross" - the Kannada novel that Sripathi gave me a while back. Its been interesting so far. Need to complete it fast now what with my last day in this co approaching fast. PP and Sripathi, it looks like, are planning a grand send-off for me :-) Looking forward to it.

My Car woes

2005-05-24T15:36:00.000+05:30

Me needs to buy out the car from the company before leaving. Else won't get the clearances. What a big pain this is turning out to be. The bank giving me the loan wants a NOC and the original RC book to sanction the loan and the company won't give them to me before I settle the amount. Chicken and egg issues....

The muthodi-belur-hebbe falls trip was awesome. Thanks to Chinmay for letting me into their team. Three days in the wild was just too good. Just the refesher I needed. Have put up some photos at http://harinell.fotopic.net/

It seems OSDL has laid off some good kernel programmers. This is surprising after all the bull-shitting they do about being the torch bearers of kernel development.

Muthodi Trip

2005-05-23T11:14:00.000+05:30

After a long long time, me went on a trip. Visited Muthodi, Belur and Kemmangundi over the (long) weekend. Awesome awesome places. I have some nice pics captured. Will put them up pretty soon at my fotopic site. The team was real good and we had lots of fun. Sitting right under the falls at Hebbe was just an unbelievable experience.

Reached well past midnight yesterday. Me in office today but feeling really really sleepy. May leave early today.

Meanwhile my refinance for the car loan got approved. Me taking an external loan and buying out the car (My Honda City) from the company. Need to finish the paper work today.

Lots of clean-up work also left, both at home and office.

- H

Leaving IBM

2005-05-19T10:47:00.000+05:30

I am leaving IBM. June 10 is my last day. Feels odd that I will no longer be a part of this organization. Six years is a long association. Hopefully I will come back some day and head this division :-)

Me just winding up here. Obtaining clearances...packing things up.....updating contacts and stuff like that. Need to back-up some of my imp data. Gmail is very handy these days :-) Me storing all my stuff there.

Me heading out to a trek tomorrow. Muthodi - Kemmangundi. Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary should be an interesting place. I will have some photos to show once I am back. Hopefully we'll spot a tiger.

Going forward

2005-02-17T18:46:00.000+05:30

Spent quite some time today trying to plan my way forward. Will continue this exercise for the next couple of weeks atleast. Customers...project delivery....people management.....

Back again

2005-02-16T16:31:00.000+05:30

Well....I never really seem to get going with my posts :-) A lot has happened over the past few months....PGSM got over. Things at office are a bit hazy now...not sure whats happening....guess everyone goes through these phases.....

Need to finish my final project though....wont get the certificate till that happens. Need to understand the exact role of an EA...methinks its a full time job.

If you cant understand my posts, dont bother...

5 October 2004

2004-10-05T13:39:00.000+05:30

PGSM is one bloody hectic course ;-) Mez having to prepare every day this quarter. SSDGM, though, is turning out to be a real good course. Also enjoyed EVC this week. Prof got in a young entrepreneur who spoke about the new business hez started. The bloke has invested 2 crores on his dream. Some guts...hez got!!

Office is pretty normal this week. Lot of discussion happening on the sports meet at the office and about the day-out being planned.

Booked tickets to Delhi for Nitin's wedding. Dada is suggesting we convert the trip into an Uttaranchal trekking expedition. Sounds a great idea. Am seriously thinking about it.

28th September 2004

2004-09-28T11:14:00.000+05:30

Ok, I'm back again....weekend was hectic. 4 subjects is a bit too much...but then, only 4 left....so ......

The spirituality course is turning out to be really interesting. Has got me thinking real hard. Have to admit its put forth some real provocative questions. There's also this entrepreneurship course I am doing. Need to come up with a business plan for a new company I am supposed to start ;-) Well....finally I am on my way to becoming a millionaire ;-)

The crash dump patches have got into -mm now. Greg KH had a nice comment about it in his blog. It was in reply to Sun Engineer's comment about why they will not get into Linux bigtime....

My exercise regimen is completely broken. Need to start something seriously. The mouth ulcers seem to be never ending.

-H

Long time inda poste illa

2004-09-20T19:21:00.000+05:30

Mez back from Linux Kongress. Went really well. Sent out the latest patches last week. Therez been a couple of reviews....working on next set of changes.

Arun's CET counselling happened today. NIE - IP. The folks at CET have become really efficient. Couldnt believe that the whole thing got over in 3 hours!!!

My last quarter in PGSM is well underway now. SSDGM seems a very interesting subject. We are gonna have classes on Islam, Christianity, Vedanta and Upanishads.

Have started daily project discussions with Kurien on EVC. We have a couple of interesting ideas now.

Exams are over!!

2004-08-30T13:23:00.000+05:30

Took two days off for the PGSM Q9 exams. Both MRP-2 and RM exams went really really cool!. Hopefully, I will get decent grades this time around ;-)

Have a deadline tomorrow. G14-classified ;-) Also, a couple of meetings and presentations lined up this week. Need to start working on the Kongress presentation by tomorrow.

Tickets and Hotel rooms have been confirmed for the Erlangen visit. Experience with travel and finance has been much better this time around.

24th August

2004-08-24T11:52:00.000+05:30

Submitted the Kongress paper on Sunday. Had some problems with the travel processing but sorted out all issues. Need to start preparing the presentation pretty soon.

Taking this Thurs and Fri off to study for my PGSM exams this weekend. Retailing Management and MRP II exams coming up on Saturday. Folks wanted to change the exam dates!! Just had a fight with them!!

My grand plans of starting a fitness regimen is *still* in the planning stage. Maybe next month......

Things looking up finally

2004-08-20T12:20:00.000+05:30

FInished the Kongress paper. Finished the RM assignment ;-)) Made some real progress this week. Sent out my kexec based dump patches to lkml. Received some comments. Yet to post updated patches.

Not keeping all that well. Need a break!! Planning to take a week off after Linux Kongress. Right now though, PGSM exams are coming up and need to focus on that.

Another Hectic Sunday

2004-08-15T15:40:00.000+05:30

Finished my RM assignment today. Yet to start off on the Kongress paper. Anand SS wants to finish the RM ppt early part of the week. Will do that morrow. It will be his last prez in PGSM. Hez finishing all his courses. He wrote a nice note to me saying his first and last prez in PGSM will be with me.

I am yet to freeze on my course list for the next quarter. Mostly it will look like - Spirituality, Political Economy, Corporate Governance and EVC.

There's the Hungarian GP to watch later in the evening ;-)

My first post

2004-08-14T10:42:00.000+05:30

Ok, Here I go....

The kexec based dump patches are almost ready for lkml-posting. Should happen this coming week. There's also the Linux-Kongress paper to finish.

PGSM is taking quite a bit of my time. Got a retailing management assignment to finish by 'morrow and then an assignment in IBAS. Got to choose the courses for the 10th quarter today, BTW.

The office team day-out is being planned for either the 3rd or 4th week of September. Should be Taj-Kuteeram.

-H