FSUGTSR: A Window to Freedom

Its the time of the year when all that happens, is for good- Its December. And December fourth shall also be remembered by few of us for being the day of FSUGTSR renaissance.

FSUGTSR , i.e, Free Software User Group, Thrissur made its first(citation needed) contribution towards the common goal- A Free and Open Source Software Society, today with the one day event " A Window to Freedom". COSTFORD, CenSE, P G Center and I C Software were the sponsors of the event.The program was held at Sahitya Akademi Hall, Thrissur and was inaugurated by HOD of Computer Sciences and Engg. Dept., Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur, Prof. K.V ManojKumar. Mr. Jayan from COSTFORD, sponsor of the event, presided. K. Venu presented an in-detail description about Politics of free software. Krishnanunni, delivered the vote of thanks.

Audience was a mixed lot, people from different walks of life- students, office-goers, teachers and lot many more. Talks followed the Inaugural session. Hiran spoke on the philosophy behind Free and open Source Software. The session by Mahesh was all about the Gnu/Linux Operating systems. Hussain sir followed with a talk on Malayalam Computing.Aswin, my junior at college, took the session on Compiz fusion and desktop environments( check out his blog to view some interesting visual effects supported by Gnu/Linux). Suresh sir summed up before the break after providing an insight into Malayalam Input Methods.The post-lunch session was initiated by Alex Poovathingal and myself on Installation of Ubuntu 8.04 Ultimate edition.Jain introduced Commonly used GNU/Linux Tools, especially Firefox, GIMP, Stellarium and so on.
The tail was Unni's session on Troubleshooting.Day ended with an open discussion on future proceedings of FSUGTSR. Pramode Sir from I C Software, Renjith Sir from P G centre and others participated in it. The Crowd response was positive and supportive throughout the days' events.

The whole concept of "Free as in Freedom, not Free Beer" registered well in their minds as we were charging Rs.30 towards copies of Ubuntu 8.04, Debian Lenny and Fedora 10 :) . BOSS DVDs were being given free of cost.
Join our mailing list at discuss@lists.fsugtsr.org for being part of FSUGTSR and its future ventures.

The media coverage was excellent as evident from the 400+ crowd which had gathered. All leading news papers had reported prior to and after the event as well. Here's the link to The Hindu’s e-news bit on the event.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120550580200.htm

In toto, FSUGTSR has made an impression in the minds of public in Thrissur which needs to be kept up by the works that should(read as would) follow....

National Conference on Free Software and protest against Novell Microsoft tie-ups

The natinal conference on free software was venue for a turmoil today when renowned Free Software activist Anivar Aravind and few other activists were man handled out of the venue by the organisers and police.

Anivar being dragged by the Security personnel

The cause, as I came to know, were the posters made by Anivar and colleagues against the Novell-Microsoft deal, by which Novell pays for distributing copies of GPL-licensed software and Microsoft gives the customers of Novell a limited patent licence which is conditional of them not exercising many of the rights that GPL gives them.


View the following links for more pictures and enhanced details on MICROVELL ( Microsoft-Novell)
Visit following links for more information:

• http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com/
• http://boycottnovell.com/

Google Chrome Launched?! For Linux?

Google launched Google Chrome, the new face of Browsers, Today. Adhering to their policies of keeping the most powerful tools look the simplest( eg: Google.com). I downloaded it today evening. And yup, must say, its good!

Google Chrome has a new look with no menu bars on top. All the options condensed to two icons on the top right corner. Chrome has provisions for multiple tabs in the same window, similar to Opera or Mozilla Firefox, but the striking feature is the incognito window- a window that leaves no trace of cookies or history on your system of the sites that you visited. A hitch, however, that I found was that there is no facility for a master password in it. That is, I could see all the saved passwords on my personal computer without any trouble. I guess that was probably because I was logged in as Admin. Anyways its kinda creepy!

The simplicity of appearance and easiness to use is what I felt to be the most adoring aspect of Chrome. Ctrl+T opens new Tab and Ctrl+Shift+N opens the incognito window!

All in all, , Firefox and IE is in for a tough competition with the coming of Chrome,that comes from the workshops of Google, a trusted giant in the Industry!

Click here to download the Windows version here. Linux and Mac Os versions are still under construction! :)

Insignia '08, Hackerdom

...And thus began Insignia '08, Hackerdom.

Day: 28th of August, 2008
Time: 10.45 p.m
Location: Room No. C1, Govt. Engineering College Men's Hostel, Thrissur

Scene1:
The work on video editing progresses as the darker hours of night close in. Midhun, eyes swollen with lack of sleep, continues into what seems to be his eleventh straight hour in front of the system. Sailesh, assisting and intermittently performing the job of waking him up from brief accidental siesta, looked as alert and enthu-filled as ever. The job was getting on my nerves. It was our fourth day with the process of preparing a trailer video for Insignia 08, Hackerdom, yet it was where we had left it last evening. The mixing was taking helluva lot time, what with the format conversion of video files, cutting out clips for back ground music etc.

Scene2:
It was 1a.m. The video files and picture slides have been successfully blended in. BGM yet to be added. Midhun on the verge of calling it a day or calling it quit, two others(Sethu and Arun Rushdie) and me peacefully sleeping at one corner of the room, satisfied that our job of filming scenes for the video was completed in time. Krishnanunni, Convenor, Insignia 08, Hackerdom, walks in to view our progress. Anxiety was evident on his face, as he inquired the sleepy workers about the status.
Seeing that there needs to be another two or three hours of work needed on the video to get it completely done, manipulations happen ( :P) , an offer of Puttu and Kadala from Double-X the only hotel open at night in Thrissur. We ( the words Puttu and Kadala woke me up from the slumber instantaneously!) agreed and a half hour later, there it was, steaming hot Puttu and Kadala. Another two hours and lights off....

Scene3:
around 6.45 a.m, 29th.
I was the first one to rise( quite an unusual thing). Woke up the editors and mixers and blah blah and went about my chores. Two hours of sleep taking its toll, as they moved like zombies to begin where it had been halted.

Scene4:
10.45a.m, Seminar Hall, Govt. Engineering College
The Chief guest and other people presiding over the function- Curtain Raiser of Insignia 08, Hackerdom seated on the podium. The official welcome speech, followed by all the other speeches..


Scene5:
12a.m
Time to launch the theme music for the event, prepared by Jain. That was some music! A melodious mix of keyboard, saxo and drums, and many more that I couldn't comprehend.
Our video followed. Cheers from crowd....

Scene5 re-take:
Time to launch the theme music for the event prepared by Jain. Wait! what's happening? a sudden commotion in the rear end of the hall, and there drifts out a large mass of third years.
Reason: Results of Third semester exams announced. Memories drift back to last March-April, the time when we wrote it. Adam's Apple stuck half-way in my throat. The results couldn't have come at a better time than this. Tense faces all around. People scurrying around, searching for internet access. Dubious emotions settling around temples. Eyes glittering, water in them ready to pour out given the green signal...

I hate results!!

My Toolbar

I had been going through some of the blog add-ons available online that could be added to my site, when I stumbled on ourtoolbar.com. This site provides a platform to create your own toolbar for friends n readers who can get access to your favorite sites and keep track of changes to their inbox, and many other features. I created a toolbar for my blog.


Do download it and install for your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox browser. Post your opinion and recommendations for further features that I can add on to this.

Comment if you wish your blog/site URL to be added in the RSS feeds.

Buzzing off

Winamp @ fingertips

the circuit

Well, been seriously thinking of writing something geeky( or atleast semi-geeky :) ), and here I'm with something that's totally so un-geekish.

The following circuit is to control the Nullsoft Winamp media player using push switches connected via Serial-port. I had an estimated expense of 30-40 rupees in setting up the whole circuit and getting it to work.

The idea is to control the basic functionalities of Winamp via external control. I was searching for the same for amarok and landed up with a plug in that allows interaction with Winamp directly from serial port.

Bought the necessary components and the soldering session began. Its my first attempt at soldering and thus it ain't looking all that good. But then what's insulation tape for! Assembled the switches on an old CD box and let the cables long enough so that the box can be placed conveniently at any location near my table. Test run came out succesful!

The circuit is as follows. One terminal each, of the four switches is connected to port 4 of the serial port connector.. Rest is shown in the circuit diagram.

Then comes the time to configure the plug-in which is, in my opinion, quite an easy job.
This is how the plug-in window looks.

And, there I have my own private music buttons to control my favorite music player!!


comment!!

Its Back , Its here!!

The bells have rung. The clock strikes Twelve. Its time to battle!!

Calicut University yet again in action. This time its us, the Fourth Semester B.Tech students who have to battle against the University in the war where the only principle valid is " Survival of the Luckiest".

Third Semester University Exam notification has been released. It "ensures" that the exams may commence from 25th March. Thats just Eighteen days from now. No, I'm not frantic, just a bit agitated that the time given is so less.

18 days are to be spent for split attack on the heavy metal barrage of syllabus. Covert operations like "bits" or "exchange" is seemingly impossible in this battle field. Only way is to fight tooth for tooth , eye for an eye!

Now frankly, I've just got two eyes to give off and there are 6 exams, which ensures the fact of messing up the rest 4 papers, and probably the first two as well, guaranteed. :)

There is DSA( easy to type on a keyboard! ), i.e, Data Structures and Algorithms, STLD ( Switching Theory and Logic Design) and ECS( Electrical Circuits and Systems!). The most dreaded subjects of the Semester. These enemy fighters have been awarded the medals of " Largest Supply Provider", " Minimum Marks Mera Hai" and various other ones.



Our brave comrade Gabbar Singh, who fought against the universities of North India long time ago stated this quote in his movie Sholay " Jo dar gaya, samjho wo mar gaya". This is what my policy is going to be. Nopes, my knees won't buckle, my hands won't shiver and definitely I wont stink from sweat.

If not as mighty as the University, we aren't feeble either. The pre-war prep has begun. The trumpets have been blared, and the sirens are waking up every dozing brain in the vicinity. The hands that carried cigarette butts and "uppu soda" glasses during the entire semester, while idle chatting at Pallimoola, shall now bear the mighty pen and shed one's own blood into the waiting answer papers. Oops, getting way too carried away with the campaign.( Mental note: Play less of "Rome: total war". :) )

I had been to college today. Our hang out, Appachan's corner, was devoid of almost all the Second year guys, the regulars. As my feet took me towards Mech tree, the situation was no different. CCF(Centralized Computing Facility ) was in the clutches of First years and MCA people who were relishing the fact that we are about to face our doom. The sarcasm showed when they beamed at me.

Only people I met who belonged to the same rein were Sailesh, Tony and Merlin. Alas! what was happening to Tony! There he was, sitting with the DSA text by Ullman, concentration heavy on his eyeballs, as though burning the papers with this intensity. The three did not notice me as I walked towards them. It was Sailesh, taking a break( for a brief yawn) who saw me first. His face was devoid of the pleasing smile, and wore a sombre look. Teaching them both was Merlin, looking up at me over the rims of her glasses with dispassionate interest, probably perturbed by my interference.



Wars have psychological influences, they say. The aura was intimidating. My hands reached for the hereditary DSA textbook passed on to me from elder brother...

Guess I won't be here for a brief period from now.. Until we meet, pray that I survive the shelling and encounters with the University and return home, my bloggerworld, with all physical organs intact!!

A Giant Leap Year ahead!!

The day was 29th February year 2008. The only leap year in our b.tech life.
As decided before hand, almost all of us had worn black attire to mark this auspicious day.

(It is said that leap year is the time when its girls' turn to propose. At least I'm sure I wasn't proposed neither on this day nor on the valentines day that preceded it!!)

We were smoking our brains out deciding what to do to make the day memorable. There were suggestions of mass bunking(as usual!) for the entire day and going for a movie, having a gigantic snack-time at Wimbies and many more. As I could remember, It was our ex-rep Sailesh who came up with the idea of going all the way to Kaiparambu, where Vidya Engineering College is situated, to attend Perizia, the tech cum cultural fest organized by the computer Sciences and engineering department.

Despite some initial hesitation, we finally decided to give his plan a try. Soon a crowd, numbering between 20 and 30, stepped out from the ongoing Environmental Studies class( yes, we do have this!!).

As was obvious, the gathering of "blacks" caught everyones' attention en route. It so happened that, at Shakthan Thampuran Bus Stand, three people from our group strayed off to have some snacks. Not realizing their absence, the rest of us boarded a bus to our destination. The trio, upon their return were making frantic inquiries about us, when an elderly looking man asked them(obviously noticing the dress code)," Are you among the black cats who just left now??"



We reached Kaiparambu by 12 and waited for the three individuals to catch up. Getting to the college was no piece of cake as we walked the 2 km stretch leading there under the scorching sun. A cargo jeep soon came by and some of us could manage a lift in it till the college. The rest, however, continued tirelessly.

Events at the college were ion full swing as we reached. Hiran came to meet us upon informing. Some of our seniors were already present, participating in various technical and otherwise contests. The participation was free and so I gave my name for Quiz, Programming in C and Mobile Photography, along with others.

Quizzing was never this easy. I was in and out of the lab where the event was being held even before I realized. One or two correct answers and that was it!! The words " You are terminated Mister" beamed at me!!

Next in line was the Programming Contest Preliminaries. Almost all of us took part in it. Vinu, Raman and myself were lucky enough to get through into the finals along with our seniors and some other guys. The final was a nightmare and the question was waaaaaaaaay out of my logics!! Sat for about 3 quarters of an hour and finally wrote the following and came out:

#include
main()
{
printf(" good luck with the event! with love from GEC Devidas\n");
}

:)


It was for the first time that I was participating in a photography contest. This event was more thrilling than the rest, frankly. The task was to click few snaps and present any two that were related to the event "Perizia". Here I include the photos I submitted:





Meantime Rushdie and gang were busy preparing for the Ad-Zap event. While we were "busy" with the programming finals , rest of our company left the place to Neetha's home. We soon caught up with them for the photo session that followed. Neetha's identical twin sister, Neema was also present.

The day had , unknowingly become, memorable with all these unexpected turn of events. There were certainly some newbies among us who would other wise restrain themselves to the class. And surprisingly, there were more girls in the group than us!!


Not all are here!

Another page added to the diary of GEC memories, bookmarked to cherish!!

Opera mini

I downloaded opera mini 3.1 on mobile today upon being given the website to get the same by raman.And guess what!this post is being put up from my mobile browser.I'm planning to change my cellphone(currently using motorola c650) as its modem is often not detected by my pc.Browsing through opera is easy though it won't allow postings exceeding 1024 characters :(. For all the mobile users the website to download opera is wap.getjar.com.

Firefox and Funds

I finally downloaded FireFox 2.0 from Mozilla website on 19Th night.Frankly, it seems very much like the FireFox 1.5 that I was using earlier.I did find a new option in the History tab- "recently closed tabs".It lists, as the name says, all the webpages the user visited in that session.

Its practically unnecessary to include such a tab as we do have the list of all the visited tabs available right on top of this option.May be these inclusions are what they call "updates" :).


My classmates ,Raman and Rohit came home for a night stay.We watched some movies and when everyone of us started feeling sleepy, we switched over to the all time classic comic saga- "Friends".And there goes all the sleep.We watched it till 2 in the morning and then went to bed all the time discussing things in college and debating on topics like forming a class fund.I hope some of you readers have an idea as to what this means.And i request your opinion on how to implement this.
Started downloading Quicktime 7(19.2MB).My Gprs connection could do that in under an hour which is, as my experience says, a good time.:)

My Early Blog Posts

Check out the following link to view my first attempt as a blogger.I presume blogger.com had removed that blog of mine and just returned it back as soon as I started my new blog.:)

http://devidasblog.blogspot.com/