Mobile posting

Setting up mobile posting for the phone!

Custom Launchers in GNOME 3

Install 'alacarte', and then use!
Self explanatory.

Dual boot clock problems

Symptom:

You have a dual boot machine with Windows and Linux. The Linux OS thinks the BIOS time is UTC, whereas windows thinks it is local time. So depending on what your BIOS clock is set to, one of the OSes will show a wrong clock.

Solution:

1. Decide what you want your BIOS clock to be. There are arguments for both sides.
2. If you want you BIOS to be set to UTC, then:
1. Linux will be fine, because this is what is expects. 
2. For Windows add a registry entry as follows.
3. Create a file called time.reg with the following content
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation] "RealTimeIsUniversal"=dword:00000001
4. Then double click it - and accept the warnings that follow.
5. Done!
3. If you want the BIOS to be set to Local time, then
1. Leave Windows as it is
2. In Linux, add a line in the file /etc/default/rcS with the content UTC=no

Automounting Network partitions

If you have network drives that you would like to be auto-mounted on startup on your Linux box, then the obvious way to do this seems to be to put the appropriate line in /etc/fstab. (Note that for Windows shares, the appropriate packages have to be installed - samba and smbfs).

However, if the fstab is executed before the network comes up, you have a problem - the mount will fail. The workaround is to either

1. not do auto-mount, OR
2. delay the mount till the network is up OR
3. to use a program written specifically for this situation - Autofs. 

From J. N. Tata to Swami Vivekananda

Dear Swami Vivekanand,

I trust you remember me as a fellow-traveller in your voyage from Japan to Chicago [in 1893]. I very much recall at this moment your views on the growth of the ascetic spirit in India and the duty, not of destroying, but of diverting it into useful channels. I recall these ideas in connection with my scheme of a Research Institute for India, of which you have doubtless heard or read.

Compiling ngSPICE on Ubuntu 12.04

Wanting to install the latest version of ngSPICE on the new Ubuntu 12.04 box, i ran into a little trouble. The first is that ngSPICE is a very powerful interactive software, but the plain vanilla command line is really painful to use because it does not support backspace and arrow keys. The fix for this is to use the GNU readline library. Unfortunately, without the correct X packages installed, you will end up with a functioning installation of ngSPICE that cannot plot data, complaining that it "Cannot open viewport". The fix for this is to install the following packages:

Install autoconf and libtool  if you are running autogen.sh


Install bison, else configure will not run.

For GNU Readline support, install libreadline6, libreadline6-dev
For Plotting, install: libxaw7, libxaw7-dev, libx11-6, libx11-dev

Then run ./configure --with-readline

Then make and then [sudo] make install...

Backing Up with Rsync

There's always a moment of butterflies when your machine hangs, or doesn't  boot up, or shows some cryptic message and dies. In the few minutes following my last such catastrophe, I berated myself for not taking regular backups on an external drive. Then I started to look at trying to recover the data using a live CD. When I finally got the new OS going I decided the first thing to do was to set up a system to silently backup the system every once in a while, either to a USB hard drive or to a network drive. So I wrote a script to do this using rsync. The script is as follows, with explanations for each line...

Custom Bash Prompts

When working on some tasks the bash prompt can become irritating. Moreover, switching back and forth can get pretty irritating with the export commands. So here is a small script to do the job conveniently. Just download the package and read the README file for detailed information on installation and usage.

Divine Music Springs from the Soul

Divine Music Springs from the Soul

By Pandit Amarnath

The word riyaz has its origins in riyazi, which implies ibadat, bandagi, bhakti or devotion. If riyaz is performed with a spirit of devotion, the exercise becomes ibadat. But while riyaz is equated with practice or exercise, the all-important difference is one of spirit. Riyaz is to achieve that which has not been achieved so far. For that, the student has to struggle with faith.

In the initial one might be less than sure whether one is correct in what one is doing. But that is the struggle! In the absence of faith, one's riyaz will be filled with doubt. Faith is of great importance in riyaz. Practice with a doubt-riden mind will achieve little.
 

The first step in riyaz is to concentrate on the supremely soothing notes of the tanpura that connotes sruti. This is followed by kharaj sadhana or practice of Sa with a deep breath. Gradually, one moves to the exercises or scales suggested by the guru - sargam (each note named and sung), aakar, eekar and ookar (aa-wise, ee-wise, oo-wise). From here one moves to intricacies such as gamak, or swara applications producing the heavy effect. All this should be done with laya or tempo, in mind and, if possible, with tabla accompaniment.
 

Riyaz is an everyday activity, a daily prayer to the God of Music. When one arrives at the stage of raga and gayaki, one becomes aware of what is weak in one's music and attends to it. At times, a raga might not seem satisfactory, or the bandish may not lend itself to easy rendition in laya. At times, one's riyaz could focus on one aspect and neglect another. Nut a stage should arrive when one cam judge what should be practiced at a particular time.

The Guru, the beacon, provides direction. It is important to be able to feel a sense of improvement during practice. That means one's  riyaz and its method is basically correct. Or else, one should seek the help of the Guru, our music doctor!

I have often observed students 'performing' like strutting peacocks during riyaz. In his excitement, the student is prone not to listen to his Guru. Before his guru completes his sentence, the over-eager student interrupts with his own views, without giving his Guru a chance, Is this not a sign of restlessness or overambitiousness? Every second student exhibits such signs.

Another commonly experienced problem in the initial stage is that of feeling dull with one's music. Here one has to practice for mood. One should not sit down mechanically for riyaz. In such times, one should listen to good music to recharge oneself.

Mental Riyaz is extremely important. Music is deeply understood when one thinks about it and reflects about it. The music that then emerges is close to the soul. Once one immerses oneself in Sadhana for a very long time, one's swaras will begin to leave a deep impression.
 

One should always be regular in riyaz - whether vigorous or not. If one discontinues riyaz in old age, the muscles become dull, hard and inactive. The mood for riyaz should never go away. Even a wrinkled face can produce music of great emotion! In fact every action in one's music becomes more meaningful. The vigour of youth might be less in evidence, but to make up for its lack there is maturity and richness of texture. Whether a small or big phrase, each is charged with the power of the whole music, because the grammar of phrases and sentences is not its sole element anymore.
 

It is now all a matter of soul. One's music is now the true picture of one's soul.

(Excerpted from the book "Conversations with Pandit Amarnath" by Bindu Chawla ISBN:8185503079. This extract appeared in 'The Times of India' sometime in 1994, sometime before the book was published).

Opening external Links in Thunderbird (now Earlybird)

After deciding to switch to Mozilla Thunderbird (which, incidentally is called 'Earlybird') I ran into some rough weather. First off, the latest version, 10.0.2 is not available from the official Ubuntu repositories for Maverick (10.10). So I downloaded the source from the Mozilla FTP archive, which is a whopping 92MB. Fixing dependencies and compiling took extraordinarily long, or so it seemed.
Then began the trouble of migrating all my data from Evolution to Thunderbird.

Project Initialisation Script

I was finding it more and more difficult, not to mention irritating, to have to change working directories and open up the appropriate folders when working on oft repeated tasks on my Ubuntu machine. So I patched together a small script - complete with autocomplete...

A test post..

Starting mobile blogging from the j108i...