life of a gradus desicus

Increasing the scrollback buffer in tty console

2009-01-30T20:08:00.003-05:00

Tty consoles (that's what you boot into when you start Linux without X) in the 2.6 kernels allow only about 15 screens of scroll back. At 80 lines per screen, that works out to a meager 1200 lines.

Now 1200 lines may not be meager - in the normal course of things, you may not need to scroll back more than 1200 lines. But there are some times when this becomes essential - kernel compile, debugging the boot process, looking at dmesg outputs - to name a few.

If you are using an X manager (Gnome for instance), you can change the scroll back buffer size of the Terminal easily (Edit->Profiles->Scrolling). But what if you are booting without X - or if your system does not have X. Such situations arise when you are working with VM's or in a full system simulator.

I found out that it is possible to re-allocate the memory for the console from the System RAM instead of VGA RAM. This can be set up by setting the VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK kernel config item to Y. Once this is set up, calculate the amount of memory needed (rule of thumb is 64KB for 16 screens of 80 lines each) and set this in VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK_SIZE. recompile the kernel - and you are done.

Another option, which has added advantages, is using GNU screen. I have not checked it out - but I am sure that the scrollback buffer size will be configurable. But if increasing the scroll back buffer size is all you want - then screen may not be needed. Plus it is not as much fun as kernel compile - now is it :)

(I got this from http://www.linuxinsight.com/soft_scrollback_for_the_linux_vga_console.html. That link was pointed out by Ron Johnson Jr from the Debian Mailing List.)

"Virtual" KVM switch

2008-04-11T14:30:00.005-05:00

Synergy is a cool piece of software which acts a KM (Keyboard and Mouse) switch between multiple computers each having their own monitors. It creates something similar to an "extended desktop" - the difference being that the different monitors constituting the extended desktop are attached to different computers.

It works on a client-server model - the server running on one of the computers and the clients on all other computers. It uses TCP/IP (port 24800) for communicating mouse/KB events. Works on Windows, Debian, Linux and OSX.

The website is http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

It will probably be convenient to have synergy start automatically when your machine boots up. Detailed instructions for this can be found at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=48196 (the instructions are not specific to ubuntu - rather they use gdm scripts - so it works on any Linux machine running gdm)

Migrating to the "new blogger"

2007-03-19T10:21:00.000-05:00

UI have had some problem swith blogger before. I did not do anything about it because - well I am lazy, I did not think eople will read it, and ... I am lazy (oh yeah I mentioned that before).

But now I have migrated my site to the new blogger. After google bought it, I think it is trying to get people to move it to a "associated with google account" format. Now that I have done it, hopefully it become a wee bit more reliable.

The ultimate election campaign promise

2006-04-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

Elections are approaching in Tamil Nadu, India. It has been the time honored custom to campaign by making promises of what the candidate would do if elected. These, historically seldom fulfilled, range from free rice to everyone to color television sets and free cable TV.

Not only actors, everyone who contests, seems to get into a theatrical frame of mind - talking about absurd and unfeasible things. But Durai Ramachandran, comedian of little renown and editor of film magazine Roja has decided to stick to his particular brand of theater - comedy. He has promised free cell phones with free connectivity, laptops for computer literates and - get this - ONE LAMB PER HOUSEHOLD.

No - not a lamp, but a LAMB. A lamb, like in a bleating, stinking, eating-anything- not-protected-in-a-concrete-bunker young offspring of a sheep. The plan is that when the lamb grows up and starts reproducing, the litter should be returned to Ramachandran - not for biriyani, but for further distribution to poor people - for biriyani for them I guess.

I have to appreciate the efforts of Mr. Ramachandran - a breath of fresh air in the mundane election race. Read more about this in The Hindu.

49-O

2006-04-17T10:01:00.000-05:00

It came to my attention recently that there is a provision for registering the voter’s unwillingness to vote for any of the candidates by the 1961 Amendment to the Conduct of Elections.

49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.—If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form 17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Whether this will be of any use is a question.

My website

2006-04-13T15:01:00.001-05:00

So...
I know it has been a long time since I blogged - almost 50 days. I was a bit busy trying to get one of my papers published. I was also writing up another paper - though that’s another story in itself.

Recently I decided to make my webpage. I have wanted to do this for a long time - maybe for the past 4 years. I have never gotten around to doing it because of the ultimate victory of a physical phenomenon called inertia. I realized that I would not make a webpage unless
a) I had a very important reason compelling me to do it
b) I had lots of spare time
c) My feeling of disgust at my sheer lassitude had increased beyond the critical point

All three happened recently and the result is the webpage of Girish Venkatasubramanian. Starting out, I had such lofty ideas about how the webpage would be a masterpiece - the last word in digital art and content rich information portals - a cross between William and Vincent.

If you have been reading my blogs regularly (and if you have not been - remember - you have seven days to read them all - or you will be turned to pillars of salt), you know that this cross of W and V exists only in my head. Came out with a crappy webpage after a couple of hours. Stuck at the top - the universal excuse - "Under Construction".

Have been spending the last couple of days modifying this and trying to make it better. Only recently did it dawn on me - It Does Not Matter. Nobody will look at it - it is purely an exercise in the shiatsu of the Latin "self". You can forward it to every contact in your address book - nobody will give a damn. Once I realized this I have settled back to my usual level of torpor.

The next thing on the list is getting Google to pick it up - so that it passes the "Google Test". Yeah! Yeah! - The website is only for me - I don’t care if Google doesn’t pick it up - this is just like standardized tests doesn’t mean a thing - I have tried all forms of sour grapes. So I have tried asking all my friends to put up links. I also have another webspace - albeit only 25 MB - on which, till now, I had a txt index.html saying "This is the webpage of Girish Venkatasubramanian - under construction". So I also had a JavaScript redirecting from there to the new site. Surprisingly and frustratingly the simple page with the JavaScript is being picked up while the actual webpage is not being listed. AAGGH!

Anyway, I thought I should have some catharsis before I developed an OCD about this.

Double D Tapes

2006-02-17T10:08:00.000-05:00

This is about double sided tapes. Useful little things these. Stick one side, peel of the tape of the second side and stick it to the wall. They say when something is good it either is sinful, wasteful, illegal or atleast fattening. Maybe these tapes are one exception.

But like Fulghum writes, these can be dangerous like "...matches in the hands of a five year old...". My department was putting up some reading light in every cubicle - someone came up with the idea of fixing them to the filing cabinet using double sided tapes. I asked the guy who was putting the lights up whether this would hold - he said that he had tugged and pulled and stress tested one experimental anchorage. It looked neat and no mess fixing them up.

The next morning I come back to my cubicle and find the damn light across my keyboard - yeah - the tape had given out. Damn near broke my monitor.

If double sided tape was not used I wouldn't have trusted the setup and moved my monitor to a safe distance. That's why it is doubly dangerous. But you know what would be good - if they find some way to use the Big D - yeah - duct tape. Apparently D tape was used on some US satellite to anchor some air filter - and made it all the way up and down.

Interesting videos

2006-02-11T19:06:00.000-05:00

Some nice videos - off google and other places.
1) Utopia for the worker
2) You know they say that the heat generated by processors is steadily increasing. Nothing like this to drive it home. Effect of Moore's Law
3) What old people do for fun.

Yenjay!!

Math Tutorial

2006-02-11T17:37:00.000-05:00

A professor I know used to tell me about how one of his students submitted every assignment with the inscription "From the laboured desk of X". Well I guess I understand what the student was talking about.
No I am not doing lots of work, just a little more than what I normally do. The reason I feel the way I feel is because I am here, working on a Saturday. Not that it is so bad in itself. But coupled with the fact that I am trying to integrate a huge multipart function which is not, as my professor says, "cleanly integrable" - well. And math, especially calculus is not one of my strong suits. Neither is Matrices, come to think of it, and without these two, I have no business doing anything in engineering. Ok lets not talk about such cold hard facts, let us switch to something warm and fuzzy - like comfort food.
I spent the better part of an hour searching for some site to help me with integration. I found a good PDF guide to some complex integrals. I also found this beautiful tutorial by some blessed instructor -Paul Dawkins - wonderful stuff. I am providing the link here. Yenjay!!

Nanotechnology in Indian Cosmetics

2005-12-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) are the next thing in nanotechnology and are one of the most seriously considered options for implementing the next generation high density memories and processors. They also have a host of applications ranging from computer engineering to biotechnology. The plant to manufacture CNTs even on an experimental basis costs more than USD 20,000 and the process does not have a very high yield.

What will you think if I say that the fashion world is using these CNTs in - get this - Cosmetics? And the country which is doing this is India. You think - has fashion become such a major force in India - well get this - women have been using this for centuries!

Now that I have (hopefully) heightened the expectation let me explain. Dr. Sabyasachi Sarkar from IIT K, has discovered the existence of CNTs in Kaajal, the Indian equivalent of Kohl - obtained by burning oil in a lamp and scraping and using the deposited soot. Apparently 40% of these CNTs can be extracted without any fancy equipment. Agreed that this method may not be useful for building CNTs of specified geometry, still the CNTS form Kohl can be used for a few applications.

Surprising! Read more about it here.

Of Cows in California

2005-12-22T15:10:00.000-05:00

I accept that the title of this post is somewhat pretentious - but believe me it is not. This is about one funny incident which happened when I went to attend a house-warming (Grihapravesam) in California.

In South India house warming is an elaborate ceremony with lots of rituals. There is the boiling of the milk (Paal Kaachal), which is then served to the guests - symbolizing a flourishing domestic life - and also ensuring your guests don’t get pissed off - slightly different but essentially the same as the salt and bread of the western culture. There are prayers offered to every deity for ensuring good health of the residents of the house, success in all their endeavors and peace and harmony. There is also a prayer to the earth goddess - very important in California. There is a prayer to the god of fire - a small fire is lit and offerings of rice and ghee (clarified butter) are made.

Anyways, one of the important rituals is bringing a cow and its calf into the house - to symbolize the flourishing of the progeny. Now obviously this is one thing difficult to replicate in CA. Not so for this enterprising vadyar (priest) who brought along a cow and a calf into the second floor living room of the apartment - a small figurine of a cow and calf made out of silver. It was so funny that it took all I had not to burst out laughing - and the vadyar was very serious about the whole thing.

Also the vadyar had brought along some "smokeless wonder" - no, not weed - it was the usual material which would be burnt to make the fire - but in a highly powdered form so that there was no smoke during combustion. As I and my friends would say back in the good old days - "Technology da machi".

Amazon.com customer service numbers

2005-12-14T14:42:00.000-05:00

Have you tried searching for the customer service number of Amazon.com? Pretty sure, you would not have found it on their webpages. Actually, the only place it is displayed, so I am informed, is the page that appears immediately after you make a purchase.

I had a frustrating experience trying to find their phone number and googled it up. I found that there are lots of people out there who have had the same problem and have posted the service number on their sites. So I did some backtracking and found out this website http://reachdotcom.com, which lists the customer service numbers of many such Internet based outfits.

On a brighter side, the Amazon customer service reps are quite happy to help you out, once you managed to track their number and call them.

For many frustrated users' comments, take a look at http://clicheideas.com/amazon.

Return of the Ring

2005-12-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

So I have been reading a lot of the master - "Plum" Wodehouse, for the nth time. One thing which recurs in his books is some chump like Bertie getting engaged and wanting to break it off, but scared to do so, fearing an action for " breach", till Jeeves comes along with scarfing down phosphorous filled fish and saves the day.

But I was intrigued by what this "breach" was all about - I mean, I understand it is for breaching the engagement but it sounds quite funny - like breaching a contract. So I did some search on this and ascertained that my guess was indeed correct. The lady would sue the man because her chances of getting engaged/married had gone down significantly after the guy broke off the engagement.

But I came across a more interesting legal question - "If an engagement is called off, who gets to keep the ring?". There are three popular directions taken by judges - oh yes- such cases have been tried in the Supreme Court.

1) The ring is a gift and if the receiver can prove the donors intent of gifting it, the actual giving it and the receivers accepting it, then the receiver is entitled to keep it.

2) The ring is a conditional gift hinging on the marriage and doesn’t get transferred to the receiver till the marriage is completed - that is, the contract for which the ring is a token is completed.

3) It was bought by the donor and hence belongs to the donor.

Anyway, isn’t it interesting that the Supreme Court has to arbitrate in matters, which seem silly to me? Who was that who said. "The law is an ass"?. For a complete article on this issue look up the link on “Who gets to keep the ring?”.

Kiddie movies

2005-12-07T09:13:00.000-05:00

This is about movies for kids like Home Alone and animated movies.
I love such movies. It is quite simple to follow the plot - Lord Emsworth of Blandings would not loose the thread. Absolutely ridiculous things happen and everything is accepted. There is not gross violence. See - so many good things.

But in spite of this I remain, among the group of my other gradus friends, one of the very few who accept liking such movies. The people who don’t like, or say they don’t like, these movies think it is not fitting for an adult to like such movies. I contest this on two points. One - I am not an adult - I am still a kid because I sure do want to exploit the privileges that kids get. But secondly, and more serious point, what’s wrong about adults seeing kids movies? It is never bad to be reminded of how things should be. Now I accept that the world will never be the way it is in these movies, but something that cuts across the layers of cynicism and practicality that we have around us, once in a way is, in the word of Bat Jarvis, "Its to da goot".

Anyway, as a test, we screened three of the best movies in this genre and everyone who watched them, including the hard -core-dont-like-kiddie-movie contingent cried. See - all their talk was nothing but superheated air.

A bunch of nerds

2005-11-24T17:48:00.000-05:00

I had this discussion with one of my friends recently and came to the conclusion that a geek is one who is extremely interested in something, but a nerd is someone who is extremely interested in something to the exclusion of other things and fields.

I got this email about a piece of code which had won the international obfuscation competition. What the heck is this - all through school and grad school - this has been dinned into me - 'Write clear, easily understandable and well flowing code" And now I hear about some chumps awarding prizes for codes which are most obfuscated. I checked out the website of the IOCC which is an organization for people who do this. In fact I saw prizes for things like "Most Sonorous Code" - what is this?

I accept that I may be biased because I don't write code very well but are these guys prime candidates for the rulers of the nerd land or what?

Happy / Angry picture

2005-11-22T10:21:00.000-05:00

My friend keeps sending me lots of forwards - mostly sentimental junk about friendship and love and truth and honesty and stuff like that - yecch - or as she would put it eew. I have never understood this expression eew - she picked it up from Friends. I understand yecch - full blooded voicing of ones utter disgust - but eew - seems to be tailormade for little girls. Anyway enough of my rambling.

But this picture was quite good and has to do with some long range and mid range filters. So when you look at the image on your screen you will see one happy and one angry (both tinged with a "house of wax" expression). If you walk back from the screen the faces interchange positions. The people who came up with this have done a great job.

Friends fiesta

2005-11-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

A friend handed me a ton of DVD's having the complete Friends sitcom. I started watching and finished around 30 episodes.

I have never understood why so many of my friends like friends. Seems like a show where people
a) Sleep with one of their friends / some stranger
b) Break up with whomever they are sleeping with
c) Sit in the coffee shop / somebody's apartment and discuss meaningless stuff

Now I understand the appeal of this show which has nine episodes full off funny stuff, albeit filled with sexual content, and one sob ,extremely sentimental episode.

Its quite funny that this sitcom is broadcast on primetime in this country where people are so sensitive about not exposing children to "Adult content". All said, seems to be a good way to waste lots of time, have some laughs - eh!! Who bothers about anything else!!

Amazon.com Recommendations

2005-11-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

I have this habit of spending around half an hour every day looking at some websites for good deals on electronic stuff for me and my friends. I recently bought a RaZr V3 mobile phone from Amazon

Amazon has this concept of recommendations where they look at the stuff you bought from them and recommend stuff that they think you will be interested in because of what you bought. I have seen wireless handsfree sets and travel chargers being recommended because I bought the phone but today, Amazon produced the clear winner. Check the boxed area of the picture.

In case the picture is not clear the circled part says that this was recommended because I bought the mobile phone.

Bluetooth linking

2005-11-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

Bought a new mobile phone - Motorola RaZr V3 a week Ago. Had time just now and thought I should try transferring files to my computer using Bluetooth.

I didn't expect the process to be easy - what I did not expect was that the user manual would be totally useless. Anyway, I used the trusty Google and got it done and as always, once the job is done the manual and the error messages seem so useful.

About gradus desicus

2005-11-14T14:20:00.000-05:00

I guess some explanation is needed on the term gradus desicus*.

This is a species of the family of homosapien desicus (named by Ramesh Mahadevan). This species is the Indian graduate student in US.

Usually the gradus is summed up as one of the following and then dismissied without further exploration.

1) Lucky creature enjoying life in US - by other species of the homosapien desicus family
2) A poor creature working hard in US while missing and being missed by people in India - by self and similar gradus desicus creatures
3) Clever predator who speaks in some strange lingo even when other species are present - by homosapien nondesicus

But the gradus desicus is quite the complex organism and merits a complete investigation into its life - which is the reason for this site. Events and thoughts in this gradus' life will be posted here.

*Desicus - comes from the hindi (Indian Language) word Desi meaning of same country. So Indians - especially students - refer to other Indians as desi. This is considered hillarious by some desicus because - well if this needs to be explained - forget it - you wont get it