The Techno Lark

Published post on incremental backups

2012-01-11T14:07:00.000+05:30

Published a post on incremental backups using MySQL Enterprise Backup 3.7.0 at Oracle blogs : here

Favorite Geek&Pokes

2011-12-10T23:47:00.001+05:30

Some of my favorite Geek&Pokes:

http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2011/12/the-hard-life-of-a-nosql-coder.html
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2011/12/a-coder-in-the-math-class.html
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2011/11/the-god-and-the-coder-day-one.html
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2011/10/the-final-question.html
http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2011/10/geeks-1.html

Google calendar quick add

2010-12-26T12:08:00.001+05:30

Often in Google Calendar, quick add can prove to be very helpful and more importantly - fast. With intelligent keyword and context matching it'll make things faster when we're to add a bulk of events spread over a range of dates. The best part comes with recurring events - we dont' have to click on 'edit event details', check the 'repeats' check box and select how the event repeats! With 'quick add' we can simply schedule a repeating event as:

Birthday Manu 7 May repeats yearly

have medicine 9pm repeat daily for 2 weeks

Google calendar will intelligently parse the above comments and schedule the event/reminders accordingly.
A list of possible 'quick adds' can be found here:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=36604

Quick add can also be seamlessly integrated into your application using the calendar API. Instructions can be found here:
http://code.google.com/apis/calendar/data/2.0/developers_guide_protocol.html#CreatingQuickAdd

~ Happy holidays, and have a great time scheduling..

Private sidewiki?

2010-12-22T11:47:00.000+05:30

I was wondering if there's something like a private 'google sidewiki' in which the entries are not actually published but are synced with your account and the notes/anecdotes are shown the next time 'you' visit that page. Some Firefox/Chrome plugins do give that support but the problem is localization of your information. All your notes etc. on webpages are visible only on the browser and not available elsewhere.

Device Set Up Instructions: Nokia 6300

2010-11-30T12:12:00.000+05:30

To set up Google Sync on a Nokia 6300 phone, please follow these steps:

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=98265

C:/Windows/Installer directory overflowing bug?

2010-10-06T11:07:00.000+05:30

DISCLAIMER: I accept no liability for the content of this post, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. Use this solution at your own risk. This is a solution which worked on my system and may / may not work on others.

Hi all. Recently was bugged by the problem of my C: getting used up erratically. Everyday i'd remove some application and free space and lo! Next morning again <20MB space left on this drive.
I used the following tool to figure out the problem:
Free Disk Analyzer from http://www.extensoft.com/
Saw that the folder C:/Windows/Installer took up almost 80% of the space!

Initially thought of deleting several files at random but then read in forums that this approach is definitely not advisable. In many forums I was redirected to this page: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301 but as it says, they've removed the installer from here. This utility, however, can still be download from http://majorgeeks.com/Windows_Installer_CleanUp_Utility_d4459.html. INSTALL IT. Do not go and run this utility from its GUI since it doesn't give the option of removing only 'orphaned' installer packages - which is what we want to do. So, fire your command prompt, cd to C:\Program Files\Windows Installer Clean Up and run : msizap g!

PS: Cleaned up 16GB of space in 10 sec!

A regular expression to check for prime numbers

2010-07-27T10:02:00.000+05:30

A regular expression to check for prime numbers

Merge Sort with Python

2010-07-27T09:30:00.004+05:30

Here's a code for merge sort in Python. Drop in suggestions for a more optimized code. ..

 def merge_sort(array):  
   if len(array)==1:  
     return array  
   elif len(array)==2:  
     if array[0]>array[1]:  
       return array  
     else:  
       return [array[1],array[0]]  
   else:  
     return merge(merge_sort(array[0:int(len(array)/2)]),merge_sort(array[int(len(array)/2):len(array)]))  
 def merge(array1,array2):  
   p1=0  
   p2=0  
   ans=[]  
   for i in range(len(array1)+len(array2)):  
     if p1!=len(array1) and p2!=len(array2):  
       if array1[p1]>array2[p2]:  
         ans.append(array1[p1])  
         p1=p1+1  
       else:  
         ans.append(array2[p2])  
         p2=p2+1  
     elif p1==len(array1):  
       ans.append(array2[p2])  
       p2=p2+1  
     elif p2==len(array2):  
       ans.append(array1[p1])  
       p1=p1+1  
   return ans

Using JavaFX objects in Java code

2010-04-16T22:04:00.000+05:30

Using JavaFX objects in Java code

The link above points to an amazing article regarding conversion of JavaFx objects for use in Java codes: a problem often faced by newbies...

Importing H2 database in RapidMiner 5

2010-04-11T16:14:00.000+05:30

Hi! Here's the configuration to import your H2 database in Rapidminer:

Add the H2 driver to RapidMiner: Go to 'Manage Database Drivres' and configure it is follows: (The Jar file lies in the /bin folder of your H2 installation; give its path). Save these settings
Now go to your process window in RapidMiner and drag the 'ReadDatabase' operator:

3. Click on it and add attribute values as shown in the image:
(database url is the complete url of your embedded database file). The default username in H2 is 'sa' without password. But, this won't work for RapidMiner since its mandatory to give some password. So, Create a new user with some password using the 'CREATE USER' sql command. In my case, I created a new database user called 'user1'.

4. Once this is done, restart RapidMiner for changes to take place. Do not forget to save your process when RapidMiner prompts you to.

5. Now, Click on Build SQL Query. You'll see something like what is shown on left. Select the table you want to read (just click on the name of the table and the select * query will be generated) and click OK

Google Says There Are Now 30,000 Apps In Android Market

2010-03-16T21:07:00.000+05:30

Google Says There Are Now 30,000 Apps In Android Market: "

At the most recent Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the company's partners are now selling over 60,000 Android handsets on a daily basis. With that kind of growth rate, it's no wonder that the size of the Android Market is increasing in its slipstream.

While Google doesn't publicly show how many apps there are in Android Market, a Google rep this morning informed me that the store now serves approx. 30,000 apps in total.

Restoring Ubuntu 9.10 in GRUB menu after a windows install

2010-03-16T20:06:00.000+05:30

It becomes a bit tricky in Ubuntu 9.10 to rewrite MBR because of the newer version of GRUB: GRUB 2. You can follow the steps here, its pretty straight forward.:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

Following this procedure, you'll recover your Ubuntu system. Incase there are any discrepancies in your Windows system, updating grub from your native ubuntu (the one on your hard disk) might help

sudo update-grub

Interesting way of presenting

2010-01-24T00:41:00.000+05:30

I found this interesting presentation on Python cross-platform apps, and I found more interesting is the 'way' it is hosted: Simple, Keyboard controlled navigation and FAST !

http://yergler.net/talks/desktopapps_uk/

--
Thanking you,
Sagar Jauhari

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sagarjauhari

An Excellent book for R Graphics

2010-01-17T13:56:00.000+05:30

R Graphics
Paul Murrell, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Series: Chapman & Hall/CRC Computer Science & Data Analysis Click to see all the publications in this series.

The link to this book is below:

http://www.crcpress.com/ecommerce_product/product_detail.jsf?catno=C486X&isbn=0000000000000&parent_id=&pc=

Quark 2010: Coding Event Details

2010-01-09T22:43:00.003+05:30

Programmers' InQ
Prizes worth Rs. 63,000 to be won
The cyber world is all around us, ever evolving, ever changing. Programmers InQ, the series of events in Quark 2010 related to the cyberspace, ensure that you get the opportunity to be the agents of this change. From the no-holds-barred ingenuity of Binary Pirates to the stringent protocol of The Ultimate Coder, along with the adaptability of Rip Open, Programmers InQ promises to not only be breathtaking in its simplicity and its knowledge, but also a source for the best Tech minds of the country to compete in a forum that is truly fitting to the genius of today’s techno-savvy youth.
Binary Pirates
The race to the top . . .
The holy grail for hackers from across the country, Binary Pirates has just one rule- THERE ARE NO RULES. Do whatever it takes to capture the 'flag' and move to the next level. The event will test your understanding of networking principles and web technologies and your ability to bend them to suit your needs. In short, this event will shake the very foundations of your hacking knowledge and your ingenuity.
Geek 'N Latin
Confound 'Em.
Sick of those cascading tabs and well-behaved braces? It's time you break the shackles and let loose the spaghetti coder inside! With creativity and a taste for technical insanity being the only pre-requisites, arm yourself to take on your twisted binary counterparts in the arena to obfuscate, brain-fuck, reverse engineer and whirl your way to victory.
RIP OPEN
Online Round 1 of Rip Open will start on 10th January, 2010 at 00:01 hrs and will end on 12th January, 2010 at 23:59 hrs
Open source development as you never thought existed. This event is for those who believe in the power of the open source. This event is all about the constantly evolving world of open source where people with innovative ideas get together, share their resources and bring out totally new creations using resources someone else created before them. The final output is all that matters, so if you think you have the logical and analytical skills, then this is the event for you.
Terminator 1.0
Have you ever wondered how codes work behind the scenes from the machine level? If your answer is YES, then register for this event ! You will surely enjoy and learn.
Terminator 1.0 is an assembly language coding competition. Higher level languages are very prominent in popular coding competitions but unlike them, this event explores the limitless possibilities in assembly language coding and brings the participants closer to what happens behind the scenes! The advantage of assembly language is that the participants do not have to remember any syntax as there are limited commands and statements. All that matters is their logic and reasoning power.
Code JAM
A technical festival without a coding competition sounds incomplete. Doesn't it!
So here is a chance for everyone to brush up their minds for a challenging programming contest with the freedom of coding in whatever language they want.

Quark 2010

2010-01-09T22:08:00.002+05:30

Assembly Language Coding Event !!

2010-01-09T22:02:00.003+05:30

Terminator 1.0

At Quark 2010, we are organizing a unique event in which coders have to compete in simple assembly language !! Its a fun event testing your skill in basics of assembly language!

http://www.bits-quark.org/terminator

My first post as a Software Development Intern @ DataminingTools Inc.

2010-01-01T00:45:00.002+05:30

Here's the link to my first post as a software development intern at DataminingTools Inc.

Its about the major developments in data mining, business intelligence and artificial intelligence over the years.

http://dataminingtools.net/blog/2009/12/31/the-datamining-journey-so-far/

An excellent resource for starting off with spectral analysis using MATLAB

2009-12-28T20:12:00.000+05:30

An excellent resource for starting off with spectral analysis using MATLAB:

http://www.etsu.edu/math/seier/tperiodogram.doc

Google Fast Flip !

2009-09-17T22:01:00.005+05:30

Here's some fresh google technology to answer the needs of sloggy networks (like that of my college) that remove the charm of online reading. Today Google rolled out 'Google Fast Flip' (http://fastflip.googlelabs.com) and here's what they have to say about it:

"Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized."

The speed is indeed way better than the conventional feed readers (and that includes Google Reader) but its probably at the cost of diminished features (well, something has to be optimized after all). Seems there is also a mobile version for Fast Flip .. haven't yet checked it out. Nice experiment google labs!

GSOC: BITS Pilani goa Campus in Top 10 Schools in 2009 by # of Accepted Students

2009-09-11T20:44:00.002+05:30

Ah! here's some awesome news for my college! In Google Summer of Code, it ranks in the top 10 Schools in 2009 by number of Accepted Students! Here's the link:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/09/tasty-new-google-summer-of-code-stats.html

Pidgin 2.6.1 is here !

2009-08-25T20:03:00.002+05:30

A major upgrade of the favorite universal chat client 'Pidgin' has been released.
Detailed instructions of installations or upgrading can be found here. Some of the major upgrades are the new Voice and Video support for XMPP !! Hurray ! Apart form that, the general icons have also been changed and they now look much more decent. Check it out for yourselves !

Apt-get: Cannot initiate the connection to 8080:80 (0.0.31.144).

2009-08-25T01:02:00.003+05:30

I've seen this problem sometimes cropping up! One of the reasons this problem can occur is when your http_proxy variable is not set properly!
The $http_proxy variable in your terminal overrides the http::proxy variable in /etc/apt/conf file and the connection is not established if the http_proxy variable in the terminal is set to [proxy]:[port] instead of http://[proxy]:[port]. To check this out do the following:

Type: echo $http_proxy in the terminal
If it is something like this: 10.1.1.30:8080, then type: http_proxy="http://10.1.1.30:8080" . (we're just adding the 'http://' before the content of the variable)

If the problem was because of the overriding variables, it'd be solved by now .. try typing sudo apt-get update and see if it works.

Space Invaders FX : Part 2

2009-06-27T10:37:00.005+05:30

So, continuing with my last post where I described the 'tanks' class, we will discuss the 'monster' class in this post:

/*
* monsters.fx
*
* Created on Jun 21, 2009, 9:28:33 AM
*/

package spaceinvadersfx;

import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.scene.CustomNode;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.Node;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.Polygon;
import javafx.scene.transform.Rotate;
import spaceinvadersfx.Main;

/**
* @author Sagar Jauhari
*/

public class monsters extends CustomNode {
var bulletX: Integer;
var bulletY: Integer;

public var monsterX: Integer;
public var monsterY: Integer = 10;

var animationRate = 1;
var visiblity = true;
var bulletVisiblity = false;
var rotation = 0;
var image = ImageView {
x: bind monsterX
y: bind monsterY
visible: bind visiblity
image: Image {
url: "{__DIR__}resources/monster.png"
}
transforms: Rotate { pivotX : bind monsterX+25, pivotY : bind monsterY+25, angle: bind rotation }
}

var timeline = Timeline {
rate: bind animationRate;
repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
autoReverse: true
keyFrames : [
at (0s) {monsterX => 0;},
at (4s) {monsterX => 440;}
]
}

var attackTimeline = Timeline {
repeatCount: 1
keyFrames : [
]
}


function attack(){
var bullet = Polygon {
transforms: Rotate { pivotX : 5, pivotY : 0.8, angle: 180 }
visible: bind bulletVisiblity
translateX: bind bulletX
translateY: bind bulletY
points : [ 0,7, 5,0, 10,7, 10,16, 5,5, 0,16 ]
fill: Color.YELLOW
stroke: Color.RED
}

}


public function isDead(){
timeline.pause();
var isDeadTimeline = Timeline {
repeatCount: 1
keyFrames : [
   at (0s){rotation => 0},
   at (0.2s){rotation => 180;},
   KeyFrame {
       time: 0.6s
       action: function(){
           Main.score+=15;
           rotation = 0;
           timeline.playFromStart();
       }
   }
]
};
isDeadTimeline.play();
}

public override function create(): Node {
timeline.play();
return Group {
content: bind [image]
};
}
}

Understanding the code:

We make an ImageView object for the monster and bind the x and y coordinates to variables to allow movement. Also, the 'rotation' transformation is added which will be used to animate the monster when it dies ( it turns upside down when the isDead() function is called! :) ).
```
  var image = ImageView {
x: bind monsterX
y: bind monsterY
visible: bind visiblity
image: Image {
  url: "{__DIR__}resources/monster.png"
}
transforms: Rotate { pivotX : bind monsterX+25, pivotY : bind monsterY+25, angle: bind rotation }
}
```

Next, we define the timeline for making the monster move to and fro. The to and fro motion is enabled by the "autoReverse: True" expression.

 var timeline = Timeline {
 rate: bind animationRate;
 repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
 autoReverse: true
 keyFrames : [
 at (0s) {monsterX => 0;},
 at (4s) {monsterX => 440;}
 ]
}

After this, we write the isDead function . This function pauses the timeline we wrote above and rotates the monster by 180 degrees and then makes the timeline play from start. It also increases you score by 15 points.


public function isDead(){
   timeline.pause();
   var isDeadTimeline = Timeline {
       repeatCount: 1
       keyFrames : [
           at (0s){rotation => 0},
           at (0.2s){rotation => 180;},
           KeyFrame {
               time: 0.6s
               action: function(){
                   Main.score+=15;
                   rotation = 0;
                   timeline.playFromStart();
               }
           }
       ]
   };
   isDeadTimeline.play();
}

This was most of what was done in this class. You would have noticed that we haven't used the attackTimeline and the attack() function. I was writing them to enable the monster attack the player also, but i haven't finished that part. So, we'll skip them for the while. Now we jump to the important part: Collision Detection. Our task is gravely simplified by the intersects() function of the Node class. It returns true when your node intersects the mentioned rectangle. Read the API for details. Here are the snippets from the prevous class, tanks.fx:
```
    public function colissionDetect(){
    if(monster.intersects(bulletX,bulletY,10,15)){
        monster.isDead();
    }

}
```
We've defined our rectangle with respect to the coordinates of the bullet using the bulletX and bulletY variables. Whenever the monster intersects this bullet, the monster.isDead() function is triggered. Note that we are polling to verify the intersection every 0.1 second by playing the colissionTimeline variable:
```
    var colissionTimeline = Timeline {
    repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
    keyFrames : [
        KeyFrame {
            time : 0.1s
            action: function(){colissionDetect()}
        }
    ]
}
```
This timeline is played throughout the duration of the game.

So, that's all, we're done with most of the part of the game. The scoring part is simple, you can figure it out very easily in the Main.fx file:

/*
* Main.fx
*
* Created on Jun 21, 2009, 9:17:55 AM
*/

package spaceinvadersfx;

import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.scene.media.Media;
import javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer;

/**
* @author Sagar Jauhari
*/
public var score = 0;
public var lives = 3;

public var screenWidth = 500;
public var screenHeight = 500;

var scoreText = Text {
 font : Font {
     size: 20
 }
 x: screenWidth-40, y: screenHeight-30
 content: bind {java.lang.String.valueOf(score)}
};

var mdeia = MediaPlayer {
 media : Media {
     source: ""
 }
}



public function run(){
Stage {
 title: "Space Invaders FX by Sagar Jauhari"
 width: 500
 height: 500
 scene: Scene {
     content: bind [tank{},scoreText]
 }
}
}

We defined a variable ScoreText and bound its value to the score variable which is changed everytime you hit the monster.

More to be done:

The monster has to be coded to attact the tank also! Right now the game is too easy!
Background music can be played and specific sounds can be added to the fire() and isDead() functions.

The sourcecode of the game can be downloaded from here.

Space Invaders FX : Part 1

2009-06-24T14:10:00.007+05:30

Ohk, so I wrote this simple game in JavaFX, named it Space Invaders FX ..

The entire source code for the game can be downloaded from here.

The source code has three files, tank.fx, monster.fx and Main.fx. In this post we will talk about tank.fx. This class controls the movements, shooting and everything else to do with the tank. Here it is:

/*
* tank.fx
*
* Created on Jun 21, 2009, 9:19:12 AM
*/

package spaceinvadersfx;

import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.CustomNode;
import javafx.scene.Node;
import javafx.scene.input.KeyEvent;
import javafx.scene.input.KeyCode;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.scene.shape.Polygon;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.animation.Interpolator;

/**
* @author Sagar Jauhari
*/

public class tank extends CustomNode {

var monster = monsters{};

var fireAgain = true;

var tankX: Integer;
var tankY = 400;

var bulletX: Integer;
var bulletY = 400;

var visiblity = false;

var image = ImageView {
x: bind tankX, y: tankY
image: Image {
url: "{__DIR__}resources/tank 50X50.png"
}
};
var bg = ImageView {
onKeyPressed: function( e: KeyEvent ) {
if(e.code == KeyCode.VK_LEFT){
if(tankX >= 50){
    tankX-=50;
}
}
if(e.code == KeyCode.VK_RIGHT){
if(tankX <= Main.screenWidth - 100){
    tankX+=50;
}
}

}
onMouseClicked: function( e: MouseEvent ):Void {
fire();
}


image: Image {
url: "{__DIR__}resources/bg.jpg"
}
};
var bullet = Polygon {
visible: bind visiblity
translateX: bind bulletX
translateY: bind bulletY
points : [ 0,7, 5,0, 10,7, 10,15, 5,5, 0,15 ]
fill: Color.YELLOW
stroke: Color.RED
}

var timeline = Timeline {
repeatCount: 1
keyFrames : [
at (0s) {bulletX => tankX+20; bulletY => tankY; visiblity => true; fireAgain=> false },
at (1s) {bulletY=> -20; visiblity => true; fireAgain=> true}
]
}
var colissionTimeline = Timeline {
repeatCount: Timeline.INDEFINITE
keyFrames : [
KeyFrame {
    time : 0.1s
    action: function(){colissionDetect()}
}
]
}


public function fire(){
if(fireAgain){
timeline.playFromStart();
}
}

public function colissionDetect(){
if(monster.intersects(bulletX,bulletY,10,15)){
monster.isDead();
}

}

public override function create() :Node{
bg.requestFocus();
colissionTimeline.play();
return{
Group{
    content: bind[bg,image,bullet,monster]
}
}
}
}

Understanding the code:

First of all, we make an image of tank of 50X50px. Here's the image I made in GIMP:

Next, we import it for using:

    var image = ImageView {
 x: bind tankX, y: tankY
 image: Image {
     url: "{__DIR__}resources/tank 50X50.png"
 }
};

Now we put a background image and add all the mouse and keyboard triggers to it.

 var bg = ImageView {
onKeyPressed: function( e: KeyEvent ) {
  if(e.code == KeyCode.VK_LEFT){
      if(tankX >= 50){
          tankX-=50;
      }
  }
  if(e.code == KeyCode.VK_RIGHT){
      if(tankX <= Main.screenWidth - 100){
          tankX+=50;
      }
  }

}
  onMouseClicked: function( e: MouseEvent ):Void {
      fire();
  }


  image: Image {
      url: "{__DIR__}resources/bg.jpg"
  }
};

Now we come to the more interesting part: the shooting! :). To represent a bullet, I made a polygon. The idea is to traverse this polygon from bottom to top by binding its y coordinate to a variable and linearly varying that variable with time using the Timeline class. Initially the bullet is invisible, then, while shooting it becomes visible and then again it becomes invisible. This gives the impression that multiple bullets are being shot contrary to the fact that actually, it is the same bullet again and again! Also, there is a constraint that at any point of time, only one bullet is in the scene. This is managed by the 'fireAgain' flag. See here:
```
    var bullet = Polygon {
   visible: bind visiblity
   translateX: bind bulletX
   translateY: bind bulletY
   points : [ 0,7, 5,0, 10,7, 10,15, 5,5, 0,15 ]
   fill: Color.YELLOW
   stroke: Color.RED
}

var timeline = Timeline {
   repeatCount: 1
   keyFrames : [
       at (0s) {bulletX => tankX+20; bulletY => tankY; visiblity => true; fireAgain=> false },
       at (1s) {bulletY=> -20; visiblity => true; fireAgain=> true}
   ]
}
```

Finally, there's this function called fire() which fires the bullet.

    public function fire(){
    if(fireAgain){
        timeline.playFromStart();
    }
}

So this was most of what was done with the tank. The collision detection with the 'monster' and some other snippets not explained here will be explained in the next post when we discuss the 'monsters.fx' class.

Installing adobe flash plugin on Ubutnu 9.04 ( Jaunty )

2009-05-15T20:22:00.003+05:30

I found a way to install the adobe flash plugin on my ubuntu box. Till now I was trying to install the .deb package from the adobe site which is named as (ubuntu 8.04+ ) and it alway got installed but never worked! So here's a way:

Download this package.
Close your firefox.
Open it with your archive manager and extract it in you home directory.
Open a terminal and type: $~/install_flash_player_10_linux/flashplayer-installer
Follow the instructions and do a 'yes' when it says that the plugin will be installed in your home directory in the .mozilla folder.

Done! :)

Idea Netsetter on Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope : Step by step procedure

2009-05-02T18:23:00.014+05:30

It took some time but I managed to configure the Idea Netsetter wireless USB plug and surf device on my Ubuntu laptop. It wasn't as tough as I had thought. Here's the procedure:

Step 1. Write the following in your /etc/wvdial.conf file, save and close:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem=/dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 460800
Init 1 = AT+CGMM
Init 2 = AT+CMEE=1
Init 3 = ATE0
Init 4 = AT^HS=0,0
Init 5 = AT+CFUN?
Init 6 = AT+CLCK="SC",2
Init 7 = AT+CPIN?
Init 8 = AT+CLCK="SC",2
Modem Type = USB MODEM
Phone=*99#
Username = idea
Password = idea
Dial Command=ATDT
Stupid Mode=1
ISDN=0
APN = internet

Step 2. Add the following lines to your /etc/network/interfaces file:

iface ppp0 inet ppp
provider ppp0
auto ppp0

It would look something like this (only the encircled part is important):

Step 3. Restart the network services by the following command:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Step 4. Go to System-> Administration -> Network. You'd see something like this:

Uncheck the 'Wired' connection (disable it). Now go to the properties of Point to point connection do the following settings in the respective tabs:

[GENERAL]:

Check on 'Enable this connection'
Connection type: PPPoE
Username: idea
password: idea

[MODEM]:

Ethernet interface: eth0

[OPTIONS]

Check 'Set modem as default'
Check 'Use the internet service provider nameservers'
Check 'Retry if connection breaks'

Step 5. Again restart the network connection (step 3).

Step 6. Plug in your Idea Netsetter in one of the USB ports and run the following command in your terminal:

$ sudo wvdial

That's it .. if everything's fine wvdial would show your new Local and Remote IP address for the idea connection.

Have fun.

Useful command to edit .conkyrc

2009-04-01T01:29:00.002+05:30

Friends this is a simple command I use whenever I edit my conkyrc file:

$while true; do conky -q -i 10; sleep 3; done

Starting conky this way kills it and restarts it after every 3+10*n seconds, where n is the update interval mentioned in your conkyrc file. So, you can open ~/.conkyrc file in your editor run the above command. You would see the changes on the conky right on your desktop as it is restarted again and again. (please dont forget to keep saving the file as you edit it to make this thing work).

By the way, I have edited a conkyrc file i found on a webiste and finetuned it !! My conky is simply amazing now :) I'd post the file in my next post (and a snapshot of my desktop).

Switching to ( or changing ) static IP address on Ubuntu Intrepid

2009-03-20T18:33:00.004+05:30

Today, somehow the network of my college got reconfigured or something, and all subnets got changed hostel wise. Hence, the network wasn't being accessed by the old IP addresses. Now, in the earlier versions of Ubuntu (before Intrepid) it was relatively easy to change the static IP addresses from the Network Manager in the panel, but Intrepid onwards, this intreface has been changed and I had been wondering for a while how to do it. Now, today, since it was an absolutely desperate situation, I finally figured a way out.

Solution:

Open the file /etc/network/interfaces in your favourite editor:

$ sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

You would find something like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet static
address 10.4.1.41
netmask 255.0.0.0
auto eth0

If you don't find the last 4 lines in this file, then your network configuration is set to dynamic IP. So, add these four lines to the end of this file. And, if your see these lines, it means your have previously set your IP address to static. Now, to change your static adderss, change the address given below the line 'iface eth0 static' (here, 10.4.1.41)to whatever address u want.
Finally, restart the networking service by the command:
Verify the change by the command:

$ip addr

You would see the new IP address in the eth0 section!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, I stumbled upon this solution when I was checking out the man pages of 'ip' and related commands and then I tried the command for restarting the network. When it didn't work, I opened the file /etc/init.d/networking and found that that the script uses the files in the /etc/network directory. There I found the file named 'interfaces' and upon opening it, I knew this was what I was searching for!

Problems in installing Netbeans IDE 6.5 on Ubuntu Intrepid [solved]

2009-03-18T00:30:00.005+05:30

I had some problems installing the Netbeans IDE 6.5 on Ubuntu Intrepid. After running the file netbeans-6.5-python-linux.sh in the terminal, there was an error:

net beans lexical error or unexpected token, expected valid token

If you are facing similar problems, refer to earlier post :
JAVA Swing and AWT applications freezing in Ubuntu
The solution to this problem is the same as mentioned in the above post. Though I had been using Netbeans 6.1, the configuration had changed somehow! Anyways, after following the instructions, the problem should get solved.

Happy Netbean-ing ..

note

2009-03-16T18:02:00.001+05:30

I've changed the URL (from linuxlark.blogspot.com to technolark.blogspot.com) and the name of this blog. Please bear with the trouble

Thunderbird wrap text problem [sloved]

2009-02-03T01:41:00.002+05:30

Well, I saw many people having problem with Thunderbird not wrapping text at the default set 72 chars. Huh, I figured out the solution. The edit/options >preferences > composition > general tab has an entry box saying
"wrap plain text messages at __ characters"

the default set is 72 characters. Now what happens is that most of the mails that we send are HTML or 'unknown' by default. And the entry box says "plain text" not HTML. So, go to the most frequently mailed addresses in your addressbook in thunderbird and select 'plain' text message as the default in the contact details for each. :) it was not a problem, it was just obvious !!

How to write html tags in blog posts:

2009-02-01T01:08:00.004+05:30

In the course of writing my previous post, I also learnt how to write html tags like <hello> in blog posts. All you have to do is substitute the < and > tags by writing

and

respectively

Disabling remote access to phpmyadmin

2009-02-01T00:55:00.005+05:30

I installed the LAMP + phpmyadmin combo yesterday on my Ubuntu Intrepid machine for hosting a local website.
But later I realized that the phpmyadmin page, though password protected, was visible throughout my local network! So, to disable remote access to phpmyadmin , add the following code to the end of your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file ..

# Disabling phpmyadmin for remote access
<directory>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from localhost
</directory>

Project download manager

2009-01-17T23:14:00.003+05:30

Ohk guys .. I am starting off with building a GUI based download manager for Linux. I found this excellent tutorial on building a GUI using Glade 2 (with Gnome support). Pretty neat with ample description of the components.

glade2_introduction.html

JAVA Swing and AWT applications freezing in Ubuntu

2008-11-08T14:04:00.004+05:30

Now I had been facing this problem from quite some time, but recently found a quick solution. Well, by default, the system uses GIJ as the Java byte interpretor and possibly, it causes the applications to freeze. I had installed the sun-java-6 jdk package but it was not functional because gij was the default one.

Steps:

1. Install the sun-java6-sdk package.
2. Find the default jvm being used by your machine by typing: java -version
3. In case it shows 'gij', then type: sudo update-alternatives --config java
It would list all the possible options with a number corresponding to each. For me it shows:

There are 5 alternatives which provide `java'.

Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /usr/bin/cacao
* 2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java
3 /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun/jre/bin/java
4 /usr/bin/gij-4.3
+ 5 /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number:

4. Type in the corresponding number to java-6-sun/jre/bin/java, and press return.

That's all... unsure the version of java again by typing th command in step 2, hopefully you will see something different :)

How to fix the No Sound problem in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)

2008-11-07T01:54:00.004+05:30

You might have come across the 'no sound' problem after a fresh installation of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid. Well, there are a couple of solutions around and this one worked for me :

1. Go to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups

2. Click on 'Unlock' and enter password.
3. Next, go to 'Manage Groups'.
4. Search for the groups 'pulse' and 'pulse access'

5. For both of these, double click on them and add yourself to this group by checking on the check-box.

6. Hopefully, you are done !! Logout with ctrl+alt+backspace, and login again.

Virtualbox resolution problem

2008-10-19T21:38:00.002+05:30

Problem: Guest machine doesn't switch to full screen even after installing VBox additions.

One possible solution:
Switch to seamless mode (host key + L ), and then back to full screen mode. !!

I run Windows XP on Ubuntu using Virtualbox, and recently came across this resolution problem: my notebook resolution is 1280X800 and in the virtual machine, it was just not allowing me to set the resolution to this ! Most people asked me to install VBox additions but I had already installed them... others asked me to increase the video memory of the virtual machine to 20 MB because that gave more options for resolution... even then, all other resolution options were there except 1280X800 !!

It was really annoying to have some other resolution and as a last resort, i thought of using the seamless mode (host+L). It was cool, but I had to switch off the compiz effects. Then, i tried the full screen mode again..... and guess what.... the screen resolution was automatically set to 1280X800 !!!

The GUI doesn't load, shows a crappy binary screen with hell lot of cursors !

2008-10-11T02:38:00.003+05:30

The GUI doesn't load, shows a crappy binary screen with hell lot of cursors !

Possible
Solution: 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg'

Now, this was the problem I was facing since the last 5 days, and had to resort to the use of
Windows to read the lecture slides coz the tests are on.
Research: I logged in via the recovery mode (as root) and tried the 'startx', 'x', and other X server
commands, but in vain.... everytime the shitty screen came up instead of the cool blue login screen.
I used to log out of the X server mode using 'CTRL+ALT+ BACK SPACE', and the following log
used to be displayed in the root terminal:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
X window System Version 1.3.0
Reles Date: 19 April 2007
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Realease 1.3
Build Operating System: Linux Ubuntu(xorg-server 2:1.3.3.3.dfsg-12ubuntu8.3)
Current operating system: Linux sa...... 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12
07:42:25 UTC 2008 i686
using file: /etc/X11/Xorg.conf
.
.
(EE) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable
xinit": connection to X server lost.
waiting for X server to shut down FreeFontPath: FPE
"user/share/fonts/X11/misc"
refcount is 2, should be 1, fixing.
Now, I checked the mentioned Xorg.conf file, and everything seemed pretty perfect! After 5 days of
messing around here and there, I finally found the solution (though I still don't know the reason why
the hell it occured). I again viewed the Xorg.conf file in less and found some comments how to
reconfigure it. The xorg.conf file looks like this:
# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration
tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package
upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the
xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be
automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
..
.
.
.
.
And I tried reconfigure it, and VOILA ! i am writing this using Open-office doc !(obviously in my GUI).

Happy researching

My google notebook for 'Voice recognition using MATLAB'

2008-09-30T12:12:00.001+05:30

Hello people, m currently working on a project 'Speech Recognition',
here's the link to my research notebook:

http://www.google.com/notebook/public/04626301401408095128/BDRhiDAoQ5eTuj8sj

Importing Contacts from Gmail to Thunderbird.

2008-05-04T18:14:00.000+05:30

Initially, I exported the Gmail address book, in the .csv format and tried to import the file in Thunderbird, but there was some problem. So, incase, you are facing some difficulty, follow the alternate procedure:

Go to the contacts window in your Gmail acccount. Near the end you'd find the options export/import.
Select the export option, and then, the v-card option.
After the download, you'll have a contacts.vcf file probably.
Login into your yahoo mail account (remember I told you: Alternate procedure !!). Go to contacts. Near the top, there'd be an option Export/Import. Import your file (the .vcf file mentioned above). It will notify that all xxx contacts successfully added. (I hope it does !! :) )
Now, again go back to export/import.
Now just below the place you clicked the 'import' button, there'd be an 'export' button with a few options, one of them saying 'for netscape and thunderbird (.ldif)'. Select that button, and Import the file. You will have a .ldif file where you saved it.
Now, go to your Address book in thunderbird. Then to tools/import.
Select the .ldif file. Press OK.
That's it, all the fields 'd b matching correctly.

PS: I know that this method is silly, but it worked very fast for me. There's be methods far better and not so 'alternate', but this is also one of the methids. And more importantly: IT WORKS !!

Configuring Thunderbird for Gmail.

2008-05-04T16:45:00.000+05:30

Configuring Thunderbird in UBUNTU for downloading Gmail messages using POP:
Now , this was something that caused me a lot of trouble, and took me a long time to start of with. But recently, I did work.

The problem was that I was using the wrong information, and was baffled when it was not working. Maybe the information worked in some onher environments, but for me it was just the other side of what I needed.

So, the configuration:(assuming that you have already installed Thundebird, obviously)
STEP 0:
in your gmail account, go to settings/forwarding and pop/
Select the radio button which enables POP access .

STEP1:
Download the latest Webmail and Webmail-Gmail plugins from the internet.
The link is: http://webmail.mozdev.org/installation.html

STEP 2:
Open thunderbird, go to tools/addons. There will be an option: Install. Click on that, and select your respective plugins (remember there are two of them atleast).

STEP 3:
Restart thunderbird, and again go to tools/addons. You'd see your latest installed plugins there.
Click on the Webmail preferences. Edit it accordingly so that it looks like this:

Note that the ports are all greater than 1024. Reason being that my system, and some others block all ports below that. So, this is important. On the internet you would often be asked to put ports like 995 or something, but they might not work.)

STEP 4:
Restart thunderbird and make sure that all the Servers show a green ball, i.e. thy are all running. Now, go to edit/account settings/new account/Gmail Account
Fill in the information like this:

Remember to put 'localhost' in the server box, and the respective server port on shich the server is running (in step 3)

STEP 5:
for the SMTP server, fill in the information like this:

that's all, restart and it should downloading your gmail messages via POP.

any problems, leave comment.

Whew !! New blog!!

2008-05-04T16:42:00.000+05:30

Yeah, I started this new blog ,
Normally, everytime I used to do something crazy, I summarized it out in a PDF and kept safely in my backups, lest they become helpful someday!
But then , I thought these summaries might, as well, save someone else's time too!! So, here I fire new blog people.