tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8149587293605880712024-03-14T01:38:36.895+05:30Variably volatilePseudo technical ramblings...Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-1601615382539327232012-06-14T01:18:00.000+05:302012-06-14T01:18:16.598+05:30BYOD... the next hype cycle...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Bring Your Own Device. A neat way to reduce IT costs of an organization by tricking the employees to fend for themselves as far as computing devices are concerned. It is not even new, as some form of BYOD has been there for a few years even before people started calling it BYOD...<br />
<br />
The current hype cycle belongs to BYOD... </div>Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-40272982203679954052012-05-24T00:10:00.000+05:302012-05-24T00:10:08.596+05:30The curious case of 1366x768...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
HD ready? Whatever!<br />
<br />
Don't understand why it is the most common screen option in everything starting from an 11" ultrabook to a 17" desktop replacement...<br />
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The current MacBookAir 13" has better specs than most ultrabooks, and the price difference is not very much... And it has a 1440x900 LCD... An MBA for around 75k (INR)...<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-82737312255438047042012-02-14T00:19:00.003+05:302012-02-14T00:24:02.739+05:30Firefox 1111...Still do not understand why the Firefox folks had to change how the product is versioned. Something is seriously wrong. What's the whole point of pushing out multiple major releases within a span of only a few days!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-16655197517318712342012-01-20T14:49:00.003+05:302012-01-20T14:53:28.416+05:30Code search laid to rest....Buzz had died down, that was a while back... Wave was a still birth...<br /><br />Now, something useful, Google Code Search, has been shutdown... <br /><br />Going to miss you!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-11271524184918402822010-02-11T22:50:00.003+05:302010-02-11T23:01:14.411+05:30Un poema........The poem, <span style="font-style:italic;">An Irish Airman Foresees His Death</span>, by Yeats kind of captures my feelings towards my work. <br /><br />I love programming, but somewhere along the line, the fun goes away. From then on, it is about the money, position et cetera. <br /><br />I mean, I need the money. Seriously. WTF!<br /><br />Still... <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">I know that I shall meet my fate<br />Somewhere among the clouds above;<br />Those that I fight I do not hate,<br />Those that I guard I do not love;<br />My country is Kiltartan Cross,<br />My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,<br />No likely end could bring them loss<br />Or leave them happier than before.<br />Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,<br />Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,<br />A lonely impulse of delight<br />Drove to this tumult in the clouds;<br />I balanced all, brought all to mind,<br />The years to come seemed waste of breath,<br />A waste of breath the years behind<br />In balance with this life, this death.</span>Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-8245308683015935362010-02-11T22:10:00.003+05:302010-02-11T22:16:32.351+05:30New kid in town...And it is called Buzz. Google buzz. buzzzzzzzzz.......<br /><br />I fail to get excited. Or was it, I refuse to get excited? Is that so bad?<br /><br />Why would my rants be of any interest to anyone else? Why would someone's rants be of any interest to me?<br /><br />Damn. Oh well, I have the option of staying away!<br /><br />Right. Shall exercise that. <br /><br />By publishing online. Like this.<br /><br />QED.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-89512237032557480812009-08-13T23:50:00.004+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.641+05:30Ganymede to Galileo... to the moon and back...Callisto to Europa to Ganymede to Galileo... The trend has been set... The next version of Eclipse is gonna be different... It is going to weigh more... Soon people will be forced to download a 500MB file as the IDE... and then the next version will be even bigger...<br /><br />Great!!<br /><br />Am loving it!!!<br /><br />Thoroughly!!!!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-86641683429174830642009-08-12T00:51:00.003+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.641+05:30RFC on TLAs...Read one of the funny RFCs on TLAs...<br /><br />Well... :-)<br /><br /><a href="ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc5513.txt">RFC-5513</a><br /><br />Got a list of such RFCs <a href="http://interglacial.com/~sburke/rfchumor.html">here</a>...Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-66053872562880521692009-07-19T19:19:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.642+05:30A new operating system...Google building new OS, around a Linux kernel... Dunno how correct my understanding is! Ain't that more like a new custom distro?<br /><br />Well, am no geek or a Google fan-boy!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-2764264232262094022009-07-19T19:08:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.642+05:30Incorrect defaults...Found out the hard way, after installing Fedora 11...<br /><br />Have been running Fedora 8, decided to try the latest spin... and it won't let me choose the display resolution... but on its own it won't give me anything better than 800x600... WTF!<br /><br />I mean, what the bloody f$#@ !<br /><br />Am done with Fedora...<br /><br />Switching to "linux for human beings"<br /><br />And it at the very least allows me to set the display to 1280x1024, even if that ain't the native resolution of my CRT.<br /><br />Cool... Peace... Bless!!!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-90632324147008295182009-06-08T23:51:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.642+05:30Google waves...Watched a demo of Google <a href="http://wave.google.com/">wave</a>.<br /><br />Frankly, am not very excited... :-|<br /><br />Somehow I don't like the idea of 'browser-as-the-operating-system', or even 'browser-as-the-platform'. I am not a believer yet. Will not be as long as the browser windows have those forward, back, and reload buttons.<br /><br />Would rather like to see (desktop-)applications that are seamlessly network enabled. Without having to fiddle around with "XmlHttpRequest" or some such shit. And not using "java.net.url" or some very low level stuff either. That's just me.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-63169410777396154862009-05-29T23:41:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.643+05:30LTE...Another TLA...<br /><br />Stands for Long Term Evolution... <br /><br />Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Term_Evolution">entry</a>...<br /><br />WTF!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-65675370370307797362009-05-28T00:23:00.003+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.643+05:30KDE on Windows...Installed <a href="http://windows.kde.org/">KDE</a> on Windoz Vista... <br /><br />Jus' for the heck of it... <br /><br />Installed <a href="http://www.digikam.org/">digiKam</a> too... Gotta play around with it.<br /><br />Can't afford anything other than the free PDF reader from Adobe, leave alone Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom. :-(<br /><br />Adobe converts the US prices to Indian prices by multiplying with the exchange rate of the moment. All their products invariably will remain way too expensive for someone like me as long as the exchange rate is above one :-(Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-56429612118992951142009-05-18T23:23:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.643+05:30Stock markets halted...Apparently for the first time in the history for hitting the upper circuit... Just what an election result can do... <br /><br />Talk about fundamentals... :-)<br /><br />The bulls, and speculators are back... big time... at least for the time being.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-13368068025570615202009-05-13T15:46:00.003+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.644+05:30Java to Scala...Interesting, and cool... :-)<br /><pre><br /> boolean nameHasUpperCase = false; // This is Java<br /> for (int i = 0; i < name.length(); ++i) { <br /> if (Character.isUpperCase(name.charAt(i))) { <br /> nameHasUpperCase = true; <br /> break; <br /> } <br /> }<br /></pre><br />in Java to<br /><pre><br /> boolean nameHasUpperCase = !name.toLowerCase().equals(name);<br /></pre><br />in Java to<br /><pre><br /> val nameHasUpperCase = name.exists(_.isUpperCase) <br /></pre><br />in Scala.<br /><br />From the <a href="http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/programming_style.html">article</a> "How Scala Changed My Programming Style" by Bill Venners.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-46400562597629492592009-04-08T20:40:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.644+05:30Stock market...Stock market experts are one too many, on TV, here in blogosphere, in print media... I also have doled out unsolicited advice on the market conditions to people who are generally too gullible to take me seriously.<br /><br />If the BSE index is up, and Dow Jones is down, the economies are not linked, if both head south or go up, markets are linked. Interesting. It is linked, then it is not linked, linked not linked, not linked linked, linked not linked. Repeat fast enough.<br /><br />The current theme is whether the market has bottomed out or not... One day it has, the next oh, it ain't... it has, it ain't, it has, it ain't... <br /><br />Bloody irritating... even blogging about it.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-42940850159369532682009-01-01T14:39:00.002+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.644+05:30Intel powered... Harpic...Intel powered Harpic, Intel powered MDH Masala... WTF!!<br /><br />Of late, the "Intel powered" tag line in television ads about laptops with an Intel processor inside comes before the ads themselves. So if an ad for the Harpic or MDH Masala which does not have a tag line is followed by a Compaq or HP laptop ad you will get to see this nice blending effect.<br /><br />Intel powered Harpic... Cool... I guess it will ensure that Harpic, and MDH have WiMAX capability out of the box pretty soon. <br /><br />Interesting!Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-43690620388619116282008-12-27T00:07:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.645+05:30Question of type and character...I have a soft corner for cursive fonts. But of the non-cursive types, I am not too sure what I like more, serifs or sans-serifs. :-(<br /><br />In short, I like most types of types. :-)<br /><br />But, type rendering on Linux still pisses me off. When will it become at least tolerably good? Being an armchair critic is much easier than trying to implement a good font interpreter all by myself, anyway. :-)Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-42090375723742328472008-12-26T23:35:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.645+05:30Small is beautiful...May be. <br /><br />But I do prefer my laptop to be at least 14.1". Watching videos on PDAs and mobile phones is not my cup of tea. <br /><br />I wonder where all these convergence and miniaturization is taking us. Some people are buying into it (literally), and some people are making a bunch of money.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-64810488036661835662008-11-22T12:27:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.645+05:30More Norton WTF...Uninstalled and re-installed Norton Internet Security. Now SystemWorks keeps flashing that no anti-virus is installed. If it can't even detect an installation of a product from the same vendor correctly, how on earth would it protect me from virus, and other more exotic stuff... I mean, WTF.<br /><br />Selective un-installation does noes even work. <br /> <br />Money gone down the drain... :-(Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-5352661404648141472008-11-05T19:10:00.001+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.645+05:30A sense of security...Often wonder how effective the anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-malware tools really are. It is nothing short of blind faith that I have in the particular (Norton) products that I have. <br /><br />Might as well switch completely to a Linux only environment. Too reluctant to get out, as things mostly "just works" on Windows XP, and more importantly about one tenth of the cost of the laptop was for the OEM version of Windows XP.<br /><br />Have both Norton Internet Security 2009, and Norton Systemworks installed. I was able to register one of the products, while the other just refused to do so citing lack of connection to the internet. <br /><br />Another quirk. If the Windows firewall is disabled, following the advice from one of the products, the other complains rather loudly about it, and will flash till both the firewalls are enabled, and slowing down my rather old laptop. A (false) sense of security, twice over. Wonderful integration, indeed.<br /><br />The online account needed for the product registration allows only letters and numerals in the password. That really is something to be appreciated, coming from a company peddling computer security tools.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-79059962258568903932008-10-11T19:27:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.646+05:30Problem is elsewhere.......Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman. Greenspan says the world is facing “the type of wrenching financial crisis that comes along only once in a century,” but, reports the New York Times, "his faith in derivatives remains unshaken." Greenspan believes that the problem is not with derivatives, but that the people using them got greedy, according to the Times.<br /><br />This is quite a view. Is it a surprise to Alan Greenspan that the people on Wall Street -- said to be ruled only by the opposing instincts of greed and fear -- "got greedy?"<br /><br /><br />by Ralph Nader in a recent CounterPunch <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/nader10122008.html">article</a>.Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-4597956798672020202008-10-05T18:56:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.646+05:30C++C++ was my first programming language. Kind of liked it, mainly because it was the first one I learned. It was somewhat like diving into the deep end of the pool to learn swimming. <br /><br />Used to think that I did have a decent understanding of the language. Not anymore. The language has evolved a lot, and am badly out of touch after becoming a full-time Java programmer. Not sure if I can continue to have it in my resume. Especially after realizing that I could not answer most of the questions in the <a href="http://www.gotw.ca/gotw/">GOTW</a>. <br /><br />Then a few interviews happened. Talked to some people who claimed to be very good at C++. Most of them were surprised to know that "struct"s can contain methods. Or why a copy constructor should take a reference.<br /><br />That was a real confidence booster, personally. <br /><br />Any openings for a born-again C++ programmer?Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-88253070566778561462008-10-05T18:43:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.646+05:30Haskell...Trying to learn Haskell...<br /><br />Don't know if anything useful can come out of this intellectual exercise. Many a year back I came across a comment in a piece of PERL code I was maintaining that it was much easier to accomplish the same thing in a functional language like Haskell. That piece of code is no longer maintained, but the urge to figure out for myself if the claim is valid still remains.<br /><br />Learning Haskell on a Sunday evening. Hmmm...<br /><br />Am not a geek, not even trying to appear like a geek. :-)Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-814958729360588071.post-35947865556450968182008-10-05T14:52:00.000+05:302012-02-14T00:26:39.647+05:30Economics...Economics is an interesting field. Nobody seems to understand it, neither the practitioners nor the outsiders. And naturally I do not understand it either. <br /><br />According to Scott Adams people with formal training in Economics or any of the related fields have a propensity to (over-)use the phrase "on the other hand", and they are also relatively immune to cognitive dissonance. Whatever that may be, economics is still very much like astrology. <br /><br />Mind you, I am prone to cognitive dissonance myself :-)Binu Raghavanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02553693934067773412noreply@blogger.com