Abstract-n-Concrete

Amazing Catch on the boundry line by Adam Voges

2009-02-15T23:49:00.000-08:00

In the Twenty20 International played on 15th February 2009 between Australia and New Zealand, Adam Voges (Aus) pulled of this amazing catch to dismiss Brendan McCullum at a crucial stage of the game.

Carry on Ponting ...

2009-02-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ponting spoke before he had seen a replay but challenged Vettori to be sure of his Haddin criticism. "It's a bit much, he's basically claiming [Haddin's] a cheat, isn't he? That's a bit strong unless they're 100% certain.

"We'll wait and see. If [a replay] does show anything that Brad is in the clear, I'll certainly be letting Daniel know about it. It's probably worth Haddin having a chat to him as well. He's basically had a bit of a crack at Haddin's make-up."

That's what Ricky ponting said after Neil Broom had been given out bowled of Michael Clarke, when Haddin's gloves were in front of the stumps and knocked off the bails, with Michael Clarke's delivery also appearing to head over the stumps. Neither umpire noticed Haddin's movement, which should have led to a no-ball, but it was clear on the replay. So here's the replay ponting did not see ...

Chappell-Hadlee Trophy - 1st ODI Australia v New Zealand (match link)

Django documentation search bookmarklet

2009-01-27T03:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple bookmarklet to search the Django documentation. To use it, simply drag this bookmark - Search Django Docs- to your browser's toolbar.

Click on the bookmark, enter a search term and you will be taken to the Django documentation search page with search results for your search term.

Disclaimer / Terms of Use

Obviously, this is not an official Django Search bookmarklet. I had created it for my own use and sharing it with you. The search bar bookmarklet is totally innocuous, but nevertheless by installing it you agree I am not liable for anything, period, the end.

Inspired by the Prototype API Search bookmarklet from http://prototypejs.org/api.

Source Code

p=prompt('Search Django Documentation');
if(p) {
  p=p.replace(/\./g, '/');
      // Location is the search query appended to the Django custom search URL      
      loc='http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/search/?cx=009763561546736975936:e88ek0eurf4&cof=FORID:11&ie=UTF-8&hl=&sa=Search&q='+p.toLowerCase();
window.open(loc); // Open in new window
};
return false; // Inform the browser that the action of opening a URL, should not evaluate

Emosional Atyachar

2009-01-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

This is cool :) First there was Dard-E-Disco and now Emosional Atayachar ...

Great strip from XKCD

2008-05-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

This comic is really good, if you like this sort of thing.

Permanent link to this comic: http://xkcd.com/416/

Leap of faith

2008-04-23T00:29:00.000-07:00


The woods are lovely,
        dark and deep,

Inviting me to take a peek

        Keeping faith I take the leap

I break some promises,
        satisfaction I reap

A script to remove spaces from a file name

2008-04-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

I face a lot of problem while dealing with files with spaces in their names on the Unix platform. I wrote a script yesterday to change the spaces in a file name to undescores.

It is very useful for changing the names of all files in a directory along with directory names.

Save the script to your home directory or to /usr/bin or some such directory,

Go to the directory in which you want to effect the name change and run
# find . -depth -exec ~/rename.sh {} \;

This will rename all files in the directory so that the spaces in filenames are changed to underscores.

The script is as follows:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Writen by Mayuresh Phadke (mayuresh at gmail.com)# To change the names of all files in a directory including directory names
# run the command
#
#  find . -depth -exec ~/rename.sh {} ;
#
# This command is pretty useful if you have a collection of songs or pictures transferred
# from your windows machine and you are finding it difficult to handle the
# spaces in the filenames on UNIX
#
#set -x

progname=`basename $0`

if [ $# != 1 ]
then
      echo "Usage: $progname \"file name with spaces\""
      echo
      echo "This utility is useful for renaming files with spaces in the filename. Spaces in the filename are replaced with _"
      echo "\"file name with spaces\" will be renamed to \"file_name_with_spaces\""
      echo
      exit 1
fi

old_name=$1
dir=`dirname "$1"`
file=`basename "$1"`

new_file=`echo $file|sed "s/ /_/g"`
new_name=$dir"/"$new_file

if [ "$old_name" != "$new_name" ]
then
      mv "$old_name" "$new_name"
fi

exit 0

Please let me know if you find this useful/useless or if you have any other comments about it.

Tools for developing Dynamic Web Sites

2008-04-02T03:48:00.000-07:00

I started developing web sites about an year ago. When I started out I did not know of any of the frameworks which make the job of developing a dynamic web site easy. I spent a lot of time finding tools which suited my need.

In this post I have listed the tools I use. It may help newbies by giving a reference point to start out their exploration.

LAMP Based

The base infrastructure is LAMP with a little deviation. I use Linux-Apache-MySQL-Python (instead of PHP).

For the uninitiated this means I run the Apache web server, with MySQL as my Database engine, on the Linux operating system. Python is used for generating dynamic web pages on the fly.

Framework for Dynamic pages

Django is used for generating dynamic web pages. Django lets you build high-performing, elegant Web applications quickly. Django focuses on automating as much as possible and adhering to the DRY principle. Django is very well documented and the online Django Book makes it very easy for anyone to start using Django quickly.

Frontend

I layout my pages using Blueprint. This is a CSS framework which allows you to have a great layout with very clean and simple code. List formatting is done with Listamatic. It provides a easy way to create great looking lists.

And of course there is AJAX. I use the excellent Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries to add Ajax to my site. These libraries make it easy to have cross browser compatible JavaScripts.

Conclusion

Using tools greatly reduces the work required to be done to develop a website. Choosing a framework/tool which suits you is the biggest task. Think carefully about what you want to achieve and what the tool provides. Use the one which matches your style and requirements.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Interview

2008-03-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

'If there's commitment, that's victory for me'

India's one-day and Twenty20 captain looks back at six momentuous months in charge

Interview by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan and Nagraj Gollapudi

Read more here. Dhoni talks really well. He seems to be very clear about what he is doing.

Travelling Salesman Problem

2008-03-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

From http://xkcd.com/399/

Tranquility

2008-01-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

Sitting in the park
by the roadside,
among multitudes
of vehicles and men,
Cacophony all around,
Cacophony in my head.

In the sky there's a red moon,
glowing silently with pleasure,
A tree outlined against the night sky,
Water playing in a fountain at leisure.

I journey to a different world,
there is no one except me,
Tranquility all around,
and Peace within me.

What a match !

2008-01-20T21:52:00.000-08:00

There is much more to cricket,
Than just boundaries and Wickets ...

The third match in the ongoing test series between India and Australia was an absorbing contest. There are many things that happened in the match that showed that just cannot be captured in an highlights package.

The best passage of play according to me was a nine over spell by rookie Ishant Sharma to one of the best batsmen of the world, Ricky Ponting. Sambit Bal describes this passage of play here.

Other things that stand out are,

Laxman's uncharacteristic workman like batting in the second innings, to help build the lead,

Pathan making a comeback to the test side and bowling beautifully to get the Aussie openers in both innings

Symonds walking off without a fuss after the umpire had adjudged him LBW of a thick inside edge

Symonds and Gilchrist's counter attack after Aussies were down in the dumps in the first innings ...

The list could go on, as I continue to re-live the match yet again in my minds eye.

Django book

2008-01-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

The long awaited Django book has been released. The book is now available in stores and online at http://www.djangobook.com/en/1.0/.

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Django was designed to make common Web-development tasks fast and easy. More info about Django can be found here http://www.djangoproject.com/.

Some reasons why you would want to choose Django as your Web framework:

Constructive reasons to use Django instead of Rails

ten reasons why you should use Django

I have been using Django for over six months now and can say that it is really easy to use and can get things done very fast.

Match Fixing?

2008-01-09T23:29:00.000-08:00

Going back to the 2nd test match at SCG I keep wondering about the match fixing angle. No one yet seems to be publicly speaking about this. So I want to know why people do not feel that this is match fixing.

Arguments for match-fixing

There were around 12 wrong decisions made in the match. ALL the decisions benefited one team. If it would have been just a case of bad umpiring, the wrong decisions should have affected both sides equally.

Umpires refusing to consult the third umpire for close calls.

The third umpire giving a wrong decision. This is almost unheard of in cricket.

Umpire consulting the Aussie Captain, Ricky Ponting on whether to give a batman out.

If a player from either side had dropped 12 catches, wouldn't he be investigated for match fixing?

For me all these point to match fixing. Maybe I am missing something, maybe I am seeing only one side of the coin.

So all you pundits out there, is there another side to this? Is there any reason not to treat this match as fixed? Or are the umpires immune to match fixing charges?

Disgusting

2008-01-07T00:07:00.000-08:00

The way cricket was played in the 2nd test match at SCG is plain disgusting. If what happened during the course of the match is not fixing, then I am not sure what is.

Umpire giving some wrong decisions can be understood, but what cannot be understood is all the wrong decisions going in favor of the same team, Australia in this case. Also the umpires are supposed to maintain law and order on the field. In this match law was what the Aussie players wanted. Ponting only had to raise his finger for the umpire to follow suit. A match which should have been won fair and square by India was ultimately won by Australia in a tight finish. Between them, Messrs Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson got as many 12 decisions wrong, an unacceptably high number, and that in the end, allowed Australia to eke out a 16th straight Test victory with at least 7 balls remaining in the game.

The ICC would do good to just strike this match off its record books and re-play the game with a set of untainted umpires. They should also start an inquiry regarding match fixing for this match.

The Indian team would do good to just walk out of this tour and return home. If the results of matches are pre-decided what's the point in playing the game?

Related Links:

Losing respect and getting under Ponting's collar

Sorry, Ricky, you don’t deserve to be trusted

Kumble questions OZ attitude

Dodgy deeds leave sour taste

The wrong decisions:

How they went wrong

Australia (1st innings)

Over 13.1, Ricky Ponting on 17 caught behind off Sourav Ganguly but given not out by Mark Benson. Australia 45/2

Over 29.5, Ponting given out lbw by Benson off thick inside-edge to Harbhajan Singh. 118/3- The one in favor of india

Over 46.4, Andrew Symonds on 30 caught behind off Ishant Sharma, given not out by Bucknor. 193/6. This has to be the worst. The edge was oh so clear !

Over 55.3, Symonds on 48 stumped off Harbhajan. Third umpire Oxenford rules him not out. 238/6

Over 73.3, Symonds on 106 lbw off Kumble. Benson rules not out. 314/7

Over 101.5, Symonds on 148 stumped off Harbhajan. Not even referred to TV umpire by Bucknor. 421/7

India (1st innings)

Over 12.3 Laxman on 16 lbw off Lee. Benson rules not out. India 25/1

Over 78.2 Sachin on 36 lbw off Clarke. Ruled not out by Benson. 293/3

Australia (2nd innings)

Over 41.1, Mike Hussey on 22 lbw to Kumble. Benson rules not out. Australia 133/2

Over 53.4, Hussey on 45. caught behind off R.P. Singh. Benson rule not out. 188/2

India (2nd innings)

Over 33.1, Dravid on 38 ruled out caught behind off Symonds by Bucknor. The ball had clearly hit thepad, and the bat and glove was totally tucked behind.

Over 40.2, Ganguly on 51, caught by Clarke off the ground. Benson rules out without referring to TV umpire.

Dard-e-disco

2008-01-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

When I first heard this song, I had dismissed it it as more more boring item number.

But then I heard it again and again on um teem TV channels and it started catching my fancy. And now I am a fan :) This one really takes the cake. The lyrics (by Javed Akhtar) and music (by Vishal Shekhar) and the rendering (by Sukhwinder Singh) ooze confidence. These guys seem to be enjoying every thing about the song.

The situation of the song in the movie (Om Shanti Om) is perfect. A handicapped hero (no hands, no legs, deaf, dumb and blind) has been ditched by his sweetheart. He needs to express is feelings in this situation. So how does he express the Dard (Pain)? Of course by doing a Dard-e-disco albeit in a dream sequence.

Kudos to all ppl involved in this song.

The Zen of Python

2008-01-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

I liked this a lot. Programming philosophy that I believe in.

Taken from http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0020/ Author: Tim Peters <tim at zope.com>

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

Death of Indian Cricket

2006-11-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

The king of Indian sports is dead.

Long live the king !!!

Time for other sports to make a claim for the throne.

Script to ping Technocrati

2006-10-30T21:24:00.000-08:00

Getting your blog listed on technocrati may be a good way to increase traffic to ur site. I have written a Python script to ping technocrati with your blog details. Here is a link to the script. The script could be quite useful to automatically ping Technocrati for all your blogs using a cron job.

Python rocks :)

Comparison of REST Vs XML-RPC

2006-10-29T22:29:00.000-08:00

Some background of the protocols

Rest protocol uses the HTTP GET and HTTP PUT methods to communicate with an application server. For example an API for a typical application would look like


http://example.com/users/
http://example.com/users/{user} (one for each user)
http://example.com/findUserForm
http://example.com/locations/
http://example.com/locations/{location} (one for each location)
http://example.com/findLocationForm

The client typically a webbrowser needs to construct HTTP requests and parse XML or HTML responses.

XML-RPC uses XML protocol to make Remote procedure calls to execute functions defined on objects, over the network.

An RPC application might define operations such as the following:


getUser()
addUser()
removeUser()
updateUser()
getLocation()
addLocation()
removeLocation()
updateLocation()
listUsers()
listLocations()
findLocation()
findUser()

The client needs to construct an XML request and parse the XML response.

Comparison

REST is an HTTP based protocol. Whereas XML-RPC is XML based.
IMO, REST being an HTTP based protocol works best when the client is a browser. XML-RPC on the other hand is XML based. So no assumption is made about the client which is going to use the protocol.
When the client is a browser, more efforts need to be put in by the client to use XML-RPC than to use REST.

An advantage of REST over XML-RPC is that each object has its own URL and can easily be cached, copied, and bookmarked.

Advantage of XML-RPC is that it is client independant. Any sort of client be it a desktop application a mobile application, a mashup using information from your site can easily integrate with XML-RPC.

Overall I think REST has its advantages in the browser world. But as more and more applications are using the web as a platform and accessing it through a variety of methods other than web browsers XML-RPC has and edge over REST.

Conclusion

Web services should provide and XML based interface like XML-RPC. The could also provide a RESTful interface built on top of XML-RPC to support browser based clients.

My view of Gandhigiri

2006-10-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Gandhigiri is not about not hurting anyone, its not all about putting your other cheek forward after being hit on one cheek.

It is about getting your way by causing mental pain to your opponent as opposed to physical pain.

Niharika

2006-10-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Niharika 20/10/06

Lage Raho ... Mohandas

2006-09-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

You can kill someone but it's impossible to kill his thoughts.

How true this is in the case of a particular Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. First they killed the man and then over the years tried their best to kill his thoughts. The school curriculum does try to do an especially good job in making sure the kids grow up having all the wrong notions about the so called father of the nation.

But still the his thoughts linger. Sometime after college I was introduced to Gandhi the Philosopher and suddenly realized what a great person he was :) Of course I do not agree to all of his ideas, but you do have to stop and think over them.

The reason to recollect these thoughts are "Lage raho MubbaBhai". What a way to re-introduce a great man ! As a movie it's really good and very entertaining. But what takes it to an higher level is the ideas it presents.

The thoughts of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, trapped in tons of books, under layers of dust, neglected for years, materialize as the man himself when our protoganist, MunnaBhai, spends a few days and nights without sleep going through those books in a last ditch attempt to impress the love of his life. 'Bapu' himself then starts advising MunnaBhai on how to solve the problems he faces. MunnaBhai who resorts to "Bhaigiri" to solve problems resorts to "Gandhigiri" for the same with hilarious and thought provoking results.
The movie shows 'Bapu' as a normal human being, albeit with a lot of guts and belief that truth is THE way of life. Bapu is brought down from the pedestals and photos, to mix with normal people with everyday problems. His thoughts are made accessible by applying them to situations different types of people can identify with. And herein lies the success of the movie. Well done Rajkumar Hirani !

And as Bapu says at the end of the movie, His thoughts will live on ... materializing themselves time and again ...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of Bapu's quotes on brainyquotes.com

Truth?

2006-09-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

You got to be religious
Insisted my Mother
This way to keep away sorrows
is better than any other

Religion does not tell me
the Truth about Life I said
of how the world functions
and how it was made

Do you really need to know
all of these things?

Don't you think attaining peace of mind
is above all these things?

But why should I surrender to delusions
when I know that the truth is out there?

I will search for the truth
no matter the path leads where

I searched for the truth
and it lead me here

but the truth was such
that I am still not sure

There are no truths
There are no lies
You are born and therefore
will live through this life

There is no grief
there is no sorrow
All you are here to do is reproduce
and for that survive till tomorrow

For this survival
you have been given some sense
And to cover the questions raised (by this sense)
we had to invent this religion non-sense

if only we could control sense
to be doled out in exact proportions
we won't be thinking "higher" things
and be concentrating on matters on hand

We would be producing worthy offsprings
and populating the earth
without needing the briddle of religion
steering us for all its worth

You got to be religious
I said to my daughter
This way to happiness
is better than any other

What is Grid Computing?

2006-03-09T21:08:00.000-08:00

Have been reading a lot about "Grid Computing". Many times it seems to be used just as a buzzword to attract an audience.

From the terminology it seemd to be some sort of arrangement of computers connected to each other as a Grid. These computers interacted with each other over fast communication channels and together provided a better computing environment than a stanalone computer. This understanding is quite wrong.

The Grid in Grid computing has nothing to do with the connection architecture. Grid refers more to a "Power Grid". A power grid is a system which allows some entities to generate electric power and feed it to the Grid, while consumers can get their power supply from the Grid. The consumer does not care who generates the power and the Generators do not care who exactly consumes it. The middle-men, the distribution companies, take the onus of assuring Quality Of Service and billing consumers and paying the generators.

The concept of Grid Computing is somewhat similiar. There would be entities which can provide services like Computing capacity, Storage capacity, etc normally required for computing purposes. These services would be put on the Grid and consumers would consume them as required. The provider nor the consumers need to be aware of each other's identity. The only thing to care about is the Quality of Service a provider provides and the money a comsumer is ready to pay for it. Also a consumer would be billed only for the actual usage of the service.

The important aspects of Grid Computing are ability to locate services with specified attributes, having a QOS agreement and metering the usage of the service.

Implementing Grid Computing in an organization helps to keep track of usage of IT resources by different sections of the organization. This helps in charging various sections according to their usage of IT resources and seeing these charges as an cash inflow for the IT department. The budget spending in IT departments can be controlled with this information in hand.

Given the rise in availablity of internet connectivity it is very easy even for individual users to buy services off the grid and producers to put up their services on it. The rise in internet usage and bandwidth should be a good push for Grid Computing.

Snowfall in Boston

2006-03-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

Memories from Nov 2004 ...

Saw snow for the first time in my life in Boston. Its beautiful the way the tiny snowflakes drift down. Slowly they start covering the ground, trees, and everything around. Son there is nothing you can see but snow. It is a unique feeling to see all the world in mostly black and white.

Here are some photos I had clicked during the snowfall.

A snowy lot

The parking lot snowed down.

Flakes

Snow flakes bieng whipped around by the wind.

Snow flakes drifting down

A gloomy atmoshere

Looks like the pictures of winter days in London from the Sherlock Holmes books.

Enchanted Woods?

I got a eerie and enchanting feeling while looking at these trees covered with snow and a dull light illuminating them.

My car covered in snow

Had to spend a long time getting it off.

Women's Day

2006-03-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

I am quite sure Women's day is celebrated so that the world is free not to be respectable to women on other days.

The day women are really liberated it will be their day everyday and not limited to 8th March.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

2006-03-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd.

-- Alexander Pope, "Eloisa to Abelard"

Everyone will meet and fall in love with the person destined, no matter how far you go to avoid it, even to the extent of erasing the person from memory .......

Would you stop loving someone their memories are erased from your brain? Or would love happen again when you meet the person?

Saw the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind" on the weekend. The movie works on different levels. The presentation is a bit different, a kind of Maze which the viewer has to walk through. One interesting part of watching the movie is moving through the maze and unravelling the story. The other is the story itself. I liked the movie on both counts, but more so for the message it conveyed for me.

The movie is a cool love story between an impulsive, wild, extrovert woman, Clementine and a shy, introvert man, Joel.

They are in love, but hate many things about each other. One fine day, on an impulse, Clementine decides she has had enough of this and undergoes a procedure wherby she erases all memories of Joel. Joel mops around for a few days and then decides that the best way out would be to erase all memories of Clementine from his brain.

The procedure starts. Joel's brain is scanned and one by one, the memories of Clementine are found and destroyed. Suddenly Joel wakes up to a level of semi-consiousness where he starts becoming aware that the memories he had treasured the most in his life are being taken away from him. He wants to stop the process but can't. Then starts a fight between Joel and the erasing machine. Joel's sub-consious mind along with whatever is left of Clementine's memories tries to hide the memories in places which would not be reached and erased. Joel has treasured Clementine the most in his life and he is really afraid to let her go away. This part is shown very well in the movie. The way Joel tries to hide away Clementine's memories is extremely well done.

Despite all efforts by Joel, Clementine's memories do get erased.

He wakes up after the procedure, not remembering Clementine nor any thing related to her. On an impulse he skips work and goes to the beach, where he meets .... ... ..... , yes of course, Clementine :)

Both of them get together and even though they have forgotten everything about each other (or because of it), start falling in love all over again, Love triumphs !

Love is not about the past .. about the memories ... about what was shared between two people. Love is about the present, about what you are, about what you are sharing with someone. Joel feared that losing Clementine's memories would mean losing Clementine, but that was not to be.

Eminently watchable .. highly recommended.

Books Vs Movies

2006-03-08T03:45:00.000-08:00

Had taken leave for a week just to relax. Had planned on watching movies and reading books.

Somehow I don't like watching movies too much. Not as much as reading books. Given a chance I end up reading rather than watching movies.

I think the problem is if a book is good I can read it at my own pace reflecting on what is read, taking my own time. The movie moves at its own pace. If you start thinking about some particular thing that was said or shown on screen you miss the next scene. Maybe I should only watch movies on DVD using the "Pause" button liberally :)

Also while reading a book, there is lot of room for imagination. As I read I can picture the scenes as I want. In a movie you see what ever the director shows you, its also limited by the emoting capabilities of the actors.

There are some movies I do like to watch. Movies that move at the pace I want like "The Insider", Or movies which do not have a deep underlying meaning anyway, they are just a visual treat like "The Italian Job".

Maybe I should just try watching some more movies till I find some more that I like.