believe it or not, it's my blog...

Moved to kurund.com

2008-09-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

I have finally decided to get my own domain and moved to http://kurund.com

Thanks for visiting my blog here, see you on http://kurund.com

Love

Kurund

Nano - small car... big dreams !!!

2008-03-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

Launch of "Nano" - (new 1 lac car) by Ratan Tata was a frontpage news on almost all newspapers. Ratan Tata mentioned it was a promise made by Tatas to the people of India. Moment Nano was launched there was lot of controversy surrounding it, which made it even bigger event.

Some people said it should we banned in Mumbai, since all Rickshaw owners might replace their rickshaws with Nano. There is hardly 10-15k difference in price. Question is are you ready for Nano as a replacement to rickshaw. IMO, it would be interesting.

I definitely think this car will fulfill the dream of many lower middle class of owing a car. There were some speculations regarding safety of Nano. But i guess any car that satisfies Euro safety norms should be considered safe.

Only concern about Nano, since is offered at very much afforded price, lot of people buying this vehicle will lead to increase in traffic levels. It is just going to worsen the current bad traffic condition.

Everything thing has some good / bad side, Nano is not an exception. So i guess some people will like to have this car and for those who don't should stay away. In my opinion Nano will be a good city vehicle, being small in size easy to park :)

To end i would say only future will tell if this car will be successful or end up like other small cars like Matiz.

NO HORN PLEASE !!!

2008-02-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

My house is very close to a famous school. There is a clear Traffic Sign for "No horn", but in spite of that every morning I wake up with loud noise of car / rickshaw horns. On a narrow road when there is complete block everyone just loves to honk. I can't understand this. You can clearly see vehicle next to you can't move a inch, but still people keep honking impatiently.

Another such case is at Traffic Signals. When you can see Red Signal, vehicle drivers just love to honk. I can't understand what pleasure one gets by this. I know everyone is in a hurry, but one also needs to obey basic traffic rules. I usually commute by bus and I can't tell you how irritating it is at traffic signals. Traveling in crowded buses, you have conductor shouting to move forward and the honk is just perfect to spoil the beginning of the day.

Why can't we be more responsible. I think while driving we should be careful when to honk and most important when not to. We don't understand the amount of noise pollution caused by our careless attitude or should I say our ignorance.

I just plea to people who drive/ride, No Horn Please !!!!!!

CodeCamp Mumbai Nov 17/18

2007-11-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

CodeCampMumbai was officially sponsored by CiviCRM.

And it all begins like normal barcamp. As we all know most of the developers are nocturnal, yet again this CodeCamp will start off schedule.

I am here with one of my colleague to work on Facebook plugin for CiviCRM. Other projects include lighting up bulb using web interface(PHP), mapping and adding events on Google Map and many more....

At around 12.00 pm we kicked off with the event. We will try to do some magic in next 20 hours or so.

I had several problems with net connectivity, which slowed down my progress. After lunch we had a good coding session and we were able get most of the data from Facebook in CiviCRM.

At around 6.00 we were able get most the CiviCRM related stuff working like Facebook tab in Contact Summary and were also able to generate permanent session key for facebook so that everytime user need not login to their Facebook account.

Since everyone was busy with their projects, we had late dinner along with a good all topic discussion as a dessert :)

At around 1.30 am we were able to get Contact Summary with Facebook profile and also Contact Dashboard with Friend list. We are hoping to do more work done in next few hours.

Complete how to on this feature will be posted on CiviCRM blog.

After trying for around 2 hours we gave up on CiviCRM plugin for Wordpress. It was fun working with Akshay on this.

At around 6.30 am we were almost done with Facebook stuff. We were able to get data from Facebook and display it in CiviCRM.

Finally at around 7.00 am we headed for our homes. It was fun working together with everyone @ CodeCamp.

For more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barkha/sets/72157603221321385/

OSSCampDelhi Sept 9, 2007

2007-09-09T02:44:00.001-07:00

Day 2:

Click To Play

OSSCampDelhi Sept 8, 2007

2007-09-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

Day 1:

I traveled all the way to Delhi to attend OSSCampDelhi, Non-Conference (Bar Camp), my first Open Source Camp in India. It started well with a good presentation on "HIGH Performance Websites".
Speaker shared few tricks how to make you front-end load faster.

Use of expire headers for javascript, css
Use of compressor to remove spaces in javascript using tools like (Dojo Shrink safe, YUI Compressor, JSMin, Dean Edwards Packer)
use of mod_gzip/ mod deflate for apache
not to use @import use "link" tags
load script at last (although i am don't agree)

Another interesting presentation was on "MySQL Performance Tuning" from a OSS guys. We had a good discuss after the session which helped me to learn few new things. Few do's listed by the Presenter(for specific to InnoDB)

use varchar instead of char
avoid using count (*) with InnoDB, ( You can use it for MyISAM since it stores row count)
avoid use of autocommit, use transaction mechanism for multiple statements
configure to use larger data pools.
disable non required engines
use auto increment for unique identification rather than primary keys (lot of thing to argue on this)
make NOT NULL columns if possible
enable log-slow-query (this helps to track slow queries so that you can optimize it

Some other useful command for MySQL

SHOW PROCESSLIST
SHOW GLOBAL status like 'slow_queries'
SHOW LOCAL status like 'slow_queries'

Mir Nazim, gave a good intro to Drupal. Some of new members in Open Source world were very much thrilled by its powerful nature as CMS.

To end the day Noel Hidalgo, expressed his view on use of Media in Social Sector. I was very much impressed with way and his thinking about the use of internet, technology, social networking etc, in Social Sector. We had good laugh at some of his jokes and enjoyed his story on "Scooter Group".

I conducted a session on CiviCRM, it was good to see few enthusiasts from the crowd.

To summarize the day, i would say besides few sessions other stuff was not for me :(. It was much of a training session or i should say engineering student presenting for some contest.

Xserver crashes on Dell - Ubuntu (Feisty )

2007-06-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

My laptop is Dell Inspiron 1505, with ATI Mobility Card

When i installed Ubuntu Feisty X-Server was not starting. Instructions to fix:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a

After that reconfigure X Server

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Select fglx driver, keep remaining all default settings(for keyboard etc). Do not auto detect monitor (this hangs on my system)

After you done with reconfiguring restart your xserver or just reboot your machine.

To fix resolution problem:

Fix Resolution

Fixing resolution on Dell WideScreens (Feisty - Ubuntu)

2007-06-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to fix my resolution. I wanted 1280x800@ 60 resolution for my dell laptop. After lot of googling i got some help.

1. sudoedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Make following changes:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-64
VertRefresh 43-60
Modeline "1280x800@60" 83.91 1280 1312 1624 1656 800 816 824 841
EndSection

Do determine for modline for your resolution: modline calci. Accordingly you add Modline.

Next in Screen Section keep only resolution that you want.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
.........
.........

SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection

After this changes restart X server. Then System >> Preferences >> Screen Resolution and select your resolution.

Hope this will help !!!!

Few useful links
ben robinson's blog

Meetings n Meetings ....

2007-06-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Undoubtedly i will remember 13 June 2007 as the day of Meetings. It all started with our weekly Meeting at 10.30 am. To follow that another new project Meeting at 11.30 am. I almost skipped lunch because of Meeting. It was around 7.30 pm when i finished my last Meeting. So today i attended only 9 Meetings :) This is first time in my professional career i achieved this.

Well to rephrase famous dialog from Spiderman i would say "With lot of responsibility comes lot of Meetings" :)

Running through the rain..

2007-04-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal-Mart. We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom, let's run through the rain," she said. "What?" Mom asked. "Let's run through the rain!" She repeated. "No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit, Mom replied. This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,"

"We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said. "No, we won't,
Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young
girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm. This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?

"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, He can get us through anything!"

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes

Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.

And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...

So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A friend sent this to me to remind me of life. Hope you enjoy it.

feels like home...

2007-03-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

"Feels like Home" is the title track from movie "How to lose a guy in 10 days". I love this song. This is for my girl...

RANDY NEWMAN lyrics

That's My Seat (Ladies Seat)

2007-03-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

Today i was bit late, so instead of waiting for next bus i jumped into crowded 523 (Bus to Vashi). Somehow i managed to make space for myself so that i can stand properly. I quickly analyzed the bus and found an old man seating on Ladies Seat. He looked very weak. Personally I avoid seating on Ladies Seats. After few Bus Stops, a lady (my be in her 30's) got in the bus. After paying for her ticket, she directly went and told old man to vacate the seat for her. Poor fellow got up quietly. I felt very bad for him. Quickly another guy got up and gave seat to him. I don't know whether this lady did right or wrong, but looking at the old man it was bit harsh.
.......

Open Source Cola...

2007-02-19T07:07:00.000-08:00

Being a Open Source developer, i know a bit about Open Source code. This is the first time i heard Open Source concept used besides software. OpenCola is the first of its kind. Now you will be able to make your own Cola. Probably this is the first recipe that has been released under GNU license

In future i would like to see other people making their stuff Open Source. Because i believe that if a product is for the community then it should have equal rights to modify and contribute for that product. Open Source is the way to go for the future.

Some interesting links that i found on this topic.

http://www.colawp.com/colas/400/cola467_recipe.html
http://everythingelse.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/opencola-open-source-coca-cola/

Ubuntu Dapper to Edgy upgrade...

2007-02-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

Using apt-get

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list as root. Change every occurrence of dapper to edgy.
Use any prefered editor. If you have a CD-ROM line in your file, then remove it.

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
or
use the following Simple command

sudo sed -e ’s/\sdapper/ edgy/g’ -i /etc/apt/sources.list

Now you need to update the source list using the following command

sudo apt-get update

Upgrade using the following command

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Double check your process was finished properly using the following commd

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a

Now you need to Reboot your machine to take your new ubuntu 6.10 installation to effect all changes.
Have great fun with your new Ubuntu Edgy Eft

Other useful links:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=227052
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=285304
http://www.debianadmin.com/ubuntu-edgy-upgrade-common-problems-with-solutions.html
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3291004537.html

Traffic Signal..

2007-02-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

Today I saw movie "Traffic Signal" by Madhur Bhandarkar. Movie showed how people earn their living on traffic signals. Although this movie is a fiction but, it makes me think.. what if all this was real and at every traffic signal people earn their living, the way it is shown in this movie.

Are this beggars doing something wrong? They earn their living by pleading and gaining sympathy people on signals, stations, temple etc. What this people will do if they don't beg? Most of the beggars are illiterate, with no skills other then begging. Will they be able to survive without begging?

Another question that come to my mind is should we give money to beggars? We find small kids saying "Bhook lagi hai, khane ke liye paise dedo", but when you offer them food they hardly accept. Also now few beggars have raised their standard, they don't accept "chootta" :).

Is there is more then what we see at railways stations, traffic signals, temples??? So next time when you give any money to old sick man, a lady with kid, a handicap man etc. think twice.

Google All the way!!!

2007-01-13T22:29:00.000-08:00

I am great fan of Google, came across this interesting article so i thought i will share it with you.

Winner-Take-All: Google and Third Age Computing

Enjoy!!!

what's your purpose...

2006-12-14T09:54:00.001-08:00

It was my return journey from Jabalpur when my friend questioned me: What's your purpose in life? Actually it took me a while to understand what exactly he meant by this. We had lots arguments on this so decided to blog it and get others to flash some light on this.

Sometimes we wonder is my life going in right direction. Are we doing right things? Am i suppose to be in software profession? If not then what's the missing in link. Hmmm too many things to think.

Is is worth squandering so much time on this? Some people spent their entire life to understand and searching the sole purpose of their existence and forget to enjoy what they have. I really wonder what they achieve after all this. This weakness in us is exploited by so called Spiritual leaders. Most of such leaders live high profile life and preach about simple living. Most of it is mere nonsense.

I believe that instead of searching or running after some unknown concept, we should set our own goal and work hard to achieve it. After all who knows me better than myself and i am the best who can think what and how things should be in my life. I know many of you wont agree with me, but after all "It's my Life, i want to live it way i want".

"Life is too short to be serious", so guys lets enjoy it today so that we don't have to regret it later on.

who is she....

2006-12-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

i am not a poet nor a writer, but today i feel like writing few poems or writing a book. its very rare that i read a book so i also don't expect others to read my book, so i thought i will at least blog it..

she calls herself "a girl next door", but i didn't know when she entered the my heart. she drives me crazy with her smile, her jokes adds laughter on my face. her innocence makes me rethink, this world still have few people who are good at heart. do you think i am in love...

i know i will get lot of calls and mail after this blog, asking me who is she..
well let me figure out first and than will let you guys know about her...

i wish...

2006-10-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

sometimes we wish, that our wish should come true.
but if it doesn't then we wish that it would have been good if it had come true.
whatever it is we still waste time in something that we wished but then never happened.
then we wish something else that should happen, again another wish...

why do we wish so much? Most of the times we wish which mostly remains a wish.
i wish if it was this way, i wish it i should have..., i wish ....
why? why? why?

but inspite of this we never give up wishing and we wish...
i know this is complicated, but i wish it was that simple..
i wish....

viva italia !!!

2006-07-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Italy are World Cup 2006 winners !!! when the tournament started not many people would have bet on Italy's chances of winning the cup. Although i have been Italy supporter since Roberto Baggio days, i never thought Italy will make it so far and eventually win the cup.

i wont say this was a great final, Italy was too defensive and France never really attacked to threaten Italy's defense after that first goal. I would say Italy Vs Germany was the best game of this tournament and probably one of the best games i have seen, and would have preferred that game to be final instead of this.

but it was great to see Italy winning on penalties. i still remember Roberto Baggio's penalty miss in 1994 WC. i was just hoping that Italians will maintain their cool and they did that. may be they learned from their mistakes in last 4 penalty shoot out exits from WC.

i think Zindane' s exit will be the most talked issue about this final. It was very sad to see the player like Zidane to do such stupid thing specially when they could sense that the result will be decided on penalties.

but at the end of the game result matters. no one is going to remember how boring or exciting this game was. what people remember is Italy won World Cup 2006. viva italia !!!!

will live forever in our memories !!!

2006-06-17T01:01:00.001-07:00

Putting the calender to a fine tuner,
oh! the last few years has gone so sooner,
The great college days, I started remembering,
Seems like only yesterday I finished my engineering.

Remembering my class mates, after college year,
My eyes were filled with tears,
Everyone now is busy a lot,
No one escaped Destiny's plot.

Saw the girl, whom once I thought as my Best Friend,
oops!, today she is somebody else's Girl Friend,
after months, Remembered about her for a little while,
listened she is happy, that made me smile.

Project reviews to campus interviews,
Nicknames to last bench games,
Cultural rehearsals to love proposals,
Short term crushes to class room blushes.
Everything is fresh in our mind,
Wish life could rewind,

Let's Laugh, play and rejoice,
Once again become college guys.
Chatting and laughing, we all were in elation,
Till the painful moment of separation,
It was time to part,
returned with a heavy heart.

Today life is full of commitments,
And too many worries,
But those cherished moments,
Will live forever in our memoriesssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!

got my first job...

2006-01-17T01:01:00.000-08:00

It was raining heavily outside and was getting bored so decided to play "Prince of Persia 3D" on my computer. As PC started to boot, looking at the pirated Windows XP logo reminded me that i need to check my mail. It was my regular routine to evaluate the status of my job application in various known and unknown companies. My eyes brightened up when i saw one reply. I quickly opened it. It was an interview call in a software company called 'Alvares Infotec', I tried hard to recollect about this company but i guess it was one of those companies where i just posted by resume. As per the instructions in the mail, i called up and confirmed my date for interview.

I got up early since i had to reach early at Porvorim for the interview. I wore my lucky shirt and was ready in a minute for the interview. I started my bike and moved towards my destination. After troubling few people for directions finally managed to spot the company. Two shops were converted into so called office. When i entered found few people staring at me as if i am some alien. I was directed to nice cozy sofa (which we use later on to relax during lunch break). After a while my interview started. To begin with personal questions and then moving to technical (PHP, MySQL). Interview went well and i was given offer to join the company. I was very happy but then thought i should take some time before accepting it. So my reply was "Will get back to you on this". After i reached home, i consulted about this job with my parents and decided to accept the offer.

I joined the Alvares Infotec on 17 September 2003, my first job. It was a small firm but i have lots of memories to cherish about it. I still remember the fun that we used to have during coffee & lunch breaks. Here i learned how to manage multiple projects, interact with clients and deliver good in time. I worked right from simple customizable websites to complex Hotel Management Softwares. This job set a good platform for my current job at Web Access. I sincerely thanx my previous employer for this.

This is how i got my first job. I guess for everyone first job means a lot. I always believe that when you start your career, you should always begin it with small startup firms since it gives you lots of exposure and there is lots of scope for learning. I know many of you will disagree with me. You might not get the amount of money that big companies offer, but i guess money is not that important at this stage in your career. You can always assume that you are still learning few more years.

okie guys now i need to sleep.. more later on...

do u know me ...

2005-12-12T00:58:00.000-08:00

well i can only say...

papa kehte hai bada nam karega,
beta hamara aisa kam karega
magar ye to koi na jane,
ki meri manzil hai kaha....

this is for my friends to complete, and may be help me to know me...