tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17954240888959487582024-03-14T03:24:09.493-04:00PlanetUnknownTrying to make life easier, more productive & geekier !Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-84142388944611549642014-02-10T13:19:00.000-05:002014-02-10T13:19:26.209-05:00Gift a Martian pet this Valentine : Guaranteed delivery on today's order<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large; line-height: 1.428571em;">Goal</b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; line-height: 1.428571em;"> : Practice writing good headlines. </span></h2>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi2OwuMBRgI/UvkGUYSkcqI/AAAAAAAAL6Q/64kjok5tiGs/s1600/Martian-Canyon-largest-in-solar-system.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi2OwuMBRgI/UvkGUYSkcqI/AAAAAAAAL6Q/64kjok5tiGs/s1600/Martian-Canyon-largest-in-solar-system.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notes taken while listening to the <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/category/radio/" target="_blank">Copyblogger</a> podcast.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;">4 </span><b style="line-height: 1.428571em;">Ps</b><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"> of writing great Copy</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>P</b>romise : You deliver the promise by a great headline</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <u>The 4 U's of writing a great promise</u></span></div>
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<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>U</b>ltra specific</i></span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>U</b>nique</i></span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>U</b>rgent</i></span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>U</b>seful</i></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>P</b>aint the picture</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>P</b>roof</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>P</b>ush</span></span></li>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></h4>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How to test it</span></b></h3>
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<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Write a persuasive headline about something completely fictional so everybody understands it's not true, yet they are compelled to read the blog</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Write down the various blog headlines as I work through them</span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.428571em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Write down how & why each was rejected or improved upon</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O.K. Lets get down to work now</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><i>What is the promise ?</i> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Let's write the 4 U's :</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #660000;">Ultraspecific</span> </i>: 4 facts or something like that</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #660000;">Unique </span></i>: Alien bugs - like from Mars ?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><i><span style="color: #660000;">Useful </span></i></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">: hmm... buying ? How to buy martian pets ? That's useful, not often on the shopping list ?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #660000;">Urgent </span></i>: Not all martian pets are safe to buy over the internet, some have Vulcan friends..need to warn fellow earthlings before they get one home !</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All right, lets write some headlines. Here we go..</span></b></span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">4 facts about Alien pets you should know before Christmas 2014 </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(Buying is implied. Not bad for a first try ?)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">4 facts about Alien pets you should know before </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">2014 </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Christmas </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(2014 should come as early in the conversation as possible.. I guess..)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">4 facts about Alien pets you should hide before </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">2014 </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Christmas </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(Is knowing more urgent or hiding it ?)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">4 facts about Alien pets you should know before </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">2014 </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Christmas </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(naah.. knowing is better)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">4 facts about Martian pets you should know before </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">2014 </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Christmas </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(I think "Martian" is more specific. You don't want a pet from Jupiter. Jupiter has 2.53 times the gravity on earth. That means the muscles on that pet are wayy.. powerful. Plus the pet would feel it is high all the time, bouncing on the earth with lower gravity that is.. STOP. Getting back to the blog.)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Martian pets : A buying guide of 2014 Christmas - 4 facts to know </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(Is a guide better)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 facts to check before buying a Martian pets this Christmas</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Do Martian pets beat your fluffy cats in cuteness ? </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(interesting.. you lost "useful" & "urgent" though.. <i>dag gone</i>..)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Is gifting a Martian pet better than a cute cat ? </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(o.k... "urgent" ?)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Is gifting a Martian pet this Valentine's day better than a cute cat ? </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(order of words ? & feels too long. Like the Valentine day idea, much closer.)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Pet from Mars or a cute cat : what to get her this Valentine ? </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">(Mars vs. "Martian" seems lot cleaner.. anything to take out of this sentence ?)</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Gift her a cute pet from Mars this Valentine : next day delivery </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">( :) getting somewhere )</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Gift her a cute pet from Mars this Valentine : Guaranteed delivery if order placed in the next 2 hours </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">( nice.. but too long )</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Gift a cute pet from Mars this Valentine : Guaranteed delivery on today's order </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">( this looks good. No word left to remove. Hits all the points. )</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;">Gift a Martian pet this Valentine : Guaranteed delivery on today's order </span><span style="line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: xx-small;">( this looks good too.. torn.. flip a coin.. )</span></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatcha think ? Let me know :</span></span></h3>
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<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which of the above would you choose if not the last one ?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you have your own twist on this ! a better one !</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What could I have done better ?</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>P.S</b> : Now now.. don't you get all teary eyed on me for the cute fluffy martian buggers. They are out of stock for the rest of century.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>P.P.S</b> : <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=adopt+a+pet&oq=adopt+a+pet&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.8928j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">Do you want cat or a puppy instead</a> ?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.9999942779541px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_83.html" style="font-family: verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Link to original image from NASA</a></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-79158859095236520012013-12-23T13:45:00.000-05:002013-12-23T13:46:26.027-05:00You Know<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First <strong style="line-height: 1.428571em;">You Know</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then you think</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then you struggle</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then you slow down</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you then think carefully</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then <strong style="line-height: 1.428571em;">You Know</strong>..... again</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this knowledge invites happiness</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then you quote</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then you struggle</span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border: 0px; color: black; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.428571em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you then think carefully</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then <strong style="line-height: 1.428571em;">You Know</strong>..... again</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-90586529462037381172013-12-14T16:55:00.004-05:002013-12-14T16:55:48.803-05:00On the fallacy of "acting like a grown up"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There are two types of people around us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One, who act like a grown up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The other, who don't act.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">People who act like a grown-up are confused about the notion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They think something happens when they pass a certain number of times around the sun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As if every time you go around the sun, the smile on your face should slowly dissolve into a serious expression.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The spring in the step, should slow down to a measured draw.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They emulate someone else they saw while they were young.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That someone else at that time seemed all-in-control and "grown up".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A lack of introspection lead them to believe that acting like being in control, is in fact the real thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We see these people all the time around us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They will stand on the side, afraid to make mistakes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Afraid to loose a game they have never played.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Asking themselves the same question "What will the <b>grown-ups</b> think ?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Would the <b>grown-ups</b> do this ?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And then there are those who do introspect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They know "<b>grown-ups</b>" is a mythical creature.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That our emotional maturity doesn't depend on what someone else thinks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Because "someone else" hasn't got the time to look at them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That "someone else", is too busy looking at themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Or worst, looking at themselves in someone else's eyes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So to all standing on the sidelines - you are grown up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">No one needs to assert it other than yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Loose yourself a little.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Join the crowd if you enjoy the dance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you don't enjoy it, that's fine too, you will find something else for the child inside you.</span><br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-26677694298422138782013-12-06T14:37:00.002-05:002013-12-06T14:37:12.132-05:00Body guards in heaven<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Went to heaven one night</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">but it was light all right</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and knocked on the door</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">to find they were closed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I stood outside,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While the sun silently snored,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And stars blinked sleepishly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">for my fortunately soul</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I peeped'n through the opening,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and saw the whole roll,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">fat lawyers and skinny singers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and their body-guards with holes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I said to myself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"buddy, you're dreamin' a lot"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You ain't sinned enough yet</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">to earn ticket to this hall</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I came down to mother earth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and slept on its grass</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">it was one of those nights</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">but it was light all right..</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-56326539871773066352013-12-04T13:53:00.000-05:002013-12-04T13:53:09.087-05:00On Doubt and Faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It isn't useful in itself, unless faith stems from it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Imagine two mountains and you are on one of them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To get to the other side, you want to build a bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can start on the side you are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubt is like a bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It appears in the form of a seed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then it grows into a brick that can break your previous ideas, conceptions, patterns, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then it starts growing.. taking the shape of a bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The more you think the more rapidly the bridge grows.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It starts out slowly and then it catches speed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Faster and faster.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then it starts to slow down, as if the concrete in this bridge has started solidifying.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then it comes to a point where it just stops.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you stand at the edge of this bridge, the other mountain seems closer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can see some trees as well, make out their branches as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But you can't jump, this bridge is still too short.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you stop now, then all your synthesis & analysis would go waste.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think that's what happens in most of the cases.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But sometimes, we don't abandon the bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those times, we pick one of the few possibilities and start following them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Imagine these possibilities as extensions of the bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can't see if they do end up on the other mountain but they certainly take you farther than your doubts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is one difference though.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These extensions are not permanent, you can stand/walk on them just as long as you keep moving forward; or keep actively exploring the doubt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As soon as you stop, you are back on the bridge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eventually one of the extensions leads to the other side and the bridge of Doubts becomes a 4 lane highway; solid and stable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubt in it self would never lead us to the other side.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubt plus these extensions will.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These extensions are, as I understand them, faith.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubt alone is akin to surrender.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doubt is a journey.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It should always be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It should never be a destination.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Else we'll never be able to get to the other side.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Else, we'll all be sitting at the edge of a half finished bridge.. looking at a mountain we'll never be able to explore..</span><br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-83159934564114252322013-12-02T15:28:00.001-05:002013-12-02T15:28:48.081-05:00What people should we surround ourselves with<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Average time on this planet : ~28,000 days (see foot notes)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leave out the first 15 years : ~22,500 days</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leave out the 1/3 time we'll spend sleeping : 15,000 days</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In these 15,000 days we have a choice everyday.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A choice, about what people we want to engage most ?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This decision will influence our goals, our peace of mind, and most importantly our happiness.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always being surrounded by good people helps us :</span></span><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lead a genuine & conscious life</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Create long lasting friendships</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Connect deeply with others</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each meeting with them is fulfilling and filled with experiences to remember</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Below is what I've learned and continue to learn.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I follow the basic rule of "remove the bad & increase the good".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><b><u>Eliminations - Reduce the time you spend with these</u></b></span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. </span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Run away from pretentiousness and pretentious people.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">2.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> People with bad habits making no attempt on improving them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">3.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> Impatient people - usually accompanied with curse words :) </span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Their is a prayer in Aitreya Upanishad with the first line as "<i>Vang mA Manasi Pratishthitā</i>" - meaning let my speech be established in my mind. (See full prayer in the foot notes)</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">I think it's very important to use good words because unconsciously all our words do affect our mind & body.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Our biggest achievement has been to know that our mind can alter our body and our body can alter our minds.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Speak as if every sentence you utter is a wish that will be fulfilled..</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">5.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> People who are late all the time; repeat - "all the time". It's understandable that people are late some times.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">But if they are late all the time then it usually means that they don't value your time and probably theirs either.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">6.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> People who gossip or discuss a lot about other people</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">If they talk down or controversial about their friends or family. And won't say it to their face.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">This usually shows a lack of character.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Discuss ideas or at the most news, discussing people is a waste of time, unless you are actively trying to help the person.<br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Additions - Spend more time with them</span></u></b></span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">1.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> People who express original thoughts.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Not to confuse with those who throw facts around. Facts can be read freely EVERYWHERE !</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Original thoughts come when facts are sought after, understood, thought out and distilled internally.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">2.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> People who are genuinely helpful. They usually form deep relationships.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">If they are pretentious or associate with pretentious people all the time then I try to avoid them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Since mostly their helpfulness is not sincere and just a facade.</span><br /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-size: large;">3.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"> People who are continuously improving themselves.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Either professionally (trainings, certifications, etc..)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Or personally : reading books outside their work circle, exploring things they haven't done earlier.</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">These people love gathering new experiences rather than "things".</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">They are usually open minded and accepting of opposing thoughts and views.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, feel free to poke holes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Always eager for thoughtful criticism :)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><b><u>Foot notes</u></b></span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Mantra from Rig Veda (Aitreya Upanishad)</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">ॐ वाङ् मे मनसि प्रतिष्ठिता ।</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">मनो मे वाचि प्रतिष्ठितम् ।</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">आविराविर्म एधि । </span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">वेदस्य म आणीस्थः ।</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">श्रुतं मे मा प्रहासीः </span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">अनेनाधीतेनाहोरात्रान्सन्दधामि ।</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">Meaning:</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">1: Om, Let My Speech be Established in My Mind,</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">2: Let My Mind be Established in My Speech,</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">3: Let the Knowledge of the Self-Manifest Atman Grow in Me,</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">4: Let My Mind and Speech be the Support to Experience the Knowledge of the Vedas,</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">5: Let what is Heard by Me (from the Vedas) be Not a mere Appearance ...</span><br style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;">6: ... but what is Gained by Studying Day and Night be Retained.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><b><u><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time on planet earth</span></u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are rough calculations.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Average life expectancy of Males in US = 76 years</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Number of days = 76 * 365 = 27,740 = ~28,000</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.984375px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are a women, you're lucky :) you get ~1800 more days !</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-18492879308445153352013-11-20T13:11:00.002-05:002013-11-20T13:11:58.637-05:00Evolution in a single lifetime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First.... You Are</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you are curious</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you love & hate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Interspersed with indifference</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you Love Strongly & Hate Strongly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you Love Strongly & hate in moderation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you know more</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you only Love Strongly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then you Really Know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then.... You Are</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-65559704869894925702013-11-18T21:43:00.000-05:002013-11-18T21:43:29.854-05:00Breaking boundaries by adding constraints<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After a while it's no fun to start painting on a clean canvas or a clean page.<br />
You make an existing painting or photo your canvas and start creating <b>on</b> it.<br />
Your now bound.<br />
You've created a constraint and have to create within those confines.<br />
You've given your creativity a new challenge.<br />
Forcing your brain to stretch its hand, but not with enough space..<br />
I can see it sitting in a box and trying to stretch it's hand.<br />
Getting closer to one end so the hand can extend fully in the other corner.<br />
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Adding a constraint has made me break boundaries.<br />
My boundary was to capture the world exactly as it is on the film..<br />
The constraint is to only capture the most vital bold stroke and not put time capturing every small detail.<br />
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The broad strokes capture 20%<br />
The rest 80% on post processing.<br />
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This is the image I captured for the shadows and how they play on the buildings</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NgSVlOZwcUs/UorPDe45SyI/AAAAAAAAHPY/z5KrtmSFT7o/s1600/Raw-photo-blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NgSVlOZwcUs/UorPDe45SyI/AAAAAAAAHPY/z5KrtmSFT7o/s320/Raw-photo-blog.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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This is how I drew the shadows out to show their importance </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--33ciKHoXJo/UorPdlGyFWI/AAAAAAAAHTg/45lsg180Ank/s1600/raw-image-changed.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--33ciKHoXJo/UorPdlGyFWI/AAAAAAAAHTg/45lsg180Ank/s320/raw-image-changed.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-52510818383580345032013-07-03T14:03:00.000-04:002013-07-03T14:03:54.330-04:00Emails Anonymous : Taming the monster within<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the last couple of years I've gotten over my addiction to reading emails every now & then and more importantly keeping the number of emails in my inbox in control.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A simple routine of </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How</b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to read them has removed my daily work life free of the toxicity by emails.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Does this require discipline ? Yes, LOADS, but then what important thing in life doesn't ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a project manager communication-management is one of the most important things I do on a daily basis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Email is no doubt one of the top segments of communications.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I try to utilize face-to-face, phone & chat more than the email since it is more efficient, but emails seem to be inevitable ( <i>Perils of 20xx </i>:) )</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm trying to check emails roughly 6 times thoroughly during the day - 5-10 mins. each.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is important for me since I want to make sure I'm providing everything my team needs as soon as possible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember as a Project manager, majority of the work will be performed by your team and you need to be there to monitor & remove any hurdles that come their way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is what I do when I check emails :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a.) Sort emails by subject</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b.) Open the latest in the thread (take steps given below)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">c.) Move all the rest in the thread to my personal "archive" folder.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For each email I open, I take an action and do not close it unless that is done. I don't want to just "read" an email - serious NO NO.</span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: yellow;">Remember an office email is sent to you to move some task forward towards completion.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read the above again ! Slowly this time & let it sink it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An email has to <b>move the conversation ahead</b> !</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which implies that you too should never send an email unless you want to move something ahead and want the other person to take an action. Ideally you would <b>call out</b> the action expected from the other person.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">o.k. Coming back to the point of what to do when you open an email.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each email falls into<span style="background-color: #666666;"> <b><span style="color: white;">four categories</span></b> </span>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.) <b>An action needs to be taken by you</b> - note it in your "My tasks" list. Move it to the relevant project folder, if this isn't a project, move to archive directory</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2.) <b>You need to assign a task to someone</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a.) Forward them the email.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>b.) If you know the exact date by when the action needs to be completed : Add a reminder for you & the assigned person for follow-backs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In outlook click on the follow-up --> Custom option and set the date AND time when you want to be remided about this</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>c.) If you don't know the exact date by when the action needs to be taken : Ask the person about the estimate. And add a reminder for yourself to check back on it after a specific time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Again, In outlook, click on the follow-up --> Custom option and set the date AND time when you want to be remided about this</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>c.) Note this action item in the "Other people task list"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>d.) Move to archive</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3.) <span style="background-color: white;"><b>The email has reference information - which you can use later</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a.) Move to the relevant "Reference" folder. e.g. Technical, Resource Management, Appraisal, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4.) <b>None of the above</b> : </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If the email doesn't fall into either of the above criteria, in 99% of the cases they aren't useful - you probably know exactly what these are have quite a few in your inbox :) Yes, I just delete them. Haven't ever had an issue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>"<i>Uhh... the happiness of deleting these emails..</i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Unless you get a ton of those and have a filter for them ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In which case "<i>Uhh... the happiness of emptying the TAT folder.</i>".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Where TAT = "<i>Thou art Terrible</i>" :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been trying to follow just these simple 4 steps and have controlled the email monster for the last couple of years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is this the only way to slay the daemon ? Heck no, l</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">et me know your email-hunting war stories :)</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-21345292798618928532013-04-20T16:43:00.005-04:002013-04-21T10:00:36.641-04:00How to host your site for free for 2 years - including a new domain<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This would help you, if : </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.) You want to start a new site</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2.) Have an existing site and either want to switch or try a new hosting solution</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Background in short</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wanted to try out my new idea but didn't want to blow up a lot of money on either buying a domain or hosting it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reason being if it does work out, money wasn't going to be a problem but if it doesn't then I don't have to feel bad about losing the money as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bottom line - wanted the domain & host it for free or as cheap as possible but with a decent hosting solution.</span><br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Breakthrough</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I saw that <a href="http://www.cashbackhouse.com/" target="_blank">CashBackHouse</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> was giving $100 cash back on </span><a href="http://www.ipage.com/" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">ipage</a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (hosting solution). I actually got $105 back ( but that is another blog :) )</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Checked the reviews for ipage and they seemed decent & fit my bill. My needs were simple this time - php/mysql, phpmyadmin, an out of the box wordpress installation & 24x7 chat support(must-have).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The numbers - hosting service</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cost/month</span> : $3</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cost/year</span> : $36</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cost for 2 years</span> : $72</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So after getting my cash back I would still have <span style="background-color: #e06666; color: white;">$28 extra</span> ($100 - $72) !!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Domain</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next I started hunting for a domain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the taste of of cash back still fresh in my mind I wanted to find one which would fit in $28 & have some cash back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, $28 is a lot for a domain ! plus anyways I was going to transfer it to ipage, hence didn't really worry about who I got it from ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Godaddy was giving the domain for $28.34 for 2 years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And <a href="http://www.cashbackhouse.com/" target="_blank">CashBackHouse</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> was giving 27% cash back.</span><br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The numbers - Domain</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cost for 2 years</span> : $28.24</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cash back (27%)</span> : $7.65</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Actual cost after cash back</span> : $20.69</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:))</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #e06666; color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bottom line</b> : I'd still have $7.31 ($28 - $20.69) even after using the domain & hosting for 2 years !!!!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e06666; color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thought this might help all in the same boat as me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the domains & hosting squared I was free to work on the actual site.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I hope it lives not just for the 2 years but well past it..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Update 1 : </b><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Confirmed that</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> they(<a href="http://www.cashbackhouse.com/" target="_blank">CashBackHouse</a>) are still giving the cash back. Also, it seems they have a <a href="http://www.cashbackhouse.com/retailers.php?cat=45" target="_blank">lot more hosting</a> solutions listed than what I had been offered. </span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Update 2 : </b>Now <a href="http://www.cashbackhouse.com/view_retailer.php?rid=74" target="_blank">they have</a> domain.com as well, and per my calculations they seem cheaper than godaddy even with 18% cash back. Cool, someone's going to save more than what I did :)</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-15335901812475540152013-03-18T13:20:00.001-04:002013-03-18T13:20:10.072-04:00Bach and Delving deep into oneself<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
I think Bach is like a Poetry.. You can interpret it in your own ways..<br />
Mozart/Beethoven are like a beautiful song, sung very well..<br />
<br />
I think I know why I like Bach more now..<br />
<br />
I think there are two kinds of people when it comes to listening music in the broadest categories.<br />
One who like musical instruments all by themselves.<br />
While the other which feel a need for the human voice to be a part of the music, however small.<br />
<br />
They say violin comes closest to the human voice, one wonders if that is the reason it is that popular.<br />
<br />
There is no right/wrong or inferior/superior - It's all music..<br />
<br />
I think one knows more about themselves after delving deeper into music or poetry.<br />
It might be Bach or Ghalib, Mir or Firaq, but one does feel the need to.<br />
<br />
It's almost as if you have been sitting on a bench for five hours and you stand up & stretch and discover that the bench actually has a latch which you can open..<br />
Now the fun starts, you want to open the latch and look inside..<br />
First you need to know this latch though :)<br />
And then you finally open it to find all these different smaller boxes you never knew existed.<br />
And right at the bottom of all these small boxes you find a latch that leads you to a basement :)<br />
<br />
"Kitaab-e-Maazi Ke Panne UlaT Ke deKh Zaraa,<br />
Na Jaane Kaunsa SapHa MuDaa Hua NiKaLe.."<br />
[Sapha - Page; Kitaab-e-Maazi : The book of memories]<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-73492163788552711062011-06-06T11:00:00.000-04:002011-06-06T11:00:59.685-04:00Ubuntu tips & tricks : Braindump<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>SSH disconnecting frequently</u></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> 1.) Add the below lines to /etc/ssh/sshd_config -</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"> ClientAliveInterval <span class="nu0" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/1.4em Monaco, 'Lucida Console', monospace; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">600</span><br style="font: normal normal normal 13px/1.4em Monaco, 'Lucida Console', monospace; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /> ClientAliveCountMax <span class="nu0" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/1.4em Monaco, 'Lucida Console', monospace; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">3</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> 2.) Now restart the ssh deamon on ubuntu</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"> sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Install dig on Ubuntu</u></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">apt-get install dnsutils</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span><br />
<b><u>How to find the version of ubuntu</u></b><br />
<b>cat /etc/lsb-release</b> : This will give you the exact version, e.g. 9.10 & the name of the release. Btw, lsb means "Linux standard base"<br />
<b>32bit or 64 bits</b> : uname -m<br />
<b>32bit or 64 bits</b> : getconf LONG_BIT<br />
I bet there are lot of other ways, but this works on the most basic stripped down ubuntu<br />
<br />
<b><u>Add user</u></b> : <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>sudo useradd -d /home/testuser -m testuser</b></span><br />
Here "testuser" is the name of the user being created.<br />
<b><u>Create a new group</u></b> : <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">groupadd mygroup</span></b><br />
Here "mygroup" is the name of group being created<br />
You can see the group by : <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">less /etc/group</span></b><br />
<b><u>Add existing user to a group</u></b> : <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas, 'Andale Mono', Monaco, Courier, 'Courier New', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">useradd -a -G mygroup <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">testuser</span></span></b></span><br />
You can see what groups the user is in, by doing a "<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">id testuser</span></b>"<br />
<br />
<br />
</div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-46189189961437921502011-05-15T16:34:00.000-04:002011-05-15T16:34:28.647-04:00Setting up a GIT server on Ubuntu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I have all my code in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Version-Control-Git-collaborative-development/dp/0596520123?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=GIT" target="_blank">GIT </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0596520123" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />repository on my home machine.<br />
Everytime I wanted to deploy the code for my pet project site I used to fire up winscp and copy the code manually to the server. Well, as anyone would guess this was not only inefficient but error prone. Also reverting back to an old version just in case I ran into issues used to be a series of deletes & copies of directories.<br />
<br />
<b><u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Version-Control-Git-collaborative-development/dp/0596520123?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">GIT </a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0596520123" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />to rescue</u></b><br />
The "divineness" (you kidding me ! this is not a word !!), anyways, let me start again. The "divineness" in me finally made me create a git server on my hosting server (<a href="https://manage.slicehost.com/customers/new?referrer=4ae19503c67b9c5683824ae1a18ae776">slicehost</a>). BTW, 2 words for my hosting company(its long due), I wanted to have a linux server with full root access and do whatever I wanted. Maximum flexibility and control. Plus I wanted 24x7 support. <a href="https://manage.slicehost.com/customers/new?referrer=4ae19503c67b9c5683824ae1a18ae776">Slicehost </a>has both, their customer service is awesome !! I always log into their chat and ask them stuff and they go above and beyond everytime.<br />
<br />
K, no further digressions, lets get dirty<br />
<br />
<b><u>Setting up you git server on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=ubuntu" target="_blank">Ubuntu</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></u></b><br />
The first thing you need to do is to install git on the Ubuntu server. That's a breeze:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">apt-get install git-core</span><br />
<br />
Now lets setup a directory where git server will run out of -<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">mkdir /opt/gitrepo</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">cd /opt/gitrepo</span><br />
<br />
Initialize git :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git init --bare</span><br />
The --bare flag tells git that this is a brand new directory where git will be setup<br />
<br />
<b><u>Pushing to this repository from your home machine.</u></b><br />
For the purpose of this post, lets assume I have my git running at c:\myrepo also I'm writing this from a windows machine, so I'm in my <a href="http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/">gitbash</a><br />
<br />
k, the first thing is telling your machine the server location.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git remote add origin ssh://planet@mydomainname.com/opt/gitrepo</span><br />
Lets go over the command :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git remote add origin</span> : I'm adding the origin of this repository as<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">ssh://planet@mydomainname.com/opt/gitrepo : </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">ssh </span>is the protocol<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">planet </span>: this is the user name<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">@mydomainname.com</span> : Well this is the name of your slice where you are setting the git server<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">/opt/gitrepo</span> : The location of the server repo base we setup earlier<br />
<br />
<b><u>Push it to the server</u></b><br />
Now lets push the master branch on your home machine to the server :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git push origin master</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">**</span> master = This is the master branch on the home machine.<br />
If you want to push some other branch, say "currentWorkingBranch", then type :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git push origin currentWorkingBranch</span><br />
<br />
Once you run the command you'll see compression of files and pushing them off to the server, the output will end with something like :<br />
* [new branch] master -> master<br />
OR<br />
* [new branch] currentWorkingBranch -> currentWorkingBranch<br />
<br />
<b><u>Verify on the server</u></b><br />
On your server, go to /opt/gitrepo and type :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git branch</span><br />
and you should see the branches you have pushed till now.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Remember, if you list the directories you <b>WON'T</b> see your code files.</span><br />
Again, you WON'T see your code files.<br />
Why ? - Because this is a server. You files are present internally and there is no working branch, hence you will get an error if you try this :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git status</span><br />
<br />
<b><u>Now you'll want to extract data out of this server - Read clone</u></b><br />
So lets do that.<br />
For testing create /temp/temprepo<br />
in that just type :<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git clone /opt/gitrepo/ /tmp/temprepo/</span><br />
Now list the files and you'll see your code in /tmp/temprepo<br />
<br />
btw, if you want to <b><u>checkout a particular branch from the server</u></b>, then first create a branch where you want to have the data :<br />
e.g.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">git branch branch-April2011 origin/branch-April2011</span><br />
now checkout this branch :<br />
git checkout branch-April2011<br />
That's it you should have cloned the data only for that repository<br />
<br />
The irc channel <b>#git</b> on <b>freenode </b>is very helpful, I'd suggest checking it out if you get stuck.<br />
Ofcourse you can ask me about this.<br />
<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-89155301582308232772011-05-11T13:26:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:33:08.065-04:00Types of personalities in a company<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Listened to a great Podcast by <a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2596">Bill Gross @ Stanford university</a><br />
After starting about 75 companies in 15 years (likes of Picassa, CitySearch, etc..) he had some great insight into types of people.<br />
<br />
I found his definition of personalities a lot practical than various others I've come across by others.<br />
<br />
I'll try to convey it here for people who don't want to listen to the whole 110 mins. (I highly highly recommend it)<br />
<br />
Every person in the company is a blend of the 4 given below, finding the right balance is crucial and any one trait taken too far is detrimental :<br />
<br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Types</span></u></b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Entrepreneur</li>
<li>Producer</li>
<li>Administrator</li>
<li>Integrator</li>
</ul><br />
<b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Quick description</span></u></b><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Entrepreneur </b>: The innovator. Simple enough.</li>
</ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Producer </b>: The person who actually builds things. It might be a website, a tool, whatever, but this person is the one who actually believes in hands on building stuff. Not just talk.</li>
</ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Administrator </b>: The bureaucrat. He wants to put processes in place. Its a good thing ! This person understands that when things really scale they can't survive if there isn't a process in place.</li>
</ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Integrator </b>: He is a more people person ( read balanced). He knows the Producers mostly want to get things done and the Administrator is always trying to put processes in place that slow him down, and all this while the Entrepreneur is building things in air and wants it to be practically embodied. The Integrator puts everyone in a room, brings the best out of each, draws agreement and makes sure no one kills each other 8-) According to Bill this is one of the very important qualities of a CEO.</li>
</ul><br />
Great encouraging talk. Thanks Stanford.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-58309687527148151092011-02-14T16:40:00.002-05:002011-02-14T17:10:25.019-05:00Nginx vs Apache : Is it fast, if yes, why ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I've been using Nginx for my pet projects for the last 6/7 months and got swayed towards it due to the various "<a href="http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/Apache_vs_nginx">Nginx is wayyyy faster than apache</a>" claims.<br />
<br />
Wanted to know what exactly is Nginx doing differently, hence started digging and hence this post was born.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=apache%20webserver" target="_blank">Apache</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> can run in<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>multi-process or </li>
<li>multi-threaded mode</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
While <a href="http://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Web-Sites-Essential/dp/0596529309?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nginx</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0596529309" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0596529309" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0596529309" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />can run in -<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>single-threaded-event-driven</li>
<li>multi-threaded-event-driven ( for multi-core system )</li>
</ul><br />
<br />
Before we go any further. Lets make some basics clear.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>What is a process and what is a thread ?</b></span><br />
This was in our x86 architecture class, but hey it was ages ago, so heres the refresher - A copy from msdn -<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Process</strong><br />
Each process provides the resources needed to execute a program. A process has a virtual address space, executable code, open handles to system objects, a security context, a unique process identifier, environment variables, a priority class, minimum and maximum working set sizes, and at least one thread of execution. Each process is started with a single thread, often called the primary thread, but can create additional threads from any of its threads.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thread</strong><br />
A thread is the entity within a process that can be scheduled for execution. All threads of a process share its virtual address space and system resources. In addition, each thread maintains exception handlers, a scheduling priority, thread local storage, a unique thread identifier, and a set of structures the system will use to save the thread context until it is scheduled. The thread context includes the thread's set of machine registers, the kernel stack, a thread environment block, and a user stack in the address space of the thread's process. Threads can also have their own security context, which can be used for impersonating clients<br />
<br />
<b>Apache : Should I use Multi-processed (Prefork) or Multi-Threaded (Worker) apache ?</b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="font-size: 14px;">There is no simple answer, it depends on what traffic your site takes. In theory remember, creating/removing a process is costly. Threads are lightweight, but again if you spawn a huge number of threads you will likely start running out of virtual memory. For this reason Apache has a limit to the number of threads a process can spawn (default is somewhere around 50).</div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 14px;">I've come across multi-processed instances taking a pretty good amount of traffic without a problem.</div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/prefork.html#how-it-works">You can read more on apache site</a></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nginx is different</span></b><br />
<div style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 14px;">Where Nginx differs is by using a different architecture - Event driven. Mostly you will be using the single-threaded-event-driven mode.</div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 14px;">Now lets start dissecting "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><b>single-threaded-event-driven</b></span>"</div></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Single-threaded</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Single-threaded you say ? From the above definition, the thread exists inside a process, so what the hell is single threaded.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Lets clarify here, every process has "atleast" one thread of execution. Hence when we say single threaded, it actually means "a single-thread inside a process".<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Event Driven</span></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;"> Event driven architecture heavily relies on Non-blocking IO, hence lets look at it first. This is </span></span></b></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Non-blocking IO</b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">How the data comes into user space when a file is read -</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>USER space</b></span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>KERNEL SPACE</b></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">D < --- BUFF | <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">A <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">T <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">A <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">S <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">T <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">R <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">U <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">C <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">T <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">< --- BUFF |</span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">--> BUF ----> DEVICE</span></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><br />
</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">As you see, the data is first fetched by the kernel into its own buffer, after it has its buffer full, then your user-space buffer is filled.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">The blocking happens when the kernel is filling its own buffer from the device.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">In non-blocking IO, your program registers for an event, e.g. tell me when the data is available in the kernel buffer for "foo.txt". And then it goes on to do its own work, like building an http_request header etc. When the data is ready it reads the buffer and proceeds to other work. Remember it might have to do this a number of time, for e.g. if you are reading a 50 mb file and the kernel buffer is only 1 mb, you have to read it 50 times, and in between these 50 times, you are doing your other work. Making the user think that there was no waiting(blocking) for any io.</div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><b>Linux nuance</b> - When you register for a file descriptor (fd) you can then use the poll() function (linux) to see if any kernel buffers have any data ready. There is also an dpool() function, which is for "edge triggered poll". The difference is with poll, it will return all the events for all the registered events which have data. For ePoll, it will tell you only once for the once which have data, next time you poll it won't show it to you. So unless you read more data out of the kernel buffer and another event is triggered, you are going to get nothing back.<br />
If interested, <a href="http://us.pycon.org/2010/conference/schedule/event/68/">see full talk on this (length 29:33)</a></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Now that we understand non-blocking IO, its easy to wrap your head around event based architecture.<br />
In E-based arch. you register for various non-blocking operations, it might include reading a file, reading from a port, etc. Once you register, you go on to process other requests. When data is available from the disk, socket, etc. you work on it. e.g. if you are reading a file which is 10 MBs the first event might fire when 100kb might be read, you get what is available and go on to process a request for another user who might be trying to access another file which is 35MB in size. Your service doesn't wait for the full 10MB to be available.<br />
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Hope this helped clear some clutter. Or did it not ? Let me know.<br />
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<b><u>References</u></b><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slideshare.net%2Fjoshzhu%2Fnginx-internals&ei=m5hZTeaJK5GDtgfw1PGhDQ&usg=AFQjCNFyf8Nrhxtfh9F2Nm_NBkSGgccWjw&sig2=szku5VL4PZcpLjGirmbgUQ">Nginx internals</a> - I couldn't understand it just from the slides, hence had to do my own digging. But it may help you.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.kegel.com/c10k.html">The c10k problem</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/High-Performance-Web-Sites-Essential/dp/0596529309?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">A good Nginx book</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0596529309" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /></li>
</ul></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-72893188180796641972011-02-08T18:59:00.002-05:002011-02-09T17:09:55.115-05:00Installing pinax 0.7.3 on windows<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is what has worked for me on Windows XP & Windows7 for Pinax 0.7.3 :</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Note : Thanks to SO, helped a lot.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Assumption : </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.) You have python 2.4+ already running and in your path, hence if you open a command prompt and run "python" it works</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are the steps I followed.</span></div><ol style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 30px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">download the pinax (zip) at <a href="http://pinaxproject.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0077cc; cursor: pointer; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://pinaxproject.com</a></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">extract the download to some working directory <code style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><pinax-directory></pinax-directory></b></code> (maybe c:\pinax-0.7.3)</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">open a command prompt</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><code style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">cd<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></code><code style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">c:\pinax-0.7.3\scripts</code></b> folder</span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">create a new folder for your pinax environment - <b>c:\pinaxenv</b></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">run <code style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>python pinax-boot.py c:\pinaxenv</b></code></span></li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You now have pinax installed. Since the whole point of pinax is to get you up & running with dJango as fast as possible, there are some base projects already created.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are going to copy one of those base projects and work on them.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><ol style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: decimal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 30px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;">cd to </span><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b>c:\pinaxenv\Scripts</b></span></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;">run </span><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">activate.bat</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;"> . Once you run this, the virtual environment will show you the new environment prompt. You are in a python virtual environment. Mess up here and it'll only affects what's here 8-) The prompt will be similar to - "<b>(pinaxenv) C:\pinaxenv\Scripts></b>"</span></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;">Now lets check the available template projects we can use. </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;">Run </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">pinax-admin.exe clone_project -l</span></b></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;">If you like the social_project which is the all-you-can-eat project, then copy it by running - </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee;">pinax-admin.exe clone_project social_project ..\myfirstsite</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent;"> . This will create a directory "myfirstsite" at c:\pinaxenv directory</span></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">To use most of the projects you will need the python image library - <b>PIL</b>. Download the exe from the site and just run it. 2 minutes later, you should have it installed and ready to go. If you don't install it, you're most likely to see the below error when you syncdb - "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">gblocks.image: "image": To use ImageFields, you need to install the Python Imaging Library. Get it at http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/ .</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">"</span></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you have installed the PIL, just sync the database and with any other dJango project - </span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>cd ..\myfirstsite\</b></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">python manage.py syncdb</span></b></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now run the test server - <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">python manage.py runserver</b></span></li>
<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Enjoy 8-)</b></span></li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">social_project has a lot of stuff, which I didn't want, hence cloned the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> <b>basic_project </b>and started hammering stuff around it.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The important point to understand here is that each tab is a django app in itself. Its not mandatory, but that is how it is currently designed for the sample apps. and I actually like it.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Since I want to add a new tab to the basic_project, I first created a new app. by running this in the pinax environment <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;"> python manage.py startapp nikapp </b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Create a directory inside the <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">templates</b> director of <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">base_project </b>and name it <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">nikapp</b>. All our templates will go there.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Now to actually show the tab <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;"> site_base.html </b>inside the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee;"> <b>base_project/templates</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-weight: bold;"> </span><b style="background-color: white;"> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">added this line </span><b style="background-color: white;"> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">inside the block starting with </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee;"> {% block right_tabs %} </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">-</span></b></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<li id="tab_nikapp"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%7B%%20url%20nikapp_landing%20%%7D">{% trans "Nik's Tab" %}</a></b></span></span></li><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
<br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you refresh the page, you should see a new tab saying "<b>Nik's Tab</b>".</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lets understand the above line we added.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All we are doing is adding a list, with an id unique to our app. The list has an anchor link inside it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The link is a block statement </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% url nikapp_landing %} </b>. Which means that when someone clicks on this tab link on the right-top corner, a link needs to be loaded.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">We need to now configure this link in our urls.py. Pinax is beautiful, due to how django is, we can just hook in a whole set of urls by plugging one line.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So open the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">urls.py in the base_project/ directory, and add this line there -</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>(r'^nikapp/', include('nikapp.urls')),</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">In our <b>nikapp</b> directory create a <b>urls.py</b> and add this -</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">urlpatterns = patterns('',</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;"> url(r'^$', 'nikapp.views.landing', name='nikapp_landing'),</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">)</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hence when the link is clicked, a function in our view called <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">landing</b>, which we'll write next, will be called.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Open the <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">views.py</b> file inside the <b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">nikapp </b>folder and add function -</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;">def landing(request):</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>print " **** Inside nikapp landing"</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>return render_to_response('nikapp/nikapp_base.html', {}, context_instance=RequestContext(request));</b></span></div></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great, so our view simply returns an html page, when someone clicks on it.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lets retrace what we've done - When you click on the new tab, it calls your view function, your view function returns an HTML page to show to the user.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lets create this nikapp_base.html page inside the template/nikapp directory and add this to it -</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% extends "site_base.html" %}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% load i18n %}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% load ifsetting_tag %}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% block head_title %}{% trans "Custom Niks App page" %}{% endblock %}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% block body_class %}nikapp{% endblock %}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% block body %}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b></span></span><br />
<h1><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>This is inside the body now !!</b></span></span></h1></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{% endblock %}</b></span></span></div></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The important lines here are <b>{% block body_class %}nikapp{% endblock %}</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And - <b>{% block body %}</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first line describes the css class the tag should use, while the second implements the actual body of the page.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We haven't defined the css class yet, lets open the <b>site_tabs.css</b> and edit it like below -</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>/* SITE-SPECIFIC TAB STYLING */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>body.profile #tab_profile a,</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>body.nikapp #tab_nikapp a,</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>body.notices #tab_notices a</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> color: #000; /* selected tab text colour */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>}</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>body.profile #tab_profile,</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>body.nikapp #tab_nikapp,</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>body.notices #tab_notices</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>{</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> margin: 0; /* to compensate for border */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> padding: 5px 0 5px;</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> background-color: #DEF; /* selected tab colour */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> border-left: 1px solid #000; /* tab border */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> border-top: 1px solid #000; /* tab border */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b> border-right: 1px solid #000; /* tab border */</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-size: 14px;"><b>}</b></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">99% of this code already existed there, all we have done is added </span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>body.nikapp #tab_nikapp a, </b>& <b>body.nikapp #tab_nikapp,</b></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simple enough, if you have questions on this feel free to ask though.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Refresh the page and click on the new tab and you should see the page loading nicely and showing this line - "<b>This is inside the body now !!</b>"</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hoooosh..... Pinax is ready to roll...</span></div></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-52050827912113956342011-01-10T19:40:00.000-05:002011-01-10T19:40:35.145-05:00Random Goals/Thoughts for 2011This is a note-to-self kind of a post, so bear with me, if you see me talking to myself (often loudly).<br />
<br />
<b>All times are valuable, gauge if spending that way</b><br />
Refers to Parties & people. Reduce interaction with people who don't read and have nothing interesting to say. If they talk about the same topics all the time, they probably are the people 8-)<br />
Align with people who are interesting it what I'm doing or interested in and also with people who have nothing to do with my field.<br />
Sole criteria being that they should be good at what they do and making an effort to better themselves. Else I'm wasting my time and most probably their time as well. They might not realize/care about the wastage.<br />
<br />
<b>All Parties ≠ Fun</b><br />
Just because I can party till 4 a.m. doesn't mean I should 8-) There is a strange virus running around people called "how late, how much !". Which essentially mean "Till how late they were having fun and in what exorbitant quantities". What the heck !! Its a form of boasting that sounds pretty silly. I realized I caught it some days back and I better cure myself of it.<br />
I think the parties/fun equation is similar to time-at-work/productivity. Just because you stayed at work late doesn't mean you were productive, it probably means you wasted a lot of time or are a very poor time manager. On similar lines the fun factor starts decreasing as time goes on. Just what I think/believe in.<br />
<br />
<b>What time does fun stop ? </b><br />
Mostly fun stops around 11:30 p.m. Wow, how preposterous of me to come up with a time like that !!<br />
Well, that's usually when it stops for me, unless the venue is changing (party moving to a new place) or new people being added.<br />
<br />
Assumption : Party started around 8:00 p.m.<br />
<br />
Parties are fun, I attend a lot of them and organize a lot of them at our home too ! so don't get me wrong on that. But at the end of the day, there is a certain amount of fun-mojo a person can give and take.<br />
Very few, let me make that very very very few parties have gone beyond 11:30 which still have a fun factor left in them.<br />
Lesson from this : Leave parties early, so I can get a good sleep and not trash/waste my weekend.<br />
<br />
<b>Calculate the savings rate in 2010 & improve by 15% in 2011</b><br />
Pretty self explainatory.<br />
Mainly want to calculate how much money was spent on things like clothes and reduce that.<br />
<br />
<b>Spend on "Experiences" rather on "Things"</b><br />
I did some pretty good progress in this department in 2010, wish to do more in 2011.<br />
How about, don't buy something until I sell something of equal value of first ?<br />
Maybe, that'll work. Shit, that sounds like the plan for the US economy !<br />
<br />
<b>Meet with new people who can help personal development</b><br />
I think I have enough "fun" people in life.<br />
Edit : Joined some pretty good groups for iOS, python & advanced Javascript.<br />
I think, Brian Tracy is on the mark when he says do analysis and take action imme.<br />
Else, this analytical freaking brain will keep chewing on every small detail. <br />
<br />
<b>Attend more seminars/conferences to expand horizon</b><br />
Get more ideas, network with "doers". Meet people who want to implement some idea.<br />
Should teach someone iOS coding, once I've completed learning it (September)<br />
<br />
<b>Continue with Juicing</b><br />
The more I read about juicing, the more I know I'm on the correct path. Should continue juicing.<br />
Also, complete the book "Chemistry of Food And Nutrition" by Henry C. Sherman about human digestive system in detail. Its mentioned by Kordich and the first few chapters are pretty awesome, telling exactly what I was looking at. Should talk to a doctor and confirm the theories still stand ground since the book is a bit old. Glad humans haven't changed.<br />
<br />
<b>Help someone with my knowledge</b><br />
Last but not least. Help a sincere person with my technical knowledge/abilities.<br />
<br />
Your turn. Do you want to do something in 2011, which you haven't done earlier ? Let me know, maybe I would be inspired and would want to do.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-78273092441758854672010-11-22T10:50:00.001-05:002010-11-22T11:01:59.320-05:00Some cool geeky gifts I see this year - About 6 (2010)Found these while searching for gifts and thought I should document them.<br />
On a second thought, maybe I should document for each holiday, would be fun to see these 10 years from now 8-)<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Looxcie-Wearable-Bluetooth-Camcorder-Compatible/dp/B00400O8PO?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Wearable camcorder & Bluetooth device</a></b></span><br />
This is neat !<br />
You can record upto 5 hours of video. Now the quality isn't that great (15 fps HVGA) but still seems to be a pretty unique concept.<br />
The details mentions that the bluetooth functionality doesn't support BB or iPhones.. dissapointing.<br />
But still a cool gift, I guess if you have kids and are at social events a lot.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-4159993-10746449?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thinkgeek.com%2Ftshirts-apparel%2Fhoodies%2F97e1%2F%3Fref%3Dc&cjsku=097E1BLKLL">The Geek hoodie</a></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;">This might not be new, but I've only come across it this year.<br />
Seems to be a functional hoodie for anyone.</div><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Binary-Code-Mr-G33K/dp/B001697SP4?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Be fruitful & multiply Tie - but in binary 8-)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001697SP4" style="border-style: none ! important; border-width: medium ! important; cursor: move; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></span></div>Nothing much to say on this.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Parrot-AR-Drone-Quadricopter-Controlled-iPhone/dp/B003ZVSHB0?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Parrot AR.Drone</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003ZVSHB0" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b></span><br />
I saw this at brookstone the other day and it blew my mind !!!!<br />
Now this is some serious fun with your iphone !!<br />
<ul><li>Remote control quadricopter controlled by iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad</li>
<li>Interchangeable hulls designed for both indoor and outdoor use</li>
<li>Fly and battle with other Drone users via a Wi-Fi network</li>
<li>Front-view camera with live video feed on your iPhone/iPod touch</li>
</ul>This is an expensive toy and from my previous experiences with RC planes, they break.<br />
My skill in flying these are terrible hence got the warranty and was able to replace the broken parts. <br />
The reason I'm excited is soon this will get cheaper and we could have better ones every year.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Microsoft Kinect</a></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;">I like my Wii since its more than sitting on the couch while being entertained.<br />
Kinect takes it a notch ahead where you don't need a remote at all.<br />
<br />
Your hands are the controllers. Also, it works with any XBox you have ever purchased. I'm pretty sure, this is going to be the hottest toy this year.<br />
The reason for this being on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kinect+hack&aq=f">geeky list</a>.</div><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=electronic%20guitar%20shirt" target="_blank"></a></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-4159993-10746449?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thinkgeek.com%2Ftshirts-apparel%2Fkids%2Fded2%2F%3Fref%3Dc&cjsku=0DED2KLL">Rocking Guitar T-Shirt</a></b></span> <br />
Not meant to replace your old Fender, but at least the volume seems to make a punch.</div><div>Fun T-shirt for a kiddo. Amazon might ship them faster.</div><div><br />
There were a few lego ones, but then that is another blog in itself 8-)<br />
<br />
If you have found a geeky gift this year, drop a line.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-40658470541265515992010-11-09T07:55:00.000-05:002010-11-09T07:55:28.377-05:00If twitter becomes a time sucking vampireI think there are three stages of using twitter -<br />
1.) "Its a waste of my time, I have better things to do."<br />
2.) "Meh... let me see what the fuss is about."<br />
3.) o.k. too much bird shit coming in, let me organize and cleanup<br />
<br />
I'm in the third stage, following has helped keeping the bird shit from breaking the door and oozing on to the carpet -<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Stop Talking ! Listen...</span></b><br />
I have a lot of interesting things to say, say about every 1 or 2 hours. But not always. Twitter has this strange power where it pulls you to fill that void of 140 characters.. (or is it just me ?!). I decided on holding back on my urge to tweet something, I give it 10 seconds and see if it is still something I'd like to tweet.<br />
<br />
Well, I overcame that urge. I learned that I should <u>listen more</u>, just as I would do in a room full of people. Twitter suddenly feels a lot calmer. You see a tweet coming, hold it in your hands, look at it and let it go on its own way. If twitter were seen as a tool, its use is more effective by watching the tweets, unless you have something worth sharing.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Retweet - More often</span></b><br />
When you see people saying something worthwhile retweet it. Spread what is good. Copyblogger is currently trying to find good bloggers. I love those guys, and retweet them often.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Nip in the bud</span></b><br />
If I see someone tweeting like a parrot saying nothing important, I unfollow them. If I have setup 15 mins/day to read tweets, and 10 mins. are wasted because you tweet 7 times about "how big a burrito you had for lunch" -- <br />
I will blow horn at your birdie.<br />
I will kung-fu your beakie<br />
I will glue your wingie<br />
I will ruffle your featherie<br />
ok ok...enough violence on that little birdie.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Don't follow the leader (only)</span></b><br />
Well, I'm not much fan for blathering. To improve the quality of tweets I started doing this<br />
<ol><li>Find best people in your field of interest (I am still working on that)</li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Follow who they are following</b></span></li>
</ol>If the best in the field think these people are worth their time, they really must be. Follow them, you can always unfollow. I recently read something to this line on HN - <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Don't aim for what your hero has achieved, aim for what he is aiming for</b></span>[<a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=%22Don%27t%20aim%20for%20what%20your%20hero%20has%20achieved,%20aim%20for%20what%20he%20is%20following%22+http://planetunknown.blogspot.com">tweet</a>]<br />
<br />
Some very smart people talk there, and I like to listen.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Group'em see'em later</span></b><br />
Although this is something I've seen before, its just recently that I've started implementing this. Add a hashtag (#) at the end of everything you tweet, e.g. #productivity, #tips. Later if you want to find a tweet about something you tweeted 4 months back and you know it was about a neat python script, you can just search with the corresponding hashtag. Since anyone can create a hashtag, you want a unique one, so when you search for it, it doesn't show the ten thousand tweets tagged by other people. For example instead of just #tips tag it with #zzztips.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">How about 15/20 mins. ?</span></b><br />
I am a big fan of not wasting time. <a href="http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-i-eat-alone-and-probably-you-should.html">I've blogged earlier about this here</a>.<br />
Instead of randomly visiting Twitter (of course unless you have something to tweet), I've setup a time aside - 20 mins. max/day. During this 20 min., I visit twitter from my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPhone-Black-Smartphone-16GB/dp/B0041E16RC?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">iPhone</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0041E16RC" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, hence if there are any good links, I save them to read later through <a href="http://www.instapaper.com/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">instapaper</span></b></a>. Install the instapaper app. so you can read later what you bookmarked. Retweet the good ones and follow someone who has been retweeted and has funny/valuable info.<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;">Create Lists </span>- </b>In order to read through the most important tweets I've created "lists". One of them is called the "<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/list/NikhilKodilkar/noshit"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">NoShit</span></b></a>" list. Which is a group of people who have something valuable to say (mostly) and don't spam my twitter account. Its easy to create such lists or just follow one that someone else has created.<br />
<br />
<b>Lessons learned</b><br />
<ul><li><b> </b>Read more tweets than you tweet</li>
<li>Retweet more often</li>
<li>Unfollow people who have nothing worthwhile to say</li>
<li>Follow the leaded & who he is following</li>
<li>Use hashtags</li>
<li>Cap the amount of time spent on twitter</li>
<li>Create the "noshit" list</li>
</ul>If you have any good tips to share about twitter, please do. <br />
<br />
Follow me on twitter<b> <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Nikhilkodilkar">@nikhilkodilkar</a></b><br />
<b><br />
</b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-4601529732698846032010-10-25T22:50:00.000-04:002010-10-25T22:50:56.542-04:00Lessons learnt while saving my Pet (projects) : Hint - "Fake it"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><i>Note</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span">: This is a follow up to my </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-i-eat-alone-and-probably-you-should.html">previous blog</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Some months back I </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">desperately</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span">wanted start working on my pet projects and decided to make some changes on how I manage my time. I learned the following lessons</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> -</span></div><div style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: 800;"><br />
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<div style="margin: 0px;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Fake it</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"> ( It helps ! )</span></u></div><div style="margin: 0px;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 23px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.</b></span></span></i></span>"</div><div style="margin: 0px;">Remember your bachelor days, when you hadn't cleaned your room in a week and you suddenly got word that your friends/family were on way ? Now remember how you cleaned the room in 5 minutes flat 8-)</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">On a normal day, it would've definitely taken you more (lot more) than 5 mins. to do the exact same work. Deadlines are wonderful things 8-) Btw, this is called the Parkinson's law, you can read more <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law">here</a> and LOT more <a href="http://www.02articles.com/read/parkinsons-law-chapter-1">here</a>. I create fake deadlines for myself. And I admit I'm addicted to them.. 8-|</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">Here is my experiment</span></b> - The drafts of all my blogs are on fake deadlines of <b><i>12 mins</i></b>. I have to write 90% of my blog in the 12* mins. It gives me a rush, the brain starts spewing out words and at the end of 12 mins. I have something that could easily have taken me 30 mins. of liesurely writing. Forget the spelling, forget the markup, just write plain words. As I have described in <a href="http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-i-eat-alone-and-probably-you-should.html">my previous blog</a>, I set time for some unusual things and let the mind & body figure out a way to achieve it. </div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i><br />
</i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">*12 mins - That's what I set for my first draft blog and it worked, hence sticking to it.</span></i></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">Don't start on anything without setting its deadline</span></b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">[</span><b><a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=%22Don%27t%20start%20on%20anything%20without%20setting%20its%20deadline%22+http://bit.ly/c2Lyxr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"> tweet this </span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">]</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><br />
<div style="display: inline ! important; text-decoration: underline;"><div style="display: inline ! important;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Baby steps are useful especially when you grow up</span></span></u></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><u><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></u></span></div></div></div><div>Divide your goal into as smaller a task as possible. Set your smallest task <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">1 week apart</span></b>. Since I have a regular 8-6 job, the biggest free chunks of time I get, are over the weekend. Hence setting deadlines over Sunday night works best for me. My new blog, my website enhancements, gathering information on topics, etc. all have a deadline of Sunday night. Since friends/family are important, I try to spend Friday night or first half of Saturday with them & then dive into the pet project. Since I know I have limited time to party or enjoy the company of family, I make most of it. The main point being, pick a day 7 days apart, that works best for you.<br />
<br />
I use a simple task/deadline sheet and store it as a google document -<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qFHhO_2xGG8/TLyd9OGkQTI/AAAAAAAAAK8/a-OwT0ioVA8/s1600/Simple-task-deadline-excel.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qFHhO_2xGG8/TLyd9OGkQTI/AAAAAAAAAK8/a-OwT0ioVA8/s400/Simple-task-deadline-excel.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><u><a href="http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc389/MyBlogResources/Simple-task-deadline-excel.png">Full image</a></u></b></span></div><br />
Having written deadlines is simple & effective & a lot better than having a deadline somewhere in the maze of neurons.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Mind is like a dog, throw it a deadline and it will run behind it, else its going to sit there and lick you crazy</b></span> <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">[</span><a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=%22Mind%20is%20like%20a%20dog,%20throw%20it%20a%20deadline%20and%20it%27ll%20run%20behind%20it,%20else%20its%20going%20to%20sit%20there%20and%20lick%20you%20crazy%22+http://bit.ly/c2Lyxr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"> tweet this </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">]</span></b><br />
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This is an excellent book on training your brain<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0671708821" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Say-When-Talk-Yourself/dp/0671708821?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">What to say when you talk to yourself</a><br />
<br />
<u><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">There is a reason you call it "</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pet Project</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></span></span></u><br />
You will usually have 2 or 3 projects in mind. (I suggest no more than 3).<br />
Alternate between them. If you feel bored/burnt out with a project, stop it and jump to another one. Give into your feelings at times. You don't want your pet project to become your office project, which needs to be completed no matter what.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>This has worked wonders for me for one simple reason -</b></span> When I jump into the next project, I jump with a lot of energy and I get a lot of work done. Each jump is like a sprint instead of a marathon !!<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Are you planted in the correct soil ?</span></span></span></u><br />
See yourself as a plant. You need good food for your mind, conducive air with ideas to inspire you, healthy plants around you that want to grow tall with you with ambition to prosper not just survive.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">If I surround myself with garbage, I'm going to produce more garbage [Don't ask me how I know that]</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">Good thing is that you can change your soil.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">Here is what I did - </span></b>I got interested in startups and wanted to know more about them. Wanted to know what the biggest minds in the industry were thinking/doing, how they started/failed. And its not difficult to surround yourself with them -</div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div><ol><li><a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html">For 45 minutes listen to a CEO</a> speak about his experiences and his advice. These podcasts fit in my mantra of following advice of people who have <b>actually</b> done it. I'm forever indebted to Stanford University for this.</li>
<li>What the best minds in the industry are viewing and watching - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleTechTalks">Google Tech Talks</a>. And contrary to the belief at times they will have a speaker who talks about something totally non-tech. I remember one of the episode was about making Kimchi and the science behind it 8-) </li>
</ol>Go to the iTunes podcast directory or Youtube and you'll find podcasts on every which topic. Subscribe to them, you can listen to them anywhere & everywhere.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;">If you don't have friends who share the same goals & ambitions you can do this -</div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div><ol><li>Get them involved in what your thoughts are, and many will be interested in getting along. A lot of people want to come out of their regular lives and implement their ideas, and just need that small nudge of inspiration.</li>
<li>Make new friends - always good.</li>
<li>If you don't find such people, be alone and work on your pet projects, slowly you will start attracting the correct people.</li>
</ol><br />
<div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">In summary -</span></b></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e69138;"><b>Deadlines are your friends</b></span> - Before you start any task, give it a deadline.</li>
<li>Alternate between projects. If bored/burned-out, switch to another pet project. Remember there is a reason you call it "Pet Project"</li>
<li>Listen to podcasts to virtually surround yourself with good ideas & people. Of-course real people are the first choice 8-)</li>
</ol></div><div><br />
If you have similar ideas/hacks you employ, let me know. I'm always ready for a new baby step !</div><div><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Links to books referred in the blog</span></b><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Say-When-Talk-Yourself/dp/0671708821?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">What to say when you talk to yourself</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0671708821" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;">Other good books</span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/dp/0307465357?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">4 Hour work week</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307465357" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: medium !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: medium !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: medium !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: medium !important; cursor: move; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Six-Pillars-Self-Esteem-Definitive-Leading/dp/0553374397?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Six pillars of self esteem</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0553374397" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: medium !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: medium !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: medium !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: medium !important; cursor: move; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Outliers</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0316017922" style="border-bottom-style: none !important; border-bottom-width: medium !important; border-color: initial !important; border-left-style: none !important; border-left-width: medium !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-right-width: medium !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-top-width: medium !important; cursor: move; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><br />
Follow me on twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/nikhilkodilkar">@nikhilkodilkar</a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-15434997153366238422010-10-20T18:52:00.003-04:002010-10-21T10:22:57.513-04:00Best "Server Busy" message I've seen !<div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc389/MyBlogResources/Twitter-Over-Capacity-HeHe.png"><img border="0" height="290" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qFHhO_2xGG8/TLiKhy0leoI/AAAAAAAAAK4/Bcs8nEcbVA8/s400/Twitter-Over-Capacity-HeHe.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://i1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc389/MyBlogResources/Twitter-Over-Capacity-HeHe.png">Full size image</a></span></b></div><br />
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Trying to word my thoughts about this<b> </b>simple experience -<br />
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<b>Attention to detail</b> - They could've put a "twitter is busy" message and would've been fine, but they want to take care of every part of the user interaction. Guarding the image they have in the users mind.<br />
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<b>Little bit of cuteness goes a long way</b> - The unpleasantness of my experience was greatly reduced.<br />
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<b>Impression</b> - Seems like the group of people who created this would be a great "bunch" to work with 8-)<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #cc0000;">If you guys have come across a great "Service unavailable" picture, please let me know, would be fun to see them !</b><br />
<b style="color: #cc0000;">Keeps the creative juice flowing.</b></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-46542605623341677742010-10-18T22:05:00.002-04:002014-01-02T13:47:52.860-05:00Why I eat alone(usually) and probably you should too<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Update </span></span></b>: <span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/10/lessons-learnt-while-saving-my-pet.html">Here is the followup to this blog</a></span><br />
<br />
Note : No, I'm not the geeky dude who rarely talks to people and is socially awkward 8-)<br />
<br />
Sometime back, I had no time to work on my pet projects, blogs and readings. Or so I thought..<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #e69138;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>The myth : "I don't have enough time"</b></u></span></div>
As for anything in life, there are exceptions, and I'm sure there are people who truly don't have time. e.g. Anyone who just had a baby, or is doing a Ph.D & working part time Or someone doing a startup(bootstrap), coding, raising funds and pitching over lunch meetings.<br />
<br />
For the rest of us this does not hold true.<br />
The myth should be transformed into this statement -<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">"I don't have enough <i>interest</i> to do xyz, hence I never find time for it"</span></span><br />
<br />
If you truly have interest and <i>think </i>you don't have time, read along.<br />
<br />
Not long ago I lived this myth, till I actually read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/dp/0307465357?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Timothy Ferris</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307465357" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. He does startups, writes books, finds time to blog & do all kinds of interesting things. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/dp/0307465357?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">His book</a> is life changing, and its on my reading list for the second time.<br />
<br />
I thought you had to be a superman to find time to all these things. Turns out you can do them all without wearing your underwear over your trousers.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #3d85c6;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Here are some changes I made to my lifestyle -</b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #e69138;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>30 mins. everyday down the drain</b></u></span></div>
Most people get 30 to 45 mins. for lunch. Typically you'll have a group of 4-5 people huddled around a table eating. The topics of discussion are mostly -<br />
<ul>
<li>Some world event - How the middle east peace process is worthless</li>
<li>Some take over in the industry - Google just bought blindtype, did you hear about it ?</li>
<li>Something they did over the weekend or will do - "And this guy sitting across our table, farted while ordering" 8-))))</li>
</ul>
<br />
Do you notice something in the topics above ?<br />
<ul>
<li>You have little or no impact on them or from them</li>
<li>You don't want to discuss many of them, but one of your colleague does</li>
<li>They don't add anything of value to you</li>
<li>And there are a lot faster ways to keep yourself informed e.g your rss reader, etc.</li>
</ul>
<br />
I understand that once in a while one does need this. But, doing this everyday for years at a stretch didn't seem correct, I thought there was a chance to improve here. You can utilize these 30 mins. in learning something new or reading about a new topic.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #3d85c6;">Here is what I tried</b> - I wanted to start learning a new computer language. I was bored with Java and had heard good things about Python. I <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/python-osmosis/id317462382">subscribed to this podcast</a> </span>and started listening to the 5/10 min. episodes while I munched on my sandwich. Also, the list of books I wanted to read was close to two dozen, hence I started listening to their audiobook versions! <span style="font-size: small;"><i>There is </i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">list of good books</span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> </span>at the bottom of this post, which I've either read or am currently reading/listening</i>.</span><br />
<br />
You would be surprised at the amount of reading you can finish if you do it for 30 mins. everyday. Once you start doing this, you will eagerly await your lunch break, since it provides food for both your body & mind.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #e69138;">
<u><b>Living consciously (Mindfully) - My experiment</b></u></div>
Now now ! You going all philosophical on me mate !!<br />
<br />
Not yet 8-) I'm not <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Thich%20Nhat%20Hanh" target="_blank">Thich Nhat Hanh</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
I'm referring to the part where we get lost thinking about one thing, while doing something totally different. Or try to do multiple things at a time. No matter how much you believe, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Gorilla-Other-Intuitions-Deceive/dp/0307459659?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Humans cannot multitask</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307459659" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.<br />
We have a limited quota of attention, and as soon as we divide it our performance takes a severe beating.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #3d85c6;">Here is an experiment I did</b> -<br />
I bought a simple kitchen timer, the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/TM15t-Design-TM15-Extra-Large/dp/B0000W4MYI?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">simplest kind</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0000W4MYI" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span> and tried to time my getting-ready routine in the morning. Surprised I was. My maximum time went shaving, taking a shower, and getting ready after that. It took me exactly the same time to get ready after shower as it took to shower ! I timed and consciously concentrated on showering, cutting my time to a precise 7 mins from 12.<br />
<br />
I would've dismissed the above experiment as time paranoia, about a year back. But that's not the point, its an experiment in concentrating on the task at hand and not letting your mind wander. 7 mins. of focusing might sound small, but it isn't. I learnt that within a month I was focusing better, concentrating longer and fighting distractions more effectively in general.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span">I once read that you don't make something out of your life working 8-5, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">its what you do after 5, that determines it.<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">[</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> <i><a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=%22You%20dont%20make%20something%20out%20of%20your%20life%20working%208-5,%20its%20what%20you%20do%20after%205,%20that%20determines%20it%22+http://planetunknown.blogspot.com">tweet this sentence</a> </i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">]</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #e69138;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Your work life is not coffee break time </b></u></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
If you have an 8-5 job, do your job in that time. Don't take more than 15 mins. per day to do the following during office hours-</div>
<ul>
<li>Coffee breaks</li>
<li>Chat breaks</li>
<li>Smoking breaks</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br />
In my 10 years of experience, I've seen my fair share of people who take these breaks a lot more than 15 mins. Plus they take them about 3 to 4 times in a day. Of course, no 2 days are equal, and you'll need more breaks on some days. But seems setting a limit is something one can do. If you take a break, because you are "Bored" at your job, it probably means L</div>
<ul>
<li>that you need to take some extra initiative, or</li>
<li>take on more responsibility, or</li>
<li>develop new tools or ways to be more productive</li>
<li>And if none of the above work, maybe you need a more challenging job - your skills are way over what your job is asking you to do.</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br />
<u><b>The benefits -</b></u> You will finish your work on time, get home and can start working on your pet projects.<br />
<br /></div>
<b><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">The above points have changed my 8-6 & after 6 life. I am finally working on my pet project, writing blogs and completing tasks faster.</span></b><br />
<br />
<s>I will soon follow up with another blog with more of this.</s><br />
<a href="http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/10/lessons-learnt-while-saving-my-pet.html">Here is the followup to this blog.</a><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #3d85c6;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Lessons :</b></span></div>
<ol>
<li>Don't waste your lunch time</li>
<li>Live consciously - Don't multitask - only one task at hand.</li>
<li>At work - minimize distractions</li>
</ol>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br />
</span></span></b><br />
If you have similar hacks, please do let me know, I'm always in a mood to learn.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #3d85c6;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><b>As promised here are some good books to read -</b></i></span></div>
<div style="color: #3d85c6;">
<span style="color: black;"></span><b></b></div>
<span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/22-Immutable-Laws-Marketing-Violate/dp/0887306667?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">22 immutable laws of marketing</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0887306667" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> - I'm currently reading this, and its a mere 132 pages of condensed awesomeness</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutting-Edge/dp/0307465357?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">4 Hour work week</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307465357" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Six-Pillars-Self-Esteem-Definitive-Leading/dp/0553374397?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Six pillars of self esteem</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0553374397" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Gorilla-Other-Intuitions-Deceive/dp/0307459659?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The invisible Gorilla</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0452011876?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Atlas Shrugged</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0452011876" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Centennial-Hardcover-Ayn-Rand/dp/0452286751?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The fountain head</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0452286751" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Freakonomics</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0060731338" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Outliers</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0316017922" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Economics in one lesson</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=film-psychology-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0517548232" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mindless-Eating-More-Than-Think/dp/0553384481?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Mindless Eating: Why we eat more than we think</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Update </span></span></b>: <a href="http://planetunknown.blogspot.com/2010/10/lessons-learnt-while-saving-my-pet.html"><span class="Apple-style-span">Here is the followup to this blog</span></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>BTW, I customized this blogger theme.</i><br />
<i>If you like it, I'll share the template.</i></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-75520997244770251032010-05-20T15:46:00.007-04:002010-10-26T19:00:28.935-04:00Lessons I learnt when my laptop was stolenBefore we go ahead, lets go over a "What if" condition -<br />
<span style="color: red;">"Right now, some stranger has access to your personal laptop and they are going over everything you have on the hard drive".</span><br />
<br />
Enough to send chills through my spine, how about you ?<br />
<br />
Replace laptop with "Backup storage" or "Desktop" to get the desired effect 8-)<br />
<br />
Recently my house was broken into, and along with other valuables, they took my beloved <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X100E-11-6-Inch-Netbook/dp/B0032WH4NE?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Thinkpad</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0032WH4NY" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> (Yes, I love those plain black no-nonsense machines).<br />
<br />
It had a lot of personal & important information..<br />
<br />
Its been almost a month, and it still drives me crazy.<br />
<br />
o.k. enough of rambling, let me get you to the meat of the story -<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Lessons</span><br />
</span>As most of you, my laptop <span style="font-weight: bold;">didn't have any encryption</span>.<br />
The only safety it had was my password and luckily fingerprint scanner. This is one reason I liked <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X100E-11-6-Inch-Netbook/dp/B0032WH4NE?ie=UTF8&tag=film-psychology-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">thinkpad<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />s</a>.<br />
You can have a pretty long & complicated password, but at the same time have fingerprint authentication. Hence when you want to login to your computer, you just swipe your finger and you are in.<br />
For anyone who wants to breakin to the computer they have an uphill battle.<br />
<br />
Coming back to encryption, I should have had atleast a very rudimentary encryption enabled, so that even if someone gets in, they have to have basic skills to get to your data.<br />
<br />
There are a number of ideas which you can employ, and I want to get this out, so all my friends can implement them -<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">1.) Hide your personal folders</span><br />
I know, this sounds extremely lame, especially for all who have grown with computers.<br />
But you will be surprised how many people don't know how to "unhide" a folder.<br />
I'm talking about PCs here.<br />
Here is another reason - Someone who is into breaking in hopefully isn't as skilled as the above.<br />
<br />
This is the <span style="font-weight: bold;">minimum</span> ! I'm kicking myself for not doing even this.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">2.) Truecrypt</span><br />
Did you know that there is a free encryption program available on the internet, which you can use to encrypt a part or whole of your harddrive or your backup USB drive ?<br />
<br />
Well neither did I.<br />
<br />
I started looking into it after the breakin and discovered <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/">Truecrypt</a><br />
You can learn more by clicking on the link above.<br />
<a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_4530594_protect-data-using-truecrypt-software.html">Go over this step-by-step process</a> to create a secure directory on your harddrive which is encrypted and private only to you.<br />
<br />
For geeks like me who want to get into the details of everything, there is this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_disk_encryption_software">nice comparison of features</a>.<br />
<br />
If you are going to buy a new laptop, you have two more options - Hardware encryption & Bitlocker.<br />
Bitlocker only comes with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-GLC-00182-Windows-Ultimate-PC/dp/B002DHGMVY?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Windows 7 ultimate</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002DHGMVY" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />.<br />
Hardware encryption as shown below.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">3.) Use an encrypted harddrive</span><br />
There is a saying - "Once your tongue is burnt my hot milk, you will make sure that butter milk is cold". (Sorry for the ghastly translation, but I guess you get it - butter milk is never served hot).<br />
<br />
Hence, I wasn't satisfied with software encryption, and wanted to get something -<br />
a.) more robust<br />
b.) more unobstrusive<br />
c.) Better performance (There is nothing called "too fast" 8-) )<br />
<br />
God answered - Hardware encryption 8-)<br />
<br />
Since I was buying a new laptop, I wanted to see if there are laptops which inherently provide hardware encryption, something built into the system.<br />
The answer is <span style="color: #3333ff;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SED </span>- Self encrypting drives</span>, a.k.a (Toshiba HDD) <span style="color: #3333ff;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">FED </span>: Full Encrypted Disks</span> (Seagate).<br />
<br />
In FED's the encryption key exists with the harddrive controller itself and is not exposed to your computer/OS or even you. The key is stored by the controller on the harddrive at a secret location.<br />
Also encryption cannot be disabled on them.<br />
The next logical question that comes to mind is - How in the world do I access my own files if I don't have the encryption key ?!!<br />
Valid question, the crux is, you have to enable a hardrive password.<br />
This password is in the BIOS.<br />
<br />
FEDs solved an important concern of mine - A lot of HDD have passwords so you can't boot from them. However, stick the HDD as a secondary on a separate computer, and boom, you have access to all its data.<br />
<br />
In the case of FED, if you stick the drive as secondary, all you see is 256 AES encrypted data you cannot read 8-) And if you stick it as primary, you need a harddrive password.<br />
<br />
Now, with a thinkpad even before you get to the OS, you have swipe your finger and then enter the HDD password.<br />
<br />
This is good enough for the average, non-CIA, non-FBI, non-SPY kind of people, just like you and me.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">4.) Which <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=laptops" target="_blank">laptops</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> have FEDs ?</span><br />
I was trying to find laptops with FEDs and again thinkpad came to the rescue.<br />
& Surprise - Although I loved the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=hp%20laptop" target="_blank">HP laptops</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, none of them came with FEDs !!!<br />
Dell has an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=dell%20Inspiron" target="_blank">Inspiron</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> with encryption drives, but thinkpad has a lot more value/money. Plus there is thinkvantage 8-) Someday I'll blog about why my logical brain pushes me to thinkpads.<br />
<br />
Another option is to buy an FED from Seagate and put it into your laptop. Here is the issue with that or what I've learnt from the Seagate forum. If you buy and configure an FED by yourself, the harddrive is married to your motherboard. In the sense, you <span style="font-weight: bold;">cannot</span> take that drive and stick in another laptop. With a thinkpad you can do it.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">5.) Lets catch a thief</span><br />
Think like a thief to catch a thief. If that is difficult 8-) just buy <a href="http://www.absolute.com/products/lojackforlaptops"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lojack-Laptops-Premium-3-Year/dp/B001C33V3M?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Lojack</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001C33V3M" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.absolute.com/products/lojackforlaptops">.</a><br />
Lojack is a software which can help you track a lost/stolen computer.<br />
Does my new laptop have <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lojack-Laptops-Premium-3-Year/dp/B001C33V3M?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Lojack</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001C33V3M" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> ? Ya betcha 8-)<br />
<br />
So my friends, if you have your faithful laptop with you, atleast get truecrypt on it and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lojack-Laptops-Premium-3-Year/dp/B001C33V3M?ie=UTF8&tag=planet02-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Lojack</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=planet02-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001C33V3M" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> it 8-)<br />
<br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Follow me on twitter</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/nikhilkodilkar">@nikhilkodilkar</a></span></i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-20567175696057037332010-04-27T15:37:00.000-04:002010-08-12T15:19:59.520-04:00Solaris, AIX : Braindump ~ tips/tricks<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Note</span></u></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">:</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> These are <span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">braindumps</span></span><span class="GramE"> !</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">While learning any topic I make notes, at first they are very basic and progressively they get advanced.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Don't expect super wisdom ("<span class="SpellE">Gyan</span>") out of these.<br />
As I said just <span class="SpellE">braindumps</span> 8<span class="GramE">-)</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman , serif; font-size: 12pt;">If you have some tips you'd like to share, post in comments and I'll include them here for <span class="SpellE">everybodys</span> benefit.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"><u><span style="color: #009900; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 36pt;">System Administration<o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Solaris - </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Get a core dump of a process <span class="SpellE"><i>gcore</i></span>, more details <a href="http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/434/solaris-generate-a-core-dump-from-a-running-process-with-gcore/">here</a>.<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>AIX - </b>Get a core dump of a process <span class="SpellE"><i>gencore</i></span>, more details <a href="http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.basetechref/doc/basetrf1/gencore.htm">here</a>.<br />
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="GramE" style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">AIX </span>- <span class="SpellE">netstat</span> - excellent IBM documentation <a href="http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.basetechref/doc/basetrf1/gencore.htm">here</a>.</span><br />
</span><span class="GramE"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span class="GramE"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">AIX </span>- Instead of" <span class="SpellE">ps</span> -<span class="SpellE">ef</span>" I use </span><b><span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 12pt;">"<span class="SpellE">ps</span> <span class="SpellE">uaxwwww</span></span></b><span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 12pt;">"</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> to <b>see all the processes running</b> on the server.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> This is great for finding child processes in hung state.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Solaris </span>- use the <span class="SpellE">bsd</span> <span class="SpellE">ps</span> - <b>/<span class="SpellE">usr</span>/<span class="SpellE">ucb</span>/<span class="SpellE">ps</span> -<span class="SpellE">auxwwww</span></b> to<b> see all the processes running</b> on the server<br />
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Solaris </span>- <b>Set environment variables for all users</b> - /etc/profile<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Bash and <span class="SpellE">ksh</span> reads /etc/profile first of all if invoked as a login shell, <span class="SpellE">tcsh</span> and <span class="SpellE">csh</span> reads /etc/.<span class="SpellE">cshrc</span> and /etc/.<span class="GramE">login .</span><br />
<br />
See the man page of respective shell.<br />
<br />
However, these files are only read once, when you login to a system, so if you modify either of them you have to re-login or start a new shell on the system as they are not read dynamically. However you can force a re-read of the files, in bash this would be done with a dot<span class="GramE">:<br />
.</span> /etc/profile<br />
<br />
and in <span class="SpellE">csh</span>/<span class="SpellE">tcsh</span> by the 'source' command<span class="GramE">:</span><br />
source /etc/.<span class="SpellE">cshrc</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span class="SpellE"><b>Solaris </b>- Space taken by various directories under current one : <b style="color: black;">du -skh *</b> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman , serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1795424088895948758.post-81835404928956872052010-04-27T15:36:00.001-04:002010-04-27T15:40:52.200-04:00jQuery : braindump ~ tips/tricks<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><u><span style=";font-size:14pt;" >Note</span></u></b><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >:</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" > These are <span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">braindumps</span></span><span class="GramE"> !</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >While learning any topic I make notes, at first they are very basic and progressively they get advanced.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Don't expect super wisdom ("<span class="SpellE">Gyan</span>") out of these.<br />As I said just <span class="SpellE">braindumps</span> 8<span class="GramE">-)</span></span><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >If you have some tips you'd like to share, post in comments and I'll include them here for <span class="SpellE">everybodys</span> benefit.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; text-align: center; font-family: arial;" align="center"><span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);font-size:36pt;" >jQuery</span></u></span></span><u><span style=";font-size:36pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Enable/Disable a checkbox</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >var</span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" > t = "#show_1234" + <span class="SpellE">crFarmID</span>;<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$(t).<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">attr</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>"disabled", false); // Enable the show/hide button again<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$(t).<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">attr</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>"disabled", true); // Disable the show/hide button again<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Check/Uncheck checkboxes</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >t = "#<span class="SpellE">myCheckBoxID</span>";<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$(t).<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">attr</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>'checked', false); // uncheck the "edit" checkbox<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Change Background color of a DIV</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >showDiv</span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" > = "#<span class="SpellE">IDOfDIVToChangeColor</span>"; // Color the <span class="SpellE">showhide</span> DIV again<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$(<span class="SpellE">showDiv</span>).<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">css</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>'background-color', <span class="SpellE">crColor</span>);<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Click an Element</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >var</span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" > t = "#<span class="SpellE">IWantToClickThisDIVID</span>";<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$(t).<span class="GramE">trigger(</span>"click");<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Floating message box</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Great one from <span class="SpellE">Roshan</span> - http://roshanbh.com.np/2008/07/top-floating-message-box-using-jquery.html<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >After the message is shown, I actually blink it to grab a bit of the users attention, by doing so -<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$("#<span class="SpellE">message_box</span>").<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">fadeOut</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>450).<span class="SpellE">fadeIn</span>(350);<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >450 & 350 time gaps make it subtle.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Change transparency of a DIV</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$("#MY_DIV_ID").<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">css</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>{ "opacity" : 0.95 });<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" >Change HREF in an anchor</span></b><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:12pt;" >$("#MY_DIV_ID").<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE">attr</span></span><span class="GramE">(</span>"<span class="SpellE">href</span>", "www.google.com/");<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><span style=";font-size:12pt;" ><br /><b>Select all DIVs with an ID like x. The below example, selects all DIVs with name <span class="SpellE">lineItem</span>, e.g. lineItem-1, lineItem-2, etc<span class="GramE">.</span><br /></b><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">$('div[id*=<span class="SpellE">lineItem</span>]').<span class="SpellE">css</span>('border','3px dotted green');<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12271223352745969857noreply@blogger.com0