Fedora 8 - cool screenshot

Kannada Songs for free!

Hi ppl: If you want any Kannada songs, ask me. I shall mail them to you. I have a good collection of all types of songs!

Population of India - it's ill effects - one such reality - Deepak B M

Can anybody fucking stop or take measures to control India's population? I am really frustrated after seeing a TV program - a reality show on some Kannada channel. What actually happened is - I shall directly tell about the TV program! The program shows a kind of scam in which two or three well-educated people cheat the local students of a village near Mysore by luring them towards the jobs offered by the corporate sector. They have started an Institution - Indian Institute of Communications and Management (IICM) - and offered courses such as Human Resources in Management and small computer courses. Well, now the story begins!
They had a nice building, all well set for the classes to be conducted. That building, as was shown on the channel, is a 4-storeyed one. I cannot show you the website as IICM does not have one! Now, they announced that the course fee would be around 53,000 INR. The students of the village spotted this as an opportunity for learning and making a career for themselves. What the students did not know are:
1. The people who started IICM were working in some IT company and were not Government officials
2. The building was not owned by IICM
3. The syllabus was just high school English
4. The computers, equipments etc. were all gotten on rent and many petty things that turned into a career tragedy!

Some 82 students joined IICM hoping that they would settle in their lives and lead a healthy life. The cheaters amassed around 43,00,000 INR on a single day of registration. Days passed, months passed, and after six long months, all that they had learnt was high school grammar. I mean, the students were so dumb that they did not even realize they are being cheated of their money. Even when the students had asked about the syllabi, they had been told that the authorities would not reveal to them; the reason that they gave was if they reveal, then other institutes would copy theirs. Well, how could the students not realize at this point? I mean, are they illiterate? I have called them "illiterate" because, having studied till bachelors, I do not think any person would have taken such a hasty decision regarding the career. Being literate means to get your way around the bad people in the society!
I saw the photo of the person who cheated them. His name is D. P. Prakash. This guy was working in some S/W company and joined hands with some fellows of his to start IICM. The level to which they have cheated is to be appreciated! These cheaters had even called Mr. Siddaramaiah for the inaugural ceremony. But in the ceremony, the cheaters did not sit along with the guests. They had told the students not to ask any Govt. official about their jobs etc., giving a reason such as, if the Govt. officials come to know about this, they would sack him. All that the students thought was these cheater had come to help them in making a career.
Apparently, they taught only English and some basic skills as to how to surf Internet etc. After one long year, they had been given some job opportunities. They worked like dogs for no shit. The jobs were created like a kinda contract from some IT firm. The cheaters used to give the outsourced work to these students and gained a lot of money. The students were given something like 5,000 INR per month, per head, as salary. After a few months, that got reduced to something very meager. They had to put in extra hours of work for lesser salary day by day. Ultimately, they went to the Police and lodged a complaint.

What is to be learnt from this? Well, in my opinion, since the students had passed XII, they should have at least inquired about the recognition of the institute. How could they miss on this? They are so so dumb. They wasted all their money, most importantly, they spoiled their careers. Why do people often knowingly commit such mistakes? Please do not believe anybody.

One possible reason is population. How many of these - Engineering colleges/B-schools/Computer training institutes - are in Bangalore? Please keep in mind one thing: always try to get the best in the society. Let it be anything. If the country's population was not this much, I do not think that there would be these many institutes etc. waiting to cheat people, I do not think that we would be lagging behind. Of course one exception is China (they have this rule of "one child per family").

Problems in running .NET applications on Linux

Hi everybody,

First of all, there was a similar thread on running .NET applications on Linux on this site, but I did not find any interesting points or the solution to my problem. So, I have started this thread.

My problem:

I had developed a .NET application on windows 2 years ago. The application is a "windows-forms" based application. I have installed Mono after reading the article. But, the application source code is not small and is not in a single file, as expected. Now, how do I run it on my Debian? I need help to do so. Please suggest me if you have any.

I tried to run it as given in the article. The output that I got is:

# ls
DATA MINING TOOL.exe DATA MINING TOOL.ilk DATA MINING TOOL.pdb
# mono DATA\ MINING\ TOOL.exe

Unhandled Exception: System.TypeInitializationException: An exception was thrown by the type initializer for ---> System.DllNotFoundException: msvcm80d.dll
at (wrapper managed-to-native) :.ThrowModuleLoadException (string,System.Exception)
at ..LanguageSupport.Initialize (.LanguageSupport* ) [0x00000]
at ..cctor () [0x00000] --- End of inner exception stack trace ---


How do I do it? If anyone reads this blog, please post replies.

Regards,
Deepak B M

Debian 'etch' - the one which I use!

IHS Reunion - oh this was one of the best days in ma life :--)

Will write about this in the night. But I enjoyed like anything on that day :--)

After beating the Gnome Robots - Deepak B M

Here are a few screen shots that I took while playing the game "Robots" on Gnome. Till now, my highest score when I was in college was close to 60,000. But that was after playing the game for so many times. After a gap of 3 months or so, I played the game; I played it the way I do. I reached my previous highest score i.e., 60,000. It was not surprising as it was just another high score. But then, I went on to make one lakh, one and a half and two!! Oh man, I couldn't believe that. You can see the pictures (scree shots) that I have put. After reaching 2 lakh or so, the number of robots became too large to be handled. I just continued to play. Now the score was some 2,73,000, and the computer showed that I have beaten the robots (see the screen shot). This is all about beating the Gnome robots. You can also play ... report your highest score to me. I was overjoyed!

Research at IISc, Bangalore - Deepak B M

This summer has been cool ppl. I am deeply involved in research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. I am working along with Ohil and Neha, who are also working there! The campus is awesome guys! I just can't forget working there. I have taken some photos of the laboratory, that I am working in, and the Mathematics department which comes on the way to CEDT (Center for Electronics, Design and Technology - this is where I work!) I am working on Brain image Classification. Ask me if you need any help.

Debian - the mega OS !

I have installed Debian 4-rc0, it is simply superb! You can't compare this to any other OS ... It has all the packages that you need. It has 2 DVDs of packages! Just try it out! I have put a screenshot, just check it out ...

Pictures ...

Cramming for the exams??

Pushkar Trip !

Oh yeah! This was one of my most beatiful trips ...
It was mid sem, and almost everyone in the hostel had gone home for HOLI! We were getting shit bored ... Vishal, Manish, Ishan and I decided to go to Pushkar, a small town, some 140 kms from Jaipur. It was early in the morning and we had two bikes. Thats it, VROOM ...

The expressway conencting Jaipur and Ajmer is one of the best in India. It was constructed by GVK, if I am not wrong. We rode at not less than 80 at any point of time !! In between there were dhabhas and food joints, where we used to stop and have something to keep ourselves out of tireness. The fun was even more when the weather was cloudy; it was the best feeling that one one could have ever had!

We reached Pushkar. There is nothing much in this town actually. There is only one temple of Shiva. But, this place has many shops that are owned by foreigners; this is due to the easy and cheap availability of drugs in this part of the state.


Apart from the temple, there is a huge lake partially surrounded by the town. It was a very nice experience. Actually, we shaould have gone to this place during holi, as a kind of fest tak
es place here attracting a huge crowd.

After this, we left to Ajmer ... a rocky ride baby! Between rocky hills. We went there to meet Ravi Prakash, who had gone home for holidays. We met him and left for Jaipur. On the way to college, we stopped at some highway-dhabha to have some food. We then reached Jaipur by evening. Awesome experience !

Survived a Death

Oh my God! Last evening was the most capricious evening here in Jaipur and in some parts of North India. Pranava Swarrop and I had gone to Option, a coaching institute, on a regular day. We attended the english class and decided to bunk the maths class. We came out of the building and started walking towards the main road; it was drizzling that time. We had walked something like 60 m; then came this meteoric "Storm" which was never expected here. We were on the road when this struck. We were nowhere for a while. The storm was so strong that many trees were found uprooted. I asked my friend if we were under an electric pole or something, so that we could run to the other side of the road. We were drenched in the heavy rain, our clothes gotten muddy and sand was all over my body and my mouth. We could not breathe for sometime. We were lucky that it lasted for less than 10 minutes. We rushed towards an auto stand and reached college. The best thing was that we were laughing even when we were getting drenched. I cannot forget this in my entire lifetime. We reached the hostel and had a nice bath. OOf, the storm thingie is over for now.

ITIKA - the gaming contest :)

Well, tomorrow is the day for the gaming contest organized by ITIKA - something of the Computer Science department, MNIT. I have no clue as to what games would be installed on the computers at the Central Computer Laboratory :( I have heard rumours that they have installed Dota, CS and Quake3. If this is the case, I am screwed badly, because, neither I have played Dota nor Quake 3. I have seen people playing those games. Last time, the elimination round was NFS2, oh I came first in the first round, but lost in the final round where I had to play Half Life with eight others. Thami and some guy (don't remember who he is) are in my team. It will be awesome fun out there ! I know that Mali's team will win this if CS/Quake3 is the final round, but I play for the sake of having fun.

Rice, Dal and Chaach !

Aaahaa ... what a meal! This is the most satisfying meal in our mess. I LOVE it! Everyday, I take a packet of chaach (buttermilk) and have my meal alongwith dal and rice. It was very difficult for me to get adjusted to this kinda food in the first year of my Engg., but I started liking it so much that I hardly miss this food. It gets better with some pickle :) I get two to three bottles of it every month. PPL eat it as a "second" curry :(, especially Bansal and Hari. So, I got rid of that by deciding to take chaach to the mess :)
I LUV THE MESS FOOD :)

MS Office:13000::Windows XP/Vista:8000

Isn't it strange? The Operating System (OS) is something like 8000 Rs. and the Office pack is 13000 Rs.; this is really SAD.
This blog is the result of Supreeth's comment on one of my posts.
Why should anybody switch to a Linux based OS from a Windows based one? There are several magnitudes supporting Windows --> Linux. They are:
1. Linux is free of cost, open-source and free of VIRUSES!! - the point here is that Linux OS code is available free of cost to anybody, it can be changed, copied, distributed and redustributed, whereas Windows cannot be.
2. All the drivers and all the softwares that are required are inbuilt; you just have to install Linux, thats it. This is not the case on Windows.
3. Linux has "LUGs - Linux User Groups" that help anybody who has a problem with anything. Windows is a closed-source OS, so the bugs cannot be fixed on our own; this is something that you can do in Linux. Windows Vista has a lotta bugs that are not yet fixed :(
4. PPL are very scared about the Linux environment. Some say that Linux is very different, tough to use and all. Believe me ppl, Linux is much easier than Windows to use. For ex: I was trying to connect my cell phone to my comp on Windows, but failed to do so. I had to get a lotta drivers to fix this. But on Linux, I just had to connect to the USB port, thats it. It even detected the model number and all - an amazing OS.
5. The packages that come alongwith Linux OSs are very very good, in any sense. To change the code of something, you just have to edit the "grammar" - it is this simple. Since Windows is a closed-source thingie, one remains helpless :(
6. There is no concept of "fake" products on Linux. The key for Vista was cracked within minutes of its release :) It is no way secure. Hacking is also very easy on this.
7. Spam blocking is very poor. For ex: while you are chatting with your friends on Yahoo Messenger, press "ctrl+shift+R". The guy sees multiple windows on his screen, this does not happen on Linux.
8. Linux NEVER hangs, so never crashes ! While windows can crash. The rate at which this used to happen with me is something like 6 crashes per month.
9. In Linux, one can directly access the system calls. This is the perfect environment for Programming. Windows sux ;)
10. Do not worry about the graphics. Infact SUSE graphics is atleast 20 years ahead of that of Windows. It has got the "flip" thingie to switch from one desktop to another !! And many other 3-D effects.
11. About the program support: Linux as an OS can be installed on any available HW (hardware), assuming that the HDD has enough space on it. There is no question of the support for the SWs, because Linux has all the SWs and Drivers inbuilt. One more thing, You can see the files that are on Windows from Linux. You can install Wine on Linux and run *.exe files !! What more do you need? Also, using the command you can convert Linux files to Windows files !! There is everything man. Just get some ebooks on the WWW and get started !!
Change your mentality, swicth to Linux now!
I have given most of the reasons ...
LINUX PPL - lets rock !!

If you are a newbie, better start off with an OS like Ubuntu or Mandrake. If you are enthusiastic, go for Fedora or SUSE. One more thing, you can download any Linux OS on any Linux website; just google, you will get it! Download the files with *.i386 extension - this specifies the architecture. For ex: *.ppc for power PC and things like that. You can be a member of or to post any kinda questions. You can also contact me!!
I use Fedora Linux. Check out the photo guys, how is the graphics? The terminal window is transparent!!

Oh man ... it is already 4:30 in the morning. Lemme get some sleep. I could have written some more, but sometime later.
Deepak B M

}-0078/\|_|_ - the evening life in my hostel !

This is how life goes on and on in my hostel. We come back from the college at around 5 or 5:30, depending on the teachers and their moods, and play football "}-0078/\|_|_". Hostel lawn is amazing to play that. We play in teams of 2-3. The goal posts are something like 10 m apart and a metre wide with a height of 0.5 m. We relieve the stress levels to some extent atleast ...
I have not played Tennis for the past 4-5 months, because of the ankle sprain that I suffered from. I have recovered from it, but have a lotta work.
The message that I want to convey here is that sports is a must for an all-round development of a person. It can get you whatever that you want to get in your life. It is a means to get rid of a lot many things. Keep playin. Let's play the GAME (SAW)!!

Holi - the festival of colours !!

I am feeling great today. We celebrated the festival of colours, that is, Holi !! It was amazing here; hope you guys had fun there too :)
I was watching Prison Break last night till 7 in the morning. I slept at 7:30 and got up at around 12:00; I was forced to do so :) Arpith and his gang came to my room, knocked at the door and woke me up to play Holi. I gotten ready in a few mins and we played for a while with colours in the hostel. You can see Arpith - the "Pain" and Vinod (we call him "Pilla") in the first photo (from left to right).
We all went to the college park near the Design Center. The Drector had made good arrangements for this festival, he had arranged for the "big" speakers etc. He had called all the teachers for this. You can see in the third photo that we are going towards the college Fountain. On our way, we saw Soumitra and Adhar. Their shirts were torn. We did not realize as to what had happened :( We thought that somebody must have done it while playing Holi, we just did not think about it much and we left the place. We met Vijalakshmi mam, our teacher. She too put colours !!
You can see the fountain in this picture where students are playing Holi.
The "shirt-tearing" thingie comes now... ppl were actually tearing the shirts and putting colours. We were really scared :) I took a few photos and then got into the fountain. Man, this was really good. The only bad thing was that all those ppl who saw me in the fountain started to tear my shirt :( I could not help, it is the way Holi is played here. The lifted me and threw me onto the water surface. In the last photo, you can see my "torn" shirt. I was able to escape to a certain point. Believe me ppl, many did not have their clothing (upper part only).
Any way, I have shared my experiences of Holi. You too can do the same and gimme the links in the "comments" section.

Prsion Break - an amazing series !!

What do I say about this?? It is a brilliant series. A must watch for everyone on this planet. I am so much involved in this that I can't even attend classes or do my work :) I watched season 1 in something like one and a half days. I am on my way to finish off the second one(till 17th episode). I am not able to eat/play/work ;) It is so addictive. Trust me and watch it! The way they plan and take the actions is simply amazing. Nothing can beat this guys !! I am very keen to watch the latest episode, that is, 18th, season 2. Every episode ends with such a scene that one cannot wait watch the next one! Do watch it!!
Entertainment and thrill guaranteed!

Best photos of the year 2005 by National Geographic Channel

These are some of the best photographs published by the National Geographic Channel in the year 2004-2004. They are published in several categories. Just check them out !!

Cunning ETS :-)

Hurry if you have not yet got an appointment for the GRE. ETS has blocked the fresh registrations for the month of May, June and July. It has blcoked the month of August for the same. The reason is that ETS wants students to take their "New" pattern! It has done so in selected countries where the volume of 'R' is too high. India is one of them.
It was a huge rush amongst the students to take a date in any of the 3 months that is, June, July and May. On 19th of Feb, I was damn scared that I would not get an appointment. I managed to get an appointment in Hyderabad on 31st of May, I was very happy; I have not at all prepared for the test :( Dunno what's gonna happen :(

The First of its kind in MNIT !

Incredulous ! Exhilarating ! Ecstatic ! ... these words are not enough to describe the MNIT Sports Tournament held in MNIT during 23rd-25th of February. It was amazing. All the NITs and the IITs alongwith other prestigious institutes like DCE, BITS Pilani were invited to take part in the sports meet out of which 6 NITs, 2 IITs, BITS and DCE took part in the event. Our college spent around 50 lakhs for the MST.
Two days of thrill and excitement left us floating in the heavens. The arrangements for the guests were exceptional. All colleges gave excellent feedbacks saying that the event was conducted very well ! Tennis, BB, Football, TT and Badminton were the sports conducted in this event.
We are very happy to host such an event ! The colleges mentioned that our hostels are brilliant; I dunno what made them thin like that :) ?

Rotor, the sweetest dog !

This guy is called as "Rotor" in our hostel. He is called so because he rotates his tail (no wagging :( ). He is so friendly with us, whenever he sees us he just rolls down and shows its affection ! He is so cute. I feed him everyday ! You can see the photos that I have taken !!

Educating children who stay in slums

Tinku is our English Teacher from the Department of Humanities, MNIT. He had to conduct a spoken session, an extemporee. Every body got something to speak on.
Tinku: Bharathram, you have to speak on "What if N. R. Narayana Murthy, something of Infosys, invites you over a cup of tea?".
Bharathram: I would obviously tell him about my programming skills. He would be thinking about me the previous night; how and what to ask him about programing and stuff?.
Man, this guy used the word 'obviously' so many times times that he was given a thrashing by the Timku !
Tinku: Ratnakar, you have to speak on "If I was mistaken as a Naxalite ?!?!".
Ratnakar(awestruck): I will jump into a well :(.
Tinku: Deepak, what is your aim in life ?
Me: I want to do some research, and some social service to improve the condition of this country.
Tinku: You speak on "If you are to convince the slum people to educate their children".
Me: I would like to make them realize their harsh experiences in their life, and then get into the matter......(it was a long long speech).....I may attract some children by showing them some money and tell them about the schemes that the Government uses to do the same.......

People thought of applauding, but did not(dunno why ?!?!).

The essence of this is that, we should do our bit toward the progress of this country. Do take this seriously.
Our Department teacher Vijayalakshmi Mam keeps telling this to us whenever she gets some time or whenever she feels that she should devote some time in doing so. I really like her in this matter; this is how teachers should be !

Images :)

These are some images, that I thought, I should share with you ppl.
Order of the photos: Bottom to Top
Photo number 1: This is a photo taken by some friend of mine, I think it was Abhilash Kulkarni, on our KLE "Get Together" ! That day was amazing. I had never, ever thought that I would meet all of them again after my 12th standard :) Orkut came to the rescue !!

Photo number 2: This photo was taken by me. This is where I sleep :) This is my room, 3rd hostel, MNIT.

Photo number 3: She is my Computer.

A question to you all !

I have an MSI motherboard and FC6 installed on it. I have a Nokia 6070 phone alongwith the GPRS(Airtel India) coonection. I tried to set up a dialup connection, but failed.
The reason being that the serial ports on my motherboard are not detected by the OS. It simply says that the modem is not found :)
I tried doing "wvdialconf create" to set it up.
It searched the ports one by one and displayed a result saying that the serial port does not exist. It searched for "ttyS" series and "ttyACM" series.
One more thing, I am using a DKU-5 cable(it is a serial cable). It is a duplicate cable :)
I tried the same with an ASUS motherboard, and it worked perfectly !!
What to do with this ? Should I try with SUSE ??
I need suggestions,
Deepak B M

Scared the Eunuchs(Chakkas) !!

Hey, this is one brilliant experience !! We scared the Eunuchs off the train while they were scaring and troubling every other group in the train. We united against them and gave them a charge..!! Haha, they will never ever get into the same train....!! We gave all sorts of bad words and all....the gang consisted of Pranava Swaroop, Rohit, Soumi and many others....!

The Madman ... !!

I am a student of Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. I am doing UG in Computer Engineering.