Maku Times

New home - http://www.makuchaku.info/blog

2007-04-08T01:42:00.000+05:30

$subject!

Time to say goodbye & move on...

2005-04-29T01:36:00.000+05:30

Blogger has been quite good to me. This blog shown me a new dimension to communicate/express myself. But everything changes with time : hence, i think its time to move on to something more sophisticated, something more interesting.

My new home

http://makuchaku.modblog.com

http://makuchaku.tk

This blog will remain active (tho i'll be not making any new posts here) until blogspot decides to shut it down for inactivity... & that day, i'll come & make a new post here [grin]

meet u @ my new home...
makuchaku.modblog.com

Just relaxing...

2005-04-28T20:54:00.000+05:30

-
Power can be relaxing!
...not experienced this yet? You gotta play PowerManga!

The ultimate shoot-out (arcade-style) game for Linux!

After all day long work, arranging, re-arranging & yet-re-arranging the report, was quite some work ...phew!

Lets see now what happens tomorrow! Viva is due, report is almost ready, presentation is being made.

chao,
makuchaku
-

Missing things...!

2005-04-26T01:28:00.000+05:30

-
The one thing, i'd love to attend & which i miss everytime...

Find it here

--
makuchaku

Neat trick on gentoo!

2005-04-25T17:17:00.000+05:30

-
Ever since OpenOffice 2.0 Beta was released, i was hopping mad to try it!
But Gentoo made it sure that either OO-1.1.4 or OO-1.9.65, only one could remain on my system. The other one had to go!

& considering the fact that i could not let go of my "compiled" OO-1.1.4 (3 days of compilation!), OO-1.9.65 was making me go crazy!

& then... RPM came to my help!

emerge -v =app-arch/rpm-4.2
cd OpenOffice_Directory_rpms
rpm -ivh *.rpm --nodeps

& the result...

Makentoo root # rpm -qa
openofficeorg-xsltfilter-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-core-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-graphicfilter-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-javafilter-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-math-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-spellcheck-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-testtool-1.9.65-1
tuxracer-0.61-1144
crossover-pro-3.0.0-1
openofficeorg-calc-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-draw-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-impress-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-mailcap-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-redhat-menus-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-suse-menus-1.9.65-1
openofficeorg-writer-1.9.65-1
Makentoo root #

& now :-)

tada!
makuchaku
-

RE: This will THREAD your brains...

2005-04-25T16:41:00.000+05:30

Hi,

Finally, i finished this bare-bones implementation on the THREAD'ed problem. You can find the tarball here.

Unzip it & follow whats inside README. This is my interpretation of the result...

//pthread_join(thread_1, NULL);
//pthread_join(thread_2, NULL);

Since i dont allowed the threads to finish (as the problem didn't mentioned it), the value of "integer"...

//global variable
int integer=0;

...varies between 0 to 8. Most of the time, its zero as the "main" thread finishes before any of the children threads. If the first thread gets CPU, the value goes to 3 & in the best case, it goes to 8.

BUT, it does not goes beyond 8.

### Outputs ###
Makentoo thread # ./plusplus
Value of Integer before creating threads = 0
Creating Thread-1
Creating Thread-2
Inside Thread 1, integer = 1, loop=1
Inside Thread 1, integer = 2, loop=2
Inside Thread 1, integer = 3, loop=3
Value of Integer after creating threads = 3

Makentoo thread # ./plusplus
Value of Integer before creating threads = 0
Creating Thread-1
Creating Thread-2
Value of Integer after creating threads = 0

Makentoo thread # ./plusplus
Value of Integer before creating threads = 0
Creating Thread-1
Creating Thread-2
Value of Integer after creating threads = 0

...thats it!

For any comments/suggestions/flames...
http://makuchaku.blogspot.com
mayank[dot]gnu[at]gmail[dot]com

Browser Wars...

2005-04-24T16:15:00.000+05:30

Link
[quote]
So overall, Opera seems to be the fastest browser for windows. Firefox is not faster than Internet Explorer, except for scripting, but for standards support, security and features, it is a better choice. However, it is still not as fast as Opera, and Opera also offers a high level of standards support, security and features.

On Linux, Konqueror is the fastest for starting and viewing basic pages on KDE, but as soon as script or images are involved, or you want to use the back or forward buttons, or if you use Gnome, Opera is a faster choice, even though on KDE it will take a few seconds longer to start. Mozilla and Firefox give an overall good performance, but their script, cache handling and image-based page speed still cannot compare with Opera.

On Mac OS X, Opera and Safari are both very fast, with Safari 2 being faster at starting and rendering CSS, but with Opera still being distinguishably faster for rendering tables, scripting and history (especially compared with the much slower Safari 1.2). Camino is fast to start, but then it joins its sisters Mozilla and Firefox further down the list. Neither Mozilla, Firefox nor IE perform very well on Mac, being generally slower than on other operating systems.

On Mac OS 9, no single browser stands out as the fastest. In fact, my condolences to anyone who has to use one of them, they all perform badly.
[/quote]

Fantastic Doggy!

2005-04-22T22:50:00.000+05:30

Have a look @ this...

This is a normal/everyday thing. She always sleeps near mummy, in a similar upside-down style!

Fantastic doggy!
--My Piddi--

When Law makers become Law BREAKERS!!!

2005-04-22T17:56:00.000+05:30

-
Reality... captured on Maku's camera!

Can you guess the offence?

Time : 1:08 pm
Location : Shakti Nagar, Delhi.
-

Why MakenToO shall never die!

2005-04-22T00:20:00.000+05:30

-
Despite looong compilation times, MakenToO will go on to be a part of my PC for quite some time & the reasons... galore!

1. Nothing beats "emerge". Its as awesome as apt-get (sometimes even better). The default package base is HUGE! Lotsa games too...

2. Package availability is faster. You dont need to be dependent on someone to make .des or .rpms for you! Plain tarballs are just, perfect!

3. Gentoo forums are faster (seemingly) than IRC help.

4. Gentoo's documentation is marvelous. You find each & every aspect of core-gentoo in gentoo docs.

5. Its amazingly flexible. Create your own ebuilds from the older ones or just emerge as many packages (simultaneously) you want...

6 ... or just go & emerge "rpm & dpkg" for you & you can directly install rpms & debs using "rpm -ivh" or "dpkg -i". The system is built to support just... anything!

7. NOT TO MENTION SPEED & STABILITY !!!

8. Installing gentoo is like watching your own child grow! From its birth to its teens to... & it still remains in its teens, always fast & active!

9. Just installing gentoo, teaches you a lot of stuff. Forget what will happen if you actually use it!

10. Using Gentoo takes you nearer to the roots of Linux... the source! You may never even think of using or even looking at source of apps you download as debs or rpms. But with gentoo, you might, as its the only thing you (generally) will download!

---Most Important---
11. Using gentoo, just doubles the "Nerd" factor!
---Most Important---

All this might seem as a piece of crap... Until you try Gentoo yourself!
Probably these were few reasons (among many more), that i junked SuSE 9.3 for MakenToO!

Thanking Vishal, who encouraged me to use Gentoo...

--makuchaku
(In front of my MakenToO)

This will THREAD your brains

2005-04-21T18:36:00.000+05:30

An interesting question...

Consider a function PlusPlus()

static int i;

void PlusPlus()
{
i++;
}

Now 2 threads are created...

THREAD 1
PlusPlus();
PlusPlus();
PlusPlus();

THREAD 2
PlusPlus();
PlusPlus();
PlusPlus();
PlusPlus();
PlusPlus();

Assuming that all necessary work is done to set up these threads & PlusPlus function, what will be the MAX & MIN value of "i" after the threads stop executing. Support your answers with some explanations.

ASSUMPTIONS
1. The system scheduler follows random scheduling algorithm
2. Thread 1 or Thread 2, either can be executed first (because of 1st assumpt.)

Headings!

2005-04-21T17:08:00.000+05:30

No Headings were making various posts indistinguishable!
Had to turn them on...

2005-04-21T17:03:00.000+05:30

Still giving my blog some finishing touches... tweaking those settings to their best :-D
Please bear with me :P

2005-04-21T16:55:00.000+05:30

Blogger will remain blogger!
Problems again in opening up my blog. It takes me directly to the dashboard!

Hope, services to my blog are restored soon...

2005-04-21T00:13:00.000+05:30

Changes changes changes!
We all need them... so does my blog!

I like the new look, with new postings coming properly at the top. The heading field is gone as sometimes it seems absurd to add it to every post. The vertical stack of images on the right will probably give me more space to express myself on the left.

But... probably, you'll have to scroll more to find piddi's pics & other links :-P

cya
makuchaku
...still on MakenToO!

5 days on SuSE & i'm back...

2005-04-19T23:52:00.000+05:30

Just 5/6 dayas on SuSE & i realized that nothing can beat gentoo!

Specially when it comes to stability, speed & package management. Novell can release as many updates & patches for SuSE as they want, set up as many ftp servers, but still, they will never be able to get past apt-get's efficiency, which in turn will always remain behind Gentoo's emerge!

That said, this post obviously comes from Gentoo :-D

--
makuchaku
Bleeding Edge

makuchaku @ livejournal

2005-04-19T00:33:00.000+05:30

Just made an account @ livejournal...
Chk it out & put some sincere comments there, be it on style/simplicity/whatever.

Flames/suggestions/... all welcome!

makuchaku @ livejournal

The Herculean task...

2005-04-17T21:35:00.000+05:30

Starting this big (herculean) task of documenting my (our) final year project. Lets see, how good or bad can it get :-P

OO 2.0 Beta & Abi-Word will be put to a good test. Lets see how they live upto it...

Screenies v9.3

2005-04-16T18:52:00.000+05:30

Okay, on popular demand, here are some of my screenies of SuSE 9.3 & my personal review of the distro.

Beagle doing what it does the best!

FSpot, running through my photo gallery.

Adobe Acrobat 7.0

My Plain-Jane Desktop, nothing much fancy about it :-)

YaST in some of its forms...

More screenies for Xen, beagle, FSpot, OO-2.0-Beta will soon be a part of this blog :-)
Sincerely speaking... Its a great distro, aptly complemented with the large rpm-base thats present on the cd's. Its almost impossible that you need a package & its already not there on the installation media (though the versions may differ).
YaST is a great tool, doing almost everything for you. From online updates to device mgmt to services mgmt, everything! Gnome 2.10 is fantastic, almost all nagging problems of 2.8 version are solved. Mono apps like Beagle, FSpot, Blam are making life quite easier.
SuSE 9.3 is almost as fast as my Gentoo (sometimes even faster).

BUT, i do miss my emerge/apt-get. SuSE has to do some real work on this regard. I cannot happily live with Gaim 1.1.4 when i know that Gaim 1.2.1 is already running on my Gentoo!

All in all, i'll rate this distro 8.5/10 on looks, 8.5 on speed but 6-6.5/10 on updates & stuff!

...more next time,
makuchaku (SuSE'd)

Distribute it...

2005-04-16T06:16:00.000+05:30

cat /mnt/cdrom/media.1/info.txt

---snip---

RIGHTS AND LICENSES

This Novell Software License Agreement ("Agreement") is a legal
agreement between You (an entity or a person) and Novell, Inc.
("Novell") with respect to the software product identified in the
title of this Agreement, media (if any) and accompanying documentation
(collectively the "Software").

The Software is a collective work of Novell. You may make and use
unlimited copies of the Software for Your distribution and use within
Your Organization. You may make and distribute unlimited copies of
the Software outside Your organization provided that: 1) You receive
no consideration; and, 2) you do not bundle or combine the Software
with another offering (e.g., software, hardware, or service). The
term "Organization" means a legal entity, excluding subsidiaries and
affiliates with a separate existence for tax purposes or for legal
personality purposes. An example of an Organization in the private
sector would be a corporation, partnership, or trust, excluding any
subsidiaries or affiliates of the organization with a separate tax
identification number or company registration number. In the public
sector, an example of Organization would be a specific government
body or local government authority.

---snip---

Lets Rock!

2005-04-15T20:20:00.000+05:30

Finally...
My 4 day long download has come to an end. Tonight, I'll rock my 30G partition (/dev/hda1) with SuSE's ISO's.

& like a good netizen, i'm now seeding for others. I'll continue to do this whenever i think my bandwidth cannot be put to some other usefull stuff.

So, hopefully, i'll be posting my next message from Gnome2.10, using firefox 1.0.2, running on kernel 2.6.11

cya,
makuchaku

My First SuSE Screenie... (4:49 am)

Worth a mention...

2005-04-14T12:32:00.000+05:30

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Frederick Noronha (FN)
To: fsf-friends
Subject: [Fsf-friends] Three cheers to Kerala...
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 00:52:37 +0530 (IST)

Three cheers to the Kerala text books, which are attempting to offer
vendor-independent education in IT, as is evident from this extract below,
Chapter III, Std X text book (available for free download):

http://mission.akshaya.net/dpi/

* Spread sheets are the software which helps to calculate
quickly and easily.
* Different spreadsheets are used in the Operating system(s)
such as Windows and GNU/Linux.
* Microsoft Excel is the widely used spreadsheet in Windows.
* Open Office Calc is the spread sheet used in GNU/Linux....

--

In a mail from ILUGD.

SuSE Again...

2005-04-12T00:07:00.000+05:30

Update
---------
2424.5 mb out of 3418.6 mb downloaded.
About 24 hrs still remaining for download to finish.

/me is waiting with lotsa hope...

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

SuSE 9.3

2005-04-04T03:10:00.000+05:30

Hey guys,

SuSE 9.3 will be out by "Mid April" & i'll do anything-&-everything to lay my hands on the ISO's.

An open invitation...
Get me SuSE 9.3 & i'll give you a treat of your lifetime!

Pointers...
Official Page
Press release at CeBIT-2005 (Germany)
Official review with pics

This distro is sure some kickass stuff!

makuchaku
mera SuSE kab aayega...

Ubuntu 5.04 (RC)

2005-04-02T01:44:00.000+05:30

:-)

Just gonna boot into Live Ubuntu 5.04 in next few minutes...
...can't wait to see Gnome 2.10

cya!

---------
Post Test
---------

Nothings "Uber-cool" about Gnome 2.10...
Yaa, i did noticed some good changes, like the file selection dialog, nautilus, gnome-panel, applets...

But its not something i'll kill for!
I'll wait & watch for Gnome 2.12/3.0 series

Or ofcourse! if i could lay my hands on SuSE 9.3....