Praveen Arimbrathodiyil blogs here

After lot of confusions and uncertainties finally I am leaving to Google’s head quarters in Mountain View, California, USA for attending Summer of Code Mentor Summit 2007. I’m representing Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (SMC), the only organisation from India in the program (gnowledge project participated as part of GNU project). It is a great feeling to be representing India in this event. I am leaving this morning (5th October 2007) and will be back on Tuesday. The event is on Saturday, 6th October. The idea of this meeting of mentors from all participating projects from around the world is to share this years experience from the program and discuss ideas for next year’s summer of code.

Will write more after the event.

Arundhati Roy Writes in Outlook

In most other countries, the definition of Criminal Contempt of Court is limited to anything that threatens to be a clear and present danger to the administration of justice. This business of “scandalising” and “lowering the authority” of the court is an absurd, dangerous form of censorship and an insult to our collective intelligence.

I suggest you read the full story as she writes in a clear and as usual sharp language how the judiciary has grown to such a position even to sent anyone asking tough questions to jail.

This year’s Debian Developers Conference will be held during FOSS.IN as a “Debian MiniConf”.

The mailing list announcement here.

If you wanna help out with the MiniConf or got some cool ideas sign up as a volunteer at DebConf wiki and give a shout in the DebianIndia Mailing list

We plan to

• demo Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/hurd, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and new Debian Live
• showcase the features that are unique to Debian like support for 11 different architectures
• Co-ordinate Debian Localisation efforts
• Guide new Debian Developers from India

If you have a new idea let us know.

So all set for an “all-european” semi final. Many of the Argentina, Bazil fans are disappointed now especially since they played well in the early matches. Zidan finding his magic again helped France to move to the final 4. Nobody would have thought France will be playing semi final when they somehow manged to get to the second round after two drws against Koreans and Swiss.

One nice thought occured to me after the England vs Portugal match, when Engalnd coach Sven-G�ran Eriksson said in disappointment “We have practiced so much for the penalties…“. They must have thought their goal keeper is good when he saved many shots from Gerrard, Lampard … during training, taking it for granted that they are good shots. But after their bad shots (of course Ricardo was in amazing form and he did a good job) they must have realised it was some fault with their players rather than confidence of the goal keeper that led to a false impression of having a good goal keeper.

Now it looks like a Germany – France final. Will Zidan replay the magic he performed 8 years back? or Ballack and co will have the final smile?

Lets wait and see.

Necessity is the mother of invention

I found this saying to be true when I realised how delicious was the curry I made last day tasted [1], I discovered [2] that I am not that bad a cook after-all Let me tell you about it.

It all started when I got sick last Friday, I was suffering from fever. I was so tired in the evening that I didn’t take dinner and slept. But I woke up at around 1 in the morning and I couldn’t sleep any more. After some time I just checked kitchen to see if anything was there. I was happy to see some rice and some onions. I thought I will make some Upma. I have been so lazy to cook [3] these days. There was no option left so I started cooking again.

This particular thought occurred to me on Monday when I made some onion curry and it tasted so good. I am bit disappointed since there was no one else to taste it. But Muthu tasted upma with me, Zahir was there to taste my peas curry on Sunday.
OK. Let me explain the recipe.

raw materials

* coriander power
* chilly powder
* mutton masala
* salt
* onion
* neem
* coconut oil
* mustard

Heat coconut oil in a china dish [4] and crackle mustard and put some curry leaves. Mix it with coriander powder, chilly powder and salt. Add some water and sliced onion with chilly. Add some mutton masala and keep it for some time.

Now have it with rice. Believe me it was so delicious !!

[1] But some say any thing tastes delicious when you are hungry, I would like to dismiss this view with contempt it deserves
[2] I am sure there will be some one who would want to argue that discovery is not an invention but again I have to look away from those
[3] we started cooking some months back and I have scribbled about it.
[4] someone correct me if cheenachatty is not china dish

I have not updates this place for long. Just a few updates.

If you are using Suse 10.0 and want to install the latest GNOME 2.14 then check this link. Thank you Harsh for this link and I hope it will be useful to some.

If you are tracking Debain unstable here is the status of Gnome 2.14. All the libraries are uptodate as of now and I’m waiting for evolution 2.6 to hit the unstable (it is already in the svn but now waiting for Xorg migration to complete).

As of my Desktop mail client I’m happy with Mozilla Mail, especially its ability to speak fluent LDAP.
Thats all for the moment.

Coming to Radio sets near you. Tune in to Radiocity 91 FM on monday 10am to 11am . I will be live on Good Morning Bangalore with Vasanti in Radiocity studios as Bangalore’s chosen one[1].

Some Background:

“Good morning Bangalore” on Radiocity has a quiz context called “Bangalore’s chosen one”. It runs from Monday to Friday at around 10am. It starts on Monady when Vasanti request for profiles of the Bangalore’s chosen one aspirants. Two contestants are selected from the received profiles on Monady to start the contest. Those who wins the contest on Monday will have to take on another the next day and it goes on. The one one who is unbeaten on Friday is selected as Bangalore’s chosen one.

I listen to it everyday and I planned to send my profile. I typed in my profile on Thursday itself and saved the message. It looks like this:

Praveen, Free (as in Freedom) Software evangelist,Radiocity Jam Buster[2], Software Engineer with HP, have won some quizes in school and meet you on Monday

I sent my profile around 10am. I got a call at 10.16am and it was vasanti from Radiocity ! She has chosen me for the contest which means my profile has been good. Then the contest started.

On Monday and Tuesday ‘Vinay – the architect’ won it, on Wednesday and Thursday ‘Meera – the reasearch scientist’ won it. Friday was the final day and the winners of Friday wil be Bangalore’s chosen one for the week and will come on AIR the next Monday with Vasanti on Good Morning Bangalore.

I was really excited about it when I read out the profile for the listners. Then the quiz started

Question 1: The movie ‘Devdas’ was inspired by a novel. Name the author of the novel ‘Devdas’?
I didn’t know the answer and Meera replied Raveendra Nath Tagore, but that was a wrong answer and we were ready for the second question.
The correct answer is Sarat Chandra Chatterjee.

Question 2: The previous president of India.
I had the answer ready – KR Narayanan (he is a Malayali). I got 1-0 lead.

Quetion 3: Which program Radiocity has on a Monady 4.45pm?
Before I could answer Meera came with ‘Simply Adjust Maadi’. And we are tied !

Tie Breaker: Now who ever answers this question will be Bangalore’s chosen one.
Name the river which means son of the creator?
I came up with Brahmputra first and I am Bangalore’s chosen one.

Now talk to all live tomorrow. Don’t forget
Tune in to Radiocity 91 FM between 10ma nad 11am

[1] I’m Bangalore’s chosen one

[2] I was on air today with Vasanti

Today I won Radio City 91 FM quiz and became Bangalore’s chosen one. I’ll be on AIR with Vasanti this Monday (from 10am to 11 am).

Which File Extension are You?