Yeah i did forget this and hope tht i dont get kicked off for this… it was an important day , the day we got together and i pledged to remember the day in my heart and thought would throw off a small celebration somehwhere and yet i some how forgot .I had been harsh to the earlier ones but to her , i took so much care tht i didnt have a single day whn i wasnt with her. And here i am pleading before her because she refused to open up for my mistake.. …

“I am really sorry for doing this and i promise i ll make up for it next year. I ll give u a week off and celebrate with u .”

Well yeah after i said this she seems to have understood me and opened up.. here is the pic … Belated Happy birthday to my laptop

PS : i do love ppl

Till yesterday , i was ignorant of the following command line tool called Odfconverter for converting docx to odt. And much to the relief it works fine and does the job pretty well so i guess it would be a part of the next open office release. The procedure was simple.The point is tht microsoft had switched from the binary format to the Open XML format with their new word 2007 and they now released the details of doc format.

This works fine in fedora and i guess it should in ubuntu as well..

1. For fedora make sure u have the rpm2cpio using

sudo yum -y install cpio rpm ( for configuring sudo on fedora refer here or use su -c or login as root )

For ubuntu users

sudo apt-get install rpm libgif4

Fedora users can even skip this step and directly proceed to installing the following rpm odf-converter-1.1-7.i586.rpm.

But the general idea is the same no matter which Linux distribution you use. You are basically copying one file out of the RPM as if it were a tarball or a zip file. You are not installing the RPM in the traditional sense, so don’t worry if you run a non-RPM-based system such as Ubuntu, Debian. After downloading the OdfConverter

• Open a console.
• Change directory to your download directory. Depending on your setup, it may be: cd ~/Desktop



• To unpackage the rpm, run this command: rpm2cpio odf-converter*rpm | cpio -ivd
• To copy the binary run this command: sudo mv usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter /usr/bin

The usage is simple. To convert a .docx file (Word 2007) to a .odt (OpenDocument Format) file, just run:

OdfConverter /i example.docx

and you will find the odt file in the same folder… Bingo .. u got it done

Any problems or better ways to do please do mention it in comments..

All credits to google .:P

I had always wondered why ppl keep wierd names for the linux distros and it turns out tht they are not indeed wierd and i googled for the naming strategy of fedora and Ubuntu and here are the results…

Fedora Version Numbers and Release names :

Name n and n+1 must share an is-a (not a has-a) relationship, but n and n+2 must not share the same is-a relationship as n and n+1.

Fedora 10 (Cambridge)

• Cambridge is a city in the United States, as well as being original code name of Red Hat Linux 10 (before it became Fedora Core 1).

Fedora 9 (Sulphur)

• Sulphur is an element that causes an adverse reaction (tarnishing) when it contacts silver. In mythology, it is an element used to drive away werewolves. Sulphur is also a city in the United States.

Fedora 8 (Werewolf)

• Werewolf is the name of a movie about a dude who turns into a werewolf. A werewolf also has an adverse reaction (death) when it comes into contact with silver.

Fedora 7 (Moonshine)

• Moonshine is an independent record label, and also the name of a movie.

Fedora Core 6 (Zod)

• General Zod is a character in the DC Comics universe, as well as an independent record label.

Fedora Core 5 (Bordeaux)

• Bordeaux is a wine-producing region in France, as well as a comic book character.

Fedora Core 4 (Stentz)

• Andre Stentz is a French winery. As such, both Heidelberg and Stentz are distributors of alcoholic beverages.

Fedora Core 3 (Heidelberg)

• Heidelberg is a city in Germany, and also a brand/distributor of beer.

Fedora Core 2 (Tettnang)

• Tettnang is a city in Germany that is a producer of hops.

Fedora Core 1 (Yarrow)

• Yarrow is a plant with many uses. Prior to the use of hops in the flavoring of beer, yarrow was used for this purpose.

The names are selected using a voting procedure ( yeah they are democratic)

Ubuntu Version Numbers and Release names :

The version numbers are easy to comment on its the year followed by the month of release.. like say hardy heron was released in 08 in april so it goes out as 8.04 and the next one is due at october so tht would be 8.10

• Warty Warthog was released in October 2004, release number 4.10.
• Hoary Hedgehog was released in April 2005, release number 5.04.
• Breezy Badger was released in October 2005, release number 5.10.
• Dapper Drake was released in June 2006, release number 6.06 LTS
• Edgy Eft was released in October 2006, release number 6.10.
• Feisty Fawn was released in April 2007, release number 7.04.
• Gutsy Gibson was released in October 2007, release number 7.10.
• Hardy Heron was released in April 2008, release number 8.04
• Itrepid Ibexwill be released in October 2008, release number 8.10
• Jaunty Jackalope will be released in April 2009, release number 9.04

The names are all based on animals and the devs are looking for making sure the characteristics of the animals are into the OS like The Jackalope is known for being so fast that it’s extremely hard to catch, and breeds only when lightning flashes . So they are planning to make the booting or resuming Ubuntu blindingly quick.

I am not sure of the other distros naming. Havent used them much. so if any one has any pointers to them please do share…

This yr Lehman Brothers was here in NIT -Trichy not for placement bt for internships.. And i had registered for the interns and sent my cv and was having the thought tht i might not even go for it.And finally whn the probable date was announced to be 12 sep, which happened to ruin my 3 day trip to home tht i had in mind , i made up my mind tht i am gonna bid bye bye for the intern… But there was this statuatory warning tht i didnot heed saying tht ” there is no backing out once u r registered”. so i postponed my trip and thought i wud attend the ppt and leave as i wasnt in the top 3 from my dept . Unfortunately fate struck me in the form of getting shortlisted for the Interview process( yeah there was no written, it was CV shortlisting) and there was no GD. So, there i was waiting in the TP office with an unshaved face, the usual slippers tht i wear, and a decent enough dress.. Then came the other guys all suited up for the occasion. Me and rk ,who was sitting next to me , had a nice time making fun of each and every one.. especially kidambi who seemed to have taken a print out of his intro and the DO s and DONT s of interview.. After a gruelling wait of 2 hrs, i was called upon in… and below is the conv… (”blah blah blah” indicates i was giving a piece of my mind to him)

Notations : Me- myself and Int- Interviewer(s)

Me : May i come in ..

I: Yeah sure sure ( as if he is gonna hug me the next moment). So u r sathya naran.. no Sathya Narayanan .

Me: yes sir u gt it right..

He galnces at my cv and finally nods his head and says

I: Looking at ur CV i think u have a good chance for Higher Studies …

Me : Yes sir , i do have higher studies in my mind.

I: Wht are ur dream univs …

Me: Blah Blah Blah

I:So it looks like ur areas of interest doesnt match the profile we are here for.

Ironical tht they shortlist based on CV and say the above statement  after looking at the CV.

Me: Yes sir, i would like to knw if i can anyway relate it to my area of interest and work on it..

I: No actually we dont have any programming or algorithmic work.

Me: ( Thinking wht am i supposed to say for this) Sorry sir in tht case i guess i cant be of much help..

After this point i think it was clear to both of us tht i am OUT. so we had a friendly chat.One of the guys was a linux user( gentoo user) so was chatting with him on linux and then they came up with this wierd smile saying

I: Ok so see you..

Me: Thank you…

So i was out of my first interview in my coll life without even being asked a single tech question.. In the process i was hinting him to ask me some ques on algos… bt he was hell determined tht he is not gonna test me on any of those…

Well even worse was one of my chem guys , for whom the only tech ques asked was ” how do u determine the amnt of oxygen in this aquafina bottle(half empty bottle) lying on the table ” . Yeah and he wanted to knw the quantity of diff forms of oxygen present in the bottle .Now can some one tell me why an investment bank is in anyway bothered abt the oxygen content in aquafina bottle.So the final conlcusion .. never sit for something tht is not in ur area of interest even if they offer u lots of money

Yeah the day has finally come for the second years to meet GNU/Linux .It was same for us when we were in seocnd year , new to this thing called Linux. Some said it was for geeky ppl and some said its extremely difficult to understand and work with and some said tht its rather boring . Yeah despite all these ,i gave it a try and i am most grateful to myself for making tht decision. Because i have learnt a lot since then .And i was mad at ppl who blindly said linux sucks in dektop environment. It defenitely rocks with a better graphics and 3-D animation effects than anything on windows. Its just tht u havent tried anything in linux if u say linux doesnt have a good display. Now linux is something tht i use everyday .Windows and Vista were gone long ago and i  realised how much info they hid from me  since i started using Linux. Yeah Windows is an ideal beginner for any body new to computers.Its like you start learning adding two numbers with your both hands out and keeping the carry in ur mind. Yeah U got to begin there and tht looks more fun for a child . But then who stays on with tht. .Ppl move on… Linux is something like tht . Where we make a transition to adding numbers with just our mind (Mac is like using a Scietific Calculator :P).Since i moved on to linux i have faced lots of trouble configuring stuff.. but u learn a lots tht it doesnt matter. If u say being ignorant is better , great, stay on with counting your fingers. But if u are game for learning then welcome to the Linux Community.

Gnome Desktop Keyboard Shortcuts

Alt-F2 : Run Application Dialog

Alt-F1 : Open Applications Menu

Alt-F9 : Minimize Active Window

Alt-Tab : Rotate Current Window Focus

Ctrl+Alt+Left Arrow : Move Virtual Desktop Left

Ctrl+Alt+Right Arrow : Move Virtual Desktop Right

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left Arrow : Move Current Application Left

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Right Arrow : Move Current Application Right

Ctrl+Alt+L : Lock Screen

Ctrl+Alt+Del : Log Out

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace : Restart Gnome (careful)

Nautilus File Management

Shift+Ctrl+N : Create New Folder

Ctrl+T : Delete (to Trash)

Alt+ENTER : File/Folder Properties

Ctrl+1 : Toggle View As Icons

Ctrl+2 : Toggle View As List

Shift+Right Arrow : Open Directory (List View)

Shift+Left Arrow : Close Directory (List View)

Ctrl+S : Select Pattern [enter pattern]

F2 : Rename File

Ctrl+A : Select All

Nautilus Navigation Shortcuts

Ctrl+W : Close Window

Ctrl+Shift+W : Close All Nautilus Windows

Ctrl+R : Reload Nautilus Window

Alt+Up Arrow : Open Parent

Alt+Left Arrow : Back

Alt+Right Arrow : Forward

Alt+Home : Home Folder

Ctrl+L : Location Bar

F9 : Toggle Sidepane

Ctrl+H : Show Hidden Files

Ctrl++ : Zoom In

Ctrl+- : Zoom Out

Ctrl+0 : Normal Size

I know this is a bit of a long list, but I find that using keyboard shortcuts allows me to get more done than reaching for a mouse to navigate around my Desktop.  I know many are much more comfortable with the mouse, but learning a few of these shortcuts can’t hurt either.  Please comment if I’ve missed any shortcuts.

I dunno how this can happen though

Any Explanations ??? Surely the image is not edited one !

Now this is wht i was referring to here an here are pics tht i took from net tht prove my misery

yeah u heard it right . i did lose my gnome in my fedora 8 tht had been running for the past four or five months  in my laptop(Phoenix).It all started when amarok did not start properly and i decided to bring amarok back to life no matter what it takes :). I first re installed amarok from my repo , but still it showed the same behavior. Now i  thought may be my alsa mixer(Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) is not properly working so i tried to remove alsa and thats exactly where i initiated the whole process of losing GNOME. The alsa packages tht i had marked for removal had lots of packages from GNOME , KDE and others( in fact all the packages) dependent on it. And without noticing wht i am actually removing , i clicked the ok button to proceed on with the alsa removal  and it happily removed everything from my comp and i found my comp being reduced to a black screen with a terminal prompt on it . Did i deserve all these for removing a single package. In fact yes. This is how Linux works . It has lots of packages dependent on others tht if it misses the dependency , it removes the other pacjkages which infact become a sort of garbage without th dependencies.

And now i was like i am no where on this earth , pushed to the extent of being without linux in the Theoretical CS lab. And then i took a break and came back and took backup of important  data using the command mode and thought about the different optins that i had.

1.Go back to windows temporarily abandoning Linux ( I was really feeling bad whn i thought one simple package removal can take me to this extent)

2.Install Ubuntu which i dont like as i liked Fedora

3.Install Fedora 9 for which i had no repos.

I could clearly convince myself tht all these were not going to match the performance and graphics of my current Fedora 8 which i had customized so much.

So this is hw i gt back my gnome . I mounted my hard disk ,which had the repos, manually frm command mode and took back up of everything.

Next i did a yum -y groupinstall “GNOME Desktop Environment” and yipee my gnome got installed back in fifteen minutes nw i reinstalled all the apps and stuff and in one hour time i was like from deathbed to my paradise . Ofcourse i named my comp Phoenix and it has resurrected my pleasure from  ashes.

So i am now more confident of things in GNOME and in this course of time i actually realized the full potential of Linux - The Terminal . Thats the back bone tht supports everything and as long as it stays in my comp  i can do anything and evrything with it.

So coming back to the amarok thing tht had initially caused all these problem , i came to knw tht if i had cleared my cache from home directory it would have solved the problem . But i wud have missed the fun and thrill  i have experienced. And i almost wasted half of my day at Theoretical CS lab getting all this back to work . I had to wirte back python scripts for Screenlets tht i found were buggy . And in al it was a Lot of Fun ;);)

Probably one of the features that amazes me in Linux are the power and cuteness of the command line applications ! Right now but for watching videos, working with images , I have found ways to do stuff entirely on the terminal. Whats better ?? Its fast - really fast and completly productive. Let me brief few of my recent infatuations in command line apps.

* Every wonder how fast your browser can be in Elinks ??? No pop ups, no images, but absoultely cool plain test views,option to see images using eog , tabbed browsing, history, bookmarks, history : everything one might need in a modern day browser. It doesnt crash , doesn’t require extra plugins for working. Actually above anything else its the speed of browsing is what that beats me ! Too good. Check my gmail window in elinks

* Okay , One thing Elinks might not have is the chat feature. But there is a better client than that. Finch : Welcome to the command line Pidgin. If you already new Pidgin, then Finch is the exact ditto for the shell and If you didn’t know about Pidgin, u are missing something With Finch u can GTalk , AIM chat , yahoo , IRC , jabber talk and lots more. Once again the simplicity and speed beats any other application.

* And for everything there is Emacs plus shell combination. So the only thing I need the GUI is for watching videos and similar stuff where GUI is not a luxury but plain necessity.

* Of course I am still on the learning curve for Emacs and so sometimes when going gets tough I use Gedit. Now something great about gedit is that one can extend it in large ways to suit one’s need. With a good GTKSourceview color scheme and font selection , coding can be a wonderful experience. (Gedit doesn’t fit in command line tools, but sometimes its as much helpful )

I accept GUI has a friendly effect, simplicity of use. But what me miss is that after a few tries the command liners are simpler to use , more productive and damn cool , (particularly when you are showing off :P)