All posts by Ruturaj Vartak

Web, Linux

Ubuntu 12.10 Verdict

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A Saturday, new Ubuntu in the Downloads folder. What is it that you expect a linux user to do?

I installed Ubuntu 12.10 on Lenovo X201. I had 10.10 installed previously. I decided not to upgrade, but to clean install. It didn’t give me upgrade options anyways.

Post installation, here are some of the things I faced / enjoyed

Bootup time almost 25 seconds, it was around 15-20s for 10.10. A BIG downside for this release!

The Dash feels much quicker. However the gnome-shell still feels snappy as opposed to dash

I fuckin love the WebApps concept in Unity – That has actually made me stick to Unity.

Search in Unity still makes you click – as opposed to gnome-shell – Search the right string and hit Enter. That doesn’t work in Unity

I hated the original Alt+Tab utility in Unity, so installed Compiz Configuration Settings Manager (originally ccsm – so don’t search for that in apt). I replaced it with Static Window Switcher. It worked but then strangely started showing bugs of ghost windows moving in and out of the gray bar – little distracting, but didn’t break anything. (I was too careless to resolve conflicts 😛 – Was that the reason ?)

I adore the complete integration of Social World into the top-right corner of Ubuntu. You name it, Gmail (the Web App of that one is “क्या बात !क्या बात !” It shows the unread mails in Inbox, TagX, TagY, all in that top-right corner dropdown). O… continuing with integration – Facebook, Twitter, Chat, etc. However I’m an old time user of Pidgin, and have tonnes of logs in Pidgin which I don’t want to lose. I have no idea how to make Pidgin as the default integrated chat client into GNOME3 and Unity alike. – Help would do. Thunderbird too integrated nicely since the last release.

Ubuntu – Amazon Nexus – Naaah ! Disabled the “Online Search Results” from the “Privacy” application

I’m not a big fan of the Dark Ambiance theme, but with the other themes support in terms of UI elements, logos, etc.. I’ve got to stick with Ambiance atleast for now. I would’ve preferred the old GTK2 based Clearlooks theme.

Score: 7/10 – All the marks getting lost for the tacky compiz and inability to change defaults easily without installing other apps.

Linux

Python 3.3 ipaddress module Awesomeness!

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Python 3.3 was released yesterday, Sept. 29, 2012. It has a wonderfully geeky module for IP address.

Take a look at some of its usages..
Casting / Conversions

>>> str(ipaddress.IPv4Address('192.168.0.1'))
'192.168.0.1'
>>> int(ipaddress.IPv4Address('192.168.0.1'))
3232235521
>>> str(ipaddress.IPv6Address('::1'))
'::1'
>>> int(ipaddress.IPv6Address('::1'))
1

Arithmetic Operations

>>> IPv4Address('127.0.0.2') + 3
IPv4Address('127.0.0.5')
>>> IPv4Address('127.0.0.2') - 3
IPv4Address('126.255.255.255')
>>> IPv4Address('255.255.255.255') + 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
ipaddress.AddressValueError: 4294967296 (>= 2**32) is not permitted as an IPv4 address

Wish I could code in Python 🙁

References

guitar

Guitar Chords: Ala Barfi

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This entry is part 32 of 42 in the series Guitar

This earthly song from Barfi! movie strikes the chord with the seventies and early eighties. Those who have heard the Murphy radio with their grand parents would relate much better. I prefer the Swanand Kirkire rendition with vocals coming straight through the heart.

Strumming Pattern

There are around 3 basic strumming patterns in this song. One for the normal stanzas and other two for stanza ending and chorus.

  1. Normal Song (pattern1): D DU(muted) D DU(muted)
  2. Ghus fus ghus fus (pattern2): D(muted) U(muted) D(muted) U(muted) D(ring and mute) D(ring and mute). Typically G(down) G(up) G(down) G(up) G(down) G(up) G(ring) wait and C(ring). Pattern stays same for “kabhi na rukta ye re..”
  3. Khur khur pattern: Play same as Ghus fus but the C chord and D chord has to be strung only once
    like G(D) G(U) G(D) G(U) G(D) G(U) C(single downstroke) D(single downstroke)
[pattern1]
O..o..ye..
G
Aankhon hi aankhon mein kare baatein
G                  C         D  
Gupchup gupchup gupchup hoyi
G                       C
Ghus fus fus fus fus
G
O..o..ye..
G
Khwaabon ki nadi mein Khaaye gote
G                C           D

[pattern2]
Gud gud gud gud gud gud hoye
G                       C
Bud bud bud bud bud bud (Repeat once)
G

[pattern1]
Ala ala matwala barfi
G       C       D
Panv pada mota chala barfi
G         C          D
Raaton ka hai ye ujaala barfi
G             C         D

[pattern3]
Ghumshum ghumshum hi machaye Yeh toh footpath
G                                    C   D
Khur khur khur khur 
G
khurafati kare non-stop (Hoye)
[pattern2]
G              C   D
Khur khur khur khur (Hoye)
G                   C
Bud bud bud bud (Hoye)
G                C
Gud gud gud maula iss se bachai le
G                        C      D
Khur khur khur khur (Hoye)
G                    C
Bud bud bud bud (Hoye) 
G                C
Gud gud gud maula iss se bachai le
G                        C      D

[pattern1]
Hey..
G
Aankhon hi aankhon mein kare baatein
G                  C         D
(Gupchup gupchup gup) hoyi
G                     C
Ghus fus fus fus
G
O..o..ye..
G
Khwaabon ki nadi mein Khaaye gote
[pattern1]
G                C           D
(Gud gud gud gud) hoye
G                 C
(Bud bud bud bud)
G

[pattern1 but without playing the last rigning chord, played more in continuous motion]
Kabhi na rukta re
G
Kabhi na tham tha re
C
Gham jo dikha usse
D
Khushiyon ki thokar maare
                    G
Palko ki harmuniya
G
Naino ki gaa re saare
C
Dhadkan ki rhythm pe ye
D
Gaata jaaye gaane pyaare
                    G


Bhola na shamjho ye
C
Chaalu khiladi hai bada bada
                   D
He..yeye..

Suraj se uljha dega marega
C
Phoonk aise top talaiya pipal chaiyya
D
Har kuche ki aisi taisi

[CHORUS]
(Barfi Barfi tu hai meri..)

[pattern1]
Barfi jab amma ji ki Kokh mein tha soya
G
Amman ne murfi ka Radio mangaya
C
Murfi munna jaisa lalla
G            C      D
Amma ka tha sapna
              G
Munna jab haule halue Duniya mein aaya
G
Baba ne Ceylon wala station lagayaa
C
Radio on hua amma off hui
G          C          D
Toota har sapna
            G

O..o..ye..
G
Munna mute.. hi aansu bahaye
G               C         D

[pattern2]
(Chik chik chik) haye
G                 C
[pattern1]
O..o..ye.. Munna jhunjhuna sun bhi na paye
G                          C           D
[pattern2]
(Jhun jhun jhun jhun) haye (Jhun jhun jhun jhun)
G                     C    G

[pattern1]
Ala ala matwala barfi
G          C       D
Panv pada mota chala barfi
G           C           D
Raaton ka hai ye ujaala barfi
G                 C        D

[pattern3]
Ghumshum ghumshum hi machaye Yeh toh footpath
G                                    C     D
Khur khur khur khur khurafati kare non-stop (Hoye)
G                                  C   D
[pattern2]
Khur khur khur khur (Hoye)
G                     C
Bud bud bud bud (Hoye)
G                 C
Gud gud gud maula iss se bachai le
G                        C       D
Khur khur khur khur (Hoye)
G                     C
Bud bud bud bud (Hoye)
G                  C
Gud gud gud maula iss se bachai le
G                        C       D 

[CHORUS]
Biking

Kurze / Talasari Dam bike ride

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Sunday, Sep 2, 2012

I used to wonder why kids in their paintings always paint the cliched green mountains, blue sky and a river flowing by through green valleys brimming with yellow-green farms. Today, I knew why ! – ‘Cause its a sight that leaves a mark on your memory. Mine was stamped today.

Saturday evening Manas called and an impromptu bike-ride was on the map. Kurze Dam, which is just close to the Talasari junction on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad, NH 8 highway.

Back to the kids’ paintings – By September, the earth has been painted, replenished and cleansed as well. The sights that we saw on our way were just from the kids’ art books. The flushed-clean highway clinging to the green bosom, climbing and caressing the green paddy fields, which were close to being harvested giving a slight hue of yellow through the broad green spectrum. The air too was crisp-clean. Every single particulate dust had settled. The small, yet picturesque hills around the Manor region added another touch of flavour to the picture. As if that wasn’t good enough to put in a frame, the sky with its receding black clouds, was now azure blue.

A right turn from Talasari took us through a lazy little country side still oozing of the wet spells that were continuing to be intermittent. The gravity dam’s wall was just ahead of us, the road kept moving along the wall teasing us as it would never touch the dam wall. We spotted a small brown opening through the grass and we ploughed through to the base of the water reservoir.

It was still raining, wind creating a wonderful mixture of the droplets. The water body streching ahead of us till we could only see the mist in trees far in the background. At our feet though was the pungent brown mud, blades of grass fizzing through it. The whole sight reminding why people in country side can’t think of places like Mumbai as their home.

Kids passed by us adoring the R-15 and the other lowly models. I asked them

तुम्ही पोहता का इथे ?

to which they eagerly pointed out at the base of the reservoir where they were heading and ran off. JK looked at them run bare foot, and his philosophical counterpart murmured

साला कोई टेंशन नही है

I too pondered … we had lost all, the carefree attitude, the innocence, the honest smile, everything.

We took a few snaps and headed back towards the base from the dam wall. To my surprise the kids were actually swimming, jumping in the water. We rushed and joined them. The water was warmer than the air, which made us feel out of the world! Manas enjoyed clicking our water buffalo (JK) and the kids with his water proof camera.

On our way back we had some parathas that my mother had helped us with and Granola bars with Mars chocolate that Manas always keeps handy on his bike trips.

Even the hot shower by the end of a wet, cold ride wasn’t good enough to wipe clean the warm swim that we enjoyed.

Travelling Directions

  1. Head on the NH-8 highway towards Gujarat
  2. Take a right under the flyover at Talasari
  3. Head right into the heaven in a minute.

Photos

  1. JK’s Facebook Page
  2. Manas’ Facebook Page
Linux

Tweaking Gnome3 / Fedora fonts like Ubuntu

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Recently I installed Fedora 17. Font rendering in Fedora is somewhat unoptimized, thanks to many patent clad algorithms for rendering fonts. But you if you want the best, follow the steps below

  1. Enable RPM Fusion Repos
    rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

  2. Install freetype-freeworld package
    yum install freetype-freeworld

  3. Install gnome tweak tool
    yum install gnome-tweak-tool

  4. Tweak font rendering
    Open gnome-tweak-tool by typing “advanced settings”. Then set
    Hinting = Slight
    Antialiasing = Rgba

  5. Configure ~/.fonts.conf
    Please save the attached file as .fonts.conf in your home folder ( ie. /home/michael/.fonts.conf ). Note the file name is .fonts.conf with a period in the begining.
    fonts

Above will render fonts in the best possible way (Font Rendering is matter of preference – tweak around for yourself). Now any application, Google Chrome, Firefox, etc will render fonts in the same manner.

Trek

Sondai Trek

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Aug 19, 2012

Mallik’s visit to Mumbai would’ve been pointless without a visit to the newly crowned UNESCO Heritage Site, Western Ghats, our beloved Sahyadaris.

The destination this time around was a simple one, Sondai fort Trek. Close to the Morbe Lake Dam, near Karjat. This place had its own little lake dam, the Vaverle Lake Dam.

The participants were Mallik’s rock climbing group buddies, Ritz, Farzheen, Sneha, Aditya, Meenaz. Me and Vj were just the climbing pals, the rocks seemed to shun us everytime we tried to overcome them.

Mallik stayed overnite with me, and we picked up Vj early morning from Bandra Station. “Picked up”, yes, this was the 5-star trek of ours, a direct car commute to the base of the village. Others joined us at Kalanagar junction and we headed straight to Dutta Snacks, at the Panvel junction. A lazy lavish hour spent there having Batata Vada, chai, etc. My first trek with Farzheen, and the pit-stop at Dutta snacks made perfect sense.

Another 15 minutes, and we were at the chowk junction. The rains were lashing hard, we thought that it was the first time this region including Mumbai was getting the heavy downpour of the season. At Sion junction, it was just 6.30am and it was already flooding. A left from Chowk/Karjat junction and few more minutes in the now decaying road conditions took us to Borgaon junction where we took a left and then wandered towards the Vaverle village, all in a car!

The country side was green, with every single green hue visible with the unsaturated grays of the hovering clouds simply dousing over the hills. The Sondai fort-hill was hidden behind the fluffy puffs. A small climb on top of what seemed like a wall opened up gasping landscape of a lake being nurtured by small hillocks on each side.

The actual trek itself was a small 1 hr climb, mostly including trail walks. At the top we had some more food, thanks to Vj and Mallik’s bags which contained loads of tasty food and lots of Katchi beer ( छाछ ). At the base, the lake awaited us, I was the first to get into the water body, which welcomed me with warm water. The sight was simply irresistible for others, and soon everybody followed.

Almost half-hour into the lake, and still all hesitated to move out. Mallik had already left. It was Mallik’s call for Maggi that put everybody in dilemma. A hot maggi on a rainy afternoon after a dip in the lake was something that nobody wanted to miss. We had maggi and other restover food in a small hut where another group was playing with an air gun and trying to determine whose pellet went longest in the pool! No wonder we miss out on so many of those shooting medals.

Back at the car, we got into our dry wear, with RD Burman’s songs blasting through. On our way back we halted at a restaurant in Nerul for snacks and then back to our concrete and mortar.

Travelling Directions

  1. Take left at Chowk junction for Karjat
  2. Another left at Vaverle or Borgaon


View Larger Map

Photos

Sondai Trek Aug 2012
Uncategorized

Thundering Bolt – 9.63s

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guitar

Guitar Chords: Zindagi kaisi hai paheli (Anand)

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This entry is part 31 of 42 in the series Guitar

A tribute to Rajesh Khanna, the soulful melody.

[CHORUS]
C                            G
Zindagi ...kaisi hai paheli, haaye
               F                C
Kabhi to hansaaye kabhi ye rulaaye
x2

C                     F
Kabhi dekho man nahi jaage 
                         C
peechhe peechhe sapno ke bhaage
x2

C               G
Ek din sapno ka raahi 
                      F        C
chalaa jaaye sapno ke aage kaha

[CHORUS]
Zindagi...

C                    F
Jinhone sajaaye yaha mele 
                     C
sukh-dukh sang-sang jhele
x2

C                   G
Wahi chunkar khaamoshi 
                F       C
yu chali jaaye akele kaha

[CHORUS]
Zindagi...

Strumming Pattern

Down Down Up … Up

In “chalaa jaaye sapno ke aage kaha”, the C chord has to be struck just once – down stroke, Same for “yu chali jaaye akele kaha”. Alternatively you can ignore strumming after G chord and just strum F chord once followed by last down stroke of C chord giving the “talk” feel.