Carthik Sharma

Filed by Carthik at 4:15 pm under General 2 Comments

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No, I am not kidding.

If there ever was a pencil that was appreciate, it was this. I have a terrible urge to write with one of these.

I have been late to the party, but there is nothing like a legal pad, and a pencil, to get your thoughts flowing. I also hate yellow pencils. Which brings us to why pencils are mostly yellow, not counting the “Nataraj” and “Pinky” pencils I grew up on. Pencils are mostly yellow because that is the color associated (or previously associated) with royalty in China, and that’s where most of the pencils came from in the early days.

Filed by Carthik at 2:19 am under General 2 Comments

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Good to know this.

Filed by Carthik at 2:02 pm under General 6 Comments

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Weird stuff, useful stuff, and really, really cool stuff. Camping gear, science kits, heck even a jeopardy/quiz buzzer kit. Have to come back to this site someday. I am afraid if I buy stuff now, I’ll buy way too much. The prices sound real low and reasonable too. I’m already loving it, though I wish I was a kid, and I had an uncle who loved this store.

http://www.sciplus.com/

Filed by Carthik at 11:14 am under General 4 Comments

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If you have stared at the name Seetharaman Narayanan as the Adobe Photoshop credits roll by when Photoshop starts up, and wondered who this guy could be, you are not alone. I found this interview with the guy at Ironic Sans. By the way, you pronounce the name as “Sita-Raman Naaraa-yanan”. The last “n” in the name has a nasal, twangy sound, probably impossible for many westerners to reproduce. I wish I had a microphone so I could record the sound for you. I am glad I read the interview, quite serendipitously (I don’t even remember how I got to that page, or why). It turns out that there are quite a few pages on the web where he’s mentioned - even a couple of fan clubs.

The reasons for the name getting stuck in your head might be because the name is so long, and “exotic”. For me, however, I used to wonder how an Indian, from the same community as me (South Indian, probably (90%) Tamil, and (75%)Iyer/Iyengar), got into the credits of Photoshop.

My father(Appa)’s name is, after all, V. Narayan. Before he changed his name to what it is now, his name was V. Lakshminarayana Sarma. The “V” stands for Vydianath, which is also my grandfather’s given name.
So Mr. Seetharaman Narayanan studied at the Regional Engineering College, Trichy. I note this with pride, since I studied at another REC - the Regional Engineering College, Warangal. He’s called “Seetha” - which, though a handy name, also happens to be a feminine name - that of Lord Rama’s consort. My dad’s old name would be shortened to “Lakshmi” (yeah, just like the Lakshmi Singh you hear on NPR’s news). Maybe that is one of the reasons he chose to rename himself. I don’t want to get started on naming procedures in our community - that would make for an interesting post all by itself, and so I will save it for the future.

Filed by Carthik at 8:42 am under General 6 Comments

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make_u_smile

Found this one on Go! Flavien who somehow found what I wrote earlier. I’m still amazed at the the chances of someone finding something I wrote and I accidentally finding out that someone found what I wrote interesting. I mean, there are, what - 100 million blogs out there? 1/100,000,000 * 1/100,000,000 = Wow! Okay, that was a very naive mathematical model, but still.

Filed by Carthik at 11:18 pm under General 6 Comments

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I have had to revoke my PGP key since I forgot the passphrase - mea culpa. Not that I have had too much use for it in the near past, but really, my Social Security Card, and passport haven’t seen the light of the day in more than a year now. My passphrase had 5 phrases/words in it, and though I can remember the last four, no amount of thinking in the shower, going to sleep while telling my mind to recall it from the subconscious and reveal it in a dream, and trying to recreate the instant when I thought up the passphrase is helping me. When I created the passphrase I had taken special care to make sure that I can recall it if I remembered at least one of three things, and yet, though I have the last four phrases/words I can’t for the life of me remember the first. I am sure it will come to me one day when I am lounging in my beach chair in a remote beach with a book on my chest.

So, friends, my keys have been revoked, using the instructions I wrote myself when I created the revocation certificate. The Key ID is 1878779A. Previously, the key with the Key ID 702814C0 had also been revoked. Searching the MIT PGP KeyServer confirms the revocation. Strangely though, the Veridis Keyserver doesn’t seem to know about the first revocation.

Anyway, the following is the revoke certificate:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: A revocation certificate should follow

iI4EIBECAE4FAkKUqn1HHQBSZXZvY2F0aW9uIGNlcnRpZmljYXRlIGNyZWF0ZWQg
YXQgdGhlIHRpbWUgb2YgY3JlYXRpb24uIE1heSAyNSwgMjAwNS4ACgkQPEhXdhh4
d5rUDQCeMdyDBHIh4rGGnFrsw6yWi99Db5EAni81qyTuNVBZu5OwE7bOcvuO0psb
=3bl3
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

The only reason it took me so long to revoke this key-pair is that I had encrypted the revocation certificate with a symmetric key cipher, and thought I had forgotten the password for that too. I know, how smart. I had encrypted the revocation certificate using Gringotts - a very neat little encryption/decryption application. Then when I tried to decrypt it a while ago, the dang file wouldn’t get decrypted. So I feared the worst, and thought maybe I had forgotten the password for that too. Being unable to revoke keys is a lifelong sign of stupidity - much worse than a tattoo, I hear. Fortunately I just found out that Gringotts was broken and it was not my fault. So I tried with an up-to-date Gringotts, and voila! - I could decrypt my revoke certificate.

I will create a new key pair shortly - I have to get it all perfect from the get-go this time.

Update: New Key ID: BB0B8176
New key is below:
—–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–
Version: SKS 1.0.9
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=BJmr
—–END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–

Filed by Carthik at 2:11 am under General 2 Comments

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Roger Barrett, aka Syd Barrett died at an unknown time in the past week. From a founding member of Pink Floyd, he went to a recluse living in Cambridge - riding his bike, and living a quiet life. Too much LSD, and what followed was a life, the details of which are unknown. I am amazed by people who give everything up, and retreat to a life of silent existence. His songs used to leave me in wonder, and I could never wrap my head around how such a dangerously deviant musical experiment as the Piper at the Gates of Dawn became a commercial and critical success. I owe him a word of gratitude for having made my teenage years more colourful, and for teaching me to appreciate art. I wonder what his thoughts were in the later years of his life - maybe nothing remarkable, and maybe his silence was his biggest message - that there is no “message” - that life is just meant to be survived - a day at a time.

Filed by Carthik at 12:01 pm under General No Comments

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Like all good Indians (the kind that go to school on elephants ) I mispell the word “believe” as “beleive” from time to time. Fortunately I think I found the perfect way to remember the right way to spell it. A friend on a mailing lists had this to say when I expressed disgust at misspelling that word again:

“Remember, beLIEve has a LIE in it.”

Thanks, that should fix my brain.

Filed by Carthik at 11:57 am under India, General 9 Comments

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Google is not building a Desktop OS. I know for sure since I just heard it from Google’s VP for Engineering, Dr. Alan Eustace, who, apparently got his Ph.D. at my school. I attended the one and a half hour talk at UCF, and among the questions at the end of the presentation was whether Google will build (or is building) a desktop OS. He replied saying it is a difficult venture, requiring too much manpower, not an interesting research problem of any sort, and that Google will never want to try to tackle this. So much for all the discussion on an Ubuntu-based google OS, and all the stories and noise on slashdot, digg, et al.

There were some other interesting things he said, including something about an upcoming google “product”. The google seismograph, which he said might go public this weekend or so, gives a graph of the number of searches for “earthquake” against time, and that shows a spike around the time of the earthquake. He showed an example graph, and said that among the possibilities, it might be possible to locate the epicenter given the IP addresses of where the searches originated from.

He fielded some questions about working at google and lots of other stuff. Remarkably, he said spammers are the “most incredibly talented” (or was it ingenuous - well you get the idea) group of people he’s ever known. Ah, all that can, I am sure, fit into another post. For now, real life beckons, and I have a group meeting in about 10 minutes.

Filed by Carthik at 1:00 pm under Ubuntu, General 3 Comments

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Mark Shuttleworth, the guy whose bank balance is behind Ubuntu, uses WordPress for his new blog.

I use Ubuntu, and it tickles me to know that WordPress has come a long, long way. I have, in some way contributed to the person who contributed so much to the way I compute everyday.

Filed by Carthik at 6:07 pm under General 6 Comments

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It is a rainy day, but I don’t need an umbrella. The water is falling in gentle flakes, slowly. I can’t make up my mind whether this sort of weather depresses me, or makes me happy, since it does both. It depresses me, and yet puts me in a reflective mood, and brings back memories, and thoughts of the future, still unborn. I came back to the lab after a short walk and the songs that were playing in random mode were just perfect. “Anticipation” by Ali Akbar Khan from the album “Journey”, followed by Hélène Ségara singing L’amour est un soleil from the album “Humaine”. It’s in French, but sounds great, nevertheless. My music player is hooked up to last.fm, so you can follow the music I play at my profile page at last.fm if you like. A million thanks to Satya for all the music.

The university is full of students cramming for the finals. Mine are over. I stopped working on a paper and sent it to my professor. I can’t say I finished work on the paper - they never quite get “done”, if you know what I mean. So at the moment, I find myself wanting to drive a really long distance, listening to some good music, which, I think, is just what I will do.

Filed by Carthik at 1:05 pm under General 3 Comments

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Thanks to the awesome FAlbum (for Flickr Album, I suppose) plugin, I now have all my flickr photos on display here, at this site. Look at the top nav bar, or if you are reading this elsewhere, visit my photos page to see some pics.

I used to have a self-run Gallery at 2fargon.com, but I let the domain expire, and exported all the pics from Gallery to Flickr using this exporter. It took a longish time, but now I have the 2K+ pics at Flickr. They’re all private now, so you can’t see them. I will work on the albums, one by one, add descriptions, trim the collection where it needs trimming and then enable the albums for the public.

Thanks for the FAlbum plugin, the gallery-to-flickr exporter, and thanks again Matt, for the Flickr “pro” membership.

Filed by Carthik at 1:20 pm under General 6 Comments

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Every now and then I come to the basic problem of organizing my music collection, which has grown to quite an unmanageable size. Improper ID3 tags make the situation even worse.

The more music you have, the less you listen to music you want to listen to.

Without proper tags, or information to organize the collection, all of it ends up in a soup, and when I want to listen to a particular song, or, worse, check if I have one or more of a particular kind of sing, and listen to them, I end up spending a few minutes flailing about, and then giving up, and listening to the same old favourites - time and again! The problems of having a disorganized collections include the possibility of having a very disgruntled girlfriend. “You know what, your music collection sucks, you have all this junk, and not one song I want to listen to!!”.

So, people, is there any tool that will give me a genre if I give it the Artist/Album/Track Name information?

I already have started using Musicbrainz to tag the untagged mp3s, which is a phenomenal task, given that I have over 5000 untagged songs, but I will get there someday. For now, I need a method to classify songs based on genre. The List of music genres at wikipedia gives me the jitters. I would love to have a web-based tool that will tell me what genre a song belongs to. I’ll take its word, and never contest it, I promise!

The second issue is that of setting up a tree-like directory structure for the files. Things like compilation-cds, classical music cds, and worst of all - Hindi film soundtracks muck things up very very badly. So any suggestions on a structure for organizing files into directories based on mp3 tags that works are welcome too.

I’m trying to have a conversation here, so let’s talk.

Filed by Carthik at 9:34 am under General 11 Comments

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Looking for the solution to edit the dates on all photos in a set on Flickr?
You can do that, and much, much more with the Flickr Batch Operations Enhancer Greasemonkey script.

So get firefox, install greasemonkey, and get the Enhancer script. It is a life saver, as far as I am concerned, since some of the photos I have on Flickr haven’t got the date the photo was taken set quite right.

Filed by Carthik at 10:01 am under General 3 Comments

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