Hariprasad’s Weblog

I found out today that one of my developerworks article on KDB has been posted – word-by-word – over here. I am pretty sure it is a copyright violation. Of course, I have not been contacted regarding this but I am sure neither has developerworks given any consent for the same.

At least a line or two at the beginning crediting developerworks (or me) would have been so much better.

Finally, I was able to figure out how to create a playlist in Linux for Realplayer. Just open a “.ram” file in a text editor, put all your hyperlinks and local file locations, one per line, and save it. Realplayer will play it one after the other.

I recently read a discussion on lkml about the software suspend facility that needs to get into Linux. There was a heated debate about suspend2 and swsusp and which one should get in finally. Andrew Morton stepped in and suggested that a third way is possible and that people should look at the kdump infrastructure and using it to implement software suspend.

Much of what I contributed to the kdump code may eventually not remain in the tree. But one thing that has a more likely chance of survival is the name kdump. I remember Suparna repeatedly asking me to think of a “good” name. I think she was uncomfortable with “kdump” for some reason. I thought it was a very appropriate name and kept going back to her with it. Finally, the discussion ended when the second or third set of patches that I sent to Andrew was named kdump* and Andrew et al starting using that term.

It feels kind of good to know that something that you contributed (I am talking about code as well, here ) is going to become an important part of such a big piece of software as the Linux kernel.

Sripathi talks about some interesting reasons why Linux Desktop is getting closer in performance (or the lack of it) to Windows LWN today has pointed out two projects which are trying to do something on this front. It does seem like we will have a good desktop a couple of years from now.

Read these – BetterDesktop and Tango Desktop Project.

November to January looks like will be a very hectic phase for me at work. Working on a paper for the CCGrid conference to be submitted by November 15. Then there is this new idea I am working on which we are targetting for a paper submission by January.

Of course there is also the Linux Bangalore 2005 conference in the first week of December. We may have talk or two on Grid Computing and Virtualization.

I recently read about an IBMer having to resign from his job because of his comments about IIPM on his blogsite. IIPM has sent him a legal notice and apparently threatened IBM that they would stop using Thinkpads if the employee did not take his comments back. What a sick thing to do!

Read more here.

So I finally worked it out. Will wait for the broadband connection to appear at home. There are a couple of Linux based utilities which are freeware and can pretty safely repartition my NTFS data drive. Need a 100MB mini distro though. So, I am gonna download that from home and then get Linux setup )

Which brings me to the topic of broadband connection. I got Tata Indicom disconnected because of their pathetic service (they have not even come home to take back the router), and Airtel and Hathway are not alive in my region, so had to settle for BSNL. Now, I have paid for the connection about a week ago. But my area office has not yet got the “work order” from the head office and they will only request the work order if I call them up and request for it. So, my polite enquiry call yesterday turned into a request logging session and I have been promised the connection “as soon as the work order comes”. Some inside sources told me that the work order comes only after the modem is issued and that they have a perennial shortage of modems.

Phew….so in short…..not sure when I will get broadband at home.

There is a huge discussion going on making the timer interrupt frequency selectable from the default 1000Hz now. Yesterday, Linus got involved in the same. The result – some amazing comments on lkml I am posting below some of his non-technical comments. Enjoy maadi!!

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- I have to say, this whole thread has been pretty damn worthless in general in my not-so-humble opinion.

- But if somebody is doing this because they think “jiffies” are evil, then that somebody is being a total idiot. Jiffies aren’t evil.

- The stupid way is simpler, but anybody who doesn’t see what the problem is has some serious problems in kernel programming.

- Jiffies are here to stay, and they are here to stay for some very very fundamental reasons. If you hear somebody arguing for removing jiffies, you should piss in their general direction, and realize that they don’t know what they are talking about.

- And I claim that you _cannot_ do better.

- Dammit, I want a real user who says that he can noticeable see his DVD stuttering, not some theory. I’m incredibly fed up with the theoretical whining.

- Really. I dare you guys. First one to send me a tested patch gets a gold star.

- I’m -right-. I’m always right. This time I’m just even more right than usual.

Ok, I’m back again….weekend was hectic. 4 subjects is a bit too much…but then, only 4 left….so ……

The spirituality course is turning out to be really interesting. Has got me thinking real hard. Have to admit its put forth some real provocative questions. There’s also this entrepreneurship course I am doing. Need to come up with a business plan for a new company I am supposed to start Well….finally I am on my way to becoming a millionaire

The crash dump patches have got into -mm now. Greg KH had a nice comment about it in his blog. It was in reply to Sun Engineer’s comment about why they will not get into Linux bigtime….

My exercise regimen is completely broken. Need to start something seriously. The mouth ulcers seem to be never ending.

-H

Mez back from Linux Kongress. Went really well. Sent out the latest patches last week. Therez been a couple of reviews….working on next set of changes.

Arun’s CET counselling happened today. NIE – IP. The folks at CET have become really efficient. Couldnt believe that the whole thing got over in 3 hours!!!

My last quarter in PGSM is well underway now. SSDGM seems a very interesting subject. We are gonna have classes on Islam, Christianity, Vedanta and Upanishads.

Have started daily project discussions with Kurien on EVC. We have a couple of interesting ideas now.

FInished the Kongress paper. Finished the RM assignment ) Made some real progress this week. Sent out my kexec based dump patches to lkml. Received some comments. Yet to post updated patches.

Not keeping all that well. Need a break!! Planning to take a week off after Linux Kongress. Right now though, PGSM exams are coming up and need to focus on that.