A couple of days ago I was sitting at home twiddling with the new Nokia N810. Along comes my 2 year old nephew :

Mihir : What that ?
Me : My new Computer.
Mihir : Looks like Dhruv's (his elder sibling) Gameboy.
Me : Dumbstruck !

In comes another new laptop...the third I've switched in the last 3 months. This time it is a Dell Latitude D630. The decision to go Dell took a fair amount of market research. I was looking for a laptop that could tick of the most boxes on my requirement list :

- Business class laptop
- 14" 1440x900 screen
- Good build quality, especially the hinges, which have been a total pain in the past
- Card reader
- Serial port
- PCMCIA slot for my Tata Indicom data card
- Works with Linux
- Large capacity battery (8 - 9 cell)
- I am not too fussy about the weight. 2 kg'ish will do.

The obvious choices were :
- Lenovo Thinkpad T61. Did not get bought because it only sells with a 1280x800 display in India. No options.
- Toshiba Tecra M9. This one met all my requirements. It is really expensive and the Support sucks. Really bad !
- Dell's Latitude D630 came close..except that it does not have a card reader.

I had to choose from the lot and decided in favour of the Dell. Support is great and I can make do with a USB card reader. I wonder why it it still so hard to find a laptop that does it all (discounting the home use segment laptops which do do it all...but for the build quality and PCMCIA card slot).

After deliberating for the better part of 3 years I decided to take the plunge and moved Shef's HP nx9040 laptop , from it's now terribly slowed down install of Win XP, to Ubuntu. This went down three weeks ago.

Shef's laptop use covers her scientific writing work, music and DVD playback, IM (both chat and Video) and some basic games.

Available at hand was a CD of Ubuntu 7.04. Popped in the CD and the deed was done in a few minutes. Add ons to make the transition smoother included various Firefox plugins, Mplayer and it's accomplices, Pybliographer,  Acrobat reader and a few more odds and ends.

The laptop has had a dodgy on board microphone right from it's Windows days. It simply never worked...and since the laptop was gifted to me, sans warranty, I was in no position to crib at anyone to get it fixed. So, we have used a MVOX mv100 USB speaker/mic combo as a substitute.

Cut back to the nx9040 running Ubuntu. A few days after the big move in comes a demand for Skype to be loaded on the machine. Ubuntu 7.04 does not like the MVOX mv100, and the on board microphone does not work. At this point I am not even contemplating the lack of webcam support. Fine mess I've landed in !

Much cursing ensues at both me and Ubuntu and finally the demand to roll back to Win XP. Ugh !

Two days later Ubuntu 8.04 is released and I scurry to get the latest version in hope of finding a solution to the laptop (and my domestic) problems. Everything installs cleanly in a few minutes and heart beating I plug in the MVOX and webcam...and Viola! it works.

Phew..saved ! Many thanks to the folks at Ubuntu.

Being a long time Redhat user, I just wish Fedora would become as smooth to use.

PS : I tried all of the above on a fully updated Fedora 8 install before opting for Ubuntu...no dice.

boo 15:mplayer -vo xv /home/movies/The.Matrix.Reloaded.2003.720p.nHD.x264.AAC.NhaNc31.mkv
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T7300  @ 2.00GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 10)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
115 audio & 237 video codecs
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing /home/movies/The.Matrix.Reloaded.2003.720p.nHD.x264.AAC.NhaNc31.mkv.
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC) "The.Matrix.Reloaded.2003.720p.nHD.x264.AAC.NhaNc3", -vid 0
[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_AAC/MPEG4/LC/SBR) "The.Matrix.Reloaded.2003.720p.nHD.x264.AAC.NhaNc3", -aid 0, -alang eng
[mkv] Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS) "The.Matrix.Reloaded.2003.720p.nHD.x264.AAC.NhaNc3", -sid 0, -slang eng
[mkv] Track ID 4: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS) "The.Matrix.Reloaded.2003.720p.nHD.x264.AAC.NhaNc3", -sid 1, -slang rum
[mkv] Track ID 5: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS), -sid 2, -slang und
[mkv] Will play video track 1.
Matroska file format detected.
VIDEO:  [avc1]  852x720  24bpp  23.976 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC (MPEG2/4 Advanced Audio Coding)
FAAD: compressed input bitrate missing, assuming 128kbit/s!
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/8.33% (ratio: 16000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [faad] afm: faad (FAAD AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio) decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 852 x 720 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 852x720 => 1280x720 Planar YV12
A:  62.7 V:  62.0 A-V:  0.680 ct: -0.202 708/708 85%  4%  8.7% 50 0

           ************************************************
           **** Your system is too SLOW to play this!  ****
           ************************************************
What the hell do I need to play a Matroska next ?

It started with a new camera late last year. The Lumix FZ8k prompted change in aspect ratio for all photos from 4:3 to 16:9. The move did not go down well with the family...especially since we did not have anything that could display a 16:9 photo full screen. My laptop was a much older machine. The home TV was a vintage CRT. All 4:3 displays.

Last month my laptop changed. Off course, it is office issue, but has a 16:9 display.

The day before yesterday we upgraded the home TV to a Sharp Aquos LC-32BX6M. And it rocks !

We're now full circle with all displays at home 16:9 capable.

The last 2 months have been hectic. Not least of which is due to the sudden spurt in highway driving that's come about.

December saw the family Shenoy drive down to Goa across the Christmas weekend. Many thanks to shankerbalan for the last minute accommodation arrangements.

Goa was lovely in December.
Goa was horrendously expensive in December.

The nicest part of the trip for me was the drive. Especially the section from Haveri to Karwar (via Sirsi). The roads are narrow, winding and in decent shape. The scenery is stunning. Dense forest sections that I am yet to see in other parts of the state I've driven through. All in all a very enjoyable week long stay  Distance covered - 1500 kms round trip.

Come end January  and a trip to Hubli beckoned to attend a family function.  We ran into really thick fog on the way out of Hubli this morning...so thick that I could not see more than 10 -15 feet in front of me with headlights and fog lamps on. To and fro in a span of 3 days. Distance covered - 900 kms.

The new car just cracked 10000 kms this morning...and it's not quite 6 months since it joined the family.  Maybe it's time to go the American way and rent a car for future outings. I wonder how much a rental sedan in good condition will cost.

There will be at least two more road trips this calendar year...one during Abhinav's summer holidays to Yeracaud and the annual family vacation towards November - December. Let's see where we end up this year.

Shef's Gmail account got IMAP enabled 48 hours ago. Mine is still not.

What gives guys ?

Grr !

CNET has gone and published a "Cell phone radiation chart".

With all the ongoing hoo ha about possible harmful side effects of prolonged Cell phone usage, this is useful information to have at hand when buying a phone.

Did a hurried upgrade of my work laptop from FC6 to F7 last evening and was surprised to find a quite nicely packaged distribution from the RH stables after a loooong while. SATA emulation for the HDD works out of the box, wireless works without having to download pesky firmware packages and the theme is quite easy on the eye too.

This will definitely slow gown the "khaj" to switch to Ubuntu !

It seems the old career has come to a grinding halt. Work has stagnated and advancement will now come at the price of a change in line of work. Sigh !

I guess this had to happen after 12 odd years in the Sys Admin line.

Bye Bye IT Operations. I'm moving on.

Tata Indicom delivered a spanking new PCMCIA datacard yesterday. The card has a Huawei chipset and works out of the box on my laptop. It's been almost 18 months since I last used a dialup connection and reacquainting myself with "wvdial" was a interesting experience....especially since I need to use "Stupid Mode" to get "pppd" working.

Speeds are decent and the tariff's quite reasonable. At last some affordable mobility !

The new food court at Sigma mall. Great place, nice food, lousy water.

Abhinav, both my nephews (Dhruv and Mihir) and my mon have gone down with tummy problems post consuming iced drinks at the place. Dhruv, Mihir and mom had ice cream at MacDonalds and Abhinav a juice with ice at the food court.

The lot of them have been down for a couple of days now.

Shef and I had a juice too, sans ice, and are fine.

If you feel thirsty at the Sigma mall....run....or you'll get the runs !

The last 15 days have been full of driving. December 27, 2006 saw the family Shenoy take a much needed vacation in Coorg. We stayed at the Faith Cinchona Estate in Kutta, South Coorg. The estate is 35 lovely acres of Coffee, pepper and Cardamom. Prabhu and Maya, who own the place, are fabulous hosts. Highly recommended !

Kutta is located between the Nagarhole and Wayanad Forests...so there's two animal safari's to see.

Abhinav has been watching Jungle Book off late and was very puzzled that he did not get to see friendly animals singing songs in the forest :)

This was our second trip to Coorg and I'm definitely going back for more.

Got back to Bangalore on New Years Eve and had to rush off to Hubli on a emergency the very next day.

All in all it's been 2000 Kms of driving and a mass of creaking bones left to tend to. So much for a vacation !

Yesterday was a momentous day of sorts. I landed up at work sans car, which was in the garage, only to realize that there was a strike on. No auto's available to get back home. Gulp !

Post work I decided to risk a ride back home on a BMTC bus...after 12 years.

Koramangala to Shivajinagar took forever, actually a hour, and cost me Rs. 8.00. The last time I did this route by BMTC was 1988 and cost me Rs. 1.25.
Shivajinagar to Sanjayanagar was a lot better. Duration was 30 minutes and cost me Rs. 9.00. The last time I did this leg on BMTC was 1994 and cost me Rs. 1.75.

The economics of it - one way office travel cost me half as much as driving down (by diesel powered car with AC) and took more than twice as much time.

I wonder which is a better deal.

I've been told by a "younger person" that I should start updating my LJ again.

This is item 1 on my New Year Resolution list.

Airtel seems to have recently put in a blanket block on a looong list of incoming ports on their DSL lines...for Business connections.

Here's the block listing :

IP portblock.1 tcp any any eq 2745
IP portblock.3 tcp any any eq 3127
IP portblock.4 tcp any any eq 5000
IP portblock.5 tcp any any eq 6129
IP portblock.6 tcp any eq 3334 any
IP portblock.7 tcp any eq 2037 any
IP portblock.9 tcp any any eq 445
IP portblock.10 tcp any any eq 135
IP portblock.11 tcp any any eq 139
IP portblock.12 tcp any eq 1568 any
IP portblock.13 tcp any eq 2410 any
IP portblock.14 tcp any eq 3426 any
IP portblock.15 tcp any eq 4424 any
IP portblock.16 tcp any eq 2588 any
IP portblock.17 tcp any eq 1485 any
IP portblock.18 tcp any eq 4645 any
IP portblock.19 tcp any eq 3456 any
IP portblock.20 tcp any eq 4257 any
IP portblock.21 tcp any eq 9898 any
IP portblock.22 tcp any eq 445 any
IP portblock.24 tcp any eq 9996 any
IP portblock.18 tcp any eq 4645 any
IP portblock.19 tcp any eq 3456 any
IP portblock.20 tcp any eq 4257 any
IP portblock.21 tcp any eq 9898 any
IP portblock.22 tcp any eq 445 any
IP portblock.24 tcp any eq 9996 any
IP portblock.25 tcp any eq 9995 any
IP portblock.26 tcp any eq 1022 any
IP portblock.27 tcp any eq 1023 any
IP portblock.28 tcp any any eq 9898
IP portblock.29 tcp any any eq 137
IP portblock.30 udp any any eq 137
IP portblock.31 udp any any eq 1241
IP portblock.32 tcp any any eq 1241
IP portblock.33 tcp any any eq 3410
IP portblock.34 udp any any eq 3410
IP portblock.35 tcp any any eq 1080
IP portblock.36 tcp any any eq 8181
IP portblock.37 tcp any any eq 29147
IP portblock.38 tcp any any eq 5554
IP portblock.39 tcp any any eq 6677
IP portblock.40 udp any any eq 6677
IP portblock.41 tcp any any eq 6667

And this is apparently at their ISP head end...according to customer support. I wonder if this applies to their leased lines too.

Abhinav now calls me "Avi"...no papa/dad/whatever. The family elders are aghast ! My Aunt hit the roof when she heard him. Strangely it does not feel awkward to me.

Abhinav now has teeth...six of them. And he bites !

The past few weeks have seen a marked improvement in Quality Of Life. Abhinav seems to understand that one need not take a looong car ride in the wee hours of the night to fall asleep.

Shef is happy that she finally has a automobile all her own.

I got me a membership at Cinema Paradiso, the new DVD library cum theatre. Nice place, good collection of DVD's...all original.

They even gave me a free bag of popcorn with the DVD I borrowed out. This is apparently a standard feature.

Abhinav completed a year on Aug 29, 2004.

How time flies...