Ubuntu Starters - Brightness to Bluetooth

Ever since I came to know of Ubuntu and Linux (Linux Is Not UniX) I wanted to try them and learn about them. During university days I installed Ubuntu side by side with windows but never actually explored it, except probably the install and uninstall part which I did quite a few times. This time however as my new laptop came with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and I decided not to uninstall it for the sake of installing Windows, I did try my hands on one or two things. In this post I'll put a few things that could give a brief idea about Ubuntu if you ever wish to try it out (it is worth a shot, who knows it might trigger your love for complicatedly simple software engineering)

Installing Ubuntu is similar to how you install Windows, you can install it side by side as well. There are enough websites and forums to give you more than enough knowledge if you ever decide to install it. The only probable difference points you would notice are that the partition type is EXT3 or 4 and not NTFS (like for Windows), that there is something called mount point, which you can think of as start point/home directory and, that there is something called Swap Area which I understood as a virtual RAM. For a computer with, say, 2GB+ RAM I don't think it would be required for a basic user, so I guess ignoring Swap Area wouldn't cause any issue. Anyways, like I said, there is enough information available online. If you install Ubuntu alongside Windows, you get to choose at every start which OS to boot into. There is a sequence in which these OS are displayed and there is a time-out after which either default or highlighted OS is loaded (I don't remember which). You can change the boot loader sequence and also the time-out and the default OS.

After you have installed Ubuntu you would probably find yourself handicapped at first as every audio / video you play might ask you to install plugins. Also there might be an update manager popping up giving a list of updates adding up to a huge file size. It is TOTALLY ALRIGHT. You can just go to Ubuntu Software Center and install VLC Media Player. Now this one is really cool. You can just browse stuff like you do in case of Android Play Store. Search for what software you need, read description, if it serves your purpose then install, Simple and Elegant. Just that it is not flooded with options.

Something that you might find interesting or annoying is that bluetooth is on and brightness is set to full every time you restart. To change that I had to browse multiple forums. It would be easier for me to just put some code here rather than to find and link those websites now.

Open Terminal (ctrl+alt+t) the command prompt in Ubuntu

type following code and hit enter

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

this opens a file in text editor (gedit)

Before the last line of the file which should say "exit 0" Add the following two lines

rfkill block bluetooth
echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

save (ctrl+s)

exit editor (alt+F4) - only then you will be able to exit terminal

exit terminal - type exit and hit enter (or if you wish to check you can type sudo reboot and hit enter)

sudo is to run as administrator so it asks for your admin password (only first time in that Terminal session). In the two lines above, first line kills the bluetooth process and second line sets the value of brightness variable to 0. It is wise to check if such variable is there at that location (/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/). and the value 0 can be changed to suit your requirement. For the range of this value you will have to change and monitor the variable value at the location where it is stored. rc.local is something which, you may say, is something run at every start. You want to explore more, read about RunLevels. for now That's All Folks

Cheers

Thala

She asked me "Why don't men cry?" I said "I can't answer that coz I am a guy and I do cry"... In the morning someone in the lab said "Here comes another mail. One more guy left the company" As the name of the guy was read out a smile passed my face. It was the last working day of one of my colleagues at Maruti. Someone who had become a very good friend of ours. I heard the full name of the guy being read out. I turned around and said "Yes sir. He's my friend". I still remember that hint of pride in my mind when I had told that he got admit at a prestigious university in Europe and is leaving to do his higher studies there.

She said "But still...". I knew what she was asking but I really didn't have an answer. I finally gave it a thought and said what I could best come up with. I said that all of us cry, we cry when we see or remember something that we value and start feeling the lack of it. He became like an integral part of our daily life. He managed to sit through lunches filled with talks in Telugu, but he left such an impression that without his phrase "On your face" the lunch now feels incomplete. I get reminded of him every time I see RJ (the girl he used to adore, he still does I guess :P)

He wasn't the first one to leave. But his leaving was something that made me realise a lot of things. Our journeys are all different. People happen to meet and with some luck and interest they make friends. When the time comes we part. But we don't go empty handed. We take with us the memories of all the good and bad times we spent together. The memories which heal the tears on the inside and knit a beautiful smile on the outside. Thala, thanks a lot for all these sweet memories. Dunno why I started calling you that but now that I know the meaning I feel it suits you well. We'll sure keep in touch. Keep rocking. I wish you all the very best for your endeavours and adventures. And we still have to meet someone at your wedding, with at least two kids.

Cheers

Beyond its Afterlife

If this God-sent God-ly friend had not suggested me to write some (sort of) tech stuff on my blog I probably wouldn't have made a conscious effort to think of something like that. Thanks to his encouragement I did type something about my experience with data loss and data recovery. However I myself was not satisfied with what I wrote. How could I make such a thing my first-of-its-kind entry on this blog. That too when I am calling it a dedication to this friend. So here I go modifying that post. I wouldn't call this one a very techie post but for a start this would do.

Compaq CQ40 was my first laptop. It came with a 14" screen, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD (don't remember the remaining specification) and fortunately or unfortunately, with a preloaded Windows Vista Home Basic, latest Windows OS of its time. I was in my 1st semester of bachelor's and was of the opinion that I would be taking that laptop to college once I enter 2nd year. However something happened and I decided to buy a new laptop jointly with a batch-mate, to keep the CQ40 with my dad. I went on to buy a Lenovo on which I installed an RTM version of Windows 7. I still remember formatting that laptop almost every month because I had doubts on the correctness of the install. It is as if I practised installing Windows 7 and XP (with drivers) on that laptop. In another year I bought a different laptop (Compaq) for myself (the other guy retained the Lenovo). Did a whole lot of stuff, learnt a whole lot of stuff on that laptop, for two years and sold it before leaving university. All this while CQ40 was at home, being used by dad. Sometime after I joined my job I convinced my dad (saying that he should use his company provided laptop) and got it here to use. This bugger gave me some unusual experiences. I, sort of, witnessed a HDD crash for the first time in my life (trust me, you start feeling totally helpless after it happens). I made me read a whole lot of stuff on data recovery, I even tried getting professional help, but at the end I couldn't really recover any of it. Moral of the story, all those software and websites yelling "take back up of data" "back up your data" are not dumb. It is a good advice. If you don't trust online resources like Google Drive or Dropbox or some other cloud storage you can still think of keeping an external hard disk inside a locker in which you can store your personal data and from where no one can have a sneak peak on your "shame shame" photographs of childhood.

Well after multiple repairs/replacements motherboard of that poor little thing (My CQ40) finally gave up (or so said the technician). He agreed to buy the laptop (for the remaining components that worked). It is a different sad story how I am yet to receive some money from him. I was probably too attached to the laptop and was not giving attention to its age. It occurred to me only after a friend mocked me for using it beyond its afterlife, that it was nearly 6 years old. In these years, as many of you may know there has been like a revolution in the laptops. They have become faster, more compact, light weight and what not. It is only after I bought my new Dell Inspiron 3000 series laptop (and also while I was choosing it) that I saw the whole lot of upgrade in the laptop hardware that has happened over the years. In a later blog post I will try sharing my ideas on how to choose a laptop (just my opinions based on what could be your requirements). But do remember this, being attached to some gadget/device is one thing, but expecting it to survive and endure your lifetime is just not fair.

Cheers

The Heart Song

Roughly, a year back, when I was travelling by train, I penned down a few lines, the starting of a song that I finally managed to finish today. I don't remember if it was to or from Hari's wedding. There were few other Marutian friends around me. I could write, I guess, two stanzas then. And then as if it was totally forgotten. It started with a thought where I felt that I needed some peace of mind, that I miss the days of my past. Later I never really spent time on it. In recent days, I have no idea why, something came on to me and I started thinking more about this song and finishing it. I might have made it a little melodramatic but minus the exaggeration it sure contains some reality. The music for this song plays in my head, however I am not very sure if I'll be able to compose it (or even sing the song well for that matter). If I manage to make an audio I'll post the link as a postscript ;-) for now here comes the lyrics of the song. 

Need a Quantum of Solace

And a Micro of Space

Just to tie My Shoe Lace

And to Show you My Face

Remembering those Days

And looking into Blue Haze

Up on Shining Stars I Gaze

Munching in a few of Lays

She left me for another

I did not run any further

Everything's fine but one bother

I just could not pull it together...

Watching buildings and mountains

Through the windows in the train

I wonder was there any gain

Or was all of it in vain

Remembering those Days

And looking into Blue Haze

Up on Shining Stars I Gaze

Munching in a few of Lays

Need a Quantum of Solace

And a Micron of Space

Need a Quantum of Solace

And a Micron of Space

In the dilemma, I got to know her

Not that before, I never met her

Into chaos, she brought some order

What happened next, well it doesn't really matter...

I Spoke with the Fountain

It told me Break the Stupid Chain

Ponder over your Ways

You have to Quit that Mundane Chase

As I Heard the Smarter Phrase

And I Saw a Brighter Glaze

Said "No More" and Quit the Laze

To Get Back My Former Craze

For that quantum of solace

and that micron of space

For that quantum of solace

and that micron of space

For that quantum of solace

and that micron of space

... yeah

The title of this blog post was just so to say that the words came from my heart. Now I realise it doesn't seem bad as the title of the song as well. And thus we name the song as ... The Heart Song

Cheers

The Random Girl

It is not everyday that I randomly look at a girl's dress put up on a manikin in a UCB store and get amused by the thought of how pretty it would look on the random someone, whom I mentioned in my previous post. I have looked at dresses and given a thought as to whether it suits this cousin or that friend. But this one was strange. I just looked at it and the only thing I could remember was her. May be it was that relaxed sitting posture of the manikin that reminded her cheerful face. Brought a smile on to my face.

I hardly ever get to talk to her and yet in those very few conversations that I have had with her I must admit, I'm impressed. I wonder if all that I think I know about her is true, whether I admire and appreciate her for the right reasons. But whatever it is I am sure thankful to her. In recent past I have had a tough time keeping my cool. Interacting with the people, I had spent the last one and half year with, seemed to be the most awkward task. I didn't feel like talking to anyone around me. At times words came out only forcibly. I rarely felt that people around me understood me or my concerns. I was so occupied thinking about situations with others that I was not doing anything else. I found it difficult to squeeze in time for simple simple things. Amongst all this there were some stupid realities of my past so called love-life that surfaced, as if I wasnt bothered enough with my already existing issues of what you can call as partial insanity. At such a time when I had lost all my focus, felt like there was nothing left of me in me, as if I had lost my soul, she reminded me of things I once felt were important, ideals against which I wouldn't have entertained many of the things which I did in the past year. She made me pause and take a look at what I had come to Gurgaon for and compare it with what I was doing. I saw the indecisive, confidence-lacking, turtle-slow self that I had become while thinking that I should be nice to others. It is like she whacked some sense into me. It is a different story that I needed a bigger dose and that was taken care of by a good old friend with a good nice counselling. Things improved but sometimes that insanity keeps coming back. I am just glad that I still have friends who appear all of a sudden at such times and help me set my mind right. Clearly she had no intention of doing any of it. I am sure she doesn't have the faintest idea of any of this. But that's the thing about her. She does good just by being herself, or so I think she does. Whatever it is, I am happy knowing that the gyan that I got from her will not be in vain.

Oh yeah, you must be wondering what happened to the pretty sea blue top with pink inner and the pink denim. At the end I only checked the cost of that dress, had one last look at it nicely put up on the manikin, smiled, went to food court, bought myself a cold chocolate drink and proceeded to board my flight to Hyderabad.

Cheers

Aadi ! The First One

I was called a random guy by a random someone on a random occasion and it occurred to me randomly that this name would suit the blog as I am anyway going to put in here all types of random stuff that comes to my mind. (It is a side story that I am, or at least was, obsessed with this random someone :P )

Well... what is going to come on this blog is a surprise even to me. I just wish that it'd be fun to write (or may be I should say type) and I hope it'd be a good read for you as well.

Cheers