Chillout Lounge

2005-08-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

This Blog is Closed...Moving to Home...

I'm moving to my Home, so I bid you adieu... Blogger...

And for all my sweet little group of readers
Here are the new links for the new Home

Home: http://www.logukrishnan.net

Blog: http://blog.logukrishnan.net

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http://www.logukrishnan.net/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss

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C Ya all there... Let's do it fresh... :-)

2005-08-07T06:34:00.000-07:00

Moments in Sri Lanka

Yesterday early morning, I landed in chennai....after a short stay from Srilanka....Ah!Few Months back, Sri Lanka was just another place on the map… I had never thought or planned to visit this island, whenever I wanted to go outside the country I always had a long wish list[!] Venice, Italy, Rome, Swiss, France, Germany, Aus , Seychelles et al… :-D [I'm bit greedy on travel] Infact, initially when I was asked to go to Lanka, I immediately denied [Why the heck should I go to a war zone?!] but, later agreed due to some instinct…!! From then on when I took up the IBM assignment, life was a whirlwind and was set into a sort of trance, travel, moving to Hyderabad, back to Lanka and too many events blossomed and died in a very short span of time. Project was bit like a war with parallel teams from IBM working across the world, and everyday a new strategy has to be formulated to handle the project and team...and things went on...and surprisingly met some interesting incidents in life...!! Before, I could even recollect whatz happening… here it's coming to an end…BTW now the product is entering Beta 1 stage and debuting in the world with its official name as IBM Websphere - Information Analyzer, which is to be showcased on IBM's Tech Symposium Next month...IBM is also gearing towards the final release by next year, meanwhile, MSFT is also gearing its SQL Server's Integration Services, and things should get bit interesting from then on... 'm awaiting ;-)

This time, when I came to Sri Lanka, thought of practising something i was adviced, something i learnt recently, to live life uncomplicated... so to making life bit interesting and simple, said no to mobile phones, no Laptop, No network at home, No TV… and life was good.. Me, My mp3 player and couple of books [Surprisingly, I've finished reading Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", "Eleven Minutes", "The Zahir". Started liking his writings, his writings are like melody, sort of soothing music. And carries you along with his words and also has the magic of changing perceptions.He defines what life, love and people are all about].

Srilanka also gave me some good friends in this small island. I rarely make friends, and Dhanushka was one among them, this guy was so very interesting, as our first meeting was filled with intellectual talks. He had amazing analytical and logical skills… and was fast on grasping things…also had an amazing capability of reading people's mind :-) He invited me for a authentic srilankan lunch... He has a wonderful family, sweet wife and a lot of dreams in life… interesting guy… and also sync'd with lahiru, sujeewa,susantha,piyal,chamath et al. The guy who is about to continue my role further in the project is Tariq Al Ayad, it took couple of interviews to identify this guy, he had a spark...loves microsoft :)...Good luck guys...long way to go...

Also traveled with in the island, whenever possible, and this island did not disappoint me at all. Initially My Travel partners were Bhagvan Kommadi, he is the senior Techie Architect in my company. He was a very interesting character. Very rarely you can talk about technology, science,Logic, Philosophy, People, Movies, Music, Food, Life, Moon, Stars et al to a single person… he was one among them and Hariharan, Senior Engineer and a very nice human never denied for any of my travel plan...we were all set to travel to the seducing place of srilanka...Kandy, adventuristic at...sigiriya,blissful at...Nuwara Eliya and other places...Wanted to see lagoons, but i was said that reconstructions are still happening after the tsunami attacks.

Learnt amateur photography a bit, as well...Here are some moments captured in various moods... Photos...Moments at Srilanka...

Alas! Back in chennai...oops! singara chennai :-) and man, its raining now[!]...Miracles do happen... Do they ?!! Whatever... time to get back to business...time to sew...

Who can say where the road goes,
Where the day flows?
Only time....
...
...
--Enya, Only Time

2005-07-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

Éric Lévénez… History…History…History…of Computing…

Lévénez, this man has a very interesting hobby… he has tracked the history of the computing world. I Was bit amazed to see how world has evolved, as he tracks the history from the year 1954.

1. Languages History
2. Windows History [even tracks the "Vista" announcement made last week]
3.UNIX... Okay *nix History

And if you thrilled about this, you can paste these across the walls… here is what people have done… http://www.levenez.com/wall/

Okay, now looking around the office or home for the space :-)

2005-07-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

An Afternoon at the US Consulate

Last week, I had an appointment at the US Consulate at 2:15 PM. After normal chores and queues, I was awaiting for my token call, and it was already 4:30 PM…[wasn’t my appointment at 2:!5 PM!!!] Whatever…I’ve decided not to get pissed off, and started diverting my attention to observing people. I was on the 1st row, so I had a clear visibility of whatz happening in the 1st 3 counter…
Some interesting conversations I can remember...

...
American: So, you are a muslim
Indian: Yes,
American: How many families you have ?!
[Me: What… ?! Should every muslim have 4 families !!!]
Indian: [stranded] 1 Family with 6 Kids
[Me: Oh! My God... Good that he didn’t have 4 families :-)]
…
…

Counter 2
American: Why do you want to go to US ?
Indian: I’m going to build payroll software for my company ?
American: [with a grin] Don’t you get your salaries now ?!
Indian: Yes… Yes.. I do… and yes, we do have a payroll system
American: Then why do you want to go to US ?
Indian: I’m…I’m… going to enhance the system
American: Why not do that in India ??? I Just don’t understand…blah blah…
[Me: Okay… this guy is rejected…]

Then a old couple struggling with a person who thinks he can manage without a tamil translator, and another lady who wants to go to live with her husband was rejected as, her marriage was not approved by the US consulate !!... et al…

Meanwhile I was called upon, I was bit cool and ready for my own interesting conversation… :-)
American: Good Evening sir.
Me: Good Evening
[Gave out all the documents and passport]
[He Saw my face closely, then browsed thro’ the passport]
American: Sir, First… we shall start with the Finger prints
[First…hmm.. looks like he has lots of questions… Finger Prints reading done]
American: You are working for your company for last 6 months, is that correct ?
Me: Correct
[Again he browsed thro’ my passport, he typed something in his computer]
American: Fine sir, you can pay the fee at counter 1, we shall courier you the passport.
Me: [Whaaat… Is that all…No questions ?! He did not even ask for my invitation letter or purpose of visit…anyway…hmm]…. Fine, Thanks

[Before Leaving the counter]

American: I’m sure you are not from Chennai, Are you?
Me: [Puzzled] Excuse Me …
American: I mean your origin…
Me: Yeah, right… I’m from a place called “Coimbatore”, located 500 Kms south-west from Chennai.
American: “Coimbatore”… Yeah I know that place,I’ve been there some time back, I’ve been to ooty as well… Nice place… Nice People…
Me: [Ah! Is this man reading my face… !!] Yes, indeed it’s a nice place…Thanks
[We exchanged smiles and left the counter… I was quite surprised…later after 3 days Michael from logistics team said I’ve got a B1 for 10 year multiple entry… I was not surprised at all… :-)]

2005-07-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

ITHACA

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean

-- Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

2005-05-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Maktub...

...

"Maktub," the merchant said finally.

"What does that mean?"

"You would have to have been born an Arab to understand," he answered. "But, in your language it would be something like 'It is written…' "

-- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

I Never thought a delay of 2 days can twist someone's life...!!!! Maktub...

2005-05-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

A Lexical Analyzer Generator – CsLex

Secondly, I decided to scrap my old GPS Parser and try some alternatives. Did a bit of research on the Lex & Yacc stuff, Lex helps write programs whose control flow is directed by instances of regular expressions in the input stream. It is well suited for editor-script type transformations and for segmenting input in preparation for a parsing routine. At the end of research I found this interesting Cs-Lex written by Brad Merrill of Microsoft @ http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Lex/Lex.htm which is a C# porting of JLex.
CsLex is Quite simple and clean than others (including antlr)

Generated a small simple test file and generated code for a simple input (to identify Commented lines in the text block)

test1;
/* comment1 */
/* This is a comment*/
test2;

and it parsed as follows

And here is some interesting LEX code generated

internal class Yylex
{
private const int YY_BUFFER_SIZE = 512;
private const int YY_F = -1;
private const int YY_NO_STATE = -1;
private const int YY_NOT_ACCEPT = 0;
private const int YY_START = 1;
private const int YY_END = 2;
private const int YY_NO_ANCHOR = 4;
delegate Yytoken AcceptMethod();
AcceptMethod[] accept_dispatch;
private const int YY_BOL = 128;
private const int YY_EOF = 129;
private System.IO.TextReader yy_reader;
private int yy_buffer_index;
private int yy_buffer_read;
private int yy_buffer_start;
private int yy_buffer_end;
private char[] yy_buffer;
private int yychar;
private int yyline;
private bool yy_at_bol;
private int yy_lexical_state;

internal Yylex(System.IO.TextReader reader) : this()
{
if (null == reader)
{
throw new System.ApplicationException("Error: Bad input stream initializer.");
}
yy_reader = reader;
}
.
.
.
.
private static int[] yy_cmap = new int[]
{
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
3, 3, 2, 6, 6, 1, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
3, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
0, 0
};
private static int[] yy_rmap = new int[]
{
0, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1,
4, 1, 1, 5, 1, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12
};
private static int[,] yy_nxt = new int[,]
{
{ 1, 11, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6 },
{ -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1 },
{ -1, -1, 3, 3, -1, -1, -1, -1 },
{ -1, -1, -1, -1, 7, -1, -1, -1 },
{ 1, 13, 13, 13, 14, 16, 13, -1 },
{ -1, -1, 12, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, 18, 19, 13, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, 15, 9, 13, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, 15, 19, 13, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, 10, 17, 13, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, 18, 17, 13, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, 15, -1, 13, -1 },
{ -1, 13, 13, 13, -1, 17, 13, -1 }
};
public Yytoken yylex()
{
char yy_lookahead;
int yy_anchor = YY_NO_ANCHOR;
int yy_state = yy_state_dtrans[yy_lexical_state];
int yy_next_state = YY_NO_STATE;
int yy_last_accept_state = YY_NO_STATE;
bool yy_initial = true;
int yy_this_accept;

yy_mark_start();
yy_this_accept = yy_acpt[yy_state];
if (YY_NOT_ACCEPT != yy_this_accept)
{
yy_last_accept_state = yy_state;
yy_mark_end();
}
.
.
}

However, still evaluating alternatives for writing my parser… if you any ideas/suggestions do post here…

2005-05-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Serial.IO.Ports.SerialPort.WorksJustWow with my GPS Receiver

Recently I decided to dust[!] out my old GPSLibrary stuff, and give some new light to the lib. So I decided to scrap the current architecture and re-architect it with all the new modern frills available, so that it works for my smartphone as well.

First thing, I decided to scrap out was my own custom written Serial Port Wrapper, I had a tough time with those Virtual COM Ports. This time, I decided to use the Serial Port Class, which is newly added to the .NET 2.0 IO Libraries.

First skeptical issue was those Virtual COM Ports, but I was pleasantly delighted with this SerialPort class. This SerialPort class behaved and worked absolutely to my requirements without making fuss. And all I had written is a very few lines of code. In My previous COM + PInvoke a.k.a Interop wrapper thingy, I had to write loads of code for this, which is obviously un-optimized and had performance hits… Serial.IO.Ports is Just Wow.

Here are some snippets….

private void OpenPort()
{

Console.WriteLine("\nAvailable Ports : ");
string[] ports = SerialPort.GetPortNames();
foreach (string port in ports)
Console.WriteLine(port);

private SerialPort port = new SerialPort("COM6", 4800, Parity.None, 8,StopBits.One);

Console.Write("\nConnected to - " + port.PortName);
Console.Write(" @ BaudRate " + port.BaudRate.ToString());
Console.WriteLine(" communincating with " + port.DataBits.ToString() + " Databits \n\n");
Console.WriteLine("Buffer Size : " + port.WriteBufferSize.ToString());
Console.WriteLine(">> Data from GPS Receiver : \n");

port.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(port_DataReceived);

port.Open();

}

void port_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
Console.Write(port.ReadExisting());
}

And here is the output from my GPS Receiver (Pharos – GPS 360)

What you see in the picture is the list of available ports in my machine, My GPS Receiver is connected to COM 6, and the Data from GPS Receiver is in NMEA Protocol Format. To Know more about NMEA Protocol read my previous blog here @ http://loguk.blogspot.com/2004/11/more-on-nmea-0183-nmea-0183-is-ascii.html and to know more about GPS Read my previous blog here @ http://loguk.blogspot.com/2004/10/question-on-gps-recently-there-was.html

Also Writing data to a COM port is made a lot more easy… here is a simple snippet to write data to a COM Port

private void WriteData()
{
port.Open();
port.Write("Ah! GPS… Hack It…dude");
port.Write(new byte[] { 0x0A, 0x0B, 0x0C }, 0, 3);
port.Close();
}

Okay, you cannot use these code straight to the production code… I need to do Rico Mariani thingy’s :) and take care of thread safety et al… whatever… This Serialport Class is just WOW.

2005-05-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Model-View-Presenter [MVP] Pattern

Ever worried about what UI Pattern should you consider for your application?
Ever worried what pattern should be used to support alternate views?
Ever worried how to do UI Testing?
Ever worried about UI Class becoming more complex, as project grows ?
Ever worried about complex UI Screens with multiple nesting levels and interdependencies?
Here is a pattern for you.

Patterns are impressive, a Simple twist in pattern, gives amazing capabilities. Twist MVC Pattern a bit, you’ll get MVP Pattern, along with an array of flexibility. So, What’s MVP Pattern ? MVP is an acronym for Model-View-Presenter. In simple words, MVP Pattern separates the presentation functionality from the view while allowing the view to receive the user events.

Fine, but isn’t MVC already doing these? The answer is that MVC is bit old fashioned and the view handles all the user events. But in MVP, view still handles the user events, but instantly delegates the job to the presenter, and presenter does the real job of deciding what to do with the user events after due consideration of the Model.

So What are the Advantages?
-> Firstly, it helps to abstract the Rich, Fat and Thin clients
-> You can use Multiple Views with Different UI Controls on any of the above client forms, but a consistent behavior can be implemented.
-> Testing becomes breeze, as the functionality can be tested without the UI
-> You can create a Triads of MVP Horizontally a.k.a. hMVP, so that you can make complex UI Screens more manageable
-> Presenter becomes the true controller and more concentration is given to the behavior.

So How to implement a MVP Pattern, all you need to do is a simple change to the MVC Pattern.

1. Create a interface which is totally independent of the controls
2. Inherit the interface on view
3. Move all the behavioral code of view to a separate class called presenter
4. The interface, has now broken the dependency between view and presenter
(Hint: some of you might have done this in your existing applications already, but without understanding the full advantages of this pattern)

Here is a simple diagram to depict MVP Pattern

2005-05-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

I'm Back ‘La… from Singapore‘La

[The Time is around 2 AM – It’s Sunday morning now, and I’m doing Baby-sitting @ coimbatore for my sister’s new born baby,he is now sleeping @ the incubator, he requires 24/7 support of a doctor and a person for emergency help. Now, I need to be awake for next 4 hours, So I thought I shall write a long blog on everything that i remember in my recent trip to Singapore.I know its bit long, so I’ve splitted with sub-headers for your reading pleasure :)]

I was at Singapore last week for Microsoft’s Asia MVP Summit 2005. Singapore... the abode of the fairies, a locus of strong and impressive business powers, and an uncomplicated, child-like world.

Summit

The summit was Fantastic and had a right proportion of Technology + Fun, got some chances to peek into the early preview on stuff like SQL Integration Services, Speech Recognition @ Longhorn et al

Day 1, was filled with Executive Talks, Shu-Fen Cally Ko, Regional Director of Technical Community Activities @ MSFT gave an enthusiastic welcome speech, followed by Sean O’Driscoll, Sr.Global Director for Technical Community, he was hyper active on the stage and made his session very interesting, followed by other executive speeches. Day 2 & 3 was filled with Technical sessions on various tracks.

People @ Summit

The summit gave real good opportunities to interact with interesting and intelligent minds across the Asia pacific regions. MVP’s from India, Australia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore participated in the summit. My objective for the summit was to interact with other Asian MVP’s, and it started right when I entered airport, I met Hyderabad MVP’s Arun and Raghu Boddhu, later joined by Geetesh Bajaj @ chennai and Sudhakar Sadasivuni @ Singapore. Also, when I landed @ the Singapore Airport. Met with John-McKay, MS Office MVP from 1992 [I was in my high-school that year :-) ] and Pierre Connan, Security specialist from MSFT, AU. At the day 0 “Get Connected” Party, Pierre shared some insights and security initiatives at MSFT.

Same day night, we popped up to Orchard Road, and entered the Borders Book Store, as Geetesh wanted to buy some books. Arun, was looking for technology books, and found his own book on the rack, and asked the salesman near by all the statistical questions about the book, and frequency of sale of the book et al, the salesman got bit irritated by his question and asked who are you, arun replied, I’m the author of this book. All of the sudden the scene changed and arun was given a royal respect, and finally he autographed a book, which was framed and kept in the front display with the title, “autographed copy” :) He did a promotion for his book.

On Day 1 I met with the new Indian MVP’s[we have more than 40 Indian MVP’s now, you can find the list of Indian MVP’s here]. One notable new MVP is Yashwant Kanetkar[Yeah, u read it right, the same author of those legendary c/c++ books. I’ve read most of his books, and his books were hot cakes @ libraries and book stores in the mid 90’s. Anybody who have learnt C in those days, would have definitely read his books, I’m sure still they do] He was quite an impressive personality. Had a good relaxing lunch and chat with him. These days he is running his own business DCube Technologies @ Nagpur. But, I was surprised to see his modesty. Looking at fellas who make lousy noises after learning the simple cripple wares of technology, this man was quite content and amazingly modest for the knowledge he posses. A True Professional.
Also met Sanjay Vyas the same day. It was good to see people faces whom I know only thro’ mails and photos.

Also, During the 1st day Lunch I met up with “Julian Ray”, Microsoft’s Community Manager for EMEA at Paris. She was an impressive lady and was capable to discuss about everything, right from technology to life :) we debated over Microsoft, Technology, India, France, US, Politics, Kerala, Pelicans, Shrimps, Life et al.

We were joined by “Lori Brownell”, Microsoft General Manager for Windows Platform – Longhorn, and other MVP’s from Singapore and Taiwan. Singapore MVP’s has an awe on Indian technology companies.

My 2nd day lunch partner was again “Julian Ray”, this time we catched some Vietnam MVP’s.
Vietnam had only 4 MVP’s, but all 4 were working on wonderful technologies like NLP’s, Lisp and were building stuff for robotics and aeronautics. And these guys loved their country a lot :) [and complained about china a bit, much like indian’s complaining about Pakistanis :)] Some names, worth mentioning are “Ha Than” CEO of LAC VIET computing Corp [frankly, it was difficult to read his business card, it was a cryptic English] and “Do Huy Hoang” PSS Manager of Microsoft.

3rd day was bit cool, the MVP’s were grouped based on their specialization. So Myself, yashwant kanetkar, sanjay vyas, Saurabh Nandhu & Kashi met up at the C# Table, soon joined by Malaysian and china C# MVP’s. Met a intelligent girl named “Serena Yeoh”, she was full of confidence in her voice. And discussion turned to the Object Persistance Framework she is developing.

And Saurabh shared his interesting learnings. And the topic switched to C# vs. C++, Serena questioned me how do you tackle these fights. According to me, all these languages are just evolutionary in nature, and none of them are revolutionary. It will evolve till the world exists. Every language has their own reason, C# is a wonderful language for enterprise development where C++ is the king of system app development. Personally I feel, it’s usually amateurs/students/kiddoos fight on these issues. In the real world, it’s the business scenario that matters, the objective of a software developer should be to build a good software that suites the requirements with the best of the available technology. If a developer is biased on technology his solution will also be biased. Frankly, in my previous experience I’ve adviced certain projects to be developed using Java or C++, as they are the best languages to build those systems. Though she agreed with this, she said she always hates when VC++ Guys say,

“OUR COMPILER COMPILED YOUR COMPILER”

:-) interesting observation, and it’s quite obvious fact :-D finally Anand M, joined and ignited the discussion on VB.NET vs C#.

Later, the same day I met Kamal Hathi – MS SQL Server – Program Manager, and caught Glen Millar, Powerpoint MVP from Australia @ Starbucks Coffee. I was highly surprised when Glen stated “Singapore is very clean than AU – Singapore is beautiful than AU - People are polite – Singapore had good transportation mechanisms…. Et al”… Huh… I Just want to pop up and say… “Hey, I should crib about these comparing with India, and not a guy from Australia” :-)

Also, had brief chat with Sean ‘O Driscoll, Ben Stiller, Manish Sinha, Kunal Sikka and other Chinese MVP’s

Till the end I had a question, for which I really did not get a satisfied answer “How do we identify Asian Faces i.e. how do you identify between a Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian… et al” :-D last time, when Cally Ko, was at Chennai she gave me a hint that you can identify them with their hair style… but that does not seem to work  anybody who has a answer do post a comment here :)

Technology @ Summit

Most of the sessions discussed pre-release NDA Information, so I cannot share many of them. But I can write a bit about SQL Integration services [got a verbal permission from Kamal Hathi :)]

Session: MS SQL Integration Services
I was eagerly awaiting for this session by Kamal Hathi, as I’m now associated with the team that’s building IBM Websphere Data Integration Suite, Which is a competitor product for MS SQL Server’s Integration Services :) Surprisingly, Data Integration is one of the Multi-million dollar Market segment, which Microsoft has not concentrated till date, and this market segment is ruled by handful vendors who mint in money. And here… MSFT makes a daring entry with their new interesting breakthrough architecture, which is almost totally different from the existing vendor’s architecture.
Integration Services has an Intelligent & a Adaptive GUI (MSFT Always scores at this), Various Data Adapters, Data Lookup’s which includes a intelligent Fuzzy lookup & Data-DeDuplication Lookup and Data Mining features. Also, IS has one pipeline for Text Mining, Custom Src, Data Mining, Data Cleansing or any standard source. And they are immedietly available for clients like Analysis Services or Mobile World or Corporate Reports World.

Integration Services does not do any staging, but works on workflow and pipeline concepts (most of the major vendors in the market has the staging as their centerpiece of their product). Microsoft instead defines Data Extentions, and intelligently leverages Analysis Services and Reporting Services. i.e. Integration Service becomes datasource for Reporting Services, and IS feeds data to the Analysis services. All in all AS + IS + RS combined with the .NET Framework makes a very powerful combination.

Data Visualization concept really enthralled me. A Good Value addition to the Integration Services. Also, IS brings all the goodness of .net framework and C# language.

IS is 64 bit enabled, and hosts Hi-Performance components which leads to NEW High performance Data warehouse Architectures

Kamal Hathi, also said they are working aggressively on the profiling portions of the integration services as well… Some comments on Kamal Hathi by AU MVP’s was… “What a Guy…” :-) Truly he was way too cool in handling the session and answering the queries.

Yes, there are question like How stable this is when compared to the industry leaders who are in the market for nearly 10 Years.

Okay,
What does this mean to the world,
-> All the small vendors/companies involved in building BI softwares [including my previous company :)], should realign and rethink their architecture to take advantages of IS. It’s definitely a boon to these vendors.
-> IBM, Hyperion, Cognos now have 1 more competitor…. Okay… a giant competitor :-) Should be a very interesting competition, in the end it all ends in the goodness for the world :)

What does it mean to me
-> Clearly thrilled to learn how 2 big giants architect and build same software. both has a totally different architecture… I cannot write more on these as I’m governed by NDA’s on both ends  so let me stop this here….

Session: WMI
Still I have the same ole’ questions, which nobody answers me :)
1. When will SCSI Devices would be supported
2. Performance Implications, I always turn to Win32 whenever I have this issue
3. Is there a possibility for WMI for CF?
If Anybody has any clues do post it here… I would love to hear…

Other sessions, strictly on NDA so cannot write anything on them. But all I can say is next 2 years has lot’s of excitement with various releases from Microsoft for both Developer and IT Professional world.

Gear Up Guys :-)

XPhone
Finally, I got my xphone repaired @ Singapore, none of the O2 authorized xphone repair center’s in India were able to repair the phone, I got a standard reply – they don’t have technology experts capable to repair xphones [beware, if you are buying xphone in India] , but it was different story in Singapore… initially the lady @ service center said it would take 2 weeks, after a bit of charming and negotiation she agreed to give it back in a weeks time, I got it back fully repaired and a free software upgrade.

Fun @ Summit

Had a blast @ summit with Singapore Traditional Dances, Belly Dances, Fire Dances, Fairy Dances et al :)

Singapore – The Place

I Should say Singapore has a civilization that is highly cultured and a good standard of living. Also, I think they have planned every single square feet of Singapore, and also a very safe place to live. You can fully trust the taxi drivers and they are very friendly, all you have to do is initiate the talk, they would feed you with all the informations around the city.

Me, Sudhakar and Geetesh went for a relaxing stroll @ 2 AM from our hotel to the beach, no glitches at all. And we could see women doing shopping at those wee hours. It was absolutely safe.
Most of the places I visited, I was speaking Tamil. Tamil being the official language there, it was predominant right from airport to malls to local markets :) BTW If you are unaware, Singapore’s current president is from Tamil Origin i.e. South Indian… Interesting Huh!

Also, I did not see even a single cop till the last date of my stay at the Singapore, yet the law & order and traffic was smooth.

There are lot’s of attractions, some not-to-be-missed items are Night Safari @ Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird’s Park, Sentosa Island – Underworld Aquarium, Musical Fountain (I loved this) et al. I missed the reverse Bungee jump @ Clarke Quay, did not find time, but would have been very adventurous.

The Last day, we had a party @ the Riverside Point, a place which was supposedly to be a romantic place, was turned into big time party spot that night, filled with full of fun and colorful dancers.

If you are planning to shop for computer accessories, and if you are from Chennai, better check the rates @ Ritchie Street. I felt rates are less @ Ritchie street :)

End Credits

In the End, it was a fantastic and fulfilling trip. Thanks to Cally Ko - I can realize your efforts on this events and I would call it a grand success. Also thanks to Abhishek and Subhashini for making this happen by arranging on all the logistics issues and everything else.
The event was Just awesome, and you had made me to have new friends across the continents.
Thanks Microsoft :)

Note:
If you are intrigued with that ‘La suffix at the title, its “Sing-lish” i.e. a unique language spoken by the locals of Singapore (I picked up this from the taxi drivers) combining their local language with English, Singpore+English = Singlish. They add ‘la at the end of each sentence. (For More info on singlish, contact Geetesh Bajaj, he bought a small reference book for singlish :) )

Leave your comments & queries below…

2005-04-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Tamil New Year

Anaivarukkum En Eniya Puthaandu Nalvazhthukal :-) Okay… This translates to Happy New Year :-) As per the Tamil Calendar, Today the 5106th Year is Born, this year is called as “Parthiba” and the month is reset to “Chithirai”.

Hmm… it would have been fun if I’m at home !! Every new year day, my mom wakes me up in the morning and closes my eyes and would lead to the place of Kanni, the moment I open my eyes… gosh… it would be a feast…. I would see lot’s of Gold, Money, Fruits, Sweets, nuts, Flowers etc. it would be a pleasant sight @ the early morning, and this is a sign of a prosperous new year. And this would be followed by the specially cooked fresh breakfast…which includes Mango + Jaggery + Neem Flowers (i.e. Eat sweet, sour and bitter at the same time). Sadly, this year I woke up seeing my bright window and the roof and had my same old Flakes+apple+juice breakfast…. :) Poor Me… Somehow this year I couldn’t celebrate both English as well as Tamil new year?! Reason… Work… Deliverables… (Ah! I have a deliverable tomorrow). I Think this year is gonna be very workaholic.

In the Morning, I Thought I shall hear some Tamil language after a long time, so tuned in to Sun TV… some female movie star interview, and she was talking in *English*…. Whaat?! Okay next to Vijay TV… again some movie stars singing some songs with their hopeless voice…Ah! Forget it… may be bad idea to hear tamil in these channels :)

Somehow Tamil Calendar is not followed by many, almost none, except who had reached their 60’s or 70’s Age. My Granny never understands or accepts English calendar. She still follows the Tamil calendar. She would never understand, if I say her today is “April 14th” but she understands “Chithirai 1st” :-) Sadly, none of the new generation understands “Chithirai 1st”. English calendar has already taken that place… reason… Standardization. But, it’s always amazing to see that we had a calendar 5000 years ago, and a proper language as old as 5000 years or even more !!! and India had a great civilization when rest of the world were just barbarians, ruins or cripples. Simply Amazing.

Also,
Today is the new year for Malayalee’s & Kannadiga’s – Happy Vishu,
Today is the new year for bengali’s – Happy Naba Barsha
Today is the New year day for Sikh’s
And also for Srilankan’s - Happy Avurudhu Guyz :-)

2005-03-03T04:55:00.000-08:00

Ayubuwan... Back from Sri Lanka

I spent past couple of days at Sri Lanka; to be precise I was at Colombo. All I knew about SL before landing is that, it is a land shattered by war for more than a decade, but very rich in flora and fauna, and had a very debasing destruction by recent Tsunami.But, there were more surprises awaiting me.

The Travel duration was just 55 Minutes from Chennai, and the very first sight I saw momentarily after the flight hit the runway was, 5 7 Military Tanks, Radars, Bunkers with loaded guns(Big ones),loads of weapons and a small battalion marching within the airport...
Oh Boy! Remember where you are...!! Behave yourself....!!
Frankly, Ive never seen military in action; except during the 1997-Feb-14 Coimbatore Bomb blasts (I was there at the vicinity amidst the chaos!!). My encounter with military is only atthe movies :) The Colombo airport appeared as if it was always ready for the war!

The island speaks 2 major languages: 1. Singalam 2. Tamil
Singalam, I was amazed at the speed they speak. Guess there are no syllables in their language :-) Also, I observed linguistic imperialism in SL i.e. most of the Tamils can speak both Tamil and Singalam, but 90% of singalese speak only singalam.

The biggest surprise of all was the TAMIL Language...

Think about a situation where you wake up in the morning, open up and read a Tamil news paper (and Tamil being your mother tongue). Now, your brain is capable of reading those blocks of words, but your brain dosent understand the meaning of any of those words...blip...!! Man... This happened to me, After reading a paragraph I realized that I did not understood anything, and I had to read it thrice making assumptions all along the paragraph...

I Was very puzzled, and during the initial days I thought they speak a different accent of tamil, but slowly I happened to learn that, they speak *Pure* Tamil and all I knew/speak for past 25 years is a bit impure/damaged Tamil !! There are lots of words in tamil which Ive never heard off... for example Avenue is written as Avenue in tamil e.g. Besant Nagar 4^th avenue, but in SL they translate it as MaavathaiSimilarly, a Lane is translated as Olungai and a passport is translated to Kadavu Cheetu ( I remember the word kadavu in one of those AgaNaanooru/PuraNaanooru prose !!) , and No Parking = Tharital Koodathu

So What has gone wrong!! [I always curse chennaites for their improper use of tamil (these guys speak the language without Past/Present/Future tense.] Did my teachers taught me impure Tamil....?!I would definitely not call this as Accent leakage, but I would say here in India Tamil was influenced by hindi, English and other languages, and changed a lot these days.

While discussing these with Krishnan, he muttered Madurai was near Sri Lanka and 1^st and 2^nd Tamil Sangam was conducted at this madurai, later Madurai was shifted to the current place which is between Coimbatore and Tirunelveli.

This puzzled me and a quick research revealed me that was true!! Check out this map of India in 30,000 B.C and the Lemuria Continent

In the map you can locate Taen Madurai at the Submerged Tamilnadu area. And this is where 2 tamil sangams have been conducted consecutively.

Therefore, the purest form of Tamil language should have originated from here, and the Ceylon tamil should be the closest to that pure ancient tamil, among all other dialects of tamil.

More links on these are at
http://asiapacificuniverse.com/lemuria.htm

http://www.thule.org/lemuria.html

http://www.intamm.com/linguistics/primary.htm#Tamil,%20a%20Lamurian%20Language

http://www.dalitstan.org/tamil/chola.gif

But what worries me is that, Ive learnt in-depth history of French revolution, American Revolution et al., but my school history did not teach me my own countrys history or did I forgot those history already ?!!! Gosh! Think about a whole mass of land which connects India and Australia is submerged, and is under water now ?!!

Incidentally, while I was at Temple bay resorts(Mahabalipuram) last month, we went for a catamaran ride and after 2-3 kms inside the sea, the fishermen showed me a top of a temple, which Ilater found that was one of those 7 pagodas. Out of those 7 temples, today we could see only 1 which is on the shore, and I happened to see something that humans have not seen for hundreds of years. This is termed as Lost Cityand here is a quote from BBC

The myths speak of six temples submerged beneath the waves with the seventh temple still standing on the seashore.
The myths also state that a large city which once stood on the site was so beautiful the gods became jealous and sent a flood that swallowed it up entirely in a single day.

And here are some links @ BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4257181.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1923794.stm

Fishermen added, this was the 1^st time theyve seen this new temple, and during the Tsunami attack the sea water at mahabalipuram was taken back for almost 3 kms, and these guys have seen these ancient lands. Phew...! I traveled on top of the Lost city... a lost civilization.
Power of Nature !!

Coming Back to the topic, Definitely Sri Lankans speak pure Tamil, and I bow to their love for the language and maintaining it as an un-adulterated language.

Apart from these, Colombo Streets are flooded with imported Toyotas, Mitsubishis and Nissans. Every second car you encounter is a Toyota. Roads are pretty clean. Probably Colombo is the only city that wears fashionable looks, and houses all international establishments like McDonalds, KFC, Hilton, Holiday Inn et al. Also it houses lots of malls with food court with in it. I didnt miss my chance to hog at different cuisines...Sri Lankan (usually a spicy menu, with unpolished rice and string hoppers [a.k.a Idiappams :), I loved Pol Sambal and Hari Kori. Also hogged at Greek, Lebanese, Korean, Mexican, Malay, McDs and KFCs

1 Rupee almost does not have any value there, and autowalas (they call it as taxis) looks at you like peanuts if you offer 50 Rupees :) 1 SL Rupee equals 40 Paise INR. If you earn in dollars you can hit the list of Rich & Royal very soon. 1 USD = 100 SL Rupees.

And I found sri lankans pretty cool and very friendly, and interacted well with strangers. unfortunately in India, most of the ppl tend to ignore/avoid/exploit strangers, but sri lankans were quite cool and they get more close to you, when you say you are from India and especially from Tamil nadu. But they are always worried about the wars.

Apart from Colombo, the other parts of the island resembles Kerala, with lots of coconut trees, tiled houses, kerala style houses...

On the Work front, I was there to get trained and kick start my new project which is a direct competitor for Analysis Server of MSFT SQL Server(wat !?!!) and implements a similar architecture of Microsofts Indigo (??!!!!!!!), and this time my development team fully consists of srilankans. should be pretty interesting to work with. Virtusa has its offices at WTC and TransAsia buildings. Here are some pics.

I would work from my Hyderabad office for about 3 months, starting March 7th

2005-02-07T04:34:00.000-08:00

HOMOGRAPH ATTACKS

A story about how implementation of standards across browsers turned into a tragedy

A Hacking idea that was lingering for past couple of years (from 2002) is now implemented practically. This attack poses a security threat to major corporations around the world. A True fact is none of these corporations can take any possible action against this.

All the URL’s are vulnerable in this serious threat and these URL’s can be hacked by using any of the following browsers.
1. Most mozilla-based browsers (Firefox 1.0, Camino .8.5, Mozilla 1.6, etc)
2. Safari 1.2.5
3. Opera 7.54
4. Omniweb 5

Internet Explorer is free from this vulnerability :-) Interesting Huh!

Try these links in any of the listed browsers above

Original URL
Click here to enter paypal
Click here to enter paypal via ssl

Spoofed URL (Try using non-IE Browsers)
Click here to enter paypal
Click here to enter paypal via ssl

So What has happened ?
1. Simply, all the browsers implemented a standard called IDN(Internationalized Domain Names), which was pushed by Verisign.
Verisign-IDN Details

2. A Spoof URL was registered for Paypal.com replacing "a" with "а" i.e. #1072(430) a Unicode character in Cyrillic subset, which is legal as per IDN.
This reads "PayPal" to normal users, where as it is "pаypal"

So What can happen
Simply, anybody can create a spoof site to your Bank's login page(Bank of America,HDFC Bank,ICICI Bank), log the credential details and later pass to the original site, now the hacker would have a database of logins and passwords for the bank accounts…
(Phew!! I remember me and kingsly trying a similar hack using DNS Spoof and HOSTS File Spoof, way back in 1997-98, to grab hotmail passwords :) to win a bet )

Isn’t it devasting ?! This Trick was actually demonstrated at the end of shmoocon 2005 Hacker’s conference by EricJ

Read more on how an implementation of standards turned into a tragedy at
http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~gabr/papers/homograph_full.pdf

http://www.shmoo.com/idn/homograph.txt

and the real demonstration at http://www.shmoo.com/idn/

How to Avoid this
Except Firefox, no other browser has a way to block this.
If you are a firefox user, type "about:config" at address bar, search for "idn" and set the property to false. You are now safe.

Other Browser users are doomed.

Fine… but how did IE escaped this attack?! Answer is simple, IE is a bit old on some standards and remember we don’t have any recent updates for IE. Which means IDN standard is not implemented in IE.

Update: Paul Hoffman, co-author of IDN standard, has a post where he proposes a list of effective set of solutions for IDN Spoofing: http://lookit.proper.com/archives/000302.html#000302

2005-01-04T02:14:00.000-08:00

Byte Alignment in .NET and Structure Layouts :: JIT and .NET 2.0

What is the difference between the following structures?

struct BadValueType
{
char c1;
int i;
char c2;
}

struct GoodValueType
{
int i;
char c1;
char c2;
}

Nothing much, except the jumbled type declarations Huh?

Fine,Now let's look at the size of these structures,

The size of BadValueType Structure in:
.NET Framework 1.x : Managed sizeof= 8 Bytes, Marshal.Sizeof = 12 Bytes
.NET Framework 2.0 : Managed sizeof= 12 Bytes, Marshal.Sizeof = 12 Bytes

The size of GoodValueType Structure in:
.NET Framework 1.x : Managed sizeof= 8 Bytes, Marshal.Sizeof = 8 Bytes
.NET Framework 2.0 : Managed sizeof= 8 Bytes, Marshal.Sizeof = 8 Bytes

[Note: Size of int=4, char=2]

The Reason behind these differences is "BYTE ALIGNMENT", As with the default packing in unmanaged C++, integers are laid out on four-byte boundaries, so while the first
character uses two bytes (a char in managed code is a Unicode character, thus occupying two bytes), the integer moves up to the next 4-byte boundary, and the second character uses the subsequent 2 bytes. The resulting structure is 12 bytes when measured with Marshal.SizeOf.

32 bit microprocessors typically organize memory as shown below.


            Byte 0    Byte 1    Byte 2    Byte 3 

0x1000         

0x1004       A0         A1        A2        A3 

0x1008         

0x100C                  B0        B1        B2 

0x1010       B3

Most of the processer architectures cannot read data from odd addresses.
Processor Architectures are inefficient in reading the data if it starts at an address not divisible by four.

Memory is accessed by performing 32 bit bus cycles. 32 bit bus cycles can however be performed at addresses that are divisible by 4. So for efficiency purposes, compilers add the so-called pad bytes.

The reasons for not permitting misaligned long word reads and writes are not difficult to see. For example, an aligned long word A would be written as A0, A1, A2 and A3.

Thus the microprocessor can read the complete long word in a single bus cycle. If the same microprocessor now attempts to access a long word at address 0x100D, it will have to read bytes B0, B1, B2 and B3. Notice that this read cannot be performed in a single 32 bit bus cycle. The microprocessor will have to issue two different reads at address 0x100C and 0x1010 to read the complete long word. Thus it takes twice the time to read a misaligned long word.

The following byte padding rules will generally work with most 32 bit processor.

a. single byte numbers can be aligned at any address
b. Two byte numbers should be aligned to a two byte boundary
c. Four byte numbers should be aligned to a four byte boundary

This is the cause of the difference.

Fine…. But, why does this differ from .NET 1.x and .NET 2.0 ?

The Answer is that by default, the .NET compilers all apply a StructLayoutAttribute to structures, specifying a Sequential layout. This means that the fields are laid out in the type according to their order in the source file. However, in the .NET Framework 1.x, a request for a Sequential layout is not respected by the just-in-time compiler.

Here is the IL.


.class nested private sequential ansi sealed beforefieldinit BadValueType

            extends [mscorlib]System.ValueType

      {

            .field public char c1



            .field public char c2



            .field public int32 i



      }

In the .NET Framework 2.0, the JIT does enforce a Sequential
layout (if specified) for the managed layout of value types,
though only if there are no reference type field members. Thus, the sizing of types is more important in the next version[2.0] of the Framework.

Bottom-line: in simple English, .NET 2.0 JIT does its job flawlessly on structures.

Some time back I had a bit of argument with a friend of mine, to prove the above 2 structures actually differs in implementation, and I remembered this when I read a article

on the same lines today from MSDN, A pretty neat article. Infact this article is an elaboration of the point given as one-liner in the article.

Watchout for structures when you create them next time, and think about playing around with ‘m’ structures with ‘n’ size…. m x n = !!!

2005-01-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

MVP - Reawarded for Year 2005

Microsoft Corporation has awarded the MVP(C#) Title for the Year 2005.

My MVP Profile @ Microsoft Site is Here [^http://tinyurl.com/65mk5 ]

I Think This Year I would be able to spend more time on the community activity, and my new job does not have many burdens on my shoulders, unlike the previous one. Let's see...

If the word "MVP" Puzzles you, or have questions, you should visit http://www.microsoft.com/communities/MVP/MVP.mspx

For the List of other 130 C# MVP's worldwide... Click Here

Thanks Microsoft :-)

2004-12-31T03:03:00.000-08:00

2004...Life and Me

Should I say that Life spins & rolls or splashes out…? Phew... Past 3 Months, life took me in a supersonic jet; everyday was filled with new events, new people, new decisions, and new things to do. Most of them were absolutely crazy, highly uncertain.

Reflecting Back, I should say 2004 was quite a very eventful year for me. Remarkable turning points and twists in life. Started out with a most stressful project and 6 months went in a whiz… without looking back at anything including family and friends. After which life became a bit calm but slowly other waves started spurting out.

During Past couple of months ScapeVelocity Inc, the company I worked had a major transition and is becoming one of a big players, moved to a big prestigious building, new members in the management crew, a collective increase in turnover of 500%, a new venture in Asia Pacific region… But, something kicked me and said that I should look out for other opportunities, which I did not think for past 2 years. After much of impasse decisions, I did put down my papers in the early week of December and took up a job at Virtusa Corporation.

Now on, I should get lots of time for myself and I can concentrate on what I really love. Anyway let me see what 2005 has in stock :-)

Happy New Year to all of my Blog Readers [Guess 5-10 Readers… :-)]

2004-10-31T12:19:00.000-08:00

More on NMEA 0183

NMEA 0183 is an ASCII based protocol used by GPS to transmit data. The NMEA data is usually categorized as sentences. These sentences always start with a “$” and ends with CRLF followed by a checksum data in Hex. The checksum data confirms the integrity of that sentence. These sentences are nothing but a comma separated value/fields. The 1st field of NMEA Sentence contains the “Command”, followed by the data, ended with a
”*” is a hh, a 2 digit hex number. checksum is calculated by XORing all the ASCII data between “$” and a “*”.

Some of the commonly used NMEA Sentences and the transmitted data is as below

Sentence Description


$GPGGA Global positioning system fixed data$GPGLL Geographic position - latitude / longitude

$GPGSA GNSS DOP and active satellites

$GPGSV GNSS satellites in view

$GPRMC Recommended minimum specific GNSS data

$GPVTG Course over ground and ground speed

$GPGGA Sentence (Fix data)

Example (signal not acquired): $GPGGA,235947.000,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,0,00,0.0,0.0,M,,,,0000*00

Example (signal acquired): $GPGGA,092204.999,4250.5589,S,14718.5084,E,1,04,24.4,19.7,M,,,,0000*1F

Fields


Sentence ID $GPGGA

UTC Time 092204.999 hhmmss.sss

Latitude 4250.5589 ddmm.mmmm

N/S Indicator S N = North, S = South

Longitude 14718.5084 dddmm.mmmm

E/W Indicator E E = East, W = West

Position Fix 1 0 = Invalid, 1 = Valid SPS, 2 = Valid DGPS, 3 = Valid PPS

Satellites Used 04 Satellites being used (0-12)

HDOP 24.4 Horizontal dilution of precision

Altitude 19.7 Altitude in meters according to WGS-84 ellipsoid

Altitude Units M M = Meters

Geoid Seperation   Geoid seperation in meters according to WGS-84 ellipsoid

Seperation Units   M = Meters

DGPS Age   Age of DGPS data in seconds

DGPS Station ID 0000

Checksum *1F

Terminator CR/LF

$GPGLL Sentence (Position)
Example (signal not acquired): $GPGLL,0000.0000,N,00000.0000,E,235947.000,V*2D

Example (signal acquired): $GPGLL,4250.5589,S,14718.5084,E,092204.999,A*2D

Fields


Sentence ID $GPGLL

Latitude 4250.5589 ddmm.mmmm

N/S Indicator S N = North, S = South

Longitude 14718.5084 dddmm.mmmm

E/W Indicator E E = East, W = West

UTC Time 092204.999 hhmmss.sss

Status A A = Valid, V = Invalid

Checksum *2D

Terminator CR/LF

2004-10-31T10:21:00.000-08:00

A Question on GPS

Recently there was a MAIL at Chennai .NET User Group - CNUG on implementation of GPS on a web application… somehow I had this thought that this question generalizes and overshadows many internals of GPS , which would leave the basics behind the scenes… and many people would implement this without understanding the intricacies of the GPS…

Here is a small writeup i wrote on GPS in simple terms…in reply to that mail...

Have you ever wondered how this whole concept of GPS works synchronously?? Implementing something without understanding the crux would be fine sometimes, but absolutely lacks fun and adventurism. Thought I shall share something I know to clarify those generalization. If the basics does not interest you, very well go to the last part of the mail for the direct answers….

Okay the answer to your question is… The answer is YES and NO :-)
Let me justify my answer, but first some basics on GPS, I shall try and keep this as simple as possible. Global Positioning System(GPS) is a worldwide navigation system built around 24 satellites and millions of receivers. Each satellite has a very exact atomic clock to keep time accurate so that the deviation is less than 3 nanoseconds. Fine, but how do they help in location services ? All these satellites have an exact model of their orbit around the earth, and constantly broadcasts it’s time-stamped position to the ground stations. Now by measuring the differences in timestamp and satellite positions, a receiver on earth can determine its position using triangulation.The killer application of the GPS is, to know a position in real time. But, there are also a few other elements related to basic navigation, such as converting latitude/longitude information to easting/northing the coordinates used by many maps, or calculating distance/direction between known positions.

GIS – geographic information systems, complements the GPS very much. GIS system typically contains information about objects(e.g. roads,hospitals etc) and other characteristics in a database. This database is used to plot maps or make queries such as “how many hospitals are located in a particular area”.

But, how do we normal humans get information using these GPS and GIS ? the answer is the GPS Devices usually connected to a computer/PPC using serial ports/USB/Bluetooth, and as always we have issues with the proprietary protocols like SiRF and Garmin, but much like our TCP/IP which acts as a standard, we have NMEA 0183 (National Marine Electrinocs Association) you should have guessed who invented this protocol and why.

Surprisingly, NMEA is a very simple ASCII based protocol. The GPS Sends NMEA data continuously over the serial port. There are 3 types of NMEA Sentences – GGA, RMC and GLL, these sentences start with a “$” and provide details like UTC,Latitude,Hemisphere,Longitude,direction et al as comma separated values and ends with a “*” followed by the checksum. Some GPS receivers send all the three sentences, but not a mandatory one. Latitude determines the position in the south to north direction(0 @ equator, -90d @ south pole, +90d @ northpole), likewise longitude determines west to east direction.

How how do we exactly pin point a location on earth…i.e. “datum” in GPS Terms, for this you need to refresh your science and mathematics part of ur brains you studied at school, i.e. earth is an ellipsoid (sphere that is slightly pressed together at the top and bottom) the parameters that define ellipsoid is major axis, minor axis and displacement from center of the earth – this is datum. The datum used in GPS is called “WGS84”, therefore a position described in lat/long defines a point on a datum and thus we are able to pinpoint and locate a particular point on earth. You can call that type of data as “GeoCoded”. This datum is just projected on the map projections. These datas are manipulated using simple Cartesian coordinate systems and mapped against something called as UTM – Universal Transverse Mercator

Okie okie…. Now I’m answering your question… after all these information have been fetched, calculating the distance between two points is as simple as using your Pythagorean theorem and simple trigonometry.

Ah… should you go thro’ all these troubles, just to get a distance between 2 places… if you are adventurous the answer is yes, otherwise no :)

Now, the real part of the answer…. You can very well use the location services provided by the location servers of many vendors or use third party API’s that work on geocodes.
Such as those provided by
1. Microsoft MAP Point SDK – if your applicaton is extensible on implementation of location services, this is the best bet, but you might need to signup for an map point account with Microsoft. This will enable you to access the web services exposed to get more location based information. If you are a MSDN subscriber you might get it free. Just browse MSDN for more details.
2. Use third party components, some of my recommendations would be http://www.franson.biz/
3. Signup with some API Providers like Advantage API from MapQuest.

Ah…. A Long post !!! but fine :-) basics are pretty important….

references Franson.biz...

2004-10-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

My Ex-Boss[es]

Recently I received a mail from my ex-project manager "Kesavan Krishnan", narrating experiences of his recent Motorbike expedition from Kashmir-to-Kanyakumari, organized by "WHO". Thought I should blog this.
Read his full experience here

I should write something about him, actually this man is really Adventurous and makes me Envy most of the time :-) He is the man who has announced himself as “Professionally-Retired” at the age of 35, though he was a typical software personality and have almost traveled and worked at most of the countries, he is always a dedicated person, who can tackle stress, workloads and other software chores. Today he enjoys every bit of his life he is involved in bits of Adventure, spirituality, Service to society, trekking, expeditions, family tours…

Ah... Boy... am I Missing out some spice in my life... and tracing something that really don’t exist? He makes me feel so...

Incidentally, I also recollect some interesting people I’ve met here at my Chennai life… 2004 has been quite eventful year to me. Too many events occurred both at career and personal life. Too many people – “known faces”, “unknown faces of known faces”!!... Too many unique characters – charming, egoistic, sheepish, air headed, cool headed, just gas, third-dimensional thoughts, who lives life, sometimes too sweet to ignore…. sometimes a person who understands every bit of you….

The last category is the rarest of all, very rarely I get to meet such persons. "Anand Srinivasan" and "Aravind" fits that rarest breed. Frankly speaking they have inspired me a lot and I’ve learnt a lot even on basics like doing your job with perfection, thinking about technology in its purest perspective, mapping technology with business perspective et al… sure they have redefined many things with in me…and I’m neither ashamed nor filled with ego to say “I’ve learned from him”, instead I’m glad to say this… but It’s difficult to decipher when this cadre of people vanishes from the life. It would take lots of time to fill up that empty space. Sometimes that place is just empty always…………… !!!

2004-10-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

Robotics Framework for .NET and [a]c#

Robotics4.NET initiative aims to develop a framework for programming robots
and defining their architecture with managed languages for .NET as C# and
VB.NET. you can find more documents posted by Antonio Cisternino at http:
//www.robotics4.net/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Annotated C# now supports C#2.0
http://codebricks.sscli.net/

Antonio Cisternino's blog on [a]C#

And here is an related interesting link http://research.microsoft.com/ero/

2004-09-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

Humanoid robot gets Pocket PC brain

A group at the Institute for Computer Science of the University of Freiburg (Germany) has used a Pocket PC as the "brain" of a small autonomous robot. "NimbRo RS" placed third in the balancing challenge of the Humanoid League competition at RoboCup 2004 in Lisbon, by successfully walking up and down a ramp without falling.

Read more at http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4750901902.html

2004-09-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

Smartphone and .NET - My Session @ Chennai .Net User Group

Yesterday I spoke about smartphone and .NET at Chennai .NET
User Group[CNUG] 2nd Year Celebration @ Tidel Park Auditorium,
Chennai, India. The event was oversubscribed :-) There were around
320 including 70-100 students from various colleges in and around
chennai.

We had a full day celebration, with 4 technical sessions. While I
was speaking about smartphone, half of the crowd did not believe
that everything i spoke about was possible on a mobile phone, but
they seem to believe after demos. I had planned to stress about
the business implications of mobility, and took a while to make
the crowd's head nod and say... yes mobility is required... and
it does has some business implications... but i had to rush up on
the last 10 minutes...

During the Chalk Talk session and after my session, I had opportunity
to speak to lot of people... one thing I observed is lots of students
were more interested on mobility than the developers. And the developers
who spoke to me had some interesting questions...

Anand started with keynote and we had sessions on ASP.NET 2.0 by
jerome, Mono and Rotor by Sriram, VB.NET by naresh, C#2.0 by
dhamayanthi. and Mahalax managed the whole event, and she had
put in lot of efforts to run the show.

however whole day was fun.

2004-09-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back to Chennai

After a week long ceremonies of my sister's marriage,which ate all of my time this month... :-) Just landed in chennai, and I'm back to work now... clearing my backlogs... 713 mails... out of which 500 would be junk/spam.... grrr...

2004-09-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

Offline Again

I will be offline for whole of this week... I'm here at my hometown for my sister's marriage. This marriage has kept me very busy this month, and personal life took over my professional life... I'm fully engrossed on the marriage work...phew indian marriage is a bit tough!! :-) but many things are getting streamlined in my life and heading towards a proper direction... anyways,I should be up and back to form next week...and should move ahead without any hassles in life :-)

2004-09-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

A bit of WINDOWS Internals

Recently, while programming with the Audit Policy Setting, I was little puzzled on how windows manages these policies internally. After initial research, a document sent by aradhana finished my research.

Finally, here is how Windows Stores AUDIT Policies internally, Windows XP has 9 Policicies, which can be set using secpol.msc

These settings are stored in the Registry at \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\PolAdtEv
and stored in disk at %WINDIR%\System32\Config\SECURITY

The SECURITY File at disk is not even accessible to Administrators, these files are available only to SYSTEM Account and Authentication Packages. and If you are inquisitive like me to know whatz stored as the binary data, here is the view of binary info of SECURITY File

The same is stored in the Registry at \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\PolAdtEv
But you cannot access this key using RegEDIT. but there is a alternate way to extract the contents of this Key. Hint:Use the Scheduler, The Scheduler service runs under SYSTEM Account. So this can help us to extract the contents of this registry key.

C:\temp>at \\scape005 19:39 CMD /c "regedit /e c:\temp\mykey1.txt HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policy\Poladtev"

The output of mykey1.txt in my computer is [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policy\Poladtev]
@=hex(0):01,17,f5,77,01,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,02,00,00, 00,02,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,09,00,00,00

This can be intercepted using, the following legend info, the key is of the following format
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policy\Poladtev]
@=hex(0):ZZ,ii,ii,00,AA,00,00,00,BB,00,00,00,CC,00,00,00,DD,00,00,00,EE,00,00,00,FF,00,00,00,GG,00,00,00,ii,00,00,00

Now, we need to lookup at the corresponding values. i.e. To check if the Logon/Logoff auditing is enabled, check out the 9 value in the comma separated list. In my computer this is "02", which means Failure Auditing is enabled for this policy. Simple. Similarly, you can read up further data settings.

ii - Ignore these values.
ZZ - 01 indicates auditing is enabled, 00 means disabled.
AA - Restart, Shutdown, System.
BB - Logons and Logoffs.
CC - File and Object Access.
DD - Use of User Rights.
EE - Process Tracking.
FF - Security Policy Management.
GG - User and Group Management.

If the value of the AA / GG letter is 01, success auditing is enabled.
If the value of the AA / GG letter is 02, failure auditing is enabled.
If the value of the AA / GG letter is 03, success and failure auditing is enabled.