HOW WHAT WHY?

Comma 3x Brand Porting | BYD ATTO3 | Comma3x Openpilot | Part 2: Setup Dev Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Kougon) — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:59:00 +0000

With regard to the software, @ixcess has maintained support through a fork KommuAi/bukapilot. The BYD related code is at https://github.com/kommuai/bukapilot/tree/f549c012878f1af067f4a4e351cfa5668a492bd3/selfdrive/car/byd

This fork is based on the v0.8.13 release. The master branch of Openpilot as of today is 0.9.8
There are significant changes in the code structure and a large part of documentation is different. The Openpilot codebase follows a Continuous Integration model. It’s great for supported cars. The detailed documentation for each change was harder to find. The referenced Car Ports from 2018 for Toyota were only good to get an overview of the process and not exactly

Major changes between 0.8.13 and 0.9.7 Codes

The code controlling cars has moved from openpilot/selfdrive/car to a new repository called opendbc. The repo is symlinked so that things don’t break. OpenDBC has been forked out as a separate project. The exact usage and API calls are still work in progress as of 27 September 2024.
The Official Development environment for OpenPilot is Ubuntu 24.04 . In fact, your Comma device is running this Ubuntu Linux.

I prefer creating a virtual machine to have all Development Environment in one place. So have used UTM to create a Virtual Machine on my ARM based machine. Install Ubuntu 24.04 ARM on UTM

Once Ubuntu is up and running, the official documentation will help install all the dependencies for running Openpilot on the Ubuntu. Reproducing the steps here for reference. Type these in the terminal of your new Ubuntu installation. Note that the 3rd step in the Tutorial of official documentation won’t work as the UI has changed and you can’t do a grep to find white or blue.

1. Setup your development environment

Run this to clone openpilot and install all the dependencies:

1	`bash <(curl -fsSL openpilot.comma.ai)`

Navigate to openpilot folder & activate a Python virtual environment

cd openpilot
source .venv/bin/activate

Then, compile openpilot:

1	`scons -j8`

2. Run replay

We’ll run the replay tool with the demo route to get data streaming for testing our UI changes.

# in terminal 1
tools/replay/replay --demo
 
# in terminal 2
selfdrive/ui/ui

The openpilot UI should launch and show a replay of the demo route.

If you have your own comma device, you can replace --demo with one of your own routes from comma connect.

Prior to connecting to your own comma device. You will have to authenticate. By default it will authenticate with Google. To change to github or apple use

#For Apple
tools/lib/auth.py apple
 
#For Github
tools/lib/auth.py github

To login to the device; you need to use SSH. The process to setup SSH is well documented.

To use Cabana, the command is

1	`tools/car_porting/cabana`

With the SSH completed, everything you need to setup the development Environment is completed.

Now all connections are set. Now to begin Porting. After reading code and watching videos; there are 3 areas to look into

opendbc_repo/opendbc/car
openpilot/selfdrive/car/car_specific.py
Panda Update

This post has helped you setup the development environment. And get to the stage where you can beign the process of software porting. Will deal with the code updates to get openpilot to recognize the BYD Atto 3.

Comma 3x - Brand Porting | BYD ATTO3 | Comma3x Openpilot | Part 1 - Harness

noreply@blogger.com (Kougon) — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:58:00 +0000

Comma 3x is an excellent hardware to get an ADAS that’s close to FSD for everyone. The hardware and software are developed separately. This is a detailed documentation of every step in porting the BYD Atto3 to work with Comma 3x. The official documentation was a little scattered and outdated. Hence the need for this documentation

Date: 1/September/2024 | Comma Release 0.9.8 | Hardware: Comma 3x

I purchased a Comma 3x with a Developer Harness for this project. This section of the tutorial deals with the technique to make the harness suitable for BYD Atto 3 (RHD) as sold in India.

As per the Comma official documentation. I reviewed the Comma Con 2023 video by Jason

How to Port a Car | Community Speaker: Jason | COMMA_CON 2023

First step was to get the Repair Manuals. Found the manuals in an issue post in Comma Openpilot Github Repo. Keeping a record of the links for anyone.

cuter-doc0 commented on May 28

Atto 3 RHD and LHD service, engineering, workshop, maintenance, metal bodyshop, paint shop, electrical, diagnostics manuals and documentation.This is a web based manual – to use, extract zip and open index.html765 ATTO3-LHD-FULLPACK.zip (1.13 GB)
https://workupload.com/file/43LMbSrbKfJ715 ATT03-RHD-FULLPACK.zip (1.12 GB)
https://workupload.com/file/rJ8HpQFL6MGPDF files can be grabbed from here too: https://t.me/atto_3/1/17553

Many of the images used in the following section are from this official repair manual

First step in installing Comma is to find the OBU port. On BYD Atto 3, this is located as shown.

Remove the LDW (Lane Departure Warning) Cover holding the ADAS Camera. It can be pried open using a soft plastic pry tool.

The ADAS camera in BYD is from Veoneer and the model is MVS4. Mono Vision System 4.

The wiring diagram of the MVS4 – Multifunction Camera is as below

The connector used in BYD is TE 1-1355211-2

Mating Part is TE 1-1670459-2

The developer Harness that shipped for me was a V1 harness. There is a new V3 harness in the works. We will have to use the V1 harness. Column 2 below is the correct wiring needed

BYD Connector Pinout	Comma V1 Connector Pinout (In BYD)	Comma 3x Connector Pinout (18pin ) V3	Ixcess Connector (26pin) V1 Connector
1 – GND	1,26	1,17	1,26
2 – IGN1	2,16	2,14	12,14
3 – Private CAN_H	18,8	4,16	18,8
4 – Chassis Network CAN_H	22(Camera),4(Car),	8,9	22,4
7 – Private CAN_L	20,10	6,18	20,10
8 – Chassis Network CAN_L	24(camera), 6(Car)	7,11	24,6

Active Developer and Discord user iXcess from Malaysia made a connector using the above parts and shipped it to me. As received connector pinout is as shown in Column 4in the table above. I had to change the wires for IGN in order to get the cable working properly.

With these changes; the connection was successful and Comma3x finally began to be recognized and recorded routes albeit in dashboard mode.

That’s it. Now the hardware is connected and will now set the stage for the next part which is the software include the porting process.

How to fix the "Get Certificate Public Key Failed: There was an error while exporting the Key Blob"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 May 2017 09:58:00 +0000

This is an annoying error that occurs while using a Digital Signature on websites belonging to Indian Government Agencies.

I faced this error repeatedly without knowing what to do?

Pre-Requisites:

1. Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate w/Token is required for filing Tenders

(I purchased ePass 2003 Token from e-Mudhra, http://www.e-mudhra.com/)

2. Install Drivers for the ePass2003

(They come with the Token. No need to download anything)

Why do you get the Get Certificate Public Key Failed: There was an error while exporting the Key Blob Error?

The "Get Certificate Public Key Failed: There was an error while exporting the Key Blob" error occurs because you do not have the right nxtcrypt installation. There are 2 versions of this software. Most tendering sites by default install a version that is incompatible with ePass2003.

Install nxtcrypt driver for ePass2003

You can download NxtCrypt for ePass2003 here

https://maharashtra.etenders.in/install/NxtCryptoSetup_ePass.msi

In case the link is down, click here to download my version

You will need to uninstall any old version of the program before this installation.

That's it! Happy Bidding and Tendering.

References
http://mydsc.net/how-to-use-token.html

The Positive side of India: How we are solving our problems?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 12:43:00 +0000

India isn't just a hot bed of problems. The country is making large strides in solving some of the biggest problems. Every problem that needs to be solved according to the United Nations Development Program exists in India. But the country isn't helpless and looking for experts from the west to assist in solutions; instead problems are being solved internally by some of the finest minds.

When India started it's journey, it started as a country with no resources. The British wanted it to fail from the word go. The fear of East India company pushed the founders to create a closed country hoping that would fix all problems. It only worsened over time. The Gandhi like goodness that was expected to pervade was found to be a lie. People work in a highly pre-determined manner.

A presentation showcasing strides made by India in solving our unique 3rd world problems

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwIL9QA_Gp62bEYzTkdxbVZRWU0/view?ts=57a8b573&pli=1

Palmistry of the Mummies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 10:13:00 +0000

The Egyptians are known to have believed in Palmistry. I wonder if it were possible to read the mummy's palms and know more about it. The palm creases on mummies seem to be intact. It'd be interesting on what further information it can provide besides the guesstimated writings.

Will attempt to decipher a few hands as soon as I find them.

What are the color codes of the Indian Flag

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 08:42:00 +0000

Saffron: #FF8833
White: #FFFFFF
India Green: #138808
Blue Wheel : #000080

How to get any book, journal or magazines for free?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 03:43:00 +0000

Books are collection of a person's mind. Getting access to them is fundamental in our growth as humans. There have been several efforts to make it easier for humans to access all the knowledge of mankind for free.

One of the best projects that I love is Bookzz

eBooks

http://www.bookzz.org

They refer to themselves as the world's largest eBook library. It'd have been true if not for more efforts by other folks.

eBooks, Journals and Science Books

http://www.libgen.io

Library Genesis has a superb collection of books, journals and scientific books. They're sometimes better than Bookzz. It neatly provides a list of multiple locations from which you can download the books. You can almost always find the ebooks you need.

http://www.booksc.org

It was created by the same community that created bookzz.org They claim to have a collection of over 50,000,000+ articles

http://www.sci-hub.bz

Sci-hub is a clever system that gives you access to any journal that has a subscription from University subscriptions. That means, you can access any journal and any article that is available online. It's super easy to use. You just need to type in the DOI or the title of the article. Lo and behold! the article that was blocked for no reason is now yours. Go make the world a better place

http://ebookee.org/

This used to by my old favorite. It still has a few new books but the links are often dead and it leads to too many ads. I use it only as a last resort.

Other sources of docs

US Military Technical Documents

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/

Most NASA Technical Docs

https://www.sti.nasa.gov/

A re- invigoration of How What Why?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 03:43:00 +0000

I started writing this blog as a way of keeping a record of all the things I was learning. It was meant to be a personal record, thoughts and muses. I tried putting in information as and when possible without regard to what the readers wanted.

After a 3 year hiatus, I went through the logs to see what users wanted. Posts related to computers and internet attracted a lot of interest and seemed to genuinely help folks.

I've decided to start writing again. This time, I'll share everything I know about simplifying life using computers and the internet. Will also listen to feedback, viewership and gear articles towards it.

Thanks to all the fantastic readers over the years.

How to fix Airtel DATASHARE problems

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 08:24:00 +0000

I jumped onto an airtel DATASHARE plan as soon as it came out and immediately realized that their support was horrible. Most of the service staff did not that there was a plan. And escalations simply wasted money on their customer care charges.

At one point the customer service told me that the plan was for only data cards. I promptly got a datacard and lo and behold it did work. The plan also works on any 3G phone. Here's how.

Go to pay.airtel.com and choose your circle recharge. See if your circle provides a DATASHARE plan. In Bangalore it costs 998INR

Now send the following as SMS to 121
DATASHARE ADD Your_Phone_No

Eg: DATASHARE ADD 9876543210

If you get an error that the number is already a child in the system. It indicates that you or someone may have added your phone on their DATASHARE plan. Simply ask them to send the following as SMS to 121

DATASHARE DELETE Your_Phone_No

Airtel also has a website that has rarely worked for me, it apparently lets you manage data sharing.
Http://airtel.in/datashare

Enjoy your plan!

If you have any tips please drop them in as comments.

How to access FTP from Android Application?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 11:54:00 +0000

I ran into trouble while writing a piece of code to transfer a bunch of images to my server from a custom app. People recommended Apache FTP for Java. But it can't be used as is since Honeycomb. It needs the task to run on a different thread. This makes the UI far more responsive and is a forced better way to write programs for Android.

Step 1:
First download the zip file called Apache Commons Net from
http://commons.apache.org/net/download_net.cgi

Step 2:
Extract the zip file and copy the file called commons-net-xx.jar Into the libs folder of your Android eclipse project

Step 3: Create a new Java Class with the following code.

package com.example.technologyempoweredjanatainitiative;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.net.UnknownHostException;

import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPReply;

import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;

public class FTP_Uploader_AsyncTask extends AsyncTask {

//void FTP_DATA_UPLOAD(String FULL_PATH_TO_LOCAL_FILE)

protected Long doInBackground(String... FULL_PATH_TO_LOCAL_FILE ) {
// encapsulate FTP inside a A sync task

{
System.out.println("Entered FTP transfer function");

FTPClient ftpClient = new FTPClient();
int reply;
try {
System.out.println("Entered Data Upload loop!");
ftpClient.connect("Ftp.example.com",21);
ftpClient.login("username", "password");
ftpClient.changeWorkingDirectory("/directory/");
System.out.println("Entered Data Upload loop!");

reply = ftpClient.getReplyCode();

if(FTPReply.isPositiveCompletion(reply)){
System.out.println("Connected Success");
}else {
System.out.println("Connection Failed");
ftpClient.disconnect();
}

if (ftpClient.getReplyString().contains("250")) {
ftpClient.setFileType(org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTP.BINARY_FILE_TYPE);
BufferedInputStream buffIn = null;
System.out.println("Created an input stream buffer");
System.out.println(FULL_PATH_TO_LOCAL_FILE.toString());

buffIn = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(FULL_PATH_TO_LOCAL_FILE[0]));
ftpClient.enterLocalPassiveMode();

System.out.println("Entered binary and passive modes");
//Handler progressHandler=null;
//ProgressInputStream progressInput = new ProgressInputStream(buffIn, progressHandler);

//Code to Extract name from the string.
//http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10549504/obtain-name-from-absolute-path-substring-from-last-slash-java-android
String Picture_File_name = new File(FULL_PATH_TO_LOCAL_FILE[0]).getName();

boolean result = ftpClient.storeFile(Picture_File_name, buffIn); //localAsset.getFileName()
//ProgressInputStream progressInput = new ProgressInputStream(buffIn, progressHandler);

if (result){
System.out.println("Success");
}

//boolean result = ftpClient.storeFile("TEST.jpg", progressInput);
System.out.println("File saved");

//buffIn.close();
ftpClient.logout();
ftpClient.disconnect();
}

} catch (SocketException e) {
Log.e("Citizen Cam FTP", e.getStackTrace().toString());
System.out.println("Socket Exception!");
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
Log.e("Citizen Cam FTP", e.getStackTrace().toString());
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.e("Citizen Cam FTP", e.getStackTrace().toString());
System.out.println("IO Exception!");
}

return null;
}

}

}

To access the ftp service to upload files call the above class using :

new FTP_Uploader_AsyncTask().execute(PathForFileToUpload);

How to use Python for coding with ZPL?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:37:00 +0000

ZPL-Zebra Programming Language is used for communicating with Zebra Printers. They are mostly used for RFID and Bar-code printing. As ever, I wanted a bit more control over how my ZPL printer worked and had to get working.
The easiest technique is of course Python. And this is how I did it.

First get the Zebra package from Pypi
pypi.python.org/pypi/zebra/#downloads

Installation is simple. From commandline navigate to the folder containing setup.py and then enter
python setup.py install [Windows Only]

I presume you've installed all necessary drivers. If you are using Win 7, Windows would have automatically installed them for you. If you're on Linux, you'd need a CUPS driver. Just look at the documentation.

Example Program:
###START OF CODE###

#ZPL commands to be sent to your Printer
label="""
^XA
^FO10,10
^A0,40,40
^FD
Hello World
^FS
^XZ
"""

#End of ZPL commands to print Hello World

from zebra import zebra
z=zebra
z.getqueues #This will return a list of printers installed on your computer.
z.setqueues('ZDesigner_ZPL_200') #Set the default printer to your new ZPL printer
z.output(label) #Have fun sending data to your printer.It's as easy as it can get. :)

####END OF CODE####

Reference:
http://bytes.com/topic/python/answers/24160-zebra-printing-language
http://pypi.python.org/pypi/zebra/

How to access Parallel Ports on Windows XP?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:35:00 +0000

I needed to get access to the Parallel/Seial Ports on my new XP. But it seemed crazy with almost nothing working.
Here's a simple way to access the same.

First get Userport
http://www.embeddedtronics.com:80/public/Electronics/minidaq/userport/UserPort.zip

http://booksbybibin.14.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=74

http://neil.fraser.name/software/lpt/

Now get Active Python 2.6.7 and import Inpout 32.dll
logix4u.net/parallel-port/16-inpout32dll-for-windows-982000ntxp

http://blog.wensheng.com/2008/10/python-parallel-port-on-windows.html

from ctypes import windll
p = windll.inpout32
p.Inp32(0x378) #default 255(all high) on my pc
p.Out32(0x378, 0) #put all low on port 2-9

his tutorial is taken from the book
MY EXPERIENCE IN PARALLEL PORT INTERFACING.
you can download it free from the files
section(file:-parallelport(3 files) of
yahoo group-booksbybibin
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/booksbybibin/

comments about this book on
www.booksbybibin.blogspot.com

SOFTWARES USED IN WINDOWS
All operating systems of Windows upto Window
ME(included) requires no driver software for parallel port. You can interface it by a
simple program in Turbo C. But operating systems after Windows ME have a security
to parallel port. So we have to break it inorder to interface with outside circuits. This
is done by using USERPORT.
Installing USERPORT:

You can get userport.zip with this file or from yahoo group-parallelport.
http://www.embeddedtronics.com:80/public/Electronics/minidaq/userport/UserPort.zip
Download this file and unzip it
then copy Userport.sys to WINDOWSSYSTEM32DRIVERS
then run USERPORT.EXE
u will get a message driver started. Click Start two times then you will get the
following message. This is the next step after BIOS Settings.
Now u do programming in C/C++/JAVA and interface in XP or other version of
Windows. USERPORT is necessary software you should install. If you are using VB or
VC then you can get DLL's from
www.logix4u.net

USING LPT.EXE:
This is a small VB program which shows the status of the parallel port registers
You can get it with this book or yahoo group-parallelport or from the link
http://neil.fraser.name/software/lpt/
After BIOS settings and userport installation next step is to check whether your
parallel port will work or not and which ports will work well.
Run lpt.exe

select your port address first as you set on the BIOS. The following diagram shows
how to check port. You 'tick' indicates high on that port. So change tick on the port.
Make it low and high. If it is changing for data register and control register then your
parallel port is working fine and will work fine. But if the 'tick' is not changing then
you won't be able to use it. You won't be able to use the ports in which 'ticks' are not
changing. In the above diagram we can see that Pin1 (strobe C0) is not having tick(i.e
is low), but if you connect an LED then it will glow because C0' is there and the port get's HIGH. Suppose if you input LOW on pin1 then the Strobe will get HIGH in the software. So remember this when you do troubleshooting circuits with lpt.

How to install DropBox on Amazon EC2 10.0.4 LTS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:38:00 +0000

This is a continuation of my previous posts. We have so far created an EC 2 instance and created a GUI frontend using a FreeNX server.

The best way to transfer data to and from your EC2 instance is with Dropbox. You could use a Webdav too but that’s a little extra work and hence for another day

Lets first install Firefox for the shiny new GUI with the command

sudo apt-get install firefox

Now head to your NX GUI, fire up firefox and head on over to Dropbox.com

Install gdebi to easily manage the debian installations. You have a 32bit version of Ubuntu 10.0.4

sudo apt-get install gdebi

You can simply double click to open up the Dropbox .deb installer to install dropbox.

After gdebi has done its job go to

Applications –> Internet –> Dropbox

Now let Dropbox do its thing.

Done!

How to install a GUI to your Ubuntu 10.0.4 Amazon EC 2 instance using FreeNX

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:56:00 +0000

Amazon EC 2 is awesome but the command line makes it a little boring. The Non-geeks in us still love to use Windows instead of staring at a black screen and typing in codes to do everything.

I understand command line is all super powerful in the hands of the right person but for me its GUI any day.

FreeNX is a software that will let you view your computer from far away. I will be installing this on an Amazon EC 2 instance (Refer to my older post on how to create an EC 2 instance).

This article follows heavily from the official Ubuntu documentation form FreeNX at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeNX

It makes sense to just use that but I kind of don't like the fact that it almost always never works well after a while. This install of FreeNX is for installation on Ubuntu 10.0.4 . More particularly it is for installation on an Amazon EC 2 instance running the Ubuntu 10.0.4 LTS OS.

Add the FreeNX PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freenx-team

Update Apt & Install FreeNX

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install freenx

Well Yes of course! Watch the Matrix and come back in a little while.

Get the nxsetup script, unpack it, copy the script and run it using the following commands.

wget https://bugs.launchpad.net/freenx-server/+bug/576359/+attachment/1378450/+files/nxsetup.tar.gz

tar -xvf nxsetup.tar.gz

sudo cp nxsetup /usr/lib/nx/nxsetup

sudo /usr/lib/nx/nxsetup –install

I choose NOT to create my own Key pairs. This leads to a simpler but less secure setup.

Next Step: Setup password based authentication

Now, to login to EC2 you just used a Private Key. You didn’t have to use a password. But unfortunately FreeNX doesn’t work this way. It must have a username and password associated with an account in order for it work.

So let’s create a password for the user named ubuntu

First lets’s change the /etc/ssh/ssh-config file to allow for Password based authentication

Hit

sudo nano /etc/ssh/ssh-config

Press Ctrl + O to save and Ctrl + C to go back to command line.

We’ll create a password for the user called ubuntu.

sudo passwd ubuntu

Enter an appropriate password and save it safely.

Now Reboot the system

sudo reboot

While this happens download the NX client for Windows or Ubuntu and install it on your PC.

Next Step: NX Client

Install the NX client for Windows.

Click on Configure to bring up the following windows

Enter the Public DNS of your EC 2 instance for the Host address and hit OK.

Enter the Password that you just created for the user Ubuntu and hit Login. If you see this, Congrats

It is recommended that you create Key pairs for optimal security.

The following forums helped in this installation:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1436218

Other ways of installing NX and EC 2

http://www.the-tech-tutorial.com/?p=101

How to setup a micro instance running Ubuntu 10.0.4 on Amazon EC 2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:40:00 +0000

Amazon, the giant has a beautiful service called EC 2 that lets you use their vast computing resources and super high speed internet network to setup your own server. The server is just like your computer except that you don’t control or own any hardware.

You get a command line through which you can access EC 2. In these tutorials I’ll be teaching you how to setup EC 2 starting with the basics. We will setup a remote access using an NX client, run OpenERP, Dropbox and an OpenVPN service.

Step 1:

Go to http://aws.amazon.com and signup for an account.

Once you are done with it click on the EC2 tab. Click on Instances—> Create new instance. You’ll see a window like the own below.

Click on Community AMI’s and search for ami-3e02f257

This is a Ubuntu Linux 10.0.4 micro instance and this is what we will be using for all my tutorials. Select it to head to the next step.

Step 2

Micro Instances are free for a year but have very low system resources. If you want a better server subscribe to one of the many plans that suit you.

Step 3

It’s a Kougon instance ! Next Step

Step 4

Create a key pair, you’ll need this to login to your EC 2 instance via putty or other SSH clients. Save this key in a very very secure place. It will have an extension of *.pem

That’s it. Your instance is now ready to rock.

Step 5-1 : Connecting to the Instance

Get Putty from the official site here http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

I’d prefer using the Install Everything Installer. We will require Putty & Puttygen for the next few operations.

Putty cannot use the *.pem key that Amazon gave you when you generated the key and this has to be converted into a putty friendly *.ppk format. To do this…

Open Puttygen – > Click on Conversions in Menu Bar –> Click on Import Key.

Now you will see some weird data. That’s the key. Now click on Save private key

It will ask you if you really want to do it. Just do it. Save this ppk file just as safely as the pem file.

Step 5-2: Connect with Putty

Putty Should look like this.

The host name can be found in the AWS console. Click on your EC2 instance and note down the public DNS address listed under Description.

The other option that needs to change is Connection –> SSH—>Auth. It should look like this

The location of private key file is obviously that super secret place where you saved the ppk file.

hit Open :)

Step 6: Putty’d

In the Putty console that opens up, it’ll say some stuff about trusting the connection. You don’t have much choice so hit “Yes”

It’ll then ask for an username: Type in ubuntu

Congratulations on Successfully creating & logging into your first EC-2 instance.

How the Lokpal can actually change the very fabric of democracy in India?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:35:00 +0000

Lokpal is a Legislative bill that is being pushed for implementation by a group calling itself the civil society, the aim of this new law is to make politicians accountable by having an independent investigating and prosecuting agency. The Lokpal with enough powers would be a legal vigilante. The life expectancy of a Lokpal is of course predictably uncertain.

Keeping the “Who will bell the cat” question on pause for a while, have a look at the larger power body that the lokpal wants to control, “The Prime Minister of India”. This is where all the juice is.

We Indians have a weird Constitution. As is the norm even now, our writers flipped the best parts of every constitution in the world to put together the largest and most ambiguously written constitution of their time. In the Copy-Paste job; they chose a President to be the head of the state and gave him all the powers before tying up his hands with a Prime Minister from the Ruling Part. Every activity of the government happens under the authorization and name of the President. He/She cannot be touched by anyone. He/She is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. No Bill can be passed without his/her consent. And yet the President ends up being a puny pan at the hands of the ruling party.

And the most ridiculous part is that the Indian President is elected in the exact same manner as the US President!!! You read it right. I think we flipped the idea of the president from the Americans. Even though we “think” that the US president is elected by the people, he is not. The president is elected by members of the Legislative assembly(I know they call it something else, but I want to stick to terms I’m familiar with) and states who are in turn elected by the people. The reason behind this is a little complicated. It has to do with every region of the nation having an equal vote and to prevent a “son/daughter of the state” vote from electing an unworthy person as president. You want the best man/woman to lead the country and he should not be in power simply because his state had the most people and votes. Between, this was the reason why Bush won the 2004 elections even though he did not receive the popular vote. He had the support of more legislators!!!

In India, we do not “feel” that we elect the president directly because there has never been a presidential candidate who went to the people asking them to send him a legislature that would work for him. Our colorful prime ministers and remote controls held the power and they were happy. We’ve always been narrow thinkers, sufficient and happy with what goes inside our walls instead of thinking big. The Prime Minister represented the party that won the Legislative Assembly elections and they got to frame the laws. It didn’t matter if they could rule the country or if people even supported them. They stayed their for 5 years and kaboom they are gone. The Ministers are not accountable to anyone and they do everything in the name of a president who just becomes a namesake not doing their real function or realizing the massive power that they wield.

Now, comes the Lokpal. Suddenly the Prime Minister or any of his ministers can no longer do as they please. They are being watched and can be kicked out of office at any time by an Ombudsman they hired. An accountable Prime Minister becomes just another person. He works at office and has to go home in the evening. And suddenly the Indian President is the most powerful person in the country. We can fix the responsibility of running the country on him instead of the current uncertainty. Making someone responsible will change things dramatically. Instead of states fighting over petty politics. We’d have a President who’d rule India without fear of satisfying coalitions. The Coalitions would still exist and they would be the ruling party. But they’d be insignificant because they all need to answer the people and it’s the president who gets to invite a party to be a ruling party anyway.

I’m not sure if the Civil society thought of all these things. If they did, wow. if not, WOW! they’re gonna do an incredible job.

What is India?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:11:00 +0000

For a while I had been troubled by the fact that I barely could connect with or understand my own country. I did not want to listen to something just because someone said so, I wanted to see the “real” India unadulterated by exaggerated writings and get a complete picture of the country in one shot. This article presents a frank and personal view point of the real India and I’m responsible for all the facts quoted and will be glad to provide my references. If you are overly “blindly” nationalistic or have “terrorist” tendencies, I’d recommend you to not read further.

India or Sindhos or Sindhikos or Bharatavarsha is a large expanse of land comprising of the Indian subcontinent. I will not deal with the numerous countries that now make up India. It is stupid because it is just a division amongst us humans. There is an interesting idea about the areas occupied by the countries. The area comprising a country depends on the scale with which it is measured. Suppose we take a satellite picture of the sub-continent and decide to use a scale that is kilometer long. We get a certain area. Now lets use a scale that is half a kilometer long. This scale can see more minute details and hence will see a larger area. Similarly if you use a 30 cm long scale the area will be much much larger as you can measure even smaller articrafts. Take a much smaller scale and you get a country of infinite size :) .

Around 30,000 years ago, we humans decided to move out of the African grasslands. We had developed language and had become sentient. We moved in all directions and occupied large tracts of land across the globe which was still connected. The simplest evidence to prove that we did move out is the language that is still spoken by the tribals in Africa, Asia and Australia. It’s crude and is called Munda and each of them can still speak to another with that tongue! The colors amongst us is not because we were born differently, it is just because of a pigment called melanin that protects us from the harsh UV of the sun. Remove the sun and you don’t need melanin and you become white. It’s as simple as that.

Around 6000 years ago a second wave of migrations started and a new people moved in to India. These are what are called the Dravidians. They were not ingenious because their language is different from the Munda stream. These guys made use of copper tools as against the gathering economy of the tribal's. They are supposed to have seeped in from the south. At this point humans all over the globe were beginning to live in one place. The Egyptians and Mesopotamians(Iraqis) had begun mastering agriculture. The Nile and Tigris were breeding human settlements and men began developing math, science and religion. Fast forward one thousand years and the Egyptians had already begun building the worlds most massive structures. The Pyramids had been built and the bodies of kings were mummified. Their art had developed tremendously and I’ve seen it with my own eyes. It’s as good as any that we have done with modern tools! At this time we in India were still gatherers. Agriculture had barely begun and we lived in forests and grasslands rearing cattle. There is not much art from the time save for crude clay figurines.

At this time, rivers around the globe began an anomalous behaviour. there were massive floods inundating human settlements and people were forced out. Geological data points to this flooding. And this is what may have led to the Origin by flood in various religions. Including the story of Manu in India and in Jewish books. A group of people now fondly called the Vedic people/ Aryans moved in to India right after the floods. They were technologically superior to the copper and bronze wielding populace that had settled across the nation. The Vedic people came in with Iron and horses. Iron could clear the dense vegetation around the Ganges and for the first time agriculture began in India. Everywhere the Vedic guys went, they spread agriculture. The gathering economies adopted the superior culture. It’s interesting that we humans no matter how much we try to stay separated; have been pushed together by natural forces. We are made to intermingle and exchange ideas and then grow as a species. Once settlements began in India, people had time to do more things. Technologically we did not do much. Most of the time was spent in pondering about intellectual exercises. The climate in India was not harsh and there was no need to fight against nature unlike the other human settlements. The Indus valley was the first Urban settlement and the people were yet to begin writing. They used bullock carts, and reared Rhinos for cattle. They probably traded with the Romans. The “writings” and tablets may not even be a message from the past. The patterns that are found on the writings do not conform to any human linguistic patterns. They are more likely to be totems used to identify a manufacturer or exporter. The exact nature of the tablets will be known very soon. They won’t speak for the people but will only give clues to their living.

By around 3500 years ago. we had more or less arrived at what we thought were explanations of the world around us. We concluded that the universe was one massive living creature with every human and every object being a manifestation of a single force called Brahman. The theory connected everything we saw and could be used to explain everything. At this point people were not concerned with accuracy and verification of theories. If something could be argued to be true, it had to be true. Linguistically and religiously we became superior. Once we realized that we could explain everything in the world by presuming everything to be an illusion, there was no incentive to do anything new. Imagine living in a nihilistic world where you exist simply because you “think” you exist. In the end you die and you are not dead because you never existed. Why would you want to do anything when your elders tell you that you did not do anything because you do not exist in the first place? The Vedas were nevertheless written down and the divine rights of kings were asserted. I like calling the Vedas, Upanishads and other ancient documents as the wikileaks of the Priests. They were mostly internal documents detailing accurately what they felt about the people around. It was meant to be kept as an internal secret but it got out and there is nothing doing now. The priests in all civilizations have always been a class of people who manipulate others in spite of knowing what they are doing. They have no moral values and cheating and manipulation come naturally due to their hatred of other people and the feeling of superiority handed by the knowledge of the very people they manipulate.

The empires in the south began to consolidate, the Vindhyas kept the technology from the north at bay but the oceans did not prevent a cultural exchange with the Greeks. I always wondered why some of the women from the south looked out of place, they were simply too brightly colored, or had a strange complexion unlike everyone else. The color could be explained by the melanin pigmentation due to lack of exposure to the sun but not the structure and everything else. Guess what! the south traded with the Greeks and Romans. They mined gold and diamonds and these were traded for women!!! The southerners at least a few of them bred with the Greeks and that’s the reason they look slightly out of place and way more beautiful. The south began a superb cultural experimentation and built up a rich repository of art unlike the north which was more interested in religion. The iron technology of the north started creeping down south and people shifted from a trade based economy to an agriculture based economy.

One thousand years later around 300BC, the Buddha came in and blasted the current economy that had become too segregated with no room for growth. Since the best people were not allowed to do any menial jobs including masonry, agriculture and art. All of these fields suffered tremendously. No new ideas were implemented on a large scale and the king and his ministers had to design everything for the people. The people were helpless. It’s weird that the entrepreneurs among them could change everything but they were not allowed to do anything because the society prevented them while the ones who needed change could not make it happen because they had no access to the knowledge required to make the change. Around 150BC, the grammar for Sanskrit had been written down by Panini. For the first time there was a language that exceeded everyone in perfection. The detail given to the language is brilliant. It’s sad that the society prevented such a detail in other fields by simply preventing the best from working there. A single unverifiable theory of life which presumed everything was known produced a stable society with no incentive for anything new or risky. Asoka introduced the idea of a peace loving empire but it was too far ahead of time and the neighbors did not believe in peace. Theoretically it is nice to be happy with what you have, but its not human to be happy with what you have. There were more invasions. The Persians from Iran came in led by Darius. The Greeks attacked the north through Alexander who retreated after making hordes of alliances. The Mongols, Huns, Afghans, all had their share of fun and loot. During the entire period there was more cultural mixing. New ideas came in but no matter what the religious string did not bend. Khilji came in to India and destroyed most of the temples. The art that remains from the time is not the best. It is true that there are beautiful patterns and life like models. But these do not hold secrets or symbols that tell a story. The egyptian statues gave tremendous importance to details. I could see the Kings hand and could reel off all his characteristics and then lookup historical documents to verify if it was right and it always was.The lines were accurate enough to tell his story!!!!! The Greek statues are even better, they measured every aspect before they created them. They were accurate enough to reproduce the smallest blemishes. At this time in Greece, The Pythagorean had gathered beginning a process of rational thinking. It was time to explain the world around us in a way by which we could verify it. It was time to learn about ourselves.

Buddha and Mahavira together destroyed the hold of the priests and as expected their open religion had a world wide appeal. It gave answers to people who had questions of life. It tried to be rational and this appealed to a large number of people. More civilizations rose in India. It’s an interesting fact that civilizations across the globe exhibit a pattern. There are people moving in rapidly, the cities grown and stagnate and then they fall. No matter which direction we look. A civilization will fall. The egyptians fell, the babylonians fell, the vijaynagar fell, the mughals fell, and the Imperial British fell too. Each time a civilization falls it loses everything associated with it. In case of India a nihilistic world mean a lack of interest in the past and the culture remained the same in spite of a changing world. Th kingship and ministers determined the changes and people just lived their lives. A good king gave a good rule while a bad one gave corruption.

Islam started from a Pagan building housing a Shiva linga, the phallus is what exists inside Mecca. And the muslims are praying to a phallus and its not surprising they don’t want their women to see it :P . Islam built upon the Christian missionary style and made it more ruthless. They too the same stories as the christians, downgraded christ to a messiah and upgraded Mohammed to the last prophet on earth. The muslims believe in Jins and fairies but believe that other gods from other religions are bad! The Ghazni’s and Ghori’s first attacked India for the diamonds and gold. The south had huge mines and most of the gold was stored in temples which had transformed through the patronage of kings into centers of art (read dancing girls).They were bestowed with riches and the girls entertained crowds. The ghaznis took the gold and returned and in line with mohammeds atrocious destruction of all statues in Mecca, they destroyed temples or built mosques on top of them. this was standard practice amongst all empires. When you defeat an enemy, you want the people to respect the conqueror and the best way to do this is to destroy the one thing that is most precious to the people or the one thing that holds them in place. This simply did not work in India because things worked differently here unlike the rest of the world. People didn’t even care if the temple was looted or destroyed, they simply rebuilt it. Somanath was rebuilt 17 times in the same spot and was looted each time. The Mughals gave a saner rule in India. They promoted Islam in the true sense. Islam like Buddhism stresses an equality for all. It is wonderful but is muddled by the 70 Virgins and heaven theories. The gist of Islam is wonderful and it probably had to add unrealistic grants in order to convert people. It did a great job in civilizing people for whom life did not mean much.

The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe marked the first solid fight against dominance of the priests and kings. Men rose and brought down empires. The movement changed us humans dramatically. We began a new journey to understand ourselves but this time in an open manner. We decided not to accept someone’s word just because they said it. We would do something only if it made sense. Thousands of men died Da Vinci, Copernicus, Brahe died for what they believed in setting of a fire that freed men from the clutches of the unworthy. Within two hundred years, the renaissance had inspired men across the globe. The Americans rose up against the Imperial British and created a nation for freedom , honesty and justice loving people. The 1857 war for Indian Independence was just a war against being forced to consume use a culturally taboo material. For the first time we Indians said “Enough”. I stood on the very grounds wherein we said No and decided to fight to death against the most powerful and disciplined army in the world. The British were forced to govern India as the East India Corporation had become too powerful of a company to be let loose. The government was forced to commission historians into finding out more about India. And it was these historians who discovered everything written above! The renaissance made the Europeans look back into their past and the need to govern properly made the British go back into India’s past.

We decided to question everything just as the Europeans did during the renaissance. The British framed laws and brought under one Umbrella, the entire Indian sub-continent. Many old taboos were outlawed. Powerful dacoits were subdued and truth, honesty and justice were brought back in to the fore. But these values mean little in a nation that is poor and has to fight to be alive. Poverty breeds dishonesty. But in spite of it, we came together and within 90 years we stood with freedom in hands. The British did what was logical and gave back freedom to the 540 states that comprised India.

The 540 states joined hands to form one nation called India and thus we were born 64 years ago. The priests still wield power but it is only a matter of months before they will be exterminated. Things have changed dramatically. People from any field can now enter any field and this has created a tremendous improvement in everything. Innovation has entered our lives in unheard of ways. We are not living to realize a dream nation that existed in the past. The Hastinapur or Dwaraka or Ayodhya were just mythological cities built by exaggeration. We are now building a nation and are creating a world of our own. Everything we do is what will set the pace for the future. It’s exciting to live in a time wherein you can decide what is good and bad and live with the good.

There will always be a day when we will want to stop citing the concept of a world connected with everything. I believe that the concept of Brahman is not an end. It is a beautiful idea and modern physics provides a viewpoint wherein everything is connected by Quantum Entanglement. The idea of brahman was simply far too ahead of time. It stunned people because it was beyond comprehension at the time. The Brahman is not the end, it is the beginning of the foundation for an exciting journey to understand ourselves. We know that we are closely connected with the world around us. We know that we are all connected. But why? Why do we exist? Why exist even in an illusion? Why become Sentient and ask this question now? It is these questions and finding answers to them that will drive the new nation. We will start where we stopped 3000 years ago. We will create a nation whose aim is to not just breed people but to understand this wonderful creation of nature called me. We get to lay down the rules and I’m proud of it. I’m no longer bound by boundaries, this world is all mine :) . I’m proud to be an Indian and an earthling and most importantly a human. I have my answers.

Why can’t satellites have an eject mechanism?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:09:00 +0000

ISRO has had 3 launches this year of which two of them failed destroying their payloads completely. The spacecraft and satellites were all insured and hence there really was no huge monetary loss except of course for the Insurance company and I’m pretty sure the rates would have grown up for the jinxed GSLV.

Now the satellite is positioned to be ejected once it reaches a certain altitude. The only thing that needs to be added to this system is a parachute. The ground controllers could cause the payload to be ejected through a remote command. The satellite is thrown out with the capsule just like a Pilot ejecting a burning jet. After a few seconds a self-destruct destroys the rocket and the satellite floats down safely or is caught during descent by an air force mission. An expensive satellite is saved from sure destruction so many more man hours.

This could probably increase costs by a few thousand dollars but at $20,000 being spent on a Kilogram of payload it could be an awesome hobby project for someone in the space agency. It could also prep us for a human launch to space. We’d only be rehearsing a much needed maneuver while saving priceless satellites.

How to optimize Firefox for a netbook ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:29:00 +0000

Netbooks have small screen and the same old story. We'll go through a few addons that'll turn Firefox 3.6 on your little netbook into a mean Chrome-beating super-optimized browser. At the end of everything, your browser will look like this.

You'll need to install the following addons to get your firefox to look like this -

1.Compact menu 2 : Replaces the default menu bar of firefox with a single button. {the button at the top left of the screenshot above}

2.Hide Caption Titlebar Plus : Removes the annoying and useless titlebar from firefox.

3.Fission : Combines the progress bar and address bar a.k.a Safari, this allows you to do away with the status bar and obtain even more screen real estate. To disable status bar: Compact Menu->View->Status Bar

That's it, your firefox will look so much cooler and give you some much needed real extra real estate. You may also want to try the following addons.

4.No Squint: Set every page to be zoomed to a default value, the addon also remembers zoom settings for every page. This is extremely useful on a small screen.

5.Readibility: removes all unnecessary ads and pictures from a webpage and renders it into a magazine like format for easy reading.

Why do likes repel ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 05:31:00 +0000

This is more of a philosophical rather than a technical article.

It is strange that nature likes to keep the likes as far apart as possible. When it comes to electronic charges, the positive-positive or negative-negative combination repel each other with tremendous forces. This force is around 9 Newtons inside an atom. Imagine an object that is a crore times smaller than your hair experiencing the force of a 10Kg bag!!! that's what is pushing apart the protons.

A similar effect happens with magnetic poles. The like poles stay away from each other while the unlike poles bond easily. Why does nature hate likes? The reason is simply that by keeping away likes and bringing together unlikes nature obtains a state of zero energy. A tranquil but useless and peaceful system is formed. The new system cannot do anything more exciting than being sterile.

A case in point is when likes can get together such as in the same atom that the repelling forces tried to separate them. By exchanging mesons the protons can interact with each other and become one formidable particle. This process is what creates all the different atoms and molecules. The protons act against natures tendency to separate them, get together and create the wonderful universe we live in. If they had bonded with an electron, they'd have just become a blob of energy that could never form the world we live in.

It is weird that only when things go against the norm and natural tendencies do amazing things begin to happen. A norm seems to be formed only because it is easy and requires minimal to zero expenditure of energy and time.

What is all the fuss about facebook and privacy?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:13:00 +0000

The chatter has increased these days with lots of techies and bloggers deciding to sign off facebook in order to protect their privacy. So what happened that changed things suddenly? Why is privacy so important now?
Last month facebook changed their privacy policy yet again. And now they get to share all your information with their partner sites. All one needs is a little HTML code from facebook and I have all your information. Now what could one do with this information?

Remember the Truman Show? That's how your life has become. Everyone in the world can see what you do each day. You live a life for everyone in the world to see, everything you do, every move you make. Every bit of your happiness and sadness is now played out to the world. The information can be easily used to stalk you and build up a huge profiling database. Your every move can be predicted and you end up being directed by your fans and friends. Imagine a life lead for the public decided by the public; that's what happens when you do not have privacy and when you choose to use Facebook's default privacy settings. And that's the reason most of us techies want to get out of facebook. We prefer leading lives and sharing updates with a small group of friends we know and not with their friends of friends or the world.

How can you reclaim your privacy and prevent facebook from making your life a Truman Show...

The most straight forward technique is to just go to facebooks settings dialog box and retrieving every setting to friends only instead of everyone. And then opting out of sites and everything else. There are a total of over 100 options before you can get your privacy back which is harder than deactivating the facebook account and leading a phone based social life.

The second alternative is to make use of automated privacy scanners such as reclaim privacy. These are just javascripts that are run inside a facebook page. The javascripts will look at all the myriad of privacy settings and will tell you where your privacy stands and will also offer to correct it..Try

http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/

there are a couple more which you can find by a simple google search; the best thing about these scanners are that they are open source and if they steal data the web will be awash with those stories.

Unless you wish to lead your life in the public's eye and wish to entertain everyone; change your privacy settings to private and lead your life, your way :) You might also want to delete unknown people from your friends lists as they might be there for gathering data to be used for spamming you later....

Why India needs Islam and Muslims?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 May 2010 22:01:00 +0000

This article might affect people's sentiments and is not meant to be read by radicals (Both Terrorists and non muslims). If you are one please leave right now by clicking here
else if you are one of those who support free speech read on :)

Islam is mostly a modified version of Christianity. They are all the same except for the fact that modern islam lacks color and diversity. The only bone of contention between the two is that muslims consider Christ to be a prophet just like Mohammed and not the son of god as the christians believe. Apart from this change Islam also added clauses to kill everyone who did not believe what they wanted everyone to believe. This Kill clause is what makes islam the most hated religion in the world.
The clause was interepreted variously by zealous rulers and imams and was modified to suit their needs. It led to destruction of many amazing civilizations, women, and the very ideas that helped Islam prosper initially. It is now living in a grave it started digging by destroying everything they could not understand.
The Kill clause was never meant to be taken literally; it was like every other religious message a metaphor to teach people the idea of god but it sadly is no longer used in it's original sense.
Now coming to Islam in India, Muslims in India belong to two wide categories. The first one was the highest intellectuals who were miffed by the lack of free information and the promise of Islam to bring a Communist like Equality. Everyone was deemed to be equal and there was no caste system (It now has caste too; just as in the decline of any great religion).
The second group of people who embraced islam in India where the people who had been kicked out of the community for breaking rules (Thieves, Diseased, Perverts, Murderers.....). The incoming missionaries enticed them with a direct ticket to heaven; it was something like the way Australia was formed with thieves and murderers who later produced some fine men (The fittest survive and the fittest are never pussies). A similar transition happened with the muslims in India; but their past always stuck as a stigma, the genes of the past lingered on and the progeny continued to be the most hated people but at the same time they also produced some fine talent. The former overtook the later and people hated muslims. These people were then manipulated into destroying everything that had color and they obliged; who wouldn't want a direct place in heaven with virgins to serve them.
At the time Islam entered india; Hinduism was in a state of disarray. It had after all survived for 5000 years. And 5000 years of evolution produced a degraded civilization with a complex caste system which prevented people from shifting professions. Knowledge was bottled up as it was believed to be dangerous. Hindus also operated on the assumption that they knew all the secrets of the Universe and that there was nothing new to learn; a foolishness that ticked on as a time bomb and further led to a spurt in casteism with each group saying that they had the secret knowledge of the universe and god. People were fighting amongst themselves and were close to destroying the very fabric of oneness and tolerance that helped Hinduism survive so long.
Islam came in as a god send to India at this time, the focus of people attention was now diverted from fighting one another to defending themselves against a scourge that at one point had claimed 70% of India. If all the muslims in India had left at the time of partition; India would have destroyed itself and become a failed state like Pakistan. This exact scenario happened in Pakistan. There were no Hindus left for them to hate and hence they fought each other and pulled each others legs just like a dog hunting it's tail. They did try to ferment nationalism by venting anger against Hindus in India. But when you do not have a source to blame inside you; you end up fighting your brethren.
Pakistan and muslims thus played the hand of god and helped india survive in ways they never imagined. Also over the 500 years that Islam has been in India; it has been absorbed into Hinduism. When Hindus start protesting pictures of art; they are simply doing what the muslims did eons ago; destroying everything that was creative. Destroying the very freedom that let them incorporate another religion inside them...................

This article was written by an agnostic and does not support any religion

Why does the Indian Constitution have so many Amendments?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:41:00 +0000

It’s an interesting fact that the American constitution has had just 27 Amendments since 1776 while the Indian Constitution is already in the 195th Amendment. Is it because the Indian Constitution is flawed or is there something more than meets than eye?
The Americans occupied an empty land. Destroyed all the cultures that existed there and created rules for just one type of people with just one religion, one language and with nothing to worry about. They inherited a largely unoccupied continent and went about plundering nature.
India on the other hand has been occupied for over 5000 years. There are a thousand dialects and twelve official languages. There are colors and diversity that can easily beat the entire planet. There are a thousand religions with a billion gods. There are muslims shouting out that they have the greatest god, there are hindus Beating drums and christians ringing bells at their masses. How can one ever make a single piece of document to provide a single law to govern so many varieties of people? One idea that was used was to use the best from every other culture in the world. The best of the Irish, the french, the german, the russian and the American constitutions were incorporated in this mega document.
Now is it surprising if such a huge constitution governing such a huge variety of populace to not foresee a problem with integration or some small aspect that did not address the specific problem of a particular groups sub-sects's sect?

That's exactly why there are so many amendments to the Indian Constitution.

What is the best Keyboard Layout for a tablet PC ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:11:00 +0000

A tablet is held in a very different way from that of a Desktop or a Laptop and this calls for a radically new way of entering data. Something that we expected from Apple. In this blog I’ve put forth some radical new designs for a tablet’s keyboards. The keyboards are designed keeping ease of use in mind and also our ability to manipulate text on a Mobile Phone with just our thumbs.
A tablet will almost always be held with both the hands and this seems to be the best way to enter data. Entering data while balancing the tablet in one hand while typing out with the other is cumbersome, slow and boring.
This is the first rendition.

How to repair audio problems on your Windows XP guest on any host in VirtualBox

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:45:00 +0000

This seems to be a strange recurring problem for most VirtualBox users. You install an XP guest and soon you realize the sound doesn’t work. You install the latest audio drivers from Realtek and boom goes the guest with a BSOD.

The work around is simple. You should install an older version of Realtek drivers. The 2004 set works great. You can find the drivers here.

http://cid-0d5aec64d9ff3d13.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Realtek%202004/Realtek2004.rar

enjoy your music!