Log of my Mind

User-friendly Vs Use-friendly

2008-10-09T12:22:00.003-04:00

This incident happened last week, I leave it to readers to guess where it happened. One person mailed to a group which I am part of (unknowingly) asking for the details of a specialist doctor and his whereabouts in a specific city. Yes its a very important query for him/her and (s)he might be in dire need of it. But....please read more!!

Note that the group has approximately 10K+ members (spread over various cities....note that people are from various locations and the question is about doctor from a specific city in a specific location) and already there is a bulletin board wherein there is an exclusive section for asking these kind of questions. Yes it was a mistake to have posted as an email to the group. After all (s)he might be new to the place and hence ignorant of what (s)he was doing or may be out of anxiety to get the information (s)he might have done that way. Not an excuse but we can leave it as an one-off incident and decide to not to make much fuss out of it. But what followed this mail is the one that perplexes me. Within few minutes someone replied (to all) -- so and so doctor is residing in so and so area and he is quite good at so and so. He added, since it might be useful to other people I am replying to all. Oh yes! all 10K+ people (from various cities) will take note of it and will be using it for future in case they are faced with the similar situation. How useful it is! I was really happy to note that (s)he realized that (s)he is replying to all and even though his/her reasoning that "this will be useful for other people also" is correct, when we really quantify the number of people for whom this will be useful its should be intuitive to see that it will be, definitely, far far far lesser than 10K+. And for which, other bulk of people in that 10K+ bunch have to read that mail and of course delete it. OK leave this also as an one-off mistake. Read what happened after this.....

Next, one person replied (to all) within few minutes mentioning that there is a forum for this and she can post it there so as not to disturb others through emails. A good advice and a welcome move. Still read on....then one replies (to all) yes I agree you should post this to bulletin board. Oh man! yes, we (10K+ guys) need your approval. If all 10K+ guys think of approving the previous advice then imagine the mail traffic, 10^6 mails!! Then another one replies (to all), out of frustration, asking how to unsubscribe from this group and describes the happenings as idiotic. Yes it is idiotic, but what you are doing is much more idiotic -- (s)he did not realize that again (s)he is replying to all. Then one responds, again to all, with how-to for unsubscription; then another one asking people to not to post any more replies, then one agrees...then one advices...then one agrees...and this continued for 20 more cycles. All this happened within 15 minutes -- net traffic: 250K mails in 15 minutes!!

This shows, even in this so called IT world, how people do things without realizing what they are doing, how they are doing and why they are doing. Perhaps the user-friendliness of putting a "reply-all" button in the mail clients made people to stop their thinking capacity.

It is really surprising to see that mail clients, be it outlook, thunderbird, evolution and so on., now by default do not ask for a confirmation through a dialogue when we press the "reply-all" button. Previously, when I was using the pine program as a mail client I used to get a query message similar to "reply to all?" when I select reply to all option. That would possibly make people to think before replying to all.

Also, it is very important to note that email is like a push -- receiver will get it even though he might not like it and (s)he is pushed to read at least the title and few lines of the message to decide if it is an useful one or not. It is even surprising to see that there are many juntas out there in IT who do not understand the fundamental conceptual difference between emails, RSS feeds and messaging in bulletin board. Unlike emails which is a kind of push, RSS feeds and bulletin boards are more of pull category. Interested person can subscribe and get only those messages that he is interested in.

Of course user-friendliness has made people to use things with ease but see that one use it "friendly", i.e. only when it is necessary(needful) and after realizing what you are doing, why you are doing and how you are doing. But, to end, what I feel is that User-friendly and Use-friendly are inversely proportional.

PS: Friend in need is a friend indeed that is why I phrased the word Use-friendly to mean Use-in-need!!

Hmmm.....I am Still Here!!

2008-08-10T07:40:00.002-04:00

It has been almost ten months since I logged in my Blog. Had gone through lots of changes in these ten months. Lot to write but no time to write. For the moment here are some pictures of my son with bunny overcoat that I took just yesterday.

T M Krishna @ Vani Mahal - Dec 10, 2007

2007-12-13T04:20:00.000-05:00

T M Krishna @ Vani Mahal - Dec 10, 2007

R K Sriramkumar (RKS) - Violin
Vellore Ramabhadran (VR) - Mridangam
?? - Ghatam (Sorry I forgot.......)

It has been nearly 2 years since I attended any carnatic concerts in live. This music festival 2007 in Chennai gave me a great opportunity to stop that drought. I am being a very selective listener, was waiting for concerts of my favorite singers. My ears which were lately busy with mazhalai isai given by my little few months old son, for a change got a chance to hear the blissful music by one of my favorite singer T M Krishna(TMK). I had actually planned to attend Sowmya's concert in Narada Gana Sabha on Dec 7, 2007 but ended up in the middle of my journey as my vehicle stopped running and I missed an astounding Mukhari by Sowmya. As Sowmya was mesmerizing the audience with her Mukhari I was dragging my vehicle to the mechanic. My bad luck.

Now coming to TMK's concert, I started from home at the correct time to reach the Mahaswami auditorium, Vani Mahal but lost out my way due to one-way round abouts and had to ask two or three auto drivers to find my correct way to it. I could only reach by 6.50pm so lost out 20 minutes, again my bad luck. Perhaps I missed one or two songs. When I entered the auditorium Varali was flowing like Courtallam main falls, in particular TMK was singing niraval at the line "Paramathmudu". Kalpanaswara just flowed spontaneously and with Vellore Ramabhandran's (VR) sarvalaghu it was simply superb. This song being the one to set the tempo of the concert I expected some sequences of fast swaras as he did in the Ille Vaikunta song in the album O Rangasayee, but anyways this one was also equally good. Then came a short alapana (6 min) of Anandabhairavi at 7.03. It was aesthetic as always and RKS followed him as shadow. I was somehow expecting Marivere but there came the evergreen, astounding composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitir's -- Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam. The slow, laid-back approach for this song gave a great effect and TMK is just a master in that. For me this was the song of the concert. There were no kalpanaswaras but the song itself was well presented and it seldom needs any more creativity to boost the beauty of the song. I still feel Palghat K V Narayansawamy's rendition of this song is the best solely because of his harmonious and sweet voice. The lyrics of this song can be found here -- the structure of the lyrics presentation itself will reveal the beauty of it. The ultimate essence of this rendition was seen when TMK gave a pause at the end of the line "rUpa vis'va srSTyAdikaraNam". Anandabhairavi got over by 7.24 but my ears felt the effect for few more hours. Then came relatively a fast piece Majanaki in Kambhoji. The song was rendered in a fast pace to compensate for the previous slow paced songs. Niraval was done at the line "Raja raja" -- starting of it resembled Madurai Mani Iyer's style. VR showed how even sarvalaghu can impress the audience if it was done in a way which suits the artist's singing style. He was just amazing -- with limited movements of his fingers and idle posture of his body the naadham (sound) coming out from his mridangam is just amazing.

The main piece of the concert was Kamalabam Bhajare in Kalyani. Kalyani was dealt in depth by TMK for almost 13 minutes. What I liked most in this alapana are rendukataan (medium-paced...not fast...not slow....) sancharams. These rendukataan sancharams seems to be easy to sing but when we do them in reality we can experience the difficulties. And another one I enjoyed was the sancharams he did in tharasthayi (higher octave) with his teeth locked. When doing it he even touched the higher sadjam in the higher octave. Creativity was at its best especially in the higher octave sancharams. TMK employed two times the sancharams "sa pa sa pa_ ri" (pa_ is pa in lower octave) but due to my short memory I did not realize that he is symbolically saying Kamalambam bhajahare is going to come after the alapana (I realized this only when he actually started the song). The same sanchara comes in the charanam of the song, in particular in the line "sarvasha pari pooraga". RKS played equally well but at times I felt he lapsed in concentration and I could experience some fuzziness in few sancharams. Niraval was done at the line "Nirvana nijasuka...". Niraval was superb, VR was at his best, ghatam was supporting VR and RKS replied TMK with apt sancharams. It was great to see all of them combining so well. Kalpanaswaras just flowed with ease and to my surprise the last kalpanaswara was without any muthaippu (doing some rhythmic swaras three times...it involves some mathematics). May be TMK wanted to follow the sarvalaghu option, possibly because VR was his accompanist, instead of going to Mathematics in swaras. Full 38 minutes for alapana, song and kalpanaswara. Now the time was for VR and Ghatam to show their powers. VR's nadham was at his best but at times I felt the ghatam sound was irritating may be because of the closeness of microphone to ghatam.

The came a very short Ragam, Thanam and Pallavi in raaga Bhairavi. A very short alapana of Bhairavi was followed by a little lengthier thanam. Thanam was done superbly. RKS was at his best at thanam; VR too joined in thanam; it was so nice to hear them in unison. Anywhere, anytime, any raaga and any-good-singer I can hear thanam for hours -- thanam is the part which I like the most. Pallavi was "Parimalarangapathae" -- that has been sung by many people like Madurai Mani Iyer and even TMK himself, but sung in Kambhoji I suppose. Tala was rendu kalai adi talam with starting point 3/4 of the beat from samam. Three more ragas were taken in kalpanaswara to make RTP more interesting -- Nalinkanthi, Kaapi and Sindhubhairavi. Sindhubhairavi swaras were slightly peculiar, I think TMK tried to be innovative in that. But I heard from one mami sitting in the previous row commenting "nallaavae illiyae" (not good). Yes to people who just want the same repetitions of "Bho sambho" and "Maadu Meikum Kanna" it will not be good. Of course opinion differs!

The last part of the concert consisted of three thukadas: Saramaina in Behag, Saradhe Karunanithae and Thillana in Sakarabharanam.

On the whole the concert was good.

TMK was superb!
RKS was good!
VR was astouding!
Ghatam was good!

A real treat for a man longing for a live concert for almost two years!

My next try would be Sanjay and Sowmya!

Note: All are my personal opinions.

Back With A Promotion

2007-12-03T06:35:00.000-05:00

Glad to be back after a long lay off from my blog space. If you are wondering why this much delay, here you go! :)

செல்லக் குட்டன்

குழல் இனிது
ஆம் உன் சினுங்களே ஒரு குழலிசை

யாழ் இனிது
ஆம் உன் குரலே ஒரு யாழிசை

பஞ்சு மெத்தை
ஆம் உன் கன்னங்களே ஒரு பஞ்சு மெத்தை

புவி ஈர்ப்பு
ஆம் உன் கண் பார்வையே ஒரு புவி ஈர்ப்புவிசை

பிரபஞ்சம்
ஆம் இனி நீதான் என் பிரபஞ்சம்

கோடி நன்றிகள்
ஆம் இந்த பூவை அருளித் தந்த இறைவா உனக்கு கோடி நன்றிகள்

ஆனந்தம்

உன் சின்ன சின்ன பாதங்கள்
என் நெஞ்சை பதம் பார்க்க

உன் பட்டு விரல்கள்
என் கைகளை வருட

உன் பன்ஞு கன்னங்கள்
என் தோளை தொட

உன் காந்தக்கண்கள்
என் கண்களை ஈர்க்க

உன் மழலை இசை
என் காதில் ரீங்காரமிட

உன் பொக்கை வாய் புன்சிரிப்பு
என் வாழ்க்கையின் பாடத்தை புகட்ட

ஆன்ந்தம் பேரானந்தம் பரமானந்தம்
இறைவா உனக்கு அனந்த கோடி நமஸ்காரம்

Fedora to Ubuntu

2007-05-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

I was a Redhat (Fedora) lover and user for almost 10 years, just few weeks back switched to (K)Ubuntu 7.04, Feisty Fawn. Seems a good transformation as far as now. But its not without issues.

This blog is about what prompted me to switch to Ubuntu. In the next series of blogs I will write about my installation steps and my experiences.

Fedora/Redhat in general has been good to me for the past 10 years. But the moment I installed Fedora core 6(FC6) last December 2006 it has made me mad for various reasons which I will list out here. The installation was smooth without any major issues. I did installation using an external DVD drive. I noticed a strange thing: when I tried to start the installation my lappy could not recognize my external DVD drive so could not start the installation. But at the next time I connected my external hardrive too with my lappy and started the installation it could recognize my DVD drive now and so installation started. So out of curiosity I again stopped it and then tried it without my external hardrive to see if it is recognizing now -- no its not. Reasons?? Sorry, I don't know.

Now I will list out problems I had with FC6

1. After installation and updates I noticed that firefox 2.0 was very slow most of the times. It starts ok but when I start to use it, it slowly dies down -- takes huge amount of memory space and CPU time. Only way to come around is to kill the process.

2. Every time I upgrade there seems to be one problem or other. I have taken care of the various repository issues but even then I get this problem with each update. The main reason I could see is improper package management.

3. Can you imagine? Emacs, my favourite editor, hangs most of the time when some multimedia software is running. I simply do not understand what is the connection between them.

4. Especially when I use scrolling in firefox I could see a very high CPU usage for xorg and firefox processes. Both of them adding almost to 90-95%. (Well I also have this same problem in Ubuntu but at least its not that frequent....but still its a problem I would like to sort out).

5. Some of the terms which are really greek to FC6 are hibernation and suspend in FC6. So we have to just forget about using those in FC6.

6. Wireless. I have a broadcom 4318 and as always it was not recognized in FC6. So installed ndiswrapper and tried to workaround by using the windows driver for the card, but could not succeed. So I just left it for few months, then after updating the kernel saw it was working. Well I still don't know what happened :).

7. Heating. Fan running that sounds like a small rice mill. Lappy just heats up so fast even when there are no bulky process running.

As and when I remember some more problems I had, I will update it here.

The main problems which made me to think of ditching FC6 are (2), (4) and (7).

Is Ubuntu solving all these problems -- some of them, yes. Its still not without problems. I will write them in the coming ones.

Change Blog?

2007-05-26T10:26:00.000-04:00

For the moment I want to publish my blogs both here and in livejournal. I am really in dilemma whether to change or not. One reason I want to change is I do not like the templates in blogger. I really like Livejournal templates. But why I am hesitating is because I am not able to move my messages to Livejournal. Well I could do a copy-and-paste. But it would be good if there is an import option in Livejournal. Do anyone have ideas?

Subramanyaya Namasthe

2007-05-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

Subramanyaya Namasthe is one of the best compositions of Muthusamy Dikshitar. Its a Kamboji raga song set to vilamba kala roopaka tala. This is one of my favorite piece. For more information on the krithi see this.

I recorded this song few days back for a programme and so thought of sharing it here for more comments on this song and about my rendering.

Tooo Much

2007-04-08T20:27:00.000-04:00

Yes it is too much. Five months (Edit: four months....poor math :) ) since blogging is too much. Hmmmm....was thinking of blogging about too many things. But can not find time to blog. Lame but familiar excuse :)

Got many things done and still doing some:

Upgraded my lappy memory to 512MB (still too low...but hey I am using Linux not Vista ;) )
Got my lappy reinstalled with Fedora Core 6 (FC6) last December. Had scribbled my installation process in a piece of paper have to find it and write a detailed blog about that. As far as my experiences concerned FC6 is good. Had KDE and Gnome at first, then installed relatively less memory consuming desktops xfce, fluxbox and icewm and for a change I am now using xfce. I feel really comfortable with it. KDE is slightly heavy on my 512MB RAM. I have so much other things to say about FC6, I will write those in a separate blog.
Have started a herculean task of tagging my 300GB audio files. Have done 15GB, still a long way to go. I speculate it will take more than 6 months at this rate.
I was not concerned about tagging my audio files at first. But when I installed the media player Amarok I just got so attracted to it that I can not use any other player after using it. Amarok uses tags to classify the audio files so it became imperative for me to tag. At first I used the trial version of Jaikoz it was ok but only few days back started to use Easytag. Jaikoz is a java program and you can imagine how it will run. Easytag is freeware, a C program and its design is so good that I can edit the tags so easily and it is much faster than Jaikoz (obvious). Amarok can also edit the tags but I can not see the audio files directory-wise, which will be easier for me to edit the tags.
Audio recording is one of the area I had not looked in detail for Linux. I was just using the commandline option of rec to record my singing. But the quality was so bad. Looked for some good ones then installed Audacity using yum. Not the one with FC repository but from Livna since the one with FC can not import mp3 files, this I came to know after I first installed with the one from FC repository. Audacity is too good. I recorded songs in two tracks one for the shruthi and other for my song. Its so good!
Bought a 30GB Apple ipod. Using gtkpod for managing ipod. Had used banshee. But gtkpod seems comfortable for me. Have not tried using amarok for ipod.

Will write more on the above points in the coming days. Hope I will get time to blog often.

Yadukula Kamboji

2006-12-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

Being a carnatic singer I am always eager to find about carnatic ragas -- their history and their lakshanas ((un)written rules for singing it) -- written rules because some ragas just the follow the Arohana-avarohana pattern, although when singing it will sound a little different; unwritten since some ragas just go beyond the arohana-avarohana and dwell into another dimension. Yadukula Kamboji which is of the latter kind is one of my favorite ragas because of its slow pace and its fully bhava-oriented sancharas. I have collected some of raga lakshana of this raga from a lecture demonstration and have presented them blending with my own views of the raga. I welcome readers wish also on this.

Yadukula Kamboji is a very old raga but surprisingly is not found in old carnatic literature
"Sangeetha magarantha". A very similar raga Chevvazhi is found as a
pann in Tamizh music which shows its an old raga. This raga has a
prominent hold in carnatic music.

It is a Audava-sampoorna raga, janya raga of 28th Mela kartha
Harikamboji.

For the arohana avarohana I use the following representation: (for details refer this)

ri2 = chaturshurthi rishabham
ga2 = anthara ghandaaram
ma1 = suddha mathyamam
da2 = chaturshurthi deivatham
ni1 = kaishigi nishaadam
ni2 = kakali nishadam

Arohana: sa ri2 ma1 pa da2 sa^
Avarohana: sa^ ni1 da2 pa ma1 ga2 ri2 sa

All swaras are imbibed from its mela kartha. But in prayogams (when singing) ni2 is
used sometimes to give a nice flavor to the raga -- hence it is a
bhasanga raga.

Now we see how the swaras take swaroopa (face) when singing:

ri2 is an oscillating swara,

ga2 is a plain note,

ma1 is both plain and oscillating note -- in the phrase "sa ri ma ga sa" it is plain, in
the phrase "sa ri ma" there are two kinds of oscillations: one is "sa
ri ma1" where ma1 oscillates between ma1 and ma2 and other is "sa
ri ma1 pa da pa ma1" and even in "sa ri ma1" some times, ma1
oscillates between ma1 and pa. The first kind of oscillation gives a
soft, pleasing flavor and the second kind presents a authoritative
touch.

da2 is a plain note, it comes mostly in "da da" form like "da ni da
da...pa da da pa ma"

ni1 is used as an oscillating note -- if "ni" does not come from sa^
like the phrase "da da pa da ni1 da" then it socillates between ni1
and ni2. But when it comes from sa^ then it comes as a "vazhukal",
i.e., slides from sa^ like the phrase "sa^ ni da da pa da sa^ ni da da"

All swaras are prominent swaras although da and ga are very prominent.

ni2 which is an annyaswara (alien swara) for this raga is touched in prayogas like
"sa^ ni pa da....sa^ ni sa^ ri^ ga^ sa^ ri^". "sa^ ni pa da" also
comes in the raga Kamboji. But the phrase "sa^ ni sa^ ri^ ga^ sa^ ri^"
is exclusive for Yadukula kamboji.

The closest raga to this one is Kamboji. The prases like "pa da ri^
ri^ sa^ sa^ pa.....ma ga ri sa ri .....da pa ma ga ri sa" is exclusive
for Yadukula kamboji but now seen very prominently in Kamboji. The
other sanchara is "ma ga sa ni pa da sa" comes in both ragas. But the
pace of this phrase should be slighlty faster in Kamboji than in
Yadukula kamboji. Resting on ri^ and ga^ in dhaarastaayi (high pitch) is not good
for this raga.

The main difference between Kamboji and Yadukula kamboji are:

1. Yadukula Kamboji is mainly dwealt in madhyamastaayi (neither high nor low pitch) rarely goes into
dhaarastaayi whereas Kamboji is mainly dealt in dhaarastaayi. In
fact, Kamboji is the only raga as far as I know where the raga
alapana starts in dhaarastaayi (in most alapanas by stalwarts).

2. The pace of the raga Kamboji should be slightly faster whereas in
Yadukula kamboji it should be slow.

3. Mainly "ga" should not be elongated in the case of Kamboji whereas
in Yadukula kamboji we can rest on it for few seconds.

Number of sancharas (patterns) in Yadukula kamboji are very limited hence it is
difficult to sing a big alapana in this raga. Prominent care should be
taken when singing this raga or else it will sound like Kamboji.

Padmashree M D Ramanathan is very well-known for this raga -- his
rendition of the well-known krithi "Diwakarathanoojam" is an awesome
one. He even sings a kalpanaswaram in the end.
Hear the song from 12.52 min onwards here:

Once Semmangudi told:

"M.D. Ramanathan had an excellent voice (saareeram) with a lot of depth. I still remember his Yadukulakambodi in Trivandrum."

Here is a song rended by me in this raga.

To know about the origin of the names Kamboji and Yadukula Kamboji
refer to this excellent blog and for more comprehensive study of the origin see this.

Want More?

2006-12-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

After a long time rest to scribbiling here it is again,

160GB external harddrive full of carnatic music treasures sung by MDR, KVN, MMI, SSI, TKR (TK Rangachary), TSK, TNS and others.

My laptop (using as a desktop :) ) enabled as a webserver with external harddrive connected to it.

Running andromeda software for streaming audios.

Can create a playlist with a click of button whenever I want, whereever I am and play it in my favorite music player.

Do I need more?

Ears, heart, body and soul full of music. Longlive Technology!!

Seeing is thousand times better than hearing

2006-09-05T11:50:00.000-04:00

It was my stupidity to think the electrical plugs in UK and India are the same. I might have thought since they follow the same 220-240 volts system.

My laptop adapter pin is for North American style plugs and I had the plug-adapater for India style. When I started to UK I somehow thought the plug styles in India and UK are the same. I have many UK friends and my Prof has gone numerous times to UK I never asked them. Grrrrrr..........

When I came to UK and took of the adapater Oh Man! its different.....I came on Sunday and thought of finishing of my presentation for the conference. That came to a stand-still.....Sunday shops are closed....Grrrr....Without using my laptop I will not be able to do the finishing touch in my presentation which was more important than the presentation itself. That too if I do not succeed in finding the suitable pin, I have to look for a syztem with LaTex with beamer class.
That is ofcourse rare. Then I looked for a shop in the University, found a computer shop. I asked for the pin which acts as an interface between the North American style and the UK style. Oops...he replied I am afraid....(UK style of saying NO :) ) Then I took my adapter out of my laptop bag and showed it to him.....Oh yeh....I have this wire instead of the interface plug. Oh my God! I got it! You saved my day I told and thanked him profusely...

Now I got to know how seeing is thousand times better than hearing.

Presentation Class for LaTeX

2006-08-24T09:42:00.000-04:00

I was looking for a good presentation class for LaTeX and found out beamer class after few hours of searching.

So far it looks good. I can use all LaTeX commands inside the presention class and do a neat animated presenation, looks so professional. One problem I faced was PiCTeX commands was not compiling inside the beamer class. Since I did not like to redraw them I followed the obvious way of capturing the image by KSnapshot and include the jpg file inside the slides.

There is a separate logo command for including a logo picture in all the slides. Each slide has a top frame devoted to different sections and subsections. The section and the subsection are highlighted when the slide correspoding to it is shown on the screen. And morethan that we can directly go to the (sub)sections we want.

Still I have not checked many options. Once I get more experience I will update it here.

For those interested in downloading the class, here is the link: download beamer. For intruction regarding installation go to the directory doc and read the file beameruserguide.pdf.

Anti-virus for Windows in Linux

2006-08-02T13:39:00.000-04:00

ClamAV seems to be a wonderful freely distributed anti-virus software.

I installed it in my Linux laptop few days ago. I did the installation via yum. That was the wrong option I think. First it did not cleanly install freshclam (the program to update clamav) then I could not start the daemon clamd which when I tried to start said there was no such file. Then I came to know that I have to yum again to get the clamd program separately. Then to run the program I had to add an user and a grou names clamav and then change the owner of the files used by clamav, freshclam and clamd program to clamav. This would have been done automatically if I had done through source/RPM installation. But advantage was yum solved many of the dependency problems without me verifying and installing all the missing components. That is the main advantage of yum in Fedora linux.

After I installed it, I was curious to know if any of my files are affected by virus as I had transfered some files for the past 2 years to my system from windows systems. Hence I ran a thorough check on my laptop. This is the summary I got,

#

--------------------------------------
Scan started: Thu Jul 27 23:43:54 2006

//home/sakthi/Backup_IIT/extra/personal/photos/usa/temparchive.tar: Joke.Paranoia FOUND
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/block/hdc/queue/iosched/clear_elapsed
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/block/hda/queue/iosched/clear_elapsed
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/class/pcmcia_socket/pcmcia_socket0/card_eject
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/class/pcmcia_socket/pcmcia_socket0/card_insert
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/parport_pc/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/yenta_cardbus/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/ohci_hcd/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/shpchp/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/sis96x_smbus/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Intel ICH Modem/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Intel ICH/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/sis900/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/PCI_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/VIA_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/TRIFLEX_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/SLC90e66_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/SIS_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/SiI_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Serverworks_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/RZ1000_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/PIIX_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Promise_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Promise_Old_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/ITE821x IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/HPT366_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/HPT34x_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Cypress_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/CS5530 IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/Cyrix_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/CMD64x_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/ATIIXP_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/AMD_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/ALI15x3_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/AEC62xx_IDE/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/serial/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/i810fb/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-via/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-serverworks/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-sis/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-nvidia/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-intel/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-efficeon/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-amd64/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-amdk7/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-ati/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/agpgart-ali/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/bus/pci/drivers/pcieport-driver/new_id
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/drvctl
ERROR: Can't open file //sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/drvctl
//usr/share/doc/clamav-0.88.3/test/clam.exe.bz2: ClamAV-Test-File FOUND
//usr/share/doc/clamav-0.88.3/test/clam.rar: ClamAV-Test-File FOUND
//usr/share/doc/clamav-0.88.3/test/clam.cab: ClamAV-Test-File FOUND
//usr/share/doc/clamav-0.88.3/test/clam.zip: ClamAV-Test-File FOUND
//usr/share/doc/clamav-0.88.3/test/clam.exe: ClamAV-Test-File FOUND

-- summary --
Known viruses: 62917
Engine version: 0.88.3
Scanned directories: 18030
Scanned files: 160262
Infected files: 6
Data scanned: 11853.53 MB
Time: 24525.898 sec (408 m 45 s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ooops......I have a virus (Joke.Paranoia) sitting in my laptop for 2 years now. A simple google search on the virus says it is not a malicious one but nevertheless creates problems for windows desktop by creating a mock desktop and playing with a flying start button. If you see the file which was infected is in backup_IIT directory; which I created and copied from a windows virus-ridden box in IITM. I have transfered files from only 3 windows systems to my system: first is Windows system in IITM, then from my windows partition in my lappy and other windows system in my lab. Last two are properly secured and so I am pretty sure that this virus was injected from the windows box in IITM which was not having a properly updated anti-virus package.

As you see in the summary the scan of my laptop started close to midnight and ended approximately after 7 hours scanning approximately 12GB files.

In this era of high cost anti-virus packs it is really good to see a free version of anti-virus and in my opinion it seems to handle most of the virus: present updated one handles 64172 virus.

There are clamav versions available for Windows and Mac. Perhaps we can try it using them and compare to see how this behaves with respect to the other available Anti-virus packages in the market.

Clamav is a command-line program. If you need a graphical front-end for the program there are few: Klamav and clamtk

Oh! I did not say anything about the errors in my scan log file: the errors are normal those files can not be read even by root and it can only be appended. Regarding "ClamAV-Test-File FOUND", do not worry that is just a test file.

தமிழில் என் முதல் பதிவு

2006-07-31T18:29:00.000-04:00

வணக்கம். இது தமிழில் என் முதல் பதிவு.

சில மணித்துளிகள் முன்பு, என் நெருப்புநரியில் (Firefox) தமிழ்சாவி (Tamilkey) இயக்க வைத்தேன், எனவே எப்படி இருக்கிறது என்ற உத்வேகத்தில் இந்த பதிவு.

தமிழில் பதிவு செய்ய ஆரம்பிக்கும்போதுதான் நிறைய தமிழ் வார்த்தைகள் மறந்து இருப்பதை உணருகிறேன்.

வேற என்ன எழுத? நான் தற்பொழுது கனடாவில் இருந்தாலும், இங்கு கொளுத்தும் வெயிலைப் பார்த்து நான் சென்னையில் உள்ளேனோ என்ற எண்ணம் உண்டாகிறது.

சரி அடுத்து வரும் பதிவுகளில் என் எண்ண ஓட்டத்தை ஓட விடுகிறேன்.

Managing Audio Files

2006-07-28T16:19:00.000-04:00

I have reasonably a huge collection of carnatic classical music CDs. Previously I was having them as data CD and playing whenever I want it. But since I bought a 160GB external harddrive I dumped the songs which I run more often (mostly MDR songs) into the hardrive and played it as and when I needed them. Xmms and mplayer have been the most popular players for me and I was using them. But choosing different songs from different directories had been very difficult for me and I was looking for a solution.

At this moment I remebered we used andromeda when I was in IITM to run a Media server in our lab which had a good collection of evergreen concerts. But to run andromeda which is either a php or asp I have to run apache and php in my fedora lappy. I installed apache source and compiled it and installed it. Then installed php through yum as compiling through source gave me some dependecy issues and some other problems. Then I had to run ldconfig just to update the database of libraries so that apache knows correct libraries exist. So now I can create symbolic links in /var/www/html/*** to my media dir/files in my external HDD and I open the andromeda in firefox; it works. Note its a free version so it only displays every other file (odd numbered files); by a little workaround we can make it to display all the files!

But the main point is this: since we are running apache if we create a web address by registering in dyndns for my dynamic IP, I can run the media files even when I am in the office. I don't have to carry my external HDD to my office. I was trying the same. But if I register my dynamic IP in dyndns and type the address I get only my DSL modem config page. The reason being my DSL model given by Bell Sympatico does not forward http requests to my lappy. I tried to do it as said in these following links:

Source link:
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/sympa...ream+5200#11339

Port forwarding with the 5200 series modem:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rem...39819~mode=flat

Unlocking the 5200 series modem:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rem...90618~mode=flat

But still I can not unlock the modem to get my http requests forwarded to my lappy. I might try buying some Linksys router and try if I can work with it. Will update here after I try it.

Hibernate works in my Lappy

2006-07-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

I have a Dell Inspiron 1000 (poor man's lappy :) ) notebook where I have dual boot with Fedora core 4 as one and other WinXP. As I normally use Fedora most of the time I wanted the hibernation mode to work in Fedora. After few months of digging in the net came over this website

Just followed the steps mentioned for Fedora core 4; eventhen it was not working giving kernel panic.

Then got busy with some other work and could not work on this again. Now I did try it again -
my hibernation works -- How? How? Through serious of brute force checks I came to know that it works in a specific situation; so still the problem is not solved -- the hibernation works if I close most of the memory consuming applications in my lappy; simply only if I have just the terminal running. If I have any applications like firefox running then hibernation does not work; the system hangs with a kernel panic....oops....!!

If I am right when I run the hibernation command the system writes the status of the program running to the swap and shuts the lappy off; that's what the above website also says. My swap space is 600MB(approx twice the size of my RAM which 256MB). But there seems to be a peculiar problem if the size of the programs to be saved in memory exceeds 220MB(my lppy uses only 220MB of memory) it just hangs with a kernel panic; is it related to memory size also? I do not have any clue....

If it is related to memory size, in few months I will be upgrading the memory and let me see what happens!! Fedora core 5 has integrated hibernate support in its kernel -- let me try this too after I upgrade my RAM.

Too many cooks spoil the broth

2006-06-09T13:59:00.000-04:00

I have three working directories one my laptop, other my office desktop and the university server where I have a home directory. Laptop and my office desktop have Fedora core 4 and the university server is a SunOS. But that is not really important here. Three systems and three home directories are all just confusing me; where I have the latest version of the file?; which is the final version of my paper?; did I get the backup of the correct files?. Many such questions arose. For many months I have not been coordinating systematically all these system usages. Hell...now I got into the problem which paper I want, which directory I want and where it is?, is it in my lappy, is it in my office desktop, or university server (ofcourse we can see the timestamp of the file and see which is the latest; but it is a tedious job). If we have only one home there will be no problem at all; get an external HDD and get a periodic backup. But having three homes in three separate systems will be of no use if we do not coordinate the usage; it will be utter confusion ultimately. Regarding my usage, most of the time I use my laptop for my official and personal works but once I come to office I use my office desktop because I do not want to carry my lappy everytime I come to office. After getting into lots of problems, I have decided to do this (not at all an efficient way as you will see why when you read through):

Have my laptop home as the primary home; my office desktop as my secondary home; and, my university home as my backup. Firstly I copy my laptop home to both my office desktop and my university home. Hence I have two backups. Secondly, whenever I need to edit/write some file do it in a new specific directory in my Laptop/office dektop (normally I won't work directly in university home) then write back the changes in the corresponding home directories. Well, this is really manual work. But at least I will not have much confusion as before. Just searching if we can do this in a more automated way? When I (re)write the files in one home we can get (back) the (new) version of the file in the other home; but what if, we delete a file in a home? Hmmmm.....good question...write a readme file of which files deleted? Man!! do we really need all these stuffs can I get a more efficient way of doing all these...

This is with systems now coming to external backups. I have a 160GB external hardrive where I would like to keep my lappy linux home and user directory of WinXP (which I use very minimally). I have to find a good way of getting backup there. I do not need the default way of just copying all the contents to the External HDD periodically I just need to copy the changes made. We have good backup commands in linux have to see through those.....

Unique Raga Alapanas

2006-06-01T16:35:00.000-04:00

Raga alapanas in carnatic music is a core part of manodharma sangeetham (extempore music). It shows one's creativity, voice reach, etc....

Raga alapanas usually starts with a phrase which shows the audience what raga the singer is going to sing. Then the singer dwells more into step-by-step exposition of the raga and concluding with phrases which goes across the raga.

But there are unique alapanas done by maestros. Not certain where I came upon this news....but anyway this happened in one of Mali's concert. Mali started one raga alapana with swaras only from sa ri ga pa.....putting audience in dilemma if this is Mohanam or Hanshadhwani. This was done ofcourse deliberately, contrasting to the belief that one should show the raga in the starting of the alapana itself. After Mail dwelt this for few minutes; the violinist played the swara ni thinking that it might be Hamshadhwani. But immediately Mali replied with swara da showing it is infact Mohanam.

There is one more instance in which the artist put the audience in dilemma. This is a concert of one if the "unsung heroes" of carnatic music T. K. Rangachari. He is a stalwart in innovating new ideas. Once in a concert he started an alapana and sang only the swaras ma pa da ni sa.....capturing these swara many thought it might be Harikambhoji. This was done for almost 4/5 minutes but suddenly he came down and took the shatshruthi rishabam, i.e., ri3 to show it is Vagadheeswari....it is simply outstanding. I have that recording downloaded from somewhere. For your pleasure just hear this amazing raga alapana of vagadheeswari. Many might argue it is against the tradition but I think it shows the creativity of the artist and transforms the music to the next dimension. Ofcourse it delights the audience too. Here is the vagadheeswari alapana (I hope it is not a commercial one...if it is commercial please inform me I will take the link off)

Violin is none otherthan MSG.

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Hear(Here) me singing

2006-05-23T19:13:00.000-04:00

Just registered for an audio blog. So I was curious to try it here; hence this small song sung by me.

Song: Ennamum orutharam

Raga: Yadhukula Kambhoji

Tala: Adi (2 kalai)

Composer: Gopalakrishna Bharathi

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It is a song on Lord Shiva. Wounderful piece by GB; it deserves a very slow rendering because of the raga and the songs lyrics. Lots of bhava needed.....its a piece made for MDR kind of singers. I too have tried to sing it in vilamba kala (slow pace). Hope you will enjoy it!

Regarding the technicality of the audio uploaded here: I had recorded in wav format with 8khz and 128kbps and uploaded it as a wav format but could not embed the song in the webpage as it was opening a new window. Then converted to mp3 (I am using RH linux - fedora core 4) by lame and posted it but since it was made with 8khz and the media blog page could accept only 44Khz as default hence it sounded nasty. So used sox command to resample it in 44khz then converted it into mp3 by lame. Now it works fine :)

Kasparov's Immortal Game

2006-05-06T22:47:00.000-04:00

This was in 1999. Match between then the world champion Kasparov and contemporary world champion Topalov. Probably the best game of this century......

The games is just more or less equal and was heading to a draw until the move 23. But Kaspy thought otherwise....he played 24. Rxd4 sacrificing his rook and in the sequence follows opens up the black position and takes the black king out of the nest. Then the black king just makes a walk through the last 2 files to the white side and it is just marvellous.....just play it and see for yourself...

To analyse this position from the 24th move sacrifice is simply impossbile but not for Kaspy.....simply a great game....ofcourse if Topo did not accept that sacrifice as Kaspy himself pointd out this game would have been a draw..

Here are the moves played by them. (you can just cut and paste these moves in the text box in this website and can just play the game)

[Event "Hoogovens A Tournament"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "1999.01.20"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "04"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "G Kasparov"]
[Black "V Topalov"]
[ECO "B07"]
[WhiteElo "2812"]
[BlackElo "2700"]
[PlyCount "88"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. f3 b5 7. Nge2 Nbd7 8.
Bh6 Bxh6 9. Qxh6 Bb7 10. a3 e5 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. Kb1 a6 13. Nc1 O-O-O 14.
Nb3 exd4 15. Rxd4 c5 16. Rd1 Nb6 17. g3 Kb8 18. Na5 Ba8 19. Bh3 d5 20. Qf4+
Ka7 21. Rhe1 d4 22. Nd5 Nbxd5 23. exd5 Qd6 24. Rxd4 cxd4 25. Re7+ Kb6 26.
Qxd4+ Kxa5 27. b4+ Ka4 28. Qc3 Qxd5 29. Ra7 Bb7 30. Rxb7 Qc4 31. Qxf6 Kxa3
32. Qxa6+ Kxb4 33. c3+ Kxc3 34. Qa1+ Kd2 35. Qb2+ Kd1 36. Bf1 Rd2 37. Rd7
Rxd7 38. Bxc4 bxc4 39. Qxh8 Rd3 40. Qa8 c3 41. Qa4+ Ke1 42. f4 f5 43. Kc1
Rd2 44. Qa7 1-0

For more analysis of this game see this - this carries annotation by Kasparov himself....he tells how he saw these moves in the 19th move itself when black played d5. He is truly an amazing player......

Sowmya concert in Toronto on April 7, 2006

2006-04-25T15:22:00.000-04:00

Note: The contents here all are my personal opinion.

The concert was held in York university, Toronto on April 7, 2006.

Sowmya - vocal

R.K. Sri Ram Kumar - Violin

Neyveli Narayana - Mridangam

It was scheduled to start at 7.30pm but asusual late, not because of the artists they came well before the time, but the organizers were waiting for the speakers and mics to come It is rather sorry state of affair whereever we go the same old "getting late" phenomena goes after the Indians. I do not know why. The concert hall was a big lecture hall almost similar to the IIT Madras CLT auditorium. When I entered there I just dreamt of being in IITM for few minutes. Oh man! I really miss IIT. The hall is in second floor but unfortunately the elevator was not working that day Many old people
felt great difficulty to come to the hall.

Atlast at exactly 7.30pm the speakers came but since the elevator is not working somebody had to pick that one through the steps. They could not find anyone - hence I and my friend helped them to carry the speakers mic from the first floor to the second floor by hand. It took 15 min for them to arrange and so we had some time to meet the performers. First me and my friend went to the violinist and mridangam artist who were waiting in other room. Both were very soft and we introduced ourselves as KVN's sishya and OST's sishya respectively; they were all priase for our gurus. Infact I have seen Sriramkumar in most of KVN's concert but I ahve never spoken to him. Then we met Sowmya dressed in a delightful pattu saree orange color with green border. We requested her 2 songs even before the concert; my friend requested Brochevarevare in Sriranjani as he wanted this raga's idea in alapana and kalpanaswaram as he is singing in a concert in Chennai in the month of May then I requested Bhavayami raghuramam (as that day was Rama navami), the evergreen ragamalika composed by Swathithirunal. She immediately accepted our requests and spoke with us for few minutes. They had arrived from India only that morning....Oh man!! how are they gng to sing I thought and we came to our seat which was third row.

First the list of songs, then I will write about each one.

1. Eranaapai - Thodi varnam - aathi thalam with kalpanaswara
2. Brochevarevare - Sriranjani - aathi with kalpanaswara
3. Kaapi alpana - Enthasowkiyamive - aathi
4. Kumaran thaal paninthe thuthi - Yedukula kamboji - aathi
5. Ambakamatchi - Bhairavi swarajathi - Misra chaapu - Shyamashastri
6. Harikamboji alapana - sanithodi deve O manasa - aathi - Thyagarajar with niraval and kalpanaswara
7. Akilandeswari - Jujavanthi - aathi - Dikshatir
8. Kalyani raga alapana

After this we left as we had to drive again 2.30 hours to reach home

The best aathi thala varnam in my opinion Eranapai was sung in two kalas; Sowmya's voice was slowly coming into rhythm but violin was not synchronizing well so is mridangam. In fact Narayanan missed following some of the tisra phrases which sowmya sung in the charanam. I think he did not anticipate that well. The kalpanaswara was very brisk and very neat; infact all the swaras were within one avartanam, it added beauty to the concert.

OMG!! The next piece was the sriranajani piece which my friend requested My friend was quite thrilled to hear that as a second piece. This one was sung without alpana but with kalpanaswara. Kalpanaswara was delightful (sung at Brocheva); some of the pieces which ended in "sa sa ni tha" was really done marvellously. With this piece Sowmya was herself; but still violin and mridangam were not

Next one...one of my favorite yes kaapi raga alapana alapana was done beautifully. The song was the famous piece Enthasowkyam. I and my friend were expecting kalpanaswara but were little disappointed as Sowmya did not do that

Following that one was a little faster piece Kumaran thaal paninthe in yedukula kambhoji. This song I have heard numerous times sung by DKJ but this was the first time I am hearing Sowmya singing this. It was good but not in the class of DKJ; but ofcourse we can not compare both as Sowmya is still very young.

The awesome piece of the concert was Ambakamatchi the one and only swarajathi in Bhairavai composed by Shyamashashtri. What a piece!! There are 8 charanams I guess and in order the first one starts with swara "sa" then next "ri" and so on....bhairavai just plays in your heart when you hear that song....Sowmya sung this piece in vilamba kalam and it was done really well. Audience were really mesmerized by this piece I expected a small niraval at Shyamakrishna in charanam but again got disappointed that she did not do that. That place is very good for niraval. After this marvellous piece the accompanist were slowly coming into groove.

The sub-main was Harikambhoji raga. The raga alapana was done with aesthetic touch and ramkumar too followed that but at some times I can feel he went out of shruthi I do not know why. The song was Sanithodi in aathi by saint Thyagarajar. This song although quite popular I have not heard that much. The niraval was done in "pathithuna broche"; it was done really well. Niraval was quite elaborate that she could not give much time for kalpanaswara. But it was done quite well. I like niravals morethan kalpanaswara.

Then came one of the most popular song Akilandeswari is Jujavanthi; it was great to hear in sowmya's voice.

Then came the main piece Kalyani raga alapana. it was done more elaborately; but iam not very fond of kalyani. One point Sowmya lost concentration and one of her phrase went out of shruthi but it was for very few seconds many might not ahve notcied. By this time when she finished her alapan it was 10.10pm since we had to travel 2.5 hours back to home we had to start at that point

Alltogether I really enjoyed Sowmya's concert but the accompanist were not at their best perhaps because of jetlag.

If I am asked to rate the performance my ratings are below

Concert in general - 7.5/10

Sowmya - 8.5/10

Sriramkumar - 7/10

Narayanan - 7/10

Overall I was little disappointed with all of the piece in aathi taala (ofcourse other than the ambakamakshi piece which was in misra chaapu)

I heard from Sowmya that she is on 2 months tour in North America and she is gng to do 28 concerts. All the best to her and her accompanists!!

Carnatic - Karnataka Music ----- How this name?

2006-04-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

For a very long time I have been thinking why the name Carnatic - Karnatka music came about.m Many said that it came from Karnataka hence this name.....it was confusing because Karnataka was not there that time I suppose.

Assuming it existed then I thought may be its because of Pithamgar of carnatic music Purandharadasar.....was from Karnataka region.

I just saw two articles to know more how this name came about.

http://www.musicalnirvana.com/introduction/british_raj4.html#Origin-word-Carnatic

http://19.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CA/CARNATIC.htm

Two articles say how our southern region got the name karnataka which inturn changed to Carnatic in British period and since the music came from this region it was called either Carnatic or Karnataka music. It looks convincing to me.