Praveen Kumar Sinha +

Honda Civic & A/C problems.

2018-08-02T14:04:00.002+05:30

Hello Friends,

Got a post again on to Honda Civic (The good old favorite commuter of mine).

This car has been doing great except for some things here and there it has been a great ownership experience till date and and on top of that it has also saved my life once :) in past.

Ok! So coming back. Now-a-days, am using Honda Civic majorly as my secondary option for daily commute or primary option for out stations trip (which is not that frequent these days).

While starting my car in the morning found A/C's blower is in full swing but it was not cooling at all (literally it had no chill!! :D)

And after an hour long drive it didn't turned up once in the whole journey and from past experiences the first go to thing was YouTube (to find out what could be the most obvious and DIY as fix.)

Narrowed down to A/C relay in the fuse set. Gave it a tap as was suggested in the video, tried some more fiddles but nothing made it to work. But me being me and trusting YouTube, finalized on "A/C relay only" must have broken. So i called the most trusted car A/C repair mechanic in my area. Hemkund Sahib Car A/C in Sector 23 of Dwarka.

Owner, he is a gem of a person it was going to be my second encounter with him and me being the pseudo pro asked him if he has the A/C relay for my car so that i can just fix it of my own and he being he politely said yes (and he always says YES no matter what you inquire for.. i like that about him) and so i got to his workshop.

It being a Saturday(weekend) there was crowd but not very hectic one he moved my car under the shadow(it was hot out there in open) and asked me to start the car. Which i did and then after his inspection his words were...

"Baadshaao yeh toh khuch start he nahin hua.. no koi ghoon na ghaan" (Vague translation: Brother there is no sound at all of compressor/fan starting up) and i was like and what could be the reason for that and what about the relay!

Its a bigger problem than just relay as per the condition and may be relay could also be adding up but lets focus on the main crux why compressor didn't started!

He asked one of the technician to look in for pressure and coolant gases, which was not there at all and hence he started to check for any leaks in the a/c radiator coil and other pipes. Upon half removal of bumper found out one connecting pipe was having stains of leak and later on it got confirmed. So there was no gas in it and hence for safety of A/C devices(to prohibit dry runs), no internal components were booting up and hence "no ghoon na ghaan".

That specific connector was not available in house at that moment but he contacted some vendor and asked for it on urgent basis. After a bit of hustle he agreed to deliver to his shop but it consumed about an hour and half more.

But finally connector arrived and got it fitted in the car, pushed the coolant and switched on the A/C and yes it came up to life. It costed me about 4 hours in duration and about ₹ 5K on pocket, but good as it got fixed.

Things were going good for next couple of months but then suddenly A/C died again that too just like that without any external characteristic. Cooling went for a toss and had to complete my rest of about 40 mins journey fiddling with open/closed windows (as i become more restless to honks in Delhi's traffic condition and also the heat).

And visited Hemkund Sahib Car A/C again (in a week time) fearing of any more leaks (this time they have shifted their place about 70-100 meters forward (from their last location) and what they found this time (after inspection)? Yes it was the relay. Yippey!! I was like wow i got to a solution before the occurrence of problem. But thank fully this was just Pluck, Plug and Play fix. Which costed me about ₹ 400.00

And currently Civic is doing very fine. It still feels such an exuberant thing to drive that every time if i get a thought about letting it go (as it is getting old) am forced to say NAaaa :D

The baffling IQ test

2018-04-25T16:19:00.001+05:30

Getting 100 per cent means you “have a passion for perfection and you like to challenge yourself. You excel in finding problems and solutions, and have a driving force to create”. It also claims “you truly are a genius” if you manage to beat the challenge without getting anything wrong.

Holi celebrations @ HeaderLabs 2018

2018-03-04T00:09:00.000+05:30

Hello Folks,

This is the day just after Holi i.e. March 03, 2018
It is going just like any perfect holiday a guy like me wants to have. Kitchen is full of sweets and eateries, have not touched my laptop from last 24 hours and is not in intention of doing so for next 24 hours(at least not for any work related tasks). Mom and dad are besides me.. talking about some very random funny stuff and even though my tummy is full, somehow will adjust poories and aaloo-gobhi sabji that have wished for and thats why my mum is in kitchen now.
Frankly have slept a lot during this holi's long weekend.

Was going through some of the photos that we took during our Holi celebrations @ office.

Very happy faces indeed. Every year we celebrate Holi like this(or i force them to celebrate.. i don;t know)

Am that kind of person who doesn't want to be everywhere but where ever i am will never try to have a dull moment because of some lame excuse and believe me if you have a bunch of folks and want to have even a celebration planned its so tough to execute but i had to celebrate Holi or one can say am left with no other option so office is the only place i can make it happen.

I generally don't look at older photos.. they make you happy and then they make you sad and so will these photos one day. Happy because its obvious.. its the snap of smiles, fun and happiness and sad because many will not be there in the next Holi.

Don't have much of friends most of them are now putting up out of India and few others am not in touch and its clearly me who is responsible for not being in touch. So i have people left only in my office i.e. HeaderLabs

We started HeaderLabs about 5 years ago :) It still brings on smile recalling those times. I don;t know how common it is for people but that days of starting a small setup with few very dear ones along with you.. Its a top of the world feeling

Having ZERO experience of handling a company to starting up like the way we started and along with the people we started and then the way we went through times and the way it is still going.. i will say, am blessed.

Will do a detail on all this some day but for the time being it has been a great journey. Lost a very indispensable one on the way but the great thing is never cheated on anything/anybody. May be this is the only thing that i have so why be not loyal towards it.

Had a lot to write to but leaving it at this, don;t want to make my self more sad :)

Take care. Have a safe weekend.
Enjoy

Sky diving! What it feels like.

2017-10-10T01:19:00.000+05:30

Writing a new post after almost a year :)

Penning it down here.. so that can relive that moment when i did the jump from 10000 feet up in the sky (if i ever read it again).

It was one of few things that i wanted to do before my final bye. What an experience it was.

It all started a week or two before September 13, 2017.. Because that's the day i called skyhigh people and posted an inquiry of what am thinking and am i even eligible :D (No no am not low on self confidence.. but may be a bit high on weight and that's one of the factor) but other things were on my side.. No fear of adventure and not married so a free bird(bird, who want to jump)

Lady who answered from other side.. sounded quite charming and after a few discussion over call, asked for any discount on offer and she managed to provide me one that was sweet from her side(and as the proverb says "poochoge nahin toh milega bhi nahin!"). In the mean time i kept asking and convincing people at my work place and few close friends of mine but am not that good negotiator or they are too good at their stringency.

Is spending 30-40K INR is also concern for them (which I seriously think that's not the case for many but i could be wrong, as have been very wrong on my other occasions) or may be the factor of fear "hota hai ke kai logon se nain hota" but i was determined and didn't want to loose on "no companion" thing. So paid the costing and got a slot booked for October 07, 2017 even though i wanted it for September 16, 2017 but that was not available "der he aaye but durusht aaye".

At the time of booking one need to provide general details which gets over email(very general questions) but also one thing is that one need to be less than 90Kgs and should get a general fitness certificate from a legal doctor, which one need to carry along on the jump day and this certificate is attached(in original copy) along with 6-7 forms that one need to fill and sign just before the jump.

Now things were sorted out.. slot was booked and i was waiting for day to come but to my luck was not able to convince any one to come and jump along 'abb kya karein koi sunta he nahin hai'

Got the medical certificate from a doctor just two days before the jump and was all set to take the plunge on October 7, 2017.

But my cousin brother Mr Prem volunteered to accompany me on the day which turned out to be good for me and him too. I was supposed to be at the place at around 11.00am and as it was about 3hour drive from my Dwarka, New Delhi residence so started at 7:30am

And we were driving our 525d for the first time on a kind of long route(about 320+km to and fro) and we got on to G.Noida Taj express way.. I think you can see that smile that comes up when a express way road like that is in front(in India) and you are driving a sheer driving pleasure machine from behind the wheels. Can you see that smile?

Aisa nahi hai ke isse pahle haven't driven 200+kmph but this time it was the beemer and it has 3000cc of straight in-line 6 cylinders and driving this to those speeds was also the hidden agenda for the day which i have not disclosed to my family members but few of friends must have guessed that from what ever they know about me) So we pushed the throttle and wooosh that power and that planted feeling and then those lane changing confidence. That was tremendous. (I know its a general complain for those who are behind but "yeh aage waale ghoomne aaye hain kya and why they keep snailing on over-take lane". Very lame but thats the true feeling that i get).

But we did touched 220+kmph and it never felt out of way or its not in my control and breaking was spot on.

But soon we hit the toll plaza paid Rs 190.00 for return toll fare and did a left exit towards Aligarh. Road was not good.. single lane with craters from moon but hanging fruit is far sweeter so went on. Then hit the road block at "khair" and it was so jammed that all car type vehicles were making u-turns and going everywhere and we being completely new to that route didn't know where to head to. Upon suggestion from a local guy did took a kaccha raste from village

and believe me that road(which is an exaggeration) was not even wider than my car..(the darker route on above map) only i know what balls it takes to drive the only bmw that one owns on those pathways. Here my cousin had to board out and guide me to take particular spots for those Tyres, couple of times. That helped.. but if i ever be in that situation again.. i will prefer to sleep in engine-running stationary car and wait for the traffic jam to clear. Will not take that route again.

Eventually after another hour drive got the place we were at the gates of Skyhigh

Met Mr. Rudra(CEO, Founder Skyhigh) and he was coordinating a jump already in progress. I saw a parachute getting deployed and then after 4-5 seconds started hearing screams MC,BC, maar daala mar gaya and what not :D
That was the glimpse of what i have thought (may be) but can feel the adrenalin rush.
Am not able to recall the name of jumper but he was a Haryana guy (from Bhiwani) with tattoos all around and damm!! woh toh dikh he raha tha :D

But i was next in the queue.. anxious as ever to be in the air. But ohoo hoo who will fill and sign those 7 pages of forms, disclaimer and what not. After all the formalities met Mr R. Soundara Rajan(Tandem Instructor) who is going to dive with me.. or i should rather say am going to dive with him. He is 57 years old Ex MWO from IAF. Very interesting guy haven't met somebody of that age so happy content and passionate of what he was doing.

Got to his bay, made to see a few videos and then the formal training begun. The Arc and the Banana position with tucked hands of front shoulder and with counting the tap gesture and what not.
I was very sure that's easy for me to recall and proceed with whatever taught, even up in the air and was more than ready to take off.. But hey where is the harness :D

Here he is (Mr R. Soundara) helping me out with harness and ties. Explaining bits and pieces again and again so that i can have all in my memory and here is the parachute

Came to know later that this tandem parachute cost about 25L still sounds unbelievable to ears.

Looking all ready for a video log :D

am in this plane, just before take off

And here we go.
I was lucky, generally in a tandem jump there is no other individual jumps along so whatever is recorded gets recorded by GoPro mounted on arm of tandem jumper. But in my case Mr Rudra was accompanying us as an independent individual jumper with another GoPro on his helmet and in the air he did recorded me. I don't know what was my state and how was i reacting at that moment (as videos and snaps will take about 15 days..(in a separate usb) am desperately waiting for them now. Anyway returning back

Plane started climbing at 3000feet (on analog altimeter reading) we were getting the google map view of Aligarh airstrip and as plain was in climb mode so the google map was zooming out more. at around 6000feet i have moved so that Mr Soundara can attach my harness with parachute and him self. Temperature has fallen down considerably.. i can feel it. At around 8000feet the sky has turned more blue and i can see the slight horizon curve with white and blue partition.

Imagine this.. you are in a plane which has no doors and you are at the edge.. you can feel the chill and air speed with hurling sound of propeller in your ears and in a few seconds that moment is going to come where you are going to take THE plunge and before all this, that beautiful raw naked view of horizon. I was more thrilled than any nervousness, was thinking of what would that moment and now just wanted to go ahead because i have this mantra.. i don't want to wait and get scared of from the feeling of any scary near future.. whatever that is, it should happen now :D

And that moment came.. Now i have to stand on that 4inch by 2 feet ramp with just support of my foot heels and the next moment on the direction made an arc and then the drop and a huge silence.. Its like am dead with my senses working but no processing from mind. Its like drowning in air. Its like void. Its like being starked and then i got the tap on my shoulder from behind and was switched on O my God!! O my God!! O My god!! were the only words that i was able to speak. It was a super awesome feeling. Am still in free fall and i can see my self dropping pixel perfect at on point with what speed! (You know what! if this is the speed that one can feel then i will say i missed on opportunities of being an airborne individual of any kind) and landed on software technologies.. but jo bhi mila hai sab badhiyan he hai.. jo nahin mila woh aur badhiyan :)

But now am enjoying the camera attention, shouting things and enjoying the fall.. i don;t know for how long things lasted but for whatever time i was in free fall that looked very thrilling and full paisa vasool moment and then the time came where parachute was about to be deployed and zook!! it goes.. Thighs ke toh lag gaye thee ekdum :D because of harness and belts.. but fikr ka priority was no where in the picture. Mid way, also was given assisted control of parachute and made sharp u turns :D.. Yaad karke bhi goosebumps aajate hain.

And soon we landed safely on ground on our bums. For some reason my cousin thinks that am hiding the feeling of landing on bums (and from his perspective crash landing on bums ha ha ha) but actually it was not painful at all and believe me, am man enough to accept if i get injuries down there :D

Look at the video.. am in that multi color parachute

And we landed safe and sound. Taking out my harness and stuff and am still sinking in!!

Got a certificate of jump had a very simple lunch at a small hut, had few more words with Mr R. Soundara Rajan. He looked a good man to me. He will be always be remembered by me whenever will recall this jump. Thank you sir.

And then we returned back Me, My cousin, Our car and one another guy.. whom we dropped of to Noida (as he was suppose to go for some urgent needs. Humne poocha toh sahi but yahan batana i don;t think its relevant) But he did got scared of sitting in car which is doing 180kmph but he is not scared of jumps.. he was an intern and already had 400 jumps by his name.

Wait here is my sweetheart in white parked and waiting for our return :D One hell of a machine and one hell of love.

Got to home and slept a whole night and half of the next Sunday.

A piece of free advice: If you ever and i mean it if you ever get chance to do it go ahead and do it there is just no feeling like this. No matter what reason you have prepared and no matter who all are stopping you. Its only you that needs to take the plunge.
And if possible don;t make any other Praveen with "No Companion" moment for dive :D Bullshit!

Multiple Github accounts and repository setup over SSH

2016-12-25T17:23:00.000+05:30

Hello Friends,

Am posting something which is not new as a problem and pretty sure if any of you are/were facing this issue then you must have got your solution. But summing up here so that it could get simple and short.

Well but what's the problem?
Problem: is, for people dealing with code (or dealing with anything where they put their assets (like code files, xmls, ymls etc)) on Github repositories(but in more than one account) and they don't know how to setup different ssh keys for different account (in Github) and setup git config's user.email and user.name different for different repositories

First step:
Create different ssh keys (for each of different Github account)
but at "Step 3" don't use the default path instead provide custom name,
e.g /Users/you/.ssh/id_rsa_github_username_one

Image courtesy: https://help.github.com/articles/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent/

and add keys to ssh-agent

Image courtesy: https://help.github.com/articles/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent/

Second step:
Now the interesting (may be new for some) part.
Setup ssh configs (to use different ssh keys for different account)
1. Open a Terminal window
2. Create a file (if not already there with touch)

touch ~/.ssh/config

3. Append content to ~/.ssh/config

#Username one (username.one@email.account) account
Host github.com-githubusernameone
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github_username_one

#Username two (username.two@email.account) account
Host github.com-githubusernametwo
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github_username_two

Third step:
Append keys in respective github account.
Visit: Github (login with valid credentials)
Visit: https://github.com/settings/keys or traverse Settings > SSH and GPG Keys

Fourth step:
As such things are 99% setup and but there are few small but important steps pending.
instead of original git repository url like

git@github.com:github_username_one/some_repository_one.git

Use

git@github.com-github_username_one:github_username_one/some_repository_one.git

For git cloning and repository setup
and also don't forget to setup git config's user.email and user.name (without the use of --global flag) like

git config user.email "username.one@email.account"
git config user.name "Github username one"

Do the same setup (with localized values) for other repositories and we are good to go.

My Civic and some very stubbron vibarations issues

2016-08-18T18:10:00.000+05:30

Hello friends,

Its been long time that i posted something here and this time i won't even say was lazy.. lately been facing a few of blows on personal front and life has not been the way it was to me since last post, but all that can come in picture may be in a different post altogether. Lets talk about civic here, my Black 2007 Honda Civic.

That sweetie has been one hell of a car. Believe me i have not driven super cars yet but whatever that have driven this one is a very sweet machine, from racing one traffic light to other... to cutting corners... to driving 150 to 210+ km/h... to listening melodies in rainy days or some time just talking to her it has been very good in fact i will say great car to me.

But as with almost everything wear-tear happens and my car is no different.. Many of you don't know but at the start of this year Civic met with bad accident on road, hitting a feet height pavement at 150+ km/h from front and the impact was such that right side alloy wheels turned into pieces suspension assembly broke at rear and after all this all four in the car walked out and the first statement i heard from one of my friends (to other) "Good morning" (he was sleeping while crash happened)(can elaborate more but thats not the aim here)

And from that day onwards something or the other kept on bothering me from cars perspective too(because some very personal stuff were also bothering me). Got the damaged parts replaced got her set of 4 + 1 brand new Michelin Agnis tyres but it was not the same car, i think...

There was this sound something like humming from right front wheel, was vibrating steer at 90+ km/h confidence of breaking was not there.. always kept thinking that it might just leave the road again and this time may be i will not get the chance also to walk away.

Took it to local garage and after quite a few test drives was able to convince the person that it must be the right wheel bearing.. He was quite skeptical but on my insist he replaced it, that was around Rs 1400.00 + Rs 200 for the press machine and Rs 500 as labor charges. Result: humming sound went away. I thought finally things are getting normal with my sweetie but no i was wrong.

Vibrating steering issue become more and more prominent and it was like Praveen why can't you send me to Honda service center(HSC) and get me fixed.. am i not good enough for you now to ask for proper authorized service center visit but service center guys were more lame than me.. as per them things are quite ok and they can't figure out whats the reason behind vibration and gave the car back... I kept the car running like that and lately it started making noise while braking as if something is hitting the brake disc rotors and the cycle begins again.

As per my local garage may be suspension bushes or the rotors must have gone wrong.. they replaced the bushes and got the disc cleaned on lathe machine but that thing was so stubborn to go away. Between all these I saw one very strange thing... what the local mechanic did is that he jacked my car from front right so that front right tyre is completely off the ground.. took the tyre off and started the car (switched to Drive mode) brake disc was hitting the brake caliper pins while rotating in an alternate fashion, which he ignored but i didn't .. i asked him to get this disc also removed and see of that hub is also doing this behavior (as per him this is not that abnormal) but upon my forced request he had to do it and there i saw that the hub was also showing wave behavior but as they has changed that hub's bearing only a month back so they don't want to take the blame if bearing or hub has gone wrong but kept insisting that it must be disc only and they will re-put that on lathe machine and get it fixed but i was pretty sure the culprit is the hub.

To be very sure, took it to Honda Service Center(HSC) again and elaborated the problem over phone (as driver has picked it to HSC) as i was not physically present there but again they were not able to figure out the issue. Even though i was so precise explaining about hub and its bearing (would be the culprit and how to confirm it...) they just can't get to it and my car came back with interior cleaned along with leather polishing on seats and nothing much but at least they were frank in telling me that they were not able to get to crux of the problem and hence its not fixed as of now.

And day before yesterday took it to Palika Bhawan, RK Puram, New Delhi (opposite to Hotel Hayat) and explained the problem and asked the mechanic to do the same exact steps and then it will become clear.. At least this time they listened because i think they didn't had any thing to loose and neither to take blame of some kind and finalized on yes its the hub (and if worst case may the axle), but as the hub(with bearing) is a thing which rarely gets any damage is generally not available with any store there. Now what do i need to do, wait or could i ask Honda to get me one but both things will take time.

One among those mechanics came up with the idea of why not get it fixed it on lathe machine while rubbing of the extra dent (which is not visible from naked eye) this way even if there is a slight dent on hub wheel it will not be propagating that on the brake disc plate(rotor) (because its directly mounted on that) after some negotiations i agreed.

They took it and came back in 40 min.. hub was looking shiny from the front as they have grinned for that uneven surface and rest was exactly the same. Keeping fingers crossed they put the things together which is not that tough but mind you not very easy too and its very laborious.

Took the test drive and it seemed to work... there was no vibration on steering and it was not screaming while breaking too.. on a safer note got all the tires balanced and aligned too and even though has not taken it for any long rides yet but initial observations are very satisfying (Total cost: Rs 3500.00 including labor charges) and also for the first time i got my civic a new accessory the "steering wheel" cover.. it is very much well stitched and finished have a look.

@ Rs 2200.00 What you say?

Fixed: Rubymine hanging in Ubuntu 15.XX after upgrade

2015-11-30T00:31:00.000+05:30

Ahaa Hello folks,

From last two days people in my company using RubyMine were going nuts with their development machine set-up. Initially I was ignorant thinking it must be small niggles or crazy stuff folks do to their systems resulting in problems like these but then why and how it is happening to almost all of them??

Clueless how come all of sudden all installations(including mine) started freezing on specific type of window open(generally suggestion dialogs) then one of them figured out it must be a Ubuntu software update which must be poking with RubyMine ahha GOTCHA!!

So we figured out people who all have not taken the latest update on Ubuntu 15.xx were doing fine while others are unfortunately unlucky enough and then we kind of figured out its the java in system that’s making things nasty and not going well with RubyMine. Initially there was nothing as solution available and then no one was even bothered but after two day found something and as "misery loves company" got some relief as it got raised here like https://devnet.jetbrains.com/thread/475654

But then what's the solution.. here it is

First of all

Step 01: Keep everything intact but remove all java installations from your ubuntu like java-common, default or open jdk/jre. (I use Synaptic package manager, un-ticked them and removed all of it)

Step 02: Restart once done with Step 01.

Step 03: Add Oracle Java to your system. Open a terminal and add webupd8 ppa with following commands

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update

Step 04: Install oracle-java8-installer and setup Java 8 as default (JAVA_HOME, PATH, etc.) (again I used Synaptic package manager for that :)

and Whola!! its working sweet :) I hope it helps others too.

Mousewheel event not working in safari within iframe

2015-07-03T16:14:00.001+05:30

Hi,

So a new strange issue that went live, while implementing a iframe window with a mousewheel handler stopped working in safari (mac).

And it was very strange because it was working on webkit browsers (like chrome) and other browsers perfectly fine.

And to be precise, was using https://github.com/jquery/jquery-mousewheel it says

"A jQuery plugin that adds cross-browser mouse wheel support with delta normalization."

then why it is not working in safari for me.

Then collected my thoughts and found that it is working as such in safari but completely switching off when served inside an iframe in safari, so googled a bit and found https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=124139 which is kind of an open debate/bug whether it should work or not but in a nutshell the things that made it work was

onmousehweel=""

yes as such this piece of code does nothing significant but somehow it passes scroll event from main window to pertaining iframe (in safari) and it make is work :)

there is one more solution and that is to

Open the Safari dev tools and run the following code:
  var f = function() {};
  document.addEventListener("mousewheel", f);
  document.removeEventListener("mousewheel", f);

But haven't given that a try

Error installing rb-gsl gem on ubuntu

2015-01-15T11:17:00.001+05:30

While installing rb-gsl gem on my gemset from ruby 2.1.0 got an error trailed like below

Gem::Ext::BuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.5/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20150115-4389-1qh8ghv.rb extconf.rb
extconf.rb:6: warning: Insecure world writable dir /opt/android-sdk in PATH, mode 040777
*** ERROR: missing required library to compile this module: No such file or directory - gsl-config
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may
need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
    --with-opt-dir
    --without-opt-dir
    --with-opt-include
    --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
    --with-opt-lib
    --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
    --with-make-prog
    --without-make-prog
    --srcdir=.
    --curdir
    --ruby=/home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.5/bin/ruby
    --with-gsl-version

extconf failed, exit code 1

Gem files will remain installed in /home/praveen/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.5/gems/rb-gsl-1.16.0.2 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/praveen/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.5/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.1.0/rb-gsl-1.16.0.2/gem_make.out

there is one system dependency that is required to pursue further in ubuntu install libgsl0-dev package, install it like..

sudo apt-get install libgsl0-dev

That's it now retry installing rb-gsl gem.. it worked for me :)

How to access rails application routes in rails models

2015-01-05T00:53:00.000+05:30

With the newer version of rails, application itself is an engine which is the initialized format of abstract class Rails::Application and to access routes of any (host) engine the code is

SomeRailsApplicationName::Application.routes.url_helpers.named_route_path
SomeRailsApplicationName::Application.routes.url_helpers.named_route_path(parameter: 'something')

and for a (mountable) engine the code is

SomeMountableEngineName::Engine.routes.url_helpers.named_route_path
SomeMountableEngineName::Engine.routes.url_helpers.named_route_path(parameter: 'something'

Example:

rails console > Helloworld::Application.routes.url_helpers.about_path
=> "/about"

rails console > BambooUser::Engine.routes.url_helpers.login_path
=> "/users/login"

Error installing nokogiri gem in ubuntu: Solved

2014-12-13T13:44:00.000+05:30

If something resembling below is the output of nokogiri gem install in ubuntu 14.10 or so

/home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20141213-9698-1nhm3s1.rb extconf.rb
Building nokogiri using packaged libraries.
checking for iconv.h... *** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may
need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
    --with-opt-dir
    --without-opt-dir
    --with-opt-include
    --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
    --with-opt-lib
    --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
    --with-make-prog
    --without-make-prog
    --srcdir=.
    --curdir
    --ruby=/home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/bin/ruby
    --help
    --clean
    --use-system-libraries
    --enable-static
    --disable-static
    --with-zlib-dir
    --without-zlib-dir
    --with-zlib-include
    --without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
    --with-zlib-lib
    --without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
    --enable-cross-build
    --disable-cross-build
/home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:456:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:587:in `try_cpp'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:1067:in `block in have_header'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:918:in `block in checking_for'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:351:in `block (2 levels) in postpone'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:321:in `open'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:351:in `block in postpone'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:321:in `open'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:347:in `postpone'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:917:in `checking_for'
    from /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/lib/ruby/2.1.0/mkmf.rb:1066:in `have_header'
    from extconf.rb:103:in `have_iconv?'
    from extconf.rb:148:in `block (2 levels) in iconv_prefix'
    from extconf.rb:90:in `preserving_globals'
    from extconf.rb:143:in `block in iconv_prefix'
    from extconf.rb:120:in `each_iconv_idir'
    from extconf.rb:137:in `iconv_prefix'
    from extconf.rb:428:in `block in
'

    from extconf.rb:161:in `block in process_recipe'
    from extconf.rb:154:in `tap'
    from extconf.rb:154:in `process_recipe'
    from extconf.rb:423:in `
'

extconf failed, exit code 1

Install libgmp-dev package with command

sudo apt-get install libgmp-dev

That should solve the problem

Amazon VPC's NAT not doing its job! SOLVED

2014-07-26T10:34:00.000+05:30

Hi,

If you have ever bumped into this situation where a good chap VPC from Amazon is at your help and as per expectation NAT machine in Public subnet is not able to route traffic (even if all the security group and NAT rules are in place) and worst, no one has posted anything on this.. then you are at my situation :)

What i have done seems all correct. Am able to ssh in NAT and also able to log into destination instances(ssh-ing them from NAT), NAT rules even though all look good syntacticly and as per the requirement, is not working at all.

So what i have done wrong? Here is the answer

Was trying to make a typical Scenario 1 VPC on amazon and with the help of NAT machine was trying to forward traffic on other two instances (available in public subnet itself) so that can save myself on buying EIPs for instances created (Trying to be [over]smart).

To laugh back on me Amazon has made all proper arrangements and this is what they say

We use the term NAT instance; however, the primary role of a NAT instance is actually port address translation (PAT). We chose to use the more widely known term, NAT. For more information about NAT and PAT, see the Wikipedia article about network address translation.

The main route table sends the traffic from the instances in the private subnet to the NAT instance in the public subnet. The NAT instance sends the traffic to the Internet gateway for the VPC. The traffic is attributed to the Elastic IP address of the NAT instance. The NAT instance specifies a high port number for the response; if a response comes back, the NAT instance sends it to an instance in the private subnet based on the port number for the response.

So in a nutshell a NAT machine(in Amazon VPC) can work (of routing traffic) as per expectation if only the instances its connecting-to, is in private subnet and not in public subnet.

If it helped you anywhere am glad (am not the only one)

ActiveRecord::ConnectionTimeoutError

2013-12-13T12:05:00.001+05:30

If one is getting or started getting error like this

ActiveRecord::ConnectionTimeoutError (could not obtain a database connection within 5.000 seconds (waited 5.000 seconds)):
activerecord (4.0.0.rc1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:190:in `block in wait_poll'
activerecord (4.0.0.rc1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:181:in `loop'
activerecord (4.0.0.rc1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:181:in `wait_poll'
activerecord (4.0.0.rc1) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:136:in `block in poll'

Then it is something that is missing in your database.yml

{environment_name}:
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
database: {product_name}_environment_name
username: username
password: password
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

Add correct values for 'reaping_frequency' and 'pool' in connection parameter and it might look like

{environment_name}:
adapter: mysql2
encoding: utf8
database: {product_name}_environment_name
pool: 15
reaping_frequency: 3
username: username
password: password
socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

Options descriptions

pool: number indicating size of connection pool (default 5)
checkout_timeout: number of seconds to block and wait for a connection before giving up and raising a timeout error (default 5 seconds).
reaping_frequency: frequency in seconds to periodically run the Reaper, which attempts to find and close dead connections, which can occur if a programmer forgets to close a connection at the end of a thread or a thread dies unexpectedly. (Default nil, which means don't run the Reaper).
dead_connection_timeout: number of seconds from last checkout after which the Reaper will consider a connection reapable. (default 5 seconds).

Knowledge base taken from http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/ConnectionPool.html

Ctrl + Alt + F1 for TTY window

2013-12-06T12:41:00.001+05:30

To open a console window and fix Ubuntu if it anywhere halts, command is press

Ctrl + Alt + F1

and a TTY prompt appears and now it is all yours.

Rails: redirect_to with flash

2013-11-29T10:53:00.000+05:30

Hi,

In rails one can provide(not in older versions) flash messages directly in redirect_to method while residing in controller's action to redirect to different path like

redirect_to login_path, :notice => 'Please login'

But one thing needs attention here is, it works only for named routes and not for routes without names like

redirect_to {controller: 'session', action: 'login'}, :notice => 'Please login'

Small but this point should be taken in consideration.

3 column css layout with center fludic and fixed width left right column

2013-11-08T13:42:00.002+05:30

How can we make a 3 column layout where left and right most column are with fixed width while the middle column should be fludic (meaning it consumes the whatever is left on screen now)
Concept is pretty simple: Make two two-column layout and insert one into the other :)
Step 01: Make a two column layout where right column is fixed width and left consumes the left-over screen space.

.container_1 {
   height: auto;
   overflow: hidden;
}

.container_1 .right {
    width: 100px;
    float: right;
    background: #DDD;
}

.container_1 .left {
    background: #CCC;
    width: auto;
    overflow: hidden;
}
<div class="container_1">
<div class="right">right content</div>
<div class="left">left content</div>
</div>

Step 02: Make another two column layout where left column is fixed width and right consumes the left-over screen space.

.container_2 {
   height: auto;
   overflow: hidden;
}

.container_2 .left_2 {
    background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #BBB;
    float: left;
    width: 180px;
}

.container_2 .right_2 {
    background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #AAA;
    overflow: hidden;
    width: auto;
}
<div class="container_2">
<div class="left_2">left content</div>
<div class="right_2">right content</div>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>

Step 03: Insert container_2 div in container_1's left column div.
Here is the working example
http://jsfiddle.net/praveen_kumar_sinha/fSf8T/

InvalidAuthenticityToken while file upload in rails 4

2013-05-25T14:09:00.000+05:30

Hi Friends,

Am back again and this time really after a long time. Actually occupied with my current company and it is bootstrapping :) wish me luck.

Any how recent problem that i faced was, uploading file (multipart form request) was giving "ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken" error in rails4 while a normal form post was working great, which is kind of strange and it was giving error for synchronous and asynchronous request both.

So whats the way to fix it ?

Add your own authenticity_token params which is missing in rails form (which is strange again) but add a hidden field something like

<%= hidden_field_tag :authenticity_token, form_authenticity_token -%>

and now everything is back to normal :) i hope for you too.

Thanks

Praveen

How to get database size in MySql

2013-02-01T10:30:00.001+05:30

SELECT table_schema "DB Name", sum( data_length + index_length ) / 1024 / 1024 "DB Size in MB" 
FROM information_schema.TABLES GROUP BY table_schema ;

Courtesy: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1733507/how-to-get-size-of-mysql-database

Rails behaviour of form_for serving from a custom ruby class, (rails2 and rails3 differentiates)

2012-09-08T00:15:00.001+05:30

Hi,

It has been so long writing a post and for a change this time it not my laziness but had been really occupied from office front.

Anyhow, here is one strange thing that I found with "form_for" in Rails2 and Rails3.

In Rails2, if we have a class in ruby (not derived from Activerecord::Base) some thing like the one below..

class SomeRubyClass

attr_accessor :file_name, :file_data, :class_name, :error

def initialize(file_name, file_data, class_name, error)
    @file_name = file_name
    @file_data = file_data
    @class_name = class_name
    @error = error
end

def self.first
    #Some code, which will give an object
end
end

We can use form_for with it something like this

class SomeController < ApplicationController
def index
    @some_ruby_class = SomeRubyClass.new("file_name", "file_data", "class_name", "error")
end

def create
    @some_ruby_class = SomeRubyClass.first
    @some_ruby_class.class_name = params[:some_ruby_class][:class_name]
    @some_ruby_class.file_name = params[:some_ruby_class][:file_name]

    #some more code
    redirect_to :back
end
end

<% form_for @some_ruby_class, :url => {:action => :create} do |f| %>
    Class name: <%= f.text_field :class_name %>
    File name: <%= f.text_field :file_name %>
    <%= f.submit 'Update' %>

<% end %>

and we can do manipulation as per the need.

But in Rails3 this thing is not supported with form_for

It gives exception like...

undefined method `model_name' for SomeRubyClass:Class'

and to make it work we have to add these lines

1. extend ActiveModel::Naming

2. add to_key instance method which must return an array

so added it and result is something like this

class SomeRubyClass
extend ActiveModel::Naming

attr_accessor :file_name, :file_data, :class_name, :error

def initialize(file_name, file_data, class_name, error)
    @file_name = file_name
    @file_data = file_data
    @class_name = class_name
    @error = error
end

def self.first
    #Some code, which will give an object
end

def to_key
    ["some_key", "some_value"]
end

end

and it works! Now question arises, Rails3 is imposing me to use ActiveModel (which was initially meant to provide ActiveRecord base type facilities like validation etc.) for simple things like form_for why?? am I missing something here.

Not able to see skype in the top notification bar in ubuntu

2012-04-29T00:31:00.000+05:30

This is something i saw with skype installtion on ubuntu 12.04

Even though skype was running fine, icon in the notification bar was missing (i know it happens sometimes) but it is pretty annoying to bring active skype window in this case. Googled a bit for an answer and found a very sweet and simple answer :)

open a terminal and execute following command

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"

unity --reset

and in Ubuntu 12.10 one needs to run

unity --reset-icons

And now it is available there after reset

From http://askubuntu.com/questions/120975/symbols-not-shown-in-taskbar

AJAX file-upload capability to remote forms in Rails 3. but HOW??

2012-04-24T22:36:00.001+05:30

Well this was something strange that I was hitting the other time when was doing the file upload in rails 3.1+ from an AJAX form

I was trying to upload a file in a AJAX form (driven by jQuery) and every time i click submit it used to be normal synchronous request while any submit without file field was going correct as an AJAX request.

Googled it out but not much of help in the beginning but later via some articles came to know people using iframe for file upload on ajax (in rails) how and why this happened I don't know but yes it is there.

I was expected to come out of the situation and complete the work in time, and gem Remotipart came to help...

Will debug it later and currently I don't know much of, how it enables this functionality but it worked flawless even without changing a single line of code in my remote form with file upload.

Just added it to gem file and updated application.js (as is mentioned in the documentation of gem) and it just worked!!

I know it sounds innocently non-develop-ish, pardon me for that.. will debug more and update soon but for the time being hit the URL here and get yourself out of this situation http://os.alfajango.com/remotipart/

In the mean time anybody want to share any information on this.. most welcome please comment and spread the knowledge :)

Holi at Ditech/Gaine March 7, 2012

2012-03-08T10:43:00.000+05:30

Install mysql gem using bundler in ubuntu 11.10 64 bit

2012-03-05T21:20:00.001+05:30

Well just tried doing a mysql gem install using bundler (Gemfile) but got an error like this

Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lm... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no

and much more

and i forgot to install libmysqlclient-dev :) how careless! so did
sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

and redid the bundle install and wohooo it worked!

Honda Civic engine vibration fix

2012-02-26T21:14:00.000+05:30

Hello people,

Long time.. no post?? its all because of my laziness :D but this one is not about computer but about my car.
It is going on winters here in Delhi and my car started showing vibrations during cold start and it was really bad and vigorous while doing reverse and it use to go away after say initial 1-2 km run.

Let me tell you about my car, its 2007 make Honda civic (India) an automatic.

Initially i thought that it will go away with time, might be due to something temporary but it was getting really annoying every morning and was not able to stand it any more so decided to get it fixed. Got to two car workshops(other than Honda authorized workshop) and they were not able to identify the issue and some said it might be the O2 sensor or the engine mount.

Honda guys said it is the mount but from the naked eye there was no damage to engine mount and the cost they said was something around 10.5 K oops. This much of cost for car vibration it was something that i thought is really expensive and being a delhite, need help now as the cost was not at all satisfying :) So i went to Palika bazar car market (opposite to the Hayat) and from there got the engine mount replaced with just a self trust that the vibration is only because of engine mount.

New engine mount cost me around Inr 3600 and Inr 300 as the labor charges and also got the front disk pads replaced(as it was due) which cost me 1500 more :)

And my car is back :)

Vibration completely gone and more effective braking now. From the service guy i cam to know that Engine mount was not damaged but got pressed (seems Honda civic engine is bit heavy for the designated mount and it is a common problem with civics in India). Please refer to pictures below.

Engine is touching the mount completely(mount hydraulics not working, needs replacement)

New engine mount replaced (and now the hydraulics will eat the vibration coming from engine) and no more vibrations

Hope this gets as help to somebody required someday.

Issue: Installing ree ruby via rvm in ubuntu 11.10

2011-12-17T10:38:00.008+05:30

So if you have tried installing REE on Ubuntu 11.10 something like

praveen@praveen-laptop:~$ rvm install ree
Installing Ruby Enterprise Edition from source to: /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ree-1.8.7-2011.03
ree-1.8.7-2011.03 - #fetching (ruby-enterprise-1.8.7-2011.03)
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 184 100 184 0 0 107 0 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 567
100 7713k 100 7713k 0 0 32397 0 0:04:03 0:04:03 --:--:-- 33764
ree-1.8.7-2011.03 - #extracting ruby-enterprise-1.8.7-2011.03 to /home/praveen/.rvm/src/ree-1.8.7-2011.03
Applying patch 'tcmalloc' (located at /home/praveen/.rvm/patches/ree/1.8.7/tcmalloc.patch)
Applying patch 'stdout-rouge-fix' (located at /home/praveen/.rvm/patches/ree/1.8.7/stdout-rouge-fix.patch)
Applying patch 'no_sslv2' (located at /home/praveen/.rvm/patches/ree/1.8.7/no_sslv2.diff)
ree-1.8.7-2011.03 - #installing
ERROR: Error running './installer -a /home/praveen/.rvm/rubies/ree-1.8.7-2011.03 --dont-install-useful-gems ', please read /home/praveen/.rvm/log/ree-1.8.7-2011.03/install.log
ERROR: There has been an error while trying to run the ree installer. Halting the installation.

and now that you will follow the log you will notice some dependencies not met and hence installation failed, some thing like this.

Checking for required software...
* C compiler... found at /usr/bin/gcc
* C++ compiler... found at /usr/bin/g++
* The 'make' tool... found at /usr/bin/make
* The 'patch' tool... found at /usr/bin/patch
* Zlib development headers... not found
* OpenSSL development headers... not found
* GNU Readline development headers... not found

but as per suggestion

* To install GNU Readline development headers:
Please run apt-get install libreadline5-dev as root.

Package libreadline5-dev is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source.
So instead install libreadline-gplv2-dev

* To install GNU Readline development headers:
Please run apt-get install libreadline-gplv2-dev as root.

And you are good to go :)

These information are not tough to find but summarizing it just in case some body is in need of it in a quicky!