Vinay Srini

thunderbird-3 hack: fix number of addresses shown before the "more" link

2010-02-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

If you use thunderbird 3, you may have noticed an annoying link labeled 'more' on every address category (to, cc) after just 1 address is listed.

It is not smart to see if there is some more extra space to fit any more of the addresses in the category even if there is a tonne of space available.

First rule of thumb when you use mozilla products, check the configuration to see if you can increase this number from 1 to say 10 - meaning, show 10 addresses before you encapsulate the rest into the "more" container. Sadly, there was none.

Here is the hack to fix it.

Step 1: Find messenger.jar in your installation

ubuntu users: dpkg --search messenger.jar

other os users: I am sure you can find a way :)

The jar would be in the install location directory similar to:

/usr/lib/thunderbird-3.0.2pre/chrome/messenger.jar

Step 2: Extract mailWidgets.xml from the jar

unzip -o content/messenger/mailWidgets.xml

Step 3: Fix the hardcoded variable maxAddressesBeforeMore in the xml file

eg:

<field name="maxAddressesBeforeMore">1</field>

<field name="maxAddressesBeforeMore">10</field>

Step 4: Rezip it back.

zip -f  content/messenger/mailWidgets.xml

Now, restart your thunderbird, and you should see 10 emails in each category before the "more" link shows up.

You are welcome!

My simplistic python driver for my touch screen input

2010-02-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

The story begins when I got a laptop (netbook I should say) with a touch screen from a company named "MosArt"

A version of 64-bit windows 7 came pre-installed on it, and the touch screen worked pretty well - it had its moments, but worked.

I installed ubuntu on another partition, and expected the touch screen to work out of the box. But doesn't look like anybody has heard about the company yet (could not find any references to them by regular searches). It was time to write my own driver.

Never written a linux driver before - wanted this to be very simple. First I ran the hardware info command to find the device.

hwinfo > hwinfo.txt

found the following line which led me to the socket that was connected to the device

  hiddev.device = '/dev/usb/hiddev0'

  info.subsystem = 'usb'

  info.product = 'MosArt, Inc. RMTP-MA957'

Now, to really find out if that was the device connected, I ran the command

cat /dev/usb/hiddev0 

which printed out a bunch of junk - Now for the moment of truth, I touched the screen, and it printed some more junk. Touch again, and more junk proving that me touching the screen was putting out all the junk confirming that I had the right device.

To make the binary output readable, I wrote a small python program to print the output in hex.

import os

def byte2hex(byteStr):
    return ''.join( [ "%02X" % ord( x ) for x in byteStr ] ).strip()

dev = os.open("/dev/usb/hiddev0", os.O_RDONLY)
while True:
    bytes = os.read(dev, 10)
    hex = byte2hex(bytes)
    print hex

The output of the above program would print the following on every touch on my screen. My analysis of the output was as follows:

All my assumptions above were just right, except that the x position and y position hex bytes were a bit reversed. For instance D105 (53509) is actually 05D1 which translates to 1485 (more believable number than the other ridiculous number.

Now, all is required is the program which can translate my assumption to mouse moves. I used an external tool called xdotool to simulate mouse moves and clicks.

Here is the program:

#! /usr/bin/python
import os
res_x = 1366; res_y = 768
max_x = 3825; max_y = 3825

def byte2hex(byteStr):
    return ''.join( [ "%02X" % ord( x ) for x in byteStr ] ).strip()

def reverse(h):
    return "%s%s%s%s" % (h[2], h[3], h[0], h[1])

def calibrate_x(n):
    return n * res_x / max_x

def calibrate_y(n):
    return n * res_y / max_y

def mouse_action(pa, px, py):
    cx = calibrate_x(int(px, 16))
    cy = calibrate_y(int(py, 16))
    movemouse(cx, cy)
    if pa == "touch end":
        mouseup(cx, cy)
    else:
        mousedown(cx, cy)

def movemouse(x, y):
    os.spawnvp(os.P_WAIT, "/usr/bin/xdotool", ["", "mousemove", "%s"%x, "%s"%y])

def mousedown(x, y):
    os.spawnvp(os.P_WAIT, "/usr/bin/xdotool", ["", "mousedown", "1"])

def mouseup(x, y):
    os.spawnvp(os.P_WAIT, "/usr/bin/xdotool", ["", "mouseup", "1"])

dev = os.open("/dev/usb/hiddev0", os.O_RDONLY)
try:
    pa = None; px = None; py = None
    while True:
        bytes = os.read(dev, 10)
        hex = byte2hex(bytes)
        if hex == "0100090000000000":
            pa = "touch end"
        elif hex == "0100090001000000":
            pa = "touch"
        elif hex == "0200090000000000":
            pass
        elif hex[0:8] == "30000100":
            px = reverse(hex[8:12])
        elif hex[0:8] == "31000100":
            py = reverse(hex[8:12])
            mouse_action(pa, px, py)
        else:
            print h
except Exception, e:
    print "Stopping"
    raise e
finally:
    os.close(dev)

Simple HTML Tabs

2010-02-10T18:35:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered how those tabs are created in html? You can create tabs very easily using html list elements

Here is a screenshot of simple html tabs

All you really need here is to create a unordered list (UL) with class attribute set to "nav" and the list element (LI) with class attribute set to "selected" for the tab you need selected.

<style>
    ul.nav { border-bottom:1px solid gray; }

    ul.nav li {
        display:inline;
        position:relative;
        padding:5px 5px 5px 5px;
        top:-5px;
        border:1px solid gray;
        background-color:lightgray;
        margin-left:5px;
    }
    ul.nav li.selected {
        background-color:white;
        border-bottom:none;
        top:-4px;
    }
</style>
<ul class="nav">
    <li class="selected">Tab 12<li>
    <li>Tab 2<li>
    <li>Tab 3<li>
    <li>Tab 4<li>
</ul>

The above html was generated using vim - for those who are interested, vim can generate html with syntax highlighting with a simple command

:runtime! syntax/2html.vim

Remaking a classic? My advice? Stop, think

2010-01-26T21:54:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, the only television channel was doordarshan. In 1988, there was a national integration video produced called Mile sur mera tumhara.

The national integration video was intended to instill a sense of pride and promote unity amongst Indians, highlighting the different linguistic communities and societies that live in India -- India's unity in diversity, so to speak.

This video was really done well, and in my perspective, it did achieve some of its goals, and if not anything, it still feels good to hear the sound.

Now, someone tried to make a sequel of this, and it has gone horribly horribly bad. Here is the link for part 1 - 8 mins, yes there is another part - totaling 16 minutes. Not all 16 minutes are a total waste of time, but the overall production quality sucks big time.

Could not understand many things:
1. Salman Khan in his undershirt
2. Deepika Padukone in skimpy clothes
3. Really bad music at a lot of places
.. and the list goes on.

Why remake a classic? You know you can't beat it. Have you run out of ideas? JUST PLAIN STUPID.

Weave - best plugin firefox ever had

2010-01-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Almost everyone I know have a work computer, and a home use computer or a laptop, and the problem of synchronization is too well known.

You are looking up something at work, go home, and can't remember the url? The bookmark on your work computer is not available on your laptop at home?

Mozilla Weave solves the problem for us. It can synchronize and merge your bookmarks, browsing history, passwords, preferences and more across one or more of your profiles on the same computer or across computers. All you need is a weave-account and the extension installed on all the profiles that you want synchronized.

It has simplified my browsing life more than I could imagine. Try it out for yourself.

https://mozillalabs.com/weave/

Mozilla Weave enables you to have incredibly rich, personalized experiences across the web.

As the Web continues to evolve and more of our lives move online, we believe that Web browsers like Firefox can and should do more to broker rich experiences while increasing user control over their data and personal information. Weave is a Firefox add-on that is aimed at exploring this opportunity.
Some of the key functionality enabled by the Weave add-on includes:

Synchronization engine - securely transports your browsing experience across all your devices
Cryptographic engine - provides default client side encryption for all your data
Weave server - a secure storage location for all your encrypted data
APIs - extension interfaces for 3rd party developers

The initial release will provide extensive support for your browser meta-data (bookmarks, stored passwords, history, tabs, preferences, add-ons, personas).
Future releases will support other types of data and functionality.

Classic brownies - take 2

2010-01-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

How hard can baking a brownie be? My first take at brownies was about two years ago - turned out to be a disaster. The brownie stuck to the bottom of the pan and was too thin to sacrifice the bottom part - all that aside, it tasked horrible too.

Last Friday, I mustered up courage to give it another go, this time around, I was a bit more careful, and lined it with baking sheet, and made sure I had a smaller baking pan for a thicker brownie just in case.

Credit for the picture goes to Madhu. It tasted just the brownie is supposed to.

Anyway, if you want to try this out, here is the recipe
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/and-then-i-went-shoe-shopping/

My brownie turned out a bit different (darker and thicker) than the one in the recipe above. It called for..

A 13x9 pan -- I used 8x8
Bake for 35 mins -- I had to bake for about 50-55 minutes (to compensate for the extra thickness)

Baked tofu nuggets & Sweet Potato for dinner

2010-01-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

Tofu nuggets for dinner? The picture speaks for itself and looks very complicated, can you believe the prep time is just under 30 minutes?

Baked Tofu:
http://chowvegan.com/2008/03/18/crispy-baked-tofu/

Garlic sauce:

1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped scallion
2 teaspoon sesame seeds
3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon sugar

adapted from: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/diaryofafoodie/2009/03/warm-tofu-with-spicy-garlic-sauce

Baked sweet potato fries: (All original Madhu's recipe)

slice sweet potatoes like in the picture
sprinkle with some olive oil, cumin powder, red chilli powder and salt
bake in the oven at 375F for about 45 minutes

Quest for the perfect Pad Kee Mao

2010-01-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

I love Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles). It is one of the things on the menu that jumps at me whenever we are at a Thai restaurant. I judge Thai restaurants by their Pad Kee Mao :)

So, Madhu has been trying to perfect Pad Kee Mao in our kitchen for a while since I love it so much. Today's was the best. It looked and tasted fantastic - It is better than some Thai places around (no offense, Madhu knows my palette better than anyone).

She adapted a recipe from the cooking book Buddha's Table. The picture of Madhu's creation today says it all.

On a side note, Madhu's picture taking abilities have been better than ever. Looks like getting a SLR camera has paid off big time.

Kitchen adventures: Masale dose

2009-12-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

For a south Indian, me making this dish and blogging about it could be 'duh! big deal' - well fellas welcome to my world, anything that needs constant attention near the stove is a big deal - so bear with me.

Over time, I have almost mastered making some things just right, coconut chutney and potato palya - both very important for a successful dose (dosa for other south Indians)

In simplistic terms here is how you make the above combination in the picture:

Dose: 1 cup idly rice, 4 tbsp chana dal, 2 tbsp menthya - soak for about 6 hours - grid to smooth paste - let it ferment for about 8 hours (If the normal temperature is cooler, keep it in your oven with the lights on)

aloo palya: peel and cube 2 potatoes and microwave with little water for about 8 minutes or until just about cooked - after tadka of whatever you want (that's the way I roll ;) add some hot chillies (split along the length) and sauté for a while before adding onions and sauté until translucent. You can add some turmeric with onions if you want. Finally, add the cooked potatoes with some water - after a while sprinkle coriander and lemon juice.

chutney: a good recipe here http://www.syvum.com/cgi/online/serve.cgi/recipes/srcpm2.tdf?0

And off you go, make your own dose :)

Kitchen adventures: Baking an apple cake

2009-12-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

Rule #1 in baking - You have to precise with the measurements. Unless you are a pastry chef and know what you are doing, stick to the measurements - 1tbsp is 3 tea spoons - not more not less.

We had a dessert potluck at lunch Friday last and I decided on baking a apple-cake this time - bundt style.

Found a recipe online which was a 'tube pan' version. Also found a variation of it using a 'bundt' version. All credit to web 2.0 - the link to the variation was in one of the comments of people who tried the recipes.

The reason for the bundt version is obvious. I don't have a tube pan (note to self: get a tube pan)

The recipe is simple enough.

Step 1: Get 6 apples (Macintosh, Gala), peel, core and chop to bite sizes, toss with a tablespoon of cinnamon and 5 table spoons of bakers sugar

Step 2: Mix 2 and 3/4 cups of all purpose flour (don't forget to sift), 1 table spoon of baking powder, a tea spoon of salt.

Step 3: Mix 1 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup orange juice, 2 1/2 tea spoons vanilla extract and 2 cups bakers sugar

Step 4: Fold wet (step 3) to dry (step 2) ingredients, and mix 4 eggs into the mixture, one at a time

I hope you had preheated the oven to 350, it's time to bake.

Final step: Grease the pan, layer 1/2 of batter and 1/2 of the apples, and repeat. Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Check the cake every 5 minutes after the hour with a stick until it comes out clean.

You got yourself a fantastic cake!

Credit where it's due:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/
http://cookingupaphd.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/apple-cake-two-ways/#more-290

Non believers and believers, can't we all just get along?

2009-10-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

Just my perspective, debates welcome.

A believer has not many questions to think answers for, they have one black hole - God - that they can throw the question at it gets sucked into the mysterious nowhere, and they breath in relief.

A non-believer on the other hand, has a lot to think about. Just for starters, a way to prove to the believers that there might not be a God at all. This is a bit strange because the way I know it, unless shown something does not exist, and its be believer's responsibility to do so - like the bigfoot - most of the world does not believe in it, but the believers try and keep the news alive with a sighting, with a foot mark, with a long range blurry picture.

I can comprehend the need for belief in a higher power. Rulers and leaders of old times, needed some way to bring a chaotic environment to 'law abiding' one. Coupled with that there are these unexplained things like rain, wind, lightning, sun, drought, flood, never ending ocean, untouchable moon - and the list goes on. It was a perfect storm to 'create' God. I can understand the need for God for peace then, and the need for it now.

Imagine waking up tomorrow and all people believed (should I say un-believed) that there is no God. People who believed in God and did the right thing - would still do so, people who feared God and did the right thing (majority in my thinking) would have nothing to fear for anymore, and can you imagine the havoc?

So people, it is not a overnight change, it has to be gradual - like the gay rights movement - cannot happen overnight, but there is a need to keep fighting until you convince the rest of the world. Here I am really addressing to Atheists - because they are the only one I really care for because some of the atheists try militantly to convince everyone that there is no God - like their counterparts (the believers, some of them) who try do the opposite, and hence rest of the atheists and theists alike are painted with the same brush - people who try and convert - my way or the highway - cuts both ways!

On the other hand, believers are also guilty of similar thinking. To a large percentage of believers, the rest are all non-believers and just that. However, thats really not the case, is it? We are Atheists, Agnostics, Pantheists, and variations of the philosophies like *Agnostic Pantheists* (that's me) and many more.

I have heard people say "agnostics are atheists with no balls" - a very one dimensional statement, but hurts nonetheless depending on who says it - believer or an atheist. That's just an example of how divided non-believers are. Pantheists are nature worshipers better definition here. Most scientists are pantheists is what I have heard. People like me - agnostic pantheists - are the somewhere in between, we believe in the nature, the science, and what we cannot explain, we ignore - until the science sets it right.

Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam to name a few among the numerous - some older than others - have a different God, and to think about it, the God of one religion hasn't wrecked havoc on the others for not believing in them. That begs the question - do Gods have groups too :) - this I don't believe in too.

What is common among all religions? Would you say - help thy neighbor ? - may be, but the most important thing that is common in FAITH. Which is what binds a community together. Faith for the sake of peace, for the sake of harmony. And please, I pity those who have faith for the sake of fear of punishment!

Faith is all that keeps us going.
Can we all understand that?
Can't we all just get along?

You see what I see? Search war?

2009-10-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Microsoft today struck a search deal with twitter and facebook -
.. Microsoft has reached collaboration agreements with Twitter and Facebook to get their members' public status updates and messages indexed and presented in useful ways on the Bing search engine...
Read more here: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/174061/microsoft_strikes_search_deals_with_twitter_facebook.html

And Google posted this on their offical blog
... we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results....
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/rt-google-tweets-and-updates-and-search.html

Seems to me that twitter integrated with both search engines, and not the other way around :) Oh! well, what do I know!

Call me crazy, but I jumped

2009-09-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Jumped off a 40 foot cliff at the southern most point of the United States! Risky, might not do it again, but could not resist the temptation at that time! Madhu took the pictures.

Full size pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinayms/MyCliffJump

Pronounce Linux as Linux

2009-02-20T10:07:00.000-08:00

I have heard a lot of pronunciations for "Linux", anything from Lienux, Lienex to Linux - I always wondered who was right, until I heard it from the creator - Linus Torvalds

http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/
Listen for yourself: http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.wav

Sorry, you are not my [blood] type!

2009-02-02T17:26:00.000-08:00

A conversation in a Japan's night club, could go something like this:
Boy: Hey there, what's your [blood] type?
Girl: I am a A, and you?
Boy: Sorry, you are not my type [literally]

Japan, as advanced as it is - is apparently obsessed with blood types of people

Ref: http://www.physorg.com/news152723712.html
In the year just ended, four of Japan's top 10 best-sellers were about how blood type determines personality, according to Japan's largest book distributor, Tohan Co. The books' publisher, Bungeisha, says the series - one each for types B, O, A, and AB - has combined sales of well over 5 million copies.

Some employers are discriminating on assignments to employees based on the blood type! Even children at schools are reportedly grouped based on blood type!

I used to laugh at Linda Goodman's Joke books, still do! But this Japan obsession is no joking matter at all, this is really at the core racism. On second thoughts, we need another word for it - because the color of blood is really the same.

[link] Renting Makes More Financial Sense Than Homeownership ?

2008-09-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

While in the back of our head we are still contemplating the idea of buying a home, I came across this article explaining why Jack wants to rent until a foreseeable future instead of owning a home.

Following is his summary, but the article is a good read. He does answer common questions that people might have like "home owners get a tax break.", "why throw money down the drain", "I just made a tonne of money selling my home, you are wrong!".

Shares right now cost 16 times earnings and over long time periods return 7% a year after inflation. Houses right now cost 19 times their "earnings" and over long time periods return zero after inflation. And they look likely to return less than that for a while.

Read on:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/renting-makes-more-financial-sense-than-homeownership.html

[link] Why we eat the way we do

2008-01-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

The found this article through a reference -

The author Ruth N. Davidar is a nutritionist and a food writer. Explains how vegetarian indian cooking compensates for the nutrition the body needs as compared to meat based cooking.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0004/00040260.htm

Some excerpts from the article:

Experts will also tell you to watch your intake of iron and calcium in vegetarian diets. Here again, typically Indian food combinations help with the absorption of these minerals. True, the availability of iron from vegetable sources is never very satisfactory, but vitamin C, for instance, helps to overcome this problem by assisting in the conversion of iron to the form that is readily absorbed. In aloo aur palak ki bhaaji the iron that is trapped in spinach is released by the vitamin C found in potatoes. Likewise, substances like oxalates prevent the absorption of calcium (and magnesium) abundant in green leafy vegetables. A traditional Indian recipe like palak paneer circumvents this obstacle. While the calcium in the greens remains in the bound form, the calcium in paneer is readily and easily absorbed.

Interestingly, curds is used extensively in Indian cooking. It could be assumed that milk was allowed to ferment to make it more palatable because of the lack of refrigeration in the old days. However, it has significant nutritional benefits too. When milk sugar or lactose is allowed to ferment naturally, lactic acid is formed by the activity of certain bacteria. This lactic acid promotes the absorption of calcium especially when phosphorus and protein are also available in the same food. Milk that is converted into curds has all these factors - another reason why getting sufficient calcium from a typically Indian diet is not a cause for concern. Further, curds used as a marinade does not just flavour and tenderise foods like meat. It is now known that lactic acid (as found in curds) is an effective antiseptic when heated (as in cooking). Therefore, meat marinated in curds and then cooked would have fewer micro-organisms.

2 of the "most important" developer tools

2007-11-20T15:21:00.001-08:00

Coffee powers my brain and Vim powers my coding
You can also see the "Official VIM Mug" in the background!

Bay area traffic map on the halloween evening

2007-10-31T17:52:00.001-07:00

and yes, that is my iphone ;-)

Indians and cricket - Religion or Stupidity?

2007-09-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Recently India won the much celebrated and a new cricket world cup format Twenty20

I could not be more happy after a humiliating defeat in the recent normal (one-day) world cup, but look at the sheer media attention, and the amount of money that each of these players made in comparison to our national Hockey team players who recently won the Asia Hockey Cup 2007 beating Korea 7-2 to defend the championship!

People are all ga-ga over it. Cricket fans might say that 'Cricket is a religion in India', I would really say - you are in some kind of crazy funky religion where mass hysteria is rampant, you hate the team when they loose, and worship them when they win - give me a break!

Our hockey team is pretty distraught by all this right now! And it is not really fair for them.

10 great things about testing

2007-02-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

Click: 10 great things about testing

I have seen some people frown on a testing career! Simply put it, they are just naive. Although my business card says "developer", I could have been a great QA personnel. I have great respect for any individual with a passion for QA, which makes any product presentable to the customer.

If it were just for the developers.. well, let me not write anymore

Those are some reasons why testing is great, as Murugan Pal spells it out very eligantly. I bet that the list does not stop at 10... but this is a start.

Red means STOP!

2006-12-22T14:07:00.000-08:00

oh! crap. That is my car. Plain and simple, I am going thro' hell with the insurance company right now. Even though the other driver accepted fault that she jumped the red, with the cop on scene, and the incident report clearly says so, the insurance company "respectfully denies liability"!

Now, after being robbed off my transportation vehicle for the next 2-3 weeks, I have to run around for no apparent mistake of mine!

Update [Nov 11, 2007]: The car is all fixed now - and the other driver was declared guilty by the arbitrator. Yay! I got some of my money back. But, nothing to replace all the turmoil we went through without a car for a month and a half.

Smoking, a nasty habit - takes away the best from you

2006-12-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Prolog

I took a jogging class this semester at De Anza College, to kick start my healthy living schedule. The assignment paper was to write something health related, something we like and are passionate about. And here it goes:

Introduction

Tobacco smoking is the act of burning the dried or cured leaves of the tobacco plant and inhaling the smoke for ritualistic purposes, or more commonly out of habit and to satisfy addiction. This addictive quality of cigarettes is because of the presence of a stimulant known as nicotine, which is an alkoloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) in it. Smoking, because of its addictive nature, has resulted in many a health problems. Medical research has shown over the years that smoking has resulted in major health hazards in a wide cross section of the society. In this report, a few of the major hazards of smoking are being discussed.

Cancer

I lost my grandmother to tobacco, she suffered from cancer towards the end of her life, and had a painful end. She chewed tobacco all her life, 'cancer' is one of the ill effects of tobacco.

Tobacco is linked to atleast 10 types of cancers and accounts to for 30% of all the cancer related deaths, but yet, one fourth of American lights up tobacco. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), esophagus, and bladder, and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the pancreas, cervix, kidney, stomach, and also some leukemias. Though lung cancer is a preventable disease, 87% of all the lung cancer deaths is because of tobacco.

Other effects

Though cancer is one of the major causes of deaths, Tobacco, is the major cause of heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke, and it contributes to the severity of pneumonia and asthma.

Tobacco is also linked to gum diseases, cataract, bone thinning, hip fractures and peptic ulcers. It is also

been proven that it cases fertility related issues such as miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death and more.

Not to mention the quality of life lost, smokers tend to loose friends. Based on data collected from 1995 to 1999, the CDC estimated that adult male smokers lost an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lost 14.5 years of life because of smoking.

Smoking and Depression

Data from multiple studies suggest that depression plays a role in cigarette smoking. A history of regular smoking was observed more frequently among individuals who had experienced a major depressive disorder at some time in their lives than among individuals who had never experienced major depression or among individuals with no psychiatric diagnosis.

Secondhand Smoke

This is one of the major problems I personally have faced, as a kid, I disliked the smell of the smoke, as an adult, I had to tolerate it around me. Friends, boss, colleague, everyone smokes! It is very difficult to confront them while tolerating the second hand smoke, which is causing the same ill effects as described above, may be more, while choosing not to smoke. Among other scary facts, secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.

To conclude, smoking is a nasty habit. All I can say to a smoker is to 'please quit', and spare me the trouble of secondhand smoke. “I did not pay for the cigarette. I don't want the smoke for free”.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoking

http://www.cancer.org/

http://lungusa.org/

My first interview - TestGen4Web

2006-12-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

Alright, not as big deal as it sounds, Alan decided to ask me a few questions about my experience during my project TestGen4Web,

Before boring you much, here is the link on spikedevnews.

About TestGen4Web:

I am always big on automation, call my lazy, but I hate doing repetitive jobs! Once firefox came out, and was seeing all these wonderful extensions, the idea of TG4W struck me. All I wanted to do was record all the my actions on the browser, and be able to replay them back.

The idea extended to creating automated scripts (HttpUnit, HTMLUnit, php-simpletest) using the recorded actions for nightly testing. Since my company SpikeSource is big on testing and automation, this was a easy business goal too!

After 1 year of successful deployment, here I am the proud owner of TestGen4Web with more than 30,000 downloads. If you are interested, you can download it from dev.spikesource.com or addons.mozilla.org.

I had a lot of help from some of the developers in Europe, and our inhouse UI guru Keisuke Omi .

More information about TestGen4Web on dev.spikesource.com.

Firefox 2 vs IE 7 - anti phishing results

2006-11-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

Found this on my Mozilla Developer News feed today.

Out of the 1040 known phishing sites tested, Firefox came on top of IE with better results

Mode	Sites Blocked	% Blocked
Firefox 2 Local List	820	78.85%
Firefox 2 Ask Google	848	81.54%
IE7 Auto Check OFF	16	1.54%
IE7 Auto Check ON	690	66.35%

The text from the post here

As part of our ongoing commitment to security analysis and testing we engaged SmartWare to test the effectiveness of our Phishing Protection feature. Firefox 2 Phishing Protection and IE 7 Phishing Filter were tested using know phishing sites as evaluated by the community at PhishTank. We picked PhishTank as a data source because it is completely independent of the feeds that we use to create the URL block lists. Since IE might either warn or block, either result was counted as a block for the purpose of this test. To make the test as fair as possible we counted only URL test cases where both IE and Firefox were tested within a 15 minute window and switched the order of which browser was tested first. The results are posted here.