Kiran's blog

Install Bugzilla on Shared Hosting

Kiran — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 15:54:32 +0000

Though I work with an IT major, my time at work is mostly spent on Microsoft Outlook and Excel and rarely do I get to get my hands dirty with actual code. Hence, as a hobby, I spend time building some applications in my spare time and that helps me keep in touch with coding.

I recently embarked upon a project to build a Drupal module of sizeable proportions. As I worked on it, I soon found that ideas were flowing and bugs were being discovered faster than I could keep track of them. I realized that if I was to do any serious — even if informal — development, a Project Management/Bug Management software was essential.

Having heard quite a bit about Bugzilla, I set out to install an instance for my own personal use. As it turns out getting Bugzilla working is not for the faint of heart.

The initial steps to setup Bugzilla are the same as those documented in the Bugzilla Documentation. However, here are some aspects of the installation that finally got Bugzilla working on my Shared hosting account:

Ajax-paged tables with graceful degradation in Drupal 7

Kiran — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 14:09:28 +0000

Default to DuckDuckGo!

Kiran — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 15:09:20 +0000

There are many advantages of not using Google as your primary search engine. Escaping incessant tracking across the Internet is just one such benefit. With the recent brouhaha about NSA tracking almost all of us via the PRISM program, it may be a good idea to do with less tracking around the Internet. A search engine we should all consider using instead of Google, is DuckDuckGo.

The USP of DuckDuckGo is that they don't store identifiable information about you along with the searches that you perform. Hence, even if the US Government wanted them to share data, they wouldn't have it! Yes, there is a compromise: they cannot provide you with the kind of personalized search results that Google can. However, for most generic searches, they'll do just fine.

I have personally been using DuckDuckGo for over an year now and the search results are just as great, if not better, than those that are returned by Google.

Most of us don't explicitly visit Search sites — search engines, these days, are usually integrated right into our browsers in the form of the search bar or the "Awesome Bar".

Here are a few easy steps that you can use to setup DuckDuckGo as your default search engine across all your browsers.

Mind reading with Google Glass!

Kiran — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:47:39 +0000

Google Glass is in the news these days with everyone either raving about how cool it is or about how idiotic it makes the wearer look. There is even a new term to describe anyone wearing a Google Glass: they are called "Glassholes"!

Image source: Twitter stream of @57UN

Update (02-Oct-2013): The link to the tweet, from which I originally got this image, just results in a "Page not found" error on the Twitter website. It appears that @57UN's twitter account has either been deleted or has been compromised. However, I was able to obtain a version of the above image off of Google cache and have now put it up on this page directly.

Jokes aside however, Google Glass provides serious indications for the future of augmented reality as well as Google's ambitions in that future. While Google Glass is still nascent technology with only a few niche early adopters using it today, the day can't be far where this technology is as all-pervasive as the Android phone is today.

I did not really pay much attention to Google Glass until I saw a tweet in my Twitter timeline recently with this picture. This picture, though a joke, does make me wonder whether the future will indeed be something similar.

Voting based on issues

Kiran — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:06:03 +0000

We recently came off an election in Karnataka and I watched with interest the proceedings and the result. The BJP successfully lost the only South Indian state that ever gave it a mandate and the Congress roared back to power.

While the new CM, Siddaramaiah, seems to have taken a different approach to governance than the first CM from the previous ruling party — atleast his first actions were something to do with governance and not a pilgrimage — only time will tell how effective the governance will be!

However, I can't stop thinking that we, the Indian voters, are taken too much for granted. And rightly so I regret to say. One look at the after-election analyses and you will see that the analyses are all about how the Lingayat vote was split thanks to a certain corrupt politician; not about governance, or the lack thereof. Every one of the commentators stressed on how the votes had gone based on caste. How losing certain members of the BJP had cost the party dearly in terms of votes from certain castes.

Do yourself a favor and use Password Safe

Kiran — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:32:09 +0000

We live a large part of our lives online these days. The services that we use carry sensitive and personal, data on their servers - data, which, if lost or compromised, can cause us a whole lot of worry.

We use passwords to protect that data. Many users have had their data compromised due to weak passwords and then have a hard time getting their lives back on track. I have seen many of my friends & family suffering such data compromises and the resulting embarrassment and even financial loss.

Experts reiterate a three-point security rule to ensure that loss due to a single compromised password is minimized:

Have a unique password for every website - i.e. use a different password for every online account
Make your passwords a combination of random alphabets, digits and special characters
Don't write down or share your passwords with anyone

Those rules are all good and truly help us stay safe. However, users still choose weak passwords, reuse passwords across sites or keep a written record of their passwords in some diary or piece of paper somewhere. Why?

The reason obviously is that those rules are to too damn hard to live by. I was personally guilty of reusing passwords across sites; that was before I started using Password Safe.

Automatically backup your website to Dropbox

Kiran — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 18:15:26 +0000

Until recently I have been periodically taking manual backups of the content on my website. However given that life has been extremely busy in recent times, I have often missed my backup schedule. That I had to login onto my CPanel to take the backups, then manually download them - all time consuming activities - did not help. I kept deferring my backups reasoning to myself that I hadn't made any recent updates in any case.

One day however, I found that some comments that had been left on my blogs were missing. I tried to investigate but couldn't figure out what had happened. I then encountered some missing files - again without explanation. Then my website just rolled over and died! Every time I got unsatisfactory explanations from my webhost: a planned server migraton had been cancelled; they had performed some security updates at the server level; etc. All the time they assured me that my content should be intact - well, I felt different.

That was when I decided that an Automated Backup solution was a necessity. I needed something that had minimal necessity of manual intervention.

Is honesty really the best policy?

Kiran — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:31:56 +0000

Back in 1991, on my 9th grade school trip, we had an incentive to look forward to. We were all going to be allowed access to some money to buy stuff of our choice from the shops during one of our breaks. For a 14 year old who did not normally get access to cash, this was a big deal. That opportunity - to handle cash, bargain with shopkeepers and buy stuff of our choice - was something that each one of the about 100 students in my batch looked forward to.

As it so happened, some of the boys in our group decided to step out of line and as a method of disciplining them, the teachers accompanying us decided to withhold that shopping privilege from them. Not to be out-done, they soon got in touch with their friends with requests to buy stuff on their behalf. I too got one such request from one such defaulter. Hoping to be of some help to my friend, I agreed.

An approach to creating Google+ circles

Kiran — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:12:10 +0000

Ever since Google came up with their latest challenge to Facebook in the form of Google+, there has been quite a lot of buzz about this new Social Networking platform.

Having been a person who wasn't too kind to Facebook, Google+ had the two qualities that made me decide to try it out:

An ability to control your data; Google call this Data Liberation
An ability to control what you share and with whom; Google call this Circles

Google's Circles feature has generated a lot of buzz as well as confusion. While Google has started off each one of us with a few suggestions for the circles we can organize our contacts into, I have seen numerous other websites also providing their own insights.

I thought, why not share my own insights as well! So here goes…

Android: To root or not to root

Kiran — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 11:05:58 +0000

I have been asked many times by many people: "What is root and what is the advantage of having it on my phone?". I could reply by the standard answer that we so often come across on Android forums, that if you don't know what root is you probably don't need it. However, I personally find that response a bit offending — how is anyone supposed to learn new things if everyone who knows is unwilling to clearly explain?

Though I don't claim to be an expert, but my experiences in the past year with Android has taught me enough to understand what the pros and cons are with rooting an Android device.

Here, I explain the few points that you may want to consider before you decide to root your Android phone.

Tiger! Tiger!

Kiran — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:08:35 +0000

As we drove through the Bandipur Forest in the safari jeep, the mood was getting increasingly desperate. We hadn't sighted a thing! On the safari the previous day, a lady in the seat behind me had been yapping off as though there was going to be no tomorrow and whatever chances we had had of sighting any wildlife, diminished with her high-pitch, high-volume voice regularly piercing through the forest. We pinned our exasperation on her and requested a more private safari for our next day.

Today we were on our own and yet, things had gone from bad to worse. Even with the lady's continuous commentary, we had managed to see a family of elephants yesterday. Today we hadn't even seen a langur! It was like the light rain had driven every animal into some secret hiding spot deep within the jungle.

At each fork on our trail through the forest, with each turn we took, I found myself wondering "Are we taking the wrong turn? What if there is an animal just beyond the line-of-sight on the path we aren't taking?" Turn after turn we saw only wet trees and muddy puddles.

After having fruitlessly driven through the forest for more than an hour and a half we had all but given up hope of seeing any wildlife. It was then that our luck changed.

How did Google get Apps2SD so wrong?

Kiran — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:36:58 +0000

This post is more a user's rant than an expert opinion. I have used Android for just about an year now and have wondered why certain things were the way they were. Having moved to Android from Windows Mobile 6.0, the first thing that struck me as odd was the lack of flexibility for the users to install their applications into the SD Card. That meant that the users were confined to whatever Internal Storage was available on their phones and more often than not that was very limited.

As soon as I bought my first Android phone, I started fishing around for a solution to this problem and found it in Apps2SD+ (now called Legacy Apps2SD+ or, at times, Apps2EXT). However Apps2SD+ needed root access and was tricky to set up. It took every bit of my technical acumen to understand and execute the steps it entailed. It was also risky and could have easily bricked my phone!

Hence when Google released Froyo with in-built support for Apps2SD I had high expectations. The Froyo Apps2SD turned out to be a disappointment though. I believe that Google got the design of their Apps2SD solution wrong, and although I can think of a few reasons why they might have chosen the design that they did, I cannot help but think that they could have done a better job.

Exploring Karnataka's wild side

Kiran — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:51:59 +0000

Nagarahole Wildlife Reserve

Recently, I got the opportunity to visit two of Karnataka's well known Wildlife destinations: first, as a birthday present to me, my wife planned a day visit to the Dubare Elephant camp; second, we decided to take a break from the work schedules and head off to the Nagarahole Wildlife Reserve.

Both outings were planned spontaneously via Jungle Lodges & Resorts (JLR) and turned out to be extremely enjoyable; we came back thoroughly refreshed and elated.

This blog post is to share our experience as well as some of the pictures I managed to click on these trips.

10 of my favorite photos from 2010

Kiran — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 18:29:55 +0000

2010 has not been a great year for photography. Though I did get many shots, and many good ones at that, I must say that this was the year in which Photography took a backseat. I can blame it on my move back to India; an unpredictable work schedule, difficulty getting around and slow broadband connection did not help.

However, I did get my camera out of its bag time and again and got some shots. Here are the ones I consider my favorites from among the photographs I clicked in 2010. You can click on the image to go to the original gallery where the image was hosted. Feel free to provide a rating for the image in its gallery and leave a comment.

Android Apps: Tweetdeck v/s Seesmic

Kiran — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:11:14 +0000

Update (07-Sep-2012): Seesmic has now been acquired by Hootsuite and they say "Consumer users of Seesmic are encouraged to explore new tools, apps and features available at Twitter.com". Effectively, what they seem to be saying is that general users should go and find some other client that suits their need and Seesmic will no longer be around for long. With that, I suppose, this comparison is now moot since Seesmic will soon cease to exist as a great option for general users looking for a powerful Twitter Client.

When I first started off on Twitter, Tweetdeck for Desktop was my preferred client. I found it to be extremely user friendly, feature-packed and intuitive. Once I got my HTC Desire though, I realized that the best way to use Twitter is through my mobile phone. Twitter is all about instantaneous sharing of views and opinions and my phone allowed me to do just that; it soon became my primary platform for Twitter usage and I longed for an equally feature-packed Twitter client. I longed for Tweetdeck for Android.

Though I initially used HTC Peep, the in-built Twitter client on my phone, once I discovered Seesmic for Android, there was no looking back. Seesmic had everything I was looking for and was the perfect client for me.

That is why when Tweetdeck finally got around to releasing their client for Android, I found myself in a dilemma. Should I stick with my new found loyalty to Seesmic or should I go back to Tweetdeck?

I decided to compare the two with regards to the functionality that I use most and here is what I found.

The Signature Parody

Kiran — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 15:27:59 +0000

We have all learnt that it is imperative that we read any document in its entirety before we sign it. By affixing our signatures on any legal or contractually binding document, we effectively affirm that we agree to every word that is written on it.

However, how many of us really stop to read and understand every word on that document before we sign it? Most of us don't.

What is more amazing is that people have come to expect that you don't read the document before signing it. In fact, I have had multiple experiences in India, where people clearly got irritated if I'd stopped to read the document before signing it. Somehow people in India seem to believe that we must simply put all our trust in them and sign the dotted line. They seem to believe that by reading the document first, we would be wasting their time.

Why you don't need snooze with Google Calendar

Kiran — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:51:59 +0000

Ever since I moved to Android from Windows Mobile, I have been complaining about the Android Platform's seeming limitation in handling Calendar reminders. The fact that the Android Calendar gave me only one 5-minute snooze option always troubled me and I have written about this annoyance in the past too.

I promptly bought Calendar Snooze, an application available in the Android Market which allows users to choose the duration of time for which the reminder must be snoozed, and even recommended it in one of my blog posts.

When I noticed that Google had neglected to include the feature in their much hyped Android 2.2 (Froyo) as well, I couldn't understand why Google chose to ignore such basic functionality.

However, in all my eagerness to lambast Google at their oversight, I seem to have neglected one design feature of the Google Calendar, which renders the snooze option redundant.

Of Indian Roads and Indians

Kiran — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:39:29 +0000

It is no secret that what happens on the Indian roads is best described as controlled chaos. Expecting orderly traffic while driving in India is probably not the best idea. I have driven in India since 1994; even then, each time I go abroad and return, it takes me a while to get used to the kind of driving witnessed in India.

I read somewhere that driving in India is basically pointing your vehicle in the general direction you want to go and stepping on the accelerator — and hoping to god that you don't get hit by something. That description quite summarizes what drivers in India go through every day.

Here are a few points about Indian driving and Indians that everyone who wishes to visit India and possibly drive here should know.

Android Applications - 10 of my picks

Kiran — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 10:01:25 +0000

Android is a powerful Mobile OS and it is growing. However, as I had earlier mentioned you'll need to install applications from the Android Market to tailor its behavior to your liking.

Here are some of the applications that I use frequently. These are the ones that have helped me tailor my Android experience just the way I like it.

The applications listed below are those that you can make use of without any tweaks to your phone. You do not need to be Root on your phone to run these.

Handling multiple Exchange Calendars

Kiran — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:05:22 +0000

One of the disadvantages with having to manage multiple Exchange Accounts is that it is very difficult to get a unified view of the all the accounts. Be it email or calendar schedule, each Exchange account could potentially have a different set that have to be dealt with. Microsoft Products only allow access to one Exchange account at a time, and that complicates things.

For emails I just move them into PST folders organized by project, initiative, topic, whatever the case may be. Once these emails — whichever Exchange Account they came from — are in their folders, I can easily get a chronological view of what conversations were going on related to that piece work.

Getting a similar view of appointments is trickier. I always like to know when my meetings are scheduled and ensure I am not double-booked at any particular time before I respond to meeting requests.

Managing this with two Outlook Profiles is next to impossible. However, I found a rather unique way of handing this issue. I use the "Publish to Internet" feature in Outlook 2007 to do this.

Android: First Impressions

Kiran — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:34:13 +0000

Early this year, I was looking out for a new phone. After looking around for quite a while, I finally decided to go with the HTC Desire.

Before the Desire, I had another HTC phone — the HTC TyTN running Windows Mobile 6.0. Given that I have always been — right from its Pocket PC days — a Windows Mobile devotee, my PIM is mainly based out of Outlook and Exchange. Windows Mobile 6.0 integrated beautifully with Outlook and using both of these together was extremely convenient.

Hence, moving to Android wasn't an easy decision. However rave reviews received by the Desire and the fact that I was unconvinced about the suitability of future Windows Mobile Platforms, made me take the plunge into Android.

Now that I have had my Desire for almost three months, I thought I should write about my first impressions.

The liability of a civilized society

Kiran — Sun, 23 May 2010 17:48:41 +0000

In early May, the Special Court in Mumbai convicted Ajmal Kasab for his role in the 26/11 attack on Mumbai and sentenced him to death.

Kasab is going to die, eventually. But before he is put to death, he will probably go through several appeals, mercy petitions, so on and so forth; he might actually die of old age before he is hanged! Take the case of another Pakistani terrorist on the Indian Death Row: Afzal Guru. Guru was supposed to be hanged in 2006, but still remains on death row. The government seems to be incapable of taking a decision one way or another!

When Kasab was sentenced, it was quickly proclaimed by many as a victory for the Indian judiciary. I was amazed at the number of people, including the media, who liked to believe that it meant closure for the numerous families who were directly affected by the horrible attack on Mumbai. However, I can't help but believe that this is just a shallow victory.

Kasab was undoubtedly the killer of numerous innocent people, but he was just a pawn. While there is no doubt in anybody's mind that he deserves to die, there also has to be a realization that while India has been able to bring this one man to justice the organization and the network of terrorists that backed him up that day still remain at large.

Isle of Wight

Kiran — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:41:21 +0000

Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight is a small island to the south of mainland England. Accessible by ferries, the island is a picturesque holiday destination. Any tourist will immediately be awestruck by the natural beauty of this place.

Though this was our third stint in the UK we had never, before now, been able to make it to this island. Given that, we took the opportunity over this Easter weekend to make the trip to Isle of Wight. Since the island is a small one and we had ample time on our hands, we were assured that the holiday will be a relaxed get together with friends and the kids.

The planning for the trip began more than a month and half in advance. There were a lot of things to coordinate: travel, stay, sightseeing, entertainment for the kids, and most importantly food!

Why the Windows Phone isn't exciting

Kiran — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:02:38 +0000

Microsoft came out with the Windows Phone 7 Series during the Mobile World Congress in February 2010. With the Windows Phone, Microsoft has drastically changed the way they intend for the user to interact with their devices. It has been touted as the Mobile OS that will enable Microsoft to capture the market back from Apple's iPhone.

I have been a devoted Windows Mobile user since my days with Pocket PC 2002 on my Compaq iPAQ 3850.

When Apple came out with the iPhone, it was definitely worth sitting up and taking notice! It was a new concept and a glamorous one at that. Suddenly, the Windows Mobile looked jaded and just another old phone. However, I stuck with it primarily due to the fact that the iPhone was, and still is, too locked in. I cannot install anything or do anything on the phone without Apple explicitly allowing me to do so. The only other way is to "jailbreak" the phone; something that would void my warranty.

Devices running Windows Mobile were a stark contrast — though they embodied flexibility and customizability with numerous vendors providing applications that added great functionality, they lacked touch-friendliness. With Windows Mobile 7, or the Windows Phone 7 Series as Microsoft like to call the new version of their Mobile OS, they have brought in a whole new paradigm! It is no longer a computer on a phone; it is a consumer phone with possibilities.

The Very Hidden Sheet in Excel

Kiran — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:22:00 +0000

All of us know that Microsoft Excel allows us to hide certain worksheets from view. Hiding sheets helps us in ensuring that any background lookup data or reference data that you want to utilize in your spreadsheets remain neatly tucked away from general view.

You may also want to prevent users from viewing certain numbers that are used in calculation on your spreadsheets. Hiding worksheets simply makes the workbook clutter free and helps readers focus on the spreadsheets that really matter.

The only disadvantage with simply hiding your worksheets is that it is equally easy to unhide them. Any Excel user worth his salt knows how to find and unhide a hidden sheet. To prevent users from unhiding your worksheets, you may choose to protect the workbook. However when you protect a workbook, you are also preventing the users from a myriad of other functionality that they may genuinely require.

Are we losing our linguistic wealth?

Kiran — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:27:31 +0000

Language is a means of communication. As long as you are able to get your message across to the other person, the purpose of communication is served. At least that is what I always thought until I read this excellent piece about the death of a language — the Bo language. The piece has been authored by Mr. Ishaan Tharoor on the Time Magazine's website.

As per the statistics published in the Ethnologue, there are around 7000 languages in the world today, 26% of which are spoken by less than a thousand people each. It also states that about 94% of the world's languages are spoken by only 6% of its population!

Please advice

Kiran — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:02:33 +0000

The eccentricities in the English language has long been a subject of discussion, debate and even ridicule! English is full of similar sounding words, weird spellings and punctuation that, when in the wrong place, can alter the meaning of the sentence! While English and its eccentricities can throw off any newbie, even veterans at times fall prey to them.

This may look like a very trivial and even banal subject to blog about. However, having come across multiple instances where even seasoned veterans make mistakes in choosing the right words for their professional communication, I thought the risk of sounding repetitive was worth taking.

Among various instances of such mistakes in communication, the most common mistake arguably is the use of the phrase "Please advice"!

Shooting Snow

Kiran — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:04:30 +0000

Croydon, the place I stay in London, got nearly 6 inches of snow today. As was expected train services were disrupted with only minimal services running this morning.

Given that on a normal day I take an hour and half to get to work, I decided that it was best if I worked from home today given all the snow-caused disruption. The morning was fairly busy with emails pouring in as usual. However, towards the afternoon, the load tapered off giving me some time to nip out of the house and click some shots of the snow covered neighborhood.

Here are some of the shots that I got today.

10 of my favorite photos from 2009

Kiran — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:30:22 +0000

In the year 2009, I have had many opportunities to click, what I thought were, good photographs. Hence, it might be a good time to look back on all those photographs and select my favorites.

Here are the photographs that I consider my favorites. You can click on the image to go to the original gallery where the image was hosted. Feel free to provide a rating for the image in its gallery and leave a comment.

Ad-Blocking: A debate about ethics

Kiran — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:20:56 +0000

I am an active user and advocate of Mozilla Firefox. I also am a fan of its Ad-blocking extension - AdBlock Plus. I have considered AdBlock Plus a very useful extension that allowed me to get rid of all annoying and pesky pop-ups and banner ads that otherwise clutter my browsing experience.

However, a recent blog by Vaibhav Gadodia titled "When will people stop stealing content" raised a very interesting point; it gave me food for thought. In his blog Vaibhav argues that since the advertising pays for the content, blocking those ads deprives the site owner the revenues that he would have earned had those ads been visible. Vaibhav goes on to compare the online content monetized by ads to an "honor system" of selling goods, wherein the users are free to pick up the goods as long as they drop the recommended amount into the jar.

Equating ad-blocking to stealing, in my opinion, is a radical generalization and I disagree with it. Here's why.