PC Adventures - Part 2

My new office PC is finally setup. I received a Dell Latitude E6420 with Windows 7 installed. 
After a long bout of XP, this new OS is really refreshing. I have been subjected to the pain of  several Vista machines at home so I was expecting the worst from this version of Windows.


The Dell machine itself is designed better than the  bulky designs of the previous Latitudes that lacked finesse or taste. The new PC had curvy lines that softened the rectangles and made it easier to look at. I liked the soft impact feel of the keyboard. The machine is much lighter than the previous ones and the battery lasts longer. I wished the screen would have been larger. It is not heating up as the previous Dell and it is very quiet. It comes with Bluetooth so at some point in the future, I will switch over to Bluetooth accessories.


Windows 7 has the feel of Windows 95 in terms of the maturity of the product. My machine had adequate RAM and a fast HD so the experience is pleasant. Thunderbird, Chrome and even IE are easier to use in this machine. I stopped using Firefox altogether. 


 I got started up fairly quickly after dropping my files from the backup into the Documents folder. The new OS even has backup feature built into it. Wireless networking works much better in this OS. But the most important feature is the quick startup and shutdown. It took less than 2 minutes to restart the machine. XP would have taken more than 7 mins. This make the machine a much greener alternative as this will save a lot of power.


I used the following note to import the itunes library into the new installation: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451


The bottom line for me is this. I was seriously considering a switch over to Macintosh after the bad experience with XP and with Vista. But with the new Dell Latitude E6420 and Windows 7, I am dropping that project. 

Adventures in moving to a new PC - Part 1

I requested for a new office PC and I am moving to my new PC. I am stuck by how painful the experience is. After getting used to the Apple devices (ipad, ipod, etc.) I am now very aware of all the pains that I am putting up with my PC.

Moving or Copying Files and Folders

I am simply trying to copy my documents and other folders to an external drive so that I can copy them back in my new PC. Currently I am at Windows XP. It made me realize how deficient the Windows Copy command is. It routinely stopped and gave me complaining about something or the other and gave me no way to continue with my action unless I started over. For example, it stopped if a file is in use. It stopped if it encountered a file that it thought had a long file name. If Windows can create that file in it's file system, I dont understand why it cant delete it. The fact that Microsoft could write an article to deal with this issue is baffling to me:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081

I finally deleted my offending file with the long name by using the tips at:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/23801-45-delete-folder

>>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

 

Path Too Long

To work around this problem, reduce the length of the path to less than 256
characters.

In Windows Explorer, select the folder one level above the folder that
returns the error. Right-click the folder returning the error and then click
Rename. Rename the folder to reduce the number of characters used in the
folder name.

Rename the folder so that the target files that are deeper than the MAX_PATH
no longer exist. If you do this, start at the root folder (or any other
convenient place), and then rename folders so that they have shorter names.

Rename subfolders in the path to a file so that the total path or file name
is less than the max_path setting or 256 characters. Start with subfolders
that are closer to the root so that you are always working with less than
256 characters.


You cannot delete a file or a folder on an NTFS file system volume
http://support.microsoft.com/defau [...] -us;320081 

>>

SyncBack utility

Finally I gave up Windows commands and downloaded the freeware SyncBack. It was a breeze to use. It still could not deal with long name issues but it made my task of backups much easier.

Essentially, I am copying my Documents and Settings folder to an external drive so that I can copy back the contents. 

To Be Continued...

The man he killed - Thomas Hardy

I am watching "Civil War" - Documentary by Ken Burns. The battle scenes are really sad to watch and the causality figures in those battles are stunning. You get the true meaning of the term "Cannon Fodder" by listening to the battle descriptions. The most poignant moment for me was the reference to Thomas Hardy's poem: The man he killed, which describes the meaninglessness of war and how people rationalize the business of fighting wars:

"Had he and I but metBy some old ancient inn,We should have sat us down to wetRight many a nipperkin!

"But ranged as infantry,And staring face to face,I shot at him as he at me,And killed him in his place.[5]

"I shot him dead because—Because he was my foe,Just so: my foe of course he was;That's clear enough; although

"He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,Off-hand like—just as I—Was out of work—had sold his traps—No other reason why.

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!You shoot a fellow downYou'd treat, if met where any bar is,Or help to half-a-crown."

By the way many of the Civil War battle descriptions also reminded me of the Pink Floyd Song:

Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows
It's not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
And the general sat
And the lines on the map
Moved from side to side

Story about the largest mall in the world located in China

What a Bizarre story! If this is how China achieves the huge growth rates, this is also how its bubble will burst.

Here is another evidence:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/2009/04/chinas_olympic_venues_now.html

Yet another one is here:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2011/02/high-speed_rail_china

However, this article says it is the strategy of China to keep building.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/weekinreview/07wines.html

>>"Here in the nation that is too big to fail, as long as the bad loans don’t overwhelm the good, the waste is tolerable. That, to me, is the essence of the Chinese strategy,Just keep the machine going fast enough.”>>

I am not really convinced this is going to work.

This is the same argument that we heard during the dot com bubble, the housing bubble and the other bubbles of the Bush years!

Emancipation of Serfs in Russia

Since I have been watching the Civil War documentary from Ken Burns, this article caught my attention.

At St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 3, 1861, Alexander II of Russia emancipated the serfs. His justification to his nobles : “If we don’t give the peasants freedom from above, they will take it from below.” He abolished serfdom by imperial fiat.

Watching Ken Burns' Civil War Documentary

I started watching Ken Burns' Civil War documentary series in Netflix. I think this subject is a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of modern American Politics, American Wars and even the American Psyche.

The willingness of a huge population to fight a war for a fundamentally unjust cause;

the ability of even honorable people to rationalize their unjust cause in the name of patriotism and in the name of rights;

that so many people fight so hard for for their rights to deny rights for other people;

the willingness of the people to continue tragic and costly wars that cost huge number of lives;

patience (or helplessness) of the people in putting up with feckless generals who make stupid and arrogant mistakes resulting in the death of hundreds and thousands of people;

the generals with huge political ambitions and the corrupt ones who blur the lines between war and politics and business;

that the war is really cruel, for it was really sad and gut wrenching to hear about some of the battles and its causalities.

And sadly, every one of the above statement is still true and is being clearly demonstrated up until the very latest wars and the very latest politics of today...

I thought that the political success of Lincoln during the Civil war was much more impressive than the military success of the Civil war generals. Union lost more people than the Confederates and the Confederates had more impressive military victories and the Union had more bone headed losses. How did he keep his support through the war and manage to get reelected impressively for the second term in the middle of such uncertainties? And I'm still not clear about why the Union decide to fight this war with such conviction. So far, it doesn't appear to me that most people in the Union were prepared to spend so much money and lives to free the slaves. So why did they fight so much?

Need to finish watching the series and perhaps start reading Lincoln biographies...

Doctor Watson

Inflection Point: An event that changes the way we think and act. -Andy Grove

Watson winning Jeopardy is an inflection point. I think the comparable event is the release of the Mosaic browser. At that time, we could read email, subscribe to mailing lists, connect to the modem and read uunet archives. Even though there were not many sites to visit and O'Reilly published all of the useful sites in a single book, we could see the possibilities and feel the excitement at that time. It took several years to realize those possibilities though.

Presently we routinely dial into help desks and cellphones to talk to the computers. Google voice search really works. And we now have Watson, a clear inflection point that shows off the advances in Computers understanding Humans. Will there be pitfalls out of this advance, of course! But not if you believe this guy....

>>

Watson Graduates From Game Contestant to Physician Assistant

Quoting from this article:

If science fiction author and physician Michael Crichton were still alive, he might be crafting his latest take on technology run amok using the Watson project as inspirational fodder.

Not to worry, Durlach explained. With so many years of training and practice, doctors may be the ultimate information judges -- ever using it but never yielding to it.

"You know physicians," he said. "They see themselves as the chief decision makers. The very tradition they come from would suggest a very, very low probability that they would take the computer's decision over their own."

>>

Yeah Right!

Low Cost Drip Irrigation From Silicon Valley

This is a very promising story about a very low cost drip irrigation system, DripTech from Palo Alto, for small farm plot farmers around the world (India, china, etc.)

I grew up in a home overlooking small plot agricultural fields where they were growing crops like: Turmeric, Sugar Cane and Rice using the water from a canal off of the river Cauveri. During the monsoon rains and in the wet season, when there would be water in the canal, the field would be green and fertile. During the dry years, the talk of the community around us would be about when the government was going to release water in the canal. The water came from Mettur Dam in the river Cauveri.

Later on, the government subsidized electricity for the water pumps and the pumps would irrigate the land with water from Bore wells. Clearly, I could see a lot of wasted water compared to the drip and sprinkler irrigated farms that I see in California.

There is already a lot of water wars in southern india. More than 80% of the farmers in india are small plot farmers owning 1-5 hectares of land with average plot size around 1 hectare. Their monthly income is between Rs 1500 and Rs 8300. Cost of this system can be as low as Rs 6500.

If this approach takes root (no pun intended) this can be really really good for the small farmers.

Canon T3i DSLR has been released and it is not much better than T2i

According to the PCMag article, Canon T3i is not much better than T2i. The specs are the same, it just has a 3 inch retractable LCD screen compared to T2i. It is always good to know that the technology you bought did not get obsoleted barely 2 months after purchase.

color theme for emacs

I used to put a lot of color customization variables in my .emacs. It is nice to see color themes package for emacs. I got the package from:

http://www.nongnu.org/color-theme/#sec5

unzipped it into my home and added the following to my .emacs. It just worked.

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/colortheme/color-theme-6.6.0/")

(require 'color-theme)

(eval-after-load "color-theme"

'(progn

(color-theme-initialize)

(color-theme-hober)))

It is nice to see emacs dragged kicking and screaming into the easier way of doing things. Stallman would certainly not approve of this, im sure....

Quote From Newton

If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." - Isaac Newton

(latin equivalent: nanos gigantium humeris insidentes)

David Brooks Column: Amy Chua Is a Wimp

I do not often agree with Brooks, but boy, does he sense here. I am starting some projects at my work with several disparate teams and his points about participation in a group and the collective intelligence of a group ring so true.

Also, I can now explain why my grades sucked during my first year of college :)

Unmuting comcast DVR

Yesterday, my comcast dvr suddenly went mute. I can see the picture but there is no sound.

Instead of calling comcast which will first make me go through dumb 101 troubleshooting procedures, i googled: comcast dvr unmuting

And I found this fix in 1 min:

1. Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
2. Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
3. Enter code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
4. Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
5. Enter code 00141.
6. Press whatever button you want to map the mute function to.

from: here

Almond Breeze, Silk Pure Almond Spark Fight in Dairy Case - WSJ.com

Singing the virtues of Almond Milk...

Almond Breeze, Silk Pure Almond Spark Fight in Dairy Case - WSJ.com

CAN 35MM SLR LENSES BE USED ON DIGITAL CAMERAS?

If you take a 35 mm SLR lens and divide it's focal length by 1.6 you get the equiv dslr lens focal length. For example, if you take an 80mm lens of 35mm SLR, the equiv DSLR focal length is 50 mm.

The conversion table is at:

http://www.porters.com/LENS%20COMPATIBILE.pdf

Russia in color, a century ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Russia in color, a century ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Absolutely gorgeous color pictures recalling a different time and a different place (or is it really?)!

First book of the new year

I persisted and finished through Patrick O'Brian's 4th Aubrey-Maturin Novel: The Mauritius Command. Once I got the time to read it, the book was such a page turner. But being a historical novel and as it was written by Patrick O'Brian, the book was fairly complex to read. Patrick uses a lot of complex and somewhat obsolete words and expressions and ofcourse there are a lot of nautical terms. But once I got over those issues and got used to reading these books, the humor, the plot and the action kept me completely hypnotized.

Here is the review of Patrick's Aubrey-Maturin series in nytimes book review:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D9113CF935A35752C0A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Here are the highlights of that review that made me hooked on to these Novels:

=========

On the foundations of this friendship, Mr. O'Brian reconstructs a civilization. The Royal Navy at the beginning of the 19th century was a world of extraordinary breadth and complexity. Its hundreds of ships, the larger of them regular floating cities with close-packed populations of 1,200 souls, allowed Britain first to survive and then to prevail in a struggle whose cost and size would have been unimaginable only a generation earlier. These sailing ships -- today reduced to quaint and soothing images on wall calendars -- were in their time the most complicated machines on earth, and the deadliest.

Patrick O'Brian presents the lost arcana of that hard-pressed, cruel, courageous world with an immediacy that makes its workings both comprehensible and fascinating. All the marine hardware is in place and functioning; the battles are stirring without being romanticized (this author never romanticizes); the portrayal of life aboard a sailing ship is vivid and authoritative.

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