Weekend

This weekend happened to be a full fledged roaming weekend to me. Saw a couple of movies & got a few dvd's. Apart from them I found a few things about programming.

This weekend I had hoped to write the code to blank out a cd-rw using libburn/nautilus-cd-burn. Finally they created all sorts of problems that I had no other option but to spend my time analysing a lot about those 2 libraries. It seems basically nautilus-cd-burn uses cdrecord for burning, it's more like a wrapper library with a good amount of advanced functions. As for Libburn it's the perfect library but the development is very slow. I think a C# wrapper to it would be real nice. Thats would make lots of things easy for me. There are 2 roads b4 me now...... 1. Either use cdrecord (which somehow I'm not comfortable with) 2. Libburn - This lacks a lot of features, but it's a library. To use this, I have to concentrate on creating a wrapper to libburn; to make things simple for me. Before choosing one of the ways, I have decided to understand/learn all theoretical concepts related to optical media burning. Few days of reading is something which lies b4 me.

Meanwhile I have to improve the gui for this. Lots of work to be done......

Sleepless Days

After a very long time, I'm back to my routine of sleeping less in the nights & more in the daytime. For almost couple of weeks I'm sleeping at 1.30 - 2.00 in the morning. For the past 3 days the reason I stay awake is valid, IMHO. Y'day I did the samething that I have been doing for the 2 nights b4 that. I redesigned the basic window for my app using GTK.ActionEntry. Man, Gtk is so cool. That to with the C# wrapper it's too simple to code (IMHO). The Window is ready now, I have to think about the rest.

Now, that I'm atleast doing what I intended to, I can tell what this app of mine is gonna do. I'm planning to develop a Gtk based CD burning app. But the probs that I face now is how to go about this. K3B is the best CD curning app available for Linux, IMHO. It uses cdrecord & other cdrtools. I dunno whether to use this or libburn (the development for this is very slow) or libnautilus-burn (this might be a good choice). For now I'm just gonna use libburn to erase the CD, this I hope to finish over the weekend. Then, I have to learn a lot about libnautilus-burn & see if it's fine to use that.

This is the big picture, It's gonna take lots of time & ofcourse, hardwork to get something done. I hope I can get this done.

Thoughts

Being a M/F programmer for sometime, I think I'm not thinking like an App Developer (end user s/w). I sat with Monodevelop & started with the glade file I had designed. Then suddenly, I wanted to do everything from scratch, i.e to not use Glade but to do everything in the code with GTK. I think it was a really gud thing, 'cause I atleast get a fair chance to understand how the widgets r used in GTK. Finally it was 1.30 in the morning, when I finished the coding for the window I had designed earlier using Glade.

Now I have to make a few careful choices on how to go from here. I want the app to be modular, so that it wud be easier to program. That can be achieved, I think, without much probs. The actual problem is that, I have decided what this app shud do.... But the irony is, I dunno how to do :-)

Anyway I'm enjoying C# & GTK...... Maybe my 15 minutes wud come sooner than I presume....

Mono, Glade & Me.....

Atlast I surprised myself. I successfully downloaded Mono 1.1.4 & installed the same on my slack. Then I sat with Glade to design the thing (I don't wanna say what app I'm planning) that I had in mind. That was when I realized that I forgot the little bit about GTK that I had learned a while back. But anyway that's not a probs. I'm sure I can get back to pace in a short while. The good thing is that I have started something seriously. If I can get a basic working model, then I wud feel good.

Y'day was a real bad day, too much of work. Today I plan to give a read thru the GTK+ tutorial that I printed long ago (I have to find out where it is in the mess, that I call my room). Then I question myself what I wanna do ? I'm somehow not content with what I, already, am. Should do something different..... But the question is WHAT?

This weekend was one of those rare ones, when I miss catching a movie. I was feeling tired & desired to fiddle with my comp & get some sleep. But I ended up playing games with PS2.

Incase some of you wonder what Mono/Glade/GTK means....

Mono - An opensource implementation of MS .NET for Linux, OSX (MAC) & Windows. A gem of a programming platform.
GTK+ - It's a toolkit to build anything. GNOME is an amazing example.
Glade - A GUI designer for GTK. Speeds up ur Application Development time.

Today

Today's a really good day. One of my cousin's got married & somehow I feel that Marriages are real tiresome.But anyway due to our traditions & comedies we just can't help it. I finished POP: Sands of Time y'day. Somehow I really find myself loving the game, it's too good.

I talked with Manoj & Vaish y'day to do a raincheck on their marriage life. It seems Manoj is torturing Vaishu within a week of their marriage :-) Juz kidding, they are doing just fine. Some of us from bistece have started a blogspot, ofcourse Its due to a brainstorm from Yours Truly.

Firefox

If u r reading this in a browser other than Firefox & have never used Firefox then it's time you gave it a try. I have been using Firefox since v0.7 & today it seems there are 25 million souls out there who are using Firefox. It's such an amazing browser, I'm using this at my work place (shhh...).

Try it, I'm sure it would sweep you off your feet.

Past few days

It's really a wonderful place but the weather was more like chennai. I thought it would be a bit cool as it's in the mountains..... For the past few days I have been concentrating on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. It's a really cool game. I have finished more than 90% of it & look forward to wrap it up by this weekend. I should ask someone to get POP:Warrior Within when they come back to India.

My cousin is getting married tomorrow & I'm sure her married life is gonna be great. This weekend I'm planning to sit with mono. I hear from everyone that C# is pretty easy to learn. Then there's the Assembler stuff which I have to concentrate on & ofcourse I shud allocate sometime for PS2. It looks as if 24 hours is just not enuf for me..... :-)

The Kid in me

Atlast I got my PS2 on Monday. It's time for me to act my age & use it extensively. Now the major probs is the daily soaps in the T.V. My mom watches some of them & I hardly get a hour (after a long day at office) to play. I think it's time to get a new T.V (sony, ofcourse). Being a guy who's addicted AOK series, other strategy games & NFS series. I have found my love for action in POP:sands of time. It's an wonderful game, with the nibble prince doing all types of cool movements.

I hope to get a POP: Warrior within soon. Apart from games, I haven't done much this week.
I just formulated a plan for my Mono learning. I'm thinking of developing something (I don't wanna say what as of now) using Mono. The little bit of C I knew during my college days is nowhere to be found in my rusty brain. These days it's just cobol & other M/F stuff which I think about.

I know that C# is very easy & hence I wanna do something productive with it. 'cause being an ardent Linux user, I think it's high time I gave something back. Let us see how my plans work out.

Movies atlast

It's been a long time since I saw some Movie. Mostly 'cause I broke my hand & was handicapped for the past month. But atlast I'm back in action. This Saturday I saw not 1, not 2 but 4 movies.

I saw BLACK on saturday. It really was good. Actually I thought it would be boring, but then it was very very good. It's a film of different genre & a must watch. Rani, Amitabh & the little Rani (I dunno the gals name) were too good. Then I got 3 movies in Landmark. Lakshya, The Village & A Walk in the Clouds. Once I got back home in the evening, I started with The Village & finished with Lakshya (around 3.00 AM, when I hit the sack).

I felt A walk in the clouds was pretty good of the lot. A different Keanu Reeves was there to watch.
I can easily recollect 2 r 3 Indian movies, which pick their basic plot from this movie.
Another weekend has gone & a long week ahead.

I'm looking fwd to the Wayanad trip that we (our college guys) are making this weekend.

Fun with Ubuntu

If you know me & if you are reading this, then you very well know that I'm in love with Linux. If you know this & know what Linux is, then you may also know that I like GNOME very much.

Ubuntu is a new kid in the block, Even though its new it's based on the big dad DEBIAN. whats in Ubuntu that's not available in the other distros out there ? I dunno. I just know GNOME blends pretty well with Ubuntu. I dunno whether GNOME was made for Ubuntu or Ubuntu was made for Gnome, but they really make a good marriage.

I installed Ubuntu for the first time more than a month back, back then I had a bit of probs. X didn't start automatically & I had to make some changes. It was not a probs for me, As I'm a slack user I usually like the adventure in doing everything by hand. The major app that I missed was KPPP. The only reason why I have KDE in my systems. It's such a wonderful dialup tool.

I just uninstalled Ubuntu without even trying to connect to Internet, using the gnome-network tool (it's a good starter but pales when compared to the functionality offered by KPPP). Yesterday, somehow I got the itch to install Ubuntu again. Installed it & to my surprise X started on its own (dunno how). Then I wanted to browse net using Ubuntu. Tried the Gnome-network tool & failed. My modem is one of those for which you should not wait for the dial tone. this option was missing in Gnome-Network tool. Then I found that Ubuntu installs Wvdial.

I used to use wvdial as my connectivity tool, long back when KPPP hadn't matured. But the funny thing was I forgot the options that shud be used to enable "do not wait for dial tone". Then after some trial & error, my brain started working (after a long time:-^)).

Then came the most surprising part, previously sometime back I had lots of problems trying to connect to net using wvdial in SUSE/SLACK mostly 'cause my ISP (BSNL) has some horrible authentication method instead of VSNL (my previous ISP) & It took me a lot of time & effort to fix this.

But y'day once the wvdial.conf was ready, I just ran wvdial & it got connected happily. It was so good. The only hindrance in me using Ubuntu was down. Then I opened the popular (not popular among Slackies) Synaptic, it had a neat interface & was pretty good. That was basically what I accomplished y'day.

Am I gonna replace my Slack with Ubuntu ? NO. But Ubuntu is gonna be my secondary OS & maybe in time Ubuntu might become my primary os, provided it doesn't succumb under the pressure I give to it :-^)

Ubuntu has impressed me so much, that I have downloaded the y'days ISO (development ISO). let us see how it fares.

Long way from 8085

During my college days there was this 8085/86 Assembler programming lab for a semester. It happened to be the only Lab which I really hated partly 'cause of Assembler & mostly 'cause of my Prof who handled the lab.

She was pretty brainy but considered that the marks that we get in exams reflect our intelligence. So arrogant & ignorant she was. I told her openly once, that she's wrong in thinking like that.
'Cause history says Einstein was a poor student during his school days.

I'm not implying that I'm Einstein :-^), but I ,certainly, am not what she thought I wud be.

I'm currently learning Assembler/370 Programming. It's a bit tough, but then what's easy in life ?

My plans for Mono haven't changed, I'm unable to find time due to this new ASM requirement.

Gud news

I should have posted this y'day, but then y'day was a busy day (after how long?).

Couple of my college friends, Manoj & Vaishu got married. It was really good to be there, few of us went in the morning to the marriage & it was so much fun. I miss the college days, when I was the perfect example for being irresponsible :-^)

I feel really sleepy now & am looking forward to go home & hit the sack. I hope to start with Mono sometime this week. (maybe today?). The weekend is so far away:-( hope time runs away fastly....