Over Here http://vivin.net Over Here... en-us Being a part of history... http://vivin.net/journal/11/4/2008/393/ http://vivin.net/journal//4/2008/393/ Being part of a historically significant event is not something everyone can claim, and this is why I feel so privileged to be part of one today. This was the very first election I voted in since I got my citizenship last year, and I can't find words to d... historically significant event is not something everyone can claim, and this is why I feel so privileged to be part of one today. This was the very first election I voted in since I got my citizenship last year, and I can't find words to describe my pride in being a part of the greatest democracy on earth, and also being part of a historically significant moment in this nation's history. 232 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this nation gets its first African-American President.

I just heard McCain's speech where he conceded the election to Obama. I've always admired Senator McCain; his (pre-campaign) moderate views have always appealed to me. I was quite touched when I heard his speech, especially on his emphasis on how all of us need to rally together as Americans (in spite of repeated booings from the audience, which he asked them to stop) behind President-elect Obama. His core message was that in spite of all our differing views and opinions, the one thing we have in common is that we are all Americans and as such we all have to work together to take this country through the difficult times it is facing.

This campaign has been a long and hard one, but at the end of it all I think we can all say that this election has been a shining example of the best system of governance in the world - democracy. I'm looking forward to the future with a lot of hope. The next four years are going to be full of change. I hope it is a change for the better and I think we can make it so if we all rally behind the President as Americans, because it's not the President that makes America a great nation. Americans make America a great nation.

Update:
I just heard Obama's victory speech. I wonder... will children be learning about it in school a hundred years from now? I think they will and they should be, because what I heard was that America has not lost its way. It is still a shining beacon of democracy to the world. This election just proved it. ]]> Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:27:00 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath BS http://vivin.net/journal/10/29/2008/392/ http://vivin.net/journal//29/2008/392/ ]]> Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:30:20 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath My new T-Mobile G1 Android Phone http://vivin.net/journal/10/21/2008/391/ http://vivin.net/journal//21/2008/391/ So I got my T-Mobile G1 Android phone yesterday, and boy am I excited! I had mixed feelings about it initially because I wasn't so sure of the form factor. I remember thinking that it looked a little clunky, but now that I have it here, in my hand, I have... T-Mobile G1 Android phone yesterday, and boy am I excited! I had mixed feelings about it initially because I wasn't so sure of the form factor. I remember thinking that it looked a little clunky, but now that I have it here, in my hand, I have to say that it feels well-made and rather solid. The exterior is made of plastic, and it feels smooth to the touch and not cheap at all. The keyboard slides out smoothly and I've had no problem typing on it. The interface is pretty snappy. I was actually surprised at how smooth and responsive it was. As far as the interface is concerned, the only issue I have is with the zooming. It may just be that I haven't figured out to activate it reliably. I guess they had to go with this method because Apple is trying to patent the "pinch" motion for zooming. I think that is completely stupid, of course, and the patent office should throw it out.

Anyway, so once I picked up the phone I opened up the package and carefully laid everything out. T-Mobile sent me another SIM card with it, which didn't work; I guess you have to activate it. But that really wasn't a problem since I have my old SIM card. Once I put it in the phone and hooked up the new battery, I started up the phone. When it firsts starts up, it asks you for your Google account information so that you can sync everything with your phone. As soon as it synced up (which happened within a matter of seconds), I was good to go. I started off by trying to import my contacts from the SIM card. This is where I came across a problem. Apparently (I could be wrong, I was too impatient to explore more options) you can't import all your SIM contacts in one go. You have to do it one by one. I found that a little annoying. You can either import your contacts one-by-one, or import them all in one go by hitting the Menu button and then choosing the Import all option. As soon as I had my contacts imported, I started exploring the other options. The home screen is pretty sweet. You can drag and drop icons on there, and swipe left and right to either add more icons or run google search. In addition to GMail, you can add other POP3/IMAP accounts and you can also use other IM networks in addition to GTalk. The G1 also has a music player and a bunch of sample tracks (including Flight of the Conchord's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room"). The phone doesn't have a headphone jack, so you have to get a USB to 3.5mm converter. The Bluetooth works fine and synced up to the Hands-free Link in my Acura without any problem. Although, like the iPhone, you can't transfer files via bluetooth. I imagine that they will fix this eventually. The phone also has a feature where you can set up a "pattern" to unlock it. You have to "draw" a pattern on the screen connecting nine dots (laid in a 3x3 grid pattern) to unlock the phone. The other cool thing was the "Compass Mode" in the Google Maps street view. The phone adjusts the street view based on where you're pointing it, and so the scene on the phone actually moves when you move the phone. It's pretty neat!

So, my opinion? As far as a phone (or PDA) goes, I think that the G1 is pretty solid. I know that some reviewers claimed that they didn't think it would really appeal to most people. However, I think that it will. It has a pretty slick interface and a lot of neat features. Additionally, I think the demographic it will appeal to most, is people like me - developers and people who like to play with neat gadgets. I know that once I get some more time on my hands, I'm going to try and develop stuff on it. iPhone killer? I don't know. But I think the G1's strength is that it is completely open. In effect, it is the antithesis to the iPhone, or the anti-iPhone. Google doesn't control the G1 (or Android) as strictly as Apple controls the iPhone, and especially with regard to the SDK. Google seems to want to encourage developers whereas Apple seems to want to encourage them only as long as they play by Apple's rules. Consider also the fact that if you do want to develop for the iPhone, you can only do it on a Mac. Whereas you can develop apps that will run on Android on Windows, Mac, or Linux. I guess we'll have to wait and see. But for now, I'm just happy to have a cool new toy er... I mean, phone!

Update

I've noticed a lot of queries to this blog post regarding the importing of SIM contacts into the G1. The process is quite simple:
  • Swipe the dock at the bottom of the screen upwards to access the G1's menu.
  • Select Contacts from the menu.
  • Hit the Menu button and then select Settings
  • You should now see "Sync Groups" and "SIM contacts importer"
  • Select SIM contacts importer. You should now be able to import your contacts.
  • If you want to import them all in one go, hit Menu and then select Import all
As a general rule, if you're having trouble finding (extra) options, hit the Menu button. It should show you a few more options.


The G1's outer box
The G1's outer box

The G1's inner box
The G1's inner box

The G1 inside the box
The G1 inside the box

The G1's accessories and manuals
The G1's accessories and manuals. The accessories you get are a carrying case, battery, headphones, USB cable, and charger. Oh, and you get a SIM card too (if you ordered through T-Mobile's website)

The G1 inside the box
The G1 inside the box

The T-Mobile Android G1
The T-Mobile Android G1

G1 side view
G1 side view

G1 keyboard flipped out
G1 keyboard flipped out

G1 home screen
G1 keyboard flipped out

G1 menu
G1 menu

G1 dialer
G1 dialer

G1 displaying Google Maps
G1 displaying Google Maps

G1 displaying Google Maps (side view)
G1 displaying Google Maps (side view)

G1 displaying Google Maps Satellite View (side view)
G1 displaying Google Maps Phoenix Satellite View (side view)

G1 displaying Google Maps Street View
G1 displaying Google Maps Street View

G1 vivin.net
G1 displaying vivin.net

The G1 in its case
The G1 in its case
]]> Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:16:04 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath More pretentious Haikus http://vivin.net/journal/10/3/2008/390/ http://vivin.net/journal//3/2008/390/ balmy summer night someone else, also alone feelings shared --- Listening Song of an Ancient City And it gives me Strength --- Digital stream weaves And you search for love In its warp and weft --- words that leave my hand feelings on a screen I la...
balmy summer night
someone else, also alone
feelings shared

---

Listening
Song of an Ancient City
And it gives me Strength

---

Digital stream weaves
And you search for love
In its warp and weft

---

words that leave my hand
feelings on a screen
I lay my soul bare

---

looking back i see
new fall with new promises
one, never fulfilled
 ]]> Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:04:39 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath Weary, solitary, flight http://vivin.net/journal/10/2/2008/389/ http://vivin.net/journal//2/2008/389/ Dreary dancing under the fire-born moods Has fallen cold light footfall; But the indolence of wine The Incorruptible Rose of Houlihan. With white birds on to be, and his animal blood astir And glittered in dew, The changing eyes blind With lightning, b...
Dreary dancing under the fire-born moods
Has fallen cold light footfall;
But the indolence of wine
The Incorruptible Rose of Houlihan.

With white birds on to be, and his animal blood astir
And glittered in dew,
The changing eyes blind
With lightning, but the bone.

The heavy flooded waters in a red wine
And a mind
That nobleness made my heart knows;
And one common level place for you night,
May know.

Beauty that you sigh with mingled sorrow before the fallen still;
He bade all the passing on a sudden flaming West;
Desolate winds are safer in the calling my beloved, I sing the sky,
No learning from the warring in half hidden
Under the flash of the wings
That the wind and moon overhead
Has taken a rocking cradle.

In all the reeds grew to and the Boar without sound;
He changed to shoot,
And all things came the blue depth of wine
The Incorruptible Rose.

And moth-like stars and kind one,
And what could find
Nothing to kiss
Weary and solitary and I fly

--Lightning and Lodestone
]]> Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:42:56 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath JavaFX: The New Hotness http://vivin.net/journal/8/24/2008/388/ http://vivin.net/journal//24/2008/388/ I went to JavaOne a few months ago. It was a pretty neat experience and I learnt a lot of cool things. One of the things Sun was touting was the JavaFX family of technologies. It allows you to create RIA (Rich Internet Applications) using JavaFX Script, a... Sun was touting was the JavaFX family of technologies. It allows you to create RIA (Rich Internet Applications) using JavaFX Script, a domain-specific language built on top of Java. The demos were pretty impressive and it looks like Sun's answer to Flash and Silverlight. I went to a few JavaFX sessions and I signed up for the preview SDK, which came out a few weeks ago. Since then, I've been playing around with the language to see what it can do. The language is pretty neat and being dynamic, has some pretty cool features like closures, list comprehension, lazy/incremental evaluation (through binding), and triggers. In addition, it uses a declarative model (although you can still use the traditional model) for describing a GUI. The API provides Swing components, but I believe the intent is to completely move away from that and use only JavaFX GUI components.

Calendar widget

Using a language that is only in preview is pretty interesting. The API is unfinished and the language isn't completely mature, but this is to be expected. That being said, it still looks promising and seems to be a very capable and expressive language. Also, seeing as it is built on top of Java, you have access to all of Java's rich API in addition to the numerous third-party Java libraries and API's that are out there. I've been playing around with it for the last week or so and I was able to write a small calendar widget. It simply shows a month view for the current month, with the current date highlighted. I haven't had much experience with writing GUIs in Java, so it took me a while to figure it all out. I shamelessly stole the colour gradient background from one of the demos in the preview SDK. The only issue I have right now is the load-time of the widget. It seems to take a while when you load it first. I don't know if it has to do with the way I coded it or not. I'm pretty sure I'm not doing it the best way, but I expect to get better once I get more familiar with the language.

Here's a screenshot of the widget running on Firefox 3 on my Ubuntu laptop (the theme is a Leopard theme):

Calendar widget


I have more details on the project page. ]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:57:50 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath WTF is up with the 2009 Acura TL? http://vivin.net/journal/8/15/2008/387/ http://vivin.net/journal//15/2008/387/ I love my 2007 Acura TL. In my opinion, it's the perfect mix of luxury and sportiness for the price. I love the way the engine growls when I step on the gas, and I love the way the body looks. For this reason, I was pretty excited to see what Honda would ... 2007 Acura TL. In my opinion, it's the perfect mix of luxury and sportiness for the price. I love the way the engine growls when I step on the gas, and I love the way the body looks. For this reason, I was pretty excited to see what Honda would come up with for the 2009 Acura TL. When the 2009 TSX came out, I was even more excited because it looks pretty awesome and I was sure that Honda wouldn't disappoint with the TL.

WTF


Yeah. Seriously... WTF?! I don't mind the grille. They seem to have borrowed that from the MDX, and the TSX has a similar one. It's not bad at all - it's pretty streamlined and aggressive-looking. But seriously, what the hell is up with that curve on top of the front-wheel. Seriously?! It totally breaks the streamlined look when you look at it from the side... it just looks bad! So yeah, I was a little disappointed, but I thought that the weird curve was something I could get used to. So then I tried to see what the rear looked like. The rear on the current generation of Acura TL is very nice. It's imposing and it kinda raises up the rear of the car giving the entire vehicle a pointed, streamlined look. So what did they come up with for the rear of the 2009 Acura TL?

buttsekzlol


What the hell, guys?! You kinda just took the rear of the 2008 Honda Accord and the 2007 Civic Coupe and squished them together to form a horrible ugly mess! I thought the rear of the 2007 Civic Coupe looks pretty nice. Even though the tail-lights were small, they were balanced out by the larger trunk door. I didn't really like the rear of the 2008 Accord because the rear lights looked way too small. Honda seems to have taken the worst of both ideas to create the rear of the 2009 Acura TL. It has small tail-lights and a small trunk door. It's just ugly.

So yeah, I'm pretty disappointed. I hope in newer versions they will redesign the rear exterior (like how Honda does with the Accords and Civics), but I doubt that's going to happen seeing as how they barely made any changes to the current generation from year to year. All in all, I don't like the 2009 Acura TL, and I think they could have done a way better job. Guess I'll have to wait till 2015 to see what they come up with next. ]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:29:12 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath Sorry for the delay http://vivin.net/journal/8/8/2008/386/ http://vivin.net/journal//8/2008/386/ I'm really sorry for not updating this journal for... well, seems like forever. I figured I'd start writing regularly but that turned out to not be the case. A few things got in my way. Ever since I started working at Infusionsoft, I've had less of a desi... Infusionsoft, I've had less of a desire to come back home and sit at the computer... again. The reason being, that most of my code-cravings are taken care of at work. Seriously, I love it. As a result I don't really feel like coming back home and sitting in front of the computer.

The second thing was that my parents were here for a long time, and so I was spending most of my time with them. Then what else... oh yes, there was a thunderstorm and the power went out and my server decided that it didn't recognize the NIC it had recognized for the past four years. So I went and bought a new one, and as soon as I plugged it in, it recognized the old one. I love computers. Then of course, there's the fact that I was just pretty lazy. For some insane reason I decided that I wanted to upgrade the server to FreeBSD 7.0 and then I kinda just dragged my foot on setting everything else up.

Finally, there was my getting deployed again. Yeah, you read that right. I was going to Iraq... again. I pretty much found out about it around the time of my WLC training. So there was all the preparation for that. I really wasn't looking forward to going (who does, anyway?) but I figured I had to (all that duty stuff, raising my right hand, taking the oath). However a few weeks ago I found out that I really didn't have to go. As it turned out it hadn't been two years since I got back and so I had the option of not going. So I told my readiness NCO that I didn't want to go. I have my career to think of, and I think one tour in Iraq is more than enough. I was pretty torn when I had to make that decision. It took me about half a second to decide what I wanted to do. Part of me almost wanted to say "yes". But I think this is the better decision.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm alive and that I'm definitely going to try and write more frequently on this journal. I'm doing a lot of exciting things at work and I'd like to be able to write about them. So, until next time... ]]> Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:32:18 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath WLC and WTF http://vivin.net/journal/3/6/2008/385/ http://vivin.net/journal//6/2008/385/ I'm going out of town for two weeks for WLC (Warrior Leader Course). It's a course I've had to take after I got promoted to Sergeant while I was in Iraq. I never had a chance to go to it because there was a lot of confusion with the standing-down of the o... promoted to Sergeant while I was in Iraq. I never had a chance to go to it because there was a lot of confusion with the standing-down of the old artillery unit and the formation of the new infantry unit. My readiness NCO was able to get me a class starting this week. The class is in Utah (fun!) and I will be learning a lot of "NCO stuff" like commanding formations, marching, conducting PT sessions, OP orders, and things of that nature. I think it will be pretty interesting. The first week is classroom stuff, and the second week will be field-training. I'm going to see if I can take some pictures. I'll post them here when I get back.

The other thing that I wanted to write about was an experience I had in college. I've been reading The Daily WTF a lot, recently. It highlights examples of bad code, horrible design, and stupid management. Things that basically make you go "WTF?!". Anyway, some of the articles on the site talk about incompetent professors. After reading that, I was reminded of a terribly idiotic and incompetent professor that I had in college. This happened during the first semester of my senior year (spring of '03), and of course, I had full-blown senioritis. Scratch that, I wouldn't say that I was apathetic; I just figured out how to put in the optimum amount of effort. This meant that I would try and see if going to class gave me any value. If it didn't, I would pretty much teach myself the material. This meant more time for me to party and drink. I'm sorry, I meant study and review. Yes... that's right. Anyway, the class I had was called CSE 423. I don't remember the title of the class, but it had to do with VHDL. In simple words, VHDL lets you design logic circuits programatically and then configure an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) to behave like the circuit you designed. It's pretty nifty and interesting stuff. I would have enjoyed the class if it hadn't been taught by this retard of a professor. This professor, let's call him R. C. is as terrible as they come. He came to class unprepared, his slides were full of errors, and he often had no clue what he was talking about. In addition, he seemed to be passively arrogant. Initially we all liked him because he seemed to have a lively personality. But that didn't make up for the fact that he pretty much sucked. On the rare occasion you actually got through to him (he almost always directed you to the TA - who was nowhere to be found and checked his email once a millenium) to discuss a problem in your homework (let's say you were docked a point and you wanted to know why) he would be extremely unhelpful. Most professors explain to you why you are wrong, they don't just tell you "You're wrong" and end the conversation.

I remember how I had to leave class early once to meet with my readiness NCO regarding some paperwork. I let him know I was leaving. He wasn't happy and decided to give quiz to the class just because I left. When I talked to him about it, he told me that he needed a letter from my readiness NCO. I gave him one, and after that he gave me two homework questions to make up the quiz. He randomly picked the last two questions in the list of homework questions for the chapter. When I tried to ask him some questions about the homework, he told me that he hadn't read them and that I was on my own. Now that I've told you what kind of person he is, on to the actual issue. We had a midterm that was about 30% of the grade of the class. In that midterm there was a 30-point question having to do with a VHDL implementation of a state machine. I wrote a correct solution to the problem and I was surprised when I got my paper back and I received a zero. I got a 60% on the test, when I should have received a 90%. I went to him to discuss the problem. There were a bunch of angry and aggravated students in the lab. All of them had been unfairly graded on the test. I mean, what do you expect when you have an idiot for a professor? I went up to him and patiently explained my solution and how I arrived at it.

He told me, "It's wrong." I asked him, "How? Can you explain to me what's wrong?" He said, "Your state machine is wrong, so your implementation is wrong." Once again, I patiently shows him the state machine with all the correct inputs (or transition conditions) and outputs (or states) and how the VHDL implementation corresponded to it. I asked him, "How can you say my state machine is wrong?" He responded and I kid you not, "Your state machine is wrong because the outputs are supposed to be on the arrows, and the inputs are in the circles. The arrows come out of the circles, so they are outputs." I stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds. I honestly could not believe what I was hearing. Every computer engineer worth his salt knows what a basic state machine looks like. I argued with him for about 10 minutes. Other students were standing around me, shaking their head because they couldn't believe what they were hearing either. He finally said, "No, you're wrong. This conversation is over." I stormed out of the lab, fuming. Due to the idiocy of my professor, I got a B in that course when I should have received an A (don't even get me started on the final project. Apparently he thinks it's totally fair to give you a zero on a question that he didn't even ask you). I eventually was vindicated later that year when I was part of the Student Advisory Committee. We were a bunch of students who met with the department heads so that they would have a better idea of what the students felt. Basically, liaisons between the student body (the CS/CSE majors anyway) and the faculty. They were asking us about our opinions of professors and I told them exactly what I felt about R. C. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that they had heard the same complaints from numerous students. "He won't be teaching here again", is what they told me. Ahhh... sweet victory. I'm not a vindictive person, but this was something I felt very strongly about and I felt that I was treated unfairly. I was glad to know that others felt the same way as well.

Anyway, so that's my "WTF?!" story. I probably won't be posting from my WLC training, so I'll try and post after I get back. Until next time. ]]> Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:50:33 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath My new laptop http://vivin.net/journal/2/17/2008/384/ http://vivin.net/journal//17/2008/384/ I recently bought myself a new laptop - the Dell XPS M1530. I was originally considering a Macbook, but that was a little too pricey for me. I started to fancy OS X ever since I found out that it is basically FreeBSD at the core. Also, there is the eye-ca... Dell XPS M1530. I was originally considering a Macbook, but that was a little too pricey for me. I started to fancy OS X ever since I found out that it is basically FreeBSD at the core. Also, there is the eye-candy. Other than the price-tag, I also realized that the only reason I would want the Macbook was because it looks so good. That didn't seem entirely practical. I could still get the eye-candy and the productivity on another OS. The last laptop I bought was an Alienware beast. It was ridiculously heavy and I got sick of lugging it around. It basically a desktop masquerading as a laptop. In addition to being really heavy, it generates quite a lot of heat. Enough to burn your lap. But it plays games really, really well. Anyway, I decided that I would look for a nice non-Apple laptop. After scouring the Internets and reading a bunch of reviews, I settled on the XPS. It's sleek, stylish, fast, portable, and it got a bunch of good reviews. I went to the Dell site and configured my XPS:

  • Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
  • 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
  • 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
  • 250GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
  • High Resolution glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1680x1050) 2MP Camera
  • Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
  • Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition
  • Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card (4965AGN)

It's got some punch. I'm mainly going to use it as a development machine so the RAM and speed definitely help as far as compile-times go. They estimated about two weeks to build the laptop, but actually I got a pleasant surprise when the laptop arrived a little over a week after I ordered it. I wasn't disappointed in the least when I opened up the package. The first thing I did was blast Vista off the hard-drive and install PC-BSD. This is where I learnt a hard lesson. Stability in the BSD world comes at a price. You don't have very good hardware support (for no fault of FreeBSD; I'll rant about this later) for the latest hardware. Drivers are not included until they are reliable and stable. As a result, my Marvell Yukon 88E8040 Gigabit Ethernet card, and my Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N card were unrecognized. Marvell (surprisingly) had a FreeBSD 6 driver on their website that is supposed to work with the 88E80XX series, but I was unable to get it to work on my system. I tried using ndiswrapper to get the Intel card working, but I only succeeded in crashing my system very nicely. I was pretty bummed. I really didn't want to go back to using The Evil (Vista), and so I decided to play around with kubuntu for a while. It was nice, and I may get back to it. But for the hell of it, I wiped it off and tried to install OS X on it. I was able to get a "patched" Leopard ISO and I actually got it to install on the XPS. However, I wasn't able to get it to recognize any of my network devices. So after playing around with that for a while, I went back to The Evil. I am hoping that by the time PC-BSD 2.0 or FreeBSD 7.0 rolls around, there will be more support for the network cards. If that's the case, I'll definitely be wiping out Vista and installing PC-BSD (or install FreeBSD 7.0 and build KDE). I've been using Vista for a little while, and I guess it's not so bad. It'll stay out of your way if you ask it to. But it really doesn't compare to either PC-BSD, Kubuntu, or Leopard. As far as the XPS, I like it a whole lot. I think Dell has done a pretty good job with it. ]]> Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:04:14 +0000 Vivin S. Paliath