Posts filed under 'Personal'
I am not going to whine here about the present Telangana movement. Was actually watching American History X movie and that was the initiative.
Has anything you have done made your life better?……… This is the statement that made me write this post. Professor Sweeney in the movie asks Derek this question in prison and that makes Derek to really look back at all his actions against the black people. This guy Derek was actually influenced by another person (Cameron) and joins a radical organisation against the Black people. The above question really makes sense. If only people would start thinking rationally and ask themselves such questions before blindly doing/supporting anything, this world would definitely have been a better place.
In the current situation I can correlate this to the on-going Telangana State movement (and that’s the reason for the title 
). Instead of people just saying we have been fighting for a separate state for the last 40 years and we want it now, why can’t they just think for a moment in what way is that going to make their life better. In my opinion, oppurtunities be it education/job or whatever it be should be based on talent and not just because you happen to be from some region in a country and so have got more right than someone else from a different region. The sooner people would realize this the better would be our future.
Ofcourse, this applies to whatever we do in our life and its just a coincidence that the Telangana movement was going now and found it to be apt.
And towards the end of the movie, liked the conclusion of Danny in his paper……..Hate is baggage. Life’s too short to be pissed off all the time. It’s just not worth it.
A good movie with a good message.
American History X,
General,
Movies I watched,
Personal
January 3rd, 2010
Had I known before about internet connection sharing in windows xp, I would have saved some time today. But anyways it was a good learning experience.
I initially connected my laptop’s ethernet port to my pc’s port and on my laptop, gave the default gateway as my pc’s usb connection’s ip address. My idea was to direct all outgoing packets to the pc’s usb interface. But this did not work. Then after a little bit of googling came across the internet connection sharing feature in xp (not sure if the previous windows versions had this). That worked like a charm for the first time itself. So, I had the following setup working now -
Laptop’s ethernet to pc’s ethernet and then bsnl modem’s usb interface connected to pc’s usb port. And on my pc, I enabled the option Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s internet connection. This was the easiest solution but it only solves half of my problems. I will now have to sit near my pc to work 
which is pretty bad. I somehow wanted to get my wireless also working in this mode 
.
For the wireless to work for me, the WRT54G2 had to be brought into the picture now. Now instead of connecting pc’s ethernet port to laptop directly, I connected it to one of the lan ports of my router and then the laptop’s port to one of the other lan ports. This works fine and I was able to access internet over both pc and laptop. Now the final issue was to get the wi-fi working.
Because of a few failed attempts in getting the wi-fi connected, I thought the access point mode was not supposed to be used. So, tried the client mode, client bridge mode, repeater mode and repeater bridge mode though knowing that these modes were for a different purpose all together. I already had a client bridge mode setup back in my flat in bangalore. But I was so frustrated that I started exploring all the available options . Finally when nothing worked I thought of getting back to AP mode and bingo…..it works!!!!! . Was so happy to get the wi-fi also working. Ofcourse, all this has eaten up 2.5 hours of my time but atlast got what I wanted.
So, here is the final setup just in case some one needs a similar thing to be done -
Scenario – One pc with spare ethernet card and connected to ISP over some alternative interface like USB port or another ethernet card. And need to get wi-fi access and other systems in the lan to be able to share the internet connection along with the host pc.
Solution – Enable Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection under the Internet Connection Sharing on the host pc. Connect the host pc’s ethernet port to one of the wired ports (not the WAN port) of the router. Have the router in AP mode and that’s it. The wireless can now be shared among any number of laptops just like any normal connection and also other systems can be connected to the remaining wired ports of the router.
Update – Jan 4th 2010
Though the wi-fi setup works fine in the above scenario, I noticed that initially when my laptop’s wi-fi gets connected it shows the speed of the connection as 54Mbps but within few minutes it drops down to 1Mbps. And then the speed you get is worse than my reliance datacard. Also one point that I noticed was that when the desktop’s internect connection was being used, we can forget about working on the laptop over wi-fi . Looks like it works by statically alloting specific bandwith to each of the interfaces. Need to explore further. Will keep posting my findings here……
General,
internet connection sharing in windows xp,
Personal,
Tech Stuff,
wrt54g2
December 28th, 2009
Like last year, we have an year-end shut down this year as well and amidst all the telangana struggle, the bandhs and protests, reached hyderabad safely yesterday morning . And the first thing I checked after reaching home was the internet connection. Switched on the desktop here and everything seemed to be fine and was quite happy.
Later when I switched on my laptop and connected my WRT54G2 router, I realized that my modem’s ethernet port was not up. Only the USB port was working and that’s how the desktop’s internet was fine. And I can’t even use the USB port with my laptop as this has some strange issue with it. The internet stops working after a few minutes of browsing and when I pull out the USB cable, the laptop just hangs and I have to do a hard restart. And this is 101% reproducible . Now tried with other cables and tried connecting the modem’s ethernet port to laptop & desktop directly. But nothing seemed to work. Finally decided to give a complaint as I was strongly suspecting that the modem’s ethernet port was having some issue and the modem may have to be replaced. So, called up the BSNL customer care.
Took a while to actually find out the customer care number itself. And finally was happy that I got the number and the phone was ringing on the other side and some non-human response was heard. And after a few button presses, got to talk to a human and this is how it went.
Call#1 -Â Some lady picks-up and after the routine greetings from her, she says she can help me out in resolving my issue. Was happy that BSNL customer care also works and thought that things are improving with BSNL as well (this is ofcourse proved to be wrong later ). Now she asks me to check if I have dhcp/static ip settings and then asks me to ping to the router’s ip address which would not work. I was telling her that the modem’s ethernet link itself is not up and its definitely not going to work. But she won’t understand it and finally she says its some issue at their end and it will work in 2-3 hours 
. Now come on, what is it got to do with their end when the modem’s port itself was not working. That’s when I understood that she never understood what my issue was. This is how the tech support of the BSNL customer care is .
Call#2 – Then called up again after some 30 mins hoping to get someone else on the other side now. This time it was a male voice and I explained to him the whole situation. And the way I explained to him, he understood that there is no point in asking me to check ip address or any other routine settings. He puts me on hold for 5 mins and then comes back saying that it could be some hardware issue and I have to get help from some technician. Now that is what I called them up for and this guy in turn expects me to get some other techinician to check the port. After insisting that it was the bsnl modem that has an issue and someone from bsnl has to come and maybe replace the modem, he says some techinician will call me back in an hour and he does not even register a complaint.
Call#3 – More than and hour passes now but still no sign of phone call. So, thought of contacting them again and this time a lady picks up and says a complaint was already registered and it actually takes 24 hours for someone to respond back and she happily gives the complaint number and hangs up. And its almost 40 hours at the time of writing this post and no sign of follow-up from them .
It was only today evening I realized that I had to work on something very urgent and was supposed to complete it by the weekend. That’s where my problems started again. Thought I have a datacard, the response on vnc would be so slow that one can hardly work on it. The other backup plan was to go to a cousin’s place but somehow got busy with some other work at home and it was already midnight. So, finally thought of coming up with some solution using whatever I had with me (a desktop, bsnl modem with working usb connection, linksys wrt54g2 router, laptop with integrated wi-fi & a few cat-5 cables). More on the solution part later………….need to finish up my work now ……………………
bsnl,
General,
Personal,
Tech Stuff,
wrt54g2
December 28th, 2009
Just got my new Hyundai i10 delivered. Its i10 1.2 magna, silver colour. Don’t have a camera right now……will upload a few pics here later. As of now I am restricted to drive only in and around the city . No long trips approval received yet . Hope to go on trips later but for now its only bangalore . More to come later……
hyundai i10,
Personal
December 17th, 2009
Finally, I watched a movie yesterday after a gap of 5 months . I think this was the first time in the past few years that I haven’t watched a single movie for more than 5 months. Yeah, that’s a looooooooong gap for a guy who used to watch movies almost every week. Even if I was not going to a movie, I used to atleast check the pvr site to know about the currently running movies. And this time when I opened the site after 5 months I was surprised to see that the entire UI of pvr site has changed.
Coming to the movie that I watched, it was a telugu movie Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam. As always, I haven’t read any reviews about the movie before booking. I just go to any movie when I feel like watching one. Not very particular about the story, the cast,e tc. Movie was the same routine love story and how the hero and heroine make it up at the end. It wasn’t that bad but not a great movie also. To me the first half was better than the second half. The comedy was also good enough. But towards the end I didn’t like all the sentimental stuff that the director tried to put in. And somehow in this movie, I didn’t like the dialogue delivery of the actors.On the whole, I think it can be watched once and you won’t feel bored at any point.
To me it was a nice break from my daily routine and a good start to get back to my old movie going habit.
Update: I started going to gym ………….will post about it sooooooon
Entertainment,
Movies I watched,
Personal
March 4th, 2009
Its been a long time now since I posted anything new here. The last post I made was on September 2nd and since then there haven’t been any updates. There have been several comments in my latest post asking me why aren’t there any new updates . I never knew there were so many people checking this place. Anyways was actually a little bit busy since the last few weeks. So, could not post anything. In fact I still have the draft of quite a few posts that I was thinking of posting since 3 weeks but could not complete them.
I even saw many movies recently but couldn’t update about them as well. Anyways now you will all see some regular posts here again as before. Thanks to all those who were curious to know why there haven’t been any posts recently . And the funniest thing is that all of them know the reason .
General,
Personal
September 29th, 2008
An update from my side is that yesterday I bought a new Nokia N-81 graphite gray colour 2GB version. I was eagerly waiting for iPhone to be launched in India. But looking at its current price in India (Rs.31000 for 8GB and Rs.36100 for 16GB) , I had to look for other options and finally decided to buy an N-81. So, far I am happy with its performance….lets see how it turns out to be .
Update : Its been just six days since I bought the phone and it had crashed (restarted on its own) twice and hanged once (could not even switch-off and had to remove the battery) . Maybe time to go for a firmware upgrade. Apart from this I did not face any other issues as of now. I keep installing new free applications and am loving it.
n81,
nokia,
nokia n81,
Personal
August 25th, 2008
Last week a friend of mine had come from hyderabad. So, took him to forum…and by default I went to landmark also. This is the place where I will never get bored……I can spend hours together in landmark looking at all the books. Finally bought two books and one of them was this one Games Indians Play by V. Raghunathan.
Coming to this book, I had heard about this book already but didn’t knew what it was all about. So, when I found it in landmark, I just saw the contents and it seemed to be really interesting. This book is basically about “why we are the way we are” i.e., why are we Indians the way we are….an interesting read isn’t it??? I came across many new concepts of game theory through this book and the way the author correlates them to the way Indians think and behave is quite interesting. Especially the prisoner’s dilemma framework was really good. Also the different variations of this and then trying to understand the characteristics of human rationality, irrationality, egotism, competetion, co-operation among we Indians, etc through this framework was really good. Also the author discusses about the various scenarios that he had used when he was teaching at IIM-A and a few experiments that he used to do in parties, etc.
On the whole its an interesting read and would definitely recommend it. If you don’t have the time to read the book atleast try reading about the concept of prisoner’s dilemma, pseudo dilemma, wolf’s dilemma, etc. They are really really interesting concepts worth looking at. Also original articles on prisoner’s dilemma by hofstadter that were published in scientific american in 1980’s are worth reading.
Of all the quotes that I came across in this book, the one I liked the most is this
“India is a functioning anarchy” —by J.K.Galbraith (US ambassador to India, 1962).
Books I read,
games indians play,
General,
hofstadter,
Personal,
prisoners dilemma,
pseudo dilemma,
wolfs dilemma
May 30th, 2008
Previous Posts
s the doctor finally says “the reason for your headache is this error in your vision” and then he prescribed glasses for me. So, finally on December 6th 2008, my childhood fascination for glasses became a reality. You can see my new avatar in the pic 
