Ankh Morpork's Finest Coder
Friday, December 31, 2004
Series 60 Phones
There is a new Cell Phone bug going around infecting Series 60 Phones. Here is a list of those phones.
- Nokia N-Gage/N-Gage QD
- Nokia 3230
- Nokia 3650/3600
- Nokia 6260
- Nokia 6600/6620
- Nokia 6670
- Nokia 7610
- Nokia 7650
- Panasonic X700
- Samsung SGH D700/D710
- Sendo X
- Siemens SX1
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Sushant Bhatia's Website
My new website is "skeletoned". It is Sushant Bhatia. Please be patient as I create the content to the site. I'm sure I'll get to adding all the items I want to add sooner or later.
Command Prompt Copy Paste Shortcut
So you want a quicker way of copy-pasting content from your cmd.exe window...well here ya go.
1) Open the properties for cmd.exe. (Alt+space, P) (Means, press Alt and Space together then after that press P).
2) In the Options Tab, there is a group box called Edit Options. There is a checkbox in there called Quick Edit Mode. Select the checkbox.
3) Click Ok.
4) A new window should pop up asking you if you want to Apply properties to current window only or Save properties for future windows with the same title. Select the second option "Save properties for future windows with the same title" and press Ok.
5) Now when there is some data you want to copy, you can Click and Drag on the text to select it and then press the Right mouse button to copy it.
6) To paste the test simply press the right mouse button and the text should be pasted.
Enjoy. :-)
So what else can you do to your ipod
Well, my friend Vivek asked me today what you can do to your ipod, besides playing music. Well
1) Store photos with the Belkin Media Reader
2) Use it to record speeches/meetings etc using the Griffin iTalk Voice Recorder.
3) Get audio books from Audible. BTW the new photo Ipod allows you to "Adjust the read speed for Audiobooks."
4) Use it as a portable hard drive
5) Remind yourself with Text Notes
6) Play games (solitare, pong)
7) Keep appointments using the Alarm Clock/Sleep Timer
8) Stay organized with contacts/calendars/to-do lists
9) Connect it to your car using the iPod Stereo Connection Kit
10) Hack the iPod Firmware to display your own graphics.
11) Put Linux on your iPod.
12) Add Wifi to your iPod.
Hopefully in the future, the ipod will be able to take pictures, stream video, check email and even support bluetooth devices. One can only hope.
WeatherPixie
Want to fill your site with more visual temp data? Try http://weatherpixie.com/ It seems like a nice way to display weather.
Name That Game 4
Name that game - Today we have a big set for you to identify. Take a shot. Lets see who can "NAME THAT GAME!" :-)
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Launching a Command Prompt Window through a Shortcut
My Start Menu is getting cluttered. I have too many things in there and I don't want to go looking for them in the folders, no matter how well I organize it.
For one thing, I want VS.NET and the CMD window for VS.NET to be on a shortcut. So I have two options.
1) Use my multi monitor application, Ultramon, and tell it what the shortcut and the file to open should be. As you can see, I gave the Ctrl+Shift+V shortcut to start VS.NET and the Ctrl+Shift+D key to start the command prompt.
2) My other option is to create shortcuts for these programs in their properties itself.
Now click in the textbox called Shortcuts and pres the key shortcut you desire. I chose Ctrl+Shift+S. Interestingly, because I had already registered Ctrl+Shift+V in Ultramon, I couldn't use it. And voila, your done. Click Apply and then try that shortcut keystroke you chose. It should work.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Garbage Collector Circular Reference Detection
I was recently reading about how the Garbage Collector is able to detect circular references and I remembered something from one of my interviews at Microsoft in Summer 2002. The question I got asked was, if you have a very large linked list, how would you find out if an infinite loop condition exists.
Well, for all you nascar/F1 fans, think of a racing track. If you have a very fast car, lets call it the Ferrari car driven by Michael Schumaker and a very slow car, lets call that Cristiano da Matta in Toyota, then the Ferrari which is going faster than the Toyota, will overlap the Toyota.
So if you get an overlap in the race, then you know that the track is connected ie. the cars are driving in circles.
In the linked list approach, start one Node pointer traversal at 1 node per tick, and a second Node pointer at 2 nodes per tick. Then at some point in time, both nodes will inevitably point to the same node if a circular reference occurs.
Thus you can detect a circular reference. So now how can you apply this to infinite loops. Well it turns out that a lot of the infinite loops are just that, loops. The same process of "different speeds" can be used for the infinite loop nodes too.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
My ASU public page
http://www.public.asu.edu/~bhatia/ That page should now bring you here to my blog too.
Google Search Finds my Blog
I have noticed that a lot of people are coming to my site from google searches. The top listed searches are
1) Hellacious Riders
2) iTunes COM sdk windows
3) speek
Welcome to my blog googlers. I hope your search was fruitful :-)
Connecting to SQL Server 2000 on a remote machine
1) You need to install the Client Network Utilities located on the SQL Server 2000 CD.
2) Open the SQL Server Client Network Utility located at Start | All Programs | Microsoft SQL Server | Client Network Utility. The shortcut points to C:\WINDOWS\system32\cliconfg.exe so you can just type cliconfg from your command prompt. It should look like this.
3) Once this is done, Click on the Alias tab.
4) Click on the Add button on the right hand side. Fill in a Server Alias, Check the TCP/IP from the Network Libraries on the right hand side. In the connection parameters, fill in the server name (IP address). After you are done, it should look like this.
5) Click OK. Then Click Apply in the Client Network Utility window.
6) To make sure that the connection works, Open the SQL Query Analyzer. It should look like this.
7) Fill in the information and click ok. It should open a new window called Query -xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.master.loginname - Untitled 1
If you get the following error :-
Server: Msg 17, Level 16, State 1
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB] SQL Server does not exist or access denied.
Or an error that has "ConnectionOpen (Connect())." in it then your SQL Server 2000 is not working properly. Make sure
1) you have the latest Service Pack installed. The problem I ran into was that Windows 2003 Server does not accept connections over IP for SQL Server 2000 and you need to install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a. For more information look at this KB article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;884012
2) The account your using to connect is legal. Don't use the remote machines admin account or any windows account. I personally had a bunch of issues with this. Create a separate account for your database on the remote server and use that account.
Good luck to you all on this.
Monday, December 20, 2004
OMG GUYS!!!
I was playing Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and the game has a function called whisle which you can do to get the attention of the characters in a game. Well, I was whistling and all of a sudden the Security guard who just happens to be female, walks by, hears the whistling, walks back to my office and peers in. Now everytime she walks by, she's always smiling and waving hello. LOL!
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
I installed this game last night after not having anything better to do. Took a few pics along the way to show you just what a cool game it is.
I just wanna be at the lake, a full moon in the sky...and a chopper in the air.
This is awesome. I've had this game for ages but didn't know that in the handgun mode, you can press the right button to get a red pointer that will tell you exactly where your shooting. Of course, the pointer moves all over the place based on your breathing but its still very cool.
I'm in some kind of server room. It looks better in the game..so many flashing lights...so many red and blue flashing lights.
Its a MS windows computer screen in the game. Wheres the blue screen? :-)
An access panel. The major improvement from Splinter Cell 1 is that these panels now accept your numpad keys. Prior to this, you had to move your mouse around and click on the separate keys to gain access. So tedious...but now so easy.
He's ninja. Except he's a real geek too. Notice the very geeky puch full of, most likely, software, lens cleaner and some tissues.
Mmmm...brains....i'm so hungry now. Looking at them through the in game binoculars. These things are very powerful. Unfortunately, they didn't model these with the same hand drifting that you get when using a gun sight or the handgun targeter.
And they say games aren't educational. See the periodic table. Its there. And its in a chem lab too. See the table, do an experiment. Find a new explosive. Ironically, the next thing you do in the game is climb into a ventilator shaft and shoot a gas line to kill some bad guys thus learning that natural gas in your high school chem labs can be quite dangerous. :-)
When you zoom into the periodic table, you can actually tell what they are. H - Hydrogen, Li - Lithium, Na - Sodium, K - Pottasium....ahh don't you just love the periodic tables :-)
A cell phone camera used by a NPC in game is given to you. Of course you know that Ericsson paid a load of money for the in game advertising.
This is finally where I stopped for tonight. Sam Fisher (the character you play) is in Israel tracking down some bio agent thats supposed to fall into the wrong hands. One false move and mission over. You can be seen by anyone, you cant be caught. So much fun :-)
Sunday, December 19, 2004
NYT Firefox Ad
My good friend Vivek, got his name in the Firefox ad that ran in the NY Times. Pretty cool!!! Check his blog out.
Norton Ghost 9.0 + M$ Woes
I created a Ghost Image of my HD onto DVD and it took up 2 of them. Then when I did the same Image backup but put it on my external HD it only take 5GB. Is it just me or is there something wrong with the mathematics there.
I had to call M$ today because apparently "I've activated my hard earned copy of Office 2003/Visio 2003/One Note more times than is permissible in the EULA." What rubbish! Now everytime I reinstall my comp (which is about every 2-3 weeks) I have to spend money to call M$ to tell them that I'm trying to use software that I paid for and its not an illegal copy.
I'm getting more and more frustrated with M$ these days. Lately, I've made the switch from IE to Firefox and Outlook to Thunderbird. Now do I dare make a switch out of Office totally and into Open Office??? Do I dare give up the Windows platform completely? Whats life like on the other side of the OS divide? Is Linux/Unix/Mac worth it? Ok maybe not Mac. I hate how they screw you over in customer support.
I believe that if you make software for sale, then you better make support for that software free. I feel like all the big companies, M$ included take the consumer to the cleaners. But I must commend M$ on their hardware support policy. I had a problem with my Bluetooth key/mouse combo and they offered to replace it for free (I didn't take them up on it cause I managed to fix it myself).
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Rebirth
Friday night my HD conked off. After much toil and sweat I was able to save a lot of my data but needed to be a complete reinstall. So I had to open up my comp, flush out the HD, take it to another machine, save the data, bring it back and revive it.
I started messing with my external HD lights. Here's what I call, "Demented Lights".
These last two were my attempt at being sort of H.R. Giger but in a more ridgid manner.
Friday, December 17, 2004
I KICKED ASS IN THE DISTRIBUTED OS CLASS!!
YIPPEEE!!!! I got an A in my exam and an A in the class. I am now a proud survivor of the Dr. Partha's DOS CLass, one of the tougher but most intresting classes on campus (cs related).
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Exams are OVER!
The exams are finally done. I can now get to working on some extracurricular activities..programming of course. I've got a few projects I want to work on. Maybe I'll get some work done on them this december.
1) Create a Website
2) Code a project [secret so I can't tell u what it is even though I have submitted an invention disclosure form]
3) Clean my house. I know its not programming but it has to be done.
4) Start to cook. Again, it has to be done. Eating Quizno's all day and night isn't good.
5) Read some cool book. [Godel, Escher & Bach is on the top of my list]
0) (Yes thats a 0) I need to sleep.
Wow Lots of Slashdot visitors
Well as you already know, 4 of my articles were published on slashdot yesterday. As a result, 292 unique visitors visited this blog yesterday. Thanks for visiting /. folks :-)
One thing I did note from my counter statistics is that a lot of people (17) used Opera 7.x
There were some Galeon and some AOL users too. I didn't know about the Galeon browser so I looked it up. For the folks who don't know, heres the link [sourceforge].
Galeon is a GNOME Web browser based on Gecko (the mozilla layout engine). It's fast, it has a light interface, and it is fully standards-compliant. You can download it but first take a look at some screenshots and read additional documentation (installation...). Galeon requires Gnome and Mozilla.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Slashdot Article Status
Seems like the slashdot gods didn't like all my articles. I though the Toshiba using Quantum Crypto would definately get used but I guess not.
# 2004-12-14 15:53:38 Mini drive survives school of hard knocks (Science,Hardware) (pending)
# 2004-12-14 14:46:05 Interview with Ron Markezich - CIO Microsoft (Interviews,Microsoft) (rejected)
# 2004-12-14 14:31:51 Microsoft Tablet PC Games (Games,Microsoft) (accepted)
# 2004-12-14 14:26:22 Worldwide PC Market Seen Doubling by 2010 (IT,Features) (rejected)
# 2004-12-14 11:17:39 Toshiba unveils 80GB 'iPod drive' (Apple,Hardware) (accepted)
# 2004-12-14 10:48:19 Face Recognition Needs 3 Areas Of Human Brain (IT,Science) (accepted)
# 2004-12-14 10:40:40 Linux Has Fewer Bugs Than Rivals (IT,Linux) (accepted)
# 2004-12-14 10:35:24 Europe Uses Grid to Create New Megacomputer (IT,Features) (rejected)
# 2004-12-14 08:58:47 Lawsut Says Software Should Not Be Copyrighted (IT,The Courts) (rejected)
# 2004-12-14 08:47:40 Toshiba puts quantum crypto into practice (IT,Encryption) (pending)
# 2004-12-13 23:49:59 Book Reader for the Blind is Innovator of the Year (IT,Science) (rejected)
Distributed Snapshots
I'm trying to read and understand a paper called Distributed snapshots: determining global states of distributed systems but the damn paper is insane. I have 8 hrs to understand this stuff before I have to use it on my Distributed Operating System's exam. BTW, that class ROCKS!!! Looks like another night with no sleep.
Slashdot - 7 articles pending
Dammit. I have an exam in 10 hrs on Distributed Operating Systems and I'm slacking off posting on Slashdot. I'm the undisputed kind of wasting time :-)
# 2004-12-14 11:17:39 Toshiba unveils 80GB 'iPod drive' (Apple,Hardware) (pending)
# 2004-12-14 10:48:19 Face Recognition Needs 3 Areas Of Human Brain (IT,Science) (pending)
# 2004-12-14 10:40:40 Linux Has Fewer Bugs Than Rivals (IT,Linux) (pending)
# 2004-12-14 10:35:24 Europe Uses Grid to Create New Megacomputer (IT,Features) (pending)
# 2004-12-14 08:58:47 Lawsut Says Software Should Not Be Copyrighted (IT,The Courts) (pending)
# 2004-12-14 08:47:40 Toshiba puts quantum crypto into practice (IT,Encryption) (pending)
# 2004-12-13 23:49:59 Book Reader for the Blind is Innovator of the Year (IT,Science) (pending)
Slashdot - Posted My article but...
Slashdot posted my article on .NetCPU. However, they put me down as anonymous. Whats with that? Anyways, here's the link.
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/14/0316213&tid=190&tid=137&tid=109&tid=8
Monday, December 13, 2004
OWL-S Semantic Markup For Web Services
OWL-S is a standard that provides semantic information about Web Services. I was going through it today and I noticed a problem. So I wrote to the Editor of the article, David Martin. Here's what I said:
Dear Mr. Martin.
This is in regards to the article titled OWL-S Semantic Markup For Web Services located at http://www.daml.org/services/owl-s/1.1/overview/
I was looking over the OWL-S Semantic Markup For Web Services and in particular at section 5.4 Composite Process. I believe there is a missing section. Under the OWL-S control conditions are listed the following:
Sequence
Split
Split + Join
Choice
Any-Order
Condition
If-Then-Else
Iterate
Repeat-While
Repeat-Until
However, the Condition clause is not described in the detailed section. For instance, this is the description of Sequence. The same description is missing for Condition.
*Sequence*
: A list of control constructs to be done in order.
Is this an erroneous ommission or is this as yet undefined. I'm sorry if this is old news but I'm pretty new to OWL-S. :-)
Sincerely,
Sushant Bhatia
(Arizona State University)
I got a response from Mr. Martin in a matter of hrs.
Date Mon, 13 Dec 2004 02:17:27 -0800
From David Martin
To Sushant Bhatia
Subject Re: OWL-S Semantic Markup For Web Services
Parts Message Source
Hi -
Thanks for pointing this out.
You are right that there is a discrepancy. Actually, there is not a control construct called Condition. So the mistake is in this sentence:
We conclude this section with an overview of the OWL-S control constructs: Sequence, Split, Split + Join, Choice, Any-Order, Condition, If-Then-Else, Iterate, Repeat-While, and Repeat-Until.
That makes it easy to fix: all I need to do is remove "Condition" from that sentence. However, the 1.1 version is frozen, so the change won't appear until the 1.2 version is released.
Thanks again.
- David Martin
COOL. I found an error in there. The OWL-S reference has been around since 10 February 2004. I mean come on, hasn't anyone read the OWL-S overview?
Testing Web Services
Here is a link to my paper. Its called Using Predicate Complete Test Coverage & Generation with Web Services. The paper is an "ideas" paper on how we can perform Web Service Testing.
Link to Using Predicate Complete Test Coverage & Generation with Web Services. [Word 2003 file]
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Whats in your extension folder?
Firefox 1.0. What kind of extensions do you find useful? Please post some here so that I can check out your recommendations. I just installed Image Zoom 0.1.7 and I think its pretty nifty.
I'M SO SLEEPY!!!
I'm gonna die. I'm gonna just pass out in my office and rot. I've been in this place since last week with little time spent at home. Here's the breakdown.
Sun 12/05/04 - Woke up at noon. Came to work. Stayed at work till mon at 9am.
Mon 12/06/04 - Slept for 4 hrs. Came back to work.
Tue 12/07/04 - Didn't sleep.
Wed 12/08/04 - Slept for 4 hrs.
Thr 12/09/04 - Slept 4 hrs. Came back to work.
Fri 12/10/04 - Passed out for 5 hrs after getting hit on the head.
Sat 12/11/04 - Slept 2 hrs.
Sun 12/12/04 - Haven't slept yet.
Since last sunday, I have had 19 hrs of sleep. Thats 149 hrs awake.
ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY NINE HRS AWAKE!!!!!
Right now my eyes are burning, my head feels like a cement block and I can't feel my extremeties. When I blink, I feel like its happening in slow motion.
I'm gonna die. I'm gonna just pass out in my office and rot. If you find my body, please make sure I get a good cremation. :-)
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 - The Verdict
In short. Meh. Its got excellent junk mail capabilities. However, I am displeased with the UI. Also the account settings are messed. I deleted my SMTP server from the account list but when I came back to the account definitions, it still had the definition in there. Also the messages on my IMAP server aren't "expunged". I had to physically set that in the options. I have yet to see if that setting works.
Final verdict. If you have tons of spam, use Thunderbird. If not, find a better program.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Firefox 1.0
I decided to give Firefox another try. I had tried it earlier when it was pretty new and it didn't appeal to me. Seeing that there is a lot of hype behind this new product, I decided to see what the fuss was all about. Well I must say I have mixed reactions to this product. My very own blog, the one you read now, appears very different to what its intended look is. The color scheme is not loading and the counter is missing. Whats up with that? If any of you know how to get this working, let me know.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Gangsta Paradise. MP3
Geek Rap
This is one messed up song. Clever but highly "vocal" ie. swearing. You got to listen to this. Very funny.
A Theory of Predicate-Complete Test Coverage and Generation
I recently came across a paper from MS Research called A Theory of Predicate-Complete Test Coverage and Generation. I found this to be a very interesting paper [pdf] because it talked about a new style of test case generation and coverage.
If your familiar with software testing you will know of something called the Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MCDC). Well Predicate-Complete Test coverage or PCT takes testing one step further than MC/DC.
I did a short introduction to PCT for my testing class. While the paper is quite heavy on First-Order logic (Thank you cse 459 - logic for computer scientists), its a decent read.
A sample slide from my presentation.
Here is the presentation I made for the class. CSE565.ppt
I am trying to figure out if PCT can be used for Web Service Testing. I believe it can be. The details of this will be forthcoming soon. Hopefully by the end of this week I should have a paper written about that process.
One question I do have about PCT is, does PCT only perform positive testing?
The Sapient Programmer - An evolutionary tree
I found this to be quite hilarious. Check it out. The Evolution of a Programmer.
Donald Knuth
A friend of mine, vivek linked his blog to a blog called kernelthread. On kernelthread was a post about a check paid to the owner of kernelthread by the infamous Donal Knuth. So I have to post the piccie that kernelthread took. Its the coolest thing I've ever seen. For only $2.56 but still the coolest thing ever.
Wikipedia gives a definition for Knuth as
Knuth is best known as the author of the multi-volume The Art of Computer Programming, one of the most highly respected references in the computer science field. He practically created the field of rigorous analysis of algorithms, and made many seminal contributions to several branches of theoretical computer science. He is the creator of the TEX typesetting system and of the Metafont font design system, and pioneered the concept of literate programming.
In case you don't know why Knuth gives $2.56 for errors in his books, its because 256 pennies is one hexadecimal dollar. I definately want to read his book "The art of computer programming."
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
800 Visitors and counting
Yaa...800 visits to my blog site since it came up. Thanks for coming along. On a more interesting note, I found someone had come to this site from google having searched for "http://www.google.com/search?q=nazi coder&sourceid=firefox&s"
nazi coder?? so you write software that will exterminate other software in folder camps??
You've been Googled!
PC World has an article Who's Googling You? Its says that 23 percent of people surveyed investigate coworkers online. Really? Only 23?
Scientific thinking at its best!
I used stumble to find interesting articles online. One article I ran ito is here.
[fabiobeta] has posted a link to an interesting and witty article titled "Why I Will Never Have A Girlfriend."
Whats even more funny is an email sent to the author by some psycho girl. Girlfriend essay fan mail
This is just hilarious to read. What a waste of time :-)
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Speed camera clocks motorist at 406 mph
Holy Shit!!!
Speed camera clocks motorist at 406 mph | The Register
Prince of Persia - Part deux
Yes, Price of Persia 2 has been released and is on store shelves. Here's a peek at one of the in game shots.
Gamespot has a review of it here.
Friday, December 03, 2004
Remember Bullfrog?
Bullfrog were the fine makers of Syndicate and Hi-Ocatane. Well for your pleasure, EA which bought Bullfrog has made this available online.
ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/archive/bullfrog/
It is a ftp anonymous access site that gives you access to old movies, demos etc. Let the reminescing begin...3...2...1
Geek Speek
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/J d- s++:++>: a- C++(++++) U--- P+ L E---- W+(-) N+ o++++ K w++++ O--- M-- V-- PS PE Y+ PGP t+ 5 X R tv+ b+(++) DI+ D++ G e+++(*) h* !r y
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
[Link]
Cricket Fever
Second Test, Calcutta:
India 411 & 120-2 beat South Africa 305 & 222 by eight wickets
Anil Kumble joined Kapil Dev as India's highest Test wicket-taker and the hosts took the series with a eight-wicket second Test win over South Africa.
[Link]
This is quite a feat they have pulled. South Africa has produced some of the greatest cricketers in the world; Johty Rhodes, Alan Donald and of course Graeme Pollock.
Malawi mayor arrested for fraud
The mayor of Malawi's commercial capital, Blantyre, has been arrested and is expected to appear in court on charges of theft by a public servant.
John Chikakwiya of the ruling United Democratic Front party allegedly asked a state-run company to give more than $3,000 to maintain city roads.
But the money was not used for that purpose and is now missing.
The arrest is viewed as a part of an anti-corruption campaign launched by President Bingu wa Mutharika.
But some of the members of his own party have accused the president of using the campaign as a way to settle political scores.
Mr Chikakwiya's lawyer, Noel Chalamanda, told correspondents he would apply for bail for his client.
The head of public prosecutions has said at least 10 senior members of the administration of former President Bakili Muluzi are under investigation in connection with the disappearance of government funds.
[Link]
Hahahahaha. Malawi roads have NEVER been repaired. I once saw a truck collapsed on its side in a HUGE pothole. No jokes. :-) Don't beleive me, well have a look at this :-)
Now do you believe me?? :-)
Funniest Cartoon...today
PHD by Jorge Cham
Please support PHD if you can..buy their comic book on amazon. This comic RULZ!!
Linux
Wooho!! I got my frist ever linux visitor to my blog today, Dec 2, 2004 at 07:20:11 AM. Whoever you are. Welcome to the blog. :-)
Wednesday, December 01, 2004