Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Five and a half hours before I leave the place, and I'm not yet done packing
I'm going to sleep. I need some rest :-(
Monday, January 30, 2006
Freaking out!!!
My flight is in 12 hours and I havent finished packing yet!!! :-O. I'm freaking out man!!! I wish I could drink something to calm my nerves, but that will just end up making me drowsy and incoherant (as if I am not already!!). Help!!!!!!!!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Linux on the laptop
I had bought the laptop with the intention to run a 64-bit Linux kernel on it. I had not had a chance to do it until last week. I downloaded Fedora Core 4 (since I had been a fan of the RH distro, this seemed like a logical step) dvd iso image and burned it onto disk. (This, incidently, is the first dvd that I burned :-) ). Popped the disk in and rebooted, the linux install prompt came up, I hit enter, some text scrolled by rapidly, and then.... nothing. The installation hung.
Googled and found that many people were facing the same issue. On the advice of members of PUG-OT (one of the yahoo groups that I subscribe to), I downloaded Suse 10. One major irritant with Suse was that they did not have a DVD image, only a 5 CD version. I burned the first image onto disk and found that the Suse intall also bombed midway.
Frustrated, I tried all kinds of kernel parameters that I found on the web but none helped.
Decided to try out other distros. Downloaded Kubuntu. Popped the disc in and rebooted. Install hung during ACPI configuration. Googled and found this. Used it and the install went through fine. Some twenty minutes later, I had the familiar linux boot prompt staring back at me. Only one problem, it was in text mode. I was trying to figure out what needs to be done and thought it might be a boot parameter that I'd have to set so rebooted, but Kubuntu failed to boot, it hung at "Checking battery state". (This makes it obvious that linux -- or maybe Kubuntu -- doesnt have adequate laptop power management support yet).
More frustration. Popped in the FC4 disk and used the same kernel parameters linux vga=771 noapic nolapic and it worked! A few seconds later I had the FC4 setup screen up on my laptop. Chose the partition, the packages, and 30 minutes later, FC4 was up and running. Sadly, I have to run to work, so I'll have to wait a while before I can play with it. Watch this space.
Googled and found that many people were facing the same issue. On the advice of members of PUG-OT (one of the yahoo groups that I subscribe to), I downloaded Suse 10. One major irritant with Suse was that they did not have a DVD image, only a 5 CD version. I burned the first image onto disk and found that the Suse intall also bombed midway.
Frustrated, I tried all kinds of kernel parameters that I found on the web but none helped.
Decided to try out other distros. Downloaded Kubuntu. Popped the disc in and rebooted. Install hung during ACPI configuration. Googled and found this. Used it and the install went through fine. Some twenty minutes later, I had the familiar linux boot prompt staring back at me. Only one problem, it was in text mode. I was trying to figure out what needs to be done and thought it might be a boot parameter that I'd have to set so rebooted, but Kubuntu failed to boot, it hung at "Checking battery state". (This makes it obvious that linux -- or maybe Kubuntu -- doesnt have adequate laptop power management support yet).
More frustration. Popped in the FC4 disk and used the same kernel parameters linux vga=771 noapic nolapic and it worked! A few seconds later I had the FC4 setup screen up on my laptop. Chose the partition, the packages, and 30 minutes later, FC4 was up and running. Sadly, I have to run to work, so I'll have to wait a while before I can play with it. Watch this space.
Going to NY
Last week, on the 19th, I had my L1-B Visa appointment at the US Consulate. And after 4 hours of waiting, and a 2 minute interview, I got the visa. I've booked my ticket for NY for the 31st of this month. Last 4 days in Toronto. I'm gonna miss this place.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Vancouver!
Last week I got a chance to go to Vancouver. Our company had a North America employees all hands meet there. Reached Vancouver on Wednesday last. Attended the trainings and meetings. Wednesday night we went to Brandy (look it up when you go to Vancouver).
Thursday, after the company meeting, we headed up to Grouse Mountain for dinner and drinks and dance. Up there, we had snowball fights and lots and lots of beer. After returning to Vancouver, a few of us decided to head to Roxy to get more booze and music. Returned to the hotel room by 2:30 am.
Friday morning, joined Vinay, Abhishek and Anil to Whistler. The plan was to ski/snowboard. We reached there late, and we had just 15 mins on the bunny hill before heading up the mountain. I struggled a lot on the bunny hill and decided against risking life and limb on top of the mountain so I stuck to the bunny hill for the rest of the day while the others had the time of their life up in the mountain.
In the evening, Neelu Chechi, Karthik and Keetu came to Vancouver from Seattle. I had a chance to meet them 4 months ago when they came as close as 30 miles away from Toronto, but they had to hurry back to catch a flight. This time, we got to meet and spend time together. Friday night we were all tired so we just had dinner and hit the sack.
Saturday morning, woke up late and got ready. We went to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen park in Chinatown. From there, we went for a drive through Stanley park. Later in the evening, we went for dinner to a chinese restaurant and after dinner, I took a cab and headed to the airport to catch my flight back home.
Thursday, after the company meeting, we headed up to Grouse Mountain for dinner and drinks and dance. Up there, we had snowball fights and lots and lots of beer. After returning to Vancouver, a few of us decided to head to Roxy to get more booze and music. Returned to the hotel room by 2:30 am.
Friday morning, joined Vinay, Abhishek and Anil to Whistler. The plan was to ski/snowboard. We reached there late, and we had just 15 mins on the bunny hill before heading up the mountain. I struggled a lot on the bunny hill and decided against risking life and limb on top of the mountain so I stuck to the bunny hill for the rest of the day while the others had the time of their life up in the mountain.
In the evening, Neelu Chechi, Karthik and Keetu came to Vancouver from Seattle. I had a chance to meet them 4 months ago when they came as close as 30 miles away from Toronto, but they had to hurry back to catch a flight. This time, we got to meet and spend time together. Friday night we were all tired so we just had dinner and hit the sack.
Saturday morning, woke up late and got ready. We went to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen park in Chinatown. From there, we went for a drive through Stanley park. Later in the evening, we went for dinner to a chinese restaurant and after dinner, I took a cab and headed to the airport to catch my flight back home.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Updates
Ok, its been a looooooong time since I updated my blog so here goes:
October: I went to Sudbury as part of a Support Handoff process for CBS, on of our biggest projects. While there, I also went to Ottawa and Gatineau with Siva, my colleague, and his family. Find the photos here.
November: I returned to Toronto. I bought a PSP. Nothing much else happened.
December: Another uneventful month. The only plus point in December was that I got to go to the Toronto Motorcycle Show. Find the pics here.
October: I went to Sudbury as part of a Support Handoff process for CBS, on of our biggest projects. While there, I also went to Ottawa and Gatineau with Siva, my colleague, and his family. Find the photos here.
November: I returned to Toronto. I bought a PSP. Nothing much else happened.
December: Another uneventful month. The only plus point in December was that I got to go to the Toronto Motorcycle Show. Find the pics here.
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