Warung Karipuf

How to spot a daddy

karipuf — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:24:16 +0000

It’s easy, if a guy smiles/makes cute gurgling noises at a baby, then either:

1. It’s his baby, i.e. he’s a daddy

2. It’s someone else’s baby, but other people’s babies are invisible to guys who aren’t daddies, so he must be a daddy

i.e.: he’s a daddy.

Q.E.D.

Where do bad drivers come from?

karipuf — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:18:09 +0000

In Cambridge (MA, not UK) where I’m currently staying, I meet great people every day – from cashiers at Trader Joe’s, to joggers, to friendly restaurant customers from neighbouring tables who come over to make cute noises at my baby boy, to my colleagues and friends at MIT, to the cheerful staff at local libraries, to.. etc. You get the general idea – I really like the people here!

So something that’s been kicking me is, why are drivers here so impatient and rude? On numerous occasions, I’ve been honked at while starting up at traffic lights (even though I’ve barely had enough time to disengage the parking brake), or if I slow down to look for landmarks or road signs, and on some occasions given really nasty looks if I unintentionally stray into the wrong lane. This has left me wondering.. if the people I meet everyday are so nice, where do all these bad drivers come from? Does getting behind the wheel bring out the worse in people? Or are there two distinct populations in Cambridge – drivers and non-drivers, and for some reason do my daily interactions bring me into contact with only the latter group?

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’m really not that bad a driver, honest!

One Laptop per child?

karipuf — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:13:40 +0000

I can’t quite believe what Bill Gates has said about the OLPC project (briefly, this is a research project founded by MIT faculty members which aims to develop the technology required to create laptops costing USD100 each for distribution to children in developing countries). More analysis can be read here but here are two juicy excerpts:

“Hardware is a small part of the cost” – Sure, if you’re a rich American! Of course, when he speaks about software, Mr.Gates is probably referring to all the over-priced proprietary software sold by companis such as, oh, Microsoft springs to mind A Linux distribution costs $0 and includes (apart from the OS) virtually all the application software that a typical computer user would ever need..
“geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you’re not sitting there cranking the thing while you’re trying to type” – I’m sure the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation will be happy to donate the funds required to (1) Equip all the 100million+ laptops with batteries and power supplies (2) Upgrade and extend power supply to all those rural locations in Nigeria, amongst other target countries

Oh and, did I mention that Google is one of the supporters of the project?

PyBlog

karipuf — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:10:51 +0000

I have created a simple tool to simplify posting to blogs. You first need to save your login details (these are encrypted using AES), after which text files may be dragged onto the application to create instant blog postings (for example, this post was created using PyBlog) (yup, that’s the name of the application). I used Python, which provides a nifty little XMLRPC library, which makes interfacing with the Blogger API (supported by WordPress as well) a snap. The downside? I still need to log in later to update the title/tags. Will probably use support one of the most modern APIs at some later date but this works already. Give it a try

The Read-Write Web

karipuf — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 13:07:15 +0000

Originally published as a PDF file, Rod Boothby in this white paper discusses the new wave of web-centric interactive applications (a.k.a. the “read-write web”). Throughout the paper he frequently refers to the “MBA class of 2006″ as a kind of shorthand for the new generation of super-web-literate tech workers who come fully conversant in the various web office technologies. Examples are shared calendars (i’d like to use this opportunity to shamelessly pitch for 30boxes ), web e-mail, blogs and wikis. It is argued that web office applications have the potential to make corporate workers more productive, reduce costs and (more importantly) stave off obsolescence

Well.. he also says a bunch of other stuff.. go read!

Cute

karipuf — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:01:09 +0000

very..

P.C. phone home

karipuf — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:24:29 +0000

This looks like it will be SUPER fun to set up
The idea: create a little script which will (figuratively) “phone home” when the computer is stolen. This can be installed into a hidden location on the notebook and instructed to run everytime the machine starts up (a (discreetly named) entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run or something should do the trick).

As for the script, there’s only about a million ways of writing it but here’s a “hello thief” sample in python:

import urllib,re,tkMessageBox reg=re.compile("stolen_stolen") fil=urllib.urlopen("http://www.yourweb.page/stolen") if (reg.search(file.read()): tkMessageBox.showwarning("This Machine has been stolen. Please alert the authorities");

Which basically checks for the file “http://www.yourweb.page/stolen” everytime the machine starts up. If present and containing the trigger phrase “stolen_stolen”, the script pops up a message warning the user (or delete key files, e-mail the IP to you, etc etc)

Dijjer

karipuf — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 06:30:30 +0000

Read this post about a new service called Dijjer. It’s a Bittorrent-like distributed downloading service which allows files to be distributed to multiple clients without sucking away all your bandwidth.

The main difference to me seems to be the ease-of-use factor -> to share a file using dijjer, simply add a “http://www.dijjer.org/get/” to the front of the actual file URL. So, to share “http://www.karipuf-file.com/karipuf-file.zip” (this is a fictitious URL, please don’t try to get!) the dijjer-enabled” link is: “http://www.dijjer.org/get/http://www.karipuf-file.com/karipuf-file.zip”. There are apparently other benefits, for e.g.Chris Holland in the above link also mentions that Dijjer also allows uploads from behind a NAT though this has not been a problem with me in the past (have been bittorrenting from behind a NAT and was apparently still able to upload..).

While you’re in the mood, check out the Million Book Project (a bit unrelated but what the hey )

How to write a good resume (for developers)

karipuf — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 05:07:49 +0000

Here’s a nice and short tip sheet which lists common pitfalls when writing a resume. It was written by an employee at Google and is based on his experiences in reviewing hundreds of CVs (and by all accounts they get loads of job applications! check this.. damn! )

Main points:

Explain technical details of past work
Leave out irrelevant details – these dilute the good stuff!
Don’t make general, self-promoting statements that are based on subjective assessment
If you’ve done good stuff, mention it!
Be honest

Tech Niblets 2

karipuf — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 20:23:32 +0000

Another set of bite-sized nuggets from the world of technology:

CTrambler is pretty clear in his dismay at Microsoft’s apparent decision to release eight versions of the upcoming Windows Vista operating system. If true, this could be terrible news for developers and users alike. Depending on just how different the eight versions of Windows are, it could well be that different versions of applications would need to be released to cater to the different capabilities. Instructions and howto’s might also only apply to some of the versions. Of course this hasn’t quite happened with XP home and professional but the variation amongst the eight different versions is likely to be more pronounced.
It transpires that Google is negotiating a one billion dollar deal to pre-install software on Dell machines. That’s a lot of money and is indicative of a fairly significant piece of software. Marc Orchant believes that the software in question could well be a Google branded version of StarOffice. The reason?
- StarOffice is reasonably low-cost and highly customisable – this would allow Google to insert all sorts of Googly Goodies.
- Google and Sun (the chaps who brought us StarOffice) ain’t exactly best buds with Microsoft.. see the synergy here?
This post by Roland Piquepaille describes recent research progress in which carbon nanotubes are used to store hydrogen safely. Possibly a step in the direction of cheaper fuel-cell powered cars.
Another interesting issue to follow is the dispute between Google and “Perfect 10″, a porn site which claims that Google has been indexing websites set up by copyright pirates to distribute illicit copies of images obtained from Perfect 10. The charge is that thumbnailed images returned in the search results provide quality that is similar to that produced by another Perfect 10 related service, “FoneStarz”. Read in greater detail at the above link. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out
This looks like it’s going to be super fun to try out, but also not trivial. Recording it here for future reference.