tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-888063055427856222024-03-05T18:28:34.383-08:00And then there were NUNdy!Arbitrary descriptors are that way ☛kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-86320759631129351922020-06-11T13:12:00.001-07:002020-08-27T15:38:07.950-07:00IEEE UK & Ireland Young Professionals participation in ICC 2020<p> <i>07 Jun 2020 04:00 PM to 10 Jun 2020 01:00 PM</i></p><p>The <a href="https://icc2020.ieee-icc.org/">IEEE International Conference on Communications</a> (ICC) is one of the IEEE Communications Society’s two flagship conferences dedicated to driving innovation in nearly every aspect of communications. In 2020, due to COVID-19, IEEE held its first-ever virtual ICC, originally scheduled to take place in Dublin, Ireland.</p><p>Initially, the IEEE YP UK and Ireland representatives were in charge of organising</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>a session on Networks without borders, by <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=LEDOYLE">Linda Doyle</a>, Vice President for Research/Dean of Research in Trinity College Dublin</li><li>a social event at Lansdowne Hotel, with local music by “The Irish House Party” </li></ul><p></p><p>Courtesy COVID-19, the participation of the affinity group was juggled to better serve the conference's needs.</p><p>On June 7, <a href="https://tssg.org/staff/daniel-perez-martins/">Daniel Martins</a>, YP's South Ireland Representative, and <a href="http://kknundy.net">Koushik Kumar Nundy</a>, YP's Dublin representative were panelists in the <b>"Volunteering for ComSoc"</b> session, where they shared their experience with volunteering for IEEE, and how it has helped in both their professional growth, as well as the benefits it provides to the IEEE and STEM community.</p><p>On June 10, Koushik moderated a discussion with <a href="https://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/stfpage/elewwcl/">Lawrence Wong</a>, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, outlining the various tenets of <b>"Writing Research Proposals"</b>.</p><p>Furthermore, Koushik and Daniel volunteered in the following session, to ensure smooth execution of the first-ever fully online IEEE ICC.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> Fireside Chat with <a href="https://engineering.stanford.edu/people/andrea-goldsmith">Andrea Goldsmith</a> (Stanford) and <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/jandrews/">Jeff Andrews</a> (UT Austin)</li></ul><p></p>kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-31246873672016827172019-07-16T08:10:00.000-07:002019-09-24T08:40:43.517-07:00"IEEE YP Symposium on Impact of Data Science in Healthcare" - Event Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had the good fortune of organising a symposium on July 15, 2019, titled "IEEE YP Symposium on Impact of Data Science in Healthcare", as part of my work with the IEEE Young Professionals UK & Ireland, at NDRC, The Digital Hub in the heart of the Liberties in Dublin, Ireland.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9cKVeiI9x1Y/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9cKVeiI9x1Y?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We were very fortunate to have support from <b>Think Biosolution</b>, <b>NDRC </b>and <b>The Digital Hub</b>, which was very helpful in organising and executing the event.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The primary audience consisted of Young professionals (IEEE members/non-members) who want to use IEEE as a channel for employment in data science in the Healthcare space.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This event was of particular interest to</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>early-career professionals in the data science space</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>healthcare professionals</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>graduate students</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>undergraduate seniors</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>IT professionals looking to upskill or diversify</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Wannapreneurs in the healthcare space</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Researchers in health, data science, AI, ML, etc</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The evening was opened with tea/coffee and networking, following which the event was MC'd by <b>Koushik Kumar Nundy</b>, CTO of Think Biosolution, and Dublin Representative of IEEE UK & Ireland Young Professionals.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Opening remarks were presented by the Hon. Ambassador of India to Ireland, <b>Mr Sandeep Kumar</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was followed by talks from an eclectic mix of academics, researchers, clinicians and administrators.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Eimear Galvin</b> spoke about how data plays an important part in these healthcare startups and for HSE.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Eimear manages Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) in Dublin, based in St James hospital. HIHI is a joint government initiative of both the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) and the Department of Health (DoH), funded through Enterprise Ireland and supported by HSE. Part of Eimear’s role is to establish Ireland, through HIHI, as a leading location for start-ups and expanding healthcare companies, by allowing easy interaction with hospitals and primary care centres.<br />
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPHCIcQOKg76VkvzcPm35gK5g4CcIithNRXrnxVEB_AN3n5KWPhaEzw-0TDDO9A_XDnd_-RS6GAZL8nyOYrwttY_kR8BUURIxJYKG6xBXwAbfBOQUiXDBWlVSzC0oNRRDK9LZEAuhXcGl/s1600/DSC_0578.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPHCIcQOKg76VkvzcPm35gK5g4CcIithNRXrnxVEB_AN3n5KWPhaEzw-0TDDO9A_XDnd_-RS6GAZL8nyOYrwttY_kR8BUURIxJYKG6xBXwAbfBOQUiXDBWlVSzC0oNRRDK9LZEAuhXcGl/s320/DSC_0578.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eimear Galvin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b>
<b>Dr Friedrich Wetterling</b> discussed how data is important for connected medical device solutions, what are the risks and opportunities, and how his employer Fire1 is working towards tackling them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Friedrich is the Senior Data Scientist at FIRE1 Foundry. FIRE1 has raised more than €57 Million till date, and some of its investors include global healthcare leaders like Medtronic. FIRE1 is a connected medical device solutions company dedicated to improving outcomes for people suffering from chronic diseases.<br />
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_6CnpUA3YFuVHakBputVPk1a0mI9j6hGt_l57Kzloi06KqNcXiM1wPMvZu2Nromyqr-qPU-kiEmNJCePvYOXCNSKWK562dkRABbWX1s8oYSzfGxdNl5UJcmsWNKoZuHa_KFB-ImkPKKP/s1600/DSC_0586.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha_6CnpUA3YFuVHakBputVPk1a0mI9j6hGt_l57Kzloi06KqNcXiM1wPMvZu2Nromyqr-qPU-kiEmNJCePvYOXCNSKWK562dkRABbWX1s8oYSzfGxdNl5UJcmsWNKoZuHa_KFB-ImkPKKP/s320/DSC_0586.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fredrich Wetterling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b>
<b>Dr Chandana Fitzgerald</b> brought to the table the tech opportunities of data in healthcare, clinician's perceptions about data, and regulatory challenges of handling medical data.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Chandana is the Chief Medical Officer at HealthXL. As a CMO Chandana leads thought leadership, research, content, operations and strategic growth for a global digital health platform, HealthXL. Chandana is a medical doctor with work, research and educational experience across European, American and Asian markets. She has recently launched her Digital Health Podcast and also writes thought leadership pieces regularly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlavb0n01-ExDf2UW_nIR5TXHgc2PW5LUQ3zg9-fHnZ-q91OTmW9p6M4cSyIzQxq7a3oLE-ASPZlUQFo4bCDvsGhGnqRfZVKco4-cbF97zxq1VMlmaMA3Hqz0iVd1liMI1U19OymzAfVoo/s1600/DSC_0593.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlavb0n01-ExDf2UW_nIR5TXHgc2PW5LUQ3zg9-fHnZ-q91OTmW9p6M4cSyIzQxq7a3oLE-ASPZlUQFo4bCDvsGhGnqRfZVKco4-cbF97zxq1VMlmaMA3Hqz0iVd1liMI1U19OymzAfVoo/s320/DSC_0593.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chandana Fitzgerald</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Dr Soumyabrata Dev</b> introduced us to his recent work where they have developed a stroke predictor for EHR data.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Soumyabrata is a Machine Learning Researcher at ADAPT Cente, Trinity College Dublin and will be joining as an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin from Fall 2019. Soumyabrata obtained his PhD from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore, in 2017. From Aug-Dec 2015, he was a visiting student at Audiovisual Communication Laboratory (LCAV), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZhJzbH3LfhFk9dF20UqbLQUYrerzkX_fbdxP8iBRaoEvf4CI1jGlV0DFKnpxZGvjrPsFsVMl0NLnRCsB6gx49L16BYcYXhWUmqtC31DChB0M4TuZZTPlYFeFfU7kZbdz9y4KEoSFs_RGh/s1600/DSC_0596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZhJzbH3LfhFk9dF20UqbLQUYrerzkX_fbdxP8iBRaoEvf4CI1jGlV0DFKnpxZGvjrPsFsVMl0NLnRCsB6gx49L16BYcYXhWUmqtC31DChB0M4TuZZTPlYFeFfU7kZbdz9y4KEoSFs_RGh/s320/DSC_0596.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soumyabrata Dev</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Following the talks, Eimear, Friedrich, Chandana and Soumyabrata were joined by Dr Shourjya Sanyal, CEO of Think Biosolution in a panel discussion about the role and significance of data in healthcare, especially clinical pathways and decision-making.</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kUKvtWzg5sHpxY3adrPsLbGD9J9GQMESm8K0Y-ckkG4DYZK6LgBgTDOdlHK3RAed69WWFZ_zGdGngVcxUrVyDdmzJX9CRQXQnEBub-4OuJcexPSZOi72snWdBtzzw7VCiaD_YBOROteq/s1600/IMG_8479.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kUKvtWzg5sHpxY3adrPsLbGD9J9GQMESm8K0Y-ckkG4DYZK6LgBgTDOdlHK3RAed69WWFZ_zGdGngVcxUrVyDdmzJX9CRQXQnEBub-4OuJcexPSZOi72snWdBtzzw7VCiaD_YBOROteq/s320/IMG_8479.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MCemaQCdqnx1RM2GbCAMklo8RA7H5GEH6IPf6FyIiq2J4_wRYpnog-ttL6Wcz9yBUQhMoLIdv4BvQ0VkYVnM9YVTyjGp2KDTS0Kzbnb6uJj0ulhS1vw672tua4toRA_C6p04REHFW_NY/s1600/20190715_184214_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MCemaQCdqnx1RM2GbCAMklo8RA7H5GEH6IPf6FyIiq2J4_wRYpnog-ttL6Wcz9yBUQhMoLIdv4BvQ0VkYVnM9YVTyjGp2KDTS0Kzbnb6uJj0ulhS1vw672tua4toRA_C6p04REHFW_NY/s320/20190715_184214_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Panel Discussion</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Each talk lasted 15 minutes, and the panel discussion was about 30 minutes long.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was followed by a networking session with snacks. The event had over 110 registrations and we received a lot of positive feedback from the attendees.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-8211409586191941842019-07-01T04:54:00.000-07:002019-07-01T04:54:10.675-07:00Scare Quotes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Some statements simply are better if a certain famous person said them.</b> ~ Gary Saul Morson</blockquote>
<br />
I have always been intrigued by quotes, despite their often half-baked oversimplifications of concepts, usually of life and love. The part that fascinates me most is the multitude of contradictions offered, usually by people on opposite sides of an argument, but not too rarely by comrades, or even occasionally by the same people.<br />
<br />
Those that quote those that are quoted refer to such quotes that echo within their own thought chambers as a vindication of their already held opinion, where the quote's original intent may have been no more than a witty comeback.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, more scarily, the quotee was trying to make quite the opposite point from the quoter.<br />
<br />
Nowhere are these contradictions more on the nose than with famous quotations about quotations. Except for politics, maybe, but who wants to ramble about political wordplay!<br />
<br />
<b>Exhibit 1</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>(A) quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business.</b> ~ A.A. Milne</blockquote>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Exhibit 2</b></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>I like a writer who is original enough to water his garden with quotations, without fear of being drowned out.</b> ~ Henry Van Dyke</blockquote>
<br />
In retrospect, perhaps, this blog post was unnecessary, as the point has somewhat been made by a great author of our times.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting.</b> ~ John Green</blockquote>
But then again, anything worth doing might just be worth overdoing!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Be careful--with quotations, you can damn anything. </b>~ Andre Malraux</blockquote>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-52775643133292710842018-05-10T17:22:00.000-07:002018-05-10T17:53:35.577-07:00The Home Depot Song<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><i>I have theorised that all songs are clandestine commercials.</i></b><br />
<br />
<i><b>Included here is a case study, outlining the hypothesis that Celine Dion's "Because you loved me..." is an insidious ad for <b>Home Depot. </b>I have outlined the first verse of the song with their corresponding merchandise here,</b></i><br />
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-weight: normal;">For all those times you stood by me</span></th>
<th><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gUjXgh13jHdwm9WqJyuivJkMOQtqLp2JAz-2cCgtwiy2otTuTxGQwQ1zypv_SEEn83zrH-rVGmob7bno1285SgAojixolDieSCR89w3JOwDBBp4qtMHVo-iFvAzjnurTBaFDMxst3LVV/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="726" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5gUjXgh13jHdwm9WqJyuivJkMOQtqLp2JAz-2cCgtwiy2otTuTxGQwQ1zypv_SEEn83zrH-rVGmob7bno1285SgAojixolDieSCR89w3JOwDBBp4qtMHVo-iFvAzjnurTBaFDMxst3LVV/s320/1.png" width="250" /></a></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeT7L1FwjbDppgrF-GQRCvPQTeXBKkjzaT_fuZ8AQ7x6mlRuXqWag5cSdaMKZlOXDLeXfbEUXkSiSebzIoWZAGjTSBt_9neOKIQoO4JEqXgO7vOEu9hDRXuQ5_jSaCOPdpfm9MsTZE-Vdw/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="619" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeT7L1FwjbDppgrF-GQRCvPQTeXBKkjzaT_fuZ8AQ7x6mlRuXqWag5cSdaMKZlOXDLeXfbEUXkSiSebzIoWZAGjTSBt_9neOKIQoO4JEqXgO7vOEu9hDRXuQ5_jSaCOPdpfm9MsTZE-Vdw/s320/2.png" width="250" /></a></td>
<td>For all the truth that you made me see</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>For all the joy you brought to my life</td>
<td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_T0lcIsMSD_eyymztkExhW_prE1RUvr50PzqHhzhyBDomQhvyZyk-232F_cHCJPc48U0raU4Lz50-rtHrk9AqMq1gXmcb29mlUwTJT3B5wtypIacAIepi8VqeiFnTNd0k0yW7gIDsBB04/s1600/3.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="748" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_T0lcIsMSD_eyymztkExhW_prE1RUvr50PzqHhzhyBDomQhvyZyk-232F_cHCJPc48U0raU4Lz50-rtHrk9AqMq1gXmcb29mlUwTJT3B5wtypIacAIepi8VqeiFnTNd0k0yW7gIDsBB04/s320/3.png" width="250" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHOD73PxNxOz5N-ZtRuJxUU_HsWxjkOtSDp2nSRF1ndYdCBor4LCfD0fh7SKEbANcoKM9R6EQkdOMjf45hE5mrvLFSEEHM2556QRaVlCpwR2ZzGZGNWfUgDx3cpNVzbSO0-mIWUeaaOK4e/s1600/4.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="698" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHOD73PxNxOz5N-ZtRuJxUU_HsWxjkOtSDp2nSRF1ndYdCBor4LCfD0fh7SKEbANcoKM9R6EQkdOMjf45hE5mrvLFSEEHM2556QRaVlCpwR2ZzGZGNWfUgDx3cpNVzbSO0-mIWUeaaOK4e/s320/4.png" width="250" /></a></td>
<td>For all the wrong that you made right</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=88806305542785622" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>
<b><i>Just so there is no doubt that this is happenstance, here's a few more examples, because, SCIENCE!</i>
</b>
<br />
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><span style="font-weight: normal;">You were my strength when I was weak</span></th>
<th><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcrgMztqfpaK1IBkiJ4Af-g_32yMAkb1ihZKScSmshyphenhyphen06xqTS4Ps6i9Rn7iwH_KNhkeIBW81bfWlmhY8JpykDMYGD5AoAYg3Z-M5VPgXPGbjJzLs8Y0bpLkvu4tHruFq-uohlKCOjUpZiU/s1600/5.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="649" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcrgMztqfpaK1IBkiJ4Af-g_32yMAkb1ihZKScSmshyphenhyphen06xqTS4Ps6i9Rn7iwH_KNhkeIBW81bfWlmhY8JpykDMYGD5AoAYg3Z-M5VPgXPGbjJzLs8Y0bpLkvu4tHruFq-uohlKCOjUpZiU/s320/5.png" width="250" /></a></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcNrrPiswRQU6Ot4pncwPbojsPDw7voLeK4HaWp1PQbgQfcLmfG1WedXnqtQQuNbqwZ0NGF_Zjdogk8uqqCOUdHktlz_Vjz_l0_DXb8dGBDLbr46hiJ4LEaZrlm98q9abNl94BU0-2Vu2/s1600/6.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="722" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcNrrPiswRQU6Ot4pncwPbojsPDw7voLeK4HaWp1PQbgQfcLmfG1WedXnqtQQuNbqwZ0NGF_Zjdogk8uqqCOUdHktlz_Vjz_l0_DXb8dGBDLbr46hiJ4LEaZrlm98q9abNl94BU0-2Vu2/s320/6.png" width="250" /></a></td>
<td>You were my voice when I couldn't speak</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>You were my eyes when I couldn't see</td>
<td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-pLb0iP6-_qEfQadQINncwS3t7rSw7Pb55uuRioQHzxo97WGdSjeYC5g5Kwf-iUqzg_4T-UPo8AJVER37_kOmCjs3g_AobwfpktVqZcTzXlptEX64m0pXUCS77Uxqu1ZwUVjFDm9348zt/s1600/7.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="682" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-pLb0iP6-_qEfQadQINncwS3t7rSw7Pb55uuRioQHzxo97WGdSjeYC5g5Kwf-iUqzg_4T-UPo8AJVER37_kOmCjs3g_AobwfpktVqZcTzXlptEX64m0pXUCS77Uxqu1ZwUVjFDm9348zt/s320/7.png" width="250" /></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjttrBJuAglpE6T2d7gUT06hcPmSITWEBgcGFjCmzYo0ggc8BsSBFdzDsgz28pfoL3p1jvMtjzrKlNGI2K51dJQ7U1sg9sDSz74NmkzubKbfio5wPoYMjrRDHzCWpLW6XKQhOGj2JmmH-JI/s1600/8.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="708" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjttrBJuAglpE6T2d7gUT06hcPmSITWEBgcGFjCmzYo0ggc8BsSBFdzDsgz28pfoL3p1jvMtjzrKlNGI2K51dJQ7U1sg9sDSz74NmkzubKbfio5wPoYMjrRDHzCWpLW6XKQhOGj2JmmH-JI/s320/8.png" width="250" /></a></td>
<td>Lifted me up when I couldn't reach</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><i>References:</i></b>
[1] <a href="http://www.homedepot.com/">http://www.homedepot.com</a>
[2] <a href="https://youtu.be/O3XGynvy_V4">Because You Loved Me - Celine Dion - YouTube</a>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-13826173920955255032017-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:002017-10-23T08:00:58.447-07:00"From Engineer to Entrepreneur" - Event Report<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On September 11, 2017, a talk, titled "From Engineer to Entrepreneur" was organised by the Dublin chapter of <b>Founder Institute</b> and the UK and Ireland chapter of <b>IEEE Young Professionals</b>. The event was kindly hosted by Google at their <a href="https://maps.google.com/?q=4+Barrow+Street,+Dublin,+Ireland&entry=gmail&source=g" target="_blank">European HQ in Dublin</a>. <br />
I was fortunate enough to accompany Matthew Ellis on behalf of IEEE YP UK&I.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfQvOrot8xsu5qe33YQ_0EeILFk99ER6xktuUJ7J232ux2_-RJmbI73vKfiHNAWnknBc0ell2kF0K4HtjE97O2viKlnwVnX5yPktJKJ3-4v-EhvkYNavp1rwG0kGcA9KQJnAE7N3jXQRg/s1600/IMG_20170911_194301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfQvOrot8xsu5qe33YQ_0EeILFk99ER6xktuUJ7J232ux2_-RJmbI73vKfiHNAWnknBc0ell2kF0K4HtjE97O2viKlnwVnX5yPktJKJ3-4v-EhvkYNavp1rwG0kGcA9KQJnAE7N3jXQRg/s400/IMG_20170911_194301.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">The wonderful audience</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The event started off with the wonderful <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricia-scanlon-9190429/" target="_blank"><b>Patricia Scanlon</b></a>, CEO of <a href="http://www.soapboxlabs.com/" target="_blank">Soapbox,</a> who walked us through her journey as a researcher, an intra-preneur and then an entrepreneur.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_YZOKaeaga6pZLgqmyEBKByUQCc12lrbaYF4Ykq-Ws2Lyyw8LYIG4Kx0_NI5qLU_x0RgFz4Yryei5GoCynuDRUFrL7V64pc8FEooNtVFQL4vK_tenqa_EHfKkE-kyeYb2TZVBeGgiVeA/s1600/IMG_20170911_194801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh_YZOKaeaga6pZLgqmyEBKByUQCc12lrbaYF4Ykq-Ws2Lyyw8LYIG4Kx0_NI5qLU_x0RgFz4Yryei5GoCynuDRUFrL7V64pc8FEooNtVFQL4vK_tenqa_EHfKkE-kyeYb2TZVBeGgiVeA/s400/IMG_20170911_194801.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patricia discusses how she scours the earth for the best talent</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Her definitive work on voice recognition in children sits at the core . She shared her stories about the trials and tribulations that come as oft-ignored baggage with the entrepreneurial journey. Her voice recognition work at Columbia University, IBM, Alcatel-Lucent(Bell Labs) and Trinity College Dublin provided for a compelling story, and prepared her for the road ahead, where her work at Soapbox has acquired several laurels, <a href="https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/soapbox-labs-elkstone-astia-angels" target="_blank">including a $1.2 million seed funding earlier this year.</a><br />
<br />
The old adage that children are often seen, not heard, is brought back into harsh focus, when we realise that the vast array of voice-recognition and control platforms, from Google's Assistant to Amazon's Alexa, are so attuned to adult voices, but perform horrendously when presented with a child.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Sx1-kJFy6RyvOMQPRCjJV9zmX-q6ddO4jG9jU86PLy3_5S7afywqMtwKV-qraFeE3SZ2f2Lw2PY2jyENb7KxB3sWyZFGFktjKVztD0XXhaKRtnudwHQakN5MOs9r3tvlUTuAT62b6Zo7/s1600/IMG_20170911_201127.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Sx1-kJFy6RyvOMQPRCjJV9zmX-q6ddO4jG9jU86PLy3_5S7afywqMtwKV-qraFeE3SZ2f2Lw2PY2jyENb7KxB3sWyZFGFktjKVztD0XXhaKRtnudwHQakN5MOs9r3tvlUTuAT62b6Zo7/s400/IMG_20170911_201127.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This is the founder you have been looking for...</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We also got a peek into the investment opportunities and collaborations she was able to leverage, including support from Enterprise Ireland and the spinning-in of Soapbox Labs into the Learnovate Centre at Trinity College Dublin.<br />
<br />
She spoke about the myriad relationships, amongst all of the stakeholders, the investors, the employees, the clients and collaborators and how it all comes together to solve anything from a customer pain point to core speech engineering issues, or to even ensure that there was always money in the bank for keeping the lights on. <br />
<br />
While I was writing this article, Patricia <a href="https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/soapbox-labs-voice-patricia-scanlon-inspirefest-2017" target="_blank">showed up on the news again</a> for her talk at InspireFest2017!<br />
<br />
Patricia was followed by the delightful <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nealogorman/" target="_blank">Neal O' Gorman</a>.<br />
<br />
<div>
Having graduated from Electronic Engineering in University College Dublin, Neal has gone
on to become a serial entrepreneur with Artomatix being the 3rd company
he has founded – the first was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2006.
His second company was a social games company that had an acquisition
offer from one of the top social games companies in the world.</div>
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Neal is also the Director of the Dublin Chapter of Founder Institute.</span></h4>
Neal spoke about the challenges faced by engineers, when they set off on an entrepreneurial path.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla3gake3KXWHkz5GD0fXJF6-uKmtIUgsPdvf8tfw8N_1OfG1fuk0PgjjCkIUfUSfuYZOfl_H-r37wK93y26_bc0wprIX6836b1HfOn8BiZobfAcXODB0TDJB6arnipfdTTJUedaKeKl9T/s1600/IMG_20170911_205059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1185" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgla3gake3KXWHkz5GD0fXJF6-uKmtIUgsPdvf8tfw8N_1OfG1fuk0PgjjCkIUfUSfuYZOfl_H-r37wK93y26_bc0wprIX6836b1HfOn8BiZobfAcXODB0TDJB6arnipfdTTJUedaKeKl9T/s400/IMG_20170911_205059.jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Neal talks about the Founder Institute</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Some interesting misconceptions are widely observed when we look at why people want to get into the "start up game". They range anywhere from being a "get-rich-quickly" scheme, the ability to control your hours, to "being your own boss".<br />
<br />
Neal stressed on the importance of perseverance, and abandoning your comfort zone. The zero salary periods, the work-life balance, and need to be planned and accounted for.<br />
<br />
He mentioned how being away from home helped in his journey, as social and personal commitments and startup duties are always competing for the same scarce resource that is time.<br />
<br />
He spoke about not getting too attached to an idea, identifying the right problem, building the right team, having that insane degree of commitment.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFeNPmq8yF7YQYVhGTylNhVuGrxBv11E2iRh3Wme4qWRITymOCT25nvMaFlPwNf1CASddkQZDLs4uZracPsAGeIC0NtieT2eawkELtoD77vxKk_wreRjnaqUbVdkBXbb7n2UOHkm_Ff0Fg/s1600/IMG_20170911_205732.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1193" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFeNPmq8yF7YQYVhGTylNhVuGrxBv11E2iRh3Wme4qWRITymOCT25nvMaFlPwNf1CASddkQZDLs4uZracPsAGeIC0NtieT2eawkELtoD77vxKk_wreRjnaqUbVdkBXbb7n2UOHkm_Ff0Fg/s400/IMG_20170911_205732.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Few startups succeed, and fewer ever turn a profit" - Neal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Once the speakers were done, the audience got a chance to mingle with each other and get 1-on-1s with the speakers.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV_fHgRX-HYy4EUvjeXTLcXMeMTs0bLfcpTpKXwPyYFusq3iQBfOm2Q9mhwq1kpfDteqBw0U27jOS_Y3oIXKkilsxwf1C_5yZOZdQaIV-Z83aN6Iekxs0e07ui4LLpo3vuudERJDqtX2sS/s1600/IMG_20170911_194333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV_fHgRX-HYy4EUvjeXTLcXMeMTs0bLfcpTpKXwPyYFusq3iQBfOm2Q9mhwq1kpfDteqBw0U27jOS_Y3oIXKkilsxwf1C_5yZOZdQaIV-Z83aN6Iekxs0e07ui4LLpo3vuudERJDqtX2sS/s400/IMG_20170911_194333.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neal and Patricia comparing notes!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsjVldtLK9AP6ZhirCKUXYqoWNXqBYe1CYUfmKL0DEGgt0O2FbkHYmOh0cqCTEsWjEVfnEDXtjii-UNzsYG1Ilm_BLAxItLSlSumI6n7o38wZpYmKTYhm0xEvwwtd5CYP_FMc_uTJn9PEJ/s1600/IMG_20170911_213345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1185" data-original-width="1600" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsjVldtLK9AP6ZhirCKUXYqoWNXqBYe1CYUfmKL0DEGgt0O2FbkHYmOh0cqCTEsWjEVfnEDXtjii-UNzsYG1Ilm_BLAxItLSlSumI6n7o38wZpYmKTYhm0xEvwwtd5CYP_FMc_uTJn9PEJ/s400/IMG_20170911_213345.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Regaling after!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Overall, the event was well received, and will hopefully prove valuable to the attendees planning to set upon their own entrepreneurial journeys.<br />
<b><br />About IEEE Young Professionals</b><br />
<a href="http://www.ieeeukiyp.org/" target="_blank">IEEE UK & Ireland (UK&I) Young Professionals</a> is an Affinity
Group for electrical, electronics, software and computer systems
engineers that have graduated in the last decade. IEEE UK&I YP is a
professional network that assists with transitioning from university
into the professional world.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ieee.org/" target="_blank">IEEE</a> is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community to innovate for a better tomorrow through its more than 423,000 members in over 160 countries, and its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. IEEE is the trusted “voice” for engineering, computing, and technology information around the globe. <br />
<br />
<b>About Founder Institute</b><br />
<a href="https://fi.co/" target="_blank">The Founder Institute</a> is the world's premier idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program.<br />
<br />
Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 170
cities and 60 countries, the Founder Institute’s mission is to
“Globalize Silicon Valley” and empower talented and motivated
entrepreneurs to build companies that will create one million new jobs.<br />
<br />
The Founder Institute was founded in 2009 by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/adeoressi" target="_blank">Adeo Ressi</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangreechan" target="_blank">Jonathan Greechan</a>. It is operated out of Palo Alto, California.<br />
<br /></div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0Barrow St, Dublin 4, Ireland53.339897 -6.236013700000057727.8178625 -47.544607700000057 78.8619315 35.072580299999942tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-88099634531090435292017-01-08T11:08:00.001-08:002017-01-08T11:08:35.591-08:00PSA : Linux support for Kaby Lake laptops - JANUARY 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This isn't as much a post, as it is an update on the state of Kernel and Distro support for Kaby Lake laptops, as of early <b>January 2017</b>.<br />
<br />
<b>Trivia:</b><br />
Kaby Lake support was introduced in Linux 4.5, and only came of age closer to 4.8, although not with its fair share of quirks. GPU support for corresponding Intel integrated graphics is very much a work in progress, but as of 4.9 seems to be in usable condition.<br />
<br />
<b>Test Environment:</b><br />
CPU : Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz<br />
GPU : Intel Integrated Graphics 620 <br />
RAM : 8GB DDR4 2400MHz<br />
HDD : Sandisk Ultra II 480GB SATA3 SSD <br />
<br />
All installs, unless otherwise specified, used an encrypted LVM disk with default setup.<br />
<br />
<b>Summary</b><br />
<i><b>Good</b></i> : openSUSE Tumbleweed, Fedora 25<br />
<i><b>OK</b></i> : Ubuntu 16.10<br />
<i><b>Bad</b></i> : openSUSE Leap 42.2, *buntu 16.04 LTS<br />
<i><b>Unknown</b></i> : antergos, Linux Mint 18.1<br />
<br />
<b>In some greater detail...</b><br />
<b>openSUSE Leap 42.2</b> is on Kernel 4.4, as is <b>Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS</b> and its myriad derivates(tested on Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and Xubuntu.).<br />
<br />
<b>Fedora Workstation 25</b> comes with an outdated kernel, but a <code>dnf update</code> on a fresh install takes the kernel to 4.8. It had no visible issues, except this was the only distro where sound did not work out of the box. Running
<code>service alsa force-restart</code> as root solved the problem however. <br />
<br />
<b>openSUSE Leap 42.2</b> consequently has some bug which results in "X Window System" having CPU utilisation skyrocket to the point of unusability. A purely CLI session which startx disabled seemed to work fine for the limited time I tested it.<br />
<br />
<b>*buntu 16.04</b>, on the other hand, seems to start up fine, but freezes at random intervals, usually triggered by browser start-up. The only way to restore control is a force reboot, as keyboard shortcuts, force logouts and switching off X, all seem to have no effect whatsoever.<br />
<br />
<b>Ubuntu 16.10</b> (also tested on Kubuntu) comes with Linux 4.8, which thankfully has much better support.However, hardware acceleration seems iffy, and running a 4K video on vlc, or YouTube has framerate issues that weren't present in Fedora's similar kernel.<br />
<br />
<b>openSUSE Tumbleweed </b>(release 20170104), openSUSE's rolling release runs on a 4.9 kernel, and has stellar support on KDE, but tracker takes up way too much RAM on GNOME. Not sure if it is a GNOME issue or Kaby Lake issue, though. <br />
<br />
For <b>antergos,</b> the ISO Refresh 2016.11.20 failed to
boot up from an USB key. There is now a new ISO download available (as
of Jan 6, 2017) which I have not tested.<br />
<br />
<b>Linux Mint 18.1 MATE </b>seemed to have it's mirrors down last I checked. I will try to update it's testing once I have a chance to give it a spin.</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-43822832950810137682016-12-05T11:00:00.000-08:002017-01-08T09:16:13.571-08:00 Analytics - Phase 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>It's that time of the year again. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Just kidding. If there is one thing about this blog's schedule that is consistent, that is its inconsistency of schedule.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There has been this irregular tradition of looking at what kind of people (read "computers") chance upon my little corner.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicxOc5oarOM6BIggCMRR9qGneOvUhInsULphGzXdz_4r1sI_6x3wq-jW_AFGpvV6wD3uFHkptqJskoMsbGQbqoak_P0VEDz7WT9j9XyA4GvcbshuTjUo9_gmqby_fksd1beZxT4n2QxfCO/s1600/analytics4-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicxOc5oarOM6BIggCMRR9qGneOvUhInsULphGzXdz_4r1sI_6x3wq-jW_AFGpvV6wD3uFHkptqJskoMsbGQbqoak_P0VEDz7WT9j9XyA4GvcbshuTjUo9_gmqby_fksd1beZxT4n2QxfCO/s400/analytics4-1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOUufBu-X7RiarQPmWfN6SosZvKRFzk9gOn1wb8USl09pwRSXO3xaLEx-tCGExsFWoOUqY-geobespqP-UOplcaAkJQGvoS4Aq_xXn8QamEV495HmiMqe6YftZZaOXXYMNEWu6sRn8euth/s1600/analytics4-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOUufBu-X7RiarQPmWfN6SosZvKRFzk9gOn1wb8USl09pwRSXO3xaLEx-tCGExsFWoOUqY-geobespqP-UOplcaAkJQGvoS4Aq_xXn8QamEV495HmiMqe6YftZZaOXXYMNEWu6sRn8euth/s400/analytics4-2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In its latest iteration, we see a surprise surge in visits from the Cult of Mac! Also, Chrome has finally dethroned Firefox at the browser helm, over two years after it did so in the world's wider web.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, how have the interwebz shifted over the years then. We see quite a few interesting trends as time passed by. This is the 4th such post, so let's see how the balance has shifted over the years.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuAVeUs5ZgZRx_5CETBA5O7zOrknTNPpjNhg2aeuM7NLnmofWfEyDZOGLxgqwnDGNbp9lJlmLIuQQB1Fl1B0hfI0PbfL1Qg1k5CC6TeAiEeE4YEf8fIvnmf41Pco_OKtKRtXpujYYqdH_b/s1600/a4br.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuAVeUs5ZgZRx_5CETBA5O7zOrknTNPpjNhg2aeuM7NLnmofWfEyDZOGLxgqwnDGNbp9lJlmLIuQQB1Fl1B0hfI0PbfL1Qg1k5CC6TeAiEeE4YEf8fIvnmf41Pco_OKtKRtXpujYYqdH_b/s400/a4br.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;">Since its early days, Chrome users had held their own in terms of traffic. In the last couple of years, however, it has grown from lingering in Firefox's shadow to claim its place under the sun, while IE, almost always on the verge of a comeback, will likely never quite catch on in these parts.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Also of note is the "other" section, fuelled almost entirely by esoteric KHTML and Dilo-like renderers in the early days, but replaced by more simplistic, yet consistently growing mobile-based alternatives.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMaqF4zlXkF2Ymd0agrYaT0UU8tXRnKK1WGEPOKq1XpRLoSAplk7o9XSK57WVqifs0uKVtp1C6AswNzZ3TkpW1fp87l3grW3bsWfimMeSDuEfHcKeautVNPSPy-T5jsrzBaF6qwa5XADGf/s1600/a4os.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMaqF4zlXkF2Ymd0agrYaT0UU8tXRnKK1WGEPOKq1XpRLoSAplk7o9XSK57WVqifs0uKVtp1C6AswNzZ3TkpW1fp87l3grW3bsWfimMeSDuEfHcKeautVNPSPy-T5jsrzBaF6qwa5XADGf/s400/a4os.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Speaking of mobile alternatives, the practical absence of mobile visits can be better visualised by the OS share variance with time, with "other" accounting for a humongous 0 percentage points during the earlier years, while growing to a healthy 10% in recent times. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Given it's FOSSy leanings, Linux-based user-strings have always been over-represented for this blog that for the web-at-large, but the sudden spurt in Mac visits is an unexplained surprise, which may or may not be explicable by the proliferation of "cheaper" Macs like the Air, the Mini and the Pro non-retina.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i>Note 1: All of these number are cumulative(since early 2009), so the trends would be more pronounced if we take each period in isolation. A year by year comparison might be in order, especially if compared to overall trends in market </i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Note 2: Previous iterations lie here: Part <a href="http://blog.kknundy.net/2014/02/analytic-phase-3.html" target="_blank">3</a> <a href="http://blog.kknundy.net/2010/01/analytics-phase-2.html" target="_blank">2</a> <a href="http://blog.kknundy.net/2009/09/analytics-phase-1.html" target="_blank">1</a></span></i></b></div>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-72711281732057332782016-03-10T08:29:00.000-08:002016-03-10T08:29:02.416-08:00Petrol price misrepresentation on social networks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A misleading post regarding petrol prices in India and Abroad is doing the rounds (again!). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here's a copy of the post in question</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0xZOnUGn36bzwQQi3cLMvgCpEouSBYaZq862LZPnoVmUOKiP4FNU1WSJ5APtxcD_womKOoj9nMwDjxDTPOFBOOw-Wk5BfxjDTuGs-KzhB697NuW6UTgDKUcdkAu_BMgp9S2XoFiiISYsg/s1600/12119006_1643365812604804_5975292210566006500_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0xZOnUGn36bzwQQi3cLMvgCpEouSBYaZq862LZPnoVmUOKiP4FNU1WSJ5APtxcD_womKOoj9nMwDjxDTPOFBOOw-Wk5BfxjDTuGs-KzhB697NuW6UTgDKUcdkAu_BMgp9S2XoFiiISYsg/s320/12119006_1643365812604804_5975292210566006500_n.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1643365812604804&set=gm.497492003745383&type=3&theater</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Let's look at the accuracy of each of the above claims, just so we learn that the purpose of any media needs to go beyond the reconfirmation of the reader's preconceived notions.<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table border="0" cellspacing="0">
<colgroup width="85"></colgroup>
<colgroup width="186"></colgroup>
<colgroup width="142"></colgroup>
<colgroup width="146"></colgroup>
<colgroup width="137"></colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17"><b>Country</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>Price in shared image(INR)</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>Actual price in USD</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>Actual Price in INR</b></td>
<td align="center"><b>Difference in %age</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17"><br /></td>
<td align="center"><br /></td>
<td align="center"><br /></td>
<td align="center"><br /></td>
<td align="center"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Pakistan</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="26">26</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="0.6">0.6</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="40.2">40.2</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="0.546153846153846"><b><span style="color: #006600;">55%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Cuba</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="19">19</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="1.41">1.41</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="94.47">94.47</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="3.9721052631579"><b><span style="color: #006600;">397%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Nepal</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="34">34</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="0.94">0.94</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="62.98">62.98</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="0.852352941176471"><b><span style="color: #006600;">85%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Afghanistan</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="36">36</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="0.77">0.77</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="51.59">51.59</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="0.433055555555556"><b><span style="color: #006600;">43%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Bangladesh</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="22">22</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="1.29">1.29</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="86.43">86.43</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="2.92863636363636"><b><span style="color: #006600;">293%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Italy</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="14">14</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="1.51">1.51</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="101.17">101.17</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="6.22642857142857"><b><span style="color: #006600;">623%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Burma</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="30">30</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="0.55">0.55</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="36.85">36.85</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="0.228333333333333"><b><span style="color: #006600;">23%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">Sri Lanka</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="34">34</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="0.88">0.88</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="58.96">58.96</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="0.734117647058824"><b><span style="color: #006600;">73%</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" height="17">India</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="82">82</td>
<td align="center"><br /></td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;" sdval="60">60</td>
<td align="center" sdnum="1033;0;0%" sdval="-0.268292682926829"><b><span style="color: #ff3333;">-27%</span></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><i>Conversion rate used : 1 USD = 67 INR</i></span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i>As we can see clearly, not only is the data clearly misrepresented, but we can see how ridiculous the bias in "reporting" is. Italy and Cuba, purported to have the cheapest petrol on the list, actually have the most expensive. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
India, whose government the creator of the image so callously dismisses, is the only location with over-reported prices. Not to mention, prices vary way more based on crude prices, than on variation of taxation, given a fixed jurisdiction.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And let us not even forget the fact that petrol prices, governmental acumen and quality of life have little bearing on one another</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A request to all that may chance across this post :</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Please, at least try to fact check random posts by people about "facts" and "data", before you jump to share and retweet these posts, and further contribute to the spread and celebration of misinformation.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Note that these prices are mostly accurate as of early March 2016, and may vary considerably base on a variety of factors.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>P.S. And what is the deal with the .00 after every price in the image. I though significant digits were, well, <b>significant</b>.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Sources:</b></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://pakbiz.com/finance/petroleumprices.html">http://pakbiz.com/finance/petroleumprices.html</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5862/oil/petrol-price-per-gallon-around-the-world/">http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5862/oil/petrol-price-per-gallon-around-the-world/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.globalpetrolprices.com/">http://www.globalpetrolprices.com/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/government-eases-petrol-price-by-4-paise-diesel-price-down-3-paise/">http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/government-eases-petrol-price-by-4-paise-diesel-price-down-3-paise/</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-54324100903133587602016-02-23T18:18:00.001-08:002016-02-23T18:18:36.773-08:0010.43252003274489856000 reasons why "X reasons Y" lists are boring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The barrage of sites with mind-numbingly stupid content and clickbait titles is neither new nor exhilarating.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, ad-mongering, for the lack of a better word, and short-shorter-shortest attention spans of people, when paired with the ubiquity of technological access has made them garishly visible and overwhelming, sometimes to the point of frustration, and oftentimes, far beyond.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here's a list of reasons why these word-bundles posing as "articles" are a force of evil. Also, the mandatory "You won't believe number 7!"</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">Their titles offer little to no information about the actual content.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Their content is usually unnecessary at best.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Oversimplifications are not just made and brushed over, but celebrated.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They are mostly opinion-pieces, with the opinion being "I am better than you" or "Yoohoo, You get a stereotype, you get a stereotype, everybody gets a stereotype! There's enough for everyone."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The primary purpose of these articles is to entice with a title that tugs at heartstrings of potential readers, so that their clicks help earn ad revenue.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The secondary purpose is to reinforce biases, stereotypes and self-indulgence.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">For some reason, a vast section of the populace believe other people share their biases and would love to read fluff pieces of no consequence.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Most use cringeworthy images/gifs they don't hold the rights to publish.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The authors are often deluded enough to think they have invested this new awesome format no one ever though of.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The grammar is, well, horrendous on most occasions.</li></ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><b>Notable trivia:</b></b></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">This post has the highest number of quotes I have ever had, scare or otherwise. <i>If one chooses to be pedantic, yes, I mean quotation marks. There, there...</i></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The list is 0.43252003274489856000 items shorter than the title. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4J8AF25PjA" target="_blank">So Sue Me</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">43252003274489856000 is the total number of possible combinations on a standard Rubik's Cube.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>P.S. I think "notable trivia" is an oxymoron, but I've been wrong before. </i></div>
</div>kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-86109961496055115142016-02-19T02:10:00.000-08:002016-02-19T02:10:26.367-08:00Automatic headphone detection in Alienware M17xR4 for openSUSE Leap 42.1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
All to often, people dismiss Linux if something tiny doesn't work out of the box. They claim that one does not face such problems in Windows, forgetting the extensive jumping through hoops known as installing a bunch of drivers that negates the whole "out of the box" premise.<br />
<br />
I had just gotten a fresh install of <b>openSUSE Edu Li-f-e</b>, based on <b>Leap 42.1</b>, running on the behemoth that is<b> Alienware M17xR4</b>. All seemed fine until I realised that plugging a headphone into the relevant jack does not reroute the sound output through the headphones, while the speakers keep blasting away.<br />
<br />
Pulseaudio, or rather <b>pavucontrol</b>, was helpful enough to switch between line-out and headphones on cue within the GUI, albeit with little effect, as the sound output remained unaffected.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigs-I4DJmp5s_C_qXAPPTRrkOdL7eiaMq09wvW-1QCIVNLrY1_ozq2NG7W38XZfebPEK8Z9lZdovGvZCNMHXRObbJTdXQUMGI14bjPaZ1USPyFs1G__hDOm7kcPfjTNysh8fTUckuNePz1/s1600/pavu1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigs-I4DJmp5s_C_qXAPPTRrkOdL7eiaMq09wvW-1QCIVNLrY1_ozq2NG7W38XZfebPEK8Z9lZdovGvZCNMHXRObbJTdXQUMGI14bjPaZ1USPyFs1G__hDOm7kcPfjTNysh8fTUckuNePz1/s640/pavu1.png" width="500" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The situation wasn't too different with the KDE's "Audio Volume" module, which largely seems to be a front end to pulseaudio.<br />
<br />
As I was bungling through the settings, I realised that the issue wasn't detection of headphones, as it was the switching audio output from the speakers to the headphone.<br />
<br />
Enter, <b>alsa</b>!<br />
<br />
<b>alsamixer</b> has a particularly unhelpful welcome display, which has no bearing on the level of customisability it offers. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7mYEdEPFiFiMNeDmWIkNdoTfnYe7PF8EtVLh-Y-mEo6LmRHqaq9m-YnkmTsH1MdgGBmzwsVhRe8E7Xjw43son7ByFOM64MQjzhzwVt7sJ4A6FWheZ-WoYCeaMdyJbPrskbFfH0G6nepqt/s640/alsa1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>AlsaMixer intro screen</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
We can, however, get much better controls, once we manually select the sound card <i>(Press</i><b><i> F6</i></b><i>)</i>. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<b>Note</b>: If you fail to find the option for the given sound card, See Note 1 at the bottom of the post.</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-pP27CwTz1NK5ikGd3xWXUKyW5eL5bcilqM7HlRkTqg8RiIYnUFywzCrQwIjLpLqYpC5ipRFv7ouN8BIy6jzQid7PBSBeVRu1TAjyXVbTuZTrL0hXOFj7hM0sdyvKM2ZxDRW3-p9qUtd/s1600/alsa2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-pP27CwTz1NK5ikGd3xWXUKyW5eL5bcilqM7HlRkTqg8RiIYnUFywzCrQwIjLpLqYpC5ipRFv7ouN8BIy6jzQid7PBSBeVRu1TAjyXVbTuZTrL0hXOFj7hM0sdyvKM2ZxDRW3-p9qUtd/s640/alsa2.png" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>AlsaMixer - select sound card </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
We then navigate to the HP/Speaker Auto Detect <i>(in <span style="color: red;"><b>red</b></span> in the image below)</i> and toggle to <b>ON</b><i> (by pressing <b>M</b>)</i>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsBzt0rBTHSTd2h1E95UzTIBK618UgXCx-CPXaFtq66_00PBUA3URlwqxHxMrAPMQXxP8eU8aKHPP2zdKmaeLPrXhsSMLlYAzAMIz9JIKg77CTX_eurpHbUswNSYbL1z3WEwj1d5xWZupk/s1600/alsa4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsBzt0rBTHSTd2h1E95UzTIBK618UgXCx-CPXaFtq66_00PBUA3URlwqxHxMrAPMQXxP8eU8aKHPP2zdKmaeLPrXhsSMLlYAzAMIz9JIKg77CTX_eurpHbUswNSYbL1z3WEwj1d5xWZupk/s640/alsa4.png" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>AlsaMixer - change HP/Speaker Auto Detect </b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If you get stuck along the way, help is just an <b>F1</b> away.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTm705gg1HfjRp3hmm7CLzLCmDwtyIy7AOM-h_kKkHJAmNGSrGoIk7ZP81KbkQzawEfAaBfhy9hEHOeZID078rcisAtFRwoyhoozQ2Mwb2z0HYvHE8dvq2hwgNM3XcVhJuSjQeb4XfoDAO/s400/alsahelp.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Help menu for AlsaMixer</b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<b>Note 1:</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
If you fail to find the option for the given sound card, add the line </div>
<b><code>options snd-hda-intel model=alienware</code></b> at the end of the file <b><code>/etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa.conf</code></b> .<br />
If the file does not exist, look through the folder<b> <code>/etc/modprobe.d/</code> </b>to check if any similar file exists with a different number preceding it, and edit the same.<br />
<br />
<b>Note 2:</b><br />
<br />
Packages used:<br />
<b><code>alsa-1.0.29-10.1.x86_64<br />
pulseaudio-7.0-3.1.x86_64<br />
pavucontrol-3.0-5.3.x86_64</code></b>
<br />
<br />
<b>Note 3:</b><br />
<br />
There are multiple audio jacks in the M17xR4, so for the above process to work the headphone/ext. speaker needs to be plugged into the jack shown below<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYlIFdJ5tK0VYC6PHUqHrN8ehiuhtQNsqt_0M-kM91q3sSva4O1h4qXpMpnIscANsgkE0HzKH5h9fHNyqCIublrxNDyd0NUMKQZigkGgZScyCggVKDUu-32pga20VaXxFcXWQ8eh2ySsC5/s1600/2016-02-19+15.36.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYlIFdJ5tK0VYC6PHUqHrN8ehiuhtQNsqt_0M-kM91q3sSva4O1h4qXpMpnIscANsgkE0HzKH5h9fHNyqCIublrxNDyd0NUMKQZigkGgZScyCggVKDUu-32pga20VaXxFcXWQ8eh2ySsC5/s400/2016-02-19+15.36.50.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Audio jack in Alienware M17xR4 for auto headphone detection</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-27897680398533608532015-04-10T00:10:00.003-07:002015-04-10T00:10:51.091-07:00Dynamite!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><i>"What are men to rocks and mountains?"</i></b>, Jane Austen had
once said. I wonder if she might've reconsidered her position, if
Alfred Nobel and Julius Wilbrand had lived and worked while she was
still around.<br />
<br />
It wouldn't be a huge ask given how early she died. Most of her work has aged tremendously well, and we could have had more.<br />
<br />
Well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Not the cricket kind, though.</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-13429764110376355812014-08-14T11:31:00.000-07:002014-08-14T11:33:21.053-07:00Terminology in academics (borrowed)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
And we are reduced to embedded tweets now. What are we? TMZ?<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
A brief introduction to academic writing. <a href="http://t.co/qC4em3LsRJ">pic.twitter.com/qC4em3LsRJ</a><br />
— Shit Academics Say (@AcademicsSay) <a href="https://twitter.com/AcademicsSay/statuses/499885971157299200">August 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-12798063705017099982014-02-24T09:44:00.000-08:002014-02-24T09:47:27.432-08:00Analytics - Phase 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Resurrection!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEFWnyLozRuMz7d1X_BTmzKypDuK-lN-0EyTot6mX6vXKWviQCIAOxOAKI2pIgrkcOUATm05HSo2Dk6rO26Q9GSABir2pX8sZMxBZ8T4o60SrvSSlOf5zq6bsnmsmqhVqgXRb9P9Yye68I/s1600/20140225_analytics3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEFWnyLozRuMz7d1X_BTmzKypDuK-lN-0EyTot6mX6vXKWviQCIAOxOAKI2pIgrkcOUATm05HSo2Dk6rO26Q9GSABir2pX8sZMxBZ8T4o60SrvSSlOf5zq6bsnmsmqhVqgXRb9P9Yye68I/s1600/20140225_analytics3.PNG" height="187" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
It seems Linux on the desktop is coming of ages. Or is it another meaningless attempt at quantifying user base?<br />
<br />
For the first time in this series, the windows stronghold seems to be loosening, but there is atleast one surprising new entrant on this list, Opera Mini. I would have loved to see the count spread by platform, but Opera Mini's structure almost explicitly makes that a foolish dream.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.kknundy.net/2009/09/analytics-phase-1.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.kknundy.net/2010/01/analytics-phase-2.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a><br />
<br />
Also, FWIW, <a href="http://kknundy.net/" target="_blank">I've moved</a>!</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-20286119184471497932013-08-13T14:09:00.001-07:002013-08-13T14:09:29.236-07:00Super<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been advised in good authority, that a Dutch tourist is more likely to to be heard saying "Super" than any of their other European brethren. I have insufficient empirical evidence either for or against the statement,<br />
<br />
I have also been advised, again by people who know better, never to use<br />
<br />
<code> sudo ...</code> <br />
<br />
where<br />
<br />
<code> su -c ...</code> <br />
<br />
can be used instead. This "super" advice, after having been burnt several times over in the past few days, I now hold as undeniable truth. <br />
<br />
<i>I remember, I remember</i><br />
<i>The house where I was born</i><br />
<i>the super user (mis)privilege</i><br />
<i>haunted me till the morn! </i><br />
<br /></div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-89108022111496055252012-11-14T05:00:00.000-08:002012-11-14T05:00:04.692-08:00Word<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
TIL that "<b>today</b>" is probably not in the list of the 500 most used words, but "<b>never</b>" is. That we use "<b>study</b>" more than "<b>eat</b>" or "<b>talk</b>" or even "<b>sleep</b>". We "<b>plan</b>" more than we "<b>develop</b>", and are at "<b>long</b>" more often than on "<b>short</b>". <br /><br />So, "We never plan to study or talk long." is a very reasonable sentence, but "Today?Absolutely unlikely, almost incredible." isn't.<br />I would say it was another of those long rants, except in that it isn't.<br /><br />Why today? Because <a href="https://xkcd.com/" target="_blank">xkcd </a>is something that makes you stranger, <a href="https://xkcd.com/493/" target="_blank">if it doesn't kill you first</a>!<br /><br />Source:<br /><a href="http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm">http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm</a><br /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English</a><br /><a href="http://www.insightin.com/esl/">http://www.insightin.com/esl/</a></div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-85648832064336492342012-04-18T03:00:00.000-07:002012-04-18T03:00:00.649-07:00A thousand words...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If <b><i>"a picture is worth a thousand words"</i></b>, we can actually determine it's resolution.<br /><br />We know the average length of an English word lies in the vicinity of 5.1 letters.<br />Assuming 8-bit ASCII uncompressed text, and using RGB bitmap with 24bit colour for the image,<br /><br />1000 words ~ 5100 letters + 999 spaces + <b><i>n</i></b> punctuation marks.<br /><br />Average length of an English sentence approaches 14.3 words. Each sentence needs a concluding punctuation in form of a period. Non-concluding punctuation is observed slightly more regularly than in every other sentence. For the sake of simplicity, let's consider it converges at 1.6 punctuation marks per sentence. <br /><br />So, number of sentences = 1000 / 14.3 = 69.93 ~ 70<br />Therefore, <b><i>n</i></b> ~ 70 * 1.6 = 112<br /><br />So, 1000 words ~ (5100 + 999 + 112) = 6211 characters = 49688 bits.<br /><br />Getting to the image side of affairs,<br /><br />Each pixel in a RGB bitmap with 24-bit colour (I really hope you don't need more than 16 million colours for that picture we are talking about) is naturally of 24 bits.<br /><br />So we can fit in a mere 49688/24 = <i><b>2070</b></i> pixels into such an image. That would be smaller than even an iPhone icon, which requires <i><b>3249</b></i> of those dots (Android icon sizes vary).<br /><br />Given that text is usually in Unicode these days (UTF-32 needs 4B per character), and jpeg/tiff/png, etc compresses images in a major manner(15:1 compression is passe), more pixels could be fitted into the 1000 words in question. About 3-5 times the pixels, to be precise. Text compression using Huffman encoding (~2.9:1 for a 27 letter alphabet), quite commonplace, however results in even fewer pixels. <br /><br />All these and other intricate considerations may possibly average each other out in the greater scheme of things.<br /><br />This, however, does not change the fundamental truth that if your average photo is worth a thousand average words, you need a new photo.<br /><br />Or to paraphrase what I read somewhere on twitter, A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it takes up ten thousand times the space.<br /><br />Anybody interested in helping me write an app/program that calculates how many words your picture is worth? Mail me.<br /><br /><i>P.S. I have corroborated the word statistics from several sources, but had no way of testing their authenticity/data. So I'm not linking to any of them.</i></div>kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0Hong Kong22.396428 114.10949722.161534500000002 113.79364000000001 22.6313215 114.425354tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-14955106891258068762011-08-05T09:46:00.000-07:002014-02-24T08:43:49.201-08:00Please copy this as your status if you...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Dear friends,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> So you didn't have a laptop in your childhood. That was not because of how your parents raised you, but because it was not at all useful for you to have that prohibitively costly toy then, which can bring to a kid today the world's storehouse of knowledge, and a lot more. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> The <b>iPod</b> wasn't invented, <b>Blackberry</b> is not meant for children to play with, some of you probably did have a <b>Nintendo, </b>and just didn't know it, and the Xboxes and PS3s were yet to be brought out in their current form. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> And really, <b>Wi-fi</b>? What would you be doing with a Wifi again, if there was no internet backbone to connect it to?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> You have possibly lost out on a lot more than you purportedly gained because you had a Contra instead of a Commodore, an Atari, an Apple II, or the likes back then.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> I had a beautiful childhood too, not because I didn't have a lappie, a PS3 or whatever, but because of all the great things I did have, among them great family and friends.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> It is good to appreciate what you have, but that does not entail begrudging others their benefits or differences.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> Sharing lame statuses in an attempt to appear what ever you are trying to appear as, does not change the lameness of the initial premise.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">GROW UP!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Yours sincerely,</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Koushik Kumar Nundy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br />P.S. This is in direct response to a facebook status meme about how beautiful some of my peers' childhoods were, and how cool they are courtesy their non-involvement in technical and democratic exercises in their tiny tot times. However it can be generalised to cover any such "Please copy this as your status if you.." incidents, because,</span></span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">FB asks for what's on YOUR mind, G+ asks for what's NEW,... please, this is neither particularly in your mind, nor is it too new!</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Twitter asks what's happening, if you post such status forwards, your childishness, if not your childhood is still happening.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">If copying statuses would cure cancer and rid us of terrorism, corruption and a thousand other maladies, oncologists, radiologists, soldiers, political leaders would have all become "Social Media Experts" instead.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">People who are on such platforms to keep in touch with old friends or develop bonds with new ones, are truly, madly, deeply getting irritated.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">When people start getting tired of such stuff, they will write even more tiring blogposts as this.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 100%;">Some people will get an irrepressible urge to post this as their status<span style="font-weight: bold;"> "</span></span><span style="font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold;">Please copy this as your status if you don't like "Please copy this as your status ..." statuses.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">"</span></span></li>
</ol>
</div>
kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-83426772130715566482011-03-10T14:20:00.000-08:002011-03-10T15:50:17.348-08:00openSUSE 11.4 - A new lifeAs many of you know, and the rest, well they'll know by the end of this sentence, <a href="http://news.opensuse.org/2011/03/10/opensuse-11-4/">openSUSE 11.4 released yesterday, the 10th of March, 2011</a>. It'll be the seventh straight release I use, and the 4th release since I became associated with the Project.<br /><br />To download visit : <a href="http://software.opensuse.org/">http://software.opensuse.org/</a><br /><br />Unfortunately, my old machine is still running on 11.3, and the all new Vostro I got today has, wait for it, Windows Vista, both of which I plan to amend tomorrow. Sadly, that was not possible today because seeding the ISO was, I felt, more important than selfishly enjoying Geeko glory. So, no donut, oh sorry, screenshot for you.<br /><br />The journey to openSUSE 11.4 has been anything but smooth. <a href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-announce/2011-03/msg00001.html">[1]</a> says well why.<br />But I'd like to add to that.<br /><br />The initial rumours about Novell, openSUSE's primary being up for sale did not go down well with the community, as we have seen the last major sale of a Free Software leaning company, Stanford University Networks, as very unfavourable to the FOSS community, with important jobs axed, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSolaris">opensolaris</a> <a href="http://techblog.ryansworld.net/?p=100">dead</a>, and Openoffice.org left to potentially rot, with Libreoffice being a bold step by the people who care, to infuse life into the best office suite in the world.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.novell.com/news/press/2010/11/novell-agrees-to-be-acquired-by-attachmate-corporation.html">The sale to Attachmate</a> that eventually followed, did not help cool matters, due to the following,<br />1. <a href="http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/cdn/2010/11/22/what-happened-to-novell-and-who-s-attachmate/55925/">No one had ever heard of it</a>.<br />2. <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/whats-microsofts-role-in-the-novell-attachmate-deal/8041">The sale of those patents to a shady conglomerate!</a><br /><br />However, Attachmate seems to be serious enough about the feasibility of SUSE to run it as a separate division. And <a href="http://www.attachmate.com/Press/PressReleases/nov-22-2010-SUSE.htm">THIS</a> is what they have to say about openSUSE. May be lip service, or may not be.<br /><br />Now to the many firsts. openSUSE 11.4 is the first major distribution release to have stable LibreOffice, has Firefox 4, GNOME 3 preview(optional), KDE 4.6 and loads of other new stuff like Scribus 1.4, KOffice 2.3.1, etc. Also new is the support for Tumbleweed, a rolling release.<br />A more detailed <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Product_highlights">Product Highlights</a> is available.<br /><br />But these are not the only important changes. Many new faces in every team, marketing collaboration days, a great openSUSE Conference, attempts at clearly defined strategies and trademark guidelines, all this has worked to largely improve the cohesive co-operation that is the openSUSE project.<br /><br />We have had our share of growing pains, with membership issues and policy being cause for heated debate. Stability has always been the strength of the openSUSE distribution. The openSUSE community has done well to learn that it has to show the same stability in every step, not just in the lines of code. We have come out of it, not just better, but cleverer. We are a community that has a worldwide spread, contributors and users alike. In our do-o-cracy, we are not judged by our race, sex, or politics, but by our actions. A great example would be our team of 125 Ambassadors, who come from a whooping 47 countries. Another new initiative to overcome the gender divide otherwise stark in FOSS is the <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Women">Women of openSUSE Project</a>.<br /><br />We have been lucky to have partners like <a href="http://omgsuse.com/">OMG!SUSE!</a> at our side.<br /><br />With a clearer sense of identity and purpose, we hope to march from strength to strength, so that we can continue to bring to you, openSUSE, all of it!<br />(Now, now I can't promise what the next release number will be, so hang on for the ride!)<br /><br />Join us in making the world Greener (most puns intended)! <a href="http://www.opensuse.org/">http://www.opensuse.org</a><br /><br />As we heard in Batman Begins, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">"It's not who you are underneath - it's what you </span><i style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">do</i><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> that defines you."<br /><br /></span>kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-60646968673723190372010-12-06T16:05:00.001-08:002010-12-06T16:27:38.982-08:00My views on openSUSE LTS<div style="text-align: justify;">There has been a lot of discussion recently on the viability of a Long Term Support release for openSUSE. Some have proposed a separate LTS version, some a rolling release called Tumbleweed. Some have shown support for both, suggesting they coexist as separate sub-projects. Yet others have suggested we create an openSLES, a "free as in free beer"(to think that this phrase even exists) version for SUSE Enterprise, much like what the CentOS people do with RedHat Enterprise Linux.<br /><br />This discussion has spiralled into multiple threads on the opensuse-project list. The threads have been linked to at the end of this post.<br /><br />My reply in regards to the discussion is summed up below:-<br /><br />1. I have a feeling the two being analogised to CentOS is a bit unfair. openSUSE's relation with SLE has always been more the Fedora to RHEL kind. We, as a project, form a base, not a copy of SUSE's enterprise offerings, if typically more conservatively than competition.<br /><br />2. openSUSE has the direct primary sponsorship of Novell. CentOS has no official affiliation with RH. An openSLES may antagonise Novell/SUSE/Attachmate's friendly approach.<br /><br />3. Offering of an LTS version alternately with a couple of normal versions has not been discussed. I wonder why. Ubuntu does that quite appreciably, (though I have never personally encountered an Ubuntu-powered server).<br />From <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wikipedia</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">"To date every fourth release, in the second quarter of even-numbered years, has been designated as a Long Term Support (LTS) release, indicating that it has updates for three years for desktop use and five years for server"</span><br /><br /> To say what that means, let's say we have 12.0 as LTS(5 release cycle support), then 12.1, 12.2 and 12.3 with normal 2.2 cycle support. Then again 13.0 as LTS, and so on. This will cause an LTS version to be perennially active, while having a "cutting edge" version for systems here stability is not primary.<br /> This would help a only one extra already present older version needs to be maintained, reducing stress on the developers.<br /><br />4. The point mooted in (3) can also help on standardising a versioning scheme, the need for which was discussed but never finalised some time earlier, probably on the marketing and project lists.<br /><br />5. Nelson Marques has a point. Too many offerings would cause confusion. Normal openSUSE vs openSUSE LTS vs openSUSE Tumbleweed vs openSLES has already confused me to an extent.<br /><br />6. Someone suggested binary compatibility with SLES would make people recommend SLES for paid-for-support Linux. While I appreciate Novell's roles in what openSUSE is today, I personally feel SLES sales figures are not supposed to be the concern of the openSUSE project.<br />Furthermore, even openSUSE can be paid-for-support Linux, considering people pay for 90 day support or something like that when they buy the box.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Threads</span><br />[1] Announcing openSUSE Tumbleweed project <a href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-11/msg00206.html">Nov '10</a> <a href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-12/msg00001.html">Dec'10</a><br />[2] openSUSE LTS <a href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-11/msg00223.html">Nov '10</a> <a href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-12/msg00004.html">Dec'10</a><br />[3]<span class="thread_start"></span><a name="00044" href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2010-12/msg00044.html" class="tsubject"> Packman for Tumbleweed</a><br /><br /></div>kknundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05979882538301315004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-48072202757304168532010-01-02T05:48:00.000-08:002014-02-24T08:54:42.036-08:00Analytics - Phase 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAQqfpjQ1PWFG4YhvfHSs-3UW9Zp7Ds8dEaMqhyuNRJkb1jdGTa64lcbT40ZwHXNVvBVOXByOPAufDkLModkeneZYlRcT4gY7AQmFnoJrRkJwRlCoNdWDjMBfbvd-YzPg8piqtRCl19Y/s1600-h/snapshot1_phixr.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAQqfpjQ1PWFG4YhvfHSs-3UW9Zp7Ds8dEaMqhyuNRJkb1jdGTa64lcbT40ZwHXNVvBVOXByOPAufDkLModkeneZYlRcT4gY7AQmFnoJrRkJwRlCoNdWDjMBfbvd-YzPg8piqtRCl19Y/s640/snapshot1_phixr.png" /><span style="color: black;"> </span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;">
Now there is even more.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;">
OS - 4</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;">
Browser - 6</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;">
Comination - 10 </div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-41446694862805761202009-11-21T03:07:00.000-08:002009-11-20T15:10:00.847-08:00Wind of ChangeAs I was struggling to sleep today, I powered up my netbook to glimpse through the minds of a billion other countrymen through some of their blogs. I have always felt that any pilot survey can be more or less generalised if a respectable sample size is used. I thought of going through the blogs I have followed most diligently through the years.I was, however in for a surprise when I saw that any of those blogs(around 20 in number) had either been ignored completely or given little attention in the past few months. Starting from classmates to engineers to scientists to people in the literary field, I thought I had a reading pool that could never quite dry up.Guess I was pretty wrong out there.<br />
<br />
Although I had picked up a few new and interesting weblogs along the way(<a href="http://sayesha.blogspot.com/">Sayesha</a>, <a href="http://breaktherhythm.blogspot.com/">Twisha</a>, <a href="http://knottyknightpondering.blogspot.com/">Knotty knight</a>, <a href="http://sohamtalukdar.blogspot.com/">Soham</a>, among others) with the spattering of a few FOSS blogs(<a href="http://lizards.opensuse.org/author/cyberorg/">cyberorg</a>, <a href="http://zonker.opensuse.org/">zonker</a>, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/">o-reilly</a>, <a href="http://www.heliosinitiative.org/blog/">helios</a>, ...) but familiarity is a feeling which is very difficult to compromise with. On a somewhat disappointed note, I caught up on my reading using Brief, another of those RSS readers the guys came up with for FF3.5(FOSS rocks, again). Although there were beautiful pieces(both tech and linguistic), I felt myself yearning for writings I had grown up with in my cyberlife.<br />
<br />
As I swept through <a href="http://rahuljonline.blogspot.com/">Jua</a>'s blog, I found a promise for more stories somewhat hollow given the fact that no posts had come up in over three months. <a href="http://allsortsofshrink.blogspot.com/">Shrink</a>'s quips seemed missing, with 2 months of abyssmal emptiness. The FOSSmeister <a href="http://debayan.wordpress.com/">Debayan</a>'s post, rare as they were, had become too FOSSy for comfort, with his stories of college life lost in the misty travails of time. <a href="http://roshansingh.wordpress.com/">Roshan</a> too, in this respect was too FOSSy, but thats what he's always done, so full marks for consistency, not to mention quality. The 'new bloggers' <a href="http://physicscape.blogspot.com/">Shouvik </a>, <a href="http://insanevisitations.blogspot.com/">P*da</a> & <a href="http://jitendrashaw.blogspot.com/">Jiten</a> had self confessedly underfed blogs. Sherry never quite switched over from <a href="http://sherry151.blogspot.com/">FOSS</a> to <a href="http://rangeenbasu.blogspot.com/">VLSI</a>, getting left strangled in between. That left me with the now defunct Abhi squared [<a href="http://abthefire.blogspot.com/">Kelasis</a>][<a href="http://sharaya-buzzwords.blogspot.com/">Nash</a>], who would find it difficult to remember when either last posted.<br />
<br />
I dare not chastise any of the aforementioned people for their inactivity, for to be fair, they make better use of their time than I do, and I have myself blogged in grossly inadequate quantities over the course of this year. But the mind yearns for those eagerly awaited and diligently followed blogposts that never fail to bring a smile to my lips or a wrinkle of thoughtfulness to my forehead, as the situation might call for.<br />
<br />
So, dear blogosphere of mine(both erstwhile and current), do not abandon me. Post for the sake of your readers, if not for your own.<br />
<br />
P.S. The links/names included are suggestive, not exhaustive. Someday I will post a fuller list of what I read in cyberspace.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-79041763618458749442009-09-29T13:02:00.000-07:002009-09-29T13:10:25.074-07:00Analytics - Phase 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidaSyY_YPkIKTzpkAXRQ-SdpySlHkxmrdBx0uHEA-lzTAD2sJd9YaYfYyYYCcg1dR6JKps_bhpi_Aq6DfpTNA4rXdAf36cjJ89KqUiP556ltD7HTVAmlUtDOD__u84XHZaLOk1kMCC2JM/s1600-h/analytics+30092009.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 159px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidaSyY_YPkIKTzpkAXRQ-SdpySlHkxmrdBx0uHEA-lzTAD2sJd9YaYfYyYYCcg1dR6JKps_bhpi_Aq6DfpTNA4rXdAf36cjJ89KqUiP556ltD7HTVAmlUtDOD__u84XHZaLOk1kMCC2JM/s400/analytics+30092009.bmp" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386983745184336674" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>This was fun. Never thought so many combinations existed. [:P]<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-19609747719655109442009-04-20T11:51:00.000-07:002010-10-06T13:21:00.644-07:00GNUSIM unscrewed...Last Saturday, I was in an intensely FOSSible mood. I had just gotten rid of the Control systems paper and was struggling to get back control of my life, fighting for my MUKTI as one might very well say. Well, suddenly I realised how much I had lost touch with my once fabled programming skills, how even the best(albeit, only among schoolmates) can rust out in this blisteringly moving world and be swept away into oblivion. So, indulging in glorious self-pity, even more so when I discussed my dying C skills with <a href="http://debayan.wordpress.com/">Debayan</a> <<a href="http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/irclogs/April-2009/19Apr2009.txt">here</a>>, I decided to move to the other end of the Free Software world, that of the user. So, I set off to find the most practical softwares an Electronics Engineer could possibly need, and start using them. Even then, I was under Debayan's tutelage, who introduced me to uclinux, which I didn't really get very enthusiastic about. So he recommended GNUSIM8085, an 8085 microprocessor simulator, which was of more immediate use to me. In these days of one click installs, no-one even miles close to me in LAZINESS likes to compile from source. In fact, when I was more into coding, many of my programs used to lie around uselessly for the simple reason that I was too lazy to debug them. People used to even say my coding was sub-par, with my football sized ego(back then) coming to my rescue, making me challenge them to stupid stuff like algo design. But although my ego has long left my side, unfortunately, or maybe not so unfortunately, my laziness hasn't. Still in the lack of other options I decided to do something I typically do once in like a quarter. So I set about the job. But it was not meant to be as easy a road as it could have been. First this dependency missing then another. Then somehow I managed to load a package already around because I wasn't paying attention. After all this when the magic word <span style="font-weight: bold;">"done" </span>appeared on my screen I wanted to jump up in ecstacy. Settling down, I rushed to /usr/bin to try it out. Then, I realised, that I had never even done make install. Routing myself back to the installation folder, I carried out my duties. Then, finally heaving a sigh of relief, I went back to the binaries when I was greeted by the best message of all : <span style="font-weight: bold;">Display cannot be opened. :-( </span>I seriously considered applying for euthanasia, but as it was already 5:15 am by then, and I had an exam the following Monday, the plans were overwhelmed by melatonin(for the uninitiated, it is our biological clock hormone!) and I dozed off. The next morning, or rather afternoon(my morning), I had a brainstorm of sorts and without rhyme or reason, delved back into the installation folder. There I noticed a copy of the binary resting in peace. For the lack of better things to do, I clicked it, and bingo! Here finally, was the first Free tronicate software, up and running in my teenie weenie little netbook. My entire effort was logged by the inimitable myself using CTRL+C CTRL+V, the greatest computer shortcut ever envisaged. It is as follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/kknundy1/Home/gnusimlog.txt?attredirects=0">kkn@linux-vnz8:~/Desktop/gnusim8085-1.3.5> ./configure<br />checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu<br />checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu<br />checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c<br />checking whether build environment is sane... yes<br />...<br />....<br />......<br />(gnusim8085:8374): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0<br />linux-vnz8:/usr/bin #</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Here's a shot of when I started:<br /><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDd3JjBBpBpLYc7X0p9M93ysMV_Z-xCKqyCd83a6htTRz-TqD6dsrOdcKfx7kcjdvN6jtSz-dYMlJ9VGFpSBxEytaSi0xbBVm_hCX8lnxTQNfua26qDN83or4D0_9GToOcgpPpEQhyphenhyphensbg/s1600-h/gnusim+2.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327650890760274498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDd3JjBBpBpLYc7X0p9M93ysMV_Z-xCKqyCd83a6htTRz-TqD6dsrOdcKfx7kcjdvN6jtSz-dYMlJ9VGFpSBxEytaSi0xbBVm_hCX8lnxTQNfua26qDN83or4D0_9GToOcgpPpEQhyphenhyphensbg/s400/gnusim+2.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 234px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" border="0" /></a><br />And here is the working version:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Wj7ktIVs6eAHGLYQ3zoEMqljCGkXQKIsapqSjh06G5KzOTkXGUjP0Eo2CP-FbMEKTmNT6bkYKZip83al6uBrAAd0WXMa9q1AJEFceDzW8-HvnWgeSVH-3dFBMkqTInmqYTlhRE1KpPs/s1600-h/gnusim+3" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327651699275668642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Wj7ktIVs6eAHGLYQ3zoEMqljCGkXQKIsapqSjh06G5KzOTkXGUjP0Eo2CP-FbMEKTmNT6bkYKZip83al6uBrAAd0WXMa9q1AJEFceDzW8-HvnWgeSVH-3dFBMkqTInmqYTlhRE1KpPs/s400/gnusim+3" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 232px; text-align: center; width: 398px;" border="0" /></a><br /><img alt="" src="file:///tmp/moz-screenshot.jpg" /><img alt="" src="file:///tmp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-74806163819973293962009-04-15T05:14:00.000-07:002009-04-15T05:17:37.836-07:00First IOTA Teachers FOSS Training Programme @ NIT Durgapur.I taught here, it was fun!<br />27/03/2009 to 29/03/2009<br />See the complete report here :-<br /><a href="http://sherry151.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-iota-teachers-foss-training-nit.html">http://sherry151.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-iota-teachers-foss-training-nit.html</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88806305542785622.post-81378400721147014882009-04-13T10:28:00.000-07:002010-10-06T13:22:02.475-07:00GLUG, NIT Durgapur Annual General Meeting.<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">This write up took a long time coming. My apologies to all concerned. Nevertheless, this AGM took a long time coming too. When it did come though, it had little if any scope for complaint. The Annual General Meeting, 2008-09 of GNU/Linux User's Group, NIT Durgapur took place on Wednesday, the 8<sup>th</sup> of April, 2009 at the conference hall of the D.M.Sen Memorial building. It was finely attended, and the faculty was represented at the meeting by our very own S.Chowdhury sir, Sajal sir & S.Das sir, all from the I.T. Department. The meeting, scheduled for 6p.m. started in time. We were addressed by our teachers who shared a few kind words with us and assured us that their blessings and advise would always be with us. S.C. Sir told us that we should keep setting higher goals for ourselves, and be ready to overcome newer frontiers. He gave us examples of various people who had done pathbreaking work despite roadblocks and lack of support, including the illustrious work of S.Das sir. He also spoke of how our GLUG had, despite opposition from various quarters and a non-supportive administration, risen from a low to become a respected FOSS awareness hub, reaching new heights that had never been contemplated earlier, to become one of the best known GLUGs in the country. He praised the vision and tenacity of both the student members and the faculty advisors which had made this possible, specifically mentioning Debayan and Mayank among students. Sajal Sir encouraged us to turn our GLUG into an even larger entity, which would change the face of computer usage and the image of GNU/Linux as a geeky OS, at the least in our state, at the most...well, you know. He spoke of 4 things that had changed the recent world, namely Google, Wikipedia, MIT OpenCourseWare and Youtube! videos, and how we could very well be the fifth. He was followed by S.Das sir who spoke of the various opportunities we have and get and how we should go out and use them to our benefit.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> This was followed by a presentation by Debayan, the outgoing head of our Software Development Unit. He spoke of the various shortcomings of GLUG in it's earlier avatar, which had caused it to partially collapse and how it had risen from that low, thanks to the undying enthusiasm and support of the concerned teachers and students. He spoke of the plethora of work done by GLUG, NITD in the past two years and of how this work can be carried on by it in the coming years. He spoke of the grand success of Mukti '09 in achieving it's primary goal, not that of pulling in huge crowds but of reaching out to the right places where spreading FOSS awareness mattered. Thanks to Mukti '09, new GLUGs have come up at several places like NIT Agartala, NIT Jamshedpur and KGEC, Kalyani. The working of GLUG, NITD has matured over its 5 year life, and it has grown to become a resource hub of sorts for the entire region, with other close-by GLUGs calling in for technical and logistic support. He spoke of the extremely helpful role of IOTA, Govt. Of West Bengal, in providing us with psychological and financial support when we were facing difficult times, and in its usefulness to the future plans and functioning of GLUG. He also gave us an idea and useful advice on the future tasks and responsibilities of GLUG, with plans like the FOSS helpline and Freedom toaster. We realised how much we had done recently and how much more needed to be done yet if what we did was really to bring about the change we wanted. Thanks to Varsha's efforts and survey, now 75 of 228 girls in our college used one distro or another of GNU/Linux, a positive tendency, to say the least, at the grassroots level. It was clear from his words that to make Free Software a true success, the basics were where we needed to go back to. The 3 mailing lists(well practically two,)received the much deserved attention in their role in popularising GNU/Linux, both in and outside the campus. The list of common interest would be <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nitdgplug">groups.google.com/group/nitdgplu</a><a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nitdgplug">g</a> .</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Shreyank, or Shrink as he likes to be called, spoke of his 4yr tryst with GLUG, from its early days to its current state. Entwined though his words were in his characteristic PJs, his dedication and love for GNU/Linux and Free Software was hard to miss. It's people like him, with their delicate balance of sanity and dedication, that our GLUG would miss the most. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> The Director shared a few kind words with us, about our future course of action and priorities.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Following this, the new GLUG committee was announced and the outgoing committee was issued certificates of appreciation.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> The committees are as follows : </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">NEW: <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt7ftmz_32w522kgh&invite=692183710">http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt7ftmz_32w522kgh&invite=692183710</a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">OLD: <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfxc9dkf_14dpv742zt&invite=293702772">http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfxc9dkf_14dpv742zt&invite=293702772</a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The meeting was then concluded at around 8.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5