Or another scenario would be , you are about to install an experimental piece of software. Do you leave your system in an inconsistent state if that experimental software doesn’t work ? Do you take a back-up ? or do you try to pull off a complex trick of lots of Alternate environments ?

The most embarrassing situation is when you go to your local Free Software User’s Group / LUG to give a talk about how great your OS and its applications are , and just when you are about to speak the app you were showcasing crashes , Damn !
How do you ensure that your apps don’t crash while giving the demo and also maintain your latest unstable hack to your favorite software without both getting into each others way ?

What is the solution to all of the above problems ?
I propose using Boot environments, on Open Indiana a.k.a Oi (Solaris) ( I have started to love this Distro , but my first love is always belenix.org )
Now supposing you have a clean install of you create a snapshot

$zfs create snapshot mydistro@firstInstall 

$beadm create -e mydistro@firstinstall FirstInstall 

Now go ahead and bork up your system
You may want to come back to the borked system again later, so you create a new snapshot and make it bootable.

$zfs create snapshot mydistro@borked
$beadm create -e mydistro@borked Borked 

now you want to boot into the borked Boot Environment next time.

$beadm activate Borked 

reboot, and in the OI grub you will find FirstInstall and Borked entries, select the one you want and continue working. FirstInstall lands you up
in the system before you borked it up. Enjoy hacking

more info about boot environments and beadm
That’s all for now! Give OI a try , you may switch over
Until next time !
Kunal

OK , so i have this great new distro and i love KDE so i want to see if my favorite softwares (Kate , amarok, digikam) work on OI or not. And sure they do ! (/me feels good here ) the KDE – Solaris team has already created a repo with the latest KDE 4.6 packages. So , now i am convinced that i must start using OI. So i dump the dd image onto a USB stick and connect it to my laptop (a Dell Studio 1450). Now the fun stuff starts OI doesn’t boot !!!!

After reading countless blogposts and consulting people on IRC (DrLou on #openindiana apparently had the same problem as me , and we sat together for 3 days (with breaks ofcourse trying out everything that we could find) . In the mean time i had posted my problem to the OI discuss mailing list as well. Finally after a 2 day wait , i got replies from the OI gurus on the discuss mailing list. The message from Garrett D’Amore was particularly useful , he suggested me to add the -k option to the kernel line in grub and boot , this would fire up the In-Kernel Debugger the KMDB when i pressed “F1-A” during the boot process. But alas ! this didn’t work either Now i was desperately in need of some new ideas. Garrett’s post hinted me to check out more OI kernel flags. As it turned out, in an obscure wiki entry in BigAdmin (the solaris admin wiki) there was a mention of the flag “-B acpi-user-options=2″ i appended the kernel line with this option and presto ! OI booted !. Now this was after 3 days of “beating around the bush” debugging and it felt great . So, i headed over to #openindiana and told DrLou about my findings , and after a few tries even his laptop booted !! Yay ! (Supposedly this acpi bug comes to haunt users of solaris , from time to time )

Now all that i had to do is to create a new beadm ( look up the solaris man pages , you will be amazed !) and add the bionicmutton repo to OI and that’s it, i have KDE 4.6 on OpenIndiana. OI Looks and Feels much better now

This blog post is to document two things:
1. ” -B acpi-user-options=2″ might get OI to boot on your machine.
2. Never give up any problem , if you are facing it , you can be pretty sure someone else is facing it too ! stick to the problem and solve it.
(And after you solve it , in the Spirit of Good Will , share it with others by documenting it in your blog/wiki)

KDE solaris needs a lot of polish and could do with some more contributors. So if you have some spare time , drop by at #kde-solaris , #openindiana , #illumos on freenode.

That’s all for now ,
Until next time
Kunal

KDE india Community is Organizing its first conference at Bangalore and I am thrilled to be a part of the organizing committee. I am going to the Konf ( As i would like to call it, lovingly  ) that’s no news, i love KDE ! but this blog post is for the vast majority of my friends who have no idea what KDE is , and what it means to be a part of.

Read On , to  know more about what to expect at the Konf , and why you just have to be there !

1. Artists :

KDE is a *HUGE* project and we have brilliant artists in our KDE art team. Seen our shiny new poster or the stunning artwork on the website ?  Those are Courtesy Eugene Trounev, be there to talk to him personally ! He is also giving a talk about “Graphics & Open Source: Survival guide” . You don’t have to be a software guru to attend this talk, just bring the artist in you

2. Photographer :

As a photographer you try to capture all the moments you cherish ! You almost definitely use a photo-management application like Adobe Lightroom or the likes. But my fellow developer Aditya Bhatt will introduce you to “digiKam: Professional Photo Management” a *Free* photo management app that you just have to know about ! If you are excited about “automatic lens correction”, “Online sharing Integration” in lightroom, digikam had it for a very looooong time ! Be there to know more about it !

3. Person Managing a large diverse workforce (a.k.a Manager):

Before i start off on this point , let me put you in perspective. KDE is a project which has, as far as i know, thousands of active contributors, so it is very very big ! Now, I introduce our community ninja (a.k.a community manager, formally) Lydia Pintscher. She directly interacts with all of the thousands of the contributors , when required , and is very good at managing people. So , i am sure you can definitely learn a thing or two from her ! Plus have a lot of fun at the conference !

4. Gamer

You are an avid gamer , right ! Ever wondered what goes underneath your shiny new game that makes it tick ? Be there to attend the talk “Glue games with Gluon” Shantanu . I am sure , your time will be very well invested ! not spent

5. Programmer / Technology Enthusiast :

You my friend are in for a treat ! Frankly this blog post will be an injustice to all the amazing tech talks lined up. Just head over to http://kde.in/conf/talks/ to treat yourself !

6. User :

You guys are very important part of the community ! we the KDE community are always open to new ideas and criticism / suggestions.  Please do drop by and bring in your friends too ! Your visit would definitely be fruitful . We also have loads of Hands-on Sessions , please bring in your laptops if possible

7. School Kids / College Students :

Guys and Gals , you just have to be there ! Heard of Google Summer of Code ? Google Code-In ? We have a LOT of ex-GSoC ers attending the Konf , come and meet them personally ! Also get to know about the project that interests you ( a must for GSoC & GCI ) and there is no better way than to get introduced by the people who actually develop for the project !

If you have queries about the event , post a meesage to conf@kde.in or Just register ! at  http://kde.in/conf/register/

NOTE : Use the below discount codes, don’t forget to bring your college IDs  :)

• Student discount: KDEIN_DIS_STU
• Teacher discount: KDEIN_DIS_TCR

That’s all for now ! and See you at the Conf.

–cheers

Kunal Ghosh

Side by side, the search term on google , facebook , bing (apparently facebook has some tie-up with M$)

OK , some of my observations ( please do share your observations too ! ) :

1. Google is good with Factual data.

2. Facebook has an added advantage with it knowing what my friends , other facebook users’ and i like . And how many of the users’ like / dislike / have commented on the topic i am searching. For the factual data , its using Bing (M$ ‘s search engine).

3. Bing is a reasonable search engine, i have nothing to say about it .

THE MOST IMPORTANT OBSERVATION :

4. Though Facebook uses Bing for its search, the Bing results Facebook displays on its search page are significantly different. I think Facebook does its own filtering on top of Bing results , to filter out results like following :

“

• FreeAgent® GoFlex™

  Complete all three stages and stand to win the FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Family and Full HD 42 inch LCD TV. Contest closes 28 June 2010. Play now! FreeAgent® GoFlex™. Meet the world …

  seagategoflex.com · Cached page

• seagate goflex : seagate goflex – Cheap, Discount and FREE Super …

  seagate goflex – Cheap, Discount and FREE Super Saver Shipping

  seagategoflex.blogspot.com · Cached page

“

The first of the above results from Bing, is quite relevant to my search string (“seagate Goflex”) its the official site of the product. Here both Facebook and Google missed it.

My motivation for the blog post is that , many search providers are coming in the market, each with their own way of looking at the problem of search. All are trying to do their best. But none of them IMHO are actually showing me what “I WANT TO SEE”.

They (search engines) should understand what i am searching for (in this case a product) and give me most relevant information first ( in this case, the price in and around where i live , the technical specs etc , they should ask some more questions to refine their search results ) .

Both google and facebook have the means (personal data) to understand about me and should strive to give personalized search results. With an option of “Factual Search” which is also very important. Facebook’s positive point is that, it gives me very few searches with some degree of personalization (what my friends think about it) . When i search for a text , i am not going to look through millions of pages that google shows me but only a few say about 10 to 20 most “relevant” results.

Both Google and Facebook should learn from each other. And M$ should focus on the one thing it has managed to do fairly good , make an operating system (Humor intended). It would be fun to see what future of search has in store for us !

Until next time !

LIVE LONG & PROSPER.

Kunal Ghosh

REQUEST: In Case some parts of the following text are incorrect factually, read it as an Inspirational story

“At the prodding of my friends , I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am a former elementary school music teacher form DeMoines, Iowa. I’ve always supplemented my income by teaching piano lessons ; something i have done for over 30 years. Over the years I found that children have many levels of musical ability. I’ve never had the pleasure of having a protege though I have taught some talented students. However I’ve also had my share of what I call “musically challenged” pupils. One such student was Robby.

Robby was 11 years old when his mother (a single mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby. But Robby said that it had always been his mother’s dream to hear him play the piano. So I took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone and basic rhythm needed to excel. But he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary pieces that I require all my students to learn.

Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him. At the end of each weekly lesson he’d always say, “My mom’s going to hear me play someday.” But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up. She always waved and smiled but never stopped in.

Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons. I thought about calling him but assumed, because of his lack of ability, that he had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad advertisement for my teaching!

Several weeks later I mailed to the student’s homes a flyer on the upcoming recital. To my surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital. I told him that the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify. He said that his mom had been sick and unable to take him to piano lessons but he was still practicing. “Miss Hondorf… I’ve just got to play!” he insisted. I don’t know what led me to allow him to play in the recital. Maybe it was his persistence or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would be all right.

The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents, friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance through my “curtain closer.”

Well, the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed. Then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he’d run an eggbeater through it. “Why didn’t he dress up like the other students?” I thought. “Why didn’t his mother at least make him comb his hair for this special night?”

Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen Mozart’s Concerto #21 in C Major. I was not prepared for what I heard next. His fingers were light on pianissimo to fortissimo…from allegro to virtuoso.His suspended chords that Mozart demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so well by a person his age. After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet in wild applause. Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby in joy. “I’ve never heard you play like that Robby! How’d you do it?” Through the microphone Robby explained: “Well Miss Hondorf…remember I told you my mom was sick? Well, actually she had cancer and passed away this morning. And well….she was born deaf so tonight was the first time she ever heard me play. I wanted to make it special.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the house that evening. As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed into foster care, I noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy and I thought to myself how much richer my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil. No, I’ve never had a protege but that night I became a protege… of Robby’s. He was the teacher and I was the pupil. For it is he that taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself and maybe even taking a chance in someone and you don’t know why.

(A footnote to this story) After serving in Desert Storm, Robby was killed in the senseless bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995, where he was reportedly….playing the piano. And now, a footnote to the story.

This story has been passed around by e-mail. It has not yet been proven to be a true story as no mention has been made of the exact name of the music teacher nor of the boy. The story proves that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities a day to help realize God’s plan. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: “Do we pass along a spark of the Divine?”

“

Now you can access the full range of Qt Widgets from Modules like
QtCore, QtGUI, et al.
Use all the modules available in the Qt API as follows:
Open the script console in Digikam from tools->Script console
and type out :
var a = new QWebView();
var url = new QUrl(“your Url here”);
a.load(url);
a.show();
and then click on the Evaluate button.
The screen shot shows the result

Stay Tuned, More to Come !
Until….. Next time !

More to come ! Stay tuned

Trying it out for the first time

Instead of downloading the PDF ,i just google (verb) the link referring the pdf i.e. www.hihello.com/hello.pdf

Google would return a “Quick View” link clicking which it returns an HTML version of the pdf, saving a lot of time and bandwidth (money).

kunalghosh