November 3^rd is considered as World Usability Day, by Usability Professional Association (UPA) . World Usability Day is a project of UPA : promoting usability concepts and techniques worldwide. Around the globe the event is happening in more than 200 places. And in India, as on date, the event is going to happen in three places, viz., Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad.

If anyone is working / interested in Usability then feel free to attend   And there is also a blog for World Usability Day - Chennai.

Venue :

            Anna University,
            Hall of Guines 68,
            Department of Manufacturing Engineering,
            Sardar Vallabhat Patel Road,
            Chennai, 600 002

UPA also has a Indian chapter based in Pune.  Also Muthu, a Usability Engineer is blogging about Usability, which is named as Usability in India. Worth Clickling 

Its raining for more than 12 hours non-Stop, here in madras. Weather forcasting are towards the same result for few more days. I couldn't go to office today, due to rain. Im getting many SMSs saying "Nearly 50 people died due to power cable fell into the rain water, so avoid going out." I searched in the net for these news, but nothing turned up. I think it must be a rumour. Anyway its a +ve one.

Like BBC Weather, most of the weather forecasters say the same : Temperature as a Max of 31 for next 4 days & 24 as the Minimum. And they are confirming that the rainfall will be less for the following days, when we compare it with today.

Hopefully, Chennai won't suffer any water scarcity next summer. The forthcoming Assembly Election in TamilNadu will also fall on the same summer. So, there is a possibility that : a small % of voters may cast towards, the current J Jayalalitha government, since water scarcity is the major problem Chennai (Madras) is facing every summer.

Update : Just now I checked Chandroo's Blog, from there I found that there is blog created for Chennai Rains as Chennai Help.

2nd Update (28-Oct-2005):  Today it didn't rain, no drizzling, even a drop!!!. Sun was glowing, and most part of the city was very very normal. 

As I said in my Floods in Bangalore blog, water was absorbed in a fast rate. On the way to my office in RA Puram there was nearly 2 to 3 feet water yesterday, I noticed. But this morning, I couldn't find a drop!! To my surprise, it was normal as if nothing happened !!! Many trees stood horizontally, which was also cleared. Government is also doing worthful work.  Its not exactly like what SUN TV(a private TV channel owned by the opposition party Head) is spreading. 

And atlast the Slums are the affected.

 

Speaker s  for FOSS. IN ( Linux Bangalore / LB ) 2005

FOSS. IN announces its speaker list for the forthcoming FOSS. IN 2005 event. We have unexpected set of people... Thanks Atul for making it.

The Key speakers are :

 

He is the co-author of what could probably be called "The Bible of Linux Development", in which he uses his keen knowledge of the Linux kernel and its design to show people how to develop device drivers. No one in India would even *think* of trying this without referring to his book, now in the third edition.         He is Jonathan Corbet, co-author of "Linux Device         Drivers", and editor of LWN.NET, aka "Linux Weekly News".
His code safeguards millions of networks across the world, and can be found in virtually every consumer router these days. And when he isn't writing code, he makes the world a safer place for the GPL, by relentlessly tracking down and exposing corporations who "don't get it" when they use GPL'd code without following the rules of the game, and provided the first precedent of the GPL standing up in court - and winning. From Germany comes the chairman of the netfilter/iptables project, and the man behind GPLviolations.org - Harald Welte.
He speaks Japanese, German, English and a variety of other languages, but most importantly speaks Geek as well. He had a knoppix CD before people knew what that was, and can lie in the sun for hours without getting a tan or a sunburn. He is Mr.Wizards-of-OS - Volker Grassmuck.
Every time you go to the web to access information, you are using technology that this man has had his eager fingers in. His work is one of the first instances of a FOSS project almost completely demolishing the proprietary competition, and is used in a majority of all web servers across the Internet. The man behind the Apache project, COLLAB.NET's Brian Behlendorf.
He started off writing something to make it easier to maintain his personal home pages, and ended up changing the way the world created websites. He is Mr.PHP - Rasmus Lerdorf.
When she speaks, people sit up and listen. She was behind the open sourcing of the project that today gives FOSS a place in every office and in every home, and is also part of the organization that decides what's Open Source, and what is not - literally. The Diva of Open Source - Danese Cooper.
As one of the world's best known bloggers, he has played a vital role in getting his highly influential organization to play nice with FOSS. He loves to dabble with things ranging from Linux servers, databases, to PCs, gliders and now powered aero planes. He is Yahoo's Jeremy Zawodny.
The world of sound and music is a fascinating one, and there has always been a deep connection between code-hacking geeks and music. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that a lot of effort goes into making FOSS platforms "music compatible" - not just in the playback department, but in the music creation and recording department. The man behind Linux Sound and Audio - Dave Phillips.
He is probably one of the most recognizable faces in the FOSS world, and at the same time one of the most respected names, as well. His contributions to Linux rank with those of all the greats out there, and that includes Linus Torvalds. He has been the official kernel maintainer, and little happens in the Linux kernel today without him having some say in it. He is Alan Cox.

The regular drizzling rain in bangalore gone crazy last week, making bangalore a mini-bombay. Southern- Karnataka (mainly Bangalore), have good under water level, not like Tamilnadu. Even in Madras its raining most of the time. But the speed of absorption or the amount of water sucked by the soil/earth will be very less when compared to Madras/TamilNadu. So it might take more than a week to go out. And the climate won't help also.  Here in madras, it rains, but all of a sudden the sun plays well in the same day.

Atlast, Madras is becoming a mini-Bangalore & Bangalore has become a mini-Bombay, in the climate alone.

To say the truth this blog entry is to get more clicks from search engines. Im getting many clicks from the search engines for this flood in bangalore, not for proper keywords. So I thought of doing something to get a better keyword importance.

So please bear this :: please don't read below. Just look the stills below...

/*****************Its just for s.e.a.r.c.h--- e.n.g.i.n.e --o.p.t.i.m.i.z.a.t.i.o.n, ****** don't read*******************/

Actually Bangalore is affected a lot due to this flood still (stills are below, even flood image, images), bangalore city is more surrounded with water /  flood,  full of water, bangalore flood pictures, flood stills,bangalore in water, flooded bangalore image,stills

Actually Bangalore is affected a lot due to this flood still (stills are below), bangalore city is more surrounded with water /  flood,  full of water, bangalore flood pictures images, flood stills,bangalore in water, flooded bangalore image, stills

/**********************************************************************************************/

 

   

More stills, nearly 20 are in the power point file.[Link]

ThanX to Umaka & Anandha Balaji for forwarding it. Also Narasiman, my graduation friend & a native of Trichy for explaining the situation.  

I have blogged about Bangalore's pathetic Traffic situation illustrated in Jokes before too.

One more photoblog with the similar news is here. [Link]

Hi Sxrxxx,

Thanks for you interest towards Saksoft.
But you see, as a employee of a listed company, I can't share informations to anyone.  So for any types of queries, you can mail to : enquiry (yut) saksoft.com

 My collueges in that dept. will help you to their level best.

ThanX
- Kiruthik

This is my reply to a letter, we will come to that latter.

When you search "Saksoft" in any of the major search engines like, Google, MSN & Yahoo then you will be ending with my page in the first page result itself. So, im getting around 100 clicks for the keyword "Saksoft" from the Search Giants every week.  Due to Referal blacklist problem, my links in Google have gone down. Specifically "Saksoft" keyowrd results to page 3. Hope it will climb soon. And in MSN, my page is the first result & in Yahoo its 3rd.

                    

And moreover I have mentioned that Im working for Saksoft, so I used to get few mails a week asking for the companys' latest deal/projects. But I normally prefer not to respond. But two days back,  I got a mail. Thats, something immoral....

Interested in that letter ??? Scroll down.........

 

Dear Kiruthik,
Let me introduce myself as we don't know each other, or rather you don't know me. I know a few things about you through
www.kiruthik.com. My name is Sxrxxx Txxxe and I'm currently in Pune. My profession is to do equity research and I came across your site when I was looking for information about Saksoft. I required Saksoft information because I've to do research on your company. As the field of IT from the point of view of researching it is new to me, I wanted to know about this industry from somebody working in it. And also a few things about Saksoft. Ofcourse, you need not divulge the things you are supposed to keep secret (and it would be immoral under current SEBI guidance) but some information, you know which is better understood one to one from a person working in that company rather than just going through newspaper clippings and the saksoft website.  I would like to know how company has changed after getting listed, etc., you know, qualitative factors, which are hard to gauge from the plain financial statements.Btw, congratulations on getting Saksoft shares, lucky being one in only two employees to get them through the IPO.
And if you oblige me with this favour, I promise, I would give you sound advice on investing in stocks and mutual funds. My record has been impeccable, and my friends have made some money because of my advice.
So.. Its quid pro quo..

I hope you would provide atleast some information.. Please reply this mail with your contact number and convenient time for you. I won't take more than 15 minutes for my work. If you need few tips, and if we go along well (and I really hope so) we'll ofcourse talk longer..

Thank you,
Reply asap,
-Sxrxxx Txxxe
+9198906xx4xx

Last week MSN & Yahoo announced their plan to connect their Instant Messaging(IM) network together in the first half of next year. i.e., you can send IMs to your friends in MSN, if you have logged into Yahoo, and vice versa is also applicable. We can share emoticons, add new contacts etc. Also, voice chat is possible. Hopefully they will be in the phase of syncing up their databases

This is will be a dazzling feature which gives AOL & Google Talk a big punch. AOL is mostly used in US, where they have more users, than the combined users of Yahoo & MSN users. But outside US, Yahoo & MSN stands. Whereas, the new comer for this line Google-Talk is the main sufferer, even for Skype, its the same. Well, Yahoo has marked this service "Coming soon" in their Messenger page as featured partners.

The only doubt I have is : is it possible to send offline messages to MSN users in that case  ????

 

Evolution : Amoeba(cell), fish...... monkey, then a human & atlast a Penguin (TUX). Get the SWF(flash) version.

Many TUXs are locked, and another TUX(Army man) helps them.....  Get the SWF(flash) version.

Linux can be fun... Anywhere. Even in a meditation hall.... Get the SWF(flash) version.

Passion : Two TUX roams around. May be like any Linux flavour of LINUX will be interoperable... :)  Get the SWF(flash) version.

Last but not the least . Penguin + Einstein = Penguinstein Get the SWF(flash) version.

Download all the files in a zip format.

Why is IBM supporting Linux?
Because we admire it, we believe in it, we need it and it's good for customers. And, well...it's a lot of fun.

We've invested a billion dollars in Linux, we've made every IBM eServer® Linux-enabled, and now we've made a little
investment in some Linux fun. We created these animated features for your enjoyment - take a look, have a laugh."

IBM, the industry giant is advertising its IBM eServer® with these nice animation  saying their servers run on Linux. More info. here. Thanks, Manigandan for forwarding it.

After Gmail, its 30gigs now. They are offering 30GB of mail storage. But this one is not from a very big company & they have registered their site (30gigs.com) for only 2 years. The user interface may look good. If anyone is left with an invitation, send me that to mail@kiruthik.com 

Year back,  Hotmail gave 2MB & Yahoo  6MB, now there are offerings in GBs.

Update : I have many 30 Gigs invitations left to give out   Mail me, if you need it....

The old Logo representing Linux Bangalore



The new name FOSS(Free & Open Source Software) 2005 - Logo

Tomorrow, it is scheduled for BLUGers meet, in Ashraya Hotel, so im taking off tomm'& leaving for bangalore tonight. I missed the last meet & hopefully, we will have more things to discuss about the coming FOSS.in/2005 event (which was called Linux Bangalore before).

From third week of July, I spent all of my weekends outside madras. But this weekend, I was here doing loads of work. I had about 5 new stuffs to blog about, but I didn't. So, today while shavng, around 9:30, I thought of blogging, but I knew I have to race with time if I blog. So, I added a small entry about OkCupid's Political Test (my previous post). When I came out of my bathroom, tying my shorts(half pant) knot, I heard the sound from my pendulum-clock.

"Shit, its 10...", I said to myself.
Im late by 10 minutes. I have to dress, drink-milk, pray & have to drive a mile to office. My blue Indigo Nation shirt was lying in bed. So I wore that & left to drink my yummy Chocolate-milk, chanting few mantras. In a minute, I came out with my purse & mobile in my hand nearing my bike to start. I was trying to keep my purse in my Pant's back pocket. It was not there!!!! I bent my head a little down & in a second, I started laughing...... Yes, I was not in my pant. Instead, the shorts. From my childhood, I used to wear my socks before wearing my pant. Even my brother used to do that. Since it was a half pant & was thinking something, I missed.