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Showing posts from 2009

Chinese Intervention?

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Just on a light note, have a look at this screenshot of Firefox in an "embarrassing" situation. I wonder if it was because of the ever present Chinese... :)

Automatic Django Template Directory adjustment

Django is that hot new MVC framework on the block that's kept me sleeping at night, quite unlike PHP . Yup, its that good! :) It's got wonderful features that make me feel - Yeah! Development for the web is still worth the grind! By the way, if you're not into Web Development and don't care two hoots about the difference between a framework and a library, this post is not for you - Mosey along now! Nothing to see here. ;) Anyway, one of my few n00b questions to which I've never actually got a satisfactory answer is - How do you specify the template directory so that you can send your code to others and have it execute by manage.py runserver without any changes? The primary problem is the hardcoding of directories that is done in the settings.py file at the root of the project. After a bit of searching, I've come to a satisfactory solution and lest I forget it, I've decided to post it to my blog. Here's the code snippet. TEMPLATE_DIRS = ( # Put s

Geeky Stuff - The Linux Kernel Implementation of Pipes, FIFOs and other Filesystems

I had to create a presentation on the implementation of Pipes and FIFOs on GNU/Linux for my Network Programming class (we're doing some background on IPC). Since I couldn't find any decent documentation online, I decided to dive deep into the Linux kernel code and see what devils were lurking beneath the pipe() and the mkfifo() system calls. The end result? A rather organized documentation of how pipes and FIFOs are implemented on linux (including some stuff about the pipefs filesystem). You can use this documentation in a variety of ways (including creating your own, new filesystem, for linux), but beware, I've made this complete documentation by reading the code. It elides a lot of informative stuff and might be incorrect in places. I would love to hear about anything wrong or misleading in this documentation. I undertake no responsibility if something happens to you, your computer or someone else's computer if you use/misuse the information provided. Please feel free

Life Updates after the internship

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Hello Web Surfer, Firstly - Apologies! Its been a really long time since my last (reasonable) post and I've been neglecting my blog a lot. Mostly, this can be attributed to my internship at Microsoft which sapped me for over 2 months and then the brilliant work I've been doing at Zigndog . Forgive me for all the neglect and thank you for your brilliant patience. Given the long absence of updates, it is only fair that I give you a peek into the inner workings of my life (If you're not really interested, just skip on to the next post, you just might like spicy letters to the Dean :D ). I've been tweeting a lot about DesignChef and Zigndog . If you don't already know of it, Zigndog is Puneet Jaggi's brainchild startup that working in the Web Development and Print Design space. Its working out well - Zigndog got 2 special mentions at the first DesignChef Logo Challenge and Second Place at the DesignChef UX Challenge . That's bagged us a cool Rs. 10,000 as a ca

[Cinema Club] Appeal

Dear Sir,    I would like to inform you about a number of irregularities that have taken place in the selection and subsequent notification of the secretary of the Cinema Club. The professors in charge have refused to consider my case and hence I am resorting to this final recourse of appeal to you. To give you a little background, I would like to state my version of events. You may wish to verify this with any you deem suitable:- 1. A notice was issued wherein applications were requested for application to the post of Secretary, Cinema club on Monday/Tuesday - 17th/18th August. 2. The notice clearly stated that applications must be deposited in the office of the undersigned Prof. R. Prasad (of Electrical Department) by 20th August 2009 . I complied with the same, having slipped in my application to his room at about 4:45 PM on 20th August 2009 (today). He was not present in his room and the timetable in his office showed that he was in a Lab. I visited some Labs in the departme

BUGS in DK's soul

Recently received via fakemail.info : DK's soul has bugs too!!!! Thats why its in Beta... Thanks for the obvious creativity guys, you really cracked me up. :-) The other mails were also fun, but some were unpublishable. Keep mailing... Love to see your quote of the day in my inbox.

Google moving towards the "Google OS"

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Google Code Blog: Announcing the Native Client Security Contest Google is moving slowly but surely towards its much hyped (but never confirmed) "Google OS". Google has just announced the Google Native Client Security Contest which challenges students and professionals from around the globe to have a look at the Google Native Client (or NaCl as it is better known in the docs ) to find bugs and vulnerabilities. The person who identifies the maximum number of bugs can receive (in typical Google fashion) upto $ 2^13 . Great chance for all you hackers out there to earn some real m00lah. However, its not the money that has caught my eye in this contest. The most eye popping thing about this piece of software are the screenshots that show how a full fledged 3D game - Quake, is running right inside of a browser. Its no wonder that Google claims that it will revolutionize the degree of interactivity available inside of a browser. Have a look at the screenshot below: Another thing t

GMail has bugs too! That's why it's in Beta.

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Check out the image below. A rare bug in the GMail interface.