The Spinchoreographer.....

Brier Dudley's Blog | Wow: Intel unveils 1 teraflop chip with 50-plus cores | Seattle Times Newspaper

2011-11-16T02:36:00.000-08:00

Brier Dudley's Blog | Wow: Intel unveils 1 teraflop chip with 50-plus cores | Seattle Times Newspaper

Download mp3 from internet!

2011-10-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a bash script for downloading mp3 songs (not limited to, but any media file) from internet.

Save the urls in a .txt file, and copy paste the following script and make sure the script has run permission,

#!/bin/bash

FILENAME=$1
dir=$2
PWD=`pwd`;

if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
echo `wget -b --directory-\prefix\=/Volumes/Mac_One/Music/$dir -o download_$dir.log -i "$PWD/$FILENAME"`;
else
mkdir -p "/Volumes/Mac_One/Music/$dir";
echo `wget -b --directory-\prefix\=/Volumes/Mac_One/Music/$dir -o download_$dir.log -i "$PWD/$FILENAME"`;
fi

> download.sh

MAC Spoofing....

2011-10-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, I happened to bluff a license manager program.... This is how I bluffed the manager with a spoofed MAC address....

In Linux machine,

> ifconfig eth1 down

> ifconfig Hwaddr ether up

> ifconfig eth1 | grep HWaddr

No Friendship, where there is no equality!

2011-10-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

Few days back, I read this quote somewhere. If I am not wrong, this is Aristotle's quote. But, nothing struck in my mind then.

He is such a great thinker, otherwise it is not possible to utter something, that would stay alive for eras! Alive, I mean hereby, is true!

This afternoon, I was thinking about something, which I am trying to forget!(odd isn't it!). Then suddenly this quote struck in my mind... How true is it!?

Friendship : Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither too weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away. (A life for a life - Dinah Mulock Craik).

This is the best definition, I could come across, so far. With this foundation, how significant is "equality" for friendship. (Alas, going to be very philosophical!!)

Equality!?

What is means? Equality in terms of what? What are all the factors determine inequality?

Equality: So far, I only have studied in my mathematics, what is equality! I really never come across equality, in terms of anything, in the real world. In fact, there is no equality exists between any two, except in theory. And the nature (you may name it whatever you may want!) itself doesn't allow any two things to be exactly equal (remember, the Pauli's exclusion principle!!)

So, in all the rest of the discussion equality is "absolutely a relative measure!".

What is the point in spending time in discussing about it, when it turns up to be relative one?

In science, there is a phenomenon called resonance (Hey!! I am working in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance!!). It is nothing but, when the frequency of two waves becomes equal, the amplitude of the two waves just adds up. So here, the frequency is the one determines the equality, though the waves may not be of same amplitude!

Let me try to fit this curve in to our real world thing. Just like this, when two persons have same frequency of thoughts and characters, there is a great possibility to be good friends.

One might ask, what if the waves of same frequency, but anti-phase to each other. In real world issue, I would analogise this to the "ego" of each individual.

When will two different individuals, who are not kin, would have same kind of thoughts and characters?

Answer to this question requires a great deal of discussion under the developmental psychology context, which I will discuss sometime later.

But for now, broadly and generally, those who brought up under same or at least similar environment, would have a great possibility to think and behave alike.

Equality, if defined by thoughts and characters, which are determined by the developmental psychology which in turn determined by environment and society under which they are brought up, would never brings up a friendship, that holds the aforementioned definition, if the determining factors are different!

My ideology is self centred. I like a quote of Mr.Mohandoss Gandhi,

"You should be the change that you want to see".

I believe, there could not be any better means to understand this, otherwise a self-centric approach. Since, every man constitutes the society, any change in the society should roots form each individual, for it to sustain, otherwise it would not sustain.

இறை புலம்பல்.

2011-07-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

பொருளற்ற பொருள் தேடி, பொழுது போக்குகிறேன். மனமும் நனவும் ஓத்திசையாத வாழ்க்கை.. இதை வீண் என்று வேறருப்பதா இல்லை வேலை முக்கியம் என்று விளக்கம் சொல்வதா?

இருப்புக்கும் விருப்புக்கும் இடையில் அல்லாடும் என்னை ஆட்கொண்டருள்வாய் இறைவனே!

Unable to update Snow Leopard 10.6.7

2011-03-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

bertrand russell on utilitarian sex 1936

2010-09-03T17:26:00.001-07:00

SEX , MORE THAN any other element in human life, is still viewed by many,
perhaps by most , in an irrational way . Homicide , pestilence , insanity , gold
and precious stones - all the things, in fact, that are the objects of
passionate hopes or fears - have been seen, in the past , through a mist of
magic or mythology ; but the sun of reason has now dispelled the mist,
except here and there. The densest cloud that remains is in the territory of
sex , as is perhaps natural since sex is concerned in the most passionate part
of most people ' s lives.
It is becoming apparent , however, that conditions in the modern world are
working to effect a change in the public attitude toward sex . As to what
change , or changes , this will bring about , no one can speak with any
certainty ; but it is possible to note some of the forces now at work, and to
discuss what their results are likely to be upon the structure of society.
Insofar as human nature is concerned , it cannot be said to be impossible to
produce a society in which there is very little sexual intercourse outside of
marriage . The conditions necessary for this result , however, are such as are
made almost unattainable by modern life. Let us , then , consider what they
are .
The greatest influence toward effecting monogamy is immobility in a region
containing few inhabitants . If a man hardly ever has occasion to leave
home , and seldom sees any woman but his wife , it is easy for him to be
faithful ; but if he travels without her , or lives in a crowded urban
community , the problem is proportionately more difficult. The next greatest
assistance to monogamy is superstition : those who genuinely believe that
' sin ' leads to eternal punishment might be expected to avoid it , and to
some extent they do so , although not to so great an extent as might be
expected . The third support of virtue is public opinion. Where , as in
agricultural societies , all that a man does is known to his neighbours, he has
powerful motives for avoiding whatever convention condemns. But all these
causes of correct behaviour are much less potent than they used to be .
Fewer people live in isolation ; the belief in hell - fire is dying out ; and in large
towns no one knows what his neighbour does . It is, therefore , not surprising
that both men and women are less monogamous than they were before the
rise of modern industrialism .
Of course, it may be said that , while an increasing number of people fail to
observe the moral law, that is no reason for altering our standards. Those
who sin , we are sometimes told , should know and recognize that they sin ,
and an ethical code is none the worse for being difficult to live up to. But I
should reply that the question whether a code is good or bad is the same as
the question whether or not it promotes human happiness . Many adults, in
their hearts , still believe all that they were taught in childhood , and feel
wicked when their lives do not conform to the maxims of the Sunday
school . The harm done is not merely to introduce a division between the
conscious reasonable personality and the unconscious infantile personality;
the harm lies also in the fact that the valid parts of conventional morality
become discredited along with the invalid parts , and it comes to be thought
that , if adultery is excusable, so are laziness , dishonesty , and unkindness.
This danger is inseparable from a system which teaches the young , en bloc ,
a number of beliefs that they are almost sure to discard when they become
mature . In the process of social and economic revolt , they are likely to
throw over the good along with the bad.
The difficulty of arriving at a workable sexual ethic arises from the conflict
between the impulse to jealousy and the impulse to polygamy . There is no
doubt that jealousy, while in part instinctive , is to a very large degree
conventional . In societies in which a man is considered a fit object for
ridicule if his wife is unfaithful , he will be jealous where she is concerned ,
even if he no longer has any affection for her . Thus jealousy is intimately
connected with the sense of property, and is much less where this sense is
absent . If faithfulness is no part of what is conventionally expected , jealousy
is much diminished . But although there is more possibility of lessening
jealousy than many people suppose , there are very definite limits so long as
fathers have rights and duties. So long as this is the case , it is inevitable that
men should desire some assurance that they are the fathers of their wives'
children . If women are to have sexual freedom, fathers must fade out , and
wives must no longer expect to be supported by their husbands. This may
come about in time , but it will be a profound social change , and its effects,
for good or ill , are incalculable .
In the meantime , if marriage and paternity are to survive as social
institutions , some compromise is necessary between complete promiscuity
and life- long monogamy . To decide on the best compromise at any given
moment is not easy; and the decision should vary from time to time ,
according to the habits of the population and the reliability of birth - control
methods . Some things, however, can be said with some definiteness .
In the first place, it is undesirable , both physiologically and educationally,
that women should have children before the age of 20. Our ethics should,
therefore , be such as to make this a rare occurrence.
In the second place , it is unlikely that a person without previous sexual
experience , whether man or woman , will be able to distinguish between
mere physical attraction and the sort of congeniality that is necessary in
order to make marriage a success. Moreover , economic causes compel
men , as a rule , to postpone marriage , and it is neither likely that they will
remain chaste in the years from 20 to 30, nor desirable psychologically that
they should do so ; but it is much better that , if they have temporary
relations, that they should be not with professionals , but with girls of their
own class , whose motive is affection rather than money. For both these
reasons, young unmarried people should have considerable freedom as long
as children are avoided .
In the third place, divorce should be possible without blame to either party,
and should not be regarded as in any way disgraceful . A childless marriage
should be terminable at the wish of one of the partners , and any marriage
should be terminable by mutual consent - a year' s notice being necessary in
either case . Divorce should, of course , be possible on a number of other
grounds - insanity , desertion , cruelty , and so on; but mutual consent should
be the most usual ground.
In the fourth place , everything possible should be done to free sexual
relations from the economic taint . At present , wives, just as much as
prostitutes , live by the sale of their sexual charms ; and even in temporary
free relations the man is usually expected to bear all the joint expenses. The
result is that there is a sordid entanglement of money with sex , and that
women ' s motives not infrequently have a mercenary element . Sex, even
when blessed by the Church, ought not to be a profession. It is right that a
woman should be paid for housekeeping or cooking or the care of children,
but not merely for having sexual relations with a man . Nor should a woman
who has once loved and been loved by a man be able to live ever after on
alimony when his love and hers have ceased. A woman , like a man , should
work for her living, and an idle wife is no more intrinsically worthy of
respect than a gigolo.
II
Two very primitive impulses have contributed, though in very different
degrees , to the rise of the currently accepted code of sexual behaviour . One
of these is modesty, and the other , as mentioned above, is jealousy.
Modesty , in some form and to some degree, is almost universal in the
human race, and constitutes a taboo which must only be broken through in
accordance with certain forms and ceremonies , or, at the least, in
conformity with some recognized etiquette. Not everything may he seen,
and not all facts may be mentioned . This is not , as some moderns suppose ,
an invention of the Victorian age ; on the contrary , anthropologists have
found the most elaborate forms of prudery among primitive savages. The
conception of the obscene has its roots deep in human nature . We may go
against it from a love of rebellion , or from loyalty to the scientific spirit , or
from a wish to feel wicked, such as existed in Byron ; but we do not thereby
eradicate it from among our natural impulses . No doubt convention
determines , in a given community , exactly what is to be considered
indecent, but the universal existence of some convention of the kind is
conclusive evidence of a source which is not merely conventional . In almost
every human society, pornography and exhibitionism are reckoned as
offences , except when , as not infrequently occurs , they form part of
religious ceremonies .
Asceticism - which may or may not have a psychological connection with
modesty - is an impulse which seems to arise only where a certain level of
civilization has been reached, but may then become powerful. It is not to be
found in the earlier books of the Old Testament , but it appears in the later
books , in the Apocrypha , and in the New Testament . Similarly among the
Greeks there is little of it in early times, but more and more as time goes
on. In India , it arose at a very early date, and acquired great intensity. I will
not attempt to give a psychological analysis of its origin , but I cannot doubt
that it is a spontaneous sentiment , existing , to some slight extent, in almost
all civilized human beings . Its faintest form is reluctance to imagine a
revered individual - especially a person possessed of religious sanctity -
engaged in love - making, which is felt to be scarcely compatible with the
highest degree of dignity . The wish to free the spirit from bondage to the
flesh has inspired many of the great religions of the world , and is still
powerful even among modern intellectuals.
But jealousy, I believe , has been the most potent single factor in the genesis
of sexual morality . Jealousy instinctively rouses anger ; and anger ,
rationalized , becomes moral disapproval. The purely instinctive motive must
have been reinforced, at an early stage in the development of civilization, by
the desire of males to be certain of paternity. Without security in this
respect the patriarchal family would have been impossible, and fatherhood,
with all its economic implications, could not have become the basis of social
institutions . It was , accordingly , wicked to have relations with another man ' s
wife , but not even mildly reprehensible to have relations with an unmarried
woman . There were excellent practical reasons for condemning the
adulterer , since he caused confusion and very likely bloodshed . The siege of
Troy was an extreme example of the upheavals due to disrespect for the
rights of husbands , but something of the sort , though on a smaller scale,
was to be expected even when the parties concerned were less exalted.
There were, of course, in those days , no corresponding rights of wives ; a
husband had no duty to his wife , though he had the duty of respecting the
property of other husbands .
The old system of the patriarchal family , with an ethic based on the feelings
that we have been considering, was, in a sense , successful: men , who
dominated , had considerable liberty , and women , who suffered , were in
such complete subjection that their unhappiness seemed not important . It is
the claim of women to equality with men that has done most to make a
new system necessary in the world today . Equality can be secured in two
ways : either by exacting from men the same strict monogamy as was , in
the past , exacted from women; or by allowing women , equally with men , a
certain relaxation of the traditional code . The first of these ways was
preferred by most of the pioneers of women' s rights , and is still preferred
by the churches; but the second has many more adherents in practice ,
although most of them are in doubt as to the theoretical justifiability of their
own behaviour . And those who recognize that some new ethic is required
find it difficult to know just what its precepts should be .
There is another source of novelty , and that is the effect of the scientific
outlook in weakening the taboo on sexual knowledge . It has come to be
understood that various evils - for example, venereal disease - cannot be
effectively combated unless they are spoken of much more openly than was
formerly thought permissible ; and it has also been found that reticence and
ignorance are apt to have injurious effects upon the psychology of the
individual . Both sociology and psychoanalysis have led serious students to
deprecate the policy of silence in regard to sexual matters, and many
practical educators , from experience with children , have adopted the same
position . Those who have a scientific outlook on human behaviour ,
moreover , find it impossible to label any action as ' sin '; they realize that
what we do has its origin in our heredity , our education , and our
environment , and that it is by control of these causes, rather than by
denunciation , that conduct injurious to society is to be prevented .
In seeking a new ethic of sexual behaviour , therefore , we must not
ourselves be dominated by the ancient irrational passions which gave rise to
the old ethic , though we should recognize that they may, by accident , have
led to some sound maxims , and that , since they still exist, though perhaps
in a weakened form, they are still among the data of our problem . What we
have to do positively is to ask ourselves what moral rules are most likely to
promote human happiness , remembering always that , whatever the rules
may be , they are not likely to be universally observed . That is to say , we
have to consider the effect which the rules will in fact have , not that which
they would have if they were completely effective .
III
Let us look next at the question of knowledge on sexual subjects, which
arises at the earliest age and is the least difficult and doubtful of the various
problems with which we are concerned . There is no sound reason , of any
sort or kind , for concealing facts when talking to children . Their questions
should be answered and their curiosity satisfied in exactly the same way in
regard to sex as in regard to the habits of fishes , or any other subject that
interests them . There should be no sentiment , because young children
cannot feel as adults do, and see no occasion for high- flown talk . It is a
mistake to begin with the loves of the bees and the flowers ; there is no point
in leading up to the facts of life by devious routes. The child who is told
what he wants to know , and allowed to see his parents naked, will have no
pruriency and no obsession of a sexual kind . Boys who are brought up in
official ignorance think and talk much more about sex than boys who have
always heard this topic treated on a level with any other . Official ignorance
and actual knowledge teach them to be deceitful and hypocritical with their
elders. On the other hand , real ignorance , when it is achieved , is likely to be
a source of shock and anxiety, and to make adaptation to real life difficult.
All ignorance is regrettable, but ignorance on so important a matter as sex
is a serious danger .
When I say that children should be told about sex , I do not mean that they
should be told only the bare physiological facts ; they should be told
whatever they wish to know . There should be no attempt to represent
adults as more virtuous than they are , or sex as occurring only in marriage.
There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when , as must happen in
conventional families, they find that their parents have lied , they lose
confidence in them , and feel justified in lying to them . There are facts which
I should not obtrude upon a child , but I would tell him anything sooner
than say what is not true. Virtue which is based upon a false view of the
facts is not real virtue . Speaking not only from theory , but from practical
experience , I am convinced that complete openness on sexual subjects is
the best way to prevent children from thinking about them excessively,
nastily , or unwholesomely , and also the almost indispensable preliminary to
an enlightened sexual morality .
Where adult sexual behaviour is concerned , it is by no means easy to arrive
at a rational compromise between the antagonistic considerations that have
each their own validity. The fundamental difficulty is , of course, the conflict
between the impulse to jealousy and the impulse to sexual variety. Neither
impulse , it is true , is universal: there are those (though they are few ) who
are never jealous, and there are those ( among men as well as among
women ) whose affections never wander from the chosen partner . If either
of these types could be made universal, it would be easy to devise a
satisfactory code . It must be admitted , however, that either type can be
made more common by conventions designed to that end.
Much ground remains to be covered by a complete sexual ethic , but I do
not think we can say anything very positive until we have more experience,
both of the effects of various systems and of the changes resulting from a
rational education in matters of sex . It is clear that marriage , as an
institution , should only interest the State because of children, and should be
viewed as a purely private matter so long as it is childless. It is clear , also ,
that , even where there are children, the State is only interested through the
duties of fathers, which are chiefly financial . Where divorce is easy , as in
Scandinavia , the children usually go with the mother , so that the patriarchal
family tends to disappear. If , as is increasingly happening where wage -
earners are concerned , the State takes over the duties that have hitherto
fallen upon fathers, marriage will cease to have any raison d ' être , and will
probably be no longer customary except among the rich and the religious.
In the meantime , it would be well if men and women could remember, in
sexual relations, in marriage , and in divorce , to practise the ordinary virtues
of tolerance , kindness, truthfulness , and justice. Those who, by conventional
standards , are sexually virtuous, too often consider themselves thereby
absolved from behaving like decent human beings . Most moralists have
been so obsessed by sex that they have laid much too little emphasis on
other more socially useful kinds of ethically commendable conduct.

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

testing photo upload!

2010-08-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

Mmmm..... becoming an addict .

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

a test blog post from my android powered smartphone!

2010-08-23T19:37:00.001-07:00

Hello.....

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Will Mac OS X be hunted down!!

2010-05-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, I read a nice review article on Ubuntu's latest release 10.04.... Looks good in appearance and packed with real new applications (movie editor, online music store similar to iTunes!!). Virtually, the comparison was made between Mac OS X and Ubuntu-10.04. At the end of the article, no wonder even a hardcore Mac lover might want to date with Ubuntu, at least once!...

What makes Ubuntu to leap forward Mac OS X. Undoubtedly, is its hardware independence.... With the comnnunity support, Ubuntu over takes Mac OS X...

Who is gonno dominate? Cat or Tiger!! (Same family alas!!!)

How to find an application is 32 bit or 64 bit in Mac before installing!

2010-05-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

A trivial job though, for geeks... but for some it might help.....

Download the application, you wish to check and install....

All the Mac installation images comes with .dmg file extension....

open the terminal application and do the following,

> open .dmg (opens the the disk image and attaches as a file system!)

>df -H (Checks the attached and mounted file system images; find the path here!)

> cd (This is will bring you the mounted application disk image!)

> cd .app/Contents/MacOS (This is the standard filesystem structure in any (application)disk image)

> file

reading the output you can find the application is for 32bit or 64bit....

i386 = 32 bit application

x86_64 = 64 bit application

Resetting admin password without Install disk

2010-01-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I changed my admin password in my MBP.

And today, I ran into problem; I forgot my password :)
I do not carry my Install disk. So here goes a trick to reset your admin password.
Reboot your machine.
While booting, press and hold down Command+s until you get the prompt.
Upon receiving command prompt, do the following,
>> mount -uw /
>>rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
>>shutdown -h now
Boot the machine by pressing the power button. Mac will boot, as if it has been powered up for the first time!
you will be guided through initial set up and registration for admin account.
Once inside the new admin account, go to System Preferences>Accounts and change the password for the admin account which you have lost or forgot.
Upon rebooting, everything should go fine, sometimes you may be hindered by Keychain password, if you have set your keychain password by your lost login password, in which case reset your keychian password by going into Applications/Utilities/Keychain access.app>Preferences>General and click Reset my Keychain.
And that is it. you are ready to go!.
I feel Mac is more insecure in terms of hack attack. Since anyone, who has an Install disk can get in to your Mac (by following this trick, Install disk is not even required), even you have opted all the protective measures offered by Apple.
I would appreciate, if someone would post me any alternative to BIOS password in PCs in Mac!. I can efficiently avoid the physical hacking!

Followup: Linux on MacBook Pro Unibody

2009-08-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

After successful installation of gentoo on my MacBook Pro, now I decided to go again with full disk OS X. The major reason is, heat the nVidia GeForce 9600 produces. Temperature starts from 65 deg, after normal start up, goes upto 98 degs, once I started running programs..... Since, my programs require lots of computation and power, as I mentioned earlier, I cannot avoid this heating issue and I am afraid of damaging my hardware. But, the question hanging before me is, why the graphics card temperature is going up, I am not running any graphics intensive application!

Anyway, happy news is, Snow Leopard is releasing this friday (28th Aug), before the expected date of Sep 19th. I will go with that, since the kernel is 64 bit and it is meant for Intel Macs and also, it does not bloat the installation space!
Welcome Snow Leopard!

Linux on MacBook Pro (Late 2008) - Unibody

2009-08-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Many UNIX users might want to have linux alongside Mac OS X to enjoy the complete freedom and some, like me, would like to make use of the full hardware power of MacBook Pro without paying some extra ransom to Apple!!

As Mac OS X being a UNIX platform, it offers a almost rock solid OS. But, the sad news for those who are considering to move from Linux is that, no freedom as in terms of source code and customizability is nowhere can be compared with Linux.
As one might see, Leopard is, in reality, a 32 bit operating system which runs in a 64 bit architecture (using an emulator). That is how, it could able to run in Intel's core 2 duo processor.
Having linux alongside Mac OS X is really a very useful stuff for people like me, who runs intensive simulations and number crunching programs. On the other side, despite GNU open source programs are available for Mac platform, usually, does not matches with the latest release of the same for Linux one. This intrigues, any geek, to go for Linux.
Installing Linux on Mac: Choice of the Linux flavour!
As one might say, if Linux is considered as an ice-cream, there comes a vast many flavours of it. Which one to choose, as Apple's MBPs packed with the industries cutting edge technologies!
In my perspective (I wanted to have Linux in my MBP to run quantum mechanical (GAMESS), molecular mechanical (GROMACS, NAMD...) and some of my own programs) any Linux distro that could enable me to optimize it to run my programs as much faster would be much sought. While considering Linux distros, one, should not only pay attention to eye candy stuff and multimedia stuff rich Linux distros, assuming installing Linux in Mac for mere computer intensive simulation purposes and not for any other purpose. Another main thing is, good number of community users, using the same in MBP or atleast MB... It is just to make you feel comfortable as you have support from other users.
Why Gentoo?
I have been using Linux, way back since 2005. And, have some experience with Debian (Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Lenny) and RedHat (Fedora, CentOS, RHEL4) lineages. All these are major linux distros these days and many might well aware of these... But, when I started my search for a suitable distro for a MBP, I came across Gentoo, which offers customizability starting from its core. It is a metadistribution, that could ultimately can manifested as a secured server, desktop or laptop distro. Another thing I considered is, the user group. As I was safariying!! thorough net, I have found many of those who has a Linux distro on their Mac Notebook is Gentoo... (equally ubuntu, as one might debate!). And comes portage, an excellent (so far I have not seen any such package management, offers you such an avenue for customizability) package management system.
Installation:
Before any trial or new attempt, Sincere suggestion is that, back your system up completely. I had to wipe my whole partition, since I already had 4 primary partitions and all were used by Leopard. The reason is that, rEFI, does not support anything more than 4 primary partitions. The reason is something to do with much techy about GPT and MBR. Will get back to it later.
So, I decided to have Leopard in just one partition and have two partitions for Linux and one is for rEFI, which is must, and should be the first primary partition. Download and installrEFIt, the latest available version. In my case, what I did is, I first wiped my hard drive completely and then partitioned using Mac's disk utility, suitable for my needs. Here, an important thing is that, while partition and format the disk in which Linux is planned to be installed should be formatted in DOS format and not HFS or HFS (journaled).
Remember your partition format and ready for the take off. Most of the installation steps are to be followed straightaway from Gentoo linux manual, as it differs slightly in installing and configuring grub and some extra hardware like iSight camera... sound daemon... But, anyway, it is advisable to read the manual completely once are twice before starting the installation process.
I have used Ubuntu-9.04 amd64 kernel, for my install. I have a working ethernet connection at my home. So things were little easy in installing gentoo...
Once liveCD is ready, boot the MBP using liveCD. hold down the "c" button when MBP boots. after initial setup, will have ubuntu desktop. Open the terminal, and type the following,
> sudo su -
> mkdir -p /mnt/gentoo
>mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/gentoo
Here is little different for those want to have Linux in just one partition. I have a separate home partition and / partition, where the /boot partition lies...
Then, install stage as it is mentioned in Gentoo manual, otherwise one could follow these steps,
> wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/release/amd64/2008.0/stages/stage3-amd64-2008.0.tar.bz2
One could use any other mirror as well.
> tar -xvjf stage3-amd64-2008.0.tar.bz2
> cp /etc/resplv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc
Remember you have just mounted your partition under ubuntu...
Now,
> mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
> chroot /mnt/gentoo
Now you are in the gentoo environment as root!!
> emerge --sync
This might take a while depending on your internet connection speed.
Downlaod the kernel as follows,
>emerge grub >=vanilla-sources-2.6.30-rc4 dhcpcd
This installs the kernel sources in /usr/src/linux under your chrooted environment.
Hereon you can follow the gentoo installation manual for setting up fstab file and password for the root user. Failing this you might not be able to boot in to gentoo!
Kernel configuration
The followings are the important things to remember while you compile the kernel.
1. Enable MTRR device support (for nVidia chips)
2.Disable nVidia framebuffer support and nVdia riva support
3.Enable Broadcom BCM4322 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless support
4.Enable I2C/DDC (helps in obtaining widescreen information for X11
5.Enable applemouse toucpad and ps2 as well.
If anybody needs my .config file drop me your mail id.
Short note on kernel compilation
> make menuconfig
After choosing your options and saving
> make && make modules_install
here I would suggest to pay attention to gentoo manual,a s it explains about alternative method of compilation.
Now install grub.
> emerge grub
> grub install /dev/sdaX Where you decided to install grub.
cp the compiled kernel to the /boot directory and edit your grub.conf
Add the following line, as the bootparameter.
video=1440x900@70-32:uvesafb:mtrr:3:ywrap.
Once you could boot, then you are done!!
Configure the system how you want it to be and Enjoy Linux on MacBook Pro!!

Here is my screen-shot.

I will keep updating this post, as I go further!!

Applications install DVD Mac OS X 10.5.6

2009-08-14T03:05:00.000-07:00

Last week I wiped my MBP (Gen 5,1) and installed Linux alongside Mac OSX. Since, Last night, I was configuring my linux installation. My intention is to utilize the harnessing computing power of MBP at its most, rather than simply sticking on to Leopard, which does uses only half of the capacity of MBP. I didn't pay much attention to wifi, audio.... Despite this, I could able to manage graphics (using nividia drivers) and isight (v4l2 drivers) and touchpad..(still tab is not working, I am clicking the touchpad to perform any action)... But for me, important is its number crunching capacity.... and eventual utilization of its maximum computing power. There is a separate blog on this later.

After all these, I decided to restore my Leopard back to its partition. I installed the Leopard, updated to the latest update (10.5.8, Safari, iTunes.....).
I got trouble, when I tried to install garageband, iWeb. iPhoto.... from Applications install DVD. Miserably, it failed when it tried to install garageband loops and prompted me with the following error message and suggestion.

I would really appreciate anyone could help me out with this. Would Apple, replace my Applications install DVD.
Upon visual examination, I could see some circular scratches in the DVD. I am sure, I was keeping the disc safe, and I had no such scratches before I insert it into the DVD drive. I believe, this should have been caused by the DVD drive only and not by any external means. I am waiting to see the Apple's reply!! Keeping my fingers crossed.

Terminal Shortcuts in Mac OS X

2009-08-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

In UNIX,

"Where there is a terminal, there is a way!"

Here goes some, shortcuts (keyboard) for working with terminal.app.

Command+N - New terminal

Command+T - New Tab in the present active terminal

Command+Left Arrow/Right Arrow - Switching between different terminal windows,

Command+Shift+Left/Right Arrow - Switch between tabs in a terminal window

Ctl+A - Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line

Ctl+E - Moves the cursor to the end of the line

Ctl+U - Erase the line before the cursor point

Ctl+R - Search the list of commands incrementally based

on what you type

Esc+F - Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word

Esc+B - Move the cursor to the beginning of the current

word

Esc+D - Erase the following word from the present cursor

point

Customizing Terminal command prompt

2009-08-01T05:01:00.000-07:00

The power of UNIX operating systems, is it's terminal or in other words, command line interfaces.

These interfaces, operates as interpreters, that interprets the human readable text inputs in to a language the, underlying kernel (OS) can understand and perform the task, what it has been asked to do by the user through the kernel.

UNIX and Linux has always been criticised as not being user friendly, because they lacks, eye candy GUI (Graphical User Interface). But, the real power of UNIX is its command line interfaces (CLI).

Shell is what, the CLI. There are many shells available and each has its own pro's and con's and own community of users. What is going to be discussed here is, bash shell.

Bash - the default shell in UNIX-7. Since, then it is the default shell in many Unix and Linux variants.

Shells can broadly be classified into, two big families,

Bash shell family.
C shell family.

The default shell in Macintosh 10.5 is bash, though Macintosh ships with ksh, tcsh, zsh...

A shell can be said to be either interactive or non-interactive. Interactive shell is the one, which needs input from the user. Once, it completes the task, it waits for the next user input.

Open the terminal in your system and type the following in your terminal command prompt,

> whoami

> date

Once "whoami", it will spit out your username in that particular system. It will prompt you the command prompt, as shown in the following,

Until the next command, shell will be idle. Upon typing the next command, will show the date and time.

This is interactive shell, where it needs input form the user. This is what most unix users interacts with most of the times.

Non-interactive shell, doesn't wait for the user input, every time it carries out an action. All the startup scripts in Linux OS and UNIX systems are run in non-interactive shells. Although, interaction is possible.

create a file with .sh extension and type in the two commands and change it a executable in any UNIX machine. Run the file, it will spit out both the outputs, that we got after typing each individual commands.

Prompt is the one which, announces the completion of the previous task or command and prompts the user for the command.

Before a shell starts, it reads in its configuration files to assimilate its defined behaviour. The order of precedence of the files in Macintosh is as follows,

/etc/.bashrc, /etc/.profile /private/.bashrc, /private/profile, ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile

So whatever, is defined in the ~/.bash_profile will override its previous settings.

Prompt in the shell can be customized to our convenience. Here is an example,

russell@[83%] - is my prompt. It tells, the username using which I logged in to this computer. The value followed by username is the current battery level, in my laptop. It is another script!!

username appears in blue in colour where as "@" symbol appears in white and the following battery level in green. Infact battery level colour will change as it lowers down certain value.

My .bashrc file for this part is as follows,

# - - # - - # - - #

#Sourcing global definitions

if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then

. /etc/bashrc

#Command prompt colour and appearence

function prompt

{

local WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"

local GREEN="\[\033[0;32m\]"

local CYAN="\[\033[0;36m\]"

local GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]"

local BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"

local BLACK="\[\033[0;30m\]"

local BLACKR="\[\033[1;30m\]"

local MAGENTA="\[\033[0;35m\]"

local RED="\[\033[0;31m\]"

local BLACKBG="\[\033[1;40m\]"

export PS1="${BLUE}\u${GRAY}@\$(bat) ${MAGENTA}\W:${WHITE}"

}

prompt

# - - # - - # - - #

export PS1 - the one responsible for my prompt behaviour and colour, which is a UNIX shell environment variable.

I have defined colours under the function prompt, and used them for PS1 variable.

One can use their own colours and wishes. In this example, the user and the working directory are prompted. But, one can chose from a wide variety of options available in any UNIX system.

List of Prompt variables,

the date in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26″)

\D{format}

the format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required

an ASCII escape character (033)

the hostname up to the first ‘.’

the hostname

the number of jobs currently managed by the shell

the basename of the shell’s terminal device name

newline

carriage return

the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)

the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format

the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format

the current time in 12-hour am/pm format

the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format

the username of the current user

the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)

the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)

the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde

the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde

the history number of this command

the command number of this command

if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $

\nnn

the character corresponding to the octal number nnn

a backslash

begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt

end a sequence of non-printing characters

Colour code and escape sequence list:

\e[SS;RRm]

SS = foreground colour

RR=background colour, but it is really text styling

Colour Table


Intensity	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	9
Normal	Black	Red	Green	Yellow	Blue	Magenta	Cyan	White	reset
Bright	Black	Red	Green	Yellow	Blue	Magenta	Cyan	White

SGR(Select Graphic Rendition) parameters

Code	Effect	Note
0	Reset / Normal	all attributes off
1	Intensity: Bold
2	Intensity: Faint	not widely supported
3	Italic: on	not widely supported. Sometimes treated as inverse.
4	Underline: Single
5	Blink: Slow	less than 150 per minute
6	Blink: Rapid	MS-DOS ANSI.SYS; 150 per minute or more
7	Image: Negative	inverse or reverse; swap foreground and background
8	Conceal	not widely supported
21	Underline: Double	not widely supported
22	Intensity: Normal	not bold and not faint
24	Underline: None
25	Blink: off
27	Image: Positive
28	Reveal	conceal off
30–39	Set foreground color, normal intensity	3x, where x is from the color table above
40–49	Set background color, normal intensity	4x, where x is from the color table above
90–99	Set foreground color, high intensity	aixterm
100–109	set background color, high intensity	aixterm

After these settings in .bashrc, .bash_profile should look something like this,

# - - # - - # - - # - - #

#Get the aliases and functions from the bashrc file

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then

. ~/.bashrc

#Listing directories and files in clours based on their properties

export CLICOLOR=1

export LSCOLORS=exfxcxdxbxexedabagacad

# - - # - - # - - # - - #

The colours exported here are for differentiating filetypes based on their characteristcs.

With this, anyone can customize their own prompt and terminal behvaiour in Macintosh-10.5

Leave a comment (of your mailid), if you want my .bashrc.

Setting up Environmental Variable in Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7

2009-07-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

After a a month (to be honest, more than a month) of wandering, found a way to set the environmental variable in Mac OS X. It was not as straight forward as in Linux , (In Linux it is pretty much easier!!) rather needs some small tricks.

Here it goes,

The first and the easiest way is to set in .bash_profile or .bashrc, but in both the cases, the program might not see the environment variable (in my case this what happened). So go to the next alternative.

create, (if nothing exists already) ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

> mkdir .MacOSX

> cd .MacOSX

> touch environment.plist

> open environment.plist

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you have followed everything correctly, the following window will open

Click on the root to select and add an item and then enter your variable name as shown below.

The type should be string, since path is the string data type.

Enter your variable value as shown.

Save it.And that is all, your all done to make your environmental variable available for you to use.

But, this has a shortcoming, namely, if you would like to open terminal using spotlight, this environmental variable will not be in effect, means it will not be read when terminal starts (Have to really figure out how spotlight opens an application and where it looks for environmental variable settings).

If you are really a geeky and would like to explore anything to its core, you might be interesting with the following.

While just exploring OS X s process management, have figured out launchd has the process id of 1 (and it is run as root and not in usermode, I decided it should be the first process that starts, while Mac boots up). After, some searching, I confirmed my hypothesis is true at the following site,

http://www.digitaledgesw.com

As it was mentioned, I created a launchd.conf file and made my entry as below,

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

> cd /etc

> vi launchd.conf

setenv VARIABLE "value" (don't use double quotes while you define your string value)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Voila......after a restart, it works like a charm!! Now even if I open terminal using spotlight, my environmental variable is read and in effect......!!

Belief, Trust and Friendship

2009-05-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hard social feelings to write about!

First of all what is Belief?!

It is a state of mind. (Discussion about mind will be endless and I am not capable enough to discuss, even.) State of mind that expects something or someone(most of the times someone) will act as you predicted. We, in our life, predict anything based on our previous experiences about any particular thing. So, belief is nothing but predictions, based on our past experiences. This applies to common man (Common man, I mean: Human with commonly accepted aptitudes and attitudes), at least.

What is Trust?

So far, what I know is, trust and belief are synonyms. But, now I feel, there should be a subtle difference that makes a huge difference in meaning and in contexts they should be used. Belief, should be something confined to any particular instance, issue or atribute and trust is for something big and rise over a long period. May be, belief is the building block of trust.

Now the hardest feeling for understanding! "FRIENDSHIP".

In handful of occasions, I happened to think about friendship. And at every time, it really refined my definition of friendship. I used to think, how one, who is no way related to you by blood means, could be so close and make you share things that you don't even share with your wife.! What makes friendship, such a relationship? Is it trust, belief or something else?

????? Answer form me is, I DON'T KNOW.

But, one thing, it is all a function of time apart from various other variables! Belief transform in to trust over a period of time. Likewise friendship strengthens as time goes on. As you get the result, what you have predicted, for a long period of time, makes you to feel some sort of understanding. (Too late for me to understand this!!)

Last week, during early hours of morning, some thought appeared in my mind, It is not a dream, since I did have control over it, I was able to change and think and control my thoughts, so it is not a dream and I remembered the whole thing. Here it goes,

The world is a Quantum mechanical system. Everything is a measure of probability and nothing is so called certain. You believe what you have experienced so far. Every time you receive a output of an experiment or an incident, it would be added to your readings.....When you have to make decision, analogous to predict the outcome of an quantum experiment, you go through all those data sets (incidents, situations in which those happened and eventually outcomes) and try to pick the one with highest probability...So far, I think I am k. In order to make conclusions about a quantum system, quantum physicists, repeats the same experiment and make a probability distribution function to predict the system behaviour. Thus achieving, their predictions to be correct most of the times (probability of making correct decisions, about a system, to 1, requires lots of repetitions of any particular experiment). The same applies to our life as well. We examines each and every situation and incidents going on in our life and use them as data sets, using which we extrapolate to new situations and environments.

Here, I have a question, What if, you have only bitter experiences ( analogous to incorrect experiments: which are results of our own mistakes in setting up the system )? Wouldn't it impact the way of your extrapolation or prediction?! Yes, it should do!

Concluding, Friendship develops over a period of time and not in an instance. But, of course, there are exceptions!

Wget in Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6

2009-04-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a MacBookPro. I always had fascination for Mac and It was one of my dream as well. I am fond of computers.... No surprise, I guess, since my brother is a software professional and I am a lazy guy.

I did ground work for about 6 months before I ordered a MacBookPro. Previously I was linux user and was using Kubuntu, Ubuntu, CentOS and Debian....(beleive me, I use all these in my IBM ThinkPad R51, sometimes I use MINIX 3 as well). It was not so convincing for me, after few days of initial interaction with my new MBP, about my decision....:(. After some days, I started exploring it in full swing. I tried instlaling Debian Lenny in it as dual boot and wiping the whole Leopard out. Things went fine, but I wanted to use Xcode, which I thought is one of the good API.

The first and the foremost thing about Mac is, you would loose your freedom (especially if you move from linux). Mac will offer you something and you have to make yourself used to it and change yourself in such a way that what Mac offers is doing fine for you. Sorry to Jobs!!

Enough!!!

Leopard doesn't come with wget builtin. I installed wget in my MBP running Leopard 10.5.6 from it's source. You can get the pre-compiled binaries from here http://www.statusq.org/archives/2008/07/30/1954.

> Download wget source from the following link, http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/wget(latest at the time of my installation is 1.11.4)

I would suggest one to move the downloaded package to /usr/local/. Moving the package would require you to have sudo privilage...

> sudo mv

once you move it to your desired directory, untar it.

> Untar and unzip

sudo tar -xvf

> cd

>sudo ./configure

You need to have Xcode tools installed in your system for configuration and installation. You can get a list of arguments for ./configure by typing "-help" as the argument for ./configure.

>sudo make

>sudo make install

Ypu can achieve the whole installation in just a single line complex command,

> sudo ./configure && make && make install

Enjoy wget!!!!!

In principle, configuration making and make install should go without any major problem.

Write me, if you encounter any error.

If you need binaries(hopefuly, you won't be as lazy as me!!), leave me your mail id!