rahul's blog

Update Sep 14, 2010 - Yipee !!! My packages python-twisted-calendarserver and calendarserver have been accepted into squeeze after some persuasion from Guido and myself to the release team ;). And this is my QA page.

For more than a decade, I have been associated with free and open source software. I think I got introduced to it in my first year of engineering college. There has been no looking back since then.

What is Tension?

A beautiful girl asks lift from you. On the way she faints and you take her to hospital.

Doctor says ‘Congrats. You are going to become a father.’

THAT’S IT. YOU GET TENSED.

You say – ‘But that baby is not mine.’

Girl says – ‘he is only the father of my baby.’

YOU HAVE MORE TENSION.

Police comes and DNA test is done. Report comes. Which says that you can never become a father?

EVEN MORE TENSION FOR YOU.

Anyhow you thank God and return home. Then you think, “At home I have 2 kids. Whose are those?”

ZK spreadsheet is an online spreadsheet which enables users to import and export excel files and edit excel files within the browser. This can be thought to be similar to Google Spreadsheet. Only that it is open source and can be installed on your own server. Another very similar open source product which I came across was Sheetster but the setup was not very straight forward and also I was not really impressed with the UI and functionality.

All-In-One Tools

Hardware Lister:

Hardware Lister can be used for getting all the hardware information of a system. Some example usage are given below:

After spending almost a day in trying to configuring my dd-wrt router as an OpenVPN client and reading many complicated guides, I found a really simple way to configure OpenVPN. It is necessary that you have optware set up on your router. For setting up Optware, kindly read Optware, The Right Way.

NOTE: The procedure for applying for a passport has changed considerably since writing this article. I encourage you to visit http://passportindia.gov.in to know the exact procedure.

UPDATE: Nightangle is now available for download. Ubuntu PPA repo is available as well . See http://getnightingale.com/all-versions.php.
UPDATE: Songbird linux builds are available through contributed builds - http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Developer/Articles/Builds/Contributed_Builds

There is one feature I often missed in linux console - deleting to Trash. I often do a 'rm -rf' and then suddenly realize that I have accidentally deleted something which I shouldn't have. From now on, I needn't worry because I have started using trash-cli, a command line interface to the freedesktop.org trashcan. This small utility provides commands to delete and restore files from the console.

I generally avoid hiring a maid and like to automate the daily chores to the maximum possible extent. The biggest investment in this direction was the washing machine. This was purchased with the marriage gift money given by my Aunt Suchitra (Mom's elder sister). After reading several reviews and comparing the different models of washing machines, we finally decided to go for Whirlpool ABM551 5.5 Kg front load fully automatic washing machine. Some of the things we considered before purchasing this are:

About two months back, Veena (my wife) and I moved to a new house. I've been thinking about blogging on this since then but just couldn't take the time out. Anyway, here is my experience so far on moving out of my parents' home.