Live Free. Live Happy.

Category: Journal

Consists of site updates and the various events happening in my life.

  • Synovel CollabSuite Gets Deployed at IIIT-H

    After a long wait, Synovel CollabSuite has finally been deployed at IIIT-H, my graduation school. Since I’ve graduated, I wanted to do something significant for IIIT-H and I got this opportunity through my current company, Synovel Software Technologies. This has been the largest deployment of CollabSuite to date, with about 3750 user base and more than 1000 active users. We did face a few issues in the beginning but they have all been resolved now. And now there is one more thing which has been pending from my side for IIIT-H – the alumni portal. I hope I’ll be able to take out time for this soon enough and complete it.

  • My First Smartphone – Motorola Fire XT530

    At last, I get my first smartphone – Motorola Fire XT530 which is based on Android. And this was a gift from a very close buddy of mine – Srikanth. He wanted to gift me something for my marriage, and I put it off till my second anniversary as I wanted his gift to be something very memorable. And this has proved to be a really wonderful gift.

    I was inclined to buying an Android based smartphone ever since I’ve heard about Android. I looked at a lot of budget (Rs.8000 – Rs.14000) Android phones such as Dell XCD35, Samsung Galaxy Ace, HTC Wildfire, HTC Wildfire S and LG Optimus One. There was some shortcoming in all the models such as low battery life, small screen size (<=3.2 inch) or bad camera. I almost decided to go for Samsung Galaxy Ace when I came across Motorola Fire XT530. The Motorola Fire XT530 had everything I needed - decent battery (1540mAh), 3.5 inch capacitative touchscreen, 5 MP camera with LED flash and Android OS v2.3.4. This model has been recently launched in September. I have been using this phone for more than a month now and I am just loving it. At times, the response is slow, but it is quite acceptable. The only real drawback I feel in this phone is its limited internal memory of 157 MB. This pretty much limits the number of applications that we can install in phone memory. While most of the applications can be moved to SD card, unfortunately some of them cannot. Using Link2SD, it is possible to use the external storage device for extending internal memory.

    Below are some of the Android apps which I have installed from the market on my mobile and find to be pretty useful. You may want to glance through them as some of them may be useful to you as well.

    • 3G Watchdog – 3G Watchdog data counter monitors your Mobile Internet (4G/3G/Edge/GPRS) data usage
    • Adobe Reader – PDF Reader
    • Advanced Task Killer – ATK is often used to kill app and clean memory
    • Android Agenda Widget – Extremely customizable calendar widget of various sizes. It can also integrate with Astrid. Especially useful because of a bug in older android calendar versions in which all day events are not shown on that particular day in the upcoming events widget.
    • Alarm Clock Xtreme Free – Advanced features such as limit on the number of times you can snooze the alarm and solving math problems to dismiss the alarm ensure that you get up from bed no matter what
    • AndFTP – AndFTP is a FTP, FTPS, SCP, SFTP client which provides download, upload, synchronization and share features with resume support
    • Android India – Find Android apps for India in one great looking and powerful app
    • Android Terminal Emulator – Access your Android’s built-in Linux command line shell
    • AVG Antivirus – Antivirus for scanning download applications
    • App 2 SD Free – An extremely useful app which shows a list of applications that can be moved from phone memory to SD card so that phone memory can be freed
    • Astrid Tasks – Another awesome app for managing tasks and setting automated reminders. The Tasks widget further is very useful for displaying an overview of the pending tasks.
    • BookMyShow – App for booking movie tickets
    • Caldav-Sync – App for adding a remote caldav calendar which integrates with the native calendar
    • Cardav-Sync beta – CardDAV-Sync is a CardDAV client for Android to synchronize contacts
    • Clean Master – Clean Master is an all-in-one cleaner app on android for cleaning app cache , unused files, residual files, search history and uninstalling apps
    • ColorNote – Color Note is a simple notepad app. It gives you a quick and simple notepad editing experience when you write notes, memo, email, message, shopping list and to do list.
    • Comic Reader – You can read ~400 of the most famous comics including Dilbert, Xkcd, Abstruse Goose, Geek and Poke, Calvin and Hobbes, PhD Comics, Pickles, Garfield, Spiked Math and many more!
    • Comics – The largest digital comic library with over 20,000 comics available including over 600 for free. Publishers include Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image, IDW, Archie & many more!
    • ConnectBot – SSH client
    • Contact Editor Pro – Useful for editing entries added via Carddav
    • Contact Owner – Display your contact information when the device is locked, allowing the finder to contact you
    • Contacts+ – Contacts+ is your everyday contacts & dialer app, powered with text messaging, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and much more – all in one place.
    • ConvertPad – Unit Converter – ConvertPad Plus is a powerful and fully featured Unit converter, Currency converter and Calculator
    • Dictionary – Dictionary.com dictionary
    • DiskInfo – DiskInfo lists all partitions and all mount points on you device showing disk usage and very detailed partition information.
    • Documents To Go – View native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files & attachments with Documents To Go Main App
    • Dolphin Browser HD – High-featured browser
    • ES File Explorer File Manager – ES File Explorer is a free, full-featured file and application manager.
    • Easy Battery Saver – Easy Battery Saver is a powerful yet easy to use power manager app specifically designed to extend battery life and optimize using habit.
    • Firefox Browser for Android – Firefox for Android is the free mobile web browser that puts the power of the open web in your hands.
    • Folder Organizer – Group items according to labels and create fully customizable folders and widgets
    • FolderSync – FolderSync is a application that enables simple sync to cloud based storage to and from local folders on the device memory card
    • Fackebook – Fackebook Android Client
    • Google Authenticator – Google Authenticator generates 2-step verification codes on your phone.
    • HDFC Bank MobileBanking – HDFC Bank MobileBanking gives you access to your account on your Android phone
    • ICICI Mobile Banking – iMobile – iMobile is ICICI Bank’s official mobile banking application
    • ICICI Bank i-safe – “i-Safe” mobile application allows you to generate OTP/URN on your mobile device instantly rather than receiving it through SMS
    • IMDb Movies & TV – IMDb mobile
    • K-9 Mail – Excellent IMAP client
    • KeePass2Android – Keepass2Android is an open source password manager application for Android. It reads and writes .kdbx-files, the database format used by the popular KeePass 2.x Password Safe
    • Kingsoft Office – Kingsoft Office is the only mobile Office with full-features FREE. Support for running on Android 2.1 and above system.
    • LinkedIn – LinkedIn Android Client
    • Magzter – Magzter caters to a global audience with a wide range of magazines, from entertainment to news.
    • MobileVOIP Cheap Calls – The MobileVOIP dialer lets you make cheap calls to national or international destinations.
    • MX Player – The best way to enjoy your movies.
    • my airtel – Introducing the my airtel app – your world of airtel on the go. Download the my airtel app to manage your airtel mobile, broadband & digital tv connections at work ,home or anywhere in between!
    • nexGTv Mobile TV – Mobile TV application with best of the Indian channels, Replay TV & Video on demand content.
    • Notification Toggle – Notification Toggle creates notifications in the Android status bar to let you quickly switch WiFi, Bluetooth, Silent mode, Screen rotation and Flight mode on and off or to adjust the screen brigthness (and many more…)
    • OpenDocument Reader – OpenDocument Reader, formerly known as OpenOffice Document Reader, allows you to read your ODF documents wherever you are.
    • OpenVPN Connect – OpenVPN Connect is the official full-featured Android VPN client
    • Opera Mini – Unlike ordinary web browsers, Opera Mini fetches all content through a proxy server that compresses and reformats web pages into a format more suitable for small screens.
    • Perfect World Clock – Perfect World Clock is the perfect tool for the frequent traveler or when working with people in different time zones.
    • Pulse – RSS/Feed reader
    • QuickPic – Advanced Image Viewer
    • Sipdroid – SIP client. Another popular SIP client is CSipSimple.
    • Skype – Skype client
    • SMS Scheduler – SMS Scheduler is a simple tool for automatic sms messages sending with chosen frequency.
    • Speedtest.net – Use Speedtest.net for easy, one-tap connection testing in under 30 seconds—accurate anywhere thanks to our global network.
    • SSHDroid – SSH Server
    • State Bank Freedom – Official State Bank Mobile Banking Application
    • TED – TED’s official Android app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people
    • Tiny Flashlight + LED – Flashlight app for your device! Incredibly simple and yet very useful flashlight application. Will use your device’s camera LED / flash / screen as a torch.
    • TV Guide India – TV Guide India brings you schedules of over 150 TV channels that are aired in India.
    • Voice Recorder – This application is a handy voice recorder.
    • Watchdog Task Manager – Stop killing your apps randomly. Start monitoring them with Watchdog.
    • WHAT’S-ON-INDIA : TV Guide App – India’s Official TV Guide App, covers 500+ Indian TV Channels!
    • Widgetsoid – Very useful widget to display upto 10 customized toggles / shortcuts. Another similar free app is Power Toggles.
    • Wiki Encyclopedia – Wiki Encyclopedia gives you access to Wikipedia online encyclopedia, formatted for your Android mobile phone. Wikipedia Offline functionality allows you to save articles to your phone for later reading.
    • Xabber – Jabber/XMPP client

    Rooted phones are likely to find these applications very useful.

    • Link2SD – The external SD card can be used for storing applications thereby freeing your internal memory. See the Useful Links section below to know how this is a much better option compared to “Move to SD Card” feature that is native to android.
    • Titanium Backup – The most popular backup solution for rooted phones
    • OpenVPN Settings (along with OpenVPN installer, BusyBox Free and Tun.ko installer) – Useful if you need to connect to an OpenVPN server

    Useful Links:

    • http://theexasperatedman.blogspot.in/2012/06/motorola-fire-xt-xt530-xt531-all-in-one.html
    • http://www.link2sd.info/faq (especially see difference between “Move To SD Card (Native to Android)” and “Create (Symbolic) Link”)
    • http://me-and-my-motorola-fire-xt.blogspot.in/2012/04/how-to-factory-reset-your-motorola-fire.html
    • http://adq.livejournal.com/90889.html

  • Long Time, No See!

    It has been almost 9 months since I’ve posted my last post. Now, that’s a very very very long time. The longest time I’ve inactive on my blog. But now, I’m back! And hopefully, will not repeat this :p. So, here is what has been keeping me busy of late.

    March and April – Development of new release of Synovel Collabsuite. With this version, we are making the product open-source, and a long time dream of mine has come true. There are a ton of new features, which you can find in the company website. Currently, only the licence has been changed, but eventually we plan to move the entire project to sourceforge/launchpad, and get the community involved.

    May – My close friend and brother-in-law Vamsidhar Thummala, gets married. He is pursuing his Ph.D at Duke University. It was a hectic month. The wedding was great. Though traditional, it was done in an unconventional manner. Unlike Indian marriages, where hundreds of people come to the wedding, Vamsi invited only fifty to seventy of them, and therefore was able to spend time with all of them. And on the same day evening, there was the reception, again a reasonably small crowd. Veena and I helped with the arrangements of the reception.

    June – Preparation for GRE. Surprise! Surprise! Yes, I’m considering pursuing my masters. It is kind of late for my age, but like the old proverb goes – “There isn’t any barrier to study”. After being in the corporate field for quite a while, I felt like taking a break, and going back to academics. Added to that, the prospects of studying abroad is in itself an enriching experience. So, here I was, preparing for the exam, and finally gave it on June 30th. I scored a decent 1370 (790 Q + 580 V) with 4.5 in AWA. That was slightly more than what I had anticipated.

    July – My parents are constructing a new house. Unfortunately because of my busy schedule, I wasn’t able to help them much with the construction. With me being done with my exam, I started to help them with the construction activity, especially the electrical layout of the house. Most of my time during this month was spent on this.

    August – Towards the end of the previous month, unfortunately, my father-in-law, T. Venkata Krishna Reddy, passed away. He had some pain in the stomach, and so was admitted in the hospital. Within a few hours, he suffered a heart attack, and passed away. We all mourn his loss, but that is indeed a blessed death. Vamsi came immediately from US for a few days to perform the last rituals.

    September and October – Back to the MS application process – TOEFL, LORs, SOP and submitting applications. Within the next couple of days, I should be done with the first phase of the masters application process. Now, all I have to do is sit and wait. I have applied to only the top universities as I did not see a point in pursuing masters in a mediocre university at this stage of my life, and therefore keeping my fingers crossed. I intend to write a detailed blog on GRE & the application process for MS in US once I am done with everything.

    With me now being relatively free, I should be able to dedicate more time to my blog readers :).

  • Health Chart 2010-2011

    July 2010 Plantar Wart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_wart
    Aug 2010 Lumbar Disc Herniation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_disc_herniation
    Sep 2010 Relapse of malaria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria
    Oct 2010 Piles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemorrhoid
    Nov 2010 Supernumary Teeth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperdontia . Guess what? I have 38 teeth currently !!!
    Dec 2010 Viral fever
    Jan 2011 Wisdom tooth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_tooth
    Feb 2011 ????? 🙂

  • No Fruits, No Sweets, No Worries!

    Ok. Here is a quick question – What do you offer to God if there are no fruits and no sweets at your home? Think … think … no idea? Here is what my sweet intelligent wife Veena had to offer:

    Veena Ferrero Rocher

    Oh yeah, those are chocolates and they are not just any chocolates but Italian Ferrero Rocher. Now why didn’t anyone think of this before? 😉

  • My Dad, The Hero Of The Day

    If the title of this post is making you wonder about the extraordinary act which my dad has performed today to make him a hero, then STOP! This is not about something which he did overnight. This is something which he has been doing consistently over the past three decades – a very simple act of charity but with dedication and sincerity.

    For almost three decades my dad has been visiting the Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity about once a week and he is still continuing it. A special prayer had been conducted today by them to pray for his health and longevity. The Brother who had performed the prayer was very surprised to know that my dad had been coming there for so long. And the sister-in-charge there was all praises for my dad. She told us that there were many people who’d do a one-time charity or work with them for sometime and move on. But very few would be associated with them for so long and so consistently.

    Like I always say, “There is no other profession like medicine”. And the reason for this is that you can touch your patients life in a very special way. And that is because nothing is more important than health. And a profession which helps us to keep good health is truly special. While doctors today are as interested in making money and are probably as corrupt as others, I still believe that medicine is the most noble profession. Had I not been an engineer, I would have for sure followed the footsteps of my father.

    And yeah. My dad is a good son. He is a good husband. And a good father. But above all I personally feel he is a GREAT DOCTOR!

  • Now A Debian Maintainer

    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.

    I have always wanted to contribute back something significant to the open source community. While I have already been contributing in small ways (articles, guides, patches, spreading knowledge about Linux), I believe my first major contribution has come today.

    For the past couple of years I have been working on debian packaging as part of the product I am working on currently. And I realized that one of the debian packages (calendarserver) and its dependency (twisted-calendarserver) which I was working on had not been updated for quite a while in the debian repository. I contacted the debian maintainer for theses packages, Guido Gunther, and he told me that he was no longer maintaining these packages and that he’d be happy if I took over the maintenance. Thus came about my first opportunity to contribute to open source in a significant and visible way.

    Following my initial contact with Guido, there were a lot of mails which were exchanged and a lot of suggestions/enhancements which Guido asked me to do. After all that, I finally handed over the packages to Guido, which he eventually uploaded to sid distribution. And today, 29 July 2010, my first debian package, twisted-calendarserver (version 8.2.0.svn27622) with myself as the maintainer has got uploaded to the Debian GNU/Linux sid repository. The main calendarserver (version 2.4.dfsg) package would soon be uploaded as well.

    This marks the beginning of my contribution to Debian GNU/Linux and free software in general. Though the next Debian stable release codenamed squeeze has been frozen, I am hoping that these packages will be accepted by the release team as there are significant improvements in the latest version of the calendarserver which I have worked on. I sincerely hope I have the time in the future to maintain many more packages in Debian :).

  • Washing Machine

    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:

    • Company – Not all brands are equally reputed. Some of them tend to be more popular than the others for washing machines. From what I had heard, Whirlpool, LG and Samsung are most reputed. Not that others brands are not good, but we chose to buy one from the regular brands.
    • Front Load or Top Load – Front Load washing machines generally use lesser water and electricity and are more gentle on clothes than top load washing machines. For further differences and some technical explanation, you can refer http://housewares.about.com/lw/Home-Garden/Home-improvement-renovation/Top-Loading-vs-Front-Loading-Washers-Which-is-Better-.htm and http://ezinearticles.com/?Front-Load-vs-Top-Load-Washer—Which-One-To-Choose&id=367499.
    • Capacity – Washing machine capacity generally vary from 5 Kg to 7 Kg. 1 Kg can be considered to be equal to a pair of clothes (i.e. shirt + trouser / shalwar + kameez) or a single jeans (this is because jeans tend to be heavier than the regular cotton trousers). So 5.5 Kg meant we could wash upto 6 pairs of clothes at a time. As we are only two, we felt a 5.5 Kg capacity washing machine would suit our purpose better. For families of size greater than four, a 7 Kg washing machines might be better suited though.
    • Half Load Cycle – Some of the washing machines also come with an option for half-load which means by setting it to half-load, you could wash half the number of clothes as its maximum capacity thereby using lesser water and energy. This might be a good option when you just have two or three paris of soiled clothes and you immediately need to use one among them.
    • Semi-automatic vs. fully automatic – Semi-automatic washing machines have a separate washer and dryer. Once the washing of clothes is over, clothes have to be manually transferred from the washer to the dryer compartment. Having a fully automatic washing machine avoids this process.
    • After sales support – One really important factor to consider which is often ignored is after sales support. A washing machine is a costly investment and good after sales support is a must for such a product.

    While top-load semi automatic washing machines will be cheaper than front-load fully automatic washing machines, I’d highly recommend the latter because of its use of lesser resources and lesser manual intervention. Also, keep in mind that if you raise the temperature for washing highly soiled clothes, there is a chance that some of the clothes might get discoloured.

    I hope this small guide will be useful when you consider buying a washing machine.

  • Moved To A New House

    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.

    Veena and I initially hired a broker to help us look for a house. We felt it would ease the process of finding a house. We did not like any of the houses the broker showed us. We continued looking for a house by ourselves and finally decided on a double-bedroom apartment. While we initially thought of going for a single bedroom apartment, we felt it would not be very convenient when Veena’s parents come over for a visit. Though the rent was slightly over our budget, we decided to go for it as it was a new house, very spacious and the ventilation was really good. The first couple of weeks after we moved in were slightly chaotic. It took us about a month to move all the luggage. During this one month, Veena’s parents also paid a visit.

    We follow more or less a regular schedule. Personally, I prefer not having a maid and automating the daily chores as far as possible. During the weekend we purchase the groceries for the entire week. We split the household chores between us – I cut the vegetables and Veena does the cooking, Veena does the sweeping and I do the mopping :). The refrigerator helps to keep the food fresh for 3-4 days because of which are able manage by generally cooking only twice weekly, with 3-4 curries each time. We purchased a Panasonic rice cooker which again is a boon for cooking rice daily. Another really useful purchase we have made is the Whirlpool ABM551 5.5 Kg front load fully automatic washing machine (I am going to write a complete article on this). Among the other not-so-common electrical appliances we are considering purchasing are Robocleanz (automatic Eureka Forbes Vacuum cleaner), Food Processor (which I believe will help me in chopping vegetables) and a Dishwasher. But I am looking for some feedback on these before I purchase them.

    Life was always hectic and it got all the more hectic after I’ve moved into the new home. But I think it is time I learn how to balance life :). I feel bad that I’ve not been blogging much of late. So to make up for that I decided that I’d write at least a few articles this weekend.

  • Maternal Grandmother Passes Away

    On April 12, 2010 at around 14:20, my maternal grandmother, Thirumala Devi, aged 75, succumbed to a heart attack. Her health had deteriorated considerably during her last few days and she had been bed-ridden for almost a month. May her soul rest in peace.