The trick that is working great for me particularly is mentioned here. I have a SonyErricson K790i with J2ME. So I installed mgmaps on it. Then came creating an offline cache so that it does not need to download each and every time as I move my GPS along the undocumented roads. To create cache I select zoom 0-17, use Openstreetmap (Maplink) renderer. After cache map is created using the creator tool, I download all the OSM tiles using the gMapMaker which can read and create full offline cache directory structure for mGMaps. Thats the homew0rk part of it.

Now as I go along GPS Tracing using my Holux m241, I keep checking ways on the already OSM tile on mgmaps. As long as I can’t find a way on screen, I going the right way!.  The target is to hunt unmapped way therefore have the marked ways with you and do the turns which are missing.

Later in the evening, I load the GPX file itself and then download the OSM data for that zoom level. Now I have partly marked ways partly just GPX lines. Which I convert to real ways and name them as much I can. The other problem of Gurgaon, HY, India is that we have not named our streets, therefore most often, the names are either guess work of just human readable rather than in sync with the policatal/official data.

The modes of transportis either a bycycle(almost like this model) or my classic Kinetic Honda (which is no longer manufactured) and m241 set of 1sec log autolog mode.

The hot news of the yesterday, December 19, 2007. The first Trident to ever pass a Acid2 test. Those headline came on the blog and everyone was surpised with the big bang. The blog being written so neatly, it got me all impressed. Finally, there comes the Sun. Then I started digging deep (i know, when its the question of the m$, we even have to doubt the sun). In the process I reached the layout engines wiki. So now I know, Trident is the code name of Microsoft Internet Explorer layout engine. Found Acid2 wiki and kept reading. STOP! As of December 19, 2007, the ACID2 test is broken and does not pass in any previously compliant browser. [2]The bug listing shows something we missed out! Today Acid2 is failing Safari, Opera and even Firefox3. Then how the hell did the internal binary of Internet Explorer 8 get around this? That is the way the day ends guys! There is something terribly wrong with Sun today. No doubt that it might as well be 2009 (i hope) before we see IE8 come in the stores but by that time, CSS3 would be everybody. Now we even got the HTML5 and XHTML2 fighting. For my purposes, the zen is a good enough test of all times.

January 14: The Acid2 test page has been seen working. This comment was made on windz Safari which has shown the face just as it should be. Firefox3 beta that I have also rendered it perfectly. Firefox2 has the usual problem in the picture. So we can most confidently bet that Internet Explorer 8 beta holders can’t be smiling.

January 24: Slashdot reports that IE8 could have more problems with not just Acid2 but even more with the in-progress Acid3. I keep hearing the OOXML blunder often and how we all are trying to find ways off the salvery And then we realize that IE8 will have a even new schema for proper rendering. Developers have died trying to get their pages look fine and the there is still a road left to walk upon.

Really! Thats what I just noticed. The test machine #1 is my XP has no firewall, is a 1Gpbs intel ethernet card on a 100mbps network. The test machine #2 is a ubuntu 7.04 workstation again on the same network as me with its own static IPv4 address. The great server is also ubuntu 7.04 with mysql 5.x. Now the case noticed was that telnetting from my xp (#1) to server at port 3306 took least 6 seconds for the handshake response from the mysql server. Telnetting from the ubuntu (#2) to the server at the same port actually responded the moment I pressed the return key. Ethereal’ed the whole transaction to find what strange in #1 TCP packet and the #2 TCP packet. Did not notice anything great. Googling on this also did not result any problem of this sort. But the results are true. Ubuntu connection to 3306 is taking under 5ms compared to XP which is taking least 6000ms. There are no slow down process running except maybe TeaTimer.So makes me wonder. Im sure no guru in TCP so i can’t dig more on this.

The reason why we had to conduct this test in my office is cause of a typical development floor setup. There is just one Mysql on the network and clients use their localhost apache’s to connect to this remote server. Server ping takes around 0.3ms with no loss. The guy on XP was killing himself due to the delay it took for his localhost to render php database pages. The other guy on ubuntu was on mercedes. His apache ran like he owned everything on his machine itself. So there it is. Since google did not report any similar case with anybody else, I await if someone can share this case. Cya!

This was my first half marathon attempt. I wanted to join the 2005 as well as 2006 editions but somehow lost for laziness. Then it was branded as Hutch Delhi Half Marathon. This time with loads of money to buy Hutch, Vodafone got the title spot. Had registered via the indiatimes website. Trust me, I completely thought either they would mess my details, or incorrectly charge my card and later forget and refuse about it. Again due to my great laziness, I joined the 30000 people on the last day of the registration (about 2 months before the date). Charged my card with about ~Rs.200 for my as well as for my brother vivek. So I must say, I was wrong about indiatimes at least on this count. They did manage the electronic registrations nicely. They actually managed the hosting web page too in neat way.

Before three 3 weeks I got the two envelopes for me and for bro with more details about the event. Still no race track information within it. The track was not even on any online web page at that time. I guess the finalizations take its own time. The details in the envelope stated that we need to collect our running Bib from Ansal plaza, New Delhi within the span of 4 days before the race day. And this was a strict remark. So we go there on 26^th October. We get a small kit with few items with big bold logos on them as well as the last notes with the race track (finally!!!). I kept starring at the track and wondering, they expect me to run half past delhi and back and at too under three hours!!??. Are they crazy? Or am I? My running number was 6110 and bro was on 6112. Since me and bro sure were to complete the race and also needed the race timings, we also rented 2 timing chips as Rs.1000 each. This amount was to be refunded on the race day itself. The chip from sport-timing was tagged for me and was supposed to be worn at the ankle all the time during the race. Bro did not think its a RFID due to the manner the data was been read from it. A simple copper wire could detect some signals been emitted from this device. So I suppose, the signals would keep getting sent for as long as the battery would allow. Anyway, our visit to the Half-Marathon Expo was now complete. Took near 2 hours but everything was organized fine keeping in mind the incoming traffic of 30K in 4 days.

Ah, the race day morning started at 4am. It is October 28, 2007. We had seen a late night show of Shoot-Em-Up and reached home at 2am in the morning on the race day itself. (God bless Clive Oven). So we reach the reserved parking slot at the Nehru Stadium. A shuttle bus service would drop us to the start point. At 6.40am, only 7 cars were parked. An array of about 6 busses were waiting to leave on after another. The first bus had left and we sat on the second. After ~15 minutes reached the spot which was 5 minutes walk to the arrival area. We realize that the Veteran race had already started at 7am. The chip holders like us and another thousand would get the first race entry therefore had a separate holding area. At 7.45am the half marathon race had started. The crowd like this I had not imagined. A total of 7000 runners were for the 21.097km distance. We both were just casual joggers therefore, we knew our stamina would empty at near ~6km or 40 minutes. It was a heavy congested crowd for the first killo metre and the we found the first water spot. As per the details, there would be plain water every killometre and a energy drink every 4. There was markers for every killometre along the way. Me and bro continued together past 5 killometres non-stop when he took the first halt. I departed with engines running. My first halt came at 9km for about 2 minutes. It was 50 minutes to race then. Sooner I heard cheers and found Disi Diudone, Rwanda and Macharia Isaac, Kenea coming back! Wow! I ran another 2 killometres and no fuel left anymore. Found the first Glucon D station and felt really great! My pit stops beyond 11 mark were quite frequent. Found another group, Indians this time coming back. Reached the India Gate and back again while walking. Half mark was crossed at 1h.10m i guess. Did about half run and walk cycles till it was 19 km mark. Had done lots of calculations to guess that I sure could rest and still finish the run within the time. Surprisingly found the 500metre board. Without fuel, charged the engines up again and ran. Ran and ran and counted every 100 metre board I found along the way till the finish list time recorded me at 2h.39m. Bro crossed the line just 7 minutes behind at 2h.46m and found me in the queue.

The queue was the nightmare. The queue was for taking the chip refund, the certificate, the medal and the timing certificate. That queue was in open at at 11am under the sun. It was for everyone who completed the race and was among the “privilaged” group of chip holders. Us privilaged ones were made to stand under the sun for 2 hours at the same spot. All the joy of achievement had gone away. The mega branding of Vodafone was never seen anywhere around. A typical goverment office of India with chaos and nothing else. It was already declared that the refund would only be given on the race day before 2pm. The details also suggested snaks would be given after finish. Those snaks had a seperate queue which we privileged can’t take at this moment. News of printers going bad, server down and what not kept floating all the time. The queue also had people from bombay marathon suggesting the very same chaos was noticed even there. The dumb staff with bold logos did not know anything about the correct process. No even a clue about managing the thousand finishers who are made to stand for 2 whole hours. There are no cameras here. Nobody is waving brands here or queuing for a NGO. We runners were only important in the track. Now left in unattended, we did not even have the guts to start a debate. Had this been to the knowledge of the runners, I can bet less than half would not even come to the race. We are Indians, so we always know there is a queue for everything. But we just thought the title brand may have some sense to manage such large scale events. Alas. Corporates and corporates. We are just bloody consumers. Go find your own way. We did not get the certificate and did not join the next queue for the snaks. Never knew how it felt when the legs shut down. The shuttle bus was nowhere to take us back though it was printed. After half hour paid Rs.100 to drop us from Nehru Park to Nehru stadium and another hour for home sweet home. Bro was fine the second day, while my legs were normal only on the fourth morning. It was all the fun but the finish line. I will be there next year too though along with wife. And this time would target under 90 minutes. Need far better practice but worth it. Cheers!

(there were many many brands all though the track giving water and to napkins. most of those brands have been intensionally removed, except the title)

わたし　は　ビカス　ヤダワ　ぢす。 わたし　は　に　じゅ　なな　せい　ぢす。 インドジン　ぢす。 わたし は　がくせ　ぢす。

Just so you know, I’m on the japanese language course these days. Doing it from Whittle foreign language, Gurgaon. This institute is teaching lots of languages including Chinese and all those European languages. Hiragana and katakana are bring practised these days. I ought to appear for the Level 4 examination by the Japanese Embassy this December. 2008 will be spend to study the level 3 curriculum to attempt the Level 3 exam. Real hardwork and 2 hours of practise everyday. Phew!

It is required that you first learn the characters of hiragana and katakana.

It must have been a Winamp 1.x or something and pre-2000. The option to export playlist into HTML file has been old enough. It was little easy to share the list or publish it online. What I noticed one day was a image in the generated page. This image was not anti-alias therefore, felt something was wrong somewhere.

The image above is a screen shot of what is seen on the html page of generated playlist. Then, I even say a cursor as when moved over this image. Finally I began to click and select. To my biggest wonder, I could actually select the word Winamp just like a text and even the word playlist. Then how the hell did this white text write itself over the word Winamp? That I never has seen in any site!? I don’t even know any html tag lets you do such rendering geometry. This is all so confusing!

I ran down the source and found specific tags which had dimensions written. I played around with it for a while to realize how you use the margin attributes of the stylesheet! YIPEEEE!!… Its’s fun! I would eventually dig it to the source, W3C CSS Level 2 Specification. I read all of it and learned as I used it. Its so vast that I still have no become expert in using stylsesheets like peanuts.

The title is not self explanatory. The question that I was asked was how to go to Faridabad via The Bristol hotel. Now, for the speed part, I was at 60km/ph while answering the question. (60kmph come around 40 miles per hour). Just so you know, the one who asked was at the same speed but on his bike. Never before have I had such good comfort levels at such high speeds. The place where I was asked is what counts. It was the super duper highway between the capital, New Delhi and Gurgaon. Google maps has old pics where its still in construction. Its the 8 lane highway where you ought to fly on the ground! The second the older highway I recall is the Mumbai Pune Expressway. It’s by far was more challenging to be constructed. Thought the pune xpressway is not a tarmac road but concrete, it can handle high speeds. It is only meant for 4 wheelers. That highway is also a Toll road for the entire distance. The Gurgaon highway that has opened is tarmac road and as of now allows two wheel drivers too (not bicycles but bikes and scooters).

Hey, anybody knows that music which plays in the ad of Pond’s Age Miracle? Its certainly a complete track. Its very hard to get the words out cause it played dimly and also cause the hub and wife are talking on foreground while serving dinner. I don’t expect they actually buiy rights for the music. The same went with the TATA Safari Dicor music. No doubt it was too good. After a few months I hunted it down from a page where they were al discussing about it. Tata had modifed it for the ad but had kept the original rhythm. There are a few more like the Shake you bon-bon - Ricky Martin used in Toyota Corolla’s ad and the official Getz release ad track and so on.

Blogged with Flock

Here is another account of a very irritating experiance I had with the c# language. A guy from C really has to struggle with stupid non-geek compile errors. check this code. This was very correctly written for C. All i wanted to do was save my object code with duplicate code.

…

if (Request.QueryString[”CID”] != null)
CategoryID = Int32.Parse(Request.QueryString[”CID”].ToString());
else if(artwork_id>0)
{
CategoryID = Artwork.GetArtworkCategoryID(artwork_id);
    goto tr;
}
else
{
CategoryID = Artwork.GetCategoryID(ArtistID);
tr:
Server.Transfer(”work.aspx?AID=” + Request.QueryString[”AID”] +
“&CID=” +CategoryID + (debug?”&debug=true”:”"));
}

…

all that compiler said was  error CS0159: No such label ‘tr’ within the scope of the goto statement. I do understand that jumping to other code is to be done carefully.  you might skip some variable initialization or derive into some invalid stack. Having siad that, an average coder would know all that. Therefore, jumping to any code using goto should be very much allowed by default.

green.tv » Video

This was among the first podcasts that I subscribed from my iTunes. Has very good quality and neatly made short films. As the name would suggest, this cast is about climate changes and preservation of nature and it’s inhabitants. Made in european context but very much valid everywhere. Hey, i ride my bycycle to office since January this year. Besides also happen to be reading State of Fear these days.