xmpp-im-client

Not really sure if how many would be interested , but I have started a project xmpp-im-client.
The focus behind this project is more educational and less on functionality/feature rich/rich UI.
It can ofcourse be taken and extended to suit your requirements.
Here is the post detailing more about it.
Even though the xmpp library in collab.netbeans.org would be one of the only opensource java api that is available online , very few people know about it ...
This hinders both contributions to it , developers using it and general awareness about it for users for extensions , feedback about it , etc.
Hopefully, the blog series about it will address this to some extent ! (not here , at my work blog :-) )

Timings

Of late , my timings have gone from weird to seriously wacky !
I 'wake up' at around 12:30 - 1:30 in the afternoon : actually this is highly variable - but one thing is for sure , chances of my answering my phone before this is highly doubtful ;-)
Start off with lunch and things go on 'normal'.
At around 2 or so at night , usually I stop working seriously and start dabbling in other projects , chat with friends , read up on blogs (now you know why my blog comments are at weird times :-D ) , play counterstrike/Civ4/etc.
At 5 - 6 am , I have my 'breakfast' and then sleep - yes , you read that right , I have my 'breakfast' and then sleep :-)

Now , the 'benefits' of this : I dont miss a meal and have pretty stable timings for past few weeks now I guess.
Drawbacks ? You could write a whole bloody PHd thesis on that , so will skip it for now !
Compared to sleeping at 2 - 3 , this seems to work out better :-)

Mother hen

Of the many friends that I have, only one of them fits the description of 'mother hen'.
The way we behave with/around her is reminiscent of the way chickens behave around hen ...
Just like the namesake , she takes exceedingly good care of us all - worrying , taking care , scolding us , pampering us and always being there when we need her !
Miss you ma hen , here's to wishing you a fast and safe journey back to India !

PS : You owe me about a truck load of Gajjar ka halwa already ;-)

State of "news channels" in India

In the recent issue of the Indian magazine "The Week" (april 23,2006) , there is an article by Antara Dev Sen under the column "I Witness" titled "Live, uncensored porn".
It is a scathing commentry about the current state of Indian media (TV) journalism . The specific incident she mentions is about some goof-up which happened in Indian Fashion week ... and the way media reacted in a downright vulgar and irresponsible manner (skin sells !) bordering on yellow journalism. Very interesting read.

It has been my opinion for sometime that , since the advent of the various 'news channels' , things have gone from bad to worse for TV journalism. There is a high degree of stress on sensationalism ... a emphasis on marketting every bit of news out there , to squeeze any possible viewership out of every nugget of info presented.
It is downright depressing and sometimes vulgar the way these guys run around trying to get the 'scoop' on things. They are so insensitive to the feeling of the people involved (they mouth the right words , and their actions are the opposite - the IISc incident from last year comes to mind) ...
The various 'reality shows' are crass violation of privacy, and the 'debates' are just some way for various groups to sling mud on each other.... the more mud they sling , the better !
I seriously hope good journalism comes back to being mainstay again - the kind which highlighted important issues : the ones which mattered to the country.

Miyamoto Musashi

I had come across a collection of three movies which are an adaptation of a book by Eiji Yoshikawa. I have never been exposed to his works , so did not really know what to expect.
The movies were titled Samurai 1 , 2 and 3 (with episode names) : very barebones you can say. Since I had a really long weekend , I hit upon the idea of watching one each day.

I dont know whom I should applaud - Hiroshi Inagaki for the direction , the actors for the brilliant performance , the screenplay adaptation , the cinematography ... : all were superlative imo - but one thing is for sure , Eiji Yoshikawa has written a masterpiece which allowed for such a powerful movie.
There are so many subtle touches in the acting , the nuances , the emotions ... ok , ok bottomline - I just loved it way too much , so should stop gushing like a teenager :-P
Not sure how faithful the movie is to the original work : but it sure is a powerful piece of cinema.
Very highly recommended ... the only drawback - I think I missed some of the subtitles.

The movies I saw : Miyamoto Musashi , Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijôji no kettô and Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima.

Social commentary

I have been following Scott Adam's blog for quite sometime now ... nearly since he started writing it. What I found really interesting was the way he ridicules or comments on existing social practises , norms and dogmas which sparks off lively debates ... and he does this in his own inimitable style - really fun to read and makes you laugh out , even when he is making fun of what you believe in :-)
His style is essentially confrontational - so that there is maximum debate I guess :-) but the points he raises are sometimes extraordinary (atleast to me) ... usually , he tends to bring about both poles of the argument and rubbishes both ;-)
As the DNRC newsletter says , his blog is a "bitter ray of sunshine" in my life atleast !

Open ESB

Ron Ten-Hove is back to posting aggressively : and they are a treat to read !
I know next to nothing about EAI and reading his posts are great fun and allows me to correlate and better understand a lot of things Matt used to discuss about.

By the way , openesb is opensourced - give it a whirl : this means , you get a fully functionally ESB with source to play around with !

I downloaded glassfish and openesb yesterday and have started fooling around with it.
Maybe I will write a binding component or an engine ... let us see :-)

*edit* Removed the actual details of what I want to try ... I think this might make it to my work someday , so better keep it under wraps until then :-)

Bangalore going to the dogs

Hmm , that would be insulting to dogs ... just used that as an expression.
Let me see , we have :
1) Increasing power shortage - which has really worsened in the past few months : for whatever reason ! (Yep , right now no power at my house ... again X-( )
2) Roads are a mess and traffic is unbearable !
3) Water shortage has been dogging this place for like ages - and it is progressively becoming worse !
4) Everyday , without fail , in page 2 & 3 you will notive a multitude of crimes committed - which are reported : god knows how many are perpetuated and not reported !

When I came to Bangalore almost 5 years back , it looked like a pretty cool place : nice weather , reasonably quiet , comparatively low traffic and pollution , and no power or water problem that I knew of in general.
Every year hence has only worsened the situation ... so much so that , what used to be a surety that I will settle down here when I came here , is now pretty much a surety that I *will not* settle down here given a choice.

I seriously hope something gets done soon ...
Every other city seems to be making progress while Bangalore goes the opposite way - case to point , my expierences at Madras this weekend : the transformation of the place since I was last there is pretty astonishing - this inspite of having being warned about it !

This rant is sponspored by the pathetic power condition in Bangalore - no power at home now !

Use solaris to optimise linux apps ?

Check this out !
When I read of stuff like this , makes me thrilled at the possibilities ... and also makes me feel like a loser for not doing anything remotely as innovative :-)
It is not that they just wrote the code ... but they bloody well use it so innovatively also !!

Ok , back to bugfixing ... :-(