Mindful Musings

Really Stupid Question of the Day #2: How do programmers (with day jobs as programmers) come back home and go back to programming in their free time?

I have been extremely bored this past holiday weekend and every weekend that Jennifer is at work or on one of her trips.

When she is around, we get up early and go for breakfast, stop by a bunch of shops, stores and fun places to browse, take a small walk or throw the ball around with the dogs and then settle down for a nice home cooked dinner and a movie on the couch under a warm blanket. I enjoy her company and just talking with her and doing things we both like makes those weekends relaxing and very refreshing.

When she is gone, I spend most of the day like a lazy bum, throwing the ball around with the dog a couple of times, napping some, watching weird movies (watched “French Kiss” today) and blogging a few things. I work as a programmer and have my nose deep in ColdFusion, VBScript, TSql, ASP, Perl and red tape. When I come back home from work, looking at code is like going right back to work. This has really hampered my OSS work but I am not apologetic. I need something fun to do, something that is exciting, relaxing and life giving at the same time. So I practice yoga, read a little (though that gets tiresome since contemporary fiction is just …) and literally do nothing. Doing nothing might be all right for some people, but I hate being idle. I hate that feeling so much that I start to feel guilty and the weekends blend into a boring routine and I do not get the break that I crave.

Now I will be going back to school next fall, which will be wonderful. But till then I need to find a non-code hobby. Jennifer suggests that I take up flying which I intended to do anyways. I am not sure whether I can afford it, but I will definitely look into it.

What do my coder freinds do to get away? I know some of you go back to your personal projects and I just dont understand how you do it! You sure are a better person than I!

Om Malik on Broadband: Dayton’s Ad-Supported WiFi Cloud: Another project doomed to failure. My company provides wireless broadband in selected areas and trust me, unless there are other interests involved, besides “online ads”, this project will run out of money soon. Plus, in my mind, a “wireless cloud” is encroaching, since that channel will be made useless for people that want to use WiFi outside the cloud.

Happy Turkey Day to you and yours! Be safe driving and flying around in this crazy weather and among millions of other vacationers.

I am going to spend the day zoning and then head over to Jennifer’s at 4:00PM. She works till 3 and thus the late dinner.

Black Friday 2004 – The OFFICIAL Site for the Hottest Day of the Year If you do not know what Black Friday is, and you are any kind of a shopping buff, you should really look into it. I have been caught up in this craze once, and let me tell you, it is fun.

Basically, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when all kinds of stores will have great deals on all kinds of merchandize. The trick is to show up at the right time at the right place. I have stood out in the freezing cold with Jennifer at 5 in the morning to get a laptop at rock bottom prices (my Toshiba) and have also had Jennifer’s mother pick me up a VERY nice leather jacket for cheap. Most shops will post their deals in the weeks before Thanksgiving, especially in the paper the day before Thanksgiving. The link above (among many, many others) list some of these as and when people find out about them so you can be prepared.

For the unaware, this is mayhem, madness and everything in between. It pays to plan. If the savings are not worth the early mornings and the fighting with people to get the last jacket…dont look there, but if you want a good deal, try it one year and maybe I will see you there!

When you take your clothes to the dry cleaners, do you take the hangers with you or do you take a large bundle wrapped in last week’s bedsheet?

Paper airplane – The best paper airplane in the world!: Via OpenArtifact

Since I bowed out of a recipe exchange, I figure I will put them on here when I use/find them. This is what Jennifer and I are sharing for dinner tonight. The potato bhaji is delicious! If you are spice challenged, I suggest you tone down on them spices since the mixture gets potent, but it is worth the 10 minutes it takes to cook it!

POTATO BHAJI

INGREDIENTS:

* 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed * 1 1/2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) * 1 teaspoon cumin seeds * 2 green chile peppers, chopped * 1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger root, finely chopped * 1 teaspoon chili powder * 1 teaspoon coriander, ground * 1 teaspoon amchoor (dried mango powder) * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook 10 minutes, until tender. Drain and allow to cool slightly. 2. Heat the ghee in a large skillet over medium heat. Lightly toast the cumin seeds in the ghee. Mix in the green chile peppers and ginger. Season with chili powder and coriander. Stir in the potatoes, and cook about 5 minutes. Season with amchoor and salt, and continue cooking about 15 minutes. Garnish with cilantro to serve.

Creamy Chicken Kababs
(Murg Malai Kabab)

Succulent, juicy pieces of chicken marinated with spices and cream and cooked in an oven (or a Tandoor) resulting in mouth-watering Kababs.
Change number of people to automatically recalculate ingredient amounts and cooking times.

12 boneless pieces (about 800 grams) of chicken
2 tablespoon(s) fresh cream
1 egg(s) lightly beaten
4 green chillies finely chopped
2 tablespoon(s) finely chopped coriander leaves
½ teaspoon(s) each of mace and nutmeg powders
1 teaspoon(s) white pepper powder
1 tablespoon(s) each of ginger and garlic pastes
1 tablespoon(s) grated cheese (optional)
1 tablespoon(s) lemon juice
butter for basting
salt to taste
finely cut onion rings and lemon wedges for garnishing

1. Make cuts on the chicken pieces. Mix together rest of the ingredients except for the lemon juice and rub this paste onto the chicken pieces. Refrigerate for at least three hours, preferably overnight. 2. Preheat the oven and skewer the chicken pieces. Baste with butter and cook for about 15 minutes or till the chicken is tender. Sprinkle lemon juice before serving. Garnish with onion rings and lemon wedges. TIP: * If the chicken is marinated overnight then the cream should be added only a few hours before cooking the chicken.

Serve hot with: Green chutney (Hari chutney)

If you own one of these, and are trying to set up ANY kind of an ad-hoc connection with the newer drivers (WHQL NOT-certified) then you need to have PS Mode checked. It DOES NOT stand for Power Save, but some sort of a “Pseudo Set”. Needless to say, any kind of networking will act flaky until this is set. I find this out after hours of mucking with it.

I built up (and completely destroyed the operating system on one) our primary DNS replacement servers today. I learnt a lot about BIND, mostly good things. I also learnt that BIND, Fedora and Linux in general do NOT always work as documented. I am waiting while the process meter is showing 99% usage on the xfs process. I am going to let this run all night and if nothing else, come in and replace the OS tomorrow.

I am still having problem with chrooted BIND zone files having someone other than the BIND process having ownership. I need to be able to FTP zone files and changes on the secondary, non-caching server and have BIND update itself using IXFR. I keep getting permission denied on the zone files.

BIND 9.3.0, compiled on Core 2, acts weird. That is another area that I need to look into. Busy day!

Following on my previous sale of my Blue and White G3, I am selling my Toshiba laptop. Details of this model can be found here. This laptop was purchased from Best Buy one Thanksgiving ago and has been regularly, but sparingly used. Most of the work done on it has been Internet searching and some thesis writing. I have taken very good care of it and there are no scratches, blemishes or any deficiencies. I have never dropped the laptop and it has never been mishandled. All the keys, drives and accessories work just fine.

Quick details:
Processor Celeron
Processor Speed1.5 GHz
Installed Memory256 MB
Maximum Memory512 MB
Memory TechnologyDDR SDRAM
Cache Size256 KB
Installed Video Memory16 MB

Storage
Hard Drive Capacity20 GB
Included DrivesDVD-ROM

Display and Graphics
Display Size14.1 in
Display TypeTFT active matrix
Included Video CardGraphics card – AGP
Resolution1024×768 pixels
Max. External Resolution1600×1200 pixels

Battery
Battery Life2 hour(s)
Battery TypeLithium ion

Communications and Networking
Modem Speed56 Kbps
Network SupportEthernet, Fast Ethernet

Software
Operating SystemMicrosoft Windows XP Pro
IncludedMicrosoft Office 2003, Educational edition

Asking price is $650, buyer pays shipping.

You can purchase a similar laptop from eBay for $600-$650 but they are damaged. I see one vendor selling this laptop for $800, refurbished.

Please leave me a comment or send me an email if you are really interested.

Seen this error message before?

Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access / on this server.

This has occured because your IP address of 199.0.***.*** appears on the Blars Block List, with the value of 127.3.0.0

If you wish to access this server: either access it from a non-listed IP address, or email Blars and get your site removed from BlarsBL.

Is this spam prevention gone awfully wrong?? Those sites are off my regular reads list. Thanks for nothing!