Pages from life!!

NTFS support in CentOS 5

2011-06-21T15:07:00.003+05:30

There are two steps :

(1) Install RPM Forge repository : for CentOS 5 use this link http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm

(2) Install fuse* : Install fuse using "yum install fuse fuse-ntfs-3g"

2011-06-03T11:29:00.002+05:30

দীর্ঘ যাত্রার শেষে সাফল্য।

প্রতিবাদ থেকে

http://anandabazar-unicode.appspot.com/

বদল

http://www.anandabazar.in/index.html

শুভেচ্ছা।

One MORE Ubuntu user

2010-11-16T10:33:00.004+05:30

Yesterday one more Windoz Laptop has been divided into parts to host Ubuntu 10.10. A hard core M$ fan is baptised to this new religion and in just 12 hours he is saying "Why have I not tried this earlier?". Thank you, Sajal, for joining us.

PAM Problem

2010-09-22T17:08:00.002+05:30

PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) problems lead to an unstable Linux system. One can't log into the system then.

This may be solved using "pam-auth-update" or "pam-auth-update --force" depending on the situation.

Ubuntu - Netconfig

2010-09-20T12:01:00.001+05:30

Ubuntu Avatar 10.04(.1) LTS

Network configuration (LAN) is stored here :
/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Auto\ eth0

2010-09-06T16:36:00.002+05:30

Avast for Linux

Error :
"cannot initialze avast! engine: invalid agrument"

Remedy:
do as root: sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=100000000

reason? older kernels have an artificial limitations which dictates the maximum size of one SHM block in bytes. And, one block of our database exceeded this limit. so just, relax them to more reasonable values. that's it.

More here

2010-08-10T14:43:00.002+05:30

If, your are getting error like the following

"*** glibc detected *** dvips: free(): invalid pointer: some_hex_code ***"

followed by a long list of errors, set an environmental variable "MALLOC_CHECK_=1" to get rid of the error.

Mathematica Problem

2010-06-11T14:05:00.003+05:30

Problem
Mathematica installation gives error like :
xset:  bad font path element (#87), possible causes are:
Directory does not exist or has wrong permissions
Directory missing fonts.dir
Incorrect font server address or syntax

Solution
Find out a system on your network where x font server is running.
Issue the following command there
xset fp+ tcp/server_name_or_ip:port

TCMP, SINP members may use   xset fp+ tcp/172.16.3.100:7100

2010-04-22T11:08:00.002+05:30

It is MatLab Installer that detected the problem.

One of our systems could not complete "df" request.
It is based on FC6 and run scientific jobs . MatLab was to be installed there and it was. But when it was executed, a runtime error stopped execution - "libXp.so.6 was not available." And when I tried installing the library using "yum install libXp.x86_64" it did not complete. After doing this several times, I checked and found a NFS mount which is not connected to any physical device. Actually the connection was lost somehow but the mounted volume remained. Do I tried to unmount forcefully with umount -f, listed all open files and killed jobs using lsof. fuser was tried but no result. Lastly I unmounted the NFS with

umount -l /media/disk (or your device).

It could be unmountd in lazy mode only. Later the library was installed and MatLab ran properly.

for me, PHP wins!

2010-02-25T17:02:00.004+05:30

I received a file from Anasuya for data extraction. It was a very small file with 8150146 bytes of text - 29691 lines with tab separated columns. Now I asked about the number of columns. Anasuya had no clear idea about the number. So I had only one info - number of columns could be anything. The job was to write a combination of columns : 2nd and 4th, 2nd and 6th, etc for a line and that for the whole file.

First awk. But, awk has some limitations about columns. So I dropped my plan of using awk. Then, as the columns are tab separated, I started to think of OpenOffice Spreadsheet, opened the datafile there but could not manage the data easily - even could not find maximum number of columns in a particular row.

Then I started writing a script in PHP.
Here is the script.

// Script written by : Kausik Das, TCMP, SINP, Kolkata
$fl = file("input_file.txt");
$cnt=count($fl);
print "Total number of Records : ".$cnt."\n";
$maxelem = 0;
$iter=0;
for ($i=0;$i<$cnt;$i++)
{
$elem = explode("\t",trim($fl[$i]));
$elemcnt=count($elem);
print "Number of Columns in row id # $i : ".$elemcnt."\n";
if ($elemcnt > $maxelem)
{$maxelem=$elemcnt;
$index = $i;}
for ($j=4;$j<$elemcnt;$j=$j+2)
{print $elem[1]." \t".$elem[$j]."\n";
$iter++;}
print "\n";
}
print "# Data written : $iter rows.";

It can extract data in our format for any number of tab separated columns in a file.

Thus, as I wrote in the title PHP wins!!

Solution to Common problem during upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10

2009-11-10T14:52:00.002+05:30

Problem : "The package adobe-flashplugin needs to be reinstalled, but I can't find an archive for it."

Solution :
Before removing itself it tries to execute pre-remove action on every package listed in VARIANTS variable of /var/lib/dpkg/info/adobe-flashplugin.prerm. So all we need to do is to comment out that variable. So after you will comment out it you’ll be able to remove it

Then do the following :
"sudo dpkg --force-all --remove adobe-flashplugin" as root.

OpenSuSE 10.3 and Sony VAIO

2009-10-13T17:49:00.002+05:30

"Problem problem everywhere."

A typical problem of Xorg from Prof. Gautam Bhattacharyya was haunting for last 5 days. His Sony VAIO SZ VGN-SZ56GN/B was working at 1280x800 @ 60Hz but suddenly some damage to files set its resolution to 1024x768 @ 47.7 Hz.

I made certain correction but could not trace what is happening. Somehow I was feeling it was a "xrandr" problem. If I could set the system to VESA in stead of Intel Graphic adaptor the problem will be gone.

That was done using "sax2 -r -m 0=vesa" and now the system is recovered to its original 1280x800 @ 60Hz.

Lovely problem!
Satisfactory solution!

Ubuntu Problem

2009-09-17T12:09:00.002+05:30

DPKG status error:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-474587.html

DPKG available error:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+question/57884

Authentication failed
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=801333

Ubuntu 9.04 & Mathematica Plot3D problem

2009-07-07T11:50:00.002+05:30

After upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 or installing it, it m,ay happen that, Plot3D function of your Mathematica software (which workin properly in the earlier version) do not output a plot and the plot is visible only when plot area is clicked. Don't get upset. just do the following :

in /etc/X11/xorg.conf include the following lines (or edit the file to this)

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

This will solve your problem.

Can't mount a partition in Ubuntu? Don't panic.

2009-02-26T17:57:00.002+05:30

It is for Ubuntu users.

The problem :
fsck.ext2: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/
Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program?

Solution procedure:
1) Hit ^D to go on with boot even though /dev/sda1 could not be mounted on /boot and /dev/sdb1 on /store (names are exemplary).

2) Once in,
sudo aptitude purge evms
or
modify /etc/evms.conf per http://evms.sourceforge.net/install/kernel.html to exclude your boot partition from EVMS.

3) Finally, do
sudo update-initramfs -k all -c

and reboot to get things OK.

Mathematica 6.0 problem

2008-11-11T10:56:00.002+05:30

Running Mathematica on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid? Mathematica 6.0 is not running properly?

If the errors are like :
X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
Major opcode of failed request: 151 (RENDER)
Minor opcode of failed request: 4 (RenderCreatePicture)
Serial number of failed request: 24386
Current serial number in output stream: 24389

X Error of failed request: RenderBadPicture (invalid Picture parameter)
Major opcode of failed request: 151 (RENDER)
Minor opcode of failed request: 7 (RenderFreePicture)
Picture id in failed request: 0x2a00aac
Serial number of failed request: 24393
Current serial number in output stream: 24394

Run Mathematica with "-defaultvisual".

The command line shall be
"mathematica -defaultvisual" or "Mathematica -defaultvisual".

Enjoy!

2008-04-17T11:27:00.002+05:30

One big news for Me!
One more friend of mine have quit M$ Windows and deleted the operated version of the buggy OS. Now he has Linux in the full HDD.

The friend asked for one question. How to open an e-book in Linux.

Here is a good e-book : Unix Shells by Example
Install unrar if not already and then extract the .chm in a directory.
Install xchm [a Unix .chm file viewer] and open the extracted .chm to check how the thing work.

Accessing Linux screen from your Windows Desktop

2008-03-14T12:22:00.004+05:30

Do you want to access your linux screen from windows desktop?

To fetch Linux desktop at Win desktop -

Do the following :

@ Windows Client side :

Download Xming from http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=156984
Install Xming
Configure for your Linux system.
At least (a) provide Display number [nnn], (b) provide "session type" - XDMCP for common Linux systems (c) provide IP of host u want to "Connect to" - Follow instructions

@ Linux XDMCP server side :

Enable XDMCP
Allow remote login

That's all.

2008-02-21T15:39:00.005+05:30

A common problem to Excel users is how to find the last date of a month from a given date. A very easy solution is given by Mr. Gautam Roychaudhury. I am uploading a PrtSc image which is converted to JPG. It could not have been made more clear for your understanding. Look at the image below :

Swami Gahananandaji is no more

2007-11-05T11:09:00.000+05:30

Born in the village of Paharpur in Sylhet district (now in Bangladesh) in October 1916, Swami Gahananandaji studied the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda during his student life, and was deeply attracted towards them. He was also greatly influenced by the dedicated lives of some of the monks of the Ramakrishna Order, especially the late Swami Prabhanandaji (Ketaki Maharaj), who was his cousin in pre-monastic life. He had also once met Swami Abhedanandaji Maharaj, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.

Swami Gahananandaji joined the Ramakrishna Order at its Bhubaneswar centre in January 1939 at the age of twenty-two and received mantra diksha from Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj, the then President of the Order, after two months. In 1944 Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj gave him brahma-charya vows and the name Amritachaitanya, and in 1948 sannyasa vows and the name Gahanananda.
At Bhubaneswar, he worked under the inspiring guidance of Swami Nirvananandaji Maharaj (later a Vice President of the Order). He also got opportunity to serve Swami Shankaranandaji Maharaj (later the seventh President of the Order) and Swami Achalanandaji Maharaj (a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and a Vice President of the Order) when they visited Bhubaneswar and Puri. From 1942 to 1952 he served at the Kolkata branch of Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati. In the course of those ten years, he went to the Mayavati ashrama in the Himalayas a couple of times to stay in solitude and spend time in study and meditation.Between 1953 and 1958, he was at the Shillong centre, where he worked under the guidance of Swami Saumyanandaji Maharaj (a disciple of Swami Brahmanandaji Maharaj). During this period he also organized flood relief operations in Assam a couple of times. Keenly interested as he was in the service of sick people, Swami Gahananandaji was posted to the Mission’s hospital centre, Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata, in 1958. For twenty-seven long years, he was deeply involved in all its activities as an Assistant Secretary under the inspiring guidance of its founder secretary Swami Dayanandaji Maharaj during the first five years, and then onwards as its head for twenty-two years, till 1985.The Seva Pratishthan was originally started, and was known for several years, only as a model maternity and child welfare centre. The vast and multifaceted form that the centre assumed in later years was largely achieved under the stewardship of Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj. He worked tirelessly to develop and expand its services to cater to the medical needs of more and more people belonging to poor and low-income sections of society. During his stay there, he started health-care activities in thirty-three remote villages through mobile medical units, free eye-operation camps in nearby villages, and medical relief for Gangasagar Mela pilgrims every year. He also organized medical-relief work for the refugees during the 1971 Bangladesh war.Swami Gahananandaji was elected a Trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and a Member of the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1965. In 1979 he was appointed an Assistant Secretary of the twin organizations. Even after that, he continued to shoulder the responsibilities of the Seva Pratishthan as its Secretary till March 1985. Thereafter he came to the headquarters at Belur Math to function as a whole-time Assistant Secretary. He became the General Secretary of the Math and Mission in 1989 and continued in that post for three years till 1992, when he became a Vice President of the Order. From that time he was also simultaneously the head of Ramakrishna Math (Yogodyan) in Kankurgachhi, Kolkata.
As a Vice President, Swami Gahananandaji travelled extensively in various parts of the country and visited many branches of the Math and Mission and also a number of unaffiliated centres. In 1993 he represented the Ramakrishna Order at the commemorative function organized by Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago (and attended by 6,500 people from all parts of the world) to celebrate the centenary of the 1893 Parliament of Religions where Swami Vivekananda made his historic appearance. During that time he also visited the centres of the Order in the US and Canada. He also visited at different times various places in the UK, France, Switzerland, Holland, Russia, Australia, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius.In all these places, Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj spread the message of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, and also gave mantra diksha to thousands of spiritual seekers. He always responded to requests for spiritual guidance from all corners of the country, including very remote villages, ignoring his personal difficulties and inconveniences.Swami Gahananandaji, passed away at 5.35pm on November 4, 2007 at the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan Hospital, Calcutta. He was 91. He had been hospitalised on September 4 after a sudden setback in health owing to several age-related problems like Parkinson’s disease.

Linux News

2007-09-25T11:17:00.000+05:30

2007-09-25

2007-09-06T16:09:00.000+05:30

If you get Mathematica warnings like

locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C
X locale modifiers not supported, using default

do the following :

cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/
sudo rm locale
sudo ln -s /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB XKeysymDB
sudo ln -s /usr/share/X11/locale/ locale

And you are done to start with Mathematica!

Selinux Policy

2007-08-16T16:15:00.000+05:30

If you a get and boot error like :
"Unable to load Selinux Policy. Machine is in enforcing mode. Halting now. Kernel Panic!"

Boot with enforcing=0 at the grub boot menu [Edit the boot line to append 'enforcing=0'].

Then once the system is up, edit /etc/grub.conf to include the appending.

2007-08-13T13:59:00.000+05:30

LATEX Help

To avoid any symbol or * in footnote :

Define a command "symbolfootnote" -
\long\def\symbolfootnote[#1]#2{\begingroup
\def\thefootnote{\fnsymbol{footnote}}\footnote[#1]{#2}\endgroup}

Example of using the new command -
\author{Me${\,}^{a)}$, You${\,}^{b)}$\symbolfootnote[0]{a) My note\\
b) Yournote}}

A new destination near Puri!

2007-04-16T17:40:00.000+05:30

Date : April 10, 2007
Duration :
Start from Puri : 0520 Hours
Back to Puri : 1445 Hours

The route map : [Taken from Google Earth]

Worst problem I faced in my "professional" life!

2007-04-03T12:25:00.000+05:30

The worst problem I faced in my life was a ForxPro problem.

I tried for the error "I/O Operation failure" while running Foxpro for Windows for 2 days and at the end got the key:

Put a CD in the CD Drive and run Foxpro for Windows. - That is the solution!!

Any CD will do for you.

This is called Technological Advancement!!!!!!

Education from Life

2007-03-24T08:37:00.000+05:30

The more I bent, the more is the pressure.
"Emotional blackmailing" is a sin.
Emotional attachment is a curse.
Live a very low profiled life but die a sudden premature death.
One day I will be remembered when I am lost.
Be brave. Be Bad.
Confinement solves a lot of problem.
There are number of human beings in this world - only a very few are Logical!
It is better to stop talking than to argue with an illogical person.
Confine yourself when devastated.
Let others feel that you are touched by something.
Speak less, cross your leap.
~~

Num 2 Alpha - for Excel users

2006-12-21T12:57:00.000+05:30

This was between me and Kanti and given below is the solution :
From : Kanti Jain
to Kausik Das
date Dec 19, 2006 4:15 PM
subject Re: Thanks
Images are not displayed.
Display images below - Always display images from kantijain@sduca.com

Thank You!
wrt your professional charges, a traeat from me anytime when we meet.( I am not joking)

Assuring you of our best services at all times,
Warm regards
Kanti Jain
Direct Tax Division
Singhvi, Dev & Unni,
Chartered Accountants,
"SDU House",
No.12, Race Course Road,
(Next to Hotel Highland)
Madhavnagar,
Bangalore- 560 001
Phone:+91+80+22261371
Fax:+91+80+22205469

----- Original Message -----
From: Kausik Das
Subject: Re: Thanks

Dear Kanti,
I shall do the necessary change and let you know. But what about my professional charges? :)

Kausik

On 12/18/06, Kanti Jain < kantijain@sduca.com> wrote:

Dear Kausik

The problem I was referring is as follow: For Ex: 1000 Rs, will be converted into "Rupees One thousand and zero paise only" Whether we can have only "Ruppees One thousand only"? (ie can we avoid "and Zero paise only")

----- Original Message -----
From: Kausik Das

Dear Kanti,
Thanks for the mail. Will you mind to make the problem clearer with an example? I am not able to get the same.
I was a "software guy" once but after 10 long years I use to maintain some AIX and Linux based servers these days. But, reviewing, creating and changing / customising software are my favorite passtime.

Best,
Kausik

On 12/16/06, Kanti Jain wrote:
Dear Kausik
Thanks for customising spell number formula for Indian user, I happen to get the same through google. Are you a software guy? I wish that if we can have same, only for Rupees and we can ignore "and zero paisas"

Problem :
How to convert a numeric value into English words in Excel ?

Solution :
In Microsoft Excel (version > 97) press ALT+F11 to start the
Visual Basic Editor. On the Insert menu, click Module. Paste
the following code into the module sheet.
==========================================
Option Explicit
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das
' Main Function
Function SpellNumber(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Rupees, Paise, Temp
Dim DecimalPlace, Count
ReDim Place(9) As String
Place(2) = " Thousand "
Place(3) = " Lakh "
Place(4) = " Crore "
' String representation of amount.
MyNumber = Trim(Str(MyNumber))
' Position of decimal place 0 if none.
DecimalPlace = InStr(MyNumber, ".")
' Convert Paise and set MyNumber to dollar amount.
If DecimalPlace > 0 Then
Paise = GetTens(Left(Mid(MyNumber, DecimalPlace + 1) & "00", 2))
MyNumber = Trim(Left(MyNumber, DecimalPlace - 1))
End If
Count = 1
Do While MyNumber <> ""
If Count <> 1 Then
Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 2))
If Temp <> "" Then Rupees = Temp & Place(Count) & Rupees
If Len(MyNumber) > 2 Then
MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 2)
Else
MyNumber = ""
End If
Else
Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 3))
If Temp <> "" Then Rupees = Temp & Place(Count) & Rupees
If Len(MyNumber) > 3 Then
MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 3)
Else
MyNumber = ""
End If
End If
Count = Count + 1
Loop
Select Case Rupees
Case ""
Rupees = " "
Case "One"
Rupees = "Re One "
Case Else
Rupees = "Rupees " & Rupees
End Select
Select Case Paise
Case ""
Paise = " Only "
Case "One"
Paise = " and Paise One Only"
Case Else
Paise = "Paise " & Paise & " Only"
End Select
If Paise <> " Only " Then
Paise = " and " & Paise
End If
SpellNumber = " [ " & Rupees & Paise & " ] "
End Function
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das
' Converts a number from 100-999 into text
Function GetHundreds(ByVal MyNumber)
Dim Result As String
If Val(MyNumber) = 0 Then Exit Function
MyNumber = Right("000" & MyNumber, 3)
' Convert the hundreds place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1)) & " Hundred "
End If
' Convert the tens and ones place.
If Mid(MyNumber, 2, 1) <> "0" Then
Result = Result & GetTens(Mid(MyNumber, 2))
Else
Result = Result & GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 3))
End If
GetHundreds = Result
End Function
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das
' Converts a number from 10 to 99 into text.
Function GetTens(TensText)
Dim Result As String
Result = "" ' Null out the temporary function value.
If Val(Left(TensText, 1)) = 1 Then ' If value between 10-19...
Select Case Val(TensText)
Case 10: Result = "Ten"
Case 11: Result = "Eleven"
Case 12: Result = "Twelve"
Case 13: Result = "Thirteen"
Case 14: Result = "Fourteen"
Case 15: Result = "Fifteen"
Case 16: Result = "Sixteen"
Case 17: Result = "Seventeen"
Case 18: Result = "Eighteen"
Case 19: Result = "Nineteen"
Case Else
End Select
Else ' If value between 20-99...
Select Case Val(Left(TensText, 1))
Case 2: Result = "Twenty "
Case 3: Result = "Thirty "
Case 4: Result = "Forty "
Case 5: Result = "Fifty "
Case 6: Result = "Sixty "
Case 7: Result = "Seventy "
Case 8: Result = "Eighty "
Case 9: Result = "Ninety "
Case Else
End Select
Result = Result & GetDigit _
(Right(TensText, 1)) ' Retrieve ones place.
End If
GetTens = Result
End Function
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das
' Converts a number from 1 to 9 into text.
Function GetDigit(Digit)
Select Case Val(Digit)
Case 1: GetDigit = "One"
Case 2: GetDigit = "Two"
Case 3: GetDigit = "Three"
Case 4: GetDigit = "Four"
Case 5: GetDigit = "Five"
Case 6: GetDigit = "Six"
Case 7: GetDigit = "Seven"
Case 8: GetDigit = "Eight"
Case 9: GetDigit = "Nine"
Case Else: GetDigit = ""
End Select
End Function

==================
How to Use the SpellNumber Sample Function

To use the sample functions to change a number to written text,
use one of the methods demonstrated in the following examples:

Method 1: Direct Entry
You can change 32.50 into "Thirty Two Dollars and Fifty Cents"
by entering the following formula into a cell: =SpellNumber(32.50)

Method 2: Cell Reference
You can refer to other cells in the workbook. For example, enter the
number 32.50 into cell A1, and type the following formula into another
cell: =SpellNumber(A1)

Method 3: Paste Function
You can use Paste Function to enter a custom function into a worksheet.

To use Paste Function, follow these steps:
1. Select the cell that you want.
2. Click Paste Function on the Standard toolbar.
3. Under Function category, click User Defined.
4. Under Function name, click SpellNumber, and then click OK.
5. Enter the number or cell reference you want and then click OK.
6. Click Finish.

A day and 190Kms!

2006-09-18T16:10:00.000+05:30

Date : September 17, 2006 [Sunday]

Special Event : Vishwakarma Puja, Dashami Tithi

Partners : Me and Soumya-da [Soumya Bosu]

A journey to Namkhana was planned by us for months. The day we went for Diamond Harbour last time, we was actually headed to that place but worst possible weather condition made us change our plan. This time we were determined to go there. The journey was very much peaceful and uneventful.

We started by an EMU Local Train which was supposed to leave Baruipur at 11.44 hours. But, it reached the station at about 11.54 and started for Namkhana at about 11.56.

If you start from Sealdah by a Lakshmikantapur local, upto Baruipur you may enjoy double line journey. But, from Baruipur, moving toward south by a train will make your journey more time consuming since all along there is only single line available. In places, where a station can afford the space for double line, two trains can only cross. From Baruipur we reached Lakshmikantapur at about 12.40 hours. Thereafter both of us locked ourselves at the door and enjoyed number of curves along the railway tracks. At about 13.40 we reached Kakdwip. Finally our journey was finished at 13.58 when we reached Namkhana Railway station. Three huge railway platforms, 5 tracks, a office, a passage used as waiting hall was what Minister of Railways Sri Laloo Prasad Yadav inaugurated on January 5, 2006.

Namkhana Railway station is situated in a village named Narayanpur. After coming out of the platform, you will be greeted by local rickshaw pullers who are heading to Narayanpu Jetty ghat where from boats for Namkhana on the other side of Hatania Dowania river. You may lead to Bakkhali from here also.

We walked about 3 kms from Namkhana, returned back to the Jetty, crossed the river, came back to Narayanpur, boarded a bus and came to Diamond Harbour by 18.00.

It was a beautiful weather. The sky was true blue. There were Cumulus clouds spreaded through out the sky. Autumn can be felt in the surrounding. "Pujo Pujo Gandho" may be the only set of words to express the weather of the day.

When we were at Kulpi, the sun almost reached the horizon. A drop of cloud spreaded over the sky was getting the last rays from the Sun - thus various colors were formed. Golden yellow, yellow, amber, red, pink, purple, bluish violet and many more were there. I was so happy of not carrying the camera for the first time since I do believe that no camera can preserve these moments precisely.

On reaching Diamondharbour, we sat by the river Hooghly for an hour. The tour finished after we reached by 2100.

My Route :
Baruipur - Namkhana 85 KM
[Walking along the village : about 6KMs]
Namkhana - Diamond Harbour Rail Head 58 KM
Diamond Harbour Rail Head - Baruipur 35 KM

Distance :
Namkhana - Kulpi 36 KM

Irwin and ......

2006-09-06T15:32:00.000+05:30

The week started in a extremely bad mood.

I knew that Somnath, a good friend, has left for Mumbai and will not be seen today or in near future. He has started his professional career at IITB. But, unfortunately a big blow came in the evening from Arnab. I was shattered after hearing the sad news about Steve Irwin. Capt Suresh Sharma mailed him about this issue. I sat before my comp and started surfing the net to find out what happened to Steve. Unfortunate story I read - first from wikipedia, then from all others. The evening was not so good though I should have been happier.

Whereever been carried away, Steve will be remembered as Crocodile Hunter always.

Our team, after a successful expedition from Ladakh himalayas returned on Monday. The climbed up a peak (locally called Lavlong, height 6577m), unlisted in IMF list and everybody was in good health.

Baba!

2006-07-18T17:56:00.000+05:30

Today is 18th July (2nd Shraban, 1413 - 2nd day of fourth month according to Bangla calendar). Today is the birthday of Mr. Prasanta Kumar Das, my father, my dear BABA.

Baba is something for me yet! He has never beaten me up, never told a word rudely or never stopped me from doing anything. But his call let me know what he want to say? How is his mood now? Is he angry? Is he cool?

My first teacher was Baba! Be it football, natural occurences, Mathematics, English language or Bengali literature - Baba was the first man to teach. My mother taught me English Grammar, Social Sciences etc. But my habit of reading story books is inherited from Baba! I can remember a day when at my age of 9 Baba took me to a field to see solar eclipse and explained the science behind with mythology also.

Who can forget the nice winter days when we two used to buy an all day ticket for Kolkata Tram ride, board one and enjoy the ride till the evening. Baba took me atop a double decker for the first time too! And, the time when Kolkata Metro started plying, he took me to Dumdum to enjoy a ride too!

During last few years, Baba has become my only friend! I come across a number of persons everyday. Sometimes some become very close, too. But when I have to talk about any grievance, self assessment or sorrow he is the only person to listen to! That's why these days, riding the cycle alone in a lonely road is the best part of time, I enjoy.

And that's why I don't like to stay at my home for a long period. I feel streched, suffocated, since Baba no more resides here.

He has gone far away on 22nd October, 2002!

How to run HP 1020 with Linux

2006-02-28T12:56:00.000+05:30

How to install HP 1020 Printer

Get the file foo2zjs.tar.gz from http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/foo2zjs.tar.gz Then copy it to /usr/local/share and do the following :

tar zxvf foo2zjs.tar.gz
cd foo2zjs
make
./getweb all [ If you are using Minolta Printer ]

From here you need to be SuperUser or root
make install
make install-hotplug [ Optional ]
make cups

#
Install the HP Laserjet 1020 Printer
Redhat / Fedora : system-config-printer or printtool
Mandriva : printerdrake
SuSE : yast > printer configuration

Use HP 1020 from printer driver list during installation.
For Red Hat autoselect driver takes the HP 1020 printer driver.

#
Put this line to your /etc/profile :
cat /usr/share/foo2zjs/firmware/sihp1020.dl > /dev/usb/lp0
This line loads firmware to the printer.
#
Before you login, keep your printer on.

joinPDF

2005-11-23T18:10:00.000+05:30

Want to join two PDFs.
Try this if you are a Linux user : gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=finished.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf

If you are a Mac user here is another trick .....http://www.iis.ee.ic.ac.uk/~g.briscoe/joinPDF/

Yahooooooooooooooooo!

2005-11-21T16:44:00.000+05:30

Here is a news to cheer up, cherish and shout Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

My alma mater Baruipur High School of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India won State Award of 3rd Computer Literacy Excellence Awards for School - 2004. I got the news from the school just an hour back.

The prizes are announced in the Ministry of IT, Govt. of India website. The page is available here.
The School listed as 22nd according to the order of state names.

The prize [ Cash Award of Rs 1.5 Lakhs and a Trophy ] will be awarded by Indian President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam on 7th December 2005.

I received some mails / short messages from others :

Asif Masood : Hurreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey.We all r looking forword to the national award.And This is the best news for this year till now.enjoy the news....love to all

Avishek Nandi : Grt news. We deserve this. Really jst nw I am feeling very proud.
Mustaque Ahmed : Congratulation......ya really we r proud of tht...
Sagarmoy Datta : Really great news, Sagar
Sudip Ganguly : Really it's a great news. We have 2 celebrate 4 that.

Long Live the spirit of BHS - neighbour's envy, student's pride.

mp3act or empact!

2005-11-17T06:38:00.000+05:30

Have you tried "mp3act"?

"mp3act" is a songs sever for your network.

You have to install a set of php codes at your web root, create one mysql database and place plenty of mp3s at any accessible location inside your box which is with a decent procesoor of 300MHz running GNU/Linux, Apache, MySQL and available over a network.

You can search, browse, make your playlist or listen to the mp3s from a web browser window if you are authenticated by the server.

more.......

GNU/Linux in India : Which domain is attracted?

2005-11-15T07:00:00.000+05:30

Banking : Canara Bank
The bank will soon be running on GNU/Linux across the country. In the first phase, they have planned GNU/Linuxisation of 1000 branches in India. TBA (Total Branch Automation) is being done by Canbank Computer Services - a Canbank subsidiary. They have planned deployment of GNU/Linux on 1000 servers & 10000 desktops.
In the second phase 2508 branches will be automated.

Corporate : DTDC Courier
Migrating their mission critical database management capabilities to Oracle over Linux. The organisation believes that Oracle on GNU/Linux runs 20% faster than on any other platform.

Corporate : Glowing on Linux
ERP of Eveready Industries Limited runs on Xeon based Dell hardware with RHEL and Oracle 11i E-biz suite. The project is Rs 5.5 crore. The company Red Hat Cluster Suite for 100% uptime and secured redundancy.

Government : Prez's Secretariat
President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam is an Open Source activist. In his secretariat, seamless connectivity between all government departments and ministries with their counterparts in different states is maintained using GNU/Linux.

Insurance : Life is Insured through the Open Software
LIC of India is doing on Linux too. They earlier replaced SCO Unix with GNU/Linux. Presently about 2050 branches of LIC are running GNU/Linux. Applications are developed in-house. The members of the development team, all of whom are LIC employees, did the deployment on desktops.

Data Source : Data Quest, October 31, 2005

Statistics

2005-06-21T18:00:00.000+05:30

Dataquest, 15th June issue is a gem. The cover story about IT savvy Indian cities supplied some good statistics also. The sorted list of IT savvy cities is like the following. The marks in bracket is overall rating of the city.

Bangalore (66.2)
Hyderabad (58.7)
Mumbai (58.7)
Chennai (58.6)
Delhi (57.8)
Pune (53.0)
Nagpur (48.9)
Kolkata (47.1)
Lucknow (44.3)
Coimbatore (42.7)

Linux Journal (May 2005) use published statistics about data transmission speed of various media / connectivity : [Type Connection Speed Length of Cable]

USB 12MBPS 5mt
USB2.0 480MBPS 5mt
1394/Firewire 400MBPS 4mt
Gigabit Ethernet 1GBPS 100mt (Cat5)
10GB Ethernet 10GBPS 10mt (Copper) + 1+ km (Optical)
Myrinet 2GBPS 10mt (Copper) + 200mt (Optical)
1x Infiniband 2GBPS 10mt (Copper) + 1+ km (Optical)
4x Infiniband 8GBPS 10mt (Copper) + 1+ km (Optical)
12x Infiniband 24GBPS 10mt (Copper) + 1+ km (Optical)

Great to think of the connection speed @ 24GBPS.

Sadness!

2005-04-26T14:05:00.000+05:30

Swami Ranganathanandaji, the 13th president of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, died on Monday [25.04.2005] afternoon at a city hospital. He was 96.

Swami Ranganathanandaji was born in Trikur, Kerala, on December 15, 1908. At the age of 18 he joined the Ramakrishna Order at its Mysore centre. He was an initiated disciple of Swami Shivanandaji Maharaj, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna. After taking sanyas in 1933, he served the mission in Mysore and Bangalore for the next 12 years. In 1939, he went to Rangoon as secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Society, where he remained from till 1942.

In 1942, he went to Karachi as president of the Ramakrishna Mission. He was there till 1948. In 1949 he was made the order’s secretary. He continued in the post till 1962.

During that period he was elected a trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and a member of the governing body of the Ramakrishna Mission. In 1962 he came to Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Kolkata as its secretary. From 1973 to 1993 he was the president of the Ramakrishna Math in Hyderabad. He became a vice-president of the order on April 1, 1989 and the president on September 7, 1998.

An avid writer and an orator, Swami Ranganathanandaji visited 50 countries to spread the message of Vedanta from 1946 to 1972. He visited the America, Africa, Europe, Russia, Poland and Czechoslovakia among others.

Among his well-known books are The Message of the Upanishads, A Pilgrim Looks at the World, Eternal Values for a Changing Society in four volumes, Vedanta and the Future of Mankind and Social Responsibilities of Public Administrators. His recent publications are his expositions of the Bhagvad Gita in three volumes and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Swami Ranganathanandaji will be cremated on Tuesday. Belur Math will remain open till the last rites are performed. [ 1908-2005 ]

Courtsey : The Times of India, Kolkata Edition, 26.04.2005

Two more common problems for Linux Administrator

2005-04-08T15:22:00.000+05:30

Case 1 :
If somehow, a MIME message have just come to you as a text file with headers included, use the mewcat command to get the attachment detached. Use required options with mewcat to get better result.

Case 2:
To UNDELETE a file in Linux/Unix, a user have deleted wrongly you may try the following.

Login as root (System Administrator).
Use the following command :
grep -a -B[size before] -A[size after] 'text' /dev/[your_partition]

Replace [size before], [size after] and [your_partition] with something meaningfull. Don't know what your partition is? Read the Linux undelete manual! e.g.: If you want to undelete a letter (+- 200 lines) starting with "Hi mum" which was stored on /dev/hda1 you can try: grep -a -B2 -A200 "Hi mum" /dev/hda1

Convert a numeric value into English words in MS Excel

2005-04-05T12:04:00.000+05:30

Problem : 
How to convert a numeric value into English words in Excel ?


Solution :
In Microsoft Excel (version > 97) press ALT+F11 to start the
Visual Basic Editor. On the Insert menu, click Module. Paste
the following code into the module sheet.
==========================================
Option Explicit
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das 
' Main Function
Function SpellNumber(ByVal MyNumber)
 Dim Rupees, Paise, Temp
 Dim DecimalPlace, Count
 ReDim Place(9) As String
 Place(2) = " Thousand "
 Place(3) = " Lakh "
 Place(4) = " Crore "
 ' String representation of amount.
 MyNumber = Trim(Str(MyNumber))
 ' Position of decimal place 0 if none.
 DecimalPlace = InStr(MyNumber, ".")
 ' Convert Paise and set MyNumber to dollar amount.
 If DecimalPlace > 0 Then
     Paise = GetTens(Left(Mid(MyNumber, DecimalPlace + 1) &  "00", 2))
     MyNumber = Trim(Left(MyNumber, DecimalPlace - 1))
 End If
 Count = 1
 Do While MyNumber <> ""
     If Count <> 1 Then
         Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 2))
         If Temp <> "" Then Rupees = Temp & Place(Count) & Rupees
         If Len(MyNumber) > 2 Then
             MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 2)
         Else
             MyNumber = ""
         End If
     Else
         Temp = GetHundreds(Right(MyNumber, 3))
         If Temp <> "" Then Rupees = Temp & Place(Count) & Rupees
         If Len(MyNumber) > 3 Then
             MyNumber = Left(MyNumber, Len(MyNumber) - 3)
         Else
             MyNumber = ""
         End If
     End If
     Count = Count + 1
 Loop
 Select Case Rupees
     Case ""
         Rupees = " "
     Case "One"
         Rupees = "Re One "
      Case Else
         Rupees = "Rupees " & Rupees
 End Select
 Select Case Paise
     Case ""
         Paise = " Zero Paise "
     Case "One"
         Paise = " and Paise One"
     Case Else
         Paise = "Paise " & Paise
 End Select
 If Rupees <> " " Then Paise = " and " & Paise
 SpellNumber = " [ " & Rupees & Paise & " Only ] "
End Function
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das 
' Converts a number from 100-999 into text
Function GetHundreds(ByVal MyNumber)
 Dim Result As String
 If Val(MyNumber) = 0 Then Exit Function
 MyNumber = Right("000" & MyNumber, 3)
 ' Convert the hundreds place.
 If Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1) <> "0" Then
     Result = GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 1, 1)) & " Hundred "
 End If
 ' Convert the tens and ones place.
 If Mid(MyNumber, 2, 1) <> "0" Then
     Result = Result & GetTens(Mid(MyNumber, 2))
 Else
     Result = Result & GetDigit(Mid(MyNumber, 3))
 End If
 GetHundreds = Result
End Function
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das 
' Converts a number from 10 to 99 into text.
Function GetTens(TensText)
 Dim Result As String
 Result = ""           ' Null out the temporary function value.
 If Val(Left(TensText, 1)) = 1 Then   ' If value between 10-19...
     Select Case Val(TensText)
         Case 10: Result = "Ten"
         Case 11: Result = "Eleven"
         Case 12: Result = "Twelve"
         Case 13: Result = "Thirteen"
         Case 14: Result = "Fourteen"
         Case 15: Result = "Fifteen"
         Case 16: Result = "Sixteen"
         Case 17: Result = "Seventeen"
         Case 18: Result = "Eighteen"
         Case 19: Result = "Nineteen"
         Case Else
     End Select
 Else                                 ' If value between 20-99...
     Select Case Val(Left(TensText, 1))
         Case 2: Result = "Twenty "
         Case 3: Result = "Thirty "
         Case 4: Result = "Forty "
         Case 5: Result = "Fifty "
         Case 6: Result = "Sixty "
         Case 7: Result = "Seventy "
         Case 8: Result = "Eighty "
         Case 9: Result = "Ninety "
         Case Else
     End Select
     Result = Result & GetDigit _
         (Right(TensText, 1))  ' Retrieve ones place.
 End If
 GetTens = Result
End Function
' Edited for the use of Indian Users by Kausik Das 
' Converts a number from 1 to 9 into text.
Function GetDigit(Digit)
 Select Case Val(Digit)
     Case 1: GetDigit = "One"
     Case 2: GetDigit = "Two"
     Case 3: GetDigit = "Three"
     Case 4: GetDigit = "Four"
     Case 5: GetDigit = "Five"
     Case 6: GetDigit = "Six"
     Case 7: GetDigit = "Seven"
     Case 8: GetDigit = "Eight"
     Case 9: GetDigit = "Nine"
     Case Else: GetDigit = ""
 End Select
End Function
==================
How to Use the SpellNumber Sample Function

To use the sample functions to change a number to written text,
use one of the methods demonstrated in the following examples:

Method 1: Direct Entry
You can change 32.50 into "Thirty Two Dollars and Fifty Cents"
by entering the following formula into a cell: =SpellNumber(32.50)

Method 2: Cell Reference
You can refer to other cells in the workbook. For example, enter the
number 32.50 into cell A1, and type the following formula into another
cell: =SpellNumber(A1)

Method 3: Paste Function
You can use Paste Function to enter a custom function into a worksheet.

To use Paste Function, follow these steps:
1. Select the cell that you want.
2. Click Paste Function on the Standard toolbar.
3. Under Function category, click User Defined.
4. Under Function name, click SpellNumber, and then click OK.
5. Enter the number or cell reference you want and then click OK.
6. Click Finish.

A common problem and its solution

2005-03-24T11:44:00.000+05:30

Problem
I am running Mozilla Firefox on GNU/Linux and am unable to plugin Java in it. What to do?

Solution

On GNU/Linux, Mozilla or Firefox browser requires JRE 1.4.2 or higher. These browsers are compiled with gcc3.x and so a compatible Java plugin (eg. JRE 1.4.2 or higher) must be used.

Get JRE 5.0 from www.java.com and install that. After installing JRE 5.0 RPM, this plugin is /usr/java/j2re1.5.0/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so - and to install it for Mozilla (including Mozilla Firefox), do the following:
Step 1 : Open a terminal
Step 2 : Change to your Mozilla (or Mozilla Firefox) plugins directory
Step 3 : Issue the following command:
ln -s /usr/java/j2re1.5.0/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

If you install your JRE in a different way, libjavaplugin_oji.so will quite likely be in a different location and hence do the aforesaid procedure logically.

Warning : Copying the plugin, instead of making a symbolic link, will result in a browser crash.

Two too important topics

2005-02-09T10:21:00.000+05:30

1. Eminent Bengali writer and one of my most favourites Narayan Sanyal died on 06.02.2005. An engineer turned writer, he wrote books on various topics.
2. AMaViS is published in "Linux for you" - Feb 2005 issue.

Journey

2005-01-03T10:39:00.000+05:30

Since my last post, a lot of things happened.

South-East Asia suffered the worst possible disaster of the century. The Great Asian Disaster, became the cause of almost 150,000 killings. On 26.12.2004, sea roared in anger in the form of Tsunami to eat up everything and went out with its job done leaving dead bodies and cry all around. The last of the same kind, happened on 26th August, 1883 in this region by the eruption of Krakatau (can be read in "Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883" by Simon Winchester).

The year rolled over. 2004 is gone. 2005 ahead.

During the X-mas holidays I enjoyed a break. A team of us went to Chandipur, Orissa, India and trekked along the coast to New Digha, West Bengal, India. A journey of 52 kms in 3 days. The experience was fantastic and all of us enjoyed it a lot. More on it in report format will be available in my page very soon.

Be with the Asian community during the resurection. Be with us.

Last one before X-mas

2004-12-24T10:08:00.000+05:30

It's just playing great.
I'm talking about AMaViS. It worked for me without paying a single penny.
Loved it really.

T is in problem somehow. I can't find out the clue and the solution also.

Heading to Chandipur,Orissa tonight. Will make a coastal trek upto Digha, West Bengal.

Probably the last thread before X-mas.
Merry Christmas and wish for 2005.

Completed AMaViS installation

2004-12-20T12:20:00.000+05:30

I completed the installation and configuration of AMaViS (A Mail Virus Scanner) on 16.12.2004. Since then the mailer is protecting our mail system for incoming/outgoing and relayed mails. In last 40 hours it has stopped 351 mails to enter our mail system.

A write up on AMaViS is send to LFY for Jan'05 issue.

Enjoyed the work at large.

My First Blog

2004-12-09T14:38:00.000+05:30

I was hearing about a word Blog all around and finally decided to start my blog at last.
I started my own blog in my site, but the project failed as I am bit more than average lethargetic.

Hope to continue blogging this time.

Starting with two news :
1. Death of Christiano Junior.

2. I started working with Amavis. This worked for local mail. But not yet working for mails from outside own network.