# Tim Sodhi muses > Tim Sodhi - Enterprise Digital Platforms & Applications Architect; lifelong learner, mentor, & tinkerer-at-large. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### About Tim Sodhi URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/about/ Last updated: 2026-07-11T14:53:38.000Z I’m a technology leader, architect, and lifelong tinkerer based in Tampa, Florida. I work where complex systems meet the people who depend on them: digital platforms, cloud infrastructure, applications, data, and the everyday work of making technology useful rather than merely impressive. Professionally, I lead enterprise digital platforms and applications in higher-education advancement. That means building reliable foundations, translating real needs into practical systems, and helping teams work through change. I have engineering roots and still like to understand the wiring—building, solving systems problems, and turning messy requirements into something people can use and trust. This site is both an archive and a current notebook. The older posts come from a long-running stretch of writing about Macs, open source, software, and homelabs. Newer pieces cover what I’m learning, building, and figuring out now: AI, platforms, automation, systems, and occasionally life around them. I don’t write as a brand or pretend every experiment is a finished answer. This is a place for useful things, honest notes, and the occasional rabbit hole worth documenting. If something here helps, or if you think I’ve got it wrong, I’d be glad to hear from you. \-- Tim ### Archives URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/archives/ Last updated: 2008-12-17T22:31:02.000Z \[snazzy-archive\] ## Posts ### Goodbye, Apple Music: Vibing a player for an audience of one URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/goodbye-apple-music-vibing-a-player-for-an-audience-of-one/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T02:09:23.000Z There is a category of software that barely exists: software for one. Built by a single person, for a single user - themselves. In other words, me, moi-même. The economics rarely justify it, which is why so many good ideas sit on back burners for years, waiting for the tools to catch up with the will. The will is strong with me, and throughout my life, **was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht* (what doesn't fit, gets made to fit)* is the philosophy I have worked with. For years I wanted to replace Apple Music. My library sits around 12,000 songs today (I know, rookie numbers) and is heading toward 20,000–50,000; the service was never going to hold that gracefully. These are MP3s ripped (legally, right - cough) over the years (since 1997). The migration off Apple Music will be a post of its own, but I migrated to a self-hosted Navidrome instance running in Docker on my Synology NAS. The client side... ehhhh. I considered many before I consolidated behind Amperfy. The original Amperfy app, built iOS-first and ported to the Mac, never felt like a true desktop player. It struggled at library scale, buried the metadata-dense, spreadsheet-style browsing I had relied on in iTunes for years, and treated the Mac as an afterthought. I worked around it for a day, or two. Then I stopped. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/2026/08/images.jpeg) I would build my own... forget the Blackjack. And so AmperfyNative was born - a native macOS client for Navidrome and Subsonic-compatible servers, hyper-customized to exactly how I listen and organize (ol' ADHD me). There was one problem: I lacked the depth of knowledge. SwiftUI, AVAudioEngine, SQLite FTS5, buffer streaming, gapless transitions — none of it was territory I had real depth in. This is where agentic AI changed the math. With Cursor's Composer 2 as the harness, Hermes leading the orchestration, the project stopped being "someday" and became "this weekend." Starting from a spec document, I waxed poetic with Hermes for hours cogitating the ideal architecture, platform, and model to use. With $2 worth of tokens in the API used for orchestration (a mix of DeepSeek and GLM), and a $10 Cursor Pro plan, the project was born. And now AmperfyNative exists: pure SwiftUI + AVAudioEngine, no Electron, no Catalyst, no web views, one third-party dependency. A three-pane layout with a sortable table exposing eleven-plus columns — title, artist, album, genre, rating, play count, date added, last played, favorites — plus the enable/disable checkbox that skips tracks during auto-play without hiding them. Something I always wanted. The engine is the heart of it. Buffer-streaming in 10-second chunks with three buffers ahead, true gapless transitions, configurable crossfade, a 10-band parametric EQ with ten presets, ReplayGain normalization, and 80%-completion scrobbling that updates locally and on the server. Media keys, Now Playing, Control Center. Lightning-fast full-text search over SQLite FTS5 that stays instant across 40,000 songs. The architecture is cache-first: the app opens instantly from a per-server SQLite database, the full UI populated before the network is touched; a two-tier cover-art cache with request deduplication; per-server isolation so nothing crosses between servers. Against the original app, the wins are concrete: no network-blocked launches, optimistic mutations that roll back on failure, jank-free sorting, prefetched artwork, sleep/wake recovery at the exact playback position. Software for one. The economics still don't make sense. But the tools finally do, and that is what took this off the back burner. ### How to run a (AI) life - with Hermes URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/how-to-run-a-ai-life-with-hermes/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T02:26:50.000Z Taking a sabbatical from the world of LinkedIn, where each post is a humble-brag, I want to go back to the roots. To the format that started it all. And write about what moves me, what makes my gears tick. SO, I'm starting a series about how I use AI in my day-to-day life. Not the hype version. The version where I'm conversing with a computer at 6:30 in the morning, and it's telling me what's coming up, how I need to dress for the weather, and my daily Guru Granth Sahib Hukumnama. The tool is called Hermes, an AI agent from Nous Research, and it lives on my Mac Server. It runs in the background, reads and writes my files, manages my calendar, notes, and reminders, and remembers things between conversations. In short, an assistant that never leaves the (home) office. The part that changed everything is how I removed the friction between thought and execution. Enter VoiceInk - an app that lets me do voice-to-text with AI enhancement. Using a custom prompt and an internal dictionary, it distills my ramblings into coherent sentences, corrects misheard spellings, et voilà! Under the hood, Hermes runs on the VERY capable and supremely cheap DeepSeek Flash v4 (July). That is the quiet linchpin of the whole setup. Flash is fast and cheap, so I can dispatch small requests at it all day without watching the clock or the ledger. Voice in, fast answer out. Hermes is smart enough to understand what needs to be committed to memory versus what is idle banter. And what am I using it for? From general thinking-out-loud partner in tech, transcribing/translating Punjabi Gurmukhi text to English, to transcribing and cleansing journal entries from 30 years ago... the correct question to ask would be: what am I not using it for? What I really want to say is that I have been searching for a harness that grows with me and my needs, and in Hermes I found one. More as I feel like it. ### AI-powered PDF Sorter URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/pdf-sorter/ Last updated: 2026-01-13T01:13:25.000Z Spent the past few days building something I actually needed: a tool that automatically sorts/organizes messy PDFs. Anyone who's dealt with receipts, invoices, or contracts knows the pain. Hundreds of files named scan.pdf scattered across folders. Sorting them manually takes hours. So I scoped and built PDF Sort - a desktop app (Rust + Svelte) that uses Vision AI to read scanned documents, categorize them, and organize everything into clean, date-stamped folders. This isn't about replacing humans. AI handles the pattern recognition (vendor names, dates, document types). Humans approve the output. When the AI isn't confident, it asks for help (with a timeout so you're never stuck waiting). The tech involves: - - Vision AI to "read" scanned documents (even when OCR fails) - Machine learning that learns from your existing folder structure. Eg. if you have "VCA Animal Hospital," it knows to file "VCA Hospital" there instead of creating a duplicate - Multi-provider support (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Google Gemini) using OpenAI SDK endpoints - Privacy-first: Documents processed locally, API calls go directly to your chosen provider ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/2026/01/2026-01-11-at-23.01.01@2x-1.png) This is the type of AI augmentation I've been implementing professionally at scale: eliminating repetitive tasks (180+ hours/year saved in one recent project) while keeping humans in control of strategic decisions. Built because I needed it, sharing because others might too. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/2026/01/2026-01-11-at-23.00.51@2x.png) ### A nu start URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/a-nu-start/ Last updated: 2026-08-06T02:13:59.000Z It has been quite the hiatus. Between the last entry and this, some eight years have transpired. I am still here, still learning. Trying as always to stay on the cutting edge of everything that catches my fancy. But in so doing, I used to believe my expertise was less perhaps than that of the cognoscenti. But with time, I find myself turning into one. Stepping back a few, and realizing then, maybe I am not as clueless as I once believed. Between then and now, the whole landscape has changed. While I was merely starting out with my journey in self-hosting, AI/ML, cybersecurity, etc. Today, I find myself battle-hardened, with stories and lessons learned. And so I find myself wanting to write again. Perhaps to an audience of one, but hopefully to distill some musings into coherent words that I share publicly, will allow me to better formulate how I feel about the world we find ourselves in, increasingly. This blog, my constant companion since 2007, has been an outlet of sorts. From cringe-inducing early entries (almost a diary) when I was but a child, to serving as a brain-dump of my Hackintosh forays, this blog has been my public forum. And so, in 2026, I wondered whether to start fresh or continue on. I have chosen the latter. A student of history, I believe in continuity. It would be hypocritical of me to censor myself, especially as I espouse full disclosures. For the technical part, I converted my self-hosted WordPress blog (that I have had since 2009) to Ghost. It was surprisingly easy, and I will probably post a musing about the process. And so, welcome to my new forum. My musings. ### Installing CAS rubycas on Ubuntu URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/installing-cas-for-your-homelab-security-needs/ Last updated: 2026-01-13T01:12:27.000Z Let’s just say that my Homelab usage has gone through the roof in the last few months. Not only am I writing bespoke applications to solve my day-to-day needs, I am continually adding to the tools at my disposal. For instance, I recently decided to not renew my Evernote subscription, after discovering how I could make Confluence bend to my needs. Having worked with USF’s NetID authentication system (CAS), I got it in my head to implement CAS for my own bespoke applications. It really wasn’t the most straightforward of all installs. What follows is the knowledge distilled from nearly two days of head scratching, and gotchas. We’ll use the Ruby server named – `rubycas` found [https://github.com/rubycas/rubycas-server](https://github.com/rubycas/rubycas-server?ref=tim.sodhis.org) ## Prerequisites - Installed Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS on a virtual machine - 2 Processors - 4 GB RAM - 40 GD SSD/HDD space - Ruby installed - Rubygems installed - LOT of patience. ## Preparation ### Install Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS Basically the process as outlined by the Confluence document. - Ubuntu Admin - Setting a static IP - PHP FPM - MySQL & PHPMyAdmin - Add Web Development Group ### Install Ruby and Ruby Gems adapted from [https://gorails.com/setup/ubuntu/16.04](https://gorails.com/setup/ubuntu/16.04?ref=tim.sodhis.org) curl -sL [https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x](https://deb.nodesource.com/setup%5F8.x?ref=tim.sodhis.org) | sudo -E bash - curl -sS [https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg](http://https//dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg?ref=tim.sodhis.org) | sudo apt-key add - echo "deb [https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/](https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list sudo apt update sudo apt install git-core curl zlib1g-dev build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev software-properties-common libffi-dev nodejs yarn Using `rbenv`, the only version that actually works is 2.1.5. git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc exec $SHELL git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc exec $SHELL rbenv install 2.1.5 rbenv global 2.1.5 ruby -v gem install bundler rbenv rehash We will need the `mysql2` adapter sudo apt install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient-dev ### Create CAS Database in MySQL mysql -u root -p mysql> create database casserver; mysql> \q Also create a table in the `casserver` database called `casserver_users` ## Installation Time to install `rubycas-server` ### Install rubycas cd /var/www/html git clone git://github.com/rubycas/rubycas-server.git cd rubycas-server cp config/config.example.yml config.yml ### Edit config.yml Edit the file and save. server: webrick port: 8888 #ssl_cert: /path/to/your/ssl.pem database: adapter: mysql2 database: casserver username: root password: host: localhost reconnect: true authenticator: class: CASServer::Authenticators::SQLEncrypted database: adapter: mysql2 database: casserver username: root password: host: localhost user_table: casserver_users username_column: username #password_column: password encrypt_function: 'user.password == Digest::SHA1.hexdigest("#{@password}")' log: file: /var/log/casserver.log level: INFO db_log: file: /var/log/casserver_db.log maximum_unused_login_ticket_lifetime: 120 maximum_unused_service_ticket_lifetime: 120 maximum_session_lifetime: 14400 Now create the two log files. sudo touch /var/log/casserver.log sudo touch /var/log/casserver_db.log sudo chmod 2777 /var/log/casserver.log sudo chmod 2777 /var/log/casserver_db.log ## Post Install gem install mysql2 bundle update mysql2 gem install activerecord-mysql2-adapter gem install rack-test -v=0.7.0 gem install rubygems-update update_rubygems Edit Gemfile source "http://rubygems.org" gemspec gem 'mysql2', '~> 0.3.11' # Gems for authenticators group :ldap do gem "net-ldap", "~> 0.1.1" end group :active_resource do gem "activeresource", ">= 2.3.12", "< 4.0" end Edit `/var/www/html/rubycas-server/db/migrate/001_create_initial_structure.rb`, add this to the top. class ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Mysql2Adapter NATIVE_DATABASE_TYPES[:primary_key] = "int(11) auto_increment PRIMARY KEY" end If `Gemfile.lock` is not there already, use the one attached to this document. bundle install And start bundle exec rubycas-server -c config.yml ## Apache Passenger This has been adapted from a from a variety of sources. The intent behind this is to have Apache run the `rubycas` application natively. This eliminates the need to use the start command above. ### Install Passenger (free) This has been adapted from [here](https://www.phusionpassenger.com/library/walkthroughs/deploy/ruby/ownserver/apache/oss/xenial/deploy%5Fapp.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org) sudo apt update sudo apt install -y curl gnupg build-essential sudo apt install -y dirmngr gnupg sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 561F9B9CAC40B2F7 sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates sudo apt install apache2-dev sudo sh -c 'echo deb https://oss-binaries.phusionpassenger.com/apt/passenger xenial main > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list' sudo apt update sudo apt install -y libapache2-mod-passenger sudo a2enmod passenger sudo service apache2 restart Check if Passenger is working fine. sudo /usr/bin/passenger-config validate-install This should be the output What would you like to validate? Use to select. If the menu doesn't display correctly, press '!' ⬢ Passenger itself ‣ ⬢ Apache ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Checking whether there are multiple Apache installations... Only a single installation detected. This is good. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Checking whether this Passenger install is in PATH... ✓ * Checking whether there are no other Passenger installations... ✓ * Checking whether Apache is installed... ✓ * Checking whether the Passenger module is correctly configured in Apache... ✓ Everything looks good. :-) Now to find the Passenger path. passenger-config about ruby-command The thing to note is “command” on line 2\. The path should be noted. ### Configure vhost Now we have to make sure Apache can execute ruby applications. Edit the vhost file. sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf ServerName webauth.sodhis.net ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/html/rubycas-server/public PassengerRuby AllowOverride all Allow from all Require all granted AddHandler php7-fcgi .php Action php7-fcgi /php7-fcgi virtual Alias /php7-fcgi /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php7-fcgi FastCgiExternalServer /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php7-fcgi -socket /var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock -idle-timeout 1800 -pass-header Authorization ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined sudo service apache2 restart Lo and behold if all went well, go to http:///login and you should be golden. Proof being in the pudding, here’s mine :) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-30-at-5.50.53-PM-298x300.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-30-at-5.50.53-PM.png) ### Homelab - adding an nginx reverse proxy to the mix URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/homelab-adding-an-nginx-reverse-proxy-to-the-mix/ Last updated: 2026-01-13T01:12:45.000Z Of nginx tutorials there are many on the web. With my growing Homelab, having added Confluence to the mix, and having nearly eleven virtual machines on my Home Servers, I was simply tired of accessing them all with the port number qualifier. Moving the DNS provider to Cloudflare (Free) was the first step, but I was interested in setting up an nginx reverse proxy to handle the plethora of VM’s that I now have. SO, here’s how I went about it. I created a separate VM for the nginx proxy, lean on specs, as it really doesn’t need much. I used - 20GB HDD space - 2GB RAM - 1 CPU ## Install Ubuntu & nginx Install Ubuntu, as always. The requirements from an nginx system are quite lean. Install nginx from the PPA (as the version in the repository is 1.10) sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nginx/development sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade sudo apt install nginx Forward all 443 and 80 ports from the router, along with other TCP/UDP ports dealing with HTTP traffic to the new nginx server. Create the first vhost file. cd /etc/nginx/sites-available/ sudo vi sodhisnet.conf #### Before enabling SSL server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name sodhis.net www.sodhis.net; set $upstream ; location / { proxy_pass_header Authorization; proxy_pass http://$upstream; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Connection ""; proxy_buffering off; client_max_body_size 0; proxy_ssl_server_name on; proxy_read_timeout 36000s; proxy_redirect off; } } Activate the new vhost in nginix sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/sodhisnet.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/sodhisnet.conf sudo service nginx restart Do this for every vhost created. #### Enabling SSL ##### LetsEncrypt sudo certbot -d sodhis.net -d *.sodhis.net --manual --preferred-challenges "dns"--server https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory certonly ##### Changes to the vhost server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name sodhis.net www.sodhis.net; return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri; } server { # The IP that you forwarded in your router (nginx proxy) listen 443 ssl http2; listen [::]:443 ssl http2; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/sodhis.net/fullchain.pem; ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/sodhis.net/privkey.pem; # Make site accessible from http://localhost/ server_name sodhis.net www.sodhis.net; # The internal IP of the VM that hosts your Apache config set $upstream ; location / { proxy_pass_header Authorization; proxy_pass http://$upstream; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Connection ""; proxy_buffering off; client_max_body_size 0; proxy_ssl_server_name on; proxy_read_timeout 36000s; proxy_redirect off; } } sudo service nginx restart IF one has a WordPress blog on the web host, add the following to wp-config.php /** * Handle SSL reverse proxy */ if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https') $_SERVER['HTTPS']='on'; if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST'])) { $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST']; } ### Quiver by HappenApps URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/quiver-by-happenapps/ Last updated: 2018-08-15T17:35:10.000Z Speaking of documentation – I would like to give a big shoutout to this amazing code/snippets repository App that I am using on all my devices. Say hello to [Quiver](https://itunes.apple.com/app/quiver-programmers-notebook/id866773894?ls=1&mt=12&ref=tim.sodhis.org) by [HappenApps](http://happenapps.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Developed by [Yaogang Lian](https://twitter.com/happenapps?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (who is an amazingly responsive developer), this app has become a part and parcel of my daily coding routine since they deprecated the Snippets app. Give it a shot! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-07-23-at-12.24.27-PM-300x268.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2017-07-23-at-12.24.27-PM.png) ### Homelabs, ESXi and Virtual Machines, oh my... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/homelabs-esxi-vms/ Last updated: 2017-07-23T16:59:23.000Z I dabbled in the VPS world before getting a bit disillusioned with how much I needed to spend, in order to get a modicum of performance out of these machines. I initially signed up with a VPS I found on [LowEndBox](https://lowendbox.com/tag/buffalo/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (shoutout to the awesome deals one may find there), but three months hence, I got annoyed by niggling throughput issues, and the upcharge to move to a SSD RAID plan. In the meantime I started to frequent [/r/homelab](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and one thing led to another, and for the last 7 months I have been teaching myself how to host at home. ### Specs So, without further ado, here’s my humble initial setup, while I learn the ropes. - Dell Optiplex 9020 with Core i7 4th Gen 3.6GHz - 32GB of non-ECC RAM - 2x256GB ADATA SSD in RAID 1 - 8TB Seagate Data Store - Intel PRO/1000 VT Quad Port Server Adapter LP PCI-E EXPI9404VT Admittedly, it’s non-server class hardware, but for my homelab needs it will suffice. ### Virtual Machines On it, I am running VMWare ESXi 6.5, the free version, on which I currently I have five virtual machines chugging away – all serving their good purpose. 1. pfSense 2.3.4-RELEASE (amd64) 2. Web Server – which is hosting this site, as well as sodhis.org, sodhis.net and edvpro.com along with the bevy of subdomains with specialized applications. 3. Git server – running Gitlab Community Edition 9.4 4. Oracle XE Server – running the XE (free) Oracle instance 5. SOLR server – more on this in another post. To be succinct, pfSense acts as a Router for my home, while separating my Homelab in another VLAN. Also separated into their own VLAN are all the IOT devices around the house – Thermostats, Printers, Refrigerators, etc. And yet another VLAN hosts any guests on a separate WiFi network. Over the next few months I will detail how I implemented this infrastructure, if not for anyone else, but for me to document it somewhere. ### Virtualmin and 127.0.0.2 loopback on OpenVZ VPS servers URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/virtualmin-and-127-0-0-2-loopback-on-openvz-vps-servers/ Last updated: 2018-08-15T17:36:24.000Z I’ve gingerly stepped into the world of being a SysAdmin, and what better way to delve into the thick of things than to manage a VPS? To that end I signed up for a great deal at Nodeserve for an unmanaged DDOS protected OpenVZ VPS and have been using my free time in the evenings to set things up. Needless to say I’ve been reaching for that “Reset” button far too often. But here’s a problem that had me flummoxed, and it seems it afflicts the OpenVZ VPS servers. I set up Webmin (and Virtualmin) on my Debian Wheezy install, after the initial checks it kept detecting and setting the IP to 127.0.0.2\. Irritating, because that’s what it keeps trying to insert in the A records for the domain as well. After a bit of searching here’s what I did to fix that problem. > Webmin -> Networking -> Network Configuration -> Network Interfaces Here’s what I see (thank goodness for the new Webmin skin – HTML5 goodness). The default interface is set to **venet0** which defaults to 127.0.0.2, a known Debian hack AFAIK. [![Virtualmin and 127.0.02 loopback on OpenVZ VPS Server](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2016/03/1457107855_thumb.png "Virtualmin and 127.0.02 loopback on OpenVZ VPS Server")](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2016/03/1457107855%5Ffull.png) In most cases, one would want to use the **venet0:0** interface. Let’s fix the issue. > Virtualmin -> System Settings -> Virtualmin Configuration (Networking Settings) Scroll to the Networking Settings part, and under the field “*Network interface for virtual addresses*”. In all probabilities the radio is set to “*Detect Automatically*” or to **venet0**. Change it to say **venet0:0** or whatever your chosen interface may be**.** [![Virtualmin and 127.0.02 loopback on OpenVZ VPS Server](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2016/03/Virtualmin-and-127.0.02-loopback-on-OpenVZ-VPS-Server_thumb.png "Virtualmin and 127.0.02 loopback on OpenVZ VPS Server")](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2016/03/Virtualmin-and-127.0.02-loopback-on-OpenVZ-VPS-Server%5Ffull.png) Click “*Save*”. Virtualmin will prompt you to refresh the configuration, after which it will ask to **Update Incorrect IP Address**. Go through the screens – there will be no need to change anything at this point, click **Change Now** to affect the changes, and bob’s your uncle. Now create Virtual servers to your heart’s fancy. ### Return of a Titan URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/return-of-a-titan/ Last updated: 2016-02-18T14:47:28.000Z No, I don’t just mean yours truly. Although just so much has happened in the interim between the last update and now. For one, we moved across the country, leaving the cold Buffalo winters behind and saying hello to 70F winters in Florida. Ah, the Bay area, with the [best beach in the country](http://www.tbo.com/events-tampa-bay/clearwater-beach-ranked-no-1-in-the-us-other-local-beaches-crack-top-5-20160217/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Best Beach in USA") some 30 minutes away. Stepping into a new city, uprooting our established lives didn’t come easy. We had our shares of ups and downs. Emotional highs and crushing lows. But we’ve come out better for it. A new house, a fresh, sunny outlook on life. Living in a City finally, with City amenities and City traffic. A new job doing what I love best, in a University and department I love! Back to the world of PHP and MVC. A few changes under the hood though. Thanks to “[Let’s Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Free Certs for all!")”, this blog and all my sites are now SSL secured. I can’t laud this project enough. Free SSL certs for three months? Come on. But I do concur with the premise – there is really NO reason to be out in the open, sans HTTPS anywhere, anymore. What, or when are we? Back in the early 2ks? I am reacquainting myself with an old friend “[Blogo](https://getblogo.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Blogo v2")”. It was a fun app I used back in my 10.5-10.6 days to publish my blog posts here. I bought it back then, only to see them disappear along with my enthusiasm for blogging. They are back now on the [MAS](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blogo-blogging-app-for-wordpress/id902111700?mt=12&ref=tim.sodhis.org "Blogo on MAS"), and much more polished than before. Blogo v2 if you please. Having espoused the responsive world, I am doing it right this time. Here’s to a wonderful new start. ### Using Composer in shared hosts with allow_url_fopen off. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/composer-phar/ Last updated: 2015-04-08T16:05:04.000Z (AKA Using composer on hosts where one may not have root privileges). Due to the nature of the servers used by a few clients, I found myself scratching my head on how best to use Composer on these shared hosts. I hate having to require files from all over the place, it just rubs me the wrong way. Some projects just don’t lend themselves to a full blown MVC solution, and for those, a relatively quick way to get up and running is Composer. However, due to the restrictions placed by shared hosts, PHP might not be compiled with the allow\_url\_fopen=on. That causes an issue with installing and using composer. Here’s a quick way to get started for such hosts. This is assuming that you have access to the server via SSH. Install Composer in the project folder via the terminal, while SSH’d into the remote server (to pull in dependencies and for autoloading components) curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -d allow_url_fopen=on Create a composer.json file within the root. Initialize it as an empty JSON file with { } Run composer install via the terminal. php -d allow_url_fopen=on composer.phar install Make edits to the composer.json file. { "autoload":{ "psr-4":{ "Acme\\": "src" } } } Make the server re-read the composer.json file by executing the following in terminal. Check the vendors directory to see whether the namespace is pointing to the right directory for the source. php composer.phar dump-autoload Confirm that it works by pulling in the autoload.php and prefixing all the class instantiations with the namespace. require ‘vendor/autoload.php’; use Acme\User; $user = new User(); And Bob’s your uncle. That went well right? If not, and you are getting the dreaded “Class not found” error, most likely you didn’t name your class file, exactly like your class name. class User { } Needs to be in User.php. Not user.php or uSer.php. ### Excellent primer on Git URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/excellent-primer-on-git/ Last updated: 2016-02-18T13:45:25.000Z ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2015/04/1428156161_thumb.png "Primer on Git") I must admit I have been living under a rock. I started off with SVN back in 2009, and have been using it faithfully for years now (six and counting). What was all the rage back then, soon lost its favor come the 2010s, but due to SVN being bundled with XCode, I continued to use it on my Mac, and Mac Server. I resisted the urge to go to Git, and leave the warm, welcoming belly of SVN – mainly because of how well integrated SVN had become with my daily workflow (Sublime Text 3 + SVN plugin = effortless work). But I recently came across an excellent free primer written for Git by [Sean Fioritto](https://twitter.com/sfioritto?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Twitter Sean Fioritto") He is a prolific tech writer who maintains a [great site](http://www.planningforaliens.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Planning for Aliens") with Angular JS tutorials and resources and much more. This primer goes over the essentials of getting started with Git on OSX and Windows. It took me only 20 minutes and I was a convert. Sure, I would need the terminal open alongside, but the amount of control I get in return is addicting! I do agree with Sean, the GUI for Git (even SVN) adds much more complexity than is required for a day-to-day coding endeavor. [Check the pdf](http://www.planningforaliens.com/workshops/invasion/git-sample-chapter.pdf?%5F%5Fs=87kfmf7drbiafrxmmnib&ref=tim.sodhis.org "Git Primer") and judge for yourself. Thanks for providing such a great resource Sean! ### Making my way back... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/making-my-way-back/ Last updated: 2015-03-09T18:10:19.000Z It has been too long of a break. What was meant as a sojourn turned into something near permanence. I remember my last post here. It was the day that Steve Jobs died. After his death, it was difficult to muster up the same enthusiasm and fervor for Apple and Apple products/software. Yet nearly four years since his passing, my fervor for all things Apple continues. A bit tempered but mostly unabated. A lot has happened in the interim. New web technologies have risen, new stacks, frameworks. LAMP is so 2012, MEAN is where it’s at now. Front-end design and development has undergone a radical shift. Minimalism is in, skeuomorphism is out. Responsive is the mantra. Anything that doesn’t scale, might as well have scales (a la dinosaurs). And so, I mark the renaissance of this space. Imparting knowledge and wisdom I’ve gained through the storms I have weathered, developing and leading development for the last ten years. I will slowly yet surely reimport all the old content from timothevs.net. Some of the articles were the only resources on the web at the time. It will be fun, if only for nostalgia’s sake. To reuse an oft abused phrase – Tally ho! ### Goodbye, Steve Jobs. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/goodbye-steve-jobs/ Last updated: 2026-01-13T01:09:43.000Z The world has lost a visionary. The founder, and artist extraordinaire, Steve Jobs breathed his last this evening at \~ 7:30PM EST. He died peacefully, surrounded by family, leaving behind millions of fans, shell-shocked and grieving. He embodied Apple, and transformed it from the failure it was back in ’97, to the most valuable company in the world. He dared to think different, he dared to reinvent and re-imagine the world, and by being a round peg in a square hole, he redefined how we think about technology, business, human interfaces, and workflow. He gave us the iPod, the iPhone, and my beloved iPad and iMacs. His vision, and undulating support for emphasizing form and aesthetics over norms and dogma, resonated with the world, and projected his persona to larger than life proportions. He led technology to avenues others had not deemed profitable, or downright impossible, and he made these ventures into unmitigated successes. As I look around, surrounded by devices, from the iPad, to my iMac, and everything in between, I am struck by how one mans vision, and drive made these possible. How one mans ambition, coaxed the creation of these devices, making the leap from what was science fiction, not five years ago, to products and devices we can’t dream of living without. Steve Jobs will be sorely missed. Not for his contributions alone, but what this extraordinary man could’ve gone on to innovate. Of the current ilk, I fear none have the drive, passion, or the ability to think or push the bounds of possibilities. As the pithy goes, “whither do we go from here, and what shall be our endeavors?”. Time alone will tell. Today however, we turn inwards, and pay tribute to the most brilliant visionary of our times. Requiescat in pace Steve Jobs. Thank you for everything. ### OS X Lion on Gigabyte P55A-UD4P URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/os-x-lion-on-gigabyte-p55a-ud4p/ Last updated: 2011-07-21T11:16:18.000Z Greetings all. OS X 10.7 or Lion is out and available on the Mac App Store (MAS). Like it, love it, or loathe it, it is an evolutionary step in the progression of OSX. While the direction Apple is going in, with the new UI can be debated for hours, there is no denying the fact that millions will switch, and this includes some of us with our Hackintoshes as well. Snow leopard was notoriously difficult to get up and running on our Hackies for a long while. Worry not though, here’s a quick and painless way to get Lion up and running on your beige box. The steps below outline the route I took for my Gigabyte P55A-UD4P (F14). YMMV. What you will need:- 1. Lion installation DMG or the App from Mac Apple Store (MAS) 2. [Chimera](http://www.tonymacx86.com/1010110101/Chimera-1.4.1.zip?ref=tim.sodhis.org) or [Chameleon RC5](http://www.mediafire.com/?jlquaa5q6200pi3&ref=tim.sodhis.org) 3. A spare USB drive or a partition on your HDD to serve as the installation disc (>6GB) 4. Existing installation of Snow Leopard (how else would you get the Lion DMG or App?) (>10.6.5) **Step 1: (SL) Extract the *InstallESD.dmg* from the Lion.app.** I assume you got your copy from the MAS, and not from the “usual sources”. If you did get ti from the usual sources, mount the DMG you “found” and, go to step 2\. For all others, within your installation of Snow Leopard, do the following: 1. Show Package Contents on Install Mac OS X Lion.app by right clicking on the Lion icon 2. In *Contents -> Shared Support* find *InstallESD.dmg* 3. Mount *InstallESD.dmg* **Step 2: (SL) Restore the DMG to an installation disk** This step will restore the DMG image on to the USB drive or a partition on your HDD. Be warned, it won’t make this drive or disc bootable, but will copy over all the data required. 1. Find *BaseSystem.dmg* amongst the hidden files in the *InstallESD.dmg*. I usually use [Pathfinder](http://www.cocoatech.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) to view Hidden files. 2. Mount the *BaseSystem.dmg* image. (Illustrated below) 3. Open *Disk Utility* and on the left pane, right click the USB drive or the partition you want to designate as the installation drive. 4. Click Restore, and as the source, drag the *Mac OS X Base System*, and in the destination, drag the USB drive or the partition from the left pane. (Illustrated below) 5. The process takes \~ 2 minutes. 6. Unmount the mounted image from 2\. Unmount the Mac OS X Base System with the white drive icon. 7. Open *Mac OS X Base System* that was just created in 5, and navigate to *System -> Installation* folder. 8. Delete the file called *Packages*. 9. From Mac OS X Install ESD copy the folder called *Packages* to the *System -> Installation* folder from 7. 10. Copy these five files from Mac OS X Install ESD to Mac OS X Base System:- *mach\_kernel, .disk\_label, boot.efi, kernelcache* and *MacOSX\_Media\_Background.png (Illustrated below)* [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen_shot_2011-07-21_at_11-thumb.45.24_AM1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen%5Fshot%5F2011-07-21%5Fat%5F11.45.24%5FAM1.png) > Steps 2.1, 2.2 > > [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen_shot_2011-07-21_at_11-thumb.46.52_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen%5Fshot%5F2011-07-21%5Fat%5F11.46.52%5FAM.png) After Step 2.2 [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen_shot_2011-07-21_at_11-thumb.47.41_AM1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen%5Fshot%5F2011-07-21%5Fat%5F11.47.41%5FAM1.png) > Step 2.4 > > [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen_shot_2011-07-21_at_11-thumb.18.34_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/Screen%5Fshot%5F2011-07-21%5Fat%5F11.18.34%5FAM.png) Step 2.10 **Step 3: (SL) Make the Installation Disk bootable.** Now that the BaseSystem.dmg has been restored to the USB drive or the partition you designated (hereafter referred to, as the installation drive), we need to prep it to boot. 1. Install *Chameleon RC5* or *Chimera* (choose your poison) to the newly created *Mac OS X Base System* partition. 2. This will create a new folder called /*Extra*. 3. In /*Extra*, paste in *Extensions folder, com.apple.Boot.plist, DSDT.aml, Extensions.mkext* and *smbios.plist*. You should have these if you are using Snow Leopard on your beige box. If not, you may utilize what I have in mine. Here’s a [link](http://www.mediafire.com/?4o2qglhs1d07ied&ref=tim.sodhis.org). 4. Pay special attention to *smbios.plist*. Make sure you have a serial number in there. **Step 4: (L) Lion Installation** Reboot your box, and press F12 or whichever key combination to bring up the motherboard HDD select screen. Choose to boot from the installation drive. If you’ve done it right, Lion installer should start. Continue on to install Lion by either erasing your Snow Leopard installation, and installing it on that partition, OR install it to a separate partition. If you really don’t care, you can also choose to install it over Snow Leopard. In any case, the installation should go flawlessly. **Step 5: (L) Post installation** On reboot, choose to boot from the installation drive again, but when the Drive selection comes up, choose your new Lion install partition, and boot into Lion. 1. Once you’ve logged in, install *Chameleon* or *Chimera* on the Lion partition. 2. Copy back the *Extra* folder contents from the *Mac OS X Base System* installation drive to your Lion Drive Extra folder. 3. As an alternative to 2, if you ever did use *Multibeast*, you can run the installer for *Multibeast*, much as you would’ve on Snow Leopard. 4. Reboot, and profit. I chose to keep the Mac OS X Base System partition intact, and not delete it, in case I ever need to reinstall Lion from scratch. However, if you are hurting for space, feel free to delete the installation drive from Disk Utility. The process is very straightforward, and to be honest, I don’t recall it ever being so easy to install the latest OSX version so close to the actual launch of the OS. Whether or not you’d want to, is a completely different question. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/lion-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/07/lion.jpg) ### Logitech Quickcam Microphone not working - a solution URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/logitech-quickcam-microphone-not-working-a-solution/ Last updated: 2011-04-06T12:46:08.000Z Logitech’s Quickcam HD Cameras (particularly Pro 9000 HD) are good choices for the Hackintosh inclined. However, the Mics on these cameras are rather fickle in their relationship with OSX. There are numerous support requests in the Logitech forums from users who bought the non-mac variation of these cams and are using them with their Mac Minis, or Mac Pros. The common complaint is that the Mic simply refuses to work in OSX no matter how many times one unplugs and re-plugs the USB cord. Simply no sound is detected. For many users, a reboot fixes the issue temporarily, while others have reported no luck with the same. I came upon a solution, which although inelegant, works great – and without a reboot Open Audio Midi Setup from > /Applications/Utilities/ [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/04/Screen_shot_2011-04-06_at_1-thumb.42.12_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/04/Screen%5Fshot%5F2011-04-06%5Fat%5F1.42.12%5FPM.png) 1. Select the Unknown USB Audio Device by clicking on it in the left pane. This is the Logitech HD Quickcam Mic, as recognized by OSX. 2. Click on Input on the Right Pane 3. In the format dropdown, select a different format from what is already selected. 4. Now in the Volume Tab right under the format dropdown, fiddle with the volume bar, decreasing it all the way and then increasing it to the max. And hey presto, the microphone works again. Confirmed to work in 10.6 (Snow Leopard). ### TRIM on OSX 10.6.7 is a-go for Corsair F120 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/trim-on-osx-10-6-7-is-a-go-for-corsair-f120/ Last updated: 2011-03-28T17:38:55.000Z I recently upgraded my main OSX HDD to a Corsair F120GB2 SSD. Boasting a Sandforce controller, which in absence of TRIM (or in addition to), performs aggressive Garbage Collection (GC) on the SSD, this particular SSD caught my interest because of the best transfer rates in its class. The Sandforce controller made it a viable choice for OSX as well. When I saw it on sale at Newegg, with a huge Mail In Rebate (MIR) I jumped on the bandwagon. I cannot stress how much of a difference an SSD makes. I used to dismiss the claims, reasoning – once the programs/apps are open, it is all the same, but dear me, from boot up to fully working on the desktop in 17 seconds flat. It is no mean feat. Corsair F120 is simply amazing! However, one does have to tread carefully in the absence of TRIM. All the whitepapers and reviews I read seemed to point unequivocally at 20% provisioning for a non-TRIM GC Sandforce drive. For a 120GB capacity it translates into nearly 24GB. In other words, the drive must never be over 80% of its capacity, lest the slowdowns begin. TRIM, is a MAJOR requirement. Devs noticed TRIM support for Apple branded SSDs in Apple’s newest OS in the making, OS 10.7\. It seemed that we’d have to wait till June-July 2011 for this feature. But alas, with the advent of 10.6.7, we are finally there! TRIM can be made to work with non-Apple branded SSDs. It requires one to run a simple app (no more scripts) made by [Groths](http://www.groths.org/wp-trackback.php?p=308&ref=tim.sodhis.org "TRIMEnabler"). It worked flawlessly, on the first try. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/03/Screen_shot_2011-03-27_at_8-thumb.18.11_PM2.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2011/03/Screen%5Fshot%5F2011-03-27%5Fat%5F8.18.11%5FPM2.png) A few caveats – I haven’t yet tried to stress test my SSD to see whether TRIM has made any real world difference. Additionally, since this relies on KEXT changes in /S/L/E, it is conceivable that on the next update from Apple, this change is overwritten. In any case, will keep you guys posted. For now though, enjoy seeing a “Yes” next to TRIM support. ### Back again after a brief outage URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-again-after-a-brief-outage/ Last updated: 2011-02-03T14:51:42.000Z Back last month, a sudden spike in the number of visitors to this site caused the shared hosting server I use (Hostgator) to spiral out of control. This, inevitably caused the provider to block my site. It was, succinctly put, a headache to get the blog back up and running again. But, after installing a number of caching mechanisms, etc, I am back in business. It has left me rather soured in terms of how I regard my host. Needless to say, come November, I will be looking elsewhere. BTW! Happy New Year :) ### Reeder for OSX is out URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/reeder-for-osx-is-out/ Last updated: 2010-11-30T20:44:44.000Z At least in beta, but the best, most minimalist, intuitive RSS reader for iPad and iPhone is now on OSX! Enter [Reeder](http://madeatgloria.com/brewery?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Reeder"). The developers hit gold with their implementation of a beautiful, three-paned design for iPad, and iPhone. This has now been ported over to OSX. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-30_at_8-thumb.40.04_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-30%5Fat%5F8.40.04%5FPM.png)I have been playing around with it all evening, and though a little rough around the edges, it is already the best RSS reader, hands down. Go get yours! ### 10.6.5 brings ExFAT - makes sharing files between OSX and Windows easier! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/10-6-5-brings-exfat-makes-sharing-files-between-osx-and-windows-easier/ Last updated: 2011-02-22T09:52:49.000Z **EDIT on 02/16/2011 – It works again! 10.6.6\.** Seems the bug was ironed out on 10.6.6\. Thanks all who reported it. I didn’t have the chance to test it out on a Win7 machine (as I was fresh out of one). **~~EDIT on 12/09/2010~~** ~~– As Clinton pointed out in the comments below, a partition formatted in OSX as exFAT will in fact not work on Windows 7\. You can however, format the partition in Windows 7 as exFAT to make it r/w on OSX. Sorry for this! I will update when I know more.~~ What a wonderful surprise last evening with the release of 10.6.5, especially for us dual-booters – support for [ExFAT](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT?ref=tim.sodhis.org) in OSX! Windows 7 and Vista SP1 have supported it for months, as did the 27″ iMac (mid 2010), but with 10.6.5, this has been released for all. The possibilities are just mind-boggling. For the first time ever, native support for reading/writing files on a partition by both OSX and Windows! This has been a pipe dream, that has worked dodgily at best. One has had to resort to [MacDrive](http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive?ref=tim.sodhis.org) on Windows to read/write OSX partitions, and poor OSX folk have had to wrestle with NTFS-3G drivers – don’t even get me started on how much I hate NTFS-3G. But with ExFAT, OSX and Windows 7 can work with the same partition with no extra software required. Wow. Just wow. To get started, just format a partition on your drive, either on OSX or Windows 7 in ExFAT and watch the fireworks! Things like these bring out the geek in me. This alone is worth the update to 10.6.5\. GO GET IT! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-11_at_8-thumb.50.24_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-11%5Fat%5F8.50.24%5FAM.png) ### Best bandwidth monitor for Snow Leopard or Leopard URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/best-bandwidth-monitor-for-snow-leopard-or-leopard/ Last updated: 2010-11-09T09:24:52.000Z There has been a lot of debate over the lack of bandwidth monitor apps for OSX. Many will point the clueless reader to [iStat Menus](http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), and other such pointless apps, which don’t maintain the amount of data transferred, after a reboot. For Windows there’s the inimitable DuMeter, but nothing did I know came close to its functionality, for OSX. That is, till I discovered – [Net Monitor](http://homepage.mac.com/rominar/net.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Hands down, it is the best Bandwidth Monitor for OSX (Leopard and Snow Leopard). Customizable, and very low in memory imprint, Net Monitor will inspect the traffic out of all your ports. It displays this traffic in a very customizable graph. It not only monitors the amount of data, but also can present customizable reports of the bandwidth usage, broken down by day, or total volume, etc. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-09_at_9-thumb.18.56_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-09%5Fat%5F9.18.56%5FAM.png) I have been using this app for nearly two years with nary an issue. Those MBs sure stack up fast, and if you are one of the unlucky users whose usage is metered (see Comcast), this app is invaluable for the $10 that it costs. I highly recommend it. Give it a whirl. ### AVCHD Editing on Mac revisited URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/avchd-editing-on-mac-revisited/ Last updated: 2010-11-05T15:42:47.000Z I recently purchased a [Panasonic HDC-SD600](http://panasonic.net/avc/camcorder/hd/hs700%5Ftm700%5Fsd700/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) camcorder – featuring full HD 1080p recording options and OIS to boot. While I cannot praise the camera enough, the workflow for editing an AVCHD file on a Mac leaves something to be desired. The fact remains that even after nearly four years of widespread AVCHD use, there are “no” editors for OSX that will edit the AVCHD MTS file natively. I visited this issue [a while back](https://tim.sodhis.org/2010/01/20/avchd-lite-vs-motion-jpeg-editing-ease-on-the-mac/), comparing the merits of MJPEG vs AVCHD Lite with regard to editing ease on the Mac, and concluded that MJPEG while inferior in terms of compression, is infinitely better in terms of editing ease. It sparked an interesting debate and a lot of comments from other interested people who have come across the same problem – the cumbersome editing process on a Mac while using AVCHD Lite. Not having the MJPEG option on this camera, I was determined to figure out a good middle ground for editing the AVCHD MTS files on the Mac without losing quality. Converting the video to a format OSX software can work with is ***inevitable***. What one can try and achieve is the most optimal conversion process so that the end result is spectacular. Here I believe I have a workflow that works quite well, at least for me. Once again this is very subjective and YMMV. I am trying to stick to the free/near free options for OSX. One could go with [Adobe Premiere Pro CS5](http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and edit the AVCHD files with minimal loss of quality, but that suite is rather expensive and for the casual hobbyist videographer, an overkill. One could also choose [Voltaic HD](http://www.shedworx.com/voltaichd?ref=tim.sodhis.org), but I tried the demo from their website, and came out very underwhelmed. Here’s the suite of apps that I use:- - [Handbrake](http://www.handbrake.fr/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) - [iMovie](http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) from iLife ’11 That is all. All editing was done on my mid-2009 iMac with a 3.06 GHz Core2Duo and 4GB RAM. The workflow is really quite simple. Succinctly put, I convert the MTS files to M4V using Handbrake and my custom settings (below). I then import these M4V files into iMovie allowing it to convert the files to MOV and generating thumbnails. Once I edit the movie, I export the same from iMovie using my presets. Couldn’t be simpler. You can click on the images below to view them full-size. **Step 1: Fire Up Handbrake and let ‘er rip!** Choose the file to convert, and then in the Video Tab, choose constant quality with a value of 18-20. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-05_at_3-thumb.40.11_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-05%5Fat%5F3.40.11%5FPM.png) I found that the lower this value is, the better is the quality. The downside to choosing a lower value is the huge file size. So make sure you have HDD room to spare. In my experience, values for Constant Quality < 18 really don't really show any significant improvement, however the file-size is nearly doubled. On a side note, I also tried the constraining by file size and data rate options, but these are just the opposite of what you would want to do, to preserve the quality. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-05_at_3-thumb.40.28_PM1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-05%5Fat%5F3.40.28%5FPM1.png) The advanced tab, I keep my values as shown. They are based on a lot of research into what is recommended by the cognoscenti and personal experience as well. Feel free to recommend any alterations. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-05_at_3-thumb.48.38_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-05%5Fat%5F3.48.38%5FPM.png) Press the start button, and let Handbrake convert that MTS to M4V for you. **Step 2: Open iMovie and import the movie** Import the M4V you just created with Handbrake to iMovie. Don’t forget to check the “Optimize video: Full – Original Size” option. iMovie will import the M4V file and convert the same into MOV for easier editing. If you didn’t choose the Optimize video option, iMovie would still import the video, but any attempts to edit it, will cause your system to lag. I’ve seen this happen on Core i7s as well. Once the movie is imported, you can edit it in the timeline view, and to your heart’s content. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-05_at_3-thumb.51.43_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-05%5Fat%5F3.51.43%5FPM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-05_at_3-thumb.52.19_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-05%5Fat%5F3.52.19%5FPM.png) **Step 3: Share the movie** From Share, choose Export Movie, -> HD 1080p, press Export and Bob’s your uncle. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen_shot_2010-11-05_at_4-thumb.13.39_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/11/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-11-05%5Fat%5F4.13.39%5FPM.png) ***Note*** that there are other ways to import an AVCHD MTS file into iMovie – by connecting your camera and importing directly – but these conversions are very lossy. I compared a movie exported using this method, and the method outlined above, and the difference is more than significant. The picture quality for the Handbrake converted videos is considerably better. It definitely does help to go the extra mile in this case. ### Starcraft II on Mac, vs Windows - performance URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/starcraft-ii-on-mac-vs-windows-performance/ Last updated: 2010-09-08T09:10:02.000Z O [Starcraft II](http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), the brainchild of [Blizzard Entertainment](http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), why doest thou suffer so under Mac OSX? I tried cajoling, I tried upgrades, and I tried updates, all to no avail. Mac fanatics and die-hards at Mac oriented forums will castigate me for this, but it is true, *Mac OSX is simply not conducive to gaming*, even for games written FOR the platform. Case in point Starcraft II. The latest and the best in strategy games from Blizzard. Eagerly awaited, I was amongst the first to rejoice when I found out that it would play natively on OSX – sans Steam, and sans emulators. What I didn’t account for, was the performance. And man does it suffer under OSX. Here are the specs of my rig: > Core i7 860 @ Stock speeds – 2.8GHz > 8 GB of matched DDR3 XMS3 RAM @ 1600 MHz > Samsung Spinpoint F3 7200RPM 1TB HDD > XFX 9800GT 512MB VRAM > Running Snow Leopard 10.6.4 with all updates (including the GFX update & CUDA from nVIDIA) Not the best of systems, but certainly no slouch. The graphics card is a bit old – about a year, and it is well over the [minimum specifications](http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=26242&locale=en%5FUS&ref=tim.sodhis.org) for Mac OSX from Blizzard. So I purchased a license and fired up the game on my Mac, and to my chagrin, all the default recommendations were at “Medium” or “Low”. I tried overriding the same, and set them to “High” to painfully watch the frame-rate drop to 2-5 FPS. UGLY. I tolerated the game at “Medium” and a couple of “Low”, though the game is still gorgeous at these settings. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/09/Remote_Desktop_Picture-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/09/Remote%5FDesktop%5FPicture.png)I was curious though, how the game would play on a Windows install, so I decided to compare the performance by installing Windows 7 on another HDD on my system (specs above). I went through the motions, updated the game, and booted it up. I stood bewildered: the recommendations for all graphics options were “Ultra”, and the game rarely drops a frame, with everything set to “Ultra”. Boasting of smooth transitions, breathtaking videos, perfect gameplay, Windows version of SC2, just simply blows the Mac version out of reckoning. Why ever would anyone choose to play any game on OSX? [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/09/Remote_Desktop_Picture1-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/09/Remote%5FDesktop%5FPicture1.png) ### My new Hackintosh - Core i7 860 on GA - P55A - UD4P (v1) URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/my-new-hackintosh-core-i7-860-on-ga-p55a-ud4p-v1/ Last updated: 2010-09-08T09:08:47.000Z It took me some time, but after a lot of work and sweat, I am on a stable OSX (10.6.4) install on a Core i7 system. What a beast of a machine! I have it running stable, with an uptime of nearly eighteen days. The machine specs follow:- - Core i7 860 Quad Core @ 2.8 GHz - ~~4~~ 8 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz - nVidia GEForce 9800GT (512 MB RAM) - 11.5 TB of HDDs (RAID-0) - Gigabyte GA – P55A – UD4P (version 1) - Creative X-Mod External Soundcard USB. About the last part, I decided to circumvent the inevitable tussle with OSX and Sound cards, and just get the best external soundcard out there – the Creative XMod. Just plug it in, and it works out of the box. The proof is in the pudding. I am running in the 64 Bit mode, with 64 Bit KEXTs. A how-to will follow. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/08/Screen_shot_2010-07-23_at_12-thumb.01.28_PM.png) ### A post from Windows Live Writer Beta URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/a-post-from-windows-live-writer-beta/ Last updated: 2010-08-03T20:51:44.000Z Yes, the switch has taken place. Stay tuned, yet again. ### Watch this space... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/watch-this-space/ Last updated: 2010-07-14T11:50:38.000Z I am going back to my roots. OSX is a dish best served Hackintosh’d. An iMac was my cowardly way out. But that is history, the iMac’s on eBay and I am going back to my Hackintosh. Watch this space as I journal my way back, and get back up to speed with the developments since November ’09\. Many more how-tos coming up! ### iBooks v1.1 is out!! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ibooks-v1-1-is-out/ Last updated: 2010-06-21T13:47:40.000Z With the advent of iOS 4.0, Apple just released iBooks 1.1 and my my, the best reader app just got better! Featuring syncing of places, bookmarks, notes between devices. This is HUGE! It works seamlessly – any changes made on your iPhone, or your iPad are immediately synced to your iTunes account OTA (over the air), and the next time you open the iBooks app in iPad or iPhone, you can see the changes reflected from the other device, as well as continue from where you left off. Flawless implementation, and my hat is off to the iBooks team. ### Wowza, Calendar and Notes syncing with Google on iOS 4.0 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/wowza-calendar-and-notes-syncing-with-google-on-ios-4-0/ Last updated: 2010-06-17T07:52:45.000Z iOS 4.0 is almost upon us, and with the plethora of features implemented, including multi-tasking (which works according to the Apple definition of multi-tasking), folders, and a shiny new UI, there is an easter egg that I knew nothing about, till I set out to include my GMail account. The biggest surprise was inclusion of native syncing with Google Calendar and Notes in iOS! Yeah you read it right. iOS now natively syncs with Google Calendar and creates a Label in your GMail account called Notes – wherein it places all notes created in the Notes app on the iPhone. Simply marvelous! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/photo_4-thumb.png) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/photo_3-thumb.png) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-17_at_8-thumb.47.59_AM.png) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/photo_2-thumb.png) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/photo_1-thumb.png) ### iPhone 4 ordered URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/iphone-4-ordered/ Last updated: 2010-06-15T08:48:52.000Z The guests are met, the feast is set, mayst hear the merry din! So spake the ancient Mariner. But here we are, about five hours into the iPhone 4 pre-order mania, and though the process has been painful at best, our orders are in. Though not with Apple.com, we did manage to get the order through with AT&T. They are confirmed and scheduled for delivery on June 24th. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/titleoops-thumb.gif) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/4702953682_d8f0176de8_b-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/4702953682%5Fd8f0176de8%5Fb.jpg)It is a shame though, how woefully unprepared Apple was for the overwhelming demand for the iPhone 4\. No sooner had the pre-orders begun at 4:00AM EST, the servers were deluged by the masses and were sent into a tizzy. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Apple_Oops-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Apple%5FOops.jpg)I tried for the better part of an hour – having woken up at 4:15AM – but to no avail. Disgusted, I ordered via ATT.com and it went through immediately. Now begins the wait till June 24th! ### iCal corrupt, MobileMe not syncing - a fix URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ical-corrupt-mobileme-not-syncing-a-fix/ Last updated: 2010-06-11T13:06:11.000Z And so it came to pass. On a fresh install of the OS, 10.6.3, I chose the usual MobileMe options, to sync my Bookmarks, Calendars, Notes, and Contacts from the cloud. A few hours later, I noticed that none of my iCal calendars made it down from the cloud. Nada, nothing! There seemed to be nothing wrong with the Calendars, I could view them just fine on my iMac and online on MobileMe. Exasperated, I did the following things -> - Reset Sync Data from the MobileMe preferences - Delete all Calendar data from \~/Library/Calendars & \~/Library/Caches/ & \~/Library/Preferences/ - Cleaned the iCal calendars on my iMac (the one machine which still showed the calendars fine). What made it all the more disconcerting was the fact that once I deleted the calendars on my iPad, they didn’t restore from MobileMe. I know they were still existent on the MobileMe servers. After racking my skillset for a couple of hours, I did what I should’ve done in the first place. CMD+SPACE and Console. And there it was, the reason for all my troubles. > 6/8/10 9:23:38 PM iCalExternalSync\[1127\] \[ICalExternalSync\] Refused insert of bad detached event A4BDA98E-488A-4932-BAC4-36CE6526467B that claims to be its own master event > 6/8/10 9:23:38 PM com.apple.syncservices.SyncServer\[1072\] 2010-06-08 21:23:38.747 iCalExternalSync\[1127:903\] \[ICalExternalSync \]Refused insert of bad detached event A4BDA98E-488A-4932-BAC4-36CE6526467B that claims to be its own master event > 6/8/10 9:23:38 PM iCalExternalSync\[1127\] \[ICalExternalSync \]Encountered \*\*\* -\[NSCFSet addObject:\]: attempt to insert nil > 6/8/10 9:23:38 PM com.apple.syncservices.SyncServer\[1072\] 2010-06-08 21:23:38.766 iCalExternalSync\[1127:903\] \[ICalExternalSync \]Encountered \*\*\* -\[NSCFSet addObject:\]: attempt to insert nil The problem seemed to be that there was a corrupt event in the iCal list. An event that claimed to be its own master (think of RDBMS and reference tables). I tried to reset a number of events I had changed in the last few weeks. I tried to look through the Calendar folders to delete the offending event from the disk. But to no avail. So if you find yourself in my shoes, having exhausted all your avenues, here’s a way out. Google Calendars (GCal). Yes, now read me out. You don’t need to migrate to GCal completely. You will need an amazing piece of software – Spanning Sync, a Google Calendar account, and some courage to take very drastic steps. The process is as follows:- 1. Create Calendars on GCal that match the calendar categories on your iCal 2. Download Spanning Sync (fourteen day full trial) 3. Setup Spanning Sync to sync MobileMe with GCal, but not change anything in iCal 4. Let her rip and copy everything over to GCal 5. Now disable syncing on Spanning Sync 6. Delete every synced computer from MobileMe in the MobileMe preferences (Stop Syncing this Computer) 7. Also delete all the calendar data when MobileMe asks you (when there are no more computers in the list) 8. Delete all data from \~/Library/Calendars, \~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iCal, \~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist 9. Restart 10. Now open iCal, and you will see it is all reset to factory. Create all new categories (as they once were) 11. Enable sync back from GCal -> iCal making sure that no changes take place on GCal. 12. Enable syncing to MobileMe. GCal will stream back a corrected list of Events into your new categories. Spanning Sync makes sure of that. It is very unfortunate that there is no “non destructive” method of cleaning your Calendar DB once corruption occurs. ### MS Office 2011 Beta 4 - 100526 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ms-office-2011-beta-4-100526/ Last updated: 2010-06-05T18:05:11.000Z Since I posted my review, MS Office for Mac 2011 Beta 4 is out. It seems that the only difference is that there aren’t any VBA errors in the build. Regardless, if you have access, download the update! ### MS Office for Mac 2011 Beta 3 - mini review URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ms-office-for-mac-2011-beta-3-mini-review/ Last updated: 2010-06-05T14:27:42.000Z The third beta of the new, re-polished MS Office for Mac 2011 is out. Written from the ground up in Cocoa, it look and feels like a real Mac app. Gone is the clunky Carbon interface, and the slow, unresponsive GUI. This version, though still in Beta, is a vast improvement over its predecessor which came out in Jan, 2008\. Thanks to the Beta program, I got my copy along with the rest of the world late last month. I have been playing around with the various apps, but before I ZAP them, here are my thoughts on what I’ve seen so far (*dial-up alert*): [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.33.20_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.33.20%5FAM.png)**Outlook for Mac** The biggest change in Office suite 2011, is the inclusion of Outlook for Mac. Entourage is dead, and everyone may breathe a collective sigh of relief. Flawed from the first onslaught, Entourage was a mentally-challenged, crippled cousin of Outlook for Windows. A face only a mother could love. It never posed a serious threat to the Mail.app or any of the Mozilla offerings, and offered limited if any kind of support for MS Exchange. As a result, it never curried favor with Enterprise users. Why, Mail.app v5 did a much better job with Exchange, and it isn’t even an MS product. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.35.29_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.35.29%5FAM.png)But with Outlook for Mac 2011, MS has stepped up its offering, bringing the MS Mail app few steps closer to its Windows counterpart. The ribbon interface we’ve come to love from Office 2007 for Windows, is ubiquitous in every app in MS Office 2011\. It feels natural! I am told that it can import data from PST files (phew). I tried it out, with a PST file from my Windows days and it did transfer most data over. I say most, because I also had some Journal data which wasn’t recognized. I hope that other companies will offer a better solution/import for PST files (structure for which has now been shared by MS). [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.35.36_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.35.36%5FAM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_10-thumb.52.36_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F10.52.36%5FAM.png)**VBA and Macros** Visual Basic script and Macro support is BACK! Why in heaven did MS opt to leave it out of MS Office 2008, is beyond me. It is the staple of cross platform working/document sharing, and goodness how I have suffered for the lack of the same. Now let me stress, I hate VBS and Macros in my documents, but everyone I know/work with isn’t privy to this information. These two banes of my work existence have haunted my MS Office 2008 days, prompting me to switch to Windows on Parallels to edit/work these documents. But MS Office 2011 brings this support back. And it works for most part. Indeed I understand it is still in Beta, but it is a great start and it can only get better. However, I do hope that this doesn’t prompt people to continue using Macros. **Microsoft Word** The most used App in the MS Office world, Word for Mac has seen a meteoric shift since the days of PPC Word 2004\. Word 2007 was a shift from the old way of doing things to a quasi-ribbon layout. Word 2011 completes this paradigm shift. Ribbons everywhere! New templates and integration with Office Online completes the trifecta of changes. In this app, as in others, the context of the task being performed, changes the ribbon. That’s very helpful indeed. The app is very polished, and contains nearly all the production-level features. There are bugs galore, though they don’t detract from using this app for day-to-day work. This is the sole app out of the suite for which I can safely say this. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.36.41_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.36.41%5FAM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.36.57_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.36.57%5FAM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.40.44_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.40.44%5FAM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.39.12_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F9.39.12%5FAM.png) **Microsoft Messenger Beta 3 (build 100519)** Oh how I have looked forward to a Microsoft Messenger update. Something, anything that would bring it at par with the Messenger Live for Windows. But alas, my hopes remain dashed. Apart from a video chat feature, which has been present since Beta 1 (thank you MS), there’s nothing to write home about on this version. There are minor interface tweaks, for instance that ugly “Send” button is gone. Hovering over the friend’s display pic brings up a contextual menu. Many the bugs from the March 2010 Beta release still remain. These include, the inability to change display picture, login failures. But perhaps the biggest flaw of them all, the UI of Messenger is virtually unchanged since the Messenger 7 days. This app seems to stick out like a sore thumb. Back to Adium. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_11-thumb.11.58_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F11.11.58%5FAM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_11-thumb.13.30_AM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F11.13.30%5FAM.png)**Microsoft Excel** I didn’t try Excel out as much as I would’ve liked to. There’s just so much to discover in this app, that each day I keep finding more. There is a slew of handy tools for summarizing, creating formulas on the fly. That, in addition to the variety of presets and templates, make Excel very usable even in its current avatar. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_11-thumb.03.09_AM.png) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_12-thumb.06.42_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F12.06.42%5FPM.png)**Conclusions & Caveats** Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 promises and delivers with aplomb. The GUI and features bring it closer to the Mac look and feel, while at the same time not compromising on the feature set. I didn’t notice any increase in the CPU usage, and a negligible increase in the memory usage with the new MS Suite. The conclusion to take home though: It looks great and behaves well, however, and this is a big however, it is nowhere close to a release candidate or a final product. I would definitely not recommend using this as a production system. While Word works well for most part, Outlook does not. It crashes downloading large bodies of mails, and has placeholder text and icons all over. Same for Powerpoint and Excel. Don’t even get me started on Microsoft Messenger for Mac v8.0\. I for one welcome our new MS Office overlord. I can’t wait till this is released sometime late this year. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_10-thumb.57.17_AM2.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-06-04%5Fat%5F10.57.17%5FAM2.png) > Buggy, venturing away from a dropdown in the ribbon in any app. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.34.41_AM.png) > Placeholder texts abound. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-04_at_9-thumb.36.24_AM.png) > Outlook text doesn’t wrap. ### Highlight Stacks URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/highlight-stacks/ Last updated: 2010-06-02T21:08:11.000Z Remember the good old days of Leopard? You’d click on a stack, and a lengthy while later, it would pop-up a list of your documents, apps or what have you, with a nice halo around the hovered item. Come Snow Leopard, and Apple has fixed many of the endearing waits for the stacks to open/render, but in so doing, they got rid of the highlighted object. You can select items alright, but where’s the highlight? ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/06/Screen_shot_2010-06-02_at_10-thumb.04.10_PM.png) Worry not, here’s how-to. Open the terminal on your Macs and do the following (after sudo -s). > defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean TRUE > killall Dock And voila, you have a halo. ### Plex for Mac, a sneak peek at v9 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/plex-for-mac-a-sneak-peek-at-v9/ Last updated: 2010-06-02T20:56:21.000Z Version 9 has been a long time coming. Most had given the idea up, as vaporware, and pure conjecture. The kind of tales you send kids to bed with. But here it is, video evidence that it exists! For those who aren’t in the loop, Plex is an offshoot of XBMC a media center app for the Mac. In its current avatar, it is miles ahead any of the other Media Center apps (Boxee, XBMC) for Mac/PC. The future is bright, Plex v9 will enhance the usability many-fold. Since I use a Mac Mini as my Media Center Portal, I am looking forward to Plex in its new avatar. Tally ho! [Plex/Nine First Peek](http://vimeo.com/11880867?ref=tim.sodhis.org) from [Elan Feingold](http://vimeo.com/user1450307?ref=tim.sodhis.org) on [Vimeo](http://vimeo.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). ### Penultimate for iPad update - wrist protection URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/penultimate-for-ipad-update-wrist-protection/ Last updated: 2010-05-22T07:43:48.000Z What a wonderful update waiting for me this morning – Penultimate with wrist-protection! The problem of capacitive multi-touch screens is that they don’t lend themselves to scribbling notes with your finger or an appropriate stylus. Natural note taking (and believe you me, I know a thing or two about [that](http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/ICALT.2006.335?ref=tim.sodhis.org "u-Annotate")), involves resting your wrist on the surface, as you scribble on. Capacitive screens register that and you end up with a number of extra scribbles where your wrist rested. [Penultimate](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/penultimate/id354098826?mt=8&ref=tim.sodhis.org) is a cheap app available from the iTunes store and puts forth a digital canvas on which you can scribble your thoughts. It works great for the most part, but before the update this morning, the following could be your experience while scribbling notes. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/05/photo-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/05/photo.png) Enter wrist protection! The app actively monitors the surface of the iPad screen for what it can interpret as a wrist (by calculating surface area I presume). And to my utter delight, it works like a charm. It manages to detect my wrist as I scribble away, every time. Kudos to the devs. Apps like these make me so glad to own an iPad. My productivity will certainly go up a wee bit more now. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/05/photo1-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/05/photo1.png) AND to enhance your iPad note taking experience, might I recommend [Pogo Sketch stylus](http://tenonedesign.com/sketch.php?ref=tim.sodhis.org)? Made for capacitive screens, it is quite portable, and yet very usable. ### Back again, for real. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-again-for-real-2/ Last updated: 2010-05-16T11:38:19.000Z It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Rest assured I have been working quite hard, updating myself, as well as my gadget collection in the meantime. First things first. Yours truly won an ***iPad***, mid-April, in an awesome giveaway sponsored by a leading gadget site. Needless to say I am thrilled by the booty, and am enjoying my iPad to the hilt. The last month also saw Kindle pass through the family, but, it was a fleeting visit, and I had to return it, for reasons I will expound upon, some other time. The reason for no updates in a month (or so) is a borked WordPress install. Due to rather complicated htaccess rules on my server, my remote publishing app (Blogo) could not see the XMLRPC file. I tried a number of tricks from my repertoire, but it broke something or the other. I have finally simplified the htaccess file, and all is back to normal. I am using a new theme, and have added a number of new plugins. It may not work per spec, so do let me know if you notice something amiss. ### Back! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back/ Last updated: 2010-04-01T05:43:57.000Z After a prolonged vacation in India – marred by illness, I am back home. It was loud, hotter than hell, dirty, dusty and so crowded, but it was my home in India. We just had an amazing time, when I was up and able. We managed to visit Mount Abu and Jaipur this time, however would’ve liked to visit so many more places. Delhi, of course, received the royal treatment, and amongst the most visited sites were: Chawri Bazaar, Chandni Chowk, and the Max Hospital in Saket. There were some good times, meeting old school friends and their spouses – Gautam, Mandeep and Manav, my friends from the days of yore. It was great to reconnect and go out for dinner with the guys. The family also went for an Indian Premier League match, Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Super Kings – the latter won. The crowd, the game, the atmosphere was electrifying! We visited the paranthe waali gali, and tasted the unique fried paranthas from shops dating back to the 19th century. A very unique experience indeed! But most of all, it was just amazing to be back with my brother and dad. Them, I miss each day, and to be able to spend nearly four weeks with them – I can’t stress on how much good that did to the soul. But here I am back to the daily grind. Watch for further updates! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG_0043_l-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG%5F0043%5Fl.jpg) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG_0060_l-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG%5F0060%5Fl.jpg) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG_4614_l-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG%5F4614%5Fl.jpg) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG_4779_l-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG%5F4779%5Fl.jpg) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG_4784_l-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/IMG%5F4784%5Fl.jpg) [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/P1020711_l-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/04/P1020711%5Fl.jpg) ### EOS T2i announced! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/eos-t2i-announced/ Last updated: 2010-02-08T10:38:10.000Z This is the camera I am going for. DSLR and 1080p (variable frame rate) video, how could anyone ask for anything more? [Read more @ Gizmodo](http://gizmodo.com/5466616/canon-rebel-t2i-dslr-18mp-and-legit-1080p-video-for-899?utm%5Fsource=feedburner&utm%5Fmedium=feed&utm%5Fcampaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29) ### Socialite (formerly Eventbox) ideal mate for Google Reader URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/socialite-formerly-eventbox-ideal-mate-for-google-reader/ Last updated: 2010-02-03T11:31:57.000Z For the longest time I resisted RSS feeds, dismissing them as too cumbersome to keep track of, and rather too concise for my needs. Over time though, with the plethora of sites I keep track of, not to mention the trackers and feeds for breaking news on CNN, BBC, I decided to make the shift to RSS. I toyed with subscribing to individual feeds in Firefox, but soon gave up on that idea. With around eleven feeds, I couldn’t keep a history of older feed stories, as well as, mark them as read/unread. I looked to Apple Mail, but apart from a marginal improvement from Firefox (in terms of history), I didn’t see a benefit. Enter [Google Reader](http://www.google.com/reader/view/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). It does it all, aggregate feeds into one feed, and allows for a history as well as marking the same (starring in Google terms). I can access my feeds and read/unread status from any computer/device. Wonderful, but only restricted to the actual GReader site. That was until I found [Socialite](http://www.realmacsoftware.com/socialite/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (formerly Eventbox). [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/02/Screen_shot_2010-02-03_at_11-thumb.23.51_AM1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/02/Screen%5Fshot%5F2010-02-03%5Fat%5F11.23.51%5FAM1.png)Socialite supports Google Reader in it’s entirety, allowing one to subscribe to a feed from the client, unsubscribe, mark as read/unread, star/unstar, etc. With [Growl](http://www.growl.info/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) support, this is by far the best Google Reader RSS feed client for the Mac. What’s more, this client integrates support for various social networking APIs such as [Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/), [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), etc. A definite MUST try. ### iPad is out... GOTS TO HAVE IT URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ipad-is-out-gots-to-have-it/ Last updated: 2010-01-27T14:28:35.000Z Oh wow. Just wow. For that price. Can’t say no. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/01/apple-tablet-keynote_180-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/01/apple-tablet-keynote%5F180.jpg) ### Snow Leopard 965P DS3/DS4 - Extra Extensions Folder URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/snow-leopard-965p-ds3ds4-extra-extensions-folder/ Last updated: 2010-01-22T07:28:41.000Z Hi all, by popular demand – here are the contents of my /Extra folder, including the working DSDT.aml and the extensions (kexts) therein. These work superb on my 965P-DS4 system, and should work for those with the DS3 motherboards as well. Let me know how it goes! > [http://www.mediafire.com/?4nxvnbn21lf](http://www.mediafire.com/?4nxvnbn21lf&ref=tim.sodhis.org) ### AVCHD Lite vs Motion JPEG - editing ease on the Mac URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/avchd-lite-vs-motion-jpeg-editing-ease-on-the-mac/ Last updated: 2010-11-05T15:34:30.000Z **UPDATE**: 11/05/10 – Thanks to your insightful comments, I have written a [new article](https://tim.sodhis.org/2010/11/05/avchd-editing-on-mac-revisited/) on AVCHD editing on OSX. With the new camera come a whole slew of editing questions – which format is better, which format lends to easy editing, which format produces the best audio/video… To better educate myself on this topic, I have been trawling the web, finding resources, reviews, experiences of ZS3 users, as well as shooting sample videos using my ZS3 and editing the same on my Mac. It turns out that Motion JPEG is better overall, in terms of quality of audio/video and ease of editing – the two most important benchmarks in my opinion. Intrigued? Read on. Word of caution – this is aimed solely at the hobbyists – people who shoot videos for personal or family leisure. Professionals, well you are just way off base here. [AVCHD Lite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD%5FLite?ref=tim.sodhis.org#AVCHD%5FLite) is the 720p cousin of the more famed [AVCHD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD%5FLite?ref=tim.sodhis.org) format pushed by Sony and Panasonic. Recording at 30fps, at a variety of Mbps (9-17), it is a newer format being implemented by many Point and Shoot cameras. The main pro of shooting in this format is the smaller file size on the card. Everything else touted as a pro, is actually a con. AVCHD uses frame blending (the main reason why the file sizes are smaller) to capture video. It encodes one full frame every X second, the rest being all deltas, which is GREAT for file sizes, but is horrid for editing when converted to another format. MJPEG or [Motion JPEG](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion%5FJPEG?ref=tim.sodhis.org) was the first generation of video compression available to the users back in the day, and arguably is the least efficient way to compress video, but it is on the flip side, the fastest to decode and edit. This is due to the fact that each frame is encoded separately using JPEG compression. It takes the least amount of processing power to encode, edit or playback. It is indeed very wasteful in terms of space consumption. An eight minute sample will take 2GB of space in 720p setting. Before we start, editing an AVCHD Lite video is ***NOT*** natively supported with any of the OS X based video editors. Some have pointed that [Final Cut Pro](http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (FCP) can edit the AVCHD files, but I can confirm that it actually converts the MTS video to [ProRes 422](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProRes%5F422?ref=tim.sodhis.org). **Test Setup** I shot three sequences of videos in low light, out in the snow, and indoors – well lit. All shot in AVCHD Lite format, SuperHigh settings (17Mbps) with Dolby Digital stereo audio, with auto focus in manual settings. I used iMovie ’09 and Final Cut Pro. The former imported the MTS files as AIC ([Apple Intermediate Codec](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%5FIntermediate%5FCodec?ref=tim.sodhis.org)) and the latter as ProRes 422 (HD) files. The time taken to convert the MTS files to AIC and ProRes 422 were nearly 80% of the length of the clip. For instance, a clip of a minute took 40 seconds to import to iMovie and FCP. I repeated the same set of videos with MJPEG, auto-focus and manual settings. There was no conversion necessary and all clips were natively imported in iMovie ’09 and FCP. The movies were then spliced together, and output as an HD MOV file with bitrate of 9100kbps and two pass encoding. I can post the other setup variables as well. The encoding took the same amount of time, since working with AIC and ProRes 422 is the same as working with MJPEG (native). **Initial Reaction** *Video* The time taken for video conversion notwithstanding, the MJPEG format seemed to be a clear winner of the two. Not only was the video sharper, featuring more vibrant and true-life colors, and much less noise (especially compared to the AVCHD videos converted to ProRes and AIC), but also, the quality of the output encoded video was clearly much superior. I could already notice artifacts and loss of quality on the ProRes and AIC encoded videos but this got trebled (nearly) in the final product. The end result seemed to be shot with a normal non-HD camera. *Audio* There was no appreciable difference in terms of audio quality. Even though the AVCHD Lite format supports Dolby Digital audio input, after encoding and compression, there is no discernible difference between the AAC encoded audio from AVCHD Lite and the stereo 2-channel audio recorded with MJPEG. **Preliminary Conclusion** Clearly from an editing standpoint, on the Mac, ***MJPEG*** is the clear winner. The editing ease and persistence of quality and low level noise in day-to-day videos makes the benefits of AVCHD (eg. longer recording times) moot. Even though with MJPEG videos are limited to 8 minutes per recording, and translate to roughly 2 GB file (per 8 minutes of video) on the SD card, it more than offsets this lack of compression, with the ease and ability to edit and encode the video on one’s tools of choice be it basic trimming with Quicktime, or Timeline based editing on iMovie and FCP. My recommendation is a resounding yes for MJPEG. Keep a couple of 16GB SDHC Class 6 cards handy though. ### Panasonic Lumix ZS3/TZ7 Videos with Snow Leopard URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/panasonic-lumix-zs3tz7-videos-with-snow-leopard/ Last updated: 2010-01-07T07:40:59.000Z [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/01/panasonic-lumix-dmc-zs3-camera-thumb1.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2010/01/panasonic-lumix-dmc-zs3-camera.jpg)This holiday season, my not-so trusty Sony Handycam SR300 succumbed to the black LCD syndrome. Really tired of spending upwards of $150 each time, getting it repaired, I decided in favor of moving to a new and better camcorder. The governing factors in the choice of a new video device were:- 1. Price (200-300 USD) 2. Recording format (easily editable on the Mac) 3. Optical Image Stabilization 4. HD Capabilities 5. Form Factor I trawled through [Camcorderinfo.com](http://www.camcorderinfo.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) with these specifications in mind, and searched high and low for an appropriate camcorder fulfilling my criteria. Unfortunately, none of the camcorders listed could match all of the criteria. They were either too expensive, or featured really poor HD quality. Furthermore, they either recorded in [AVCHD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD?ref=tim.sodhis.org) or in [MPEG-2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpeg-2?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (both of which though capable formats, aren’t natively supported in OSX). I took my queries to the [CCInfo forum](http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/index.php?ref=tim.sodhis.org), where an enthusiastic post by a forum regular got me interested in the [Panasonic Lumix ZS3](http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-ZS3-Digital-Stabilized-Black/dp/B001QFZMCO?ref=tim.sodhis.org "ZS3") Digital Camera. Yes, you read right – a digital camera. I was highly skeptical at the onset, but I read on, and researched a lot, and it seemed that the ZS3 was indeed a camera that could indeed break through the Camcorder/Camera barrier and combine the features in one highly functional device. A few specifications of this PAS. - Optical Sensor Resolution: 10 MP - Optical zoom: 12 x - Motion Recording: AVCHD Lite (720p) & Motion JPEG (720p) - Audio Recording: Stereo 2.1 - Lens: 25mm ultra-wide-angle lens - Maximum Aperture Range: F/3.3-4.9 - Minimum focal length: 4.1 millimeters - Maximum focal length: 49.2 millimeters - Optical Sensor Size: 1/2.33″ - Display Size: 3 inches - Width: 4.1 inches - Depth: 1.3 inches - Height: 2.4 inches - Weight: 7.2 Ounces As I mentioned, I was very skeptical of the poster’s claims that he had supplanted his regular HD Camcorder (Sony) with this Point and Shoot camera. To help me better understand and decide, I searched online for some unedited HD clips from this camera, as the ones I found on Youtube and [Vimeo](http://vimeo.com/5147420?ref=tim.sodhis.org) stuttered on my MacBook Pro. However, I did find a few which looked gorgeous on my MBP, and the decision was made, with the assistance of Digvijoy, my brother, who spoke highly of the camera as well, and goaded me into finding a deal, and biting on it. The Camera was delivered this Monday thanks to expedited Amazon Prime Free shipping, and till now, my reaction has been cautious but optimistic (I will blog about the various facets I have noticed, another time). The low light photography that everyone complained about, is definitely a problem. The pictures are underexposed even with the flash enabled. I have however, found a workaround that works beautifully. Video, is rather impressive, and the colors quite vibrant, but more on that later too. One thing I haven’t yet been able to fathom is how to improve the microphone sensitivity on this camera. The audio captured by this device needs to be post-processed to get to an acceptable level. Luckily, since I am editing video on the Mac, I am easily able to tweak the audio with my tools of choice – FCP or iMovie. ### Happy New Year! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/happy-new-year/ Last updated: 2010-01-05T10:01:17.000Z And here’s to a lot of New Year cheer and the prospects of greater expansion of our OSX expertise and know-how! ### Snow Leopard on my 965P - File Server URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/snow-leopard-on-my-965p-file-server/ Last updated: 2009-12-31T15:27:18.000Z As I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to relegate my main machine (Gigabyte 965P – DS4) to a file server. I decided to go the no-hassles route and installed Windows 7\. After painstakingly converting all my drives back to NTFS, I found to my chagrin, the great amount of lag when opening a network share via Samba (SMB) on my Macs. The Finder would scan the remote directory for what seemed like minutes before it showed me the contents of the folders. That in addition to the messed up permissions on the server machine made it nearly impossible to sync files to and from the iMac/Mac Mini/MacBook Pro. Each time I’d initiate a transfer/sync session, the permissions on the Windows server would cause the sync client to erroneously recognize the entire data set as new, and cause a full copy between machines. Not too serious, but it does get old when the entire network is choked up due to 100GB of data crossing over each night. And this is when I decided to head back to Mac for my server needs. It is an old adage that if you don’t flex your muscles enough, you lose them. Apparently, the same goes for Hackintosh skills! For the life of me, I couldn’t remember which set of KEXTs I used in my /E/E folder, so I decided to go back to the easier Leopard route. I installed iPC, only to notice the slower network speeds of 32MBps (Gigabit Ethernet). I could get up to 60-70MBps on Snow Leopard – so indeed, I decided to reconvert all my drives to HFS and then start the process of installing Snow Leopard. I had to refer back to my blog and to the relevant websites to pick up pointers. Luckily I had my DSDT handy and after a couple of trial and errors, I finally had Snow Kitty back up on my Hack. I used Chameleon RC4, and with no need for manual UUID injection, things just worked the way they should. I added a number of flags to my *com.apple.boot.plist* – mainly to cause a timeout at the boot selection screen, as well as to hide some extra drives that showed up. I also have a new set of KEXTs I am using. These are:- > fakesmc.kext (new one) > LegacyAppleYukon2.kext > LegacyHDA.kext > NullCPUPowerManagement.kext > OpenHaltRestart.kext It has been a few weeks since then. I am running a 32Bit Kernel and Extensions, and I couldn’t be happier. [Chronosync](http://econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono%5Foverview.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Chronosync") keeps all my Macs up-to-date and runs scheduled backups of all my home movies and iPhoto data. ### Long time, no see URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/long-time-no-see-2/ Last updated: 2009-12-31T15:30:08.000Z Indeed, it has been forever since my last update. How better to cap this year, than with a post about what I have been up to, the latter quarter of 2009\. Things have been going rather smoothly over the past three months. I finally have fully converted to the Mac side. Our home is now rigged with Macs doling out, and playing back media and resources. The biggest change so far? The Hackintosh that I worked so diligently upon, is now relegated to a Media/File server. Running 10.6.2, I have rigged my Hackintosh with around 8TB of storage, and run it in a cooled closet 24/7\. It is forever on the up, doling out Series/Movies to my other machines. Speaking of which, I am a proud owner of a brand new spanking iMac. 21.5″ 3.33GHz machine with discrete graphics, 4GB RAM as well as a 1TB HDD, this is one beautiful machine. It has become my main rig, my go-to machine for the day to day surfing. As pleased and satisfied as I am with this week 41 monster, it almost didn’t come to be. But that story is for another day. In addition to the aforementioned machine, I now also own a Mac Mini which serves as our Media Center. The specs are – 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD of pure win. I installed Plex (an offshoot of XBMC) on this machine, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how seamlessly I can combine all my media to be accessible through one interface. And what a beautiful interface. Till date, I was a traditionalist, preferring to keep my series/movies in proper folders and clicking to view the same using Quicktime or MPlayer OSX Extended. But through Plex, I have it all under control using just the Apple Aluminium Remote. And the interface! Wow, it scrobbles all my series information and downloads Episode Information from various sites, as well as Fanart, Music etc. I debated long and hard before making the switch to official Apple hardware. Hacks and community support, notwithstanding, it is more of a headache to keep a Hackintosh in perfect working condition. I just couldn’t take second guessing an update, or having my entire installation messed up, because I decided to take the claim of “Vanilla Installation” too seriously. I can’t count the number of hours I have wasted on my Hackintosh, and with an iMac and Mac Mini, as well as a MacBook Pro under my belt, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and get back to working. ### SABnzbd+ on OSX FTW! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/sabnzbd-on-osx-ftw/ Last updated: 2009-10-27T14:30:13.000Z The battle was hard-fought and indeed, I tried to stick by Panic.com’s [Unison](http://www.panic.com/unison?ref=tim.sodhis.org) for as long as I could, but eventually I had to give in, and I proclaim the prominence and sing the virtues of a new Newsgroup Binary Client for every platform – [SABnzbd](http://www.sabnzbd.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). If you download Binaries from the NNTP, be it newest Linux distros or what have you, on a regular basis, there is rather a limited field of OSX clients worthy of mention. I rigidly stood by Unison for the longest time. However, it seems that the developers at Panic have lost all interest in updating this App. It has a number of issues on Snow Leopard, and the fact that it doesn’t do any PAR correction or UnRAR operations, makes it a half-client. On Windows, one is set – Newzleecher will do that and more. For the longest time, I searched high and low for a replacement for Newzleecher on OSX. I thought Unison was it, that is, till I came upon SABnzbd. It does it all, and then some more. I couldn’t begin to enumerate the features of this App, which runs as a server. This means, I can connect to it from my iPhone, or in essence, from anywhere in the world (via Dynamic DNS). I can configure an RSS feed from a multitude of sites, and tell the App to monitor it for anything that shows up, and conforms to a list of keywords I have configured. It will then, automatically download, unpar, unrar AND delete the RAR and PAR files. Oh sweet! I have just started to scratch the surface of what this App is capable of. More to come! Check this App out – best of all, it is Open Source and therefore – FREE! ### Syncing Apps via Dropbox on OSX - HOWTO URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/syncing-apps-via-dropbox-on-osx-howto/ Last updated: 2009-10-13T15:56:49.000Z I must admit I am one of the later adopters of the sensation rocking the world – DropBox. Until recently, I was convinced that I really didn’t need FileSync over and above what my trusty External HDD provides. I work extensively on my MacBook Pro at work, and back home I have my trusty Hackintosh (as well as a number of other Windows machines). Keeping my main machines (MacBook Pro and Hacki) in sync was a chore, that I promised myself, I would undertake religiously each night. Backup the important documents from my MacBook Pro at the end of the work day and restore/sync with my Hacki when I am home. And repeat ad nauseum. Prime idea, only I am not that diligent and nearly not as much of an industrious fellow. After hearing all the buzz around OSX forums, I decided to give DropBox a try, and my, was I surprised! Amazingly seamless and scalable, this app is fast, lean, and does everything right! It maintains a local Folder on my Mac, which my applications can read from/write to, and backs up all the files therein to the central DropBox server. Any changes are immediately caught, and archived to the DropBox server in the background, as well as downloaded to any other computer linked with that account instantaneously. The possibilities are endless. At first I used it to replace the Documents folder on my system, and started saving all my files to the DropBox. Easy enough – it sync’d all my files to all my machines. Next up, my scanned documents, and indeed, that was a snap. I then decided to sync my Adium Logs to the DropBox, which just involved creating a SymLink from my DropBox Chat Log folder to the Adium folder. > ln -s /Volumes/Documents/Home/Dropbox/Catalogs/Chat\\ Logs/ /Volumes/Documents/Home/Library/Application\\ Support/Adium\\ 2.0/Users/Default/Logs Could not be easier. For a while I was content with this, but the heart yearns for more. I decided to take up the next challenge, and as it turned out, this was the more challenging of the lot. *Syncing my NewsFire RSS reader preferences, feeds, and read count.* One might assume that it would be as simple as creating a folder in the DropBox folder and Symlink’ing it to the NewsFire folder (or any App folder) in Application Support. But as it turns out, it of course isn’t as straightforward. For the successful syncing of apps across machines with DropBox we will need to replicate three folders/plists in the DropBox folder. These are 1. Application PLIST (org.xlife.NewsFire.plist) originally in \~/Library/Preferences/ 2. Application Folder (NewsFire) originally in \~/Library/Application Support/ 3. Cache Folder (org.xlife.NewsFire) originally in \~/Library/Caches/ Copy/Move these three to the DropBox folder. Most of the help I found on the web dealing with this type of sync’ing stops at creating symlinks and doesn’t mention the Caches folder. Caches is very important as this will store the current state of the application. For instance, the number of read RSS entries in a news reader. I have read 11 latest at home, but in the meantime 13 new have arrived and if I didn’t have the caches folder, I would see 24 when I log in at work. Easy when there are a handful, but can get impossible if there are 100-500 new entries. Just an example. Back to topic, now create Symlinks like so. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/10/Screen_shot_2009-10-13_at_3-thumb.20.58_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/10/Screen%5Fshot%5F2009-10-13%5Fat%5F3.20.58%5FPM.png) > ln -s /Volumes/Documents/Home/Dropbox/PLISTS/org.xlife.NewsFire.plist /Volumes/Documents/Home/Library/Preferences/org.xlife.NewsFire.plist > ln -s /Volumes/Documents/Home/Dropbox/AppSupp/NewsFire /Volumes/Documents/Home/Library/Application\\ Support/NewsFire > ln -s /Volumes/Documents/Home/Dropbox/Caches/org.xlife.NewsFire /Volumes/Documents/Home/Library/Caches/org.xlife.NewsFire And Bob’s your uncle. A word of warning- this **WILL** fail if you don’t set the newly created Symlink to the PLIST as a Locked item. Just right click on the PLIST in Finder, and click the box that says Locked Item. This will prevent the App from overwriting the Symlink. It’s that simple. ### Chameleon 2 RC3 & EFI String Graphics Issues URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/chameleon-2-rc3-efi-string-graphics-issues/ Last updated: 2009-09-28T11:03:16.000Z So I am back from an extended road-trip with former colleagues from the Netherlands. It was an enjoyable trip that took us 1300 miles from home to Catskill, New York, and Washington DC, and back again, with stops here and there. I am headed back to work after a long break, and I must admit I did miss using my brain cells the past week. In the interim, the world has been busy releasing new apps/functionality and updates. The biggest of course being Chameleon 2 RC3\. It is out, and for the selected few, it works great. It no longer errs on large drives and has full Snow Leopard support. One advantage of using it over Netkas’ 10.1 EFI is that it weeds out non-boot drives from the startup menu. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the best of luck with this version of Chameleon. It seems to oddly enough not work with my Graphics Card. As I wrote in an earlier post, I use EFI strings in my com.apple.Boot.plist for my Graphics card. The same however, does not work with Chameleon RC3\. QE/CI seems to chug along just fine, but the resolution is stuck at VESA 1024×768\. I refuse to use boot flags to force a resolution, and I am unable to get to the root of the issue. In the meantime, I have started using a DSDT.aml fix for my Graphics card. As a result, I now have full audio (in/out), QE/CI for my GFX card, and Gigabit LAN using my DSDT.aml. Life is indeed good. Huzzah – Logitech is out with drivers for Snow Leopard (both 32 and 64 bit) and they work really well. Finally I can use my MX Revolution and VX Nano mice with Snow Leopard without additional hacks. With new beta releases of DropBox, MenuMeters, Growl and the like, the migration to Snow Leopard can finally be proclaimed – a done deal. ### Boot 132 Snow Leopard finally here. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/boot-132-snow-leopard-finally-here/ Last updated: 2009-09-05T17:19:50.000Z Seems that booting the retail Snow Leopard DVD on a Hackintosh is now possible with a new release of Boot132\. [Insanelymac](http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=184338&ref=tim.sodhis.org) has more information. I am going to try this later this week. ### Snow Leopard on Gigabyte 965P-DS3 or DS4 motherboard, a brief guide. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/snow-leopard-on-gigabyte-965p-ds3-or-ds4-motherboard-a-brief-guide/ Last updated: 2009-09-04T10:31:29.000Z This post has been a long time coming. I had promised something on these lines the previous week when I managed to boot my Hackintosh (see [specs](https://tim.sodhis.org/2009/08/23/finally-retail-leopard-on-gigabyte-965p-ds3/)) in Snow Leopard. Like almost everyone, I installed from Leopard on to another partition. Wrought with its own challenges, this is however, the easiest way of getting Snow Leopard installed. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/09/Screen_shot_2009-09-02_at_10-thumb.51.15_PM21.png)I, however, am on the quest for the holy grail – Vanilla Snow Leopard, installed the retail method. I haven’t yet reached that goal, but I am getting there. This is a mini-guide on how to get Snow Leopard installed as the only OS, via a USB boot loader. This guide is generic enough and can be applied to other motherboards and configurations as well. Here’s a brief rundown of the procedure: first, we’ll restore the retail Snow Leopard DVD on to a partition or a thumb drive (at least 7 GB). We will install the Boot loader in the USB thumb drive so that we may boot from it and kickstart the Snow Leopard installation. Once the installation is over, we will boot into Snow Leopard with the USB boot loader and install the boot loader on the Snow partition. What you will need to install via the USB thumb drive- - [Chameleon](http://chameleon.osx86.hu/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) 2.0 RC1 - PCI EFI 10.1 Boot file from [Netkas](http://netkas.org/?p=119&ref=tim.sodhis.org) - KEXTs ([generic](http://rapidshare.com/files/275571858/Archive.zip?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and for your system) - com.apple.Boot.plist with your EFI String. - DSDT.aml for your system - Retail DVD (buy one. Please.) - Working Leopard Installation (just to get us started) - USB Thumb Drive (at least 100 MB) - A partition to restore the DVD/Image to, no less than 7 GB. Either on the Thumb Drive or on another HDD, or you can partition your own HDD We begin by restoring the Snow Leopard DVD on to a partition. I strongly recommend using another drive if you have one. For instance if you have an external USB drive that is at least 8 GB, you can restore the DVD to that drive. Or if you have a second HDD in your system, partition off 8 GB using Disk Utility (easy if you have a GUID partition), and restore the Snow Leopard DVD. It is rather easy to restore: open Disk Utility and select the drive you want to restore to, and right click to select Restore from the menu. Point the source to the Snow Leopard Image/DVD and the destination – your new partition. Once that is done, install Chameleon on to your USB Thumb Drive. It might fail at the end, but don’t worry that’s normal. Now take the Boot file from the PC EFI 10.1 (Netkas) and copy it to the Thumb Drive overwriting the old Boot file. This 10.1 Boot is rock stable and already 64 Bit compatible. Using Chameleon RC1 boot file has proven cumbersome for some. Next, copy the KEXTs to the Thumb Drive’s /Extra/Extensions. One BIG note here. Do not add any extraneous KEXTs, like a patched AppleHDA, or IONetworkingFamily.kext, or IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext, as these WILL cause a KP (Kernel Panic) during install. Believe me, I ran into literally dozens of such KPs before I realized this info. My recommendation is to only keep the following KEXTs on the Thumb Drive (in the [Archive](http://rapidshare.com/files/275571858/Archive.zip?ref=tim.sodhis.org)). - OpenHaltRestart.kext - NullCPUPowerManagement.kext - fakeSMC.kext You will need Graphics enabled for your system. By which I mean either an EFI string for your Graphics card, or some other mechanism (DSDT?). It is a critical component. For many the installation won’t start because of this. So make sure you have the EFI string in your com.apple.Boot.plist. Additionally, I also recommend booting with the *arch=i386* flag. There’s a difference between the *arch=i386* and *\-x32* flags. The former will load 32 bit KEXTs and the latter forces a 32 bit kernel. For maximum compatibility I recommend using both, but just add the *arch=i386* flag to the *com.apple.Boot.plist*. > Kernel Flags > arch=i386 > GraphicsEnabler > y > device-properties > YOUR EFI GFX STRING HERE And finally, the most important aspect for Snow Kitty – ***DSDT.aml***. A ton of literature is freely available to educate you on this, but for our purposes, it suffices to remark that DSDT is a very important component of the Snow Leopard install. Luckily it is rather easy to create a DSDT for your system. A number of tools for Windows and OSX ([here](http://pcwizcomputer.com/index.php?option=com%5Fcontent&task=view&id=150&Itemid=48&ref=tim.sodhis.org)) will create a DSDT, which though might not make all your devices work out of the box, but will indeed work with Snow Leopard. You can play around with entering Ethernet and Sound customizations in your DSDT once you are in Snow Leopard. So go ahead, create a DSDT.aml for your system. One tweak is needed to ensure that your CMOS doesn’t reset every time you reboot in Snow Leopard. Nasty business that. Edit your DSDT.aml as specified [here](http://netkas.org/?p=114&ref=tim.sodhis.org). Place the patched DSDT.aml in /Extra/ on your Thumb Drive. You are ready. No need to correct permissions on the Thumb Drive or create an Extensions.mkext. Of course if you want to, here’s how. > sudo chown -R root:wheel /Extra/Extensions/ > sudo chmod -R 755 /Extra/Extensions/ Reboot! And press F12 or the corresponding key on your system to bring up the Boot Menu. Select the USB Thumb drive in the list and hopefully you’ll be greeted with the Boot Menu. Go over to the partition to which you restored the Leopard DVD/Image. Don’t press Enter, rather enter extended boot arguments > \-x32 -v If all goes well, you’ll be in the Snow Leopard installation. Proceed as always. Use Disk Utility to erase your Leopard installation (why would you need it now?) and install all that you need. If any KPs occur, check the KEXTs in the USB thumb drive, and your DSDT.aml. But, if you have taken the proper precautions, it will all be fine. Finish the installation and boot once more from your Thumb Drive. This time however, choose to boot from the new Snow Leopard installation, with the same boot flags as before (-x32 -v -f). Fly through the welcome screen and set up your account. It should be rock solid and stable thus far. **Post Installation** Now to bring it full circle. The post installation procedures. You can use the three KEXTs from the Thumb drive, as well as your DSDT.aml. But depending on your configuration, you might need more KEXTs/Injectors for your sound card, etc. Here’s what you will need: - [Kext Utility for Snow Leopard (64 Bit)](http://rapidshare.com/files/275575704/KextUtility.v2.3.2.full.Snow.Leo.x64.ready.by.cVad.dmg.zip?ref=tim.sodhis.org) - Chameleon 2.0 RC1 - Netkas PC EFI 10.1 - KEXTs for your system - DSDT from the Thumb Drive - KEXTs from your Thumb Drive Install Chameleon 2.0 RC1 to the Snow Leopard installation. Replace the boot file with that by Netkas. Basically, follow the same steps as before, instead this time copy all the KEXTs and DSDT to the /Extra/Extensions and /Extra respectively, on the Snow Leopard installation drive. This time however, include fixes for your specific hardware. And this is key – repair permissions and rebuild the kextcache anytime anything changes in /Extra/Extensions. This is key. I can’t stress this enough. You WILL get a KP otherwise. *Graphics* Assuming you have EFI strings in your com.apple.Boot.plist, you are good to go. *Audio* I am a bit ashamed to say, I had it with my ALC888 sound card, and chose to purchase a [USB sound device](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186046&Tpk=syba%20usb%20sound&ref=tim.sodhis.org) that works out the box with Leopard. I didn’t expect much from this nine dollar purchase, but wow, I am quite impressed with the sound – clarity and deeper tones compared to the ALC888! However, you might want to crawl through InsanelyMac to search for solutions for your specific card. ALC888 works for some with DSDT and for some not. I was in the latter half of the population. *Ethernet* 965P-DS4 or DS3 version 3.3 features the Marvell Yukon 88E8056 Gigabit ethernet chip, which is unfortunately not supported out of the box in Snow Leopard. You will need to edit the IONetworkingFamily.kext, found in your /System/Library/Extensions/. I would recommend copying this KEXT to your /Extra/Extensions and editing it there. Right-click on the KEXT and select Show Package Contents. In Contents->PlugIns->AppleYukon2.kext (show Package Contents)-> Contents->Info.plist. Search for 88E08053\. > Yukon-88E8053 change to > Yukon-88E8056 > 0x436211ab change to > 0x436411ab > Yukon Gigabit Adapter 88E8053 Singleport Copper SA change to > Yukon Gigabit Adapter 88E8056 Singleport Copper SA And save the plist. You are set with Ethernet. *Orange e-SATA icons* Copy the IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext to the /Extra/Extensions folder. You are set. Edit the com.apple.Boot.plist and remove *arch=i386*. > arch=i386 Use the Kext Utility to build Extensions.mkext in the /Extra folder. Reboot. Boot from the main drive now, and choose the Snow Leopard installation, and type the boot flags: > \-x32 -v -f Boot into the Snow Leopard desktop, and run Kext Utility once again. Reboot Boot from the main drive and choose the Snow Leopard installation. No boot flags required this time. Boot into a 64 Bit desktop! Congratulations. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/09/Screen_shot_2009-09-02_at_10-thumb.52.05_PM1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/09/Screen%5Fshot%5F2009-09-02%5Fat%5F10.52.05%5FPM.png) ### Snow Leopard on 965P-DS3 or DS4 - 64 Bit goodness! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/snow-leopard-on-965p-ds3-or-ds4-64-bit-goodness/ Last updated: 2009-08-29T09:28:04.000Z [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Screen_shot_2009_08_28_at_11-thumb.27.25_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Screen%5Fshot%5F2009%5F08%5F28%5Fat%5F11.27.25%5FPM.png)It’s here, and it is spectacular. The proof is in the pudding. More details to follow – installation guides, and kexts etc. In the meantime, search for 965P-DS4 on InsanelyMac. W00t. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Screen_shot_2009_08_28_at_11-thumb.27.35_PM.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Screen%5Fshot%5F2009%5F08%5F28%5Fat%5F11.27.35%5FPM.png) ### Finally, Retail Leopard on Gigabyte 965P-DS3 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/finally-retail-leopard-on-gigabyte-965p-ds3/ Last updated: 2009-08-23T21:25:02.000Z Not a how-to A lot has happened in the OSX86 world. From its humble beginnings back in 2006, when it was the playground of the extremely talented few, and OSX installations were wrought with issues, to the “boom” period when large number of “distros” were the call of the day, and industrious users created their brand of 10.5 flavors for the masses. iPC, iAtkos, iDeneb, and others will be familiar to anyone who has expressed interest in installing OSX on their non-Apple boxes. Where it once was the realm of the adventurous few, it became the turf of every person with the Apple gleam in their eye. And now, when installing retail OSX is the cool thing to do. No “distros”, no flavors, just plain vanilla OS installed directly from a retail Leopard DVD (10.5.6) bought from the Apple Store. That is the project I decided to undertake this weekend. Laid low by chronic back pain and neck muscle ache, I decided to sit back and take the hours out to install retail OSX on my system that I built back in 2007\. A few specs: - Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 ver. 3.0 Motherboard - Intel Core2Duo E6600 CPU (OC’d to 3.6 GHz) - 4 GB of DDR2 800 MHz RAM - SATA-2 HDD’s 4.0TB in AHCI - S-ATA DVD/CD Writer LiteOn - XFX nVidia 7600GT (512 MB) - Gateway FPD2485W S-IPS LCD - Apple Aluminium Keyboard - Logitech MX Revolution Mouse Here is a list of things I did need. - A retail Leopard DVD. I used 10.5.6\. - Boot 132 Disk for your system or a generic one. - Chameleon Bootloader 2.0 (RC1) or better. - KEXTs for your graphics card (you can go EFI strings later). - A LOT of patience. The basic challenge is that Leopard won’t boot on a non-Apple machine without some coaxing. Enter the Boot 132 disc. I won’t go into details, but basically you can create a flat DMG with the KEXTs in a folder and the Boot 132 bootloader will load them for you at boot time. KEXTs are kernel Extensions that allow extended functionality to be added to the Kernel without the need to compile all the extensions for devices, etc., directly in the kernel. Boot 132 allows KEXTs for non-Apple hardware to be loaded at boot time and extend the base Apple kernel so that a retail Leopard DVD can be booted. More details [here](http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=113288&ref=tim.sodhis.org "Insanelymac"). Here’s how I went about the installation. I inserted the Boot 132 disc and on being prompted, the retail Leopard DVD. The Installation was straightforward, and understandably the OS installation gave a “Failed” notice at the end. This is because a bootloader hasn’t been installed on the OSX partition. Next up, I booted from the Boot 132 disc, but chose instead to boot from the newly installed OSX Partition. Leopard welcome and setup screens later, I was in! I didn’t have QE/CI though, as I hadn’t yet edited the *com.apple.boot.plist* with my EFI string (easily extracted via GFXUtil). I quickly installed Chameleon 2.0 (RC1, as RC2 just doesn’t seem to work for me) and copied a whole list of KEXTs to the /Extra/Extensions folder, and *com.apple.boot.plist* to /Extra. These are the KEXTs I used. - AHCIPortInjector.kext - AppleACPIPlatform.kext - AppleAHCIPort.kext - Disabler.kext - dsmos.kext - IOAHCIBlockStorageInjector.kext - IONetworkingFamily.kext - OpenHaltRestart.kext - SMBIOSEnabler.kext - UUID.kext I deleted the Extensions.mkext in that folder, and corrected the permissions. > sudo chown -R root:wheel /Extra/Extensions; sudo chmod -R 755 /Extra/Extentions Rebooted, and this one’s important – typed in -v -f to force compile the KEXTs at the Chameleon Boot screen, and voila, Bob’s your chum! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_1-thumb2.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F13.png)I did however have to install AppleHDA.kext manually, as it can’t be copied to the /Extra/Extensions folder (due to multiple dependencies). I am just so impressed with the performance and stability. Uptime of three days and counting. Again, this is not meant to serve as a how-to, but rather a brief insight into the installation process. . Bring on Snow Leopard! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_3-thumb3.png) ### Textmate and SVN URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/textmate-and-svn/ Last updated: 2009-08-27T15:57:08.000Z The shift was overdue. Although [Coda](http://www.panic.com/coda/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Coda"), my dev app of choice, offers everything a hobbyist programmer would need, it fails miserably on one aspect. Namely, code folding. For a long time, this trade-off seemed to still justify the use of this app for day-to-day development needs, in light of its other features, e.g. easy integration with SVN, about which [I have written in the past](https://tim.sodhis.org/2009/02/18/coda-svn-support-with-versions/ "Coda SVN"). However, of late as I start to work with larger projects with a lot of embedded logic, and process flows, it has become a pain in the proverbial behind to switch from Coda to an app that will fold code. The forums and blogs are [abuzz](http://www.google.com/search?q=coda+code+folding&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&ref=tim.sodhis.org "Google Code Collapse") with developers’ dissatisfaction with the lack of Code folding, and the staff at Coda don’t seem to care. If only I could configure SVN with [TextMate](http://macromates.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "TextMate"), and that too in a comprehensive, intuitive way, I could move away from Coda, forever. It seemed to be a pipe dream, i.e. till now. I have successfully set up SVN with TextMate and in a way that mirrors the ease of *COMMIT*, *REVERT*, *DIFF* found in Coda. Here’s a how-to. This is what you’ll need at the get go. 1. [TextMate](http://macromates.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "TextMate") editor (of course) 2. SVN Frontend (if you don’t want to finagle with the terminal). I use [CornerStone](http://www.zennaware.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "CornerStone"). 3. [FileMerge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%5FDeveloper%5FTools?ref=tim.sodhis.org "FileMerge") (from XCode dev tools – recommended) or [Changes](http://connectedflow.com/changes/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Changes App"). 4. [SVNMate](http://ciaranwal.sh/2007/11/29/svnmate-update?ref=tim.sodhis.org "SVNMate") Plugin for TextMate. 5. [FileMerge](https://tim.sodhis.org/downloads/textmate-filemerge.zip "FileMerge") Plugin for TextMate. Create a SVN repository with the software of your choice. I usually create one on an external drive (as I need access to my code offline from time to time). Note down the local or remote URL. In my case it is > file:///Volumes/ExternalHDD/CodeRepo/MyProj/. Double click the SVNMate.tmbundle file, and it will insitall itself in your > \~/Library/Application Support/Textmate/Bundles/. Do the same for the FileMerge Plugin as well. Now is the time to configure. Open a blank file with Textmate and in the Bundles Menu > Bundles->Subversion->CheckOut. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_3-thumb1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F31.png) Enter the local or remote SVN URL, and choose a folder in which you’d like to check out the files. That was easy. At this point you are pretty much set with SVN on TextMate. You will see icons displayed next to the files in the file browser, indicating their subversion status. That’s the beauty of the SVNMate plugin we just installed. Any changes you make to your files will alter the icon status to signify changed content. You can fire up the commands using CTRL-SHIFT-A to bring up SVN commands. But – you could make your life easier by setting up the following options as well. This is a matter of choice of course. ***Changing the default icons for SVNMate*** Change the default SVN status icons by going to TextMate preferences. Preferences->SVNMate and choose a set that catches your fancy. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_7-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F7.png) ***Using FileMerge*** Instead of using the TextMate SVN diff file viewer to see the changes since the last commit, use FileMerge. It is included in XCode developer tools, and is perhaps the best viewer, with split side-by-side views. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_8-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F8.png) ***Use Tab Triggers in TextMate*** Perhaps the BEST feature so far – use TextMate tab triggers to trigger SVN events. Tab Triggers are used in TextMate by assigning a set of letters followed by a *TAB* key press, to trigger an associated event. You can pretty much do anything you like with Tab Triggers, from inserting pieces of Code in TextMate to SVN file commits. To set up a Trigger for an SVN Commit, go to Bundles->Bundles Editor->Commands. Choose Subversion from the list. Choose a command from the list, and in the right pane choose a method of Activation from the Drop down – Tab Trigger. To it, assign any combination of words. I chose “commitsource” for *COMMIT*. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_9-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F9.png)If you prefer to view the differences in FileMerge instead of the inbuilt diff viewer, in the same window (Bundle Editor) choose FileMerge in the list and edit the Revision Command. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_10-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F10.png) Voila, it just works. To see the new Tab Triggers at work, type the keyword inline with the code, and press Tab. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_11-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F11.png) Don’t worry, the keyword disappears from the code as soon as you close the FileMerge (or the associated app window). Simply wunderbar. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_12-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F12.png) So indeed, it is time to move to TextMate and stop bemoaning the lack of Code Folding. ### Open or Export CHM files on OS X URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/open-or-export-chm-files-on-os-x/ Last updated: 2009-08-17T08:28:48.000Z CHM files are the de-facto distribution standard of e-books in some circles (O’Reilly) etc, and though these can be opened natively on a Windows machine, the same cannot be said for OSX. One of the best (though certainly not the most popular for some reason) app for opening CHM files on OSX is [iCHM](http://www.robinlu.com/blog/ichm?ref=tim.sodhis.org "iCHM"). I found this app after having tried a number of commercial apps and finding them wanting in one department or the other. iCHM is a one stop shop for opening/printing CHM files. Visually pleasing and quite intuitive, iCHM also prints directly to PDF. Perfect. And best of all, this app, is free! Try it today. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_2-thumb1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F21.png) ### OS X 10.5.8 is out - Choppy performance is back URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/os-x-10-5-8-is-out-choppy-performance-is-back/ Last updated: 2009-08-09T11:18:32.000Z Apple released Leopard 10.5.8 a few days back. The update went without a hitch on my MacBook Pro. The story on my Hackintosh isn’t so great. The choppy performance issues are back, after having been wiped clean in 10.5.7\. Argh. I reinstalled OSX to no avail. I nearly borked my system in the process. Here’s the story. I usually OC my system to thy kingdom come. Because I wanted to install it all from scratch, I decided to switch off my system after a span of nearly 22 days. Bad decision. When I did restart it wouldn’t OC for nuts. I tried looking in the BIOS, and there in RED letters – VCORE: FAIL. Great. I thought it was a faulty CPU fan – replaced. It could’ve been the SMPS’s fault – replaced. Reseated RAM, CPU. All permutations and combinations – to no avail. And then I decided to just switch it off and worry about it later. This morning I switched it on, and voila, everything back to normal. Explain that. Blah. Here’s the obligatory screenie. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture_2-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/08/Picture%5F2.png) ### CoreAVC with Windows 7 RTM take 2 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/coreavc-with-windows-7-rtm-take-2/ Last updated: 2009-07-29T08:23:30.000Z Windows 7 RTM has been leaked. That’s old information. Most of us have it running on our systems already, with a 30 day grace period (maybe more with a rearm). I too snapped up a copy of the RTM from the interwebs when it came out on July 14th. Since then I have updated my HTPC and the Windows Machine. With a slew of Matroska (MKV container) videos in my possession it is imperative to have flawless playback performance on my Windows HTPC, which admittedly is not the most powerful of machines. I had blogged earlier about Media Player Classic – Home Cinema and DXVA, which granted, worked superb. However such is not the case for systems with older Graphics cards. CoreAVC is a shining beacon of hope for such machines. As a test I tried out CoreAVC on my Windows 7 RTM (7600) machine. To get it to work was an exercise in madness, registry hacks and restarts. But I can proclaim that it indeed works, and I have full HD playback with my Media Player 12 and Media Center. I can use CUDA as well, though that’s kind of counter-productive and a matter of choice. If one can use CUDA, one is better off using MPC-HC with DXVA. But it is a matter of choice. Here’s how I went about enabling CoreAVC – disable the Microsoft Decoder. > 1\. Open REGEDIT as an Administrator > 2\. Navigate to HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\DirectShow\\Preferred > 3\. Right click on ‘Preferred’ and select ‘Permissions’. > 4\. Click on ‘Advanced’ -> ‘Owner’ tab. ‘Administrators’ , check ‘Replace Owner on subcontainers and objects’ checkbox, OK. > 5\. Now back to the first window – click ‘Administrators’ and check ‘Full Control’. Press OK. > 6\. In the left pane look for {e06d8026-db46-11cf-b4d1-00805f6cbbea} > {31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}. > 7\. Edit these entries with a double click and replace the value data entry with that for CoreAVC – {09571A4B-F1FE-4C60-9760-DE6D310C7C31}. > 8\. Reboot. This is important. And voila, the next time you play a MKV or H.264 video, CoreAVC will be the codec used. If in case it still doesn’t work for you, rename the following file to say whatsmynamem8.dll. Remember in order to rename this file you’ll have to take ownership of this particular folder. As with everything else in life, do it with caution. > c:\\windows\\syswow64\\msmpeg2vdec.dll ### Movie Collector 3 Pro is out - please stay away! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/movie-collector-3-pro-is-out-please-stay-away/ Last updated: 2009-07-29T08:03:02.000Z Scathing review alert. I just got an email from Collectorz.com proclaiming “benefits and features” available to the Windows users of Movie Collector have now been released for the Mac platform in the latest version of this Movie catalog software. One phrase comes to mind – STAY away. The biggest reason? They have stripped away all credible sources for Movie information lookup. IMDB, Amazon, you name it, it’s gone. Instead we have their Collectorz.com database which has spotty information at best, and is in no way complete, or even close to it. That added to the confused layout and “new” features make this an upgrade one can well afford to miss. For me, personally, the omission of IMDB lookup is unforgivable. The company claims that it was done to improve information available to the users, or some random excuse, but the reasons are clear. They want to maximize their profits, by making us users submit movie/film information to their servers. In short, we pay to use our own movie/film metadata. No thanks, I love the previous versions of this software and will give this version 3.0 pro a miss and two thumbs down. End scathing review. ### Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac SP2, Spaces issues still remain URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/microsoft-office-2008-for-mac-sp2-spaces-issues-still-remain/ Last updated: 2009-07-25T10:42:58.000Z It has been a few days since this update came out. I wanted to blog this earlier, however, just have been so busy at work, that I haven’t had time for jacques. I downloaded SP2 for Office 2008 as soon as it was announced on [MacBU](http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia%5FOffice2008&fid=300133BB-B5F7-4946-BB7B-B0C6C6D6E28C&ref=tim.sodhis.org#viewer "MacBU"). I didn’t expect much, and didn’t even bother to read the release notes for once. I was surprised though at the strides made in this incremental update. The biggest leap is in the app launch speed. Microsoft Word opens in less than a second now. No more ten bounces before I can start typing. And that’s the second big change. No lags while typing. It is snappy to the touch and the input. Finally I can open DOC files in Word instead of Textedit. Wunderbar! One caveat though. This fix still does not address the weird spaces issue. In particular, if you have the toolbox open in any of the Microsoft App suite, Spaces goes haywire when trying to track the main app window. Microsoft claims it is an OS X issue, but hey why does Office 2004 work flawlessly? Address it, please. Someone. ### iPhone 3GS - Week 4 and all is Great! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/iphone-3gs-week-4-and-all-is-great/ Last updated: 2009-07-25T11:12:18.000Z Week 4, and the iPhone 3GS is chugging away like a champ. Having upgraded from a 1G 4GB iPhone to this beast, I am continually impressed by its speed, features, capabilities and the vast array of possibilities. Initially I resisted the temptation to Jailbreak my iPhone. I figured Jailbreak is just a step to get to the Unlock. Since I am on AT&T, I didn’t need that. However, seeing how Apple chose to cripple the phone (vis-a-vis no HD videos on Youtube on 3G, or Skype calls etc), I reluctantly took the leap. I have not regretted that. With step by step instructions from [iClarified](http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4448&ref=tim.sodhis.org "iClarified"), it was a snap. No need to reload the firmware, just a couple of steps and there’s Cydia! I am a happy camper. The phone cam and video quality is a huge step up from the previous generation iPhones. I increasingly find myself leaving home without my point and shoot of late. It is just so much easier to whip out my iPhone and take a video of my cute little nephew being ever so cute on a whim. I wish there were an option to upload the HQ video to Youtube directly from the iPhone instead of the scaled down version. Oh well. Maybe there’s an app for that ; ) . This phone has well and truly rekindled my desire to develop apps for the iPhone. The SDK is rather straightforward and allows the developers to tap into the various features with ease. More on that as it develops. And here’s an obligatory graphic – this time an image I like to call “Impressions of Suburbia”. Snapped with my 3GS, and manipulated with ColorSplash. All on the iPhone. ![q](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/07/q-225x300.jpg "q") ### Windows 7 Build 7600 - RTM? URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/windows-7-build-7600-rtm/ Last updated: 2009-07-14T14:30:56.000Z Leaked on the Interwebz last evening, build 7600 x64 is being touted as the Window 7 RTM (Release To Manufacturing and not Read The Man). I was of course eager to try this build out, and a couple of minutes later I took it for a test run on my Windows PC. The verdict is – “hmm”. In part due to the fact that it seems like an unfinished product. For instance, it did not mount one of my partitions after installation completed, which led me to a very panicky check of my partitions and mount status. Furthermore, Aero seems a bit sluggish. On the other hand, none of the RC/Beta keys work anymore and no more does one see the “For Evaluation” text emblazoned on the lower-right corner. I will post screenshots later this evening. ### Leopard - Desktop Wallpaper Location URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/leopard-desktop-wallpaper-location/ Last updated: 2009-07-14T14:22:36.000Z I have often wondered where Leopard (OSX) stores the stock Wallpapers available in the Desktop Option in System Preferences. A bit of digging led me to the location. > /Volumes/’YourMacHD’/Library/Desktop Pictures/ Where ‘YourMacHD’ is the volume on which OSX is installed. I was rather surprised at first that it wasn’t under the \~ set of folders. But yeah it does make sense, it is after all a systemwide implementation/feature. ### My New iPhone 3GS. Just wow. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/my-new-iphone-3gs-just-wow/ Last updated: 2009-06-25T13:45:32.000Z ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo_4-thumb.jpg)Ladies and Gentlemen, it is here. My new Black 32GB iPhone 3GS is finally here. All the way from Shenzhen, China, making its way through Anchorage, Memphis and finally in my hands, this lil’ beauty was well worth the wait. The S, is it for Speed? is it for Superb? Is it for Simply Fantastic? All of the above I say. I am just simply thrilled by its speed in everything – may it be browsing, apps, search, GPS location, maps.. I could go on forever. A more in-depth review has to follow of course. But for now, I will go revel in the joys of the phone. Loving it! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo-1-thumb1.jpg) ### TomTom coming to the iPhone 3.0. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/tomtom-coming-to-the-iphone-3-0/ Last updated: 2009-06-22T09:43:07.000Z Yet another reason to upgrade the Firmware and get on the 3G Bandwagon. ### iPhone OS 3.0 - almost perfect URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/iphone-os-30-almost-perfect/ Last updated: 2009-06-15T11:50:08.000Z I know it is early, and the official release isn’t till the 17th of this month, but I couldn’t help looking around at the NZB world for the OS 3.0\. To my delight, I found it on the first query for my phone. Downloaded and installed, I am just delighted with the new OS. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo.jpg)First and foremost – SEARCH! Universal Spotlight like search on the iPhone. It will search through email, calendar, contacts and what not! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo-1-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo-1.jpg)Secondly, NOTES SYNC! Oh my dear goodness how I have waited for the two-way sync betwitxt my iPhone and Mail Notes. It seemed to be a no-brainer – it should’ve been there when the original iPhone was released, but it took Apple until now to get it working. What a time saver. No need for Evernote or any other semi-functional apps now. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo-3-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/photo-3.jpg)Next up – VOICE NOTES, record short snippets – though I don’t see any use for those personally. Oh and yes, I do love the new and improved Google Maps App! The triangulation based on Cell phone signal has improved considerably. It can now pinpoint one’s location very accurately, even on a weak signal. There are a number of other changes under the hood, most important of those – push services. However I have not seen apps make use of this yet. More to come as I test. ### Back from Disney URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-from-disney/ Last updated: 2009-06-14T15:30:28.000Z After a week of intense fun and excitement at the Walt Disney World in FL, we are back home, and are certainly feeling the Disney Withdrawal Syndrome. A skeptic to begin with, I ventured forth a week back, not knowing what to expect. Conscious of the Disney brand and the fact that we were being subjected to Disney marketing etc, I was wary of becoming a “tool” in the ploy. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/img-2351-xl-thumb.jpg)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/06/img-2351-xl.jpg) But Disney World won me over. It was tremendous fun – the rides, the ambience, the people (tens of thousands of people), the musicals, the shows, the characters, the staff, and the attention to detail. And then there were the resort facilities – pools, tennis, spas, etc. The week just flew by. And now we find ourselves back at home, longing to be back at Disney, to take the bus to one of the four parks, and enjoy rides such as Splash Mountain, Rock n Roller Coaster, The Tower, and so on. What a magical time it was indeed. Can’t wait till the next time. More pictures to follow soon. But now it is time to get back to the real world. Have a magical day y’all. ### DXVA, CoreAVC - x.264 & MKV playback in Windows 7 RC URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/dxva-coreavc-x264-mkv-playback-in-windows-7-rc/ Last updated: 2009-06-04T09:53:36.000Z With the advent of the latest and greatest of Microsoft’s OSs – Windows 7 – come a slew of issues with the reliable playback of HD videos that we have lying around in our collections. According to specs, Windows 7 RC1 shipped with an x.264 decoder built in. However this is far from a panacea for those of us with older hardware. I use a custom HTPC for all my playback needs with my Full HD (1080p) LCD TV. The HTPC rig, built back in 2007, does not have the latest and greatest processor, but runs Windows 7 RC1 with aplomb. I did upgrade the graphics card recently to an OC’d NVIDIA 9800GT. With Windows Media Player 12, I have had no issues whatsoever with 720p playback. Though the Activity Monitor (or its Windows equivalent) showed a spike in CPU usage while playback, it was low enough to be ignored. However when I threw a 1080p video at the system, it would choke. I briefly considered upgrading the CPU, but thankfully decided to do some digging around. I narrowed the culprit down to the laggy x.264 decoder included with Windows 7\. The answer was simple. Update to [ffdshow](http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow?ref=tim.sodhis.org "ffdshow") or [CoreAVC](http://www.coreavc.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "CoreAVC"). I chose the latter after reading that CoreAVC is better in terms of CPU usage. However, on installing the latest version (1.9.5), I for the life of me, could not get CoreAVC to load with Windows Media Player 12\. [Forums](http://forum.corecodec.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1850&ref=tim.sodhis.org) advised registry hacks and key deletion that seemed to work for some, but not for yours truly. I had to find another solution. A bit of digging later, I found the superb world of [DXVA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX%5FVideo%5FAcceleration?ref=tim.sodhis.org "DXVA")! DXVA or DirectX Video Acceleration uses the hardware of the graphics card for video acceleration. It is featured natively in [Media Player Classic – Home Cinema](http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "MPC-HC"). It requires a powerful Graphics card which I am happy to say I own – the NVIDIA 9800GT. To [enable](http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/DXVASupport.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org "DXVA Enable") DXVA in Vista or Windows 7, just select EVR Custom mode in MPC-HC options. The result? CPU usage has dipped to 3-4% for 1080p videos, compared to nearly 60-70% usage previously. I am so impressed and hooked. ### The Infallibly Polite Alarm Clock URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/the-infallibly-polite-alarm-clock/ Last updated: 2009-05-20T08:04:37.000Z Presenting the [infallibly polite speaking alarm clock](http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/aef3/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Engadget"). Wakes you up in the morning with a polite, almost apologetic message. > Excuse me sir, I’m so sorry to disturb you, but it appears to be morning… very inconvenient, I agree… I believe it is the rotation of the Earth that is to blame, sir. Featuring the voice of the one and only Stephan Fry! Simply a must-have at $69.99\. ### New ACDSee Pro Beta for Mac - mini review URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/acdsee-pro-beta-for-mac-is-out/ Last updated: 2009-05-20T08:07:39.000Z The day one has waited for with baited breath, the Software one assumed would never be seen again on the Mac, the grand daddy of all image and file managers – ACDSee has arrived for the Mac OSX platform after a gap of nearly ten years. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-1-thumb3.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-13.png)Ecstatic, enthused, just plain over the top happy to see this App finally make it to the next version (after the non-starter v2.5 back in the day), I downloaded it the first thing this morning on receiving my Invite in the mail. The first impressions, just gobsmacked. They have managed to streamline the Mac version so that the installer DMG is just three MB and footprint is just eight MB. It is blazingly fast in browsing and viewing images. The developers have managed to keep the right-click menu options very contextual and to the point. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-3-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-3.png)One pet peeve though – clicking on an image on the Manage screen (main screen) takes one to the View Screen. To view a full screen image, one must double click it in this screen. One extra step. I imagine the view screen will be improved in the later Betas to include image manip features. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-2-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-2.png)I for one can’t wait for the final version, and do hope that the developers keep the simplicity and the speed that once made ACDSee the best image viewer (and for some File management software) on Windows. It is fast, it is beautiful, it is simple, and it is [here](http://www.acdsee.com/proformac?ref=tim.sodhis.org "ACDSee Mac"). Go get it. ### Yep PDF document management URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/yep-pdf-document-management/ Last updated: 2009-05-16T10:43:26.000Z If you revel in scanning your documents and keeping an e-trace of all your correspondence, Yep is the PDF document management system for you. Yep organizes PDF files and allows you to tag them automatically based on the contents of the documents or define your own tags. For academic papers, it can download tags and information from Google Scholar as well. The robust search engine allows you to search based on both Tags and contents (where legible). Give it a whirl. I have given Yep total control over my document organization. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-1-thumb2.png) ### 10.5.7 and all is well. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/1057-and-all-is-well/ Last updated: 2009-05-13T21:28:06.000Z Tuesday marked the release of the newest security and incremental patch for Leopard, OS 10.5\. I am glad to report that upgrading from Software Update went well on my iPC Hackie. And a pic to prove the same. Cheers! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-1-thumb1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-11.png) ### Star Trek - the reboot & rebirth URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/star-trek-the-reboot-rebirth/ Last updated: 2009-05-09T08:03:36.000Z The most widely anticipated and sought after film in the Trekker-dom, this film could not have been built up enough in my head. Rissa will testify that as the days counted down to the 05/08 release, I just have been going nuts – humming the intro music to the Original Series, talking like Shatner, interpretive dances and the like. One would think that after all this anticipation and building up, the movie would have to be a disappointment. But there, my dear reader you’d be completely wrong. The new Star Trek movie just blows the franchise into territory no other movie has gone before. It is slick, fast-paced, exciting, action-packed, thrilling, ribald, in short, nearly all things to all people. Testament to how much Rissa enjoyed it – she’s humming the intro music as well. And she does not like the Original series at all, or Star Trek for that matter. Anyway, back to the movie. It was just so exciting to see the characters we grew up with (albeit TOS originally aired nearly 20 years before I was born), played so perfect by the new cast. All through the movie I found myself comparing the mannerisms, the settings, in short everything, to TOS. JJ Abrams did a great job with reimagining the series and even though he has taken a few liberties (including a great development), the movie will be enjoyed by Trekkers far and wide. Me, I can’t wait till it comes out on Blu-ray! Live long and prosper. ### MultiFirefox - Multiple Firefox Profile Manager URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/multifirefox-multiple-firefox-profile-manager/ Last updated: 2009-05-06T08:03:18.000Z You could do it with a shell script, or you could create multiple profiles using the profile manager in Firefox and launch it every time to select a profile. Or you could use MultiFirefox, an app that has made web development and testing so much easier. As any informed web developer would testify, some tools you just can’t do without, on a browser platform like no other in terms of conformance and widespread acceptance – the Firefox browser. FireBug, Developer’s toolbar and the like. I speak of course for Firefox, the developer’s You could use I found myself needing to check on code written by others, to inspect the properties and inline styles, not to mention AJAX requests and the like. But I didn’t want to encumber my browser with plugins I really don’t need on a day to day basis. The solution was to create a separate developer profile for my Firefox. Of course on many platforms you cannot have multiple versions of Firefox installed at the same time. It was possible however to create multiple profiles for the same version via the profile manager for Firefox. You can launch it through the terminal.app by typing > Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -profilemanager However try doing that every 20 minutes or so, and you’ll soon grow tired of the same. Enter [MultiFirefox](http://www.codecontortionist.com/software/mac-osx-software/multifirefox/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "MultiFirefox"), a great frontend to the profile manager that makes creating and selecting profiles a breeze. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-1-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/05/picture-1.png)It has become second nature for me now. I maintain a developer profile loaded with plugins to help me debug and investigate code. I can have both browsers running simultaneously, and that is no small relief. I couldn’t see it explicitly mentioned on the website, but it works great with Firefox Ver. 3.0.0.10\. So give it a whirl. One complaint though. Whichever browser profile is opened first, becomes the “default” browser, i.e. any link followed from an email, IM message, etc, will open in the browser profile opened first. Bug maybe? ### First Impressions: Windows 7 RC1 (7100) URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/first-impressions-windows-7-rc1-7100/ Last updated: 2009-05-01T11:59:30.000Z I am back again after a long sojourn! While I was down and out, I did get the chance though, to play around with Windows 7 RC1\. I am flummoxed at this release from Microsoft. Windows 7 comes as a whiff of fresh air to the souls stuck in the Vista purgatory. It is a huge step forth, even for those who claim Microsoft could never better XP. For all practical and day to day purposes, this is a complete OS. Let not the RC1 moniker fool you. Apart from some bells and whistles (Movie Maker etc), the version available is complete. Digo (my brother) is using it as his primary OS. I remain a steadfast Mac fanatic and never would I make Windows my primary OS, or install it on my beloved MBP. I did however install it on my Media Center PC (albeit with a couple of hitches along the route – more later). The first impression on viewing the UI on my 42″ 1080p LCD was – Wow. It looks gorgeous and is packs a punch! RC1 features a number of improvements over the previous [Beta release](https://tim.sodhis.org/2009/01/12/windows-7-first-impressions-vista-done-right/ "Windows 7 Beta"), most noticeable – Windows Media Player, and a number of Aero Tweaks. Windows Media Player has been reworked to emphasize the Album Art, and the UI is simply gorgeous. Music sounds just amazing with SRS Digital Audio built into WMP – rich, deep sound with pronounced bass/treble. I hate to admit it really does put iTunes to shame. The installation process wasn’t a breeze however. My Media Center PC had an old integrated graphics card the GeForce 6100\. Windows 7 just didn’t seem to recognize it, and kept crashing during installation, returning me to the Error Recovery Console. The only way I could go further was to pop in my powerful GeForce 9800GT. Those niggling problems notwithstanding, I do recommend this release to everyone. It will be made public on 05/05/09, and though the tubes will be jammed with demand, make sure to be one of the crowd. BTW, if you did find it elsewhere and can’t wait, old Beta keys work fine. ### Windows 7 RC1 (Build Ver 7100) leaked on the Interwebz URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/windows-7-rc1-build-ver-7100-leaked-on-the-interwebz/ Last updated: 2009-04-24T09:52:07.000Z This bit of news comes close on the heels of signs from Redmond on progressive builds of the latest and perhaps the greatest of Microsoft’s releases in a while (at least since XP) – Windows 7\. News around the blogs and tech sites are exclaiming that leaked copies of the first Release Candidate (RC1) are freely available on Torrent trackers and News sites all around. I quickly checked and indeed it is true. This from BinSearch. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-2-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-2.png)Release Candidates are usually public betas (therefore legal), so I would encourage people (the more adventurous of the readers) to go ahead and procure a copy and try out this magnificent OS asap. Of course, Leopard trumps anything Windows (disclaimer disclaimer). ### Remove Attachments in Apple Mail ⌘ URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/remove-attachments-in-apple-mail--e2-8c-98/ Last updated: 2009-04-23T13:57:42.000Z Right under my nose all the time, and never did I actually care to look for it, but rather bemoaned the lack of a “remove attachments” feature in Apple Mail. You see, I was looking in all the “wrong” places, namely in the contextual menu when one right clicks an email in Apple Mail. Other clients like Thunderbird and Entourage offer the option to remove attachments from an email in the contextual menu. Apple decided against it, as perhaps people don’t use it (the world according to Apple). > Message -> Remove Attachments This morning I tried and lo and behold I found the option to remove attachments from the emails I get. Now I can archive the message without necessarily storing for all eternity the added fluff some people usually attach with their mails. My Mailbox size has gone from 420 MB to just 11MB. The discovery of this feature has made this already amazing Apple Mail app, even more invaluable in my book. ### How to edit the Normal template in Mac Word 2008 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/how-to-edit-the-normal-template-in-mac-word-2008/ Last updated: 2009-04-22T15:27:09.000Z As I began to rely solely on Word 2008 for my needs, I found myself messing around with the app to customize it to my needs. One of the first and most basic issues I faced from the get-go was using my own “Normal.dotm” template, as well as my letterhead. I could of course double click on the template files on my HD and work on the same in Word, but that was an extra step I didn’t wish to undertake, not to mention if I happened to press CMD-S I could overwrite the template with whatever I happened to be working on then. Turns out the solution, in true Mac fashion was simple. The default template “Normal.dotm” resides in > \~/Library/ Applications/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm Open it in Word (make sure to open it via Word, and not by double clicking the file). Modify the template, and save. Voila, the template is modified. This location is also the central repository for all templates. However, if you are anal like me, and don’t like personal documents, templates and such lying around in the \~ folders, make a Symlink! ### Time Warner Caps Dropped! Victory! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/time-warner-caps-dropped-victory/ Last updated: 2009-04-16T20:38:28.000Z [We won](http://stopthecap.com/2009/04/16/we-won-time-warner-killing-usage-caps-in-all-markets/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Stop the Cap")! Perhaps… but it is a start. Time Warner has dropped its plans to enforce Bandwidth caps across Texas and NY! Though with caveats, this is a great day! And that too, after I had ranted on in the previous post. Seems Senator Schumer’s displeasure was the push needed to bring down this ill-conceived plan on the part of Time Warner. Time for celebrations in Blogosphere! One down, Comcast next. ### Time Warner bandwidth caps in Texas and NY URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/time-warner-bandwidth-caps-in-texas-and-ny/ Last updated: 2009-04-16T13:49:20.000Z In this age of ubiquitous Internet access, not to mention the plethora of content that has been migrated from more traditional delivery media, to online repositories (read Hulu, CBS, etc), it is preposterous to even conceive, much less bring into regulation, that which is anathema for all dedicated, educated web users, namely Bandwidth Caps. I have watched in alarm as Time Warner, Frontier, Comcast – the “premier” ISPs in this region have started this new exercise of enforcing (at various stages of implementation) bandwidth caps – limitations on how much a user may download – across markets in Texas and Rochester, NY. This does not affect me directly at present, as where I live, these caps are yet to be implemented and it stands to reason that since this area is a “highly-competitive” region, caps will probably not be implemented anytime soon. However, this is a travesty no matter where it happens. The companies maintain that without caps, they simply can’t survive and limitations free Internet access is not viable. Hogwash, the amount they plan to charge PER GB is nearly 98 cents/ dollar more than what the cost is to them. It is a case of utter greed, and turning unimaginable profits by bilking consumers which due to the already monopolistic reach of ISPs are starved for choice. I point to examples from the rest of the world. Sweden, Japan, Netherlands – ultra fast access with none of the limitations hogwash. So this utter nonsense of non-viability, is this restricted to the ISPs in the English speaking world? Some argue bandwidth caps as those implemented by Comcast are fair and just – and to those arguments I thumb my nose. Any kind of restriction, any kind of caps are anathema to this medium, as we approach the age of DOCSIS 3.0, and Fiber Optic to home. An analogy I read on one of the blogs around the webz, likened the situation to regulating the number of hours one may watch TV. Suppose for the basic channels one subscribes to, one is told that for $50 a month one may watch 20 hours of cable, and for each additional hour the cable company will charge an extra dollar. I am sure some of the meek ones in the crowd will comply and some might even cut down the amount of time they watch TV to 20 hours a month. Whichever the case may be, the viewer has lost the freedom to choose. No matter if the company allows 20 hours or 50 hours, any kind of cap runs against the grain. There is hope and there are voices rising in crescendo against these ISP enforced regulations – voices from across the blogosphere, twitterscape and forums that are reaching our representatives. Representatives such as Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mayoral candidate Lee Leffingwell, and others are proactive in their condemnation of Time Warner and their proposed bandwidth caps. An excellent website to keep abreast of developments and network with like-minded users is [StopTheCap](http://stopthecap.com/take-action/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Stop The Cap!"). Join up and share your ideas, and if you are affected/incensed by this, join in the effort. We need to speak up now as a community. ### We didn't start the flame war... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/we-didnt-start-the-flame-war/ Last updated: 2009-04-16T13:55:30.000Z [Epic lulz….](http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907543?ref=tim.sodhis.org "We didn't start the flamewar") Just could not stop laughing. If you frequent Digg, or any of the other such copycat sites, you’d know why… FTW! ### The latest Macbook Air killer falls flat - Dell Adamo URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/the-latest-macbook-air-killer-falls-flat-dell-adamo/ Last updated: 2009-04-14T08:40:10.000Z A very interesting article on this much awaited “Macbook Air killer”. Engadget dismisses this upstart with a low rating and a much deserved slapping around. [Read here](http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/13/dell-adamo-review/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Adamo"). $2000+ for this monstrosity, please… > …but you’ve got to be pretty shallow to spend $2000 on a system and not care how it performs. ### Welcome to a new home & a new domain! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/welcome-to-a-new-home-a-new-domain/ Last updated: 2009-04-07T08:27:54.000Z The transition is complete! The old blog has been moved to the current address, and all are advised to refresh the feeds. Of course, the old blog will always redirect here, and so will the individual articles (from Google). The process was quite straightforward, and included a lot of SQL, as well as copying of files, hither and tither. The piece de la resistance was the singular line of rule in my .htaccess file, which will redirect every link from the old, to the current destination on my new server. > RedirectMatch permanent (.\*) $1 For those curious enough – why Timothevs one might ask? Here’s an Etymology lesson – Tim is a derivative of Timothy, which is a derivative of the Latin word Timothevs which in turn was derived from Timotheos (Greek). All of which mean “Honoring God”. Since everything else was registered, welcome to the family Timothevs.net. ### WRT54G2 - a cheap Wireless Adapter for the XBox 360 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/dd-wrt-and-a-cheap-wireless-device-for-the-xbox-360/ Last updated: 2009-04-06T07:47:00.000Z Success! After Drew in our office pointed me to a [Gizmodo](http://gizmodo.com/5133447/how-to-add-wi+fi-to-your-xbox-360-smartly-and-cheaply?ref=tim.sodhis.org "XBox 360 Wireless Cheap") article mentioning how to create a cheap Wireless Device for the XBox 360 using custom firmware, I was all raring to give it a go. As one might know, an [XBox Wireless Adapter](http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Network-Adapter/dp/B000B6MLV4?ref=tim.sodhis.org "XBox Wireless Retail") retails for around a hundred dollars, and even with smart bargain hunting, one is not likely to find it cheaper than around eighty. Not willing to shell out that much for a Wireless adapter (I’d rather spend it on games), I decided to go for a refurb [WRT54G2](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124284&ref=tim.sodhis.org "Newegg WRT54G2") device I found through a bargain website, on Newegg, for a princely sum of twenty-one dollars. All signs on the [DD-WRT](http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys%5FWRT54G2?ref=tim.sodhis.org "DD-WRT WRT54G2") website pointed to compatibility with the micro firmware version. The directions to upgrade the existent firmware on the device were clear. What was lacking in clarity though, was the process to convert it into a wireless bridge. A wireless bridge connects two different LAN segments via a Wireless link – useful to increase the reach of the Wireless Network, amongst other uses. For a fuller description – [clicky](http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless%5FBridge?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Wireless Bridge"). The process can be a little convoluted to say the least. I started by connecting the router to a Windows PC (yuck) via one of the router’s LAN ports. The firmware upgrade process was the same as described on the website. However, directions to set it into the wireless bridge mode were murky – what was missing was that before one starts the configuration, one needs to connect it to the existing Wireless Router. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-1-thumb2.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-16.png)Click the Status Tab -> Wireless -> Site Survey (at the bottom), which will bring up a window with a list of Wireless Routers in the proximity. Choose yours, and click JOIN on the side. This will connect the two Routers, but here’s the tricky part – if you have security on, the directions on the DD-WRT manual don’t specify where one can enter the same. [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-5-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-5.png)Enter the Wireless key for the master router in Wireless (Tab) -> Wireless Security, and continue as described on the DD-WRT site. Perfect! I have it connected to my XBox 360 and indeed, no drops and no connection issues whatsoever. I couldn’t be more happy at having saved some sixty dollars (which I will spend on a new HDD). ### Uploading images to Wordpress = FAIL? URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/uploading-images-to-wordpress-fail/ Last updated: 2009-04-02T11:50:07.000Z From the start, whenever I tried to upload a larger file to WordPress from an external editor, I always ran into an “500 Internal Server Error”. Just how many images etc did I have to scale down because of this, I alone know. I decided to get off my bum and research this a bit, and found that it is a problem prevalent with some web hosts, where the services tend to revert back to PHP4 by default. The fix is simple. Add the following to your *.htaccess* > AddType x-mapp-php5 .php > AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php And Bob’s your chum. ### Trying out Blogo URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/trying-out-blogo/ Last updated: 2009-04-02T11:52:18.000Z ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-1-thumb14.png)My search for a reliable and aesthetically pleasing offline blog editor for Mac has led me to [Blogo](http://www.drinkbrainjuice.com/blogo?ref=tim.sodhis.org "Blogo URL"). I am excoriating myself for never having tried this puppy out earlier. I am so impressed by how easy this app makes blogging – every aspect from writing (in full screen mode when one needs to concentrate), to attaching images (Drag drop please). Just wonderful. Blogo is a prime example of how Software designed for Mac is far superior to anything for any other platform. Available as a 21 day trial, and $25 to buy, this is well worth the money spent. Go gettit! PS: Wonderful feature! Preview your post exactly as it would appear on the blog. Wow. I have seen other editors try and miserably fail at that. Blogo does it, and with aplomb! [![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-3-thumb.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/04/picture-3.png) ### CookBook Pro URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/cookbook-pro/ Last updated: 2009-03-27T21:59:08.000Z Impossibly hot – that was my proclamation right after I performed surgery on the MacBook Pro. It was uncomfortably hot around the area where the magsafe adapter plugs in, with temperatures ranging from 160-190 F (70C-90C for the metric minded) for the GPU Diode and similar for the CPU. Many fanbois claimed that this range was well within the tolerance limit, but how do you explain that to your palms while you work on the beautiful machine? I decided to get to the bottom of this CookBook phenomenon. First thing I [AppZapp](http://www.appzapper.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)‘d was [Pathfinder](http://www.cocoatech.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). A very useful application, but the CPU spikes while using it, were unforgivable. Next down was Microsoft Office ’08\. A useful suite, but easily supplanted by [Open Office](http://www.openoffice.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) & [Thunderbird](http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (replacing Entourage). Another one down was Adobe Suite CS3 (PhotoShop). I installed [Pixelmator](http://www.pixelmator.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) to supplant this. Things did seem marginally better, but nothing like what I had expected to see – disappointing to say the least. But then I AppZapp’d [Little Snitch](http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org) – (firewall for Mac), and lo and behold – at full load I average temperatures around 148-150F(\~64C). Back to reinstalling the cast-offs. ### My New Toy - me new XBox360 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/my-new-toy-me-new-xbox360/ Last updated: 2009-03-25T10:08:14.000Z This post is hopelessly delayed and you’ll soon know why – but what a wonderful gift was I surprised with, on my birthday! Yes, this old man carved out another notch in the life chain on the 16th. Thanks you. But to the topic at hand! Rissa’s mom, dad and grandparents came to our place to celebrate with us, along with Jen, Sam and the kids via Webcam from Indiana. Just so touching indeed, and that in itself was a great gift – the gift of family. The kids seemed extra excited! As I opened my gifts, there was an air of excitement about – Rissa’s dad seemed rather overcome by it and apparently went out for a breather – but soon came right back in, with a HUGE bag. My eyes widened as I opened the bag to see the oh so familiar green box with the X logo on it. Could NOT believe it – my first instinct – am I being Punk’d much like that kid who thought he got a Wii but found out it was a box full of socks. But no, it was real, it is mine! I was gifted a console, an XBox at that. SO surreptitious was the entire setup! Everyone was in on it, and I didn’t suspect a thing. Sneaky indeed, but wow! And all this seems to have stemmed from a humble request I had put on our registry back in August, last year and Rissa’s mom caught up on it in December – the rest is history. But am just so amazed at how Rissa kept it from me, and didn’t let me get suspicious at all – every time I thought there was something going on, she’d be ready with a fully convincing explanation to the otherwise. Amazing… my hat’s off to you my wife! And since then, I’ve been busy gaming – getting progressively better at games I once knew (from the PC and other platforms). Virtua Tennis 3, Fight Night Round 3, Virtua Fighter 5 Online, and the list goes on. The possibilities are limitless – this is by far the most advanced console I have ever seen (agreed I haven’t seen too many other than PS2-3, Wii), and I am simply blown away! At this time I am hungrily browsing the interwebs looking for deals and other additions I can make to this haloed Console. Perfect indeed THANK YOU Rissie, Mom, Dad, Jen, Sam, Grandpa, Gramma B, and the lil Kids! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/03/img-1998-m.jpg) ### Color Dropper in Leopard URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/color-dropper-in-leopard/ Last updated: 2009-03-13T07:45:40.000Z One of the more useful features included in Leopard, and indispensible to nearly all Graphic artists and web developers alike is the system-wide Color Dropper included in Leopard – the "DigitalColor Meter". Fire it off from Spotlight or for you anal people – it is Applications-> Utilities -> DigitalColor Meter. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/03/picture-11.png) A system wide color dropper utility – DigitalColor Meter allows one to capture the color value from any running application, desktop, text – in short – anything on the screen, in a variety of formats – just press SHIFT+CMD+C to capture it as a text value or OPTION+CMD+C to capture it as an image. Brilliant. ### The Bubble Guy of Allen Street URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/the-bubble-guy-of-allen-street/ Last updated: 2009-03-03T10:21:20.000Z The Bubbles Guy of Allen Street, known best as *The Bubble Guy,* has been bringing smiles to faces of countless, and has been brightening up the day (and the sky) for many, since about seven years now, with the simple act of blowing bubbles from his third storey apartment on the corner of Allen and Elmwood. An institution and a landmark unto himself, the Bubble guy has been engaging in his endeavor when the weather so permits. His hobby is considered a nuisance by some, who claim that the bubbles leave a soapy residue on the cars and windows around his zone of action. As a result he has his share of detractors and supporters. The first time I noticed him was when I was waiting for a bus at that spot, tired, dulled from a full day of work – when I happened to notice a multitude of bubbles floating by, catching the light of the sun, and momentarily I wandered off, floating away from my worries and tribulations, with those bubbles into the wide, open yonder. Since that day, the sight of bubbles floating by the window of my office never fails to bring a smile to my visage, and for a moment I can just let go of the worries and mind-wrangling issues to enjoy the bubbles. It reminds me of the poem I used to recite for my English teacher back in grade school. William Wordsworth’s Daffodils. Especially this final paragraph. > For oft when on my couch I lie, > In vacant or in pensive mood, > They flash upon that inward eye, > Which is the bliss of solitude, > And then my heart with pleasure fills, > And dances with the daffodils. ### WordPress automatic upgrade fails - solution URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-fails-solution/ Last updated: 2009-02-23T16:12:59.000Z If faced with a non-starter upgrade process when trying to auto-update to the latest version of WordPress (from 2.7 to 2.7.1 for instance), make sure your server can handle PHP5\. Adding the following line to .htaccess file on your root (between the # BEGIN WordPress and #END WordPress lines) will ensure the upgrade succeeds. > AddType x-mapp-php5 .php ### New look... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/new-look/ Last updated: 2009-02-23T15:12:03.000Z Presenting the newly reconstructed Tim Sodhi’s Weblog! Featuring mods of a numerous themes available, as well as some of my own hacks thrown in, this is the new face of my blog. Welcome one and all. It has been forever since I updated the look and feel of my blog. Truth is, the previous theme I created seemed to fit my needs just fine. I couldn’t really find another that would match its simplicity and style. That, along with the inherent ennui that tends to take over once one is settled into a fine groove, made updates to the theme seem like too much work. But all one needs is a bit of patience and time, and here we are. I particularly like the new simplistic style, clean lines, layout as well as the color scheme for this theme. So ladies and gentlemen, say Hello to the new look! Cheers. ### Coda SVN support with Versions URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/coda-svn-support-with-versions/ Last updated: 2009-03-03T10:20:28.000Z For the unlucky few who don’t have SVN (Subversion) repositories set up for them: hosting one’s own SVN repositories might be the only solution. While Leopard ships with Apache2 and SVN support, enabling and configuring the same is tedious. [This site](http://www.mrnovell.com/wp-trackback.php?p=70&ref=tim.sodhis.org) walks through the entire process. For my needs though, I chose [Versions](http://versionsapp.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), a commerical SVN frontend that makes setting up multiple SVN repositories easy and quite straightforward. In my case, I set up a local repository, pointing the location to a folder on my RAID drive. And that was it! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/picture-1-m.jpg)Editors on a Mac are always a hotly contested issue on which no two programmers usually see eye-to-eye. Some prefer the simple elegance of **vi**, while others prefer the bells and whistles offered by editors like **Coda**, while some still would prefer the [**Eclipse**](http://www.eclipse.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) route for nearly all their programming needs (lord knows why – the namesake will confirm). I fall in the bells and whistles category, and have alternated between [**Textmate**](http://macromates.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and [**Coda**](http://www.panic.com/coda/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) – both prime editors. Textmate is clearly more powerful of the two, however setting up an SVN repository on the same is more a hassle, than on Coda. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/picture-2-m.jpg) Panic’s Coda is a beautiful, and powerfuleditor, and like Panic’s other products – [Transmit](http://www.panic.com/transmit/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and [Unison](http://www.panic.com/unison/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), very OSX in it’s look and feel. What’s more – it features SVN support right off the bat. To this end, one needs to set up a New Site within Coda (it doesn’t work otherwise, trust me). Fill in at least one destination, I suggest Local URL (a dummy location like http://localhost/) and the local root (where the files will be stored). Click Checkout Source and point it to the location of the folder where the SVN repository was created with Versions app, and Bob’s your uncle. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/03/picture-1.png) A note though – for some reason, committing/update/modification may not work the first time the site is created and the working window brought up. To make it work just restart the app. ### MacBook Pro Pr0n URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/macbook-pro-pr0n/ Last updated: 2009-02-14T10:40:28.000Z As promised here are the much anticipated porn pics – of the MacBook Pro kinds. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/img-1824-m.jpg) The tease, strutting its stuff. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/img-1825-m.jpg) Oh la la la! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/img-1826-m.jpg) Naughty naughty! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/img-1827-m.jpg) Does Stevie know? ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/img-1828-m.jpg) The Money shot! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/img-1829-m.jpg) Am partial to the tops anyways. And that concludes this presentation. Time to bring your pulses down a bit… stay tuned for more… ### iLife '09 and Face Detection in iPhoto URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ilife-09-and-face-detection-in-iphoto/ Last updated: 2009-02-07T12:09:42.000Z I have been asked numerous times in the last few weeks how I feel about the new[ iLife 2009 suite](http://www.apple.com/ilife?ref=tim.sodhis.org), and I have been noncommittal at best due to lack of time to actually work with the apps. No more, I say. The last few days I have delved deep into the app usage, and I am quite impressed. Though the changes are not monumental in terms of features etc, they are a real step forward – iPhoto and iWeb in particular. The buzz on iPhoto has been around its new Face Detection and Locations features. iPhoto goes through a composite of one’s pictures and identifies faces based on a learning algorithm, helped along by error correction initiated by the user. To kick this feature off, one needs to identify a specific face in any picture. iPhoto will then go on to classify the unique characteristics it finds in the face one identified, to collect images in the library it computes are the same person. Sounds really impressive on paper, so I decided to take it for a whirl. The results were a mixed bag. When identified properly, i.e. a full face-on shot of say a person X, it will correctly locate pictures of X. However, if person X is wearing sunglasses or other accessories, iPhoto will err repeatedly, as can be seen in the screen-shot below. I identified a former colleague of mine, Marco, in a picture, and iPhoto went off on a tangent, erroraneously concluding all who wore sunglasses were Marco. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/02/picture-1.png) On the flip side, I identified a picture of my little niece in a clear shot, and iPhoto was able to correctly identify her from the time she was a few months old. She’s 2.5 now. Very impressive. Locations works just as well. One does need to have a GPS capable camera (an iPhone for instance), or a GPS device, that can embed Geo codes in the EXIF data of the photo, for iPhoto to automatically determine the location of the picture. Or one can choose to specify the location manually – a tedious task when one has 10,000+ photos (from 2008 alone like I do). More on iWeb next time. ### Duplicate Mount Points after improper restart in Leopard URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/duplicate-mount-points-after-improper-restart-in-leopard/ Last updated: 2009-02-05T12:44:48.000Z This has been happening since a long time now. Sometimes when I need to cold-boot my Leopard installations, I log back in to my Desktop just to see everything has gone awry. Preferences for all my applications have been reset and my Documents are nowhere to be found. My only solution then had been to reformat my system and get back to the pristine state. That is, until yesterday. I’ll back up a bit and explain my set up a little better. I have partitioned my OS X drive into two partitions named: "Macintosh HD" – the Leopard drive, and "Documents" – where I have moved all my data, as well as my Home folder. This ensures that whenever I may need to reformat (which I do, nearly all the time), my documents and preferences can be restored by dragging and dropping them into the new Home folder. It’s effortless really, and an amazing feature of a registry free system. Back to the problem: I decided to look further into the issue and found that the Disk Utility was reporting that my "/Volumes/Documents" partition had been renamed to "/Volumes/Documents 1". A trivial solution I had tried in the past was to relocate my Home Folder to the new partition name, to no avail. Google brought me to [this helpful page](http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24241?viewlocale=en%5FUS&ref=tim.sodhis.org) on Apple’s Support Web site. I found out that a Mount point had been created – "Documents 1" as the older Mount Point "Documents" was now invalid (and showed up as a folder instead of a Mount Point icon). I had to simply delete the Documents mount point to get my preferences / documents back to where they are supposed to be. Turns out, one needs to have another account on the Mac one is trying to fix with Admin privileges, to delete the invalid Mount point reference. Once that is done, a quick restart and Bob’s your uncle, and I’m so glad I don’t have to sit through another format/reinstall. ### Australian Open - the Hooligan's Grand Slam URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/australian-open-the-hooligans-grand-slam/ Last updated: 2009-01-25T08:59:38.000Z The Australian Open Grand Slam event in tennis is regarded as one of the four hallowed grounds for all Tennis players, professional or amateur. Is the appellation founded? The others being the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Each, as I wrote once before, are characterized by unique traits, both in the surface, and in the spectators. The French Open played on clay, is an event where the crowds are discerning, and cheer their favorite enthusiastically, be that a country-person or a foreigner. Wimbledon, played on grass, is the classiest and the most prestigious of the Slams, and attracts a very cultured and well-behaved crowd, known for its indulgence of Strawberries and cream. The US open, played on hard courts is a fast-paced tournament, with crowds that match, always on the move – the atmosphere of an amphitheater. Which brings me to the Australian Open, played on rebound ace. The fans there have been raucous and brash, always. And now this tournament is synonymous with rioters and ethnic violence, exemplified by the [fisticuffs and fights](http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=australian+open+violence&ref=tim.sodhis.org) breaking out between Balkan supporters during the games in the last few years. This is just an example. This tournament seems to attract the lowest denominator of spectators. Un-sportsmanlike, and rowdy. Not surprising for a tournament which tries to pass off as a Grand Slam, but is, in all shapes and forms a glorified Master’s cup, with hardly any history or charm behind it. I remember when I watched Sampras play Phillipousis back in the day. Sampras was booed every time he won a point, and the noise levels were deafening when Mark did. Even our puny little TV conveyed the noise levels in that place. No, the tennis wasn’t spectacular. It was an error-ridden match made worse by the roudy raucous crowd. Another example just yesterday. Match between Dinara Safina and a Frenchwoman. Somewhere during a crucial point, as Safina was about to take a smash shot, someone in the crowd yelled out "Out", causing Safina’s concentration to break and her to net the smash. The look of pure disgust on her face was mirrored by mine. Tennis is a gentleman’s game: we don’t need football style hooligans and rowdy, raucous crowds here. Take it to rugby. ### Renamer4Mac - Renaming in OSX URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/renamer4mac-renaming-in-osx/ Last updated: 2009-01-17T10:18:47.000Z After my brief sojourn in Microsoft land, I heralded my return to OSX by addressing a long neglected sorting need. Over the months and years, my e-book and e-comic collection has grown by leaps and bounds. Whatever I finds, I downloads – has been the mantra. While this is fine for bigger downloads once in a while, the same can grow into a monumental problem when smaller files are downloaded, and downloaded in bulk. This is not helped when the uploaders don’t adhere to a common nomenclature for their files, or just have them in weird numbers. To lend order to the mayhem one might consider renaming the files into a more readable format. Problem is, when dealing with a large number of files (1000+), how best can one rename the same without batch renaming and therefore renumbering? E.g Tintin Volumes 1 & 3: batch renaming would number them 1 & 2, and so on. One clearly needs a better solution, and I am glad to report there is one, for Mac OS. [Renamer4Mac](http://wfco.de/applications/macosx/Renamer4Mac?ref=tim.sodhis.org), is an app that allows Search and Replace of characters and sequences occurring in Filenames using simple search or Regular Expressions e.g. (\[A-z\]\*). In addition one can do the usual Batch Renaming etc. The interface is clean and to the point: enter an expression – simple or regex – to search for, and the pattern to replace it with. Regexes might seem complicated to the uninitiated at first, but once you get the hang of it, one can create the most complex regex’s to get the quickest and all comprehensive search results using the queries. I cannot begin to calculate the amount of time this app has saved me over the months, and now especially as I tackle the thousands of files in my collection. A task so monumental I had clear ignored till date, I am now accomplishing with flourish. Do give this one a whirl. Well worth it. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/01/picture-1.png) ### Windows 7: First impressions - Vista, done right URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/windows-7-first-impressions-vista-done-right/ Last updated: 2009-01-12T18:51:57.000Z Joining the millions who brought down Microsoft servers when Windows 7 Beta went live, I booked my place in the starting lineup to get the latest and best OS to come out of Redmond thus far. Yes, there I said it, Windows 7 is the hands down, complete winner, and it has not even reached GM status. I am simply impressed by the ease, speed and the intuitive nature of the OS, after having castigated Vista for the lack of the same. Microsoft has clearly gotten its act together on this one. The speedy setup led me to the Win7 desktop before I could scarcely even register the installation time. All my hardware was recognized immediately and the driver support seems to be top-notch! Installation of third party drivers went flawless, although I am unable to install Alcohol 120%. I ran the install through a series of stress tests including Benchmarks and file transfers, and a number of graphics intensive games. In all tests, it just seems to beat the pants off my previous install of Vista. Things, just work! My test platform is a modest machine by all means and not a benchmarker’s dream by any stretch of the imagination. The same machine I outlined a few blog posts back. That I believe is a true test of an OS. Anyone can run Vista like a dream on C2Ds and Quad core systems with 4-8 Gigs of RAM. I am yet to find a objective review of W7 on regular Joe Six-Pack hardware specs. My search continues. It truly seems that Microsoft has gotten it’s act back together – Windows 7 is truly what Vista should’ve been. It does seem that Microsoft needs a swift application of an appendage to the posterior to get its act together and I cite you historical facts for the same. Windows ME after Windows 98, led to the most successful consumer oriented OS release – XP. Vista after XP, will lead to Windows 7 – whether or not it will be successful, time alone shall judge, but if the beta is so good, stay tuned for the GM! I will try and outline a few features that appealed to me during my test drive. Customary screenshots follow. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/01/aeropeek-m.jpg) AeroPeek – on moving the mouse cursor to the bottom right, the Windows stacked on the desktop become transparent. Visual eye candy, this can be useful when trying to get to the files on the desktop. This feature seems to replace the ubiquitous "Show Desktop" on previous versions of Windows. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/01/taskbar-m.jpg) Taskbar – Much has been written about the new taskbar and I can corroborate, it is pretty good. It acts much like the Dock on OSX, with items that can be made "Sticky" or applications that are present while running. It automatically collates the running apps into a single icon which when hovered upon will give a live preview of the Window contents. Time saver indeed, and one step beyond OSX (in terms of preview). ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/01/copyprogress1.png) Copy Progress – right on the taskbar. Not really documented on other sites, this seems to have snuck past other reviewers (or so I’d like to believe). ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2009/01/recent.png) Recents – Right on the start menu, instead of having to scour through the Recents link on the start menu, which list all the recent application documents opened, this is a definite time saver. I am indeed quite impressed. ### Testdrive Windows 7 Beta 1 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/testdrive-windows-7-beta-1/ Last updated: 2009-01-09T09:15:50.000Z Usually the prerogative of MSDN Technet Subscribers and \*Arr Matey’s\* – starting this afternoon, the average Joe Six-pack will be able to download the latest beta version of Microsoft’s next gen OS – Windows 7, for free! Starting from 12:00PM PST (or 3:00PM EST), interested users can download the limited time beta directly from [Microsoft](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Though many have been scarred by what has been described as the greatest Microsoft debacle since Windows ME, Windows 7 seems to offer what Vista should have from day one – Speed, Compatibility, UI enhancements, streamlined OS, etc. A number of reviews of the same can be found [here](http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/08/windows-7-beta-quick-review?ref=tim.sodhis.org), [here](http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) & [here](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/microsoft/4163510/Microsoft-Windows-7-in-depth-review-CES-2009.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org). A caveat though – I did notice that all the people beta-testing and posting their reviews of Windows 7 were testing on an ueber-pumped up system (usually Core-i7 processors and 8 Gigs of RAM at times), rendering the result of such a test run, more or less meaningless for normal users with more "dated" hardware, which is the true test of an OS. Anyways, I can’t wait to be one of the waiting masses as the ISO becomes available. One thing is certain, the servers will be clogged, and the download speeds won’t amount to much at all. ### Happy New Year and MacWorld '09 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/happy-new-year-and-macworld-09/ Last updated: 2009-01-08T08:55:09.000Z A very happy and prosperous new year to one and all! I have been tardy in blogging so far this year, but as this blog reaches its second anniversary (check the archives for posts from ’06), I find myself growing inadvertently busier and less inclined to type out a post. But I will try and keep up. Of course the latest from the Mac World was the [MacWorld](http://www.macworldexpo.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (pardon me) ’09\. A landmark event of sorts in the build up to the same, it turned out to be a damp squib. Landmark since this will be the last time that Apple features at this expo, which is a conundrum of sorts since this is actually "Mac"World, a place to showcase and demonstrate the latest and greatest in what Apple has been working upon in the previous year. This decision, I simply don’t fathom. Next, Steve Jobs – conspicuous in his absence from MacWorld ’09\. The jury is still out on the future of Apple Inc once the CEO departs, but one thing was certain, it did make for a less-than-spectacular MacWorld event. No offence to Phil Schiller, but the charisma and the charm Jobs pulls into an event of this sort is really unparalleled. It was unfortunately a damp squib as it didn’t quite meet the expectations of the Apple fans (like moi-meme) in that no new gadgets were released or announced (unlike the previous years – a-la iPhone, MacBook Air, etc). That notwithstanding, Apple did come up with three new announcements: iWork ’09, iLife ’09 and the 17" MacBook Pro. I have already downloaded iWork ’09 and will soon post my experience, but I am really looking forward to iLife, and iPhoto in particular. The demonstration left me agape, I love the neat features that iPhoto has come to incorporate and as an avid iPhoto user, I can’t wait to get my grubby lil’ hands on the software. Rest is all well, the weather continues to disappoint, snow and below freezing temperatures all the time – making it difficult to drive and get to work at times, but well, only three more months of this, and then blessed, beautiful Spring. For those curious about this: No, no snow angels yet! ; ) It is beautiful at times: right now as I gaze outside, thick snow flakes everywhere: a winter wonderland. ### Still in Indiana, Merry Christmas! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/still-in-indiana-merry-christmas/ Last updated: 2008-12-26T10:54:09.000Z Or rather, Boxing day! The morning of the boxing day finds us still in Indiana, after a very successful Christmas bash at Jen’s. Ate till I could eat no more, and then stuffed myself some more. Quite remarkable the propensity of a person to stuff oneself disregarding conventional wisdom. No wonder then I am turning into an elephant. The festivities over, I am quite excited at the prospect of returning back home and to work, to take up the usual routine, which stressful though it might be at times, is home. I am quite excited as well, to get back home and assemble my new rig. Yes I bought components for a new computer which I will make exclusively a Windows Vista Ultimate machine. The specs are nowhere near ultimate, but it should do the jobs I throw at it, with consummate ease. The specs I chose for this machine were designed with an eye on keeping the price low. > AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6GHz) > ECS G8200A (v.1) with HDMI output motherboard > OCZ 2x1GB PC6400 > Samsung 500 GB HDD (7200RPM, 32MB Cache) > ASUS 19″ Widescreen TFT > Raidmax Case + 530W Antec PSU All from Newegg for a princely sum of 299, after rebate! That is including the TFT screen. Make me a better system for that price, I challenge y’all. What can I say – just at the right place at the right time. Back to Christmas – I got a chockfull of Chocolates from one and all, Pound cake from Rissa, and hold your breath –[ Pete Sampras’ Autobiography – A Champion’s Mind](http://www.amazon.com/Champions-Mind-Lessons-Life-Tennis/dp/0307383296?ref=tim.sodhis.org). I literally squealed with delight at the sight! That along with the Black and Decker corded power drill and accessory bits made this Christmas complete. Thank you my beloved! Apologies for the discombobulated entry, Sam has the Wii on, and the TV to a volume the neighbors can relate to. Ah temporary respite – switched on my iPod. ### Temperature dips! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/temperature-dips/ Last updated: 2008-12-21T09:51:26.000Z We are in Indiana for the holidays, and having a great time with Jen, Sam and the kids. The kids keep getting bigger each time we see them! Of course they are really curious about my beautiful MacBook Pro and are ever too eager to claw at it. Who can blame them, it Is a majestic machine worthy of the most exalted claws, but being the proud owner of an MBP, I am ever so panicky when Ella or Logan look at the machine with that cute, mischevious grin. So I blog, though from my iPhone. But to the topic at hand… The temperature! It has really dipped in the last 24 hours around here, and as it stands now the temperature is around -14 and that is in Fahrenheit! -25 in C for those using the sensible metric system. The horrid part? It is so nice and sunny outside. Almost like teasing. Officially, this is the coldest I’ve ever been in. A frigid and frosty Indian please. ### Updates to the site... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/updates-to-the-site/ Last updated: 2008-12-17T22:20:39.000Z I undertook a poignant journey down the road this evening, updating my current blog with posts from my iWeb blog from back in the day (not so far away). Reading of my excesses at the Winter School in Innsbruck last year, brought a smile to my visage. Snow angels, a multitude of brews and a whole lot of fun, I sure did party then. Add to that, my very first MBP (that went back the very next day). It has nearly been two years since I started blogging, time that has just flown by. I grow nostalgic now… good times. ### Theater and a concert URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/theater-and-a-concert/ Last updated: 2008-12-16T22:04:04.000Z I have been meaning to blog of late, but due to the pressing demands of work and the relaxation that follows at home, I have been unable to garner enough time and enthusiasm to blog one out. What follows is an apology post – of sorts. On the sixth of this month, Rissa and I attended a performance of the Trans-Siberian orchestra at the local arena. I was quite unprepared for their brand of music, as I had heard of the band only in passing, and that too in relation to their take on Christmas carols. I went prepared for a lot of holiday cheer and merriment. Found instead, a former heavy metal band from the 80s, unable to shake their roots in terms of sound, and pyrotechnics inculcated in the show. It was a feast for the senses as the sold out HSBC arena (some 14,000 people) rocked to their take on "Joy to the World", "Christmas Canon", "Noel" and the like. I must admit, once I overcame my initial shock, the show was thoroughly enjoyable. As soon as I get my hands on Rissa’s phone I will upload a couple of crude videos of their performance that night. The songs still ring in my head, and I am unable to listen to any Christmas carol since then, without overlaying their rendition on the same. On the thirteenth, mom invited me along with her friend and the friend’s family for the Broadway hit, Mamma Mia in ROC. Featuring hit songs from ABBA interwoven around a storyline featuring a girl’s quest to find her father at the eve of her wedding, the play, sometimes enjoyable and sometimes just cheesy, featured some sub-par acting, but some truly inspired singing. I don’t know what might be considered worse: that I went to the ABBA musical, or that I knew each and every song by heart. I shall keep quiet on that one. But a couple of performances stood out this day, especially that of Kittra Wynn Coomer who played the part of Rosie. She simply stole the show from under every other performers’ feet. There were a number of production glitches, which no doubt dampened the effect of the song underlying the skit, but over all, one walked away, quite entertained. And now it is back to chopping wood and grunting for me. ### XSlimmer - trim the fat URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/xslimmer-trim-the-fat/ Last updated: 2008-12-13T08:55:22.000Z I recently decided to give those "How-to-make-my-mac-go-faster" self help articles a shot. I usually steer clear of these articles/videos, for most of them assume a pedantic tone in peddling their hardly sage advice, and rather turn me off. But the other day I had the good fortune of reading one such article, which was devoid all aforementioned drivel and did in fact give some practical tips on how to speed up my Macs. One recommendation was to trim the fat off the existing Apps by removing support for extra languages and reducing the number of libraries included, to make it platform specific (Intel vs. PowerPC). The article recommended [XSlimmer](http://www.xslimmer.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) as an option. I downloaded the app, albeit skeptically, and voila, easy to use, and quite intuitive in its use, it removed the extra languages and libraries in a jiff. I was left with nearly 3 GB of freed disk space and my apps feel much snappier in comparison. Do give it a whirl, it is well worth the effort. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/12/xslimmer.png) ### Black Friday and new hosts! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/black-friday-and-new-hosts/ Last updated: 2008-11-28T17:34:31.000Z The wonderful Thanksgiving feast being over, the day after is celebrated across the land with a fit of shopping frenzy aptly named "Black Friday". Retailers chop their margins razor thin to move their inventory, and attract customers by the droves for the holiday blowout extravaganza. If one is canny and spry, one can end up with an amazing deal to write home about (and perhaps resell the commodities purchased, at a premium elsewhere). Wanting to be canny instead with my money, I perused the pre-sale flyers with a blase attitude and because I was looking for nothing in particular, none of the deals or bargains really spoke to me. As it turns out, I wasn’t looking hard enough. The real gems to be found were tucked away in forums where the ever vigilant community posted and re-posted deals and bargains from all over the country. Being a member of one such community, I have been monitoring a specific site all day for a live web cast hawking gadgets and accessories, proceeds from the sales of which go to the Susan G. Komen’s charity for the cure. For a good cause, and for gadgets galore, I will loosen my purse strings. Here are some of the deals that have been offered thus far: \* $150 \~ Acer Aspire One \* $500 \~ SONY ALL-IN-ONE DESKTOP JS155J/P \* $50 \~ CU Audio Unlimited Wireless Speakers \* $1 \~ DiscGear Pink CD Cases \* $50 \~ Microsoft Pink Zune \* $10 \~ Memorex 100-Pack DVD+R \* $25 \~ SAMSUNG WEP350 Bluetooth Headset \* $300 \~ HP LaserJet \* $20 \~ Kensington Notebook Case \* $40 \~ Patriot 32gb USB2.0 Flash Drive \~ PINK-8213 \* $12 \~ Centon 8gb Waterproof USB 2.0 Flash Drive \* $40 \~ Interlink Presentation Remote \* $10 \~ Blackberry 8300 charging pod Yes you are reading the prices right… everything is nearly 50% off! I didn’t believe it at first, but a few calls and a few orders later (one of which actually worked out), I am a believer. Well, stay tuned for what else I manage to buy this day. One of the other deals I found this day – a new domain and hosting solution. Three years for a linux hosted domain with unlimited bandwidth and space all for a princely sum of $45 dollars. Three years for that price, I really lucked out. More to follow! ### Unison - backing up and restoring the app URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/unison-backing-up-and-restoring-the-app/ Last updated: 2008-11-24T15:45:47.000Z It is common knowledge that after Tally reintroduced me to the world of NNTP, I have come to depend on News for my very life. An endless source of latest distros and what not, the NNTP experience can be as good as, or as horrid as your News Reader. For ages I had relied on Outlook Express on XP for my needs, and graduated to Newsleecher on Vista. By far the best news reader for that platform. But on OSX one is usually stymied. There were quite a few freeware solutions from the days of Carbon and OS 9, which quite frankly look just horrible on Leopard. Enter [Unison](http://www.panic.com/unison/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) by Panic. Quite frankly the best app out there for News reading/downloading for any platform. The UI is a lesson in how to do things right, living it up in true OSX tradition. One can view the news in threaded view, or files view or if the fancy be, in the Image cluster view. Intuitive and quite straightforward and yet wrought in this, is a lesson in usability. Available as a limited time free trail, it is a software well worth the money. Recently though, needing to restore my Mac, I needed to backup my number of favorite Newsgroups which I bookmark and check from time to time. I contacted Panic support, and got a quick reply. Turns out it is very straightforward indeed (but of course). All one needs to do before a system restore on a Mac is to back up the App folder in \~/Library/Application Support/Unison and the prefs list file found in \~/Library/Preferences/com.panic.unison.plist. Restore the same after a reformat and Tim’s your uncle. ### OSX and Trophy wives URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/osx-and-trophy-wives/ Last updated: 2008-11-22T11:14:40.000Z Overheard in a conversation this afternoon. “OS X now that’s like a trophy wife. She doesn’t cook or clean, do anything useful with her time, and throws hissy fits, but you keep her around… because oh look, so pretty”. Pretty much sums it up. Shame on me, swinging from one extreme to the other. Oh well, it is time for some Vista love, and I am back to formatting my computer, to go back to x86\. Blast you x64 Vista. ### Back to the basics URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-to-the-basics/ Last updated: 2008-11-21T13:13:57.000Z In a move sure to shock the legions, Tim moved, fully and completely back to Windows Vista. Shocked onlookers were observed remarking “This is a temporary reversal, he’ll be back”, while others in the sphere were seen thumb-in-mouth, curled up in the fetal position, muttering “what will become of us”. Yes, things were sure stirred up by Tim. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/11/112108-1813-backtotheba1.png) ### Living it up in Indiana! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/living-it-up-in-indiana/ Last updated: 2008-11-02T13:30:19.000Z A beautiful Sunday afternoon finds us in Indiana, visiting Rissa’s sister in good ol’ Anderson. We’ve been here since Thursday and my the time has really flown by! It is just so great seeing the lil’ kiddos again – one would swear they grow each time we see them (though it may be just weeks apart). The lil’ one has expanded her lexicon, and grown just geometrically cuter! She loves her uncle Tim and aunt Rissa and is the apple of our eyes. Anderson, a town that saw its heyday in the early part of the twentieth century, is a quiet, sleepy town with friendly people and a very laid back feel to the place. The town gained fame towards the end of the nineteenth century when natural gas was found here. Industries moved in and the town bloomed. In 1912 however, the natural gas reserves were exhausted and the industries relocated elsewhere. (Information courtesy Anderson, IN public plaques) We went trick or treating on Friday with our lil’ kids dressed as the Colts (the local Football team). By the time we were done, their buckets runneth over, full of candy. Lil Ella was just the cutest, unwilling to let go of the booty – although she’d squeal if she saw us digging into their candy as we sit this afternoon watching TV. Saturday saw us at the local Nazarene church at a charity event dinner – an all you can eat Chicken and Fish Fry. A packed place – quite a good turnout indeed. It was so entertaining to behold Sam and Jen greet nearly every parish member by name. It made me cognizant of the fact that a close parish can serve to be such a great support group. Good stuff – stuff I’ve basically just heard and/or read about. This evening we are having an early Thanksgiving dinner – my first turkey Thanksgiving dinner with the family. We had a brief preview last night, and the verdict – delicious! There’s just so much to be thankful for this year – Thanksgiving with my new family. It is an honor to be a part of our close-knit group. ### On the road to VT URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/on-the-road-to-vt/ Last updated: 2008-10-24T11:05:14.000Z On the road to VT, am blogging from a rest stop near Utica, NY. A perfect trip thus far, we just stopped for lunch at Sbarro (worst slices ever, stay away!!) and are in queue for lattes. Another 300 or so miles to go on this gorgeous day. Can’t wait till Vermont! ### Digital Rebel XSi URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/digital-rebel-xsi/ Last updated: 2008-10-20T18:22:07.000Z After a seemingly endless wait over the weekend, the newest member of our family of cameras was finally delivered this afternoon by our friendly UPS guy. A brand new spanking Digital Rebel XSi, or 450D for the rest of the world. I immediately delved into the manual and found myself snapping pictures in rapid succession. Much the way it was when I played around with the Namesake’s 400D on that trip to Aachen with Z. Ah good times. Back to the camera, mensch! Such a wealth of features, and a plethora of options – I am bewildered and yet so happy with our purchase. I guess the impetus behind this purchase was the great work Katie did at our wedding with her hardware. Muchly impressed we were! There’s much to be learned about the various settings and once I have that down pat, then comes the important part – setting up a perfect shot. To master the technical details won’t take long at all; the latter will be the time-consuming part. And here’s something I haven’t blogged about in nearly forever. My Mac vs. PC dilemmas! They reared their ugly head right after the wedding when I got a host of videos in MPEG2 format to convert to DVDs etc. Stuck on a Mac I had no viable options at all. I tried to edit them on my media center, but hey a man’s gotta watch them TV alongside. That just left my MBP or the other option to convert my Hackie back to Vista. I found a way around to do the latter, without sacrificing my OSX install. Simple solution? Purchase a second HDD and install Vista on it, and choose the correct HD at boot time. Works perfect, without the headaches involved with chain0 and other b0rk3d dualboot methods. Well off to bed for now, but stay tuned – a few more posts coming up in the next few days in which I will detail my quests for RDC on a Mac and Movie DB software. ### Wedding bells... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/wedding-bells/ Last updated: 2008-10-03T17:57:56.000Z How does one express in mere words how perfect the wedding weekend was. The culmination of my hopes and dreams, to be one with the love of my life, to be joined in holy matrimony with the one I want to grow old with, to raise a family with, to go through each day of my life with her hand in mine, in the light of her smile, her embrace… I love you my beloved wife, my darling Rissa. I am just the happiest person on this earth these days. Happy for I am at one with my love, whose ring I wear so proudly, honored and proud to be called her husband, to be by her side in whatever our lives may bring our ways. It was indeed the most amazing weekend of my life. I really do wish to thank all who could be with us and celebrate with us these days… and to my friends who came all the way to be by our side. You guys, are just amazing… thank you so much for your presence, your support. You kept me calm while everything around me seemed so tense. I don’t say it enough, but you are the best! On a side note, I have indeed been inundated with requests to put the wedding album online, and I will do that very soon indeed. I have changed the wedding invitation site from wedding.sodhis.net to invitation.sodhis.net. The former will now be home to the wedding pictures, as and when I get the same from Katie (who was just simply amazing and took the best pictures!) Stay tuned chaps! ### Post surgery, all is well URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/post-surgery-all-is-well/ Last updated: 2008-09-15T20:45:25.000Z Thanks all for your good wishes, Tallytje and De Jong and everyone else. The surgery procedure went well, I was in and out within 30 minutes… reduced right now to a swollen ol man with a throbbing pain, and full of antibiotics and painkillers. Just a wee update m8s! ### Save me and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/save-me-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2008-09-14T11:07:19.000Z Sunday, the lord’s day, I have finally recuperated enough from the searing pain to take up my laptop again and pen in a blog post. The last few days have just been horrid. It began with toothache that was quickly suppressed with an analgesic or two, and it grew into this monstrous pain to end all pains that took over my entire being to the point I couldn’t do a thing – reeling with pain whenever I moved my head a bit. Nothing helped, not the ten aspirins I started taking, nor swishing alcy in my mouth. Nothing helped. After an overdue visit to the dentist, it turns out I have an infection at the site of a root canal from over 14 years ago, and now I need dental surgery, which is scheduled for tomorrow (Monday). Great, so close to the wedding too. I hope all turns out well. The doctor did prescribe some VERY strong loopy medication with some penicillin and thanks to that, things have gotten bearable. Enough for me to get some work done, but them face is all swollen. Oh well. Firmware 2.1 came out Friday, and apart from a new Edge icon, there are so many subtle changes under the hood for my iPhone. For one, updating Apps doesn’t displace them all over the place. Another – installation is so much faster now, and backups even faster. The phone feels so much snappier. Battery life has also increased tremendously. I had to switch "Push" to off initially, as I could barely squeeze 24 hours out of my iPhone. Now I have it on, and the battery meter shows full after nearly 14 hours since charge. So indeed, I am impressed. Time to log off and get some antibiotics flowing through me again. Wish me luck for tomorrow folks! ### Let's Rock! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/lets-rock/ Last updated: 2008-09-10T09:50:09.000Z Excited about Genius in iTunes 8! More as the announcements drip in. Edit – after trying out iTunes 8, and Genius, I must say I am rather underwhelmed by the track suggestions. Clearly an Apple attempt to replace Pandora, which indeed simply has no counterpart at this time. Add to that the Pandora App for iPhone and the fact that Jobs made no mention of Genius for the iPhone platform – leaves me rather underwhelmed. More updates when Firmware 2.1 rolls out on Friday. ### Blogpost from my iPhone URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/blogpost-from-my-iphone/ Last updated: 2008-09-05T15:29:32.000Z Just a test from the WordPress app on the iPhone. It seems to work great! ### Flickr and iPhone URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/flickr-and-iphone/ Last updated: 2008-08-28T07:30:02.000Z Let me take you back for a minute here, to the days of yore, when there was just one iPhone, and no other option but to jailbreak to add value to an already fantastic product. There was a plethora of options at your fingertips, and the community grew like no other. There were apps you could download to do every imaginable thing under the sun, and mind you, these were productive apps, that were made by the end user for other users. iFlickr made life simple, take a picture and upload to Flickr, in a jiff, in all its glory and all its EXIF tags intact, and in the original size. Ah, such were the simpler times. Forward a few months, with the advent of the iPhone 3G, firmware 2.x and lack of any good jailbreak software (Cydia doesn’t count), and you are pretty much reliant on the App Store. A wonderful addition to the iPhone indeed, and I find myself scouring the free apps all the time, hoping one would help me do what I loved to do on my firmware 1.1.x iPhone – send pictures from my iPhone to Flickr directly. I am afraid to report – no luck so far. I tried every app in the store marked with "Flickr" and all they do is perform well on WiFi but really hang on EDGE (just are so slow, I feel I could print those photos out and scan them and hand deliver them to Flickr offices in the time that they take). So for now I have defaulted to the tried and tested solution – send images to Flickr via mail. Horrid, but it does the job. Please Flickr, heed to our collective calls for a decent app that does the job! ### iPhone again... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/iphone-again/ Last updated: 2008-08-22T08:55:04.000Z It had to be, it just had to be. After having sold my iPhone back in Germany, I felt as if I had lost a very important part of my gadget inventory. I tried to fill that space with an iTouch, but nothing could assuage the thirst inside. So, by a stroke of luck I came across an offer I couldn’t refuse, and here we are, Timmy’s got his gadget back! For a deal that would put the best to shame. It works perfect and with Firmware 2.0.2 and tonnes of apps on AppStore, I am one happy camper. Check Flickr out from time to time to see pix I upload with this lil thingi-ma-jigg. The last few days I have been listening incessantly to Jean-Jacques Goldman (my favorite singer of all time – tempted to say ‘fave’ but am not a schoolgirl-yet). One song of his, instantly transports me back to the days of the happy-go-lucky times I had in Aachen, living my life in the heart of Europe and those days when everything was new and I regarded all, everyone with wide-eyed wonder – "Nos mains", Our hands. Another one that always makes me tear up – "En passant". > Des routes m’emmènent, je ne sais où > J’ai vu des oiseaux, des printemps, des cailloux > En passant Just says it all… Nostalgic some? I’ll say. ### Long time no see! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/long-time-no-see/ Last updated: 2008-08-06T20:11:13.000Z Wow, it has been forever since I last updated here. For all of you wondering whether ol’ Tim is still around, the answer to your chagrin (I bet) is yes. Things have been crazy the last few weeks – hectic pace with ungodly hours being maintained notwithstanding. I find precious little time to indulge in my favorite past time – taking pictures and uploading them, and of course, updating this blog of mine. I am glad to announce that I am back on the Information Super-Highway, connected at speeds man was predestined to be connected at. The previous provider left a lot to be desired when it came to speeds and reliability. Every time it rained, our connection would choke. Not a good prospect considering the fact that it has been raining off and on the past few weeks. Sometimes it feels as if the Dutch weather followed me here. Oh well, I’ll take it. Some great news though. The wedding site is up and functional! The URL has been sent in our official wedding invites to all cordially invited to the blessed occasion. You may RSVP on the website, or by post. We really hope to see all of you there! And so it goes, and soon must I too, I suppose. It is time for bed, and a long day beckons ahead tomorrow. Cheers. ### Bisons vs Louiseville game on Saturday URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/bisons-vs-louiseville-game-on-saturday/ Last updated: 2008-07-17T11:45:11.000Z ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/07/dsc02460-m.jpg)This Saturday we headed to the Bisons’ stadium for what was essentially my first baseball game! It was a lovely overcast evening, with promise of a thunderstorm later that night. Downtown was deserted apart from the Stadium, which was agog with activity! This day marked my first intro to a taste of nachos with cheese, and the other goodies Rissa cajoled me into trying. We sat down so close to the diamond, I could almost smell the action as the game started. But before that I really needed a primer which Dad, Rissa and Jen provided in ample detail, as Sammy walked lil Ella around. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/07/dsc02442-m.jpg) An all-American baseball game! Hawkers sold peanuts, beer and pop as the game inched on, inning by inning, the balls often being hit all the way to the stands – it was much the way I have read in the books and seen in movies. I often sat agape just taking it all in, and found myself soon cheering for the Bisons who were fighting a losing battle. It was simply splendid watching my Rissa turn into a baseball fan singing along and taunting the batsmen, it was just hilarious to see this side of my beloved. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/07/dsc02457-m.jpg) Thunderclouds rolled in and threatened to put an end to the game as we decided to cap this evening after the 7th inning. The final score? Louiseville beat the Bisons 9-3\. Oh well better luck next time. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/07/dsc02455-m.jpg) ### Happy Fourth of July! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/happy-fourth-of-july/ Last updated: 2008-07-04T18:33:33.000Z My first fourth of July celebrations here! And what a way to celebrate. Last evening we had an open BBQ and what a spread! Mom and Dad sure know how to throw a party! There was corn, hot dogs, baked beans, relish, and more corn! I went nutsies about them corn, smothering it with butter and salt (a fact I regret now that I look at my midriff). Oh well… Dessert followed – Jenny’s birthday cake and all American Apple Pie! mm hmm! I of course went for seconds, ignorning the northern Dutch credo. After a hearty dinner we settled in with beer and snacks and watched Sammy light up the fireworks. Oohs and Ahhs followed, it was a splendid display of pyrotechnics, just loving it all. I video’d it all, living up to the name grandma Bee’s given me! To top off the wonderful evening, Rissa and I set up our tent and our sleeping bags under the starry night. What a wonderful day indeed. We are back at the cottage now and have access to the Interwebs at last. Tomorrow is the big BBQ for grandpa Jess’s birthday, and we just set up the tents outside. In a few hours we’ll go in the pool! W00t. And hey Namesake, Yaar also means "pal" in our ol’ Hindi! Congrats on your new TV! I am gonna check your blog for pix! And hey Tallytje, Rissa’s exam went well, and we’ve been so busy cleaning up our home and doing small chores around the place. How’s life back in the good ol’ Netherlands? ### Blackjack II URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/blackjack-ii/ Last updated: 2008-07-03T20:22:55.000Z We have been scoping the market for a half decent carrier of late, and high and low we searched without success. Had to weigh all options and some carriers offered an attractive package with roll-over minutes, but then the rest of the family is with another carrier that doesn’t offer much in the way of "bang-for-the-buck", "value-for-money" – what have you. Rissa and I finally found the carrier that makes most sense for us, and it’s AT&T. We finally started a family plan with them on the first of this month. By the way of phones we had the natural first choice of an iPhone. But that is a tad out of our price range right now, both in terms of initial and subscription costs. With AT&T making a data plan mandatory for an iPhone, the monthly costs for us as a family would be $129.99 a month. Way too expensive I am afraid. So I decided to go for a Samsung Blackjack II, a Windows 6 based Mobile, similar in design to a blackberry. So far my experience with the device has been highly positive. My initial worry had been whether it would sync with my Mac. Missing Sync from Markspace came to my rescue with that. It works only with my Macbook Pro. It refuses to work with my Hackintosh installation, crashing my OSX each time. To be quite frank though, it has been rather difficult adjusting to a WM6 based mobile after having owned an iPhone for so long. Oh well, some things I do miss (touch & intuitive interface, native integration with Mac, the apps), and some absolutely not (the keyboard, worrying over the screen and scratching it, abysmal battery life). But I have a phone at long last! ### At the cottage by the Lake URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/at-the-cottage-by-the-lake/ Last updated: 2008-07-03T20:20:12.000Z A delayed blog entry this time around. We are Rissa’s parent’s cottage by the lake. Sitting at the table with the girls and Sam working on our wedding invitations. It is an overcast day with the wind blowing and the temperatures dipping. A perfect day for invites! The conversation flows, banter, leg pulling, and snacking from time to time, as lil Ella runs around sharing her chips and giggling. The setting is picturesque, the lake looks so enormous and inviting and I have been going crazy snapping pictures of the surroundings, especially the pebble beach. It is so peaceful and serene here, the cottage is so open, overlooking the wide, open lake, which could be the ocean for all I know and as far as the eye can see. We had trouble with the water supply this morning, but Sam and dad were so quick and efficient in fixing the pipes. So we have water again, and things are getting settled in anticipation of the celebrations later tonight. Independence Day baby that’s what I am talking about! Sam and Jen brought up fireworks from IN, and if the weather clears up, it shall be glorious this night. Pictures shall follow. ### Love this country! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/love-this-country/ Last updated: 2008-06-27T15:42:28.000Z Wasn’t quite sure how it works around here, does one just walk into a Supermarket and whip out one’s laptop and start surfing? Seemed to be stuff of science fiction. But today as Rissa went to the Test center, I made my way to a big grocery market chain around here (Wegmans), full of trepidation – "Would they have a problem with me using their Internet…" " Would they mind if I used their electricity to charge my MBP" and so on. But all of those fears came to naught as I walked in and bought my caramel latte. Here I am on the first floor, overlooking the huge store, and using their Internet and their power, as I sip my coffee. Speeds reaching up to 6 Mbps. The first thing I did was download all the updates as I chatted with the Namesake and my bro. And as for the employees of Wegmans – downright courteous to a fault! Keep walking by on their chores, smiling or exchanging a greeting. Love this place! Seems one of the people at my former workplace is miffed at another person, and blogged about it, a fact that was immediately picked upon by the ex boss. Ach. More the things change, more they remain the same. Anyway, getting back to my temporary HQ, seems that this will be my spot for the next two hours until lunch when I go have lunch with Rissa at the Test center. ### My new Macbook Pro URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/my-new-macbook-pro/ Last updated: 2008-06-27T03:55:03.000Z It’s here! After a lifetime of waiting, we were pleasantly surprised when the good ol’ Mac showed up on our tracking system last night! Long has the wait been, and sweet the reunion. But alas, all is well and here I am, in Bergen, enjoying my new MBP, downloading my mail from Mac.com (soon to be me.com). It is 15.4" of pure LED goodness and 2.4 GHz of Peryn goodness. The RAM is 2 GB still, but the Leopard roars and Timmy doesn’t have anything to complain about. One thing I had given little thought to is the speed of the Internet connexion here, and it dawned on me just how good I had it in Heerlen, as I spent the better half of the evening downloading the multitudes of updates from the Apple website, going from 10.5 to 10.5.3, something that would’ve taken me 10 minutes back with my 20mbps speeds. Oh well, I should stop being such a whiner and wait for FiOS to show up at our doorstep. Tomorrow I shall accompany Rissa as she goes to Roc to sit for one of the most important exams so far – the Medical License exam. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers! Ali Nadeem: you guys are missed as well man! It was so nice to be able to say goodbye the way I wanted to. Keep me in the loop man and give my regards to one and all. Ranjeet babu, indeed yaar, I moved a week back. Sorry yaar didn’t have the time to actually inform or update but chalo. And that I guess is it for now. ### A brief pic update! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/a-brief-pic-update/ Last updated: 2008-06-23T03:23:19.000Z Here’s ME! :D Home ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/06/dsc02225-m.jpg) ### The series has landed! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/the-series-has-landed/ Last updated: 2008-06-21T14:13:40.000Z Or something to that effect. Here I am, sitting in our study, with the love of my life, together, at last, not to part, and just how amazing it is, is hard to put into words. The transition was so smooth, it doesn’t cease to amaze me. It is as if I never left here, picking up the cords of my life with my Rissa here, and just going on from there. I just find myself hugging her and us laughing in glee that this journey that took so long, took its toll at times, has now led us together, and just so so much more is yet to come. I can unequivocally state or rather declare how deliriously happy I am, to know that no more partings are in store, that each morning I can wake up with my love, holding her in my arms. This is life. \*sigh\*. The flights here were long, and add to that a six hour layover at JFK and the two hours we spent taxiing on the tarmac before we started for home, put the final hour tally to 25 hours since we woke up on the 19th. That is nearly 20 hours spent traveling. The flight to JFK was packed, and I had the misfortune of sitting close to a huge bunch of German tourists who were traveling to the US it seems (rather on a plane) for the first time. Loud, obnoxious and snapping pictures every minute, they made the journey more tiring than it usually is. But well, after the official rigmarole at JFK, I did manage to have some fun, the cheese pizza and the inflated prices of beer and ale at Samuel Adams notwithstanding. But Mom and Rissa were there to fetch me from the airport. It was so delightful to see mom again! Back home, everything was the way I remembered it, such an amazing homecoming. Mom had a gift for me! A box of Ferraro Rochers and a welcome home card. So sweet of her. Rest of the night is a haze as I pretty much passed out due to the jet lag and lack of sleep. Yesterday was spent putting the study to order, moving boxes to the attic and construction stuff downstairs. My love and I assembled the IKEA tables together and then I started assembling my computer. A few shiver inducing moments as the units failed to start (due to the RAM not being seated properly and a faulty S-ATA II cable, but after a little bit of toil and hard work I was on! OCZ 600W power supply FTW! It is more than adequate for the OC’d CPU and the OC’d GFX card, not to mention the four drives on my sys. Which brings me to them screen! So dem a come! Gateway FPD2485W, 24 inches of pure bliss. Full HD with an S-PVA panel, bright as the sun, and then some. Rissa and I have been just raving about this screen since we fired off the computer last evening. The viewing angles (170/170), the brightness and contrast, the vibrant colors, responsive screen, just make the deal Rissa found over the Interwebs SO much more sweeter. I have just not stopped raving about this much of screen real estate, and I am sure I am driving my love nuts! It is fantastic being home. We often dreamed of this day, and now that it is finally here, it is so much better than anything we could’ve imagined. Stay tuned for pix of the rig and the new life! But a customary screenie follows. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/06/picture-1-m.jpg) ### My Delicious Library 2.0 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/my-delicious-library-20/ Last updated: 2008-06-03T22:44:11.000Z Just published my Delicious Library online. Check it [out](http://homepage.mac.com/tim.sodhi/deliciouslibrary/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). More later! ### Upgraded to 10.5.3 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/upgraded-to-1053/ Last updated: 2008-05-31T13:04:01.000Z Perfect installation, after a lot many hiccups. I am happy to report I am on 10.5.3 with everything working. This update seems to have solved my problem of choppiness in Spaces and Expose. Being an ardent Spaces user this was a bone of contention, and made me cringe each time I loaded them up. Well, glad to report all is fine at this end. A customary screenshot follows. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/picture-14.png) ### Firefox 3 RC1 - 'Awesomeness' redefined URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/firefox-3-rc1-awesomeness-redefined/ Last updated: 2008-05-28T09:39:02.000Z Let me say this at the very onset – I was never a Firefox fanboi. I really depended upon IE for my development/browsing needs – on Windows of course. Joining my current organization, I got weaned away from my dependence on IE, and rediscovered Firefox after a gap of nearly 3 years. And so it began. After I purchased my first Mac, and converted my POD Box (Plain Old Dumb) to a Mac it was on to Firefox for good. I have loved FF for the convenience and the plethora of plugins it offers to make day to day tasks easier. I don’t wish to feed the trolls here, but over time I have discovered that FF is a much more well rounded browser and most compliant with Web Standards. Don’t believe me? Go try out the ACID3 test on any browser other than FF and Opera. You’ll get my point. But today after my Internet connection was restored (after a Telfort muckup), I discovered that most of the plugins I depend upon for my browsing needs (AdBlock, Fire Gestures etc) have been updated for FF3.0RC1\. There simply was no reason not to switch to FF3\. And dear me, what an immense pleasure it has been thus far. The AwesomeBar is just that, Awesome! I have been tagging my existing bookmarks and squeal in glee when just entering a tag, I can see the list of bookmarks load immediately. This is simply perfect! No longer do I need to organize my thousands of bookmarks by Folders and Sub folders and worry about a bookmark that belongs in two categories. Ok I realize I am ranting, but this is significant for a dweeb like yours truly. Add to that the update of the look and feel to the native OS (Firelight for OSX) has given Firefox a much needed facelight. Beautiful. AND on top of that, the blazing speed of this browser, especially when it comes to handling JS. I have been trying out the Web Authoring tool I developed back in March, which if you recall makes heavy use of JS for UI generation and drag-drop metaphors. The good news is that the little bit of lag I noticed with FF2 is a thing of the past. Not only does the app look gorgeous, it performs the way I always envisioned. I couldn’t be more pleased. Well off to experiment a wee bit more. Cheers. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/picture-13.png) PS: What would a post on FF3 be, without the mandatory screenshot? ### GFXUtil FTW! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/gfxutil-ftw/ Last updated: 2008-05-26T22:03:34.000Z I can report unequivocally the success of the GFXString hack for com.apple.Boot.plist! I followed an excellent tutorial I found on the Interwebs (can link if so requested), that outlined how to extract the Hex string for my GFX card. I did follow the instructions, plug it in my plist and repaired permissions, and voila, after the reboot, I logged into my Hackie without standing on NVInject’s shoulder! It feels just so liberating, and I can already report a certain rise in GFX performance as I navigate through the Spaces and Expose. Tally ho! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/picture-2.png) ### Dashcode & Widget development URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/dashcode-widget-development/ Last updated: 2008-05-25T22:21:30.000Z A languorous Sunday is fodder for the developer within. Today I decided to give the much touted (and often brick-batted) Dashcode Widget development app a whirl. Dashcode can be downloaded as a part of the Xcode developers toolset from the ADC member website. The whole package is around 1.1 GB. Dashcode offers a very simple and intuitive interface which is the hallmark of software developed on the Mac, for the Mac. Starting the app you are presented with a number of templates which you can use to quickly get on your way. I chose one "Countdown timer", and quickly had it customized to count down to a special event coming up. But here’s where the problems kicked in. I had resolved to create a countdown timer that can be customized for any event, given a specific date and time. Sounds simple, but to actually design this, you need to be intimately familiar with the Apple way of development. What promised to be a 20 minute chore turned into a three hour task which had me delving into the depths of ADC forums etc, to get the simplest things running. A simple example – how to get the value of a combo-box which in Apple world is called a "*pop-up*". Not so straightforward indeed! What’s disappointing is the lack of documentation, and since the world of Mac programmers is still quite restricted: not enough online help. But it works, and works beautifully! It more than makes up for the time spent poring over huge code samples to glean the smallest details, to look at the finished product, uniquely for the Mac. On to Cocoa tomorrow. Cheers. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/picture-12.png) PS: I will submit the widget to Apple soon. You can download it from there! ### Feed aggregator for OS X - NewsFire URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/feed-aggregator-for-os-x-newsfire/ Last updated: 2008-05-24T16:50:32.000Z I have been trying of late to replace Firefox and/or Mail.app as my feed aggregators, with little luck. So desperate was I, that I pretty much resolved to program one myself. But before I could start, I decided to give it one more shot & search the interwebs a bit more. My luck indeed – by sheer chance I came upon [NewsFire.](http://www.newsfirerss.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) This remarkable app does it all for me, aggregating the feeds I usually subscribe to (BBC, CBC, Digg, Newegg and the like), and allows me to create views on the same – I can for instance keep an eye out for deals on MacBooks by simply defining a search term which creates a separate list. NewsFire features the option to allow Spotlight to index the content, which is such a time saver for me. The clincher of course was the fact that NewsFire is free – developed by the same team that brought us – [Acquisition](http://www.newsfirex.com/blog/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and XTorrent. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/picture-11.png) One thing I do sorely miss though, is the integration with Growl.app. I would love a minute by minute notification via Growl instead of the icon bouncing in the dock. Oh well, I’ll take it anyway! ### Lecker Durum! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/lecker-durum/ Last updated: 2008-05-23T21:02:24.000Z Simply Delish! Rissa and I decided to try out a Turkish dish this evening – Durum, to perhaps try and emulate the Durum we usually get in Aachen at the Berliner Grill. The endeavor was an unequivocal success! We didn’t manage to quite ape the Aachener taste, but instead we improved upon it, the way we always manage to do! A few pictures of us at work, and the veggie dish at the end. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/img-0305.jpg) ### Messenger Live for Mac, Mailplane updates and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/messenger-live-for-mac-mailplane-updates-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2008-05-22T11:20:51.000Z This morning I decided to give OS X another whirl. Yes the capricious old Timothy is back – and woe betide thee, if you didn’t see this coming. so I won’t even grace this entry with my plethora of reasons, so let’s just move on. I decided against installing Adium X and try Messenger Live for Mac 7.0 this time around, and though there are hardly any changes from 6.0.3 in this version, the overall look and feel is a wee bit more polished. Not bad. I don’t quite miss Adium X right now – it felt more a toy and a doll I could dress up with skins and themes than a real app. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/picture-1.png) To my intense pleasure, Mailplane has entered the 2.0 beta version. This excellent app brings GMail to the desktop, using Webkit to enhance the overall look and feel. Mailplane also ties in so well with Growl to enable desktop alerts as soon as I get an email in either of my Gmail accounts. I was a part of the team when the beta version was being evaluated and jumped on the bandwagon when the app went commercial. It is one of the main reasons (along with iCal) that I am back on OS X. And of course, let’s not forget my favorite blog editor. Another BIG reason to switch right back. So well, Macs may be slower me lads/lasses, but there is no getting around the superior quality of apps for this platform. I am back baby! \*Waits for a I TOLD YOU SO from me Rissa\*. ### Ah, Aachen URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ah-aachen/ Last updated: 2008-05-18T10:51:47.000Z So Saturday, Rissa’s day off from studies of the medical kind took us to Aachen. It was a glorious day indeed, in spite of the weather that decided to play spoilsport. But hey nothing dampens our spirits, if we could make BRU fun, Aachen is gold! Directly from the HBF we descended to the Apple Store, for a much needed pilgrimage. See, I have been going back and forth since my move from the Mac platform to Windows. I needed to convince myself that beneath the sheen of a shiny, beautiful UI, lies an underperforming and a slow machine. And confirm those doubts we did. On the MB and the MBP, Word 2008 took 25 and 20 seconds to launch respectively, leading Rissa and I to shake our heads in disgust. My Mac performed marginally better back in the day – 5 seconds which was still unacceptable. Oh well, thoroughly convinced, we headed directly to the Turkish Imbiss, we feasted upon my favorite dish from there – Lahmacun filled with veggies, tzatiki and fries. Mm! Coffee at the Glascubus – my fave – *mit Hazelnuss geschmack* as we sat around “*Sehen und gesehen werden*“. Saturn was great as always – such a variety of coffee makers, laptops, household appliances we couldn’t get enough, but we did decide to carry on our revelry to the Markt, enjoying a pint of Weissen on the terrace. \*sigh\* good times! Onwards to Egmont’s as it was getting quite chilly we had a nice cuppa joe/*heisse Schokolade mit Sahne*. Mamma mia, just what the doctor ordered. It was so beautiful, enjoying the city where I worked/studied through the eyes of my beloved. Took me back to the days we would hang out at these places, our major concerns being where to carry the party next. Miss those days do I? – Nah, those were fun, but this is just amazing. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/051808-0845-ahaachen11.jpg) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/051808-0845-ahaachen21.jpg) We rounded off our evening with dinner chez Pallas at the Pontstrasse getting so stuffed with Pizzas and Tzatiki and some more Weissen (dunkel this time). What a prime way to end our Aachen evening. Back home we watched the much hyped movie “[Juno](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)“. A sweet movie indeed, but rather over-hyped – I saw nothing in there worth writing home about. The main protagonist is funny at first, and then she begins to grate on the nerves and the senses. As always it was great to see the father-son duo from “[Arrested Development](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)” ([Jason Bateman](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000867/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) & [Michael Cera](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0148418/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)) in the same movie, though in unrelated roles this time around. ### Successfully navigated back URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/successfully-navigated-back/ Last updated: 2008-05-11T17:21:38.000Z A post my Rissa surmises was coming, and indeed she’s right, as always. I am back on Vista, having converted my Hack.in.t0sh back to a Vista machine. The reasons I will revisit once again, and are nothing new. I grew tired after a while of the slow response my behemoth of a machine gets from 10.5.x in general, and by software installed as well (Microsoft Office 2008 mind you). Leopard felt sluggish at best, and burning DL-DVDs used to halt my machine to a grinding stop, in spite of boasting four Gigs of RAM. The move back was quite painless indeed – all it took was copying my stuff over the Gbps network to my server and formatting the HDDs from the GUID to MBR mode, and I was installing Vista x64\. As of now, I sit here, getting reacquainted with an old friend – Vista and associated software. One thing that was apparent almost immediately – the OS and the apps therein are just so much snappier, with hardly any waiting periods (compared to the spinning beach ball in OSX and bouncy icons on the Dock). My favorite app [DUMeter](http://www.dumeter.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) has been updated, as has [Ultramon](http://www.ultramon.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Joy! I have not faced any x64 related issues with regard to drivers or applications till now. I installed SP1 and noticed the network speeds jump from 10MBps to nearly 50MBps in some cases. I am back to Newsleecher in lieu of my Unison setup on OS X, and Live! Messenger instead of Adium X. Unfortunately one app I will desperately miss, is Qumana for my blogging needs. Word 2007 is good, but somehow it doesn’t cut it as a blog editor. But I shall adjust – for if it is the only penalty I must pay for a snappier and responsive OS, it is well worth the shift. Well time to wrap up this post, and head with Rissa for our daily jog/run! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/05/051108-1715-successfull1.png) ### Oh what joy! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/oh-what-joy/ Last updated: 2008-05-09T16:30:30.000Z Rissa’s here since the 2nd of this month, and what an incredible week it has been! She brought amazing weather with her, and so we are, spending many a splendid evening basking and working out in the great outdoors. More later! ### Trying it out! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/trying-it-out/ Last updated: 2008-05-07T10:23:39.000Z Currently trying out the OUNL’s Elgg installation. In particular I want to see whether the Elgg Feed Aggregator will add my blog post on this website to the Elgg blog. Fingers crossed. Cheers. ### Blog optimized for iPhone URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/blog-optimized-for-iphone/ Last updated: 2008-04-27T12:12:54.000Z Unforgiveable, that’s what it is – nearly six months since I procured my iPhone, I hadn’t even considered this. It is unforgiveable, but my blog wasn’t optimized for the iPhone display. But I am glad to say that it has been rectified and this site can be viewed quickly and properly on an iPhone screen. I rest easy. ### Firefox Adblock Plus and Flash on Mac, Twinkle iPhone and all that. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/firefox-adblock-plus-and-flash-on-mac-twinkle-iphone-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2008-04-27T12:05:00.000Z As a Firefox user on Mac, I make use of the plethora of plugins available, best of which I find Adblock Plus to get rid of the ubiquitous Ads that plague the net. If you haven’t installed ABP already, stop reading now – and sully not my site. Oh well just kidding. Since the very beginning though I have had this recurring problem where the Flash content on any of the sites I visited would not show up or would show up as a blank frame with controls enabled. For the life of me I could not figure out whether the issue lay with the browser or my Installation. Never really did I give it much thought, since hey it is Flash and I can do without that. Today though, being bored out of my skull I decided to "Google" around to find if there were others who had this problem and ran across a blog post that suggested that the problem lies with ABP, and unchecking "Show Tabs on Flash and Java" will correct the problem. And voila, doing that, I have my content back. Not bad. I am waiting "sehnsuechtig" for Firefox 3 though. It is blazingly fast even in the Beta (5) stage and offers a fantastic array of options dealing with tags, bookmark organization and not to mention speed. I must however wait till June for the same. What I love most about it, is the OS customized look and feel. Firefox finally looks tamed for OS X. The best I could find for FF2 was a theme that makes it look a wee like Safari: ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/04/picture-2.png) An inelegant workaround at best. But oh well. The past week has been rather taxing on both motivation and energies. Things have kicked into a high gear at a personal level, though have hit a new low elsewhere. I find myself Twinkle’ing a lot more often from my iPhone on the road. It is a unique experience getting to read Twitter micro-blogs now contextualized to location. It is remarkable how such a simple concept catches on. Being in Amsterdam, I could read what people around me were up to, and could instantly query people in my immediate vicinity regarding the best places for *x* or *y.* The community being new, has ample motivation to respond. For now it feels good to be amongst the pioneers of the Twinkle group. The week ahead is going to be awesome. Rissa arrives on Friday for an extended break of seven weeks! Though it shall be slog time for her as she prepares for her boards, I shall get to be with my love, and spend time together, and spend what promises to be a glorious summer together! Preparations for her arrival are already on, as the excitement reaches a fever pitch. Although before then, there is a lot of stuff that she needs to get done – an exam, and stuff. I hope the current bout of excellent weather continues – it has been sunny and beautiful the past few days and since I have a day off on Wednesday (Queen’s day in the NL), I plan to go to Aachen to enjoy the beer and the sunshine a wee bit. Off to goof off some more, probably watch some more "24" etc. Cheers! ### Blogging from the iPhone URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/blogging-from-the-iphone/ Last updated: 2008-04-22T10:24:23.000Z wPhone plugin for WP works! I am currently blogging from my iPhone using the WP mobile admin page. Perfect. This, as I attend the OTEC plenair – where Wolfgang just finished his presentation about the importance of blogging in an organizational context. The presentation has sparked off an interesting discussion indeed. More later. ### NVInject.kext FTW URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/nvinjectkext-ftw/ Last updated: 2008-04-21T21:39:48.000Z Video Lags that had crept in, in my custom Hackintosh installation are a thing of the past! I replaced the kext with the latest I found around the Interwebs and to my intense happiness, it works like a charm. No artifacts, no lag issues at all. I ought to keep a closer watch on the NVInject arena from now it seems. But it is just so refreshing to be able to work on my system without worrying about the invariable lag or lockups creeping in. ### Picking up pace URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/picking-up-pace/ Last updated: 2008-04-19T16:37:36.000Z Over the last few days, developments have indeed picked up pace, the departments showing alacrity and speed in every facet of the process – something both Rissa and I are rather happy for, and do hope that the trend continues. It has been a slow weekend so far. The plans to go out with the Namesake fell through last night due to my own somnolence and inactive turpitude. As a result, I did miss out on a couple of pints of Guinness. For sure the namesake must be hopping pissed, for which I apologize m8! So what have I been doing since I woke up in the late hours of last night? Well, one word – movies. Having a load of HD movies in my possession, I decided last night to "re-watch" some of the classics. Started with a Testosterone pumped ["Rambo"](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083944/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) and went on to Sci-Fi pumping classic ["Predator"](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093773/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) in HD. Thoroughly enjoying the two, I ended the night watching American Dad, season 3\. Is it just me, or is AD actually becoming watch-able in the current season. I think maybe it is so because they have dialed the main protagonist down a notch. This afternoon I decided to give ["Predator 2"](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100403/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) a try. Boy do I rue the decision. The sequel can’t hold a candle to the original. It is so awful that I, a fan of B grade Sci Fi movies, find the plot, the acting, the effects, everything down to Glover’s lopsided performance – rather cliche and very boring. I guess the charm of the original lies in the situation Arnie (who sounds so much like Wolfgang in our office, or the other way round) finds himself – alone in the jungle, forced to fight the Predator on its own turf, devising weapons and defensive techniques, as well as the reverence almost one feels for the Predator, and its thirst for the kill. The sequel just grates on the nerves, and robs the original alien of any kind of mystique or respect. But I think I over-analyze a wee. But, watching the flick again after nearly 10-12 odd years makes me reminiscence about my teenage years when any odd flick with an iota of S-effex could make me go woo. Not so much anymore. And on a side note, thanks guys all of you who took the time out to congratulate us on our great news, either on my blog or per mail! ### Max Hospital - my experiences. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/max-hospital-my-experiences/ Last updated: 2008-04-12T15:44:46.000Z During my recent trip, I had the unique opportunity to get acquainted with a recent addition to the Delhi medical-scape, namely the Max Hospital in Saket. Built as a bastion to attract the nouveau riche of India, this chain of hospitals seems to offer premium service at a premium price. Or does it? My experience with this particular branch has been anything but good. To begin with, they messed up a vaccination I was scheduled to take, with a test for Tuberculosis and had no entry for it when the head of the emergency ward (where anyone could walk into, without question), tried to confirm the date/time of the vaccination. I kept repeating what I wanted when I was administered the wrong jab, but it seemed obvious that these people were more interested in seeing the green in my wallet rather than hear what it is that I wanted. The nurse who injected me with the TB test (which was negative of course), kept telling me that this was an MMR vaccination, and I rather naively believed. This is expected perhaps in a general hospital with low funds and insufficient staff, but in a hospital that tries to pride itself in its professionalism and premium service, this is simply unacceptable. To cap it all, my brother, next, went for an appointment with the resident Ophthalmologist, and to our chagrin, found the doctor to be VERY rude and all-assuming. I was just moments away from lodging a complaint. However, the examination was done and my brother was prescribed glasses. The doctor in addition to being rude, also seemed absent minded, and the Spherical number he prescribed seemed to be out of order. He prescribe a positive spherical index where it should’ve been negative, and like fools we thought better than to question the doctor, and got some prescription glasses made for my brother, who now complains of not being able to see well with the same. I ask you. It is time indeed to overhaul the medical standards in a country where the need for the same is paramount. The consumer courts should allow for quick and easy addressing of complaints made by dissatisfied consumers and customers, who are otherwise swayed to not lodge their grievances, knowing the length of time involved. ### Back again in the NL! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-again-in-the-nl/ Last updated: 2008-04-12T02:49:24.000Z A long time between updates indeed. I wasn’t kidding when I remarked it would be hard to update my Flickr, Gallery or my Blog from India, and that it was. Crippled without my Mac and my fast Internet speeds, it was hard to keep updating. Thanks to my Rissa (whose message was read 309 times), one knew where and how I was. But here I am back on Qumana and back in the cold country. It is hard to sum up in one post how amazing it was to be back home with my family after a gap of two years, so I won’t even attempt. Meeting my father and brother after such a long time, in a new home, in a new setting, with my brother all grown up and my dad as adorable as ever, it was quite a homecoming. The month we spent together, traveling around North and West India, exploring our city Delhi once again, sitting around like old times and discussing topics close to our hearts, oh I could go on, and yet none other than the person who has stayed away from home so long, can understand. Things seemed so different in the beginning, but the more time that elapsed, it became apparent, the more things change, the more they remain the same. My brother and I share the same dynamic we did when we were kids – laughing, teasing, grossing each other out, to touch upon a few. Dad all about exercise and dietary regimens while eating ice cream and chocolate. I miss my family a lot. But this trip was special for another reason. My darling love came to visit my family for the first time. It was a trip blessed by the stars, for the minute she put her foot on Indian soil, she was the darling of whoever she met – from my mom’s aunt and uncle to my grandma and uncles. But the ones whose opinion matters most – my dad and my brother were just so fond of her that they doted on her more than they did me! It pleased me no end to see my dad come around to being himself around Rissa – singing, extolling the virtues of our family, and exercising, showering Rissa with gifts (for which I don’t quite know how much he spent), blessing her, tearing up after she left India… And my brother, just gelled so easily with my fiancee, finding her sense of humor and demeanor so similar to what my brother and I share. She was an instant hit wherever she went and whoever she met. A guy could only be so lucky. Everyone congratulating us on the upcoming date. And here it is folks, a secret I have tried and keep a long time now, but due to reasons personal, I could not reveal on here. Rissa and I are engaged to be married. Not only that, we have set our date and location, and everything is quite far advanced in the tracks! Fantastic news isn’t it? We could not be more enthused and more excited! It is something we both foresaw back last year when we met, but never thought would happen so soon back then. I just get heady with happiness looking forward to our date. So people I am back in the NL, back in the cold climes from the warm reaches of India, and indeed raring to set the machinery in action. Watch out for my Mac and Flickr galleries, a HUGE update coming there soon. ### Four days and counting URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/four-days-and-counting-2/ Last updated: 2008-03-06T03:17:43.000Z Just four days to go before I start my month long vacation back home! It has been two years since I saw the welcoming sight of home, and family. A concept that seemed just so foreign a few years ago. What makes it just SO much sweeter is the fact that Rissa will be joining me in India a wee later. We are just so excited at the prospect of meeting my dad and breaking the Great news to him. It is just marvelous. To all who do know the good news, kindly shh, and not post anything in response to this blog entry… Who knows dad might be reading… We have a full itinerary in India, Rissa and I, and we will try and make the most of our week together, by visiting the monument to love, the Taj, and visit my grandma for a while. Rissa be warned though, my Dashboard Widget tells me that even though it is early March, in Delhi the day temperatures are touching 95-98 F. Eeek! Better get some good SPF ready! Just ever so excited. What that means for my Blog updates, I cannot say. I usually do blog from my Mac, but since I shall be leaving my desktop behind (and rightly so), I won’t be blogging as much. Of course you can expect Flickr updates so keep tuned to my Flickr channel. ### OmniGraffle, what a fantastic piece of software URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/omnigraffle-what-a-fantastic-piece-of-software/ Last updated: 2008-03-06T03:17:27.000Z Consider this a brief, rave review. I am currently creating a document detailing the model behind the IMS LD design editor I coded. The model has to be depicted in a graphics intensive manner, with an emphasis on eye candy. In the past I have used Visio to quickly get a document up and running, but that was on Windows, and though it delivered on functionality, the polish was sorely missing. Enter Omni Group’s OmniGraffle for OSX. By far one of the best layout proggies out there, OG offers style, polish and a chock load of functionality. I am really stunned to find how easy it is to create beautiful intuitive layouts and diagrams quickly and easily. It really puts Visio to shame. To take one example: want to create a document with multiple callouts to multiple images? No problem, not only does OG allow you to drop shadows, and define "hot" points, you can visualize the distances between the elements and align them intuitively with the hints that show up so unobtrusively on the workspace. So to conclude, Bravo OG bravo! ### IMS LD Editor v. 0.01 is now live!! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ims-ld-editor-v-001-is-now-live/ Last updated: 2008-03-02T03:13:22.000Z The first prototype release of my app is now hosted and live! The Learning Design editor a part of my research thesis will be now evaluated by the team of experts hailing from different representative groups across the Dutch educational setup, on the basis of usability and ability to translate their mental models of education on the basis of the model I have implemented. A few screenshots. PS: Sorry, the evaluation is by invitation only. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/03/picture-1.png)![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/03/picture-5.png) ### OC'ing my Hackintosh goes awry URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ocing-my-hackintosh-goes-awry/ Last updated: 2008-03-02T03:06:00.000Z After this early morning trial with OC’ing my H, I managed to crash my OS install. It took long hours with different settings to see what setting would actually work. So here it is, the result of my endeavors. Leopard FTW! The best OS I ever shelled out my bux for. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/03/picture-2.png) ### Back from Innsbruck! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-from-innsbruck/ Last updated: 2008-02-24T15:25:10.000Z Indeed I am, and if the pictures on [Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsodhi?ref=tim.sodhis.org) are any indication, we indeed had an awesome time there. It was quite a volte-face from the last time around, when I had fallen ill, and it had really ruined my time there. But well, nothing of that sort this time (though the same cannot be said of Skippy-boy). Although it was great, I just missed my Rissa ever so much, feeling just at odds, without her by my side, to share the experiences and just enjoy a new place together. It did feel so disquieting. But I did manage to keep her informed, by snapping pictures with my iPhone and uploading them immediately to Flickr via the awesome Pushr.app. The lectures were all the same, and not too informative, but a few of them shone – in particular that of Scott Wilson’s on the final day. But I guess what I enjoyed most was the socializing aspect – getting to know people, and interact with them. Well, let’s recap. On Sunday we reached Innsbruck after a long trip (Heerlen – Eindhoven – Rotterdam – Innsbruck – Igls). Immediately upon arriving we (The Namesake, Danish, Skippy Boy and I) set out to explore the wooded regions around the Grillhof. A number of pictures from the 17th stand testament to the time we had. We were joined by a couple of people on this evening – Sebastian and Anna from Wien, and the Scots. Dinner was lackluster and after a round of Stroh’s 60 produced by our very own Butt-slapper (or Martin as he prefers to be called), we called it night. Monday was where it was at. The bulk of the participants joined in, and there was the usual round of introductions, official and unofficial. A number of lectures on the PCM, etc. After lunch we guys (Marco-Blondie, The Namesake and I) went for a long walk up to the lake which we found quite by chance. The Namesake and I had a grand time, going shutter crazy! The evening was fun – a social event during which I broke my moratorium on Weissbier consumption and consumed around four along with the Namesake. It was fun as the guitar was brought out and everyone tried their hand at strumming and singing, albeit without success. \*heh\* I am told I am rather rude. It was a grand evening indeed. Tuesday was a day the Namesake and I had resolved we would try and miss as much as possible. Though we did manage to live up to a part of the deal, it wasn’t all rosy. We both worked and managed to attend a few, as we worked. The fever pitch at the WS-2008 was rising as the next day would be the Winter school key event – Sports activities! Since the Namesake, Danish and I had planned for the sledding event, we stuck to the background, enjoying as the others missed lectures, and dinner. Oh poor souls. The social event to which I was pulled yet again, seemed the same, with cacophonous music and beer. Talked and joked around with Anna, Skippy-boy and the Namesake as we mingled and milled around. Wednesday and what a day! I almost never have laughed so hard, or have been scared for my life! This of course alludes to the sledding day! The Namesake, I, Danish and Enrique forged a bond of men, as we sledded down the DEEP incline! Of course nothing comes easy and there were mistakes a plenty, one of which had the Namesake hurtling down the mountain his arms flailing, him shouting "oh f\*ck" as he hurtled with the help of good ol Newton, on his sled. I doubled and nearly fell down, laughing my ass off. Till now that memory of the Namesake flailing around as he hurtled half-way down the mountain, really makes me laugh my butt off. Well done m8! Thursday was a slow starter, as many complained of aches and bruises from last evening’s adventures. This was the busiest day so far for me. I met quite a few people involved in research related to my topic, and expressed interest in being part of my project pilot. It was sure quite refreshing to receive affirmation of the work that I have done, and the path I follow, not to mention the depth of my knowledge in my field. Unfortunately, Skippy boy took ill this day, and couldn’t join us for any of these classes/events. I was quite interested in the hands-on 4C/ID demonstration by Iwan Wopreis, however I did give up after the first session when I couldn’t really find a fit with my research goals. We all assembled after classes in Innsbruck city for a night of drinks and farewells, at the Irish Pub. We nearly managed to convince Anna to join the OU \*ha ha\*. We started back after a round of goodbyes and last impressions on Friday. Scott Wilson gave a terrific lecture on OpenID, etc. and led me to register on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/timsodhi?ref=tim.sodhis.org) almost immediately. A group photo at the end, summed up the ‘gezellig’ nature of this event. One we shall almost never forget! A long, winding road brought us back to Heerlen, ever so tired and ever so weary! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/02/o-l.jpg) PS: To search for pix of the event (other than mine), do search for tags : Winterschool, Winterschool2008 on [Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). ### Timmy's the happy lil camper URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/timmys-the-happy-lil-camper/ Last updated: 2008-02-22T12:46:31.000Z [![](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2282922807_3b59cb0bda.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/hannesebner/2282922807/?ref=tim.sodhis.org "photo sharing") Snapped by Klemens, uploaded by Hannes! ### Error message in Disco! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/error-message-in-disco/ Last updated: 2008-02-04T03:50:25.000Z Disco.app created this innovative and creative error message as it ruined a DVD for me. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/02/picture-2.png) ### Four days and counting URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/four-days-and-counting/ Last updated: 2008-02-03T01:34:48.000Z Ah it has been forever since the last update, and frankly I have no excuses, since I am on the Mac all the time. So I guess, the best reason for a lack of updates has been the fevered pace at which I am working nowadays. Yes you read right, I am back to the roots and to my element, working on the code migration from RoR to PHP. It has taken some time, but already I am seeing the benefits of moving to PHP, from Ruby. Back to the main title of the post, and yes, there are just 4 days and counting to the time my Rissa starts for Paris, where we plan to meet for our first anniversary. Just reflecting on the year past, I am struck by how amazing the journey has been, from the trepidation of the first time we expressed our love to each other, to the amazing highs of the past few months. It has been such a beautiful journey. This anniversary symbolically marks the advent of the new year, and a year of promises and so much to look forward to. \*sigh\* In other news, here in the NL, the carnival festivities are underway, because of which OU will be closed on Monday and on Tuesday! So it shall be a long weekend indeed. I really wish I could partake some in the festivities this year, but deadlines galore make it rather impractical to go ahead with the joyous buffoonery. I set up a new workspace in my room for the laptop ([HP Compaq 8510w](http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/321957-321957-64295-321838-3329741-3369263.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org)), and tomorrow I shall start once again. The Mac has been performing splendidly. I am happy to report an uptime of nine days, with no plans for switching it off anytime soon. As the days go by, I really find the "Spaces" in Leopard to be such a time saver. I used to rely on two monitors to manage my work, but now with a flick of a mouse wheel I can cart through the various desktops and find my way around the workspace just fine. I am quite impressed. Trust Apple to take something that was done half-assed everywhere else, and implement it to perfection. I have also been watching a few movies on Premiere of late. Yesterday it was [Die Hard IV](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), and [Saw III](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489270/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). I was quite impressed with the former and quite aghast at the latter. Bruce Willis did a terrific job – fine acting, good action scenes, and low techno babble which gets a bit annoying, but not really grating. Saw, well what does one expect from such a movie… Gore and violence, and it does not fail on those accounts, though I am not sure what it is that they have chosen to show in Saw IV. The directors did try and outdo themselves this time in both the movies, and it shows. So that’s what’s been up with me of late! Cheers! ### Photos update! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/photos-update/ Last updated: 2008-01-27T18:24:40.000Z The pix from the last trip to the US are now up! Clicky here \~> [http://photos.sodhis.net](http://photos.sodhis.net/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), which should lead you to my .Mac gallery. I am simply put, AMAZED by the ease and the speed of iPhoto when it comes to publishing to my .Mac gallery. I would REALLY recommend viewing the images in Carousel mode, if in case your connection is fast enough for that! The more I discover, the more I am convinced \~ my Mac and I are made for each other. Current uptime – 8 days. ### 1.1.3 Finally URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/113-finally/ Last updated: 2008-01-27T17:25:42.000Z Yes, I have finally upgraded to 1.1.3 after having waited forever to take the step. I wasn’t quite sure whether the upgrade was worth losing my favorite apps over. But in the end, it came down to the technical side of me, wanting explore the new firmware upgrade and see how indeed it does its Cell tower triangulation, and play around with the shimmering icons. I am very pleased to report that ALL has gone according to plan and I am finally on 1.1.3 with everything working! Google maps have received a facelift, no doubt due to the new API they made available a few months(?) back. The hybrid feature and "Locate Me" works flawlessly, and it indeed pinpointed me to a few meters of my actual location. I am indeed very impressed. I am looking forward to trying out the latest features, however the next big thing will be the SDK release come February. Speaking of upgrades and updates, rumors are floating around of a MBP upgrade to Peryn based processors come Tuesday. I would indeed be quite surprised if Tuesday passes by without a major overhaul or update release, since I recently read that Sony is releasing its Peryn based laptops mid-February. Apple has prided itself in being at the forefront when it comes to tauting its successful partnership (read new found love) with Intel. I would be quite surprised if Sony were to release a Peryn based laptop ahead of Apple. Well, we wait and watch. ### Federer ejected from the Aussie Open! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/federer-ejected-from-the-aussie-open/ Last updated: 2008-01-25T16:27:29.000Z Finally, the day I have been looking forward to, since forever, and have been denied time and time again – *Federer lost in a Grand Slam tournament* other than the French open. That bit of news gives me rather great amount of satisfaction, and for the first time ever, I will break my moratorium, and watch a Men’s final live on TV come Sunday. A number of observations not directly related to the match:- Undoubtedly, his single-handed dominance of every tournament, speaks to the class of the man. He has been routing out opponents in the worst way, just utterly destroying them, making the outcome of the match a foregone conclusion. I habitually never watch a final when Roger’s playing, knowing there can be no other result. And yet people act as if surprised when he wins. Oh please. I wonder why people don’t seem to get tired of his winning everything. I always was in disbelief – more so at the Australian crowd this time that kept chanting "Let’s go Roger, Let’s go!". I would be cheering Djokovic who played an amazing match, clearly outclassing Federer at his prime. It brings me to the crowd support: So many players feed off it – Agassi is one prime example, as well as Ivanisevic. However not all countries and crowds are uniform. Aussie crowds are given to mass media mentality, their favoritism being showered vociferously on whoever the media tells them is a hero – may it be a local player (I refer you to Phillipousis vs. Sampras) or someone who has been utterly and fully dominating the world of men’s tennis making it singularly the most boring sport to watch (vis-a-vis Federer). Crowds in France are just so much more independent in that way, they root for the one after their heart (I refer you to Graf vs. Hingis final). At Wimbledon, the queen of tournaments, the English crowds have always singularly cheered for the underdog, whoever that may be (Graf vs. Novotna, Rafter vs. Sampras, Ivanisevic vs. Rafter). The American audience can be categorized as the most mature in this regard. They root for the best player (as long as he is not playing against a hometown favorite). As a result, it is always a delight to watch the US Open at Flushing Meadows, NY. Anyway, for the first time we shall have a new Grand Slam champion (after nearly 2.5 years) other than Nadal and Federer. I shall be tipping my hat in Djokovic’s direction – if he can maintain his form, he is unstoppable. Tsonga could conceivably pull a card from his hat and win the tournament, but chances of that are in my opinion – slight. ### One week and all is well URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/one-week-and-all-is-well/ Last updated: 2008-01-23T12:31:26.000Z Just two weeks till I meet the love of my life for our first anniversary, in the city of dreams, a city that meant just so much to me, and has come to meet so much more, since Rissa and I fell in love there. How fitting then, to celebrate our first anniversary in that city. Providence provides and we found a way to make it work, to find our way to Paris. Everything is set, the guests are met, mayst hear the merry din (ok, Hyperbole). How much I am looking forward to this, can hardly be overstated… It has hardly been a month since we were together, and I find myself just reminiscent of the times we had, thinking back to what we were doing on this specific day a month ago… Oh the day I leave for Paris could not come soon enough. It has been a week since I upgraded to OS X 10.5.1 and separated the two machines, each dedicated to its specific purpose. And I must report all is well. I did have to reinstall OSX last night due to some glitches, as I tried to experiment with Expression Web. I’d do well to stick with dotMac iWeb for my galleries. Speaking of which, I do plan to upload my galleries this weekend to my .dotMac site (links updated later). The bike being broken, I have had time to walk to and from work each day, a task made easier for I have the entire lecture series on "Ancient Egypt" by Prof. Dr. Bob Brier on my iPhone. An extremely enthusiastic Egyptologist, he has stoked my passions for discovering and exploring the land of the Pharaohs since I was a kid. His documentaries and his insightful explanations and descriptions hold such sway and keep me coming back for more. He is simply a genius. Yep I am a fanboi. That in addition to the amazing book I got from Rissa for Christmas, has made these past couple of weeks, an Egypt centric time for me. I find myself immersed in funerary rites of the Old, Middle and New kingdoms, discovering architectural and symbolic changes to the tombs through the history. Political intrigues, the life of the common man, the exploits of the greatest (Sneferu, Mantuhoteps, Amenhemet, et al) have kept me well occupied during any free time I manage to salvage. Oh well, back to work… Tim@11:28 AM PS: Mac desktop of the day ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/01/picture-1-l.jpg) ### Farewell Macbook Pro URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/farewell-macbook-pro/ Last updated: 2008-01-18T17:09:18.000Z Farewell Macbook Pro Well, as most of you know and are protesting, I have made up my mind to say fare-thee-well to my MBP. I decided, it was more important to have food on my table than to have an MBP on my lap. So well, the baby is up for adoption. The other Mac Pro continues undaunted. I shall retain this web-space, not to mention the email address, but the rest goes back after my trip to Innsbruck! I was on the phone with Applecare Netherlands, and they have graciously agreed to take it back, no questions asked. Such class I must say! Oddly enough I feel little to none. In other news, had to reinstall Tiger, after having messed up my Partition table (too much fstab’bing). Luckily saved the Domain.sites file. So I can continue editing on this Mac Pro. Fare-thee-well o MBP! 11:26:34 PM ### Pathfinder, ever so good! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/pathfinder-ever-so-good/ Last updated: 2008-01-17T22:11:44.000Z People, people, people… It is with glee I announce to the world today that I have found the perfect replacement I have always searched for and yet never found. It is a simple thing called [Pathfinder](http://www.cocoatech.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). No it is not a Mars mission, or even that [horrible movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446013/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), it is a Finder replacement for OS X that has simply blown me away. Replacing the Finder has been questioned by many a Mac fanboi, but one thing I noticed through my extensive research and hands on eval -> Finder is good, but it does leave a lot to be desired, even in Leopard. For instance an instant preview of a gallery of say over a thousand images, can take the Finder forever to create thumbnails. I could shut that feature off, but then I need an instant preview upon click, and a slideshow upon a double click. Where oh where could I find that. My previous blog posts looked at it from an App perspective where I tried to find an App that would replace ACDSee on the system, to no avail. Today, I applied me brains and looked at ways to replace the Finder since this is what the base OS should do. Come in [Pathfinder](http://www.cocoatech.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Worth every penny of the $34.95 they charge, it is an excellent replacement that takes everything I throw at it and more. Add to that, Xee, and we are golden. I am very impressed. ### Macworld, back on Mac and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/macworld-back-on-mac-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2008-01-16T03:52:03.000Z Finally, after my long sojourn in the states, I am back, back in the NL and back at work, albeit with a heavy heart that yearns each minute for my Rissa. My love… This separation, so prolonged, takes its toll, though I am so happy that an end is in sight. OK Too much info! So back in the NL, after a long amazing trip, pix of which have been uploaded to Flickr from time to time, so let’s just say no apologies this time for the lack of updates and blog posts, for hey they have been taking place at regular intervals on my Flickr page as Photo blogs, or plogs if you like. I am back on OS X, and remain true to the adage that "best posts take place from the Mac", and indeed Qumana is back too! Quite happy about that! : D Leopard 10.5.1 with 8 Gigs of RAM, enough to burn anyone a serious case of "BURN" ;) But on a more serious note, speaking of MacWorld, it has been a very low key affair apparently, apart from the introduction of the New MBA (MacBook Air), it has been a ho-hum-drum affair. Tally pointed out rightly after the MW affair, how the Apple stocks took a tumble during the MW08\. Oh well, not all can be winners. As for me personally, I don’t foresee myself getting an MBAir. I’d rather have a MBPro. That ladies and gentlemen are my $0.02. Cheers PS: Soon after MBAir, people crashed the Interwebs! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2008/01/minutes-after-mba.png) ### We have snow! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/we-have-snow/ Last updated: 2007-12-13T20:59:58.000Z [DSC00578](http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsodhi/2108176817/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), originally uploaded by [TimSodhi](http://www.flickr.com/people/timsodhi/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). After looong last, it is snowing ever so freely here! Check out the pix I have on Flickr! W00t! ### Our tree... *sigh* URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/our-tree-sigh/ Last updated: 2007-12-10T18:46:57.000Z [Our tree… \*sigh\*](http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsodhi/2101255934/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), originally uploaded by [TimSodhi](http://www.flickr.com/people/timsodhi/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). We have a tree! Rissa and I decorated it on our anniversary! More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsodhi/, contact me, and I shall add you as my Friend/Contact, so that you can see the entire set! Cheers! ### In NY, with my love URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/in-ny-with-my-love/ Last updated: 2007-12-06T04:16:38.000Z Just so perfect, something I have dreamed of, for just so long, and today, after a seemingly interminable journey across the world, I am finally with my Rissa, just sitting next to her, as she studies, and we cuddle, watching TV together… Could there be a more perfect image? I am yet to conjure one. I started from my hotel in Amsterdam at 6:00 and managed to make it to the airport with time to burn… I do recall, as I ate my Panini and drank me Java, that it would be the last cuppa Douwe Egberts for a while. The flight itself was quite uneventful. I spent the time listening to music and audio lectures by Prof. Bob Brier. Reached the US at 14:20 Local time (20:20 CET), and proceeded to rush to the immigration check. Due to my alacrity, and frequent lane changes, I was fortunate to find a really short line and was through within 3 minutes! Collected my luggage and re-deposited it at the Delta luggage center. The Georgian accent I must admit took some getting used to, rather a mix of southern drawl, with a smattering of English here and there. The flight to NY was delayed some though. I waited in the lounge, where my love called me, ever so excited the both of us, so looking forward. As soon as my plane touched down, I ran out to the baggage claim, and there waiting for me… the love of my life… Just swept her in my arms, just so happy, indescribably happy to be reunited with my Rissa… Just kept squealing with delight as I held her in my arms… I had not taken into account just how COLD it is here! It is -8 Degrees outside right now, and -14 with the windchill. I literally froze the minute we came out of the airport. We ordered a take-out pizza and mamma mia! Just SO lekker! I really have missed the Buffalo wings, Pepsi One and PIZZA! And to enjoy it all with my Rissa, what could I ask for more? It is 9:12 Local time, and 3:12 AM CET, as I watch TV with my love, as she studies on. Just perfect I tell you. Tally ma man, your stuff is here and all accounted for! ;) and de Jong dude, where’s the Flickr plugin? ### And am on my way… hopefully! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/and-am-on-my-way-hopefully/ Last updated: 2026-01-11T22:20:00.000Z After just so much wait, seemingly interminable months of looking forward to the day, I am finally ready to start my journey. All my bags are packed, and all that remains is to clean my rooms, wash the dishes, check-in online and I am off to Amsterdam for the night. My flight leaves early tomorrow morning, which precluded the possibility of leaving tomorrow for Schiphol, as the first train would reach Schiphol well after my flight is supposed to depart. Updates, of course – so many of you have asked whether I shall update from time to time, and indeed lads and lasses, I plan to do just that. I shall have the pictures up and posted as and when the opportunity strikes. URLs to watch are: this blog of course, and my [flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsodhi?ref=tim.sodhis.org) page – flickr being easier as I shall directly push the pix via EDGE from my iPhone. ### Donationware, Blogging from OSX URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/donationware-blogging-from-osx/ Last updated: 2007-11-17T21:55:19.000Z I was telling Rissa this, in merry jest the other day. She mentioned in passing that there’d been a long delay between posts on my blog of late. I reflected for a moment and the best answer I could surmise was that indeed, the frequency of my blog posts increases exponentially when I am working on a Mac. Somehow working on the OSX platform brings out the Blogger in me. It is not only true for blogging but nearly everything. I feel I am much more productive using a Mac, than I am on Windows. I am not sure whether it is the aliased fonts or whether it is the lack of distractions on a screen, OSX just brings out my productive half. Lately, I have been using [Renamer4Mac](http://www.power4mac.com/renamer/index.php?page=description&sid=90ce44b7a50fb3e897a947d8bc935022&ref=tim.sodhis.org) to \*ahem\* rename files on OSX. It is one tool I have found nearly indispensible on OSX, and have never found a Windows equivalent that can remotely come close to the functionality it provides. It supports the use of regular expressions to weed out incomprehensible characters from a batch of files. Sure you can do it manually, but suppose you download a large number of files from the Usenet and need to rename them to something comprehensible. What if the files have a large number of chars that have a lot of spaces betwixt the same? Renaming over a large corpus is repetitive and foolhardy. Windows can’t do it, even with the relatively hidden hack (F2 while selecting them all). R4Mac, however works on a Search and Replace principle, and does the job amazingly well. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/11/picture-11.png) I am happy to report that all is well on the OSX front! After the installation last evening, everything works exactly to spec, and I could not be happier. The Namesake remarked in a previous post and it is true! HSP and I have just become so embroiled in "the scene" that most of the terminology comes as second nature to the twain. It is indeed most entertaining. I find myself scouring the forums and IRC for latest developments in my spare time. One last remark. I have been working with Spaces now exclusively. It is amazing how Leopard has implemented this concept. It is rather VERY intuitive. I find myself allocating screens to specific Apps, and jumping to them by just clicking on their icon on the Dock. Works like a charm, and just so very intuitive. Laters folks! ### Leopard updates, EFI shines thru! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/leopard-updates-efi-shines-thru/ Last updated: 2007-11-17T12:55:00.000Z Just a short blog post regarding the recent OSX Leopard update 10.5.1\. Attempts to install it the previous evening were met with abject failure on my part, and replacing stock vanilla kernel and kexts helped naught. I had to begin from Zero again, wiping my system clean and this time following documentation and common sense + logic to the T. As it turns out, I have successfuly managed to implement a dual booting Vista+Leopard system running 10.5.1 \*directly updated from Software Updates\*. Am running a stock vanilla kernel with no additional kexts. I have fully documented the steps I followed, lest the problem should arise again. But due to the rock stable nature of the kernel I don’t foresee any problems cropping up. lol and to those who "gang"ed up on me, lol y’all know who you are, BOO to you! I have fully working system, and it just runs dreamy! Oh ye, look at the pic and despair! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/11/picture-1.png) ### 10.5.1 is out! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/1051-is-out/ Last updated: 2007-11-15T20:47:00.000Z This just showed up in my System Updates The 10.5.1 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac. For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306907. For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798. ### Back on Mac, Leopard ROARs! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-on-mac-leopard-roars-2/ Last updated: 2007-11-14T11:52:52.000Z Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, the Mac roars again, Leopard it is this time. With some ingenious developments in the past few weeks, it was time indeed to give this platform a try. And that is exactly what I have done. I am very very happy to report that it is a resounding success. Leopard has roared, a roar so loud, that the other OS’s better stand up and take notice. (Bad prose). But anyway, it has been an awesome journey, started out of necessity because of the purchase of my new iPhone. I installed Leopard and some "tricks" later, I had a rock stable and steady system, likes of which I really could not have imagined. Spotlight is one feature that stands out above and beyond everything else. I am amazed at how fast it searches through the huge list of Apps, Docs, and all the assorted junk I have. The indexing is light speed, and it works splendidly. I have absolutely no complaints. Spaces is a concept that Linux and other OS’s have had for a long time indeed, but only Apple could give it the deft touch that would make it usable in a day-to-day setting and just SO intuitively. I am again at a loss for words for how smooth the transitions are, and how easy it is to move the files from one desktop to the other. I use a dual display (1680×1050) and the Spaces take note of that, and change the view accordingly. Amazing ease of use. iCal has been upgraded to being just super fast and with changes in the UI that make it ever so much easier to use. It loads within a millisecond, for my huge iCal DB (with events ranging back from 1998). Mail.app has been completely overhauled and I find myself using this exclusively for IMAP access to my Gmail account. The Notes feature is just an awesome add-on. Which brings me to Safari. Now noone hated Safari more than yours truly. I was a fervent opponent of how closely Safari was tied to the OSX Tiger system. It is worse off in Leopard, where the System indexes your Safari history as well. But, somehow I am yet to take offence. Ask me why? Because… Safari 3.0 has been overhauled from the bottom-up. I have never seen a faster browser, with such a rich UI and browsing experience. The icons, the fonts, everything scales so well on Safari 3.0 that it has seriously made me shift from Firefox (I have been depending on that of late) to exclusively Safari. All my apps from Tiger have nearly been updated for Leopard except for my scanner Canon Lide 60, if ever those people would get their act together and release drivers for 10.5\. Ach. I have also not managed to get my Look 320S Webcam to work. I am working on a fix for that. Unison, Transmit, iGetter, Simple Comic all work splendidly. I have to say this for Apple. Guys you have done a bangup job with Leopard. My hat is off to you! This OS makes the other OS’s look like grand-nannys. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/11/picture-2-m.jpg) Good news! Rissa has her permit for Indieland! This is just such exciting news, and even though we had the tickets for her and knew the dates, just feels as if another formality or rather all formalities have been taken care of, and we guys are well on our way to India together. As my love put it, "All I have to do is wait till spring and get on the plane". Just so exciting. I really cannot wait to show her around the places I grew up, and introduce her to the people and friends I grew up with. Watch out Indieland, here cometh Rissa and I. But before that there’s the Christmas break, and ideas abound for gifts for the family, most of which are rather difficult to implement being ever so far away, but I hope the family shall not be overly disappointed this year. I do promise to make it up the next! :) Stay tuned. ### Anniversary and iPhonezzz! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/anniversary-and-iphonezzz/ Last updated: 2007-11-10T02:08:58.000Z What was once a dream, has now come to fruition, what was once dismissed as fantasy, is now in my hand. Yes my dears, I have an iPhone. What words could I use that would do justice to this device, designed with the user’s needs and customization, and not to mention the user’s comfort in mind? It is an amazing, nay AMAZING device, and I have spent the better half of the evening playing around with JBs and FW updates! An amazing array of applications, and a wide variety of options, the device just does not fail to wow! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/11/110907-2214-weareinyour13.jpg) Question is, why the hell did I wait THIS long? J Rissa and I, have our nine month anniversary today, and after a long, difficult week of studies and work, we are finally ready to relax a little, and have planned a nice evening together, an evening of movies, popcorn and good wine! It is something we tried the last week, and god was it an amazing time that we spent together… Can’t wait for this evening. However right now as I type this, my baby is sleeping, catching up on some much needed sleep. I on the other hand tossed and turned till I decided to do the good thing and play a wee more with the iPhone. So, did you know I can post directly to Flickr from my iPhone? Check out this pic I took and immediately forwarded to Flickr… http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsodhi/1936511121/ Just ever so excited. Watch this space for more developments. Also, this day we celebrated Diwali in India, and I did my small lil teeny tiny part in decorating my house with some lamps etc. On a side note, Michael Scott (from the Office) seems to have broken me forever. Everytime I think of Diwali it is his song from season 2 crops up in my head! Watch the show it is HILarious! Thanks Rissa and Digo for recommending it! Here’s a pic though of the house + lamps. Bis later, alligator ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/11/110907-2214-weareinyour21.jpg) ### You have got to be kidding me! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me/ Last updated: 2007-11-02T16:26:10.000Z Unbelievable. This post from my PDA. I am monitoring the CPU idle temps with the Akasa CPU fan. Um with the overclocking it used to idle at 58 Degrees C. Welcome now to 37-38 C. That is a phenomenal drop indeed! QUITE impressed. ### OC land URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/oc-land/ Last updated: 2007-11-02T12:18:54.000Z Yesterday I decided to take a gander at OC’ing my system. The initial idea when I bought the C2D system back in February was that these CPUs are OC demons, and OC just so beautifully, a facility I had not availed of till now. I found an excellent guide for the P965 Gigabyte systems, which a total n00b like me could easily follow. The results speak for themselves! A smokin’ system with a bus multiplier of 2 and freq. 333 giving me a sweet grand total of 2997.0 MHz or a 3 GHz C2D. That’s faster than a 6850 for the price of a 6600, and this on stock cooling. I have ordered an [Akasa AK-925 REVO Thermodynamic CPU](http://www.akasa.co.uk/akasa%5Fenglish/spec%5Fpage/coolers/spec%5Fak%5F925.htm?ref=tim.sodhis.org) fan which should be delivered today, the reviews were all quite positive… my own will follow! On the job front, the first evaluation of the application by the boss was quite positive indeed, and he is quite happy with the progress so far. A lot of work still needs to be done, however, the overall direction is what he had in mind. I spent the most of the day yesterday giving demos to interested parties, all of whom really were impressed with my event model, and the concepts behind the dev effort. Tally ho says I. As the days progress, the excitement and anticipation grow… Rissa and I just are so looking forward to starting the next half year of being together and just enjoying the immense and exciting array of destinations and opportunities we have in the works. The days don’t nearly pass quickly enough, to that date in December when I shall fly to be with her, and celebrate the holidays with her and her family. And after that… Oh dear me I wander. But to make it quite official, here we are, proof of my OC! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/11/110207-1006-ocland11.jpg) ### Indieland here we come! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/indieland-here-we-come/ Last updated: 2007-10-28T13:26:17.000Z And so it has come to pass- the dates are finalized and the tickets (at least for one) are booked! How much we are looking forward to this trip, is rather hard to put into mere words. It shall be my love’s first trip to India. Really can’t wait to take her around the golden triangle, show her the places I have grown up around, introduce her to the culture, the people, the surroundings, the cuisine, and the way of life. But most important, introduce my Rissa to my family and vice versa. I have this indescribable feeling of awe as I imagine them sitting together, getting to know each other, laughing and joking, just such a jovial atmosphere. Of the maids fussing over the beautiful woman that is my love, and her eventually getting to feel right at home. Of my dad acting all knowing and the consummate grown-up with a stiff upper lip, but eventually warming up to her, as a part of our family, and then, laughing and joking around with my Rissa, lecturing her on the virtues of exercise and diet, which he does with people he loves most. Really, the trip could not come soon enough. But before that, I’ll be visiting ma chere in December for a whole month! How excited I am at that prospect, I need scarcely express! But even before that, there’s the first prototype release for the Dagstuhl session in November. Work is on at full steam to meet that deadline and I am glad to report that things are progressing steadily. Of course there are pitfalls along the route, but barring some last minute changes and mood-swings, the release should be on time. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and watch “[300](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)” last evening, and indeed, critics weren’t wrong: I did get blown away by the cinematography, though the portrayal and the characterization did leave me with some doubts. The special effects are done just so well, that I could not help but track down a BluRay version of the movie! I also managed to track down an old British sitcom that I used to watch as a kid, even though it was YEARS before my time then. “[Some mothers do ‘ave ’em](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069634/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)” is a sitcom around a bumbling Michael Crawford as he tries ever so hard to earn a blue collar living in 70s England, with socialism rife, this protagonist finds employment which by the end of an episode he manages to get fired from, due to sheer ineptitude. Sure you’ve heard it all before, but this sitcom had it right, just plain, old-fashioned British humor. In the same vein, I have tracked down “[Keeping up appearances](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098837/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)” as well. It features regularly on BBC Prime, and though the humor isn’t as rib tickling as the former, it does make for a good laugh from time to time. The DST has kicked off, and we are back to standard time, which means an extry hour this day! 25 hours, I could live with that kind of day. It also means that an hour is shaved off the time difference betwitxt my beloved and I. Oh tally ho! It was rather disquieting to wake up at 11:00 this morning and realize to my utter glee that it indeed was just 10:00 AM. Perfect! With that last mental q\*\*\*f I will get started with my day at long last. Cheers! ### Now featuring… URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/now-featuring/ Last updated: 2026-01-11T22:19:33.000Z Now featuring **3.0 TB** of storage and counting. I have been waiting to start this blog post since forever, ever since my first HDD developed an interface error. I had tried everything in my vast repertoire of skills at troubleshooting, and had categorically ruled out most of the common and uncommon faults. The only recurring faults could be summarily traced back to the HDD, which I had to send back twice to [Komplett](http://www.komplett.nl/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). I was surprised, pleasantly so, by the alacrity shown by this Excellent webshop in dispatching with the RMA. It struck me as most refreshing that they solved problems within hours, and dispatched replacements within the same day, guaranteeing a next-day delivery. The experience has been quite exhilarating, and finally I have found a web-shop I am willing to deal with. Kudos to Komplett! Yesterday I took the afternoon after the conference in Maastricht (which went splendidly btw), to build together the server system with Windows Vista Ultimate. The network speed lag that I had noticed betwitxt the XP and Vista systems is gone, and I am getting a network speed ranging from 40-50 MBps at the top. I am quite satisfied with that I daresay. I built together two HDDs on my main client (a total of 1 TB local), and set up network mounts. The server is not envisaged for any downtime and for that I believe the choice of a low power Celeron D processor (with a max intake of 35 W) is quite a canny choice indeed. I was so bushed after the long ordeal that lying down for ostensibly for an hour, I slept soundly for 12! Guess the lack of sleep the last few days finally caught up with yours truly. But thankfully had the most amazing chat with my love before I did call it quits (unbeknownst to me of course). She is ever so sweet and is busy with an endeavor that I promised her I wouldn’t make public lest my bro or dad be reading this post. On to more cryptic messages. The post last week that got a number of you wondering, well, regard it as the title of my Blog suggest… a mental queef! All is fine, we do have our ups and downs and things albeit rosy now, aren’t always so. That is as much as I am willing to write on a public forum. Well onwards to my Saturday! ### Sometimes I just wonder… URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/sometimes-i-just-wonder/ Last updated: 2026-01-11T22:18:50.000Z … is it even worth it? ### Mmm Mozzarella tomato salad URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/mmm-mozzarella-tomato-salad/ Last updated: 2007-10-09T20:24:40.000Z So I took it upon myself to make some tomato-mozzarella salad this evening. Missing the essential ingredients yesterday, I made the hallowed trip to AH this evening after a fruitful meeting with the big Boss. Ever so happy with my “pimped-up” bike I cycled my way furiously to AH after delivering the darned malfunctioning HDD at the postkantoor. You see, the reasons for lack of updates the past few weeks have been aplenty – last weekend till Monday, my sweet Rissa was in town, and we spent just the most romantic and most wonderful weekend together in good old Duesseldorf. Following that, I got my HDD replaced from Komplett.nl, however when I did take the time out to install it in my system, the same problems reoccurred. This led me to believe that there must be a problem with the controller, however the other SATA HDD works just fine. I thought it might be a problem with Vista, but the same problems occurred in XP. I thought it might be a problem of my BIOS settings, so I tried every permutation, combination allowed… no luck. Disgusted I installed the OS on an IDE drive once again. Really, that has to be the pits. But I digress. The point of this post is to record for posterity the kinderleicht recipe of the most finger-licking salad I have ever created, lest I forget what it was I did right this time. You see, I am not so culinarily inclined (just ask Rissa), and therefore tend to forget stuff and botch it all up. Furthermore, for those who haven’t tried this yet, it might just tempt you into committing unto this! But hey enough with the disclaimers, this was a good salad that I am proud of, so here goes nothing: It is a mozzarella – tomato salad (Italian) – serves 2, unless you are like me, then, just 1\. > 2 Italian tomatoes – ripe, full, juicy > 50 gms of fresh mozzarella cheese > Basilica (2 pinches) > Oregano (2 pinches) > Salt (1 pinch) > Olive Oil (Extra virgin – 2 Tbsp) > Croutons to choice (I used garlic) The preparation is quite straightforward, chop up the tomatoes the way you’d want them and cut the mozzarella – round, whole pieces if you can, and sprinkle basilica and oregano, making sure you have it on evenly. Throw in croutons, and sprinkle some salt and weee bit of sugar. Let it sit for 5 minutes, and spray some olive oil over it all, and enjoy! MOOI lekker! mmm ### Microsoft Money 2008 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/microsoft-money-2008/ Last updated: 2007-09-28T11:31:33.000Z I have been trying out the latest version of Microsoft’s financial software Microsoft Money 2008, Home and Small Business edition. The initial impression is quite positive. The software suite keeps track of all your assets and liabilities as well as small businesses (eBay, and the like), having advanced options to create invoices and send them forth. It has a debt relief calculator that actively monitors your income/expenditure and can recommend plans based on active rate of interest incurred, to get rid of the debt in a timely fashion. I discover new functionalities every day, and would indeed go in for the purchase of the software once my trial period expires. You can get your copy from xx. It is a fully-functional 60 days trial version. In other news, the event model for my modelling approach is coming along fine. I am creating this collaboratively with my boss, on [http://www.mindmeister.de](http://www.mindmeister.de/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), a website made with script.aculo.us and RoR. It is indeed quite impressive, I am quite happy with the advanced functionality it offers. The details of the model shall be made available as soon as I have a paper running. On to more exciting news, tomorrow is the day! I am literally counting the hours till tomorrow, an event for which I just can’t wait, and just can’t stop dreaming about. Rissa in the EU again! She has a huge exam today before she starts for DE, so guys wish her luck! I know I have everything crossed here. But tomorrow I shall celebrate. As remarked earlier, watch this space for pix! I will get to try the album software on Vista as well. Oh well, for now, back to work! ### Goes against the grain, but... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/goes-against-the-grain-but/ Last updated: 2007-09-27T11:08:40.000Z So my HDD just died on me. The main 320 GB Samsung SATA-2 HDD started acting weird after I plugged in two new IDE HDDs. The system would lag during file operations and without warning the drive would disappear giving me Event ID 11\. A cold-boot would solve the problem, till it would reoccur with alarming regularity. I first thought the problem was related to Power Supply, whereupon I changed the IDE cables (as a failsafe) and unplugged all the extraneous drives. The problem would not go away. After ruling out S-ATA driver problems, etc. The point of failure was narrowed down to my 320 GB HDD. I was rather woebegone. It is an unfortunate fate to befall yours truly, owing to the fact that I don’t subscribe to the club of RMA’s. This basically means that the drive is a brick now, even though it still has 2,5 years of warranty left. So, against my better judgement, I have decided to send it in for repair, taking care to wipe all my data, using “industrial strength” sector rewrites. The drive shall be sent back from whence it came. For the time being the OS is back on an IDE drive, with a Vista Performance index of 5.5\. Not bad, but nowhere as good as the 5.9 I had with SATA-2\. Two days to go till Rissa is in Europe again! We are just so psyched and looking forward to our little romantic getaway in Duesseldorf. Just to get to see her after so many days, the prospect fills me with just so much happiness. The time might be restricted, but it shall be just so cherished. Do check the photos gallery next week for some mooie fotos van Duitsland ! ### Long time no update URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/long-time-no-update/ Last updated: 2007-09-18T14:18:18.000Z What’s with the bashing people? I apologize for the lack of bashing and the plethora of questions. Yes, I am still alive and yes, it is going good. Rissa is going to be here in nay eleven days! I really look forward to her arrival. It just seems to make these days in waiting seem inconsequential. I have been busy in the interim developing a lower-level atomic events model for learning, based on the work done in Belgium, on the 8LEM. The ideas and the subsequent implementation you shall read in a paper I am starting soon. For the demonstration and the validation of the model, a LAE will be developed as a Web2.0 authoring tool, written in pure RoR and AJAX. It shall be a proof-of-concept, with subsequent phases bringing higher levels of functionality. The development has begun in Gusto. Yes, I am still on Vista, and remarkably, I am starting to like it. I am very inclined to believe that the previous mishaps and bad experiences with this OS had been because of faulty drivers and Codec’s. So for now I am relying on the MS provided Drivers and Codec’s, and the experience could not be smoother. I am frankly amazed at how well it manages memory now. I have *Mongrel,* a Ruby server running simultaneously with JBoss and eclipse, with the memory hog of a browser Firefox with 14 tabs open, not to mention Outlook running as well as Work 2k7\. With all this, the memory consumption is yet to hit 54%. Simply remarkable! Well the Namesake calls it fanboy-ism, and was not quite pleased when a co-worker chimed in with me yesterday, as we discussed the landmark EU ruling against Microsoft. He was apparently quite taken aback at why I had switched sides from bashing Vista to being all for it. The reason I gave and I reiterate, is that I simply did not have enough experience with the OS. The debacle from a few weeks back (a previous post), led me to conclude that it was a third party Codec that was making my installations slow and unwieldy. It is the fault not of MS but rather the manufacturer of the Codec (in this case DivX). Sure MS could ease up and make life for developers much easier, but it being a capitalist world, they have a monopoly to maintain. Surely, one need only look at Apple, and their policies of tightening the lid on every aspect of their OS and hardware, to get a comparison. Anyways, back to development. ‘Nuff said ; ) Update! Guinness Coaster! I’d want that! : D (credits to the [original poster](http://www.scaryideas.com/print/1029/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/09/091807-1002-longtimenou12.jpg) ### Newsleecher; Vista URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/newsleecher-vista/ Last updated: 2007-09-11T23:54:33.000Z So, yeah I am back on Vista, propelled by the superior support for MPEG-2, which was so sorely missing in Mac OSX. It is a shame, a bleeding shame that such a superior OS should be so tatty in its support for MPEG-2 playback or editing. Well believe you me, I tried everything from the paid MPEG-2 plugin for Quicktime to iMovie ’06 HD and ’08, to Final Cut Pro/Express. Search for a solution online and you get Mac zealots almost scoffing people who have this problem. The “solutions” they offer range from – > Why did you buy a MPEG-2 Camcorder? > Convert your files to DV-AVI and then import it in iMovie > … usual fanboi cr\*p (pardon my French). So, propelled by the lack of support for my hardware, I have finally given up. I am finally back on Vista, for the time being… I hope that this shift shall be the final one. I don’t wish to go through the whole debacle over what OS to use as my primary. However since many programs that I regularly used on OSX, have equivalents (albeit not very visually appealing front-ends) in the Windows world, the move shall not be a difficult one to manage. One program that I felt would not be available and would cause me unlimited nights of anguish, due to its counterpart in Windows, is Panic’s [Unison](http://www.panic.com/unison?ref=tim.sodhis.org). It is by far the most intuitive News client I have seen for either platform. Nothing in Windows even comes close to the functionality it delivers. Or so I thought. Enter [Newsleecher](http://www.newsleecher.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). It is commercial software, that offers a fast, lightweight news browsing and download functionality. The interface is not very intuitive. However, it can handle newsgroups with million+ articles and attachments and download the same, very fast indeed. It has a plethora of in-built functions, like verification of downloaded RAR files, as well as, decompressing the same, deleting the downloaded RARs after they are processed. Very impressive indeed. Having been the recipient of some distressing news, it has been rather difficult to carry on the last day or so. Never had imagined it would come to such a long wait, one that seems interminable at this juncture. Needless to say spirits are down, and it does feel as if one is going through the motions. But I do hope and do sincerely wish that other avenues shall open up, for which I promise my love, I shall try my level best. ### iPod Touch! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ipod-touch/ Last updated: 2007-09-05T20:20:41.000Z iPhone comes to iPod!!! It is here, oh lord be praised it is here : D Watch this space for updates. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/09/applebeatgoeson175.jpg) Pricey though, the 16 GB version for $399 and 8 GB version for $299, ships in a few weeks (this month). ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/09/applebeatgoeson186.jpg) Pictures courtesy Gizmodo.com Ah wow, now for something good! [Starbucks](http://www.starbucks.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) across the US shall now be WiFi enabled, and a customer can just walk in to download the currently playing and the last ten played songs on to his/her iPod Touch for free! Yep you read right.. *for free*! That seems like a sweet deal indeed! And not only this, the price for the iPhone has apparently been dropped from 599 to 399 for the 8 GB model! No more 4GB models shall be sold! A straight 200 $ cut! Well it seems the event is pretty much over. Kind of bitter sweet. I should’ve surmised that Jobs wouldn’t equip the iPod Touch with too much memory, lest the iPhone buyers feel cheated. I am predicting that the next round of iPod Touch devices will get a memory upgrade right about the time iPhone gets a makeover (read upgrade). Bit too pricey for my blood I am afraid. This is one puppy I shall not be purchasing. Oh well, back to the happy place. ### The new Mac keyboard URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/the-new-mac-keyboard/ Last updated: 2007-09-04T14:53:44.000Z And finally it was delivered this morning, something I had been waiting for, for some time now. I was skeptical whether the new design would suit my fancy, and therefore it was with trepidation that I ordered the new Mac keyboard. It was finally delivered (after a failed delivery event last evening), this morning. The first impression? LOOK how thin! I am amazed at how thin Apple has made this keyboard, and just how light and usable it is. I am a big fan of flat keyboards and this one doesn’t disappoint in the least. It is made of brushed metal or aluminium finish with white chiclet keys which do take some getting used to, but once you are done, you wonder how you could settle for anything else. I am impressed with the overall look, feel and style of this new keyboard. I have the English US version instead of the German one, and the English International. Here you go, a pic for the more curious amongst you. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/09/dsc00418.jpg) *Powered by* [Qumana](http://www.qumana.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) ### Axim x51v to WM6 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/axim-x51v-to-wm6/ Last updated: 2007-09-01T18:41:39.000Z Rather disappointed that Dell has discontinued the Axim pocket pc series, and would not release a firmware upgrade to WM6, I took it upon myself to look for ways and means around it. And lo and behold, from sources I shall not disclose I found such a ROM update for my PPC optimized for Dell Axim x51v, and there you go! A WM6 Axim! Dun believe me? Here you are! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/09/screen001.png) Works like a charm, all the programs and applications work just splendid. Since WM6 is supported by Markspace, I faced no hiccups in the update and subsequent reinstallations! Tally Ho! And also, Tally, HI – miss you in the office and hope to see ya soon after your vacation! Have fun! ### Happy Birthday My Love & to me Dad! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/happy-birthday-my-love-to-me-dad/ Last updated: 2007-08-29T14:27:31.000Z Le grand Jour est arrivé! : D happy birthday to all! My Love who is celebrating in NY and dad in Delhi! Just such a joyous occasion and I the undersigned had the privilege of wishing them both as the clock struck 12:00 AM in their respective hemispheres. What birthday would be complete without presents? I sent my love something (secret) and my dad was gifted a scale model of a ’59 Cadillac, him being a recent avid model collector. My bro did an excellent job of finding him a scale model, albeit expensive, it sure surprised me pa! He will be celebrating in style at the end of the day, a party with family friends! Ojé! My love didn’t seem so enthusiastic about her birthday lol, though I am topsy turvy with excitement! Down boy down as they say. The Namesake dropped by for a coffee earlier this day, and I demonstrated the Vista Media Center PC. Albeit a little noisy, the thing does the job, and with the K-Lite CODEC pack, all files are within its reach. I am quite glad! Oh well back to work now. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my love! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY me paw! ### Par2 Recovery in OS X URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/par2-recovery-in-os-x/ Last updated: 2007-08-28T12:00:33.000Z Searched high, and then searched low. Found the answer and here it blows. [MacPar Deluxe](http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/MacPAR%5FdeLuxe/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Apparently of Dutch Origin! Oje! PS: the comments moderation has been lifted due to an unforeseen bug in the wp-admin prefs. Blah. ### OS X and WM5 devices URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/os-x-and-wm5-devices/ Last updated: 2007-08-25T16:29:57.000Z Quite perplexed on how to make my WM5 based [Axim x51v](http://www.aximsite.com/articles/link.php?id=285&ref=tim.sodhis.org) work on a Mac, so that I can sync my iCal and Address book contacts with my WM5 powered device, I came across two solutions offering a similar functionality. The first is [Missing Sync for Windows Mobile](http://www.markspace.com/missingsync%5Fwindowsmobile.php?ref=tim.sodhis.org), and the other [Pocketmac](http://www.pocketmac.net/products.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org). The latter was quickly ruled out due to patchy support for WM5 devices! How amazing is that? WM5 has been out the better part of 3-4 years and still the software doesn’t support it. This speaks volume for the eventual quality of the product if I did happen to use it. But luckily, I decided against it, and went with Markspace’s Missing Sync. It works marvelous, and synched my device with iCal etc. Awesome. I finally can stop neglecting the smallest member of the Sodhi gadget clan. I used to use it only for reading my iSilo books, but finally I can carry it around, and use it as a AIO device. \*phew\*. Well, on a lighter note, found this nice 1680x1050x2 wallpaper :D What say! Guinness is good for you! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/08/picture-1-m.jpg) ### Back to the best of both worlds URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-to-the-best-of-both-worlds/ Last updated: 2007-08-24T07:44:30.000Z A long time coming, I have been procrastinating, not updating this blog in long. But finally things seem to have come together and I have an ideal solution for my woes. Vista and OS X. Together, at last, on the same computer in a dual-boot mode. I had tried and shied away from this "inelegant" solution for too long. A few days back, driven by the lack of performance from my Vista Media Center PC, I decided to dual boot my C2D system. And it works! And it works great! Finally I can do my MPEG2 editing on the Windows platform, and everything else on my Mac. Phew. Things have been hectic of late, and I had little-to-no motivation to update the blog. Was not sleeping well unfortunately, and that in addition to not eating well, was driving down my day-to-day drive. Both of the situations have I since rectified, and back I am with gusto. My sweetheart is having quite a hectic time of her own. With school back in swing, she feels caught up in the whirlwind of lectures, presentations, appointments and what not. But she is so up to the task, and will excel in her endeavors without question, she is applying herself so well, that I feel I should be learning from her. I am right there with you Rissa, right alongside, in my thoughts and in my heart. You are doing great indeed, and I couldn’t be prouder. Well, on to work now! Tim@7:40 AM ### Um... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/um/ Last updated: 2007-08-19T01:52:43.000Z Back to Mac, albeit so unwillingly. Yeah yeah I hear you all loud and clear, "BUT TIM you bashed OS X just a post ago, and we all told you it was a phase and mood swing", but what can I say to that? Well, I gave Windows my best shot, and went back to Vista. Tried so hard, just ever so hard to make it work for me, but it didn’t. > It is as if trying to make up with a lover one has cheated upon! No matter what one does or says or tries, nothing will work. Vista would not take me back. Oh lordy I tried, and tried. And tried. If you can believe it, I tried eight times to reformat and get Vista to work with me, but every time the same problem would occur. I could not for the life of me fathom why. I traced it all down to one culprit, DivX, oh you blasted, miserable DivX installer 6.6, I wish I could really strangle myself after this discovery. But remember what I said about OS choices? You make them based on the programs, and the ease of use you find in them. And a program I use heavily in OS X, I found had no equivalent (even close to it even) in Windows. That one is *tan tan tarara \*drum roll\** [Unison](http://www.panic.com/unison/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). Just the most powerful and intuitive Newsreader I have seen! The four views it offers makes browsing newsgroups and downloading just so much easier! As I have recently purchased an account with [Eweka](http://www.eweka.nl/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), I was in urgent need of a News client, and none available on Windows even make the cut. Not even remotely close. So, I made the choice, to move to OS X. Back to OS X. Yes. Sure I won’t be able to work with MPEG2s, but that is what the other Vista machine (connected to the TV) is for. Sure I won’t have ACDSee, but I will have Adobe Bridge, sure I won’t be able to use [µTorrent](http://www.utorrent.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), but I will work with the [Transmission](http://transmission.m0k.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) client till one is released for OS X. No webcam in MSN, ok my love of my life uses Skype too, and so does me lil Bro, so I will make do with that. Limited Exchange support, so I will make do with what I can get. etc etc. So yes, I am back on a Mac, and here I am updating once again with Qumana. Oh yes, in the move back I lost the "Domain.sites" file for my [photo page](http://photos.sodhis.net/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), so I will have to remove it the next time I update and replace it with a new one. So stay tuned for that! Any pix you guys wanna download, better make sure you do already, for they mightn’t be available after the update (might choose a different set of pix). So tally ho chaps! Till later! Tim@01:49 ### Brickbats and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/brickbats-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2007-08-13T09:29:04.000Z Ok, ok I take a hint. Enough of you have complained about the untenable size and bloat of my photos page. I can’t help it if you guys are on OLD and antiquated connections… Or can I? Well, seems that you chaps have brickbat’d me into submission. I will be removing the pictures from the website and hosting them again using jAlbum, the best album software period. However, this also marks a unique paradigm shift for yours truly. I am now ready to drop the bomb… I am moving back to Vista. Yes you read that right, a Mac fanboi is back to Vista. If you will hear me out, I shall explain. No-one is more enthusiastic about the Mac as yours truly, ask anyone I know. However, I have noticed of late, that the software I use on the Mac although slick and very easy to work with, does not offer me the customizability and the ease of the same as is offered by Windows. To take a very simple example. ACDSee 3.1 I use as a complete Explorer replacement on Windows. It is an AIO launcher and Image viewer, using which I can order my files in the way I want. Such a software is sorely lacking for Mac. I tried it all, CocoviewX, Ekspos, etc etc, none of them offer me the functionality even close to ACDSee. Next, torrents. There is simply no Mac or Linux equivalent of µTorrent. Transmission is good, but it just pales in comparison to the control that µTorrent offers. No individual choosing of files, nothing. Next, chat clients. Except iChat, there are simply no good Chat clients on Mac. MSN for Mac is a woefully inadequate software that offers next to nothing of what Messenger Live! for Windows does. No webcam support most of all, no plugin enhancements and the like. Adium and others just don’t make the cut. Sorry. A personal opinion. Skype functions much the same way on Windows though. Next Mail, and OSX offers its Mail client which is really superb, but unfortunately not nearly as powerful as Outlook for Windows which is an AIO application. Add to that my organization is reliant on Exchange and Entourage on Intel Macs is just not an elegant solution. Now for the most compelling personal reason to shift to Win. My camcorder – DCR SR300\. An HDD cam, with MPEG-2 file format. Just so disappointed, just ever so disappointed with iMovie. I was really delighted when in the product description, I read that iMovie ’08 would support SR300, by which I understood MPEG-2\. But beware, that is not the case. It does support the capture from SR300, however on the other hands it does NOT support importing MPEG-2 files to the timeline. I found this out thus: I connected my camcorder to the Mac and iMovie recognized it at long last. It then showed me a thumbnail view of my 300 odd MPEG-2 files on my Cam, totaling up to 30 Gigs in storage. It then tried to download them to the iMovie timeline but crashed every time. I could not, for the life of me, fathom why. I downloaded my files to my local HDD and tried to import them to iMovie. Should work right? There is SR300 support, therefore MPEG-2 support for iMovie, right? No, wrong. It does not import. I love my Mac, therefore I tried to convert the MPEG-2 to DV format, and left my C2D system converting the files all night long. This morning I tried importing them in iMovie and lo and behold, it works! But then I try exporting to ugh MP4, or DVD… and the quality is just so bad that I could cry. I really just was disgusted. MPEG-2 is lossy enough, convert that to DV, and convert that down to MP4? That is just insane. However again, iMovie is seriously stunted in this respect. Vista Movie Maker as used by my Rissa, is so much more powerful in this respect. I love my Mac, and would love to stay, but I need to be productive, and the Mac isn’t really helping me out there. but really see no alternative. So alas it is time to shift back to Windows. \*sigh\* ### iPhoto, iWeb galleries are on! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/iphoto-iweb-galleries-are-on/ Last updated: 2007-08-11T18:36:54.000Z At long last too! The galleries are up! To open, clicky on the Gallery link up there, or [http://photos.sodhis.net](http://photos.sodhis.net/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), as be your fancy! It has been created using iPhoto and iWeb ’08\. Let me know what you think. ### Movie Night! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/movie-night/ Last updated: 2007-08-11T18:35:16.000Z After a long hard day at work, the Germans (Blondie, Hendick, Glahnsen) and I decided, being the sole occupants of the Cage this day, to congregate at my place after work for a round of drinks and movies. That being decided quick, we met at 21:00 for a night of debauchery! The Namesake showed up a wee tipsy, and of course we did not help, being so immersed in the Societal Drunkenness. Many a beer was sacrificed to mother thirst, and we had a jolly time tanking up on candy, chips and all that is unhealthy. The aftermath… ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/08/dsc00452-m.jpg) ### iLife, iWork, iPhone all that is Mac (NYC and elsewhere) URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ilife-iwork-iphone-all-that-is-mac-nyc-and-otherwise/ Last updated: 2007-08-10T11:53:47.000Z So iLife and iWork suites are out. 2008 is the appellation, and incredible is the performance. I am in awe and quite impressed by the slick interface and the incredible number of features added to the suites. I was a little aghast when I tried to install iWork on my home Mac. It simply refused to go further. As it turns out, it needs 10.4.10 as the minimal base, a complication due to the fact that I have 10.4.8 at home, and any attempts to update it have led to immediate kernel panics. But never had I a more noble reason to attempt another update as this, so I took up the challenge and after a few kernel and kext backups, I was there! System updated to 10.4.10, and off I went with the iWork installation. I am impressed to say the least. Not only is the new suite more responsive, it has updates and tweaks to enhance productivity. What’s more, it now supports the Office 2k7 file formats. Last night I finally got my hands on iLife ’08\. And although I have only had the opportunity to test drive iPhoto ’08, I am blown away! It has not only major interface updates, but the photo album once published has an iTunes like cover browser gallery feature. It is simply superb! Makes heavy use of CSS, and it is indeed the simplest and the most comprehensive way to put your gallery online. I shall be uploading the pix from my trip to the US and Canada using iPhoto very soon. I have registered a [sub-domain](http://photos.sodhis.net/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) for this express purpose, so watch that space for updates. While we are on the topic, NYC is the place I’d like to venture next. The [Apple Store on 5th Ave.](http://www.apple.com/retail/fifthavenue/gallery/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) right next to the Central park is where my baby and I made our way to, on Saturday (before my flight back). I stood there agape, at the plethora of Macs on display, not to mention the iPhones. Rissa and I just walked around inside, after she’d snapped a few pix of me just standing and gesticulating outside the store. The place was crammed with customers and gawkers, and it is singularly the largest Mac store I have been to. We took our merry time trying out the MBPs, the 5th gen iPods – viewing vidz and pix on it, and trying out the Bose Sound canceling headphones (which work amazing by the by, but cost an arm and a leg), and finally the iPhone. Jobs wasn’t kidding when he mentioned the phone to have revolutionized the concept of phone and an AIO device. My love and I were just amazed by the capabilities and ease of use. Though personally I would have liked a better input mechanism, as the on screen KBD is a wee awkward to handle – a complaint echoed by Rob Abel at the IMS conference. We also had had the opportunity to work with the iPhone at the Apple Buffalo store at the [Walden Galleria Mall](http://www.waldengalleria.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). But there we had just tried the phone capabilities. The 5th Ave. store introduced us to the Vid and 6th gen iPod capabilities of the phone. Awesome indeed it was. Well more on this later, in addition to pix when I get back! ### Back again, naturadiddly URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-again-naturadiddly/ Last updated: 2007-08-10T13:06:17.000Z Back again, and at long last. How does one begin to summarize what has been an incredible journey, and an incredible time. I apologize to all y’all for the lack of updates after my last one in Seattle. The time since then was spent in amazing bliss with my loved one, and her family. We also visited my family in good ol Toronto, CA, where I also met a friend from back home and his GF. Rissa and I spent these weeks in such incredible happiness and joy, with visions of further happiness and bliss to come, one day when the ocean doesn’t separate us, and when we can finally be as a family on the same soil. Incredible numbers of pictures stand testament, and endeavor to put across what a beautiful time we guys had in all the places we went- Buffalo, NYC, Toronto etc. These shall be uploaded to my new photo site (powered by iPhoto ’08, but more on that later). What stands out most in this time spent, is the fact that US is simply awesome. I am in awe of the country, something I wasn’t sure I would feel. But the place, the warmth of the people, just won me over. The land of choice and land of plenty, the country has it all to offer. People are spoiled for choice, and though some might view it as wasteful, it is a whole different culture and a different lifestyle from the rest of the world. When someone in the store can demand a 9 and 3/4 of a shoe size, you know that you are in the land where the consumer is the king. So alas I return, with amazing memories of the incredible time spent in homely bliss with Rissa, the fond recollections of all we did, the beautiful feeling of being accepted by her family, the warmth and the bliss of having met my family just so far away from home. ### Day 3, A day of R&R and Stormy weathers URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/day-3-a-day-of-rr-and-stormy-weathers/ Last updated: 2007-07-19T03:58:31.000Z The ES v2.0 being decided and the agenda being finalized, it has been a day of Rest and Relaxation, thus far. Not much has been accomplished this day due to the dreadful weather which I seem to have carried with me, all the way from Holland. Here is a pic of the Seattle/Bellevue vista. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071907-0157-day3adayof1.jpg) Oh well, have spirit, will travel, or so goes ye olde man’s adage. However I must, most shamefacedly admit, I stayed in. It was pouring outside and I, alas without a brolly, stayed in, waiting for a respite. Which of course never came… so, in the spirit of my Dutchness I braved the rain to at least venture out to [Circuit City](http://www.circuitcity.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). What I found it was a gre’bbig store, with a huge variety of sorts. I am told that they don’t come any bigger than this! But well, it was devoid of people at the time, so I just browsed for hours! Bought an INCREDIBLY cheap Memory Stick Pro Duo stick 2.0 GB and got me a prepaid phone! Why you ask? – So that you guys can at least ring me up when I am here. So mail me, and I shall reply with my phone number. Be nice folks, it is just Verizon! I took it mainly coz Rissa is on it, and it would make it easier for my baby to call me up! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071907-0157-day3adayof2.jpg) And American buses! No matter what the distance, you pay a lump sum of $1.25! That is it! I had lunch at a very nice Indian restaurant, and now am off to dinner at a pizzeria near here! Papa John’s here I come! I did stop by at the same 711 and bought some all-American candy, and chocolates. Hubba Bubba, Hershey chocolates, I went the whole 9 yards. All of them amazing, save the chocolates. For sure, the Europeans have the art of chocolate-making, down pat. No way does a Hershey’s bar even remotely approaches the delish Lindt standards. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, and that is it, it shall be time for me to leave Redmond, and god knows when I shall be back. I shall indeed miss the great time I had here, and the people that I met. Some great networks have been forged, that I shall be following up after I return. Most of all, we managed to sort out the ES v2.0 profile issues, to an extent. Anyway, more updates as and when they happen! Tim@18:11 Pacific, 03:11 CET ### Day 2, Microsoft – Continuous blogroll URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/day-2-microsoft--e2-80-93-continuous-blogroll/ Last updated: 2007-07-17T18:22:23.000Z I shared my morning shuttle with an Indian grad student from UIUC, currently working as an intern – Kartik. It was indeed quite interesting to notice how his professional development, which started at the same time as mine, in India, led to such a different course from mine, over the years. We shall perhaps meet again tomorrow morning. A hilarious side comment, while in the Microsoft offices for the conference, our meetings are moderated by a Microsoft employee. Their current employee just left the room for a minute and Linda took a quick glance at his laptop screen… and I can well allay all the concerns that Microsoft is thinking of Apple Inc, for there on his screen in Bold letters was “**How to beat Apple**“. A company policy statement, or a word of encouragement from good ol’ Bill perhaps. Back to the conference, not much was concluded yesterday, so the endeavor today shall be to decide upon a number of issues in the PMS and CMS, and allocate further tasks. Tim@9:17 Pacific, 18:17 CET ### Papa John’s, 711s and all that is American URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/papa-johns-711s-and-all-that-is-american/ Last updated: 2026-01-11T22:17:50.000Z It’s all that and ever so much more! Redmond day 1! AWESOME is the only way to describe it. Well let’s begin from the top! It is Redmond-Bellvue that I woke up in, at 5:45 local time, that is 8:45 AM Rissa Time and 14:45 CET and 18:15 IST! It was so awesome, as I got ready, fretting about how I would get to the meeting grounds, and what buses I would need to take to the Redmond offices from my hotel. That is this hotel here. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071707-0532-papajohns7114.jpg) The Offices for the conference are nearly 3 kilometers away from here, so that would’ve been a 40 minute walk. But I shouldn’t have worried, it turns out that Microsoft has an internal shuttle which one need just call for at the reception, and it speeds to your rescue! And what a huge campus it is! FULL of Indians, falling from every nook and cranny, one would be forgiven to think that the Indians run Microsoft. WE R IN YOUR M$ofts, RUNNING UR 50FTWAR3Z! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071707-0532-papajohns7122.jpg) I was early and met Lisa M., and Colin S and got my wireless access code and Microsoft Security card. It was uphill after that. We discussed Enterprise Services v2.0 specification base document the rest of the day, details of which, I am not at a liberty to discuss due to the IPR agreements. Suffices to say we ironed out issues we participants had with PMS & CMS. Had a very interesting discussion with Lyle and Nigel from down under, and discussed the LD specification (my favorite topic) and the uptake of the same. It was a delight to network with the cognoscenti. Though one thing has indeed become apparent – little is achieved in face-to-face meetings. The meeting lasted till 5 PM, and we regularly were treated to refreshments – a delish brekkie. After I trudged back home from Building 27, it was time to go exploring! USA the land where everything is so big! Giant sized everything! Makes EU look like a puny lil wasteland in comparison, leave alone where I originally come from. It was a sheer delight walking through the avenues, and taking in the sights and sounds of Bellevue. I went into my first 711 and half expected an Apu to pop out from behind the counter. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071707-0532-papajohns7132.jpg) The hilarious part is that they are having this Simpsons promo in anticipation of the upcoming Simpsons movie on the 27th \*which I hope to watch with my baby\*, and many 711s in the US are peddling Simpson merchandise and the cashiers are dressed like Apus and they are selling squeeshies and BUZZ cola, it was a sheer delight walking through the aisles and choosing things from the lanes. The cashier \*NOT APU alas\* Jackie was ueber helpful and explained the concept of take-a-penny. I was laughing my butt off. Which brings me to the Americans. COME On Europeans, take a page from their book! lol I love how open and helpful and smiling Americans are. It doesn’t hurt to be polite and initiate the conversation, and indeed it flows from there. Oh well, I love it here, really a lot. It seems indeed I was a fish out of water till now! Went next to Papa John’s! THE BEST PIZZA ever. Hear that people? BEST, EVER. No, you are just going over it quickly, read it again now.. slowly… B-E-S-T P-I-Z-Z-A E-V-E-R, and this coming from a connoisseur. I ordered some parmesan cheese sticks along with it. The size I ordered was the smallest, in the hope it would be enough for me.. and what I got was something that is Super XXL by every standard one might be used to in Europe. Just two pizza slices, and I was full.. ME? you ask, ME I scream! The rest of the evening I spent, in bliss with my Rissa on the phone, just so amazing to be spending time on a phone, in the knowledge we are so very close to each other. Just such an amazing feeling it was when she put her nephew on the phone with me, little L, who is all grown up now… felt as if I were a part of the family already. Can’t wait to meet them on Friday! EE 3 days!! It is weird, but Rissa is already sleeping and it just 22:29 my time… lol of course my time is 3 hours behind her time for a change, instead of 6 ahead. But I shall head in too, to bring my first day in the US to a close. Here it is then, my salute to all that is American! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071707-0532-papajohns714.jpg) ### Seattle baby! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/seattle-baby/ Last updated: 2007-07-17T07:43:02.000Z ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/071607-0642-seattlebaby11.jpg) Reached here safe and sound, and none worse for the wear! I have reached the hotel, Homestead Studio Suites some 25 hours after I had started from Heerlen. What a country, what a city! More later, after I manage to recover from the Jet lag, including pictures of course! Was so amazing to talk with my beloved, finally on the same continent! Oh just can’t wait indeed! Tim @21:42 Pacific @00:42 Eastern (Monday) @10:12 IST (Monday) @06:42 CET (Monday) ### Off to Seattle! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/off-to-seattle/ Last updated: 2007-07-14T18:36:16.000Z Just a precious few hours before my flight departs from Schiphol, and onwards to the IMSGLC quarterly meet at Seattle. I am really looking forward to this trip and the chance of networking with like-minded cognoscenti of the Learning world. It shall be indeed a great opportunity to collaborate with my peers and gather some valuable feedback on my work. Of course it is but a preview of things to come, as the end of next week I shall head to NY to be with Rissa for a little more than two weeks. A prospect that has us both positively brimming with enthusiasm and joy! It shall be a rewarding trip indeed. The bags are packed, the itinerary is feeded in, and right now I am loading some more books on my Axim x51v. What a pity I couldn’t get the Sync applications to run on my OS X. But well that is a story for another blog edition. Next update from the US of A! Keep tuned. ### The Gallery is up! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/the-gallery-is-up-2/ Last updated: 2007-07-08T21:52:03.000Z As the man said! The Gallery is up! Find the pix from Rissa’s trip at [/gallery/](https://tim.sodhis.org/gallery/) or just cliccy the [Gallery](https://tim.sodhis.org/gallery/) link up there… Yep that’s the stuff. ### Back again... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-again-2/ Last updated: 2007-07-08T20:53:45.000Z And just so much more in love… what a wondrous feeling… Rissa and I just spent three of the most amazing weeks together, living life as a couple, enjoying the simpler pleasures of a "coupled" life like – going grocery shopping together, shopping for clothes, cooking for each other, visiting different cities, or just lazing in bed, watching movies curled up in each others embrace. It has been just the most unforgettable, beautiful time spent with the love of my life. The three weeks seemed to have flown by, with nary a thought. We visited Brüssel, Amsterdam, Aachen, Köln and of course found things to do in Heerlen as well! Short version – el popo Limburg -> bad, Italian Ristorante here -> good! Contact me for the longer version. It is a bummer though that we did not get to meet any of my friends and colleagues here, due to ill health on both our parts. Oh well, there is always a next time. The exciting news is that I am off to US in a week! First to Seattle for an IMS conference regarding the Enterprise Services v2.0 and then to NY to be with Rissa and her family. It was the prospect of seeing her in eleven days that basically kept me from being a wreck at the airport when I went to see Rissa off to her flight. It was just a heart-rending feeling to come back to an empty house. Luckily, work has kept me busy and bereft of thoughts the past few days. I have a meeting coming up with the resonance group on Wednesday in Utrecht, and as a result, need to prepare a couple of mockups and wire frames to show the practitioners to gauge their idea of support in the design of instruction. It has taken me a full day to get the ideas going and then modeling them in a tool of choice. Which brings me to the paucity of GUI tools for Mac! I really am used to relying on Visio for my GUI mockup needs, and could not find a Mac equivalent on a short notice. Omnigraffle Pro seemed to promise a lot, but does not deliver. The OS GUI tools are rather basic, and though are vector graphics based, they do not scale well! So I was really up against a wall, due to the lack of a Windows system. I could not in all good conscience format my Hackie into a Vista/XP machine, it would be just too much work for a few mockups. The solution was easy. Since I had retired the server from existance after the famous HDD crash of 18-06, it was lying in state, in mourning if you will. I decided to bring back the PIV system to life, but instead of hooking it up to the spare LCD screen I have, I decided to hook it up to my LCD TV, 32" of screen real-estate! It took me most of Saturday, but I now have a media center PC. The OS of choice, sorry for this, but – Vista! I tried XP, but it just wouldn’t work! Vista on the other hand looks gorgeous on my LCD TV! As if it were made for that! Kudos. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/07/dsc04250-m.jpg) Hats off to you my beautiful Rissa, for having convinced me against buying an Apple TV. Glad, just so glad I listened to the sweet voice of wisdom in Köln. Would’ve made a monumental mistake. The Media Center PC does everything well, and more! It doesn’t require me to change my Media files to iTunes format! Gott sei dank! Now the problem – No Powerbook! I had given the Powerbook to the fellows at Saturn for repair, and they have sent it to Apple store in Germany to diagnose and eventually repaire the lappie. All good there, but since I leave for the US in a week, I don’t have a laptop to shine! My work laptop is b0rk3d and noone seems to know how to get the keyboard working again, and I don’t have an idea about the liberties I can take with the loaned laptop! I really am in a quandry here. Will have to talk with the ICTS on Monday about my options. Well, the Rant goes on, guess more updates as the days go by, and if time permits. Watch this space for some pics from when my darling Rissa was here. They are uploading now. ### Clusterf*** to Vista URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/clusterf-to-vista/ Last updated: 2007-06-18T12:05:55.000Z With a lot of shame and a lot of sadness I must convey my heartfelt sympathies on the demise of Windows Vista on my System. The spawn of evil, the crux and root of all that is bad, Vista killed my system, and took with it, one of my precious HDDs. The saga begins on a quiet Friday evening when I installed Vista on my server, so that I could enjoy the stupid glass effects. I had previously installed Vista on my main system, but just felt so dirty and violated that I went back to OS X. Life was great and birds were chirping outside. I could feel the warmth of Steve Jobs’ smile raining down on me. The server apparently could not take it. The next morning when I woke up, to my chagrin and my utter disappointment (at the same time), one of my array of 9 disks was making whirr and click, whirr and click noises. I was just flabbergasted! OH NO I thought what about my Data, OH NO, what if it is my 300 gigs of Movies, most irreplaceable, or my 500 Gigs of Series etc etc… the victim in the end was just the series. My data is safe. The culprit— VISTA! The constant spin up and spin downs, which my common sense told me, were detrimental to the HDD’s life span, finally caused the HDD to break. The worst part is, that it was originally an external HDD, which I had cannibalized and made internal, the warranty is null and voided. I was just sick of this stuff. That is when I decided that it was high time to take some action. And some action I did take. I cannibalized the server and assembled my main computer in the chieftec design, and made the server redundant. Three of the HDDs made it into the OS X machine and the rest will be made external USB 2.0 HDDs when the time and money so permit. Settings were a bitch on my OS X, and it took me a LONG time to set up a combination of IDE and S-ATA and S-ATA II drives to work together harmoniously. In the end I have succeeded, and here I am on my C2D machine, with 1,4 TB of storage at my disposal, all formatted in HFS and waiting for data. I have started on the road, the arduous road to the recovery of my series, and though it shall take long, I am not fazed. ### Disillusioned, disappointed. URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/disillusioned-disappointed/ Last updated: 2007-06-16T03:43:45.000Z And I wish it were just a song. But could things get any crappier than they already are? The last few days I have been wresting with conditions and situations that have developed at work, which just progressively get worse as the days go by. The whole incongruity of the treatment meted out to the people at work is just so unbelievable. Some are held up to such high standards and others are allowed to pass through the cracks. Some are scrutinized with a fine-toothed comb, while others plaigarize at their heart’s content, and produce output that can be best described as a laughable excuse for work. ### WWDC 07 - OMFG! Can't wait for Leopard... Safari for Windows! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/wwdc-07-omfg-cant-wait-for-leopard-safari-for-windows/ Last updated: 2007-06-11T20:43:27.000Z Unbuhlievable, that’s how one can sum up Steve Jobs’ charisma when it comes to Apple Events! Did you even catch a glimpse of [Leopard](http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)? It is simply unbelievable how they have revolutionized the Desktop in a mainstream OS! I could rant on and on, but I need to get back to the QT videos of the latest that Apple has to offer in Leopard! Hello Tomorrow says the tagline, but, where do I begin my rave and rant! It has been such an amazing event as always. Steve concentrated on the Software aspect of Apple Inc. this time around, and we were treated to ‘One more thing’… Safari for Windows. Um, this is a development that is sure to shake the foundations of software like Firefox and IE! Who I say WHO would ever in their right mind would want to use IE or Firefox on a Windows PC, when Safari comes out of the Beta stage. To all those who doubt me, check out how colossally successful iTunes has been! Oh well, naysayers be damned! I have to get back to the QT vids! ### Ekspos FTW! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ekspos-ftw/ Last updated: 2007-06-10T13:54:17.000Z So my search finally comes to an end. I found this handy util, in response to my rant yesterday. Mark sends me an email from Aussieland (after stumbling upon my blog), mirroring my complaint about the lack of an ACDSee level viewer and file manager for OSX. He points me to [Ekspos Image Viewer](http://www.kiyut.com/products/ekspos/index.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org). It is a Java Application, close and similar to ACDSee in layout, and very Linux (KDE) in it’s look and feel. But it works splendidly, and very fast indeed. I believe I have found the answer to what I was looking for. It can be downloaded from http://www.kiyut.com/products/ekspos/index.html. To run it under Mac OS X, you can either double click on > /Volumes/YourVolume/ekspos/lib/ekspos.jar Or via the Terminal > java -jar /Volumes/YourVolume/ekspos/lib/ekspos.jar And la voilà! Works like a charm! Thanks Mark! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/picture-2-m1.jpg) ### Temptations... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/temptations/ Last updated: 2007-06-09T14:33:39.000Z I was tempted, so tempted to throw what I believe in, what I have given just so much to build, and so much of my time and energy, I was tempted to throw all that away and embrace the dark side. I know not how I could have contemplated that, but owing to the recent sale, and general disillusionment, I was just so tempted… I am glad to report, I have not, and this day sees me back, and ever so happy with the only OS that was meant for me, Mac OS X. Life is good again, and I am back after having resisted the temptation of Vista and the ubiquitous file management system it supports, viz-à-viz [ACDSee](http://www.acdsee.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). I have used ACDSee Pro 3.10 since six years now on my Windows machine. Originally a File Viewer, ACDSee has been used across the world as more. Not only is it ultra-fast, but the intuitive layout and File System overview allows one to interact with the drives and partitions in a very easy and straightforward way. The files can then be moved around, copied, deleted with ultimate ease. Such a tool is unfortunately missing for OS X. I tried the [Macintosh Explorer](http://www.ragesw.com/products/explorer.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org), which has been given a lot of rave reviews, but I found it curiously lacking in all departments. It is slow, clunky and not very intuitive. As a result I am left in the want for an AIO, a file and image viewer with a good underlying interface. Ach, this is the only software that tempts me to go back to Windows. \*Horror\* The day for Rissa’s arrival approaches! It is just so exciting, counting down with my beloved. I am just so concerned though that I haven’t prepared enough, like the last time, because things at work have been ever so hectic. Oh well. I hope I get some time to plan things out. I really want her to have the greatest time! And by the by – today marks an anniversary of our being together! ### Questionnaire on... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/questionnaire-on-2/ Last updated: 2007-06-07T21:26:21.000Z In lieu of the practitioner meeting that was scheduled to take place yesterday, I have endeavored to create an online questionnaire, which the practitioners and non-expert authors can now go through and fill out. The input shall be instrumental to the incipient stages of the project work, and has been long awaited. It is our hope and sincere wish that practitioners will share some of their design practices, constraints etc with us, and agree to participate in the development of the LAE. The questionnaire and survey can be found at [http://145.20.173.186](http://145.20.173.186/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). It is hosted on my VMWare machine running Debian. The day was quite busy, I finished an advertisement proposed by YMI and sent it forth to Amine Sir, and hope that it shall be enough to pique the interest of the students at RWTH. For information’s sake here is the advert in [PDF](https://tim.sodhis.org/wp-content/stuff/Praktikum%5FOUNL%5FSodhi%5FMiao.pdf). Just ten days before my beautiful Rissa starts for NL, and things are just getting so exciting! We are just looking forward incredibly to the time we shall spend together for the next three weeks. Though the trips this time might not be exotic, I look forward to just hanging with my baby, just in blissful indolence, cooking for her, tasting her delicious cooking, just enjoying life together. Just such strong and beautiful emotions course through, making it ever so hard to wait for the blessed day. ### Coppercore for Mac OS X - a HowTo URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/coppercore-for-mac-os-x-a-howto-2/ Last updated: 2007-06-05T13:22:07.000Z Getting Coppercore to run on my Mac has turned out to be more an ordeal than I had earlier imagined. The scripts needed to be changed and the environment set. There is not too much help on the web for Mac users of CCRT, so here is my little how-to. First set the $JAVA\_HOME variable to point to where you have installed Java. In Windows it is very straightforward. In OS X, jump to the tcsh and locate your Java folder. Just type > which java Use the output. In my case it was /usr/bin/java > JAVA\_HOME=/usr/bin/java > export JAVA\_HOME To check whether it has been included in the env, type > printenv You should see the JAVA\_HOME included in the enviroment settings. Remember, though this is tcsh, setenv doesn’t work. Next, open the coppercore shell script (coppercore.sh) with TextEdit and paste the following in there directly > #Shell script to launch CCRT on OS X > > DIRNAME=\`dirname $0\` > DIRNAME=\`cd $DIRNAME; pwd\` > > \# Add the CopperCore.properties to the class path > JBOSS\_CLASSPATH="$DIRNAME:" > export JBOSS\_CLASSPATH > > \# Setup file prefix for configuration > JAVA\_OPTS=-Dcoppercore.prefix="$DIRNAME/" > export JAVA\_OPTS > > \# Launch JBoss, include the path to the contained > \# JBoss folder > exec "$DIRNAME"/jboss-4.0.4.GA/bin/run.sh $\* > > exit 0 Now open your clicc.sh, in case you want to go via the clicc route and avoid the web based (SLeD) path. Again using TextEdit and now make the following changes to the Script. Change > $JAVA\_HOME/bin/java $SP -cp "$CP" org.coppercore.clients.Clicc to > $JAVA\_HOME/usr/bin/java $SP -cp "$CP" org.coppercore.clients.Clicc Save, and exit. Now execute the coppercore.sh, and then clicc.sh > ./coppercore.sh > > ./clicc.sh And there you have it! Continue as recommended on the [Coppercore](http://www.coppercore.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) website. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/picture-2-m.jpg) ### Active Directory and OS X URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/active-directory-and-os-x/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:31:13.000Z Probably a gold doubloon for whoever can explain how I can seamlessly access the AD from OS X. I have tried the better part of the day configuring the Nameservers and Domain rights on my Mac, but still don’t seem to be any closer to accessing the pure nirvana that is printing to an MFC from my Powerbook. The whole problem has to do with the printer being on a Windows Domain, to which I can only be added by the Net Admin. Now that would not be a problem, generally, only the Admin is a chap who swears by his Win2k3 bible, and follows the ICTS department line to the hilt “No support for Macs”. Ezels. So, it is up to me to devise ways and means of joining the AD without any Admin support, which is not only a tall order, but perhaps impossible too. We had a visit from a PhD hopeful, who incidentally is Indian. It was such a refreshing, and yet weird sensation to talk to someone in Hindi in the OTEC. The general order of things, since the beginning have pointed in the direction of me, being the only one, not only in the OU, but Heerlen in general. Imagine sitting there in the Apecage, talking to someone in Hindi/Punjabi. I stumbled through, realizing rather late, that I have kind of forgotten my roots. What a shame. But, Danish shall take the position left open by Malik’s departure. I mailed our Frenchman this morning, and hope he is doing well. He, was missed just ever so much at the Summer School. So Danish will be working with Peter and ABL. It should work out for him, for he has a good background in the same. CGL, MVK and I along with the Namesake had an impromptu meeting this afternoon, where we talked at length about the Summer School and what we could learn from it, to implement in the Winter School next year. A lot of ideas were thrown around in what turned out to be a very fruitful discussion. The main things discussed that we all tended to agree upon was the need for Cluster-f\*\*\*s and more self-organized workshops, as well as clear-cut information and guidance of what is expected of us and the clusters by the end of the School. Innsbruck was just amazing, and I cannot wait till the next School session. Just thirteen days remain till Rissa is in the NL. It is such an amazing feeling as the countdown starts once again. Just can’t wait, it seems just so perfect, we get to spend three weeks together and then in another two weeks I will be with her once again. This just is, so much more perfect than I could’ve imagined. \*sigh\* Today also marks the 90th Birthday of my Grandfather, the great Sodhi indeed. Dad marked the birthday with a remembrance party in Delhi, and invited some of his friends and new neighbors. Digo assures me it was a grand affair. He is of course a happy soul, now that his exams are over. He plans to return to Vista after having dabbled in Ubuntu, the evil schubuntu giant. Oh well, another day, another dollar. ### And the trip back. CF to Brüssel! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/and-the-trip-back-cf-to-brussel/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:31:25.000Z Back home, back to my Rissa, could there be anything better than that? One could try, but one would not succeed! Saturday, the day we started back for home. It was kind of weird, waking up to an aching body. Partly due to the long walks we took I guess. Breakfast, the last one we had in Fréjus, at least for the foreseeable future, was another damp croissant affair. The first bus out, took us, the summer school participants to Nice. Only a few decided to join this. The trip back was eventful and how! It seemed imminent as if the bus would catch on fire, as the air conditioning unit started to smoke up the bus. The valiant driver took us to the airport and we alighted and said our final goodbyes to each other. Since there was still some time before the check-in started, the Namesake and I had some breakfast at the airport, and some coffee. Andreas joined us later, after our second cup of coffee, and we guys went to the waiting area. The flight, Brussels Airlines was delayed. We started the boarding 30 minutes late and left on a small plane, 25 minutes late. Had some delish sandwiches on board as we read a magazine or two, and dozed on and off. Brüssel, and my god, the airport is maddeningly difficult to navigate. You have to pass through a maze of corridors, and go all the way around the place to just get to the baggage claim. And there, on the the claim belt, bags from 4 different flights are strewn at the same time. It is not only inconvenient and not only does it take so much time, it is confusing, and very frustrating. You can tell when the Namesake is mad, when he just changes expression and a scowl comes over his good-natured disposition! haha, so the rant is confirmed by de Jong. The taxi was waiting for us at the airport and we emerged from the Brüssel airport gates all tired and dirty and one hour late. The taxi trip back was excruciating as it seemed the driver had set his Air Conditioning Unit to HEAT THE DARNED BUS UP. It was so very ugh not fun! The weather was overcast as I saw the welcome signs of home, and never has a guy rushed online faster than I did. And there I was home, and back in the loving arms of my Rissa. And all seemed to be alright with the world again. Tomorrow it is back to work again, a visit from a scholar from Turkey and a prospective PhD student from India. It is indeed going to be a full day. I was talking to de Jong a while back, and we are very enthusiastic about following up on our idea of a joint paper soon. IMSLD and Semacodes. It seems a promising premise. Let’s explore that further. The Summer School is bearing fruit ja! ### End of Summerschool, Festivities and Beach URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/end-of-summerschool-festivities-and-beach/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:31:36.000Z The final day, Friday. Having slept early we were still not fully recovered from the long and arduous journey this Summer School has seemed to be. The enthusiasm that fueled our initial days seems to have tempered a wee bit, but was back in force, as this was indeed the last day before we broke up, perhaps never to see each other again (faux schade). The breakfast of moist, cold croissants just told us how lax these people had become in serving us – the quality of the food having dipped meteorically the past few days. The first session was rather informative, by Dr. Zimmerman, though I wouldn’t have minded terribly had his lecture taken place earlier in the week. This time now, everyone was busy making their presentations for the Cluster Presentation session due to take place next. It was interesting to see what the groups had worked upon this week and their concept maps. Ivan presented for us, and the presentation went fine, if not too prolonged. And just like that and with the filling of the eval forms, the Summer School 2007 came to an official end. It was really cool getting the certificate, and making plans with Leena, Doreen, Amine Sir and de Jong about going to the beach after lunch. Lunch, omg, the less said, the better. This is one thing about Provence, none of the sane-minded, non-Frenchies will miss. The parties started for the beach next. Some of the crazier amongst us thought themselves too good for a bus, so took a cab instead. We the sane-minded few, waited for the bus, and laughed our way to Fréjus St. Vincent (?), the heart and center of Fréjus. We decided to go site-seeing first, before heading to the beach. The French speaking amongst us, and Leena took the charge, and we walked to the old Roman Amphitheater. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/dsc03689-m.jpg) The building was quite much smaller than expected, and I could not well imagine any chariot-races to have been held there, though I could imagine it to have been a venue for great Gladiator matches in ye olden days. We walked back as Doreen taught me some new words in ye Saxony – ‘Mouchebuhbou’ – cuddling and canoodling when the lights go dim, ‘Mouchekippchen’ – ladybug and ‘plautzen’ – banging the door loud. Walking to the beach in the hot sun turned out to be one of the more difficult endeavors. I trudged along, making the Namesake sick of my “Are we there yet”s. But alas the blue of the sea broke across the horizon, we ran the last few steps into the water. COLD waters! It was just surreal, so much sun and sand and water. It was possibly the 6th or 7th time I had been to the beach. Oh the wonder it is, the amazing time I have there. The others were infected by the enthusiasm too, and there were so many plots afoot to throw me in the water, and at more than one point in time Amine Sir and another guy rushed at me to tumble me in the icy waters. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/dsc03706-m.jpg) Kein and Hai were delightful company, and kept taking pictures, most of which can be found with the *‘prolearnsummerschool2007’* tag on Flickr. Kept talking and getting to know Leena and Doreen better. They were just awesome, and it was great to get to know them outside the school. We walked from there in search of Pizza, through them waters. Nothing did I find that would fit our wallets and would be on the harbor. But that didn’t deter us. Hai took us to Casino, a local French supermarket and we bought some tidbits for a beach picnic! And what a picnic it was. We sat at the beach not knowing what to say and talk about, till the wine and the beers started flowing and then we were on our hands and knees making sand castles and topping them with tomatoes and peanuts. Laughing and having a merry time. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/dsc03716-m.jpg) Dinner next after a long walk back, was very good, with more wine and more jokes and slurred conversations. Pizza, finally after such a long time, it was just…. ‘perfection’. We decided against our better judgement to head back to Azurèva to join a farewell party there. What a stupid decision that was. The taxis were plying and could carry only 4 at one time and we were a lot more than that. So 3 trips later, I accompanied the girls back to the cottages, and blah nothing going on. A lot of people in the workshop, a lot of people sitting and chatting, the organizer inside, chatting in their group, a couple of people playing table tennis. What a gyp! Sat there for a while, quite disappointed, and then decided to play some stellar TT, and played against Ivan, Amine Sir, and de Jong for a while, before deciding to head back, rounding off the trip, with a round of hand-shakes and ‘I’ll never forget you’s. Goodbye Summer School 2007, it indeed has been quite some journey and a very fruitful time of interacting with peers and discussing and exchanging ideas. ### St. Tropez, and Food at last! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/st-tropez-and-food-at-last/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:31:48.000Z Day IV of the Fréjus and French saga. It was with that we woke up this morning and unfortunately, the weather outside soon dampened our hyper spirits. The skies were overcast, and rain just seemed imminent. We trudged through, once again, from somnolence to coffee and back again. The only high point of our day is the time we get to eat dem Croissants. Lekker! Heerlijk so! The lectures this morning were just overly loud, and interesting to an extent. The authoring approaches mentioned and discussed seemed a wee related to my work at the OU. Though the best part of this trip has been the interaction with the peers, people working on LO repositories and ontologies. It has been a very fruitful endeavor indeed, finding people interested in IMSLD and educating them on the benefits and the modeling approaches in our great OUNL output. The bus to St. Tropez left with us at 6:00 PM sharp. The bus ride was rather uneventful, though I just kept looking out for Pizza places and the namesake felt as if he would upchuck. I told him to do that on a German, as there are so many here, and they are easily replaced in the Summer school, but there is a dearth of Indians! We got to St. Tropez which is apparently the playground of the rich and famous, and has been known to house celebrities like Pitt, Clooney, and the like, none of who did we see this day. Our destination was the restaurant “La Piscine”, and I was so apprehensive, what I would get to eat at this über-french restaurant, being a vegetarian and everything. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/dsc03651-s.jpg) I sat with Amine sir, my supervisor from the days of Masters in Aachen, and what an evening we had! An evening that shall go down in the annals of history. Never in my dreams could I have imagined Amine sir to be as much fun as he has been in this trip! We have had the best time getting to know each other as pals rather than a supervisor and tutee! We talked of my Rissa, his life before Aachen, and just doubled over laughing and kidding around. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/06/dsc03659-s.jpg) But that brings me to the food! Never could I have imagined I would get edible food, vegetarian food at that! But amazing at the gourmet food they served up! I was left licking me fingers. We walked to the regatta and looked at the playground and the ships of the rich and famous. Photos of course, on Flickr. The ride back, it started raining down, and then some! It was very to be how you say eet, pissing off! We got back in Fréjus, and well, that was that, no party this night as everyone ran for cover. ### Fréjus Monologues - Day III URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/frejus-monologues-day-iii/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:32:14.000Z Day Three already! The realization dawned on us, as we headed for breakfast this morning. It promised to be splendid day indeed, and we weren’t disappointed, although in hindsight, we could’ve really taken advantage of this day – beach and sports wise. The worst part about morning is the time between somnolence and the time when we ‘breathe’ in our coffee. And indeed, after the adventures of the previous night, sitting with the group from Darmstadt (or is it Dortmund), and drinking ourselves silly there, the somnolence this morning just refused to let us be! Tis funny what a wee bit of tipsy will encourage one to say, as I kept telling the Namesake that it would be a good idea for him to go and revive talks with a certain person from EST! Needless to say, this morning I had retracted that suggestion. Bah! The talks in the morning dealt mainly with Metadata, and Contexts, both very interesting topics for the namesake. I took extra pains to follow, but got distracted, just putting the final touches to my presentation for the Kennisnet. The cluster got together after lunch (which was an inedible affair, as always!), and it indeed felt as if we were trudging along this day, without the embedded enthusiasm that was the hallmark of the first few days. I almost fell asleep during the cluster meeting, as we argued and debated over what is LD. We finally got a good concept map going by the end of the day. Disaster has struck though. It seems or is rather confirmed that the Kennisnet meeting has been shelved. So much has depended on the Kennisnet arranging the participation of practitioners and non-experts, of prime importance for the requirements and gap analysis phases of my project. But that has fallen through and we don’t have the people necessary for our team of practitioners as of now. It was a crushing realization, to know that we got so close to a resonance meeting, but no cigar. Well Nico our contact there has asked for some more time till Friday to arrange for participants. But we are now thinking (after the talk with Francis on Skype) whether it would not be a better idea to postpone till after my hols in the US. Back to the Summer School and the Namesake and I conducted our second consecutive cluster meeting, a pity though that just the two of us showed up. It seemed as if things would pick up during the activity time, as I signed in our names for the ‘Drama Improvement’ workgroup. But as always ours were the only two names there. Bleh! After dinner though (which consisted of a piece of bread and a lone piece of cauliflower-boiled), we gathered in the hall, as that is the only place where we have a working Internet connexion. Seriously, what is it with the French cuisine and the Vegetarian way of life? It is almost a sin to be a vegetarian in France. Not that the food for non-veggies is a gourmet affair here either. Ugh. Really. We all were surfin’ them Net here, when Lauri decided to host a pantomime contest, and asked for a show of hands for who all would participate. Ralf Klamma raised his, and started on his way out… and Lauri was like “are you participating? You raised your hand and you are leaving now”, and Ralf replied “But we are German ja, when someone asks us to raise our hand, we raise our hand, ja” the namesake and I looked at each other and literally fell on the floor laughing at the laissez way in which Ralf cracked the joke! We could not stop even after we got back to our room, just seems as if we were the only two to get the joke, and actually found it HIL-arious! Oh ye, jocularity! Love you we do! Pictures from Fréjus ja! Mine I shall be upping on my website here, and here’s the link to pix from others (including the namesake) [LINK CLICKY ME FOR FLICKY](http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/prolearnsummerschool2007/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) ### Rissa's gonna be here! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/rissas-gonna-be-here/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:32:24.000Z 19 days and counting! It is just so surprising, the alacrity with which all came to pass! Just missing the love of mine, ever so much, I casually had dropped the idea, that lest VT not work out, she could think about visiting me in June, ahead of my visit to the US in July. Unfortunately, the thing in VT fell through due to some snafu with the UB legal department! It is just such a shame! She was just looking forward so much to the summer work in Vermont and get a chance to learn more about her chosen field. Lawyers and legal departments, contact me if you want to know more about how I feel about them! So anyways, this afternoon I asked Rissa to look for cheap flights out from in and around Buffalo. We looked together, though she was so reluctant to, and we found some possible options which my love deemed way too expensive. Um, now what does money have to do with them love oui! We be in la France, and it is the land of love oui? We continued our discussion after dinner, when we found something on Orbitz, and booked it! And just like that, with a mere click, it came to pass!!! Just 19 days to go! She is just so amazing to have agreed to come, and spend her time with me, even though she could’ve well stayed at home, and tend to the projects she has scheduled for the summer, in and around her place. I am ever so excited about the prospect of spending more time with her, and not rush from place to place as we did on her last trip here. \*Sigh\* ### I don't feel like dancing, but I'll flail anyway! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/i-dont-feel-like-dancing-but-ill-flail-anyway/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:33:39.000Z Oh the pains and the regrets of the morning after. What a night it was! Katherine mentioned it in passing, at dinner (a staid, dull and boring affair, due to the fact that I am a vegetarian, and it is a sin to be a vegetarian in France), that there would be dancing after dinner in the bar. Well, we did not pay much attention to it at the inception. But what an evening it turned out to be, flailing and dancing for hours till the namesake and I had just nearly passed out (with laughter and wine), and watching Ambjörn living it up! Amine sir, the quiet one, kept at the bar, coming in for a dance or two with Raquel when the fancy struck him! It is SO awesome to see him in this light, for months, nay a year, he was my supervisor and the ‘serious’ guy! But it is just great to see him here, living it up and talking to him, as a PhD myself. It just is really good! The namesake and I had tried to play ping pong earlier in the evening in the designated ‘fun’ time, but due to the gale-force winds, weren’t able to play (this is our story and we are sticking by it). Earlier still, we formed cluster groups and in the immortal words of Jon Stewart, it was more like a Cluster-f\*\*\*! We quickly branched out of the Authoring cluster and became the LD group. Started off with 8 but soon had 2 people drop out (Bram and Zuzana) since it didn’t quite match what they had in mind for the group. We quickly built-up a concept map and moved forth. Met two quite interesting chaps from Vietnam, with who we basically hanged out the evening. It is day 2 now, and we are in a presentation, which I am not really following. Need to finish my presentation for the Kennisnet on the sixth of June and send it forth to FBR. Tim@9:51 ### Fréjus, France! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/frejus-france/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:32:51.000Z First blog from Fréjus! It has indeed been a long time coming. What a perfect place and perfect weather (though a little nippy in the mornings). The Summer School has officially started, and is in full swing, we are listening to Ambörn’s presentation, and he is showing some slides from Kashmir. We finally did manage to get online, which is a relief, since all morning we were moving around with our laptops, divining for a WiFi signal. The signal is available only in the conference room, which shall be an inconvenience as I need to work on my presentation for the Kennisnet meeting. But well, c’est la vie. It is indeed a wonderful place to be. We arrived after a long journey (7 hours) at a small village near Fréjus, a journey that took us (the Namesake and I) from Heerlen to Brüssel, and then a flight to Nice, and from there a bus to Azurèva. The namesake and I were given different rooms, which ain’t any fun, so we asked my roomie (who coincidentally turned out to be Amine) to take de Jong’s room, and the namesake moved in! Drinks were waiting on the terrace, along with some old acquaintances (welcome and otherwise) from the Winterschool in Innsbruck. We said our round of hellos to Martin, Andreas, and the others, and joined the Dubliners’ table for dinner. (A tip here from the Namesake – ‘Mahatma says, no better place to be for a steady flow of wine and drinks, than at an Irishman’s table’ – Mahatma has spoken) Dinner was a staid affair and our first introduction to French cooking, interspersed with regular cha-cha-cha’s of cheese and what not, and plenty of Rosé and du vin rouge! Needless to say the Namesake and I got pretty hammered as did almost all the guys there, having a “groovy” time man! The funniest was when de Jong, drunkenly insisted that we barge our way into a room which I kept insisting was not ours. I am so glad that the party broke up at 12:00, otherwise no telling how hammered we would’ve gotten! It was an ‘interesting’ cluster meaning in which we learned alternative definitions of the common words like ‘picnic’! Well, it is back to the presentation now. Watch this space for more updates! Tim@11:20 Picture from Fréjus, eat your hearts out ppl! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/05/dsc00383-m.jpg) ### Wait for RFCs URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/wait-for-rfcs/ Last updated: 2007-05-23T17:29:34.000Z Finally finished with what I think is a passable paper for Barcelona. Mere few hours, and it is ready, I like that kind of work really. Now the wait starts for RFCs on the document. It was a really productive day indeed, somehow feels as if the Powerbook adds 10 to my productivity mana, that, in spite of having spent some part of the day, trying to configure Mac Mail for OU. The configuration went great, but just wasn’t what I was looking for, owing to how much the OU depends on Outlook and Exchange calendar stuff. Till I find a freeware Exchange <-> iCal sync DMG, I am staying put with Entourage. It may not be perfect, but it works. Argh. If only the GroupCal software weren’t so darned expensive. Oh well, back to cooking dinner! Laterz muttz! Tim@17:27 ### Barcelona Ahoy! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/barcelona-ahoy/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:33:15.000Z Prep is currently underway for Barcelona. The 10cc meeting is coming up, and it shall indeed be a splendid opportunity to network with the project partners and gauge the current state of affairs in the WP. YMI was of the opinion that I should accompany him to Barcelona so that we could set up a meeting with Dai and the people from Bolton. Originally, I hadn’t planned on submitting anything to the workshop since the Boss was of the opinion that the papers would be a better fit in Maastricht. But since the Maas conference has more to do with e-Portfolios, the decision was taken (in my case) to go ahead with Barcelona after all. Since the deadline for submissions is the 31st of May, I am hard pressed for time, to create a workshop paper. I am thinking on the lines of submitting something regarding the authoring approaches for LD. Should be a perfect fit, and would just serve to aggrandize the work I am currently doing, and wouldn’t take too much away from my Journal article. Well, back to work sez I. Tim@10:29 Rissa is quite occupied with her final exam of the semester on Friday and is wondering how she’ll do at this ultimate (as in final) exam of the sem! I am sure she’ll do great, but I will make sure she does, by keeping mum these few days! She is so amazing though, how she manages to make time for me even when she doesn’t really need to at all! What wouldn’t I give to get back to Egypt and Egyptology. A team from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) has uncovered an intact late-first intermediate period tomb in Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt [LINK](http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/egyptology/Henu.htm?ref=tim.sodhis.org). My heart just aches to be there, in the midst, in the sand and the dust, uncovering and discovering, living out my childhood dream. As I looked at the Bachelors program in Egyptology, my mind just wandered to what might’ve been. But this discovery is exceptional for many reasons. The least of which being the fact that so little is known of the first intermediate period, the tumultuous time between the fall of the old kingdom and the beginning of the middle kingdom. This intact tomb of a Court Official Henu, shall help a lot in uncovering some secrets of the past. If I remember correctly this is the earliest intact tomb found in Egypt. And it is complete, with a mummy. I shall have to wiki it up to confirm whether it is the oldest mummy found in situ. Ah no, it is not the oldest mummy. That honor befalls a mummy found in [Sakkara](http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/030328/2003032832.html?ref=tim.sodhis.org) from 3200 BC! ### Powerbook, Ready! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/powerbook-ready/ Last updated: 2007-06-06T07:33:58.000Z I am quite pleased to report that all is well on the Powerbook front! Things could not be any better, and though the German keyboard takes some getting used to, I am well on the way to “Nirvana” land. The trip to Aachen-land almostg did not happen! [CCC](http://www.computer-cash-carry.de/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) was unforthcoming regarding the status of my 2x1GB SO-DIMMs, that I had ordered on their website on Wednesday. An email informed me this morning that they had to “nachbestell” it. They promised to call by 15:30\. I started getting dressed for Aachen, but they hadn’t called by 15:00\. As I was chatting with my dearest Rissa, de Jong dropped by. The plan was that he’d accompany me to Aachen this day, but since I was getting delayed, he decided to forgo the plan and stay in Heerlen. Unable to wait any longer, I finally called up CCC and they informed me that the SO-DIMMs hadn’t been delivered by then, and that I should check on Monday. Words cannot deem to express how pissed I was! But as I was looking for alternatives, they called once again and informed me that the items had been earmarked for me, and that I should come by! I almost ran to the station. 2 hours later at 20:00 I finally was back in Heerlen! The installation of the RAM went without a hitch, and I restarted the installation of Tiger on the PB! And now, after having installed all the software and rebooted and restarted my WLAN, I am BACK on a Mac baby! How amazing is this, to be able to work on a Mac on my couch! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/05/dsc03592-m.jpg) There ya go, for the more obsessive amongst you! That’s the latest picture of me PB, with an Apple Mighty Mouse (Bluetooth) right alongside! Doesn’t it look pretty!? One thing strikes me though. All this hype around C2D MBPs and MBs, I can attest to the fact that the PB works just as fast as the MBP I owned previously. It is inexplicable, especially since Apple claims many-fold speed increases. Oh well, they are just batty, I am now starting to believe. Rissa’s gone for the weekend to her Sister’s, and it is rather so disquieting to be spending a night all alone, without her company, and her sweet words. Is it insane, that I miss her incredibly? But before she left, last night we did get to plan the itinerary for my trip! It just seems a matter of time before I am with her again. Meanwhile, I just wish she were here with me :) Sweet Rissa, I miss you my babe! In other news, I found out that Zee Cinema, Zee TV not to mention Alpha Punjabi, are all FTA! I have watched three flicks already! Ha ; ) Well time to finish watching “Batwara” Tim@2:00 ### Powerbook! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/powerbook/ Last updated: 2007-05-17T13:05:02.000Z POWERBOOK G4 yes you read it right! I am the proud owner of a brand new spanking refurbrished [Powerbook G4](http://cache.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/powerbook%5Fg4.jpg?ref=tim.sodhis.org) with 2 years of Guarantee! It all happened in a tizzy this day! I was in Aachen with the Namesake, when we went to the Media Markt. He was the first to notice and bring to my attention, the Powerbook on display. Now this one was marked down TREMENDOUSLY from its market value, and it seemed to be working just great! I could not take my eyes off it. More I looked, the more I got convinced that this was a deal NOT To be missed. The only downside to a Powerbook is the PPC based OS, and no support after Leopard. But all that I couldn’t care two figs about. The laptop is just screaming awesome. I cogitated a while and then decided to take the plunge. Though I am trying to save money, this just did not seem like an opportunity that should be given up! I mean NO pixel failures, and everything working exactly per spec. The battery giving nearly 5 hours of backup on a normal charge, not to mention just how COOL these Powerbooks run in comparison to MBPs which are just abhorrable when it comes to battery life etc. In the end, I had a toss up between this and a MB, and one look and feel of the MB keyboard and I was sold to Powerbook. It is nearly just the most amazing laptop series ever! [MB’s keys ](http://www.macworld.com/2006/05/images/content/macbook-keys.jpg?ref=tim.sodhis.org)are just too clunky and chicklet-y. I simply cannot understand how people can like that kind of a keyboard. I tried to write a few sentences on it, and failed miserably. The keys are too far apart and it just looks like cheap plastic. The titanium/alu finish of a Powerbook/MBP is unmistakably superior. Once though I had decided that it would be a MBP or nothing for me, the decision for Powerbook was just a natural next step! I bought the baby! And now it waits for Tiger to get reinstalled on it, which I shall undertake on Friday after buying some more RAM for it. So it is back to Aachen. A side-note, I was astonished by how [Expensive](http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/nlstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nclm=C6962ECB&ref=tim.sodhis.org) it is buying RAM directly from Apple. A single RAM DIMM costs 330 EUR for 1 GB, while one can buy the same configuration from Bora for 49 EUR. Unbelievable really. I am just so excited about my purchase and it is so darned difficult keeping my hands away from the PB, but I shall wait till Friday till I tinker with it, after having replaced the RAM. The trip to Aachen was great as always and we found this pub, right next to the Dom, called the "Dom Keller" which was quite a different experience. We went to all the regular haunts in Aachen, Berlin Grill, Glaskubus, Pallas and then rounding it all off with a coffee at "Moelkerei". The namesake and I had a lot of fun, and we look forward to going there again soon! It was just so beautiful when my beloved called me as de Jong and I were sitting in Pallas. It was so amazing to hear her voice in a place I used to frequent so much, and used to be my home. No wonder I was jumping with excitement when I took my love to Aachen to show her around… couldn’t stop snapping pictures of her as she walked through the city I once called home. God I can’t wait till July when I can be with her once again. Now that the formalities are through and my documents are with me again, it shall indeed be a matter of time, why I could fly there tomorrow if I so felt like! :D Sabine was so nice, mailing, to tell me we’d book my flights on Monday! So inderdaad something great to look forward to, at work on Monday. What a day indeed! It has been three since I last updated the blog, mostly spending this time looking for good blogging alternatives. Qumana actually turned out to be the panacea here. I know I complained a lot about having used Qumana and it crashing my OSX installation, but there are a few workarounds that I didn’t know of then. Simply choosing a Blog Category before you start blogging will ensure that Qumana doesn’t crash! So I have been using [gSync](http://www.macness.com/blog/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) of late to syncronize iCal with gCal. I am very elated to report that it works flawlessly! It is superior to [gCalDaemon](http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) which though I managed to install without a problem, did have significant delays in updating both calendars… sometimes not updating at all! So tip of the day is gSync – it is a free evaluation for the time being while the software is still in beta. Great work guys! I also managed to find a replacement for MSMoney! It is called [iBank](http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (very original) and works quite well. Though not as powerful as MSMoney, it is a one stop solution for all your tracking needs. I am using the evaluation version 2.3 and might even consider purchasing the software. Let’s see! Tim@17th@13:00 ### Qumano, Eurovision, iPhoto and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/qumano-eurovision-iphoto-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2007-05-13T11:24:32.000Z What an absolute bugger! Qumano crashes my OSX faster than I can say “skimmed milk”. It is just an absolute nuisance. I don’t quite know what the reason is, but I am going to miss WYSIWYG editors for OSX. Unless of course I take the time out and code one for myself. It really is a nuisance, Journier was no good, Qumano crashes, I know not wither to look from here, and what shall be my endeavors. Well I guess for the time being it is blogging from the website for now, when I am on OSX and from Word 2007 when I am on a Windoze machine. Any help here would be greatly appreciated of course. Well, OSX has been running pretty well otherwise. I got the GCALDaemon running just fine, but couldn’t stand the skewed nature of updates and how often the Google calendar updated, so I have sworn off, and come to using Google Calendar exclusively, and have subscribed to the Web feed using iCal. Works pretty well, can’t make any changes in iCal though. Here’s a screenie [![ScreenieIcal](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/05/picture-1.png)](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/05/picture-1.png "Direct link to file") Ugh, Qumano has left such a horrible taste in my mouth. I just abhor what that disgusting software does to my OSX. Well, no longer. I shall find a solution or code one! Readers of my [previous blog](http://web.mac.com/tim.sodhi?ref=tim.sodhis.org) will remember just how iPhoto on my previous endeavor used to crash, the minute I tried to import more than 1000 photos in its database. You will of course be really ecstatic to know that on this installation I have moved all of my 11,396 photos to iPhoto, with nary a loss of performance! It imported all the pictures really fast and indexed them according to year. I then created some “smart” albums of the time when my beautiful Rissa was in town, and la voila! It works really well! On the subsequent startup it told me that I should regenerate the Thumbnails to ensure that iPhoto works quicker. I hadn’t even noticed the performance loss the first time, but ah I did the neediful, and iPhoto, is working GREAT! Last night was the night of the Eurovision finals. Serbia won the vote, beating Ukraine by a narrow margin. It was a Baltic centered vote, with most of the Baltic countries choosing to vote for their neighbors rather than songs that actually had some merit. Have I mentioned that the commentary done by [Sir Michael Terrence](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6647905.stm?ref=tim.sodhis.org) was just the MOST fun ever? The BBC is the place to be while watching the Contest. Sir Terry’s witty retorts and interjections had me rolling in the aisles with laughter, both last year and again this year! The contest was broadcast from Helsinki, Finland, and was organized well. So much better than the last time around. The bloc voting is getting really old, and Eurovision is turning out to be a showcase for Nations flexing their muscles, rather than a fun and joyous musical fest. The songs were, as always horrid, and just made one cringe at the stuff that some countries choose to send to the contest. Oh well. I guess I am peeved that Britain along with Ireland and France was second from the last. Rissa spent yesterday spending a beautiful day with her mom, on the occasion of Mother’s day. It was hilarious as I watched her do the dishes for 2,5 hours straight! I didn’t even imagine one could have that many dishes! I am tired within the hour, and really swear under my breath, that the next time, I’d eat out of the pan. But it never really “pans” out. Anyway, she has her exam on the morrow, so I will be ultra-quiet this day. Like them mousies. Ja ja. Tim@11:24 ### Mac OS X, and I URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/mac-os-x-and-i/ Last updated: 2007-05-12T17:58:40.000Z Finally made the switch! The impetus being my love’s acceptance to use Skype! So people I am BACK on Mac OS! What a great feeling is this, I can scarcely elucidate. I have completely ported all my documents, drives and music to Mac OS, and now have just OSX on my system. GOODBYE Windows, Goodbye indeed! Yesterday was spent running around in a fevered pitch, looking for my documents and getting them all together. But after that was done, boys do have to play! So Mac OS it was, the first installation went smooth, but was a test bed of sorts. Didn’t quite know what all to install. For those with [Gigabyte 965P-DS4](http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products%5FOverview.aspx?ProductID=2288&ref=tim.sodhis.org) (Rev. 3.3) I have written a sort of a manual on how to go about the installation, of drivers and get sound out of the speakers. Unfortunately, I don’t have 5.1 surround sound yet, but I am working on that. Besides, I do have complete Mic control support! Both screens are working at 1680×1050, and the Network card is working great as well (Though I had to edit the Kexts to get them all to work). The only problem I did have was Samsung CLP-510 Networked printer, attached to my Server. Now the Server was on Vista, and though I had shared the printer, Mac OS could not see it. That was easily solved. A quick conversion later, my server was running OSX and the printer was supported immediately with well placed drivers. Very good! I added the same to my system, and Bob’s your uncle. A chockfull of programs have I installed, for all sorts of purposes, reviews of which I shall post here! But here goes the first – Image Resizing. The support for this is hard to come by. One would imagine that iPhoto does this, but unfortunately that is not the case. Now, the intention was to upload the pic of my current desktop on the Blog, but having captured the image as a PNG, not only was it 3352×1050, but also nearly four MB in size. No way is anyone going to waste their bandwidth on that. Consequently, a solution had to be found, and fast. As always Google is your best friend, and a quick search later, I came across a freeware tool, called [DroPic](http://www.kreynet.de/dropic/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). DroPic does the job immaculately, just drop in your pix and it will convert them to a size of your choice. The result? La Voila! ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/05/picture-1-m.jpg) Enough about Mac. : ) My love was at a clinic yesterday, helping physically disadvantaged children to express themselves, with the medium of art. First, she just adores art and is just so good at it. She showed me the Scarf she tied-and-dyed (she’s gonna correct me on this), the little anatomically correct (muscles only, you pervs) clay-man she sculpted, etc. She is just so good at it. And what’s even better, she gets to share her gift with disadvantaged children. The way her face lights up when she describes her work (even though she’d say m-eh to this), just gives this beautiful sense of happiness and pride to me. Pride for how lucky I am that she has such a caring heart. and that she actually takes the time out to make a difference. How many of us, really have wanted to, but given ourselves excuses, not to? I sense a soliloquy coming up. I love her, just so much. Well, time for breakfast now! Tim@11:40 (Ulp) ### Enya and I URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/enya-and-i/ Last updated: 2007-05-09T15:25:20.000Z Not many I know, would make their fondness of “Enya” public. But indeed, nothing helps me focus than her music. It is indeed weird for I have tried to listen to a lot of artists while I work, and most of them serve to distract me more than anything. Enya’s music on the other hand, allows me to just shut out the world and focus on the task at hand. Believe you me, I tried everything from Bach to Led Zeppelin, but none of these work. I drift away to Bach’s Baroque music, and just can’t help sitting back and appreciating each note for its worth. More of a distraction than anything, I’ll admit. On the other hand, Enya is soothing, relaxing, but not in a zzz way (unlike Enigma, Era etc… by the by why do they all start with an “e”?). The current song playing is “Afer Ventus” one of my favorites. It translates from Latin to Winds of Africa. I am getting a déjà-vu here.. have I blogged my likes for Afer Ventus before? Refresh me memory won’t you? On a side note, Rissa agreed to switch to Skype for our VC needs, she’s the best \*sigh\*! This means basically that I shall be headed the OSx86 way in a few days (over the weekend). Oh the excitement, the trepidation, the incredible high, just by the mere mention of switching to a Mac. Oh wow! I can stop looking at Howard’s Hackintosh in envy now ; ) shall have my own! I hope the ALC888 drivers work fine. It shall be a towering endeavor indeed. Well, back to the article now. And leaving my sweet babe alone, to her exam! A take-home exam at that! Tim@15:24 ### Marriage anniversary! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/marriage-anniversary/ Last updated: 2007-05-07T19:48:57.000Z Oh what a joyous day indeed! The 29th anniversary of my parents’ union! What a shame that I wasn’t able to attend for the 5th year running. Sometimes I just wonder why indeed must one live abroad, so far away from one’s family and loved ones. What’s there here, that I don’t have back home… Times like these, I really do wonder, whether I made the smartest choice. But, herein lies the dilemma, times like these pass, and I am back to being the consummate *firang*. The day has been rather clumsy to say the least! It has been raining non-stop in good ol’ H. Not a hurdle for the namesake and I, who along with Tally braved the showers to claim our daily walk to the castle. That was fun. Oh wow, the wind is so strong it seems would knock me windows down. Bleh! To add to that, I got drenched on my way back home. Sometimes those plastic pants don’t seem like that bad an idea. The afternoon, and we were setting up the VMWare EAX server for the apecage, and CGL managed to get us a list of hostnames and IPs, that we can associate with our images. I set up one this afternoon, allocating some 20 gigs to it. The namesake, who is in-charge of the sub-versioning, had a hell of a time coping with the intricacies of Linux. He has given me the green light to charge him lest he forget his Haiku roots. In other words he has ‘chmod’ed me to a higher permission level (777) if you like. I was wondering at the inception of the EAX saga, why ever I didn’t host this sodhis.net on the OU server. It would’ve been the prudent choice. But the reasons were manifold. The first and foremost being, here I upload what I want, to my heart’s content, without worrying about the limits etc. And 1and1 will last me as long as I want it to, even beyond 2009 (the term of my contract with the OU). So rejoice netizens! Rissa has an exam this day, for which she’s worried sick. Though I am sure she’ll do well, am sending out positive thoughts into the Universe. Indeed! Back to dindin @ 19:48 ### This and that... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/missing/ Last updated: 2007-05-07T18:32:24.000Z Well as one might’ve figured out by now, this has been an uneventful weekend, I just so wish I could’ve been there with my special someone. But instead I am stuck in good ol’ H, trying to while my time away – means and devices of which I find better each day. For instance today, having nothing to do, I popped in a good ol’ Hindi flick “Saalam-e-ishq”, and watched it while I ironed clothes. Seems I wasn’t able to watch the whole movie, as I had forgotten just how long these movies actual last! That aside, it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, portraying the different facets of love in these modern times. A must see. I am waiting to see how this movie ends. I still have an hour and twenty-two minutes to go. Unable to take my indolence any longer, I started a wee bit of coding on R. Got tired of that after a couple of lines, and decided instead to tweak my article a bit more, so that I am completely at ease with it. A section later, I joined CGL for a quick cuppa joe. It is rather strange how cold it is, all of a sudden. Or else it is that I feel the cold more. My Vista Sidebar shows it to be 15 degrees outside, though it definitely feels lower. It shall be a boring day at the office apparently. The two Germans are MIA, and ever since YMI left the office, there are just the 7 of us left to fend for ourselves at the ApeCage. Well, we shall see, tomorrow. It promises to be a day full of meetings, article reviews, hurried phone calls and the like… in short, a typical Monday at work. Back at home in NDelhi, dad and bro have moved, and are now putting up at our new residence in Saket! It is a luvely house, and Digo has an Internet connection already (albeit 128 kbps \*jeez\*). He made two videos of the place and sent them to me yesterday. It was just so much fun, oohing and aahing over the new place and the way it has turned out to be. Can’t wait to visit later this year! Gautam celebrated his 28th birthday on Friday, and it was indeed a pleasure to talk with him and wish him the very best. Though we didn’t get to talk long, it was sure nice to chat with him, just like ye olde days. Friday, the namesake and I, along with CGL discovered a great lounge bar in good ol Heerlen! It was just surreal to have a place like that in a dump like this. Cannot wait to show my Rissa, when she comes for a visit next! She’d like it, even though I am yet to figure out – what would be the best time to take her there, because we were there from 21:30 to 23:30 and the place looked desolate. Perhaps it picks up later. We visited the Irish pub after a long, long time. It was a strange homecoming. Back to office on Monday! Tim@22:29 ### Site maintenance and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/site-maintenance-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2007-05-05T17:30:46.000Z It has been some time since I updated here, though a lot of work has been going on, under the hood. The site has a new look, thanks to a new theme I found after much toil, sweat and tears. I managed to get quite a few of the plugins to work, though I had to hack into the CSS, and customize it to my site’s look and feel. If you notice any errors, feel free to post them here! The gallery has been updated with pictures from when my sweet love was in town. I also have added a few from Innsbruck. To view, click on the Gallery link at the top, and choose the album. Hope it works for you! Have edited the script for the gallery, and it works a lot better now. Well, gotta get back to re-assembling my bed! Tim@17:30 ### Censorship and Digg URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/censorship-and-digg/ Last updated: 2007-05-02T10:09:01.000Z Never thought it would come to this! How COULD you Digg! See and experience the awesome power of the Digg community when the echelons try to impose censorship! This is what results: ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/05/050207-0546-censorshipa1.jpg) So proud of my community, a community that stood up, looked the Digg-echelons in the eye, and calmly screamed out “NEIN”. Kudos to you fellow Diggers! Tim@07:46 Developments over the past couple of hours have in effect, led to Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, to issue [this statement](http://blog.digg.com/?p=74?&ref=tim.sodhis.org). Digg is back! No more articles posting [the key](http://09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0.org/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) shall be censored! An awesome show of strength by the Digg community! I could not be more proud. The night of 1st May, shall go down in History as the night the Digg users came in strength, flooding it with all sorts of articles (imaginative and otherwise), containing “The Key”. [A blog](http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/05/01/hd-dvd-key-fiasco-is-an-example-of-21st-century-digital-revolt/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) rightfully claimed, that the HD-DVD key is an example of the 21st century’s digital revolt. It is indeed an honor to be an enlightened netizen today. Never has the community come together in defiance of a conglomerate, be it RIAA, or MPAA, as we did against the censorship policies of Digg. It is an amazing feeling to be a part of this, today. ### New Office Space URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/new-office-space/ Last updated: 2007-05-01T15:29:07.000Z Tuesday! Finally back at the office after a rather long weekend. And boy do I have news! This afternoon, as Tally, de Jong and I returned from our customary walk in the Terworm, we noticed YMI packing up his belongings and carting them away to the elevator. It struck me then, it would indeed be an idea to take his old desk. Of course it meant bidding fare-thee-well to Milos, but it would also mean a more private office space, one where I could be free from the going ons outside our Apecage door. Of course it puts me in direct view of the namesake, and Hendick was of the opinion that I moved so that we guys could yak more easy! But to that I say, we need no moving for that, already yak yak very easily we do! Well back to cleaning up the new office space, will update with pix soon! For now, just enjoying the quaint corner of the Apecage… Very nice indeed! Tim@15:29 ### Goodbye Munirka... URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/goodbye-munirka/ Last updated: 2007-04-30T12:25:12.000Z An era is at an end. After sixteen years of living at Munirka, having grown up there, having spent the most important years of our childhood there, we are moving out of our Munirka residence this evening. This is the home that love built… I was unsure how my feelings for Munirka would pan out… It has been a mixed bag indeed… In my mind Munirka has always been the life we started “after” Kailash Colony, a second life if you will… almost everything was changed, everything became hazier in Munirka… from the small confines of our KC residence, where the rooms were small, but the love and togetherness was aplenty, to Munirka, where we had sprawling rooms, but couldn’t quite ever get into the hang of things. We grew in affluence and influence, and my folks and my brother made just such great friends here. I never really got to know my neighbors well, always coming across as the reticent kid. In my mind I think I just idolized the way we were, in KC, and Munirka just never seemed to measure up to that image. It was a tough demand to put up. My views on Munirka are just so much in contrast to how my brother sees our life there. It is to him what KC was to me. He remembers nearly nothing of Kailash Colony, save the fact that we had this sprawling verandah on which he used to play. Munirka is the epitome of his childhood, all his friends and acquaintances he made here. Hanged out with that Aadesh and Pooja, had a HUGE troupe of friends from around the colony, who just hanged on to his every word. He just loved and enjoyed life here so much, getting to know every nook and cranny of this place. He started school from Munirka, discovered his independence once his bro moved to Europe. He entertained friends (and girlfriends) here. All his memories of childhood are from here. For him, the move must just render his heart asunder. I do hope he shall blog soon, and give me an insight into how he feels about this. But on the other hand, I cannot help but feel wistful… it was the home that we loved, and decorated with care, love and devotion. I hadn’t of course seen the Munirka residence till about a few weeks before we moved in, and I could not be bothered by it either. I was so lost in my own world of tennis, friends and He-man figurines. The move from KC didn’t affect me much back then. It was as if one day we were in KC, and the next in Munirka. Amazing coz I had BIGGER rooms and so many more places to hide, sad and wistful for I didn’t have any friends here at all. Ecstatic because all I needed (Candy shops etc) were a stone’s throw-a-away from our door. Sad because it was just so noisy here compared to the KC house… Happy that the Video Store was so close by, sad because it looked so dingy… Happy that they had a super market in Munirka, sad for the super market had no book stores where I could just rent books from. The list goes on… This is the house with my memories of mom in the later years… Mom was so enthusiastic about the move, I remember. She would drive with me and Rama Shankar in the day time and move small tidbits of stuff from KC to Munirka. I would be like WHY do we have to move from KC, and WHY oh Why? (but it is probably more due to the fact that I had a crush on a girl living right opposite our home in KC). Mom made it into home… Mom would go with Dad in the weekend and always return with a new piece of décor for the home, or some new enhancement for an existing décor. She just loved buying stuff for our kitchen, and just so lovingly did she put our kitchen together. I had forgotten the origins of the long cabinet that used to be in our lounge, but just remembered; we bought it before moving in, back in January of ’91 or earlier. I remember so vividly when she campaigned to get the final room of the house built. Dad was against that plan (something about it not being completely by the book, though tolerated), so she just took over the mantle, and handled everything with the contractors, the woodwork people and got the last room built. That room would be my room till I moved out at the age of eighteen. She lived her last years in this house, and it was in this house she breathed her last. Bro and I got to know each other and just respect and love each other in this house. KC was just a nightmare in that respect. He and I would argue and fight all the time, ha even though he was a lil babe of three and I, eleven. The bond betwitxt Digo and I just grew so strong, as we made memories in our home, painting our faces like characters from Star Trek, ordering and pigging out on Pizzas, going for interminably long walks around the Colony, laughing our butts off over comments the other made, shifting rooms all the time, talking about everything and anything on god’s green earth, trying just so hard to teach him something of French, the memories just go on and on. Our room, oh boy did it undergo changes through the sixteen years. It is just unbelievable, that in sixteen years, the room underwent more than 18 transformations. It was a drawing room to begin with (when our possessions were modest)… Digo and I had this huge hall-room as our bedroom – so grand that we could play wall-tennis in our room. We moved into the smaller room back in ’92, relinquishing the other room to mom and dad who modeled it into a spacious drawing room. Just so beautifully did we decorate the new room though. There was a table in the middle and two single beds one either side. I took the left hand side bed, by the window, loving it because of the natural light it afforded. I remember sitting there at the Window, reading some book or the other, during my renaissance. After we purchased a second table though, the room filled up quickly and with it began what Digo and I would indulge in, so many times over the years, the relocations. I cannot count how many times we moved our rooms – from the room next to the lobby, to the end-room next to our parents’ room. Digo and I would do these “deals” in which he would relinquish control over some commodities, and I would relinquish control over the room. And then he and I would just start moving, much to the chagrin of our maids (who put up resistance to the moving initially, but would get into the thick of things, helping us out and cleaning after us), AND when she returned at 3:30 PM, our Momsie! But he and I would continue, and soon the process would repeat after at most a month. At any given time I had posters on the walls, of Tennis stars (no Pete Sampras posters though, because I did NOT wish to ruin a Sampras poster by putting it up!), and in my more “barter-with-God” years, a huge kick-ass picture of Guru Gobind Singh ji. Here’s a pic from the days of yore. This was in 1996 I believe. ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/04/043007-1023-goodbyemuni13.jpg) God bless that unholy mess. This was the house that hosted my renaissance. I remember having moved in ’91, just so unbelievably naïve, a person who’s most beautiful passion in life was not education, or the wisdom imparted by my books, but the games I could come up with the most outlandish ideas imaginable. I remember just how I used to take a carom board, some marbles and a scale, and spent the whole afternoon, just shooting marbles in the carom board holes. I would give it outlandish names, and draw up a huge long list of rules, written in Code of course. And then the renaissance came, and the place of play, became the house of education, as I amassed more and more books from all walks of life, learning and literature, trying to absorb the most I could. I still remember coming from school that fine afternoon in March ’93, jumping and skipping the familiar path from the road, which always guided me home, and looking up to see my little brother waving from my parent’s window. It was the day I had gotten my results from the class VIII finals. It was the first time in my life that I had stood first in my class with an aggregate of 83%… No small feat, for just the year before, I had stood amongst the last few kids in class with an aggregate of 43%. I came home and told mom I had failed in a couple of subjects. She was incredibly matter of fact about it… and then I told her the real news and she couldn’t have been more ecstatic. Just the look of pride in her and my dad’s eyes, changed my life from that day forth. My bro hugged me, without really knowing why! A very long side story, but something I shall always connect to Munirka. God do I ramble on or what! But anyway, I realize it is a time of such upheaval for my brother and dad… I hope and pray the new home shall prove to be fortuitous for them indeed. Goodbye Munirka, goodbye, farewell and amen. Tim@12:23 ### Checking from MSW07 URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/checking-from-msw07/ Last updated: 2007-04-28T18:31:38.000Z Checking from Microsoft Office Word 2007, to see if I am able to post directly to my website… Tim@18:29 Edit: It works! WordPress CMS up and running, the way it should be! This is what you should see (for posterity) ;) ![](https://tim.sodhis.org/content/images/wordpress/2007/04/042807-1629-checkingfro1.jpg) ### Hello world! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/hello-world/ Last updated: 2007-04-28T18:26:32.000Z Welcome to the new and improved WordPress page, now hosted at sodhis.net. The main site shall remain the de facto Sodhi family portal. Pictures, vids and personal stuff, I shall keep updating on this WordPress (almost CMS) site! Off to configure it some more! Tally ho! ### Home-working URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/home-working/ Last updated: 2007-04-25T15:05:11.000Z And here I go, another successful home-working day. Or so I would like to think. Well, I shouldn’t be too hasty to condemn this day as an utter waste. I did get some writing finished, and am about to commence with the penultimate chapter of the article. It has been a very interesting ride so far. Though, I must remark that I feel at the peak of my writing capabilities – ideas, words, sentences, phrases seem to be flying in at an inordinate pace. I owe it all to the new diet that my beloved and I have embarked upon, together. Low fat, sugar and carbs diet ostensibly. It was a pain initially to locate the low-fat supplements and complements, but an hour spent at AH seems to have paid off. Last evening had some broccoli, and veggies steam boiled with olive oil, some salt, and pepper, and mamma mia, not only was it healthy, but it tasted delish! Since one does need one’s daily dose of fizzies, I have made the transition to Pepsi Max and Coke Zero, same taste but calories as if one were drinking the diet variations of the same. Argh, without the aspartame of course! I can’t stand that junk in my fizzies. Tomorrow, we have the English writing session that shall last the whole day. It is not a prospect I am looking forward to, but since the ApeCage will be there en masse, it shall be bearable, even if the content and program outcomes turn out not to be to my taste. We shall just have to see. Well, nuff for now, back to some more of article typing! Tim@16:04 ### Terminals and I URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/terminals-and-i/ Last updated: 2007-04-19T14:56:55.000Z Strange title eh? But oddly enough, quite fitting, since the last few days, whatever machine I touch, happens to develop a bug! May it be my server, the client, the laptop or the terminals at the Bank. Speaking of which, I just returned from bonny ol’ ABN, having dragged my sick ol’ bum on my bike, to deposit some cash. Once I am there, the darned deposit terminal was out of order, as soon as I touched it. I raised some concern, and went instead to the cashier. She takes my money, and punches in a few numbers, and lo and behold, it is transferable, because her terminal suddenly stops working as well. Forty minutes later, having deposited my money, I am back at home. Thankful indeed! Tim Wonnacott is on TV, Bargain Hunters is on, love that show- Makes writing my paper alongside ever so difficult. Oh well, I think I can take a wee break, and restart on the article again in 20 minutes. The article by the way is coming along splendidly! I reread the first draft and was aghast! IS that my work, I asked myself… Oh well I shouldn’t really disown my children, must remember that it was written under quite a lot of pressure. Oh well! Am so glad my love is taking the day off to relax and recuperate some. She’s been having a very hectic week, replete with exams, and labs and the like. Considering she was so much more ill than I am, it is an amazing feat to have attended it all, and with such fortitude. Nothing but respect for my love! Ok Time to go back to Bargain Hunters! Tim@16:12 ### Microsoft OneCare Perpetual Beta URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/microsoft-onecare-perpetual-beta/ Last updated: 2007-04-18T01:08:02.000Z It has indeed been a long time coming. But today I joined the “elite” a OneCare Beta tester for life! To what do I owe the honor? I guess it was filing bug reports and being active in the MS community. I really do feel happy for this, even though it basically translates to a $50 savings per year in subscription rates for MS AV and Backup solutions. But indeed, it is something substantial. On the journal front, I have taken up the mighty daunting task again, as per the suggestions of RKP. I made rapid progress this evening and now am considering just rewriting some of the “gems” I had dropped along the way. It has indeed been an indolent day, spent recovering and taking my daily dosage of medicines. The health is slowly getting back on track, and I envision myself joining the workforce on Thursday. Well back to some more typing furiously and watching Sherlock Holmes :D Toodles! Tim@0207 Faced with a decision this afternoon, over whether or not to rejoin work on Thursday, I have decided against the same. The reason behind it is rather twofold – the first of which being the fact that I am still recovering, and get tired so easily that it is actually preposterous, and second, I don’t wish to bring on another relapse. The meeting on Monday with the supervisors and RKP, though productive, drained me out so much, that the symptoms got a lot worse. I couldn’t quite keep my head straight, and all that is nasty and bad came back, WITH a vengeance. Oddly enough, I get most drained when I try to watch a movie, and not so when I am working on my Journal article. There’s a mystery indeed. Right now for instance, I just got up from the futon, having watched half of the Comedy Spoof on [The Hound of the Baskervilles](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076161/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), and even though I enjoy [Kenneth Williams](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931054/?ref=tim.sodhis.org) no end, the movie just drained me out. Which is why I think I will nap a wee, and then restart on the article again! Tim@1629 Vista just works! It has been nay a month and a half since I have been using Vista on my PCs at home (Client as well as Server), and although I complain no end, for day to day work, and search, development, as well as with the release of more compatible software, I am forced to admit this -> Vista just works! The eye candy, is the main feature of Vista as it seems to the untrained eye, and that indeed is true, and again, you need a powerhorse of a computer to run it well, and that again I agree to, but that notwithstanding, if you do have the right hardware and do appreciate the eye candy, you can start to look under the hood and recognize a number of features and a number of multiple enhancements, that basically would make you cringe if you thought about going back to XP. My favorite is of course, the Desktop Sidebar. I mean it even overshadows the appreciation I have for the .net 3.0 Framework and DX10 (for which I have no compatible cards AT this point of time). The Sidebar makes life ever so much easier, a handy Note tool, a quick launch application launcher, the handy calendar, temperature monitor (that has the entry for my location!), and what not! And if you need it, you just need develop it, it is so darned easy. PS: Addendum on 20th – As my beloved just put it “you and vista should just get a room…” lol I love you Rissa After the journal article, am thinking of embarking on the development of a sidebar gadget that would give me a holistic view of my Google Calendar. That would be just awesome. Speaking of Google, could They DO any wrong? Nope I don’t think so! With the latest announcement of their PowerPoint clone on the web like Google Docs and Spreadsheets, I think Google is just the (for the lack of a better epithet) Mutt’s nuts! I have no regrets since I moved to the Google way of life, embracing their web client and calendar (with the awesome SMS reminders), Notebook (for all my web clips and mental queefs), and what not. Thanks be on Macro ; ) (who as a matter of fact is on holiday!) Well back to work! Tim@2212 ### Massacre at VT URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/massacre-at-vt/ Last updated: 2022-02-13T04:19:06.000Z Still shell shocked, but so relieved that all my friends at VT are doing well. The hours pass as I keep myself glued to the TV screen watching the coverage from VA. Unbelievable, senseless, and so infuriating are some of the adjectives that pop into mind, with this massacre that occurred at one of the upper echelons of higher education and intelligentsia. Sorry rather, for the lack of updates of late, I have unfortunately not been keeping well the past few days, making it rather difficult to sit down in front of the ‘puter and blog me brains out. On the positive side, I feel my voice, affected with the cold and cough, has taken on a “sexier” ting, losing some of the high pitches I can reach when I do the “Homer”. I managed to make it to work for a meeting with RKP today, though. It was kind of a forced decision, because had we not met him today, the next date he had available would’ve been on the 14th of May. So today, was the day it was meant to be. The meeting itself went well… The journal article has to be redone indeed, cutting out some of the portions I had initially felt would be the central theme. The additions themselves aren’t too many and I hope to have them finished by the end of next week. Cycled back with the Namesake, and after bidding him fare-thee-well, I went to AH and basically restocked on coffee, milk, cough syrup and the like. Really am starting to “hate” this bout of ill-health. Can’t really go outside and enjoy the splendid weather. Apparently, this was the last day of “good” weather as we are scheduled for rain and cooler temperatures from tomorrow. Whether that indeed shall come to pass, has to be seen. Tim@0021 ### Fare-thee-well o Dell URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/fare-thee-well-o-dell/ Last updated: 2007-04-11T13:13:58.000Z April 10th, 2007, a date which shall live in infamy. So spake Tim the noble words. Well, not so much. But indeed a day to mourn, for this is the day that I bade farewell to my companion of 5 years, my noble Dell Inspiron 8200\. I sit here in Utrecht typing away furiously on the OU’s Thinkpad and all my thoughts still turn to the incredible journey that Dell and I have been through. The very first laptop, I remember the fond looks it drew from friends and peers (back in 2002, when owning a laptop was still a novelty). It was sleek, it was ultra-fast and it could run XP like no other. Made my desktop computer look like an old maid with 256 MB of DDR RAM 133Mhz. 2.0 GHz of raw PIVm processing power, it ran cooler and more silent than any of its counterparts. Though all the components did I change over the three years of Dell Warrantee, the laptop itself never broke down on me. Of that I am very proud. Alas with the advent of the new C2D technology, and thinner, lightweight lappies, the Dell held its own, giving me a Vista Index Performance of 2.3, which isn’t bad considering the lowest denominator was the graphics card performance. The processing power still got a 3.7\. Alas, Dell, thy time is past, and therefore it was time to let you go. Bear me, my friend no ill will and hope that the new owners shall treat you way the same if not better than I ever did. :’ ( The morning of the 11th found the Namesake, the Drachsla and I en route to Utrecht, to attend the Semantic Web Seminar. Lucky for me, they have wireless access here. After a quick, and not so delish lunch at an Indian restaurant, we found our way to Princetonplein 5\. We did reach a wee late, but we’re here! Hallelujah sez I. ### Goodbye, Farewell and Amen URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/goodbye-farewell-and-amen/ Last updated: 2007-04-07T12:38:08.000Z Very little progress on the health-front I am afraid. The bug seems to have fallen for me, ever so truly, madly, deeply. Argh. I am still unable to speak due to the soreness of me throat, but that stops me not from eating frozen yoghurt – O Timothy, wherefore art thou an idiot? Salt water gargles help a huge deal, which is the theme around which I have based this current bout of sickness of mine – getting well without the aid of western medication. So, I have been trying these home remedies, including (and not restricted to) – salt water gargles, massages of the nose bridge, application of traditional and mentholated Chinese balms, etc. Of course, I then negate any benefit they might be bringing with eating frozen yoghurt, or sipping a cold glass of diet coke. Hallelujah. I must admit though, that this day I feel much better. Not sneezing as much, and not coughing my heart out. I even managed to talk with my bro on the phone for around an hour without incident! This is in stark contrast to yesterday, when the weather was so bright and sunny and I just couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing the whole day. This of course spells disaster for my plans for this weekend. The namesake and I had planned a visit to jolly ol’ Aachen this weekend, and having us a merry time at the local keeps there, not to mention rounding off the trip chez Pallas. It would have been an amazing trip, had it not been for this darned illness of mine, which also made me miss the Witte Donderdagloop at the OU. It is such a shame, for it seems they had ever such a great time at the loop thingimajigger! Grr arrgh harrumph! I have been trying to utilize this down time for something other than just plonking myself in front of the idiot box and watching some random movie. In accord with YMI’s recommendations last Monday, I have been exploring the work done in Ontological extensions to IMSLD complaint courses, in order to better formulate a strategy for TDA classification of the IMSLD aware tools and their characteristics so that I can have a more up-to-date and complete SOA. I spent the better part of the last two days researching this angle, and though in my opinion there is not much direct relevance betwitxt the what I wish to accomplish and the Ontological definitions using LOCs (as recommended by Mizoguchi -due to the incomplete implementation of the Ontological models for the three IMSLD levels, as well as the fact that Ontologies come into the picture at a higher level from the authoring system which at best can make use of Ontological definitions of existing UoLs to better locate, reference and embed the LOs in the course), I can see a correlation, which will help me in better structuring my paper, talking with authority about the *proposed* approaches to TDA implementations in my SOA. I shall start editing my article again, restructuring it to better mirror this classification. A long day awaits. Update@16:37 It was indeed so touching. The Frenchman dropped by for a final goodbye, saying that he could not leave, without first having said goodbye to me. He was his usual effervescent self, and we joked and laughed around like old times. It is going to be ever so difficult to have him not there in the ApeCage anymore, when I rejoin work on Tuesday. With his uniquely quiet mannerisms and low profile that he maintained, we at the Cage got to know him, a tad too late – the first time in Lunteren, and from then on he became “Ze Frenchman”, the one who inducted me as an honorary “Frenchman”. We have had some great times and greater laughs, times we shall never forget indeed. Do keep in touch good ol’ Koné. Goodbye, farewell and Amen. ### Ill again URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/ill-again/ Last updated: 2007-04-05T12:34:51.000Z Another prolonged wait till the next blog entry – for this I apologize. I haven’t been doing so peachy health-wise of late. A nagging cough, cold and a wee bitta fever, and here you have it, the ingredients for a lovely cocktail of germs. For the more squeamish amongst you, I apologize again. I did manage to get to work on Monday and Tuesday though. It was rather quite nice to be back after a while, even though all my thoughts were aimed at NY and the beautiful love of mine whose company I enjoyed ever so much the previous weeks. I love you Rissa. : ) Monday was rather hectic, as I tried to cope with the humongous backlog of emails. It took me the better half of the day to get back into the groove of things, replying the important ones and marking the not-so-important ones for later processing. The meeting with the supervisors (yes I say supervisors with an S since YMI is back in the office) went well, though YMI gave me some more fodder for thought, which basically translates into – gotta slog through the weekend and redo the journal article. The Innovatium event went well, I am told by Marlies, so we wait for the participants to contact us. Kennisnet got in touch with us right before I left on vacation, though we haven’t heard from them since. I was supposed to contact him on Wednesday (i.e. yesterday) but I was unable to, due to reasons of ill health… oh joy! Tuesday was just as hectic, with me trying to locate new papers to detail and investigate the ontology based tools for IMSLD, incorporating the top-down approach to the design of UoLs. A lot of work has been done in this regard by the Japanese, though I am yet to find any finished tools regarding the same. Well, the search continues. Today I shall search further if health so permits. In the evening I attended the IMSGLC Enterprise Services v2.0 conference call. As OU is a contributing member and I believe can contribute a lot once the main charter is finalized and ratified by the technical committee. The authors seem to be leaning in favor of LDAP in addition to WS, at the incipient stage. It was a very informative discussion, one that I really enjoyed participating in, to the best of my knowledge. On the home computing front, my main installation of Vista had been just driving me up the wall, ever since that last incident when I managed to fubar the install by installing some third party stuff that had an adverse reaction and started shutting down services at random points in time. I was about to switch to OSX86, when I realized that MSN in OSX does not support the webcam, and not being able to show or see my love’s webcam, that is just not acceptable. So back to Vista I went, installing everything back from scratch. It never ceases to amaze me how fast Vista installs on my C2D system. The whole process takes not more than 11 minutes – Which is really amazing considering that XP takes twice as long to install. But OSx86 was such a tempting install since Howard demonstrated the OSX Server on Tuesday – simple web services and Blog services that he could host with the click of a button. Due to this lack of support for USB Cameras, I am continuing to stick to Microsoft. Argh : ( I miss the .Mac service so much! Everything JUST worked in OSX, without inasmuch thought to how and why… oh well, I read that with 10.4.9 Apple has rolled out the support for USB Cameras for iChat. So I guess I shall wait it out till 10.4.9 is released to seeders (ulp) and install once all is hunky dory there. On a sadder note, today marks the last working day for the Frenchman. I am saddened by the thought that we shall not have the pleasure of his company at the Apecage anymore. I was unable to attend the going away party that the fellow colleagues arranged for the Frenchman, and that I regret. I wish thee, Frenchman, fare-thee-well and much luck in your future endeavors. Keep us in your thoughts and in your mailing lists buddy boy. I have completely moved to Gmail. After resisting the phenomenon so long, I finally decided to take a look and discover the features aplenty. The result – I took the plunge and migrated all my mail from my exchange server to Gmail, an endeavor that took the better part of 2 days, to move 4500 mails and attachments; moved all my contacts, calendar details to Google managed servers. It is just so amazing, how well Google has integrated itself with ubiquitous services, like for instance 10 minutes before a meeting etc, you can choose to be informed by SMS and/or email. It sends you a daily agenda list to your mail each morning. Google notebook is a great addon, right into your browser allowing you to capture parts of a webpage for later review or just jot down random thoughts etc, right into a field in your browser. The main benefit of Gmail I believe is the plethora of services it offers in a ubiquitous manner. No matter where you are, you have access to your mail, notes, documents, pictures in an instant. I, for one, am not regretting the move from Exchange at all! On a completely unrelated note, I regret having missed work today. The namesake is out on a witte donderdagloop with the OU, a 13.5 kms walk from Sittard to Heerlen, interspersed with delicious vlaai and coffee, and finally ending at a pub in Voerendaal. Oh damn, I wish my health hadn’t quit on me so! : ( Hope he has fun with the Research AIOs! I bring this blog log to an end. Plans for the day? Recuperate and work a wee bit, and let Marissa work! She has an exam coming up on Friday, and I will try and stay quiet as a mouse and let her study! She is also hosting Easter celebrations at HER house J and the last thing she needs is me humping her leg for attention ; ) I told my uncle and aunt in Canada about our intentions and our plans, and they could NOT have been more ecstatic about the same. They couldn’t stop laughing in delight and beaming, asking me about my beautiful love Rissa! They have given us their blessings and I am just so happy for that. It is like they are my other parents – that’s how close I am to them. To get affirmation from them, of Rissa and my union, though wasn’t so critical, but just feels so right. Oh I love thee so, Rissa. Ok am off now to give my aching body some rest and perhaps watch the remainder of Wrestlemania 23, as I read through the Holistic Design book that I had ordered days ago! Tim@1343 ### Monday, Bloody Monday URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/monday-bloody-monday/ Last updated: 2022-02-13T04:13:59.000Z Poetic license, had to change some in the original title of the song, from Sunday to Monday! The OU is back in full swing on the first day of the week again, and to kick things off this morning we had the OTEC plenair, the first for this year. Unfortunately the Big Boss is ill, and couldn’t attend. As a result the plenair was cut short to around 2 hours instead of the regular 3,5\. It also means that my scheduled meetings with the Boss have been postponed. It is indeed a shame. I know not when he shall have time again for the same. Finally some progress with the practitioner group, or semblance of the same today – FBR informed me that there might be a chance to publicize my work at an event on the 27th where a number of practitioners are expected to participate. She feels (and I agree whole-heartedly) that it would be a good opportunity to reach out to some ID practitioners at the higher educational level, owing to the lack of progress with the KN. For this purpose, I have made a prelim flyer about my work and the expectations from the target group, and hope that it shall pique some interest at the event. To script a flyer, I decided to give Microsoft Publisher 2007 a whirl, but came out quite disappointed. I had expected some of the functionality I had noticed in iLife during my brief stint with the Apple Way of life, but darn, Apple’s iLife does the work SO much better! So here I sit, waiting for the supervisor’s comments about the draft of the flyer, before I take it out for revision. An interesting discussion took place over lunch about Economic Imperialism and the effect on the local economies, worldwide. It was quite fascinating to hear the views of our diverse group from the ApeCage. The discussion stemmed from the casual remark from MKV, that it was indeed the 60th year of India’s independence from Britain, and soon became a debate over the gun trade, attitudes of the developed economies with regard to the developing and under developed nations and the like. I quoted the participatory farming techniques put into place by the Narsimha Rao government in the 90s when the Indian economy was opened to the private investment, and how that kind of approach can indeed aid the local economies and foster growth by investment – both direct capital and in terms of farming technologies. Speaking of which, what is up with H!? It snowed last night, and the temperatures reached -2, which is just unusual for this region at this time of the year. But as they say, April, er macht was er will :) But I hope the spring weather is back next week, and stays that way for our trip to Paris! Mmm lekker! Ok back to work… Tim@14:11 ### Shopping and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/shopping-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2022-02-13T04:12:02.000Z Well, here we go again, has been a while since I updated the blog. Not due to lack of interest, but rather the lack of developments the past few days. Got the feedback for my first draft from my supervisor, and indeed, the points made are valid and acting upon the same would really improve the quality and the feel of the paper. I am rather disappointed though as I read it back, there did seem to be a lack of consistency and structure throughout the paper, which is something I consciously, realized while writing the same, but didn’t do much to alleviate the problem. The emphasis was on meeting the deadline set by the Boss. Now that I have some time to reflect, a lot needs to be done. I started the corrections yesterday and shall continue them through the week. Yesterday I got the delivery notice from Wehkamp that my order had been delivered at the DHL service point in Praxis, H-Noord. I cycled there and got the teeny packet, wondering whether the chaps had actually sent all that I had ordered. Apparently not – for when I reached home, I found three items missing. One they said was out of stock and two weren’t accounted for at all. The namesake has taken ill, ‘ne Erkaeltung apparently! Wish him a speedy recovery. Macro finally got the replacement Nokia for the one he lost the other day. It looks very much the same (na klar) but had the T-Mobile branding which he basically flashed on his own. WTG m8! My brother finally got all the presents that I had selected for him from [Rediff](http://www.rediff.com/?ref=tim.sodhis.org). The whole experience with this webshop has been – NEVER again! Hated the service they provide and the lack of support, not to mention the fact that they outsource all their orders and disclaim all responsibility once they have validated your CC data. As a result, one item reached Digo on the 8th, one on time, and the last, on 14th! Horrible service I say. Rediff? Never again! Grmmph! Oh well, back to the paper again. Tim@12:57 ### Happy Birthday Bro! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/happy-birthday-bro/ Last updated: 2007-03-11T13:04:25.000Z Happy Birthday lil Brodemio! Happy 19th m8! Ah the celebrations that must be in order this evening, make me wish I were back home to celebrate with the lil’ one! Me bro sounded ever so happy on the phone as I rang him up 00:00 IST. Idiot, he was thinking of giving his birthday a royal heave-ho, and not celebrate at all this year. Glad to see that better judgement prevailed. The whole concept of sending gifts back to India just makes me realize how crappy online services and follow-through is, in India. Living here in the EU, has changed my perception of how things actually work back home. Have to order weeks in advance, even though the status says – “Delivered next day”; and keep on calling the hotlines to make sure that the delivery actually follows through on the date specified. The fracas this time around, when I tried to send something to my brother via Rediff.com is just testament to that saga. One of the gifts arrived three days in advance and the other two… no sign of them yet! And the one that did arrive, came with no sender information… just some random “mundoo” handing the box over to my paranoid family, who mistook it as a bomb and just decided to throw it away. Great, just great… The weekend has been spent in blessed indolence. Finally taking a break from the journal article, I spent all of Saturday, just reinstalling Windows Vista (please no comments/brickbats, hey it relaxes me!) and watching a useless movie “[Stealth – unter dem Radar](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382992/?ref=tim.sodhis.org)” – a cross between “I, Robot” and “Machines gone wild”… did this movie even have a purpose under the heavens? Ach! But the saving grace from Friday night and Saturday was that I managed to talk with the special someone for a long duration on the phone. It was ever so special. In many more ways than one! The preparations for her visit shall take precedence the next week, as it dawns on the twain, that there be just 12 days left! Oh my! : D Speaking of Vista, I found the culprit for the high usage of CPU resources. It is the Digital\_Clock\_Ver2.0 gadget! It suffers from a memory leak and can increase the CPU usage to 2-3% constant (on my C2D system). No wonder the CPU is always at 20-30% on my P4m at work. Come Monday, that gadget shall be decimated! Here’s your international moment of Zen… ![](http://timsodhi.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/031107-1204-happybirthd11.jpg) That’s how my XP used to look before I ditched/jilted it for Vista. Well had managed to get the Gadgets working in XP, thanks to some creative thinking and tweaking. And here’s how my Vista looks now… ![](http://timsodhi.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/031107-1204-happybirthd21.jpg) “Just more glass, not enough class” – Your international moment of Zen ; ) Tim@13:22 Music: Pete Droge – Under the waves ### Journal articles and all that URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/journal-articles-and-all-that/ Last updated: 2022-02-13T04:09:47.000Z Phew what a day this has been. How great is it, to sit down, and relax, knowing that the deadline you’d set for yourself this day, has been met, and then some? This was a day replete with fevered writing spells and worry over the short breaks I did manage to squeeze in. Rob had set a deadline for the Development AIOs last Monday, to submit the full sized journal article by 17:00 on the 9th of March. The article (which was not to exceed 5000 words, excluding references) would have to be complete in all regards, as if ready for submission. A tall order indeed – it took me until Wednesday to finalize my mindmap for the same, and then get into a fevered writing pitch. I am glad to report that as of today, all is back on track, the word count has exceeded the limit set (by around 1500 words), but it shouldn’t be a problem to cut the same down to match the journals we have shortlisted. A minor incident today – there was apparently a plan to hold a peer review session in the ApeCage today, organized by my supervisor. Christian tells me that she was not very pleased that I didn’t show up for the same (due to my staying at home this day – home working). The irony of the fact that I was the one pushing for it, is not lost on me. However, after the debacle at the office yesterday, I felt I really must stay at home and endeavor to get back on track with my schedule. Which I am glad to report, I have. Met FJB the other day regarding my new responsibilities as the OU Endnote specialist. It turns out, that she knew no more than I did, about what my role shall be. But as the old adage goes, “when in doubt, call on RKP”! So there ya have it, the reason why I have not been able to keep up with my daily blog updates. It can all mostly be accredited to my attempts to get the article finished, well and truly on time. Tomorrow evening the Development AIOs have planned an outing with the Research AIOs. The only people from the Dev team who are going, are the ones who have already finished (or very nearly so) their journal articles. This basically leaves me out of the loop. I shall unfortunately not be able to join the group for dinner tomorrow at Maastricht. What a shame. But then again, the timing was most inappropriate. Oh well have fun ya guys! That is all for today, today’s really been OK! Now for some Emiliana Torrini and then to bed! Tim@21:32 ### Mandy da Vyaah Balley! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/mandy-da-vyaah-balley/ Last updated: 2007-03-05T10:26:23.000Z What perfect news indeed to start the day. A childhood friend is getting married! Mandeep, many congratulations bud! ‘Tis news that has made my day indeed, in addition to a certain email I got, and a certain person I talked to this morn. The paper writing session is back in force again, the going is slow at this point of time, but I shall plough through. Tim@ 10:26 ### Writing Session in full force URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/writing-session-in-full-force/ Last updated: 2007-03-01T23:41:32.000Z So I pulled a 12 hour shift at work. Got in at 08:15 AM and left at 08:20 PM. Reason you might ask? The Writing Session… on one hand it is rather good that we have this much pressure to deliver in these two weeks, and on the other, it could’ve been managed better. For instance the lectures, which are ever so informative, could’ve been delivered the previous week. Namesake agrees with me here. It is as if one finds oneself in a party and is ordered to “Have Fun”. That rant aside, I really am getting into the whole spirit of things. The mind-map complete and the laptop all ready once again (thanks Namesake), I was ready to start writing. Though the pace would’ve probably been a lot slower, had Rob not informed us in the presentation this morning, that the first draft is due tomorrow, Friday, 2nd March 2007, at 05:00 PM CET. Eep. For a person who had not written down a word yet on any sort of paper, this particular bit of news set off alarm bells in me noggin’. Hans followed up Rob’s presentation, with his APACage guidelines. Soon enough his headaches shall be my headaches since I have taken over the EndNote part. It was quite informative, if not all new. But soon after a walk, I got down to the abstract and then spent the whole day from 01:00 PM to 08:20 PM just working on my paper. Which brings me to now. Rather tired, and just ready to turn in. Will update the Blog for yesterday, tomorrow ; ) Ich liebe dich liebchen! Tim@ 11:41 PM ### ELAPTOPB0RK3D URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/elaptopb0rk3d/ Last updated: 2007-02-28T16:57:49.000Z Ezel Ezel and Ezel. That’s the way to describe ol’ me. I have just recovered from a serious problem, thrust upon me, by yours truly. ARGH, what a pain in the proverbial behind – the IBM Optical drive, I Hate Thee. Yep now you know why this is categorized as a rant. The whole saga started with my wanting to uninstall Vista after just two days of jousting with it. The “System” process had the CPU spiking 50% and never did the usage go down once below 30%. I thought it was due to Network Discovery Processes in the background. Really had to disable them all, and yet still the performance was b0rky. The inevitable decision (and sorry if ya break out with a sigh), go back to XP. Argh, grmph. Doing the thing that I hate best, reinstalling Windows. But anyway, back home, I dug out my CDR and deleted the Partition, and the CD started to copy those ubiquituous files onto the Drive. But what’s this? It got stuck at 11% with drivers.cab! Oh no, I exclaimed, I had to get the laptop ready for next morning. But this basically meant, I had to dig out another working XP CD. Which was tough enough a challenge in itself, owing to the fact that I have some 800-900 CDs/DVDs all over the place. Finally found one that was in a relative pristine condition, popped it in, and same error on another file. Ah, could it be the extry RAM I installed? I dug the RAM out, and tried again. No effect. The DVD RAM drive is well and truly b0rk3d. ### Happy Birthday Mom! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/happy-birthday-mom/ Last updated: 2022-02-13T04:06:28.000Z What a joyous day indeed, happy birthday dearest Mom! Oh how the celebrations must be at home, and it is on occasions as these, that I miss home ever so dearly. Talked to dad this morning and also to my brother, and found out that a celebration is indeed in the offing. Nagi’s and the Innie’s have been cordially invited and shall be attending. Ah I can almost see it, the rushed activities at home, as they prepare the banquet, not to mention the sweetmeats and Arti’s favorite “Misthi”. I do hope though, that they go that extra mile and make the pudding that Mom was ever so famous for! It was a regular at all the bashes she hosted. That would indeed be, just the best birthday gift. Any pix from the bash, I shall put up here! Happy Birthday my dearest mother! In the NL however, it is Paper Writing Day II. I have started with another mind-map and am altering the same on the basis of a few suggestions made by the supervisors. A very handy tool this Freemind, and I really love the ease with which one can move betwitxt the maps. I long however, to start with the actual process of writing – Mind-maps are fun and all, but cannot really compare to the joy of writing a paper. In related news, I have discovered I relate best to Enya whilst in a creative zone. [Afer Ventus](http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Moons-Enya/dp/B000002LRT?ref=tim.sodhis.org) (literally translated from Latin to “African Wind”) is the song that plays right now, and it is just so soothing. Anyways, back to work! Tim@10:54 So I am done with the Mindmap , and it has been approved. Ok it took some time. But it is ready! For yo reference peeps here you goes! ### Apecage Paper Writing Session, Day I URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/apecage-paper-writing-session-day-i/ Last updated: 2007-02-26T10:22:45.000Z The first day is currently underway. Rob is presenting a general orientation talk regarding paper writing and the science of technology development. Have found and am using this remarkable mindmapping software [Freemind](http://sourceforge.net/projects/freemind/?ref=tim.sodhis.org), good for whatever ails you. Update @ 13:29 – Apparently the articles need to be complete by the end of these two weeks, and taking into account the various journal stipulations, the minimum word limit will be 4000 words. That makes it nearly 400 words/day. Doable I think. ### Back at work! URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/back-at-work/ Last updated: 2007-02-21T10:37:33.000Z And indeed back to Vista – just had to try it out on my new machine. And am glad to report an Experience Index of 5.7! Vista feels rather quick, and works really fast, without any performance tweaks etc. I have installed the x86 version, foregoing the 64 bit for the time being (due to the lack of driver/app support for that platform). Each day brings new revelations about the new setup, for instance Realtek HD Audio panel pops up as soon as one plugs in a connector, allowing one to correctly identify and setup the device. I am rather impressed by this feature. In addition, I noticed that the native resolution of the TFTs works fine, without my having to tweak the DPI setting (as was always the case with the older setup). So, I am operating at 1680×1050 for both TFTs with 96 DPI. The new GFX card can handle it all, without any shadows or pixel discoloration. I cannot emphasize enough how pleased I am with this. Earlier this day the need arose, to connect via VPN to the OU mail server. The solution couldn’t be straightforward owing to the fact that I rely on the 24×7 availability of my local network for file server access. I cannot afford to disconnect either computer from the local network to access the OU VPN. I hit upon the alternate solution almost immediately. The answer – Virtual PC. With perfect support on Vista, this solution would indeed work well from within the Vista environs, once the Virtual Machine gets its own IP (not NAT). As of this moment, I am installing XP in a Virtual Space on my server machine. Back to the real world, an intensely busy week looms ahead next week, for which I will have to prepare well in advance. It seems the three working days remaining this week, shall be spent bringing my affairs to order, and collecting literature/resources for the weeks ahead. On a related note, I am pleased to report that the first proposal review was rather glowing in its evaluation, and the reviewer has recommended that the proposal be accepted “as-is” without any alterations/modifications! What an honor. Though I must admit that I personally was not very pleased with the lack of cohesion and the structure of the same, so I have spent the past two days, correcting, updating and altering the proposal to bring it more in tune with my personal expectations of such a document. Let’s see what the Supervisors think. And with those thoughts, I head back to work… Updates on the VPC setup a bit later. ### Carneval, New Setup URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/carneval-new-setup/ Last updated: 2007-02-17T13:09:02.000Z ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew1.jpg) Here I sit on my C2D system, updating the blog for the first time from this behemoth of a configuration. The whole setup took me 3 days, during which I bought the components, salvaged some, laid new wires, changed the networking cables in the whole place, installed a new switch, found new uses for the old machine, and generally, just had a whale of time. More on the setup, and pictures of the Alienware rig later. So I entertained myself, just doing random things, mostly cleaning up my place, picking up the debris, after the hurricane “New Computer” hit. Speaking of which though, here goes – The components arrived on Valentine’s Day. I took my time and assembled the same at my own pace. The main stumbling block was the new SATAII drive, which I knew not how to install. The board is devoid of any IDE connectors – and has instead, 6 SATA connectors. The manual was put to good use here. The board is also devoid any fans… a fact that never ceases to amaze – the whole rig is SO quiet, that the computer in the corridor (my old system, with 8 fans and 11 HDDs) in comparison, can be thought of as sounding the bassoon! ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew2.jpg) ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew3.jpg) ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew4.jpg) The processor was seated and the Proc-fan was installed, next the memory was seated and then I mounted the MB on the case. The 500W Black Diamond PSU is really heavy, I was surprised, but then I remembered, my once “all powerful” 450W PSU in my old machine was twice as heavy. The PSU is nearly silent; I can highly recommend the same. I then connected the F\_PANEL, and mounted the HDD and DVD RAM drive. What struck me most impressive was that the drive bays don’t need screws! Just mount and twist, mount and twist. The real problem though was the GFX card. The concepts of no screws, extends to the PCI bays as well – which is something I don’t quite appreciate in this Case-rig. I had a difficult time mounting my GFX card due to its oversized passive cooling setup as well as the fact that it was far too wide for the pre-installed clasps in the rig to close on. So I had to find a way to screw it in, the problem? The space was way too narrow. I couldn’t fit a screw through that, and all attempts came to naught. Then it struck me, why the heck not screw it in from outside the case. Brilliant, that I did, and here we go! Still not a very convenient way, but it works! And with that I was ready to test my system on Thursday. I did so, and it works perfectly! I got the display and though I struggled on Friday evening to get XP installed on it (due to the ACPI and SATAII confs) it works! ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew5.jpg) The old rig has been relegated to a media, print and file server. The drives from that rig are mounted over the Gbps network on startup. That’s 11 drives mind you, and a HELL of a fast network. I could see how much difference a 1 Gbps switch can make! The transfers are SUPER fast, not even a second of delay. Feels really quick under the fingers, as if the drives were mounted locally. In addition, I have installed the DVB-S Card on that machine. So no junk in this C2D system, but rather all is relegated to the old one. I then moved out the printer from my room to the corridor, and connected it to the server. Voila, it works! It works! And then came the difficult part, the wiring. I had to uproot all existing network cables from my rooms, for here’s CAT 5E baby! Faster, better… and more expensive  Anyhoodles, what needs to be done, will be done. With that in mind, I started laying the new cable, uprooting my wireless router (no more MacBook, no more router need), and connecting my Dreambox to the main router, and then laying the new network. The switch from 3Comis just amazingly beautiful! It lights up in hues of white and blue, and looks really a class apart. The network cables were a pain in the proverbial bum, but what followed was even worse – the satellite cable. This was really difficult to lay, owing to the thickness of the cable involved. I had to find special clamps for this. The usual ones just wouldn’t work. But after an hour of back breaking labor, I was good to go! Fired up the server, fired up the C2D, and voila, it works better than I could’ve imagined. The whole setup is seamless and very quick indeed. The best decision was indeed to invest in a Gbps switch! I really love it. ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew6.jpg) Then of course, I started with the cleaning part. The boxes from the purchases as well as bits and pieces of cable were strewn across the rooms, and my table was a mess. So a vacuum cleaner in hand, I took up the endeavor to clean up this joint, and that I did. I can proudly proclaim, the house looks beautiful, and the wiring is nowhere to be seen. Now all y’all must be wondering how the new system operates… well wonder no further. Though I have not the benchmark results yet, I can proclaim the following – IT IS A BEHEMOTH! The gaming is amazing! I have tried Top Spin 2, at FULL settings, all graphic extras turned on, and at full resolution on my Dell 2005FPW, and m8s/luvs, the performance has to be seen to be believed. I have never been so impressed, for I had tried this game on my old rig, and basically with everything turned to the lowest possible res, I could barely make the game crawl. It was simply unplayable! I will have the benchmarks up as soon as possible. For now, enjoy pics of the rig! ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew7.jpg) ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021707-1208-carnevalnew8.jpg) Tim@14:09 ### Yet another day URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/yet-another-day/ Last updated: 2007-02-13T09:08:40.000Z This day promises to be a full one at work. I have the IMS Global Enterprise Specification to read, and form my initial thoughts on the same. You see, the OU has honored me immensely by appointing me as the OU Contact person for the upcoming IMS Global Enterprise v2.0 specification! That is an unbelievable honor – being a PhD and that too in the first year, and entrusted with such an immense responsibility. May I say W00t? I gotta redo the proposal a wee bit. According to Rob, the introduction isn’t crisp enough, and some definitions are unfortunately missing. I will rectify those glaring mistakes and omissions and finally can start with the IMS Global read-up. That’s the plan for today Tim@0908 Update: So a new system is headed my way. Here are the specs. **CPU**: E6600 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz Socket LGA775, 4MB Cache, w/ Cooler (Box) **Motherboard**: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4, P965, Socket 775, Firewire, ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex16 **RAM**: 2×1024 MB CL5, 667MHz, DDR2 PC5300 **HDD**: Samsung Spinpoint T166 500GB, SATA2, 16MB, 7200RPM (300Mbps) **DVDR/RW**: Samsung DVD+RW, 18x, Dual, Black, OEM, SATA **GFX**: MSI GeForce 7600GT, 256MB GDDR3, PCI-E, 2xDVI-I, Passive Cooling So this behemoth of a system should be delivered soon! Ich freue mich schon drauf! The idea is to use my older system as a File Server and place it outside and boot into it from time to time to download the latest torrents and just keep it as a download workhorse + file server. The whole setup will be connected using a 1000Mbps switch, which I shall go purchase this evening from Media Markt Heerlen oda Aachen. Should work out IMHO! On the work front, all goes well, as I rework the proposal, a lot of editing, moving stuff around, clarifying the official position of the OTEC, removing references to ID theories and models to Pedagogic patterns and the like. Tim@14:38 Update at 11, the package is in Amsterdam and should be here if not tomorrow, then day after. In other news, due to interest expressed by certain parties in the recent appearance change, I’ve jacked up a pic of ol’ me with me chums in Heerlen. This is a recent pic (from Sunday) with the Bhatias. I really will miss accompanying them to Berlin. Any upchucking that might occur is purely coincidental. ![](http://timsodhi.wordpress.com/files/2007/02/021307-0908-yetanotherd11.jpg) ### Snow Snow URL: https://tim.sodhis.org/snow-snow/ Last updated: 2007-02-08T11:34:13.000Z Just so beautiful outside: it has been snowing for nearly two hours now, and Heerlen looks like a Winter Wonderland… at long last! So long to run outside and play in the snow and make a snowman, or make another snow-angel (a-la Innsbruck). But I vetoed the snow angel idea as soon as I had it, owing to the rather unfortunate consequences of playing in the snow the last time. Ach, seems I am gonna be stuck inside the whole day, since the namesake is MIA! At work, the editing of the chapter goes on, and I have finally finished the Observations on the LD Process and now am revising the LD tooling section. One of the reviews we got back, was really verwirrt, and seemed to be clutching at straws just to discredit the work (must be the French). It seems rather an uphill battle to get it compliant to their requests. I ask you, what does indeed UML have to do with IMSLD apart from the conceptual design phase? Why then must one describe UML in our case? One reviewer says we paid too much importance to the tooling and the other one says, not enough – expand the section. Ach. I call this day the Invasion of the M’s. I am hopelessly outnumbered. Since most of the ape-cage is working from home today, the ones present are Milos, Malik, Miao and Muennever… bhago bhago, invasion of the M’s! Tim@11:34 In response to Vindicate’s comment on Feb 06, 07 Hey Vindicate, your blog is not up yet! Waiting for it. Some good points you brought up bro, but well, I had the same problem with the Mac. I am way too used to Windows and adjusting to the Mac, though was fun, brought with it, its own share of problems. Mainly Email. I just didn’t want to use Microsoft Entourage (owing to it being a PPC native and not Intel) and thus couldn’t check my Exchange email. Apart from this, things I take for granted in Windows (DUMeter, CDisplay and the like) have very basic equivalents on the Mac platform. Mac suffers the same disadvantages as Vista suffers now – Lack of compatible software. But whereas Vista’s pains will ease with the release of SP1 and 3rd party driver support, same cannot be said of Mac as of now… perhaps with more of a market share, things are different.