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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

1st animation using blender

this is done by us just by viewing some basic tutorials yet to learn a lot...
so its not that great...ive posted it on youtube .
here goes :



ps. Just an update ..i am now working with the project OSCAR team at IIT-B CSE department for my final yr BE project.We are doing an opensource animation project using the software blender3d :D..more later..cheers

[edit]

i improved upon the glass and water rendering and have made a new animation video.
check it out

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Why So Serious ?


Batman - The Dark Knight
Venue : Imax Adlabs (mumbai)
Time : 10:45 pm
Date : 18th july 2008

I can confidently tell you that there has been no movie that i have wanted to watch so much like the batman movie the dark knight , especially after the previous batman movie (batman begins).

With so much expectation from the director , the cast and the screenplay...i went in to the theatre..
the next 150 minutes of the movie have simply been amazing...i was not one bit disapointed with the movie , the movie had everything , heroes turning villans , villans turning mad , humour , thriller , twists , and of course action...i will not try and review the movie as i won't be a good critic..
but according to me , batman -the Dark Knight will be remembered for the performances of the late heath ledger ..he has for me given the best performance any actor can possibly give for a villanous role..i was speechless , amazed ..and scared all at the same time..

his antics with trics , his licking of his scars around his lips while muttering the infamous tagline " WHY SO SERIOUS ? "...the smile...the frown...the look..the walk..the talk...

The movie wasn't the best movie ever made..but it is definitely the best superhero movie i think..
although on second thoughts i think the weight of expectations mite have compelled me to believe its on par with batman begins..and on some levels i think batman begins was slightly more brilliant..

overall ..its a must watch..and for batman fans like me ...you can watch it 5 times and not get bored..

cheers

Thursday, July 10, 2008

ubuntu new distribution - the pyromaniac release

well don't get fooled by the title , NO i have not installed yet another version of ubuntu ( i am truly content with the working of the present version )
and NO ubuntu doesn't have a new release (pyromaniac)

this blog is for my good friend karan who unfortunately is a pyromaniac ( i dunno if im spelling it right) anyways.. it so happened that the ubuntu i am using has this application called compiz-fusion.
this software lets u make ur multiple desktops arrange themselve along the sides of a cube ( yes ubuntu has multiple desktops to be used as multiple desk spaces) ...it so happened that one of the effects included in the preferences is fire..well this option lets me click the windows button + shift+mouse drag to create a fire animation..the scrshots r below...quite cool na ?




ps. karan im sure ur gonna be installing ubuntu soon... i can probably bet money on that.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

the ubuntu/vista/grub fiasco

well here goes..
i have finally finished installing ubuntu 7.1
i am getting used to the interface , learnt how to configure the internet and other settings ,
installed my restricted drivers for the ATI graphic card and now i am all set to update fixes n patches online , when i realize that ubuntu lets u do a distribution upgrade online itself without having to burn a iso. for the newbies it means one can upgrade from one OS to the next version online itself without having to format the partition or use a CD/DVD. so i thought lets give it a try and began upgrading the distribution , from gutsy gibbon to hardy heron.
GNU/Linux system (ubuntu distro) 8.04 (code named hardy heron) was the distribution i was upgrading to, it showed me 2 hours remaining and it also warned me that i cannot cancel upgrade once the download finishes. i thought id give it some time and went down to meet some friends.
A few hours later when i got back home i see that the machine is switched off , my mom had switched off the pc as she thought i had forgotten to switch off before going down.
I couldn't believe it , everything was going so well , vista was set , ubuntu was upgrading, all my settings were perfect , all my updates were perfect , i had wasted so much of my internet bandwidth into downloading for the update and here mom comes and takes it all away , my Linux wasn't booting anymore :(
i couldn't seriously get in terms with it , this is how one must feel when one breaks up with someone one really cares about , the pain..the frustration..
i was in denial for half the day , later i composed my self and began debugging.
after a lot of research on the internet and talking to this one chinese guy in the #ubuntu channel at mIRC server quakenet.org , i finally managed to fineshed updating and was able to boot into ubuntu , but the problem was the manual editing of the automatic process screwed it up and two versions of the kernal was installed..2.4 n 2.6. But atleast getting it to work without having to install again was a great self esteem boost. So i thot now at least i learn't something , but little did i know that it was just the beginning of my worries..

i installed a fresh copy of ubuntu 8.04 hardy heron using a live cd ..and i clicked on enter to reboot after the installation was complete only to realise that my grub loader (GRUB is an aplication that helps make a boot menu for linux and vista to dual boot)m wasnt working.
i was irrtated beyond words...now i coudn't boot into vista nor ubuntu..man what a mess..

its like some one above was really bored and thought mebbe he could fuck around with me a bit ..just for funzies..
its like after u breaks up...and the girl just goes on to marry ur best friend..
i was not going to give up though ,, my options were :
1) clean format whole system and install both OSes again
2) clean format ubuntu , fix mbr of vista to make vista boot and then reinstall ubuntu
3) boot into the ubuntu live on cd and figure out a way to edit the grub conf file and fix the booting issue

i obviously chose the 3rd option..and so it began..
i know this is becoming a frickin long blog..but hell what can i do..
life is becoming a series of challenges and riddles in the Linux world i think..
i booted into the ubuntu live on cd and connected to the internet to lookout for help and it turns out there are many more idiots like me around the world who have done the same thing and got stuck in no man's land..i was delighted ..there was plenty of support on how to fix grub and voila...i was in..

both ubuntu and vista booted perfectly well once i edited the menu.lst file in the boot/grub folder ..and now i have finally finished with all the problems at least for now..
who knows whats in store for me next...

highlights of using ubuntu till now has been the following for me

1)stupid thing but i really like it..shows me time , date n temperature of whichever city i want on the desktop
2)i like the way the boot menu can be fixed and altered ..very flexible unlike windows
3) no need to mount my hard drives every time unlike some other distribution
4) internet connectivity is automatic for my dsl pppoe connection unlike in vista
5) it starts in 12 seconds n shuts in 6 seconds..pretty impressive
6) this is one of the most important highlight..no need to install any anti virus program :D
7) keyboard shortcuts option is amazing and i love working more on the keyboard

overall been a very hectic week with so much troubleshooting..
signing off
cheers

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Gutsy Gibbon

my sata hard drive just crashed and i got it replaced...
since i now had a clean slate.. i thought id finally install linux and play around a bit..

and so finally i installed ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon release

its not the latest in the ubuntu release but its a pretty stable one..so i thought i'd install it.
so here i am , working on the ubuntu environment for the first time and i must say its been a nice ride till now..
ubuntu has a lot of cool features and also is one of the most userfriendly linux distributions i have worked on , the synaptic package manager is one of the best things ive seen in an OS..
also ubuntu dsl dialer has fixed my problem of having to click on connect to the internet everytime i boot...in ubuntu i just had to configure my dsl settings once and it asked me whther i would like to trigger the connection everytime i booted , and i gladly said yes :D

And mind you i have also installed windows vista ultimate on a parallel drive , but im so impressed with the speed and flexibility of ubuntu , im mostly using ubuntu only.
also the boot times of both the OSes r so different , ubuntu is so much faster.
Vista ultimate takes 45-50 seconds to boot while ubuntu takes just 10-15 seconds.
impressive eh ? yes indeed , but what is more stunning is the shut down time , vista takes me more than a minute sometimes , and around avg 30 seconds to shut down , while ubuntu takes me just 5-7 seconds.

any of u guys out there still contemplating about using a linux distribution , ubuntu is definetly worth a shot..

cheers