Data Data Everywhere....and that is my biggest scare

I am back. Yeah that is not the best of starting lines one can give when he write after more than 3 months. Blogging for me has been more like a fashion statement i guess, when it was in fashion i too was blogging big time. You can see that from the number of posts have constantly come down over the last 12 months. 

This blog comes at a time when i have almost given up on bangalore traffic and also on my company policies that dont allow working from home. It is quite surprizing that the dudes who make the best cars in the world, dont want their folks to work from home. Yeah!! we are paranoid about the confidentiality of our data.

However, when i think about this i find it quite shocking. About 20 years back, when i used to go to school, there where still sparrows at the window sill, the First rain was interesting because of the warm smell of water on dust would entice your senses to the extent that you would want to eat it, when the air we breathed had still a the measure of oxygen that it was supposed to have, when going to office was boring but not a near death experience, when we happily used to carry waterbottles and fill water from every other station where the train stopped during a journey without worrying about weather we would live after drinking such water, When going to see Ramayan in neighbours house was not embarassing, when Bisleri was the only bottled water which no one cared about, when Goldspot & Tinka were famous, when kids read more than just textbooks and in India libraries where more than wine shops, when letter to the editiors where written in paper and posted by walking till the post box;  at that time there was very little data that was flowing around us, as compared to today.

Today there is data flowing everywhere, my computer is speaking to thousands of other computers spread all over the globle, at the same time it is talking to my phone wirelessly which is also taking to another phone via Bluetooth. Messages are flying all around me at Gigahertz frequency and going from my mobile phone to phones & Towers via Satellites that are thousands of kilometers above the earths surface. My pc is also talking to my LCD TV which is getting data via a Dish antenna placed on the top of my roof and picking up high-definition video from some other transponder the same satellite maybe. Btw, the satellite itself is getting commands from somewhere in Hassan ( small town in Karnataka). 

Data is there everywhere and even then we have long queues in banks, hospitals and stores because the data is still not accesible fast enough....I have to stay in front of the ATM machine looking like an idiot till it decides that i am the genuine ( My brother who is seeing down my back says i look like an idiot otherwise too!!), I have to stay till the credit card machine gets the authentication...Well, the point is that data is playing a very strong role in our lives and everything about this data needs to be taken care of. Unfortuately, technology is not so simple like how my father used to keep all the bills, contact numbers and addresses in a separate file under lock and key. 

It is quite evident that all the data that is flowing around in the air, in the wires and everywhere else can have a significant damaging impact if they get into the wrong hands. I guess it is time we step back and think, can we do something to put this whole network in order and ensure that we still know that when i send a letter ...oops email...I know that it goes to the right person, with no other person able to get this information. 

....Food for thought!!

 

Miniscule gadget collection expands a bit

I have never particularly been a fan of Laptops, though the idea of being able to type your blog sleeping on the bed did entice me many a times. However, today i am writing this blog after successfully installing Ubuntu-Netbook remix on my new 12" netbook (Asus 1210T). The machine is powered by a AMD processor running at a neat 1.6GHz with ATI GPU trying to ease some of the load from the processor. Out of the box, this netbook doesn't have an OS. However, who needs one when you have Ubuntu or better Kubuntu. The installation of the OS however was a bit of a bitch...This is primarily because i did not know something that i should have known...After creating the startup disk on a memorycard which inserted in a card reader, i made the USB as the first boot device in the 1210T's extremely frugal bios. However, to my surprise and dismay every time the boot device was not recognized and all i got was a screen with the Minimalistic OS from Asus. This apparently is because memory card and the usb reader somehow don't seem to work. Finally, i created a usb startup disk and then booted...

Finally came up the ubuntu screen which i know almost by heart now, having done the installation on many a machines many a times. Partitioning was not a big issue, i chose to keep one partition with multiple mount points in Fat-32. I know for sure that for some time in future i am not going to invest in a Windows variant of the OS...so nothing to worry in that regard. I could have very well chosen ext4 for all of the disc, but decided against it.

The netbook remix version of the Ubuntu has a side bar by default when you log in. This is really kinda cool because it gives the whole things a rich look and kinda makes you feel great looking at the bright screen. Note that coz of the GPU from ATI this machine can play full HD videos at 1080p.

Connecting to the Internet is not a problem if you have a BSNL connection and the rain gods have been kind enough. Once the net was running, first thing to do is to get the Graphics driver to update. You should be able to get the ATI/AMD driver by using Synaptic. Or just navigate to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers to get them.

I have still not got all the things in the netbook working however, i am already liking it because i can type very fast thanks to the flat keyboard with well spaced keys...and yeah i can do it from my bed ;-). However, i don't like the keys provided with trackpad..they are too hard...either time should soften then or is should invest in a good wireless mouse.

I would be updating more as i learn about the netbook...now its time for me to sleep...Finally, i have a "Laptop" of my own...Btw, the reason for my investing in this small piece of hardware lies in the strict (read dumb) policies of corporates which disallow the use of wifi on coporate laptop in unsecured ( read hotel) wifi network!! This will keep me good company when i go aboard next time and i have to stay in a hotel with free wifi :-)

[UPDATE]: To use the various buttons and the special features which come with the laptop like the clock change feature, enable disable of the trackpad etc you would need some additional tools which are thankfully provided in ubuntu. However, to do this you have add the repository to your existing sources. Refer here how to add this repository. After adding the repository the next step would be to install eeetray using synaptic. Then  a reboot should bring a new tool on your startup called the eee Tray too using which you can control almost everything like wifi on off, processor settings etc. You can avail the same features by using the Fn keys too..

 

 

 

250 Gigs Richer!!

To satisfy my never ending need for larger real-estate in the computer world I decided to invest in a new secondary hard disk. The need emerged out of my habit of downloading lot of stuff from the internet which quickly gobbled up all the space in my current 120GB hard drive.

On a fine Saturday, when rest of the world was exchanging kisses and showering flowers on their loved ones (Since it was 14th of Feb, V-Day) , I set out to SP road to purchase the Hard disk. I had decided my budget of 2K for the hard disk. Any thing in that range and i would go for it.

These days the hard drives come in two flavours PATA and SATA. The former is getting obsolete due to higher speed offered by the SATA, which stands for Serial ATA. A little google exercise will tell you that ATA stands for AT-Attachement where AT stands for Adavanced technology. I quickly checked my mobo specs to find that it sported 4 SATA and 2 IDE channels. So the choice was done, I will buy a SATA hard disk. I checked if i had the necessary cable to connect the data line to the Motherboard (thankfully the Gigabyte motherboard had one shipped with it).

Gleefully, I boarded the bus to SP road to buy a SATA drive. After going into multiple shops i decided to buy it from a bloke who was ready to sell it to me for 2080 + 4% tax (for 250 Gigs).

"Bhaiyaa, Why dont you make it 2100 and close the deal", I asked.

"Nahi saab, I get only 25 Rs in this deal", was his answer ( as expected)

Theek hai...so i got the hard disk and raced back home. After opening the cabinet and stuck the hard disk in the bay connected the 7-pin cable into the data cable slot on the motherboard and the other end into the hard disk. Just then i realized, How do i connect the power cables to this thing. It is only then that i realized that my SMPS still belonged to the generation of PATA. It did not provide the necessary, SATA drive compatible sockets. The SATA drives require 3 different voltages in contrast with the PATA drives which could with just 12V and 5V. The 3.3V line which is new in the SATA drives are necessary only if the HOT Plugging feature of the SATA drives is needed. Thanks !! If it was not for this my 2K would have just gone down the drain. I rushed back to SP road to get an adapter for the Molex 4-Pin connector to the SATA power socket converter. After 30 minutes later and poorer by an equal amount of INR i was back in front of PC with the connector. I quickly connected it and then added the mounting screws and ensured the Hard-disk was fit snugly.

The BIOS was helpful and detected the drive instantly. However, in windows I had first partition the drive by going to the disk mangement section ( My Computer->manage). Soon, I had 3 new logical drives ( H,I,J) each of 80 gigs...A'int that cool. Right now it uses the Emulated IDE drivers for SATA provided in Windows XP. I have to still check if there is some way to get the AHCI drivers for this.