Axatrikx

January 1, 2013

Being a wolf and keep the motivation going

Its that time of the year again, to set up new resolutions and forget about it as the year grows old. I need to set one for the rest of my life: Concentrate on your task!

I plan to do these by the end of this year

Complete my first game [more about this on a later post]
Post a blog post at least once a week
Create index page for axatrikx.com and redesign amalbose.com website
Learn Hindi language

The challenge is to carry with you,the sharp bursts of motivation you often get, till the task is done. I spend most of my time looking for inspirational media and get amazed by the guys who gets the task done. But like one of the posts I have seen in Reddit, I will always be the guy who watches – never the guy who performs. I need to force the change in me.

Watching inspiring videos of Athletes or scientists or others from YouTube or movies like Social Network etc gives be the push to complete my work. But apart from the initial rush, things cool down and I go back again to watching shitty serials [F.R.I.E.N.D.S and Simpsons] (well, not shitty. They are pretty good) again and again. What does it take to carry on the rush?

As you probably have guessed by the title, I spend a lot of time in Reddit and majority of it in /r/getmotivated. Viewing picture after picture of other’s success, I urge myself to do what I want. But as many wolves have realized, the realization isn’t enough to get yourself out of Reddit and DO EPIC SHIT!

Well, as for realizing two of my resolutions, I’m gonna come back again soon with another post about the game I have started working on.

Image Courtesy

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May 23, 2012

Fix eclipse interface in Ubuntu

After installing Ubuntu for the first time and trying out Eclipse, I was literally disappointed at seeing the state Eclipse was in. The enormous tab size, the fonts and tooltip colors turned me off.

Though the fix to this was found right away, I just need to post it online so that I don’t need to do a search every time, given my habit of messing up the Ubuntu installation quite often

Fix for tab size

Create a new file in your home directory named .gtkrc-2.0 and put the below contents in it.

style "gtkcompact" {
GtkButton::default_border={0,0,0,0}
GtkButton::default_outside_border={0,0,0,0}
GtkButtonBox::child_min_width=0
GtkButtonBox::child_min_heigth=0
GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_x=0
GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_y=0
GtkMenu::vertical-padding=1
GtkMenuBar::internal_padding=0
GtkMenuItem::horizontal_padding=4
GtkToolbar::internal-padding=0
GtkToolbar::space-size=0
GtkOptionMenu::indicator_size=0
GtkOptionMenu::indicator_spacing=0
GtkPaned::handle_size=4
GtkRange::trough_border=0
GtkRange::stepper_spacing=0
GtkScale::value_spacing=0
GtkScrolledWindow::scrollbar_spacing=0
GtkTreeView::vertical-separator=0
GtkTreeView::horizontal-separator=0
GtkTreeView::fixed-height-mode=TRUE
GtkWidget::focus_padding=0
}
class "GtkWidget" style "gtkcompact"

style "gtkcompact" {

GtkButton::default_border={0,0,0,0}

GtkButton::default_outside_border={0,0,0,0}

GtkButtonBox::child_min_width=0

GtkButtonBox::child_min_heigth=0

GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_x=0

GtkButtonBox::child_internal_pad_y=0

GtkMenu::vertical-padding=1

GtkMenuBar::internal_padding=0

GtkMenuItem::horizontal_padding=4

GtkToolbar::internal-padding=0

GtkToolbar::space-size=0

GtkOptionMenu::indicator_size=0

GtkOptionMenu::indicator_spacing=0

GtkPaned::handle_size=4

GtkRange::trough_border=0

GtkRange::stepper_spacing=0

GtkScale::value_spacing=0

GtkScrolledWindow::scrollbar_spacing=0

GtkTreeView::vertical-separator=0

GtkTreeView::horizontal-separator=0

GtkTreeView::fixed-height-mode=TRUE

GtkWidget::focus_padding=0

}

class "GtkWidget" style "gtkcompact"

Fix tool tips

For fixing the tool tip you have to edit these three files:

/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3-0/settings.ini
/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3-0/gtk.css
/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

Search for tooltip in these files and you’ll find the color definitions for the foreground and the background. Use #000000 as foreground and #f5f5b5 as background. After changing the color values simply switch to some other theme and then back to Ambiance and the tooltip color is now fixed. Source

Fix font size

Now this is simple. Just go to Eclipse preference and search for Font, and select Colors and Fonts. Search for font in the search area and you will find different font categories. Just change to which ever value you prefer.

February 13, 2012

Ubuntu dependency issues with pygame

The most frustrating thing about using Linux is dependencies. Its just fine if you don’t do much in your system – just installing all the sweet updates and upgrades coming your way won’t give you much trouble. But in case have to try out something which happens to have a mangled dependency tree.
Small Note: It might get to you even if you are simply getting the regular updates. From the last few updates im getting a messy problem which I’m hoping to get resolved in the next few updates

The following packages have been kept back:
ffmpeg libavdevice53 libavfilter2 libavformat53 libpostproc52
libswscale2

Coming to the topic – pygame
Having worked around a bit in Python, I decided to give pygame a try. As usual with any new technology, I downloaded a pdf tutorial and set out to the pygame.org and downloaded the tarball(version 1.9.1) and compiled and installed it. The setup was simple and I created a “hello world” app and decided to wrap it up for the day. But the problem was I was using was Python 2.7.2. Later that day, a friend asked to teach python for her. She had installed python 3.2 in her Windows machine. So the very first line I told gave an error.I had asked her to do

print "hello world"

1	print "hello world"

After seeing the error only I realized that I was having an older version. Ubuntu had chosen to package python3+ as python3 instead of python. So anyway, i installed python3.2 and carried on.
But later when I tried pygame I was getting some error while importing, and I tried to build it again with python3.2. But then I got this weird dependency issue.

Hunting dependencies…
SDL : found 1.2.14
FONT : not found
IMAGE : found
MIXER : found
SMPEG : found 0.4.5
PNG : found
JPEG : found
SCRAP : found
PORTMIDI: not found
PORTTIME: not found

I checked the Package Manager and installed a few. This is one main reason why I like Synaptic Package Manager better than Software Center
Any way, the entire dependencies still could not be fulfilled. But the build option gives you choice to install even with these broken dependencies.

Warning, some of the pygame dependencies were not found. Pygame can still
compile and install, but games that depend on those missing dependencies
will not run. Would you like to continue the configuration? [Y/n]:

I tried that too, but still couldn’t get it running in python3.2.
As the usually first step at times of crisis, I turned to Google for help. But to my dismay, I got very few valuable results until I came upon this result.With I resolved some more of the dependencies. Later after some more searching, I found another guy who had the same problem. Luckily he had found a solution to the issue. He had downloaded the 1.9.2 version of pygame and installed to get it running.

Image Courtesy: XKCD

The feeling of relief would be out of bound when you finally find a forum which actually has a solution to your problem. I searched for the svn and got it running.

The satisfaction I got after making it work is the main reason I’m using Linux. For windows, I just need to download the exe or msi file and it would work. But here, I can know about the dependencies, and well.. can get to do lots of tiring and frustrating things. In other words, you do some stuff, you earn the package you need to work on.

Now that satisfaction is something different

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February 10, 2012

Chance to meet Richard Stallman

That day morning too, as usual, I switched off the mobile alarm and started the TOI mobile app. Scanning through the headlines through my half open eyes, I reached the Tech section. I got up suddenly seeing a post on Richard Stallman. He was visiting Chennai(India) that day giving a seminar in the IIT Madras. I switched on my laptop and searched for it and found that the seminar was from 1pm to 4pm that day(Feb 6). Too bad, I have to go to work. I looked for the next seminar and found it to be on the next day in Coimbature(500 Km from here).
So the dilemma – call in sick or be truthful and take half day leave?
Unfortunately I chose the second option.
All that was there in my mind while getting ready, having breakfast and travelling was about the unexpected gift I’m gonna get. See Richard Stallman – THE RICHARD STALLMAN!
When ever I idolize a person, be it Stephan Hawking, or Edward Norton or Linus Torvalds, I rarely expect or even wish of meeting them one day. But this came as a total surprise. A chance to meet this wonderful personality. I was so excited I called up my friends and told them about it, only to realize later that they arent as tech savvy as to know about him. Too bad! But I don’t care, I get to meet him!
I finally reached office, called up the organizers of the seminar in IITM and confirmed the timings. The next thing I did was to make sure I get to leave by afternoon. I went to my project lead and asked if there was any client meeting or anything planned for the day.

Nothing as of now!

My happiness kept growing.
I couldn’t even concentrate on my work that day. I kept on switching between Eclipse and Mozilla – reading articles about him. It was 1130 and I had to start by 12 to get to IITM by 1pm. But just then, all my expectations came crashing down on me as my communicator popped the message.

Sorry Amal, we have a client meeting at 2. You may leave after that!

There was nothing I could do.I missed it.I should’ve called in sick and attended the seminar. I had the chance but I missed!

The status tag ‘Carpe Diem‘ on my communicator sneered at me!

January 30, 2012

Problem with Prioritizing

You are studying a wonderful new technology. And half way through you read/hear about another new and exciting field. You are not that ignorant to turn a blind eye on this emerging piece of technology, but how would you start? You are already learning some other thing, and have too little time to be on both the boats. So what do you do? You leave the first and go after the other! Well, you may not do, but I do that. A Lot! The problem is, the same thing happens when you are half way through the new field. And again, you jump ships. In programming, it’s better to be an expert in one field than being a jack-of-all-trades.
This is one of the things I hate about me a lot. I fail to prioritize stuff, I give more priority to the freshness of the thing. Following the crowd or urge to be among the first, I know! But can’t help it.
Right now, the struggle is between Python and Android. The problem is, I don’t like Java. Thats the main reason I started studying Python. But then came Android. So started to go through the Android Documentations and all leaving Python. But then again I thought – Android application? Its challenging, Yes! But i never felt any strong urge to develop any apps. So went back to Python. But before long, my bro came up with an app he developed. Seeing that, the sleeping Android admirer in me woke up again. Downloaded scores of Android tutorial videos from Youtube and started watching. From what my brother told, I’ve got more chance of getting my products out by Android than by Python. True.
I hate when my preferences change. Change is good, but the frequency is too short for my liking. Lets see how far the android craze goes

By the way, I have added two sub domains to axatrikx.com and moved the blog to blog.axatrikx.com. I have created projects.axatrikx.com for my programming projects, but havent created a page for that. I need to spend a few days on designing the two pages – axatrikx.com and projects.axatrikx.com.

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January 9, 2012

First try at github

On last Saturday(7th Jan) I created a github account with the username axatrikx. I always wanted to host my projects somewhere but never really did anything. Once I even went to the extend of creating a project in my launchpad account, and started to work on a small project. But a few days within, I received a mail asking me to remove it as it wasn’t a real project ( I had just uploaded bits and pieces of my codes). There was the option of creating sample projects in Launchpad but I never gave it a try.

And then came an idea on creating another project in Java. I’ll explain about the project in the next post. I really wanted to host it online as i could work on it from office as well. I had always heard of github and had used it a couple of times (just cloned a couple of projects to try some new applications), but had never really went deep into it.

So with the determination of making it happen this time, I went on searching for a good tutorial and came across this video.

The video tutorial is pretty good, easy understandable and all major functionalities are explained really well. After creating a test project, I created a project Selenium Grid Automator, of which I would explain in the upcoming post.

On another note, I added two sub domains to the axatrikx domain - blog.axatrikx.com and projects.axatrikx.com. As of now, the main domain redirects to blog.axatikx.com and the projects subdomain just have a sample index page. I’m working on the new design for Axatrikx main page (This project is also hosted in github). I’m planning to use some basic CSS3 tricks on the main page, but still would remain as simple and elegant as possible

Random Facts about me: I like to check out sites which have facility to display random posts like xkcd.com. I spend hours checking out comics on this site. Also try amazingsuperpowers.com

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January 4, 2012

Adding CSS3 into resolution list

I accidentally stumbled into this awesome website http://bartaz.github.com/impress.js/. Just going through the website made me add CSS3 to high priority list for new technologies to learn this year.

Also read somewhere that there is a high demand of web designers who can code. Taking the above mentioned site as an inspiration, I started with CSS3 today. Went through a few of the modules. Though I have used round border and shadow properties on site before, I hadn’t tried the 2D/3D transformations. I tried some on some sample pages and it looked pretty cool

And yeah, Richard Stallman!

The crazy nerd as many might call him – has been almost proved right. Read this post to know how he managed to predict that such a necessity for open source technology would come. Yes! I’m talking about SOPA.

I’m not going deep into the issue, but am happy for what was done to GoDaddy (though this site is still hosted in it )

Check out this post showing some of the important events of last year in pictures.

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

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January 2, 2012

New year resolutions

Browsing through various blogs today morning, I bumped into a few posts on new year resolutions. The ones that caught my attentions were related to this year being the codeyear.

I found this site CodeYear which encourages people to make their new year resolution to start to learn to code. When i checked it, about 37 thousand people had signed up on the site.

But for those who are already familiar with coding, there is another site which I found a bit more interesting and ‘do-able’. Its the 12412 project . As the name probably wouldnt suggest, its to make a resolution to learn 12 new technologies in 12 months. The first view of the blog reminded me of 24ways blog (which if you doesn’t know is one of the best designed site I’ve ever seen) in its design and colors.
The site wont tell the readers what to learn or how to learn. It would just provide a means for people to collaborate and inspire each other in learning the technologies. On a later post today(2nd Jan) they have given a list of sites offering tutorials and inspiration on a regular basis.

January 1, 2012

Shooting for the stars

Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he turned that cream into butter and crawled out.

Which mouse are you?
There are millions of first mouses around us, but very few second mouses. As of me, I’m just a guy trying hard to be the second mouse.

I’ve always been driven by my dreams though at times it feels a bit out of reach. But the dreams are what keeps me going. Being a fan of Paulo Coelho’s alchemist, and Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, I’ve never had any lack of support.

Being someone who has set his dreams in the technology field but due to a few bad decisions and lack of luck ended up slightly in the different road, this blog stands a bridge toward the right route as a desperate attempt to keep the fire burning. This blog would include mainly technical(specifically Linux,Android, Java related) posts or at least matters regarding technology, but would also include other posts as well as in my previous blog In My Lineofsight.
BTW, a very happy new year to you

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