/me on the net!

todo item ticked off!

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:33:55 +0530

The place was different, it wasn't coffee that we were sipping, and we had some company too!

Tata Indicom wireless data card (Huawei EC321 CDMA card)

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:03:08 +0530

Tata indicom Vdata card

I've been using Tata Indicom's data card based internet services for the past 2 years or so. and my experience about the internet service quality has been above satisfaction so far. After filling up the application form, and paying 4990 INR upfront for the data card, i got the card delivered at home in 2 days. Pretty fast indeed.

Data card connectivity speed: The Huawei EC321 CDMA card is rated for about 156Kbps. Initially at the place where i used to live, i used to get about 140 Kbps speed without fiddling too much with the antenna and direction. At my current residence too, i manage about the same speeds, which is more than enough for my email and IRC applications

Setup and installation: The data card comes as a PCMCIA device which can be plugged onto the PCMCIA slot of your laptop. Its probably straightforward to install it in Windows. There's a desktop manager application included in the installation CD with puts a dialer-cum-sms inbox checking app shortcut on the desktop. Getting the internet working on linux is even easier. Check how to get the data card running with wvdial here.

Tariff plans: The data card costed me around 4990 INR some 2 years back. It should be cheaper now. The USB pen drive shaped Plug2Surf ones are definitely cheaper. I am under 1GB plan which costs me less than 800 INR per month with taxes included, as i never cross my 1GB limit.

Network coverage and roaming: Its based on Tata Indicom's CDMA network, so internet services work wherever there's tata indicom's mobile phone network. So far, it has worked for me in all the cities i've traveled in india. There are no charges on national roaming if you are using the data card only for internet services.

Verdict?: Its a good gadget to keep along if you are traveling. Internet works just out of the box, without having to ask anyone for network access or proxy authentications. I haven't used data card services from Reliance or Airtel, but i dont really have a reason to switch services as yet. Lately there have been days when the internet is pathetically slow but then it comes back again.

Where to buy?: You can visit their website ichoose.in and place an order. If you are in Mumbai then let me know, i can pass over the contact information of their sales representative and he'll take care of the rest.

Trek to Kalavantin durg-fort

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:08:18 +0530

Monsoon treks for the year 2008 started with a rather exciting trek to Kalavantin durg(pinnacle). Kalavantin durg, located very close to Panvel, is a medium difficulty trek, but the rains make it more challenging. After the first rains fell in Mumbai, we planned to trek Kalavantin durg on 8th June 2008. We all gathered at Panvel bus depot to take the 7AM bus to the base village of Thakurwadi. Since it was getting late, we then decided to take six seater auto rickshaws to Thakurwadi instead. After negotiating with the autorickshaw drivers they agreed to take us there for Rs. 200 per SixSeater rickshaw. The distance is about 17Kms form Panvel.

While reaching Thakurwadi village, look out for Zoia resort, there's a road which goes left from there, and after walking about 1 hour on it one can reach the base village, which is very close to Kalvantin hill. We however went a little ahead and took some other route and got lost. After a little help(paid) from local kids, we managed to find the actual broad village road which led us to the village at the foot of Kalavantin pinnacle. From here we found our own way through the jungle. One thing to make sure is that the shoes are good, since the jungle path becomes extremely muddy and slippery because of several groups who might be ahead of you.

After climbing for an hour more, we reached the notch from where there are steps dug out in the rocks to climb the pinnacle from its southern end. The force of wind is freaking awesome at this notch, and throughout the climb. After a while, it started raining and the whole scenery was covered with mist and fog. Really awesome view, but photographing it was rather difficult. After climbing the topmost pinnacle of Kalavantin durg, we climbed down. Several people slipped and fell since the entire route was made muddy and slippery due to a rather large group which came and returned before us.

We had lunch at the base village, and returned to the ST bus stop at Thakurwadi village, after dumping the plans to visit Prabalgad.

Pictures from trek to Kalavantin durg are available here.
Continue reading "Trek to Kalavantin durg-fort"

Trek to Sagargad and Siddheshwar temple

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:10:27 +0530

After a break of 4 weeks, and having done Kalvantin, Mahuli and Avchitgad, it was time to go for another place we hadn't covered. Jagdish planned a trek for Sagargad and Siddheshwar temple on 20th July. Sagargad is a hill fort located in Alibag region, 1 hour walk from the popular Siddheshwar temple and math. As usual, we all gathered at Panvel ST bus depot and took a bus to Alibaug. Siddheshwar temple is about 2 hour walk from the base village of Khandale.

After taking some rest at Siddheshwar temple we moved forward towards Sagargad fort, eagerly waiting for rains showers. And it did, just around the entrance of the fort which is now in ruins. In its time, this fort could have been a prominent center of power, as can be seen from the strong walls built over a rather larger area of the flat mountain surface. Apart from a ganesh temple, there are a few man made ponds with water and green sprawling gardens on the flat mountain surface.

A rather fascinating sharp and pointed rock structure named Vanartok lies at the edge of Sagargad's hill. Vanartok, or Monkey point is a popular destination with professional rock climbers. After drenching in rains and taking several photographs of lush green scenery, we all had lunch. The usual theplas, murabbas cakes and ladoos followed.

And since it was Jagdish's birthday, a round of gifts, and photographs with him holding the gifts followed We had planned to visit the waterfall on the return journey, but didnt know the route to the waterfall. Nevertheless, we walked back to the base village Khandale and took ST buses back to Mumbai. All in all, a weekend well spent.

Pictures from trek to Sagargad and Siddheshwar temple

Trip to Goa - Devaaya resort!

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:42:00 +0530

End of May, the long pending get together happened. On 29th May evening we left for Goa in a Volvo. Night was spent sleeping and singing. After the long journey on Mumbai - Goa national highway we reached Goa next morning and headed towards Diwar Island. Checked in Devaaya Resort and relaxed. Had party whole night, with lots of chicken and booze.

Panjim, the capital city, is a city of churches and beaches and there are ample opportunities of photographing both. Next day a couple of us hired a few bikes and went off on a beach visiting spree.

All in all, a trip well spent. Goa is fun place to be at.

here comes mGarlic

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:52:06 +0530

So, you've recieved an invite from one of your several friends about mGinger service that lets you do blah blah and blah with sms and all that.

Talking of imitations, move over mGinger. here comes mGarlic.

Flickr - now with video!

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:54:46 +0530

Love Story (1972)

Flickr launched its video service with much fanfare yesterday. I decided to give it a spin with an old but lovely video clipping. What i like is the slight Flickrish touch given to video clip objects. The lesser known brother, Yahoo Jumpcut seems to be a good video finishing application. need to give it a try too.

The new age Indian Railways

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:46:10 +0530

Railways is running in profits since last couple of years and the feel good feeling is coming soon to Indian Railways website too. The recent tender notification from IR attracted almost everyone from the industry to apply for tender and profit! With TCS/CMC, Accenture, SISL India, Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, BEA, Broad Vision, IBM, HCL, DELL, HP and of course Microsoft applying for the tender and planning to use technologies as diverse as TIBCO, Biometrics and BS 7799 compliance - this surely is going to be a major face lift to Indian Railways.

Die Sonate vom Guten Menschen

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:59:07 +0530

Got a chance to watch Das Leben der Anderen. Story is set in East Germany, around and before the fall of Berlin Wall about how the Stasi agents used to control the private lives of people. Very well made movie i must say. It reaffirms the human ability to do the right thing, no matter how much wrong has already been done.

flickr toys

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:10:18 +0530

Hockeney picture

Looking for a way to generate a jigsaw puzzle from your photos? or a Polaroid style Hockney picture? a picture cube? or a original looking Flickr badge? Head over to Big Huge Labs and make your own nifty Flickr accessories.

trek to peth fort (kothligad)

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:57:41 +0530

Peth fort is a small garrison fort in the shape of a submarine, ~20 kms off from Karjat. We took a bus, and two autos to reach the highway near the base village. March being a hot month, made sure that we ran out of water sooner that we thought. We reached the base village of Ambivali by noon or so, and began climbing the hill.

In another hour we reached the cave carved out of the rock and relaxed for a while, and started cooking lunch. Some of us explored the garrison fort, while others cooked food. Peth fort is located at a strategic location and control over this fort meant having an eye over entire valley. That explains the several battles fought between moughals and marathas.

We descended down around 6PM and headed back to Karjat station and took a train back to Mumbai.

Pictures from trek to Peth fort

Trek to Kulang fort

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:21:47 +0530

Unlike past two years, this new year was fantastic. We went for a two day trek to Kulang Fort. Located in the Sahyadri ranges near Igatpuri, Kulang fort can easily be classified as toughest to climb of all (took us close to 7 hours on foot from the base village).

To make sure we start up early in the morning from the base village and cover maximum distance of walking in plains, we reached the base village of Kaluste the day before by shared jeep from Ghoti town(located on Mumbai - Nashik highway, and reachable from Igatpuri station). We left the base village Kaluste by 6:45AM and headed towards Kulang hill. Crawling through jungle, eating and sweating, we reached the top by 2:15PM. Squatted the cave, ate some food and later shot the last sunset of 2007 from the highest point.

Kulang, due to its height, offers breathtaking views of all nearby mountain rangelets. And due to clean atmosphere and current season, night sky is awesome too with everything from shooting stars and satellites visible. Best time to visit is after monsoons(rock climbing becomes dangerous due to mud and slippery rock surface)

Pictures from trek to Kulang Fort

naming your hosts

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:12:27 +0530

Apparently, there's an RFC on Choosing a Name for Your Computer - RFC 1178. Easily, one of the simpler to understand RFCs out there.

Trek to Tikona Peth (Vitandgad)

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:50:36 +0530

Couple of weeks back we went for a trek to Vitandgad, commonly known as Tikona Peth. Its called Tikona (Pyramidal) due to its peculiar conical shape. Trek to Vitandgad can be classified as an easy trek which can be completed in half a day.

Since we had some more time at hand, we visited Pavana Dam and nearby Bedse Caves. All in all, a day worth spent.

Pictures from Tikona and Bedse Caves trek

migrating mailman

nospam@example.com (Anurag) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:57:00 +0530

1. Introduction
A couple of weeks back we had to migrate a few mailing lists across to a new server. Migration was successful and we had minimum downtime, since no changes were done to the lists.

This HowTo assumes that the new server uses Postfix as an MTA. Using any other MTA is not a problem as long as it can read the Mailman generated aliases file.

Migrating mailman lists is a 3 step process.

2. Preparing New Server.

2.1 Installing Mailman.

/usr/local/mailman

/var/lib/mailman

2.2 Configure Apache and Postfix.

3. Copying Data to New Server.
Copying data involves copying over three directories, which hold list configuration(lists), held messages/bounce stats(data) and list archives(archives).

3.1 lists

lists

# rsync -avz /usr/local/mailman/lists root@new-server:/var/lib/mailman/

Mailman

3.2 data

data

# rsync -avz /usr/local/mailman/data root@new-server:/var/lib/mailman/

3.3 archives

archives

# rsync -avz /usr/local/mailman/archives root@new-server:/var/lib/mailman/

4. Post Migration checks.
After the data is migrated, check for any permission issues. Its possible that the new server is configured to run mailman with the user list or mailman. Change the ownership of the directories copied accordingly.

4.1 Regenerating Aliases

bin

# cd /var/lib/mailman/bin

# ./genaliases

4.2 Hostnames

web_page_url

host_name

# cd /usr/local/mailman/bin

# ./withlist -l -r fix_url  -u new-domain.example.org

4.3 DNS Updates

5. Finalising
Try to send an email to any of the lists's -request alias, with `help' in the subject line. Mailman should immediately respond with a list of available commands.

6. Refrences
Mailman Homepage - http://www.list.org
Mailman Installation Manual -http://list.org/mailman-install/index.html