ice and spice

Why installing wordpress in a subfolder is a good idea

2011-07-12T11:28:00.007-04:00

Even after building a few Wordpress websites, I often get to a point when I am looking for directions on how to do the obviously simple stuff. One such thing is how to make sure your browser knows that the wordpress website is not in the root folder. A little digging around got me to this helpful step by step manual at www.askwpgirl.com.

“Moving” WordPress from Subdirectory to the Site’s Root Directory

1. Install WordPress as you normally would, but instead of installing it in the root directory (ie in the www or public_html directory), install it in a subdirectory in the www or public_html folder.

2. Once you’ve completed your design work, adding pages to the site, etc., login to the WordPress Dashboard. From the Settings -> General tab, set your WordPress address URL to the subdirectory you installed WordPress in (without the trailing slash). Note: This will already be displayed in the WordPress address field, so you don’t have to change it. What you do need to change is the Site address URL. Set this to your site’s root address (without the trailing slash).

3. Next, MOVE (do not copy) the index.php file that is in the WordPress application directory to the root directory. You can usually do this in an FTP application by selecting the file and choosing Move. (Do not move the index.php file in the themes folder or any other folder.) (Note: If you have a site already in the root directory, such as an old static html site, then you should backup and delete those files first.)

4. In a text or HTML editor, open the index.php file that you just moved and change the location of your wp-blog-header.php to the new location.

Example: if your WordPress installation folder is ‘mywp’, you would change:

5. Visit the site and click an interior page to make sure it displays correctly. If it doesn’t, you may need to update your permalinks (Settings -> Permalinks and click Save Changes). If you still cannot access your interior pages, then the .htaccess may need to be moved to the same location as the index.php file (i.e. the root directory). This is not necessary on all web hosts. Be sure to update the permalinks again after you move the .htaccess file.

Remember that your login and registration links will still be http://www.yoursite.com/mywp/wp-login.php.

Now, when people visit your site, they will see all the URLs of all the pages and posts as if you had installed WordPress in the root directory, and you will have a neat WordPress directory behind the scenes.

One step closer towards the USSA...

2010-05-01T01:04:00.006-04:00

President Obama at a recent rally in IL: "I do think at a certain point you have made enough money".

He himself has made $5 mil last year. Does he think it is Enough? Or like most Democrats, does 'Enough' apply only when it belongs to others?

Nancy Pelosi on why Obamacare should be passed

2010-04-12T22:52:00.001-04:00

"We have to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it."

Poordog Millionaires?

2009-02-03T15:06:00.001-05:00

The so called economic stimulus bill that has been recently making the rounds in the US Capitol is fast becoming unpopular with normal thinking citizens for the ghastly amount of funding that is being proposed for different sectors of the government. It looks like this bill has really been designed to stimulate government spending, not the economy. And as if to add salt to our ‘economic’ wounds, almost all of this spending has no direct bearing on the economy at least for the next two years, by which time most economies will be able to get out of the rut with no help at all. A country like the US can surely get out of a recession within two years; it will be a brilliant (and nothing short of magical) feat if we can accomplish the feat in spite of such back breaking and nerve wrenching expenditure bills.

It is pretty obvious that the fundamentals of the economy are strong enough to be able to engineer a recovery in two years. But it is bills like these that gnaw at these very fundamentals thus making it even more difficult for industry to stage a comeback. The best option is tax cuts across the board as such a move would broaden the net and put spending money in the hands of individuals and corporations who are more likely to spend it much more faster and more directly than any government can. However, if the current policy makers prefer funding government policies at the expense of industry and trade, there is a compromise solution that might work better and turn around the recession faster (at least in the short term) than the current proposed spending bill. Of course, this would hit industry and trade badly, but aren’t those evil corporations supposed to be banned anyway? This compromise solution would not ban them, but it may entice some of the owners to ditch their ‘rich’ corporate lifestyles forever!

In true Obama style of spreading the wealth, why not spread the spending around? ‘Distribute’ the $800 billion plus amount equally among all tax paying citizens of the USA. Maybe we can change that to include all tax paying residents of the USA and then include the non tax paying citizens also (just so that the vote bank doesn’t get annoyed). Wondering how this will fund the government? The way government is always funded – taxes! Tax the amount thus distributed at source at the prevailing rates. So, every recipient will become rich overnight and for once all of the taxes can be collected at the highest possible tax rate. With one swipe, the government will be flush with additional money and everybody will become rich (at least for a few days) and it will be up to each recipient to decide if they want to stay rich or if they want to spend their way to poorness! We can safely bet that at least two out of three Americans will go on a spending binge which will in turn trigger our sleeping economy and put it into overdrive as spending increases dramatically. This in turn will mean more jobs as well as more tax dollars for the federal government.

This will give rise to a few problems like people not turning up for work or not buying lottery tickets for a while, but once the new found money dries up, things will change. To help matters, government can stipulate that recipients cannot leave their current jobs for a year from the time the plan is announced. This will also give all recipients the chance to experience a rich lifestyle. Within a year, either they have spent most of their ‘aid’ or they have made enough intelligent decisions to be able to stop working if they want to.

Meanwhile, the government of the day can openly use the tax dollars thus generated to foster its pet welfare projects and help take the USA that much closer to the USSA (United Socialist States of America). And hopefully, nobody would object as they would all be too busy spending/minding their new found wealth.

Convert amount to words in RPG ILE

2008-11-04T10:24:00.002-05:00

I have had a situation where the amount had to be converted into words so that it can be printed on checks. A little googling got me to this solution. I had to convert it to the free form version for my use. There might be other/better versions out there, but this worked for me. You can find the original version (if the link is still active) here

// =============================================================

// = Service program... NbrToWords / CvtNbrToWords

// = Description....... Service program to convert a number

// = to words

// = Amount needs to be converted into words for printing on

// = checks.

// =

// = CrtRPGMod Module( Your library/NbrToWords ) +

// = SrcFile( Your library/YourSrcFile )

// =

// = CrtSrvPgm SrvPgm( Your library/NbrToWords ) +

// = Export( *All ) +

// = ActGrp( *Caller )

// =============================================================

H NoMain

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// - Procedure prototypes -

// -------------------------------------------------------------

D CvtNbrToWords Pr 200A

D Number 15S 0 Value

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// - Global variables -

// -------------------------------------------------------------

D MaxGrps C 5

D Words S 13 Dim(99)

D CtData

D Grps S 8 Dim(MaxGrps)

D CtData

// =============================================================

// = Procedure: CvtNbrToWords

// = Description: Convert number to words

// =============================================================

P CvtNbrToWords B Export

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// - Procedure interface -

// -------------------------------------------------------------

D CvtNbrToWords Pi 200A

D Nbr 15S 0 Value

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// - Variable declarations

// -------------------------------------------------------------

D AlphaNbr S 15

D WorkFld DS

D Work3 3

D Work2 2 Overlay( Work3 : 2 )

D Work1 1 Overlay( Work3 : 1 )

D Count S 5I 0

D Pos S 5I 0

D Idx S 5I 0

D RtnWords S 200A Inz

// -------------------------------------------------------------

// - Convert number to words - logic -

// -------------------------------------------------------------

/Free

Select;

When Nbr = *Zero;

RtnWords = 'zero';

Other;

If Nbr < *Zero;

RtnWords = 'negative';

Nbr = Nbr * -1;

EndIf;

EvalR AlphaNbr = %EditC(Nbr:'X');

DoW Count <>

Count += 1;

Pos = (Count * 3) - 2;

Work3 = %Subst(AlphaNbr : Pos : 3);

If Work3 <> '000';

If Work1 <> '0';

Clear Idx;

Idx = %Int(Work1);

RtnWords = %TrimR(RtnWords) + ' ' +

%TrimR(Words(Idx)) + ' hundred';

EndIf;

If Work2 <> '00';

Clear Idx;

Idx = %Int(Work2);

RtnWords = %TrimR(RtnWords) + ' ' + %TrimR(Words(Idx));

EndIf;

RtnWords = %TrimR(RtnWords) + ' ' + %TrimR(Grps(Count));

EndIf;

EndDo;

EndSl;

RtnWords = %Trim(RtnWords);

Return RtnWords;

/End-Free

P CvtNbrToWords E

** CtData Words

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

eleven

twelve

thirteen

fourteen

fifteen

sixteen

seventeen

eighteen

nineteen

twenty

twenty-one

twenty-two

twenty-three

twenty-four

twenty-five

twenty-six

twenty-seven

twenty-eight

twenty-nine

thirty

thirty-one

thirty-two

thirty-three

thirty-four

thirty-five

thirty-six

thirty-seven

thirty-eight

thirty-nine

forty

forty-one

forty-two

forty-three

forty-four

forty-five

forty-six

forty-seven

forty-eight

forty-nine

fifty

fifty-one

fifty-two

fifty-three

fifty-four

fifty-five

fifty-six

fifty-seven

fifty-eight

fifty-nine

sixty

sixty-one

sixty-two

sixty-three

sixty-four

sixty-five

sixty-six

sixty-seven

sixty-eight

sixty-nine

seventy

seventy-one

seventy-two

seventy-three

seventy-four

seventy-five

seventy-six

seventy-seven

seventy-eight

seventy-nine

eighty

eighty-one

eighty-two

eighty-three

eighty-four

eighty-five

eighty-six

eighty-seven

eighty-eight

eighty-nine

ninety

ninety-one

ninety-two

ninety-three

ninety-four

ninety-five

ninety-six

ninety-seven

ninety-eight

ninety-nine

** CtData Grps

trillion

billion

million

thousand

Mom of all Bailouts - smart timing?

2008-11-04T10:18:00.002-05:00

One thing about the bailout package for the US financial sector that stumps me is the timing of it all. It is so obvious that the timing would work to the advantage of the Democrats that it begs the question: why did Bush go along with the plan?

Did President Bush have something else at the back of his mind when he initiated this move? By proposing to inject about a trillion greenbacks into the financial world, was he trying to preempt a prospective Obama presidency from having the leverage to be able to spend more in the future? Was he trying to somewhat limit the ability of the future President to spend beyond his means? If that was the objective, how is it all going to play out for a prospective McCain Presidency?

The way I see it, regardless of the promises made on the stump, the big spending initiative right at the cusp of the elections will change the way the next administration will have to govern. President Bush has, with one swipe, put a damper on the Democrat thirst for over-spending by doing exactly what they would want to do – increase spending! Obama has already been talking about a trillion in additional spending during his administration and President Bush’s action will somewhat limit his ability to deliver on that promise. Even if he does do that, he will have to do it by either raising taxes higher or by spreading the tax net wider which will surely make him pretty unpopular, thus clearing the playing field for a much more conservative future administration. As a bonus, an Obama win effectively puts off a possible Clinton Presidency by at least 8 years!

If McCain wins the Presidency, it will be upto him and Palin to come up with innovative ways to fund the bailout package without increasing the tax rates. They will act as an effective counter check to the spend-thirsty Congress. Of course, even they will be limited and cash strapped, but if they are dead serious about eliminating earmarks, they will be able to find the dough to fund their campaign promises.

No matter how this election pans out, President Bush’s last spending initiative is sure to leave the next administration with a bigger challenge then they had initially bargained for. One of my major gripes with President Bush’s policies has been his liberal spending throughout his term, but if he really did initiate the biggest of them all to help limit future spending, touché!

How to fail tests with dignity

2008-10-27T20:31:00.000-04:00

This is outright hilarious!

Why Chiru should tackle corruption

2008-10-16T16:54:00.001-04:00

Can we achieve all round prosperity?

Difficult but do-able. Andhra Pradesh is already on the path to higher prosperity, thanks in large part to the previous two administrations. True, there have been obstacles and distractions on the way that we could have done without. And there is rampant corruption that has become deep rooted in the administration that is preventing more rapid development. There have been difficulties that regular people have had to face all along this path and much of this has been the result of rampant corruption.

This is where Chiranjeevi should focus his efforts. This role will not only be a continuation of what he has depicted in a multitude of films (thus making it easier for him to bring this topic to the fore), but dealing with it will also help our state come to the front of the ladder when it comes to overall development. Corruption has been the root cause of many of the problems common people have been facing since independence. To effectively take care of this animal, Chiru has to live for the fight day in and day out. Sure, there will be people within his party and amongst his close family and friends who might already be salivating at the prospects of having a go at a piece of the corruption pie and that is what Chiru will need to address up front. Like the saying goes, cleanup begins at home. Half the battle would be won if he makes it clear that he will not tolerate any corruption from any of his party members. With that out of the way, he will be able to campaign on the anti-corruption slogan.

Once Chiru gets settled down in his new role (that is our hope and objective right?), he should concentrate on efforts to weed out corruption in any shape or form. He might convey his seriousness by forming an anti-corruption ministry and giving it all the powers that it needs to help wipe out corruption from the state, city and local government wings. Incidents of corruptions should be treated as offences against the state and officers indulging in it should be punished. This maybe done by using a graded approach structured on the lines of the point system which is used by police across the world to write up offensive motorists. Offenders can be given points and the number of points earned would determine the severity of punishment. Punishment can range from warnings to demotions to termination with a bad rec. Such a standard should be worked out during the campaigning itself thus letting everybody know that Chiru means business and that he is willing to walk the talk.

Most Indians are aware that enforcement is a problem anywhere in India and Chiru should signal that he is not going to allow that to happen under his watch. Setting up an anti-corruption ministry whose sole purpose will be to collect information/complaints from the citizens and to act on them by investigating the charges and enforcing the corruption-point system if needed will send a signal to the repeated offenders that they will not be able to get away from the law this time. Consistent enforcement, will over time, make sure that corruption will be reined in thus opening the doors for a more prosperous and happy Andhra Pradesh. Hopefully, this will set an example for the rest of the nation to follow. And Chiru will, forever, become another visionary leader that our state can feel proud of!

Is Obama the medicine America needs?

2008-10-16T14:59:00.003-04:00

With but a few weeks to go for the final vote to be cast and the verdict to be sealed and most polls suggesting that Americans are leaning towards an Obama presidency, one cannot but stop and wonder why, for the first time, the US is on the cusp of choosing the most socialist and communist administration in its history.

From another perspective, the recent economic crisis more than anything else, seems to have dwarfed this fact and turned the tide in Obama’s favor; for now. Once the dust settles down and Americans take the time to ponder over their choice, they will realize that by choosing Obama, they have indeed chosen more of the same vis-à-vis Jimmy Carter. And as time goes by, they will realize that more of the same a la George Bush (though, in my opinion, McCain is more liberal than George Bush) would have been way better for their day to day lives than more of the same a la Jimmy Carter. Of course, by then, it will be too late for them to reverse their choice, at least for another four years. Atleast they would have figured out that Obama might as well been referring to himself when he was suggesting 'more of the same' while on the stump.

The US would be in for much worse conditions with the Obama socialists taking control of the markets and maybe even the daily lives of regular citizens pretty much like what Chavez has been doing in Venezuela over the past few years. This might be the exact medicine that is needed by Americans to jolt them out of the make-believe world that they have been relentlessly prodded into both by a swooning media as well as the fluffy words of Obama that he will deliver them from all the difficulties that they have been facing with a worsening economy. So taken in are they that they don’t have the inclination to go over Obama’s ‘non-achievements’ over the past two decades. We need not dig deep to realize that Obama has mostly been more about sound words and speeches rather than sound judgment. It is no secret that he is the most liberal Senator in the current Congress. There is the prospect that Obama’s USA can, for the first time in history, be positioned as being more socialist than Putin’s Russia or Wen’s China. It looks like none of these arguments will matter for now as most of his supporters tend to paint such arguments as a racial slur rather than take them at face value.

Obama’s tax and wealth redistribution policies might work well in countries where people have been subjugated for generations together, but in a country like the USA where entrepreneurship is rampant, they are deemed to fail. But before they fail, it is going to look like they are succeeding which will prompt him to up the ante. When he does that, the economy is going to take a turn for the worse and Americans will begin to realize the foolhardiness of their decision of electing Obama - albeit a tad late. The souring economy will act as a medicine to rejuvenate regular Americans to wake up and take action at the next elections, but not before putting up with a lot of pain and hardship; a bitter dose of medicine that an Obama administration will force upon them.

It will be much more difficult to turn the country around after four years of a Jimmy Carter like economy, but if Americans could stomach the medicine doled out to them three decades ago and still bring into office a man who single handedly turned around the economy, they can sure do it again. But they will need to elect (pun intended) to take their medicine first.

Rounding a calculated value in .net

2007-11-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

I have had to round a calculated value before it is presented in the display. This is what I did to accomplish this task.

Use the function System.Math.Round(value, precision) where Value is the number that needs to be rounded to precision number of digits.

The other option is to set the control's DataFormatString to {0:n2} where n denotes a float or double value and the number 2 denotes the precision that is required. Don't forget to set HtmlEncode to false!

Though both methods work great, I decided to go with the later option as I would be able to delay the rounding until it is actually ready to be displayed.

How to determine if a data value is null

2007-11-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

When we try to get data using a series of SQL joins, at some point, we are bound to hit a data element with a Null value. It took me a little bit of time the first time i came across such an error. This is how i dealt with it:

If TypeOf (MyDs.Tables(0).Rows(j).Item(3)) Is System.DBNull Then
' do something here
End If

Water heater goes kaput!

2007-08-06T14:41:00.001-04:00

As if the problem of having to deal with the loss of a phone number was not enough, last week, our water heater literally decided to leave us high and dry (well, uh, not exactly dry as we live in this high humidity zone, but I suppose you get the point).

Though the need for hot water is not as crucial during the hot, hazy days of summer, we pampered souls still like the convenience of having hot water at the push of a lever. And then, there are the usual reasons when we cannot do without hot water (like bathing the children, washing clothes/dishes etc.).

Under those situations, our initial reaction would be to reach out for the phone and get in touch with a plumber/electrician that can solve our problem the fastest! Well, I too reacted along similar lines, but instead of hitting the phone book, I took to the web searching for plumbers. An online service allowed me to search for and send requests to plumbers in the area, but all it could find was one plumber who was at least a good half an hour away. To his credit, this plumber called and left a voicemail saying that he could help me get a new heater real fast. While waiting on his reply, I had been trolling the various forums trying to see if I could find suggestions to my predicament. Some went as far as recommending I replace both thermostats as well as both heating elements where as some others suggested I drain the heater tank and clean the elements. But none of them went so far as to suggest replacing the water heater itself.

Our water heater has an auto shut off feature that shuts off power to the heater if the tank temperature becomes too hot. My initial assessment told me that this was what was happening as the water from the faucets became very hot a few hours before it turned dead cold. So, I opened up the heater access panel and hit the reset button. This seemed to rectify the problem, but the next morning, I noticed that the water was hotter than normal. As anticipated, the auto shut off system jumped back in action and turned off the heater. The result? No hot water for the second time in as many days. Further searching on the net brought me to what seemed to be a knowledgeable suggestion from an experienced (plumbing?) mind. The suggestion was to replace the lower thermostat. The explanation? The lower thermostat might have gotten fried and so the lower element doesn’t know when to stop working. When the water becomes overheated, the heater’s auto shut off system kicks in and switches off power to the heater. The only way this can be overridden is by hitting the reset button behind the access panel on the heater.

A quick run to Lowes and back and about fifteen minutes to replace the fried thermostat was all it took for me to have the heater back online and in action.

Determining if two numbers are evenly divisible or not

2007-08-06T11:23:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have had to validate a couple of entry fields to ensure that the value entered in one field is evenly divisible by the value entered in the other field. The built in function %Rem() worked perfectly for me.

If %Rem(Numerator:Denominator) > 0
// reminder exists, fields not divisible
.......raise error condition - let user know that value is not a multiple
EndIf;

This function returns the reminder from the division operation of its factors -(Numerator/Denominator).

Hate spending a fortune on passport photos?

2007-07-31T12:28:00.000-04:00

It is not often that one needs passport photos, but when the need arises, it is usually arrives in the form of a deluge! Anyone who has had to file for the I485 or the N400 or Passports/Visa/PIO/OCI for the entire family knows what I am talking about. And those passport photos are not cheap either!

If you have had yours taken recently, you know how it works at the photo shops. They snap your photo using a digital camera and then hand it over to their photo software to do the rest. If you are a little bit enterprising, here is a cheap but efficient way of getting your passport photos.

Use your digital camera to take the photograph.
If you choose, you can use photo-editing software like Picasa (a free service) to refine the photo.
Then, use epassportphoto (also a free service) and follow the steps to upload your photograph, format to desired size and then save it back to your computer. Each image will be automatically sized to fit on a 4x6 paper and will have six to eight copies of your photograph depending on your chosen size. Copy this saved image onto your portable media and take it to a photo-printing lab to have it printed. If you are not able to use portable media, you can even choose a service like Snapfish (listed on the website) to have your photos printed at a neighborhood photo shop.

Alternatively, you can even print it at home provided you already have the required hardware. Once you have the printout, cut out the photographs and you are ready to put them to use! All this for the price (maybe lesser) of having a single 4x6 sheet printed.

magicJack - the advent of truly portable, affordable VOIP?

2007-07-26T10:35:00.000-04:00

When the nation’s second largest VOIP service provider bit the rocket (err… bullet) mid-July, it was time for me to start searching for another provider to satisfy my long distance calling requirements. My home phone is local only and I cannot use my cell phone for long distance.

VOIP providers lost no time in making attempts to woo ex-Sunrocket customers. Via talk was offering a ‘contract buyout’ of up to a year for those who got scorched by the rocket’s fumes, but that offer was cut overnight to a maximum of six months (I understand it was later cut down to three months)! This prompted me to start looking elsewhere for a solution that would work for me.

The search led me first to GrandCentral (see previous post), the telephone management company that was recently acquired by the ubiquitous Google. The concept was interesting but it still didn’t solve my problem, as it worked fine for incoming calls, but I wouldn’t be able to call long distance using the GC number.

Next, I took a look at Skype that I had first used a few years back when it was still a free service. I recalled that call quality was not that bad, but I didn’t get around to using it much at that time. This service doesn’t give you a dedicated phone line either. With Skype’s new avatar, it looked like I will have to pay about 60 bucks a year to have the ability to make unlimited incoming and outgoing calls within the US. And then I had also heard of complaints about their overall call quality.

A little more searching got me to what I might say is an interesting alternative in the form of magicJack. This is basically a VOIP solution, but it doesn’t involve an adapter or wires. Instead, it comes in the form of a USB device that has a phone jack on the other end. The first time you plug in the device into your computer, you will be allowed to choose a US phone number and you are ready to start making/receiving calls. You can receive calls either on the computer itself or on the phone that is plugged into this device. The only downside is that your computer will have to be constantly on (with an active broadband connection) if you need to make calls. Yes, traditional VOIP is portable, but magicJack goes one up here as there are no adapters or additional wires to carry around! The magicJack device includes voicemail and has a feature whereby incoming calls can be forwarded to another number. All this for a cost of $20 per year! Yes, that was not a typo; it is really supposed to cost you $20 a year for unlimited long distance within the US. As this company is still in beta, they have very few area codes available at this time.

An interesting possibility is the use of magicJack in combination with GrandCentral. Setup GrandCentral to transfer all incoming calls to the numbers of your choice (home/cell /magicJack etc.) and use the magicJack number to make your long distance calls. What makes it even more appealing is the possibility of using this device to call your US number from anywhere in the world provided you have a computer with a broadband connection. And setup is a breeze!

MagicJack even did it’s own bit in trying to attract Sunrocket’s ex-base by placing this humorous ad on it’s website.

GrandCentral - Manage your phones with one number!

2007-07-24T01:39:00.001-04:00

Grand central has since been acquired by Google and is now called Google Voice.

Recently, I came across a telephone provider that had come up with an innovative approach of treating your phone number. GrandCentral operates on the simple concept that your phone number(s) should be tied to you, not the other way around!

What a neat concept! These days, most of us have at least three phone lines. Heck, some of us even have more phone lines than TV remote controls! How would it be if we can give out just one number to all of our contacts and that one number then manages the rest of our numbers? That way, regardless of the number of times our numbers may change, as long as the main number doesn't change, we don't have to communicate a number change ever again! That one main number is the number that you can now have from GrandCentral.

Once a GrandCentral (GCNumber) phone number is assigned to you, you can keep it for ever and you can link up all of your US numbers to your (US) GCNumber. Anybody calling your GCNumber will be forwarded to the (USA) numbers that you have asked your GCNumber to forward the call to. There are a host of other cool settings that can be setup right down to the individual contact level. You can record your conversation with a press of a button, have your voicemails forwarded in the form of emails, setup buttons on websites (like the one I have in the sidebar on this blog), transfer your call to another of your phones in the middle of your conversation and much much more.

Check out the demo that is posted on Tom's blog. For more information, goto the GrandCentral website or google 'grandcentral phone'.

Itching to check it out? Ever since Google purchased Grand Central early this month, signing up is by invitation only. I had been able to sign up thanks to Tom, and I now have a very few invites left. Just leave your full name and email Id. in a comment if you would like to be invited.

Will the insult go unpunished this time?

2007-07-24T00:34:00.000-04:00

The recently concluded Presidential elections in India has been widely perceived as a big joke that was thrust upon the hapless people of India against their wishes. This was a case of the politicians (well, almost all of them) brushing aside the popular will of the people to ensure that the 'prestige' that came with the highest office of the country was retained within the 'political class'.

The people of India wanted the highly popular current incumbent Dr Abdul Kalam to continue for another term, but the politicians (as usual) were not willing to listen. There was no major election coming up, so they had little to fear. Given the short memory of the voters, by the time the next election came about, this incident would have long been forgotten.

The reasoning that only a politician should be President was put forth, but it was not the least bit convincing. The general perception was that the politicians looked upon the post of the President as their exclusive birth-right. In the long run, such an attitude may not sit well with the citizens of the land.

The final insult came about when many politicians started throwing verbal jabs at the Dr Kalam when he agreed to contest the election at the behest of the 'Third Front'. The ruling coalition took their banter to a new level when even veteran leaders came out criticizing Dr. Kalam for his decision. Never once did they think that by making digs at a Bharat Ratna, they were undermining their stature in the eyes of the people even further. It looks like the politicians are quite a distance away from learning to understand that if India is to make strides into the future, it is essential that the prominent posts of India should be represented by accomplished, younger beings in the class of Dr. Kalam (politician or not). Gone are the days when such posts were reserved only for old hags or politicians on the verge of retirement.

This incident has brought back calls from various groups to make the election of the President of India a direct election where the people elect him/her instead of the present format where the politicians get to elect the President (and the VP).
I can only hope that, come election time, the people of India don't forget this insult that was thrust down on them by their elected politicians.

The politicians may justify their decision by saying that India was ready for a female Head of State, but that argument is pretty feeble. I think India is past the stage where we will have to have a Head of State from each sect and category. India, at this stage of her economic journey, is ready for Heads of State who, among other things, will be able to rub shoulders with the leaders of the world on an equal footing and who will be the face of a knowledgeable India to the world. In this era when information and knowledge is king, a politician is the last person that anybody would turn to in search of such a face.

In hindsight, it may go down in history that the lady at the helm of the Congress party didn't want Dr. Kalam to continue in office. The reason? My opinion: Vendetta. Revenge. Three summers ago, the lady almost became the Prime Minister of India. It was widely believed in several circles that she was advised by the President's office not to take up the post. What did Dr Kalam tell Sonia on that fateful day when she decided to 'give up' the seat of power? We may never know, but it may well turn out that the whole drama that unfurled in front of us over the last few weeks may be a direct result of that piece of advice that Dr. Kalam gave Sonia on an eventful summer day.

Using Monitor to trap errors

2007-07-13T16:46:00.000-04:00

In good old RPG, what would we do if we wanted to check if the value in an alpha variable is integer or not?

Well, we would have defined a constant that has all integers or characters as the value (like '0123456789' for integers, I will not even try to demo the alpha equivalent) and then use the CheckR Opcode or the %CheckR BIF (built in function) to determine if the variable has any matches or not.

With the advent of Free RPG and the Monitor OpCode, there is a better way to do this. Here is how we can handle the error (using free form RPG) if the value in an alpha field is not integer:

Monitor;
CustInt = %Int(%Trim(Cust));
OsCust = %EditC(CustInt:'X'); // Customer number
On-Error; // If value is non-integer
OsCust = Cust;
EndMon;

The vlaue in the variable Cust should always be numeric, but sometimes, it turns out that it can be alpha too. When that happens, as the statement [CustInt = %Int(%Trim(Cust)); ] throwing an error condition is within the [Monitor - EndMon] block, the system flags an error condition and control skips to the statement following the "On-Error" statement. In my case, I just move the value in Cust as is to the OsCust field (which is also alpha)! The "On-Error" statement is executed only when an error condition exists within the Monitor block.

If the value is numeric, I make sure that it is padded with leading zeros (that is where the %EditC comes in handy) before moving it into the target alpha field.

Removing leading zeroes from a non zero character variable

2007-06-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

I have a character variable which accepts numeric data. If this data is non-zero, we will have to take out any leading zeroes and then pass the resulting data to an SQL statement for further processing. This is how I acheived it using free form RPG.

InUpc is the character variable.

If %Trim(InUpc) <> *Zeros; // if data is non-zero
DoW %SubSt(%Trim(InUpc):1:1) = '0'; // take out first digit if it is zero
InUpc = %SubSt(%Trim(InUpc):2);
EndDo;
EndIf;

Recursion example - RPG, i5

2007-06-13T11:21:00.000-04:00

Here is an example of recursion using a procedure in RPG:

P CrtDataQ B Export

D CrtDataQ Pi

D DtaQNam 10A Const
D KeyLen 10i 0 Const
D DtaQLen 10i 0 Const Options(*NoPass)
D LibName 10A Const Options(*NoPass)
D CmdStr S 300A Inz Varying
D Library S 10A Inz('QTEMP')
D DtaQLn S 10i 0 Inz(256)

/Free
// set default values for DtaQLen and LibName...
Select;
When %Parms() = 3;
DtaQLn = DtaQLen;
When %Parms() = 4;
DtaQLn = DtaQLen;
Library = LibName;
EndSl;
CmdStr = 'CRTDTAQ DTAQ(' + %Trim(Library) + '/' + %Trim(DtaQNam) + ') MAXLEN(' + %Trim(%Char(DtaQLn)) + ') SEQ (*KEYED) KEYLEN(' + %Trim(%Char(KeyLen)) + ')';

// Monitor for the possiblity of Data queue already present
// If data queue is already present, delete it and then create.
Monitor;
ExcClCmd(CmdStr:%Len(CmdStr));
On-Error;
DltDataQ(DtaQNam);
CrtDataQ(DtaQNam:KeyLen:DtaQLn:Library); // recursion example
EndMon;

/End-Free

P CrtDataQ E

Convert date into numeric format - RPG free

2007-06-13T11:05:00.000-04:00

StrDt is a date field into which a date is being updated. PlHBeg is a julian date in the form yyyyddd.

The code block - %SubSt(%Char(PlHBeg - 1900000):2) gets us the Julian date that is recognized by i5.

StrDt = %Date(%SubSt(%Char(PlHBeg - 1900000):2):*Jul0);

PxHBeg is an 8 digit numeric field into which we are trying to feed a date in Iso (yyyymmdd) format. We use the built in function SubDt to extract each portion of the date and with some basic calculations, we have the date converted to numeric form.

PxHBeg = %SubDt(StrDt:*Y) * 10000 + %SubDt(StrDt:*M) * 100
+ %SubDt(StrDt:*D);

Where change seems to be the only constant

2007-06-13T10:28:00.000-04:00

A first hand account

For the first time ever, I had to visit India under rather tragic and gloomy conditions, so I had neither the inclination nor the time to indulge in the usual fun activities. But observe I did, and what a dramatic change it has been since my last visit two years back! during my last visit, I saw an attitude shift in general with people not backing off from spending and patiently lining up in front of ATM machines waiting for their chance to withdraw (spend?) some of their hard earned money. Gone were the days of trying to save for a rainy day! Just when I thought that I have seen it all, this time around, it looked like change was the only real constant. Though change was all-pervasive, it was all the more visible in the suburbia and the smaller two tier centers.

The first surprise was Bombay (Mumbai) airport. They really turned it around. What was a murky, dirty, cramped up place on my last encounter has now turned into a spacious, spick and span, well lighted airport on par with the best that India has to offer. The new immigration counters are more spacious with minimal waiting times. It took us more time waiting at the expanded and more roomy baggage claim area than in immigration. Though customs also was more streamlined, this is one area where the officers will have to be more courteous. I couldn’t help but observe that there was also a baggage re-check area for domestic connections. It is amazing what a little bit of private enterprise can do.

The once ubiquitous Ambassador seems to have all but been relegated to the history books nowadays. It looks like that tag now belongs to the Marutis and the Tatas. And it looks like the Tatas might well get hold of that tag ultimately with their Indicas and their Indigos. The once popular Sumo had already yielded to the Qualis but after Toyota decided to replace the Qualis with the Innova, it looks like the Innova is well on the way to take over that segment. You still do see the odd Camry, Accord or Civic, but they are few and far between. People perceive them to be overpriced, as they know that they are about half the cost here in the US.

And then, there is fast food. While the McDonalds, Pizza huts, Dominos and Subways are making inroads everywhere, Indian fast food has not lost its appeal. In south India, the idlis, vadas, dosas, indo-chinese and thali still hold sway, though people don’t mind venturing into a subway or a pizza hut now and then. I couldn’t help but notice that while people fret over the price of onions touching 16 rupees a kilo, they don’t care for the price when they order a foot long sub for 200 bucks or a plate of (five) fried jumbo shrimp (served on the seashore) for 300 bucks. I suppose it is the experience of dining on the sand with the waves crashing nearby that people are willing to pay for!

Retail is exploding like never before with national chains like Reliance, Subhiksha and Spencers competing with the more regional chains like Trinethra or TruMart for the same customers. Finally, more power to the customers, though at the cost of displacing a few smaller hitherto cramped stores. With Walmart and Bharti teaming up, the retail landscape can only get spicier.

It looks like real estate is also going hand in hand with the retail boom. In some places, land that used to go for 20,000 a square yard two years ago is now going for 50,000 a square yard. The immediate suburbs of Vizag, for example, are going for about 2 crores an acre (provided you can find a chunk of land that size). With the stretch of the golden quadrilateral that passes through Vizag completed, distances are no longer an issue and people are willing to go as far as 40 to 50 Kms in search of land. The result? 30 kms from Vizag, land costs near the highway range from 15 to 60 lakhs per acre depending on how far the land is from the highway. Farmers in the suburbs are benefiting from this uptick in prices as more and more of them are not being able to refuse the offers being doled out for their lands.

Almost everybody in the average family now has a cell phone. Cell phones have become the preferred choice and landlines are very rarely used. So much so that, people are even having their news delivered to their mobiles and are even starting to pay bills using SMS. Some are not backing off from buying the more expensive models. I could not believe my eyes when I saw huge lines in front of an ATM in Guntakal at 7pm. What was more surprising was that the line didn’t seem to dissipate even at 9pm!

Be it a low profile center like Guntakal or the high profile centers like Pune or Hyderabad, change is certainly in the air. No matter where I have been to in India, there is this positive outlook that permeates all sections giving way to a perception that India’s time has finally arrived. Granted that IT is still the driving force, but other sectors like pharma, tourism, biotech and entertainment are making inroads into this once exclusive club of growth drivers. It sure looks like India is all set to embark upon one more golden period.

And finally, the one bright spot on the way back to the US on Air India was that we were on time and each and every landing (Delhi, Heathrow and JFK) was perfect, without any bumps, jerks or jolts. Should say that those were among the best landings I have ever experienced.

Calculating Time difference using Free form RPG

2007-06-13T10:19:00.000-04:00

This is how I calculate the difference between two times in minutes...

TimeDiff = %Int(%Diff(%Time(CurTime:*Hms):%Time(OrdTime:*Hms):*mn));

where Curtime and OrdTime are numeric and *mn denotes that we need the difference in minutes to be put in the TimeDiff field.

The spirit of Deepavali, the spirt of India

2006-10-16T01:55:00.000-04:00

Deepavali or Diwali, no matter how we say it, means the same to everybody who celebrates the triumph of good over evil, of knowledge over ignorance and of light over darkness.

Diwali has historically been associated with the victorious return of Rama from exile after vanquishing the evil Ravana in battle. Since then, it has also been associated with the victory of good over evil whenever it had happened over the centuries. Diwali is also the occasion when the goddess of wealth Lakshmi is worshipped as the harbinger of health and prosperity.

It also ushers in the New Year as well as the financial year in many Indian states. Festivites rule the roost on Diwali when people get up early, dress up in new clothes and worship. Home-made delicacies are prepared and exchanged with neighbors and friends. Friends, neighbors and relatives treat each other with offerings of home-made sweets as a token of mutual trust, respect and goodwill.

For most people, Diwali is synonymous with fireworks that are set off that evening to light up the dark skies. Diwali almost always falls on new moon day during October-November. Diwali is also known as the Festival of Lights.

All-in-all, like in most Indian festivals, Diwali brings with it bonhomie all around, pomp and gaiety, and the colors and smiles that light up the whole day followed up with the fireworks that light up the night and beyond.

My experience with SPIC-MACAY

2006-10-13T15:32:00.000-04:00

Over fifteen years ago, while I was a student, I had the good fortune to work for a unique voluntary organization called SPIC-MACAY. While there were the customary ups and downs that we had to deal with, it turned out to be a worthwhile experience at the end of it all. SPIC-MACAY stands for the “Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth”. While I agree that it is a mouthful of a name, there cannot be a more precise name to it, as the name is the exact mission of this little known organization. I call it “little-known” because many people wouldn’t have heard of it until and unless you had an interest in Indian classical music and dance forms while you were in school or college and if you were fortunate enough to have been a student in one of those locations where SPIC-MACAY is active. SPIC-MACAY was founded by… hold your breath for this one… none other than IIT-ians and, for the most part, is based out of IIT Delhi. And most of its active members at various chapters (all over India and abroad) hail from engineering and medical colleges. As one would expect, the chapters themselves are active at almost all the professional colleges/universities of India, and through their activities, bring in the surrounding educational entities into their fold.

One might question the reasoning behind the willingness of students from professional fields to dedicate their valuable time to the pursuit of the promotion of our art forms, that too when they know up front that there are not many takers in today’s day and age. Well, the reasons are truly manifold and I shall try to spell out some of them by drawing on personal experience. We people in professional fields like to take up a challenge when we see it, and if it is for a good cause, all the more better! In my case, barring the occasional ‘Sankarabharanam’ on the silver screen, I could not boast of any great exposure to the Indian art forms. My thinking at that stage was: why not give it a shot and see if I can learn something about our great art forms from the maestros themselves? If we would like to learn from our experiences and what better place to learn than a voluntary organization like SPIC-MACAY, where, on a daily basis, we will have to learn to deal with each other’s egos, we will have to learn to deal with the government of the day, interact with students and heads of institutions trying to convince them of the need to expose their students to Indian cultural forms, interact with the champions of society, organize free events (featuring the greats of our land) for students, and last but not the least making sure that the artists have nothing to complain about while they are under our care. All this, while expecting nothing in return but the hope that our efforts of exposing Indian music and dance to children will one day create an interest in today’s children for these ancient, rich art forms. Of course, there is the added pleasure of being able to interact with some of the great artists of our times. At the end of this all, we would have learnt something about organizational and communication skills. The interaction with the likes of great stalwarts like Ustad Bismillah Khan and Pandit CR Vyas is a humbling experience to say the least. One can never fathom how down to earth these individuals are and how they can come down to our small minds just to interact with us!

My first foray into SPIC-MACAY was when we hosted Sudharani Raghupati (Bharatanatyam) in Vizag. It was at this one (primary/middle for those in the west) school that we had an evening program scheduled for where the target audience was in the age group of maybe 5 to 15, with most of them having negligible previous exposure to classical dance. We were wondering how Sudharani would be able to get at least a few them interested in Bharatanatyam. We didn’t have to wait long as when Sudharani appeared on the modest “stage” (if we may call it that), there was nothing but silence. To communicate, Sudharani went down to the child’s level of understanding and how! She started off with the customary salutation and before long, she started off by explaining the rationale behind how some of the basic human expressions like happiness, anger, jealousy, lust, confusion, irritation, shyness, desperation etc. are depicted in Bharatanatyam. She not only performed and explained them one by one, but she also drew them up for the whole group to see. She basically made it an interactive experience, so much so that the children were thrilled with the performance. What turned out to be a confused group at the beginning of the performance became an enthralled and enlightened group within an hour. There was no stopping the children after it was over. Before the performance, they were told that she was a great dancer, but after the performance, they recognized her as one. They had lots of questions to ask of her. They dished out anything they could find, just to get an autograph of a great dancer and a great instructor. Sudharani herself was very exhausted after the con cert, but with a smile on her face, she acknowledged that she had had a great time. That was my first ever up-close encounter with an Indian art form and I was certainly hooked onto the mission of SPIC-MACAY from that day on.

I still remember the evening when we walked the 2 Km odd stretch from the university to the beach along with Pandit CR Vyas and his group. In spite of his age, he insisted that he would walk to the beach and took to the road with a few of us for company. The walk turned out to be great, as we reached the beach just before sunset. If you ever walked at least a kilometer towards Vizag beach, you would realize that as you walk towards it, you almost always end up walking downhill as you approach the shore. This presents you with a changing view of the sea (in daytime or on a moonlit night) as you descend towards it. Add to this the colors of the setting sun interacting with those of the sea and you are in for a visual treat! The breeze also changes angles on you as you approach the shore. Panditji was so overwhelmed with the view that he couldn’t help but mention it to us. Once we took up position on the sea wall that runs along the beach road, Panditji just sat down in silence for a few moments as if to take in the calming effect of the elements. It looked like he was at peace with himself. After a while, he resorted to small chitchat with the rest of us and then, after the night took over and as the moonlight played with the waves, Panditji broke into song out of the blue! It was a moment that I will cherish forever, for at that time, all banter stopped and everybody was, well, just listening to him. At that moment, I understood his deep passion for the music he sings and that he enjoyed every bit of what he was doing. After a few more minutes by the beach, we started trekking back to Panditji’s quarters for the night. Panditji insisted that he walk back in spite of it being an uphill task (for all of us) now.

My experience with SPIC-MACAY was a deeply educational one too. This is where I made new friends from across India who shared more or less the same goals and expectations that I had, folks who had the fire within them to do something about fostering our culture among fellow students as well as to the next generations. Our weekly chapter meetings were times when we interacted with locally re-known personalities and found out more about the passion and energy that drives such great souls. Whatever we did, the objective was always to learn something in the process, from each other, from famous people, from the great artists, from the younger generation, from peers, from the older ones. If not anything else, this experience has strengthened my desire for continuous learning. As far as Music and Dance is concerned, this has been my best exposure to one of the finest art forms that the world can boast of today.

India's railway budget 2006

2006-02-24T16:53:00.000-05:00

This year's railway budget seems to be politically driven once again keeping in mind the five states that go to the polls this year. The only exception to this rule is the minister's home state of Bihar which got as many as fourteen of the 55 new trains announced for this fiscal!

Is he expressing his thanks to the biharis for shunting him out of power in the state? Does Bihar really require that much capacity at this time? Or are so many trains required to keep the thieves and bandits in his home-state happy?

And what is with the naming of the proposed eastern and western freight corridors that are mainly relegated to the northern sectors? Is the disconnect between the names and the actual proposed locations for these projects deliberate? I would expect any eastern corridor to run through the eastern half of the country, not across the northern half!! Same argument goes for the Western corridor.

The "Western" corridor is proposed to run from Bombay to the UP heartland and the Eastern corridor is proposed to run from Bihar to Punjab. Why did the "Eastern" corridor have to stop in Bihar? Should it not run into West Bengal at the least and maybe onward into Assam and the other north eastern states thorugh feedrer lines? Don't they desreve to do freight? And what about the rest of the country? Why these additional lines in an area that already has enough lines? If at all there are areas that need additional lines those lie right in the center of India and in the north east states. A line connecting the western and eastern coasts of India may be more beneficial.

What about the south states? The only southern state that got anything significant is Tamil Nadu. Maybe they have an election coming up...

End of rant!!

De-interlacing and digital display units.

2005-12-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

More and more people are taking a liking to digital TVs and digital display units. Needless to say, there are several factors that will need to be considered while shopping for the 'right' unit.

One of these factors is the de-interlacer that converts analog video signals to digital signals before the display unit can 'publish' them for our eyes. As we will be stuck with having to watch non-digital video for quite some time, we will have to remmeber that the digital set will have to be able to handle analog signals almost as well as it can handle digital feeds. This is where a good de-interlacer comes into the picture. One of the best de-interlacers in the market today happens to be DCDi by Faroudja which does a great job of converting analog feeds to digital feeds. I see this at work almost every day.

Other de-interlacers are available too, but it is always a good idea to check out how a display unit handles analog feeds before you decide to purchase the unit. Most shops will never feed the digital display units in the showroom with non-digital video (like regular, non-HD, cable/satellite video). So, be sure to ask for a demo so that you can compare both digital/regular video at work before deciding on that digital purchase.