F1 2010: New Season, New Expectations

Published on March 10, 2010 in Sports. View Comments

I have been watching F1 regularly since 2006 and this is the first time that 4 world champions will be on the grid at the same time! No wonder I am so excited and eager to get the season started. My ears have tired of waiting to hear the commentator say – “And the Bahrain GP is GO“. And just like the millions of fans across the globe, I too have lots of expectations from this season after the boring last one.

What makes the 2010 season fantastic is the return of God of Racing – Michael Schumacher. The seven time world champion is desperate to get started again. His enthusiasm shows his want for F1 racing again after a break of 3 years. And who better to have as team principal than Ross Brawn. The duo have won seven championships. I don’t care if it is not Ferrari they represent now. Schumacher is great at developing the car, and I am sure that if not this season then the next one will definitely be his.

The pre season testing for Brawn has not been as awesome as last years. The last year they had the fastest car and it showed right from the first lap of testing. This year though Brawn has accepted that they might be slightly off the pace. In the longer runs Mercedes car has managed to show consistency and speed, but it is with the lower levels of fuels that they are not sure about. The other cars seems to be quicker than Mercedes when running on fumes.

Speculations and rumors though refuse to die down around Brawn and Schumacher. Apparently Brawn has declared that they have a piece of technology which did not require testing and to design it they went till the limit of rules. Obviously reporters have been buzzing about the possibility of a new design of diffuser which would boost the performance of their car by a second or two per lap. And if this turns out to be true, then the championship is already Michael’s.

The testing though showed Ferrari to be the pick of the lot. They have got the pace to challenge for the championship. And Alonso is a shrewd driver. He is just as good in developing his car and extracting that last bit of performance. People have already tipped him to be clear favorite for drivers title. I just want to see Alonso and Michael battle it all out just the way they used to earlier. I just cannot make up my mind who to support – Michael or the team I have always liked, Ferrari. Michael was the reason I started watching F1, and Ferrari the reason I continued watching it after Michael left. Picking one is tough.

The return of Massa after the tragic accident is being highlighted too. He was quick during the practice sessions. But how competitive he will be compared to Alonso is doubtful. Alonso might perhaps carve out a place for himself just like Schumacher did. Alonso has already declared that he would like Ferrari to be his team when he retires. Also Luca Montezemolo has declared that all great drivers ultimately end up at Ferrari. I think if it comes to choosing between Alonso and Massa, Ferrari might prefer Alonso.

A lot of focus is being put on Hamilton and Button. I am given to understand that the Hamilton-Alonso saga, which nearly destroyed the McLaren team a couple of years ago, has been a valuable lesson for the team in management of resources. However the Hamilton-Kovaleinen partnership suggests otherwise. McLaren has been Hamiltons’ team and I think it will continue to be his. A few measure like shuffling of staff has been made to make Button happy regarding equality of driver, but pretty soon Button will realise that perhaps it was not for nothing that Alonso cribbed so much while at McLaren. How soon will trouble emerge could be an interesting bet.

But the most promising rising star on the grid has been Seb Vettel. The German has won lots of accolades for his driving in the wet. The last season with Red Bull, he did mount a serious challenge to the championship despite his car not having the double diffuser. Horner is a great designer of car, and it was mostly his ability that pushed RBR to the front. This year they have gone a step forward. With refuelling banned for the races, pit stops shall only have a change of tires, adjustments to the wing and a few minor changes if required. RBR has gone on record saying their pit crew has worked hard the whole winter and they have come up with a modified methodology which enables them to complete the pit stop in less than 2 seconds. Less than 2 seconds !!! You got to be kidding me. Thats lightening quick.

Last but not the least, with Max Mosely gone, politics should see a drastic reduction. Jean Todt is more than able person to be replacing him. A joke I read somewhere -

What could be the worst thing that Jean Todt does in the first year of his office?

Cry his tears out when Schumacher wins his first race.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Svn Repository Backup

Published on March 9, 2010 in Tech. View Comments

Ever since I started using svn I have found it an indispensable tool. I have created a local repository on my hard disk and all my personal projects are using this repository. And having had lots of hard disk crashes last year, I fear for the loss of my code files. So, I thought about a regular backup system.

I also have Ubuntu installed as a virtual machine. And Ubuntu has this Ubuntu One feature, which gives you a 2gb space online. So I went ahead to backup my repository to this space.

I have my repository mounted in Ubuntu at /mnt/WinRepository. The following script takes a dump of the repository:

svnadmin dump /mnt/WinRepository --incremental > ~/Ubuntu\ One/WinRepo.bak

The advantage of using incremental option is that I can specify revision range to be backed up into different files.

svnadmin dump /mnt/WinRepository --revision 0:100 > ~/Ubuntu\ One/WinRepo1.bak
svnadmin dump /mnt/WinRepository --revision 101:200 --incremental > ~/Ubuntu\ One/WinRepo2.bak
svnadmin dump /mnt/WinRepository --revision 201:HEAD --incremental > ~/Ubuntu\ One/WinRepo3.bak

And since the files are being saved in Ubuntu One folder, they get automatically backed up to the Ubuntu One online space.

This does not compress the files. But since I have 2 gb of space available, I am not really concerned about space.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Parsing XML With Castor XML

Published on March 6, 2010 in Coding. View Comments

After lot of trying I finally managed to get Castor tools working to parse XML files. And now that I have it working for me, I am always going to use it for XML parsing. It makes things so much simpler and easier.

Castor takes in a xml file and unmarshals it into Java objects. There are three ways to associate Java Classes with XML elements.

  • The first one is introspection. Given the class to the Unmarshelar, Castor populates the instance fields from XML.
  • The second is to use bindings defined by user.
  • The third is to use the XML Code Generator tool and have it generate Java Classes.

Of course, I used the third option, and that is the one I am going to mention here.

Castor jars can be downloaded from the Castor Project.It has a few dependencies. So I decided top use Maven. And I am already using Eclipse.

I imported the castor-code-generation jar. Then created a pom.xml file. I added a plugin to it:

      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
        <artifactId>castor-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
        <configuration>
          <schema>config.xsd</schema>
          <packaging>pba.plgen.xml.binding</packaging>
          <properties>generation.properties</properties>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <goals>
              <goal>generate</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>

Where the properties file is:

# Specifies whether the sources generated should be source compatible with
# Java 1.4 or Java 5.0. Legal values are "1.4" and "5.0".  When "5.0" is
# selected, generated source will use Java 5 features such as generics and
# annotations.
# Defaults to "5.0".
#
org.exolab.castor.builder.javaVersion=5.0

# Set to true if you want to have an equals() and
# hashCode() method generated for each generated class;
# false by default
org.exolab.castor.builder.equalsmethod=true

# Specifies whether automatic class name conflict resolution
# should be used or not; defaults to false.
org.exolab.castor.builder.automaticConflictResolution=true

# Property specifying whether extra members/methods for extracting XML schema
# documentation should be made available; defaults to false
org.exolab.castor.builder.extraDocumentationMethods=false

Right Click -> Run As -> Maven generate-sources

And all the source code is generated.

Suppose that the root element is plgen. Then a class Plgen is generated. All the child nodes of plgen become instance variables of Plgen. To unmarshal the xml file, 

        public void parse() {
		try {
			m_plgen = Plgen.unmarshal(new FileReader(m_configFilePath));
		} catch (MarshalException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		} catch (ValidationException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

Well, I haven’t written this properly. But, its enough to make me remember how to get castor working again. My mission accomplished.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I Hate XMLs

Published on March 5, 2010 in Coding. View Comments

XMLs have never been my favourite. Attributes, Elements, Values, Child nodes … aargh, they are so confusing. And yet, configuring an application using an xml file seems so simple.

I have written my own XML parsers using the DOM. The whole document gets mapped to a tree structure which you can iterate over and get any value you want. But I find it to be very restrictive, and most of my code depends on the structure of my xml file. I would like to make my xml parser independent of the xml file structure.

I came across Castor XML. It has tools to read the schema and generate Java Classes out of it. Then the xml file is parsed and objects are created. Now this is good. I think this should be much easier than iterating a tree. But !! I have spent a lot of time trying to get Castor working. Its dependencies !!! Damn.

Time to get back to xml parsing again.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Adding Startup And Shutdown Scripts in Ubuntu

Published on February 17, 2010 in Tech. View Comments

I have my Ubuntu installed in Virtual Box. The very first thing that I needed to do was to setup my Ubuntu to recognize Windows drives. I setup two bash scripts to run at startup and shutdown. The following is what I have done.

anu@sw:/etc/init.d$ sudo vi vboxStartup

#!/bin/bash

# Mount the Win virtual drives - MyDocument, CShared, PidginWin
sudo mount -t vboxsf MyDocuments /mnt/MyDocuments
sudo mount -t vboxsf CShared /mnt/CShared
sudo mount -t vboxsf PidginWin /mnt/PidginWin

# Sync the files from PidginWin/logs to purple/logs
sudo rsync -azv /mnt/PidginWin/logs/ /home/anu/.purple/logs/

anu@sw:/etc/init.d$ sudo chmod +x vboxStartup
anu@sw:/etc/init.d$ sudo update-rc.d vboxStartup defaults

This way my ubuntu pidgin logs are in sync with my windows pidgin logs. Next, I also wanted my Windows pidgin logs to get sync with the Ubuntu pidgin logs whenever I log off. So I create yet another script

anu@sw:/etc/init.d$ sudo vi vboxShutdown

#!/bin/bash

echo "Anuvrat Shutdown Script -- vbox"

# Resync files from purple/logs/ to PidginWin/logs/
sudo rsync -azv /home/anu/.purple/logs/ /mnt/PidginWin/logs/

anu@sw:/etc/init.d$ sudo chmod +x vboxShutdown
anu@sw:/etc/init.d$ sudo update-rc.d vboxShutdown start 80 0 6 .

The funny thing though is that I haven’t yet tested it. I hope it works.

Oh crap! It did not run at startup. Need to check.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Aardvark Acquired By Google

Published on February 13, 2010 in Miscel. View Comments

This news surprised me just as much as the launch of Google Buzz. I have used Aardvark, and I cannot imagine why it interests Google. Vark has a completely different concept to that of Google Search.

The idea in both the case is to find an answer to a users query. Google uses its advanced crawling, indexing and fast searching technologies to quickly answer the search query typed by its user. Aardvark on the other hand believes that the best way to get a question answered is by putting it across to real people. See, completely different approach.

In Aardvark, you type in your question (it could be quite lengthy), give it a few tags (just like you would select keywords for a Google search) and submit it. The tags are used to find a suitable user to put the question to. When an user answers the question, you can revert back and engage him in a conversation getting more out of him. But obviously, there is a considerable time lag as you have to wait for someone to answer your query.

Here is a screen shot of a question I asked. I got back replies from three people. If I want, I can ask the Aardvark to get me more answers.And of course, it also has a GTalk bot that you could add and ask questions to.

Aardvark Conversation

Popularity: 58% [?]

Confidently Accept Your Actions

Published on February 9, 2010 in Miscel. View Comments

I am a man who values honesty and truthfulness above all else. But unfortunately, the world is made up of successful liars, and their foolish superiors who cannot see beyond the boot-licking, pig-shoving acts. And for this, I hate the latter more than the former.

I realized this only after getting into IIT. I was appalled at some of my friends behavior. A normal bragging would go about like this -

Yaar, I was sleeping in the first row of the class, assuming the the professor will not notice. And then in the end, just to make sure that the professor does not get any doubts, I asked him a few questions. And sadly, the same professor feels that I am a good student and has given me some extra work to do.

Who are you fooling? Everybody can see through your lies. It was always your intention to get the attention of the professor. You wouldn’t have dressed up neatly and sat in the first row if you wanted to hide in plain sight. If you tell me a story wherein you were jumping down the professors neck with your hands raised just to escape his attention, then please, go find a better listener. I am sick and tired of listening to such attention-seeking stories.

Else, do the right thing and actually owe up to your actions. Confidently declare that you truly wanted to get noticed and are pretty happy about it. Grow up. And the professors, please, a good Yes Man is not necessarily the best student.

And if you are reading this post, I hope you realized that IIT, professor and student are just metaphors.

If I ever go on to become a manager, these Yes Men shall live the hardest time of their lives. I shall eliminate them from my department even if it means removing the top best brains and settling with the second best. I am a stickler for my principles.

Popularity: 85% [?]

I Don’t Wanna Go Anymore :: Monish Salhotra

Published on February 8, 2010 in Miscel. View Comments

Oh God!!
what this place has done to me ?
I don’t resemble me anymore.
lemme stay here a bit more,
I don’t wanna go anymore.

Looking through window 4 years back,
I was no-where in this huge human map,

what……………………..
……………

This is the place, where I lived on my own,
principles, rules, decisions all were my own.

what…………………………………..

I had the best and worst days of my life,
challenged the strongest and still I survive,

what…………………………………..

I’ll definitely forget the formulas and derivations,

but never my first sutta and daru party with friends.

what…………………………………..

untill unless I would have destroyed myslef,
I could have never explored myslef.

Oh God!!
what this place has done to me ?
I don’t resemble me anymore.
lemme stay here a bit more,
I don’t wanna go anymore.

–
Regards,
Monish Salhotra

Popularity: 12% [?]

Clearing A Few Things Up

Published on February 8, 2010 in Anu. View Comments

My friends have always been worried about me. They think I am an abnormal guy. My indifference to bird watching, discussing particular topics, being least interested in going to some disco, etc; makes them doubt me.

To all my friends, I would like to tell you this. I am in no hurry to grow up! I want to enjoy my present as it is. Unlike you desperate guys, I do not feel the need to have a girl friend to keep myself happy/busy/occupied. I already have great friends and need no more.

Call it my naivety or arrogance, but I do not need your advice or concerns. I have my own class and style. I am no hip-hopper. I like to present myself with some dignity and an air of a respectable person. I am damn good at what I do. So please stop worrying about my future.

I’ll make my own destiny.

Popularity: 16% [?]

My Will – II (Continued)

Published on February 3, 2010 in Anu. View Comments

To what I have already desired in my previous Will, the one where I wrote about wanting to have A Tout Le Monde played for my funeral, I would like to make another addition.

I have always considered myself to be a student of science. I am an atheist, not influenced by any religion, and do not want my body to be either cremated, or buried. I would rather desire my body to be donated to some medical research institute. That way, even after my death, my body shall be made better use of than being reduced to ashes.

–

PS: Both the posts that I have written as My Will, I have done so with utmost seriousness. Mentioning such desires under a formal name of Will makes me happy. I feel glad to have formed these thoughts into sequences of words. I shall keep adding stuffs to my Will. I just hope that if I don’t get a chance to formally document my Will, people take these pieces of electronic articles seriously enough.

Popularity: 78% [?]