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1,234,567,890 seconds since the Epoch ...

At 23:31:30 UTC on February 13th, 2009, it was 1,234,567,890 seconds since the Unix Epoch

In Unix world, the calendar starts on Jan-1,1970 and Unix systems compute time since the epoch.[5]

The system call, 'gettimeofday()'- returns the number of seconds since the Epoch, which is defined as Jan-1,1970.
[http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/functions/gettimeofday.html]

As was pointed out on Slashdot,([1][4]) if you want to be really precise about it, you would figure out that Unix time does not take into account leap seconds. Therefore Feb-13,2009 @23:31:30 UTC is not exactly 1,234,567,890 seconds from Jan-1, 1970.

To be precise, Feb-13,2009 @23:31:30 UT1 is 1,234,567,890 seconds from Jan-1, 1970 See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time for an explanation of what UT1 is and how it differs from UTC.[2]

People across the globe celebrated this time by having party and such. See the coordination link below[3]

Possibly interesting further reading :

[1]http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/13/1534240
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Time
[3]http://www.1234567890day.com/
[4]http://entertainment.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1127059&cid=26851049
[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time

Anyway, Happy 1,234,567,890 seconds since the Epoch!!

Classic TV Ads

I went Youtube surfing a while ago and found a bunch of old TV ads/spots that used to be played over the air many many years ago. Its been atleast on the order of 8-10 years since I've seen any of these aired. These were classics in their content and evoke memories of days gone by.

Spread The Light of Freedom

This was a television spot that was created by the Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad many years ago. It was a part of 2-3 series that were aimed at spreading the message of National Harmony and Integration. This one is my favorite amogst the lot. It features famous atheletes of the time carrying a flaming torch across the country.
(2:37 in duration, completely instrumental)

Note: Doordarshan is the Indian state run TV broadcaster. The music clip starting at 2:16 to the end is the closing verses of the Indian National Anthem.

Bajaj

A manufacturer of vehicles in India, came out with this ad in 1989. Classic for its content. I seem to remember this playing every weekend morning before some of my favorite cartoons.

(40 seconds long, Hindi words)

Doodh

(Note: Doodh = Milk in Hindi) The ad is promoting milk consumption. -This ad that took me by surprise. Without having seen the ad for atleast 8 years in a stretch, the first time I viewed it on Youtube, I found that I could sing the words of the jingle flawlessly without stumbing or hesitating even a bit for the words.. Talk about information retrieval! I was impressed by my own ability to be able to recall this so well.

(32 seconds long, combination of Hindi and English content)

I'll post more of these if I come across more interesting ones.

Creating GMail Interface buttons

Gmail recently introduced new buttons' in its interface.



They look pretty nifty and simple, but a lot of work went into them. Google's Visual Lead Douglas Bowman (stopdesign.com) was the leading force behind the creation of this new set of buttons. He wrote a detailed blog entry on the design and describes the work that went into creating the set of buttons that are just right for the job. Read his blog entry by following the link below

Read "Recreating the button" by Douglas Bowman (stopdesign.com)

Building SimpleScalar/ARM cross compiler based on gcc-2.95.2

This entry talks about my experience in building the SimpleScalar/ARM cross compiler based on gcc-2.95.2

This was built on Ubuntu 8.10 with gcc-3.4 running on a Virtual Machine - Sun Virtual Box, XP Host, x86 Architecture

(The following instructions are an updated version to the instructions in ANNOUNCE.cross from http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~taustin/code/arm-cross/ANNOUNCE.cross)

--
1. Get all packages from http://www.simplescalar.com/v4test.html
cross compiler kit

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~taustin/code/arm-cross/ANNOUNCE.cross
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~taustin/code/arm-cross/gcc-2.95.2.tar.gz
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~taustin/code/arm-cross/binutils-2.10.tar.gz
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~taustin/code/arm-cross/glibc-2.1.3.tar.gz

2. Untar and expand all 3 .tar.gz files into a single folder. (/home/example/arm-cross)

3. Make sure you have gcc-3.4 installed on the system. (Ubuntu's GCC 4.3.2 did not compile this package)

4. Build and Install binutils

cd binutils-2.10
../configure --target=arm-linux --prefix=/home/example/arm-cross
make
make install
cd ..

5. You should now have a bin/ folder inside arm-cross/. Add this to your path. (If using bash shell, use the below command, modify to fit your shell)
export PATH=$PATH:/home/example/arm-cross/bin

6. Rehash the filesystem to see the newly created executables.
In Ubuntu 8.10, rehash is /usr/bin/c_rehash - no arguments, just executable

7. Now build the GNU GCC cross compiler (This is what gave me the most trouble- after lots of playing around, the following steps worked) [1]

7.a. inside arm-cross/

cd gcc-2.95.2
../configure --prefix=/home/example/arm-cross --target=arm-linux --with-as=/home/example/arm-cross/bin/arm-linux-as

This should configure without any errors.

7.b. Now, edit the Makefile. Inside the Makefile, find and replace 'rmdir' with 'rm -rf' (without the quotes)

7.c The current version of libgcc (as shipped with Ubuntu 8.10) seems to be incompatible with the build environment of the cross compiler, so we are going to build it with STATIC linkage. [2]

make LANGUAGES=c BOOT_LDFLAGS=-static

This should take a while, but should complete without any errors.

If you encounter any errors in this step, check the above steps carefully. Before reattempting to build, always do a 'make distclean'. This will purge all files that were created during the make process and allow you to start afresh. One of the side effects of make distclean is that it will also remove the Makefile. Hence you will have to begin at the ./configure step again.

If this passes successfully, install the package using the below:

make LANGUAGES=c install

At this point you have the compiler installed and working.

Here's the output of the version string as reported by the cross compiler at this stage:

example@machine:~/$ arm-linux-gcc -v
Reading specs from /home/example/arm-cross/lib/gcc-lib/arm-linux/2.95.2/specs
gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release)

8. Now follow the instructions in ANNOUNCE.cross to fix the specs

vim /home/example/arm-cross/lib/gcc-lib/arm-linux/2.95.2/specs

replace all occurrences of "elf32arm" with "armelf_linux",
this fixes an innocuous incompatibility between the most
recent GCC and GLIBC libraries...

9. You now have a working arm-cross compiler that can produce binaries that can be run on SimpleScalar/ARM

arm-linux-gcc example_code.c -o object_file.o

Now run object_file.o using the appropriate simplescalar tool.

-------------------------------------------------------------
[1]
To fix error with xgcc

from http://sourceware.org/ml/crossgcc/2001-02/msg00081.html
use an explicit "--with-as=/path/to/as" on the gcc configure line

[2]
This fixes the set of messages:

ibgcc1.S: Assembler messages:
libgcc1.S:1: Warning: rest of line ignored; first ignored character is `@'
libgcc1.S:2: Warning: rest of line ignored; first ignored character is `@'

from
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/arm-toolchain-problem-350988/

use the BUILD_LDFLAGS=-static

February

Monthly Overview: (http://shine.yahoo.com/astrology/virgo/monthly-overview/)

As the month gets going, you're going to be tempted on multiple occasions to rush. On the 1st, you don't want to spend the extra minute brushing your teeth. You want to skip the flossing. You want to hit 'send' before you spell check. You want to buy a suit without trying it on. You don't want to leave the chicken in the oven for the whole 45 minutes. The rule for you to keep in mind? Slow down! Rushing will get you nowhere (but you could contract salmonella), so watch out! You'll be in a better place for action-taking and decision-making on the 5th and 6th. Your life is more or less charmed on the 10th and 11th, when everything you touch turns successful. Going with the flow on the 16th is what you want to do, but you could find your canoe is stuck. Disentangle yourself, carefully. You're feeling awfully romantic on the 19th and 20th, so make sure somebody's going out on a date with you one of these two nights! You'll be ready to get things fixed-up
quick on the 25th, but your colleagues aren't on the same page, so watch out. On the 28th, talk shop. You'll enjoy it.

Monthly Career: (http://shine.yahoo.com/astrology/virgo/monthly-career/)

A little soul searching, when it comes to where you're at with your career, would be helpful on the 1st. A lot of soul searching would be really helpful. After all, if you never ask yourself just how you feel about your work, where you're at, how you're doing and where you're headed, how will you be able to do a good job navigating your way there? Go over all those itty-bitty nitpicky details on the 4th. You'll be ready to try being a little bit more flexible on the 8th and 9th, if only because you've run out of other ideas for how to address the problem. You'll see just what an excellent approach this was when everything comes out just right on the 11th. Your curiosity could propel you into a very romantic place on the 14th. Who knew that that cutie at the office was so very interested? If you're taken, let them down easy. Hard work pays off, just the way it's supposed to on the 19th and 20th. A couple of super confusing details threaten to derail you
on the 25th. Research on the 28th will get it all under control.
--
Monthly Relationships (http://shine.yahoo.com/astrology/virgo/monthly-love/)

Sure, it's romantic to do things for the object of your affections. But giving too much of yourself too much of the time isn't romantic at all. On the 1st, it's time for you to step back and recharge. Spend all your energy doing nice things for yourself, and you'll find that, in the long run, you have a lot more energy for romance. After all, you can't take care of other people if you're all tapped out yourself. You should keep this in mind: Your job is to love you. From there, you can love others. Put romance on the back burner again on the 5th, when your best bet is to organize friends or family in some kind of activity. On the 10th, you're finally in tiptop form and ready to welcome romance with open arms. Guess what? Romance embraces you right back! Excellent! Now hold hands! If you're curious and you want to get to know them better, be sure to schedule something special on the 14th. You two are getting along like gangbusters on the 19th. You're
ready to take things to the next level on the 24th, but don't criticize them if they lag. On the 28th, you're compatible.
--

January Review

Lets just say that less said the better.
January's so called accurate predictions didn't come true. Nothing happened on any of the many specific dates in january - though if you look at the financial aspects of it, they may have slipped by about a week.

Oh well, lets see if February works out any better shall we?

Adding PATH to bash

In your .bash_profile, (or .bashrc) add the following

PATH = $PATH:/PathToAdd1:/PathToAdd2:/PathToAdd3
export PATH

l33t

The following post is in l33t. If you can't decode it, too bad. Go
figure it out.

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Servers and fan replacements

I replaced one of the cooling fans on one of the group servers this morning. The process was relatively painless. From powering down the server to powering it back up with the replacement fan took less than 30 minutes of actual work.

The old fan was still spinning, but the server's on-board diagnostics were complaining that it was bad. On shining a flashlight onto the spinning unit, it did appear to be spinning slower than the rest of the units - so we figured that replacing it was probably a good idea.

It was much easier to do it early in the semester when people aren't using the machine that much. This made it easier to find a time slot when no one else was logged on, since replacing the fan requires that we power down the machine.

Now I get to go look at the machine about once a week to make sure that the error lamp stays OFF. :)

A Presidential Inauguration

48 fantastic pictures of the Presidential Inauguration.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html

The Dangers of using GOTO

XKCD says it the best.

January

Monthly Overview:

From here : http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/virgo/monthly-overview/

The 1st gives you the chance to immediately implement your New Year's resolution to not be overly critical -- when you wake up to find a great big post-party mess. Sure, there are party hats in the sink and plastic champagne flutes on the floor, but take a deep breath and remind yourself of your resolution: Be constructive. Don't be afraid to delegate, just don't give into the urge to nag. You'll be proud of your progress on the 5th and 6th, especially when you notice an overall sense of calm pervading your environment -- thanks to your diminished critique. On the 11th and 12th, you want to be organized, but something is getting in your way. Is it your desire to go skiing? Why not give in? You might want to lock up your credit cards on the 17th, since a whole lot of luxury items will look indispensable (they aren't). On the 21st, take a risk -- you won't be sorry. Being open-minded and experimental will only enhance your life on the 27th. There's always time to go to an experimental dance performance! Don't let a problem with a co-worker ruin your day on the 30th -- turn it into a learning experience!

Monthly Career:
From here : http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/virgo/monthly-career/

As the year starts out, you might think you know just want you want, career-wise, on the 1st and 2nd. You very likely based all of your New Year's resolutions on a certainty of where you're at and where you want to go, but before you take the plunge into a new year at work, take a second look: Things may be far more complex than you realize. This isn't a bad thing -- after all, it would be boring if you already knew everything all the time. Don't fret, but do be prepared for some (exciting!) challenges this year. You need to be careful -- to the point of neurotic -- when going over details on the 7th. On the 13th and 14th, some of the very thrilling upsides of the unknowns you are encountering begin to present themselves. Could all this office upheaval result in a big promotion for you? You'll be very curious on the 19th, so give your quest for more details a wide berth. On the 24th, somebody cute at work has their eye on you -- if you aren't available, let them know right away (and ditto if you are available!). On the 28th and 29th, turn off your impulse to criticize before you know the whole story.

Monthly Relationships:

From here : http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/virgo/monthly-love/

Somebody really, really, really thinks the world of you, and they want you to know that on the 1st. So why are you criticizing them so much? Are you maybe feeling a little bit vulnerable? Like if you allow yourself to feel how much they love you, you might accidentally give up some of your self-control? Have you considered that giving up some self-control and accepting unconditional love, unconditionally, could be a good thing? Give it a shot, this year. On the 4th, a personality clash at work could take the wind out of your romantic sails. Try not to let it. You'll be ready to communicate some of your deepest feelings on the 8th. The 13th and 14th are your days: Spend them as romantically as you can. Even just staying home and cooking dinner together could be perfect. On the 18th, if you're feeling romantically restless, explore those feelings. Where are they coming from? Fun and romance are in the cards for you on the 23rd, when somebody surprises you with a date you hadn't expected. Sushi dinner at the zoo after-hours? Don't say no! On the 26th, it's really important that you stay positive. You'll be more than ready to end the month in a well-rested spot on the 30th.

---
Ok, let's see how the rest of January plays out.

Forecasts

Ever noticed that the predictions for the year/month/week/day are always glowing and positive for every sun sign every day/week/month/year? Days you know are going to be bad, always have a positive spin in the papers/website/your-source-of-this-info

Since I figured out this patten many many moons ago, I'm rather skeptical about horoscopes.

However, this being a new year and with my resolution to try to do new stuff on my own, I figured, I'd give Yahoo Astrology a chance to predict the months of January- March. Every month, I'll pick up and record what the site said for me and at the end of the month, I'm going to see how well (or not) it all worked out. Of course, the way some of these are worded, anything that happens could possibly be related to what was written.

Yahoo Astrology can be found here : http://astrology.yahoo.com

Next post, predictions for January.

Blocked schedules

This is going to be another high intensity semester. Tuedays and
Thursdays have me blocked from 9:35am through 7pm.

And this is before finding out what the lab meeting schedule and other
research based deadlines for the semester are. :-/

Miss Mailers

Essential reading for anyone curious about the etiquette connected with
dealing with mailing lists.

Miss Mailers Answers Your Questions on Mailing Lists
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/miss-mailers/

<abstract>
Summary: An explanation of how to use and run mailing lists
</abstract>

Speed upgrade

We were on a 1Mbps broadband plan until recently in my apartment.
Looking at our bills over the past few months and talking to people
around us, my roommate and I decided that we need to renegotiate our
plan with the ISP. So he called the ISP this morning and they bumped us
up to an 8Mbps plan for the same price per month!! Whoop!

With a 54Mbps WiFi connection, my laptop just reported an average
download speed of 5Mbps and an upload speed of 500Kbps. Not bad at all
for a shared connection and the router being in another room. :D

Season's Greetings

Season's greetings for a very happy and prosperous New Year 2009.
May the year bring you lots of laughter, fun, success and prosperity in
all your endeavors large or small.

Disenchanted

Edited to replace the embedded videos with links. (Jan-1,09)

The 2008 HMS Genetics Department Christmas Skit

PART-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No8_2ID8ch4&hl=en

PART-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MNOKDniNrw&hl=en

PART-3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LntERliGozk&hl=en

Christmas Eve Adventure

I had an adventure of sorts on Christmas Eve.

Just as I was pulling out of my apartment (I hadn't gone 50 feet), I saw what looked like white steam come out of the right side front corner of the hood of my car. With memories of having seen this in the past (in other cars), I stopped and opened the hood and peeped around.

Two things caught my attention (a) My coolant tank was bone dry (b) The air filter and some other parts had green fluid sprayed on them. Meant I had a massive cooling system leak somewhere. The next question was where. We poked around the engine and found that the upper radiator hose had developed a large rip in it and hence the source of the leak.

Finding a replacement for this on Christmas eve was tricky, but luckily it wasn't 5pm as yet. (It was 4:15). So we went looking for a replacement. Two stores said they would have to order it in, while the third one had one in stock. Armed with the replacement hose, new clamps, new coolant, we returned to the car, replaced the hose and refilled the coolant. At 5:30 we were done and the car was returned to regular operation. Oh, and it took 1.2 gallons of coolant to refill the radiator.

Whoop! Yay! for being able to notice the leak in the day time, Yay! for it happening close to my apt and not in the middle of a highway, Yay! for it happening in town and where I have people whom I could call upon for help.

Merry Christmas!