champion takes changes ...

Roland Garros is just round the corner, and I am sure that those tennis lovers -- Clay expert Nadal, Playing legend Federer, Threatening Novak Djokovic, Improve Ferer; and their rivalry --- will take over all IPL fever flowing with the blood. The excitement on each point, inventive shots, fast rallies, irritating serve, throwing racket, pressure on breakout, classic drop shots, top spin, clay master and Of course Federer express -- all will inject new feelings in their body. So be ready - fill your fridge will some chips, snacks, lots of lots of beer coz its just two days to go!!!

So what is the biggest question or should I say excitement of this edition. Is it can Nadal make four? Or How Novac plays on clay? Or Will Federer loose again? Which one................

I think biggest question this time is "Can Federer pull this on off and complete the picture of "Greatest of all time" which will turnout to be his if he can do it?" He tried it three times before; 05,06,07 - came very close to win in 06, lost in close semi in 05 and lost his way after 2 sets in 07 final . But every time he steps in French open ...... and every eye, everyyy god dam eye ...is on him ... to watch him pull it. May be this is the time.

I see many people writing Federer off after his lost in Australian open, saying that Federer down is started, Federer mania is over and they backed their argument with his continue losses in subsequent tournament. That's the main reason I think this time he is much more dangerous to everyone else out there, cause he need to shut those mouth. And a guy like federer will not show his feeling on or off the court, he reply back by his game -- and remember he goes that best. I think these entire episodes may just make him wild enough to steal the cup this time. Remember Federer strength is to play best in tough time. He is the real one. When going gets tough, tough gets going ……. 'n' I have even seen him running in those times. With the guy like Federer; true champion; ego; lead by mile attitude and that backbone ... nothing below the perfect best can satisfy you.

May be he takes his chances and prove everybody wrong those who thought for a moment the Federer express is halted. I must warn them that this time when he will be back, it would be destructive. It would be never seen before show. A Federer better than Federer.

For all the tennis fans, best part of this edition should be watching Federer and Nadal running their way into final and more then a nail-biting final match. That would be perfect one. And somewhere in the mind or deep in heart we all want Federer to win this time and grab that seat where no one came close off.

I am closing this post with these lines and wishes all the best to Federer. Go Roger!!!


"Champion takes chances. Pressure is privilege"

Bug on bug

while sending a patch to pidgin, I came across these two cutting edge -- next generation bugs. Smart ones, intelligent. Have a look ---

What the hell Ron Paul has to do with pidgin ??

And this is classic one. When I give you the best of juice from the most rare tree of the garden, they came back and say -- hey ya actually now I am used to others and like it more.

There were long discussions and numerous request on pidgin to provide "Escape' as shortcut key for closing a conversation (through UI). After sometime, they finally pulled that in 2.4.2 release.

But then someone came up with this bug: God knows what was his intenti... or may be God doesn't know.

Adieu ...

Hiding away buddies in pidgin

Pidgin 2.4.2 is recently released and it has got few good editions like - turning off typing notification option, send button, escape key, crash fixes, plugin load problem across OS, toggle picture size etc. Good ones kicked out !!

Still so much, but not enough. I was quite disappointed, with seeing the long pending bug still remain unfixed and community decided to survive with those craps. So I decided to put my finger down and eat at least one crap which had me from long time.

Pidgin (still) doesn't have an option to hide away and idle buddies from buddy list. For those who longs on a numbers of account and so many friends added, its high chance that many of them are away or idle (ya, people just left from their desktop --- even OS crashes crashes after long running and all those power saving initiatives, no one turns them off). In that case buddy list looks a bit clumsy as in my case where I see every time at least 80% of my buddy list is either idle or away.

So yesterday, I put my hand down to include this feature. Writing it wasn't difficult, mindset to put my hands down, few chilled beers and a night, that's all. Considering that there is already stuff to hide offline buddies, it was a few hours task.

Yeah, building that for windows was a little problematic for me --- more I work on windows I feel like home away.

Few snapshots:

Hope this would be useful.

You can download the patch over pidgin 2.4.2. I suggest you to use the patch. But in case you are more interested in complete source code you can get that from here. In case you want to try out windows binary, its here.

In case of patch, run patch command with -p1 option from parent directory of pidgin-2.4.2 source.

Note: complete soure and executable has pidgin about box modified. However patch isn't. Its the same patch which is submitted to pidgin team.

That's all for the day.

Adieu ...

jab we chat

Guess it has started infected the blood and symptom are very much visible now as this one.

May be we take a break, get a blood transplantation -- 'n' I don't mind replace it with beer for few hours!!

Adieu ...

Bangalore rain and Traffic

That was ... last Tuesday when it rained heavily and I was on my way back to home from office. Bathing roads, heavy traffic, signal failures, signal disputes ... all you can guarantee if you are in Bangalore.

So on the 3 inch of water on the road, I missed on stone underneath it and that did the trick to me. Bike 60 degree on the right and I am few inch away from it head to head. Very first reaction was to jump out for few inch cause I knew traffic was behind and a alto behind me.

So I jumped back, stand up and tried to find out what I hit -- there i sense a big stone on the road (big enough to do for anyone if he misses). Got the reason and went toward the bike to pick up and as soon as I bend down heard a huge honk from behind. The same alto person was honking continuously as if I am making some drama or something on the road on my own to steel their time. On any of my other day, I might have stopped on there for few minutes probably and feed few words in his mind. But just to see heavy traffic behind and not to hurt others behind, I simply moved out.

That incident give me a sense of selfish Bangalore breed yet again. Not to change you mind - I faced that quite frequently but always on the road.

I know there are some problem with neighbor state people, but to the best of me I never faced it personally. The way everyone else treats me - be it neighbor - close shops, local peoples out there - every one is good. Even I see a change in them. Call it my effort to influence people with my language or best of them -- but they are better. Point is they are trying and its so satisfying. Its so good. Not to point some one -but I been in Chennai and Cochin - but none of them can stand with Bangalore.

But as soon as its out of neighbor, friends, colleagues to road-traffic, its all different. Its a different people. Every one is on run, don't mind to hit you, driving on the wrong side speedily and look at you badly if you tend to block them. Its all together different people out there. Totally inhuman.

May I bring it to their knowledge, its doesn't help. May feel I am few meters ahead but that just till the next traffic jam. Only way to improve is to bring some traffic sense among us. Follow the rules. Today you might be helping others, tomorrow all of them to you.

Major problems, I guess, are blinding headlight, three(or may be four sometime) way traffic, no turn signal, sudden lane change, no dipper signal, disallowing overtake (I have faced it many times - when I send a dipper signal and speeds close - they increase speed and turns in your lane to avoid overtake), breaking traffic light, and importantly pedestrians who just don't want to wait for signal to go red as if dare to hit me.

Unless this change, it would be the same sweet but souring Bangalore.