lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

brain-dead redmond-generated remote distributed virus loaders - Randal L. Schwartz in perl.beginners mailing list.

I have moved my blogging software from Wordpress to Serendipity. It was able to import the entries from Wordpress without any problem. I needed to create 3 additional files to make the transition complete i.e. wp-atom.php, wp-rss.php, wp-rss2.php . These were needed so that people who were using the rss feeds from the Wordpress did not have to change their feeds again.

These files do nothing more than redirecting the users to the new feed url. For example, the content of the file wp-rss2.php is just

<?php
// For redirecting users who are lost 
header("Location: http://rajshekhar.net/blog/feeds/index.rss2");
?>

Beyond this customization, I did not have to do any more labor to migrate to Serendipity

Since everyone has been busy drinking the Google kool-aid and simply going in an orgasm over the Google Gulp, I will take the road less travelled and point out the Yahoo Slacker here.

technorati tag to bring this into entry into its radar

You will not understand the below paragraph until you are well versed in geek culture . I am keeping it here, since it is another Frequently quoted quotation

After seven and a half million years of pondering the question, Deep Thought provides the answer: "forty-two". "Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?" "I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

One of the FAQ on the IRC channel (#linux-india at irc://freenode) is "What is the meaning of moo". I have added a page to my main website where I will try to answer that question.

The meaning of Moo

If you have been using Linux, I think you must have been frusturated with the lack of good fonts when using Emacs. It gets very hard to distinguish between "l" (the letter l) and 1 (number 1) and between comma and semicolon when programming or examining large amount of code.

The Bitstream Inc have done an excellent work in producing and relesaing under a very liberal license, the bitstream-vera fonts. These fonts are really beautiful and easy to read. To use these fonts with your emacs, just add this line to your ~/.Xdefaults file

 Emacs*font: -bitstream-bitstream vera sans mono-medium-r-*--*-100-*--*--*- 

This weekend I had gone to Goa. One of the good points of living in Bangalore is that it is only 12 hours bus journey to Goa. Here are my notes from the visit

• Take the sleeper seat in the bus - The Paulo Travels runs luxury buses from Bangalore to Goa. They have two choices of the seats - sleeper and sitting. We had the misfortune to get the sitting seat and could not sleep a wink for the whole journey. The guy sitting behind us was snoring quite a lot and added to our discomfort.
• Hire a scooter/bike when you get down at Panjim - We did not hire a two wheeler when we got down at Panjim. We reasoned that we would get a bike from the hotel where we were staying. This would make it easier for us to return the bike when it was time for us to leave. However, it was a bad decision. Most buses pass through Panjim when returning to Bangalore. It would have been far easier to return the bike at Panjim and then board the bus to Bangalore.
• Stay away from the autorickshaws if you can - They overcharge a lot. A lot. If you know where you want to go, it is far more easier to get a bus (but remember that the bus service stops at 7:00 PM). The people there are quite friendly and you can ask almost anyone to give you directions. It is even more convenient to hire a two wheeler if you plan to move around a lot.
• Watch the sun set over the sea - It really is a site to behold.
• Eat the sea food and Goan cuisine - If you are a North Indian, give up the desire to eat the chicken tikka and chicken tandoori while you are at Goa. Get your hands on the excellent seafood offered by the restaurants there. Not only is it cheaper, most restaurants make very tasty dishes.
• Try to get a room in the GTDC hotels - Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) hotels are government maintained, somewhat clean, comfortable and cheap. We stayed at Calangute Residency (Annexe).