How to reset a lost MySQL root password

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Sukrit

Something I wrote for SimpleHelp.net:

Have you ever forgotten your MySQL root password? It’s one of those things that just happens despite the numerous precautions one might take. As a result, you are locked out of your database server. You can’t create new databases and are left with little control over the state of your database server. In such situations knowing how to regain root access to your database server comes in handy. So here’s what you can do to reset the password for the root user in MySQL on both Windows and Linux. [click to continue...]

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Increase your Linux/Unix Productivity: How to use crontab

Posted on November 23, 2008 by Sukrit

an article I wrote for SimpleHelp.net :

Apart from video games one of the great advantages of using computers is that they don’t seem to mind doing boring and repetitive tasks that we would rather not do. For monotonous tasks such as running daily backups we are better off scheduling them to run at a certain time every day, and do more interesting stuff with our time. Linux and UNIX usually come with the utility “crontab” by default. This very useful command allows you to schedule tasks to run at a specified time and repeat as configured. A task scheduled using “crontab” is called a “cron job”.

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How to create automated Linux/Unix backups

Posted on November 23, 2008 by Sukrit

Another article I wrote for SimpleHelp.net. An excerpt:

“A stitch in time saves nine”, goes an old saying. In the world of computers we refer to that stitch as backups. When running a production IT infrastructure, it is imperative that we achieve an uptime on our servers and applications of as close to a hundred percent as possible. While there are a number of ways to make an IT infrastructure solid, it is impossible to make it failure proof. So we make a plan B.

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statoo

Posted on November 23, 2008 by Sukrit

For the Mac users out there, here’s a cool application I recently discovered - stattoo, by Panic Software. It’s a rather simple app that adds mini apps to your desktop to show interesting information (i.e. weather, latest email, upcoming appointments, etc). It’s a little faster than using the Dashboard, looks wonderful, and unobtrusive enough not to interfere with other things you’re doing.

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Music in November 2008

Posted on November 17, 2008 by Sukrit

 

Nov08 music

Nov08 music

 

 

This November is a pretty big month in terms of music history as we finally see the release of the almost mythical Guns n Roses album, Chinese Democracy. Its also a big month in Hip Hop with Kanye releasing 808s and Heartbreak and Q-Tip making a much welcome comeback with The Renaissance. This month also sees a big release from former Audioslave lead singer, Chris Cornell with the Timbaland-produced, Scream. Other notable releases this month include The Killers Day & Age, Shiny Toy Guns Season of Poison, and Travis’s Ode to J. Smith.

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How to use dstat to monitor your Linux/UNIX server

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Sukrit

Here’s an article I recently wrote for SimpleHelp.net:

“If you have a Linux server running at your office or at a data center for which you are responsible, you want to maintain an uptime of as close to a hundred percent. In such a case you want to make sure you keep an eye on how the system is running. To be precise you want to monitor all the system resources that contribute to the system running fine which then results in a high uptime. Memory, CPU, disk usage… are some of the things you want to observe. We would usually use a combination of the tools that come with a Linux or UNIX installation, such as “free”, “top”, “vmstat”… I’ll introduce you to a tool that gives you just about all the info that the other tools combined give you, all under one roof – Dstat. The developer of this command line tool, Dag Wieers, calls it “a versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat, netstat and ifstat”. He adds that “Dstat overcomes some of their limitations and adds some extra features…” To me Dstat is the mother of all command line system monitoring tools. It’s simple to install, easy to use, can be tweaked with ease, and it generates reports that you can plot as a graph to impress your boss.”

Read the complete article here.

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AskLaila and Airtel partnership in the Economic Times

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Sukrit

The Economic Times printed a piece in today’s papers about AskLaila’s partnership with Airtel for local search services on mobile phones, SMS, WAP, and DTH. Here is an excerpt from the the press release:

asklaila, India’s first local information service, today announced a strategic partnership with India’s largest private telecom service provider, Airtel, to power all of its city search services. The partnership enables Airtel customers to get up-to-date information about their city, free of cost, through asklaila’s extensive city information database. The asklaila-powered ‘Airtel City Search’ will reach more than 30 million users across the six cities where asklaila is available, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Airtel is the first telecom company in the world to deploy a multi-mode, multi-platform local search service; the service is available across 3 screens – the mobile (Airtel’s mobile service), the PC (Airtel’s broadband service) and TV (Airtel DTH); and within the mobile service, across 4 modes – SMS, USSD, Airtel Live and WAP.

Airtel’s dominance in the mobile market is of special significance in this deployment since local search is a natural application on the mobile platform besides communication and entertainment. The search service will be supported by targeted, relevant advertising, based on the users’ intent identified through the search query. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel added, “It is Airtel and asklaila’s joint belief that a non-intrusive, intent-driven advertising model, with the consumer in mind, is the way forward on the mobile platform. This partnership has the potential to revolutionize the market dynamics in mobile advertising.”

Kiran Konduri, co-founder, asklaila said, “We have seen tremendous growth in the usage of our service and having telecom leader Airtel as our partner will help us reach many more users, besides giving a significant fillip to mobile advertising and the use of mobile devices to search for city information.”

The multi-mode mobile version of Airtel city search, powered by asklaila, effectively addresses two major challenges –providing accurate, credible and actionable local information; and ground-up mobile-specific enhancements to leverage the advantage of multiple mobile modes. This partnership will enable users’ to access the service from any device starting from an entry level Rs. 2K handset to a high-end, feature rich Rs. 40K+ smart phone. The user experience is designed to be consistent and simple across all 4 modes, giving the user freedom to select an appropriate mode based on need and context.

asklaila’s service will be tightly integrated with key Airtel mobile modes such as:

·         SMS: Airtel users can text the keyword to get accurate city information. For example, ‘locate pizza gurgaon’ and SMS it to 54321 to get relevant local information free of cost.

·         USSD: USSD is a faster channel than the text-messaging platform and GPRS. This is an instant messaging type phone service and can be used in even basic phone models. The USSD portal can be accessed by dialing *321# and Airtel City Search can be directly accessed by dialing *321*99#

·         Airtel Live: Airtel City Search is integrated on deck on Airtel Live and is available under services for you.

·         WAP: The service can also be accessed by any GPRS enabled phone from any operator at www.airtelcitysearch.com

Asklaila – Airtel City Search features an industry-first built for mobile search technology that takes the onus of understanding what users mean and providing relevant local information, instead of guiding them to enter keywords in specific ways.

·         proximity search – Results include not only the searched-for locality but also the locality nearby.

·         syntax-free search option – ‘Haircut Lajpat Nagar’ and ‘Lajpat Nagar Haircut’ will give the same results

·         support for Indian SMS lexicon (ex. nr – Near, Nxt – Next, CCD – Café Coffee Day)

·         address compression that enables users to see more results in less SMSs

·         understands locality short forms (GK – Greater Kailash)

·         enables users to choose the level of details they want to see

·         landmark information that provides last mile locators 

·         allows attribute-tagged search like ’24 hours pharmacy’, ‘Roof top restaurant’

·         Hyperlinks to help navigate quicker within result sets

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iPhone gets an landscape keyboard app

Posted on November 9, 2008 by Sukrit

I recently ran into this post about Touchtype, a pretty nifty little application for the iPhone that allows users to use a landscape keyboard instead of the portrait one.

 

The default keyboard only switches into landscape mode for the web browser. This utility can’t quite add that facility to other apps, but it creates a separate application into which you can enter larger quantities of text and then tap a button to fire them into the main mail program. If you rotate your phone and then put it down on the desk, you can just about type with two fingers. It would be so much cooler if this were integrated into the iPhone interface and be available directly from all applications.

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‘Kings of Leon’ on SNL

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Sukrit

The ‘Kings of Leon‘, a great garage rock band that I’ve been tracking for a few months now made an appearance on a recent episode of my favourite TV show: Saturday Night Live.  This appearance follows the launch of their fourth album, ‘Only by the Night ’. They played two new singles from this album, “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody”. Both great tracks.

Keep an eye on these guys.

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My Favourite Hangouts in Bangalore

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Sukrit

I thought it might be a good idea to post my favorite hangouts. Now, understand, I am not saying that these are the best places in Bangalore, but rather they are the places you would most likely find me when I’m not home or at work or traveling home to Pondicherry. I’m not really into many of the trendy, contemporary quasi-lounges that keep cropping up around town. Instead, I usually tend to gravitate toward establishments that have a bit more of a relaxed atmosphere where you can let your guard down a bit, pound a few good beers, or get a solid, inexpensive meal. In short, places where I can eat and drink my heart out and not let the woes of the world economy make me feel guilty.

Most of my favorite hangouts are in East and central Bangalore, mainly because of their proximity to where I live, but also because I just hate driving in this city. That is not to say there aren’t outstanding bars and restaurants in the lesser parts of Bangalore. There’s definitely a ton of variety down there no matter what type of experience you are in the mood for, and there are plenty of places that I visit frequently. However, not as frequently as the establishments I would call my “favourites”.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, here are my 5 favourite hangouts in Bangalore, with some notes on each:

Hard Rock Cafe ~ St.Mark’s Road ~ I’ve probably eaten and got drunk here more than any other restaurant in Bangalore, well at least since the place opened up for business, mainly because of the variety of good food, friendly service, generous portions, awesome atmosphere. Good food, liquor (need I say more), good service, great music, and fantastic location. The only thing missing here are happy hours.

Windsor Pub ~ Vasanthnagar ~ This is probably the closest cool hangout my place that serves both liquor and great food. This joint serves some great pork based dishes such as Pandi Curry. A little cramped for room, not the best of service, but he food and beer sort a make up for that. Got introduced to this place by a few friends who studied close by. Now they’re gone, and I’m hooked to the place.

Koshy’s ~ St.Mark’s Road ~ This is one weird place. Terrible service, sounds like a fish market, and not the best food or coffee I’ve had. The place is really more of an institution than a cafe or restaurant. I wouldn’t be surprised if most people who go to this place wonder why they are hooked to the place. There’s just something historic, something that just pulls you here. I maintain that it is arguably home to the population of failed artists and writers of Bangalore.

Infinitea ~ Cunningham Road ~ Masala Chai and Momos. A great place to hang out when you want to be in a rather quiet place. My favourite place to read a book while sipping chai or getting work done. The place is hooked up for Wifi, so that’s a big plus, in a city that is surprisingly short of such places.

Opus ~ Vasanthnagar ~ Good food, lots of liquor, decent service, karaoke nights, live musical performances, they have it all here. I’ve seen this place being just about every time I’ve been there. Sunday afternoon is my favourite time to go to Opus. It’s a great place to go with a group of friends, eat, get smashed drunk, and then embarrass the hell out of yourself on stage.

Bon appetit and cheers. Check out some more Bangalore hangouts at AskLaila

 

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