Month: November 2006

Aasim has got foss.in blues

I could see it in his eyes as he dragged himself to get ready for school. So I had a small talk with him… his lament was he has nothing to tell to his friends.

Surprised I asked him “Why? did you not enjoy??”

“I enjoyed a lot but none of my friends at school will understand any of that, they don’t know what PHP is how can they know Rasmus, what do I tell them about Blinkenlights? Jaya Kumar tried to teach me juggling!”

I really had no answer for him other than that school is one thing he *has* to finish (he knows that). I feel his pain and it is very much akin to that girl Netra’s frustration who wants all her friends to understand FOSS instead of M$, for her several people (including myself) had answers…

Now that Aasim really contributed his bit to the event this time I feel that something more needs to be done I don’t know what as yet but now it is a pressing selfish need / itch which has to be satisfied

foss.in/2006 pictures

Pictures from my Cybershot – https://tariquesani.net/thumbnails.php?album=74

Update

My taking steroids for my arthralgia was in vain, not only in vain but detrimental, the medicine has just about been tapered off and I can feel all the aches and pains returning add to it an inch and a half around my tummy.

So life goes on. We have decided that all three of us will come to Bangalore on 21st rather than me and Aasim following on 23rd, things at office, by amazing stroke of luck are tranquil for now.

Since past few days I have taken up learning to dance – just a bit of jiving nothing much. But for once I am not on top of the group in a chosen activity… I knew this was going to happen. While my hands and body can be rock steady when holding a scalpel or for that matter a camera I cant move in rhythm even if the sky was falling.

I am doing this not only for myself but also to show Aasim that even his dad has to struggle and does not give up so easily.

How am I weird?

tagged me with a meme where I have to write 6 weird things about myself.

Well I wouldn’t ever do things which *I* felt were weird….

So please tell me what you feel is weird about me – fire away I will not delete or screen *any* comments howsoever weird they may be from my point of view 😉

foss.in

It is once again the time for our annual pilgrimage to Bangalore to participate in foss.in. This time I am more keen than ever because I will be meeting people whom I have not met for years and some whom I have known for eons but never met IRL. The who’s who of Indian FOSS community have promised to be there, though saying “who’s who” after all these years does feel a bit odd cause they have become such dear friends.

Oh yes! If I get time from pretending to be doing useful stuff or attending all the impromptu BoFs I may attend a few talks from the very impressive line up, but as an old man once said it is not so much about the talks but about all the community action which takes place around the venue!

We would also love to meet all of you (you know who you are) not yet confirmed to be there – lets meet up just for old times sake

Aasim

Aasim’s friend to him
“I will tell you a joke, but you will have to laugh at it”

Solving Fedora Core 6 Kernel Panic + ipw2200 issues

More a note to self than anything else for how I got FC6 working on my Thinkpad R51

For – kernel panic: Cannot execute a PAE-enabled kernel on a PAE-less CPU!
Do not choose virtualization during package selection and for a good measure select Legacy Support.

For – ipw2200 wifi not detected
Download latest V30 firmware from https://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php unzip it and copy the files to your /lib/firmware directory and reboot.

Growing Up and acting ones age…

Like Swati wrote Aasim turned nine yesterday but he had his party on Saturday. Playing the part of host does have some benefits…

A gorgeous lady to me “Aasim will soon look like your younger brother than your son”
Me “Thanks for complimenting me but it is Aasim’s party!”
She – starting to blush..
Me “In that case can I ask you for a date?”
She “Only if Swati also comes along”
Me “Damn! I would have never imagined you as that kinky”

Our present to Aasim was a near fullsize bicycle. It has an Aluminium alloy frame and 21 speed config. Since the seat height is easily adjustable I took it out for a spin yesterday morning for 10Km – could reach a speed of 40km/hr easily but the over all moving average was 23km/hr, guess I will be using it on weekend mornings for some time now 😉

There are times…

There are times when you need not feel bad – but you still do.
when you regret making the right choice
when you feel envious even when there is nothing to
when you are at the right place at the wrong time
when you are satisfied but yet not happy
when you should go to roots but reach for top
when you should introspect but you… whatever is the antonym for introspect
when things are clear but you are still confused.
when you have money but still feel poor

— Need to re-check your premises