Switching IP Addresses using Batch files
Written on June 10, 2010.
Having been provided with a client laptop from office, I need to work from home also as and when required. This created a frustrating problem for me.
When at office I had to use the assigned specific IP complete with subnet mask, default gateway and dns servers.
At home my router was configured for DHCP mode.
This let me to constantly change between static ip and DHCP when at office and when I returned to home from office.
To spare me the troubles i wrote 2 small batch files.
One was for when I was at office, which automatically changed the network adapter’s settings specific to the office and the other was for home to quickly revert back to DHCP.
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My Chotu Died Young
Written on May 21, 2010.
Chotu, was my little pet cat. She was a sweet little, mostly white feline with big expressive eyes.
I remember the day when she arrived at our windows sill with her mother. With her big expressive eyes she was looking at me and her new surroundings. In the next few days she became too friendly with me. She would enter the room from the window and lie on the floor and watch us. She used to wait patiently till the time my mom would bring food and then she would jump back to the window sill to eat it.
Slowly she became part of the family and i used to play with her. She used to jump up on my lap and sit and watch me work on the PC. I also remember her sitting in front of the kitchen door smelling and watching my mum cook food.
She used to understand when we scolded her and when we praised her. When she was happy/praised she used to express her joys by sweeping her tail over the floor.
There is a tree within our house which used to be her playground. When she was barely 4 months old she used to climb that tree up and down joyfully. Later when she grew big she used to scratch her nails on the tree.
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No Honking Please!!! I am Indian…
Written on May 19, 2010.
Its 6.45 in the morning. Am walking down the road (on the pavement) to the bazaar to pick up milk. The road is nearly empty except for a few early risers like me.
I can hear the birds chirping. The cool breeze feels like heaven.
Suddenly I can hear a vehicle coming from behind. The sound of its engine gives it away and people who are on road have already moved to the pavements to give it way.
Then it happens…the thing that i hate the most.
The vehicle starts honking as if its stuck in a jam and trying to reach a destination in the coming 1 minute. And it doesn’t stop after a honk or two. The driver keeps the switch pressed.
The feeling is like someone just violently shook me up from my sleep and am going to have a heart attack.
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Hotmail and 16 characters
Written on March 12, 2010.
Recently when I tried Empathy i saw that i was unable to log into my Hotmail account.
I tried a lot of those tips and tricks that were posted, but none solved my problem. So I left it like that and went back to my trusted Pidgin.
A few days later when I tried to configure Thunderbird with my Hotmail account, I faced the same problem again.
Determined to solve the problem this time I started searching around the net for answers.
After a lot of trolling I found a response on Windows Live Help
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AVI files, DVD players, 0.99GB and Ubuntu
Written on February 5, 2010.
Most DVD players now-a-days support the AVI format. So it is highly convenient to watch downloaded content on the TV after burning it to a DVD±RW.
But while playing some downloaded content I observed a pattern. Files which are more than 1GB in size always had a problem with playback.
The playback would take time to start/stop/pause.
In-case i wanted to rewind or skip the file would screw up in that the audio/video lost synchronization.
This pissed me a lot until i thought about it. The answer was very simple. DVD players are made to read VOB files which have a maximum file size of 1GB (1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 1,073,741,824 bytes). The maximum size that I have seen on DVD is 0.99GB. Hence files with more than 1GB size always posed a playback problem.
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