1. Assuming an average car weighs around 4000 pounds 2. Force required to move such a car (neglecting friction): F = ma As per the above, m = 4000 /2.2 kg [approx. 1800 kg] a = 1 m/sec^2 => F = 1800 N 3. Since it would be next to impossible to get a rare earth magnet that produced that kind of force, we would be, better served trying to use a solenoid. The formula to get the force generated by a solenoid is given by: ...

Sometimes working with an old c compiler brings up painful, yet fun-filled days of making it speak the same language as you, and sometimes you just go “*$&%*$#&% you piece of sh** compiler” I had one such moment today, and after I had returned to Zen (some soul-searching and some google searching), I realized it quite simple. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 $ gmake ... ... some_file.h:42: badly punctuated parameter list in \`#define' some_file.h:64: badly punctuated parameter list in \`#define' Failed to compile $ This was caused by the following: ...

DeWitt Clinton once wrote What are the hallmarks of a great engineer? A great engineer is characterized by their intelligence, versatility, creativity, loyalty, passion, experience, vision, dedication, composure, humility, and ability. Apart from the “humility” part, which he never cared for, Steve Jobs was the epitome of that description. We shall miss you Mr. Jobs, especially for that keen sense of doing something perfectly. RIP Steve Jobs, the maker of beautiful things. ...

Last weekend, I went to my first photo-walk in Vancouver. This one is a yearly affair, organized by Scott Kelby. It’s called the Worldwide Photowalk (#WWPW), and it was quite exciting. This was the fourth such event (and my first). I met a lot of very interesting people of varied backgrounds. Can’t wait for the next one. Flickr groups for the photo-walk are: Gastown Scott Kelby’s WWPW4 Thanks to Scott Kelby for starting such a wonderful thing, and letting it grow. This was as exciting as last year’s Barcamp ...

And sometimes, they barely hold your attention. However, the recent acquisition is the former. I got the mammoth of a book, over the weekend; it weighs a ton and I’ll be sleeping with it, clutched tight in my hands. If you already have the tomb by tanenbaum of similar name, the unix programming interface, you probably are not going to glean much value from this one (you can thank POSIX for maintaining a modicum of consistency over the years and some would vehemently contest that). That said, if you write code for *nix systems, it definitely deserves the shelf-space as much as any other programming book. ...

If you haven’t yet upgraded to Lion (slow-coach you !), you might want to read these: How to burn your own install dvd for OSX Lion You didn’t read this before you installed lion, did you? Then, follow this thread.

A friend asked what I like about google+, and as I started posting a reply , I noticed there were enough to make a blog post. So here goes… Here’s a quick list: 1. Mobile app on android and iphone are awesome! 2. Automatic upload of pics on phone/picasa 3. Non-crappy photos (allows 2400+px, and g+ renders pictures better, since they don’t mess with the image, if it is smaller than the max size) 4. Easier to mention specific people in a conversation. (auto-completes ppl’s profile name) 5. hangouts (free video conferencing) 6. Group messaging done right (huddle) on the mobile phone 7. decent integration with email (I guess this is just coz I use Gmail) 8. Privacy - predictable and manageable (not that it matters to me) 9. Much less noise (a - mostly used by techies for now, b - allows asymmetric relationships à la twitter) 10. Keyboard shortcuts (J, K work. Someone at google like vi – a lot) ...

If you write a lot of scripts to automate tasks, you probably already know this. However, if you don’t, and you are still reading, you are probably a programmer, in which case, you really should be learning how to script in BASH! A couple of pointers for you: 1. Using a -x, in the shebang line “echo"s every line before executing. This turns out to be quite useful for debugging shell scripts 2. It’s quite easy to make BASH print a countdown. ...

A couple of weeks ago I started a new project - to shoot random strangers in the streets of GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional Districts - for those of you that are not from here). I wanted to see if I had the guts to walk up to random strangers, and ask their permission to shoot a picture of them. I was also curious to know how they would react to it, and what my success rate would be. ...

Just upgraded to OSX Lion. A very slick interface. Quick Review: 1. Launchpad. Solved previously by Alfred in the GUI, and bash aliases on the command line. 2. Mission Control. Eye-candy. Will probably use it until I get tired of all the moving windows, and stick to Cmd+arrow keys to switch desktops. Maybe normal users will find it useful. But then, most people don’t want anything that increases their workflow complexity. Most of them have trouble keeping track of more than a couple of windows, let alone, 10s of them (which I think is what features like Mission Control will promote) ...