Once that was done, I set the PATH variable on my machine to include C:\Cygwin\bin . This step lets you run the “rsync” command from outside the “bin” directory.

Now, I opened a Command Prompt and tried a copy from C:\xxxx\Music\ (source) to G:\ (desintation). Fail+Errors. (I won’t tell you what errors as I intend to keep this post simple.) I searched around a bit and found that Cygwin refers to each drive on your Windows machine as a unix folder. So your “C:\” drive would be “/cygdrive/c”. Your “G:\” drive would be “/cygdrive/g”. After this revelation, I modified my command and entered it as follows:

rsync -av --delete /cygdrive/xxxx/Music/   /cygdrive/Music/

RSync instantly started its work and my music started copying over to the new location.
The “-a” option passed to the rsync command stands for archive – means it preserves permissions (owners, groups), times, symbolic links, and devices.
The “-v” option stands for verbose – it prints on the screen what is being copied
The “–delete” option deletes any files from the destination that no longer exist in the source. It is recommended you use this option unless you know what you’re doing.

During the copy I accidentally closed the Command Prompt. I was worried I might have messed up the copy. However, I opened up a new “cmd” window and ran the same command and the copy started right where it stopped and finished successfully.

This method of backing up might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially for those not so technically inclined. I just wish someone would write a nice GUI wrapper for rsync so people could just choose a source and a destination and the rest could be taken care of by the software.

However, for now, I have placed this command in a batch file (.bat) on my desktop so I can run it whenever I have new music to be backed up. This saves me the trouble of dealing with the command prompt and typing in the command every time. Place a “pause” in the batch file so the command prompt window doesn’t exit after RSync is complete.

So, I downright refused to downgrade this user’s Win7 and started troubleshooting with my ‘experience’. We had received several complaints from Win7-64 users of Blue Screens caused due to Symantec Endpoint Protection’s older versions. Users suffered until Symantec came up with their SEP 11 RU6 which fixed the BSODs clean. Assuming the case here, I upgraded this machine’s SEP to the latest RU6 from RU5. Nope, that didn’t help. A case of blindly applying past solutions to the present.

Next time it BSOD’d, I noted down the file crashing the OS. It was a naughty file called – E1K62x64.sys. Did a little digging up on the Internet and was suggested that this is a case of out dated drivers for Intel’s 82577 Gigabit Ethernet Controller. So, out I went downloading drivers from Intel’s website. Uninstalled the older drivers and installed the ‘new’ ones. Useless. Machine crashes again. Next, I tried the drivers from the OEM website, Dell here. Machine crashes. I returned the machine to the user, disappointed that I was not able to fix the issue.

Later in the day, I asked the user to leave the laptop with me before leaving for home. I returned to the error with renewed energy and after some serious web-digging, found the solution to the issue in the form of two posts in a single thread on Intel’s forum.

Apparently, this issue was being caused due to Intel missing out two lines (yes, two lines) from it’s driver file E1K62x64.inf causing Win7 to go crazy.

Here is the Intel forum post:

The cause of the blue screen is a missing entry in the driver install information file (INF). You could edit the file, uninstall the Intel(R) Network Connections software, and then install again from a software copy with the edited INF file.

Follow these steps.

1. Make a copy of the original software package before you do the other steps so you can go back to the original file if you make a mistake.
2. Open your software package with WinZip* or a similar program.
3. In the PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS62 directory you will find the e1k62x64.inf file.
4. Open the file.
5. Find the [E10EA.HW] and [E10EB.HW] sections
6. Add this line to each of the above sections
   AddReg = MSI.reg
7. Save the file and install the drivers and software.

The edited sections should look like this example when you are done.

[E10EA.HW]
Include = machine.inf
Needs = PciIoSpaceNotRequired
AddReg = MSI.reg

[E10EB.HW]
Include = machine.inf
Needs = PciIoSpaceNotRequired
AddReg = MSI.reg

In case that just flew over your head, please read this post in addition to the info posted above for additional help: http://communities.intel.com/message/102600#102600

If you’ve been banging your head on the wall with this, I hope I am able to save both your time and trouble with this post. By the way, if you’re wondering how I recreated the BSOD with such ease, it is indeed simple. Initiate atleast two file transfers from a network share and open a youtube video in any browser. Crash for sure.

1. Stop using your water heater. Have a bath in the evening when water is at its highest temperature due to the afternoon sun. Let me assure you, you won’t notice a difference in body freshness the next day.

2. Insulate windows and doors, especially those facing the sun, and if possible add glass glazing. Glass glazing lets light in, while putting the heat out. An alternative is to add window tints, those that reflect sun away.

God didn’t create the Sun for nothing. Use the sun’s light to the maximum extent possible but make sure to keep the heat out. When building a house design it keeping in view to maximise daylight.

3. Add heavy drapes or curtains of a light color to prevent any sunlight in during the day.

4. Close all doors and windows when the sun rises. Open up all possible doors and windows after the sun sets to let the air in the house cool down.

5. Lighting: Replace all bulbs in the house with Compact Fluorescent lights. Modern CFLs also come in yellow so you don’t have to compromise on that. Install 5W CFLs in bathrooms, because, believe me, they are bright enough for the job. For night lamps, don’t make the mistake of buying the so called Zero Watt bulbs, as most often they draw around 10-15W. Get a 1W LED bulb available at many electrical stores nowadays. These are nearly as bright as their bulb counterparts at a fraction of the drawn power.

Your job is only half done. Make sure you switch off any and every light when not using that room. Contrary to what rumors say, modern CFLs don’t lose their life with regular on/off cycles.

Turn off unnecessary lights. Avoid lighting the entire room and more for simple tasks. Do you need three 25W CFLs to watch TV? Use targeted lighting when working at a desk or on a kitchen platform or for a sink/basin. LED based target lights are very popular and save big on electricity and pay for themselves very quickly. Get a USB LED light for your laptop and avoid lighting up the entire room when working on your laptop.

6. Traditional PCs consume 200W – 300W during regular use along with a monitor. Laptops consume around 35-50W for the same processing power, and are also mobile. Get a second hand laptop if a new one seems expensive. For those that don’t require extensive processing power, an option is to go for Net-Tops that are stingy on electricity use.

If buying something is not an option for you, make sure you apply aggressive power settings on your PC like switching off the monitor when idle, powering down hard disks and switching into standby mode after a set time. Reduce the brightness on your CRT monitor to decrease power drawn. Switch off monitor when not at your desk. Shutdown the PC when not using it. Standby mode also keeps drawing some power from the outlet.

7. Completely switch off all devices like your TV, Set-top box, DVD Player, Music systems, microwaves, airconditioners, cellphone chargers, etc when not in use. Turning them off, and leaving them in Standby Mode without flipping the switch will continue to drain power and burn a hole in your pocket. Standby losses of one device can be as much as 10-15W (according to WikiPedia), and sometimes more. Beware.

8. In the summer, if only using a fan, do not start it with a full blast. Instead, start from the least speed setting and slowly increase it to a comfortable setting. If using an evaporative cooler, get a modern energy-efficient branded appliance as these are optimized for effective utilization of both electricity and water. Non-branded coolers tend to draw very high electricity, thus reducing the cost benefit over an air conditioner.

If using an air conditioner, make sure to follow points 2,3 & 4. It helps to cool down the house by opening doors and windows before switching on the air-con so there is lesser hot air for the air-con to cool, thus reducing load and the electricity consumption. Most Indians are used to heat and hot summers, then why freeze yourself at 22′C ? Instead, take off your rugs and increase the temperature to 26′ or 27′C and use the ceiling fan or a targeted table fan to  remove hot air pockets around you. Remember, you only want to keep your body cool but you are cooling the entire room, furniture and appliances for this purpose. Air conditioning is the most inefficient way to keep cool. Just remind yourself that your ancestors lived without it for centuries, and didn’t go extinct.

9. Avoid stuffing your refrigerator with items that don’t need refrigeration. Some of us throw in everything at a refrigerator, ranging from ketchup, flours, dry masalas and powders. Don’t store half of your kitchen in the fridge. An over stuffed fridge runs at reduced efficiency.

Get the right sized refrigerator. Remember, a frost-free fridge needs more electricity to keep the freezer frost-free. Avoid repetitive opening of the fridge door. Avoid opening the door and then wondering what to take out. Use a clay-pot to cool your water and reduce that extra bit of load on the compressor. Water from clay pots are reportedly tastier. New clay-pots also come with a fitted tap to improve hygiene.

9. Buy energy efficient devices. The Indian government has come up with the BEE ratings that define the energy consumption of that particular appliance using a 5-star system. It is mandatory for several appliances to carry the rating. Energy-efficient devices may be expensive, but pay for themselves in the long run in electricity savings.

10. LCD monitors typically consume 1/5th of a comparable CRT monitor and newer devices also feature better viewing angles.
Get a steam iron instead of a regular iron so you achieve a similar ironing experience using lesser heat.
Use exhaust fans and chimneys to keep kitchen and bathroom heat off the house.

Energy efficiency shoots two birds in one shot. You not only pay lesser, every unit of electricity you save helps light another home somewhere else in the country. Report electricity thefts to your nearest electricity distributor, and spread the message of power saving to your friends. As proof, throw them a party using some of the energy savings.

Now, 2-1/2 months down, I have made progress, albeit little. Apart from collecting valuable websites, and guides, I have also covered Command-Line tools and Text-stream processing. I have also read a bit about managing software using Yum and Yast since I was not familiar with those package management tools before.

I have installed SuSe 11.1 and also plan on installing Fedora 11. My idea is to work with these Linux distributions and learn more about them in the process. Notice I’m installing an older version of both the Operating Systems so I get a chance to learn the upgrade process. My final aim is to get a working system with all drivers, codecs and updated packages at the end of this effort.

However, I’ve been going slow due to several reasons. I had to finish my requirements with the university, work on my resume and more. But, I’m getting serious about this now. I had a goal and I need to start working on it. I plan on doing so, one topic at a time. I’m starting with topics from LPI 101 objectives. I shall be updating this blog regularly, and whenever I complete a (sub)topic. If I happen to stumble upon good online resources, I will be posting them along with the update.

Wish me luck in my endeavor.  May the countdown begin!

1. Equalizer: Does anybody using Linux never feel the need for an equalizer? Why isn’t there a system equalizer? I’m not sure how hard it is to code one, but when Canonical had enough resources and developer-time to deliver all the features that make Ubuntu so great, I’m sure it could allot some resources towards creating a system equalizer. Canonical, do you not get it? They should have included this idea with the 100 paper-cuts development program.

2. Proper Media player: And I mean ‘proper’. Windows Media Player, though criticized for God-knows-what, plays a lot of formats, with appropriate codecs, and it has a darn-good equalizer and a bass boost! Right now, Ubuntu has Movie Player for videos, Rhythmbox for music. Inconsistent. Have ONE media player, that actually works. And its not like these players play every format by default. They are worse than WMP for that matter, as you have to install proprietary codecs (including MP3 support)  for formats you intend to play. Note: I KNOW its simple to install proprietary codec support on Ubuntu, but its not like its any harder on Windows. And, again coming back to the point, there is no darn equalizer integrated into either of these players (Totem MP/Rhythmbox).

But hey, Linux is all about choice! Right. List of players I tried:

Exaile:
Pros : Enqueues Files, has mini-view and taskbar icon
Cons: No Equalizer in the latest 0.31 version. Why would ‘development’ remove features?

Songbird:
Pros: Has library support, equalizer, and more
Cons: You cannot select a file and say ‘Play with Songbird’, nor Enqueue files.

AmaroK:
Pros: None
Cons: Its v2.0. Nothing works. Doesn’t even play.
Its a KDE app. Lots of KDE libs needed.

Listen:
Pros: Enqueues files.
Cons: Takes too long to start. Also, I fiddled with some settings and it never showed up again,
though it played files from terminal. Strange.

VLC:
Pros: Lots of formats supported
Cons: Buggy. Some videos open up multiple (blank) video windows and some open up (blank) video windows during play.
Equalizer cannot be saved. Each file opens in a new window, no matter what setting I choose in preferences.

To sum it up, none of these players qualify, even with my minimal player requirements:
-Equalizer
-Minimize to tray
-Enqueue files on double-click
… and thats it! I don’t need libraries, or FM support or device support or anything else!

Aren’t these supposed to be basic qualities of a ‘proper’ media player? Well, with the Windows 7 launch, its full-on war from Microsoft, and in order to make Linux win, Canonical must listen to the community’s cries and must come up with a unique, all-in-one media player that can finally end the hours of time users spend in search of an ideal media-player.

———————————————————————————

Update: Tried Banshee after reading some positive reviews. It has a good equalizer, minimizes to tray and enqueues files on double-click. There however, is an issue with the way queues are handled. Everytime I enqueue a file, it gets sorted into the currently playing queue. So, if for some reason the song I enqueue sorts itself above the currently playing song, it never plays.
Nevertheless, I’ve switched to Banshee, it being the closest match to my requirements. Verdict: Half-Pass.

Update2: Banshee now satisfies all my requirements. I had to turn off the sort feature to prevent files from sorting themselves into the queue. However, I wasn’t able to follow the instructions from banshee’s website . What I ended up doing was adding the Date Added column which specifies when the file was added to the queue and using this column to sort the queue. You could then hide the column once you’re done setting it up. Now files added up onto the queue as FIFO and not in any sorted order. The next issue was of the player popping up (stealing focus) each time a file was enqueued. To this, I used the ‘–no-present’ option and got rid of the menace.

I’m not an expert, neither a beginner. If it took me so long to figure out how to turn-off or on some feature, I can’t imagine the plight of new users. Ideally, these should have been options under Edit>Preferences. Where is the usability?

UPDATE2 – 16th Oct’09 : Another visit from PureIt. We received a complete replacement of the battery kit, for free.

A consumer battle WON!

—————————————————

Read these words of caution before you decide to buy Hindustan Unilever’s water purification product – PureIt.

We bought our PureIT water purifier around 3 and 1/2 months back, a month after I came back to India. A sales rep had promptly landed at the door within a few hours of us asking for the demo. He went on to demo the features of the purifier and we were told that PureIt’s main mechanism worked on a :

Mesh+Battery kit combination  – The kit consists of

(i) a cloth like mesh (called Unique Microfibre Mesh) right at the top to collect large particles when you pour water into the purifier. This is largely a pain to maintain since it gets clogged up very easily. The rep had told us we would have to clean it up by turning it inside out and rubbing it slightly, every couple of weeks. You have to do this more frequently else you’ll be pouring water at the rate of a drop every second. Imagine yourself standing with the water container for 5 minutes just to pour water into the purifier.

(ii) A black, brittle dome of carbon (called Unique Compact Carbon Trap) immediately below the mesh(middle chamber) supposedly removes other bacteria, dirt and parasites. If you watch closely, you’d be able to see small particles of this very carbon crap floating around during the first few  uses. We scratched it slightly in front of the rep and scratched off some carbon with that. To that, the rep added that the first round of water dished out must be thrown away.

(iii) a Chlorinator (called the Unique Germkill  Processor) at the middle chamber which also houses the battery indicator(more on this advanced feature later). If you stand close enough to the purifier, you’d be able to smell the chlorine strongly. I see no reason for further chlorinating water that was already treated with chlorine by the water supply board.

(iv) Unique Polisher at the bottom(lower chamber) apparently removes odor and more impurities from water. This seems to work since we’ve never tasted any odor with water dished out by this purifier. But the fact that a couple of litres of water are lost in this hidden area raises doubts if this area is being used as a sediment area for particles not purified by the stages before and probably also for those added by the carbon trap. Add to that, you may never be able to clean this hidden storage area.

(v) Unique Battery Life Indicator indicates if this battery kit needs replacement. It works by displaying a white powder like substance that (should) slowly turns red as the battery’s life nears its end. For us, it worked as mentioned for the first 3 months, during which I saw the indicator 1/4th red. But then, the indicator quickened its reddening and changed to a complete red within a span of around 15 days.

From their website:

The ‘Germkill Battery Kit’^TM has been designed to give typically 1500 litres of water at a water temperature of 25°C, in moderate humidity conditions.

Now, why should humidity affect water purification? If humidity were to kill the purifier, isn’t water humid enough to do so? Anyways, the city of Hyderabad is seldom humid. And we had almost no rains this year either.

Advanced Auto Switch Off – is so advanced, we had to wipe off our floor a couple of times before we could understand what the problem was. Apparently, this advanced mechanism works by cutting off supply of water to the lower chamber. Yes that works. The problem is that water continues to flow to the middle chamber from the top and with nowhere else to go, water leaks out by overflowing from the middle chamber storage. Very advanced indeed.

Kudos to Hindustan Unilever for their ‘Unique’ naming, their overuse of TMs and their advanced mechanism. We tried calling PureIt to lodge a complaint. The response to this complaint was a call from another sales rep asking if we wanted a new battery kit (Rs.500). We say no and that we want someone to resolve our issue. Rep disconnects immediately. Other responses to our calls include : “Please give us one day, we will resolve this issue”; “No, please don’t use the email facility, we will look into this issue immediately”; another call from sales rep for battery replacement; “It depends on the usage”(favorite line); “Do you keep it beside the fridge, or do you use it under the sun”?; and so on.

-Near a fridge? The demo representative never told us that. Anyway, its not beside the fridge.
-Under the sun? No seriously, who would do anything like that?
-Depends on usage? Okay, for two persons, (one at office), do you expect the usage to be (1500 litres/105) 14 litres per day? We don’t use this water for cooking or any other purpose other than for drinking. We boil 3 litres per day after  PureIt stopped working.

If this ain’t enough, you should take a look at the One Crore Challenge. It is the most ridiculous challenge ever. Give it a read.

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) agrees to pay Rs 1 crore to any claimant who can bring to it any Indian commercially manufactured and marketed in-home drinking water treatment unit (water purifier) which, after passing through the defined process of the Challenge, and under these terms and conditions, has all the features specified below, which HUL believes only the Pureit water purifier has: …….

If you were even remotely considering buying this expensive piece of junk, this post should have warned you sufficiently against it. Bad mechanism, poor customer care, misinformation and false promises make up for a pathetic product. PureIt? No. Pure  Bullshit.

But, apparently these discounts are not forever so go grab them if you’re willing to get certified. I got my vouchers a few days back and I’m happy I’ve taken my first step towards certification. Next, start preparation!

For all updates on my progress see Ubuntu-Certification

The Victor is a 110cc carb. 4 stroke engine with 4 gears and with regular spoke wheels and drum brakes. On first looks, it doesn’t look a stunner, but you tend to get used to the looks and you start liking it with every passing day. The seats are plush and quite comfortable and the ‘pleather’ has lasted through these five years with not a wrinkle or tear. Alas, the comfort factor lasts only for a few minutes, as I discovered on longer rides, when my bum really starts to ache and pain to the point where I have to shift my position on the seat once every few minutes. Not good. The bike’s handling is average, as long as you don’t try gymnastics when you are maneuvering through a turn. Keeping the bike straight, I found out that the brakes work very well and the tires hold up without skidding or throwing you over. Unfortunately, the same doesn’t hold true for bends and curves as understood from my fall at 10kmph on a slight turn. Rides on my bike have never been the same again. Braking, like mentioned before, holds up quite well and has triggered many a question from pillion riders if I had disc brakes. Once,my bike had to come to a complete stop from 50kmph since some wise guy had decided to cross that road at that ultimate moment. I braked and kept the handle steady and that was all I required to stay alive and on the bike.

The ride quality of this machine is heavily dependent on its engine. The TVS Victor’s engine is not a very smooth running one, what with terrible vibrations at 45kmph and then at around 70kmph in its 4th gear.

On trips longer than 10 minutes, you really start to feel your fingers feeling numb from the vibrations reaching the handlebar from the engine, especially if you are riding at cruise speeds of around 40-45kmph in the city. This bike either has a terrible problem, or has been mounted on some terrible engine mounts since I am yet to see any bike vibrate so badly. The suspension, on this bike speaks quality and has never given me any trouble. All the attention it needed was the one change of fork oil at its regular interval. The shock absorbers in the rear and the front really do their job in absorbing the cruel road conditions in India and hold up even at high speeds. One complaint, again, is of the poor handling during turns, which might be partly because of the suspension, but I cannot be sure. The ride position of this bike is that of a regular city bike for rides under 20min. Any ride lasting longer will surely get your spine asking for rest and over time, a deserving massage.

I have ridden bikes comparable to the Victor – Hero Honda’s Splendor and the Passion, Bajaj’s Platina and Yamaha’s Libero and found all other bikes to be far smoother and to have much better handling than the TVS Victor. The Libero was one bike that impressed me the most with its ultra-smooth engine and the sweet purrs of the engine with every gear shift. Surely, a Yamaha bike.

Now, the economy. ‘Mileage kitna detaa hain?’ – is a typical question on the mouths of every Indian even if the bike in context were a Hayabusa. The Victor definitely lives upto expectations, but what else can you expect from a puny 110cc, if not some decent fuel economy? In the first two years, whenever I calculated, I observed very high fuel economy, in the range of 75-83 kmpl, 83 being the highest that I ever noted, during the second year. Over time, and as I moved to a bigger city with messy stop-n-go traffic, the fuel economy started to drop down to the levels of 60-65 kmpl, with 45 being the lowest when the vehicle was due for a service. There is nothing more evil for fuel-economy watchers than dirty air-filter and older oil. Other factors which come into play are air-pressure, amount of braking, excessive acceleration, pollutants/oxygen availability in the air, and more. The list will exhaust you.

Quality of service, parts, and of the vehicle. The dealer where I bought my bike provided excellent service, and always made me a happy customer. There was another authorized TVS service shop nearby that also provided good customer service, and reliable vehicle repair. But that was Warangal. Come Hyderabad, and all I get are small, crampy service stations with technicians that look similar to those at the road-side repair shop. Not impressed.

The bike, in its first 3 years was a pleasure to ride, with minimum repairs and repairs came cheap. Soon enough, the vehicle started showing its age, with the plastic loosening at many a place, the one under the seat being the most irritating. The rear-view mirrors lose their rubber protectors, and the plastic turns an ugly grey from a beautiful black. The small storage space under the battery is protected by a cover with lock and key. This lock had to be replaced twice since it gets broken so very easily. The key, when it goes into the ignition and is turned on, cannot be usually removed without having to switch off the engine. Now, thats gone kaput too, since I can now ride the bike without the keys in the keyslot. Just turn the key to Ignition and pull it out. The tires on this bike held up their threads for a very long time, and I’m impressed with the quality of these TVS tires. I finally had to replace my rear tire before last year’s monsoon since I wouldn’t trust old tires on our country’s awesome ‘roads-to-be’ in the monsoons. The wheels, on the other hand, are a painful pair in the ass. I have had to true these wheels umpteen number of times, and these tend to bend and go out of shape with the slightest of the potholes our roads have to offer. Each time, I have to shell out something around Rs.50/- only to have to go back a few potholes later.  Poor quality. The battery from Amco-Yuasa is an impressive battery that lasted these 5 long years without the slightest glitch ever. The battery finally declared its demise after the past few months of non-use. The ball bearings at the fork and the front wheel also showed their age or rather their inability to handle high quality Indian roads since they had to replaced recently for a whopping Rs800/-.

Overall, the Victor is a sweet bike, meant for the ultimately delicate, mileage seeking, back-breaking-ready driver who might forego his right to better quality for a lower initial price and reliability, something which this bike ain’t got! I’d strongly suggest that you don’t buy a used Victor if its more than a couple of years old, and if you own one, then I recommend you sell it by the end of its 3rd or utmost 4th year and get one of ‘em new computer-controlled Bajaj bikes since they offer better value for money for the same fuel-economy and for similarly priced after-market parts and service.

To summarise, this watch is a simple digital time keeper with extreme durability, reliability, and a battery that you’ll never have to worry about. For those looking for a better looking glow light in their watch, Casio also has a Illuminator – F105W – 1A. This is a slightly modified version of the classic F91W-1. My friend bought this a couple of days after I bought my Classic. Apparently, he was looking for something simple too. He keeps making fun of my rather boring LED and tries to show off his blue illuminator. I have to admit that it does look cool while still retaining its classic casio look.

Here are links to both these watches on Amazon:

<- Casio Men’s Classic Black Digital Resin Strap Watch #F91W-1

<-Casio Men’s Illuminator Digital Watch #F105W-1A