Exactly 1 year ago (22nd July 2009) was in Sasaram for last watchable total solar eclipse of this century from India. That was followed by trip to Varkala , for 15 Jan 2010 Annular eclipse, all this was preceded by Solar eclipse workshop in Delhi in Jan 2009, where the excitement started. Hopefully should be able to witness totality few more times in my lifetime.
Seems tweeting has taken toll of blogging!
Many a times come across comments on how difficult Inscript is to use with an english keyboard…but hey Inscript was developed with the idea that one fine day keyboards with Indic scripts etched on them would be in wide use. This never really happened for one the effort by Indic solution vendors to give multiple input schemes to tie users down to their software, than attempt to follow a standard and rest blame on keyboard manufacturers on not bringing them out in volumes citing lack of demand. Only one I have come across is TVSE models, which though best in reliability (have one which is being use for 14yrs at home!) are not bought until needed for heavy usage as done by typists in govt depts. Keyboard stickers too never really caught well in the sense that they they tend to spoil the look of a keyboard
When the first time a person used english keyboard (qwerty or otherwise), did they not have to learn or remember the layout?!
Reminds me of a conversation overheard at an assembler, where a buyer getting PC assmember asked if he could get a Hindi keyboard, the response was he could but it would cost thrice the amount for the cheap one assembler was giving and that he could stick stickers if he really wanted to use Hindi.
I am not against Input schemes phonetically following QWERTY layout, but they could work at a higher plane providing more advanced form of input, like say predictive input.
So my question to critics of Inscript layout, would have you still not attempted to learn it even if the layout was etched on your keyboard?
Entering Hargeisia
Originally uploaded by Carl Montgomery.
Came across this photo of Somalian city, notice the Dabur & Vatika hair oil boards on the gate!!
It will be a different morning on 22nd July in India, as we would wake up to an eclipsed sun, with much of central india experiencing a short night. Yes!! A total solar eclipse & only first of the two in this century to be seen in India. Next one being in 2034 which is to be seen from Ladakh.
Check Eclipse details for TSE July 22nd 2009.
Also check the interactive google map for shadow path. Click on any location to see the eclipse details for that location. Blue line is the central line of totality path, places on are the best to view totality.
Main cities in totality path starting from Surat, Indore, Itarsi, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Katni, Varanasi, Sasaram, Patna, Saharsa, Darjeeling, Tawang, Dibrugarh and then passing over into China.
My plan is to see it from either Bhimbetika near Bhopal , or from Sasaram in Bihar, which ever place is to have better weather conditions (aka clear skies!).
Bhopal trip
* 18th Pune-Bhopal (Jhelum exp)
* 19th in Bhopal , catchup with local crowd
* 20th some sight seeing (bhojpur/sanchi)
* 21st recce trip to bhimbetika
* 22nd morning – observe eclipse, and leave for Pune in evening.
Bihar trip
* 18th Leave for Varanasi from Mumbai/Pune
* 20th morning reach Varanasi, Kashi Vishwanath darshan, same afternoon/evening reach Sasaram
* 21st Join AAAD group, and preparations
* 22nd morning – observe eclipse.
* 22nd afternoon – leave for Puri
* 23rd arrive in Puri, Lord Jagannath darshan
* 24th in Bhubaneswar
* 25th Take Konark exp to Pune.
Check map here to see where most Astronuts are going for eclipse.
If you have enough money to blow then maybe take the eclipse flight
Another one not to miss is Annular Solar eclipse on Jan 15th 2010 visible over Tamilnadu (Madurai, Kanyakumari, Rameshwaram).
This was one place I had to instantly fall in love with :p
The menu
To start with only tried the safer ones – Steam idli, Rava idli, Kadhi idli (the best!). Aim to try out all items 
All variety always not available. Mornings & evenings best times to eat out there.
This is on JM Road, Pune. On the left almost halfway towards Deccan stand from Balgandharv
Its been a while I wrote something.. finally coming to realize what work+load is.
I switched to DIY hosting at Gandi. So will take some effort in maintaining it.. than just point & click.
Thanks to having a hoodman lcd cover, I realized a little late I was shooting with no CF card!! But this still is not as bad as when I shot a roll on Vivitar 3800N without advancing the film (since I never put it in sprocket properly in first place), and missing a whole set of photos, of a memorable trek in Bhutan! My A70 did save me that time.
Gnunify’09 is on, be there if you can not to miss some learning & fun.
PLUG bookmarks are worth taking
No posts for a long while, lot of pending matters and fixing things.. one of it being moving hosting to another server so this blog will be offline for a while!
Few things to ponder on are like what next steps in IndLinux, and life in general!
Will be at foss.in next week from 26th-29th Nov (yes will be as delegate for a change 
. That keeps the record intact of having only participated as attendee/delegate for FOSS events this year!
more later..when blog is online again.
After a failed mexican attempt, I leave tomorrow morning to the other side of planet, ie USofA. Would be spending a week in Mountain View, then couple of weeks in San Francisco. Apart from work, only thing on mind is getting a telescope (with EQ mount).
I should be back into a stable mode only until a month from now.
The TZ difference would keep few things out of sync.
For Indic Folks: If any ideas/plans for foss.in then add here here . Since I wont be able to follow up much on things in time, someone please take call on what could be done.
Came across this book.. perhaps comes a little too late.. but I guess it wouldnt have come earlier anyways considering the X Window System history.
Quite good read, to finally get X configuration right, use its potential well, use desktop to its full.
(Indian edition for 260/-)
