Martin and Gompo invited me over for a luncheon at Kovalam. We went for a walk on the Eve's Beach. The Kovalam beach looks very different from my last visit. The rough sea and high tides took over most of the beach, so we went up the lighthouse instead.
Where's the beach ! 
Kovalam Lighthouse 
High waves hit the beach
Stairway to heaven (140+ steps)
Kovalam- view from lighthouse
Kovalam Beach - view from lighthouse
Lighthouse beacon housing
Martin at the top of lighthouse 
Gompo and me
Traveling into Trivandrum city every few weeks for shopping is a chore. Leaving the serene and quiet lake side campus to go out into the bustling city is not a very attractive preposition. But there is one consolation, I get dig into delicious thick milkshakes at Variety Fresh Juice. Just walk down from Big Bazaar on East Fort main road. You'll find this shop tucked into the corner of a busy intersection. The milkshakes and juices priced at Rs.20/30 don't burn a hole in one's pocket. 
Heard lot of compliants about this strange case. The cursor seems to jump to different location on the screen while typing in OpenOffice on Ubuntu Linux laptops. I haven't faced this problem before. Perhaps checking 'Disable touchpad while typing' Touchpad setting in Mouse Preferences would fix this issue.
You can also use the following command to enable this setting from commandline.
gconftool --toggle /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/disable_while_typing
Managed to breath life back into my old hand-me-down Nokia N70. The phone was having White Screen of Death (WSOD) one too many, a new display IC fixed that. The original nokia battery (Nokia BL-5C) started to swell and needed to be replace.
Now the old war horse is battle ready, let me hook it up to my laptop via a bluetooth link and do something useful with Python on S60 series.
$ hciconfig reset
hci0: Type: USB
BD Address: 00:21:86:A8:BF:03 ACL MTU: 310:10 SCO MTU: 64:8
UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
RX bytes:1260 acl:0 sco:0 events:34 errors:0
$ hcitool dev
Devices:
hci0 00:21:86:A8:BF:03
$ sdptool add --channel=2 SP
Serial Port service registered
# Now make sure the Python bluetooth console is running
$ rfcomm listen rfcomm2 2
In your phone, make sure bluetooth is on, then go to the Python application and then select the Bluetooth Console. Select from the list of available devices your computer's bluetooth adapter (you might need to select search even if you think you have already defined the pairing). If the operation is successful, you should see something similar to the following on your computer's shell:
* Waiting for connection on channel 2
* Connection from 00:11:9F:BE:47:CA to /dev/rfcomm2
* Press CTRL-C for hangup
# Change to different terminal and connect to the device with screen.
$ screen /dev/rfcomm2
# Run basic tests.
print u"hello"
hello
>>>
>>> import appuifw
>>> appuifw.note(u"hello world")
>>>
This Python S60 Bluetooth Console wiki page provides more step by step intrusions of the whole process.
Enabling Compiz eZoom desktop plugin for our partially sighted and low vision users hit a snag. Compiz refused to work as Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 chipset is blacklisted in Ubuntu 8.10 Jaunty. This tutorial describes how to override and enable compiz on blacklisted hardware.
You need to add SKIP_CHECKS="yes" at the end /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager. That should fix it.
$ SKIP_CHECKS=yes compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
xset q doesn't reveal the location of the log file. Using fallback /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Blacklisted PCIID '8086:2a02' found
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity
# Edit the following file and add at the end of the 'SKIP_CHECKS=yes'
$ sudo nano /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager
# restart compiz and try enabling compiz again.
$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
xset q doesn't reveal the location of the log file. Using fallback /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Blacklisted PCIID '8086:2a02' found
SKIP_CHECKS is yes, so continuing despite problems.
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present.
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Checking screen 1Comparing resolution (1280x800) to maximum 3D texture size (2048): Passed.
Checking for Software Rasterizer: Not present.
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
running under gnome seesion, checking for gnomecompat
Checking for Xgl: not present.
/usr/bin/compiz.real (video) - Warn: No 8 bit GLX pixmap format, disabling YV12 image format
Starting gtk-window-decorator
Just bagged a Tiger Prawn (Penaeus monodon) in the lake. I had brought out the fishing rods on impulse while taking quick break for a cup of coffee. I did not expect to catch anything but life it seems to be full of surprises. The nasty bugger snipped at my fingers while I was trying to free him of the tiny fishing hook. I know why its called a Tiger Prawn now.
Reading about the Zii unveiling the Zii Egg renewed my craving for this wonderful gadget.
I mentioned this device to my learned friend Rad today. He spent considerable part of the night pouring over the details and gives it a thumbs up. He says "its like apple Ipod touch but completely open , hackable and with development support".
The device supports both Zii's Plaszma OS and Android and comes with full HD support. It also has a TTS engine that makes a potential platform for some of the accessible devices I plan to work on in future. Check out the full technical specifications of Zii Egg.
