Just to share my experience !!

Review : Samsung Galaxy SII

2011-10-18T16:35:00.007+05:30

Now this coloumn is going to be one of the most controversial one's which may lead to a debate between my apple lover friends and others including me :-)..

Well I rate them both equal, it actually depends if you want to work hard for freedom of usage of your smartphone (and pay for every good thing,iOS).. or just work smart to get things work as you want on your smartphones (Mostly free on Android).

I was looking out for a phone for myself, I had all options because was ready to shell out the moolah only if my requirements were met, which were as below :

1. Large Display - I mean it, I dont want to use a laptop when am on bed or travelling !
2. Clarity - Apart from large, it should be CLEAR display, Visible in outdoors too.
3. Memory - Ofcourse, something near 16Gig would be good enough.
4. GPS - I always need help while driving.
5. Camera - I like clubbing at celeb nights and am fond of clicking and making videos, so need HD & Flash !
6. Apps - Useful apps (Naah dont make me pay for it, I already would be paying alot for the phone)
7. Size - Does matter! It should be sleek and pocket friendly.
8. Web Browsing - FAST !

With General Features like - mp3 ringtones, FM radio, click and sending pix/files through bluetooth, Wi-fi

On checking several handsets available in market which suited my requirements,I zeroed down to Apple iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy SII. I have always been a HTC Fan, but I guess its time for HTC to work more on the Phone Display, Internal Memory, Screen Size. About Blackberry, give me a break, I am young enough to mess around with the phone and you are not interesting Blackberry OS :-P.

Keeping in mind my requirements :

Tech Specs Comparisons : Read this for a point to point comparison with iPhone 4.

So that makes Samsung Galaxy SII a strong contender.

Below is one of the videos which helped me compared and decide onto Samsung

Point wise Analysis : Of all requirements above and more.

Overall Face Off Test : Comparing all my requirements above.

My Requirement 1 & 2 (Display and clarity)

My Requirement 4 (GPS)

My Requirement 5 (Camera)

The above videos must have cleared most of your doubts, also I found some more links about reviews and awards for SII below :

Review on Samsung Galaxy SII

Recently,T3 Gadgets Awards presented the Phone of the year 2011 to Samsung Galaxy SII

Apart from the above, With Samsung SII , I can use/share media through it it as an extended drive and access it over wi-fi, hence no itunes or and blah blah software required to be there which makes it easy for managing media on the device. I can also access the phone over http, and manage everything on the phone through web interface. Also the Super AMOLED display is awesome in SII, just view HD videos on the devices, its a jaw dropping experience. I am not saying you cannot do that all with iPhone (some you can do), but you need to work alot on the phone to get all these functionalities, including breaking jail / loosing warranty of your device.

Also, answer this, how can I change my battery on the iphone ? This is one thing which is totally unacceptable, for me atleast, If I am buying something, i would like to have least dependency on the service centers, you know how they are.

Anyway, rest is your call, and your choice, the above shows how and why I made mine, bought a Samsung Galaxy SII and am happy ! :-)

Hope you enjoyed reading this space. You can also call it as an article on Samsung Galaxy SII vs iPhone vs HTC vs Blackberry :-)... and my take on it..

Cheers.

Hope House Set 015

2011-07-17T12:36:00.000+05:30

Hope House Set 015 by Djshivash on Mixcloud

Review : Fashnvia.com

2011-07-16T21:24:00.000+05:30

There are many websites these days with nice offers for clothings perfumes bla bla bla...

Well just to share on of my experiences with "www.fashnvia.com".

I was one of the regular customers of this site, but then later when i started facing problems with delievery etc, there was no one to listen to me.

I tried the customer care number they have on the website "n" number of times, seems like it has been used for some other purposes otherthan taking care of orders and stuff. Either its always busy, or no human would be available to attend the call..

Problem started 2 months back, the first time I contacted them was on mail, i.e on May 8th, no reply to that, then a reminder on May 12th, no reply to that too. Then a strong mail on May 19th after several tries on landline number, then finally i got a call and mail from them asking me to send the defective product back to them and they would provide me equivalent amount fv voucher, they also commited to refund the shipping charges I was paying.

Now the day came I sent back the defective t-shirt, I again tried calling them, no response. Then mailed them on Jun 13th , No reply , then Jun 14th, 17th, and last was on 24th Jun when i finally was tired of calling them up and writing mails,I thought the other people should know what kind of service these people are providing and do not want anyone else to be a victim of them.

Guys, if you are planning to buy anything from "www.fashnvia.com" BE CAREFUL if you love your money, forget it.

If anyone from fashnvia team is actually reading this, guys "shove up the t-shirt I sent in your @$$".

NOTE :: I have all proofs with me if required to support what I wrote above.. :)

Peace.

IP Address Classes

2011-06-27T10:45:00.000+05:30

This is just for a revision.. revisiting networking concepts :-) !!
The below Image says it all.

Thanks,
@$H

ext2 vs ext3 vs ext4

2011-06-27T00:26:00.000+05:30

Below are some key differences, between the different filesystems of linux systems, ext2,ext3,ext4.

ext2

• ext2 stands for second extended file system.
• It was introduced in 1993. Developed by Rémy Card.
• This was developed to overcome the limitation of the original ext file system.
• ext2 does not have journaling feature.
• On flash drives, usb drives, ext2 is recommended, as it doesn’t need to do the over head of journaling.
• Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 2 TB
• Overall ext2 file system size can be from 2 TB to 32 TB

ext3

• ext3 stands for third extended file system.
• It was introduced in 2001. Developed by Stephen Tweedie.
• Starting from Linux Kernel 2.4.15 ext3 was available.
• The main benefit of ext3 is that it allows journaling.
• Journaling has a dedicated area in the file system, where all the changes are tracked. When the system crashes, the possibility of file system corruption is less because of journaling.
• Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 2 TB
• Overall ext3 file system size can be from 2 TB to 32 TB
• There are three types of journaling available in ext3 file system.
o Journal – Metadata and content are saved in the journal.
o Ordered – Only metadata is saved in the journal. Metadata are journaled only after writing the content to disk. This is the default.
o Writeback – Only metadata is saved in the journal. Metadata might be journaled either before or after the content is written to the disk.
• You can convert a ext2 file system to ext3 file system directly (without backup/restore).

ext4

• ext4 stands for fourth extended file system.
• It was introduced in 2008.
• Starting from Linux Kernel 2.6.19 ext4 was available.
• Supports huge individual file size and overall file system size.
• Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 16 TB
• Overall maximum ext4 file system size is 1 EB (exabyte). 1 EB = 1024 PB (petabyte). 1 PB = 1024 TB (terabyte).
• Directory can contain a maximum of 64,000 subdirectories (as opposed to 32,000 in ext3)
• You can also mount an existing ext3 fs as ext4 fs (without having to upgrade it).
• Several other new features are introduced in ext4:
o multiblock allocation,
o delayed allocation,
o journal checksum.
o fast fsck, etc.
o All you need to know is that these new features have improved the performance and reliability of the filesystem when compared to ext3.
• In ext4, you also have the option of turning the journaling feature “off”.

Trance till you die... !

2011-05-17T20:40:00.000+05:30

Dates :: 14th May - 2011
Time :: 10:30PM - 4:30AM
Location :: Quantum, CenterStage Mall, Noida (www.quantumlive.com)

Smirnoff & Quantum has done it again... taking up clubbing to a different level and which has been a treat for all music lovers (Trance).

The event was with Markus Shulz .. who is the World # 8 DJ !

It was one memorable night, it kicked off @ about 10PM when people started pouring in.. it was good to see all like minded .. music lovers... who were actually there for serious music..

I entered at 10:30 and the enviroment was lively and picking up with the music of DJ Viju (Resident DJ Quantum). Then came in DJ Ribz who also played up some nice numbers.. best of all was Gareth Emery's - On a good day - When the crowd went bezerk !

Now it was time... Markus Shulz came in @ about 1'ish then he kicked off his set and played non-stop upto 4:15am ! The crowd wasnt ready to leave the dancefloor... or can say Markus didnt let anyone to... Apart from some his best numbers .. Rain , Not the same , Do you dream , he also played Sun & Moon (A&B), This light between us (AVB & Christian Burns) and Citadel (Gareth Emery) ! It was AWESOME and was a treat to see Markus LIVE !

The experience was good, Markus could connect to the crowd well and was enjoying every bit of it.. He showed his professionalism by refusing shots(liquor) while performing, he bluntly said "No", that shows the respect to his profession.

This is how it looked like.. from the bar counter :-)

Towards the end, when no one actually wanted to rest and say good bye, it looked like Markus too forgot that it was already 4, he just kept playing and playing.. when DJ RIBz had to come in twice and ask Markus, its time.. (I just could make out that, I was right @ da front and was being an observer that time ;) )

Icing on the cake was, I managed to shake hands with Markus, not once, but twice (once when he was coming in, and the other , when he was through with his set), I had no words but could only say, good job done & Thanks ! :-) !!

I can write lots about that night, it was awesome... but I think I should cut it short now.. before i do this, I thank "SMIRNOFF" for getting me on the guest list again :-).. Thanks a bunch ! Also thanks to TEAM QUANTUM for giving us one after another memorable performances.. After Smirnoff nightlife, then Gareth Emery, then AVB and now Markus... way to go Quantum and Smirnoff.. lets see what you got next for us.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this.. excuse me for the pix :-) ! I know I am little outdated on that front, but I love my HTC :o) & Personal cameras are not allowed!!

Peace !
Ash

Desire House Set 014

2011-05-01T23:31:00.000+05:30

Desire House Set 014 by Djshivash on Mixcloud

Armin Van Buuren Bests - Warmup Set

2011-05-01T04:14:00.000+05:30

Armin Van Buuren Bests by Djshivash on Mixcloud

Cache stealing all your linux box memory ??

2011-04-24T14:27:00.001+05:30

At times you may see the memory of your linux boxes used by cache , even though you are not running many applications on it. (Output of free -g)

The below solution will help you to free up the memory during runtime without rebooting the host.

To Free PageCache
sync; echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches <- Most used

To free dentries and inodes:
# sync; echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

To free pagecache, dentries and inodes:
# sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Hope you find it useful.

Cheers..
Ash

Breaking the ton with Smirnoff & Quantum !

2010-11-26T19:19:00.000+05:30

Dates :: 25th Sep / 15th Oct / 19th Nov - 2010
Time :: 10:30PM - 6:00AM
Location :: Quantum, CenterStage Mall, Noida (www.quantumlive.com)

Now this is for all my friends who are into clubbing.. Lately I visited Quantum in 3 of their biggest nights in the last months, I would be covering all these 3 nights here...

Ever since I had been there for the Bally Sagoo night,I was sure that Quantum is one place which means serious clubbing and where you would actually have the pleasure of enjoying music. If you are a music lover, and want safe clubbing, I recommend you Quantum.

Smirnoff, being sponsors, on the other hand has been doing an awesome job in getting the best of the industry. I am thankful to Smirnoff , and tell them "I WAS THERE", to keep me on their guest lists :-) for a couple of events ( I was lucky enough to win the contests ). And it was not only me, they have been giving opportunity to music lovers. Smirnoff has been trying new ideas to keep the music trend alive and now they have this "Smirnoff nightlife exchange" which is another another creative idea of theirs. Click Here to know more about it.

One of the nights I attended was of the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange, when I got a chance to see DJ Nikhil Chinnapa & DJ Pearl. They played some cool numbers, though the crowd there was expecting more of desi numbers as Desi DJ's were in ;-). So not much of a dance but still the gig was nice with live violin with some trance music.

Here that's me in those awesome party goggs by Smirnoff ;-).. Don't laugh :-P..

Here on the deck is Nikhil..

Here on the deck is DJ Pearl..

And the Live violin gig with trance of B.R.E.E.D..

Gig 2 : Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery when visited Quantum was world # 9 ranking DJ, but now he is world # 7. Some of his awesome numbers includes "On a good day" "I will be the same" & "Citadel" , again it was a nice gig with some awesome trance numbers which included the above alongwith loads of more of trance..

The pics below have been taken from the VIP lounge, You can see Gareth busy in his work..

Gig 3 : Armin Van Buuren

The King of DJ's , undisputed world # 1 for 4th Year in a row Armin Van Buuren (AVB) is the name which is known by every Trance music lover.It was a buzz in town when it was learn't that AVB is visiting India and would be performing Live @ Quantum. Thanks to Quantum for this memorable event, and Smirnoff who were the sponsors of the event, also sponsor for my visit as I won their contest and they had my name on their guest list..(I know i was lucky... :-) ).

This was one memorable night, I entered the scene at about 10:30PM and left at about 5:30am, but there wasn't even an instant when the dance floor was free.. Quantum was jampacked with people dancing non-stop. Good it was a friday, and next day it was an off for office :-). AVB played for about 2.5 - 3hours and no need to say he was too good.

About the ARMIN ONLY tour...

AVB in action..

I shared my experience clubbing with the best's in the industry above & hope you all like it..

Cheers..
Ash

Enhance the music quality reaching your ears ???

2010-07-06T23:05:00.000+05:30

Hey ..

Well it has been a while I was doing some research looking for something which could help me enhance the music which actually left my Laptop and reached my ears .. Normally laptops do not have a high quality soundcard and they are the on board ones which are used which actually dont do much to the music...

Now why do we require this, Unfortunately we are prone to cheap quality music, and I am serious, everyone is ! Checkout below :

-> How many of us actually purchase Original Audio CD's ?
-> Do you Rip music from Audio CD's to WAV format ? Good if you do that else most of us do it in MP3.
-> Well we all download / transfer mp3s , do you share wav files ?

The major difference between mp3 and wav is mp3 is a lossy compression technique though wav has a lossless compression technique and the file size is smaller in case of mp3 comparing to wav. Though we should understand, we are compromising the quality of music for the size of the file.

I have stressed above on wav , there are more formats though, far better than mp3 ;-).

So I finally found Creative X-Fi external USB soundcard which actually helps to improve the quality of the mp3s by amplifying it. Also this helps us for a 5.1 channel home theater system if your internal soundcard doest support it.

Some product features are :

Product Features

* 24-bit multichannel performance/96kHz stereo
* 100dB SNR for ultraquiet, high-definition digital audio
* Xtreme Fidelity audio playback with X-Fi Crystalizer technology restores the detail of compressed music and movies for enhanced highs and lows
* Accurate X-Fi CMSS-3D positional audio centers voices and places ambient sound all around you, providing a lifelike audio experience even when using normal stereo headphones
* EAX advanced HD sound effects deliver realistic audio
* Creative ALchemy with Windows Vista (not included) restores surround sound for an amazing gaming experience
* Supports DTS and Dolby Digital-EX decoding, so you can watch your DVDs in cinematic surround sound; use the optical output to send Dolby Digital pass-through audio directly to your home theater receiver
* Includes software package with 7 titles, including Creative MediaSource, Creative Diagnostic, SoundFont Bank Manager and more
* USB connectivity for easy connection to your computer
* Inputs: microphone, stereo line
* Outputs: headphone, left speaker RCA, right speaker RCA, rear-left, rear-right, center, subwoofer, optical

I have been using this product for quite a while now and am pretty much satisfied. Again as discussed in my earlier blog article for creative zen x-fi , Creative products are almost half the price in US, so lookout for friends visitng US and take them out for a treat ;-)

Keep Rocking Earth !

Cheers..
Ash

iFrogz EarPollution DJ Silver Spider

2010-07-06T22:42:00.000+05:30

About my latest purchase... EarPollution for Serious Music loverz !

About the product !

Each set in the DJ series of EarPollution headphones features powerful 50mm drivers offering listeners extreme style and sound.

Featuring:

* Chrome Accents
* Comfort Cushions
* Adjustable Headband
* 50mm Speaker Driver

Silver Spider
From the chrome-plated hinges to the unique spider web inner cushion pattern, the Silver Spider is a serious set of DJ style headphones for anyone who demands great sound and unparalleled style.Featuring powerful 50mm drivers, the EarPollution Billionaire boasts extreme style and sound. Featuring clean bass and crystal clear under-tones. Add a little bling to your show with gold-reflective hinges and smooth chocolate accents, the Billionaire is a serious set of DJ style headphones for anyone who demands great sound and unparalleled style.

I am loving it !! Njoi

Read more: http://overclockershq.com/our-store-296.html#ixzz0svM3mhBk

When I saw "The King of Remixes - Bally Sagoo"

2009-11-22T14:03:00.000+05:30

Date :: 21/22-Nov-2009
Time :: 10:30PM - 4:00AM
Location :: Elevates, CenterStage Mall, Noida

Hey ya..

This was the day when i finally saw my all time favorite "Bally Sagoo" Playing live on the turntable in front of me.. it is one memorable moment I can never forget.

This Delhi born UK based DJ is known all over the globe for his work in revamping hindi music with Hip Hop.. he was one of the first's who revolutionized Hip Hop Punjabi and hindi song on all club scenes around the globe.

Some of my favorites are :
1 : Chura Liye Hein Tumnay
2 : Teri Akhiyan
3 : Gur Nalo Ishq
4 : Aapki Nazron Nay
5 : Noorie
6 : Tum Bin Jiya Udas
7 : Aaja Nachlay
8 : Mera Laung Gawacha

Unfortunately one of the decks of the turntable was not working properly which was being a bad show, I hope the management fixes it soon :-), Also another thing, all the contact numbers mentioned on the "Elevates" site etc are just for show, dont ever expect any human will be answering your call. Thats what happened to me, i tried all numbers available but couldnt get through. THATS BAD PR ELEVATES !!

BALLY SAGOO ROCKED the club, he came in too late, before that there were some kids trying to give thier best on the turntables ;-) , good work by them too. But you know when it is like comparing the Bally, no one is near him... atleast for the hindi/Punju club scene.

Before i signoff, here is da pic of our gang who visited the club.. (Bally Playing at tha back)

Bally Sagoo RoX !!

Virtually D.E.A.D :: A new tagline on our FB & Orkut..

2009-11-09T23:27:00.000+05:30

Hey Ya,

Date :: 8-Nov-2009
Time :: 11:10PM
Location :: Costa Coffee, Spice Mall, Noida

The time when Me, and 3 more friends of mine Q (Qambar), KB (Karthik Balakrishnan) , A.M (Arun Menon) were sittin and chit chattin.. talking about how did we spend our day, as it was a Sunday.

Well I told them my story, I met some old friends and it was like a lesson,I was so emotionally labile & I had a strong feeling that how disconnected we have been with the real life. We rely on FaceBook / Orkut to see how fat or how drunkard that friend is now ;).

We decided ,lets get back to real life, and declared that we are virtually dead for a while ;).. No social networking sites, we dont require new friends ;) the best we can do in life is to value those who are already ours in this confound world...

"You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act."

Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000

The songs I am listening ?

2009-08-04T23:58:00.000+05:30

Virtual consoles in RHEL4/RHEL 5

2009-07-31T12:11:00.001+05:30

There are Five virtual consoles in Redhat enterprise Linux servers.
There are certain key combinations to be used to access the virtual console,it helps alot for troubleshooting machines.
The Key Combinations are as below:
ALT-F1 : to access installer in text mode.
ALT-F2: to access bash shell .
ALT-F3 to view log of installer.
ALT-F4: to view log of kernel messages.
ALT-F5 stdout of mke2fs and grub.
ALT-F7 : access installer in Graphical mode.

Cheerz.
@$H

Being Yourself...

2009-07-29T13:11:00.000+05:30

I just went through this , one of my colleagues forwarded it to me after an hour long debate on topic what we call as "Living LIFE Being Yourself" ... he he .. was heavy for me though , I never prefer to be a part of any debate, the only thing I believe that makes life complete is if I have "my people" ( grrrr yea obssessive haan ;), thats wat some think though ) with me and spending time with them being myself, thats what I believe life is...
But still.. she managed to agree me to a point that people do change with new people, surroundings, with places they go and get used to it.. If you read this which is pasted in hindi, its a story of a guy who visited delhi , its cool, see how his experience goes... interesting though. ... People then start getting used to it...

Hope you like it..
Cheerz..
@$H

Creative Zen X-Fi 8GB

2009-07-27T13:19:00.000+05:30

A long time plan to own my mp3 player, my options were as below:

- To use my cellphone for music : Naah , i own a HTC Touch, already use it alot for browsing, mails and chattin. The battery also would not support me in that cause. Rather I also believe that a cellphone shouldnt be used for music purposes to prevent the wear n tear of your device.

- The first name strikes every mind , Apple iPod... in my case, Give me a break !
Personal preference though, no offenses, it’s just that i don’t want to be limited to itunes etc to transfer and manage music on my player.

My requirements were :
1. Portable.. small.. sleek with max features possible.
2. Can be used as a pendrive, music transfer easy.
3. High Sound quality.

On doing some research, i found creative zen x-fi, it comes with a wlan model too… but asks for more money..
Creative has been a leader in the digital entertainment industry for PC and interner for quite a while now.. most of us also own the creative 2.1 speakers for PC too.. me too.. which has a top sound quality.. we all know.. and is quality for money.

X-fi means extreme fidelity which is an audio standard owned by creative , which truly makes a difference, you will experience the difference once you just use this device..
Using creative zen is extremely easy, and the quality.. the first word which will drop out of your mouth after listening to music on it will be .. WooooW… And its not only music, you can save your photographs in it and view it while travelling, slideshows etc, videos – it supports mp4, avi etc.

The earphones which comes with this powerhouse is also a creative earplug, which along would cost you about 20$ I guess , approx.

To see the details of this powerhouse click the below link
http://in.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=17810
Now about the cost, dude creative products are seriously expensive in india, if you have some contacts in US, call them now !

I sent this requirement to a dear friend of mine (creative zen x-fi 8GB), who went to US for an assignment, and she also agreed that this was one of her best buy’s. I got this for 99$ , I also purchased the armband along with this player which I use while working out.

In India you will get this for about Rs.14,700 , so you can see the difference.

Hope this helps in deciding your next purchase .. ;)

Cheerz.. @$H

3 Doors Down - Let Me Be Myself

2009-07-17T00:04:00.000+05:30

See this video , premiere of "Let me be myself", a beautiful song by 3 Doors Down.

Find more videos like this on 3 Doors Down

"Let Me Be Myself"

I guess i just got lost
Bein' someone else
I tried to kill the pain
Nothin ever helped
I left myself behind
Somewhere along the way
Hopin to come back around
To find myself someday

Lately i'm so tired of waiting for you
To say that it's ok, but tell me
Please, would you one time
Just let me be myself
So i can shine with my own light
Let me be myself
Would you let me be myself

I'll never find my heart
Behind someone else
I'll never see the light of day
Living in this cell
It's time to make my way
Into the world i knew
Take back all of these times
That i gave in to you

Lately i'm so tired of waiting for you
To say that it's ok, but tell me
Please, would you one time
Let me be myself
So i can shine with my own light
And let me be myself
For a while, if you don't mind
Let me be myself
So i can shine with my own light
Let me be myself

That's all i've ever wanted from this world
Is to let me be me

Please would you one time
Let me be myself
So i can shine with my own light
Let me be myself
Please would you one time
Let me be myself
So i can shine with my own light
Let me be myself
For a while, if you don't mind
Let me be myself
So i can shine with my own light
Let me be myself
Would you one time... oooh
Let me be myself
Let me be me

Ganglia across VLANs

2009-07-14T11:25:00.000+05:30

As per my earlier article we did a default configuration of Ganglia on the network.
By default it works on Multicast, now if we have servers spread in different network segments / locations, this will not work.

To make this work we will have to use unicast for Ganglia configurations, for that follow the steps below:

On the Ganglia machines:

$ vi /etc/gmond.conf

1. Comment all entries of mcast and add an entry of host = in the udp_send_channel

/* Feel free to specify as many udp_send_channels as you like. Gmond
used to only support having a single channel */
udp_send_channel {
#mcast_join = 239.2.11.71
host = (server host)
port = 8649
}

/* You can specify as many udp_recv_channels as you like as well. */
udp_recv_channel {
#mcast_join = 239.2.11.71
port = 8649
#bind = 239.2.11.71
}

2. Restart the gmond service

/etc/init.d/gmond restart

(server host) = The host where Ganglia is hosted and which is collecting the data.

Now when you see the page on http://(server host)/ganglia

You will see the hosts coming up on the page.

Cheerz.
@$H

Migrating the default Database location of MySQL

2009-07-12T23:16:00.000+05:30

There are some simple steps if you need to change the default location of the MySQL Database.

1. Create new data directory data for new data directory.

mkdir data
chown -R mysql:mysql data

2、Stop MySQL process

# service mysqld stop
Stopping MySQL: [ OK ]

ps -efgrep mysql to check

3、Copy /var/lib/mysql to /home/data

cp -rfp /var/lib/mysql/* /home/data

4、Backup old /etc/my.cnf to /etc/my.conf.bak

5、Edit /etc/my.cnf

find line like bellow
#datadir=/var/lib/mysql
datadir=/data

6、Backup script /etc/init.d/mysqld to /etc/init.d/mysqld.bak and edit

# vi　/etc/init.d/mysqld

#get_mysql_option mysqld datadir "/var/lib/mysql"
get_mysql_option mysqld datadir "/data"

7. Relink : ln -s /home/data /var/lib/mysql

8. Start mysqld servicce

# service mysqld start
Starting MySQL: [ OK ]

Cheerz.
@$H

Linux :: Installing & Configuring JDK on Linux

2009-06-28T21:24:00.000+05:30

You have to install JDK, or you already have one set-up, but you want a newer version ??

Follow some simple steps below, no need to uninstall older one.

Download the package from SUN website, package name would be something like jdk-6u14-linux-x64-rpm.bin

Now change the permissions to make it executable :

chmod 755 jdk-6u14-linux-x64-rpm.bin

Then run it:
./jdk-6u14-linux-x64-rpm.bin

You will need to type yes to indicate your acceptance to their agreement and the installation will complete on its own. Unfortunately you are not yet done. Type java -version on the command line and you will see that it still points to the crappy old JVM from gcj.

You may locate the installation folder by following steps below:

Step 1:
updatedb;locate javac |grep bin

You will see an entry like this:
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_14/bin/javac

Here /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_14 is the actual JAVA_HOME for your machine. Note this as you will need it to run the future commands.

Now run the alternatives command to instruct OS to recognize Sun's JVM.
alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_14/bin/java 100
alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_14/bin/jar 100
alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_14/bin/javac 100

Finally you should configure alternative to use Sun's JVM as the default JVM. To do this type:
/usr/sbin/alternatives --config java

This will present you with at least 2 options. Choose the one for Sun's JVM. Similarly repeat the process for other commands.

Type java -version and you should see something like this:

java version "1.6.0_14"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_14-ea-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_14, mixed mode, sharing)

Bingo, now you are using the latest JDK version.

Cheers
@$H

My Favs :: R.I.P MJ, The world will miss you...

2009-06-28T20:52:00.000+05:30

Most of you, who know me and reading this, i know you will not believe but.. I still remember my school days i used to perform on MJ songs, there were 2 guys in my town who used to do it all da time, one was me and the other was my senior, who obviously was better than me in it :-(, it was the time of audio cartridges and those oversized walkmans.. which was a part of my stuff, when i used listen to MJ numbers alot....

With time, MJ slowly went of business and so as from my preferred artists list, but it was a shock to hear the news that MJ is no more...

Nothing more to say, but yes MJ, You would always be the King Of Pop !! You will always Rule and The World Will Miss You ...

R.I.P MJ.

Cheerz
@$H

Linux TIP :: Creating Files of a desired Size

2009-06-28T19:20:00.000+05:30

Greetings,

Suppose you doing some testing on the filesystem, say about quota etc, and you need to create files of a desired size, the golden command to be used is "dd".

Check out the usage as below:

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=bigfile bs=1024 count=1048576
This will create a file of size 1024 * 1048576 bytes (or 1 GB). In this command

if - input file
of - output file or the file to be created
bs - block size in bytes
count - # of blocks of size bs

Thats all for this day.

Cheerz.
Ash

Linux : : Installing and configuring Ganglia

2009-04-23T22:24:00.000+05:30

Prerequisites:

· A server , say MASTER , with RHEL version installed, I used RHEL 4

· Install the below packages (rpms)

1. ganglia-web-3.0.6-1.el4

2. ganglia-3.0.6-1.el4

3. ganglia-gmond-3.0.3-1

4. ganglia-gmetad-3.0.6-1.el4

Scenario:

We will setup a basic architechture, Though I had finally worked on a multi tier architecture of it. Incase any issue please feel free to post, maybe I can be of any help.

Configurations on Master:

Once you install the above packages, you need to run the below commands to start the services. Once started you can check by opening http://master/ganglia

$/etc/init.d/gmetad start

$/etc/init.d/httpd start

$ vi /etc/gmond.conf

You can mention the name of the cluster being monitored as below:

/* If a cluster attribute is specified, then all gmond hosts are wrapped inside

* of a tag. If you do not specify a cluster tag, then all will

* NOT be wrapped inside of a tag. */

cluster {

name = "Test Cluster"

owner = "My Team"

}

$ /etc/init.d/gmond start

Configuration on cluster hosts:

For cluster hosts to send data to the master, you need to install gmond clients on all of the hosts.

Once you install the clients , you have to edit the /etc/gmond.conf file for pointing these hosts to update MASTER with the status. Please see below:

$ rpm –ivh ganglia-gmond-3.0.3-1.rpm

$ vi /etc/gmond.conf

/* If a cluster attribute is specified, then all gmond hosts are wrapped inside

* of a tag. If you do not specify a cluster tag, then all wi

* NOT be wrapped inside of a tag. */

cluster {

name = "Test Cluster"

owner = "My Team"

latlong = "unspecified"

url = "unspecified"

}

The other change is for specifying the udp_SEND_channels

/* Feel free to specify as many udp_send_channels as you like. Gmond

used to only support having a single channel */

udp_send_channel {

# mcast_join = 239.2.11.71

host = (Master IP)

port = 8649

}

Now once you are done with all the configurations , you just need to wait for a while, it takes some time for the master to fetch the data and then create RRDs (graphs) for the hosts.

Then open http://master/ganglia and there you go, you are now monitoring your hosts with ganglia.

Happy Monitoring, enjoy

Cheerz.

Ash

Linux :: Performance Testing !

2009-04-18T15:36:00.000+05:30

Some basics, I use while checking the health of the Linux Box , whenever in a trap.

$top - overall UT of the machine
$mpstat - display utilization of each CPU individually
$mpstat -P ALL

$sar - todays cpu activity
$sar -u 2 5 : todays cpu activity ,comaprison of cpu 2 seconds apart.. 5 times
$sar -o output.file 12 8 >/dev/null 2>&1 & - redirect output to file
$sar -f data.file - read file

$ps -eo pcpu,pid,user,args | sort -k 1 -r | head -10 : who is monopolizing or eating the CPUs
$ps -eo pcpu,pid,user,args | sort -r -k1 | less : who is monopolizing or eating the CPUs

iostat : avg cpu ut since last reboot
$iostat -xtc 5 3 : You may want to use following command, which gives you three outputs every 5 seconds (as previous command gives information since the last reboot)

Monitoring Disk utilisation:

Display 3 reports of extended statistics at 5 second intervals for disk type the following command:
$ iostat -d -x 5 3

$iostat -d -x interval count

-d : Display the device utilization report (d == disk)
-x : Display extended statistics including disk utilization

interval : It is time period in seconds between two samples . iostat 2 will give data at each 2 seconds interval.
count : It is the number of times the data is needed . iostat 2 5 will give data at 2 seconds interval 5 times

Will add more to it sooon.....

Keep reading..

Cheerz
@$H

Linux :: Yum Error

2009-04-18T14:57:00.000+05:30

I struggled a long time doing lotsa googling and opening up books to get hold of this error.

I faced this error while using YUM in some versions of linux, the error looks as below:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 6, in ?
import yummain
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 23, in ?
import yum
ImportError: No module named yum

Now after lots of search i managed to find the reason and a workaround for it:

This error is caused because yum installs the python modules in: /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages and some versions of RHEL uses python2.2.

To make yum work we only have to tell python to search for modules in this new directory using the variable PYTHONPATH.

I just did: (ofcourse here i am using bash shell)
#export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages
And then used the yum command
#yum list all

booom.. here it worked like magic.. so thats my take on this error if you have any suggestions on this please feel free to post.

Cheerz.
Ash

Gadgets :: HTC Touch - Must Have Programs

2009-04-04T14:27:00.000+05:30

Hi,

I own a HTC Touch and have been using it for quite a while now. Have done alot of R&D on it and resetted it many times ;-). But yea neva lost my data coz always used to sync it with data on my lappy.

First of all you made a wrong investment purchasing a HTC Touch if you dont have a GPRS/mobile office etc etc enabled on your Phone connection, please change your phone, buy a typical Nokia :-)
I am an Airtel fan, same number , same service since last 7 years approx.

My feedback for HTC Touch :

Pros

I simply love it, adore it, one of my best investments :-).
Sleek , trendy, light though abit low on memory (mine is an older model 64MB / 128MB).
Nice wide screen.
Very competitive in price.
TouchFlo works very well on cubes.
Mine has Windows mobile 6, alot of resources available on internet for it.
Easy to configure mails, access websites etc etc.
Chat clients available for free ( gtalk,yahoo,msn,aol,facebook etc etc)
Easy to use as wireless modem (using bluetooth).

Cons

Nothing bad about it :-P
Hard to find accessories for this phone.
The screen protector available alongwith the phone in box is of bad quality, better buy new one (chinese :-) ).
Very sophisticated, handle with care, more than your GF / BF :-). I paid a price of 4k for getting the screen changed when i broke it..
Battery Backup :-( , specially when using Wi-Fi.
Excuse me , its not a music phone, dont expect sony ericsson / nokia types sound quality. Also no radio available.

So here are some programs i suggest you for a must have on your HTC :

Advance Config (configurations for your mobile at a glance)
Palringo (Chat Client)
ClearTemp (To clear all temps, on all locations)
WinXplore (Shortcut to view folders within windows directory)
Total Commander (Nice file browser, also helps in editing registry for tweaks,reverse engineering ;-) )

I hope you find this article useful, I would come up with another article on HTC soon.

Have Fun and Keep Rocking !!

Ash

Linux :: /dev/null Permission Denied Error

2009-04-03T23:21:00.000+05:30

This was a problem i faced and found that /dev/null is is not a charector devide. This is causing failure for all messages which are directed to /dev/null.

$ cat ash > /dev/null
/dev/null: Permission denied.

$ ls -l /dev/null
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 9 11:22 /dev/null

Solution:
The problem seems to be with the permissions of the /dev/null. This seems to be read only at the moment for you. Check this by logging in as root and listing it with the command:

ls -l /dev/null

You should see this if everything is correctly set:
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 3

If you get a different set of permissions like this maybe:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1, 3

then you should (as root) delete the /dev/null with:
rm /dev/null

and recreate it (as root) again with:
mknod -m 0666 /dev/null c 1 3

(The device number according to the Kernel source in the documentation under Documentation/devices.txt supposed to be Major=1 und Minor=3)

Now, list the /dev/null again and you should see the permissions as above. Hope this helps & it worked for me..

Linux :: Configure bonding on Linux !

2009-04-03T18:17:00.001+05:30

Hello All,

This would be my first technical article in da bloggin world.

We would talk about configuring bond interfaces on linux hosts (Tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 & 4), these are used in case of configuring network failover interfaces on linux.

Prerequisites:

Connect network cables on both eth0 and eth1.
Try to work on console for this, as you may need to do a network restart and if anything goes wrong you would not be able to login again on the host.

Its very simple to configure by just following the below steps :

Step 1: Edit the file /etc/modules.conf

Add the below two lines in the end.

alias bond0 bonding
options bonding miimon=100 mode=1

Step 2: Edit the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX configuration file for both eth0 and eth1 so that the files show identical contents. For example:

For ifcfg-eth0 :

DEVICE=eth0
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
BOOTPROTO=none

For ifcfg-eth1 :

DEVICE=eth1
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
BOOTPROTO=none

Step 3. Now we will create a network script for the bonding device naming it /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0 , which would appear like the following example:

DEVICE=bond0
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes
NETWORK=(Network IP)
NETMASK=(Subnet Mask)
GATEWAY=(Gateway IP)
IPADDR=(IP Address)

Step 4. /etc/init.d/network restart

Now you may test by giving a command "ifconfig -a" on terminal, you will say bond0 available alongwith the two slaves eth0 & eth1.

My First Blog !!

2009-04-03T17:53:00.000+05:30

Hmmmm its time !

I have been thinking about this for a long time now but now i think its the time to start.
Well my reason of this would be a selfish one though ;-) just to record my learnings , my experience and to use it as reference if required ( I have a short memory problem he he he ).

Also i think... i said "i think" it may also be helpful for others who is seeking any info i have mentioned here.. now if you are reading the lines carefully, you muzz be thinking why I stressed on "I think" well its because i believe in one rule " Be humble, there are greater people around you.. LET'S LEARN " ..

Okie now cutting it short... Hope you have a nice time going through this blog and it may be helpful for you.

Dont forget to comment if you like anything inhere..

Cheerz and Njoi your stay here !

Ash Sethi