welcome to a world of differences

It's funny when you think about it. There's this story about a guy who gets his dreams shattered every he tries to do his best. Most of you Metallica fans would have to listened to 'Unforgiven'. I'm not sure how many actually understood the song.

It tells the story of a young man who tried all his life to be better and achieve something, but he was constantly thrown back down by people who did not understand him or what he wanted to do. All he wanted was to do the best he can. He died a bitter old man.

Well, back to the earlier guy's story : He had ideas way ahead of anyone's time, but everytime he tried, he was used, abused and spat on. Every time, he got back up and said to himself, "It's okay there'll be other opportunities", but time and again, the same happened.

This time, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. He got that chance, and he grabbed it. But somewhere along the way, there were again those, who couldn't stand the fact that this guy was someone who wanted to do something for himself, tried to bring him down. These are the people who are supposed to his compadres, his colleagues, his companions in the same struggle. These are the people who won' be affected in any way by his progress.

What is he supposed to do? Fall down again?

No, this time, he's not giving up his right to a better future. This time those who do him wrong must pay.

Well, I don't get something. If there is someone who is willing to sacrifice everything to chase his dreams, why are there people who feel threatened by it? These are the people who are too lazy to put real effort into their labours, choosing rather to suck up. Choosing rather to step down on others. Choosing rather to climb over his head. Choosing to bring him down, instead of trying to better themselves.

Sometimes, no, most of the time, I get confused. Why most people just have to behave like protozoas?

To those who read this and understand, you know who you are. And trust me, God may be forgiving but not this not-so-young-man. "Don't wake the sleeping worm", said Thror to Bilbo,"that worm is an awfully revengeful dragon".

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designer vs. layman

hmm ... the graphic below might remind you designers out there what
happens when someone with nearly 0 IT background (is there such a thing anymore?) talks to you ... image courtesy of www.maninblue.com

Rails !

hmm ... someone pointed out that I ripped this from a site or the help file or something. Well, I did not say I wrote it right? Anyway, the list below is available elsewhere, but I put it here for the benefit of any Rails developer wannabe who happens to stumble onto my blog....

Some useful rake and rails commands:

rake migrate version=0

rake test:units

rake test:functionals

rake annotate_models

rake db:sessions:clear

rake doc:app

rake log:clear

rake db:test:prepare -> prepares test database with development database schema

rake -T #displays all rake tasks with description

Generators:

ruby script/generate model ModellName

ruby script/generate controller ListController show edit

ruby script/generate scaffold ModelName ControllerName

ruby script/generate migration AddNewTable

ruby script/generate plugin PluginName

ruby script/generate mailer Notification lost_password signup

ruby script/generate web_service ServiceName api_one api_two

ruby script/generate integration_test TestName

ruby script/generate session_migration

Find:

find(42) # object with ID 42

find([37, 42]) # Array with the objects with id 37, 42

find :all

find :first,

:conditions => [ "name = ?", "Hans" ] # finds the first record with

# the matching condition

more parameters for find:

:order => ‘name DESC’ # sql fragment for sorting

:offset => 20 # starts with entry 20

:limit => 10 # only return 10 objects

:group => ‘name’ # sql fragment GROUP BY

:joins => ‘LEFT JOIN …’ # additional LEFT JOIN (rarely used)

:include => [:account, :friends] # LEFT OUTER JOIN with these model

:include => { :groups => { :members=> { :favorites } } }

:select => [:name, :adress] # instead of SELECT * FROM

:readonly => true # objects are write protected

Migration:

rake db:migrate

rake db:migrate VERSION=14

rake db:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

Calculations:

Person.average :age

Person.minimum :age

Person.maximum :age

Person.sum :salary, :group => :last_name

Bugged !

My colleague passed some files via her pen drive and I noticed the explorer was acting a bit funny but I carried on and copied the file. Then my lappy decided to restart itself. Funny, but I went with it.

As soon as I got logged in, I knew there was something wrong with my
laptop. It took me a second to realize that it was infected with some
kind of virus. The most annoying part of the entire episode was not
being able to work when I was supposed to work on something damn
important. On XP, my explorer kept crashing. It really frustrated me
for some time. Playing with it for sometime made me realize that my
personal computer was in bad shape.

I scanned my entire system to find only few infections which dint
seem to me as potential trouble makers. So I went ahead and tried a
newer version of my antivirus.

Downloaded -> Installed -> Scanned -> Cleaned. My lappy was
moved from ICU to GENERAL ward. Then I checked some settings and did
some tweaks to bring my PC back to life. I started trusting antiviruses
again

I could get my PC back in shape without formatting my system or reinstalling XP and hence I could save few hours reinstalling everything

It was then that I thought of writing this post. I just hope that
these things will help you avoid at least few reinstalls / fresh
installs.

So before you go for a reinstall / fresh install, try these and see if it comes handy.

1. Make sure you have an antivirus installed. System scan takes time but should be performed sometimes. Your WINDOWS partition should be given preference for scanning. Try Avast, they have the latest virus DBs. But please remember to diable the Outlook integration, it tends to crash Outlook 2007.

2. If
you come across any weird activity (slow system / popups / explorer
related issues), the first place to check should be startup programs.
You can see the list by typing “msconfig”
in windows run dialog box. If you see entries which you had never
installed, disable them and restart to check if that helps. If it does
then you need to remove those programs. Uninstall / Delete the
installed folder.

3. Try logging in Safe Mode
to check if the system remains stable. If it remains stable, try
uninstalling recently installed programs. If not, then you might be
required to start from scratch, format and reinstall windows.

4. Try running some registry cleaners.
Sometimes viruses create links in registry to get executed every time
with system startup. Most AV programs take care of this now.

5. Do Ctrl+Alt+Del
to check the running programs and system. Kill the unwanted processes.
Check for processes that reappear with windows startup but were never
installed or meant to be there.

6. Keep your Antivirus updated.

7. Avoid using unscanned pendrives.

8. Keep cleaning/deleting your internet history / cookies.

9. And above all, always keep a backup of your important stuff.

There are many helpful articles on the net that could / would /should help you out on some specific problem.

As long as we have PCs, we have OSs, we
will keep getting infected. The problem is not infection though. The
issue stays with us. Our ignorance leads to situations that make things
move out of our hands.

So go get an antivirus (ur techie friends should be able to help you with it) and be prepared.