Reflections (Ai-Projects)

Additional Blog

2009-10-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

At some point in the future I will consolidate the two blogs. But for now, I am starting another blog with its theme (more of a code name rather) being "Inspiration". The theme (code name?) of the current blog is "Reflections".

So there it is, two parts of me - "Reflection" and "Inspiration". More than parts, it feels more like a paradigm shift. Something bigger has changed, something more like my engine underneath. I am not perfect, but I am ready to take on the world :)

Inspiration feels more like the current me. Reflection (funny its name matches the occasion) feels like an older me.

I will edit this post with the address where "Inspiration" will be located.

I have composed a small poem that describes how I feel:

Every thing feels new, everything feels fresh
I feel fear, yet I feel hope
I want to shine, I am afraid of the past
I hope not to repeat my mistakes,
I want to be strong, yet I feel wobbly

But, I realize, I feel,
It doesn't matter,
I will make mistakes, I will fall,
It is part of what will make who I am
I will get up, and I will shine
New experiences, a new me
I want to be strong,
I realize I am not perfect,
But I'll take a deep breadth, and take the world on
God, please take care, please protect

Patience Vs Speed

2009-10-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today, I felt rather calm and as I sat down and relaxed for a few minutes, some questions came to my mind. I don't remember them all now, but one question stood out - it was the question of patience vs speed.

Society recognizes both of these as virtuous qualities, but they seem to be conflicting. How do you differentiate the one from the other.

I did an online search. I came across one article that captures the difference very eloquently. I will quote it here:

It’s important to realize that patience isn’t the same thing as being slow. It’s a mindset thing, not a factor of how fast you are moving.

I could not agree more. Just reading it, it made a lot of sense. I think this is something I should make a part of who I am. Patience is a state of mind. Speed is a state of action. You can be patient, but you can act fast when the time is right.

The author was Sarah Lacy at TechCrunch and this was the article: "China: Where Patience Meets Speed".

Statistics - List of the many different things there are

2009-08-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Yes yes...I did not post even one new thing in the last month and a half (let alone at least one new thing a week)...thats behind me now.

Let's see. I was thinking of what to write for my work term report. My initial idea was on something software related - may be something about the HMVC pattern, or HTML5 or Flex etc...Going through my cyclic rounds of brain storming, I was reminded of an old love (something I am still interested in, but have not seen in sometime)...Business Intelligence/Data mining.

Business Intelligence to me is being able to make effective decisions using all the data you have in hand. Using as in understanding what the different variables are, what they mean, the relations between them, what are those variables now - so what can I say about the future. Its about understanding the past and present to make decisions for the future.

Statistics can help us on the part about the relation between the different variables. There are many many different methods statistics has. I guess I can read a text book on what these methods are, how they work and what are they useful for...but that would take too much time. And if I ever need to refer back, will take even more time.

So here is what I though - I am going to maintain a blog post where I keep adding information about statistical methods bit by bit - name, how it works, and where is it useful. If something is too obvious like "averages" I may not have a write up for it (though I still plan to list such things).

Memory Foam Vs Latex: The definitive guide to buying a mattress (not really)

2009-07-14T19:12:00.001-07:00

This should be a nice change of pace. I like this style - short and to the point. May be I should start a column like this :D

I was looking into the differences between the two recently and I noted them down. I thought this would make a good post. Hence I present it to you (along with original sources of course :)):

Memory Foam

Softer
Mold to body's shape
Body temperature dependent firmness (warm - softer, cold - firmer)
Tossing and turning is kept local
Dense memory foam is good
Cheap memory foam can break down in 3-5 years
Your weight is evenly distributed over the surface of the bed you're lying over
Ideally thick memory foam should be 3.5-6 in. thick
Absorbs some moisture. May make the sleep uncomfortable

Latex

It is also supportive of your body, but pretty firm.
It will transfer more motion than memory foam (your tossing and turning can be felt by your partner)
Made of natural material. So some consider it healthier
Check to ensure you are getting natural latex and not "processed" latex
Natural latex is biodegradable. Processed ones may used petroleum products in addition to make it
Latex is naturally hypoallergenic and anti-microbial; allergies won't be irritated
Lasts a long long time

Quick Check before buying or before thinking of buying a new mattress

Lie flat (don't turn) with your back on the mattress. If you can easily slide your hand under the small of your back, your mattress isn't supporting you

Sources

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/latex-vs-memory-foam-mattress.html
http://www.memory-foam-buyers-guide.org/latex-mattress.html

It was a blur...and then!

2009-07-14T19:06:00.001-07:00

The last month and a half just flew by. I was surprised to see the last post date as June 3rd. What was I up to? Couple of things...one work kept me busy - I start late, end late and this really messes things up. I don't have time for anything. On weekends and nights, I was working on 2 personal projects - php pure-AJAX purely keyboard controllable addressbook and Project M :).

The pure AJAX purely keyboard controllable addressbook works (almost...I had some timing issues; I had to create a delay before I did some value bindings for it to work). Architecture wise the front end wasn't very pretty - I started off with a plan, I developed my own GridView control, tested it, fixed it, before running out of patience and then using jQuery to build...no, hack..my way through building the UI. Backend (server-side) was descent object oriented code. There was no logic in the database side, it was purely storage. Will I ever put the app up on the internet? Who knows may be... (I developed it for fun and in-home use)

Project M is what I spent most of my time on. Its not done, it may take a long time for me to complete it. Not much more to say about that..

I feel dead tired now as I type this. Sigh.

About the regular posts (AONTW) idea, I'll write about things as I come across them, rather than going by a rigid schedule. Need some sleep...

AONTW: Schedule

2009-06-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here is an initial list of things I want to explore:

Silverlight: What is it? How can it help us developers (esp. non .NET developers)?
DDR2 Vs DDR3 RAM
Servers Vs Today's Multi-Core Desktops
Middleware: What is it?

That should keep me occupied for the next four weeks. I'll let the schedule grow as I encounter more new and interesting things.

AONTW: is back!

2009-06-02T20:23:00.001-07:00

Chances are most of you don't know what this is...AONTW?!?

This was something I did in my old blog, before I moved to Blogger. AONTW stands for Atleast One New Thing A Week. It was sort of like a column - something I created - the idea was that I learn about something every week and post about it - thus regularly update my blog and share something interesting.

In the tech world, there are so many buzz-words, phrases, concepts, technologies and ideas that already exist and keep on coming, - that to keep on top of them can be quite challenging. Think of this project as one solution to this issue.

I'll post about something from the tech world each week. Feel free to give your comments/opinions.

$100 Upgrade: Plan 2

2009-05-31T21:03:00.001-07:00

As I keep searching to make the $100 upgrade possible, I am surprised by how hard it is to make this possible...

But here is one pretty good option. The nice thing about this option is - it IS an upgrade - but it limits future upgrade options and its has DDR memory - which is expensive compared to DDR2 and DDR3.

Now for the details,

CPU + Motherboard + Memory: $88 - Intel SE7501BR2 Server Motherboard w/Dual Xeon 2.4GHz CPUs, 1GB RAM, Heat Sinks & Fans
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SE7501BR2-KIT-R&cat=MBB

Total (+ 13% tax): $100 + Shipping? + USD coversion?

The $100 upgrade: Plan 1

2009-05-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

If the current motherboard cannot support the newer stuff, then I guess I can just change the motherboard :)

Motherboard option controls my expansion possibilities, so I have to carefully consider this. From doing some research, I guess AMD processors and Intel processors generally require different sockets? I thought that CPU sockets are standard (i.e. not company specific)...guess not.

Here is my Plan 1, it doesn't quite hit the $100 mark, but oh well, this is plan 1:

CPU: $60 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core Processor AM2 2.7GHZ 2X512KB
http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/129509/AMD/ADO5200DOBOX/

CPU Cooling: $25 - Thermaltake TR2-R1 / AMD Socket AM2/939/754 / Aluminum / 92mm Fan / CPU Cooler
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2604150&CatId=2545

Motherboard: $44 - Biostar MCP6P-M2+ Socket AM2+ GeForce 6150 mATX Motherboard w/Video & Audio
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MCP6P-M2PLUS&cat=MBB

Memory: $27.50 - Kingston 2GB DDR2 RAM PC2-6400 240-Pin DIMM
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=KVR800D2N6-2G&cat=RAM

Total (base cost + 13% tax): ~$181

Since its just an upgrade, the case, power supply, hard disk, other drives etc can stay as they are. That concludes option/plan 1. Now if only there was a way to halve that number...

The $100 upgrade

2009-05-31T17:46:00.000-07:00

I have an old desktop at home - an HP computer, with 512 MB SDRAM, 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor and 30 GB HDD, and the motherboard is an Intel i845. Since this computer isn't being used much now, I decided to make it a[n intranet] server. I already use it as a CVS repository. It runs Apache, MySQL, MSSQL and has PHP. The OS is Windows XP.

So far there is nothing really to complaint about with the machine's performance, but its only the processes running now without any load. I wanted to upgrade the hard disk and also make this a media server. Now, I felt the machine's processing power and memory could use some boost here. Afterall I am trying to run every kind of server (web, cvs, media, database and file) on this.

Looking into my upgrade options I was pretty shocked..the memory type it supports is very hard to find now! Futureshop and Tigerdirect don't even seem to have Socket 478 processors anymore. Determined not to lose hope and make something (actually no, not something but everything I want) of this machine, I decided to find a way to upgrade it and do it in less than $100!

I'll blog and post updates on how my hunt for the $100 upgrade goes. Wish me Luck! Also any ideas appreciated :)

Celebrating G's Birthday

2009-05-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went bowling to celebrate G's birthday. That was my first time and (cough) I won the first game :D

I was happy to discover it, it's not very expensive and its pretty fun.

I was wearing my Waterloo Engineering t-shirt and wow I was surprised by the response. I knew Waterloo was a respectable school, but this was a first...Two older people they asked us if we were from UW. They had a lot of respect for UW. They gave us bowling advice, best wishes in school and told us some of their life stories (thanks to Arthur!)...which was pretty different/interesting.

Oh, and I did lose the next game badly...what can I say...it was beginner's luck? To the curious minds, the birthday boy won twice and Arthur once.

AiBloggerBox: Renaming: BrightBox

2009-05-28T17:19:00.001-07:00

After some thought, I think its best for AiBloggerBox to take a new name - something cooler than AiBloggerBox :)

Since the idea is similar to LightBox, I want the name to be similar - so people can identify it. Other things I considered when thinking of a name: its for Blogger - the name should somehow be indicative of this, something short, easy to remember, and at least a wee bit more creative than Ai-Blogger-Box.

I think BrightBox suits these criteria.

Bright is similar to Light
B for Blogger :D - hence some way of indicating this is for blogger
Easier to remember - at least its two real words now
Short - yes, shorter than before
More creative than original name - I think so :)

Yay, so there it is BrightBox! Now to go make labeling changes in the blog.

Pure Javascript video player! Clever Clever

2009-05-26T19:39:00.001-07:00

The thought ran in my mind to create a pure Javascript based video player. I wondered if it were possible and where would I start. I did some quick search and found this: http://blog.nihilogic.dk/2008/04/making-javascript-video-player.html

It is a pure javascript based video player! and the idea is pretty clever. Using PHP and mplayer on the server convert a video file into individual image frames, then use AJAX and stream the individual image frames in the JSON format. Display it on the web page using javascript.

It's an awesome idea and the author has 2 test videos as well. I like it! (but I want to better it :D. May be some time...(soon? :) ))

AiBloggerBox: Version 2: Setup (now BrightBox!)

2009-05-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Since the way Version 2 works has changed a little, I thought I'd post the new setup instructions:

Go to the <head> section of your blogger template and add:
<script type="text/javascript" src="PATH_TO_AiBloggerBox_JS_FILE"></script>

That's all :)

Here is a demo:

Click these and let AiBloggerBox kick in and show you what it can do!

AiBloggerBox: Version 2: Beta!

2009-05-23T23:51:00.000-07:00

Happy to see people interested in this project :)

A Demo of this version is available here: AiBloggerBox Demo

I have rewritten AiBloggerBox almost (using one section of my previous code) from scratch. Here are the new changes:

Changed the mechanism through which the 'box' is created
Absolutely no external files needed! - The javascript file is completely self sufficient. Two other image files were needed before. Overall combined file size is smaller.
White border area around the images now - looks nicer :)
Proper resizing of images - if the image was bigger than the screen size, previously the image would be clipped. Now proper resizing is done, so the entire image is visible
Close button available - looks nicer :) (any mouse click/key press still closes the box)
Image auto-caption mechanism available - Uses the image name to print out image caption below the image in the box. For e.g. the picture "Vacation_in_Bali.jpg" would be automatically given the caption "Vacation in Bali" - easy way to have captions without doing edit HTML!
Easy to edit options to control white-bordering size in the box, caption on/off, close button on/off and colors. Just open the javascript file, it starts off with some variable declarations, for example one thing you will see is:

var AiBloggerBox_showCloseButton = 1

change this to

var AiBloggerBox_showCloseButton = 0

to stop showing the close button. It's that simple! (anything that starts off as AiBloggerBox_* is an editable preference - and these are all present at the very top)

I have tested it in FF3 and IE7 using 1 pure test page and this site itself. I completed coding and testing of it, so I thought I might as well release the beta. :)

I thought it would make better sense to release 2 versions of the JS file now - compressed and the normal one. The compressed one is smaller - meaning it will take less bandwidth when you put it in your site.

Compressed BrightBoxBox: BrightBox_v2.0_compressed.zip
Normal BrightBox: BrightBox_v2.0.zip

You would generally want the compressed version.

JavaScript Toys Library

2009-04-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Edit: The library has been updated with 2 bug fixes - Thanks to Gartheepan for finding the bugs - they were problems associated with window resizing. The download link is to the new version

As part of my javascript learning/brush-up, I am working on a JavaScript library that would offer easy to use UI widgets. Things like split vertical panels, split horizontal panels, tabbed windows etc...

I have created a javascript library that offers the easy ability to add these UI components - called JSToys. It may be downloaded from here - jsToys_1.1.zip

Here is a demo to show what it is capable of:

Old Undocumented Project: Turtel

2009-04-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Going through my source files, I came across one of my old projects. A very interesting one...that I eventually somehow forgot about..till I saw it today. I had code-named the project 'Turtel'. It's undocumented in the sense that I never mentioned it in the Blog.

The project was an attempt to understand the effectiveness of different indicators and strategies if used in the stock market.

I was also exploring Design Patterns at this time. The project became multi-purposed - to improve my understanding of the patterns (I seemed to have used the Strategy Pattern and the Factory pattern in my implementation) and explore the effectiveness of investment strategies.

Here is a link to the last version (I believe) - where I left off - Project Turtel

The page above is not very interactive. But what it does is very cool (imo :)). You pass along 5 variables in the query string: fee, P, K, symbol, days, show

Fee is the transaction fee per purchase/sale
P and K are used for cross-overs I believe - values of 10 and 2 for example mean when the 10 day SMA crosses the 2 day SMA etc...
Symbol is the stock symbol - as listed in Yahoo (for example RIM would be RIM.TO)
Days indicates the number of days of data to use - a value of 100 would mean use the last 100 days of data
Show indicates whether to show the dates and quantities of transactions. A value of 1 means "yes, do show"; anything else means "no, don't"

Two strategies were implemented at the time - SMA cross-over and I think MACD cross-over. The outputs are based on these two.

Here is an example of the URL with the query string. The bolded parts are what you would change to see the output for the new values.

http://www.ai-projects.info/Turtel/sim/driver.php?P=10&K=2&days=501&show=1&symbol=RIM.TO&fee=0

May be I shall continue this project some day. But for now its probably going to stay in its suspended state. This is one of the reasons I like to look into my old stuff - I usually find something interesting :)

AiBloggerBox (now BrightBox): Version 1.0.1 Release

2009-04-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Edit [May 31, 2009]: The instructions in this video are now out of date. In fact now it is easier than shown in the video to set BritghtBox up.

AiBloggerBox (now BrightBox) - now has been bug fixed and version 1.0.1 has been released. Version 1.1 is soon to be released as well.

Version 1.0.1 can be downloaded from here: AiBloggerBox

Version 1.0.1 notes:

Version 1.0 released was found to be an incomplete release.
It would not have worked (It was different from the version
running on http://www.ai-projects.info). Sorry about that.

Here are some updates on this version (from the correct V.1.0).
- Using addEventListener to add events so that this does
not kill all other mousedown and keypress events on the
document
- Added a check to see if onblur is set on the link element;
this would improve hit rate - no/low false positives. Meaning
it will not kill your other image links

Here is a quick video on how to set this up.

AiBloggerBox: Version 1.1 - Soon to come

2009-04-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

Edit: Prior to release of Version 1.1 - Version 1.0.1 a bug fixed version has been released. You may read about it or download it from these links. There is also a video on the setting up process, which you may watch at the bottom of this page as well.

This is a follow up to the previous entry on AiBloggerBox.

There were some comments from readers that this did not work at their sites. During that time I was on vacation and did not see their comments.

I plan to test AiBloggerBox more thoroughly now and make some enhancements :) - and release a working (as in works at all blogger sites ;) , not just mine) version. I just thought I would post the update here now.

Site Launch: Renthunt.ca

2009-04-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Should have posted this sooner. But here it is. The "LocFinder" project has been renamed and moved to its new home - RentHunt - http://www.renthunt.ca

Feel free to check it out! Hopefully people find it

LocFinder V1

2009-04-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

In about 2 days :) - the first version of LocFinder is ready

I am planning on some feature additions and more sites to crawl later..currently the information contained comes from crawling only rentershotline.ca. I am thinking of having the bot crawl it every night...so the information would get updated in 24 hour periods.

The rental information is represented graphically, but if you want futher details - it links back to rentershotline.ca

Quick Update

2009-04-14T22:08:00.001-07:00

The busy school term is almost over. I just have 1 more exam to go..I figured I can loosen up a bit now. I have two ideas that I really want to implement in the next short little while. I'll call these projects LocFinder and LuckFinder:

Loc Finder - We (a couple of us) are looking for rental places..there are many sites out there with a lot of information...found them kinda hard to use...I figured, I'd create a web crawler that crawls these sites and presents the information in a very friendly form.

I thought this was done well by Subletr. Unfortunately...it doesn't seem to work anymore :(

Well, this has given the opportunity to fill that gap. Here I go.
Luck Finder - Can't explain this now...I want to implement it first :)

Hope to have this done soon! :)

Back after a long break (Vacation?)

2009-02-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

I just took a break (about a month ago) and travelled out of the country and came back. It was a good experience :) ... but unfortunately, it also meant that this site remained unwatched by me and undeveloped for that time frame (then to now)

Now that I am back, I have a lot of work piled up ... a lot of things to catch up on, lot of deadlines to do things by. Things are going to be pretty busy. I guess, which also means that I may not have much time to work on the site or post...

1 more month and things should be back to a more relaxed state. Until then I will probably do brief posts or no post at all :D

I just thought I'd give this update to any one who comes to this site.

Aishwar

AiBloggerBox: A Lightbox alternative designed for easy Blogger integration

2009-01-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

[May 28, 2009] EDIT3: AiBloggerBox has now been renamed to BrightBox!

[May 24, 2009] EDIT2: Version 2.0 of AiBloggerBox (now BrightBox) is now available, feel free to try it out! Download link available at the bottom of this post, or over here: BrightBox

[April 21, 2009] EDIT1: My apologies to those who posted the comments. I was away for sometime and then busy with work for some time after; hence did not have time to respond to you. I have resumed this project and there is a new entry on it here.

I love Lightbox - for people who are not aware of what it is, in some websites you may notice that you click a picture and you see a zoomed version of the picture with a transparency layer to its sides. Here is a link to the official Lightbox website. There is a small issue on how blogger and lightbox integrate.

When you upload an image when making a post in blogger, you have to click "Edit Html" and make slight changes to the html for an image to have the lightbox effect. This is explained in detail in this website here.

I don't like this. I believe that given the nice wysiwyg "Create Post" interface of blogger, you shouldn't have to make html changes to achieve such an effect. I guess I had 2 options at this point - modify lightbox OR make my own lightbox-type effect, that would give me the effect but would not require this html code mod-ding on posts. Being who I am, I chose option 2 - make my own - for the sake of learning...

And I present to you AiBloggerBox. To make this work for you, all you need to is include this javascript file in your html pages. In blogger you would basically add this line in the head section of the blog template:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.ai-projects.info/js/aibloggerbox.js"></script>

That's it! you're all set. When you click on any images in your post, they would get the zoomed version with the lightbox type effect without the html source changes on each post.

This can be used outside blogger too. How it works is when you have an image element contained within an anchor (link) element, the effect automatically kicks in on click of either element. The zoomed in image would have to be what the anchor element links to.

Here are some sample images. This page uses this effect.

Here is a download link for anyone who wants to use it

Version 1.0.1 (old - deprecated): aibloggerbox.zip

Version 2.0 (new - in favour) Compressed: BrightBox_v2.0_compressed.js
Version 2.0 (new): BrightBox_v2.0.js

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

It's been 3 days...Wish every one a happy New Year! Let 2009 be an awesome year!! :)