If you are a newbie to Ubuntu like me (or any other Unix distro) and you tried deleting a folder which is not empty contains files or subdirectories then you get the annoying error "Directory not empty". To delete such a folder (from a terminal) use the rm -rf command. For example to delete a folder called amitbahree run the following: rm -rf amitbahree/

Evolution clearly has been failing us. :roll:

Need I say anything more? :) History of Gadgets

If you were interested in algorithms and interested in some mathematical foundations for algorithm analysis? For example if you are interested in proof techniques, probability, Amortization analysis techniques, Case studies and Asymptotic notions (such as Big-Oh, Big-Omega, Little-oh, little-omega, Big-Theta) then check out these lecture notes (in ppt, 224kb) from California State University.

Next post in the Interesting Find series. [InstEd It](InstEd - Make packaging more productive) - an interesting tool that allows one to edit MSI files - handy when you don’t want to install the full Windows SDK just to get the Orca editor. (you can also just download the SDK samples and use that instead of the full SDK). WHS backup to LAN - If for some reason you don’t want to use WHS’s built-in backup option and prefer to back it up to LAN 10 Beautiful Login screen for Ubuntu - very nice themes to change your login screen. Fast Car Wallpapers - name says it all. Microsoft Pivot - Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun. PlantUML - UML add-in (jar file) for Eclipse. You cannot draw a diagram, instead you describe it using a language . Papyrus 4 UML - another UML add-in (also for Eclipse), which seems to be more professional looking than PlantUML. However this does not support Activity diagrams (yet), which PlantUML does. Spinlocks, page frame number locks (and the meaning of life) - I don’t think any more needs to be said. :) FlipText.net - write upside down (: sıɥʇ ǝʞıl. Google Goggles - use pictures to search the web. Haystack - very interesting idea which encrypts your data and then hides it in regular http traffic. Mainly used to help out the citizens of Iran, but useful elsewhere as well. BeRTOS - a real-time OS hits a major stable milestone.

Forbes rich list is Slim pickings. Only lack of ability, inheritance and money keeps the rest of us off the Forbes list of world’s billionaires. It’s not fair? Here is Guardian's recipe for billionaire success: get born into a rich family, invent something and sell it to Americans. Win. :)

New Paradigm, old habits – brilliant. :) Click on the picture to see the original size. reboot the cloud

Well this is the phone I have maybe some day I will try this - pretty geeky albeit useless. :)

I did not know until today that there is something called gnome-rdp using which one can RDP to Windows machines from Ubuntu (or any other linux flavour I imagine). Installation is simple on Ubuntu, with it available in Synaptic Package Manager. To start it you can type in gnome-rdp in a console or go to Applications -> Internet -> Gnome-RDP. Once it has started, usage is quite simple - though you might want to change the remote desktop size and colours. Interestingly this also supports VNC and SSH. ...

If you ever need to find out which version of Ubuntu you are running (if you have a few machines it is quite easy to forget what is running where), the easiest way is to run the following command in a terminal: cat /etc/issue For example here is the output from the machine I am on now: 1 2 amit@xps:~$ cat /etc/issue Ubuntu 9.04 \n \l

Wow, this is cool , though a bit too much. I am not sure how many people use this - if its only one person, isn’t that just too much information for one of us to crunch?

If you are on Linux and want to print some code and also make it look pretty then check out a2ps (Any to postscript filter). Of course if you can avoid printing in the first place and saving paper and trees and make it greener that is ideal - however there are times that is not possible. I tried printing from CDT, but the printing options from CDT just looks plain ugly and big fonts and can spread over 10 pages for a simple code file (spanning 293 lines). Sure I can tweak the font in CDT, but that is the only option available - enter a2ps . It seems to have more options, but I have not had a chance to play with those. ...

I started a brand new project in CDT where I was using MOOS and I could not get my simple program to link. While everything looked fine on the surface I just could not get the IDE to link to the MOOS libraries. I know the OS and MOOS itself was not a problem as I had other projects in the same workspace which did link correctly. The only difference between those and this was that I setup this project from scratch, whilst the others I had not. It took me a while to figure it out, but in the end I had to resort to explicitly add the locations for the libs in the C++ project properties in CDT as shown in the screenshot below. ...

If you are newish to Linux (like me) from Windows, then some of the simple things which come quite naturally to you on Windows is a little embarrassing and challenging. For example, I got a new WHS and wanted to mount the music drive and wanted to create a new host file entry to point to the new WHS. Now on Windows this is quite simple and can be found in YOUR-OS-DRIVE\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. But on Linux you will find this in \etc\hosts. If you want to edit it you will need to type something like this a shell: ...

The next post in the interesting find series. Top 25 ‘most dangerous’ programming errors for 2009 – interesting read as always. :) The 100 essential websites – from the Guardian. Please Rob Me.com – the dark side of geocoding . SSD Optimisation guide - a must read if anyone is thinking of buying a SSD drive. 37Signals – simple web based apps (instead of bloatware) covering things like managing projects, tracking contacts, organizing your business, etc. (Not free in case you were wondering). Never reboot Linux - even when updating the Kernel. When can Windows have this? SSD Tweak Utility - if you still want to tweak more things after reading the SSD optimisation guide above. FsUnit – Test F# with F# - I think the name says it all. devZing - No hassle open source project management hosting (from $10 / month); though I wonder why you can’t use google for this. Jollat – a cool GUI for you AWS (Amazon Web Services) which allows you to manage S3 and EC2 on Amazon – runs on Windows, Linux and Mac. Podcasts from MS – the name says it all. Digging for Sensitive information – how to get details on someone you know. Panopticlick — How unique, and trackable, is your browser? My browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 641,692 tested so far which is quite scary! SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview – only works with Win7. Large Query performance stats from SQL 2K to 2K8 – quite interesting and covers both x32 and x64. PresentationFx – provides free PowerPoint templates and artwork. Making a cool Vista Screensaver – this should also work on Win7 (not tried this btw).

Facebook and my views of it in the context of Privacy and Security are well known. This conversation with one of their (anonymous) employees detailing a few internal processes and tools is actually quite scary. Now, I don’t know if this is true and how much of this is true; but if I was working for Facebook then all of this is quite logical and makes sense. And, technically all the things talked about is very feasible and not too challenging (of course am over simplifying here). ...

I came across the Ten commandments of Programming while looking at a question on StackOverflow and I can’t believe I have not seen these before. I think every developer, lead, architect, dba, pm, whoever should print this out! 8-) Understand and accept that you will make mistakes. The point is to find them early, before they make it into production. Fortunately, except for the few of us developing rocket guidance software at JPL, mistakes are rarely fatal in our industry, so we can, and should, learn, laugh, and move on. You are not your code. Remember that the entire point of a review is to find problems, and problems will be found. Don’t take it personally when one is uncovered. No matter how much “karate” you know, someone else will always know more. Such an individual can teach you some new moves if you ask. Seek and accept input from others, especially when you think it’s not needed. Don’t rewrite code without consultation. There’s a fine line between “fixing code” and “rewriting code.” Know the difference, and pursue stylistic changes within the framework of a code review, not as a lone enforcer. Treat people who know less than you with respect, deference, and patience. Nontechnical people who deal with developers on a regular basis almost universally hold the opinion that we are prima donnas at best and crybabies at worst. Don’t reinforce this stereotype with anger and impatience. The only constant in the world is change. Be open to it and accept it with a smile. Look at each change to your requirements, platform, or tool as a new challenge, not as some serious inconvenience to be fought. The only true authority stems from knowledge, not from position. Knowledge engenders authority, and authority engenders respect—so if you want respect in an egoless environment, cultivate knowledge. Fight for what you believe, but gracefully accept defeat. Understand that sometimes your ideas will be overruled. Even if you do turn out to be right, don’t take revenge or say, “I told you so” more than a few times at most, and don’t make your dearly departed idea a martyr or rallying cry. Don’t be “the guy in the room.” Don’t be the guy coding in the dark office emerging only to buy cola. The guy in the room is out of touch, out of sight, and out of control and has no place in an open, collaborative environment. Critique code instead of people—be kind to the coder, not to the code.As much as possible, make all of your comments positive and oriented to improving the code. Relate comments to local standards, program specs, increased performance, etc.

So you would have heard what all the buzz (not Google!) is about. Check out the feature video for Windows Phone 7. I have a Zune HD and the UI is very similar and I cannot wait for it! After a lot of disappointment with WinMo’s and becoming the joke in my friend/nerd/geek/co-worker circle for still have a WinMo phone, would love to see everyone’s faces when I get this. :) ...

Bing Maps adding Flickr images, live video and stars - very cool. Update: The official TED video below is quite cool and in addition to the one above, also adds more interesting features such as video – check it out.

Awesome photos of Colourful India.

Wow it has been a while since I posted an Interesting find and instead of the usual list I though I will keep this especially for timers. Timers Galore! So I was looking for a simple countdown timer that I can run on my laptop to keep tracking of a few things and I found a few very interesting things. If you prefer to download an app and run it from your desktop (Windows) then check out Timer from Orzeszek. There are a few other interesting dev projects there such as transferring large files over http . ...

I am going to start posting the geeky jokes I find as a series. These are more for me to make them easy to find, as I cannot seem to recall any of them when I need to. Here is the first one which I also tweeted: Yo mama’s so slow and dumb that she can be emulated on a 286.

Not sure how many of you know, but I run my WHS on a old Dell Desktop (its about 8ish years old) which ran out of available USB ports sometime back and all my attached drives are also filling up and I am now running low on space. I was thinking of getting a dedicated WHS device/machine (not sure what to call it), such as HP's MediaSmart Server or Acer's easyStore . ...

CNR [ via xkcd.com ]

If you ever wanted a Win 3.1 experience in your broswer (why I cannot imagine - despite me running a VM ), then check out michaelv.org . The irony of all of this is that there is a modern browser in that which seems to be compliant with the standards (it pases the ACID2 tests; fails the ACID3). 🤨 ...