The Innovation Lover

I will be conducting a basic Django Web development workshop on Saturday 6th Feb. Check out the schedule from the website. [link]

Last week I had been to Toc H Institute of Science & Technology, to address the Computer science and Engineering students. It was a nice experience to share some bits and bytes about Free and Open Source Software development to the students assembled there.

I was being invited to the college being a Google Summer of Coder 2009 to share about my experience on FOSS and how to get started. I spoke to the students about how I started using the Revolution OS ‘GNU/Linux’, how does the community work and all. The students were very new to the GNU/Linux and they hadn’t been exposed to any GNU/Linux technology stuff before. They were really enthusiastic and excited hearing about it. After my talk on how to get started working with open source projects and how it benefits them, they shot me with numerous questions. They were really enthusiastic about it. After the formal session, we had another one hour question and answers session around the auditorium.

I never had seen this much of questions from any of my audiences before. I felt very glad about it. Felt like a mass transformation would happen around TocH students to GNU/Linux. After the session I had been in conversation with the Jayakumar sir, The head of the Department, Computer Science and Engineering. He told that they were trying to build a FOSS cell around TocH and transforming atleast the computer science labs to GNU/Linux.

It was really nice experience to inspire students to Free Software.

In my hostel, we use asianet dataline internet connection. The connection is established through a webpage authentication and it needs to keep that webpage always open in the browser to get the stable connection. Once we login and releave that page, after five minutes it will require a re-login. Its a real hurdle to keep a page open in the browser for internet authentication.

I just analyzed the http requests from that page and automated using the curl utility.

Here is the script it feel, it would be useful for many.

#!/bin/bash

customer=CNXXXX
password=XXXXXX

if [ -n "`ifconfig | grep -A 1  wlan0 | grep "inet addr"`" ];
then

curl https://mwcp-ekm-04.adlkerala.com:8001 --data "auth_user=$customer&auth_pass=$password&accept=Login" &> /dev/null

echo "Connected :)"

while true
do
	sleep 300
	curl https://mwcp-ekm-04.adlkerala.com:8001 --data "alive=y&un=$customer" &> /dev/null ;

done

else

echo "Wifi not connected";

fi

Copy down the above script in a text file and rename to internet.sh

slynux@slynux-laptop:~$ chmod a+x  internet.sh
slynux@slynux-laptop:~$ ./internet.sh
Connected  

This script has an initial check for ethernet interface. Here it is given Wifi interface, wlan0. If you use a LAN for connection change wlan0 to eth0 and the message as well

Happy New year to all

The 2009 has end. When I look back to the year 2009, lots of events and moments scroll around my mind. It was a very unique year in my life till now. Till 2009, I was very rigid with my thinking and activities around. I was categorized to be a geek and I lived around that circle. But there happened lots of changes and the environment was totally different in the year 2009. I watched more around the world rather than sitting in front of an electronic box most of the time. i started to become more social. I received more new friends, lots of fun, lots of serious stuff and lot more.
Only one word suits better for that year with respect to my life, its very “Dynamic”. The year brought to me a lot of changes, lots of life learnings, lots of visions. It was really awesome to keep in memory.

2010 started off with nice traits. We had a lot of fun with friends around. I am doing absolutely nothing these days. But I love the very calm and peaceful environment around.

But more techie savvy stuffs are in my workshop TODO, it includes Android, Linux kernel and more fun.

Once again, wishing you all a very Happy new year 2010.