All Play No Work Makes Chandresh a Poor Boy

EC Propogation System Using STEP

2008-08-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

http://cer.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/4/349

Why does Vista use all my RAM

2008-03-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

Which partition type is right for my PC?

2006-12-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

Reference: microsoft.com

Choosing between NTFS/FAT/FAT32

Upgrading Inspiron 5100

2006-11-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

Upgrading graphics card:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=485387
http://www.bay-wolf.com/videoupgrade.htm

Slimming down Windows XP

2006-11-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.bold-fortune.com/forums

Dell Inspiron 5100: issues related to overheating, automatic shutdown and cleaning

2006-10-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=139712

http://www.danandsherree.com/2004/07/18/our_dell_inspiron_11.php

Installing Vista Beta 2 on Inspiron 5100

2006-10-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

I have switched completely to windows vista. currently, I am using Beta 2. I had few problems in figuring out some of the things. However, I did find an answer to those problems over the time. I intend to share the answered/unanswered problems related to Vista Beta 2 in this post. I am sure as I use more of the Vista, I will have more questions and I hope to share them here as I go along.

Some useful resources:

Windows Vista Beta 2 software compatibiliy list:
http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Beta_2_Software_Compatibility_List
Windows Vista RC2 software compatibiliy list:
http://www.iexbeta.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_Vista_Software_Compatibility_List

Changing the User Profile folder location:

From Joshua Mouch's blog

Accessing true administrator account

Accessing the true administrator account in Windows Vista:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9001970

Installing Cisco VPN Client, Release 4.8:

Issue:- Error popups, while Installation:

Setup failed to properly install Cisco Systems service software
Setup failed to properly install Cisco Systems service software (again??)
Error loading C:\Windows\system32\csgina.dll. The specified module could not be found

Error popup, on opening it for the first time:

Secure VPN Connection terminated locally by the client. Reason 440: Driver failure. Connection terminated on: Oct 10, 2006 19:04:09

Solution:

The new release of CISCO VPN client works well with Vista (Dec 14, 2007).

How to Map Network drive

Issue: In Windows XP, the option to Map Network drive is in Tools menubar of Windows Explorer. However, in Vista I do not see the Tools menubar when I go to Explorer.

Solution: The menubar in the Explorer can be hidden/unhidden by pressing Alt key. So if you cannot see the menubar, press Alt key to unhide it.

No Signal from PC to Projector:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=25094

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/stream/output_protect.mspx

Online word processing tool

2006-06-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the online word-processing tool from Writely!

http://www.writely.com

In order to register with Writley, one needs an invitation from current user.

If you need an invitation, let me know by posting a comment. Do not forget to enter your email address.

Installed MAC on my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop

2006-05-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Finally, I was able to sucessfully install Tiger OS X on my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop. I have a dual boot with windows XP and Tiger OS X. There are still a few issues, which I hope to solve asap.

In btw. this are some of the problems (along with the solutions to them) that I faced:

Problem: unexpected slowness.

Solution: There is a file on all newly-installed OSX86 PCs called "AppleTPMACPI.kext," it tries to find a TPM chip that is only on the real Intel Developer Machines. It uses all system resources trying to accomplish its impossible task. Here is how to delete it:
Navigate your OSX86 Mac to this folder: "/System/Library/Extensions/" Delete the file "AppleTPMACPI.kext" in this folder, reboot. Your computer will spring to life.

Problem: Cannot install anything

Solution/Warning: DONT UPDATE QUICKTIME, IF YOU DO, YOU NEED TO FORMAT EVERYTHING!

Setting up a development environment for Protege API

2006-05-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Tools required:
1) NetBeans IDE - an IDE for developing java programs (http://www.netbeans.org)
2) J2SE - NetBeans 5.0 and higher needs J2SE 1.4 or higher (http://java.sun.com/javase/index.jsp)
3) Jena (http://jena.sourceforge.net)

NetBeans IDE and J2SE comes bundled up in a single installer. You can download this (NetBeans IDE + J2SE), from following link:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download-netbeans-50.html

Mathematical Logic

2006-03-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

1. Sentential Logic:

1) The sentatial logic is a logical system, by which conclusions can be reached via premises, which may or may not be true.
2) The truth of premises does not concern sentential logic. Rather, sentential logic will tell you what conclusions necessarily come from the premises posted.

The sentential, or propositional, logic SL consists of a sentential language, SL, a semantic interpretation of that language, and a sentential derivation system, SD (and SD+).

One might use SL to examine the logical relations among molecular or (compound) sentences generated from atomic (or simple) sentences.

From SL's perspective, only molecular sentences have structure or form, and, therefore, SL is a logic that deals with relations obtaining among molecular sentences in virtue of their structure or form.

Later, in PL, the predicate logic, we shall examine a logic that incorporates SL, but which also looks into the internal structure of atomic sentences.

Semantic Web

2006-03-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

Reference for this post is http://www.w3.org/2001/sw

What is Semantic Web?:

The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which integrates a variety of applications using XML for syntax and URIs for naming.

The semantic web is about two things: (1) Common formats for interchange of data (2) Language for recording how the data relates to the real world objects.

What is RDF:

RDF is used to represent information and to exchange knowledge in the web.

What is OWL:

OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management.

OWL Overview: http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features

Remote Desktop Connection

2006-03-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

I am trying to configure the computers in my lab and at home so that I can access either of them from any location using remote desktop connection. although the configuration is incomplete, in the process I came across few basic sites which tells a lot about the personal computer's network connection.

These sites are:
This site will tell you your IP address, hostname etc.: http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/
This site will show which all ports on your computer are open: http://canyouseeme.org

MySQL commands

2006-01-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

1. Dumping from a database to a file:
mysqldump -u user_name -p db_name > file.sql
It will ask for a password

Setting up "apache-php-mysql" development environment on Windows XP

2006-01-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

Reference:
http://www.webmasterstop.com/48.html

The best option is to use XAMMP. It is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP, and Perl.
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

GNU Triangulation and GNU Lib for data types

2005-10-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

Here's his site for 2D mesh generator
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~quake/triangle.html

GTS site:
http://gts.sourceforge.net/index.html

GLib
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/glib/index.html

Geometric Constraint Solving

2005-10-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

Geometric constraint solving (GCS) is one of the key techniques in parametric CAD, which allows the user to make modifications to existing designs by changing parametric values. GCS methods may also be used in other fields like molecular modelling, robotics and computer vision.

There are four major approaches to GCS:
1) the numerical approach
2) the symbolic approach
3) the rule-based approach and
4) the graph-based approach

Making a video out of powerpoint presentation

2005-09-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

I wanted to convert the powerpoint presentation into a video file. After trying different things, I reached to the conclusion that the best way of doing it is by using the Camtasia software. The detailed methodology is given at following link:

http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com/powerpoint-to-video.htm#Capture

Some other things which I tried include:
1. Using Microsoft Producer:

It does not support exporting a video file.
Can be very useful, if someone simply wants to "publish" the powerpoint presentation on web.
Freely available (dont be surprised, Microsoft does give few things for free) and can be downloaded from microsofts website.

2. Using PowerVideoMaker:

Excellent software, but not freely available.
Trial version shows an additional line(stating that the software is unregistered) on the video which makes it unsuitable for making presentable videos.

3. Using Powerpoint to Video convertor:

Not as good as PowerVideoMaker.

Creating a Demo CD using Movie Maker

2005-09-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

I have a pleasure of making a demo CD for the NIMA project.

We decided on first making all the individual clips with each one showing a different feature of the software. Once the clips are ready Jim Scandle, who is kind enough to lend his voice, will do the voice-over.

At this point I am using Windows Movie Maker, to combine the audio and video. Also once the individual clips are ready I will concatenate all of them to produce a movie out of it.

This is my first ever experience with Windows Movie Maker and to be frank I did not find the software to be versatile. I expect more features from it. For e.g. One cannot import a ppt file, also it is very difficult to edit a audio file. Anyways it does the basic things pretty well.

STEP resources

2005-08-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

Links for STEP/ISO 10303:

International Data Implementers Forum (IDIF) discussion group: http://impforum.aticorp.org/

National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST):

What is STEP: http://cic.nist.gov/plantstep/stepinfo/step_def.htm

STEP on a page: http://www.mel.nist.gov/sc5/soap/

The NIST STEP class library: http://ats.nist.gov/scl/

Canadian STEP center’s: “Introducing STEP” publication:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inad-ad.nsf/en/ad03581e.html

WStep: A STEP toolkit for windows:

http://www.bauv.unibw-muenchen.de/~bauv1/download/WStep/

International STEP body: PDES Inc.: http://pdesinc.aticorp.org/

STEP and EXPRESS : http://deslab.mit.edu/DesignLab/dicpm/step.html#resources

ST-Developer : http://www.steptools.com/support/stdev_docs/index.html

STEP AP schemas: http://www.steptools.com/support/stdev_docs/express

Kdevelop linking error: Can't do setuid

2005-08-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Problem:
When I do automake/autoconf, I get following error: Can't do setuid

Reason:
Some of the files in the folder 'admin' have permission '-rwsr--r--'

Solution:
Change the permissions of the files to 777

Using Doxygen in Visual C++ 6.0

2005-08-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Peterchen has given a comprehensive guidelines on 'The Code Project'

http://www.codeproject.com/tips/doxysetup.asp

converting PNG files to EPS

2005-08-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

I am writing a paper using LaTeX. LaTeX needs the figures in the EPS format. definitely one can also use PNG, JPEG or TIF, but then that wont create a dvi file. now, all my screenshots taken for the paper were in PNG format, so i had to look for a tool which can convert PNG files to EPS files. and i managed to locate one pretty cool program called Advanced Batch Convertor.

this is the website of this program. one can get a trial version for free.

http://www.batchconverter.com/

It works very well. the best part is I can convert multiple files in a batch.

LaTeX Resources

2005-08-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

LaTeX resources:

http://dozer.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/subjectresources/subject/61/all/latex.html

Getting Started with Tex, LaTeX:

http://www.tug.org/begin.html

LaTeX commands:
http://www.anthemion.co.uk/tex2rtf/manual/tex2rtf25.html#figure

HyperText help with LaTeX:

http://computing.ee.ethz.ch/.soft/latex/green/ltx-2.html

Using EndNote with LaTeX/BibTeX:

http://web.reed.edu/cis/Help/BibTeX.html#bibman

http://www.cvrti.utah.edu/~macleod/litbase/endnote.html

http://libraries.mit.edu/help/endnote/endnotelatexfaq.html

Creating tables:

http://www.grad.iit.edu/latex/LaTeX/TableHelp1.pdf

http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial4.html

MS word shortcut keys

2005-08-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

I intend to have a comprehensive list of shortcut keys for MS office. I will keep on adding as I come across new ones.

# Superscript: Press CTRL+SHIFT+=
# Subscript: Press CTRL+=

Statistics is Fun

2005-08-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

I just happened to be a tutor for Elementary statistics. I visited the subject after a period of 3-4 years and as one can guess I had fun teaching and learning statistics. There were few concepts new to me like ANOVA, multinomial expressions, contingency tables etc. Also lot of stuff which I did in my undergraduation like hypothesis testing, normal probability distribution, estimates and sample sizes etc. Again before this I never used excel and DDXL (Data Desk / XL) for stats, so it was kind of very good experience all-in-all.

While being tutor for this subject, I came across one very good book for elementary statistics:
Elementary Statistics Using Excel by Mario F. Triola.
If you use stats in your job or are going to tackle it some day then it is definitely worth buying this book.

NIMA Team

2005-08-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

finally I have a group photo of NIMA team members.

from L to R:
Shalaka (Architecture group, CSE dept.), Govind (Viz group, MAE dept), Abhay (Networking, IE dept.), Me (Viz group, MAE dept), Dr. Dirk (Tracking group, MAE dept) and Melih (Networking, IE dept.).

People not in photo but who where involved in project at some point of time:
Jim Scandale (Architecture group), Jae-Jun Kim (Tracking group, MAE dept), Rajeev (GMTI sensor modeling, EE dept.), Dr. Chang (Tracking group, MAE dept.), Eshra (Networking, IE dept.), Navneeth (Viz group, MAE dept)

Profs:
Dr. Tarun Singh (Tracking and Fusion, MAE dept.), Dr. Kesh (Viz, MAE dept), Dr. Rakesh Nagi (Networking, IE dept.), Dr. Rajan Bhatta (Networking, IE dept.), Dr. Jim Linas (Fusion, CMIF), Dr. Bharat Jayaraman (Architecture group, CSE dept)

Lets try 'TeXnic' - GUI and Shell for Latex

2005-08-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

Till now I had used WinEdt for editing tex files. I had no problems using WinEdt but the problem with WinEdt is it is not freely available. So after my 31 days trial period of WinEdt I thought of trying another Shell for editing tex files. Meanwhile one of my friend, Rajeev, recommended 'TeXnic' so I am right now using TeXnic for editing tex files in windows. I will put up the review of this program once I try it.

Chandresh Mehta's Blog

2005-08-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

Chandresh Mehta's Blog

All For Work..

2005-08-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

While my official blog is http://chandresh.blogspot.com I felt a need to create one which is entirely dedicated to postings related to my work. So I ended up with this :)