Became an uncle today!

Tamo (Riten – my eldest brother) and Iteima (sis-in-law) Remika’s first child was born today at around 1:45 PM Indian Standard Time (4:15 AM US Eastern Time). It’s a baby boy! Weight is 3.5 kgs. Name not yet decided. Other details awaited.
The baby boy is the first grandchild of my parents. He is also the first child in our family after a long period of time (25+ years). My monopoly as the last child of the family is finally broken!!!

Webcams at UTK (UT Knoxville)

Update (1/17/2020): The following webcams appear to be active:
tiny.utk.edu/gateway (alternate link: https://app.oxblue.com/open/utk/newenginneringcomplex)
Windy UT Knoxville Tickle College of Engineering Webcam (alternate link: https://lookr.com/1349883020)
https://www.utonline.tennessee.edu/about/webcams.php (Note: UT Martin, not UT Knoxville)

Knoxville: University of


Update (1/31/2017): The following webcams appear to be active:
http://conezone.utk.edu/stream-south/ (needs Flash)
http://conezone.utk.edu/stream-north/ (needs Flash)


Update (3:57 PM 4/10/2005) For a more complete and up-to-date list of webcams at UT Knoxville, please see: http://bookstore.asa.utk.edu/uccs/webcam/camsoncampus.html. (Thanks to Charity Beals for the link)


Original Post (5/20/2004):
Here is a list of online webcams at the Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville. I intend to keep adding to the list as I come to know about more webcams on campus.
Note from OIT: “These streaming videos take up a lot of bandwidth. You will probably not want to view these on a modem connection or leave them running for long periods of time.”
[1] Hodges Library, Room G20
The above link has 3 webcam feeds. Just scroll down to see the other two.
Individual Webcam feeds:
Camera 1
Camera 2
Camera 3
Camera 4
Camera 5
Camera 6
Camera 7
Camera 8
[2] Presidential Court, Room 113A
[3] View of Melrose Avenue from Melrose Hall
[4] International House
[5] University Center (UC)
[6] UC Bookstore
If you come across more webcams on the UT campus, please feel free to email me the URL (weblink) so that I can add it to the list.
Last updated: 3:57 PM 4/10/2005

Sony Ericsson T616

Upgraded my cellphone to a Sony Ericsson T616 camera phone. Took it from Walmart for $25 with a 1year contract. Walmart had the best deal. BestBuy did not have any deals for contract renewals. Cingular currently offers the same phone for $150 after $50 mail-in rebate (with 1 year contract).
The camera looks really cool and is working great!
My dsl connection is down since yesterday afternoon. Am posting this message from Golf Range lab .
12:55 AM 5/19/2004: Here is a photo of my phone:
Sony Ericsson T616 - Click to enlarge
enlarge (130 kb)

UebiMiau – POP3/IMAP Mail Reader

PHP based POP mail reader
For the past few days I have been looking for a PHP based POP Mail Reader. Checked out a couple of them. I think that UebiMiau is a really good one. It is really easy to install and does not need any database. Also, it works great both on Unix/Linux and Windows. Really easy to configure.
PHP based IMAP mail reader
If you are looking for a PHP based IMAP mail reader, use SquirrelMail. It is definitely the best. I would not be searching for other mail readers if Squirrelmail supported POP. There is a workaround to read POP emails using Squirrelmail but you still need an IMAP server to store the data.

Problems with Envision EN-775E

Recently, I have been having a lot of problems with my Envision EN-775E 17″ monitor. I had loaded the correct drivers but still the monitor was not working properly occasionally. Some of the problems I faced were:
– Monitor used to fail completely while using certain programs like OutlookExpress and PhotoShop. I used to get a blue screen and had to restart the computer. Later I would get the message that there is a problem with the monitor driver.
– Green vertical stripes on monitor while watching a video. This problem was usually solved by restarting the computer.
– The computer used to become pretty slow. I thought this was strange since I had installed a new hard drive and also reinstalled Windows.
Whenever I used to get the above problems, I used to go to Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot and decrease the Hardware Acceleration. The monitor used to work properly when I kept it at level 4. (Taking levels as: None,1,2,3,4,5,6,Full).
Today, the monitor crashed again while I was using OutlookExpress (the hardware acceleration was at level 3). So, I decided that I had enough and switched the monitors of my Linux and my Windows machines (the Envision EN-775E was originally attached to the Windows machine). So now, my Dell Trinitron UltraScan D1025HTX is attached to my Windows machine. It is working great. The screen is much clearer and better (even though the monitor is couple of years old) and the machine is much faster even with memory intensive applications. So, I guess the previous slowness problem was due to the Envision EN-775E monitor).
Bottom line is: The Envision EN-775E looks great but is buggy. Better go for some other monitor if you can avoid it.

Main Hoon Na!

Watched “Main Hoon Na” yesterday night. Did not feel that the movie was that great. I guess the hype was more or maybe I was expecting too much.
IndiaFM gave it a 4.5 stars (out of 5) rating. Rediff also had a special feature about it.

Mother’s Day

Today is Mother’s Day. Called up home at about 8 am IST. Talked with Mama, Baba, Tamo, Iteima.
———-
The Images of Mother
4 YEARS OF AGE ~ My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE ~ My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE ~ My Mother doesn’t really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE ~ Naturally, Mother doesn’t know that, either.
16 YEARS OF AGE ~ Mother? She’s hopelessly old fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE ~ That old woman? She’s way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE ~ Well, she might know a little bit about it.
35 YEARS OF AGE ~ Before we decide, let’s get Mom’s opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE ~ Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE ~ Wish I could talk it over with Mom.
———-

Accessing the UTK LDAP server

9/25/2009 – I have graduated from UTK and my personal webspace does not exist anymore. Hence, the links in [1] below do not work. The script is copy-pasted below for reference, in case you would like to try it out.

Previously, I have tried accessing the UTK LDAP server a couple of times. But I always ran into one problem or the other. Finally succeded today.

[1] PHP script to query the UTK LDAP server
Wrote a PHP script to query the UTK LDAP server. Got the basic info from the php.net website. The script is online here. The source code can be viewed here.

Source code for ldap.php

<?php
// PHP script to search UT LDAP server
// Bobby Maisnam [ bobby@maisnam.com ] 2:53 AM 5/7/2004

$ldapServer = 'ldap.utk.edu';
$ldapBase = 'dc=tennessee,dc=edu';

$attribute = $_GET["a"];
$value = $_GET["v"];

/* try to connect to the server */
$ldapConn = ldap_connect($ldapServer);
if (!$ldapConn)
{
    die('Cannot Connect to LDAP server');
}

/* bind anonymously */
$ldapBind = ldap_bind($ldapConn);
if (!$ldapBind)
{
    die('Cannot Bind to LDAP server');
}

/* set the ldap options */
ldap_set_option($ldapConn, LDAP_OPT_PROTOCOL_VERSION, 3);

/* search the LDAP server */
$ldapSearch = ldap_search($ldapConn, $ldapBase, "($attribute=*$value*)");
$ldapResults = ldap_get_entries($ldapConn, $ldapSearch);

$record_count = $ldapResults['count'];

echo "<p><b>$record_count</b> records returned</p>\n";

for ($item = 0; $item < $ldapResults['count']; $item++)
{
    $item2 = $item+1;
    echo "<hr />\n";
    echo "<h4>Displaying record [$item2]</h4>\n";
    for ($attribute = 0; $attribute < $ldapResults[$item]['count']; $attribute++)
    {
        $data = $ldapResults[$item][$attribute];
        echo $data.":&nbsp;&nbsp;".$ldapResults[$item][$data][0]."<br>";
    }
    echo '<hr /><br><br>';
}

?>


[2] Setting up LDAP address book in OutlookExpress
– Open OutlookExpress
– Tools > Address Book
– In Address Book, Tools > Accounts
– Add (use the following info)
LDAP server: ldap.utk.edu
Port: 389 (default)
Search Base: ou=People,ou=Knoxville,dc=tennessee,dc=edu

Useful Links:
http://dii.utk.edu/ldap/
http://web.utk.edu/~mike/mac/osx-utk-ldap.html
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ref.ldap.php