Jumbled Thoughts
Kannan's personal space (a.k.a. Views of a Patzer!)
Canon 1Ds Mark II
Sep 21st
Canon 1Ds Mark II has been announced. The feature list looks pretty impressive – 16.7MP, 0.3 second startup, ISO 100-1600, FireWire.
Google?? Browser???
Sep 21st
Lately, Google is poaching (abducting?) a lot of Sun & Microsoft employees. It is rumored that Google is forming a group for building a new browser. Assuming the news is true, what features will the new browser have?? An integrated search of your computer as well as the net, a no-nonsense fast loading application??
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/21/google_browser_hirings/
Autoincrementing the Build Numbers in VC++
Sep 21st
The option to automatically increment the build numbers (for successful builds) is one thing VC++ misses. AFAIK, VB & Borland C++/Delphi users have long had this ability.
http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/V-S/devstudio_macros/versioncontrol/article.php/c3129
This solution makes use of Application_BeforeBuildStart() handler to increment the RC VERSIONINFO. The Build # is incremented even for failed builds.
http://www.codeproject.com/cpp/rcversion.asp
Not exactly an auto-increment solution. This allows you to enter the version info during the build process.
http://www.codeguru.com/Cpp/V-S/devstudio_macros/article.php/c3183
Another solution posted in CodeGuru. It is assignable to any key and when invoked it updates the RC “FileVersion” field and does “BuildToggleBuild”. 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q237870
Solution posted by MS. The autoincrementing code is attached to Application_BuildFinish(). It updates a #define in versionno.h which is included by the user resource file (RC2) .
http://www.flipcode.com/cgi-bin/msg.cgi?showThread=Tip-AutomaticBuildVersion&forum=totd&id=-1
I haven’t tried this. But, the author claims to combine the best of MS & Codeguru (second one) solutions.
I used a modified version of the solution from MS (mine didn’t update the RC; instead it updated a H file that was included across the project). If there is a neat/effective solution for this, let me know.
Some interesting links on 360 deg panorama pictures…
Sep 21st
Do-It-Yourself : 360 degrees panorama
A lens attachment for taking 360deg pictures
Another lens attachment – Egg 360
And here is a review of iPIX 360 degree rotator
Pune GM Tournament
Sep 17th
This is the first ever category-16 tournament in India. It finished yesterday; Nisipeanu taking the title after beating Kasimdzhanov in the tiebreaks. Chessbase has a report on it here. When I first read about this tournament, I was literally drooling. So many well known GMs playing against our Indian talents….I was hoping Sasikiran would take, at least, a shared first with Sutovsky (my favorite). Alas! Sasi seems to have run out of steam, after his brilliant performance in Biel 2004 & in Vlissingen Open. He finished with a below-average score of 4.0 out of 9 games. Is it because of fatigue? Or is it because of the pressure of playing in the home grounds as one of the favorites? (BTW, he is the second highest rated player in the Indian list; Anand is in the first position, of course.) I read he lost 10 points in this tournament. He needs to get back in to form, if he ever wants to cross that 2700 mark!
My dual monitor development setup
Sep 16th
I use 2 MultiSync 1980SX LCD monitors from NEC for development purpose. Along with my docked IBM T41p, these screens occupy a lot of valuable space in my desktop (not the Windows one, mind you!)
Lovable Chukky!!
Sep 16th
One of my favorite players is Vassily Ivanchuk. He is a true chess artist. Click here to see one of his brilliancies. This one is against Kasparov! Kasparov used to avoid playing Ivanchuk during the early 90s. To say that he was afraid of Ivanchuk will not be exaggerating :p
There is a humorous anecdote involving Kasparov/Ivanchuk & Kamsky.Rustam Kamsky (father of Gata Kamsky) accused Kasparov of poisoning his son’s orange juice during Linares ‘92, to which Garry angrily retorted, “If I was going to do that, I’d have poisoned Ivanchuk’s” Recently, he gave an interview after the Libya World Cup Championship matches. Find it here. Just to balance things out, here is one of the best (!?) “Really 2700??” game from Ivanchuk.
[Site "Groningen WC KO"]
[Date "1997.12.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Seirawan,Yasser"]
[Black "Ivanchuk,Vassily"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E70"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bd3 e5 6. d5 a5 7. Nge2 Na6 8. f3 Nd7 9. Be3 Bh6 10. Qd2 Bxe3 11. Qxe3 c6 12. Qh6 Ndc5 13. Rd1 Qb6 14. Bb1 Ke7 15. f4 exf4 16. Rf1 Rf8 17. Qxf4 f6 18. dxc6 Qxc6 19. Nd4 Qe8 20. Nd5+ Kd8 21. Qxd6+ Bd7 22. Nb5 1-0
w.blogger or TonesNotes?
Sep 16th
I installed TonesNotes to use with my corporate dotText blogger, but unable to post using that. Have to see why it is failing !! No error msgs even :-/ Though w.blogger looks good, I’d feel more comfortable with the Word interface that I am quite used to ! Have to make TonesNotes work, somehow!
