Ok, here it is, finally. I got time to edit n merge all the videos from the concert. I have removed the original audio from most of the video because it was way too noisy. Instead I have put some Metallica numbers as fillers for most of the video and kept the actual audio only in sections so that it is not annoying.
Well well well, I had never imagined I would be listening to “Nothing Else Matter” , “Fade To Black” , “Sad But True” and the types LIVE, with METALLICA performing and in my home town – Bangalore!! Other die-hard Metallica fans would not agree with me, Metallica’s other numbers like “Memory Remains”, “Ride The Lightning” and the likes would be the anthems in a Live concert.
It was an eventful start with us trying to get into the concert area and position ourselves the best to view our heroes – Kirk, James, Lars and Robert. Yes, I know I am addressing them by their first names. I have every right, I feel, because that was the closest I got to them and will be the closest I will ever be, I think. I saw them in flesh! Oh what a sight it was – Kirk on the guitar was phenomenal( some people might say he slipped a tune or two during the concert, but who cares!), James on the vocals was Godly! And do we even need to mention Lars! And silently Robert contributing, as always…..Ok, I lost it again….where was I…yeah, trying to position ourselves in front of the stage. We got lucky I should say, we just went to the head of the queue and cited some reason, the guard fell for it and boom – At 4:00pm we were still wondering about which queue to stand in, by 4:25pm I was on the other side! I had goosebumps, I couldn’t believe it! We went to the front section and stood there right in front of the stage( see the picture). Meanwhile, Biffy Clyro ( whoever it was, no offense guys!) was playing, that was the first time I had ever heard of them:). Anyways, they were setting the stage up nicely for Metallica to come on….some nice guitar riffs…And then after an hour or so Metallica was ON. As had happened in the State Capital, Metallica crew wasn’t entirely happy with the barricade and was requesting the right section of the crowd to move further to the right. They even positioned a microphone on either side of the stage in front of two huge side screens. There was a huge background screen that was arranged that would be showing the concert live. And the rest was history…I don’t have the words to describe the performance….I have a few shabby pictures and videos from my phone to do all the explaining….Here it comes…….
0325pm: At The Entrance: James in that Jeep there, was there an uproar or What!!
0328pm: Sea Of Black - Metallica Fans Trying To Get In
0400pm: The Mad Rush Starts....
0425pm: The Other Side, Nothing Else Matters now 
0530pm: In Front Of The Stage
0820pm: Well into the show: Fireworks, every which way! Thank You Metallica!!
THANK YOU METALLICA!!!!
A Dream Come True!!
If you are on youtube a lot, then you probably know about the hungry snake. For those of you who haven’t given this a try, give it a shot while your favorite video loads on youtube. Here is a screenshot.
Basically, the loading circle in the middle is transformed into a snake when you press any of the arrow keys ( up, down, left and right) and then you have snake food in the video area. Your objective is to feed the snake its food while your video loads.
Feed The Snake on YouTube
Enjoy! Go feed the snake…..
After pouring over the web for two days, finally, I could build the platform-specific, hardware-specific kernel for my Samsung SGS4G ( Galaxy S 4G). Here is a step-by-step procedure to achieve the same. I have also put down a complete procedure down to the last detail for two reasons :
1. It was very difficult for me to find the information for this particular phone (SGS4G) and had to google, google forever!
2. Serves as a reference for myself later.
I can fairly say, that this procedure, if followed to the letter will help you make a successful build for your SGS4G.
Part I. Android Platform Development environment setup:
1. You will need a Linux OS installed for the most efficient setup of the environment. Googling can help you with this, if need be. Make sure you have the build-essentials or equivalent setup on your machine which includes all the compilers, the dependencies etc… I will be using Ubuntu 11.04 as an example, the latest released when I was writing this reference.
2. Additionally – python 2.4 or later, JDK 6 recommended ( JDK 5 for Froyo based systems) and GIT 1.5.4 or later.
a. For Java SDK 6
$ sudo add-apt-repository “deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner”
$ sudo add-apt-repository “deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu lucid partner”
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
b. For the build tools and other tools needed by the android system.
$ sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf build-essential \
zip curl zlib1g-dev libc6-dev lib32ncurses5-dev ia32-libs \
x11proto-core-dev libx11-dev lib32readline5-dev lib32z-dev \
libgl1-mesa-dev g++-multilib mingw32 tofrodos
c. Create a new file in “/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules” and add the following lines.
# adb protocol on passion (Nexus One) SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”18d1″, ATTR{idProduct}==”4e12″, MODE=”0600″, OWNER=”"
# fastboot protocol on passion (Nexus One) SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”0bb4″, ATTR{idProduct}==”0fff”, MODE=”0600″, OWNER=”"
# adb protocol on crespo (Nexus S) SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”18d1″, ATTR{idProduct}==”4e22″, MODE=”0600″, OWNER=”"
# fastboot protocol on crespo (Nexus S) SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”18d1″, ATTR{idProduct}==”4e20″, MODE=”0600″, OWNER=”"
In the bin directory (create if you don’t have one and add to your PATH variable) in your home directory download the repo script from the following link.
$ curl https://android.git.kernel.org/repo > ~/bin/repo
$ chmod a+x ~/bin/repo
Now to download the source from the android repository,
a .Create a working directory (in your home directory preferably)
$ mkdir WORKING_DIRECTORY
$ cd WORKING_DIRECTORY
b. Run the repo init script to download the code. Note that this will take quite sometime to finish.
Go and grab a cup of coffee while it downloads.
$ repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git -b <froyo/gingerbread>
$ repo sync
c. Import the gpg key, Execute
$ gpg –import
and add this at the prompt and then press EOF(Ctrl+D) at the end.
—–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—– Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux) mQGiBEnnWD4RBACt9/h4v9xnnGDou13y3dvOx6/t43LPPIxeJ8eX9WB+8LLuROSV lFhpHawsVAcFlmi7f7jdSRF+OvtZL9ShPKdLfwBJMNkU66/TZmPewS4m782ndtw7 8tR1cXb197Ob8kOfQB3A9yk2XZ4ei4ZC3i6wVdqHLRxABdncwu5hOF9KXwCgkxMD u4PVgChaAJzTYJ1EG+UYBIUEAJmfearb0qRAN7dEoff0FeXsEaUA6U90sEoVks0Z wNj96SA8BL+a1OoEUUfpMhiHyLuQSftxisJxTh+2QclzDviDyaTrkANjdYY7p2cq /HMdOY7LJlHaqtXmZxXjjtw5Uc2QG8UY8aziU3IE9nTjSwCXeJnuyvoizl9/I1S5 jU5SA/9WwIps4SC84ielIXiGWEqq6i6/sk4I9q1YemZF2XVVKnmI1F4iCMtNKsR4 MGSa1gA8s4iQbsKNWPgp7M3a51JCVCu6l/8zTpA+uUGapw4tWCp4o0dpIvDPBEa9 b/aF/ygcR8mh5hgUfpF9IpXdknOsbKCvM9lSSfRciETykZc4wrRCVGhlIEFuZHJv aWQgT3BlbiBTb3VyY2UgUHJvamVjdCA8aW5pdGlhbC1jb250cmlidXRpb25AYW5k cm9pZC5jb20+iGAEExECACAFAknnWD4CGwMGCwkIBwMCBBUCCAMEFgIDAQIeAQIX gAAKCRDorT+BmrEOeNr+AJ42Xy6tEW7r3KzrJxnRX8mij9z8tgCdFfQYiHpYngkI 2t09Ed+9Bm4gmEO5Ag0ESedYRBAIAKVW1JcMBWvV/0Bo9WiByJ9WJ5swMN36/vAl QN4mWRhfzDOk/Rosdb0csAO/l8Kz0gKQPOfObtyYjvI8JMC3rmi+LIvSUT9806Up hisyEmmHv6U8gUb/xHLIanXGxwhYzjgeuAXVCsv+EvoPIHbY4L/KvP5x+oCJIDbk C2b1TvVk9PryzmE4BPIQL/NtgR1oLWm/uWR9zRUFtBnE411aMAN3qnAHBBMZzKMX LWBGWE0znfRrnczI5p49i2YZJAjyX1P2WzmScK49CV82dzLo71MnrF6fj+Udtb5+ OgTg7Cow+8PRaTkJEW5Y2JIZpnRUq0CYxAmHYX79EMKHDSThf/8AAwUIAJPWsB/M pK+KMs/s3r6nJrnYLTfdZhtmQXimpoDMJg1zxmL8UfNUKiQZ6esoAWtDgpqt7Y7s KZ8laHRARonte394hidZzM5nb6hQvpPjt2OlPRsyqVxw4c/KsjADtAuKW9/d8phb N8bTyOJo856qg4oOEzKG9eeF7oaZTYBy33BTL0408sEBxiMior6b8LrZrAhkqDjA vUXRwm/fFKgpsOysxC6xi553CxBUCH2omNV6Ka1LNMwzSp9ILz8jEGqmUtkBszwo G1S8fXgE0Lq3cdDM/GJ4QXP/p6LiwNF99faDMTV3+2SAOGvytOX6KjKVzKOSsfJQ hN0DlsIw8hqJc0WISQQYEQIACQUCSedYRAIbDAAKCRDorT+BmrEOeCUOAJ9qmR0l EXzeoxcdoafxqf6gZlJZlACgkWF7wi2YLW3Oa+jv2QSTlrx4KLM= =Wi5D
—–END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–
d. Build the code
$ . build/envsetup.sh
Then to get a complete build for the emulator, with all debugging enabled.
$ lunch full-eng
$ make -j4
e. The emulator is added to your path automatically by the build process. To run the emulator, type
$ emulator
Here is the screen shot of the emulator running Gingerbread built from scratch.
Gingerbread - Built and Emulated
Next part will cover building the kernel for the actual device , in this case, a Samsung Galaxy S 4G. I am still trying to figure out some smaller details to load the build onto the device. I will post it soon as soon as I figure it all out.
Some years ago, while I was still searching for a proper panorama maker. I bumped into this neat little software which builds a Mosaic. Now what is a Mosaic? Read on…
Mosaic – The software maker says, “The software will scan the image folder(s) of your choice and make thumbnails and store imformation like color profile, brightness, contrast and other image related parameters and makes a list of them. You can then provide this software with a picture of your choice and it will churn out an image which is made up of the images that you provided to index. The results can be quite amazing!”
Indeed, I have always been intrigued by this and make sure I build Mosaics of some important images from my trips/treks etc…This is the first time I am publishing it though on my blog. Also I created a page of its own. Here it is….
And before that, a Mosaic of myself 
Mosaic'd - A Mosaic of me
Mosaic Page – This contains link for high resolution pictures of the same. Please wait for the images to download completely to view the mosaics within. Most of the pictures are more than 6Mb, so grab a cuppa while the images load.
