Vicky Chijwani

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  • #NowPlaying - Imagine Dragons - It's Time http://t.co/XLxzd4C0qt via @youtube

    Mar 28, 13 from Tweet Button Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola ... and the last 3 items on that list are simply crazy! Direct descendants of Charlie Chaplin and Charles Dickens are in #GoT :O

    Mar 27, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to vickychijwani Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola Turns out Joffrey also got slapped in Batman Begins! Check out #5: http://t.co/Auu9rYNn4v

    Mar 27, 13 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola Anyway, I'm going to read this series of short novels by GRRM next: http://t.co/MuPd5pRiEr

    Mar 27, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to vinaykola Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola Yes! That's why I didn't say "wasted" (although there's always a small voice in my head that says "you're wasting your time!")

    Mar 27, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to vinaykola Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • And now I've gone on and spent yet another day reading / watching / thinking about Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire. Aargh!

    Mar 27, 13 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • Breaking down Amazon’s mega dropdown - Ben Kamens http://t.co/0Y4LEPFM77

    Mar 27, 13 from Tweet Button Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola Try http://t.co/mR540OEyef. It's quite detailed too.

    Mar 26, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to vinaykola Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola you know, you could ask me if you have any "doubts" during your "revision" :P

    Mar 26, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to vinaykola Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola oh but I see it's hardly enough. Just a bunch of not-so-useful questions.

    Mar 26, 13 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola so at last you found a source for "revision" :P

    Mar 26, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to vinaykola Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @vinaykola which one's the better app? https://t.co/bVGwnIBFAo vs https://t.co/Iw7zulhkyh

    Mar 26, 13 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @varunpramanik great, I'll do that the next time!

    Mar 26, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to varunpramanik Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • Icon Stacks - interesting idea involving icon fonts http://t.co/cbF9NifUiV

    Mar 26, 13 from Tweet Button Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @varunpramanik Sure. But I've merely been forwarding you search results :P

    Mar 25, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to varunpramanik Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @varunpramanik oops, ok. Try this, then: presumably the default user is "ubuntu" and the password is blank. http://t.co/cSDso88Qr2

    Mar 25, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to varunpramanik Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @varunpramanik "sudo" expands to "do as superuser", which means *you're* asking for your permissions to be elevated to superuser level.

    Mar 25, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to varunpramanik Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @varunpramanik "when sudo asks for a password, it needs YOUR USER password, and not the Root account password." https://t.co/Ti8yF7kMks

    Mar 25, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to varunpramanik Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @varunpramanik Try typing "startx" at the command line. That should work.

    Mar 25, 13 from TweetDeck in reply to varunpramanik Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • RT @k_2052: Github gets DDoSed whenever a developer with a botnet desperately wants to procrastinate "Sorry, I cant, Github is down"

    Mar 23, 13 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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  • Nuggets from my .emacs: Part I

    Feb 12, 13

    ”Nuggets from my .emacs” is a series wherein I will occasionally put up small but nevertheless quite useful functions in Emacs Lisp that help enhance daily productivity. This post here is Part I.

    You can also get my entire Emacs config on Github.

    1. Intuitive window resizing

    NOTE: “Windows” in Emacs are different from “windows” in the conventional sense used today. When you split a screen into 2 “panes” using C-x 3, the 2 panes are called “windows”. Conventional windows, created using C-x 5 2, are called “frames” in the Emacs world.

    I never really got the hang of C-x { (shrink-window-horizontally), C-x } (enlarge-window-horizontally), and C-x ^ (enlarge-window) for resizing windows. When I split my screen vertically and I want to change the window sizes, I’m usually thinking of how I should move the border between the 2 windows, rather than whether I want to enlarge or shrink the current window. Fortunately I found the following nugget on the Internet (credits to the original author; I have long since lost the source link):

    ;; intuitive window resizing
    (defun xor (b1 b2)
      (or (and b1 b2)
          (and (not b1) (not b2))))
    
    (defun move-border-left-or-right (arg dir)
      "General function covering move-border-left and move-border-right. If DIR is
         t, then move left, otherwise move right."
      (interactive)
      (if (null arg) (setq arg 3))
      (let ((left-edge (nth 0 (window-edges))))
        (if (xor (= left-edge 0) dir)
            (shrink-window arg t)
            (enlarge-window arg t))))
    
    (defun move-border-up-or-down (arg dir)
      "General function covering move-border-up and move-border-down. If DIR is
         t, then move up, otherwise move down."
      (interactive)
      (if (null arg) (setq arg 3))
      (let ((top-edge (nth 1 (window-edges))))
        (if (xor (= top-edge 0) dir)
            (shrink-window arg nil)
            (enlarge-window arg nil))))
    
    (defun move-border-left (arg)
      (interactive "P")
      (move-border-left-or-right arg t))
    
    (defun move-border-right (arg)
      (interactive "P")
      (move-border-left-or-right arg nil))
    
    (defun move-border-up (arg)
      (interactive "P")
      (move-border-up-or-down arg t))
    
    (defun move-border-down (arg)
      (interactive "P")
      (move-border-up-or-down arg nil))
    

    I have the following keybindings corresponding to these functions:

    ;; keybindings for window resizing
    (global-set-key (kbd "M-S-<left>") 'move-border-left)
    (global-set-key (kbd "M-S-<right>") 'move-border-right)
    (global-set-key (kbd "M-S-<up>") 'move-border-up)
    (global-set-key (kbd "M-S-<down>") 'move-border-down)
    

    2. Live hex color previews

    I find this pretty handy when I’m writing CSS or customizing my Emacs theme, notwithstanding the fact that I’m colourblind.

    ;; CSS color values colored by themselves
    ;; http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=873541
    (defvar hexcolor-keywords
      '(("#[abcdef[:digit:]]+"
         (0 (put-text-property
             (match-beginning 0)
             (match-end 0)
             'face (list :background
                         (match-string-no-properties 0)))))))
    
    (defun hexcolor-add-to-font-lock ()
      (font-lock-add-keywords nil hexcolor-keywords))
    

    Then all you need to do is add some major mode hooks:

    (add-hook 'css-mode-hook 'hexcolor-add-to-font-lock)
    (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'hexcolor-add-to-font-lock)
    (add-hook 'less-css-mode-hook 'hexcolor-add-to-font-lock)
    

    and see your hex colors light up right there in front of you :)

    3. Comment or uncomment a region or line

    This a no-nonsense function that does exactly what it says on the tin:

    (defun comment-or-uncomment-region-or-line ()
      "Like comment-or-uncomment-region, but if there's no mark \(that means no
    region\) apply comment-or-uncomment to the current line"
      (interactive)
      (if (not mark-active)
          (comment-or-uncomment-region
           (line-beginning-position) (line-end-position))
        (if (< (point) (mark))
            (comment-or-uncomment-region (point) (mark))
          (comment-or-uncomment-region (mark) (point)))))
    

    Immensely useful; I have it bound to C-c C-r.

    4. “Smart” Home key

    This one takes the boring old Home key and puts it on steroids. The new and improved Home key toggles between the first non-whitespace character on the current line, and the very first column on the line.

    ;; "smart" home, i.e., home toggles b/w 1st non-blank character and 1st column
    (defun smart-beginning-of-line ()
      "Move point to first non-whitespace character or beginning-of-line."
      (interactive "^") ; Use (interactive "^") in Emacs 23 to make shift-select work
      (let ((oldpos (point)))
        (back-to-indentation)
        (and (= oldpos (point))
             (beginning-of-line))))
    

    I use it all the time, so I’ve replaced the default Home and C-a keys with this:

    (global-set-key [home] 'smart-beginning-of-line)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-a") 'smart-beginning-of-line)
    

    ---

    That’s all for Part I.

  • Blazing-Fast Application Switching in Linux using Run-or-Raise

    Apr 15, 12

    NOTE: I mostly use single application instances with tabbed UIs or similar (Firefox, Emacs + escreen.el, Terminator, Zathura PDF viewer + Tabbed, SpaceFM), so this method works flawlessly for me. If you like having separate windows inside every program and hate tabbed interfaces, this won’t work so well. But you can still use it for things like your browser, which only runs a single instance.

    The Problem with Alt-Tab

    The thing that’s always ticked me off about the standard desktop metaphor is the inefficiency of Alt-tab (at any point of time, you cannot be sure of where a particular application is, in the most-recently-used order). For so fundamental an operation as switching applications, which users perform many hundreds of times a day, making them tediously scan a (constantly-changing) list sorted by recently-used order seems like an awful idea to me, in many cases. Sure, toggling between two windows is dead simple, but when you have to switch to some other task, you’re left with no choice but to go window-hunting.

    And I’m not the only one who feels Alt-tab sucks.

    The problem is especially chronic, for example, when I’m working on some web development stuff. I have 3 or more applications open (editor, browser, command line: at the very least, often with another browser for looking up documentation), and I have to switch among them very often. In such a situation, Alt-tab is plain frustrating.

    Turns out there is a 100x better solution, called run-or-raise. But first…

    “Why don’t you use workspaces?”

    • I always end up forgetting that I do in fact have the desired application running, only it’s not on the current workspace.

    • I have to make sure applications are always running on their designated workspaces, otherwise the strategy breaks down.

    • Consider what happens when I have more than one application on a workspace. I’ve to switch to the correct workspace, and then switch to the target application if it’s not already on top.

    run-or-raise does better than workspaces on all counts.

    run-or-raise

    The idea is to have each frequently-used application one key combination away at all times, irrespective of which workspace it is on, or how recently it has been used, or even whether it’s running or not. That way you can get down to actually using it in a jiffy.

    run-or-raise is borrowed from my very brief experience with Awesome Window Manager (it used to be a Lua customization there, but recently an implementation has been added to Awesome’s master branch by Anurag Priyam). Its concept is very intuitive. Calling run-or-raise on an application does the following:

    • “run”: if the application is not running, launch it, and focus on it, or

    • “raise”: if the application is already running, just switch to its workspace and raise it.

    It may not sound like much, but it’s been hugely productive for me. There’s a strange satisfaction in knowing that Super+E will always take me straight to my Emacs :)

    Making it work (on WMs other than awesome)

    Now with all that out of the way, let’s look at how to get a crude but effective implementation working in pretty much any window manager (the only requirement is that the WM must be compatible with the EWMH specification). Turns out a one-liner shell script will suffice (make sure you have wmctrl installed, it should be in your distro’s default repositories):

    #!/bin/bash
    wmctrl -x -a "$1" || $2
    

    For reference, here are some extracts from wmctrl --help:

    -a <WIN>    Activate the window <WIN> by switching to its desktop
                and raising it.
    -x          Include WM_CLASS in the window list or
                interpret <WIN> as the WM_CLASS name.
    

    How does this work? The part before the || checks if a running application’s class name (or any case-insensitive substring of it) matches the string given by $1; if yes, it raises that application. If not, it simply runs the command given by $2, so we’ll pass in a command that runs our application. Pretty straightforward.

    However, if you have multiple windows for an application open, then this will only be able to switch to one of the windows; there is no way to cycle between them, like the Awesome WM implementation.

    Now, in most cases, the first and second arguments ($1 and $2) will be the same. In the rare case when it does not work, you need to find out what class name to pass as $1. Run your application and check the output of wmctrl -l -x. The third column should give you the application class (it’s always of the form *.*). Here’s wmctrl --help on the -l switch:

    -l          List windows managed by the window manager.
    

    Let’s see how to use it. Save the script as /usr/local/bin/run-or-raise, then make it executable:

    $ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/run-or-raise
    

    Finally, bind keyboard shortcuts to specific invocations of run-or-raise for your favourite applications. Sample invocations:

    $ run-or-raise firefox firefox
    $ run-or-raise emacs "emacsclient -a '' -c"
    

    Note how, in the first invocation, even though the WM_CLASS for Firefox is “Navigator.Firefox”, we can pass a case-insensitive substring of it.

    On my setup I have the following keys set to run or raise specific applications:

    • Super+F => Firefox
    • Super+C => Chromium
    • Super+E => Emacs
    • Super+T => Terminator
    • Super+G => PDF viewer
    • Super+S => File Manager

    Another alternative

    There’s another, easily scalable alternative to Alt-tab: incremental filtering on a window list. No matter how many windows you have open, it should work reasonably well. It essentially changes the behaviour of Alt-tab from sequential access through a most-recently-used stack to random access in a list of applications. Hence the easy scalability. I know of only 2 pieces of software that do this: the “Scale Window Title Filter” plugin in Compiz, and “Switcher” for Windows, of which I have used the former.

    This is similar to the searchable user interface concept from an earlier post. But it’s still not in wide use. Guess I’ll just have to wait for the future to arrive.

    Thoughts, comments, questions?

  • Function Pointers in C are Underrated

    Mar 22, 12

    The function pointer in C is, in my opinion, one of the most ignored gems of the language. It’s the kind of feature you rarely need, and then suddenly, one day, you find yourself in dire need of it, as evidenced by the use-case below.

    If you don’t know what a function pointer is in the first place, here’s the meat of it: it gives you the ability to pass a function around like a normal variable. If you know Python / Ruby / Lisp, you might know it by the name ‘lambda’, or if you come from a JavaScript background, you might’ve used it under the name ‘anonymous function’. (UPDATE: a lot of people have pointed out that function pointers are not the same as closures, and they are correct. But the point here is to establish some semblance of familiarity for those who are new to function pointers in C).

    The Why

    Say we’re writing a library for linked list manipulation, as part of another application. Being the kind of programmers who see beauty in reusable code, we want the library to be completely generic and independent from the other modules in our application, so we can re-use it in other projects. To that end, first we define some basic structures for the list and its nodes:

    struct list_entry_t {
        void * data;
        struct list_entry_t * next;
    };
    
    struct list_t {
        struct list_entry_t * head;
        unsigned int length;
    };
    

    Now let’s assume that, in our application, the data field in our linked list entries is meant to store a pointer to a structure of the following type:

    struct mem_block {
        void * addr;
        unsigned int size;
    };
    

    Now if we want to search for a specific struct mem_block in our list, given the value of it’s addr field, how would we do it? (I encountered this exact same use-case when I had to write a memory manager for my last Operating Systems assignment).

    We ideally shouldn’t make a public function in our generic linked list library (that’s meant to store any type of data), hard-wired just for this specific case (searching by the addr field of the struct mem_block), since that would make our library, well, not generic. Argh, the reusability-seeker within itches for a better solution! If you’ve so much as read the title of this post, you already know the answer: function pointers!

    The How

    Now let’s see how function pointers can help us here. First, we declare a public function in our linked list library with the following prototype:

    /* get the data of the first element of list @l which passes the
     * comparison test implemented by the function @compar.
     *
     * @param l         the linked list to search
     * @param compar    the comparison function. The two parameters passed to
     *                  it are the element data, and @key, respectively. Must
     *                  return 1 for a success, else 0.
     * @param key       the search key passed as the second parameter to
     *                  @compar */
    
    void * list_get_by_condition(struct list_t * l,
                                 int (* compar) (void *, void *),
                                 void * key);
    

    And the function definition:

    void * list_get_by_condition(struct list_t * l, int (* compar) (void *, void *), void * key) {
        struct list_entry_t * entry;
    
        for (entry = l->head; entry; entry = entry->next) {
            if (compar(entry->data, key)) {
                return entry->data;
            }
        }
    
        return NULL;
    }
    

    And our comparison function, in the application program:

    /* comparison function to compare a block and an address; intended to be passed
     * to list_get_by_condition() */
    
    int compar_addr(void * block, void * addr) {
        return (((struct mem_block *) block)->addr == addr);
    }
    

    Now let’s see how this helps us. We call list_get_by_condition() with our linked list, it traverses the list, and for each list entry, it passes the data (the struct mem_block) and the search key key to our comparison function compar_addr(). The comparison function in turn checks if its parameters satisfy our search criterion, and returns 1 or 0 to list_get_by_condition(), as appropriate. As soon as a match is found, the matching struct mem_block is returned, otherwise NULL is returned.

    Notice how we separate the common parts from the use-case-specific parts using the function pointer compar. We put the common parts into our linked list library, and the small application-specific parts into our application. Now we can have several comparison functions testing various conditions, for different search criteria, and the sanctity of our linked list library remains preserved :)

  • Searchable User Interfaces are the Future

    Jan 27, 12

    TL;DR: Mammoth software with tons of features are not uncommon nowadays. However, the interfaces for these software have not matured. They are not scalable enough to support efficient usage of the program’s features. The traditional menu UI metaphor becomes very cluttered in this case. The solution: searchable user interfaces.

    The Problem

    Good luck finding what you need in the menu-spaghetti.

    The above picture should make amply clear the scalability problem with menu-driven user interfaces. It’s a waste of the user’s time if you make them manually look through the menus (or make them remember arcane keyboard shortcuts) for actions they want to perform, especially if your application can do a lot of things. The purpose of the interface is to make life easy for the user, and the GIMP’s UI doesn’t really make much of an effort in that direction. Sure, it organizes the gazillion “Filters” into neat categories, but the categorization could be subjective, or an action could belong under more than one category. We need a scalable interface. Fortunately, we do have a practical solution to menu-spaghetti.

    The Solution

    Wouldn’t it be amazing if, alongwith menus, your application gave you functionality to search through them, all the way down to individual items buried deep? That way you wouldn’t have to go feature-hunting through the menus (or tax your brain with a key combination); you could merely search for what you wanted. And the icing on the cake would be if the search did fuzzy matching and took into account synonyms, various word forms, etc.

    There are actually some well-known existing software which implement these “searchable user interfaces”, or SUIs, as I like to call them.

    Kick-ass SUIs

    1. First up, we have Google’s zippy web browser, Google Chrome / Chromium.

       Notice how Chrome searches even inside other UI elements.

       Chrome has always been somewhat of a leader in modern UIs, and their carefully crafted preferences interface is testimony to that fact. Notice how, when you search for “ser”, Chrome searches even inside the Content Settings box. This is what user interfaces should aspire to be: clean, functional, and efficient. Hats off to the Chrome team for a job splendidly executed.

    2. Next we have our friendly neighbourhood operating system, Ubuntu.

       Ubuntu HUD: this is what you could expect in Ubuntu 12.04.

       Ubuntu, come April, will sport an SUI on every single application in the OS. They call it the HUD. The HUD will allow you to search through menu options in a jiffy, so you can say bye-bye to the GIMP’s messy menus, and instead search for what you want to do. Of course, the HUD cannot substitute menus, because SUIs have terrible discoverability (i.e., you cannot browse through available actions, you must know what you’re looking for); the best solution would be to have both, traditional menus and the HUD.

    Do you know of any other SUIs? What is your opinion of them? Let me know in the comments.

  • The Sands of Code: "Reverse Debugging" in C

    Jan 12, 12

    Today I had the opportunity to use an amazing feature in GDB — “reverse debugging”. Actually, ‘amazing’ is probably an understatement.

    Think of the following scenarios in a GDB debugging session (and forgive the dramatic prose):

    1. You’re battling against an elusive little bug, the kind that appears only some times when you’re running your code, crashes it, and goes its merry way, only to strike again a few compile-run cycles later. So how do you get rid of that bug? The usual answer: you pain-stakingly go through session upon GDB session, hoping to catch that bug in action and find out what’s causing it. Isn’t there supposed to be an easier way?

    2. You’re in a middle of a particularly time-consuming debugging session, having set up the perfect combination of breakpoints and watchpoints after hunting around to find the approximate location of the bug’s origin. So you run the code, and then carefully start issuing continue and next commands, navigating the code, examining variables along the way. Then you realize, somehow, that you’ve let the code run just a little too far and missed your chance. What now, you start over?

    Back to the Future

    Reverse debugging in GDB could be a neat solution to the problems above. By allowing you to re-simulate a particular instance of execution of your program any number of times, it gives you the ability to catch bugs easily and test them to your heart’s content. Here’s how you can handle problems #1 and #2 described above using this technique:

    1. Instead of carefully setting up and plodding through multiple GDB sessions in the hope that the bug will appear, you can simply set a few important breakpoints in the suspicious area of code, and keep issuing continue, and if Mr. Bug doesn’t show up, run it again. Keep doing this until the bug rears its ugly head, at which point you issue a reverse-continue, which takes you back to the last breakpoint hit. This reversal restores everything to the state it was in before you’d issued your last continue – but now you know the bug is going to appear shortly, so you set more breakpoints before the next one and narrow down your problem to a smaller area. Things don’t look so good for the cornered prick.

    2. The answer to this should be pretty obvious now. Whenever you realize you’ve come too far in the code, you can go back using reverse-continue (or some other reverse command). Just make sure you set “recording” on (using record) at the point till which you want to able to reverse execution, preferrably right at the start of the program (it’s pretty easy, take a look).

    You can even do set exec-direction reverse to make all commands like continue, next, and step go backwards. To get back to normal, forward running code, use set exec-direction forward.

  • A Magit Tutorial: Part II

    Nov 25, 11

    In Part I, we saw how to open up the Magit status buffer, view unstaged changes and untracked files, stage changes and commit them. The next thing you should learn is how to view the git log.

    The Magit Log

    To view a terse history of your repository (à la git log --graph --oneline --abbrev-commit, which I’ve aliased to git pretty), press l l in any magit buffer. To view the log in verbose form, use l L instead. Initially, only the last 100 commits are shown (to see 100 more, press e, and to see all commits, press C-u e).

    Operations on commits in the Magit log

    Press RET to view any commit in the log.

    Applying and reverting commits

    Pressing a on a commit will apply it to your current branch (a “cherry pick”, in git-speak), although the changes won’t be automatically committed (use A instead to apply and commit in one go).

    On the other hand, v will revert the commit at point (again, you need to commit the changes yourself).

    Diffing

    You can compare any 2 commits or the working tree and a commit right from Magit. Let’s see how.

    With the commit log

    Let’s say you want to compare 2 commits in the log. Mark the first commit by navigating to it and pressing .. Then go to the second and press =, and your diff will come up in a new buffer. Similar to the previous section, you can selectively apply parts of the diff to your current branch by using a and A, and reverse-apply them using v.

    Without the commit log

    To compare your working directory with a specific commit, use d. To compare any 2 arbitrary commits, use D. As usual, you can use a and v to apply and reverse diffs / chunks of diffs.

    Resetting and discarding changes to the working tree

    You can reset to a previous commit in the branch by typing x and entering a commit name (this will not affect your working tree or staging area in any way). This does a soft reset, meaning that the changes from the discarded commits are put back in your working tree, and you can commit them again. Be forewarned that rewriting history in this way is not preferable if you have already published it (instead do a normal revert using v on the defective commits from the log).

    To discard only the changes in your working tree and staging area (i.e., to reset to the state of the most recent commit), press X. This will get rid of all uncommited changes, but will not affect the commit log.

    Pushing and Pulling

    Remember the Magit status buffer we talked about in Part I, which you get by running M-x magit-status? After you’ve made your commit with C-c C-c, Magit will thoughtfully display an Unpushed Commits section in the status buffer, meaning that you haven’t yet published those commits to a remote repository. There’s not much point in committing from Magit if you can’t do your git push from it too. So, to push the current branch to a remote, type P P. If you have no default origin repository configured, you will be prompted for it. If you want to push to a different remote, give a prefix argument to P P.

    If you want to run a git pull, press F F. If the current branch is not configured to pull from some remote branch, you will be prompted for one. Magit, again very thoughfully, displays an Unpulled Changes section in the status buffer.

    This is the end of Part II. Look out for Part III, which will cover the intermediate to advanced stuff, like branching and merging.

  • Simplifying Memory Allocation in C using Macros

    Nov 18, 11

    This is a tip showing a clever little use-case for macros in C. How many times have you typed

    char *s = (char *) malloc(x*sizeof(char));
    

    in C and not thought about it twice? Think: that statement violates a fundamental principle of programming: the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle – that too twice over – by repeating the data type char 3 times. If you had to change the data type of s, you’d have to change it in 3 places. Surely that’s something a machine should take care of, not a human. Using C macros we can get that redundancy count down to 2 times, in the process getting a sweet abstraction out for simple memory allocation.

    The macro is as follows:

    #define ALLOC(t,n) (t *) malloc((n)*sizeof(t))
    

    The effect of this macro is that it allocates memory for n units of data of type t, and returns a pointer to the newly allocated memory. It works by replacing any code of the form ALLOC(t,n) with (t *) malloc((n)*sizeof(t)), where t is any data type and n is any arithmetic expression involving only integers (in a valid use scenario).

    A side note on macros: they are blind replace operations, meaning that the replacement occurs exactly as specified. That is why we need the parentheses around n in the replacement text, otherwise ALLOC(int,3+4) would translate to (int *) malloc(3+4*sizeof(int)), but we probably intended (int *) malloc((3+4) * sizeof(int)) (if you’re new to macros in C, you should read a bit about macro functions and macros in general before trying to use them in some critical part of your code, because they can bite back in subtle ways).

    So we can replace our initial un-DRY statement with char *s = ALLOC(char,x). Short and sweet, eh?

  • A Magit Tutorial: Part I

    Sep 08, 11

    I love Emacs. I only started using it a few months ago, but I’m already hopelessly in love with its (unapparent) simplicity and crazy extensibility. Perhaps my custom hand-crafted .emacs, – yes, I call it hand-crafted – alongwith the fact that this very blog post has been written in Emacs, is proof enough.

    I recently came across Magit for Emacs, and I was amazed at how much it could do. It’s basically a cool interface to git, inside Emacs. This post here is the first in a 3 part series that aims to be a reasonably comprehensive tutorial to using Magit (make sure you have it installed first, as per the instructions in the README here). However, it assumes prior familiarity with both Git and Emacs, so if you’re not comfortable with either, this guide probably won’t help you much. I have, however, listed some excellent git resources at the bottom of this article, so you can skip along to that part if you don’t want to read the whole thing.

    Starting Magit

    The first command you need to know is M-x magit-status. So to see the status of a git repository using Magit, open a file in Emacs that is a part of that repository, and then run the above command. That is usually how I initiate interaction with Magit, so I’ve bound magit-status to M-xgs. This opens up a buffer with a name like *magit: blog* or something similar. This buffer is in magit-mode, with convenient keybindings for common git operations like staging and committing.

    Sections in Magit buffers

    Each Magit buffer is divided into tree-like sections, and each section can be hidden or shown individually. The <Tab> key toggles the visibility of a section. You can also use M-S (show all) and M-H (hide all). M-H collapses all diffs, so you can see at a glance the list of files involved, and M-S expands everything, so you can see full diffs of all the files. Sweet!

    The Magit status buffer

    The Magit status buffer is divided into sections as described above. The top header gives general information about the repository’s current state (the current branch, the repository’s location, and so on). The first section is Untracked Files, followed by sections for the staging area.

    The Untracked Files, Unstaged Changes and Staged Changes sections

    The Untracked Files section lists all untracked files (duh). You can add an untracked file to the staging area using s (which will move it to the Staged Changes section), ignore it with i, or delete it permanently with k. If point is on the Untracked Files section header, pressing s or k will stage or delete all untracked files, respectively. Typing C-u S anywhere will stage all untracked files, alongwith all changes to already tracked files.

    In the Unstaged Changes section, s will stage the change point is in, and S will stage all changes, regardless of the position of point. Similarly, in the Staged Changes section, u will unstage the change point is in, and U will unstage all changes, regardless of the position of point.

    Oh, and you can even stage parts of changes individually! All you have to do is expand everything (M-S), navigate to the part of the file diff you want to stage (the region will get highlighted as you move into it), press s, and BAM! It doesn’t get any cooler than that.

    When you’re done deciding which changes to stage, type c to open up a buffer to write your commit message in, and when you’re done doing that, press C-c C-c to commit your changes. Congratulations, you’ve successfully performed your first commit in Magit! (Interestingly, Magit was used for the publication of this very blog post!)

    That’s it for the first part. Part II will pick up with how to view the git log in Magit and continue further from there.

    Git Resources:

    • Pro Git
    • Understanding the Git Workflow
    • A Visual Git Reference
    • Git Is Simpler Than You Think
  • Pilot

    Sep 04, 11

    I was tempted to title this post “Hello, World”, but decided it was too much of a cliché to attract anyone’s attention. Hence the TV show-inspired “Pilot” (also, I’d already used the same title for the first post on my other blog).

    This blog is meant to help me improve my programming skills (and hopefully others’ too), because I’ve noticed that writing makes me understand and remember things better. Many a times I read about some important programming guideline, or some obscure – but occasionally extremely useful – Emacs command, or some new technology. But sooner or later I end up forgetting it. And when I need it, I have to go scrambling all over the Web again. I’ve decided it’s just better to write down the good stuff instead. There’s a psychological reason too: I gain confidence at a topic when I note it down and successfully explain it to others.

    Perhaps you’d like to know more about me?

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  • Night Sky

    Nov 19, 12

    ... the Total Perspective Vortex can annihilate a man's soul! ... When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."

    - Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

    Whenever I'm outside on a clear night, I have a tendency to look up at the sky in wonder, every now and then. Seeing this, a friend once asked me, in all seriousness, "Why are you so fascinated by the night sky?"
    
    I couldn't believe my ears. Here was a devoted student of science (studying computers, specifically), asking me such an absurd question. How can anyone not be fascinated by the sky on a clear night?
    
    I explained: those teeny pin-pricks of light in the void we see, were emitted by stars some millions of years ago, and are reaching us only now. In some cases, that time is as much as 13.2 billion years in the past, when the Universe was but a fledgling. How can the sheer immensity of the distance travelled or the time taken by that light to reach us fail to boggle the mind?
    
    Seen another way, that light essentially constitutes information from the past. Another skull-numbing idea. Just think about what that means. That (hypothetical) supernova explosion we're seeing reports of in the scientific press today - yes, that actually happened a long time ago. We're finding out about the Universe's "early childhood" through that light.
    
    After thinking of this, all things man-made seem so... inconsequential.
    
    Besides, haven't you read Douglas Adams' book, or heard Coldplay's Yellow? :)
  • The Mind

    Sep 23, 11

    "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

    - John Milton

    Something should change after today (I'm not saying it must, but it would be sad if nothing did change). It's not like today was special or anything. But a combination of things made it decidedly different. Let's see what those things were.
    
    I had two exams today. Both the papers were unexpected (the first went unexpectedly bad, the second unexpectedly good). This has wreaked havoc on my mind since the morning. One category of people will say, "Look at that nerd, allowing petty exams to play with his mind like that". If that sounds like you, you probably won't understand this post, so I'll save you some time and suggest you go do something more productive.

    
    Next, I got an email today from Amazon saying I've been short-listed for a phone interview, along with 10 other candidates. This is in regards to a summer internship, by the way. I need to explain the situation more. My last exam's on the morning of Wednesday, the 28th, and on that very day I'm hoping to catch a train home for a 10-day-long break (which I'm badly in need of). But get this: Tuesday, the 27th, might potentially be the day I've to give the Amazon interview, which means I might have to cancel that dear ticket in case the selection process takes more than a day (which it probably will), which means bye-bye home. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I guess I'll wait until the interview date comes out for sure. With any luck, the whole thing will get delayed to until after the 10-day break. Still, it's no less troubling.
    
    Another thing is, I also interviewed with Google (which is where I'd want to intern, given a completely free choice) a few weeks ago, but didn't make it. Since then, the notion that I'm somehow inferior has been pricking me at the back of my head. I know this isn't true, but I have doubts now. I don't know if acknowledging it this way is good for my psyche, but it's liberating. Also, isn't acknowledging the existence of a problem the first step towards solving it?
    
    Ok, now for a little background. I think JEE was the intellectual high in my life. Since then, over the past two years, my mind's been rusting away, bit by little bit. I still "learn", but I've stopped "thinking". Now I only "get" stuff if it's spoon fed to me, broken down to the level of trivial obviousness. My mind loathes thinking. It moves slower than a glacier. I'd been suspecting this since some time now, but only today can I honestly, totally accept it. After those 2 exams, my internship situation, a little contemplation and some help from a friend. And that scares the life out of me.

    
    

    I treasure my mind, and if you take that away, nothing remains. My mind is my life. The "outside" world is irrelevant; what matters is what's inside of me, and it's easy to forget that in the din of the "extrovert" crowd today. I'm probably a "forced part-extrovert", meaning that I used to be an introvert before life tossed me into IIT with a bunch of amazing people. Even now I prefer communicating in writing rather than a face-to-face talk, which is also why I prefer an online chat to a phone call. I'm an aspiring computer programmer, so this issue is very relevant here.
    
    Coming back to the topic, what I want is to get back into that state of the mind. I want to enjoy thinking again (it's not like I don't enjoy thinking now, but for some reason, my mind totally revolts if I try to force it, unless there's an emergency, like an exam). If that is to happen, I must examine the causes of this degradation, and try to revert their effects. I have some possible reasons in mind:
    
    1. IIT has made me too complacent / egotistical / lazy. Even though I act all humble, I really believe I have a big ego. Placing 361st out of 3.85 lakh candidates does that to you (see what I did there?). The complacence is a direct product of the ego and the laziness. Then again, I'm not sure if one can be a good programmer without that ego. After all, you like creating things only if they satisfy your ego, so as to keep you going at it, again and again.
    
    2. It's easy to get lost in the micro-battles in life on this campus, every day. Assignments, tests, classes, internships, you name it. It's completely overwhelming. Pretty straight-forward compared to the next one — which you may not be able to appreciate due to its technicality, but it affects me somewhat so I'll put it down anyway.
    
    3. Being in the "Department of Computer Science & Engineering" doesn't help. I put that name in quotes because that's not really what I want to do in regards to work. I want to be a good programmer, as opposed to being a computer "scientist" (who's more on the research side) or a computer "engineer" (more of the enterprise-y type, codes in Java and cites "industry best practice" at every opportunity). I just want to create good things that people can use and appreciate. If you find that to be a naive aim, you might be right, help yourself. But I'm too young to have a broader goal for now, and I know there's much to learn. On the other hand, if you're wondering where all this wisdom comes from, it's from Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham. One sentence from that book summarizes this point succinctly:
    

    "Universities and research labs force hackers to be scientists, and companies force them to be engineers."

    (here, me = "hacker" = "programmer"). Basically the only good place for people like me is in tech startups, or in big companies with a relatively larger percentage of "hackers" and less office politics, like Google. Since I'm caught up in "science" and "engineering", it's an obstacle in my path.
    
    So which is it? It's a stinky combination of them all, I think. #1 is particularly sneaky. It's got a kind of "recursive evilness" to it, as more technically-minded readers would understand. #2 is more immediately obvious. #3 is something I can't really explain any better than I already have.
    
    The solution? It's as simple as ever: to start forcing my mind into uncomfortable situations, so it gets a kick in the ass to whirr and grind away when I want it to. That's the result of this long-winded discussion. But it's easier said than done; I'll have to actively, consciously, think of this and implement it, every day.
    
    The very fact that I've written this long post is evidence of how much I wish this to happen.
    
    Something should change, don't you think?
  • Limited Edition Human

    Jun 05, 11

    See something?

    Take a look at the picture above. You probably see a '49' in there. I see an ordinary piece of paper. Another one:
    

    
    

    Which one's the mango milkshake?

    Which one's the mango milkshake? That was the question I asked a friend a few months ago in IIT Kharagpur's Veggie's Restaurant. He was so amused by it that he whipped out his phone and took the above picture. So are you, I bet. In fact, even I am.
    

    
    I'm colourblind. Specifically, I'm deuteranomalous (or deuteranopic, I don't know which. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact one), which is the commonest red-green colour blindness. And I was surprised to know so are 6% of the males in the world, which means that, (statistically) I might know a few people who don't even know they suffer from it.
    
    Let's back up to when I was in 7th grade. At the time, I didn't know about it, so I thought that the brown cupboard which I saw as green must be my own half-wittedness at work. I also remember that I had put labels on all my crayons because I couldn't tell which was which.
    
    

    Truer than the word of God.

    It's amusing to see people's reactions when they discover I can't tell the difference between red and green. Most of them, after a few seconds of open-mouthedness, start pointing at random things and asking me their colours. And boy, do they enjoy seeing me fumble and guess.

    
    

    I like to think of my disorder as a superpower, though. I'm a "limited edition human", if you will. After all, I get to see the world in a way not seen by others. Oh, and there are perks too. Like this one:

    It's not totally pathetic.

    Kidding. I get the chemistry teacher to help me out with the titration and salt analysis, which means I'm pretty much guaranteed good marks. And I get to be looked at with awe when people first find out. And I have an excuse to my sisters' frequent questions on which colour looks better. And Wikipedia says I can probably spot camouflage colours that are likely to confuse ordinary mortals (not that that's ever going to matter to me).

    
    

    I'll end with some "FAQs":

    
    

    Q. Can't you just learn all these colours?

    A. It's hereditary, so I can't do anything about it. And you're talking like my mom.

    
    

    Q. Can you drive peacefully, considering you might think a red traffic signal to be green and jump it?

    A. Yes, I can. As a matter of fact, I can perfectly see the red and green colours in a traffic signal.

    
    

    Q. So you can't see only some shades of red and green?

    A. That's right. I sometimes confuse shades of other colours too, like dark green-black and pink-gray.

    
    

    Q. What colour is the background of your blog?

    A. You're crossing a line called decency. Scoot before I strangle you, mate.
  • Straight from the Heart

    Apr 22, 11

    
    I'm an IITian. It's been two years now, infact. A direct result of cracking one of the toughest exams on the planet is that most of us quickly lose what (little) humility we may have once possessed, and end up developing inflated egos. We sure love it when people shower us with praises.
    
    Before I joined IIT Kharagpur, I was not very worldly-wise. I was no better (or, perhaps, no worse) than a small kid with little knowledge of the mystic mechanisms that drive the cosmos. A kid whose mind constantly seeked ways to maneuver the baffling, busy streets of life. I figured, the best thing was to keep doing what my elders told me. And so I kept faith.
    
    At that time, I had this grand image about the IITs. I had thought this would be a place with good students out to conquer the world with their brilliance. Students who would work with diligence towards their chosen goals. Students who would be taught the rocket science equivalents of their fields by smart professors with inch-thick spectacles. I could not have been more wrong, could I? Now that I'm here, I can't believe I used to be so naïve. Then again, all of us face the same situation in our lives when our views undergo drastic changes.
    
    Things here are very different. We don't study at all (except when, um, the situation calls for it). We play around and have fun and watch movies all day long. We lie. We're far from being the "perfect" students I'd envisaged.
    
    And still, we do good things. We bond with each other. We help each other out in times of need. We share joy and sadness. We think, innovate, create. We learn cool new stuff. We work towards our future visions, ones that drive each one of us, deep down. We realize that we always have a choice.
    
    So I've changed. I've become more responsible and caring now. I have a great set of friends, and the best family in the world, and I realize how very important they all are to me. Isn't that really what anyone would want out of life? I believe the answer is a yes. I believe I've changed for the better, not for the worse.
    
    And still, I wonder. Perhaps that is how growing up is.
    
    P. S. : I decided I wanted to do something different this time around and not think much, so this post is little more than an amorphous heap of raw thoughts. But I like it much better this way - it comes freshly baked, straight from the heart, unadulterated.
    
    Also, no mention of my good life here can go without a bow to my great teachers and friends at Bakliwal Tutorials, especially Mr. Vaibhav Bakliwal.
  • If We All Stop Lying...

    Jun 05, 11

    Before you read this post, please stop for a moment and think about how often you lie daily. Make a rough estimate. I'm talking not only about the big lies; I'm also talking about the tiny lies, the white lies and half-truths we say everyday - to our friends ("Yes, let's definitely meet up someday."), to our parents ("Yeah, I've had my dinner, don't worry."), to our colleagues at work ("I can't help you now, I'm kinda busy at the moment."). Stop now and do that.

    
    

    Now compare your estimate with these statistics from around the web, some of which go so far as to claim that people say around 2-3 lies every ten minutes! I'm sure the actual scenario isn't that bleak, but you get the point.

    
    

    You'd be surprised to know there's a counter-movement against this everyday lying. Say hello to Radical Honesty, created by Virginian psychotherapist Dr. Brad Blanton, who has also written a bestselling book on the subject. What is it, you ask? In short, its a prettier term for being honest and blunt in our everyday dealings with others. The basic premise of Radical Honesty is that we not only say the truth every moment of our lives, but also remove the "filters" between our minds and mouths, and be as blunt as possible when we speak. Dr. Blanton says this can help create a close intimacy between people that cannot be achieved when you're hiding something just for the sake of others' feelings.

    
    

    I can imagine your initial feelings towards the idea. To quote a well-known article on the topic:

    One of the most idiotic ideas ever, right up there with Vanilla Coke and giving Phil Spector a gun permit. Deceit makes our world go round. Without lies, marriages would crumble, workers would be fired, egos would be shattered, governments would collapse.

    Pretty close to your own thoughts, eh? But think again. Don't think about what all bad would happen, think about all the good it would do. You'd never have to spend your time and energy trying to figure out whether or not your friend's lying, and if yes then why and about what. Your relationships would become so much more meaningful. You could actually communicate with others, honestly.

    
    

    Now, it's not like I'm going to start applying Radical Honesty from this moment on and transform my life. I'm just saying that, if only we would all stop lying, the world might become a better place to live in. It will take a great deal of courage and a lot of conscious effort to actually make the switch to complete honesty, which I'm currently too lazy and unwilling to do. Human beings are bad like that.

    
    

    All this is good, but if you want to practice Radical Honesty, don't go around doing it when a government official turns up at your house. Dr. Blanton himself advises people to apply it only in the context of personal relationships. I know, it sounds a little contradictory, but if you want to practice Radical Honesty and still retain some measure of sanity in your life, I'd say you should follow his advice.

    
    

    P. S. : This article is inspired by the character of Eli Loker, an outspoken advocate of Radical Honesty from the popular TV series Lie To Me.
  • The Right to Oblivion

    Jun 05, 11

    Recently, I came across this blog post that talked about a very interesting on-going debate related to online privacy, the conclusion of which could have far reaching consequences for many Internet users: the "right to be forgotten". And the author of the post is none other than Google's Global Privacy Counsel, Peter Fleischer.

    
    

    It originated, as I see it, from the European Commission's proposal for inclusion of the Right to Oblivion (or "le Droit a l'Oubli", as it is known in French) in the next revision of the E-Privacy Directive, which is the European Union's attempt towards data protection and privacy online. For most of us, says Mr. Fleischer, this right basically means the power to "wash away digital muck" from our online lives.

    
    

    Just think about what this could mean to you. It could mean the right to delete that humiliating photo/video of yours that someone posted against your will on Facebook before a thousand people "Like" it. It could mean people being able to make the Internet "forget" about their awful or stupid deeds. It could mean people being in truly complete control of their online lives. It could mean that we would be able to start anew, as we wish. It could mean a zillion other dizzying things.

    
    

    There's always the flip side to consider, though. People could abuse this "right" if it isn't properly formulated and stated. They could tailor their online lives to show themselves in a favourable light wherever possible.

    
    

    This begs the question: Should Internet users be allowed to just "erase" certain painful memories from their past, as though they never occurred in the first place? The answer to this question is a resounding NO, because that would mean that you could, in theory, dupe the Internet into thinking that you're the holiest person the world ever saw. I think this point does rather rubbish the claims of people who might support the right to oblivion, and effectively so. The past should not simply be forgotten, and it should definitely not be altered on the whims of certain people.

    
    

    But I'm open to discussion. Let your arguments fly in the comments.
  • The Glitch

    Jun 05, 11

    The Internet was taken by storm this past weekend with the news that 0.08% Gmail users had opened up their inboxes to find that all their emails had apparently gone up in thin air.
    
    My point here is not to bore you with details of how users fretted on the Gmail Help Forum, how the screw up and subsequent recovery happened, or how tech sites had a field day picking apart Google's carrion and advising users to backup their email before it was gone for good.
    
    My point here is to highlight our over-dependence on technology nowadays. Many of us have so much "important" stuff in the cloud that we can't imagine living without it or losing any of it. We practically live on the web these days, as I once told one of my equally geeky friends.
    
    This applies not only to the web, but also to gadgets in general. But technology can also be dangerous, as we all know. Here's a classic example where technology shows its ugly side. It talks about how a couple from Nevada, USA blindly followed their GPS device's directions into a forest and were stranded there for 3 whole days.
    
    And our reliance on technology is only increasing with time. That makes me wonder where we are headed. In the future, are we looking at a real Rise of the Machines? I mean, I'd hate to be under the control of a mere machine (though the scenario is interesting hypothetically, if nothing else).
    
    I'm not against technology or anything like that. Hell, if anything, I'm one of its biggest fans ever.  I'm just wondering about what will happen after our dependence on machines becomes complete and absolute, because it cannot go on increasing indefinitely and must saturate sometime.
    
    So, what are your views concerning this issue?
  • Pilot

    Mar 04, 11

    First things first: This blog is not about Harry Potter, as you might think from the title and web address.
    
    So, why did I create this blog? What's so different about it?
    
    Nothing.
    

    
    

    Like every other random blog on the Internet, this is the place where I will occasionally (or perhaps often) ramble about what little I have experienced in the wide, uncharted waters of this world. The place where I will sometimes express my crazy thoughts on topics ranging right from technology to philosophy. The safety valve for my confused mind. This blog is not only my way of telling my readers something, it's also a way to introspect and understand myself better.
    
    You might ask, why did I name this blog "The Swirling Pensieve"? Partly because I think a blog is basically a pensieve of sorts where you can bring your thoughts out into the open and examine them; and partly because it makes for an intriguing name. Besides, I've always been a huge fan of J. K. Rowling's imaginary magical world. I've often wondered how it would be like if Hogwarts really existed (cool as hell, I say). But let's leave that discussion for another day and get this over with.
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  • quickwiki

    A Google Chrome extension that allows users to preview articles on Wikipedia and other wikis.

     / Pushed Mar 02, 13
  • dotfiles

    Repository of dotfiles / configuration files. Changes to my dotfiles are automatically pushed to this repo. (How, you ask? Check out http://github.com/vickychijwani/inotify-file-watcher for that).

    4 watchers / Pushed Feb 28, 13
  • vickychijwani.github.com

    My GitHub-hosted Jekyll blog.

    2 watchers / Pushed Feb 25, 13
  • blog

    Source to my GitHub-hosted blog (http://vickychijwani.github.com)

    1 watcher / Pushed Feb 25, 13
  • jquery-notify-osd

    A jQuery plugin for creating notifications like Ubuntu's native Notify OSD ones. Demo at: http://vickychijwani.github.com/jquery-notify-osd/

    4 forks / 16 watchers / Pushed Jan 23, 13
  • chrome-devtools-vertical

    CSS styles to make Chrome Devtools usable in Dock to Right mode (like Firebug in vertical mode)

    2 forks / 3 watchers / Pushed Jan 11, 13
  • devtools-cheatsheet

    A cheatsheet for developers

     / Pushed Jan 10, 13
  • critter

    Crawls your tweets and allows you to browse, search, or download them.

    1 watcher / Pushed Apr 13, 12
  • os-assignments

    A version-controlled backup of my Operating Systems laboratory assignments.

    2 watchers / Pushed Apr 07, 12
  • sicp-solutions

    My solutions to exercises from the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition.

    1 watcher / Pushed Mar 27, 12
  • inotify-file-watcher

    Watches specified files in a directory and executes arbitrary given commands on them when they're modified.

    2 forks / 2 watchers / Pushed Dec 02, 11
  • gmail_notifier

    Notifies the user of unread email as soon as it arrives using Ubuntu's default notification bubbles (notify-osd). Integrates with the messaging menu. HTTP proxy is supported.

    5 forks / 2 watchers / Pushed Nov 29, 11
  • klug.github.com

    KLUG's Website.

    1 watcher / Pushed Aug 29, 11
  • Versioning-file-system

    A FUSE based Versioning file system implementing Branching and Cleanup

    1 fork / 2 watchers / Pushed Aug 02, 11
  • mostfit

    Open source MIS for micro-finance.

    1 watcher / Pushed Jul 16, 11
  • twitter-timeline-search

    A small web app for loading twitter users' tweets into a database and search them. Uses Ruby, DataMapper, Sinatra, HAML, and Nokogiri XML Parser.

    3 forks / 5 watchers / Pushed May 31, 11
  • rooter.sh

    cd to the project root

    1 watcher / Pushed Apr 11, 11
  • meteor

    Meteor, an ultra-simple, database-everywhere, data-on-the-wire, pure-Javascript web framework.

    1066 forks / 8550 watchers / Pushed May 20, 13
  • select2

    Select2 is a jQuery based replacement for select boxes. It supports searching, remote data sets, and infinite scrolling of results.

    1021 forks / 6745 watchers / Pushed May 20, 13
  • gcli

    Command-line component for Firefox/Ace/Skywriter

    52 forks / 190 watchers / Pushed May 14, 13
  • paper.js

    The Swiss Army Knife of Vector Graphics Scripting – Scriptographer ported to JavaScript and the browser, using HTML5 Canvas. Created by @lehni & @puckey

    252 forks / 2756 watchers / Pushed May 13, 13
  • beautiful-web-type

    A showcase of the best typefaces from the Google web fonts directory.

    106 forks / 2683 watchers / Pushed May 09, 13
  • spacefm

    SpaceFM File Manager

    13 forks / 72 watchers / Pushed Apr 29, 13
  • keymaster

    A simple micro-library for defining and dispatching keyboard shortcuts. It has no dependencies.

    193 forks / 3405 watchers / Pushed Apr 27, 13
  • dotfiles

    @holman does dotfiles

    779 forks / 1429 watchers / Pushed Apr 27, 13
  • ioccur

    incremental occur for Emacs

    2 forks / 6 watchers / Pushed Mar 23, 13
  • klug.github.com

    KLUG's Website.

    8 forks / 8 watchers / Pushed Mar 15, 13
  • dotfiles

    Repository of dotfiles / configuration files. Changes to my dotfiles are automatically pushed to this repo. (How, you ask? Check out http://github.com/vickychijwani/inotify-file-watcher for that).

    4 watchers / Pushed Feb 28, 13
  • vickychijwani.github.com

    My GitHub-hosted Jekyll blog.

    2 watchers / Pushed Feb 25, 13
  • blog

    Source to my GitHub-hosted blog (http://vickychijwani.github.com)

    1 watcher / Pushed Feb 25, 13
  • mostfit

    Open source MIS for micro-finance.

    27 forks / 46 watchers / Pushed Feb 08, 13
  • jquery-notify-osd

    A jQuery plugin for creating notifications like Ubuntu's native Notify OSD ones. Demo at: http://vickychijwani.github.com/jquery-notify-osd/

    4 forks / 16 watchers / Pushed Jan 23, 13
  • player

    Almost certainly the first MP3 player of it's kind.

    21 forks / 198 watchers / Pushed Aug 21, 12
  • critter

    Crawls your tweets and allows you to browse, search, or download them.

    1 watcher / Pushed Apr 13, 12
  • os-assignments

    A version-controlled backup of my Operating Systems laboratory assignments.

    2 watchers / Pushed Apr 07, 12
  • sicp-solutions

    My solutions to exercises from the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition.

    1 watcher / Pushed Mar 27, 12
  • PyCurl-Downloader

    A downloader based on the pycurl library that allows the user to download heavy files by splitting the request into smaller chunks. This tool is especially useful behind proxy, where the proxy-server inhibits access to larger files.

    4 forks / 11 watchers / Pushed Feb 28, 12
  • inotify-file-watcher

    Watches specified files in a directory and executes arbitrary given commands on them when they're modified.

    2 forks / 2 watchers / Pushed Dec 02, 11
  • gmail_notifier

    Notifies the user of unread email as soon as it arrives using Ubuntu's default notification bubbles (notify-osd). Integrates with the messaging menu. HTTP proxy is supported.

    5 forks / 2 watchers / Pushed Nov 29, 11
  • klug.github.com

    KLUG's Website.

    1 watcher / Pushed Aug 29, 11
  • TermKit

    Experimental Terminal platform built on WebKit + node.js. Currently only for Mac, though the prototype works 90% in any WebKit browser.

    8 forks / 61 watchers / Pushed Aug 07, 11
  • Versioning-file-system

    A FUSE based Versioning file system implementing Branching and Cleanup

    1 fork / 2 watchers / Pushed Aug 02, 11
  • mostfit

    Open source MIS for micro-finance.

    1 watcher / Pushed Jul 16, 11
  • gmail

    A Rubyesque interface to Gmail, with all the tools you'll need.

    4 watchers / Pushed Jun 30, 11
  • twitter-timeline-search

    A small web app for loading twitter users' tweets into a database and search them. Uses Ruby, DataMapper, Sinatra, HAML, and Nokogiri XML Parser.

    3 forks / 5 watchers / Pushed May 31, 11
  • Versioning-file-system

    A FUSE based Versioning file system implementing Branching and Cleanup

    4 forks / 4 watchers / Pushed May 30, 11
  • rooter.sh

    cd to the project root

    1 watcher / Pushed Apr 11, 11
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