This is in reply to R. who wrote in comment of yesterday’s entry, asking me why anyone would send me IM messages inside the office.

Oh boy. I thought only geeks read my diary

Well, the answer is – while we have phones in the office, they are typically used to make calls to people who don’t use Instant Messengers. Everyone else gets contacted on Yahoo, MSN or ICQ – even in the office, cubicle to cubicle, desk to desk.

It’s a force of habit. I mean – why switch working style? We communicate with everyone else on the net using IMs, so why do it differently with people in the office? I mean – haven’t you heard of consistancy and standards of operation?

IAC, when Biju wants me to cut down the volume of the boombox, he sends me a “vol–” via Yahoo, and when Avi wants to tell me something interesting, he does so via ICQ.

All this has some serious advantages – and some disadvantages. Like the other day, I spent a lot of time discussing something with Vaibhav (via IM, of course). At one point he said something like “wait a sec, let me show you something – I am coming to your cubicle” (or something to that effect). About a minute later, he comes back on the IM with (what I assume to be) a sheepish grin – “Ah, you aren’t in office today”. Yep, I was actually at home – 6 KM away, sitting in my shorts, unshaven and having my toes nibbled by my dog.

IAC, for those of you who were wondering what happened yesterday – not much did, despite Sony dropping in to help out. But this morning, things took a rather dramatic turn.

First of all, I realised that I was being stupid – if I wanted to do a video import under Linux, then what are the chances of no one wanting to do it, given the millions of Linux users and vidcam owners in this world?

Yep – you got that right. Zero.

So I googled around a bit, and sure enough I stumbled upon this page that sort of repositioned the planets for me. A little digging, and voila – the answer to my prayers. Everything I needed to capture, edit and sequence video under Linux (and yes, they have a Windows version as well – for those of you who haven’t seen the light yet – or rather for those of you who think they have seen the light and not yet realised that it is an oncoming train….) And affordable (yes, it is commercial).

IAC, after one false start (downloaded version 3.55 when version 3.65 was the latest – not something to sneeze at when the download is 12 MB!), I got things going just fine. End of this chapter for now.

In other news, we finally got around to gathering the loose ends remaining from Linux Bangalore/2001 and should put that project to sleep by weekend. In the process, have also hopefully managed to convince someone to join Exocore to fill a long-vacant position. More details when I see it happen.

Den in the garage is progressing. Electrician dropped in today, by end of this week, we should see the place wired for serious usage. Now I got to start thinking about work tables, shelves, vinyl flooring, etc. Ah, and sound-proofing

OKOKOKOK you diary junkies in Goa and here in Bangalore, I am posting, I am posting!