I am back in Bangalore, but am currently suffering my typical post-trip crash. Will post a detailed writeup by weekend, including news on my new notebook (finally!), and maybe some Goa photos.

OKOKOK, just before I leave – for those of you who think that no online diary is complete without an RSS syndication feed – you can now grab it from http://atulchitnis.net/diary/rss. If it works for you, cool. If not, you’ll have to wait till I get back from Goa.

However, I refuse to buckle in to the people who want me to implement comments as well – this is a diary, not a blog.

So now, if you don’t mind, I shall be off…

OK, father-in-law has been discharged from hospital, and things seem to be going well.

The RadioCity interview went off very well, and I had a ball. I have never done a radio interview before, that too live, but Darius put me right at ease and let say pretty much what I wanted to (apart from promoting anything other than Linux and OpenSource). The response was failry amazing – I watched hundreds of SMSs and Pager Messages hit Darius’ screen, with questions about Linux. That was so cool!

Tomorrow morning I am off to Goa for the SALIS event. As threatened before, I will go off the air after that for a much needed break, and will be back again on the 5th.

One factor bears remarking on – Shubha will be joining me on Saturday, but withou Anjali. This is the first time that Shubha and I will be travelling without Anjali since she was born (and she turns 13 on March 30th). Is that supposed to make me feel older or younger?

See you on the 5th!

Today is our 16th wedding anniversary, but we are all way too busy to do anything about it. Hopefully will be able to make up for it next weekend – in Goa.

Update on my father-in-law (since so many people asked) – after major vascular surgery and a minor heart attack, he is now recovering nicely, and we hope to see him discharged from the hospital over the next day or two.

For those of you who are in Bangalore and into Linux (or just dig my deep baritone voice – tune into RadioCity FM91 this evening at 6pm to hear me fielding questions about Linux and OpenSource for about an hour.

Wednesday I leave for Goa for the SALIS program, and after that I will stay there for a few days to get some R&R – I should be back around the 5th.

Since my notebook acquisition process failed completely when the vendor with whom I placed the order with 100% advance came back 10 days later saying they can’t deliver because they don’t have it in stock anymore, there will be few (if any) updates here until I return. This applies to e-mail as well – if you don’t get a reply from me, you know why. I’ll catch up when I get back.

Let’s dance in style, lets dance for a while
Heaven can wait we’re only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you going to drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don’t have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music’s for the sad men

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders we’re getting in tune
The music’s played by the mad men

Forever young, I want to be forever young
do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
do you really want to live forever? Forever young

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
why don’t they stay young

It’s so hard to get old without a cause
I don’t want to perish like a fleeing horse
Youth’s like diamonds in the sun
and diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn’t happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

Forever young, I want to be forever young
do you really want to live forever?

– “Forever Young“, Alphaville

The Goa event is approaching quickly – time to get cracking on new content for my talks.

Apparently the Goan government recently decided that spending 10 Million Rupees on software from Microsoft is cheaper and more effective than using OpenSource software for school. It seems that while they werent willing to spend Rs.100 on some printed documentation for their Linux-equipped PCs, they have no problem pay upward of Rs.3,000 per PC thinking that they will get printed documentation with Windows (Microsoft no longer ships printed documentation – everything is on CD – just like with Linux).

Someone should also tell them that most of the ancient (486/P1/P2) equipment that the schools use are almost certainly incapable of running this software (while Linux runs just fine on them).

I am going to ask the SALIS people if we could arrange to have the Goa Computers for Schools Project (GSCP) show their stuff at the event and maybe talk about it – that should provide quite an eye-opener.

In 1999, the BLUG participated in Bangalore IT.COM under the motto “Seeing is Believing”. It was great fun to see tons of nay-sayers (“Linux? Only for techies, not user friendly!”) get their first *actual* exposure to Linux. The loudest sound you could hear was that of jaws hitting the floor.

Let’s see what happens in Goa.

In other news – in three days (i.e. on the 20th) is my birthday, but I am too broke to party.

Bleh!

Father-in-law’s operation went well, and hopefully he will be discharged over the next week.

Friday, met up with friend Kishore Bhargava, who happened to be in town to give a talk at SGI that I couldn’t give because I was travelling that day.

We had a marvellous lunch at Shezan on Cunningham Road, where they serve what are arguably be the best steaks in town. We chatted about a lot of things, as we usually do when we meet (which is fairly rare these days).

Last night, HBO showed one of my favourite movies of all times – “Bicentennial Man”, based on Isaac Asimov’s (not so) short story. I have seen this movie half a dozen times so far, but it still manages to keep me glued to the seat start to finish. It is a tribute to Asimov’s writing that this (exceptionally) long movie about a robot (played by the one and only Robin Williams) seeking humanity for himself translates faithfully every word written to action on the screen. I *highly* recommend this movie, which (as always) is a incisive commentary on mankind, as much as it is a highly entertaining story.

As reported earlier, our dog Judo became a papa on January 28th. At that time I promised photos, which have now happened.

For the record, there are 2 males and 4 females. And they *all* have Judo’s trademark white patch on the chest.

So if you like cute little puppies, and are the type who goes “they are cho chweeeeet!” and “they look exactly like Judo!”, then this is for you, because you would be right on both counts.

Click here!

OK, it is now official – SALIS is organising the SALIS Workshop on Software and Licensing in Goa on the 27th and 28th of February.

Many people have not heard about this workshop, but as a little background that you may find interesting – the same workshop was held in Trivandrum in November 2002, and I credit it with being the trigger that paved the way for the Government of India to endorse and sponsor Linux Bangalore/2002, and together with LB/2002, the SALIS workshop led to the ground-breaking 23-Dec-2002 meeting called by Government to help formulise its official OpenSource policy.

Anyway, this means that I am in my favourite place in the whole wide world (next to my hometowns, Bangalore and Berlin on 27/28 February, speaking to government and other officials on my favourite topics – Linux and OpenSource. What a combo!

If you are in Goa, and are interested in such things, try and be there.

Hmmm, looks like my Pune plans are jinxed.

The issues were worked out and I was all ready to go there this weekend, when my father-in-law got admitted to a hospital in Bangalore for an operation – happening this week. That means that I cannot travel from the 13th until he is discharged, which will be sometime around my birthday on the 20th of February.

Sad – I was looking forward to being in Pune. Well, I hope I get invited again some time.

Am making a quick trip to Chennai again today, back tomorrow, after which I am grounded for at least 10 days.

Mortal Kombat with notebook selection is nearing its end (I hope). Will know where I stand later this week.