Hard drive performance in Ubuntu

The hard drive problem in Ubuntu systems is for real.

Check out these links:
http://www.linux-hero.com/rant/explanation-ubuntu-hard-drive-wear-and-tear
http://www.linux-hero.com/rant/ubuntu-hard-drive-explosions

A useful tool for monitoring hard drive performance.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6983

How do i know if I am affected ?

Step-1
Install smartmontools by doing "sudo apt-get install smartmontools"

Step-2
Type "sudo smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda1 | grep Load_Cycle_Count " on your commandline.

I am assuming that your HDD device is /dev/sda
You should get an output like this:

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 262930

Do this again after about 5 mins. If you see a drastic change (> about 15) in the number "262930" (your number will be different), then you ARE AFFECTED!! And proceed ahead. If not .. stop here.

Rectifying the issue:

Step-3
Type "sudo hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda"
This sets the power management level of your HDD to 254. This is how the values are interpreted:
1 = aggressive power management = good battery life = most hard-drive load cycles = most hard drive wear and tear
255 = no power management = bad battery life = least HDD load cycles = least wear and tear (the hard drive is almost always on).

It turns out that by default, ubuntu does not "touch" the HDD power management, and it is set by the firmware to "128". Unfortunately, that still results in excessive load cycles on the hard drive (and so the constant "clicking" noise I would hear on my machine .. apparently it was my HDD head clicking into position and getting stacked away constantly!). I don't think that this is a problem with Ubuntu.

Step-4 making this a permanent solution
You can add the above to your /etc/profile file. It is a systemwide startup script.
Hope this helps.!

Fully knowing that this will be my last fall in corvallis, I marched around the town today (the weather happened to be cooperating very well, as you can see ..) taking pictures. The above four are ones among my favourite catches of the day ! If you would like to see more of the pictures I took, visit my web album . Do let me know what you think of the pictures. I am staring as an amateur photographer, and I want to make it my hobby and work my way up !

Kaapi Cat ?

Sometimes, I hear a distinct "ringing" noise from my kitchen, and I know its my roommate. He would be clenching his coffee mug in one hand, and a spoon in another, and would be lost in vigorous convulsions trying to "froth" away his coffee - as if its a sacred ritual to appease his taste buds :). Did I mention before that this roommate of mine is absolutely obsessed with Coffee ? So much so that I think he might kill me one day if I keep him away from his daily dose of coffee ..hee hee! Sorry roomie !

As is typical of all people from Singaara-Chennai, I seem to be an exception. Ironically, over the years, I have developed a sense of dislike for Coffee (or Tea ... or any caffeinated drink for that matter). My better-half tells me that I am always on a "high" .... so I figured I could spare spiking myself every morning with an extra shot of caffeine :). Thank you my "Sivappu Thalai"! Anyways, so I usually have Postum (which btw I have also started to slowly dislike), which is a coffee substitute. Today evening, I took the liberty of having my hot beverage the "traditional way". You take two tumblers with your drink in them, and pour it back and forth between them - its not as easy as it sounds, as you have to have to aim it into the other tumbler from yay high ...to make it frothy. It was an age old tradition (and still is in vogue) - before the latte machines with hissing steam took over.
I saw my roomie's eye brighten up - he could add a new twist to his coffee making ritual today!! So 15 minutes and a frothy cup of postum later, I found him performing gymnastics with his drink in the kitchen - a classic case of Kaappi Cat !

Riches to Rags?

I can't believe its been almost 3 weeks since I wrote my last blog. Time flies fast ! I must say that our move from riches to rags (no offense my "friend-from-across-the-street") was much more painful than I thought. I shouldn't be really complaining, since we moved to a ground-floor apartment, and that too across from the laundry room - we have been spoilt by the in-house washing capabilities of our previous condo.

Our adventures of the "case of the missing reflector bowls" started when we realized that the kitchen stove in our new apartment was nothing but a set of four bottomless dark pit - it was missing that essential piece of equipment that would keep up our pots and pans to perform our daily cooking ritual. Little did we realize that this would require the genius of a PhD mind, the tenacity of an MS student, and the moral support of a nondescript roommate, plus a visit to all the stores in corvallis to fix this problem. I do not remember how many bowls we bought, and what worked and what did not, and how many returns we did at the stores. All I remember is, we eventually got three of the stove burners working, so we are not starving anymore. Did I forget to mention that we had similar problems in replacing our old condo's kitchen stove reflector bowls ?

Speaking of our old condo, it took us almost a week's time to clean up the apartment. Not that we left it in a messy condition - just that we wanted to get all of our $1000 (you heard it right !) deposit back. I think we ended up cleaning the place a little bit more than what it was at the time it was given to us. No, I don't expect the management to pay us for the cleaning - maybe a phone call to clean this other place that somebody had vacated. So basically a week to move, and a week to clean ... the following week - well I was just catching up from all the time we spent on moving and cleaning. There, I have accounted for all the missing time ! Our new place has turned out to be a nice cosy (and stuffy - I am sure my roommates would understand this ...) place for us now, and I am starting to like it!
La Fawn Duh ROCKS!!

Just another move ...

I have been busy packing up my room this past day ! I keep telling myself, "It's just another move...maybe this will be the last time". I was trying to count the number of times I have moved within Corvallis, but I ran out of fingers. Not that I move around frequently in corvallis ... it's just been so many years that I have been here, being constantly taken for a ride by this little guy inside my head that is supposedly doing its Ph.D.

Did I tell you that I am probably the only student in Corvallis having the distinction of staying with over 11 different roommates, attended graduation ceremonies of over 4 batches of students and stayed in about 7 different apartments. Quite the accomplishment huh ?

I realized that I have been living in this place for too long when I started talking to people with sentences like "Back in those days ..." or "Long time ago, ...." ! I do make up good "grandpa" style anecdotes at parties and gatherings. Most of my peers tend to call me up not just to "hang out" - no way ! Did you ever want to just "hang out" with your Gramps ? They call me to get "advice"... some "word of wisdom" ! That does leave me feeling like Gandalf the wise. I guess it's a symbiotic arrangement. I give "information" and "advice" in return for their "company" :).

If I think back over the past 25 years of my life, I did indeed move a lot. My family never stayed at a single place in India for more than 5 years. I have stayed in Surat, Baroda, Assam, Bombay, Delhi - every place except Chennai - my home sweet home ! I suppose that I am just keeping up my family tradition of not staying long at one place. On one hand, I liked moving around - I got to experience so many different cultures within India, made wonderful friends. But, with moving comes leaving old friends .... leaving old memories to be eventually forgotten!

I just hope that life would eventually put me at one place and stick a push-pin through me. Then I would not have to move so much. My friends will never be "old". I would not have to abandon any more memories ...but until then, I'd have to keep telling myself "It's just another move...but it's not the last time yet ....".

I know what I did this summer !

In the magical world of witches and warlocks, you could wave a wand and say "expecto coldrums" to save yourself from "Heat-who-must-not-be-named". But for the rest of us Muggles, we have to resort to more conventional ways to save ourselves. That is what prompted me to conjure up this giant Popsicle one day to beat the heat !

It was a fairly simple affair - you mix all the potions in the right portions, and put a freezing spell - and oh! don't forget to use a big container to get the "giant" effect. My friends and roommates were jealous of my unconventional ways (no wonder I feel like a "nice person in the wrong planet") to tackle the heat problem, so they took pictures and made fun of me. But I kept my "cool". So if any of you needs a break from the heat (including my better half who is on an exile in the middle of a barren desert), you know what to do !

Getting Noticed !

Wow ! I never imagined that my first entry in this blog would evoke such a controversy that I would have six responses, one "kudo" via chat, and some extra attention from my better half. I would like to conveniently ignore the fact that two of the responses were from "Little Miss Sunshine", two from my roommate who yielded to my threats, one from myself, and one reluctantly posted comment from a friend who lives across the street (it was more of a question actually... she deleted the comment as soon as she found out the answer). I would have persuaded the reluctant person to re-post to comment, even though she received her answer (through some divine oracle who is waging a war against my blog), but then I remembered that I was the one who made her read my blogs in the first place, so she was spared (although, she can still post if she is reading this, and takes pity on me).

I must say it was a busy day for me, taking responsibility for my blog entry and all that. I just did not imagine that it would be such a big deal. Before I know, I have yielded to the irresistible temptation of writing another entry. By the way for all budding bloggers out there, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I would like to share to make your blog a roaring success like mine:

1. Always put a link to your blog on your IM status message. That darned thing is the best advertisement you can get for your blog. Its an immensely underestimated real-estate. Why does it work ? Well, fellow chat members who are online all day are just like you - sitting idle in front of their computer waiting for something wonderful to happen in their lives ! Give them something exciting - your meaningless rantings on your blog that will make them feel that they are not alone.("I see blog-people !!!")
   
2. When you chat with your friends, casually send them a link to your blog. 'cause if they are chatting with you, they better pay you back for your valuable time. Don't give away too much information - send the link and vanish for a few hours. That will motivate them to write comments ! Score!
   
3. If you have a girlfriend (then why are you blogging ?), send her links to your blog. In my case, my better-half provides me mental, spiritual, emotional and ....online support. Even if she is working, brighten up her day by sending over your wise-crack comments over the blog. I am sure she would love to hear how smart you are, and give you that extra attention (hey .. it worked for me !).
4. Roommates are your best shot if everything else fails (or you are single). In my case, my roommate(s) are up pretty late every night surfing uncharted territories of the Internet. We have found a new way to communicate with each other in the same house (other than phone calls, IMs) - BLOGS. We have realized that its a good team building measure, and our brotherhood has become stronger ever since. And don't wait for tomorrow. Yell out about your new blog entry as soon as you are done writing it. After all, they are your roommates, and should be the first ones to know, if you are getting married and getting out of the apartment, or if you have posted a new entry on your blog.
5. If nothing works out, and you want to make yourself feel good, check on your blog entry every hour or so throughout the day. By the end of the day, your "profile views" count will exceed 12 ! You then know that it was a productive day, and that you worked hard for your blog.
   

I hope my loyal blog readers will not be discouraged from reading my blog entries after reading this - I know I am an attention seeking nuisance, but hey ! you have to give me credit for my honesty. I would not be offended if my friends block me on their IMs after reading this ! And to my friend across the street: "Please re-post that comment before you block me for life after this."

Where is Madhu ?

So, since not a lot of people have been visiting my blog, I am sure that there would be none to create an outcry over this outdated blog that I have utterly disregarded. I finally decided to resurrect my blog today.

A funny incident happened today to a close friend of mine that I'd like to share. He (let's call him Mr.Poor-Guy#1) has been in a stable relationship with this girl (let's say..Little Miss Sunshine) for over more than 4 years now. They do not live in the same city, so you can imagine its a little hard on them to keep a long distance relationship. I have known this chap almost ever since I was born, and he is just the most wonderful guy you can imagine. Little Miss Sunshine also is pretty witty and nice (atleast she seemed so when I was introduced to her ... ). It so happened that at a gathering, this couple came to ask her if she would like to join them for a concert they were going to the following weekend. Unaware of any reason for this out-of-the blue niceties, she agreed. At the next moment, she was told that this other guy (let's call him Mr.Poor-Guy#2) is also accompanying them to the concert. Only then it did dawn on our Little Miss Sunshine that this was a setup - she was tricked into accepting an offer to take her out on a "date". Luckily for her (and unluckily for Poor-Guy#2), she stood up to her love for Poor-Guy#1, and told the couple that she was already with someone she loves. However, (here comes the mistake that our Little Miss Sunshine did) she not only mentioned that she was "flattered" to be asked out, to the couple (mistake #1), she also mentioned this whole episode to Mr.Poor-Guy#1 (mistake #2 - some things are better left unsaid ...). So the my dearest friend Mr.Poor-Guy#1 (though he had a good laugh) did not know what to make of it: Was he lucky? Why was Little Miss Sunshine "flattered"? How come he never got the opportunity to be "flattered" ? The fact that he had once met the couple who tried to set her up for what would have been his nemesis seemed to bother him. Were they his sworn enemies in some pre-birth existence, and decided to follow him to this mortal existence to try and get back at him ?

Anyways, I am sure this was just a few moments of confusion that my friend Poor-Guy#1 went through, or so he tells me. He is alright now. And Little Miss Sunshine is as loving as ever. I do feel sorry for Mr.Poor-Guy#2. I mean, common guys, can't you do your homework before you ask a girl out. I heard there is an unwritten code-of-honor between guys - never ask a girl out (even if the opportunity is up for grabs) when she is with someone. Haven't you heard the proverb: As you sow, so shall you reap. ? hahaha. Well I managed to convince my friend that it must have been all a big misunderstanding. So he is happily relaxing inside my head right now ....