Raasukutty's

Blog

  • Marriage

    It has been long since I posted on this blog. Reason: Marriage changes 🙂

    I am now happily married to Akila.  Wow! that is perfect. But I have to take the time to thank all people who worked to make it a success.

    My parents, Sister and brother in law my father’s friends, Anathu uncle, Kumar uncle, Raghu uncle, Ravi uncle, Subbaiah uncle, Velan uncle and their spouses in the alphabetical order and not in the order of importance. They all made sure that everything was well arranged.

    Her parents, her relatives, Sathy uncle, Jayanthy aunty, Bharathi miss this list is too big  and so are her friends and family. All of them contributed to it.

    Thank you all for your blessings.

    Now it is more than 3 months of married life. I have made the adjustments to have a better work/life balance. I am becoming more and more responsible, so is my wife getting used to taking care of the house and family. Hoping to post more and regularly in the coming days.

  • ILSpy – .Net Reflector alternative

    Since the free version of the .Net Reflector that I have will not longer be free from 5/30/2011, I started the hunt on the next available free alternative to .Net Reflector.

    ILSpy – This is a open source implementation of the reflector and I suppose it remains free.

    It works similar to the .Net Reflector and has the same interface. Instead of the Green colored code, we get a nicely formatted, syntax highlighted code from the ILSpy.

    ILSpy in action
    ILSpy in Action

    Try it!

  • Appreciation

    Appreciation – One factor that drives one to move forward and keep continuing the effort.

    If a child is not appreciated when it starts to speak, walk or call out, it does not get the urge to do it the next time. Same holds true for grown up people too.

    Lets learn to appreciate. It motivates.

  • Tangled

    Watched Walt Disney Pictures latest creation ‘Tangled’ today.

    Wonderful. I liked the animations, music, lighting, expressions, shading and every aspect of the movie. A old story re-told in the best possible way. Great!

    The 3D was titled ‘Disney real 3D’ and I felt this much better than the 3D in the Avatar movie. Up next ‘Unstoppable’ and ‘Manmadhan Ambhu’…

  • Customize Terminal Prompt

    In Mac OS X terminal, to customize the terminal prompt, edit the .bash_profile file to include the following line

    export PS1=""

    Following options are common:

    \d - current date - e.g. 11/09/2010
\w - full path to current working directory - e.g. ~/Users/Raj/Documents
\W - current working directory - e.g. Documents
\u - username -e.g. Admin

    I use the following for my prompt:

    export PS1="[\W$ ]"

    You can use any editor to edit the .bash_profile file. This file is located in your home directory (~)

  • Thanksgiving in Florida

    This thanksgiving was memorable. A road-trip to Florida from Richmond with friends, what else can one ask for. As it was nearing the end of fall and temperatures were steadily dropping, Miami, was warm! Warm in air and spirit!

    All credit goes to Nair, Swami and Ravi who planned the trip! 3 days of nightlife and pure fun!

    It was a nice getaway from the routine, work, cook, clean, sleep… work, cook, clean, sleep routine. (You can see me cribbing :)) Now that I am back, completely refreshed!

    Miami, ‘Feels like being in Goa’, as Nair kept re-iterating all through the trip, with the Spanish lingo, beaches, water, bays, boats, fish and fun. Nice trip guys! With Miami, I have now travelled the entire east coast stretch, excepting Maine.

    Next is the cross-country trip! Vegas baby!

  • Screen Capture Tool

    PicPick is a wonderful free alternative to SnagIT. When hunting for free Screen Capture tools, got really impressed with this small and free tool.

    PicPick provides the following ways to capture screen:

    • Full Screen
    • Active Window
    • Auto Scroll
    • Region

    It also includes a Image Editor that allows for annotation, basic image editing, exporting and sharing.

    picpick
    Screen Capture – PicPick

    It also provides, zoom, whiteboard and crosshair to be used on the desktop. Worth the try!

  • Visual Studio Themes

    I like changing the look and feel of the IDE and the TextEditor that I use everyday. Since I am into .net programming the IDE that I live on is the Visual Studio.

    In this post, I share the settings files (read themes) that I use for my Visual Studio 2010 setup.

    Dark Rajesh Settings

    I have used this settings for more than a year now. This settings is a modification of the DesertNights Theme available widely.

    Features:

    • Dark Theme
    • Light Contrast to be pleasing on the eyes
    • Uses Monaco Font
    VS 2010 Settings
    DarkRajesh Settings – VS 2010

    Download Settings : DarkRajesh.vssettings

    Dark Raasukutty Settings

    This settings is a modification of the Son of Obsidian Theme.

    Features:

    • Dark Theme
    • Uses Monaco Font
    Dark Raasukutty
    Dark Raasukutty – VS 2010 Settings

    Download Settings : DarkRaasukutty.vssettings

    More VS settings can be downloaded from http://studiostyl.es/ website.

  • Time Tracking Tool

    Suddenly we felt the need to time track in our project. So I started the hunt on the best free time tracking tools available before even trying to write my own. A colleague of mine, Shubham has written his own time tracking tool and had been using it. Didn’t get a chance to try it though.

    Following were the features I was looking for:

    • Must be a Desktop App and should not want me to sign-up to use it.
    • Free
    • Easy to use
    • Support for Color coding different tasks

    I have settled with Klok, an Adobe AIR application for time tracking. It is really simple and lightweight install. It has all the features I wanted. Klok installs on the desktop. It allows to create Projects and Sub Projects to track time.

    It has a timer that starts as you start working. It allows to export to Excel and CSV formats. Really handy to report at the end of each week, month or year.

    Klok Interface
    Klok Time Tracking Tool

    More to work on and more to track. Happy Working!

  • The Y

    When I came here to the US, I told my friends, I wanted to learn swimming and play guitar. So I have taken the first step forward, learning swimming. I enrolled for swimming lessons last months and have so far completed 4 lessons.

    Kick, Stroke, Breathe!

    Since I am doing my lessons in the YMCA, I also joined took a membership and now I also exercise at the YMCA gym. Reducing weight and looking at the first biceps curl is giving me a good feeling about myself. I still remember my first gym experience two years back when myself and my friend Ratish Kumar joined a class for Rs. 2400/- just for the cardio machines. We went regularly for the first two weeks and then I dropped off.

    I hope this time, I continue exercising.