E Ravi

Windows Cache for PHP applications on Windows and Windows Server

http://www.iis.net/extensions/WinCacheForPHP 

This is an PHP accelerator used to increase the performance of the PHP applications running on windows7 and windows 2008 R2 server. It is an extension available in the IIS 7.5 and loaded by the PHP Engine. Major advantage this functions without any code change.

Features

• PHP 5.2 and PHP 5.3 support
• Configurable file cache
• Configurable PHP opcode cache
• Relative file path cache
• PHP functions to obtain information about the cache status

Thanks
E.Ravi

Trip to Cologne (Germany), Cox & Kings and Air India

I came back to Chennai after a 5 days trip to Cologne (Germany) for TIC 2009. INFITT had appointed Cox & Kings (Chennai office) as the official Travel Agency for the conference since nearly 30 participants were from Tamilnadu & many first time travellers. Cox & Kings (Trade Fair Division) came up with a package deal costing about Rs.84,000. This included:

1. Air India Air fare (MAA-BOM-FRA-BOM-MAA) Transport from Frankfurt to Cologne and back
2. Accommodation in Ibis Koln 2** Hotel (Twin Sharing)
3. Buffet Breakfast
4. Local Travel from Hotel to Conference venue
5. Daily Indian Dinners in Indian restaurant
6. Return group airport Transfers (Frankfurt to Cologne and back)
7. City tour of Koln with cruise, Dome, museum  with Entrance Ticket
8. Overseas Medical Insurance
9. Cox and Kings Travel bag
10. Services of a German speaking Cox and Kings Tour Manager

Out of the 30 participants from India, we had about 15+ take up the package from C & K. Initially the airline was Emirates (via Dubai) but it was changed to Air India as many of the participants were from Universities/Colleges that required they fly Air India for UGC funding and for official Tamilnadu government delegates have to fly only by Air India. After my experience I am not surprised why Government has to force this dictum – without which no self respecting traveller will put up with awful Air India Ground service.

Air India and its awful service

I haven’t flown Air India for long-haul flights, so I was very sceptical. I hate the transit in Mumbai and will always prefer to fly international directly from Chennai. I consider the Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport’s transit service to be the lousiest and most inefficient way to transfer passengers between International-Domestic terminals, I am surprised this same pathetic service continues even after privatization (to GVK).  I was told that I don’t need to do the transfer from Domestic to International (or vice-versa). Everything went well as told during onward journey, AI191 from Chennai to Frankfurt, departed from Chennai International Terminal with customs/immigration done in Chennai itself. We landed in Mumbai International Terminal and continued the journey to Frankfurt from the same terminal – thereby saving me from the horrible terminal transfer.  But I was not fortunate enough on return, the flight AI144 from Frankfurt departed 3 hours delayed and hence we missed the connection from Mumbai to Chennai (same flight number). We landed at 2AM today instead of 10AM (yesterday) in Mumbai and the flight from Mumbai had departed at 1:15AM as scheduled.

We were asked to claim baggage and get out of Intl. Airport in Mumbai and transfer to domestic airport to catch IC571 17:35 (15 Hours wait in Mumbai to go to Chennai). I checked online  and found seats available in many of Air India’s morning flights but  I was not offered seat in any of them. So instead of waiting 15 hours and losing a full working day I bought a ticket in KingFisher leaving Mumbai at 6:25AM and reached Chennai, paying Rs.5000+ extra for Air India’s fault.

As always, there were simply no Air India staff to help us - I suppose all Air India ground staffs will hide inside their cabins fearing Passengers Queries. They probably have read Mahatma Gandhi’s quote on Customer Service wrongly – you wonder whether Air India Ground staff consider customer(s) to be a nuisance who disturb their peaceful naps. Even if they do a pathetic service (which they do) Government of India may never penalize them and is more than happy to even bail them out!

To be fair Air India flights were modern, neat & clean, entertainment consoles worked and Crew were friendly and helpful.

Cox & Kings

Overall Cox & Kings service from the time of booking to completion was good. Their account manager and tour manager who accompanied us both were professional and nice. I wish the side-seeing tour they had planned for us was thought-of and executed better. The Indian Food offered in a local Indian Restaurant (Ganesha, Cologne) on all the days was very nice and tastier.

Cologne City

This is my first trip to continental Europe and it was more or less just as I expected. We spent good amount of time seeing the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) and the near-by shopping streets, we got used to using the Tram (S-Bahn) service to commute from our Hotel to New Market area. Since our sight-seeing trip was on the Monday (weekly holiday for Museums) we missed seeing the museums including Cologne Chocolate museum or EL-DE Haus. The City has River Rhine running through it, which gives it many beautiful places. We took a boat trip on the river and also went in the Cable car. Other than these activities we didn’t find anything else to do in Cologne.

தமிழ் இணைய மாநாடு 2009 நிறைவு விழா

தமிழ் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்பம் குறித்த இன்றைய சாதனைகளையும், எதிர்கால சவால்களையும் அறிஞர்கள், வல்லுநர்கள் கூடி விவாதிக்கும் தமிழ் இணைய மாநாடு கடந்த மூன்று நாட்களாக (அக்டோபர் 23ம் தேதி முதல் 25ம் தேதி வரை) ஜெர்மனியில் நடைபெற்றது. தமிழ் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்பத்திற்கான அனைத்துலக மன்றமான உத்தமம் (International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil- INFITT) அமைப்பும், ஜெர்மனியில் அமைந்துள்ள கோலென் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தின் இந்தியயியல் மற்றும் தமிழ் ஆய்வு மையமும் (Insitute of Indology and Tamil Studies, University of Cologne) இணைந்து இந்த மாநாட்டிற்கு ஏற்பாடு செய்தது.

இந்த ஆண்டு முதல் முறையாக ஐரோப்பாவில் தமிழ் இணைய மாநாடு நடைபெற்றது. "கணிவழிகாண்போம்தமிழ்” என்பது இந்த மாநாட்டின் மையக் கருத்தாக இருந்தது. உலகெங்கிலுமிருந்து தகவல் தொழில்நுட்பத் துறை வல்லுநர்கள் பலர் பங்கேற்றார்கள். ஆழ்ந்த விவாதங்களுக்குப் போதுமான நேரம் கிடைக்க ஏதுவாக 100 பேராளர்கள் மட்டுமே மாநாட்டில் பங்கேற்க வகை செய்யப்பட்டது.

சில மணி நேரம் முன்பாக நடந்த முடிவுரையில் உத்தமம் சார்பாக வெளியிடப்பட்ட மாநாட்டின் அறிவிப்பை நான் படிக்கும் வாய்ப்பு கிடைத்தது (முழுமையான பிரதியை இங்கே பெறலாம்).  இதில் மிக முக்கியமான அறிவிப்பாக நான் கருதுவது ஒருங்குறி (Unicode) முறையைப் பற்றியது.

“ஒருங்குறி (Unicode) முறை தற்பொழுது பெரும்பாலான வணிக நிரலிகள், செல்பேசி நிரலிகள், மின்னியல் ஊடகங்களில் பயன் படுத்தப் படுவதனால், உத்தமம் ஒருங்குறி முறைத் தரத்தையே தரமாக, அறிவிக்குமாறு தமிழ்நாடு, இந்தியா, இலங்கை, சிங்கப்பூர், மலேசியா, மொரிசியசு அரசுகளைக் கேட்டுக் கொள்கிறது”

சுமார் பத்தாண்டுகளாக தமிழக அரசில் நிலுவையில்  இருக்கும் இந்த பரிந்துரை இத்தோடு அரசாலும் (பயனாளர்களால் ஏற்கனவே பயனில் உள்ளது) எற்றுக் கொள்ளப்படும் என நம்புவோம். சில வாரங்களுக்கு முன் தமிழ் இணைய பல்கலைக்கழகம்  ஒருங்குறி முறைக்கு மாறியது மற்றும் அரசின் பல்வேறு இணையவழி சேவைகள் ஒருங்குறி முறையில் செய்யபடுவது முன்னோட்டம் என கருதுவோம். 

Tamil Internet Conference 2009 begins

After working hard for last few months along with other organizers including INFITT Chair Dr.Kalyanasundaram, Prof.Ulrike Niklas, Mr.Kavi Arasan, Dr.Vasu Rengathan & others, I am happy to participate today in the inauguration of TIC 2009 in the campus of University of Cologne, Germany.  The Eighth Tamil Internet Conference TIC 2009 and the first in Europe was inaugurated few hours back with the august presence of Prof.Dr.Bongartz (Dean of Philosophical Faculty of Univ. of COLOGNE) & Prof.M.Anandakrishnan (Chair, Tamilnadu Govt. Delegation & Former VC, Anna University). The 3 day conference is being hosted by the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies of the University of Cologne in Germany is being held from October 23-25, 2009.

The conference got underway with the address of the co-chairs of the event Dr.Kalyanasundram (INFITT) and Prof.Ulrike Niklas (Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies-IITS). Prof.Urlike highlighted that IITS hosts the largest Tamil books collection of over 60,000 which is the largest outside Tamilnadu. Dr.Kalyanasundram recalled the founding of INFITT in 2000, the objectives and the past 7 conferences held around the world (Singapore, Chennai, Malaysia, USA) and the outcomes.

In the plenary session talks, Mr.Muthu Nedumaran (Malaysia, Former Chair INFITT) to the excitement of the audience demonstrated Tamil enabling 3G Mobile devices such as iPhone, Android, Nokia for News applications. Prof. A.G.Ramakrishnan (Indian Institute of Science, Benguluru) demonstrated a major technical breakthrough of live changing implications for the blind and illiterate through IT. The audience were spell bound when Prof.Ramakrihnan’s computer read out a text from a Tamil book (Text to Speech) and then recognized his handwriting on the screen. Prof.Thomas Malten (IITS) showed the various online Sanskrit, Tamil Dictionaries made available by IITS, the University of Cologne has made available the tools used to prepare these texts.

About INFITT

INFITT (International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil) is a global, non-governmental, non-profit organization registered in California, USA. In Tamil known as "உத்தமம்" (உலகத் தகவல் தொழில்நுட்ப மன்றம்). Its main objective is to promote Tamil computing worldwide by bringing together professionals working in the area of Tamil IT, Tamil IT enthusiasts, Tamil Research Scholars and ordinary Tamils so that Tamils can enjoy the benefits of all IT developments natively in the Tamil environment. To meet this objective, INFITT maintains several working groups on key technical areas of Tamil IT and organizes annually Tamil Internet Conferences in different parts of the world. More details at www.infitt.org

It is my birthday – and Windows 7 launches today!

It is my birthday today (I am not telling how old I am) and I am in Cologne, Germany attending Tamil Internet Conference 2009 away from my family & friends, missing the gifts they might have given me :-)

Anyways, Mr.Steve Ballmer didn’t disappoint me. He has given me a wonderful gift – he has released Windows 7 today. No doubt Windows 7 is getting raving reviews, it got released on my birthday!. On a serious note, I have been using Windows 7 for almost two months now in my laptop (Apple MacBook Air) and my Quad-Core x64 Desktop and it is simply the best OS I have ever used in last two decades. I like its fast boot, fast response time for common tasks, lovely wallpapers/background, Aero effect, quick search, easy to find devices/printers applet and libraries.

And I love those Windows 7 commercials featuring the cute little girl – Kylie, don’t miss those videos here. 

Forward emails with Exchange/Outlook even when you are away

The other day one of my colleagues asked me how he can have emails from a distribution list sent to him, go automatically to certain people even when he hasn’t downloaded the emails in his MS Outlook client. A server-side rule can be setup by the individual in their own MS Outlook client itself. Here are the steps I gave him.

1. Launch Microsoft Office Outlook, Select "Tools" Menu
2. Select "Rules & Alerts" Option
3. Press "New Rule" Button
4. Select "Start from a Blank Rule" -> "Check Messages when they arrive"
   
5. Check "Sent to People or Distribution List". Then at the bottom (Step 2), click on the blue link "People or Distribution List"
   
6. Type in the "To" Textbox ABC@EMAIL.COM (Type the distribution list email ID, it is fine if this ID is not listed in the address book). Press OK.
7. Scroll down and ensure to have UNCHECKED "on this machine only" option. Enabling this option makes the rule run only when you have downloaded the email in your Outlook client. Leaving it Unchecked makes this a server rule. This runs every time an mail hits your Exchange Server, it is not necessary for you to be in office or have got the email in your Outlook client
8. Select "Forward it to People or Distribution List". In the below options (Step 2), click on the hyperlink for People or Distribution list
   
9. Enter the intended recipients email IDs. Press OK. Press Next
10. In the next dialog box titled “Exceptions”, include any exceptions you may have or otherwise skip the dialog box by pressing Next
11. Press Finish, give a Title and complete the wizard

Tamil Internet Conference 2009 in Germany

“கணிவழி காண்போம் தமிழ்"

This year Tamil Internet Conference 2009 is happening in City of Koeln, Germany from October 23-25, 2009.TIC is annual Technical conference on Tamil IT topics organized by INFITT (உத்தமம்) in which I proudly serve as Vice-Chair currently. Tamil Internet Conferences of INFITT has been held earlier in Chennai (1999,2003)Singapore (2000, 2004), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2001) and in San Francisco, California (2002). TIC 2009 will be the first conference to be held in Europe.

TIC 2009 will be a technical conference devoted to discussing recent advances and challenges in Tamil Computing and Tamil Internet in general. To permit max. interaction, participation will be limited to 100-120 persons. We invite Tamil IT professionals worldwide to participate in this conference - only one of its kind devoted exclusively for Tamil. Please register immediately here to attend the event.

The TIC 2009 is being organized in close collaboration with the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies (IITS) of the University of Koeln who will serve as the local host. IITS, headed by Prof. Ulrike Niklas is one of the major Tamil Studies and Research Center of Europe. The following are the 11 tracks that will happen during the conference with about 60 speakers from around the world (a major contingent from India):

1. Computer Assisted Learning and Teaching of Tamil
2. Tamil Diaspora, Teaching Tamil as a second-language and impact of Technology
3. Tamil Portal: Blogger, Aggregator, Wikipedia
4. Tamil localization, Tamil keyboard, open-source software
5. Natural Language Processing: OCR, Information Retrieval, Artificial Intelligence
6. Tamil in handheld, mobile phones, Tamil for special needs
7. Preparation E-Texts, Corpora, Search Engines
8. Computational Linguistics
9. Natural Language Processing: Morphological Tagger
10. Database of Tamil technical terms and glossaries
11. Online Database of Tamil literature, Tamil Dictionaries and Search Engines

Today as Vice-Chair I was asked to record a 3 minute video clip inviting our European friends to the conference, you can see the video below:

An American Affair

I had purchased the DVD of this movie “An American Affair” sometime back, but never watched it till today. I can’t recall on why I bought this movie as I haven’t heard or read about it; nor I could recognize from the names any of the actors of the movie. The only reason I can think of is probably I thought the movie was about Marilyn Monroe. It turned out to be not. The movie set in 1963 was about adolescent attraction of a school boy to his new neighbour - a pretty lady who has relationship with then U.S. President John F.Kennedy.

I try hard but nothing I am able to remember or say that is great about the movie. A boring movie with an average coverage of a Thirteen-year-old boy’s adolescent yearnings.

உன்னைப் போல் ஒருவன்

வார விடுமுறை, என் சகோதரிகள் மற்றும் அவர்களின் பிள்ளைகள் வந்திருந்தார்கள். பேசிக் கொண்டிருந்தப் போது திடிரேனயுதித்த யோசனையின்று சினிமாவிற்கு போகலாமென்று. எதிர்ப்பார்த்த மாதிரி சத்தியம்/ஐனாக்ஸ் திரையரங்களில் டிக்கெட் இல்லை. இணையத்தில் பார்த்ததில் மயாஜாலில் 3:10 காட்சிக்கு டிக்கெட் கிடைத்தது. காரை எடுத்துக் கொண்டு தி.தி. என்று மாம்பலத்திலிருந்து கிழக்கு கடற்கரை சாலை (30 கி.மி.) சென்றோம். எங்கள் பயணம் வீண் போகவில்லை, கமல் ஏமாற்றவில்லை. ஒரு நல்ல படத்தை அழகாக கொடுத்துள்ளார். ரொம்ப இழுக்காமல், முன்கதைகளுக்குச் செல்லாமல் ஒன்னே முக்கால் மணியளவில் ஒரு ஆங்கிலப்பட பாணியில் படத்தை கொடுத்துள்ளார் இயக்குனர் சக்கிரி டோளேட்டி. மோகன்லால் அலட்டிக் கொல்லாமல் தன் பாத்திரத்தைச் செய்துள்ளார். வசனம் சில வாரங்களுக்கு முன் நான் படித்து ரொம்பவே ரசித்த மூன்று விரல் புத்தகத்தின் ஆசிரியர் இரா.முருகன் தான், நச்சென்று ஆழமாகவும் ஆழகாகவும் இருந்தது. அனைவருக்கும் பாராட்டுக்கள்.

படத்தின் விமர்சனத்தை ஏற்கனவே பலர் தங்களின் வலைப்பூக்களில் என்னை விட நன்றாக சொல்லிவிட்டதால் அதன் முகவரிகள் இங்கே: Cable சங்கர் வலைப்பக்கம்,Prakashவலைப்பக்கம், விவசாயி வலைப்பக்கம்.

உன்னைப் போல் ஒருவன் – நல்ல படம், பார்க்க வேண்டியப் படம்.