Entries from November 2005 ↓

I was importing the Foss.In speakers and talks data into Glancer, and it started giving me some strange errors. This is what I got in OpenLaszlo:
error: java.io.UTFDataFormatException: Invalid byte 1 of 1-byte UTF-8 sequence.

And when I tried using PHP, this was the string:
SOAP-ENV:Server SOAP-ERROR: Encoding: string 'some string here' is not a valid utf-8 string

So I looked up what’s causing this. First I thought it would be MySQL. I had mixed up collation order on different tables. Some were the default latin_swedish_ci, some were utf8_general_ci and some were utf8_unicode_ci. I changed all the tables and fields to utf8_unicode_ci first. But that did not solve the problem!

This is the time when I switched to PHP to test. And found that the problem was because the string in the data was not a proper Unicode / UTF8 string. I checked up if this is due to the size of the string - I had text data types. But well, that wasn’t the problem. Then I discovered the problem was coming up because of some funny characters in the text.

Primarily, the “auto convert” characters that Word typically adds up. E.g. the double quotes getting converted to inverted double quotes, three dots to an ellipsis, the TradeMark, so and so forth. This was not acceptable to the webservice!

This was strange to me, as Unicode should support any character in the world, but I just went ahead and removed all such characters and things started working!

FYI, here are the characters that I replaced:
”
“
’
™
…
•
‘
—
–


Long night on Glancer yesterday. Got the talk pagination to work and fixed a few other things. Just when I was winding up, saw Atul’s announcement about the Foss.In schedules being put up! Have added the same track color codes to Glancer now.

BTW, all these features are not yet uploaded. We are working with the Foss.In team right now to integrate Glancer with Foss.In. All delegates will be able to use Glancer with their delegate registration code. You will have to just enter additional profile details to find people with similar interests. The talk and speaker details will be available and you can shortlist talks and print a customized “work book” for yourself.

It’s coming soon! I am posting this because I know people are waiting for Glancer Beta.

Hello!

I attended the Sunday evening session for Graduates in the Landmark Forum yesterday. Ferdi was leading it, and I got a lot out of it. I have had earlier sessions with Praveen Puri, and Ferdi’s was different. I liked yesterday more than other Sunday Evenings I have attended. Simply because of the content covered.

There was acknowledgement of graduates first. Then the distinction of choice. We normally decide and don’t chose. To decide is to select based on reasons. To choose is to select freely, after reasons. This is a very important distinction and get make life a lot easier if you get it right.

The interesting part came after this, when Ferdi distinguished sex, love and money! The three things everybody wants. I had got the distinctions of sex and love earlier, but never heard about money. The core concept was that we have a problem with money because we treat money as a scarce resource. If we shift that view point, a lot of things will change. Money does not make any real difference. It’s an enabler. And is available in abundance if you stop treating it as a scarce resource.

The next part was about life being a game. I remember reading or hearing something similar earlier, yet it was a profound conversation. I must dedicate a full post for it.

I really enjoyed the session. It provided a lot of value to me. And it was good to see my Dad and colleague Yogesh complete the Forum. I would recommend all Landmark Graduates to attend the Sunday Evening sessions. Don’t wait for the participants to invite you. Just go!

Google opened their UK headquarters recently. (Alright, it’s not headquarters, it’s Googleplex!). To celebrate, they ran a contest for kids. Doodle 4 Google! Kids sent in their interpretations and creations for the Google Doodle - the Google logo that you see on their website. The Google Doodle changes every now and then - according to the latest happenings.

An eleven year old schoolgirl won the competition. And that reminded me of my winning Microsoft’s Imagine the Magic Contest back in 1997.

Imagine The Magic contest was launched when Bill Gates visited India for the first time. About 40000 students (below 18 years) sent in their interpretation of “what the coolest computer would be like”. I sent in mine, and won in the 12-18 year age group from the West zone. We got to meet Bill Gates, visit the Microsoft campus in Seattle, and got a Compaq Presario loaded with applications and games. It was amazing!

This was also the event that gave me a push to do something in computers. I would have done an MBA otherwise. It is great for companies to invite ideas from students. Young people can come up with brilliant ideas.

Here’s what I had written for “Imagine The Magic”.

Imagining the magic of the coolest computer, the first thing that strikes my mind is that it will be really interactive. It could talk to and listen to me with a human touch. It would be easy to use with PnP, USB and perhaps Wondows-99 or 2000. It could tell me jokes when I am bored or teach me with real multimedia experience when I am fresh. It could play stimulating games with me. It could gather information from all over the globe within seconds through a direct satellite uplink. It could turn into a home entertainment system, comprising TV, Audio System, LD or DVD player et al. With such a computer at home, I could go to college or anywhere without leaving the home, in virtual reality; and meet and interact with friends in real time 3D environment. It could adjust with me automatically using Artificial Intelligence. It would be helpful to my parents also. And connected to printers, scanners and so, it can do miracles. It could do all this and more without harming anybody. In short, such a creativity booster could be my friend, philosopher and guide.

30th January 1997
Nirav V. Mehta

I also made a painting for the contest. The painting was great, I wanted to post it here, but could not find it.

And I think what I imagined in 1997, is mostly in place 8 years hence! My Microsoft visit was fantastic too - I met people working on IE4, Streaming audio, MSNBC, Microsoft Games and a whole lot more! The interaction with Bill Gates was memorable too.. May be I will write about it some other time.

Robert Cringely never stops amazing me with his insights! Yesterday, he wrote about what Google is researching on and what could be its impact! He says:

There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn’t just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We’re talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid.

Read the full story: Google-Mart - Sam Walton Taught Google More About How to Dominate the Internet Than Microsoft Ever Did

I am visualizing what these shipping container puppies will look like! Imagine yellow colored containers with a big G on them! Probably with a billboard What if they planted a little smaller boxes around popular places in your city and gave WiFi access? May be they will have smaller boxes that you and I can buy and be a part of the Grid!

Just reminds me of how I ran my imagination wild writing for Microsoft’s “Imagine the Magic” competition in 1996. I am going to write some more on it and Google on Monday!