Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

July 24, 2013

My RaspberryPi Camera module finally arrived and it works great!

Filed under: Computer Hardware,Linux/Unix Related,My Thoughts,Tech Related — Suramya @ 2:06 AM

After months of waiting (about 2 to be exact) my RaspberryPi Camera module finally arrived today and I took it for a brief spin. Setting it up was really easy, I just installed the Rasbian image I have, updated the install to the latest version and then enabled the camera. Once that was done and I rebooted the Pi, the camera started working without any issues. The instructions I followed are at: RaspberryPi Camera.

As part of the test I got the pi to transmit the images to my desktop and the clarity was pretty good, there was a slight lag in the display of about 1/2 a second but at 1080p I don’t think I can complain. Below are some pics I took of the setup and of the image being streamed to my desktop.


The Camera module next to my keyboard for a size comparison


Photo of my hand being streamed live to my desktop from the Pi.

I do plan to take pics using the camera module itself, but there is nothing interesting on my desk that I wanted to take photos of so you will have to wait for a day or two and I will take pics of the view from my window and post.

Well this is all for now, I should go get some sleep now considering I have an early start tomorrow.

– Suramya

July 21, 2013

Great Insults from Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Filed under: Books Related / Reviews,Humor,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 10:45 PM

Are you tired of using the same old insults for people who annoy you? Are you tired of using the same insults as everyone else? I know I am, but worry not, the great’s of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels have your back with some really cool insults that you can use without actually abusing. Folks at io9 spent some time to generate a list of 20 best insults and it has some gems. Below are some examples that I especially liked:

3) Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

“If your brains were dynamite there wouldn’t be enough to blow your hat off.”

5) Mort by Terry Pratchett

“‘It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever,’ he said. ‘Have you thought of going into teaching?'”
6) Redwall by Brian Jacques

“To describe the young haremaid’s singing voice as akin to a frog trapped beneath a hot stone would have been a great insult to both frog and stone.”

Check out the whole list at 20 Great Insults from Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Maybe I should start using these more often. 🙂

– Suramya

July 18, 2013

Did some maintainence on the site. More to come

Filed under: Website Updates — Suramya @ 10:08 PM

After a long time of trying to ignore the issues on the site, I finally spent some time last night doing some maintanence on it. Upgraded the version of WordPress that I am using to the latest version, also fixed the DB issue that caused the Photogallery to go down. No, I haven’t uploaded any new content or photos to the site yet. Will do that sometime this year. 🙂

I also need to move the site to a new hosting service but need time to do all the nitty-gritty backend work to get the site to work on the new servers so that is on hold till I know I have a weekend to spend on it. Dusted off some old articles that I was in process of writing till I got distracted so might finish some of them this weekend, but lets see.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

– Suramya

July 17, 2013

Mosquitoes do bite some folks more than others

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 11:59 PM

At times I have felt that mosquitoes have some sort of vendetta against me as if there is even one mosquito in the room, I am the first one to get bitten. Then not to be satisfied with biting me once, that mosquito will go and invite all it’s friends for a feast. Now it turns out there was research done that proves that some folks are more attractive to mosquitoes than others.

Mosquitoes prefer blood type O

In their quest for a meal, mosquitoes are nearly twice as likely to land on people with type 0 blood than those with type A, according to a Japanese study. Indeed, the biting pests consider type 0 more delectable than any other blood type, the researchers reported. Most people secrete substances that allow mosquitoes to identify blood type before they bite.

According to the research they prefer folks with blood type O, beer drinkers (so I should start hanging around more folks that drink beer) and people who wear dark clothes (which might be another reason they like me so much). Another way for me to avoid getting bitten is to hang round pregnant women, as apparently they are more ‘tasty’ for bugs.

Source: Why are some people mosquito magnets?

– Suramya

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