User-friendly Vs Use-friendly

This incident happened last week, I leave it to readers to guess where it happened. One person mailed to a group which I am part of (unknowingly) asking for the details of a specialist doctor and his whereabouts in a specific city. Yes its a very important query for him/her and (s)he might be in dire need of it. But....please read more!!

Note that the group has approximately 10K+ members (spread over various cities....note that people are from various locations and the question is about doctor from a specific city in a specific location) and already there is a bulletin board wherein there is an exclusive section for asking these kind of questions. Yes it was a mistake to have posted as an email to the group. After all (s)he might be new to the place and hence ignorant of what (s)he was doing or may be out of anxiety to get the information (s)he might have done that way. Not an excuse but we can leave it as an one-off incident and decide to not to make much fuss out of it. But what followed this mail is the one that perplexes me. Within few minutes someone replied (to all) -- so and so doctor is residing in so and so area and he is quite good at so and so. He added, since it might be useful to other people I am replying to all. Oh yes! all 10K+ people (from various cities) will take note of it and will be using it for future in case they are faced with the similar situation. How useful it is! I was really happy to note that (s)he realized that (s)he is replying to all and even though his/her reasoning that "this will be useful for other people also" is correct, when we really quantify the number of people for whom this will be useful its should be intuitive to see that it will be, definitely, far far far lesser than 10K+. And for which, other bulk of people in that 10K+ bunch have to read that mail and of course delete it. OK leave this also as an one-off mistake. Read what happened after this.....

Next, one person replied (to all) within few minutes mentioning that there is a forum for this and she can post it there so as not to disturb others through emails. A good advice and a welcome move. Still read on....then one replies (to all) yes I agree you should post this to bulletin board. Oh man! yes, we (10K+ guys) need your approval. If all 10K+ guys think of approving the previous advice then imagine the mail traffic, 10^6 mails!! Then another one replies (to all), out of frustration, asking how to unsubscribe from this group and describes the happenings as idiotic. Yes it is idiotic, but what you are doing is much more idiotic -- (s)he did not realize that again (s)he is replying to all. Then one responds, again to all, with how-to for unsubscription; then another one asking people to not to post any more replies, then one agrees...then one advices...then one agrees...and this continued for 20 more cycles. All this happened within 15 minutes -- net traffic: 250K mails in 15 minutes!!

This shows, even in this so called IT world, how people do things without realizing what they are doing, how they are doing and why they are doing. Perhaps the user-friendliness of putting a "reply-all" button in the mail clients made people to stop their thinking capacity.

It is really surprising to see that mail clients, be it outlook, thunderbird, evolution and so on., now by default do not ask for a confirmation through a dialogue when we press the "reply-all" button. Previously, when I was using the pine program as a mail client I used to get a query message similar to "reply to all?" when I select reply to all option. That would possibly make people to think before replying to all.

Also, it is very important to note that email is like a push -- receiver will get it even though he might not like it and (s)he is pushed to read at least the title and few lines of the message to decide if it is an useful one or not. It is even surprising to see that there are many juntas out there in IT who do not understand the fundamental conceptual difference between emails, RSS feeds and messaging in bulletin board. Unlike emails which is a kind of push, RSS feeds and bulletin boards are more of pull category. Interested person can subscribe and get only those messages that he is interested in.

Of course user-friendliness has made people to use things with ease but see that one use it "friendly", i.e. only when it is necessary(needful) and after realizing what you are doing, why you are doing and how you are doing. But, to end, what I feel is that User-friendly and Use-friendly are inversely proportional.

PS: Friend in need is a friend indeed that is why I phrased the word Use-friendly to mean Use-in-need!!

Hmmm.....I am Still Here!!

It has been almost ten months since I logged in my Blog. Had gone through lots of changes in these ten months. Lot to write but no time to write. For the moment here are some pictures of my son with bunny overcoat that I took just yesterday.

T M Krishna @ Vani Mahal - Dec 10, 2007

T M Krishna @ Vani Mahal - Dec 10, 2007

R K Sriramkumar (RKS) - Violin
Vellore Ramabhadran (VR) - Mridangam
?? - Ghatam (Sorry I forgot.......)

It has been nearly 2 years since I attended any carnatic concerts in live. This music festival 2007 in Chennai gave me a great opportunity to stop that drought. I am being a very selective listener, was waiting for concerts of my favorite singers. My ears which were lately busy with mazhalai isai given by my little few months old son, for a change got a chance to hear the blissful music by one of my favorite singer T M Krishna(TMK). I had actually planned to attend Sowmya's concert in Narada Gana Sabha on Dec 7, 2007 but ended up in the middle of my journey as my vehicle stopped running and I missed an astounding Mukhari by Sowmya. As Sowmya was mesmerizing the audience with her Mukhari I was dragging my vehicle to the mechanic. My bad luck.

Now coming to TMK's concert, I started from home at the correct time to reach the Mahaswami auditorium, Vani Mahal but lost out my way due to one-way round abouts and had to ask two or three auto drivers to find my correct way to it. I could only reach by 6.50pm so lost out 20 minutes, again my bad luck. Perhaps I missed one or two songs. When I entered the auditorium Varali was flowing like Courtallam main falls, in particular TMK was singing niraval at the line "Paramathmudu". Kalpanaswara just flowed spontaneously and with Vellore Ramabhandran's (VR) sarvalaghu it was simply superb. This song being the one to set the tempo of the concert I expected some sequences of fast swaras as he did in the Ille Vaikunta song in the album O Rangasayee, but anyways this one was also equally good. Then came a short alapana (6 min) of Anandabhairavi at 7.03. It was aesthetic as always and RKS followed him as shadow. I was somehow expecting Marivere but there came the evergreen, astounding composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitir's -- Thyagaraja Yoga Vaibhavam. The slow, laid-back approach for this song gave a great effect and TMK is just a master in that. For me this was the song of the concert. There were no kalpanaswaras but the song itself was well presented and it seldom needs any more creativity to boost the beauty of the song. I still feel Palghat K V Narayansawamy's rendition of this song is the best solely because of his harmonious and sweet voice. The lyrics of this song can be found here -- the structure of the lyrics presentation itself will reveal the beauty of it. The ultimate essence of this rendition was seen when TMK gave a pause at the end of the line "rUpa vis'va srSTyAdikaraNam". Anandabhairavi got over by 7.24 but my ears felt the effect for few more hours. Then came relatively a fast piece Majanaki in Kambhoji. The song was rendered in a fast pace to compensate for the previous slow paced songs. Niraval was done at the line "Raja raja" -- starting of it resembled Madurai Mani Iyer's style. VR showed how even sarvalaghu can impress the audience if it was done in a way which suits the artist's singing style. He was just amazing -- with limited movements of his fingers and idle posture of his body the naadham (sound) coming out from his mridangam is just amazing.

The main piece of the concert was Kamalabam Bhajare in Kalyani. Kalyani was dealt in depth by TMK for almost 13 minutes. What I liked most in this alapana are rendukataan (medium-paced...not fast...not slow....) sancharams. These rendukataan sancharams seems to be easy to sing but when we do them in reality we can experience the difficulties. And another one I enjoyed was the sancharams he did in tharasthayi (higher octave) with his teeth locked. When doing it he even touched the higher sadjam in the higher octave. Creativity was at its best especially in the higher octave sancharams. TMK employed two times the sancharams "sa pa sa pa_ ri" (pa_ is pa in lower octave) but due to my short memory I did not realize that he is symbolically saying Kamalambam bhajahare is going to come after the alapana (I realized this only when he actually started the song). The same sanchara comes in the charanam of the song, in particular in the line "sarvasha pari pooraga". RKS played equally well but at times I felt he lapsed in concentration and I could experience some fuzziness in few sancharams. Niraval was done at the line "Nirvana nijasuka...". Niraval was superb, VR was at his best, ghatam was supporting VR and RKS replied TMK with apt sancharams. It was great to see all of them combining so well. Kalpanaswaras just flowed with ease and to my surprise the last kalpanaswara was without any muthaippu (doing some rhythmic swaras three times...it involves some mathematics). May be TMK wanted to follow the sarvalaghu option, possibly because VR was his accompanist, instead of going to Mathematics in swaras. Full 38 minutes for alapana, song and kalpanaswara. Now the time was for VR and Ghatam to show their powers. VR's nadham was at his best but at times I felt the ghatam sound was irritating may be because of the closeness of microphone to ghatam.

The came a very short Ragam, Thanam and Pallavi in raaga Bhairavi. A very short alapana of Bhairavi was followed by a little lengthier thanam. Thanam was done superbly. RKS was at his best at thanam; VR too joined in thanam; it was so nice to hear them in unison. Anywhere, anytime, any raaga and any-good-singer I can hear thanam for hours -- thanam is the part which I like the most. Pallavi was "Parimalarangapathae" -- that has been sung by many people like Madurai Mani Iyer and even TMK himself, but sung in Kambhoji I suppose. Tala was rendu kalai adi talam with starting point 3/4 of the beat from samam. Three more ragas were taken in kalpanaswara to make RTP more interesting -- Nalinkanthi, Kaapi and Sindhubhairavi. Sindhubhairavi swaras were slightly peculiar, I think TMK tried to be innovative in that. But I heard from one mami sitting in the previous row commenting "nallaavae illiyae" (not good). Yes to people who just want the same repetitions of "Bho sambho" and "Maadu Meikum Kanna" it will not be good. Of course opinion differs!

The last part of the concert consisted of three thukadas: Saramaina in Behag, Saradhe Karunanithae and Thillana in Sakarabharanam.

On the whole the concert was good.

TMK was superb!
RKS was good!
VR was astouding!
Ghatam was good!

A real treat for a man longing for a live concert for almost two years!

My next try would be Sanjay and Sowmya!

Note: All are my personal opinions.

Back With A Promotion

Glad to be back after a long lay off from my blog space. If you are wondering why this much delay, here you go! :)

செல்லக் குட்டன்

குழல் இனிது
ஆம் உன் சினுங்களே ஒரு குழலிசை

யாழ் இனிது
ஆம் உன் குரலே ஒரு யாழிசை

பஞ்சு மெத்தை
ஆம் உன் கன்னங்களே ஒரு பஞ்சு மெத்தை

புவி ஈர்ப்பு
ஆம் உன் கண் பார்வையே ஒரு புவி ஈர்ப்புவிசை

பிரபஞ்சம்
ஆம் இனி நீதான் என் பிரபஞ்சம்

கோடி நன்றிகள்
ஆம் இந்த பூவை அருளித் தந்த இறைவா உனக்கு கோடி நன்றிகள்

ஆனந்தம்

உன் சின்ன சின்ன பாதங்கள்
என் நெஞ்சை பதம் பார்க்க

உன் பட்டு விரல்கள்
என் கைகளை வருட

உன் பன்ஞு கன்னங்கள்
என் தோளை தொட

உன் காந்தக்கண்கள்
என் கண்களை ஈர்க்க

உன் மழலை இசை
என் காதில் ரீங்காரமிட

உன் பொக்கை வாய் புன்சிரிப்பு
என் வாழ்க்கையின் பாடத்தை புகட்ட

ஆன்ந்தம் பேரானந்தம் பரமானந்தம்
இறைவா உனக்கு அனந்த கோடி நமஸ்காரம்

Fedora to Ubuntu

I was a Redhat (Fedora) lover and user for almost 10 years, just few weeks back switched to (K)Ubuntu 7.04, Feisty Fawn. Seems a good transformation as far as now. But its not without issues.

This blog is about what prompted me to switch to Ubuntu. In the next series of blogs I will write about my installation steps and my experiences.

Fedora/Redhat in general has been good to me for the past 10 years. But the moment I installed Fedora core 6(FC6) last December 2006 it has made me mad for various reasons which I will list out here. The installation was smooth without any major issues. I did installation using an external DVD drive. I noticed a strange thing: when I tried to start the installation my lappy could not recognize my external DVD drive so could not start the installation. But at the next time I connected my external hardrive too with my lappy and started the installation it could recognize my DVD drive now and so installation started. So out of curiosity I again stopped it and then tried it without my external hardrive to see if it is recognizing now -- no its not. Reasons?? Sorry, I don't know.

Now I will list out problems I had with FC6

1. After installation and updates I noticed that firefox 2.0 was very slow most of the times. It starts ok but when I start to use it, it slowly dies down -- takes huge amount of memory space and CPU time. Only way to come around is to kill the process.

2. Every time I upgrade there seems to be one problem or other. I have taken care of the various repository issues but even then I get this problem with each update. The main reason I could see is improper package management.

3. Can you imagine? Emacs, my favourite editor, hangs most of the time when some multimedia software is running. I simply do not understand what is the connection between them.

4. Especially when I use scrolling in firefox I could see a very high CPU usage for xorg and firefox processes. Both of them adding almost to 90-95%. (Well I also have this same problem in Ubuntu but at least its not that frequent....but still its a problem I would like to sort out).

5. Some of the terms which are really greek to FC6 are hibernation and suspend in FC6. So we have to just forget about using those in FC6.

6. Wireless. I have a broadcom 4318 and as always it was not recognized in FC6. So installed ndiswrapper and tried to workaround by using the windows driver for the card, but could not succeed. So I just left it for few months, then after updating the kernel saw it was working. Well I still don't know what happened :).

7. Heating. Fan running that sounds like a small rice mill. Lappy just heats up so fast even when there are no bulky process running.

As and when I remember some more problems I had, I will update it here.

The main problems which made me to think of ditching FC6 are (2), (4) and (7).

Is Ubuntu solving all these problems -- some of them, yes. Its still not without problems. I will write them in the coming ones.

Change Blog?

For the moment I want to publish my blogs both here and in livejournal. I am really in dilemma whether to change or not. One reason I want to change is I do not like the templates in blogger. I really like Livejournal templates. But why I am hesitating is because I am not able to move my messages to Livejournal. Well I could do a copy-and-paste. But it would be good if there is an import option in Livejournal. Do anyone have ideas?

Subramanyaya Namasthe

Subramanyaya Namasthe is one of the best compositions of Muthusamy Dikshitar. Its a Kamboji raga song set to vilamba kala roopaka tala. This is one of my favorite piece. For more information on the krithi see this.

I recorded this song few days back for a programme and so thought of sharing it here for more comments on this song and about my rendering.

Tooo Much

Yes it is too much. Five months (Edit: four months....poor math :) ) since blogging is too much. Hmmmm....was thinking of blogging about too many things. But can not find time to blog. Lame but familiar excuse :)

Got many things done and still doing some:

1. Upgraded my lappy memory to 512MB (still too low...but hey I am using Linux not Vista ;) )
2. Got my lappy reinstalled with Fedora Core 6 (FC6) last December. Had scribbled my installation process in a piece of paper have to find it and write a detailed blog about that. As far as my experiences concerned FC6 is good. Had KDE and Gnome at first, then installed relatively less memory consuming desktops xfce, fluxbox and icewm and for a change I am now using xfce. I feel really comfortable with it. KDE is slightly heavy on my 512MB RAM. I have so much other things to say about FC6, I will write those in a separate blog.
3. Have started a herculean task of tagging my 300GB audio files. Have done 15GB, still a long way to go. I speculate it will take more than 6 months at this rate.
4. I was not concerned about tagging my audio files at first. But when I installed the media player Amarok I just got so attracted to it that I can not use any other player after using it. Amarok uses tags to classify the audio files so it became imperative for me to tag. At first I used the trial version of Jaikoz it was ok but only few days back started to use Easytag. Jaikoz is a java program and you can imagine how it will run. Easytag is freeware, a C program and its design is so good that I can edit the tags so easily and it is much faster than Jaikoz (obvious). Amarok can also edit the tags but I can not see the audio files directory-wise, which will be easier for me to edit the tags.
   
5. Audio recording is one of the area I had not looked in detail for Linux. I was just using the commandline option of rec to record my singing. But the quality was so bad. Looked for some good ones then installed Audacity using yum. Not the one with FC repository but from Livna since the one with FC can not import mp3 files, this I came to know after I first installed with the one from FC repository. Audacity is too good. I recorded songs in two tracks one for the shruthi and other for my song. Its so good!
6. Bought a 30GB Apple ipod. Using gtkpod for managing ipod. Had used banshee. But gtkpod seems comfortable for me. Have not tried using amarok for ipod.
   

Will write more on the above points in the coming days. Hope I will get time to blog often.

Yadukula Kamboji

Being a carnatic singer I am always eager to find about carnatic ragas -- their history and their lakshanas ((un)written rules for singing it) -- written rules because some ragas just the follow the Arohana-avarohana pattern, although when singing it will sound a little different; unwritten since some ragas just go beyond the arohana-avarohana and dwell into another dimension. Yadukula Kamboji which is of the latter kind is one of my favorite ragas because of its slow pace and its fully bhava-oriented sancharas. I have collected some of raga lakshana of this raga from a lecture demonstration and have presented them blending with my own views of the raga. I welcome readers wish also on this.

Yadukula Kamboji is a very old raga but surprisingly is not found in old carnatic literature
"Sangeetha magarantha". A very similar raga Chevvazhi is found as a
pann in Tamizh music which shows its an old raga. This raga has a
prominent hold in carnatic music.

It is a Audava-sampoorna raga, janya raga of 28th Mela kartha
Harikamboji.

For the arohana avarohana I use the following representation: (for details refer this)

ri2 = chaturshurthi rishabham
ga2 = anthara ghandaaram
ma1 = suddha mathyamam
da2 = chaturshurthi deivatham
ni1 = kaishigi nishaadam
ni2 = kakali nishadam

Arohana: sa ri2 ma1 pa da2 sa^
Avarohana: sa^ ni1 da2 pa ma1 ga2 ri2 sa

All swaras are imbibed from its mela kartha. But in prayogams (when singing) ni2 is
used sometimes to give a nice flavor to the raga -- hence it is a
bhasanga raga.

Now we see how the swaras take swaroopa (face) when singing:

ri2 is an oscillating swara,

ga2 is a plain note,

ma1 is both plain and oscillating note -- in the phrase "sa ri ma ga sa" it is plain, in
the phrase "sa ri ma" there are two kinds of oscillations: one is "sa
ri ma1" where ma1 oscillates between ma1 and ma2 and other is "sa
ri ma1 pa da pa ma1" and even in "sa ri ma1" some times, ma1
oscillates between ma1 and pa. The first kind of oscillation gives a
soft, pleasing flavor and the second kind presents a authoritative
touch.

da2 is a plain note, it comes mostly in "da da" form like "da ni da
da...pa da da pa ma"

ni1 is used as an oscillating note -- if "ni" does not come from sa^
like the phrase "da da pa da ni1 da" then it socillates between ni1
and ni2. But when it comes from sa^ then it comes as a "vazhukal",
i.e., slides from sa^ like the phrase "sa^ ni da da pa da sa^ ni da da"

All swaras are prominent swaras although da and ga are very prominent.

ni2 which is an annyaswara (alien swara) for this raga is touched in prayogas like
"sa^ ni pa da....sa^ ni sa^ ri^ ga^ sa^ ri^". "sa^ ni pa da" also
comes in the raga Kamboji. But the phrase "sa^ ni sa^ ri^ ga^ sa^ ri^"
is exclusive for Yadukula kamboji.

The closest raga to this one is Kamboji. The prases like "pa da ri^
ri^ sa^ sa^ pa.....ma ga ri sa ri .....da pa ma ga ri sa" is exclusive
for Yadukula kamboji but now seen very prominently in Kamboji. The
other sanchara is "ma ga sa ni pa da sa" comes in both ragas. But the
pace of this phrase should be slighlty faster in Kamboji than in
Yadukula kamboji. Resting on ri^ and ga^ in dhaarastaayi (high pitch) is not good
for this raga.

The main difference between Kamboji and Yadukula kamboji are:

1. Yadukula Kamboji is mainly dwealt in madhyamastaayi (neither high nor low pitch) rarely goes into
dhaarastaayi whereas Kamboji is mainly dealt in dhaarastaayi. In
fact, Kamboji is the only raga as far as I know where the raga
alapana starts in dhaarastaayi (in most alapanas by stalwarts).

2. The pace of the raga Kamboji should be slightly faster whereas in
Yadukula kamboji it should be slow.

3. Mainly "ga" should not be elongated in the case of Kamboji whereas
in Yadukula kamboji we can rest on it for few seconds.

Number of sancharas (patterns) in Yadukula kamboji are very limited hence it is
difficult to sing a big alapana in this raga. Prominent care should be
taken when singing this raga or else it will sound like Kamboji.

Padmashree M D Ramanathan is very well-known for this raga -- his
rendition of the well-known krithi "Diwakarathanoojam" is an awesome
one. He even sings a kalpanaswaram in the end.


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Once Semmangudi told:

"M.D. Ramanathan had an excellent voice (saareeram) with a lot of depth. I still remember his Yadukulakambodi in Trivandrum."

Here is a song rended by me in this raga.

To know about the origin of the names Kamboji and Yadukula Kamboji
refer to this excellent blog and for more comprehensive study of the origin see this.

Want More?

After a long time rest to scribbiling here it is again,

160GB external harddrive full of carnatic music treasures sung by MDR, KVN, MMI, SSI, TKR (TK Rangachary), TSK, TNS and others.

My laptop (using as a desktop :) ) enabled as a webserver with external harddrive connected to it.

Running andromeda software for streaming audios.

Can create a playlist with a click of button whenever I want, whereever I am and play it in my favorite music player.

Do I need more?

Ears, heart, body and soul full of music. Longlive Technology!!

Seeing is thousand times better than hearing

It was my stupidity to think the electrical plugs in UK and India are the same. I might have thought since they follow the same 220-240 volts system.

My laptop adapter pin is for North American style plugs and I had the plug-adapater for India style. When I started to UK I somehow thought the plug styles in India and UK are the same. I have many UK friends and my Prof has gone numerous times to UK I never asked them. Grrrrrr..........

When I came to UK and took of the adapater Oh Man! its different.....I came on Sunday and thought of finishing of my presentation for the conference. That came to a stand-still.....Sunday shops are closed....Grrrr....Without using my laptop I will not be able to do the finishing touch in my presentation which was more important than the presentation itself. That too if I do not succeed in finding the suitable pin, I have to look for a syztem with LaTex with beamer class.
That is ofcourse rare. Then I looked for a shop in the University, found a computer shop. I asked for the pin which acts as an interface between the North American style and the UK style. Oops...he replied I am afraid....(UK style of saying NO :) ) Then I took my adapter out of my laptop bag and showed it to him.....Oh yeh....I have this wire instead of the interface plug. Oh my God! I got it! You saved my day I told and thanked him profusely...

Now I got to know how seeing is thousand times better than hearing.