Then one day, I stumbled upon a fix for this issue. Note, the issue only affects Windows 7 64bit users. The fix is simple. Open a command prompt. Go to the folder with the Toad setup file. Write the Toad setup file name followed by "/quiet" and hit enter. The setup process will start in the background and within 5 mins, Toad for MySQL should be installed on your computer.

Happy grib-bib! :)

A month back, I upgraded my laptop's RAM from 3GB to 6GB. Ever since, Postgres refuses to start on my machine which is running the amd_x64 flavor of Ubuntu 10.10. Here's the error thrown by it:

$ sudo service postgresql start

* Starting PostgreSQL 8.4 database server

* The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:

2011-02-04 20:26:43 IST FATAL:  could not create shared memory segment: Invalid argument

2011-02-04 20:26:43 IST DETAIL:  Failed system call was shmget(key=5432001, size=37879808, 03600).

2011-02-04 20:26:43 IST HINT:  This error usually means that PostgreSQL's request for a shared memory segment exceeded your kernel's SHMMAX parameter.  You can either reduce the request size or reconfigure the kernel with larger SHMMAX.  To reduce the request size (currently 37879808 bytes), reduce PostgreSQL's shared_buffers parameter (currently 4096) and/or its max_connections parameter (currently 103). If the request size is already small, it's possible that it is less than your kernel's SHMMIN parameter, in which case raising the request size or reconfiguring SHMMIN is called for. The PostgreSQL documentation contains more information about shared memory configuration. [fail]

For future reference, I've compiled a quick how-to on how to fix this.

To make this permanent, add the respective code (without sysctl -w):

Install Alsa Mixer from the Ubuntu Software center (Applications → Ubuntu Software Center). Once installed, you will find the Gnome Alsa sound mixer in Applications → Sound & Video → Alsa mixer. Use it to push Capture level to maximum. Don't forget to check the Rec check-box under the capture slider. To avoid electrical noise slide the horizontal slider for “capture” completely to the right. The electrical noise seems to come from the lest side. (Check with sound recorder)

If you still experience some problems , you may also install the package “linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic” with the synaptic package manager and the internal microphone should work. (in the Ubuntu system menu under “System” > “Administration” > “Synaptic Package Manager”).

To use the terminal to achieve the same thing type :

 

On Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10, this package doesn't exist. I was able to fix the problem by adding the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf:

Add the following line at the bottom of the file:

 

To use the internal mic with Skype, start Skype with

 

It can be done automatically by editind the Application menu:

- Right click on the Applications menu (on the upper left side of the screen) and select Edit menus

- Click on Internet in the right panel

- Select Skype

- Click Properties

- Replace skype by /bin/sh -c “PULSE_SERVER=127.0.0.1 skype” &

- Close and check if it works (you need to restart Skype if it was already up and running)

Past few months, I've been getting sick of the work I'm doing. It's all about making the moolah. While I've made some moolah, the work keeps becoming more "regular".

There have been a couple of firsts. I've worked on a production level Java project for the first time. But there have also been first hand situations that demanded my time. And when I couldn't give time to the things I wanted to, it hurt bad!

So out of this crisis, I've made a small change in the way I work. Instead of doing just about anything that comes my way, and taking that as a challenge, I'll filter the work. I get a LOT of work requests these days and most of the stuff is quite ordinary.

I wanna do something outside the ordinary. That's led me to dabble a bit into non-regular computer languages like Go and Erlang. Digging deeper into them has fascinated me. The whole challenge of building highly scalable - high-availability web services has fascinated me. I may be a Computer Science grad, but I'm not a very technical guy. I don't like talking about memory addresses. Gives me the goosebumps. I decided long ago I'll get into Windows product development and then my foray into web applications happened, and I haven't looked back since.

Cutting the story short, I wanna dig deeper into the world of imperative programming!

To celebrate that, here's a snippet in Erlang for calculating the factorial for a number:

Ain't that sweet?