Project Euler

Posted by Santh

After updating my personal programming environment in August 2017, I was looking for opportunities to keep myself in touch with technology. That’s when one of my colleagues mentioned about Project Euler – a series of challenging problems that require mathematical and programming skills. It is named after Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician and engineer, who made important and influential discoveries in many branches of mathematics, such as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory.

What started as a sub-section on mathschallenge.net in October 2001 has become an independent domain with more than 780,000 registered users having solved at least one problem. The site currently has 623 problems with a new problem added every fortnight. While most of the problems are straightforward, it is practically impossible to solve them without a computer because of the large numbers and computations involved. So, it is a marriage of mathematics and programming – bingo, what I was looking for!

Now then, one can choose to use any programming language to solve the problems. With Java and Python in my toolkit, I started with solving the problems using both of them. After just a couple of solutions, I realized that Python was way more effective and efficient. A solution in Java typically took twice as much time as Python due to several reasons – code verbosity, compilation / run time, functional programming and relatively vast math libraries available in Python, among others. So, I quickly dropped Java and stuck to writing code only in Python. Every problem expects a specific number as an answer, you type it in the answer box and eureka – you got it!

I don’t consider myself a quick programmer, my forte is discipline, patience and perseverance. I may take twice or even longer time than others to complete anything. But once I put my mind onto something, determination takes over and I invariably get it done. I usually don’t expect my programs to compile and run perfectly the first time. But the Project Euler answer box accepted my response as the right one in the first attempt for several problems. After all, I am a better programmer that I imagined!

I started with solving the first problem on 25th August 2017 and was solving at least 8 problems every weekend initially. That was when the difficulty level was at 5%. As the difficulty level went up, the rate of solving problems kept going down. That’s fine, I am not a Math genius and I was learning new Math concepts and Python libraries. By October 20th, I had solved 57 problems that put me in the Top 5% in terms of the number of problems solved.

My solutions are usually the brute force type. The purists will not like them. I will get there one day when I put my mind to it. For now, I just enjoy the excitement of seeing me getting the right answer.

Finally, why am I posting this now? After 20th October, I went into hibernation from Project Euler with my weekends taken up for the brevet season starting November 2017 to January 2018. After a gap of five months, I solved a couple of problems during the last week of March 2018 and this time wanted to jot down my experience before it becomes too stale. With the complexity level of problems having significantly increased and with so many conflicting priorities requiring my attention, I am not sure how many I will get to solve.

There are so many things to do and so little time in hand… Santh – that’s life and learn to deal with it!!!

Books 2017

Posted by Santh

As I wrote the blog on books I enjoyed in 2016, the realization stuck that I had slipped from reading habit during the previous year and a half. After finishing more than two dozen books each in 2013 and 2014, I had read only a couple of them in 2015. While I thought it was primarily due to extensive time spent during the weekends for cycling / running / recovery time, it also coincided with my taking up a new job towards the end of 2014. It took another year to sense knowledge debt building up again as my effectiveness as a speaker and motivator for my teams diminished a bit. When I read a book on leadership or anthropology, I immediately relate it to events around me and apply some of the learnings. This happens sub-consciously and I realized it only when while introspecting on recently diminished effectiveness.

In April 2017, I made efforts to restart my reading habit and made one of the best investments in recent times when I bought Kindle Paperwhite. I would later know from “The Everything Store” on strategic thought process from Jeff Bezos and Amazon that went in building an eBook Reader that would be affordable with a comprehensive book store behind it. I can vouch for it after using it for about ten months. You can pretty much find any English book ever published  and at a price that is most competitive! With backlight, I can now read without disturbing the rest of my family and e-ink technology lets Kindle run for days together on a single charge! I might sound like an Amazon marketer, but really admire the value Kindle brings with it!!!

I started with “Great by Choice”, a book by Jim Collins whose “Good to Great” was one of the books that got me interested in non-fiction. It was on familiar Jim Collins style and I could relate to some of the principles that I always followed in my life. No wonder I am great! – just kidding. It was just reassuring to know that some of my principles are good for long-term success. The quote from Roald Amundsen, the first man to The South Pole will always be etched in my memory: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order – luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precaution in time; this is called bad luck”.

From “Great by  Choice”, I got reference to another couple of fantastic books that demonstrated Jim Collin’s theory about the best leaders being more disciplined, more empirical and more paranoid. They were the next books I read – “Scott And Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth” and “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster”.

It was then time for “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry”. I got this from reading recommendations given by one of the senior leaders in my organization.

After my Europe trip, I wanted to know more about the history of Europe and particularly on what happened to Roman Civilization. It took almost four months to complete all the six volumes of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” written by Edward Gibbon in 1770. A true classic like “The Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin and worth the effort.

After immersing in history for several months, I wanted to read about some contemporary achievements and went back to the reading recommendations. I read books on two of the modern great companies on Technology space – “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” and “The Google Story”. In between, I also finished “Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone” within a few weeks of Satya Nadella releasing it. All of them reinforced the need for discipline, work ethic and team work – there is no short cut to success! That rounded up 2017, a fulfilling year for reading good books. As I write this, I already finished reading “The Great Convergence” that I got referred from Hit Refresh. More about that when I write about by 2018 experience.

My reading list from 2017:

Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone Satya Nadella
The Google Story David A. Vise
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition Edward Gibbon
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry Jacquie McNish
Sean Silcoff
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster Jon Krakauer
Scott And Amundsen: The Last Place on Earth Roland Huntford
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All Jim Collins

The cycling season – Sep ’17 to Jan ’18

Posted by Santh

I have been looking forward to every September during the last four years – that’s when Hyderabad turns ideal for cycling, with the monsoon coming to an end and winter starting to set in allowing for long rides. With bountiful rains last monsoon season, the lakes around Hyderabad were brimming with water and the scenic routes were a delight to the eyes! I had good company in Aditya and thanks to his Google Pixel phone, we captured some fantastic views.

We started in September with Bakaram and Musi river upstream from Hyderabad!

      

We rode around Himayat Sagar during the first weekend of October:

        

More beautiful Shamirpet lake the next weekend!

          

Finally, Patancheru and Ordnance Factory:

    

Now was the time for brevet season. After finishing up as a Super Randonneur in December 2016, I had told myself that I will try to repeat it during the next winter season.

200 BRM – Heaven & Hell:

Unlike my previous brevets, I decided to cycle to the start point at HBC Station that would add another 20 Km. I thought this would prepare me better for the longer brevets coming up. I had company of Aditya for the first 120 Km but after that I stopped pushing myself and slowed down significantly. I could sense a bit of over confidence creeping in and had to endure a minor scare of not finishing on time. Finally, managed to complete with about 5 minutes to spare!

            

300 BRM – Tour of Neelagiri:

After the scare of finishing 200 BRM late, I told myself that I should overcome complacency and ride faster. It had the desired effect. Though I took an hour longer than the last time, I was still in time with more than an hour to spare.

        

400 BRM – Nizamabad & Armoor:

I had to do it alone with Aditya deciding to focus on racing with his new road bike. I finished with about 40 minutes left, but not a lot of pictures!

    

600 BRM – the Two States:

The first weekend of January 2018 brought the ultimate challenge of completing 600 Km brevet to become a Super Randonneur again. It was a different route this time, all along the Bangalore Highway till Gooty and back. I started strong and rode at good pace for the first 65 Kms as we crossed Jadcherla at almost 25 Km/Hr. The first problem stuck around 80 Km. I felt my rear wheel drag on but carried on for a few minutes. Then I decided to stop and check. It was a shock as my rear tyre was flat in the middle of nowhere – and this was the first time in more than three years of long rides that I had to deal with a flat. Just as I was preparing to fix it, a couple of riders were kind enough to stop and help me. It took about 30 minutes to change the tube and start riding again. We stopped for dinner break at 120 Km and I got the punctured tube fixed. Now the second problem – as we were around 140 Km mark, we saw a young rider standing on the side of the road appearing clueless. He had a flat and had no idea or tools to deal with it. Along with the two angels who helped me, we fixed his flat and got moving after about 30 minutes. Net-net, I lost an hour and that meant I could not take any rest at mid point at Gooty. When I started from the mid-point, I only had about an hour buffer that appeared insufficient given the uphills that I had to deal with.

The return journey under the hot sun was tough. After a short lunch break and relentless riding, I reached Kurnool around 6:15PM. Another 200 Km to go and under 14 hours left. I started to feel sleepy around 7:30PM and had to take a power nap at one of the road side tea shops for about 30 minutes before riding again. Then I made the final mistake – while taking a dinner break was a wise move, the duration of that break was atrocious. When I started after dinner break, I had to cover almost 150 Km with under 8.5 hours left – almost impossible given my energy levels and the impending uphill! I gave it my shot riding fast for the next one hour gaining some time. But just before Jadcherla, the uphill started and slowed me down significantly. I reached the checkpoint at Jadcherla later by about 45 minutes. I now had about 3.5 hours to cover 70 Km, pretty much impossible. Instead of hitting the wall trying to push too hard, I decided to just finish late. After a tea break just before dawn, I dragged myself towards the finish point.

I completed 600 Km in about 41 hours, more than an hour later than allotted time. Net-net, I finished a brevet late for the first time after 13 successful attempts. But who cares – I did complete riding 600 Km and consider completing the last 60+ Km knowing fully well that I will not finish on time as an achievement in itself! The thought of giving up and getting onto a bus or a mini truck to get back to my car crossed my mind several times. It required immense will power to complete in this scenario and glad I was able to do it.

  

A winter vacation at UAE

Posted by Santh

I have transit through the middle east several times while traveling to the US during the last 15 years. But my experience of the Arabian deserts was limited to aerial views while landing and takeoff from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. That changed this winter when we visited the UAE during Christmas time. And my dear friend Sudeep and his family made it a trip to cherish forever!

I usually plan my trip with day to day details well in advance but with my friend around for more than half the trip, I decided to take it as it comes. We landed at Dubai after a 3 hour flight, whizzed part immigration, collected our baggage and met my friend at the arrival. After a quick check-in at Towers Rotana in Dubai Downtown, we went for a fantastic drive around Dubai. It was a foggy day and with cold weather, it was difficult to imagine that we were in the middle of a desert!

The first stop was Atlantis and it was exciting to watch our progress through Palm Jumeirah on Google Maps. An absolute dream on a man-made wonder!

  

The next stop was Jumeirah beach beside Burj-Al-Arab. The fog that day made it look like a haunted tower!

It was then time for the show at Dolphinarium, a great experience seeing three dolphins perform some amazing tricks! After dinner at Saravana Bhavan, which became our regular dining place for the entire trip, we wrapped up the day for some well deserved rest!

I woke up the next day keeping my fingers crossed on fog conditions! I had booked tickets online for Burj Khalifa at 10:30AM and it would be worthwhile only if I could see the city from the top of the Burj! I went for a run on the treadmill and saw the dawn through a bit of fog. I hoped that the sun would clear-up the fog but it turned out to be wishful thinking. As we headed out to Dubai mall, the fog got worse and as we got to the top of Burj Khalifa, we only got to see the shadow of Burj Khalifa on the clouds below! Still, the experience of traveling up the tower on high speed elevator and just being inside the top of the tower in itself were moments to cherish. I have seen several tall buildings around the world but I should admit that Burj Khalifa is the epitome of modern architecture. The sight of a thin tower rising beyond the clouds is awe-inspiring!

      

We spent the rest of the day at Dubai mall – a true shoppers paradise. You name a top global brand and you will find it at this mall in all its glory. Dubai mall is not just about shopping – the gold BMW, Fashion Avenue, human waterfall, dinosaur display and a lot more makes it an indoor theme park! We watched the Dubai Fountain and called it a day.

    

Having covered modern Dubai for two days, it was time to explore old Dubai on day three. We headed towards Dubai creek and started with Gold Souk. It was a fascinating sight to see rows of gold shops with display of huge gold jewelry, they were not ornaments but full size dresses made out of gold! A 5-kg gold ring with a Guinness certificate accompanying it was the highlight. We continued onto Spice Souk. I could not recognize most of the spices from all over the middle east that were of all vibrant colors. We then took an abra, a traditional boat across the creek and walked along the creek to the sight of a heritage village under construction. We then walked through Textile Souk and surprised to see a Hindu temple beside a mosque. We spent some time at Dubai museum and walked through beautiful lanes in Al-Fahidi historical area.

            

After some rest in the afternoon, we headed again to Dubai mall for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and night view of Burj Khalifa.

We headed to Abu Dhabi the next day and my friend drove through a foggy morning to pick us up enroute to the capital city of UAE. We had booked an overnight stay at the Emirates Zoo, for what promised to be an exciting stay beside the giraffe and zebra enclosure! But before that, we headed to the Emirates Auto museum to take a look at the fabulous collection of cars owned by the Rainbow Sheik! The drive along Sheik Zayad Road or E11, the most important highway running North-South along the entire length of UAE was amazing. It was an experience driving through the newly widened road with Google Maps still showing the old exits. And that led to us missing an exit and we ended up driving an extra 100Km in pursuit of the next exit! I felt guilty as the failed navigator but we saw some extraordinary sights of the barren desert during this drive!

          

After lunch at Yas Mall and a sneak peek into Ferrari World, we were back at the zoo to enjoy the rest of the day. We started early the next day to Ras-Al-Khaimah to get an amazing insight into real Arab heritage. As we drove through E11, the white desert sands of Abu Dhabi gave way to the red tinge of RAK sands! I have seen stray dogs and stray cows on Indian roads but never stray camels!!!

    

After spending some time at my friends place at the beautiful Al-Hamra village, we headed towards Jebel-Jais, the tallest mountains of the UAE. It felt like we landed on the moon, it was moonscape at its very best!

      

We then headed for the final program of our trip – for an evening in the real desert at Bedouin Oasis. Had a great time with dune bashing, sand boarding and some belly dancing!

      

After a long morning walk with my friend along the coastline of Ras-Al-Khaimah, it was time to head to the airport to board my flight back to India. A great winter vacation to one of the largest deserts in the world made prosperous by global oil-economy!

Autumn weekend at Goa

Posted by Santh

I was looking for a destination to relax and reenergize while wrapping up Dussera vacation. After exploring a few options, settled down on Goa – a place that always has something new to offer even after several visits during the last fifteen years. For the uninitiated, Goa is a narrow strip of land sandwiched between Arabian Sea and Western Ghats, boasting a combination of pristine and party beaches. With its history of being a Portuguese colony for several centuries, you get a very different feel from the rest of India. It is truly an Indian paradise for visitors with its tourist friendly environment and the small state being entirely dependent on tourism helps as well.

Goa has two distinct halves. North Goa with the beaches of Candolim, Calangute and Baga is highly commercialized and ideal for party goers. South Goa is relatively quiet with the beaches of Colva, Benaulim and Mobor ideal for a family vacation. The only time I visited North Goa was almost ten years back as part of a business offsite. South Goa was more familiar to me and I decided to explore a bit of the North this time.

We landed at Goa airport on a Friday evening and surprised to see the relatively new airport already bursting at its seams with holiday crowd arriving for the long weekend! it took almost two hours to cover less than 35 Km from the airport to my hotel at Candolim with bumper to bumper traffic particularly around the Goan capital, Panaji. It was past 9:30PM and was wondering if we will be able to get some dinner but how wrong I was! The night was still young and as we were enjoying dinner at a Grill with a live band, we could see young couples on ubiquitous Honda Activas riding towards their party destinations.

I am not the party type but a runner! I had planned to run along North Goa beaches during the two mornings of stay. Covered 5 Km on the first morning running from Candolim to Aguada and back. After breakfast and a break, decided to walk along the beach again to Aguada fort. Stopped at one of the beach side shacks for a tasty lunch of fresh seafood. It was the fag end of monsoon season and rain was always in the air. While the sun held on all morning, it started drizzling towards the evening and had to hurry up to cover Aguada fort before the rain. I remember the fort from my visit ten years back and the imposing views made it a worthwhile visit again.

      

Took a local bus back from Aguada to Candolim and it was an interesting experience seeing how the local transport economy worked. Finally, had dinner at a trendy restaurant on Candolim Beach Road with the highlight being the Goan dessert called bebinca.

The next morning was time to cover the other side of Candolim – ran about 7 Km from Candolim covering Calangute and Baga. The persistent drizzle made it a bit difficult but more painful was the sight of garbage strewn all along the beaches. I wish the tourists are a bit more sensible and conscious about keeping the surroundings clean. I hope we learn this aspect from the west even as we adopt other cultural and aspirational aspects.

After breakfast, it was time to wrap up and head to the airport. The same distance took much lesser time now. Said good bye to Goa with some memories to cherish till the next visit – hope it does not take another five years like this time!

Hyderabad Marathon 2017

Posted by Santh

After the ordeal of Chennai Marathon in Jan ’17, I thought I will not put my body through the torture of a full marathon again. I was not in a good shape for Chennai Marathon as I had to deal with back to back health issues for two weeks before it and I barely recovered before the event. Anyways, in a couple of weeks, the thoughts of ordeal disappeared and only the pride of completing the marathon remained. In Feb ’17, I completed a half marathon as part of Hyderabad Club Run just a day after completing one of my 200 Km brevet ride with less than 10 hours between those events. That gave me confidence on my fitness and readiness to continue challenging myself.

I typically start preparing for Hyderabad full marathon about four months before the event. With all the travels this year, I could not start preparations in the earnest till mid June, giving me just over two months to prepare. However, I continued to clock several 10K runs on a weekly basis that kept me in touch though that distance typically will not be sufficient for a full marathon preparation. Net-net, I planned to making the decision on registering for full marathon based on a couple of long runs.

Practice Run 1 (Pachavati) – 11 Jun:

As I was returning back from vacation, I saw a post on one of the WhatsApp groups about a run at Panchavati park. I never heard about this park near Shamshabad Airport. I thought it is a good opportunity to start my preparation for the marathon. The park was a bit disappointing but the weather was beautiful. A full loop of the park was exactly 4 Km. I planned to do five or six loops to make it a half marathon distance. But after four loops, I decided to end the run and have my breakfast. I had completed 16 Km in 1:50 @ 6:47 min/km. It was decent but did not help me decide whether I was ready to register for a full marathon.

Practice Run 2 (Heritage Run) – 18 Jun:

Due to a last minute change in the route for Heritage Run in 2016, I missed the real beauty of the event passing through Golconda Fort and Qutb Shahi tombs. With no late surprises this time and pleasant weather, I enjoyed the run tremendously. My Strava showed that I completed the half marathon in 2:17 hours, which would be my second best timing. That was enough for me to register for the full marathon the same day!

    

Practice Run 3 (Hussain Sagar loops) – 2 Jul:

With no group runs in the vicinity, I wanted to log some hours of running and decide the best place to do it would be around the scenic Hussain Sagar lake. I did not feel fully fit and started with the target of three loops which will make it around 27 Km. But I managed to complete only two loops and took 2:14 hours.

Practice Run 4 (Hussain Sagar loops again) – 16 Jul:

After two weeks, I completed the pending loop and took 3:23 hours to complete 27.7 Km. Though it was flat terrain, I was happy to have logged more than 25 Km!

Practice Run 5 (Alankrita Run) – 30 Jul:

With just two long runs possible before the d-day, I wanted to push myself towards the 30 Km mark. My first attempt was during Alankrita run. But it was a hot day and I was done-done by 9:30 AM managing to complete 28.8 Km in 3:51 hours.

Practice Run 6 (Marathon dry run) – 6 Aug:

The long awaited 30 Km run finally came on the dry run day. I wanted to start running by 4:30 AM to log about 9 Km before starting with the large group that had assembled for the dry run. But I could start running only at 4:53 AM and managed to log 6 Km before joining the group for the dry run. I continued running after the finish point to make it 30 Km. I was happy to have achieved that milestone for the first time as part of marathon practice in three years!

Airtel Hyderabad Marathon – 20 Aug:

I felt ready for the big Sunday after all the long runs behind me! I collected my bib on Friday at the Expo and also bought four Fast&Up energy gels from the stalls hoping they will help sustain my energy levels. I also carried a 20g protein bar (Yoga Bar – chocolate brownie) that appeared to have kept me in good stead during the dry run. Along with all of these, I also carried my own bottle of Gatorade to avoid jostling with the crowd at water stations. I stuffed myself with two chappatis at 3:30 AM and arrived at the start point around 4:30 AM. I had rained the previous evening and the cloudy weather promised to make it a delightful run. The marathon was flagged off at 5 AM and I started running, still wondering how well I will finish.

I had planned to maintain a steady pace instead of starting fast and progressively slowing down. I maintained a pace of around 7 min/Km for the first 13 Km, covering it in about 1.5 hours without stopping or walking. I gulped down the first gel as I walked up Panjagutta flyover and prepared myself for the climb for the next 10 Km. My pace came down on the climb but I was able to sustain running. I was able to reach the half way mark in about 2.5 hours. At this point, my timing was similar to the last two Hyderabad marathons but unlike the previous attempts I felt quite fresh for more. It was a great feeling for which I should thank FastnUp gel and gatorade. I had the second gel at 22 Km mark and increased my pace over the next 2 Km of downhill. As I crossed the 26 Km mark, I felt the need for my protein bar and had half of it. That’s when I noticed someone clicking a picture. An odd one with a mouthful of chocolate!

I took a 5 min break at the top of Gachibowli flyover (27 Km) to stretch my muscles. This was a key milestone as I found it difficult to continue running after this point during my previous marathons. After a bit of relaxation, I started running and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to continue running. It was about 3.5 hours since I started running and I had another 15 Km to cover. I now believed that I can complete the marathon in less than 6 hours!

As I took the left turn at IIIT and come to the end of the last climb, I finished my third gel and raced down microsoft hill. I reached 32 Km point in about 4 hrs 10 mins. By that time, my gatorade bottle was empty and got it filled up with Fast&Up reload at a water station. I was ready to push through the last 10 Km and told myself that I should be able to finish in less than 6 hours unless I mess it up from there. Pleasant weather was also holding up. So, overall I felt better at 32 Km mark than any previous marathon. Soon after, I finished the remaining protein bar and continued running at about 8.5 min/Km.

At 36 Km point, took the right turn towards Hyderabad Central University and gulped down the last energy gel. It was a little under 5 hours and I told myself that I should push myself to continue running to finish strong. But I could not sustain running after that and started to mix it up with walking for the next 4 Km. As I exit HCU campus at 40 Km point, I started running again and was surprised that I could manage running continuously. I gathered all remaining energy and called upon my will power to finish in 5 hrs 47 mins. It was my best full marathon time and the first under 6 hours! A marathon that made me feel really good and am ready for more!

My Programming Toolkit

Posted by Santh

I got back to being a technologist in early 2013 after years of focusing on my career as a “Technology” Manager. I got to do some coding in Python at work but more interesting was the time I spent over weekends playing around with open source languages and tools at home.

This is when I read “The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master” by Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas – a book I should have read at the beginning of my career. It nevertheless gave me several “aha” moments as I connected with the basic mistakes I committed as a programmer. In particular, I enjoyed the chapters around “The Basic Tools”. I remembered how I always used vi as my code editor and carried my personalized vimrc profile along with unix-like command like interface for Windows.

I created my own development environment and enjoyed the weekends and holidays working on my personal pet projects. This carried on for about 2 years but after I signed up for a new job, I started to focus on setting up things at work and could not spend time on my personal technology projects. After about three years, I logged back into my personal development environment. I started with upgrading Eclipse and VirtualBox to latest versions. Surprisingly, I did not feel as rusty as I did three years back.

The list of installed software I had documented helped a bit but realized it will be more helpful for future to also document the nitty gritties involved while going through the setup. Hence this blog!

My tools:

IDE: Eclipse – having started my career as a Java developer and wanting to setup my personal development environment with 100% open source stack, Eclipse was a natural choice. I was amazed at how the ecosystem had matured over the years, with excellent plug-ins to deal with all development needs. A far cry from the days I was a programmer when I had to write code using gvim, compile on the commandline and debug using print statements!

Editor: vi (Vrapper plug-in) – I believe in “The Power of Plain Text” and appreciate an editor that forces discipline. During my early programming days, it was annoying to use vi with the constant switching between editing and command modes. But after I got used to it, I am yet to find a basic editor to beat it! Vrapper plugin brings in the power of vi to Eclipse code editor.

Source code version control: git – EGit plug-in provides git integration for Eclipse. I started my career with cvs but this is one area that has evolved over the years with git emerging as the leading open-source distributed version control system.

Language plug-ins:

Java: JDT – Eclipse started with Java and I always installed it with JDT by default.

Python: Pydev

PHP: PHP Development Tools (PDT)

Virtualization: Oracle VirtualBox – helped me get back in touch with unix / linux. And also enables to test java programs in linux environment. I have Ubuntu desktop on my virtualbox.

Unix-like command line interface: Cygwin

Git repository sharing: SCM Server

Desktop sharing: TeamViewer

Document editor: LibreOffice

LAMP stack runtime: XAMPP

Cycling events from Jan – Jul ’17

Posted by Santh

After completing my Super Randonneur series in December ’16, I was tired of cycling and took a break from it for a few weeks. During my rides over the next six months, I realized that the overnight brevets that made me a Super Randonneur also subconsciously changed my riding style and pattern. My body is always prepared for the long haul and is ready to endure non-stop biking for hours together. But this increase in stamina came at the cost of speed as I found it increasingly difficult to increase pace as in the past. I noticed similar pattern with my running as well.

My first long ride was TAF Republic Ride that I finished third year in a row. Significantly slower this year, with a couple of riders from my office finishing before me unlike the previous two years!

I had completed only three 200 Km brevets between Nov ’14 to Nov ’16 and used to consider them as events that require a lot of preparation. But after completing the Super Randonneur series, I started looking at them as opportunities to get some time for myself to relax and also add some miles for my fitness sake. The next 200 Km brevet was coming up on 18th Feb and as part of preparation, I went on a 100 Km ride the previous Sunday with my friend to Ameenpur lake and Ordnance Factory – some of the most scenic places at Hyderabad!

  

With the summer heat and numerous travels between March and June, my next long ride had to wait till the season’s next 200 KM brevet on 8th July. I had done a couple of relatively small rides during the preceding weekends but no real preparation for the brevet. And the 200 Km this time was the toughest route – Heaven n Hell. I took it easy and decided to use all the time available, still finishing with about 20 minutes to spare.

  

I had not originally planned to take part in 300 Km brevet as we typically we had to ride overnight. Surprisingly, the scheduled start was 6AM, which meant I can complete around mid night and not lose my entire night’s sleep. So, I decided to do it. The week before the ride was filled with rains that made the countryside lush green and it was a refreshing ride. The finish was not so good as I had miscalculated the climb during the last 50 Km and suffered through the last three hours. But all that ends well is good. I did manage to complete 300 Km just under 20 hours, with 9 minutes to spare!

That was my 10th brevet and one remarkable feat is that I managed to finish every one of the brevets that I started! I may not be the fastest rider, but I manage my time well!

              

A week in Europe

Posted by Santh

I enjoy traveling to new places across the world and one of my unfulfilled dreams was to see all the continents before I turned 30! I register the sights and experiences in my head and have not tried documenting them in travelogues. I believe so much in just enjoying the moment that I missed even taking pictures at several iconic places. With my blog going on for over a couple of years now, I have now documented the memories of my Europe vacation.

We booked for a group tour, famously covering six countries (including the tiny principality of Liechtenstein) in less than nine days. The thought of so many countries in such a short time span sounded exotic and hectic. The plan was to visit at least one new city every day, checking into a different hotel every evening for the first six days. With all the excitement, we boarded the plane to Delhi where we transferred to a flight to Milan, Italy.

Day 1 – Arrived at Milan, Italy:

It was 7:30PM local time when we arrived at Malpensa Airport. After immigration, we collected our checked-in bags and got a glimpse of the group of about 50 people with whom we will be spending the next week touring through Europe. After a quick Indian dinner, we checked into first of the four IBIS hotels we will be staying through the tour. I later realized that IBIS was the most ubiquitous hotel in Continental Europe.

Day 2 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa:

The drive from Milan to Pisa usually takes about 4 hours. While the plan was to reach Pisa by 1PM, we arrived only at 4 after being stuck in long-weekend traffic congestion enroute. Given the number of historical monuments I have seen in India, I was originally not very excited about the leaning tower. But that changed as soon as I stepped into the UNESCO World Heritage site and saw the beautiful white marble structure leaning towards my right! No wonder it is one of the wonders of the world!

  

After spending a couple of hours at the site visiting the Cathedral, Baptistery and the leaning tower itself, we got back in the bus for another 3 hour journey to check-in to a Novotel at Bologna. I later found out that Bologna was a historical city by itself, but we stayed at its outskirts and checked out early next morning to proceed to Venice. I did squeeze out thirty minutes for a quick run along Via San Donato.

Day 3 – San Marco, Venice:

We arrived at Venice around 11AM and took a ferry to San Marco. The tour guide gave the history behind San Marco and how the rising ocean levels poses a threat to its existence in the long term. I was excited to see the canal city and the vaporetto stations along the coastline were a treat to the eyes. I clicked several pictures on either side of the ferry as we arrived at the pier.

  

We passed by the Manhattan Fifth Avenue equivalent of San Marco to reach St. Marks’ Square. We took a 45 minute Gandola ride that was one of the best experiences of the tour and wrapped up with lunch at a pizzeria!

  

We now headed North towards the Alps – the most exciting part of the trip. As we drove up the Alps, it was delightful to see the landscape transforming. We arrived at Alpenkonig Tirol, the most awaited hotel stay during the tour! The sights from the hotel were blissful and the rooms themselves were luxurious. With the sun shining well past 9PM, I took the opportunity to go for a run along the Alps. That evening I ran 5K towards south along Auland and Reith bei Seefeld.

    

Day 4 – Swarovski, Vaduz, Rhine Falls & Zurich – Austria, Liechtenstein & Switzerland

The next morning, I ran a similar distance towards north. The views this time were even more spectacular and reminded me of DDLJ – a famous movie during my college days that ran at a Mumbai cinema hall for 20 years!

      

We then arrived at Swarovski World, Tirol. I am not big into jewelry but it was an impressive collection. More interesting was the history of the enterprise.

    

After spending ample time at Swarovski, we headed to the dream destination – Switzerland. One of the tunnels connecting Austria and Switzerland was apparently closed for maintenance, which increased our journey by more than an hour. Apparently, this was a blessing in disguise as the alternate route took us through some of the best views of the Alps.

We stopped enroute for lunch at Vaduz, capital city of a tiny principality called Liechtenstein. It was again time for some margarita pizzas and we proceeded to Rhine Falls. We got onto a boat that took us really close to the falls and I can still feel the spray of cold water as the boat hit the waves!

    

We then went to Zurich and had the best dinner of the tour at Hotel Tadka, followed by check-in at another IBIS. It was late in the evening but I still wanted to go for a run. When I found out that Zurich lake was just about 3Km from the hotel, it was enough motivation for me to try to get a glimpse of the lake!

  

Day 5 – Mt Titlis & Lucerne

Seeing snow was one of the motivations for the tour and the splendid views of Titlis glacier was something I was looking for. The rain at Engelberg turned into snowfall at Mt Titlis and the accompanying clouds hid the landscape. It was a little disappointing but I told myself that I would choose snowfall at the glacier to the views any day! It was quite cold but we got accustomed after about half an hour. We spent some unforgettable time at the glacier, cliff walk, glacier walk, ice flyer and skiing!

After a two hour drive, we arrived at Lucerne, a beautiful lake city. We were dropped at the lake front and given a couple of hours to spend at the lake. I pulled out my google maps to find out nearby places to visit and found quite a few of them. We started with the church of St Leodegar, then visited the Lion Monument and came back to the lake front walking along the Historic Wall.

          

After dinner we checked into another IBIS, this time at Mulhouse, France.

Day 6 – Lake Titisee, Germany

After a quick run in the morning at Mulhouse, we headed to Lake Titisee to get a glimpse of Germany. As we arrived at the lake, we were engulfed by a thunderstorm that left everything flying around us. We got into a restaurant and the rain stopped after 15 minutes or so. It was a good place for a few nice pictures.

We got into the bus for the longest road journey of the tour – over seven hours to Paris! We checked into another IBIS at Paris with some tasty south Indian packed dinner waiting for us.

Day 7 – Paris

We started around 10:30 in the morning and headed straight to Eiffel Tower. It was a magnificent sight and views from the top of the tower were spectacular! After a quick lunch, we got onto a quick bus tour of Paris. We passed through the Arch of Triumph, Champs-Elysees, Concord Square, Obelisk, Place Vendome, Invalides, Louvre museum, etc. It was amazing to see numerous monuments of historical significance within a small area!

We wrapped up the day on a cruise along River Seine with an expectation to see the Eiffel Tower under lights. Though we passed through the tower around 10PM, it was still not fully dark but the sight of Eiffel tower lit up fully was still an unforgettable view!

Day 8 – Return to India

We checked out late on the final day and given the flight to Delhi was only at 10PM, we got five hours to shop at Aeroville – a shopping mall near Paris airport. After a mediocre South Indian lunch and whiling away some time window shopping, we got to the airport and bid adieu to Paris!