windows on S Anand

Things I Learned - 23 Mar 2025

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This week, I learned:

If we can DESCRIBE what good looks like, training data is no gap. We can auto optimise models towards that. That’s RLF. DeepSeek R1 side stepped the need for training data by creating reward functions and prompts. This tells the fine tuning process how to go correct as it goes along. This video is the first one that really help me understand what’s going on.
I was born in the Ananda year in the Tamil and Telugu calendars. ChatGPT
Andrej Karpathy’s note taking mechanism is similar to mine, except I use Microsoft TODO. Ref
- I have 3 categories. Things I learnt, which I just note. Things to explore, which I can delegate, defer, drop, or do at any time. Things to do, which are the hardest and pile up.
Alexander Doria shares an interesting perspective on the app space. Model is the product
- Models are natively absorbing app capability and will become killer systems internalising workflows like Chat, Deep Research, Claude Code, Operator, etc. to wipe out the apps and workflow space. Models will “internalize” tool capabilities
- Opinionated or focused training will be a lever and model providers will acqui-hire the successful trainers
- API access from model providers will shrink. Selling tokens is not a viable business model given lowering costs
The huggingface_hub cache-system uses symlinks by default to efficiently store duplicated files. To support symlinks on Windows, you either need to activate Developer Mode or to run Python as an administrator.
In Windows, you can enable offline files for any SMB share via: Control Panel → Sync Center → Manage offline files and turn on the feature. Then, in File Explorer, right‑click the mapped network folder or drive and select “Always available offline.”
OpenAI now supports PDFs natively in the API. (Gemini has done so for a while)
Anger is a trigger for change. “Either change yourself or the environment, else you’ll be uncomfortable.”
HocusPocus allows live collaboration e.g. editing together
Block notes is a notion like library for editor components. Converts to Markdown
Oxidizr enables replacing Linux tools with Rust equivalents.
Emoji Kitchen lets you create stickers from emoji combinations.
Another way of scaling LLMs is generating multiple options and self evaluating. Eric Zhao
duckdb -ui launches a DuckDB notebook. This is built into newer DuckDB releases
Monolith downloads web pages as a single HTML file by embedding content.
Archgw is an LLM proxy/router from the makers of Envoy proxy.
There’s an annotated Terry Pratchett!
Gemini API allows YouTube videos as a part. Google
agents.json is a proposal for discovery of agents on a site that enhances the Open API spec: wild-card-ai/agents-json
Since Gemini Flash 2.0 is now an image GENERATION model, interactive VISUAL fiction is now a cool possibility. People are using it in interesting ways: Interleaved storytelling, Memes, Surrealism.

From Calvin & Hobbes to Photo Tagging: Excel's Unexpected Image Capability

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 03:25:30 +0000

In Excel, using Visual Basic, you can change an image as you scroll. This makes it easy to look at each image and annotate it.

This is how I transcribed every Calvin & Hobbes.

I used this technique first when typing out the strips during my train rides from Bandra to Churchgate. I had an opportunity to re-apply it recently when we needed to tag hundreds of photographs based on a set of criteria.

Here’s how you can do this. Note: This works only on Windows.

STEP 1: Create a new Excel workbook and save it as an Excel macro-enabled workbook. (Note: When opening it again, you need to enable macros)

STEP 2: Open File > Options (Alt-F-T), go to Customize Ribbon. Under “Customize the Ribbon”, enable the “Developer” menu.

STEP 3: In Developer > Insert > ActiveX Controls, select Image and draw a rectangle from A1 to J10. (Resize it later.)

STEP 4: By default, this will be called Image1. In any case, note down the name from the Name box on the top left.

STEP 5: In cells A11 onwards, add paths to file names.

STEP 6: Click Developer > Visual Basic (Alt-F11), go to ThisWorkbook, and paste this code:

Option Explicit

Private Sub Workbook_SheetSelectionChange(ByVal Sh As Object, ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
    Dim img As String
    img = Sh.Cells(Target.Row, 1).Value
    If (img <> "" And img <> "file") Then ActiveSheet.Image1.Picture = LoadPicture(img)
End Sub

Replace ActiveSheet.Image1 with ActiveSheet.(whatever) based on your image name in Step 4.

STEP 7: Select Developer > Design Mode. Click on Image1. Then select Developer > Properties. In this panel, under PictureSizeMode, choose 3 - fmPictureSizeModeZoom to fit the picture.

Now scroll through the rows. The images will change.

Comments

Karthik 26 Mar 2024 9:54 am: Everything okay, but you were able to SIT and work on a laptop on train rides from Bandra to Churchgate??
S Anand 26 Mar 2024 12:16 pm: Ah, I took the fast trains that started and ended at Bandra and Churchgate 🙂

Install XAMPP

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:23:29 +0000

I’ve been going around setting up open source software a fair bit recently. To minimise the pain of explaining it, I’m putting together a short videos that explain the process.

Here’s the first, on XAMPP, which is a starting point for most open source applications. It bundles Apache (web server), MySQL (database), Perl and PHP.

To install it, search and download “XAMPP for Windows”, and press enter for every question. Then install your application under C:\xampp\htdocs. That’s it.

Comments

Chandoo 14 Jul 2010 11:32 am: Good one.. Recently I had to install XAMP (no need for Perl, yet..) and I went with Windows Platform Installer. Found it much more simple and easy… http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

Command line alarm

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:37:24 +0000

When I’m in front of my laptop, I usually forget the world around. Sadly, the world around has important things that need to get done on time. Like eating medicines, turning off the washing machine or the hob, etc.

The one thing I’ve been lacking on my machine was a simple alarm system. I’d like to set an alarm to remind me to do something in 5 minutes, for example. And it should be dead simple to set up.

After hunting around a fair for freeware to do this, I’ve finally settled on writing this tiny piece of Visual Basic code.

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
If WScript.Arguments.length < 2 Then
  WScript.Echo "Usage: alarm <time-in-minutes> <message>"
Else
  WScript.Sleep WScript.Arguments.Item(0) * 60 * 1000
  msg = ""
  For i = 1 to WScript.Arguments.Count - 1
      msg = msg + WScript.Arguments.Item(i) + " "
  Next
  WshShell.Popup msg, -1, "Alarm", 64
End If

I’ve saved this as “alarm.vbs” somewhere in my path. When I need to set an alarm, I just type

alarm 5 Turn off the hob

This pops up a window in 5 minutes with the alarm:

This turned out to be a life-saver yesterday. I had to catch a flight at the Bangalore airport, and traffic is notoriously bad. To be on the safe side, I set up the following:

alarm 25 Catch the flight
alarm 30 You really need to go now
alarm 35 You've missed the flight

Turned out to be a wise thing. I ignored the first alarm. On the second, I said “OK, OK, just 1 minute…” and it really took the third alarm to get me going. Just barely made it to the flight.

Comments

Abhijit Sen 10 Feb 2010 12:07 am: Anand. is it required to have a VB client to run this VB script?
408wij 26 Jan 2010 10:28 pm: For us uninformed Americans, hob=stove, right?
Sumit Dhar 25 Jan 2010 1:14 am: Hey Anand, Was it a flight for UK? If you are gonna be back in Bangalore, let us meet up sometime. Cheers, Sumit
Abhijit Sen 12 Feb 2010 1:45 am: Hey Anand. I opened a notepad, copy pasted the above code with the specific number of minutes and message, saved the notepad as Alarm.vbs on my desktop. Nothing happened after the given number of minutes. What am I missing?
S Anand 29 Jan 2010 8:37 am: But isn’t an annoyance the whole point of an alarm?
Anup 28 Jan 2010 12:35 pm: Nice and useful lines. Any clue for sending the annoying window to background…
S Anand 10 Feb 2010 4:49 pm: No, not at all. This comes built in with Windows. Absolutely nothing else required.
Ravi 28 Feb 2010 6:26 pm: You can use gadgets in Vista for. I searched and found one, free.
Ravi 28 Feb 2010 6:30 pm: http://www.puttee.de/ I tried this Anand, works like a charm..
Ravi 14 Feb 2010 7:11 am: @Abhijit - You dont have to specify the minutes and message in the .vbs file. Just save it as it is in a folder. You will have to write the command from the same directory on the DOS Prompt. The command “Alarm x message” takes the minutes and the message as the input and displays them when it runs Alarm.vbs I made this change to the script since I got error in executing the original one. CHANGED “If WScript.Arguments.length < 2 Then” TO “If WScript.Arguments.length < 2 Then” (Message can only be without spaces with this change)
Ramki 19 Jun 2010 5:01 am: I am using WinXP and could not get the script to work with the following line and had to change it as shown below after getting clue from Ravi’s comment: CHANGED “If WScript.Arguments.length < 2 Then” TO “If WScript.Arguments.length < 2 Then”

Ubuntu 8.10 on a Dell Latitude D420

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Here’s the fastest way I’ve found to install Ubuntu on a USB flash drive, for my Dell Latitude D420. (Pendrivelinux.com is a great resource for this sort of thing.)

Ingredients

One large USB flash drive like this one. Not less than 4GB. I’d suggest 8GB or more
One CD (not a DVD)
Ubuntu 8.10 desktop CD ISO
IMGBurn or any other CD burning software
Direct Internet via LAN cable (without proxy, without wireless)

Installation

Burn the Ubuntu ISO file on the CD
Press F12 when the laptop boots up, and select CD/DVD Drive as the boot device
On the Ubuntu splash screen, select “Try Ubuntu without making any change to your computer” and wait
Insert the flash drive
Go to System > Administration > Create a USB startup disk and follow instructions there
Once done, remove the CD and reboot using the USB flash drive (pressing F12 during the boot sequence)

To enable wireless, which won’t work by default

Connect to the Internet using a LAN cable
Go to System > Administration > Hardware devices
Select the Broadcom LAN driver, and activate it

That’s it. It’s been a fairly painless installation.

I do have one big crib. I planned to use Hibernation (or suspend-to-disk on Ubuntu) to switch between Windows and Ubuntu. But there are a couple of problems:

Hibernate doesn’t work on Ubuntu. I need to reboot Ubuntu every time, and that takes 3 minutes
When Windows is hibernating, Ubuntu can’t access any files on the hard disk

This means switching between Ubuntu and Windows is roughly a 6 minute shutdown-one-OS-reboot-the-other process rather than the 1-minute hibernate-one-OS-resume-the-other that I had had hoped for.

Another minor problem I have is that our Exchange server doesn’t seem to have an IMAP interface, at least that I know of. So I can’t check mail. But like I said, it’s minor. I just forward mails from my BlackBerry to GMail.

Comments

deeaycee 19 Jan 2009 10:50 am: Your post is how I got my wireless working. Thank you.
I’m also using a Dell D420. I have 8.10 on a 8g Attache flash drive. I ran into a problem while updating. I’m stuck at kernel 2.6.27-7 and it should be updating to 2.6.27-11. The error it gives has something to do with running from a live-cd. After some research, I found that there is a bug that prevents solid updates from the live-cd. The work-around is to actually do a real install to the flash drive from the live-cd. This presents another problem/bug. The only way to see the flash drive during the install is to disconnect the hd, so the install prg doesn’t see it. It was suggested to physically disconnect the hd, but I wonder if it could be done temporarily through the bios. I’ll try this later today. I haven’t even thought about the hibernation/suspend issues yet. Good luck!
ActionParsnip 30 May 2010 10:22 pm: orks 100% OOTB with Ubuntu Lucid.

Launching applications

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Opening programs from the Start - All Programs menu is painful. For many years, I relied on the quick launch bar.

But it’s space constrained. There are only so many applications you can place there. I want space enough for frequently used documents as well. Recently, I decided that I need all the space on the screen. So my task bar is on auto hide, and that makes the quick launch bar a little tougher to use as well. And finally, I can’t use the quick launch bar with the keyboard. That’s important.

So I switched to the pinned menus on the Start Menu.

This works better with the keyboard. I access Word, I just type the Ctrl-Esc, W. Excel: Ctrl-Esc, E. But I run short of letters soon. I have trouble between Powerpoint and processing, for instance. And I can’t store documents.

I tried Enso Launcher and Launchy, both of which are great products, but I just can’t stand the thought of them hogging up all the memory that they do. Launchy in particular.

Given that I almost always have one or two command prompts open, I write my own little tool to do the job now. It’s a command line launcher I’ve written in Perl. I call it “o”. At the first run, it indexes my hard disk. (Well, not all of it. I’ve picked what I need.) Now, if I want to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I just type:

> o harry potter hallows

If I wanted to pick a Harry Potter book, I could:

> o harry potter
    0: D:/Entertainment/Books/Hugo Awards/2001 - J K Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire.rar
    1: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.1.Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.pdf
    2: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.2.Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.pdf
    3: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.3.Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.pdf
    4: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.4.Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.doc
    5: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.5.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.pdf
    6: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.6.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.pdf
    7: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.7.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.pdf
    8: D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.The Harry Potter Encyclopedia.doc
    9: D:/My Pictures/2005-06 London/2005-07-16 06 Waterstones Oxford Street Harry Potter release.JPG
    ... more
> (0-9, q, any word): prince
D:/Entertainment/Books/J K Rowling.6.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.pdf

The program lists the files matching the words I typed, and lets me filter within that.

I just wrote this yesterday, and already, I’ve used it dozens of times. Here’s the source.

PS: While I was at it, I downloaded a Flickr uploader for Perl. So I can now upload images with the command line. This easily saves me at least 5 minutes per article.

Comments

Karthik A 2 Aug 2008 12:00 pm: Oc here
I got equally bugged long back and wrote a python program called fo (folder opener ;-)

Here it is - crude but worked pretty well \
@setlocal enableextensions & python -x %~f0 %* & goto :EOF \
import os
import ConfigParser
import sys

CONFIGFILENAME = “config.ini”
CONFIGFILENAME1 = “config1.ini”
cleanInp = ‘’
scuth = {}
\
Load all the config file details in a hash \
cfgFile = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
cfgFile.read(CONFIGFILENAME)
cfgFileFP = open(CONFIGFILENAME,‘r+’)

scuts = cfgFile.items(“shortcuts”)

\
load into a dictionary \
for (x,y) in scuts:
scuth[x]=y

print “““Folder and file rapid opener (FO)
————————————
Ctrl-Alt-C - to start
@shortcut,path - to add a shortcut
x - exit
————————————”””

while cleanInp != ‘x’:
inp = raw_input(“Your wish Master!:”)
cleanInp = inp.strip()
if cleanInp.find(’@’) == -1:
try:
os.startfile(scuth[cleanInp])
except:
pass
else:
tmp = cleanInp.split("@")[1]
tmp1 = tmp.split(",")
cfgFile.set(“shortcuts”,tmp1[0], tmp1[1])
cfgFile.write(cfgFileFP)
q
Sathish 2 Aug 2008 12:00 pm: Anand,

Did you try slickrun.. It is extremely slick..
S Anand 2 Aug 2008 12:00 pm: @OC: Hey, didn’t realise you were into python. Neat!

@Sathish: How much memory does Slickrun use up? Given some of the apps I’m running on my 1GB laptop, I’m having to count each byte!
oracle 2 Aug 2008 12:00 pm: The method I use:

enable google desktop by ctrl-ctrl

in the search bar first few alphabets of the app..invariably it shows me the app i need.
Saurabh 2 Aug 2008 12:00 pm: I used to use Launchy before switching to Mac an year book and have been using QuickSilver since then. Dont use the Apple Spotlight, neither the Google Desktop thing..QS does all the work - launching apps, searching for files and quickly accessing them, a nice article abt a great QS trick (for Mac users) here : http://www.43folders.com/2005/06/13/quicksilver-the-comma-trick

BTW Processing.org seems to be interesting, plan to check it out soon!

Cheers!
S Anand 11 Aug 2008 5:35 am: @Sathish: 7MB is not too bad. Launchy was taking up over 25MB in my case.

No to all in Windows

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Windows has a “Yes to all” in some of its dialogs – for example when replacing files. Here’s how you can simulate a “No to all”. (Just shift-click the “No” button).

If you forgot your Windows password

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:00:00 +0000

If you’ve forgotten your Windows password, but you’re still logged in as an administrator, you can change your Windows password without confirmation of the old password.

If you’re forgotten your Windows password, and not logged in, you can still access your system using a little known hole in Windows XP. Check Vic Ferri’s article on I Forgot My Administrator Password.

Comments

windows 7 Mar 2009 2:51 am: Forgot Your Windows Password? A lot of people think that after having lost their Windows admin password, they absolutely have to reinstall their OS. Let me tell you something: They are wrong! Here I’m posting a few methods / utilities which can be used to recover Windows password: 1st Method: The first thing which you check if you forget login password. When we install Windows, it automatically creates an account “Administrator” and sets its password to blank. So if you have forget your user account password then try this: Start system and when you see Windows Welcome screen / Login screen, press + and Del keys twice and it’ll show Classic Login box. Now type “Administrator” (without quotes) in Username and leave Password field blank. Now press Enter and you should be able to log in Windows. Now you can reset your account password from “Control Panel -> User Accounts”. Same thing can be done using Safe Mode. In Safe Mode Windows will show this in-built Administrator account in Login screen. 2th Method: There are many 3rd party utilities which claim to recover forgotten Windows password: Windows Password Recovery Tool Service: windowspasswordsrecovery.com Windows Password Recovery Tool is a program that works instantly to remove any lost or forgotten password. Simply boot your PC from the supplied Boot CD, and get access to forgotten Windows and administrator passwords in just seconds. Their method is so much faster/easier, and works great! http://windowspasswordsrecovery.com
zhuismile 13 Jun 2010 8:36 am: Can’t remember your windows xp admin password?Windows password key 8.0 has a neat trick that will get you back in.This method is easy for everyone to follow. Download the utility from http://sn.im/xd5sa and install it then burn the software to a CD/USB drive,then insert the newly created CD/USB drive to your locked pc and reboot your computer,then press “F2” to enter your BIOS setup,following the instruction to reset your lost windows password.

No registry cleaners

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Why I don’t use a registry cleaner

Boot up Windows before you log in

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Boot up Windows before you log in.

Folder Size 2.1

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Folder Size lets you see the size of folders in Windows Explorer. Useful to find out where all the junk is hidden.

Dr DivX is now open source

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Dr DivX is now open source. You may prefer it to Virtual Dub.

What happens when you Format your C Drive

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 12:00:00 +0000

What really happens when you Format C:.

End of error-message advertising

Wed, 28 May 2003 12:00:00 +0000

The end of error-message advertising. Bonzi has been ordered by the courts to stop advertising popups that look like Windows error messages. I’ve been conned a few times by these too.

The real reason for .NET

Thu, 03 Oct 2002 12:00:00 +0000

The real reason for .NET: taking Windows to UNIX.

Microsoft will reveal Windows source

Tue, 06 Aug 2002 12:00:00 +0000

At last, Microsoft will be revealing its Windows source. Parts of it.

Mac Myths

Fri, 18 Jan 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Mac Myths for Windows users. Incidentally, I didn’t know about Apple’s open source efforts.

Living without Microsoft

Tue, 30 Oct 2001 12:00:00 +0000

They say it is possible. Living without Microsoft.

Why Open Source is better than Windows

Tue, 24 Jul 2001 12:00:00 +0000

David Wheeler’s report shows how open source is quantintatively better than Windows. All it needs is a good user interface, a suite of applications, and a little less fanaticism about keeping it free, in order for it to commercialise.

windows on S Anand

Things I Learned - 23 Mar 2025

From Calvin & Hobbes to Photo Tagging: Excel's Unexpected Image Capability

Comments

Install XAMPP

Comments

Command line alarm

Comments

Ubuntu 8.10 on a Dell Latitude D420

Comments

Launching applications

Comments

@setlocal enableextensions & python -x %~f0 %* & goto :EOF \

Load all the config file details in a hash \

load into a dictionary \

No to all in Windows

If you forgot your Windows password

Comments

No registry cleaners

Boot up Windows before you log in

Folder Size 2.1

Dr DivX is now open source

What happens when you Format your C Drive

End of error-message advertising

The real reason for .NET

Microsoft will reveal Windows source

Mac Myths

Living without Microsoft

Why Open Source is better than Windows