Change your point of view

Wrote this long back ...

Yet another day gone
As the same thoughts passed by,
Does HE even care for me ?
I had a thousand reasons to cry.

Walked past a noisy traffic,
Tired I was like hell !!
How long will I have to wait for the bus ?
I wish if some one could tell.

The bus did come and I pushed myself in.
Packed till the eyes could see
Just then I locked eyes with a man,
Smiling so broadly at me.

Was there really something so amusing ?
I was finding that gesture too rude ..
Was he laughing at my misery or had we ever met before ?
That's all a negative mind could conclude

"Ohh GOD !! was I going to curse this man ?"
As if the sky fell on my head !!
He had taught me an important lesson,
With not a single word said.

On one end there was me, STANDING
Frowning for having no seat.
And on the other end was this man, SEATED
Though to stand, he had no feet !!

There were a hundred new thoughts,
Now running through my mind.
How wrong I was to call HIM rude,
When actually to me, HE had been so kind.

With so much pain all around,
Yet people manage to smile.
Is there really a scope for complaints,
Even if I had to walk a mile ?

So next time on a rough day,
When life comes hard on you.
You'll still have plenty to smile about,
Just change your point of view.

~Piyush.

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batch watermarking using convert command in Linux

Imagemagick is a very handy tool in linux to do a whole lot of things with images like cropping, resizing, frames, borders, watermark, compositing multiple images, etc. And with an easy to understand command line interface, it becomes easier to write a small shell script which could process images in a batch mode. I keep taking a lot of snaps and I want all the images to be watermarked with "Abeer Arts" and a nice frame around the picture to add to its beauty. I had a software called "Batch Watermarker" in Windows but the executable got corrupted with some virus (Windows sucks !!!) and I had already accumulated a huge backlog of images to be watermarked. Then I switched to linux mode and did a little bit of searching on google for watermarking with imagemagick library and finally wrote a small shell script which makes a frame around the image and also puts a text watermark. Here is the script:

if test -d $1
then
  for f in $(ls $1 | grep .jpg)
  do
    echo $f
    convert $f -font Gentium-Regular -pointsize $2 -draw "gravity southeast fill black text -5,12 'Watermark text' fill white text 0,5 'Watermark text'" $f
    convert -mattecolor black -frame 15x15+5+5 $f $f
    convert +raise 30x30 $f $f
  done
fi

$1 -> first command line argument giving the directory location containing the images
$2 -> pointsize which defines the size of the watermark text over the image

I kept the name of the script "abeerify" ;) To run the script, copy the scipt to /usr/bin and change the permissions to 755. Then on command prompt type:

/> abeerify folderpath 65
where 65 is the font size for the watermark text.

The Qutub Minar

Went to Qutub Minar with relatives last weekend and badly missed my digital camera. The plan was made randomly and nothing was planned otherwise I would have definitely brought my camera along with me. Anyway, cellphone comes handy at such situations and I managed to click a few snaps. The reflection of minar in the glass could have been much better with the digital camera.

Software Analyst to Senior Design Engineer ..

Monday, 6th June, 2005 was the day I started my professional career at KritiKal Solutions, IIT Delhi (now based in Noida). I had done an internship in GE Bangalore so I was kind of used to the corporate environment but life in a startup is different and difficult. I still very distinctly remember my first day in office which was more like a computer lab than any office. I had been alloted a system but there was no chair at my desk for me. Kapil, our then BD Manager (now the CEO of KritiKal SecureScan) smiled at me and said, "You might have to search for a chair for yourself here, Welcome to KritiKal Solutions !". I was ready for the journey ahead. Our office in IIT Delhi incubation unit was a very small room where 8-10 people used to sit and then there was an embedded systems "laboratory" upstairs of almost the equal size. The strength of the company was around 15-20 people then. Now we are around 65-70 from both our offices (KSPL and KSS). The head count is still less for a company which is 6 years old now. 3 years in my first company... is it an achievement ? a milestone ? I don't know. But definitely, its a gr8 feeling to be associated with KritiKal for so long. Many people joined and left the company, we shifted to new offices, started a product company (KritiKal SecureScan), I have seen it all. And I continue to deliver and put all my efforts to take KritiKal to new heights. KritiKal has been my passion since the time I joined. I do have complaints too, but then, matters of the family are not mentioned in public ;)

Its been a great experience working in KritiKal. There are always risks associated with a startup. But the growth as a professional is immense and very fast. There are various other responsibilities apart from your coding. Interviews, counsellings, client meetings, demonstrations, project management, team management, organizing and managing events, I have learnt so much in these 3 years at KritiKal.

When I left Hyderabad, it was a tough emotional decision for me to shift to north. My best friends were all in Hyderabad. In fact, even my school friends who were close to me had got jobs in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. Initially it was difficult for me to stay so far away from my friends. We formed a cultural club - KalaKriti at KritiKal where some of the more culturally active members of the company took responsibility of organizing various events in the company from time to time. While preparing for the annual day celebrations of 2007 together as a team, I got an opportunity to know my colleagues better personally. That was a great thing to have happened. That was the time when I became friends with a lot of people in KritiKal. Our annual day for 2008 is just round the corner and its time we all geared up once again for a lot more masti and fun :)

I could go on writing and the words would never stop coming. I just want to thank each and every person at KritiKal (past and present , KSS and KSPL) for making my stay such a wonderful experience at the company so far. 3 years .. oops .. 3 cheers to KritiKal !! :)

Copying files in C++

Long time no blogging ! :)

I wanted to copy the contents of one file to another file in C++ in my project and was looking for the most easiest and convenient way of doing it on the net. Finally zeroed in on the following way (found it on some other blog):

#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    ifstream inFile("input.txt");
    ofstream outFile("output.txt");

    outFile << inFile.rdbuf();

    return 1;
}