Oracle 10g Installation on Ubuntu

The link problem
The installation process stops midway, complaining about a certain make target having some error message.

Read this post for fixing that :
Here

Thought the post points to an older version of Ubuntu, it works on Gutsy just as good.

Things to do to make it work automatically on each reboot :

1. create a script in init.d, Sample Here

2. Create further links for that script in diff rc.d directories. Remember, the suggested commands in the page referred above are not correct completely. The path needs to be changed. So, check ur box, and then update the path.

3. In the script, there is no reference to the listener start/stop thing, u got to do that urself. So, add ${ORACLE_HOME}/bin/lsnrctl {start|stop} before the dbstart and dbshut respectively.

Here's my copy for reference...

----------------------------
#! /bin/sh -x
#
# Change the value of ORACLE_HOME to specify the correct Oracle home
# directory for your installation.

#ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
ORACLE_HOME=/media/sda8/oracle/product/10.1.0.1
#
# Change the value of ORACLE to the login name of the
# oracle owner at your site.
#
ORACLE=oracle

PATH=${PATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
HOST=`hostname`
PLATFORM=`uname`
export ORACLE_HOME PATH

case $1 in
'start')
${ORACLE_HOME}/bin/lsnrctl start
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORACLE_HOME &
;;
'stop')
${ORACLE_HOME}/bin/lsnrctl stop
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut &
#$ORACLE_HOME &
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop}"
exit
;;
esac
#
exit

----------------------------

4. The files at $ORACLE_HOME/network/logs behave strangely when root tries to start a listener. So, mark them 777 and then the listener control from root works fine.

When i know more, I would post...

Rails Links

Rails Forum
Ruby Forge
Ruby on Rails
Ruby Language
Ruby Doc
Ruby Wiki
Working with Rails
Rails Wiki
Redhill Rails
Bryan on Rails
hikikomori Rails blog

Controllers dont respond when...

I had this problem when the server is running nice and fine, but the controllers wont respond. Look at this post http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?pid=36358.

And then I realized the reason for the problem, quite by chance actually, but I found that the current location while launching the server program did matter.

When I start the server from the application-root directory (.../railsapp/sampleApp/ ) using ./script/server it always works fine.

However, if I start the server from .../railsapp/sampleApp/script using ./server it doesnt work.

I think the trick is that from application-root it seems all the application components and directories etc.

Its not a big thing, though I now wish that it was documented properly somewhere.

cheers
raghav..

Catching up...with rails

Well, I have been reading and experimenting a lot with rails past days.. but didnt really take time out to report anything significant...

First things first, I am deeply interested in this thing now... I am getting more and more into this with each new experiment I come across.

As I mentioned, I have had my experience with web programming, (with Java, J2EE in 2001-2) but that was very different. I was a novice to IT industry in more than one ways... and if I compare what we had to do at that time to make one servlet run on a given app server, current effort looks minuscule. Its just so much more simple.. easy.. I like it.

In the meantime, I have been working on different technologies, really far away from the web world. But, after my brush with ruby, I am actively thinking of getting into more web based app development.

In the days that passed by, I have tried to follow a few tutorials which were really nice starters for me. I list them here...

1. links courtesy Ruby on Rails site (www.rubyonrails.org). These tutorials might be old in time, but they are still excellent starts for ruby on rails
   
1. part 1
2. part 2
3. part 3

And then, I got hold of some books on ruby on rails...

Agile web development with rails 2nd Edition, is a masterpiece for rails starters. May be I liked it more given my background in programming, but I have to say, it just such a nice book... I really have to give the writer guys full marks for putting across such a nice book. Great work guys.. keep it up.

Making the fonts look better on Ubuntu

Hi,

Just found a better way of rendering fonts on Ubuntu..

I was looking for making the fonts look better on my Feisty Fawn. While searching, I hit this - http://jaganath.wordpress.com/2006/07/16/ubuntu-install-log-6-finally-os-x-like-font-rendering-in-linux/

The following page suggests some tips/packages to be installed for better rendering.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1041769&postcount=1

However, I must warn that, after installing the attached files, the system will be BROKEN. Not because what he is suggesting is incorrect in any way, rather just because in Feisty fawn the same packages are

1. available in the repositories
2. available in newer versions.

And therefore, I would suggest installing the packages from the standard Feisty repository. Following commands can be useful -

sudo apt-get install libcairo2 libcairo2-dev libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev libxft2

And, lest I forget to mention, run the following command...

sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config


Hope that its useful. AND, I must say, the suggestion for the fonts settings work excellently.. absolutely great.



have fun
raghav..

Introduction to Rails

Well,

I have worked with C, C++, Java and shell scripts in past. And I never really was looking for learning another programming language till I met Mr Marcel Canclini. Marcel as we all call him, is an ardent Apple fan and been playing around with ruby on rails for a few months now.

I intend to make this a record of what I experience with ruby on a regular basis and how I progress...

Order for installing ruby gems locally

For installing ruby on rails basic framework when u dont have access to internet, you could follow the following order of installing gems...

Install Ruby

Install RubyGems

Install different gems

1. Rake
2. ActiveSupport
3. ActionPack
4. ActionMailer
5. ActiveRecord
6. ActionWebService
7. Rails

Also found some more info on installation of rails when internet connection is actually available. Here's the source of info, the rails wiki site

1. Installing Ruby

1. sudo apt-get install ruby irb ri rdoc ruby1.8-dev build-essential

2. Installing Ruby Gems

1. sudo apt-get install rubygems

3. Installing Rails

1. sudo gem install rails -y

4. Installing MySql

1. sudo apt-get install libmysql-ruby mysql-server libmysqlclient15-dev

2. sudo gem install mysql

Some more documentation on Ubuntu site

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn installation on my HP 6710b

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I have had a tough time getting Ubuntu to install on my HP 6710b. Here I try to list the various sources I referred to, and steps I did to get it working ...

I must mention, most of my experience was guided from this page, Unfortunately, it did not work exactly for me, so I thought the need to write my experience.

Other posts which contributed to my knowledge/experience are

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=488332
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=452697
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=421588
  
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=494601

I thank all the contributors to these posts, since I believe the collective knowledge was what enabled me to finally achieve this installation successfully at the end. Thanks guys :)

1. Download and burn the alternate CD for Feisty. The Live CD does not work, and thus breaks the promise of "works out of the box" for this model.
   
2. While you boot your system with the alternate CD, enter some extra boot parameters
1. Press F6 to get to the options screen
2. In the starting enter break=top
3. Towards the end of the boot parameters, enter irqpoll, acpi=off noacpi pnpbios=off
   
3. After this, your system should boot normally.
4. Now, the text based installer (remember its the alternate CD not Live CD), will install the OS onto your system. However, when it comes to installing/configuring x server, the system bump you to a command prompt.
5. At this point, I ran the following (after making sure that I have the network connectivity - at this point ethernet already works)
   
1. sudo apt-get update
2. sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
3. sudo echo piix >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
4. sudo update-initramfs -u
6. At this point Reboot your system. Since Grub is already installed, you should normally see a boot menu. Choose Ubuntu from there. DO NOT choose Windows for any reason whatsoever.
7. After reboot, you have a working Ubuntu system minus X server. Log in as usual, in the text mode.
8. Perform this sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
9. Now, take backup of your xorg.conf using
   
1. sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bkp
10. Launch the reconfigure command for xserver configuration using sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
11. And, then take the pain of configuring everything manually.. not automatically. Among, the following steps, I am not sure about the sequence of some.. but more or less, gives you an idea of what comes across..
    
1. Be careful, not all options work good with default values, though most of them do.
2. Do not choose to do an auto-detect for your screen. NO.
3. Choose manually everything that you can for your screen. It asks you for a level of configuration that you want to do, and gives options like Simple, Intermediate, Advanced... there choose Simple.
4. Choose a screen size (15" I think)
5. Choose Resolution.. Careful to choose the widescreen resolutions
6. Decide on memory to be allocated. I chose 256MB
7. Choose color Depth : I chose 24 bit
8. Towards the end, it would ask you to write the configuration to disk, obviously choose yes.
9. it would exit without trying to start x.
12. Now, just type at command line, startx, should work.
13. Once you are in x session, install the driver suggested at intel X3100 Drivers post , Do the configuration as suggested in the post. It works.
14. The X server configuration is done now, the system can be rebooted, and would automatically go into x mode.
15. Lest I forget, Go to the Grub menu (/boot/grub/menu.lst) and update the windows vista boot point description. Both normal boot point and recovery boot point have same label by default. If you boot into recovery mode by mistake, the MBR is overwritten.... :(

I can only hope that others would be benefitted by this experience. Unfortunately I did not keep on the fly notes for the whole process, So, quite a bit of this is based on my recollection.

hth
regards
raghav..

Finally.. ubuntu runs on HP 6710b

Hey, it works...

After a weekend of tweaks and attempts, I managed to install Ubuntu on my new HP 6710b.

Its now working like a charm, but only after consuming a full weekend of troubleshooting... It did not work out of the box.. as I originally expected.

The graphics card was something neither Ubuntu, nor Fedora could handle out of the box. So, I had to install Ubuntu Feisty Fawn using their alternate CD (NOT live CD). And, then spend time configuring various things..including :

• S-ATA hard disk
• Intel X3100 graphics controller
• ...

I intend to post the complete process in detail.. sometime soon.. on this blog itself.

Bear with me till then.

cheers,
raghav..

Surprise of my life

Well.. this one has to be the one...

I bought HP 6710b notebook with a vision of working with Vista and Ubuntu towards my own skill development.

However, when I got the delivery of the notebook, I was probably the happier guy around. This changed soon , with my discovery that this notebook's hardware is newer than the Feisty Fawn distribution. And therefore there have to be tweaks and what not to basically get it working. That too, under loads of restrictions. You cant run Beryl or compiz on this yet. Because, yeah, you thought it right, there are no graphic accelerator drivers for this chipset.

While I am happy on one hand that I have got a really cutting edge technology notebook, I am equally pissed off that the things that I wanted to do with my new notebook cant be started off as I would have wanted....

I am still struggling with installation fo Ubuntu ... thanks to the ubuntu forums, there are some threads which share experiences and solutions .. I am yet to try that out... perhaps tomorrow...

will update..

Linux Installation on HP 6710b

HP Laptops dont work with Linux...

I should have known that...

I spent big money on buying this one... 6710b... loads of my savings went into it.. and now it doesnt run Ubuntu/Fedora...

Tried looking at ubuntu forums... and found nothing that works.
Tried a few things, suggestions from some people, that claim it worked for them, but, somehow it didnt work out.

When Vista booted for the first time after my "not so successful attempt", it wiped out the MBR and then the Grub boot menu was gone.

Here are some links I tried...

1. http://www.blaise.ca/blog/?p=14
   
2. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...P+Compaq+6710b
3. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=488332

But... nothing moved on..

I am now planning to go through the whole things once again... may be I missed something.. but would sure post stuff here...

cheers
raghav..

The First look at my HP 6710b

Hey.... Finally it arrived... My HP Compaq 6710b, not that I had to wait long, but I am an anxious man, and the wait was already too much when I knew that it has been delivered home but I couldn't see it before I finished office on Friday.

Its really the latest technology stuff..

• Intel Core 2 Duo, 4MB L2 Cache and 800 Mhz FSB
  
• 2 GHz Processor
• 2 GB RAM : Max 4GB
• 15.4" Widescreen
• Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth, All that stuff...
• Windows Vista Business Pre-Installed

The first reaction after startup was, "Vista takes whole lot of time in initial setup. Quite a few reboots, and lots of time". However, when it showed up, the GUI looked familiar... to a Mac I have seen with a friend.

When I was reading the initial reviews about Vista that MS has tried to imitate the GUI of Mac, I didn't really believe that was true, but then when I saw it, I had to say that the critics were right. The Vista interface is much like Mac and various other features are matching to Linux distributions.. e.g. Ubuntu...

One of the biggest problems I faced was with Networking. I had to network this system with my old Dell running Win-XP home SP2 and my external Hard disk, which I intend to share between the two systems.

It was an unbelievably complex task, I had to say, much to my disappointment. Well, I have one router, two laptops, how much more simple home network can get. I expected it to automatically find that out and suggest me that it would put them into some network.

It did not, and I had to spend hours to find out what to do.. So many reboots, stuff like that.

Eventually it worked, but intermittently, sometimes I could see the other system and access things, other times, it was plain simple impossible to get through. Its wierd.. I can imagine why people say with mac and linux (ubuntu), "It just works", because Windows doesn't seem to... :(

As an example, One fine moment my system decides not to see the other laptop, then I have to open a command prompt, do a

ping -a

to the other system (my older Dell), and then the two systems can talk to each other just fine...

Very Wierd...

Well, my next problem was (and still is) trying to partition my huge hard disk. I've got 160GB there, out of which some was already taken up during Vista installation, but I need to partition my hdd to organize it better. Simple.

But, But, there doesn't seem to be a single program available in market which allows partition management for Vista. I tried partition magic.. but it doen't work with Vista. Great. and they dont have a Vista compatible version yet.

I cant go ahead and install my application software (e.g. Oracle server, other tools) in C drive as such, especially since its a 100+ GB partition and the only partition in system.

I tried the "shrink" option from Vista, but it doesn't allow me partitions with space limits that I like. For some "God knows why" kind of reason, shrinking doesnt allow the boot partition to be smaller than 80 GB.. I dont want to waste that much of my HDD space on boot partition...

I dont know when can I get that done... may be when I try to install Ubuntu, I do some more partitioning than required for Ubuntu only...

will keep posting...

cheers
raghav..

the vmware experience

I would continue my Oracle experiences separately, now that I am getting a new Laptop and would resume my oracle/OWB experiments on that one.

I have this single laptop, on which I have windows xp home and ubuntu feisty fawn both running. (in diff partitions : dual boot). However, with presence of vmware software, I wished to be able to start windows as a virtual machine from the original installation rather than installing a second copy of windows software on the box.

So, I searched net, and posted my question in the vmware forums page. Here is the link to my post in vmware forums. Particularly interesting this link.

Though I have read through the solution, I am not done yet. I plan to do the configuration sometime today evening.. Will update my findings/experiences.

cheers
raghav..

Apache Experience on Ubuntu@HP 6710b

Well, I have this feeling that the ubuntu apache package that we receive from the repositories is built a bit differently than the standard build for apache.

I was looking into all sorts of apache configuration files after I installed the ubuntu apache package. (apache2 actually). I wanted to change the document root, and enable/disable some modules...couldnt really succeed.

So, for me, the solution eventually was to download the source from httpd.apache.org, its a newer version there, and compile it myself. That was pretty easy. And it worked after that. Then I found all the regular file locations, config files etc. that I have always known about apache.

But, there the catch is, the default installation does not seem to provide/setup automatic startup scripts for init.d kind of locations.

I am still after that task. would post as soon as i find the solution/fix it myself...

regards
raghav..

Aggregator : Sorted Input

You would read everywhere that an aggregator responds faster if you provide it sorted data. Yeah, thats correct in theory.

But, be careful while doing that. If you decide to use Sorter transformation to sort data, the end result might be slower. However, another option is to use sorting at the source qualifier level..

In one of my experiments on Powercenter 7.1.3, I had the following stats :

Source Data : 277000 rows
time for an aggregator :

No sorted input : 22 seconds
With sorter in mapping : 50 seconds
With sorting in Src Qualifer : 16 seconds

My view is, if possible, do the sorting at db end.

Oracle Installation on my Ubuntu

Well, downloading Oracle was the easier part... I guess...

I realized I was in trouble when I launched the runinstaller for Oracle the first time. Apparantly, Oracle linux distributions are meant to be used with Redhat Linux only. Then I had to go over to ubuntu forums to seek help.

Not only there, I had to go elsewhere as well, and finally found a page that really helped me fool the Oracle installation into believing that the system is actually a Redhat and not an Ubuntu. :) Funny thing...

I would post the link that helped me.. sure...

Then I could actually install the whole thing... following the fooling around instructions.. and some config settings. :)

Eventually, I managed to install the oracle 10g database. Run some test connections... some test sqls.. using command line.. as well as from Oracle Sql Developer (not a bad tool actually.. huh.. I have to say that since I have always used Toad otherwise).

Then come to blues about configuration. For some reason, oracle installation did not install any nice shortcuts for anything. None for Net Services configuration, for Listener configuration, nothing done for getting the database/listener registered as services.. or to start them up automatically at system boot up. All of that has to be done manually... And I had a hard time realizing that... That there is nothing given for that kind of stuff from Oracle installation. (Having a Windows Oracle Installation experience, this could be tricky..)

Well then, I dont know yet, whether Oracle just dont do it for any linux/unix installation, or it did not do that for mine, since it was being fooled into believing that it was a Redhat installation even though it was actually not.

I'd spend some time doing that myself...

And would come back with more info on to this page.

till then
raghav..

Thoughts on Ubuntu

I was playing around with OWB starting last weeks of May. After a bit of reading the manuals and instructions here and there, I was able to set it up on my Windows XP SP2 Home Edition. I dont hate windows (like many people), but I do love Unix like environments... However, I realized that Win XP Home ws probably not a great idea for running oracle and owb together... Not to forget that the laptop was also used at times for video streaming and dvd playing...

So, It was in first week of June that I realized that I need a Linux server to run my oracle database for experiments. I was looking for distributions and decided to go for Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Liked it immediately... Its so simple.

Comparing to my last Linux experience... in 2003-4 (with Mandrake 9), this one is simply great. :) My system is a 4 year old veteran.. Dell Inspiron 5100, P4 (2.4 GHz), running at 1.25GB RAM and 40GB HDD. I turned about 40% of the HDD for Linux.

The basic installation itself took a lot of HDD space. and then I had to shell out about 2.5 GB for the Windows Virtual Machine (Using Free VMWare) I wanted to build .. for running some windows specific client software. Which would then talk to my oracle server.

Then I spent time (a few hours every day.. much to annoyance of my wife) in setting the environment up... to make it more usable.. u know.. as in user friendly.. tested a few things.. installed this package.. that package.. stuff like that.

Eventually, I set up myself and downloaded the 10g distributions for oracle and owb. That was the easy part I guess.. because what came next to me was hell...

First thoughts on Mac

I already have a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 5100 (p4@2.4GHz, 1.25GB RAM, 40GB HDD). Being a Dell, it has got its own problems. Personally, I wont really complain about the machine, it has served well during the past years.

However, with my new needs coming in for a second laptop (many small reasons), I have to look for a suitable one.

From the background I come from, a new pc/laptop by default means a Windows based one. Recently, Linux has emerged as another choice, but only among technical people who have a flair for experimenting and need the unix like environment for programming. However, Linux has not yet made its mark as the desktop operating system choice . Perhaps upcoming years will add the maturity, to make it usable by an end user.

A colleague at office has been advocating Mac very strongly (he already has one). After looking at the macbook that he has, I was forced to think, Is it not worth it...

Thats when I started looking at the apple website and comparing technical specifications.

At the same time, I posted my dilemma to certain groups at the usenet forums.

Here are the threads...

Post at comp.sys.mac.advocacy

Post at comp.sys.mac.apps

Post at comp.sys.mac.system

Will continue posting more of my experiences...

raghav..

Buying choice for laptop ... Mac or Windows...

Hi,

I plan to post my findings/research while planning to buy my next laptop over here.

The idea was to explore whether or not switching to Macintosh makes sense.

I have had two colleagues and few sites to look forward to. Had also looked at the kind of hardware apple is providing as against the currently available windows based laptop lines.

shall post some things from past as well as from my upcoming experiences.

regards
raghav..

INTRODUCTION TO UNIX

Very handy for brushing up fundamentals on Unix like systems...

INTRODUCTION TO UNIX - Table of Contents

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Nehru Place IT Hub - PC compnents hub in Delhi/north India

Looks like an interesting site for pricing information/trends in Nehru Place IT Market.

Nehru Place IT Hub

Blogged with the Flock Browser

PC component prices in India...

Starting this collection of sites mentioning PC component prices in India -

TheITWares - Buy Computer Hardware , PC Components , Laptop Computers - One Stop for all Gizmos!!

PriceGuru Wiki / Intel Processors

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Gather statistics for a given oracle session

Gather statistics for a given oracle session

alter session set tracefile_identifier=''; 
-- should be replaced with your own identifying name...
alter session set events='10046 trace name context forever, level 8';
set timing on

PerlTips - 1

to escape particular characters in a given variable $var ->
$var =~ s/([CHARLIST])/\\$1/g;

(http://www.unix.org.ua/orelly/perl/cookbook/ch01_14.htm)

The complete Perl Bookshelf

http://www.unix.org.ua/orelly/perl/index.htm

Delete Statistics from a Schema

-- delete all statistics
DECLARE
CURSOR cOwner IS SELECT DISTINCT owner
               FROM dba_tables
                WHERE owner NOT IN ('SYS','SYSTEM','DBSNMP',);
BEGIN
 -- analyze sOwner,compute
 FOR rOwner IN cOwner LOOP
    DBMS_STATS.DELETE_SCHEMA_STATS
    (ownname => rOwner.owner);
 END LOOP;
END;
/
select 'END_DATE: '||to_char(sysdate,'dd.mm.yyyy hh24:mi:ss') as end_date from dual;
exit

Gather statistics for a schema

-- recreate all statistics
DECLARE
CURSOR cOwner IS SELECT DISTINCT owner
               FROM dba_tables
               WHERE owner NOT IN ('SYS','SYSTEM','DBSNMP',);
BEGIN
 -- analyze sOwner,compute
 FOR rOwner IN cOwner LOOP
    DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS
    (ownname => rOwner.owner,
     estimate_percent => 99,
     block_sample => FALSE,
     method_opt => 'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE 150',
     degree => NULL,
     granularity => 'DEFAULT',
     cascade => TRUE);
 END LOOP;
END;
/

select 'END_DATE: '||to_char(sysdate,'dd.mm.yyyy hh24:mi:ss') as end_date from dual;
exit

Culture ambassador

Got two colleagues at home for tea, after office.

It was fascinating experience. The discussion was very interesting, my wife joined the discussion as well.

Somehow, it turned towards the culture and cuisine discussion. The thing is, with me and her together with europeans, it always happens, without fail. The discussions always tend to turn towards the people and the place.

We talked of various things, how is this particular dish prepared, hows that done. I think the understanding of people about Indian cuisine is spreading fast. People do know about it, and it amazes me as to how much do they know on their own. About spices, the way Indian fooding habits are, the reasoning of eating such food and all that.

Sometime, we feel that people like us, who travel away from their home and live in other countries for work etc, have another role to play other than being regular "foreginers" in that country. The very fact that we are from our native country there, bestows us with the responsibility of representing our country there.

I cant say whether or not we fulfilled that responsibility I just mentioned, but I feel that we should do that. Thats a much truer version of culture spreading to other lands, better than films, sponsored promotions, delegations etc.

Personally, I like talking about my culture, gives me a sound platform to tell them, "Guys, look at me. I am from India. A developing country, managed to do as much as you see in 50-60 years, which your western countries have been able to do in few hundred years." That sort of feeling makes me so proud, I love that.

Love India.

long New Year Weekend...

Wow...
absolutely fantastic...

It was the last resort option that we had... to celebrate the new year eve out of our apartment...not really being on our own. And that choice turned out well.. Well.. it turned out "Best New Year" celebration that we have seen... or rather if would limit it... the best fireworks display we have ever witnessed.

We went to Zurich, about 15 minutes from here... and were treated with this wonderful fireworks display on Lake Zurich for more than 30 minutes...

They were launching the fireworks from somewhere in the middle of the lake and the whole city had their lights switched off.. to create the best dark background possible for this. It felt like everybody was waiting for this only.

It had all the elements in it, perhaps... the color of life at best. We saw all colors that we could expect from a fireworks display. I have seen one in Brussels (a new year celebration fireworks display) but this one was class apart. The very idea of staging it from middle of the lake was THE thing, in my view. The reflection and enlightening of the water surface as the fireworks did their job... was outstanding.

They started it with a giant ( I really mean GIANT ) firework combination at dot 12 midnight. To mark the change of year. And then they waited for 15 minutes... why.. don't ask me.

Those 15 minutes passed by no easy. It started getting colder... by the moment... since we were by the lake, we were facing the cold wind. To add to the cold, rain came in. We did not really go 100% prepared and therefore, had to arrange a few polythenes to cover her head. It was fun.. and trouble mixed all over. We did not want to leave the spot, but the cold was not allowing us to hold on to our cameras ( We went prepared with a Canon EOS350D and a Sony HC30E).

But when they started after 15 minutes, it beat everything. All the cold, all the wind, everything was forgotten in the pleasure shock of the display that we were to witness. The rain, wind, the cold, everything gave way to pleasure and sounds of ohh.. wow.. marvellous...great...its the best... etc.. and etc..

I would add a few photos to elaborate my feelings a bit...

Hope everybody enjoyed the new year start in similar ways...

A very happy new year to all the readers...

Some of the photos from the celebration (whatever we could capture while enjoying the show ourselves...) is available on this album.

From New Year 2007