Accept user input in Apache Ant

In Apache Ant, you can use the Input task in build.xml to accept user input. Check out the following illustration.

Eg:

As you see in the Input task, we specify the message that should get displayed asking for user input. 

The user input is then stored in a property named "my-name" in this case.

The valid arguments i.e the valid options are mentioned in the validargs parameter.

A detailed technote can be read here.

IronCladZone Fan Base

Awwrightie... So after a month of regular active blogging am down to crunching the numbers. Looking at the number of hits, I'll quickly list down the top 5 countries, from where most of my traffic comes in.

As of today:

1. United States
2. India
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. South Korea

Quite understandably, since much of the content caters currently to American and Indian audience. Hopefully in the near future, I would like to mix and match content which satisfies a much broader and diverse audience. Cheers, Prost, Chukbae, Salud, Skol, Nazdroviya, Kampai...

Sholay revisited - Bollywood classic

This weekend, the classic 1975 Bollywood crime thriller Sholay re-released in the 3D format. Sholay stands out as an iconic evergreen cult classic which features the most remembered villain character - the bandit leader Gabbar.

Gabbar was played by the late actor Amjad Khan. Gabbar's seemingly simple dialogues became so popular, they were often used in jokes and light conversations. One of the most remembered scenes of all Indian movies, is the "Kitne aadmi the ?" scene i.e "How many men were there ?"

Let me explain the scene to you in short. Gabbar's 3 loyal dacoits went to loot a village and extort money from innocent people. However, the 2 protaganists Jay (played by Amitabh Bachchan) & Veeru (played by Dharmendra) , fight them off, so the 3 henchmen return empty handed. The dacoit leader Gabbar gets extremely angry and frustrated by hearing this. What follows is a scene in which the 3 dacoits have to pay a heavy price for coming back empty handed.

Another famous intense scene is the "Ye haat humko dede thakur" which translates to "Give me your hands, thakur". Here Gabbar chops off the thakur's hands with swords.

As a tribute to the classic scene, check out this funny Sholay meme featuring some Indian students.

Hijacked file in Clearcase

Developers and coders who have their codes under Clearcase version control, often come across the hijacked file scenario. The scenario arises with a snapshot view ONLY and never with a dynamic view.

If you try to modify a loaded file within the snapshot view, without checking it out, it results into the file getting hijacked.

Since the file is not checked out, there's nothing to checkin. So in order to merge your changes, you will have to first checkout the hijacked files and then checkin.

If you want, you can later undo the hijacked files.

Fixing the text_file_delta error in Clearcase

If for some reason you're unable to checkin a checked-out file and you see the text_file_delta error, then do the following.

Change the type manager of the file to compressed_file using the command chtype.

Eg:

If you get the text_file_delta error while checking in test.txt, then use the foll. command.

cleartool chtype compressed_file test.txt

Detailed technote can be read here.

Blarney Cove - New York City

Blarney Cove, one of the last remaining iconic old-school dive bars of the East Village, has closed down for good. I might have passed by that bar for many years but very occasionally did I checkin. However, during Feb of 2012, last year, the Blarney Cove was running it's last about-to-close days. I did once drop by to say goodbye.

This bar was one of the few dive bars who offered cheap $10 Budweiser pitchers and $3 beers. So yes, it used to be frequented often by locals who were on a budget, sometimes by the punk'd hipster crowd from the Alphabet village but you could hardly find visiting tourists here. During my few couple of visits to the bar, it seemed everyone around knew each other.

It also featured a cheap Internet jukebox. Check out this picture which features the Asian bartender (in white-green top) dancing like crazy.

India House - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Parts of the Bollywood film 'Kites' starring Hrithik Roshan & Barbara Mori, were shot in and around Albuquerque & Santa Fe... and from what am aware of is that the India House served as its lunch catering partner. The moment you enter the restaurant, you see pictures of the owner with actor Hrithik Roshan, film producer Rakesh Roshan & director Anurag Basu etc... Boy, Bollywood is going places and so is the Indian Empire :)

It feels nice to actually find a good Indian restaurant in a region which is surrounded mostly by desert. A city where you come across just a couple of Indian food establishments. So well, somewhere around December of 2011, we a group of 4 people went to this place. We started with paneer pakoras, tandoori chicken wings, cheese fingers for apps. Next we shared bhindi masala, paneer makhani & dal makhani with Indian breads like kashmiri naan, aloo paratha, garlic naan etc... Finally ended our stuffed dinners with desserts - gulab jamun, kheer, mango lassi etc.

Website : http://indiahousenm.com/

Address:

2501 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
Phone: (505) 471-2651   Fax: (505) 471-2162