I am currently deploying a WebObjects application on an Ubuntu server. Yes, yes, I am very brave. But I have help, so it has not been that difficult.

What has been problematic is something that we take for granted - fonts.

Yes, Ubuntu and many flavors of Linux have no fonts installed. Yes, you read that right. No fonts. Period.

But little Kamal did not realize that and he set upon a mission. Of generating reports on a WebObjects application on Ubuntu using ReportMill.

App was deployed. First there was some issue with the WebServerResources. None of them were being read. I figured out that WO WebServerResources are stored in some other folder - not the regular document root of Apache on Ubuntu. Then I got the app working with the WebServerResources.

Then I tested the app and got an exception when I tried to generate the report. The exception was something about a font class not being found:

Could not initialize class com.reportmill.text.RMFont:java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.reportmill.text.RMFont

At first I thought that the ReportMill jar is not being found. Trust java to come up with some weird exceptions! Class not being found it said. Wait till you hear about what the reason for the exception was!

I contacted Shravan Kumar Mahankali, the best WO guy in India. The genius that he is, he immediately pointed out that the problem was not with the jar since the Font class was being recognized (otherwise we would have got a much higher level class not being found).

A little googling told us that in Ubuntu no fonts were installed by default. And we would have to install the basic fonts too. Some more googling and a lot of trials and errors later, I found that the command:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

solved the problem!

I really wonder why even the basic fonts are not installed in this platform! Heck, I used good old Arial! Event that wasn't present. Despite all the changes, Linux continues to be a geek's OS. Not for the rest of us. 

Baba Ramdev, the yoga guru embarks on a indefinite fast demanding that black money that is stashed away in various banks abroad be brought home immediately. Nothing wrong in black money being brought home. But this kind of threatening and demanding different things by undertaking a fast is becoming a little too frequent for comfort.

A few weeks back we had Anna Hazare fasting for the Lokpal Bill. The government conceded and formed a committee to look into this. Today, the committee is at loggerheads on practically all the important points of the bill. The members of the committee from civil society have threatened to walk out.

A few months back, we had the prince of all thugs, king of all scoundrels, corruption personified, prisoner of the gutters go on a fast for a separate state of Telangana. After a few days, the government conceded. A quick trip to Delhi, a meeting with Madam and there was a rollback. Someone's bank balance had definitely gone up. Don't ask me which bank though!

So, the point I am trying to make is fasts don't work. And they shouldn't. We are not in the Gandhian age and neither do have a Gandhi among us. Blackmailing the government on any issue is wrong. Decisions like these should be taken after more careful consideration and consultation. Only then can we have a meaningful, implementable resolution of any issue. Only if the government of the day is serious about something will it see the light of the day. Otherwise, you will have insincere attempts, half-hearted discussions and meaningless actions.

However, if something as important and serious as corruption is not tackled seriously, where would we head as a nation? I totally agree that these issues need to be addressed. But fasts are not the way out. These will not show us any results. We will only end up having more confusion.

Yes, I am still alive. And kicking! No posting from a few days, yes. But that's because I've been a little busy.

I have been mostly busy with the automation project of the Jain Dialysis Trust. The coupon distribution that happens every last Sunday of the month was becoming very chaotic and difficult to manage. So, Shri Inderchand Jain asked me if it could be automated. I said, "Sure!" And got started with this project. I couldn't contribute financially to this extremely noble cause. This was the least I could do. So, with the help of my dear friends, A Srinivas, Ankurpreet Singh and PVK Ramesh, I embarked on an enterprise of honorable, dangerous consequence. Honorable because the cause was so good and dangerous because failure would be disastrous!

After much of going back and forth on the technology, we got the application complete. We have the hosting figured out too. Now only the testing and deployment remains! Wait a minute! Did I say 'only'? No way. Testing and Deployment can be major, major headaches. Let's hope the project gets done soon and well.

On the medical side, my hemoglobin went down to 9.9! Well, it was 13+ at one point. In an extraordinary act of courage, my neph decided to reduce my Erythropoietin to 2,000 units a week. Within weeks, the hemoglobin plummeted to 9.9. My neph blamed me for not checking my Hemoglobin often enough! I have been accused of many things in life. But not this. Never have I been accused of not doing blood tests often enough. I check it once a month at least! Not enough, he said. Once in fifteen days it is, now! So 9.9 leaves you with not too much energy at the end of the day. I am now on 4,000 thrice a week. It has bounced back to 11.4! If the blood tests are right, that is!

All this low hemoglobin has not reduced my swimming though. I am gradually increasing the amount of swimming I am doing. I changed the pool I swim in recently. And I am doing more than my last pool. The motivation for increasing the swimming was mainly the increased weight which was probably due to the relaxed diet (sweets and fried stuff) I was indulging in. So, I now have given up sweets and fried food (chocolates exempted from the ban).

I am still unable to give up the ghee on idlis though. Right in the midst of this austerity drive, I went to Poorna Tiffins one Sunday morning, firm in my mind, that I would have the idlis without ghee. I successfully managed that too. But it wasn't the same. My day felt incomplete. Dry. Something was missing. I had to go back on the Wednesday following that Sunday and have my usual idlis laced with ghee. I think the weight loss will have to come from more swimming!

I often have problems that bother me for a few days and ask my doctor about on my next visit. Sometimes he knows what to do. Sometimes he just ignores it or gives me some vague answer and asks me not to do anything about it. I get irritated.

At NephroPlus, I meet all patients that come for dialysis whenever I am at a center and chat with them about how they're doing. I tell them how I am doing. We share our problems and solutions. Often they talk about some problem that I have never had. I have no clue on what they could try. I tell them as much. I tell them to talk to their doctor. They most likely have already done that and have not received any advice.

Well, that is the nature of the human body. Medicine has so much yet to be discovered. What has been unravelled is but a tiny part of this very complex system. Just think about the way the parathyroid glands control the level of Calcium in the body (see this link) and you will begin to appreciate this almost magical system called the human body. At lower levels, when I read about the way the complement system works (especially interesting to me because of my primary disease) and the mind-boggling number of chemicals involved released and absorbed by various tissues, I see why medicine has not been able to solve so many problems related to disease. Still, the progress made is stupendous by any standards.

Given such a complex system, it is impossible, at least at this stage, for doctors to be able to figure out every small problem patients have. Patients must understand this. At the same time, it is important not to ignore certain things. Things that could be signs of a serious condition. So, we, as patients, must watch out for every symptom that is out of the ordinary.

We must talk about every problem with our doctors. If they don't know about it or ignore it, we must not get irritated. We must understand the limitations of medical science. Especially if the symptom is something transient, lasts only a few days. On the other hand, if there is something that is persistent, something that is recurrent or something that is paining or bothering you, then do not ignore it. Talk to your doctor. If he is not able to help, talk to another doctor. Or look up the symptom on the internet. There are plenty of support groups online. Ask there. The I Hate Dialysis suport group has hundreds of members and will very likely give you some answers.

I love good bread. Freshly baked, warm bread is the ultimate morning experience if you don't count Darjeeling tea. Geetha Aunty of Boston is famous for her bread. My mother stayed with her a few years back on her trip to the US. At that time she had baked some bread flavored with orange rinds. My mother couldn't stop talking about how she left the bread to bake in the night and in the morning the entire house was filled with the aroma of fresh bread!

This kind of imagery usually has me hooked. Ever since then I have dreamed of waking like that at my house too. Now, finally, that wish will come true. My parents who were in Boston a couple of days back bought a bread maker recommended by Geetha Aunty. I am more excited about the bread maker coming home than them!

Bread though is a very individual thing. There are many people who cannot stand it while there are others who swear by it. My uncle, for example, has this hatred for bread that is difficult to describe. He feels bread is for the poor and not for people who can afford better food! This is probably a relic of the times when bread was always made with refined flour (maida) rather than whole wheat. It came really cheap.

These days, however, you get bread made with a variety of flours and can cost quite a fortune. Walk into a Bread Talk (one is inside Q Mart at Banjara Hills) and you can see the different kinds of bread at prices that will put the Alphonso mango to shame. Gone are the days of bread only being a cheap, poor man's food!

I am not a regular cook. But I like to dabble once in a way. One of the things I have tried my hand is bread. It has never come right. I sure hope that changes in the coming days!