So I upgraded to Leopard last night (only 2 days until Snow Leopard comes out, figured I better get with the times).

This morning I had a problem accessing files across a Samba share.

At work, I mount my work environment over Samba using something along the lines of:

mount_smbfs -N //mccreavy:PASSWORD@servername.liveops.com/mccreavy ~/servername

And then get to my workfiles using Carbon Emacs through the "~/servername" link.

After upgrading to Leopard, it broke. It seemed like the samba mount was working (I could navigate fine in the Console app through the ~/servername mount), but in emacs, I wasn't able to get to my files.

Turned out the problem was something to do with symlinks. In my environment:

~/servername/src

is a symlink on the server. My client-side Emacs wasn't seeing it as something I could navigate through. Tab completion from ~/servername/s wasn't expanding to "src" -- weird.

After some investigation, I found this discussion and added:

unix extensions = no

to the /etc/smb.conf on my server and restarted Samba (sudo /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart) and then remounted the samba share on my client.

Now I can navigate through samba mounted symbolic links using Carbon Emacs!

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So there were a lot of weaponry in India... The coolest showcase being the "Arms" room in the City Palace in Jaipur... Tons of old guns, knives, and gun-enabled knives. Unfortunately, that place didn't allow pictures (and who knows what the guards were packing...).

At the big sites (like India Gate, the Red Forts, and Parliament) there were soldiers with automatic weapons.

Even Infogain had armed guards stationed at the company's main gate.

My favorite gun sighting was during a morning commute where I caught some guy on the back of a motorcycle armed with a shotgun:

I guess that's one way of assuring yourself right-of-way!

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I dropped my Canon Powershot SD750 in India on a marble floor and thought I broke a bulb in it... But I was able to fix it when I got access to proper tools (really tiny screwdriver, a magnifying glass, and a soldering iron) at home.

The switch must've taken the brunt of the fall because a little (and when I say little I mean incomprehensibly tiny) contact came loose. Pushing the contact closed caused the screen to light up... So a little solder put it all back together again:

So now I have two cameras (and thus the technology to get all Hofstadter and take a (blurry) picture of my camera)!

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Last day at India went okay; didn't get everything DP wanted done and my flight out of India seemed to be speeding toward me the whole day. My stomach was nervous from the coming plane flight and the end of the trip... The morning conference call could've gone much better. DP kept things under control, but he shouldn't have had to.

Hope the Infogain team was able to keep moving forward on DP's requests after I left. DP had plans for them to work over the weekend. I started saying goodbye to people while DP was still talking to the core development team, but I did hear the end of the conference call that their goal should be to "make McCreavy's life easier" (at least that's what I heard).

Wish I had that on tape; it would've made a good ringtone. I think that statement should be everyone's Prime Directive.

Saying goodbye to everyone at Infogain went well -- they're all great.

The trip from Infogain's Guest house to the airport in New Delhi took over 2 hours (a ton of traffic -- Mandeep said that's very normal). It was a good idea to leave 4.5 hours ahead of time... A lot of interesting vehicles, breakdowns, and driving rules were displayed.

I got to the airport with 2 hours to check in and it was more than enough time to get a window seat and wander Indira Gandhi airport... Spent a while talking to a young guy who was all excited and talkative about the world opening up for him:

He was on his first:

• Plane flight
• International Trip
• Starting College

He was late for starting college in Australia because he had problems getting his Visa. He was very excited, and good for him. "Gotta wear shades," and all that. He was planning to study Computer Science, and I was happy to learn his favorite languages were C and C++.

When it was time to board the plane, the passengers took turns loading into a bus and taking a ride out to the tarmac where the plane was parked. Walked past the giant jet engine and climbed an Arrested Development stair-truck onto the plane.

After just over 24 hours of flying: Leaving New Delhi, a 5 or 6 hour trip to Singapore (2 Hour Layover, just enough to get through security and back on a plane), another 5 or 6 hour trip to Korea (another 2 Hour Layover and 3 more health/security checks -- got to use "Anyong haseo" and "Kam sam hap sumnida"), and finally a 10 or 11 hour trip to San Francisco.

The neighbors on the trip from New Delhi to Singapore were, I guess, Indian. Or Singaporean. But they kinda looked like New Zealand Maori guys: big. No face tattoos though. They couldn't speak English. One guy knew enough to be able to order the Veg (not the 'non-Veg'). Nice guys, just no talking.

For the remaining flight: the guy sitting next to me was an airforce F15 commander so I was hoping he'd know what to do if anything went wrong with the plane. The next guy over was a Social Science professor from Berkeley who had been finishing up a research project in Calcutta. We talked about India.

I was disappointed I couldn't outlast the Commander on asking to be let out of my window seat to visit the bathroom -- usually I'll get up with the middle guy... But he didn't ever get up! About 8 hours into the flight I woke him up and all 3 of us got up to stretch and talk in the galley for a while.

Got back to America -- got through immigration and customs super fast. Indian taxi driver got me back to my apartment... Was going to tip him with my remaining Rupees, but I didn't. Found my house keys at the bottom of my backpack... And got home.

The house is all new: new throw carpet, new coffee table, new lamps... Looks very nice. My mail nicely stacked, and a wonderful note from W (she left for Bogata two days ago)... She told me the refrigerator was stocked with Chicken Wings. Nice girl. Great girl. House is super clean; hope to keep it that way.

India trip was great, and being back home is great too.

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So it rained here in Noida in a big way tonight... Guess they call it "Monsoon Season" for a reason. Went to Spice Mall to try some South Indian cuisine... Finally got some of that "panni purri" everyone's told me about from a place with "safe" spicey water.

Food was good -- then Sachin and I went browsing -- got some good birthday cards. Then saw a "4D Movie" -- the kind of thing they have at Fisherman's warf, with the polarized 3d glasses and the "4th" dimension being they shoot air at you and move your seat...

The cool thing about this was, instead of $12 a ticket at Fisherman's Warf, we got 2 tickets for 150 Rupees -- or 3 bucks... Almost begins to make up for how much I overpaid for my replacement camera -- haha.

Best part of the movie was when rats ran through a 3d skull at you and dropped off the bottom of your view and then they blew air across your feet. Good stuff. The tiger attack was top notch as well.

Anyway, back to the rain: when we were leaving the mall I was surprised at how much electrical activity was going on in the skies... Lots and lots of lightning. We called Raj and he brought the SUV up so we didn't have to get too wet (rain was pretty warm, so it wasn't fun).

It did get fun on the way back: as we got away from the urban roads -- especially once we were in the gated community... Water was almost a foot high. In parts over a foot -- people sloshing through it up to their knees... Dogs dog paddling. Major drainage not happening.

So we get to Sachin's place and drop him off... Raj backs into his pseudo-driveway so he's able to jump to the entryway. Nice driving.

We continue onto my place... And the water deepens. I've got my good pants and shoes from the office on so I don't want to get them ruined... So I'm taking off my shoes thinking I can hop out... I get the door open and then Raj tells me "no" when he sees where I'm headed.

"Sewer water" he says.

Now I get it. Now I realize why Sachin was so anti-water.

So now I reevaluate my position. There's no way I can get a straight jump to the gate... It's all water for about 6 feet... Landing on a slippery marble incline.

It seems like Raj has backed me close to a trellis. I point at the trellis and ask "that way?" Raj nods.

So now I'm playing real-life Pitfall here in India. I can hear the "djar-de-jay" rope swinging sound effect (50 seconds in). Sewer water flowing by pretty fast... I'm holding my shoes and get one bare foot on the brickwork under the trellis... And then get a handhold and pull myself over. I'm over.

"Sir, your bag!" calls Raj. Oh, that's great. Gotta throw a MacBook Pro into the mix... One foot back on the SUV's tire and I reach in to get my bookbag.

Back holding onto the trellis, holding my shoes and the macbook bag... I hand-over-hand my way to the main gate and, thankfully, make it without ever touching any sewer water. Woot!

Chef DVD answers my doorbell and I'm home, safe and sound for the night listening to the rain -- now two hours later -- continue to fall. Wonder what it's like out there now?!?

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