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Must have Mac Software

2009-12-20T23:02:00.001-08:00

Ever since the move to Mac about 3 years ago, its been a mixture of agony and pleasure. For starters, until Snow Leopard, using Mac in a "corporate" world was a joke. No integration to Exchange (yeah, call it evil or whatever - it is THE standard in corporate email), and no calendar integration of any sorts. It was like living without O2. But, there were so many good things about the Mac that the corporate citizen in me, figured out ways to work around the everyday challenges that a Mac posed. Solutions ranging from Entourage (yikes!) to Outlook Web Access to Parallels (really, if u have to run Windows in the background, whats the point?) to CrossOvers. You name it and everything was tried. None of it even ever came close to being the REAL thing, unsurprisingly!

And then came along a performance release of Leopard with a couple of features - go figure :) Snow Leopard has had its issues. My Mac never crashed before Snow Leopard, but now, its not as rare. Apps crashes a bit more, but Mail.app's out of the box integration to MS Exchange and also, seemless calendar integration was all anyone can ever ask for, in a single release. My question to Apple would be - what the heck took soooo long? I mean, its not like Apple has a competing product to Microsoft in the corporate email server/calendar server. So, why did it take so long? But, I guess, they did get it right. Both in the iPhone and on the desktop.

Anyways, for anyone new to the Mac or even pro users of Mac, a few must have apps:
- OmniFocus (in general, all Omnigroup apps are great) - this is the uber task manager you will ever find; If you have it, but dont use it, then, I recommend relearning the tool through a couple of 30min tutorials available through Omnigroup website. +1 for iPhone integration
- Mail.app, iCal etc - this is brain dead, yes, but SmartFolders, multiple calendars etc makes life so much easier
- QuickSilver - yeah, turn that Apple Spotlight off and use QS. QS's website is quirky as ever, but install the right version of the software and spend a few minutes figuring things out, you will not regret the time
- Adium - well, the only IM client you need, period
- Colloquoy - IRC client, if u need one
- AppFresh - Keep all your apps up2date; really useful. Its still in Beta and it doesnt work with all apps, but atleast this is a good start
- AppCleaner - Works nicely; UI is a bit quirky; but once you figure it out, its useful
- Caffeine - Must have app; its a great little app to override the power saver/screen saver settings
- Gimp - Free online image editor; I have used it and again, its a bit quirky, but if you figure it out, its super useful
- NXClient - very useful tool - a la Remote Desktop for Linux systems
- TextMate - great Text Editor
- iTerm - great Terminal
- XMind - great tool to brainstorm

New York [Guggenheim & Met]

2009-12-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

NYC is a fantastic city, especially when one could couch-it someplace in the city. NYC in December should've been and could've been very cold, but this particular week was fabulously warm and the weather enabled me to walk about in the city a bit. Would I want to live in this city? Maybe? Manhattan is definitely a place to visit and soak it all in. Now, living here might be something else. I didnt have the luxury of time to experience the local scene, but I get the distinct feeling that I would love to live in the west or east side of Upper Manhattan. I walked more than 50 blocks one day and 30 or more blocks on another instance and it was a pleasant experience.

Talking about NY experiences, this is my first trip without any major worries. In the years past, my association with the city has been nothing but theatrics, with quiet a bit of anxious moments spent, wondering about who is gonna mug you. Maybe I have gotten used to the place and the pace, or maybe I have grown to like the craziness. Nevertheless, this visit was very eye opening. Specifically, visits to the Guggenheim and Met were extraordinary.

Guggenheim: I have heard and read about the Gugg for its architecture. Thanks to a friend of mine, I was well acquainted to the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. But, what I experienced in the Guggenheim was completely astounding and mind bending - Kandinsky. Kandinsky was not known to me before, but that ignorance now is blissfully behind me. I have poured over his works and his life in the last few days and its fair to say that I'm enthralled and motivated by his oeuvre. Starting at an age of 30 is no mean task despite his wealthy background that enabled him to attempt what he truly loved. The afternoon I spent at Guggenheim was vastly inadequate. His work is the most prolific, ranging from watercolors/sketches to large paintings. It was fascinating to learn that the Guggenheim building by Wright was inspired by Kandinsky's work. I feel thankful to see this collection @ the Gugg. Now, I await my amazon delivery of the "Complete writings on Art by Kandinsky" that implores the "Spiritual of Art" and his study of lines & points and other observations on art. The museum book on Kandinsky was specatular and I'm still soaking in documented history of Kandinsky.

Met : Met can be intimidating to a casual museum goer. Its one of the biggest museums of the world. Its a shame to be able to spend only one afternoon here. But, anytime spent here is a worth a lifetime of learning. I spent all the time in one section of the museum - the Greek and Roman art of the 5thBC to 1st AD. It was a vast collection. The sculptures and art of that ancient period provides you with a perspective to deal with one's daily life/struggles and its irrelevance.

Its a very weird experience, to feel overwhelmed but also, inspired, conflict abounds, hopes and despair combining well to cause immense introspection. Both of these experiences called for a long walk, amidst NYC skyscrappers on a cold, windy evening.

Il Trittico & The Abduction from the Seraglio

2009-12-05T15:40:00.000-08:00

Sept 2009 was the time for Operas. 2 operas in 2 days - a bit overwhelming? Not really. It was a welcome break from craziness elsewhere.

Abduction from Seraglio was visually stunning and the soprano had a wonderful tenor. The rendition was fabulous. The only opera that I didnt like this year was Il Travatore.

Il Trittico was very unique in that it combined 3 different parts into a single opera, each one of them could have been an entire opera on its own, but this Puccini trio didnt disappoint. Its been 3 months since I saw this opera, but I still vividly remember it. [Well, I remember Il Travatore as well - which was more comical for its rendition and my rating of that was way down - so, my memory of operas, I guess, doesnt say much about the quality of the opera. Notoriety is, afterall, a double-edged sword.] All the three acts were excellent; I didnt really understand why it was all combined into one story, but I guess there must be a good reason... Note to self - research that aspect of Il Trittico.

I do want to watch the Wagner's Die Walkure beginning of next year. Until then, I will have time to muse about the 3 operas I saw this year.

Review of the open air opera (Opera in the ballpark) - Tosca

2009-07-06T23:06:00.002-07:00

coming soon as well... but this is not an all gaga one :)

Montreal...

2009-07-06T23:06:00.001-07:00

Coming soon...

SF Intl Film Festival

2009-07-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

Occasions like the SF Intl Film Festival 2009 is the main reason to move to the city. Even though I was very ambitious while buying tickets, reality was that it was hard to get out of work early and catch as many movies as I would have liked. I wasted a few tickets, but overall feel vindicated following this event with fervor.

Here are the movies I watched and absolutely enjoyed. I couldnt have picked a better mix of movies, each with its own twists and tales.

Sonbahar (Autumn) - 2008 - Turkish

Beautiful photography - Must see for any nature lover. Didnt know Turkey was such a beautiful country. Its definitely in my list of countries to visit now. Better catch it early, before it becomes a tourist hotbed.

The movie is about a political prisoner, released after 12 hard years, tortured and carrying more mental scars than physical - maybe I'm wrong - mental scars matching his physical. He spends most of his days in his small home town, up in the mountains, where everyone knows everyone. While physically there, he has a very hard time coming back to the present - lives a morbid life - choking from both fearful memories and a fading life. Though still very young, he lacks all interest in life, beaten and weighed down by his past.

Egged by a his childhood friend to rediscover life, he finally shows some emotion after a trip to a mountain lodge in the middle of winter. He screams his gut out, over a valley! Pushed hard, he finally falls in love (if you could call that) with a prostitute who is equally lost in her profession, forging a living away from her country Georgia, selling herself to support her daughter.

If you are looking for a happy ending, this movie is a poor choice. Just as the dude starts accepting his love for the woman, she decides to move and provides him an ultimatum to bring his passport and start a journey. He obliges and as luck would have it, he misses her ultimatum by a few minutes and thus loses her.

Depressing... Nah... The beauty in the movie is its lack of the 'so-called-happiness/happy ending' factor.

Heaven's heart - Swedish

This story is about 2 middle aged couple, going through a mid-life crisis. Both couples wondering if the stoic yet happy life, is all there is to a love life and contemplate infidelity. While one from each couple [one wife and one husband] is intrigued by it, the other pair is strongly taken back by the idea. But, strangely as it may be, the less-confident opposites from each pair find solace in each other and practice exactly the opposite of what they fear the most. While this leads to both the couples' short-term breakup, they also find the reason that they were looking for to start with, a reassurance in their chosen paths and marriage.

Some interesting tidbits about the movie - the setting was very scandinavian that Ikea could learn a few tips (no, not cheap, just very contemporary). The entire movie was shot in 5-6 spots - kitchen, dining table, living room, bedroom and lastly, the balcony of the house. Low budget? Hardly. But, very chic and tight. The opposite of the previous movie - vast in its outdoor experience.

Artemisia - Taiwanese

I was about to write my notes on this movie and found an excellent writeup.

This movie made me laugh, and also gave me enough to contemplate. What would you do if your kids challenge you on a daily basis? What would I do, if ever? But to freak out, is not an option, I suppose. Or is it?

Okuribito (Departures) - Japanese

This is a story about untabooing any taboo you might ever think of. Really. Talk about jobs that you wouldnt do. What classic extremes life has to offer! From a cellist with big dreams to a funeral undertaker. However random your job maybe, if you give it all your heart and soul, there is guaranteed transcending quality about your life - such is the story, so vividly knit. If this movie doesnt move you, ... Surreal. Elegantly told and every character in the movie has a purpose and all of the actors play a wonderful, real, and compact role. This movie is all that "Sunshine cleaning" ought to have been. And sunshine cleaning was not so bad :)

Travel Bug : Mission NZ

2009-05-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

After a spell of staying put in SF, the fire in me to travel has rekindled and I'm out and about planning my next travel. Traveling is addictive - the more you go, the more you wanna go... Luckily, world travel is still quite primitive - otherwise, we will all be traveling around the world too quickly and will forget to smell the roses.

I have one too many friends who inspire me daily; I know a lucky friend of mine, working in Europe and traveling around there a bit, much too much to my agony :) (yes, I'm unabashedly jealous!) Another one, has traveled the world so many times, that his life must be boring, now that, he has set a fairly monotonous rhythm to his journeys - again, my envy gets the better and reduces his flight among the birds a trivial pursuit. Thinking about his life and journeys, would I ever be able to leave all my creature comforts behind, and pursue such a path of monotone? Maybe for a short while... ? How short 'short' really is? Ever since last November, these thoughts have become ever so strong - with the passing away of a very close friend of mine - letting his last gasp of air following his dream. Watching his memorial slideshow gallery and finding bits and pieces of my life intertwined with his, but still, missing a huge portion of destinations, leaves me yearning to follow his erstwhile sojourn. Was Juergen a forceful divine suggestion/intervention of sorts? - if one could call it that - maybe its my destiny perhaps, to elongate his footprint around the world, to provide continuity to his merrily quest. Such thoughts, often, bring to forth my worldly commitments, reminds me of the bills that are due, the responsibilities that weigh me down - or is this all just a facade of a coward, with no courage to pursue what could potentially be his only path for eden. For now, I procrastinate, in the vain hope of attaining this magical illusion of 'sustainability', that last deposit to come back to, planning a resting place for the weary feet.

A lovely song, Burden of thought, from one of my newly discovered bands (Epidemic), comes to forefront. Could I be suffering a serious bout of BoT? Sometimes I feel the time is just around the corner, to set my sails and spread my wings wide, and follow the unchartered territory with no obvious plans - no maps, no return tickets.

A seriously quiet weekend among the giant sequoias, a 10 minute solo walk, had me convinced of this - multiple travels due the rest of the year. And Juergen needs to be exercised, among other things... Let the planning begin, I said, loudly. A few up my sleeve for the rest of the year, capping with NZ? Why the heck not! A long trip is so overdue!

Just another day @ Rearden

2009-01-05T16:51:00.001-08:00

Xmas party pictures

Groundhog Day, the movie on Hulu.com

2008-08-06T01:41:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered whether you could live your day without TV? Well, I've had the pleasure of living life without the proverbial idiotbox, quiet successfully I must admit, for the past 6 months or so. Going from 2 TVs in the house to none is a welcome break and I read a lot more and listen to much more music and radio :) Not only has it gotten me back precious time in my life, but, it has cleared up the evenings for something more meaningful.

Some days, like today, when I have the time and the urge to watch something to relax (or kill some time), I turn to Hulu. This site is slowly, but surely adding more movies and shows for free on the Net. Ofcourse, the movies are interspersed with ads (so far, not annoying) - most of the ads, I admit are actually short and sweet and of much better quality than the TV ads!

I have seen some really amazing movies recently. To name a few : The Secret of NIMH, All dogs go to Heaven, Sideways, Koyaanisqatsi, Groundhog Day and many more!

Groundhog Day - Being an immigrant to this country, I'm yet to understand all of the traditional nuances and lore of the country. Watching movies like Groundhog Day and Secret of the NIMH just opens up the possibility to learn something new. Groundhog Day in particular was very thought provoking and educational while it was funny, artful and refreshing. Even if I had watched this movie before, I'm sure I would have enjoyed watching this today.

Wikipedia, as usual, has a wonderful page on Groundhog Day and also on The Secret of the NIMH. Rewinding as far back as Tom & Jerry (Fred Quimby, William Hanna & Joseph Barbera) and beyond, the evolution of the animation film industry in the US is as enthralling a story as it gets, one that fascinates even a lukewarm moviegoer like me to appreciate Hollywood and its history. No, I would still like to skip the daily theatricals of the who-is-who in Hollywood, but its not all made of glamor and shims. One has to just wipe the trash off of the top and look beneath it all...

Reminiscence # 1

2008-06-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

Rewind very fast to about a quarter century (ok, I'm dating myself here! but that gets harder to avoid by the day;)) And slow down - play forward - ever so slowly forward.... That's the premise of this post!

Kovilpatti - Anyone ever heard of this place? Well, if not, its time to learn a bit about this puny little town :) You can read all about the town in the Wikipedia link. But, you can (almost) "see" it end to end these days - Thank you Google.

This town of 90K or so, (it hasnt grown significantly I hear, but it has a bit since '86), played a significant role in my childhood. Surprisingly, vivid mental pictures of my life in this town is only a blink of an eye away, in my memory bank. (Something to be said about my memory or the lack thereof - I couldnt remember what I did last weekend or the week before). Eight years here under some very interesting twists and turns comprising 5 different rental dwellings, 4 schools, 2 failed businesses (not mine, my dad's), and memories of grandma dying, Kovilpatti seemed to have etched a permanent place in my brain. Running away from these memories has never crosses my mind! Past is funny - all the things one remembers are somehow magnified/glorified - one tends to remember the sweet yesteryears; bad moments, luckily just fade away (if you remember these, find a shrink:))

I could plot a rough map of this place out of memory, even today, marking the key locations as I remember it (no, street names not guaranteed:), but you get the idea!). Surely, with so many passing seasons, things should've and must've changed a lot. Afterall, I havent once looked back in all these years, even though the "forced separation" left me with a heavy heart and too many missed connections to count. No way I would be able to decipher a map of this place now, right? Well, a little walk down the google search list, and I find this : a wiki map link. Now, nostalgia has gotten me all choked;) (and hence this blog), but wow, the landscape and scenery of this place hasnt changed much - surely, the Indian growth juggernaut hasnt flown down this path yet. And somehow I'm fairly pleased with the lack of progress! Yeah, easy for me since I dont live there, but life would've just been as happy down there - I would have missed a few continents, but, oh well!!!

The wiki map is a bit much - loads of people marking off their homes and other self-significant locations - brilliant - in a few years, I sure will be able to wave at you all folks down there! If you recognize me, twitter me!

I recognize streets, the landmarks - my mental map agrees with the internet map - each turn in a street fills me up with a bit of picture in place and a story - if you read this blog, you would get the sense of my picture gallery flipping/fluttering a weebit too quickly. There, down the hill (yes, there is a bit of elevation in this town, not much, a few hundred feet maybe) I was chasing my dog down in my dad's rather large bicycle (monkey pedaling, ofcourse - if you dont know what that means - well, if you cant reach the post/seat, you arch your body through the bars/triangle to reach the other pedal - and when you pedal around, the bicycle will sway about 30 degs, hopefully, affixed at the tires;) - no, I cant demonstrate this anymore since I'm a fully developed homosapien now); oh yeah, the famous 'temple' near school where we could play hide-and-seek all day (yep, really, how many days do we have to go to school on time - boring). I probably would need to add a few of my own landmarks in that map - home/street of my first crush, first school, a hideaway icecream shop that was funded by 'stealth' money, playgrounds - each cricket pitch and football/soccer field, my school(s), all the rival schools, the national hockey stadium that was the one window to the broad outside world beyond the the square mile city, and plenty more!

Life back then, was rather tough and fun. Especially, when I was helping my parents manage the little family owned restaurant. Start the day before sunrise - pedal to the restaurant to be in time for the grand opening @ 5.30am, suited already for school that starts @ 9am - catch a quick breakfast in another cafe @ 7.45am (shhhh! parents didnt know that then and dont believe this story now either:)) - head to the playground @ school by 8am while forgetting to attend the hour of torture (morning tuition meant to keep me up with the rest of the class), get to school at the dot of the hour 9am (wasting no time in there!), look forward to that afternoon recess, and play hour - 100F? bring it on! - school was a happy distraction! Go back to the restaurant after school around 5pm - catch up with homework before the business picks up (right - what homework?;)) - shrink and hide when dad is around in the night - and get home by 10pm. Weekends meant stay out in the cricket/soccer field the entire day - prevailing conditions being leave home after dad and reach home before he does! Wrath of dad is wrath of god... Everyday was an adventure...

In a lot of ways, 20-20 vision says that the best thing that happened to me is that I was forced out of this place - there would have been no happy endings here - I was too carefree and too loose for a 12 year old - too worldly, too streetwise, too conniving, and yet too naive without any eagerness to look beyond the yardage that I had under my feet - a rather well fed big fish in a rather puny pond - I knew every rock and all the weeds. I missed this place - always looked back upon it fondly - but, never have I gone back (, yet!)

What triggered this particular episode of the walk back in memory lane? Ah, I caught up with an old friend of mine from this era - randomly connected via facebook - thank god to google and the social networking world that you get to dig in your past and find those missing pieces scattered through the globe. A long roll call after, with a string of familiar and not-so-familiar names thrown around, yeah, most of my buddies from this time long gone have turned out to quiet alright; each having found his/her own way out of the pond we grew up in (some still caught in it, but happy nevertheless in their wisdom or ignorance) Now onto finding more of them and connecting back...

Some fun facts:

Kovilpatti city has a website : Kovilpatti Municipality. Compare that to a similarly sized city in the US - Pleasanton, CA. Hmm... A few CSS/layout/background/picture changes apart, its hard to pick a winner here. Oh, yes, finally I see it - things have changed, things have progressed, its not visible, its not sparkling, but the place has indeed evolved. No Kovilpatti, you cant hide forever - google got u and your city management crew did it to themselves, in the name of e-governance. That is some crazy progress...

I will update this blog when I go here personally again, and add my own flickr feed to compliment! Until then, I will let these photo negatives bake in the dark room...

Now I can call it a home?

2008-05-12T00:09:00.001-07:00

Sofa-2 & Alitha-2
Originally uploaded by saimad

One more round of move completed! And I finally can be a couch potato... ;)

Project Road Bike

2007-10-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

Offlate, I have been a bit of a bum:) And I need to break out of my lethargy. I have this strong sense of urge to do something physical. Maybe the motorcycle riding is inspiring me to take on things I have long forgotten. I used to be a junky with all things "greasy". From opening up a timepiece and assembling it back (before it all came apart;)) to servicing a bike, I havent done much physical recently. The industry I work in has made me extremely lazy and "soft".

So, I'm embarking on a couple of projects. I have a road bike frame - bought from my neighbor. I'm gonna make it a ridable bike. This should be fun and hardy. My first book on building a road bike is on its way from Amazon. Second project - put together a home theater system on a budget.

Both of these should be fun. Lets see how much progress I make.

Jürgen Klinsmann as Chelsea Coach!

2007-10-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

News of the day :

Roman sells Chelsea FC to a group of investors from Africa. The new owners collectively appoint Jurgen Klinsmann as the new manager/coach of Chelsea. And they bring back Jose Mourinho as part owner and to help Chelsea build a farm system. Didier Drogba, Eissien and the rest of the blue collar workmen of Chelsea FC get a contract renewal. John Terry is sidelined from the team for striking a defiant Grant-mi-coach sob posture. New captain is Petr Cech. Kaka signs with Chelsea FC for an undisclosed sum.

Oh, well, atleast I can dream:) Why is this dream of mine so novel? Its not really.

Think about this: There are atleast 20-30 great African players in the EPL. They all make close to 10 million pounds a year. I would form an African players in EPL union, put in some seed money together, raise the rest through investors and buy out a EPL club. Just for the fun of it. In that case, why not Chelsea :)

Klinsmann is my idol from yesteryears. I fell in love with West German football watching Voeller, Klinsmann, Beckenbauer(coach), Matthaus, Brehme etc. West Germany won the 1990 WC. That was close to the golden age of W. German sports. Becker was still in his prime, Steffi Graf ruled women's tennis. And I was glued to a new/small/color TV :)

Klinsmann came back to coach Germany in 2006. The team didnt make it into the finals, but they played spiritedly. Now, if he can coach Chelsea, that would be awesome (Spurs - please dont hire him yet!)

Jose Mourinho - Leads a revolt in Chelsea whereby Eissien, Drogba and other senior Africanos come together and buy Chelsea FC :) Why not. Ownership & stock rewards in football is not bad. Dont pay anyone 20 million pounds, pay them in stocks. Incentives are all stock based. Now, that is a motivation for players to play their butt off. If they dont play well and sell the club, they cant make a living. If they do, the windfall is huge... To make such a change, you need someone gutsy and out of the box - Hence Jose. To keep him busy with football activities and not ruin it for Jurgen, make sure he is building for the future.

John T - U suck. Jose made u who u are. Not Roman. So, get off the Grant bus and protest some:) Chelsea deserves a better coach and a better owner! Look at ManU - the coach hasnt changed his shirt in 12 years. And Arsenal - Wenger all the way.

For now, I'm shifting focus onto Arsenal - my second team in EPL. No Henry - no problems. We will let loose a bunch of kids and score more than u can ever count:)

Enough of my dreaming:) Its Sunday and no EPL this weekend. Hence, I'm entitled my blabbering!

Damn Chelsea and Damn Roman

2007-09-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

The special one (Jose Mourinho) finally left his citadel @ Chelsea. Long time coming, one would say. Its a sad day for Chelsea fans and Chelsea FC. Whatever maybe his flaws, he is one of the most enigmatic personalities in football. The drama that surrounds him will move on with him, which will expose Chelsea even more. Now, the media will have more personalities to go after @ Chelsea to collect their pay dirt. A rich billionaire managing a football team? Or meddling with it so much that no coach worth his salt will want to be in that dummy role for long. Management 101 - If the guy who pays for your bread "coaches" u directly, an intermediate coach's words can and will be second to the owner!

It will be interesting to see if Board room tactics (read Oligarchical tactics) would cut it in a highly competitive professional sport. I guess as a player, you could be held accountable for performance (think more charts and pies in the coaching room about individual performance and team performance, rather than tactics and positional plays), which would mean personnel mayhem. Who suffers, the little guys who work their butt of without scoring... Basically, those immeasurable things like attitude, commitment on the field, the little things that make a team successful will be lost.

Mass bikers

2007-09-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Interesting Set of Links :

London - Bikers paradise (for a day!)

New Bike routes in London

Flash Mob - A commentary

2007-05-28T02:08:00.000-07:00

FlashMob:
Pillow fights, zombies eating human brain, silent raving, flashmob flash photos, and many more... Where does it all end? Or does it? A couple of cool business models have emerged. And marketeers have picked up a few new ways to get you. Are there any negative impacts of this? Plenty, I would think. But, its still fascinating to see complete strangers coordinate and have some fun. How starved are we?:)

I'm waiting for this to be used effectively or obstructively on the next political campaign. Or for that matter, on our current prez... a little bit of fun wont hurt, would it?

What would Bush do if he were to be confronted by 4000 strange zombies? plus one, I say! What would Hillary do, if 4000 Bill Clinton's show up on her campaign trail one day?

A brief history of flash mob in Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob
Very interesting...

Silent Raving in London:
IMO, this one is the best so far: "Silent Rave" Revelling... I would have gone:) This one would qualify as "modern art" and a video of this should be in SFMoma!

Internet Bargain hunting? - China:
This one, you got to take your hats off to Chinese(asian?) ingenuity in finding a deal... Russell Peter - are u watching? Ur jokes might need to be reworked a bit...

Teambuying is indeed a very creative... Walmart, welcome to china

Zombies in SF:

Guardian

2007-05-19T17:09:00.001-07:00

Maybe its the British influence in India that I developed a bias towards English newspapers and magazines. But, you cannot question the quality of Guardian, BBC & Economist.

Guardian is balanced, mostly, and covers a broad range of topics that interest me. Economist covers my business interests well. BBC gives me the international depth... Now, local news is something I turn to the Net.

Some interesting reads from the Guardian..
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2007/05/happy_birthday_helvetica.html

Chelsea - Double title

2007-05-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

2 out of 4 titles wont be bad for most sports organization in any country, any sport.

FA Cup and Carling Cup winners, Chelsea - was just amazingly resilient. Just doing enough to win both these titles. Runner up in EPL and semi-finalist in Champions League is not all that bad either.

What attracted me to Chelsea about a couple of seasons ago was its character. I hated ManU until then, and didnt really care who played against them, I would support the other team. Along comes Chelsea and Roman. Beats ManU in its own game (spend a lot of money and build a winning organization). Now, Chelsea is worth about 3 times as much as it was worth before the Roman era. Business success. 2 EPL titles, 1 Carling cup, 1 FA cup... U name it, they have it... Champions league will come in due course, undoubtedly.

Mourinho is a genius, say what u may about his unconventional, almost irrational bragging. The chosen one, has done not many things wrong... Winning should absolve him from some stupid mind games.

Players I love: Terry, Eissien, Drogba, Lampard, Cech, Carvalho, Ballack, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Roben, Makhele... With so many amazing players, its not a wonder they win or atleast lose less:) Now, add one or 2 decent strikers and the goals will pour in...

Go Mourinho... Go Roman... Go Chelsea!

Apple TV & Airport Wireless Basestation

2007-05-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

Wow! Very sweet piece of hardware.

Apple TV is the best investment I have made in home-theater. It took about 5 minutes to install, once I got hold of the right monstor cable for my TV. It connected with the Airport Base in a jiffy... And connected to my iTunes running on G4 in a second. I had all my music downloaded smoothly.

I'm yet to see another well packaged, well delivered, well designed hardware! Period. If u think iPod is cool, Apple TV converts ur plain old TV to a the Wifi dream home theater... I love it!

Now, I need multi-box support for my iTunes. That is, iTunes sync between different boxes on their own, so I use my laptop to buy a song and it syncs with my home computer, which syncs with my iPod and iTV. And why cant my iTV take a feed from my TV and record it? Why do I need a TiVO?

And my iPhone can sync addresses, appointments, emails, photos, songs... bye, bye iPod.

And why do I need to buy 2 separate devices? I'm talking about BaseStation and Apple TV. Rack it please... And ofcourse, add a few more things on top of this please. I should be able to hook up my video cam to Apple TV, playback my video on to this, edit the video and save it on to iTV. Which sends it back to my desktop, and I can cut my DVD. Not very far fetched, is that now?

Now, where is my Google free no-bandwidth-limits wireless?

Chelsea fan?

2007-02-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

You got to see this if you are a Chelsea FC fan:)

I love English Football (yes, it is THE football). And I love Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Didier Drogba, Ballack, Terry, Eissien ...

And still I found the Chelsea soap opera this season quite amusing... This Chelsea art gallery is quite funny!

Art Gallery (Guardian)

Oh, btw, Chelsea just won the Carling Cup today! Beating Arsenal 2-1. My second team:) Its so wonderful to not see ManU or Liverpool anywhere in sight! Sweet!

ManU - U got to hate them... they have too much money, and too much talent that they blatantly buy... Yes, Chelsea did the same recently, but it was ManU for years that set the pace in buying players and now, no ManU fan can accept somone kicking their bottom in their own game. Grow up!

Liverpool - I just started not liking them after the Dallas Stars owner (Hicks) co-bought this team. How can u not hate the Dallas Stars (and other franchises that the owner of Stars owns) when you are a San Jose Sharks fan?

Revontulet - the trip that never happened!

2007-01-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

Cant wait for the clock to tick and get to middle of Feb. A trip to Finland, during winter, doesnt sound like much fun. With all the layerings of clothing needed to stay warm, it certainly wont be fun packing(shopping) for this trip. But, the mystic of the Borealis and concept of "Finnish Sauna" on a daily basis definitely would change one's outlook about the weather.

If u had asked me which Scan. country I would visit first, Finlandia wouldnt have been answer... sweden would have been my answer. But, then again, its caz I have met more Swedes than Finns... Now, thats about to change.

Whats wrong with this picture?

2006-12-19T05:12:00.000-08:00

What the heck is wrong with this picture?

well, if you havent guessed this is "THE" weather in Pleasanton, CA right now. Yikes! Sucks... Cold...

19F is just not right. Just for the fun of it, compare it with Boston... And its really starts feeling even more cold here...

Skydiving pictures

2006-11-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

My Skydiving pictures

life is good!

2006-10-14T23:29:00.000-07:00

Sharks are playing real good. 4-1 start to a season is nice... I cant wait for the Dallas game on Tuesday (10/17). Hopefully, my tickets arrive by UPS soon...

A's lost... But, these are the A's... with a paltry spend, they manage this every year... SF Giants suck... and the 49ers and the Raiders suck even worse... Warriors have sucked forever!

That makes my Sharks look really really GOOD:)

Week after next, I'm gonna SkyDive... I'm green with envy of a friend of mine who has already gone.

ah! finally the sharks chomping starts again:)

2006-10-06T01:25:00.000-07:00

Thank god the summer is over, finally! I'm bored to death, watching Baseball. It is slllllooooowwww... The change in weather brings back the Sharks out on the ice, skating fast! What a change in pace.

Sharks, ofcourse, won today's clash against St. Louis - as usual, made it much more difficult than what it should have be:) makes it exciting to watch though - so cant complain there.

Now, I can safely score watch Oakland A's while loose my voice screaming for the Sharks! Lets go Sharks!

wassup with this web 2.0?

2006-04-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

well, plenty! its kinda crazy...

lots of things evolving around us, as usual... some clever marketing dude/dudette gave it a name - again, business as usual, creating a buzz... so we have Web 2.0...

Some really cool players in this space (other than the million other wanna-be Web 2.0ers - btw, the list below is by no means comprehensive, its just some companies that are familiar to me) are:
- Zimbra
- iUpload
- Jotspot
- SocialText
- Meebo

Its very interesting that this came up in my radar recently. Just the other day, a few of my friends at work (Rearden Commerce - another Web 2.0 company, ofcourse!) were discussing how the Wikis, Blogs, Corporate Intranet/Portals would all "converge" or would "need to" converge... And here it is, a few other folks thought the same (albeit a bit earlier than we did;))

iUpload, JotSpot, SocialText are just a few companies trying to bring together a host of different online publishing/web content management software under one banner. These folks claim to combine blogs, wikis, corporate intranet/internet, web document management and everything under the sun into one meaningful web...

Zimbra

Magic web, at ur finger tips
Hype is that its gonna kick M$ Outlook's back
Reality probably is that some big company would eat them up for breakfast and mess it up all the same

iUpload

Now, these fellows (iUpload) claim to do all of it - would be interesting to see what they can actually do today
Again, some big freaking company is gonna eat them up (remember Documentum - EMC?)

JotSpot

Not the same breadth or vision as iUpload
But, I guess it falls in the same realm

Meebo

What the heck is Meebo? Well, if you can get used to eBay, Google, Yahoo, why not meebo?
Do you want to Meebo me? no? U gonna bo-mee later? Yikes!
Anyways, another one of the online IM/blog companies

More later..

Oh, yeah, if you are wondering where I find these companies, well, that aint my little secret... I read a lot of articles on Red Herring, Business 2.0 and other mags... Also, follow a few analyst companies when I get some time - Gartner, Forrester, IDC Research, Yankee Group etc...

Open source bonanza

2006-03-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

A few more very useful open source tools:

http://www.xplanner.org - XP style Project management software
http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/index.php - Java 2D & 3D graphing tool
http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz - Java scheduler framework

Must visit often sites!

2006-03-25T00:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com - Very cool videos
http://thedailywtf.com

The Daily WTF
If you are a geek, u cant miss this one! Absolutely marvellous coding tips! To be honest, its very amusing, and sometimes you feel a sense of relief - its just not you who has to deal with a lot of frustruation of reading really bad code, there are so many of us out there who land up fixing these or owning them. I'm tempted to form a 'Developer's fraternity' or something to weed out some of these dangerous coders...

Exeter Alumni Blog on the Net

2006-03-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

Mutta Dosa: Hello Exeter 94-98 Mutta Dosa Folks!

Google does it again!

2005-08-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

Google does it again! Its just amazing to see so many creative tools from one company!

The newest addition to the Google “take it home” toolkit is the M$ Word Blogger Plugin! Download it and install it. It adds another toolbar to M$ Word and voila!, you can create/update blogs right from M$ Word!

Yep, this post is from M$ Word! Let see this puppy works:)

Loch Ness

2005-08-18T02:04:00.000-07:00

Under construction...

Uh! Quite a mystery, aint it? I love Scotland and the various native characters that add to the mystic of the place, as if it needs any more of it!

Recently, I saw an interesting movie by that name (Loch Ness). The story is very amusing to say the least:)

Maybe I should spend my next summer vacation in Scotland - this time as a traveller rather than as a tourist.

...

Harry Potter it is!

2005-08-18T02:01:00.000-07:00

This blog is in the works!

Nope, I'm not gonna be dissecting the 6th book nor would I be speculating about the next one. Its more about the Harry Potter mania and the 6th book release in Kepler's Book Store in Menlo Park, CA

...

Breaking the silence - At last!

2005-08-13T00:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm. That was a long break I took! Being busy is not the only reason I can think of. There are plenty of well justified reasons:) (sure, like slacking off?)

Anyways, been a busy month, this 15July-15Aug. Changing a job is not easy - especially, if you put in a few eons of hours @ one place. The last 7 years or so, I have been with Sun Microsystems. It was a fun ride while it lasted. The first 4 years were remarkably exciting, but the last 2-3 years became a drag.

Change is good. My new work haven is Rearden Commerce - nope, its not that tough to say it. Soon enough you will all hear about the company:) Seems like I have joined this company in the thick of things - lots of customer deployments simultaneously going on. Exciting times ahead. And I'm just getting started.

Other than work, my charity organization has been keeping me awake late @ nite - sometimes I wake up with nitemares about selling tickets. Its hilarious - I'm not a paranoid creature, but this one is really testing. Organizing an event under a non-profit umbrella is a challenge - even though people are motivated by a cause, the thought process could be so different between individuals. Its like pulling a ship in 4 different directions and trying to make it move forward! But, sure is a lot of fun! You learn to tune out the crap and breathe in the positives, just in any other everyday work!

More on the next post!

Patagonian Ice Field

2005-07-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

HBR

2005-07-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

Now that my professional life is about to include management, its time to upgrade my managerial skills to improve my chances of success in the new bad world of management! Nope, my technical skills are not gonna be traded for managerial skills. Its more of an add-on, atleast I hope so:)

Towards that, I just started spending some time reading Harvard Business Review (HBR). I already am an avid reader of Economist towards boardening my perspective on a wide array of topics - I strongly believe that one has to develop a whole range of peripheral knowledge to be able to improve decision making and leadership abilities.

I cant believe it took me so long to find HBR - its such a great resource for any professional - not just senior managers. Anyways, I will post my experiences reading HBR from time to time.

For people who dont want to pay for HBR (its expensive - $99 a year for basic subscription, $129 a year for premium subscription), there is a free component, HBS Working Knowledge, that carries a few of the articles from HBR.

To illustrate its relevance and usefulness in everyday life, I found this article on corruption and bribe - Should I pay the Bribe? Over the weekend, a few of my friends in my charity organization circle were sharing our thoughts on corruption in India, and how corruption could be tackled. "Should I pay the Bribe?" is a case study of a foreign business operator's dilemma about oiling the official machineries! The structure of the case study is as follows:
- The premises of this casae is explained in detail
- 4 experts serve up their judgements as commentaries

As I expected, the answer to these question was a resounding NO. While I am happy to see the academics agreeing on principle, I am skeptical about business leaders following these morals. An anonymous , scientific survey among foreign businesses operating in a few countries would provide some useful pointers.

While reading this article, I found references to a few interesting websites that I have bookmarked for further reading:
www.transparency.org
www.c2principles.org (The Wharton School, UPenn)
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2004

Enough for the day (previous day)!

"Working?" Session!

2005-07-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had planned to chip away @ some of the long overdue tasks for the upcoming charity (Upakriti) event. Things like Posters/Flyers, Program Guides, Ticket Design were all predominantly buzzing in my head for the last 2 days or so.

I guess I underestimated the amount of work I had done during the week and didnt realize that the weekend winddown syndrome would hit me! Thats precisely what got me today. Right from the early moments of the day, lethargy set in and wouldnt leave me to my normal hyperactive self.

What was broadcasted as a "working" session turned out to be a lot of socializing - which, by in itself, is not unimportant! OK, I dont have to be harsh - in reality, we did achieve a few things. Oh yeah, credit it as "team building" or some such fancy exercise and you have a nice twist to the day's activities.

It turned to out to be quite a day of conversations - ranging from socio-political topics to almost mundane uneventful chit-chattery.

Unexpectedly meeting some old friends instead of turning in earlier was fun too...

What does all of these "fun" mean for today? Get down to business and prepare for the week ahead...

HQ - Prolific Oven

2005-07-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Prolific Oven, what would I do without your free Internet connection! PO is my HQ(Head Quarters) for anything creative. Maybe its the Chai Tea or just the sight of exquisite baked goods or maybe the sweet smell of the cakes - Dont know! The place just rocks! I can sit here all day long and "actually" get work done!

I wouldnt be surprised if these folks start charging me a "squatting" fee - and I might just pay it as well:) Its so close to Sun Micro and yet, so far away from all the chaos of a workplace as well. To top it all, there are "other" attractions too;) (read eye candies, if I'm that jobless - hey, I'm only human;))

Thinking of SUNW, there is not that many days left in my life with SUNW. Come 20th of this month, it will be sayonara Sun Micro. After almost 7 years @ Sun, I can safely say, been there and done that @ Sun. Now, off to learn something new and refreshing!

Starting from July 25th, I will be working with a small company (80 people) named "Rearden Commerce". Rearden - a name inspired by the Ayn Rand novel "Atlas Shrugged".

Exciting Summer!

2005-07-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

What's extreme excitement about spending a week off (forced vacation) from work at home base?

Huh? Not working could be a easy answer, but a wrong one! It would be boring to spend too many days off from work if not for all the things that I have been busy with the last few days.

How about this for a supposedly quite period? Coordinating an event for Upakriti. Running behind sponsors, artists, volunteers & patrons, all with their own quirkiness to boot - if you could call it fun - could be a lot of excitement. If there is one sure path towards a sales job, this would be it. Its a difficult job and I'm learning how hard it could be, while immensely enriching my life with this experience. Have a few more new friends down in the South Bay (SF Bay Area) and a lot more people look the other way at the thought of me:) I cant have a civilized conversation with anyone without delving on Upakriti or the event or the poor conversationist's wallet;) Despite all the fad about "working with a non-profit", the actual grind is much less sexier.

So, thats what is keeping me up. And if in the anxiety of executing some of these tasks, I spend time reading "The Egyptologist" or "Prague" up until late in the nite/early in the morning, who could blame me?;)

Hello from Google:)

2005-07-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

Amazing! Google seems to have an ever lasting list of tools to enhance our lives! The latest is Hello . I would recommend this to any active blogger (especially, the ones who blog @ Blogger) - how did I live without Hello? Well, pretty easy - I didnt blog outside of work for all this while? Hmm... Did I live in the same sphere as everyone else? Atleast now, I have decided to put a solid foot down on the green planet... (oh, dont get me started about the Green Planet)

London 2012, it is!

2005-07-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

London 2012

IOC is an amazing organization - completely democratic voting process from all the representative nations! I thought their election process should be televised live - there probably would have been a decent number of viewers as opposed to some of the Olympic sports;) Dont get me wrong - there are so many games that I cannot pretend to like them all!

Anyways, I would have really loved to see which member country voted for which location. Wouldnt that be something? Alright, I will say it outright - I think there is a significant amount of political wrangling (arm twisting) in selecting a host nation and I'm not sure whether I would have agreed with the choice of my country's representative! That brings up even more questions - Should normal Joes/Janes have a say in how your country's rep votes? Maybe there should be a Gallup poll or some such thing:)

Anyways, I would love to see an Olympics hosted in Africa - pick any country you like - or even better, pick a bunch of countries close to each other and make them all co-hosts? The 110 or so member nations pitch in and build the entire infrastructure for the games - thus providing locals training in infrastructure building and employing them(albeit temporarily). Also, all the proceeds should go to the host nations. Wouldnt that be something? UN, you listening?

London is a pretty neat city - I love it. I wouldnt mind travelling there to see the Olympics. B/w Paris would have been alright with me as well... Its really not much to choose from, is it?

Travel Sites!

2005-07-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

Travel sites I absolutely love:

http://www.bootsnall.com/
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Sample mugshot uploaded using Hello

2005-07-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

My mugshot

Mar Bravo Beach in Ancud, Chile
Date: Jan 11th, 2005

The Egyptologist

2005-07-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

So, what has kept me alive and busy the last few days? First off, I cant really claim to be busy body the last few days. The July 4th break and an extended Sun Microsystems forced summer siesta has given me plenty of free time to enchance my spirit - albeit sending my sleep pattern out of control yet again! For a change, I'm in town (Pleasanton, CA) during the break and not working. The last six months have been busy and I have much to catch up on - books and magazines that I subscribe to.

Last Friday, a perfect summer's day, I wandered around and found myself in Keplers Book Store in Menlo Park. While browsing for some easy reads for the next few days, I picked these 3 titles.

Prague - Arthur Phillips
The Egyptologist - Arthur Phillips
The Unfolding of Languages - Guy Duetscher

Now, moving on to the choices of books - well, I have a fascination for far away places - anything that inspires travel, learning about new places, history etc. is inspiring. Yes, looking for some new energy. So, Egyptologist and Prague fall under the travel section for me - fiction, but interplayed nicely with destinations of my choice? - brilliant!

The book on Languages was surely for kicks - Recently, I had a prolonged argument with one of my volunteer collegues (My current favorite volunteer organization : Upakriti) about language. For me, language is pretty basic - its to facilitate me to communicate with the world, period. As long as I can effectively accomplish that, it doesnt matter what language I speak. Yes, English is my language of choice - atleast for now, even though Tamil is my mother tongue and I speak passable Hindi. Mind you, English has served me well. I wouldnt mind learning Spanish or French. But, thats about it - I would much rather spend my energy on something more interesting and useful. Ofcourse, I wont mind dabbling in other languages when the need arises.

Anyways, back to Eyptologist...
It is an interesting narrative. The style of writing is pretty unique - a potpouri of active journals, letters and authors edit. For the first time, I saw different fonts being used different characters - to some extent, the soliloquy of few pages of a certain character at a time allowed the use of this style. It would have been awkward, if it was a dramatic, conversational writing.

Kept me in it for the journey for sure. The clever mingling of fact and fiction is another aspect that really makes it a worthwhile reading. The story of the main character (Ralph Trilipush) intertwined with the story of the famous curator, Howard Carter, of the King Tut fame was fascinating. Now, I'm looking for a real biography of this dude - Howard Carter.

As it so happened, as I was reading this book, I had a National Geographic (June 2005) edition with "The new face of King Tut" staring at me all the time. A pharaonic invitation to visit Egypt? A round trip ticket and a red carpet would be even better:) Not that I dont want to go to Egypt - I absolutely would love to visit the mummies and dig some dirt in the Valley of the Dead.

Is this a new age of "novelism" or what?

Both the books, Egyptologist and Prague, seem to contain atleast a 2-page list of endorsements for the book even before the book begins
Another sort of outlandish marketing idea is to include a list of "Book Club Topics for discussion"
Websites for individual books (hmm...why not make a movie at the same time too?) - well, since there is a website, atleast make it a little bit more interesting please (a la Dan Brown/da vinci code contests would be a first step)
Book Tour Schedule - well, atleast someone is having fun!

I would rather have the quality of the books speak for itself rather than these gimmicks to increase readership - seems very Hollywoody... I would much rather prefer and live with Amazon.com providing me with a list of books based on my past/current interests/purchases.

Anyways, despite all my rumblings about the marketing ingenuity of these new age books, I still liked The Egyptologist - if not for its content, atleast as a light hearted eye opener to Eygpt, its treasures, the treasure hunters and the greed that binds them all (from the kings who hope to carry a whole lot of gold to their grave to robbers who loot them)

Now, I'm all set to read Prague... if only, the accolades were hidden somewhere towards the back of the book...