Re: [silk] Hello and Introduction

[Ashwin]

Mighty Mighty MIT :) 

On Thu, May 6, 2021, at 19:20, Sundar Narayanan wrote:
> Thank you Subodh and Gabingreat to see more MITians here.
> On Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 08:10:58 PM CDT, gabin kattukaran 
> mailto:gkattukaran%40gmail.com>> wrote:  
>  
> On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 18:10, Subodh Sankar  > wrote:
> 
> > Welcome Sundar. I have known Sundar since the late 80s, when we were
> > roommates in college for 3 years. Great to have you on the group, though
> > I have been a lurker these past years !!!
> 
> Another Manipal product, eh?
> Hey Sundar, there are several MIT survivors here. I'm one too.
> 
> -gabin
> 
> -- 
> 
> Don't confuse me with facts. My mind is made up.
> 
>   
> 

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading for 2020

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

My reading was severely hampered this year due to our son being at home all
day. With helping him all day at home we ended up having much less energy
at the end of the day for reading or watching something. But I was part of
a bookclub at work and through that I got to read stuff from outside my
"comfort zone". Some of the books I can recommend this year:

- Rendezvous with Rama: First book in Arthur C Clarke's Rama series. I love
that these are short reads and how "hard" Clarke goes into the science of
the worlds he creates.

- Dune: Ok, so I finally got around to reading the classic in preparation
for Denis Villeneuve's movie coming next year. The world building in the
first two acts of this book is incredible, though the third act doesn't
compare. BTW for Dune aficionados, watching the documentary Jodorowsky's
Dune is a MUST. The man is positively insane, but it is nothing short of
fantastic to watch.

- The Invention of Nature: Biography of 19th century naturalist Humboldt,
who traveled the world, discovered and catalogued so much of nature that
there are more things/places named after him than anyone else in the world.
I counted tens of places/counties/parks named after him in CA/OR itself.
Beside learning about the man, the book gave me a good mental model of the
global scientific community and how they worked at the turn of the 19th
century.

- How to be an Antiracist: Picked it up inspired by BLM, this was quite eye
opening since I have not read much about racism in the US.

- The Sound of the Mountain: Superlative literature, observation of passing
life, with the peace of a Zen garden. I'm a fan of Yasunari Kawabata after
this.

Re: [silk] What are the things you splurge on that are worth the money?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I am really enjoying the men's perfumes you folks are sharing and looking
them up on BaseNotes. Taking notes for trying them out. 

On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 9:17 PM Danese Cooper  wrote:

> -Computers
> -Musical Instruments
> -Matcha tea
>
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 4:44 AM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
>
> > Like it says. I know there are similar threads out there on reddit etc -
> > this question is for silklisters. :)
> >
> > My list:
> > - Computers. Every 5 years or so I replace my computer with the best
> specs
> > I can afford.
> > - Fragrance. I look at these as art and collect them for regular use.
> > - Good gin/vodka. Nuff said.
> >
> > Udhay
> >
> > --
> >
> > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
> >
>

Re: [silk] (no subject)

[Ashwin]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020, at 21:08, Nisha Susan wrote:
> Hello all!
> 
> I am a writer based in Bangalore. I recently wrote a book of short stories
> called The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook. Looking forward to
> conversations here.
> 
> Nisha

HI Nisha 

Welcome. 

Just wanted to say I loved the book. :) 

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Valuing and selling inherited trinkets

[Ashwin]

Hi Pooja 

I would be interested in the cameras. Could you mail me directly? 

~ashwin
m...@ashwin.live 

On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, at 21:23, Pooja Sastry wrote:
> Reaching out to Silklist for help.
> 
> I grew up as one of five people living in a house in Bangalore built for at
> least 10, with endless space for hoarding the knick-knacks of four separate
> households from three generations. Constantly dusty, a nightmare to clean
> and maintain, and stuffed with things from ceiling to floor.
> 
> Among other things, we have paper-thin painted and gilded bone china,
> lacquerware, ivory dolls and toys, carved wooden perfume boxes, obsolete
> (but working!) radios, cassette players, video cameras, cameras and
> goodness knows what else that I can't begin to describe, all piled up in
> chests or gathering dust on shelves.
> 
> (This has arisen as a consequence of the quarantine, come to think of it.
> Opening chests restlessly and promising ourselves that THIS time, we will
> deal with all this.)
> 
> We would like to sell them, if anyone is willing to buy them. Not throw
> them away, because then they're sure to be sold one way or another, except
> not by us.
> 
> Has anyone here tried to do, this, too? I would be so grateful for advice
> on how to value items like this, especially in India. We're willing to sell
> outside India, too, except we don't know how and if we can.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Pooja
> 

Re: [silk] Weekly or monthly recommendations

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Thanks Thaths, Sidin, Srijith and Bruce for your suggestions.

Apart from the famous New Yorker, Caravan and Nat Geo suggestions, Science
News is exactly the type of hidden gem of a discovery I was hoping for from
this group!

Curated online article sources like Syllabus and Browser sound unique and I
will be checking them out too!

On Sun, Mar 1, 2020 at 4:19 AM Srijith Nair  wrote:

>
> Not exactly paper-version but similar to what Sidin suggested,
> https://the-syllabus.com/ is turning up rather eclectic but interesting
> reads.
>
> Regards,
> Srijith Nair
>
> On Sat, Feb 29, 2020, at 7:59 PM, Sidin Vadukut wrote:
> > The Browser is a fantastic service that sends a few great reads
> > everyday into your email
> > Inbox. Super low volume and I almost always enjoy their
> > recommendations. I am a subscriber. And worth every penny. Also they
> > don’t obsess over ‘good writing’ as much as ‘things that are good for
> > reading’.
> >
> > TheBrowser.com
> > On 29 Feb 2020, 18:15 +, Ashwin Nanjappa ,
> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I have been thinking of switching to reading magazines with a weekly or
> > > monthly cadence for news, analysis, opinions, books, movies, travel,
> tech
> > > etc.
> > > Not only is following the "breaking news" mentally tiring, I have
> realized
> > > they don't matter in the long term.
> > > Right now I am reading The Economist and Linux Weekly News (LWN). Would
> > > love to discover more such sources.
> > >
> > > *What non-trash sources of weekly/monthly cadence do you recommend?*
> > > I would prefer they have paper versions, cause I am getting tired of
> > > complicated payments, ads, tracking, DRM etc.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Ashwin
> >
>
>

[silk] Weekly or monthly recommendations

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Hi,

I have been thinking of switching to reading magazines with a weekly or
monthly cadence for news, analysis, opinions, books, movies, travel, tech
etc.
Not only is following the "breaking news" mentally tiring, I have realized
they don't matter in the long term.
Right now I am reading The Economist and Linux Weekly News (LWN). Would
love to discover more such sources.

*What non-trash sources of weekly/monthly cadence do you recommend?*
I would prefer they have paper versions, cause I am getting tired of
complicated payments, ads, tracking, DRM etc.

Regards,
Ashwin

Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

You are right that PDF helps me to use a single format/tool for both books
and academic articles/theses/etc. For academic papers, I highlight/annotate
in the PDF. We did not get into other forms of "notes" that are useful to
me: programming/technical notes, those are captured in my blog.

So, my "notes" are right now spread out in these places:
- Public: Programming/CS/technical notes/book summaries in my tech blog:
https://codeyarns.github.io/tech/
- Public: Summaries of non-tech fiction/non-fiction books/movies/TV series
I like and other notes (Ex: how to take train in CA) in my personal blog:
https://codeyarns.github.io/personal/
- Private: Gitlab repo of Markdown files with notes/excerpts of online
articles or all other private text notes.
- Private: Directory of annotated PDF files (papers, theses, books)
- Private: Google drive of scans of handwritten notes and sketches (example
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zd4NpDFJ3_dRcBs3QQu1UdUtLNRRaXEK/view?usp=sharing>)
used to understand concepts. This is also where my academic/personal
notebooks end up (I scan them in once a notebook is filled up.) Handwritten
because text does not always cut it (esp with math and figures) and
notes/math/figures in LaTeX are a huge timesink (believe me, I did that for
a few years!). I have kept a scanner beside my home computer for a decade
now.

You can see there are 4 places (2 blogs combined) for my notes and search
(Google for blogs/drive, Gitlab/Linux text search). I would like this to
reduce to 3 or ideally 2 (text and non-text), but I don't see that ever
happening.

Since I need my notes to last several decades (it's almost 2 decades since
my undergrad already) I will only use text OR well-supported open-source
tools/formats OR tools from Microsoft (known for their decades-long
support) OR  non-text format I know will last forever (PDF). I stay away
from tools from startups or online tools which my lock my notes away or
make it difficult to export.

The other factor is accessibility: can I access them from the places I
want? Blogs, git repos and Google Drive are easily accessible at home and
work or from vacation (say India). The problem is PDF files directory --
which I am syncing using Dropbox, not ideal but I don't see a better
solution.

All this and we did not even get to notes that are private to my work
organization. That is another mess :-)

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 9:58 PM Srijith Nair  wrote:

> Hi Ashwin,
>
> > I have terrible memory, so how best to take notes and be able to search
> and
> > find them later is probably something I worry about every single day.
> >
> > Your current query is about: books and long-form online articles. I am
> > guessing you mean non-fiction works.
>
> Most of the time it is non-fiction indeed. But I am also trying to capture
> some rather eloquent passages in fiction.
>
> >- *Non-fiction books*
> >   - *Physical*: I use highlighter/pen/pencil to underline and take
> >   notes on the pages. Decades ago, I used to consider writing in a
> book a
> >   sacrilege. Now I am the polar opposite :-)
> >   - *Ebook*: I avoid epub/ebook formats and get the PDF version. If
> >   there is no PDF, I export ebook to PDF. The PDF format supports
> >   annotations. You can annotate (highlight, underline, text, draw,
> > jot) on a
> >   PDF using PDF programs on desktop (Windows/Linux) and tablets
> (Android).
> >   And these annotated PDFs are viewable in standard PDF viewers on
> _all_
> >   platforms. I love this versatility of the PDF format.
>
> This is rather interesting workflow. I have not seen a lot of people
> convert from epub and other formats to PDF for reading. Is this in
> influenced by your academic reading workflow by any chance, as a way to
> unify both the process for all forms of reading?
>
> >   - For both types of books, if I like the book, I usually write an
> *online
> >   post/review* <https://codeyarns.github.io/personal/> with a
> summary.
> >   So this is the place I first head to.
>
> Wow, that is one disciplined record keeping! I am in awe.
>
> >- *Long-form online articles*
> >   - After reading the article, if I like it, I keep a Markdown file
> >   where I take notes (link to article and bullet list of my
> summary). This
> >   used to be a ASCIIDoc file, but now that Markdown is supported
> > everywhere,
> >   I use that. Recently I switched to a Git repo hosted on Github for
> these
> >   Markdown files. Github has online Markdown viewer and editor, so I
> can
> >   search, read and edit all in the browser itself!
>
> Thanks for sharing the process. Markdown is indeed rather useful in such
> context and makes

Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I have terrible memory, so how best to take notes and be able to search and
find them later is probably something I worry about every single day.

Your current query is about: books and long-form online articles. I am
guessing you mean non-fiction works.


   - *Non-fiction books*
  - *Physical*: I use highlighter/pen/pencil to underline and take
  notes on the pages. Decades ago, I used to consider writing in a book a
  sacrilege. Now I am the polar opposite :-)
  - *Ebook*: I avoid epub/ebook formats and get the PDF version. If
  there is no PDF, I export ebook to PDF. The PDF format supports
  annotations. You can annotate (highlight, underline, text, draw,
jot) on a
  PDF using PDF programs on desktop (Windows/Linux) and tablets (Android).
  And these annotated PDFs are viewable in standard PDF viewers on _all_
  platforms. I love this versatility of the PDF format.
  - For both types of books, if I like the book, I usually write an *online
  post/review*  with a summary.
  So this is the place I first head to.
   - *Long-form online articles*
  - After reading the article, if I like it, I keep a Markdown file
  where I take notes (link to article and bullet list of my summary). This
  used to be a ASCIIDoc file, but now that Markdown is supported
everywhere,
  I use that. Recently I switched to a Git repo hosted on Github for these
  Markdown files. Github has online Markdown viewer and editor, so I can
  search, read and edit all in the browser itself!


On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 8:36 AM Srijith Nair  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I would like to pick your brains on how you organise and retrieve
> information that you read in books (physical or ebook) and long-form
> articles online.
>
> Over the years I have been getting increasingly frustrated at not being
> efficient in deriving meaningful value from what I have read and curated
> via notes and highlights from these readings. I wanted to get better at
> retaining what I read and also in being able to connect the dots and
> identifying overlapping and intersecting themes and topics across the
> various books and articles I have read. I also have the recurring problem
> of not being able to  remember/find that quote or that impressive eloquent
> passage in a book or article that I read a few weeks or months ago.
>
> Attempts at using Evernote, Notion and other collect-everything tools have
> solved parts of the problem but it does get tedious and, because it is not
> a tool built-for-purpose, it involves a fair bit of personalisation.
> Services like readwise.io attack a slightly different problem from a
> different angle (helping learn by repetition etc).
>
> I was wondering what you have found useful in solving similar problems on
> your end.
>
> As I love to hack code, I have been working on a solution for the last few
> weeks but it is far from perfect or complete. Before I go further down this
> rabbit hole, I thought it makes sense to try and understand if there are
> existing solutions out there that works for you?
>
> Regards,
> Srijith
>
>

Re: [silk] New member intro - Krishna Udayasankar

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Welcome Krishna. I'm an ex-resident of Singapore too (11 years) and got a
PhD there too (let's not talk about it). LOL

On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 6:39 AM Krishna Udayasankar <
kris.udayasan...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Thanks for welcoming into this wonderful space. My name is Krishna, I
> pretend to be a writer (nothing you have read, I sincerely hope!) and
> keep up the pretence by continuing to put my name on about 7-odd
> novels that were mainly written by my 3 canine fur-kids; who are now
> at work on the movie/series scripts of the same.
>
> I also am well know for my agility, which allows me to often put my
> foot in my mouth (sometimes while the other foot is already inside),
> and also for my contribution to terraforming vide my jokes that fall
> flat and hard.
>
> I am currently a resident of Singapore, soon to become a resident of
> Bangalore. In terms of educational background- i.e.- what I should
> have done to get a real life - I was originally a lawyer and went on
> to do my PhD in Strategic Management and worked as an academic of over
> a decade before my epiphany that fiction is often truer than academic
> research.
>
> I now (attempt to) make a living by cracking bad jokes in exchange for
> beer. Whiskey promises a better standard of humour and perhaps an
> occasionally useful statement.
>
> Thanks and look forward to being a mildly-amusing wallflower on this group!
>
> Warm regards,
> Krishna
> 
> Krishna Udayasankar, PhD.
>
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

This year I discovered Keigo Higashino, a Japanese mystery author. Devoured
2 of his books: The Devotion of Suspect X

and The Name of the Game is a Kidnapping
.
Highly recommended author for folks who love mystery.

Other books I read this year:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019/1145513


On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 10:47 AM Kiran Jonnalagadda  wrote:

> I just finished Antigod's Own Country by A. V. Sakthidaran and it may be
> the most enlightening book I've read in years.
>
> Kiran
>
> --
> Kiran Jonnalagadda
> https://hasgeek.com
>
>
>
> On Thu, 26 Dec 2019 at 12:23, Ashim D'Silva 
> wrote:
>
> > Loving all these recommendations…
> > My book of the year is a collection of lectures by Ursula Franklin, The
> > Real World Of Technology, which considers technology to be any I system
> or
> > methods used to organise humans thought. It has me thinking a lot about
> my
> > role as a creator of applications in how people solve problems, and I
> think
> > I will be repeatedly reading this for many years to come.
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 9:32 AM, Thaths  wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 11:17 AM Alok Prasanna Kumar <
> > > kautilya...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > To add to the already fantastic books on this list (in no particular
> > > order)
> > > >
> > > > 2. India Moving: A History of Migration by Chinmay Tumbe
> > > >
> > >
> > > This reminded me of another excellent book I read in 2019 that was a
> good
> > > introduction to the ANI/ASI hypothesis:
> > >
> > > Early Indians : The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From (Tony
> > > Joseph)
> > >
> > > S.
> > > --
> > > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
> > > Carl:  Nuthin'.
> > > Homer: D'oh!
> > > Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
> > > Homer: Woo-hoo!
> > >
> > --
> > Cheerio,
> >
> > Ashim
> > Design & Build
> >
> > The Random Lines
> > www.therandomlines.com
> >
>

Re: [silk] Organizing files/ folders on one's laptop

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I always wished to keep my files well organized, but ended up never
managing that. Most of my old files got lost when I moved between computers.

 These days it's all Google Drive. I upload everything with descriptive
filenames. I have a basic set of directories but again most of the time I
don't bother to put files into them. Just upload and forget . It's easy to
search and find from any device, any time. Photos and videos from my phone
go into Google Photos.

>
>
>

Re: [silk] Bangalore: Time to meet up

[Ashwin Kumar]

Weak Yes.


From: silklist  on behalf of 
Udhay Shankar N 
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2018 1:42:25 PM
To: Silk List
Subject: Re: [silk] Bangalore: Time to meet up

​I'm in, but you knew that.​

Re: [silk] The end of the teens

[Ashwin Kumar]

+1

~ashwin

From: silklist <silklist-bounces+ashwink=live...@lists.hserus.net> on behalf of 
Deepa Mohan <mohande...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2017 6:53:04 PM
To: Intelligent Conversation
Subject: Re: [silk] The end of the teens

I am onetative, too, depending on the final date.

I have not met many of you and would like to do so.

The Inveterate Top-poster.

On Thu, Nov 23, 2017 at 6:41 PM, Amitha Singh <amithasi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm in tentative + 1
>
>
>
> On 23 Nov 2017 6:32 pm, "Rajesh Mehar" <rajeshme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Tentative +1 (attendance will depend on childcare options falling in
> place
> > for the date of the meetup)
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 23, 2017, 18:26 Venkat <s...@venkatmangudi.com> wrote:
> >
> > > +1 for 17th. I'm out on 15th and 16th.
> > >
> > > On 23/11/17 4:55 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> > > > +1
> > > >
> > > > On 23/11/17, 3:29 PM, "silklist on behalf of Biju Chacko"
> > > <silklist-bounces+suresh=hserus@lists.hserus.net on behalf of
> > > biju.cha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >  On Thu, Nov 23, 2017 at 7:40 AM, Udhay Shankar N <
> ud...@pobox.com
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > > >  > Sounds good. I will be traveling from the 21st onwards, so
> > > perhaps the
> > > >  > previous weekend? Anytime between 15-17 Dec 2017. Show of
> hands?
> > > >
> > > >  *raises hand*
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Venkat
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>

Re: [silk] Bangalore Help Needed

[Ashwin Kumar]

Rajesh

Vidhi is located out of the WeWorks space in Brigade Road and they got a pretty 
decent deal. Is anyone from Vidhi on this group?

~ashwin

~ashwin

From: silklist <silklist-bounces+ashwink=live...@lists.hserus.net> on behalf of 
Gaurav Vaz <m...@gauravvaz.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2017 3:43:21 PM
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] Bangalore Help Needed

I know that a couple of NGOs operate out of WeWork in Bangalore and they’ve
gotten a pretty decent deal. I don’t know if that is personal contacts /
favours or if they will do this for more people. Might be worth exploring?

-Gaurav

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 12:43 PM, Rajesh Mehar <rajeshme...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Silklisters,
>
> I need some urgent help in Bangalore.
>
> An advocate friend of mine needs to move out of her current office and is
> looking for a new office. But it's not just a simple real estate search,
> because...
>
> Her practice has a high pro bono component and clients need her office to
> be close to a well serviced bus stand and the Metro. Also, she and her
> colleagues shuttle between the family court, the city civil court, the high
> court, and the magistrates court. So, the ideal area in which her office
> needs to be is infantry road, Church Street, Cubbon Road, and thereabouts.
>
> Unfortunately these areas have become highly gentrified recently and the
> asking rents are at sell-a-kidney levels.
>
> So, if anyone has any leads to an office space (or could be a residential
> space as long as the apartment society/association is ok to rent out to a
> law practice) that satisfies the following criteria, please pass on leads.
>
> Requirements:
> 1) 1000-1200 sq ft of space
> 2) should have a dedicated toilet attached (ie no shared toilets that need
> to be shared with other building occupants)
> 3) within the infantry road, Cubbon Road, Church Street area. Or really
> close to a metro station and a well serviced bus stop.
> 4) landlord should be willing to rent for 2-3 years (at least 18 months)
> 5) not exhorbitant rent
>
> PS:
> a) Landlord need not worry about renting to lawyers, they are really
> peaceful people.
> b) We've already tried almost every broker in the area. Personal contacts
> would be better. But if it's a super broker, please pass on those contacts
> too.
> c) Please help.
>



--
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!

Gaurav Vaz | m...@gauravvaz.com | +91 99005 16145 | 
https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgauravvaz.com=02%7C01%7Cashwink%40live.in%7C140bab28370e4d590edb08d52e6d142b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C636465968369653300=Kvm%2B4ZGEzBNk43IMd%2F%2BkHhaPGKayH2wmrP8%2FzFRwfoI%3D=0

Re: [silk] Reintroducing myself

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

De-lurking a bit ...

We met in Singapore a long time ago at a dinner Meetup. Welcome back Nadika
☺

On Nov 16, 2017 19:34, "Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan" <
chandrachoo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Let me see, it's been 10 years on the list. After initial enthusiasm in
> responding to all messages, I lurked, first actively and then passively.
> And now occasionally read a thread or two till the first point of drift.
>
> Things outside were happening.
>
> Today I got added to a Whatsapp group which reminded me of Silk again. It
> helped that about 95% of the group members are silklisters.
>
> And then I saw Udhay's thread about changing one's opinion and the other
> one about optimising priorities.
>
> So.
>
> Re introductions.
> Some of you may have known me as Chandrachoodan. Or as Ravages.
>
> I've since changed. A lot.
> After years of trying to figure it out, and worrying about family, friends,
> etc., I began to transition. Socially, medically, and internet-ly.
>
> I am still afraid of family's reaction. I am still worried about what
> friends will say. But since 2014 I have learnt that the number of people
> who don't give a fuck who I am, one way or other, far outnumber the number
> of people who do give a fuck. Which is cool.
>
>
> Some of you have known me after transition.
>
> For the others,
> I am Nadika.
>

Re: [silk] Reintroducing myself

[Ashwin Kumar]

What do you care, what other people think? - Arline Feynman

Welcome back N

~ashwin

~ashwin

From: silklist <silklist-bounces+ashwink=live...@lists.hserus.net> on behalf of 
Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2017 5:11:49 PM
To: Silk List
Subject: Re: [silk] Reintroducing myself

​Welcome, again, N. Feel free to share as much or as little as you like.

Udhay​

Re: [silk] Ashim - An Introduction

[Ashwin Kumar]

~ashwin





From: silklist <silklist-bounces+ashwink=live...@lists.hserus.net> on behalf of 
Thaths <tha...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 11:45
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] Ashim - An Introduction

On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 4:04 PM gabin kattukaran <gkattuka...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Which are the ones you have tried? As a consumer, I have found
> 500px nice. Haven't tried posting there though. I find Instagram a tad
> too restricting ( https://instagram.com/cyntalist ) Also, their move
> away from chronological feed has been an irritant.
>

So far, I have looked at Smugmug and self-hosted galleries. I asked fellow
photographers at work and they recommended against 500px. Apparently there
have been quite a few cases of photo theft.

I am considering Smugmug too since I bought this -> 
https://photorumors.com/2017/11/01/luminar-2018-for-mac-pc-now-available-for-pre-order-lightroom-alternative/
 (since LR is going the Creative cloud/subscription way)
the introductory offer comes with a one year Smugmug subscription. 

~ashwin
PS: Thaths you are in India? 

Re: [silk] I saw this message and panicked.

[Ashwin Kumar]

~ashwin





From: silklist <silklist-bounces+ashwink=live...@lists.hserus.net> on behalf of 
Gaurav Vaz <m...@gauravvaz.com>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 08:37
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] I saw this message and panicked.

That attachment had me confused, but otherwise, all references to Nov. 8th
are about “demonetization” no?

On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 9:53 PM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 8:17 AM, Ashwin Kumar <ashw...@live.in> wrote:
>
> Nov 8th is almost upon us. :)
>
>
> ​What's the context for this?​

Nov 8th Yuge announcement. - I got an email saying Silk is shutting down. 

Nevermind :| 

~ashwin

[silk] I saw this message and panicked.

[Ashwin Kumar]

Nov 8th is almost upon us. :) 

~ashwin

[silk] NYC/Bay Area Meet up?

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hi all
I sent an email earlier, but not sure whether it left my outbox. 
I will be in * NYC - Sept 26th to 30th* Bay Area (Sunnyvale/San Jose) - Sept 
30th to Oct 8th
Any silksters want to meet up? 
~ashwin   

[silk] NYC/Bay Area Meetup?

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hi folks
I'll be in NYC from Sept 26th to 30th, and Bay Area from 30th on to Oct 8th. 
Anyone in the area for a meetup?

I'll be free all evenings. 
~ashwin 
+919483466818

Re: [silk] Hello From Advaith

[Ashwin Kumar]

> I'm currently also working on another long term project. It's a musical
> interpretation of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, set in a post modern context.
> Would love to hear your thoughts on this. We're still ideating the exact
> structure of the project.

Welcome to the Madness Advaith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGEhsjik1kU
Hesse is one of my favourite authors. 
~ashwin   

[silk] Naresh on Place Making of Bengaluru

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hi Naresh
Nice talk. 
https://youtu.be/c_ldfSRU4EI
~ashwin 
+919483466818

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Aadisht Khanna  wrote:
> Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I took two years to finish this, but enjoyed
> it far more in 2015 than 2014. Tolstoy has this under-the-surface mild
> sarcasm that suddenly leaps out, bites, and then goes back to rest.

Do you recall which translation you read? I see 6+ different
translations of Anna Karenina on Amazon with wildly varying reviews
from readers.

Besides the translations, another problem is that publishers put out
edited/abridged versions of classics with cover material that doesn't
mention this. I had a great time this year chomping through ~1500
pages of the original anonymous English translation of Count of Monte
Cristo. But before I settled on that I had been misled by a
"shortened" ~800 page edition, which definitely did not read well.
Investigating this issue, I found other ~200 and ~400 page versions
too!

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:49 PM, Supriya Nair  wrote:
> Anonymity for the > 1000-page edition seems puzzling -- if it was the
> Penguin black classics edition, it's by Robin Buss. Well worth reading. The
> novel form was invented for Dumas to have fun with.

There are 2 English translations of Monte Cristo. From my Googling, I
found that no one knows who did the first translation, it is
anonymous. The legality of translating and selling an unauthorized
version across the channel in England at that time may have been a
factor. IAC this is the translation you will find on Project Gutenberg
too. Its language is flowery and archaic, but I actually like that
since it immerses me in that period of time. All the shortened
versions derive from this anonymous translation, since it is copyright
free.

The second and modern translation, as you mentioned, is by Buss for
Penguin. It has got good reviews. I plan to read it sometime to see
the difference :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
 wrote:
> Buss is canonical - and a lot of the other translations redact large parts of 
> the novel, either for convenience to chop out side stories, or due to 
> victorian prudery

I find such "snipping" of content from the original quite irritating.
The English translation of Murakami's Wind-up Bird Chronicle is by Jay
Rubin. To my surprise I discovered later that entire chapters in the
Japanese original do not appear in Rubin's work! I'm guessing this
translation is "blessed" by Murakami, which makes the situation all
the more puzzling.

> to make it family friendly (Eugenie Danglars = hinted at as being a lesbian) 
> etc.

Not just hinting, it was pretty obvious in the version I read :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 3:15 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
 wrote:
>
> Copyright, 1887.
> By JOSEPH L. BLAMIRB.
>
> There’s a Joseph L Blamire who is credited with some other works from the 
> 1860s onwards.

He may not be the translator. Googling with his name does not throw up
anything in that direction.

Wikipedia says translation is anonymous:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo


The most common English translation is an anonymous one originally
published in 1846 by Chapman and Hall. This was originally released in
ten weekly installments from March 1846 with six pages of letterpress
and two illustrations by M Valentin.[11] The translation was released
in book form with all twenty illustrations in two volumes in May 1846,
a month after the release of the first part of the above-mentioned
translation by Emma Hardy.[12] The translation follows the revised
French edition of 1846, with the correct spelling of "Cristo" and the
extra chapter The House on the Allées de Meilhan.

Most English editions of the novel follow the anonymous translation.
In 1889 two of the major American publishers Little Brown and T.Y
Crowell updated the translation, correcting mistakes and revising the
text to reflect the original serialised version. This resulted in the
removal of the chapter The House on the Allées de Meilhan, with the
text restored to the end of the chapter called The Departure.[13][14]

In 1955 Collins published an updated version of the anonymous
translation which cut several passages including a whole chapter
entitled The Past and renamed others.[15] This abridgement was
republished by many Collins imprints and other publishers including
the Modern Library, Vintage, the 1998 Oxford World's Classics edition
(later editions restored the text) and the 2009 Everyman's Library
edition.

In 1996 Penguin Classics published a new translation by Robin Buss.
Buss's translation updated the language, making the text more
accessible to modern readers, and restored content that was modified
in the 1846 translation because of Victorian English social
restrictions (for example, references to Eugénie's lesbian traits and
behaviour) to reflect Dumas' original version.


~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Books I loved this year ...

Fiction:

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north/

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle/

On The Beach (Nevil Shute)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/on-the-beach/

Sci-fi:

I, Robot (Isaac Asimov)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/i-robot/

Against The Fall of Night (Arthur C. Clarke)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/against-the-fall-of-night/

Graphic novels:

Seconds (Bryan Lee O'Malley)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/seconds/

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Roz Chast)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant/

The Party After You Left (Roz Chast)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/the-party-after-you-left/

Humour:

Dave Barry Talks Back (Dave Barry)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/dave-barry-talks-back/

Classics:

The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/the-count-of-monte-cristo/

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Arthur Conan Doyle)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles/

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Thaths  wrote:
[...]
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus

I've just started on this one, it is just amazing!

> * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
>  by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
> excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
> experience with the malady.

I read this tome this year. Not impressed due to some reasons:
* 200+ pages spent on just cutting out breast tissue (breast cancer).
No one in the world needs to know this much details :-)
* Descriptions of doctors and their new procedures is way too flowery.
It's the literary equivalent of a person prostrating to the feet of a
doctor :-D
* Too focused on the hospitals in Boston and the celebrities and their
endorsements for cancer and such.
* This book is too long. It could be easily sliced in half while
retaining all the content and energy.

~ash

Re: [silk] Puns in other languages

[Ashwin Kumar]

Here is some word play in Tulu. 
We were attending a lunch at my ancestral home, and they had prepared Mango 
Rasayana (Mango pulp + Coconut milk + sugar). An aunt remarked that the dish 
was a bit "puli" or sour. My grandmother (the cook), and a bit hard of hearing, 
shouted back, "How is that possible? I had squeezed all the puli myself. Each 
one I found". 
puli - in Tulu also means worms. 
That new movie starring Vijay (Puli) makes me laugh. In Tulu, pili means tiger. 
~ashwin

> Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:48:27 +0100
> From: namith...@gmail.com
> To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
> Subject: Re: [silk] Puns in other languages
> 
> And here's some Sanskrit wordplay.
> 
> http://swarajyamag.com/columns/verses-which-produce-magic-when-re-read/
> 
> I remember also being told of similar wordplay in old Kannada verses. Story
> goes that a king wanted to test the mettle of a poetess who arrived in his
> court. He gave her two unsavoury lines, and asked her to compose verses
> that included them (in ways that wouldn't offend, of course).
> 
> Iliyam muri muridu thinnuthirpar
> (They were breaking mice and eating them)
> 
> and
> Danavam kaDi kaDidu basadigoyyuthirpar
> (They were cutting up the cows and leading them into basadis, in this
> context Jain temples)
> 
> And she cleverly ended the lines preceding each of them in such a way that
> the Iliyam became Chakk-iliyam (snack similar to murukku, instead of mice)
> and Chan-danavam (Sandalwood, instead of cows)
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 9:29 AM, Namitha Jagadeesh <namith...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Rajesh, I'm married to a non-Kannadiga who can't always master the L, so
> > he just refrains from using the word entirely :D
> >
> > There are plenty of puns within Indian languages too, I'm sure. Na
> > Kasturi, who `translated' Alice in Wonderland into Kannada, used all sorts
> > of local references and limericks to substitute the English word play. I
> > can't remember any from the book off the top of my head, but here's one
> > from my childhood.
> >
> > An old woman was selling lemons to a customer, who had just asked her how
> > much each one cost. At the same time, a man ran up to her and asked her if
> > she had seen his horse. The clever woman replied to both with just one
> > word. Na kaane
> >
> > Naak aane = 4 annas
> > Naa kaane = I haven't seen
> >
> > On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 9:21 AM, Rajesh Mehar <rajeshme...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> In Kannada (and many South Indian languages), there are two possible
> >> pronunciations of the sound corresponding to the English letter L.
> >> Wikipedia says these are called Retroflex Lateral Approximant and
> >> Retroflex
> >> Lateral Flap. Usually, while transliterating Kannada, they're written as l
> >> (as in shaale or school) and L (as in baaLe or banana). Many people who
> >> are
> >> unfamiliar with these sounds cannot pronounce the two differently.
> >> When you add to this the fact that heLu in Kannada means tell and helu
> >> means shit, there is scope for an abundance of beautiful toilet-humor-ey
> >> puns. Imagine the wrong pronounciations of "tell me now" or "tell me in my
> >> ear" or "tell me right here".
> >>
> >
> >
  

Re: [silk] The Name of the Road

[Ashwin Kumar]

> Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 09:33:45 +1000
> From: charles.hay...@gmail.com
> To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
> Subject: Re: [silk] The Name of the Road
> Mostly though I do it to encourage discussion about the fact that this
> place already had a name.

I want cities to be renamed purely for fun. I would love to hear airline pilots 
say, "our arrival time at Bendakalooru/or what ever the fuck it is named is 
approximately 20 mins" 
~ashwins/Bendakalooru/Bengaluru/Bangalore   
  

[silk] Meetup - NYC/Bay Area

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hi folks 
I will be in NYC from Sept 28th-Oct 2nd, and in the Bay Area from Oct 3rd until 
Oct 16th. Anyone want to meet up? 
Unless you really fancy a in-the-middle-of-nowhere meet up at Bentonville, AR. 
:) 
cheers~ashwin 

Re: [silk] Meetup - NYC/Bay Area

[Ashwin Kumar]

Right, I do work for the beast of Bentonville. :) 
I do want to experience a cabin in the woods kind of adventure in Bentonville. 
~ashwin

> From: sur...@hserus.net
> Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2015 14:10:02 +0530
> To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
> Subject: Re: [silk] Meetup - NYC/Bay Area
> 
> Which I guess is where he works 
> 
> Finding desis working for Walmart corp might be far less of an issue than 
> finding silk listers in that wilderness :)
> 
> --srs
> 
> > On 01-Sep-2015, at 12:33 pm, Preetha Chari-Srinivas <bling...@gmail.com> 
> > wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Ashwin,
> > I just relocated from the bay area. Bentonville is the headquarters of
> > Walmart - you will find plenty of Indians there.
> > Cheers,
> > Preetha.
> >> On Sep 1, 2015 12:18 PM, "Ashwin Kumar" <ashw...@live.in> wrote:
> >> 
> >> Hi folks
> >> I will be in NYC from Sept 28th-Oct 2nd, and in the Bay Area from Oct 3rd
> >> until Oct 16th. Anyone want to meet up?
> >> Unless you really fancy a in-the-middle-of-nowhere meet up at Bentonville,
> >> AR. :)
> >> cheers~ashwin
> 
  

Re: [silk] Camera gurus - need advice

[Ashwin Kumar]

I agree with Tim. Venkat, do try the mirrorless full frame cameras one more 
time. I have a Sony A7 and been very happy with it. In fact, I have completely 
given up on my film cameras.
I use 35mm and 90mm fixed lenses, but I have shot it with longer lenses and it 
was very good both ergonomically and IQ wise.
~ashwin
+919483466818




On Sat, May 2, 2015 at 3:40 PM -0700, Tim Bray tb...@textuality.com wrote:
Hm. It’s quite likely wrong to conclude from your experience that
mirrorlesses are slow in general. Lots of people who've been using SLRs for
years have been going the other way recently, drawn by the charms of
mirrorless size and ergonomics.  I think you'd find the recent offerings
from Olympus, Panasonic, and Fujifilm probably would please you.
​Some people like the recent Sonys but I found the one I tried to be
ergonomically painful, and they have HUGE sensors which means you wait
forever while downloading and processing them.  On the other hand, if you
want to make 1 meter x 3 meter prints…  Having said that, you can get a
little more for your money in SLR-land, particularly in used-SLR land.

Your question is a little unusual because many photographers, including
some with very high visibility, have in the last couple of years switched
from SLR to mirrorless.  I don’t have high visibility but I did too
(Fujifilm in my case) and can’t imagine going back.
​
​
On May 1, 2015 7:36 PM, Tim Bray tb...@textuality.com wrote:

 Why would you want a larger, heavier camera that won't actually take
better
 pictures?

Actually I found that the mirrorless was quite slow. During my recent trip,
the camera and the rented lens (prime lens at that)  was too slow.
Besides, the buffer was not able to match the speed of the wildlife and
birds that I typically try to capture. It was pretty frustrating. The
mirrorless is good for relatively slower subjects and casual photos.

-V

[silk] SF Silk Meetup?

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hi folks 
I will be in the SF area from May 26th to June 10th. Meetup anyone? 
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Subtitles for movies in Bengaluru theatres

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

With regards to Interstellar, according to Raja Sen's review it seems to be
playing in Indian theatres with subtitles:
http://rajasen.com/2014/11/07/interstellar/

~ash

On Sat, Nov 8, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Bharat Shetty bharat.she...@gmail.com
wrote:

 I'm wondering if anyone come across any movie theatres playing with
 subtitles ? I'm particularly keen on watching Interstellar with subs.

 A friend pinged me on Twitter regarding this and I was reminded of the
 efforts we both tried to do unsuccessfully a couple of years. Our plan was
 to get data of movie listings from theatres around in Bangalore/Delhi and
 show which movies air with subtitles similar to Captionfish.com (set your
 location to Cupertino, CA to see listings).

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM5UgK5ZXrQ gives an idea how this system
 works.

 We tried to speak with heads of several cinema outlets such as PVR to pilot
 this project in India. But things never worked out. PVR indicated that most
 people in India were averse to watching movies with subs on screens etc. In
 the longer run, we had to drop off the project.

 So if anyone has seen subs in movies in Bengaluru or elsewhere in India
 give me a shout!

 Regards,
 - Bharat

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 21:34:38 +0530
 From: suma...@gmail.com
 To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 Subject: Re: [silk] Intro!
 
   Giant Robot.
 
  Ja-yanto Robo.
  You know nothing thewall. You know nothing.
 
 For the record, the show's English title was Johnny Socko and His Flying
 Robot.
 
 So much for you know nothing.

:) yup, I do remember that. But, since it was Japanese... 
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 For the record, the show's English title was Johnny Socko and His Flying
 Robot.
 
 So much for you know nothing.

With reference [1]
~ashwin
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Sokko_and_his_Flying_Robot  
  

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 From: thew...@gmail.com
 Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 16:58:18 +
 Subject: Re: [silk] Intro!
 
 i.e., I Ygritte to inform you that you know nothing?

punditji. 
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 How nice to have Rashmi a ray of light (and, of course, the  english
 spelling can be pronounced as Rayshmo, that is, of silk) on the silklist!
 Long overdue! Welcome to our murky waters. No doubt you are looking forward
 to Intelligent Conversation and Meaningful Discussion. We hope you find
 these two mythical beasts!
 
 Thank you Deepa for the wonderful welcome. Indeed looking forward to it,
 once we do away with these posting interpretation formalities. And for
 taking the liberty to use your mail as an example, I apologise.

You will need an email client that indents  previous responses 
   Dear All,
  
   Glad to be a part of the list. Our Udhay has imposed an intro giving rite
   of passage on me... so here we go...

so readers get a logical flow. 
Welcome to the madhouse. :)
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 missed many in the Good Old Days). Such entertainment. Right now, Devaki
 and Vasudev's melodrama(just before the birth of Krishna) is keeping me in
 splits. Did any of the people on this mailing list watch these two serials?

Every Sunday, right after He-man defeated Skeletor. And, later it was Uncle 
Scrooge and his damn money bin. 
Having just one channel, DD, life was much simpler. You had Byomkesh Bakshi, 
Indradhanush, Mungerilal, Mister Yogi (remember that? much before Hyderabad 
Blues)... *sigh* 

 Having said that...some of the dialogue was wonderful. When Duryodhana
 faced death, I actually wept. *sniff*. Karna and Duryodhana are my
 favourite characters from the Mahabharata. 

Interesting choice of characters. Why them? 
If you want real entertainment, watch the new Mahadev serial. They add their 
own spice into mythology. I had never heard of Ganesha being married (at least 
in South Indian temples I have never seen Ganesha with his wives), or 
Shiva/Parvathi having a daughter. 
There was an article (on silk?) which mentioned an increase in number of  
Vaishno Devi temples after the cult classic Jai Maa Vaishno Devi. 
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 Ganesha's wives are the mainstay of every gujarati who deals with money / the 
 stock market - Riddhi and Siddhi.  Daughters of shiva (rather than shiva and 
 parvati) do exist in various legends across gujarat / West Bengal etc.

Yup. That was the first time I saw Ganesha and his wives. My recent trip to 
Gujarat (6 holy-shmoly days) was a revelation in terms of cashing in on the 
God factor. 
Key takeaway:  If you are a brahman, your path to moksha is assured if you do a 
11K+ pooja at Dwaraka. Anything less, and you need to rely on your good karma. 
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 Ha ha.  They all get greedy.

I wonder if there isn't a limit to their greed. 

 Then there's the pandas in kashi and puri .. awesome amounts of greed there.

Our tour guide/car driver said, it's the same at every Krishna temple in North 
India. They are after your money. :) 

 Compare that to some other temples - like the nellaiappar in tirunelveli.  
 When we were there some months back the priest was running short of supplies 
 for the puja and some people visiting the temple had to step out and buy 
 flowers, oil and camphor.  Which is kind of sad .. 

IMO, Somanth was much better than Dwaraka, though I did like Bet Dwaraka (no 
photography there though). 
Gujarat also introduced me to the cult of Swaminarayan. I had heard about them, 
but never experienced their religious centers. Those guys have cornered the 
market in commercializing God, and I thought IS-Con was bad. 
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

  temple in North India. They are after your money. :)
 
 
 That makes me wonder...why is the payment called a dakshina, which is the
 word for south as well? No, I am not googling...just waiting to be
 spoon-fed.

At weddings/functions where I come from, they give dakshine to attendees. 
This happens during lunch, when the father of the bride/yajamana of the 
function goes around giving 10/20/50/100 rupees per person. When I was a kid, I 
realized that this was given only to the brahmin attendees, who had to remove 
their shirts for lunch. After this, I made it a point never to remove my shirt 
during lunch at functions. 
These days, dakshine has become an ego/status symbol.
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] Intro!

[Ashwin Kumar]

 To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 From: thew...@gmail.com
 Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 05:05:46 +
 Subject: Re: [silk] Intro!
 
 Don't forget Famous Five, Fauji, and Bodyline. (Oxford comma moment. I 
 decided to keep it in the end).

Circus. Nukkad. 
And epic #win - watching Brit comedy shows at 10PM :) 'Allo 'allo, MYOL, Fawlty 
Towers, Yes Prime Minister.
I have the complete collection of 'Allo 'Allo. I had even mastered, It is I, 
Le Clerc, with the Faux French accent.  
 And, of course, The show. The reason why TV was invented. The single greatest 
 and most popular Indian schoolboy TV serial of all time.
 
 
 Giant Robot.

Ja-yanto Robo. 
You know nothing thewall. You know nothing.
~ashwin
*geeking out on referencing Game of Thrones/Jon Snow to thewall* *my day is 
made* 

[silk] [enquiry] Do any of you know about Ab Initio?

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hey folks
Do any of you know about a firm called Ab Initio? This is run by the people who 
managed Thinking Machines Corp. 
I have spoken to a few people there, but would like to know more about the 
firm/work from people working there (friends/or people in your network). 
I know this is not SilkList material, but any help would be useful. Please 
reply to me ashw...@live.in with any details/help. :) 
Thanks~ashwin 

Re: [silk] Bangalore Meet, Food Drinks

[Ashwin Kumar]

 To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 From: thew...@gmail.com
 Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:07:54 +
 Subject: Re: [silk] Bangalore Meet, Food  Drinks
 
 Likely in. 
 --Original Message--
 From: Thejaswi Udupa
 Sender: silklist-bounces+thewall=gmail@lists.hserus.net
 To: mail=silklist@lists. hserus. net
 ReplyTo: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 Subject: Re: [silk] Bangalore Meet, Food  Drinks
 Sent: Apr 12, 2013 10:36 AM
 
 On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Andy Deemer andydee...@gmail.com wrote:
 
  Can I get a show of hands for Bangalore Silk Meet on next Thursday at
  Naresh's amazing rooftop patio in Richmond Town?
 
 
 *raises hand, three-quarters the way up*

*raises hand half-way up*
~ashwin   

Re: [silk] yelp!! USB drive advice

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

 From: xxx...@yahoo.com
 Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:33:42 +0530
 To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
 Subject: [silk] yelp!! USB  drive advice
 
 I need some advice on which USB flash drive to buy..the parameters are
 1.No separate cap but the retracting mechanism must be solidly built
 2.am unclear as to price performance vs optimum capacity..(i used it mainly 
 for moving movies and large presentation files back and forth)
 3.reasonably robust
 4.easily available in Bangalore

I'm guessing you don't keep losing your USB thumb drives like some of us :-) 
So, it might be worth putting down the cash for a good one. A good drive will 
have a robust port and should be solidly built. It may not be available in cute 
shapes or slim profiles though ;-)
As others have pointed out USB 3.0 rocks. USB 3.0 has been found to be 900% 
faster than USB 2, even in real-world scenarios. And even on a USB 2 port, it 
is found to be faster than USB 2 drives!
Patriot seems to be the best drive, but most probably that is not available in 
India. Kingston and Mushkin seem to be the other good choices. No idea about 
the popular Sandisk drives.
References:[1] 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4523/usb-30-flash-drive-roundup/[2] 
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/11/a-ssd-in-your-pocket.html
~ash  

Re: [silk] Introduction - Andy Deemer

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 15 January 2013 15:15, Andy Deemer andydee...@gmail.com wrote:

 We would regularly (weekly?) have criticism sessions, directly
 mirroring those from the cultural revolution.  Every company employee
 would take turns speaking against one poor employee, criticizing their
 performance.


pretty much sounds like stack ranking. :)

Welcome to the list. A very interesting collection of experiences.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

 At today's Chennai silk list meetup the topic of history podcasts came up. I 
 offered to post to silk list asking everyone for recommendations.
 1. What are two (history or other) podcasts that are the best in your opinion?

My vote is for In Our 
Time:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Our_Time_(BBC_Radio_4)
It is not specifically about history, but almost half the topics are related to 
history one way or the other. I have been a regular listener of IoT for many 
years now. I love the discussion format and Bragg's jolly demeanor.
~ash  

Re: [silk] Chinese martial arts movies

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 22 December 2012 23:43, Divya divyasamp...@yahoo.com wrote:

 Yes, he's an amazing martial artist, isn't he. Trivia: Sammo Hung, who
 plays a Hung Gar master in the Ip Man sequel is a Wing Chun expert in real
 life.
 Speaking of Ip Man, there's another biopic about him due out in 2013,
 starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai and directed by Wong Kar Wai.

 Cheers
 Divya


 Sent from my iPad

 On 22 Dec 2012, at 17:57, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 
 sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com wrote:

  On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Divya divyasamp...@yahoo.com wrote:
  I second the endorsement of Wu Xia. Terrific martial artistry courtesy
  Donnie Yen, and excellent performance by Kaneshiro Takeshi as the
 persistent
  cop.
 
  On the subject of Donnie Yen, I was fascinated with Ip Man (not so
  much with the sequel though) because of the effort he'd have put
  himself through to get the Wing Chun moves as documented.


I watched another Donnie Yen movie recently, the animation-adaptation flick
Dragon Tiger Gate. It's high on martial arts but low on storyline (too many
plots for a 2 hour movie).

Ip Man is going on my to watch list.

Not a martial arts movie, but excellent nonetheless -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Arrows - War of the Arrows.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Chinese martial arts movies

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

[Related] Is there a good reviewer/blog/website you folks use to follow 
releases of Chinese, Korean and Japanese movies in one place?
Thanks,~ash

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:23:18 -0800
From: divyasamp...@yahoo.com
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] Chinese martial arts movies


 



From: Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:




I watched another Donnie Yen movie recently, the animation-adaptation flick 
Dragon Tiger Gate. It's high on martial arts but low on storyline (too many 
plots for a 2 hour movie). 


Ip Man is going on my to watch list. 


Not a martial arts movie, but excellent nonetheless - 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Arrows - War of the Arrows. 
 
Dragon Tiger Gate is an adaptation of a popular comic book - they tried to cram 
about 5 volumes worth of manhua story into the movie - which accounts for the 
multiple characters and storylines. All things, considered it was a pretty 
decent adaptation. If you like comic book adaptation fantasy wuxia movies, try 
out the older 1998 Storm Riders, and its 2009 sequel, Storm Warriors. 
 
I saw War of the Arrows last year - nicely understated historical drama. More 
Korean historical fare: I recently watched 2012's Gwanghae: The Man Who Became 
King/Masquerade recently - it's inspired by the Prince and the Pauper/The 
Prisoner of Zenda. Competent, great production values, but not terribly 
memorable, though I gather it's a huge hit.
 
cheers
Divya 

Re: [silk] Chinese martial arts movies

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 1 October 2012 13:42, Venkatesh Hariharan ven...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 8:25 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 
 sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Venkatesh Hariharan ven...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  To that list of movies, add The Banquet a stylishly mounted Chinese
  adaptation of Hamlet.

 Is this the same movie which is also The Legend of the Black Scorpion ?

 I am not sure if it is the same movie. I happened to catch this at a
 Chinese movie festival in Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi by sheer luck.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xia_(film) - this movie is excellent. It
stars one of my favorites Takeshi Kaneshiro.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] quiz help

[Ashwin Kumar]

2. Paul Newman ?
5. Employees are the most valuable resource :)

On 12 October 2012 16:03, Namitha Jagadeesh namith...@gmail.com wrote:

 1. Santa-Banta?
 2. Shah Rukh Khan (don't know the other)
 3. BMW
 4. Safari?

 (am usually content to lurk, but couldn't resist jumping in)
 Namitha

 On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 9:55 AM, xxxrum xxx...@yahoo.com wrote:

  Here have a go at these..have added clues for impending dotage

 1.In http://1.in/ the hindi version of Tintin, Snowy is known as
 Nutkhat, and Tintin is known as Tintin, what are the Thomson twins known
 as? (Clue: Common Indian Joke)

 2.Over the years 'Lux', the Unilever bathing soap has used beautiful
 women, especially famous actresses, as models in its advertisements all
 over the world.
 Who were and remain to be the only men ever to model for Lux? (Clue: One
 American, one Indian)

 3.This car's logo is a stylized aircraft propeller, the blue representing
 the sky. This is in recognition of the fact that this company originally
 started off making engines for fighter aircraft. (Clue: three letter word)

 4.This word debuted in the English language in the late 19th century. It
 means 'journey' in Swahili. And is originally from the Arabic word for
 travel and is widely used in tourism, fashion and is also a cinema genre. .)

 5.According to Dilbert comic strips, which is the most used management
 lie? (Clue: You are the biggest lie)


  Naresh

 Bonobashi bonoba...@yahoo.co.in wrote:
 .and how would i/we cope with mili-metternichs left with nothing to
 criticize?

 Sent from my iPad

 On Oct 12, 2012, at 9:53 AM, Naresh xxx...@yahoo.com wrote:

  BTW that's half-point *kodi*.Ahh! these long term Bangalorevaasis
 who don't know Kannada yet...and living in Malleswaram too!!

Re: [silk] autoresponse weirdness

[Ashwin Kumar]

+1 and UnLike.

On 12 October 2012 17:57, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 4:40 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
  One member of the list appears to be getting an autoresponse from the ID
  customersupp...@icicilombard.com for a posting made to silklist. Has
  anybody else had this experience?

 Yes, I didand being the tech-unsavvy ignorantosaurus that I am, I
 assumed it was because of some link that I'd inadvertently clicked on.

 Deepa.

Re: [silk] RIP - Sriram Bala

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 28 July 2012 06:37, Ashwin Nanjappa ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 9:24 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:
  I talked to him a couple of times after we both came back to the US. But
 we
  drifted apart. When Livejournal started rotting on the vine, the updates
 I
  used to get about what he was up to ceased.

 I remember a few interactions with him on Livejournal. Cannot seem to
 remember his LJ ID now.


Isn't this him Thaths - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sriram/ ?

I remember having some discussions with him on film photography as well.

Sad news. :(

~ashwin

Re: [silk] RIP - Sriram Bala

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 9:24 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:
 I talked to him a couple of times after we both came back to the US. But we
 drifted apart. When Livejournal started rotting on the vine, the updates I
 used to get about what he was up to ceased.

I remember a few interactions with him on Livejournal. Cannot seem to
remember his LJ ID now.

~ash

[silk] The Flight From Conversation

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

From: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html

The short:

WE live in a technological universe in which we are always
communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere
connection.
[...]
In the silence of connection, people are comforted by being in touch
with a lot of people — carefully kept at bay. We can’t get enough of
one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances
we can control: not too close, not too far, just right.
[...]
we use conversation with others to learn to converse with ourselves.
So our flight from conversation can mean diminished chances to learn
skills of self-reflection.
[...]
we need to remember — in between texts and e-mails and Facebook posts
— to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is
often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter
and go silent, that we reveal ourselves to one another.

A Thai TV commercial which I believe is surprisingly apt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ZrK2NryuQ

Finally, the full article:

==
The New York Times

April 21, 2012
The Flight From Conversation
By SHERRY TURKLE

WE live in a technological universe in which we are always
communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere
connection.

At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work
executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on
Facebook) during classes and when we’re on dates. My students tell me
about an important new skill: it involves maintaining eye contact with
someone while you text someone else; it’s hard, but it can be done.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve studied technologies of mobile connection
and talked to hundreds of people of all ages and circumstances about
their plugged-in lives. I’ve learned that the little devices most of
us carry around are so powerful that they change not only what we do,
but also who we are.

We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together.”
Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also
elsewhere, connected to wherever we want to be. We want to customize
our lives. We want to move in and out of where we are because the
thing we value most is control over where we focus our attention. We
have gotten used to the idea of being in a tribe of one, loyal to our
own party.

Our colleagues want to go to that board meeting but pay attention only
to what interests them. To some this seems like a good idea, but we
can end up hiding from one another, even as we are constantly
connected to one another.

A businessman laments that he no longer has colleagues at work. He
doesn’t stop by to talk; he doesn’t call. He says that he doesn’t want
to interrupt them. He says they’re “too busy on their e-mail.” But
then he pauses and corrects himself. “I’m not telling the truth. I’m
the one who doesn’t want to be interrupted. I think I should. But I’d
rather just do things on my BlackBerry.”

A 16-year-old boy who relies on texting for almost everything says
almost wistfully, “Someday, someday, but certainly not now, I’d like
to learn how to have a conversation.”

In today’s workplace, young people who have grown up fearing
conversation show up on the job wearing earphones. Walking through a
college library or the campus of a high-tech start-up, one sees the
same thing: we are together, but each of us is in our own bubble,
furiously connected to keyboards and tiny touch screens. A senior
partner at a Boston law firm describes a scene in his office. Young
associates lay out their suite of technologies: laptops, iPods and
multiple phones. And then they put their earphones on. “Big ones. Like
pilots. They turn their desks into cockpits.” With the young lawyers
in their cockpits, the office is quiet, a quiet that does not ask to
be broken.

In the silence of connection, people are comforted by being in touch
with a lot of people — carefully kept at bay. We can’t get enough of
one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances
we can control: not too close, not too far, just right. I think of it
as a Goldilocks effect.

Texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be.
This means we can edit. And if we wish to, we can delete. Or retouch:
the voice, the flesh, the face, the body. Not too much, not too little
— just right.

Human relationships are rich; they’re messy and demanding. We have
learned the habit of cleaning them up with technology. And the move
from conversation to connection is part of this. But it’s a process in
which we shortchange ourselves. Worse, it seems that over time we stop
caring, we forget that there is a difference.

We are tempted to think that our little “sips” of online connection
add up to a big gulp of real conversation. But they don’t. E-mail,
Twitter, Facebook, all of these have their places — in politics,
commerce, romance and friendship. But no matter how valuable, they do
not 

Re: [silk] English expressions that irritate me

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 23 April 2012 22:24, hani...@gmail.com wrote:

 **
 And what about let's take this offline?


It's worse when said aloud at a meeting. Blaardy, you are offline oredi
lah.

My workplace jargons are limited acronyms, sometimes stretching to six or
more characters. Most folks have forgotten what they stand for.

Venkat, please do the needful so we can greenlight the jargon list.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] The Bhansali Stork

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 18 April 2012 09:48, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
 sur...@hserus.net wrote:

  Congratulations to them.  And they were hosting a silklist party days
  before this happy event???

 One day before, to be precise. One has to admire the kid's sense of timing.


One might come to the conclusion, that he wanted to be a part of the Silk
List having seen the meet up close. :)

Congrats Vinit and Surabhi.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Bangalore silkmeet 13 Apr?

[Ashwin Kumar]

2012/4/12 Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com

 Current headcount:

 Deepa A
 Sruthi (?)
 Mahesh
 Naresh
 Udhay
 Thejaswi Udupa
 Surabhi Tomar
 Vinit
 Vinayak H
 Ashwin Kumar
 Venky (the second)
 Sandhya M
 Shrabonti
 Deepa M (?)



-1 for me.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Bangalore silkmeet 13 Apr?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 9 April 2012 12:22, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Venky ve...@duh-uh.com wrote:
  Sounds good to me, if you and Surabhi are agreeable. Let's say Vinit's
  place next to Biere Club at 7pm? Please email me or Vinit for phone
  numbers etc.


-1.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Bangalore silkmeet 13 Apr?

[Ashwin Kumar]

+1 me. 

~ashwin
Sent with Sparrow (http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/?sig)


On Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 5:18 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

 On 08-Apr-12 5:11 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
 
  Ha ha. This is the shortest silkmeet prep ever for me. Customer meeting all 
  day on the 13th and a family that's sworn to lynch me if I spend the 
  weekend in blr and miss out on vishu at home. Ok guys, I'm officially 
  counted out now
 
 
 So now we have
 
 Deepa A
 Sruthi
 Mahesh
 Naresh
 Udhay
 
 Who else?
 
 Udhay
 -- 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com 
 (http://www.digeratus.com)))
 
 

Re: [silk] Anyone who works 40-hour weeks?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Related: http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_1_ecstatic_capitalisms.html/

A 2001 long-form piece that examines the work culture of the dot-com
community and gathers together many more related strands of how this
is changing how we live.


Allison Behr, the 29-year-old public-relations director who is showing
me around, tells me that she works 11 hours a day, except during the
weeks near the Christmas rush, when everyone at Sparks burns the
midnight oil. In her world, this is no oddity—area legend has it that
when a 24-year-old Netscape programmer told a survey company that he
worked between 110 and 120 hours per week, the researcher objected
that his computerized questionnaire wouldn't accept a number that big.



Nineteenth-century utopian novels like Bellamy's Looking Backward and
William Dean Howells's A Traveler from Altruia assumed that progress
would inevitably lead to leisure, with time for hobbies, civic
engagement, family, and neighborly sociability.



Ecstatic capitalism has bored so deeply into the national psyche that
it has even changed how Americans think of childhood. For just as
every day Mom goes off to work—as did 59 percent of women with babies
under one year old in 1998, vs. 31 percent in 1976—and Dad goes off to
work, so baby . . . well, goes to work. While a generation ago,
experts saw infancy as a time to develop healthy emotional
attachments, contemporary parenting magazines and advice books are
obsessed with learning or what Newsweek has called building baby's
brain, presumably for the demands of knowledge work.
[...]
After a lesson-packed infancy, the new-economy baby must begin school
as early as possible. One New York City foreign-language program
starts babies at six months—before they can talk—and public pressure
is mounting for universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds. For
today's five-year-old, a full day's work is mandatory


~ash

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 22:01, Sruthi Krishnan srukr...@gmail.com wrote:
 http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/bring_back_the_40_hour_work_week/singleton/

 Fun piece.

 The rapacious new corporate ethic was summarized by two phrases:
 “churn ‘em and burn ‘em” (a term that described Microsoft’s habit of
 hiring young programmers fresh out of school and working them 70 hours
 a week until they dropped, and then firing them and hiring more)

 Reminded me of the manager I encountered fresh out of college who
 sincerely believed that staying at the workplace from 8 am to 10 pm is
 a minimum requirement to build character. And as far as I know, IT
 firms continue to live by this ethic. Are there any exceptions out
 there?

 Sruthi

Re: [silk] JT Edsons

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 13:38, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:
 My list would include Clive Cussler, David Eddings and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

+1 for Clive Cussler :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Acts of the Apostles, etc

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 23 December 2011 08:51, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 I am having a number of interesting conversations as a result of sending
 out my usual year-end note. What follows is [part of] one such.

 John Sundman [1] is an author whom some of you might know, either in
 person or through his work. (e.g., here is a post about him from our
 resident open-source anthropologist, Chris Kelty [2])


From another site:
So totally intriguing. Off to buy the book. 4.5 stars on Amazon too.

A NON-LINEAR TRILOGY

Acts of the Apostles is book “blue” of Mind Over Matter, an ambitious
three-volume work that share similar themes, characters and settings.
Because these books can be read in any order, they are not numbered but
instead marked by color.

   - *Acts of the Apostles* (Mind over Matter volume blue)
  - A techno-thriller about the abuse of nano and bio-technology.
   - *Cheap Complex Devices* (Mind over Matter volume red)
  - A rambling monologue supposedly written by a computer (or a mind in
  a vat, or a swarm of bees, or a man shot in the head and connected to a
  computer). The story is kind of a slow motion reboot, a person coming out
  of a dream, an entity that is coming to sanity, wholeness, self-awareness.
   - *The Pains* (Mind over Matter volume black)
  - An illustrated 1984-type dystopian featuring alternate-universe
  version of some key characters from Acts of the Apostles. Also included:
  cryogenically-preserved severed human heads and Ronald Reagan

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2011

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 5 December 2011 00:16, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sun, Dec 4, 2011 at 10:34 AM, Brij Blog brij.bl...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello fellow members,

 I am a new member here and am excited to be part of this group. Thanks to
 Sankarshan for introducing me to this group and Udhay for adding me to it.


 Welcome, Brij.


 On 4 December 2011 23:35, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 Has anyone read The Immortals Of Meluha by Amish Tripati:


 http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/books/the-immortals-of-meluha/9789380658742


Welcome Brij.

Sadly, my reading this year is at an all time low. The only ones I have
read, and can recommend are -

Drunkard's Walk - How Randomness Rules our Lives
http://www.amazon.com/Drunkards-Walk-Randomness-Rules-Lives/dp/0375424040

And, this recommendation may not go well at all -
A Song of Ice and Fire Series

:)

Thaths, please to be notifying dates of India visit, and if you will be
visiting Bangalore.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2011

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I have not read the randomness book. A book that seems to be in the
same vein as that one is
Group Theory in the Bedroom by Brian Hayes
http://daariga.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/group-theory-in-the-bedroom/

I read it a few years ago and enjoyed the analogies and historical
backgrounds the author provides. I seem to have now forgotten a lot of
the cool stuff from the book. Time to find it and read it again :-)

Regards,
~ash

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 12:31, Bharat Shetty bharat.she...@gmail.com wrote:
 Amen to the first book Ashwin suggested. It gives a fascinating
 history and introduction to how randomness became important and
 critical in our lives in a prose understandable by layman :-) If
 others who have read this book know any other similar books, please
 put their names here.

 I also recommend his other book with Stephen Hawking that is quite a
 decent read and talks about the various theories prevalent in field of
 physics and cosmos and how the universe came into existence etc.

 @Thaths: plz2inform me as well if you are visiting BLR sometime :-)

 Regards,
 - B

Re: [silk] Why this Kolaveri di?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 28 November 2011 13:20, Thejaswi Udupa thejaswi.ud...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 10:23 AM, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.com
 wrote:
  Time for the good old days of the Macarena?


  taking part in quizzes for fun,


*understatement*

:)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Anyone going from Chennai/Bangalore to the US?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 29 November 2011 00:10, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,

 Going against the grain here. I don't want to ship things from the US to
 India, but send stuff from home to the US.
 Food. More specifically, the rather brilliant Sri Krishna Sweet's Mysore
 Pa, to a friend in San Diego.
 The couriers/commercial carriers refused to ship perishable goods, and I
 get conflicting answers from three different Govt. of India post offices.


The new rule book of the Indian post offices state 'NO' to perishable
items, which includes CDs, cameras (even mechanical), and a other such
items which make no sense.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2011

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

2 books that I particularly enjoyed in the last year ...

* Peking Diary: (1948 – 1949) A Year of Revolution by Derk Bodde

Diary of a US sinology professor in Beijing when the Communists routed
the Nationalists and the PRC was formed.
More: 
http://daariga.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/peking-diary-1948-1949-a-year-of-revolution/

* Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott

A 100-year old book that is still funny today and is a neat
introduction to think in many dimensions (literally).
More: 
http://daariga.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/flatland-a-romance-of-many-dimensions/

~ash

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 03:00, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:
 For the third year in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
 recommendation this holiday season.

 What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you?
 What are you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/New
 Year's holidays?

 Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:

 * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
 * Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
 * Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers, and
 * Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.

 Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult
 elsewhere) preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction
 recommendations are equally welcome.

 Thaths

Re: [silk] Why this Kolaveri di?

[Ashwin Kumar]

It's even appearing on Hindi music channels.

oh! the pain. Why this kolaveri di?

On 27 November 2011 23:10, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:

 It's on BBC even: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF6CLkrP8vE

 And while we are covering tanglish videos, Machaan Sollu Sollu for the
 politically conscious Tamil:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqqZE9trqck

 On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 12:00 PM, ss cybers...@gmail.com wrote:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8
 

Re: [silk] Why this Kolaveri di?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 28 November 2011 06:39, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Monday, November 28, 2011, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:
  It's even appearing on Hindi music channels.
  oh! the pain. Why this kolaveri di?
 
 Reminds me of the huge success of mukkala muqabala o Laila years ago. In
 Jaipur, a friend had a cassette (yes, those days) with thirty versions of
 the song.


I attribute the success of the song to it's non-Tamil lyrics. And, a tune
(if you call that one) that is easily hum-able.

It's torture being subjected to this in the office cab, sung by over
enthusiastic cab mates, and the driver joining in for chorus. *sigh* I do
not look forward to traveling again today.

~ashwin

[silk] Remember Shakti - India Tour dates

[Ashwin Kumar]

Hey folks

Sorry if this is spamming, but getting a chance to watch these guys live is
too exciting for me :)

http://deghelt-productions.com/concerts/concerts.html

Remember Shakti - Special Tour in India !
with John McLaughlin (guitar)
Zakir Hussain (tabla)
Shankar Mahadavan (vocals)
U. Shrinivas (mandolin)
V. Selvaganesh (kanjira, ghatam, mridangam)

5/02/12 Pune
7/02/12 Mumbai
9/02/12 Kolkata
10/02/12 Bangalore
11/02/12 Chennai
12/02/12 Mumbai

~ashwin

Re: [silk] BLR Meetup?

[Ashwin Kumar]

Is this happening? When and where its the meetup?

Ashwin
On Oct 24, 2011 5:16 PM, freeman murray free...@jaaga.in wrote:

 hey everyone,

 We're welcome to meet at Jaaga too.
 There may be a human rights film festival
 http://www.jaaga.in/AHRF2011
 going on as well, but the new Jaaga is big
 enough to take all kinds.

 Jaaga is central on double Rd.
 http://jaaga.in/contact

 but we don't have great parking.

 Freeman

 On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net
  wrote:

 ** Eh, you can get booze anywhere on dry days too, of course sold at a
 premium

 If kr day isn't dry then so much the better

 --
 srs (blackberry)
 --
 *From: * Amitha Singh amithasi...@gmail.com
 *Sender: * silklist-bounces+suresh=hserus@lists.hserus.net
 *Date: *Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:55:58 +0530
 *To: *silklist@lists.hserus.net
 *ReplyTo: * silklist@lists.hserus.net
 *Subject: *Re: [silk] BLR Meetup?

 Well, as per the law it isn't a dry day and honestly don't see how it can
 be a dry day coz all the local groups (read dons) drink to their hearts
 content and dance the night away on Rajyotsava. :)

 Also check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_India for a
 list of dry days in India, state-wise.

 Ciao
 Amitha

 On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 3:48 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian 
 sur...@hserus.net wrote:

 ** Its dry. So stock up two or three days earlier and meet at someone's
 apartment?

 --
 srs (blackberry)
 --
 *From: * Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com
 *Sender: * silklist-bounces+suresh=hserus@lists.hserus.net
 *Date: *Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:47:00 +0530
 *To: *silklist@lists.hserus.net
 *ReplyTo: * silklist@lists.hserus.net
 *Subject: *Re: [silk] BLR Meetup?



 On 24 October 2011 15:09, Amitha Singh amithasi...@gmail.com wrote:

 How about Bierre Club?  Great music, beer and decent chow.

 Udhay has forced me out of my comfort zone and asked me to post on Silk
 so I am doing this, let me add, under huge duress. :)

 Regards,
 Amitha


 I am guessing we would need reservation. Is there a dry day rule on
 account of Karnataka Rajyotsava ?

 Bierre club would mean I get a place to park :)

 ~ashwin




 --
 *Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or
 because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders
 progress. -- MK Gandhi*

Re: [silk] BLR Meetup?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 23 October 2011 19:35, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:


 On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 7:21 PM, divya manian divya.man...@gmail.comwrote:


 To flog a dead horse, seems like Nov 1st would be best for me and
 deepak if everyone else is up for it! Obviously I am clueless to
 suggest venue and time, but ideally dinner/drinks somewhere.


 Nov 1st evening works for me. Venue suggestions? I wonder if Naresh's fancy
 office lounge is available (hint, hint) :-P


I am fine with it too...

~ashwin

Re: [silk] India's Selective Rage Over Corruption

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 19 August 2011 18:52, Chetan Nagendra che...@pobox.com wrote:

 Kiran,

 Why do you view this as mass-hysteria and nonsense? And why do you impose
 your generalisation on the people of this list?


 On 19 Aug 2011, at 18:29, Kiran K Karthikeyan wrote:

 Makes a very valid counterpoint to the mass hysteria around AH/Lokpal
 nonsense.



+1 on Kiran.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Mission: Bangalore silk meetup - Thu July 14

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 12 July 2011 15:49, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Madhu Menon c...@shiokfood.com wrote:
  On 12-07-2011 14:51, Biju Chacko wrote:
 
  You were fairly uncomplimentary about the food the last time we met
  there. And +1 to Udhay: what about beer?
 
  Because a good friend of mine who knows her food didn't have very nice
  things to say about Pizzeria Romano:
 
 http://foodtravelbangalore.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/pizzeria-romano-koramangala/

 I'd concur with that review.


To save all the pain, why don't we meet at Herbs and Spice ?

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Mission: Bangalore silk meetup - Thu July 14

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 12 July 2011 16:11, Nishant Shah itsnish...@gmail.com wrote:



 To save all the pain, why don't we meet at Herbs and Spice ?

 Because Herbs and Spices is quite painful in itself. From the parking
 trouble to the bad service to the fairly unlistenable music and of course
 the fact that the chef doesn't seem to know any other flavours except for
 pepper and garlic.


Ok. :)

+1 to Thulp. I am almost certainly going to be there :)


 Thulp it is then.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Plus by Google

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 1 July 2011 23:11, Andre Manoel an...@corp.insite.com.br wrote:

 On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:
  Seems to me as if G+ is just a whole lot of work adding the same family,
  acquaintances and friends to yet another network and keeping up with
  them...can someone tell me what the unique benefits are? Frankly, I took
 it
  on just because it is a Google product, and I am, in general, a GGF
 (Great
  Google Fan)


Here are a few things I like:
* Clean and simple. I have always hated the cluttered FB interface with tiny
fonts. G+ fonts are much more readable.
* Notifications - absolutely lovely. I like that I can reply right there on
the top bar. With the Chrome extension, it's even better.
* I liked the Buzz way of sharing, and G+ brings this to twitter. Perfect.
* Hangout. hangout. hangout. :)

Things I dislike:
* Photos page. absolutely awful UI. feels like Picasa in an iFrame. somebody
at Google please ask them to redesign it.

Things I'd like to see:
* By default the stream should open with a circle of my choice
* Cross-posting to twitter (until everyone from twitter moves here)
* Integrate feeds from flickr.
* Highlight circles on the sidebar that have an updated stream content (much
like auto-archive + labels in gmail)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] The future of learning?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 12 June 2011 17:38, Keith Adam keith.ad...@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:

 This list contains a large number of self-taught programmers. How did
 you get started, and how did you get to a moderate level of skill? (If
 you want to talk about what happened after that, great, but I am more
 interested in the first two stages)

* The seed: My love for the computer started way back in 1984 [seems
like an eventful year]. My mother decided to write her PhD Thesis on
Wordstar, and I would tag along to her lab, and help her type out the
words. When I got the computer to myself, I was free to explore
whatever I wanted. And, I did, for 3 full years. GWBASIC, Lotus 123,
Statistical Computing Packages. Though, I really never understood any
of it (I was 6 when I started).

* The early days: The playtime/sports time in school was spent in
the computer lab, and not the field getting dirty playing football
(Yes, I found the hard way that playing with computers is clean).
Here, I learnt to program simple stuff using GWBASIC and FORTRAN. The
instructor encouraged us to move away from games, and taught us basics
of how computers work. Looking back, I think he was responsible for my
initial love with machines. As Deepak and Thaths mentioned,
programming on paper was so much more clearer than writing in an IDE.

* The formative years: My pre-engineering days were spent in two ways,
a computer course where I learnt C, DBase, Lotus 123, Pascal, and
part-time work at an electronics shop helping the guy fix TVs, radios,
etc. I learnt to solder, trace paths in an electronic circuit, compute
voltages across resistors, plus program in C. It was a combination
that made me choose the streams later on in my career. To this day, I
am a confused engineer. :) During my 4 years at college, I studied EE,
but would spend most of the time sneaking into the CS lab and
programming problems in C, until they finally caught me. When my own
department got computer equipment, I spent all my time there learning
each piece of software on the system. I feel there is a distinct
separation of theory and practical application in our education
system. We studied all the theoretical foundations, but never knew
where it was being applied or how. My first true practical experience
was at ARDC, where I interned, and worked on the LCA. Our project was
a simulation model for flight dynamics of the LCA, computer design of
actuators, and do real time analysis of flight conditions. I met two
entities who would change my way of thinking in computing, my
mentor, a brilliant scientist who encouraged me to research and learn,
and the second was the super computing machine in the lab, which gave
me a taste of the true power of computing systems.

* The ongoing learning phase: These days I just try to pick up new
skills at whatever is my place of work. This leaves me very less time
for personal stuff, which is devoted to my other love of photography.
My tools for programming in my current job are C#, Perl, Scope/Cosmos
(equivalent of Pig/Hadoop), and a bit of Haskell in my spare time. I
am also starting off some Android development, time to put my skills
in programming to some use for photographers. :)

I should add that I have been lucky enough to know some brilliant
folks/hackers/geeks along the way, Jois, Jace, Thaths, Divya, Cheeni,
who are on this list, and a bunch of other people who are in the real
world.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Gmail on android

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 4 June 2011 20:38, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
 On Sat, Jun 04, 2011 at 08:09:02PM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
 Does it use SSH by default? I can't really make out, and my search-fu on
 this topic (keywords too generic, I guess) is failing me.

 While speaking about Android -- my Nook color just landed.
 Upgraded to 1.2, not rooted yet.

 Works very well.

Speaking of Android's and tablets, I have an offer to buy a Notion Ink Adam.
There are some reports of being able to run Honeycomb very nicely on
this device.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Bangalore Silkmeet tomorrow?

[Ashwin Kumar]

I was told 7PM. this is a new timing?

~ashwin

On 17 May 2011 10:10, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:
 Not a traditional top post.
 After a bit of haggling with Udhay over Gtalk, the two of us have decided
 that Silver Wok on Richmond Road is a good place to meet.
 How about we all (and by that I mean the Silklisters in Bangalore not
 otherwise engaged) meet there this evening? Say, 6 pm onwards?

 C

 On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 4:37 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan
 chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,

 Apologies for the short notice. I will be in Bangalore tomorrow for a day.
 Kind of last minute trip. Anybody up for a quick meet?
 I will be free for most of the morning, and from about 5 to 9 pm. We could
 either do a late breakfast/early lunch or evening coffee/beer, ideally the
 beer.

 The usual Bangalore suspects have my number, but for the others, my number
 is the one in my email signature. Would love to meet you all.

 C

 --
 http://www.uk.linkedin.com/in/chandrachoodan
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravages
 http://www.selectiveamnesia.org/

 +919884467463



 --
 http://www.uk.linkedin.com/in/chandrachoodan
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravages
 http://www.selectiveamnesia.org/

 +919884467463

Re: [silk] Sidin Vadukut - Introduction

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 18 May 2011 10:41, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:


 On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Venkat Mangudi s...@venkatmangudi.com
 wrote:

 Drastic's his middle name. :)


 Madrasticman?

 Wouldn't that make him a guy from Madras with an uncontrollable involuntary
 spasm?

Tomorrow's Headline - Madman commits seppuku on Vadukut's entry

Welcome Sidin.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Using an X-Box Controller as a PC text input device

[Ashwin Kumar]

golly! here I am working on the Ad Platform for Bing, and I find a consumer.
:) Hi Sumant.

Aadisht, I can put this on the local chat list. There are a few of the
XBOX/Kinect tinkerers on it.

~ashwin

On 4 May 2011 15:36, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.com wrote:

 I can try taking this into the Microsoft jungle, and see if this is
 something they're already working on (if it's for the XBOX, it might be
 portable to PC). Is that okay?


 On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Aadisht Khanna li...@aadisht.net wrote:

 Hello,

 someone I know just passed a query on to me, and I thought people on
 silk would probably be able to help.

 He knows two school-age children with a neuromuscular disorder (but
 doesn't have details of which one), which prevents them from writing or
 typing. However, they are able to use X-Box controllers.

 At present, they're using something called XPADDER which lets you use
 the controller as a mouse on a PC, and also assigns some keys to the
 controller buttons. For text entry, they use an onscreen keyboard.

 Mouse+onscreen keyboard is still a cumbersome and time-consuming way to
 enter text, so they're now trying to see if they can combine this with a
 software T9 keyboard so that predictive text reduces the time requirement.

 I'll use his own words for now:

 QUOTE:

 in short: we need an application that defines the buttons on a xbox
 controller as the command functions of the normal keyboard and can type
 in a on screen T9 numerical keypad with word prediction function as
 found on mobile phones.

 Perhaps even better, but not found on any site on the internet would be
 a combination of a numerical keyboard (like the num keypad accessory for
 laptops and mobile phones) and the Xbox controller (imagine a xbox
 controller cut in half, with a num pad glued to it), so you can have the
 mouse functions under your left thumb and writing function under your
 right thumb.

 hopefully you are able to help us in combining (or developing) the
 requested functionalities!

 END QUOTE

 Does anybody know of something that can solve their problem?



 --
 Regards,

 Aadisht
 Email for lists: li...@aadisht.net
 Personal Email: aadi...@aadisht.net
 Mobile (TN): +91-96000 23067
 Website: http://www.aadisht.net/
 Blog: http://www.wokay.in/




 --
 Sumant Srivathsan
 http://sumants.blogspot.com

Re: [silk] Is sugar toxic?

[Ashwin N]

Sweetening milk and other food is required for certain Indian
preparations. When the preparation of that food item cannot be avoided
(due to the insistence of the person or the occasion), I was wondering
if the other sugar alternatives (brown sugar/jaggery) are any better?
If yes, why?

~ash

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 20:48, Charles Haynes hay...@edgeplay.org wrote:

 On Apr 22, 2011 8:47 PM, Ashwin N ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:
So then, what can we do about the sugar we *do* need to add to our regular
 food?

 What sugar would that be? I don't know of any sugar you *need* to add to
 your regular food.

 -- Charles

Re: [silk] A crisis of confidence

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 31 March 2011 11:53, Anish anish.moham...@gmail.com wrote:

 It is a
 big joke among the Americans that when an Indian visits an Italian
 restaurant, there is a request for chilly flakes in the pasta and the
 pizza.
 It is possibly true. I go for chili oil when its pizza or pepper when its
 pasta :(
 Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device


I did this at a French restaurant in Singapore, and got a visit from the
chef.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] What's on your bucket list?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 20 January 2011 13:19, Venkat Mangudi s...@venkatmangudi.com wrote:


 --V
 (getting tired typing out the same 6 characters over and over again)


I see that you are moving head-on towards a Nov 5th goal. :)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] What's on your bucket list?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 20 January 2011 13:30, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:

 You better start preparing for the next Masterchef India then :)



 Haven't seen the Indian version, but am a fan of the UK series. How does
 the Akshay Kumar thing compare to the original?


Madhu Menon hasa very nice piece on MCI. Whenever I watched the show, my
violent tendencies were stimulated. Smashing a few heads is occasionally
good for the health.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] What's on your bucket list?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 20 January 2011 16:05, Vinayak Hegde vinay...@gmail.com wrote:

 I have reserached the trans-Siberian and Ghan. Someday I will get
 around to doing them.


Divya on this list has done the Ghan a couple of months back. And, I have
done the Indian-Pacific.

So, feel free get more details. :)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] What's on your bucket list?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 21 January 2011 10:26, Indrajit Gupta bonoba...@yahoo.co.in wrote:



 NOTHING helps keep sysadmins in line. They are born without fear, or have
 it 'smacked' out of them.


Try grabbing on to their cables. There lies their power.

~ashwin
PS: cables can be replaced with pipes if you are a senator.

Re: [silk] What's on your bucket list?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 19 January 2011 13:00, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 What's on *your* bucket list?


I will list the more practical achievable stuff that is there on my list:
* explore parts of India for two weeks every year.
* publish a coffee table photography book/s from the travels. USP - shot
only on a rangefinder with a fixed lens and BW
* start teaching (at a nursery/primary school) within the next 5 years

flights of fantasy:
* sail a boat up the Mekong starting at the delta
* do every long train journey in the world. Orient Express, Ghan,
Trans-Siberian,  the Americas on train

~ashwin

Re: [silk] What's on your bucket list?

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 20 January 2011 13:07, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:


 What's on *your* bucket list?


 Over the last two years, I've learnt I am a fairly good cook.
 Only way to validate that assumption: find out what others say. Hence one
 of my not-too-many wishes on the bucket-list:
 work in a Michelin 3-star rated kitchen, and create one special one-off
 dinner menu.

 Failing which, eat in every M 3 star kitchen in the world in one year.


You better start preparing for the next Masterchef India then :)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Book recommendations

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 6 January 2011 21:38, Samanth Subramanian wordpsm...@gmail.com wrote:

 Thanks, Udhay. A cordial Hello to the Silklisters out there.


Welcome Samanth.

I ordered the book on flipkart a few minutes back.  :)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Diaspora

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 18 December 2010 12:19, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Thursday, December 16, 2010, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:

  it's weird that you need to type out the entire handle with @joindiaspora
 to search for a person.
 


 Diaspora is supposed to be a distributed social networking service. If
 you download it you should be able to set up your own diaspora server.


Sent.

That makes sense.

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Diaspora

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 15 December 2010 17:13, Anish Mohammed anish.moham...@gmail.com wrote:

 Any invites left , can I have one please ;)


Invites if any left are welcome :)

Re: [silk] Diaspora

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 15 December 2010 20:53, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 8:13 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net
  wrote:

 Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan [15/12/10 19:50 +0530]:

  If you/list members still have one, I'd like it.


 done 2 left


 Thank you, Suresh.
 I've got five invites to give out, folks, though I'm going to hold one back
 to invite a friend who works in the social media/networking sphere.


interesting, I still haven't got an invite.

CC, ek mere liye? (*ripping off on an old Indian ad*)

~ashwin

Re: [silk] Diaspora

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 15 December 2010 20:47, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Neha Viswanathan nehav...@gmail.comwrote:



 *wiping tears of joy* I am n...@joindiaspora.com - I've never been just
 neha.


 I am chandrachoo...@joindiaspora.com


ashwi...@joindiaspora.com

Re: [silk] Diaspora

[Ashwin Kumar]

On 16 December 2010 08:08, Venkat Mangudi - Silk s...@venkatmangudi.comwrote:



 On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:



 ashwi...@joindiaspora.com


 Couldn't find you. Have added the others to my silk aspect.


added you to my aspect.

it's weird that you need to type out the entire handle with @joindiaspora to
search for a person.

the site really looks, for lack of an appropriate word, kiddish.
I am reminded of the time I saw the prototype HAL LCA, and the BAE HAWK next
to each other.

~ashwin