Re: [silk] An anniversary

[Danese Cooper]

What Venky said...

On Sun 20 Dec 2020 at 08:52, Venkatesh Hariharan  wrote:

> Udhay, you were the one who introduced me to SilkList. I have really
> enjoyed being on this list. SilkList is currently the only non-work related
> mailing list that I am on :-)
>
> Venky
>
> On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 8:20 AM Srini RamaKrishnan 
> wrote:
>
> > I can't tell for certain, but I think I joined in 1998. There was a lot
> of
> > overlap between the Linux User Groups and silk at the time, so I came
> from
> > that world.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 20, 2020, 7:06 AM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
> >
> > > The first message on silklist went out 23 years ago.
> > >
> > > There are some members who have been around since then, and many others
> > who
> > > hopped on at a later time.
> > >
> > > How did you find out about silklist? Share your stories.
> > >
> > > Udhay
> > >
> > > --
> > > ((Udhay Shankar N))  ((via phone))
> > >
> >
>

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

[Danese Cooper]

-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] How to smell

[Danese Cooper]

“This scent had a freshness, but not the freshness of limes or
pomegranates, not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or
birch or camphor or pine needles, not that of a May rain or a frosty wind
or of well water... and at the same time it had warmth, but not as
bergamot, cypress, or musk has, or jasmine or daffodils, not as rosewood
has or iris... This scent was a blend of both, of evanescence and
substance, not a blend, but a unity, although slight and frail as well, and
yet solid and sustaining, like a piece of thin, shimmering silk... and yet
again not like silk, but like pastry soaked in honey-sweet milk - and try
as he would he couldn't fit those two together: milk and silk! This scent
was inconceivable, indescribable, could not be categorized in any way - it
really ought not to exist at all. And yet there it was as plain and
splendid as day.”
― Patrick Suskind, Perfume The Story of a Murderer



On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 6:43 PM Huda Masood  wrote:

> How interesting! I'm contemplating purchasing Harold McGee's Nose Dive
> myself but I'll definitely check out the links Udhay recommended.
>
> On Sat, 31 Oct 2020, 05:17 Thaths,  wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:06 PM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
> >
> > > Perhaps part of Cairo is. Just like the smell of part of Bangalore is
> > > filter coffee with the acrid overtone of chicory at 6am. And other
> parts
> > > might be grilling kebabs. Or the stink of the tannery.
> > >
> >
> > Speaking of smells
> >
> > https://www.powells.com/book/-111347670
> >
> > "Like the crimson rhododendrons in Rebecca, the heady fragrance of old
> > paper creates an atmosphere ripe with mood and possibility. Invoking a
> > labyrinth of books; secret libraries; ancient scrolls; and cognac swilled
> > by philosopher-kings, Powell’s by Powell’s delivers the wearer to a place
> > of wonder, discovery, and magic heretofore only known in literature."
> >
> > Perhaps it smells of Biblichor?
> >
> > Thaths
> > PS: Powells is a renowned bookstore in Portland, Oregan
> > --
> > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
> > Carl:  Nuthin'.
> > Homer: D'oh!
> > Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
> > Homer: Woo-hoo!
> >
>

Re: [silk] Bangalore and Chennai food/restaurant recommendations

[Danese Cooper]

My list to take US and EU colleagues in Chennai / Bangalore:

-any of the restaurants at the Windsor (in Bangalore) or the Grand Chola
(in Chennai)...because they are set up to cater to those populations.

-Yauatcha in Bangalore...so good! Not Indian, but hey!

My $.02
D

On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 8:12 PM Thaths  wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 7:38 PM Venkat Mangudi - Silk <
> s...@venkatmangudi.com> wrote:
>
> > MTR is over-rated. :-)
> >
> > CTR (there are two of them near Malleswaram) is better for dosas. Shree
> > Sagar (Central tiffin room - CTR1) is near the Malleswaram ground.
> > Chikkanna Tiffin Room (CTR2) is near the temple in Kumara Park. Both have
> > lip-smacking dosas.
> >
>
> I want to remind people that OP's question was about recommended places for
> visiting European tourists who have had little exposure to Indian cuisine
> to go to. The question was not what is the best place for some dish.
> Implied in the OP's question was, IMO, a requirement that the place be
> easily accessible to foreign tourists without freaking them out with
> language barrier or perceived hygiene issues.
>
> There are a dozen places I would go to in Bangalore for authentic, tasty
> food over MTR. From street corner benne dosa places, to North Karnataka
> food to TamBram food to mudde idli places, But I would hesitate to take
> a foreigner with no previous exposure to Indian restaurants to many of
> these. I.e., don't throw them in the deep end of the pool.
>
> Thaths
>
>
>
> --
> Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
> Carl:  Nuthin'.
> Homer: D'oh!
> Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
> Homer: Woo-hoo!
>

Re: [silk] Hi, I’m Geetanjali

[Danese Cooper]

And presumably Geeth ❤️. Welcome, Anjali!

On Sat, Feb 23, 2019 at 12:27 PM Geetanjali Chitnis <
g...@geetanjalichitnis.com> wrote:

>
> I love biryani, romance novels, cats, makeup, movies and Bangalore weather.
>
>

Re: [silk] Silkmeet in Bangalore 18 Feb 2019

[Danese Cooper]

Oh, I would love to see you, Gaurav! Could be silkmeet at Geist?

On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 2:32 PM Gaurav Vaz  wrote:

> I might be in town as well :)
>
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 7:55 PM, Zaheda Bhorat  wrote:
>
> > Hi Udhay, I'll be traveling to Bangalore with Danese.
> > Looking forward to seeing everyone... its been a while.
> > Z
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 10:31 AM Udhay Shankar N 
> wrote:
> >
> > > Silklister Danese Cooper will be in town, possibly with Zaheda Bhorat
> and
> > > Alolita Sharma. Let's use this as an opportunity to meet up.
> > >
> > > Show of hands?
> > >
> > > Udhay
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
> > >
> >
> --
> If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!
>
> Gaurav Vaz | m...@gauravvaz.com | +91-99005-16145 (India) &
> +1-647-572-1123
> (Canada) | http://gauravvaz.com
>

Re: [silk] Silkmeet in Bangalore 18 Feb 2019

[Danese Cooper]

Well obviously me :-) Really hoping to see you all <3

Danese

On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 10:31 AM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:

> Silklister Danese Cooper will be in town, possibly with Zaheda Bhorat and
> Alolita Sharma. Let's use this as an opportunity to meet up.
>
> Show of hands?
>
> Udhay
>
> --
>
> ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
>

Re: [silk] Bay Area meeting + 'India interdisciplinary'?

[Danese Cooper]

I’m still in SF (when I’m in California and not Ireland). Nov/Dec would be
good months, because October is already crazy!

D

On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 5:40 PM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 4:15 AM Venkatesh H R 
> wrote:
>
> I'm spending a year at Stanford University as a journalism fellow
> >  and am
> > keen
> > to meet any silklisters in the bay area. Happy to arrange a meeting if we
> > can all match schedules.
>
>
> There's lots of silklisters who are/were in the Bay Area. And if you get to
> go up to LA anytime, do look up Chris Kelty at UCLA.
>
> Related: I'm also trying to cobble together an India-related
> > interdisciplinary team here, with the eye towards tackling some commons
> > governance problems as an experiment.
> >
>
> This sounds like a session at The Goa Project [1]. If only you were in
> India this month...
>
> Actually, feel free to recommend someone to present a session. Any other
> silklisters want to come?
>
> Udhay
>
> [1] http://www.thegoaproject.com
>
> --
>
> ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
>

Re: [silk] Headspace and similar meditation "services"

[Danese Cooper]

Headspace is just a bit too gamified for me (very hipster-sticky though, I'm 
sure). I like Calm. No Aussie guy voice, no cutesy animations of metaphorical 
cars driving by like thoughts when you're trying to meditate...

Yes, I'm old.

D

> On Sep 9, 2016, at 2:38 PM, Thaths  wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 1:11 AM Srijith Nair  wrote:
>> 
>> I have been looking at doing guided meditation for several reasons.
>> Apps/services like Headspace (headspace.com) seem to offer good options.
>> I was wondering if any of the silklisters have any experience on using
>> such apps or in general on (technology) guided meditation? I have just
>> started on the free Level 1 series, but it is too early to tell.
> 
> Among meditation apps there are three classes:
> 
> 1. Timers (with reminders, trackers, etc.). These are apps that start off
> with simple timers for you to sit and practice meditation. Many of them
> have evolved to also keep track of how long you sit, when, how often, etc.
> and show you this data hoping to motivate you. They also have reminders. A
> few of them have also incorporated guided meditations.
> 
> 2. Boot camp style guided meditation paths. Apps like Headspace fall into
> this category. They offer curated paths of building and keeping a
> meditation practice.
> 
> 3. Brain status EEG-like monitors. These apps come with sensors that
> supposedly can measure and help you visualize your brain "waves" to train
> you to keep your brain "in the zone". I think it is still early days for
> these types of apps as our understanding of, let alone our ability to
> measure, brain states is still primitive, especially with sub-$100 sensors.
> 
> In my experience, Headspace seems to be best in class for most
> technologically oriented people.
> 
> Thaths

Re: [silk] Luck Matters More Than You Might Think

[Danese Cooper]

Exactly

> On Apr 19, 2016, at 5:11 AM, Charles Haynes  wrote:
> 
> Strongly agree. I'm smart, but my success, such as it is, is more luck than
> skill.
> 
> That said - luck favors the prepared, and "the more I practice, the luckier
> I get."
> 
> -- Charles
> 
>> On Tue, 19 Apr 2016 at 11:18 Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
>> 
>> This strikes a chord. I work with early stage technology entrepreneurs, and
>> have done for over 2 decades (this includes the dot.com boom, a period
>> that
>> has special relevance to this topic) I have come across several people who,
>> through some confluence of circumstances, have made a lot of money. The
>> temptation (including for the people involved) is to imagine this is
>> because they were smart. This is almost certainly not true, as can easily
>> be demonstrated by the fact that there are always many other people who are
>> demonstrably at least as smart who have not succeeded.
>> 
>> Thoughts?
>> 
>> Udhay
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/why-luck-matters-more-than-you-might-think/476394/
>> 
>> Why Luck Matters More Than You Might Think
>> 
>> When people see themselves as self-made, they tend to be less generous and
>> public-spirited.
>> 
>> ROBERT H. FRANK  MAY 2016 ISSUE   BUSINESS
>> 
>> I’m a lucky man. Perhaps the most extreme example of my considerable good
>> fortune occurred one chilly Ithaca morning in November 2007, while I was
>> playing tennis with my longtime friend and collaborator, the Cornell
>> psychologist Tom Gilovich. He later told me that early in the second set, I
>> complained of feeling nauseated. The next thing he knew, I was lying
>> motionless on the court.
>> 
>> He yelled for someone to call 911, and then started pounding on my
>> chest—something he’d seen many times in movies but had never been trained
>> to do. He got a cough out of me, but seconds later I was again motionless
>> with no pulse. Very shortly, an ambulance showed up.
>> 
>> Ithaca’s ambulances are dispatched from the other side of town, more than
>> five miles away. How did this one arrive so quickly? By happenstance, just
>> before I collapsed, ambulances had been dispatched to two separate auto
>> accidents close to the tennis center. Since one of them involved no serious
>> injuries, an ambulance was able to peel off and travel just a few hundred
>> yards to me. EMTs put electric paddles on my chest and rushed me to our
>> local hospital. There, I was loaded onto a helicopter and flown to a larger
>> hospital in Pennsylvania, where I was placed on ice overnight.
>> 
>> Doctors later told me that I’d suffered an episode of sudden cardiac
>> arrest. Almost 90 percent of people who experience such episodes don’t
>> survive, and the few who do are typically left with significant
>> impairments. And for three days after the event, my family tells me, I
>> spoke gibberish. But on day four, I was discharged from the hospital with a
>> clear head. Two weeks later, I was playing tennis with Tom again.
>> 
>> If that ambulance hadn’t happened to have been nearby, I would be dead.
>> 
>> Not all random events lead to favorable outcomes, of course. Mike Edwards
>> is no longer alive because chance frowned on him. Edwards, formerly a
>> cellist in the British pop band the Electric Light Orchestra, was driving
>> on a rural road in England in 2010 when a 1,300-pound bale of hay rolled
>> down a steep hillside and landed on his van, crushing him. By all accounts,
>> he was a decent, peaceful man. That a bale of hay snuffed out his life was
>> bad luck, pure and simple.
>> 
>> Most people will concede that I’m fortunate to have survived and that
>> Edwards was unfortunate to have perished. But in other arenas, randomness
>> can play out in subtler ways, causing us to resist explanations that
>> involve luck. In particular, many of us seem uncomfortable with the
>> possibility that personal success might depend to any significant extent on
>> chance. As E. B. White once wrote, “Luck is not something you can mention
>> in the presence of self-made men.”
>> 
>> Seeing ourselves as self-made leads us to be less generous and
>> public-spirited.
>> My having cheated death does not make me an authority on luck. But it has
>> motivated me to learn much more about the subject than I otherwise would
>> have. In the process, I have discovered that chance plays a far larger role
>> in life outcomes than most people realize. And yet, the luckiest among us
>> appear especially unlikely to appreciate our good fortune. According to the
>> Pew Research Center, people in higher income brackets are much more likely
>> than those with lower incomes to say that individuals get rich primarily
>> because they work hard. Other surveys bear this out: Wealthy people
>> overwhelmingly attribute their own success to hard work rather than to
>> factors like luck or being in the right place at the right time.
>> 
>> That’s troubling, because a 

Re: [silk] Danese in Bangalore...time for a Meetup?

[Danese Cooper]

So nice to see everybody! But alas my voice is tired and I must head home lest 
I fail to speak well at tomorrow's Drupal Meetup.

Thanks Udhay and all <3

Danese

> On Mar 4, 2016, at 7:01 PM, Venkatesh Hariharan <ven...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Mar 4, 2016 6:45 PM, "Danese Cooper" <dan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> How can I be the first one here???
> 
> This be called, "Indian Hospitality."
> 
> Venky
> (Who feels safe taking potshots from distant Mumbai)

Re: [silk] Danese in Bangalore...time for a Meetup?

[Danese Cooper]

Can't miss me. Right as you walk through the doors. I'm in pink

> On Mar 4, 2016, at 6:46 PM, Rajesh Mehar <rajeshme...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 10 min away. Which table are you at Danese?
> 
>> On Fri, Mar 4, 2016, 18:45 Danese Cooper <dan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> How can I be the first one here???
>> 
>>> On Mar 2, 2016, at 2:19 PM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Arbor Brewing Company on Magrath road.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> ((Udhay Shankar N))  ((via phone))
>> 
>> 

Re: [silk] Danese in Bangalore...time for a Meetup?

[Danese Cooper]

How can I be the first one here???

> On Mar 2, 2016, at 2:19 PM, Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
> 
> Arbor Brewing Company on Magrath road.
> 
> --
> ((Udhay Shankar N))  ((via phone))

Re: [silk] Danese in Bangalore...time for a Meetup?

[Danese Cooper]

Needs to be evening, because I'm likely tied up all day out at PayPal.

D

> On Mar 2, 2016, at 12:20 PM, Rajesh Mehar  wrote:
> 
> Friday what time?
> 
>> On Wed, Mar 2, 2016, 12:04 Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
>> 
>> On Wed, Mar 2, 2016 at 11:29 AM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan <
>> chandrachoo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Friday works better for me too.
>> 
>> 
>> ​Excellent. Friday it shall be. Where? ABC like last time?​
>> 
>> ​Udhay​
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
>> 

[silk] Danese in Bangalore...time for a Meetup?

[Danese Cooper]

Which is better, Thursday or Friday evening?

D

Re: [silk] Legal adulthood

[Danese Cooper]

Not that this fact should alter your plans, but I plan to spend all of February 
in India next year...

D

> On Dec 18, 2015, at 9:35 PM, Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
> 
>> On 12/1/2015 3:38 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
>> 
>> Date?  I’ll travel over.
> 
> The date is today. Happy birthday, silk! As it happens, though, our
> party plans got derailed by the Chennai situation. A couple of us were
> putting something together, but didn't have the heart to continue plans
> when several friends and family in Chennai/Madras were incommunicado.
> 
> It turns out that all friends and family are unharmed. So we shall just
> defer the plans to meet. Perhaps sometime in January?
> 
> Udhay
> -- 
> 
> ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
> 

Re: [silk] To retire or not - that is the Q.

[Danese Cooper]

Hmmm weird jobs...some of my favorites below...

D

 ​On a related note: Tell us about the most interesting jobs/assignments
 you've worked on?
 
 (not just Kingsley, of course)
 
 Udhay
 -- 
 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Xerox copier technician

Cook and bottle-washer at a vegetarian restaurant owned by Charles Bukowski's 
girlfriend

English Teacher to Moroccan High School students

Manager to a famous troupe of rambunctious clowns

Options book trader at a regional securities exchange

Pieceworker

Archivist for a famous fruity tech company

Itinerant global evangelist for open source

Code reviewer for SETI

CTO for an online encyclopedia

Re: [silk] Bangalore Silkmeet?

[Danese Cooper]

Thank you Gabin! See you soon.


 On Feb 16, 2015, at 5:55 PM, gabin kattukaran gkattuka...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 I've got the long table out on the balcony.
 
 -Gabin
 On 16-Feb-2015 5:43 pm, Charanya Chidambaram 
 charanya.chidamba...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 On 16 February 2015 at 17:38, Vinayak Hegde vinay...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 I will need to drop out. Something urgent has come up at work.
 
 -- Vinayak
 
 On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 5:35 PM, Thejaswi Udupa
 thejaswi.ud...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 
 Yup. See you all there. I may be closer to 6:30pm though.
 I will be a little delayed too. Somewhere in that nebulous stretch of
 time
 between half past six and seven.
 ​May not be able make it :(
 Have a good time everyone! ​
 

Re: [silk] Bangalore Silkmeet?

[Danese Cooper]

I will miss seeing you.

D


 On Feb 16, 2015, at 2:45 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk s...@venkatmangudi.com 
 wrote:
 
 Oh,  well.  Something has come up and I'm going to have to take a rain
 check. I'm going to regret not being able to attend. :-(
 
 -V
 On 16 Feb 2015 09:43, Venkat Mangudi - Silk s...@venkatmangudi.com
 wrote:
 
 Where is the hockey club? If it allows for better chatting,  wouldn't that
 be better? Rather than trying to speak over the music. I don't mind the
 location.  But that's just me. YMMV.
 On 16 Feb 2015 07:57, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 
 On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 10:00 PM, Vinayak Hegde vinay...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
 So we are meeting at Arbor at 6pm tomorrow right ?
 
 ​Yup. See you all there.​ I may be closer to 6:30pm though.
 
 ​Udhay​
 --
 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
 

Re: [silk] Bangalore Silkmeet?

[Danese Cooper]

On the 16th I get back to MG Road 4:30pm-ish...if that helps any with 
scheduling.

D


 On Feb 7, 2015, at 7:56 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk s...@venkatmangudi.com 
 wrote:
 
 I prefer 16th... Will that work for the others? Coffee? Drinks and snacks?
 Dinner? What's the plan?
 
 Venkat
 On 8 Feb 2015 09:22, Danese Cooper dan...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 Hyatt Bangalore apparently
 
 
 On Feb 7, 2015, at 7:10 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 
 On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
 I'll be in Bangalore 2/15 mid-day through 2/18 early morning.
 
 Shall we have an evening meetup?
 
 15th and 16th work for me. +1 to the Leela.
 
 
 ​So, Danese, did you decide where you'll be staying?​
 
 ​Udhay​
 --
 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
 
 

Re: [silk] Bangalore Silkmeet?

[Danese Cooper]

Hyatt Bangalore apparently


 On Feb 7, 2015, at 7:10 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 
 On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:
 
 I'll be in Bangalore 2/15 mid-day through 2/18 early morning.
 
 Shall we have an evening meetup?
 
 15th and 16th work for me. +1 to the Leela.
 
 
 ​So, Danese, did you decide where you'll be staying?​
 
 ​Udhay​
 -- 
 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

[silk] Bangalore Silkmeet?

[Danese Cooper]

Hi,

I'll be in Bangalore 2/15 mid-day through 2/18 early morning.

Shall we have an evening meetup?

Also, my usual hotel (ITC Windsor) is booked out :-(. Looking for suggestions 
in town (even though I'll be working day times out in Whitefield).

Towards the fun!
Danese

[silk] Homeland has a cameo in CitizenFour (the documentary about Edward Snowden)

[Danese Cooper]

Shout-out to Cory...this is an amazing documentary currently in very limited 
release in the US. It's composed of footage shot as Edward Snowden was prepping 
with journalists to blow the whistle, with supporting footage of various 
members of the Intelligence Elite lying to the US Congress.  Excellent viewing 
if you get a chance.  If you're into privacy at all it will make you angry or 
afraid or possibly both.

Anyway, as Snowden is packing up his first Hong Kong hotel room, on his 
nightstand is a hardbound copy.  Thought you'd like to know.

3 Danese

Re: [silk] USA West Coast restaurant recommendations

[Danese Cooper]

Okay Tim :-) I guess I have to rise to this occasion.

Madhu, when exactly are you in SF?  I can arrange a tour for you of Anchor
Steam Brewery (the original craft beer renaissance mecca in North America).
I happen to know their primary brand ambassador, Bob Brewer (his real name)
who is retiring this year after 30 years (so this is a limited time offer).
Bob is entertaining and incredibly knowledgeable about craft beers and
spirits around the world (Anchor is also a distillery of award winning Gin,
Genever and Sour Mash Whiskey).

Brew pubs in SF (and Oakland) are also pretty great (although you're
correct that there are currently more of them in Portland :-).  Stephen
O'Grady would rush in to say *real* Portland (as in Portland, ME) is the
craft beer heart of America :-).  Magnolia is pretty great, though.

And then there are cocktails.

Absinthe (mentioned earlier as a brunch and late night pick for food) is
generally acknowledged as the place that revitalized the American cocktail
bar) and their other place, Comstock (in North Beach)...but these days
their cocktails aren't as interesting as places like Bourbon and Branch
(and their much groovier new place, Tradition) in the Tenderloin, adjacent
to the theatre district. Alembic in the Haight is interesting. We also like
Beretta on Valencia and 23rd in the Mission, especially after 10:30pm (its
just too busy before that) but you have to ask for their special cocktail
menu.  They do serve food until 1:00am, which is pretty rare.

I wouldn't be a good booster if I didn't call out the Interval Bar at Fort
Mason. It's a schlep, but its run by serious protogeeks and their cocktails
are divine (and you can learn about their LongNow Foundation projects,
including building a 10,000 year clock and supervising the de-extinction of
the Passenger Pigeon and the Wooly Mammoth...yes, really).

And if you really want Portland brews, there is a Rouge Brewery outlet
tucked away in North Beach...

3 D

On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 10:37 AM, Tim Bray tb...@textuality.com wrote:

 Ahem. While there are fine beers in California, head north to Portland,
 Seattle, and Vancouver for more and better.  Portland is regarded as
 America’s craft-beer capital.  Enjoy joining the debate as to whether the
 Pacific-Northwest approach of ever-more-heroically-hopped IPAs is glorious
 or an abuse of the brewmaster’s art. To have an educated opinion you’ll
 have to try LOTS of different beers.

 On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 1:05 AM, Thejaswi Udupa thejaswi.ud...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  A lot of people have covered the food aspect of your request, so I
 shall
  talk about the drinks :)
 
  California is pretty much the craft beer capital of the world, and almost
  every place has a wide variety of brews on tap. A lot of great IPAs and
  DIPAs. Even the bottled ones are great. Lagunitas is my staple when I'm
  there, widely available and never disappointing.
 
  Some of my favourite places for beer include -
 
  - OG (Original Gravity) in San Jose downtown
  - Magnolia at Haight and Masonic in San Francisco. One of the few places
  that regularly has gruit ale on tap. There's also a very nice rare
 records
  and books store right opposite.
  - Good Karma in San Jose downtown. It's a vegan cafe, and probably the
 last
  place you'd expect great beer. But they always have one of the best
  selections on tap anywhere in the Bay Area.
 
  If you like the buzz of places with big crowds and much beer, try places
  like Tied House, Steins (both Mountain View), Rock Bottom (Campbell),
  Faultline (Sunnyvale), 21st Amendment (San Francisco). Gordon Biersch and
  BJ's are also crowded, but exude a lot of big-chain vibes.
 
  Sunnyvale also has an excellent meadery, neatly hidden in an old
 industrial
  area. Rabbit's Foot. Apart from some excellent mead, he also has a few
  honey-flavoured beer on tap.
 
  Of course, do visit a Napa winery too. I wouldn't suggest winery-hopping
 as
  some people do. Just pick one, and spend a lot of time there. Skip Robert
  Mondavi and the likes as they are likely to be overflowing with tourists.
  Try O'Brien Estate.
 



 --
 - Tim Bray (If you’d like to send me a private message, see
 https://keybase.io/timbray)

Re: [silk] USA West Coast restaurant recommendations

[Danese Cooper]

My comments in-line...

On Sep 24, 2014, at 9:11 PM, Kingsley Jegan Joseph k...@kingsley2.com wrote:

 
 I would love your recommendations for food and drink adventures in
 these cities. I have no dietary restrictions. :)
 
 San  Francisco:
 Range for stake, Burma Superstar for Asian, Dosa on Valencia (say Hi to
 Anjan if you see him) for dosas paired with wine in a great ambience

Prefer Dosa on Fillmore at Post. Better cocktails. But why would you seek out 
Indian food in San Francisco?

 , 2
 large dimsum cart places on Broadway in chinatown, Poncho Villa for mission
 burritos

Best burritos in town at La Cancun on Mission at 30th, by general agreement and 
many awards, but it's easy to beat PanchoVilla by just walking a block South on 
Valencia to El Toro at 17th and Valencia.

 , birite creamery for ice cream, warakubune in the mission for a
 tacky but tasty boat sushi experience.

Great sushi in the Castro on 18th at Eureka (Takara) and also Eiji on Sanchez 
(great house made tofu).

Great pizza!

Delfina Pizzeria on 18th and Guerrero, Gialina on Diamond in Glen Park (near a 
BART station), Tony's in North Beach.

Patisserie? Tartine (next door to Pizzeria Delfina).

Coffee? Blue Bottle (there are several), SightGlass (on 7th  Folsom), 
FourBarrel on Valencia

For brunch Saturday and Sunday? Foreign Cinema in the Mission, Seperntine or 
Piccino in DogPatch, Absinthe at Hayes and Gough (my favorite).

For Neo French? Boulevard on Mission (get a reservation)

For High-end Cali food? Quince on Jackson

Aziza (Neo Moroccan) on Geary in the avenues.

Slanted Door in the Ferry Building at the end of Market Street for high-end 
Vietnamese. The Saturday Farmer's Market is amazing too.

 I'll send more if there's anything
 specific you want to try. Just don't go anywhere near fisherman's warf for
 food, unless you like your seafood smothered in extraordinary amounts of
 butter and cheese.

And in the East Bay: 

Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Duh. Started it ALL. Food Mecca. Too hard to get a 
reservation downstairs (alas) but the cafe upstairs is also wonderful (get a 
reservation).

Brown Sugar Kitchen on Martin Luther King in Oakland for soul food. Chicken  
Waffles, smoked yams, grits. Amazing.

 
 San Jose:
 There are a few good restaurants in Santana Row (but the crowd is slightly
 douchey) - Citrus, Rosie McCanns serves Guinness and Honeydew on tap,
 Wahoo's was my favourite fast food - hawaiian fish tacos, El Jardin is
 great for al fresco Sunday brunch.
 Nearby is Falafel's drive in, with freshly fried falafels and banana
 shakes, a favourite with the stoners of south bay. Gordon biersch has some
 decent brews and food downtown. Los cubanos is also downtown, makes great
 cubano sandwiches, and also some home-style cuban food I haven't seen
 anywhere else.
 In Campbell, there is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place called Tres Amigos,
 where I've had the most amazing mexican food. Its right next to a budget
 sushi place called TGI sushi (yes really).

Re: [silk] Lytro

[Danese Cooper]

I actually own a Lytro camera (I won it at SXSW year before last).  Its
super fun to play with, but the pictures (at least with the first
iteration) are actually pretty low-rez and only useful in limited ways.
 I've seen a demo with a Lytro image embedded in a normal email (and still
able to do the fancy re-location the focal point trick) but the attached
file was HUGE.  I do know folks who work for Lytro.  They still think they
have some future tricks people are going to want to play with, but even
they seem to agree that the company is more valuable for its patents (which
are, as Tim Bray said, drop dead cool).

D


On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 8:12 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 7:50 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
 s...@venkatmangudi.com wrote:

  This product [1] has been in the news for a while now. How is it? Is it
 the
  next best thing to sliced bread as they claim it is? Has anyone tried it
  out?

 Interesting update:

 http://www.talkandroid.com/209501-lytro-to-release-android-powered-camera/

 q

 The technology behind Lytro could even make the jump to smartphones in
 the near future.

 /q
 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] What You Learn in Your 40s

[Danese Cooper]

 On May 19, 2014, at 7:36 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 
 
 
 
  Original Message 
 Subject: Re: [silk] What You Learn in Your 40s
 Date: Mon, 19 May 2014 14:11:50 -0400
 From: Bruce A Metcalf cons...@augustansociety.org
 To: Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com
 
 Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 
 This is a fun list. Please add your own discoveries here.
 
 I've turned 60 this year; here's hoping my remarks are 1.5 times as good:
 
 You can be anything you want -- but you cannot be everything you want.
 With every good thing comes a price, and the wise man will consider it
 before choosing.
 
 Authors and filmmakers are generally more impressive on paper or
 screen than in real life. Don't blame them, they don't have a chance
 to edit real life.
 
 Actors and celebrities tend to fall into two camps: Those who wish (at
 least occasionally) to be treated as normal people; and those who
 don't believe they are normal people. Entertain the wishes of the
 former to thank them; evade the latter regardless.
 
 It's okay to just have fun sometimes. In fact, it's necessary for
 mental health.
 
 Spend time with old friends now, while you still can. Spend time with
 young friends now, while you still can.
 
 You can't fix everything. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try, only
 that you be sure that you will find enough satisfaction in making the
 effort, and are not fixated on some result.
 
 It is better to deal with causes than with symptoms.
 
 Let me close with my favorite quote from Cicero: If I have a library
 and a garden, I have all that I need.
 
 Regards,
 Bruce
 
 
 

Re: [silk] Atul Chitnis

[Danese Cooper]

I'd been chatting with Atul every few days throughout the many months of this 
his last battle, and I found him both indomitable and yet realistic about his 
chances. He was also incredibly humbled (not something I expected) by the 
financial and emotional support he was receiving.

In our last conversation (last week) he was still trying to find some way to 
get Sloan-Kettering to take him on ... he never stopped dreaming big.

I know a lot of Silksters had hard old rows with him, but as it was with Raj 
Mathur, who went before him, you'd have to admit that he was a man trying to do 
good things, however imperfectly. I will miss him.

Danese

On Jun 3, 2013, at 12:25 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:

 A lot of people on this list are acquainted with Atul Chitnis. Many of us
 got to know him in the Open Source scene in India in the late '90s and
 early '00s.
 
 I just heard that he lost his long battle with cancer earlier today.
 
 He was not universally liked but I guess even those that didn't like him
 would be saddened by the news.
 
 -- b

Re: [silk] Help!!help!!

[Danese Cooper]

Tried AirBnb? I live in California, so can't help directly, but I've had good 
luck everywhere I've used them.

On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 8:46 AM, Naresh nar...@vagroup.com wrote:

 I and a (male) friend are heading to London 25th april evening till 2nd may 
 and didn't book a hotel /accomodation till now..and it's all full up or 180 
 pounds ++.i need to be in fairly central/south bank /southwark and the hotels 
 / bb's are full.
 Any Silklisters in London who can help?a little tight on budget!! A largish 
 twin bedder would do !!am happy to pay for it..btw airbnb sucks.!!all the 
 availability charts are out of date!!
 Also is a silk meet possible on next Sunday?28th?we had a great meetup in 
 Bangalore this Thursday with 20+ people showing up!!
 /a little stressed right now !
 Naresh Narasimhan
 Sent from my Phone
 -- 
 This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are for the sole use of the 
 intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged 
 information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender 
 by reply e-mail and destroy all copies and the original message. Any 
 unauthorized review, use, disclosure, distribution, forwarding, printing or 
 copying of this e-mail or attachment(s) in this e-mail is strictly prohibited 
 and may be unlawful.

Re: [silk] outdated words in Indian English

[Danese Cooper]

On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 8:46 AM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:




 I believe Americans use pants quite often. In India and the US, pants mean
 trousers, while in the UK, pants mean pants, as in underpants.


I hear knickers in the UK for underpants



 C

 --
 http://about.me/chandrachoodan

 +447594553053

Re: [silk] outdated words in Indian English

[Danese Cooper]

that sounds...recursive.  must be hard for him ;-)

On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Bonobashi bonoba...@yahoo.co.in wrote:

 It was. That was just Shiv in mid-flow demonstrating that he DOESN'T
 squirm. He tends to get carried away proving his balance and refusal to be
 carried away.

 Sent from my iPad

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

[Danese Cooper]

Be careful of US customs regulations.  We're encouraged to report any
foodstuffs we're carrying and they sometimes get seized when we do :-(.

D

On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 10:40 AM, 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.

 C



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

 +919884467463

Re: [silk] Query on wines.... and snobbery

[Danese Cooper]

Yes please!

On Nov 10, 2011, at 9:09 AM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:

 On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 03:24:19PM +, Sidin Vadukut wrote:
 
 It turns out I like smokey malts. Cheers.
 
 Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg?
 

Re: [silk] ADMIN: What is top posting, and why should you avoid it?

[Danese Cooper]

I love that you top-posted this, Udhay :-).

D

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 12:54 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 Resending this, for
 a) The benefit of our newer members;
 b) Some of our older members; 
 c) The extra irony points.

 Udhay

  Original Message 
 From: Perry E. Metzger pe...@piermont.com
 Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:00:21 -0400


 A3: Please.
 Q3: Should I avoid top posting on this mailing list?

 A2: Because, by reversing the order of a conversation, it leaves the
reader without much context, and makes them read a message in an
unnatural order.
 Q2: Why is top posting irritating?

 A1: It is the practice of putting your reply to a message before the
quoted message, instead of after the (trimmed) message.
 Q1: What is top posting?


 Perry
 --
 Perry E. Metzgerpe...@piermont.com

Re: [silk] How do I tell if I'm getting ripped off by the optician?

[Danese Cooper]

I believe the anti-glare has more to do with how you look in glasses than 
functional reduction of glare to which you are subjected. I wear very strong 
lenses, and anti-glare reduces the surface reflection of light, mostly keeping 
people from noticing that I essentially have magnifying glasses strapped to my 
eyes.

High index does significantly reduce thickness (for which my ears are 
profoundly thankful).

Photogray is pretty easy to detect, and mostly saves me from needing sunglasses.

All lenses start out round and are cut to fit frames. That means if they are 
embedding bifocals they have to know the final shape in advance in order to 
place the crystals correctly. Rectilinear shaped frames tend to necessitate 
shorter distance between focal center and bifocal. Tricky to make, but this 
also reduces the coke-bottle effect of strong lenses.

Those of you who have seen my glasses and think I am delusional about the 
effects of these extra features should see what I look like in the cheapest 
possible lenses...and I can't wear cheap glasses for long because my ears hurt 
from supporting them.

One more thing about price...there is such a thing as badly made glasses. I 
also have astigmatism, and some percentage of lenses I receive if not properly 
made, cut and mounted will give me headaches and have to be re-done. Since I 
pay a fortune for them I have no qualms requesting this action.

A last consideration...I have more than one pair of glasses at all times. 
First, I am functionally blind without them (which means if break or lose a 
pair, I can't drive or read or even find my toothbrush without them). But also? 
You wear them ON YOUR FACE. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Shouldn't your 
face deserve some variety as well?

Danese (who as an infant would have been left on a cliff to die in Ancient 
Sparta)

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 4, 2011, at 5:38 AM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:

 
 
 On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 6:35 PM, Pranesh Prakash the.solips...@gmail.com 
 wrote:
 
 Anti-glare coating (generally?) adds a greenish tinge to reflected light 
 sources.  So looking at the glasses with a light source behind you will tell 
 you.
 
 I've always found this Auntie Glare to be more of Auntie Purse. I don't have 
 it on my lenses now and oh, the difference to me...is zero. I am outdoors 
 quite often, too. One good way to check it out is to ask the optician for 
 plain lenses (demo ones) with and without the anti-glares, take it out into 
 the sunshine and see whether you really need them.
 
 To me, they are like the anti-glare screens that used to be sold for 
 television setsQU...Quite Unnecessary.
 
 Are there any eye doctors/opticians on this list? Nishant, do any of your 
 chashmakdukanwala relatives subscribe to this list? I seriously do want to 
 ask them about pricing policies on lenses and framesthey seem (like bad 
 glasses) to be so opaque! All I get when I ask probing questions is vague 
 replies like Chinese frames, madam, or that old chestnut, difference in 
 quality.
 
 
 D. 
 

Re: [silk] How do I tell if I'm getting ripped off by the optician?

[Danese Cooper]

I would love to have Lasek, but have been told repeatedly that my eyes are
too tricky to be undertaken (at this point I would be worried if somebody
claimed they would be a piece of cake).  My Mom has the same complex of
issues I have, and she recently had her cataracts fixed with corrective
lenses (embedded in her eyes) and could see her toes without help for the
first time in her life.  She's 78.  She has always held out hope the
technology would eventually fix my eyes.  We're watching stem cell research.

Danese

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 4:52 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 10:03 PM, Danese Cooper dan...@gmail.com wrote:

 Danese (who as an infant would have been left on a cliff to die in Ancient
 Sparta)


 Oh...I thought they were thrown off the cliffmy mistake.

 And...I'm amazed at your knowledge about lenses, Dalense Cooper :) Did you
 ever consider Lasik surgery or contact lenses? the latter brought my diopter
 number actually down, it's only lately, after hypermetropia/presbyopia
 (forget what it's called and too sleepy to google)  has set in, that I've
 reverted back to glasses. I tried bifocal contact lenses, but they didn't do
 the job for me.

 Deepa.

[silk] Anybody want to find a recently published book for me in India?

[Danese Cooper]

Its in Malalayam, apparently...published within the last month and about
Wikipedia.  I don't know the title, but I want one.

Danese

Re: [silk] Silk meet in Bangalore

[Danese Cooper]

Me too please.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 11, 2010, at 4:36 PM, gabin kattukaran gkattuka...@gmail.com wrote:

 Can someone give me directions to get to Windsor Pub from the airport? Do any 
 of the airport volvos go that way? If not an address that is usable with the 
 cabbies would suffice.
 
 thanks,
 
 gabin
 
 -- 
 
 measure with a micrometer, mark with a chalk, cut with an axe

Re: [silk] Silk meet in Bangalore

[Danese Cooper]

I would love to, but my flight out of Pune isn't until evening so I fear
I'll arrive too late.

Danese

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 5:09 AM, Venkat Mangudi s...@venkatmangudi.comwrote:

 Cheeni is coming to India next week. Tweeple generally agreed to catch
 up. It appears everyone has agreed to meet on the 14th, which happens to
 be a Tuesday. Udhay has volunteered me to get this rolling, so here
 goes. Show of hands please, if you are attending.

 1. Cheeni
 2. Udhay
 3. Madman (are you back by the 14th?)
 4. Gautam
 5. Gabin
 6. Ashwin
 7. Venkat

 Who else? Suggestions for venue please. Considering that it is a
 weekday, I will have to leave latest by 10 p.m.

 Cheers,
 -V

Re: [silk] Triskaidekaphilia

[Danese Cooper]

I'll actually be in Bangalore on the 19th :-D. I vote for Udhay buying us all 
drinks!

Danese

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 24, 2010, at 5:00 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On 19th December 2010, Silk-List turns 13 years old. it's been quite a
 ride (with a surprising number of people who've been around for all 13
 years).
 
 Any thoughts on stuff we could do?
 
 Udhay
 -- 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
 

Re: [silk] Triskaidekaphilia

[Danese Cooper]

Make it late so I can come. I have a Wikimedian meetup earlier in the evening 
Saturday

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 24, 2010, at 6:27 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On 24-Nov-10 7:30 PM, Danese Cooper wrote:
 
 I'll actually be in Bangalore on the 19th :-D. I vote for Udhay buying us 
 all drinks!
 
 And here I was, thinking you folks would buy *me* drinks. :) I'm sure
 some workable compromise can be reached, though.
 
 18th Dec is a Saturday. Shall we do this meetup then?
 
 Udhay
 -- 
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
 

Re: [silk] What's the strangest thing you've eaten?

[Danese Cooper]

Durian

On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
  Inspired by a friend's status message about lutefisk, I ask silklisters
  to let us know what is the strangest thing they've eaten.

 Curd rice?

 Thaths
 --
 Marge: Quick, somebody perform CPR!
 Homer: Umm (singing) I see a bad moon rising.
 Marge: That's CCR!
 Homer: Looks like we're in for nasty weather.
 Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders

Re: [silk] How does one unregister from Hinduism?

[Danese Cooper]

Ah, but you're not born Catholic.  You have to consciously choose it and
be confirmed before you can celebrate sacrament.  Hinduism has a lower bar
to entry.  My understanding is that pretty much everybody (even a future
Catholic) is born Hindu.  I'm sure you'll all let me know if I've been
misinformed ;-).

Danese

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 7:58 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:

 Apparently the catholic church has a form that you fill out, at least
 in Switzerland. Seeing how Hinduism has all the bases covered -
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_in_Hinduism how does one get rid
 of it?

 Cheeni

Re: [silk] Tim Bray the new face of the google apple rivalry

[Danese Cooper]

I'm worried that Tim is just trading evils.

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.netwrote:

 Well well .. way to go.

suresh


 http://www.pcworld.com/article/191633/meet_tim_bray_new_face_of_the_googleapple_rivalry.html

 http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2010/03/15/Joining-Google starts
 off
 with a bang .. As of this morning I work for Google. The title is
 “Developer
 Advocate”. The focus is Android. Fun is expected.

Re: [silk] Danese is the new Wikimedia CTO

[Danese Cooper]

Hello all,

Sorry I missed this post the other day, Udhay.  Yes, it is true, I'm the new
CTO of Wikimedia Foundation.  So far I'm deeply locked in knowledge
transfer...which could go on for some time.  There's a lot to learn.  The
first CTO was also the first employee, so his knowledge of the project is
integral and organically acquired.  I have a lot to catch up on, but its
already clear there are things I can help to improve.

Many Silklisters already sent me congrats privately or on Facebook or
Twitter, but its hard to respond individually so I'm just going to say one
big thanks here for all the well-wishes.

Danese

On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 7:39 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 Not sure why this hasn't shown up on silk yet, but...congrats, Danese!
 Can you talk about it in public now? ;-)


 http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Danese_Cooper_joins_Wikimedia_as_CTO

 Udhay
 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Silkmeet SF?

[Danese Cooper]

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 1, 2009, at 10:55 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian  
sur...@hserus.net wrote:



Biju Chacko [02/07/09 11:20 +0530]:
How does dinner of Friday, Jul 10th somewhere in the Mission sound  
to you?


Sounds good. Google maps tells me that the Mission is relatively  
close

to the financial district where I'll be.


Extremely close - and there's great dim sum around somewhere very  
close to

where you are.


Assume you're talking about Yank Sing, for dim sum, but they're only  
open for lunch, right?


Alas, I fly out to Europe on the 5th...

Since you're arriving on the 4th, consider finding the fireworks. They  
usually start going off around 9:00pm.


Danese

Re: [silk] Silkmeet SF?

[Danese Cooper]

So it's sort of the anti-Shiok?

Danese

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 2, 2009, at 3:35 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net  
wrote:



Suresh Ramasubramanian [02/07/09 03:20 -0700]:

It is right next to a vietnamese place that serves the black coffee +
condensed milk vietnamese coffee.

Yup, the House of Nanking. 919 Kearney.


and this actually matches my experience(s) of the soup nazi + genius  
that

runs it ..
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/23/DDGP9JI7K11.DTLtype=food

Re: [silk] Burnout

[Danese Cooper]

Okay...just FYI this meal you're describing, while no doubt hot and
tasty...is basically spicy, oily carbohydrates, right?  FRESH vegetables
have vitamins, nutrients...canned ones, not so much.


 I also got to be a pretty fair cook of stuff like vegetable rice (canned
 vegetables stir fried with olive oil, canned chopped onions and garlic,
 every single spice powder I can get my hands on - chinese, indian or both,
 then mixed into rice straight from an electric pressure cooker, stirred
 around).  Ready in less than 5 minutes. Filling, reasonably tasty.

 Not that you'd want to cook at home after arriving bone tired after a long
 shift .. especially not when it meant washing up. Didnt get a maid either -
 expensive, and that'd have involved me being at home at fixed times. So, I
 cleaned it once in a while, lived in a pigsty (no, pigs would probably run
 out of there screaming). That put me off hk far more .. my salary didnt
 exactly run to a serviced apartment back then.

Re: [silk] Recommendations for Bluetooth headset?

[Danese Cooper]

I absolutely *love* my Plantronics 925.  I have owned dozens of Bluetooth
headsets (slave to my cellphone that I am)...and this is the ONE.  Light,
comfortable, great sound.  Only drawback is poor wind protection, but there
are 925 owners who have put little bits of wind foam on the mic to good
effect, I'm told.  Recharges in its own little case between calls.  That
case is pretty magnetic, so in your pocket might cause problems if you keep
credit cards or hotel key cards nearby.

Danese

On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 1:21 AM, Kiran Jonnalagadda j...@pobox.com wrote:

 Greetings, list.

 I recently lost my Jawbone 2 bluetooth headset and am seeking a
 replacement. What does the list think is a good headset to buy these days?

 I loved my Jawbone. It was small, very light and had reasonably good voice
 quality (although by no means effective at noise cancellation). It also had
 a fundamental problem I've seen in every BT headset: no key lock.

 I'd rather not have a headset on my ear when not in a call, and no headset
 I've seen is designed to be kept anywhere except on one's ear. Leaving my
 Jawbone in the pocket would cause all kinds of weird behaviour on the phone.
 Over time I learnt to hang it on the edge of my trouser pockets, which is
 how I lost it.

 So: what do list members use and recommend? Or should I just get another
 Jawbone?

 Kiran


 --
 Kiran Jonnalagadda
 http://jace.seacrow.com/

Re: [silk] Houston/Seattle

[Danese Cooper]

Not sure yet, but I may be in Seattle at some point around that time.

Danese

Sent from my phone

On Jan 31, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Divya Manian divya.man...@gmail.com  
wrote:



On 1/31/09 6:53 AM, Gautam John gkj...@gmail.com wrote:
Anyone in the Seattle area? I'm there the 15th through the 20th of  
February.


A meet-up?


I live there with Deepak Jois (a lurker). We could discuss off list  
where

and when.

Regards,
Divya

Re: [silk] who killed bangalore? from the churumuri blog on Karnataka

[Danese Cooper]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Venkat Mangudi s...@venkatmangudi.comwrote:

The worst experience was in a mall in Fremont, CA.
 Somebody once told me CA was the most broadminded state. All that is
 nonsense. Kentucky treated me better, I think. But I digress. Before I
 get back to the mainstream discussion, let me state for the record that
 some of my best friends are not Indian and hence I am not biased against
 non Indians.


Just for the record...I'm white (and female) and none too comfortable in
Fremont, CA.  Middle of the US is even worse.  I'm much more comfortable in
India than I am in Ohio...but prefer San Francisco to everywhere else in the
world.  No, I wasn't born here.

Danese

Re: [silk] who killed bangalore? from the churumuri blog on Karnataka

[Danese Cooper]

Must admit (as a business tourist and not a local), I wouldn't visit if
there wasn't an interesting event happening.  I don't care about the
infrastructure issues (grew up in LA...and you forgot to mention gridlock in
Beijing, Bangkok, the airport road into Hanoi...your city doesn't actually
have the worst infrastructure I've ever seen, but...).  Compared to visiting
most Indian cities, Bangalore is like one big Indian-themed mall.
Culturally, its akin to visiting Noida.

As I say, I grew up in LA, and for the longest time I suffered when people
knocked my city...the poor air quality for instance.  My standard response
was Hey, if you can't see the air you're breathing, how do you know it's
even there?.  The callowness of the inhabitants.  Even people I grew up
with thought I belonged in Berkeley ;-).  So I understand your loyalty,
Vinit...but have to break it to you that the article isn't so far off the
mark as I see it.

There are many people I love in Bangalore, but the place??...its a sadly
sanitized and oddly westernized version of India.  I routinely recommend
that people give it a miss if they can possibly do so.

Danese

On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 9:16 AM, Vinit B vi...@bhansalimail.com wrote:

 Here is my official email declaring this as what rot.
 Born and bought up here. Of course I'm biased, dammit.

 Next time anyone has problems with Bangalore traffic, I'm going to get them
 lined up outside the Lincoln tunnel going into NYC on Monday morning at 9am
 in the cash-only toll-lane.

 Or, closer home, driving from Bandra to Worli (before the sea-link) during
 rush-hour.
 Or, driving from Delhi to Gurgaon on the new elevated road

 The phrase Infrastructure problems was not coined just for Bangalore, and
 won't be disused post-Bangalore.

 ---
 Taken in a lighter vein, of course no-one expects accolades in a book
 titled
 101 places not to visit.

 - Vinit

  -Original Message-
  Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 2:42 PM
  To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
  Subject: [silk] who killed bangalore? from the churumuri blog on
  Karnataka
 
  Found this on another mailing list, and I don't agreeentirely
 
  From one who grew up in Bangalore:
 
  Heaven knows that Bangalore has problems spilling out of its back
  pockets.
  But when the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) showcases a book titled '101
  places not to visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/101-Places-Not-Visit-
  Destinations/dp/1861058586'
  by *Adam Russ*, with Bangalore securing the pride of place in the India
  section, it's time to sit up and cry.
 

Re: [silk] Mumbai silklisters OK?

[Danese Cooper]

Brian and I are most worried about Dr. Eric Von Hipple, who was  
scheduled to check into Oberoi last night. Karim Lakhani tweeted about  
this earlier. Haven't seen any word whether the good Dr. Is safe or not.


Danese

Sent from my phone

On Nov 26, 2008, at 6:39 PM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Just got off the phone with a few friends in Mumbai - thankfully,
they're OK.

Mumbai silklisters - speak up, please. Are you folks fine?

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mumbai seems to be a useful way of
getting some firsthand reports - though a lot of filtering is needed.

Udhay
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Mumbai silklisters OK?

[Danese Cooper]

Nevermind. Just saw tweet confirming Eric is okay :-)

Danese

Sent from my phone

On Nov 26, 2008, at 6:39 PM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Just got off the phone with a few friends in Mumbai - thankfully,
they're OK.

Mumbai silklisters - speak up, please. Are you folks fine?

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mumbai seems to be a useful way of
getting some firsthand reports - though a lot of filtering is needed.

Udhay
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] More collateral damage in the loudness war

[Danese Cooper]

Wow.  I didn't realize Silklist was a cover for a secret Metal Head society
;-).

Danese

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 11:20 PM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Sumant Srivathsan wrote, [on 9/29/2008 11:40 AM]:

  I blame Rick Rubin. IMO, the only Metallica album that sounds even
 remotely
 well-produced is the 1991 Metallica (The Black Album). Bob Rock got it
 right.


 _And Justice For All_ sounds quite nice, I thought.

 Udhay
 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Rebooting America

[Danese Cooper]

Yes, there was a conference last month that kicked this off.  Its  
Micah Sifry's thing (Dave Sifry of Technorati fame is his brother).   
Silklist's own Brian Behlendorf was there and spoke on a panel.   
Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the essay authors are FOO Camp  
regulars...Seems like politics is a big topic at FOO every four  
years ;-).  Love seeing Newt Gingrich's name right next to Kaliya  
Hamlin's.


Here's a list of the essayists, if you weren' t already interested in  
clicking over to the site...


* Esther Dyson
* Morra Aarons-Mele
* Yochai Benkler
* Lance Bennett
* John C. Bonifaz
* danah boyd
* Harry C. Boyte
* Matthew Burton
* Steven L. Clift
* Susan Crawford
* Pablo del Real
* Zack Exley
* Allison H. Fine
* Jan Frel and
* Nicco Mele
* Julie Barko Germany
* Newt Gingrich
* Kaliya Hamlin
* Richard C. Harwood
* Scott Heiferman
* Tara Hunt
* Jeff Jarvis
* Martin Kearns
* Avery Knapp and
* Tennyson McCalla
* Gene Koo
* Joshua Levy
* Ellen Miller
* Mark Murphy
* Craig Newmark
* Beth Simone Noveck
* Andrew Rasiej
* Glenn Harlan Reynolds
* Howard Rheingold
* Douglas Rushkoff
* Clay Shirky
* Micah Sifry
* David B. Smith
* Matt Stoller
* Aaron Swartz
* Nancy E. Tate 
* Mary G. Wilson
* Zephyr Teachout
* Brad Templeton
* Joe Trippi
* Michael Turk
* David Weinberger
* Marie Wilson

Danese

On Aug 1, 2008, at 2:02 AM, sriram balasubramaniam wrote:

From the website (http://rebooting.personaldemocracy.com), The  
Personal
Democracy Forum presents an anthology of forty-four essays brimming  
with the
hopes of reenergizing, reorganizing, and reorienting our government  
for the
Internet Age. How would completely reorganizing our system of  
representation

work? Is it possible to redesign our government with open doors and
see-through walls? How can we leverage the exponential power of many- 
to-many

deliberation for the common good?.


The book is now available for sale or download (
http://rebooting.personaldemocracy.com/files/Rebooting_America.pdf).

Re: [silk] Microsoft to sponsor the Apache Software Foundation

[Danese Cooper]

Biju,

Brian is up at FNF (a weekend music party that is off the grid).

Here's what I know about Apache taking that money.

First of all, Apache got over dealing with proximity to MSFT for  
pragmatic reasons a long time ago.  Covalent is an example of a  
company that sold Apache-based products to Windows customers.  I would  
say that nobody at Apache thinks Microsoft is somehow having a  
religious conversion and aren't evil anymore (just as very few of us  
believe that Google isn't evil...sorry Charles).  Publicly traded US  
Corporations are inherently evil...all of them are...because by design  
they exist to pursue profit over all else.


Apache is a pragmatic group and we tend to take balanced actions.  We  
took money from Google, why not from Microsoft?  Also, we have a long  
history of taking code from big corps (which is in some ways more  
fraught with peril than taking money)...


Danese

On Jul 25, 2008, at 11:46 PM, Biju Chacko wrote:


Microsoft to sponsor the Apache Software Foundation

By Ryan Paul | Published: July 25, 2008 - 12:15PM CT

Today at the OSCON open source software convention, the Apache
Software Foundation (ASF) got an unexpected new sponsor: Microsoft.
The Redmond software giant, which will contribute $100,000 annually to
the ASF, joins Google and Yahoo as a platinum sponsor of Apache
development

[...]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080725-microsoft-to-sponsor-of-the-apache-software-foundation.html

Brian,

Is Microsoft finally starting to grok Open Source? Or is this just a
few guys in a corner somewhere? Or should I put on my tinfoil hat
because it's all part of some bigger conspiracy?

-- b

Re: [silk] Disadvantages of an Elite education

[Danese Cooper]

I have to beg to differ on the subject of Al Gore.  If you've never  
seen his talk on Global Warming I guess you might still consider him  
a poor communicator...but it wasn't poor communication skills that  
cost him that election (not to open a new can of worms).


On Jun 26, 2008, at 5:27 AM, Badri Natarajan wrote:


Al
Gore and John Kerry: one each from Harvard and Yale, both earnest,  
decent,
intelligent men, both utterly incapable of communicating with the  
larger

electorate.


and another thing


If I’d gone to Harvard, I would have
learned to say “in Boston” when I was asked where I went to school-the
Cambridge version of noblesse oblige.


I went to an elite private school from the age of 10 through  
graduation at 16.  It was elite in all senses of that word.  The  
student population was mostly wealthy and white.  Around 1969 this  
school had decided to aggressively diversify and so like Noah's Ark  
we had 2 of each ethnic group imaginable scattered through the  
school.  Academically the standards had drifted a bit over the years,  
but again in 1969 the school fathers (and mothers) had decided to  
plump up the academic rating by artificially over-nurturing one class  
(mine) so that we would excel and they could publish our results and  
use them as a marketing tool.  They basically pushed forward or held  
back all the rich but dumb kids and then recruited a group of  
acceptable smart kids (meaning we would fit in) to receive special  
considerations on tuition.  I was one of those kids.  I say we were  
over-nurtured because they also recruited special teachers for us.   
For instance, I was taught high school physics by a man who had  
worked with Oppenheimer on the Bomb and who held patents on the Sony  
Trinitron system.  He was only at the school in our physics year.


Meanwhile, my family actually lived in a small town called San Pedro,  
which for 100 years had been a mostly immigrant-populated fishing  
village in the larger Port of Los Angeles.  It was definitely across  
the tracks as we say in the US.  Even to this day I often find  
myself saying that I grew up in Palos Verdes (where the school was)  
instead of San Pedro, and in a sense this is true as I was at school  
from 6:30am to 7:00pm most days of the long school year...but it is a  
choice I make to ward off the assumptions people would make about me  
as well if I admitted that I was from San Pedro (so reverse nobless  
oblige).  BTW, I am also the first person in my extended family (on  
both sides) to graduate from college.  My father would have loved to  
go, but there was a Depression and then a World War in the way...but  
he was firmly blue-collar and worked with his hands to make our  
living.  My mother grew up on a farm in the back woods of Central  
California without running water or electricity and was considered  
well educated because she graduated from high school.


Anyway, my class of 29 students did extremely well by many measures.   
Five got perfect overall test scores and another ten got perfect  
scores on some aspect of the battery of tests we took (which back  
then were SATs, Achievement Tests and Advanced Placement exams), and  
about half finished as National Merit Scholarship finalists.  Most of  
us were accepted into Ivy League or Seven Sisters schools.  I got  
into Princeton, although I ended up at UCLA.  At my 20th reunion more  
than half of my class were lawyers and three were doctors...


But because of my family background, I always knew that book  
learning was only one type of smart.  My father was infinitely more  
adept with his hands than any of the fathers of my fellow students.   
That same physics teacher who was brought in for my class idly  
remarked one afternoon that he was impressed at how proud my brother  
and I were of our Dad, since most of the other kids thought of him as  
the help because he'd happened to fix their fathers' cars.  We were  
floored to realize that anyone had any but the highest opinion of  
Dad.  That encounter created a chain reaction in me to rebel against  
the elitism (and contributed to my decision to attend a public  
university).


Meanwhile, an astounding percentage of the rich kids I grew up around  
were and are massively unhappy.  Several never made it to 25 due to  
excesses that wealth affords (fast cars, too much alcohol or drugs).   
Three committed suicide while still in college.  Many have been  
married several times.  A couple had to take over their Dad's  
businesses when said fathers killed themselves (we should look into  
the rate of suicide in the Academic Elite some time).


Okay, enough about me.  I typed all of this out because I think my  
experience speaks directly to the original topic.  I would not have  
given up the chance to attend this school because the academic  
education I received fed my little geekess soul...but also because I  
got to see first hand the high cost of that elitism.


Danese

Re: [silk] Is conflict necessary for progress?

[Danese Cooper]

If you think of the status quo as inertia, then physics tells us a  
force (which I'm gonna call conflict) is required to create change.


In my work career I've seen this over and over.  Those who are  
guarding the status quo do not go gently in a new direction, even if  
that direction is clearly better.  I remember how legal secretaries  
at the law firm I worked for early in my career fought the advent of  
desktop PCs (they knew how to be productive with IBM Selectric  
typewriters and the Wang word processor down the hall was a  
specialized piece of equipment).  Time and again I've seen there's  
always *somebody* profiting from the status quo who believes they  
have to guard against changes.


Of course I won't even start commenting about Sun and Java ;-).

Danese

On Jun 22, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Gautam John wrote:


Hello!

Here's a thought:

Is conflict necessary for progress? Or is it an impediment? Would
individuals be able to reach their fullest levels of potential in the
absence of conflict or is conflict necessary to maximise potential,
individual and social?

I'm tending towards conflict as a requirement for change, growth and
potential optimisation.

As an aside, I heard a great line - It's not the environment that
needs to be saved, it's us.

I suppose that's true. The environment, in some way or form will
survive, it's us and our lifestyle that's endangered. Is humanity a
virus?

-Gautam

--
Please read our new blog at:
http://blog.prathambooks.org/

Re: [silk] Is conflict necessary for progress?

[Danese Cooper]

Gotta love Google:

from http://www.chaospark.com/politics/reid12.htm

Libertarian or Anarchist?

Libertarians are often accused of being anarchists or asked what the  
difference is between a libertarian and an anarchist. The popular  
image of anarchy is unrestrained violence and looting. Libertarians  
take a stronger stand against violence and looting than any other  
political group including republicans and democrats. The early  
history of the United States with its severely limited government was  
strongly libertarian and completely different from this image of  
anarchy.


The misunderstanding on this issue comes from the ideal state of  
peace and productivity with no government interference imagined by  
many libertarians who forget that we are the only ones who can  
imagine it. In a libertarian society the evolution of voluntary  
institutions providing the few remaining government services might  
lead to the gradual elimination of government but this scenario is  
completely beyond the imagination of the general public and it harms  
our cause to confront them with such a startling vision.


Here is a menu of answers to the question:

What's the difference between libertarians and anarchists?

The traditional answer
Libertarians want severely limited government and anarchists want none.

The humanist answer
Libertarians are nonviolent; some anarchists are violent.

The funny answer
Libertarians are to anarchists as nudists are to naked people.They're  
just middle class  organized so they appear less crazy.


The Party answer (from Andre Marrou)
An anarchist is an extreme libertarian, like a socialist is an  
extreme democrat, and a fascist is an extreme republican.


The graphic answer
It's like the difference between a lover and a rapist.They're both in  
the same place but one uses violence to get there.


The straight answer
Libertarians believe in free markets, private property, and  
capitalism. Anarchists who believe in these things usually call  
themselves libertarians.


On Jun 22, 2008, at 12:01 PM, Thaths wrote:

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 10:58 AM, Gautam John [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:
I suppose the question then is, what metric does one use to  
measure progress?


Correct. Also, I prefer separating a happy/peaceful life (a goal) from
definitions of progress (a process).


I was pointing out that the argument that conflict leads to progress
is only a few steps away from the invisible hand argument of the
Libertarianism. I jokingly (see the smiley?) characterized
Bear with my ignorance, how is Libertarianism different from  
Anarchism?


I have heard it said that Anarchism is the ideal of the Left and
Libertarianism of the Right. :-)

I personally do not know where the boundary lies.

Thaths
--
Bart: We were just planning the father-son river rafting trip.
Homer: Hehe. You don't have a son.
Sudhakar Chandra Slacker Without Borders

Re: [silk] Mumbai hotel recco?

[Danese Cooper]

Oh, I *promise* you when she was playing the part of the wife...their  
house was in fact the Mark Hopkins hotel and she pulled away in her  
Jag from what is now the valet parking delivery lot (and Jimmy  
Stewart followed her all over the City).  Later in the movie when she  
was back to being just a shop girl she did live in a horrible little  
apartment at Mason and Sacramento.  Jimmy Stewart's character lived  
in an apartment on Russian Hill.  I pretty much know Vertigo by  
heart...nice try, though.


D

On Jun 20, 2008, at 8:32 PM, Radhika, Y. wrote:


kim novak did not stay at the mark hopkins. she stayed at an apartment
building two blocks from the Mark Hopkins. perhaps i am  
exaggerating the
authority of the person (my husband:-)) who told me this but he did  
live on

nob hill opposite the apartment building at Mason and Sacramento.

On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 6:42 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian  
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

wrote:


Danese Cooper [20/06/08 18:39 -0700]:

Well the Mark Hopkins (like the Imperial in Delhi or Raffles in   
Singapore
or the Oriental in Bangkok) is more than a hotel..its a   
landmark.  Heck,

Kim Novak's character *lived* there in Vertigo. :-).



That's one thing that attracts me to it.

Price-wise however, I still say they are comparable.  Sometimes  
Bombay is
higher and sometimes SF is...depends on a few factors...but  
they're still in
the same ballpark.  I paid $179 last time at the Leela (in  
December).




179?  That's one helluva steal, and I havent ever found such a  
cheap rate

there. Oh well.

Meanwhile...Bangalore has gone completely ape-shit.  My pal  
Mitchell Baker

was charged $800 a night for a room at the Windsor.  OMG!!!



Oh yeah. And the Leela at Bangalore is routinely over $500

   srs

Re: [silk] Mumbai hotel recco?

[Danese Cooper]

The airport region has industry and some interesting barrios (if  
that's what you're writing about).  Mumbai is really spread out and  
the neighborhoods are all somewhat unique.


D

On Jun 20, 2008, at 8:44 AM, Cory Doctorow wrote:


Is the airport region really boring, like most airport locations?

Amit Varma wrote:
A friend stayed in Orchid Ecotel [1], which is very close to the  
airport and
in the heart of the suburbs, for a couple of months, and he says  
he loved
it, and the broadband was very good. Their website says they're a  
five star,
but I've dined there many times and it seemed more low end than  
that. I

can't imagine it costing more than Gordon House, you could find out.

[1] http://www.orchidhotel.com/hotels/orchidmumbai/hotelinmumbai.htm




--
Cory Doctorow
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

blog: boingboing.net
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Join my mailing list and find out about upcoming books, stories,
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READ CAREFULLY. By reading this email, you agree, on behalf of your
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Re: [silk] Mumbai hotel recco?

[Danese Cooper]

3 stars to you isn't 3 stars in India.  You don't want to go below 4  
stars (unless you want to do the ashram thing...which can be cheap  
and clean but essentially no stars).


D

On Jun 20, 2008, at 8:02 AM, Cory Doctorow wrote:


I think I could be happy in a 3-star -- the Indian equivalent of a
Comfort Inn.

Cory

Re: [silk] Numismatist ahoy!

[Danese Cooper]

Hey Gautam,

Here is a list of numismatist groups in the Bay Area.  Presumably  
there must be a similar list for India, no?


http://www.kenbarr.com/clubs.html

Danese

On Jun 15, 2008, at 6:45 AM, Gautam John wrote:


Hello!

Are there any numismatist's on this list? My grandmother has an old
coin collection she's looking to sell and apart from eBay, I have no
idea how to go about this.

Help?

Cheers.

Gautam

--
Please read our new blog at:
http://blog.prathambooks.org/

Re: [silk] Rowling at Harvard

[Danese Cooper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pucdJHjZaqs

If you'd like to listen to it.

Danese

p.s. This received really strange coverage on NPR yesterday.   
Interviews with Harvard grads who were disappointed with the speech  
because JK isn't a world leader.  Listening to the speech I think  
she's giving pretty good advice here.  The radio piece was basically  
about how unrealistic, snobby and spoiled Harvard grads are.


On Jun 8, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Bharat Shetty wrote:


Via a friend. Strong fundas here and there.

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/06.05/99-rowlingspeech.html

-- Bharat Shetty | http://freeshell.in/~codo

Re: [silk] On Intolerance -off topic (ss)

[Danese Cooper]

Christian Brothers was a brand in California (they produced brandy  
and wine) for several decades.  They really were Christian Brothers  
as the establishment was run by Franciscan monks (see http:// 
www.christianbrothersbrandy.com/history.html for a nice picture of  
their former winery on Hwy 29 in Napa County...now the home of the  
Culinary Institute of America (an upscale cooking school) http:// 
www.inetours.com/PagesWT/WTLndmrkVws/Culinary_Inst.html.


When I was a child we always stopped off at Christian Brothers on our  
way home from vacation.  It was the first cellar I ever visited and  
it was cool even when the outside temp got up around 40C because the  
building was made of stone and the cellar was underground.


Danese

On May 15, 2008, at 8:54 PM, Anil Kumar wrote:


On Thu, 15 May 2008 21:37:52 +0530, ss [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote :



On Thursday 15 May 2008 8:23:13 pm Sajith T S wrote:

leaders offended by alcohol named Christian Brothers,


A friend of mine from Scotland is on the lookout for this brand.

We were unable to find it in Bangalore earlier this month.

shiv




Hmm...now that you mention, I do not recall seeing it on Shelves of  
the
Thekhas (liquor shop) in New Delhi [actually, read that as South  
Delhi] last

winter.  If I find it, would you like me to pick up one for you / your
friend?

- Anil KUMAR

Re: [silk] rant - Re: Wanted: Exceptional parents

[Danese Cooper]

I'm sure Charles will have his own answer, but allow me to comment  
generally on the homeschool movement in the US.


Many, many parents have opted to pull their kids out of school in the  
US to pursue a course of education outside of the traditional school  
options of public or private.  They do it for a variety of reasons  
ranging from religious to social and from practical to political.  An  
entire cadre of alternative educational materials are available both  
online and by post in the US to support these school refuseniks.


I have a very close friend who pulled her daughter out of a very  
expensive private school at the age of 14 because she was too far  
behind in maths.  At the time I questioned this decision, but I have  
to say that she was able to create a very rich alternative curriculum  
which has resulted 8 years later in setting her failing daughter on a  
path to professional success (she is a trained naturalist) and  
personal happiness because she knows she is well-trained and talented  
in her field.  Another friend home-schooled after her then 10-year  
old middle son begged to be let out of a situation where he wasn't  
doing well due to deep conflicts with his teacher.  She was able to  
provide interesting coursework for him through a combination of self- 
administered online materials and supplemental instruction from local  
experts in areas of interest.  He attended a traditional high-school  
after completing middle-school at home and is currently getting high  
marks in his first year at University of California, Santa Cruz.


Unfortunately there was a recent California Appellate Court ruling  
(summarized at http://tinyurl.com/yud3vh) that seems to threaten  
parents' rights to homeschool their children, at least in California  
(which is currently the most populous state in the US).  Its a pretty  
well-established movement, though and I'd expect a long legal battle  
since most of the homeschoolers I know are not the kind of people who  
desire to have their children trained to be loyal to the state.


Danese

On Apr 11, 2008, at 7:59 AM, Madhu Menon wrote:



 We home schooled our children. Not a popular option in India I  
think,

 and one can argue whether that puts our kids in the good peers or
 bad peers equation, but I'm pretty happy with the results.


Charles, what exactly did homeschooling involve? Did you  
personally teach them everything? Hired private tutors? I'm curious.



--
   *   
Madhu Menon
Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine
Indiranagar, Bangalore
Visit us @ http://www.shiokfood.com
Book your table online: http://www.shiokfood.com/reserve.html

Re: [silk] open source in government

[Danese Cooper]

FWIW, NASA has a couple of viable open source projects.  Also the  
Dept of the Navy in the US was a very early employer of Linux Kernel  
engineers and the NSF worked on a reliable version of Linux that  
proved it could be done.


Danese

On Apr 9, 2008, at 10:39 AM, Srini Ramakrishnan wrote:


If I understood Ashok's question right, he is looking for Governments
that have contributed back to Open Source, not just borrowed from it.
There may be a few examples, however I don't know of any significant
effort in this direction. Perhaps it's because Governments in general
are used to taking rather than giving. There really isn't a culture of
feeling accountable for what's been taken, whether it's my taxes or
Open Source software.

I'd be interested in knowing why you are on this quest.

Cheeni


On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 2:04 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

At a state level, ELCOT has done something of this sort in Tamil Nadu

 SuSE laptops distributed to bureaucrats (who probably all went  
and loaded

 pirated doze on top of it..)

srs




-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On  
Behalf

Of ashok _
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 1:41 PM
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Subject: [silk] open source in government

Hi,

I am looking for examples where governments have developed their
internal systems in an open source model.

I can find plenty of examples where linux was deployed, and open
source components were used (mysql, apache etc...),
but few examples for whole systems which were open-sourced (for  
e.g. a

human resource system developed for a government
in an open source model...or an exam reporting system used by a
government... )
This site for example, for the indian government,  http:// 
www.cdac.in

does not have any open source applications at all ...

any better suggestions, examples ?

ashok









--
Cheeni

Q: Why is this email 5 sentences or fewer?
A: http://five.sentenc.es/

Re: [silk] romance and reading

[Danese Cooper]

So over here in the States I know of several long-term couples who  
read the same books.  In the case of my friend Jane and her husband  
John, they share books even though he is a right-wing libertarian and  
she's a left-wing liberal.  In my own marriage, well...my husband  
only reads books published by O'Reilly (the ones with animals on the  
front) anymore.  During courtship he briefly read some of my favorite  
fiction because he wanted to get closer to me, and interestingly  
some of those characters have made their way into our lexicon.


Danese

On Apr 3, 2008, at 7:32 AM, Deepa Mohan wrote:

On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:

Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote, [on 4/3/2008 5:20 PM]:



[Author Ariel Levy's] partner, a green-building consultant,  
doesn't
like to read, Levy said. When she wants to talk about books, she  
goes
to her book group. Compatibility in reading taste is a luxury  
and kind

of irrelevant, Levy said. The goal, she added, is to find somebody
where your perversions match and who you can stand.



 Heh.

 As a data point, my wife's reading tastes diverge greatly from  
mine; with a
glancing intersection at early Harry Potter (pre Book 4) and  
_Jonathan

Livingston Seagull_.

 Udhay
 --
Interesting train of thought Rishab...let's see the stations it  
takes us to!


I don't know any set of partners in a relationship or even the
members of a family setup,  whose reading tastes coincide totally;
that's very interesting because those  families might gather to watch
the same TV serialsleave alone books, Mohan and I read the
newspaper each morning and when we compare notes later, it's as if
each of us has read a completely different paper.

Yet, there are some books that are firm family favourites...indeed,
that most people have read...oh, I forgot, they are called
best-sellers...and these change quite drastically from generation to
generation. I can't imagine today's twenty-somethings reading Anando
Motth (for lack of a better phonetic spelling), or Ponniyin Selvan,
or Godaan or even David Copperfield... And then, there is the
whole field of poetryhowever, I am hoping to be contradicted.

Deepa.

Re: [silk] ... or I will kill you

[Danese Cooper]

When I worked for Apple we did a product with French engineers and a  
Japanese customer (NTT).  We had these daily video conferences with  
the customer, and they used to say things like, If you don't fix  
this (completely cosmetic) bug...you will be victimized


And they did look a little like Japanese mafiaosos :-).

Danese

On Apr 1, 2008, at 6:53 PM, ss wrote:


What I find interesting about this news is not that there are cultural
problems in communication, but that there are now people other than  
me who
are insightful enough and erudite enough about such nuances and are  
able to
explain them. I had a rant about this in an college alumnus column  
a decade

or so ago.

Now I find a beautifully constructed sentence that sums up the issue:

It's a question of cultural semantics, adds the Toronto-born  
Konanur. In
some parts of India it's quite common to speak that way. ... I  
can't speak
for all Indian people, but in my family in India they use that  
kind of

language all the time, `Get the milk or I'm going to kill you.'


shiv


On Wednesday 02 Apr 2008 3:17:05 am VaibhaV Sharma wrote:

Another victim of the literal translation habit us Indians more than
often have to deal with -

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/306896

Quote -
One of the trickiest things when you move into a new society is
understanding what's colloquially appropriate communication. It's  
almost
impossible for new immigrants to navigate. I think she realizes  
now it

was a mistake, but really, how would she have known? There's no
settlement agency that teaches you how to be politically correct  
in Canada.


I feel bad for the lady.

--
VaibhaV Sharma
http://vsharma.net

Re: [silk] RIP Arthur C Clarke

[Danese Cooper]

My pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danesecooper/sets/72157604156435040/

D

On Mar 18, 2008, at 10:57 PM, Danese Cooper wrote:

Arthur lived for many many years in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  As  
essentially the patron saint of the Sri Lankan IT Industry, he  
often appeared at tech conferences organized in Colombo.  The first  
year I spoke at FOSS-SL he came to visit, but on a day when I was  
absent (I was visiting the Naval Academy with one of the founders  
of the Lankan Software Foundation at the request of the  
conference).  When I found out I'd missed meeting Arthur, I was  
very disappointed.


Dr. Sam (a really short version of his name) who had been with me  
at the Naval Academy said, I've known Arthur since I was a boy.   
I'll try to set up a visit at his house for you.  Dr. Sam is in  
this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/anuradha/57993643/in/ 
photostream/ standing on my right.  I take time to show you a  
picture of him because he recently passed away suddenly and he is  
greatly missed (at least as much as Arthur is in Sri Lanka at  
least).  If Arthur was the patron saint of Sri Lankan IT, Dr. Sam  
was its father...


Anyway, the next afternoon I got a call to take a taxi to a certain  
address.  Because my hotel was already close to Arthur's house, I  
was on time for once and arrived nearly 45 minutes before the rest  
of the folks who came over from the conference and got stuck in  
traffic of some sort (David Axemark and Sam Ruby had also been  
unable to meet Arthur earlier at the conference, so also got an  
invitation to come over to the house).


So I got a private audience with Arthur and Dr. Sam for 45  
minutes...and Arthur was completely charming.  That year was the  
50th anniversary of the publication of Arthur's original paper on  
geosynchronous communications satellites.  He was handing out  
signed copies of the article and told a charming story about its  
publication (which was something of a fluke, since the journal in  
which it was published thought it was a hoax).  With only Sam and  
me in the room our conversation was easy and enjoyable.  Arthur's  
mind was completely sharp, although his hearing was definitely  
failing.  I admired all his tschatskes, including his MBE which was  
on a shelf next to his collection of Space Odyssey action figures.   
He showed me pictures of himself as a very young man and I told him  
he had been beautiful, which made him very happy and we even talked  
about whether he planned to father children someday.  He introduced  
me to his family the bodyguard and nurse who lived with him in  
his house and happened to be married to each other...and showed me  
pictures of their teenaged daughter who was away at school and whom  
he professed to miss terribly.  I asked him whether he believed in  
God and he said, I've thought a lot about that and I'm just not  
sure...but I hope She believes in me.


When the rest of the conference party arrived there were really too  
many people in the room for Arthur's hearing aid to keep up and he  
was pretty frustrated but still cordial.  He did tell one joke  
which I remember.  He asked what Melinda Gates said to Bill on the  
morning after their wedding night...


Now I know why you called it Miicrosoft.

And then he laughed so hard I was concerned he was going to fall  
out of his wheelchair and die right then and there.  Terrible joke,  
right?  But SOOO much more enjoyable to know that Arthur C. Clarke  
told it.


We met in Arthur's office which was lined on all four walls with  
tall bookcases.  The one behind us in the picture was filled with  
just the English language versions of his books.


I have some other pics from that day.  I'll post them to my Flickr  
account tonight.


BTW, not so sad a day as we might think.  The man was 90 years old  
and led a very rich and rewarding life.  He was completely at peace  
with the idea of leaving the planet when I met him, you could sense  
it and in fact we spoke about it before everybody arrived.  He was  
getting tired of the limitations of his body.  He wanted the next  
adventure, but he was willing to ride this one out until the very end.


Oh, did I forget to say that we installed Google Earth on his PC?   
He'd not seen it before.  So I guess I got to show Arthur C. Clarke  
a vision of earth from space that he'd not had before :-).


Thanks for asking, Udhay.


On Mar 18, 2008, at 7:38 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: [ on 07:31 AM 3/19/2008 ]


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm


Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90


While on this topic, here's something I found on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anuradha/57993644/

Danese/David, want to share the story behind the picture?

Udhay

--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] RIP Arthur C Clarke

[Danese Cooper]

Arthur lived for many many years in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  As  
essentially the patron saint of the Sri Lankan IT Industry, he often  
appeared at tech conferences organized in Colombo.  The first year I  
spoke at FOSS-SL he came to visit, but on a day when I was absent (I  
was visiting the Naval Academy with one of the founders of the Lankan  
Software Foundation at the request of the conference).  When I found  
out I'd missed meeting Arthur, I was very disappointed.


Dr. Sam (a really short version of his name) who had been with me at  
the Naval Academy said, I've known Arthur since I was a boy.  I'll  
try to set up a visit at his house for you.  Dr. Sam is in this  
picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/anuradha/57993643/in/ 
photostream/ standing on my right.  I take time to show you a picture  
of him because he recently passed away suddenly and he is greatly  
missed (at least as much as Arthur is in Sri Lanka at least).  If  
Arthur was the patron saint of Sri Lankan IT, Dr. Sam was its father...


Anyway, the next afternoon I got a call to take a taxi to a certain  
address.  Because my hotel was already close to Arthur's house, I was  
on time for once and arrived nearly 45 minutes before the rest of the  
folks who came over from the conference and got stuck in traffic of  
some sort (David Axemark and Sam Ruby had also been unable to meet  
Arthur earlier at the conference, so also got an invitation to come  
over to the house).


So I got a private audience with Arthur and Dr. Sam for 45  
minutes...and Arthur was completely charming.  That year was the 50th  
anniversary of the publication of Arthur's original paper on  
geosynchronous communications satellites.  He was handing out signed  
copies of the article and told a charming story about its publication  
(which was something of a fluke, since the journal in which it was  
published thought it was a hoax).  With only Sam and me in the room  
our conversation was easy and enjoyable.  Arthur's mind was  
completely sharp, although his hearing was definitely failing.  I  
admired all his tschatskes, including his MBE which was on a shelf  
next to his collection of Space Odyssey action figures.  He showed me  
pictures of himself as a very young man and I told him he had been  
beautiful, which made him very happy and we even talked about whether  
he planned to father children someday.  He introduced me to his  
family the bodyguard and nurse who lived with him in his house and  
happened to be married to each other...and showed me pictures of  
their teenaged daughter who was away at school and whom he professed  
to miss terribly.  I asked him whether he believed in God and he  
said, I've thought a lot about that and I'm just not sure...but I  
hope She believes in me.


When the rest of the conference party arrived there were really too  
many people in the room for Arthur's hearing aid to keep up and he  
was pretty frustrated but still cordial.  He did tell one joke which  
I remember.  He asked what Melinda Gates said to Bill on the morning  
after their wedding night...


Now I know why you called it Miicrosoft.

And then he laughed so hard I was concerned he was going to fall out  
of his wheelchair and die right then and there.  Terrible joke,  
right?  But SOOO much more enjoyable to know that Arthur C. Clarke  
told it.


We met in Arthur's office which was lined on all four walls with  
tall bookcases.  The one behind us in the picture was filled with  
just the English language versions of his books.


I have some other pics from that day.  I'll post them to my Flickr  
account tonight.


BTW, not so sad a day as we might think.  The man was 90 years old  
and led a very rich and rewarding life.  He was completely at peace  
with the idea of leaving the planet when I met him, you could sense  
it and in fact we spoke about it before everybody arrived.  He was  
getting tired of the limitations of his body.  He wanted the next  
adventure, but he was willing to ride this one out until the very end.


Oh, did I forget to say that we installed Google Earth on his PC?   
He'd not seen it before.  So I guess I got to show Arthur C. Clarke a  
vision of earth from space that he'd not had before :-).


Thanks for asking, Udhay.


On Mar 18, 2008, at 7:38 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: [ on 07:31 AM 3/19/2008 ]


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm


Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90


While on this topic, here's something I found on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anuradha/57993644/

Danese/David, want to share the story behind the picture?

Udhay

--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Writers not welcome in India?

[Danese Cooper]

Not that this is gonna help you now...but I *always* ask the Visa  
Network folks for advice when filling out a visa form (for any  
country).  They've seen it all, and they've seen it more recently  
than I have.  They know for instance not to refer to any specific  
conference when applying for an Indian visa because the rubber- 
stampers will focus on those dates and not on your request for a  
longer interval.  They might also have known about the Journalist /  
Writer issue.


In the meantime...hope your appeal works.  Have you tried giving it  
up to the Goddess of Parking (we call her Gladys in my family).  She  
helps with job and apartment searches in addition to parking in SF,  
so maybe also visas?


Danese

On Feb 26, 2008, at 12:40 PM, Charles Haynes wrote:

On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 12:26 PM, Badri Natarajan [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:




subversive sweetie a long term visa. They seemed concerned that she
should not write about India and sell it for some reason. I know  
that

there are third world dictatorships lacking a free press that are
anxious to control access by foreign journalists, but India?



 Err..you mean the same way the USA controls access by foreign  
journalists
 and makes them get special visas (even those who can otherwise  
enter with

 visa waivers)?


Tu quoque? The USA is certainly no paragon of visa issuing rectitude,
but I don't understand what rationale there might be for the
restrictions. Is it just tit-for-tat? I can respect that, I admire the
Brazilians for requiring only Americans to get fingerprinted to enter
Brazil.


 Eg:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jun/05/usa.weekend7

 FWIW, I think she'll probably get a 10 year visa (if not now,  
next time
 around, when you will presumably not put writer under  
occupation). It's
 just the govt's tendency to control things that is popping up - I  
don't

 think it is part of any grand design..

 Oh, and welcome to the world of needing visas and being subject  
to the
 whims of immigration authorities..there's a lot of Indians with  
experience

 of the vagaries of INS visa policy who will sympathize with the
 experience..


Some time over beers let me tell you my adventures baiting the US
Border Patrol while living in San Diego. I'm no fan of US immigration
policy...

-- Charles

Re: [silk] Writers not welcome in India?

[Danese Cooper]

Congrats!   I was *so* happy to get mine last year.  Feels so  
comforting to know I can go to India any old time.


D

On Feb 26, 2008, at 5:03 PM, Charles Haynes wrote:


They just
issued her a 10 year tourist visa.

Re: [silk] another intro

[Danese Cooper]

Not sure how I missed this thread originally...but nice to see fiber  
artists on Silk.


I knit, crochet, tat, macrame, embroider and spin.  I also do a lot  
of knitting on planes and also (famously) in meetings.


http://danesecooper.blogs.com/divablog/2007/08/ashlee-vance-wh.html

Danese

On Feb 8, 2008, at 8:58 PM, va wrote:


On Feb 8, 2008 5:39 PM, Linda L. Julien [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

I crochet, and knit...mostly knitting these days.  I've done
cross-stitch in the past, but not since I was a teenager.  No tatting
(yet?).  I also sew, though not nearly as often as I used to.   
Remember

what I said in my intro about too many hobbies?


same here :) stopped knitting after making socks for 2 left feet,
sized for an elephant.


A brief proof-of-concept test showed that I can embroider some seed
pearls onto a piece of silk in a serviceable manner...and thus an
elaborate bodice for a wedding dress will be born.


ah... indian embroidery is a wee bit different, too jazzy and
colourful is what i have been told. You will see it all when you land
here :)



I get some of my best knitting done on airplanes, but sometimes they
don't like to let you onto the plane with knitting needles.  I  
imagine

they'll be more laid back about an embroidery needle.


Hmpf people get into trouble for carrying a clear bottle of
H2O...knitting needleson board? are you kidding me :-P



How about you?


crochet, sew (less now), embroidery (to spice that boring kurta), and
anything that catches my fancy in between.

--
|| vid ||

Re: [silk] Bay area silkmeet?

[Danese Cooper]

Maybe me too?  I have to be in San Jose in the morning tomorrow...

Danese

On Feb 20, 2008, at 5:11 PM, Charles Haynes wrote:


I'm also here in MTV through Mar 6 or so. Lunch in MTV works best for
me, but dinner in SF may be possible. Come have lunch with Thats and
me!

-- Charles

On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 3:20 PM, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 3:00 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Aditya Chadha [20/02/08 14:34 -0800]:


Downtown SF works best - otherwise Mountain View, etc. are also  
okay.
 I am downtown today (at the mark hopkins on nob hill) and in  
mountain view

 all day tomorrow


 If either of you are up for a lunch at and tour of the Googleplex
 tomorrow, let me know.

 Thaths
 --
 Bart: We were just planning the father-son river rafting trip.
 Homer: Hehe. You don't have a son.
 Sudhakar Chandra Slacker Without Borders

Re: [silk] greetings and salutations

[Danese Cooper]

You guys are gonna scare poor Brian.  Remember, he has to STAY there.

Seriously, a few of the Sun folks stayed at the Churchill during  
FOSS.in and they found it to be fine...if a little far from the  
center of town.


Danese

On Feb 4, 2008, at 7:20 PM, shiv sastry wrote:


On Tuesday 05 Feb 2008 7:19 am, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

Here, if I am not mistaken, Watson, is our client now:

http://www.churchillhotels.co.in/DirvingDirections.htm (sic)


There is something seriously weird about the map, apart from the  
fact that it

purports to give dirving directions

From the looks of it, the hotel appears to be a stone's throw away  
from
Crescent road and Mallige Medical Center that I visit. And two  
stones throws

away from Hotel West End.

But the directions marked on the map on either side of the  
indicated location

of the hotel are crazy. The map is oriented with the top of the map
indicating South and the bottom is North.

The road leading North West (downwards and to the right) from the  
Hotel is
marked as towards Bangalore railway station. That is wrong.  
Bangalore

station is near the top right corner of the map. And the road heading
Southeast (up and to the left) says Towards Nrupathunga road - a  
road that

enjoys the dual distinction of having the least pronounceable name in
Bangalore, as well as not being anywhere near the direction on the  
map. In
fact the map says towards Nrupatuga road - a name that does not  
exist.


shiv

Re: [silk] India special economic zone -- travel and reading recco?

[Danese Cooper]

Oh, there's poverty.  There are plenty of folks missing out on the  
gravy-train.  Especially small-holder farmers and share-croppers and  
the actual workers in the Industrial Zone.


D

On Jan 28, 2008, at 9:34 AM, Cory Doctorow wrote:


at least some abject failure of development

Re: [silk] India special economic zone -- travel and reading recco?

[Danese Cooper]

Wow Cory :-).  First babies are usually late...hope Alice is  
comfortable and that you're both caught up on sleep (you're gonna  
need it).  Congrats.


Danese

On Jan 28, 2008, at 8:52 AM, Cory Doctorow wrote:


 and my wife is due to deliver our daughter TODAY

Re: [silk] India special economic zone -- travel and reading recco?

[Danese Cooper]

Cory,

Are you actually going to go hang out in whichever of these places  
you select?  If yes, I'd personally be leaning towards Chandigarh  
because it will have all the Punjabi politicsboth ancient and  
modern.  You stlll have small-holder farmlands in the surrounding  
countryside, but also a burgeoning nouveau-riche class (by which the  
rest of India is fascinated if you read the People section of any  
newspaper...seems like lots of the beautiful people come out of the  
Punjab these days).  The foothills of the Himalayas are still  
reasonably pristine, but one can see industrial funk and sprawl just  
down the valley.  Also the region has historical geological wealth  
(in terms of jewels and gold) and is one of the banking centers of  
India.


My 2 rupees...

Danese

On Jan 28, 2008, at 4:30 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:


Cory Doctorow [28/01/08 11:23 +]:
I have been leaning towards Chennai, which, I believe, is a close  
approximation of this, but you folks are the experts.


Chennai wouldnt be a bad choice at all though Coimbatore would be
interesting. It has been a mill town for generations, with several
textile companies based in or near it and pumping lots of money  
into it


It is a rather nice city, surprisingly good living conditions. Not  
exactly

the sort of hellhole you would look for .. now if you want land that's
ripped out of farmers' hands and used for SEZ look for Goa or  
Singur near

Calcutta .. though the SEZs there seem to have got shelved.

But hell, if you're writing scifi there aint no need to stick to  
facts :)


srs

Re: [silk] FoU Camp V3 Pictures

[Danese Cooper]

Uhm...I don't have permission to view the page.  Do you need to  
friend me on Flickr or something? I'm DivaDanese.



On Dec 13, 2007, at 6:40 AM, Vinit Bhansali wrote:


Here they are.

http://flickr.com/photos/vinit/sets/72157603446375588/

And they come with a story that involves a burnt external HDD case, a
diamond-tipped electric saw, numerous trips to Bangalore's SP Road!

:)

- Vinit


Subject: Re: [silk] FoU Camp V3 Pictures

Ramakrishna Reddy wrote: [ on 04:08 PM 12/10/2007 ]


Hey Silkers


Moods and Dudes at the FoUCamp V3. These are a few pictures

through my lens


http://flickr.com/photos/ramkrsna/sets/72157603413659484/

My favorite picture is the Coconut and the Vodka.


Yes, me too.

What about Vinit / Surabhi's pictures?

Udhay

--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Memory, from NatGeo

[Danese Cooper]

They make great source to cut up for images for collage art.  I give  
mine to schools for that purpose.


Danese

On Dec 5, 2007, at 4:33 AM, Shoba Narayan wrote:


Shiv:
We have 5 years of accumulated old issue of National Geographic too :)
How on earth do you get rid of them?
Shoba

_
Shoba Narayan
Columnist, Mint Lounge
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Shameless Plug: If you need financial advise, check out my  
brother's company, PeakAlpha.com

_

On Dec 5, 2007, at 5:15 PM, shiv sastry wrote:

I just remembered that I have started subscribing to National  
Geographic again
after a gap of 5 years (which is how long it took me to get rid of  
the old
collected volumes) and this memory issue is the first I have  
received.


shiv

On Wednesday 05 Dec 2007 3:31 pm, Ramakrishnan Sundaram wrote:

ashok _ said the following on 05/12/2007 13:45:

When i started reading that article, i remembered a short story by
Borges... which is later quoted in the article. Didnt know it was
possible to actually have a similar medical condition That  
Fictions
anthology of Borges is easily one of the least recognized  
masterpieces of

modern literature


Whereas I didn't recall anything about that story till I read  
about it

in the article, and then remembered reading that collection of short
stories when in college...

Ram

Re: [silk] To FOU or not to FOU

[Danese Cooper]

Of course I've never been to FOU, but I've been to just about every  
FOO ever, I think.


FWIW, a safari, if interesting and fun, wouldn't necessarily be out  
of bounds at FOO.  Over the years there have been excursions offered  
(to a local artist workshop around the corner, to a performance by  
Tim O'Reilly's wife's theatre troupe, a working session to create a  
huge Psilon Warrior logo so the Google Maps fly-over of the  
encampment would have something catchy to photograph).


The important thing about a FOO is that everybody needs to bring  
something to share and needs to come ready to learn something new.   
FOO does plan a few surprises (for instance, somebody came to the  
last one from Ken Burn's team and showed us a preview of his newest  
series) and they invite people with interesting opinions (which  
should be easy pulling from Silk).  Apart from that, conversation and  
shared activity (oh, and available wireless) are the only important  
givens.


Danese

On Nov 11, 2007, at 9:23 AM, Venkat Mangudi wrote:



Pros outweigh the cons. Besides, I think the idea is to meet and  
talk. I

don't see why a Safari should be a part of FoU.

[silk] To FOU or not to FOU

[Danese Cooper]

Okay, so now I must book my airline tix for trip to India.  I still  
haven't seen consensus on FOU (when, where, to what extent???).


Can we please, please just decide?  Is it Fireflies?  Somewhere  
else?  I can be there Nov 30-Dec 2.  I'm happy to moderate Werewolf  
games, to talk other westerners into coming early, etc...but I need  
some clarity on WHEN and WHERE


Discuss!
Danese

Re: [silk] skirt that becomes a camouflage vending machine

[Danese Cooper]

Yeah, $800 is a lot of money.  I guess we'll have to pass ;-).

Thanks for the offer, Charles.

On Oct 22, 2007, at 12:28 AM, Deepa Mohan wrote:


On 10/22/07, Charles Haynes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

According to the newspaper article I read, they cost US$800 each and
are individually made by hand by the artist.

Want me to pick one up for you?

-- Charles


At 800$, Danese, couldn't you scoop out a real vending machine, lug it
along, and stand inside that, that would be even more recherche?

AbhiSHEK thank you for that most interesting link!

Deepa.


On 10/22/07, Danese Cooper [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

You've never been to Hallowe'en in the Castro District...scary isn't
really the point.  Its more like a huge dress-up party.  Clever
counts ;-).

Danese

On Oct 21, 2007, at 10:36 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:


Danese Cooper wrote:



My husband says, Wow, can we get one of those for
Hallowe'en? (We're very focused on Hallowe'en here in San
Francisco).



Halloween?  Just how scary are vending machines supposed to be?

Re: [silk] Today is the first day...

[Danese Cooper]

I just spoke to Udhay on AIM, and the poor man is home sick in bed on  
his birthday :-(


Danese

Sent from my iPhone :-)

On Oct 22, 2007, at 10:31 PM, Deepa Mohan [EMAIL PROTECTED]  
wrote:



For everyone who is trying to plan (or not) the next FoU ..today is
BoU...happy birthday, Udhay!

Sometimes the icky-sweet things have to be said...through the
Silk-list, Udhay, you introduced me to a lot of really interesting
people, minds, and viewpoints, and I do enjoy the daily dose a lot.
So, for that, amongst other things ( Madam Up leads the list)...thank
you, and have a great day, month, year!

Deepa.

Re: [silk] skirt that becomes a camouflage vending machine

[Danese Cooper]

My husband says, Wow, can we get one of those for  
Hallowe'en? (We're very focused on Hallowe'en here in San Francisco).


Danese

On Oct 21, 2007, at 10:28 PM, Abhishek Hazra wrote:


for me its a super art piece!
sculpture+performance rolled (or wrapped?) into one.
:)
reminded me also of dune+raby's placebo series of products
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009389.php


On 10/22/07, Charles Haynes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

On 10/22/07, Deepa Mohan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Should we laugh and appreciate the deftness of the design? Should we
cry and bemoan the state of our civilization that makes this
necessary? I did both...


In Japan (I'm currently in Tokyo), the general consensus seems to be
that she's a slightly kooky breed of that ubiquitous Japanese breed
the eccentric backyard inventor. The analyses in the local english
language press is treating this more as an indication of how people
are overreacting to sensational press coverage (of violent crimes)
than any indication of either a real need or a viable solution. They
point out that violent crime in Japan is actually dropping, not
increasing, public perception notwithstanding.

Just because there's a product, doesn't mean it's necessary. I
laughed, and bemoaned the state of peoples's psyches that they  
felt so

insecure that they thought this might be something useful.

If it had been in the US, I would have said it was a hoax.

-- Charles





--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
does the frog know it has a latin name?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Re: [silk] Introduction

[Danese Cooper]

Jim is one of my best pals from my Sun Days, and I'm really happy to  
see him here on Silk. He's expecting to attend FOSS.in, and I'm hoping  
by then he'll be a friend of Udhay's so he can come to FOU. He's one  
of the goodguys :-)


Danese

Sent from my iPhone :-)

Re: [silk] Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

[Danese Cooper]

Unless you count Kamakaze pilots in WWII..and I'm sure somebody even  
before that.


Danese

On Jul 8, 2007, at 9:46 PM, Charles Haynes wrote:


Suicide bombing was invented by the LTTE and
is still used by them.

Re: [silk] IPhone - Thoughts?t

[Danese Cooper]

udhay,

Where did you get the idea that you must go through iTunes? I grab  
music from lots of sources, in .mp3 .wav and other standard formats.  
Quicktime plays them, and they only convert to .aac if I say to.   
Also, its a single checkbox to mount an iPod as an external drive. I  
back stuff up to mine all the time...


Happy to give you a testdrive when next I see you.

Danese (admitted iPhone fangirl)

Sent from my iPhone ;-)

On Jun 29, 2007, at 10:46 PM, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


shiv sastry wrote: [ on 11:09 AM 6/30/2007 ]


Can I ask a stupid question as a prelude to a convoluted answer?

How does an iPod differ from any one of a number of similar music/ 
other media

reproducing devices in the market?


A beautiful user interface, extremely good product design overall,  
and the Reality Distortion Field [1].


Almost makes up for the fact that it is an annoyingly restrictive  
device - e.g., one can't easily just treat the ipod as a mass  
sotrage device and copy over your existing music files - you are  
supposeed to use Apple's software itunes to do that. There are  
workarounds for this but the default behaviour is restrictive.


Isn't owning an iPod a fashion statement or is content for iPods  
far more

comprehensive that anyone else can get?

If iPod is a fashion statement, it makes business sense to tag a  
phone to your
media player and call it an iPhone. Aren't dozens of other phone 
+media

players available?


See above. Also see Brian McNett's post in this thread.

Udhay

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field


--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] IPhone - Thoughts?

[Danese Cooper]

There's a wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Packer  
and lots of coverage on FakeSteveJobs about the first guy in line.   
He's a first in line hobbyist.  I suspect he doesn't really want an  
iPhone, just a chance for more media attention.


Danese

On Jun 29, 2007, at 11:37 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

The iPhone hype is more of a media frenzy from what I can see here  
in New York. The line for the iPhone consisted of less than 35  
people as of Thursday eveningn in NYC.


  Last evening I went down to the Apple Store in New York and spoke  
to the guy who is first in line to buy the iPhone. Check out what  
he has to sayit is pretty interesting. This guy does not own a  
PC, and has an old, old Nokia phone, and yet wants the iPhone!


http://blip.tv/file/284243

  Connecting to the Internet is slow as molasses because of the  
Cingular/ATT network, which is not the greatest.


Kamla

On 6/29/07, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:

what do you think of the iPhone?

Re: [silk] The Transformation of Al Gore

[Danese Cooper]

Actually, I like Jimmy Carter.  He was too nice a man to be a good  
President, but his after game has been pretty f**king laudible.


Danese

On Jun 29, 2007, at 7:51 PM, Thaths wrote:


On 6/29/07, Vinit Bhansali [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Wow!

And I thought after Lincoln, it would be tough to like another  
American

political figure!


You know, sarcasm does not travel well in emails. So I presume you
were being serious.

What about FDR?

Thaths
--
Homer: He has all the money in the world, but there's one thing he  
can't buy.

Marge: What's that?
Homer: (pause) A dinosaur.
   -- Homer J. Simpson
Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without  
Borders

Re: [silk] Are menus and recipes intellectual property?

[Danese Cooper]

Last year (before I stopped traveling) I heard Eric Von Hippel (MIT  
Sloan School of Economics) present a paper on his research into Norms- 
Based Intellectual Property Systems (meaning systems that don't use  
formal legal protection but rather social norms for enforcement).  He  
and his student, Emanuelle Fauchart, studied French Chefs.  Here is  
the paper for those of you who like to read:


web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/papers/vonhippelfauchart2006.pdf

And here is a pretty good (short) write-up of what we heard (for the  
purpose of discussion here):


http://onthecommons.org/node/972

Basically they found that strong stimga attached to copying without  
improving a recipe was an effective inhibitor to abuse.


Danese


On Jun 27, 2007, at 6:19 AM, Thaths wrote:


On 6/27/07, Madhu Menon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In my business, I have no real expectation that any of my recipes  
will

remain a secret. And I can live with that.


Reminds of one of Cory's sayings: My problem is not theft. It is  
obscurity.


There is a restaurant in Bangkok whose menus were so encyclopedic with
social, cultural and gastronomical trivia about the Thai that they
(the menus) was frequently stolen. The owner of the restaurant
eventually came up with the solution of having 5 menus - all of them
containing the list of dishes, but each one containing a different bit
of the social/cultural/gastronomical information. The intent being if
someone stole the menu only a fifth of the information would be lost.

Thaths
--
Homer: He has all the money in the world, but there's one thing he  
can't buy.

Marge: What's that?
Homer: (pause) A dinosaur.
   -- Homer J. Simpson
Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without  
Borders

Re: [silk] Freebase

[Danese Cooper]

Udhay, can I have one?  I sat next to the Freebase guys at FOO,  
sounded interesting (terrible name for a company, however).


Danese

On Jun 27, 2007, at 6:37 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:

Some more freebase invites available. You know the drill - ask in  
private mail, please.


Udhay

This is a VERY interesting (note that it is still in alpha)  
attempt to leverage folksonomies on a grander scale than has  
yet been attempted.


For those of you who want to explore -- I have 5 invites to give  
away. The first 5 silklisters who ask (in private mail, please)  
get them.


Udhay

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/freebase_will_p_1.html



--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] Introduction

[Danese Cooper]

Hi Jeremy.  Nice to see you here.  We really should have lunch soon,  
man.  Everybody in India is sleeping now (but you'll get some pings  
from the Silklist Diaspora before they wake up :-) ).


Danese

On Jun 19, 2007, at 10:10 AM, Jeremy Bornstein wrote:


Greetings all!  I just joined this list, courtesy of Udhay.  I see in
the list description that introductions are appreciated, but I'm not
quite sure of the list's character yet, so I'll partially punt by this
inclusion of some version of my professional bio:

http://jeremy.bornstein.org/bio.html

I will also add that I enjoy aikido, playing music, rock climbing,
cooking, and making trouble.  I have a five and a half year old son.
I've recently started a toy company about which I can't say much yet.
I do *not* like long walks on the beach.

-Jeremy



--
jeremy bornstein [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-*-
 The esoteric appeal is worth the beatings.
-*-
 http://jeremy.org/

Re: [silk] You Are What You Grow

[Danese Cooper]

But are Twinkies really cheaper when you factor in the cost to  
society of poor health?  There's a book making the rounds here in San  
Francisco just now called GRUB written by the daughter of the Frances  
Moore Lappe (who taught us in the 70s that vegetarianism is actually  
better economically and ecologically for the world in her well  
researched landmark book A Diet for a Small Planet).  The GRUB  
folks actually include animal protein in the mix, but argue that the  
quality of the food we eat can be tied to costs not usually  
associated with food cost accounting in the first approximation (How  
much did it cost to produce that Twinkie? vs. How much did that  
Twinkie cost us once you ate it?).  They have a website at http:// 
www.eatgrub.org/.


And to the earlier comment about raw carrots costing more than canned  
or frozen...ABSOLUTELY this happens in rich countries where careful  
farming methods (organic, biodynamic) produce pedigreed produce that  
people are willing to pay more to have.  Also IMHO in America at  
least agro-business produced canned or frozen product is typically  
made from produce that would not have sold well as fresh for cosmetic  
reasons.


On Apr 25, 2007, at 8:24 AM, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote:


Fair enough: what you are arguing is that one standard method of cost
accounting explains why twinkies are cheaper.  Other (non-standard?


actually, i'm pointing out that the inherent cost makes twinkies  
cheaper, not some form of cost accounting. if half your crop rots  
on the way to the market, you need to cover your losses when you  
sell the remaining crop, no matter how you account for the loss!

Re: [silk] in the eye of the beholder

[Danese Cooper]

$46 million is a ridiculous amount of money for a painting (any  
painting) but I'd hardly characterize a Rothko as stripes of  
color.  The depth and texture Rothko's methods achieved are much more  
compelling than can be communicated by a reductionist description (or  
even a print or photo of the painting).  You really have to see them  
in person, and see them up close and properly hung to get the whole  
effect.  They are calming, soothing and sometimes deeply moving.   
They are interesting to experience from different perspectives;  
because most are quite large, you can surround your field of vision  
with color standing close and then stepping away the separation of  
different color fields resolves in your eye.  Such a simple thing  
(paint on canvas) but carried off so beautifully.  Impossible to  
cheaply copy (because of the surface texture and something about the  
layering of color that achieves the end result).  You can actually  
see that it took some time to make each one.  Again as architect  
Christopher Alexander coined the term, which Bill Joy later taught to  
me, there is a quality with no name that is deeply pleasing and that  
makes you sigh when you recognize it.  Rothko was channeling that  
quality in paint and canvas, IMHO.


Danese

On Apr 24, 2007, at 1:32 AM, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh wrote:


stripes of red, black, white and purple - how much is it [1] worth?

apparently at least $46 million [2], guaranteed by sotheby's to david
rockefeller who's selling it.

-rishab

1. http://economist.com/images/columns/2007w16/Rothko.jpg
2.
http://economist.com/daily/columns/artview/displaystory.cfm? 
story_id=9061031

Re: [silk] The Real Montessori?

[Danese Cooper]

In the US (and I think in the world) the real Montessori comes with  
a certification from AMI (see http://www.montessori-ami.org/).  The  
problem is that Dr. Maria Montessori didn't apply for any trademarks  
on her name or product, so anyone can use the name.  AMI was started  
when they realized this was a problem.  I was trained as a Montessori  
Pre-Primary teacher at one point, in case you were wondering how I  
knew this.


Looks like in India they only list the following:

AMI Affiliated Montessori Society
Secunderabad
India

which is at the following address:

235, Marredpally
Secunderabad 500 026

No phone (sorry).

Its possible that if you contact these folks they can direct you to  
schools in India that they feel are doing the real thing.


Having said all of this, there are probably acceptable schools in  
India who haven't sought this certification (its expensive and a pain  
in the neck).  In the US there is an entire alternate certification  
that is more permissive about use of materials not designed by Dr. MM  
herself but still beneficial to children.



Danese

On Apr 17, 2007, at 1:34 PM, Thaths wrote:


I've seen many schools in India that claimed to be Montessori schools.
However, they seem to be following the same curriculum and processes
as any other school. Have any of you heard of /real/ Montessori
schools in India? I am especially interested in ones in Mumbai and
Chennai.

Thaths
--
Homer: He has all the money in the world, but there's one thing he  
can't buy.

Marge: What's that?
Homer: (pause) A dinosaur.
   -- Homer J. Simpson
Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without  
Borders

Re: [silk] indian budget airlines

[Danese Cooper]

I had the scariest ride ever on an airplane on one of these two (and  
I forget which because their names are too similar, IMHO).


The flight attendants totally lost control of the passengers on this  
flight.  There was lots of drinking and by the end in the back of the  
plane there were passengers literally playing football in the aisles  
WHILE THE PLANE WAS LANDING.  Flight attendants were all strapped in,  
but they'd spent the last quarter of the flight huddled in the galley  
because every time they walked the aisles someone would pinch or pat  
them.  These weren't kids traveling either.  These were middle-aged  
men from different social strata.  It was truly amazing.  In the US  
or Europe there would have been police waiting to arrest the  
ringleaders upon landing.


Danese

On Apr 4, 2007, at 10:57 AM, Vinayak Hegde wrote:


On 4/4/07, Suresh Ramasubramanian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Air India (AI, and Indian Airlines is IC not IA .. both getting  
merged

and renamed to Air Indian)


Strangely, Air Indian reminds me of The Flying Sikh[1] and Indian
fart jokes [2], both of which do not fit what they want to convey with
the new name.

-- Vinayak
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkha_Singh
2. http://www.dirtyjokesinc.com/joke-fart_jokes-15831.htm

Re: [silk] Burn baby burn

[Danese Cooper]

There are a lot of types of Basil, too...Mushrooms are considered a  
spice in some cookery (and there are lots of those as well, no?)


On Feb 20, 2007, at 3:32 AM, Bernhard Krieger wrote:


Udhay Shankar N wrote:

Biju Chacko wrote [at 10:41 AM 2/20/2007] :


Got any in your collection?


Not yet. Any kind-hearted soul want to bring me a few?


just recently had a discussion with somebody in my college about  
the spice with the most variations. my guess was chili. is that true?


-b