[silk] Productivity ideas
In the past when I've needed to concentrate on work, and get massive amounts of work out of the door I've resorted to a very simple strategy - I've maxed out my time. In essence I tell myself that I don't get a break ever, and just concentrate on getting work done. If this means 2 months at a stretch without ever seeing a Sunday, working 16 hours straight every day that's fine. This has its obvious drawbacks, but basically since I am spending enormous number of hours on work, stuff happens even with minimal amounts of prioritization. A zero tolerance for procrastination / slack time is good, but it also gets incredibly boring since it's just work, work and more work. After a while you stop noticing, but then it also cuts you off from leading a normal life, like usually I wouldn't realize if the city was on fire, and I wouldn't remember what it feels like to sleep in late, or take a lazy shower. This was a few years ago when I was single, and I didn't care if anyone thought me weird for being so as long as I was getting work done. On the other hand, I am now married and I am expected to spend reasonable amounts of time at home to maintain a work - life balance. Plus, I live in India now, which means the mechanics of life will forcibly interrupt my thoughts pretty darn often. My phone line / electricity / broadband / water / transport / city will stop working all together or individually for no reason, and I need to fix it. I am looking therefore for a solution that will allow me to keep my thoughts together, reducing the time needed to switch tasks while retaining maximal task efficiency. It would be ideal if there was also a way to get the fun back into the tasks without having to allocate time on the calendar to spend with the family. That seems so robotronic. I'm open to suggestions that help productivity, whether in the manner of tool suggestions, or schedule / lifestyle suggestions. Meta discussions that will eventually arrive at a solution are ok too, but responses that criticize this work ethos or preach a less-work oriented lifestyle are strictly not kosher. It isn't that I don't appreciate those lifestyles, but such discussions won't help me in my current quest. I am not looking to kill myself with work, but merely eliminate slack time and meaningless pauses in life. ~Cheeni
Re: [silk] Productivity ideas
Adit, [...] I was setting deadlines for myself that were not crucial for company success at the time. One can argue that there are other deliverables that ARE crucial for success and these could now be squeezed into a 60 hr week. but I say... why? [...] Analyzing priorities is definitely one way to go, I have used it in the past, even in the work frenzy phase of my life I mentioned earlier. I usually look to eliminate uncertainties, gathering data wherever possible. Working on a task that stretches interminably, or often gets stuck for want of some input causes a lot of irritation, and that leads to stress. I am currently timing myself [1] on the time spent on this thread, but that's probably temporary until I set myself some rule of thumb metrics. Constant measurement of time causes too much overhead. Your recommendation is well taken, except I seem to be currently doing some of that already. I can definitely do more in that direction, let me think about it. Most of my planning and co-ordination tasks require loading a lot of variables into memory and chewing on them for a bit. When life interrupts I usually get annoyed, so my earlier quest for a fast task switching idea remains. One way is for me to break down large tasks into smaller portions, but this usually takes at least one or more unbroken long sessions in the beginning to identify the smaller tasks, and if the underlying variables change at some point during the exercise the smaller tasks either need to be thrown out of the window, or need reorganization. Cheeni [1] http://slimtimer.com
Re: [silk] Productivity ideas
This is all in the past, I lead a much saner life now, but if you need the statistics, I can oblige. On 12/27/06, Abhishek Hazra [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: this means 2 months at a stretch without ever seeing a Sunday, working 16 hours straight every day that's fine. in your 16 hour schedule, how many hours of sleep goes into the remaining 8 hours? Usually about 5-6 hours and when *not* into this 16 hour schedule, what is your normal daily sleep time? 6-8 hours how many days can you remain above average productive with say, 2 hours of sleep daily? About 3-4 days, but in this period of 16 hour days with no holidays work period I rarely had a 2 hour sleep period, with adequate planning, I found that I could grab a 4-5 hour nap even on the really bad days. It was almost a rule that I never worked beyond 24 hours without a 2 hour nap. also, were you working from home, when you were doing the 16 hour spell? (that would mean zero commuting time.) Commute was about 20 minutes each way, I was in grad school so folks usually left me alone. I didn't have to attend meetings I really didn't have to, unless there was free pizza. also what would be the food? and how much (even if a minimal amount) would be spent cooking it? I used to know this down to the second, but I remember it was less than 15 minutes. My diet was restricted to ramen and pasta on most days. The routine was to get up and get the pot with the veggies boiling before brushing my teeth, and I usually dropped in the ramen and seasoning before hitting the shower. In all I used to be able to leave home with lunch and dinner packed within 30 minutes of waking. Thank goodness for frozen veggies, packed potato chips and ramen, I'd never have survived otherwise. I admit it was a bit like being in the army in more ways than one, but the benefit was that with an unvarying routine I didn't have to think much. I knew I always took 165 seconds in the shower or some such. I had to, or the ramen would boil over. My schedule was naturally timed to coincide with the bus timings, so on a good day I would reach the bus-stop the same time as the bus. On the days the bus let me down, I would begin jogging to school, it was important to be reasonably true to the clock, it wasn't more than a mile anyway. Being a poor grad student helped, but eating out also took too much time, and was a needless decision. Knowing the choice was always ramen and ramen made life simple, likewise with the attire. It was always a pair of jeans and t-shirt, with a jacket for the cold days. Thankfully all of this was only for one semester, I had things well under control and could relax thereafter. i always aspire to such 16 hour shifts but always fall horribly short :-( The human body is remarkable that way, I never needed an alarm to get up. I would be asleep within seconds of lying down, and I would wake up fully alert in roughly a little less than 6 hours just a little before the alarm clock would ring. I understood the phrase 'waking up like a soldier' back then, you wake up with a jolt, and the body is fully active, there is no groggy awakening. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Productivity ideas
On 12/27/06, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wednesday 27 Dec 2006 10:36 am, Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: meaningless pauses in life. What is a meaningless pause in life? Let's not take things too literally here. I was refering to any event outside of your control where you are usually idle and doing next to nothing. Like for example, when you get stuck in an airport / traffic jam, when someone is supposed to show up for a meeting and doesn't, when you are supposed to be working on the computer but your broadband / electricity won't work, when you really want to sleep, but sleep won't come. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Productivity ideas
On 12/27/06, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wednesday 27 Dec 2006 4:35 pm, Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: Like for example, when you get stuck in an airport / traffic jam, when someone is supposed to show up for a meeting and doesn't, when you are supposed to be working on the computer but your broadband / electricity won't work, when you really want to sleep, but sleep won't come. I think you are trying to find the formula to get all sorts of stress disorders, a divorce (or severely strained marriage) and regrets that you never really spent time with your kids while they were growing up using the excuse that they were all part of productivity Whoa! How does calling my dad on the phone in a traffic jam cause my family to fall apart? On the contrary I am hoping that by squeezing the free space in my calendar that is created by the inefficiencies around me to work to my advantage I don't lose my previously allocated work time to make up for the time spent in traffic. Divorces occur when you don't add the marriage to your list of priorities, preferrably right at the top. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadtime.html Thanks, I am reading it. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Economist on Indian VC scene
On 12/27/06, Udhay Shankar N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Manar Hussain wrote: [ on 07:39 PM 12/27/2006 ] All this makes Helion India's first noteworthy American-style venture-capital firm. Its $140m gives it reasonable clout. Eh? Westbridge? Chrysalis Capital? Various others? I think Helion is several years too late to be the first American style VC in India. A lot of the industry majors have their own VC arms too, Intel Capital for example. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Productivity ideas
On 12/27/06, Devdas Bhagat [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] Stress can equally well be caused when you are raring to go and cannot work due to external factors. I find that is the case often these days for me, just the other day I was getting my home DSL connection installed. After verification that the DSL folks who had been giving me the run around for some time were going to be at my home around 6:30 PM, I left work early on a busy day to be in time. Many calls later there was still no DSL installation team at home. I completely lost it and flew at the DSL technician over the phone line like I've rarely seen people ever do. Of course the DSL got installed pretty quickly the next day (surprise, surprise), but I surprised myself. I am generally mild mannered and not given to shouting. My wife can't remember any time that I've seriously lost my temper, and she was just amazed listening to me on the phone with the DSL guy. I can probably remember a few other similar instances in the past few days. It's another thing that I find that most folks in India don't take you seriously unless you appear to be breathing fire, but this is just not what I want to become. Any method in which I can deal with the uncertainities and stupidity that India throws at me will certainly help. Cheeni
Re: [silk] A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
On 12/28/06, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt Scry stuff indeed, and it makes me want to turn rebel and kill a few no good suits in Redmond and Santa Clara (Intel). I am in the process of buying a PC for the home, and the motherboard from Intel just arrived and it says Designed for Vista and I went, oh shit! Cheeni
Re: [silk] A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
On 12/29/06, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 12/29/06, Eugen Leitl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You're not buying hardware without checking for compatibility with your favourite OS of choice first? And then, you bitch and moan? Doesn't compute. Umm, Eugen. Cheeni's OS of choice is Windows XP. In a few months it is going to be quite difficult to get a PC without Vista. Cheeni is bemoaning how screwed he is for building a digital life (with its associated digital debris) on the MS platform. I am in a transition stage at this point. I am probably going to ditch the ThinkPad running XP for a Macbook Pro soon, and for the home desktop which is what I built with the Intel mobo, I am using Ubuntu Edgy Eft. I am however retaining a Windows dual-boot until my wife is completely comfortable with Linux. I've convinced her to give it a try, and promised her that she won't see any DOS (sic) screens where she will have to type in commands. Linux on the desktop has matured incredibly, I suspect the Windows partition will soon become unnecessary. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Indians and the honor system
On 1/1/07, Kiran Jonnalagadda [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 01-Jan-07, at 7:14 PM, Venkat Mangudi wrote: Why is it that we, one of the oldest civilization on the earth, lack basic civic sense (apparent from the trash thrown out of a speeding luxury car) and honoring others' labor? The 30-day return [...] Sweeping Generalisation Alert! There's a similar Indian restaurant in Singapore that, to the best of my knowledge, continues to be able to justify staying open. Indeed, I'd like to add that there is a restaurant in Coimbatore that does not state a fee and it's been the experience of the organization that runs it that people tend to overpay more than the value of the meal. It could be a function of the locality it's opened in. An honor system isn't a proven business model, there aren't easy rules to follow here. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Indians and the honor system
On 1/2/07, Srini Ramakrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] Indeed, I'd like to add that there is a restaurant in Coimbatore that does not state a fee and it's been the experience of the organization that runs it that people tend to overpay more than the value of the meal. It could be a function of the locality it's opened in. An honor system isn't a proven business model, there aren't easy rules to follow here. I'd also like to point out the following items: The Bagelman chronicles as featured in the best seller Freakonomics - Levitt, Dubner: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/06BAGEL.html?ei=5070en=58739b078c23fa95ex=1167800400pagewanted=allposition= Also mirrored at: http://www.stephenjdubner.com/journalism/bagelman.html The above is a real life example of dishonesty, returning products though is just gaming the system. An intro note on price positioning: http://www.gaebler.com/Pricing-and-Positioning.htm The restaurant that I mentioned earlier is run along the lines of an ashram, and the profits reportedly go to charity. That may have a desirable effect in curbing free riders. It could just be that Babu chose a rather unfortunate positioning and pricing strategy. Most major US retailers who accept returns these days track the purchaser using their credit card and flag habitual returners. The 30-day return camcorder toting holidayers aren't all Indian, it's been my experience that it extends to all ethnicities. The average large chain American retailer offers return incentives and mail in rebates and other marketing sops on the assumption that enough customers will just buy the stuff and never contact the retailer ever again. If it makes economic sense for someone to stand and wait in the return line, use multiple credit cards and make multiple trips to the store in order to execute the free camcorder holiday, then power to them for they are exploiting the weaknesses of the system. This is no more a crime than being a coupon cutter or an ebay sniper - to name a few other similar pastimes. Of course the odds are against the returnee customer being an Indian doctor driving a Lexus and making more than $250 an hour. In addition, if returning goods habitually is a crime then what is the moral stand of retailers like CompUSA that price a wireless router that routinely sells online for $20 at $80 and targets these special offers at its geriatric customers? Cheeni P.S. I don't see this returnee example as necessarily extending to the civic cleanliness and traffic arguments of your OP
Re: [silk] most important science stories of 2006
On 1/2/07, Abhijit Menon-Sen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 2007-01-02 17:45:17 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am interested in the 3000-year-old computer story, but I can't find any explanation in that Scientific American page I didn't read the article, but surely it's referring to the Antikythera mechanism (which is, as you say, considerably less than 3000 years old). Yes, I thought so too, I remember reading about it at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6191462.stm Cheeni
[silk] Save the hippos
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16288994.htm Drug lord's legacy: Herd of unwanted hippos By Chris Kraul Los Angeles Times PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia - Hacienda Napoles was Pablo Escobar's pleasure palace, a 5,500-acre estate where the notorious drug lord held court over million-dollar cocaine deals, parties with underage girls and visits by shadowy men of power. Escobar lived large here in his lush fiefdom 100 miles east of Medellin, far from the teeming slums where he began his life of crime. He built a bullring, an airstrip, an ersatz Jurassic Park with half a dozen immense concrete dinosaurs. He stocked a private wild animal park with hundreds of elephants, camels, giraffes, ostriches, zebras and other animals. He installed four hippos in one of the estate's 12 man-made lakes. Today, Hacienda Napoles is in ruins, taken over by jungle foliage and bats. The sprawling Spanish-style mansion has been gutted, scavenged by treasure hunters looking for stashes of gold and cash buried under the floors. Escobar is long gone, cut down in a hail of police gunfire. But the hippos are still here. More than 15 years after the government took control of Hacienda Napoles, the elephants, giraffes and zebras have long since disappeared, given away to Colombian zoos or left to die. But the hippos were never claimed because they were too large and ornery to move. Now the original four have multiplied to 16 and, far from starving to death, as some expected, they have learned to forage like cows. Local authorities say they represent a safety hazard -- and are standing in the way of plans to redevelop the late drug lord's estate. At night, several of them emerge from their watery habitats and roam for miles looking for grass to munch on. Three months ago, a male hippo was shot to death by ranchers after he wandered three miles from the rest of the herd to a neighboring stream. As hulking as they are, hippos can outrun humans on land. That speed, and their highly aggressive disposition whenever their turf is invaded, makes them a safety threat and is the main reason authorities are offering the animals, or at least most of them, free to anyone who will come and take them off their hands. Although there have been expressions of interest from environmental and research groups from Costa Rica to Africa, no one has committed to taking them mainly because of the cost and bother of transporting the beasts. The local government has begun to float the possibility it might have to reduce or eliminate the herd by extermination, an idea that probably will not sit well with the locals, many of whom regard the animals as part of their identity. The issue of what to do with the hippos has come to a head because after years of ownership disputes, the state finally prevailed against the drug lord's wife and three children, who claimed the estate by inheritance. The Colombian government plans a 2,000-inmate medium-security prison on one 800-acre chunk of Hacienda Napoles, and several hundred acres more are being set aside as an environmental reserve. The Puerto Triunfo municipality wants to make improvements to attract more than the 100 or so tourists who show up each month. The plan includes turning the lake now occupied by the hippos into an aquatic park -- a proposal the fiercely territorial animals are not likely to warm to. Under this scenario, a few hippos would be kept and moved to another lake. But those plans are on hold until the hippos' fate is resolved.
Re: [silk] Save the hippos
On 1/4/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wednesday 03 Jan 2007 9:31 pm, Abhijit Menon-Sen wrote: At 2007-01-03 07:28:59 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They should shoot the hippos. I hear hippos are tasty. Exactly where would one have to shoot a Hippo to kill it dead? What? Does nobody want a pet hippo? Think of the countless hours of fun and entertainment your children can have with a hippo in your backyard lawn. You will be the pride of your neighborhood, living the life of a Colombian drug lord. This is what you always wanted to be, don't miss this once in a life time opportunity. If you call in the next 30 minutes I'll throw in a non-stick carbon steel stir-frying wok for free. Cheeni
[silk] Living with the Jinns
--- In August, for instance, Muslims in the Kikandwa district of central Uganda grew feverish over reports of jinn haunting and raping women in the district. So when a young woman stumbled out of the forest one day, unkempt and deranged, she was denounced as a jinn. Villagers beat her almost to death. Police finished the job with six bullets at close range. The young woman called out for her children in her last moments. An investigation revealed her to be from a neighbouring district. She had spent days without food or water, searching for her missing husband. Editorials in Ugandan newspapers called on the government formally to deny the existence of jinn. [...] Unbelieving jinn, those who resisted the Koran, are shaytan, demons, firewood for hell. Many Muslims see the devil as a jinn. Some reckon the snake in the Garden of Eden was a shape-shifting jinn. All this may yet play a part in the war on terrorism. Factions in Somalia and Afghanistan have accused their enemies of being backed not only by the CIA but by malevolent jinn. One theory in Afghanistan holds that the mujahideen, two-legged wolves, scared the jinn out into the world, causing disharmony. It is jinn, they say, who whisper into the ears of suicide-bombers. --- http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8401289 Jinn Born of fire Dec 19th 2006 | QARDHO From The Economist print edition Our correspondent travels to Somalia and Afghanistan in search of jinn THERE is a cleft in a stone hill outside Qardho, in northern Somalia, which even the hardest gunmen and frankincense merchants avoid. In the cool dark, out of the bleached sunshine, there is a pit, a kind of Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole, which is said to swirl down into the world of jinn. Locals say jinn—genies, that is—fade in and out above the pit. Sometimes they shift into forms of ostriches and run out over the desert scrub. The Bible holds that God created angels and then made man in his own image. The Koran states that Allah fashioned angels from light and then made jinn from smokeless fire. Man was formed later, out of clay. Jinn disappointed Allah, not least by climbing to the highest vaults of the sky and eavesdropping on the angels. Yet Allah did not annihilate them. No flood closed over their heads. Jinn were willed into existence, like man, to worship Allah and were preserved on earth for that purpose, living in a parallel world, set at such an angle that jinn can see men, but men cannot see jinn. Less educated Muslims remain fearful of jinn. Hardly a week passes in the Muslim world without a strange story concerning them. Often the tales are foolish and melancholy. In August, for instance, Muslims in the Kikandwa district of central Uganda grew feverish over reports of jinn haunting and raping women in the district. So when a young woman stumbled out of the forest one day, unkempt and deranged, she was denounced as a jinn. Villagers beat her almost to death. Police finished the job with six bullets at close range. The young woman called out for her children in her last moments. An investigation revealed her to be from a neighbouring district. She had spent days without food or water, searching for her missing husband. Editorials in Ugandan newspapers called on the government formally to deny the existence of jinn. That would be divisive. Although a few Islamic scholars have over the ages denied the existence of jinn, the consensus is that good Muslims should believe in them. Some Islamic jurists consider marriage between jinn and humans to be lawful. There is a similar provision for the inheritance of jinn property. Sex during menstruation is an invitation to jinn and can result in a woman bearing a jinn child. According to the Koran, the Prophet Muhammad preached to bands of jinn. Some converted to Islam. This is how jinn describe their condition in the Koran: And among us [jinn] there are righteous folk and among us there are those far from that. We are sects, having different rules. And we know that we cannot escape from Allah in the earth, nor can we escape by flight. And when we heard the guidance [of the Koran], we believed therein, and who so believeth in his Lord, he feareth neither loss nor oppression. And there are among us some who have surrendered to Allah and there are among us some who are unjust. In Somalia and Afghanistan clerics matter-of-factly described to your correspondent the range of jinn they had encountered, from the saintly to the demonic; those that can fly, those that crawl, plodding jinn, invisible jinn, gul with vampiric tendencies (from which the English word ghoul is taken), and shape-shifters recognisable in human form because their feet are turned backwards. Occasionally the clerics fell into a trance. Afterwards they claimed their apparently bare rooms had filled with jinn seeking favours or release from amulet charms. A parallel universe Although Somalia and Afghanistan have different religious
Re: [silk] Living with the Jinns
Udhay Shankar N wrote: Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: [ on 11:33 AM 1/4/2007 ] http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8401289 Jinn Born of fire Cheeni, This is only news to you because you didn't read the Tim Powers that I gave you. The jinn in a coke bottle theme didn't really appeal to me. Cheeni P.S. I will pick it up and see if it interests me once more this weekend. Of course as usual I am over committing. My weekends are promised to so many tasks I wonder if I am under the illusion my weekends are longer than 48 hours
Re: [silk] congrats Biju...
Biju Chacko wrote: Thanks. :) For a bit of context, here's a mail I sent out a little earlier in the day to an internal mailing list in my office: Congratulations! [1] Yes, that's his full name. The reason why he doesn't have the same last name as me is lost somewhere in the mists of bizarre family tradition. Do explain! Cheeni
Re: [silk] Removing part of the Microsoft Office 2003 Bundle
Eugen Leitl wrote: On Thu, Jan 04, 2007 at 01:44:29PM +0530, Aditya Kapil wrote: I'd like to remove 'Infopath' and 'Publisher'. Can't do it with Add/Remove programs. Can't custom re-install whole package. Have you tried contacting Microsoft support? Can you also setup a date with Hell? Cheeni
Re: [silk] Bangalore in all its glory on maps.google.com
On 1/12/07, Vinit Bhansali [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Those Eicher maps are extremely well done. Having never used the Eicher maps I can't compare, but I picked up what I thought was the most detailed map book of Hyderabad ever. It's the Guide map of Greater Hyderabad - a letter sized book with 150 pages of maps, and about 10 pages of composite maps with each of the 150 pages as blocks. It also includes a 40 page index, containing locations, landmarks, apartment building names, utlity / business names. It is produced by IN-RIMT (Indian Resources Information Management Technologies Limited). They don't seem to have a web presence, but I suspect they are a government entity. The maps are astoundingly good. Price - Rs 300 Cheeni
Re: [silk] cottage mobile phone industry in India
Manar Hussain wrote: Interesting insight, with India aspect trailing the blog article: http://schulzeandwebb.com/blog/2007/01/09/japanese-repair-culture-and-distributed-manufacture/ Repair cultures usually take too much time to propagate knowledge and reach scale. The Ludhiana car spares industry developed big time when the ambassador was pretty much an unchanged design for about 30 years. It's the same with Maruti 800 and whatever has been around for a while. OTOH, it's pretty hard to find locally made spares for the latest cars. It seems fair then to assume that in markets where change is frequent a local repair economy will not be able to compete effectively. Thankfully low equilibrium ends of even the hi-tech economy don't change that much, hence the mobile phone repair culture. It's hard to extend this to a global market where change is a dominant feature of the landscape. Cheeni
Re: [silk] online map suggestions.....
On 1/15/07, ashok _ [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i have been looking for an online map system which will allow me to flag people (contacts) on a world map along the lines of frappr. I dont really want a membership and members marking themselves on the map(which frappr does). I've used this in the past http://www.allthegoodness.com/projects/map/ My implementation, http://cheeni.net/saints/map/ Cheeni
Re: [silk] Superduck
Eugen Leitl wrote: On Mon, Jan 22, 2007 at 03:40:27PM +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: So a duck that was meant to be killed got a stint in the hospital in the hope it would survive? How does one do a moral U-turn like that? If you have a live duck in your fridge, would you expect your wife to break its neck? (If I'd try to pull that stunt, she'll be sure to break some neck -- mine). Hmmm... my thoughts were exactly the same as Kiran's. So it's ok to shoot the duck, or club the hooked fish to death, but not ok when the beast survives a stay in the freezer? What about the live lobsters that get dunked in hot water minutes before hitting the dinner table? Nah, doesn't compute... Cheeni
Re: [silk] Charles Haynes introduction
On 1/28/07, Charles Haynes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi everyone, I just joined silklist and Udhay asked me to post an introduction. I'm Charles Haynes, I'm an engineering manager at Google. I've known Chris Awesome, welcome to Silk - I started at Google pretty recently, I spent the last two years in Bangalore, but moved to HYD with the new job. I will be in the Bangalore office for a week around the same time you arrive, I am sure we'll bump into each other :-) Kantarjiev for, well, a few decades now. I've worked for Apple, Xerox, DEC, various startups, and now Google. I cook, I ride a motorcycle, I play poker, I like photography, I like to eat out. I've been a 3/4 - I cook, I ride a motorcycle, and I like photography. I've never played poker, not even the online kind, but I am intrigued by the intensive intellectual and theatrical aspect of the game, definitely on my some day / maybe list. Cheeni
Re: [silk] How stupid..
On 1/29/07, Nandkumar Saravade [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Binand Sethumadhavan wrote: I closed my ICICI Bank account when it became impossible to use their Internet banking website with Firefox. I regularly use Firefox (Windows XP) for net banking on the ICICI Bank site. You may want to have a re-look. The website is funny, I used to use Firefox for more than a year with ICICI, and then it stopped wotking for me and I had to always use IE. It was a strange cookie caching error that never occurred before, even when my browser had a clean cookie cache it would refuse a logon unless I was on IE. I wonder what gives... Cheeni
Re: [silk] My intro
Hi, Welcome to Silk, I am an ex-burgh, ex-bangalore, now in HYD person. Where do you spend your day? At school? Work? Cheeni Shyam Visweswaran wrote: Hello all, Should have posted this sometime back. Now seeing the recent intros I better do so. My name is Shyam and my only connection with Bangalore is that my Dad was brought up there and I visited Bangalore and Mysore decades ago when both were sleepy Malgudi-like towns. I have puttered around in several disciplines including medicine, biophysics, and machine learning. Currently I am in Pittsburgh dividing my time between neurology and machine learning. I maintain an alumni website - Jipmer Net - for my med school in India which is now more than 12 years old now. It is through that website I met the inimitable Shiv who is a regular here at silklist. - Shyam
Re: [silk] My intro
On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 02:04:56PM -, Shyam Visweswaran wrote: --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Srini RamaKrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] Welcome to Silk, I am an ex-burgh, ex-bangalore, now in HYD person. Where do you spend your day? At school? Work? Ah ex-burgher! I am in school at Univ of Pitt: till recently as a grad student and now as a faculty in informatics and medicine. Neat, I was at school at CMU as a grad student. It's probably one of the nicest cities I've lived in. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Charles Haynes introduction
On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 09:47:28PM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: [...] Will think of more by and by. I am surprised that Udhay hasn't mentioned Fanoos so far, I remember it being a favorite of his. I can't add a surprise location, other than second what everyone else has mentioned so far. The Iyer mess in Malleshwaram isn't all that great IMO, there are better places in Chennai - however, that said it is not an experience commonly found in Bangalore. If no one has mentioned North Karnataka food thus far (sorry I've been away from email, and on a very limited connection right now, not adequate even for SSH + mutt) you should try Nisarga in Rajajinagar which has the standard Jawar roti + channa combination. I'm sure there are better locations that serve the same food, I know of one near Majestic, the name escapes me. Cheeni
Re: [silk] One question
On 2/6/07, Zainab Bawa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just one single day. Not starting one day! In the recent past it happened for not one, but three days actually, and of course not all money transfer stopped, but just the exchange of checks in the US. Right after 9/11 the grounding of all aircraft for 3 or so days had all the money meant for clearing houses sitting in warehouses. This led to the notional loss of trillions, and real loss of billions of dollars and cleared the way for a bill that had been stuck in limbo for ages, the Check 21 act. http://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/truncation/ Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act Cheeni
Re: [silk] my book
On 2/3/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have said on and off that I had been working on a book about Pakistan. A couple of silklisters have seen early drafts of the book. The book is now online as a freely downloadable and distributable ebook on http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/EBOOK/pfs.pdf Thanks for the link, I've just downloaded the book. Did anyone else get a chance to read this? Cheeni
Re: [silk] my book
On 2/9/07, Abhishek Hazra [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: one needs to recall that a doctor does not have to suffer from a brain tumor or bleeding piles to treat those conditions Marc Bloch: a historian needs thicker boots and thinner notebooks I've not yet read the book Shiv, I've only skimmed through the first few pages. It could do with editing to pare the repetitive narrative. I haven't as yet any comments on the subject matter of the book. Meanwhile, no offense to you Shiv, but reading the references to thick boots I was reminded of the Sanskrit parable of the Kupa Manduka. Kupa is a Well, manduka is a frog. This is the story of a frog, which lives in a well. Never been outside that well as you would imagine, not easy for a frog to leave the well and all it had seen is that inside of the well. The world view is confined to the inside of the well. He is very suspicious of anything from outside. I'm not sure if it applies here... Cheeni
Re: [silk] You snooze, you win
On 2/13/07, Eugen Leitl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] I presume you're in home office, or have a quite space at work to retire for a power nap? I tend to take a 30 minute break cum snooze on the massage chair some days, but I'd really like more time in bed. Of course, I'm working towards that as my ultimate goal. A 30 minute nap for me is never a real nap, I'm merely shutting my eyes and drifting between wakeful and dreamy. Cheeni
Re: [silk] deccan trap co2 absorption
On 2/15/07, ashok _ [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] I couldnt find any links online about this technologyanybody ever heard of this? Well, it does sound like a lot of hot air ;-) Cheeni
[silk] 802.11a on the MBP C2D
As far as I know the MacBook Pro C2D supports 802.11 a/b/g officially, and draft n unofficially. However, my notebook doesn't detect an 802.11a network. Co-workers tell me that Macs sold in India have 802.11a support disabled since it is not an allowed spectrum in India. Would anyone have more information? My favorite search engine is not being very helpful right now. Cheeni
Re: [silk] 802.11a on the MBP C2D
On 2/20/07, Aditya Chadha [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As far as I know the MacBook Pro C2D supports 802.11 a/b/g officially, and draft n unofficially. However, my notebook doesn't detect an 802.11a network. Any particular reason for using an 802.11a network, btw? It's faster. Cheeni
Re: [silk] 802.11a on the MBP C2D
Anish Mohammed wrote: btw did u try n ? I don't intend paying for the software update. I thought it downright sneaky of Apple to suggest that a firmware update to enable existing hardware functionality should be billed extra. Even if they plead that it's due to SOX, it seems dishonest. Cheeni
Re: [silk] 802.11a on the MBP C2D
Casey O'Donnell wrote: You could just buy a new airport and get the CD with it. ;) I don't need one right now, my Linksys WRT54G serves me fine. That's the other reason why I am in no hurry to get the firmware upgrade, I don't have an 'n' capable access point to use. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Silkmeet 2/21 (post Vint Cerf speech)
Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: [...] (which is how long since I've been in bangalore) :) Ahem, I have evidence to the contrary, but never mind :-) Cheeni
[silk] Data Storing Bacteria Could Last Millennia
This is very interesting, have we just discovered a building block of nano-storage? Cheeni Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/01/0113240 Posted by: samzenpus, on 2007-03-01 05:08:00 [1]PetManimal writes Computerworld has a story about a new technology developed by Keio University researchers that creates [2]artificial bacterial DNA that can carry more than 100 bits of data within the genome sequence. The researchers claimed that they encoded e= mc2 1905! on the common soil bacteria, Bacillius subtilis. The bacteria-based data storage method has backup and long-term archival functionality. The researchers say While the technology would most likely first be used to track medication, it could also be used to store text and images for many millennia, thwarting the longevity issues associated with today's disk and tape storage systems ... The artificial DNA that carries the data to be preserved makes multiple copies of the DNA and inserts the original as well as identical copies into the bacterial genome sequence. The multiple copies work as backup files to counteract natural degradation of the preserved data, according to the newswire. Bacteria have particularly compact DNA, which is passed down from generation to generation. The information stored in that DNA can also be passed on for long-term preservation of large data files. [3][+] ([4]tagging beta) References 1. http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/blog/19 2. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasictaxonomyName=storagearticleId=9011945taxonomyId=19intsrc=kc_top 3. http://hardware.slashdot.org/login.pl 4. http://slashdot.org/faq/tags.shtml
Re: [silk] My invention already invented
On 3/6/07, shiv sastry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] I was approached by a sales rep from WIPRO selling a little gizmo the size of a cellphone with a screen to match and it comes with a pen. The gizmo is called a mobile e-note taker and clips on to a pad of paper. Writing on the paper with the pen provided produces an accurate image of what you write on the LCD screen of the note taker. It's all wireless (maybe IR - didn't ask/look) and it stores 50 pages - (2 MB flash memory - non upgradeable). You can connect it via USB to a computer and see what u write on the screen like a standard whatchamacallit. It comes bundled with image editing and handwriting recognition software (Windows only) Digital devices are prone to failure. The worst that can happen to scraps of paper is that you can lose it, or accidentally destroy it - however these are easy to protect against with reasonable efficiency. A digital device really helps when information needs to be shared across many people / locations instantaneously, and also does some degree of analysis. For example if you need to check on a patient at regular intervals then the device could rather easily remind you, however if the device would hook into vital sign monitors wirelessly and graph patient uptime characteristics, that would be something to carry around in your pocket. However these advanced gizmos are not usually stand-alone, they'll need a wireless network, a technician(s) to keep the backend server and the handheld devices alive and data backed up. Usually large hospitals or organizations with a lot of money and a mission critical need [1] can do this, but in general it may not be worth the effort to carry around an independent off the shelf digital device that does nothing more than what you already achieve with paper. In fact it may even hurt since you say the device is Windows only. As long as you write legibly your paper notes are shareable. Cheeni [1] The US Army has a project that embeds an RFID chip in the dog tags of all soldiers to store blood group, allergy information and medical history. It can be read by a handheld device in the field that immediately schedules a space for the wounded in hospitals upstream and orders drugs / qualified medical experts to be on standby.
[silk] In the Bay area
Hey all, I will be in the vicinity of SF for a couple of weeks or so, 10 Mar - 1 Apr actually. Let me know if any of you are going to be around. Cheeni
Re: [silk] expat in india...
On 3/9/07, Badri Natarajan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: And just to be cynical -- it's amazing how in India a white person's skills will be more advanced than those of an Indian with exactly the same skills. Or at least, that's the impression I get from all the press that Infosys's foreign intern programme has been getting. Why, Biju, whatever makes you say that? (I have not been following the press about Infosys, but surely it has to do with how Infosys is globalizing its workforce,etc,etc..) Oh come now, Infosys globalizes its workforce for the following reasons: a) It needs white people for doing business b) It's cheaper to have someone locally than fly them from India c) They can't find enough intelligent people in India who would care to work for them d) They are building a global brand, and you can't have white faces in your advertisement if you don't employ any Cheeni
Re: [silk] expat in india...
On 3/16/07, Sriram Karra [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] All that might well be history real soon, given the change this year in Infy's strategy to hiring from Indian B-schools. By (a) doubling salary they offered last year, (b) recruiting directly for onsite engagement manager positions, and (c) recruiting selectively (about 15-20 grads across Indian B-schools) they have certainly shaken up things a bit, and it's no longer true that they 'cant find enough intelligent people in India who would care for them' I'd like to meet the sucker(s?) who signed up to work for Infy last year only to see the next class make double right out of college and go on to better jobs. Cheeni
Re: [silk] expat in india...
On 3/22/07, Badri Natarajan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 3/16/07, Sriram Karra [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] I'd like to meet the sucker(s?) who signed up to work for Infy last year only to see the next class make double right out of college and go on to better jobs. Surely last year's MBAs will have seen a salary hike so that they are not making less than people a year below them? And more responsibility as well? Show me a company that will be that fair...it's usually a 10-20% increase once you are collared. If not, there will be a riot.. You'd think! Cheeni
Re: [silk] chennai restaurants...
On 4/7/07, ashok _ [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Can anyone suggest a good restaurant in chennai Dakshin, Park Sheraton is a nice traditional Indian cuisine sit down fine dining restaurant. Cheeni
Re: [silk] chennai restaurants...
On 4/10/07, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] 7. Karpagambal mess in Mylapore. I'd advise you to carry a can of roach spray with you. I think this place is waaay over valued. BTW, I love Eden Park in Beasant Nagar. It's not really traditional South Indian fare, but it's got possibly the least offending risotto and pasta that you can find for the traditional south Indian palate. It's a real nice place to visit. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Where do I buy wines from Indian vineyards in Chennai?
On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 2:04 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote: Someone who lives in California, wants to buy wine in Chennai..such is life...Thaths, how come you didn't get your 2.5 litres at the duty-free when you came in? si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sicut ibi I find something perverse in the mind that hankers for Idlis and murukku in California and Grape wine in India.
Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all
1. historyofoil.typepad.com the history of rome (the LSE lectures though not only about history do have some excellent history talks) 2. Too many to list and at the same time nothing to list. On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote: At today's Chennai silk list meetup the topic of history podcasts came up. I offered to post to silk list asking everyone for recommendations. 1. What are two (history or other) podcasts that are the best in your opinion? 2. What is a podcast that you wish existed but does not? I'll kick this off with my list: 1. The history of the English language podcast (http://www.historyofenglishpodcast.com) and Backstory with the American History Guys (backstoryradio.org) 2. A podcast about the history of Indian emigration and the Indian Diaspora. Thaths -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo! Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders
Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all
On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 5:02 AM, Sean Doyle sdo...@gmail.com wrote: I agree. Bragg is often surprised at what his guests say (e.g., that Malory of Le Morte Darthur was a thug) - he obviously prepares for his podcast but he doesn't try to script/control his guests too much (except in in the interest of time). The variety of topics is wonderful. I wish that the science/math ones went deeper but almost all of the presentations on history or literature are new to me. Bragg's genuine interest in Philosophy and History shows through, though he does lean a tad heavily on British history, after all it is a BBC4 show. Bragg's general bewilderment at science and maths is typical of a life human-scientific [0]. When discussing Galen or Avicenna his love for history can be seen guiding a principally scientific discussion on medicine, into all sorts of interesting nooks. On the topic of galaxies and milky ways he turns mute as a toad and lets his guests ramble on - I have learned not to bother listening to them unless I'm out of listening material. [0] humantific ought to be a word, but it's now a trademarked brand-name - leading separately to the question of what happens to the brand-name when say the Oxford English Dictionary decides to make it a word.
Re: [silk] Chennai Silk meet this week?
On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 10:39 PM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote: Karpagambal Mess - been around for several decades at least. With a side order of a cast iron stomach? It's improved of late, still the sight of giant cockroaches lingers in my memory.
Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all
On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 7:45 PM, Sidin Vadukut sidin.vadu...@gmail.com wrote: Ahem. (Sheepish grin.) I forgot to recommend a podcast I wished existed. 1. A factually accurate, detailed podcast telling the history of India's military conflicts since independence. Both internal and external. Almost sure to get the producer into legal hot water in Inda. Generals on all sides of the border dislike the truth, since the wars have never really ended. We live in the middle of a very long cease fire. In war, truth is the first casualty, etc. Neither India (includes Pakistan) nor China have written histories that are any more than hagiographies of kings. Sima Qian's non-existent progeny should know this more than anyone else [0]. [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19835484
Re: [silk] yelp!! USB drive advice
On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Naresh xxx...@yahoo.com wrote: I need some advice on which USB flash drive to buy..the parameters are 1.No separate cap but the retracting mechanism must be solidly built The retraction mechanism makes no sense since the port is still left open for dust to enter. 2.am unclear as to price performance vs optimum capacity..(i used it mainly for moving movies and large presentation files back and forth) Buy something from a reasonably reputed manufacturer for the cheapest price - they all source from the same few Taiwanese memory makers, and the price point depends on who struck the better forward contract for the season and is willing to pass on the price differential. 3.reasonably robust 4.easily available in Bangalore I see. I wouldn't spend too much time agonizing over this, these things will always fail. Never keep your only copy of something on a USB stick. Actually never keep only one copy of anything important. http://www.flipkart.com/sandisk-cruzer-blade-16-gb-pen-drive/p/itmczc2ndmuqrmt7?pid=ACCCWPADYYFEJ7ZGref=8938e4a9-ba8c-47a3-abef-349c1379cbe3
Re: [silk] yelp!! USB drive advice
On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Naresh xxx...@yahoo.com wrote: http://www.flipkart.com/sandisk-cruzer-blade-16-gb-pen-drive/p/itmczc2ndmuqrmt7?pid=ACCCWPADYYFEJ7ZGref=8938e4a9-ba8c-47a3-abef-349c1379cbe3 Second that one. Decent drive, decent price. If you want speed, ask for USB 3 support. More expensive. Thanks , but does USB 3.o make any sense..i have Mac desktop 3 yrs old ...Does USB 3.0 work on that? cant tell...Is the port differently shaped/coloured? USB 3.0 wasn't commercially available before 2010. It could possibly look blue in color but it isn't mandatory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0
Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.netwrote: You mentioned asking the guy whether he does a chocolate dosa That ranks a close second to asking for cold milk with tea, and as such rates as due grounds for deportation. We don't want these types here, I have to now go to sleep with this rattling around in my head. I'm contemplating war crimes.
Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 4:38 PM, Andy Deemer andydee...@gmail.com wrote: Hey -- I was just going off the Deccan Herald's 99 Dosa recc's... http://www.deccanherald.com/content/217211/content/217419/F Yes we are a billion people, so I think we've earned our right to produce a few idiots, and some of them or all of them even work in newspapers. But it did sound so damn tasty! In fact, next time I head to Vidyarthi Bhavan, maybe I'll take a jar of nutella with me. ;P That's right, a thousand year old culinary tradition handed down from father to son, cultivator to cultivator, gourmand to gourmand, and wood fire to wood fire to deliver the best of the farm on to the plate needs help from an industrial manufacturing process designed for maximum shelf life and taste that polls well among eight year olds.
Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Sean Doyle sdo...@gmail.com wrote: I would welcome that. We're having a definite quality control problem here. Fox has been aiming at a 3 year old mentality (mine! all mine!) but the rest of the media isn't as coherent. And.. to prevent too much thread drift - our Congress could definitely use an upgrade. Remember - these are the culinary daredevils that wanted to rename French Fries to Freedom Fries. Nutella would be pretty radical in their book. Perhaps if we made the food on Capitol Hill spicier all these people would leave and their replacements would be more interesting. There's an old expression, 'Quando dio, vuole castigarci ci manda, quello che desideriamo.' When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
Re: [silk] Stops on a DIY walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town
A preview of my real life action adventure game for tourists - live life like a Madras teenager: - A visit to the TASMAC store to pick up cheap liquid courage -- For bonus points: this is done at around 6PM on a Friday or October 1st - A spicy chicken Biryani made of genuine 100% crow -- For bonus points one visits a political rally where one can accomplish the above two tasks for free -- Boss level: you don't get into a fight and return with all your teeth - An auto ride, with haggling and cheating included of course but where the auto driver is glad to be rid of you rather than the other way round - Watching the first day first show of a popular Tamil movie but _so_ not-optional, standing in line to buy the tickets on current booking -- bonus points: you dance in the aisles during the item number -- boss level: the police get called in because of you - Riding a city bus at peak hour on the foot board -- bonus points: you wait until the bus has picked up speed before attempting to board - A visit to some of the nicer sections of city, where one can witness fantastic entrepreneurial spirit in the sale of liberated auto parts - A visit to Ritchie street or seedy DVD shops in Parsn complex to pick up pirated DVDs -- for bonus points you demand to see their secret collection of porn On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 4:50 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote: An American friend of mine is going to be in Madras soon. He is interested in a walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town. I'm thinking of taking him around myself. What are some of the stops in a walk around Mylapore and George Town that I should not miss? Here is a tentative plan I have in mind: 1. Mylapore Start at the San Thome bascilica A walk around the temple tank Inside Kapali Temple and explaining the hierarchy of Hindu gods and the rituals See the (scaffolded) temple chariot and explain the 63 Nayanmar festival Rasi Silks Giri Traders Walk around Mada streets and see the market Stop at Ambika Stores and Grand Sweets for an introduction to Indian pickling (Ambika) and snacking (Grad Sweets) traditions Perhaps a stop at R.K. Mutt Dinner or tiffin at Karpagambal Mess or Simply South (next to RK Mutt) (or, last choice Saravana Bhavan) 2. George Town Start with some talk about the architecture of colonial buildings on drive to George Town (point to Ripon Building, Central Station, Southern Railways Building, etc. along the way) An aside about the glories of Moore Market that used to exist Start with a walk around the High Court. Emden bombing, indo sarcenic architecture Broadway and show the buildings where some law firms operate nearby Parry's corner, Burma Bazaar, GPO Walk around some of the side streets where businesses cluster together Lunch or snack at Rambhavan or Ramakrishna Tiffin Home (or Agarwal Sweets) What are other places I could take him to? Thaths -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo! Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders
Re: [silk] Stops on a DIY walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town
Would you happen to know of the tasty lassi and samosa shop in the lane behind Devi theater? I remember it being way too successful to have closed down by now, so I still hope. On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote: That place no longer does a refill. And isn't half as good as I think my 2005-self thinks it is.
Re: [silk] Stops on a DIY walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town
On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 4:50 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote: 1. Mylapore A more serious contribution to your list: - Rayar's Café and Maami Kadai - http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2295935.ece - Dabba Chetti Kadai - traditional Indian medicines and things your grandmom would want aka nattu marundu kadai - Srividya Upasaka Nilayam of Srividya Kumkumam fame - Gaudiya Math in Royapettah I am surprised you are missing Triplicane - the mosque, stadium, Ratna Cafe and Perumal koil. Some other gourmand spots: The Adyar Grand Sweets, and I've confirmed it exists, the Bombay Lassi stall (in Madras lingo directions are - Devi (Theatre) back entrance opposite)
Re: [silk] Novartis denied cancer drug patent in landmark Indian case
There's a long (paid column inches I am sure) rant in almost all Indian newspapers today by the chief of Novartis lamenting the death of innovation. I couldn't be bothered to read it. The front page headlines that weren't paid for ran with the conventional wisdom that the ruling was good for the people. On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/01/novartis-denied-cancer-drug-patent-india Novartis denied cancer drug patent in landmark Indian case Supreme court ruling paves way for generic companies to make cheap copies of Glivec in the developing world Sarah Boseley, health editor The Guardian, Monday 1 April 2013 14.10 BST Healthcare activists say the ruling against Novartis ensures poor people will be able to access to cheap versions of cancer medicines. Photograph: Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP The Indian supreme court has refused to allow one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to patent a new version of a cancer drug, a decision campaigners hailed as a major step forward in enabling poor people to access medicines in the developing world. Novartis lost a six-year legal battle after the court ruled that small changes and improvements to the drug Glivec did not amount to innovation deserving of a patent. The ruling opens the way for generic companies in India to manufacture and sell cheap copies of the drug in the developing world and has implications for HIV and other modern drugs too. Campaigners were jubilant. A ruling in Novartis's favour would have reduced poor people's access to the drug, said Jennifer Cohn, of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The fact that India says patents are to reward innovation as opposed to small changes does stay true to the concept of what a patent should be. But Novartis said the decision discourages future innovation in India. Ranjit Shahani, the firm's vice-chairman and managing director in India, said the ruling was a setback for patients that will hinder medical progress for diseases without effective treatment options. He said the Swiss company will be cautious about investing in India, especially over introducing new drugs, and seek patent protection before launching any new products. It will continue to refrain from research and development activities in the country. The intellectual property ecosystem in India is not very encouraging, Shahani told reporters in Mumbai after the ruling. Glivec is an important drug in the treatment of myeloid leukaemia and has transformed prospects for patients in rich countries. It is a targeted, biological therapy that blocks cancer growth in patients with a particular gene mutation. But like all targeted therapies, it is very expensive, costing more than £1,700 a month. Historically India only had limited patent protection on drugs and generic companies in the country made versions of many medicines. It was only when Indian firms began to make cheap copies of HIV drugs that it became possible more than a decade ago to contemplate the treatment of millions of people in impoverished countries of Africa, where the Aids epidemic was at its worst. But in 2005, India became compliant with World Trade Organisation rules on intellectual property and now grants patents on innovative new drugs. Patents usually run for 20 years or more from the date they are taken out. Glivec was already on the market, however, so Novartis decided to seek a patent on a slightly altered version, potentially giving it a longer period of market exclusivity. The supreme court has thrown out the application, saying the new drug is not significantly different from the old version, and ordered Novartis to pay costs. At stake in the legal battle was not just the right of generic companies to make cheap drugs for India once original patents expire but also access to newer drugs for poorer countries in much of Africa and Asia. India has long been known as the pharmacy of the developing world. Dr Unni Karunakara, the president of MSF, said: The supreme court's decision now makes patents on the medicines that we desperately need less likely. This marks the strongest possible signal to Novartis and other multinational pharmaceutical companies that they should stop seeking to attack the Indian patent law. In a statement, the Cancer Patients Aid Association in India (CPAA), which had opposed the patent application, said: We are very happy that the court has recognised the right of patients to access affordable medicines over profits for big pharmaceutical companies through patents. Our access to affordable treatment will not be possible if the medicines are patented. It is a huge victory for human rights. The case hinged on the interpretation of section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, which does not allow patents of new versions of known drug molecules, unless they make the medicine significantly
Re: [silk] Intro
Welcome, Silk can be worse than miscmarket. You are warned. On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 8:24 PM, frozencemetery rharw...@club.cc.cmu.eduwrote: I've been told it's good form to post an introduction, so: hello! I'm a computer scientist and security researcher currently at Carnegie Mellon University. I'm also a free speech, animal rights, and political activist, and am part of the Civic Counsel group (a not for profit that, when established, will promote free information, institutional transparency, personal privacy, and civic engagement through code, education, advocacy, and research.). I think the Debian project is wonderful, though currently I am a Red Hat employee (and I neither speak for nor represent either organization). If this introduction's presentation seems weak, that's because it is; Tomasz created too hard of an act to follow. Cheers, --frozencemetery
Re: [silk] Is South India Really Richer? | This is Ashok.
Satellite images of light pollution in India show the most uniformly polluted sky of any developing country. In contrast, China is mostly only polluted with light haze along the coast. The few dark regions of India are the most revealing: Dantewada (maoists who tear down the few electricity poles that the establishment installs), Arunachal Pradesh (mountains and state policy of burnt earth economics on sensitive borders), Ladakh (ditto), and pockets of Rajasthan. That's it. Every other area of India is lit up. http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/328/3/689.full.pdf On Apr 17, 2013 9:19 AM, Naresh nar...@vagroup.com wrote: The final census data is out anytime now.time For a hackathon?silklisters arise!! Naresh Narasimhan Sent from my Phone http://ashokarao.com/2013/04/15/is-south-india-really-richer/ Is South India Really Richer? | This is Ashok. That South India is more developed than the Hindi-speaking North is a common refrain. Literacy rates and per capita income generally bear this out. Indeed, we worry of the barren villages in Bihar, not fertile landscapes across Tamil Nadu. As per the Human Development Indices across India, the South is just over 25% ahead of the All-India average. And yet, the story is false. Or so is my conclusion after running into a few “Data Stories” of India (looks like Tyler Cowen is interested, too). While the maps give breathtaking life to the real depth of poverty across India, there are fairly rigorous analytics to vindicate my point. While the commonly-used GINI measure of inequality is very intuitive, it’s handcuffed by its inability to decompose the inequality with certain subgroups. A more appropriate measure is the Theil Index, which I talk about in a recent blog post: The math behind the measure (between 0 and 1) requires a fair understanding of information theory but the idea is lower index implies a higher economic “entropy”. Your physics teacher might tell you that this is a bad thing but, economically, it’s a little more complex. As Boltzmann showed, entropy increases as predictability of an event decreases. This means the entropy of a fair coin is higher than a biased one. Similarly, in a very equal economy it is very difficult to distinguish between two earners based only on their income. Indeed in a perfectly equal society this is impossible. However, as society stratifies itself, knowledge of ones income conveys far more information (redundancy), thereby decreasing entropy. Within a system, Theil makes it easy for econometricians to understand the amount of total inequality due to within-group inequality and across-group inequality. If this is a little hard to grasp, think about it this way. If the total differences in economic output remained constant between countries (that is, India is still poor and Norway rich) but income was equally distributed within each country the residual inequality would be the “across-country” inequality. The residual from the converse, where all countries remain as unequal as they were, but world economic output is distributed equally to countries (not people), represents the “within-country” inequality. And the same reasoning can be scaled-down to consider inequality within and across Indian states. And this is just what a few researchers from the University of Texas did. Before we discuss this, it’s worth considering what high” decomposed, across-state inequality is. A good benchmark is definitely America. While the Northeast and California are generally considered to be richer than the rest, the real turmoil of inequality – at least the public’s eye – is definitely between individuals and not states. Further, the economic relationship between various American regions has been highly volatile, with some sign that growth is picking up most rapidly (in no small part due to extractive oil and gas industries) across “middle America”. Here is a decomposed map of inequality in the United States: A few accounting points notes here – while the overall measure can never be negative (greyish or black, in the above figure) individual agents can. A below-zero value here indicates that the given county is actually decreasing overall inequality of the country as a whole. The signal, here, is that American states are, broadly, equal. The real inequality stems from the difference between the rich and poor in Manhattan, not between the New Yorker and Iowan. So back to Galbraith, Chowdhury, and Shrivastava at Texas, we find that across-State inequality in India is pretty low: The dynamics of this graph are fascinating. For one, the purple line (within state inequality) is far more cyclical with overall inequality than the green line (between state inequality). While both do a fair job signalling inflections, the former represents approximately 90% of the change. Indeed, the contribution of between state inequality has been in
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
I am yet to see a calamity that will force Indians to evacuate. If Indians were the kind that would quit unhealthy environments, then prices of land in Bangalore should be falling right now. Bhopal never skipped a beat even when its citizens were falling dead from poisonous gas, and it's dusty roads are even today filling up with malls when the monuments to the disaster are forgotten all too willingly. One can only grow angry or sad that this isn't going to end nicely. In an ideal world no one would pay half a million dollars for an apartment built on a toxic waste dump, like you can see in any large Indian city, but it happens here. When things hit a new low Indians shockingly grow dumb to its ills and persist. It's almost as if Indians have been actively engaged in finding ways to lose the ability to see what's good for them. An ugly public building comes up right next to a 1500 year old temple. A monument to incompetence and corruption built in the backyard of a millennial legacy of elegance and brilliance, and no one bats an eyelid. Life couldn't rub their noses in the dirty reality any harder, and yet they are either by choice, or otherwise, blind to the irony. On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 4:29 PM, freeman murray free...@jaaga.in wrote: “The Government of Karnataka will have to evacuate half of Bangalore in the next ten years, due to water scarcity, contamination of water and diseases.” http://www.firstpost.com/india/will-bangalore-have-to-be-evacuated-by-2023-697649.html
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
If there's any innovation in Jugaad, it is in talking a tall tale. There is no ethnic flavor to innovation, not Indian, Chinese or African. Sure when you take away the resources and / or laws, then new solutions with trade-offs become possible. Like the Chinese mobile phone clones or Indian drug clones that don't respect IP or clean room norms to discount the price. On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:26 PM, Caitlin Marinelli caitlin.marine...@gmail.com wrote: Srini - I totally agree. I see it as the 'over-glorification of Jugaad.'
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:48 PM, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.com wrote: An ugly public building comes up right next to a 1500 year old temple. A monument to incompetence and corruption built in the backyard of a millennial legacy of elegance and brilliance, and no one bats an eyelid. I refuse to accept that any building constructed several hundreds of years ago is brilliant or elegant purely by being there for that long. I find a number of temples in India to be festering eyesores, and while I'd balk at calling modern structures beautiful, they're not ugly just because they're new, either. I'm drifting from the topic at hand, but unless you're referring to something specific, I'm going to call bullshit on this sort of generalization. Oh I had a specific example in mind, from my neighborhood. The MRTS in Thiruvanmiyur - this - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Thiruvanmiyur_MRTS_station.JPG Versus this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marundeeswarar_Temple which has a poem dedicated to it in the Thevaram as a towering glory that blocks out the moon on a bright moon's night, when the sound of the temple bells silence the buzz of the bees of the forest and the roars of the waves. I am waiting for some contemporary poet to write something similar about the MRTS station. I am sure I won't be disappointed now.
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:02 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote: Much as I like the marundeeswarar and much as I don't like the MRTS station, your comparison doesn't hold true. Temple poetry is more about exaggeration of the attributes of the diety and less of architectural critique. I can see poetry in imagining a time when this place was covered with forest, and the imprint of man was vanishingly small - and out of it arose a tower like no other, made brilliant by lines of oil lamps - built with muscle and sinew - a paean to faith - towering over the trees of the forest and adding its brass timbre to the chorus of the birds. Man's voice as a challenge to nature. The MRTS evokes only the poetic character of yesterday's putrefying vomit.
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:28 PM, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.com wrote: I can see the MRTS evoking some Marxist / North Korean poetry. You mean of the fascist joy through suffering variety, indeed. We should let Hitler know.
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:48 PM, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.com wrote: This is quite true of most places in India. A combination of dust, smoke, concrete and other assorted particulate matter have made most urban/semi-urban habitats next to impossible to live in without some version of respiratory disease. Respiratory infections kill the most in India. http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/gbd/visualizations/gbd-2010-leading-causes-and-risks-region-heat-map
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:55 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote: The MRTS monstrosity is poetic in its own way. The MRTS stations are an Ozymandian reminder of the early 90's and corruption. Vomit is a reminder of yesterday's folly too.
Re: [silk] Thread Drift: Origins of temples/churches/mosques: Was coming calamity in Bangalore
Temples weren't invented here or only here obviously, though this became the land of temples. They go afaik much further back than proto-Abrahamic - hard to find any standing so it's all debatable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_religion Fire temples are evidenced in Aryan history - there was always a special room to keep a fire alight. These were temporary as they moved from place to place, but the idea of a fire that never dies was born pretty early and a protective structure to ensure it could be said to be a temple. Though by about 1000AD the temple building was on like crazy in this part of the world, and the act of building one became worship in itself. They passed this on to the new converts as gospel who did it with much gusto. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat (from memory, so the dates are possibly off) Maybe 2600ish BC till 1200+ years later: Indus Valley city plans reveal temple and / or priest chambers (hard to tell) and platforms for rituals. That is pretty good vintage for this part of the world. The name Israel doesn't appear in any sources until 1200BC, so Abrahamic temples are all preceded by subcontinental forays into this sphere. Early Abrahamic era temples were like the present day Ka'aba, just a tent but with a variety of shrines - quite like modern food courts with places for most pagan and Abrahamic faiths. The operators made profit from all foot fall and from offerings and sale of water, food, hay and lodging. The tent was likely erected around to ensure you paid when you entered, and didn't genuflect from a distance and scurry away. All of this is conjecture since these were temporary structures, and the people who ran the show weren't very literate or organized. Then we have, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Temple The first Mosque in India was built by Cheraman Perumal in the tradition of a wooden Kerala temple, without the minarets and such. Minarets were added to it only in the last century. Cheraman Perumal converted during the life of the Prophet if you believe such accounts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheraman_Juma_Masjid
Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore
On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 8:04 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote: [...] It is easy for one who has voted with his feet to condemn those who can't. No sense going after the arguer, please do attack the argument. Without some sensitivity a lot of very valid concerns sound like, You must deny yourself the consumerist comforts that I enjoy to improve my quality of life. Or in this case, Walk to work so that I have something pretty to look at. While I have genuine sympathies for your plight, I am not entirely sure nothing can be done. To say so, would be to subscribe to that awful Bangalore phrase sandwich of defeatism, escapism and fatalism, We are like this only, adjust maadi. If the only options on the table are either to sigh in resignation, or to bristle with discontent, I choose the latter in the hope it musters up change.
Re: [silk] Migrant workers and bank accounts
On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:06 PM, Caitlin Marinelli caitlin.marine...@gmail.com wrote: Do they need micro insurance? India is generally very passive-aggressive towards insurance isn't it? Most insurance products sold here are halfway between investment and insurance, with the insurance pay out generally being dismal, and so also the investment return, but nevertheless popular. The status quo is a self reinforcing cycle since no one in India really trusts insurance companies to pay up yet no we are a risk averse lot.
Re: [silk] Migrant workers and bank accounts
On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:36 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote: While sophisticated investors might not want to mix insurance and investment, it still remains an option - in several cases - for less sophisticated investors, as long as they find a honest advisor who doesn't missell to them. It isn't just that - insurance premium is tax deductible I thought, or something like that. At any rate the tax laws were a driver IIRC.
Re: [silk] Migrant workers and bank accounts
On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:36 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote: While sophisticated investors might not want to mix insurance and investment, it still remains an option - in several cases - for less sophisticated investors, as long as they find a honest advisor who doesn't missell to them. It's a case of buying insurance because you are risk averse, but also hedging it with investment options because you are, duh, risk averse! You know this might hold a good meme there for http://www.quickmeme.com/Scumbag-Brain/
[silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com
The conservatives will obviously welcome this and the politicians will love it because it's a meaningless but decisive move; with no political downside to it because of the taboo. The only thing this will really do is destroy Indian democracy some more by strengthening intrusive laws, and help set up a censorship apparatus that aids the bad and corrupt to subvert it to their needs. Banning Bollywood would work better and help productivity and the intellect. Moral decay is real, banning porn isn't going to help. Education and investment in policing is the answer that no one wants to hear. http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/india-considers-banning-pornography-as-reported-sexual-assault-rises/
Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com
On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote: The conservatives will obviously welcome this and the politicians will love it because it's a meaningless but decisive move; with no political downside to it because of the taboo. It would take a remarkable politician to bet him/herself against the (s)he opposed the anti-porn bill and betrayed our women tirade. Our current crop of elected representatives are not made of that stuff. Only an ardent believer in democracy who possesses immense faith in the Indian public to listen to reason will risk political capital to object to this. I'm not holding my breath. More realistically, I believe we have a few well meaning politicians who will speak up politely if the civil society objects loudly. This is hard to stop - even if the Congress so much as sniffles the BJP will use it to political advantage. With election season coming that can be ill afforded. Much better for the Congress to one-up the BJP, and win a few points with the conservative vote bank by quickly embracing the ban, trashing a few shops and websites and returning to status quo in a while by under funding the mandate.
Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com
Thanks Nikhil, that gives hope, now to pray the 24x7 news channels won't catch wind of it. The thought of heated debates and many hours of programming will be hard to resist. On Apr 25, 2013 3:17 PM, Nikhil Mehra nikhil.mehra...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote: The conservatives will obviously welcome this and the politicians will love it because it's a meaningless but decisive move; with no political downside to it because of the taboo. It would take a remarkable politician to bet him/herself against the (s)he opposed the anti-porn bill and betrayed our women tirade. Our current crop of elected representatives are not made of that stuff. This is in the form of a petition before the Supreme Court right now. Since issues before the SC aren't necessarily brought into the media with the same intensity and detail that day-to-day politics receives, I don't think the gumption or calibre of our politicians will necessarily be tested. The principal ground of the petition is that pornography is directly linked to the rise in heinous sexual offences against women. While it is much harder for a politician to raise a general defense of pornography, it is much easier to oppose the proposition stated by the petition. And in doing so, they wouldn't even be doing anything new. The viewing of pornography has always been legal in India. Theres a judgment of the Bombay High Court to that effect. So I think that the stance of politicians on this issue isn't necessarily fait accompli. Regards, Nikhil Mehra Advocate, Supreme Court of India Tel: (+91) 9810776904 Res: C-I/10, AIIMS Campus, Ansari Nagar (East) New Delhi - 110029.
Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com
On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Nikhil Mehra nikhil.mehra...@gmail.com wrote: This should liven up the debate a bit: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/04/economist-explains-why-iceland-ban-pornography?fb_ref=activity Iceland with 322,000 people is the size of an Indian village.
Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com
On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 12:51 PM, Deepak Shenoy deepakshe...@gmail.com wrote: Speaking purely economically - it's cheaper when they ban the darn thing. If they make it legal, they'll charge a bloody license fee and have auctions for licenses and some random minister will fraud the taxpayers and all that. I'd have put in a smiley but I think it's real! Peer to peer cell phones will be a reality within a decade, and governments are not going to like it, not just for the lost revenue, but because they give up control. The triangle of control has always been between power, money and technology, and they are always engaged in a tug of war. It holds true in the telecom space as anywhere else; (viz. regulatory pressure (aka power), consumer demand (aka money) and technological innovation) We live in interesting times when technology is very often an alternative to a lot of thorny political problems. Power and money recedes from the equation when you can innovate the problem away. No doubt, this is a minor act, an aberration in the script; in a decade or so the technology landscape will be sufficiently fiscalized - so you will need power and money once more to affect the equation at scale because the innovators have been co-opted.
Re: [silk] Chennai and Bangalore Beer-ups
It's possible I may be able to attend (Chennai), pick a date and I'll try to drop in. On May 6, 2013 9:10 AM, Divya S divyasamp...@yahoo.com wrote: I'm happy to meet in Chennai on any date from 6th to 10th. Cheers Divya Sent from my iPad On 03-May-2013, at 5:31 PM, Adrianna Tan skinnyla...@gmail.com wrote: Am in Chennai 6-10 May, and Bangalore 13-15 May. With the exception of the night of 10 May in Chennai, all other nights are good. Anyone wants a beer?
Re: [silk] Fwd: Wine tasting is bullshit. Here's why.
The upshot: screw the experts. This is generally good advise for anything. Religion, investing, philosophy, exercise, diet, don't adopt anything without verifying for yourself. It's silly how many people have respect for authority. I was lucky to be genetically disposed towards rebellion. Granted, it made early life pretty miserable, because everyone expects a child to listen, but it served me well in the majority of my life. Observe meticulously, and disregard most things heard or read until after verification.
Re: [silk] [enquiry] Do any of you know about Ab Initio?
Zombie phone mode was active, sorry On May 9, 2013 6:49 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 6:12 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote: Zzz d'sa zzz a Ss z Masterfully argued, Cheeni. Thaths -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo!
[silk] A book for fussy foodistas
The gourmands on the list (I'm thinking Charles and Gautam chiefly, but also several others) will probably be interested in Steven Poole's new book, You aren't what you eat (2012) http://stevenpoole.net/you-arent-what-you-eat/ Guardian's review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/21/what-eat-steven-poole-review quote The chef Anthony Bourdain writes of the chef Thomas Keller: You haven't seen how he handles fish, gently laying it down on the board and caressing it, approaching it warily, respectfully, as if communicating with an old friend. The old friend, should we not have noticed, is dead. Are we to suppose that Keller is a medium? Or is he a necrophiliac fish-fiddler, a Jimmy Savile of the deep? / The blurb: Why is everyone so obsessed with food? How did chefs come to be the gurus of the age? And what’s with serving chips in a beaker and slivers of vegetable on hot stones? This polemic against “foodies” and their oral fixation pits Jamie Oliver against Jacques Derrida, and sees the author eating a nitro-frozen bolus of olive oil, marvelling at food fashion, and descending into the ninth circle of foodist hell at MasterChef Live. Interview: (53 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1DcoLxQpY
[silk] After Decades of Neglect, Pakistan Rusts in Its Tracks
Parts of this, especially about the decrepitness of the railway system and the corruption rings true for Indian railways too. Incidentally, Declan Walsh was recently thrown out of Pakistan for attempting to cover the elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/world/asia/pakistans-railroads-sum-up-nations-woes.html?pagewanted=all After Decades of Neglect, Pakistan Rusts in Its Tracks In a Journey on a Crumbling Railway, a Picture of a Nation’s Troubles RUK, Pakistan — Resplendent in his gleaming white uniform and peaked cap, jacket buttons tugging his plump girth, the stationmaster stood at the platform, waiting for a train that would never come. “Cutbacks,” Nisar Ahmed Abro said with a resigned shrug. [...]
[silk] Electricity riots
Ever since much the same happened in Pakistan about five years ago I've been wondering when India would follow. My regret is that they didn't go torch a politician's bungalow, at least that would have yielded results. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/world/asia/india-power-failures-set-off-protests.html India: Power Failures Set Off Protests A blistering heat wave has swept across most parts of north and western India, causing widespread electricity cuts and leading residents to protest and even attack power company officials and property. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, enraged citizens in Bahraich set fire to a power station, and in Gorakhpur residents held power employees captive for more than 18 hours. The police said Thursday that at least 21 people had been arrested in the violence. Uttar Pradesh, home to 190 million people, is India’s most populous state and one of its poorest. Its inadequate energy infrastructure has been unable to cope with the high demand for electricity as temperatures have peaked above 116 degrees in recent days. The state’s chief minister said that the government was trying its best to provide enough power.
Re: [silk] Electricity riots
On May 24, 2013 2:25 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: (...) What's the current PV deployment situation in India? Any signs for a ramp-up? The power grid and sub stations need more investment than power generation, we are losing 100 - 800 MW of wind energy daily in Tamil Nadu alone. Power generation privatization has brought capacity improvements, but the government owned and operated grid and distribution systems are unable to keep up with the increase in capacity.
Re: [silk] Electricity riots
Not transmission loss, the wind farms aren't able to inject power into the grid at peak output and are dumping the power on generation. They are unhappy because they don't get paid for the dumped power. As it is, most state electricity companies are operating at a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars, since electricity subsidies are hidden under their PL to keep the government's budget deficit from looking too scary. Consequently the contract defaults in this sector are terribly common. On May 24, 2013 5:58 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote: The power grid and sub stations need more investment than power generation, we are losing 100 - 800 MW of wind energy daily in Tamil Nadu alone. Transmission loss is more theft than inefficiency, in my understanding. One only has to look at the various farmhouses in Delhi (that do not have any official electricity connection) to understand that. Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?
On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Charles Haynes charles.hay...@gmail.com wrote: Saravana Bhavan In the spirit of Silk, I register here my personal opinion that Saravana Bhavan is the combined nutritional and ethical equivalent of McDonalds Monsanto.
Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?
On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 8:25 PM, mark seiden m...@seiden.com wrote: but i must ask: [...] why is that your opinion? (i have only been to the sunnyvale branch, rarely). (perhaps do they now serve Bhopal-style McDosas?) Ethical: Their business practices in their early years were very rough - killing those who wouldn't move off prime land, and the founder has been formally convicted of bludgeoning someone to death. This is India, where usually the conviction of someone rich and powerful occurs on the corpses of a dozen other murders committed but disappeared from view. Nutritional like McD, Central kitchens, ingredients pre-frozen with additives - and unhealthy doses of oil. I find the ethical shortcomings more problematic - the food I eat literally becomes me. It used to be unthinkable that someone would sell food in ancient cultures, including India. Food was always donated or shared freely, and the karmic imbalance of eating food that was sold would work its way into your system eventually. If you take the really long view this isn't so woo woo. and then what brand is about -- why people are willing to pay 10x or more for something that does not cost 10x or more to make. A mental illness manifesting itself.
Re: [silk] Atul Chitnis
On Jun 3, 2013 12:59 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 12:55 PM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote: He was not universally liked but I guess even those that didn't like him would be saddened by the news. I agree, on both counts. RIP, Atul. It was too early to go. Cheeni
Re: [silk] Ingress
On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 2:11 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk s...@venkatmangudi.com wrote: Anyone? Time sink, but then most games are. Not for me.
Re: [silk] PFRDA and Security
On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Chetan Nagendra che...@nagster.org wrote: I wonder if the PFRDA cannot even secure their website, how will they manage billions in public funds? Your optimism is remarkable. Pension deductions are a form of taxation any way you look at it, either directly on the income if it is never redeemed, as some 30-40% of pensions are, or on the time of the pensionee in getting it back.
Re: [silk] Energy: 100% of global power from solar using 1% of total land surface
On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: in rich countries. In the end, though, they too will change as the alternatives become normal, and what was once normal becomes quaintly old-fashioned. It has been quaintly old-fashioned for many years now where I sit. Renewables don't work when the sun doesn't shine, the wind doesn't blow or the water doesn't flow - so most of Europe keeps its thermal capacity critically active (40-50% fuel load) even when there's renewable energy aplenty. This is a problem that won't be solved until we can figure out how to store and normalize the energy or cheaply distribute it. France does something interesting with spare nuclear power - they pump water up into mountain dams in Switzerland, and gain back the power on demand via hydroelectric turbines.
Re: [silk] Energy: 100% of global power from solar using 1% of total land surface
On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 4:00 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: [...snip links...] Notice that most of it is very predictable, several days in advance. You are right up to the point that global climate change bites. And even without a climate apocalypse, I thought the margin of error with all such predictions was rather hefty - 15-20%? The problem with gas peak plants is that they run just a few weeks per year, and are not economic without subsidies. The reason coal hasn't gone the way of the dodo (and the nuke) is political. It does increasingly look there will be a premature exit from coal. Coal will always be needed - if not in Europe, then in China or India. We are not going to stop digging as long as there's profit. renewable energy aplenty. This is a problem that won't be solved until we can figure out how to store and normalize the energy or cheaply MWh scale battery storage is making very good advance, and EV battery storage does it at well. You need about an EV scale battery for night cycling. Nanobatteries are a possibility - ten - twenty years away. Germany's natural gas grid can currently buffer 3 months. We know natural gas lines can tolerate 5-15% of hydrogen without refitting, so hydrogen from water electrolysis and synmethane (via Sabatier) are likely ways to absorb surplus of renewables (which already happens regularly, and will become a permanent fixture rather soon). Pipelines are not close to renewable sources - the Nord Stream runs subsea for example - and the transport infrastructure to integrate renewables like you say is expensive - this is why they are just ideas with marginal implementations waiting for something big to change. Pipelines, even subsea pipelines are vulnerable to political unrest - and the world is going to be frothing with unrest for the next decade or two. You can protect an off shore oil platform with a near shore airbase, but a pipeline requires a network of spies and client states. That's hard to build and maintain without cold war mentality. In any case the investments in protecting this sort of thing are huge - and wipe out potential savings. It's interesting that France import electricity during winter from nonuclear Germany -- for electric heating -- and in the summer -- because during heat spells they have to shut down the reactors. Yeah, but the peak production capacity is more than France can handle or distribute effectively, so it's not as if they are lacking the capacity to produce significant amounts of power - nearly 30% of EU's power is French. France lags behind in wind power and other renewable sources: 0.1% of production
Re: [silk] Old book smell
On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 11:54 AM, Indrajit Gupta bonoba...@yahoo.co.in wrote: Just say neigh, you think? A night mare race to find the worst pun? I wanted to jump in, but I was afraid of making an ass of myself. This galloping thread is giving me a long face, please rein it in, or I'll be forced to dismount.
Re: [silk] Energy: 100% of global power from solar using 1% of total land surface
On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 7:18 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: Speaking about a wipeout, how probable would you see a nuclear conflict arising between failing states? I see huge problems in the Pakistan/India/China corner. The climate shift will probably hit Pakistan much harder than it already is. Sure, we have to keep our eyes on the nukes, but I don't think they will be used by state actors. It's another matter if non-state actors get their hands on them. Big wars involving nukes are not possible anymore for many reasons - fraying patriotism; growing loyalty to regional causes; and disruption of propaganda by new media. Some may yet wish to start one in the hope of distracting the populace, but anyone can see it won't have the same success as in the past. So I am not worried about nukes, but I am worried about the unrest being caused by three things, often interconnected. First is climate change, the second, weak political representation and control, and third, the cold war between US China happening in the subcontinent. Here is the start of a rather lengthy list: - Bangladeshi migration into India Nepal; - riparian conflicts between all states; - civil wars with naxalites, baloch rebels, Islamists and disgruntled local actors; - failing local governments - JK, Karachi, Balochistan, NWFP, Maoist belts - power and water riots in India, PK, Bangladesh - The Chinese string of Pearls - Gwadar, oil pipelines in Burma, etc. It's clear Pakistan is becoming another Afghanistan, but the nukes aren't going to save it. p.s. I'm not entirely sure though that only states have nukes. States like Georgia have been selling nukes for more than ten years, I'd be surprised if some billionaires in the region or elsewhere haven't considered picking one up as insurance.
Re: [silk] Any pet-hate subjects? ...why is Mathematics so frequently hated?
On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 10:10 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote: I wrote this some time agosomeone else referred to it on FB recently (yes...a woman.) What makes us detest certain subjects at school, and why is Maths (or Math) frequently at the top of the list? It can't always be bad teachers http://deponti.livejournal.com/902082.html It becomes very simple if we see it all as energy conservation. Evolution optimized us to be lazy - not absolutely of course, but relative to our comfort zone. There are no exceptions, everyone is lazy. Regardless of whether it is a physical, emotional or mental activity; anything that uses up energy is executed with meticulous planning by our body keeping in mind the available energy budget. Comfort zones or in other words, the limit of the energy budget varies from person to person. A fat and out of shape man might find a couple of floors of stairs daunting and might wait 10-15 minutes for the elevator. A literary critic might read several books a day, while most people will barely finish one book a year. Some can share their feelings or display love and affection quite easily, and others can be reserved and reticent emotionally. Our comfort zone is a result of our environment and training. We all hit our energy budget somewhere, but those with the right intentional training or the right environmental training know how to keep going. Climbing a mountain is nothing for one who lives in the hills, reading books is nothing for someone surrounded by them from an early age and speaking about their emotions is easier for those who weren't lonely children. When unaided by the environment, going beyond the energy budget for the first time requires motivation. Your motivation may vary. For those with a strong self improvement desire - like Thaths, seeing the logical connection with applications might be the key to expending mental energy. For others it could be desire to succeed, or please a parent or teacher, or something else. So we see people who do ridiculous things all the time with the right motivation and training. Maths is hated because it is like running, it uses ridiculous amounts of energy. Expert meditators can produce deep compassion and happiness that eludes most humans due to their training of their emotions. So emotional, mental and physical factors are all trainable with the right motivation. Of course, all are not equal, some are genetically gifted or blighted. The role of all teachers, parents and leaders is to motivate, train and lead. Loving parents produce children who can love, and be kind; inspiring teachers produce great students, and leaders who place their followers and the cause ahead of themselves produce great loyalty.
Re: [silk] we don't need no steenkin PRISM
On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Alaric Snell-Pym ala...@snell-pym.org.uk wrote: On 06/20/2013 04:23 PM, Eugen Leitl wrote: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/security/India-sets-up-nationwide-snooping-programme-to-tap-your-emails-phones/articleshow/20678562.cms http://chaosradio.ccc.de/media/ds/ds089.pdf Starts on Page 4 We lost the war. Welcome to the world of tomorrow. by Frank
Re: [silk] The weirdest languages
On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 5:49 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: Much more, including the full spreadsheet with all 21 'weirdness features' for all the languages, at the URL below. Also, it amuses me that this list says the most 'normal' language is Hindi. :-) It depresses me a little to say this, but market share matters more than features in the end. The way we are headed in a hundred years or less we will all speak the same language out of practicality for the most part. It won't be the most technically efficient language, but the one geopolitics elects as the winner. English and Mandarin are the only two real contestants in this world view, and their present hegemony is thanks mainly to a violent imperial past, and has nothing to do with technical brilliance.
Re: [silk] [ZS] Unconference: Catalytic Converter, Cambridge, MA
On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: Now if anyone would have a decent peak resource/energy mailing list (especially now than the The Oil Drum is shutting down), that'd be just great. The Oil Drum is the biggest - but lots of Peak Oil websites have crashed and burned in the past few years. What in your opinion has sucked out the public interest from Peak Oil? A few large discoveries in the Americas notwithstanding, it isn't like Oil is a renewable resource.
Re: [silk] [ZS] Unconference: Catalytic Converter, Cambridge, MA
On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote: A few large discoveries in the Americas notwithstanding, it isn't like The discoveries are not large, and mostly nonrecoverable. According to recent graphs the Bakken story looks already over -- further data will tell. We'll read about it somewhere, but not on TOD. The king is dead, long live the king. http://www.psmag.com/environment/the-new-bronze-age-entering-the-era-of-tough-ore-60868/
