Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?
Ashwin Nanjappa wrote: The problem is PDF files directory -- which I am syncing using Dropbox, not ideal but I don't see a better solution. If the concern is around using a SaaS service like Dropbox, then NextCloud[0] with S3-Compatible Storage as the backend[1] is a great self-hosted files solution. NextCloud is not demanding on system resources at all and can run easily on a Pi3. If you don't want to run an web-accessible service from home, there are commercial/opensource packages that allow you to mount S3 compatible storage as a FUSE drive but that comes with the trade-off of lack of access when you are on mobile devices. [0] https://nextcloud.com/athome/ [1] https://autoize.com/s3-compatible-storage-for-nextcloud/ -- Balaji Dutt
Re: [silk] Books and libraries
Chew Lin Kay wrote: Would buy one if I can figure out an easy way round the DRM issues in Singapore. Chew Lin If the DRM issue you are worried about is being able to buy from the Kindle Store in Singapore, there's a very easy workaround. Sign up for a free account at ComGateway or vPost and you will get a valid US address. Add that to your Amazon account and make it your primary address - voila! The Kindle Store is now open for you. Amazon does not care that your credit card on file with them has a Singapore address, unlike some other websites I could name coughHulucough. Amazon still won't directly ship a Kindle to you in Singapore so that vPost/ComGateway address is actually mandatory if you want to buy a Kindle reader. -- Balaji Dutt
Re: [silk] Singapore Silk Meet 13/14/15th March?
Sorry folks, I've been unwell for a few days and will not be able to make it for the meetup :( C - I might be in Chennai sometime over the next few months. Will catch up with you then. On Thursday, March 13, 2014, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 4:15 PM, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.comjavascript:; wrote: They're an upstairs unit, right next to the Haldi Indian restaurant. :) Was there this evening. Highly recommended. Beware the ticking clocks. -- -- Balaji Dutt (Sent via mobile email - typos and/or top-posting are likely)
Re: [silk] Singapore Silk Meet 13/14/15th March?
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan wrote: 14th sounds good to me. Can we fix for then? 14th it is then. Any suggestions for where we can meet? -- Balaji Dutt
Re: [silk] Singapore Silk Meet 13/14/15th March?
In. Prefer 14th but can try to make it for 15th. On Friday, 7 March 2014, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote: Hello folks, Visiting Singapore this coming week. Will be there for about 4-5 days. Anybody up for a meet on the days mentioned? C -- http://about.me/chandrachoodan +919884467463 -- -- Balaji Dutt (Sent via mobile email - typos and/or top-posting are likely)
Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?
Sorry all, still in exam lockdown so I won't be able to make it on Tuesday. Hope to catch up with you all later if it happens. On Sunday, May 26, 2013, Salil Murthy wrote: I'm in for Tue as well. thanks Salil. On May 26, 2013, at 17:02, Charles Haynes charles.hay...@gmail.comjavascript:; wrote: There are also two Saravana Bhavan outlets here if one prefers Chennai style, but I was thinking of some of the places near Mustapha's - if we were to go in that direction. -- Charles On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 4:59 PM, Dibyo Haldar dibyo.hal...@gmail.comjavascript:; wrote: On 26 May 2013 16:12, Charles Haynes charles.hay...@gmail.comjavascript:; wrote: 1) Who's interested? 2) Who has a preference for Monday or Tuesday? I'm in if it's Tue evening/night. I might add (since South Indian veg has come up) that the MTR just opened this morning - it's on Serangoon Rd, near Farrer Park (where Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan used to be, previously). I should also mention (troll?) that one gets the nice crispy-outside-soft-inside Bangalore-style dosas there, as opposed to the annoying floppy/soft (Madras-style?) dosas that one gets in most places in Singapore. Just in case someone has similar preferences. And if folks want to do pepper-crab or seafood or something, I'm in too. best, Dibyo *skype: dibyo_* -- -- Balaji Dutt (Sent via mobile email - typos and/or top-posting are likely)
Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?
I'm in Singapore but currently in lockdown mode as I have an exam coming up at the end of the month. I should be relatively free starting from the first week of June. Happy to meet up for a photowalk or just dinner, depending on your preference :) -- Balaji On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.com wrote: I'm here! Can I interest either of you in the treetop walk at Macritchie? On 6 May 2013 08:05, Charles Haynes hay...@edgeplay.org wrote: She is indeed, already finding events too. Went to lasalle(?) uni graduating class school of dance recital. Also food naturally. -- Charles On May 6, 2013 7:56 AM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 4:49 AM, Charles Haynes hay...@edgeplay.org wrote: Hi, I'll be working here in Singapore for about 11 weeks, would love to meet local silklisters. What do you say? Is DebbieAnn also with you? (Er, this is not a response to your meetup question)
Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?
Charles Haynes wrote: How about a treetop dinner photowalk at Macritchie? Happy to tag along if you are keen to head there, but I'm afraid my camera gear isn't up to the mark for late night photoshoots, especially in nature reserves where the long zooms tend to win. How about we wait for you at the nearby spa with a bottle of wine? That sounds more attractive to me than a 8 km long slog through the jungles in the Singapore heat! -- Balaji Dutt
Re: [silk] Introduction
On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Subodh Sankar subodh.san...@gmail.com wrote: My name is Subodh, and after a few years working in the technology business, my wife and I decided to open a bookstore. We now spend our time at Atta Galatta, our little bookstore in Koramangala that is focused carrying Indian writing..in English and other languages. /delurk. Hi there Subodh! It's a small world and all that. Nice to see Atta Galatta is getting really popular. Looking forward to visiting whenever I manage to travel back to India this year. On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 12:22 AM, Deepak Jois deepak.j...@gmail.com wrote: What an interesting co-incidence. I was at the documentary film screening at Atta Galatta just yesterday and had a great time. We spoke for a few moments before the screening started. Didn't realize the Where in the world is Deepak Jois game was now in the India level :). Any plans to transit through Singapore? -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Storing digital photos
On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 2:02 PM, Shoba Narayan sh...@shobanarayan.comwrote: What is a good way to store the thousands of digital photos I have on my iPhoto on the Cloud? Thank you My photo backups live locally on a NAS running Ubuntu, which allows me to use s3cmd to automate the backup to Amazon S3. For a Windows/OS X solution that relies on S3, you could look at JungleDisk [1] -- Balaji [1] https://www.jungledisk.com/personal/
Re: [silk] Query on Indian-made wines
Delurking briefly to say hola to a fellow SG silk-lister. If you are in the CBD, let me know. -- Balaji Dutt (Sent via mobile email - please excuse top-posting and/or any typos) On 10 Nov 2011 20:44, Chew Lin Kay chewlin@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 7:59 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: My take: there is certainly a lot of bullshit involved (and some amount of self-deception, as the various studies show). ... My point? There are certainly people who can detect (and can be trained to detect) nuances in stuff (taste impressions, smell impressions, etc). It makes as little sense to call the entire wine appreciation thing false, as to call all of it true. :) So my takeaway so far is: a) drink Indian wines if I have nothing else to drink (with an undressed-salad as backup) b) drink Indian wines just to see what they are like c) experience before reading--since Udhay brought up perfume, I thought I'd extend the idea. When I first started learning to differentiate between what I enjoyed and what I didn't, I had to make the conscious effort to sniff before I read (perfume notes, reviews, etc), otherwise I'd find myself trying to like something because I *should*, and not because I actually *did*. Similarly with wine and other things, because they can be such great social signifiers. Invitation of drinkies for Silklisters passing through SG stands, though now we will blind-taste, in black glasses. CL
[silk] Bangalore meetup?
Hello folks, I'm in Bangalore for a few days and was wondering if I could meet other silk-listers. Unfortunately, I'm only in town for a few days so tomorrow night is my best option. Apologies for the short notice - it's taken inordinately long for me to get some reasonable internet access on my PC and send this email. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Visa-free and visa-on-arrival travel for Indians: maybeuseful for last-minute travel
On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 6:56 AM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote: -I have not been to Mexico, Costa Rica, Taiwan, Turkey or South Korea, but I am nearly certain from previous research that a US or UK visa does not get you visa-free access to those places (unless buried really deep in an embassy website somewhere) - does anyone have personal experience? I am also v. surprised to hear about visa on arrival in places like Indonesia, Kenya and Iran.. Badri I hold a Indian passport with a valid Business Visa to the US, however I still need to obtain a visa to enter Taiwan South Korea. Plus, Taiwan South Korea will only issue single-entry visas to Indian passport holders. The Visa on Arrival scheme for Indonesia is limited to certain airports / seaports - Jakarta, Bali and Bintan are the ones that I know of. For other locations in Indonesia, you need to obtain a visa prior to arrival. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Visa-free and visa-on-arrival travel for Indians: maybe useful for last-minute travel
On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 1:30 AM, Ramakrishnan Sundaram r.sunda...@gmail.com wrote: matrix2.itasoftware.com. Love being able to generate booking codes and sending to travel agent! Ram Thanks for the link - being able to quickly check fares from different issuing locations is very convenient. Not to mention the distinct lack of pop-ups/pop-unders. Bonus: iOS Android app! -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Library Management
On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 1:53 PM, Aditya Chadha fer...@gmail.com wrote: If you're on a Mac, this is worth the $40: http://www.delicious-monster.com/ -- Aditya (http://aditya.sublucid.com/) On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 1:43 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote: Any suggestions? -- b If you are not a Mac-devotee and hence unable to enjoy programs made by developers with rockstar-level egos, you can try Book Collector from collectorz.com [1]. It's pretty ordinary looking, but it gets the job done. This thread in a forum that I lurk on might be of some use [2] [1] http://www.collectorz.com/book/ [2] http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/48506 -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Library Management
On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 4:48 PM, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote: small paint of can and very large brush eh? ~ashwin Perhaps my wording was a bit too vague - apologies. The rockstar developer comment was specifically about Wil Shipley - the developer of Delicious Monster. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] introduction
On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote: After enjoying a silk meetup, I have finally taken the leap of faith into intelligent conversations. And about time too! * photographer (BW film/developing/photo-chemistry/lens optics) And one of the folks I hold responsible for getting me addicted to this very expensive hobby :) -- Balaji
Re: [silk] a big step for linux?
On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Kiran Jonnalagadda j...@pobox.com wrote: I just lost several hours and $10 on a trial order at that site. Wow! No kidding! Everything is exactly in the eh-who-cares-its-so-cheap sweet spot. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Dark Side of the Moon
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.comwrote: Highly recommended - Phish's live take on the album. I'd point to a link, Uh is not this one? http://is.gd/1teK2 -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Dark Side of the Moon
On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.comwrote: Self-same. I must have said I was looking for physical media. Quizzer's curse. :) Since I've never claimed to an audiophile, freely available poor quality MP3s will suit me just fine :) As it turns out - the tribute album that Udhay linked to is proving to be much more difficult to locate. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Best Science book you would recommend to a friend ?
On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote: Wow Charles. Must get hold of this book. A human being with no words for numbers? Incredible Deepa. Deepa - you can hear a lecture that Daniel Everett gave about the Pirahã Indians from the Long Now foundation - http://is.gd/r7r9. TBH, it was this lecture that finally clued in me on the importance of preserving languages and oral traditions (the whole field of anthropology I would say). -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Pink Chaddi Campaign hacked on Facebook
On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Priyanka Sachar priyan...@gmail.comwrote: yes tweets pertaining to this may help.I also feel we could request Scobleizer, techcrunch, Om Malik for some help regarding highlighting this issue on their sites. I'm a fairly lightweight twitterer compared to some luminaries on this list, but FWIW I've kicked it off using the hashtags #pinkchaddi and #facebookfail. More hashtag suggestions are welcome... -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Gmail users since April 2004
On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 5:54 PM, Vinayak Hegde vinay...@gmail.com wrote: I have one from June 2004. That means I have 5 years worth of email on gmail. What do people use here to backup their gmail account and what is the preferred mailbox format. I tried thunderbird but the connection would get reset every once in a while. Having to manually get mail by clicking check/refresh was a major pain. Is there any easy painless way to backup / incremental backup in format that is easily importable in a variety of clients ? -- Vinayak I used gmail-backup successfully for quite some time, but then ran into problems where it would choke on one email (never figured out which one) and refuse to progress. YMMV - http://www.gmail-backup.com/ -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Twitter users
On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Supriya Nair supriya.n...@gmail.comwrote: I'm curious to know if most Twitterers on this list use it via their phone. Do desktop[/etc.] users use it as a substitute for Facebook/blogging, or is it complementary to those experiences? I would use my own Twitter account a lot more if I were a mobile Internet user, I feel - its functions otherwise overlap far too much with the other social media I already use. This is largely why I microblog on Tumblr, which allows me to post multimedia, and keeps my feedback to a minimum. [ / web 2.0 misanthrope ] I think of it as a microblog purely in the sense of if I come across an interesting link on the web, it goes on Twitter. Interesting stuff in my feed-reader goes to the linkblog. I go back and forth on what Twitter means to me personally - at times, it seems like group IM.. at other times more a microblog service that I'm subscribed to. It doesn't personally substitute blogging for me, but what it can do is distract me from blogging. When one has half-a-dozen pet projects and not enough time for even one, having interesting comments / links scroll by constantly can be really distracting. The mobile portion of Twitter honestly doesn't grab me that much - it's still very much a PC-centric experience. On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 6:50 PM, Priyanka Sachar priyan...@gmail.comwrote: I use it on the phone off and on but thru GPRS And not sms. most of my usage is through the web and through a tool called twhirl. +1 On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 7:07 PM, Vinayak Hegde vinay...@gmail.com wrote: I use it over the web mostly. Twittering kills blogging, hogs time and is addictive. +1 again. Also extremely noisy nowadays :(. Um, it's only noisy if you want it to be. I periodically try and cull my following lists and over time, I've come to realize 200 is around the number of folks I can follow without it becoming overwhelming. Your own comfort number may be something lower. On the plus side, it's a good way to get real-time answers from friends and a good filtering mechanism to read interesting stuff on the net. Also true :) -- Balaji
Re: [silk] [Silk] Calling Gadget gurus
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 2:36 PM, Biju Chacko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But you need to be more specific on the kind of gadget geek you want. We have: * Photo geeks * GPS geeks * Hardware geeks * Software geeks * Motor geeks (if you count cars as big, expensive gadgets) and more Which do you want? I suppose by Biju's definition I'd fit into a couple of categories atleast :) Like Cheeni - I'm interested, but I won't be able to put much time into this. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] list 2.0
On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 10:05 PM, Deepa Mohan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am very interested in people's reactions to social networking sites...both plus and minus. My own reaction? Orkut was/is a little too young for me, I have fun in Facebook but have never seen anything remotely serious on it...and perhaps I am unusual, that most of my friends on Facebook are my really face to face friends. Deepa. Not that unusual - I'm the same way. Mostly because I have my full contact info (residential address etc.) on facebook and I don't intend to share that unless I know where you live :P -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Vir Sanghvi on Kashmir
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 12:54 PM, J. Andrew Rogers [EMAIL PROTECTED] Most of Europe has lived with this reality for a long time, for better or worse. I would make the point that one does not invade a country without telegraphing that fact weeks to months ahead of time; there is plenty of time to make those hours to the Capital turn into days and weeks with proper preparations in even the most pessimistic scenarios. I might be mistaken, but I was under the impression that the Indian military was capable of a fairly hardened defense given adequate warning from a country with comparable military technology like Pakistan. That becomes some very costly ground to cover, a fact obvious to even the most delusional Pakistani General. I have very little confidence in the ability of Indian intelligence agencies to even detect the ground moving beneath their feet, far less a potential military build-up in Pakistan. But that is the subject of an altogether different conversation :) You would be right in saying the Indian military is capable of robust defense. My qualification to that is in the right areas. It is no coincidence that the Western Command in India gathers the lion's share of resources. No military general, however deluded, would ever consider attacking across Kashmir where the terrain forces an army to go slow and open themselves up to attack. The flat fields of Punjab are militarily easier and hence correspondingly well defended. The what-if scenario considered the situation wherein the Pakistani army could entirely bypass the natural Maginot line of the Himalayas and start attacking the heart of India's command structure with no natural obstructions to slow them down. If I may, could I ask you to go up to the first link I had posted earlier ( http://is.gd/1L9l ). There is a very specific logic underlying the blue track from the border of Kashmir to Rajpath. That route avoids almost every single large military base to the north of Delhi (there aren't that many to begin with). The attacking force gets the benefit of roads that are well maintained to permit rapid deployment of the Indian Army to Kashmir and turns it against them. The red track on the other hand runs through (or within easy distance of) atleast 2 large military bases in Kashmir - Srinagar and Anantpur. As a final exercise, if I try to draw a straight line from Lahore to Delhi, I will go through the following military bases - Amritsar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Panipat and Meerut. Not to mention a few more that are nearby. [1] [2] It's this enormous difference in military buildup between the North and the West of Delhi that tells me if India did in fact lose Kashmir, the uptick in military spending would be enormous. That was in essence my argument about why losing Kashmir would not reduce military expenditure in India. I think it is a little more complicated than that. The object of the military is to make a country too expensive to invade, and to a lesser extent, attack. There are many ways to maximize the return on investment toward that end, and the logistics of supporting vast land buffers is not particularly efficient by the reckoning of many competent military theorists, largely because the idea is predicated on putting large quantities of military equipment in those buffer zones. Buying time is almost purely a function of the ability to resist, which has only a slight relationship to land distances. One of the basic strategies of the US military that has served it well over the last several decades is to convert the operational expense of massive, region-covering hardware into research-fueled CapEx that creates a buffer at least as hard but with a much smaller logistical footprint -- militaries live and die on logistical footprints. It turns out that for modern military systems, the reduced OpEx of more modern designs can fully amortize the research and CapEx within a decade or so. It is a virtuous cycle of sorts; the more research that is done, the cheaper a given level of military power actually is, in inflation-adjusted currency. It is not intuitive and so many people resist the notion. It might be better to invest the money for supporting a huge land buffer into research and technology that obviates the land buffer in the military calculus. It is not only less costly on many different levels, but investments in technology research tend to pay off for the broader economy in ways that are hard to predict. In short, there is substantial empirical evidence that research and CapEx is much more efficient than dumping resources into OpEx for military purposes, though many people find the notion counter-intuitive. While it was famously said that quantity has a quality all its own, that quality has proven to be ersatz in modern practice. Given a sufficiently hard technology wall, the amount of physical buffer land becomes superfluous and in the worst case buys little more than a
Re: [silk] Vir Sanghvi on Kashmir
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This exchange brings to mind the first episode of Yes Prime Minister in which Jim Hacker and his Chief Scientific Advisor debate whether the Russians would invade Western Europe and when (and if) the PM would press The Button. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_d_vMKswE I can't watch video at work, but I love Yes Prime Minister :) The Pakistani military would be out of its mind to try an out and out invasion. Winning the Peace with an occupational army would nigh impossible. And I suspect the ISI's involvement in funding secessionist groups in Kashmir is part of their Salami tactics. True - but this is entirely a thought experiment.
Re: [silk] Vir Sanghvi on Kashmir
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 1:02 AM, Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Giving up Kashmir would be dumb. Well, lets consider the positives: 1) Elimination of a major, perhaps the major, cause of conflict between India and a neighboring state. a) Lowered military spending. b) (probably) lowered terrorism. c) Lowered risk of conscripts and civilians dying. d) Lowered risk of nuclear warfare. e) The possibility of opening up valuable trade, and significant resultant economic benefits. I have to wonder if I'm rushing in where wiser heads would stay away but still, I couldn't resist piping up :-) I don't agree with the argument of lowered military spending or generally lower chances of military buildup. There is a simpler geographical reality to consider - as the Capital city of a country with enemies on both sides, Delhi is vulnerable - located as it is at the neck of India with hostile states only a few hours away by road on both sides. This is not a pleasant though for most of Indian military strategists. Consider for example that Kashmir was given a plebiscite and did secede to become independent. It is not too outrageous to argue that a state with no industry, limited agriculture and no direct trade routes is going to become a vassal state of its nearest powerful neighbor. Given the inclination of those in Kashmir who demanded the plebiscite in the first place, we can expect that neighbor to be Pakistan. Suddenly, the Indian military establishment is faced with the prospect of having Pakistani MBTs parked about 500 kms away from Delhi. Given the top speeds of the frontline MBTs in the Pakistani army, that's about an overnight drive before you see Pakistani T80s rolling down Rajpath. [1] Compare that to the 900+ Kms that the Indian Army has today, not to mention part of that route is basically fair-weather roads that are only passable in Summer. [1] Also consider that the Indian Army and Pakistani Army are far more evenly matched in the types and quantities of armor they possess today [2] [3] [4] [5] then 40-odd years ago [6]. The above is admittedly a doomsday scenario, but isn't that what all military establishments survive on? To me atleast, there is a simpler truth underlying the political establishment's stance on Kashmir - you give up land, you give up safety. IMO, it's why no expense was spared in fighting Khalistan but the Naxalites are ignored, and why Aksai Chin doesn't matter but Kashmir does. [1] http://is.gd/1L9l [2] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/pakistan/army-equipment.htm [3] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/army-equipment.htm [4] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/t-80-specs.htm [5] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/t-72-specs.htm [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1965#Tank_battles -- Balaji (who is going to regret sending this email 2 minutes after clicking send)
Re: [silk] Vir Sanghvi on Kashmir
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Well, this is an entirely new argument, and not an unreasonable one. Given the incredibly high standard of the discussion on this issue, I have to thank you for tolerating my slightly crackpot view on this :) Your claim, summarized, is that the reason to hold on to Kashmir is not based in any sort of abstraction but merely in the concrete strategic importance of the territory as a buffer zone with a hostile power. I would still question this. First, in a situation where both powers are nuclear armed, is there any realistic possibility that the Pakistani government would believe it could invade and conquer Delhi without large sections of the country becoming radioactive wastelands? Further, given the significant disparity in per capita income, population and consequent military strength, would it be reasonable of the Pakistani government to believe that India would lose such a war even in the unlikely event that it remained conventional rather than nuclear? In short, wouldn't the impossibility of winning deter a war? I agree that the presence of nuclear weapons on both sides, especially with the weak command structure surrounding the delivery of such weapons is worrying. At the same time, I urge you to consider the history of the US-Russia nuclear war documented by Richard Rhodes in his trilogy. Reading that series, a few things become apparent: 1. The military argument was always in favour of strategic nukes - it kept soldiers away from battle; the invention of MIRVs allowed for precise predictable targeting much favoured by military planners (boosted to absurd levels in the McNamara era). Related, the military-industrial establishment milked the enormous expenditure required to maintain strategic nukes for some very nice empire building and additionally, given the difficulty of actually establishing how many weapons the other side possessed, easily justified endless increases in military spending. 2. Tactical nukes were always looked upon in disdain by military commanders. Their effects were too unpredictable in their effects to allow for the type of careful planning that most military commanders, schooled in more traditional warfare preferred. 3. The enormous cost and effect of strategic nukes therefore inevitably lead to political oversight - and every single leader of the US/USSR dreaded the cost of actually pushing the button and commented on the futility of stockpiling such weapons.. even Khrushchev/JFK during the heights of the cuban missile crisis. Despite this insight amongst those ultimately responsible, the fog of disinformation and the paranoia of hawks (like Edward Teller) kept the US and USSR in expensive stalemate. Does any of the above work against a rogue commander actually launching a nuke as a desperate attempt to claim victory? Of course not, but I would argue that the (admittedly short) history of nuclear weapons indicates otherwise. Second, is not a major reason to fear a war, in itself, the possession of the buffer zone in question? It would seem to be somewhat unreasonable to try to prevent a war by maintaining a situation that has been the cause of major conflict. I agree it seems unreasonable, but the political elite might deem it a bloody, expensive form of insurance. On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 11:26 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: [eoe sensible military strategists rather than religious fanatics, on both sides] My own thought on religious fanatics using a-bombs is that the knowledge required to defeat normal safeguards on portable tactical nukes without damaging the intricate electronics required for a chain reaction is not yet fully within thier grasp. Also, given the far easier access to conventional explosives and the presence of their enemy in locations where they have the geographic advantage to attack at will argues against full-blown nuclear strikes by terrorists. Dirty bombs on the other hand are a different ballgame altogether [1] [1] Shameless self-linking: http://blog.balaji-dutt.name/2008/02/10/what-we-owe-to-the-a-bomb/ -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Everyone ok in Bangalore?
It appears that not just cellphones but anything other than good old POTS lines are being jammed -- sent via gmail mobile On 7/25/08, Ashwin N [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 19:06, Srini Ramakrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7525033.stm I hope everyone is fine? The situation seems to be ok. For folks calling into Bangalore, BSNL landlines are working. But cellphone networks seem to be down. It's either due to the jamming by the authorities or the towers are just down due to network traffic or chronic power outages afflicting the city. ~ash -- WC Fields - A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Intro
On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Divya Manian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 7/14/08 10:46 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Who are the other SGers here? :-) Divya Balaji are in. Me, Ashwin K, Deepak Jois, Balaji Dutt AFAIK De-lurking to confirm Divya's suspicions about me haunting this list :P PS: Ashwin - hello there! we meet again :-) Balaji
Re: [silk] Cory's introduction to _Little Brother_
On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 6:01 PM, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I suppose it's the axe to grind bit that keeps me using completely independent alter-egos for when I dip into the seamier side of the Internet, and those alter-egos loop back to each other (and have for about a decade or so now).. What can be linked to me directly is mostly the stuff I'm comfortable associating with [1] and i thought everyone did that :-) Yes I should have known better than to state the obvious on a techie list like this :) -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Recommendation for a good point-and-shoot camera
On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 7:07 PM, Biju Chacko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A bit of googling led me to the Canon Powershot S5 IS (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons5is/). It seems a reasonable compromise of price and performance. It also looks like something I could use to improve my photography skills with. Any suggestions for something better that would fit my needs? -- b Heh I don't actually *own* an S5 (or an S3) but that hasn't stopped from dreaming about one for about 2 years now (in the meanwhile like you I learn to live with my dinky PnS). Another model from Canon that you might want to consider is the Powershot G9 - it doesn't boast the huge zoom range of the S5 and reviews suggest that you have to work with RAW to get the best out of the camera - but the results even at High ISO are quite lovely[1]. One advantage of the S5 over similar super-zooms (the G9 or the Coolpix 5100) is the fact that the lens diameter is relatively standard - so you can buy filters meant for dSLR bodies and use it with the S5 as well [2]. -- Balaji [1] http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/canon-g9-review.html(Possibly NSFW due to ads) [2] http://www.lensmateonline.com/newsite/S2.html
Re: [silk] Cory's introduction to _Little Brother_
On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 2:10 AM, Thaths [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22udhay%20shankar%20n%22num=100um=1ie=UTF-8sa=Ntab=wg Looks like your divorce from Eudora is a long and painful one starting circa 2002: Ah I guess I would a member of that unhappy club as well, although in time I've found that outlook's rules engine is almost powerful as Eudora's was - although not as secure, and definitely not as bloat free. I agree that there isn't anything truly damning. But it took me less than 10 minutes to dig the above. Someone with more time, a better profile of the subject, an axe to grind and a subject that is active on social networks can turn up better stuff than this. Thaths I suppose it's the axe to grind bit that keeps me using completely independent alter-egos for when I dip into the seamier side of the Internet, and those alter-egos loop back to each other (and have for about a decade or so now).. What can be linked to me directly is mostly the stuff I'm comfortable associating with [1] -- Balaji [1] I say mostly because I'm sure there is mildly embarrassing (in a awkward teenager sort of way) stuff out there that I've forgotten about.
Re: [silk] Recommendation for a good point-and-shoot camera
On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 1:39 PM, Biju Chacko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Obviously, I'd like to spend as little as possible. But a quick survey of point-and-shoots tells me that budget isn't a major constraint. -- b Another option that you might want to consider is the Ricoh Caplio GX100[1][2] - it doesn't have quite the optical capabilities of the S5 or the G9, but comes pretty well recommended for street/casual photography as well as macro stuff. [1]http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/caplio/gx100/ [2]http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ricohgx100/ -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Adopted children: sometimes you can't mend them
On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 3:37 PM, va [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article3801614.ece Adopted children: sometimes you can't mend them == It was some years before Melanie found a reference to attachment disorder, and realised that this explained Alex's behaviour. If a child's early life is dominated by fear, she becomes unable to trust another person, and if she can't attach she can't love, or be loved. An episode [1] of This American Life last year had a similar story - an American couple with birth-children of their own adopt a child from Romania and then have to deal with the adopted child's attachment disorder. This particular story though has a happy ending, and it is quite moving to hear the adopted child's speech during a church ceremony. [1] http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1204 -- Balaji
[silk] How did this guy wind up here?
Hello all, I suppose I should begin by telling you the story of how I wound up on this list - typically such stories involve large amounts of beer and semi-forgotten promises, but this is the geek version - it began when a bunch of us decided twitter wasn't enough for group conversations and went back to the basics - IRC! Over time, various people were (mostly reluctantly) made to join our motley crew - one of whom happened to our Honourable Founder - Mr.Digeratus himself :-) . I then pleaded with him to add me to this list, which in retrospect might have been a slightly fool-hardy decision. 20 word bio - Born in Chennai, bought up in Bangalore, did an MBA, working in Singapore as an IT Guy for a company. Interests are typically nerdy - trashy science fiction novels, computer games and recently photography. Given the elevated standard of discourse in this group (which reminds me very much of MetaFilter) I expect my contributions to be rare and pedestrian. *Engages lurk mode.* -- Balaji
Re: [silk] How did this guy wind up here?
On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 9:34 PM, Deepa Mohan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Balaji, Welcome to the list (that is, assuming you joined recently, which may not be right)! Your contributions need not be rare and pedestrian, they can be often and pedestrian, like mine. Well, glad you unlurked for the time/space of an email. Cheers, Deepa. Hi Deepa! I'm still very much a newbie - been a member for about a week now. I've been staring at the draft for my intro for about that long too :-D. I find lurking comes naturally to me, so frequent postings would be too out-of-character for me to handle. PS: I almost top-posted.. *almost*. Phew. -- Balaji
Re: [silk] Supercharge Your Camera with Open-Source CHDK Firmware
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._I.27ve_shot_some_RAW_pictures._How_do_I_process_them.3FOn Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:17 PM, Biju Chacko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Since we have a bunch of hackers on this list who are also photo-geeks: http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Supercharge_Your_Camera_with_Open-Source_CHDK_Firmware Supercharge Your Camera with Open-Source CHDK Firmware Digital cameras have powers beyond what is immediately available to the user. On a standard Canon, for example, the fastest shutter speed option offered is 1/1,600 second, but the hardware can handle much more than that -- up to 1/60,000 of a second. CHDK, the Canon Hacker's Development Kit, is an open-source software project that can be loaded on cameras using Canon's DIGIC II or DIGIC III firmware platforms. It unleashes new features including RAW file format, live histogram display, a battery readout, and the ability to run scripted actions on a camera. CHDK does not replace the existing firmware on your Canon, so the process is completely reversible. The existing firmware stays intact, while the CHDK software is loaded on demand from an SD card. [...] In researching the Canon A650 IS for a friend, I stumbled across the CHDK project and was astonished to see just how much functionality had been deliberately blocked by Canon. At first, I was annoyed that some marketer within Canon decided that such features could not be allowed to seep down to lower camerars to protect the SLR line. After some thought, I realized that even this is not the real flaw - the real flaw in Canon's thinking, atleast that's what I believe, is believing that people who buy dSLRs would abandon them completely the instant they found that the cheaper PnS cameras could do almost everything a dSLR can. That's like thinking people buy sports cars just for the fancy logos on the steering wheel (poor analogy - but bear with me). The people who buy dSLRs broadly fall into two categories - those who buy them because they think it will make them a better photographer and those who get what a dSLR really is. The folks who think buying a bigger camera will improve their photography are inevitably disappointed - though they don't realize that this is mostly due to the manufacturers saddling them with slow medium zoom kit lenses. These folks would probably be better off with a simple PnS that has features like IS and decent optical zoom. These are not the folks who would bother to install the CHDK firmware. The other set of people who buy dSLRs are those who get that a dSLR is a system - the lenses are the real key to a SLR, camera bodies come and go lenses are pretty much forever. For them, RAW files are important and so is stuff like histograms and auto-bracketing. They might enjoy having these features in a camera that is easy to carry around. Yet it is equally true, that these are the folks who care very much about the metadata embedded in every shot they take - information about the aperture, shutter speed and ISO is too vital to be ignored in favour of such features. So it is troubling that the way CHDK firmware writes such metadata is completely non-standard. In fact, most image cataloguing apps like Lightroom and Aperture will not recongize the RAW files at all. Getting them to do requires on to jump through several hoops [1] - upto 2-3 different programs to be run on each file before you can begin the work of rating and editing your images. When one has to process say a 1000 images, those sort of contortions become major obstacles. Given the kind of shot volume that going digital creates, it is probably best that you strip your workflow down to the basics. Thus, it would seem that the folks who would be most interested in unlocking the potential small cameras using CHDK are also the ones who would be most frustrated by it. An interesting dichotomy. [1] http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._I.27ve_shot_some_RAW_pictures._How_do_I_process_them.3F -- Balaji
Re: [silk] How did this guy wind up here?
Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: C P.S. Balaji, Welcome. Thanks CG! Venkat Mangudi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Isn't that a good idea, now? I have been missing all the silk meets thus far. It is still a fabulous idea. Balaji, welcome to Silk. Thanks for starting this. :-) Venkat Venkat - I'm not sure I should accept those thanks, for I fear I have inadvertently helped create a monster here :) -- Balaji
