April 29, 2005

How JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter

As said by a Star Wars fan!


Via Kavitha
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April 28, 2005

Happy 25th Anniversary, Post-It


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Thumbs Up for TFLW's Photoshoot

Sudhish Kamath's movie That Four Letter Word (TFLW) seems to be shaping up well judging from the successful photoshoot. Here's the first look at the film's cast. Looks like a great pick. Kudos to the photographer too.



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You Want To Do With Your Life

Since last evening, I've been highly fascinated with 43Things.com, a site which encourages you to tell the 43 things you would like to do in your life. It's interesting and very encouraging to see other's goals in life.

I'm a firm believer in making wishlists.. It's important to put pen to paper and write down the goals in life. I feel its the first right step in making those wishes come true.

Ok, now back to the 43Things. I've compiled my own list and it was a great experience collating them. I've conciously made sure to only write down achievable goals and things that I'm passionate about. For a long time, I've been very protective and kept these wishlists to self. Now, I have no qualms in revealing them.
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April 27, 2005

Vive Les Blogs : The Second French Revolution

It looks like a great blog event that took place in Paris. I was surprised to hear that French is the second most blogged language after English. Even high profile politicians like ex-Prime Minister of France, Alain Juppe, have their own blogs.

There also seems to be political backing for blogging in France. The Les Blogs event was held in the Senate House! That's the equivalent of an Indian Blog event happening in Rastrapathi Bhavan!

Another startling figure is that almost half of school children in France are bloggers. That's a stupendous 3 million kids rattling away. Whoa!

The blogeur revolution if definitely on!
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April 26, 2005

What's wrong with you, Yahoo! ?

Yahoo! Bangalore is the Web Registration Partner for the marathon. It's such a shame that they don't have an online registration facility. I would've found it very convenient to just pay the registration fee by credit card. Instead, it's very oxymoronish to see a leading web portal request folks to download the form, take a printout, fill it and post it to their office address.
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April 25, 2005

Creative Classroom Fighting

A lesson in how to spend time when the professor does not turn up and you have a free class session.




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April 24, 2005

Peaking up the Marathon Practice

19 more days to go for the Bangalore Marathon and I'm restarting my serious practice. Finishing the Chennai Marthon has been a huge confidence booster. However, I'm keeping my aspirations low this time. I'm aiming at finishing the half marathon. Anything more is a bonus.

If you are participating in the Bangalore Marathon, do drop me a line. I'd love to meet up with you.
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April 23, 2005

Assembled V/s Branded ACs

We are in the market for an AC for home. I did my usual research of all brands. I even checked out the Assembled AC market. This is what I learnt.

1) Almost all leading brands like Samsung, LG, Electrolux, Onida do not manufacture their own equipment.

2) They import in fully built units from China and later brand them.

3) Each 1.0 ton Split AC unit from China costs them around Rs.8000. They sell the same piece for around Rs.20,000 in India. (this is because of marketing cost, logistics and channel costs)

4) Each big Container that is shipped in from China contains 137 AC units.

5) The Chinese companies do not offer any warranty. Instead, they pack in an extra set of 137 compressors for free. This is what the Indian companies use for warranty.

All my suspicision came true. Today, I bought an Electrolux 1.0 Ton Split AC for my bedroom and it shows all signs of being an imported kit. The Electolux AC is the same as the assembled unit that I saw with a local assembler. The users manual is printed on cheap paper with no mention of the brand name.

The worst giveaway is the address printed on the carton. It says,"Manufactured by GD Midea Equipment, Shunde, Guangdong, People's Republic of China".

Damn! I felt like a fool. I could've bought the same unit from the local assembler for just Rs.15,000. Instead, I paid Rs.20,000 believing in Electrolux. @#!&*#%@!^
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April 22, 2005

Support Sharad : Vote for the Photographer of the Year.

I've been a long time admirer of Sharad Aksar's works. He is undoubtedly the best digital photographer in India. And now is a chance for us to help him win a well deserved award. It's the prestigious 'Photographer of the Year 2005' award.

There is a user poll happening here. Before voting, check out some of his snaps below.


There are more photos at his website www.SharadHaksar.com. (the site takes ages to load but worth the wait)

He is currently lagging behind. Go here and cast your vote. Vote for photographer #9. Don't vote just because he is an Indian or a Chennaite. Judge his work for yourself.
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April 20, 2005

Photos from Coorg

My friends, Ravi, Nagaraj, Bala and his wife Thamizh, toured Coorg over the weekend. Ravi, being the avid shutterbug, shot some interesting snaps. Here are a few of them...


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Charging by the situation

Like a dud, I left the lights in my car on. By evening, the battery had drained out. So, I had to hunt for a battery shop and finally found one. He came along with a spare battery and jump started my car. It only took him a minute and he charged me Rs.50. I had to pay another Rs.50 for his tranportation. I thought that was easy money. All he had to do was bring his battery and take it back. How folks charge when they know you are stuck in a quandary!
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Snag Hit !

Strangely today, my site isn't loading up. www.kiruba.com is throwing up a blank page while www.kiruba.com/index.html is loading up the site just fine. Wonder what could be the problem here?

I tried cleaning up files and freeing up space thinking I might've exceeded my quota. Yet, no luck.

I'd welcome your suggestions. Thanks.

P.S : Thanks for the suggestions. Looks like it was a temporary snag. It got resolved on its own.
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April 19, 2005

Holy cow!

Judging from the counter on GMail's homepage, it is now using up 40MB of server space every second. Yeah, every second! It's usage has tripled just in the last one month alone. And they haven't even fully thrown open their doors!

That's a mistake. It's not 40MB per second. It's actually 40 bytes per second. ( Thank goodness I didn't say 40GB !!)
Thanks Arun & Maharajan for pointing it out.
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April 18, 2005

The other side of Buyouts and Mergers

I always wonder why successful companies put itself on the market for sale. I mean, with over $100 million in revenues every quarter, you are doing just fine.

So, why get sold? Is it the pressures of the stockholders and Wallstreet for better performance? Is it because of fatigue that top management gives up? Is it the lure of big and quick money? I wonder.

Wasting the Brand : I've seen great brands killed. SSI technologies is a good example. It started off with just a single training centre in T.Nagar and then phenomenally catapulted to be a Top 10 Software major. Phenomenal growth. I'm in awe with Suresh Kalpathi, the founder CEO.

But now, there is no more SSI. Software division has been sold to Scandent. The education division merged with Aptech. So what happened to the SSI brand? Killed and Vanished.

Products get killed : When rivals merge, one of the two competing products gets killed. And that's sad.

Employee layoffs : This is the toughest part. The uncertanity of your job when a buyout happens is torturous. I can imagine how the employees of Macromedia must be feeling now.
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buys

If you can't beat it, buy it. That's exactly what Adobe did. Adobe and Macromedia were competitors in the the Web Publishing space and Macromedia was scoring clear winners with its Flash MX and Dreamweaver MX. Adobe's own LiveMotion and GoLive stood no chance against Macromedia's Flash & DreamWeaver. And so, the easy way to win the game is just buy your competitor!!

Adobe has a strangle hold leadership in the print and digital imaging market and now they have capped the Web Publishing market too. Smart move by Adobe. Although, at $3.4 Billion, its an expensive buy.

Personally, I'm a trifle sad. Macromedia has been close to my heart. I've had the privelege of being the head of India Macromedia User Group and even sat on the International advisory board. I've got to know some briliantly great guys out there.

Me with Jeremy Allaire, founder of ColdFusion and CTO (then) of Macromedia and Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect of Macromedia.







Me with the heads of US, Germany and France user groups. Awesome folks and brilliant community managers. Guys with sheer passion for Macromedia products.





Now am wondering what would happen to them after this buy out. I hope the equation doesn't change and these great folks continue to be associated with Macromedia.

It always feels awkward to be 'bought over' by your rival. You are made to look like the small guy. I would've preferred a 'merger' where you are equals. But no, its a buy out and that's sort of a let down. But hey, we'll still love Macromedia for the great company its been.
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Perfect Timing!

This photo is one of the finalist in the Photo of the Year 2004. Notice the unborn kid's foot impression on the mom's tummy. It's not easy to take a photo like that.

I should know. I have a wife who is seven months pregnant and I can I can often see the baby's movement inside the womb. But the baby's movements happens pretty quickly and I could never capture that movement on the camera.

Kudos to the photographer for the perfect timing of the shot. As for me, he deserves winning the prize.

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April 16, 2005

Assessing the Post-Tsunami Situation.

Today, I plan to visit the Tsunami affected hamlets along the East Coast Road to see how the folks have been faring. It's nearly four months since the disaster happened and its time to see how effective the government's help has been.

Another important reason for visiting is to clearly assess the present needs of the folks. Karthik and his friends who live in the US had expressed their desire to lend a helping hand. They had sent $500 and had espoused faith in me to help reach the money to the needy.

The pictures below were taken during my visit to Karthik's parent's house in Thiruanmiyur to collect the cheque.



While Karthik's Dad handed over the cheque to me, I requested for a photograph to be taken. He was very reluctant but I insisted. Queasily he posed, while I clicked. It's good to showcase honest intentions. It's inspiring for a lot of other folks to get out there and help.

Even though the money was given quite sometime back, I did not have the inclination to go and distribute the money. The first reason was there was good amounts of money and materials that was distributed by the the government and most of the fisherfolks' basic needs were met. The second and the most important factor was the graft that was happening. There were instances where the donated relief materials were being sold back in the market. So I held back.

I also had alternate idea of using the funds plus my own funds to start a children's club. But unfortunately, I was not able to devote as much time as I would've liked to spend.

I feel the money should go to where it's intended. So, its time to find out what the people's needs are and more importantly the money to be used wisely.
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Our College Alumni Meet



SITians, please spread the word around to your friends you are in touch with.
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Using through Interface.

One of my wishes for Google engineers was to allow usage of personal emails (name@yourdomain.com) using the awesome GMail interface. (just like how Yahoo! Mail allows us to use). So, I figured out a low tech workaround to achieve that.

I've forwarded all my mails from Neomail (that's the barebones email client I presently use) to GMail. In the Gmail settings, I've changed the reply-to address to Kiruba[@]Kiruba.com.

Now, I get the best of both worlds. I get to use my own personalised email id using the awesome features of GMail.

P.S : I know this is NOT a brilliant solution. Is there a better way to do this?
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April 15, 2005

Treasure Trove of Vintage Pictures Discovered.

While cleaning up the attic at our ancestral home in the village of Kondareddipalayam, we discovered photo negatives lying hidden for over 40 years. The negatives were taken to a photo studio and to our surprise, these were photos of our grandparents and great grandparents. To me, its truly like a treasure discovered.


My daughter asked me who the lady in the middle is and I had to explain it to her like, "That's Kollu Awwa, your Dad's Mom's Mom's Mom !! To the right of the pic is my maternal grandmom.



That my grandmom's elder brother with his daughter and wife.

One thing's for sure. I'm gonna safeguard these like treasure and will show them to my grandchildren !
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Right Brain V/s Left Brain

This is an old one. Yet, everytime I get this forward, I invariably try reading it out fast. And I always make a mistake!! :)


(via Kalaivani)
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The Perils Of Being The Eldest 'Mapillai' :)

My brother-in-law's marriage happens next week. Being the eldest mapillai (son-in-law), there's a lot of respect. This actually means more responsibility :)

An important task is to personally invite people. Invitations via telephone, emails or courier is a No No. Personal invitation is important. So, yesterday started off with visits to many homes.

At every home, people insist you drink or eat. Turning it down is not an option. So, within two hours, I've consumed Coffee, Buttermilk, Payasam, Viva, and Pepsi. Take my advice... never try out the combination of these drinks! Oh Boy!
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April 14, 2005

Bangalore Marathon now on May 15

After a couple of false starts, the organisers have finally found enough sponsors to organize the Bangalore Marathon. Hindustan Lever is the main sponsor and the race is called the Lipton Bangalore Marathon.

Ever since the marathon was postponed, my training schedule went for a toss. I wish it hadn't got postponed. I was fresh from Chennai Marathon and it would've been great to carry on the good form. Now, I'll have to re-start training from scratch.

The officials have a stupid rule. The rules say "Anybody wanting to participate will have to show a medical fitness certificate prior to registering at Kanteerava stadium." What about us folks outside Bangalore? Bummer!
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April 13, 2005

Wireless Internet in Chennai looks brighter

It looks like WiMax will reach us faster than we thought. What Wi-Fi (802.11) is for a small area, WiMax (802.16) is for a big area.

Intel says that WiMax enabled chips for Laptops will be read by 2006. That should be a big boost.

Many cities in Southern California are planning to offer Wireless Internet Connectivity just like how they offer electricity and water.

Even though it would be too much to expect Indian government to offer, it's heartening that Dishnet is looking at offering WiMax services in the next 50 days.

In the next 18 months, there are over 6000 hotspots planned. This should see a huge boost in laptop sales not to mention a crash in prices.
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Pavement Surprises







If you thought, these are oversized objects lying on the pavement, look closer. There are actually chalk drawings on a flat floor. It's amazing how Julian Beaver brings realism and depth to his paintings.


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April 12, 2005

Photos From Our Cricket Match

The Intra-Sify cricket competition took place at Mayajaal cricket ground last sunday. Here are the snaps from the day.


That's the pavilion that you see. It contains a bar and a restaurant on the ground floor with a wonderful view of the ground.



Teams warming up before the start of the match.



The match is is in progress. Notice the lush green. It had rained a few days earlier and the ground looks more lushier than usual, we are told. It makes you want to dive on the ground even if the ball goes to another fielder!! ;)



The batting team looking on in full seriousness. That's my team. That's me all padded up (standing next to the guy in yellow T-shirt) as I'm to go in next.

This coming sunday, we fight for the third place position. That means another opportunity to play at the lovely ground. Yayyy!
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Job Opportunity at

The Times Group is looking for a technology writer to write for the Infotech section of EconomicTimes.com . This position is full time and is Gurgaon based. Our very own Codey is responsible for selecting the person and you can send in your CV to codelust[@]indiatimes.com .
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iPod Your Photo



The plethora of accessories and ideas revolving around iPod continues to amaze me. iPodMyPhoto.com is one such idea. You can get your photos tweaked to make it look like the iPod ads, complete with the iPod & the ear plugs. This isn't one of those free things. You need to fork out $20 for a real photoshopper to work on your photo.
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Ransom Notes Generator ! ;)

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April 11, 2005

A Great HotPot Party

When PrinceRoy and SpicyGirl invited us to a HotPot party at their place, I had no idea what it was about. I suspected right it being about food and not the version of hotpot that was done whilst we were at college! :)

I am so totally in tune with their passion for spicy chinese cuisine. I've seen some mouth watering pictures of chinese delicasies on PrinceRoy's blog and I *had* to accept the invitation. Me & my wife did have prior important engagements but ofcourse, that was conveniently pushed away! :)

The couple had just returned from their vacation from Australia & New Zealand and on their way back they picked up a lot of authentic chinese ingredients. I'm told, outside of China, Australia has the largest chinese population.



The table had a sumptious spread of delicasies. A really big spread. Right in the middle was the famous hotpot, which looked like an oversized electric casserole. It was filled with yummy looking thin gravy like liquid.



Right around the hotpot were a wide spread of mostly raw food items. Chicken slices, Pork cubes, Beef balls, exotic flowers (yeah, flowers!!), dried mushrooms that looked like mutton liver, lettuce.. and gosh, I lost count. Phenomenal spread.



The modus operandi : We put the food items that we want to eat into the hotpot and let is cook itself. Then you fish them out using the net like ladle onto your plate and help yourself to it. It took me a little while to realise its self service.

Hotpot restaurants are very famous in China and I saw a coverage of them in Discovery channel. It was a totally new concept and just watching the show made my mouth water. Never had I thought that I would be having hotpot food right here in Chennai. That too, authentic Chinese hotpot.



The hosts had invited an Amercian couple who also work at the US Consulate and a Korean couple who work at Hyundai. It was great getting to know the views from an expat angle.



The Korean couple brought along Soju, a potent rice wine which greatly mimiced Vodka. The funny thing is it came in innocent looking tetrapacks. Heck, if they hadn't told me it was alcohol, I would've thought it to be somesort of milkshake!!



Right through the time, the kids were running amok and were at their boisterous best. They did the usual rounds of damage...their idea of having fun! [sigh!]

The party lasted for over three hours and didn't even realise the time pass by. Prince and Spicygirl have trully upped the bar for great party hosting!
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Mastering the art of eating with Chopsticks

Learning how to use chopsticks has been a long time desire for me. So long that it ended up on three New Year resolutions list! :) I might've finally gotten to cap that. In yesterday's hotpot party at PrinceRoy's place, Spicygirl gave me a crash course on chopsticking. I realise it's so much easier learning by watching an expert. And you can't get a better expert than a chinese national! I've got a good hang of it. I followed it up with reading on the Web. This super simple tutorial was very useful. Now, all I need to do is get my own pair of chopsticks and practise. If all goes well, I should soon be able to strike off one more from this year's new year resolution list! :)

(Photo courtesy : http://www.robsworld.org )
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April 10, 2005

Authentic looking Paypal emails

You can't but help open an email which reads, "Your Paypal account is about to be suspended". You think it's a spam for sure but then there is this small feeling of genuinity inside you that makes you not take chances. The email reads...

" We regret to inform you that your paypal account could be suspended if you don't resolve your billing issues. If your billing is not updated your account will be put on hold. If a hold should be placed on your account,you are prohibited from using Paypal in any way until billing is updated. This includes registration of a new account.

Please note that if your account is suspended any funds you have in your paypal account will be put on hold till this issue is resolved.Please click on link below to update info: http://203.162.1.205/support/support.asp

Best regards,
Safeharbor Department Paypal Inc.
The Paypal Team. "

The url is a clean giveaway. Paypal never publishes its IP address as its url. However, there are many unsuspecting people who would click on the link. The links leads to an exact replica of a paypal registration page. People would fill in the form, thus giving away their vital credit card information. It's a brilliant way to harvest credit card info which can be highly misused. This works anytime better than those tame nigerian emails.

Paypal has put up messages on their site warning of such mails but not many people know about it. This is a sham that people should be aware of.
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April 09, 2005

Cricket at Mayajaal

We played the semi-final match of the Intra-company chamionship at the beautiful Mayajaal cricket ground. It's a superb experience playing on an international standard ground. The entire ground had immaculately trimmed green grass with a turf pitch. This is part of the Sports Village concept which is right behind the Mayajaal movie drome.

Oh well, we lost the match but not without giving a fight. We lost by 6 runs. Our opposition batted first and scored 131 in a rain curtailed 18 overs. We fought hard but were all out for 125. But then, it didn't matter. We had such fun and camaraderie on the field and the experience was something I'll remember for a long time.
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April 07, 2005

What's Your Favorite Deo?

My current favorite is Brut, although I've been using Premium & Park Avenue Deos for a long time. I'm in a mood to experiment. So, I want to take in your opinion.
Guys, which is your fave deo?
Girls, which men's deo do you like best? (anything but Axe. I hate Axe)
Thanks in advance.
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Participating In A RoundTable Discussion

I've been invited to participate in a roundtable discussion on 'Challenges Of Communication Within An Organisation'. This discussion will cover aspects of what ails internal communication within companies, interpersonal skills amongst employees and commitment from management.

The other members part of the discussion are Mr.Raghavan, Former Chairman of Indian Bank, Mr.Suresh Kamath, Chairman & CEO of Laser Soft Infosystems, Mr.Theethan, Accountant General, Tamilnadu, Mr.Ramamoorthy, former Chairman of Corporation Bank and Vysa Bank and Mr.Pandiyarajan, Chairman, MAFOI.

This event is organised by PrimePoint Foundation run by Mr.Sreenivasan.
Day & Date : Saturday, 9th April.
Time : 10:00 AM
Venue : Hotel Palmgrove, Kodambakkam High Road, Chennai.

I look forward to the wonderful networking opportunities that such sessions provide.

I particularly like the concept of roundtable dicussion because, everyone is given equal opportunity to express their opinion. This is so much better than lectures where one person speaks and everyone sits back and listens.
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April 05, 2005

R.I.P. Plaza Theatre



I was really disheartened to hear that the Plaza theatre on M.G Road, Bangalore has been closed down. It will be (or already has been) demolished for another boring high rise building to spring up.

I have fond memories of the theatre. It was one of our regulars during my college days. The best part of the theatre I like is the 'balcony' seats area. The seats are placed on such deep steps that no matter how tall you are, you will never hinder the view of the guy sitting behind you. The balcony seems to slope down so dangerously that I always thought if I tripped, I would tumble down to the ground floor!

March 17th was the theatre's last day. Kiran Jonnalagadda was there during the last show and has taken some very nostalgic pictures of the theatre.
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Google to host Video Blogs.



Yayyy! This is fantastic news. I've been waiting for such a service. I did try my hand out at audio blogging and gave a thought for video blogging but the fear of bandwidth utilization kept me away from them. Now that Google is ready to take care of hosting, I'd now be very interested.

I can finally dust the cobwebs off my Sony handycam and put it to good use. Can't wait for them to launch the service.
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Superb Advertising concept

I was browing through InternetWeek.com when I saw this brilliant ad concept. Working in a company that also owns a portal, I thought I had seen all varieties of online ads. But this is simply brilliant. Click this link. Wait for the page to load. And move your mouse to the top right corner of the page. Brilliant.
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The Beginning Of The Rowing Season

Today marked the start of the rowing practice for the prestigious Merchants & Bankers Regatta Championship. The race is scheduled for September but we are starting our practice very early.

Sify Rowing Team is the defending champion (infact we won it the last five years in a row) and we want to make sure we cream the competition this time too. However, competition this year is going to be very very tough and we don't want to take any chances.

The weather in Chennai is amazing now. It's cloudy, cool and just the perfect weather for Rowing. It even rained cats and dogs in morning. Rowing during rain is a beautiful experience. It's those times I really look forward to. Ofcourse, one needs to stop at intervals to empty water from the boat!

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April 04, 2005

Down Memory Lane : Ethnic Day at College.

Back in 1993 , when I was in my 3rd year in Engineering, me and a bunch of friends started a tradition called the Ethnic Day. This is the day when people come dressed in the traditional attire of their state. I was particularly proud of my college for the wide diversity of folks studying here. We had students coming in from pretty much every state in India. ( Heck, we even had a girl from Lakshwadeep from my senior batch.)

The idea was a big hit. The campus was a riot of colours and has a festive atmosphere. This was one of the initiative that I was proud of.

I always thought this initiative had died out after we left college. That was until a student from the college mailed me the following snaps today of the Ethnic day celebrations that took place this year. He had gotten to know from the Prinipal that we had started this tradition and mailed in his appreciation.

You should've seen me beam! :)

    
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April 02, 2005

Laptops at unbelievable prices...but is it for real?

A colleague, who was also interested in buying a laptop, had pointed me to this site www.MobileYardSale.com. It had almost unbelievable prices for laptops.

A brand new Compaq 2031 which costs Rs.59,990 is available for Rs.31,000 only. An IBM ThinkPad R51 which costs Rs.58,000 is available for Rs.33,000. Apparently all these are brand new laptops with one to three years warranty.

It seems to be a shop in Bangalore judging from the contact phone numbers. Mobile - 98804 41546 and landline: 080-30900605. My colleague had got these from an advt from Sulekha classifieds. Both the numbers could not be reached.

I smell something fishy about this. The prices are too good to be true. Can someone from Banglore throw some light on this?
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April 01, 2005

Great Copywriting !

I saw this hoarding for GRT Jewellers near the Adyar bridge. One of the best adlines I have seen. I'd love to meet the copywriter who thought of this line.

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