The Corner of Mads

Taste of Kerala

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:44:29 GMT

The most interesting series that I've recently discovered on Youtube is Amrita TV's Taste of Kerala series. Unfortunately, you need to be able to understand spoken Malayalam to be able to enjoy the programming, but if you do, you are in for a treat.

The intent is to travel around Kerala (and amusingly enough parts of the US) getting local and regional special dishes cooked by families and individuals. The effect is spectacular, with this week's uploads providing a good glimpse into why this is addictive:

Adamanaga Pulingarry : Dried green mango curry
Vaazhappindy Perakku : Banana stem side dish
Paavakka Achaar : Bitter gourd (or bitter melon) pickle

I check this weekly. The episodes where the host travels to the US are specifically amusing: salt dispensers, the relative size of onions and dried coconut flakes are amongst the things I take for granted, but are still unusual from an Indian perspective.

Complete unknown

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:50:35 GMT

Here are three things:

Shah Rukh Khan is frisked at the airport.
Bob Dylan is detained for suspicious loitering.
Ravi Shankar, a Central Connecticut State University professor of English (Indian and 6 feet 2 inches, 200 pounds) is arrested on a warrant for a 5'10" 140 pound white male in New York.

Which of these did you hear about?

Sailing by Panama

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:19:07 GMT

So with Bing being behind Yahoo's search, many pieces of the Panama project that I worked on will be put to rest.

When I first read that a full 1/3 of the software that gets built never gets used, I initially naively believed that it would not be true for me. I guess a system being used for a little while is still better than not at all.

Youtube JP prank videos

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:36:12 GMT

Please do not do this when you are near a drink that can spill over you or have something important to go to do. This will make you waste considerable time, but nearly all of it laughing.

Someone at work mentioned an amazing prank that involved a porta-potty in a park being reconfigured so that it then eventually opened into into a meeting in progress. That lead to a whole series of pranks that this Japanese TV show carries out.

None of these I suspect would be possible anywhere in the US. Even then, someone suing for a considerable amount of money is a given.

Redfin is profitable

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:44:35 GMT

Among the many things recently that I've found very surprising, some real estate agents refuse to work with you (aka show their listings) if you indicate that you found their listing on Redfin. How self defeating can you get? There's a 3% of profit out there if you take the trouble to show homes to people who are interested in them. If you don't, someone will eat your lunch for you.

I sometimes wish I could post up a list of agents who gave me a tirade on why the Internet Is Bad for their business and how I'm a horrible person for using Redfin. For a moment, consider this: you are the seller and your (friend/buddy/colleague) tells you that your agent just spoke to a prospective buyer in that manner. What do you think is likely to happen? Do you really want to do that?

I'm thrilled with Redfin, I couldn't find a smarter, better and well thought out site. I'm also thrilled about the announcement that Redfin is profitable. I liked their seminars, they were clever and pointed out why working with them is good; but didn't act all clingy and creepy and force you to work with them. I think this techcrunch is dead on here, if I was in the traditional real estate industry, I'd be shuddering as well.

3 days to the Palm Pre

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:57:29 GMT

If history is anything to go by, then in about 3-6 months, the initial kinks get worked out and the price gets a little bit more realistic.

My old Treo 680 is steadily going downhill (battery charging for a start). I suspect I might just have to go to a iPhone if there is no unlocked GSM option (I'm on ATT) for the Pre.

Admittedly, I've never even turned on the iPod I got after Panama, so the Apple gadget fear runs deep....

Interesting Election results coverage

Sat, 16 May 2009 07:11:35 GMT

After much work, I tried to get NDTV Live to watch the election results (mostly due to old memories of elections with Prannoy Roy). Perhaps it's me, but the older NDTV appeared much more professional, cool and sophisticated. Perhaps, it's just that I've gotten older and I can see how they are making mistakes or it's just that they just prefer to interrupt people all the time now....

The other interesting point was that this election was the first one after the census based delimitation exercise. The first elections for "urban" India (yes, I know that some of my friends will get after me, India still lives in it's villages, but the shift is well underway). The most compelling data point for me is that the national parties are back. All talk of elections being local and nothing else, split, narrow and parochial are rather unfounded.

You know you have it good when...

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:29:15 GMT

the work cappuccino machine has a "South Indian coffee" setting. I expect my coffee intake to skyrocket.

In other news, I'm in Bangalore for a super short visit.

Not a good way to get sales

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:17:38 GMT

From the so weird, it can't be possibly happening dept:

"Let's say you're a defense-company marketing executive. And you want to make a splash at the Indian defense ministry's annual air show. Do you:

(a) buy expensive gifts for New Delhi's generals;
(b) treat the press to Kingfishers and samosas;
(c) produce a Bollywood-esque video featuring bare-midriff girls, flower-draped missiles, and the catch phrase "dinga dinga dee?"

Unfortunately for us, Israeli arms-maker Rafael chose C."

The actual hysterical article is at Wired Israeli Armsdog-Millionaires Assault Bollywood, Good Taste (tip of hat to Silk).

ATT good customer support, but strange bill

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:45:48 GMT

I ended up with a weird "One Time Charge - No Tax" $50.00 charge on my latest ATT bill. After calling, I got through eventually to a very nice customer care representative, who then was able to reverse it and was equally mystified as to what was going on.

When I was there, I decided to get rid of Roadside Assistance as well. If you are on ATT and are not being careful, you are losing $36 a year.

Oh well for the joys of opt out automatic signing up for deals you never wanted.

Bookending (heh) a month

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:34:05 GMT

Just wanted to capture a sense of how busy and weird this month has been.

Work, more work and yet more work. A significant release that was pushed out to next month. Plans for travel to India that are currently in flux. A new baby boy for a dear friend. Bugs, bugs and more bugs. Performance reviews and writing a gazillion review documents. Car fixes and cold start problems. Snow in Seattle in February. Watching Slumdog Millionaire a day after the Oscars. House hunting that never seems to end. Making pasta with Sriracha for heat. Shopping to finish VSP before a deadline.

India after Gandhi

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:26:56 GMT

I have a new beloved book to recommend "India after Gandhi:The History of the World's Largest Democracy" (tip of the hat goes to various folks on Silk, who's recommendation made me go read this book)

For a while, I've been ranting and raving about a lack of contemporary Indian history. This book does a lot of it. Not enough for the last decade, but I can put that down to being around in those years. But if you haven't read it and are remotely interested in India, do yourself a favour. Get it now.

RK Narayan and Alexander Mccall Smith

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:14:05 GMT

Sometime ago I'd indicated that the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series reminded me of RK Narayan. More confirmation on how they are linked via the Deccan Herald.

"Narayan's insight, biographical writing style and deeply humane humour not only influenced me as a writer, but gave me immense pleasure as a reader"

Mensis Horribilis

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:28:09 GMT

Much like a Annus Horribilis, this month (mensis) is turning out to be sufficiently horrific.

First, it started out with an innocuous snowball of a problem at work that started rolling sometime last December. That just kept rolling and gaining steam until it became this annoying large hassle. Having fixed that another more predictable and preventable wood splinter of a problem just wedged itself into my hand.

Sufficiently annoyed with life this week, it proceeded to get worse. A place (the second, if proper score keeping is to be adhered to) that I was looking to move into got snatched right out of my hands. Gaah. Finally, to add insult to injury, my car refuses to start. Jump starting seems to indicate that something else other than the battery is at work. Like someone said at work, the only great thing about now - more than half the month is already gone.

And, to think, I've yet to start on a week.

Treasury of Short Stories

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:55:42 GMT

If the first ICSE post wasn't enough, a nudge from sidcarter lead me to to a blog post where another old textbook - the Treasury of Short Stories is being tracked down by the interwebs.

It's slightly unusual to believe that for example Sir Patrick Hastings (worthy of a rather long wikipedia article and a story pored over by countless students) has no copy of his story "The Lost Pearls" up anywhere on the internet!

I have to go poke around with my old textbooks store at home.

Kabir ke Dohae - anyone have the version from ICSE textbooks?

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:50:23 GMT

In school, in one of the ICSE Hindi textbooks, we had a set of Dohae (or two line poems) from Kabir. Today, I was suddenly reminded of them.

After no end two trying different spellings and search terms (and two search engines), I have to confess, that I'm at a loss for finding the set of poems that I had originally studied. Now I realize that what might have been in the textbook is neither canonical nor exactly ordered, but my memory lends itself to the poetry having a certain cadence and meter, which I'm missing now.

Boye Ped Babool Ke,
Aam Kahan Se Khaye

Sigh.

No Knead == No Need Bread

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:24:55 GMT

After hearing and reading so much about Jim Lahey's No Knead bread recipe, I tried it. And again. And finally, on the third attempt, it's something that reasonable to eat. Yet, not spectacular. The first time around, I used a 100% whole wheat flour. The second time, it was too little yeast. This time, it was too much water.

On the other hand, the fact that the recipe produced edible results after me mucking around with it is a testament to how idiot proof it is. The idiots shall persevere. And perhaps inherit the loaf.

The smell and taste of freshly baked bread is a strong motivator. Try it, it is really simple!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:23:48 GMT

Seattle has had a cold wave and the attendant snow that goes with it. Here's a photograph of the street outside our home:

It's very strange, after this first snowfall, I'm strangely wistful. Memories of snow showers and bus stop waits. Of Ithaca and the year in Cornell. Taxi rides and sleeping over at the MEng lab. I never thought that I'd either be wistful or look back fondly at snowfall. I now realize that I have a lot of positive memories about winter and snow.

Amazon DevPay goes GA

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:27:21 GMT

Amazon DevPay is now out of limited beta and available generally.

That's a good thing.

RIP Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:18:10 GMT

Ever since the violence in Mumbai started, I've been wary of checking email. Checking the news. Reading news articles. I actually turned off the television.

And today, from a phone call from India, I get the first communication. A school senior Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan died fighting the terrorists in Mumbai.

I heard a great many things from my classmate in the NDA, of Sandeep and his generosity. A FAPS lifer like me, over the 13 years that we were together at school, it was inevitable that we'd run into each other. I remember him as a D'Mello house captain. I remember him as a senior who broke and held the long jump record. I remember him as someone who ever so gently went through life. My heart goes out to his parents and family.

Another senior has written more about Sandeep here.

Jerry Yang to step down from the position of CEO of Yahoo.

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:58:58 GMT

So, after all the chaos settles, I wonder how folks will remember Jerry. He is, after all, an exceedingly nice guy. Although, perhaps not the best CEO that there could have been.

Given that average stock portfolios have tanked 31%, YHOO has declined nearly 47%. If he'd have taken the Microsoft offer, he would have been hailed as a genius. The savior of stockholders. Some time ago, when Terry was being paid ~ 235 million a year, we all had argued that the big $$ were for making the big decisions. Easy to say now with hindsight, but for walking away from the $31 offer, he left a lot of $$ on the table.

I wonder how he will take it himself, given his reflective and thoughtful nature...

Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:13:48 GMT

For a while now, there had been multiple references to books by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It got to the point where I could hardly turn before I had a reference in my face.

Giving in, I placed holds on the books in the library to discover and enormous wait time, even for the excellent Seattle Public Library. The books, I must report, did not disappoint. Both Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan were excellent. They required rather close attention and several reads of interesting chapters before I was sure I obtained the necessary understanding that was being sought.

Suitably equipped, I went through my awareness of events to determine a black swan not part of the well known set (Internet, PC, 911, etc). My final Rs0.02 to this - India winning the World Cup in '83. That's a black swan. Rare and unpredictable frequency (once!), check. Massive impact, (center of cricket universe to begin moving to India) check. Hindsight logic and reasons being devised (mohinder amarnath's swing bowling!), check.

What do you think?

Sometimes, the optimists win

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:51:19 GMT

Sometime ago, when I was working at Y in California, I had the good fortune of working with an eclectic and superb group of friends. The group worked closely and met every day for lunch. Lunch discussions were wide ranging usually involving the world, politics, algorithms and stock predictions.

We had a staunch capitalist, having his share of stories of the Soviet Union and the California experience. Another was the detail oriented superman, tracking the betting performance of the group and arguing for benevolent dictators. A third was into managing corporate relationships and was the window into the advertising world. Another is the subject of this particular post - a product manager who was widely read and wise, kick ass technically and a joy to work with. He was also someone I leaned on to understand the "American" perspective.

So, in 2004, when talking about the Democratic convention, I asked him what he thought of the chances of an unknown senator from Illinois who'd given an impressive speech. I'd casually thought that it would be interesting to for example, imagine Hillary running in 2008. For someone so positive and upbeat, he turned around and said something that surprised me. He was rather convinced that it would be many more years before either a minority or woman candidate would be viable. In his words, America was far more conservative and not yet ready for such large steps. His point was that North Carolina was, for example, not the Bay Area in terms of cultural assimilation and awareness. I was rather naively more optimistic about inclusiveness. (admittedly, I'd traveled very little through the country at that point). We ended that conversation inconclusively.

All throughout the presidential campaign, when I would think of the possibility of an Obama victory, my mind would go back to his words. So, on November 4th when the news channels are declaring an Obama victory I'm reminded of that conversation. I wish I'd setup a bet. North Carolina for example, is leaning for Obama. T, you owe me.... this is one of those bets for lunch that I know you are glad to lose.

Sometimes, the optimists win.

The email deluge never reduces

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:29:17 GMT

It's surprising, but no sooner do you get an email id and the information flow is immense. If you take a few days away from working and beating down the email fire hose, it can flood back. This series of articles talk about Inbox Zero, an idea that has resonated with me:

You have no control over the world’s demands on your time and attention, yet you are the single person who has any choice over how you deal with it.

If you also deal with large amounts of email at work or otherwise, these articles are an interesting read.

CIKM 2008 and the Bay Area

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:38:11 GMT

Some of the work that I'd been doing over two semesters in Cornell was put together into a paper at CIKM 2008. So, I traveled to the Bay Area and drove up to Napa each day to attend. The conference was excellent and I had a really good time meeting up with my professor. I also stopped by the a9 offices in Palo Alto which was very interesting - it's at a great location.

I got to meet after a really long period. Even though it was a rushed hurried meeting, it was the first time I've seen him in a while, so it was really good. A good part of the trip was also the fact that I got to eat a really great Deepavali home meal. A really large meal. A really great meal - with classical dishes that I'd forgotten and missed. Yum.

Finally, spending time with my nephew S is amazing. As he babbles along, I'm able to tease out meaning and coherence. I can sense a Person growing. I feel a sense of joy that is difficult to describe. I'm worried and terrified of him as he walks - while he adjusts for differences in floor surfaces and sharp corners. He turns his head suddenly and my heart catches in my throat. Somehow, spending time with him is walking a tightrope walk between the highest peaks of the world. There's a sense of unspeakable awe and sheer blinding terror all at the same time.