Re: [silk] Food spoilage question
Rajesh Mehar writes: > Gautam John likes to leave fish fry out overnight to get a nice > souring taste in... Works well with a nice oily fish like mackerel. Don't skimp on the oil for frying either. The fish seems to become softer and more delicate. -- Alok Corry's Law: Paper is always strongest at the perforations.
Re: [silk] best indian whisky and rum ?
Mahesh Murthy writes: > Not sure why the crowd here seems to be against the idea, but I find Sula's > wines as good as any I've had anywhere else. I think I've mentioned it before but Grover's have a wine tasting tour and you can buy the wine there. The wine from there tastes better than what you get in retail. -- Alok DeVries' Dilemma: If you hit two keys on the typewriter, the one you don't want hits the paper.
Re: [silk] best indian whisky and rum ?
Rajesh Mehar writes: > I would second (or is it third) the Amrut range. They have 3 variants. So during the tour of their distillery, I discovered that they actually have some 26 variants. It's hard to find anything other than Fusion in the usual booze shops though. The PR guy said that they export to some outlets in the UK, but he wasn't too clear on who they were... This month and a bit, the weather in Bangalore is perfect for some peaty, smoky whiskys. Obligatory thread drift: http://erniebutton.com/?portfolio=vanishing-spirits-the-dried-remains-of-singlemalt-scotch -- Alok Whether you can hear it or not, The Universe is laughing behind your back. -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorata"
Re: [silk] Books and libraries
Bharat Shetty writes: > Anyone on this lists borrow books regularly from libraries in > Bengaluru ? I still frequent Eloor (Infantry Road). They are a bit old-school and not as easy as Just Books but if you like that sort of thing, it's a good nostalgia fix. -- Alok This is NOT a repeat.
Re: [silk] Introduction
Hey Rajesh. Small world. Do share your gourmand adventures. There are a fair number here. -- Alok Mix's Law: There is nothing more permanent than a temporary building. There is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax.
Re: [silk] Query on Indian-made wines
Charles Haynes wrote: > Anyway, I found Indian wines (including Grover's La Reserve, Reveilo, > and top end Sula) of five years ago basically undrinkable Grover's do a wine tasting session at their vineyards near Bangalore. Here you get to taste their wine as it was intended and it is world-class. Apparently, the reason it tastes so bad when you buy it in retail outlets is excise practices, the wine is exposed to the elements in a excise bonded warehouses for months sometimes. If you are around BLR, and like wine you should make a trip there. It's 500 per head for just wine tasting and 850 for lunch as well. I'd recommend the lunch and a larger rather smaller group. Don't even get me started on the price/quality ratio of the imported wine available in India. PS. If anyone has seen New Zealand Golden Ridge (?) pinot noir in BLR please do let me know. -- Alok for ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING!!
Re: [silk] Any Mozilla Addons
Deepak Misra wrote: > As might have been obvious to all except me, I see now that the mails > intended for Deepa have gone to silklist. This is particularly a problem with silk-list as it uses mail-followup-to in a non-standard way. I mitigate it setting broken-reply-to in the group parameters in Gnus. YMMV. -- Alok Death is nature's way of saying `Howdy'.
Re: [silk] of snoozing and retirement
Charles Haynes wrote: > On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 7:03 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan > wrote: >> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Ingrid wrote: >>> In the situation we currently find ourselves in as a species, it might be >>> nomadic values - the limiting of wants to match available resources and the >>> complete absence of asset accumulation, for instance - that are worth >>> emulating rather than the physical characteristics of that lifestyle. >> No where in the past have humans limited their wants to match available >> resources. If any, we are the only species that has managed to revitalise >> and supplement earth's resources, simply because we wanted more. > Not true. Look up Japanese forestry during the Tokugawa era. Sure. And there are numerous other examples too. But Chandrachooran raises a valid point about /usually/ not limiting wants to available resources. -- Alok Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur. [Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.]
Re: [silk] Glaeser on Moses, Jacobs and What a City Needs
Apropos the time period, I recently read Jed Ruberfeld's Interpretation of Murder. A middling psycho-thiller but he has lovingly described fin-de-siècle New York. -- Alok In general, if you think something isn't in Perl, try it out, because it usually is. :-) -- Larry Wall in <1991jul31.174523.9...@netlabs.com>
[silk] Python conference
A friend of mine is organising a PyCon in Bangalore during the last week of September. More details are available at the conference site [1]. #pyconindia is the hashtag, if you would like to talk about it. Footnotes: [1] http://in.pycon.org/2009 -- Alok You are not dead yet. But watch for further reports.
Re: [silk] Udhay's going to be arrested on weapons charges :)
Charles Haynes wrote: >> Pure capsaicin oleoresin is probably manufactured in some foreign country > "Probably?" Why do you think OC is not manufactured in India? I thought there was a plant in Kerala. -- Alok Comedy, like Medicine, was never meant to be practiced by the general public.
Re: [silk] Indian foodies
Charles Haynes wrote: > When it arrived, it was swimming in a puddle of fat, and had been > cooked completely through till it was chewy. This is just personal, but I like the foie gras to have crispy bits at the edges. And to be recognisably a bit off a liver. Now, I've never cooked foie gras at home, so I'm not sure if you put it on a very high flame to burn bits while keeping the inside moist. > The waiter was shocked, and the chef came out to ask what the problem > was. Out of curiosity, who was this luminary chef ? > I had a similar problem trying to order duck in Bangalore. It got to > the point where I wondered if there wasn't something about Indian > ducks that made them always come out that way, so I ordered a whole > duck from our local cold storage place, I have not been able to procure a decent duck in Bangalore. And I've been here all my life, so this is quite embarrassing. This is not the cold storage on Infantry road cross just up the road from your apartment is it ? The somewhat passable duck from Caperberry has been the best in recent times. A Mallu chef put it rather cryptically, "I cannot get duck from water here". Every year or so I try again, asking maids and finding a new place to buy ducks, but it ends in tears. As an aside, Karavalli (in the Gateway), back in the day (I'm talking 15 years here) had an awesome 'nadan' duck. > Both of these examples actually serve to illustrate the basic > conservatism of most Indian diners, even ones adventurous enough to > try new cuisines. They seem unwilling to take the cuisine on it's own > terms, rejecting bits that are "too foreign." Indians are not alone in > this of course - westerner diners do it all the time, the difference > being that you *can* find "authentic" ethnic restaurants in most large > american, european, and australian cities, not just the westernized > versions. Sure. Because the authentic ethnic people whose cuisine it is live there. They would probably reject Larousse as "too foreign". People are the same everywhere. I don't think restaurateurs strive for authenticity as much as business sense. The exceptions are usually featured on TV in the company of Antony Bourdain :) >> as well as cured meats (again quite expensive). > Again, charcuterie is, to a first approximation, the curing of pork. > The things you think are examples of cured meats are a travesty. When > I left Bangalore I believe there were two purveyors of cured pork > products (other than bacon and ham) in all of Bangalore, and one had > just launched. And it's all vacuum packed stuff. Not that I have anything against vacuum packed stuff. I love the vacuum packed Danon salami that you get in France. But Tapas brand 5mm think salami doesn't do it for me. Even most of Sunny's cured meats are vacuum packed. -- Alok Stay away from flying saucers today.
[silk] Tintin and Asterix (was: Archie proposes to Veronica next month ..)
lukhman_khan wrote: > Can anyone tell me where i can find the whole TINTIN and Asterix set? > (on the net) To order or to download ? Easy enough with the former, I've seen it on Rediff Shopping and indiaplaza for about 10k for Asterix and 6k (iirc) for Tintin. The latter is just a query away. -- Alok BOFH excuse #254: Interference from lunar radiation
Re: [silk] Longer neck doesn't mean you get lucky more often
Kiran K Karthikeyan wrote: > Wasn't able to find the specific article, but based on your post I did some > searching and found this instead - I did search as well but the book that I must have read it from is either not online or is so poorly structured that even Google can't find it. However, I did find a most entertainingly written blog[1] which reviews animals like consumer goods. Footnotes: [1] http://animalreview.wordpress.com/ -- Alok All life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities. -- Dawkins
Re: [silk] Longer neck doesn't mean you get lucky more often
There was a fascinating account that I read between the arms race between giraffes and the acacia trees that they feed on. One of the finest examples to illustrate the complexity and sophistication of the plant kingdom. I do not have a link to share but perhaps one of you do ? -- Alok The coast was clear. -- Lope de Vega
Re: [silk] Bangalore Meetup on May 16?
Ravi Bellur wrote: > When do they shut down the alcohol purveyors? I've seen notices at two of my regular haunts that they will be closed _all_ of the 16th and 17th. YMMV, of course. Happily, booze doesn't expire. -- Alok All seems condemned in the long run to approximate a state akin to Gaussian noise. -- James Martin
Re: [silk] modem phones
Pranesh Prakash wrote: > The ZTE card repeatedly crashed my system with the Linux > 2.6.27-11-generic kernel / Ubuntu 8.10. YMIsV, I suppose. The black one ? AC800 ? I'm surprised that it crashes your system. It only needs usb-serial to work. I'm on Debian sid myself. -- Alok One planet is all you get.
Re: [silk] modem phones
Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: > BSNL's EVDO data cards don't have roaming and are limited to 144 > kbps. The speed is dependant on the exchange. 144 kbps is the limit for all CDMA 1x (called 1xRTT, I think) exchanges. For EVDO capable exchanges, I've seen speeds upto 1 Mbps. I have not been able to find a list of exchanges and their capabilities, but the Indiranagar exchange is EVDO capable. The ZTE cards work reasonably well with GNU/Linux. -- Alok Those lovable Brits department: They also have trouble pronouncing `vitamin'.
Re: [silk] Postal voting in India
Amitha Singh wrote: >> Register again at Mumbai or vote through post? Is the latter option >> even available for non-armed-services folks in India? AFAIK (I did try this when I was in college), postal ballots are only allowed for the armed forces or people of 'official duty'. Say an official is sent elsewhere for election duty. -- Alok Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around us in awareness. -- James Thurber
Re: [silk] Introduction
Nikhil Mehra wrote: > Some of you know me from that other venerable list called Satin, Or from the venerable centre of excellence in sunny Nagarabhavi :) -- Alok Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do. -- Turgenev
Re: [silk] Unskilled and unaware
Charles Haynes wrote: > I'm hoping for new cool stuff. How does one strike a balance? Ah. Point taken. Personally, I've never bothered about whether cool stuff is new or not before posting it. Cool stuff stands on its own, imho. Checking list archives to see if it has been posted before is usually enough. -- Alok What happened last night can happen again.
Re: [silk] Unskilled and unaware
Charles Haynes wrote: > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 1:17 AM, Alok G. Singh wrote: >> I'm surprised no one has forwarded this to me already with a snarky >> comment ... > We knew you wouldn't get it. Heh. I did get the snarkiness of your comment though. Don't try so hard next time :) > [The study it's based on is not recent.] The four studies in the paper I assume are of the same timeframe as the publication of the paper -- 1999. Is that so long ago as to be outdated? I would think that a study on human behaviour in the Iron Age would still be relevant now. Or was your point about non-recentness something else ? -- Alok "We don't have to protect the environment -- the Second Coming is at hand." -- James Watt
[silk] Unskilled and unaware
>From today's Miscellanea [1]: Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments [2] Abstract: People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities. I'm surprised no one has forwarded this to me already with a snarky comment ... Footnotes: [1] http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/ [2] http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf -- Alok An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.
Re: [silk] wow, what an editorial from the grave...
Ingrid wrote: > Try Gideon Levy in Haaretz: http://makom.haaretz.com/face2face.asp Thank you. I had forgotten to mention that I was looking for English editorials but this is just fine :) -- Alok I don't know what Descartes' got, But booze can do what Kant cannot. -- Mike Cross
Re: [silk] wow, what an editorial from the grave...
Rishab Ghosh wrote: > or even a palestinian one. Sure. I am just looking for similarly intellectually honest editorials from Israel. -- Alok About the only thing on a farm that has an easy time is the dog.
Re: [silk] wow, what an editorial from the grave...
Wow is right. Are there are similar editors in Israel whose editorials are available ? -- Alok Old Grandad is dead but his spirits live on.
Re: [silk] BW: How Risky Is India?
ss wrote: > Try Wiki. It might make sense Wikipedia does. Sometimes. Not in this particular case though. Even the article you cite says that it is a misnomer. I did not intend to debate the MFN status and its status in the current global economy, I was just trying to understand your original point about its effect on Pakistan. -- Alok "It is hard to overstate the debt that we owe to men and women of genius." -- Robert G. Ingersoll
Re: [silk] BW: How Risky Is India?
ss wrote: > With respect you have no idea how Pakistanis have refused to respond > to offers of trade and the idea of giving each other a "most favored > nation" status for trade. Nations still do the MFN-dance ? I thought that went out of fashion with the y2k bug. Didn't make particular sense anyway. -- Alok People love high ideals, but they got to be about 33-percent plausible. -- The Best of Will Rogers
Re: [silk] Speed - The Movie
Giancarlo Livraghi wrote: > The real problem is that most of those movies are quite boring - and > the imagination is unimaginative. I agree. Many /good/ movies play fast and loose with the laws of physics as we know them. -- Alok BOFH excuse #112: The monitor is plugged into the serial port
Re: [silk] Speed - The Movie
Gautam John wrote:
> ... there is a scene where the bus jumps over a break in a bridge
> [2]. My question is what speed would the bomb/speedometer register
> when the bus is airborne? I'm thinking the bomb should have gone off
> when in the air...
AFAIK, the speedometer relies on wheel/transmission revolutions so, a
foot on the gas pedal should be enough to ensure that the speed does not
drop below 50 mph.
There is of course the problem that the jump is physically impossible.
--
Alok
liiwi: printk("CPU0 on fire\n");
Re: [silk] Airtel Redirecting?
Srini Ramakrishnan wrote: > P.S. I've been planning on flashing my WRT54G for a while now - to run > DNS and other cool stuff Do so without delay. I also didn't do it for a long time assuming that it would take some time to setup. But with Tomato [1], the entire process of downloading, flashing and getting back to work took not more than 5 minutes. I found that it had copied over all my configuration (except port forwarding) from the old firmware on my GL v1.1. Footnotes: [1] http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato -- Alok BOFH excuse #338: old inkjet cartridges emanate barium-based fumes
Re: [silk] online photo album printing...
On 22 Oct 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> Gah. Am I the only one who's got his ssh screen session garbled? rxvt-unicode [1]. Should be packaged already for your distro. Footnotes: [1] http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode -- Alok Breadth-first search is the bulldozer of science. -- Randy Goebel
[silk] [Help] Map data for Bangalore
Is there any readily available tiles in some wkb format ? I see that Mapunity have some decent maps for Bangalore, but their website doesn't say too much about their GIS data. I took look at OpenStreetMap and it seems low on content. Also, extracting the tile data for Bangalore look a little involved. The reason I ask is that I'd like to use the GPS in my Freerunner with a decent map, so if someone has any ideas about achieving that, I'd much appreciate it. TIA. -- Alok Nick the Greek's Law of Life: All things considered, life is 9 to 5 against.
Re: [silk] The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Terrorists
On 17 Oct 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > his arguing that all this is solely caused by groupthink of the sort > that drives inner city kids into gangs is missing the forest for the > trees. I don't think he was arguing that this was _solely_ groupthink. Or were you saying that groupthink has no significant role to play in terrorist organisations ? -- Alok The world is full of people who have never, since childhood, met an open doorway with an open mind. -- E. B. White
Re: [silk] how to get an idli cooker
On 7 Oct 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > most yoghurt sold in western supermarkets is sterilised. obviously, it > became yoghurt because there was a live culture, and was _then_ > sterilised. Is there a difference between sterilised and pasteurised ? -- Alok Yawd [noun, Bostonese]: the campus of Have Id. -- Webster's Unafraid Dictionary
Re: [silk] how to get an idli cooker
On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 10:49 PM, Alok G. Singh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I've been wondering about this too. It is possible to start a culture >> with store-bought, packaged yogurt but it takes about 3 cycles before > > The Nestle Probiotic one or the regular one? Either. I had some half-baked theories about stabilisation of the cultures to account for the 3 cycles before the curd tasted good when a biologist friend of mine shot all of them down. I buy the probiotic (whatever that means) one purely based on taste now. >> 'sterilised' before packaging and shipping (quotes are mine). I'm not >> sure what that means. > > Would be interesting to figure out the kill temperature for milk based > pathogens versus the kill temeperature for the yoghurt culture. The aforementioned biologist mentioned that there is no significant difference. PS. Finding out there will never be any monkey butter was also around this time. -- Alok In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person. -- Margaret Anderson
Re: [silk] how to get an idli cooker
On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 8:17 PM, ss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> UHT yogurt is sterilized. "Natural" yogurt should have culture in it. On 6 Oct 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I've been wondering about this. Is the milk UHT sterilised or the > yoghurt? I've been wondering about this too. It is possible to start a culture with store-bought, packaged yogurt but it takes about 3 cycles before it is edible (imho). So, unless the inactive components of the curd can build a suitable environment for air-borne bacteria to start the culture, I assume that the culture is seeded by the yogurt. > In India, the package seems to state that pasteurised milk is an > ingredient. I did write to Nestle asking and my understanding of the reply was that pasteurised milk was 'inoculated', cultured and subsequently 'sterilised' before packaging and shipping (quotes are mine). I'm not sure what that means. -- Alok Do not remove tag under penalty of law.
Re: [silk] One witty guy in Bangalore....
Judging by the registration, the witty guy is from Dharward. Makes sense. -- Alok Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. -- Oscar Wilde
Re: [silk] [Help] Autibiography of a handicapped Indian
Thank you. I will look this up. -- Alok "They make a desert and call it peace." -- Tacitus (55?-120?)
[silk] [Help] Autibiography of a handicapped Indian
For some reason I need to find such a book. English preferred, but a regional language would do in a pinch. Please do feel free to forward to anyone whom you think would be able to help. TIA. -- Alok A rolling stone gathers momentum.
Re: [silk] [Help] Online payment systems
On 6 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hope this helps... Thanks everyone. I found ACHWorks [1] and they seem to have a SOAP interface that seems to do what we need. Footnotes: [1] http://ww2.achworks.com/ -- Alok All his life he has looked away... to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing. -- Yoda
Re: [silk] [Help] Online payment systems
On 5 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Again, if you want HBCI/FinTS, check out aqbanking. While this is something like what I was looking for, the territory is not of much use to me at this time. Do you know of an equivalent service for the US ? -- Alok BOFH excuse #153: Big to little endian conversion error
Re: [silk] [Help] Online payment systems
On 5 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>> You want to learn about ACH: >> >> I was hoping for a little more detail. > > You might have to supply more detail about what you're trying to do > exactly. :) I (as a business entity) want to send funds to N personal checking accounts. The N accounts are not the same everytime. And N can become reasonably large as time passes. I do not have much finance expertise, so I'm not sure if this is enough of an explanation. -- Alok Who messed with my anti-paranoia shot?
Re: [silk] [Help] Online payment systems
On 5 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > If you are asking this question for personal use, then > www.ingdirect.com does a pretty good job. No, it's not for personal use. Business A (me) needs to be able to disburse funds to N customer checking/savings accounts. -- Alok f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
Re: [silk] [Help] Online payment systems
On 5 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I think standard banking practice is to do this via "standing > instructions" ... Yes, one off transfers can be done by NEFT/RTGS too. AIUI, NEFT does involve human interaction and can take upto 7 business days for international transfers. I am looking for some software interface to this system or some service which can do this for me (as a business). -- Alok Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made. -- Immanuel Kant
Re: [silk] [Help] Online payment systems
On 5 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > You want to learn about ACH: I was hoping for a little more detail. I did spend about half a day reading about CHIPS [1] and how it works but it was tenuous on actual software interfaces to it. Footnotes: [1] http://chips.org/about/pages/000702.php -- Alok Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad.
[silk] [Help] Online payment systems
Hello, This is a sort of work-related question but I don't have much experience in banking interfaces, and I don't know any one who does. I need to be able to transfer money from my account to a number of accounts (which change from time to time) automatically. While there are several products to collect money from various bank accounts, there seem to be none that do the reverse, i.e. disburse money to various accounts. I presume that this is possible since Paypal does something that is functionally equivalent. Answers that are restricted to the US banking system are enough for now, but I would be glad to hear of systems with a wider applicability. PS. I hope the [Help] tag will be sufficient to indicate that this is a call for help. -- Alok To be or not to be, that is the bottom line.
Re: [silk] curious about whether this is a reasonable article...
On 1 Sep 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > resurgent Hinduism had almost completed defeating it ideologically, How so ? Are you referring to the debates ? -- Alok When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. -- Edmund Burke
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts?
On 26 Jun 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > So, who in silk-list is going to buy it and post a review? There is an Indian distributor[1]. I have placed an order and they were quite cool about payment. They don't accept credit cards but they have offered to send me the phone as soon as they have it and I need to pay them (by bank transfer) only when I have the phone. They also take back phones if you are not happy with them. I'm pretty sure that there are quite a few rough edges to the phone, but I do think endeavours such as this should be encouraged. Footnotes: [1] http://idasystems.net/freerunner -- Alok Courage is your greatest present need.
Re: [silk] ISP BitTorrent Manipulation Test
On 8 May 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > http://broadband.mpi-sws.de/transparency/bttest.php?busy=1&ip=74.64.19.240&measure=yes&port=6881&down=yes&up=yes&port2=4711&tcp=yes&duration=20&; > > I have not been able to test it yet. Did anyone try this ? Anything interesting ? -- Alok Boy! Eucalyptus!
Re: [silk] Laptop procurement help
On 23 May 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > At this point in time, US looks to be the cheapest place to buy a > Thinkpad. This agrees with my research. It seems backwards considering the laptops are actually manufactured in SE Asia. -- Alok Flugg's Law: When you need to knock on wood is when you realize that the world is composed of vinyl, naugahyde and aluminum.
[silk] Laptop procurement help
I want a Thinkpad X300. However, the difference between the INR and USD price is substantial enough (about 20k) to be worth the effort of getting one from the US. Would any of the jet-set silklisters who are coming down to BLR be willing to lug one for me ? I would of course, express my gratitude in the usual manner. Please ping me off-list if you are willing to help a brother out. TIA. -- Alok Theory of Selective Supervision: The one time in the day that you lean back and relax is the one time the boss walks through the office.
Re: [silk] WiFi in Chennai
On 2 May 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Though I needed a sudo wvdial rather than a plain wvdial to get it to connect. Add yourself to the dialout (might also be called dip) group. $ sudo adduser `whoami` dialout -- Alok "The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity." -- Oscar Wilde
Re: [silk] visiting bangalore...
On 22 Apr 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > meeting at Shiok 7pm on Monday? I'm in. But not for dinner though. -- Alok I'm so broke I can't even pay attention.
Re: [silk] Mexican Food in India
On 16 Apr 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Was that Gerry Machado and band with the tongue-in-cheek name "Gamgamma's > Pleasure"? I don't remember the name, but /Gangamma's Pleasure/ does ring a bell. > A good jazz band. That it was (imho, at least). -- Alok Positive, adj.: Mistaken at the top of one's voice. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Re: [silk] Laptop recommendations
On 15 Apr 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > why bother with refunds hassle when one can get a laptop sans OS (free > dos actually) Not this model apparently (7669-A24). At least, that's what the reseller tells me. An eloquent shrug when I asked him if there was any way of not installing an OS at all. -- Alok A handful of friends is worth more than a wagon of gold.
Re: [silk] Laptop recommendations
On 15 Apr 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > but why not a MacBook? Partly because it is made by Apple and partly because it doesn't really suit my needs. And it's fscking expensive here. > I believe you can install Linux on a Mac... I expect quite an adventure to get a refund I'm going to try and get for the pre-installed Vista. Any success stories that you know of ? -- Alok The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
[silk] Laptop recommendations
I'm looking for laptop recommendations. I need mobility, not a desktop replacement. I will be running Debian GNU/Linux (sid) on it. I don't need an optical drive or those dinky SD card readers. A nice high resolution screen (XGA and above) would be nice. Wi-fi is a given. Priorities are: 1. A working suspend setup 2. No binary blobs for primary hardware (display, network, etc.). I suppose this follows from 1. 3. Battery life 4. Service centre in BLR 5. Weight My current top choice is the TP X60s. Unfortunately, for love or money, you can't test it with a livecd in this city. It would be awesome if I could order a chassis and add only those modules that I need. I believe that Lenovo do have such an option but I could not find out if this possible in India. -- Alok Bigamy is having one spouse too many. Monogamy is the same.
Re: [silk] Mexican Food in India
On 10 Apr 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I can't remember the name of the place. Pinch of Jazz ? On the 5th floor ? > The food was not really Mexican or even Tex-Mex (think chappatis with > rajma), I remember the cuisine being billed as Cajun. I agree with the not very good part though. > but what made it worse was the live 'music' - this really bad singer > with a guitar and a harmonica mounted on a stand around his neck who > used to assault unsuspecting diners with requests for requests. An old teacher of mine used to perform there with his band. I don't think that he ever wore a harmonica like that though. -- Alok The absence of labels [in ECL] is probably a good thing. -- T. Cheatham
Re: [silk] Do you think Ubuntu is dead?
On 13 Feb 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I have never had the time to clean out the entries though - there's a > tool in GNOME these days that allows that. GConf Cleaner[1] ? Footnotes: [1] http://code.google.com/p/gconf-cleaner/ -- Alok Everything that can be invented has been invented. -- Charles Duell, Director of U.S. Patent Office, 1899
[silk] #include (was: India special economic zone -- travel and reading recco?)
On 29 Jan 2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > READ CAREFULLY. Have many people commented on your disclaimer ? Any responses from the composers of those fine corporate disclaimers which their fine MUAs quote /ad nauseam/ ? -- Alok FORTUNE PROVIDES QUESTIONS FOR THE GREAT ANSWERS: #15 A: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Q: What was the greatest achievement in taxidermy?
Re: [silk] Indian Wine
On 16 Dec 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Which two? I think that is quite important to know. Light and fresh tasting. I suppose it could be fruity as well, if you squint a bit. Quite a nice colour too. -- Alok Established technology tends to persist in the face of new technology. -- G. Blaauw, one of the designers of System 360
Re: [silk] Indian Wine
On 16 Dec 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > For me - light, fruity and well, fresh tasting whites or rosés The Ivy Zinfandel scores 2 out of 3 on that scale. -- Alok I don't wanna argue, and I don't wanna fight, But there will definitely be a party tonight...
[silk] Meen pollichathu (was: The Demise Of The Dollar)
On 7 Nov 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I disagree. Aikura is the local name for seer. Ask for kari-meen or > pearl spot. That's the one to be had as 'meen pollichathu'. Balderdash. Karimeen is generally associated with the backwaters and Calicut isn't. Malabar and Moplah cuisine doesn't have too much in common with the southern icons of karimeen pollichathu and fish moilee :) You'll probably get karimeen at Paragon though. Also, Paragon makes their pollichathu (literally, seared) in a (afaik) unique fashion. -- Alok NANCY!! Why is everything RED?!
Re: [silk] The Demise Of The Dollar
On 6 Nov 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you are driving down to Cochin, take the scenic route through Gundulpet, Bathery, and Calicut. It's quite a lovely drive. > 1) Food When in Calicut, go for lunch to the Paragon hotel (ask anyone, it is a small town). Ask for 'meen pollichathu'. Eat it with some 'pathiri'. > 2) More food Keep asking for 'meen pollichathu' until the fish is 'aikura'. It's usually a different fish everyday. > 3) Good food Go across to the Taj (just round the corner) and have some Thevara beef. Paragon has stopped serving beef. On your way out of Calicut, don't forget to buy some banana chips from Sreekumaran's. -- Alok All intelligent species own cats.
Re: [silk] Why we curse.
On 18 Oct 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Another interesting piece to the picture: > > http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20718 LL's take [1] on the study. Footnotes: [1] http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005046.html -- Alok In the misfortune of our friends we find something that is not displeasing to us. -- La Rochefoucauld, "Maxims"
Re: [silk] african names - iht
On 9 Oct 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Huchamma -> Mad woman I don't know if it applies to female names (I don't see why not), but 'Huchche' refers to Shiva and not to vanilla lunacy. -- Alok BOFH excuse #429: Temporal anomaly
Re: [silk] Statistics
On 28 Sep 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > but I tell you there's just so much you can do with a poorly > designed survey. Making a good survey is incredibly hard. And it doesn;t help that most 'surveys' start out with a result already in mind. But even surveys which really want to find out something (Election opinion polls, for example) don't do too well. > Hey, negative results contribute to human knowledge too, right? True, but no one wants to publish negative results. A man who was living in a country ruled by a cruel dictator was unfairly arrested, blindfolded, and transported to a prison. Once there, he discovered that his cellmate was a mathematician. After a few days, the man managed to escape from the prison. Unfortunately, the prison was located in the middle of a burning desert, hundreds of miles away from the nearest inhabited regions. After stumbling around in the desert for days, the man was recaptured and moved back to his jail cell. When his cellmate saw him return, he told him, "I could have told you that escaping by foot was impossible. I tried the same thing two months ago." At this, the now sunburned, parched, and hungry man became very upset and exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell me that sooner!" The mathematician simply shrugged his shoulders and asked, "Who publishes negative results?" -- Alok A Difficulty for Every Solution. -- Motto of the Federal Civil Service
Re: [silk] The Christian, the Muslim and the Hindu..
On 19 Sep 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > it is really great to see the traffic police managing the resources > so well. I have always had this idea that the traffic police are in many ways similar to sysadmins. One common trait is that no one appreciates them when things are going right, but they are the first to be blamed when things go wrong. -- Alok Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.
[silk] BoI compromised
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#1265 On the front page of the site a hidden iframe has indeed been inserted and it loads a URL from another website. This file in turn uses three iframes to load three other URLs. And so on. This is the first I've heard of an Indian bank being compromised so thoroughly. Have there been other occasions ? I must say, talking to call centre personnel does not give me much confidence, not do their silly IE only services. -- Alok A real person has two reasons for doing anything ... a good reason and the real reason.
Re: [silk] Seeking man-sized wheels
On 30 Aug 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Wasn't the RoadKing a 250? It was. My bad. -- Alok A man is like a rusty wheel on a rusty cart, He sings his song as he rattles along and then he falls apart. -- Richard Thompson
Re: [silk] Seeking man-sized wheels
On 29 Aug 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > There is only one "man sized wheels" in India in my humble and > rarely expressed opinion, and that's an Enfield Bullet. > > There's also the Yezdi. In particular, the 350 'Roadking'. You also do not need to honk to get people out of the way. -- Alok Actresses will happen in the best regulated families. -- Addison Mizner and Oliver Herford, "The Entirely New Cynic's Calendar", 1905
Re: [silk] Eudora, mail clients, etc
On 3 Aug 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > There are many ways to minimize desktop suckage, Ubuntu 7.04 with > nVidia hardware acceleration, rdesktop, VMWare server (free as in > beer) You can replace VMWare with qemu + kqemu (-kernel-kqemu, ftw). As easy to configure as VMWare (minus the pointy-clicky) and free (as in freedom). Of course, if the goal is to run Windows, I can see how the freedom argument is moot... :) -- Alok Elegance and truth are inversely related. -- Becker's Razor
Re: [silk] In Soviet Russia...
On 2 Aug 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > "This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just > plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory'," "No flag, no country." -- Eddie Izzard, Dress to kill -- Alok Remember -- only 10% of anything can be in the top 10%.
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts?
On 11 Jul 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> Could you elaborate? > > I presume camera adds design complexity and price. They wanted the > basic design out of the door first, and maybe there will be enhanced > models after. I suppose that this was the 'business' reason why the camera wasn't included, rather than Harald's unwillingness to have a camera. I'm just not a big fan of the cameras on phones. But that's just me. -- Alok We do not colonize. We conquer. We rule. There is no other way for us. -- Rojan, "By Any Other Name", stardate 4657.5
Re: [silk] OpenMoko - Thoughts?
On 10 Jul 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> No WiFi in v1 of the FIC1973 (GTA01), which limits VoIP >> capabilities > > And no camera either. Like the iPhone, I'll wait for version 2. The camera is not going to be present in GTA02 either. Wi-Fi will, though. Harald Welte said that it was a concious decision to omit the camera, and I sort of agree. -- Alok Turnaucka's Law: The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord.
Re: [silk] The most annoying words on the web
On 28 Jun 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> I can't IRC. For some reason the server operators can't tell the >> difference between Tor exit nodes and middlemen. > > Explain? Is your IP being blocked by the IRC ops due to your being a > Tor exit node? Freenode has some less than optimal ways of dealing with Tor[1] for instance. Then again, you need to register to be able to QUERY, so perhaps the point is moot. Footnotes: [1] http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#tor -- Alok I'm having a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ... and I don't take any DRUGS
Re: [silk] The most annoying words on the web
On 27 Jun 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > So why does the word "blog" evoke such feelings of hate? I guess it is the same as when management speaks about 'leveraging' and 'competencies'. It's not the word, per se, but the person who is using them. And it isn't the right thing to do either. I tuned out in the same way my parents telling me to 'study harder' and 'comb your hair'. > The funny thing is that at least in a blog, one is not forced to > read like a mailing list. Firefox does not come with a "Delete" > button. This I don't get. I would think there is less of an onus to read a mailing-list. I think it was Joey Hess who had written a post on mailing list patterns that I have used with great success on debian-devel and debian-user. And MUAs like Gnus are much more powerful than a browser rendering some text. -- Alok A real friend isn't someone you use once and then throw away. A real friend is someone you can use over and over again.
Re: [silk] aqvavit
On 13 Jun 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > http://www.eurekaforbes.com/aboutus/popup.htm > > How does this differ from say, > http://www.eurekaforbes.com/products/product.php?catid=35&&prid=209 >From what I understood, both of them, properly used, would qualify as 'potable water'. I don't mean that the water purity is the same, just that there is a minimum standard that they meet. The disadvantage of the tap attachment is that the optimum water flow rate cannot be enforced and forcing water through it at a higher rate would cause the water quality to degrade. The RO purifier is probably the closest you can get to distilled water without it being entirely tasteless. -- Alok travel, n.: Something that makes you feel like you're getting somewhere.
Re: [silk] Fwd: Did you happen to catch the UFO?
On 1 Jun 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > There are quite a few Indians who write pretty good English. Judging by the comments on /., digg and others, there are precious few of them worldwide. (People using English 'well' worldwide, not Indians who have above average facility with the language). -- Alok Never leave anything to chance; make sure all your crimes are premeditated.
Re: [silk] Ian McDonald's River of Gods
On 29 May 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I came across Ian McDonald's _River of Gods_ [1] at a remote > Northern California bookstore yesterday. Judging this book by its > cover, it is supposed to be a near future sci-fi book set in India. There's also _Wetware_ [1] by Rudy Rucker, a part of which is set in India. Outskirts of Bengaluru, iirc. It's not something I'd recommend, I mention it only in passing. Footnotes: [1] http://www.amazon.com/Wetware-Rudy-V-B-Rucker/dp/0380701782 -- Alok Kliban's First Law of Dining: Never eat anything bigger than your head.
Re: [silk] Silkmeet, Charles's house Wed May 16 [food from Impys]
On 21 May 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>> My house, Wed May 16, food at 8pm, show up any time after >>> 7pm. RSVP for directions so I can get an idea of how much food I >>> should send Udhay out for. >> >> I would like to know where I can find a time travel device, >> thanks. ;) > > Ok ok. Wed the 23rd. I would love to come. -- Alok The philosopher's treatment of a question is like the treatment of an illness. -- Wittgenstein.
Re: [silk] India 2.0
On 4 May 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > With only 28 million Internet users in India (I've always thought > those figures are wild underestimations given that so many people > use cybercafes) I thought cybercafes (at least in urban centres) to be a dying breed. A lot more laptops to be seen on the streets. Or maybe it's just where I stay. Also, Internet World Stats [1] gives a projected figure of 42 million for March 2007 (based on a Nov 2006 survey). That's about 4% of the population. Which reminds me of that 2001 experiment in a Delhi slum by someone from NIIT. A computer (no keyboard, internet access) was installed in a concrete wall in a slum. Does anyone remember what came out of it ? I remember something about needing $ 2 billion to give every child an "internet device". Footnotes: [1] http://www.internetworldstats.com/usage/use009.htm -- Alok those apparently-bacteria-like multicolor worms coming out of microsoft's backorifice that's the backoffice logo
Re: [silk] indian budget airlines
On 2 Apr 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > If I am price conscious about a trip I usually choose the cheapest > on cleartrip.com - they don't seem to have an extra fee for booking. I like the general layout of cleartrip.com. The price you see when you make the selection of flights is the amount that you are debited for. Also, when they say that they won't contact you, they don't. I still get mail from makemytrip for one booking I made 6 months ago. -- Alok "Show business is just like high school, except you get paid." -- Martin Mull
Re: [silk] Freebase
On 16 Mar 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/freebase_will_p_1.html Heard on #emacs: [12:49] Advantage to folksonomies: Idiots can put them together. Disadvantages: an idiot put together your taxonomy. -- Alok One can search the brain with a microscope and not find the mind, and can search the stars with a telescope and not find God. -- J. Gustav White
[silk] One hand clapping (was: contracts vs. copyright)
On Tue, Feb 27, 2007 at 08:32:23AM -0800, Thaths wrote: >> So, am I left alone in an echo-y silklist chanber listening to the >> sound of one hand clapping? On 27 Feb 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Happens to me all the time. I recently found that the phenomenon even has a name: "being Warnocked" [1]. Footnotes: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warnock%27s_Dilemma -- Alok BOFH excuse #313: your process is not ISO 9000 compliant
Re: [silk] Speaker Series Bangalore, Vint Cerf
On 12 Feb 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > BTW if anyone on silklist bangalore would like to go to this talk > and hasn't gotten a reply to your invitation let me know. I would. I sent in the registration form but I just got the auto-reply again, so I'm not sure if I did something wrong. -- Alok This restaurant was advertising breakfast any time. So I ordered french toast in the renaissance. -- Steven Wright, comedian
Re: [silk] How stupid..
On 28 Jan 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Should I stay away from VSNL? Although most machines at home run > Ubuntu, my kids' desktop still runs WinDoze. Your suggestions > greatly appreciated. I would recommend the unlimited 256 kbps plan from Airtel. I've had a really good experience with it (billing, customer care, uptime). My brother has BSNL Home 900 and while his standards are lower, he's happy with it. He's never called customer care and he just grins and bears it through downtime... My colleague at work has one the 2 Mbps ones from BSNL and he's pretty kicked about the while thing. If I stuck to my usual download habits, it would work out to about 5k a month for me (90p per MB over 1 GB). Dialup with VSNL hasn't changed over the 10 years that I've had it. -- Alok Battle, n.: A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that will not yield to the tongue. -- Ambrose Bierce
Re: [silk] Indian Police Restructuring
On 10 Nov 2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In comparison, what are our cops taught? The state police training curriculum varies a lot despite following guidelines framed by the Police Training Academy. I do know that the Bangalore police have sensitivity training and some sessions on crowd management, which are not commonly seen elsewhere. To some extent, the training depends on the person in charge. In general, the Bangalore police are a worried lot as they don't know who is related to whom when an 'incident' occurs. I could try and get you more details offlist, if you are interested. -- Alok The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children. -- Linus Torvalds
Re: [silk] FoU Camp - Part II
On 26 Oct 2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > If you will be able to attend this year's FoU camp, speak up now. FoU ? -- Alok I'm sorry if the following sounds combative and excessively personal, but that's my general style.-- Ian Jackson
Re: [silk] New member
On 8 Aug 2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> I see that you still have your old VSNL address ... :) I wonder how >> many still use them. > Is that some how worse than airtelbroadband.in? No. > ISP provided email addresses are IMO never the best choice for at > least two reasons - one, most ISPs are not really that bothered > about mail, and often run foul of *BLs, have server downtimes and > the like. Secondly, it forces a change of email address every time > you switch ISPs. True. Which is why Reply-To is what most MUAs use. -- Alok In buying horses and taking a wife shut your eyes tight and commend yourself to God.
Re: [silk] the power of stupidity
On 7 Aug 2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > like genetic populations, they're doomed by the mathematics of > random walks to circling about their summum bonum* (should by chance > any achieve it, it's only a transitory condition). An argument could be made that the local optima themselves exhibit chaotic behaviour in which case the 'jitters' could be the sign of a healthy, responsive system. -- Alok If you want divine justice, die. -- Nick Seldon
Re: [silk] New member
On 6 Aug 2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Welcome to Silk Alok - it's been a long time. I see that you still have your old VSNL address ... :) I wonder how many still use them. -- Alok A debugged program is one for which you have not yet found the conditions that make it fail. -- Jerry Ogdin
[silk] New member
Hello, I'm Alok G. Singh, 27 years old. I've lived in Bangalore all my life, except for college. I work with computers for a living (software, not hardware). Interests include free software, cooking and books. -- Alok LWE? Linux W?? E?? will eatyou World Expo? i see
