Re: [silk] Recommended Reading for 2020

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

My reading was severely hampered this year due to our son being at home all
day. With helping him all day at home we ended up having much less energy
at the end of the day for reading or watching something. But I was part of
a bookclub at work and through that I got to read stuff from outside my
"comfort zone". Some of the books I can recommend this year:

- Rendezvous with Rama: First book in Arthur C Clarke's Rama series. I love
that these are short reads and how "hard" Clarke goes into the science of
the worlds he creates.

- Dune: Ok, so I finally got around to reading the classic in preparation
for Denis Villeneuve's movie coming next year. The world building in the
first two acts of this book is incredible, though the third act doesn't
compare. BTW for Dune aficionados, watching the documentary Jodorowsky's
Dune is a MUST. The man is positively insane, but it is nothing short of
fantastic to watch.

- The Invention of Nature: Biography of 19th century naturalist Humboldt,
who traveled the world, discovered and catalogued so much of nature that
there are more things/places named after him than anyone else in the world.
I counted tens of places/counties/parks named after him in CA/OR itself.
Beside learning about the man, the book gave me a good mental model of the
global scientific community and how they worked at the turn of the 19th
century.

- How to be an Antiracist: Picked it up inspired by BLM, this was quite eye
opening since I have not read much about racism in the US.

- The Sound of the Mountain: Superlative literature, observation of passing
life, with the peace of a Zen garden. I'm a fan of Yasunari Kawabata after
this.

Re: [silk] What are the things you splurge on that are worth the money?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I am really enjoying the men's perfumes you folks are sharing and looking
them up on BaseNotes. Taking notes for trying them out. 😊

On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 9:17 PM Danese Cooper  wrote:

> -Computers
> -Musical Instruments
> -Matcha tea
>
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 4:44 AM Udhay Shankar N  wrote:
>
> > Like it says. I know there are similar threads out there on reddit etc -
> > this question is for silklisters. :)
> >
> > My list:
> > - Computers. Every 5 years or so I replace my computer with the best
> specs
> > I can afford.
> > - Fragrance. I look at these as art and collect them for regular use.
> > - Good gin/vodka. Nuff said.
> >
> > Udhay
> >
> > --
> >
> > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
> >
>

Re: [silk] Weekly or monthly recommendations

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Thanks Thaths, Sidin, Srijith and Bruce for your suggestions.

Apart from the famous New Yorker, Caravan and Nat Geo suggestions, Science
News is exactly the type of hidden gem of a discovery I was hoping for from
this group!

Curated online article sources like Syllabus and Browser sound unique and I
will be checking them out too!

On Sun, Mar 1, 2020 at 4:19 AM Srijith Nair  wrote:

>
> Not exactly paper-version but similar to what Sidin suggested,
> https://the-syllabus.com/ is turning up rather eclectic but interesting
> reads.
>
> Regards,
> Srijith Nair
>
> On Sat, Feb 29, 2020, at 7:59 PM, Sidin Vadukut wrote:
> > The Browser is a fantastic service that sends a few great reads
> > everyday into your email
> > Inbox. Super low volume and I almost always enjoy their
> > recommendations. I am a subscriber. And worth every penny. Also they
> > don’t obsess over ‘good writing’ as much as ‘things that are good for
> > reading’.
> >
> > TheBrowser.com
> > On 29 Feb 2020, 18:15 +, Ashwin Nanjappa ,
> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I have been thinking of switching to reading magazines with a weekly or
> > > monthly cadence for news, analysis, opinions, books, movies, travel,
> tech
> > > etc.
> > > Not only is following the "breaking news" mentally tiring, I have
> realized
> > > they don't matter in the long term.
> > > Right now I am reading The Economist and Linux Weekly News (LWN). Would
> > > love to discover more such sources.
> > >
> > > *What non-trash sources of weekly/monthly cadence do you recommend?*
> > > I would prefer they have paper versions, cause I am getting tired of
> > > complicated payments, ads, tracking, DRM etc.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Ashwin
> >
>
>

[silk] Weekly or monthly recommendations

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Hi,

I have been thinking of switching to reading magazines with a weekly or
monthly cadence for news, analysis, opinions, books, movies, travel, tech
etc.
Not only is following the "breaking news" mentally tiring, I have realized
they don't matter in the long term.
Right now I am reading The Economist and Linux Weekly News (LWN). Would
love to discover more such sources.

*What non-trash sources of weekly/monthly cadence do you recommend?*
I would prefer they have paper versions, cause I am getting tired of
complicated payments, ads, tracking, DRM etc.

Regards,
Ashwin

Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

You are right that PDF helps me to use a single format/tool for both books
and academic articles/theses/etc. For academic papers, I highlight/annotate
in the PDF. We did not get into other forms of "notes" that are useful to
me: programming/technical notes, those are captured in my blog.

So, my "notes" are right now spread out in these places:
- Public: Programming/CS/technical notes/book summaries in my tech blog:
https://codeyarns.github.io/tech/
- Public: Summaries of non-tech fiction/non-fiction books/movies/TV series
I like and other notes (Ex: how to take train in CA) in my personal blog:
https://codeyarns.github.io/personal/
- Private: Gitlab repo of Markdown files with notes/excerpts of online
articles or all other private text notes.
- Private: Directory of annotated PDF files (papers, theses, books)
- Private: Google drive of scans of handwritten notes and sketches (example
)
used to understand concepts. This is also where my academic/personal
notebooks end up (I scan them in once a notebook is filled up.) Handwritten
because text does not always cut it (esp with math and figures) and
notes/math/figures in LaTeX are a huge timesink (believe me, I did that for
a few years!). I have kept a scanner beside my home computer for a decade
now.

You can see there are 4 places (2 blogs combined) for my notes and search
(Google for blogs/drive, Gitlab/Linux text search). I would like this to
reduce to 3 or ideally 2 (text and non-text), but I don't see that ever
happening.

Since I need my notes to last several decades (it's almost 2 decades since
my undergrad already) I will only use text OR well-supported open-source
tools/formats OR tools from Microsoft (known for their decades-long
support) OR  non-text format I know will last forever (PDF). I stay away
from tools from startups or online tools which my lock my notes away or
make it difficult to export.

The other factor is accessibility: can I access them from the places I
want? Blogs, git repos and Google Drive are easily accessible at home and
work or from vacation (say India). The problem is PDF files directory --
which I am syncing using Dropbox, not ideal but I don't see a better
solution.

All this and we did not even get to notes that are private to my work
organization. That is another mess :-)

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 9:58 PM Srijith Nair  wrote:

> Hi Ashwin,
>
> > I have terrible memory, so how best to take notes and be able to search
> and
> > find them later is probably something I worry about every single day.
> >
> > Your current query is about: books and long-form online articles. I am
> > guessing you mean non-fiction works.
>
> Most of the time it is non-fiction indeed. But I am also trying to capture
> some rather eloquent passages in fiction.
>
> >- *Non-fiction books*
> >   - *Physical*: I use highlighter/pen/pencil to underline and take
> >   notes on the pages. Decades ago, I used to consider writing in a
> book a
> >   sacrilege. Now I am the polar opposite :-)
> >   - *Ebook*: I avoid epub/ebook formats and get the PDF version. If
> >   there is no PDF, I export ebook to PDF. The PDF format supports
> >   annotations. You can annotate (highlight, underline, text, draw,
> > jot) on a
> >   PDF using PDF programs on desktop (Windows/Linux) and tablets
> (Android).
> >   And these annotated PDFs are viewable in standard PDF viewers on
> _all_
> >   platforms. I love this versatility of the PDF format.
>
> This is rather interesting workflow. I have not seen a lot of people
> convert from epub and other formats to PDF for reading. Is this in
> influenced by your academic reading workflow by any chance, as a way to
> unify both the process for all forms of reading?
>
> >   - For both types of books, if I like the book, I usually write an
> *online
> >   post/review*  with a
> summary.
> >   So this is the place I first head to.
>
> Wow, that is one disciplined record keeping! I am in awe.
>
> >- *Long-form online articles*
> >   - After reading the article, if I like it, I keep a Markdown file
> >   where I take notes (link to article and bullet list of my
> summary). This
> >   used to be a ASCIIDoc file, but now that Markdown is supported
> > everywhere,
> >   I use that. Recently I switched to a Git repo hosted on Github for
> these
> >   Markdown files. Github has online Markdown viewer and editor, so I
> can
> >   search, read and edit all in the browser itself!
>
> Thanks for sharing the process. Markdown is indeed rather useful in such
> context and makes search very easy.
>
> Regards,
> Srijith
>
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 8:36 AM Srijith Nair  wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > I would like to pick your brains on how you organise and retrieve
> > > information that you read in books (physical or ebook) and long-form

Re: [silk] How do you collect and retrieve information from what you read?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I have terrible memory, so how best to take notes and be able to search and
find them later is probably something I worry about every single day.

Your current query is about: books and long-form online articles. I am
guessing you mean non-fiction works.


   - *Non-fiction books*
  - *Physical*: I use highlighter/pen/pencil to underline and take
  notes on the pages. Decades ago, I used to consider writing in a book a
  sacrilege. Now I am the polar opposite :-)
  - *Ebook*: I avoid epub/ebook formats and get the PDF version. If
  there is no PDF, I export ebook to PDF. The PDF format supports
  annotations. You can annotate (highlight, underline, text, draw,
jot) on a
  PDF using PDF programs on desktop (Windows/Linux) and tablets (Android).
  And these annotated PDFs are viewable in standard PDF viewers on _all_
  platforms. I love this versatility of the PDF format.
  - For both types of books, if I like the book, I usually write an *online
  post/review*  with a summary.
  So this is the place I first head to.
   - *Long-form online articles*
  - After reading the article, if I like it, I keep a Markdown file
  where I take notes (link to article and bullet list of my summary). This
  used to be a ASCIIDoc file, but now that Markdown is supported
everywhere,
  I use that. Recently I switched to a Git repo hosted on Github for these
  Markdown files. Github has online Markdown viewer and editor, so I can
  search, read and edit all in the browser itself!


On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 8:36 AM Srijith Nair  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I would like to pick your brains on how you organise and retrieve
> information that you read in books (physical or ebook) and long-form
> articles online.
>
> Over the years I have been getting increasingly frustrated at not being
> efficient in deriving meaningful value from what I have read and curated
> via notes and highlights from these readings. I wanted to get better at
> retaining what I read and also in being able to connect the dots and
> identifying overlapping and intersecting themes and topics across the
> various books and articles I have read. I also have the recurring problem
> of not being able to  remember/find that quote or that impressive eloquent
> passage in a book or article that I read a few weeks or months ago.
>
> Attempts at using Evernote, Notion and other collect-everything tools have
> solved parts of the problem but it does get tedious and, because it is not
> a tool built-for-purpose, it involves a fair bit of personalisation.
> Services like readwise.io attack a slightly different problem from a
> different angle (helping learn by repetition etc).
>
> I was wondering what you have found useful in solving similar problems on
> your end.
>
> As I love to hack code, I have been working on a solution for the last few
> weeks but it is far from perfect or complete. Before I go further down this
> rabbit hole, I thought it makes sense to try and understand if there are
> existing solutions out there that works for you?
>
> Regards,
> Srijith
>
>

Re: [silk] New member intro - Krishna Udayasankar

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Welcome Krishna. I'm an ex-resident of Singapore too (11 years) and got a
PhD there too (let's not talk about it). LOL

On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 6:39 AM Krishna Udayasankar <
kris.udayasan...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Thanks for welcoming into this wonderful space. My name is Krishna, I
> pretend to be a writer (nothing you have read, I sincerely hope!) and
> keep up the pretence by continuing to put my name on about 7-odd
> novels that were mainly written by my 3 canine fur-kids; who are now
> at work on the movie/series scripts of the same.
>
> I also am well know for my agility, which allows me to often put my
> foot in my mouth (sometimes while the other foot is already inside),
> and also for my contribution to terraforming vide my jokes that fall
> flat and hard.
>
> I am currently a resident of Singapore, soon to become a resident of
> Bangalore. In terms of educational background- i.e.- what I should
> have done to get a real life - I was originally a lawyer and went on
> to do my PhD in Strategic Management and worked as an academic of over
> a decade before my epiphany that fiction is often truer than academic
> research.
>
> I now (attempt to) make a living by cracking bad jokes in exchange for
> beer. Whiskey promises a better standard of humour and perhaps an
> occasionally useful statement.
>
> Thanks and look forward to being a mildly-amusing wallflower on this group!
>
> Warm regards,
> Krishna
> 
> Krishna Udayasankar, PhD.
>
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

This year I discovered Keigo Higashino, a Japanese mystery author. Devoured
2 of his books: The Devotion of Suspect X

and The Name of the Game is a Kidnapping
.
Highly recommended author for folks who love mystery.

Other books I read this year:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2019/1145513


On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 10:47 AM Kiran Jonnalagadda  wrote:

> I just finished Antigod's Own Country by A. V. Sakthidaran and it may be
> the most enlightening book I've read in years.
>
> Kiran
>
> --
> Kiran Jonnalagadda
> https://hasgeek.com
>
>
>
> On Thu, 26 Dec 2019 at 12:23, Ashim D'Silva 
> wrote:
>
> > Loving all these recommendations…
> > My book of the year is a collection of lectures by Ursula Franklin, The
> > Real World Of Technology, which considers technology to be any I system
> or
> > methods used to organise humans thought. It has me thinking a lot about
> my
> > role as a creator of applications in how people solve problems, and I
> think
> > I will be repeatedly reading this for many years to come.
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 9:32 AM, Thaths  wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 11:17 AM Alok Prasanna Kumar <
> > > kautilya...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > To add to the already fantastic books on this list (in no particular
> > > order)
> > > >
> > > > 2. India Moving: A History of Migration by Chinmay Tumbe
> > > >
> > >
> > > This reminded me of another excellent book I read in 2019 that was a
> good
> > > introduction to the ANI/ASI hypothesis:
> > >
> > > Early Indians : The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From (Tony
> > > Joseph)
> > >
> > > S.
> > > --
> > > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
> > > Carl:  Nuthin'.
> > > Homer: D'oh!
> > > Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
> > > Homer: Woo-hoo!
> > >
> > --
> > Cheerio,
> >
> > Ashim
> > Design & Build
> >
> > The Random Lines
> > www.therandomlines.com
> >
>

Re: [silk] Organizing files/ folders on one's laptop

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I always wished to keep my files well organized, but ended up never
managing that. Most of my old files got lost when I moved between computers.

 These days it's all Google Drive. I upload everything with descriptive
filenames. I have a basic set of directories but again most of the time I
don't bother to put files into them. Just upload and forget . It's easy to
search and find from any device, any time. Photos and videos from my phone
go into Google Photos.

>
>
>

Re: [silk] Reintroducing myself

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

De-lurking a bit ...

We met in Singapore a long time ago at a dinner Meetup. Welcome back Nadika
☺

On Nov 16, 2017 19:34, "Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan" <
chandrachoo...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Let me see, it's been 10 years on the list. After initial enthusiasm in
> responding to all messages, I lurked, first actively and then passively.
> And now occasionally read a thread or two till the first point of drift.
>
> Things outside were happening.
>
> Today I got added to a Whatsapp group which reminded me of Silk again. It
> helped that about 95% of the group members are silklisters.
>
> And then I saw Udhay's thread about changing one's opinion and the other
> one about optimising priorities.
>
> So.
>
> Re introductions.
> Some of you may have known me as Chandrachoodan. Or as Ravages.
>
> I've since changed. A lot.
> After years of trying to figure it out, and worrying about family, friends,
> etc., I began to transition. Socially, medically, and internet-ly.
>
> I am still afraid of family's reaction. I am still worried about what
> friends will say. But since 2014 I have learnt that the number of people
> who don't give a fuck who I am, one way or other, far outnumber the number
> of people who do give a fuck. Which is cool.
>
>
> Some of you have known me after transition.
>
> For the others,
> I am Nadika.
>

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 3:15 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
 wrote:
>
> Copyright, 1887.
> By JOSEPH L. BLAMIRB.
>
> There’s a Joseph L Blamire who is credited with some other works from the 
> 1860s onwards.

He may not be the translator. Googling with his name does not throw up
anything in that direction.

Wikipedia says translation is anonymous:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo


The most common English translation is an anonymous one originally
published in 1846 by Chapman and Hall. This was originally released in
ten weekly installments from March 1846 with six pages of letterpress
and two illustrations by M Valentin.[11] The translation was released
in book form with all twenty illustrations in two volumes in May 1846,
a month after the release of the first part of the above-mentioned
translation by Emma Hardy.[12] The translation follows the revised
French edition of 1846, with the correct spelling of "Cristo" and the
extra chapter The House on the Allées de Meilhan.

Most English editions of the novel follow the anonymous translation.
In 1889 two of the major American publishers Little Brown and T.Y
Crowell updated the translation, correcting mistakes and revising the
text to reflect the original serialised version. This resulted in the
removal of the chapter The House on the Allées de Meilhan, with the
text restored to the end of the chapter called The Departure.[13][14]

In 1955 Collins published an updated version of the anonymous
translation which cut several passages including a whole chapter
entitled The Past and renamed others.[15] This abridgement was
republished by many Collins imprints and other publishers including
the Modern Library, Vintage, the 1998 Oxford World's Classics edition
(later editions restored the text) and the 2009 Everyman's Library
edition.

In 1996 Penguin Classics published a new translation by Robin Buss.
Buss's translation updated the language, making the text more
accessible to modern readers, and restored content that was modified
in the 1846 translation because of Victorian English social
restrictions (for example, references to Eugénie's lesbian traits and
behaviour) to reflect Dumas' original version.


~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
 wrote:
> Buss is canonical - and a lot of the other translations redact large parts of 
> the novel, either for convenience to chop out side stories, or due to 
> victorian prudery

I find such "snipping" of content from the original quite irritating.
The English translation of Murakami's Wind-up Bird Chronicle is by Jay
Rubin. To my surprise I discovered later that entire chapters in the
Japanese original do not appear in Rubin's work! I'm guessing this
translation is "blessed" by Murakami, which makes the situation all
the more puzzling.

> to make it family friendly (Eugenie Danglars = hinted at as being a lesbian) 
> etc.

Not just hinting, it was pretty obvious in the version I read :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:49 PM, Supriya Nair  wrote:
> Anonymity for the > 1000-page edition seems puzzling -- if it was the
> Penguin black classics edition, it's by Robin Buss. Well worth reading. The
> novel form was invented for Dumas to have fun with.

There are 2 English translations of Monte Cristo. From my Googling, I
found that no one knows who did the first translation, it is
anonymous. The legality of translating and selling an unauthorized
version across the channel in England at that time may have been a
factor. IAC this is the translation you will find on Project Gutenberg
too. Its language is flowery and archaic, but I actually like that
since it immerses me in that period of time. All the shortened
versions derive from this anonymous translation, since it is copyright
free.

The second and modern translation, as you mentioned, is by Buss for
Penguin. It has got good reviews. I plan to read it sometime to see
the difference :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Aadisht Khanna  wrote:
> Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I took two years to finish this, but enjoyed
> it far more in 2015 than 2014. Tolstoy has this under-the-surface mild
> sarcasm that suddenly leaps out, bites, and then goes back to rest.

Do you recall which translation you read? I see 6+ different
translations of Anna Karenina on Amazon with wildly varying reviews
from readers.

Besides the translations, another problem is that publishers put out
edited/abridged versions of classics with cover material that doesn't
mention this. I had a great time this year chomping through ~1500
pages of the original anonymous English translation of Count of Monte
Cristo. But before I settled on that I had been misled by a
"shortened" ~800 page edition, which definitely did not read well.
Investigating this issue, I found other ~200 and ~400 page versions
too!

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Radhika, Y.  wrote:
> The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

👍
This was one of my best reads last year.

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Books I loved this year ...

Fiction:

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north/

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle/

On The Beach (Nevil Shute)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/on-the-beach/

Sci-fi:

I, Robot (Isaac Asimov)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/i-robot/

Against The Fall of Night (Arthur C. Clarke)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/against-the-fall-of-night/

Graphic novels:

Seconds (Bryan Lee O'Malley)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/seconds/

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Roz Chast)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/cant-we-talk-about-something-more-pleasant/

The Party After You Left (Roz Chast)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/the-party-after-you-left/

Humour:

Dave Barry Talks Back (Dave Barry)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/dave-barry-talks-back/

Classics:

The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/the-count-of-monte-cristo/

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Arthur Conan Doyle)
https://daariga.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles/

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2015

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Thaths  wrote:
[...]
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus

I've just started on this one, it is just amazing!

> * The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
>  by Siddhartha Mukherjee. An
> excellent exploration of the history of cancer treatments and mankind's
> experience with the malady.

I read this tome this year. Not impressed due to some reasons:
* 200+ pages spent on just cutting out breast tissue (breast cancer).
No one in the world needs to know this much details :-)
* Descriptions of doctors and their new procedures is way too flowery.
It's the literary equivalent of a person prostrating to the feet of a
doctor :-D
* Too focused on the hospitals in Boston and the celebrities and their
endorsements for cancer and such.
* This book is too long. It could be easily sliced in half while
retaining all the content and energy.

~ash

Re: [silk] Subtitles for movies in Bengaluru theatres

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

With regards to Interstellar, according to Raja Sen's review it seems to be
playing in Indian theatres with subtitles:
http://rajasen.com/2014/11/07/interstellar/

~ash

On Sat, Nov 8, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Bharat Shetty 
wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone come across any movie theatres playing with
> subtitles ? I'm particularly keen on watching Interstellar with subs.
>
> A friend pinged me on Twitter regarding this and I was reminded of the
> efforts we both tried to do unsuccessfully a couple of years. Our plan was
> to get data of movie listings from theatres around in Bangalore/Delhi and
> show which movies air with subtitles similar to Captionfish.com (set your
> location to Cupertino, CA to see listings).
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM5UgK5ZXrQ gives an idea how this system
> works.
>
> We tried to speak with heads of several cinema outlets such as PVR to pilot
> this project in India. But things never worked out. PVR indicated that most
> people in India were averse to watching movies with subs on screens etc. In
> the longer run, we had to drop off the project.
>
> So if anyone has seen subs in movies in Bengaluru or elsewhere in India
> give me a shout!
>
> Regards,
> - Bharat
>

Re: [silk] yelp!! USB drive advice

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

> From: xxx...@yahoo.com
> Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:33:42 +0530
> To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
> Subject: [silk] yelp!! USB  drive advice
> 
> I need some advice on which USB flash drive to buy..the parameters are
> 1.No separate cap but the retracting mechanism must be solidly built
> 2.am unclear as to price performance vs optimum capacity..(i used it mainly 
> for moving movies and large presentation files back and forth)
> 3.reasonably robust
> 4.easily available in Bangalore

I'm guessing you don't keep losing your USB thumb drives like some of us :-) 
So, it might be worth putting down the cash for a good one. A good drive will 
have a robust port and should be solidly built. It may not be available in cute 
shapes or slim profiles though ;-)
As others have pointed out USB 3.0 rocks. USB 3.0 has been found to be 900% 
faster than USB 2, even in real-world scenarios. And even on a USB 2 port, it 
is found to be faster than USB 2 drives!
Patriot seems to be the best drive, but most probably that is not available in 
India. Kingston and Mushkin seem to be the other good choices. No idea about 
the popular Sandisk drives.
References:[1] 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4523/usb-30-flash-drive-roundup/[2] 
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/11/a-ssd-in-your-pocket.html
~ash  

Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

> At today's Chennai silk list meetup the topic of history podcasts came up. I 
> offered to post to silk list asking> everyone for recommendations.
> 1. What are two (history or other) podcasts that are the best in your opinion?

My vote is for In Our 
Time:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Our_Time_(BBC_Radio_4)
It is not specifically about history, but almost half the topics are related to 
history one way or the other. I have been a regular listener of IoT for many 
years now. I love the discussion format and Bragg's jolly demeanor.
~ash  

Re: [silk] Chinese martial arts movies

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

[Related] Is there a good reviewer/blog/website you folks use to follow 
releases of Chinese, Korean and Japanese movies in one place?
Thanks,~ash

Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:23:18 -0800
From: divyasamp...@yahoo.com
To: silklist@lists.hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] Chinese martial arts movies


 



From: Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:




I watched another Donnie Yen movie recently, the animation-adaptation flick 
Dragon Tiger Gate. It's high on martial arts but low on storyline (too many 
plots for a 2 hour movie). 


Ip Man is going on my to watch list. 


Not a martial arts movie, but excellent nonetheless - 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Arrows - War of the Arrows. 
 
Dragon Tiger Gate is an adaptation of a popular comic book - they tried to cram 
about 5 volumes worth of manhua story into the movie - which accounts for the 
multiple characters and storylines. All things, considered it was a pretty 
decent adaptation. If you like comic book adaptation fantasy wuxia movies, try 
out the older 1998 Storm Riders, and its 2009 sequel, Storm Warriors. 
 
I saw War of the Arrows last year - nicely understated historical drama. More 
Korean historical fare: I recently watched 2012's Gwanghae: The Man Who Became 
King/Masquerade recently - it's inspired by the Prince and the Pauper/The 
Prisoner of Zenda. Competent, great production values, but not terribly 
memorable, though I gather it's a huge hit.
 
cheers
Divya 

Re: [silk] RIP - Sriram Bala

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 9:24 PM, Thaths  wrote:
> I talked to him a couple of times after we both came back to the US. But we
> drifted apart. When Livejournal started rotting on the vine, the updates I
> used to get about what he was up to ceased.

I remember a few interactions with him on Livejournal. Cannot seem to
remember his LJ ID now.

~ash

[silk] The Flight From Conversation

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

From: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html

The short:

"WE live in a technological universe in which we are always
communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere
connection.
[...]
In the silence of connection, people are comforted by being in touch
with a lot of people — carefully kept at bay. We can’t get enough of
one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances
we can control: not too close, not too far, just right.
[...]
we use conversation with others to learn to converse with ourselves.
So our flight from conversation can mean diminished chances to learn
skills of self-reflection.
[...]
we need to remember — in between texts and e-mails and Facebook posts
— to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is
often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter
and go silent, that we reveal ourselves to one another."

A Thai TV commercial which I believe is surprisingly apt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ZrK2NryuQ

Finally, the full article:

==
The New York Times

April 21, 2012
The Flight From Conversation
By SHERRY TURKLE

WE live in a technological universe in which we are always
communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere
connection.

At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work
executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on
Facebook) during classes and when we’re on dates. My students tell me
about an important new skill: it involves maintaining eye contact with
someone while you text someone else; it’s hard, but it can be done.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve studied technologies of mobile connection
and talked to hundreds of people of all ages and circumstances about
their plugged-in lives. I’ve learned that the little devices most of
us carry around are so powerful that they change not only what we do,
but also who we are.

We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together.”
Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also
elsewhere, connected to wherever we want to be. We want to customize
our lives. We want to move in and out of where we are because the
thing we value most is control over where we focus our attention. We
have gotten used to the idea of being in a tribe of one, loyal to our
own party.

Our colleagues want to go to that board meeting but pay attention only
to what interests them. To some this seems like a good idea, but we
can end up hiding from one another, even as we are constantly
connected to one another.

A businessman laments that he no longer has colleagues at work. He
doesn’t stop by to talk; he doesn’t call. He says that he doesn’t want
to interrupt them. He says they’re “too busy on their e-mail.” But
then he pauses and corrects himself. “I’m not telling the truth. I’m
the one who doesn’t want to be interrupted. I think I should. But I’d
rather just do things on my BlackBerry.”

A 16-year-old boy who relies on texting for almost everything says
almost wistfully, “Someday, someday, but certainly not now, I’d like
to learn how to have a conversation.”

In today’s workplace, young people who have grown up fearing
conversation show up on the job wearing earphones. Walking through a
college library or the campus of a high-tech start-up, one sees the
same thing: we are together, but each of us is in our own bubble,
furiously connected to keyboards and tiny touch screens. A senior
partner at a Boston law firm describes a scene in his office. Young
associates lay out their suite of technologies: laptops, iPods and
multiple phones. And then they put their earphones on. “Big ones. Like
pilots. They turn their desks into cockpits.” With the young lawyers
in their cockpits, the office is quiet, a quiet that does not ask to
be broken.

In the silence of connection, people are comforted by being in touch
with a lot of people — carefully kept at bay. We can’t get enough of
one another if we can use technology to keep one another at distances
we can control: not too close, not too far, just right. I think of it
as a Goldilocks effect.

Texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be.
This means we can edit. And if we wish to, we can delete. Or retouch:
the voice, the flesh, the face, the body. Not too much, not too little
— just right.

Human relationships are rich; they’re messy and demanding. We have
learned the habit of cleaning them up with technology. And the move
from conversation to connection is part of this. But it’s a process in
which we shortchange ourselves. Worse, it seems that over time we stop
caring, we forget that there is a difference.

We are tempted to think that our little “sips” of online connection
add up to a big gulp of real conversation. But they don’t. E-mail,
Twitter, Facebook, all of these have their places — in politics,
commerce, romance and friendship. But no matter how valuable, they do
not sub

Re: [silk] Anyone who works 40-hour weeks?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Related: http://www.city-journal.org/html/11_1_ecstatic_capitalisms.html/

A 2001 long-form piece that examines the work culture of the dot-com
community and gathers together many more related strands of how this
is changing how we live.

"""
Allison Behr, the 29-year-old public-relations director who is showing
me around, tells me that she works 11 hours a day, except during the
weeks near the Christmas rush, when everyone at Sparks burns the
midnight oil. In her world, this is no oddity—area legend has it that
when a 24-year-old Netscape programmer told a survey company that he
worked between 110 and 120 hours per week, the researcher objected
that his computerized questionnaire wouldn't accept a number that big.
"""

"""
Nineteenth-century utopian novels like Bellamy's Looking Backward and
William Dean Howells's A Traveler from Altruia assumed that progress
would inevitably lead to leisure, with time for hobbies, civic
engagement, family, and neighborly sociability.
"""

"""
Ecstatic capitalism has bored so deeply into the national psyche that
it has even changed how Americans think of childhood. For just as
every day Mom goes off to work—as did 59 percent of women with babies
under one year old in 1998, vs. 31 percent in 1976—and Dad goes off to
work, so baby . . . well, goes to work. While a generation ago,
experts saw infancy as a time to develop healthy emotional
attachments, contemporary parenting magazines and advice books are
obsessed with "learning" or what Newsweek has called "building baby's
brain," presumably for the demands of knowledge work.
[...]
After a lesson-packed infancy, the new-economy baby must begin school
as early as possible. One New York City foreign-language program
starts babies at six months—before they can talk—and public pressure
is mounting for universal preschool for three- and four-year-olds. For
today's five-year-old, a full day's work is mandatory
"""

~ash

On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 22:01, Sruthi Krishnan  wrote:
> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/bring_back_the_40_hour_work_week/singleton/
>
> Fun piece.
>
> "The rapacious new corporate ethic was summarized by two phrases:
> “churn ‘em and burn ‘em” (a term that described Microsoft’s habit of
> hiring young programmers fresh out of school and working them 70 hours
> a week until they dropped, and then firing them and hiring more)"
>
> Reminded me of the manager I encountered fresh out of college who
> sincerely believed that staying at the workplace from 8 am to 10 pm is
> a minimum requirement to build character. And as far as I know, IT
> firms continue to live by this ethic. Are there any exceptions out
> there?
>
> Sruthi
>

Re: [silk] JT Edsons

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 13:38, Biju Chacko  wrote:
> My list would include Clive Cussler, David Eddings and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

+1 for Clive Cussler :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2011

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

I have not read the randomness book. A book that seems to be in the
same vein as that one is
Group Theory in the Bedroom by Brian Hayes
http://daariga.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/group-theory-in-the-bedroom/

I read it a few years ago and enjoyed the analogies and historical
backgrounds the author provides. I seem to have now forgotten a lot of
the cool stuff from the book. Time to find it and read it again :-)

Regards,
~ash

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 12:31, Bharat Shetty  wrote:
> Amen to the first book Ashwin suggested. It gives a fascinating
> history and introduction to how randomness became important and
> critical in our lives in a prose understandable by layman :-) If
> others who have read this book know any other similar books, please
> put their names here.
>
> I also recommend his other book with Stephen Hawking that is quite a
> decent read and talks about the various theories prevalent in field of
> physics and cosmos and how the universe came into existence etc.
>
> @Thaths: plz2inform me as well if you are visiting BLR sometime :-)
>
> Regards,
> - B

Re: [silk] Recommended Reading from 2011

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

2 books that I particularly enjoyed in the last year ...

* Peking Diary: (1948 – 1949) A Year of Revolution by Derk Bodde

Diary of a US sinology professor in Beijing when the Communists routed
the Nationalists and the PRC was formed.
More: 
http://daariga.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/peking-diary-1948-1949-a-year-of-revolution/

* Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott

A 100-year old book that is still funny today and is a neat
introduction to think in many dimensions (literally).
More: 
http://daariga.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/flatland-a-romance-of-many-dimensions/

~ash

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 03:00, Thaths  wrote:
> For the third year in a row, I am turning to silk listers for book
> recommendation this holiday season.
>
> What have you read over the last year that has left a mark on you?
> What are you eagerly looking forward to reading over the Christmas/New
> Year's holidays?
>
> Past silk list recommendations have included such gems as:
>
> * Alice Albina's Empires of the Indus
> * Samanth Subramaniam's Following Fish
> * Sarnath Bannerjee's Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers, and
> * Devdutt Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya.
>
> Books that are easy to get a hold of in India (and more difficult
> elsewhere) preferred (but not required). Fiction and non-fiction
> recommendations are equally welcome.
>
> Thaths

Re: [silk] Indian Men Living in U.S. Strike Out

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 18:11, Ashwin Nanjappa  wrote:
> Matrimonials – Chinese style by Pallavi Aiyar

Sorry, forgot the link:
<http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/05/18/stories/2008051850020200.htm>

~ash

Re: [silk] Indian Men Living in U.S. Strike Out

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 17:38, Srini RamaKrishnan  wrote:
> If you find this unbelievable check out how the Chinese get married.
> With a male:female ratio that's even more skewed than in India, and
> with no social stigma against marrying non-Chinese, the Chinese men
> have it much tougher.

On the other side side of the Himalayas:

Matrimonials – Chinese style by Pallavi Aiyar
"""
Held every Sunday afternoon, the market is a forum for parents who
have come to despair of their educated, career-driven offsprings ever
finding appropriate life-partners on their own and have thus decided
to take matters into their own hands.

“Boy, 28 yrs, has own apartment in Fuxing district, no mortgage,
Communist Party member,” advertises the piece of paper offered up by
one bespectacled father.
"""

And the non-stigma about marrying non-Chinese:
"""
I (Pallavi) am quickly approached by several people anxiously asking
if I am “available”. When I shake my head in regret they quickly
change tack and inquire about prospective single friends I might have.
"""

~ash

Re: [silk] Is there something I should know?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 00:23, Deepa Mohan  wrote:
> Thanks Ash...I did that, and I got 18 events imorted, after which the "daily
> quota was exceeded". Do you mean to say I have to import the events 18 at a
> time? That might be almost as painful as doing it individuallyany
> suggestions?

I moved from YCal to GCal a few years ago, and didn't have any
problems. I definitely had >18 events!

GCal does seem to have a quota, but it's set at 5000 events not 18:


~ash

Re: [silk] Postal voting in India

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 23:40, Deepa Mohan  wrote:
>
> Ah. I got this kind of card in 1992. NOW...that card no. is not listed
> anywhere, so I could not get it deleted; and I was told that unless I had
> that deleted, I could not register in my new constituency. After several
> futile attempts, I just quiety registered for a new card.

That can't be the same ID card. For one, webcams/digicams were either
not prevalent or non-existent in 1992 in India. Just kidding! But, I
think this current Voter ID card drive and database was started only
around early 200x.

~ash

Re: [silk] Postal voting in India

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 18:55, Srini RamaKrishnan  wrote:
>
> Heh, this sounds so simple. It took me 12 years to get my voter ID
> card. Finally arrived this year with a photo from the early 90s.

I got my Voter ID card around 2004 when they were issuing it areawise
in Bengaluru. I was given a date and location (a government school) to
get the card. They took a grainy mugshot using a webcam/low-res
digicam (don't remember which), filled out the details, asked me if
it's correct, printed out the card, laminated it and gave it to me
right there. I have no idea if the card format has changed since then
though.

~ash

Re: [silk] Postal voting in India

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 17:28, Venkat Mangudi  wrote:
> This gives an opportunity for him to vote in Bangalore and Mumbai
> everytime. :-) IOW, someone will vote for him if he is not around. Does
> he want this to happen?

Not if he can prevent it. But, if the erase-and-create option is
harder than the new creation option, he might just go for the latter.

~ash

Re: [silk] Is there something I should know?

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 12:33, Deepa Mohan  wrote:
> For more than a week now, Yahoo has stopped sending me reminders from my
> calendar; I have sent three emails to the helpdesk, and for one I got their
> standard automated response...but nothing has happened...
[...]
> Is there something I am missing.(about Yahoo closing down services other
> than Briefcase)? Should I start putting in entries on Google now? What a
> pain, I have several years' worth of reminders stored up on Yahoo, from long
> before Googol was a number that was asked on a quiz

I don't know what's happening with YCal. You should be able to
transition from YCal to GCal easily, if that's what you want.
Here's how:


~ash

Re: [silk] Postal voting in India

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 16:57, Deepa Mohan  wrote:
>
> this is NOT as simple as it sounds. His voter id will be deleted in
> Bangalore, and then he will have to delete his id in Mumbai again next time
> and re-register in Bangalore so let him decide if he wants to do this!

What if the person doesn't inform the Mumbai registration office about
his entry in the Bengaluru records? I remember seeing lots of folks
having multiple voter records, representing the trail of localities in
Bengaluru that they moved around over the years :-)

~ash

Re: [silk] Postal voting in India

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 15:38, Amitha Singh  wrote:
> jaagore.com is the best resource available online as on date.  afaik, postal
> voting is not available in india. he has one of 2 options, come in to blr to
> vote for that one day or register again in mumbai.  if he is sure that he
> may not be in mumbai when the next general elections will be held, coming in
> to blr for tht one day seems like a better option. hope this helps!

Thanks, so he will reregister at Mumbai to vote.

~ash

[silk] Postal voting in India

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

Hi,

A friend who has relocated from Bengaluru to Mumbai for a few years
asked about this. He had his name on the voter list in Bengaluru, but
won't be in that place on this election day.
What's the best option for him? Register again at Mumbai or vote
through post? Is the latter option even available for
non-armed-services folks in India? If yes, where can I find the
details on this?

TIA,
~ash

Re: [silk] Psychoceramic of the week

[Ashwin Nanjappa]

On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 20:09, Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.timecube.com/
>
> (do not visit this site if you don't have a few hours free to waste, or
> even if you like coherent web design, or indeed, thought)

My brain went to mush trying to even barely comprehend his pages! :-)
He never really says why anyone should consider him the "wisest human" :-D

~ash