Latte Art

For people who like their lattes to be creative.
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Satellite radio - awesome!

Last few months I have been desperately trying to find good radio programming in Delhi. There is only so much Radio Mirchi and Radio One a person can put up with (i.e. 15 minutes). All India Radio (AIR) of course has never been particularly enticing with back to back news broadcasts in Hindi, English, Punjabi and some sitar/santoor recitals (btw, now that I am in India I have confirmed my hunch that no one I know really listens to sitar or drinks mango lassi in India - the two symbols of India that you always find at ANY Indian restaurant you visit in the US). Anyway, in my moments of desperation I was downloading podcasts from National Public Radio site: npr.org (in mp3), burning them to a CD and listening to them in my car. Nothing beats Fresh Air with Teri Gross when your stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on National Highway-8. And then one day, I discovered and installed Worldspace! Guys, this is the best thing to happen in India after Internet Radio :-) The selection of channels is incredible - 40 commercial free stations (NPR, Art of Living Radio, Comedy, College Rock, Rock, 80s Music, Indian and Western Classical, Bollywood, Old-era Bollywood to name a few), the sound quality is phenomenal, the programming amazing - superb content selection. Now I am getting my daily dose of NPR, Bollywood music without the annoying DJs and 80s rock, bhajans and above all satsang with Sri Sri Ravishankar.
Listening to it right now at 3:15 am and the room is rocking. Two thumbs way way up for Worldspace! If you love music, live in India - you HAVE to get thing.

Minekey is a proud sponsor of Gnomedex

Minekey is a proud sponsor of Gnomedex !

It's not coffee, it's a religion

Found an interesting post by Chris Pirillo on Peets vs Starbucks. In which he writes:
If you consider yourself a Starbucks fan, you are to be considered someone who doesn’t know good coffee - and therefore, your opinion on anything related to coffee is completely null and void. I have nothing against Jana personally, but it really pisses me off when people try to compare Peet’s to anything else. Comparing Peet’s to Starbucks is like comparing Ruth’s Chris to the Sizzler. Gimme a break - they’re not even in the same league.

As a coffee lover and coffee house addict, I agree with Chris that Peet's offers a superior product (coffee and espresso. i generally dont try the iced stuff) and experience (service, ambience). And of course, the selection of teas at Peets is in a completely different league. However, Starbucks has some great stuff with the Sumatra and House blend.
On an interesting note, great news is that Starbucks is coming to India (Delhi and Mumbai) in next few months. It will be interesting to see how the Indian population reacts to Starbucks given the already over saturation in popular areas of Barista, Cafe Coffee Day and Costa. It is not uncommon to see all three vendors present in the same marketplaces very close to each other. What will Starbucks compete on? The experience at these cafes is already really good with nice sofas, guitars, games, books etc. Not sure if the general population is discerning enough to pick Starbucks on the taste (drip coffee and cappuccions/lattes are relatively new to the general Indian population). Here's an idea: Most of the existing places open only after 10 or 11 am or so. What I miss is the early morning dose on my way to work or right after a nice run. A cafe that opens at 6 am will certainly get me there. Found another interesting post on this on the unofficial Starbucks gossip blog.

Minekey at AlwaysOn Stanford Summit

Delip will be presenting at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit this week. See Delip's post for details. If you are at the event, do stop by and meet with Delip and the team.