Random Thoughts

IFTTT

2011-12-30T10:26:00.001-08:00

Came across this really cool service called IFTTT. Created a task to send me an update every time I update my blog. Let's give it a try!

Training for the TCS 10k

2011-05-22T03:11:00.000-07:00

The TCS 10k run (erstwhile known as the Sunfeast 10k)is right around the corner (less than 2 weeks away). This is the first time I'm running it and really looking forward to it as I have heard great reviews. It's organized by Procam and I'm sure they'll do a great job like they always do. My buddy Anurag and I have been training and here's data from my Garmin GPS watch for this morning's run. Lalbagh has been a recent discovery for me for running.

Full details at: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87189176

How to Make a Latte with Microfoam

2011-03-08T03:15:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to master the art of making the perfect cappuccino at home on my Breville espresso machine. Found this video useful. Some great tips in there

TxtWeb Overview

2011-01-10T21:52:00.000-08:00

TxtWeb is a great platform from Intuit to easily build apps that can be accessed over SMS. Here's a overview presentation I put together of how the platform works.

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - ...

2010-12-27T21:11:00.000-08:00

Great data visualization

Useful tool for scheduling meetings across different timezones

2010-10-21T06:12:00.001-07:00

Scheduling meetings across different time zones is always a pain. Here’s a useful tool that makes life a bit easier:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html

Euphoria Rockumentary

2010-09-29T00:27:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bands is Euphoria. I really enjoyed watching this rockumentary. Even though the production quality is not that great, the content and details and trivia in there are awesome. It's a must watch for any Euphoria fan. It's a multi-part series so looking forward to the next episode

http://www.nyootv.com/Euphoria

Techcrunch Disrupt - MobilePay

2010-09-29T00:22:00.001-07:00

TC Disrupt is on and I have been watching sessions over the web (not as exciting as it was attending in-person TC50 last time as a part of the presenting company but content is energizing). Came across this interesting mobile payments startup that has very creatively solved the pain point of upgrading to new hardware for mechants as well as for end users (upgrading/waiting for NFC devices). Definitely on my radar to track.

MobilePay May Be The Death Of The Wallet. Yes, For Real This Time. http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/28/mobilepayusa/

TED Talk by Fabian Hemmert

2010-09-29T00:17:00.001-07:00

An interesting TED Video Sunil Madhani shared with me.

http://www.ted.com/talks/fabian_hemmert_the_shape_shifting_future_of_the_mobile_phone.html

The concluding remark was striking.
"Rather than human getting much more technical in future, technology should get bit more human".

Very Cool stuff! This has very interesting possibilities for the visually challenged as well tho he doesn't talk about it. Think about it, for a blind person, an iphone is useless. With this some apps like navigation could start to become little more useful. Thumbs up!

Handpresso Wild

2010-09-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Sounds perfect for a road trip
Handpresso Wild

Mexican Food in Delhi

2010-01-30T05:30:00.000-08:00

Not too many places in Delhi for Mexican food. There's Salsa Salsa in Gurgaon and Amigo's in GK-2. Sancho's in South Ex is my favorite. Here are some reviews on the web:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=50796265593 (FB Group)
http://eoid.org/2008/10/18/sanchos/
http://woman.intoday.in/woman/story.jsp?sid=6406
http://www.asklaila.com/article/Delhi-NCR/Sancho%E2%80%99s:+Mexican+Grub+in+Delhi/56509/
http://jesse.rapczak.com/2008/07/holy-guacamole-real-mexican-food-in-delhi/
http://www.trendy.in/2008/07/15/they-wanna-mex-you-up/
http://www.livemint.com/2008/07/28170905/Lounge-ReviewSancho8217s.html?atype=tp
http://www.planforme.com/delhi/3609/sanchos/index.html
ask laila link

3D Secure online payment system not secure, researchers say - security - PC World

2010-01-28T22:46:00.000-08:00

Another example of how the perception of more security is sometimes misleading. The paragraph that struck me was:
As a reward for investing in the systems, merchants are less liable for fraudulent transactions and are stuck with fewer chargebacks. But banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland are now holding consumers to a higher level of liability if fraudulent transactions occur using either system, said Steven J. Murdoch, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge.

3D Secure online payment system not secure, researchers say - security - PC World

Recent Marathon Deaths

2009-10-20T02:12:00.000-07:00

Running and motivating people to run has been my passion for a while. Nothing beats the rush of excitement before a long run and the elation after completing it. I was naturally very saddened to read about the deaths of several runners (including runners in their 20s/30s!) during the recent Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon (see article) and the San Jose Rock n Roll marathon (see article).

I hope this motivates people to train properly rather than feel discouraged about running. An informative article in Runner's World helps put things in perspective.

Excerpts:
The risk of dying from a heart attack goes up about 5 to 7 times during marathoning or other strenuous exercise. It's actually lowest among those who exercise the most and the most vigorously--it's maybe double for them, while it's 30 to 50 times more dangerous for weekend warrior types who exercise infrequently. At the same time that you see these during-exercise risks, we also know that regular exercisers have about a 30 to 50 percent lower overall risk for heart attacks.

The most important thing is to listen to your body. We often get warning signals, and we have to learn to pay attention to them. Regular moderate to vigorous exercise is good for you, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. It's also important to take care of all the other areas of your life--your blood pressure, your diet, your cholesterol. These are a big part of the preventive story. Finally, unless you're planning to aim for the Olympic team in London, you don't necessarily have to be highly competitive. You can run slower marathons, and run them more for fun.

So train well, eat healthy and just go out and run. For me the comment from a reader on the San Jose article resonates well: "I guess if it's your time to go, do it doing something you love...."

Thanks to folks on the delhi runners list for sharing these articles

You know you're old when

2008-12-04T03:19:00.000-08:00

Ooooold

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: old age)

Coffee with Minekey - Information Session in Bangalore

2008-02-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone for their interest in attending the Minekey information session. There has been lots of interest and in order to allow more people to attend, we are rescheduling the event to Feb 10th. The time and locations stay the same (only the date is different). The event details are:
Location: Brewhaha - Feb 10th (Sunday) at Noon
http://brewhaha.in/
Time: Sunday, February 10th, 12 pm (noon)

Airport Road
Location: Barista Coffee (at the Leela)
Time: Sunday, February 10th, 5 pm

Sorry for any inconvenience. We look forward to meeting you next week!

Coffee with Minekey Team - Information Session in Banglore

2008-01-24T07:10:00.000-08:00

Himanshu (a.k.a Frosty) and I will be Bangalore on Feb 3rd '08. We will be hosting two extremely informal information sessions (I am tempted to call them "unsessions" :-)) So, once again, what better way to spend Sunday than to have a chat with us over a few cappuccinos? This is a great opportunity to meet with the Minekey team members and hear stories about working in one of the hottest tech startups. We are hiring and expanding our team in Gurgaon and so this is a great opportunity for both of us to learn about each other in an informal setting. See you there!

We will be hosting two events:
Kormangala
Location: Brewhaha - Feb 3rd (Sunday) at Noon
http://brewhaha.in/
Time: Sunday, February 3rd, 12 pm (noon)

Airport Road
Location: Barista Coffee, exact location TBD - stay tuned
Time: Sunday, February 3rd, 5 pm

This is an invitation only event. Please RSVP the location you will attending at to me at gauravb at minekey dot com.

Coffee with Minekey Team - Information Session

2007-12-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Folks from our Sunnyvale team, Delip (our CEO) and Raymond and Rajiv (Product Management) are in town, and what better way to spend sunday than to have a chat with us over a few cappuccinos? This is a great opportunity to meet with the Minekey team members (both from Gurgaon and Sunnyvale) and hear stories about working in one of the hottest tech startups. We are hiring and expanding our team in Gurgaon and so this is a great opportunity for both of us to learn about each other in an informal setting.

We will be hosting two events:
Gurgaon
Location: Terrace - MGF Megacity Mall, Gurgaon. http://www.mgfindia.com/megacity_gurgaon/index.htm
Time: Sunday, December 16th, 11 am

Noida
Location: Costa Coffee (basement), Noida Sect 18, Shop# G-45, Sect 18, Near Centre Stage mall, Noida
Time: Sunday, December 16th, 4 pm

This is an invitation only event. Please RSVP to me at gauravb at minekey dot com.

We're hiring at Minekey

2007-12-10T03:57:00.000-08:00

Here's the job description
COMPANY

Minekey develops applications and widgets for online social networks and blogs, using a proprietary recommendations technology.

iThink, Minekey's flagship product, is an opinion sharing and polling application for social networks. Currently the second most popular application in the politics category on Facebook, iThink is also available on Friendster and will soon be available to members of other leading social networks. With iThink, users can share their opinions about anything from politics, sports, entertainment, food and more.

Minekey has headquarters at Sunnyvale, CA and has development center in New Delhi, India and an R&D team at IIT Kharagpur. Minekey completed a Series A Round of financing in July 2007, led by Vinod Dham of NEA-IndoUS Ventures, acknowledged to be the Father of the Pentium chip.

POSITION

Senior Software Engineer
• Design and deliver a world-class web application infrastructure for Minekey's next generation product.
• Drive the product through the lifecycle of conception, design, coding, testing and rolling into production
• Work closely with cross-functional teams including development, product management and QA on requirements gathering, analysis and testing
• Do whatever it takes to build and ship a world class product

Requirements
Must have
• Entrepreneurial spirit and desire to be a in startup
• Bachelors or Masters in computer science or related field with 1-5 years of work experience
• Strong programming experience in User Interface Design (Javascript, HTML, CSS, AJAX and UI development technologies) and/or
• Strong programming experience in Web Application development (PHP/ASP/JSP/SQL)
• Be an excellent team player

Desirable
• Experience developing applications/widgets for social networks such as Facebook (FBML), OpenSocial/Orkut, iGoogle, Friendster etc.
• Expert knowledge of development in the LAMP environment
• Experience building high-end scalable distributed systems
• Research or industry experience in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Live and breath Web 2.0 technologies including blogging, social networking platforms etc.

Location: Gurgaon, India
Send resumes to careers at minekey dot com

What I think - on iThink

2007-11-28T00:57:00.000-08:00

Now you can check out what I think on iThink. A powerful, new self-expression application on Facebook.
http://apps.facebook.com/ithinkapp/userprofile?id=653042558

Social Networking with a cause

2007-10-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting social network that lets you connect with people for domestic help.
http://babajob.com/
http://babalife.com/

Having been thru 5 car drivers in the last 6 months, this seems to be very promising. Some problem with my drivers:
1. driver 1: nice guy, drove very well, a true gentleman. however, called in sick all the time.
2. driver 2: very nice and polite kid. had a fake license. went home for 2 weeks to get a real one. had to let him go
3. driver 3: drove very well. BUT rude personality and a very bad attitude. took 4 days off without notifying me. had to fire him
4. driver 4: didnt show up on first day of work.
5. driver 5: drives ok, good attitude. but shows up late for work every single day. i have figured out how to put buffers in place to work around this. doesnt seem like a long term sustainable option.

I would hope referrals would fix this.

Once it's launched in Delhi, I am on this thing big time.
Excerpt from Aloo-Techie:
But both seek to achieve the same purpose — to help poor people like maids, cooks, drivers and watchmen to find jobs through the power of social network. Founded by a former Microsoft employee Sean Blagsvedt, Babajob currently focuses on Bangalore, with plans to spread to other Indian cities and perhaps globally.

Latte Art

2007-08-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

For people who like their lattes to be creative.
More here

Satellite radio - awesome!

2007-08-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Minekey is a proud sponsor of Gnomedex !

It's not coffee, it's a religion

2007-08-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-01T02:49:00.000-07:00

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.

A Samosa with your Chianti?

2007-07-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

We all had an excuse to drink that extra glass of Cabernet - it's good for the heart, right? Well now you can order that extra cheeseburger or samosa too - it will cut down your risk of cancer. Article today on Yahoo News reports that:

Lowering cholesterol as much as possible may reduce the risk of heart disease, but with a price: taking it too low could raise the risk of cancer, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. Patients who took statin drugs to lower their cholesterol had a slightly higher risk of cancer, although the study did not show that the statin drugs themselves caused the cancer. The researchers found one extra case of cancer per 1,000 patients with the lowest levels of LDL -- low density lipoprotein or so-called bad cholesterol -- when compared to patients with higher LDL levels.

So if your LDL has been dipping too low, you should eat a samosa and fix that. However, to counter the ill-effects of that on the heart, don't forget to wash it down with a nice glass of Chianti. The samosa and Chianti the "cornerstone of a nutritious meal"

What a great quote towards the end of the article:
"Something is going to get us. If we don't die of heart disease, then we die of cancer or Alzheimer's. We don't want people to stop something that we know has benefits."

Honestly, the more health news I read, the more I become unsure of what is the right thing to do.

A link to the entire article is here. Note that the link may expire after sometime (Yahoo expires the articles)

Plan afoot to make entire Delhi Wi-Fi

2007-07-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Delhi rocks! Article from IndiaTimes on the Wi-Fi enablement of the city:
NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from cities like Bangalore and Pune, the Delhi government is planning a Wi-Fi future for the city. The city government's information technology department is exploring options to ensure Delhiites have wireless net access on laptops. Bangalore is already Wi-Fi enabled, while Pune and Kolkata are on their way to attaining the status. The entire article is here

At Proto.in over the weekend

2007-07-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

It was an exciting weekend. I was at Proto.in in Chennai. Proto.in is intended to be India's version of Demo.com. Minekey was one of the presenting companies - selected as 1 of the Top 25 companies in Asia! Yours truly gave a 6 minute demo of Minekey in action. Overall, a great event. Some very interesting companies were there including Tolmolbol, Routeguru, Tyroo, ZivaSoft, Buzzworks, Genie Interactive. For a complete list see and for Minekey coverage click here. This was such an excellent event to meet people from the entrepreneurial community as well as the investors. Great presence from the blogging and media community as well. The perfect ecosystem any startup could ask for. Look forward to organizing Proto.in in Delhi.
Some pictures from the presentation (Amit is running the demo):

India Poised by Amitabh Bachchan

2007-07-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

Growing up in the 80s, Amitabh Bachchan was for me, just like for any other kid, God. Over the years though, the hero worship faded esp. when I started to admire more of the tech icons. When I saw the following video played at Proto.in, it brought back the great admiration I had for Amitabh. Watch the video, the personality and delivery of the great legends in Bollywood - unparalleled! What an inspiring video.

New Template

2007-07-22T23:50:00.001-07:00

Time to try out a new template for the blog. Picked rounders from the template directory on bloggger. Nice look and feel. Love the colors, the blue and the gray. Happy with the choice.

Happy Birthday, Papa

2007-06-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

We miss you!

Canon stopping development of film cameras

2006-05-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Very interesting article from News.Com on Canon stopping development of film cameras! Here is the link from news.com

Exotic India

2006-05-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

Friend of mine runs a website for selling Indian stuff online. http://www.exoticindia.com/
Check it out.

Interesting authentication mechanism

2006-05-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on identifying a user based on their typing patterns.
http://www.physorg.com/news67710818.html

Some questions I had after reading this:
1. how does the server detect replay of captured keystrokes i.e. of my name (perhaps you're asked to key in a one-time challenge)
2. what if your style of typing changes e.g. I see a google ad right next to it which says: Improve Your Typing Skills. Get Better Speed & Accuracy. Act Now
It would be interesting to find out more on how this works.

Mobile phones in India

2006-05-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

One thing that I find very fascinating is how cool people's cell phones in India are. The phones people carry in Delhi seem to be so much more advanced than the ones I see people carrying in the US. My friend, Nitin, bought a Nokia 3250 (http://europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,80112,00.html). Nice phone with a 2 MP camera and an mp3 player and built in speaker. I did not expect the built-in speaker to be this good - it's quite loud and clear. The form factor is not as good (it's a bit bulky and the keys are not too great). I would love to get the N91 but spending $650+ on a cell phone is (http://www.nokia.com/nseries/index.html?loc=inside,main_n91&lang=en&country=R1) is bit out of my budget. Given the rapid improvements in cell phone technology and falling prices, I am hopeful I can get one in a yr or two anyway.

In India for some time

2006-05-20T11:37:00.001-07:00

I have been living in India for the past few months. I am amazed and delighted at most of the changes I have observed while staying here. My previous trips to India from the US were all 3-4 week long vacations, carefully planned during the months of March/April and Oct/Nov to capitalize on the small window when the weather is nice in Delhi. This time however has been very different. I have stayed long enough that my high-school friends now take my being around for granted. They won't drive 1.5 hrs one-way in rush hour traffic to just meet me at Barista (Indian version of Starbucks) anymore. I experienced the beautiful March/April weather and the hot June summer this time around too. Temperatures of 44 degrees Celcius (111 degrees F) have been a part of the daily routine. Talking about coffee joints, I think the coffee sucks in Delhi. I miss the flavorful cup of joe at Pete's Coffee in the Bay Area. Interestingly, some locations of Barista sell 3-4 different versions of espresso including Kenyan, Costa Rica. The imported varieties are twice as expensive. I ordered shot today at a Barista in Gurgaon. The lingering taste of the smooth flavor on my tongue took me back to my days of visiting my favorite coffee places on University Ave in Palo Alto. Thank god for Barista in India.

Digital SLR

2005-09-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have decided to get the Nikon D70s as my new camera. I did a lot of research trying to compare the D70s with the Canon 20D. After months of analysis paralysis, the following review helped make up my mind: http://kenrockwell.com/tech/20dd70.htm. So if you are looking to buy one, read the review.

Art of Living

2005-09-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

I took the Art of Living (http://www.artoflivingsfba.org/) basic course recently. The breathing exercises and knowledge points discussions made a lot of sense. I just wish I could be more disciplined about following the breathing exercises regularly.

First Blog

2005-09-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Tanveer's blog (http://brownypoints.blogspot.com/) inspired me to setup my own. While I am not half as interesting it's a fun thing to try since I used to really enjoying writing at one time. I have no real plans for this blog - just plan to share some random thoughts about things in general that I enjoy: cameras, books, working out etc.