Musings on the Human Condition

iPhone Screen Capture

2012-01-15T12:30:00.002-05:00

Use this cool tip to capture your iPhone screen as an image. Useful for documenting a setting you want to save or for demoing how an app works.

Rangeele Presents Kailash Kher's Ballads

2012-01-13T23:01:00.000-05:00

Kailash Kher, performing live in Boston, November 13, 2009. Copyright Puneet Singh Lamba.

I've been a fan on Kailash Kher ever since he came into limelight with the outstanding Allah Ke Bande (2002). After his appearance as a judge on Zee TV's SaReGaMaPa 2011, I also became a fan of his forthright personality and his shudh/pure Hindi.

I had the pleasure of seeing this amazing singer perform live in Boston on November 13, 2009 at the historic Somerville Theatre. It was an especially enjoyable show for me, given Karsh Kale's surprise guest appearance on drums.

Kailash Kher's long-awaited new album, Rangeele, is a more sober offering relative to his previous works. Understandably so, now that he is established, married, and a father. The album contains eleven delicious ballads, which I've reviewed below. This is the kind of CD we all long for, one that you can leave on continuous play and let it loop as it quietly seeps into your consciousness.

1. Rangeele. A thoughtful title song with horn and flute accents. The tune grew on me after a few listens.
2. Tu Kya Jaane. A gentle, meditative love song that lulled me into a trance.
3. Albeliya. A shorter, mesmerizing ballad. "Main to azaadi mein bhi kaid ho gayi."
4. Yadaan Teriyaan. A haunting, Punjabi song.
5. Daaro Na Rang. A slightly faster, catchy, irreverent offering with captivating banjo-like string work.
6. Kathagaan. A song of adoration. Continues the upbeat theme (and banjo?) from the previous song.
7. Babbaji. No one does spiritual songs quite like Kailash Kher. And this yearning song is no exception.
8. Yadaan Teriyaan (Acoustic). A welcome repeat, as is the entire album.
9. Hudkaan Maan Bitti. A playful song. Presents a change of pace before the fitting album finale.
10. Dharti Pe Jannat. A dreamy, short continuation of the upbeat groove. Left me wanting more.
11. Ujaale Baant Lo. The album ends on this lovely, uplifting anthem. My favorite track from the album.
12. Ambar Tak Yehi Naad Goonjega. My version of the album doesn't have this song.

What Is Enterprise Architecture Anyway?

2011-12-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

There aren't a lot of books on enterprise architecture, never mind good books. The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture by Godinez et al (IBM Press, 2010) fills a big void. I recommend the book for an excellent overview of enterprise architecture (EA) and reference architecture (RA), followed by a detailed discussion on Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA) and an EIA RA.

The authors define architecture as well as EA. They provide an overview of EA as well as RA, noting that there are various elements of an architecture including business architecture, application architecture, security architecture, and, of course, information architecture (IA). After the introductory chapters, the book launches into a detailed discussion on IA, EIA, and a RA for EIA. EIA is explored in terms of multiple views (conceptual, logical) and models (component, operational).

As the authors explain, the key that explains the "enterprise" in an EA is the manner in which an EA provides a bridge between business strategy and IT strategy and implementation such that business and IT are aligned. Furthermore, an EA strives to seek consistency and reduce redundancy in IT initiatives across the enterprise.

The survey includes references to some classic articles on the subject (see below) as well as detailed discussions on important elements of a next-gen EIA including cloud computing, enterprise information integration (EII), metadata management, master data management (MDM), mashups for Web 2.0, dynamic warehousing, and business analytics and optimization (BAO).

I am reproducing links to selected articles referenced in the book. (I wrote this blog entry mostly to save these links for my own future reference.)

Design an SOA solution using a reference architecture. Arsanjani et al. IBM developerWorks. 2007.

The authors present multiple views of their SOA reference architecture.
A comparison of the top four enterprise architecture methodologies. Session. MSDN. 2007.

Useful overviews of: (1) Zachman Framework for enterprise architectures, (2) The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), (3) the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), and (4) the Gartner Methodology.
The Open Group Architecture Framework's (TOGAF) Architecture Development Method (ADM).

ADM is perhaps the key component of TOGAF and it provides useful guidelines on how an organization should go about developing its architecture.

While we're on the subject of books on EA, the only other book I've investigated carefully is A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture by McGovern et al (Prentice Hall, 2004). It is a good complement to the above-mentioned book since it doesn't talk much about TOGAF and FEA and instead delves more into the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and Agile based approaches. However, McGovern et al completely neglect to talk about the "enterprise" bit. It's almost as if the book is about architecture and the title was an afterthought from a marketing person. And that's why the offering from Godinez et al is all the more useful.

India's Great Expectations

2011-09-03T18:35:00.000-04:00

A fascinating debate, with a well-rounded panel, on India's superpower status, aspirations and potential. The panel: Manish Tewari (politician), Anil Dharker (columnist), Gayatri Shah (journalist), Rizvi Syed (poet), Vimlendu Jha (environmentalist), Neera Chandhoke (academician), Y P Singh (police).

Java Founder Leaves Google, Joins Startup

2011-08-30T22:36:00.000-04:00

Just months after joining Google, Java founder James Gosling has moved on to a start-up working on oceanic robotics.

Hurricane Survival Kit

2011-08-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

1. A flashlight. This is important. If you don't have a flashlight, buy an iPhone and install the flashlight app.

2. A bottle of scotch. If you don't have a bottle of scotch, you're SOL.

CFO's Case for Frequent Releases

2011-08-22T22:11:00.000-04:00

A financial argument in support of frequent releases.

iCloud Is Lame, Stay With Dropbox

2011-06-16T22:27:00.000-04:00

I feel silly now, but I was pretty excited when Apple (and Steve Jobs) announced iCloud just the other day (June 6, 2011, to be exact). Given the quality of their other products (iPhone et al), I had high expectations. But this is a truly mediocre effort and a premature announcement.

How did I arrive at this controversial conclusion? I installed iCloud on my desktop (also known as CloudMe, why can't Apple pick a name and stick with it?). I also installed the CloudMe sister app on my iPhone so that I could review the integration across devices. To my dismay, I discovered that iCloud is, in fact, no more than a file upload facility, whereas Dropbox is a true file sync tool. One saving grace is that it works at the folder level. You tell it which folders to track on your device, let's say your desktop. And if it sees a new file in one of the folders you've asked it to track, it will upload the file to the cloud. However, and this is where Dropbox leaves iCloud in the dust, if you remove one of the previously uploaded files, iCloud will not remove it from the cloud! So, other devices will continue to have the redundant file. And, wait for it, it gets worse. If you rename a previously uploaded file, iCloud assumes it is a new file and uploads it. Duh! The file with the old name also continues to live on the cloud. As far as I'm concerned, iCloud offers absolutely nothing that I don't already have with Dropbox and does a worse job of it. And Dropbox has an awesomely functional iPhone app to go along with it.

In this context, I will share a philosophy that I solidly believe in. A company can only be successful at a few chosen things. As soon as a company starts to get in on everything that seems like too big a market to ignore, its value proposition is sure to shrink. And in this case, Apple has caused me to doubt whether all of its products are equally superb and reliable.

Nature Capture | Stream of Leaves

2011-06-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

Who: A river stream, jam packed with fall(en) leaves
What: Mostly oak leaves, looking gorgeous in their reflective container
Where: Greater Boston Area
When: November 13, 2010
Trivia: The leaves and acorns of oak trees are poisonous to cattle, if consumed in large amounts

An Economics-based Argument for Good Software Design

2011-06-12T20:53:00.000-04:00

Martin Fowler is one of my favorite technical authors. I am sharing a link to his eminently thought-provoking keynote address (VIDEO) at the Agile Connect 2011 conference, June 8-9, Las Vegas. In order to whet your appetite, I'll reveal that his talk is comprised of three sections as follows. And I'll offer short summaries, in case you decide not to watch the 1+ hour video.

Non-deterministic tests and how best to deal with them. These are tests that succeed or fail randomly. They, therefore, cause your build to succeed or fail randomly. Fowler correctly recommends that such tests should be taken out of the suite and quarantined until the non-deterministic behavior has been fixed. He also lays out several root causes for non-deterministic tests including lack of test isolation (i.e. inter-test dependencies), asynchronous behavior (i.e. non-sequential events), remote services (i.e. failures outside your code).
An economics-based argument for when and why to invest in good software design and pay off technical debt. Fowler proposes a "Design Stamina Hypothesis" whereby initially ignoring good design might allow you to deliver new features more rapidly, over time poor design reduces the efficiency with which you can add new features.
The current state and future of Agile (and a few, highly welcome, words on social responsibility).

It's in the must-watch category. Candy for geeks.

Nature Capture | Redpoll

2011-05-18T09:09:00.000-04:00

Who: Redpoll
What: Performing feeding acrobatics
Where: Greater Boston Area
When: March 19, 2011
Trivia: Redpolls almost exclusively hang out on birch trees, often in large flocks

Nature Capture | Painted Turtle

2011-05-14T20:49:00.000-04:00

Who: Painted Turtle
What: Stuck, between a rock and a hard place!
Where: Greater Boston Area
When: April 30, 2011
Trivia: Turtles are the oldest living group of reptiles, dating back to the time of the earliest dinosaurs

Pi Is Still Wrong, And Math Is Still the Foundation of Computing

2011-04-15T21:20:00.000-04:00

We recently celebrated Pi Day to commemorate that elusive number that cannot be fully expressed. Do you know why? Because it's an irrational number. Pi is remembered on March 14. Why? Because Pi is most commonly approximated as 3.14.

(Did you know, there's also Pi Approximation Day? Can you guess when? It's July 22. Can you guess why? Because 22/7 is a common approximation of Pi.)

Most of us working in the endlessly challenging field of information technology don't often get to deal directly with math during our daily working lives. Math is that unsung hero, quietly making it all possible.

It is, however, useful (and humbling) to remember occasionally that math is, in fact, the foundation of computing. And there are so many fascinating mathematical problems still waiting to be solved.

Therefore, without further ado, let me whet your appetite with this intriguing blog post by a young mathematician at MIT, explaining why Pi might actually be WRONG!

And if you're keen on further exploring this vast subject, I recommend Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser, a crisply (and simply) written expose on the math that forms the bedrock of computing.

Our computing community churns out new programming languages at a fairly healthy rate. Often these new languages hope to replace Java (1995) or C# (2001) as the new standard. But even when they don't achieve the pinnacle, one cannot help but marvel at the ingenuity that goes into writing a new language, often creating a new programming paradigm. Recent gifts to the computing community include Perl (1987), Python (1991), Visual Basic (1991), Ruby (1993), Delphi (1995), JavaScript (1995), PHP (1995), Scala (2003), Clojure (2007), Groovy (2007), Go (2009), and most recently Ceylon (2010). Sipser's book contains a wonderful "big picture" treatment of the topics one must understand in order to truly comprehend (or perhaps create) a programming language.

If you're interested (and are a glutton for punishment), here are some recommended links for further reading.

Math for Programmers by Steve Yegge
Why Math Is Important for Programmers

Enjoy, and don't forget to thank math for making computing possible!

When Should a Link Open a New Window?

2011-04-12T14:07:00.000-04:00

I recently posted this question on Stack Exchange, a great family of websites for getting informed responses to meaningful questions. The answers I received indicate that there are broadly two use cases to consider.

One, it is clearly recommended to open a new browser instance/window/tab in certain situations. Such cases include where the link is a detour from the main workflow, e.g. print or help. In these circumstances, the new window contains no navigation. Also, the detour cannot be reproduced via use of the back button.
Two, when moving to a new domain, opinion is divided on whether to force a new window (target="_blank") or let the user decide (click for the same window, ctrl+click for a new window).

Thoughts? Click on the link above to view the detailed discussion on Stack Overflow.

Twitter Switches from Ruby on Rails to Java

2011-04-11T16:50:00.000-04:00

Twitter has recently refactored its search module to replace a Ruby on Rails solution with a Java-based framework called Blender.

Finally, Radiation Levels Explained!

2011-04-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

The PDF link is the best way to view this infographic from Scientific American.

Agile Is Not For Everyone

2011-04-07T09:42:00.000-04:00

Consultants and process coaches need to consider carefully whether they're forcing Agile onto organizations even when the organization's cultural leanings suggest that Agile may not be a good fit. As this article points out, often organizations are looking for results not a wholesale change of culture.

Essential Reading on HTTP and REST

2011-04-05T16:32:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's a bit risky to refer to this giant of contemporary computer science as a horse. But, as the saying goes, this is straight from the horse's mouth. Trust me, it doesn't get any more authoritative than this!

Roy Fielding is co-author of the HTTP specification and the ubiquitous Apache Web Server. He created the Representational State Transfer (REST) paradigm as an architectural style for the Web. Since then REST has received much well-deserved attention.

His doctoral thesis (FREE PDF!) is a seminal work that contains an excellent discussion on the following.

Software architectures in general, well worth reading for the survey and rigor contained herein, especially given the lack of consensus on what entails an architecture definition
How network-based application architectures (e.g. the Web) are unique, an impressive discourse on the nature and function of the Internet
Why Fielding proposed the REST architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems.
Finally, Fielding uses the REST style as a mirror to illuminate areas of the Web that have gone rogue and require refactoring

System architectures are explained as follows.

An abstraction of the run-time elements of a software system, as distinct from software structures that describe the static code
Recursions of component/layer architectures down to the most basic system elements that cannot be further decomposed
One per operational phase of the system, e.g. start-up, initialization, normal processing, re-initialization, shutdown
A configuration of architectural elements (components, connectors, and data)
The realization of an architectural design, not the design itself or even the rationale behind the design
Compared in terms of the architectural properties or software qualities (relevant to the system domain) as induced by each architectural style (and the constraints therein)

Fielding defines architectural styles as named, coordinated sets of architectural constraints. He uses styles as a mechanism for categorizing architectures and for defining their common characteristics. Styles can be combined to form hybrid styles as long as their constraint don't conflict. Especially useful is Fielding's catalog of network-based architectural styles organized under the following categories.

Data-flow
Replication
Hierarchical
Mobile Code
Peer-to-Peer

It is generally felt that most post-graduate work produces theoretical results with limited practical applications. This is an example to be held up as both an exception and a model.

Finally, follow Roy Fielding on Twitter to receive a regular dose of his insights. (Thanks Alex!)

Haven't Met You Yet

2011-04-03T22:03:00.000-04:00

Incredibly reminiscent of Bollywood, Billy Joel, and musicals in general!

Scientific Contributions: US Declining, Canada Rising

2011-03-29T18:41:00.001-04:00

This is according to The Economist. Scientific contributions from the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, and France are on the decline. Canada, Italy, China and others are on the rise.

Inner Workings of the HTTP Protocol

2011-03-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

A detailed article on the above.

Revolutionary Agile Project Management with RTC

2011-03-25T22:23:00.000-04:00

[DISCLAIMER: I have NO monetary relationship with IBM or any of its subsidiaries.]

If you develop any serious software, I'm sure you're tired of manual steps required to collaborate among the various tools involved in the process of Agile software development. You need to take a hard look at IBM's Rational Team Concert (RTC) for its ability to facilitate collaboration among the multitude of tools development shops use for managing requirements, stories, code, builds, tests, deployments, issues, defects and all of the various threads that run through a large software development effort. Hint: RTC has legendary Eclipse pedigree.

I've been using RTC for about a month now and strongly recommend it as a solid option for truly end-to-end Agile software development. You may be familiar with other Agile Project Management (APM) tools such as Rally. I've used Rally extensively and it's a good product. RTC, however, is in a league of its own. It has no real competitor. (Poor man alternatives include Redmine, Trac, Pivotal Tracker, TargetProcess, Skinnyboard, VersionOne, GreenHopper and Agilefant, likely with at least a few bandaids and serious gaps in each case. Read on to find out why.)

RTC is fundamentally a tool for APM (stories, tasks, estimates, burndown, velocity). To that extent its functional matrix can perhaps be tallied against a top notch product like Rally. RTC offers three client options. One, an Eclipse-based rich client. Two, a Visual Studio-based rich client. And, three, a Web 2.0-style web interface. The Eclipse client is very intuitive for developers already familiar with Eclipse. (Don't all developers use Eclipse?)

RTC allows team members to enter their percent allocations to the project as well as any scheduled absence dates. It then calculates each team member's available capacity in hours. Stories, estimated in days, can optionally be placed into a hierarchy of features, requirements, stories, and tasks. RTC's extreme flexibility comes at a cost. For instance, the unwary user can easily trip over herself and define a hierarchy of stories (i.e. a story with another story as its parent -- not recommended). Once stories have been broken down into tasks and tasks have been estimated in hours, RTC will tally up and graphically display a comparison of each user's allocation and capacity in hours. This allows the team to determine which team members are over-allocated and vice-verse. As work gets completed, users update the effort remaining on their tasks and this is reflected in the hourly burndown chart, which is one among many canned reports available in RTC.

RTC is endlessly customizable and organizations can either pick from one of the templates (Scrum, Eclipse Way, OpenUp/RUP, Cloudburst, SimpleTeam) or define their own template, as my organization has done since we estimate stories in terms of a range of aggressive/low and conservative/high estimates. Templates control a number of process aspects such as the number of iterations per release, roles, permissions, and workflow (pre-conditions, post-conditions).

I do have a few nits with RTC.

The release burndown chart, where you see story points completed, does not display a target reference for stakeholders to know how the actual story point burndown is measuring up against the target or minimum required to keep the project on track. Calculating per iteration velocity targets also requires knowledge of per iteration staffing levels, which RTC does not currently store. Therefore, any measurement RTC provides on actual versus expected story points is based on assumption of a resource allocation model that is uniform across iterations. However, again RTC's flexibility might offer a solution since it is apparently easy to add attributes and create new reports and dashboards (I have not tried this yet).
The facility for entering absences is awesome. However, IBM should look into integrating with calendar applications such as their own Lotus Notes, Microsoft's Outlook and Google Calendar. Furthermore, statutory holidays should need to be entered just once and then show up as default entries on each team member's list of absences. A team member who is planning to work the holiday can delete the default entry. (Thanks to Neil Roy for reminding me about this nit.)

But the comparison with APM tools like Rally ends here. RTC has much more to offer. This solution, built on top of the familiar and highly popular Eclipse platform, is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition because of its out-of-the-box integration with all phases of the software development process including (and more to come):

Application Lifecycle Management (Mylyn, Tasktop)
Requirements Management (Requirements Composer)
Version Control (ClearCase, Subversion, CVS, Git)
Code Review (CodeCollaborator)
Build Automation (Ant, Maven)
Continuous Integration (Build Forge, Hudson, CruiseControl, TeamCity, RTC's Native Jazz Build Engine)
Test Management (HP Quality Center, Quality Manager)
Defect tracking (Bugzilla)
Issues Management (JIRA)
Workflow Automation (ClearQuest)
Collaboration (Sametime, GTalk, Jabber)

That's not to suggest that all of the above-mentioned integrations are seamless. For example, RTC implements a third-generation version control system (streams, atomic change sets, branching, merging, and Subversion-inspired blame) on top of whatever native system you use for version control (see above). But if your native version control system is not 3G you will clearly have to put in some imperfect workarounds. For instance, see this discussion on RTC integration with TeamCity.

Describing the entire feature set is beyond the scope of this article. I will, however, list a couple of features that really grabbed my attention.

RTC offers a team debug session feature wherein a debug session can be transferred to another team member via a link in an instant message or email. Cool, huh?
The tool contains several canned reports. And users can build their own. But I prefer to use the ability to write adhoc queries to answer questions such as: "Which team members haven't entered their task burndown in several days?"
RTC revolves around the workitem paradigm. Workitems can be capabilities, functions, features, requirements/epics, use cases, stories, tasks, risks, away stories/dependencies, builds, issues, defects, retrospectives, and action items. Workitems are the threads that help to tie it all together into a unified view of the Agile software development project landscape. (Organizations can enhance RTC by adding their own custom workitem types.)

Furthermore, thanks to its pedigree (Eclipse), RTC is highly extensible and can integrate with tools written in any programming language that has the ability to communicate over the Internet.

In addition to items mentioned above, the following are just a few more examples of some of the less obvious kinds of elements that are customizable in RTC.

Workitems (add enumerations to existing attributes, add new attributes)
Dashboard (a collection of canned and custom portlets in the Web UI)
Different teams can following different processes (see above for process template)
Process templates can be localized/translated into multiple languages to support globally distributed project teams

And just to be clear (since I've seen a lot of confusion on this elsewhere), RTC is NOT a replacement for any of your existing systems and tools. Instead, think of it as a dashboard and a tool of tools that helps you orchestrate all of the tools used during the software development lifecycle in a typical Agile shop.

As you can tell, it's a pretty large and ambitious system and does, therefore, involve a bit of a steep learning curve to get all of it completely under your belt. But there is no reason to eat the elephant in one big gulp. One easy bite (or feature) at a time is the way to go. And thankfully, RTC's many features do not have to be used in an all-or-nothing fashion.

The product is FREE for up to 10 developers. And truly Agile teams ought not to be any larger! The free, entry-level edition (also known as Express-C) ships with the Tomcat application server and the Derby database embedded into a single package. If you're lazy (like most good developers are), you can conduct an easy evaluation of RTC's capabilities simply by connecting your favorite browser or rich client (Eclipse or Visual Studio) to IBM's hosted sandbox.

If you've been following the news, you know that revolution is in the air. And RTC is a welcome addition to that revolutionary spirit -- a one stop shop for managing your stories, code, builds, tests, defects, issues and more!

Follow Your Tax Dollars

2011-03-14T19:24:00.000-04:00

A plain English statement on where US tax dollars are spent. It doesn't get any simpler than this. (Even if English isn't your first language.)

Running Low On Disk Space?

2011-03-12T21:03:00.000-05:00

Follow the instructions in this article to free up space on your main (C:) drive. Especially run this before running CRASHPLAN, which backs up your home folder by default. The home folder also happens to contain a ton of junk in the form of temp files, temporary internet files, and other e-dust. My cleanup was way overdue and ended up recovering several GB on C: drive, which is absolutely precious for the performance of your PC.

Military Interventions and the EU

2011-03-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Good background reading for understanding France's willingness to consider military intervention in Libya.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

2011-03-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

This article contains an excellent set of suggestions for improving your LinkedIn profile's search engine optimization (SEO).

Is Libya an Excuse to Raise Oil Prices?

2011-03-02T19:13:00.000-05:00

Are oil companies using Libya as an excuse to raise oil prices? Libya produces about 2% of the world's oil. Why should disruption in oil production from Libya cause any more than a minor blip in oil prices?

Benchmark Your CPU

2011-03-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

Use this site to benchmark your CPU, especially useful BEFORE you buy!

Top Toys!

2011-03-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

TIME magazine's list of the century's top 100 toys. I would have thought that most of these originated much later than the decades they're bracketed under.

A History of Computers

2011-02-22T21:06:00.000-05:00

Infographic.

No-a-more Gaddafi!

2011-02-21T20:36:00.000-05:00

:=)

Al Jazeera English: Live Streaming

2011-02-21T15:38:00.000-05:00

American regulators and content providers claim that there is no market for Al Jazeera in the US. Watch and decide for yourself.

Al Qaeda: An American Invention

2011-02-21T15:14:00.000-05:00

As this very interesting (and not very surprising) BBC video explains, Al Qaeda as an organized hierarchy never existed. The name and structure was invented by the US. Bin Laden merely funded disparate pro-Islamic, anti-US initiatives but simply wasn't sitting at the top of some mafia-like family, calling the shots.

Arab Revolution 2.0

2011-02-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

As usual, Wikipedia has an excellent summary of what I call the Arab Revolution 2.0 (since it was fueled, in large part, by the Internet). December 18, 2010-Ongoing. Tunisia. Algeria. Libya. Jordan. Mauritania. Sudan. Oman. Yemen. Saudi Arabia. Egypt. Syria. Morocco. Djibouti. Iraq. Somalia. Bahrain. Kuwait. Deaths: 851. Arrests: 1,000+. Injured: 4,000+.

The Arab Uprising in 100 Words

2011-02-02T19:36:00.000-05:00

Arab uprising in 100 words. Triggered in Tunisia. Street vendor Bouazizi's 12/17 self-immolation (died on 1/4) to protest the authorities' seizure of his goods. Pushed Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia. Uprising spread to Egypt. Caused Mubarak's family to flee to Britain. Causing tremors in Jordan (government sacked), Algeria (protests), Libya (protests), Sudan (protests). Latest beneficiary is Yemen. Saleh has promised not to run for reelection.

Wine Tasting

2011-01-05T08:55:00.000-05:00

Rhymes with time wasting (spoonerism). Enough said. (And you learned something new!)

Dropbox Versus Google Docs

2011-01-02T20:04:00.001-05:00

I use Dropbox to keep editable documents synchronized across machines (e.g. PowerPoint presentations and Excel sheets). I use Google Docs to store read-only documents in the cloud (e.g. PDF books).

Small Portions

2011-01-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

Super Size, the McDonald's trademark became a liability after the movie Super Size Me (2004) turned it into a four letter word. McDonald's discontinued the term in 2004. Nevertheless, McDonald's and most other food outlets continue to serve very large portions. I despised large portions well before the movie came out. I go out of my way to buy the smallest portion available, especially when comes to products containing sugar, salt or other stuff you're supposed to consume in moderation. Small fries, which the family often shares. I love the new Haagen Dazs single portion cups (3.6 FL OZ, 106 mL). I stock up on Pepsi's smallest can offering, the 227 mL.

The Facebook Age

2011-01-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

Many of us are well and truly in the Facebook age. New Year wishes are communicated almost exclusively via Facebook status updates or similar and reciprocated via Facebook like-clicks and comments. It's a shift from a push model (passively receive letters, greeting cards, phone calls, emails) to a pull model (actively visit Facebook to receive your wishes). The only exceptions we're willing to make are for those who are not on Facebook (grandparents et al). Although the Facebook model can be highly impersonal, it can also be highly efficient and effective. You reach out to all your family and friends in a matter of a few keystrokes. And there's still plenty of room for adding personal touches via comments et al. Thoughts?

Less Is More

2011-01-02T16:22:00.000-05:00

Haagen Dazs single serve cups (3.6 FL Oz, 106 mL). Spoon inside. Chocolate Peanut Butter.

Check Your Computer's Health

2010-12-30T14:17:00.000-05:00

Check stuff like CPU temperature to determine if your computer is overheating. This is done via your computer's BIOS setup utility, typically enabled by pressing the "delete" key immediately upon powering up. Click here for details.

Test Your Internet Speed

2010-12-29T20:01:00.000-05:00

Use this nifty little resource to test your Internet bandwidth (speed) and compare with the averages for your region, country, and the rest of the world.

CPJ Puts India On the List of Offenders

2010-12-29T18:44:00.000-05:00

India is #12 on CPJ's 2010 Impunity Index.

Linux/Unix Commands With Examples

2010-12-27T18:28:00.000-05:00

Invaluable. 50 of the most commonly used Linux/Unix commands with examples.

Linux/Unix Tutorials

2010-12-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

A mega-list of Linux/Unix tutorials.

2010 Year in Review

2010-12-27T14:20:00.000-05:00

Don't miss Bloomberg Businessweek's 2010 Year in Review issue, currently on newsstands, packed with charts and other cool visuals summarizing the year that was.

The World, 1800-2000

2010-12-26T13:36:00.000-05:00

An awesome visual of the progress made by the world over the last two centuries.

Biiig Moon

2010-12-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

There was a biiig moon on the eastern horizon on Thursday, December 23, 2010! What makes the moon look so huge at times? Apparently, there actually is no good answer. The phenomenon is known as the moon illusion. If you're curious check out these links.

http://www.howstuffwork...s.com/question491.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion

Character Sets and Encoding Schemes

2010-12-26T13:30:00.000-05:00

This is an excellent article on a topic that all software engineers ought to know more about.

Celtics

2010-12-26T13:28:00.000-05:00

Winning streak snapped at 14 last night by the Orlando Magic.

Queuing Theory

2010-12-26T13:20:00.000-05:00

A nice video introduction to queuing theory. I recall seeing Erlang's recommended approach -- a single queue feeding multiple cashiers -- used at Marshall's, Panera Bread, and Barnes & Noble. Can you think of any others?

NYT on WikiLeaks

2010-12-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

The NYT finally speaks up against the financial blockade of WikiLeaks.

Ranbir "Rocket Singh" Kapoor

2010-09-06T21:03:00.000-04:00

I finally watched my first Hindi movie in a very long while. ROCKET SINGH is a very special film. This moving picture presents what is arguably the most wholesome Sikh protagonist ever created by Bollywood. The lead character, played admirably by Ranbir "Singh" Kapoor, is not that of a military man (Border), or a hothead (Sat Sri Akal, Singh Is King), or a martyr (various Bhagat Singh movies). Instead, refreshingly, this hero is an honest, hardworking and enterprising man -- a largely underplayed aspect of the Sikh ethos. Kudos to the entire team that gave us this gem of a movie!

In Praise Of Scotch Whisky

2010-08-12T22:02:00.000-04:00

Bunnahabhain (boon-a-havn). First step to heaven. The mildest of the Islay options, for those who wish to tread softly into peat and smoke.
Glenmorangie (glen-mor-n-jey). The Lasanta. WOW! My default choice.
Auchentoshan. Rare in many ways. One of the few distilleries operating in Scotland's Lowland region. Triple distilled. Subtle.
The Famous Grouse. A blend, including The Macallan and Highland Park.
Bowmore (boh-mor). Legend. 10 years old. Smokey extravaganza! One of the oldest distilleries in Scotland and the oldest Islay single malt. My favorite top-off after whatever whisky I'm drinking on a particular evening.
Aberlour. An ultra-dark speyside, aged 12 years in oak and sherry casks. Ooooh so smooth!
Old Pulteney. 12 years old. Clean and smooth as you would expect from a maritime offering.
Tamdhu. A delicious Speyside offering that tastes a bit like my favorite Glenmorangie The Lasanta. Used extensively in blends, including The Famous Grouse, J&B, and Cutty Sark. Apparently the distillery was shuttered in April 2010. Should I hoard the bottles that are still available in stores?
Laphroaig. The king of smoke. It doesn't get any nastier than this. Pour this Islay dram when you're ready for that knockout punch!
The Speyside. An excellent example of delicious Speyside nectar.
Bruichladdich Rocks. An unpeated Islay. An oxymoron? And how does one order this in a bar -- Rocks on the rocks? ;-)
Ardbeg. Water of Life. Perhaps the smoothest of the Islay offerings. My favorite Islay.
The Macallan. Cask Strength. Only a top notch distillery can make 60% alcohol taste like maple syrup! Do not miss this gem. My favorite single malt.
Cutty Sark. A truly delicious blend. My favorite among the blends. They recently changed the bottle design. So, save the old one, if you have it.

Highlights from the FIFA World Cup 2010

2010-06-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

I particularly like shots on goal taken from outside the penalty area. And they're even sweeter when they find the net. More often than not, they only work if they are executed with scorching speed and pinpoint accuracy. Some of the best practitioner of prior years include David Beckham and Roberto Carlos. I intend to use this space to document this World Cup's best goals or shots on goal from beyond the penalty box. So, here goes.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal v Ivory Coast, 10')
Valter Birsa (Slovenia v US, 13')
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands v Japan, 53')
Keisuke Honda (Japan v Denmark, 17')
Yasuhito Endo (Japan v Denmark, 30')
Chu-Young Park (South Korea v Uruguay, 5')
Luis Suarez (Uruguay v South Korea, 80')
Frank Lampard (England v Germany, 38' and 51')
C Salcido (Mexico v Argentina, 8')
Tevez (Argentina v Mexico, 52')
Messi (Argentina v Mexico, 92')
Diego Forlan (Uruguay v Ghana, 13' and 54')
Xavi (Spain v Paraguay, 28')
Villa (Spain v Portugal, 60')
Van Bronckhorst (Netherlands v Uruguay, 18')
Diego Forlan (Netherlands v Uruguay, 45')

SHOLAY

2010-03-21T10:46:00.000-04:00

I watched Sholay for the Nth time this weekend and enjoyed it just as much as I have on previous viewings. Sholay is perhaps India's most successful and memorable film of all time. The movie has several assets, which I have tried to rank as follows.

Multi-super-star cast including Dharminder Deol (Veeru), Amitabh Bachchan (Jai), Sanjeev Kumar (Thakur), Amjad Khan (Gabbar), Hema Malini (Basanti), Jaya Bahaduri (Radha), Govardhan Asrani (Jailor), Helen, Sachin (Ahmed), Keshto Mukherjee (Hariram), Om Shivpuri, Mac Mohan (Sambha), Jagdeep (Soorma Bhopali) and many more.
Stupendous writing (story and script) by the Salim-Javed pair (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar).
Tremendous music by Rahul Dev Burman.
Superb direction by Ramesh Sippy.

Among intangible reasons for the movie's success is the daring and tragic move to allow the co-leading character, Jai, to perish -- thereby causing Radha to be widowed a second time around.

Furthermore, I've taken great pains to list below some of the most memorable utterances from the film. Enjoy! (There's an implied trivia challenge, of course: to recall which of the film's characters utters these memorable utterances.)

do rupay mein kya jungle khareedney nikley they
hamaari itni badliyon ke baad bhi hum nahin badley
to yeh hai surang bananey ka auzaar
aadhey idhar jaao, aadhey udhar jaao, aur baaki hamaarey saath aao
hamaara naam bhi surmaa bhopaali aisey hi nahin hai
din bhar bethey rehtey ho, aur pachis jhuth hamsey bulwaatey ho
to puchogey ki taanga kis gaaon ka hai
tumhaara naam kyaa hai basanti
agar ghoda ghaas se dosti kar ley to khayega kya
agar raat ko jaagna hai to abhi so leyn
babuji ki jhuti ummeeden to tootengi, jo unho ne tum logon se lagaa rakhi hain
hamey befazool baateyn karney ki aadat to hai nahin
aakheyn band kar key kya aam dikhaayi detaa hai
maalik key bachey, hamaarey liye yeh aadhi muthi jawar laaya hai
gabbar se keh dena, raamgadh waalon ne paagal kutton key saamney roti daalna band kar diya hai
kya samajh ke aaye they, ke sardar bahut khus hoga, sabasi dega kyon
so jaa nahin to gabbar singh aa jaayega
chey goli aur aadmi teen, bahut beinsaafi hai yeh
is pistol meyn teen jindagi teen maut band hain
tera kya hoga kaalia
sardar mainey aap ka namak khayaa hai; to ley ab goli khaa
jo dar gaya, samjho mar gaya
achaa, to yeh hai thakur ka fauji
main to ab kabar mein pao latkaye baithaa hun
jab daaru utreygi to yeh bhi utar ayega
bidhiya going jail and chakki pissing, and pissing, and pissing
jab jab kisi zalim ne hamlaa kiya hai ganga kasam ham kissanon ne apni daratiyan pighlaa kar talwaren banai hain
jantey ho duniya ka sabse bada bojh kya hota hai, baap ke kadhey par betey kaa janazaa
izzat ki maut zillat ki zindagi se kahin achchi hai
aaj puchunga khuda se, mujhe do char betey aur kyon nahin diye is gaon pe shahid honey ke liye
sab logon par rang daltey hain, aur hum logon ko rang mein daltey hain
jab haath ki mehndi ka rang aasuon se dhul jayey to kaun rang bacheyga duniya mein
samaaj aur biradari insaan ko akeleypan se bachaney ke liyey baney hain, insaan ko akela rakhney ke liyey nahin
buraayi ne bandook chalana sikha di thi, neki hal chalana sikha de gi
agar kisi ne hilney ki koshish ki to bhoon ke rakh doonga
saap ko haath se nahin pairon se kuchla jaata hai
tere liye to mere pair hi kaafi hain

Phurrr

2010-01-16T19:20:00.000-05:00

The soundtrack for Ishqiya is another wonderful result of the longstanding partnership between Sampooran Singh Kalra (aka Gulzar) and Vishal Bhardwaj. They have previously partnered to produce hit soundtracks such as Maachis and Omkara.

Dil To Bachcha Hai

Rahat Ali Khan does his usual magic.
Ibn-E-Batuta

Perhaps the most memorable of the film's songs, delivered inimitably by Sukhwinder Singh and Mika. The "phurrr" here is reminiscent of "dhan-tanaan-tanan-tanan" in Kaminey (also by Vishal Bhardwaj). The raw, verbally percussive impact of "phurr" and "dhan-tanaan" helps to recall Amit Trivedi's brilliance in Chakkar Ghumyo and Phas Gaya (both from Aamir).
Ab Mujhe Koi
Badi Dheere Jali

Both rendered exquisitely as only Rekha Bhardwaj can, with semi-classical underpinnings. And yet, they have enough populism built in to grow on you increasingly with each listen.
Dil To Bachcha Hai (Remix)
Ibn-E-Batuta Nucleya (Remix)
Ibn-E-Batuta (Remix)

A graphical recap of the decade (2000-2009)

2009-12-29T16:25:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: The New York Times

How religious is your state?

2009-12-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to be living in America's least religious state.

The Best Films of the Decade (2000-2009)

2009-12-25T19:55:00.001-05:00

Again, here are the best compilations I've run across in this category.

And since the above lists comprise mostly mainstream films, here's my own list of the best (mostly alternative or foreign) films of the decade gone by.

The Best Books of the Decade (2000-2009)

2009-12-25T19:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a rundown of the most useful compilations I've come across.

My own favorites are listed below.

My Stroke of Insight (Taylor)
Architecture (Glancey)
Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer)
Discovering the Sikhs (McLeod)
The Spiral Staircase (Armstrong)
The Undercover Economist (Harford)
The Tipping Point (Gladwell)
Freakonomics (Levitt)
A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (Bryson)
The Future of Freedom (Zakaria)
My Job Went to India (Fowler)
Effective Java (Bloch)
Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris)
A Little History of the World (Gombrich)
Vows (Manseau)
Step Across This Line (Rushdie)
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (Roy)
The Algebra of Infinite Justice (Roy)
Power Politics (Roy)
War Talk (Roy)
Holy Cow (Macdonald)

Anglais!

2009-12-13T09:22:00.000-05:00

I once got caught traveling without a ticket in Paris's underground railway. I did not know much French and got out of trouble simply by repeating one word over and over -- Anglais!

Essential websites

2009-12-09T21:39:00.000-05:00

An excellent list of essential websites assembled by The Guardian.

Don't throw away your scratched CDs/DVDs

2009-12-06T08:49:00.000-05:00

At least not until you've read this advice on how to fix scratched CDs/DVDs.

Linux commands to treasure

2009-12-04T17:24:00.000-05:00

Some lesser known but very useful Linux commands.

Caption Contest

2009-11-30T18:37:00.001-05:00

Hippo Surfacing
Originally uploaded by ozoni11

An amazing image. Probably impossible to figure out without the caption.

Dubai's great crash

2009-11-29T10:59:00.000-05:00

Potent analysis on why Dubai was perhaps never really meant to be anything more than a port and a vacation spot. As we know, the poorest are always hit the hardest. As this excellent article explains, Dubai's migrant laborers have already lost their freedom (their passports have been confiscated). They are overworked and underpaid. It may seem impossible, but their lives are probably about to get a lot worse.

NYT's most notable books of 2009

2009-11-26T19:48:00.000-05:00

So much to read. So little time. My highlights from the NYT's list of 100.

1. Open: An Autobiography (ANDRE AGASSI)
2. The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street (JUSTIN FOX)
3. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (DAVID GRANN)
4. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City (GREG GRANDIN)
5. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (T J STILES)
6. Columbine (DAVE CULLEN)
7. The Case for God (KAREN ARMSTRONG)

Free apps

2009-11-26T18:54:00.000-05:00

A great list of free applications.

Jarnail Singh on the Sikh massacres of 1984

2009-11-26T14:51:00.000-05:00

I was a youngster living in Delhi during the horrendous Sikh massacres of 1984 that followed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards. Indira's assassins were avenging the Indian army's invasion and occupation of the holiest Sikh shrine earlier in the year. The army was called out and stationed near our house at IIT's Student Activity Center. However, the massacres in Delhi (and elsewhere in India) were allowed to continue uninterrupted for several days before the army was finally deployed. My family and I had readied our revolver and discussed a plan for tackling the rioters. Luckily, the students never allowed the mobs to enter the campus.

Fat America

2009-11-24T22:57:00.000-05:00

Another illustration of my contention that poverties of all varieties (monetary, education, health) tend to go together.

Cheat sheets for web designers

2009-11-22T20:47:00.001-05:00

An excellent collection of cheat sheets for web designers.

Poverty, illiteracy and poor health go hand-in-hand

2009-11-21T15:26:00.000-05:00

As demonstrated by this story, poverty of all varieties (monetary, literary, health) tend to go hand-in-hand. Our society suffers from two major themes of bad eating habits. One, large portions are definitely a problem. Many people fail to distinguish between quality and quantity. As this eye-opening article on Japan's initiative to tax obesity points out, the Japanese are the world's least obese nation and they eat very small portions. Two, our rushed lifestyles are also a problem -- when food is eaten in a hurried fashion, one tends to overeat because the body isn't given the time it needs in order to register the food and determine that it is sated or full. As a result, the stomach is already over capacity by the time it gets around to registering the food and sending a signal to the brain indicating that it is all set.

NYC!

2009-11-21T13:49:00.000-05:00

The most amazing picture I have seen in a very long time.

Open source gems

2009-11-21T13:39:00.000-05:00

A compendium of open source gems.

Tips and tricks for geeks

2009-11-18T00:02:00.000-05:00

64 things every geek should know.

The fast food epidemic

2009-11-15T18:45:00.000-05:00

I recently stumbled upon Robert Lustig's lecture entitled Sugar: The Bitter Truth. I recommend it highly -- at least the first half, after which it becomes a bit too technical -- for understanding exactly why fast food is killing us. As Lustig explains, there are two killer elements in fast food. One, fast foods contain lots of bad sugars like fructose and sucrose (most of all in the biggie sized sweetened sodas that accompany each value meal), which cause the body to do a poor job of knowing when it doesn't need any more food. (Contrast this with glucose, the good sugar that is present in maple syrup or honey.) Two, fast foods remove the fiber so that the food will cook faster. The reduction in fiber causes the body to absorb more sugar and do an even poorer job of knowing when it doesn't need any more food. So, fast foods offer a double whammy -- extra sugar combined with little or no fiber. Similarly, fruit juice is worse than fruit, because (you guessed it) it has the sugar but not the fiber.

The importance of sleep

2009-11-08T21:55:00.000-05:00

Do not stay up late to read this. Grin.

Getting started with CMS

2009-11-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

A gentle introduction to the world of content management.

A return to the gold standard

2009-11-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

I recommend this piece of required reading, which also helps to explain the rising price of gold.

White House switches to Drupal

2009-10-25T19:16:00.000-04:00

The White House recently switched its content management (CMS) platform to Drupal, the leading open-source CMS.

This development puts a major damper on the most frequently cited reason why companies say they prefer commercial software -- SECURITY!

Tim O'Reilly provides useful commentary here.

Hamid Mir expounds on the dire situation in Pakistan

2009-10-24T11:46:00.000-04:00

Well-known Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir expounds on the dire situation in Pakistan. As Mir explains (sorry this is in Urdu, not English), the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have completely and thoroughly occupied a large region of Pakistan that is on the border with Afghanistan. He claims that the armies of Pakistan and the US are fraudulently claiming to be fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. In fact, Mir asserts, the armies are active in the fringe areas and do not dare enter the actual strongholds. He challenges politicians to enter the Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds by road and travel even a portion of the 500 km stretch that constitutes the region of Pakistan that Mir claims has been irreversibly occupied by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Facebook Changes for Dummies

2009-10-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

The "Highlights" panel on the right is gone. It has been merged into the "News Feed" (see below). This is where Facebook used to display the most interesting posts (photo albums, videos, links, etc) from the last several days.
"News Feed" contains posts from the last day or so deemed by Facebook to be most interesting to you. They tend to be either posts that are receiving the most comments/likes, posts that tend to generate the most interest (photos, videos), or posts from friends with whom you interact the most. This is the best option for those who visit Facebook infrequently.
"Live Feed" contains posts in chronological order from all your friends, with most recent first. So typically you're only seeing what has been posted in the last hour or two. This is the best option for those who visit Facebook frequently.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that you can hide the newly reintroduced "X and Y are now friends" items in the "Live Feed".
This feature isn't new, but you can disable feeds from certain friends or certain applications by hovering on the item, clicking the "Hide" drop down menu, and selecting the name of the friend or the application (e.g. Mafia Wars or Farmville).

Bollywood on 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan!

2009-10-23T19:07:00.000-04:00

An abridged version of the song Ranaji, from the movie Gulaal, delivered by one of my favorite singers -- Rekha Bhardwaj.

Don't miss the references to 9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan!

Rahman Enters Hollywood

2009-10-10T13:31:00.000-04:00

An excellent review of the intriguing soundtrack for the film Couples Retreat, the latest offering from Mr Rahman.

Blue, Rahman's First Since Slumdog Fame

2009-09-13T11:55:00.000-04:00

I have been eagerly looking forward to the soundtrack for the movie Blue, Rahman's first since the highly trumpeted twin Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire. There is precious little information about Blue out there but I am sharing the best link I could find. Yesterday, I finally got my grimy hands on the soundtrack and have listened to it several times now. Every movie soundtrack is different. On Blue, Rahman's attention is not on generating sweet melodies like Yeh Rishta (Meenaxi) or Ae Hairathe (Guru). Instead he seems to continue in the pop-dance vein of Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire). The tracks clearly demonstrate a talent for expertly weaving in genres. Jiggy Wiggy (Sonu Nigam) starts off as a slick pop number and then seamlessly blends in a bhangra flavor. My personal favorite, Aaj Dil, is a wonderful funk-jazz song with exquisite use of the piano and drums, delivered vocally by none other than Shreya Ghoshal and Sukhwinder Singh. Deliberate or not, there are a few bars in Fiqrana (Vijay Prakash) that are reminiscent of the string-based opening of the James Bond theme. Blue is, after all, an action-adventure. Bhoola Tujhe (Rashid Ali) did not leave much of an impression on me. Blue Theme, the theme song featuring Sonu Kakkar, utilizes a catchy juxtaposition of an Indian accented "balloo (blue)" alongside a decidedly American rap tune. A hint of the James Bond theme opening appears again in Rehnuma (Sonu Nigam). Acknowledgment to the following review for pointing out the James Bond connection (although I don't agree with much else in the review). Yaar Mila (Udit Narayan) seems to be the most inconspicuous song on the list. My verdict so far is that Blue has some good moments that compelled me to return to the album more than once and Aaj Dil is a definite gem. Subsequent listens could very well cause me to change my mind, but for now this album isn't in my top drawer along with Bombay, Water, Zubeida, Guru, and Delhi-6.

Delhi-6

2009-07-11T23:12:00.000-04:00

I just watched the movie DELHI-6 and give it a rating of 10/10 (ESSENTIAL) -- various parodies rolled into one (including Bigfoot, Ramayan, and a slanted reference to the Babri Masjid episode), a delicious slice of everyday life in Delhi, a fabulous cast and characters, and perhaps AR Rahman's most versatile film score to date.

Resources To Help You Excel At Excel

2009-05-07T09:55:00.000-04:00

Excuse the pun -- it was too hard to resist! However, here is a truly valuable set of resources for those of us who spend way too much time hunched over Excel spreadsheets, crunching data and information. PowerPoint and Excel are easily Microsoft's two biggest gifts to the business community. PowerPoint is relatively easy to master. With Excel, however, the learning can go on for a very long time. A true Excel power user is, in fact, a programmer with the ability to use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and ODBC to extend Excel's behavior and connect to external data sources respectively. Use these resources to increase your command on Excel.

Bollywood Whirls To Sufi Music

2009-04-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

Lately, either Bollywood (India's equivalent of Hollywood) increasingly seems to be entranced by sufi music or I've been noticing it a lot more due my growing interest in the sufi music genre. When a friend recently asked me to come up with a list of sufi songs featured in Bollywood movies, I figured it was a perfect idea for a blog post. Of course, sufi music has been far too prevalent in Bollywood for me to attempt a comprehensive listing. What follows then is a representative list that also calls out some of my favorite songs, singers, and composers. But before we begin let's briefly describe what defines the sufi genre of music. Sufism is a mystical tradition within Islam wherein there is a heavy emphasis on having the practitioner sing and dance (whirl) with extreme soul and passion in order to express love for Allah or God. It is no wonder that sufi songs evoke such a positive response from the audience. Note that whereas the qawwali (group) form of sufi music has been present in Bollywood films since time immemorial, this blog post is in reference to the comparatively more recent influx of the solo strain of sufi performances. And, yes, Bollywood has indeed taken some artistic liberties with sufi music in that although the central facet -- insanely passionate love -- is present, it is often in the form of a traditional love song, i.e. directed not at Allah or God but at a human love interest. Here then is a roll call of what I might include on a box set meant to showcase the growth and present state of sufi music in Bollywood (complete with liner notes). Note that some of the songs listed below are non-sufi songs by sufi singers and vice-versa.

The credit for introducing sufi music to Bollywood and, later, to the entire world most likely goes to the most gloried practitioner Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. We got our first taste via the exquisite Sanware from Bandit Queen (1994), Shekhar Kapur's masterly biographical about Phoolan Devi. Almost concurrently, Nusrat broke into Hollywood with contributions to Natural Born Killers (1994) and Dead Man Walking (1995).
One could argue that Rahat Ali Khan, Nusrat's nephew and handpicked successor, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nevertheless, once he takes that silver spoon out of his mouth and starts singing he produces gems like Mann Ki Lagan from Paap (2003) and Jiya Dhadhak Dhadhak from Kalyug (2005). Granted that Rahat rode Nusrat's coat tails onto the Bollywood train, nevertheless he has more than earned his spot in the limelight. In comparison with Nusrat, if Rahat lacks anything in terms of sheer vocal power he more than makes up for it with melody. Oddly, however, Rahat has not been very active on the Hollywood scene.
The talented Kailash Kher broke onto the scene in great style with Allah Ke Bande from the movie Waisa Bhi Hota Hai II (2003) and has had a very busy recording schedule ever since.
Composer extraordinaire A.R. Rahman has delivered amazing sufi creations. Some have been in his own voice, as in Tere Bina from Guru (2007), in collaboration with Chinmayee. He has also launched the career of many including, most notably, Sukhwinder Singh via Chaiyaa Chaiyaa from Dil Se (1998), which is a fresh take on Bulleh Shah's classic Tere Mein Ishq Nachayaa Kar Thaiyaa Thaiyaa.
The composition team of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa had sufi exponent Shafqat Amanat Ali sing Mitwa in the movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006). Shafqat also sang the exquisite Yeh Hosla for the film Dor (2006). SEL were also responsible for composing Krishna Beura's first Bollywood song, Ishq Khudai from Rudraksh (2004).
Rabbi Shergill's fresh take on Tere Bin was featured in Delhii Heights (2007).
Roop Kumar Rathod gives a heartfelt performance on Maula Mere Maula in the film Anwar (2007).
Another sufi song that scorched the music charts was Ya Ali from Gangster (2006), composed by Pritam Chakraborty and sung by Zubeen Garg.
The composer-singer, husband-wife team of Vishal and Rekha Bhardwaj has been very active in Bollywood and has produced a number of brilliant sufi numbers including the honey-coated Haal-e-Dil from the movie Haal-e-Dil (2008), one version sung by Rahat Ali Khan and Shreya Ghoshal and the other -- even sweeter -- by Rekha Bhardwaj. Look for many more sugary sufi gifts from this preeminent Bollywood couple.
Others including Abida Parveen have performed yoeman service in the cause of popularizing sufi music across the world but have somehow escaped Bollywood movie soundtracks thus far -- but not for long, I predict.
Anu Malik's sufi experimentation with Mehboob Mere in Fiza (2000) has been termed groundbreaking by some, but -- to be fair -- it was a collaboration with Rahman, who along with Nusrat had already established sufi music in tinseltowns at either ends of the Pacific. Malik has continued to experiment, for example with Rabbi from Zindaggi Rocks (2006) with performances by Sunidhi Chauhan, Zubeen Garg, and Krishna.
Last but not least, brothers Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant have made gorgeous sufi contributions such as Allah Hoo from Dor (2006) and Krishna's Maula Mere from Chak De! India (2007).

Are You A True Geek?

2009-04-22T10:44:00.000-04:00

I highly recommend this fascinating list of 64 Things Every Geek Should Know by Blair Mathis. The article is an invaluable potpourri of the state-of-the-art in geekdom and a great reference to turn to in your moment of need.

Wish to recover data from a crashed disk drive?
Want to setup your home network so that you can connect from the office to grab a key document?
Need to digitize your old cassette tapes?
Looking for a new and interesting geek project?

An Insatiable Appetite For Rahman

2009-04-04T23:30:00.000-04:00

It is true. I suffer from Rahmania -- an insatiable appetite for the music of AR Rahman. However, analyzed closely, it's merely a hunger for good music. And this longing for transformative music has, of course, led me to explore not only anything and everything put out by Rahman but to also to acquaint myself with his predecessors and potential successors. My search culminated with the discovery of two excellent pieces on Rahman. The first article is AR Rahman: The Road to the Oscars by Baradwaj Rangan, written for a forthcoming issue of the Rolling Stone magazine's Indian edition (launched in February 2008). This is a golden piece that could only have been written someone who has been living and breathing Rahman for much of the past two decades or so since Rahman burst onto the scene with his revolutionary score for the movie Roja (1992). Rangan offers juicy, must-read vignettes of Rahman's major musical milestones. The very well informed comments that follow the long piece allude to potential successors including Vishal-Shekhar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal Bhardwaj, and the most recent arrival -- Amit Trivedi -- whom I wrote about just the other day. Steven A. Kennedy's An "Unknown" Indian Film Music Master takes a slightly different angle and educates us about Ilaiyaraaja, whom most regard as Rahman's predecessor insofar as he was, prior to Rahman, the most successful music composer in South India. Like Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja is heavily classically trained and experiments with Western genres. Unlike Rahman, however, Ilaiyaraaja did not manage to penetrate audiences beyond South India. Those unfamiliar with his work would most certainly have to be non-South Indians and for them Kennedy proposes a set of suitable entry points including two instrumental works of East-West fusion (How To Name It? and Nothing But Wind) as well as two movie soundtracks (Mumbai Express and Cheeni Kum).

Amit Trivedi Is Not Rahman

2009-04-01T20:35:00.000-04:00

Comparisons are always unfair. Sachin Tendulkar isn't Sunil Gavaskar or Donald Bradman. Abhay Deol isn't Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. And, you guessed it, Amit Trivedi, the up and coming music director who has given us memorable soundtracks for Aamir and Dev D, isn't Rahman. However, Trivedi is a rising star on the Bollywood music direction scene. He possesses an unusual talent for raw rhythm and excels at bass lines and percussion. For example, the opening of Chakkar Ghumyo (Aamir) is both inventive and raw. He also borrows creatively from Western influences. For instance, Phas Gaya (Never Mind) reminds me unmistakably of Jamiroquai. Here again, similarly to the opening for Chakkar, Trivedi employs verbal percussion very effectively. He experiments successfully with various genres, e.g. rock on Nayan Tarse (complete with guitar feedback) and Emosanal Attyachaar (Rock Version) and rap on Pardesi. Also worth noting is the use of sampling, e.g. on Nayan Tarse. To me, his rhythmic inventiveness is his core strength. I have, however, yet to see the nuanced compositional underpinning tying an entire soundtrack together thematically as the classically trained Rahman has done on the scores for Water, Kisna, or Bose. Perhaps that is still to come since Trivedi is just getting warmed up with only two movie soundtracks under his belt, both of which hit the listener like tsunamis. It's a clever idea to include 18 (mostly small) numbers on the Dev D soundtrack, thereby allowing Trivedi to showcase a wide variety of his skill set and giving most listeners something to hang their hat on. A great debut is one that keeps fans thirsting for the next offering and Amit Trivedi has more than achieved that. I define a good album based not on how many hits it produces but on how many times one is drawn to listening to it over and over again in order to completely internalize the richly textured music. And on that account again, Trivedi scores big.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

2009-03-29T20:17:00.001-04:00

I just watched Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and give it a rating of 8/10 (RECOMMENDED). Directed by Dibakar Banerjee who gave us the well received Khosla Ka Ghosla. The story is inspired by the true story of an imaginative Delhi thief seeking celebrity. Abhay Deol plays the lead character Lucky Singh and seems a better actor than his cousins, Sunny and Bobby. Paresh Rawal gives a fine triple-role performance. Last, but not least, Manjot Singh does a fantastic job of carrying the first hour or so with his portrayal of Lucky Singh as a teenager.

AR Rahman's Nokia Connections

2009-03-29T10:50:00.000-04:00

I recently stumbled upon more fodder for my Rahmania. I've gotten my slimy hands on AR Rahman's latest non-movie-soundtrack album -- Nokia Connections -- a 60-minute collection of largely instrumental compositions with representation from several of India's folk traditions and influences. I can do no better than point readers to Amanda Sodhi's excellent review and discussion. My favorites are Jiya Se Jiya, Mann Chandre, and Mosquito.

Jiya Se Jiya (4:18); with great beats (apparently similar to those at wedding/pongal ceremonies in Kerala)

Mann Chandre (7:48); a Punjabi song featuring Sukhwinder Singh, among the highlights of this collection

Kural (5:24); a Tamil song featuring rapper Blaaze

Silent Invocation A (8:39); mellow flute

Silent Invocation B (8:50); mellow flute

Silent Invocation C (5:20); mellow flute

Mylapore Blues (6:03); guitar-based easy jazz blended with Carnatic percussion

Himalaya (3:23); piano-based, discernably oriental in flavor

Mosquito (9:06); a lovely Sarangi-based composition, perhaps the strongest number on this album

DeSantis's Blatant Grandstanding

2009-03-25T19:24:00.000-04:00

Jake DeSantis's resignation letter published today in the NYT (http://bit.ly/desantis) is a case of blatant grandstanding. Perhaps unwittingly, the former AIG executive agrees that he has probably been overpaid over the years. An unexpected acknowledgement, albeit in the form of a major understatement. And yet, he isn't willing to pass up his massive bonus during a year that has been horrible not just for AIG but for the entire world! This is nothing but greed. There is no sacrifice involved in his resignation and the associated donation. He is already stinking rich and will probably get an excellent offer from somewhere, especially now that he is a celebrity of sorts. I don't doubt that there might have been government missteps (i.e. the WSJ article). However, those don't absolve multimillionaires from the added responsibility to give something back from the huge rewards they raked in during the supposed good years. Extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures. If the elite can be overpaid during boom times, then it is also reasonable to expect them to bear an extra share of the burden during tough times.

Facebook Is NOT Like Twitter

2009-03-21T07:52:00.000-04:00

Those who claim that the new Facebook is like Twitter clearly have no clue what they're talking about. All that has happened is that Facebook has changed the label of its status update window to read a bit like Twitter's. The two applications have entirely different goals. Facebook is for social networking. Twitter is for marketing yourself. Twitter is also good for information fiends like me because the leading Twitters post a ton of useful updates and links in order to market themselves and improve their ranking (measured in terms of number of Followers). That makes Twitter the information superhighway of the web -- and Following the leading Twitters is a bit like drinking from a fire hose. What Twitter calls Followers are just called Friends on Facebook. And for good reason because anyone can choose to Follow you on Twitter -- you can follow me on Twitter by going to my Twitter page -- but Facebook Friendship requires mutual, two-way consent. Broadly, there are two types of Followers on Twitter. One, folks like me who crave information and Follow people who post informative updates and links. Two, celebrity stalkers/fans -- the kinds who read People magazine (totally not me). On the other hand, Twitter has none of the features and applications that make Facebook a great site for slowing down a bit, getting to know family and friends, and enjoying the good things in life.

Understanding the Economic Crisis

2009-03-14T20:39:00.000-04:00

I highly recommend this set of visualizations and infographics aimed at explaining the current economic crisis from various angles. Each graphic explains the meltdown from a slightly different perspective. The graphic format makes it easy to digest in bite sized pieces. Especially eye-opening is the visual build up of what one trillion dollars look like.

How To Stop Terrorism

2009-03-08T22:32:00.000-04:00

On March 4, terrorists in Lahore, Pakistan attacked a bus carrying the visiting cricket team from Sri Lanka. Many friends have expressed their horror over an attack on sports. Terrorists, by definition, appear to hold nothing sacred. They seek attention for their claimed cause, at any cost. Characterizing something (e.g. sports) as out of bounds only makes it a more attractive target. I agree with those who have suggested that the best possible response would have been to continue the game and the series per schedule. That clearly did not happen in this case. Therefore, terrorism won this round. Terrrorism is defeated only when the silent majority exhibits a level of imagination, selflessness, determination and solidarity that exceeds that of the terrorists. Here's a case in point. Four planes were hijacked during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The only plane that didn't crash into a landmark was the one on which the passengers and flight crew challenged and disrupted the terrorists. I believe all four planes had the same opportunity, but only one lived up to the potential -- United Airlines Flight 93.

Rush Limbaugh Is A Nincompoop

2009-03-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

Enough said. (In case you've been living under a rock, the reference is to Rush Limbaugh's recently expressed desire to see Barack Obama fail.) Although I was planning to stop here (not much really needs to be said on this topic), I'll go one step further and recommend David Frum's opinion in Newsweek.

Economic Crisis Explained

2009-03-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

This short video explains the current economic crisis in a simple and fun way. I didn't notice the t-shirt until a friend (Deepak Kapoor) mentioned it. It's a funny depiction of oversized families who received most of the subprime mortgages.