Capoeirista - Vikram Singh

Cooking Up A Storm

2011-11-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

Really cooked up a storm yesterday. Mostly because I started out misjudging how much raw food I needed... and ended up deciding to just cook it all and store for the future. I cooked 15 different dishes, plus a drink - Karela water. Karela (bitter gourd) water is very good for one's blood sugar.

Marinating paneer and swai fish fillet in slightly different marinades - both starting with tandoori spices, lemon, oil and yoghurt.

Beautiful New Zealand lamb shoulder cuts before I butchered them with my non-existent knife skills. These were used for the Kerala style lamb stew.

Sweet bell peppers being washed - I love those colors.

The bell peppers chopped two ways. The round slices were for a sweet chilli pepper dish, while the long thin slices go in other vegetable dishes.

Peas were boiled and half-cooked up front, then later added to different vegetable dishes.

A huge portion of Karela water. This came out from the pressure cooker used to cook the Karela. (Yep, no oil!). This will last me a few days - and boy is it bitter.

Spinach potatoes, cooked with very little spices. I had mistakenly boiled a lot of potatoe (10 large potatoes), so ended up using it in multiple dishes. This one is more about the taste of the spinach.

Green beans, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach cooked in red chilli and tandoori spices. Its got a little bit of zing to it, so the potatoe (I'm going to continue to spell it as "potatoe", so screw everyone) helps calm that down a tad.

Broccoli, carrots, snap peas with garlic and zeera. All the vegetables were either steamed or blanched first, then stirred over a low flame with flavoring ingredients.

Bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, carrots, spinach - a full vegetable medley.

Karela with grilled onions. A little bit of salt while pressure-cooking the karela made it slightly less bitter.

Pork stew with potatoes.

Garlic peas. Lots of garlic, lots of zeera, and curry patta.

Kerala style lamb stew made with New Zealand lamb shoulder chops, and a bit of pork.

Paneer cooked simply with just haldi and zeera.

Sprouts stir fried with onions and a dark sauce.

Sweet Thai chilli bell peppers.

Potatoes mashed with lots of garlic and chaat masala. This one is really tasty!

Masoor daal with tadka.

Paneer marinated in tandoori spice, dahi, lemon, oil.

Swai fish fillet marinated in yoghurt, tandoori spices, lemon, oil.

Oh, and topped it off with Bread Pudding, which turned out pretty well. I'll cook again in 2012.

Gunfighter at the Just OK Corral

2010-06-25T09:40:00.001-07:00

Here’s the design for our main character. Great work by Erika on creating these images.

We went for a Clint Eastwood-ish look, with open clean lines and colors. Clint Eastwood was a no-brainer… after having watched the Man With No Name trilogy over a hundred times, I can’t think of any other looks for a main character in a western.

Oh, for those in the discussions, our man is not a smoker. I know every western gunfighter worth his salt and riding to a Morricone theme would roll his own smokes. But we’re sort of anti-smoking (except for the celebratory cigar, of course).

Anyway, here’s our man, in the opening scenes, when he’s challenged by a new gunfighter.

And here he is moving into his fighting stance, getting his overcoat out of the way. Cool, eh?

Duel to the Death! (or to the Respawn)

2010-06-24T18:24:00.001-07:00

A quick note on the game I’m working on. Its a Wild West type gun duel.

You’re Clint Eastwood. Or Lee Van Cleef. Or Yosemite Sam. Whoever you want to be. And you have to work your way up as a gun-fighter in the wild west.

I’ll post information about the gameplay, artwork, and music in a while. Most of it is in a fairly advanced stage, I just need to find time to write about it.

Creating a New Game

2010-06-23T13:31:00.001-07:00

I’ve been on Twitter for the last couple of years, in favor of blogging. For a lot of topics, where only quick updates were needed, Twitter was working quite well. And laziness helped – its far easier to send out tweets than to write a blog post!

I’m back now, to chronicle a journey to make an iPhone game.

I’ve always loved video games. Being drawn into a completely different world. Expanding my mind, letting go of reality for a little while. So now its time to work on a game myself!

This is definitely a first, and I’m a big data-collection and incremental-approach kind of guy. So the first game will be a short and quick one, designed to be available to the public within 1-2 months.

I’ll keep posting more about the game, right here, regularly. And to quote Vic Romano; Don’t Get Eliminated!

Research vs Plagiarism

2010-05-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Workout

2009-10-01T16:34:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour

Distance covered = 5.41 miles

Calories burnt = 623

Weights:

Shoulders - 2 exercise X 4 sets, total of 16 sets

Back - 2 exercise X 4 sets, total of 16 sets

Wednesday Workout

2009-09-29T16:54:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 2 hours

Distance covered = 10.78 miles

Calories burnt = 1,240

Monday Workout

2009-09-25T11:31:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour

Distance covered = 5.38 miles

Calories burnt = 619

Thursday Workout

2009-09-24T15:58:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 2 hours

Distance covered = 10.94 miles

Calories burnt = 1,264

Wednesday Workout

2009-09-22T19:41:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 20 minutes

Distance covered = 1.71 miles

Calories burnt = 194

Weights:

Shoulders – 3 exercises X 3 sets each = 9 sets

Back – 2 exercises X 4 sets each = 8 sets

Quadriceps – 1 exercise X 3 sets

Calves - 1 exercise X 3 sets

Tuesday Workout

2009-09-17T18:59:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hr

Distance covered = 5.5 miles

Calories burnt = 650

Monday Workout

2009-09-16T12:54:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 100 minutes (1 hr 40 min)

Distance covered = 8.95 miles

Calories burnt = 1,029

Wednesday Workout

2009-09-15T11:42:00.001-07:00

Ab Crunches:

Regular crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches
Left-twist crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches
Right-twist crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches
Total = 300 crunches

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 35 minutes

Distance covered = 2.81 miles

Calories burnt = 311

Weights:

Biceps – 2 exercises X 4 sets each = 8 sets

Triceps – 2 exercises X 4 sets each = 8 sets

Tuesday Workout

2009-09-13T21:45:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour

Distance covered = 5.54 miles

Calories burnt = 642

Monday Workout

2009-09-11T14:16:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour

Distance covered = 5.35 miles

Calories burnt = 615

Sunday Workout

2009-09-10T13:17:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 40 minutes

Distance covered = 3.6 miles

Calories burnt = 415

Saturday Workout

2009-09-10T11:26:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 3 hours and 1 minute (181 minutes)

Distance covered = 16.46 miles

Calories burnt = 1,898

Hilarious Google Auto-fill

2009-09-09T13:01:00.001-07:00

Thanks to a friend for forwarding this one: check out the auto-fill results Google gives you. What came up with the second-last result???

Thursday Workout

2009-09-09T12:51:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 2 hours

Distance covered = 11.33 miles

Calories burnt = 1,319

Wednesday Workout

2009-09-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour

Distance covered = 5.48 miles

Calories burnt = 633

Weights:

Triceps- 1 exercise of 4 sets

Biceps – 2 exercises of 3 sets each, total = 6 sets

Wednesday Workout

2009-08-21T14:46:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 2 hours

Distance covered = 11.37 miles

Calories burnt = 1,324

Thursday Workout

2009-08-21T14:44:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour

Distance covered = 5.39 miles

Calories burnt = 620

Saturday Workout

2009-08-20T10:08:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hours

Distance covered = 5.66 miles

Calories burnt = 659

Tuesday Workout

2009-08-14T17:04:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hours

Distance covered = 5.26 miles

Calories burnt = 602

Tuesday Workout

2009-07-23T05:30:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 35 minutes

Distance covered = 3.33 miles

Calories burnt = 388

Weights:

Shoulders - 4 exercise of 4 sets, for a total of 16 sets

Monday Workout

2009-07-21T16:01:00.001-07:00

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1.5 hours

Distance covered = 8.80 miles

Calories burnt = 1,024

Weights:

Biceps - 2 exercises, a total of 8 sets

Triceps - 2 exercises, a total of 7 sets

Total of 15 sets

Sunday Workout

2009-07-20T10:08:00.001-07:00

Not been regular in making these updates, need to fix that.

Cardio – Elliptical

Time taken = 1.5 hours

Distance covered = 8.82 miles

Calories burnt = 1,080

Tuesday Workout

2009-07-15T08:30:00.001-07:00

A good workout day today.

Started with Ab Crunches in the morning:

Weights:

Shoulders - 4 exercise of 4 sets, for a total of 16 sets

Swimming:

20x2 laps of a 15 – 20 meter pool, for a total of 600 – 800 meters

Monday Workout

2009-07-14T01:08:00.000-07:00

Weights.

Biceps = 3 exercises, 4 sets each = total 12 sets
Triceps = 2 exercises, 4 sets each = total 8 sets

total = 20 sets

Sunday Workout

2009-07-14T01:07:00.000-07:00

Cardio - Elliptical

Time taken = 43 minutes
Distance covered = 4.39 miles
Calories burnt = 500

Razorfish & Microsoft – New News

2009-07-05T01:55:00.003-07:00

I had written in November about the layoffs at Razorfish, and early rumors of a sale.

Seems this sale is happening soon. According to the Financial Times, Microsoft has appointed Morgan Stanley to look for a buyer for Razorfish, with French firm Publicis emerging as an early front-runner.

Omnicom and WPP, which are trying to put more focus on digital advertising, are also potential suitors.

Publicis has recently made some financial moves aimed at enabling an acquisition, and have also gotten cozier with Microsoft - on Friday, Publicis announced an agreement with Microsoft Advertising to use Microsoft technology to place Publicis ads on television set-top boxes.

Golfing, Golfing, Golfing

2009-07-05T01:55:00.001-07:00

Been getting into golf quite a bit, lately.

We played 18 holes yesterday, and 30 holes today. And are carrying our golf bags to Hawaii tomorrow. I never thought it would come to this….

Wednesday Workout

2009-07-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

Cardio - Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hr 53 min (113 min)

Distance covered = 11.03 miles

Calories burnt = 1,289 calories

Monday Workout

2009-07-01T18:10:00.001-07:00

Cardio only – Elliptical

Time taken = 1.5 hours/ 90 minutes

Calories burnt = 962 calories

Distance covered = 8.3 miles

A 13-Story Building Tips Over In Shanghai!!

2009-07-01T18:03:00.001-07:00

This is amazing, ridiculous, over the top. A 13-story building under construction in Shanghai just tipped over – fell over completely. WHAT?????

Check out these photos

Nissan GTR; An.... Honor...?

2009-06-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Forbes.com just conferred another great honour on Godzilla, the Nissan GTR. According to their research, the GTR is the most expensive car to insure (apart from the super-expensive supercars, of course).

Here's the list:

Most Expensive Cars to Insure

No. 1 Most Expensive: Nissan GT-R
Sports car
$2,533

No. 2 Most Expensive: Dodge Viper
Sports car
$2,446

No. 3 Most Expensive: BMW M6
Sports car
$2,236

No. 4 Most Expensive: Ford Shelby GT500
Sports Car
$2,186

No. 5 Most Expensive: Mercedes-Benz G-Class
SUV
$2,088

And here are the losers:

Least Expensive Cars to Insure

No. 1 Least Expensive: Hyundai Santa Fe
SUV
$832

No. 2 Least Expensive: Kia Sportage
SUV
$840

No. 3 Least Expensive: Hyundai Entourage
Minivan
$848

No. 4 Least Expensive: Kia Sedona
Minivan
$857

No. 5 Least Expensive: Kia Rio5
Passenger
$870

Friday Workout

2009-06-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

Cardio : Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hr

Distance covered = 6.24 miles

Calories burnt = 732

Thursday Workout

2009-06-19T17:50:00.000-07:00

Cardio : Elliptical

Time taken = 2 hrs

Distance covered = 11.38 miles

Calories burnt = 1,324

Tuesday Workout

2009-06-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Cardio : Elliptical

Time taken = 90 minutes (1.5 hrs)
Distance covered = 8.87 miles
Calories burnt = 1,037

Cafe Silan, Menlo Park, CA - Restaurant Review

2009-06-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

Cafe Silan is in downtown Menlo Park, at 867 Santa Cruz Ave, Menlo Park, CA.

This is a small, Kurdish restaurant, with some pretty tasty dishes. My favorites:

- The appetizer - flat bread with dip. The dip is delicious!
- Some pizza with keema or ghosht on it. Very simple, and very good. To completely change the flavor, try it with the spicy sauce on the tables
- Salad with kebabs. The kebabs were good, but the salad was excellent!

Silan is on my once-a-quarter restaurant list now

Saturday Workout

2009-06-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Had to go play golf, so a short workout before:

Cardio: Elliptical

Time Taken = 30 minutes
Calories burnt = 324
Distance covered = 2.79 miles

Weights:

Biceps - 2 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 8 sets
Triceps - 1 exercise of 4 sets, for a total of 4 sets
Shoulders - 1 exercise of 4 sets, for a total of 4 sets

Played 18 holds of golf on Saturday, and again on Sunday

Monday Workout

2009-06-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

A tougher cardio workout today.

Elliptical:

Time taken = 3 hours (180 minutes)
Distance covered = 17.86 miles
Calories burnt = 2,082 calories

Sunday Workout

2009-06-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday, I played golf in Sunol. Not sure how much exercise that is.

Sunday: Abs.

Regular crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches
Left-twist crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches
Right-twist crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches

Total = 300 crunches

NBC Fail

2009-06-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

I would like NBC to lose enough money that it has to shut down. And ABC to at least fire their entire sports-related teams. Let me explain why:

NBC:

NBC has the rights to show the French Open Men's Semifinals this morning. The matches started at 5 am PST today, Friday, June 5th.
You have the opportunity to watch arguably the greatest to ever play the game, Roger Federer. In the other match, you have the cinderalla, who has already dispatched the world's greatest Clay Court player (and a possible arguable greatest ever to play the game, Rafael Nadal).

So when you switch on NBC, what do you see? Why, Dave Matthew's Band, Tom Brokaw, and the rest of the idiots from their morning show. Interspersed with ads from our local carpet dealer. They've decided we can wait until 10 am PST (on a workday!) to watch the matches. That made me develop my first symptoms of high blood pressure.

I am pissed off at NBC. Very pissed off. This is exactly what they did during the Olympics - while also lying about having the broadcasts live.

So what am I going to do about it? I am going to stop watching NBC. Anything on NBC. And I'm going to bad-mouth NBC whenever I can. I like Conan O'Brien. So I'm going to watch him free on YouTube. Hah!

ABC:

ABC won the rights to show the NBA Finals. I know, I know, the NBA season is unreasonably long. But after all that time, we've gotten to the point where we can see Superman and Skip-to-my-Lou go up against the Black Mamba and 9-time winner Phil Jeannie Buss. Kobe, at this point, is in the "best ever" discussions. And had a game to prove it last night. What I would have loved to have seen after the game would be some great analysis, interspersed with humor, etc. etc.... ok, I would have loved to have the TNT Inside The NBA crew (EJ, Barkley, Kenny) take us through the game.

Do you know what I saw instead? A local Oakland crew. Three guys - at least I know/ like Nate Thurmond. The other expert they brought in was the Warriors assistant coach for shooting for big men, or something. No disrespect, but.... And they kept trying to work the Warriors into everything. Kept talking about Michael Pietrus, and showing clips of him as a Warrior. WTF!?!?!?

Ok, so ABC wasn't as bad as NBC. I'm not going to bad-mouth them as much as I will NBC. But I'm quite unhappy.

NBC and ABC suck lemons. I want NBC to fail.

Thursday Workout

2009-06-04T21:13:00.001-07:00

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 1.5 hours, or 90 minutes
Distance covered = 8.63 miles
Calories burnt = 1,006 calories

Weights:

Shoulders: 2 exercise of 4 sets each, for a total of 8 sets
Triceps: 1 exercise of 4 sets
Back: 1 exercise of 4 sets

Total: 16 sets

Wednesday Workout

2009-06-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour
Distance covered = 5.71 miles
Calories burnt = 665 calories

Weights: Continuing with this new workout regimen

Shoulders: 1 exercise of 4 sets
Biceps: 1 exercise of 4 sets
Back: 2 exercises of 4 sets each for a total of 8 sets.
Total = 16 sets

Tuesday Workout

2009-06-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out a new approach on the weights for a few days. Lets see how it goes.

Cardio: Elliptical
Time taken = 1 hour
Distance covered = 5.90 miles
Calories burnt = 690

Weights: Three body parts - two with an average workout, one with a minor workout

Biceps: 2 exercises of 4 sets each for a total of 8 sets
Triceps: 2 exercises of 4 sets each for a total of 8 sets
Shoulders: 1 exercise of 4 sets

So a total of 20 sets

Friday Workout

2009-05-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Elliptical:
Time taken = 60 minutes
Calories burnt = 662 calories
Distance covered = 5.69 miles

Weights: Back
only 12 sets

Monday Workout

2009-05-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

Cardio - Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour
Distance covered = 6.02 miles
Calories burnt = 706

Sunday Workout

2009-05-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Cardio only - Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hr
Distance covered = 6.06
Calories burnt = 710

Saturday Workout

2009-05-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Only time for cardio today.

Elliptical:

Time taken = 95 min (1 he 35 min)
Distance covered = 8.67 miles
Calories burnt = 1,002 calories

RIP, Valleywag

2009-05-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted May 1, 2009)

Valleywag, Silicon Valley's gossip site (and sort of pretend tech and startups related site) was always a fun read. After the staff was trimmed, it became a little less so. Ok, maybe a lot less so.

But today sounds the death bell. Owen Thomas is leaving Gawker Media (Valleywag's parent), and moving to NBC. There's no one left.

Rest in peace, Valleywag.

Wednesday Workout

2009-05-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

A late workout, and a short but intense one.

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 1 hour
Distance covered = 6.50 miles
Calories burnt = 764 calories

Weights: Shoulders

4 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 16 sets

Tuesday's Workout

2009-05-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday's workout was more about maintaining discipline and not missing a workout - my knee was still hurting after basketball, and I was tired.

Cardio: Biking

10 minutes, 56 calories, 2.16 miles

Weights: Biceps and Triceps:

Each part, 2 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 8 sets per part.
Or, a total of 16 sets.

As I said, a pretty light workout

Monday Workout

2009-05-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Only a quick cardio workout today, as had some stuff to do.

Elliptical:

Time taken = 1 hour
Distance covered = 5.68 miles
Calories burnt = 660 calories

Sunday Workout

2009-05-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

Played basketball today - lots of enthusiasm, but little skill.

Playing on a cement court is hard on my knees. Its going to make cardio difficult the rest of this week.

Friday Workout

2009-05-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

A quick cardio workout today, on the elliptical - Friday night partying precluded a longer workout.

Time taken = 1 hour
Distance covered = 6.08 miles
Calories burnt = 712

Thursday Workout

2009-05-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

A better workout today.

Cardio: Elliptical.

Time taken = 2 hours, 20 minutes (140 minutes)
Distance covered = 13.34 miles
Calories burnt = 1,553

Weights: Back

3 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 12 sets.

Wednesday Workout

2009-05-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

A bit of everything, but a light workout on Wednesday, since I'm still a little sick.

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 60 minutes
Calories burnt = 657
Distance covered = 5.65 miles

Weights: Shoulders

3 exercises of 3 sets each, for a total of 9 sets

Saturday And Sunday Workouts

2009-05-05T12:31:00.001-07:00

Does golf count? Golf in a cart? Ah well. I played 18 holes of golf on each of Saturday and Sunday, and sadly that was my only pathetic attempt at weekend exercise.

Friday Workout

2009-05-04T21:52:00.001-07:00

Weights only today. Still trying to recover from a cold.

Biceps: 4 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 16 sets

Triceps: 4 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 16 sets

Total of 32 sets

Bushism Of The Week

2009-05-04T19:10:00.001-07:00

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
Reuters, 5 May, 2000

Ooh, little georgie-worgie figured out its a budget, all on his own!

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Crossing 95K Visits

2009-05-01T10:49:00.001-07:00

I just crossed the 95K visits mark on my blogs, on Friday:

Looking forward to 100K.

And on a smaller scale, my profile on blogger has now been viewed over 1,400 times.

Tuesday Workout

2009-04-29T18:19:00.001-07:00

Only cardio today, and a lighter workout.

Cardio: Elliptical

Time = 135 minutes (2 hrs 15 minutes)

Distance = 11.63 miles

Calories burnt = 1,322

Monday Workout

2009-04-29T03:52:00.001-07:00

Cardio: Elliptical

Time = 135 minutes (2 hrs 15 minutes)

Distance = 13.02 miles

Calories burnt = 1,518

Weights:

Biceps: 3 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 12 sets

Triceps: 3 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 12 sets

So a total of 24 sets, for arms

Sunday Workout

2009-04-27T13:17:00.001-07:00

Only weights today, as I didn't have enough time in between Sunday activities.

Back: 4 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 16 sets

Calves: 3 exercises of 3 sets each, for a total of 9 sets

Bushism Of The Week

2009-04-27T00:44:00.001-07:00

"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."
CBS News, Washington DC, 6 September, 2006

Ain't that the truth.

You know you have it wrong when....

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Friday Workout

2009-04-26T22:32:00.001-07:00

Regular crunches: 5 sets, 20 crunches each, plus one set of 15 crunches = 115 crunches

Left-twist crunches: 5 sets, 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Right-twist crunches: 5 sets, 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Total crunches = 315

Cardio: Elliptical

Time = 125 minutes (2 hrs 5 minutes)

Distance = 12.08 miles

Calories burnt = 1,410

Weights:

Shoulders: 4 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 16 sets

Tuesday Workout

2009-04-24T16:31:00.001-07:00

I'm back to blogging about my workouts. This Tuesday:

Started with abs:

Regular crunches: 5 sets, 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Left-twist crunches: 5 sets, 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Right-twist crunches: 5 sets, 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Total crunches = 300

Cardio: Elliptical

Time = 90 minutes (1 hr 30 minutes)

Distance = 7.95 miles

Calories burnt = 910

Weights:

Biceps: 3 exercises of 3 sets each, for a total of 9 sets

Triceps: 3 exercises of 3 sets each, for a total of 9 sets

Bushism Of The Week

2009-04-20T07:49:00.001-07:00

"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice."
Washington DC, 27 October, 2003

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

New York Times Article On Kosmix

2009-04-16T18:06:00.001-07:00

Our little startup, Kosmix, was just covered in the New York times

The article was titled Just Don’t Compare Kosmix to Google

Published: March 14, 2009

KOSMIX, a well-financed Silicon Valley start-up, is often described on blogs and news sites as a search engine that may someday rival Google.

As flattering as that notion may sound, it rankles Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, the co-founders of Kosmix. And that’s not because other start-ups making similar assertions have fallen laughably short of the mark. It’s because Kosmix is trying to do something that is quite different from traditional Web search.

“Search does what it does well, very well,” Mr. Harinarayan said. “I don’t think we can ever compete with that.” Kosmix, he said, is not about finding the best set of documents for a specific keyword or phrase. Instead, its goal is to “tell me more about something,” he said.

For a key word or topic that a user enters, Kosmix gathers content from across the Web to build a sort of multimedia encyclopedia entry on the fly. For many queries, the results are pretty satisfying and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.

If Kosmix succeeds in attracting a large following, it may well be the latest challenge, not to Google, but to a long string of old and new media companies struggling to hold on to their audiences and make a living on the Web.

Kosmix’s home page offers a mix of news, entertainment and other content from around the Web. But it is on searches that Kosmix becomes really interesting.

Type in “Kauai,” for example, and Kosmix will return a fairly rich page that includes an entry from WikiTravel, a user-created travel site; restaurant recommendations from The New York Times; photographs and videos from services like Flickr and YouTube; audio clips of local music; reviews of guidebooks, bed-and-breakfasts and other services; blog posts and more. It also has top results from Google, and suggests a list of related topics.

(Read the rest of the article on the New York Times website)

Bushism Of The Week

2009-04-13T07:59:00.001-07:00

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.''
Townsend, Tennessee, 21 February, 2001

But not you, G-dub, not you.

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Meehive Launched, Nice Press Coverage

2009-03-22T12:30:00.001-07:00

(Originally posted March 11, 2009)

Kosmix' personalized newspaper, Meehive, launched today. We've had some good coverage, including:

Techcrunch
Venture Beat
Louis Gray
Kosmix Introduces Meehive to Deliver Personalized News Pages

“As much as you might think I'm overloaded with information from the Web, I'm not, honestly. I find that often my first tendency after reading through my Google Reader items is to want to go back to the site and start again, only to find them empty. It's possible, with MeeHive up and running, that when I've hit zero on Google Reader, and tapped out my FriendFeed and Twitter, I can have a destination to find out what the rest of the world is doing outside my little bubble.”
Portfolio, Tech Observer
“Now there's a company that will make you your very own personalized newspaper made up of traditional media posts and blogs, kind of like a cyber-news Frankenstein delivered right to your inbox.”
Killer Startups
MeeHive.com Your Personalized Newspaper

“When all is said and done, this is yet another legitimate way to keep abreast of any development that could appertain to you, and access that information as part of a personalized website. An account can be created in no time at all, so that if you want to see if this solution is right for you or not just wend your way to www.meehive.com.”

Fone Arena
MeeHive Personalized News on iPhone/iPod Touch App Review

“I have been playing with the MeeHive iPhone App for over a week now and…it’s a simple app which makes news consumption on your iphone very easy.”

Resource Shelf
Kosmix Launches MeeHive Personalized News

Bushism Of The Week

2009-03-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat."
Washington DC, 17 September, 2004

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Tuesday Workout

2009-03-16T18:59:00.001-07:00

Started the morning with crunches. Most of the day will be spent walking around Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Regular crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Left-twist crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Right-twist crunches: 5 sets of 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Double-crunches = 5 sets of 10 crunches each = 50 crunches

For a total of 350 crunches

Facebook With (More) Egg On Its Face

2009-03-16T10:53:00.001-07:00

(Originally posted Feb 18th, 2009)

Facebook recently updated its Terms Of Service to effectively say - "we own your data in perpetuity, even if you go ahead and leave Facebook. Complain all you like."

(Ok, I took some liberties with my summary). Anyway, Shades of Beacon!, they got slammed in the blogosphere, and had to bow down to the public's wishes. Here's what I saw on my Facebook home page yesterday:

"Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. "

What does this mean for Facebook? Without oversimplifying, they do need some of the updates in their Terms of Service, to better manage their network. And they would like to add some of the other updates, to be able to use data on their network better - specially for monitoring and monetizing.

My guess is that they'll slowly start adding a tweak here, a sentence there, and gradually update their Terms of Service to include most of the changes they wanted. It will just take them some time now.

Bushism Of The Week

2009-03-15T07:05:00.001-07:00

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Washington DC, 5 August, 2004

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Carlton Hotel Mussoorie In Winter

2009-03-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

A couple more photos of the beautiful Carlton's Plaisance Hotel in Mussoorie, India.

The photos are from the very large front lawn, facing the hotel. There is a lovely hill with a temple behind the hotel. Kids love running up that mountain.

Thursday Workout

2009-03-13T12:14:00.001-07:00

Started out with crunches in the morning:

10 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 200 crunches

No cardio, what a bummer

Wednesday Workout

2009-03-12T09:03:00.001-07:00

Started the morning with some light crunches:

5 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 100 crunches

Cardio - Elliptical:

A short, easy workout, since I got out of work really late.

Time taken = 1 hour/ 60 minutes

Calories burnt = 694

Distance covered = 5.93 miles

Restaurant Review - Himawari, San Mateo

2009-03-11T08:13:00.001-07:00

Himawari in San Mateo in the bay area (California) is one of my favorite restaurants, specially when its getting close to 9 pm (it doesn't close early, except on Sundays).

Himawari is a Japanese restaurant. They have sushi, of course. But their specialty is ramen, udons, and that kind of stuff.

My favorites are the Shio Buttercorn Ramen, and the Tan Tan Men. Having grown up on Indian food, I prefer a bit more taste, a bit more saltiness in my food, and Himawari delivers.

Favorite side dish - the sesame spinach. (Although I think all their appetizers are great)

It is located at 202 2nd Ave., San Mateo, CA

Bushism Of The Week

2009-03-09T09:25:00.001-07:00

''I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right." Rome, 22 July, 2001

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Thursday Workout

2009-03-06T09:10:00.001-08:00

Cardio:

Elliptical:

Time taken = 106 minutes (1 hr 46 minutes)

Calories burnt = 1,197

Distance covered = 10.26 miles

Biking:

Time taken = 32 minutes

Calories burnt = 203

Distance covered = 7.10 miles

So total calories burnt = 1,400

Wednesday Workout

2009-03-05T09:07:00.001-08:00

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 120 minutes (2 hours)

Calories burnt = 1,367

Distance covered = 11.7 miles

Weights: Shoulders

4 exercises of 4 sets each = 16 sets

Tuesday Workout

2009-03-04T10:50:00.001-08:00

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 60 minutes

Calories burnt = 733

Distance covered = 6.24 miles

Batonnage - New Wine Consulting/ Blog/ Site

2009-03-03T21:53:00.001-08:00

What is Batonnage? It is the wine making operation of mixing up the lees (dead yeast cells from fermentation) in the barrel with the wine to release the mannoproteins, improving the flavor, mouthfeel, and stability of the wine.

Did that impress you? How do I know this? A close friend, has fired up a site http://www.batonnagewine.com/

If you're looking to host a wine event in the bay area, check out this site, or just email info@batonnagewine.com and ask them your wine questions.

In particular, check out the blog for helpful and timely tips. My favorite for 2009 - Batonnage's take on the best value wines

Sunday Workout

2009-03-02T08:43:00.001-08:00

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 75 minutes (1 hr 15 min)

Calories burnt = 840

Distance covered = 7.21 miles

Bushism Of The Week

2009-03-01T00:53:00.001-08:00

"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together."
Bartlett, Tennessee, 18 August, 2000

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

Changes At Webaroo - Now SMS GupShup

2009-02-26T02:10:00.001-08:00

Webaroo, which over the years morphed into SMS GupShup, has long been a company I've liked. (Anand, one of the Kosmix co-founders, and one of the investors in Webaroo, likes them too - check out his blog post on them).

Webaroo, though, is finally moving their entire team to India. That means those on the US team who aren't moving over, are moving on. I believe Rakesh Mathur, their CEO, might also be taking some time off from Webaroo.

This comes after some good traction news from Webaroo -

SMS Gupshup has a user base of 12 Million people (I believe this is all in India. I have the Webaroo tool installed on Firefox, but they don't seem to be working on that any more)
Helion Ventures and Charles River Ventures just put another $11 Million into the company, in October 2008. Very good!

Tuesday Workout

2009-02-25T10:27:00.001-08:00

I'd been under the weather, so hadn't worked out on Sunday or Monday. I forced myself to go for a shorter workout on Tuesday, with excellent results - it felt as if the toxins were getting kicked out. In only one hour, I had a much bigger sweat going than a 2 - 3 hour session.

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 60 minutes (1 hour)

Calories burnt = 709

Distance covered = 6.05 miles

What Else Do Kosmix And Google Have In Common

2009-02-24T01:04:00.001-08:00

Kosmix is similar to Google in a few ways - we're both in the search space, our founders are from the same Stanford research group.... and now this.

I was at a dinner with a few friends, including one from Google, at Palo Alto's Counter Burger (amazing burgers, I kid you not!), when the folks around us noticed what you see below.

Since then, I've seen folks from Palantir, Facebook, Zazzle, and a couple of other companies with the same jackets

BMW 335i Climate Control - Silly

2009-02-23T14:50:00.001-08:00

BMW does a lot of things well. But there is one problem that really irks me. And all BMW 3-series cars suffer from this problem.

BMW owners get dual-climate control for the two front-seat people. But lets be reasonable and assume that most of the time, you want one temperature throughout your car, that the driver would like to control both temperature gauges through his/ her own gauge. But this isn't possible.

Quite silly! Honda has provided this (simply basic!) ability for the last few years, and this is one of the things my girlfriend (who drives an Accord) constantly teases me about.

Saturday Workout

2009-02-23T01:54:00.001-08:00

Short and quick, with a new element.

Cardio: Elliptical

Time taken = 10 minutes

Distance covered = 1 mile

Calories burnt = 117

Weights:

Back - 3 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 12 sets

Calves - 3 exercises of 3 sets each, for a total of 9 sets.

The leg exercises were new. I wanted to add to the basic cardio for improving leg strength. My calves have been sore for a full day now, after that workout!

Bushism Of The Week

2009-02-22T22:54:00.001-08:00

"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three - three or four books about him last year. Isn't that interesting?"
Speaking to reporter Kai Diekmann, Washington DC, 5 May, 2006

You're right, that is a very interesting thing about George Washington

A link to the last Bushism Of The Week

My blogs Crossed 80,000 Total Visits

2009-02-21T15:40:00.001-08:00

Earlier in February, my blogs crossed the 80K visits mark. Sweet.

The list of my blogs is:

And on a smaller scale, my profile on blogger has now been viewed over 1,000 times.

Friday Workout

2009-02-20T22:54:00.001-08:00

Crunches: (morning)

Regular - 7 sets of 20 crunches each = 140 crunches

Left-twist - 7 sets of 20 crunches each = 140 crunches

Right-twist - 7 sets of 20 crunches each = 140 crunches

Total = 420 crunches

Thursday Workout

2009-02-20T04:33:00.001-08:00

A much lighter workout today.

Crunches:

Regular - 5 sets of 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Left-twist - 5 sets of 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Right-twist - 5 sets of 20 crunches each = 100 crunches

Total = 300 crunches

Cardio:

Elliptical:

Time taken = 10 minutes

Calories burnt = 115

Distance covered = 0.99 miles

Biking:

Time taken = 16 minutes

Calories burnt = 106

Distance covered = 3.97 miles

Weights: Arms

Biceps - 3 exercises of 4 sets each = 12 sets

Triceps - 3 exercises of 4 sets each = 12 sets

total of 24 sets

Wednesday Workout

2009-02-19T09:34:00.001-08:00

Started this evening with crunches - 15 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 300 crunches. That's a recent high.

Cardio - Elliptical:

Time taken = 2 hours (120 minutes)

Distance covered = 13.32 miles

Calories burnt = 1,564

These were new highs for me in terms of pacing (both distance and calories burnt), specially for a 2-hour period.

Weights - Shoulders:

4 exercises of 4 sets each, for a total of 16 sets.

I'm getting fitter - this was a tough workout, coming the day after a 2,000 calorie/ 3 hrs and 17 minute cardio workout. Or perhaps its the fact that I had a good basketball game (Lakers-Warriors) to watch while on the elliptical machine, which kept me from getting bored.

Tuesday Workouts - With Some New Personal Bests

2009-02-18T01:38:00.001-08:00

Started in the morning with crunches:

7 sets of 20 crunches each, for a total of 140 crunches

Cardio in the evening: Elliptical machine. Lots of new highs for me for the Elliptical.

Time taken = 3 hours and 17 minutes (197 minutes) - a new high

Calories burnt = 2,059 - a new high

Distance covered = 17.82 miles - a new high