Audit Trails of Self

Tax Time - TurboTax Still the Best Game in Town

2012-01-22T12:35:00.001-06:00

The annual carousel of paperwork rolls round inevitably, as it must, to tax season. The world over, people start preparing their wits and financial records for the date with the Tax man. For most, its actually quite easy, and yet, last minute scrambling seems more the norm than the exception, the world over. In the United States, tax submissions are due April 15 each year, and April 17 this

Moon Satellites

2012-01-11T17:37:00.002-06:00

Why don't we have moon satellites yet? It would help with interlunar communications and the inevitable cities on the dark side. It would also be good practice for the Mars missions.

Netflix Instant - Not Quite Perfect

2012-01-01T19:28:00.001-06:00

The New York Times had a good article in 2011 on the state of affairs in Netflix Instant, where the gems are hard to find, especially for cinephiles who watch 100+ movies a year. The shelves of the two leading services, Netflix Instant and Hulu Plus, seem to be full of films you’ve never heard of, arranged in no particular order. The latest hits haven’t arrived yet, and there’s no one around

Joseph Campbell's "Myths to Live By"

2011-12-20T06:02:00.002-06:00

This excellent Joseph Campbell book about contemporary myths is currently free on Amazon. Covers everything from the Moon Walk to Schizophrenia.: 'Myths to Live By (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell'

The Insanity Of Provincialism

2011-12-19T22:05:00.000-06:00

Having grown up in Bangalore, I can never see myself calling it Bengaluru. Bangalore is as much Koshy's as it is Majestic. I don't believe the Bengaluru tag ever caught on, it's still Bangalore, unlike, say, Chennai or Mumbai. What does Bangalore mean to you?

Amazon Select and Free Books on the Amazon Kindle

2011-12-19T21:59:00.001-06:00

With all the new Amazon Kindles being bought and loaded up, everyone's on the lookout for good book bargains. This couldn't have come at a better time, as with the launch of Amazon's new marketing fund, Kindle Select, authors are encouraged to give away their books for free, for up to 5 days each quarter. Needless to say, this is both a shot in the arm for independent authors/publishers and at

Apple's problem with in-App purchases, refunds and single sign-on

2011-12-18T15:42:00.000-06:00

Ken Haas draws attention to problems with getting refunds from developers and the Apple Store. I've had a bad experience like many others with inadvertent in-app purchases made by my kids through stuff like TapZoo, etc and run up $200+ charges. Apple and the developers were kind enough to reverse the charges, but after that, I have explicitly disabled in-app purchases, which should be the

Super 8 - Perfect Blend

2011-12-04T21:07:00.000-06:00

Steven Spielberg and J J Abrams' Super 8 is a perfect blend of 80s sci-fi, Spielberg themes and Stephen King-style plot. The children act as if they were unsullied by the 90s and 21st century. The sketchy plot besides, this movie is really about the children.

India wins ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

2011-04-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

After 28 years, India won the ICC Cricket World Cup in grand style, with captain M S Dhoni finishing off with a six. The team carried the captain off the field as the crowd went wild. Everyone had a part to play, and the match was a rocking great 'un. Sri Lanka's excellent 274 score was surpassed by India. The match was seen as a proxy for rising Indian confidence and this victory will doubtless

Crocodile at Bannerghata National Park 034_lzn

2011-03-06T09:50:00.001-06:00

Crocodile at Bannerghata National Park 034_lzn Originally uploaded by aacool

Porn Addiction in America (and the World)

2011-03-01T21:12:00.000-06:00

Via: Online Psychology Degree

Up In the Air

2011-02-12T11:55:00.001-06:00

Up In the Air Originally uploaded by aacool

Frozen Santa

2011-02-12T11:54:00.001-06:00

Frozen Santa Originally uploaded by aacool

Bermuda Triangle of Productivity

2010-12-29T12:56:00.000-06:00

Everything disappears inside that timewarping zonetumblr via chart porn "

My Personality Type

2010-12-04T22:46:00.000-06:00

ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population. Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI) This is quite accurate.

Rick Astley Nature Reserve

2010-10-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

Andy Warhol on Coca-Cola

2010-10-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite quotes from anyone; it's from Warhol's 1975 book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke,

Bee Study Sponsor Went Unmentioned in NYT Article

2010-10-12T21:24:00.001-05:00

You know that New York Times story that implicated a ‘tag team’ of virus and fungus in the collapse of American bee colonies? And how it implicitly exonerated pesticides, which are among the prime suspects in the bee plague? CNN reports that it turns out the author of the study on which the NYT depended is funded by Bayer and may have ulterior reasons for downplaying the role of pesticides,

Happy Douglas Adams Day!

2010-10-12T07:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Douglas Adams Day!: "Douglas Adams fans would know that 42 is the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, calculated in 7.5 million years by a supercomputer named Deep Thought.Today is the 10th day of the 10th month of the year, and if Y2K never happened, this year would be ’10. In binary notation, 101010 is 42 in base 10. Today’s the answer to Life

Kinect for Xbox 360: The Inside Story of Microsoft's Secret 'Project Natal'

2010-10-12T07:08:00.000-05:00

Kinect for Xbox 360: The Inside Story of Microsoft's Secret 'Project Natal': "With its Kinect entertainment platform, Microsoft plans to reinvent how we interact with computers. But first it had to solve a few impossible problems."The name sounds like a misspelling, but this is stretching the user interface, so good stuff! I wonder when it will show up in regular computing. Gaming and regular

James Surowiecki: How Netflix beat Blockbuster.

2010-10-12T06:57:00.000-05:00

James Surowiecki: How Netflix beat Blockbuster.: "In the nineteen-eighties, a new kind of chain store came to dominate American shopping: the “category killer.” These stores killed off all competition in a category by stocking a near-endless variety of products at prices that small retailers couldn’t match. Across America, independent stores . . ."The stock price is the best indicator of success.

Rudyard Kipling's Gods of the Copybook Headings

2010-10-08T02:04:00.000-05:00

The classic Kipling poem, surprisingly featured by Glenn Beck today, in rather good elocution. Quite prescient, in many respects -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Gods of the Copybook Headings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my

"Take Jesus Christ Out, If Possible"

2010-10-07T08:23:00.000-05:00

"Take Jesus Christ Out, If Possible": " This is up there with the classic Matt Stone memo:I'm glad they didn't do this:)

Online Communities 2

2010-10-07T08:21:00.000-05:00

Online Communities 2: ""Need to start a new island for anti-social types

On talent

2010-10-01T11:20:00.000-05:00

On talent: "From a list of rules for young photographers, a definition of talent:Talent is not when your friends tell you they love your work, but when people who don't like you have to admit it's good.Using that definition, it's interesting that you can't figure out whether you're any good or not from your 300 friends on Facebook, the 23 people who liked your Tumblr post, the 415 people you