HariTalk

My first flight (as a pilot) !

2011-08-30T09:05:00.001-07:00

Flew a plane ! A small piper plane, with the instructor by my side doing the take off and landing parts. But he let me take control above 3000 feet, and we went upto 5-6 thousand feet, did a few turns, admired the view from above and generally had a blast !

Corruption in India

2011-04-26T09:49:00.001-07:00

All these news articles of Suresh Kalmadi, Karunanidhi's daughter and Raja in recent times makes me hopeful. I hope the punishment is strict, and the crackdown on others severe as well.

The Hindu and Julian Assange

2011-04-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

I'm reading today's The Hindu newspaper, and found it very interesting to see a picture of Julian Assange reading The Hindu on the front page !

If he read's this particular day's newspaper, he'll basically see himself reading The Hindu in The Hindu ! I wonder if the editors thought this was clever, and are rubbing their hands in glee while enjoying this.

Music in Golden Gate park

2010-11-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

We spent a good evening yesterday, listening to good music at the Arthur De Young museum in Golden Gate park. There was a quartet paying the violin, viola and the cello. There was also the SF opera group - just mind blowing! Highly recommend Friday nights at the De Young!
Look out for them at http://funcheapsf.com.

Have rack, will bike.

2010-11-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

Having gone back and forth trying to decide on a bike rack for the car, we finally ordered the Allen Trunk mounted bike rack. Walmart helpfully shipped it home for free, and it came all assembled - all for a nice low price of 37$ !

Now, to try it on, test it out and go biking in hitherto unreachable places!

Saw this plane going down :(

2010-09-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

I usually come home from work to have lunch, leaving at about 11:45 AM. Today was no different, and I was waiting for a green signal at the intersection of Ralston Ave and Oracle Parkway, when I saw this plane going really low.

Usually, these planes taking off from nearby San Carlos airport fly a little higher than this one; and so I was curious. It was not even going fast, somehow seemed very slow to be airborne. Then, it did a sharp right turn, and went further downwards and out of sight behind a building. I remember thinking someone must be feeling very acrobatic, the way the flight looked from below. I came home and found in Mercury News that the plane crashed into the Redwood Shores Lagoon, and folks in the plane died. Here is the article: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15975084

Reading about such accidents seems so surreal when you were witness to them. Its an odd feeling.

Posting from my new setup!

2010-08-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time now since I updated this space. We've recently set up a new desktop at home, so here comes a post from and about it..

The new set up is nice - we assembled components for this system at home, starting from a barebone CPU. The order came with the tower, a power supply and a motherboard with the CPU of our choice installed. We ordered it at http://www.portatech.com and they delivered the unit promptly and in good condition.

We ordered the other components separately - some RAM, a 500 GB hard disk, a keyboard and a mouse, a wireless adapter and a DVD drive. The interesting thing this time was learning about SATA; we realized that we needed Sata cables for both the DVD and hard disk drives. This was new to me, since the last time I saw a hard disk, it did not use these cables. Anyway, turns out these cables are pretty nifty and easy to use; no more headaches trying to figure out how to connect the cables ! Amazon.com has been quite nice to review stuff and buy them with free shipping !

Next, we burnt a DVD with Ubuntu's latest and ran it on the new system. Installing was quite a breeze, and I loved how the set up recognized all the hardware comfortably and everything worked so well ! Ubuntu is pretty good to use too.

Some nice points:

We'd ordered a HDTV / monitor from LG, and used that as the display. The resolution being a little large, I was afraid whether it will require special configuration, but no, Ubuntu took care of it by itself !

Sound was next, and we connected our mini Logitech speaker system, so thoughtfully gifted by Sandeep. The sound is quite awesome now !

One other fun part was how nicely our old HP printer works ! We'd replaced the cartridges with newer ones from cartridge world, but windows on our laptops refused to print. We were almost ready to give up and buy something new, but Ubuntu came along and is printing B&W and color merrily!

We haven't missed any Microsoft products so far; Ubuntu seems to have a fairly reasonable alternative to everything we've needed so far. Drivers work well, Open Office works beautifully, the printer and wireless adapter needed no configuration and even VPN got installed like a charm !

My final IT trouble at home was connecting to the office network from Linux; I'd tried to get it working on the older Ubuntu on my laptop, but it just refused. The new Ubuntu liked the Cisco VPN software, and I am enjoying wfh on this fine setup. We were looking at a window on unix inside windows inside unix, and decided this warranted a post!

The best part is switching the display between the computer and TV !

Missing aircraft

2009-06-01T11:23:00.001-07:00

My heart goes out to the 200+ people in the Air France jet that went missing over the Atlantic.

Its difficult to believe that in this day and age, the craft cannot be located. Couldn't they start looking in the location from where the last contact was made ?

Isn't the craft supposed to also work as a glider, if it loses power ? One would think there was the chance to land it over the water and get the people out on floating rafts. The cold water would make it crazy, but there is a chance for survival if rescuers reach there quickly enough.

Makes me a little jittery to think that I will be flying out in 10 days time myself, all statistics aside.

Oracle Gym and clever invitations

2009-04-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Our gym's weekly newsletter uses clever ways of keeping the reader entertained and interested in their events. Here is one from today that I found hilarious:

You'll need this info if you cheat on your taxes and have to run from the IRS:
Are you Wearing the Right Running or Walking Shoe?
Wednesday, April 22nd
11:00am - 1:00pm
Club Oracle 1st Floor Weight Room

Erdos number

2009-04-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

My Erdos number is 3 !

A friend/labmate of mine from ASU just got her PHd. In a congratulatory exchange of messages, she was recalling our talk of the Erdos number many years ago, and mentioned I am indeed going to be 3 now. Seems that the paper in question has been published. She will, of course, be Erdos 2.

If only our paper was mathematical, it could have been real. Here is my older post on the topic.
Congratulations, Toni !

Winds

2009-04-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

Its crazily windy outside today. So much so, a couple of the lifts at work did not work! Apparently, someone needs to keep the door closed for it to 'sense' that finally there is no one trying to walk in, and get about it's business.

Its crazy.

HNY

2009-03-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

ಹೊಸ ವರ್ಶದ ಹಾರ್ದೀಕ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು !

My last post was about the new year. This one is, again. Happy new year to everyone in the Hindu calendar !

HNY

2009-01-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

Just a little note to wish you a very happy new year !

Intel, Mumbai terror

2008-11-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

It is a daunting challenge, gathering intelligence that can point to a future strike. In a country as populated as ours, with the severe lack of resources, is it really possible to cover all possibilities ? There could be a zillion ways to smuggle guns and ammo into the city. And people are even easier. Depending on the population to alert the authorities is no good either.

Someone tell the media, it is easy to point fingers, but its a very difficult task.

Raj Thackeray

2008-11-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many of the army commandos fighting in Mumbai, are from Bihar and other northern states. Mr Raj Thackeray ?

Mumbai terror

2008-11-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

While I have many things to say, let me just say, Kudos to our commandos.

mangala gao re..

2008-11-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

Time: Early morning, saturday, 23 Nov 2008
Place: Redmond, WA

After a cup of coffee, with light sunshine streaming in to the hall, Sandeep and Archana started singing, and an impromptu song came about. I was sitting nearby on the laptop, and recorded it without letting them know.

Here is the result: (Scroll down to find the recording)
http://www.esnips.com/web/harishbsStuff

How much wood, I say ?

2008-11-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

While creating an elevate membership id for myself (Virgin America's membership points), I found the following hilarious question: How much wood would a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood ?

I was so tempted to choose this as my security question, but no one answer was obvious to remember later. This is the best I could do - As much wood as a wood chuck could chuck.

Can you do better ?

Driver's license

2008-09-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

My father got his driver's license done in Bangalore. Congrats, Anna ! It is commendable that you will start driving in today's Bangalore traffic !

Puns Intended

2008-08-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at dusk, the two of us were strolling along shoreline, when a couple of people who were jogging laggardly stopped us, and asked to make a call on our cell phone. The tall girl called her mother, and left a voicemail, saying 'Mom, no pun intended, but we are running late' ! It turned out that they were running for 4 1/2 hours, and had run 17 miles !

Today on NPR, someone was talking about the Democratic national convention, and mentioned 'Unintentional pun, but conventional wisdom says .."

Ah, the world is a punny place!

Grandpa

2008-08-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

My dear old grandfather, aka bhava, passed away yesterday, August 4th, in India.
His birthday would have been on the 5th. He was 103 years old. I already feel like I've seen so much life, imagine what he would have, having lived three of my lifetimes and then another 13 years. His passing away would mean many things to many many people whose life he has touched. I can only imagine.

We are just back in the US, and it is sad to hear of the event. I don't know whether to feel happy for his long life, sad for the loss, or frustrated at our distance. Just feeling a little numb right now. While events like this happen in everyone's life, it is difficult to go on with normal life after a phone call like this. Yet, one is forced to.

Bhava - you lived a long and inspiring life, and you've taught me many many things. I will miss you. We are lucky, we met you two weeks ago and got to talk to you for so long, and got your blessings.

Simply

2008-07-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

Marriage. Married life. Long vacation from work. Trips to Tirthalli, Chennai and Udupi. Lots and lots of relatives. Zipping around Bangalore in the wagonR - Much happiness.

Cold. Logistical nightmares. Lagging behind at work. A zillion things to do, 6 days left to fly. The heart wants to stay back, what to do ?

Life has been good, many thanks to Venky.

Bangalore airport

2008-07-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

Amma and Anna came with me to pick up the bro, and we all enjoyed the whole experience. The road is fantastic from Hebbal, comparable to US freeways imo, except for a few quirks here and there. Parking especially is beautifully done, and so is the Volov bus facility.

The approx 37 km drive to Bangalore airport was done in under 45 minutes, albeit at 12 in the night. If I recall right, getting to the old airport from home was taking comparable time. But oh, the drive is fantastic. If anything, I felt the wagonR needed more power/speed, I didn't go beyond 90 kmph for fearing of hurting the brother's car engine.

The bus conductors were standing in the corridor and trying to lure passengers to try the bus. There were empty parking slots, and many. The arrival and departure areas are wide and spacious, with plenty of standing place for people who are waiting for their folks to come out.

Well done, BIAL

Bangalore

2008-07-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

- The direct flight from Hong Kong to Bangalore is a fantastic idea.

- Its a huge difference to have company on international flights. Huge.

- Bangalore's new airport and the roads leading to it are awesome.

- I flew in the first Dragon Air flight to Bangalore, and our plane was welcomed to the tarmac by the fire engines spraying water all over the plane from two sides, like an abhishekha.

- When we stepped out, we were greeted by silk saree wearing smiling ladies handing out bronze deepas to all passengers, and photographers clicking away like we were celebrities. All the passengers were mostly bleary eyed in contrast. The pilots and air hostesses got garlanded and were looking fabulous and surprised.

- The old airport's major bottlenecks appear to have been addressed well. No wait at the swanky immigration counters, no crowd/push-pull near the luggage carousals, all taxies were on one lane, while private parties had plenty of parking, and everyone was courteous and smiling. I had a fabulous experience.

Bangalore seems improving by leaps and bounds, and in contrast the US seems to be somewhat stuck and slow moving. The ambiance and the energy here is fantastic. Everytime I come home, I want to stay back. I already want to this trip.

Bill Gates

2008-06-27T17:49:00.001-07:00

Good bye, Bill. You've had a nice long career.