Friday, June 25, 2010

Young Folks




Walk In The Park
Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Tomorrow
Samuel Eto'o

Watch The Games
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Walk In The Park



CBC FIFA







At this point it feels to me like this is Argentina's cup to lose, although it can be argued Brazil is just getting warmed up. Those are the two teams I am rooting for. (Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor)

Diego (Maradona) looks as majestic off the field as he used to look on the field: for the love of the game, he will do anything, even come back as a coach.

I own three Brazil shirts, two Argentina shirts.



France and Italy are out. Those used to be heavyweight teams.

The US team has surprised many people. I commend their spirit, and their victories. I don't expect them to win, of course, but it is possible they pull a few more surprises. Expect to see a lot of soccer in Central Park this summer.

Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches
Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor
The Eyes Of Truth
Hey Now, Hey Now
Tomorrow
Samuel Eto'o


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Thursday, June 24, 2010

My Secret Sauce


Manti (Central Asian meat dumplings, similar t...Image via Wikipedia

Do you want to know what my secret sauce is, and how I make it? It usually goes with steamed dumplings, which is one of my favorite things to eat. Chatfe dude Paul Orlando (Chatfe: Audio, Interest Based Random Connections On Skype?) introduced me to Lam Zhou on 144 E. Broadway in Chinatown. I get my frozen dumplings there. I steam them up at home. But dumplings need sauce. I make my own. You can't find anywhere what I make. How do I make it? It is not that complicated at all. You just need green chilli, tomatoes, and some salt.

I like my sauce really hot - not temperature, but spicey hot - and I get my green chilli from the Patel Brothers in Jackson Heights. I used to be Mayor of that place on FourSquare. But if you like it only mildly hot, jalopenos will also do.


Don't use oil at all. You feel healthier.

Gently fry up the chilli and grind it in a grinder. Cut up the tomatoes, fry them a little, grind them in a grinder. Put both into a bowl and mix, and add some salt.

See? That easy. But you can't get this anywhere. I like my sauce to look green - as in, heavy on chilli - but you could make yours look red. It is just that some like it hot.


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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Rich People's Kids

Macaroni and cheeseImage via Wikipedia
So Bill Gates is on my BlogRoll, (so is Amitabh Bachchan), one the richest dude on the planet, another a fairly rich dude, but the most recognized face on the planet. And I was just reading one of his blog posts for the first time. In it he talks of a Buffett son. "Contrary to what many people might assume, Peter won’t inherit great wealth from his father." Well, why thank you, Bill Gates!

Bill Gates: Life Is What You Make It
Contrary to what many people might assume, Peter won’t inherit great wealth from his father.
Warren Buffett gave most of his money to the Gates Foundation, an entity I am a fan of. I never called myself a fan of Microsoft, although I have admired Gates' path in business greatly. I hope Buffett left at least one billion, or half a billion for his kids. Or I am going to think the guy is cheap, a rich cheap guy. Buffett's logic has been, "but I did not deliver my children myself either." As in, his children perhaps are not the best professionals to be doling out money. Let Bill G do it.

Sam Walton went the other way. Many people don't know this but Walton created more wealth than Gates: there is more money in people skills than in software, always will be. That Republican dude left everything to his children. I don't approve of that either. That is taking family values a little too far.

An honest rich guy is Larry Ellison. He was not born rich. He was born in "Chicago's Jewish ghetto" - his words - where you could hear "gunshots." He talks of having to eat "macaroni and cheese" late into his 20s. He claims his first wife left him because he "did not work hard enough." He went ahead and bought a boat, and that sent the wife into therapy. His second wife left him because he "worked too hard."

About money and children he said, "I am not going to pretend that my children are going to have to work for a living." That's my kind of a rich guy: brutally honest, interesting.

Although, did I say, I am a huge fan of the Gates Foundation? I am a Third World guy, after all. Bill Gates has challenged many racist viewpoints about the "bottom two billion," as he calls it. He is not talking about the first two billion he made, but the two billion poorest people.

Steven Spielberg once said about his huge wealth. "It's just numbers. Some accountant takes care of it." Bill Gates said only a few weeks back about being rich, after a few million, it does not really matter. Makes no material difference to your life. I buy into the Spielberg line. I have 47,000 followers on Twitter. I remember being very excited when I hit 2,000 followers. Me? What? Popular? At 47,000 it just feels like numbers.

Larry, again, has quite another attitude. "There is nothing that can be bought with money that I can not buy," he boasted to a biographer. Well, that car you see is going down Larry Ellison Boulevard.

There has got to be joy in actively giving. Dying and letting others figure it out can't be joyous. You are not even around. But I am not against financial freedom for one's children. They can still end up normal people doing good, productive work. I think.

Larry Ellison

There are only two income/wealth brackets that fascinate me: the dollar a day people, and the self-made billionaires. In between lies the gray zone.
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Monday, June 21, 2010

Swype: Type On Your Smartphone At Laptop Speed

iPad with on display keyboardImage via Wikipedia
Phone Software Takes the Taps Out of Typing allows users to glide a finger across the virtual keyboard to spell words, rather than tapping out each letter. ..... The movements do not have to be precise because the software calculates which words a user is most likely trying to spell. .... Capitalization and double letters can be indicated with a pause or squiggle, while spacing and punctuation are automatic...... Swype charges phone makers a licensing fee for each device sold .... “We could have custom dictionaries for doctors or lawyers” ..... “It could become the de facto standard for tablets, next-generation TVs or next-generation remote controls” ..... the Swype software — which took a laborious seven years. ..... global sales of touch-screen devices to reach 326.7 million in 2010, an increase of 97 percent from last year. ...... Google is trying to let people skip the screen entirely by developing voice- and image-recognition technologies. Its Goggles application can analyze a photo of some text and translate it into a different language — no typing required.











Swype Hopes to Bring Pattern-Based Typing Technology to the iPad and iPhone iPad Weekly (blog)
Don't type on that smartphone: Swype instead TECH.BLORGE.com
Android Beta of Swype Input Software Goes Live
Move fast: Speedy Swype keyboard for Android now in limited public beta CNET (blog)
Swype Swipe App Announces Open Beta PC Magazine
Swype Beta reopens for all Android smartphones Mobile Burn
Video Demo: Swype For HTC EVO 4G Skatter Tech (blog)
Swype for Android and other top apps the week
Trial the Swype Android phone app for free
Motorola Droid X Coming With Plenty of Pre-Installed Apps? [New Motorola Droid... TFTS (blog)
Verizon Teases Droid X, Big Reveal Next Week? ChannelWeb
Motorola Droid X Packed With Popular Apps Not Found On Other Androids Oxford Zeiss
Verizon Teases Droid X on Droid X Web Does 4.3 Screen and HDMI 7/19? Wireless and Mobile News (blog)
Want Swype? (yes, you do) – Get It Tomorrow For Android Phones TechCrunch (blog)

I have a feeling Swype will finally make tablets competitive with laptops.
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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Freehand Exercise: 1,000 Push-Ups, 1,000 Squats, 1,000 Crunches

US Marine recruits performing push-ups: in pro...Image via Wikipedia
I did 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 squats, and 1,000 crunches today, one after the other. This was my first time doing something like that. Heck, this was my first time doing 1,000 push-ups in one day. This was my first time doing 1,000 squats in one day. This is an important milestone for me. I am so glad. I celebrated by fixing myself a meal of 15 steamed dumplings and two cups of mango lassi. I got done with the whole thing around 11 PM, and that is when I came to sit in front of my computer.

I started around 2 PM. I made myself some coffee - whole milk, some Nescafe coffee, and some brown sugar - and put a few slices of bread through the toaster, four. Then I drank a liter of water. I strolled around the apartment for about 30 minutes. Then I started doing some basic warm up.

Around 3 PM, I hit the floor. I would do 25 push-ups, then stroll around for a minute or less, and then do another 25. At around 600 I felt like I could not do more, but I pushed and I am glad I did because the block was mental and psychological. Because at 1,000 push-ups it felt to me like I could do 100 or 200 more. 600 used to be my previous ceiling. That is where the mental block came from.

Around 5:45 I got done with the push-ups. Then I drank another liter of water and sliced three apples. Then I went for a stroll to a local store. I had run out of paper towels. I needed that to steam dumplings. About half way through the push-ups I had decided I was going to blog about the experience, and that I was going to celebrate by fixing me some steamed dumplings.

Around 6:30 I started doing squats. After having done 300 of those, I took some time off to shave. I also washed my feet with cold water. It felt so good. With a shaved skin and wet hair, I was looking martial. From 300 to 600 squats was rough. Now you know how they feel at the Everest base camp, I thought. I was breathing so very heavily, mouth wide open.

I got done with the 1,000 squats around 8:45 PM.

I drank another liter of water. Three liters for 3,000 units of exercise is a fair bargain. I drank slowly. Then I decided to take a shower.

9:15 PM, I decided to start on the crunches. This was the easy part. For most people crunches are the hardest. Because most people most of the time totally ignore their stomach muscles, even people who work out or exercise. But I am at a point where I could do 1,000 crunches in my sleep. I hit the mark quite effortlessly. Like today, I would do 35, then just lay there, do another 35.

After 300 crunches, I needed to take a restroom break. The roughage from the apples, and all that water, and the crunches were doing their trick. After 600 I turned my computer on to where you could see the log in box for Windows.

At the 800 mark I signed into Windows, and I put 15 dumplings to steam. I allow 20 minutes for steaming. But I got done five minutes before that and that is when I decided to make myself some lassi. I made it better than last time. ("Where Was This Google All This Time?")

Nine hours would be many people's idea of a work day. It has been my idea of a workout day.

Half way through the push-ups a roomie suggested dumb bells. I said no dumb bells.

"I don't want to get bulky. I want strength and fitness."

I don't do machines. I do freehand. I just feel this immense sense of freedom doing it. Early this decade at one point I had managed it such that everything I owned fit in my car. It was a station wagon, but still. It was a good feeling. I am a huge fan of the minimalist Google homepage, and the Craig's List. Less is more. With a freehand exercise regime, you can do it any place any time, or so it feels. A gym is constricting. And freehand has some major positives to it. Less risk of injury is one.

I am going to add yoga to my regimen down the line. Yoga is in a league of its own. Freehand is muscles and organs. Yoga is the joints and the mind, primarily the mind.
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Saavn's Great Business Model For Movies



I just finished watching one of my favorite movies by my favorite actor on the planet, Amitabh Bachchan. It is a full length movie that you can watch legitimately on YouTube. I think they made me watch three 30-second ads along the way. And I was happy to watch those ads. This is the comment I left with the video.

"Amazing business model. I hope your library size grows by a factor of 1,000. Hollywood should also follow this business model. Don't fight the technology. Instead come up with better business models. Great lesson that I hope more people learn."

Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor

This particular movie has had almost a half million views to date on YouTube.

I love it that the movie has English subtitles. I understand perfect Hindi, but the subtitles allow me to share the movie with those who don't. I have always believed Amitabh has global appeal. He is the most recognized face on the planet.

I grew up watching Amitabh.

And, by the way, the ads were served by Google. So all movie producers have to do is agree to use the YouTube platform to serve full length movies. After a movie has been out in the theater one summer, put it up on YouTube. What about one year? You keep making money ad infinitum, pun intended.
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