Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Folks, I've run out of LiveJournal invite codes. I can't give you one no matter how politely you ask. Please stop asking.

Screenshot of Proteus, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Observe that the Proteus contact list (top right) makes the most efficient use of screen space, that the MSN Messenger conversation window is the most elegant, and that the Yahoo! Messenger windows are all ugly (bad font rendering, bad layout). Yahoo! seriously needs a good user interface designer. Click to enlarge.

Why am I ranting about this now? Because Yahoo! just booted me from a productive IM experience into one that interferes with my work (it's not just the interface, the usability sucks too). MSN is threatening to do the same come October 15 (nice interface but sub-optimal usability).

For me, this means only one thing: switch to using Jabber, ICQ or AIM for my regular communications, and use the official clients only when someone I want to talk to isn't on any other network.

gurunandan and I will be in Bangalore on Friday and Saturday. Guru will be talking at the Bangalore LUG meeting on Friday, but I won't be there.

I have a fairly hectic schedule whose outcome will determine the short term future of seacrow. As before, if you want to meet up, call me.

I'm out of LiveJournal invite codes. Please welcome the following to LJ:

konkani, yodha, niiz, poorfool, jbritto, kprasad, ashudesai and girish (4 codes still not used)

For the record, older codes went to (ordered by date):

kalyan, goalinks, akaratty, roshin, bangalore, golisoda, godpawn, mmk, shankerbalan, yellosonja, namratha, botsie, contentedbloke, plasmid, irq2, wanberev, satyap, gurudatt, rgiri, gnurd, shubha, goabooks, vinaykaushik, seacrow, datempest, dhirender, bluesmoon and dasarp

6:00 AM	Wake up.
6:05 AM	Wake up again, haul self into bathroom, wash face, lose weight.
6:30 AM	Head out for a walk, new route each day.
7:30 AM	Return to Lido, get into shower.
7:50 AM	Get to Monte Carlo, read news aggregated overnight in NetNewsWire, check email.
8:30 AM	Morning meeting.
9:15 AM	Breakfast.
9:45 AM	Back to email, or start of working day, depending on load.
1:00 PM	Lunch.
2:00 PM	Afternoon activities, where someone (within Synapse) gives a talk, updates us with the news, or shows off their project.
2:30 PM	Back to work, now completely offline. Not even on the LAN (does wonders to productivity).
5:00 PM	End of working day. Evening activities are one of volleyball, beach volleyball, trip to the city, or a talk by a visitor.
9:00 PM	Dinner.
9:30 PM	In bed with two books, post-it note slips for marking interesting passages, a notepad for writing down thoughts, and the soothing music of Sting or Dire Straits piping into my ears (playlist changes every few days).
0:00 AM	Asleep.

I have twelve LJ invite codes to give away. If you want one, email me. First come, first serve. No hoarders, please.

Update: I don’t have any invite codes left. I can’t give you one no matter how politely you ask. Please stop asking.

My motorcycle is now in Goa with me. For anyone interested in transporting bikes by train, here is what it cost:

Packing charge (unofficial service):	Rs. 150
Bribe for having petrol in tank: (this is the same cop who tells us it is okay to have a little petrol in the tank, then changes his mind after the bike is packed and the tank is inaccessible)	Rs. 50
Transportation charge (Bangalore to Goa):	Rs. 150
Tip for loading bike onto train: (this is for raising one wheel a foot above ground level)	Rs. 50
Tip for unloading bike:	Rs. 30
Total:	Rs. 430

I rode the ~30km from Madgaon to Dona Paula this morning. It started to rain on the way and all the bikers — every single one of them — stopped, took out umbrellas, and waited by the roadside. I put on my raincoat, covered one of my two bags with it, and rode on. By the time I got to Dona Paula, I was thoroughly drenched, the uncovered bag (containing cables and clothes) had a small pool of water at the bottom (that's what waterproof bags are good for), while the other bag (containing laptop) was only slightly damp.

During the several months of uncertainty following the dotcom bust, my friend Madhukhar Reddy (once also madhukhar) was fond of saying B2B to anyone who listened. He didn't mean Business to Business. He meant Back to Bangalore, speaking both for his return to Bangalore and for the new trend of Bangaloreans returning from distant shores.

B2B, it has been, for me too this week, but now I'm back at a not-too-distant shore, and literally too: I'm a ten minutes walking distance from the conflux of the Zuari and the Mandovi with the Arabian sea.

My short period in Bangalore has been amazingly productive. On Sunday, I met noelladsa, fus, Akash, killapop and rashmiprasad, and on Tuesday, ukj, chetan and vatsa. I didn't get enough time with Urmila or my parents. Those are priorities for next time.

The view from the 24th floor of the Public Utility Building on M.G. Road is mind boggling. If you've looked around from Ebony in Barton Centre and thought it was amazing, you should try this. It's like looking down from a plane, except the setting is fixed and the traffic mobile. If you stand by an open window, you can hear the honking and engine noise too.

The cellular signal strength up there is pretty poor. Chetan, Vatsa and I had a fair bit of trouble making calls or sending messages. I guess being alone on top of the world does have its disadvantages: you're too small a market for any company to take seriously. :)

“Every country has the government it deserves” - Joseph Marie de Maistre (1811)

I will be in Bangalore Sunday morning to Tuesday afternoon. If anyone is interested in meeting up, please mail or call me on 98861 68196 or 3675 2039 (yes, I carry two cell phones). If you are calling before Saturday evening, please call the second number.

There is a man I once had much respect for. I grew up learning from him. He introduced me to new worlds, showed me the possibilities, set a course for my life. My respect only multiplied with time.

Then one day he came and demanded it his respect back, said it was his, and I had no right to it. And so I was left with none.

But that was not enough. He wanted interest for the period I had held what was his. And so I hold it in the negative now.

Maybe one day he will realise his folly and return what he snatched away. When all is lost, hope still remains.

Ubiquity, the ACM's IT magazine and forum, is carrying an interview with Christopher Kelty:

UBIQUITY: Do you find that students swim easily in areas like this? Or are there problems?

KELTY: It's quite hard for students to get their head around. Undergraduate students especially are dominated by a conception of the world in which information and networks require a technical mediation or a machine. It's also hard for them to think about human relationships in the same terms that we think about communication technology. I ask them to do that, not because I think all human relationships can be described in terms of communication technology, but because I think that there are a lot of metaphorical descriptions going in both directions. We describe human relationships using technical terms. We also describe our technical systems using metaphors and images from our human social world. I try to get them to think in both directions, from the technical to the social and from the social to the technical, with the assumption that they'll realize that descriptions of either technology or society are not set in stone.

What's common between AC and DW?