Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Photo collective session at Barcamp Bangalore 4. Our venue got washed out, so we’re huddled under the nearest canopy.

May nothing distract shoppers from the holy duty of shopping. Amen.

Dear LiveJournal, I miss you. It's been a while since we talked.

Deals so outrageous, they’ll even take your shirt? Contrast.

In the heart of Lalbagh, and yet the din of traffic is inescapable. It’s like there’s no relief unless you shut yourself in concrete walls. At times like this, I miss living on the edge of the city, where quiet, open spaces are only a short walk away.

Exactly what were they thinking? That virus problems are solved by fine print suggesting their file format is virus free? By making quasi-legal threats against anyone who has ‘Forum’ as part of their phone’s name?

Really, guys, encouraging Bluetooth adoption is fine and dandy, but having Bluetooth enabled is only asking for trouble until the handset manufacturers, in particular Nokia, get their act fixed.

(Speaking as someone who uses Bluetooth all the time and loves it, but couldn’t be bothered to keep it discoverable anymore.)

The Forum is actively encouraging shoppers to open themselves up to mobile viruses?

Also at Nanjappa Circle, across the road from the previous.

Pradeep Banavara with the traffic information system his company, MapUnity, is working on. Expect to see signboards like this at major intersections across the city in the coming years, showing realtime updates on vehicular traffic, made possible by monitoring cell tower traffic.

Need for Speed and Half Life are Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games? An MMORPG requires at least six players and involves girls shedding clothes? Who lets these jokers onto the front page?

Bicycle parking spots are a regular feature on the streets of Beijing (and also in the Shanghai University campus). They’re designed to allow bolting the front wheel to the stand.

The most curious thing I saw in Beijing: an open plot with what appeared to be exercising machines. Exercise bikes and the sort. An open air gym. The elderly would gather in the evenings to exercise.

This neighbourhood also had rather well maintained public toilets along each huton, and none within the restaurants and bars. The staff said I should use the public toilets.

I took a “soft sleeper” train from Shanghai to Beijing. The train was airconditioned and spotlessly clean. Inside each cabin were these toothbrush kits containing a folding brush, a sealed toothpaste tube good for two brushes, and a shrinkwrapped wad of something I couldn’t identify. Bubble gum? Soap? Mysterious.

When heading back towards the cabin, I discovered the smartly dressed female ticket inspector also broomed the toilets. Imagine that happening in India.

Later that day, I wrestled the shrinkwrap off the 2x2x0.75 cm wad to find something soft and white and styrofoam-like, except it kept expanding the more I pulled, eventually transforming into a rather generously sized fibre hand towel.

Information display in Shanghai underground metro, running Linux, attempting some sort of initialization, timing out, and returning to endless reboot loop. The message sequence went by too fast for me to catch the kernel version or distro information. All in Roman alphabet.

Umbrella rack at the Shanghai University hotel. Hang umbrella, lock and take key.