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Category Archives: Everything Else

How to use an apostrophe

26-Feb-10

Rules of using an apostrophe described using a flowchart. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe You can also buy it as a poster!

Extended warranties are not worth it

20-Jan-10

A device is statistically going to either break down within a year of it’s operation or would break down after an “extended” period of time. You are covered by the manufacturer’s warranty for the first year and extended warranties would not cover you over a very long period anyway. If you put these two facts [...]

Catastrophic insurance is not going to work

21-Oct-09

People do not have enough information to make health care choice. You cannot expect a person to shop around for a blood test lab or an MRI the same way a person shops for groceries. There is no dichotomy between catastrophic and other types of health conditions; one leads to the other, both for individuals, [...]

G1

22-Aug-09

Bought the G1 yesterday. The G1 is a HTC phone and it seems to me that it’s supposed to rival the iPhone. Not really used the iPhone but this phone is a beauty! The only problem is that the battery life sucks majorly and that’s where this comes in. I’ve ordered my piece and am [...]

Running as a limited user in Windows XP

11-Mar-09

Introduction I am writing this document to facilitate Windows users switching from running from an administrator account to a restricted user account. Most Windows users run as an administrator. Though this insures hassle free computing, it is not a secure practice to follow. This is because in case your computer gets infected with a piece [...]

The immersion of ashes

12-Sep-08

We set out this morning for immersing my grandmother’s ashes in the Ganges. We had to get to the river which was about a 2 hour drive. Before that though, we had to visit the crematorium to collect the ashes. Mind you, those are not ashes in the technical sense of the term. They are [...]

11-Sep-08

I made my first visit to a crematorium. No funeral dirge, no waling women since, in our community, they are not allowed to come for the cremation. We had elected to go with the electric crematorium. The crematorium is in a small tree lined complex. There is the traditional wood burning one and the electric [...]

More relatives and a glut of phone calls

11-Sep-08

So, people have begun streaming in. They are all sitting in the lobby talking in hushed tones. The phones have wrung almost every 12 minutes. Some callers are very persistant. How does one handle them nicely? I can smell a lot of incense so I guess things are ready for the next phase. The certificate [...]

Adrift in bereavement

11-Sep-08

My grandmother died this morning around 07:45. It was not sudden and everyone knew that this could happen. What is to be done now? Everyone is calm and mom is busy in arranging the body etc. Is there a point to all this? Perhaps the point is to be busy doing something so that the [...]

Laser lithotripsy

04-Sep-08

One of my relations is under going Laser lithotripsy as I write this post. The family is in a state of controlled panick even though this procedure is quite safe and is considered minimally invasive. As usual, it is only yours truely who has done some research on the whole thing. I should have done [...]

A box of spices

18-May-08

A sound scape of the box of spicesThis image shows a box of spices. There is one big box and every individual spice is kept in its own box. You will be able to sense the different circles belonging to different boxes.

Illustrated Story of Physics

13-May-08

a humorous illustrated narration of the  history of Physics.

Happy Holi!!

22-Mar-08

To all the desis out there… Happy Holi !!  My brother is not particularly fond of the Holi mess and sometimes the celebrations can turn rather nasty (what with people sailing on bhang and all that) but I love it and that’s one of the things that I miss living here in the US. Just [...]

Insanely cool graffiti

22-Mar-08

Had to post a pointer to this. While we are talking about graffiti, if you’ve not already seen it, check out this artist who goes by the pseudonym of Bansky here and here. His (her?) art is breathtakingly simple and carries an underlying idea most of the times.

vOICE in action: Wheel valves for the uninitiated and others

20-Mar-08

Wheel valves for the uninitiated A picture of pipes and veal valves on my terrace. These valves resemble miniature steering wheels. They are used to control the flow of water A overhead tanks to my house. A water tank and it’s associated down take pipes Sound scape of water tankThis image is of a water [...]

American election, desi fun!

19-Mar-08

Hehehe… vote for Amitabh Bachan for the Prime Minister of the US. It’s hilarious how he compares himself to Optimus. Also watch how they poke fun at both Elliot Spitzer (his sex scandal) and the Hillary Clinton (her 3 A.M ad) in the same sketch. Clever.

Holi rant

18-Mar-08

That festival is just around the corner again. Yes, I am talking about Holi. I appreciate the sense of community, the triumph over good and evil etc., but please, one water balloon is one too many and don’t spray water and or color on me without asking! Yes, I have played holi with gusto many [...]

Kilobyte

14-Mar-08

Over at xkcd, the kilobyte abbreviations sorted out. Fun stuff.

From There to Here

26-Feb-08

I was running this blog earlier at theemptyvessel.info. The other posters were my brothers Abhishek and Pranav. That domain name expired and I decided to change it. The banner is from my previous site. It’s still here because it was done by a friend of mine and I really love it. The site name has [...]

How Many Ways Can You Spell V1@gra?

19-Jun-07

First to break the recent drought posts, here’s an analysis of that scrouge of our times, the Viagra spam. via: Arts & Letters Daily