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Thaths
17 May 2008 @ 09:16 pm
Sourdough bread of several shapes  

Sourdough bread of several shapes
Originally uploaded by thaths.

I baked some yummy sourdough bread today. This is my second serious
attempt at baking. The last attempt was last weekend and a disaster. I
tried combining two recipies and the loaves ended up balooning into a
giant blancmange shape mid way through the baking. Panicked, I took
the loaves out and in 15 minutes they deflated like the Presidential
campaign of Rudy Guiliani after Super Tuesday.

This time around I used only the recipe from the classic Beard on Bread.

Sourdough bread requires something called a starter. A starter is a
culture of flour, water, yeast and microorganisms from the air. The
sour in the name refers to the practice of souring the entire mixture
over days and days. San Francisco is world renowned for its sourdough
bread. Something about the microorganisms in this part of the world
makes for superb tasting bread. This starter is religiously fed
nutrients (floir and water) often and kept alive. There are bakeries
in the area whose starter is over a hundred years old.

I got my starter from the Off The Grid cafe. It is my favorite cafe at
work and I am friends with the staff there. The pastry chef bakes the
best bread and pastries.

I baked a couple of baguettes, a boule and a normal shaped loaf. I am
visiting some good friends tomorrow. I plan to bring my friends a
couple of loaves and sage, rosemary and mint from my garden.

 
 
Thaths
16 May 2008 @ 04:53 pm
Duck, and cover  

Duck, and cover
Originally uploaded by thaths.



Some time ago I blogged about the emergency procedures at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Many of you asked me what was inside the emergency procedures booklet. I felt like a dolt for not having the good sense to look.

I went back to the scene of my shame and took this photo. These are the instructions for what to do in case of a nuclear attack.

UT, Austin had its share of cold war paraphernalia including bomb shelters under every major building. However I did not expect this at UCSC. The campus was built in the 70's when the cold war was less frigid, and being fought in the warmer climes of SE Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.The biggest threat in those days was from protesting students. The design of the UCSC campus reflects the concerns about this threat. The buildings are spread out to prevent the unwashed hippie peaceniks from massing in one place.
 
 
Thaths
14 May 2008 @ 09:29 am
Three Nerdly Projects for the Summer  
Helping [info]verybrightred with electronics lab and visiting Maker Faire a couple of weekends ago has inpired me to get back into building things with my hands.

I am thinking of working on three projects that involve making stuff:


  • Ant Farm macro photography: A colleague at work has tried this before and the his macro photos of ants are inspiring. I bought a 105mm Sigma macro lens earlier this year that should be handy for this.


  • A laser tracking Inchworm: At this year's maker faire I was purchased the Mechamo Inchworm Kit. It is a radio controlled contraption that you build yourself with parts from the kit. There are a few videos on You Tube of the Inchworm in action. The kit is superbly made. This is no 'play once and then throw into the attic to come out years later for the garage sale' kind of toy. I intend to get rid of the RC control and make my inchworm move around autonomously following a laser pointer. I will be using an Arduino - an open source microctroller to be the brains of the inchworm.


  • Aerial photography/video: As I blogged before, I love flying kites. I also came across (thanks to my friend Mikal) cheap disposable digital still / video cameras that can be hacked into reusable ones. I want to marry a cheap camera to my kite and take aerial photos / videos. I am thinking of the Google campus, Vasona park and Alcatraz as potential locations for the shoot.



So, what do you plan to do this summer that is fun and nerdly?
 
 
Thaths
23 April 2008 @ 04:21 pm
In case of nuclear explosion please turn to page...  

In case of nuclear explosion please turn to page...
Originally uploaded by thaths.

The emergency procedures at UC Santa Cruz.

 
 
Thaths
17 April 2008 @ 10:36 am
Dumbledore  
Albus Dumbledore, Googler
Dumbledore
Originally uploaded by thaths.

 
 
Thaths
07 April 2008 @ 01:43 pm
Preparation for the Political Season  
Preparing for the upcoming elections (and a little late for the heated primaries this year) I have started listening to this nice UC Berkeley podcast: PoliSci 106A American Politics: Campaign Strategy - Media.


Political Science 106A - Spring 2008 - An inside look at how political campaigns operate from the viewpoint of the media, taught by the people who run them. Class material will be directed towards students who are interested in direct involvement in campaign politics or who are looking for a greater understanding of the political process. Students will be required to develop a complete written campaign strategy document in order to fulfill class requirements. Students will be expected to follow political and campaign news via the media and be prepared to discuss those developments in class.
 
 
Thaths
14 March 2008 @ 07:17 pm
A Happy pi day (3/14) to you  


Mmmm.... Pi....
 
 
Thaths
12 March 2008 @ 07:25 pm
Some sobering thoughts on rural India and the ITES industry  
Borrowing numbers from Edward Luce's book:

7.5% of India's labor force is employed in the formal economy. About 35 million people out of a pool of 470 million. Of this, 21 million (4.5% of the total labor force) are direct employees of the government. The remaining 14 million (3% of the total work force) works in the private organized sector. Of this, 1 million (less than 0.25% of the total labor force) are employed in IT, software , back office processing and call centers. Even assuming that the IT/BPO/Call center jobs grew ten times (i.e, 0.25 to 2.5, a very ambitious assumption), it will employ 10 million of a labor pool of 470 million. Assuming there is a trickle down
effect to a further 10 million, that gives us 20 million our of 470 million.

Scary. Luce's argument is that India needs a wider base of employment at the bottom of the pyramid. And labor heavy industries like manufacturing can provide than better than non-labor heavy industries like ITES.
 
 
Thaths
21 February 2008 @ 10:02 am
Trends: Lunar Eclipse  
Google Trends for the search term 'lunar eclipse'

Interesting. Spikes 'B', 'E' and 'F' correspond to total lunar eclipses. Partial eclipses seem to be of less interest to people. I wonder what the perturbations between 'B' and 'C' and 'C' and 'D' are.

Homework: How do solar eclipses fare?
 
 
Thaths
06 February 2008 @ 06:23 pm
hitlr.jpg  

hitlr.jpg
Originally uploaded by thaths.

For reasons unknown to me, indians are fascinated with Hitler. His talk of Aryan supremacy (Many Indians are descendents of a proto-indo-iranian ethno-linguistic group - called aryans -that migrated into the indian sub-continent centuries ago), his rants, the indian hindu right wing's ancestory in 1930's fascism, subhash chandra bose's links to nazi germany... All seem to resonate with a certain sub-section of indians.
One usually finds copies of Mein Kampf sold from pavement pirated book vendors. This large selection of books by or on Hitler i came across in Landmark - possibly the best bookstore in Chennai.
Not to excuse this indian quirk, but i think most people that buy there books do so to exercise their fascination with the authoritarian rather than their reading habit. These books are read far less often than they are purchased.

 
 
Thaths
05 February 2008 @ 09:29 am
Friend me on Goodreads  
If any of you are on Good Reads, friend me. I am registered as thaths at gmail.
 
 
Thaths
04 February 2008 @ 03:39 pm
Photos from my Christmas trip to Yosemite  
My first to Yosemite in winter was in early 2001. It was so beautiful that I pledged to myself that I will visit this magical place in winter again. Last Christmas (Dec 2007) I finally managed to return to a snow-covered Yosemite valley for 5 days over Christmas. Here are some photos from my trip:

 
 
Thaths
07 November 2007 @ 06:43 pm
Nixon.jpg  

Nixon.jpg
Originally uploaded by thaths.

I went to the Halloween party at work this year dressed as Richard Nixon's head (from Futurama). I went around flashing the two-fisted Victory sign and mouthing "I am not a crook's head". Not many people got my costume. However, i am happy to report that everyone in my group had a long discussion filled with quotes from the cartoon. One was even able to quote lines from Morbo the news monster. I love working with these nerds.

 
 
Thaths
06 October 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Uploaded SE Asia photographs  
In late 2001 I was turning 30 and freaking out about becoming old and not yet knowing what It was all about. I backpacked through Southeast Asia. This proved to provide much needed direction to my life. I was finally able to walk through some of the places I had always wanted to visit. I trod the sin-ridden streets of Bangkok, crawled through Viet Cong tunnels, gingerly tip-toed my way through part of the UXO-filled Ho Chi Minh trail, watched the sun rise behind Ankor Wat, ate sweet rice cooked in bamboo tubes from street-side stalls, wept upon seeing the signs of genocide, read the Lord of the Rings for the first time and learned the history of the countries I traveled through.

I took with me my Canon Rebel 2000 camera and dozens of rolls of Kodak Royal Gold stock in a lead-lined pouch. I took hundreds of photos. They have mostly been languishing in a shoebox till now. I finally scanned the negatives, tagged them and uploaded them to Flickr collection. Share and enjoy.

 
 
Thaths
14 September 2007 @ 09:07 pm
Crappy photos of my garden  
Some weeks ago I had posted some photos of artfully arranged produce from my garden. A few of you had asked me for photos of my garden. My last day at my old place (I have now moved to a new house in the same town) I hastily went around the house photographing my garden. Unfortunately, most of the wider angle photos came out out of focus.

I have uploaded the acceptably quality photos to my Garden set on flickr. I am sorry for the crappy quality of these photos. None of these really gives you a sense of the size of the garden or how it is laid around the house.
 
 
Thaths
26 August 2007 @ 10:28 am
This year's cornucopia  
I have not bought any vegetables from the market for over a month now. I have also shared the bounty of my garden with friends and neighbors and still my refrigerator's vegetable drawer floweth over.

Look at a sampling of the produce my garden made this year and tremble before the awesome organic gardening power of farmer [info]thaths.

 
 
Thaths
04 August 2007 @ 11:01 am
My weekend plans  
I am spending this weekend over in SciFoo camp. It is so exciting to listen to the likes of Freeman Dyson, Neal Stephenson and James "The Amazing" Randi. Really exciting.
 
 
Thaths
07 July 2007 @ 03:23 pm
Tomato.jpg  

Tomato.jpg
Originally uploaded by thaths.

I spent most of today morning puttering in my garden. I am really happy about how the garden is turning out this year.

I made a couple of changes in the garden this year. i planted the seeds in small rectangular plastic pots in the front of the house along the driveway, as opposed to planting them on the ground in the backward as i did last year. The direct sunlight on the plants during the day is doing wonders. I am also regularly using an organic fertilizer (yes! There is such a thing. It is a mixture of chicken bones, bird shit and compost).

There are luscious tomatos, royal purple eggplants (aubergine), italian and thai basil (which i chop into tiny pieces using a food processor and freeze into icecubes adding a litte water so that i can use it all through the year), sunflowers, okra, beans, bell peppers, chili peppers and marigold. I also have a watermelon vine, a couple of lemon trees and a guava tree. But i dont have very much hope of them bearing fruits this year.

 
 
Thaths
06 July 2007 @ 07:14 am
Donuts.jpg  

Donuts.jpg
Originally uploaded by thaths.

Mmmm sprinkles!

A gimmicky promotion that 20th Century Fox is doing ahead of their release of The Simpsons movie due later this month is a tie-in with the 7-11 chain of convenience stores. They have chosen 11 stores in the US (and one in Canada) and redone them completely as Kwik-e-marts. The store fronts are painted in the Simpsons colors. The staff all year green vests like Apu. And they sell items like Krurty-O's cereal, Buzz cola and donuts with pink frosting (with sprinkles). They have even re-dubbed their slushee to 'squishee'. Sadly, they dont sell Duff beer.

One of these 11 stores is in mountain view - walking distance from where i work.On tuesday my team and i walked to the store to check it out. This must be the most brilliant product tie-in ever. The store was selling out their Simpsons stock faster than the could unpack the boxes. The location of the store is sheer marketing genius. It is in the middle of the geekiest place in the world - equidistance from the google and microsoft (bay area) campus and a gnat's crochet from the computer history museum and a theatre where they are going to be playing the movie.

Over the last few days there have even been lines to get into this store. They must have tripled or quadrupled their sales. Easily.

 
 
Thaths
04 July 2007 @ 08:08 am
Alan Johnston released  
Huzzah! The BBC's Alan Johnston has been released. I've been a fan of his reporting for a long time. I was becoming increasingly worried when his disappearance seemed to drag on and on.