Sunday, February 27, 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

Time to Disco

Just got news on another paper acceptance, which takes this week's up to three -- Two papers in GPC 2011, and one in Policy 2011. I figured it's time for some music :).

Speaking of that, here is a playlist (following the success of my item-song playlist earlier) of Bollywood Disco Songs.

For inclusion, the conditions are:
  • The song should be in a Bollywood-produced movie [no Hollywood, Kollywood, or any other]
  • The song should not be a remix
  • The word "disco" should be in the title [on in the main chorus] of the song.

So here is the playlist [also at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DE29FABDE56E1EDE ]



As always, suggestions from you will be most appreciated :).

cheers,
-A

Monday, February 14, 2011

Love - Thirty

[I'll be turning 30 in less than three weeks, and since I am currently single, I figured the title of the post was apt :).]

Happy support-local-card-and-chocolate-industry day Y'all!

Hope you all have stuff planned on this wonderful Monday evening. As for me, I am going to a movie+dinner V-day non-date with not one, but two wonderful ladies - for a ménage a Tron, that is :).

Moving on, here are some links for you on this special day:

1. The usual Indian Hindu right-wing propaganda against V-day, and my rebuttal.

2. A cute service by the city of Paris -- free V-day message on city billboards [hat tip: KSam]

3. Some wonderful V-day toons from Savage Chickens -- I especially love the Zombie one.

And finally, some videos. The first is a pro-love con-love classic from Trishool.


And the second is a multi-lingual ballad from Khuddar, which was on TV this Saturday.


So, what are _you_ up to today?

Love,
-A

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Help Needed in Branding New Project

Hi all,

We [me + some very smart folks] are working on a new idea, of a software platform which will be open source, and will allow people/groups to perform common tasks (discussed below).

Where you come in
We are looking for a name, and I would greatly appreciate suggestions from you. The idea is that the name will be of the software which can then be used by various sites (something like "powered by $name$ v2.1"). It is OK to suggest nouns/adjectives etc, even in non-english languages (e.g., Ubuntu), or mythological characters, as long as there is a connection between the name and the ideas we want to project. Without divulging too much, here are the key words/concepts that we want to portray:
  • Tracking, but not of a virtual/coding activity like bugs or issues, but or real world stuff (e.g, tracking the progress of how much a cake has baked so far)
  • Accountability, transparency
  • We are looking for something with a positive connotation (e.g., progress), as opposed to negative one (e.g., supervision, watchdog, etc.)
  • Involvement, participation
  • The name should not be about "what" is being tracked/monitored, but the act itself.

The Reward
Well, in addition to my heartfelt gratitude to all those who send in their suggestions, the person who provides the selected suggestion will get his/her name and website prominently displayed on the "credits" page of the project website. :)

Thanks a lot in advance.

cheers,
-A
P.S. Anyone in LA on March 5th (Saturday)? Come celebrate my 30th birthday with me on the beach, with Holi colors :). Details coming soon.