Here’s a simple python script to convert latitude, longitude to addresses. It depends on Google Map’s Reverse Coding API.
October 26, 2012
by shashi
0 comments
September 8, 2012
by shashi
0 comments
Probability of Certainties or The Karma Theory Redux
Life is uncertain! I had a quaint notion about certain cliches, including this one. But events in the recent past, have shown me that there are certainties even about uncertainties! This must be a good illustration of the Schrodinger’s Kitten theory.
Have you ever wondered why a seemingly simple task never gets completed? Or how does the Indian cricket team manage to lose from an highly advantageous position? Or why doesn’t the fish hook even after so many hours, at the most populated hole? Or how did your boss appear suddenly (when he was supposed to be off for the day) when you were in the middle of ogling that new comer at your office? Or how did the professor who evaluated your answer book miss that big block diagram that you’d drawn right in the center of the page?
Or why would a very healthy four month old baby suddenly die? of a rare condition that occurs only in a so small percentage of babies, that it is almost certain not to occur!
How do you get a statistically significant answer to these questions that could satisfy the probability of their certainties? Or would the traditional Karma theory provide a more plausible and easy to accept solution for questions about these uncertain events?
Though Karma is almost always spoken about in hindsight, its value is better realised by its futuristic application. Telling somebody that being kind, pleasant, disciplined in this life, shall ensure that you’ll be endowed with amazing things right from the beginning in the next birth — may actually result in his being all that.
Life is full of events – happy, sad, exciting, disappointing, etc. We tend to qualify each event based on our perception and training. Each qualification could be viewed through other spectrum and a different conclusion could be drawn. Again, tradition tells us to be the Stithaprajna — person with a steady mind — under all conditions.
To tackle Life’s (un)certainties, mathematical modelling does not help. It IS in-fact spirituality and tradition that does have solutions to such conundrums.
September 4, 2012
by shashi
11 Comments
GitHub for Windows through proxies
If you’re using GitHub for Windows in a corporate, chances are high that you’re behind a big bad Corporate Firewall/Proxy. GitHub for Windows doesn’t yet have the proxy parameters in its GUI for setting Options.
To configure GitHub for Windows to use your corporate proxy, edit the .gitconfig file typically found at C:\Users\<yourusername>\.gitconfig or C:\Documents & Settings\<yourusername>\.gitconfig
Close GitHub for Windows; In .gitconfig, just add
[http]
proxy = http://dumbproxy.yourcompany.com:8080
[https]
proxy = http://dumbproxy.yourcompany.com:8080
And speaking about dumb proxies, take a look at the category this proxy spews out as the reason for filtering it out 
August 29, 2012
by shashi
0 comments
On how companies lose it to their founders’ ego!
OnLive and OnMobile are entirely different companies in different domains, different geographical spreads, different sizes. But they have quite a few similarities as well. While the ”On” in their names is an obvious similarity, the stories of their misfortunes also strike an unfortunate likeliness.
OnMobile was founded by Arvind Rao who led it to tremendous heights as its CEO, before falling to his own success. OnLive was led by Steve Perlman who had quite an awesome pedigree before he founded the company. OnLive has been having its share of bad times of late.
More about OnMobile here, and about OnLive here.
August 27, 2012
by shashi
5 Comments
Please, Kindly Adjust
Twang! Twaang!! Twang! Twaang!! The brain went on an auto-pilot – ’4AM! It is the alarm! Hit the Dismiss button’. I use the expensive – relatively – android phone for almost everything including waking me up every day.
Today isn’t every day, though. Today is Monday. The day I travel from my home town to Bangalore, where I work. I had arrived at my home town, three days back. After putting in an extra 0.5kg to my already bulging pot belly – thanks to my mother’s extra helpings – I am ready to leave for the war zone in some time. I ran through the motions, got all dressed up and encountered the matroness at the door, by 5AM. My mother has a glass of hot milk and a satchel containing my breakfast ready by then – Sweet Mom!
My ticket for the 05:30AM train has been booked some days in advance. Just knowing I wouldn’t have to wait in queue or jostle for space makes me feel lazy … and happy. I leave home at 05:05AM and walk down the road, where I hope to meet a dozing auto-rickshaw-wallah, wake him up and ask him to drop me off at the Railway Station. Unfortunately, there seems to be no auto-rickshaws parked here today. A couple of auto-rickshaws that are on the road are already engaged. The time is already 05:15AM and my train leaves in fifteen minutes. Though it takes less than 10 minutes to reach the railway station from here (in clear early morning traffic), from where will I find the elusive auto-rickshaw? … or a bus!? Then, suddenly I see the headlights of what seems to be a bus coming down the road. As my luck would have it, it is a city bus and most buses do go via the railway station. So nice!
But, the bus stops at the designated bus stop down the road and the next bus stop is still some distance away from my current position. I couldn’t possibly run that distance and catch it at the bus stop – no, really! These days, buses have been very strict in stopping only at designated bus stops, opening and closing the doors only after stopping, being on time, etc which are infact good things.
I frantically wave my hand – right in the middle of the road – signalling the driver to stop and open the door. The driver stops and does open the door. I get into the bus. Hand over a Ten Rupees note to the conductor and ask him for a ticket upto the railway station. The conductor hands me change of Six Rupees and walks away.
I ask him for the ticket. He simply says “You’re getting down in a few minutes. Why do you want a ticket? Leave it”.
Should I have got into a fight (and risk missing the train, starting the week on a jumpy note) with him over the ticket, the non-issual of which was actually corruption?
Should the driver have stopped for me in the middle of the road, which was in-a-way, out-of-the-way favor for me?
Unfortunately, I do not have any answers.
Please, Kindly Adjust!
July 1, 2012
by shashi
1 Comment
Whither Social? Whither Cloud?
The last few days have seen quite a few events that give rise to skepticism about the Cloud and the Social Websites.
- Linkedn says display of tweets in user’s profile no longer possible due to a limitation imposed by Twitter - http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-linkedin-partnership-2012-6
- The supposedly all pervasive and ubiquitous AWS cloud got punctured taking down Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram and many other services down with it. http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/30/there-goes-the-weekend-pinterest-instagram-and-netflix-down-due-to-aws-outage/
- Facebook in an attempt to push its email usage screwed up their implementation and in the process got its users annoyed and frustrated. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57464415-93/facebook-e-mail-mess-address-books-altered-e-mail-lost/
Now, these social networks and services do not work in isolation like the Yahoo, Aols of the yesteryears. There are a lot of startups, companies, other services who have based their critical infrastructure on these services whether paid or unpaid.
The lesson that is obvious from these repeatedly occurring natural or forced disruptions is that their users need to maintain a certain amount of healthy skepticism and also should keep looking beyond these services.
May 13, 2012
by shashi
0 comments
Scott Adams on Venture Capital and the Neo Rich
Scott Adams’ satirical take on the new rich kids becoming venture capitalists.
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/venture_capital/
I came up with the Ego Theory of Venture Capital while reading through a list of startups that recently got funded. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t see anything in the bunch that looked like a potential winner. Ego has to be behind much of the funding because economics wouldn’t explain such weak investments, even under a venture capital model. Historically, a venture investor hoped to succeed 10% of the time. Now I’m seeing startups that seem, at least to my non-expert eyes – to have something like a 1% chance of success.
The punch!
Now we have this absurd situation in which society is complaining that the rich have too much money at the same time the rich are begging the poor to take their money. The only condition the wealthy put on the transfer of money is that the poor need to put together some PowerPoint presentations that use the words “social” and “cloud.” Is that too much to ask?
Finally …
If you think the rich have too much money, stop complaining and do something about it: Start your own Internet company and go get some venture capital funding.
January 21, 2012
by shashi
0 comments
In defence of Y-Combinator’s `declaration of war against Hollywood’
The `Kill Hollywood’ call if put in the right perspective, is more of a call to ‘Disrupt Hollywood Model of Business’ than killing the entire industry altogether.
October 22, 2011
by shashi
0 comments
Zimbra – Add newly added email accounts to an all-hands distribution list
Zimbra, by default does not provide any trigger or tool to add newly added email accounts to an all-hands distribution list.
I wrote a small shell script to achieve the same. Modify suitably and add it to your crontab.
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October 12, 2011
by shashi
1 Comment
… and fustrations unto thee!
Continue with caution. Guaranteed to frustrate you no end!
Some years back while still in school, we were made to recite Swami Sivananda’s Universal Prayer every Saturday morning. The lines
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