Lone Cypress
DSCN1193_edited.jpg, originally uploaded by g_c_mouli.
Beautifully picturesque, with a very comical sidenote to it.
There is a view point to view this on the 17 mile drive. Yet, the Pebble beach company says that this picture is a trademark of theirs, and they can control access to any commerical use to this. It is just laughable, that one should have a view point, and throngs of visitors photographing this, and the company making such a statement.
Lifehacker’s portable office
Gina Trapani, in a fantastic article in Macworld, gives a behind-the-scenes look on how the lifehacker team of editors work seamlessly, even though, they are so geographically dispersed. I think they have the framwork just right. A gist of the tools they use:
- Campfire for chat
- Gmail for email
- Gcalendar for calendaring
- Google Docs for collaboration
- Mediawiki for documentation
- Backpack for Project Management
- Del.icio.us for bookmarking
Read the full article here.
While at it, you should also look up The Lifehacker Editors’ Favorite Software and Hardware.
Door mats and brilliant skies …
First time — I am seeing doormats being sold by the kg!
Brilliant sky .. taken on the way back from work.
$11,000 coffee machine
Wow. The commentator on this WIRED TV video says that the $11000 is not probably the worth of the machine, but it is for the team of Stanford University Engineers handbuilding this thing ! Starbucks has already bought this company (ritual coffee). check the video out. The machine looks pretty cool (not at all like the crappy nuts-and-bolts type lab machine I was expecting to see).
Dilbert becomes an engineer – must watch video
As Narendra Shenoy (of Autobiography of an ordinary man) says — “must watch for engineers (humans can skip)”.
Marmayogi
Looks like Kamal’s next venture is going to be another historical story – Marmayogi. It is supposedly a story inspired by interesting historical incidents in the 7th Century. Music is by A.R. Rahman. And Kamal has apparently told ARR that he needs more songs than Dasavatharam.
Source: Rahmaniac blog
The great Bali cremation
[pic: Boston Globe : big picture blog]
NYTimes has a scoop on one of the most elaborate cremation rituals in the world. One of the royals in the small kingdom of Ubud in Bali, passed away recently, and was given a spectacular farewell. It seems that, two other royals, and about 60 commoners were also kept preserved for some time after they died, so that they can all be given a common cremation. In Balinese customs, it seems when you die, you can be temporarily buried or embalmed, but the soul leaves the body only when you cremate the person. And it seems if you get cremated with one of the royals, you have an assured prize of getting liberated. Wow.
Read the full NYTimes article here. [free registration required - but worth it!]
The big picture blog of the Boston Globe also has a spectacular set of pictures of the cremation. [link]
{ed: The NYTimes article is brilliantly written. A fine piece of writing indeed.}
How to buy presents … Derren Brown style!
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Came across this brilliant talk by Vijay, on how to hack your technical interview using NLP, hypnotism, etc. At the end of the talk, he said, check out Derren Brown in youtube. And I saw this video. Oh my God. That guy is amazing. Watch the full video – he explains his technique at the end of the video.
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