ootunes is slick!

Last week, with Christmas around the corner, we missed good ol' KOIT from the Bay area. They are on the web but I wondered if there was a better way to listen. A little time on Google and I found ooTunes for the iPhone! This app will let you listen to internet radio streams on your iPhone.
The reviews were so overwhelmingly positive, that I wondered if something was fishy. Anyway I bit the bait and bought the $5 app and I can report that it works great. Every single station I wanted to listen to was already in the ooTunes db. So now with just a few taps I can listen to CapitalFM (from London), the BBC World service, KOIT or KFOG anytime.

Gotta love the age we live in :)

Woohoo! Avocados!

Avocado in Bangalore
Originally uploaded by Jillako

Never been happier to see Avocados. Over the last many years Avocados have become an integral part of our diet. It was one of the foods that we thought we'll have to live without when in Bangalore.
Little did we know that Avocados are widely available all over the place by the name of "butter fruit". After some initial confusion, I purchased one hoping that butter fruit = avocado. Sure enough, it is 100% avocado!
They're huge, even bigger than the ones in Costco, must be a local variety of some sort. The pit (seed) is huge too.
Alright, I'm off to make myself an avocado cucumber sandwich!

Clothes dryer vs. Maid

We're getting our new home ready for occupation and here's an interesting dilemma - There are hardly any clothes dryers available here. Our landlord who left his clothes washer behind didn't use a dryer (just like everyone else). So how do folks dry their clothes? They hang it out to dry of course. This is fine for families with one working member and another taking care of the household chores during the day but for a family such as ours with both adults working, we'll need a maid to operate the clothes washer since it will have to be done during the day. We hadn't thought of a maid as a necessity for our home just yet but we'll have to make the definitive call soon.

The economics go like this - a dryer costs about Rs. 17000 to purchase, plus you need the space. If you were to employ a maid, you would (from what I've learned) pay the person an extra Rs. 300 a month to run the washer and put your clothes out to dry. Factoring in the small size of the washing machine we have at home, washing is going to be a daily chore and if we were to use a dryer, we'll likely pay that Rs. 300 to the Electricity Board anyway, so why not just add another task for that ubiquitous maid?

The one (big) plus to having a dryer is that you can run multiple loads the same day when required without having to worry about running out of clothesline. Decisions, decisions! Hmm..

A new beginning

Things have been busy of late and I've neglected the blog. I hope to start posting regularly soon though, now that the kids have settled in their daycare/preschool schedules.
We have moved back to India for the next few years. The opportunity came along and we've taken it. Bangalore is our new home. We've been here two weeks and some days already, slowly settling in.
We're looking at India in a new light, not as visitors but as residents and that too in a new city. Things are going along reasonably well, I'll have more details in future posts.

Ozzies Slummin' it in Delhi

And they are really slumming!
Titled A real riches to rags story, this piece was published in February but I just came across it.
13 years!! It's hard for me to imagine the motivation to stay, but to each their own I guess.

Clean Water for the World (Matt Damon)

If you're in the US, you can help by signing this petition.

Coldplay Puppets!

I do like this song off Coldplay's last album, but I only just came across the video. Coldplay puppets performing "Life In Technicolor" live? Oh yeah, you better believe it. Love it! 15 years ago this would've been on the MTV Top 20 countdown for weeks!

Cool ad for the new Olympus E-P1

New Intel Ad

LOL! :)

A.R.Rahman on Ciara's Album!

Sending a quick note to the blog because I heard A.R.Rahman's music on Ciara's latest CD! 

On her new album, Fantasy Ride, Ciara has a song "Turntables" featuring Chris Brown. The song has a not insignificant sample from A.R.Rahman's Bombay - the song "Kehna Hi Kya" (the Hindi version of "Kannalane").

Check it out if you get a chance. I suspect this is just the beginning .. 

Btw, I'm heading to Seattle-Vancouver for the weekend. Should be good, spending time with old school friends. 

New Honda Insight Ad

I remember a few months ago there was an iPod touch ad on Yahoo that had portions of the Yahoo home page (outside the video boundary) moving in sync with the ad. It was a first and it was interesting. Now, here's the new Honda Insight ad on Vimeo that takes it to the next level.

http://vimeo.com/4281939

Click on that one to see what I mean. The ad itself is quite interesting too.

Highlight of today: UP Steam Locomotive 844

We took some time out of our normal day today to watch Union Pacific's Steam Locomotive 844 a.k.a "Living Legend" as it made its way through the Niles Canyon on its Western Heritage Tour.

Anjali loves trains and I didn't want to pass on the opportunity to show her a real steam locomotive in action. Plus, it was going to be not far from our home (a couple of miles away). The train did not disappoint. The locomotive itself was imposing and awesome; I also loved the gleaming yellow cars that were so inviting. I only managed a grainy video on my cellphone. Here's a video of the 844 I found elsewhere.

Where did the "GPS bundle for PSP" go? *

Sony has long been teasing us folks in the USA with news of this GPS addon for the PSP. It looked like a product was actually close to release last year. See Gizmodo's report for screenshots and details.

However, it has now been 11 months since that report with nary a word from Sony about this addon. The silence about significant PSP news and the rumours in the market about a PSP successor make me think that Sony is indeed about to release a UMD-less PSP console this year. It would be typical Sony to focus all their efforts on a new product and ignore the millions of PSP owners out there today. As the owner of two PSPs, I sure hope this is not the case!

* Title written in Anjali-speak!

This Scarpar board-thing looks fun!

Electric too! Check them at scarpar.com

This will be my hybrid vehicle of choice!

I've been talking about this to pretty much everyone around me but haven't blogged about it yet.


I like the Piaggio MP3 and I think when the hybrid version comes out later this year I'd really like to make it my primary commute vehicle. I have a Google News alert set up but no one seems to have any on-road tests yet..

PopSci has some good things to say about the hybrid MP3 today.

That 140 mpg fuel efficiency has me drooling :)

Remix of Jai Ho

And the western pop commercialization of A.R.Rahman's music begins..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7AyQpsukM

Personally, I think Rahman would've done better to let someone in Europe mix this one!

10 questions for A.R.Rahman

A.R.Rahman is the subject of Time Magazine's 10 Questions feature.
See video here.

Towards an electric future for our cars

Gasoline may have brought about the automobile revolution but there is no reason in this day and age for our autos to be held hostage by gasoline, its whims and its byproducts.
Just as a battery in my notebook computer helps me use my computer anywhere I can charge it, a battery in my car will let me decide where and when I should charge it. Just like I can replace the battery in my notebook with a higher capacity one, I want to extend the life of my car when a better battery is available.

Thanks to a company called Better Place, this vision is now more closer to reality than ever before. I am very excited that they are coming to the Bay Area and that they are rapidly gaining momentum. I don't have the time to explain their business plan and vision in this post but I highly encourage you to visit their website. Watch out for these guys, they are onto something huge!


Find more videos like this on Planet Better Place

Crazy sheep herders!

what the!?!?! (tx Cuteoverload.com)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Originally uploaded by Jillako

Hope you had a nice and green day today!
Spring is in the air and we still have sunlight at 7 pm, the outdoor season is here and lots of fun activities abound.

Excellent music video

"Her morning elegance" by Oren Lavie. The song is pretty good too!



Boy, sure makes me miss my school years when MTV was all about music videos. I hardly see any interesting music videos these days.

iPhoto recognizes Clark Kent!

LOL! :)

Google's InternetBus hits the road in TN

Google is sending a bus loaded with computers and internet access to small town Tamil Nadu. Apparently, they picked TN because of the high level of interest in the Internet among the Tamil-speaking folks. Here's a picture of the bus.



I am curious in what their experience will turn out to be, therefore I intend to visit their website and check on their progress through this month. Already the InternetBus has departed Chennai for Vellore!

Check progress here.

Learn something new every day

To learn something new everyday, apparently all you have to do is keep watching YouTube! Kidding! Anyhow, I learnt about WingSuits today..

SNL Presidential Montage

Remembering Campaign 2008 and the presidential inauguration, here's something that had me in laughs



Yes, I know that Hulu videos don't fit well in my blog, I need to work on that.

Where will you watch Obama's Inauguration?

I'll be attending to some fan maintenance at my rental property after an early morning teleconference at work. :(

However, you may be able to watch it live. Hulu is broadcasting it live over the Internet!

Lessons in wiring your speakers

* Always buy more speaker wire than you calculate.
* Always start with the furthest speaker first.

I didn't do either and learnt the hard way! Oh well, I don't think I'll forget these next time.

Wired up the new speakers I got over the holidays. I'll try to upload a picture soon.

Happy Pongal ...and Happy Tamil Year?

Happy Pongal everyone! It is impossible for me to describe the awesome festival that is Pongal in concise terms but let me just say that it is awesome like Deepavali/Diwali minus the fireworks, plus cows, bigger kolam and sugarcane!

Anyway, I was surprised to find out that today is also the new Tamil New Year's day! If you are as confounded as I was, I suggest you read up, because apparently this was last year's news.

So who decides when the Tamil New Year starts? Apparently, it is the Tamil Nadu government! I can't fathom the logic behind this and it feels like some western government making October the start of the year. Aren't there Tamils in other countries as well - like Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka? Do they switch their calendars as well because the government that governs the Tamil majority decided to change the Tamil calendar?

Excuse me while I make sense of this madness...