kvrlogs

I love Tim Ferris and his hacks. [  4 Hour Work Week  ]  In Tools of Titans he has put together a bunch of show notes from his podcast interviews. Very shoddy and all mixed up and very difficult to read because of the links he has provided all over the place [ How am I supposed to watch a YouTube video on Kindle? ]. This style might not be digestible for some. Other than this little downside on the messy format - each and every chapter has some good take away or the other. Each of the celebrities [ from Startup, Tech, Media... name anything ]  have a few habits which has made them successful and they have shared it in this book. This book is like a Gold mine. Lot of actionable items.  Ok - here are some of the key take aways I am making it part of my daily routine.  1. Cold Showers. After an intense workout, the athletes sweat it out in a  Steam Sauna, then they immediately plunge themselves into a bathtub filled with ice blocks. These are what an...

Yesterday I went for a demo. An elderly gentleman - Vice President of this Society asked me - why should I pay recurring and not one time. Just give me your software we will put it in this computer - showed me an old computer with a CRT monitor - and we are good. It has been a while I had answered this question - "a while" being - might be 2 or 3 years. I take it for granted nowadays that Online Software as a Service ( SaaS ) is the way to go. Here are the Online Services I use - on a monthly / yearly basis . Personal 1. Apple Music - Rs.190 per month - for an infinite supply of songs. 2. Amazon Prime Subscription - Rs.499 per year ( introductory I believe - will be Rs.999 later ) 3. www.the-ken.com - Rs. 2,750 per year - for well researched Indian startup news 5 times a week. 4. Art of living app - Rs.60 per month. For the Pranayama count mainly. 5. Apple 200GB Storage - Rs.140 per month 6. Magzter - Top Gear - Rs.670 per year, Readers Digest - Rs.370 7...

Of the various hats I have worn all these years - founder, Sales guy, Deployment Specialist, Level 1 and Level 2 Support, DevOps, Cheque depositor - I have come to realize I was a Product Manager all along - right from the get go. Putting a label on what you do is extremely important. It helps you define the job you do, appreciate it, read more on it and helps you improve on that particular skill. If you are the guy/girl in charge of making the Product among the Founding Team - you are the Product Manager. Say it out aloud - " I am the Product Manager" . The fate of your entire Startup lies in your decisions. All other designations - CEO, CTO, Director, Co-Founder all are important - for the outside world and your team-mates - but nothing is as critical as the “Product Manager” hat you are wearing now. Strap the Product Manager Hat tight. When I gave Sales demo - I was not trying to get a Cheque out of the customer. I was listening to their pain points, and my mind was fran...

Dear PETA Good job on creating a mass movement and uniting a fractured Tamil Kingdom ruled between a Dynasty and bunch of Film Stars. Thank you - no one could have accomplished what you just did. I am not going into the merits of Jallikattu or demerits - but given the clout you posses - here are my humble requirements - so you will get your priorities right. Poultry and Cattle Transfer I wait on my bike in a traffic signal with the hot sun and exhaust fumes everywhere, sweat drips  from the helmet harness on to the petrol tank and as I watch it evaporate - I hear a few bird sounds nearby.. turn to my left and see these white chicken all squeezed tightly - suffocating under the same sun and exhaust fumes - luckily their trip is only a few hours before they turn into a tandoori platter. However, PETA - this is plain wrong. The poor souls deserve a decent journey the last few hours of their life. Please get Supreme Court to pass an order to transport these poor...

My first blog post of every new year is on the books I crunched in the past 1 year. Here is the list for previous years - 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 , 2014 and 2015 . For 2016 I had a target of 52 ( 1 per week ). Science Fiction Adventure stories on present earth life is boring. Drama is boring. Romance on Earth is boring. Only Science Fiction keeps me interested - it has all and much more. 1. Dark Forest by Cixin Liu Remember Stephen Hawking? Recently he gave an interview in which he said something ominous - if Aliens contact us please do not respond - this book gives the why. This is the 2nd part of the trilogy written by Chinese Author. Compared to first part it was a bit dull, and the story meanders through various attempts Humans make to fight with the advanced Alien species - through our primitive technologies. Towards the end the story unravels beautifully. 2. The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood is a much acclaimed author who is good at painting Dystopian world...

What was it 2008? When the unwashed masses were still in Orkut, I got an invite for a site called Facebook. First look - thought Facebook was like Flickr - for sharing Photos. It had a weird kind of magic that kept me hooked. Then I got tied to Twitter. Then bought my first smartphone - Samsung Galaxy S - and used a horrible app to access Facebook ( no it was not built by Facebook ). Later FB built its own hybrid app - on Phonegap which sucked - after which they released a native app which was damn slick. Later I moved to iPhone ecosystem - FB and Twitter were my constant companions on my first screen. Now, after almost 8 years - I have logged out - for good. In the new phone, I have not installed FB or Twitter. Why? I arrived at a conculsion by myself - that SM - Social Media is no good. For a developer SM is a huge time sink and also has stolen the ability for thinking deep and hard. I tried getting my head around Angular 2 - and found I was not being able to concentrate like usual....

I am a gamer who had lost his way. 6 years back I had logged out of TV and logged into FB, Twitter. Kept liking and sharing and tweeting the past 6 years or so. All this time I had not completed any game - other than the occasional try outs of Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga, Temple Run. Monument Valley is an exception - the first game I purchased and played to the end after reading rave reviews of this game. It has been a month or more - since I logged out of Social Media. It was giving too much BP with zero action or outcome.  And to occupy the new found free time - gaming moves in. Idle brain is a devils worskshop you see. I started on Lara Croft Go game - a 60 Rs. Download from App Store, and promptly got stuck at 3rd level or so - dont remember exactly. The game nudged me to buy a puzzle opener for Rs.160 - but I did not. Persisted and after lot of trial and errors cracked that level. Then when I completed all the levels, they opened up one more level - I was both happy and angr...

Hi venkat2 - long time! I am on a social media detox diet - has been a week since I bothered logging into Facebook or Twitter. I rely on good old newspaper for news and ask people around me what is going on in the world. And during this week I realised - how the art of blogging is dead. Couple of weeks back I was researching on a trip to Pondicherry - and all travelogues were from 2013 or before. No one is blogging their experience any more - which is sad. People are sharing on their Facebook page - that too just the photos - and get likes and the posts are lost. And the world cannot see it - this is lost for ever. I can go to Team BHP or the thousand travel sites - but nothing can beat reading a blog post - no pesky ads or distractions - just the author and me. Back to the topic - so I have made a resolution to revive my blogging. While my personal blog is still active ( http://kvrlogs.blogspot.in ) - this blog has been dormant for quite a while. Not any more - will be writing on my 2...

Well thats my mind right now! Have deviated from the path the last few months - inspite of knowing the beautiful serene feeling I could be enjoying now - my mind is agitated and is all over the place, plotting many an evil plot, vengeful, hurt - messy. My mind is similar to the parable of the boiling frog. It does not know it is slowly sinking into a mess and does not jump out. Time to jump out of this rut. Here is my interview of my mind. Are you happy? Nope.  Why you are not happy? I don't know. Are you happy at work and home? Yes absolutely. At work - did I tell you I work on 2 large monitors now - one of the developers is on a long vacation and I have borrowed his. The apps are coming out good and some of the complex things we were doing all have been stabilised.  At home - have a beautiful dog to cuddle anytime I want.  P got into a bout of sickness + injury - and is back to his usual self. Also had procured Kindle - and have an unlimited ...

Today while running I was listening to a Chinese Science Fiction ( The Dark Forest ), translated to English, and recorded as an Audio book in a Studio in some corner of the world, that I downloaded from  Audible over airwaves using Cellular 4G - from a server in US or Singapore - to my iPhone. And as I listened through my head phones, almost at the exact quality it was recorded, the phone was tracking my run with the help of  Geo Synchronous Satellites far up in the sky orbiting earth - I was wondering - man how lucky I am. This is like living in a Future I couldn't have imagined 30 years back. Humans have progressed from Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Medieval, Industrial to the current Information Age. I can't place if we are in the middle or just at the threshold of Information Era. We were slowly cruising in the Information Age - from Mainframes to Laptops to mobile phones and having incremental improvements in every field. Out of the blue, Steve Jobs, went a...

This is my translation of Avalum Naanum by Madhan Karky for the movie Acham Yenbathu Madamaiyada. Yet another masterpiece by AR Rahman - the music goes to the background letting the  lyrics shine. The movie name means - Fear is foolishness a phrase from a famous old tamil song by Kannadasan. The director of this movie - Gautam Menon, a Malayalee, names all his movie names with beautiful tamil phrases - and hard to pronounce too at times! Vinnaithaani Varuvaaya ( Will you cross the sky to come to me ) Vaaranam Aaiyram ( 1000 Elephants ) Veetaiyaadu Vilayaadu ( Hunt and Play ) Pachaikili Muthucharam ( Green Parrot and Pearl Necklace ) The song is full of comparisons for She and I. Sounds beautiful if you understand even a little bit of Tamil. Avalum Naanum Amuthum Thamizhum Avalum Naanum Alaiyum Kadalum She and I Amrit and Tamil [ Tamil is as sweet as Amrit - the oldest comparison for Worlds oldest language ] She and I Waves and Sea Avalum Naanum Thavamum ...

Dad was lying on the terrace, at peace watching the stars. The sky was the typical red because of the city lights diffusing into the sky. The clouds that night were moving very fast. There was a star - might be a planet - overhead, and this was giving an illusion that it was moving. The son and dad debated whether it is a plane or a planet. Then the son ran away. He had to go play with Sufi. Yes, Sufi 2.0 has joined their lives once again after 6 months [ Sufi 1.0 ] Sufi was on her night stroll on the terrace. The mom had her on a leash and newspaper in the other hand - running behind the energy ball - as Sufi finds the perfect place to pee and poo - after her night dinner. Sufi came back to smell Dad lying on the terrace, putting her wet muzzle on his face and hands and feet and went away to explore the terrace. Life for a moment is perfect once again. Might melt away someday, but for now will just enjoy these moments and live in the present - how this Sufi lives moment to ...

I was wrongly made to believe that we humans are superior and we have conquered this planet and we have dominion on the lesser animal species. We told lies to ourselves, oh we have the 6th sense which animals don't have. They just have the instinct - to procreate and survive. They do not have wishes or taste or wants or love. Put them in a cage, they will just sit there eating their food. How grossly wrong was I / we are. Animals are not just human, but more than human. In fact I don't think we should measure animals in the human yardstick. We have pillaged this planet and extinguished beautiful creations of God. We humans are not good. Animals are better than Humans. Animals are kinder than Humans. They do not destroy the environment. They enrich it.  They kill, but only for their survival - not for pleasure. I am sick of our race. You might wonder - why this sudden outrage Venkat? 3 news items in succession triggered this in me. 2 Beautiful Lions shot dead bec...

  That's 1000 Kms in a year. Crossed 1000 Kms in April 2015 Attempting my first full marathon for the 2nd time. Sep 18th is the D Day. Last year I started training for a full marathon, but midway had to give up.[ 2015 Kaveri Trail Marathon ]   Planning to run in the Kaveri Trail Marathon this year also. I use the Nike Running App ( Free on both iOS and Android ). There is a coach option, where you key in the race date and it will work out a training program. I am following it sincerely. 5 runs a week, the last one  a long run that keeps increasing till the race day.  Excited about what lies ahead - the training days as it will get harder and harder, and finally the day of the Marathon.. Set a goal which is humanely impossible ( to me certainly it is ) -  break it down, work hard, and achieve it.  Few days back when I was campaigning for more friends to join me in a a half or full marathon - got into a full fledged debate with a few friends in Whatzapp. Ther...

Mid-life Crisis The wife told everyone - "Midlife Crisis"  Sometimes there is no rational explanation why I do certain things - like this road trip on bike from Bangalore to Mumbai and back, in peak summer, through some of the drought stricken regions. So the wife had to term it my Mid life Crisis.  I don't analyse too much on these. Just go ahead and enjoy the experience.  The whole trip started with me fixing the EFI of my Thunderbird (  Comprehensive guide to owning a Royal Enfield bike  ) - sunk 13k to replace an important part so the bike will start. After fixing felt bad for the bike - here is a cruiser doing small errands and going in stop and go Bangalore traffic. It never runs full throttle. Time to let it run loose.  I found a co-conspirator - a developer in the team who owns an Avenger. And we started preparing for the big trip. Preparation On my earlier trip to Mumbai on bike, in 2014, I had Sangeeta escort me on a car. (If you are interested he...