Vijay Narayanan on July 13th, 2010

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Vijay Narayanan on July 8th, 2010

Kathleen Parker on the importance of touch: The tactile experience of reading is also crucial to my reading pleasure. Holding a book compares to nothing short of a baby’s contact with his favorite blankie. Consistent with Ackerman’s findings, a hardback is superior to a paperback precisely because it is more solid, weightier and, therefore, more [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on July 2nd, 2010

Excerpt from a Forbes interview with Steven Levy Q: You’ve watched some characters in your book gain wealth and power while others kind of disappeared. What’s your advice for hackers who want to become Bill Gates instead of Richard Greenblatt or Bill Gosper? A: You mean how do you become rich? Greenblatt doesn’t consider himself [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on May 3rd, 2010

One of the things I am not proud of but still keep doing all the time is how I speak with Customer Service representatives if I feel I have had a raw deal. Sometimes I feel smug about the comments that I make. This morning served up one such instance. Customer Service Rep: Good morning, [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on March 7th, 2010

A true story. On the phone with a manager earlier today… Him: “So what plans for the weekend? I’m sure you could do with a change of environment.” Me: “Well, the only change I’m considering is moving from the DEV environment to the QA environment.”

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Vijay Narayanan on March 4th, 2010

Recounted this to a team member today: A programmer has died recently. At his funeral, a friend of the programmer approaches his widow: “Dear, I know it is an inappropriate moment to ask you this question, but do you know where he has saved all the source code?”

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Vijay Narayanan on January 18th, 2010

At a recent dinner party, I was surveying the menu to find out acceptable options. Unable to decide with confidence (there were no labels), I asked the Mexican behind the counter, “I am a vegetarian. What can I have?” Pat came the reply: “Roast beef, and ham.”

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Vijay Narayanan on January 17th, 2010

Every time I drive past this, I ask myself, “Is the proprietor Gundappa Vishwanath?”

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Vijay Narayanan on January 6th, 2010

A co-worker and I had gone out to dinner last night, to a Middle Eastern restaurant. (Incidentally, the cuisine is growing on me.) The owner of the restaurant turned out to be an excellent conversationalist. One topic led to another, and we found out that his family was from Lebanon. My co-worker asked about to [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 28th, 2009

What kept me laughing all weekend: உஷா: “அண்ணா, நாம ‘ஷோலே’ படம் போகலாம்.’ உப்பிலி: “ஆமாம், ஷோலே. ரொம்ப நன்னா இருக்காம். மலையாளம்.” அத்திம்பேர்: “உப்பிலி, ஷோலே மலையாள படமாடா? இந்தி டா!” உப்பிலி: “இந்தி-யா? அதைக்கூட தமிழ்ல எடுக்கறதா இருந்தாங்களாம். தேவர் பிலிம்ஸ்-ல தான் எடுக்கறதா இருந்தாங்க. கே.பி. சுந்தராம்பாள் கூட நடிக்கறதா இருந்தாங்க.” அத்திம்பேர்: “அப்படியா?” உப்பிலி: “படம் பேரு தெரியுமா? பழமுதிர் ஷோலே!” (from Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam)

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Vijay Narayanan on December 21st, 2009

(Much ado about something trivial. The section titles are inspired from The Day of the Jackal.) Anatomy of a plot I was going over Google Analytics after a long time this weekend, and I found that I was getting a few hits from Bing for the search term “Koundamani”. A closer look revealed that VKpedia [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on December 1st, 2009

I was listening to a Bloomberg News podcast this weekend, and the topic of discussion was outsourcing. Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati was one of the guests. The discussion was on familiar lines, centering largely around the politics and the economics of outsourcing. What set me thinking was an rather interesting point raised by Prof. Bhagwati. He [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on November 5th, 2009

Here’s what I found when signing up for a discounted copy of Windows 7 (for anyone with a .edu email address):

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Vijay Narayanan on October 15th, 2009

Saw this on the train ride home. I cannot comment on this advertisement without adding a standard disclaimer about “dignity of labor”. Or be labeled an elitist.

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Vijay Narayanan on October 11th, 2009

The title of this video is “Watch This. You will laugh to death.” I can only say, “Oh God!”

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Vijay Narayanan on August 22nd, 2009

Went to The Hindu’s Friday Review page to check if they had a review of Kandasamy, which almost all my friends have declared a must-avoid. Serendipitously however, I ended up reading a review of Teree Sang, a movie about kids falling in love and going to second base and beyond. This line from the review [...]

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Vijay Narayanan on August 1st, 2009

“இதனை இதனால் இவன்முடிக்கும் என்றாய்ந்து அதனை அவன்கண் விடல்.” – Saint Thiruvalluvar (c. 1st Century CE) Frankly speaking, this man is seldom wrong.

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Vijay Narayanan on July 27th, 2009

For the first time in weeks, #iranelection is not a top-10 Twitter trending topic. In short, but sadly, the house always wins!

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Vijay Narayanan on July 20th, 2009

God bless JUnit!

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Vijay Narayanan on July 19th, 2009

Parthiban Kanavu is one of my favorite movies, and as a consequence (or probably, because) it is one of the most quotable movies. The absolute best is a line from “Nagesh” Krishnamurthy, where he tries to pacify his grandson, Srikanth, who is ranting at his wife singing a Carnatic kriti: “ஏன்டா, உனக்கு கோபம் சங்கீதத்து மேலயா? [...]

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