Saw this on the 49th street subway station in NYC:
Its one of the more interesting advertisements I have seen in the City.
– Suramya
October 9, 2006
October 6, 2006
Dinner in New York
Went out for dinner in New York yesterday with Surabhi, Vinit, Vivek, Meghna, Aarti and Madhur at this great restaurant called Cafe Habana located in Soho. Its a small place and If you go by the looks alone you will most likely walk away to eat at some of the better looking places around it, but that would be a big mistake as the food here is awesome and the service is really good. Too many times I have eaten at a place where the food is great but the waiters looked and acted like they were in a funeral. In contrast the waitress over here were friendly, cheerful and helpful.
The place is really busy so expect a wait when you show up. On weekdays its not that bad, though on weekends however the wait is a lot longer. One thing to keep in mind is that the larger your group is the longer your wait is, so don’t show up with a group of 15. The max I would take to this place would by 8 -9 people, any more than that would be a bit difficult so fit in quickly.
The corn over here is to die for and the rest of the food is also very good and filling. They play some really nice upbeat music so the atmosphere is very lively. The best part is that the place is not that expensive either.
If you are ever in the area check it out. You won’t regret it.
– Suramya
October 5, 2006
LibraryThing: Catalog your books online
Found this interesting service that allows you to catalog your books online. Then based on the books in your library it connects people with the same books and comes up with suggestions for what to read next. It gives you the ability to include your books in your blog, and create feeds etc.
The only downside is that its free service only allows you to catalog upto 200 books, to catalog more books you need to pay a $10 for a year price.
Check it out :LibraryThing
– Suramya
October 4, 2006
Bought I Dream of Jeannie DVD today
Today I bought the Second Season of I dream of Jeannie on DVD. I love the show and have been looking for it for a long time. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have released the rest of the seasons yet (Season 3 onwards). They should. Its a great show, a bit silly at times and still good for laughs.
I first watched this show in India where it had been translated in hindi. Surprisingly the translation was pretty good and the voice over wasn’t bad, unlike bewitched or some of the other shows where the voice overs were horrible. But I think I like the english version better as some of the jokes didn’t translate that well.
Well I am off to enjoy I Dream of Jeannie now… Will post more later.
– Suramya
October 3, 2006
Dying with your Passwords
Interesting post about problems that can be caused when a person dies without sharing their passwords. I have posted about this earlier over here
The main issue I have with sharing passwords is privacy, do I really want people to be able to access my data when I am dead?
Lets say I share my password with someone with instructions to only use it when I am dead, how can I be sure that one they they won’t get bored and start going through my emails/documents… Before you say anything, yes I have a low opinion of everyones honesty (including mine). I wouldn’t want to be the one that someone decides to share a password with.
Another issue is that I change my passwords constantly and at any given time I have ~ 5-6 (Probably more) different passwords in use. I have a hard time memorizing them so I expect others will have a harder time and since no one wants to memorize anymore useless data they will probably write it down somewhere. Now if their system gets compromised my data is also at risk because they wrote the passwords down which is not cool.
One of the solutions people suggested was to use a dead mans switch. Basically in that case if you don’t do something for X no of days your info/password is sent to someone. Its an interesting idea but the problem with this approach is that; what if I don’t log on to the system for X days because I got busy or forgot or was on vacation. It would still send out the data to everyone because I didn’t log on. I guess in the future we can have a device that can monitor a person’s heart beat or brainwaves and then when all activity stops it opens up the information but for now we are stuck with a manual process.
When I am dead people can feel free to go through my documents and most of my computer files. The stuff I don’t mind sharing is already unencrypted but the stuff thats encrypted has been encrypted for a reason. If I wanted to share it, it would have been unencrypted. The same goes for my email. I can think of no reason why someone would want to go through my emails when I am dead and no I don’t think I will get murdered with the one clue to identify the killer in my email.
What are your thoughts about this? Do you have a dead mans switch or something that will open your data to everyone when you die? If so why? If not, are you planning to?
Source: Schneier on Security: Dying with your Passwords
– Suramya
October 1, 2006
2 years and counting
Well, its 1st Oct again and its been 2 years that I have been maintaining this blog. Over the past two years I have realized the following things:
* Blogs are a good way for people who you don’t regularly interact with a way to keep up with whats going on in your life. You have no idea how many people told me that they regularly visit my blog to keep up with my life..
* Blogs allow you to present your thoughts to the public and have a good discussion on topics that you feel strongly about.
* Blogs are like a online archive of your life, a few years down the line you can come back and revisit old memories.
* Good Blogs are hard to maintain. 🙂 Yup its true, so many times I think about posting something but then decide that its not good enough or I don’t have enough time to make a good post. People who post regularly on their blogs have a great amount of dedication.
If you have been following the blog from the beginning you will probably have noticed that in the beginning I had a post almost every day then it sort of tapered down and recently I haven’t been posting at all. Its all to do with inspiration and time/desire/energy to post. I think I got tired of maintaining a blog, but now I think I will resume again. Lets see…
And if you actually read all that then thanks for being a dedicated reader and for visiting my site.
– Suramya