Number of “Arun Sharma”s on facebook? Felt a bit bored this morning and clicked through the list. Final tally: 290+. No wonder I get so much spam in my inbox (firstname.lastname@gmail.com). Many of them are just cases of mistaken identity or phishing in the name of some bank that does business in India.
I’m still alive. I survived a nearly 24 hour email blackout. You don’t believe it? Here’s a tip for other people attempting this stunt. Read lots of news. After you’re done, search for more news. Then some gadget blogs, followed by message boards. Don’t forget to drink lots of water.
It didn’t help that xname crashed around the same time. It was excruciatingly painful to click on network tools to see the TTL on my SOA record go down to zero at midnight. The final piece of the puzzle was to disable the DSL firewall (which is on by default to keep the kids safe).
Hopefully the site is faster now. Do let me know if you see problems.
If your kid sometimes decides to show off his drawing skills on a $600 LCD monitor that you use everyday and you want a quick solution (no, water doesn’t work) here is one:
I used the tiniest amount of isopropyl alcohol (generic walgreens brand) with a moist wipe to clean it up. It worked well for me.
Reading about Potty parity and the world toilet summit, I sometimes wonder if these guys have too much time in life…
While we’re on this topic, my sister told me a joke about the autorickshaw (3 wheeler cabs in India) driver in Bangalore, who thought that Infosys made most of its money from the pay-per-use toilets the wife of the chairman built as a public service 
A factoid I gathered today:
The state government derives 70 per cent of its revenues from Bangalore and needs to plough back a bit more to make the city better. If the city prospers it will generate resources and a better life for all.
And mind you, karnataka is not a small state. Bangalore forms less than 10% of the area of the state.
So I was trying to renew my wife's passport. After 3 weeks without a response, I tried calling. After redialing several times, I got into the voicemail. But I must say it's one of the toughest puzzles I've ever solved. It's a virtual maze that takes you in mind numbing loops and leave you with no chance of ever getting out.
So all you guys searching the web for the magic extension - it's “138″ and it takes you right to a polite person who can answer your question in 30 secs. Also try email for a same day response.
But why they still use this completely unusable voicemail is a mystery. Probably they're trying to keep away aggressive callers used to calling unresponsive government offices in India.
I drew a game of chess with GM Tal Shaked in a simul exhibition held at Intel Santa Clara. GM Tal drew 3 games and won the remaining 19.
The end game was a knight and bishop vs rook and pawn, with some perpetual opportunities for white.