Category: info

  • take a work break!

    This is a pretty good program – thanks to Conan who sent me a link. It reminds us to take breaks during computer usage. It really helps to avoid the almost invisible physical strain that we are inadvertently causing to ourselves. The animated excercises are pretty cool!

    I tried this software today and at first it was quite annoying to be interrupted every now and then with reminders. Takes a bit of getting used to it and understanding its value for one’s own health. A meditator can also use the breaks even more effectively. Its possible to not lose the continuity of working inspite of taking most of the breaks it suggested (sometimes I had to click on the Skip button!) At the end of the day using it, it was quite refreshing actually!

    Introduction

    Enter the site 

    Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).

    The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit.

    Workrave: Screenshots

    Workrave Download

    Btw, another similar commercial product.

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    See also: My own RSI Story

  • monsoon Kannada movie – mungaaru maLe

    Recently went to Mungaarina maLe – Nataraj theater, in Central – (opp to Samrat hotel). Initially went more as a driver than a viewer as I was kind of neutral about watching. Based on trailers posters etc it seemed to be the sterotype and predictable kind of movie. Went more as a family driver – esp my uncle who was watching a movie in a theater for the first time after over two decades!

    But when it started and continued… turned out to be really lovely… at the end all of us had really enjoyed it!

    Its definitely a movie that as someone says – goes beyond boundaries – and is enjoyed even by people who don’t know Kannada considering its popularity during its screening in London (see Kannada article).

    In retrospect, if not for my initial somewhat cynical mindset of trying to predict what would happen next in the story as I watched it in advance, but just taking things as they come, I’d probably have enjoyed it even more :-))

    Ganesh’s acting is brilliant. I really liked the storyline, its somewhat refreshingly unique, beautiful and intelligent. Photography of course was spellbinding especially considering the locality.

    This post is more a kind of place-holder, will update with some more views about it when time permits.

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    Btw, a related link provided by Shruthi

    ENTREPRENEUR SPOTLIGHT
    Mano Murthy

    The CEO and co-founder of Allegro Systems, which was acquired by Cisco Systems late last month for $181 million, moonlights as a composer for Indian films.

    Do a quick Google search for Mano Murthy – whose most recent venture, VPN security technology developer Allegro Systems, was acquired by Cisco Systems late last month in a stock deal valued at $181 million – and you won’t find much on Mano Murthy the entrepreneur.

    What you’ll find, instead, is plenty of information on Mano Murthy the film-score composer. Among fans of Indian cinema, Murthy is known for scoring the popular 1997 film America! America! which ran in Indian movie theaters for more than a year, and the 1999 film Nanna Preethiya Hudugi.

    Mano Murthy is the music composer for “Mungaaru Male”

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    One of the most beautiful aspects of the movie was the theme of almost every scene having plenty of rain in it. Those who love rain would love this movie, and would definitely enjoy this post as well:

    Suresh: Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness…and it’s called Rain

    *********** SPOILER ALERT *****************
    Please follow this post if you’ve already watched the movie. Else recommend simply watching it unbiased… and then look at reviews or opinions.
    *********** SPOILER ALERT *****************

    Maybe Ganesh really understood true love by letting his woman free 😉

  • the ultimate treatise on psychology

    Someone asked about a book on psychology, and I thought of posting my reply here as a post. Here is a good simple book that I’d come across around a decade ago… Games People Play by Eric Berne

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  • a puzzle

    Some time ago, saw Life is Beautiful again.

    One of the puzzles Roberto asks:

    What is it: The more there is of it, the less you can see it.

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  • craving for a cigarette merely has the lifecycle of a wave

    [First of all a disclaimer: I don’t have anything against smokers (but I generally don’t hesitate to express my protest if I feel they’re over-stepping over the non-smoking rights of anybody else in public, still without anything against them 😉 ). Some of my best friends are smokers and I’ve had long conversations with them (sitting upwind) while they’ve smoked. I’ve made some stupid attempts to convince them to quit occasionally, but finally I realised that they already know everything, and I just have to respect that its their choice – whether they quit smoking or not is up to them.]

    This post by Suresh prompted me to complete atleast one of my long pending posts based on a fairly well researched article I’d written a few years ago. This is just my own understanding, I might’ve ended up totally distorting what Suresh meant 😉 so better to read that entire post in its originality. I’m using some excerpts only for my own context here.

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  • on eating

    This is a mail from my friend Upendra sent earlier this year…

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  • dealing with common ailments

    Here I detail the results of my investigation with meditation over the past five years in dealing with common ailments…

    First some clarifications. I’m an engineer and not a qualified medical practioner. This post isn’t any claim of some hocus-focus miracle. Nor is it anything to do with mystic or psychic healing power. And one important clarification is that in this particular system of meditation, there is no claim for curing any ailment – its not really the objective but only a potential by-product.

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  • when an injection became inevitable

    [This is the memory of something that happened a few years ago, but written in present tense. Currently, dentist technology atleast in Dr. Mani’s clinic in Malleswaram (17th Cross, Sampige Road, Malleswaram) is quite sophisticated i.e. painless. I’ve found his work excellent and more than satisfactory.]

    I’ve always thoroughly loathed injections. Just the look of an injection syringe make me shudder. The terrible prospect of an external steel object piercing my delicate skin and goes inside filled me with fear. I would give doctor’s quite a hard time and they’d use all their comforting words to convince me that it was inevitable. Though there have been a few occasions during my childhood days, I’ve more or less managed to steer clear of them for many years. Could hardly bear to see even when someone else was getting it done either!

    Here I was, sitting on this chair, and about to have an injection… right inside of my mouth! No escape this time… the bad tooth had to come out…

    Dr. Mani our veteran family dentist (and in general a truly wonderful gentleman), casually filled up his syringe with local anesthesia… while I glared at it with horror. It would soon my stabbing my gums… cause me immense trauma… 😥

    My entire body was tensed – rigid… my wrists gripping on the armrest for dear life, my wincing face anticipating the horror that was to come…

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  • fitness in bengaloorians

    It was inspiring to see so many people doing yoga in Lalbagh, esp a really really old man who was hardly able to walk, still doing sit-ups holding on too a rail… (what spirit!!) …and taking a long walk (we kept bumping into him again and again 🙂 There was this old lady in ragged dresses waving her arms around.

    Today I have a renewed appreciation for my fellow-bengaloorians! 8)

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  • what are you looking at?

    Look at these pictures and make a guess… should be fairly easy…
    Its an actual photograph, maybe a bit of distortion due to some digital zooming…

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