Music: Better Propaganda

Tim told me about this music review and download site: Better Propaganda. I have some 'sploring to do.

Poetry: Sudeep Sen

His book - Lunar Visitations - was one of the first few books of Indian poets that I read in the early 90s. http://www.sudeepsen.com/

This or That, originally uploaded by Shrez.

NYC. March 2005.

Books: Self-publishing

Article in today's NT Times: How To Be Your Own Publisher.
Three print-on-demand publishers:
iUniverse
Xlibris
AuthorHouse

Untitled, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Providence, RI. March 2005.

Quotes: Shadow

Shadow owes its birth to light. -John Gay, poet and dramatist (1685-1732)

Technology: The Maccult

Robin sent me this BBC story - Apple a day keeps the music at play - about the cult of Mac. Umberto Eco says Mac is Catholic and Microsoft is protestant.
One week to OSX Tiger!

Art (Theater): Jason SVT on NPR

Jason was on All Things Considered this evening. He was interviewed in a story about regional theaters and talked about his Salvage Vangaurd Theater and how they bring new works to young audiences. Way to go Jason!

Quotes: Night and memory

I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does. -Jorge Luis Borges, writer (1899-1986)

Untitled, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Soho, NYC. March 2005.

Art (Film): Animation Show

I saw the Animation Show at the new Alamo Drafthouse South. These three shorts were very good - Hello, When The Day Breaks and The F.E.D.S.

Technology: Blogs are the new reality TV (Flow TV)

Robin pointed me to an article about blogging on Flow TV (it is co-edited by Chris Lucas) - Blogs are the new reality TV. Why do I blog? I link therefore I blog :-)

Art: Letters to an Artist

An article: Letters to an Artist I found on a project management wiki about art and work. It could use some editing, but it has some gems:
"Artists surf their work, riding each instructive wave. They are better positioned to extract the insights continually visiting us all."
"Being an artist is no more just about creating works of art than living is just about thinking. A remarkable array of complementary activities must occur if you are going to usefully create art. For the artists and for the rest of us also, learning to more skillfully shift between the necessary work and our essential work becomes the defining skill in our lives."

Poetry: Billy Collins

Diane and I went to see Billy Collins last night at Hogg Auditorium (UT). He funny, irreverent and wise - like a jester in the court of a king - using humor to snap you out of your complacent reverie.

Design: Prefab homes

FlatPak House - prefab modern
Clever Homes - prefad modern and green
Read about both of these on Treehugger

Boy tshirt, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Takeshitadori, Tokyo. December 2004.

Art (Photos): The Mirror Project - Nice & Spicey

A second submission to the Mirror Project got posted. Woo hoo!

Quotes : Learning

Today's AWAD quote.
Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all. -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (1920- )

Technology: Media convergence in Lawrence, KS

This was on Monring Edition today about what a media company in Lawrence, KS is doing to combine their newspaper, online and cable efforts. Go Lawrence! (I went to KU undergrad)

Technology: Mac OSX Tiger out on 4/29

I thought they were going to release "Tiger" later this fall. Glad it is coming out at the end of the month. Read about it on the unofficial google blog.

Yangry, originally uploaded by Shrez.

More Matthew Rodriguez street art. 7th Street, Austin, March 2005.

Ma cherie, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Matthew Rodriguez's street art. Near 6th Street, Austin, March 2005.

Music: New CDs - Fischerspooner & Doug Martsch

Fisherspooner: Odessey - new wavey - good ear candy. Reminds me of 80s stuff I loved.
Doug Martsch: Now you know - I love Built to Spill and this is Doug's solo work - more stripped down and bluesy.

Art: About A Girl - Gallery Lombardi

Robin and I went to check out About A Girl - Pop Music inspires Pop Art. It was neat to discover that I have taken a few photos of Matthew Rodriguez's work around town. See pictures above.

Art: Color, Pattern, Grid - Gajin Fujita

Gajin Fujita had a piece in the AMOA show I saw last weekend - Robin found a couple links and I found one. I like the contrast between Japanese woodblock art and graffiti street art. I really enjoyed the ukiyo-e prints I saw in Tokyo and I have been taking pics of a lot of street art recently.

Quotes: The days....

The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party, but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
From today's AWAD.

Art / Zeitgeist: Gay-Themed Film Tests Sensibilities in India

From today's NY Times.
Gay-Themed Film Tests Sensibilities in India
Good to see that there is a broader palette of films coming out for the urban audience.

Photos: The Mirror Project - Marine Drive sideview

The Mirror Project is a site where you can submit photo self-portraits of yourself taken in reflective surfaces. I submitted and ....Marine Drive sideview

Scooby Doo Meditator, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Outside Museum. Bombay, December 2004.

Art: Color, Pattern, Grid - AMOA

Zach and I went to the new show at AMOA - Color, Pattern, Grid. Awesome!!! I need to go again.
"Color/Pattern/Grid highlights the richness and diversity of modern and contemporary art in Austin collections. Drawing from the permanent collection of the Austin Museum of Art and from seventeen exceptional Austin collections, this exhibition investigates the wide range of creative responses that both modern and contemporary artists have had to the ideas of color, pattern, and grid."

Art (Theatre): Ghenghis Khan

Robin and I went to see Ghenghis Khan (SVT's new production). A mini opera - three singers, 5 piece chamber orchestra. I am not a fan of the opera, but this was a great show. It had a compelling story that kept me engaged. And the singing was awesome. Well done Jason and Graham! I am a new SVT fan.

Art (Photos): Photobloggies

Photobloggies were announced today. Some good sites I saw:
Daily Dose - won Best of. Neat design. He's married to an Iranian cool.
Joe's NYC: good looking site. I liked the tips he gives on equipment and SW in the About section. Rion - what a well designed site. Great series photos as opposed to on-offs "So, why sets and not single images? Part of why I have stayed with the multiple image format is that there is a power in sequential communication that I enjoy exploring -- multiple images can build a different story than just one image"

Naughty Krishna, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Warden Road, Bombay. December 2004

Technology: NY Times - 2 articles

Is Silicon Valley Similar to Detroit? All reports about the demise of technology are premature. Technology is dead. Long live technology!
A Service That Aims to Make Cold Calls a Bit Warmer Here is a very effective way to use social networking technology.

Technology/Design: EyeArchitect

They designed Tufte's site. EyeArchitect They have built 4 separate architectures to show how the same content can be presented differently on a website. Very effective.

Quotes: Genius steals

Saw this quote on Design by Fire.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. Albert Einstein
Reminds me of what Ed Tufte said at one of his seminars - The intelligent borrow; genius steals.

PSLC Week #7

I thought I was going to have a zippo-nada for the last week of PSLC. But lucky me, as I was driving home from breakfast at Juan in a Million with Peter and others, I saw the Coexistence exhibit on the shores of Town Lake. Great public art.

Art : Movie Club - Silver City

Theresa invited me to Movie Club. We pick a theme and watch a movie every three or four weeks at someone's house and then discuss it. What a nifty idea. No reading like a book club - show up, watch and talk. We watched Silver City.

Vision, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Austin, 5th & Red River. March '05.

Cool tshirts

Tiny factory T's. Some are yummy.

Music: 4 New CDs

Back from NYC and needed my Waterloo fix. Bonanza! 4 CDs. Add to that a bunch of tunes I will scope out on the SXSW site. Bummer that I misseed it this year.
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm: Full lenght release by these punk-funk Brits after a super EP last year. Guud shtuff.
M.I.A. - Arular: Lots of hype for this Sri-Lankan artist. A very infectious mix of dancehall and hip-hop. A bit of a stretch for me since I have very little hip-hop in my collection.
Ada - Blondie: Indie electronica (tech-house). Good melodies and vibe unlike most electronica releases.
Thunderbirds Are Now - Justamoustache: Spazzy post-punk. Some of the songs are catchy. Not sure if I will hang on to this one.

Travel: impersonation

I went to NYC last week and this was in yesterday's NY Times Style section:
"In some ways, travel always holds within it a degree of impersonation. Setting out for distant lands, the traveler not only leaves behind his home - with its utility bills and nosy neighbors - but he can also leave behind his dreary shopworn self." Scott Spenser

Andhra travelogue by Statesman reporter

A good travel article about Renuka Rayasam's trip to see her family in Andhra Pradesh. She is a reporter for the Austin American Statesman.
A visit to old India
Shopping for a sari, India's fabric of life

Nowruz

A good article about Persian New Year - Eid Nowruz - which is today.

PSLC Week #6: NYC & RISD

I went up to NYC with Aunty Faizeh and Parinaz to help her pick a fashion design school.
So, went to the newly renovated MOMA. I really enjoyed the models and drawings section on the architecture and design floor.
Also went to the Met. I spent time looking their Japanese collection, hoping to see some good ukioyo-e. Also spent a bit of time in photography and looking at a Matisse special exhibit.
We drove up to RISD and I really enjoyed the undergraduate exhibit. MOMA and Met were good, but this was fresh, vital, invigorating.
Also went to see Ashes and Snow with Stef the first day I was in NYC. The Nomadic museum it is housed it was incredible. It felt like being in an old cathedral. The photos were good - sometimes a bit contrived - but mostly beautiful.

PSLC Week #5

I was invited to a rehearsal of Salvage Vanguard Theater's Ghenghis Khan - an opera - which opens next weekend. There were about 20 of us there. It was amazing to see and experience the creative process the group was engaged in. The singing really blew me away too. I am definitely going to see it.

Mumbai nightlife

This is a great article from the travel section of the NY Times about nightlife in Bombay. I wrote about some of these places in my last travelogue.

New CDs

Latest release by the Doves - Some Cities. I love their first two cds and this one is a strong third release. More guitarry than the first one. Not as dark as the first or bright as the second.
Adding to my Stereolab collection - Switched on. Early krautrock work. Simple, infectious, driving beats and melody.

PSLC Week #4

2040 Gallery opening of Sky Above Earth Below. Seeing all 7 of Stella's chakra paintings together was incredible.

Xerox Offset, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Near Dalal street, Bombay. Dec. 2004.

Concert Posters
I am missing SXSW this year - bummer - going to be in NYC - cool. Besides all the great bands, I wanted to catch the concert poster exhibition:
Flatstock. Also came across this book: Art of Modern Rock a few months ago. What great graphic work.

Art: PSLC Week #3

City Hall Art Reception (2/24 w/ Theresa).
70 Austin visual artists have contributed their work for the first annual exhibition. It will be up for a year and then rotated. Organized by Mayor Wynn's wife who is a big arts supporter.
What a great show. Eduardo Muñoz Ordoqui's work was haunting. Theresa introduced me to Stella & Brian. Love this city!

Zeitgeist: Green SoCal

So Much Rain, and Southern California Has Never Seen Such Greens by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Articles like this makes reading the NY Times pure pleasure.

Art / Zeitgeist: Day Jobs and the Creative Class

Great article - Creative Capital? - by Michael Erard. Been thinking a lot about art, artists and how they fit into the fabric of the economy. Great insights.

Books / Poetry: A World Between review in Tx Observer

Came across this book review in The Texas Observer of an anthology my poems were in. A few months ago Peter introduced me to the author of the review - Michael Erard - and he knew my name and mentioned reviewing the book. Glad I came across the review. What an insightful review - he is a very good writer.

Art / Quotes: The cause is hidden..

The cause is hidden; the effect is visible to all. - Ovid
From editor's page of Esopus #3
Human attention has its limits. With barely enough time to focus on our own affairs, we're able to spare only fleeting glances at our larger surroundings. The impressions we form are necessarily shallow - and because of that, easily manipulated.
We may rely on religion or science to deepen them, but art has a unique capacity to inform our perceptions by revealing hidden causes. Rather than telling us "how things are," it offers compelling scraps of evidence that coax us into an active role, encouraging us to work out explanations for ourselves, on our own terms. At its best, it asks questions so effectively that the answers - to the extent that they even exist - can seem insignificant.
Tod Lippy (editor, Esopus Magazine)

Art: PSLC Week 1 & 2

Week 1: Andy Goldsworthy show at AMOA. Awesome. I had forgotten how much I liked his work. Also watch part of Rivers & Tides - documentary about him.
Week 2: Life Drawings - Beth Campbell, Danica Phelps and Eric Schnell at Jones Arthouse. Curated by Regine Basha.

Per call Rs 1, originally uploaded by Shrez.

Kala Ghoda, Bombay. December 2004.

Music: MixCD - Transit

Created this mix cd when I came back from Bombay last month.
Transit: The act of passing over, across, or through; passage.

1. Sola Sistim - Underworld
2. Good Day Sunshine- Slowdive
3. Beautiful Mind - Verve
4. Hands Away- Interpol
5. The Pod- Experimental Aircraft
6. Freedom Fighter - Bowery Electric
   
7. The Outernationalist - Thievery Corporation
   
8. Black Milk - Massive Attack

Technology: Google Maps

Another very-very neat looking tool from Google. Wow! Bye-bye Mapquest and Yahoo Maps.
Google Maps
Found out about it on the Unofficial Google Blog

m n m
Originally uploaded by Shrez.

DJ and the M&Ms
Takeshitadori, Tokyo (December 2004)

Art: Another eclectic mag - Cabinet

This one is edited by an Iranian.
(From NY Times Feb 10)
"a journal of art and ideas that is eclectic to the point of eccentricity.
Its contributors, who include artists, scholars and nonacademic intellectuals, roam freely through the arts, sciences and 'culture,' demonstrating what its founding editor, Sina Najafi, calls 'a voracious, omnivorous, polymath and playful relationship to knowledge.' "

Art: Pinky Swear Lenten Club (PSLC)

This is the third annual PSLC. A group of us on the 4th floor at work decided to give up various things over Lent and we have a white board where we put down how we were doing each week. Okay, I am not christian, but I did not want to be left out of the fun.
This year, my entry on the board is "Support the Arts." I will go to a new show (visual, performing, etc.) each week. And not shows/groups that I have already seen. It will be fun to discover something new in the art scene of Austin. Two definites: Gheghis Khan at Salvage Vanguard Theater and the Andy Goldsworthy exhibit at AMOA.

Peeling
Originally uploaded by Shrez.

Design: Yummy T-shirts

What a neat idea for a blog - Preshrunk - all kinds of yummy tshirts. I like this one a lot.

Books: Small Press & Lit Mags

Recently read about Council of Literary Magazines and Presses [CLMP] in the NY Times and it brought back the memory of buying my first Pushcart Prize anthology in '90. I was reading and writing a lot and dreamed of having my own small press/lit mag.

PM Stuff: Blogging and Project Community Compass newsletter

10 Ways To Use Blogs for Managing Projects. Found article linked on Xplane's business blog - bBlog. Lots of other good design related stuff on xplane.
Also found reading some of these Compass newletters refreshing. A more "artful" approach to project management.

Technology / Design: Architecture in the digital landscape

Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design
Human Factors: resources

Zeitgeist: Why Liberal Education

On the Uses of a Liberal Education As Lite Entertainment For Bored College Students by Mark Edmundson at the University of Virginia. From Harper's September 1997.
Great article that I found when I was reading the reviews of his new book "Why Read"on amazon. Put it on the list of books to read.
"Edmundson dramatizes what the recent identity crisis of the humanities has effectively obscured: that reading can change your life for the better."

Art: Magnificent Mag

Found this amazing magazine - Esopus - eccentric, singular, beautiful. I read about it in the NY Times a couple weeks ago and got my issue in the mail earlier this week.
Building a One-Man Magazine, One Impossible Feat at a Time By DAVID CARR (NYT) 1230 words Late Edition - Final , Section B , Page 11 , Column 2
Esopus magazine is a thing of lavish, eccentric beauty, less flipped through than stared at, forcing readers to reconcile their expectations of what a magazine is with the strange artifact in their hands....

Technology: TechSoup

TechSoup - The Technology Place for Nonprofits

Zeitgeist: What Derrida Really Meant

Excerpt from an Op-Ed piece in yesterday's NY Times by Mark C. Taylor about the father of deconstructionism:
"During the last decade of his life, Mr. Derrida became preoccupied with religion and it is in this area that his contribution might well be most significant for our time. He understood that religion is impossible without uncertainty. Whether conceived of as Yahweh, as the father of Jesus Christ, or as Allah, God can never be fully known or adequately represented by imperfect human beings.
And yet, we live in an age when major conflicts are shaped by people who claim to know, for certain, that God is on their side. Mr. Derrida reminded us that religion does not always give clear meaning, purpose and certainty by providing secure foundations. To the contrary, the great religious traditions are profoundly disturbing because they all call certainty and security into question. Belief not tempered by doubt poses a mortal danger.
As the process of globalization draws us ever closer in networks of communication and exchange, there is an understandable longing for simplicity, clarity and certainty. This desire is responsible, in large measure, for the rise of cultural conservatism and religious fundamentalism - in this country and around the world. True believers of every stripe - Muslim, Jewish and Christian - cling to beliefs that, Mr. Derrida warns, threaten to tear apart our world.
Fortunately, he also taught us that the alternative to blind belief is not simply unbelief but a different kind of belief - one that embraces uncertainty and enables us to respect others whom we do not understand. In a complex world, wisdom is knowing what we don't know so that we can keep the future open."

Technology: Web Engineering Resources

Viewed webinar on Web Engineering. Here are some resources for RSP&A Web Engineering

Art: Kala Fine Art

Contemporary Indian art curated/collected by a friend of Peter's
http://www.kalafineart.com

Technology / Design: KJ Technique for problem solving/prioritization/facilitation

The KJ-Technique: A Group Process for Establishing Priorities

Technology: Interview on Disruptive/Sustaining Innovation (Gartner)

The Gartner Fellows: Clayton Christensen's Interview Part 1

Technology: Content Management Site - The Gilbane Report

Content Management & XML, News, Analysis, Reports, White Papers, & Conferences

Technology / Design: Web design resources

Evolt
About Web design

Technology / Design: More Usability/HCI - Flight comic anthology

HCI Resources on the OK/Cancel website (comics about HCI - cool!).
Also found link to Flight comic anthology when I skipped around from here.

Technology / Design: Some design/usability links

Expero (usability firm in Austin)
Projekt202 (design firm in Austin)
Useit - Jakob Neilsen
UIE - good articles on usability and design

Sports: Le Tour Month and Lance on Teamwork

The event I wait all year for is underway. I first started watching the Tour de France when I was in Seattle in 94. Darrell introduced me to it. I became a full fledged fan in 99, the year that Lance won his first one. I was so pumped that an Austinite whom I had seen face to face won. We had a huge victory parade for him in 99. I was so proud for him and for our city.
A big reason I admire Lance is becuase he knows he can only win with the support of his team. Two days ago he won the Team Time Trial much to his delight. Here is a quote from cyclingnews:
"Ever since I was a Junior, the TTT was the event I did. It's always been my favourite event because it's a team event. My first (major) experience in cycling was the (1989) Jr. World Championships TTT in Moscow. At the time, it was an amazing event for me...very hard, but also an event that was very special. If you put together the four strongest guys in the world, they don't always win. And that, to me, is something special. You could put together four guys who are less strong, but if they work well together, they took the proper pulls, they did much better. And that always struck me as something unique in cycling."

Books: McSweeney's Comics Issue

I love comics - or graphic novels as they are now referred to. I grew up reading Tin Tin and Asterix. One of my best birthday presents was the complete collection of Tin Tin from my brother.
Well, McSweeney's new
McSweeney's Issue 13 is a comics spectacular. This quaterly "magazine/journal" is Dave Eggers' baby, him of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame. I had not been inclined to buy previous issues, even though the books were so well bound and the paper was so nice. The writing was a bit to avant and banal for me.
Ah, this is a wonderful issue - all these great comics in such a nice book.
Also really nice are the Drawn & Quarterly anthologies. I have two of them. Big books, lucious color on very nice paper. Reminds me of the Tin Tin's I read and re-read as a kid.

Music / Technology: Music Plasma

Darrell sent me a link to the Music Plasma site. Enter the name of a band/artist and it gives you other similar bands/artists that you would enjoy. It worked pretty well. But the site needs improvement - there is no easy way to scroll around. I had found two other tools similar to this back in Feb.

Music: Soundtrack for a Road trip

Diane and I drove up to Dallas for Anju & Brad's wedding last weekend. We left in the afternoon and returned the same night: a lot of driving for one day. But the tunes and conversation made it a great trip. Here is what we listened to:
Coldplay - Parachutes: I had forgotten what a wonderful album this was. More mellower than their follow-up Rush of Blood to the Head. Chris Martin's vocals get under your skin.
New Order - Get Ready: Ah, all time favorite band. Their latest cd from 2002. Back into good form. First heard it when I was driving up from San Diego to LA with my cousin Parisa.
Verve - Storm in Heaven: I have written about this album before. It was 2AM when this was on - perfect soundtrack for driving through the bleak landscape around Waco - swirling guitars.
Underworld - A Hundred Days Off: Another one of my fave bands. I have written about this album too before.
Stereolab - Dots & Loops: Top 5 band. This was the first album I heard of theirs (thanks Darrell). Great place to start if you have not heard this band.
Dandy Warhols - Welcome to the Monkey House: I heard them first at the Austin City Limits music festival last year. What a great live show. I went straight to the Waterloo Records tent and bought two of their cds. This one has a very 80s new wave flavor.

Art (Photos): Subhankar Banerjee

My friend Clint sent me a link to Banerjee's photos after he saw my Deep Eddy photos. I am flattered. Here are some of Banerjee's photos from the Arctic Refuge Series. I remember reading about him in the NY Times - I think there was some controversy over the captions that went along with the photos in a Smithsonian exhibit.

Music: Live Music this week

On Tuesday I saw Stereolab at La Zona Rosa. What a great show! I love their music - not sure what to call it - avant-rock? And they did an amazing job of performing it live. Latetia Sadier, the lead singer, has such presence. Stereolab is definitely on my Top 5 list of best bands. And this show confirmed it. Also, La Zona is definitely one of the best places in town for live shows. They also get some great bands there.
Last night I saw Blonde Redhead. Opening for them was Secret Machines from Austin. Both were pretty good. It was at Emo's which I had never been to before. Good venue. Tickets were so inexpensive. I am seeing Zykos there next week. They are opening for TV on the Radio. I discovered Zykos, a local Austin band, when I was streaming tunes from Epitonic a couple weeks ago. Right after work I went to Waterloo and picked up their cd. They have a great sound, a bit unpolished, but great potential. I am looking forward to seeing them live.

Technology: Gmail

Just signed up for Gmail. It will be interesting to see if it is any improvement over my yahoo account. Using web mail is so much more cumbersome that using Groupwise or Outlook. I hope gmail will be an improvement.

Music: Record Stores

I go to Waterloo Records (or Video) at least once a week. The best thing about it is that you can listen to any cd they have in stock and they have a 10 day exchange policy. Waterloo is as Austin fixture.
Yesterday, I found another record store: 33 Records CDs on Guadalupe north of UT. Not a wide collection of stuff, but a focus on indie stuff - a lot of which I have been listening to lately.

Art (Photos): Deep Eddy Photo Blog is up

I got my Deep Eddy Photo Blog up and running about two weeks ago. I am using My Expressions - a blogging tool built by and for visual artists. It is pretty inexpensive. Not super easy to use, but it is good enough.

Zeitgeist: Mouse Potato

I heard this word mentioned a couple weeks ago to describe people who surf the web a lot: mouse potato. That's me! I rarely watch TV, but web-stuff - I can spend hours skipping from one site to the next.

Technology: Cool Tools For Change

I attended this very engaging and interesting seminar last Friday and learned about all these useful and no/low cost open source tools that non-profits can use to enhance their web presence and improve how they operate. A lot of the things I learned can be applied to my current work on the Intranet Redesign Project. We will experiment with some of these open source Content Management Systems as an alternative to the $1/2 million cost of one from a traditional vendor.
This seminar was organized by students at the UT LBJ School of Public Affairs. Here is their website: CommunityNetworking.org
I am so pumped. I love learning new things and especially love learning about tools that democratize technology.

Technology: Gmail announced

I love google. Today they announched that they are launching an email service: gmail. Here is an article. Can't wait to try and use it.

Music: A fellow New Order & Underworld Fan

These are two of my favorite bands and I found a fellow fan who describes them perfectly. I love how New Order combines guitar and synth - old and new. And I love the energy and sound textures of Underworld.
I also found some interesting content on his website Design by Fire. On the home page today is a swipe at Jakob Nielsens' most recent Alertbox.

Books: Typography

Someday I might have a book and this will be useful in designing it. I prepare reports and documents at work every day and this would be helpful.
The Elements of Typographic Style

Music: There is something as a free and legal music download

Download music for free from Epitonic.comc. Completely legal and a great way to discover cutting edge new music. Man, this is a good day for finding new stuff on the web.

Music / Technology: GNOD: Global Network of Dreams

I am always trying to find new bands that I like. How about this nifty tool called Gnod that lets you put in some bands you like and then will suggest others that you might like. It is a self learning system that learns as more and more people input what they like and don't like. Pretty cool stuff.
Google Sets does something similar, but there is no human input. It suggests what you might like based on google's technology.

Art (Photos): Bombay through young eyes

Some great B&W pictures of Bombay taken by young teens.

Technology: Experiential Computing

Garnter interview with Dr. Ramesh Jain about experiential computing.
The Gartner Fellows: Ramesh Jain's Interview

Musings on technology

I came across a great article (from 2000) about what a Blog is and why they are so great. It is written by Kevin Kelly, a technology visionary - co-founder of Wired magazine, editor of the Whole Earth Review and currently, publisher of a neat website called Cool Tools (which I read about in Monday's NY Times).
So, why has blogging become so popular. Self publishing is appealing - and blogging let's you have your say and share it with anyone is the world for free. The web is wide and deep, and blogging is a way to share this diversity with others. The links you add in your blog take your readers deep into the web and show them your web neigborhood.
I am really enjoying being a blogger. Besides sharing my thoughts on various topics, it will be my personal archive of all the interesting stuff I come across on the web. My favorites folder does not have space for all these random sites I come across. Blogging allows me to put them in context with what I was thinking/doing at that point in time when I came across the site.
Today, I returned to a site I found a few weeks ago - Joel on Software, to see what new things were on there. I was thinking about software development and some of the issues that I face as a project manager on development projects. Joel had a great recommendation for a book - Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering. A true gem of a book. You just have to read the table of contents (see link) to get a sense for some of the pitfalls of any development project. Like: The most imprortant factor in software work is the quality of the programmers. I totally agree. Developing software is hard. And a majority of people are not made to do it. Sure, you can dabble in it. My first semester at KU, I was a computer science major. My first class in programming was disaterous. Thank goodness. If it was good, I would have plodded away at it. But I was doing so badly, that I decided to change my major. I love technology and I would like to always work in the technology sector. But I am not a programmer. I don't think like one. And when you come across a talented programmer, you realize why your efforts are mere dabbling.
Here is an interesting approach to redesiging a website - Harpers.org (great magazine). I came across this article while I was on the XPlane Xblog - a good site for information design and architecture. The Semantic web - hmmm - I need to read this article a few times, but my first impression is that Paul Ford has found a powerful way of relating and linking content on a site. Here is a fictional piece by him about how the semantic web could turn out.

Back in Blog
I am a blogging perfectionist. That is my excuse for not having an entry for alsmost three weeks. I want each entry to be a perfect capsule of comment and links. And as busy as I have been over the last couple weeks, I have not had the time to mull over each post.
My other excuse: I was in Phoenix for thanksgiving and my cousin's computer had dial-up access, which was soooo slow compared to the broadband access I am used to at home and work. Spoiled.
Doggie is still with me. My brother Mimo has named her Husku. She looks like a small husky. I have no idea what breed she is. Mimo's girlfriend has named her Goosfand Sag - Farsi for swan dog - she finds the names of animals in Farsi amusing. I still call her Doggie.
I will be on my way to Bombay in less than 24 hours. Three and a half weeks of down-time, family-time, friend-time. I am going to read Tolkien's Return of the King. I only read the first few chapters of Fellowship - the first book. But I would really like to read through a full book before I come back and watch Return of the King. I will also carry along The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (click the link to read the review by one of my favorite reviewers - Michiko Kakutani of the NY Times).
I will also have a whole load of unread New Yorkers that have been sitting on my kitchen table. There are so many good articles that I don't want to miss. I try each week to read the Comment section, the poems and cartoons. And then over time, I try to get to the longer articles.
I am debating whether I will take along my book on Information Architecture that I began reading a few weeks ago to get myself up to speed for my current project (redesiging our Intranet). Have I told you - I am really enjoying this project! I have always wanted to work on a web project. I was an early adopter of the web and am so in love with it. You know how people say that they watch too much TV. Well, I spend a lot of time on the web and don't watch TV. Yesterday as I was driving home from work I was thinking, you know, I can't judge people for how much TV they watch. I spend a lot of time on the web and that is not particularly "better" that watching TV.
Anyhow, I digress. I am looking forward to all the work we are going to put into redesigning our Intranet. I did some Usability testing this week (go here for the Guru of usability) and it was so great to get feedback on our early designs. There were a number of small changes and adjustments we made that has improved our design. We are going to do a lot more usability testing as the project progresses, and if anything, it will help us develop a site that will be useful as well as easy to use.
As I have written before, I am all for breaking down heirarchies, and the democratic sharing of information is one way to do it. Web based techologies allow the sharing of information in a powerful way. The web is not a bunch of pages and links - it is about the connections and the relationships between people and things. And a well designed intranet with good content and tools will help break down some organizational barriers and improve productivity here at LCRA.