Cloudspokes just underwent a complete re-design. Found myself on one of the home pages of the redesigned website. Capturing a screen shot of the same here. Feels good.
Feb 17, 2013
Jan 1, 2013
2012 - The Year That Was
Year 2012 turned out to be quite an eventful one.
Began the year with helping my parents move to the same apartment complex where I stay. April brought with it a trip to parts of North India - Jim Corbet National Park, Haridwar and Agra.
Spent close to two weeks in June in the USA crewing for Race Across America (RAAM) team - The Beefeaters. Though I wanted to blog in detail about the experience, the fact that I was awake for over 22 hours each day of the 7 day race and I did not bother to take brief notes during the period, I did not remember enough at the end of the race to write about it. All that I had were the pictures and memories of the time spent with the new friends.
August saw me traveling to London for a couple of weeks. This was my second trip and traveling alone this time let me enjoy the city more than I had on the previous trip with 3 colleagues. Arrived on a Saturday night just a day before the closing of London Olympics 2012. Was fortunate to stay at the Tower Hotel right next to the Tower Bridge which allowed me to catch some of the Olympics spirit by seeing the Marathon runners in person.
Attended the Startup Weekend in September - while I had no spectacular idea, just being part of the event helped kindle the entrepreneurial spirit. September brought more cheer and rejuvenation as I got my large public speaking opportunity when I spoke at Google DevFest. The talk was very well received and made me think 'I need to do more of this'.
October to December has been a whirlwind of tech conferences - Mobile Developers Conference, SpringOne, DroidCon & AWS Summit. Participated in quite a few Cloudspokes challenges - won few :-) Also developing a registration and checking software for Oxfam Trailwalker event.
On the family front, wife (Shobha) started focusing on her one passion - art and has been making wonderful progress. Check out some of the work here. Elder daughter (Sanjana) started blogging - amazed at some of the wonderful pictures she has taken and the quality of her writing. Check out some of her work here.The surprise package has been the younger one (Ananya). While being the wild one and with the least attention span, she continues to amaze us with some very thoughtful gestures, her learning ability when she wants to and her shy creative side - she made this awesome iPad video reviewing one of the Geronimo Stilton's book which we were all amazed to see. Parents are happy to be living close to us and that makes us happy as well.
A great year meeting friends from school, college and ex colleagues. Few which come to mind: Two days spent with Ashu in New Jersey when he would go to work and I would stay back at home and go out shopping in his car - Harsha quipped 'not much has changed - you were using his bike in college, now his car :-)', meeting Harsha's family in New Jersey and a teeny-weeny Aditi greeting me with 'Hello Shashi', road trip to Mysore with Varma and Deepak and meeting Charlie, Varuna, Shashidhar T.S. and Meena, running into Maiya and family at Pascucci on a Friday evening, meeting my school friend Meenakshi for lunch on a Friday afternoon in Bangalore - literally after 23-25 years, catching up with Sanjay and Himanshu for drinks in Ghaziabad, catching up with Alka and family at Gurgaon on the way to Delhi airport, few hours spent with Ashu's family at Charlie's place, meeting Madhu, Charlie and Deepak for lunch (and not being able to meet Madhu again before he left for US), lunch with Sharwari on a rainy Bangalore Friday afternoon at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant.
Highlights: RAAM crewing, email from my Wipro colleague (Indu) saying how I was a positive influence on her and she had spoken about me in one of the management trainings she had attended.
Regrets: Weight gain as I did very less cycling - only around 1100 Km as compared to 5000+ & 7000+ Km during the previous two years. Quite a forgettable year at office - both on relationships and work front.
Some wishes for 2013
Began the year with helping my parents move to the same apartment complex where I stay. April brought with it a trip to parts of North India - Jim Corbet National Park, Haridwar and Agra.
Spent close to two weeks in June in the USA crewing for Race Across America (RAAM) team - The Beefeaters. Though I wanted to blog in detail about the experience, the fact that I was awake for over 22 hours each day of the 7 day race and I did not bother to take brief notes during the period, I did not remember enough at the end of the race to write about it. All that I had were the pictures and memories of the time spent with the new friends.
August saw me traveling to London for a couple of weeks. This was my second trip and traveling alone this time let me enjoy the city more than I had on the previous trip with 3 colleagues. Arrived on a Saturday night just a day before the closing of London Olympics 2012. Was fortunate to stay at the Tower Hotel right next to the Tower Bridge which allowed me to catch some of the Olympics spirit by seeing the Marathon runners in person.
Attended the Startup Weekend in September - while I had no spectacular idea, just being part of the event helped kindle the entrepreneurial spirit. September brought more cheer and rejuvenation as I got my large public speaking opportunity when I spoke at Google DevFest. The talk was very well received and made me think 'I need to do more of this'.
October to December has been a whirlwind of tech conferences - Mobile Developers Conference, SpringOne, DroidCon & AWS Summit. Participated in quite a few Cloudspokes challenges - won few :-) Also developing a registration and checking software for Oxfam Trailwalker event.
On the family front, wife (Shobha) started focusing on her one passion - art and has been making wonderful progress. Check out some of the work here. Elder daughter (Sanjana) started blogging - amazed at some of the wonderful pictures she has taken and the quality of her writing. Check out some of her work here.The surprise package has been the younger one (Ananya). While being the wild one and with the least attention span, she continues to amaze us with some very thoughtful gestures, her learning ability when she wants to and her shy creative side - she made this awesome iPad video reviewing one of the Geronimo Stilton's book which we were all amazed to see. Parents are happy to be living close to us and that makes us happy as well.
A great year meeting friends from school, college and ex colleagues. Few which come to mind: Two days spent with Ashu in New Jersey when he would go to work and I would stay back at home and go out shopping in his car - Harsha quipped 'not much has changed - you were using his bike in college, now his car :-)', meeting Harsha's family in New Jersey and a teeny-weeny Aditi greeting me with 'Hello Shashi', road trip to Mysore with Varma and Deepak and meeting Charlie, Varuna, Shashidhar T.S. and Meena, running into Maiya and family at Pascucci on a Friday evening, meeting my school friend Meenakshi for lunch on a Friday afternoon in Bangalore - literally after 23-25 years, catching up with Sanjay and Himanshu for drinks in Ghaziabad, catching up with Alka and family at Gurgaon on the way to Delhi airport, few hours spent with Ashu's family at Charlie's place, meeting Madhu, Charlie and Deepak for lunch (and not being able to meet Madhu again before he left for US), lunch with Sharwari on a rainy Bangalore Friday afternoon at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant.
Highlights: RAAM crewing, email from my Wipro colleague (Indu) saying how I was a positive influence on her and she had spoken about me in one of the management trainings she had attended.
Regrets: Weight gain as I did very less cycling - only around 1100 Km as compared to 5000+ & 7000+ Km during the previous two years. Quite a forgettable year at office - both on relationships and work front.
Some wishes for 2013
- Improve fitness and restart cycling
- Learn to play Guitar
- Be a better person
- Decide between getting Royal Enfield Thuderbird or Harley Iron 883.
Wish you all a very Happy New Year - 2013. May the year bring with it your share of joy, happiness, opportunities, challenges and the strength & resolve to deal with them. Be different, be adventurous and above all have fun.
Now this should leave you with a smile. Was fooling around with daughters' earrings and turns out both my ear piercings from childhood are still open - check out the pic below.
Jun 15, 2012
RAAM 2012: Friday 15-June-2012
Around April this year I heard of the opportunity to crew for a RAAM team. I jumped at it and after a few mail exchanges with the team got the confirmation that I am in. Last couple months have been a nervous preparation for the event. On the morning of Wed, 13th June 2012, I left for the US and two connections and 30 hours later landed in Los Angeles. Picked up the rental car and drove down to San Diego to catch up with a college mate. After breakfast on 14th morning, took a train up to Oceanside... almost there.
Got into Oceanside early afternoon and met up with my team - The 4 Beefeaters from UK. We then proceeded to the pier for inspections. The scene at the pier was amazing - feverish preparations of the vehicles, bikes and kits to get ready for the inspections, the actual inspections, riders taking small rides, meeting with other teams, people at the beach - in all an invigorating and happy environment. We got our inspections done and headed back to the hotel.
Evening brought with it what turned out to be a long 3 hour crew meeting. The crew chief, Jim Rankin went over the work assignments. I will be in the RV with Jim - working the schedule. We then went over the entire route with details of what to look out for between each set of time stations. The level of detail in the RAAM routing is just plain amazing. Check out the official 2012 directions here.
Hit the bed at around 10.00 PM watching Crocodile Dundee on the TV. Woke up at 5.30 AM and writing this post. Hopefully the sleep cycle is now adjusted to the US times.
Stay tuned for more updates once we start the race tomorrow at 12.00 PM pacific time.
Got into Oceanside early afternoon and met up with my team - The 4 Beefeaters from UK. We then proceeded to the pier for inspections. The scene at the pier was amazing - feverish preparations of the vehicles, bikes and kits to get ready for the inspections, the actual inspections, riders taking small rides, meeting with other teams, people at the beach - in all an invigorating and happy environment. We got our inspections done and headed back to the hotel.
Evening brought with it what turned out to be a long 3 hour crew meeting. The crew chief, Jim Rankin went over the work assignments. I will be in the RV with Jim - working the schedule. We then went over the entire route with details of what to look out for between each set of time stations. The level of detail in the RAAM routing is just plain amazing. Check out the official 2012 directions here.
Hit the bed at around 10.00 PM watching Crocodile Dundee on the TV. Woke up at 5.30 AM and writing this post. Hopefully the sleep cycle is now adjusted to the US times.
Stay tuned for more updates once we start the race tomorrow at 12.00 PM pacific time.
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| Inspection |
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| Inspection |
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| The support & follow vans with their bears |
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| The RV |
May 18, 2012
My "Better know a Cloudspoker" interview on YouTube
Cloudspokes' Jeff Douglas interviewed me some time ago as part of the Better know a Cloudspoker series. Check out the interview on YouTube.
May 12, 2012
Lego Mindstorms Nxt Strider
It's been close to two years since I had purchased the Lego Mindstorms Nxt robotics set. Being alone at home yesterday evening, thought of putting together one of the robots. Decided to build the walking robot - or strider as named in the book. Stayed up till 3.00 AM this morning putting together the robot. Did the programming in the morning and am quite satisfied with the results. Interestingly, modified the mechanical design slightly to allow a better click of the touch sensors. Need to rubberize the leg tips so that the walking is non-slippery.
For those unfamiliar with Mindstorms robotics kit, it is one cool robotics set by Lego. Not only can you build cool robots, you can actually program it to do things. It includes 3 motors, 2 touch sensors, an ultrasonic sensor and a light sensor. Programming is done visually using the included software. The programs can be transferred to the robot either via a USB cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth.
Highly recommended for kids 12 and above and of course the inner kid in every adult :-). Enjoy!
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| The Strider |
Highly recommended for kids 12 and above and of course the inner kid in every adult :-). Enjoy!
Jan 2, 2012
2011 Car / Bike Usages Statistics
It's been 2 years since I purchased my bike - Cannondale Quick 5. I have been keeping track of my car fuel usage since 2009 and bike usage since I got my bike.
It's interesting to see the car statistics over the last 3 years. Average fuel price went up by over 25%, fuel consumption went down by 15%. Overall my fuel expenses went up by 7%. Let's see if I can reduce my fuel expenses this year.
My total Kms on the bike went down by over 25% but cost reduction Kms went up by close to 13%. The aim for this year would be to increase both by around 15-20%.
Dec 21, 2011
Failing Gracefully
No, this is not about how to design/build software which fails gracefully. This is a short commentary on my recent Did Not Finish (DNF) on the 300 Km Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) Brevet ride.
For those not familiar with what a Brevet ride is: it is a self supported non competitive time bound bike ride. The 300 Km KGF Brevet ride would take us across 3 states and we had to cover 313 Km in 20 hours at an average speed of over 15 Kmph. I had previously done a 300 Km Brevet ride so was quite confident of completing this as well.
But what a crazy ride it ended up to be. The ride started at 6.00 AM from MG Road metro station. It was great riding in the fog all the way up to Hoskote where we turned right towards Malur. This is where the state highways and village roads started. In addition to this had a consistent wind resistance for most of the ride. The weather was good and while there were bad stretches of roads, the tree cover on both sides of the road provided protection from the Sun. Rode through nice stretches but was always under the gun to keep moving - was averaging right around 15 Kmph including the breaks. Took only short breaks to eat and stretch.
Reached Pernambut @ 3.00 PM but missed the SBI ATM which was the second control point. Went back in search of this and lost precious 30 minutes. Checked in to the control station just in the nick of time - had covered 143 Km in 9.5 hours. Reached Vaniambadi toll booth around 6.00 PM - had covered 182 Km in 12 hours. Took a rest break here and saw 7-8 riders pass by. While I was happy that I was not way behind the others till this point, I was worried about what lay ahead. I was averaging 15 Kmph at this point and the remaining 131 Km ride would be in cold, dark and include a tough 50 Km climbing ride from Krishnagiri to Hosur. This is where I decided to not ride in the dark but take a bus back to Bangalore from Krishnagiri instead. Reached Bargur around 8.00 PM and had dinner here. Thought I would try and get a bus right from here and waited for 30 minutes to get a bus but no luck. Again got into bike gear and rode to Krishnagiri and requested/argued with the conductors to take me & the bike to Bangalore. Thankfully had luck on the second try itself and after securing the bike on the top, deposited myself on an empty seat for a cold uncomfortable drive back to Bangalore. Reached at 00.30, got the bike down and rode home to reach around 1.20 to end a day of painful riding.
Fellow rider Parag later learnt about my DNF and enquired if I was okay. Informed him that I was okay but decided to quit as I did not want to ride in the night. My idea of a good bike ride is where you get to enjoy the ride and not just burn the Kms. Honestly I was in a pretty bad mood riding through the nice villages. Did not even exchange pleasantries with the village folks which I usually do on a ride. I guess no more Brevet rides for me... but hey! you never know :-).
Couple of tech highlights of the ride:
Map My Ride: I developed an application using which a rider could mark one's location on a ride and anyone could track the progress of riders. I could not use the app very well as my iPhone did not seem to work very well but Devaraj marked his position throughout the ride - Thanks for checking out the app Devaraj. My thought now is that this app is better used by tourers and not in time bound events as time is of the essence in these rides and geolocation + marking location takes some time - I did end up wasting quite a bit of my time trying to locate myself and mark my location. You can check out the app here: Map My Ride. Suggestions for enhancements are welcome.
Solar Charging Garmin: I had purchased a Solar Monkey solar charger on a recent trip to London but had never used it till now. I used this charger on this ride and am happy to report that my Garmin Forerunner 305, which usually runs out of battery in 13-14 hours, survived the entire ride - home to home - around 18 hours and still had some juice left in it. I think I can get it to work even more effectively if I am able to position the solar panel well. Check out the setup below.
For those not familiar with what a Brevet ride is: it is a self supported non competitive time bound bike ride. The 300 Km KGF Brevet ride would take us across 3 states and we had to cover 313 Km in 20 hours at an average speed of over 15 Kmph. I had previously done a 300 Km Brevet ride so was quite confident of completing this as well.
But what a crazy ride it ended up to be. The ride started at 6.00 AM from MG Road metro station. It was great riding in the fog all the way up to Hoskote where we turned right towards Malur. This is where the state highways and village roads started. In addition to this had a consistent wind resistance for most of the ride. The weather was good and while there were bad stretches of roads, the tree cover on both sides of the road provided protection from the Sun. Rode through nice stretches but was always under the gun to keep moving - was averaging right around 15 Kmph including the breaks. Took only short breaks to eat and stretch.
Reached Pernambut @ 3.00 PM but missed the SBI ATM which was the second control point. Went back in search of this and lost precious 30 minutes. Checked in to the control station just in the nick of time - had covered 143 Km in 9.5 hours. Reached Vaniambadi toll booth around 6.00 PM - had covered 182 Km in 12 hours. Took a rest break here and saw 7-8 riders pass by. While I was happy that I was not way behind the others till this point, I was worried about what lay ahead. I was averaging 15 Kmph at this point and the remaining 131 Km ride would be in cold, dark and include a tough 50 Km climbing ride from Krishnagiri to Hosur. This is where I decided to not ride in the dark but take a bus back to Bangalore from Krishnagiri instead. Reached Bargur around 8.00 PM and had dinner here. Thought I would try and get a bus right from here and waited for 30 minutes to get a bus but no luck. Again got into bike gear and rode to Krishnagiri and requested/argued with the conductors to take me & the bike to Bangalore. Thankfully had luck on the second try itself and after securing the bike on the top, deposited myself on an empty seat for a cold uncomfortable drive back to Bangalore. Reached at 00.30, got the bike down and rode home to reach around 1.20 to end a day of painful riding.
Fellow rider Parag later learnt about my DNF and enquired if I was okay. Informed him that I was okay but decided to quit as I did not want to ride in the night. My idea of a good bike ride is where you get to enjoy the ride and not just burn the Kms. Honestly I was in a pretty bad mood riding through the nice villages. Did not even exchange pleasantries with the village folks which I usually do on a ride. I guess no more Brevet rides for me... but hey! you never know :-).
Couple of tech highlights of the ride:
Map My Ride: I developed an application using which a rider could mark one's location on a ride and anyone could track the progress of riders. I could not use the app very well as my iPhone did not seem to work very well but Devaraj marked his position throughout the ride - Thanks for checking out the app Devaraj. My thought now is that this app is better used by tourers and not in time bound events as time is of the essence in these rides and geolocation + marking location takes some time - I did end up wasting quite a bit of my time trying to locate myself and mark my location. You can check out the app here: Map My Ride. Suggestions for enhancements are welcome.
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| Map My Ride - Mark Location Screen |
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| Rider Progress - Devaraj & Shashi's Updates |
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| Solar Monkey & Solar Nut charging my Garmin Forerunner 305 |
The power of Community Development
Over the past few months the cloudspokes.com site was rebuilt on Heroku and Database.com. Code contributed by developers across 8 countries over 22 challenges was used to rebuild the site. Proud to say that I have been a part of this journey. Read more on the Cloudspokes Blog.
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