password management and security is like flossing before sleep. It’s a pain but you know you have to do it.

this is an opportune moment for me to point to my fellow nerds that i recently started a new blog called K’s Coding Corner where i dish my learnings on programming. i recently wrote a post on how to store passwords in a web application correctly and would like to smugly shamelessly state that Gawker should have read my post (muhaha).

i mean seriously, this is Gawker! the same people who run Lifehacker, not to mention sites like gizmodo. they should know better than to have such a half assed method of storing passwords.

for the normal ones that want to know why this post is on my personal blog, here’s my recommendations that even Jeff Atwood misses on an otherwise clear and detailed post:

• Do NOT keep the same password for all sites
• Use a password manager like KeePass (what i used in my PC days), LastPass (what i currently use after moving to a Mac) or 1Password.
• Keep one super strong Master password for the above mentioned services and let them worry about your passwords

i cannot possibly stress these points enough. a post on Quora ( slamming the use of OpenID-different topic though) suggests otherwise i.e. using same username/password for multiple sites. this is simply bollocks. when you have such awesome password management services like LastPass which are absolutely free, you shouldn’t do such crazy things and the Gawker password incident is a perfect example of why you shouldn’t.

so gentlings learnings for the day:

• DO NOT use same username/password for all sites
• Use LastPass (or KeePass or 1Password) instead to manage them for you
• if you’re into programming/coding read my other blog – K’s Coding Corner

Peace.

1. are you a coding monkey?
2. do you like to blog?
3. do you have an ocr disorder for keeping things organized?
4. do you swear by simplicity and all that zen

answering yes to any of the above means you most definitely have to check Markdown by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. markdown is basically a method of writing text or what geeks like to call a markup language. writing in markup becomes almost natural once you get used to the syntax. the advantage here is even if you have to pass this text to someone who has no clue about markdown, he can easily understand the text. the biggest feature though is instant conversion to html.

i’m writing all my .txt files now completely in the markdown script. should i want to convert any of my random notes to a blog post, simply use the converter and i have ready-made html for my blog. HUGE amount of time saved in pesky html tags and formatting. yeah!

Here’s how to get it setup (Follow the links for detailed instructrions from Google Calendar):

• Register for Google Calendar Services
• Make your first Calendar

• Register your Mobile service

  These are the list of supported mobile providers. Even if your provider isn’t listed give it a shot and enter your number. Zain for Kuwait wasn’t listed originally but still worked.

• Customize your event notifications-Now for any particular event/calendar you can add “SMS” Reminders.

A pretty nifty feature, if you want to make sure you never miss an appointment.

Sometimes the very first result Google shows, is in a nice formatted stand out type of box called OneBox. For e.g. try “1KWD to USD”. Google instantly gives you the conversion of 1 Kuwaiti Dinar to US dollars. Other similar uses include finding the local time: “time kuwait” gives this OneBox result :

A new option of Google OneBox that has been doing the rounds now, is finding the time of Sunrise and Sunset of your location. For e.g check the screenshots I took for Sunrise and Sunset times in Chennai:

I live in Kuwait and so tried “Sunrise Kuwait”, unfortunately the option didn’t seem to work. But a little more digging and trial-error resulted in this:

Google OneBox stands most relevant for the State/City rather than the Country. Kuwait is a pretty small country and doesn’t have very clearly defined “states/cities”. But the capital of Kuwait is supposed to be “Kuwait City” which is basically like an area, hence the mild confusion. So try your Google OneBox searches against the City/State rather than the country.

What am I going to do knowing the timing of Sunrise and Sunset :P ?

• Planning for Camping,hiking,outdoor activities.
• Photography-knowing sunrise/sunset timings is critical for planning a good photo-shoot.
• Astrological Calculations in Hinduism (Horais) are calculated based on this
• Prayer timing for Muslims – Salah

Other Cool Google OneBox queries

• pizza in kuwait city – Notice you have to put city/state here again
• weather kuwait
• time delhi
• time india

The Google Operating System blog has a comprehensive post on some of the other useful Google OneBox searches.

Studies shows we humans require a minimum of 7 hours to function at our prime (brain gets all swooshy and muddled without 7hours of quality shut-eye). My work starts at 7:00am and it takes me about 15 minutes to get to work. This essentially means I NEED to sleep by 11:00 pm and be up by 6:30am. The latter tends to be a problem since i’m not very diligent about the former. So I had to find the perfect alarm system for waking up in the morning.

I prefer to use my phone for the Alarms because a) It’s portable and b) it isn’t another device i have to chug along when travelling. But most default alarm bell tones are as good as silent to me when I’m in REM mode. I researched the net and found the “perfect alarm ringtone”. One that’s loud enough to wake the bejesus out of you while at the same time just keeps you clear of the Cardiac Emergency Room (can’t guarantee latter). Download the Ultimate Alarm Bell Ringtone here. I also use the Stock Buzzer Alarm that comes default with the Nexus one. I set two alarms to make sure I don’t snooze my way to sleep-dom.

• Morning Alarm 1 (Wakey Wakey) [6:00 am] – Buzzer Tone (comes default with the Nexus 1)
• Morning Alarm 2 (Fire Fire!) [6:30 am] – Ultimate Alarm Bell (this is the shit bro!)

Having two alarms help because, let’s face it, everyone needs those precious 5 more minutes of bliss. It’s critical for me though that the two alarms have different ringtones. This indicates the time without having to take a look at my phone (not to mention finding those darn spectacles). So even if i snooze of Alarm 1 and don’t realize it, when snoozing or switching off Alarm 2 i know i’ve reached my limit.

Discalimer: Use the Ultimate Alarm Bell at your own risk. Seriously people it is “alarming” and not for the weak hearts (better wake up late than in a hospital).

Any suggestions?

In the good old days I had an excel file where I listed all the TV shows that I watched with an auto date-updater. I was thinking of writing a program but never got around to it. That’s when I discovered next-epdisode.net. I was relieved of my primitive excel ways. Then technology took a leap: enter RSS feeds. A service called showRSS was pretty cool and also conveniently provided Torrent Links (not that I used any of these illegal torrents. No sir, I simply waited until they aired on a legally subscribed dish channel :P). It seems there are some who are determined to make it even easier to download TV Torrents. Gentlepersons I present to you TED: Torrent Episode Downloader.

Coupled with a bittorrent client like utorrent, you don’t have to do anything. Seriously, you don’t…. Once setup, it automatically downloads the Torrent files and if you allow utorrent to download the files directly, even that part is taken care of. You just go about doing your normal do da and will find your downloads folder updated with the latest TV episodes. Simply brilliant stuff.

so to recap my creepy TV following ways: Excel > Next-episode.net > showRSS > TED.

The process of setting up TED is drop dead simple:

• Install TED from here
• Click the First button “Add Show” and you’re done.
• Some additional settings: Extra > Preferences > Configure where torrent files are saved e.g: E:\Downloads\Torrents.
• Make sure to check “Open it in your default bittorent client”. That’s the sizzler that makes this application a beauty.

TED is still maturing so prepare for some mild wonkiness. The only painful process is for some reason you format your pc or something crashes, you have to manually add all the shows again, which can be a real back-biter. To make it even simpler (if you share the same viewing choices as me) download this .ted file to your PC. Open TED, click File > Import Shows and point it to this downloaded file. yup that simple!

For unobstructed Torrent downloading and viewing goodness, change the following settings in Utorrent under Options > Preferences > UI Settings, Ensure:

• “Don’t start the download automatically” is UNCHECKED
• “Activate the Program window” is UNCHECKED
• “Show a window that displays the file inside the torrent” is UNCHECKED

Prepare for some unobtrusive TV viewing Goodness!

You’re welcome ;)

But if you have 3500 assorted files with names like “Woork xcFgvB1.pDf”, “iphone User manual.PDF”,”address Book.Icon.Drawer.dld free bts_128.png” or god-forbid “Gmail Contsfor-Kbefore SYNC with Iphoneon5Jan.csv”, partitioning would only get you so far. Apart from frustrating the hell out of productivity enthusiasts it would require you to necessarily do a “Search” for your files. Do I need to remind you of the problems of searching in XP? Let’s not forget how a general search can eat into your system resources if you don’t have your drives indexed.

You can reduce these issues to a large extent with adherence to a little diligence in file-naming. These are some of the tips I personally recommend.

word of advice: most of the reasoning should have been pushed to my tech blog, but these file-naming practices have helped me so greatly in terms of productivity in general, I thought this would be a better place :read if you just want the best practices read these rules and move on

• Avoid using “.” (fullstop/period) other than or file extension
• Avoid spaces like the plague
• Case Sensitivity : Use init-caps to separate logical words
• Underscore for change in context, hyphen only for versions/dates
• Use the YYYY-MM-DD format for dates in file names

• Avoid using “.” (fullstop/period) The full stop should be used only for file extensions. Although modern day OSes do allow us to use multiple fullstops(bear with me my american comrades), the intended primary use of periods in certain OSes like windows is to differentiate between file-name and extension. The last full stop is treated as the file extension. Unix like OSes hold no such rule (but it is recommended to have the file extension for compatibility between OSes). Java seems to have issues with it though. Also adhering to this rule ensures full backwards compatibility for ISO-9660 level 1 and other legacy systems like OpenVMS, Windows 95-98, etc. Most alarmingly though is the fact that certain mail filtering programs consider a file with two periods to be a “virus” or “worm” that the sender is trying to disguise and will generally result in your attachment not making it to your recipient. Given the availability of better alternatives, you should resort to using one “.” and that too only to denote file extensions.
• Avoid spaces like the plague Apart from appearing elusively convenient, spaces in file-names can wreak havoc while being referenced online. When you refer to a file with a space in it’s name, it gets converted to the “%20″ special charecter, what’s more is that you necessarily have to enclose it with inverted commas to ensure the name is read properly. I suppose it’s ok while maintaining files locally on a hard disk, but the title of this post is BEST practices.
• Case Sensitivity : Use init-caps to separate logical words Windows and IIS servers are oblivious to case sensitivity meaning “wtf.doc” is treated the same as “wTf.doC”. Many recommend using only lower case charecters uniformly. I beg to differ. I prefer separating logical words and initcapping them. These immediately stand out neatly and in the end productivity is of primary importance. A word of caution though, if you plan to use a unix like OS, “this-is-not-the-same-file-in-unix.doc” and “this-is-not-the-same-file-in-Unix.doc” would be treated as different files. And oh yes lower-case for file extensions please(no .PdF .PDf .pDF etc… only .pdf)
• Underscore for change in context, hyphen only for versions/dates This is by far one of the most widely debated rules among us productivity freaks. I’ve found this rule both convenient and logically convincing. If it’s a complete change in context, meaning the first part of the file name tells you what kind of file it is while the next part tells you the name of the file, separate them out with an underscore. The reason I use underscore here is because, again visually this is the most productive. I could also use a hyphen, but I’ve noticed this to look slightly more cluttered at first glance on a 1024X768 resolution monitor. If you’re still reading the reasoning and intend to read the rest of the post, give me a call sometime, you’re probably my soul-mate.
• Use the YYYY-MM-DD format for dates While using dates remember to name them in the format YYYY-MM-DD. Doing so automatically sorts them out neatly according to the date.
• Naming your MP3s Yes I have a life and I enjoy music too dammit. You have to use what’s convenient to you here. I listen to ALL kinds of music from hard-rock to carnatic classical. So the artist’s name appearing first is more important for me. Hence I name my mp3s as “Artist_Title_Album.ext”. So that would be DeepPurple_SmokeOnTheWater_BestOfDeepPurple.mp3 and BombayJayashri_TungaTarangeGange_AtmaSoul.mp3 . Another more common use is “Title_Artist_Album.ext”.

But in the end it boils down to what you feel is convenient wow all that drivel and poof! ship sank..

When you have a full folder named neatly like so, the untold joy……

If, after reading this guide you feel i have issues, how right you are ;) !

Good Stuff

• Vox Populi : 43 folders’Jurassic post :P
• What Do i know
• The awesomest File Renaming Software

• Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.
• Teach a man to fish and he learns to covet your boat.
• Give a man a fish, and you satisfy his fish craving for a day. Give him fish aversion therapy, and you eliminate the craving for life.
• Give a man a fish and you leave yourself wide open to lawsuits. Teach a man to fish and he’ll ask for an ocean.
• … Teach him to fish and he’ll sit in a boat drinking beer all day
• Teach a man to fish, and you introduce another competitor into the overcrowded fishing industry. Give a man a fish, and you stimulate demand for your product
• Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.

Hank Paulson

Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs

I’ve always been very efficient and disciplined. If I have a business dinner, people know that it should start at 6:30 and be over by 8:30. When I’m home in New York, I’m asleep at 10. I’m up at 5:30 and try to work out four to five times a week. Once or twice a week, I run four miles in Central Park. I used to do seven-minute miles, Now I’m up to eight and a half or nine.

Marissa Mayer

VP, Search Products and User Experience Google

To keep track of tasks, I have a little document called a task list. And in the same document there’s a list for each person I work with or interact with, of what they’re working on or what I expect fro them. It’s just a list in a text file. Using this, I can plan my day out the night before: “These are the five high-priority things to focus on”. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make time that was previously unproductive productive. If I’m driving my car somewhere, I try to get a call in to my family and friends then. Or during dead time when I’m waiting in line, I hop on my cell phone and get something done. My day starts around 9 am and meetings finish up around 8 pm . After that I stay in the office to do action items and e-mail. I can get by on four to six hours of sleep. I pace myself by taking a week-long vacation every four months.

Bill Gross

Chief Investment Officer, Pimco

I get up about 4:30 am and check out the markets. I have a Bloomberg and a Telerate and some other machines downstairs. I make myself some breakfast and then head off to work about 5:45 am and get into the office about 6. The first hour or two is used for acclimating the markets and various economic data releases.

Howard Schlutz

Chairman, Starbucks

I get up at 5 and 5:30 and naturally the first thing I do is make some coffee; depending on my mood, it’s ether an espresso, macchiato or one of our Indonesian coffees in a French press. I’ll take my coffee, read three newspapers – The Seattle Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York times – and listen to a voicemail summarizing sales results from the past 24 hours. This has been my routine for the past 25 years.

Carlos Ghosn

CEO of Renault(France) and Nissan(Japan)

Focus relentlessly, especially if you’re running two Global 500 companies. I do my best thinking early in the morning. I always ask that my first meeting not happen before eight. When I need more time to think , I wake up earlier. If I don’t do six hours of sleep I’m in bad shape, but I’m usually up by 6. It is also important to take a distance from the problem. I do not bring my work home.I play with my four children and spend time with my family on weekends. When I go to work on Monday, I can look at the problem with more distance. I come up with good ideas as a result of becoming stronger after being recharged. Stress builds up when you know that there is a problem but you do not clearly see it, and you do not have solution. We’re all human. I want to assure you I feel the same pain and he same stress and the same jet lag as anybody else. You may have nights when you cannot sleep and the stress is unbearable. It happens to every single person in a job like this. I get around 600 emails a day. I divide them into four categories, and I deal with them immediately, by and large. First are emails that I forward to someone else. Next are where somebody’s giving me information that I need to cascade to somebody else with instructions. Third are the ones that I can read later on an airplane. Fourth are those that require me to respond immediately.

A.G Lafley

Chairman , President and CEO , Procter and Gamble

I’ve learned how to manage my energy. I used to focus on managing my time. I’d be up in the morning between 5 and 5:30.I’d work out and be at my desk by 6:30 or 7, drive hard until about 7 pm, then go home, take a break with my wife, Margaret and be back at it later that evening. I was just grinding through the day. During my first year in this job, I worked every Saturday and ever Sunday morning. Now I work really hard for an hour or an hour and a half. Then I take a break. I walk around and chit-chat with people. It can take five or 15 minutes to recharge. It’s kind of like the interval training that an athlete does. I learned this in a program called the corporate Athlete that we put on for P&G managers. I did the two-day program, where I also leaned to change the way I eat. I used to eat virtually nothing for breakfast. Now I have a v- 8 juice, half a bagel, and cup of yogurt. And I eat five or six times a day. It’s about managing your glycemic level. You don’t want to boom and bust.

John McCain

U.S.Senator (R-Arizoa)

You lose battles in politics. I do get good and angry. Really angry! By God, I’m not going to let them beat me again. I don’t like to lose. After the 2000 race for the presidential nomination, I spent at least ten days – and in many ways it was the most wonderful experience of my life – wallowing in self-pity. It was really fun. Freeing.

Judge Richard Posner

U.S.Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago.

Then I just woke up and said it was time to get over this. The people you represent don’t want you this way. You’re still their Senator. And besides, America doesn’t like sore losers. I also don’t hold grudges. It’s a waste of time. What’s the point? Frankly, the sweetest revenge is success. I usually get up around a quarter to 8 and don’t get to the office till about 9:30, 10 a.m. I usually go home after lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon and evening, except for dinner, up till about 11:30 pm, working. I’m working on opinions, or writing a book or blog, or something else. I’m a very fast writer. I can write 20, 30 manuscript pages in an evening. I do revisions later, but I find it more efficient to et something down that indicates where the gaps I my thinking are, and what research has to be done, and so on.

Butterflies are a symptom of anxiety. Anxiety leads to tension of the muscles. Tension constricts breathing. The brain notices reduction of the intake of oxygen, sends a message to the heart.. Beat harder! beat harder! Other physiological changes occur including blood pressure, potassium,circulation. Only thing you can control at this time is to reverse the oxygen problem. Breathe deeply. Brain notices increase in oxygen and send message to heart…OK slow down now…act normal. The other physiological changes will automatically follow.

Here are the two main techniques I find useful when faced with a butterfly attack:-

• Breathe Deeply: It definitely helps. The above quote taken from a response elsewhere seems to explain why.


• Practice Practice Practice: A famous motto prescribed by one of my brother’s heroes Johnathan fatal1ty Wendel. Nothing can substitute the benefits of good practice. The toastmasters club is a boon for this reason in the field of public speaking. I can personally vouch for this.Locate your nearest toastmasters club. I can see a huge difference between the first time i stood dangling at the lectern and today.


Check out the post “13 tips to Zap your butterflies when speaking in Public” particularly for Public speaking. Very useful.

1. Choosing a Gym depends on numerous factors. You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages and arrive at a personalized conclusion. Like every other important decision in life there are no general one-line rules to this choice.


2. Sweating De-bunked : Sweating is the body’s natural way to bring your body temperature down (thermo-regulation in geek-lingo).Sweating profusely (more likely to happen in gyms with lesser Air Conditioning*) only means you lose more water. This only causes a temporary loss of weight. The minute you drink water(something you should do more often btw) this “weight lost” is re-gained. Hence loss of weight aimed through this way** is not only pointless but also precarious as it can be mis-leading. Lesson : More sweating in your gym does not mean your burning “more-fat” but simply that your burning fat.


3. It is important to choose a gym which has the most amount of usable-equipment.You need a wide range of equipment in order to uniformly exercise the different parts of your body.The key word though is usable. If a gym boasts of having equipment resembling the likes of props from Star Trek, think again. Keep in mind though two treadmills and one-cycling machine does not constitute a gym as well.


4. the most important point though, while choosing a gym, should be the one that would ensure your motivation to go to the gym stays high. If you choose a gym that satisfies most requirements but is 15 kms away, there’s bound to be some attendance problems. Unless of course your instructor is Angeline Jolie.


5. It’s the simpler more common-sensical points that you should watch out for. Like how long the gym stays open. What are the schemes like. Are they open on weekends. Does it have a pretty instructor.

Hope this helps.

* Slight digression: There is this common misconception that you tend to sweat more under humid conditions. Not true. In fact you tend to sweat lesser under humid conditions. You feel more miserable though. Simply because sweat, which should evaporate thus cooling your body, evaporates lesser under humid conditions and more under dry conditions. An efficient air conditioning system should maintain the humidity at optimum levels. Dryer/humid is not to be confused with hotter/colder.[MAJOR DIGRESSION >< ]

**Sweating more does make you burn fat (and this time I mean the kind you should be gunning to cut down on). But the amount of fat burnt this way, is of such minuscule proportions, that it’s pointless hoping to reduce this way.Let me clarify. Sweating requires “sweat” to be secreted in the 2.4 million sweat glands located throughout the human body. For any natural process the body undergoes, energy is required.This energy is derived from fat reserves in the body. Hence some fat IS burnt through this way. But the proportions are so small, you shouldn’t be banking on this in the first place.(This point has been stated merely for theoretical correctness).