Owner: Chilligavva URL:http://mareddy.com/lakblog Join Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:04:55 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: About Technology, Design, Writing, PHP, Wordpress, India and Branding. It has some personal raves and rants too. Site statistics:Click here
Who would have thought? 2007-03-22 03:08:22 A liitle while ago, my husband Massa was reading to me about Robin Williams and her books on design, typography, Mac operating systems, the iBook, and the iMac. I naturally was piqued and promptly googled her name. Getting into her personal site, and reading her personal bio [A good read by the way!] led me on to the location of her illustrator John Tollet’s sketchbook. What a find! If you like sketches, you would like this site. Read more:thought
Superstition and the Telugu New Year 2007-03-20 04:38:13 TeluguNew Year
has arrived with a bang. Happy New Year folks. Its officially today, a.k.a. March 19th, but thanks to the
furore it may be tomorrow. Being a GOPI [Goda Meeda Pilli- (Cat on the Wall)], I am posting this article late on March 19th to please both the factions.
I do not know complicated astrology, but most people consider a new moon in astrology as a good beginning. The solar eclipse may be the deciding factor though. And as far as the state cabinet goes, why is the rest of the year not proportionate to the hard work they have put-in the previous year, but dependent always on the the stars ? Tsk!.. Tsk!…
For my international readers, here is the point that India differs radically from the rest of the world. Most Indian people inspite of being educated or not, come under the superstitious category. After being a non-resident and getting some perspective, I now have to admit that this is the only major reason that my country has not progressed as much as it Read more:Superstition
Something Happened at Webcreme 2007-03-15 15:09:25 I have been quite a regular visitor to webcreme the design showcase site for CSS based websites. But sadly, the site is down, for more than a day. Wonder whats happening? Have they forgotten to pay their hosting dues?[Unlikely!] Has it been bought? [possible!] Has somebody posted an adult site and got reported ? [Probable!] Whatever it is, this is a sad way to go.
From a branding point of view, they may lose their niche position.. All that you get to see is a url that reads “http://baylor.hostingzoom.com/suspended.page/” with a message “We’re still here and have not gone anywhere. Please excuse the mess and check back shortly. Thank you! Webmaster: Contact support as soon as possible.”
Quite a mess I must say..
UPDATE: Its up and back as of today, 16 March, with never a note or acknowledgement about the off time.. Aw…. This kind of behaviour is not too good… Sad..
Poster Work 2007-03-08 07:26:58 This was an attempt at poster work. I had a picture of Miti at the Aquarium, and one of Massa walking. As usual I worked both the pictures in, and since it dealt with a lot of blues, etc. i named the effort, underwater odyssey, based on the colors and some mixing in of Miti and a fish image. Enjoy :) Read more:Poster
Collage of Karate Images 2007-03-05 19:45:27 This is work that I did ages ago, but decided to upload today, after I reorganized my site. I used a free graphics tool called “Serif Photo Plus” to create it. I blended in a lot of Karate
images from Mitis Karate class. Read more:Collage
, Images
What a snowstorm ! 2007-03-05 16:16:31 The highways were closed. Schools were off. Even I was off Chilligavva for an extended time. Why? Read previous line - “Schools were off..” Aaah.. Yes, Miti was home. My hubby was home. He braved it to work on the day of the storm, but the car got stuck in the snow near the entrance to our complex. This was the story everywhere. All side roads were not tended as the snow was just coming and coming. With all this write up, did we break Canada’s and NY state record. Gee no..
Winter hibernation, wordpress learning and a new logo ! 2007-03-05 16:11:04 My heartfelt apologies to all my regular readers. We had two snowstorms out here at Nebraska. After the storm, I had this deep urge to tinker with Wordpress.
With that, comes this version of Chilligavva. I was toying with some kind of logo for Chilligavva, but couldnt quite work the shell theme into it, which for the new readers, was ancient currency. So the compromise, is the “hol(e)y coins” which denote currency.
Some of the wordpress learning that I am proud of is
Creation of a home page with only a few teasers
Conditional content on other pages, based on the page being served. Explore the menu links, to see what I am talking about.
What you canot see, is some code optimization at the backend, which I shall write at some length later . I promise!
Do give me feedback. I absolutely look forward to it. Read more:hibernation
MP3 Brouhaha - The Saga continues 2007-02-23 21:40:57 Microsoft taken for 1.5 Billion…….
“Like hundreds of other companies large and small, we believe that we properly licensed MP3 technology from its industry recognized licensor — Fraunhofer,” Burt continued. “The damages award seems particularly outrageous when you consider we paid Fraunhofer only $16 million to license this technology.” -from MacNN
Kevin Maney has talked about this to some extent in his article . It seems Karlheinz Brandenburg was an employee of Bell Labs way back in 89-90. The plot thickens.. I so love conspiracy theories, dont you?
The article even has a link to the list of companies holding a license aka licensees over here.
Looks like there is a lot of German Angst on Microsoft. But analyzing this situation from a political point, it seems that the German government has decided to take on MS and in a big way. When you catch a whale, tiny fish in the net is inevitable. But with so many companies being affected, I gu
Social Prestige - The NRI take 2007-02-20 22:59:20 After noticing that her hoarse, high-octave vocals didn’t have an effect on me, she upped the ante: she started screaming another song, this time at a higher scale. I wanted to take a rock and smash her mouth but all I did was shift on my feet and flash this really stupid smile.
After reading Suman’s article “Circus Monkeys“, I had to laugh. It even got me thinking about my childhood. My teen years were fraught with dread of meeting those two. Those two were the sons of our family friend. The uncle I liked, as he was extremely witty and fun. His sons were difficult. One was extremely introverted. The other was into Capitals. And my mom stirred the situation by telling them “Our Lakshmi likes to read a lot. She is good at quizzing.” My fate was sealed. Every time I crossed their threshold, I was in for it. We had to interact with those two, as the elders spoke in the living room. And then the nightmare would begin for me. “Akka what is the capital of Khaza Read more:Social
, Prestige
Spouse Notes 2007-02-20 20:54:41 I looked up this site called SPOUSENOTES, and found the entire premise of the site very interesting. If you dig contemporary living history, this is quite a unique take. Some of the entries are quite fun. The entry by Troll Baby is pretty amusing. Read more:Spouse
, Notes
Happy Birthday DAD 2007-03-26 22:53:31 Today is my dad’s birthday.. He is 67! I called him last night US time, early morning Indian time to wish him. I just miss him so much. I made this card for Miti to send to Tata. [Thats Grandpa in Telugu.]
My fondest memory of my dad was story time. He can tell some amazing stories. I always felt that he should have been a writer. Its because of him that I can read so much. My sister and me both have inherited his love of books. One summer during our childhood, we three kids were reading about antiques.
My sister was playing with her old “uggu ginna” an Indian style milk dropper made for babies. The uggu ginna looks like a tea kettle but can contain around 75ml of milk. Kids drink milk from the spout side.
My eyes fell on it and I was very excited, as the dropper was made of silver. We promptly rushed to my dad and asked him whether it would qualify as an antique. My dad was trying to be exrtremely patient with us as we were very high on excitement, Read more:Happy
, Birthday
, Happy Birthday
Finally some “Gavva” in Chilligavva 2007-03-27 21:24:25 I finally got around to doing it! I was trying to design a meaningful logo for Chilligavva. After dabbling with a currency logo [as seen in my earlier design] I finally decided on a bright colorful shell. The stress was on the word “Gavva” which is shell, in Telugu. So after some iterations, I finally came up with this cute blue conch shell. For more details on the site design, read the colophon. Read more:Finally
, ldquo
, rdquo
Selective Content in Wordpress 2007-03-31 16:54:14 I was reading David Airey’s post called “What are your favourite creative quotes” and having a good laugh at the “You cant polish turd” quote, when I came upon his concern about including quotes in every footer. He definetely expressed a bloggers genuine nightmare of too many outgoing links. I started to type my tip in his comments page, when I figured that the larger population may benefit with this tip.
The the solution is very simple, and which I have used quite a bit in the Chilligavva site design.
Place the code wherever you want such as the footer, sidebar, header, only make sure that you thought of the conditions correctly, and you close the braces correctly.
View the tip in a text file. Read more:Selective
, Content
, Wordpress
Finally! Some ‘Gavva’ in Chilligavva 2007-04-10 21:26:10 After a huge effort, I managed to add some Gavva (Shells) , in the Chilligavva logo. I first drew a line conch shell, and from there took the design to include an ocean scene. I went with the flow, and came up with a conch -fish design..
Decided to give the logo a desi feel, and voila, a Devanagari script based font, called “Prakrt” was what I decided to use.
This version also contains a poll, some cool javascript, and I personally am awfully pleased. :) I would appreciate both kudos and brickbats alike.
Feedback, dear readers, is what improves creative work… :) Read more:Finally
, lsquo
Hectic April 2007-04-27 21:49:30 Had a lot of things on my plate, and just did not have time to blog… To all my chilligavva readers, I am so sorry. I do see that I have attracted quite a bit of visitors since I started, but didnt have the time or energy to connect with you all on any level. I shall make up this faux pas, lapse very soon.
I have tried to reorient chilligavva home page more meaningfully. So let me know how you feel about the organization.
Share This
Read more:Hectic
, April
David Cameron - Vote Blue, Go Green 2007-05-02 20:28:23 I have been a personal fan of DavidCameron
for over a year now. Some of my closest friends recieved an email from me last year when he travelled India.
What I like about him is his ability to blend new technology and politics. His sense of being practical and his attempt to carry people with him is where the attraction lies. Comparing his views with Bush and Blair is like comparing chalk and cheese.
He is definetely younger, and therefore has more time to implement his ideas and can think more closer to his voting demographic.. I like him for his blog, [yup politicians do blog!] and the fact that he does talk about global issues, not just local
Only time will tell whether my liking is well founded, or whether I too fell for the smooth pre-election talk , like everyone else. But something tells me that he is the real deal.. Here is wishing him well for the elections this week…
He is one of the few politicians to be interviewed on utube. Take a look.
Share This
Read more:Green
, David Cameron
Miti is a blue belt! Yeah.. 2007-05-02 19:29:02 Slow and steady does the trick. Last saturday, Miti was awarded the blue belt in his karate class. He is now promoted to the Juniors level at his Dojo. It was a pleasant surprise to see his progress. Why so? Its because I have stopped monitoring his classes for a long long time. Massa and me noticed that he was feeling very conscious every time we were watching, so we decided not to be there at all. We would drop and pick him up. I hope that my son’s self consciousness would decrease over time.
To my CG readers, here are some photos, of Miti recieving his award, sparring and him breaking a board, at the very first try
Share This
New Thank You Category 2007-05-06 07:29:50 I have started a new Thank
You category, this week in the blog. What would this category contain? It would contain a single detailed thank you to a person in my life (chosen at random, in no particular order) who has influenced my way of thinking.
Why? I think a current simple thank you is worth more than a posthumous achievement award! Dont you?
So the first thank you of mine, goes to my mother, Goda Rama. She is no more as we lost her to the first heart attack she ever got. Even though, she is no longer with us, her influence is always there. She had a wonderful sense of humor which kept her on keel, even in her darkest moments.
Share This
Read more:Category
A Long Overdue Thanks ! 2007-05-06 07:15:39 I would like to thank my late mother for my tiny success I have made of my life. She was a fun, joyous person, who was very strict and stood no BS from anyone, least of all me. She always encouraged me to be ambitious and base it on real hardwork and talent and not just shortcuts and knowing the right people.
Like most people of her generation, she did not study beyond high school which was the 11th grade for her. Inspite of that, I consider her a very practical person, and a true intellectual. She loved literature and history and languages which I have inherited 100%.
Its because of her, I went onto pursue some acting on stage (and loved every minute), express myself through dance, music and drawing. She sponsored a movie a week for us (which was really cool), always decided I needed new clothes, instilled some fashion sense in me, and taught me to chase my dreams no matter what. She taught me never to expect a free ride, and that there was a price to pay for every action good Read more:Thanks
Its all about Illusion you know? 2007-05-17 07:55:59 I am a sucker for anything that is illusionistic. Little wonder that I fell for this site’s content. Its interesting.
Share This
A small cough break. 2007-05-17 07:50:37 The last few days have been full of colds coughs sneezes and hoarse throats. Yup, Omaha has been dishing out this seasonal bug and by the ladleful. Weatherwise, we had hot summers in April, now lots of rain and sun in May, and nothing is stable anymore. So with so much going on, I had to take a break from my regular blog activities.
Last week was my son’s Birthday. This year he wanted a family only birthday. When your kid does not demand things, you know he is growing up. He just wanted one toy. Usually its atleast a couple of toys.
I have just posted a small Telugu lesson, as my first post this month after the break.
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You Telugu me! The Entity becomes the verb… 2007-05-17 07:40:44 I was always fascinated by the way a brand name is so popular that it then becomes the verb itself. The classic example would be XEROX. Thats a brand name. But in India nobody I mean no-body uses the correct verb photocopy. People say “Have you XEROXED it?” and mean photocopied.
Earlier this month I had the pleasure of a couple of interactions with a new bloglog acquaintance of mine , Zubli Zainordin from Malaysia who is compiling material for a Book Project. He also wants to learn Telugu
, my mother tongue.
In our emails that we exchanged, he used the sentence “You Telugu Me”, which has now definitely caught my fancy. The phrase is to be read as , translate the sentence in Telugu and write back to me.
So Zubli, here are your first few Telugu phrases.
Bavundadam - To be good (Adjective.)
Pronounciation: baa+wun+da+dum
Meeru Bavunaara? [How are you? Literally - Meeru ( You - Both Plural or respect marker) Bavunaara(Good+Question+plural - are Read more:Entity
, hellip
New Thank You Category 2007-05-06 07:29:50 I have started a new Thank
You category, this week in the blog. What would this category contain? It would contain a single detailed thank you to a person in my life (chosen at random, in no particular order) who has influenced my way of thinking.
Why? I think a current simple thank you is worth more than a posthumous achievement award! Dont you?
So the first thank you of mine, goes to my mother, Goda Rama. She is no more as we lost her to the first heart attack she ever got. Even though, she is no longer with us, her influence is always there. She had a wonderful sense of humor which kept her on keel, even in her darkest moments.
Share This
Read more:Category
A Long Overdue Thanks ! 2007-05-06 07:15:39 I would like to thank my late mother for my tiny success I have made of my life. She was a fun, joyous person, who was very strict and stood no BS from anyone, least of all me. She always encouraged me to be ambitious and base it on real hardwork and talent and not just shortcuts and knowing the right people.
Like most people of her generation, she did not study beyond high school which was the 11th grade for her. Inspite of that, I consider her a very practical person, and a true intellectual. She loved literature and history and languages which I have inherited 100%.
Its because of her, I went onto pursue some acting on stage (and loved every minute), express myself through dance, music and drawing. She sponsored a movie a week for us (which was really cool), always decided I needed new clothes, instilled some fashion sense in me, and taught me to chase my dreams no matter what. She taught me never to expect a free ride, and that there was a price to pay for every action good Read more:Thanks
David Cameron - Vote Blue, Go Green 2007-05-02 20:28:23 I have been a personal fan of DavidCameron
for over a year now. Some of my closest friends recieved an email from me last year when he travelled India.
What I like about him is his ability to blend new technology and politics. His sense of being practical and his attempt to carry people with him is where the attraction lies. Comparing his views with Bush and Blair is like comparing chalk and cheese.
He is definetely younger, and therefore has more time to implement his ideas and can think more closer to his voting demographic.. I like him for his blog, [yup politicians do blog!] and the fact that he does talk about global issues, not just local
Only time will tell whether my liking is well founded, or whether I too fell for the smooth pre-election talk , like everyone else. But something tells me that he is the real deal.. Here is wishing him well for the elections this week…
He is one of the few politicians to be interviewed on utube. Take a look.
Share This
Read more:Green
, David Cameron
Miti is a blue belt! Yeah.. 2007-05-02 19:29:02 Slow and steady does the trick. Last saturday, Miti was awarded the blue belt in his karate class. He is now promoted to the Juniors level at his Dojo. It was a pleasant surprise to see his progress. Why so? Its because I have stopped monitoring his classes for a long long time. Massa and me noticed that he was feeling very conscious every time we were watching, so we decided not to be there at all. We would drop and pick him up. I hope that my son’s self consciousness would decrease over time.
To my CG readers, here are some photos, of Miti recieving his award, sparring and him breaking a board, at the very first try
Share This
Hectic April 2007-04-27 21:49:30 Had a lot of things on my plate, and just did not have time to blog… To all my chilligavva readers, I am so sorry. I do see that I have attracted quite a bit of visitors since I started, but didnt have the time or energy to connect with you all on any level. I shall make up this faux pas, lapse very soon.
I have tried to reorient chilligavva home page more meaningfully. So let me know how you feel about the organization.
Share This
Read more:April
, Hectic
Finally! Some ‘Gavva’ in Chilligavva 2007-04-10 21:26:10 After a huge behind-the-scenes effort, I managed to add some Gavva (Shells) , in the Chilligavva logo. I first drew an out line of a conch shell, and from there took the design to include an ocean scene. Its spring break after all, and oceans and beaches offer a hint of summer time! I went with the flow, and came up with a conch-fish design..
For the logo font, I decided to give the logo a desi (belonging to India, local) feel, and used a Devanagari script based font, called “Prakrt” .
This version of Chilligavva, also contains a poll, some cool javascript, and I personally am pleased as pinch with the outcome:) I welcome feedback on this effort.
Feedback, dear readers, is what improves creative work…
Share This
Read more:Finally
, lsquo
Selective Content in Wordpress 2007-03-31 16:54:14 I was reading David Airey’s post called “What are your favourite creative quotes” and having a good laugh at the “You cant polish turd” quote, when I came upon his concern about including quotes in every footer. He definetely expressed a bloggers genuine nightmare of too many outgoing links. I started to type my tip in his comments page, when I figured that the larger population may benefit with this tip.
The solution is very simple, and which I have used quite a bit in the Chilligavva site design.
Place the code wherever you want such as the footer, sidebar, header, only make sure that you thought of the conditions correctly, and you close the braces correctly.
View the tip in a text file.
Share This
Read more:Selective
, Content
, Wordpress
World’s Thinnest Notebook - Apple Influence 2007-06-03 14:12:27 Stumbled on this story at Bussinessweek. Designed by portland based Ziba design, in conjunction with Intel, its really nice.
……, code-named Intel mobile Metro notebook, is less than 0.7 inches thick–about one-quarter of an inch thicker than Motorola’s (MOT) iconic cell phone, making it the world’s thinnest notebook. And at 2.25 pounds, it’s also one of the lightest small-sized portable computers. Other features include always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies.
Things that cannot be missed is the obvious targetting of women votes. Accessories with high fashion statements and chick colors are in [Chartreuse, pink, magenta…] Again an Apple
pioneered marketing approach. So now they annouce a concept, and see whether people are interested. If yes, then production follows, late this year?
Though designers say the product is unisex, as a fashion accessory it may carry particular appeal to women, a group Intel has long Read more:World
, Notebook
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