I am always looking for people, books, sites, podcast that can make me a better person to work with. There are quite a few sites out there that have help for managers, but the one I found that has the most relevant and interesting information is Manager-Tools.com. It is a weekly podcast by two management consultants (Mark Horstman and Michael Auzenne) with practical advice that can used in our day to day life. Mark and Mike provide an fresh insight into business advice, management consulting and personal coaching. Highly recommend it to anyone thinking of moving into management.
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Mac : Enhance your Apple Remote
While I am on a Mac spree :), here’s an app that can really enhance the apple remote that comes with all the new macs. The default functionality you get with the Apple Remote is pretty basic. You can only control Front Row and put your Mac to sleep. I am trying “Remote Buddy” from IOSpirit and have been pretty impressed with all the apps you can control with your apple remote now. And you cannot argue with the 9.99 Euro cost either :).
HOW TO : View Chat logs in Adium
Adium is a multi protocol instant messaging application for the Mac OS X. I have been using it on my MacBook for a while now and think it is a fantastic example of how powerful open source can be. I was trying to figure out how to look at the chat logs on Adium. Some Googling helped me figure it out.. :). To view the chat logs on Adium, you can type “Apple Button + l” or click on “Contact -> View Chat Transcripts” in the menu.
RECIPE : Chepala Pulusu
Recipe for fish curry (AKA Chepala Pulusu in Telugu). Credit goes to my Athayya (mother-in-law). Lakshmi and I learnt a lot of new dishes during her brief visit to Chicago.
Ingredients
- Cat Fish : 3Lbs
- Onions : 3 (large)
- Thai Chill : 6
- Tamarind : 10 gms (or use 2 table spoon of tamarind paste) : 6i
- Ginger Garlic Paste : 3 table spoons
- (sambar) Chili Powder : 3 table spoons
- Curry Leaves : 5
- Cumin Seeds : 1 tea spoon
- Mustard Seeds : 2 tea spoons
- Turmeric : 1 tea spoon
Preparation
- Skin the cat fish, cut out the fins and tail.
- Cut the fish into medium size pieces and wash with turmeric and salt (this takes out the fishy smell).
- Pour 5 table spoons of oil in a broad pan and let it heat for ~2 minutes.
- Add mustard and cumin seeds and let them sizzle for ~30 seconds (this is known as thalimpu in Telugu).
- Add curry leaves and let them sizzle for ~20 seconds.
- Add the chillies and onions and fry them.
- Add 1 table spoon of salt to soften the onions.
- Add turmeric powder.
- When onions start to brown, add the tamarind water.
- Add the chili powder and let the contents simmer for a few minutes.
- Lay the fish pieces on the mixture evenly (after this point, don’t move the fish pieces since they can fall apart).
- Cover the pan with a lid and let the contents boil for 15 minutes.
- Serve hot with white rice and enjoy :).
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Blackberry : Administrator tip
If you ever wanted to find out how to confirm that a message you have sent to a blackberry device has been delivered, you can send a message to the blackberry with just < confirm> in the subject. You will get a confirmation e-mail as soon as the message has been delivered to the blackberry device. We usually use it to check latency and other issues on our blackberry server.
HOW TO : Cognos Installation
I tried setting up Cognos (Business Intelligence tool mainly used for reporting) on a test machine for Lakshmi to play around with. After going through the install, I can say with confidence that Cognos has some of the worst documentation :). Here are some quick tips that you won’t find in the official documentation for someone trying to configure Cognos BI 8.x on a Win2k3 server running MS SQL 2005 and IIS 6.0.
- After installing Cognos, run the “Cognos Configuration” tool and change the “Gateway URI” setting to “http://servername:portnumber/cognos8/cgi-bin/cognosisapi.dll” in the environment section.
- Edit the default.htm and index.htm file in the “< cognos install directory >\cognos\c8\webcontent” directory and replace cognos.cgi with cognosisapi.dll
- Open ISS manager and go to Web Service Extension. Add a new web service extension called isapi and add cognosisapi.dll as a required file. Make sure to set the extension status to Allowed.
This should enable you to launch cognos and log into the web interface.
HOW TO : embed Youtube video into your site
Links with information on embedding YouTube video onto your websites (blogs). One from YouTube, which provides information that can be used by anyone and the other that is specific to WordPress
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=57788&topic=10519
Tollywood day
Here’s a Youtube video of one of my favourite telugu songs. This movie (Hrudayam) was released when I was in pre-college and oh boy, did it break some hearts :). It also boosted Heera and Murali into stardom (at least in the Telugu world).
Link to lyrics from this song : http://www.telugubiz.net/lyrics/hrudayam1.html
Command to clear command prompt
I always keep forgetting this and finally want to document it. The command to clear your screen when using the command prompt in Windows is “cls“.
Chicago's best Korean Restaurant
If you are in Chitown and want to taste authentic Korean food, I highly recommend San Soo Gap San located at 5247 North Western Ave. Lakshmi and I had dinner at San Soo Gap San for our anniversary :). It is not the most romantic place, but you will really get a kick out of preparing your own BBQ. In addition to falling in love with Korean BBQ, I also discovered a new beer. OB (Oriental Brewery) Lager Beer is a light lager made from Rice. It has a mild taste with a light crisp hop character. Beer lovers should try this :).
P.S: Make sure you don’t wear any expensive clothes to this restaurant. You will end up smelling like smoked BBQ, by the time you are done with your meal :).