amunix

Guess I am good with email, phone, and personal folks these days. Lost all flair and enthusiasm for social networking. I recently tried getting onto google+, but it has proved to be little worth, and huge time-waster, since almost everyone is blabbering, and there is very little information there.

Got an iPhone4 today, and also started reading Feynman's "What Do You Care What Other People Think?". Reminds of Apple's "Think Different" ad. campaign, that turned the company around.

Yoga is an in thing these days, less because it helps achieve physical fitness, and more because it has a connection with spirituality. And that sells. A Yoga instructor who claims to help you achieve physical fitness will get not a single student, but the one who shows you a DVD containing stars, planets, some mystical music, chakra photos will be an instant hit. Grow up, get real - first achieve physical fitness, and then strive for spiritual connections.

Fragrances are a mixture of various aromatic elements. They are mixed in such a manner that some can be smelt immediately after the first spray, some 20 minutes into wearing it, and even some more 45 minutes into wearing it. The notes that can be smelt immediately are called Top notes, the ones that come after 20 minutes are Mid notes, and the ones that linger on and on are the Base notes. Base notes determine how good the fragrance smells into the day, and how long it lasts (longevity).

Fragrance top notes are designed to be very pleasant. That is how almost all fragrances smell lovely at the mall, but smell horrible when you wear them. So how do you decide which fragrance is good for you? Here are some tips:

• wear a fragrance on your wrist, and then wait for 15 minutes before smelling it. if it smells good even after 15 minutes, then it is probably good for you.
• wait for another 30 minutes, and if it smells good even now, then this is it.
• it is important for the fragrance to smell good to you, and not others.

Wearing the fragrance correctly is as important as the fragrance you choose. Here are some tips to maximize the fragrance experience:

Do

• apply fragrance as soon as you are out of bath. the body pores are open at this time, and fragrance will remain longer on skin.
• apply it on underarms, chest, back, and behind the knee joint (yes!), wait for a minute, and then wear clothes.
• if the fragrance is strong, then apply only on underarms and chest (too much is generally rude and offensive!)
• wear multiple fragrances - experiment with two or more fragrances, and the fusion may create magic on your skin

Don't

• wear fragrances on your clothes - they may stain. the real beauty of a frag is the smell generated when it mixes with your body chemistry.
• wear too much fragrance - EDP is strong, EDT is mild, and EDC is mildest of all (% of actual fragrance).

The sense of smell evokes an "association" with something, and if you wish to be that "something", then avoid common fragrances. Fragrances that are in the front row in the mall, or the contemporary bestsellers, are typically common. For eg., every second girl wears Davidoff Cool Water, which, in my opinion, is the worst fragrance ever made. Wearing common fragrances puts you in the same row as everyone else, and blunts your individual statement. Fragrance should bring about individuality, and the persona of the wearer.

Aquatic notes are girly, and rarely done perfect, so most aquatic bestsellers end up smelling horrible after the first 30 minutes. Oh, and the bestsellers typically have lovely top notes, which is what makes you purchase them at the mall in a split second. Wear a fragrance on your hand, roam around for 15-20 minutes, and then smell - if you like it, then its probably a fragrance you'll like for a long time.

I recently got the Hermes Un Jardin en Méditerranée for my wife, and initially she was skeptical. She absolutely loves it now, especially after wearing it for 30 minutes, and the fragrance starts creating magic.

My present ones are YSL Kouros, Versace The Dreamer, and Antonio Puig's Quorum. The next on my list are the Creed fragrances. As a thumb rule, if people share love or hate (both extremes) relation with a fragrance, it is bound to be different. Everything else is mediocre.

Over the last couple of years, and after playing with a reasonable amount of flashlights, I've decided my likes (commonly available battery, small as possible, long runtimes). These days I find the single AAA flashlights to be the most useful, with the 10 lumen ones most used. I also do have some that take an AA battery. Here are the ones that I have presently - Arc-P AAA, Arc-Ti AAA, Arc-UV AAA, Peak LED Solutions Eiger level 6, Peak LED Solutions Matterhorn (1-LED, red), Maglite Solitaire, Eagletac pn20a, Muyshondt Mako, Inova X1 (1st generation), Xeno Cube v7, Zebralight SC50w+ (smallest AA light), Gerber Trio (2xAA), JetBeam Jet-I Pro v1 (1xAA). All other speciality battery type lights have been sold or traded.

It is an interesting progress I have had over the last decade, ever since I started using linux. I progressed from a typical "linux zealot", being influenced by RMS and his loud speeches, and was confused about the meaning of freedom. This is a dangerous situation to be in, since it clouds clear and critical thinking.

It was a roller coaster ride, but soon I discovered FreeBSD. Ah! this was one operating system that was clean, lean and mean. And did everything that Linux does, but better. I was hooked. My thoughts about freedom were cleared when I understood the FreeBSD license. From here, given my inclination towards security, the next stop (and possibly the last) was OpenBSD.

OpenBSD taught me what clean, lean, mean, and secure code is. Installed in just about 10 minutes from scratch, this is truly a wonder, and re-enforces the idea about simple and clean design. It also teaches you a valuable lesson -- use the correct tool for the job. It does not try to be everything for everyone, but does a less number of things in a functional, and correct way. Unlike other Oses, the OpenBSD man pages are accurate too. The BSD license is the best way to define what freedom really means.

Save a lot of time by not responding with a single word "thanks!" to an email response. In a workplace, everyone is doing their job, so where does this thanks come from? I dislike when I open an email from someone and there is a single word inside it...