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Under the Oak Tree

Found myself in Gurgaon the other day and when in a different city you reach out to people you know there and there is a clear possibility of lunch. And thats how it turned out, met with one of my closest friends, who also happens to be in the food business like me although i am in the business of EATING the food. Headed to a restaurant in Gurgaon that i am getting quite fond of, The Oak Tree (www.theoaktree.in). It has great food and a lovely cozy ambience. The owner of the place, Ajay , very gracious host that he is joined us at our table. The Oak Tree also has a pub called Attitude just above it, which features live bands on most days of the week. That is something i plan to check out one of these days.

When you are dining with someone who is in the food business and another who is the owner of the establishment you are eating at, the experience takes on a different hue altogether. And so it did. Before the food started to roll in, some bar snacks popped up on the table before us. Something Wasabi coated. Now i am a self confessed wasabi nut myself and would probably eat a wasabi covered stone (something i have admitted even earlier) so these wasabi titbits were a treat. And they were HOT!!! , like any self respecting wasabi covered titbit should be. So before the conversation went any further, i had to find out where i could get my hands on that fiery snack. I didnt have to look too far, those and other wasabi related items were conveniently available at the grocery store across the restaurant aptly called Needs.

Then the food started to roll in, a mixed meat platter with some very tender tenderloin and an amazing bratwurst amongst other things. The tenderloin was really good quality and well cooked, medium as i like it. That urged us to also order the tenderloin for our main course, in larger portions ofcourse, along with sides of steamed garlic broccoli and garlic bread. A very good choice indeed. After stuffing my face with the great food i went into the grocery store and picked up the wasabi related items. I must add here that i was quite impressed by the selection at the store. I only wish something similar was to open up in Delhi, preferably near my home :).

Connected Media Nirvana ... finally ...

(This is a big one, so get a drink, a snack and strap in ...)

Ever since i can remember, i have loved the idea of a connected home. Various services available all over the house for a wonderful deeply satisfying experience. I have had a wired plus wireless network at my house for many years now and have experimented with various setups in my quest for seamless media availability. I have had my share of lemons but i think i have finally found my peace. For video that has come with the Popcorn Hour A-110 and recently for audio i have found it with Sonos. I will write about my popcorn hour experience at a later date but this time its all about the Sonos. While the popcorn hour is more of a geek product that needs tinkering, the Sonos system is really for the normal consumer.

I have been eyeing the Sonos products for a couple of years now and the delay in taking the plunge has been mostly economic as they they certainly arent cheap (both in price and quality). Finally this month i was able to jump on the Sonos bandwagon and setup a 2 zone system at my house.

A small description of what a connected audio system is before i continue with my experience. A connected audio system is one which has capabilities of connecting with a wired or wireless home/office network in order to access content that is available on the network or to access the internet and take advantage of the many content services available there. There are many connected systems in the market and each tries to bring their own uniqueness to the solution.

Sonos does it by making good quality products that work well and are a cinch to setup. That is certainly a very important factor for success, many systems out there make the setup overly complicated and as a result consumers shy away from them, they end up with the techie users who can mess with the setup. The majority of the consumers however would like something thats truly plug and play, especially on the higher end of the scale. The experience i had with the Sonos has been amongst the easiest setup ever, probably one step away from switch on and go.

Sonos is a multi zone system, meaning you can define different rooms/areas as different zones and can manage them independently. You can then either play separate music in the different zones or you can group them to play the same audio in the entire group. Something that works very well when you have a party or something, all your zones could be playing the same music. I chose to setup a 2 zone system, one for my living room and the other in the formal drawing/dining room. The way the Sonos works is that at-least 1 unit needs to be plugged into your network if you want to access media thats on your network or the internet. The rest of the sonos equipment sets up an independent wireless network of its own for communicating between themselves. I could have chosen to keep my system out of my network but that would have defeated the whole purpose.
Neither of the rooms i chose had ethernet connectivity so i had to also get an other unit that could be plugged into my wired network which was in a different room. For this purpose Sonos also makes a unit called a Zonebridge, which solely works as a bridge between your wired network and the Sonos wireless network. In other words it lets the entire Sonos system access your wired network. The Zonebridge has no player capabilities so its cheaper than the others and also it can be concealed out of sight, its listed at $99.

For the players, Sonos makes 2 types, the Zoneplayer 90 and the 120. The difference in the two being that the 120 has a built in amplifier and the 90 does not. The 90 is meant for rooms where you either already have a music system or plan to get a complete audio setup. The 90 then simply sends the audio to your setup through a standard RCA connectivity or through an optical/digital jack. The 120 is meant to be a separate unit where you can simply connect speakers directly to it and you are good to go. You can connect upto 4 speakers to the 120 and those are driven by the built in amp. This means that the 120 is also more expensive than the 90, the list price for the 120 is $499 while the 90 is for $349. I picked the Zoneplayer 90 for both my zones as i had independent music systems in both zones. In my living room i had just installed a Yamaha Soundbar YAS-71 as i wanted something sleek and compact. While in the formal drawing room i had a Bose Lifestyle 25 system. The Yamaha soundbar is a great unit for rooms where you don't want an elaborate setup, it plays a simulated surround sound through one long bar that has multiple speakers in it and a separate subwoofer. One of the Zoneplayers is connected to this through an optical cable. The Bose system has a non functional CD player so i needed something to play audio through it and the zoneplayer 90 fit the bill perfectly. Its connected through a standard RCA audio cable that comes with the Sonos. Its important to mention here that the Sonos equipment is dual voltage so while it was purchased in the US where the standard voltage is 110 volts, it auto switches to the Indian 220 volts (rather 90-300 so a stabilizer is needed).

As i mentioned earlier the install is super easy, you simply launch the included software application on your computer (both Windows and Mac are supported), press a button on the Zonebridge/Player and in a few seconds it becomes part of your Sonos network and you can access it from the software. For any technology product targeted towards general consumers, to succeed it needs to be built with the age old KISS principle (Keep It Simple and Stupid) and Sonos has done that perfectly and with great sophistication. One of the first things i did was to rename the zones to correspond with where they were placed, for easy usage. So one is called "Lobby" and one is called "Drawing Room". Sonos lets you setup and manage upto 32 zones, i must remember that when i win the lottery :). So with my zones setup i needed to provide them with audio sources. Again this is done very easily either through the remote (which i will cover below) or through the Sonos desktop application. I use a network attached storage unit from Buffalo to store my audio and i was able to add its shared folder to the Sonos media library. It starts to scan the folder right away to build the details into its library. I don't like it when applications or products decide they can do a better job than you in organizing media (i am talking about you itunes grrr.) and i like to keep my media in my own folder structure that makes it easy for me to find my media. I was very happy to find that amongst the standard listings like Album, Artist, Genre, the Sonos also lists my music by the folder structure it lies in. This in my mind is a HUGE deal and i am able to use my media just like how i want it. Next come online media services like Rhapsody (which is not available in India), Napster, Sirius, Last.fm, Pandora etc for which you need internet connectivity on your network. These are all paid services (last.fm and pandora are free though) and you really don't need to subscribe to these if you don't want to. You get another feature that makes your media library almost unlimited, the online radio. Sonos has partnered with Radio Time, a service that gives you an unbelievable 25,000 radio stations to choose from and stream to your Sonos player. It also has many local radio stations so you could be listening to local radio from different countries and cities. Not only that, you can add your own favorite stations to the list and listen away in any of your zones :). I did get Sirius and i will talk about that in a future post.

Now we come to the control. The Sonos system can be controlled in various ways, the easiest and the one that comes with the system is the desktop application. It covers both Windows PCs and Macs and offers almost the same experience between the two. I use both types of computers at home and the application is very well built and easy to use. Full points to the Sonos user experience team. You can install the application in more than one computer and not only will it let you control each zone, it also tells you what is currently playing in each. The next kind of controller is another software based one, its an ipod app. Available free from the Apple itunes store, it can be installed on an ipod touch or an iphone for a fantastic experience in controlling your Sonos system. Kudos to Sonos for making this excellent app available free, they realize their money is coming from the systems and apps like these given free are adding to the users joy and control in using their system. Finally, the best way in my opinion to access the Sonos system is to use a hardware remote. They had a great remote the CR 100 which was easy to use and very powerful but they recently added the CR 200 which really raises the bar to a whole new level. Learning from the ipod app experience they created a touch screen remote which has a brilliant large screen and you can control each part of the Sonos system with the flick or touch of a finger. It connects to the network wirelessly and really uses the screen real estate and touch control very effectively. It has a user replaceable rechargeable battery and comes with a dock where it charges. It kinda looks something like an ipod sitting in its dock and thats what people think it is. Then you pick it up and it comes to life, it has a motion sensor built in :). I can go on and on about the remote but i will cease here and say that it has to be one of the most brilliantly crafted controllers i have seen for ANY product. High quality in its build and in its user interface.

So i will end here and say again that anyone looking for a connected audio experience would find it hard to find a product as well made as the Sonos. I didn't get into finer detail like the fact that all Sonos equipment has built in 2 port ethernet switches, while it may seam pointless to some, it is a life saver where you have only one cable which is already being used for something else. I must also add here that they have a great website which offers tons of information before you buy anything. The manuals that accompany the products are paper manuals that are very high quality, something you would expect from a costly electronic product. The hardware itself is beautifully finished and gives the feeling of a high end product. The Sonos support is also supposed to be great though thankfully i haven't needed it so far :).

The long but fun weekend ...

The last weekend was an especially long but interesting one. Man, i am such a geek :) . I was able to get some pending technology fixes out of the way. I had a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB hard disk sitting and smiling at me on a shelf for a couple of days now. That was destined for my gaming rig, which was at that time running a Seagate Barracuda 250gb that came with the PC. Needless to say, i was running out of space and hence the hard disk upgrade was necessitated. On friday evening i cracked open the gaming rig and installed the new disk, installed Windows XP and copied some of the data from my old hard disk before removing it from the PC, this took me to Saturday.

This older hard disk then went through partition magic to clean it up and was going into my download rig when i came upon a hurdle. My download rig (aka old gaming rig) has an older PSU which doesn't have SATA power connectors. There was another SATA hard disk in there, which was using a molex to sata power convertor and this was something i had forgotten. So this upgrade was going to have to wait as i looked high and low in my den but i wasn't able to find a suitable cable amongst a myriad of cable collections. The next day being Sunday i was again with my hands tied behind my back as i was not going to be able to find a cable on that day, oh i miss Fry's :( . So this upgrade was going to have to wait.

A third upgrade that was also going to happen this weekend was that my Macbook Pro was getting Snow Leopard. I had the dvd in hand since the day it was launched but i was waiting for a replacement hard disk. My macbook pro had a 200 gb Hitachi 7200rpm disk which was full. In any case, i like installing fresh operating systems after cleaning up the disk and this being my primary machine i didn't want to take any chances with the data backup. So while i had a full time machine backup i wanted to keep this hard disk as it is, plus it was creaking at the seams. I needed a bigger disk. I had been researching for a suitable disk the last couple of days and had run into the familiar choice conundrum , speed vs space. I could get a 320 gb 7200 rpm disk for about the same price as a 500 gb 5400 rpm disk, 500 gb 7200 rpm drives are still expensive and not that easy to find in Delhi. So i pondered over my priorities, is the little increase in speed enough to forgo 180 gb ? After an unreasonable amount of time i finally made up my mind, i would rather take the increase in space over the speed. I chose a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 gb and ordered it online. That drive also came in on Saturday, so while my download rig had to wait for an upgrade, i could work on my macbook.

I visited a number of websites explaining the upgrade procedure and then saw the wonderful video at OWC (Other World Computing). The OWC videos are a great resource for any mac user wanting to get into the hardware. Very well detailed and the narration was also excellent, a must see for all mac users . So i laid out the tools and got set to operate. I have done many hdd upgrades in the past but i have to say none have been this complex and painstaking. 4 different screw types and about 20 in all, most so tiny they are a hard to handle. Its almost like Apple doesn't want people to open up their laptops :). Anyway, i broke into the laptop and was able to replace the hard disk without too much trouble. Put the case back together, and wow i still had all the screws where i left them :). So with the laptop back together i started installing Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) which took about 45 mins in all before i booted into the newly setup machine. I placed my older hard disk in a USB enclosure so i could copy stuff across to the new system. Next i set about reinstalling all my application, finding all my serials/keys in my email etc, not the best time. It also showed me what my priorities were, LOL! first installed Mozilla Thunderbird and next was Tweetdeck which i must add, is fast becoming one of my favorite apps. Another advantage of making an external storage device out of my old hard disk was that i could selectively copy stuff as i needed it. That leaves out a lot of stuff i had installed on my older hard disk, keeping my new one clean and fresh at-least for now (why does that sentence sound like an ad for womanly products ?) . Copying some of the preference files and settings over from the old however turned out be quite a task. Anyway, monday morning i had my Macbook all ready for action :).

So, coming back to my download rig, on Monday i visited the mecca of IT components in Delhi, Nehru Place. After jostling through the crowds and visiting about 10 shops, i had my cable, actually 3 cables. I bought them from different shops as i wanted to be sure at-least one works. I didn't want to go back for a cable that was cheaper than the amount of fuel i would burn by going back and forth. With the cable in hand, that evening i installed the hard disk in my download rig and install Ubuntu 9.04 and now with Azureus running 24x7 again , i am at full productive capacity :).

Now that was a fun weekend.

Return of the jedi ...

Yeah i am a star wars fan, who isnt :)

So after a writers block of epic proportion, i have managed to drag myself back to the blog and will try and be more regular this time around.

A lot has happened since my last post, a lot of food has been eaten, many gadgets bought, some lemons and some definite keepers. Oh and the hamsters are dead, i dont know about Tom but Jerry is certainly burning his backside in hell.

Oh and i have a new job now, it still involves education and praise the lord, it still involves technology. Coz those are the only two things i really know, Food and Technology and try as i might, i cant find anyone to pay me to eat, so technology it will have to be. And finally, the cherry on the pie ... my new office is exactly 1 km away from home .... yeah the commute is a killer ...

The Big Mystic Chill in Bali

Big Chill is a name popular amongst the people in Delhi, ok south Delhi. It has emerged as one of the most popular casual eating places in the past few years and its success has made the owners expand and open more outlets. They have been able to maintain their quality in all the restaurants and so its extremely rare to find a walk in table at any of the Big Chills. The food is good and the pricing makes it affordable for repeat visits, a meal is usually about Rs. 500 per person. The ambiance is like a casual cafe and the many retro movie posters all around give it its own charm. The food is sorta Italian with Pastas, Pizzas, sandwiches and grills, they havent changed their menu in the past few years but then if something is working, why change it. And working it is, its extremely rare to find a walk in table at any of the outlets and on weekends the wait can be hours long.

There was a rumor that the owners were working on a new restaurant, a rumor that surfaced 2 days back in the form of a pan asian restaurant called "Mystic in Bali".

There will be blood ...

I am reminded of this movie as i stand in front of the bathroom mirror and look at my shaving ensemble. There is the Merkur Vision razor and matching brush, Proraso "Wheat Germ" shaving cream, Art of shaving alcohol free after shave cream and most importantly, a bar of Alum. I had done my research well, watched all the you tube video's diligently, faced my son making fun of me as i was trying to re-learn shaving. I thought to myself why not. If Tiger Woods can rework his swing even though he was on the top, surely i can learn how to shave the proper way. I was determined. Well now the time had come when the little birdie had to fly, it was time to put the pedal to metal, or in my case the edge of the blade to my face ... yikes ! And i must add i had quite an audience for my big debut, my wife and son were watching closely, ready to rush me to the hospital if need be. I had also planned my adventure during the night, so if i looked like i had been attached by a pitbull i could recover a little before facing the office.

Thumbs up for Continental

After a not so brief hiatus, i finally picked up the pen keyboard again. A lot has happened since then and more posts should follow shortly. Earlier i had written that i have dropped British Airways as an airline of choice for my visits to the US and had decided to try Continental. Well i did a Delhi to USA round trip on it and have been more than satisfied. Its pretty much decided that i have a new airline of choice for that sector. I waited for my experience on both the legs of the trip before i came to my decision. The long flight was certainly an issue for me as i cant sleep on a flight, so keeping myself occupied is always a challenge. The entertainment system is a big factor in doing that and so are other things i bring along on my laptop (On that topic, the latop has also changed, i am on a Mac now but that post will come later).

An affair comes to an end ...

I love to travel and thanks to the work i do, i do get to do a fair amount of international travel. I prefer sticking to a certain set of airlines and hotels, not looking for a new deal every-time i need to catch a flight. Until recently my airline of choice was British Airways, not anymore. I must admit i actually liked the airline, a lot, and had been a very loyal passenger for many years. I have had the chance to sample each of the 4 classes that they offer on long haul and so my experience is quite complete. They used to be an excellent airline, in tune with the needs of their passengers. But over time, they have slipped, quite substantially. Add to that the mess that is Heathrow and there really is no compelling reason to fy BA anymore. So my love affair is over, they did try to make it up to me and opened an entire new terminal. I dont think i will be seeing that anytime soon.

So as i approach another visit to the US, i had to pick another airline. This time i have decided to go with Continental. I have heard mostly good things about their non stop service to NYC and i think i am going to brave that journey. Strangely, the amount i fly, i am still quite a nervous flier and i prefer shorter flights. But the advantage of stepping on a flight and going straight to the destination is a major lure. A few weeks back i took some long flights, from London to California and back and those i feel paved the way for a little longer flight time and so i am prepared for the non stop. The entertainment on Continental better be good though as i always have trouble sleeping while flying, no matter how comfortable the seat might be, and the entertainment is my way to pass the time. In fact it was so important that i used to make sure i flew towards the end of a month so i could fly out in one month and by the time i flew back in, the month had changed. This meant that the list of movies on BA would change :). Also i must be in the minority of people who actually eating meals on the flight. I dont know what it is but i like the different small portions and somehow it manages to fill me up.

A detailed review will follow once i experience the flight.

Southern comfort

Yesterday, as i was trying to be a good father and husband and staying home for the evening i get a rather disturbing call. It was from a fellow foodie who dangled a rather tantalizing carrot in front of me, well actually keeping in mind my choice of food i should say bone and not carrot. A visit to Andhra Bhawan was in the offing. Now this is one place that has been on my to-do list for a longish time but someone have never gotten the momentum to go and eat there. I have heard only good things about this place so i was in a dilemma, to go or not to go, that was the question. So i risked marital discord and decided to get this place off my to-do list. After the visit its back on my to-do list.

This is a canteen, for people from the state of Andhra Pradesh, in the south of India. Not a restaurant by any standard, its a dining hall, to put it mildly. Finding it was another issue altogether, even the veteran who took us there had trouble finding it and once we did we had to park a little way off and hike to the place. Anticipation was at a high with everyone and of the 4 of us, 3 were virgins to the place.

Ordering the food was amazingly simple, though unorthodox. We were required to pay at the counter first and then once seated were to hand over the coupon to the waiter who would bring the food. There is no menu. There is a basic vegetarian Thali (preset meal with various items on a plate) with unlimited refills. But we weren't there for this Thali, the non veg items were like an add on. The names couldn't be simpler, Mutton Fry, Chicken Fry, Chicken Curry, Fish Curry, thats about it. This i imagine is comfort food for the people from Andhra, simple and tasty (the food not the people). Oh and i forgot to add, SPICY. This food is certainly not for the faint-stomach, you need to know what you are getting into before you get in there. Anyway, we ordered 4 Thalis and ALL the add-ons, yes we found it hard like a parent choosing which child they love more. No sooner did we sit and hand over the coupon that the food was before us. I think this is the advantage of having a pre-set menu, all the food is ready. The food was very very good and all of us were eating and only stopping to comment on how good the food really was. We were all eating mainly rice, eating with our hands is not unusual when we are eating  Indian breads but i think eating rice with our hands adds to the level of comfort and gives us a deep satisfaction. The pricing of items at this place also couldn't be simpler, everything item is priced at Rs. 60, the Thali, the add-ons. The sodas were Rs. 15 each and since we ordered 4, they came to an even 60 too.

At the end all of us were extremely happy and content with our meal and the promises of returning were going around. One issue that seemed to be on our minds is that usually very good spicy food rears its ugly head during the morning ablutions, sometimes it doesn't even wait that long. However i can happily report that this food caused no such discomfort, and everything was good to the end :).

T'was a dark stormy night, there was a car and there was a PC

Ok so it wasn't night, and the day wasn't stormy either. Earlier this year i was able to bring together 2 of my interests, cars and computers. Well there was a third interest too, food was involved but that is involved anyway :). This time the food involved was the amazing Barra Kababs of the famed Khalsa dhaba, which is quite literally world famous in that part of delhi :) (west). Coming back to the other 2 interests, i installed a PC in my car. Many people said why and i didn't really have an answer, i guess there really isn't any way to justify it. Its just something i decided to do and i managed to do it. It took months of meticulous planning, procuring and most importantly finding the right team for installation. I was lucky to find some people who were just as detail oriented as i was and i was extremely happy to find someone who actually knew what they were doing. Most shops in Delhi are focussed on LOUD music and they have no clue about the various settings on an amplifier. The people who did the installation also installed a great sound system to complement, and i must admit it was an eye opening experience in itself. I felt the usual mass market brands like Sony, Pioneer etc were all we had in India but i was very wrong. India has a growing market for niche or high end audio products and i somehow managed to connect with the right people.

The PC is a regular windows xp computer except that its a small form factor. That is to make it fit in the small spaces within a car while keeping the heat level low and also utilizing less power. Procuring all the items for the system were indeed troublesome and almost everything had to be imported right down to the quick connect clips.

I wanted the look to be as factory finished as possible and not just something that seems stuck on the dash. This meant i would have to fabricate a custom dash, which i did on my own :). In the end the entire project was extremely satisfying. The interface is Centrafuse that operates like a high end media interface and with my custom skin it seems like it came with the car. The GPS works great and people cant believe its actually working here in India, well its all in the maps actually. What doesn't work is the guidance as the process of finding an address is very cumbersome. The software looks for a street address and in India we have colony or locality address and street addresses are very few. The audio video works great and thanks to my great sound system its a very nice experience. My phone is linked with it using bluetooth and works just fine. I also installed a rear view camera with sensors so it shows me obstacles at the back with the distance. Here are some pictures of the system in action.

This is only a snapshot of the full system, full details of the build can be seen in my thread on Team BHP   the pictures start on page 7.