BBCh 4 - Endurance cross country race @ Sarjapur

1 day ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

Poster by Krishna Kumar

What: XC (Cross Country) Endurance Race
When: 20th May, 2012
Where: Sarjapur
Race Distance: ~64Km
Loop Distnace: ~16Km
No of Loops: 4 When the winner finishes 4, the race ends.
Registration Time: 0600 – 0645hrs
Race Start Time: 0700hrs
Race Loop – http://g.co/maps/d7e26

Register Now
Official Website

Please Note

There is a Designated Car Parking just after Kodathi Village, We request all the riders to park the cars at this place only. The Start and finish points are different and at the finish line there will be refreshments available to the riders.

Driving Directions

1. Starting at Decathlon Sarjapur, drive southeast on Sarjapur road for about 1KM.
2. On the left you will find an arch (Kodathi Gate), take a right at the arch and drive down for about 1Km.
3. Turn Left drive down for about 100 mtr
4. Turn Right and keep left at the fork 200 mtrs further down the road is the car parking area.

Childrens Race

We’ve had kiddies race for the last 2 races and have been loads of fun. Its been a delight to watch the kids race some as little as 4yrs old. There will be childrens race after the main race. Please bring your kids along. It would definitely be a unforgettable fun sunday.

Brewed.

1 day ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

More evidence that the class of 1997 is the best class ever? Witness, if you will, our cocktail hour on Saturday night. We assembled in the art gallery (where I was reminded of how incredibly sorry I am that I never took any studio art classes in high school), where our classmate, Craig, had arranged for a beer tasting.

Why, you ask? Because Craig (whose last name is Theisen, you should know) is one of the co-founders of Peak Organic Brewery in Portland, Maine. And Peak? They make some pretty awesome beer. (Organic beer, by the way, is organic because of its ingredients. When it comes to brewing, the methodology is akin to that followed by other craft brewers, like Brooklyn and Sam Adams.)

A huge array was available, but my two favorites were the Summer Session Ale, which was a pale gold color and tasted lightly of oranges, and the Pomegranate Wheat, which was a bit sweeter, rounder in the mouth, and altogether too drinkable.

Thanks again for the awesome beer, Craig - you are one talented and generous dude.

Deploy Play 2 application on AWS with Tomcat and Apache HTTPD

2 days ago | Aishwarya Singhal: Aishwarya Singhal

I have created a web application on Play 2.0 framework, in Scala. To deploy it, I looked at various cloud options – Amazon looks the best because, well its free  Once the instance was created, it already had Java 6, I installed Apache HTTPD and Tomcat 7. Lets first add some swap space Now edit [...]

Generating Excel in Play 2

3 days ago | Aishwarya Singhal: Aishwarya Singhal

Play 1.x has a nice module that allows you to create Excel sheets. The new Play 2.x however lacks this capability. Or atleast is not very evident. While I found most of the information by searching the net, I thought it may help someone to just have quick start notes here. 1. I use Apache [...]

Lush.

4 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

 I didn't make it to the Greenmarket this weekend, busy as I was gallivanting around New England with my fellow members of the class of 1997 - but I spent the week before that with an apartment full of peonies.

Bright pink with bright yellow stamens, and blush pink with hints of burgundy - nothing could be better than a vase of these on every surface.

Basking in the familiar.

6 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Amen Hall, my home for four years.

I took a little walk down memory lane at my 15-year high school reunion this weekend. I went to boarding school in New Hampshire, and the campus is as lush and beautiful as ever.

Ms. Eggers' history classroom in the Academy Building.

Whenever  I return, I am struck anew by how unbelievably lucky I was to attend such a wonderful school, and how impressive the people I spent those four years with were and still are.

The marble steps to Assembly Hall.

On this trip, I was also lucky enough to sample one of the region's classic delights, a frequent late-night snack in every dorm on campus: the chicken finger sub.

Chicken finger sub from Romeo's.

Crispy, piping hot chicken fingers stuffed onto a giant bun, topped with shredded iceberg, chopped tomatoes and, preferably, pickles. I like mine with a side of mayonnaise, too.

After all, it couldn't possibly be all essays, exams and lively intellectual debate.

A Conversation With Mark Bates About How To Learn CoffeeScript

9 days ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

Update: I just setup an email sign up form – if you give me your email address I’ll send you one – count ’em – one email messsage when the eBook is finished…

Greenery.

18 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

It's that wonderful time of year, when asparagus season overlaps with ramp season, and all is right with the world.

This weekend, I made a variation on this sauteed asparagus dish - I subbed in ramps for the shallots (added the sliced bulbs at the beginning, and the sliced tops along with the chives at the end). I also happened to have some pea shoots, so I spooned the whole lot down on a bed of those. Extra grassy green flavor, FTW!

Hello, gorgeous!

19 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

It's lilac season! In related news, my apartment smells heavenly.

What happened to Slate?

19 days ago | Aishwarya Singhal: Aishwarya Singhal

Slate is still very alive (and kicking), I just have been busy with my day to day job to make aggressive improvements lately. Plus, I did need to urgently catch up with Play 2.0 and Mongo DB so whatever free time I get these days, goes there. I intend to get fully active on Slate [...]

Spicing it up.

20 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Way back when,  one of the very first recipes posted on this blog was for bucatini all'amatriciana. Yes, I've long been a fan of this sauce, made with tomatoes, red onion, bacon and crushed red pepper. Can you blame me? Because it's pretty freaking awesome.

A few weeks ago, while perusing my Pinterest stream, I spied something truly amazing: baked eggs all'amatriciana. And I realized that I'd been missing an incredible opportunity for many, many years. After all, I love eggs - especially when run under the broiler to set the whites and leave the yolks all runny and delicious - and I really, really love bacon, tomatoes, red onion and crushed red pepper.

And so, when I grabbed some local-but-not-yet-seasonal tomatoes at the Greenmarket this weekend, I supplemented them with a few teeny red onions and made my way home to make what I suspected would be one of the best lunches I'd had in quite some time. Spoiler alert: I wasn't wrong.

Turns out these eggs are not only delicious, they're brunch-worthy. They're the food equivalent of a Bloody Mary, minus the booze: spicy, rich, bursting with umami, and loaded with hangover busting powers. And since you can make the sauce the day before, they're perfect for those mornings you know you'll need a little something extra to get moving.

If you're feeling especially sluggish, I recommend extra red pepper.

Baked Eggs All'Amatriciana

1 slice bacon, cut into batons
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced crosswise
3 plum tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt, to taste
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
2 eggs
Parmesan cheese, finely grated, to taste

Heat a saucepan over high heat. When quite hot, add the bacon and immediately turn the heat to medium. Cook until the bacon is crisp and most of the fat is rendered, stirring occasionally. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to a plate, and pour off all but a very thin coating of the fat.

Return the pan to the heat and add the onion. Cook for a few minutes, until softened and just turning translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two more, then add the tomatoes and season with salt. Cook for three to five minutes, stirring constantly, until the tomatoes have melted and the sauce is becoming watery.

Add the bacon back in, along with a half teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, covered, for ten minutes or so, until the tomatoes have well and truly released their juices.

Remove the lid and allow the sauce to cook 10-15 minutes longer, until the sauce has thickened. Taste for seasoning (it should have a decent kick).

(Everything up to this point can be done up to a day before serving; let the sauce come to room temperature, cover it tightly, and stick it in the fridge. Warm it back up before moving to the next step.)

Turn on the broiler. While it warms up, spread the sauce over the bottom of a large ramekin (I use my 16 ounce models). Crack two eggs on top of the sauce, being careful not to break the yolks. Sprinkle with the cheese.

Place the dish under the broiler for about 5 minutes, until the egg whites are set and firm, and the cheese is browned.

Remove the ramekin to a plate (to protect your table from the heat), sprinkle with a touch of salt and a bit more red pepper, and dig in. 

Serves one as a main course.

Queenie's Treasury

22 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Happy weekend, my lovelies! It's been a busy week chez Queenie, topped off by this morning's rather chilly visit to the Greenmarket. I snagged asparagus, ramps, garlic scapes, lilacs and peonies, though, so it was well worth the frozen fingers and runny nose. As I warm up with a pot of Stumptown, let's take a look at this week's Treasury.

First up, one of my very favorite blogs. Little Green Notebook is the work of interior designer (and DIY goddess) Jenny Komenda. She has a marvelous eye, effortless style, and the Ikea hacking skills of a master. Everything she touches turns to gold - often literally, with the help of a little gilt spray paint. Her reupholstery projects are among my favorites, and the tufted headboard she made for Jo Goddard is stunning. Jenny, you're my home makeover heroine.

Next up, Rifle Paper Co.'s most excellent spring collection. If the lilacs and peonies at the market haven't gotten you in the mood, their new floral notebooks certainly will. I've become something of a digital note-taker of late (I'm obsessed with the TeuxDeux app, for example), these make me want to return to my analog ways and start jotting ideas down in tiny little journals.

Finally, something I never thought I'd type: look at these adorable sugar cubes! Well, not cubes, really - shapes. Chambre de Sucre will help you have the best tea/champagne cocktail party ever. Just hang one of these angel wings off the edge of each teacup or flute, and your work is done. Or you can go dainty with the tiniest, most perfect cubes you've ever seen. No matter what, you'll never think of sugar as boring ever again. (Photo via The SoHo.)

Two states

22 days ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

Positioning and Scaling maps in D3

22 days ago | Thomas Newton: newtonlabs.io

When working with interactive maps on the web there are several options and decisions that need to be made before you get started. This article assumes you have decided to focus on SVG directly in the DOM to provide the map and bind interactions.

Leveraging D3

D3 is wonderful library by Mike Bostok that allows you to bind data to the DOM to create beautiful data visualizations. It is a low level framework that does not constrain you to the API and really allows your imagination to run rampant.

Select the Data for the Map

There is a strong temptation to start with a pre-generated SVG file that is easily found around the internet as the base of your map. However, if you go with this technique and use D3 to append path elements to the DOM it will become very difficult in the future to transform, position, and scale the static path strings.

Instead bind the map data to GeoJSON And leverage the goodies provided out of box from D3 to work with your map in the DOM.

Advantages of GeoJSON

D3 will take the GeoJSON data and convert it to a standard SVG Path after applying whatever scaling, transforms, or repositioning you require. This becomes much easier then attempting to calculate changes to the SVG commands on your own.

• Can apply D3 Geo Projections
• Can scale the map to different sizes dynamically in the DOM
• Can move the map to different positions in the SVG container
• A giant repository of earth data can be found at Natural Earth Data and converted to GeoJSON

Simple Examples

The following examples illustrate how easy it is to reposition a map once you have the data in GeoJSON format.

In these examples it is assumed that the variable geoMapData contains the full GeoJSON object. In this example I used the one from D3 of the United States

1) Define variables, and the height and width of the SVG container

var h, mapXY, path, states, w;

w = 1000;
h = 1000;

2) Build a function that you can apply to the projection to build the new path elements when the SVG paths are inserted into the DOM later on using standard D3 insert. In this example we are using the albersUsa Geo Projection (see below on other examples of projection types), scaling the map by 90%, repositioning the map to the center of the SVG container

mapXY = d3.geo.albersUsa().scale(900).translate([h / 2, w / 2]);

3) Create a new path function that will use the new mapXY coordinates and scaling when inserting the path elements in the DOM

path = d3.geo.path().projection(mapXY);

states = d3.select("#geo-map").append("svg").append("g")

4) Standard D3 Insert (also color the map grey with a white stroke)

states.selectAll("#states path").data(geoMapData.features).enter()
  .insert("path")
  .attr("d", path)
  .attr('stroke', 'white')
  .attr('fill', '#ccc')

Now you have complete control of the Geo Projection, the scale, and the positioning of the map in your SVG container.

Geo Projection Examples

A few examples of what different projections look like all leveraging the exact same GeoJSON file (one line of code change above)

albersUsa

albers

mercator

An edifying view.

23 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Last weekend, I paid a very brief visit to Boston and Cambridge. We stayed just off of Harvard Square, and my run on Friday morning took me down to Memorial Drive, where the views of Harvard's distinguished buildings are only interrupted by crew teams rowing through the frame. Pretty idyllic, right?

And not a bit chilly, to be honest.

Continuous Blog Delivery

24 days ago | Thomas Newton: newtonlabs.io

In a sea of regular inspiring awesomeness on Hacker News this one really stood out to me today: How I tricked Myself into Being Awesome

This totally changed my perspective on how view writing and and learning. I hope I can follow Chris’ example with some of the work I’m doing in D3 and Web Sockets.

CITCON - Cool Great Experience!

25 days ago | Riju Kansal: Riju's Thoughts Captured...

They have Manhattans in Boston, too.

26 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

And I highly recommend the one they pour at Drink, Barbara Lynch's cocktail bar on Congress Street. It was ridiculously well-balanced and satisfying.

Plus, they make sure you have plenty of water to go with your booze, which is, in my opinion, the mark of a place that wants you to enjoy your drink as opposed to wallow in it.

Drink
348 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts
617.695.1806

In the neighborhood.

27 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

When I moved to the Upper East Side, it wasn't because the neighborhood was a happening hot spot. I needed a place in a hurry, and a friend's cousin was subletting her super-cheap studio. It seemed like kismet, and I moved in a week after I first visited the place. Seven years and two apartments later, I'm still here - mostly because it's a ridiculously easy commute (to work, to the East Village, you name it) and pretty cheap, in Manhattan terms. But, of late, it's turning into a halfway exciting place for food and drink, too.

Spigolo has been a big part of the neighborhood's self-improvement plan. It opened a few years back, and has been serving delicious Italian food to standing room only crowds ever since. Every time I visit, I realize I don't go often enough.

On my most recent trip, I started with a house cocktail, the Bulleit Burlesque. A mixture of rye, cherry and ginger (I honestly can't remember the exact ingredients), it was a spicy take on a Manhattan - so of course I loved it.

For my starter, I ordered Spigolo's take on the Caesar, a half head of romaine topped with anchovy dressing, Parmesan and piping hot, lightly fried rock shrimp. I loved the flavors in this, but it was a bit overdressed. I ended up pushing about half the sauce to the side - but nothing could ruin the contrast of the plump, toasty shrimp with the crisp, cold lettuce.

On my insistence, Kyle and I split an order of the Romano potatoes. From what I can tell, these bad boys are boiled, then smashed, coated with a bit of cheese and salt, and crisped on the grill. They are, in a word, ridiculous.

I was lucky enough to visit early in the evening, before the restaurant sold out of their house-made chicken and broccoli rabe sausage, which was split, grilled and served on top of a cold farro salad. The sausage - unlike so much chicken sausage - was moist, flavorful and a perfect texture. And the salad was a little creamy and peppered with roasted tomatoes and cold cucumber. So, as you can imagine: I loved it.

Dessert at Spigolo is particularly good - the co-owner is also the pastry chef, and she does a fantastic job. My favorite of the two we sampled last week was the sticky toffee bread pudding. I'd even go so far as to say that the sticky toffee sauce was as good as my own, and I loved the whipped cream/mascarpone combination that topped things off. (So much so that I might copy it.)

Over the next few weeks, I'll be offering up a few more reasons why the Upper East Side isn't seeming like such a bad place to be these days. Stay tuned! In the meantime, get your butts to Spigolo before they take that bread pudding off the menu.

Spigolo
1561 Second Avenue
Between 81st and 82nd Streets
212.744.1100

27 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Queenie's Treasury

29 days ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Happy weekend, kiddos! I'm headed home this morning from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I've spent a couple of days visiting with friends, family and my firm's Boston office. In the meantime, I've been collecting all sorts of goodies to share with you all, so let's get to it, shall we?

Let's start with this incredible Rhinebeck home, photographed by the one and only Jamie Beck. I absolutely love the way this space combines rustic and glam elements. The result? A stunning retreat to which I'd like to invite myself for every weekend from now to eternity.


Finally, I'm currently loving Dear Hancock's Culinary Desk stationery. The butcher block island, the chicken ready for roasting, the Mac displaying a recipe - it calls something very specific to mind for me. Shocking, I know.

Something new.

about 1 month ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

For my first drink, I tried the Bermuda Black, a concoction made with white & black rum and fresh ginger & lime juice,  topped off with a smidge of dark beer. It was sweet, yes, but also sour, tangy and rich. Definitely a summertime sipping drink, a sort of dark and stormy for those of us who like a little more citrus in the mix.

To finish up, I ordered a Manhattan, which came garnished with an orange peel. It was perfectly balanced - not two sweet, not too spicy - always a good sign of a quality bartender. After all, fancy custom cocktails are one thing, but proving you can tackle the classics? A must.

The Wayland
700 East 9th Street
(Corner of Avenue C)
212.777.7022

imageScience on Ubuntu

about 1 month ago | Gourav Tiwari: easy_software = Agile.find(ruby_on_rails)

Recently.

about 1 month ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

I've been gravitating toward simple, delicious food recently. I think it's in anticipation of summer's bounty, which barely needs any help to be amazing. Among the things I've been eating are the granola from Peels, which is unbelievably delicious, and...

...a couple of loin lamb chops, which I trimmed a bit, rubbed with garlic, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and cooked on the stovetop. I whipped up a little cucumber-yogurt sauce to go alongside, and the whole thing took about 15 minutes, start to finish.

There's nothing wrong with simple.

Prem is a Bum @ BumsOnTheSaddle

about 1 month ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

Prem resting on some awesome BOTS wedgies

Prem Kanth!

It’s the slightly annoying but entertaining line we hear at BumsOnTheSaddle these days. For some reason Mr. Kanth wants to keep it that way.

Kanth has 6+ years of experience handling customer relations for some kickass customer focussed companies.

He even biked to work on his Firefox Cosmic!

Talk to him and it’s pretty clear that he is a tad obsessed about customer service – which is brilliant cause BumsOnTheSaddle is all about an awesome experience and celebrating cycling.

He aspires to become a hardcore bike tech and is currently undergoing some rigorous brainwashing training here.

While he is currently running amuck with greasy palms and bicycle innards at the tech division at BumsOnTheSaddle we hope to leverage his solid customer relations experience and straddle him down to clean up our communication and customer experience.

This is the man who will be planning and receiving the flower bouquets on behalf of us and those occasional punches when something goes wrong ;)

Welcome aboard Prem Kanth!

Ironically he is extremely antisocial with no facebook and twitter presence. Tsk!
You can reach out to him at prem@bumsonthesaddle.com or just call the store [+91(80) 4123 3036] and say hi.

Please pester him for some discounts. Ask for that elusive ‘free side stand’ when you buy a bike from us!

BBCh12 | Race 3 | Stonehill calling - Road Event

about 1 month ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

Race details

• What: Road Race
• When: 7am on 15th April (Sunday)
• Where: Stonehill
• Register NOW

The race is going to be 8 laps of 7.6kms each. We have Category 1 mens, Category 2 men’s and Women all starting at the same time. The race is finished when the race winner crosses the finish line.

Standings will depending on which Category you currently belong to, the number of laps completed and the time you have clocked to finish the race.

More info on our Bangalore Bicycle Championships site.

Spring is, well, springing.

about 1 month ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Hyacinth at the Union Square Greenmarket. Spring has sprung, and I'm back in the Greenmarket swing. Expect an uptick in pictures of flowers, fruits, vegetables and oddly-dressed shoppers.

Ramps: a debrief.

about 1 month ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Well, folks, I'm pleased to say that the ramp-alicious dinner party went off without a hitch! We sipped our Gibsons, nibbled our toasts, slurped up our pasta and devoured our lamb. (And the strawberry-rhubarb crostata wasn't half-bad, either.)

Most of what I made last night were tried and true favorites, starting with the Gibsons, which I garnished with pickled ramps in lieu of cocktail onions (click here for the recipe) . (Gibsons are just Martinis with onions instead of olives.) I enjoy a wet Gibson, with four parts gin to one part dry vermouth. A couple dashes of bitters don't hurt, either. The slightly sweet, sour ramp pickles go gorgeously with the spicy gin and herbal vermouth - altogether a truly elegant cocktail.

The Gibsons worked very nicely with the only new recipe I cooked up for this dinner: ramp toasts with Parmesan. The toasts are based on a favorite recipe of mine from the Gourmet cookbook, which is one of the easiest, most basic, most delicious concoctions known to man: finely chopped sweet onion mixed with mayonnaise, spooned onto cocktail bread, topped with cheese and black pepper and toasted in the oven for a few minutes.

I subbed in ramps for the sweet onion and decided to go all out and leave the ramps raw rather than blanch them. The result? A spicy, pure-ramp flavor and general awesomeness. One of these goes a long way, which is really what you want from a cocktail nibble, right? (The new recipe is all yours at the bottom of this post!)

Next up came my personal favorite, fresh fettuccine with ramps and bacon (I left the egg off of this version, since we had small, appetizer-sized helpings.). I made the sauce ahead of time and just warmed it up and tossed it with the freshly cooked pasta when the time came. Super easy, and a huge crowd pleaser, especially when topped with dangerous amounts of Parmesan cheese.

Earlier in the day, I marinated a boneless leg of lamb in olive oil, salt, pepper, smashed garlic and a splash or two of vermouth. I roasted it while we drank our cocktails and ate our pasta, then served it topped with some ramp compound butter and alongside some sugar snaps. (I blanched the sugar snap peas in salted water in the afternoon, then warmed them up in some of the ramp compound butter and a handful of minced chives before sliding them onto the plate next to the lamb.)

After a simple green salad, we moved onto dessert: strawberry-rhubarb crostata with some softly whipped cream. (I threw some dark brown sugar into the cream before whipping it, the better to complement the rhubarb's tang.) This crostata is one of my favorite desserts of all time. It's insanely easy to make, presents beautifully, and is really, truly satisfying to eat. The only change from my original recipe? I subbed in vodka for half the water in the crust recipe, which definitely helped keep things tender and flaky instead of tough and chewy. I'm a convert.

I sent everyone home with a little container of ramp compound butter for their own personal, private consumption, though what we really needed were entire rolls of Certs. Ramps: delicious and delightful, though possibly not for the person sitting next to you on the subway on the way home.

Ramp Toasts
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

2 bunches ramps, well washed and the root ends trimmed
1 cup mayonnaise (Hellman's is my favorite for this; homemade is too thin)
1/4 tsp salt
25 slices cocktail bread
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice the ramps crosswise, as thinly as possible. Place in a medium mixing bowl along with the mayonnaise. Stir to combine until the ramps and mayonnaise are evenly mixed. Mix in the salt.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then fill with as many slices as cocktail bread as possible. Top each slice with a tablespoon or so of the ramp-mayonnaise mixture, then top that with a generous pinch of the cheese. Finish each toast off with a few grinds of pepper.

Toast for 5-7 minutes, checking occasionally, until the bread begins to darken and the cheese is melted and golden-brown. Serve immediately.

Makes 25 toasts.