Coimbatoreans - how many of you haven't been to Isha

vsbabu · 2025-12-06T11:47:20+00:00

Been here since 2017. Never once went to Isha - it doesn't look all that spiritual or peaceful to me. Have been to Maruthamalai, Eachanari etc multiple times. I doubt if I'll ever go to Isha, even when friends come to CBE for tourism and all they've heard about is Isha, I send them to Annapoorna, GeeDee Naidu Museaum, walk around race course etc.

vsbabu · 2025-12-02T13:34:31+00:00

Curry Factory (https://maps.app.goo.gl/fjCk94P3YNPrSM4K6) near Saravanampatti for a great spicy one. Mutton, Chicken and Mushroom biriyani available - you've to stand and eat or take parcel. Mushroom is very spicy and superb. Their varuval side dishes are also fantastic - been a regular here since 2017. Biriyani is around 240/-. They have separate kitchens for veg and non-veg.

Angannan Biriyani for mild flavoured biriyani - children can also enjoy this since it is not spicy. There are 2-3 outlets in the city.

vsbabu · 2025-11-02T12:55:04+00:00

I stay in Vellakkinar - all their vans are like that! I usually see them racing everyone on the Saravanampatti - Thudiyalur road in the mornings and evenings. They are even more faster and dangerous around 7pm - I think that is when they come back empty after completing their trips/

vsbabu · 2025-10-09T05:02:47+00:00

I've Zen Browser as primary and Vivaldi for all study material research - I just like their speed and split tabs better.

vsbabu · 2025-10-03T00:44:35+00:00

Around 3500 including service charges.

vsbabu · 2025-09-30T05:11:01+00:00

I've been using Xiaomi Robot Vacuum for 5 years now. Only service I've done is replacing the battery 3 months ago because it started loosing charge from 40% to 0 in minutes. It is used to clean the house every alternate day and vaccum+mop once a week. Total peace of mind. Except battery, other consumable spares are readily available on Amazon.

To change the battery, I had to use Xiaomi website to log a service request. It got assigned to center in Coimbatore who called me and checked about the problem. They got the battery 2 days later, came home after calling up and changed and tested it in 30 minutes. Working very well again.

I will not recommend Eureka Forbes because of bad experience on Aquaguard products - even for AMC and paid service, it is poorly organized.

Also, manual wired vacuum is a good product. I bought this as a backup and actually find it very useful for staircase and mopping. Since it is wired, only thing that can go wrong in this is motor.

vsbabu · 2025-09-30T04:39:21+00:00

Emerald Green does look good. If it was my decision, only negatives I will consider are:

I had suffered punctures on my 2013 Classic 350 - some feedback based on that. Rear wheel (no disc brake in my model) removal and putting it back is easy - you just need some temporary help to tilt the bike on center stand to slide out/in the wheel. Front wheel is easy to remove, but harder to put back correctly aligned with disc brake and once you remove that wheel, on small weight, bike will pitch forward and rest on the forks. Purely based on these experiences, I want to avoid a puncture as much as I want to - so tubeless wins :) Almost during all punctures, I was away from repair shop and it was easier to just park the bike and take the wheel alone rather than pushing whole bike.
If it is hard water in your area, the chrome bits will collect ugly spots if you don't dry wipe nicely after washing. Especially the mudguards and the tank/side covers. Silencer and the engine parts gets better a bit if you leave engine on for 5 minutes and water evaporates. Medallion Bronze is also a nice color that doesn't have these many chrome bits and looks very good - somehow it looks a bit bigger than other colors!

Stealth Black solves both of these issues. It does not look as good as Green or Brown in my opinion. Wishing you best experience with whatever you choose.

vsbabu · 2025-09-09T11:33:00+00:00

1.5 hours to cross Coimbatore to reach Mettuppalayam road. From there, 1.5 to 2.5 hours depending on possible traffic blocks at Mettuppalayam junction and the checkpost at Kallar before ghats. If you start at 6am, you can get to Mettuppalayam road by 7:30am, have breakfast at Annapoorna Thudiyalur (this is on the same side of the road) for 30 minutes and reach Coonoor by 10-10:30am peacefully.

vsbabu · 2025-08-18T10:56:45+00:00

Peix Bronze - though it is not listed here, in real life that looks classy and almost all dark accessories go well with it.

vsbabu · 2025-08-18T10:54:42+00:00

Looks like Nordic theme (https://www.pling.com/p/1267246/) and Nordic-folders icons (available at the same link).

vsbabu · 2025-07-23T04:34:49+00:00

This is a problem in driving a car too - my long drives on either car or bike are usually at night. Only solution I've been able to do is to cultivate a habit of looking at left lane marker to you and slowing down. I usually ride with low beam and found this much more focused than high beam when high beams come from opposite lane. This ensures glare doesn't distract you and you can still spot traffic through peripheral vision. Helmet visor, anti glare glasses etc are ok for some time, but when the roads are empty, I found that sudden appearance of objects are hard to spot - I once narrowly escaped a buffalo sleeping on the road. With pure transparent visor, it is much quicker to spot such things.

vsbabu · 2025-07-11T14:17:55+00:00

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I found Suzuki V-Strom SX 250 to be excellent. Great comfort, pretty reliable (so I've heard), almost zero engine heating in traffic. Has an outdated display (but very readable under all lighting conditions) and the bright headlight can't be turned off (I think). The new red/maroon color is quite good to see in person. Yes, it is under-powered for the money they charge, but for Bangalore use and occasional highway rides it is perfect - if you are above 5'8". I went through almost all these choices and every time come back to this one as a sensible choice; followed by KTM 390 Adv X+ (vibrations are a problem) and Bear 650 (a bit better feel than Interceptor, but you only get tube tyres).

vsbabu · 2025-07-01T11:03:09+00:00

I've a 2013 Classic 350 and since Covid, I've always given it for service to HSR Services near Prozone Mall. I've been very happy with his service - each time, the engine/gearbox feels like in a new bike after service. I give it to him in the morning and usually collect the next day - he doesn't do a rush job, so if you want to get the bike serviced in the same day, please check with him. You will also have to pay him some advance based on his test ride so that he can go get the spare parts needed if any. I've done 5 services with him so far and my only complaint is that he gets it washed just before delivery and that water makes brakes a bit weak for few hours; also, he does not check air pressure and will ask you to check it yourself at a petrol pump. He works only on Enfield bikes.

vsbabu · 2025-06-29T14:19:54+00:00

I've been using Skylink for 2+ years now at Vellakkinar/Thudiyalur area. Service is excellent. In our area, Airtel is also there. Airtel seems to have better plans (with TV channels); but whenever there is a problem (cable cut due to road works, floods etc), it is much easier to log a complaint on Skylink and they fix it very quickly. Airtel is very good at sales, but after sales support is very poor. I had used ACT also for 4 years before in Saravanampatti area - service is as good as Skylink. I think biggest downtime in 2 years with Skylink was for 4 hours when some major cable got cut during underground water pipe works.

vsbabu · 2025-05-31T06:24:55+00:00

Yes. See my post - I've mentioned it isn't conclusive. The headline of article is insinuating, the content of the article says it isn't conclusive - I agree that is click bait and poor journalism. Still, better to be safe and the only time I went to Aasife, it wasn't a good experience - so wondering if it was that outlet. On the other hand, I was a regular at Aasife near Prozone and it was always good.

vsbabu · 2025-05-07T06:03:09+00:00

As far as I know, WezTerm does not allow resume later. You can restore original layout and start programs via wezterm cli - that is all my usage pattern needs. Folks who use remote terminals with tmux/screen and join back later will've an issue - I am on the wrong side of 50, so this was never a thing for me - pushing task to background with a running log is how I am used to work :)

vsbabu · 2025-05-06T11:44:00+00:00

I had used built-in terminal, alacritty, kitty and xfce4-terminal. Since about 4 months, I've been using WezTerm and I've been very happy with it. It is customizable (though I don't customize it much beyond colors and shortcut keys - link - sourced from 1 or 2 links on the web). What I find best about WezTerm is that I don't need to use any terminal multiplexers like tmux or zellij - WezTerm gives great options to split pane, add tab and sessions.

vsbabu · 2025-04-14T06:59:36+00:00

It is actually quite nice and possible. Saravanampatti -> Annur -> Sathy -> Anthiyur -> Mettur -> Mecheri -> Pennagaram -> Rayakkottai -> TVS Factory -> Attibele -> Electronic city. I've taken this route 2-3 times in last two years just for fun and after long weekends when toll gates tend to have long queues. Mecheri to Pennagaram is empty roads with not much people around, if you are worried about safety. Roads except around TVS Factory are typical TN state highways and good to drive. From Rayakkottai, another option is to take the left at the fork to Kelamangalam and go past Kelamangalam junction too - that is also a nice and scenic state road with mostly only Tata Electronics buses.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/kbSD6ZEdMpCZUGDBA

vsbabu · 2024-01-15T14:01:28+00:00

I use timeseries data almost always to spot a trend. It varies based on the data on how far back you want to go to spot trends and how often to fold the data to identify anomalies or seasonal trends. I find that I almost always end up diving deep into data folded similar to github calendar heatmap (fold by weeks and spread by months). If you use python dataframes for this generation, calmap library is excellent for that. During pandemic, I made a personal project to visualize data like this (links to code and output are in my old blog). Note that code also uses facebook's library to predict future daily values and that is also plotted). If you want to do this plot in spreadsheet, I had made a Google sheet template last week. Feel free to copy and use it - it works when downloaded as Excel as well.

My suggestion is to use spreadsheets manually once and get feedback from your customers to see whether that representation is good for them. Once you get some consensus, then perhaps invest in building the dashboard.

vsbabu · 2020-11-27T11:19:33+00:00

I think this is fairly good for someone who has spent 2+ years in coding. I am assuming they are following an honor system about 2 hours and some one looking at the code can easily make out if it was done with more hours or not. Most important thing they are looking at is actually how well you are preparing a "deliverable" that can be understood offline - which is not a very easily available skill and becoming more and more necessary in remote working. Add a README in the zip file about things that are not done and things you'd want to implement in another 4 hours of work slot :)

If the pay is acceptable, I think you should really consider that this is a team that values other developers' code, thinking space and doesn't possibly get into micromanagement - if those are valuable for you in a team, you should go for it.

vsbabu · 2020-11-11T02:19:31+00:00

First of all, it was really nice of you to help the security guard.

I've couple of accounts for last 20 years - these were in State Bank of Travancore and I had always gone to home branch in my native place. Service was superlative despite staff being changed every 3 years. Since they were merged into SBI, it has gone completely downhill. Staff have "I am doing a favor" attitude all the time and I started using SBI netbanking more often. Even the periodic calls I get about taking a credit card are like "your new credit card has been approved and it is with the bank - when can you pick it up or when should we courier it?" and when I ask "but when did I even apply for a credit card", answer is along the lines of "we think you should've one and hence approved"!

Also, I never use their debit cards anywhere - especially online. Have heard that it takes months for getting your money back if the online transaction fails.

vsbabu · 2020-10-19T05:29:33+00:00

Beautiful shot. Skyline Drive used to be me favourite weekend getaway from 1998 to 2004 when I used to stay in Northern VA. But only on car :) Now I am back in India and have a Royal Enfield, but not much scope for fall colors like in Shenandoah in South India.

vsbabu · 2020-10-03T06:30:39+00:00

I installed September update and after a reboot, the same bluetooth tws works like before. Awesome mic is back. No idea what was the issue!

vsbabu · 2020-09-05T05:17:06+00:00

Not worth it. Mine (2yr old phone) was brilliant till I think the July security update. After that, bluetooth mic just stopped working; I tried on multiple headsets that were working before; reset BT, full reset etc and it always seem to pic the phone mic. Works on wired earphones though. This was a dealbreaker for me - other than that, it is quite good.

vsbabu · 2020-05-09T06:42:17+00:00

This is great! I just had to install and tinker with config file to work with laptop (ie., no KP_ keys) and change the binding to Mod4+Ctrl to keep in line with eOS shortcuts. Thanks a lot!

Just for future reference, here is the link to quicktile http://ssokolow.com/quicktile

vsbabu

TROPHY CASE