Trip report: Sultanpur National Park, 2010-06-12
This is a brief report of a visit to Sultanpur and Basai this morning. We (Ramit, Ammu, and I) did not spend much time there, because it became very hot by 0830.
The Advisory Boar
By Abhijit Menon-Sen <ams@toroid.org>“The Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi”
I bought this book many years ago, when I first started photographing the monuments of mediaeval Delhi. I was familiar with the history of the period, but knew very little about its buildings, or about the way they were built, fell into ruins, and were later excavated. Much of what I know now, I learned from this book.
Trip report: Asola Wildlife Sanctuary, 2010-06-02
Highlights from a morning visit to Asola near Tughlaqabad, including close views of all three species of Delhi's Bee-eaters.
Heat and the LG intelloair air conditioner
This air conditioner's compressor overheats too often in Delhi summers.
Desiccated at Dayara Bugyal
Last December, I went on a solo hike to Dayara Bugyal, an alpine meadow in the Garhwal Himalayas, at an altitude of some 3000m above sea level. In summer, it's a popular hiking destination, and shepherds bring their flocks there to graze, but I had the place all to myself.
I had planned to spend the first night next to Barnala Tal, a small lake just below the final ascent to Dayara. The instructions I got on how to find the lake were typically vague, however, and I had still not reached it by evening. I was tired, and decided to descend and camp next to the only water I'd found seen so far: a shallow marsh, with stinking water that turned out to be unsuitable even to filter.
As I pitched my tent, this buffalo skull was my only companion:
It was not until late the next morning that I found the lake, a mere 250m further than I'd ventured the previous day, hidden from me by a shallow rise. There was a couple of centimetres of ice on the lake, and I had to smash through it to fill my bottle.
Never has a drink of water been more welcome.
CSS3 font selection
I've used Verdana as the preferred font on this web site for years. I don't particularly like it, but it works well enough and is widely available. But is there a better choice?
Seeing all of India's vultures
When I was very little, we lived in a house in Alipore (near Calcutta) where we used to see (and smell!) many vultures, and I never outgrew my fascination for these huge birds. Now, many years later, I consider myself very fortunate to have seen every species of vulture that occurs in India, because these birds that used to be everywhere are now critically endangered, and may be on the verge of extinction.
Too many filesystems
While trying to explain something about filesystems the other day, I realised that there are too many different (but related) things that can be reasonably described by that term.
It's a toroid, not a primate!
My server acts as a secondary nameserver for primate.net, in which zone it is named ns.de.primate.net. I set that up long ago for a friend, and forgot all about it. Until now.
Git: post-receive hook for XMPP notifications
Here's how I set up XMPP-based notifications for new commits to the Archiveopteryx Git repository.