The Cobra

Wed 23 July 2014 by Thejaswi Puthraya

When the first citizen of the United States decides to put an end to the drug menace, he calls in one of the most experienced hands to handle this job. "The Cobra" had served "The Commander in Chief" in similar roles but was pushed into retirement. Now with this herculean …

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Wise and Otherwise

Sat 21 June 2014 by Thejaswi Puthraya

"Wise and Otherwise" is yet another installment of short stories from Sudha Murthy. She effortlessly describes most Indian middle class households through her stories. Be it neglected seniors of the house, friends who change with money, orphans who are still gratuitous even after decades, this book covers a wide range …

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59 seconds

Sat 14 June 2014 by Thejaswi Puthraya

Richard Wiseman, is an English Psychology professor famous for his writings in "Experimental Psychology". This book is his "scientically proven advice to improving life in 59 seconds".

This book is a breezy read though I cannot vouch for it's efficacy. But since he quotes lots of studies, I think we …

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The Fountainhead

Thu 27 February 2014 by Thejaswi Puthraya

After finishing a book, whenever I asked for recommendations for my next, one book always figured in it, "The fountainhead". Many described it as a cult book, one that changed lives. With such compulsive reviews, dare I miss it?

Howard Roark is kicked out of architecture school because his ideas …

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The English Patient

Sat 25 January 2014 by Thejaswi Puthraya

A patient burned beyond recognition, his devoted young nurse, an emotionally confused military man and a retired thief come together under the roof of war torn villa.

This Michael Ondaatje novel is set during the North African conquest of World War II where Almasy gets burned beyond recognition during an …

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The Painter of Signs

Tue 31 December 2013 by Thejaswi Puthraya

I like to alternate heavy reads with easier books and after Dawkin's "Selfish Gene", I picked up R.K Narayan's "The Painter of Signs".

Raman is a painter of signs at Malgudi who lives with his aunt and is well read. One day, he receives a visit from Daisy, a …

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The Selfish Gene

Tue 24 December 2013 by Thejaswi Puthraya

This book begins with a justification for the title because people misunderstood it and maligned 'evolution'. Richard Dawkins, the author, bases majority of the book on how the 'gene' is the focal point of all evolution (and not a group of species).

This book is probably the best guide on …

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The Black Swan

Sat 30 November 2013 by Thejaswi Puthraya

A "Black Swan" event is one that brings about a major upset to existing facts. Until the late 18th century, people always assumed "white" swans but were shell shocked to discover "black" swans in Australia. Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined this term to explain such high impact events.

Through past events …

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Resize Qemu Image

Wed 30 October 2013 by Thejaswi Puthraya

The default cloud image on Ubuntu has a root partition size of 2GB. I wanted a way to resize the root without going through the hassle of setting up LVM.

To be able to resize the qemu images, we need the Guestfish package.

qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b base_disk.img …
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The Small Bachelor

Mon 28 October 2013 by Thejaswi Puthraya

So far, I have not enjoyed any non Jeeves story. But "The Small Bachelor" broke that jinx for me. The book opens with George Finch, a small time artist getting swept off his feet by Miss Waddington. But Mrs Waddington has got other plans for her daughter. George finds a …

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