Sting operation on MadMan shows he is a fraud
August 10, 2005
It seems I'm a cheat, folks. I supposedly pretend to be a "veteran blogger" when I'm not. Or at least so says Rohan Pinto in this brilliant piece of investigative journalism. (Read it at http://blog.rohanpinto.com/archives/2005/08/blogging_or_che.html - I'm not giving my Google juice away.)
Mr. Pinto is shocked and outraged, as he well should be, that I have posts dated five years back. How on earth could this be possible when this darn domain was only registered in 2003? What's worse, people are commenting on articles three years after they were written!
I think there is no doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that I have been cheating you all by pretending to have a blog for longer than I actually have. You would do well to totally disregard anything I write from now on, because the evidence for that is clear. There can be no other explanation at all.
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Look ma, I'm on TV
May 4, 2005
To all the fans of my gourmet cooking, you get to see me in the flesh, cooking drunken seafood (I hope they use that clip) on TV.
My restaurant and I will be featured in a segment on Bangalore restaurants. It will air today (04 May 2005) on Zee Business at 5 PM (or thereabouts) and again at 8 PM. So please don't miss it. I will also try to record the clip and put it up here for the world to see.
The segment is in Hindi, and I apologise in advance for fumbling a bit in my interview. While I speak Hindi quite well (grew up in Delhi, after all), my oratorial skills in the language died after school, which was 15 years ago. I had mentally prepared for an English Q&A, and had to quickly rework it in my head. But the food is all real. :)
Update: Well, that was a quick one. They left out all the interviews so you won't see me speak, but you will see me smile and cook. (Since I don't smile at all, that part was very hard to shoot.) I've contacted a news monitoring service about recording the clip so I can put it online. It should be up in a few days, and by few I mean at least four.
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Off to Singapore
March 21, 2005
I will be visiting Singapore from 29 March to 04 April, thanks to Indian Airlines' low fare. I would love to meet fellow atheist libertarian capitalist bloggers while I'm there. And even if you're a little less libertarian, atheist, or capitalist than I am, it might still work. ;)
People I intend to meet:
Anyone else in the neighbourhood who wouldn't mind sharing a jumbo Sri Lankan Chilli Crab at Jumbo Restaurant in East Coast Seafood Center? Use the form on the right and drop me a line, lah!
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Vote for me in the Indibloggies
January 10, 2005
We interrupt our regular schedule of quality programming to bring you this message. We've been nominated for the IndiBloggies, which comes with 25 cartons of Ego Boost as the prize. (And some other miscellaneous stuff, none of which we're really interested in.)
OK, so I've been nominated not once, not twice but three times for my two blogs - this one and my chef blog. Shiok Chef's Notes has been nominated for best topical blog, and hey, anyone who's read my detailed recipes and seen my gorgeous photographs has to vote for me. The only competition I can see is from Yazad, whose blog AnarCapLib has also been nominated. Actually, I write over there too, so this is a fight between me and 25% me. :)
If that weren't enough, both of my blogs have been nominated for the best design award. Yes, both MadMan's Web and Shiok - Chef's Notes are going heads up against each other. This makes me happy but also sad at the prospect of the vote being split.
I'll make this simple for you. Vote for Shiok as the best topical blog, and MadMan's Web for the best design. My chef's blog has exhaustive useful content and this blog is filled with design doo-dads. I've combined two blogs (the links blog and the article blog) on the same page without crowding the place. My nav bars slide out of side if you want to read my articles on a smaller monitor, and my text is well spaced and readable. Heck, even my comment box expands if you want to write a ton. There's a whole bunch of usability thingamajigs too if you look closer (try hovering your mouse over some text box or label some time.) I deserve this award over the other contenders, some of whom don't even live in this country.
(Update: I see that Ravikiran and JK are now accepting bribes for their votes. I'm far too honest for that. Besides, I have l33t rigging skillz.)
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...and another year passes
November 30, 2004
Oh boy, is it that time already? (Sigh) Yes, it is.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, MadMan turns 29 this day. Thank you in advance for buying me that BMW. I really appreciate it.
I think I shall spend the day doing something different. Yes, today I will be crankier than my normal self. :)
And I will take myself out to a special dinner at my own restaurant.
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Links blog
November 19, 2004
In case you missed it, I have a web links blog integrated into this one. On the home page, just click the "show daily links blog" link and it will drop down for you to enjoy plenty of weird-ass reading on the Web. It will also give you a reason to visit more often even if I'm not writing longer articles.
(Oh, and for the family and friends reading this, don't forget that 30 November is my birthday. My Amazon wish list is here, but feel free to surprise me with a BMW M5.)
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Mela update
October 16, 2004
Apologies for the delay in uploading the latest Mela. My official reason is that I was out today teaching a cookery class at Bangalore Club. But I'm also trying to follow Yazad's suggestion that Mela hosts try to expand the offering beyond simply the nominated posts. I am therefore trying to read as many blogs as I can to find those hidden gems.
I should be done by noon on Saturday.
Rukawat ke liye khed hai :)
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My pound of flesh
August 23, 2004
I have this funny role thrust upon me - tech support guy of Indian bloggers. I guess it happened because I foolishly volunteered assistance to tech newbies who wanted some guidance in getting their blogs up and running. And running. And running some more.
Ahem.
But it's a thankless job. I work behind the scenes to help set up blogs, move to MovableType, fix broken shit, put new designs into place, add some nifty feature, clean up HTML and CSS, and a whole lot of other crap. I do it mostly anonymously, and more importantly, for free. Why? I'm not even sure myself. Some freaky altruistic streak, I guess.
Anyway, while I don't expect money (you cheapskates!), I can at least ask for the odd favour from you folks. I just need some help getting a decent google pagerank for my restaurant web site, and through that, some more business, I hope.
So here's what I'm requesting: Please post a small blog entry on your site with the following text:
If you're in Bangalore, please visit Madhu's new restaurant, Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine that serves good Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Singaporean food. The restaurant is on CMH Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore.
To make it all very easy for you folks, you don't even have to figure out the HTML. Just copy and paste the following into your entry:
<p>If you're in Bangalore, please visit <a href="http://www.madmanweb.com">Madhu's</a> new restaurant, <a href="http://www.shiokfood.com">Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine</a> that serves good Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Singaporean food. <a href="http://www.shiokfood.com">The restaurant is on CMH Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore</a>.</p>
Of course, feel free to add any paeans to my tech genius in the post as well. Though I can't deposit compliments at the bank, it's still a good feeling. :)
As for the people I'm talking about, here is just a selection of them. ;)
Pleas for help also go out to All the Cartel members, and anyone else who is generous enough.
Thank you! I love you all!
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Holiday snaps
July 6, 2004
Yes, I was away on vacation to Mauritius, and it was good fun. I've created a web album of snaps for you folks to check out and be envious of.
You can find it at http://www.madmanweb.com/mauritius
(Some of the pics had to be scaled down in size for the Web, hence the lower quality.)
I was also in Mumbai for a few days after that where we had a big meeting of the Libertarian Cartel High Council. Pictures of that are with Yazad, but some other pics of Mumbai as well as a Bangalore meet will be uploaded shortly have been uploaded at:
http://madmanweb.com/bloggermeet
Bloggers in these photos:
Yazad Jal
Gaurav Sabnis
Amol Hatwar
Aadisht Khanna
Asli (no, it's not his asli name. Get it?)
Jivha
and I, of course.
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Off on holiday
June 15, 2004
Hola, amigos!
I'm taking a well-deserved break from all my cooking and heading off on holiday for a couple of weeks. The first week will be in sunny Mauritius (well, it's winter there so not terribly sunny) after which I will be in Mumbai for a friend's wedding from 25-28 June. Any of you Mumbai libertarians who want to meet up should please leave a comment so I can ping you. Oh, and some contact info would help too. :)
I know this blog's been rotting away for a bit, but I've been posting a few things on the more widely-read AnarCapLib aka Yazad's site. Here they are:
Introduction to logical fallacies and critical thinking
Reservations - the economy ain't safe yet
Other stuff I've written for MouthShut.com (older stuff; and sorry, the site sucks):
A scathing review of the TV Channel Zee English
A thumbs-down for Hathway the Cable Internet service
I'll see you folks in a couple of weeks. Till then, let's see who steps up to uphold fairness, justice, and logic in the blogosphere. ;)
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A small interruption
March 25, 2004
I've temporarily removed the previous post about Indiatimes spam because the screenshots were breaking the layout in lower resolutions (damn this CSS layout stuff!). Yes, you losers who haven't upgraded to a 17" monitor and still run at 800*600 resolution have made me do this. :) There are also a couple of minor layout issues that I'll get around to fixing soon. So if something looks screwed up, mail me at blog AT madmanweb DOT com and let me know.Posted to Random stuff Permalink Comments (6) TrackBack (0)
Who is MadMan?
My restaurant - Shiok
The LinksMatic - daily links
My food photo gallery
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