Uncategorized on Fazal Majid's low-intensity blog

Paris travel tips

Sun, 11 May 2025 19:02:00 +0000

France is the world’s most popular destination for tourism, and its capital is of course the entry point for most visitors. The Paris region has a population of 9 million, but Paris intra muros (Paris within the walls, the deep historical core city within the Périphérique ring road) is only about 2 million.

Driving within Paris proper is a nightmare, and completely unnecessary given the quality of the regional public transit network. Going to suburbs like Versailles or Saint-Germain en Laye is easy, but going from one suburb to another is harder because the public transport network is radial, you often have to go all the way back to Paris to transfer, although the situation is improving.

Sent messages folder considered harmful

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I use Dovecot as my mail server, with maildir format mailboxes. It is very easy to make the Sent folder be the same as the Inbox: just symlink the Sent messages folder’s cur subdirectory to be the same as the Maildir’s top-level new directory. This ensures any email placed in the Sent messages folder is magically a whisked off to the inbox.

starvald ~>ll Maildir/.Sent\ Messages/
total 85
drwxr-xr-x 5 majid engineers 11 Apr 20 13:01 ./
drwxr-xr-x 268 majid engineers 278 Apr 20 13:26 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 majid engineers 2 Oct 14 2007 courierimapkeywords/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 majid engineers 6 Oct 30 2010 cur -> ../new/
-rw-r--r-- 1 majid engineers 33 Jun 15 2011 dovecot-keywords
-rw-r--r-- 1 majid engineers 54 Apr 20 13:01 dovecot-uidlist
-rw-r--r-- 1 majid engineers 400 Apr 20 08:38 dovecot.index
-rw-r--r-- 1 majid engineers 24K Apr 20 08:39 dovecot.index.cache
-rw-r--r-- 1 majid engineers 26K Apr 20 13:01 dovecot.index.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 majid engineers 2 Apr 19 09:43 new/
drwxr-xr-x 2 majid engineers 2 Apr 20 08:38 tmp/

Vancouver vacation tips

Sun, 25 Aug 2013 17:08:42 +0000

Swan Laundry will pick up your laundry at your hotel, wash and fold it, and return it the same day for a $50 flat fee.
Wind Mobile has an unlimited 3G hotspot plan for $35 per month (they will throttle you if you exceed 10GB in a month), a better deal than any US carrier offers. They sold me a refurbished Huawei hotspot for $45 (why should the NSA have all the fun listening in?)
Urban Fare is an excellent place for breakfast and fancy groceries, specially the Shangri-La location.
The Blue Water Cafe is my favorite restaurant in town.

Slava Rostropovich, 1927-2007

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:53:43 +0000

Legendary cellist and all-around good guy Mstislav “Slava” Rostropovich passed away in Moscow today. He was a friend and supporter of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Britten and many others like Dutilleux, and many of the greatest works for cello of the 20th century, indeed of all time, were dedicated to him.

I had the opportunity to hear him conduct Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” a year ago (when I took this photo) and a few years earlier as a cellist the Dvořák Cello Concerto (sadly in replacement of the far superior Shostakovich First Cello Concerto that was dedicated to him).

Eery similarities

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:31:18 +0000

Is it just me or is the Finale of Sibelius’ Second Symphony, Op. 43 (1902) eerily reminiscent of the first movement of Saint-Saëns’ Third Piano Concerto, Op. 29 (1869)?

The classical music lover’s iPod

Mon, 17 May 2004 23:41:39 +0000

Sony’s Norio Ohga is a classically trained musician and conductor. In contrast, Steve Jobs is clearly not a classical music lover (and indeed is reportedly partially deaf). If he were a classical aficionado, the iPod would not be as poorly designed for classical music.

I have started backing up my extensive CD collection (99% classical) using the new Apple Lossless Encoder, and switched from my original 5GB iPod (which does not support ALE) to a new 15GB model, with half the upgrade paid for with my universal upgrade plan. I had actually started with straight uncompressed PCM audio, but while the old iPod nominally supported it, its hard drive or buffering algorithm would have a hard time keeping up the 1.5 Mbps flow of data required and often skip. I only used my old iPod on flights, where the ambient noise would drown out the low quality of MP3s, but the new one is a better device, specially when coupled with high-quality earphones from Etymotic Research, and I may use it more regularly.

Aspirin and history

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 20:17:12 +0000

There are instances of chemical discoveries having a major impact on world history. Dr. Chaim Weizman helped the British World War I war effort by inventing a method to produce acetone, a fundamental component of explosives in those days. The Germans had a near stranglehold on chemistry in those days, thanks to their pioneering chemists and large industrial groups like the IG Farben cartel. The grateful British rewarded him with the Balfour declaration, the foundation for the later establishment of the state of Israel, of which Weizman became the first president.

Marie Trintignant, 1962-2003

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 19:51:39 +0000

One of my favorite actresses is the dark and brooding Marie Trintignant. Tragically, she now lies in terminal coma after being injured in a violent argument with her partner. I am not a “People Magazine” kind of person, but this strikes me as particularly sad. If you get the chance, see her in the dark comedy Cible Émouvante

Winged Migration

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 01:27:09 +0000

I went to see Winged Migration yesterday (Le Peuple Migrateur in the original French). It is a truly magnificent and inspiring movie with incredible footage of bird migrations seen up, close and personal. Just go see it, it is suitable for all ages.

Migration

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 05:40:00 +0000

After three months of development, I have finally migrated from Radio to Mylos, my home-grown weblogging software. It is far from finished, but there comes a point where you must just do it (the fact my laptop’s hard drive died on me was also a good catalyst). I have tested it with major browsers and RSS aggregators, but if you notice any errors, specially on the RSS feed, I would greatly appreciate it if you could email them to me.