ajit verghese

Operatic Flash Mob FTW! This was sent to me last night by my Mom...

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:09:30 -0400

Operatic Flash Mob FTW!

This was sent to me last night by my Mom prior to her surgery. It was just a great video, and I grew up listening to a lot of Verdi. Thankfully Mom’s surgery went really well - so in thanks for a great outcome I’ll share this link and give the hat tip where due.

On Saturday, April 24th, over 30 members of the Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus and principal cast members from the upcoming production of La Traviata converged on the Reading Terminal Market Italian Festival. Wearing street clothes and blending in with the crowd, the artists swung into action after the first orchestral strains of the famed “Brindisi” were piped through the market, giving a rousing, surprise performance for hundreds of delighted onlookers who were there to enjoy the Italian delicacies and the everyday treats that the Reading Terminal Market has to offer. The four-minute piece won a thunderous ovation that included both laughter and tears from the audience.

I miss the days of my Apple IIe. They were infinitely simpler...

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:04:49 -0400

I miss the days of my Apple IIe. They were infinitely simpler and extremely pixelated.

(via soupsoup)

"Where there are sensors, there is data - and where there is data there is analysis, actionable..."

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:19:08 -0400

“Where there are sensors, there is data - and where there is data there is analysis, actionable thresholds and functional mashups across data sets and technologies.”

- This is a quote from a great article about MIT’s efforts to create a fiber capable of detecting and emitting sound.

Cool technology - but the quote really reflects how I view GoodEatsFor.Me. Across the disparate communities of Foursquare, Foodspotting, Twitter, Yelp, Facebook and many others….consumers are generating tremendous amounts of data about the hospitality experience. We are analyzing and developing actionable thresholds which are predicated on these functional mashups across these data sets.

The metrics and insights gleaned from this data mashup and presented in an easy to consume dashboard create opportunities to really understand customers - and subsequently interact with them where appropriate.

That’s exciting and one of the many reasons that we are passionate about what we are working on with GoodEatsFor.Me.

(via goodeatsforme)

GoodEatsFor.Me: Have you seen Foursquare Spam yet?

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:07:52 -0400

GoodEatsFor.Me: Have you seen Foursquare Spam yet? :

I think I have.

It’s not pretty and could add noise to what has been shown to be a reliable and pure signal of consumer recommendations.

Today I was checking out the feedback section of the GoodEatsFor.Me dashboard of Myers + Chang (another one of my favorite restaurants in the South End ).

In…

I am excited to experiment with the layer concept and see how...

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:55:00 -0400

I am excited to experiment with the layer concept and see how 3rd parties will develop using this additional information overlay. There is a lot that will be done with this over the next few months. ;)

soupsoup:

Foursquare Launches Location Layers

Looking at life through rose-colored glasses? How about walking through your town and seeing it as the Huffington Post or the Independent Film Channel sees it? IFC announced a new campaign this morning with leading location-based social network Foursquare that will allow you to do just that. The Huffington Post launched a Foursquare layer today as well.

Are Shortform Twitter ‘Reviews’ equal to longform Yelp reviews?

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:17:54 -0400

Unscientific, but true.

goodeatsforme:

Do Tweets in aggregate provide the same type of information as Yelp reviews? A thoroughly unscientific study of one of my favorite restaurants in Boston’s South End - Myers + Chang. In the end it appears that Tweets about a restaurant in aggregate appear the same as Yelp reviews about a restaurant in aggregate.

View more presentations from goodeatsforme

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GoodEatsFor.Me: GoodEatsFor.Me launches in beta

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:56:31 -0400

GoodEatsFor.Me: GoodEatsFor.Me launches in beta:

I am happy to announce that we’re officially launched and in beta.

We’re working on some really interesting stuff in the social media and hospitality space - so follow the blog and I’ll reblog some choice tidbits here.

We are happy to announce that GoodEatsfor.Me has launched in beta.

What is GoodEatsFor.Me you ask?

GoodEatsFor.Me is a platform that helps local establishments connect with local consumers using social media. We aggregate what is being said about an establishment on various social…

ESPN's World Cup ratings up 75-80% from 2006; almost 13 million tuned in for U.S. / England match, highest rating ever for a men's national team match

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:39:18 -0400

ESPN's World Cup ratings up 75-80% from 2006; almost 13 million tuned in for U.S. / England match, highest rating ever for a men's national team match:

This supports my (un)scientific quote for the AFP this past Saturday.

inothernews:

Slowly but surely.

Manually getting content on your Kindle app (PDF, text, .mobi, .azw, .prc)

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:35:56 -0400

Here’s the quick and dirty conversion for text/pdf to Kindle App on iPhone.

Items required:
1) File to convert (text, PDF, doc)

2) Converter program - I prefer Stanza Desktop. its free: http://www.lexcycle.com/download

3) Jailbroken iPhone

4) A program to navigate the filestructure of your phone. I prefer DiskAid. It has a 14-day full trial / and you can pay $9 for full version. Its pretty useful: http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/

If you care to geek out you could also SSH into your phone via Terminal or also use an SFTP program such WinSCP (PC) or Transmit (Mac). Instructions here: http://gizmodo.com/300323/short-and-sweet-ssh-guide-for-the-iphone

There are 3 basic steps in this process:

1) Convert the text/PDF file to Kindle friendly format
2) Convert the Kindle file to Kindle App friendly format
3) Copy over the file to the appropriate location on your iPhone

As with all hackery involving your iPhone - make sure you have backed up your phone/contacts/data/photos/etc. Just.In.Case

Step 1a) Convert your document to Kindle friendly format if you own a Kindle…..
If you own an actual Kindle in addition to your iPhone with KindleApp installed the easiest way to convert your document is to send it to the free Kindle conversion email address that Amazon has given all Kindle owners. The email address is @free.kindle.com. Attach your word/text/PDF file to the email you send to this address and Amazon should in short order send you back a file in AZW format. Head to Step 2 if you own a Kindle and were able to convert the file.

Step 1b) Convert your document to Kindle friendly format if you DON’T own a Kindle…
If you don’t own a Kindle, you’ve got to use Stanza to convert your file. Hopefully you’ve installed Stanza. Launch Stanza, Open your document and make sure it looks okay. Most conversion programs don’t like pictures, embedded images and tables - so the simpler the better. There are some other programs that are better for converting ‘complex’ documents to Amazon friendly format, but they’re not great for iPhone app Go to File»Export Book As»Amazon Kindle and then Save it to the appropriate place on your computer.

Step 2) Convert the Kindle file to Kindle App friendly format
The actual Kindle reads books in the .azw format - but the KindleApp on the iPhone only reads .prc files. Thankfully the .azw format for non-DRM’d files is really nothing more than a regular .mobi file with an Amazon wrapper on top.

Take the .azw file that you’ve either received from Amazon’s free conversion service OR created using the Stanza Desktop program and rename the extension from .azw to be .prc.

3) Copy over the file to the appropriate location on your iPhone
Now that you have the file you want to move over to your iPhone, you’ve got to actually copy/paste it - and Apple does not make it very intuitive.
But it isn’t too difficult if you use DiskAid.

So launch DiskAid and make sure your iPhone is plugged into your computer. You should see a standard file navigation interface.

The top of the DiskAid program has the limited set of commands you use to copy/paste files from your computer to the iPhone. The middle portion is the actual file structure of your iPhone which you navigate by pointing and clicking. Look to the bottom left corner of the DiskAid program and you’ll see a pulldown with 3 options: ‘DiskAid Folder’, ‘Media Folder’, and ‘Root Folder’.

Select ‘Root Folder’ - you will get a warning telling you to proceed with caution. Accept.

Now you’ll see the root directory structure of your iPhone. Here is where it gets a little confusing - but with DiskAid - hopefully not too painful.

You need to get to the eBooks folder which is located here: var » mobile » Applications » random_hash_number » Documents » eBooks

In order to get to the eBooks folder click the Var folder in the lower left column - you’ll see another set of folders in the right hand screen appear - then click the ‘Mobile’ folder . You’ll be offered another set of folders in the right hand screen. Click Applications and you will see a list of folders with random hash numbers for titles. Click on them one by one - each click will show you the contents of the folder in the far right column. You’ll have a lot of folders to go through IF you have a lot of apps installed on your phone.

Fear not - keep scrolling and clicking through each random hash labeled folder - ONE of the folders will have a ‘Kindle.app’ folder in it. That’s the folder you want Note that in addition to the ‘Kindle.App’ folder there will also be a ‘Documents’ folder, a ‘Library’ folder, a ‘tmp’ folder and two files named ‘iTunesArtwork’ and iTunesMetadata.plist.

Navigate to the ‘Documents’ folder (that is located in the random hash labeled folder which also contains the Kindle.app folder) and then to the eBooks folder. If you’ve bought a decent amount of books via Amazon you should see a lot of files with .mbp and .prc extensions. Make sure that the ‘eBook’ folder is highlighted in DiskAid. Then click ‘Copy to Device’ in the upper navigation bar of DiskAid. You’ll be asked to navigate to the file you want to copy - find the document you converted and copy it. That’s it.

Eject your iPhone from Finder and restart it for good measure.

You should now be able to go to the Kindle App and find your document.

My take on the US / England match this weekend (aka my 263 chars of fame)

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:34:17 -0400

My take on the US / England match this weekend (aka my 263 chars of fame):

Ajit Verghese, a 32-year-old from East Boston, was pleased to see the level of interest in the match.

“There is a lot more love for soccer in general in this country,” he said. “It is nice to see people are going out to the bars and pubs and watching soccer.”

Backstory - I got interviewed by an AFP reporter outside of The Charles Hotel after the US/England World Cup match.

I tried to get a plug in for GoodEatsFor.Me. ;)

Instead I got quoted in a saccharine soundbite.

Flash vs Apple

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:49:04 -0400

Flash vs Apple

Out of Time (via @hawster) Man I love the Parkour videos that...

Tue, 25 May 2010 15:43:22 -0400

Out of Time (via @hawster)

Man I love the Parkour videos that float out on the internets, but this has got to be one of the best I have seen. You will be impressed!

I spent most of my high school career rowing out of this...

Tue, 18 May 2010 14:38:41 -0400

I spent most of my high school career rowing out of this boathouse (Thompson), and many summers after college down by this waterfront.

Oh DC how I miss thee.

hakimthompson:

Washington, DC’s Waterfront by the Kennedy Center & Boathouse.

Taken by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keviikev/4615331193/sizes/l/in/photostream/

For Fairfax metal trader, perseverance pays off

Mon, 17 May 2010 16:47:41 -0400

For Fairfax metal trader, perseverance pays off:

Spoke to my Dad today about a number of things - two highlights of the conversation were the doubles match I played this weekend with a 67-year old Japanese woman who came off the bench, and a great article on the importance of perseverance when living the entrepreneurial life.

Enjoy the article.

A China day in Flushing, Queens. How do you say “which beer” in Chinese

Thu, 13 May 2010 01:51:26 -0400

A China day in Flushing, Queens. How do you say “which beer” in Chinese:

My brother Tom Verghese’s first inaugural blog post. He’s an amazing chef and has a way with words. Hope to see more of this stuff. Really proud of you little bro!

under the wire: How Wired.com Tracked the iPhone Finder

Mon, 03 May 2010 00:23:18 -0400

under the wire: How Wired.com Tracked the iPhone Finder:

In response to Wired.com’s scoop identifying the finder of the lost iPhone prototype, many have asked me how we did it. The process of uncovering digital footprints to identify Brian Hogan was indeed challenging and enlightening, so I thought I’d tell the story here. Heck, it might even teach…

Happy Birthday from Calvin & Hobbes and me - to all of you.

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:37:44 -0400

Tomorrow is my 32nd birthday, and the older I get, the more I wax sentimental.

I spent the past 10 days in Austin working with my colleagues at The Dachis Group, participating in our Social Business Summit 2010 conference last week, and attending SXSW.

It was a great time had by all - Social Business Design was bar-none the BEST content around SXSW. SXSW was a blast - not so much for the content but more because I met and befriended some amazing people throughout my 10 days in Austin.

A lot of wonderful personal growth and opportunity identification took place during my latest stay in Austin and I am thankful.

Coming back from Austin to this beautiful weather in Boston and seeing this Calvin & Hobbes cartoon I am reminded that we do live in a magical world - and adventure waits on every corner. We just need to be attuned to it and ‘opportunity obsessed’ to quote my Babson classmates.

So to all of you explorers and adventurers who I consider kinsmen on this crazy entrepreneurial journey, I salute you. To my new friends I met and made over these past 10 days and overall during my time in Austin, your presence has been life-giving and I have learned a lot. And my friends and family - much love and much thanks.

My birthday wish for all of you is that you find meaning and resonance in whatever you do - and find yourself surrounded by infinite possibility and opportunity.

all-thats-interesting:

Lunch with my brother Tom in midtown. Like being at my parents house.

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:13:39 -0500

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Untitled

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:49:20 -0500

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Everything is bigger in Texas. Note the 7 pillows on the bed and the Big Lone Star in the headboard. The Star is a tad bit excessive.

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:25:39 -0500

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