Ashok Argent-Katwala

A sunny day on the seafront at Southwold in Suffolk.

With a very fine pint of Adnams Broadside on the seafront at Southwold in Suffolk.

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At 14:44 BST, 1st September 2010 (From Web)

Oh, bugger. Spillage. Feck.

At 03:55 BST, 1st September 2010

@paulosman A beautiful language, but my is that learning curve a kick in the teeth once you smack into monads…

At 03:57 BST, 31st August 2010

@diana_clarke It's still a little tricky, in a linked-up world. Used to be much worse, though, with deletes showing in search (-> tweleted).

At 03:47 BST, 31st August 2010

@diana_clarke Take care; deletion isn't quite what it used to be: http://www.google.ca/search?q=allinurl%3Adiana_clarke+site%3Atwitter.com

At 03:02 BST, 31st August 2010

@derspiny I am but a mere computing engineer; I turn fine ales, wine & spirits, good live jazz & pencils into workable formulae and designs.

At 02:32 BST, 31st August 2010

@timylee Very clever idea for the label. Not at all sure of the contents.

At 02:19 BST, 31st August 2010

Rediscovering the analytical power of a single pencil.

Follow me on Twitter.

I am Ashok Argent-Katwala. I lived, studied and worked in London for 12 years. Last summer I moved to Toronto – another great, global city. I enjoy building things which work, so I am slightly more engineer than scientist. I believe in a lot of things, especially that there's usually a right thing to do. More about me.

Since I get most of my best thinking done in decent cafés & pubs, I publish my recommendations on The List.

Socially acceptable copying

Copying television programmes and music tracks around is a very social thing. Not so many people do it using their computers just now, but I'll wager that's because it's fiddly, rather than because it is socially terribly unacceptable.

We've been copying and sharing media around for a long time. You can go back to home taping, which plainly never managed to kill music. But you can go back a lot further than that: to the fireside, to the cave wall, to an oral tradition of storytelling and art that far outstrips today's commercial structures for copyright.

Lots has changed since then, but storytelling is still at the heart of it.

Tagged: Technology, Social, Media, Distribution

Posted at 11:59 BST, 26th May 2010.

No comments.

Democratic Telly

As a part-time political nerd, I'm keen to keep informed about British politics, particularly in the run-up to a general election. I do a lot of reading, but I also watch programmes like the leaders' debates.

I'm a registered voter, but I happen to live overseas. Given the sorry state of global television distribution by television channels, that causes some hiccups.

I'm not concerned that I can't get access to these videos; with a fair dose of technical knowledge it's pretty simple. I am concerned that it is wrong to make it harder than it need be for any potential voter to get informed.

I hope that for the upcoming debates, the television channels will make them available to all, as easily as possible. If you agree, please let them know (see the links at the foot of this post).

Update at 12:39 BST, 23rd April 2010 – Some success

Tagged: Web, Technology, Politics, Media, Distribution, Rants

Posted at 14:09 BST, 18th April 2010.

No comments.

Two kinds of quality

I've been shopping for a new DVD player recently, and have been quite surprised by the attitude of so many shops when I ask which of their players are multi-region.

I'd really like a multi-region DVD & Blu-ray player, but that hardly seems like an option. I expect I'll get an encumbered PS3 later on, and a multi-region DVD player now.

A typical response from shops that sold decent electronics was 'We don't sell that sort of thing' and to suggest I try a cheaper, dodgier part of town.

This is tricky for me as I'm looking for two distinct kinds of quality. I want both:

  • a well designed, constructed and built machine, with particularly good upscaling to 1080p, so it looks good on our HD telly.
  • a lack of anti-user features that will mean some of the discs I own won't play because of where in the world they were originally sold.

They are both about a smooth and pleasant user experience, but one is the side of that the industry pushes, the other is about how the industry tries to segment markets in both time and space.

Tagged: Technology, Social, Media, Distribution

Posted at 16:37 GMT, 13th December 2009.

3 comments.

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Ashok Katwala
My name before marriage. I've also been Ash Katwala or Ash Argent-Katwala at times – when both syllables of Ashok have been too much.
ArsDigita London
I was employee #3 in London for aD.
Department of Computing, Imperial College London
Where I did my undergraduate degree, followed by a PhD in performance modelling, after which I did some teaching and research on software engineering and performance analysis.
Westcliff High School for Boys (WHSB) in Essex
My high school, where I was a pupil 1988–95.