07 Jul 2026
· ai-engineering
I am a self-taught1 full-stack developer for everything my company ships. For many years I have run a micro incubator — a handful of products and services that I build, deploy and own, all by myself. I write the code, the tests, and the deployment scripts; I run the servers. And I was quite content with that job description.
Then one of those products grew into a problem I could not keep up with.
Continue reading →07 Jul 2026
· ai-engineering
This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Part 1 tells the story of why this system exists. Part 3 collects the rules I now follow. This part is the engineering.
PublishersGlobal runs a verification pipeline over an active directory of ~20,000 publishers and service providers. Every profile needs to be continuously verified and re-verified, because data on the internet degrades very quickly. In the first few months we ran close to 30,000 verification passes. This post recounts some of what I learned building and running the verification system on open-weight models.
Continue reading →07 Jul 2026
· ai-engineering
This is Part 3 of a three-part series. Part 1 is the story of why the system exists; Part 2 is the engineering detail. This part is the distillation: the rules I now follow, each one paid for by a specific mistake1. I’d bet that this list is far from complete and I will have the opportunity to add to it.
I came to AI engineering with decades of full-stack habits. Some transferred directly, some had to be unlearned, and a few new ones had to be acquired at the cost of production incidents. Here are twelve, in roughly the order the pipeline taught them to me.
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01 Jan 2020
· photography
Over the years I have done commercial photography assignments for advertising agencies ranging from cars to switch-gear. I have taken on commissioned photography and film projects from commercial media, international bilateral agencies, and not-for-profit organizations.
I am involved in multiple long-term projects, but I am happy to work on commissioned multi-media assignments. I prefer working on travel related projects or projects related to not-for-profit organizations/causes.
Drop me a line if you have an interesting project for me.
Continue reading →![Packing list for multi-day self-supported cycling trip [Version 2.0]](/images/IMG_1317-2-l_hu_c33b5b0c9e025dc8.jpg)
01 Jan 2018
· cycling
Some years ago I had posted a packing list that I had used for my Manli-Leh cycling trip. That post generated many thank-you’s and even more follow-up questions. The Manali-Leh trip was my first major multi-day self-supported cycling trip. Since then I have done many more trips and I am now more settled on my packing list. And my approach to packing for a cycling trip is more refined, or so I’d like to believe.
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02 Jul 2017
· photo-features
Residents of Delhi, even those not terribly interested in history, are likely to be aware of the Safdarjung Tomb. Not because it is a particularly grand tomb, as mausoleum go, but perhaps because it is physically a prominent landmark, on a major road, in the middle of upmarket central Delhi.
This morning I had an hour to kill, and I decide to make some pictures there. While wandering there, two things occurred to me:
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29 May 2017
· cycling
At age 40, in the middle of raising venture funding for my second tech start-up, I had a massive heart attack. It’s a long story, but in essence, while I was lying on the cold OT table and wondering why they were trying to freeze me to death, my loved ones were waiting outside desperately hoping and praying that I make it through. Surprise: I did make it through.
In just a few days I will make it all the way through to 50. Bloody impressive, eh! And cycling across America is closest thing to a celebration I could plan. This is kind of a ’teerth yatra’ (pilgrimage) for an old man. And hopefully along the way I will discover America. Or at least a part of it. Okay, seriously, at the minimum, I will discover if I have the legs and the mindset for long distance cycling.
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01 Oct 2016
· cycling
At 4,420 meters Sach pass is not among the highest ‘motorable’ passes in the country, but it is certainly one of the steepest and one of toughest to bicycle across. A couple of years ago, Punit and I failed to cycle across it (read about the last attempt to cycle across the Sach pass here. What are the chances that I’ll do better on a solo attempt?
It is a little after 4:00 pm and it has already been a tough day of cycling. I still have the energy to push along for a couple of more hours, but am not sure if that would be good enough to get me to Bagota (no, not the capital of Colombia, but the little tarp cluster short of Sach Pass in Himachal Pradesh). Not finding shelter for the night at this altitude and in these inhospitable conditions is not an option. Time to stop cycling, catch my breath and assess my situation.
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21 Sep 2014
· cycling
The hardest part about Spiti is reaching there. It took us a 22-hour bus ride to get to Rekong Peo. For the sake of acclimatization we had planned the night stay at Kalpa, which is not so far from there, but much higher. And also much nicer. Having had our fill with the HPTDC’s ‘ordinary’ buses, especially given the quantum of our luggage, we choose to just hire a jeep the next day to take us up to Nako (technically still in Kinnaur) – another five odd hour drive.
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16 Sep 2014
· cycling
People often ask me what is the best cycle for touring the Himalayas. It is a hard question to answer, mainly because different people define ’touring’ differently.
For instance, cycle touring may mean cycling hundreds of kilometers self-supported where the rider carries a tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear on the bike, and has the option to stop and camp wherever she fancies. However, many of the well established Himalayan routes can also be toured ultralight, by eating and sleeping in teahouses (dhabas). And then there is the option of riding without any baggage because the support team/vehicle follows the rider(s) closely.
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