Excursions

With a significant majority of the world following a stay-home routine, many of the planned events have gone online-only. This has given me a wonderful chance to be part of events that I could never have been part of. A small relief amidst all the negativity and gloom around!

Kai Brach delivers a brilliant advise as part of this week’s newsletter of Dense Discovery. I have been trying my best to also live a trivial life in these trying times.

It never felt so comforting watching someone clean their car. On my screen, the world ends any minute. But from my balcony, life goes on, one sponge wipe at a time.

So let’s think and read and write and talk about trivial stuff, too. Trivial is OK. Trivial is life.

I am always fascinated with the idea of a book club - may be because I just haven’t got a chance to be part of one. How does it work? In today’s time of lockdown, this would be wonderful to experience. Are there any that are done on web, say via Zoom?

I don’t think it must be surprising to anyone — the use of that dumb, forgotten app on your smartphone is on the rise again. The phone. People are calling others more. They are talking to them longer. If you can’t meet others physically, your mind reaches out for other ways.

I watched Parasite today — I didn’t like it. I believe if a movie with the same premise and same treatment was made in US, it would have no chance at Oscars. This did win because it was foreign. Very similar to Slumdog Millionaire.

I’ve been working with IndieWeb for quite some time now and I still get confused with implementing a simple IndieLogin workflow before a micropub request. There’s just too much back and forth between multiple endpoints. Time to put the head down and get this working!

I am still not sure about dates of the posts! Ignore this pls.

I’m getting tired of the Coronavirus coverage around. I don’t want to watch it, read it. Anyway there’s hardly any news that’s not regular anymore. Of course, avoiding it means avoiding Television and internet altogether. My Kindle’s been the only savior. Dependable as always.

Apparently, the lockdown and stay at home orders have caused the podcast downloads to decline. I guess it’s mainly due to the lack of any form of commutes. Has been, for sure, the case with me. Contrarily, I believe the podcasts episodes being released must be on the rise.

It has been a wonderfully productive day today. There’s a dev project that had been stagnant for long. Almost forgotten. All that was needed was some focused, distraction-free time. I managed to find that today.

And that leaves me absolutely delighted!

Dear people, we are divided by Nation. Region. Race. Religion. Launguage. Culture. Economies. And many more things. But I believe it is time now to be united by one resolve - stay the fuck at home. Don’t listen to your deranged peers. Your idiotic leaders. Even your families.

Coronavirus looks pretty much the same, no strains more deadlier that others - and that is a good news. What that means is it has not been mutating at a rapid pace. In more technical terms, the virus has a “proofreading machinery, however, and that reduces the ‘error rate’ and the pace of mutation”. Here’s Benjamin Neuman of Texas A&M University contrasting the coronavirus with influenza, “which is notoriously slippery”.

Flu does have one trick up its sleeve that coronaviruses do not have — the flu virus genome is broken up into several segments, each of which codes for a gene. When two flu viruses are in the same cell, they can swap some segments, potentially creating a new combination instantly — this is how the H1N1 ‘swine’ flu originated.

It was exactly a year ago that I had given up on Stoop, the newsletter app. I had a smaller device, an iPhone SE, and I didn’t like the app then. Today I find it so useful, not sure if it’s due to the larger display of my OnePlus or the testing times we are living through.

In today’s time of confusion and uncertainty, safety of the food, our essential need, is equally important. Serious eats has a brilliant essay on just this topic. I think the writer or me are not alone who are troubled with all these concerns, and the essay is must read in that regard.

Even so, plenty of folks—myself included—have been confused or curious about the safety of allowing restaurants to continue preparing and serving food. Is it actually safe? Should I reheat the food when I get it home? Is it better to support local businesses by ordering food, or am I only putting workers and delivery people at risk? And if I’m cooking my own food, what guidelines should I follow?

E-paper (or e-ink) displays have the unique property of not needing power to maintain an image. Once a charge blasts across the display and correctly aligns pixels full of black and white balls, everything will stay where it is when the power turns off, so the image will stick around. You might not have thought about it before, but in addition to data, NFC comes with a tiny wireless power transfer. This display is designed so that NFC provides just enough power to refresh the display during a data transfer, and the e-ink display will hold onto the image afterward.

Fascinating use of available technology. This would be brilliant for passive viewing - for dashboards or billboards or all sorts of boards that do not need regular change of content.

I feel too stressed out these days. It is not from the pressure of work. Or from the fear of getting infected by Coronavirus. But from the factors that I have no control over.

How people I do not know just refuse to behave in the larger interest of the community. Or how media ignores being responsible in covering the biggest tragedy the world is facing in a long time.

Or how few people are taking the pandemic too lightly. So much so that they are putting the lives of many at risk, even their near and dear ones. Or how few people are taking the same pandemic way too seriously. So much so that they have simply stopped living. Obsessing non-stop over the negativity and gloominess all around.

Where do I fall? I realized today that the inner turmoil has started to affect the way I behave. The way I express. The way I carry myself. I better find a solution, a distraction. Soon.

I missed a final “feed is shifting” post before I consolidated all my posts at one place. So, for those subscribed to my blog through RSS, these are the new feed urls - RSS, JSON Feed

PS: Still not sure how this post will reach all old subscribers. Just hope it does.

I watched Contagion - I still can’t believe a movie was made that so closely foretold the present we’re leaving today. I couldn’t go to sleep with the thoughts of how bad it can get.

So I watched Chef then. I can’t believe such a simple movie can be made. And still be good.

Ruth Marcus has written a wonderful opinion piece at The Washington Post on how this latest global tragedy, the pandemic feels a lot more life-altering. Social distancing enforced by the ways the Coronavirus spreads has affected us a lot deeper than what we initially thought.

How much the virus has reminded us of the mundane pleasures we take for granted — walking down the well-stocked shelves of our local supermarkets, chatting idly with our co-workers; kissing a friend on the cheek when we meet for lunch. Oh, to hug again without having to calculate the inherent risk: My mother? My daughters?

When I venture out to walk the dog, there is a grim camaraderie with those we encounter. The dogs, heedless of contagion, sniff away, and while their humans maintain a sober distance, even strangers inquire after one another’s well-being. In the barren aisles of the market, at least the last time I risked a visit, there was an air more of solidarity than panic

So true. What we thought was normal is dreaded now. And it the normalcy that we yearn for now. Together as a society.

I can attest to this study on how CarPlay and Android Auto can impair driver’s reaction. I have experienced how distracting it is to work these systems on the touch screen of the car. I have stop using them.

Even the touch screen without these are bothersome while driving.

To say that the situation is not that bad yet, that it’s not scary, is a bit irresponsible at this point. For those who can read, who can find the right sources, who can segregate authentic news and facts from the rumours, it is imperative on you to inform and enlighten those who cannot do all of this. Either due to lack of resources or willingness.

Willingness to be informed is necessary and is something that is often ignored. Many people just aren’t willing to accept the fact that the situation is dire. Because we just don’t trust the media - the panic-spreading frenzy they tend to rile up every time there is even minor discomfort. Matt Ridley analyzed this situation in this brilliant article at Reaction. He said it well.

It is very easy, in other words, to bet on the tendency of journalists and their readers to engage in a competitive auction of unjustified alarm.

Absolutely. “We all have survived through many such waves of panic, it’s always nothing”, goes the narrative for a section of the society. Well, we have cried wolf often, it was bound to hit us back one day or the other.

It is easy to trust the voices what are closer to our beliefs, that are easier to follow. Distancing oneself socially is not an easy task to do. Those saying we need to follow such extreme precautions are conveniently ignored. It is important that these minds are kept informed. Enlightened.

Coronavirus has been affecting me, my immediate family and even the world at large in extreme ways. It was only natural to feel the urge to record my thoughts as I live through the pandemic. Hence, I have created a page that I intend to use to do just that.

The latest episode of Reply All was an absolute gem. It was fun and equally intriguing. The mystery around and the search for the missing hit song was presented brilliantly. I think only Reply All can produce such episodes. Kudos! @PJVogt @AGoldmund

This social distancing exercise takes a toll on one’s mind, it is not very easy to undergo. When we go outside and meet others, be social that is, we let our mind wander from the day to day grind. It doesn’t matter then if the “social gathering” is as regular as just at the office. People around have stories that they are keen to share.

We chat, discuss, debate, tease, prank, laugh. We brainstorm, we learn from others, we teach others. We do this all together as a group. Everything kind of stops when the group is no longer present in-person. Video and audio conferencing feel too formal.

This all can’t be healthy - it is sure to have some psychological effect. Melissa Pandika writes on Mic about the emotional toll such social distancing precautions can take.

Right now, even the simplest, purest of human gestures, the ones we crave most in times like these — a hug or squeeze of our hand, reassuring us everything will turn out okay — now carry risk.

So true. There are already reports of how this is affecting families all around the world. I am afraid the chances are people will soon get fed-up, get impatient. They might stop caring about others, become isolated within. Become indifferent.

Of course, another possibility is that this will bring immediate families even closer. I can do all that I do in a group while I am at home with family. I can decide not to isolate myself at home. I get focused hours for work and at the same time decide not to stay glued to the laptop throughout the day while working. Take the breaks that I usually take and spend that time with my family.

There is no need to wind the working day down with media consumption as I can relieve stress throughout the day when required. Look beyond the mobile, tablet and television screens. I can spend the hours I generally wasted on commutes on something productive.

Share stories. Hear from loved ones. Play with my daughter. Talk, chat, discuss, debate, tease. Laugh. Do everything I do at the office. And more.

I think I will give this possibility a chance. Distance, not isolate. May be, social distancing, physically distancing myself from the outside world, will bring me emotionally closer to my family.

Coronavirus has completely taken over all forms of media and the discussions around me. Not an hour goes by without a mention of the global pandemic. It’s not an all-out panic yet, but an increasing number of positive cases in my city has, for sure, put the people on alert.

I am avoiding unverified information that gets spread on social media and group messaging platforms. But it is difficult to stay and keep others, sane amidst the deluge of news bites that get spewed across every few minutes. It becomes tedious and tiring to focus on facts and keep enlightening people around you about the same.

It sure looks like a storm is brewing within all. I just wish that the uncertainty subsides before there are more cases of worst sides of humans on display. If not, any hope for the social solidarity that Kara Swisher, so succinctly, calls for will be lost.

In addition to social distancing, societies have often drawn on another resource to survive disasters and pandemics: social solidarity, or the interdependence between individuals and across groups. This an essential tool for combating infectious diseases and other collective threats. Solidarity motivates us to promote public health, not just our own personal security. It keeps us from hoarding medicine, toughing out a cold in the workplace or sending a sick child to school. It compels us to let a ship of stranded people dock in our safe harbors, to knock on our older neighbor’s door.