Excursions

I wish the full screen mode on Safari did what I want it to do — go full screen on the article. No address bar, no Favorites bar; just go full screen. iPad does it perfectly. Wish Mac took the inspiration.

I get a physical newspaper delivered to me every morning. My morning cup of tea with a daily dose of news, ones not worthy to go viral has been a routine for me.

However, recently the pages are full of cynicism. I do not want to start my day with this crap.

Stairs to serenity, an opportunity to rise above the routine hustle and bustle.

In continuation to my wish for the publications to allow subscribing only to their exclusive content, I have realised even the curators and aggregators are struggling with this scale. It’s become tiring to dig through the pile of garbage.

Every time I attempt to read any publication, I am bomabarded with the content marked “Exclusive” which rarely is exclusive. Many publications just regurgitate the same news and reports.

There was a time I could just fetch opinion/edits — there existsed even special feeds for such. Most well known media and news publication houses had different sections for their exclusive contents. Their voices, their interviews, their exclusive reports. Now try to find even a RSS feed for any of the big portals out there.

We are just pointed to their Twitter or Facebook accounts, which are useless because every update to their portal goes on their social media timeline. What’s the point of every account screaming that we have a new Samsung Galaxy S9 out now?

Ironically, it is especially bad for tech portals. We would believe they would know better - have clearly marked RSS feeds or social media accounts. Nope. Rarely do any of them have exclusives, most of the times content marked as such is a planned PR play from some company. “Exclusive: A walk through XYZ testing facility”. “Special: Interview with head of ..”. All these are just planted stuff, nothing new to tell.

I just hope we go back to the days when exclusives actually meant something. And also a wish that portals did separate their original content from the regular news storm. A separate feed (or even twitter account, for that matter) for your exclusives stories would be a good start.

So after carefully considering which apps actually deserve a place on my device, I’ve for the first time a vacant space in the dock. A spot that some e-mail client had always occupied.

For me, it has always been the phone, a social network and a music app. What about others?

‘Bro Culture’ Led to Repeated Sexual Harassment →

Former Google Engineer’s Lawsuit Says:

Lee’s male coworkers retaliated against her after the complaint, her lawsuit says. They refused to approve her code and stalled her projects, she says.

Sickening.

Adore that season where winter is bidding adieu and summer is getting ready, knocking on the doors. Greens are at their pleasing best.

I am becoming too much fussy, too much skeptical about things. I find a perfect, vacant parking spot and first thing I think is why has no one else taken this? Is there a dead rat? Or a half-broken branch dangling?

There has to be a George Costanza skit already made on this.

Why a billionaire’s Instagram alternative is suddenly so popular →

So how does it make money? The short answer is that it doesn’t — at least, not yet.

It’s sad to see users leave one silo for another. Vero too will follow the same path, as it focuses primarily on engagement.

Human, you talking to me? Jeez, mon, I’m surrounded by amateurs.

My daughter teaches me, makes me think so much from dawn to dusk. Her curiousity towards her surroundings, an open mind to absorb and an unceasing streak of whys are enough to stump me every now and then.

No doubt kids are great learners. Why do we stop being kids, again?

Micro.threads update. Added refresh support for existing threads, useful mainly for all Discover tags which get regularly updated.

And of course, finally a thread for posts featured in Discover is added too.

PS: Please send me discussions which would be interesting to fetch.

Every time I have to open up my code, it makes me extremely nervous. There is so much mess that needs clean up. Some ugly configurations, a lot of unoptimized code.

And the commits keep it all. A decision every time - to init as a new repo or to let the ugliness be visible?

Finally, got the microblog section of my site, the journal as I call it, designed just the way I wanted — learner and cleaner. Feed issues are resolved too.

This marks a stable release, most design items are taken care of now.

If you had to recommend one post, long, short doesn’t matter, what would that be? Something, preferably not around tech. Something that made you curious, that made you think. That made you learn.

Your article of the week? 🔖

Updated the /now page for this week — it’s been all about the hobby projects. So few things took a backseat, entered into week two of their existence here.

The world is full of fascinating minds, with a stream of curious thoughts trickling onto the web - day in day out. I came across another one today by Jamie Thingelstad, a version number for oneself.

Yes, this makes total sense to me. A decade is indeed a major version — a chance to reclaim oneself, it’s ok then if it breaks a few of the regularities that worked for you, and for others, earlier. Your routine, your habits. Your likes and your dislikes. Your looks change, so do your thoughts. It’s new you. Hopefully one who is a better, more mature, more compatible than your last major version.

Every birthday is a minor version up. You attempt to change, just a bit. You are forced to change by the surroundings, just that bit more. But the changes aren’t groundbreaking. They are minor. You are still the same you. With more or less the same maturity and compatibility as your last minor version.

Each day hardly changes anything significant. You patch anything that was amiss yesterday. If everything went well, you just glide along the same. And of course, you do not want there to be a need for too many patches, just more regular stuff. So, a version increment, without too many broken things.

Is this analogy with Semantic Versioning perfect? Of course, not - it breaks if we go into the nitty-gritty details. But that’s not the point.

If we live our life with a hope and an attempt that every patch version fixes something broken, every minor version changes some things for better and every major version brings in more maturity, more compatibility, I think we would lead a satisfying life.

v3.3.162 Release Notes

I am seriously coming to that side of belief where microposts are no different from longer posts. As @colinwalker had once told me, its just a stream of thoughts. Some are quick bytes, some needs more chomping. But all are your thoughts.

More than the actual gameplay, I am mesmerised by the zen mode in Alto’s Odyssey. At times, I just sit at a spot and relax with the soothing music in my ear. This time, I sat tranquil watching the sun leisurely set amongst the mountains.

I am part of so many interesting conversations at micro.blog that make me wish for a way to follow and persist them. So, I just created a small project for myself, a sample available here.

Finally watched The Big Sick. It’s refreshing to see some real couples, doing normal couples’ stuff. Performances are patchy throughout, but heartfelt.

A fresh, unpredictable treatment to the plot makes this romcom a good watch.

It’s been a very hectic week, loaded with work and hobby projects. Sleep is affected. Life with family is affected.

Weekend is marked for the recovery - quality time with family, and lots of rest!

@manton I started working on an app based on Micro.blog APIs — started as a project to learn and explore. I do want to open it up to others now, in case if it helps them.

Is there any process? I did generate an app token, not using login API as of now.

I look at some people and heartily feel the society does not deserve them. I am confounded as to what covert energy drives such lot.

There is no way your regular earthly diet can prepare you for the routine assault marring your senses.