Excursions

Has the political realm across the world always been this messy? Or is it that I read more about it now and hence am more aware? I am left anguished every time I read anything around politics. No morals. No civility. Pure egocentrism on display.

It is to capture discussions like this that I had initially built Micro.threads. I eventually added many capabilities to it that I wanted to address. However, it is heartening to see it still come handy for it’s initial intended purpose - to save and share the recommendations.

What are the recommended, non-tech, non-news newsletters? Other than NextDraft, of course. I have realised the newsletters I subscribe to tend to get repetitive. I do not want to know of the thoughts on same tech/non-tech US news 🙂

Design is not how it looks. Design is how it works.

A nice reminder from Patrick Rhone (@patrickrhone) - every designer should hang this over their desks. Also this.

Every time you add a page you add work for the visitor.

Indian Government wants to put control on Tik Tok - this is a fall-out of the fake-news debacle with WhatsApp. It wants to make sure there are mechanisms in place to contain misinformation and also set accountability when that happens. Not too overreaching if done well.

Spending a quality time with close family amidst nature is the most effective way to get rejuvenated.

I managed to catch up on two great television series - Doc Martin and The Good Place, both highly recommended by the community here. Need to especially thank @macgenie for the recommendation for former - boy, I am love with the seaside village of Portwenn. Had some fun days.

So apparently we, humans, are struggling to prove ourselves as human now - The Verge reports.

Figuring out how to fix those blurry image quizzes quickly takes you into philosophical territory: what is the universal human quality that can be demonstrated to a machine, but that no machine can mimic? What is it to be human?

I am sorry, but we are taking the literal definition of CAPTCHA - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart - too seriously. It is a good enough system to filter out attacks from majority of the bad actors not so strong both technically and financially. Sure, there would come a day when the AI systems to beat these complicated CAPTHAs would become extremely cheap — might be even sold pay-per-use.

But when that happens, we better be ready with something that can replace this old system of identifying humans online. Authenticating and authorizing an identity online should be made a priority project at all the technology leaders.

A great thread by Destin of Smarter Every Day on how crazy minds are fooling YouTube algorithms with AI.

I just figured something out I want to talk about it. Let’s talk about weaponized bots, algorithm exploitation, countermeasures, and counter-countermeasures.

I attempted to watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch today. Netflix managed to solve a lot many technical challenges — it is a well-done interactive film. I think first of its kind. But boy, did it suck as a film. The format just did not click for me — the film worked neither as a science fiction nor as a horror.

To be frank, I am a bit disappointed in this genre of films. There has been so much talk about these choose-your-own-adventure or multiple endings movies/shows. But I find the whole concept a bit distracting. Every time, I was made to choose any aspect playing on the screen, I was pulled out of the flow of the movie. I doubt this interactive form will work for many.

Call me old school. But I want to be driven, I want to view the story from the director’s perspective. I like to see what he or she wants to show me, keeping my mind completely open. I do not want to play a game while I am watching a movie. Because if I do want to, well, I will play a game in the first place.

Sure, this was a good experiment to explore this concept of letting viewers drive the narrative of the film. And although I question its feasibility, I also believe this is just a start. There’s soon going to be lot many such experiments with VR too. Whatever the makers believe, I am sure I would hate that form.

I wish makers spend their efforts on the story, on the screenplay, on all the other aspects that make a movie brilliant. I will any day choose a linear, single ending drama or a thriller that a director has complete control over than a broken, nonsensical story that I can control every aspect of.