Posts

In the tradition of joining new social tools on the interwebs, here some thoughts on my experience. The usual steps are: The first few hours – mostly spent exploring the interface, the features, mired in the comparisons between the “old” and the “new” At some point, the lack of interaction and content of previous networks – the constant buzz of twitter, the inane conversations of facebook etc. – forces me tp hunt for connections. Rampant, indiscriminate “friending” of people ensues. ...

Today’s post by Seth Godin, struck a cord. I am fortunate enough to get an opportunity to build “my Eiffel Tower”. I’m building two DSLs and associated infrastructure to allow storing lots of data in an in-memory database running in an embedded system. Wish me luck! Very excited, I might add!

I hate passwords. Seems like several smart people are on the case of getting rid of the “password” Lucas Gonze, argues the loss of meaning around design of user authentication mechanisms. A world without passwords! How will we identify each other? Exchange tokens. Make “forgot password” the default. Passwords are the new pay-wall. A non-violent protest against the cruel overlord — the “password”. Justin Balthrop, calls for a boycott . Several alternatives to identify users — promoting password-less login in your apps. Eran Hammer — OAuth founder — gave up on OAuth 2.0. (An old link). Tim Bray didn’t take kindly to that post. Ahh IETF! You can grind the smartest minds to pulp. :)

I haven’t been very good with rotating the inks in the last year. Having accumulated more than my share of inks, it is time to have fewer pens inked and rotate colors. I still couldn’t resist inking 9 pens! There are 3 pens I’m excited about – 2 parker 51 and a custom pen made out of 10000 year-old bogwood (a gift from Christina).

At any given time, I have a handful of git repositories that I work on. While typing in the command-line is great, it getting tiring when you have a several directories that you have to manually change to and check. The “git status” command can take the git repo and the working directory as input. That, and a little bash programming to the rescue. The following command, executes git status in every subdirectory that is a git repository. ...

Update: Apparently, I had accidentally hit a minor bug in pew. This has now been fixed. Every so often, we spend several hours battling an issue, fighting linux or python or people or thoughts. The solution, often, leaps out when there has been a respite in the constant search for the solution. It’s the “duh” moment, that all of us feel. There is a little self-loathing, and relief at having arrived at solution. It is a moment of great pleasure, that I have learned to relish. ...

Some interesting links for the weekend: Mr.Krugman thinks Bitcoin is evil. Why should I turn off my devices for 30 mins, while a hunk of steel and glass is hurled into the upper atmosphere? #first-world-problems Lamdba expressions: something for the nerd in you. America, you make me want to travel! NOT REALLY! We don’t really change. Let’s not blame it on tech! Truth from Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary fame.

If you have worked for a large company, you know you have been here. Hilarious

Vizify makes a video out of the posts you have made on twitter in the last year. Christina, you are always my #1! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. As any self-respecting nerd would do, I immediately made one for myself. Doesn’t the world need yet another summary of meee!! 2013 on twitter Thanks to my top followers Christina Ray Lian Dave Kell

Another gem from the always spot-on Dave Winer. Microsoft could have owned netbooks. The pathological need for large companies to focus on the wrong, to their own demise never ceases to amaze me. Why do dominant players lose out? Is it the incompetence of people in these companies? Is it the inability to articulate, convince, and move the masses within these companies? Most often, it is the later. Perhaps, the collective, is bound to make safer choices and very often, the simple or obvious option is not the safe one. ...