Amit Gawande @am1t@mastodon.technology
Reader. Writer. Coder. Code for living. Live for reading and writing. He/him.
Joined Aug 2018
Pinned toot
Hello! I am coder by profession, who loves to read & write to keep myself inspired. I have been a blogger for more than 12 years, but lost touch with writing when Twitter was at it’s peak. May be I lost love for my words.
Anyway recently IndieWeb got my love for the technology and also writing back. So been working on a lot many Indie projects & writing my heart out at my blog since then. My only hope is this place does not kill my drive for reading, writing and coding; rather inspires it.
Dave Pell on Amazon buying Eero
> So now Amazon can run your router, your home security camera (Blink), your doorbell (Ring), your TV (Fire), and listen to your every word via Alexa as you enjoy a nice dinner from Whole Foods. We recently learned that Jeff Bezos is good at protecting his own private parts. Who’s going to protect ours from him?
Also, we should look out for the repeating sponsors on podcasts -- that looks to be the sure shot way to acquisition now. Many of the recent acquisitions have been a sponsors of some technology podcasts. I think advertising is no longer for the end customers.
Amazon acquiring Eero is a nice reminder of the risk of the technology players getting too big. It becomes extremely difficult for any small players to survive -- the limited set of 5 companies compete in every space. It's bad for innovation, everyone works towards acquisition.
Dear Internet, stop throwing more links to Eleventy at me now. It strains my resolve to not try another engine out there to build site with. I am satisfied with what I have got running -- or so I have convinced myself. Don't make it more difficult than it already is.
I agree with Gruber here[1]. Sure, you should be *careful* while you access the Internet. Or else some can indeed take control of your *machine*. But the words I highlighted matter -- you should be careful while accessing any machine.
I wonder how many people with iOS devices use any browser other than Safari. I can never convince myself to switch to any other browser -- to be frank I never felt a need earlier when I was all in on Apple ecosystem. With recent switch to Windows, I have to reconsider.
In an article on how Instagram “travel influencers” are affecting homeownership around the world is hidden a very unfortunate truth. "Today everything exists to end in a photograph (…) the most influential factor in determining where to vacation is how “Instagrammable” the destination is." This sad fact holds even for non-influencer, normal tourists.
Every now and then I am reminded of the fact that Opera browser still exists -- why and how? There was a time when I enjoyed using Opera, especially on mobile -- it looked the slickest in the flock. Ah, there was Flock) too. These days, it's a battle between just 3 players.
"Cleaning your room takes effort. Blurring your background on Skype does not." This is a nifty addition to Skype - bokeh for video calls. And a very valid argument to put the iPhone X like a dot projector and infrared camera modules in laptops.
I always believed Anchor was strategy working towards an acquisition. I never thought they would sell out so early. So glad that I did not sign up while they were drumming up how they aim to take podcasting mainstream.
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 🙂
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.
So apparently we, humans, are struggling to prove ourselves human now - The Verge reports[1].
> 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're taking the literal definition of CAPTCHA - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart too seriously.
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. Some thoughts.
In a year marred by media tirade for their sheer disregard for user's privacy, Facebook continues to grow unhindered. Their income grew more than 60% this quarter, even MAU increased. No wonder Mark believes FB's too important for the world -- be ready for more apologies.
Apple finally blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps. The ties between the two companies drop to an all time low. Facebook considers this as a critical issue. However they should have seen this coming. They can't expect a pass just because they are a major player.
Bluetooth headphones suck big time if used for listening to any form of music. They are good only for podcasts/audiobooks or calls. Videos are more terrible. I carry an extra pair of wired headphones, just in case. I empathise with all those who cursed “courageous” Apple.
There’s a planned change in how DNS responds to queries from non-complaint systems and it can potentially affect your domain availability. You can do a quick check at https://dnsflagday.net if you own any domains.
Apparently, Hover DNS systems I use aren’t fully ready? Interesting.
Surprisingly (or not may be), I was dearly missing the system-wide emojis from Mac as I switched to Windows -- before I realized, of course, they are available. I need to spend some time finding everything about the platform I have decided to move to now.
I understand the argument of this GDPR article on Verge, but, as a developer, I also believe that the data these companies hold on you is very complicated to be presented in any form which isn't a bit messy. You'll need a reference to parse the data, which should be acceptable. https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/27/18195630/gdpr-right-of-access-data-download-facebook-google-amazon-apple
Reader. Writer. Coder. Code for living. Live for reading and writing. He/him.
Joined Aug 2018
