Chennai International Airport

The International Airport in Chennai (MAA) is a statement. But before you start assuming its cultural significance, let me quickly say this: I don’t know how to frame the statement itself, but I’ll attempt to elaborate my understanding. As someone interested in UX and wanting to improve UX every here and there – no I haven’t improved UX anywhere yet – I cannot help but notice this about the MAA airport....

November 28, 2017 · 2 min · abishek

Long form writing on a phone

Its 2018, almost. And I still find it hard to compose long form content on a handheld phone (iPhone/android). Its just not comfortable to enough to get out of the way and allow the thought flow. iPad was better definitely, but I decided not to upgrade since the last one. Seemed too redundant to our lifestyle and given that my Mac Pro is not all that heavy, I end up composing all long form content on the Mac Pro....

October 29, 2017 · 3 min · abishek

Idea for Uber or Ola or other cab aggregators

It was a lunch time discussion between me and the wife. We were wandering multiple topics, as usual, and suddenly came to a point where we thought, there should be a coupon code to goto a specific place. And then I remembered my Dad was cribbing the other day about attending a wedding at some place so far away from the city, it almost felt like a picnic across the city....

June 19, 2017 · 3 min · abishek

On Learning

I can vividly remember the setting. It was only the two of us in the classroom. Right after a lecture on Spread Spectrum Modulation (and the associated theory). This friend of mine, B, had a few questions on the lecture but wouldn’t ask the lecturer. For some reason, he believed I might be able to help. In college, I was pretty egoistic. So clearly, I would help. I sat there explaining the theory to him, explaining the math as I understood it....

May 19, 2017 · 6 min · abishek

Fear

My favourite TED talk is the talk by Larry Smith on “Why You Will Fail To Have A Great Career”. It is also my worst nightmare. It is what keeps me looking hard for problems that I believe in, that I want to be assosciated with. I take part in multiple forums just trying to see what would interest me. After all, if you want to commit all your time to working on something, you might pick up something that you really believe in....

May 14, 2017 · 2 min · abishek

Redeeming the old MBA2,1

We have this mid 2009 model Macbook Air (MacbookAir2,1) that has been idle for quite a while. I made the mistake of upgrading it to El Capitan a couple of years back which made it a functional brick. It would boot, but would take a tonne of time doing that. And then anything you click would take 5-10 minutes to happen. I tried all the usual stuff. I threw the DVDs that came with the device, so I can’t so much as roll it back to its good self....

May 7, 2017 · 4 min · abishek

Tonnes of updates

The biggest update since the last time I posted something is that I have moved to Chennai. Singapore is fun and a great place to live, but perhaps it didn’t work out very well for my career aspirations. It did work great for the wife, but she is happy to back in Chennai as well. Besides she is on the planned break for Sid, so maybe it doesn’t matter all that much in the short term....

July 19, 2016 · 2 min · abishek

Career – Snake Oil

I think Career is the worst snake oil I ever brought home. Education being the next. No, I am not writing this post in regret or in bad times. Whatever oil I bought is still making me good food and giving me an acceptable lifestyle. So, I can’t just pour it out the door and get done. Which is precisely what makes it snake oil! I am sometimes so damn scared about taking a step because am worried precisely about losing this oil....

March 15, 2016 · 2 min · abishek

Eye Openers

Recently my mom had come visiting; more to spend time with my infant son and a little to spend time with us. Now my in-law is here with us – more to take care and spend time with our son than much else. A trip we arranged for our convenience as well. Of course, we took this step to evaluate our options. But this taught us more about our parents and gave answers to most of what we are....

February 27, 2016 · 4 min · abishek

Dilemma on ethics

Recently, I have been coming across a lot of people who use their work laptop as though it were their personal laptop. Of course, there isn’t anything wrong with that. Companies know and understand fair use of the equipment provided. That’s the keyword here: fair use. I think an extended definition of fair use is also acceptable. In my opinion, it is fair use as long as you don’t benefit from or misuse the equipment....

February 22, 2016 · 2 min · abishek