- I got my 3D printer back from my cousin. He stopped using it for a few years. He sent it back to me when he had to move. I’ve been printing a lot of useless stuff, like the one below.
- I have been reading “Medieval India 1” (edited by Irfan Habib). I found a few papers in it quite interesting — especially on social mobility and travelers accounts of Hindu religious practices at many famous places; many of them don’t exist anymore. Perhaps I will write a review later. Mr. Habib has an excellent, readable body of work on Indian history. Indian history was a very emotional subject when I was in college. Mere mention of a historian was likely to invite accusations of partisanship. I’ve mostly read what people would call “leftist” historians. Mr. Habib, D. D. Kosambhi, etc., were/are my favorites. Though I don’t touch Romilla Thapar anymore. I don’t like her as a person anymore after her stint at EPW.
- The economy and the reality are catching up with the AI usage at work. Costs have been rising, and token-maxxing by a few is burning through the monthly budgets in a week. Given its effect on memory prices, I am a bit glad that I bought a Linux machine a few years back, though I didn’t need any. It is quite a weird situation; the promise of AI is replacing labor and jobs, then who’s going to buy it, and what is its point other than being a tool of economic destruction?
- Congrats to Ireland and New Zealand for their wins over India and England. I didn’t watch any of those matches.
- The government pulled a statistical sleight of hand to show the rural wage has increased by 13%! This data will go into official statistics soon.
- My favorite podcast, In Our Time, continues after its host retired from the show :-). I’ve listened to a few new episodes. It will take some time to get used to the absence of Mr. Melvyn Bragg. Content produced by the BBC is still one of the best in the world, but this podcast had been out of this world.
- Work was very slow this week. I also took a few technical interviews for a client who has been using AI to screen resumes. I am not a fan of using AI in the interview process, but it is what it is. Earlier, I didn’t like structured interviews, but now I prefer them since comparison across becomes a bit easier. I don’t have anything against unstructured interviews if you practice beforehand and make sure it doesn’t derail candidates. Now I wish the candidate also practiced interviews, especially how they answer the questions; please get to the point as soon as possible.
- Something is perhaps churning in the PHP community: RFC for geneic was rejected! And I saw a talk about the RFC process. I think it is usually a VERY GOOD idea to make the lives of programmers easier.