Weekly Notes 26/2025

The only thing I miss about working remotely is being around people. I enjoy meeting people outside of work, such as over coffee or during lunch breaks. Even working remotely, I have tried to go out and meet and work with people at least once a week. However, for some reason, I didn’t return to that mode after COVID-19. Now I plan to; I am slowly attending events, conferences, and the like. I also plan to work one day a week outside with others, possibly organizing a DataMeet; let’s see.

• I was at the IndieWeb Meetup on Sunday, organized by Tanvi and Ankur. I also wrote a blog post as part of their writing session. It was fun. I also got to meet many new and familiar faces IRL. Haripriya, Suneela, and Yeswanth.
• I was at VizChitra today. I met many DataMeeters, including Anand and Rukmini, who were keynoting. I was mostly there to meet people, and that worked out well—Sai, Anand Chitipothu, Rohit, Nemo, Karan, Noopur, and many more. I also got to see Jackerhack’s new cube.
• I met college friends over the weekend at the Skydeck. They were playing 2000s music, such as Bryan Adams, Enrique, and Backstreet Boys, among others. Which kind of matched the people I was meeting. We were in college in 2000.
• I need to remember to take pictures when I meet people. I often forget. Please remind me if you meet me next time and if you’re interested.
• Work has been interesting, and I am at it. I hope to write about it soon.
• The pain has returned, although not to its original level, but rather at around 4/10. I am still doing physiotherapy, unlike last time.
• So, they have officially started yet another war. In 2004/5, when I was in the USA, It was George W Bush’s time. I was warned multiple times not to speak against war. And the younger me thought it would improve in the future; here we are in 2024/5, and the world is going through multiple wars and genocide, and yet you can’t speak against them, even in India.
• Since LLMs are built based on crowdsourced data (i.e., the web), should they be referred to as Crowd Intelligence (C.I.) rather than A.I? Also, they have the “common sense” of the crowd, no?
• A Family Court in MP admits WhatsApp chats procured illegally using spyware as evidence in a matrimonial dispute. Does that mean spying on your spouse is allowed in India?