Rungta’s Webmarks

Humans Need Not Apply ∞

Bots be coming. Bots be outperforming. Bots be replacing. Watch out humans!

(via Steven Deobald)

Standing By ∞

Back in 2011 I had come across a short talk by Arjun S Ravi about the formation of the indie music scene in India. It has been a few years and Arjun has kept himself busy. He has now come out with a full blown six-episode documentary series on the same subject called Standing By.

Beginning with the nation’s Independence and the exploration of the jazz scene in the country back then, the Standing By story then proceeds to the ’60s and ’70s and the rise of the beat groups, the mid-’70s to late ’80s with the nationwide spread rock and, later, metal, the ’90s with MTV and the music video explosion and finally to the dance music boom of the present day.

The first three episodes are out and they’re well worth a watch for any Indian alternate music fan.

“Just” ∞

Brad Frost on the unjustness of presumptions:

“Just clone the dev branch, add those three grunt tasks, and recompile…”

“Just use this software/platform/toolkit/methodology…”

“Just” makes me feel like an idiot. “Just” presumes I come from a specific background, studied certain courses in university, am fluent in certain technologies, and have read all the right books, articles, and resources. “Just” is a dangerous word.

More such dangerous words: quick, must, simply.

Update: Few more from Jason Fried: can’t, easy, only, fast.

Wrist-Stretches to Prevent RSI ∞

More and more of us spend extended hours locked in a single posture (typically seated in front of a computer) making ourselves prone to the dangers of Repetitive Strain Injury or RSI. I’ve started to feel the signs myself. Regular stretching, as shown in the linked video, is both highly effective and simple to adopt, and certainly the most inexpensive method to keep our hands in good shape. Timely and very useful to have come across it.

(via Frank Chimero)

In Conversation: Quentin Tarantino ∞

Such a great, sprawling chat about politics, racism, casting, characters, longevity, the current crop of directors and more.

Music for 18 Musicians ∞

An enthralling, captivating, hour-long composition by Steve Reich, performed here by Eighth Blackbird. Fittingly discovered when I was riding light through the solar system.

This is my first introduction to Steve Reich and what appears to be his pioneering minimalist music. I can’t wait to dig deeper into his large body of work, and if this piece is any indication, I have some incredible hours of music ecstasy ahead. Joy!

The Fermi Paradox ∞

Sometimes the scale of the internet boggles the mind — the reach of a single tweet, the repercussions of a Wikipedia edit, the disruption caused by a buggy piece of software — but internet scale doesn’t even come close when you compare it to space. The scale of things in the universe is mostly unfathomable. Take the recent Pluto flyby for instance:

People don’t fully appreciate how incredible this is. Pluto is 7.5 billion km away. New Horizon speed is 50,000km/hr

The human mind cannot comprehend such numbers properly. We have absolutely no points of reference from our daily lives.

— Siddharth Singh (@siddharth3) 4:47pm and 4:48pm, 14 July 2015

7.5 billion kilometres. Spend some time with the fantastic If the Moon Was Only 1 Pixel model of the solar system to get a crude feel of what that can be like (because no human knows what it actually is like). But we’re still talking about just our solar system here. Things get really crazy when you go interstellar.

Now add to this the eternal question — are we alone in the universe? Go on, go read about the Fermi Paradox.

Himalaya One: The Four Passes Trek ∞

Friends and avid trekkers Sriparna & Rohit (of Tiffinbox and Travelling Teadom fame):

We flagged off our secret ‘Himalaya One’ project in the summer of 2013. The first trek started in Naggar (Kullu Valley) and ended in Kafnu (Kinnaur Valley). The walk in between spanned 200 kilometres, 19 days and a little over 100 hours of walking. We have tried to compile the best of the footage captured in 6 minutes.

It’s hard showering praise on these Himalayan treks and not ending up sounding repetitive, but what the hell, this looks absolutely incredible. The exercise sequence in the beginning was such a clever way to exploit the GoPro. And secret ‘Himalaya One’ project? Hmm…

Why I Hate Writing ∞

What better than a lament on the virtuous and therapeutic yet constantly avoided act of writing, by Natasha Badhwar, to revisit this forgotten and abandoned website.

Why did I stop writing? I could find many excuses — lack of time while trying to run a company, or wanting to distance myself from digital screens after staring at them throughout the workday, or getting slowly dispassionate with age, or a long-overdue design overhaul to improve the reading experience. They’re all true to some extent, but probably secondary. Ultimately the act of writing is the act of gaining clarity, of facing your demons, of covering the distance between hearing and listening.

That is what I’ve been running away from all this while.