Author: Pradeep

  • The Last Debris from Mission Shakti

    Update: The actual re-entry date is 14 June 2022.

    Someone had a question about what happened to the debris related to India’s ASAT test, Mission Shakti in 2019.

    Joseph Remis is the person I look to for this information.

    Tweet from Joseph Remis: Another consequence of the electromagnetic storm is to bring the fall of the last remaining debris of the Indian ASAT closer.

    If you open the image on the tweet, you would see the decay date is 11 May 2022. When I opened the quote tweets on this post, I saw this post from Astro_Neel.

    Tweet from Astro_Neel: This piece was otherwise predicted to come down by Aug 2028 (six years later)

    Astro_Neel makes the point that the piece of debris was likely to re-enter only in August 2028 (quoting Joseph Remis again). An electromagnetic storm that hit Earth in February 2022, that knocked out 38 Starlink satellites of SpaceX.

    The geomagnetic storm also led to reducing the time needed to decay the last piece of debris related to the Mission Shakti from August 2028 to June 2022.

    Update

    I was remis to not check the r/ISRO sub-Reddit before writing here. When I shared the blog post on the Fediverse, Ohsin pointed to the thread on Microsat-R where he had also been tracking the debris.

    @pradx Last tracked piece from Microsat-R debris decayed in 14 June 2022. I was also keeping track of it in PSLV-C44/Microsat-R launch thread over at reddit!

    Ohsin on the Fediverse

    He also shared this image with the final decay date indicated.

    Final update from the Satellite Catalog. Image from Ohsin.

  • Cory Doctrow’s book on technology silos

    https://www.tumblr.com/mostlysignssomeportents/724376507917664256/kickstarting-a-book-to-end-enshittification

    I’ve been looking at how walled off my content has been in the various silos of technology companies like Google, Amazon, etc. Lately, I’ve been feeling the same way about Automattic (the company which hosts this blog and Tumblr, a micro-blogging service that I use).

    I had shared a couple of videos about the IndieWeb in the fifteenth weekly notes in April 2023. This book seems to feed on this feeling of our content being locked in these silos.

    Derek Sivers also spoke about this (that he calls, technical independence) on episode 668 of The Tim Ferriss Show. He then fleshed it out in a blog post on his personal blog.

  • Weekly Notes 29/2023

    I missed posting the weekly notes for the twenty eighth week. This update is also a good two to three days old.

    OTT

    • Ntikkakkakkoru Premondarnn (Malayalam)
    • Janaki Jaane (Malayalam)

    I was sorry to see the series, The Blacklist (English) end on Netflix.

    Writing

    I did no writing other than work-related writing over the last two weeks.

    Reading

    I was reading/listening to:

    • The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Audible, English)

  • Weekly Notes 27/2023

    I missed posting the Weekly Notes for the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth Weekly Notes.

    OTT

    I’ve watched:

    • Trishanku (Malayalam)
    • Ayisha (Malayalam)
    • The Net (English)
    • The Vortex (French)
    • Live (Malayalam)
    • The Sinner (English)

    Writing

    I had a lot of end of the quarter deliverables at work that I completed. This was at the cost of some other thinking and writing. After a brief pause because of fever, I got back to writing excited by the Chandrayaan 3 launch date confirmation. I wrote:

    Information Consumption

    After Threads launched, I signed up immediately. I posted this:

    There is no sane way to process the amount of information that we are hit with every day. Trying to consume it all only left me with no time for family, friends, etc. So, I went back to digital subscriptions for The Hindu, Frontline, The Scroll, and The News Minute.

    I read The Hindu for a general awareness of stories. I read Frontline for some in-depth reading of certain stories. I read The News Minute for coverage related to Kerala. I read the Scroll for some of the book excerpts and investigative news coverage.

    For stuff related to work (technical writing) and interests (Space and Zettelkasten), I follow people on social media specific to these interests.

    I have been trying it out for a month and so far, it seems to be helping.

  • What India must talk to France about Space?

    Suhasini Haidar, writing for The Hindu, talks about the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France. A key paragraph to highlight in the article:

    India and France are also hoping to strengthen ties over collaboration in space that dates back to the 1960s. Apart from collaborations in launching satellites, the two sides are also looking at training astronauts and partnerships in space industrial engineering, it is learnt.

    Haidar, Suhasini. “Co-Development Rather than Co-Production Will Be Focus of India-France Ties, Sources Say.” The Hindu, 6 July 2023

    France provided inputs on solid fuel technology to ISRO with the Centaures rocket in the 1970s. Working together on the Viking liquid engine, under an arrangement with the European Society for Propulsion (SEP), provided valuable inputs to develop India’s workhorse Vikas engine in the 1980s. The French helped in setting up the Liquid Propulsion Systems Center (LPSC) at Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.

    Arianespace has provided launch service for various Indian communication satellites, as India struggled with mastering cryogenic technology. ISRO and CNES has worked together on two satellites related to climate studies, Megha-Tropiques and SARAL. A future collaborative mission, Trishna, is slated for launch in 2024.

    India and France can play an important role in space science. I would love to see a continuation of co-operation of Earth observation satellites that are built to study Earth’s climatic systems. I believe that collaboration with France particularly with the mission to Venus would be a shot in the arm for the Indian Venus Mission, called Shukrayaan. France has experience with working on the Vega missions with the Soviet Union.

    The study of Mars is a rosy colonization dream today. The study of Venus provides an understanding of where the Earth could be headed because of global warming and climate change. I think there must be as many if not more missions to Venus as there are missions to Mars today.

    France is also a signatory of the Artemis Accords, and along with Australia is trying to look for an international arrangements to govern access to and resources on the Moon. This is an essential middle path that India must try to support. Global supply chains are important to keep mission costs low.

    India must try to book cheaper slots on the Ariane 6. There is a 6 ton and higher category of satellites that Indian launch vehicles can currently not support. India must also try to get more French companies to try to fly on Indian launch vehicles. There could be an opportunity coming up during the period of transition between Ariane V and Ariane 6.

    At the industry level, I believe there are opportunities to collaborate in data sharing and data analysis. Indian space startups could try to provide satellite, satellite sub-systems, and propulsion systems to French startups.

  • Poetry of the Maharashtrian Saints

    The wari passed through Pune last week, just like it did every month. As always, it disrupted life in the city but people have been used to it for centuries. The wari reminds me to look up about the lives and teachings of the saints of Maharashtra.

    A surprisingly large number of these saints had their samadhi in places close to Pune. This added to my fascination to learn about them and to understand their teachings. When we had visited our pediatrician last week, he had mentioned that my daughter’s school name was a name for Sant Tukaram, part of the Warkari tradition. We get similar reminders about the existence of these saints in various parts of Pune.

    Mani Rao wrote in Scroll about a chat that she had with Priya Sarukkai Chabria, the editor of the e-journal, Poetry at Sangam, which was going to shut after beginning in 2013. Among the various questions was about the fact that the e-journal contained English translations present in the e-journal from various Indian languages, besides poetry in the English language.

    I did not find mention of poems in Malayalam but did find poems in Marathi. Poetry at Sangam had English translations of poetry in Marathi by Anjali Purohit, Jerry Pinto, and Neela Bhagwat. The translation of a riddle in the Bharoods of Sant Eknath (1533-1599) specifically caught my eye. And thereafter, I read each one of them.

    Contradiction is the sign of Natha’s home
    Where the water is parched with thirst.

    The pot goes in, surrounded by water
    Water submerges in water.

    Today I saw the strangest sight:
    Water flowing backwards from the eves to the ridge.
    The farmer sowed the field and
    The field swallowed up the guard.

    The cooking pot was eaten and the rice thrown away
    God slaughtered in sacrifice before the goat.

    Says Eka, Janardan’s path is antithetical
    He that understands this is a true follower.

    Codey/Riddles, Sant Eknath, translated into English by Anjali Purohit

    I am also trying to place them in my understanding of Indian philosophy and the various philosophical darsanas. As I understand them, these are songs called abhangs which explain Vedantic philosophy in the format of songs made famous by the bhakti saints. Vedanta seems to have moved from explanations through debate with other philosophical systems to explanations in terms of analogies to this form.

  • Weekly Notes 24/2023

    The Weekly Notes seems to be the only blog post that I have been consistent with recently. All the other writings are cooling their heels in my draft folder. Many of the things that I began recording here have fallen to the way side and recollecting them has not been important.

    I had a section for what I read or listened to this week. I have mostly been re-reading Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method. I am reading it keeping in mind the stuff I read of Scott P Scheper on his ANTInet. This is to sharpen the Zettlekasten system inside my bullet journal.

    I had a section on badminton and cycling. All the equipment related to these pursuits have begun gathering dust in different corners of the house.

    I am embarking on a couple of courses related to the work that I do as a technical writer that will keep me occupied at home during the monsoon.

  • Update – Using my Bullet Journal as my Zettelkasten

    I had written on this blog about the practice of using my Bullet Journal as my zettelkasten on 19 May 2020. I had forgotten about it in the haze of the pandemic. I re-discovered the post as I was linking my thinking (h/t Nick Milo) in the past week or so.

    In the Spirals section of my weekly notes last week, I mention the Antinet and the zettelkasten videos I had been watching on YouTube.

    So, after binging on many videos in the last two to three weeks, I seem to have gotten exactly at the point I was at when I wrote my post on 19 May 2020. Before I forget the lessons I learnt, let me summarize the points I made in that blog post again.

    • I use many digital tools and hence my data is stuck on many different platforms (like Evernote, Roam Research, etc.)
    • Moving a zettelkasten into a bullet journal reduces the clutter of index cards.
    • Threading in zettelkasten reminded me about a video about threading in the bullet journal.
      • Index in a bullet journal is the master collection. Similar to an index card in the zettelkasten.
      • Collection threading is done by writing the reference of the page number next to the page number in the next collection.
      • Notebook threading is done by using book number + page number next to the page number.
      • A Tiny Ray of Sunshine has a detailed post on threading.

    I have been writing my notes about podcasts, YouTube videos, books, articles, etc. in my bullet journal since I started keeping one. These can be considered as bibliography notes or quick notes.

    What would make my bullet journal into my zettelkasten would be to introduce progressive summarization that Tiago Forte talks about in his book, Building a Second Brain.

    Another thing needed is to introduce a way to review the content in the bullet journal in a periodic manner and link my thinking.

    A thing I noticed that the spirals I go down are naturally linked to each other. This focus reduces the need of too much categorization naturally. I can look through instances by using the index without the need to opening or delving too deep into any particular notebook.

  • Weekly Notes 23/2023

    Reading/Listening

    I am currently reading/listening to:

    • The Bullet Journal Method – Ryder Carroll
    • Marathi Vangmayacha (Galeev) Itihas – Pu La Deshpande

    Writing

    I have been busy with professional commitments this week but was very happy to be able to write two posts on my blog:

    The book, Trackside got my writing and reading started again this week.

    Spirals

    I did not follow any new spirals this week. Most were continuations from the ones last week.

    I loved Varun Mayya’s explanation of AI on Nikhil Kamat’s YouTube channel. Here he talks about the Indus Valley Report for 2023.
    YouTube’s algorithm introduced me to Curly’s Analog channel. He implements Scheper’s Antinet.

    I stumbled on Neeldhara’s tweet about a resource she created on note-taking on her blog.

    Embed of Neeldhara’s tweet.
    FP was mentioned by Curly Analog in one of his videos. This may be a good video to begin going down the Zettelkasten playlist FP has created on YouTube. Detailed notes on his blog begin from Lesson #1.

    FP mentions that he backs up his notes digitally. Presently, he does them on Obsidian.

    Frontline has a nice interview with Ananyo Bhattacharya, who is the author of The Man from the Future, a book about John von Neumann. I plan to get this book.

    I argue that another of von Neumann’s contributions to computing, specifically his insistence on putting everything into the public domain and preventing the computer from being patented, has also had an enormous impact. He is the godfather of the open source movement, which is incredibly important today.

    Ananyo Bhattacharya, Frontline

    Some of the smartest people in technology say they are worried that AI is worse than pandemics and nuclear weapons. What I worry about is not AI extinguishing humans, but our humanity.

    Om Malik, Your Weekend AI reader

    Across India, there’s a new kind of tourism that’s seeing a boom- astrotourism. Amateur astronomers, citizens building telescopes, hobbyists, and private companies are organizing dark sky tourism with nightly sky watching and fun daytime experiences.

    Sandhya Ramesh, India’s new tourism boom is in the sky
    Twitter thread on the 2023 Odisha train collission.

  • Trackside – A Collection of Railway Stories (2013)

    This book came out in March 2013. I purchased it in September 2013 on my Kindle then. I follow the author of this book on Twitter and probably learned about the book from there.

    I was in a reading rut after my son was born. I could listen to audiobooks on Audible but couldn’t pay attention when I read any book (physical or digital). I wanted to break this rut. So, I went back to my Kindle device and searched back to the first book I purchased on the Kindle. It turned out to be this book.

    Cover of the book, Trackside: A Collection of Railway Stories, by Bharath Moro

    I loved some of the descriptions that he uses to describe the trains and railway buildings. He gave me the vocabulary to talk about sights that I see in my travels.

    The red and cream locomotive screams into the platform with its assortment of coaches bobbing wildly.

    Chapter 1: In Favour of Koraput and Bodinayakannur

    Unlike the disjointed feeling one gets after a long flight, the railways allows for a gradual takeover. The landscape keeps changing, the houses seem different after a while, the food on the platform becomes less palatable (or the reverse) and the tea tastes better (or worse). And, by the time you arrive, you haven’t so much arrived as you have assimilated the destination.

    Chapter 1: In Favour of Koraput and Bodinayakannur

    The quaint old structures that used to house the station master’s office and booking counters have been demolished and replaced by banal, CPWD type boxy buildings, painted in a hideous urine yellow hue.

    Chapter 7 : Dispatches from the Cauvery Delta

    The book was an absorbing read and got me unstuck from my reading rut.