Tag: 2023

  • India’s Roadmap to Space 2047 – Spacecraft Innovation and Exploration

    I wrote about India’s Roadmap to Space 2047 in an earlier blog post. I wanted to share it without any comments at first, but then I decided to add my thoughts.

    The term “flexible COMSAT” refers to a type of satellite that can change its coverage, bandwidth, and frequency. This technology is being developed by ISRO, as mentioned in a PTI story published on the NDTV website.

    The term “full EPS satellite” is a reference to a type of satellite that uses only electric propulsion systems (EPS). The EPS system was first flown on the South Asia Satellite or GSAT-9, launched in 2017. The note says that this would reduce the mass of satellite from approximately 6 ton to 4 ton for the same capability.

    Quantum and Optical COMSATs are in various stages of development. Urbasi Sinha and her team in QuIC lab, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru and an ISRO team at the Space Applications Center (SAC) are working on the building blocks of quantum satellites. The first optical communication payload was carried on the GSAT-29 mission.

    The Indian Space Station based R&D and economic activity is at least a decade into the future. Vellon Space, an Indian startup has been talking about space-age medicine and pharmaceutical manufacturing in space.

    Inter-planetary networks hold immense potential for the future of humanity! Imagine a world where communication seamlessly spans across celestial bodies, connecting Earth with other planets. The vision of becoming a multi-planet species becomes more tangible as these networks evolve. It all starts with the Earth-Moon system, but the possibilities for expansion are limitless. With initiatives like Artemis and the International Lunar Research Station, we are paving the way for a future where inter-planetary communication becomes a reality!

    ISRO may not focus as much on Earth observation satellites because there are many Indian space companies (Pixxel, SatSure, Dhruva etc.) working on remote sensing capabilities. They may continue with Earth observation missions until the startups can offer similar levels of data. On the other hand, there are fewer startups in the field of communications satellites technologies. The only one that comes to mind is Astrome among the NewSpace companies.

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  • Weekly Notes 32/2023

    Most of the week was spent in the hospital with my 7 m.o. who had a lower abdominal infection. I got little to no writing or reading done this week and all of my focus had been on my 7 m.o.

    Last week, everything was going smoothly at home and work. However, this week has been quite challenging due to the hospitalization. As a result, a lot of tasks have been left unfinished. Today, we focused on catching up with the undone tasks at home, and I’ll soon do the same at work.

    OTT

    • Heart of Stone (English)

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  • Weekly Notes 31/2023

    I missed writing the thirtieth Weekly Notes last week. Thejesh had shared in his Weekly Notes yesterday that he writes his notes throughout the week. This does not work for me. I complete a week and then look back at the long threads I worked on. I like to think in terms of spirals.

    Reading

    I am currently reading/listening to:

    1. The Beginning of the Infinity – David Deutsch (audible/physical book)
    2. Doing Great Work – Paul Graham (essay)
    3. Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams (audible)
    4. Passage Meditation – Eknath Easwaran (kindle)
    5. Karejwa (Hinglish) – Varun Grover, Ankit Kapoor, Sumit Kumar

    OTT

    • Maamannan (Tamil)
    • Marcella (English)

    Writing

    I wrote a few things this week

    On this blog:

    On Tumblr:

    https://www.tumblr.com/pradeep/724634655299633152/relevant-screenshots-in-case-x-implodes
    There’s been a Medium post on a chapter of a novel in the drafts that I’m working on. I need to publish that.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Weekly Notes 22/2023

    Reading/Listening

    I am currently reading/listening to:

    • The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (Audible)
    • The Bullet Journal Method – Ryder Carroll (Kindle)

    I finished listening to Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson and reading Trackside by Bharath Moro. I have updated the books list on the blog, accordingly. I was stuck in a reading rut for a long time. Trackside helped me break out of it.

    I have also started reading The Hindu e-paper and Frontline magazine again. I am sharing articles that I like on my Twitter and Mastodon feeds. I might add them here in future editions of the Weekly Notes.

    OTT

    I watched:

    • Fubar (English)
    • High Crime (English)
    • Kathal (Hindi)
    • The Mother (English)
    • Mother’s Day (English)
    • Ponniyin Selvan 2 (Tamil)
    • Pachuvum Athbhutha Vilakkum (Malayalam)
    • Neelavelicham (Malayalam)
    • Enthadaa Saji (Malayalam)
    • Pakalum Paathiravum (Malayalam)
    • Pookkaalam (Malayalam)

    Spirals

    Spirals are what you would call rabbit holes today. Perhaps they are much more deeper? I hope this section clarifies what I meant by the title of this blog, Parallel Spirals?

    Commonplace Books

    I have mentioned Megan Rhiannon’s videos in the YouTube section of my previous post. She integrates her planner, commonplace book, etc. into one document. She includes stickers and cut-outs in her commonplace book. This got me interested into commonplace books. I watched many videos on this, but these made sense:

    Jared Henderson on Commonplace Books
    Ryan Holiday’s method is touched upon here. But he has other videos on this as well.

    I discovered another person who used a notebook instead of a phone for a period of time, while searching about commonplace books. The last time this came up on my radar was on Weekly Notes 02/2023.

    Religion

    I had gone through some reading on Indian philosophical traditions last year. The YouTube algorithm suggested a video about the Kashmir Shaivism’s poet Lal Ded. I enjoyed the videos from the Let’s Talk Religion YouTube channel. Watching Acharya Prashant’s interview had diverted my focus towards Vedanta. Three specific videos on the Let’s Talk Religion spends time on the three schools under Vedanta that caught my attention.

    Shankara and Advaita Vedanta
    Ramanuja and Vishistadvaita Vedanta
    Madhva and Dvaita Vedanta

    Nikhil Kamat

    I enjoyed watching all episodes of the podcast hosted by Nikhil Kamat. But, I liked this episode the most.

    Ep #4 WTF is ChatGPT?

    I think Varun Mayya’s explanation (of which there is a clip) of how ChatGPT works may be better than Cal Newport’s explanation.

    Antinet/Analog Zettelkasten

    I found Scott P. Scheper’s YouTube channel through watching Morgan’s YouTube channel. She has been explaining how to setup a physical Zettelkasten to her mother and mentioned Scott’s YouTube channel as an inspiration.

    Morgan explaining her physical Zettelkasten method

    I found Scott’s method more thorough. But, before I got there I went through videos by Nicole van der Hooven for more ideas on digital Zettelkastens. Her video on why she personally used Obsidian over Roam, has had me open Obsidian after a very long time:

    Obsidian over Roam

    I even sampled Tiago Forte’s video on visual note-taking and signed up for Milanote. I might use it to write my first sci-fi novel.

    Tiago Forte on Milanote

    This brings us back to Scott:

    First video on a playlist on how to put together an analog Zettelkasten. I downloaded his free PDF which gave me a better idea than many of his YouTube videos.

    Graphene

    An editorial written by a former Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar in The Hindu sent me down the materials spiral. I was once (around 2007-08) interested in material sciences. I watched a few videos on NPTEL on material sciences and specifically on graphene and Carbon nanotubes.

    NPTEL on Graphene

    WordPress

    I attended the 20th anniversary celebrations of WordPress in Pune. I had thought that I joined WordPress in November 2006, but it seems that I had actually joined WordPress in June 2006.

    I was on Blogger before I was here. I had started blogging around 2005, if memory serves me correctly. But, as you can see above, I could be wrong.

  • Weekly Notes 18/2023

    Writing

    I wrote one blog post. No newsletter edition.

    Reading

    I am currently reading/listening to:

    • Pacific Edge – Kim Stanley Robinson
    • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport

    OTT

    I watched the following on OTT:

    • The Diplomat (English)
    • Patthu Thala (Tamil)
    • How to Get Rich (English)

    YouTube

    These had nice back stories about Roja, etc. Also, showed another side of Rahman
    A nice introduction to Microsoft Bing Chat. I need to watch it again after I use it.
    This is the weekly notes in video format. This is an interesting watch.
    Ryan Holiday shares how he wrote Discipline is Destiny.
    Part of the deep dive into the Ribbonfarm Extended Universe
    This video started my deep dive into the Ribbonfarm Extended Universe
    A very good section that deep dives into when you should give your child smartphones. Suggested age: 16.
    19 million views for people cleaning (pressure cleaning) people’s back and front yards. Almost went into a rabbit hole of watching these videos.
    This video was the entry point to the Attic Archives weekly vlogs above. Keep wondering why the Hobonichi costs more than INR 3,000 on Amazon.
    Almost took me back to my ancient love for archaeology.

    I watched a lot of YouTube this week. I am not able to watch so many videos.