Silver Dust

Discovered this while walking the other day. It's a silver Dust plant.

Mezze and Moore's Batata Harra is impeccable

Batata Harra may have Lebanese origins but it reminded me of my childhood days in Delhi where you'd get potatoes on a stick. This is just those potatoes but with a mediterranean flair. Comes with a side of Pita.




Location: Mezze and Moore, SF

The notion of Counter Tools

Attended a lecture by my professor Kyle Steinfeld last Friday. And was impressed by his notion of Counter-Tools. I loved the idea that today's tools are not neutral, not unbiased (I'd argue even the tools of the yore aren't that, something as simple as a can-opener can be exclusionary to left-handers); So if they aren't going to be neutral, then they must embody certain qualities so as to augment human creativity and intellect. That premise is ripe for research. What are the principles I want my tools to embody? I want them to be invisible. i.e. not occupy my attention. And that begins with moving away from the notion that only the visual sense must be engaged when using a computer tool.

I am waiting for the video of the lecture to drop. But hopefully I can share sketch notes for it soon.

Dil To Pagal Hai is a great watch!?!

I just saw a movie I first saw when I was 3 (we watched it thrice in theatres, then countless times on TV, it's a comfort watch as you can tell). Saw it after ~4 years now, and it was a surprisingly good watch.

Why is it good? I loved how much of a departure it was from the traditional 90s bollywood. The female leads are given strong characters, facing real challenges (in so far as a romantic movie can provide) with clear agency. The male leads are respectful and sensible. There's a maturity with which conflicts are handled.

The movie also handles the friends to lovers arc respectfully. A friend is a friend, and doesn't have to be more than that. Somehow, Bollywood in the 90s and early 2000s could not grasp this concept. To them male and female friendships always festered into something more. Doesn't have to be in real life, and I am glad to see a mainstream movie in 90s tackle that respectfully.

Yes, the dialogue feel a bit cringe today, and some of the notions around marriage are archaic, but it's a reflection of the time and era we lived in back then. To me, a 28 year old movie that stands the test of time is a great movie. Dil To Pagal Hai is one of those rare ones. Definitely worth a watch.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (Highly recommend)
More about the movie: Dil To Pagal Hai (Letterboxd)

Fake Apps

Something I've discovered recently is that it's really important to prototype things quickly, and one of my favourite ways to prototype is to make fake apps, What are fake apps? They're a fun way to create interactive mock-ups that don't incorporate real data but show only key interactions.

Did this for a project today, but also did it for LooKUp over the summer. Fun process.

On Apple abandoning Vision Air plans for a "Smart Glass" alternative

Always felt that the Vision Pro's strategy of emulating the real world through cameras was going to be short lived.

It's surprising that Apple ever thought that cameras would be small enough to fit in a sunglasses form factor faster than displays in prescription lenses will gain resolution.


Goes back to the biggest design paradigm of our time. Do we want to build software that emulates the physical world, or do you want to build something that augments it.

Raindrops on a Corvette

Love how this pic turned out. In general, red sports cars look cool.

Disney World has great vegan ice cream

Great Vegan Ice Cream, and the cookies were vegan too. I thoroughly enjoyed the dessert!

I was "That Guy" at the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor

More Disney World stories soon. Visited the place with my best friend, and had a blast there; but one of the funniest parts was when I saw the Monster's Inc. laugh floor bit. The stand up comedy bit hosted by a projected Mike Wazowski relies of jokes sent by the audience but also relies on crowd play. One part is being "that guy", it's a silly bit where they make jokes on you, and unlike other crowd bits, you get no chance to defend yourself. It's also very funny to see yourself show up on screen at very unexpected moments. I was in splits by the time the bit ended.

My friend didn't take pictures. But my evidence is this sticker! :D


BTW I did neither of these things, I was wearing a normal black T-shirt, was very happy to be there, and was not sitting in the front. I was just there.

Camera is not an app: it's a memory capture tool

I've been wondering how the "Camera" should no longer be an app. Like Camera is a technology, and sure you can do the traditional thing of taking pictures, but by no means is that the only function of that technology on a personal computing device.

To begin with, it's a great cognitive offloading tool. It's the tool you use to take save receipts, books to read, food you've eaten, things you've done. Sometimes even medical readings if you're tracking them over time.

Photos are visual memory. The timeline acts as a tool for eidetic memory, or photo-recall; but mixing that with photos I take for Photography has interesting side-effects. The photos app is fundamentally not a note-taking app, so it's not smart enough to serve as one and thus curtails the technology's ability to serve as the center piece of computing that it is.

I think the next killer camera app is not one that helps you take better pictures, but one that combines taking pictures with it being a photographic memory.