2017 in Space

In 2017, we discovered exoplanets with conditions totally unsuitable for life, Cassini concluded its mission with a suicidal dive into Saturn, NASA outsourced the processing of stunning images of Jupiter to the general public, astronomers and planetary scientists continued to argue over whether Pluto was a planet, Blue Origin successfully tested an unmanned Crew Capsule and not one single SpaceX rocket blew up. ISRO accomplished the impressive feat of launching a very large number of very small satellites, indefinitely extended the life of its Mars mission, laid the groundwork for its future "workhorse" rocket and contributed resources for studying an explosive event that unleashed 10,000 Earth masses of gold into the infinite blackness of space.

The intros were written when I was in a bad mood, and wanted to quickly finish the story, but the actual articles are not so depressing. Originally written as a single long piece, the articles were split into two. Read parts 1 and 2 of the story here and here.

Rant against Big B

This is a friend, not me. Randomly going on a rant against Big B.

Tu chutiya hai

Have you ever considered why people even consider you a superstar?

You are no one special

Suresh Menon acts better than you

What have you acted really? There are so many people like you. How have you used your chances ?

Salman and Sanju stay in an apartment. SRK is another idiot, but even he

Have you ever showed money on kbc?

Have you ever shown the screen of your computer? Who generates your questions ?

Bum yeh saamne hai man chod Dalo iski

Paisa Waisa kuch bhi nahi chahiye

Khamosh, poch gya

Kya lavda Bhanchod parampara suryavansham

Rajpal Yadav is taller than you in every aspect

You are not even close to Shekhar Suman

Dude yaar, Amitabh

Tu bhootnath me Kya soch ke act kiya? Aaraam kar maa ki choot abhi?

Tu bangle me kyun Retha hai, building me kyun nahi?

Tera salary slip ka photo bhej

Names of Indian places in Around the World in Eighty Days

These are the place names in India from Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days.

Makes me think, someone has gone ahead and changed the names from the original English names to the names that we are familiar with today, and it is this set of "British names" that are now being changed again to more local versions.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tannah - Thane

Salcette - Salsette

Callyan - Kalyan

Kandallah - Khandala

Pounah - Pune

Pauwell - Panvel

Nassik - Nashik

Khandeish - Khandesh

Malligaum - Malegaon

Aurungabad - Aurangabad

Burhampoor - Burhanpur

Assurghur - Asurgarh

Bundelcund - Bundelkhand

Last post at Firstpost

I'm moving on from Tech2, the technology subsection of Firstpost, back to my old job at Digit. Here are some of the pieces that I was most proud of during my time here. Primarily covered telecom, space and apps.

Opinion

• The Glorious hidden message in the new Micromax Canvas 6 commercials
• Apple wants to creep you out with the new iPhone 7 advertisement
• The best feature of the Snap Spectacles for Snapchat is that they are dumb
• Super Mario Run is the dumbest thing that Nintendo has slapped its name on
• Rogue One is the most evocative Star Wars film till date: a no-spoilers review
• The ClonePlus 5 is taking its blatant imitation of Apple products to the next level

OC

• Inside Haptik.ai, a made in India and for India personal assistant and end to end chatbot platform
• Roposo is a made in India social network that puts the spotlight on content from Indian creators
• The SPARC program uses big data and analytics to bring about societal transformation
• Swalekh Flip by Reverie is designed around the Indic typing experience, and allows you to communicate in 22 Indian languages
• The City Data initiative by Tata Trusts hopes to transform lives of urban residents in India
• How NoBroker uses data science and machine learning to help users identify suitable properties
• The DELTA program by Tata Trusts uses data and technology to drive rural development
• Zophop is a mobile public transit assistant that aims to tackle all the pain points in urban transportation
• Happy Finish is an interactive studio delivering custom VR experiences to promote brands
• DRUV is an attempt to bridge the digital divide by delivering on-demand content through television
• MapMyIndia launches Street View rival RealView, AI assistant Hey Maps, and "Aadhaar for locations" eLoc
• HDFC RED is creating custom VR experiences to help real estate developers sell properties

India

• We celebrate linguistic diversity, but technology is not available in local languages
• India continues to buy more feature phones than smartphones, even in 2016
• All phones to have one regional language by 2017; original content is the need of the hour
• Indus OS is a good way to consume smartphone content in regional languages
• From Mumbai to Pune in 9 minutes, if Hyperloop comes to India, these are the travel times
• Internet in India: There lies tremendous opportunity in despair
• How to shoot the supermoon like a pro: India edition
• More Indians have died taking a selfie than any other nation in the world
• Over forty percent of the population in India does not own even a basic feature phone: ITU report
• DRDO achievements in 2016: A look back at a year in Indian defence technologies
• Indians really need to stop taking fatal selfies: Here are the most dangerous types of selfies
• Asset Vantage is a secure platform for high net worth families to control their financial data
• The Nakshe mapping portal provides 3,000 maps of India in 1:50k scale for free
• The fastest wired broadband internet service providers in India
• Here are 10 striking visualizations from India's Open Government Data Platform

Space

• Isro launch: Here's everything you need to know about the 20 satellites
• Isro PSLV-C35 launch: These are the 8 satellites on board
• Barack Obama and NASA want humans to live off the land, on Mars
• ISRO successfully launches PSLV-C36 rocket with ResourceSat-2A on board
• Isro's ResourceSat-2A beams back first batch of images from Earth orbit
• 2016 in alternative space stories: Aliens, a new zodiac, mind-controlling space stations and Armageddon
• ISRO's IRNSS constellation is an inevitable success story, the PSLV-C39 failure is just a delay
• Here are ten hilarious statements from Elon Musk's paper on SpaceX building a self-sustaining city on Mars
• Colonising Mars will be an epic adventure that will require the whole world to work together
• ISRO PSLV-C38 mission: Here's all you need to know on the 31 satellites that India put into orbit today
• All the recent findings by NASA that could one day lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial life
• All you need to know about Chandrayaan-2, ISRO’s second mission to the moon
• Isro launches Solar Calculator app to calculate the effectiveness of installing solar panels
• The Earth is not a planet for the same reasons that Pluto is no longer considered as one
• Isro's PSLV-C37 mission started 2017 with a bang, here is what to look forward to in the year ahead
• Isro plans to involve Indian industries to increase satellite launch capacity
• Isro is going to break these previous satellite launch records with the PSLV-C37 mission
• Isro PSLV-C37 record breaking mission run up: A history of rockets and launch vehicles in India
• Isro PSLV-C37 mission: The US private sector is threatened by cheap Indian spaceflight
• Isro's record breaking PSLV-C37 mission: These are the 104 satellites on board
• Meti scientists intend to spam nearby alien civilisations with laser signals by 2018
• The first-ever prototypes of interstellar spacecraft were placed into orbit by ISRO's PSLV-C38 mission

Apps

• Astro Attack is the new retro space shooter taking the App Store by storm
• Spellspire is for you if you like words and always wanted to be a wizard
• Hackers preview – an online multiplayer global cyberwarfare simulator for Android and iOS
• The Game Quantum to be released on 23 April on the App Store
• Doodle Army 2 : Mini Militia is marching through store charts
• Save Dan: Who knew that an infuriating celebrity could make such a fun app?
• Flowy is the game to play when you're stressed out; available on iOS and Android
• illi is a puzzle-platformer from the makers of Daddy Long Legs
• Hunting Safari 3D celebrates nature by making you slaughter baby animals
• Which is the fastest Android input available? Swipe, typing or voice? Let's find out
• Prisma takes photo filters to another level
• Verne: Himalayas is an educational geospatial experience by Google
• Hackers is launching today, a multiplayer darknet cyberwarfare simulator by Trickster Arts
• 5 best horrible games to virtually kill Ravana this Dussehra
• Plants vs Zombies Heroes is a surprisingly deep game in a comic package
• BHIM app review: App for cashless payments launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
• Snake on the Nokia 3310 is Gameloft's refreshing interpretation of a classic
• Baahubali The Game, a Clash of Clans style MMO is out on early access on the Play Store
• App Review: Sky Dancer is a minimalist endless runner that manages to be a fresh title in a saturated genre

Indian Apps

• The UTS ticketing app review: It is full of bugs and absurdly difficult to use
• Mumbai WiFi: We could only connect to one in four Aaple Sarkar Mumbai Wi-Fi hotspot locations
• Mumbai Toilet Locator app is functional but needs more detailed information to really be useful
• Indian mobile game developers get worldwide acclaim but face domestic limitations
• Umang app is e-governance done right; lets you access many digital governance services on a smartphone in a simple interface
• BHIM app review: A simple and secure app for cashless transactions

Telecom

• TRAI's in-building access consultation paper is a good step at solving infrastructure problems
• Who's going to pay so much for a high-end smartphone? Indians, that's who!
• 3G data plans: Here's what leading telcos offer
• Tracking the call drops issue: how radiation fears play a major role
• Does BSNL really deserve all the flak?
• Trai's website got a slick and shiny design makeover in time for new year
• Telecom tower radiation explained: Not all kinds of radiation are known to cause adverse health effects

Aadhaar

• How to fix Aadhaar: Destroy the database, issue a smartcard and make linking to services optional
• The UIDAI has insulated itself from any blame or responsibility for leaks in the Aadhaar ecosystem
• A simple Google search delivers databases with Aadhaar numbers, but Aadhaar is not compromised
• How Aadhaar compares to other biometric national identification systems around the world
• Aadhaar number mandatory for PAN application and filing IT returns
• UIDAI chief responds to concerns over privacy, security and making Aadhaar mandatory for services

Device

• Creo Mark 1 update: Continuously improving a product is a potent idea
• GoPro Hero5 Black edition month-long review: A robust, capable and easy to use action camera
• ASUS ZenFone AR Review: A one of a kind smartphone that will blow your mind
• JioPhone first impressions: A rock-solid device packed with features found only in smartphones
• JioPhone has ushered in a new product category to extend essential internet services to the underserved
• Nokia 3310 (2017) first impressions: The device is pure nostalgia, but expect little else
• Nokia 3310 2017 Review: If nostalgia is what you seek, you are better off getting the original

Other

• Smithsonian commemorates Apollo 11 landing with high res 3D model
• A troll just used bitcoin transactions to Rickroll the NSA hackers
• Gendered emoji alienates transgenders, genderqueer and stereotypes men and women
• The Internet of Things could come to the rescue of a struggling Twitter
• The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Fiasco: A blow by blow account
• Build 2017: Microsoft evolves beyond flat UI with its Fluent Design Language
• Big data and psychographic profiling helped Donald Trump win the US presidential election
• Feature Phones: The unsung heroes of consumer electronics are still alive and kicking in India, says study

Pokémon Go

• Pokémon Go: Niantic says update did not reset anyone's progress, everybody relax
• Niantic is hiring one person to fix the Pokémon Go servers
• Pokémon Go is particularly dangerous in India
• Pokémon Go takes you go on a multi-faith pilgrimage to holy places
• Pokémon Go update makes gym battles more strategic with analysis by Team Leaders
• Pokémon Go update is out with experimental Nearby Pokémon feature called "Sightings"
• Post Pokémon Go update fans downrate the game on the stores
• Pokémon Go is becoming a part of the course curriculum in colleges around the world
• Pokémon GO Plus is a dedicated wearable for trainers to easily catch Pokémon
• Tech in 2016: The Pokémon GO hype is behind us, but the game has a bright future

A love story

So everyday, on my way to work, see these three messages on three subsequent walls.

Dream Diary that is deep edition

I just had this dream where a massive man eating lion is terrorising the country but everyone is laughing and smiling and totally ignoring it like it isn’t even there. Little kid goes remember the time the lion ate my grandma his mom sushes him and tells him “you can’t talk about that or the lion will come for you too”

At first I thought the lion represents feminism. Seriously. On checking the dream dictionary, think this interpretation applies: "To dream that you are attacked by a lion suggests that a force may be driving you to self-destruction. You need to overcome these challenges and obstacles."

Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness

So Shashi Tharoor tweeted this:

Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations&outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalst

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 8, 2017

There is actually a term to describe the language used: Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness

The only obtuse word here though is "farrago". The most likely place any one of us has read it before is in Moby Dick, when Ishmael just cannot understand what the landlord of the Spouter Inn means when he says Queequeg has gone out to sell his head. An excerpt from the book:

"I'll break it for him," said I, now flying into a passion again at this unaccountable farrago of the landlord's.