Real vs Theoretical Engineering Productivity

Some engineering productivity is real. Some are theoretical.

Monolingualism

I had just landed in the Czech Republic. I was taking a bus from Prague airport to the city. The man sitting next to me was dressed in formal. He was here to attend a meeting of the ESA, European Space Agency. I asked, “What language is the meeting in?”. “English”, he replied, nonchalantly.

How to deploy Docker images on Microsoft Azure

There are several ways to deploy Docker images on Microsoft Azure. My favorite one is Azure App Service/Web Application for Containers. This is the closest to Google Cloud Run.

Gardens by the Bay

Singapore in 4 days

Singapore is a small country on the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula. Thanks to its visionary leader, Singapore is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. Once you get passed the heat and humidity, it is a wonderful place to visit. I had a short stay in Singapore while taking a Royal Caribbean cruise. Here’s my recommendation on what to see in Singapore.

Book Summary: Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke

Thinking In Bets is a book by professional poker player Annie Duke. Its a book about better decision making under uncertainty.

Hindi-English phonemes that are similar but distinct

Hindi and English have several similar yet distinct phonemes.

Royal Caribbean cruise in Singapore

Royal Caribbean cruise in Singapore

We did a 3-day Royal Caribbean cruise from Singapore with a stop in Penang, Malaysia. This was my first time cruising in Asia. Unlike the Caribbean and French Polynesia, most passengers were from Chinese and India. And this reflected well in the activities as well as food choices. The quizzes were geekier, e.g., guess the airport from the codename. Food choices were way more vegetarian friendly including a Jain food counter!

End-to-end testing of mobile apps

Google released a new version of the Google Auth library. It had a bug that broke Google Login on Android for API 26 and earlier. This impacted my small but popular Music Player app in Google Play. It reveals the kind of problem, I have alluded to in end-to-end testing. The only way to avoid such problems is by end-to-end testing. However, I find all Android testing frameworks to be terrible. Most of the frameworks are focused on testing the underlying code. ...

Play-to-earn games

With Axie Infinity, there is a sudden rise of play-to-earn games. At least the way I see is that the core idea is that financial benefits of in-game purchases accrue to the network instead of just the game studio. But most casual games have a very short shelf life of a few years.

Book Summary: The half-life of Facts by Samuel Arbesman

The Half-Life of Facts is a provocative book that makes us realize that a lot of facts that we believe are factually true get overturned over time. It gives several examples of facts that were later proven wrong or became more precise as our measurements and understanding improved.