A friend of mine pointed out that a popular feature phone in India called Jio Phone is powered by a Web-based OS. The OS is called Kai OS and, it turned out, is a fork of Firefox OS.
These phones will be taken over by richer, touch-based smart phones eventually, but it's still heartwarming to see a Web-based OS striving.
Here is the list:
Does this mean I'm a smart buyer with great willpower? No way. I just buy what I want without waiting these huge sale seasons. (And buying stuff just because it's cheap feels silly to me, but I don't argue.)
Regardless, pondering about spending money is stressing and fun at the same time. That's what shopping is all about.
My life with Linux laptop has passed more than two years now but I still miss some apps like Evernote or DayOne on Mac. Buyng a MBP comes to my mind time to time, but the mixed reviews of the latest Macbook like this keeps me away. I've never heard reasonable applause for Touchbar either, which replaced much needed (for Intelli-J users including myself) function keys. And yes, it is expensive.
Another idea popped up here - Why not Windows? The Linux laptop I have (XPS13) is capable to run Windows. Windows has more apps than Linux (it's even silly to mention.) The barriers here are the unfriendliness against Unix-style computing and the stigma it carries.
However... Does it really matter? Can you just grab a cloud node if you need some Linux? Or why not just own a small always-on instance?
It matters when you run some ML stuff like TensorFlow: It needs a lot of memory and CPU cycle and it's nice to have fast local CPUs and a few GB of memory because buying comparable VM is still expensive. On the other hand, it's not clear if I do such kind of work in coming months.
Stepping back, I see there is a fear. Fear that if I walk away from Linux, I might no longer code because of the friction. In other words, By choosing Linux laptop I pay the friction for anything other than programming. The question would be that if it's a fair price. I'm not sure.
Probably I should give it a try, for overcoming that fear.
Google Calendar recently got new look. It tells me the shortcut I wasn't aware: Mode switch using A/D/W/M/Y/X keys. The UI gives indicators to tell the shortcuts. The cumbersomeness of mode switch had frustrated me for a long time, but not anymore!
I'm on the cynical side on Material-ization and/or mobilization the desktop Web UI, and I don't think Google Calendar isn't particularly loved product, but this change is decent and I do like the product a bit more than before now.
This looks neat and probably will work well for other non-Haskell languages. I would love to have this in Kotlin. The lack of any of currying/bind() kind of stuff has been a slight annoyance in Kotlin programming.
Yuko pointed out that I lost our baby stroller. Apparently I lost it at the end of our Japan trip last month. I remember that I received it at the baggage area of the airport, but I don't remember anything after that. Probably it was left in a shuttle or somewhere.
The stroller was relatively expensive one, about $400. So this loss costs as such. I paid the Careless Tax.
I often lose things, especially during a trip, or while I'm doing something out of my regular routine. I lose things so often that I once feared that I might eventually lose everything I have - My job, my friends or my family, due to my profound carelessness.
This was very dreadful thought but I couldn't stop pomdering. After some depressing nights with this ridiculous fear, I devised as an ridiculous idea. The notion of the Careless Tax.
Instead of thinking about losing stuff, I interpret it as a tax. A tax that careless person has to pay. It is unavoidable to pay if it's a tax. And for a careless person like me, it is actually unavoidable to lose belongings. You aren't careless if you can prevent it, which is almost by definition. I have felt it unreasonble and even unfair how often I lose stuff. But it makes sense presuming it being a tax.
Since then, this notion of "Careless Tax" has given me a tiny piece of mind. It is less scary to think about me keep paying this expensive tax, than imagining about me losing everything. I can even be pround of myself as a high tax payer!
Well, that's clearly an overstep. I'm just an inherently careless person and it costs a lot, not of irreplaceable belongings, but of money. Tiny consolation, isn't it?
Thinking about trying this one, as 1) It is the only reasonable way to get "userdebug" outside Nexus/Pixel, and 2) OnePlus 3, which I spare, looks like well-supported.
Why userdebug? Because it provides more comprehensive Systrace data than typical "user" build. System-level tracing is essential to any performance investigation.
Uber が PyTorch の上に作った Edward みたいなもんらしい。
via Pyro
Today as a halloween night, we had a couple of small guests, but they weren't like we expected.
"Hi" one guest said. Another one stayed silent. Both had bags, apparently for treats. "Are you two?" I asked. They nodded. I gave them some snacks that we prepared. "Happy Halloween!" I said. "Thanks", one mumbled. Then they left quietly. There was no smiles, no "trick or treat", just a presumption of how we were supposed to behave.
Even though such an encounter wasn't expected, I see how these kid felt - For socially awkward types, or for ones being cool, participating traditional events like Halloween must be uncool and undesirable. It'd be much better to stay home and play video games, they must have thought.
There is a mixed feeling. As a nerd, I totally share their (hypothetical) sentiment and feel sorry for them. As a parent at the same time, I feel sorry for them in a different way. It's unfortunate not to have the ability to enjoy this type of banal rites. Anything can be fun if you will, and the life would be much more enjoyable if you take that position, instead of attempting to stay cool.
Now I look at my distant past self. You could've enjoyed your life if you have taken another position, but I know you would've never heard such an advice, never. But you'll eventually find that being cool is sometimes uncool.
WA or "With Accent" is my irregular attempt to write stuff in English. This time I'll try running this for a month, during this November.