On the FSCI wiki there were some old pages which were erroring out even though it had page history entries. This is how I fixed it. In the last couple of days, I’ve been doing some maintenance work on FSCI Wiki. First I upgraded the mediawiki version, then…

An invitation to join a safe space for learning programming (hopefully towards a social purpose) Programming (coding, software engineering, or development, whatever you call it) is a very useful skill. Almost like cooking. If you have been looking for a safe…

Heard about HTTPS record and want to set it in OctoDNS. You can now! SVCB is a new type of DNS record that’s like CNAME but with more powers. It is defined in the Service Binding and Parameter Specification via the DNS RFC. HTTPS record is a specifically…

The room was cold and lit by artificial lights. It was in a large building in a corner of the city unknown to 10 year old Manu. He has tried everything — resisting, pleading, crying, shouting — to no avail. First they made him unconscious. Mercy! Then they…

I do not see armchair activism as a pejorative. It can be a valuable form of activism.

Here’s how I do CI/CD without all the fuss You need only one thing for Continuous Integration - a working test suite.
You need only one thing for Continuous Deployment - automatic database migrations.
And you need only one thing for rolling out your own CI/CD…

I built an extension for mediawiki to prevent spam sign-ups. This is the story I’ve been working on building a wiki for health (including its social determinants) in India. In that process I’ve been fighting spam by installing various extensions (including…

How I migrated old services of Swathanthra Malayalam Computing to a new server saving software (and money) When web based software get old, people stop caring for them. Shiny new alternatives become commonly used. The old ones are forgotten. One day you’ll…

It was past 10 PM when Shubhangani, Swathi, and I stepped into Goobe's Book Republic in Church Street this Tuesday. We had met at 6:30 PM in Blossom Book House and had been chatting non-stop all of the night. We had had Blini Creamy Mushroom and Blini Chicken…

"People believe in god because there are things that frighten them beyond their control and the idea that someone is there to look after them gives them hope and stability". Growing up as an atheist, I've heard this argument from several people who wanted…

Of late, I have started seeing a pattern around the responses people have to mental health issues. The first time someone talks about their mental health issue(s), people are incredibly supportive. They are like "Incredibly brave of you to share this", "Please…

I read the book "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" long ago. There's one chapter or so in the book that talks about how women talk about problems and how men try to "fix" them immediately, and how, often, it is not a solution that's needed, but just…

Day 1 of being a revolutionary person working inside the system I saw injustice being meted out by the system today. I decided to stand up against it. I was thrown out of the system.

From 1947 till 2025, the government healthcare system has constantly been hollowed out, albeit slowly. But in the next 5 years, there is going to be a sudden shift towards extremely expensive, insurance-based healthcare system (like the horrible system of…

All challenges to progressive change come from an unwillingness to question and rewrite traditions. Power — capitalism, caste, patriarchy, etc — is kept alive by traditions around who does what kind of labor, whose opinions count, whose solutions are considered…

By "progressive", I mean what's popularly referred to as "progressive". The movements, the NGOs, the protest sites, and the like. It is easy to find people frustrated with progressive spaces. But there are two kinds. One has the not doing the right way frustration.…

People who are stuck in a paradigm of work that they don't believe in will often have a vague feeling of discomfort and discontent within them. This can take the form of a frustration, or a question. When it is framed as a question, they're able to ask explore…

There were 3 JCBs working on a single section of road in Indiranagar today. The section which contains metro entrance A. I exited the metro today via the same entrance. But I did not go to the road where the JCBs were. I hadn't had lunch. So I went on the…

Decompiling Poshan Tracker app to inspect its face verification functionality A Decode investigation reported that “AI Facial Recognition Is Denying Food To Pregnant Women Across India” on March 19. The article is worth reading and includes quotes from several…

My mother and father, and all my grandparents belong to the Kerala caste called Nambeesan (and evidently married within their caste). It's supposed to be the caste of people who do kazhakam in temples, i.e. making the garlands required for the deity (and…