Arvind Venkataramani
@avenk
design researcher, ritual technologist, neuroatypical in unsatisfactory ways. i sense and work towards emergent futures. let’s make the world a place of flourishing for all life.
I’m in awe seeing the very large and powerful make the very small and delicate, and I’m reminded that big events can contain smaller processes that can produce wonders. (This is also a reminder to do something for your community today.)
One of the most poetic images of technology I have seen lately, in a context that reflects well on all of us.
My act of quixotic optimism this week is watering & fertilizing the moss growing in-between the roofing cracks on my apartment’s balcony so it survives but also thrives during this heat wave. (It survives every year without my help but this year I’ve decided that is not enough)
Now Apple is trying to tell me that I need to get off social media.
I went check in on the bad place and found that the url contains ‘logout’, which explains why I keep having to login on my monthly visits. My guess is they’re force-logging people out to get them on the app. Hostile AND incompetent, as usual.
Crime in San Francisco is getting out of hand - Giant skeletons are roaming the land. People fear walking the streets at night Lest they encounter fright – then delight!
45 minutes after getting in line at my local DMV the CA DMV status website is still not sure where in line I am. Glad to see we’re doing eventual consistency via telegraph again.
A pox on whoever at @evernote.bsky.social destroyed one of the core attributes of the Paper app (freedom from distraction) in order to upsell AI features in another app. This is a great way to tell your customers that you plan to destroy the app in future and to stop giving you money right away.
My unfulfilled clothing product gap is the modern technical version of this vibe.
Ok, hear me out. A Lord of the Rings re-make, but with these two taking the One Ring to Mordor:
You know you have had bad UX for a long time when your app needs to tell people that you have table stakes usability now (though that is also demonstrably false).
It’s delightful how many assholes come pre-blocked on BlueSky just by subscribing to a few block lists. It’s so peaceful seeing a blocked skeet snd remembering you don’t need to see it at all. I just discovered Domechild btw, can’t wait to crack my copy open when I get a chance.
7/7 a 30 minute car ride with 5 people , peaking at 3745 ppm. Ironically, this is in a car with built-in AQI sensor and air filters.
6/ at the airport terminal, at what appeared to be a very low traffic period A low of 773 ppm, probably a reasonable estimate (I was only in the terminal for about 15 minutes)
5/ in flight, hovering around 1200 ppm I don’t have an explanation for the dips and peaks. Middle seat was empty, and my mask has down-facing vents. Sensor was placed in the seat pocket.
4/ still at the gate, dropping quickly, currently at 1290 ppm. The air conditioning is clearly on, and the temperature is dropping as well. I have no idea if / what filters they use, and cannot find documentation anywhere.
3/ boarding completed, waiting to taxi Dropped slightly to about 1700 ppm These are measured using an Aranet4 CO2 sensor.
For those who still care about these things… I will be tweeting air quality measurements on my Air India flight to India. 1/ at SFO Averaging ~580 ppm