You might have noticed that it has been very quiet around here! Well, I went for a short trip to Alaska to take in the brutally cold winter weather, and take some photos. I had originally planned on visiting Alaska at the end of 2022, but the universe conspired against my plans. … | Continue reading
iA Writer has no focus, or vision, for what they want to be. There’s a little bit of the hyper popular wiki-style linked notes apps (Craft, Notion, Mem, Obsidian, and all those who came before). There’s a little bit of the historical writing interface that iA Writer made obscenel … | Continue reading
I was skimming through my photo library and came across this image from my most recent trip to Iceland. Given it didn’t get dark till very late, these photos were made in the wee hours of the morning. I was sitting down and having coffee in the hotel’s dining room, when the light … | Continue reading
A few weeks back, I posed the question: Is “stream” as a design paradigm over? I asked because of some behavioral changes that have become prevalent on the internet. First, most of the internet is now algorithmically organized by large platforms, so we are increasingly predispose … | Continue reading
Alaska is one of my favorite destinations, especially during fall and winter. When visiting the state back in 2018, I came across a usual sight — surfers paddling into the middle of the the Turnagian Arm. I normally associate surfing with warmer destinations such as Hawaii, South … | Continue reading
“People are willing to do almost anything other than read at length. It requires patience: an atrophied muscle in the smartphone age. At the same time, no one relishes being ignorant or incurious. The desire for self-improvement out there is real. The podcast boom shows that we w … | Continue reading
If you live in San Francisco, you are often reminded of the gift that is Ocean Beach. It is one of my favorite places for a walk, where I contemplate and sometimes I take photographs. On one of my many visits to Ocean Beach, I came across an enormous swarm of Snowy Plovers who we … | Continue reading
Whether it is botched and haphazard layoffs, anti-trust regulators baying for its blood, or opportunistic saber-rattling by long-time rival Microsoft and its outsourced AI unit, OpenAI — 2023 has been a rough year for one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley. Google, the co … | Continue reading
Why I decided to do it: Given the transient nature of the trip - three days - I didn't want to lug around my kit: Leica SL body with two SL zoom lenses is roughly 6.5 kilograms. Add other accessories, and we see at the 10 kilograms mark - 22 pounds!(om.co) | Continue reading
Introduction: There was a time when new year’s eve was a reason to dress up and paint the town red. Those days are behind me – now I prefer to spend the time between Christmas and the new year doing nothing much, in quiet contemplation. A writer for The Atlantic described it as … | Continue reading
At the very end of 2022, I wrote about my photographic journey and how it has allowed me to look at both the world and life in new ways. It has allowed me to embrace imperfections, my own and in ot...(om.co) | Continue reading
…oftentimes you can see change on the horizon, assuming you’re looking for it, and there comes a day when the landscape flips. But the old entities attached to the old ways refuse to adjust, they believe in holding back the future, staying rooted in the past, to their detriment, … | Continue reading
At the very end of 2022, I wrote about my photographic journey and how it has allowed me to look at both the world and life in new ways. It has allowed me to embrace imperfections, my own and in others. Of course, it could just be that my inner monologue influenced my photography … | Continue reading
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that “tech layoffs” have been on my mind, and I wrote a column for The Spectator to explain “the why of these layoffs.” An unprecedented boom in Silicon Valley that started with the once-in-a-generation convergence of three mega trends: mobile, social … | Continue reading
Hi! In case you are new around here, I am Om & this is my letter where I share what’s on my mind, my latest writings, articles worth reading from around the web, my recommendations & some of my photography. What I have been up to: It is amazing how quickly the first month of … | Continue reading
Spotify is changing electronic music and dance music in particular. Spotify doesn’t just eliminate the DJ as the conduit between artist and audience. Streaming music has cultivated a new breed of creators who seem to be totally in the dark about what a DJ does in the first place. … | Continue reading
In 2021, I had a chance to visit the frozen continent of Antarctica. It was a chance to experience “totality,” a kind of solar eclipse where the Moon fully obscures the disk of the Sun. Originally the plan was to see this eclipse over a large Emperor Penguin colony, but the weath … | Continue reading
Apple recently released the 2023 MacBook Pros in 14 and 16-inch configurations. As expected, there have been many reviews about the new devices. They range from ho-hum to great reviews. As expected, most of these reviews and reviewers go over the specs. They talk about what’s new … | Continue reading
When visiting Alaska back in 2018, I took a helicopter flight over a glacier. I took a lot of photographs from the air, but never really got around to editing them. I am usually plodding and lazy about editing my photos. This past weekend, however, I got a burst of energy and ins … | Continue reading
It is not a secret — I am woefully addicted to snowscapes and winter wonderland photos. Give me snow, ice, fog, and gray skies, and I am happy as a clam. I can spend hours in freezing cold, or raging storms without as much as a peep of complaint. What I am terrible at — … | Continue reading
Earlier today, I read something that led to the question” do we even need to organize the blogs in the reverse chronological stream? Ben Werdmuller, frustrated by the design of his website’s homepage writes: As of right now, the homepage is a mix of long-form posts, short thought … | Continue reading
Smartphone photography keeps marching on — and why not. After all, cameras, screens, and battery life are the key distinguishing features of most phones, especially in the Android ecosystem. And that is why we continue to see Android hardware makers — Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and … | Continue reading
Apple is kicking off 2023 with a slew of new products — Mac Minis and MacBook Pros. Apple’s new devices are powered by two new chips, M2 Pro and M2 Max. These two chips are the next generation of Apple’s Silicon, and if the mini-keynote and the press release are any indications, … | Continue reading
“Time moves in one direction, memory in another,” said William Gibson. I was reminded of these words when reading two long pieces about my friends Mathew Ingram and Wesley Verhoeve. Both stories (tangentially involved me,” and inadvertently took me down memory lane. Mathew wrote … | Continue reading
David Lowry, a songwriter, has a very thoughtful counter take on OpenAI, the hot new AI thing in Silicon Valley that will apparently get a $10 billion investment from Microsoft. Lowry brings up powerful and valid points, and I urge you to read them. (Additionally, Tom Krazit expl … | Continue reading
I had a fantastic start to 2023: in the mountains, taking photographs, and being completely meditative. That didn’t last long — on my way back, I picked up something, and by the time the work week got rolling, I fell sick. All sorts of symptoms — sore throat, nasal congestion, ac … | Continue reading
A very happy rainy, soggy hump day! Let’s start by wishing my friend, Matt Mullenweg, a very happy birthday! It is amazing to see someone you met as a teenager turn into a man and a titan. The New Yorker recently wrote about the quiet quitting. Quiet quitting is not a life philos … | Continue reading
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter and turned it into a tawdry reality show in which he is the star, the villain, and the comedian, everyone has been talking about a new decentralized web. New products, such as Mastodon, and new technologies, such as Activity Pub, are part of … | Continue reading
I took a quick break for the holidays and went out to take photographs in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. The photography was amazing, and I got a chance to connect with nature. I managed to do some hiking as well. However, the biggest adventure was when flying home. In the winter, … | Continue reading
It has become quite a habit now: at the end of the year, I look back and see how often I have tended to my digital homestead. In more prosaic terms, it translates to the total number of posts during the year. Over the past 12 months, I posted 128 times (129, if you include … | Continue reading
Time has a strange habit of slinking away. It does so quietly that we don't notice it till it's too late. And what you are left with are fragments, or what we grandiosely call memories. You remember some days, a few moments, and a handful of faces, and they all add up to become y … | Continue reading
In 2022, my visual vocabulary found appreciation for error and blur, and, more importantly, I learned that reality is just a perception. | Continue reading
Thank You, Santa Claus, for making this the best gift ever! Allbirds trend in Silicon Valley is over! The Wall Street Journal reports, "Allbirds customers' average annual spend has dropped by more than $31 since 2018." Which means slowing revenue growth and increasing losses.(om. … | Continue reading
Thank You, Santa Claus, for making this the best gift ever! Allbirds trend in Silicon Valley is over! The Wall Street Journal reports, “Allbirds customers’ average annual spend has dropped by more than $31 since 2018.” Which means slowing revenue growth and increasing losses. A … | Continue reading
In my time writing about Silicon Valley, it has gone from being a place of naive curiosity to where posturing is everything. And the reason we have this state of affairs is that, with extreme success, the denizens of the valley have ostracized these four phrases from their vocabu … | Continue reading
How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?– Dr. Seuss It has been a few weeks since I sent one of these updates. I thought I would write one last month. … | Continue reading
QUOTABLE Short-selling giant Jim Chanos in a Twitter Spaces conversation, had some choice words for Silicon Valley investors when it comes to due-diligence failings, as demonstrated by the FTX blowup shows. “Look at the texts that were released in conjunction with people wanting … | Continue reading
Cake, a company known for making electric bikes, just announced The Kibb is an all-electric ATV. “The modular body of the Kibb will have different attachment points to allow for compatibility with a wide variety of ATV accessories. The Kibb will be a multifunctional battery-power … | Continue reading
We live in stranger times, when the day there is good news is now a red letter day. Today happens to be one of those days. I woke up to the news that a very close friend had a healthy baby boy. What a delight it is to be an uncle again. A few minutes … | Continue reading
Watching Musk torment Fauci is a warning to all of us. Never mind why he’s doing it, it doesn’t matter. What matters is he’s doing it. Organizing insurrection aimed at random individuals and their families. When it’s your turn, there’s nowhere to run. Keep your head down little c … | Continue reading
I have always enjoyed Trevor Noah, who hosted “The Daily Show,” a faux news show initially made famous by Jon Stewart. About seven years ago, Noah, a South African comic, took over from Stewart. He brought an outsider’s viewpoint to this quintessential American socio-political cu … | Continue reading
It is winter, or as I like to say: the season for me to take photos. I am already dreaming of visits to Alaska and Wyoming, along with short stops in Idaho and Montana. One of the favorite things to snap during winter: “powerlines.” I don’t know why, but I love the networks, cabl … | Continue reading
It is no secret that I am a big fan of BBC/National Geographic’s reality TV show, Life Below Zero. It is now in its twentieth season. As someone who didn’t have a cable television account, I used to buy the season from Apple’s iTunes store. I paid for the first fourteen seasons. … | Continue reading
Way back In 1935, genius musician Duke Ellington in an effort to placate two ladies, placed each of them on two sides of his piano, he composed and played a song — In a Sentimental Mood. Such is the magic of the song that nine decades later I can’t stop listening to it — in … | Continue reading
I am fortunate enough to have traveled to many exotic locations. Still, the biggest thrill is when the plane slowly makes its way around the bay area and settles into a slow approach over the San Francisco Bay towards the San Francisco Airport. The bigger the bird, the slower it … | Continue reading
If you were a teenager (or slightly older) in the eighties, there is a good chance you tried out Calvin Klein cologne. It was quite the thing - it was everywhere, so much so that you couldn't tell if the cologne smelled like the magazines or the magazines smelled like the cologne … | Continue reading
If you were a teenager (or slightly older) in the eighties, there is a good chance you tried out Calvin Klein cologne. It was quite the thing — it was everywhere, so much so that you couldn’t tell if the cologne smelled like the magazines or the magazines smelled like the cologne … | Continue reading