On How Reading is Like Love and Rules for a Better Life

This post was first sent to my newsletter on August 1st, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) *Clouds sailing across [Pangong Tso][wpt]. Click to enlarge* New month, new letter! As usual, click the headers to wander off to the original articles Maria Popova on How Reading Is Like Love Now you are being read. Your body is being subjected to a systematic reading, through channels of tactile information, visual, olfactory, and not without some intervention of the taste buds....

August 8, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

On Cheap Programmable Quantum Computers, Hardware Homomorphic Encryption Support, and Ethical Use of Technology

This post was first sent to my newsletter on July 23rd, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) New month, new work letter. Before I begin though, please hit reply to these letters and let me know what you think, whether you like them or not and if there is anything you’d want me to write / hunt & research about! Like I wrote in the introduction to April’s letter, both the letter and the website have zero tracking....

July 30, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

On Coconut Flowers and Antifragility

This post was first sent to my newsletter on July 4th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Abby calls it Chinese Gulab, while I, in honour of all the hard work Abby puts in (and the natural pot she’s made for it), call it my coconut flower. It’s a Moss Rose, (Portulaca grandiflora.) Click the section headers to wander off to the original articles. My notes on Antifragile I spent a ton of time on this....

July 11, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

Stephen Wolfram speaks, as does the Psion

This post was first sent to my newsletter on June 18th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) I have two, count ’em, two articles from Stephen Wolfram today. And a fantastic historical restrospective on one of the early handhelds, the Psion! What Is Consciousness? Some New Perspectives from Our Physics Project Stephen Wolfram, has the amazing ability to go on long Talebesque side journeys, different flaneuresque trips through various domains and then bring it all back and tie it up in a bow, with the point he wants to make....

June 25, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

White Eyes

This post was first sent to my newsletter on May 2nd, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Snow clouds rolling down a mountain peak, near Se La. Click to embiggen I don’t know the name of this bird, I only imagine his glittering beak tucked in a white wing while the clouds— which he has summoned from the north— which he has taught to be mild, and silent— thicken, and begin to fall...

June 6, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

Work Edition

This post was first sent to my newsletter on May 21st, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Welcome to another edition of the work letter :) Let’s just dive into it. Click the headers to wander off to the original articles. OS X Reviewed Sometime earlier this year, the operating system known as Mac OS X aka OS X aka macOS, stepped into its 21st year of existence, marking two decades of steady iterative movement....

May 28, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

On Why Farmers Agitate, The Best Online Classes You Can Take and Love Letters to Trees

This post was first sent to my newsletter on May 2nd, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) New month, new newsletter! :) Let’s get right into it, shall we? An informed look on the why of the farmers agitation. Vivek Kaul’s post on how Bihar fared when they did away with APMCs in 2006, shows why the farmers are up in arms. Read them here, part 1, part 2, & part 3...

May 9, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

NeXTSTEP, Shopify and Bash History

This post was first sent to my newsletter on April 23rd, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Welcome to a tech edition of the letter. I’m trying something new with this now, since I am in that strange valley, where I don’t know enough about programming to write opinions of my own and yet I need to talk to my techie friends. So, taking a leaf out of Kushal’s newsletter, I will share stuff that I come across as I read....

April 30, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

Books That Underlie and Gird Cal Newport’s Philosophy of a Deep Life

This post was first sent to my newsletter on March 7th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Before we get into this weeks newsletter, I’d like to take a moment and recognise the loss of my grandmother, who passed away on the 24th, last month. She was a simple, thoughtful and kind woman, who raised a village. I miss her dearly. This was my eulogy to her. Back to the letter and back to something that is related to the last one....

March 15, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza

Consolidated the Subscription Page on the Site

Since I am a little out of sorts today, I decided to clean up the subscriptions options on the site. Both the mail and the rss feeds are on one page now. For easy findability1. The feeds are also categorised into work and personal, if that’s your jam. Here ya go! Subscribe! Yes, that is the technical term for it. Yes, of course I made it up. This is my domain....

February 25, 2021 · Mario Jason Braganza