Month: September 2014

I love gadgets but here’s why I’m immune to the temptations of new devices

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Despite my love for new technology, I’ve become averse to adopting it right away. This may be a reflection of having conservative parents who worked as retailers in the tech industry. Even though my dad had access to the latest gadgets, he hardly ever switched to using them everyday. When advising clients, he made it clear which devices actually offered value for money. Most of the time the newest device wasn’t on that list.

Even when I had enough money of my own to spend, my aversion for new tech remained. It was clear to me that future-generation devices are always much better than the first-generation ones. After removing the inevitable kinks and adding the much-needed features that the first device missed, the second device does the job significantly better.

Another reason for not wanting to upgrade to a new device is the result of a wider trend, and it has only become more obvious to me in recent years. The new devices on offer won’t make my life that much easier. My first smartphone was a touchscreen Pocket PC device, and it was tonnes better than any Nokia phone on offer at the time. I could look at full-sized images, browse the internet on Wi-Fi, manage a planner and use Google Sync.

Then I bought a Blackberry 8320, which seemed like a step in the past. But it wasn’t. Although I missed the touchscreen, the ease of using a full keyboard was quite something. Finally came the iPhone 4S, which changed my life in more ways than any phone had.

Now we have the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Sadly, they are nothing but the same old iPhone with a bigger screen. Apart from tiny upgrades in the operating system, which is available on older devices, there is nothing about the new iPhones that is attractive to those not part of the cult. There are Android phones which offer a lot more, but none of those features are enough to change my mind.

The Apple Watch may be gorgeous, but I won’t be buying a first generation device. Mostly, though, a smartwatch seems to be nothing more than an additional layer of distraction right now. This is true of Google Glass, too.

There is hardly a profession where reading and replying to every text message, email, Facebook or Twitter notification as soon as you can is important. Most things can wait, and they must if we are to do anything productive in life. The suggestion here is not to become a Luddite, but, when a screen is only a wrist-flick away or in your eye, the temptation is too high.

The only reason I may end up buying a new internet-enabled device is if I am forced to. This could happen either because the device stops working, gets destroyed or doesn’t perform as I need it to. My nearly three-year-old iPhone 4S runs iOS7 and I have no complaints whatsoever (I won’t be upgrading to iOS8, because that would be suicide. Reviews suggest that the user experience becomes choppier.) My nearly four-year-old iPad2 runs iOS7 and works perfectly well. My four-year-old MacBook Pro 17″ runs Mac OSX Mavericks and runs like a leopard. My four-year-old Kindle 3G does everything I need it to.

I love you, gadget-makers, but to get me to actually buy something new you will have to do a lot more.

Curious Bends – pizza slices, Raman effect, Indo-Pak floods and more

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1. Simple physics is at the heart of a cheap test for sickle-cell disease

Every year, 300,000 children are born with sickle-cell disease, primarily in Africa and India. It is a genetic disorder that causes some blood cells to become abnormally shaped. The result is that those who suffer from it have a shorter lifespan. The disease can be managed if it is diagnosed early, which means it rarely kills in rich countries, such as the US. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is most prevalent, most children with the disease still die before their fifth birthday. Now a diagnostic test that costs less than ₹30, takes only 10 minutes to run and uses simple, high-school physics could help save many lives.

2. A 19th century mathematician taught us the best way to hold a pizza slice

New York-style pizza is great, but it has a holding problem. There is a solution, and you probably know what it is: just fold the pizza into a U-shape. Turns out the maths behind why such folds beat gravity is fascinating and has many interesting applications. Here, in his typical clarity, is Aatish Bhatia explaining it all with pictures and videos.

3. Understanding why the oceans are blue led to applications for detecting bombs and discovering new drugs

Almost a hundred years ago, on a ship back from London, Chandrashekhar Venkata Raman asked the question why the sea is blue. Having heard the answer that it is a reflection of the sky, he remained dissatisfied, for the blue in the oceans seemed too fantastic to be a mere reflection. His quest won him a Nobel Prize and gave the world the Raman effect. Now scientists in India are finding new applications that use the Raman effect, from detecting bombs to finding new drugs.

+ The author, Priyanka Pulla, is a Bengaluru-based freelance journalist and Takshashila Institute scholar.

​4. Academic faces jail for sharing scientific documents online

“Diego A. Gómez Hoyos, a 26-year-old student in Costa Rica, faces up to 8 years in jail and a monetary fine for making available a document that helps conservationists in Colombia — the second most biodiverse country in the world. It is not an institution or publisher that is pursuing these criminal charges, but the author of the document. It is bizarre and unfortunate that an academic would press criminal charges against another academic for spreading their work.”

5. As the Indo-Pak floods worsen, it is clear that the Indus Waters Treaty needs to be prioritised

Signed in 1960, this treaty has survived the stress and strain that come with Indo-Pak relations. And yet, it is time that the treaty gets an overhaul. With floods in the waters that feed the Indus river having already killed more than 200 people, an update could help spur the developments needed to help prevent and deal with such natural disasters.

Featured longread: Taking a break from technology…for one year

“Do you know what I do for a living? I asked Huck. His eyes grew wide. “All you do is sit on your computer and say, ‘Blah blah blah Congress, blah blah blah Mitt Romney’!” We all — OK, mostly my wife — got a big laugh out of that. For my birthday that year, she and the boys gave me a print emblazoned with Blah Blah Blah. I was 40 years old, due for a midlife crisis, and I didn’t want to have an affair or buy an impractical sports car, so instead I decided that I would take a break. A big one. For a year, I would leave behind online life to attend more closely to what we Internet people call meatspace.”

Chart of the week

The year 2012 was the first year when less than 50% of India’s workforce was employed by the agricultural sector. In the recent decades that shift has been rapid, but what else are these former agricultural workers now doing? An analysis by Datastories.in reveals that a lot of them have been absorbed by the construction sector. The trouble is — you should click here to see more charts — most of these constructions workers become casual labourers with no form of social net. This must change to improve the lives of those at the bottom.

Curious Bends – Vandana Shiva, antibiotics in chicken, asteroid hunters and more

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1. Why India’s fiercest anti-GM activist has found a big following abroad

Few technologies, not the car, the phone, or even the computer, have been adopted as rapidly and as widely as the products of agricultural biotechnology. The tools of genetic engineering have allowed a good proportion of the current population to survive and prosper. But such statistics (or any scientific argument) does not stop Vandana Shiva from thinking that the root of all evil lies in GM technology. (42 min read)

2. Chicken consumption is at an all-time high in India. It may be contributing to antibiotic resistance

An investigation of chicken from around Delhi shows that they contain antibiotics beyond the limits setup by international bodies. These antibiotics are used not to treat diseased chicken but to prevent them. However, there are no regulations in India for their use in poultry. This means the amounts used are often excessive, probably contributing to increasing antibiotic resistance. (21 min read)

3. India’s outdated approach to education is hurting students and academia

The University Grants Commission wants to reign in elite institutions, such as the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institutes of Technology, by making their courses shorter. This decision, however, isn’t based on any sound research. If such institutions aren’t allowed to experiment with education, then how would you know what works best for Indian students and academics? (5 min read)

+ The author, Vishu Guttal, is an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science.

4. India has an asteroid search mission made up of mostly students

“Four years, 260 teams across India, 1200 observations of celestial bodies and 21 discoveries of asteroids. All India Asteroid Search Campaign was started by SPACE, an NGO in India, in 2010 with an aim to increase the love for science, astronomy and scientific research in Indian students. SPACE provides training to students and amateur astronomers to hunt for asteroids.” (2 min read)

5. An interview with Manjul Bhargava, winner of the 2014 Fields Medal

The first Indian-origin mathematician has won the Fields Medal, which is considered to be the Nobel Prize of mathematics. In an interview, he talks about growing up in India, Canada and the US and how his upbringing shaped up his desire to pursue mathematics, tabla and sanskrit. His hope is that Indian youth will take up research in basic science.

Chart of the week

You must have heard that even today half of India’s population lives off agricultural activities. But how true is that? Turns out that estimating how many cultivators and agricultural labourers India has is no easy task. Here’s an attempt by Hindustan Times.