I hate virality.

I've been online since 1998, and the first decade or so was great, so peaceful. Of course, even back then, occasionally some douchebags would comment on my posts, wondering why I liked electronic music when the guitar is the most beautiful instrument in the world. This was back when I was a little kid. But there was little to no toxicity like on today's internet.

I've gained followers and influence while posting a lot during the social media era. After 2015 or so, posts started getting visibility because of the algorithms that continued to "improve". And that changed everything. I became more and more anxious because my posts started popping up everywhere, and followers started accumulating. When I left Twitter, I was nearing 10k followers without doing much. My regular posts got constantly shit flies around them, judging and reviewing things I post about.

Meta, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, all commercial platforms, suffer from this algorithmic brain rot. Your regular posts and the things you're proud of might suddenly go viral, and all kinds of assholes come to bring you down to make themselves feel better. Without recommendation algorithms, those lifeless losers would never get the chance. Without algorithms, we would have a fair game, without singling out or targeting specific individuals.

I need to be present in the Fediverse more often and cut the time I spend in other places. But there's no easy solution. I'm learning this the hard way over and over again.

I often wish it was the early 2000s again, no algorithms, no shit flies.

#SocialMedia #Algorithm #Reddit #Threads

My Latest Bollywood Earworm

There is a 2004 Hindi film called Swades, which means Homeland in the language. It was a smash hit during release, and, even today is well loved.

The story revolves around Mohan, played by Shahrukh Khan, an Indian-origin project manager at NASA, who, after settling down in the US, returns to India, his homeland.

He goes for a mini tour of India, reacquainting himself with the various peoples and cultures.

Won’t spoil it for you, but all I can say is that it evokes feelings of optimism and love for country. I meant in an incredibly positive manner, beyond and political gimmicks or extremism. Totally deserving of its IMDB rating of 8.2.

I’d say, despite the brilliant portrayals of the actors, and the compelling story, the protagonist was the Music.

This song in particular, “Yeh Tara Woh Tara,” sung by Udit Narayan, composed by AR Rahman, with the lyrics being written by Udit Narayan.

This song, a whole 7 minutes, and 13 seconds long, pearls of wisdom in it. This line:

Boond boond milne se, banta ek dariya hai.

It means: “Drop by drop, a river is formed.”

The idea is that many small efforts, small acts, or small people together create something large and powerful. In Swades, it points to unity and collective change.

Importantly, YOUR LITTLE BIT MATTERS!

Another line:

Samjho sabse pehele toh, rang hote akele toh
Indranush banta hi nahin

It means: “if each colour existed alone, a rainbow would never be formed.”

It reinforces the idea that there is beauty in diversity.

The melodies fuse perfectly with the lyrics and the great voice of the legendary Udit Narayan.

You can listen to it here:

https://youtu.be/3Kzd0eeLi0o

Credits: T-Series, and AR Rahman

In the music video, Mohan tries to unite the people by singing this song while demonstrating the stars, moon, and the night sky using a telescope to the assembled villagers. (Of course, NASA!)

What do you think of this song?

Fucking Work

My work schedule oscillates between having no work and spending my office hours researching or ending up having to pull off 12 hours days for the entire week + a bonus round over the weekend.

While I appreciate the free time, I abhor the uncertainty of work and the effect it has on my health.

This week is one of those weeks. It usually happens when there’s a client deliverable.

I wish I could say it’s worth exerting yourself, but it’s not. I come home tired and dread waking up.

This one’s a negative, but I promise the next one will be cheerful. 🙂

 Microsoft Warns of WhatsApp Attachments spreading Backdoor on Windows PCs.

👾The scam arrives as a simple message on WhatsApp, but it carries a hidden danger designed to take over personal computers.👾

According to Microsoft researchers, the trouble starts when a user receives a message containing a Visual Basic Script [VBS] file. For your information, this is a type of computer code that can run various tasks on Windows. If a person clicks on this file, it starts a chain reaction that allows hackers to control the computer from a distance.

⁉️“The campaign relies on a combination of social engineering and living-off-the-land techniques. By combining trusted platforms with legitimate tools, the threat actor reduces visibility and increases the likelihood of successful execution,” researchers wrote in Microsoft’s blog post.⁉️

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2026/03/31/whatsapp-malware-campaign-delivers-vbs-payloads-msi-backdoors/

#whatsapp #windows #security #privacy #media #infosec #tech #news

The Internet Ate My Time; Now I’m taking it Back

It’s been more than 10 months since my last blog post. That last one came 6 months after its predecessor.
But, I’ve always loved writing.

Why then this disrespect to a passion I so adore?

Because of course, it’s the internet.

I begin my day browsing Reddit and the CNBC website on the loo. Breakfast comes with YouTube, and the metro commute is reserved for podcasts.

After work, unless there’s a cricket match on, I’m usually streaming a series or a movie—while aggressively switching tabs so I don’t miss the latest shitpost on r/IndiaTech (usually hating on Samsung).
(Even as I write this, I just did a quick browse-through on Reddit.)

And if there is a cricket match, it’s worse. One huge TV blasting the game in one corner, and a fool in the other—sitting in front of an open laptop, scrolling through his phone.

Now I see how much time this zombie routine has taken from me—and I’m not sure what I traded it for.

This is an introduction to my 100 Days to Offload. It’s an initiative by this terrific blogger Kev Quirk, whose blog you can follow here: https://kevquirk.com/

It’s a fun exercise where you make 100 or more blog posts in one 365 day period. That’s it!

Let’s see if I can score a century!