Hi I'm Abishek Muthian, an indie, I write code to solve problems in health and build tools for indies to create sustainable income. Bone Health Tracker Track your bone health, Monitor the progress of your treatments. Memory Hammer What if you can remember everything you see, forever? Open Payment Host Sell what you want without paying double...
A friend passed away recently during sleep due to unknown natural causes when they were all alone in a hotel in a foreign country. I couldn't dismiss the thought that may be if they had worn a smart watch they could have had better chances of reaching out for help and perhaps even got alerted of some discrepancies in their vitals. There's no...
If I have to restart my modem often like a caveman, I'll at least automate it. Years ago I would have pitied the soul which had to restart their Internet modem often, Now I'm in the situation where the ISP seems to have not heard about network reliability and so my modem hangs at least once per day. My modem is completely managed by the ISP and...
When a new device is connects to my OpenWRT router, I get a notification on Gotify. This serves as a good low-key intrusion detection along with my earlier OpenWRT login alerts. Heavy lifting was already done by Brandon McFarlin, I had to just modify the code to send messages to Gotify instead of MQTT. #!/bin/sh cat /etc/hotplug.d/dhcp/90-newdev...
YouTube on Firefox skips frames and neither Google nor Firefox seem to have the incentive to fix it, let's do it ourselves. When this is done, we can watch YouTube videos in the browser with smooth playback using mpv as the video player backend. Note: This guide is for Linux operating systems with Firefox but should be simple enough for adapting...
Reserve Bank of India has published draft regulatory guidelines for payment aggregators1 which requires payment aggregators to perform physical KYC on small & medium sized merchants, verify their bank accounts among other regulations. Stripe, sighting the aforementioned regulations has made its onboarding invite only2 in India, which means only...
When Messi's parents were informed that their Son would have stunted growth due to Growth Hormone Deficiency(GHD)1, My parents were being lied to by my doctor that I would grow taller than them. Lionel Messi got treated and became one the greatest footballer of all time while I became a dwarf with life threatening consequences. I'm a year older...
I suffer from chronic lower back pain, Since I don't consume opioids I find exercises 1 to be the best pain management technique. In addition to the specific exercises for managing back pain, Not sitting for long durations seems to be the key factor for me to not trigger the back pain. Talking a walk every 25 minutes has worked very well for...
I was on Twitter 13 years ago, It still had 'Fail Whale' when the platform couldn't handle traffic. Those were the good days, Social media was about connecting with friends, Making new ones and not a democracy destroying tool. If this is my last tweet, Let it be about Twitter itself. TBH I hated every moment I had to use Twitter over the past...
Those who don't like JavaScript and are sitting on the fence about using a reactive framework, I took the bullet and tried Svelte for a Go Web Application. Here are some findings which can save you some frustration and help you decide better. Svelte, Because it seems like the sanest JavaScript framework of all. The overhead is handled during...
I'm migrating a project from PostgreSQL to SQLite. There's nothing wrong with PostgreSQL, It's the best RDBMS; period. I'm just building a product where the benefits of the portability, performance seem to outweigh the quirks of SQLite; At-least that's what I think. Btw, I learnt couple of days back that SQLite is not 'SQL Light' but S.Q.L.-ite...
It's been known for a while that depression can cause us to not remember finer details of an past event (or) even cause forgetfulness of future events. But while depressed, We have no dearth of negative thoughts and memories i.e. Rumination. Since rumination weakens our cognitive control it could also cause issues with our memory. This is my...
Meditation, Mindfulness, Flow etc. The common theme seems to be 'Focus'. Focus is a key component for mental health, Yet it has been made very expensive thanks to constant assault on our senses by the corporations who would then sell their 'Mindfulness' app back to us. Chat apps with those check marks induces anxiety to reply faster without...
Disclaimer: I'm not qualified to advise on mental health issues, If you think you have OCD, anxiety or other issues then seek the help of a qualified medical professional. Like physical health, Everyone needs help with mental health at some point. The hair dryer incident is my favorite example to illustrate how anxiety induced by OCD can affect a...
My post-warranty Xbox One X power supply went kaput, Microsoft wanted me to visit a walk-in center 500 Km (~ 300 Mi) away and exchange it for a new one for ~ 250 USD. I couldn't find replacement power supply online where I live and shipping it from abroad was risky on several fronts. So converted an old ATX power supply to power my Xbox One X....
I have been trying to delete my Meta/Facebook account for past several months in vain because I couldn't download a copy of my Facebook Page before I delete my account. Facebook provides 'Request a download' feature for downloading a copy of the the Page. It worked fine for pages with small user base, But one of my Facebook Page had thousands of...
Long time Hacker News readers would agree that the real gold is in the comments, There are very few platforms left where people with subject matter experience and authority share valuable insights with less noise. HN provides a way to save those comments, but I also wanted a way to retrieve those comments when I need them. I've been building my...
Earth Health Organization(EHO) has declared a pandemic due to the most dangerous plague till date. It supposedly has severe consequences for not only the current population but also for future generations. It's named 'Social Media Pandemic' as the plague is caused by the several viral pathogens belonging to the Social Media family. Symptoms...
Supporters of The Tallest Dwarf Anjan has bought a Coffees for The Tallest Dwarf. Jarett has bought a Coffee for The Tallest Dwarf. Dan has bought a Coffee for The Tallest Dwarf. Alexander has bought a Coffee for The Tallest Dwarf. [Don't want to be named] has bought a Coffee for The Tallest Dwarf. Liam has bought a Coffee for The Tallest Dwarf....
I walked by the living room other day and there was this reality show on television in which the participants were narrating what it seemed like their life story. It was sad, they and other participants were crying inconsolably while the camera panned to each of their faces for a close-up. It was quite awful to watch. I haven't watched television...
It's no secret that consumer electronics brands are increasingly relying upon aspiration to sell their products as their utility diminishes. None more so than Apple. Professional photographers, filmmakers use their phones says Apple every year, This year wasn't any different. So only professional photographers, filmmakers need their phones right?...
Time is a human constructfor now, integral to both personal life and the well being of the society at large. From waking up to the alarm in the morning to going to sleep on time so we could wake up to that alarm, We've come with average amount of time to do all tasks. If suddenly 25% of all humans decide to sleep 3 hours more today and show up...
Ola has realized that it would never make profit just like its overrated original and so it's diversifying into electric vehicles. I think that's great both as a business(if it pans out) and as a consumer as it could improve the electric vehicle ecosystem in India. But you probably knew all those in case you had the Ola app on your phone as Ola...
I wanted to receive alert when logged into my OpenWrt router via SSH and this what I did. Replace Dropbear with OpenSSH-server OpenWrt uses lightweight Dropbear as SSH server by default but it needs to be compiled with PAM support to add alerts. Instead I'm replacing Dropbear with OpenSSH server. I followed the official Replacing Dropbear by...
I told my friend that I don't use WhatsApp and asked to be contact me via Signal. We had a conversation on Signal and this happened, Can even Facebook stoop so low? I was told that the WhatsApp didn't work after installing Signal, I replied that it could be a coincidence. But I did consider for a moment on whether Facebook owned WhatsApp could...
I was one of the early adopters of smart watch ecosystem with OG LG G Watch, but lately I have stopped wearing watches altogether as they're sweaty and that I've become weary of having devices with large batteries closer to my body especially those with connectivity. But the LG G Watch has found a new use as a smart clock attached to my desk...
False accusation for children especially if the accusation goes totally against their values can have profound negative consequences. When I was in grade school(early 2000, India), I went out to take a photo-copy(xerox) of a study material in a shop nearby school. After I returned to the class, I was called to the headmistress office; The...
India has made a major overhaul to it's Income Tax filing website and with it its offline e-filing utilities which are now available only for Windows and Mac. Earlier the utility was in Java and was available for linux. Now it's been replaced with electron wrapper over the website and so I don't know why it's not available for linux. Anyways I...
Static websites require a middleware to add subscribers to the Mailchimp list if we don't want to redirect our visitors to another website. PHP middleware which uses Mailchimp API 3.0 is useful because there's wide range of inexpensive options to host a PHP web service either in the form of managed hosting providers or self hosted cloud...
I recently came to know that Oracle offers VMs with decent compute performance as part of always free cloud services, Which is great for someone like me who has too many side projects and spending way more on their hosting infrastructure than one should. There are several great low-cost IaaS out there but their low-tier doesn't compare to Oracle...
I keep my soft RPi keyboard rested at angle on the close laptop which itself is at an angle on a laptop stand. This helps me to rest my wrists rest flat on the table while typing on the keyboard. But the trackpad (wacom) sits flat on the table causing me to reach out a bit and strain my wrists after a long use. The trackpad by itself cannot rest...
Possible compromise of Read Aloud browser extension. Read Aloud is a famous Text-To-Speech browser extension with 65,065 Users & Recommended badge on Firefox and 3,000,000+ users on Chrome web store. It is mostly used by people with accessibility needs, Especially those who are visually impaired. I saw a hyperlink with the text 'India success...
When the host machine is suspended while the KVM through QEMU is running lead to issues like display unable to wake up when resuming suspend. Suspending and resuming the Virtual Machine when the host machine is suspended using hooks in systemd and resumed fixes this issue. /etc/systemd/system/root-suspend.service [Unit] Description=Local system...
If you're a millennial and involved in SW-development then its likely Java has touched your life in some way. Java was the magic pill in late 90s in India and every Engineering graduate irrespective of their domain was told to get certified in it for a job. My sister(ECE) was one of them, my father got our first computer (Pentium-III ~900 MHz)to...
There is a need gap for Human voice summary of news. Until this need gap gets addressed, we can use automation tool like tasker to implement read-aloud feature for news app like inshorts. Requirements Tasker android app. AutoInput android app. Selecting preferred voice in the Google Text-to-Speech Engine. Tasker profile...
warning: Sending and receiving messages from WhatsApp through email would bypass the end-to-end encryption and may leak data to the email providers (Check update). If your reason for reading this is for better data security, then this is may not the right approach. This approach can help those who are looking to isolate WhatsApp to reduce...
Fake FDA certified pulse oximeters Ecommerce sites in India are full of pulse oximeters falsely claiming to be FDA certified. If they are actually available in U.S., they don't claim it to be FDA certified and are not listed on FDA's database. Some of the pulse oximeters try to falsely project quality by prominently claiming to be designed in a...
I had trouble pairing Colmi P8 watch with Raspberry Pi 3B running Arch Linux via bluetooth and I had to resort to following actions to resolve it. If you are facing bluetooth issues with newer Raspberry Pi, these fixes may work but I haven't tested them for newer RPi. Do Nothing First try connecting to the bluetooth device with bluetoothctl to...
This post will help you with easy, cost-effective and secure way to backup your PostgreSQL database to cloud. Create local scheduled backup of PostgreSQL database Login as postgres user on the console (tmux is recommended). Create .pgpass file to access database without entering credentials manually. $ nano .pgpass Enter the credentials in the...
A need gap of Remind me to take break when working from home was recently posted. Forgetting to take regular breaks when immersed with work in front of a computer is a common problem, especially when working from home. On the flip side, getting distracted from completing a task is also a common problem. Why pomodoro? Pomodoro technique is to work...
BigBasket is the leading online grocery delivery portal in India, due to the reduced workforce and extraordinary demand; the bookings happen at random slots and we have no other choice but to keep checking the app regularly. A need gap was posted recently, asking for a solution to this problem. Since this affects many including myself, I decided...
Content Warning: If you are at the brink of an existential crisis, depressed from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or suicidal, please do not proceed further with this content. Be advised that there could also be usage of expletives in this content. Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to a living or dead person, real events,...
Update: This was published when there was scarcity of face masks due to COVID-19 pandemic, now since proper medical grade face masks are available widely this content is considered obselete and should be read for educational purposes only. Do not put your life in risk with DIY face masks, use a proper medical grade face mask as recommended by...
Around December 2017, Google sent me a free Acer Chromebook 11 N7 (C731). Well, technically they sent me a free Chromebook cover first, with the promise of a Chromebook to follow and only caveat (or request) being my time to listen to their Google Cloud Platform sales pitch. Acer Chromebook 11 N7 C731 sent to me along with Google cloud marketing...
A user on needgap posted a problem of not being able to find graphs showing confirmed COVID-19 cases and local weather data such as temperature. The reason for reputed agencies not publishing such graph is likely to prevent misinformation and possibly to avoid governments getting complacent in their action towards COVID-19. But, as an individual...
Raspberry Pi, according to me sits on the same row as smartphones when it comes democratizing computation. Between $5 - $35, these tiny computers are capable of functioning as standalone desktop or power hundreds of IoT projects. Raspberry Pi foundation consciously price their top of the line computer at $35, wait till the tech is feasible for...
Nexus Before the Pixel there was Nexus, smartphones and tablets to showcase the latest in android with the brand of the manufacturer. They packed in latest android version with top end specifications and pathetic camera (processed image/video) quality; no wonder they didn't take off in mainstream consumer smartphones/tablets space. But mainstream...
Hi, this is Abishek Muthian. Thanks for visiting my blog. That's me on the picture. I'm a time-constrained person. Here, I intend on writing on some of my Interests and try my best to deliver as I perceived it. Between 2014-2019, I had been running Timebender Technologies; building world class products and services. But, I had to close it down...
The legal terms mentioned here covers abishekmuthian.com and products which explicitly link to this legal page. For legal terms of my individual products please refer to the legal section on their respective websites. Privacy Policy What personal data are collected and why its collected? No Tracking Cookies No Analytics No Advertising No Embedded...
As I am writing this, cyclone Fani with category 4 level winds 215 kph (130 mph) in the Bay of Bengal is expected to make landfall in the state of Odisha, India by tomorrow. Over 800,00 evacuated, as 100 million people are expected to be affected by the cyclone. Cyclone Fani is seen in the Bay of Bengal by the Japan Meteorological Agency’s...
Tingling on the side of the face during tasks involving intense cognition was my first symptom. Nature of my job involves regular problem solving of various degree, on certain occasions there was a halting tingling sensation on the right side of my face to the end of lower jaw. Initially the tingling sensation occurred about once in a month for...
50 years ago a movie changed everything. That’s how aptly, the re-release trailer backed by Christopher Nolan begins! Watch video on YouTube 2001: A Space Odyssey — Original Theatrical Trailer | Credits: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. It’s safe to say that there’s no other science fiction movie which has captured the imagination of fans &...
TL;DR your computers are going to get slow because of patches aimed at fixing unprecedented vulnerabilities in the CPU. For the rest (simplified), Modern computational security relies on maintaining the sanctum of memory, i.e keeping secure memory (say your passwords) out of access from user process (the meme website). The guard duty for this...
Build world’s best smartphone CPU & release a CPU governor to slow it down via software update 😑 This isn’t an isolated incident, Li-ion batteries have been plaguing the tech industry. While other parts of the smartphone like displays, compute power, data transfer, storage capacities have been seeing annual growth; battery tech has been the same...
Watch video on YouTube Elektro from Westinghouse Electric Corporation That’s the 1939 promo video of the robot (air quotes) — Elektro from Westinghouse Electric Corporation demoed at New York World’s Fair. Now this, Watch video on YouTube Sophia from Hanson Robotics That is Sophia — the Artificial Intelligence (air quotes again) powered robot...
McDonald's Szechaun Sauce announcement The #SzechuanSauce fiasco with McDonald’s is a very interesting (successful ?) example of scarcity marketing and targeting intellectuals for generating bandwagon effect. Some BG : Rick and MortyBuy, a science fiction animated show with the philosophy of cosmic pessimism, existentialism, nihilism, absurdism...
From Tom’s guide review of iPhone 8 Many reviewers have shared benchmark results of the new A11 Bionic SoC (System on Chip) from latest Apple devices & this was not unexpected. I would like to introspect how Apple is managing to build better SoC’s than even traditional chip makers time and again. Disclaimer : The opinion shared here are personal...
Disclaimer: This is an attempt at trolling and satire. Don’t just tag me under technology fear mongerer, I’m going to present an acute scenario in which AR could be misused to inflict significant damage to a large population. As a technology evangelist, I’am very excited to see the core support for Augmented Reality (AR) in iOS ARKit &...
So, my friend said this — If I may state mine — It’s not we’re more worried about AI, it’s the media inducing cognitive biases fuelled by Hollywood when a celebrity speaks about dooms day AI. Let’s discuss some facts, Let’s take prof. Hawing, he’s vocal about the need to keep AI research in check and more importantly he has blatantly expressed...
I blew my personal computer and before I could build a new one I needed a temporary machine which could perform some of my routine tasks like browsing, social network, word processing, programming, gaming, videos, music & ocassional heavy computation. Though I would be needing a full fledged workstation for my computational activity, my other...
Mail from IPTI This is a physical scam mail alert yeah because we don’t get enough of cyber phishing; right! Those who have filed international patents, keep an eye out for mails such as the above. I received a professional looking mail from IPTI & from what it looks like on the envelope it’s been sent from The Netherlands. Since we have filed...
Paytm- Alibaba backed India’s leading mobile payment wallet saw a 1000 % growth in the amount of money added to its wallet during India’s demonetisation. I must acknowledge that digital wallets like Paytm, Ola money etc. did help in easing the pains of demonetisation for those who had access to them like me. Also we (Timebender) did our part to...
Well, come-on you should know upfront that I’m not going to be writing about some ground breaking research I conduct at my basement laboratory resulting in conclusive proof of Brain in a vat , if so I would rather be writing a Nobel prize acceptance speech. Now you could ask me, why you should spend your next few valuable minutes reading through...
Disclaimer : I have limb deformities, but my deformities haven’t been an issue with any wrist based gadget in the past. Especially in the non-dominant hand, apart from it being stunted I haven’t faced restrictions to daily activities due to my disabilities. But I’m open to the idea that the the issues I faced with Fitbit could be related to my...
The drawings from my 7th grade art book gives an insight of what my life and dreams were during that period. I share this is to inspire at-least few to go back and check what they were and what they are now. Art book cover My 7th grade Art notebook. I’m 29 year old Indian male. The drawings from my 7th grade art book gives an insight of what my...