Adithya Yegan Charitable Trust

So happy to have built a website for a friend of mine in Chennai, India.. who is running a food bank there along with his son:

Duly noted

Asstute readers of mine will duly note that the following sentences are comprised of technical jargon. And I most profoundly apologize for this intimate invasion into the deepest recesses of your brain tissue. Bear with me for two minutes as I explain the reasons immediately after.

In late January 2020, I started architecting a very important software data mapping tool and its associated components for a client. This client had a long-standing backlog of data integration issues with their clients that had come about from both being a small business that could not afford a dedicated software engineering team and by being stymied by thought processes revolving around an ancient company vision. So I decided that while I addressed immediate billable integration needs, I would do so in as generic a way as possible.. so that my efforts could be repeated and scaled out or up for subsequent integration needs for the client. I am 80% of the way there now.

My buddy the whiteboard. No, nothing proprietary is being shown here. I am too seasoned a pro to do that.

So why am I mentioning this? Because this has been a very, very absorbing project. So absorbing in fact that my previous day schedule of waking up at 5 AM and tucking kitty and myself in at 8 PM circa 2019.. has been convincingly replaced with an 8 AM to 12 AM schedule. Rather than listening to reason and stopping work exactly at 4 PM like I used to -- before Miss Univirus came to sing us all a lullaby -- I decided to give into logic and just plug at it until sleep beckons and/or kitty starts vigorously meowing wanting to play.

With not being able to drown my sorrows at the local watering hole every evening after work, I instead found myself stretching my neck at the computer on my home desk every evening as I delved deep into the innards of the .NET ecosystem in incisive attempts to solve the problems that arise every day in elegant yet optimized ways. Stackoverflow.com is my best buddy these days. I hope kitty did not hear that!! And my other buddy would be...

...a mini ham salad sandwich!

A mini ham salad sandwich!! Ok, I vary it with tuna or chicken salad. But a pound of any of these choices and a dozen sandwich rolls plus cut onions with brown mustard provide a week to 10 days of delectable little goody-gulping. Wash each down with a cuppa of black tea or chai with one sweetener and you have the makings of an in-home picnic. A pleasant break for the brain from the mental efforts imposed from architecting and writing software.

In other news, I finally have a decent workout system in place. Below is my current setup. A pair of adjustable dumbbells are on order. But everyone is facing delays and back-orders these days. Not to worry. Back to my teenage years growing up in India filled with body-weight push-ups, squats, etc. on the open terrace of an old house. More on my workouts in a future post. But, oh sunny days! I await thee so I can huff and puff on the balcony.

There's no setup, no.

Some great covideas for 2020

Observation #1: I have shopped at Shaw's twice in the last 10 days. The checkout folks will not touch your reusable bags and for a good reason.

Covidea #1: Continue this practice even after the current pandemic ends. So when the next pandemic rolls around, nothing special needs to be done. Push-back may come from lazy or disabled shoppers. Simply have a separate lane for these folks.. where the checkout person will wear proper gloves, mask, etc. before handling the reusable bags in this lane. Or, to keep it much simpler, continue maintaining special hours during which shopping can be done only by the elderly and disabled folk!

This is just a random picture.. of a spring snow storm that just started outside.

Observation #2: One of the supermarket's two entrances were closed. There was a police man stationed at the other entrance. He was ensuring that the store did not get overcrowded by allowing a shopper in only after an existing shopper from within the store had exited. I remember standing in line like that a few times back in the day when I was trying to get into nightclubs. I hated that experience!

Covidea #2: Make this standard practice if it looks like another pandemic may be on the horizon. How the transition from Police officer "Present" to "Not present" will be made remains to be seen. But I expect it will have to be done when there is a high amount of confidence that a pandemic is over and there will not be a spike seen in the upcoming weeks.

Observation #3: While shoppers kept a reasonable distance from each other while they were shopping, this was not at all possible once they finished their shopping and had to check out. Now everyone was much closer because of a need to congregate by the checkout counters.

Covidea #3a: Just like MassHighway uses a moving machine (zippers?) to adjust lanes on I-93 south of Boston on weekday mornings and evenings, put in place a dynamic system to accommodate shopping lane reconfiguration on weekday evenings, weekends, before snow storms, etc.

Copyright ABC10.. I guess.

Covidea #3b: Look into eliminating checkout lanes altogether by providing the ability to checkout while shopping. Instead, multiple entrances will be established in the perimeter of the store to minimize shopper proximity issues. When a shopper comes to the store, they use a store card or app to first pickup a cart with a checkout device right on it:

• When an item is placed in a cart, it is automatically checked out.
• To cancel an item, the item is simply returned from the cart to where it was picked up.
• Once the shopper has finished shopping, they "commit" their shopping through an app which will allow them to leave the store with the cart and then remove items from the cart. 

If a checked-in item leaves the cart for an extended period or a not yet checked-in item leaves the shelf and does not get into its original spot on the shelf -- example: one shopper steals from another shopper -- alarm and lights will go of in the appropriate locations while a beam will be zapped to the local police station with encrypted details about the offense. But more likely, a kid with freckles wielding a broomstick will show up first to eyeball the state of the union.

During pandemics, stockpiling of items can be prevented through this type of automation either during a particular shopping session or across multiple sessions for a given shopper.. now that their shopping history is on the cloud. Anyone smell a bit of communism in there? But remember that this is only during pandemics in order to not to deprive those who really need supplies or cannot get to shop as quickly or as often.. such as the elderly, single parents and disabled folk. This covidea should be an "All-in" strategy and should be implemented by all major stores at the same time. Otherwise, enough shoppers, realizing that they won't be able to stockpile if Covidea #3b were to be implemented, will soon put early adopters of this service out of business by shopping only at the "not-yet" adopters.

Covidea #3b is a huge ask, yes, but one that should prepare nations better for emergencies in the future: better initial preparation leads to less overall enforcement or running around during times of need. If that philosophy can be implemented in other areas such as healthcare and hospitality, pandemics would become non-events and fizzle out before they begin.

Observation #4: A few shoppers had on face masks and gloves. Stores had sanitizers affixed by each checkout lane. Some shoppers missed the sanitizers altogether as they were not very obvious.

Covidea #4: Keep the sanitizers where they are but have them light up with a ding when a shopper has finished paying. Shoppers who have on face masks and gloves will also have their rewards points bumped up. Shoppers will also get rewards points for wiping down carts and/or returning them to the cart cage.

Observation #x: ...

Covidea #x: ...

Observation #19: I found myself constantly surveying the shopper traffic inside the store in order to get the few items I needed without having to bump into other shoppers.

Covidea #19: If shoppers can tap and choose through an app what they need to buy on that particular shopping session before they get to the store and pick up the special cart -- a suggested shopping list could pop up based on their past shopping history, frequency, etc., for instance --, then the app can direct them to the next item they can pick up while having no or the least interaction with other shoppers en route to that item. This is also simply efficient, pandemic or not. This covidea goes.. um.. hand-in-hand with Covidea #3b.

COVID-19 - Some productive takeaways

Let's dive right in. We have already had SARS and now COVID-19 in the span of 20 years. With human population exploding and existing humans living longer, hundreds of thousands of "human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles"¹ will become a common theme in pretty much every square mile of the planet. That means, this sort of pandemic will become more common. Secondary inference: we need to get into the habit of quickly adapting to similar situations as they arise in the future. So now is as good a time as any to start practicing.

Those of you who have always had a habit of washing your hands once you get indoors, be it home or the office, you are in luck. Because we already have a stockpile of hand-wash soap and sanitizers on hand.

I have noticed some men in public urinals handling a smartphone in one hand while operating machinery with the other and then not washing their hands before exiting the restroom. Ugh! Those of you who don't have a habit of washing your hands, well, here now is a great opportunity to finally develop a healthy life-long habit.

There is no point in blaming China for this pandemic. It is what it is. We have to trust in China's ability to prevent such infections from arising in the future. But we should also see this as an opportunity for medical and emergency responders around the world to better anticipate and work together in future should such a situation arise. And more situations like this will arise. Vaccines might be developed faster but there will be infections and deaths first.

Social distancing is not a request. It is an obligation to your community. Homebodies are in luck as they don't really have to do anything remarkable. But those of us who have a need to get out under the sun or hit the gym will need to curb our enthusiasm and just rein it in. I have resistance bands on hand. And, of course, calisthenics. Time to start practicing the handstand and doing a little tumbling work. Gyms closing temporarily are a great idea as everybody touches everything and breathes out something heavy in gyms. Therefore, sanitizing surfaces and spraying to negate aerosols in such environments may just not be good or fast enough.

If it’s a sunny, “near Spring” day out, bring your beach gear out to the balcony and do a bit of reading!

Having difficulty shedding those extra pounds? This would be a great time to ration your supplies, eat less and lose some serious weight!

Having difficulty in stopping spending on drinks at your local watering hole.. or on amazon.com every month and then promptly getting rid of cardboard packaging, etc.? Well, let's use this opportunity to rein all that in.

In an ideal society, there will not be any panic buying. But there are no ideal societies. Particularly in a democracy like the United States which is home to a vast number of group mentalities and mindsets, and therefore deep distrust between groups and between groups and their government, panic buying will be the norm. It is hard to fault parents with young children and the elderly in such situations. But everyone else should make an effort to be considerate in their purchases and put trust in the infrastructure that they have had a hand in gradually building and honing over the decades. So be considerate and leave some supplies on the shelf for others. This is easier said than done though because.. there are no ideal societies.

Continue ordering the occasional food delivery to support your local **reputable** restaurants but be prepared to disinfect surfaces of the food containers -- using wipes and not by spraying -- just behind your front door.

Notice that other than the hand washing part, which should be general practice anyway, there is no "medical advice" in this post. If you are not a medical expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stop texting and forwarding home grown or unattributed medical advice to your family and friends. I get this stuff everyday from family and it annoys me to no end.. because then, when they do call, I don't feel like taking their calls.

Lastly, it would be a good idea to stop constantly talking and posting about COVID-19. I, for one, am tired of hearing about the damn thing. You have done everything in your control to prevent the spread of this virus. Now we wait for the pandemic to slow down and end. But how about this post then? It is talking about COVID-19? Well, nobody reads my blog. So its okay!

---

1 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Blue Carbuncle^↩