tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974258182415309552024-03-14T02:17:19.549-04:00Musings on the Human ConditionPuneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.comBlogger206125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-44551080964733316562023-11-07T22:00:00.001-05:002023-11-07T22:03:42.666-05:00A Step-by-Step Approach for Migrating to AEMaaCS<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhC_ZKVXbcxnpoOOo1nF-WNWDZjvqwtLZpzY5d34wJ9UO6JziLLKejkeezxVpCmG9zl8OkfqEfRYG_zLGCnr7f8cvRefQAyDvauPZ52wFUzQeRklPNbQgK9Ej34ABJcV1V3PdCRk_5PV0th6GrwRrHg3MzL7hfi3FrBluwb90JgqYV3EwCrmAkk6m3g9Jc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="968" data-original-width="2372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhC_ZKVXbcxnpoOOo1nF-WNWDZjvqwtLZpzY5d34wJ9UO6JziLLKejkeezxVpCmG9zl8OkfqEfRYG_zLGCnr7f8cvRefQAyDvauPZ52wFUzQeRklPNbQgK9Ej34ABJcV1V3PdCRk_5PV0th6GrwRrHg3MzL7hfi3FrBluwb90JgqYV3EwCrmAkk6m3g9Jc=s16000" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div>AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS) is Adobe's software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), which provides clients with a CMS platform (Sites), Digital Asset Management (DAM, or simply Assets), and Forms.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was released a few years ago with several upsides and a few downsides. In the intervening years, Adobe has continued to build on the pros while the cons continue to dwindle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some fairly large companies have been enticed with licensing discounts and package deals to embrace CS and migrate their AEM instances to it. We have helped a few of our clients with this journey and some are now live on CS. This post briefly describes the key steps involved in such a migration.</div><div><br /></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Assess Current State<br /></b><br />The migration from on-premise (data center) or cloud-hosted to CS is not a lift-and-shift. Significant refactoring is required in order to make your AEM implementation ready for CS. Additionally, it's a great opportunity to modernize and clear off technical debt. <br /><br />Adobe provides several tools like the Best Practice Analyzer (BPA) and Cloud Acceleration Manager (CAM) to help with the analysis of your AEM code base and recommend the best path and a list of to-dos for migration to CS.<br /><br /></li><li><b>Prioritize Sites and Components<br /></b><br />There are two key strategies to choose from.<br /><br />One is to migrate your simplest site first in order to become familiar with the CS lifecycle, which is not trivial.<br /><br />The other is to migrate your most complex site first in order to solve the high risk elements of your overall ecosystem before you commit to a migration.<br /><br />The right choice for you might depend on a number of factors, including the complexity of your code base, the strengths of your team, appetite for risk, etc.<br /><br /></li><li><b>Remediate and Enhance<br /></b><br />There are certain changes that are required for a migration to CS. For example, if you're still using Classic UI component dialogs, or static templates, or JSPs, you will need to modernize your implementation. <br /><br />While you're knee deep in the code base, it's a great opportunity to future-proof your AEM implementation by making changes such as moving to the latest archetype so that, for example, you would be well positioned to move to an SPA-based architecture down the road if you wanted to.<br /><br />Some organizations even take the opportunity to do a complete rebranding and redesign.<br /><br /></li><li><b>Automate</b><br /><br />CS uses Cloud Manager (CM) to automate and validate deployments so that, for example, no incompatible code is deployed and the code has adequate test coverage to protect you from regressions.<br /><br />Setting up your local development environments to efficiently handshake with CS and CM ensures rapid deployments and quick TTM for new functionality that your organization relies on in order to grow and flourish.<br /><br /></li><li><b>Deploy and Test<br /></b><br />Once the code changes are done and the infrastructure is ready, it's time to start planning the migration of your content, taxonomy, metadata, and more. <br /><br />Don't forget to test the authoring experience, which could be dramatically different if you're coming from the Classic UI experience.<br /><br />The real test happens once you start showing your stakeholders a few finished pages in a higher environment like quality assurance (QA), stage/staging, or user acceptance testing (UAT). <br /><br />Ideally, you should develop some regression test cases (manual or automated), both for authors and end-users, to make sure that you're on par with the user experience (UX) offered by the legacy AEM site that you're upgrading.<br /><br /></li><li><b>Finalize</b><br /><br />Once you benchmark the website's performance, it's time to fine tune and finalize your environment sizing and caching strategy to achieve the best performance for your buck.<br /><br />You should be looking at performance for both authoring use cases as well as end-user use cases. Things work a little differently in CS so you should likely see and automatic improvement in authoring performance.<br /><br />If your AEM sites are integrating with other solutions such as analytics, optimization, CRM, etc. then this is the time to make sure all of them are functioning as needed before you cutover from your legacy website to the new CS-based website. </li></ol></div><div>Hiring an agency like <a href="https://www.onenorth.com/capabilities/digital-experience/" target="_blank">One North</a> that has done CS implementations for other customers not only gives you the additional resources needed for such an initiative but also mitigates any risk of errors during your migration to CS.</div><div><br /></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-62010605058402736462023-04-02T17:44:00.005-04:002023-04-23T21:39:14.903-04:00Adobe Summit 2023 Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlXa2wmArO7ARSjynZmIhXrtMPy3PJNGT4K48hFPDX-SP_GutUo2pmDBPI2gOSC-WvpWIsn5f4nZc8OA7vf_RkzDyiEoM6x5NgfzavEuhCJTwdtkgaRgAvxGRy4Qw6xCDmeWI8f077xNHJ5l6O24dRf0m1etTeWyQk81rsuDfC45SZ7HGtJ5NgyD1o/s1392/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-02%20at%2010.02.23%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="1392" height="556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlXa2wmArO7ARSjynZmIhXrtMPy3PJNGT4K48hFPDX-SP_GutUo2pmDBPI2gOSC-WvpWIsn5f4nZc8OA7vf_RkzDyiEoM6x5NgfzavEuhCJTwdtkgaRgAvxGRy4Qw6xCDmeWI8f077xNHJ5l6O24dRf0m1etTeWyQk81rsuDfC45SZ7HGtJ5NgyD1o/w640-h556/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-02%20at%2010.02.23%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>This year's Summit was as good as ever! As usual, there were hundreds of <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2023/sessions.html" target="_blank">sessions</a> covering every imaginable topic. However, there were a few themes that were new this year and deserve special mention.</p><p><b>Generative AI</b></p><p>Adobe's implementation of GenAI comes in the form of their <u>Firefly</u> toolkit (currently in beta) that takes in a textual description of an image and generates artificial images that match the provided description. For example, you could ask Firefly to create a "flat design logo for a towing company featuring a tow truck using grey and orange and primary colors". And Firefly will produce several images to choose from and tweak.</p><p>You can customize things like the aspect ratio, content type (photo, graphic, or art), styles, color and tone, lighting, and composition to create truly custom and unique content. Additionally, Firefly can also generate text effects. </p><p>Features under development include vector recoloring, text to brush (create custom Photoshop brushes), training Firefly's machine learning (ML) algorithms on your own proprietary content, and monetization for users using their content to train Firefly. </p><p>Competing products include <u>Midjourney</u>. Firefly has some catching up to do but has the advantage of OOTB integration with other Adobe products such as <u>Photoshop</u>. </p><p><b>CDP and Next-Gen Products</b></p><p>It was about ten years ago that I decided to build on my Java/Javascript background and move into the Adobe space. Since then, I have been continuously impressed with how aggressively Adobe pursues the development, acquisition, and integration of products. </p><p>Their product roadmaps are always going at warp speed. While Adobe's legacy products like AEM, Target, Analytics, Launch, and Campaign continue to evolve at breakneck speed, next-gen products such as AEMaaCS, AEP (platform/edge), CJA (analytics), OD (optimization/personalization), AJO (campaign with OD), JO are being built (and implemented) to directly feed off the CDP (data lake) for real-time personalization at scale. </p><p>All of these products are still evolving. For example, CJA will be adding audience sharing and derived fields in the coming months.</p><p>The innovation never stops. Nor does the learning. </p><p><b>Universal (Visual) Editor</b></p><p>Adobe unveiled an editor-as-a-service that allows (with stack-agnostic custom coding) for pages to be edited from external applications such a Microsoft Word and Excel. </p><p>The idea is to pair it with a headless implementation of AEM. But authors who don't wish to be trained on how to author in headful AEM could also avail of the facility. </p><p>The other UE value-proposition is that content to be edited could be sourced from sources other than AEM. </p><p>Questions remain about how permissions will be integrated and whether publishing will still have to be initiated from AEM. </p><p>UE is not to be confused with <u>Content Fragment Editor</u> (CFE) wherein the author cares only about the content, but not about the layout.</p><p><b>Mix Modeler</b></p><p>Adobe recently rolled out a Sensei-powered, self-serve solution that measures marketing campaigns and optimizes planning holistically across paid, earned, and owned channels. </p><p>Marketers trying to answer questions like "How will a 10% change to paid search budgets impact bookings" can now leverage Mix Modeler to augment Experience Cloud data (analytics) with new and essential summarized datasets like marketing spend, walled garden, offsite engagement, and exogenous data. </p><p><b>Figma</b></p><p>With some legal details pending and the focus of the conference being on Experience Cloud (rather than Creative Cloud) there was little to no mention of the much anticipated acquisition and integration with Figma, which is likely to bring an end to the product roadmap for Adobe XD.</p><p><b>Sessions</b></p><p>Some of the best sessions included Red Hat's discussion on <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2023/sessions/cdp-selection-capabilities-to-look-for-and-buildin-s404.html" target="_blank">CDP selection</a>. I really enjoyed their analogy of store bought cookies (third party cookies) and homemade cookies (first party cookies). </p><p>The Elevance (formerly Anthem) presentation on <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2023/sessions/create-transformational-datadriven-healthcare-expe-s114.html" target="_blank">data-driven healthcare experiences</a> blew me away with their step-by-step discussion on how to learn from data and push the boundaries of the tools (AJO, CJA) and the use of HIPAA-ready Healthcare Shield (and AEP add-on designed to overcome AT/AA shortcomings). </p><p>The day-long immersion sessions I attended on CDP and CJA were also extremely useful. </p><p><b>Potpourri</b></p><p>In closing, I'd like to share a few miscellaneous learnings from this year's Summit.</p><p>I met an Adobe client (major car manufacturer) who assembles pages outside AEM and then uses <u>Workfront Fusion</u> to integrate with AEM. An interesting idea worth exploring further (also see UE above). </p><p>During the lab on automating AEP deployments, we learned that <u>Postman Newman</u> is a command-line tool for running collections. So, for example, when implementing the CDP you could prototype all your feeds before wrapping them up into something more robust using Python or Java.</p><p>Adobe's <u>App Builder</u> can be used to extend content fragments (CFs) to fetch external data or add UI elements.</p><p><b>Further Reading</b></p><p>I'll leave you with a couple of interesting blog posts I learned about at the Summit.</p><p><a href="https://thebounce.io/why-the-death-of-sessions-is-a-myth-896335b2a7a6" target="_blank">Why the Death of Sessions is a Myth</a></p><div><a href="https://blog.developer.adobe.com/fast-tracking-incident-detection-with-user-and-entity-behavior-analytics-ueba-733d2b17263d" target="_blank">Fast-Tracking Incident Detection with User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)</a></div><div><br /></div><div><i>This post was also syndicated <a href="https://www.onenorth.com/insights/top-trends-and-highlights-from-adobe-summit-2023/" target="_blank">on One North's website</a>.</i></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-16222001881218688952022-12-21T20:04:00.017-05:002023-01-15T15:18:40.578-05:00Three Pillars of Digital Marketing Strategy for 2023<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTlp7b0M1XRzXsPFrLwW0vaRI9RwRxc-kpdelifTbTSsm6THRSDlk6MstE1S2LVndLkLFMtTnKmraljgdey_jwGJdQs-kfRiNy_qTpMThvEseUMEgDYmq-XwAUcUw3PtPJZeb3mdHZTmbH9QT1DyZ7DZPOFMt4GOkdTjPInV-wPLiZJuHKZTnOn_6l" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTlp7b0M1XRzXsPFrLwW0vaRI9RwRxc-kpdelifTbTSsm6THRSDlk6MstE1S2LVndLkLFMtTnKmraljgdey_jwGJdQs-kfRiNy_qTpMThvEseUMEgDYmq-XwAUcUw3PtPJZeb3mdHZTmbH9QT1DyZ7DZPOFMt4GOkdTjPInV-wPLiZJuHKZTnOn_6l=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br />As we head into 2023, there are <u>three key pillars</u> that ought to be part of every client's digital marketing strategy, described here in the context of the Adobe stack. <div><br /></div><div>In other words, these are the most likely three initiatives Adobe clients are likely to be embarking on 2023.<p></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>First-Party (1P) Data<br /></b><br />As browsers and devices begin to restrict third-party data, companies need to ramp up their 1P data collection. <br /><br />This is accomplished by incentivizing users to provide their data (for example their <u>email address</u>) by registering on a website or to download a PDF, etc.<br /><br />Adobe's Real-Time Customer Data Platform (RT-CDP), which is part of the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) is a key component of Adobe's martech stack for enabling efficient 1P data collection <br /><br /></li><li><b>Personalization<br /></b><br />1P data enables companies to attach web analytics data (captured via Adobe Analytics or a similar product) to the user. And products like Adobe Target, Customer Journey Analytics (CJA), Customer Journey Optimization (CJO), and the RT-CDP then allow companies to use 1P data to personalize the user experience based on near real time segmentation (for example men in Colorado over the age of 40) or even a specific user (for example most recently viewed products). <br /><br />Personalization is the key to making users feel satisfied about the quality and the relevance of their experience thereby resulting in increasing conversions (for example purchases or downloads).<br /><br /></li><li><b>AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)<br /></b><br />When your 1P data collection enables great personalization and amazing conversions, that generally results in increased user traffic. So your website must be able to scale up. <br /><br />Most Adobe clients currently deploy AEM in one of the following three ways: (1) on-premise, (2) self-managed cloud, or (3) Adobe Managed Service (AMS cloud). <br /><br />A couple of years ago Adobe came out with a fourth option known as Cloud Service (AEMaaCS), which simplifies the client's management of the cloud and provides several performance enhancements and is likely to become the future of AEM. <br /><br />Adobe further sweetens the deal with significant licensing incentives for clients to migrate to AEMaaCS. Even clients who haven't made the move to AEMaaCS would do well to evaluate it. </li></ol><div>So, to summarize: in my opinion, the pillars of digital marketing for 2023 are (1) 1P data, (2 ) the personalization that 1P data enables, and finally (3) the scalability that AEMaaCS provides. </div><div><br /></div><div>I hope you found this useful. Feel free to reach out to me with any further questions.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>This piece has also been syndicated on the <a href="https://www.onenorth.com/insights/using-the-adobe-stack-to-enhance-your-digital-marketing-strategy/" target="_blank">One North</a> website.</i></div><div><br /></div><p></p></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-17417147643838383222022-04-09T10:59:00.026-04:002022-04-14T17:06:07.511-04:00My Takeaways from Adobe Summit 2022<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSTuNJociY9WSsvsX-8VZ00WgceBuJszEpwOur6jSfeRwAH7bFmxQnMptXiuJec2dZN2iIK_Mrs8vt_xs8KMof2auTslSuTICcnzkuXa5EjYMw_ppfZW7iauSr9TsNyVmw_2liOAYvnFmY4_exGjh7bbgW1FpGiB9Iwu88u5rNKkvxPafrPWLcStj2" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSTuNJociY9WSsvsX-8VZ00WgceBuJszEpwOur6jSfeRwAH7bFmxQnMptXiuJec2dZN2iIK_Mrs8vt_xs8KMof2auTslSuTICcnzkuXa5EjYMw_ppfZW7iauSr9TsNyVmw_2liOAYvnFmY4_exGjh7bbgW1FpGiB9Iwu88u5rNKkvxPafrPWLcStj2=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I've been attending Adobe Summit every year for years and it never fails to disappoint. This year was no exception. Whether your cup of tea is shorter 30-minute sessions or longer 2-hour training workshop-style immersion sessions (my personal favorites) or the not-to-be-missed <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/summit-sneaks-mb9.html" target="_blank">Summit Sneaks</a> (cutting-edge innovations) hosted this year by the entertaining Kristen Bell, there's something for everyone.</p><p>In the following paragraphs I'll highlight the key takeaways I came away with and point you to some of the must-watch sessions.</p><p><b>Adobe Experience Platform</b> (AEP) is clearly the future and was at the center of a bulk of the sessions. AEP is much more than the <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/managing-realtime-customer-profiles-in-adobe-exper-tw108.html" target="_blank">Real-Time Customer Data Platform (RT-CDP)</a> you see in the typical sandbox. This is where most of Adobe's next-generation products are being incubated. Although the CDP is foundational, several products sit atop the CDP and leverage it's near-real-time 360 view of the customer to deliver their magic. <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/move-to-personcentric-insights-with-customer-journ-tw112.html" target="_blank">Customer Journey Analytics (CJA)</a> is the next-gen <b>Adobe Analytics</b> (AA, or Omniture, for you old school folks). <b>Journey Orchestration</b> (JO) is the cross-channel glue on top of <b>Adobe Campaign</b> (AC) and <b>Adobe Target</b> (AT). Whereas AC would typically react to events like an abandoned shopping cart with an email or SMS/text message reminder for you to complete that unfinished order, JO goes a lot further with nudges like an alert on your phone reminding you that Starbucks is just around the corner just in case you're eager for a late afternoon pick-me-up on your way to that critical client meeting.</p><p>Adobe's licensing model continues to mystify with it often being unclear to customers whether they have access to features like Offer Decisioning and machine learning (via Adobe's <b>Sensei</b>) and what throughput they can count on when ingesting historical third-party data into the CDP to get it going. However, learning to ask the right questions remains the customer's best bet when trying to pin down those details. That's where working with a trusted Adobe Partner (such as <a href="https://www.onenorth.com/" target="_blank">One North</a>) can come in handy.</p><p>Another aspect of the <b>Adobe Experience Cloud</b> (AEC) that often baffles customers is the constantly changing and heavy use of terminology and nomenclature. For example, if you're confused about the difference in AT between auto-allocate, auto-target, and automated personalization, the session on <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/stop-guessing-with-adobe-target-multivariate-testi-tw101.html" target="_blank">Multivariate Testing</a> might be just what the doctor ordered.</p><p>Workfront is the newest kid on the block as Adobe continues its highly successful strategy of growth by acquisition. The first few years after any acquisition can be a bit volatile as Adobe works to integrate the product into their family of products and gives the new acquisition a facelift and a new UX consistent with AEC. Workfront is Adobe's project management tool (think <b>Jira</b> for digital marketing). Where Adobe shines is in its ability to leverage and build on its strengths to create an ecosystem of capabilities that is nearly impossible for its competition to grapple with. </p><p>Workfront creates a much needed bridge between the creative and development ends of a digital marketing project by providing integrations and workflows that connect Adobe's <b>Creative Cloud</b> products (Illustrator, XD, Photoshop, Premier Pro, Lightroom, InDesign, to name a few), collaboration tools like <b>Slack</b>, and AEC, specifically <b>Adobe Experience Manager</b> (AEM) where most of the creative content eventually lands in <b>AEM Assets</b> (aka the <b>Digital Asset Manager</b> or DAM). The <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/lets-talk-digital-collaboration-tips-with-adobe-wo-tw107.html" target="_blank">Workfront</a> session at the Summit was particularly notable because it didn't just focus on how to use the product but also on vital collaboration strategies that are a key to success on any project. </p><p>Adobe's strong push to <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/tips-and-tricks-for-migrating-to-experience-manage-tw109.html" target="_blank">AEM as a Cloud Service</a> (AEMaaCS, or just CS) was also well represented in sessions and workshops. Adobe has done a great job of appealing to the mid-market by bundling CS with starter versions of their other foundational products (AA, AT) to create what they call the Foundation license. Innovation on the AEM front has continued at a frantic pace with significant advances in AEM's <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/empower-teams-to-do-more-in-headless-implementatio-tw106.html" target="_blank">Headless</a> capabilities with the introduction of the <b>SPA Editor</b> (for integrating with React or Angular-based SPAs) and a <b>GraphQL</b> layer to fine-tune the content you wish to syndicate from AEM to other consumers and channels in support of the <b>Content as a Service</b> (CaaS) model.</p><p>Finally, Adobe Summit always includes plenty of content on current generation products so that no one feels left behind. A great example was the turbo-charged session on <a href="https://business.adobe.com/summit/2022/sessions/from-junk-to-slam-dunk-optimizing-email-deliverabi-tw104.html" target="_blank">Email Deliverability</a>, which should be of tremendous interest to AC customers. I have shared this session with many of my clients and they've all been super grateful for the callout on a topic that doesn't have a lot of good material in the public domain!</p><p>Hope you found this recap helpful and are motivated to dig through at least one of the links I've shared above to continue your learning journey into Adobe's ever-growing stack of digital marketing products and capabilities! </p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-43890616805177042402022-02-28T21:07:00.009-05:002022-02-28T21:47:44.226-05:00Is it ethical to be working two full-time jobs?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXnVORgfp7pmQ31xblk-tNd_Wo_XrLEzVCNscbQbJ6LGQOyuSn5VCNXYaPJYgm847jSGvYtKYh_mFeiIDozbG0fjNeTDQC9eDy70qi8WtTmHWlHzmighT_r7G42oLlnkJdYseVi2NEqk5N7yUnNgK5_yTzentNaWc9w4QqbFwvi2i0S_BJVH69r0ex" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="930" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgXnVORgfp7pmQ31xblk-tNd_Wo_XrLEzVCNscbQbJ6LGQOyuSn5VCNXYaPJYgm847jSGvYtKYh_mFeiIDozbG0fjNeTDQC9eDy70qi8WtTmHWlHzmighT_r7G42oLlnkJdYseVi2NEqk5N7yUnNgK5_yTzentNaWc9w4QqbFwvi2i0S_BJVH69r0ex=w640-h384" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>I recently came across a <a href="https://medium.com/business-insider/inside-the-community-dedicated-to-being-overemployed-92ee0987ddc1" target="_blank">post</a> that highlights a disturbing trend. Some white-collar workers are working from home and holding down two full-time jobs without explicit consent from their employers. </p><p>As it turns out, I know someone who has had first-hand experience of this unethical practice with not one but two colleagues in recent weeks. In other words, it is real.</p><p>Some unscrupulous defenders of this practice have suggested that this is a practice to be admired. They say that if you hire someone to build a shed at $100/hr for 20 hours ($2,000) and they complete it in 10 hours, you still owe them $2,000. </p><p>That may be true if you're being paid by the job. But a full-time job is precisely not that. When you're done with your assigned tasks, you're expected to look around and see how you can make yourself useful by mentoring and helping colleagues, picking up stories from the backlog, refactoring your own code, resolving technical debt, getting to know your team members, etc. </p><p>Not unrelated to this travesty is the concept of a "side-hustle" that also tends to be lionized by many. In my mind, this is also squarely in the gray zone. If you're spending your evenings and weekends engaged in real estate ventures (for example), it is entirely likely that you return to work not refreshed but exhausted. </p><p>Undoubtedly, those of us who are working not only a full day but occasionally more than that at our only job feel as if we are compensating for those who aren't. So, either we all get to game the system openly or none of us do. </p><p>And this goes to the heart of why employers often make such a big deal about wanting employees to work from the office, and always be seen to be online, and so on. Those of us who are breaking this trust are responsible for employers pushing for everyone to feel like inmates or return to the office as soon as the Covid pandemic shows signs of subsiding.</p><p>This is despite the fact that those of us who are not gaming the system are actually more productive working from home. In the end, it seems like a lose-lose proposition for employers and those of us who want to operate ethically.</p><p>In summation, I have come up with this checklist of <b>Signs that your co-worker might be working two full-times jobs and taking you for a dummy</b>. </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Avoids being on video</li><li>Takes a long time to unmute</li><li>Often asks you to repeat the question</li><li>Joins calls on his/her phone rather than computer</li><li>Often claims to have problems with the internet (e.g. if simultaneously asked to speak on meetings for both employers)</li><li>Misses meetings and prefers to message instead</li><li>Has a missing or out of date LinkedIn profile</li><li>Demonstrates poor productivity</li><li>Avoids taking initiatives</li><li>Never volunteers to look into something that needs doing</li><li>Seems to do the bare minimum</li><li>Offers to work unconventional hours</li><li>Isn't explicitly asking for work when s/he is idle (e.g. if all of his/her stories are done)</li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-25834940908750989062021-12-31T06:46:00.001-05:002021-12-31T06:51:49.514-05:00Creating a Custom Syntax in Sublime<p>As I wrote in a previous <a href="http://puneetlamba.blogspot.com/2018/03/are-you-still-using-handwritten-notes.html" target="_blank">post</a>, about five years ago I completely transitioned from handwritten notes to digital notes. I ended up choosing Sublime (aka Sublime Text 3) as my text editor and have stuck with it. </p><p>The file structure I use for notes is as follows:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A daily file named mmddyy.txt for all notes related to that day (mostly work-related, but can also include personal stuff like a random conversation with a school teacher that has no other home)</li><li>Topical files for notes relating to specific technologies, e.g. python-notes.txt</li><li>Topical files for notes relating to other topics, e.g. chess-notes.txt</li></ul><div>Although the topical files don't need to be searched via the file system, the daily notes often need to be searched in a way that can search across all files to, for example, find a note regarding a specific client conversation that happened sometime in the year 2020.</div><div><br /></div><div>Using a plain text format for these notes not only removes any dependence on a proprietary product, e.g. Evernote, but also makes the files searchable via the filesystem using a combination of the find, grep, and awk commands. In most cases, I am very quickly able to find what I am looking for.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I save all these files in a folder structure linked to Dropbox. So, they are available in the cloud from any device and from anywhere I go (thereby addressing a big part of the value proposition of tools like Evernote).</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, coming to the topic of this post, I created a custom syntax for text files to make my notes more easily consumable. Nothing major, but as the following screenshot demonstrates, I have the ability to create orange color headers, yellow quoted strings, and pink keywords. Additionally, numbers show up in green.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdyy5YDC0fkRAk0j8O50vuw7CSwQeBfO7SRCFMjwXx0oukjCLhLroWSPPfJArnC0cKeb4MWokZN8-aS9UURlHpgqKonDGfC1wTyY9gvLb0R-FAevvKFRqP7Ggb6A8DwDNEJP45fLMxSCI/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1690" data-original-width="1606" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdyy5YDC0fkRAk0j8O50vuw7CSwQeBfO7SRCFMjwXx0oukjCLhLroWSPPfJArnC0cKeb4MWokZN8-aS9UURlHpgqKonDGfC1wTyY9gvLb0R-FAevvKFRqP7Ggb6A8DwDNEJP45fLMxSCI/w608-h640/Screen+Shot+2021-12-30+at+11.09.30+AM.png" width="608" /></a></div><br />Creating a custom syntax is facilitated by the PackageDev package in Sublime. It starts you off with a template for a new syntax file, which you can then customize to your needs. The custom syntax file I used to create the above syntax highlighting is shown below.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdk0nbVQmJfzFGCvvLm-5wGa9Vg6R9t7ESaaRP_AcdFTf9rPZw1LnpDVtWpiT7XdnpEPrOYddYqftyEkC3QDdDRnDXUEHFr3GLA4WRUOfMe55Ii1F3LjKepSIui62Wb43_ywWorB-CFK4/"><img alt="" data-original-height="1726" data-original-width="1294" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdk0nbVQmJfzFGCvvLm-5wGa9Vg6R9t7ESaaRP_AcdFTf9rPZw1LnpDVtWpiT7XdnpEPrOYddYqftyEkC3QDdDRnDXUEHFr3GLA4WRUOfMe55Ii1F3LjKepSIui62Wb43_ywWorB-CFK4/w480-h640/Screen+Shot+2021-12-30+at+11.14.31+AM.png" width="480" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Since I don't want to lose all of my customizations to Sublime in case my Mac ever dies, I actually keep the master copies of the settings, syntaxes, themes, etc. in Dropbox and then create symbolic links to them in the Sublime folder where Sublime expects them to be. The only downside of this approach is that every time I make a change to the master file, I have to delete and recreate the symbolic link in order for Sublime to see the change. It's a small price to pay for having my customizations under source control.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>After I made these changes, I noticed that Sublime's built-in spell checker, which highlights misspellings with red squiggly lines was no longer working once my custom syntax highlighting kicked in. To fix that, I had to take my custom syntax scope name (source.lamba) and add it to the front of the "spelling_selector" setting in Sublime > Preferences > Settings, as shown below (again, remember, that I edited my copy under source control and then deleted and recreated the symbolic link under /Users/lamba/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 3/Packages/Preferences.sublime-settings), which is where Sublime keeps these settings.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkOGqEvZe9oE3LCKs2Zs8hr8fartBIVqtA36ucMrsjtTchoWKC39z3lo8-YjW1oHLdGnnhJvXL3p1_FYhOhtSMcxOO_vS-Yi4ClVUU2MUo597lfYlmTJrggnYsEqMICeGFxCkemaCWPI/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1722" data-original-width="3004" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkOGqEvZe9oE3LCKs2Zs8hr8fartBIVqtA36ucMrsjtTchoWKC39z3lo8-YjW1oHLdGnnhJvXL3p1_FYhOhtSMcxOO_vS-Yi4ClVUU2MUo597lfYlmTJrggnYsEqMICeGFxCkemaCWPI/w640-h366/Screen+Shot+2021-12-30+at+9.29.08+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Note that I said I added my custom scope (source.lamba) to the front of the setting. As you start to type into that setting, Sublime will usefully prompt you with the default values. After typing in your custom setting (in my case "source.lamba, "), select the default values you're prompted with so that they are also added to the setting as shown above. That will ensure that spell checking works with your custom syntax and also continues to work in all other default scenarios.</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy typing!</div><p></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-4937496453597404152021-11-30T21:33:00.002-05:002021-11-30T21:33:14.528-05:00The Gambler In Me<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd71nISLRJfZRL4pGMci1OXW6irfFvtLBg1_-TiN9Lq0WQyMBFrbnVcdpzE-gcksh_AFPsprns1l5gVvPb5oKCt5dKrs3aZOow-pxlIjFyFvkkPZ6SxZWBW9sVjwT9Rz1iZuJjs20X16Y/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="220" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd71nISLRJfZRL4pGMci1OXW6irfFvtLBg1_-TiN9Lq0WQyMBFrbnVcdpzE-gcksh_AFPsprns1l5gVvPb5oKCt5dKrs3aZOow-pxlIjFyFvkkPZ6SxZWBW9sVjwT9Rz1iZuJjs20X16Y/w480-h640/image.png" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><p>I have been reading the Enron book over the last few weeks as part of my currently active 10-15 book rotation. Those who know the Enron story know that Jeff Skilling was an incorrigible gambler starting at a very young age. As I read about Jeff Skilling's gamble to apply for business school only to Harvard and nowhere else, I was suddenly reminded of an event from my own life history that I had stored somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain and nearly forgotten about.</p><p>I vehemently don't think of myself as a gambler. Whenever I've found myself in front of a slot machine at an arcade or in Vegas or any game of mere chance, I've had zero urge to take part. I have not once in my life played the lottery. I don't believe in astrology, tarot cards, luck, and other similar phenomena that reward something other than one's own effort. So, it came as bit of a shock to be reminded, as I was reading about Skilling, of my own very bold gamble in grade 12 (senior year of high school). </p><p>Having put all my eggs in one basket, I had completely ignored the Board-administered standardized final exams for grade 12. Most universities use the results of these exams to determine whom to offer admission. (India does not use results from the SAT exams.) </p><p>There's a small elite set of engineering universities, however, that completely ignore the Board exam results and rely exclusively on the results of a highly competitive and challenging nationally administered entrance exam. Whereas the Board exams tend to reward memorization and recall, the IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) exams reward a deep understanding of difficult concepts in math, physics, and chemistry and the ability to apply these concepts to new problem scenarios (often involving some level of creative thinking).</p><p>The IITs have only a 2% admission rate and are therefore significantly tougher to get into than Harvard. It wasn't just that I had the self-confidence in my abilities, which I supposed I did. But it was also an exercise in choosing my battles. I figured that if I tried to do well in the Board exams as well as the IIT exams, that would reduce my chances of doing well in either one. Getting into anything less than the IITs was not worth the effort. (My plan B was always to move to Canada, my country of birth, and find a good university in Canada. So, that made my risk even more calculated. Although at the time I had no concrete plan in place to move to Canada and no money to fund the idea.)</p><p>As it turned out, I was only interested in proving that I could get in. I wasn't so much interested in putting in the four years of grueling work to learn about electrical engineering topics like transformers and metallurgy that I felt were not going to be relevant to my planned career in software engineering. </p><p>Therefore, I proceeded to have a lot of extra-curricular fun on campus at IIT Roorkee for a year and then skipped town and left for Canada. Once in Canada, I enrolled in a computer science program, which I considered to be much more worth the effort since I would be learning something I would actually use during my career. And, gladly, I've been proven right about this one decision (but have been wrong about many others).</p><p>Remembering this story made me realize that we all take calculated risks at many stages in life. It's just that we don't see them as risks because each of us has a certain appetite and justification for the risk and as long as we're operating within that justified framework we don't perceive it as a risk (except, perhaps, in hindsight).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-85810846951210036962021-08-20T05:16:00.002-04:002021-08-20T06:28:52.633-04:00Afghanistan Post-Mortem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ja5Q75hf6QI" width="320" youtube-src-id="Ja5Q75hf6QI"></iframe></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>This incredibly eye-opening documentary shot at a trouble spot called Sangin explains why it was paramount for the US to get out. </li><li>And why the outcome we're seeing today was inevitable and fully expected by anyone familiar with the situation on the ground. </li><li>And why the Taliban might actually be the good guys in this story. </li><li>The Afghan forces (ANA - Afghan national army and ANP Afghan national police) are actually just another name for the northern alliance of yore. </li><li>They're lazy, corrupt, often on weed or heroin, with no desire to learn, work hard, or follow international norms like the geneva convention. </li><li>Pedophilia and child sexual abuse is a way of life and passed on from generation to generation; "I abuse because I was abused"</li><li>The Taliban aren't angels, of course, but relatively speaking, they are more disciplined and have a greater sense of unity and purpose and sense of nation</li><li>The US forces mostly lie to their superiors and tell them what they want to hear, i.e. that success is being achieved</li><li>In the end, the lesson is the same as always. the US must learn to let nations arrive at their own organic equilibriums, even if they represent uncomfortable results from the US pov. Or, for those familiar with Star Trek, the Prime Directive!</li></ul><p></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-86437520475293100632021-08-05T16:22:00.004-04:002021-08-06T12:59:26.533-04:00Does India Need More Medals?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHxrfXHM2DNWizhU_Log4JsNijPbVQE97qZpmx9JP2xZhZW8xgt1smEFa_v7-yt4wKq3t8opDRuiseAvuEVe9RNd_vFBzeG3dBa7vkjxxu6ffWcs7eeyHpck6Q4_8zgpRlfYI3fruCP3A/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="2048" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHxrfXHM2DNWizhU_Log4JsNijPbVQE97qZpmx9JP2xZhZW8xgt1smEFa_v7-yt4wKq3t8opDRuiseAvuEVe9RNd_vFBzeG3dBa7vkjxxu6ffWcs7eeyHpck6Q4_8zgpRlfYI3fruCP3A/" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Yesterday India won a bronze medal by defeating Germany 5-4 in an exhilarating men's field hockey game at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. (The 2020 Olympics were delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) It was a welcome end to the drought since India's last medal in men's hockey at the 1980 Moscow Olympics 41 years ago. </p><p>Many in India are fond of asking, why doesn't India win more often? Is India not competitive enough? Do Indians lack athleticism? Does India not spend enough on sports? </p><p>These questions got me thinking about a book I've been reading called Range by David Epstein. The book talks about the downsides of early and deep specialization and the benefits of generalization. I played several sports growing up. Partly because I grew up on a university campus where my father was a professor of engineering. The IIT Delhi campus has excellent facilities for almost every imaginable sport. And I played them all. I took a special liking to a few sports like tennis, basketball, table tennis, cricket, squash, and judo. But as you can see, that's still a long list. That's also an absence of specialization. </p><p>I can't remember where I read that sports injuries are most often caused by repeated stress on the same joints and muscles. This is the kind of stress caused by playing the same sport year after year, especially likely if you're receiving specialized coaching and playing competitively. With that in mind, I've followed a practice of rotating my involvement in sports so that I don't play any single sport with any sort of exclusive focus. I play for fun. </p><p>As evidenced by the examples of Simone Biles and Novak Djokovic at these Olympics, the hyper-competitive lifestyle also takes a huge mental toll. The question, therefore, is this -- do competitive societies require their citizens to pay a price in terms of their long-term physical and mental wellbeing? If so, is that price worthwhile? The long lists of PTSD and suicide cases in the US military would suggest that, at least in the geopolitical space, US citizens do indeed pay a very heavy price for the nation's need to be seen as a global power. I suggest the US pays a similar, less visible price in other areas including competitive sports. Other less transparent societies like China and Russia may do a better job of hiding the cost of their deep need to be competitive and win more medals on the world stage, but a price is paid nevertheless. </p><p>Is India, then, better off not being competitive and saving its citizens the burden of physical and mental ailments that hound them for the rest of their lives? My current thinking is that that may very well be the case. India doesn't need to subscribe to the "loser" moniker. The country is doing just fine and doesn't need to chase after more medals or conquer more nations or win more wars. </p><p>On the other hand, there's the argument that Indians are missing a sense of pride, discipline, and deep desire to win. The mentality that allows them to break queues, throw trash on the street, and engage in other forms of corruption is the same mindset that allowed the Mughals and the British to rule India for centuries. </p><p>There's also the question of national priorities and whether sports is the right place for the country to be investing when a large part of the country still doesn't have the electricity needed to watch the Olympics on television. For the US, China, and Russia to be spending what they do on their sports programs just for the sake of pride and bragging rights when a tenth of the population in the US, for example, has no healthcare coverage is a travesty.</p><p>The correct number of medals for a proud nation with the right priorities to win is somewhere between what India usually wins and what countries like the US, China, and Russia typically go home with. </p><p>Congratulations to the team, the coach Graham Reid, the goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, the captain Manpreet Singh, and the goalscorers Simranjeet Singh (twice), Hardik Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, and Rupinder Pal Singh. That thrill of victory might be potent enough to last us another 40 years!</p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-11020397378856251172021-07-07T07:49:00.007-04:002021-07-07T07:49:57.302-04:00A fresh take on homemade cookies<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8xLedP5ROZcIHr310QRn5DKcC0aC-ov1fcIiALCjN_UjrCMhrlCuIudExE2jCMh7NS41Y2_6_APv-XNSQW50AUGGvvul7ox3NN77rRAwIcAFsUcMpJzyrDTVIw3tizEryEHarKZAmEwU/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8xLedP5ROZcIHr310QRn5DKcC0aC-ov1fcIiALCjN_UjrCMhrlCuIudExE2jCMh7NS41Y2_6_APv-XNSQW50AUGGvvul7ox3NN77rRAwIcAFsUcMpJzyrDTVIw3tizEryEHarKZAmEwU/w640-h640/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />One of my favorite childhood memories is about the "homemade" biscuits we used to enjoy. Mom would deposit raw materials (flour, butter, sugar) at a bakery in Hauz Khas (New Delhi) and a few hours later pick up a 16-liter tin can full of delicious "atte wali Punjabi cookies".<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQlmFubjdUyPw75nO94u0dTZIuROnn5Kb8MpkwQfRgCYurN0uqLPVGhjtzHVqcOWiYyyNm6xjgEPxnmDD2Awq0eZvrOTmRPYgelLtTuO4jJkrsaw4Uc84xe-JaWAafjd7IykDlvEZIkE/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="416" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQlmFubjdUyPw75nO94u0dTZIuROnn5Kb8MpkwQfRgCYurN0uqLPVGhjtzHVqcOWiYyyNm6xjgEPxnmDD2Awq0eZvrOTmRPYgelLtTuO4jJkrsaw4Uc84xe-JaWAafjd7IykDlvEZIkE/w640-h492/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />I was far from an ideal son. I probably deserve three lashes for every time my mom's heart stopped because she went into the tin to grab some biscuits for guests and found only crumbs! My siblings and I (mostly me) finished them up within days of arrival. Our misbehavior was made worse by the fact that "sardar ki dukaan" (and Gupta's paan) was just around the corner and we could make a quick end run while mom tried to somehow keep the tea from getting cold. God bless her soul. <p></p><p><br /></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-2363893870336888062021-06-30T21:55:00.008-04:002021-07-19T09:27:30.341-04:00My report on Ivermectin et al<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHZGSgWawy6Det27Yq9V0QeEEEzHicbAkC69tzdGIgWQDgYhDNUOX359L6Q3_8enak1Dzf6qcGqzoP5ctCxzJrfIJV_suTtf8JJDiwLu_XmocDhRq9-jhN3j8DjV2qFH2nbzBG1er9M0/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieHZGSgWawy6Det27Yq9V0QeEEEzHicbAkC69tzdGIgWQDgYhDNUOX359L6Q3_8enak1Dzf6qcGqzoP5ctCxzJrfIJV_suTtf8JJDiwLu_XmocDhRq9-jhN3j8DjV2qFH2nbzBG1er9M0/w640-h358/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />I recently watched a <a href=" https://www.bitchute.com/video/qHjNQIynVb5O/">podcast</a> with Pierre Kory and Bret Weinstein extolling the virtues of Ivermectin as prophylactic and treatment for COVID-19.<p></p><p>Here are some of the key takeaways from the almost 3-hour long podcast. These are rough notes, but I am publishing them as is rather than wait to clean them up in the interest of time, given the urgency of controlling the COVID pandemic worldwide. </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>cell called a macrophage, which is part of the immune response, amoeba-like cell that serves as a scavenger/garbage collector, that attacks the lungs</li><li>by then the virus is no longer multiplying significantly </li><li>perhaps it is the debris left behind by the virus, the RNA from the dead virus that triggers the out of proportion immune response </li><li>moving away from house calls has taken away doctors' ability to detect patterns, e.g. a disease spreading in one part of town </li><li>establishment kept harping on evidence-based therapy, everything had to go through a trial, but what about experience-based therapy?</li><li>that's what allowed docs like Kory to come up with the regiment of cortico-steroids and blood-thinners, which has now become the standard of care </li><li>docs were prevented from thinking creatively, forced to follow a rigid protocol - intellectual authoritarianism </li><li>ivermectin was originally used starting 40 years ago to manage parasitic diseases and has been a huge boon to medicine, almost on the level of penicillin </li><li>later, ivermectin started showing antiviral properties against zika, etc. </li><li>other anti-viral treatments - melatonin, zinc, vitamin d </li><li>"no matter how cynical you get, you're still being naive" </li><li>randomized trials v observation trials (looking back at who got treatment and who didn't to draw conclusions)</li><li>meta-analyses v big trials </li><li>the longer we take to eradicate covid, the greater the chance that it mutates into something you can never eradicate, like the seasonal flu </li><li>there's no deep pocket lobbyists for ivermectin in the halls of the nih advocating for it because its patents have long expired and there's no money to be made from it </li><li>not so for remdesivir, which is still under patent, but whose track record for covid is nil when compared to ivermectin</li><li>the vaccines were approved despite the risks they carry (we don't know what we don't know) without emergency authorization if there's a safe and effective treatment available, e.g. ivermectin</li><li>so ivermectin threatens all other money-making options, e.g. remdesivir, vaccines</li><li>off label - when you use an fda approved drug for a purpose it was not intended for or approved for - docs who do this risk punishment, e.g. losing their license, if something goes wrong </li><li>eua - emergency use authorization</li><li>dosage for ivermectin for chronic prevention is once weekly 0.2-0.4 mg per kg of the person's weight? </li><li>ivermectin is safe does not have side-effects to a large extent </li></ul><div>After all of this research, I decided to contact one of the docs listed on the FLCCC website and requested a prescription. The request for a prescription cost me over $100. And then Walgreens wanted $150 to fill the prescription, which I have not yet actioned because I am fully vaccinated and unsure of the value of Ivermectin at this point. </div><div><br /></div><div>Subsequently, I watched Dr Mobeen Syed <a href=" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHIYXqMXZOU">interview</a> Steve Kirsch, an MIT graduate in EE&CS and serial entrepreneur (e.g. the optical mouse). Here are my raw notes from that interview.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>the interview mostly concentrates on fluvoxamine as a prophylactic for covid</li><li>large phase 3 trial </li><li>once the viral disease reaches an inflammatory stage, replication has already happened, and it's too late for an anti-viral </li><li>that's where fluvoxamine is able to help by activating the sigma 1 receptor more effectively than all other ssri's (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor)</li><li>fluvoxamine is designed to pass through the blood-brain barrier and is therefore able to relieve inflammatory symptoms in the brain as well </li><li>ivermectin doesn't have this capability, so fluvoxamine is able address symptoms like brain fog </li><li>fluvoxamine is generally used for ocd and psychiatric disorders </li><li>but has to be administered early in the disease, a difference of 1 day can make a huge difference </li><li>the hydroxychloroquine study published in the lancet and used by who to justify their anti-hydroxychloroquine stance was later disproved but the public perception remained against hydroxychloroquine</li><li>been around for 40 years without adverse side-effects like fatality </li><li>if i see a man drowning and have a non-us-coast-guard certified life vest, should i throw it to the drowning man or look for a certified vest?</li><li>regulatory capture - the regulatory bodies are captured by the pharma companies </li><li>mobeen syed's 54 videos deleted from youtube</li><li>robert malone's linkedin profile deleted </li><li>steve kirsch's sendgrid email account deleted </li><li>ivermectin doesn't kill even if you get the dose wrong, which is not the case for hydroxychloroquine</li><li>alternates for fluvoxamine (in case your dr won't prescribe) include prozac (Fluoxetine) </li><li>dose - 50mg twice a day </li><li>ivermectin banned in canada </li><li>individual pharmacists can refuse to fill a prescription even if the store or chain/brand has no policy against filling the prescription</li><li>in those cases just try a different store in the same chain </li><li>side effects - 300mg/day is the max, so at 50mg the side-effects are minimal - upset stomach 1-2%, nervousness (avoid coffee), </li><li>don't use steroids; use of steroids in india is a mistake because they harm your body's ability to fight the virus </li></ul><div>As a continuation of my ivermectin story, even though I am fully vaccinated (two shots of Pfizer), as is my entire immediate family, I thought it made sense to keep ivermectin on hand to battle covid in a scenario where there's a break-through strain (e.g. the delta variant) that infects a family member. </div><div><br /></div><div>I paid $100 to get an ivermectin prescription from the <a href="https://covid19criticalcare.com/">FLCCC</a>-affiliated Dr Syed Haider (mentioned above). It was a prescription for 36 pills, 3 mg each. </div></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBntilfCsyS1P9R-osPo0yVXS_bSujDb0HJTIgxk26iKUvauXppFFb_SynkPeuCF3h2hoJrB5yF4nj1zimTfFFa63X_CeLBz6a1IHz_JdMMgbzwZK9_L2V_EXR7y2ldjj1g0kago_v3Q/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1514" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBntilfCsyS1P9R-osPo0yVXS_bSujDb0HJTIgxk26iKUvauXppFFb_SynkPeuCF3h2hoJrB5yF4nj1zimTfFFa63X_CeLBz6a1IHz_JdMMgbzwZK9_L2V_EXR7y2ldjj1g0kago_v3Q/w640-h238/ivermectin2.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>CVS said the retail cost was $400. My BCBS insurance brought it down to $300. I tried GoodRx (the regular free coupon, not the paid gold plan) and that didn't make a dent in the price. </div><div><br /></div><div>Walgreens said the retail cost was $250 and my BCBS insurance brought it down to $150. GoodRx brought it down to $60. So that's about 50 cents/mg ($60 for 36 pills times 3 mg per pill = 108 mg). </div><div><br /></div><div>For comparison, my friend in India pays $1 for 3 tablets, 12 mg each at a private pharmacy. That's about 3 cents/mg. And if he's able to find availability at a government pharmacy, the cost is $1.50 for 50 tablets, 12 mg each. That's 0.25 cent/mg. 200 times cheaper than the cheapest price I could find in the US. The expiry date is a year and a half from today, but I doubt I'm going to worry about that. </div><div><br /></div><div>At the cost of stating the obvious, notice the price gouging in the US? Why is there no agreement even on the retail price across pharmacies? How can I compare prices across pharmacies without transferring my prescription back and forth, which takes hours per transfer at a minimum? GoodRx tries to provide price comparisons across pharmacies, but I found them to be invalid (see below). </div><div><br /></div><div>Another point worth mentioning, neither of the two pharmacies had ivermectin in stock. Either it's too popular or not popular enough or being discouraged. Take your pick. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7_Gq3k50YL6UdQ0A_wIHfuNmeYgOkEzZ4P5oQekNlkxkMgGliPFZtPqJCxFIwY6CzACuls70ADt5nijlwi70wO0YASTwLKiINZvB5vVGlZhARohJlIo0an13m8V4oKOegolwNQR-vr0/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2436" data-original-width="1125" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7_Gq3k50YL6UdQ0A_wIHfuNmeYgOkEzZ4P5oQekNlkxkMgGliPFZtPqJCxFIwY6CzACuls70ADt5nijlwi70wO0YASTwLKiINZvB5vVGlZhARohJlIo0an13m8V4oKOegolwNQR-vr0/w296-h640/IMG_6129.jpeg" width="296" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>In the spirit of trying to remain unbiased, I must share the following. For context, the Elgazzar study formed the backbone of many subsequent studies claiming the efficacy of ivermectin as a prophylactic and cure for covid. And I just discovered this very damning <a href="https://grftr.news/why-was-a-major-study-on-ivermectin-for-covid-19-just-retracted/">critique</a> of the Elgazzar study that brings us all the way back to the drawing board. Glad I got those vaccination shots!</div></div><div><br /></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-55268836275883155232021-06-22T12:32:00.009-04:002021-10-01T09:33:41.445-04:00Formative books of my early education<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyEiUBwOBvow09SzHp4fCB0KDMhTx9FWF5YgbbG57AeqZ1sKSbqKFFBeGcgCJgnY3pmRFtyPZKF8LdGptKaurJ-ipjKDfFu3xfM-y74ZSGnPBCaAJgJHDAMBmbSA_auSGTTOCrQD55PPE/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="375" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyEiUBwOBvow09SzHp4fCB0KDMhTx9FWF5YgbbG57AeqZ1sKSbqKFFBeGcgCJgnY3pmRFtyPZKF8LdGptKaurJ-ipjKDfFu3xfM-y74ZSGnPBCaAJgJHDAMBmbSA_auSGTTOCrQD55PPE/w480-h640/image.png" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><p>Growing up in India, the most important exams for an engineering school aspirant were the entrance exams for engineering schools, like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). These exams were unlike the grade 10 and grade 12 "board" exams because they tested deep understanding and creative thinking, as opposed to rote learning. Here's a list of books that I tried to master from cover to cover in my own time (outside of school) in order to prepare for these exams. That's a huge amount of dedication relative to what kids in North America might put in, for example, for SAT exam preparation.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Grammar by Wren & Martin</li><li>Trigonometry by SI Loney</li><li>Physics by Resnick and Halliday</li><li>Inorganic Chemistry by Lee</li><li>Algebra by Hall & Knight</li></ul><div>There were probably more. But the above titles are seared into my brain because of the amount of time I spent reading and learning from them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since we're on the topic of books, perhaps I should also mention some of the non-academic books I read during my youth that made an impression on me.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hRz7QGUe-RnxZjI7sAmEg1Qv_0mbCpPuwL_QPiDk6QVxpsKMlJOE2NdVazUQjo4oL35ETwN0F_kbbBukVlZfei0sIyj8rfBYSBZILTRODGA2vJZ6mPJzkVmxLxPuS5FIdgDkPGLDg7w/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="300" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hRz7QGUe-RnxZjI7sAmEg1Qv_0mbCpPuwL_QPiDk6QVxpsKMlJOE2NdVazUQjo4oL35ETwN0F_kbbBukVlZfei0sIyj8rfBYSBZILTRODGA2vJZ6mPJzkVmxLxPuS5FIdgDkPGLDg7w/w413-h640/image.png" width="413" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Opus 100 by Isaac Asimov</li><li>Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand</li><li>The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth</li><li>Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller</li><li>The Way Things Work: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology (1967)</li><li>Siddhartha by Herman Hesse</li><li>J Krishnamurti</li><li>IEEE Spectrum</li></ul></div><p></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-51419723375111093532021-06-18T13:41:00.006-04:002022-12-26T19:09:45.085-05:00Ode to Valrhona Gianduja<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkDO2BkC4FkhUdTaNAgnf3Xdj00geu10f-K3lWZTjARvShEGR6mvIdo6xLJnfzeqR0MAI7ckci4W49g1UCeph8tmgiD5rIBRWpnMUdp6UDFqJ83uuSpRKgmENjUmtfQVot9d3Aj4dMek/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="895" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkDO2BkC4FkhUdTaNAgnf3Xdj00geu10f-K3lWZTjARvShEGR6mvIdo6xLJnfzeqR0MAI7ckci4W49g1UCeph8tmgiD5rIBRWpnMUdp6UDFqJ83uuSpRKgmENjUmtfQVot9d3Aj4dMek/w637-h640/valrhona-baking-bars.png" width="637" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>This is my absolute favorite chocolate because of its unique texture, taste, and quality.</p><p>I used to find it easily at the Whole Foods location in Bedford, MA. Individual bars are about 9''x2"x0.5" and wrapped in cling wrap. Around $10 each. Note that this is the milk chocolate version, not the dark chocolate version, which also exists. </p><p>Lately, they've been hard to find at the Nashua location. It's usually in the baking section along with other baking chocolates. But since it is considered a specialty item it is placed at the discretion of the specialty foods department that manages the specialty cheeses near the deli in the back. On one occasion, the Nashua location had the bars in the wicker basket in the back near the deli. They said they didn’t have any shelf space for it. Probably because of all the Easter-related displays. On another occasion, I found them placed near the cash registers at the front of the store.</p><p>Have to be careful not to get the Jivera chocolate, which is also a Valrhona milk chocolate baking bar and looks identical to Gianduja, but Gianduja (pictured above) is slightly darker and more malleable. You can easily dent it like modeling clay by pressing on it. And you can break off a small piece with your hand with minimal effort.</p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-67874297809571068482021-05-17T11:30:00.007-04:002021-05-18T16:47:31.068-04:00A Covid-19 Infection Timeline<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ffqYYWY06rs" width="320" youtube-src-id="ffqYYWY06rs"></iframe></div><p>What do you do when despite all public health measures (vaccination, masking, social distancing, hand washing) you end up getting infected by Covid-19? </p><p>This video was recently brought to my attention by some friends. After watching it I realized that it is perhaps one of the more useful videos I have seen to date. The video explains the timeline of the Covid infection, danger signs to watch for, and treatments to take (based on consultation with a physician). </p><p>After discussing with some of my doctor friends, I offered to create the following timeline graphic to accompany this video. It is still evolving and I will update it here on this blog page as I continue to receive feedback. Your feedback as a reader is also most welcome. I hope you find this useful.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7_S6wf5DtJcO4sr5CHZKpCwe2xwSzaeOxd8jzxxSTjVs_60IL0GUKcEG2VWwkLh_fdviwoNxJW6HrG4Z2Xi2163ykqvSVLc_NQvnThKSCQuIaqT0H0i6ezov1914G_n2YSZVxPfAaIU/"><img alt="" data-original-height="1205" data-original-width="2048" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO7_S6wf5DtJcO4sr5CHZKpCwe2xwSzaeOxd8jzxxSTjVs_60IL0GUKcEG2VWwkLh_fdviwoNxJW6HrG4Z2Xi2163ykqvSVLc_NQvnThKSCQuIaqT0H0i6ezov1914G_n2YSZVxPfAaIU/w640-h377/covid-19-timeline.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A high-resolution version of this graphic is available <a href="http://inventica.com/covid-19-timeline.png" target="_blank">here</a>.</div><p></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-1237852649486648602021-04-08T16:16:00.004-04:002021-04-08T16:21:25.222-04:00Dark Mode Might Leave You In The Dark!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_a-V-4xveOffD8h3-6Nj3KZAv1rpfXJDVNMlS4gBUacQJX2yCTAxziOepn5_Iijg9aNehOLGaDIBuEop5mWAZBHDsAAZNp-P6I18KVoNBP0dGb3rHlc8XORPuqdwYW8Wxg_rrWgitwM/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="1292" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN_a-V-4xveOffD8h3-6Nj3KZAv1rpfXJDVNMlS4gBUacQJX2yCTAxziOepn5_Iijg9aNehOLGaDIBuEop5mWAZBHDsAAZNp-P6I18KVoNBP0dGb3rHlc8XORPuqdwYW8Wxg_rrWgitwM/w640-h294/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>Moral of the story: If you're a developer, then don't use dark mode in Chrome. </p><p>I was using Chrome Dev Tools in dark mode and couldn't even see that there's a drop-down in the styles tab color picker widget that brings up the page color palette. I don't know whether Google runs accessibility tests on Dev Tools, but the color contrast is pretty much non-existent. </p><p>The page color palette is invaluable to validate compliance with the style guide or pick the right color for an A/B test and still be true to your branding guidelines. But you wouldn't even know it exists if you're using dark mode. Dark mode could literally leave you in the dark!</p><p>What I've concluded is that dark mode is only useful in apps that were designed to be dark-first, e.g. Discord or reddit. With light-first apps, dark mode isn't mature enough to compete with the years of UX effort that has gone into light mode. So, with light-first apps, I'm going back to light mode at least until 2022. </p><p>These are my 2c. I would like to hear your thoughts.</p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-85483037560166907792021-04-03T08:04:00.002-04:002021-04-03T08:04:33.895-04:00Losing the COVID Fight<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLHIHMplQgiPjGaT9hMSeJC1BkLCxGgkPhzui58bq6zFlEMaRuealSs2gsJH-raOOcLZ3LjIzdkwk7rbBkXiSOEWsuGm0q7C-rJIwLw8qszIqUnBzVQB2PJl1hUM0Ut4L6NJCjG3rg38/s2048/covid-vaccine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCLHIHMplQgiPjGaT9hMSeJC1BkLCxGgkPhzui58bq6zFlEMaRuealSs2gsJH-raOOcLZ3LjIzdkwk7rbBkXiSOEWsuGm0q7C-rJIwLw8qszIqUnBzVQB2PJl1hUM0Ut4L6NJCjG3rg38/w640-h360/covid-vaccine.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I asked my extended family members living in Australia how their covid vaccinations were coming along. Had they been vaccinated? Booked an appointment at least? They said they haven't paid much attention to it. </span></p></span><p></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I was surprised. At first, I thought they were being callous. Then I looked at the number of new cases on April 2, 2021. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Australia: 13, US: 68,844. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Enough said. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(And if you're curious, Canada: 2,686, India: 89,129, UK: 3,402.)</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">On a per-capita basis, America is the clear leader (or should we say loser?).</span></div></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-46329065654403270542021-04-02T21:42:00.003-04:002021-04-03T21:11:22.608-04:00My New Space on Quora<p>I was trying to figure out what subdomain name to choose for <a href="https://triumphant.quora.com/" target="_blank">my new space on Quora</a>, I tried "musings," of course, to go with the name of this blog. </p><p>"Taken," said Quora. </p><p>I tried a few others until the word "triumphant" came into my head. Does anyone really understand what causes certain words to jump into your consciousness when you're trying to think of a unique name for your website domain name or company name? </p><p>I tried it and to my surprise, it was not being used and the subdomain became mine.</p><p><b><a href="http://triumphant.quora.com">triumphant.quora.com</a></b></p><p>That's the address for how to get to my unique space (web page) on Quora.</p><p>Pretty damn neat.</p><p>It wasn't until later on when I picked up the book I had been reading that I came to understand why "triumphant" had been the word to pop into my cranium at that moment.</p><p>That book is "Range: Why Generalists Triumph In a Specialized World."</p><p>In the book, David Epstein lays down a compelling case for what I've always believed. I've marketed myself as a "technology generalist" on my LinkedIn profile for perhaps a decade or more. Occasionally I viewed that as a failure. Was I not dedicated enough to pick a technology and specialize in it? Was I too eager to blow with the wind and move from one technology to the next as fashion evolved in the world of hi-tech? Or was that the right thing to do? </p><p>When I received my computer science degree from the University of Windsor in 1993 and launched my career, the web was on the cusp of exploding. My degree program actually included COBOL as one of the courses. Mind you, the program also included courses on computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and discrete math. The point is that COBOL hadn't yet been completely ousted from CS degree curriculums at universities. No one knew where the web was going to take us. </p><p>Being agile and willing to switch focus from the entrenched technology of today to the technology of the future was probably a smart enough idea. But it was not the instinct of my parents' generation where one picked a field and a job and an employer and that was what went on your tombstone (so to speak). </p><p>The book "Range" argues that specialization, such as what Tiger Woods did by investing his entire childhood and life into one narrow skillset, rarely leads to overall success in life. Instead, a much more diverse set of skills is favored. Think of it as a multi-disciplinary approach to life. </p><p>With that in mind, I guided my daughter to take a course in C programming even though her major is biology and her curriculum actually recommended calculus more strongly. I felt vindicated when while reading through "Range" I came across the paragraph that talks about Jeannette Wing, a CS professor at Columbia University, and her philosophy of teaching students about "computational thinking" as a way to introduce multi-disciplinary elements into specialized degree programs. </p><p>In her words, "Computational thinking is using abstraction and decomposition when attacking a large complex task. It is choosing an appropriate representation for a problem."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi17Z1XYU1F87HCzUlBmZCXfPFf1qaK44wyXRoy-BE7BpTCwv7cm3jG4SxpmDwS6KptORN30o5TwU9U8wINBvXB5KKh1lqXb8aUC9I2iuuNlscZ6eyYe32NDAF4Dwl8JyGTSuLIT-APYQ/s1660/range.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1660" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi17Z1XYU1F87HCzUlBmZCXfPFf1qaK44wyXRoy-BE7BpTCwv7cm3jG4SxpmDwS6KptORN30o5TwU9U8wINBvXB5KKh1lqXb8aUC9I2iuuNlscZ6eyYe32NDAF4Dwl8JyGTSuLIT-APYQ/w640-h346/range.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Thanks for reading.</p><p>To read more about my activities on Quora, check out <a href="http://triumphant.quora.com">triumphant.quora.com</a>.</p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-75358064358710975052021-04-01T15:50:00.010-04:002021-04-05T20:57:15.298-04:00Join the new Adobe Experience Cloud Community on Discord!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7VWnw_mDCM1kgzHRVNHLK11JxVdgW-fHKTUdlw-yhwZ3EHr23yD_-s_VitKUGV61R8fYkN3nG9EaQkyNW0zVLlzphUUFPfI26HRgT3f5vRbYUPnQ2Gb3wtwgRvKDx5V5UifSGAV1IsU/s2002/discord.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="758" data-original-width="2002" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz7VWnw_mDCM1kgzHRVNHLK11JxVdgW-fHKTUdlw-yhwZ3EHr23yD_-s_VitKUGV61R8fYkN3nG9EaQkyNW0zVLlzphUUFPfI26HRgT3f5vRbYUPnQ2Gb3wtwgRvKDx5V5UifSGAV1IsU/w640-h242/discord.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://discord.gg/hKGEYaw94X" target="_blank">Click this link to join!</a></span></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-77641582120608603002021-02-03T17:38:00.005-05:002021-02-04T13:12:19.499-05:00Digital Marketing in a Cookie-less World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SLCkd-OJRDOyLrqgRd47Qj1hFrcE_1VgeyBPICMCi63fDEkUNJygmseRAHZvhM-BSSUMDTwl0Smpgri_lvKOWhS6SIYTMtFvnlGjSmPZYzVJzVv4t4X3LLo6hSsQnB0YSEJ8uAOT_7s/s1024/cookie-less.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SLCkd-OJRDOyLrqgRd47Qj1hFrcE_1VgeyBPICMCi63fDEkUNJygmseRAHZvhM-BSSUMDTwl0Smpgri_lvKOWhS6SIYTMtFvnlGjSmPZYzVJzVv4t4X3LLo6hSsQnB0YSEJ8uAOT_7s/w640-h426/cookie-less.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>As you may know, Apple, Google, and many others have finally responded to users' concerns regarding privacy and decided to move away from the use of third-party and first-party cookies. Until recently, cookies were often created and stored without the user's permission. The advent of GDPR and CCPA has resulted in most responsible sites now asking for permission to use cookies. Whereas cookies made implicit assumptions about a user's permission to store their preferences and sell to them based on their known buying habits, a cookie-less world requires that permission be granted more explicitly. Therefore companies need new strategies in order to respond to this new cookie-free environment.</p><p>The keys to succeeding with digital marketing in a cookie-less world will be comprised of <b>three pillars</b>: customer acquisition, customer engagement, and customer retention. <i>The common theme is, you guessed it, the customer. </i></p><p>Of course, anonymous/pseudonymous personalization will continue to pay off to a limited extent as before. However, in the absence of cookies letting us know that we're working with a known user, we must convert anonymous users into customers who register themselves on our sites, re-authenticate or log in every time they visit, and never cease being customers (i.e. never return to being anonymous users again).</p><p><b>1. Customer Acquisition</b></p><p>Customer acquisition strategies will help us convert anonymous users into known users who can be targeted more meaningfully. Once a user registers, typically by supplying their email address and choosing a password, they become a customer or at least a lead (i.e. a potential customer). Some users may not register right away instead choosing to use OAuth and one of their social media accounts (Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) as a proxy to tell us a little bit about who they are (name, email, etc.). </p><p>Once we know who they are, we can create an account for them and can start storing their user preferences, browsing habits, buying patterns, etc. in order to customize their user experience during each subsequent customer journey. This customization of a user's experience is also known as personalization or optimization.</p><p><b>2. Customer Engagement</b></p><p>When a user arrives at one of our properties (web site, mobile app, physical store, etc.), in the absence of cookies the only way for us to know that the user is a known user is for them to re-authenticate or log in. Customer engagement strategies are designed and intended to give known users incentives to re-authenticate (ideally with OAuth or similar one-click methods) frequently so that their personalized experiences can continue to be optimized based on an ever-growing set of omnichannel data points stitched together into a 360 view of the customer. </p><p>This 360 view of the customer is typically stored in what has come to be known as a Customer Data Platform (CDP) which can be built using Adobe's AEP Realtime-CDP and their Experience Data Model (XDM) or another equivalent system. A CDP collates all of the user's interactions on every channel (email, SMS, web, mobile, in-store, etc.) into one rich profile that is then used to inform the personalization decisions for every step in that user's current and subsequent user journies. </p><p>A major component of this pillar is AI/ML-driven strategies on digging through big data to find the most relevant insights and trends, including leveraging custom models, to help with 1:1 personalization, i.e. a unique user experience tailored individually to each and every user. </p><p><b>3. Customer Retention </b></p><div>The cookie-less strategy described above only works as long as the user remains a customer, i.e. a known user. If the user deletes their account or otherwise fails to re-authenticate, we've lost them as a customer or an engaged customer. That user is then back to being an unknown or anonymous user. </div><div><br /></div><div>We can target anonymous users based on publicly known data points such as their IP address which might indicate something about their geography or their last few interactions on the property during the current user session which might give us a thin sliver of insight into their interests. However, targeting an anonymous user is a far cry from our enhanced ability to personalize the experience for a known user (customer) about whom we have months or perhaps years or even decades of data on which to base our optimizations. </div><div><br /></div><div>That is how sites like Amazon know that even though you usually shop for books, you do occasionally also look for apparel and electronics. Therefore, when Amazon shows you a list of products you might be interested in, it uses complex data science algorithms to determine which books, apparel, electronics, or other products to show you to maximize your user experience and makes you feel like a highly valued customer. </div><div><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, system-ui, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-5393275798445762882021-01-30T18:27:00.025-05:002021-09-14T16:43:15.069-04:00The AI Revolution<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSjW4U31x0fhKs_1jB9uuaozOmBbFsAAJBwKU9uEkblwSyhVF3MP4JQzy6jWhW0DKebJ8INEf5YDzKTvfWQENP_IEpO3r0_fgMvmraDyn9NX3ZE9sOA_4NTvYfF_RvGN54k07kfDRd3WE/s600/ai-superpowers.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSjW4U31x0fhKs_1jB9uuaozOmBbFsAAJBwKU9uEkblwSyhVF3MP4JQzy6jWhW0DKebJ8INEf5YDzKTvfWQENP_IEpO3r0_fgMvmraDyn9NX3ZE9sOA_4NTvYfF_RvGN54k07kfDRd3WE/w426-h640/ai-superpowers.jpeg" width="426" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div><p><i>This is a review of Kai-Fu Lee's book <b>"AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order"</b>. </i></p><p>Lee's predictions are unsettling at first. Being an American citizen I found myself getting defensive about how rosy the picture Lee paints looks for China. But the author patiently and fairly elaborates on why his forecast is what it is. A few chapters in I found myself gradually coming around to seeing the validity of his arguments. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The China Advantage</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Apart from Lee's fondness for the word "juggernaut", the book is well-written and informative. Having worked in China, I have first-hand experience of how they've modernized themselves almost overnight to become the envy of the world. I have had the pleasure of traveling on their fast trains, e.g. the one connecting Shanghai to Hangzhou (a technology hub and home to the Chinese e-Commerce "juggernaut" Alibaba), and they are second to none. After visiting China, it is embarrassing to return to Boston and ride the T, as the Greater Boston transit system is known.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Perhaps not unlike other developing nations, many in China went straight from cash to mobile payments, entirely skipping over credit/debit cards. By contrast, mobile payments are barely used in the US because everyone is already accustomed to credit cards which offer fraud protection. Eventually, the concept of fraud protection and fees is sure to reach the world of mobile payments. Until then, the huge influx of mobile payment data is giving China a heavy advantage on the AI front since AI gorges itself on data just as a Hummer guzzles gas.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Small businesses didn't have POS systems and avoided credit card fees, but they do have smartphones. Mobile payment apps move money directly between accounts without charging fees in most cases. That China has no qualms regarding individual privacy relative to the first-world comes up rather late in Lee's discussion and isn't addressed head-on. The autocratic system that allows China to freely experiment with technologies like facial recognition without as much as a murmur from their one billion-plus population is more or less given a free pass by Lee. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I hate to be so blunt, but let us recall that China was the only country in the world that allowed the legal sale of ivory until they finally put an end to it in 2017, kicking and screaming some would say. Anything that makes money is generally allowed in China. Such a system cannot prosper in the long term. But before we adopt a holier than thou attitude towards China, we will do well to recall the history of the US and other so-called developed nations living in glass houses.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Big Government</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">As Lee points out, Obama was relentlessly criticized for one failed investment with Solyndra as part of his administration's attempt to support renewable energy projects. Chinese leaders don't have to worry about such political ramifications and can forge ahead with their plans unencumbered. That's what makes the moral argument against China's autocratic system such a non-starter. Perhaps that is why Lee never fully ventures there. </p><p style="text-align: left;">A clear distinction between the entrepreneurial environments in the US and China is the incessant reminder by Lee that as far as China is concerned government support is a critically necessary pillar. That is obviously not the case in the US. That dependence implies that even a minor instability in government could derail China's innovation train. Lee credits the government for enabling entrepreneurs but downplays the negative aspects of doing business in an autocratic environment wherein criticizing the government can have grave consequences, as seen recently with the disappearance of Jack Ma.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But it's not all bad. As Lee explains, the Chinese political system involves competition among lower ranks for promotion. And the way to get promoted is to succeed at implementing the goals set by the central government. In some ways, it sounds more promising than the US system where often whoever can spend the most money on campaigning is almost guaranteed a win. Naysayers will point to the folly of having the public sector intervening in the private sector. But in China that intervention seems to have turbo-charged the migration from a manufacturing economy to an internet economy</p><p style="text-align: left;">Lee explains that whereas the Silicon Valley model is to build an ecosystem wherein the startup provides an internet-based layer on top of existing brick and mortar logistics, the Chinese model is more heavyweight, or what I prefer to call full-stack, wherein they reduce outsourcing as much as possible in order to control costs. However, as a result, there's no core-competency and every startup is eventually going to either die or become a monopolistic behemoth. There's no scope for many competent companies to collaborate. </p><p style="text-align: left;">This is the reason why US companies like Google, Twitter, Yelp, Uber, Facebook, WhatsApp, and others haven't succeeded in getting a foothold in China. And although Alibaba, Tencent, WeChat, and others have failed even more miserably to make a dent in the US, they have spread their tentacles quite successfully in many other parts of the world, especially in Asia and Africa. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The real point of inflection will be when a Chinese startup makes inroads into the US market. So far, TikTok's success in the US has been a rare example of this. However, there are many more like TikTok waiting in the wings. Chinese researchers are devouring the latest AI research publications and are willing to adapt their apps to each market. In contrast, US app makers prefer to go with a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't always work in non-US markets.</p><p><b>Killing the Competition</b></p><p>The model in India has similarities with China in that a few companies like Tata, Birla, Mahindra, Reliance, etc. have been allowed to become too big. Airbnb's Chinese rival Tujia has gone beyond the Airbnb model and expanded into the rental properties business which blurs the line between a hotel and a room in a house. The charm of staying at a unique spot is lost as is the entire point of the business model. It's a sledgehammer approach to business that I find not very attractive. But I do thank Lee for laying it out so clearly for us to understand and appreciate. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Overall, Lee is far too bullish on China's prospects. If you thought work-life balance is poor in the US, it's much worse in China and is reminiscent of Japan during the post-World War II rebuilding years. We all know how the Japan story developed. And by that measure, China should not be counting its chickens just yet. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Epiphany</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Chapter 7, where Lee talks about his cancer diagnosis and the resulting epiphany regarding the meaning of life, felt a bit over the top and hyperbolic. I waited patiently for him to return to his core competency of AI. The blueprint for co-existence with AI that follows from Lee's cancer-induced epiphany is to let AI do the thinking and let humans do the loving, with the goal of developing a society with more empathy. Not an entirely easy pill to swallow. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Lee oversimplifies the value of human interaction and tries to boil it down to one word, i.e. love. But human interaction is about a lot more than just love. When I talk to friends and family I want them to be opinionated, challenge my viewpoint, teach me something new, make me laugh, gain my respect. I am not going to have such an interaction with a machine, at least not any time soon. Lee seems to be blind to all this.</p><p style="text-align: left;">However, I do agree with the author's vision that the material abundance that would result from harnessing AI/ML should be used to spread love, compassion, and a minimum standard of life for all inhabitants of this wonderful planet we call Earth. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Kai-Fu Lee splits the current job market into four quadrants and labels them as safe, human veneer, slow creep, and the danger zone. In the "human veneer" quadrant, for example, he suggests placing doctors with the title "compassionate caregivers", since their future job will be to compassionately deliver the diagnosis produced by AI. I don't know about you, but I'm not paying extra for the compassionate delivery if I can save a few bucks and just grab the printout and proceed to my next appointment. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The subsequent chapters (8 and 9) are just more of the same and no more discussion of AI per se. But chapters 1-6 make the book well worth reading. </p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-33872510844038196622020-12-24T13:57:00.007-05:002020-12-24T14:00:32.985-05:00Queen's Gambit Chess References<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihWhKM49m4_N6h0_k35EESYkSTnkruLbd5TG6T1kf0Kdizq-sQOfjgrLoor-PHtVwJWOrqQm4BK4oegMiZGTsyubp0pYclTo-VFYaKKCPAH5DwQlzaXzrCw_FNE4pnz5QMno9R34pP35o/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="385" data-original-width="260" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihWhKM49m4_N6h0_k35EESYkSTnkruLbd5TG6T1kf0Kdizq-sQOfjgrLoor-PHtVwJWOrqQm4BK4oegMiZGTsyubp0pYclTo-VFYaKKCPAH5DwQlzaXzrCw_FNE4pnz5QMno9R34pP35o/w432-h640/image.png" width="432" /></a></div><br />Queen's Gambit is the first series I've binge-watched end-to-end in a very long time. Not since Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown have I found a series worth investing so much time into. And it's fitting, considering that although I've been playing chess since my father taught me the game as a kid, and I've dabbled in it off and on ever since, it's the now 9-months long COVID-19 social isolation that pushed me into the next level of obsession with chess. <p></p><p>What follows is a list of all of the factual chess references I could keep track of while watching this riveting series. I have attempted to omit anything that appeared to me to be fictional references, of which there were many.</p><p>Episode 1: Openings</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Scholar's Mate</li><li>Sicilian defense </li><li>Levenfish variation </li><li>Najdorf variation</li><li>Queen's Gambit </li><li>Modern Chess Openings (book)</li><li>Reti opening </li><li>A simultaneous </li></ul><p></p><p>Episode 2: Exchanges</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Backward pawns</li><li>Forks</li><li>Knight-rook combination </li><li>My Chess Career (Jose Capablanca's autobiography) </li><li>Chess Review (magazine)</li><li>Clocks </li><li>Touch move</li><li>Modern Chess Openings (previously mentioned, but now we see the author's name is Walter Korn, apparently rare and out of print)</li></ul><p></p><p>Episode 3: Doubled Pawns </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Caro-Kann defense </li><li>Doubled pawns</li><li>Mieses-Reshevsky, margate, 1935</li><li>Ruy Lopez (not really in the chess context, but Townes says it to make her smile during the photo shoot)</li><li>Marshall (reference to a queen sacrifice ala Paul Morphy) </li><li>Slav </li></ul><p></p><p>Episode 4: Middle Game </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Seal her move (prior to game continuation the next day)</li><li>Closed Sicilian </li><li>Rossolimo </li><li>Castle (I missed the earlier reference when a player tells her she should not have castled)</li></ul><p></p><p>Episode 5: Fork </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>JR Capablanca - My Chess Career </li><li>Capablanca </li><li>Bogoljubov</li><li>Grunfeld </li><li>Smyslov versus Botvinnik </li><li>Mikenas </li><li>Philidor </li><li>Diderot </li><li>Koltanowski </li><li>Steinitz </li><li>Paul Morphy and the Golden Age of Chess by William Ewart Napier </li><li>Speed chess </li><li>Ruy Lopez (this time in a chess context)</li><li>Skittles</li><li>Blitz </li><li>Bughouse </li></ul><p></p><p>Episode 6: Adjournment</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Levenfish</li><li>Schwarz </li><li>Hastings Christmas Chess Congress</li><li>Faliase Hall, White Rock Gardens </li><li>Uhlmann </li><li>Reinfeld </li><li>Queen sacrifices </li><li>Reuben Fine's endgame analysis </li></ul><p></p><p>Episode 7: End Game </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Alekhine </li><li>Botvinnik</li><li>Bronstein</li><li>English opening </li><li>Sicilian, in reverse </li><li>Four Knights variation </li><li>Queen's Gambit </li><li>Queen's Gambit Declined </li><li>Albin</li><li>Adjourn </li></ul><p></p><div>What did I miss?</div><div><br /></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-1630627378435481272020-12-11T21:27:00.004-05:002021-04-18T21:00:53.766-04:00My Ratings of 800+ Movies I've Watched and Rated<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/user/ur2972498/ratings?sort=your_rating,desc&ratingFilter=0&mode=grid&ref_=undefined&lastPosition=0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGOGW1z7c6VRcV-YTBIqxUUlBj_p65g3zOuSF5ZZ682OlOzKLGPWKqKgoo9cD0L9_dskZPyneNwyxrG-lvzxIeJCdJPjjduO5hkseYKS8OZg99UCik3t7-Ev4mF97kb7ud0IN65RGcMBI/w640-h360/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-63794928019617679602020-11-04T19:34:00.015-05:002020-11-05T04:20:41.260-05:00Running Windows Apps on Mac<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1Kmrrjpt6d6IYE_owr5SfYvr8ovedU_IH04Fugc8KUItdiLFPwdElEcLfaJhirQ8x53w5vWTT08VEha6cD-Fczw0l74NyDkcoXwqUgR4HW47l6GSA4-sCPjze2ZVY70k7F3DkVGIwqU/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS1Kmrrjpt6d6IYE_owr5SfYvr8ovedU_IH04Fugc8KUItdiLFPwdElEcLfaJhirQ8x53w5vWTT08VEha6cD-Fczw0l74NyDkcoXwqUgR4HW47l6GSA4-sCPjze2ZVY70k7F3DkVGIwqU/w640-h426/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>I'm a Mac (and iPhone) diehard. But occasionally there's no getting around the need to install a Windows app. Such was the case when I wanted to play around with Adobe's Campaign Classic (ACC). The Adobe Campaign Classic Client Console application is only available for Windows. There are options such as Parallels and BootCamp for running Windows. But dual boot is too intrusive an option for my liking. And Parallels is not free. So, here's the process I followed to install ACC on my Mac for free with just a few tips to keep in mind.<div><br /></div><div>Before going into the steps and tips, here's a quick note on <b>terminology</b>. The following terms are synonymous. </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Host (in this case Mac OS X)</li><li>Guest (in this case Windows 10) is also known as virtual machine or VM or simply machine</li></ul></div><div>Now let's get to the <b>steps and tips</b>.<br /><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Download and install <b>VirtualBox<br /><br /></b></li><li>Create a new VM for Windows (this <a href="https://youtu.be/HEL9Uw3AR9s" target="_blank">YouTube video</a> covers the basic steps nicely but doesn't include some of the additional tips below)<br /><br /></li><li>Set the <b>disk space</b> to at least 20 GB. That's what I used and it works fine since all I need it for is to install ACC. But be careful since this is the one setting that <u>cannot</u> be changed later (other than by blowing away the VM and starting from scratch). After my Windows Home installation, I still had 8.5 GB remaining. And the ACC Client only needed 9 MB.<br /><br /></li><li>The <b>RAM</b> can be changed dynamically (stop the VM, change the RAM, start the VM) but I set it to 2GB which seems to work fine for me<br /><br /></li><li>By default the Windows <b>resolution</b> is extremely low and the font/icon sizes are extremely small, making it nearly impossible to step through the installation steps. So, before you start the Windows installation (or immediately after starting it), set the scale to 200% (VirtualBox > Machine > Settings > Display > Scale Factor)<br /><br /></li><li>Download the <b>Windows 10</b> installation .iso file from Microsoft.com and point your VM to the .iso file using a virtual CD-ROM option in the VM settings<br /><br /></li><li>During the Windows installation, disable all of the <b>extra features</b> like "location tracking", Cortana (Microsoft's equivalent of Apple's Siri), and sharing diagnostic data with Microsoft. They just use up the limited resources you want to dedicate to your Windows VM and are not needed for basic usage<br /><br /></li><li>During the Windows installation, at least for me, the VM window kept <b>disappearing</b> every time I tabbed away from it. When this happened, the only way to get the window back was to do the following: VirtualBox > Machine > Right-Click > Close > Save State > Start. Once Windows was fully installed, I stopped having this problem and the machine window did not disappear on me. Note that normally the save state option allows you to save what is in RAM so that you can continue where you left off in the case of a running application that has not finished processing<br /><br /></li><li>During the installation my ability to <b>tab</b> away got disabled. To restore it, I had to carry out the following steps: VM > Bottom Right > Keyboard Settings > Uncheck "Auto Capture Keyboard"<br /><br /></li><li>During the installation, my <b>keyboard entry</b> did not work (but mouse worked fine). So I clicked on the bottom right of the machine window and brought up the "Soft Keyboard" and used it to enter things like my Microsoft Outlook email address which is apparently required to setup Windows<br /><br /></li><li>After the Windows installation, you will get messages asking you to enter the <b>activation key</b> (which is not free) but you can safely ignore the messages and continue to use Windows. It is not all that annoying if all you're using Windows for is a very specific use case such as playing with the ACC Client app as in my case<br /><br /></li><li>After Windows is installed, install the VirtualBox <b>Guest Additions</b> as described in the video. This resolves a number of host compatibility issues and allows you, for example, to see Windows in full-screen format on your Mac. In addition, I use the Magnet app for the Mac to maximize and tile apps while not obstructing the top menu bar and the dock (just my preference)<br /><br /></li><li>Download the <b>ACC Client</b> (available to Adobe Solution Partners upon request from Adobe)<br /><br /></li><li>In the VM, set up a <b>shared folder</b> so that you can access your Mac downloads folder from inside the Windows environment. This will allow you to access the ACC Client installation .exe file from Windows. If all you intend to use it for is to install apps, then make it read-only. For security reasons, I have not enabled internet access in my Windows VM. If you want to set it up for bi-directional sharing (i.e. copy files from the Windows VM to the Mac) then don't check the read-only box. By the way, you can't run the installation directly from the Mac downloads folder (at least with the read-only option), so copy the installation file to your Windows desktop and run it there<br /><br /></li><li>I hope you find these tips useful. <b>Enjoy</b> running Windows apps on your Mac!</li></ol></div></div>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-70980488810492287192020-10-30T12:57:00.005-04:002020-11-04T20:28:59.207-05:00Digital Marketing Trends in a Covid World<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kAg94hoBrM5q4HFZ6RAYaWgwpdVYo4Nakfp3vPHDpR1WmBm6_XxPnJ0U2vot5ETg-__VMVajx99ukNuL0BWevL6havprdE5q0nN4iHkPfm_dM78xygif343uMjedKkfjlfHey5kGG-8/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="2048" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kAg94hoBrM5q4HFZ6RAYaWgwpdVYo4Nakfp3vPHDpR1WmBm6_XxPnJ0U2vot5ETg-__VMVajx99ukNuL0BWevL6havprdE5q0nN4iHkPfm_dM78xygif343uMjedKkfjlfHey5kGG-8/" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><p></p><p>Covid lockdowns have significantly altered consumer behavior and buying habits.</p><p><b>The desktop is Queen.</b> For example, as noted in Gartner's Digital IQ Index 2020 report released recently, traffic originating from desktops is understandably growing (relative to mobile traffic) as more consumers access digital properties from the comfort of their homes. For details, check out Gartner's Digital IQ Index 2020 report for big-box retailers in the US (executive summary). Big-box retailers are superstores generally housed in large buildings that look like a big box (hence the name), for example, Wal-Mart, Ikea, and Home Depot.</p><p><b>E-commerce.</b> Another trend has seen the shift to e-commerce (relative to brick and mortar) even more so than before the pandemic. This is an expected result of reduced traffic in shopping malls and consumers being forced to buy online. Companies that had a solid e-commerce and omni-channel presence prior to the shift have clearly benefitted whereas those that didn't (e.g. Ikea) have struggled. Online buying is key because even when consumers prefer to buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPID), they are still initiating the purchase online.</p><p><b>DIY.</b> There has also been a surge in do-it-yourself (DIY) projects both big and small. Example projects I've seen in my own circle include various home improvements, puzzles, and games. Anything that will occupy time in a somewhat productive way and perhaps even provide an occasion for multiple family members to participate. This trend has benefitted the Home Depots and Lowe's of the world. So much so that some have struggled to keep up with the increase in online traffic. My own $1,000 purchase for materials to build a floating deck last summer failed to get through one of these retailer's web site. I received an email a few days later, apologizing and requesting me to pursue the transaction at a nearby store. </p><p><b>Cloud.</b> As a side-effect of increased traffic to digital properties, companies have realized the importance of being able to scale, often at very short notice. This has resulted in attention being diverted towards cloud deployments. Whereas Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google GCP continue to be the leaders in this space, many others like IBM have benefited from the trend.</p><p><b>Platforms.</b> Smaller companies that had the insight and capital to build an online presence overnight have thronged to platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento open-source that let companies build e-commerce sites quickly and cheaply. Larger companies are going to continue to look at enterprise solutions like Adobe (with their not-free version of Magento), Salesforce (Demandware), Oracle, and SAP.</p><p><b>Inventory.</b> Now that customers aren't walking down aisles and can't see that there's only one Xbox console of their choice left on the shelf, for example, it is all the more important for retailers to show remaining inventory count as part of their product detail pages so that consumers can make informed decisions and don't face disappointment later in the buying cycle. According to the Gartner report cited above, only 35% of the big-box retailers they surveyed include inventory counts on their products.</p><p><b>WFH.</b> Working from home has resulted in a surge in demand for small appliances, consumer electronics, games, puzzles, PPE, etc. At the same time, there's been a drop in demand for apparel (see Adobe's DEI 2020).</p><p><b>AI.</b> Artificial intelligence and machine learning are here to stay and have made great strides. However, as many have pointed out (e.g. Gartner's Marketing Data and Analytics Survey 2020), trust in AI/ML continues to hinder our ability to make the most of it. Most leaders trust their own instincts more and suffer from confirmation bias when reviewing data analytics insights.</p><p><b>Talent.</b> Some great talent has come available as a result of layoffs in the hospitality, entertainment, and travel sectors. Smart companies are gobbling up these hard to find resources.</p><p><b>Cloud-to-prem.</b> As the excellent Bain Technology Report 2020 highlighted, CSPs are aiding in the transition to cloud via on-premise cloud offerings such as AWS Outposts, Azure Stack Hub, Azure Arc, and GCP. In doing so, they are threatening the on-prem stranglehold that OEMs have enjoyed for a long time. (Also note, AWS Wavelength and the cloud-to-edge trend.)</p><p><b>Slowbalization.</b> This is the term coined by Bakas in 2015 to describe the slowing of globalization. Tariffs, cyber-security concerns, and the pandemic have colluded to seriously disrupt the global fraternity.</p><p><b>Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI).</b> This refers to software-defined infrastructure that unifies virtualized computing (hypervisor), software-defined storage, and virtualized (software-defined) networking (e.g. fiber channel switching) and typically runs on commercial off-the-shelf servers used as a means to stand up a private cloud (think of it as an ultra-modern data center). Offerings in this space include Nutanix and HP's Ezmeral delivered via their cloud offering GreenLake.</p><p><b>Inflation.</b> Covid's inflationary environment has meant that digital purchase power (DPP), which usually grows at about 4% YoY has in fact either stagnated or in some cases dropped. This is especially evident in sectors such as grocery. </p><p><b>Reviews.</b> Despite the well-accepted importance of consumer reviews, 46% of brands surveyed by Gartner do not have reviews on their product pages. And even when they do, users prefer to read the more numerous reviews of the same products on Amazon. This is clearly a gap that companies need to work hard to address. One of the challenges is that no one wants to read anonymous reviews. Therefore, increasing authenticated user engagement is key. That combined with "helpful" scores to indicate how many readers found the review useful and top reviewer statuses to identify trusted reviewers are seemingly simple ideas that Amazon implemented years ago and most retailers have failed to do.</p><p><br /></p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2097425818241530955.post-83762971935114711432020-10-14T15:24:00.001-04:002020-10-14T15:24:11.010-04:00The state of the analytics union<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi5GhshAxTnGQFNsRGsjQhoD9aAOVXk7-AAnYiOEX_y-A5gC3TjXWD8Vyecb5iBBCPNfcLXDElrf63ArVzZ5ifN22TJ3I80OV_0-Q9QxLOopc_60LxG3kyQwFW-cbBZPLcTrAbjjwLb4/s580/adobe-analytics.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi5GhshAxTnGQFNsRGsjQhoD9aAOVXk7-AAnYiOEX_y-A5gC3TjXWD8Vyecb5iBBCPNfcLXDElrf63ArVzZ5ifN22TJ3I80OV_0-Q9QxLOopc_60LxG3kyQwFW-cbBZPLcTrAbjjwLb4/s320/adobe-analytics.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Gartner recently published a study "<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/marketing-data-and-analytics-survey-2020" target="_blank">Marketing Data and Analytics Survey 2020</a>" that finds that most clients aren't getting the value they expected from their analytics implementations.<p></p><p>The results of the study are not entirely surprising and represent a huge opportunity for analytics experts. I have first-hand knowledge of multi-billion dollar companies that have purchased Adobe Analytics (AA) but are grossly under-investing in qualified resources to implement and support the platform. </p><p>They hire resources that are not required to be experts in AA with the expectation that they can learn on the job, just to save a few dollars in hourly rates. Big mistake! It’s like buying a Ferrari and then filling it up with regular gas and taking it to the local mechanic for service. Upskilling in-house talent can only work if you have core expertise in-house (or contracted). But we’re often seeing clients who are lacking that in-house expertise and leaving their resources to fend for themselves. </p><p>We, the analytics community, need to continue to coach these clients on how not to be penny wise and pound foolish. </p><p>Secondly, the human race is still learning to interpret data correctly and trust what it’s telling us (confirmation bias). It’s human nature to second guess the machine. For example, there are many studies that show that machines are able to diagnose cancer with a higher level of certainty than doctors. However, patients still trust doctors more than they trust machines. Apparently, because machines can be wrong. Except that doctors can be wrong more often (they are human, after all).</p>Puneet Singh Lambahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04766647864005178683noreply@blogger.com0