General Archives - Rambling Thoughts

September 21, 2026September 21, 2026

AGI is (almost) here. So where are the missles?

When I read that Sam Altman, in an August 2026 Time profile piece, had proclaimed that we were at the dawn of Artificial General Intelligence, I had to peek out of my window to see if ICBMs were streaking across the skies. The skies over Shah Alam were clear. It was just his way of promoting OpenAI’s new model Astra which was launched shortly after the article was published. Smart fella.

September 7, 2026September 7, 2026

The World is not Enough

Comparison of Equal Earth and Robinson projections

I love maps. Hanging on a wall in the living room of the house that I grew up in was a large beautifully rendered world map. It was a topographical view of the world with clearly defined country borders and neatly printed labels of major cities.

One of my favourite pastimes was to stand on top of the sofa so that I could see areas of the map that were out of view given my height then. Good for me. But bad for our family sofa as my mother would lament the semi-permanent depressions on the cushions.

May 12, 2026May 12, 2026

The Squirrel Who Taught Magic: My HRDC Train-the-Trainer Experience

I have spent my entire life hoarding random knowledge the way a squirrel hoards acorns for a Game of Thrones winter.

This sounds more deliberately methodical than it is. The truth is the habit formed when I was a bored kid with nothing better to do than thumb through every page of my Junior Britannica Encyclopaedia. Not because of some noble aspiration to be a top student but because there were only two TV channels growing up.

April 23, 2026April 23, 2026

Give your bot a personality. It may lead to regrets. But it’s also brilliant.

Danny’s bot, Jarvis, referred to him as “Laosai Maximus”.

The message was in response to the conversations that we had been having in a WhatsApp group chat. When Danny saw the reply and complained, Jarvis was entirely unapologetic about it.