The machine I got has macOS Sonoma. This is from 2023 - almost 2 years old. There was Sequoia - in 2024 and now there is Tahoe - in 2025

I wanted to upgrade to the latest.

But quick check on the internet suggested that I may be better off staying on Sequoia. Tahoe seems unstable ¯_(ツ)_/¯

So I decided to make USB bootable for Sequoia. When installing via the app store, it directly starts the install (I think) So I decided to stick to the terminal (a good thing too IMO)

I had been meaning to upgrade my early-2015 MBP for quite some time.

Then I got one from office, so did not need to upgrade.

then something or the other kept coming up.

Few months ago, I visited a shop to get battery replaced for my MBP

The service was good.

The shopkeeper also told me that he has some used MBP for sale.

Usually these come from corporate customers (I think) and are in good condition.

As I wrote earlier I’m doing Flutter Development on a Windows 10 machine.

The configuration of this machine is as follows :

• Intel i7-6600U @ 2.60GHz
• 16GB RAM
• 224 GB SSD
• AMD Radeon R7 M360 (2GB)

So on paper this looks impressive.

But it feels so sluggish.

But “feels” is very subjective. (My other machine is 10-year-old-MBP) So I decided to gather actual timing.

• Starting Visual Studio Code took > 1 minutes 51 seconds (After which I gave up) Gemini Assist was still not done loading. ¹ But even without it, it took > 1 minute
• Starting Android Emulator took : 1 minute 40 seconds
  • UI showed up after 7 seconds
  • Pixel is starting message after 1 minute 14 seconds
  • and Then I see System UI is not responding (I choose Wait ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )
• Starting Android Emulator (cold boot) took : 3 minutes 28 seconds
  • UI showed up after 43 seconds
  • Pixel is starting message after 1 minute 59 seconds
  • and Then I see System UI is not responding (I choose Wait ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )

In the mean time, VS Code reports

Recently, I started working on a flutter project. I started on my own 10-year old MBP. (running Linux mint 22.1 BTW) It has “just” 8GB RAM. Flutter development is (near) impossible on this machine.

As per the documentation Android Studio requires 8GB and with Emulator 16GB, while 32GB is the “recommended” configuration.

But it is not just the documentation. I tried to push through. Decided to use Physical device rather than Emulator. But even then, it was just too slow.

During Ganeshotsav, Jnana Prabodhini Prashala organizes a variety of workshops for students. For these 10 days, there are no regular classes — instead, students immerse themselves in learning new skills.

This year, I had the privilege of conducting a Mass Media workshop for 20 boys from 5th to 7th standard (a mixed group).

I don’t need to emphasize how bright these children are — after all, they are among the 80 selected out of 1200+ who appear for the entrance exam. Still, knowing this in theory is very different from experiencing it firsthand.

This Linkedin post, reminds me of the following dialog from the movie “I, Robot”

“That was somebody’s baby. 11% is more than enough. A human being would’ve known that.”

No, I don’t mean to say losing uncommitted work is same as someone’s life.

But more “we” (society) trusts machines, such scenario are going to be more and more likely.

(If you haven’t seen the movie, narrator is in an accident, there is another girl in another car - both cars are drowning. Robot jumps and saves the narrator, cause he has 45% chance of survival, the girl only has 11%

The tile of the post comes from Cheat code #3 of this post.

I had a good streak writing here for a long time. Then in late April, I went on a week long trip. (Not vacation, it was a volunteering trip. I should have posted about it here. I did write about it in marathi, but shared it with closed group.)

Long story short, that broke my streak, and it occurs to that I wrote 1 post in May, none in June, and this is my 2nd post in July. I used to write 3-4 posts per month before that.

I came across a LinkedIn post here where the author asked ChatGPT to create a fake Aadhar card, and a fake US Green Card.

For later, ChatGPT added “For Fictional Use only” in the image, and wouldn’t remove it when asked to.

So such “security concern” for the Aadhar Card.

Here is my take on it.

Recently, I came re-listened to a podcast episode where they discussed about constraints.

Everyone thinks that constraints are bad.

But having some constraints may be good.

This morning, I got an email notification that polywork.com shutting down.

Polywork was a good idea.

I never updated it regularly because I was worried about such thing (it going away) But I liked the idea of putting regular “updates” and I started this microblog.