Alex Poovathingal

Software Engineer

[Empire of the Kop @empireofthekop]

Mo Salah's Liverpool career comes to a close as he's substituted for Jeremie Frimpong. What a journey it's been. Thank you Mo, you're one of the all-time greats ❤️

[Helle Lyng @HelleLyngSvends]

Primeminister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question, I was not expecting him to.

Norway has the number one spot on the World Press Freedom Index, India is at 157th, competing with Palestine, Emirates & Cuba.

It is our job to question the powers we cooperate with.

[Adam @adamdotdev]

I find it very funny when anyone feels confident that they've figured out agentic programming, even funnier when they're trying to teach others how to do it. I've been working on OpenCode since May of last year and I still have days (like yesterday) where I'm not even sure any of this is a good idea lol

I end up landing on "yes, these models are an incredible tool" but it's still all very confusing, lots of tangled thoughts and emotions and realities.

I badly miss the mundane coding tasks that broke up my days/weeks, the ones where you put on the headphones and just bang out 600 lines of code. But, no question, replacing those hours of my time with a few minutes of waiting on an agent is a boost and worth being excited about, despite the mixed emotions.

Then there's the distance that can creep in between you and the codebase if you start getting apathetic. I think it's pretty common at this point to make even small changes by prompting the models. It's less friction than finding the relevant code and making the change yourself. And less friction seems to win, must be some law of the universe or some shit. When most or all of your interactions with a codebase start flowing through the models, you start to lose track of where things live, which abstractions/components are carrying the weight, etc. It's a scary feeling to wake up and realizing you can't even reliably @<mention> a precise file for a change you want to make, and you have to get more vague, leaning harder on the model.

It all creeps up on you, there's an undeniable dopamine hit from using these things, and the resulting come down is predictable, like coming off a sugar high. On the positive side, it's really nice seeing other devs go through the same cycles, knowing we're all in this together and we'll ultimately figure it out.

[cts🌸 @gf_256]

a true gem (Linux kernel mailing list)

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

STAY WITH ME.

A few years ago, a patient was referred to me because he was diagnosed with complicated cirrhosis. He had an infection which led to a condition called hepatic encephalopathy (brain failure due to high ammonia levels). The treatment largely involved ammonia reducing therapies. One drug was central to this - Rifaximin - a non-absorbable antibiotic that reduced ammonia in the body. I prescribed him Rifaximin for 6 weeks and advised him follow-up.

He came back to me, not after six weeks, but in 4 weeks, this time, in liver coma (worst stage of brain failure - due to very high ammonia). He spent two days in the ICU and six days in total in the hospital. His hospital bill was close to INR 80,000. He had no insurance and his wife borrowed the money from neighbors and friends to clear hospital dues.

Upon questioning, I found that he was not taking the Rifaximin drug I had prescribed. He was only on the other two drugs (one, a syrup called lactulose for improving ammonia clearance in gut). I was furious, because the patient spent a whole week unecessarily in the ICU and wasted so much money that he never had - just because he was "not compliant" to my orders. I decided it was time for me to school him a bit.

But I was wrong. He was compliant. He had purchased Rifaximin and was on it. For 15 days. Thereafter, he could not afford it. He was an autorickshaw driver who shuttled school children every morning and evening. He could hardly make ends meet. He had two children of his own. The Rifaximin brand I prescribed him was 42 rupees per tablet. He had to consume two a day - which would mean 2520 rupees a month. He just did not have that money - so he skipped it - to not compromise on other important matters - childrens education and food.

He was confused and scared about opting for a cheaper version of Rifaximin because one, he was unsure about the quality of Rifaximin that was not prescribed by me and two, he was "scared" that I would scold him for buying a cheaper Rifaximin and if that got him into trouble.

I was confused and scared about prescribing a cheaper version of Rifaximin because one, I was unsure about the quality of Rifaximin that was not "a good promoted brand" and two, I was "scared" that his family would scold me for prescribing a cheaper Rifaximin and if that got him into trouble.

It is heartbreaking that many doctors still simply don’t trust generic medicines. Too often, they worry that these cheaper options are lower quality or might cause more problems than the big, famous brands. This fear leads them to prescribe expensive drugs instead, and the real tragedy is that it pushes vital healthcare out of reach for the ordinary people who need it most - like my patient.

This narrative, that generic drugs 'are never good' and that only big pharmaceutical marketed drugs are what works has been deeply ingrained into doctors and patients alike - I do not know by whom and since when. Looking back, these strong emotions were based on either opinions, testimonials or second- and third-hand information. Not evidence.

Like I said. Stay with me. This is life changing and will disrupt the drug market in India. Here are the results of The Citizens Generic vs. Brand Drugs Quality Project.
1/11

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Dr. @dr_sivaranjani painstakingly fought for 8 years to convince the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to heed the harms of fake ORS drinks targeting children, flooding the market from greedy corporate companies.

She won. FSSAI ordered the ban on the use of “ORS” in product names except for WHO-approved formulations - which meant that these companies fake mislabelled products could not be sold.

But then, she lost.

In a new twist of events, the Delhi High Court and FSSAI has now ordered that fake ORS products, especially the worst and the most stocked one - ORSL Drink by JNTL Consumer Health (the name for the Indian consumer health subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which is now known as Kenvue) can continue to be sold temporarily under the High Court’s interim protection.

The Court and FSSAI has essentially allowed the sale of fake mislabelled products worth 180 crore Indian Rupees to protect the interest of the greedy corporations without any concern for the children's health.

As a citizen of this country, you can help the good doctor and her great deed by BOYCOTTING THESE SUBSTANDARD PRODUCTS - LET THESE PRODUCTS ROT ON THE SHELVES. The public is the most powerful entity of a Nation. Let us be one and take care of ourselves and our children.

Do not buy these SUGARY products with zero health benefits and do not follow WHO Standards- and spread the word please! Share maximum!

ORSL by JTNL (Johnson and Johnson, Kenvue)
REBALANCE VIT ORS (ReddyLabs)
GLUCON - D ORS (Zydus)

The Courts allowed it. FSSAI consented to it.
But as the public of this country who value our childrens health, let us not. Make sure these greedy corporations suffer for their deceptions.

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Liverpool Football Club are devastated by the tragic passing of Diogo Jota.

[Alex Poovathingal @alexp0205]

@GovindAjith5 Grear performance today, but most of the shots were from outside the box with clear view of the ball. Allison saves them any day. PSG kept shooting at the first chance and not trying to make better opportunities.

[Bilawal Sidhu @bilawalsidhu]

12 years ago today, the Internet’s own boy left us. It’s wild to think that Aaron Swartz was aggressively prosecuted for scraping JSTOR articles.

Meanwhile huge companies routinely scrape the public internet and sell it for $20/month and all is well.

Aaron helped create RSS, Creative Commons, Markdown and a little site called Reddit - all by the age of 26.

All he wanted was free and open access to information.

Really makes you wonder what he'd have accomplished if he was still with us today.

[Pramode C.E @pramode_ce]

This is one industry where developers are told periodically that they should stop doing what they have been doing on their own for a long time because you know, what you were doing is rocket science and you were doing it the wrong way - better stop doing it and let the rocket-science-experts take charge.

Except cryptography (and maybe one or two other things), there are no other domains in normal day-to-day software development that may be considered as too difficult for developers to build expertise (in a reasonable amount of time) and develop their own solutions. As a young developer, if somebody tells you that you shouldn't be doing something because it is too tough, take it with a very big pinch of salt - either the person giving the advice is misguided, or he has something to sell.

[Dhanya Rajendran @dhanyarajendran]

Many of you are wondering why Prajwal Revanna videos didn’t hit the news cycle before since they have been doing rounds for months. There are two reasons. One is that he got a court gag order last year itself claiming videos may come. This is a list we made of other gag orders

[Erik Bjäreholt @ErikBjare]

Redis is no longer open source?
I guess they gave up on their key values 🥁

[Citizen Kau @citizen_kau]

Send this video to anyone asking ‘where is the scam’.

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Scientists flag erosion of scientific temper, accuse Modi government of pushing 'false narratives.'
https://t.co/tpWcMAgbPJ
The scientists have accused the government of contributing to “multi-pronged” attacks that tend to undermine a scientific attitude among the public and have urged members of the academic community, the bureaucracy, and the political class to help uphold constitutional values.

[Michael Nielsen @michael_nielsen]

One of my favourite letters, insightful &amp; humane, from Richard Feynman to a former student who was having a rough time

I was reflecting on it as an argument in favour of scope insensitivity, or even in favour of smaller problems:

[Mohammed Zubair @zoo_bear]

How many Media channels in India have reported this... Except for a few media on the digital side.

[Aditya Menon @AdityaMenon22]

Important. X says that while it's complying with Indian govt requests to withhold accounts, it "disagrees with these actions"

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

Hello, please dont consume mercury.

It will kill you.

Also please dont handle mercury with your bare hands. It is one of the most toxic substances known to humankind.

Also, mercury is not medicinal. It is poison.
Conman Guru speaking good English in Gibberish here is shredding chemistry and biology into pieces, it hurt my eyes and ears.

I could hear my anatomy teacher whimper while I was watching this video.

In our paper on Ayurvedic herbals, presence of mercury in herbal products was directly related to higher risk of dying from liver injury.
Please see here: https://t.co/vWXD7mU0Uu

Also, one cannot solidify pure mercury at room temperature. One can, if you make it into an amalgam. Watch here: https://t.co/dQkR6SEZxx.

Also, Siddha is an utter nonsense pseudoscientific medical system based out of South India. It is as rubbish as Ayurveda but has excellent conmen as its poster boys like this one here.

All "medicinal" solid mercury sold on this guys website and by Siddha practitioners is not mercury, but mercury amalgams. Dont fall for this bullsh*t.

[Rushabh Mehta @rushabh_mehta]

Kenya’s 2nd largest hospital is fully paperless on ERPNext. Self implemented by a doctor who loves programming with 3 engineers.

Mind blowing!

[Gautam Bhatia @gautambhatia88]

An order passed in ignorance of basic principles of defamation law. Should be set aside for the asking.