Border closures in Aus and border violations in USA :D
What have I been up-to last week?
It’s the first working week of Jan and it was a slow week. I tried my best to get back into reading the books that I started. I finished one book already and feel really good about it.
I did my first PCR test and received the result as Negative today. I should admit that the test was not the most comfortable. However, given the circumstances that appears to be the least that we should be ready to withstand. The sensation was something like an intense sneeze.
The main reason for the PCR for me is to be able to properly apply for a VIC border exemption. The whole border closure has become very stressful for me and my partner. I have applied for two exemptions so far. One before the PCR test and one after I received the test result. I hope the outcome of the exemption would be positive.
Having said that, things doesn’t look as bleak as they were a couple of weeks back. Basically, the case numbers are under five and there are days where the states report 0 cases as well. Therefore, I’m optimistic that the border restrictions could ease in the coming week. Let’s see!
The federal government announced that the vaccination would begin in mid Februray. It’s going to be a massive logistical war to get the vaccine to all the Aussies.
The manner in which all the Australian state governments handle this situation, though disruptive, has been pragmatic. The number of cases in last whole year has kept to a minimum and they could do that in a consistent manner. Which is very important, because, I have seen countries doing a great job in the wake of the virus and then completely messing it up. Therefore, I feel the sudden border closures would be a norm in coming months.
The United Kingdom is affected very badly and apparantly the UK-COVID strain is 70 % more infectious than the other current dominant strain. It’s really scary, and that cements the cautious approach towards national and state borders in Australia.
I also spent some time preparing the training material on Embedded Testing. The presentation looks good now. I’m planning to spend more time polishing and preparing some concrete examples that are demonstratable to undergraduates as that would drive the concepts home.
How is everything else?
United States of America was in chaos this week due to the sheer stupidity and arrogance of Trump. The capitol was attacked by Trump mob with an agenda to delay the certification of Biden’s victory. Trump still believes that he won the election and he wants to pursue along those lines.
Twitter, facebook, instagram and YouTube has blocked Trump’s official accounts. Which is hillarious as it feels a tad too late. Now that Trump lost the election, these companies have suddenly realized that his public posts incite violence. However, what I feel is that he has been doing that for a long time now. Better late than never though. I think the companies and the USA government are worried what he might do before Biden takes the oath on the 20th of Jan.
I have seen crooked politicians in Sri Lanka all my life, but I have never seen something like this happening over there.
What am I reading?
Finished reading Sapiens!!! It’s one of the best books I’ve read about the evolution of humankind. I really like his line of thoughts. It inspired me to read more on human psychology to understand how people make decisions.
I got a Kindle as a birthday gift and purchased ‘Range’ as my first Kindle book.
- C++ Programming Language (317 / 1279 = 24.8 %)
- From Mathematics To Generic Programming (136 / 312 = 43.5 %)
- Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein (p23 - 6 %)
Any good TV shows or movies?
- Dark
Any new learnings?
Started reading MQTT getting started.
Backlog
- Bluetooth temperature logger
- Build a simple radio
- Setup an MQTT server and a few nodes
- Solar powered IOT hub for agro industry
That’s a week!
- Pradeepa