Jatan’s Planet

Reluctantly went to Starbucks today, the gimcrack of cafés. Noticed that they introduced a new “Pico” size. And they have the audacity to call the next size “Short”. -_-

An update regarding my Read and Surf Sanely blog+newsletter. As its key motive, I wrote:

Most people aren’t aware that adopting the open Web’s underpinnings can help them be better read in every way—from absorption and habits to efficiency and perspectives.

I haven’t forgotten about the project. The last 3 months have been crazy busy with productive space stuff. This month I’m occupied with moving to Bangalore. But also, I don’t feel as optimistic about open Web communities anymore, which increasingly feel dismissive, rigid, ignorant, and even toxic. So I’m rethinking my approach. 🙇🏻‍♂️

If one were to auto-share new blog posts via RSS to every possible social media platform, does it in practice become the “Read my blog wherever you browse words” equivalent of the @anildash@me.dm’s adage “Wherever you get your podcasts”?

The Fediverse still seems to be very tech oriented to me in terms of depth. Not many people are that interested in space exploration here compared to many other platforms. And no, just the eclipse doesn’t count. It’s sad because I cannot tolerate other platforms for many other reasons.

⏳… ⌛️ … 🌙

Had the opportunity to help explain a wider audience why the US White House recently asked NASA to create an independent time standard for the Moon. Got quoted on the Indian Express: indianexpress.com/article/e…

Being able to follow the US president from your fediverse account […] alters the dynamic of discussions on whether instances should block Threads or not. For some people it will increase the perceived cost of not federating with Threads, while for others it can help sharpen the focus of what type of posts they don’t want to be part of their community. It makes conversations with other (government) organisations about joining the fediverse easier; as “even the POTUS is a part of the fediverse” is a good sell that is hard to beat.

– @laurenshof@indieweb.social in the latest Fediverse report

I’m excited for my move to Bangalore but I’ll also miss some yummy Mumbai-specific food. And so I’m having one such thing everyday. Today was bread-potato cutlet. 😋

You can now browse my ongoing exhaustive coverage of NASA’s Artemis and CLPS programs to return to the Moon with humans and robots via dedicated pages on my blog:

Wrote about how NASA’s upcoming Lunar Terrain Vehicle for Artemis Moon missions will be a giant leap for rover-kind. 🚀🌗

Seriously, it’ll be far more capable than the rover driven by Apollo astronauts, and more sophisticated than even the modern Mars rovers.

Image: NASA

There’s no good way to follow official space news from the China National Space Administration. And so I’ve created an RSS feed so you can easily follow such updates via a feed reader.

Nice updates to Share Openly from @ben@werd.social. The focus on open social networks is great. It would be cool to have email sharing as an option too though. It’s the original social network that remains relevant, and is used widely by academics, scientists, and people in the space industry.

Feels nice that my idea for a new kind of social network made it to @aaronpk@aaronparecki.com’s public bookmarks. Though now I wish I had further honed the idea, especially after all that has entailed in social media lately. 🙈

Screenshot from the webpage at https://aaronparecki.com/bookmarks

For a social blog, and especially a microblog, replies are as important as posts. And so for my microblog, I’m offering a feed which allows you to follow conversations too via RSS instead of just my posts → web.jatan.space/feeds.

Micro.blog makes this possible with ease.

Screenshot from the webpage at https://web.jatan.space/feeds

Want to read: Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle 📚

Unpopular opinion: Blogging, fediverse, and all such open Web circles are less of a culture and more a cult. The same set of voices tend to get amplified in loops. People aren’t actually open to many new ideas or ways of using web tools. The resulting system is exclusive in more ways than one.

Meeting relatives is more tiring than moving to Bangalore.

Space stuff I published last month

Always love it when there’s a science update from Artemis instead of just tech. NASA selects science instruments to be deployed on the Moon by Artemis III astronauts! jatan.space/moon-mond…

China signs the Artemis Accords: jatan.space/moon-mond…

I’m wondering if social media killed the joy out of writing in public for most people? So many people have told me they don’t write because you put out so many thoughts but then not many read them. In that sense, social media gives people a feeling of their posts being seen with likes and such.

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