I woke up. My heart was beating 20 beats faster than usual, my body felt strong, I could hear every whisper, my sight was sharper, I felt like running. Today I could kill a mammoth!

That’s how I felt this morning, just 36 hours into my 72 hours fast.

People are often curious why would I torture myself with a prolonged fast. There are different reasons for different people — some do it for the weight loss. But with my 65 kilos, I certainly don’t. I would like to share my thinking on fasting.

The human body was designed to…

I had not worn a watch since I was 10 years old. Now, I sleep with my Garmin Forerunner. It’s just great!

I had my moments when I tried to wear a watch in that watch-are-dumb period, mostly just to look cool. My latest was a piece of Xiaomi Ciga mechanical watch. But I had always returned to use my phone to keep track of time. Until I bought the Forerunner 645 Music last year, a sports smartwatch that can track your workouts and play music.

Workouts

Many people get their smartwatch to be better connected through push notifications on their…

People have been terrified by the rise of machines for a good part of the last 200 years since Luddites destroyed sewing machines in textile factories. Technology has changed remarkably but newspapers still keep predicting humans losing jobs with the same degree of drama:

• 1921: “Will Machines Devour Man?”
• 1928: “March of the machine makes idle hands”
• 1961: “Automation Might End Most Unskilled Jobs in 10 years”
• 2011: “Will a robot steal your job?”
• 2020: “The Robots Are Coming. Prepare for Trouble.”

These frightening newspaper headlines reflect how strongly people have feared losing their jobs to robots. This is not…

But, it is not (yet) Bali in terms of preparedness for the tourists and therefore some planning might be very helpful and possibly save you lots of money. For example, in high season (July and August), demand for good accommodation exceeds the supply and you might end up staying in not an ideal place. Some hotels can be ridiculously expensive.

A motorbike or a scooter is definitely the best way to explore any place in South East Asia and Flores is not an exception. You can cross Flores on Transflores highway in a couple of days and see so much…

I recently went to Taiwan for my friend’s wedding. I have been fascinated with Taiwan for at least last 5 years. It is, however, not due to the beauty of the island, the impressive mountains, the great rocks, or the delicious food Taiwan is so famous for.

(Don’t get me wrong, I love these things about Taiwan. This article is just not the Taiwan travel guide.)

It’s been because the story of Taiwanese people always challenged my (and I believe that also the world’s) liberal views. There is probably not a more controversial place in the world. …

Robots are finally getting the appropriate attention: companies are sniffing high profits, the popular media scare people about losing their jobs; robots are not anymore only a cliché movie theme. So, when they will they finally roll out? Or is it just a bubble?

Why are robots so hard to build?

Earlier, I wrote an article pondering what keeps robots confined to the factories and labs. I argued we need to build a robot-friendly environment and satisfy ourselves with only 98% of autonomy. That will significantly simplify the hardware and software design. Then reiterate on the design to reach the 100% with less infrastructure.

But even then…

Hollywood did a terrible service to us, roboticists. The picture of fierceless Arnold Schwarzenegger with steel jaw and a colt in hand now pops up in mind with the word “robot”. We somehow always tend to disappoint some visitors in our labs with robots being cumbersome and slow, and not really as handsome as Arnold.

Actually, in my humble opinion, Star Wars did waay better job painting the robots of the future — clumsy and slow to keep up with their human overlords. And not all being humanoids. I definitely prefer the picture of R2-D2 or C-3PO to Terminator. …

This book tortured me: hundreds of pages of empty conversations, pages slapping my face and offending me of mediocrity. I still could not stop, it kept me going for two nights. But I feel now I conquered Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’.

It tells a bitter story of architects, a story of the pursuit of perfection, a story of mediocrity.

I know the feeling when you walk into a building/public space and …it’s impossible to express it…everything is just right. It is just like I fit in the building and building fits with me. The looks are one thing — make…