Journal

I enjoy the afternoon when the sun starts moving towards the horizon. The heat is still there, but it has quietened people. The street carries on with a calmer hum.

Sunlight breaks through the leaves and falls across the pavement. I find that light and the quiet around it soothing. The heat makes this an unlikely hour to want to be outside, yet the silence it brings draws me out.

When the world is vacant, it is “liveable.”

I have been using laptops since 1995. The internet followed in 2003, when hardly any household around me had a connection. India is a poor country, and I have been fortunate to have access to this technology throughout my life.

Now I am paying for premium AI plans, which not many people in India pay for. It gives me a sense of déjà vu.

My experience with AI has been more personal than professional. Right now, it feels like a toy. It is very basic in places, and super fun. It does not feel corporate to me yet.

Codex has been fun to use, especially its Computer Use feature. Watching the mouse pointer move and the computer type on its own has been a revelation.

One use has been maintaining Linux on my desktop. We have investigated slow applications, crackling sound, memory settings, and a motherboard clock that kept resetting. I ended up replacing the battery.

The desktop animations are slower now. Minimizing and maximizing windows feels a little more relaxed. I prefer it.

Codex has also worked through Outlook and Teams to understand the grapevine and the narratives before replying to emails for me.

Then there was my Twitter profile. The task was to delete everything from before 2026. It spent quite a while going through old posts, replies, and reposts. The final verification remained incomplete because X kept getting stuck while loading.

There were bank statements to sort out too. Codex consolidated them into a searchable database, sorted out overlapping records, and made graphs of earnings, spending, and savings. The available statements went back to 2013. There are still gaps, and another bank account to add.

Work on Markdown Reader continues too. Another review found problems with saving, recovery, and copying equations. I asked when these rounds of finding and fixing bugs are supposed to end. We now have a checklist for a final acceptance pass.

It’s October, and winter is approaching. This part of the year brings silence into our lives again. The ACs are off. The fans are slower. You can start hearing distant voices again.

There is a railway track about two kilometres away. Trains usually slow down there. One is blowing its horn now, getting ready to start again. I can hear my keyboard more clearly too.

I have been experimenting with creating desktop software with Codex. It is called Markdown Reader. I use it, notice problems, and describe them in chat. Recent work has included making the interface consistent, fixing text selection across paragraphs, and correcting cursor movement around headings.

It also has a feature called Maggik. I wanted to dump my thoughts into the application, press a button, and get a well-formed document that preserves my personality.

The code is available here: Markdown Reader on GitHub.

The building has damaged plaster and exposed bricks. Cables cross the front of the building. Scooters are parked outside.

The photograph shows a tree in a courtyard. Apartment balconies are visible behind the tree.

The photograph shows a tall building and trees. Clouds cover part of the sky.

Jal Mahal is in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The photograph shows the building, the lake, and the hills behind it.