I blogged about Android development on a South African Android community blog called AndroidZA

About

I am Toby Kurien, an electronics engineer who does software development for fun (and hopefully profit). I am a South African citizen of Indian origin.

What do I do? Well, the simple answer is that I am a freelance software engineer, and I work on my business Nextcloud Hosting. My Resumé has more details. I occasionally blog and micro-blog about technology and other interests.

The long answer regarding what I do is that I am experimenting with an alternate lifestyle. In late 2008 I decided to live a more anti-consumerist lifestyle. So I left the rat race, sold my shares in the company I co-founded, and started working on potentially fulfilling ventures. This is how I started creating web startups, mobile applications, and embedded hardware solutions – technologies that I am really passionate about. These technologies also help me in my quest to use first-world technology to solve third-world problems.

I am inspired by the "four hour work week" lifestyle as described in the book by Timothy Ferriss. I engineer my life by focussing on three things: Health, Time, and Finance. Since 2021, I started reducing my digital footprint, and adopted the philosophy of digital minimalism.

Gemini

I have a Gemini capsule, which can be reached using a Gemini browser, at gemini://tobykurien.com, or via a web proxy. I could've just linked you directly to my capsule via a web proxy, but that kind of defeats the point of Gemini, which is to create a new space on the internet, away from the attention- and surveillance-economy of BigTech, free of trackers and data mining, with a manaical focus on simplicity and pure textual content such as blogs.

If this …

This is my post for Blog Action Day 2009 regarding the topic of climate change

Kind of like a misnomer, but with numbers.

It's amazing what far-reaching implications a subtle change in my routine can have on my life...

There maybe some things to cheer about in the [latest crime statistics][], but it's not all good news, sadly.

If you're thinking of buying a projector, think of buying two rather. Here's why...

South Africa officially switched on its digital TV signal on November 1 2008

My article on TechLeader about Netbooks

They are in your Facebook, mining your data...

Joining the new geek sub-culture of getting things done and getting the most out of life

My recent gadget buying spree has left me with a gold mine of geeky gadgets.

Like "military intelligence", these are words that just don't go together. Right?

Every blog has to have an arb post elaborating on some personal affliction. Here's mine.

It seems human beings have a lot of self-defeating traits. I often wonder how we became a (mostly) civilised and advanced society with all these counter-productive traits. Like laziness, for example. We are naturally lazy, right? So how did we ever build cities? Or get to the moon?

Social phobia - I heard about this one recently. The third most common psychological problem, apparently. But many of us suffer from this to some degree. Me, for example. I'm shy and overly self-conscious. I may not seem like it now, but leave me alone in a crowd of strangers, and it rears it's ugly head. Like when I walk alone in a mall.

I spent much of my life alone, and those years of solo walking has conditioned me to extend my gait. I often get asked to slow down when walking in a group, and I end up almost tripping over myself at the pedestrian pace. When walking alone, I do not want to appear to be lost or walking around without purpose. Walking fast makes me look busy. So busy, infact, that I often walk right past the very place I am walking to. The realisation then sets in and I find myself needing to make an about-turn, which then completely undermines the "walking with purpose" image I'd put on.

Walking fast also keeps my hands busy. I can swing them from side to side in sync with my stride. Slowing down really throws my hands into a confused state. I then have to pull out my cellphone or hold something in my hands so …

Things I wish I knew when I was 20, but if I did, I wouldn't have cared anyway. Pity.