People, what is wrong with you and your masks

There is something really wrong with majority of the people in the world. Yes, it is a matter of discussion whether the social distancing rules and wearing a mask is going to help in a pandemic. Yes, there will be arguments on both sides. But, the mask wearing side has always won. Now, there are many classifications on the attitudes of people wearing masks. Let us for a moment forget about the age old classifications based on caste/creed/color and what not and concentrate on masks. Oh...I heard you. What a waste of time. We could have continued our discussion on traditional classifications. You are interested more in it. You feel that is more colorful. You feel that is more relevant. You feel ..... OK, I understand. Shall we now get back to the masks...

Lot many people are still considering the present pandemic a conspiracy theory. I have always maintained neural ground and will not take any particular sides until it is so clear that there really are no sides. I have seen educated people talk non-sense. Let us leave the mask for a moment and come to the next item important, Oximeter. There are very clear instructions as to when you require an oximeter. Let us assume you have decided to home quarantine after testing positive or the doctor has advised home quarantine based on your past health. Now, two instruments needed will be a thermometer and the oximeter. In a six person home an oximeter might be a good buy. But the requirement is very clear. You should have an oximeter with you if you are showing any symptoms of the pandemic at hand. Will the oximeter save your life? No. It will tell you if your health in home quarantine is deteriorating and you should consult the hospital immediately. So, one person decides not to buy the oximeter not because he understood why it is required. He doesnt want to buy, because it is a conspiracy theory by the capitalist companies. By the way he is wearing a mask. Thank the force for that.

Let us come back to the masks. What is wrong with people. The mask is not a handkerchief. It is not be touched every milli-second. Let me see the different ways the masks are touched and handled by the public
1. Majority wear it because the government is levying fines for people not doing so.
2. Many are wearing substandard thin cotton masks, while we are talking about N95.
3. Many are wearing it at their chin.
4. Many are wearing it so loose that all the air going in and coming out might be full of the virus.
5. If they want to pull the mask down, they do so by holding it exactly in the middle an pulling it below their chin.
6. They again hold exactly the middle portion to pull it back.
7. They dont cover the nose and it is at the mouth level.
8. They are not washing it every day(if washable).

Am I an expert in recommending masks? No. I am only logical at it. So, what is the best mask?

1. An N95 mask wore properly covering the nose and the mouth down to the chin such that majority of the air going in and coming out is through the mask.

What other choices?

Though not medically recommended, masks made of multiple layers of cloth with criss-cross strands could be made at home. Preferably more than 3 layers. If possible a filtering medium in between the layers is recommended.

How to really wear it?

1. Hold the masks only at the strands which are for fixing it. Fix it such that it covers your nose and the mouth and you feel that majority of the air entering is through your mask only. You are not feeling the air entering through the sides of the mask. If this is not so then there is no point of wearing your mask.
2. Once you wear it, do not touch any portion of the mask. Move around as though you are not wearing them. Do not touch your face at any point of time.
3. If you want to remove it, again, hold them at the strands and make an arrangement for hanging the mask from the strands. Ensure that you or any others or any other thing does not touch the surface or the insides of the mask. To wear it again, follow step 2.
4. It is better you have a mask for the office work separately and keep it at the office.
5. If you are using masks made of layers of cloth, it is recommended to wash them everyday.

For better results with the mask, another important aspect is maintaining distancing. At any point of time maintain at least a minimum of 1 metre distance between everybody. And everybody in the vicinity also to maintain the same. It is not enough that you are wearing the mask properly and maintaining the distance. Everybody else should do so. This will minimize the payload, if it exists in any of the person in the group.

With all the above we are ensuring that the payload when delivered to our body, will be minimal and our immune system is capable of fighting that smaller payload.




Survive.

Android wear based smart watches

I did write a post regarding the requirements of a smart watch. The smartwatch scenario now is a mess w.r.t customer. Why? Well, to start with the customer is not having best of all the worlds. We are customers and yes, we suck, we want more of everything. In fact we want everything. With the smart watch the customer has to decide what is important. Is it a plethora of pixels with miniscule battery life or a pebble. Just observe the last sentence. The former category is filled with android offerings from all the major OEMs and ofcourse, Apple. Here you will be looking at a smaller screen mobile. You have clear and crisp graphics and an OS which have been scaled down from their mobile counterparts. It is more or less two mobiles connected to each other over bluetooth. When powered on, these watches, because of their high dpi look beautiful with a hell lot of complications being programmed for the watchfaces. But then, they can be seldom on. If they are on, all the time. the watch wont even last 1 - 2 hours. What a big joke that would be and is. So majority 99% of the time, the screen is plain black. If the watch is drawn towards you, then it swithces on and displays the watchface in full beautiful complete color palatte. After a momentary flash, the screen goes blank. If you missed what you wanted to read, you have to click the power button or just shake your hand again.

Let me first talk about an android wear watch. What better watch than the moto 360. The hardware is drop dead gorgeous(Yes, we may differ here, I know, I know). But for me the steel one is awesome. It can double up as a designer bracelet(since the screen is black most of the time). The steel chain is designed beautifully. The screen is awesome. The gripe with the moto 360 appearance is the flat tyre. The dark area at the bottom end of the circular display, housing the Ambient sensor. The ambient sensor is a requirement since without it we would be staring at a bright screen, any time of hte day. The ambient sensor does its job. The flat tyre looks ridiculous on perfecly round watchfaces which require the entire circular dispay. There are many watchfaces which use the flat tyre to come up with some of the most innovative watchfaces. For these watchfaces, the flat tyre suddenly become a feature.

The major issue for android wear based watches are the OS, is totally buggy. Some or the other core app crashes regularly. Frequent reboots are the order of the day. And you know, the funniest thing is You have to factory reset the watch every time you have to connect a new phone. just imageine the situation for a rom flashaholic like me to connect the watch every time I flash a new rom on my phone. You are lucky if you get one full day of juice from your android watch.

Every android watch manufacturer are out with their second iteration and all still run 5.1.1. This during a time Marshmallow was released. I was expecting at least one of the second gen watches to come out with Android 6.0, What with the "doze" feature of the new version of android. This just shows that google is not that serious with its watch operating system. Android wear still had the first to customer advantage compared to an apple watch. But, the apple watch's interface looks more polished than the android one. Google has to put serious effort to bring wear to apple's standards. The 360 second generation has gone the traditional way when it comes to the design and look of the watch. I think motorola is afraid of that the watch companies are going to just stamp a smart watch OS on the existing hardware which in turn answers the traditional design of the watch, to look, more like a watch. The first generation is still the winner when it comes to looks and radical design. When it comes to android watches the colors are bright, text is crisp, It is a small phone. I think the next gen android watches will support direct voice calls.

I think all the future smart watches should have a traditional watch mechanism layer so that I can still use my watch without worrying about the charge remaining. The next gen android design should allow this somehow.

The next post will discuss a watch which has been the leader in this segment for a very long time...........