Giridih, a scam city?

Scammer forgot to mask their number

I keep getting scam calls, claiming to be from various US entities. Almost all the time the number appeared to be from Atlanta. They have just masked their original number to appear to be from Atlanta. Once a scammer called me and I asked him whether he is from Mumbai. He replied, "No Sirrr, Not Mumbai, I am from the IRS." Sometimes the scammers distort their voice with some software to sound like an automated message or a bot (to make us believe they are calling from a big organization and perhaps to prevent us from judging their accent). I asked the person, "are you a bot?" The bot laughed and replied, "No Sir, I am not a bot. I am from IRS." So yes, a human with a distorted voice to sound like a bot, with a fake/masked number to appear to be from IRS or whatever a US entity.

Today I received the same scam call. But this time, most likely due to a software failure, they had forgotten to mask their actual number. The number is from Giridih, a city popular for such cyberscams.

Meaningless and comedic reviews on Google Maps

Google Maps is full of meaningless and comedic reviews. Especially, the remote regions such as Arctic lands are filled with such jokes. They undermines the usefulness of the reviews, by flooding with these jokes. These are annoying especially when these remote regions are hard to reach and these reviews mask the legit reviews with their comedy.

If you have not been to a place, why are you reviewing it? It just skews the correct ratings. Reviews are meant to be from those who have already experienced the place. Not from those who cheat the system to become a "Local Guide" for Google.

Here, this person has apparently landed on this remote Arctic island on Google map and decided to leave this review. Unfortunately, this useless review has received more positive reviews than the legit reviews from those who took the pain to visit this totally amazing remote land.

An idiotic review that claims this Arctic island, easily one of the coldest in the world year around, to be hot and humid. Then people be up-voting it as a joke. Hope Google also introduces a down-vote. Then people like me can down-vote such stupid reviews.

And more irrelevant reviews.

Some reviewing on behalf of their siblings and friends who have actually visited the place.

Others reviewing after spotting the place on Google maps.

Unless Google fixes its review system, Google reviews will remain the most useless reviews we ever have had.

Niffler: A DICOM Framework for Machine Learning and Processing Pipelines

Niffler is an open source DICOM framework for machine learning and processing pipelines. This is an introductory presentation for Niffler.

 

Niffler: A DICOM Framework for Machine Learning and Processing Pipelines. from Pradeeban Kathiravelu, Ph.D.

Heating and hot water diaries

Begich Towers, Whittier, AK

Lisboa's winters were cold indoors. We did not have proper heating in most of the apartments and hostels that we stayed. The hot water was okay - but not too stable. It got cold when we opened the kitchen water simultaneously. On the other hand, Stockholm and Louvain-la-Neuve had a better but central heating. That means, it was cold in autumn until they turned the heating on. Once they turned it on, it was warm enough always, as in the summer - quite comfortable. In Atlanta, we have a better personal heating. So we have a better control of the heating. Hot water in Stockholm, Louvain-la-Neuve, and Atlanta are quite stable too.

We never had to worry about heating in Colombo. It was always hot. Whenever it got "cold," it was a pleasant surprise that was to be cherished - not something we needed heater. But still, taking a cold shower was fun. Most apartments did not have proper water heating. We used to boil water in pans to fill a huge containers for warm showers. Not as convenient - but it worked.

I did not enjoy the Lisboa winters as much as I enjoy Lisboa summers. Indoors got colder than the outdoors in winters. But still, the foggy days of winters were a magical feeling. Nothing to complain about.

The inevitable evil now known as the Zoom

Alexandria, VA

Zoom fatigue is a real thing. Most people do not realize how it can affect the productivity and overall employee health.

If a zoom meeting ends at 11 am, can you all please:

a1) avoid extending it to 11:05 am? (another meeting starts at 11 am).

 

a2) avoid crashing many things from 10:55 - 11 am? (yes, your presentation timing was bad - you need to work on that).

a3) end at 10:57 am instead? (a short bathroom break before the next 11 am meet).

It is important to finish on time, or rather 3 minutes early - especially those with more than 2 people. If it is just 2 people, we could inform each other and end earlier in case of another meeting coming up right after. But with more people, we are left to:

b1) suffer back-to-back meetings with no breaks for eye strains or washroom.

b2) get late to the following meeting, either missing part of that meeting - or pushing it to start later, making a snowball effect on losing track of time for all the subsequent meetings.

b3) leave the meeting in "the middle" at 10:58 when the meeting goes on 10 minutes out of the schedule, eventually making us lose 12 minutes of the meeting which could contain the crucial aspects of the meeting if you are going crash important things during those last few minutes (refer to: a1).