digital-exhaust on S Anand

Using browser history as memory

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:02:56 +0800

I have a bad memory. (I need to write about that. I k eep forgetting to.)

It’s worsening. Yesterday, I misplaced my debit card for the first time. Or maybe the second…? Which reminds me, I just forgot a call I have now! (Panic.)

(15 min later.) So, anyway, therefore, I log stuff meticulously. Like what I did each day, what I ate, what I weigh, what pained me, etc. But the best logging is automated. My phone logs where I am. My bank logs what I spend. My calendar logs who I meet.

The main gap now is when I’m at home, not spending money or meeting people. Just… browsing. And browser history is a great way to “remember” this.

I figure out what I did this weekend, I ran:

datasette ~/.config/microsoft-edge/Default/History --nolock

… and then this query:

SELECT
datetime(visit_time / 1000000 - 11644473600, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') AS visit_date,
  urls.title,
  urls.url
FROM visits
JOIN urls ON visits.url = urls.id
WHERE visit_date >= '2026-02-14 00:00:00'
  AND visit_date < '2026-02-16 00:00:00'
ORDER BY visit_time ASC;

I pasted the CSV output into Gemini along with this prompt:

Here is my browsing history this Sunday. Summarize what I did, grouping into logical groups like:

10:00 - 12:30: What I did in 1-2 sentences 12:30 - 13:00: Next activity …

Ask me questions for whatever’s unclear.

Here’s what it said {with my comments}:

10:00 – 12:00: VizChitra Planning & AI Research. You started with administrative tasks (AWS, Google AI Studio keys) before diving into VizChitra 2026 proposals. You researched AI attribution bias and data storytelling, then used Claude and Gemini to brainstorm ideas, eventually drafting your blog post: “Submitting an AI-Ded VizChitra Proposal.”
12:00 – 14:15: Blogging & Philosophy You continued refining your blog post and engaged in deep discussions with Claude about “developing taste and judgment in the AI age.” You also briefly checked LinkedIn {“anyone liked my post yet?”} and explored some Dutch legal terms (“Stijlrichtlijn”) {work-related}.
14:15 – 16:30: Academic Research & Entertainment. You read heavy research papers on the economic and aesthetic impacts of AI (Microsoft’s Future of Work, Peyman Shahidi) {to develop taste}. You then prototyped an “Ask AI” tool using Codex before switching gears {here’s the Ask AI tool} to watch the Telugu comedy movie Khatarnak on YouTube {Telugu films are best for vibe coding}.
16:30 – 17:45: Local Development & Coding You spent this block coding on localhost (port 8000), testing your “Ask AI” tool and a “JSON to CSV” converter. You also managed GitHub pull requests for your tools repository.
17:45 – 19:00: Deep Dive into Learning Theory. You went down a rabbit hole on pedagogy and mastery, reading about the “psychology of interest,” “tacit knowledge” (Commoncog), “cognitive apprenticeship,” and Austin Kleon’s “Scenius” {to develop taste}. You also looked up directions to the Isha Yoga Center in Singapore {my wife asked}.
19:00 – 20:30: Course Admin & Networking. You switched context to your Tools in Data Science (TDS) course, troubleshooting a “GA1 Question 9” submission issue for students. You checked LinkedIn profiles ({names redacted}) and watched a few more comedy clips (Baladoor, Julai) to relax.
20:30 – 22:00: TDS Live Session. You prepared for and joined a Google Meet (likely the TDS Live Session), reviewing papers on “automation bias” beforehand. Afterward, you managed the meeting recordings and looked into configuring custom commit messages for GitHub Copilot.
22:00 – 23:00: Cloudflare & Wrap-up. You ended the day deploying updates on Cloudflare Workers, handling more student emails regarding the GA1 deadline, and doing some light image editing on Squoosh.

This is a fantastic way to jog my memory about what I did - and is obviously spot on. The questions it asked were also insightful:

The search for “Stijlrichtlijn Verdict to Video” (Dutch guidelines) seemed distinct from your other work—was this for a specific project? ANS A specific work project.
Did you end up watching the full Khatarnak movie, or was it background noise while you prototyped? ANS Background noise while vibe0coding.
The very last search was for “cnc machine”—are you looking to buy one? ANS Prof Shantanu Chaudhury, a few days ago, likened vibe coding practices to “something like you’re creating a CNC machine for coding. You’re just giving the specification, programming it, and it’s generating the code.” Which felt very apt, but I haven’t used a CNC machine (or have I?) and asked Google what it was.

So there it is. Export your browser history and as an LLM to summarize your day. Great way to jog your memory - and waste an hour.

11 Mar 2026. This continues to be a useful memory hack. In the last 4 weeks, I’ve used this at least 4 times to find out what I was doing the previous day or previous few days.

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 05:36:05 +0000

In my Mining Digital Exhaust workshop on Saturday,

One discovered that they cycle when life is unstable, not for fitness.
Another found that their buys are good but sells are bad trades.
I learnt that I watch YouTube most at office (12-4 pm), not at home.

How? A fairly straight-forward process:

Export your personal data. (Use Chrome Devtools Protocol to scrape.)
Upload to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, … and have them analyze with code.
Have them narrate in the style of your favorite author.

Models are super smart, but everyone has equal access to them. Your personal data is unique. Combine them to get something powerful.

Workshop summary: https://sanand0.github.io/talks/2025-12-06-mining-digital-exhaust/

Organized by Hasgeek at the Sahaj Software office in Bangalore.

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 06:53:45 +0000

Google Search Suggestions is still an under-used social research tool.

In 2014, I typed “how do I convert to”. In India the top suggestions were “hinduism”, “christianity”, “islam”, then “judaism”. In Australia, it was “islam”, “judaism”, “catholicism”, and “pdf” 🙂

Checking this across countries is hard. So I automated it at https://tools.s-anand.net/googlesuggest/. It’s not perfect. Your IP influences results. But it’s a good approximation.

For example, “how do I convert to” shows:

Religious conversions dominate across countries, to Islam, Catholicism, Judaism (in that order). Everyone’s looking for a new life path.

But tech conversions to PDF, MP4, Excel, and eSIMs trump the meaning of life in South Africa, Pakistan and Nigeria.

UK & Ireland searches for “convert to Catholicism UK” and “Judaism in the UK,”. Why settle for generic spirituality?

Canada and the US convert tons to cubic yards or Roth IRAs. Finance, faith and file formats mix.

The Philippines wants memes. Laughter is the best spiritual conversion.

India adds vector images to the mix. Let’s convert the soul and graphics while multitasking!

Try out some of the common questions: “how to”, “why is”, “how can I”, “what is the”, etc. and you’ll find some interesting stories. For example:

what is the: Nigerians repeatedly ask “what is the time in” various countries like the USA, Brazil, and Germany.
how can I: Singaporeans ask “how can I keep from singing?
which is the: Irish and Americans ask “which is the gay ear?
can I: Australians and New Zealanders ask “can I pet that dawg?
why is: Almost everyone wants to know “why is my poop green/black?

We don’t usually think of digital exhaust like this as data, but it can be pretty rich source.