December 12 2023

The Leonardo next to me

Details make perfection but perfection is not a detail.

Leonardo da Vinci 

The Tuesday started rough and rapid, I woke up at 8:58 am and needed to be somewhere at 9 am. I guess the alarm didn’t really rang, rushed in a hurry to washroom to take a bath, I booked my cab with wet hands and wore clothes in a hurry. Ofcourse I got late but that’s alright I managed it somehow, the life is getting super busy nowadays, this new job, the part-time course I started, the research project with my professor and this multinational, working on Perplexed, freelancing project, Startup I am helping, this hackathon project which got incubation, PhD application, job application, and what not. But, the is actually good, I guess these are the things what make me feel alive or atleast keeps me away from the trap of thinking nonsense. Okay let’s cut straight.

 

I was sitting on that last white bench in this small library at a random city college in Glasgow, what I am doing here is another story maybe I will tell you someday later. I saw a gentleman walking straight to me in long brown coat and a hat on his head, it was strange as this desk is at the very end where people do not usually come up at all. He stopped by me and asked are you, are you Vinamra, I was shocked how does he know my name, before I could say something, he told in a lower voice, ‘don’t worry, neither I am a student here; I also just jumped inn as I love books as much as you do’. I was all perplexed but yet gathered the courage to ask, ‘Do I know you? sir’. He laughed in joy and said, ‘oh son, I thought you were as smart as people claim’, he further added, ‘I am Leonardo, Leonardo da Vinci’. At that very moment my curiosity turned into excitement, I rose in joy and pulled a chair for him to sit.

 

Leonardo quickly sit and said, I am as busy as you but just came by to see for a reason, before I could understand anything he pulled out his famous art work The distance from the Sun to Earth and the Size of the Moon from his left pocket and from the right a brown sheet of paper seems as old as the melody of Rome. He said, ‘You know Vinamra, I wasn’t an artist, I was an inventor, I was a human who had the ability to think, I don’t know what is the problem with the world today; they see me as an artist’, I replied,’Yes sir, I can understand you deep, people see you only for your success but not for efforts I think; but still you are not less than a hero of your time, your assumptions of 1506 is a reality of today’. He laughed in joy and added, ‘oh kid, don’t be just thinking what this world think, I know you have ability to think and do different and that is why I am here’.

Distance from the Sun to the Earth and the size of the Moon by Leonardo da Vinci – Artchive

Suddenly I noticed, my watch just stopped. when, I checked my phone and time was not moving at all, was I trapped in some Time paradox? to be honest I do not know that still but it was different everything was moving around me but the relative time for me and him was still. Leonardo was worried and badly tensed; he looked into his watch and said, ‘Vinamra, I am running late, let us just work on this piece quick, I have the calculation for the flow of time but the rest is on you, how much you can push it, and I am sure we can achieve the time travel soon.’ I was all lost and was not able understanding anything at all, I added, ‘but what do you want me to do with this, it seems a truth of another universe and time; are you sure you are looking for me’. Suddenly a bell rang somewhere and he disappeared with a note left, ‘you know the destination, you just need to find the way’.

 

The Leonardo next to me, is a tale of truth, reality and twisted times, you may question what it means, just look harder and you will find your meaning in these texts.

By the was thank you so much and congratulations to everyone, we have crossed a mark of 10k new readers in the blogs every month from almost 34 different countries, I never thought you people will ever like to read the shit I write but thanks to you all for making this a reality. Okay see you all soon, hopefully I will start the YouTube channel from next week.

November 21 2023

The Final Call: Enigma Attaining Solidarity

Hey readers, I hope you all are doing well and excited about this new blog! Well, just a tiny update: I was in India right now and finally celebrated this Diwali week🪔 with my family. I know I was off the grid for a while, though thanks to you all, we now have readers from almost 23 nationalities reading these sluttish words. It is interesting to see how I started this blog as a professional place to dump knowledge, but it ended up being my emotional punch bag; isn’t it strange how I hate expressing what I feel even to the closest humans, and here I throw thoughts out of me? By the way, I am just now sitting at the New Delhi airport waiting to board my flight to Dubai; yeah, I am going there, but not for COP28. This is motivating as I promised myself to work as hard as I will be invited as a presidential guest in the next event. I will be in the United Kingdom from next week onwards.

‘The Final Call: Enigma Attaining Solidarity’ symbolises a call we all get at least once, and I feel this is my time now. So far, things are changing rapidly, and nothing looks the same as before, but a wise man once said, “Change is the only constant of human life” I can say I feel it deep now. I am not very sure about my words today, and that is strange, isn’t it? How can I claim to be a so-called writer while I myself have no idea what I am writing today?  I guess human emotions are too fragile; yes, no matter how much I deny being human, I am one of them. Well, in the middle of this conflict of finding my existence, I am here contradicting everything I said and thinking I should work on stimulating the human feeling using haptic neuronic impulse through a microcontroller embedded into the brain. Seems like I got a good idea through the other fact is also that I have almost pending work that weighs nearly a ton more than me on an urgent basis. Ahhh, someone, please, my day count of at least 56 hours instead of 24, but I know It will not work either as my hunger to attain the things I don’t think will ever be satisfied.

Yes, this hunger thing is true. I never thought I would be like this, but this is a reality; I remember my young high school vinamra wishing to earn a yearly package of what I am making every month now, and still, it seems like nothing; I need more and more. We have already talked a lot out of scope, didn’t we? Yes, this happens very often now. I love to be an extrovert with my blog, and I can say this is becoming a best friend to me. It is strange how just about three weeks back, I was thinking yeah, I can potentially be in a stable place; maybe I should pause this hustle and spend quality time like most humans do, but things completely changed, and yes, I am changed too; Ahh, I guess its the time to board the flight strange why people are already lining up in a queue to be in the aircraft while it will definitely not leave without taking everyone present here at the gate, it feels like a local train where people are rushing to take the seat. Should I join this nonsense lane, too ?? or should I pretend I am too rich to care about such things !! This is the exact reason why I don’t like humans, but look how twisting destiny the flight got delayed; this world is a real rat-cage where people are only into rat-race.

Jogging Rat GIF - Jogging Rat No parking GIFs

There is a reason behind the triggering of this call, but I will not be disclosing that now or maybe ever. But yes, these words are here to let the world know that they will witness something beyond their thoughts and dreams. By the year 2025, you will see things hiking another level of destiny and changing the possibilities forever, Perplexed will break every record and will be the fatest Unicorn start-up in the world, and I will be there working each night as it is the last hustling every day even if It will just be me in the end. Solitude is the ultimate truth, I always asked myself this question will I be happy if I achieve everything but I will end up alone, I know this sounds scary but what is more than scary is that I believe my answer is yes. As a 23-year-old now I think I need to change the perspective of my life in an inverted way as now I am ready to be in solitude forever but I am not at all ready to sideline even a single thing.

Ahh this blog is getting too big, let’s conclude this for now, Let me write the second part to this once I reach back Scotland, until then be safe and keep on husteling also as our tradition of leaving something exciting for you at the end of each piece; I will be available for a zoom catch up later this Saturday 25th, feel free to ping me on my email (vinamrasharma5@gmail.com) I will be sending the invite to 2 people writing me first, let’s see who really read this long.

October 8 2023

The Tryst of Marching Ahead: What did I lost, What do I find?

It’s 8th of October 2023, Sunday mornings are generally lazy until I realised that there is a lot of pending work I need to do, which seems to be impossible to complete in just one day. Still, I choose to write this blog first ;-). It’s around 1:30 am at this side of the world, a rainy morning, and a hungry me as always. Well, the pasta is boiled, as soon as I am done writing, I am gonna make the tasty delight worth with by actually eating it 😋(ps: this gif below is exactly me eating).

TV gif. Mary Kate or Ashley Olsen as Michelle Tanner from Full House starts devouring a huge plate of spaghetti using two utensils.

Life is really changing up now, I believe I am changing too! To be honest with you, I have no idea who this person is I see in mirror now. It feels like I am going deep into the matrix, the temptation(💰🧚‍♀️🏎️🛩️🎡🏛️) seems to be true while I know it is just a false reflection, the me is lost somewhere between the fine-lines of dwarf reality.

When I look back, it seems like through this journey so far I have lost a lot and found just a few, its strange how the whole world tell your story of marching ahead with glory while you still find yourself standing still doing nothing but getting lost. Though this is completely personal, it’s peculiar how I am sharing it on my blog read by almost five thousand people monthly. Isn’t this a paradox again? The paradox of human emotion and expression, ohh, I guess I got the title for the next blog, hahaha look at me trying to be over-smart and thinking for the next blog even before this one actually concluding.

I can deeply feel William Blake, when he said “Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death“; though you looses all the sense of emotions, empathy, and understanding of people when you are diving in the sea of desires which are bigger than reality of most of the people. Of-course your determination will be challenged by the thoughts and assumptions of realist time to time, you will miss the faces you have left behind, despite having thousands unread texts you haven’t replied and hundreds of people around, you will end up in solitary but remember the bigger good requires the harder effort.

Maybe I am not meant for emotions, I am great with the people I just meet and know nothing about; but, when it comes to people really mean to me, I am not able to express, or show!(📚💃) Though I have decided I am here for something beyond, and yes I am ready to win the world🌏. I know this Tryst of Marching Ahead: What did I lost, What do I find? will be dilemma for life… but I will wake up each day with the determination to paint a new heights of possibility, to develop a meaning bigger than any definition.

Well, its almost 5:00 am here, I guess I should prepare my pasta dancing on a random melody and singing the emotions, there is a lot pending on the to-do for today.

See you in the next blog.

Category: Life | LEAVE A COMMENT
August 5 2023

The Lost Phoenix: A Tale of You

Defined by words, derived by facts; determined by will, and defused in emotions; the lost phoenix is a tale of you residing in yourself.

Hey everyone, isn’t it really long since I have written something? Ahh… I was quite stuck with the paradox of life until today in middle of super busy day I decided to pause it all and share something that make sense only to stars residing far. Well, I am happy to see that our viewer count is increasing in the blogs and very surprisingly most of you like the blogs around life then tech. Someone really said the truth; science is the language of mortals but arts is the sense of living. (Ps- That someone is me 🙂 )

Let me start this piece with a question to you all; have you ever felt lost? lost in emotions, lost in thoughts, or lost in work ? Now, you are thinking and I am sure the answer is yes, isn’t it? So is the answer is yes smile :-)(don’t ask the reason, why I asked you to smile; sometimes its just good to smile. Look at your face you all looks beautiful).

Well, ‘The Lost Phoenix‘ is all about you; remember how we all had some dreams and desires for us when we were little. Yeah I am talking about the exact thing of having a helipad on the roof, going on to the trip across Europe with no identity, developing a time machine to travel back and get all the exam questions in advance, or what type of people you would like to have in life. What have happened to that now? The twisting events of life have shaped the things differently?? or you may say that now you are learned enough to understand and restructure the life right way. Well I am here to get your phoenix take you out of yourself  just as the style of Dumbledore.

The Lost Phoenix

In the rapidly changing and continuously evolving life our definitions of things have been badly influenced or I would say contaminated with a precious gift of sense known as logic. Besides being the most crucial ingredient in the recipe of life; when you add it too much the dish really get bad. Today. take a break just the way I did and think of the decisions you have taken by adding logic and that has changed what you always wanted to what should be there. Is it really justified, is it really worth it and even though if it is worth; are you okay with it ? What, why are you reading so seriously; calm down, I know its the first time I am twisting not with codes but with emotions.

Well, this blog is here to just to share an additional pointer in the collection of nodes, by the way I am happy to see that you have read it all along the last guys. So just a small reveal ‘The Lost Phoenix’ will be there as a whole chapter in my upcoming book, possibly launching in November. I know you are excited, stay tuned and ya another fun thing drop me an email at info@vinamrasharma.com with your name and a short message by 10th of Aug 2023 and you will be having a coffee on me 😉

March 30 2023

How to get started with hackathons?

Well, its good to see how people have started taking an interest in the astounding field of hackathons; I remember when I started my journey in 2019, I actually had no idea what this word even meant, but the only image that was in my mind is of someone hacking my Facebook and text to the girl that I never got the courage to write.

This blog is especially for those who are starting their journey with hackathons; if you are someone who just decided to give it a try for the first time, I hope reading this blog might help you get the most out of your event 🙂

  • Firstly, remember hackathon is never about technology nor about ideas; it’s all about an experience, so just focus on that.
  • Team building could be an initial challenge, always be hyperactive and draft a message expressing yourself, what you are here for, and mentioning that you are looking for teammates. Generally, most hackathons use media like discord and slack to communicate, and you will always find a channel with a name like #find-a-team, or you can just write to members of the track directly.
  • Always share your LinkedIn or any social platform to grow your network; even if you are not on the same team, remember connecting with people is always paramount.
  • Also, it’s not even essential to know even a single technology to take part in any hackathon. You can always contribute with idea development, research, presentation, logistics, and a ton of other things.
  • But what I really suggest is that a hackathon is a perfect place to learn and grow, so you can always learn things and apply at the same time.
  • The other exciting part is to reach out to amazing mentors when you feel stuck or if you are unsure about any implementation, it could be as small as not deciding on the right idea, code not running, or even nothing at all working out.
  • Another critical aspect of a hackathon is to engage with workshops and activities going across the place; these activities keep you motivated as well as most of the time, you get the opportunity from some of the very learned and experienced people.
  • On the prospect of searching for potential jobs, I personally consider hackathons a very good place. Just as we want good companies, good companies also want to have employees who have excellent skills and mindsets, while hackathons are one of the perfect places to find this delicate intersection.
  • So constantly interact with the sponsors of the event and drop your resume with a message to consider you if they come across any good opportunity where you can contribute, I can say this personally works, and for me, it actually helped me to work with an exciting silicon valley startup.
  • A very common question apart from just experience and how to have a good experience is how to come up with a really good project; the answer to this question actually much simpler, remember, it’s just 70% of impact and 30% of technology. A common mistake I see people making in hackathons is that they always look for technology. If you ask me, I suggest you focus on the positive impact you can bring from your work rather than just the tech stack.
  • Generally, we find hackathons of straight 24 or 48 hours(there are even longer events such as a week-long, a month-long or even more), so working continuously for these many hours could be challenging, especially when you have a bunch of other things to do as well. Well, as these events are global, there are more than chances that your team will be from people of different time zone, so you can always plan by distributing the work and keeping each other in the loop with the updates. Even playing a few games in between and just talking or listening to music also helps.
  • When you and your team are done with the work, remember to conclude all with an excellent presentation and show it in the way you thought of it with you first came up with the idea.
  • Finally, when you submit your work, always thank your wonderful teammates for their work and tell them that no matter what the results will be, they all have worked wonderfully and how much you loved working together.
  • If you win the event, that’s great, but even if you don’t, make sure you write a good message congratulating winners and thinking of the organizers who put so much hard work into making this event possible.

The image below is AI generated image based on the content of the blog; also, if you feel you have more questions still to ask, click on this link to schedule a quick meeting with me and get your answers :

AI generated image of the partial text of the blog
AI-generated image on the base of text in the blog

<Disclaimer: Just one of my professor advised me to write in precise points and focus on the key ideas, so I am trying to do the same with this blog, not just with my answer sheets>

Ps- Writing this blog doesn’t actually feel like writing at all; it’s just like me expressing my other half :-), so please don’t mind if you find me flowing in emotions.

March 6 2023

Decrypting Cipher Text Encoded Using 8 Rotor Encryption machine

Cryptography is a beautiful subject; it’s full of mystery, thrill, and of course, filled with wonders of joy. So in this blog, I share my experience decoding a cipher text encoded using an 8-rotor encryption machine. So it was just the 2nd of March when I was completing this LinkedIn course on Introduction to cryptography and secure development when I went across moodle(LMS used by the University of Glasgow) to see some of the great content posted by my professor to learn from, suddenly I realized that I have a pending midterm assessment which is due in less than 46 hours roughly. When I read through the description of what I needed to do, I got speechless, as I had almost no idea what I would do, so the professor emailed us two cipher texts which were encoded using this 8-rotor machine code he had uploaded in the portal written in JAVA, other than this he had given us a text file containing roughly 10000(ten thousand) possible keys that could be input to the code to decode the cipher text.

So, as we had multiple keys with us, some random cipher text, and the 8-rotor machine code, we needed to find the right key and decode the cipher text into plain sensible text using the right key. So, one of the best ways to do this would be a brute force ofcourse, though; the interesting fact was that as we already have a set of keys, we can actually use a dictionary attack.

In task one, we already have the information that the first two letters of the plain text will be “T” and “h” this got half of my task done; it seems to be simple while performing the dictionary attack; I just filtered the output for the part where the first and second character is as T and h respectively. Well, I thought that this would be enough, but it wasn’t actually. So I got two possible keys after this and two plain texts; the first one was for sure wrong as it just had the first two characters as ‘Th’ but followed with a string of random characters that make no sense and for sure is not an English sentence. The second one was right as it has the decoded English sentence that makes the right sense. So here I have added another filter just by making another set of words consisting of general terms used in the English language such as as, as, the, we, us, etc. This allowed me to resolve the first task with an ace.

In task two, we didn’t have any characters of the plain text, so it needed more effort and a different approach. The only assumption we were given is the context will only generate an English sentence. Now, being a machine learning person, the first idea that hit my mind was precisely to develop an NLP model that would analyze the language to find the key, but the biggest challenge was that we needed to create a code in java, which is an alien language for me always(Ps- I just don’t know why I never liked it, maybe because of its syntax). So I had to think of another way which must be straightforward as by that time I was hardly left with 23 hours, and I needed to do some calculations and produce a report as well besides the code. Well, so what I did is simply browsed google for the average number of lengths of English words(which is almost 4.7 characters), and I replaced the filter for checking to check the average of the set of words in the generated plain text and wohhaa it worked right 🙂

Finally, with all my findings, I completed the report and the complete Midterm assessment to save myself from failing the subject just 3 hours before the deadline 😉

February 24 2023

AI: What happened when I deployed on my social medias?

Hey everyone, how are you all doing? Isn’t it too long since we have talked?? Or maybe you have wrote to me on my social platforms (i.e., WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Matrix, etc.). Okay I am here to reveal a secret today!!

If you have written to me in past two months there is a high probability that you might have talked to my AI Bot but not me. Okay I am sorry for doing this, but the results are surprising as well as shocking and terrifying on one way.

As the background, I have been working on this AI bot for almost three years since I was in bachelors, and finally I am happy that it is understanding expressions better and has started responding the way I am. So it was just the month of January when I thought that why not integrate it with my social medias and see how it react to real time interaction and how the people interact without knowing that its not a human.

Summary of what happened:

Count of Interactions: 53 different people (Women:31, Men:20, Unknown: 2)

People found it to be not me: 12

People assumed it’s me only: 41

What kind of interaction have happened?

So, I started with allowing text to text interaction where it was replying to the chats, while later, I used classification on a set of posts and allowed it to share with people posts that most suits based on the chat data interchanged.

Outcomes of this:

  1. Made so many people happy that I am replying on time finally😁.
  2. Helped two people feel super happy when they were feeling low and interacted with almost 5 hours continuously.
  3. Lost an amazing friend😒 (Coz the bot ended up sharing a creepy post, which made her feel uncomfortable, and as this is bot is another me, so I never explained what really happened)

Examples of Few Interactions:

Someone Classified its a bot
Someone Classified it as a bot
Normal Interaction
Normal Interaction(Person didn’t realised that its a bot)

I will be making  the whole code public soon once I fix few issues; stay tuned 🙂

Category: Life | LEAVE A COMMENT