Get rid of annoying TOI ads

Honestly, I am not a big fan of TOI but they are often the top link in Google News for news related to India. I use an adblocker for all websites this has been a source of a little annoyance while visiting their website.

Read More

A new word for hacker?

This post# https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=766979 brought up something I have thought about before.

Read More

The Golden Age of MOOCs is over and Why I hate Coursera

At dinner last night with a friend we ended up discussing how the internet has made the society fairer. We talked about the Arab Spring, the maker movement and most importantly MOOCs. I have always been a fan of MOOCs since my first exposure. The option to learn from the comfort of my room and topics which are not even offered at my university is every nerd’s dream come true. Of late we have seen MOOC providers caring less about the students and more about the $$$. I know they have the right to and maybe they should if they want to sustain the great offerings. But to begin with, they should stop the game of telling people that they care for students and are here to “provides universal access to the world’s best education”.

Read More

I don't know what I want

This is strange. I like programming I guess I have always liked it since my first exposure. I have been that awkward teenager in school the nerdy types they show in the movies. The ones who are weird to talk to. Despite all that, at school, I had always been confident in myself. The motto was is simple I never cared about what the others said or at least I have been successful in making myself believe so. Somehow, somewhere JEE Prep, college. the internet has beaten that out of me. Now my happiness stems from what others think and this saddens me deeply. I remember when I had learnt to use one of those skiddish virus creators for the first time it felt great. I have been fortunate enough to have that magical feeling several times. The feeling where you realize that a lot more is possible. When I first made my first power point animation. When I used infinite loops in a batch file script to make tons of folders. I still get awed by tons of cool things I come across daily but I hardly get THAT feeling. Reading AI and Math makes me feel good but not the same. Is that because I realize that there is a lot to learn, so much that I may never do it? Or is that because I have always been living in a bubble and now I am scared of those who are better than me. I guess it is the latter. Learning in isolation has been my power because when you do that you never know where you are. Now that can be limiting but probably not for me because I learn due to my fascination with things. When I learn when others are watching I just can’t. I like presenting my work and I enjoy when people appreciate me but I just want to show the finished product and not the process. I want people to stay away during the process. I don’t know how to fix myself. I just want to go back to stop caring about everyone else.

Read More

I love Silicon Valley's (HBO) Awesome Online Presence

Read More