22 Jun 2017
git
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marathons
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open-source
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punchcard
Around 6 pm today, I found guanqun/git-punchcard-plot.
At 10:45 pm, approximately 4 hours later (of which I spent rather less time writing stuff, I opened PR #7.
Once I cloned the repository, I realised that you need to put the git-punchcard
python script in your PATH
for it to start working as git punchcard
. I didn’t need any of that, I did really want to see a punchcard though. So, I put it there, (Note 1: Take path from the CLI if provided!)
When I generated the punchcard for a repository, it looked like this:

It looked okay. The opacity was a problem. I might have made fewer...
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13 Jun 2017
https
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internet
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security
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tls
I downloaded the TLS IETF draft. It’s 104 pages long, That’s as big as Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.
This is perhaps my 100th attempt at reallt understanding the internals of how TLS works. My end goal is simple here: I want to know how a secure channel is established between a server and a client. I don’t want an apples-and-oranges-are-fruits level understanding of it, I have that. I know all the digital signature and public key cryptography analogies that are out there. I want to be able to form a general idea of HOW each step works, why it is required, and how that particular step fits in the larger scheme of things.
I started with Wireshark and captured...
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12 Jun 2017
programming
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react
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redux
So, I had this idea for an app. It’s a pretty basic app and it takes the current location and prints some distances. It does all of this stuff without an active internet connection because GPS DOES NOT NEED INTERNET. It drives me crazy that Google Maps won’t download the area that I live in (which they might know because I occasionally have to turn on Location Services on my phone) or any location that I tell it to.
From their POV, it’s probably not the best because most of the traffic related data on Google Maps is crowd sourced and you ain’t getting no data from a phone that is offline.
So, I decided to leap frog that and...
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01 Jun 2017
books
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writing
I find myself thinking about what to write every day. This has been happening everyday since the end of the 100 days.
A general update, is what this post is.
I am reading Apt Pupil. The book has gone literally nowhere since I started it. Since this is a book of four stories, I don’t even know how much of it I have read, it must be 20-30 pages and the book is slowly progressing somewhere. This initial period of intrigue that exists right before the explosive event and the chase that happens in the end + climax of the book seems to be a common theme in Stephen King books.
I have also been raving about the Read More
28 May 2017
100daysofwriting
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books
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endings
HELL YEAH, WE ARE FINALLY HERE.
(Prologue: This is going to be a normal Ep 100 post. My thoughts about this series, the things I wrote about (and didn’t), the days I really did write well etc will all be covered in a different post.

That is Rita Hayworth. She was the one that Andy Dufresne began with. For 27 years he toiled, and made it out. It’s an amazing novella! I kind-of knew the ending but was blocking it off so I could still enjoy the book. The revelation is not the climax and I think that’s where the story really excels. In telling the story of two men, vastly different from each other, but...
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27 May 2017
100daysofwriting
I found another really strange thing that happens with Mongoose when used inside Async.
let mongoose = require('mongoose'); mongoose.connect(db_conn_string); let util = require('util'); let async = require('async'); let Schema = mongoose.Schema; let ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId; var PersonSchema = new Schema({ name: { type: String }, username: { type: String,...
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26 May 2017
100daysofwriting
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bangalore
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floods
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nature
08:00 pm: Walk into a restaurant for dinner with a few friends and seniors from IIT KGP.
11:30 pm: Decide to step outside and be faced with one feet of water in every direction the eye can see.
Reaction: WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?
The best reference to come up with here is: July 26, 2005, Bombay
I was there, 9 years old at the time. Hardly understanding what the fuss was about, schools weren’t there for a few days I was definitely real happy about THAT. There was a lot of stuff going on at that time in the city, I got to know of most of them after the fact. As stories that were recounted several times...
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25 May 2017
100daysofwriting
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adaptations
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emma
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gillan
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karen
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movies
I watched The Circle. It’s a movie everyone needs to watch
The movie touches on some of the core concepts of privacy and does a really really good job of putting a clear LINE where transparency begins and privacy ends. They do it in an obscure fashion with no direct references, main characters who are incredibly skewed in their personalities, visions and with motives unknown to the audience. Money might be a driving factor, but Tom Hanks’ character and the guy Tom Stenton, they have LOTS of data, I wonder if money is their only over reaching goal.
Anyway, putting all of that aside, it’s a great cautionary tale of what happens when people start believing that what’s not on...
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24 May 2017
100daysofwriting
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books
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king
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shawshank
The second type of guy knows that there is no harm in hoping for the best as long as you are prepared for the worst
(p. 88, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption – Stephen King)
I have known this particular phrase / quote for a long time now. I finally found the source (or it could be older than even this book!) In any case, it is a GREAT quote to live by.
(27th May, 2017) I have now read about 100-110 pages of the book. Dufresne has made the escape, Red is merely tying up all the knots. I have read the whole book (almost) on my phone, and I didn’t check where the book ends. So...
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23 May 2017
100daysofwriting
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king
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mongoose
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movies
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population
UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL
If you have seen any trailer of The Circle (2017), you will know that this is the thing that Emma Watson’s character is most scared of. I just finished watching Good Will (Goodwill?) Hunting. That movie is the portrayal of unfulfilled potential. The ending is good, in my opinion though, the movie is over rated generally.
I have gone through 2 pages of Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. It’s pretty easy reading (after that nightmarish historical mystery book, I bet anything with actual people walking around the place would be easy reading) and I know who Andy Dufresne is. Fair enough, more updates soon.
I went back and had a look at the “Should we send...
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