Author: karanparikh

Frequent

(inspired by this post)

Here is a (definitely incomplete) list of programming / technology related websites (in no particular order) that I frequently read —

  • High Scalability: Excellent articles on real world software architecture and design.
  • Julia Evan’s Blog: Well written and fun to read posts on a wide range of topics from system programming to machine learning.
  • Preshing on Programming: A great resource for data structures and C++.
  • The Morning Paper: Research papers. Research papers. Research papers.
  • Hacker News: I feel this is the best resource to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the fields of technology, software engineering, and computer science.
  • Dan Luu’s blog: I hope to one day be able to write technical posts as well as they do.
  • LWN.net: Incredible posts about system engineering concepts.

What I’m currently listening to: Gojira and Radiohead

Magma and A Moon Shaped Pool, the newest albums by Gojira and Radiohead respectively, are spectacular. They’re all I’ve been listening to for the past few days.

Both deal with the topics of love and separation, though in completely different musical styles. And more importantly, in subtly different (yet oh so similar) interpretations of these two concepts.

These albums hug your heart.

Quotes: May Edition

I wrote a blog post talking about how I write down lines from books I’m reading. Here are some lines that I loved from books that I read in May:

“No piece of software is ever bug free.” — Snow Crash

“I became the sky.” — God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

In the limit, the Menger sponge is an object with an infinitely large surface area that is also invisible. — Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math

(The Menger sponge is fascinating)

When it comes to sums, nothing makes all the difference. — Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math

Goal Tracking: May Edition

At the beginning of the year I published a post outlining what some of my goals for the year were. In the spirit of being transparent, here is the progress I made on them over the course of May –

  1. Was there for everyone who needed me.
  2. Zero volunteering. Sigh.
  3. No procrastination!
  4. Continued my trend of always being honest and open.
  5. No progress made on learning Rust. I really need to work on this.
  6. I read three books over the course of May: Snow Crash (I enjoyed portions of the book, but overall I thought it was OK), God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (LOVED IT. I wish it were longer), Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math (I bought this book in 2014 and have been reading it in bits and pieces ever since. It’s a wonderful book. As a person who loves mathematics, reading this book was delightful)
  7. I read 1 research paper.
  8. I wrote 1 post.
  9. I learned to play 0 new songs on the guitar.
  10. (a) (goal achieved)
    (b) (goal achieved)
    (c) (goal achieved)
    (d) I started training for the SF half marathon.
    (e) (goal achieved)

Goal Tracking: April Edition

At the beginning of the year I published a post outlining what some of my goals for the year were. In the spirit of being transparent, here is the progress I made on them over the course of April –

  1. Was mostly available, except for the last week of April. Sorry.
  2. Zero volunteering. Sigh.
  3. Procrastination was zero.
  4. Continued my trend of always being honest and open.
  5. No progress made on learning Rust.
  6. I read only one book over the course of April: Trigger Warning (I loved it! I hadn’t read a book of short stories in a long time and this was perfect)
  7. I read 2 research papers.
  8. I wrote 7 posts.
  9. I learned to play 3 new songs on the guitar. I also started reading up on music theory.
  10. (a) I ran an 8 min (7m 52s to be precise) mile!
    (b) (goal achieved)
    (c) (goal achieved)
    (d) I signed up for the SF half marathon. I’m already nervous about this.
    (e) (goal achieved)

Think

(working through more Hacker News backlog)

I just finished Think OS: A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems. It had been sitting in my browser for quite some time now and I decided to read through the book this afternoon.

The book stays true to its title and gives a short and sweet introduction to (some) OS and systems programming fundamentals. While it doesn’t dive deep into any topic (for example — TLBs are not mentioned in the chapter about Virtual Memory) it does a good job of laying a foundation for people who have never taken a systems programming / OS course before and are trying to gain an understanding of the fundamentals. That being said there are links to resources (like an explanation on how dlmalloc is implemented) scattered throughout the book that allow the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.

If you’ve never done any systems programming before and are looking to write some low level code this book is a good place to begin to understand how the OS and kernel work. If you’re looking for something more in-depth I’d highly recommend reading Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces.

Goal Tracking: February + March Edition

(combined post for February and March since I forgot to do one for February)

At the beginning of the year I published a post outlining what some of my goals for the year were. In the spirit of being transparent, here is the progress I made on them over the course of February –

  1. Due to personal reasons I don’t think I made myself as available as I could have. I’m sorry. 

  2. Zero volunteering.
  3. Procrastination was almost zero.
  4. Continued my trend of always being honest and open.
  5. I read the third chapter of the Rust book.
  6. I read 2 books over the course of February: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Fahrenheit 451 (a short intense love affair)
  7. I read 0 research papers.
  8. I wrote 8 posts, including what I think is one of my best posts so far.
  9. I made very good progress at playing the guitar. I recorded a video of myself singing + playing “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” by Elton John for Valentines Day and it wasn’t entirely terrible.
  10. (a) Did not run an 8 minute mile.
    (b) Did a handstand!
    (c) Did a 315 lb squat! The next day was quite painful.
    (d) Did not run a half marathon.
    (e) (goal achieved in January)

Here is the progress I made on them over the course of March –

  1. I made myself available to all those who needed me. I hope I was helpful.
  2. Zero volunteering. Three months of failing at a 2016 goal feels terrible.
  3. Zero procrastination.
  4. 100% honesty.
  5. No progress made towards learning Rust.
  6. I read 3 books over the course of March: Ghostwritten (I LOVED it. What a great book! It grabbed me and refused to let me go), The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation (a super fun read), and White Teeth (funny and thought-provoking).
  7. Read a paper on Maglev.
  8. I wrote 4 posts in March.
  9. I can play Like Light To The Flies, including ~2/3rd of the solo.
  10. (a) Did not run an 8 min mile.
    (b) (goal achieved in February; see above)
    (c) (goal achieved in February; see above)
    (d) Did not run a half marathon.
    (e) (goal achieved in January)