Ravit's Blog

The third year of my university is beginning tomorrow. I know the next couple of months will be quite busy with classes, lab, and grad school applications. Nevertheless, I'm excited for the grind to begin. I feel pride when I look back upon the winter and spring quarters of last year, which likewise kept me very busy. I am more than halfway done with Crime and Punishment , which I have been enjoying so far. While I'm away, I think I'll miss my neighborhood friends and the company and support of my family. I hope that not much changes in the meanwhile. Out of all the things I plan on working on this quarter, I feel the most unprepared for graduate school applications as well as internship applications. I think above all, I need to make a plan for each of these activities and stick to it.

Hello there, It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I would reflect briefly on what I've been doing this summer and what my plan is for the next couple of months. My internship at Cadence ends next Friday, the 17th, and the first day of my university is the Thursday following that, the 22nd. My internship experience this summer has been a pretty positive experience. I went to the office regularly and had a chance to meet the members of the San Jose team. I often met and had lunch with the two other interns on our team in the office breakroom or in the campus cafeteria; we got along pretty well, fortunately. I found my work quite engaging and interesting, especially since I was writing code and adding features to a program of manageable size. In addition to weekly intern meetings, my manager(s) shared invitations with me for larger team meetings, in which the team discussed bugs, new features, and progress updates. By attending these meetings, I was able to understan...

Society values people who: are knowledgeable, and have well-thought-out ideas Top Tech CEOs are all hardworking and hence know a lot about their companies, which are like their babies. People who can defend their ideas and win debates are better negotiators and get their way. are tall and handsome it's true, but don't worry if you aren't; life is unfair. you can probably get quite far without these. are goal-oriented Dr. Larabee asks Akeelah "Do you have any goals?" are witty A friend might react positively if I say something witty. Maybe the idea behind wit is to laugh in the face of suffering. are relatable If you are like them, they want to be like you. They can learn from your actions. are humble, likable, and optimistic Humble people are humble because they think a lot about how much they don't know, not about how much they know. Likable people tend to attract people. Optimistic people give people around them a reason to live. are trustworthy Trustworthy ...

One of my professors is a theoretical computer scientist. Looking at his past publications, which all are very mathematical in nature, I started to doubt whether I should really go into TinyML, a field that is very high-level for a computer science field. I also started to think about different skills that are required to contribute to these fields; I guess theoretical computer science requires a mathematically-oriented mind, while the majority of ML requires an engineering-oriented mind. I also was thinking about the nature of software engineering. It is exciting to come up with a new idea or improvement that can do good in the world--improve the performance or quality of a tool or introduce a new digital product. For example, it is exciting to propose new OS philosophies, research ways to make networks and distributed systems more efficient, and develop new hardware accelerators. But, it seems to me that at the heart of most of today's software is the repetitive implementation of...

There must be some game that two neural networks can play to solve the problem of NAS. GANs solve the problem of image generation through a very simple zero-sum game between two networks, where both compete to capture or evade the other.  Secondly, there must be a continuous way to deform a simple neural network into an immensely complicated one, like deforming a cow into a sphere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uYkm8mnXss

05/23 In the past couple of days, I listened to two podcasts by Lex Fridman: one with Richard Dawkins concerning evolution and the other with Roger Penrose concerning artificial intelligence. I also listened to some comedy clips by Ricky Gervais. Today, I was recommended this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFupAV1_xWU, which combines all three topics: artificial intelligence, evolution, and Ricky Gervais. How good has YouTube's recommender system gotten? 05/25 I have been thinking a lot lately about what I would like my summer to look like. Above all, I would really like two things: 1) to contribute and learn as much as I can about TinyML and 2) to set myself up for a solid grad school application. I have been contemplating graduating a year early for a while now and I think I should do it. One thing that intimidates me about applying to grad school is the sheer competence of the application pool: among the contenders for the limited number of positions are people who are m...

It has been several days since my last post. As the quarter draws to a close, I have been thinking a lot about what I ought to do during the upcoming summer. I have two main goals, both of which I would like to fulfill. The first is to publish a paper in the lab I'm in. If I am able to do so, the publication will mark the culmination of the work I began about a year ago. I am frankly somewhat tired of working as part of this application-oriented project because I continually run into errors that are not directly related to the research. For example, I often have trouble replicating theoretical results that have been confirmed long ago; this is not a very useful problem to solve because it has already been solved before by someone else. By solving a problem relating to replicating a previously demonstrated result or debugging an error in a binarized model training script, I am not making useful progress. If, on the other hand, I were given a more theoretical problem, such as to prop...

 

I attended a Jeopardy game for computer science for an honor society that I am inducting into. I was able to answer several questions successfully, including some that I learned recently. I knew some answers after reading about ENIAC, the Halting problem, and Ada Lovelace in The Imitation Game . Being able to answer those questions felt rewarding because I was able to apply my knowledge practically, if only through recall on a game associated with testing obscure knowledge. I accepted my ML internship offer last Saturday. I am most excited to learn what having an office job is like and to visit the office campus if the job is in person. I am most worried about my lab. I wish I had some more conclusive data to report and that I could speed up my turnaround rate for experiments given to me. I also wish I had a clearer high-level perspective about my tasks and experiments so that I could more effectively decide what to spend time on. Lastly, I wish that I would articulate my thoughts bett...

I visited Dumbarton bridge today with my dad, a bridge over the Bay. From there, I could see San Francisco and Oakland and the Bay Bridge connecting these two. I enjoyed the trip. I have a lot of work on my plate and feel guilty that I only worked for an hour and a half today. But, I had many enjoyable experiences, including an evening walk and teaching some younger friends how to kick and punch. Tomorrow, I plan to wake up around 5am and work for an hour and a half, then exercise at 7am with my neighborhood friend. I have several tasks lined up for myself, including automata homework, statistics homework, a history essay, and a lab for my os class. Ideally, I will spend 8-9 hours of worktime tomorrow and also visit the library to return some books and get some more. However, I expect it to be difficult to achieve this goal. Today, I watched the daily routine of Lex Fridman and found it inspiring. I am reminded of how privileged I am to enjoy most of the classes I take and to be able t...

There are many things that I would write on this blog if it weren't visible to the public. I don't know why I do what I do. I don't know what to do or what I should be doing. I wish that I were bigger and taller so I could be more intimidating and a better negotiator. I wish I understood what I want to do. I wish I understood who my competitors are. I wish I knew how much others know and how much more I need to know to outperform others. My heart is filled with bitterness and anger at this rough world.

Yesterday, on the bus ride back home, I felt a strong sense of loneliness and inferiority. I felt that I am not a very likable person and that when people meet me, they feel pity rather than warmness or admiration as I would hope they feel. I also worried that people aren't very inclined to like certain personality traits of mine as they are: I talk too much about myself, I don't speak very precisely, and sometimes I say underdeveloped ideas. I am not implying that these shortcomings are anyone's fault but my own. In such a large world, the burden of fitting in and making oneself useful can only rest upon the individual undertaking it, not the millions of others who judge an individual. This only means that I have to work harder to make new friends, speak clearly and present myself well, and work harder to accomplish more and earn the respect of others. I at least have the privilege of a few close friends around whom I feel respected, relaxed, and comfortable.

There is a certain spark of insanity that characterizes the minds of those who make great strides in their fields. Einstein and Turing became obsessed with their ideas in physics and computing, respectively, which led them through a creative process culminating in the creation of revolutionary theories that form the foundation of these fields today. The passion of the chemist August Kekule invaded his dreams. I myself have had dreams of things I become obsessed with, usually games like chess and badminton*. I think that the development of interest that enables this kind of passion is beneficial to potential undertakers of work in scientific fields. Those who study physics should be passionate about physics and those who study computer science should be passionate about computer science. To this end, I believe that engaging in creative thought, feeding one's appetite for fascination, and stimulating the imagination are useful activities for every scientist and aspiring scientist to ...

Humans are rational creatures. And because we are rational creatures, we use logic and mutually agreed-upon facts to build complex arguments in order to debate each other. To prove the other person wrong and demonstrate that one's own opinion is correct, people pose hypotheticals, cite facts, introduce personal experience, make inferences, and try to trap each other into making contradictory statements. Through this logical flow of reasoning, we build complex and robust arguments that withstand the test of reason in the eyes of critics. Humans have a natural inclination to not be wrong; being proven wrong is a sign of defeat. Being right gives one the power to take certain actions without impediment. The government is justified in collecting taxes from the people because it provides social services in exchange. Law enforcement is justified in sending criminals to jail because criminals have violated the accepted social contract between government and subject. Revolutions and revolt...

 The fear of being wrong and of exposing one's faults is a petrifyingly intimidating impediment to greatness. Greatness, as in classic novels read countless number of times by millions of people. As in the stroke of genius that sparks revolutionary ideas and innovations of engineering and science that changed humanity's world view. And, of course, the beautiful proofs and ideas that serve as stepping stones in mathematics in the centuries that follow. But, I am so acutely aware of my own shortcomings and faults that the ideas that inspire me often lose their greatness before I even begin working on them. Ideas that I think to be revolutionary or profound crumble under scrutiny and reveal themselves to be loosely compacted paper tigers that have been thought centuries before my birth. In junior year of high school, I worked on a project in which I built a tool that uses DNA sequences to build a phylogenetic tree. I thought my solution was brilliant, but I realize now that there ...

I have a midterm on Operating Systems tomorrow, which is a tough exam. I prepared twelve pages of notes today, thinking that would give me enough preparation to take the exam. After taking the practice exam, however, I think I need to study the concepts in much more detail than I have already. Free list search algorithms, IPC mechanisms, scheduling algorithms, types of libraries, concurrency mechanisms, coalescing/relocation, base-bounds segmentation and paging and MMU/page tables. I also have to prepare for an interview I have on Friday morning regarding a potential internship for machine learning applied to prediction for Integrated Circuits. Over the weekend I have to prepare notes for the lectures and readings of next week and those of this week that I have missed. Hence, the work I have upcoming is fun but frustrating and also difficult. I ask for all the strength I need to complete my duties well.

I read the Feynman  comic book today, which I found roughly about as entertaining as the comic book  The Imitation Game . I watched the movie The Imitation Game  yesterday and also found that entertaining. The last statement conveys very little about my movie-watching experience, but I can't think of anything else to say. Feynman seems to be an interesting person. Exceptional in public speaking and at answering questions, he wrote books and delivered lectures that influenced physicists of all levels across the world. I dislike Feynman for some reason. I also dislike or disliked at some point in the past Grant Sanderson and Lex Fridman. I can't point out any flaws or something disenchanting about their personalities or lives, but I still dislike(d) them for some reason. Maybe I am jealous, I don't know. One thing I noticed about Feynman that I disliked was that he seemed to be dismissive of the importance of writing and art. There is a section of the comic book which descr...

Today was my parents' marriage anniversary. This morning, I visited a lake near our home with my neighborhood friend and we fed bread to the ducks and pigeons and seagulls. I spent the whole day passing time procrastinating rather than working, as I had planned; that felt bad. In the evening, we went out to eat at a restaurant, and I developed a bad stomach ache, for which I recently took medicine. I have to write an essay and study for my stats test, which I'm not looking forward to. I also have lost about 10 pounds since I arrived at university, which my parents would not like. Unfortunately, I think I might have to gain back the weight I lost against my wishes. I also suspect I may be falling sick. I've been shivering, experiencing a headache, and feeling down for the past several hours. On Friday, I found out my roommate had contracted COVID, which makes it plausible I may also have the disease.       The emergence of these new events I'm in for a miserable lot t...

Computers function more stochastically than I thought. In my operating systems class, I've learned about topics such as schedulers, virtual memory management, and device I/O. The decisions made by the OS, such as when and for how long to schedule a process, whether or not to swap a process's page to disk, depend highly on the existing load on the computer as well as quirks of the OS algorithms. This explains the fact that research on OSs is statistical rather than deterministic--an exponential number of configurations exist with respect to the number of processes supported. Furthermore, many parameters are chosen arbitrarily or based on "OS voodoo," as my professor put it; the existence of a concept like "OS wisdom" indicates how much like black boxes OSs are. Additionally, the idea that OSs at some point needed to be configured to support running processes indicates the imprecise nature of computers.

It feels bad to go to class unprepared. I went to history lecture and discussion today without having read this week's readings due to poor time management. I completely forgot that we were going to be discussing the readings during the discussion section, so I could contribute very little to the discussion. Fortunately, I've been making nice friends in some of my classes. I bump into people I know more frequently than I would have anticipated in such a large school. And yet, there are others who attend the same university whom I have hardly seen. Yesterday before bed I was reading Steinbeck's "Cannery Row". The novel (novella?) feels easy to read and simple. There are some common features of Steinbeck novels that I have observed from the few I have read. He opens the novel through a detailed depiction of the novel's setting, usually in nature, often with someone walking into the scene as it were. He has one or two characters who are or become disheartened, de...

DoS made a video about a map of computer science. The narrator of the video, Dominic Walliman, broke the field of computer science into "Theoretical computer science", "Computer engineering", and "Applications" and presented concepts within each topic. This idea of creating a map of a particular field interested me because it brought together various disparate concepts into one cohesive representation. I enjoy it when computer science is taught as a story. Trends in processor speed, number of transistors, and memory latency over time. The conventions and theoretical computing machines that led to the conception of modern computer architecture, such as the Turing machine and finite automata. The development and miniaturization of the transistor and the reception of that technology. The mathematical study of classifying, measuring, and optimizing algorithms. The story of RISC and CISC and the evolution of ISAs over time. Development and evolution of programm...

I was talking to my high school friend yesterday, whom I have been staying in touch with often. There came a point in our discussion when I asked him how he liked his life/lifestyle. He told me that he worked on his classes and dedicated time to his hobbies, and thus enjoyed his lifestyle. When I tried to answer the same question myself, I thought of the difference between being happy with my life and being satisfied with my life. Perhaps "happy" and "satisfied" aren't the best descriptors for each category, so allow me to explain. Obviously, there are some actions that people take just to feel instant happiness. Browsing YouTube or social media are some of these examples. Most people who engage in these activities, I imagine, would agree that such pleasure-generating actions have little or no contribution to the sense of meaning that they derive from life. Unlike working hard to study for a test or waking up early every day, hedonistic acts provide little long-...

One of the relieving things about reading is that it removes some of the responsibility from the reader's back for the ideas being read. A reader need not take responsibility for or actively critique the ideas he or she reads. The ideas presented in writing need not even be actively developed in the reader's mind, but sometimes they begin to develop of their own accord. For example, a reader may ponder how a certain character would act if presented in a certain situation or the reader may relate a character in the novel to themselves or a person the reader knows in his or her own life. If ideas develop of their own accord within the reader's head, they need not be committed or refined or exposed to other readers.

I arrived this evening at my college dorm, where I am writing from. On the bus ride to university, I read the comic book "The Imitation Game," based, of course, on the British mathematician Alan Turing.  The book was readable and easy to follow. I appreciated the integration of basic mathematical theory and history in addition to the storyline into the comic; I felt that this provoked thought in the reader. At the same time, not understanding the mathematical theory presented didn't seem to preclude understanding the plot. The story was presented in a lighthearted and straightforward manner, as comics often are. There was plenty of situational humor and entertaining narrative detail. However, the book seemed devoid of much drama or conflict, unlike most novels I read. Overall, I'd say the book does a good job of chronicling the life events of Alan Turing, as it claims to do.

आज शाम को मैंने कुछ गाने गए- तुम ही हो, ओ मेरे दिल के चैन, कभी कभी मेरे दिल में। कल की तरह मैं आज जल्दी उठा और पढाई हो गयी ठीक ठाक।  सुबह मुझे फिरसे अपना दोस्त मेहुल मिला इस बार नाश्ता करते समय और हमारी पांच दस मिनट बात हुई। सुबह मैंने OS के नोटस लिए और उसके बाद सो गया एक दो घंटे।  शाम को मैंने अपने ऑटोमेटा क्लास के नोटस लिए NFA और regular expression के बारे में। मुझको एक अच्छा शौक बना लेना चाहिए शाम को करने के लिए पढाई के बाद। मेरे पास किताब है पढ़ने को ("The Selfish Gene ") पर मैं आज कल उसको पढ़ नहीं रहा हु क्योकि मैं थोड़ा बोर हो गया उसको पढ़के। आज कल मुझे खेद इस बात का है के मैं पियानो उतना प्रैक्टिस नहीं क्र रहा हु। आज के लिए बस इतना ही और कल फिर लिखूंगा। शब्बा खैर। खोदाफिज़। शुभरात्रि।

The sun has set once more upon a sunny day. Fortunately, I was able to meet my schoolwork goals today. I am satiated, relaxed, and ready to sleep. पिछले कुछ दिनों से मैं जल्दी उठ रहा हु सुबह के पांच बजे। जल्दी उठने से मेरा एक दिन में ज्यादा काम हो जाता है। मैं अपनी  बचपन की  पुराणी  यादें याद कर रहा था आज। ऐसा लगता है की वो दिन ज्यादा सीधे-साधे दिन थे। खैर तो मैं जानता हूँ की ये तो सिर्फ कल्पना है और हकीकत कुछ और है मगर मेरा दिमाग फिर भी सोचता है ऐसा। आज दिन के बारे बजे मुझे खाना खाते  समय अपना दोस्त मेहुल मिला हम दोनों अपने इस क्वार्टर के क्लास के बारे में बात कर रहे थे और उससे बात करके अच्छा लगा। मैं शाम को सोच रहा था एक क्लब के इवेंट पर जाने का पर मैंने अंत में फैसला किया ना जाने का क्यों की मैं थका हुआ था और मुझे अकेले रहने का मन हो रहा था। दिन मैं सोया दो बार और उससे मन थोड़ा ताजा हो गया।  शाम को मैंने थोड़े-बहुत शायरी पढ़े ऑनलाइन। अब भी मेरा मन कह रहा है ना सोने का पर रात हो गयी और कल जल्दी उठने के लिए जल्दी स...

आज मैंने सोचा इस ब्लॉग को हिंदी में लिखने का। फिलाल मैं औपचारिक रूप से नहीं लिख पाउँगा लेकिन फिर भी एक छोटी कोशिश तो बनती है इस तरह से लिखने का।  आज मैं घर से वापस आया अपने कॉलेज दोर्म में। रस्ते में मैंने थोड़ा काम करने की कोशिश की पर मेरा सिर्फ तीन सरे तीन घंटे हो पाया।  इसका एक कारन ये है के मैं आज सुबह देर से उठा तो जब तक मैं काम करने को तैयार था जाने का समय आ गया था। फिर भी आज के सफर में काफी अच्छी और खूबसूरत जगा देखने को मिले। पहाड़ी, खेत, खुला सा और नीला सा आसमान। अब मैं सोने जा रहा हु। और मैं आशा करता हु की मैं कल सुबह जल्दी उठकर काम पे लग जाऊंगा।

The powerful summer dies only after it has stayed for too long. Until it fades into the grander, more mellow autumn. I grieve the summer only as it dies. After its death, I abandon its beauty and the innumerable gifts and memories it has bestowed. I leave them to be rediscovered in the vague archives of memory, where events become entangled with emotions, smells, and memories of forgotten people. Summer dies slowly. As the mighty aging sun succumbs to its mortality, its blinding white brilliance is replaced by a mature golden-orange glow. The large green persimmon leaves can no longer hide their browning curled edges. The broad expansive day begins to shrink, still fighting back against the ascendant night. Back-to-school advertisements creep into the newspapers. Golden rays of sunset stretch out upon the two-story houses as the day ends, each day a few moments earlier than the previous day. Freedom. Lemonade. Popsicles. Cold baths. Water guns. 2% milk. Dirty feet. Stiff dry blades of ...

Maybe I should give up trying to give my posts titles by default. The topics I write about are often too spontaneous and diverse within each post to be given an appropriate, cohesive, and concise title. The flat sheet may be the most cumbersome invention in the history of bedding, maybe other than the quilt cover. Especially when the fitted sheet already has the elastic that holds the sheet in place, what was the motivation behind leaving the flat sheet in its plain rectangular form? Maybe it was merely to make the bed-making process more difficult so that bed-makers would feel better about their bed after having made their bed. Maybe compounding additional layers of complexity onto the bed-making process, while unnecessary, would render the procedure of bed-making a more sophisticated skill that reflects the ability of the bed-maker. I began reading War and Peace  today. I heard that doesn't have a well-united plot the way most novels do and that the book itself is hardly a book b...

Once again, I retreat into my quiet place of introspection--the scratchpad of my imagination where my ideas find an outlet. I find it such a strange thing that I often begin writing blog posts having hardly anything to write about but then stumble upon ideas that then form into extended thoughts, sentences, and paragraphs at length. A couple of days ago, I found myself in a weird situation. I was browsing through Netflix and was planning to decide between two TV shows to watch--Seinfeld or Sherlock. I told myself I would watch Sherlock and then proceeded to search for it; I discovered the show wasn't on Netflix, but to my surprise, I felt a small feeling of relief or happiness rather than feeling disheartened. Even though the choice was in my hands, it seems I had picked the choice I less wanted, despite my (subconscious?) preference for the other. Back to this idea of these posts writing themselves. It really does seem as though they are writing themselves, and I am merely witness...

Welcome to a fresh outpouring of ideas from the bowels of my soul. Watch as the thorny messy jumble of ideas tangled up messily inside my head manifest themselves in a semi-structured form in a flowing procession of words. My mind is racing. My thoughts are cloudy and dissonant, not beautiful. I threw up yesterday. Vomited into a bucket at 2 in the morning. It wasn't the vomiting that hurt so much as the intense cramping in my stomach that occurred in the moments leading up to the vomiting, accompanied by sweat, pins and needles, and the putrid smell of bile in my belches. This, I would say, is not a very beautiful side of life. What is going on inside my mind? An evil concoction of fear, guilt, and panic is ravaging my thoughts and seeping through every pore of my body. It is sad that almost nothing is guaranteed in life. When people become depressed, their ability to perceive beauty is diminished. They cannot even such ordinarily beautiful things like a good song, book, piece of ...

Today was my first full day on-campus at UCLA. Living in the 8th floor of my dorm building, going about my day as a typical student. There are several hundreds of people regularly packed within this 10-story, each story identical to all others and each room being identical in furnishings to the others. I feel anonymous because to a large degree, my individual identity has been displaced by my group identity. To the strangers around me, my identity can be reduced down to a finite set of characteristics of my life. Where I live. What my major is. What classes I take. What my sleep schedule is. What my meal plan is. What clubs I'm in. I am constantly reminded that I am but one of an uncountably large horde of people buzzing about their lives, each life carrying an infinitely intricate set of thoughts, emotions, and attitudes; and yet each life remaining in large part oblivious to the intricacies of the many others like it: the tragedies, the celebrations, the monotonies of even the pe...