Musings of Vishal

Tracing the evolution from pattern recognition to intersection discovery—and asking whether AI can take the final leap.

The internet was built for humans.

A class-action lawsuit claims Meta can access WhatsApp messages.

The internet is quietly being hollowed out.

Companies can already mine your non-encrypted data on their servers.

This dish is inspired by a Brussels sprouts plate I kept ordering at RT Rotisserie in San Francisco.

Why do we bend our bodies to furniture instead of bending furniture to our bodies?

A practical guide to building scalable map interfaces that render thousands of polygons without overwhelming your backend.

AI learned to write from us.

A quiet Mysore evening at a café window, an old man with his kulfi, and the fleeting glance we shared — proof that the smallest moments can linger the longest.

Over the past couple months I’ve picked up some truly unique bags of coffee, each with its own story, process, and tasting profile.

This essay explores the years of thought behind my personal manifesto—how the inevitability of entropy isn’t just a source of disorder, but the very foundation of intelligence and learning.

This article examines how our increasingly intimate relationships with AI create a dangerous asymmetry, where humans trust AI companions that may soon be executing hidden agendas.

End-to-end encryption isn’t enough.

I loved the em dash for its messy elegance.

An unexpectedly deep conversation with Anand on our drive to the airport touching on optimistic nihilism; and I’m still pondering it a month later.

Caught between two oblivious leg-jigglers, I endured a movie seat earthquake that turned into an accidental physics illustration.

In the 080 lounge at Bangalore airport, a pattern of gender bias emerges as Amex salesmen exclusively approach men, overlooking potential female customers.

The blog post examines how Juspay’s auto-checking of HDFC Bank’s anti-phishing ‘Secure Access ID’ could undermine user security.

A story on routines and their beauty told using an interaction of a couple I observed in Bangalore traffic.

Introducing my new blog site, Musings.

I recently decided to start writing regularly and publishing what I write on this blog, Musings.

Reflecting on my experience of using Onsen in Japan — covering the various aspects of dealing with and enjoying being unclothed as a foreigner in a traditional Japanese setting.

A walkthrough of my home where I concentrate on the tiny details that make it my home.

Check out xkcd’s xkpasswd.

Dsicusses the different ways photos may be selected to move to the Cacti Vault.

Verizy efficiently processes over 1 million complex monthly requests using a dual-service infrastructure called Crust and Core, handling customer interactions and intensive data processing respectively, ensuring 100% uptime in 6 months with auto-scaling,…

The pursuit of Inbox Zero (Iz) demands excessive attention and diminishes overall productivity; instead, prioritize email content over inbox neatness for better productivity and less distraction.

A critique on the inconsistent placement of the ‘Apple Music’ vs ‘Library’ filter in the search function across the iOS Music app and iTunes on Mac, and questions the lack of a handoff feature between these platforms.

This post compares 3D Touch on iPhones and Force Touch on the Apple Watch, noting their similar technology but different user experiences due to screen size.

‘Animator’ is a Swift tool that simplifies creating complex UIView animations in iOS apps, using chainable animation blocks for a clean, readable syntax.

DispatchGroup in Swift offers a simple solution for synchronizing multiple unrelated asynchronous operations.

Thoughts on Touch Bar—the new multi-touch strip on the new line of MacBook Pros

This is an essay on why it’s better to not get stuck with just what works now, and how embracing change leads to better outcomes.

SwiftFSM is state machine implemented in Swift as a library library.

A photo-filled travel log about the Kizhunna Beach in Kerala.

Some thoughts on how ubiquitious Google has become in our lives on its 18th Birthday.

A quick take on the new telecom service in India—Reliance Jio

For the past few days there have been numerous reports that the next iPhone would feature the newly developed Li-Fi, which is the transfer of data using visible spectrum of light instead of radio waves, which the Wi-Fi use.

Note — Since the release of Swift 3, a few statements made in this article are not true for Swift 3, but they hold good for older versions of Swift.

Note — This article is now outdated.