https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/ Recent content on Musings of Vishal https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/images/og-default.png https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/images/og-default.png Hugo -- 0.118.2 en-us https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/can-ai-create-new-lines/ Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:09:24 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/can-ai-create-new-lines/ Tracing the evolution from pattern recognition to intersection discovery—and asking whether AI can take the final leap. Human knowledge forms a multidimensional lattice; ideas emerge where concepts converge. AI explores intersections at unprecedented scale, but can it create entirely new conceptual dimensions? That capability might mark the arrival of true intelligence—or the question itself might be wrong. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-internet-is-being-rewritten-for-machines/ Sat, 14 Feb 2026 10:23:43 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-internet-is-being-rewritten-for-machines/ The internet was built for humans. Then machines started talking to each other in the background. Now AI is becoming the primary consumer of web content, and websites are adapting to serve it. Cloudflare just made that adaptation trivial. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/whatsapp-lawsuit-the-on-device-question/ Wed, 28 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/whatsapp-lawsuit-the-on-device-question/ A class-action lawsuit claims Meta can access WhatsApp messages. I don’t know if it’s true. But the lawsuit gave me a reason to revisit a technical capability I’ve been writing about. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-zero-click-internet/ Fri, 09 Jan 2026 15:32:10 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-zero-click-internet/ The internet is quietly being hollowed out. As AI answers our questions directly, we stop visiting the websites that created the knowledge in the first place. What happens when the infrastructure of human knowledge loses its economic foundation? https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/on-device-llms-the-profiling-risk-amplified/ Fri, 09 Jan 2026 10:06:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/on-device-llms-the-profiling-risk-amplified/ Companies can already mine your non-encrypted data on their servers. It’s your end-to-end encrypted data that was supposed to be untouchable. On-device ML first changed that, turning your own phone into the profiling engine that encryption was meant to prevent. On-device LLMs now take that to another level. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-zesty-lemon-and-garlic-dressing/ Wed, 24 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-zesty-lemon-and-garlic-dressing/ This dish is inspired by a Brussels sprouts plate I kept ordering at RT Rotisserie in San Francisco. Deeply roasted, aggressively garlicky, bright with lemon, and finished with crisp edges that almost shatter when you bite into them. I wanted to recreate that feeling at home without cheese or cream, letting heat, acidity, and umami do the heavy lifting instead. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/a-manifesto-for-human-centered-seating/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 19:26:23 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/a-manifesto-for-human-centered-seating/ Why do we bend our bodies to furniture instead of bending furniture to our bodies? A simple proposal: fix the table height, free the chair, and let two adjustable planes end the tyranny of one-size-fits-none seating. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/efficiently-handling-geospatial-interactive-map-data/ Thu, 23 Oct 2025 14:18:34 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/efficiently-handling-geospatial-interactive-map-data/ A practical guide to building scalable map interfaces that render thousands of polygons without overwhelming your backend. Learn progressive rendering, smart caching strategies, and production techniques used by Google Maps, Uber, and Airbnb—from quick wins to architectural patterns like vector tiles and spatial indexing. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/i-dont-give-a-fuck-if-i-sound-like-ai/ Tue, 09 Sep 2025 12:21:02 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/i-dont-give-a-fuck-if-i-sound-like-ai/ AI learned to write from us. If my natural voice sometimes sounds like a language model, that’s their problem, not mine. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/an-old-man-and-his-ice-cream/ Thu, 28 Aug 2025 09:26:23 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/an-old-man-and-his-ice-cream/ 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. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/coffee-haul-from-the-americas/ Mon, 25 Aug 2025 11:40:19 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/coffee-haul-from-the-americas/ Over the past couple months I’ve picked up some truly unique bags of coffee, each with its own story, process, and tasting profile. I wanted to catalogue them here—not just as a record of what I’m drinking, but also as a way to reflect on how diverse and experimental the coffee world has become. From co-ferments that taste like fruit candy to carefully processed Geshas, this little collection feels like a tour through farms and roasters who treat coffee like art. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/entropy-and-intelligence-a-personal-manifesto/ Wed, 09 Jul 2025 21:48:19 -0700 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/entropy-and-intelligence-a-personal-manifesto/ 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. Through a personal journey from nihilism to clarity, I reframe entropy as a generative force—one whose gradients fuel creativity, innovation, and understanding. It’s a manifesto for embracing complexity, surfing chaos, and transforming disorder into insight. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/asymmetry-problem-why-human-ai-trust-is-fundamentally-broken/ Tue, 17 Jun 2025 19:34:19 -0700 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/asymmetry-problem-why-human-ai-trust-is-fundamentally-broken/ 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. Vishal, an AI industry veteran, warns that this dynamic makes us highly susceptible to manipulation, moving beyond simple influence to the ‘inception’ of ideas we could end up believing are our own. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/on-device-ml-used-for-profiling-end-to-end-encrypted-data/ Sun, 01 Jun 2025 16:05:19 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/on-device-ml-used-for-profiling-end-to-end-encrypted-data/ End-to-end encryption isn’t enough. Learn how on-device machine learning models can silently profile you—and how to fight back. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/who-stole-my-em-dash/ Tue, 13 May 2025 17:40:19 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/who-stole-my-em-dash/ I loved the em dash for its messy elegance. Now it just makes my writing look like it was spat out by a language model. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/a-nihilistic-conversation-with-anand-the-driver/ Sat, 01 Mar 2025 23:40:22 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/a-nihilistic-conversation-with-anand-the-driver/ 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. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-fidgeting-strangers/ Tue, 30 Jul 2024 22:08:22 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-fidgeting-strangers/ Caught between two oblivious leg-jigglers, I endured a movie seat earthquake that turned into an accidental physics illustration. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/subtle-patriarchal-patterns-as-noticed-from-an-airport-chair/ Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:38:29 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/subtle-patriarchal-patterns-as-noticed-from-an-airport-chair/ In the 080 lounge at Bangalore airport, a pattern of gender bias emerges as Amex salesmen exclusively approach men, overlooking potential female customers. This selective strategy raises questions about underlying biases in marketing tactics within cosmopolitan settings. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/why-checking-the-box-matters-juspays-possibly-risky-shortcut-in-hdfc-net-banking/ Wed, 30 Aug 2023 21:51:02 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/why-checking-the-box-matters-juspays-possibly-risky-shortcut-in-hdfc-net-banking/ The blog post examines how Juspay’s auto-checking of HDFC Bank’s anti-phishing ‘Secure Access ID’ could undermine user security. The author argues that this action, while not immediately dangerous, could condition users to be less vigilant against phishing attacks. The post contends that third parties like Juspay should not alter a bank’s security measures. The post also questions if HDFC’s anti-phishing measure is effective, in the first place and discusses who should be responsible in defining and mitigating a site’s threat model. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/beautiful-routines/ Fri, 18 Aug 2023 09:40:22 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/beautiful-routines/ A story on routines and their beauty told using an interaction of a couple I observed in Bangalore traffic. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/musings-my-new-blog-site/ Tue, 04 Jul 2023 13:49:29 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/musings-my-new-blog-site/ Introducing my new blog site, Musings. The post discusses how I used to mainating my own blog earlier, and why I decided to move on to a static site generator like Hugo. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/search-for-privacy-friendly-website-analysis/ Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:48:53 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/search-for-privacy-friendly-website-analysis/ I recently decided to start writing regularly and publishing what I write on this blog, Musings. While I mostly write for my contentment—to allow myself to think about a topic, research, and form a meaningful thought about it, I’d also like to know if others are reading what I put out and what posts and topics have the most views. Most people would end up integrating a popular option like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or similar. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/onsens-in-japan/ Sun, 02 Jul 2023 15:22:05 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/onsens-in-japan/ 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. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/home-the-details-matter/ Sun, 11 Oct 2020 22:10:40 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/home-the-details-matter/ A walkthrough of my home where I concentrate on the tiny details that make it my home. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/passphrase-best-practices/ Wed, 09 Sep 2020 21:03:47 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/passphrase-best-practices/ Check out xkcd’s xkpasswd. It allows you to generate very secure passphrases with various configurations. The reason we use the word passphrase and not password throughout the Cacti Vault app is because we want to push you to use as long a passphrase as possible. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends creating long passphrases that are easy to remember and difficult to crack. According to Special Publication 800–63, Digital Identity Guidelines, a best practice is to generate passphrases of about 64 characters, including spaces. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/cacti-photo-selections/ Mon, 17 Aug 2020 22:08:22 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/cacti-photo-selections/ Dsicusses the different ways photos may be selected to move to the Cacti Vault. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/how-verizy-handles-over-1m-resource-intensive-requests-every-month/ Mon, 30 Sep 2019 11:22:08 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/how-verizy-handles-over-1m-resource-intensive-requests-every-month/ 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, load-balancing, and continuous updates. This architecture guarantees no request loss and maintains high performance and reliability. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-biggest-problem-of-striving-for-inbox-zero-iz/ Sat, 17 Mar 2018 11:12:32 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-biggest-problem-of-striving-for-inbox-zero-iz/ 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. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/an-apple-music-inconsistency/ Fri, 09 Feb 2018 10:51:29 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/an-apple-music-inconsistency/ 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. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/my-paltry-gripe-on-inconsistencies-between-force-touch-and-3d-touch/ Tue, 14 Feb 2017 11:49:48 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/my-paltry-gripe-on-inconsistencies-between-force-touch-and-3d-touch/ 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. It expresses frustration with the inconsistent interaction between the devices, especially when dealing with notifications, highlighting a need for better integration in Apple’s ecosystem. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/swift-animator/ Wed, 07 Dec 2016 11:29:14 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/swift-animator/ ‘Animator’ is a Swift tool that simplifies creating complex UIView animations in iOS apps, using chainable animation blocks for a clean, readable syntax. It enhances the animation capabilities of UIKit by allowing sequential execution of animation steps with customizable parameters like duration, delay, and animation options, including spring damping and initial velocity. This tool aims to make code for complex animations more manageable and understandable, with an emphasis on continuity and ease of use. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/swift-dispatchgroup-an-effortless-way-to-handle-unrelated-asynchronous-operations-together/ Tue, 29 Nov 2016 11:54:21 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/swift-dispatchgroup-an-effortless-way-to-handle-unrelated-asynchronous-operations-together/ DispatchGroup in Swift offers a simple solution for synchronizing multiple unrelated asynchronous operations. It allows tracking the completion of various tasks, even on different queues, without complex setups. This approach avoids messy and non-scalable code, making it ideal for handling multiple asynchronous tasks efficiently. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-importance-of-moving-forward/ Fri, 28 Oct 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/the-importance-of-moving-forward/ 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. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/touch-bar/ Fri, 28 Oct 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/touch-bar/ Thoughts on Touch Bar—the new multi-touch strip on the new line of MacBook Pros https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/finite-state-machine-in-swift/ Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/finite-state-machine-in-swift/ SwiftFSM is state machine implemented in Swift as a library library. You may import this into your project. This post goes into explaining it’s functions and features. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/kerala-kizhunna-beach/ Mon, 17 Oct 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/kerala-kizhunna-beach/ A photo-filled travel log about the Kizhunna Beach in Kerala. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/happy-18th-birthday-google/ Tue, 27 Sep 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/happy-18th-birthday-google/ Some thoughts on how ubiquitious Google has become in our lives on its 18th Birthday. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/reliance-jio-my-take-on-the-service/ Tue, 13 Sep 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/reliance-jio-my-take-on-the-service/ A quick take on the new telecom service in India—Reliance Jio https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/why-iphone-7-wont-have-lifi/ Sat, 23 Jan 2016 09:00:00 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/why-iphone-7-wont-have-lifi/ 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. Li-Fi boasts a bandwidth 10,000 times that of Wi-Fi. The radio spectrum being extremely crowded, Li-Fi is well in need. Li-Fi works by modulating the intensity of light emitted by light sources such as LED lamps in a very indiscrenable way to humans to get the data across. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/archiving-and-unarchiving-swift-structure-instances-revisited/ Tue, 08 Dec 2015 15:26:16 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/archiving-and-unarchiving-swift-structure-instances-revisited/ 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. The power of structures in Swift makes you want to use it a lot more than you would in any other language. This is a good thing, as long as you know when to use structures and when to strictly not. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/archiving-and-unarchiving-swift-structure-instances/ Wed, 04 Nov 2015 15:26:16 +0530 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/posts/archiving-and-unarchiving-swift-structure-instances/ Note — This article is now outdated. There’s a new article with updated info here. When working on a project not too long ago, My teammate and I came across the following situation. We started developing the project on Swift 2.0 and moved over to 2.1 with the released of Xcode 7.1. We used a class conforming to the NSCoding protocol to store the basic information about the app’s user. https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/about/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://musings.vishalvshekkar.com/about/ About Vishal V. Shekkar — writer on AI, technology, and society