Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

November 20, 2023

My Deepavali vacation 2023 – Part 1

Filed under: My Life — Suramya @ 7:30 PM

Last week was a lot of fun, we (Me and Jani) went to Delhi for Diwali which was on the 12th as we try to be with parents for Diwali whenever possible. Took an early morning flight and landed in Delhi around 10:30am. I was worried about the air quality in Delhi but thankfully it had rained the night before so the pollution level was one of the lowest I remember. My air purifier at home in Delhi usually runs at about 300+ but that day it was in the 70’s so it felt great.

11th was also Axu’s wedding anniversary so we went out for dinner with Axu, Montu and their parents. It was the first time I had gone out of the house on Choti Diwali (the day before Diwali) and I was surprised to see the number of folks who had come out for dinner. I always thought that most people would be at home but apparently that is not the case. Dinner was a lot of fun and it was good to catch up after a long time.

The next day was Diwali where we started the day with a Havan. I have a problem with it because of the smoke so ended up having to take an Allegra tablet to ensure that I can function. When I was a kid my nana (mom’s dad) used to do a Havan every morning and I had just learnt about air pollution and how smoke is bad for you. So I used to take a bucket of water and pour it on his Havan kund to stop the ‘air pollution’. It is a wonder that I didn’t get smacked into the next year.


All of us seated at the Diwali Havan in our house

After the Havan I escaped to the garden outside the house while the smoke dissipated from the house and then we all just chilled around for a while. Met some of the neighbors which was interesting because most of the folks I knew when I was living in Noida had moved out and I didn’t know any of the new folks.


Mom, Dad, me and Jani in the garden at our place

At night we did the pooja and lit candles and Diya’s all around the house.


Diwali Pooja


Photo taken outside the house with the full lighting on

One of the questions that has been asked a few times is:
“जब दीपावली भगवान राम के १४ वर्षो के वनवास से अयोध्या लौटने के उतसाह में मनाई जाती है, तो दीपावली पर “लक्ष्मी पूजन” क्यों होता है ? श्री राम की पूजा क्यों नही?”
(We say that Diwali is celebrated on the occasion of Lord Rama returning to Ayodhya after 14 years of Vanvas (Forest living) so why do we worship Lakshmi on the day instead of worshiping Lord Rama.)

The answer to this questions is:

“दीपावली उत्सव दो युग “सतयुग” और “त्रेता युग” से जुड़ा हुआ है!”
(Diwali is associated with two Yuga’s or ages as per Hindu Mythology, The Satya Yuga and Treta Yuga)

“सतयुग में समुद्र मंथन से माता लक्ष्मी उस दिन प्रगट हुई थी! इसलिए “लक्ष्मी पूजन” होता है!
(In Satya Yuga, Goddess Lakshmi appeared during the churning of the ocean to produce Amrita. This is why we worship Goddess Lakshmi on this day.)

Devas (gods) and asuras (demons) were both mortal at one time in Hinduism. Amrita, the divine nectar that grants immortality, could only be obtained by churning Kshira Sagara (‘Ocean of Milk’). The devas and asuras both sought immortality and decided to churn the Kshira Sagara with Mount Mandhara. The Samudra Manthana commenced with the devas on one side and the asuras on the other. Vishnu incarnated as Kurma, the tortoise, and a mountain was placed on the tortoise as a churning pole. Vasuki, the great venom-spewing serpent-god, was wrapped around the mountain and used to churn the ocean. A host of divine celestial objects came up during the churning. Along with them emerged the goddess Lakshmi.

भगवान श्री राम भी त्रेता युग मे इसी दिन अयोध्या लौटे थे! तो अयोध्या वासियों ने दीप जलाकर उनका स्वागत किया था! इसलिए इसका नाम दीपावली है!
(Lord Rama also returned to Ayodhya on this day and the population of Ayodhya welcomed him by lighting diyas. Which is why it is called Deepawali/Diwali)

इसलिए इस पर्व के दो नाम हैं, “लक्ष्मी पूजन” जो सतयुग से जुड़ा है, और दूजा “दीपावली” जो त्रेता युग प्रभु श्री राम और दीपो से जुड़ा है!
(This is why the festival has two names, Lakshmi Puja which is associated with Satya Yuga and Deepawali which is associated with Treta Yuga and Lord Rama).

After lighting and decorating the house, me and Jani went on a drive around the sector to see the decorations which was a lot of fun. Jani wanted to walk but I was tired so we just drove around for a bit till we got tired and cold so we came back home and crashed for the night.

The days after Diwali were a lot of fun as well and I got to meet some old friends and I will talk about that in the next post.

– Suramya

November 6, 2023

Don’t make interview candidates wait 1 hour as the “filtering” method

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 12:01 AM

The following post on Quora caught my eye earlier where this person asks that their boss purposely makes every candidate wait one hour past the scheduled interview time as a filtering method and if that was legal.

My boss purposely makes all interview candidates wait 1 hour past the scheduled interview time. This is their “filtering” method, as they refuse to consider anyone who leaves during the 1+ hour wait. Is this legal? by Patrick O’Neill

I am pretty sure this is legal but it is extremely unprofessional and a major red flag for people working under/with this boss. They don’t care for the candidates time and wasting it like this doesn’t show/prove dedication. Someone could have scheduled an interview during their lunch hour or they might have booked a babysitter so that they can come in for an interview. By wasting time like this, you don’t know how you are impacting their schedule and plans. Unfortunately, too many people think that the only thing people should care about is working and the more time they spend at office the better it is.

This is especially true in the Startups where people joining are expected to put in insane hours. I have worked with a lot of startups both as an employee and as part of the various incubator programs, I remember one startup owner that proudly told me that they ask their candidates if they are ok to work 7 days a week without exception and reject anyone who says no because they should be as dedicated to the company as the owner was. So I asked them if they are also going to get a part of the profit that the company makes and they responded with an empathetic NO! When you are not going to share the profits the owner is making then why would the employee work the same hours as you? You need to give them the same incentives if you expect the same amount of effort 🙂

For the most of my carrier I have had great managers and bosses who respect peoples time. I have been scolded about logging in during late nights and over the weekend unless there was something urgent that needed to be done. If I was in a situation like this, I would normally ask for a reschedule after about 30 mins, if it was a phone interview I would drop after 15 mins and send an email stating that the panel didn’t join.

People who this kind of screening are the ones who will call you on Saturday at 10pm and expect that you drop everything and come to the office for work. People do have a life outside work and we need to respect that. If there is an emergency, absolutely call me at anytime and I will log in (if I can). But for BAU (Business As Usual) work that can wait, you shouldn’t be calling.

– Suramya

November 1, 2023

Why do developers confuse Halloween for Christmas?

Filed under: Humor — Suramya @ 1:56 AM

Why do developers confuse Halloween for Christmas?
Because OCT31 = DEC25.
Merry Christmas!!! 🎄🎁

Extremely corny but funny: (i.e. just the kind of joke I love) 🙂

Source: @nixCraft@mastodon.social

– Suramya

October 31, 2023

Firefox built-in local translation works quite well

Filed under: Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:59 PM

Firefox recently released Firefox 118 and one of the interesting features in the release was the inclusion of the local translation of websites. Meaning that all the translation was done locally on the machine running Firefox without sending the content to an external service such as Google Translate.

I have been using it infrequently and am impressed with the quality of the translations. Historically the local translation tools don’t seem to be able to translate well and most of the times we end up with a literal translation of each word. Firefox translate is high quality and uses language packs, which the user has to download once to the local system. Post which the system can start translating websites. The supported languages in the initial release were English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Bulgarian. Support for additional languages is being added in an iterative manner.

The next release of Firefox (120) will have support for new languages: Catalan, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Persian, Russian, Ukrainian. You can try them out in the nightly build but the support is still a work in progress and not ready for prime time use. I am waiting for support for the Indian languages to be added along with support for pages which have content in a mix of languages.

You should download the latest version of Firefox and try it out. It is free and doesn’t have all the monitoring tools that Chrome has built-in.

– Suramya

October 30, 2023

Sari as a Halloween costume? Why not if done tastefully

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 10:16 AM

Using images/costumes/concepts from another culture as a sort of fancy dress can be a tricky thing and if done incorrectly it can be incredibly offensive but if done with the right attitude and respect it can be awesome. Whenever we travel if there is an opportunity to dress up in the local dress, try the local food etc we both jump on it as it is a way to experience the local culture.

The following was posted in one of the Groups I am part of:


Would you mind if someone wore a sari as a costume to a Halloween Party?

My answer to that is that if it is done in a respectful manner then why not? On the other hand if the person wearing it is playing on the stereotypes and negative connotations then they should be called out on it. You can easily figure out what the person wearing the dress is trying to portray and depending on that they should be called out if needed. Do note that there are times when people will unintentionally make a faux-pas or propagate stereotypes and that should be handled differently by explaining to them why something is not appropriate.

If you are planning on wearing something from a different tradition, you should think about asking a native from that tradition if something is appropriate or not. I have answered multiple questions on Indian ethnic wear when I was in the US and while visiting other countries. If you don’t know anyone from that culture you should do a basic search on the internet to understand/check if a particular costume is ok.

What I find interesting is that in a lot of these cases, the native (people from the original culture) are ok with folks dressing up in their traditional wear but there will be a bunch of people (usually white) who will claim that this is cultural appropriation and create a fuss.

I am not saying that cultural appropriation is not a big problem (It is) but the solution to that is not gatekeeping and stopping people from exploring other cultures.

– Suramya

October 29, 2023

What Happens to a Werewolf if they are on the Moon?

Filed under: Interesting Sites,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 12:15 AM

@SpeakerToManagers shared a very interesting link on Mastodon where Scientific American’s researchers talk about What Happens to a Werewolf on the Moon? assuming a reality where Werewolves are real.

On the other paw, shortly after the monthly sunrise, the entire landscape surrounding our future lycanaut will be lit by the sun, which could then trigger the change; from their view, the entire moon would be illuminated, so it would be, by some definition, full. This could mean that the danger would be hugely amplified because the transformation wouldn’t last a mere terrestrial night but an entire lunar day, which is two weeks in duration. The carnage would be literally unearthly.

The questions raised where quite fun and it is an interesting what if question.

– Suramya

October 28, 2023

New tool called Nightshade allows artists to ‘poison’ AI models

Filed under: Artificial Intelligence,Tech Related — Suramya @ 12:20 AM

Generative AI has burst into the scene with a bang and while the Image generation tech is not perfect yet it is getting more and more sophisticated. Due to the way the tech works, the model needs to be trained on existing art and most of the models in the market right now have been trained on artwork available on the internet whether or not it was in the public domain. Because of this multiple lawsuits have been filed against AI companies by artists.

Unfortunately this has not stopped AI models from using these images as training data, so while the question is being debated in the courts, the researchers over at University of Chicago have created a new tool called Nightshade that allows artists to poison the training data for AI models. This functionality will be an optional setting in the their prior product Glaze, which cloak’s digital artwork and alter its pixels to confuse AI models about its style. Nightshade goes one step further by making the AI learn the wrong names for objects etc in a given image.

Optimized prompt-specific poisoning attack we call Nightshade. Nightshade uses multiple optimization techniques (including targeted adversarial perturbations) to generate stealthy and highly effective poison samples, with four observable benefits.

  • Nightshade poison samples are benign images shifted in the feature space. Thus a Nightshade sample for the prompt “castle” still looks like a castle to the human eye, but teaches the model to produce images of an old truck.
  • Nightshade samples produce stronger poisoning effects, enabling highly successful poisoning attacks with very few (e.g., 100) samples.
  • Nightshade samples produce poisoning effects that effectively “bleed-through” to related concepts, and thus cannot be circumvented by prompt replacement, e.g., Nightshade samples poisoning “fantasy art” also affect “dragon” and “Michael Whelan” (a well-known fantasy and SciFi artist).
  • We demonstrate that when multiple concepts are poisoned by Nightshade, the attacks remain successful when these concepts appear in a single prompt, and actually stack with cumulative effect. Furthermore, when many Nightshade attacks target different prompts on a single model (e.g., 250 attacks on SDXL), general features in the model become corrupted, and the model’s image generation function collapses.

In their tests the researchers poisoned images of dogs to include information in the pixels that made it appear to an AI model as a cat. After sampling and learning from just 50 poisoned image samples, the AI began generating images of dogs with strange legs and unsettling appearances. After 100 poison samples, it reliably generated a cat when asked by a user for a dog. After 300, any request for a dog returned a near perfect looking cat.

Obviously this is not a permanent solution as the AI training models will start working on fixing this issue immediately and then the whack-a-mole process of fixes/updates to one up will continue (similar to how virus & anti-virus programs have been at it) for the foreseeable future.

Full paper: Prompt-Specific Poisoning Attacks on Text-to-Image Generative Models (PDF)
Source: Venturebeat: Meet Nightshade, the new tool allowing artists to ‘poison’ AI models

– Suramya

October 27, 2023

Tech Bro discovers Hanging out

Filed under: Humor,My Thoughts — Suramya @ 10:58 AM

The more I read about these so called geniuses or TechBro’s as they are called, the more I feel that they are living in their own fantasy world with little to no contact with the actual real world. Take the following as an example:


Tech Bro discovers Hanging out

What he is describing in fancy words is a group of friends hanging out, something that I have been doing since the late 80’s and others have been doing for millennia. Other such geniuses have re-invented the bus, dorms, Roommates etc etc etc.

They are so out of touch and surrounded by yes-men that they think they are the world’s smartest and have the cure for all ills. Not realized that they are just regurgitating fixes for problems that have been solved for years or rebranding things people have been doing for ages.

– Suramya

October 26, 2023

Its ok to ask questions about basic stuff that ‘everyone’ knows about

Filed under: My Thoughts,Tech Related — Suramya @ 12:12 PM

There is a well known meme where people talk about how the questions they asked were ‘cringe’ and make fun of the questions people ask. One such example is the comic below that showed up in my feed. Here the refrain is that having to read all the questions that someone has posted on Google/ChatGPT about programming is equivalent to Torturing them because of the implication being that the questions were so basic that everyone should know the answer to them. I get that people are trying to be funny but there is a problem with these kinds of posts because it actively discourages people from asking questions, it builds the narrative that people who post ‘stupid’ questions are not smart and their questions are cringe. It actively promotes the imposter syndrome because people start thinking that they don’t know much when they have to search for ‘basic’ stuff.


Let the torture commence. Let’s reveal all the coding related questions you asked on Google and ChatGPT

Instead I prefer the XKCD approach called the 10,000.


In this strip, Randall presents a mathematical argument against the idea of making fun of people for their ignorance.

There are so many things that I know that others don’t, just as there are so many things that you know that I don’t know. This is because each of us has different life experiences/upbringing etc. Expecting everyone to know the same things as you do is super egoistical.

I have been a developer for about 25+ years now and still I look up syntax when I am coding. Knowing the proper syntax for a command doesn’t make you a programmer, knowing what command/logic to use is what makes a programmer. I can always look up the syntax but the basic logic to solve the problem is something that I have to come up with and that is what I usually test when interviewing people. I need people who can solve problems not someone who can regurgitate the syntax for a function in C++/Python.

When I was in high-school (10th Standard) my senior project was to create an address book where we used the locate command quite extensively to make the output pretty (this was in GW-BASIC). So in my preboard exams, during the viva I was asked to give the syntax of the locate command. I always got confused on the parameters for this function and couldn’t remember if it was LOCATE [row][,[col] or LOCATE [col],[row]. I guessed and gave the wrong order so the teacher told me that she doubted that I had coded the program as I didn’t even know the syntax of the command. I responded by telling her that I don’t need to remember the syntax because I can refer to the book when I need to know the syntax but the logic of the program is what I focused on and challenged her to quiz me on that. I remember she was pretty taken aback by this and I did get a good score on the viva but she told me not to be so blunt during the actual board exam viva’s.

I have sat in meetings where people have talked about concepts or used examples I had no clue about and sometimes I would interrupt to ask for clarifications and in other times I would make a note and do lot of research before the next meeting so I understood what we were talking about. I am not saying that people shouldn’t do research or put in effort before asking questions. I am saying that we need to be supportive of new comers into the field who don’t have the experience to know all the things that might be obvious to you. In the past I used to refer folks to the How To Ask Questions The Smart Way by Eric Steven Raymond & Rick Moen when I talked about how to ask questions. However as I have gotten older and more experienced I find that while the FAQ has some good points it is absolutely condescending and not really the right approach to asking questions. So Instead of that I now refer people to Julia Evan’s post on How to ask good questions.


How to ask Good Questions

Teaching people that it is ok to ask questions is an important part of being a mentor and training the next generation.

– Suramya

October 25, 2023

Pepper X crowned the new hottest pepper in the world by Guinness World Records

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 12:42 AM

There is a new chili in town that has wrested the crown for the spiciest chili in the world from Carolina Reaper which was the previous record holder. Ed Currie, the creator of Carolina Reaper outdid themselves and after a decade of effort created Pepper X. Pepper X measures an average of 2.693 million Scoville Heat Units whereas the Carolina Reaper averaged ~1.64 million SHUs. Since the Scoville scale is logarithmic that translates to it being three times hotter than a Reaper.

I really really want to try it, but considering that the reaper was almost too spicy for me to eat, not sure if it is a good idea 🙂 When I told Jani about this, she told me that I was crazy to want to eat this and to stay away from her if I am eating the chili.

Although I don’t think I would ever want to eat the chili raw, instead I would make it into a pickle and then eat it just like what I do with the bhut jolokia (Ghost Pepper) which used to be the spiciest chili in the world till 2017 and is now the 4th spiciest chili in the world. Every time anyone I know goes to North East India I ask them to get me some of it which I then send to my mom to make into my favorite pickle. (Indian Pickle not the US Pickle)

I wonder if I can get someone to carry it from the US for me. Not sure that will be allowed because of the bio containment rules. Unless I get it in a dried/powered version which is usually not that good. But lets see…

Source: BBC: Guinness World Records crowns new hottest pepper

– Suramya

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