Thoughts on data science, statistics and machine learning.
Do Feed the Trolls
I’m trying to build a habit of writing about things that trigger me. For one, I’m sensitive, so there’s an infinite supply of things to write about. Moreover, writing helps clarify what you’re really triggered by. People who have a regular journaling habit say that it’s revelatory and therapeutic. This is about the recent Kamra-Aggarwal debate spat. It’s not about who’s in the wrong - we all know the answer to that.
Misconceptions about OCR Bounding Boxes
Over the last year, I have been working on an application that auto-translates documents while maintaining the layout and formatting. It has many bells and whistles, from simple geometric tricks to sophisticated gen-AI algorithms and microservices. But basically, the app performs the simple task of identifying text in documents, machine-translating them, and reinserting them such that the output document “looks” like the input. Most documents that my app has to process are PDFs.
Essays of Revolt - Jack London
My company uses an e-HRM system. The system is why my colleagues and I never forget to wish each other on birthdays and anniversaries. Systems like these save us from the embarrassment of appearing indifferent. Other systems like smartphones ensure that the most halfhearted birthday greeting appears sincere and colourful. All you have to do is type “Happy” and the autocomplete does the rest - it composes the shortest message needed to show how much you care.
Book Review: The Great Arc - John Keay
This book invokes two very different reactions in me. The primary reaction is jubilant, almost romantic. The second is gloomy. Imagine you’re watching Oppenheimer: spirits rising until the point the bombs actually drop, after which you feel guilty about having felt good in the first place. The Great Trigonometric Survey was completed over the duration of a better part of a century, across three generations of mathematicians, physicists and surveyors (they were called compasswallahs - I finally see where Rohit Gupta gets his pseudonym), and at the cost of thousands of lives.