ChatGPT is Impressive

Today I asked ChatGPT to improve one of my old poems. 

Title suggested by ChatGPT: Blessed in the Storm: Reflections on Grace and Testing

Reflections of my past

And the sins I can't undo. 

But is it just my deeds,

Or the legacy of those before me too?

I've made so many mistakes,

Why am I blessed with so much grace? 

What I have is more than enough,

Perhaps I just lack human perception.

Tests come in many forms,

Not just in suffering and storms. 

Perhaps even reward can be a test,

A way for my creator to assess.

He has his own mysterious ways,

Ignoring him could bring us astray. 

But revenge is not his goal,

Even when we don't ask for absolution for our soul.

Why do I seek more,

When I'm already one of the blessed in his store? 

Why can't I see that this is enough,

That I'm one of the chosen, put to the test of love.

Visit this page for original version of my poem.

How I built My Smart Mirror from scratch

It all started while learning JavaScript. I was looking for some practice projects. I wanted to build something which not just helps me in learning JS but is also interesting enough to keep me motivated. While reading a blog I learnt about the idea of a Smart Mirror. I found it very interesting so I instantly knew I am going to build one.

My smart mirror looks like this:

My Smart Mirror

It displays current temperature, weather summary and humidity at top left. Time, day and date at top right and Namaz timings below it.

Main components:

A two-way mirror:

I couldn’t find any online options for buying a two-way mirror in Delhi. I went to a local hardware store on Vikas Marg and obviously they never heard of anything called “two-way mirror”. Then I explained them my requirements which they understood. They call it something else in India but it is readily available at hardware stores. I bought a 15X10 inches mirror and got holes drilled on all its corners.

An Android based tablet:

Many people have used an old monitor for building a smart mirror. However, I realized that using a monitor makes whole process a bit complex. If you are using a monitor, you need one more device where you will run your app and both of them need to be connected. I simply bought a 7 inches tablet and installed my app on it. It has a limitation that you only get 7 inches space to display content. Anyway, I do not wanted to display a lot of information because it may not leave any space for a user to view his image and it also defeats the purpose of a mirror. I found 7 inches space enough to display all I needed on my mirror.

An android app:

Developing a new app for my requirements was the most technical and time consuming thing. I used JavaScript for all the back-end processing. And later built an Android app using Phonegap framework. I used Openweathermap API for weather updates and PrayerTime API from aladhan.com for Namaz updates.

When the app is ready you simply need to deploy it on the Android tablet and fix your tablet at the back of the mirror. Also cover the unoccupied space with a black chart paper or paint.

Issues I Faced:

I faced issues with my application’s background not matching with that of my mirror. Adjusting background color and brightness fixed it. 

One issue was about installing and configuring my application on the tablet. You can connect a mouse with your tablet using OTG cable for interacting with it.

Also make sure the room/place where you install the mirror is brightly lit. Another drawback of using a display smaller than the size of mirror is that the display will be distinctly visible in darkness. One reason is that I configured it with lights on. You can try auto brightness feature of Android if it works for you.

What’s next:

I have a plan to add news headlines, calendar and traffic updates to my mirror.

Overall it was a great learning experience for me.

Generate a Barcode for Free

Just learnt how to create a barcode.

Bar Code Containing my blog's URL

2 Dimensional Barcodes can store much more than simply a number. Now a days I find them quiet often in newspapers, magazines and websites. Actually recent phones are equipped with barcode scanners so its very easy to read them. They are being used for marketing. They simply code the company's web address using barcode and print them in newspapers and magazines. Then u just need to scan that using ur phone and ur phone browser takes u to that link.

We can generate a barcode without paying anything through a number of websites. One of them is:
 http://www.racoindustries.com/barcodegenerator/2d/aztec-code.aspx

A good internet application!! :)

Google Plus Invitation

Google+ is a latest social network by Google.
From the very beginning its been seen as a Facebook competitor. But Google is still testing it with limited number of users. To begin networking there u need an invite.

I have around 250 invitations. If u want to be invited there ... click one of the links:

1. Google+ Invitations
2. Google plus Invitations

Enjoy..!!
See u there. :)

Computers and Humans are Different

With a new processor in market every year we are making our computers and our technology more advanced. The advancement is all about making computers faster, more reliable , making them understand humans better, play with them, make them entertain us and all.

Only things in which computers differ from humans is that they cannot think and cannot take any decision they are not programmed for. But there are things in which they are better than humans. They are faster, reliable, won’t get tired, don’t need breaks every hour, never try to avoid work etc. Today we have designed them to do almost every work humans can do. In today’s world we have a lot of work to finish in a very limited time so obviously computers come to our rescue and help us in completing more work in less time in a very efficient manner.

So we are making our computers more human friendly and trying to put in them the things in which they lack. We have equipped them with artificial intelligence. We have even programmed computers to take some particular type of decisions and made them respond to some feelings too(not commands) like humans. So we have supplied them the ‘feelings’ and ‘decision making’ they lack in. But still to work with computers we have to behave with them the way they expect that is the way we have programmed them or a typical computer way. Now they have become a part of our lives and we are spending a lot of time with them and during this time we have to deal with computers in their language i.e we deal with only the feelings they understand and give them commands in a way they want. Its becoming our habit and now we started dealing with humans the same way and expect them to respond in a similar manner.

Obviously to compete in today’s world even humans need to be more faster, reliable and accurate or may be feelingless like computers. Imagine in nearby future we will even forget(in work pressure even now we do) that we are human and then a computer will remind us that we are humans. Like if you are working continuously for hours a message will pop up on your screen saying “ Hi! You had already worked for four hours, now u should have a break. Go and grab something to eat and stretch your limbs. Should I play some soft music for u? ”.

This way we are not only playing with our health but also loosing our feelings and some of our human virtues. We are now good at work. We are faster , accurate and reliable in our particular fields but are not good humans anymore. We can fight for every single thing and no human can be trusted so easily . We are getting too selfish and we call it “professionalism”.

But this is obvious because creating professionals is the aim of modern education not good humans. We are never tested for any human values but for accuracy and speed. Today even “Social Work” is a professional course.