How to fix the dreaded 'package appears to be invalid' error while installing Android APKs

When you try to manually install an Android APK on your phone, you are typically stuck with an error similar to this: Stack Overflow is filled with posts like this, this and this one but apparently, there seems to be no consensus regarding the cause or even a generally accepted... Read More

Intro to DOMPDF - light and simple PHP library to generate PDF documents

Generating PDF documents from your HTML output is a very common requirement and there are several open source libraries to accomplish this in PHP. I came across this need for my project recently and I evaluated many popular ones such as TCPDF, mpdf, FPDF, etc. But the one that truly... Read More

We are not creating the "right" kind of AI

Arts, crafts, literature, even things like computer programming have been the domain of humans since time immemorial. Machines were historically meant to do menial tasks where the human couldn’t afford the time or resources. The classic example here is the type-writer, a remarkable machine that helped humans draft letters in... Read More

Unpopular Opinion: Desktop GUI is the most efficient and fulfilling way of Human-Computer Interaction

In many ways, the classical paradigm of the “WEB” as a mere portal or information resource was the most likable and valuable one in the utilitarian sense. These were the earliest days of the Internet when most of the actual Human-Computer interaction took place in the form of a Windows... Read More

[Jekyll] Maintaining drafts while writing blog posts

The conventional wisdom of maintaining draft posts in Jekyll is to store them in _drafts directory. Drafts are posts without a date in the filename. They’re posts you’re still working on and don’t want to publish yet. To get up and running with drafts, create a _drafts folder in your... Read More

How to allow Ping (ICMP) requests through the Windows Firewall

The ping.exe is a great tool provided by the Windows operating system to check and ensure if we are connected to another computer located across the Internet or even our own local LAN through the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). However, it often happens that even if the remote machine... Read More

How I made my web pages load 10x faster

Update: As of 1st November, 2023, I have switched to the default Jekyll site generator from Pelican as I found the deployment and Github Pages workflow easier. However, the point of this article still stands. The most typical advice you get when it comes to improving site performance these days... Read More

Ecommerce and corporate websites need to adopt some minimalism and de-clutter

Most senior managers and sales people in the 80s and 90s used to wear suits or blazers like this one while going to work. And while t-shirts and jeans have become the norm today (some IT firms even allow bermuda shorts from what I’ve heard!), it’s important to understand that... Read More

"API first" apps are the future

Apps tend to become very complex beasts, especially when they start to scale. Part of the complexity is due to the fact that the users could be a diverse set of people with multitude of tastes and preferences which could all be conflicting. A classic example here is this recent... Read More

Kiwixotherapy: A weird but working therapy for introverts suffering from sleeplessness

If you’re an introvert who is suffering from both sleeplessness and also low self-esteem or impostor syndrome, I want to suggest you this therapy which I recently landed upon myself and seen many people recover from their insomnia or sleeplessness problem using it, and leading much happier and energized days... Read More