The Hackathon Circlejerk

Just like any other competitive activity that exists for students, like sports, or Model UN, hackathons too have their own little culture going. I know this by having attended plenty of these to predict that in the next hackathon I go to, I'm almost sure I'll run into someone I've met at a hackathon before.
However, I'm not convinced that's a good thing. For the sake of all students out there who still have the inspiration to get something meaningful done in their life, I sure as hell hope this doesn't become the next big trend among them unless the way hackathons work start to change, and I'm more than happy to explain why. Let this be a comprehensive guide to hackathons and what's currently wrong with them.
(I hope to cover every vendetta, personal or in general, that I hold against hackathons, so bear with me if this article is a little long)

You could argue that working on your own cool little project for 24 hours among other creative people with free food and drinks sounds petty awesome. And honestly, that would be true if hackathons were fair and perfect.
Unfortunately however, most of them are not; and all the people who frequent hackathons regularly know this as well.


That said though, some hackathons are not so terrible and are actually worth participating in. I'll start with the drawbacks of how hackathons work today, and move on to which ones you might consider going to.

Oh, the horrors

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A "hackathon" in today's terms is a horrible combination of: a) organizers who want to make money,
b) sponsors who want to shamelessly promote their brand which at times isn't even relevant to the event,
c) judges who want to steal ideas that have merit for their own company from unsuspecting college students (I'm obviously exaggerating, but it has happened before), and
d) participants who want to bring their month or year old finished product and compete so they can get an easy win.

So why is the system this bad? This kind of characteristic "circlejerk-esque" behavior is usually the result of an avalanche of moral decay caused by one bad persisting feature after another, such as :

• Restrictions on creativity :
• Not a single hackathon that I've been to has encouraged the idea of simply hacking together a neat project. Kind of ruins the central philosophy behind a hackathon, doesn't it? The criteria for winning involves "what can sell" instead of "what is fun". I understand why this might be necessary but maybe the reason why hackathons have such a bad stigma is because they're so unnecessarily commercialized. This has been the biggest shock for me since my first hackathon and I'm still adjusting to it. To me, any good idea has merit regardless of whether or not it can make someone money. This can easily be solved by having an open mind while judging or having a more relatable panel of judges altogether. An example of a parody hackathon that was a great satire against this problem was The Stupid Hackathon.

• A lot of hackathons have a "theme" that your project is supposed to comply with. That's fine with me, but the shitshow starts to surface when you have to use a certain platform/technology/stack by mandate. These are usually not announced prior to the hackathon commencing and even if you don't have to use it, they provide you some incentive to, which still sways a lot of the participants out of greed to win. This usually happens by intervention of the sponsors and can be solved by keeping the event agnostic to the sponsoring agent.

• Unfair practices :
• An overwhelming majority of hackathon winners are people who've begun well before the 24 hour time limit. A lot of people use hackathons as a break from their lives to come together and hack something new and innovative, and people like these who bring their already existing projects into the mix just ruin the spirit altogether. You can't confront them about it either as there are no specific rules in place about the shameless lengths you can go to for winning. Pre-screening projects before submission might be a small fix, but there needs to be a proper solution to this before hackathons turn into a cheap platform to just shout out your startup ideas into an indifferent crowd.

• Bad commercialization :
• You are judged by your presentation, not your project. As mentioned before, the judges are almost always swayed by profitable ideas instead of innovative solutions. This is because companies have stopped seeing hackathons as technical endeavors, so they send out people from marketing to judge. As a result, participants with strong presentations are seen as better candidates even if their technical stack aren't even in working condition. Sponsors need to start sending out actual developers and engineers who factor in things like code complexity and technical implementation in selecting the winners.

• Sponsors don't hesitate to shamelessly advertise themselves right in your face. Sure, I don't mind a brief intro and mentions about technologies I might actually use, but that rarely ever happens. The hackathon might have begun 12 hours ago, but there will still be a guy on stage talking about some weird product or API that has absolutely nothing to do with the hackathon or any of its themes. In retrospect, this is a bit sad to see because no one gives him/her any attention despite them having paid to be a sponsor for the event. Involving only strictly relevant sponsors doesn't sound like an impossible thing to do.

• Sucking up is more common than it should be. "Open hacks" aren't really open, all it means is "we'll let you code whatever you want, but we'll only favor those that are relevant to the sponsors". As ridiculous as it is for hackathons to expect you to "solve healthcare in 24 hours", it doesn't matter even if you manage to do so, because your neighboring team who wrote a bot with the sponsoring company's API is going to win. I get that there's always going to be some bias or the other from the judges, but maybe the sponsoring and judging entities should be kept isolated for this reason.

• Bad hygiene :
• As an 18 year old, going a day or two without sleep might be alright occasionally, but that can soon take a toll on you. Unfortunately, most hackathons encourage you to stay up and push through (even if they don't actually say it), and then act surprised when everyone seems too tired to present their ideas the next morning, and those that do, deliver unenthusiastic and mediocre presentations. This can be solved by increasing the duration of the event, and just having all the participants leave at night, or just halting the event altogether at midnight by turning the lights off and insisting that everyone gets some sleep. Few hackathons have successfully done this before.

• Junk food is pretty much the go-to solution for hackathons these days. Organizers have started to tie in with indoor caterers or simply bulk order from freshmenu for example, but I'd really like to see this done throughout in other smaller hackathons too.

But they're not all that bad

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If you absolutely insist on attending a hackathon or have already been sucked too deep into the culture to quit, there are ways to find out the few that provide a decent experience.

First off, avoid hackathons at colleges or other institutions. They are a perfect example of every horror I've listed above. If you replace professional organizers with a student body, you can't really expect anything different. Do not waste time in one of these unless it's a hackathon happening in your own college, and you don't mind killing a night with your friends.
Second, look for "branded" hackathons with a good reputation through the years. My city doesn't have many of these, but I'm aware that some of the hackathons in the US (some even from institutions) can be a fun experience as they've dealt with and refined the same problems over years and have pretty much turned hackathons into art at this point.
If you can't find anything like that, look for hackathons with only one sponsor overall. You can always tell these apart by the name of the event. You don't need to be a genius to know that the InMobi Hack Day is sponsored primarily just by InMobi. You still might have to deal with biased judges in this instance, but there at least won't be a conflict in themes and commercial interests. You can rest assured that they can afford to have more professional organizers who will help you out better when the need comes.
Lastly, if you do settle on a hackathon, call them up and inquire about the themes, the meals and the winning prizes. If they can't answer any of those questions or tell you that they will be answered at the event, you should consider calling it quits as any reason for doing so is almost always a bad one. This also helps to get a measure of how good or bad the organizers are going to be in general.

If you've finally settled for a hackathon that you're going to attend, whether a good or a bad one, here's a few a good things you can expect along the way :

• Learning : No matter how simple your idea is, you're going to be surprised how awfully difficult it can be to set things up when you're coding live. You're going to run into bugs you didn't even know could exist, and when it's not a bug, it will be a logical flaw in your planning itself. Dealing with these things under pressure is really an experience and will make you a better developer by the end of it all.



• Networking : Probably the biggest resource in a hackathon are the people around you. Go ahead and talk to the people and find out what they're hacking. You never know who among them could end up being a future teammate or help you get an internship.
• Actually build something : You and your friends will come up with a lot of crazy ideas over time and in your leisure, but how many of them are actually worked upon and completed? A hackathon is a really nice way to actually get people together and work on an idea that you've always had. It serves as a social event, and at the same time isn't quite, so you can use it as a convenient excuse to take a small break form your other commitments and responsibilities momentarily.
•  Bragging rights : Of course, winning a hackathon is always such a sweet feeling. Depending on how popular the hackathon in question is, it could also serve as a neat little badge on your resume. If the winning prize turns out to be decent too, that would be the icing on the cake.

I'm not playing Devil's advocate here though. My overall opinion was and still is, that hackathons suck.
If you've never been to a hackathon, or even fully understand what a hackathon is, that's good because you can't miss something you've never had. Next time someone invites you out for a random hackathon that doesn't match the above criteria, you can take the opportunity to laugh and promptly walk away. You're not missing out on much, I promise. Even if you have this insane idea for an app or website that will floor any competition, the experience of a hackathon is hardly worth the measly prize at the end of it. I'd advise you to just gather a bunch of enthusiastic people and try your luck as a startup instead. Even if it doesn't take off, your productivity and experience with reality along the journey will thank you.

Your guide to Antialiasing

If you play enough video games, you know that Antialiasing or AA is a software technique for diminishing jaggy-stairstep-like edges that should be smooth.

Even if you don't, here's a quick image comparison.

I recently discovered an old book of mine where I'd written down the different types of antialiasing and how they compare for my own reference. It was a handy little thing to have so I could know which type of antialiasing meant what (there are a lot of them out there, to be honest), and which ones I should use to get the best looks out of my game without taking a huge hit to performance. I'm going to take this guide out mostly from what I'd written in that book, so depending on when you're reading this post, there is a chance that some new features might not be covered here. You can find the sources of most of the information here by following the links in the titles.

SSAA or FSAA

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SS stands for 'supersampling', FS for 'full scene'.
The entire scene is rendered at a larger resolution, and the edge points from that render are used in the actual scene.

Type : Rendering
Performance Hit : Significant, since it involves upscale rendering.
Quality : Genuinely Antialiased

MSAA

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MS stands for 'multisample'.
It is a special case of supersampling where only portions of the scene where aliasing might be noticeable are rendered at a higher resolution, like lines or edges.

Type : Rendering
Performance Hit : Tends to be much lower than SSAA, since upscale rendering is only performed to parts of the scene.
Quality : Looks the same as SSAA except in cases where certain edge polygons might go undetected.

CSAA or EQAA

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CS stands for 'coverage sample', EQ stands for 'enhanced quality'.
CSAA is by Nvidia, EQAA is by AMD.
Designed to succeed MSAA, it adds more and better coverage sampling in order to produce quality like MSAA would at higher modes, but at only a small performance cost. 

Type : Rendering
Performance Hit : Slightly higher than MSAA at the same sample multiplier.
Quality : Increase in quality as compared to MSAA can range from some to none at all.

FXAA or MLAA

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FX stands for 'fast approximation'. ML for 'morphological'.
FXAA is by Nvidia (but also used on other environments due to its popularity), MLAA is by AMD.
There is no rendering involved here. Edges are detected and directly smoothed or blurred.

Type : Post-Processing
Performance Hit : Least. Cheapest form of AA. (Certain benchmarks indicate FXAA to be faster than MLAA)
Quality : Successfully removes jaggies, but normal textures may also have a blurred quality to them.

SMAA

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SM stands for 'subpixel morphological'.
It is an upgrade to MLAA where jaggies are removed with better detection without blurring too much.
In my opinion, this is best form of antialiasing due to its perfect balance of good quality for a low performance overhead.

Type : Post-Processing
Performance Hit : Slightly higher than FXAA. Most efficient in terms of performance to quality ratio.
Quality : Better than FXAA or MLAA. Morphs colors and textures appropriately.

TXAA

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TX stands for 'temporal'.
It is a mix of filtering and sampling techniques in order to get the best quality at the expense of performance. It's also designed to remove crawling and flickering from moving scenes.

Type : Post-Processing and Rendering
Performance Hit : Most. Much higher than post-processing methods and might even be higher than MSAA.
Quality : Depends on implementation. Might look like a combination of MSAA and FXAA.

I have, to the best of my ability tried to maintain accuracy in this guide, but despite that if you feel something is out of place or needs to be changed, do not hesitate to let me know. If this guide helped you, you are welcome, though I have a feeling that it is not going to be long before modern games do away with AA tweaking entirely and make it a standard feature of the game engines that they're built on. Note : Some types of AA were not covered here because they were either too niche, or there was inadequate information available about them, such as TrAA or CFAA. That was intentional to keep things relevant and informative.

Java vs JavaScript

Yesterday wouldn't be the first time an aspiring programmer walked up to someone experienced and asked, "So what does JavaScript have to do with Java?"

The short answer is that it doesn't. They are not related at all, except by name.
However, they are both very popular and useful languages to their own merit, so we'll take an abstract look at them both.

Quick differences :
Java	JavaScript
Statically typed (variable datatype needs to be specified beforehand)	Dynamically typed (variable type is resolved directly during runtime)
Class based (functionality is stored in a way such that it belongs specifically to the instance from which it is accessed)	Prototype based (functionality is simply reduced to a property template that executes whenever required)
All non block statements should end with a semicolon.	Semicolon is optional in most circumstances.
Java has an implicit  this  scope, and an implicit class scope.	JavaScript has an implicit global scope, and during special events, an accompanying  this  scope.

If you're new to programming and the table above didn't make much sense to you, don't worry. The table just contains some technical details that'll help you to separate how one language works from another in your mind while actually writing code.
Since you're reading a blog post that's basically trying to pitch one language versus another, I'm going to assume that you might be more interested in the difference between these two languages in terms of application and use case.

Every environment has its own set of characteristic features that a programmer needs to keep in mind when developing in it, and I believe that the act of "putting yourself in the respective mindset" of that environment brings out efficient code in the end.
What I'm trying to say is that if you try to eat an orange like you would eat an apple, you might end up successful in your goal, but the overall experience will be messy and unsatisfactory. Hence, becoming thoroughly familiar with the frame of mind you need to be in for your environment first is important.

The Java mindset

A Java developer will have a concrete idea of the structure of every class in his project, like a map of properties and functions, so he knows how each instance will interact with each other. When you need to use a lot of object oriented logic, including inheriting from other classes, polymorphism, and modularization by separating functionality into their own classes, then you're going to be passing instances around a lot. That's how you know that you need a language like Java for your task.

Also useful to note is that Java has its own core set of libraries, and virtual machine platform where code is compiled.

Where to use Java :

• For standalone apps - If you just want to create a command line or GUI application on the go, to run natively, Java is a good bet. In fact, you can't make Android apps without Java.
• Browser Applets - Although Java applets are becoming rarer and old, sometimes they are used to extend the functionality of the limited power that web browsers have over your system.
• Embedded devices - Java was originally written with portability in mind, such that it can easily be made to run in embedded projects due to its scalability.
• Drivers - Java-like languages like C or C++ are often used to develop software to make hardware work, although you might want to use a language different from Java for this purpose.

The JavaScript mindset

A JavaScript developer will be aware of what's supposed to happen when. Picture a chain of events that fire off one after another. If you're developing in JavaScript, you should know the sequence of that chain and how to manipulate that sequence to get your desired result with only sufficient lines of code. You might have to juggle events by repeating, isolating, overloading, threading and doing just about anything to functionality. This will involve passing functions around a lot.

Yes, if I haven't mentioned it before, functions are treated as objects in JavaScript. You pass them around directly and play with them (along with callbacks, optionally) a lot, especially since this language has to deal with a lot of asynchronous activities. Think of anonymous/lambda functions, but on steroids.

Also useful to note is that as a scripting language, JavaScript has come a long way and has a lot of libraries to make things easier in most contexts. It is no longer limited to just a browser sandbox and is very capable for a language where code is interpreted.

Where to use JavaScript :

• For anything web related - JavaScript is used primarily in browsers to make web pages dynamic and functional with client side scripting. There are a lot of libraries like JQuery and AngularJS that can use be used to boost its capabilities.
• For backend or server side - With Node.js, JavaScript can also work on the server end. You can either cater to web pages with server side scripting, or just make a different desktop app altogether. Node Package Manager (npm) will help you get all sorts of libraries so you don't have to re-invent the wheel.
• For light computation - There exist several JavaScript engines out there, so whether you're using V8, Rhino, or Spidermonkey, you can just run some code off of them in your browser console, or node terminal to quickly get some work done like basic or dynamic math.

By now you should know the difference between Java and JavaScript, not just in syntax and code, but also in usability and application. You should know which type of language to choose for your next project, and hopefully what you learnt in this post will make your project more successful.

Although it is true that a lot of points mentioned in favor of Java or JavaScript can also be applied to many other languages, they are not discussed here because this is just a general comparison post along the lines of "Java-like languages" and "JavaScript-like languages".

Indian engineering colleges are terrible at approaching technology

You might remember the good old Turbo C++ IDE from your common engineering classes. While the nostalgia inducing GUI can look like a smurf threw up pixels on your screen, there are actual reasons why you'll never see a qualified programmer use something that almost literally resembles a makeshift BSoD.

In fact, this isn't a problem that only I've decided to speak up about. Engineering students have long since taken to sites like StackOverflow to express their concerns about this as well :

Here's an example.

And here's another.

Now, I don't deny that there might be some hidden superpowers that might make Turbo C an excellent IDE/Compiler, but taking what's common from the answers in the links above, there is a genuine reason to stay away from it: Turbo C is just way too old.

Here's the thing: The way technology works, something obsolete is almost as good as irrelevant.

When it comes to technology, it's in its nature to keep itself changing by constantly updating to newer and more efficient practices. No matter how popular a product in this field is right now, if it can't keep up with these changes, it will soon be forgotten.

There are very few exceptions to this, and I'm sure half of you are already shaking your heads :
But Arvind, for learning programming basics, Turbo C works just fine. Any C++ program that works in a newer compiler will also work on Turbo C, so what's the big deal?
Actually no, it won't. Remember when I said that technology keeps updating itself to follow newer standards? Well some of these standards are not backwards compatible. So if you tried to compile a newer C++ program across an old C compiler, it isn't necessarily going to work.

My issue with the way colleges here teach technology isn't just restricted to the fact they use software older than I am (which is a pretty big problem by itself), but I'm also unhappy with the entire mindset in which these things are taught.
Applying logic and critical thinking isn't generally encouraged. Programs are given to students, and they're expected to memorize the flow for the time being. The components and elements will be explained, but their logical use cases and why they need to be used there are left in the dark.

The entire idea of "finding a solution to the problem" is a foreign concept to students. There is no inspiration for creativity. Why would someone put in the effort to come up with a better or different solution when they know that no one's going to give a crap? It's no surprise that senior CSE or ISE students find their syllabus so hard. They're randomly expected to do new and advanced things after their entire thought process behind coding was built on programming habits they developed by memorizing programs that aren't even relevant to today's technology.
An education system like this helps only to churn out manpower to companies which require constant grunt work and pay very little. They'll have no problem letting you go when that work is done and you've displayed no creative prowess to help the company innovate.

No matter how big of a disadvantage you realize this can all be, there have been people who made it out of this system without lasting damage. Quoting a comment on one of the StackOverflow answers above,
"If you want to gain some real-world experience, take on the challenge of getting the University to update its compiler technology. You will be helping all of the students gain a more relevant education, improving the value of the university program, and learning tons about how to persuade people when you have no direct influence, a key part of any professional's life."
In my college, I intend to at least try to bring about some positive change by communicating with the authorities, and on the off chance that it fails, I could always start a club where we teach ourselves all that which today's graduates sorely need.

Antiviruses and why they do more harm than good

It's been around four years since I've been using my current laptop and I have not had to deal with a single virus during that entire period (apart from the ones I made myself). To make that point hit you harder, I do not use an antivirus, and yes I run Windows.

I use the internet a lot, and while you might think I'm simply lucky, the truth is that there are loads of people who already do this. The idea is that there really are some foolproof methods you can apply to make viruses perpetually gone. We'll discuss those methods after I explain why antiviruses by themselves are not exactly safe.

Now you might be thinking : What's the big deal? So it's possible to avoid viruses, but I have an antivirus to keep myself on the safer side. It's not like it's doing me any harm.

Well, antiviruses can actually do a lot more harm than you think.

Antiviruses can often act bizarre and erratic. If you're trying to get some work done, this can be a bigger pain in the ass than having to deal with printers that were sent from hell.
The thing is, antiviruses try their best to keep your computer safe. Therefore by nature, it is suspicious of everything in your computer. The antivirus however doesn't know your computer as well as you do, which means that it will often target completely innocent files which can be crucial to keep your system running. As a result, the aftermath is often disastrous, or if you're lucky, just hilarious.
Which is why the really ironic part is this : The better the antivirus is, the harder it gets for the user to get his work done.

For example, this person's antivirus began to delete his system32 files.

Norton too is capable of funny fuckups.

If you've had an antivirus for long enough, you know exactly what I'm talking about. How many times did you download a harmless file for your school/work project only to have your antivirus flag it as malware and remove it from your system?
Not only does your antivirus take up memory and processing power that you could otherwise use for running your apps better, but sometimes antiviruses come with viruses bundled with them.
Pretty smart, huh? The people who make these viruses sure know what they're doing.

Fine, fine. So what do I have to do if I want to live without an antivirus?
I admit, when I first started out on the internet, I used an antivirus. Eventually, when I had to face all these problems, I realized I could do without them. I discovered the best way to avoid viruses is to use common sense.

I'm sorry if that's ambiguous (we will go a little into depth, don't worry), but rational thinking is all you need here to get you on your virus free path. Don't run files downloaded from untrustworthy sources, don't install shady plugins on your browser, don't visit sites that prompt you to install weird apps, etc.

You should pretty much already know these by now. You ignore ads that say you get a free iPad because you're the 10,000th visitor. You check reviews before downloading questionable software. You stay away from torrents that have surprisingly less seeders. All these are general ideas on how you simply have to use your intuition and be safe.

You can't get viruses from an image, or a song, so executables are the only offline resource that you need to be wary about when you download them. So if for some reason, you absolutely want to run such a file, and common sense isn't getting you far, then run the file through an online virus checker such as virustotal.com and if the site says the file is clean, then you're good. That's what I do when I download a crack or patch for a game, and I'm not sure it's safe.
You could even start a Virtual Machine and run the file in it for extreme cases. That will isolate the infection, if any, to only the Virtual Machine.

To be honest, that's all there is to it. Majority of the people I know who've complained about viruses simply missed out on the above in some instance or another. They might have visited a site with a slightly mistyped URL and downloaded something from there, or they installed a certain media player because a random online streaming site asked them to do so. Those were the most popular cases that I encountered.

Whether or not you use your antivirus beyond this point is upto you, but when people ask me what antivirus I recommend, I make sure they know that I don't, and I hope you will one day be a part of that crew, if you aren't already.

I can't live without the Internet

Really, it's true. They say the first step in solving a problem is to acknowledge it. I've come to terms with it, but I admit, I have no intention of solving it whatsoever.

If you don't already know, I moved out of my old apartment the day before. 15 years in that infernal place, and you'd at least expect me to miss it. But maybe the reason I don't is because I live right next to it. Yeah, the new apartment I moved into is in the same complex. It's in a different "block" as they call it, so I need to walk across the garden whenever I go back and forth. It made carrying all my stuff from one apartment to another considerably easier, so I can't complain.

The internet connection in the new apartment hasn't been applied for yet, so I spent more than a day in the dark abyss that is Offline. Before that, while I was still in the process of moving in and moving out, I'd just sit in my old apartment whenever I wanted to use the internet for a while. Because I'm a lazy little shit, I didn't like walking all the way across just for this, and now that all my stuff had already been moved, I found little point in going there at all. A day passed before I realized that I really really needed the kick that only one thing could deliver.

My desperate little brain just then had an epiphany. Somewhere in the dark crevasses in my memory of all the technical crap I unearthed in my spare time, I remembered something,
The 802.11 specifications allowed a minimum coverage of approximately 100 metres in a straight unobstructed line through air. 
(I didn't expect my memory to actually hold, but according to this Wikipedia article, I was close enough)

I didn't know how far my old apartment's balcony was from my new one's, but I knew that 100 metres was a lot. There was only one way to find out. I went back, found the furthest balcony and kept the router right on the ledge facing the rest of the complex. I propped it up on a couple of books so that even by accident, the router would fall inside the balcony, instead of five stories down. I had some long wires, so I managed to connect the router to the ADSL modem well inside the room. After making sure everything was working fine, I crossed my fingers and went back to my new apartment.

As it turns out, I live less than a WiFi range away. Obligatory celebration dance followed. With my 12th grade board examinations starting this Monday, this is obviously very bad news for my marks.
The connection keeps dropping on my phone unless I'm standing close enough to the balcony, and it's even more unstable in my room, but like I said, as long as I have the Internet, I'll survive.

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Encrypted paragraphs in this blog are now a thing

If you're going through my blog posts and happen to chance across a paragraph of what appears to be complete nonsensical gibberish, keep your cool. That was a paragraph encrypted with the Advanced Encryption Standard (or AES) with a secret key specific to that post.

In case you've come here directly from a post that has such an encrypted paragraph, then know that the only way you can view that content is by having the right key. Simply use an AES decrypter tool (if I haven't included one in the paragraph already), and then copy paste the text, input the key and run the tool. You may need to decode the text from base64 which I use in my encrypted paragraphs to prevent character encoding problems.
If you're looking for such a tool, you should know that there are several online websites for this. Just give Google a try sometimes, you lazy buffoon.
Keep in mind that if you don't have the right key (the secret bit of text used to encrypt the paragraph and will generate the right cleartext when used while decrypting), then there is little sense in trying this.
The key is specific to the post that contains the paragraph. This means that all paragraphs in one post can be decrypted using the same key, but if two paragraphs exist in different posts on this blog, they will require different keys for successful decryption.

This idea first hit me when a friend of mine did something similar in his own blog.
I realized that when I write posts that include my perspective in general, there's often something I need to include that's personal, offensive, immature or in any other way just unsuitable for my general audience to view.
This could include anything from a rant about how I secretly hate my girlfriend's sister, to a note that I want my future self to read.

So why don't you entirely just hide the paragraph instead, Arvind?
Because I want to let the readers know that whatever legible text they can read, isn't the entire story.
That there is more that needs to be said about what I've written, but at the same time isn't meant for everyone to see.
I want to let the readers know that however astronomical, they have the chance to use the right key and decrypt that paragraph so they can take a look.

Also, to keep things more organized, and for the sake of my own convenience, I've labelled every post that has an encrypted paragraph with the "hidden content" tag.

In fact, to get things rolling already, here's an encrypted paragraph where I write about how I feel about this approach to hide inappropriate content. Since this is a sample, the key to decrypt this is "ogodplswork". Do not expect me to give away the key for any future content that I really wish to hide.

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

Here's another encrypted paragraph. Keys are specific to the post they are in. So the same key should work here too. Try it.

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