[{"content":"Books that I read and enjoyed.\nTech The Go programming language by Alan A. A. Donovan HTTP The definitive guide by David Gourley and Brian Totty Learn go with tests by Chris James Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow by Aurélien Géron Deep Learning with PyTorch by Eli Stevens, Luca Antiga, and Thomas Viehmann Practical Vim by Drew Neil REST-API Design Rulebook by Mark Massé Fiction 1984 by George Orwell By the River Piedra I sat down and wept by Paulo Coelho Animal Farm By George Orwell Halo The Forerunner Saga series by Greg Bear Non-fiction Show Your Work by Austin Kleon Tuesdays with Morrie By Mitch Albom Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Art of War by Sun Tzu The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel ","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/shelf/books/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/shelf/books/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBooks that I read and enjoyed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"tech\"\u003eTech\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.gopl.io/\"\u003eThe Go programming language\u003c/a\u003e by Alan A. A. Donovan\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/http-the-definitive/1565925092/\"\u003eHTTP The definitive guide\u003c/a\u003e by David Gourley and Brian Totty\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://quii.gitbook.io/learn-go-with-tests\"\u003eLearn go with tests\u003c/a\u003e by Chris James\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/hands-on-machine-learning/9781492032632/\"\u003eHands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow\u003c/a\u003e by Aurélien Géron\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.manning.com/books/deep-learning-with-pytorch\"\u003eDeep Learning with PyTorch\u003c/a\u003e by Eli Stevens, Luca Antiga, and Thomas Viehmann\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://pragprog.com/titles/dnvim2/practical-vim-second-edition/\"\u003ePractical Vim\u003c/a\u003e by Drew Neil\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/rest-api-design/9781449317904/\"\u003eREST-API Design Rulebook\u003c/a\u003e by Mark Massé\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"fiction\"\u003eFiction\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61439040-1984\"\u003e1984\u003c/a\u003e by George Orwell\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1428.By_the_River_Piedra_I_Sat_Down_and_Wept\"\u003eBy the River Piedra I sat down and wept\u003c/a\u003e by Paulo Coelho\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/170448.Animal_Farm\"\u003eAnimal Farm\u003c/a\u003e By George Orwell\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forerunner_Saga\"\u003eHalo The Forerunner Saga series\u003c/a\u003e by Greg Bear\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"non-fiction\"\u003eNon-fiction\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18290401\"\u003eShow Your Work\u003c/a\u003e by Austin Kleon\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6900.Tuesdays_with_Morrie\"\u003eTuesdays with Morrie\u003c/a\u003e By Mitch Albom\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38315.Fooled_by_Randomness\"\u003eFooled by Randomness\u003c/a\u003e by Nassim Nicholas Taleb\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10534.The_Art_of_War\"\u003eThe Art of War\u003c/a\u003e by Sun Tzu\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41881472-the-psychology-of-money\"\u003eThe Psychology of Money\u003c/a\u003e by Morgan Housel\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e","tags":null,"title":"Books","type":"shelf"},{"content":"Some of the great articles I read and enjoyed.\nThe Invitation by svs Being a Noob by Paul Graham My GitHub Project went viral by Aditya Lenge How to keep yourself unblocked by Arpit Bhayani What we got right, What we got wrong by Rob Pike One Billion Rows Challenge in golang by Shraddha Agrawal You are not dumb, you just lack prerequisites by lelouch The Red Car Theory by Anfernee ","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/shelf/articles/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/shelf/articles/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSome of the great articles I read and enjoyed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://nowherethis.svs.io/2023/10/05/the-invitation\"\u003eThe Invitation\u003c/a\u003e by svs\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://paulgraham.com/noob.html\"\u003eBeing a Noob\u003c/a\u003e by Paul Graham\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://adityatelange.in/blog/papermod-went-viral/\"\u003eMy GitHub Project went viral\u003c/a\u003e by Aditya Lenge\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://arpitbhayani.me/blogs/keep-yourself-unblocked\"\u003eHow to keep yourself unblocked\u003c/a\u003e by Arpit Bhayani\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2024/01/what-we-got-right-what-we-got-wrong.html\"\u003eWhat we got right, What we got wrong\u003c/a\u003e by Rob Pike\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.bytesizego.com/blog/one-billion-row-challenge-go\"\u003eOne Billion Rows Challenge in golang\u003c/a\u003e by Shraddha Agrawal\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://lelouch.dev/blog/you-are-probably-not-dumb/\"\u003eYou are not dumb, you just lack prerequisites\u003c/a\u003e by \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/lelouchdaily\"\u003elelouch\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@anferneeck/the-red-car-theory-steering-your-way-to-unseen-opportunities-a45dd1f10cf3\"\u003eThe Red Car Theory\u003c/a\u003e by \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@anferneeck\"\u003eAnfernee\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e","tags":null,"title":"Articles","type":"shelf"},{"content":"Essay on Into the Wild Into the Wild tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, who abandons his comfortable life to travel across America in search of freedom and meaning. The movie tracks his path through the natural world, which helps him develop his understanding of life and independence through his experiences, which demonstrate how modern society exists in opposition to a simple existence that embraces nature.\nThe movie raised an essential question that I kept thinking about throughout the film: should we hurt our loved ones for our freedom? Christopher chooses complete independence, which made me wonder whether it is possible to be halfway independent, or whether life must be lived in an all-or-nothing way like McCandless believed.\nThe movie shows how extremist behavior may lead to success, which shows that this path comes with dangerous consequences. I believe in the idea that real happiness is happiness that is shared. People should not dedicate their lives to one single goal because this choice brings unnecessary suffering. To me, standing alone at the summit offers no freedom because it creates an experience of isolation.\nMy favorite quote from the movie is: \u0026ldquo;Rather than Love, than Money, than Faith, than Fame, than Fairness\u0026hellip; give me Truth.\u0026rdquo;\nThe movie Into the Wild challenges viewers to establish their own definitions for freedom and independence together with happiness.\n","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/blog/into-the-wild-brief-introduction/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/blog/into-the-wild-brief-introduction/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"essay-on-into-the-wild\"\u003eEssay on \u003cem\u003eInto the Wild\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eInto the Wild\u003c/em\u003e tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, who abandons his comfortable life to travel across America in search of freedom and meaning. The movie tracks his path through the natural world, which helps him develop his understanding of life and independence through his experiences, which demonstrate how modern society exists in opposition to a simple existence that embraces nature.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe movie raised an essential question that I kept thinking about throughout the film: \u003cstrong\u003eshould we hurt our loved ones for our freedom?\u003c/strong\u003e Christopher chooses complete independence, which made me wonder whether it is possible to be \u003cstrong\u003ehalfway independent\u003c/strong\u003e, or whether life must be lived in an \u003cstrong\u003eall-or-nothing way\u003c/strong\u003e like McCandless believed.\u003c/p\u003e","tags":["essay","movie","into-the-wild"],"title":"Essay on Into the Wild","type":"blog"},{"content":"Exam Platform – Rethinking the Way We Practice While preparing for exams, I realized something important — it’s not about solving more questions, it’s about solving the right questions in the right order.\nThe Exam Platform is a project born out of my own preparation journey. I often found myself spending too much time searching for quality problems instead of actually practicing them. Questions were either too easy, randomly arranged, or not aligned with exam-level difficulty.\nSo I decided to build a system that organizes preparation in a structured and meaningful way.\nThis platform focuses on:\nTopic-wise structured question sets Gradual increase in difficulty A balanced mix of conceptual and numerical problems Logical ranking of questions based on importance Instead of overwhelming students with a large collection of random problems, the goal is to guide them step by step — strengthening fundamentals first, then moving toward advanced and exam-level questions.\nThe idea behind the platform is simple:\nPractice should feel focused, not chaotic.\nBy arranging questions thoughtfully and ranking them properly, preparation becomes more efficient and less stressful. You know what to solve first, what to focus on next, and how to steadily improve.\nIn the long run, I want this platform to grow into something that can adapt to individual preparation styles — helping students identify weak areas and practice smarter.\nThis project reflects a simple belief: good preparation is structured preparation.\nAnd in many ways, I’m building the tool I wish I had when I started.\n","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/projects/paper_platform/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/projects/paper_platform/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"exam-platform--rethinking-the-way-we-practice\"\u003eExam Platform – Rethinking the Way We Practice\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile preparing for exams, I realized something important — it’s not about solving more questions, it’s about solving the \u003cem\u003eright\u003c/em\u003e questions in the right order.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Exam Platform is a project born out of my own preparation journey. I often found myself spending too much time searching for quality problems instead of actually practicing them. Questions were either too easy, randomly arranged, or not aligned with exam-level difficulty.\u003c/p\u003e","tags":["projects","Java"],"title":"Papar Platform","type":"projects"},{"content":"How I Built an AI Trip Planner That Plans Trips in Seconds Planning a trip sounds fun — until you actually start doing it.\nYou open multiple tabs, search for places to visit, calculate budgets, check distances, and try to fit everything into a schedule. What starts as excitement often turns into hours of research.\nI faced the same problem while planning a trip and thought:\nWhat if a system could plan the entire trip automatically?\nThat idea led me to build my AI Trip Planner — a simple web application that creates personalized travel plans in seconds.\nInstead of manually searching for everything, the system generates a complete trip plan based on a few inputs.\nThe Idea Most travel websites give you information, but they don\u0026rsquo;t really plan a trip for you.\nYou still need to:\nDecide where to go Choose attractions Plan each day Estimate costs Organize everything I wanted to build something that could do this automatically.\nThe goal was simple:\nEnter a few details → Get a complete travel plan.\nHow It Works The trip planner asks for a few basic details:\nDestination Number of days Budget Travel preferences Once the user enters this information, the system generates a day-by-day travel plan.\nFor example, instead of showing a long list of places, the planner organizes them like this:\nDay 1\nArrival and hotel check-in Local sightseeing Recommended food spots Day 2\nPopular attractions Activities Evening exploration This makes the trip easier to visualize and follow.\nWhy I Built This Project I enjoy building projects that solve real problems, and travel planning is something almost everyone struggles with.\nThis project was also a way for me to explore how Artificial Intelligence can be used in everyday life, not just in research or complex systems.\nInstead of building something complicated, I wanted to create a tool that is:\nUseful Simple Fast Easy to use Challenges I Faced One of the biggest challenges was making the plans feel realistic.\nIt is easy to generate random suggestions, but a good travel plan needs:\nLogical scheduling Balanced activities Practical timing I spent time improving the logic so the plans would actually make sense for a real trip.\nAnother challenge was keeping the system simple while still making it intelligent.\nI didn\u0026rsquo;t want users to feel overwhelmed. The idea was that anyone should be able to use it without instructions.\nWhat I Learned This project taught me a lot about building complete applications from scratch.\nMore importantly, it showed me how technology can solve small everyday problems in meaningful ways.\nI learned how to:\nTurn an idea into a working product Design simple and clean interfaces Build intelligent features without making things complicated Think from a user\u0026rsquo;s perspective What I Want to Add Next This project is still evolving, and there are many improvements I want to make.\nSome ideas include:\nReal-time hotel and flight suggestions Map integration Weather-based planning Saving trip plans Smarter recommendations I also want to make the planner more personalized over time.\nFinal Thoughts The AI Trip Planner started as a small idea — just a way to make travel planning easier.\nBut it turned into one of my favorite projects because it combines problem-solving, creativity, and technology.\nInstead of spending hours planning a trip, you can now generate a structured plan in seconds.\nAnd that is exactly what I wanted to build — something simple, useful, and intelligent.\n","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/projects/ai_trip_planner/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/projects/ai_trip_planner/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"how-i-built-an-ai-trip-planner-that-plans-trips-in-seconds\"\u003eHow I Built an AI Trip Planner That Plans Trips in Seconds\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlanning a trip sounds fun — until you actually start doing it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou open multiple tabs, search for places to visit, calculate budgets, check distances, and try to fit everything into a schedule. What starts as excitement often turns into hours of research.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI faced the same problem while planning a trip and thought:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat if a system could plan the entire trip automatically?\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","tags":["projects","ai"],"title":"AI Trip Planner","type":"projects"},{"content":"+++ title = \u0026ldquo;Building a Shazam-Like Music Recognition System\u0026rdquo; date = 2026-02-27 draft = false description = \u0026ldquo;How I built a music recognition system inspired by Shazam using audio fingerprinting.\u0026rdquo; tags = [\u0026ldquo;Signal Processing\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Python\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Projects\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Algorithms\u0026rdquo;] categories = [\u0026ldquo;Projects\u0026rdquo;] showReadingTime = true +++\nBuilding a Shazam-Like Music Recognition System Have you ever heard a song somewhere and wondered:\n\u0026ldquo;What song is this?\u0026rdquo;\nApps like Shazam can identify a song within seconds, even in noisy environments. I always found this fascinating and wanted to understand how a computer can recognize music so quickly.\nThat curiosity led me to build my own Shazam-like music recognition system, a project that identifies songs from short audio recordings.\nThe goal was not just to build a working system, but to understand the ideas behind audio fingerprinting and signal processing.\nThe Idea Music recognition might sound complicated, but the basic idea is surprisingly intuitive.\nEvery song has a unique audio pattern, almost like a fingerprint.\nIf we can extract these fingerprints and store them in a database, then we can compare a new recording against them and find the matching song.\nThe system works like this:\nRecord audio → Extract fingerprint → Search database → Identify song\nThis simple idea is what powers music recognition systems.\nHow It Works The system listens to a short audio clip and tries to match it with songs stored in the database.\nInstead of comparing entire audio files (which would be slow), the algorithm extracts important sound features that uniquely identify each song.\nThe process works in four steps:\n1. Audio Input The system takes a short audio sample recorded from a microphone or an audio file.\nEven a few seconds of audio is enough to identify a song.\n2. Converting Sound into Data Sound is a wave, but computers work with numbers.\nSo the first step is converting the audio signal into a form that the computer can analyze.\nThis allows the system to see which frequencies are present at different times in the song.\n3. Creating Audio Fingerprints Instead of storing full songs, the system stores compact fingerprints.\nThese fingerprints capture the most important features of the music while ignoring noise and small distortions.\nThis makes matching faster and more reliable.\n4. Matching Songs When a new audio clip is given, its fingerprint is compared with the database.\nIf enough fingerprint patterns match, the system identifies the song.\nThe matching process is surprisingly fast even with multiple songs stored.\nWhy I Built This Project This project started from curiosity.\nI wanted to understand how real-world applications like music recognition systems actually work behind the scenes.\nIt was also a great opportunity to explore signal processing concepts in a practical way.\nInstead of only studying theory, I wanted to build something real and interactive.\nChallenges I Faced One of the biggest challenges was handling noisy audio recordings.\nReal-world audio is rarely perfect. Background noise, echoes, and microphone quality can affect recordings.\nI had to design the fingerprinting process carefully so that the system could still recognize songs even when the audio wasn\u0026rsquo;t clean.\nAnother challenge was optimizing the matching process so the system could identify songs quickly.\nWhat I Learned This project helped me understand how audio processing works in real applications.\nI learned about:\nAudio signal processing Frequency analysis Pattern matching Building efficient algorithms Working with audio data More importantly, I learned how powerful simple ideas can be when implemented properly.\nWhat I Want to Add Next There are many ways this project can be improved.\nSome ideas include:\nLarger song database Faster search algorithms Real-time microphone recognition Better noise handling A web interface I would also like to make the system work in real-time like commercial music recognition apps.\nFinal Thoughts Building a Shazam-like system was one of the most interesting projects I have worked on.\nIt showed me how mathematics and programming can combine to solve real-world problems in surprising ways.\nSomething that looks like magic from the outside turns out to be a clever combination of signal processing and algorithms.\nAnd that is what made this project especially rewarding — turning curiosity into a working system.\n","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/projects/shazam_algorithm/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/projects/shazam_algorithm/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e+++\ntitle = \u0026ldquo;Building a Shazam-Like Music Recognition System\u0026rdquo;\ndate = 2026-02-27\ndraft = false\ndescription = \u0026ldquo;How I built a music recognition system inspired by Shazam using audio fingerprinting.\u0026rdquo;\ntags = [\u0026ldquo;Signal Processing\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Python\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Projects\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Algorithms\u0026rdquo;]\ncategories = [\u0026ldquo;Projects\u0026rdquo;]\nshowReadingTime = true\n+++\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 id=\"building-a-shazam-like-music-recognition-system\"\u003eBuilding a Shazam-Like Music Recognition System\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHave you ever heard a song somewhere and wondered:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u0026ldquo;What song is this?\u0026rdquo;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApps like Shazam can identify a song within seconds, even in noisy environments. I always found this fascinating and wanted to understand \u003cstrong\u003ehow a computer can recognize music so quickly.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","tags":["projects","audio"],"title":"Shazam Algorithm","type":"projects"},{"content":" Attention is all you need Pre-train, Prompt and Recommendation: A Comprehensive Survey of Language Modelling Paradigm Adaptations in Recommender Systems ","link":"https://www.udayparmar.in/shelf/papers/","permalink":"https://www.udayparmar.in/shelf/papers/","summary":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762.pdf\"\u003eAttention is all you need\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.03735.pdf\"\u003ePre-train, Prompt and Recommendation: A Comprehensive Survey of Language Modelling Paradigm Adaptations in Recommender Systems\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e","tags":null,"title":"Papers","type":"shelf"}]