# Narendra Vardi
> Stay ahead in tech with Narendra Vardi! Explore expert insights on software engineering, Java, Spring Boot, APIs, databases, and the latest industry trends. 🚀
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [My work on 360° picture](https://www.narendravardi.com/360-picture-work.md) - Get immersed in the world of 360° pictures. 💡Highly recommend you to enter full-screen mode while viewing these images. You can enter full-screen mode by clicking on the square button visible in the right-centre of the picture. I have already talked about my experience of clicking my first 360° Ph…
- [About](https://www.narendravardi.com/about.md) - About the blog Hello friend 👋 In this blog, I write about my learnings, observations and trends in the Software world. Besides software, I also talk about photography, travel stories, books and movies. I write for my future self and reader friends of this blog. So I try my best to give proper cont…
- [Art Work](https://www.narendravardi.com/art.md) - My creativity lies in creating or manipulating digital photos and videos. I enjoy doing that work. Listed below are the links to my artwork categorised by the type of art form. Links * Memes: Over the years, I have created a lot of Memes and limited them to my close friends. Recently I figured, why…
- [All Articles](https://www.narendravardi.com/articles-list.md) - Here's the list of articles that have been published till now! :)
- [Connect](https://www.narendravardi.com/connect.md) - For many, my website name, narendravardi.com, might be hard to remember. I want my readers to reach my blog easily, and hence I have listed multiple ways to stay connected with my website. Subscribe to my newsletter This method is the easiest way to stay connected with my blog. Click on this link t…
- [DALL-E Artwork](https://www.narendravardi.com/dall-e-artwork.md) - I created the below paintings with the help of DALL-E. If you haven't heard of DALL-E, see my blog post explaining it. I wanted to try and analyse the creation of artwork by DALL-E from Indian culture's perspective, and here are some of the results. The initial inputs I gave to DALL-E weren't that…
- [Digital Art Work](https://www.narendravardi.com/digital-artwork.md) - I like real painting but am not a fan of the cleaning activity follows after painting. When I learnt about digital painting, I had to try it. It's such a calming process, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown. I have used an iPad with Procreate app for all my paintings. This page consists of the…
- [Hire me as a mentor or coach](https://www.narendravardi.com/hire-me.md) - If you are someone who aspires to become a Software Engineer at Big Tech companies like Meta(Facebook), Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet. You are in the correct place. I am Narendra Vardi, and I have worked with some of the best companies in India, namely Google, Flipkart and Amazon. I am open…
- [Photography Work](https://www.narendravardi.com/photography-work.md) - To the friends of mine who do not use Instagram. Here's my photography work! :) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Naren (@worthyphotographer) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Naren (@worthyphotographer) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Naren (@worthyphotographer)
- [Resume of Narendra Vardi](https://www.narendravardi.com/resume.md)
- [Say Thanks](https://www.narendravardi.com/say-thanks.md) - I love it when people tell me they have learnt something from what I have written or talked about. If you’ve found something helpful, used my work as an example, or learnt something new – please send me a message and tell me about it. A friendly email can make my day! If you’re feeling generous, de…
- [Suggest a Topic](https://www.narendravardi.com/suggest.md) - If you think there is a topic of your interest that would be beneficial for the readers of this website, I would like to hear from you! Loading…
- [Welcome aboard!](https://www.narendravardi.com/welcome-aboard.md) - That could be me!! You never know. Thanks for Signing up! It's an absolute delight to have you on board. Being a valued member of my blog, you'll hear from me once every two weeks by email. If you ever need to get in touch with me, you can always reply to those emails and we can chat. Regards! Nare…
- [YouTube Work](https://www.narendravardi.com/youtube-work.md) - WIP :D

## Posts
- [A Reliable Way to Download Large Google Takeout Files](https://www.narendravardi.com/a-reliable-way-to-download-large-google-takeout-files.md) - Large Google Takeout downloads can fail when handled entirely by the browser. Exporting the archive to Google Drive and making it available offline through the desktop app provides a more convenient workflow
- [You kidding me! Worktrees were part of Git since 2015.](https://www.narendravardi.com/you-kidding-me-worktrees-were-part-of-git-since-2015.md) - I assumed Git worktrees were introduced for the AI era. Turns out they have existed since 2015 and waited nearly a decade for agentic coding to give them the limelight they deserve.
- [Use caffeinate to keep Claude Code and Codex running on Mac](https://www.narendravardi.com/use-caffeinate-to-keep-claude-code-and-codex-running-on-mac.md) - macOS ships with a small command called `caffeinate` that keeps your Mac awake during long-running terminal tasks. It is especially useful for Claude Code and Codex sessions over office VPN, where sleep can disconnect the network session and interrupt the work.
- [Why I still prefer Markdown over HTML for AI-generated files](https://www.narendravardi.com/why-i-still-prefer-markdown-over-html-for-ai-generated-files.md) - HTML is great for rich AI-generated explanations, but Markdown still wins when the document needs to be shared, reviewed, migrated, and maintained by a team.
- [The easiest way to read Markdown files in Chrome](https://www.narendravardi.com/the-easiest-way-to-read-markdown-files-in-chrome.md) - In this article, I talk about a simple Chrome extension that makes reading AI-generated Markdown files easier without opening an IDE.
- [The nightmare that is squash merge ft Github](https://www.narendravardi.com/the-nightmare-that-is-squash-merge-ft-github.md) - Squash merging causes merge conflicts after PRs are merged. Learn why this happens and how to fix it with interactive rebase—plus an automated git alias that drops merged commits with a single command, saving you from repetitive conflict resolution.
- [The Best Voice-to-Text App for Instant Transcription](https://www.narendravardi.com/the-best-voice-to-text-app-for-instant-transcription.md) - In this article, I am listing out another voice-to-text conversion app that is working beautifully.
- [🎙️How I Use MacBook Dictation to Write Faster (Setup Guide Included)](https://www.narendravardi.com/how-i-use-macbook-dictation-to-write-faster-setup-guide-included.md) - MacBook’s Dictation feature lets you turn your voice into text with just a double tap. In this article, I share my experience of writing using Dictation, along with a quick guide on how to enable it and a simple tip to make it more accurate.
- [Java Shot #6: Cut Down on Boilerplate with Java Records](https://www.narendravardi.com/java-shot-6-say-goodbye-to-boilerplate-let-java-records-do-the-work.md) - One of the common complaints of Java is the amount of boilerplate code we have to write for a simple class to work. Let's say we want to write a simple class which stores details of a Person, ideally, we just have to be concerned about the data variables and the functions of the Person class. But i…
- [The Safer Alternative to Beneficiary Addition: Use UPI to Verify Before You Pay](https://www.narendravardi.com/the-safer-alternative-to-beneficiary-addition-use-upi-to-verify-before-you-pay.md) - In this article, I talk about how to cross-verify the account holder's name using the Bank Account ID and IFSC code.
- [Java Shot #5: The Hidden Pitfall of Using toString() in Enums](https://www.narendravardi.com/java-shot-5-the-misapplication-of-tostring-metho.md) - Let's understand the difference between toString() and name() while working with Enum class in Java
- [Redis is No Longer Fully Open Source – Meet Valkey, the True Alternative! 🚀🔥](https://www.narendravardi.com/redis-no-longer-open-source-meet-valkey.md) - In this article, I detail about what's Valkey and how it is linked to Redis and how it is different from Redis.
- [Best ever feature on Apple Notes](https://www.narendravardi.com/best-ever-feature-on-apple-notes.md) - You can activate code blocks using ⌘ + ⇧ + M on Apple notes.
- [Vanishing Tunes: Ten percent of My Liked Songs Disappeared on Spotify](https://www.narendravardi.com/vanishing-tunes-ten-percent-of-my-liked-songs-disappeared-on-spotify.md) - Just a rant on Spotify behaviour!
- [How to add borders to image in Google docs](https://www.narendravardi.com/how-to-add-borders-to-image-in-google-docs.md) - One of the frustrations I have as a Software Engineer is seeing worst possible designs continue to exists just because it worked in the past and it works now also. Adding borders to an image in Google docs is irritating. It could have been as simple as clicking a single button like you will see in…
- [Learnings from presenting our Hackathon project as a Start-up Pitch](https://www.narendravardi.com/learnings-from-presenting-our-hackathon-project-as-a-start-up-pitch.md) - This articles is about the presentation that taught me how to present.
- [Java Shot #4: Writing readable long numbers in Java](https://www.narendravardi.com/java-shot-4-writing-readable-long-numbers-in-java.md) - If you are someone who works with Long numbers and BigIntegers, then you can make use of these two tricks to make these Long and BigIntegers more readable. Avoid using lower case l and use upper case L to represent a Long value. public class LongTest { public static void main(String[] args) { // 'l…
- [Switching between previous and next tabs in Sublime Text](https://www.narendravardi.com/switching-between-previous-and-next-tabs-in-sublime-text.md) - In this article, I document how to configure sublime to switch between previous and next tabs.
- [Java Shot #3: Document Arrange, Act and Assert sections while writing Unit tests](https://www.narendravardi.com/arrange-act-and-assert-while-writing-unit-tests.md) - A unit test can be broken down into three segments. 1. Arrange 2. Act and 3. Assert In Arrange step, you would build the necessary data that is needed for execution of the test case along with that you can also setup Mock functionality. In the Act step, you will actually call the method that needs…
- [Java Shot #2: Prefer using equality operator over equals() method for enums](https://www.narendravardi.com/prefer-using-equality-operator-over-equals-method-for-enums.md) - Enums are a powerful datatype in Java. There are many instances where you want to compare two enums. Given that a enum class supports equals() method, we end up using equals() method as it's frequently used for other object comparisons. In case of enums, using == (equality) operator is a best pract…
- [Java Shot #1: The misapplication of equals() method in Java](https://www.narendravardi.com/the-misapplication-of-equals-method-in-java.md) - One of the major advantages of statically typed language is to identify invalid data type comparisons at compile time. Java is a statically typed language and that's one main reason why I like writing Java code but there are instances where it is not. Today I talk about equals() method and how it's…
- [✍️ Declaring constants in Java (Part I)](https://www.narendravardi.com/declaring-constant-variables-in-java-part-i.md) - In this article, I explain the ways we can declare constants in Java.
- [😃 How to introduce yourself as a new tenant in a small apartment complex](https://www.narendravardi.com/how-to-make-a-good-impression-as-a-new-tenant.md) - In this article, I narrate how my friend introduced himself to all the members of an apartment complex when he shifted to this new apartment complex.
- [✍️ Understanding the difference between i++ and++i in Java (and C and C++)](https://www.narendravardi.com/pre-post-increment.md) - In this article, I will show you a straight-forward way of looking at pre and post increment operators that are common in languages like C, C++ and Java
- [🤩 What's it like to read a Manga Book](https://www.narendravardi.com/manga-book.md) - In this article, I talk about my experience of reading Manga in the form of a Physical book.
- [🤩How to write extensible filter logic in Java code](https://www.narendravardi.com/java-predicate.md) - In this article, I will detail how to use the Predicate<T> interface for maintaining multiple filters in the application code.
- [✍️Documenting some Adobe Lightroom tips, tricks, and shortcuts](https://www.narendravardi.com/lightroom-tips.md) - In this article, I list out the tips, tricks and shortcuts which can be helpful for beginner Lightroom users. This article will be updated continuously to discuss more useful Lightroom content.
- [✍️Mapping Google Maps' location to Mappls' MapmyIndia location](https://www.narendravardi.com/gmaps-mapmyindia.md) - In this article, I talk about how to look up locations on Google Maps to MapmyIndia. This is especially useful for drone users of India to identify Green, Yellow and Red zones with more precision on the DigitalSky app.
- [😔How to prepare for your next layoff in India](https://www.narendravardi.com/next-layoff.md) - In this article, I am sharing some measures that, in my opinion, would help an individual to be prepared for the next layoff.
- [✍️Does consistency win over quality?](https://www.narendravardi.com/consistency-over-quality.md) - Would you pick an inconsistently available, Great fruit bowl seller or a consistently available, good enough one?
- [✍️Why DJI Mini3 Pro is the best beginner drone - Part I](https://www.narendravardi.com/part1-djimini3pro.md) - In this article, I discuss the features built into DJI Mini3 Pro that make it one of the safest and most secure drones to drive.
- [🚲If you have relocated to a new country, visit Expat meetups](https://www.narendravardi.com/expat-meetups.md) - Today I thought of talking about ex-pat meetups.
- [🤔What does it mean if we can control an Air Conditioner (AC) using a mobile?](https://www.narendravardi.com/ac-remote.md) - In this article, I talk about a fun yet scary use of technology.
- [🎨Let's talk about some of the famous paintings of the world](https://www.narendravardi.com/famous-paintings.md) - In this article, I share with you ten of my favorite paintings.
- [🔒It's Safer Internet Day! Two mechanisms to prevent account hacking](https://www.narendravardi.com/safer-internet.md) - Two mechanisms to prevent account hacking.
- [🤖Automating the boring stuff: How I obtained the titles of all articles on my blog](https://www.narendravardi.com/list-automation.md) - In this article, I talk about how I automated the generation of an all-article list with the help of python programming language.
- [📷Minimalist photographs of farm fields](https://www.narendravardi.com/farm-patterns.md) - Sharing the Minimalist photographs of farm fields I’ve captured with the help of my drone.
- [✍️Finding the Nth highest salary from an SQL table](https://www.narendravardi.com/nth-salary.md) - In this article, I talk about some of the superb concepts of SQL.
- [🎙️Solo Trip to Europe: Podcast interview](https://www.narendravardi.com/soloeurotrip-interview.md) - Checkout the fun and humorous podcast interview about my solo trip to Europe.
- [✍️Measures to increase productivity](https://www.narendravardi.com/productivity-measures.md) - In this article, I list the activities that I feel are helping me become more productive.
- [🚌Bus Factor in the IT World](https://www.narendravardi.com/bus-factor.md) - Let's talk about Bus Factor and how it impacts the IT world.
- [If you throw a stone in Bangalore, it will hit a dog or a Software Engineer](https://www.narendravardi.com/engineer-blr.md) - In this article, I showcase a fun picture I captured on the streets of Bangalore! :)
- [🎉How did knowing different programming languages help me during my college placements?](https://www.narendravardi.com/different-languages.md) - An update about the guest article post I have written recently on the scientyficworld website.
- [The Imagination vs reality of purchasing a good car](https://www.narendravardi.com/buy-car.md) - With an entertaining example, I discuss how the reality and imagination of buying a car differ. One story from my college days and the continuation story from the corporate world.
- [Five mistakes people make while building a resume for the first time](https://www.narendravardi.com/resume-mistakes.md) - This article discusses everyday mistakes people make while building a resume.
- [How to apply for Schengen Visa to France as an Indian](https://www.narendravardi.com/how-to-apply-for-french-schengen-visa.md) - I have received Schengen Visa from France twice, the first time in 2018 and the second time in 2022. In this article, I discuss the ways to reduce uncertainty while applying for a France Visa and hope to ease the process of getting the visa approval without using any backdoor.
- [How to embed your 360s on Ghost](https://www.narendravardi.com/embed-360.md) - This article is a tutorial on how to embed 360 pictures on a ghost website.
- [Capturing light trails of traffic in Bangalore](https://www.narendravardi.com/light-trails.md) - Recently I published an image which captured traffic light trails in Bangalore, and many of my friends asked me how I got such light trails. Below is the image of the light trails embedded in Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Naren | Software Engineer n Photographer (@worthyph…
- [Travelling to Paris all alone](https://www.narendravardi.com/reaching-alone.md) - In this article, I narrate my experience as I reach Paris, the first city of my solo European trip.
- [Why I do not purchase Spotify Premium](https://www.narendravardi.com/spotify-premium.md) - In this article, I share a comical reason on why I do not purchase a Spotify Premium.
- [🔥 Breath-taking 360° photograph up in the air](https://www.narendravardi.com/360-photo.md) - In this article, I discuss about Darren Jew's unique fish-eye photograph of the Tavurvur Volcano and myexperience of creating my first ever 360° photo.
- [Podcasts I listen to these days](https://www.narendravardi.com/podcasts-i-listen-to.md) - In this article, I share ten podcasts which I generally listen to on Spotify.
- [The magician who creates digital images from the text: DALL-E](https://www.narendravardi.com/dall-e.md) - In this article, I share my thoughts on some of the images created by DALL-E.
- [Learning to fly a drone and (three + one) dimensional space](https://www.narendravardi.com/flying-drone.md) - In this article, I am talking about the difficult of learning to fly a drone.
- [Future Software Engineers, read this article before and during your placements](https://www.narendravardi.com/interview-prep.md) - In this article, I discuss the things that helped me get a Software job at Amazon and Flipkart.
- [Reach your travel destination before the night falls](https://www.narendravardi.com/reaching-destination.md) - I advise anyone travelling to a new destination to reach it before night falls. Why is this important? Here are a few reasons: Lack of resources and help I recently went on a trip to Goa with some of my friends. We reached Goa Airport by 9 PM, and by the time we got to the hotel, it was 10 PM. When…
- [Time-saving tricks for Google Docs](https://www.narendravardi.com/one-click.md) - I have been using web-based MS Office alternatives from Google for the past five years, like Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. Occasionally, I use Google Forms and Google Diagrams. Today, many users create a new document in the above apps by following these two steps: 1. Visit the Home…
- [International purchases and the sweet kick on the butt](https://www.narendravardi.com/international-purchases.md) - Imagine that you are following an artist on Instagram. They do fantastic work, and you plan to learn from them. You visit the artist's profile and find a probable link to the course he authored. When you clicked on that link, it took you to the course's landing page. The price of the course is on t…
- [Save and share highlights like a pro on Android](https://www.narendravardi.com/save-n-share.md) - In this article, let’s take a look at one of the cool features of Google Chrome!
- [Things I wish I had known before my first internship](https://www.narendravardi.com/student-professional.md) - Learnings as I transitioned from college graduate to a working professional.
- [Why was I so miserable during my farewell?](https://www.narendravardi.com/miserable-farewell.md) - Recently I visited my cousin's pre-convocation dinner. A brilliant evening with a lot of happy and energetic faces, and I was glad that I didn't miss the opportunity. Besides the happy faces, there was a lot of good food. I'll visit convocation parties more often if students invite me 😝 Almost eve…
- [Do yourself a favour and visit No Sleep Page](https://www.narendravardi.com/sleep-page.md) - We have been there, worrying about our laptop automatically sleeping, which might put you offline on your office chat application or instead cancel the in-progress uploads and downloads. In the remote set-up, this concern took a front seat. Two minutes to complete a chore, laptop will be in sleep m…
- [Negotiate to keep moving forward](https://www.narendravardi.com/moving-forward.md) - Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s moving forward quote, I wrote the below quote on negotiation. Hope you like it! :) If you can't negotiate face to face, then use a video call, if you can't negotiate over a video call, then use a phone call, if you can't negotiate over a phone call, then use an…
- [Best way to make running a new habit](https://www.narendravardi.com/running-habit.md) - I recently purchased a gym membership to make running a new habit, but my mind keeps telling me I should run outdoors. I thought I would list why a gym with a good treadmill is also the best place to run. Climate The climate in a city keeps changing every day. It could rain one day, or it could be…
- [Avoiding Perfection while blogging](https://www.narendravardi.com/tackling-perfection.md) - In this short article, I will tell you the strategy that helped me to avoid the need to write perfect blog articles. Professional Software engineers work with very high standards when writing code and documentation. Over time, they become friends with perfection. As a Professional Software engineer…
- [Most under-rated Skill to become a Good Programmer](https://www.narendravardi.com/underrated-skill.md) - Recently, a first year undergrad student reached out to me asking if there is any advice I can give, that would help them to become a good programmer. Giving advice to first year undergrad student is difficult. They need to explore the college, identify their passions, understand what they like and…
- [Goa trip with college friends](https://www.narendravardi.com/goa-trip.md) - Context: Every college group will have a favourite destination that they want to visit as a group. For my friends group, it is Goa. Ironically, we haven't visited it as a group, yet. Enjoyed this post? If so, you might like to subscribe to the weekly email newsletter that I send out every Wednesday…
- [The forgotten Smart Watch company: Pebble](https://www.narendravardi.com/pebble-watch.md) - Back in 2015 or 2016, I, along with my college friends attended Hackathons. Hackathons were picking up pace and since we were about to graduate, it made perfect sense for us to attend these Hackathons from a learning point of view. Besides, they also provided Pizza and RedBull which were very attra…
- [Use HTML version of Gmail to quickly lookup OTPs](https://www.narendravardi.com/html-gmail.md) - These days, many websites (One such example is medium.com) ask the user to provide OTP sent to their email address or SMS to log in to their website. Looking up the OTP from SMS is pretty convenient. But if you want to read OTP from Gmail, it is not. Reading from the Gmail app is good, but the web…
- [Learnings from two years of Work From Home](https://www.narendravardi.com/wfh-learnings.md) - As more and more companies are inviting the employees back to the office, I felt it would be worthwhile to note down the things that helped me while working remotely. I'll keep this brief and to the point. Things that made a huge difference: 1. Having a dedicated room for working, namely the workin…
- [Why I chose a boring domain name](https://www.narendravardi.com/boring-domain.md) - In order to spin up this website, I had to make various decisions. One among such decisions is deciding the domain name. In this article, I’m going to provide insights into why I choose narendravardi.com [https://www.narendravardi.com/] but not any of the following domain names: nvri.com navi.com v…
- [Please improve the UI/UX of the delete account page](https://www.narendravardi.com/delete-account.md) - Recently, I learnt that I owned two Medium [https://www.medium.com] accounts. Medium account usernames 1. @narendravardi [https://medium.com/@narendravardi] 2. @nvblog [https://medium.com/@nvblog] I haven't used Medium for quite some time, so having two accounts didn't make much sense. I thought of…
- [Inside the mind of a Java Programmer while writing C++ code](https://www.narendravardi.com/java-cpp.md) - Context: For a year now, I have been writing C++. In the previous two months, I merged several Pull Requests, yet I feel there's something wrong with my code. C++ is hiding power, magic and unpredictability under its sleeve. I accept that it's a dangerous combination! :) Enjoyed this post? If so, y…
- [What did you like about this book?](https://www.narendravardi.com/bad-book.md) - When I was studying in the first year of my undergrad studies, one of the frequent suggestions I received was to read 'The C Programming Language (K&R)' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language] book by the creators of the C programming language, Brian Kernighan [https://en.wikiped…
- [Log4J Vulnerability](https://www.narendravardi.com/log4j-vulnerability.md) - Context: Log4Shell was a zero-day vulnerability in Log4j, a popular Java logging framework, involving arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability has existed unnoticed since 2013 and was privately disclosed to the Apache Software Foundation, of which Log4j is a project, by Chen Zhaojun of Alibaba C…

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