a message in a bottle sitting on the beach

What Happens When You Send a Text Message?

This is quite a rabbit-hole that started when a message ended up getting lost, and I wondered why that tends to happen with text messages and not apps like messenger. TLDR: the difference is that text messages (SMS/MMS/RCS) are only forwarded from one phone to another, while apps like messenger centrally stores the data in a server. Below is an overview of the main messaging service types: SMS/MMS, RCS, and Messaging Apps. ...

March 17, 2025 · 4 min
camels near Pyramid of Egypt during daytime

A Guide to Financial Independence

Note: The following post is not financial advice. It is for informational purposes based on independent research. Money is easy to spend and difficult to acquire. After learning more about personal finances though, I found it easier to get ahead of money problems, and start planning instead of reacting. And I mean that in an empowering way: that anyone can pursue financial freedom. Here’s a overview of a few basic concepts and some specific investment options related to personal finances. I’ll try to cite another source for some of the topics, in case you want to look more into it. But if you only look into one other source, here’s my personal favorite book on personal finance and a quote from it: ...

January 2, 2025 · 10 min
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Heap Algorithm Summaries

Here are the summaries for the Heap algorithms in Leetcode’s Blind 75. A Binary Heap is a type of Binary Tree, specifically a complete Binary Tree (where all levels are filled except the lowest level), which is used to store data efficiently to get the max or min element based on its type. Merge K Sorted Lists This was already included in the List topic. Top K Frequent Elements Given an integer array nums of length n and an integer k, return the k most frequent elements. ...

December 22, 2024 · 2 min
a large wave is breaking over the ocean

Dynamic Algorithm Summaries

Here are the summaries for the Dynamic algorithms in Leetcode’s Blind 75. Dynamic programming is a method used to solve complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems. Unlike the other categories I have for the Blind 75, this is not a data structure, but more about the types of solutions that work well with them. Climbing Stairs Given an integer representing the number of stairs, calculate how many ways the stairs can be climbed by taking 1 or 2 steps at a time. ...

October 21, 2024 · 6 min
red and brown leafy tree at daytime

Tree Algorithm Summaries

Here are the summaries for the Tree algorithms in Leetcode’s Blind 75. A tree is a subset of graph data structures where nodes are organized hierarchically. Many of these problems specifically use a binary tree in which each node can have a maximum of two child nodes, a left child node and a right child node. Maximum Depth of Binary Tree Given the root of a binary tree, find the max depth of the tree from the root. ...

October 4, 2024 · 9 min