Forem: Palak Hirave

Learning a new skill

Palak Hirave — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:09:40 +0000

Hi everyone, I am going to be pausing my 100 day python challenge to start learning about cyber security as that is the field that has interested me for months and I thought that I might as well start learning it and do my python challenge side-by-side as it don't really align as much with my goals as learning cyber security does. I will be posting what I learnt here in my own words for others to read and understand.

Network Basics

Palak Hirave — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:22:44 +0000

What is Networking?

Networks are things that are connected, to put it simply. They are all around us and come in many different forms like

Friend and social groups
Transportation links within a city
Power supply girds
Your neighborhood

and many other examples, wherever something is connected/linked to others, it's likely to be a network.

In computing, networking is all about the connection of technological devices and how they are linked together so that you can communicate and share things with others.

There are three main components in networks:

Nodes : Individual devices that are connected to the network
Links : Communication pathways that link the nodes together(wired/wireless)
Data Sharing : The main use case of the network is to enable data exchange

In a real-world example, a group of office workers talking to each other form the network, each worker is a node and then talking to each other are the links. What they are talking about is the data being shared across these links and to the various workers.

Why is it important?
Networks are significant as they enable us to do a range of things, especially now that we have the Internet. It helps us share physical and software resources, communicate with others via instant messaging, emails, and video calls, access files and databases from any connected device, and collaborate with others to work together in real-time when they are physically far apart.

Types of Networks

There are two main types of networks, Local Area Network(LAN) and Wide Area Network(WAN).

Local Area Network
They connect devices over a small area and these types of networks are controlled by one person or body. Due to not having much scale, the data transfer rate is higher and uses Ethernet cables for wired connection or Wi-Fi for wireless.

Example of an LAN 
                   ------------
                   | Internet |
                   ------------
                        |
                        |
                   ------------
                   |  Modem   |
                   ------------
                        |
                        |
                   ------------
                   |  Router  |
                   ------------
                        |
                        |
  -------------   ------------         ----------
  |Smartphone |---|   PC     | ------- | Laptop | 
  -------------   ------------         ----------
         |             |                    |
         |             |                    |
    -----------        |                    |
    | Printer | -------|                 ----------
    -----------                          | Tablet |
                                         ----------

There can be a mix of wired and wireless connections, for example, the PC and printer have a wired connection whilst the smartphone and printer have a wireless one.

Wide Area Network(WAN)
WANs cover a larger area than LANs and are typically owned by multiple people/organizations. One example is the Internet, which is also the largest WAN there is. WANs tend to span across cities, countries and/or continents. Due to their sheer size, there are slower data transfer rates than LANs as they have to cover a longer distance. They utilize fiber optics, satellite links, and leased telecommunication lines in order to get data across.

How do they work together?
Multiple LANs can connect to WANs in order to grant expanded communication and resource sharing. An example of this is when large businesses connect many LANs to a WAN in order to achieve unified connection across geographical locations.

Home Networks, which are LANs, connect to their Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) WAN in order to gain acess to Internet. In this setup, a device called a modem (modulator-demodulator) acts as a bridge between your home network and the ISP's infrastructure, converting digital signals from your router into a format suitable for transmission over various media like telephone lines, cable systems, and fiber optics.

Identifing Devices

Humans use their name and fingerprint for verification/their identity. In a similar manner, computers have an IP Adress and MAC Adress, the IP Adress is like your name, something that can change whilst the MAC Adress is like your fingerprint, something that you cannot.

Internet Protocol Adress
An IP address is a set of numbers that are divided into four octets. The value of each octet will summarise to be the IP address of the device on the network. This number is calculated through a technique known as IP addressing & subnetting. IP addresses can change from device to device but cannot be active simultaneously more than once within the same network.

IP Addresses follow a set of standards known as protocols. These protocols are the backbone of networking and force many devices to communicate in the same language. Devices can be on both a private and public network. Depending on where they are will determine wether they have a public or private IP address.

A public address is used to identify the device on the Internet, whereas a private address is used to identify a device amongst other devices(eg. in a LAN).

Octet          1   2  3 4 
IP Adress     192.168.1.1

The number in each octet is between 0 and 255. 

Examples of private network IP Adress - 
   192.168.1.77
   192.168.1.84
   192.168.3.93

The first two octets stay the same for most home networks whilst the last two change.

Examples of public network IP Adress - 
   86.157.52.21
   86.157.52.95

As more devices get connected, it has become harder to find an IP address that has not already been taken up. Cisco, an industry giant in the world of networking, estimated that there would be approximately 50 billion devices connected on the Internet by the end of 2021.

The mentioned version of the IP addressing scheme is known as IPv4 which uses a numbering system of 2^32 IP addresses (4.29 billion), not enough to meet demand.

So, in order to solve this, IPv6 was thought of which supports up to 2^128 of IP addresses (340 trillion-plus), resolving the issues faced with IP and it also uses better and improved methodologies.

IPv6 Example - 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334

It uses the hexadecimal system which ranges from 0-9 and A-F. It is known as a base sixteen numbering system used in computing to represent numbers. IPV6 consists of 8 octets.

Media Access Control Adress
Devices on a network will all have a physical network interface, which is a microchip board found on the device's motherboard. This network interface is assigned a unique address at the factory it was built at, called a MAC address. The MAC address is a twelve-character hexadecimal number split into two's and separated by a colon. The first six characters represent the company that made the network interface, and the last six is a unique number.

eg. a4:c3:f0:85:ac:2d

MAC addresses can be faked or "spoofed" in a process known as spoofing. This occurs when a networked device pretends to identify as another using its MAC address. When this happens, it can often break poorly implemented security designs that assume that devices talking on a network are trustworthy.

Eg. A firewall is configured to allow any communication going to and from the MAC address of the administrator. If a device were to pretend or "spoof" this MAC address, the firewall would now think that it is receiving communication from the administrator when it isn't in reality.

Day 21 of 100

Palak Hirave — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 07:08:50 +0000

Finished my snake game! It's supposed to be simple to play and yet my score never seems to go above five. What's your high score?

I also learnt about slicing lists and tuples and what is class inheritance.

main.py

from turtle import Screen
from snake import Snake
from food import Food
from scoreboard import Scoreboard
import time

screen = Screen()
screen.setup(width=600, height=600)
screen.bgcolor("black")
screen.title("My Snake Game")
screen.tracer(0)

snake = Snake()
scoreboard = Scoreboard()
food = Food()

screen.listen()
screen.onkey(snake.up, "Up")
screen.onkey(snake.down, "Down")
screen.onkey(snake.left, "Left")
screen.onkey(snake.right, "Right")

game_is_on = True
while game_is_on:
    screen.update()
    time.sleep(0.1)

    snake.move()

    if snake.head.distance(food) < 15:
        food.refresh()
        scoreboard.increase_score()
        snake.extend()

    if snake.head.xcor() > 295 or snake.head.xcor() < -295 or snake.head.ycor() > 295 or snake.head.ycor() < -295:
        scoreboard.game_over()
        game_is_on = False

    for segments in snake.segments[1:]:
        if snake.head.distance(segments) < 10:
            game_is_on = False
            scoreboard.game_over()

screen.exitonclick()

snake.py

from turtle import Turtle
STARTING_POSITIONS = [(0, 0), (-20, 0), (-40, 0)]
MOVE_DISTANCE = 20
UP = 90
DOWN = 270
LEFT = 180
RIGHT = 0


class Snake:

    def __init__(self):
        self.segments = []
        self.create_snake()
        self.head = self.segments[0]

    def create_snake(self):
        for position in STARTING_POSITIONS:
            self.add_segment(position)

    def add_segment(self, position):
        new_segment = Turtle("square")
        new_segment.color("white")
        new_segment.penup()
        new_segment.goto(position)
        self.segments.append(new_segment)

    def extend(self):
        self.add_segment((self.segments[-1].position()))

    def move(self):
        for seg_num in range(len(self.segments) - 1, 0, -1):
            new_x = self.segments[seg_num - 1].xcor()
            new_y = self.segments[seg_num - 1].ycor()
            self.segments[seg_num].goto(new_x, new_y)
        self.head.forward(MOVE_DISTANCE)

    def up(self):
        if self.head.heading() != DOWN:
            self.head.setheading(UP)

    def down(self):
        if self.head.heading() != UP:
            self.head.setheading(DOWN)

    def left(self):
        if self.head.heading() != RIGHT:
            self.head.setheading(LEFT)

    def right(self):
        if self.head.heading() != LEFT:
            self.head.setheading(RIGHT)

scoreboard.py

from turtle import Turtle, Screen

class Scoreboard(Turtle):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.score = 0
        self.color("white")
        self.penup()
        self.goto(0,260)
        self.hideturtle()
        self.write(f"Score: {self.score}", align="center", font=("Courier", 20, "bold"))

    def increase_score(self):
        self.score += 1
        self.clear()
        self.write(f"Score: {self.score}", align="center", font=("Courier", 20, "bold"))

    def game_over(self):
        self.goto(0,0)
        self.write("Game Over.", align="center", font=("Courier", 20, "bold"))

food.py

from turtle import Turtle
import random

class Food(Turtle):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.shape("circle")
        self.penup()
        self.shapesize(stretch_wid=0.5, stretch_len=0.5)
        self.color("red")
        self.speed("fastest")
        self.refresh()

    def refresh(self):
        random_x = random.randint(-280, 280)
        random_y = random.randint(-280, 280)
        self.goto(random_x, random_y)

What are you currently working on?

Day 20 of 100

Palak Hirave — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 06:38:19 +0000

Built a snake game! -or at least part of it...

Today I made the snake and got it to move around, next time I will be working on getting the points system working as well as making the apple.

Day 19 of 100

Palak Hirave — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 03:15:00 +0000

Today, I did more on turtle graphics and also leart about event listeners and multiple instances.

Basically, an event listener is a function that 'listens' for when you press a certain key and it then preformes an action when you do press that key and multiple instances means having multiple objects from the same class, in my case this would mean having multiple turtles at once.

First Project - Drawing

from turtle import Turtle, Screen

turtle = Turtle()
screen = Screen()
turtle.shape("turtle")
turtle.pensize(2)
screen.bgcolor("#FDFBD4")
screen.setup(width=700, height=500)
screen.title("Etch-a-Sketch")

def forwards():
    turtle.forward(10)
def backwards():
    turtle.backward(10)
def clockwise():
    turtle.left(10)
def anti_clockwise():
    turtle.right(10)
def clearscreen():
    turtle.penup()
    turtle.home()
    turtle.pendown()
    turtle.clear()

screen.onkey(forwards, "w")
screen.onkey(backwards, "s")
screen.onkey(anti_clockwise, "a")
screen.onkey(clockwise, "d")
screen.onkey(clearscreen, "c")
screen.listen()


screen.exitonclick()

Second Project - Turtle Race

from turtle import Turtle, Screen
import random as r

is_race_on = False
colors = ["red", "orange", "yellow", "green", "blue", "purple"]
positions_y = [-70, -40, -10, 20, 50, 80]
all_turtles = []

screen = Screen()
screen.setup(width=500, height=400)
screen.title("~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Turtle Race~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~")
user_bet = screen.textinput("Place your bet", "Please bet on a colour: \n(red/orange/yellow/green/blue/purple)")

for index in range(0,6):
    turtle = Turtle("turtle")
    turtle.pensize(2)
    turtle.color(colors[index])
    turtle.penup()
    turtle.goto(-230,positions_y[index])
    all_turtles.append(turtle)
    turtle.pendown()

if user_bet:
    is_race_on = True

while is_race_on:

    for turtle in all_turtles:
        if turtle.xcor() > 230:
            is_race_on = False
            winner = turtle.pencolor()
            if winner == user_bet:
                print(f"You win! The winner was the {winner} turtle")
            else:
                print(f"You lose! The winner was the {winner} turtle")

    for turtle in all_turtles:
        distance = r.randint(0,15)
        turtle.forward(distance)


screen.exitonclick()

Day 17 of 100

Palak Hirave — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Hi! Today, I learned to make my own classes. I did run into a few problems whilst working on today's project but luckly I managed to figure it out.

Resource for generating quizzes - https://opentdb.com/

Notes

# Creating Class
class User:
    # Creating Attribute
    def __init__(self, user_id, username):
        self.user_id = user_id
        self.username = username
        self.followers = 0
        self.following = 0

    # Creating Method
    def follow_count(self):
        self.followers += 1
        print(f"Yay! You have {self.followers} followers.")

    def follow(self, user):
        self.following +=  1
        user.followers += 1

        print(f"Yay! You are following {self.following} user(s).")
        print(f"Yay! They now have {user.followers} follower(s).")

user_1 = User("001", "Palak")
print(user_1)
user_2 = User("002", "Hirave")
print(user_2)
print(user_1, user_2)

user_3 = User("003", "Damn")
# Adding another attribute
user_3.notes = "~Yay~"
print(user_3.notes)

# Having a default value (followers are 0) to use later
user_4 = User("004", "Kevin")
print(user_4.followers)
user_4.followers += 1
print(user_4.followers)
print(user_4.follow_count())

print(user_1.follow_count())
print(user_3.follow_count())

user_4.follow(user_1)
user_4.follow(user_1)
user_4.follow(user_1)
user_4.follow(user_1)

'''PascalCase - HelloHowAreYou
snake_case - hello_how_are_you
camelCase - helloHowAreYou'''

Project

main.py

from data import question_data
from question_model import Question
from quiz_brain import QuizBrain

question_bank = []
for query in question_data:
    question = Question(query["question"], query["answer"])
    question_bank.append(question)

print(question_bank)

quiz_brain = QuizBrain(question_data)

game_on = True

print("Welcome to the quiz! Answer each question with a True or False. Good Luck!")
while game_on:
    quiz_brain.next_question()
    quiz_brain.check_answer()

    if False == quiz_brain.end_quiz():
        game_on = False

    if quiz_brain.question_number >= 12:
        print("Opps! We do not have any more questions! Good Job!")
        game_on = False

# TODO: ask the question
# TODO: checking if the answer is correct
# TODO: checking if we are at the end of the quiz
# TODO: Continue to show the next problem

quiz_brain.py

from data import question_data

class QuizBrain:

    def __init__(self, q_list):
        self.question_number = 0
        self.questions_list = q_list

    def next_question(self):
        # TODO: ask the question
        global main_q, key
        key = (question_data[self.question_number])
        main_q = key["question"]
        self.question_number += 1

    def check_answer(self):
        # TODO: checking if the answer is correct
        global index
        user_input = str(input(f"{main_q} - True or False: "))
        correct_ans = key["answer"]
        index = 101
        if user_input == correct_ans:
            print("Correct!")
            index = 1

        else:
            print("Wrong!")
            index = 0

    def end_quiz(self):
        # TODO: checking if we are at the end of the quiz
        global game_on
        if index == 0:
            print(f"Game ending. Final score: {self.question_number - 1}")
            game_on = False
            return game_on

        else:
            if index == 1:
                game_on = True
                print(f"Your current score is: {self.question_number}")
                print("Moving on to the next question.")
                return game_on

question_model.py

class Question:
    def __init__(self, question, answer):
        self.question = question
        self.answer = answer

data.py

question_data = [
    {"question": "A slug's blood is green.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "The loudest animal is the African Elephant.", "answer": "False"},
    {"question": "Approximately one quarter of human bones are in the feet.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "The total surface area of a human lungs is the size of a football pitch.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "In West Virginia, USA, if you accidentally hit an animal with your car, you are free to take it home to eat.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "In London, UK, if you happen to die in the House of Parliament, you are entitled to a state funeral.", "answer": "False"},
    {"question": "It is illegal to pee in the Ocean in Portugal.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "You can lead a cow down stairs but not up stairs.", "answer": "False"},
    {"question": "Google was originally called 'Backrub'.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was 'Moon'.", "answer": "True"},
    {"question": "No piece of square dry paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.", "answer": "False"},
    {"question": "A few ounces of chocolate can to kill a small dog.", "answer": "True"}
]

Day 16 of 100

Palak Hirave — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Day 16 on the 16th day of the month. Wonderful.

Today, I learned the basics of OOP, what a class is, what are objects in the class, attributes and methods. I used this to play around with the turtle library and also downloaded prettytable from pypi.org to play around with.

I have gotten a pretty basic understanding of how classes work in general and how to use the attributes within. At first, I was a bit confused between attributes and methods but I am assuming that attributes is the variable you call on eg. class.variable and method is the fuction eg. class.do_this()

As per my understanding it is:
Class > Object > Attributes(variables)/components is has & Methods(Functions)/things that it can do

Anyways, tomorrow I will go a bit more in-depth or just continue to practice this.

Design Thinking : Example Part 2

Palak Hirave — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 02:00:00 +0000

This is a continuation of the example, if you have not viewed that one yet, please do so.

Ideate

Now let us say that we hosted a brainstorming session and came up with these HMWs :

How might we make the library more engaging and interactive for teens?
How might we make the library more visible to others?
How might we automate the library's logging system to help the librarian?
How might we host teen related workshops and activites?
How might we connect with schools to encorage teens to read?
How might we update the library with newer computers and books?
How might we make the library's space more welcoming?

Prototype

Our team decided to pick out a few ideas to work on as a prototype :

How might we make the library more engaging and interactive for teens?
How might we automate the library's logging system to help the librarian?
How might we make the library more visible to others?

For these, we can create a storyboard or a basic UI on Figma to help test our ideas. Make sure these are made quickly and without much thought. It can also be a non-tech related solution. Just make sure that you do not put much effort in your prototype and only aim to get the message across.

Test

For this, we decided to use people who are both regular users of the library and those that avoid coming or do not come often. We used the A/B Testing later on once we got a clear idea of our prototype and went on to focus on the finer elements.

Make sure to record your results for each round of testing. This can be done though charts, tables, graphs or other variations.

Good luck on you design thinking journey and I hope this series helped you get started!

Day 18 of 100

Palak Hirave — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 11:24:21 +0000

So today I did quite a lot and spent a few hours on a project and some challenges. Without further adieu, let's get into what I learnt today.

Ways to Import Modules

Basic Import : import module
from ... import ... : eg. from turtle import Turtle, helpful so that you do not need to call upon that class again and again:
import turtle
t1 = turtle.Turtle()
t2 = turtle.Turtle()
t3 = turtle.Turtle()

from turtle import Turtle
t1 = Turtle()
t2 = Turtle()
t3 = Turtle()

from ... import * : eg. from turtle import * The asterisk means that you import everything, it is useful because then you can just say the fuction you want it to do rather than the module as well. eg: import random

choice([1, 2, 3])

So you don't need to say random.choice()
It can be useful but can also become very confusing as it is not clear what exactly is happening therefore it is not used a lot.

import .... as ... (Alias modules) : This is useful for when the module has a long name. eg. import very_long_name_module as m m.action()

rather than saying :
very_long_name_module.action()

installing modules : Not all modules are built into python. You may need to download the module before you use it.

Extra
Tuple - it is a dataset and you use () brackets for it. It is 'set in stone' meaning that once you make it you cannot modify it in any way. It's used wherever you want a fixed set of data that must not be modified in the program. If you want to modify it you will need to covert it into a list first - list(tuple)

What I built

main.py

# Setup
import turtle
import random as r

u_colours = input("Would you like cool colours or warm colours? (type c/w)").lower()

warm_colors = ["#ec536b", "#be3d50", "#9f0b23", "#bf435b", "#f8a4b3", "#a70b26", "#fd6780",
           "#ef4f6b", "#c60d2d", "#a2112a", "#84081e", "#f7274a", "#46000b", "#610b1a",
           "#F98B88", "#F99584", "#FFCBA5", "#FFE5B4", "#FF9899", "#FFCBC4", "#FFA7A6",
           "#F7C4A5", "#F7A6A0", "#F9CFCF", "#F7AE62", "#FF9999", "#F4A6A1", "#FF69B4",
           "#FF7A8A", "#FFB3A8", "#FF8C98", "#F4B7BE", "#FF00FF", "#FC6C85", "#F9A7B7"]

cool_colours = ["#9FE2BF", "#98FF98", "#B8F2E6", "#A8FFFC", "#7FFFD4", "#20B2AA", "#0D98BA",
                "#40E0D0", "#83C5BE", "#1BD7BB", "#8DD9CC", "#40B5AD", "#96DED1","#008080",
                "#07575B", "#004543", "#1F7A8C", "#30BFBF", "#0C99BA", "#00A36C", "#5F9EA0"]

if u_colours == "c":
    colours = cool_colours
if u_colours == "w":
    colours = warm_colors
from turtle import Screen
screen = turtle.Screen()
turtle.colormode(255)
screen.setup(width=1000, height=600)

if u_colours == "c":
    screen.bgcolor("#005249")
if u_colours == "w":
    screen.bgcolor((120,30,30))

turtle = turtle.Turtle()
turtle.shape("classic")
turtle.pensize(2)
turtle.speed(10)

if u_colours == "c":
    turtle.color("#aee8f4")
if u_colours == "w":
    turtle.color((220, 164, 153))

turtle.penup()
turtle.right(180)
turtle.forward(450)
turtle.left(180)
turtle.pendown()

# Challenge 1 - Draw a Square
for i in range(4):
    turtle.forward(90)
    turtle.left(90)

# Challenge 2 - Draw a Dashed Line
for i in range(15):
    turtle.forward(10)
    turtle.penup()
    turtle.forward(10)
    turtle.pendown()

# Challenge 3 - Drawing Different Shapes (and make each line a different color)
turtle.penup()
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.pendown()

def make_shape(no_sides):
    angle = 360/no_sides
    for _ in range(no_sides):
        turtle.forward(90)
        turtle.right(angle)

for _ in range(3,11):
    selected_color = r.choice(colours)
    turtle.pencolor(selected_color)
    make_shape(_)

turtle.color((220, 164, 153))
turtle.penup()
turtle.forward(200)
turtle.left(90)
turtle.forward(50)
turtle.pendown()

# Challenge 4 - Generate a Random Walk
random_movements = [0, 90, 180, 270]

for _ in range(101):
    move = r.choice(random_movements)
    turtle.pencolor(r.choice(colours))
    turtle.pensize(5)

    turtle.forward(30)
    turtle.setheading(move)


screen.exitonclick()

spirograph.py

import turtle
import random as r
screen = turtle.Screen()
turtle.colormode(255)
screen.setup(width=1000, height=600)
screen.bgcolor("#FFFFF0")

t = turtle.Turtle()
turtle.shape("classic")
turtle.pensize(2)
turtle.speed(10000)

def random_colour():
    red = r.randint(0,255)
    green = r.randint(0,255)
    blue = r.randint(0,255)

    chosen = (red,green,blue)
    return chosen

t.color("black")

for i in range(36):
    t.pencolor(random_colour())
    t.circle(100)
    t.setheading(t.heading() + 10)
    t.circle(100)

screen.exitonclick()

notes.py

# Importer une tortue pour l'utiliser
import turtle

# Pour définir les couleurs sur RBG
turtle.colormode(255)

# Ma petite tortue
drawing_object = turtle.Turtle()
drawing_object.shape("classic")
drawing_object.color((220, 164, 153))

# Amusez-vous avec!
drawing_object.pencolor((220, 164, 153))
drawing_object.pendown()
drawing_object.speed(75)
drawing_object.pensize(2)
for i in range(37):
    drawing_object.forward(100)
    drawing_object.left(146)
drawing_object.penup()

drawing_object.right(180)
drawing_object.pendown()
drawing_object.forward(100)

# Set the screen
screen = turtle.Screen()
screen.setup(width=800, height=600)
screen.bgcolor(100,26,24)
screen.exitonclick()

I'm learning french so I thought it would be fun to add the comments in french(thanks google translate).

Today's Challenge

# import colorgram
# rgb_colors = []
# colors = colorgram.extract('dot_image.jpg', 20)
# for color in colors:
#     r = color.rgb.r
#     g = color.rgb.g
#     b = color.rgb.b
#
#     rgb_colors.append((r,g,b))
# print(rgb_colors)

# Setup
import turtle
import random

t = turtle.Turtle()
t.shape("classic")
t.pensize(2)

screen = turtle.Screen()
screen.bgcolor("white")

colours = [(217, 214, 201), (168, 165, 154), (105, 100, 87), (204, 206, 210), (206, 217, 207), (167, 172, 177),
           (159, 170, 163), (201, 198, 168), (171, 155, 159), (158, 146, 64), (48, 39, 26), (80, 102, 119),
           (216, 206, 209), (23, 34, 52), (60, 23, 34), (131, 73, 83), (116, 35, 48), (19, 53, 40), (66, 112, 99),
           (183, 197, 188)]

turtle.colormode(255)

# Starting Position
t.penup()
t.right(180)
t.speed(50)
t.forward(250)
t.left(90)
t.forward(200)
t.left(90)
t.pendown()

def make_circle():
    color = random.choice(colours)
    t.speed(10)
    t.color(color)
    t.begin_fill()
    t.circle(10)
    t.end_fill()
    t.penup()
    t.forward(50)
    t.pendown()

def next_row():
    t.penup()
    t.left(90)
    t.forward(50)
    t.speed(50)
    t.left(90)
    t.forward(497)
    t.right(180)
    t.pendown()

for i in range(10):
    for _ in range(10):
        make_circle()
    next_row()



screen.exitonclick()

Baced on this guy - (google search : damien hirst spot paintings)

Why are google links so long?
https://www.google.com/search?q=damien+hirst+spot+paintings&safe=active&sca_esv=6e72ffa629272dce&sxsrf=ANbL-n6CvxCyM1IlabR8BU3-gfEM9LGP_w%3A1773487394406&ei=IkW1aerkFKqi0-kPhuaCuAQ&biw=1280&bih=631&udm=2&oq=damien+hirst+&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiDWRhbWllbiBoaXJzdCAqAggAMgoQIxjwBRjJAhgnMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDMgoQABiABBiKBRhDSNkNULoBWLoBcAF4AZABAJgBjAKgAYwCqgEDMi0xuAEByAEA-AEBmAICoAKoAsICDRAjGPAFGMkCGLADGCfCAgoQABhHGNYEGLADwgINEAAYgAQYigUYQxiwA8ICDhAAGOQCGNYEGLAD2AEBwgITEC4YgAQYigUYQxjIAxiwA9gBAZgDAIgGAZAGE7oGBggBEAEYCZIHBTEuMC4xoAfaBrIHAzItMbgHmALCBwMzLTLIBxWACAE&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Resources
https://docs.python.org/3/library/turtle.html
https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_rgb.asp
https://pypi.org/project/colorgram.py/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk

Design Thinking : Example Part 1

Palak Hirave — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Now that we have had a run down of the process, let's work with a basic example.

Now you have noticed that not many teens have been coming to your local library. Let's see what we can do to fix that.

Empathy

We are going to start by interviewing three people. One is a parent. One is a teen. And one is the librarian.

Transcript 1 - A Parent
(greetings and such, also a bit of talking on the library and how they are doing)

Me - (Icebreaker) You said you have a child, do you find them going to the library nowadays?

Parent - Well no, not really. She used to love coming here when she was little but as she got older, it seemed like she lost her interest. All she cares about now is her phone and friends. Seeing how they do not like to go to the library, neither does she.

Me - So you are saying that she doesn't really like going to the library anymore, and part of it could be influenced by her friends?

Parent - Yes, that's right.

Me - (Grand Tour) When you last brought your daughter to the library, what did you guys do?

Parent - Well, I mostly looked through books while she was on her phone the whole time, chatting to someone online I assume. We do not go to the library much anymore, I usually go by myself. I think the last time we went was a few months ago.

Me - When you went to the library regularly, when she was younger, what would you say that you did differently?

Parent - Well for one thing she wasn't on her phone, or more accurately didn't have a phone to be on. And we would look through books, she would pick out some with interesting covers and read them. We also did quite a lot of the children's activities that the library offered such as colouring, playing games and others.

Me - (Dig Deeper) That seems nice, what is your favorite part about the experience?

Parent - Bonding over books is definitely a great one, another would be the activities the library hosted. I just remember reading out books to her. It would be great if we could do something like that again.

Me - (Magic Wand) If you could wave a magic wand at the library then what would you change?

Parent - I think that I would introduce laptops into the library, as I know that it is quite an old library and some technology would be a great way to attract teens. Also some activities for teens as most of the events the library hosts are for children or adults.

(Ending thank-you and parting pleasantries)

Transcript 2 - A Teen
(greetings and such, talk a bit about their own life before bringing it to the main subject)

Me - (Icebreaker) So what are some of your thoughts on the library?

Teen - I mean it is a good place, but it is very boring as well. Most of the books are old and outdated and even the fiction isn't that fun. They never have any of the new releases. Honestly, the old books are ones that nobody has ever even heard of. You can't even find them on Goodreads!

Me - So do you think if that was fixed, you would be interested in coming to the library?

Teen - I guess, probably.

Me - (Grand Tour) So what do you tend to do when you do visit the library?

Teen - Mostly text on my phone I guess. Sometimes I also look at articles online but the small text hurts my eyes. If I forgot my phone I just wander around until Mom's finished whatever she was doing.

Me - (Dig Deeper) Would you say there was any particular time you did enjoy the library though?

Teen - I am not sure. I guess when I was little? But mostly I never go and if I do I don't do much anyways?

Me - (Magic Wand) Alright, If you could wave a magic wand at the library then what would you change?

Teen - I am not sure. I guess that I would add some new books and probably graphic novels too. The library doesn't have any of those.

(Ending thank-you and parting pleasantries)

Transcript 3 - A Librarian
(greetings and such, talk about how they are and their work in the library)

Me - (Icebreaker) Many kids and adults come over, but do you tend to find teens hanging out in the library, selecting books or conducting study sessions.

Librarian - No actually, now that you have mentioned it.

Me - And why do you think that is?

Librarian - Not quite so sure actually, we do have a large selection of books available, even for teens. But nowadays it does seem like they are glued to screens more.

Me - (Grand Tour) That sure is one thing. Would you mind walking me through your experience in the library?

Librarian - Don't mind at all, but unlike others I do work here so mine would be quite different.

Me - That's not a problem. I would just love to hear your insight on things.

Librarian - Alright, so when I come in I sort through the return and borrow books, as well as just gleam though the shelves and make sure books are in the correct section. If I have time I will sort out the order beforehand as well. There is also a lot of manual work of logging in the books and keeping track of them. The computer system doesn't work so it all has to be done by hand.

Me - (Dig Deeper) And how do you find that experience to be?

Librarian - Quite tedious actually, and there is also room for human error so I have to spend extra time making sure that it is done properly. But I would say aside from that, I do quite enjoy my work. I get to read lots of books as well and after-hours I organise with the music on which is quite fun.

Me - (Magic Wand) Organizing with music sure sounds meditative. If you could wave a magic wand at the library then what would you change?

Librarian - Most definitely the computers, it would save my time and hand cramps.

(Ending thank-you and parting pleasantries)

Key Points of Area
Now, we visit the library and find that indeed, whilst it has many great and appealing titles, most are old and not targeted towards teens. There is also a small cluster of computers that do not seem like they have been put to use in a long time. The library also contains books that have lots of words and very few visuals inside aside from the children's books. That would make it quite hard for dyslexic people. You also noticed that the library is located in a corner easy for people to miss.

Define

Now that we have a rough overview of the library and its users, let's move on to what exactly we are going to solve.

I met a parent
I was surprised to realize that whilst they loved coming to the library, their child did not.
I wonder if this means that they are struggling to figure out how to engage their teen with something that is not related to screen.
It seems like he/she needs a way to encorage their teen to come to the library and interact with their enviorment.

I met a teen.
I was surprised to realize that they do not enjoy going to the library as much anymore.
I wonder if this means that they have lost interest in the library and what it has to offer.
It seems like he/she/they needs a way to come to the library and find interesting things to read or do.

I met a librarian.
I was surprised to realize that they log all books manually.
I wonder if this means that they are not as happy with their work as usual.
It seems like he/she/they needs a way to log in all the books without it taking as much time or effort.

After a brainstorming session, we could conclude on this HMW:

How might we encourage teens to visit and engage in the library?

We could also add:

How might we use technology to enhance people's experience in the library?

Final Note
Please do remember that this is just a very simple example to help solidify the idea and see a general use case. When you do empathise, do try to conduct around 20 min interviews and do an in-depth dive into your user so that you can fully and properly connect with them. The same applies to the defined stage as well. Make sure to add more depth and ideas before moving on.

We have cleared the first part - finding and getting insight on the problem.

In the next part we will work on solving the problem.

Design Thinking : Test

Palak Hirave — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 02:15:00 +0000

Now we have moved onto the step in the design thinking process.

In this one, we will finally test what we made and get some feedback to improve on it in an endless cycle.

You can simply take your prototype to the user and ask them to give their feedback. You can also use the user journey template mentioned before to record their responce for further development.

When you are testing, make sure to prioritze your tasks and build a to-do list of what elements you want to include and test in what order.

MoSCoW Method

Must have: essential elements for the product
Should have: what should be done if possible
Could have: items that could be done if they have no impact on other tasks(comfort + feautres)
Won't have: only to be done if team has time

Some Points

the point of the test is to collect feedback from it's users
asks the user and market many questions and presents them with many sernarios to gain a sense of what they will do
must be prepared and planned in advance with an objective as to what exactly you want to test/what part is to be tested
do not fall in love with your product as you will not improve it then
take notes/document the testing as the user is using the product
try to spot things that can be done better

What works | What can    |
well       | be improved |
-----------|-------------|
Questions  | suggestions/|
(that user | ideas       |
askes)     |             |
-----------|-------------|

ask the user to describe what they see, think and feel

A/B Testing
The way this works is to test two options at the same time. I will be using the example of different button colours to add something to your shopping cart.

This can also apply to other UI elements such as various fonts, layouts, colours, animations and other features.

Can be done in cojunction of the main prototype testing or done seperatly

Now let's say you have two UI, one with a yellow button and one with an orange one. You would then assign each one to group A or B that each has an equal amount of users that are as diverse as possible within the TA.

You will then see the results, suppose users like the orange button more than the yellow one. You can now test that against a green button and so on and so forth.

Sailboat Retropective
It is a useful way for teams to evaluate themselves and consists of a few main parts.

The Island (Goal): The destination or the objective the team aimed to reach during the sprint.
The Wind (Propelling Forces): What pushed the boat forward—factors that accelerated progress, such as good collaboration or new tools.
The Anchor (Obstacles): What held the boat back—challenges, bottlenecks, or, for example, poor communication that slowed down progress.
The Rocks (Risks/Icebergs): Potential future risks, dangers, or obstacles that could cause trouble in upcoming sprints.
The Sun (Optional): Represents what made the team feel happy or positive during the project

How to run this retropective:

Set the Scene: Draw a sailboat, an island, wind, anchors, and rocks on a whiteboard or virtual tool
Brainstorm: Ask team members to write down thoughts on sticky notes and place them in the corresponding categories (e.g."slow internet" on the anchor"great pair programming" in the wind)
Group and Discuss: Group similar notes together to identify patterns. Discuss the items, particularly focusing on what is slowing the boat down
Create Action Items: Vote on the most critical issues and define concrete action items to address them in the next sprint, assigning ownership to specific team members

There are quite a few benefits to doing this, including:

Visual and Engaging: It is more creative than a standard text-based retrospective, increasing engagement
Clear Insights: Helps identify both immediate blockers (anchors) and future risks (rocks)
Encourages Openness: The relaxed, metaphorical format helps team members feel safer discussing failures and successes.

Have fun!

Design Thinking : Prototype

Palak Hirave — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 01:42:00 +0000

We have understood the user and got together some ideas. Now let's turn those ideas into reality.

The main thing is that you produce something quickly and present it. You would want to give them limited background knowledge whilst using your prototype and just let them explore as well as collect feedback from them. But we will talk about this more in the testing stage.

Whilst building the prototype you want to make it as fast and cheap as possible. It can be messy and easily made with simple materials like drawing on sticky notes to show various pages in an app. Users should be able to get a basic idea and feedback. You may want to use things such as scenes, props and roles whilst creating a prototype.

It should be made with only one focus in mind, answering a single question or implementing a single idea rather than hosting multiple features. Once you do this multiple times, through the testing stage you can figure out which ideas work and then pull them all together in a singular prototype but that is for later.

Make sure to keep the user's pov in mind and the research that you did in the first stage. The prototype, in the end, should be based around the user.

When you make your pitch, know who the right audience is, keep it short and draw on emotions rather than the logistics.

Storyboarding
You can deliver your prototype in the form of a storyboard or use it to build your prototype.

By storyboarding you can display key phases/interactions that the user will go through during the project and it can be used to show to a client/executive committee.

Remember to communicate an emotion, idea or step and to not make it too detailed. There is no need for minor details just yet.

An idea to keep in mind is MVP or Minimum Viable Product.
The cycle this uses is produce -> measure -> learn

Only introduce limited features to the market to see how it works and then repeat multiple times. Make sure that you do not spend months or years making something that the market doesn't need or want.

Next step - test