My Internet History

I remember it precisely. The year was 2001; I had just finished my 10th grade board exams, never used internet before. I went to a local cyber café for the first time, and asked them to help me setup an email id. Rediff.com was pretty popular at that time in India. I signed up, my name is Kartik Vyas, I tried for an id like kartikvyas@rediffmail.com, it was already taken, and this is a pretty common combination. I tried some more combinations, didn’t work, finally I ended up  with myhearwiillgoonkartik@rediffmail.com...it sounds pretty funny now, but I was pretty new to the internet then.

As far as technology is concerned, we had dialup internet at that time, when I first got internet at home. In the cyber café I am not sure, may be they might have had cable connection, but still it was not broadband, I am pretty sure! I used to go a lot to the cyber café, Yahoo Messenger was a big craze then, going in to public chat rooms, and then trying to start up a conversation with strangers. I think the last I remember; I had around 120 strangers in my Yahoo friends list! J

Another thing I used to do a lot was search for wallpapers of cars, and cinema celebrities, and email everyone, I was one hell of a spammer then! I used to also send e-cards to friends and relatives. I was also using email to be in touch with my long distance relatives. There was no social networking back then, no WhatsApp or Facebook.

Also I had my first desktop computer at home in 2003 before I started undergrad studies, I think it had a floppy drive, which is not seen these days! I don’t remember the configuration exactly but I guess it was Pentium 4 maybe and 256MB of RAM. Comparatively I have a DELL mini monster laptop now, it has 8GB RAM, 750GB hard disk, 1 GB inbuilt video graphics, and second gen Core i5, I got this back in 2011, and it was my second laptop.

I started my undergrad studies in Computer Engineering, and I can definitely say the initial stint with the internet had a big influence on my decision, I had curiosity to know how things work, and I wanted to learn it all. During engineering I learnt programming, I learnt RDBMS, and many other courses, I used to use internet voraciously to do research related to my courses. In my university we used to have well equipped labs, but it was only for study purpose, only faculty had internet access, and they had broadband connection.

Social networking started for me around 2006, I started using Orkut, and I remember it was exciting and a bit addictive too. In 2008 I got an invite from a friend to use facebook, compared to orkut I found facebook interface of 2008, a bit less user friendly, but then slowly facebook started gaining ground and we all know the rest!

After I graduated I got a job in a big MNC, I worked for 3 major clients. Everything was online, we were working for big clients and dealing with a lot of sensitive data, and had a lot of responsibility. There were 3 level access till I could reaches my cubicle! J

One thing I am proud of is a failed startup I had back in 2010. Cloud computing was a novelty then, I had done some research, and was planning to build a startup to provide cloud based solutions for business users. I had commodity and retail market in mind. I also had registered a domain, and designed my site from godaddy.com. It was not in India back then, and I had paid them in dollars, they had a ton of tools to work with. Everything was there, only I was still nascent and could not build a working product. Eventually I thought of trying again later when I am more prepared and more experienced.

I used to do a lot of research at that time, wrote papers about Cloud computing and SOA. The passion and curiosity I had when I started using internet in 2001, I still had it in 2010 and I still have it now. Although due to time constraints of a full time job, I cannot do much research but I try to do as much as possible, I read a few papers and saw some videos on BigData last year, I also completed a course on coursera itself of the same.

So, this is my own history of the internet! Hope you had liked it!

*I had submitted this essay as part of the Coursera IHTS course of University of Michigan. I am publishing this now as grades are declared. Please do not copy for any future sessions of this course. 

Internet in 2034

To think about the future of the Internet, let’s have a look at the past. To predict the future 20 years from now, let’s get an idea how much we have advanced in the last 20 years. So, how was the internet really in 1994? Well in the 90s the internet was becoming more and more popular; it was having a revolutionary impact on means of communication with advent of electronic mail, instant messaging, forums, blogs and social networking. All these things are still pretty much there, however they have now become a basic necessity in everyday personal and professional life. Something which was a fantast or a novelty 20 years back has now become an integrated part of our lives.

Another major difference in the last 20 years has been the number of devices connected to the internet. Currently we have over 20 billion devices connected to the internet, which is more than 3 times the population of the whole world. This is an extra-ordinary change, and it clearly showcases the impact Internet has had on our daily lives. Also, the fact that these devices talk to each other and are super smart, has brought in a revolution with regards to convergence.

So going by all the above, it is really difficult to predict how Internet would be 20 years from now, no one would have guessed 20 years back that we would be relying and using the internet so heavily today. However, here’s my 2 cents.

First thing I believe that might happen is division of networks. Currently we have only a WWW, which is common and everyone uses it. I believe slowly we would have multiple closely coupled and independent array of networks. For eg. We would have self driving cars, so there would be an independent network infrastructure dedicated just for that particular domain. This would have to happen because going by the numbers and the exponential increase we are having currently, it would be almost impossible to have one global network which would encompass everything.

Another major revolution I see is in the medical industry and its influence on wearable devices. We already have some wearable devices in the form of Google Glass, Smart Watches, we also have a Smart Band coming up. I believe in the future, the complete health of the human body would be monitored via a wearable device, it could be as simple as a watch or a wrist band, it would be connected to the health systems web and off course it would be smart enough to ensure I am in the peak of my health all the time.

We may also see shift in the basic architecture of how the internet is accessed and used. We already ran out of IPv4 addresses last year and we are now using IPv6 addresses to accommodate the staggering number of devices connected to the internet. We also see new and new concepts like Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics, etc coming up. All this and more could easily change the fundamental architecture of the internet in the future.

I might as well start thinking of what we saw in fiction movies like Minority Report and Robot, and there is a fair chance that reality could be that in 20 years. Science, Technology and Internet are advancing and tremendous rate, I use a Nexus 5 smart phone, and I receive OS update and application updates very frequently. Also with regards to hardware, we have 3GB of RAM now available in smart phones, with octo core processors, something we could have never imagined, same goes with the internet, how and where it would lead us is difficult to predict!

*I had submitted this essay as part of the Coursera IHTS course of University of Michigan. I am publishing this now as grades are declared. Please do not copy for any future sessions of this course. 

Amdocs World Hackathon 2014

I remember in 2011 when I was doing my Masters from Purdue School of Science. I was the CS Rep for IEEE, and there was IEEE international 48 Hackathon which was going to happen. I had to be part of the organizing team, and I also wanted to take part in the event. I sent email to my class distro. No one replied. I approached a couple of guys, but even they turned me down. I was a bit disappointed then.Come 2014, and life has come a full circle. God provided me another chance with the Amdocs International Hackathon 2014. This time I did manage to build a full strength team and submit my entry. It was a 24 hour Hackathon.

The date was 16^th September and the time 8:30AM. I reached the center and the instructions overview session was going on. It lasted around half an hour. After that me and my friend took a stroll in the garden to do some brainstorming. The theme of the Hackathon was ‘Internet of Things’, so we wanted to be out of office as it would enable us to see more things  and think of possible novel ideas.

We went to the office after that and had meeting with the team and finalized the concept and the product we wanted to build. We also finalized the business flows we will implement. There is a saying, if you have 12 hour to cut a tree, use 10 hours to sharpen your axe! All plans ready, we made arrangements for laptops to be used, and at 3PM we were fully ready, and started working!

The team we had, we are all good friends, and there was going to be lot of fun for sure. The primary aim was to enjoy and have a good time, along with completing the product. We coded all night, and we did have a working product with 3 business flows working as expected without bugs. It was more than enough. We had built a smart internet of things system on the cloud in 24 hours. We had also added decision making skills to it using AI. We were very tired, but the happiness and satisfaction took over more!

It was a great experience for all 5 of us: Atul Tripathi (Atul ji, Behtareen, Dhurandhar, ATITT), Saurabh Hote (Jaykant Shikre, Hotteeeeee), Rahul Singh (Cheetah), Vinil Mehta (Vats) and myself Kartik Vyas.  Thank you guys for helping me in fulfilling my dream, your support was exceptional and this would not have been possible without you guys! I will definitely never forget those 24 hours of fun and coding!!

Maggie @ 3AM

My last post was also at 3AM, I had prepared a soup. I had to struggle, and innovate, but I was determined and eventually succeeded in preparing the soup I wanted to.  It’s 3AM again, I have morning shift tomorrow, I started watching Gangs of Wasseypur, and got hooked!

I felt like writing something. I was thinking what to write, I put the water for boiling, decided I will write after eating my Maggie. But then, I roamed a little, just couple of rounds in the hall, and some memories came to my mind, I was also looking at my life currently, and bang I’m in the groove! My fingers type automatically and my mind directs it on what to type, it feels like all this is happening subconsciously, I do not need to think or analyze much! Well that’s how it has been since my first post in 2008, and that’s how I write, I don’t know about others, but I guess this is natural to me!

So let’s go back in time. I was a teenager; we were 3 best friends in school. We used to go for walks in the evening. We used to pull each others leg a lot, all of us had admirable sense of humor (hell we still do), we also used to discuss issues; typical teenage life crisis. One day, we were discussing what do we want in life? I still remember what one of my friend said, he wanted to have enough money to have a home, a car, and should be able to go out for a movie with family every week. He is a CA now, he married to a CA. I guess he has definitely done justice to his aspirations, and perhaps even more!

The other guy, he is into business. He completed engineering, started assisting his uncle in business and he is now doing his own business. And then finally me, I did not talk of any plans on what I wanted, I did not have a list then. I do not have a list now, but I do have some aspirations, there are some things in life I want to be, and they are much beyond getting a car or getting a house. Money is not a unit of measure for what I want to do in life, those who have been very close to me will realize what I am talking about! Even the lady who took my ‘Verbal Communications Test' at Infosys knows about it, she had asked me: 'What I want to be in life?'

Present day. I have 5 years of experience in IT industry. I have worked for some of the biggest and most reputed companies, not only in India but also the world! My school friends would not have expected me to reach these heights, I used to be good in Maths and Science, but was an average student overall. I never even got a first class till 9^th grade. I was not part of any particular group of friends, I never have been. I am friendly with everyone, and I have some close friends, but I have never been a ‘we are a group of amigos’ kinda guy!

I worked my ass off in 10^th grade, burned the midnight oil and prepared for the board exams. They were pretty good, however frankly speaking even I was not expecting to get 81% in SSC, having never got a first class before. But, it was a lot of dedication and a lot of studies; I guess that was the first major achievement of my life!

Today when I am able to sit and write a blog in Magarpatta City, Pune working for a MNC, and being able to spend on all my wishes and enjoy my life to the fullest, I can proudly say I have done pretty well. I know many friends who have done much better, but I don’t wanna compare myself to anyone, I wanna compare myself to the guy in his teens, who was hanging out with his best friends that evening, chatting about what we want in life!

My 3AM Jugaad Tomato Soup

To start with I am very proud of myself today. I realize that I have also developed a very good ‘Jugaad’ mind now. There is no doubt that I was a genius since bachpan, but now having the additional power of common sense and ‘jugaad’ makes me feel even more sturdier.

Well I am not very humble when I write am I! Anyways to start with what is Jugaad? It is a very common term used in India, and yes we Indians are so smarter than the rest of the world! There is a jugaad for everything in India! I just did a google search of what Jugaad means? I got the meaning in the search result, please note in the search result itself and not after clicking on any web link! Hell there is also a wiki page on Jugaad! Also there are books having Jugaad as part of the title!! Feeling Proud! :D

So let’s get to my epic Jugaad of today. So it’s 3AM in the morning, due to my 3-12 shift, my sleep time which is 4AM has not yet come. I finish my 'Pringles sour cream and onion' box (and boy I love it!! #Addictive), I gulp on my tetra pack chocolate milk and have some cookies along with it. Then I decide, let’s make soup!

So off I go to kitchen, first thing I notice there is no utensil to prepare soup in! Well there are but they need to be washed (and I hate washing clothes and utensils :P ), so I look around the house, search and finally get an old rusty tapelu, it’s a big one, but well it will serve the purpose.  I pour water in it, and put it for boiling, problemo numero 2, there is no sansi (pakkad thing), I was thinking of using a cloth or something when I am done.

After 5 mins…problemo numero 3, the old rusty tapeli is giving out rust along with boiling water, what to do now! No problem…keep calm and keep boiling! Had a quick look around…found a big chamcha…ok I will use that to transfer water from tapeli to my mug. About the rust?? Well basic science, solid is heavier then liquid as it has higher density, after I turn off the gas it will settle down again! (y) After that I use a jharni (filer thing) while pouring water from tapeli to my mug via the big chamcha!

Mug already has the soup powder, just stir it…keep it for 3 mins…awesome soup ready…awesome Jugaad soup ready…even if some rust got dissolved in water…body needs iron in one form or the other…at the end of the day the feeling of accomplishing a wonderful Jugaad is simply marvelous!

Life @ Star Date 67942.9

Today is Star Date 67942.9, and the state of my mind is same as it was around SIX years ago. It was 30^th July, 2008, 03:25AM in the morning and I had a curious little mind, searching for answers. I just had to get my thoughts out and I blogged them out. That was the time when I first wrote about Life, there are 18 labels in my blog about Life, some philosophical, some experiential.

The things I want to write about is that between the first Label of Life and the 18^th, I have learnt a lot, I have grown a lot. I have experienced successes, experienced failures. Had a lot of happy moments, and also lot of sorrowful moments. However I have learnt one thing, the harder you fall, the stronger you are when you get up. I have learnt that it is important to be happy, but it is also important to be sad, because unless you don’t experience darkness, you won’t realize the importance of light.

I always wanted to do something important, something useful for humanity. Having high goals and dreams often comes with a price; the mind often achieves what it envisions.  I have experienced this many times, when I hope for something to happen, it really happens. I have also had a lot of deja-vu moments in my life. But I still contemplate what the limits of the human mind are. How powerful is the human mind and what is the source of its power? I dint have many answers in 2008, which I have now, may be one day I will have all my answers!

Life @ 67942.9 is going very well. I am rocking away on my Nexus 5, also read about the upcoming Nexus 9 tablet, looks to be a good one. Also I got myself my favorite Digit magazine’s 13^th anniversary issue. The weather is wonderful in Pune, the onset of monsoon, it is very pleasant and windy, and there is happiness all around.

The FIFA World Cup 2014 is going on, and sadly I am not following it much. I don’t know, I have lost my interest in Sports. I remember watching a lot of Football (mainly EPL), Cricket, F1, Tennis and WWE when I was in school/college. Now I do some reading, some social networking, and I watch a lot of movies. I can arguably say, I have watched over 70% of the released movies (Hindi, English) of 2014 in cinema hall!

I am going through a very good phase of my life, but I am choosing happiness over my goals. It is really funny; there are basically two types of people. One who just want to enjoy life and not think about anything else, and one who are goal oriented. I am a mixture of both. I realize that if I am very happy, it means I am not focusing on my goals, and vice-versa.

Life is about experience, life is about meeting new people, knowing them. I have met a lot of people through school, college and my jobs. You learn from them, you interact with them, you become very good friends, sometimes your good friends have to go away and you feel sad, but then you find more friends. Happiness and sorrow is a state of mind, HELL… EVEN LIFE AND DEATH IS A STATE OF MIND!!!

18th June, 2014

 Another date blog post, and a post after long time! I had pretty hectic work in office for last 3 months, was feeling tired, took a vacation and went to Gujarat. Visited Rajkot, Baroda, Anand and Bhanvangar. 4 cities in 9 days, lots of siblings masti, lots of home food, card games, and eventually gaining a few kilos at the end of it all!

 I visited Rajkot first, I was really surprised by the amount of development in Rajkot, I could see lots of premium apartment buildings, actually more than I have seen in Mumbai. The highways in Gujarat are also incredible, to be frank I have visited US, and some top cities in Gujarat have infrastructure facilities and development of similar to what you would find in the US!

 Did a lot of shopping in Rajkot, then I went to Bhavnagar, it is a very memorable place for me and my sister. We just used to love playing on the big swing in the yard outside the house and brushing in the open air tap every morning! As soon as I sat on the hichko, I felt an indescribable feeling, it was good, it was happiness, it was wonderful indeed! Went to our kud-devta Dhudiya-dada temple in Babara, which comes between Rajkot and Bhavnagar. Performed our family traditions there, and back to Bhavnagar.

 Went for the movie Fugly in the evening with my little PhD sister Nidhi, it was a big mall indeed, movie was nice too! After that had some exotic hot bhaijias, tomato and capcicum bhaijias to be precise! :D Went to Takteshwar mahadev temple after that, weather was wondeful, cool and windy. Takteshwar is a temple on the hill, and you can see whole of Bhavnagar from it!

 Next morning started for Anand, first time visit for me. Reached there and meet mota mama and all. Anand and Valabh Vidyanagar are next to each other, Valabh Vidyanagar is the biggest educational hub of Gujarat, where a lot of NRI students come too! Visited my brother's college where he is Assistant HOD, the infrastructure and cleanliness of the college were really commendable! Really impressed!

 Went to Baroda after that. Played cards with Snehal, had Punjabi food, a relief after 9 days of aamras and Gujarati cuisine, also had Pav Usal there. Started by journey back home from Baroda! It was a wonderful refreshing trip, and a memorable one indeed!

 Coming back to the subject now, today we had Kaizen fair in office, and my idea was selected as one of the top 12 in my unit. I was given a stall and I was presenting my idea to all visitors and the judging panel. A new experience indeed. I was a bit nervous all day, but did all the required preparations, started getting good feedback from the audience and then it all went well!

 Also finally ordered Moto E for mom, form flipkart today. This has become like booking tatkal ticket in irctc...lol. Also today is Sparsh's 4th month birth anniversary, Kaizen fair achievement dedicated to you big guy!

The 9 Games on my Nexus 5

In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned about the games I had loaded in my phones. At that time I had Subway Surfer, Hill Climb Racing, Asphalt 8, Stick Cricket Premier League and Tennis 3D. However, three have been a few changes now.

To start with I uninstalled Subway Surfer and Hill Climb Racing, as I did not find any interest in them after playing high graphics racing and sports games. I also installed some new games on my cell. As I was done with the Stick Premier League, I uninstalled that too, and I installed Stick Cricket Partnerships. It is a multiplayer online game, where you partner with other players on the net, and try to reach certain milestones and clear each levels. I also got the original Stick Cricket, but that is not that great, most of the things in that are paid!

Another game which I installed and I am playing a lot is 'Teen Patti'. It is the Indian version of Poker. I remember back in 2011, I played a lot of Zynga Poker on facebook. I had started with 10K chips and I had reached 2 Million, and hell yeah I am proud of it! Currently I have reached upto 175k starting from 10K, I have played only a week till now. I really like these games, they help you in developing your judgment and decision making skills.

What else, I have installed 4 more games. First is KBC, however I have never won more than 40K in it….the questions are just much tougher than what you get on the television. Second one is chess, which I din’t play till now…lol .

Third one I got is Pool Billiards, it is a good game to kill time, but I would enjoy the real pool more than the one on my cell. Finally I got a wonderful little game called 2048. It took me some guidance on how to play it, but once I learned, it is indeed a bit addictive! So there it is…the current 9 games of my Nexus 5: Tennis 3D, Asphalt 8, Stick Cricket, Stick Cricket Partnerships, Pool Billiards, 2048 Numbers, KBC 2014, Chess and Teen Patti.

14th April, 2014

 One of those date blogs again. More importantly, another post for this year. The amount I blog is directly proportional to the amount of happiness in my life. I have blogged a lot in past few months... :)

 So today was 14th April, 2014, Monday. A day which everyone hates, first day of the week to go to office. For me it's a week off. There are lot of perks in production support. You get one week off on Monday, it helps for a movie buff like me, you get cheap tickets and shows are never full!

 Today was the plan to watch Rio 2. Also that I had watched Rio before, I was looking forward to this one. It was up to the expectation, liked it. After that, had my favorite Mexican cuisine food for lunch, and off to another movie: Bhoothnath Returns. I had not seen Bhoothnath, and did not have any expectations from this one, I went because my friend recommended it as a good movie. Well he was damn right.

 It is a laugh out riot movie. Amazing performance by all, especially the child artist. Really fun to watch movie, and it also has a message in it. The importance of voting, and what happens when you consider Voting day as a holiday and go out on a picnic or just relax. This is a very bad mentality among us Indians, first we don't vote and then we keep blaming the government.

 Well for starters, this movie did inspire me to go to Mumbai, just to vote, I won't have a holiday, as voting date in Pune and Mumbai are different, I will still try my best to go to Mumbai and cast my vote. I want to make a difference. We all should make a difference, and work towards betterment of our society, rather than just complaining and criticizing the government for not doing anything.

 The difference between us and the developed countries is that, in developed countries, everyone not only cares for upliftment and betterment of their surroundings and country as a whole, but they also come forward and take action. This is the thing we should practice too, I know it is easy to say and no one really cares. But to start with, lets just make sure we all make our vote count, let our vote make a difference...

Nexus 5 Fully Loaded - Tips & Tricks!

 So it's been over a month now. I am really happy and proud to own a Nexus 5. Why not? When you are using phone of the year 2013! Ne ways getting back to the subject, in this post I would like to provide tips and recommendations for any Nexus 5/Android user.

 To start with, the one feature Nexus phone users are proud to show off, is the Google hindi input. This feature is available by default only in Nexus devices, for other Android phones, you need to install 3rd party apps. When you enable the Google hindi input, you can input in Hindi in all the applications on the phone. To enable this feature go to Settings-->Language & input-->Check the box which says 'Google Hindi Input'. Also this feature may soon be available for other Android devices too, with the next Android update.

 Lets come to apps and games. So, I got a 16 Gigs phone, with 12 Gigs user available. A 4.95 inch display, 2 Gigs of RAM, a Snapdragon 800 chip set (fastest at that time) and a 2.3 Ghz of CPU. Well it was like having a million dollars, and deciding how to spend it lavishly!!! I was a bit apprehensive and cautious to install heavy games, but then I did it all.

 As far as games is concerned, I started with the humble Subway Surfer and Hill Climb racing. Played those for a week, then I got Asphalt 8! It is ultimate racing game to play on a cell phone for a gamer. I have played a lot of NFS's on my PS2, and the feeling you get of playing a game of same level of graphics and performance on a handheld device is simply amazing! Really enjoying this one, already reached Season 2 of it in a week. Only concern is, phone becomes a bit hot if you play for long times, so don't do that, especially for Nexus 5, as it is a fully sealed device.

 I also got the Stick Cricket Premier League. You can play 5 seasons of IPL or Aus equivalent. I started the IPL with Mumbai Indians team. You get some funds at start of the season too, to buy players/coaches. Apparently I have finished all 5 seasons, won the IPL trophy 3 times, came 2nd once and 4th once. Another wonderful and new game on the play store, which I installed is Tennis 3D. It took me some time to ace this one, around 30mins, but once I learnt some tricks it is fun. It is competitive, and I still need to learn more tricks to start winning Slams.

 So that was for games, lets come to apps. WhatsApp and Facebook were the first and basic installs.  After that I also got the Facebook Messenger, as the latest one lets you make unlimited free calls! Also installed Skype, as I use it for Video calls with family. I had not loaded music in my phone for a while, as my awesome collection was in Mumbai. I went home last weekend and got 4 Gigs worth of my favorite music synced to my Nexus 5. This phone does not come with a music player, you can play music from My Music app, but that is not that good. Got 'Rocket Player' for music, working pretty well, Good Easy UI, and some useful features too.

  I am happy and lucky to have lot of good friends who are experienced Android/Nexus 5 users. They also recommended me apps like 'Clean Master' and 'Digitally Imported Radio'. I tried a few stations, and 'Chillout' is the one I liked the most. There are several other crazy hard core Trance stations too, I got headache after listening them for 5 mins...lol.

 I am a movie buff, so I had also got the bookmyshow app in the first week. I follow cricket too, I tried the CricInfo app, din't like it much. Have installed CricBuzz now, which is also higher in rankings on the PlayStore. After installing all of the above, I still have 3.62 GB memory left. Not to mention, I have a 1.5 GB worth of a single game in the form of Asphalt 8, and 4 GB of music!

 Only concern I found was about the battery, and I guess not only for Nexus 5, this is applicable to all Android phones. It is more applicable to this sucker as it packs a very big punch, compared to most other lesser specs devices, but overall I am really really happy with my Nexus 5!!