Pinnacle of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Until recently, AI has been a neglected subject in the curriculum of most Indian Universities.  As times are changing, thanks to the frenzy of Machine Learning applications popping up everywhere, the interest in AI is gaining momentum.

My work on AI started, way back in 2001, but had to drop them, as there was lack of interest, applications, takers, market, and all...  So, whenever I get an opportunity for an invited talk (the topic would generally be of some jargon prevailing at that point of time - like Mobile Computing, Cloud Computing, Big Data, IoT etc..), I used to add a couple of slides on AI and will play to the gallery (as they say in Cricket Commentary). My objective was to spur interest on the subject.

I pepper the presentation with examples that the students can connect with. I therefore focus on applications of AI, and tell about how Facebook (as every student invariably has an account) uses algorithms such as DeepFace, IBM used Deep Blue, and now Watson - for creating a movie trailer (Morgan) etc...

I also give a brief history of AI, tell them the craze over today's programming languages such as Java - being an OOP language - were derived from Frames and Concepts (Ontologies) in AI.

Then coming back to AI, I also tell about the pinnacle of intellectual ability expected from AI systems, as we keep raising the bar of the required intelligence continuously. I introduce them to Alan Turing's test, (wherein a human tries to distinguish between a human and a machine through conversation) and then go on about the need for "contextual intelligence" that has been missing now, and go on and on and conclude with a still from the popular Tamil movie Enthiran, wherein a Robot tries to distinguish between a man and machine, which is probably the pinnacle of AI.

P.S: I used to wonder whether the story writer (and director) of the movie did this in full realization.

Horse Gram Vs Flax Seeds

Looks can be deceptive - if you don't care about the fine details. This may apply to Horse Gram and Flax Seeds, especially the brown variety. Some time ago, I gave an answer on Quora about the differences between the two, and owing to the popularity, thought of adding it here.

Here's a quick difference between the two:

* Flax seed is a seed, while Horse Gram is a pulse. (To make it clear, pulse is also a seed - edible seed - from the legume family; legume refer to the plants whose fruits are enclosed in a pod - like groundnut, soyabean etc...; There is an argument that Flax seed should also be included in the legume family - but let me not get into it.)

* Nutrient Value of 100 gram of Flax seed is: 50 calories, 20 grams of protein, 41 grams of fat, and 28 grams of fiber.

* Nutrient Value of 100 gram of Horse gram is:  321 calories, 22 grams of protein, 287 mg of Calcium, 311 mg of Phosphorus and 7mg of Iron.

* Flax seeds contain Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acid - PUFA) - the richest vegetarian food, containing this essential fat. 

* So, both Horse Gram and Flax seeds are rich in protein, both can help in weight loss.  But if you are looking for Omega-3 and/or Omega-6 fatty acids (Omega 3 and 6 are in the ratio of approx 4:1), then flax seeds should help. 

Source: 

  * Comprehensive Research Article on Horse Gram
  * Nutritive value of Pulses, Seeds and Nuts 
  * Recipes of Flax Seed and Horse Gram
  * Ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6 in various foods

The Year 2017 for me

2017 turned out to be an interesting year (while looking back), with its share of surprises and unexpected things. The downs that I faced this year, got etched badly in my mind, and I was totally at loss, as I could not comprehend them with rational thinking.

On hindsight, I guess, this made my belief stronger that there are forces beyond us, and they work only for our own good - in a very very long term! - and these perceived bad things are a sort of 'balancing' act by them.

So let me get into it.

• Enjoying the luxury of high-bandwidth Internet in Mobiles through SIM (Cellular connections), Thanks to Jio for 4G LTE 
• Seeing the domain of Crypto applications getting expanded wildly (yes wildly), thanks to applications of Blockchain
• Happy to Conduct Brainstorming Discussions on topics related to Internet
• Joined Professional Societies as a member (IEEE, and ACM)
• Remote Presentation at IEEE ATC Conference
• Wondered (Did some ground work too, may end up as a publication) - how you can prove your financial reputation to some one for obtaining credit. 
• Opportunity to work (research) on DNS 
• Organized an IEEE Conference successfully (understood how much time and efforts are required despite having a team, and funds were not an issue)
• Learnt the value of Backup in a softway (yes soft and not hard :) ) - as I lost data when a pendrive suddenly stopped working, and thankfully I had a backup. 
• Got interested on privacy preserving payments and was exploring them. 
• Promotions - finally happened (after a long wait) in the institution that I am working for. It was almost a miracle on two counts, one it happened after a long hiatus, and then it was ante-dated; and an interesting thing is that it left many unhappy. Unfortunately I too was bitten by it, and the ramblings are there in the beginning of this post.  In this process, also figured out how my seniors rated me in my earlier years (last decade). 
• As usual, taught OOP using Java, Crypto programming, WWW Architecture etc... and gave lectures on Digital Signatures, PKI, Blockchain,  etc... at various prestigious forums. 
• Personal: Watching my kids growing up, Failing health of Mother 
• Places Visited: Guwahati, Delhi, Madurai, Hyderabad, Vijayawada , Bharachukki, Gaganchukki Falls,  Patna 

Models of God - Part 2

This is in continuation of my earlier blog post on Models of God, where I had mentioned that we use models to know the unknown.  In that post, I had mentioned that Modeling is a very common thing  and in the modern world, Scientists are the most common users of models. However models have been used for long by people of all races and societies for knowing, for positive purposes, and for negative purposes.

In this post, I would like to dwell about the positive use of Models - especially in the puranas - so as to show how ancient the art is. There are many other instances, but these two stand out significantly.

In Ramayan, Ram, after defeating Ravan, and sending his wife (Sita) to forest, decided to do a ritual (yagna) for the betterment of his citizens and the world and that ritual requires his wife to participate. Left with no option, a model of Sita is created and he does the ritual successfully.

In Mahabharata, Eklavya uses a model of Dronacharya, (though some texts says that he watches the lessons of Dronacharya to Arjun at a distance) and masters the skill of archery.

Now to conclude - that what we refer as God for worship - is a model of the divine energy and is an outstanding example of the positive use of models.

Short Verse on Price Value

எனக்கு தோன்றிய கவிதை

எது இன்று மலிவாக கிடைக்கிறதோ 

அதுவும் ஒரு நாள் அதீத விலையில் கிடைக்கும் 

எது இன்று அதீத விலையில் கிடைக்கிறதோ 
அதுவும் ஒரு நாள் மலிவாக கிடைக்கும் 

எனக்குள் எழுந்த கேள்வி
அப்படின்னா தங்கம் எப்பொதுழுது மலிவாக கிடைக்கும்  ?

எனக்கு தோன்றிய பதில்

கிடைக்கலாம்.  ஏதாவது ஒரு விண்கல் (எரிகற்கள்) மூலமாக அல்லது யார் அறிந்தது, மக்கள் மனம் மாறலாம்

***

Translation of the Quote
Whatever is cheap today may become costlier some day
Whatever is costlier today may become cheaper some day

Question:
So when can we expect Gold to become cheaper ?

Answer:
May be an asteroid can shower some Gold or who knows, people may change their mind (by losing their interest in Gold). 

Buying a Premium Product? - A lesson, I learnt

I was happy buying the Bosch Washing Machine - German Engineering, and did not mind the extra-premium that I had to pay. I was convinced about its quality, durability etc...

Yes, it is robust and works like a true dedicated machine. It reduced our workloads of washing clothes, and even wondered, how about having such durable machines for doing many of our other chores.

3 years later, the display panel showed error signs, and stopped working. We got so used to it, and found it difficult without it. I made a call to the service centre, who promised to send a personnel, but I have to pay Rs.850/- as a service fee.  Just to indicate how 'equal pay' it was, I had paid Rs.750/- as consultation fee for a specialist doctor at a premium hospital, two days prior to this call.

But here, I have no option, and I agreed. Despite agreeing for it, no one turned up. So I kept calling till they sent a guy on my 3rd call. He seemed to be a deputy to the service engineer, and discovered that he had just finished his diploma. I explained him the problem. He then explained to his 'Boss' over phone. He then told me that the board has to be replaced and it will cost Rs.12,000/- 1/3rd of my machine cost - that I paid 3 years ago. If I am agreeing, then I do not have to pay his service fee now, otherwise I have to. I paid him the service fee of Rs.850/- and sent him.

I was disappointed with the Authorized Service Centre. I figured out a guy who does washing machine repairs and he visited me and told that he can fix it for Rs. 9000/- and his service fee would be Rs. 1000/-. I said 'Thanks for coming', and paid him Rs.500/- for his visit.

I searched again, and through a neighbor, got hold of yet another guy. He came and checked it, and said the same - that the board has to be replaced. But he gave the reasons for failure of the board - either power fluctuation,  or could be a cockroach that might have entered into it and would have laid eggs leading to some shortage.  He also proposed an alternate solution, that he can get the existing board 'fixed', through a specialist and I would have to pay Rs.4000/- plus his service fee. I decided to take the risk.

Weeks later, he returned with the same board, and showed the soldering that was done by the 'specialist', and I paid Rs.5000/- (Rs.4000/- for specialist that he claims to have paid and Rs.1000/- for him). The machine worked, and has been working for more than 2+ years now.

Lesson: Go for a premium brand, only if you can afford it throughout its life cycle.

Philosophical Inquiry of a Colloquial Phrase

பிறந்து வரணும் டா / புறந்து வரணும் டா 

(Rough Translation: One has to be re-born to beat the sayer (or) None is there to beat the sayer; Used to emphasise supremacy of the sayer; )

This is a dialogue that you might hear, when some one wants to tell you that he can't be beaten in a particular field / art, and he is the 'supreme' guy in that subject and to beat him, some one is yet to be born - meaning, nobody is there yet, to beat him.

Of course, this is a very colloquial phrase, and I believe this is not being used these days, that frequently. However I have heard several times, when I was in school, probably due to the influence of a movie.

Now, let us leave that aside and do a quick philosophical inquiry.

Though, it gives a sense of the sayer's arrogance in display, it also means that the sayer acknowledges that he/she is adept/best only in the current time frame, and over a period, there may be some one who will emerge better than him.

Let me throw some few arbitrary examples.

When we all watched Kapil Dev in awe, there came another greater player - Sachin Tendulkar, after many years, and then when we believed that there can be never be another player like Sachin, we discovered Dhoni, and then Virat Kohli - all in overlapping and close time frames. Though the styles are different, almost everything is different, our beliefs on the best player changes over time.

If you like Ramayan, here's another: When everyone thought that Ravan was simply unstoppable and unbeatable, there came a Ram, in a different (but overlapping) time period, who destroyed Ravan and that too in a very unconventional and different style (Ram did not have the powerful armed force of Ayodhya with him, and he was not even a king, when he defeated Ravan).

Moral: There is always going to be a bigger force or person, than the current one, but only away in the time frame.

The Year 2016 - for me

It has become a tradition for me, to start blogging each year with the happenings/learning of the previous year. So here it goes:

Lessons:

• Don't try to infer lessons from everything - time 'may' tell - just keep going!
• People keep repeating the same mistakes in different ways, because either they did not learn the right lessons or forgot them! 
• We might have given our best in difficult situations and even our efforts and rewards might be glaringly visible - but that does not mean that others are going to rate you high! - so just keep going! 

Work:

• A decade and a half got completed in my current workplace. 
• Happy to note that some of the ambitious research problems that we started to work decades ago, and left after 2-3 years of pursuing it, owing to the compulsions of the organization, were still remaining unsolved (meaning they were really challenging!), but seeing good traction in the respective domains. 
• Happy to envision and develop ICT-based social solutions, which did not materialize the way I wanted. But now seeing them created in a different way (much about it later).  
• Overtime owing to the need of the environment, I envisioned to build a portfolio of projects and services catering to the broad domain of Information Security which worked out fantastically within a short span of time. 
• The organization did not have a promotion policy for the last 5+ years. Fortunately close to the end of the year, a policy was introduced, of course with many complexities as usual, and I had to work on reports starting from 2007 to 2016! - an herculean task!
• We were able to know our individual annual ratings of the previous years, as the data was opened up - a nice thing to know, even if you do not like what you see!

• Saw myself working more on standards whether it is Digital Signatures, Internet Protocols, Cloud Security Audits etc... 
• Compiled and brought in more content to the Handbook on Digital Signatures and PKI
• Happy to initiate more activities to promote the development of Internet Protocols in India - one of the dreams visualized years ago.  
• Conducted training on Digital Signatures and PKI at various locations across the country, primarily for the local State Govt. officials. Had really tough time coordinating many of these programs and it was a good experience for me. 
• Happy to see the technical movie that I scripted on Digital Signatures going alive and receiving positive feedback on Youtube. 
• Successfully organized a National Conference on Digital Signatures and PKI exclusively catering to the Banking and Financial Sector at Mumbai.
• Participated in ICANN 57, Hyderabad and also presented the various approaches in DANE (TLSA) in DNSSEC workshop   

General:

• Wondering whether Mobile Handset manufacturers install something to make the phone/device work only for specific period of time! - Fed up with problems of MotoG 1st Gen . 
• Gave up the telephone landline connection in my native - while doing so remembered how much we had struggled (and waited patiently for years) to get it. Technology can bring in pleasant changes. 
• New age library - JustBooks - though not an active subscriber, continued to subscribe, and want them to survive! and ofcourse discover books through serendipity
• My contributions to Quora on the subject of Digital Signatures and PKI made me as one of the top viewed writer. 
• Invited lectures at couple of places made me to learn and develop an over-arching perspective.
• Places Traveled: This year was eventful and visited quite a lot of places and all of them are very memorable and each one has its own unique history. Tripura (Agartala),  Lakshadweep (Kavaratti), Tirupati, Nashik (Shirdi & Anjaneri), Jaipur, Rameshwaram, Ramnad - UttaraKosaMangai temple, Devipatnam - Navagrahas in sea, Tirupullani - Shri Adhi Jagannatha Swamy Temple, Tiruchendur, Panchalangkurichi, Sikkim (Gangtok, Nathula Pass), Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar (Lingaraj temple, Sanchi Stupa, Udayagiri), Puri, Konark Temple, Trichy (Erumbeswarar Temple), Raipur, Pyramid Valley in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata (Dakshineshwar temple), Madurai Meenakshi Temple 

Personal: 

• Got to see lord Venkateshwara (Tirumala) from close quarters, which I never expected. However my mind was restless, as my father was unwell. After finishing the darshan, I learnt that he was admitted to an Intensive Care Unit in Apollo hospital and I was deeply worried. But as a group we went to have darshan of Goddess Padmavathy and immediately started to Bangalore, and things turned fine after a day, and he got discharged the day after, and came to normalcy exactly after a month. - Don't know what to say, except that faith kept things moving. Again went for the usual darshan along with my family, a month later. 
• Later in September, my mother had developed a serious health issue - acute myocardial infraction - heart attack, and a cardiac stent was put up which later lead to several other complications  including kidney, and lungs at a much later stage. I somehow felt that the 'stent' - an external object is actually a slow killer, though it saved life at that moment. The heart attack was very much unexpected for us as her cholesterol levels were always pretty normal, no sugar, no BP etc...  I also realized that stent, cannot improve the functions of the heart and felt that her heart was not functioning up to the mark, which no one was willing to tell me ! (except time) 

Models of God

A Scientist need to create models and use them to prove or disprove his theory. Such models are not the exact replica of reality, but embeds few critical elements of the real objects and the environment. This kind of research is generally accepted in all disciplines of Science, and the solutions developed through the use of models are implemented in real environments, including human beings - in case of medicines. 

Now coming back to the subject, if God had created this Universe, then some elements of God would surely manifest in his creations (this can be proved scientifically also) - and that includes everything in this Earth. 

Considering the above two premises, if we (Man) create a model of God, then that model will surely have the element of God in it -  because whatever we are going to use for the creation of model - is all taken from the creations of God only.  So, the conclusions are: 

• God (or at least elements of God) manifests through his creations

• We can't create God, but we can surely and easily create a model

• Elements of God are present in all models.  

In today's world, different religions and different sects within a religion all propose their own models of God, and fight with each other, claiming their model of God is the right one! - the fact is that all models of God are right for sure - as all of them contain elements of God, and therefore no one can go wrong ! in modeling (the system of) God, which is the real wonderful and beautiful thing of this Universe.   

P.S: It's unfortunate to note that (many) people involved in blackmagic too use models, and then try to improve the accuracy of that model by collecting samples of the targeted person. 

Strong Beliefs - Part 2

Extending my previous blog post on Self-belief based on the incidents from the two great epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata, this time, I found similar statement in this story dedicated to Lord Siva.

Parvati (wife of Lord Siva) questions Siva, is it true, whether anybody who takes bath in Holy Ganges can get rid of their sins ? If that is true, then all people in the World can they get rid of their sins by taking bath ?

Siva takes Parvathi to the holy Ganges river bank, and disguises himself as an old man who was about to die. Parvati disguises herself as the wife of the old man (old woman) and pleads to everybody there to help her husband to be alive by providing him with water for drinking. Many people come forward to help with the water, but Parvathi says, "whoever among you is absolutely sinless alone can rescue my husband from death", and on hearing that everybody turn back.

On hearing this, a thief goes to Ganga river, takes a dip, and then takes water from the river and brings it and feeds the old man. The rest of the people were taken by surprise as most of them know him as a thief !

Now the old man gets up and ask the thief, "Are you a absolutely sinless person ?", and the thief replied saying "No, I am a thief and therefore was a big sinner, However I had taken a dip from the Holy Ganga river and therefore all my sins have been washed away, and so, when I fed you, I was absolutely a sinless person and now, I will become a sinful person, only if I starting stealing".

Parvathi, on hearing this, was happy and the moral of this story is that even though it is said that Holy Ganga is said to get rid you of your sins, unless otherwise, you believe it in firmly, there is no point in taking a dip. 

Belief and Self-Belief : Lessons from the Indian Epics

Two different incidents from the great Indian epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata, strike me about the importance of belief and self-belief. Though I had talked about belief in my earlier posts, I would like to take it a step further with examples / incidents drawn from the above two epics.

First, the belief - In Ramayana, there comes an instance, when Hanuman, the great devotee of Lord Ram, had to disobey the orders of the latter, due to a promise given by Hanuman's mother to save some king from Lord Ram. Hanuman under these circumstances decide to stand by his mother's promise, and protects the king. Lord Ram with no options left, aims to attack Hanuman, and Hanuman simply keeps chanting and praying Lord Rama in full faith, and the powerful arrows from the bow of Lord Ram could not cause any harm to Hanuman. Ram upon frustration, aims to use even more powerful arrows, but of no use, as none of them could do anything to Hanuman. Later, ofcourse Gods intervene and stop it, and it is revealed that whoever has strong unshakable faith on Lord Rama, they cannot be attacked even by the powerful Lord Ram himself.

The point to be noted is the strong belief - which is highlighted in several ways throughout Hinduism. This is one of the traits that make Hinduism accept different ways and methods of worship - simply put, if you have full faith on anything and believe in it completely (absolute surrender), God (or powers that may be) manifests through it to make your beliefs come true.

Second the self-belief - In Mahabharatha, there comes an instance when Duroyadhana seeks the help of Sahadeva (Remember that Sahadeva is one of the Pandavas, whom Duroyadhana will be fighting against in the war), for telling him a suitable day to perform the sacrifice to Goddess Durga before the start of the Kurukshetra war. Sahadeva being righteous and virtuous tells him that the up coming new moon day is the auspicious day for doing the sacrifice, and it is widely believed that whoever does the sacrifice first, will be the winner of the war. Krishna on his pursuit to make the Pandavas win the war, plays a game to make the Sun and Moon (depicted as devas) meet, a day before (or probably hours before) and ask the Pandavas to immediately perform the sacrifice.  (Technically new moon day happens when Sun and Moon are in straight line and their angular degree is Zero). Duroyadhana on knowing this, becomes angry and argues with Sahadeva & Krishna regarding the correct new moon day, and though Sahadeva says that whatever he said was right, Krishna simply answers saying that Yudhistra believed him, and you (Duroyodhana) believed Sahadeva, and whoever has strong belief will win. Later when Pandavas question Krishna, he goes on to say that, to win a war, self-belief is more important than anything else, emphasizing all other rituals are only secondary to self-belief.

May be more and better examples could be extracted from these two great epics, but these two strike me the most!

P.S: An interesting link that I discovered about 15 people (or characters) common between Ramayan and Mahabharatha was: https://wiralfeed.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/ramayana-to-mahabharata/

Baahubali Movie and Just a thought on Historical Inspiration

Being a History fan, I was smitten by the movie Baahubali: The Beginning  and watched it last year. The movie was excellent with great picturization (as per Indian Standards) and a historical fictional story being told in a superb style, and ofcourse as evident it had drawn inspirations from the great Indian epic Mahabharata.  

After coming out of the theater, a question was lingering on my mind, why the Kalakeya kingdom (portrayed by Prabhakar and others) was characterized as dark people and the most cruel fighters? Has the director, Shri SS Rajamouli,  had just done it to give a sense of 'fear' to the audience or is their a history behind it ? 

When we look at the History in general, it is filled with wars and the associated cruelties committed by people, who primarily belong to the fairer skin color!  A couple of days or months later, Shri SS Rajamouli was present in a Rediff Chat - and I posted this question, but it went unanswered. 

Had he got inspired by the Asuras from the many Indian epics including Ramayana ? or from any pre-British-era wars that were fought in the Southern side of India or was it a casual depiction ?  Also has the movie got any connections with the Bahubali - the first teacher of Jainism, as speculated in these article. We don't know. Anyways, will look forward to the second and concluding part of the movie (yet to be released) to see if the director has given any clues and of course to enjoy the movie !

The Year 2015 - for me

As usual every year, I am starting my blog post this year with a recap of events I encountered in the previous year. So, here it goes.

Pleasant Learning:

• Pleased with the smooth operations of  a critical infrastructure that I struggled and established few years ago.
• Glad to note that one of the difficult activity of promoting digital signatures to various Government staffs across the nation progressed smoothly in the later part of the year.
• Had an opportunity to give a vent for my creative thinking - Wrote the script and narrative for an animation movie - to teach the concepts of Public Key Infrastructure - and the movie can be found here.
• Creating and Fostering Virtual Communities of Learning: Started a YouTube Channel on my (current) favourite subject - Public Key Infrastructure and slowly built up the community.
• Started to build another Indian technical community - this time focusing on Internet Protocols and Standards - Details can be found here, here, and here .
• Had an opportunity to perform a review of the academic activities of the computer science branch of a prestigious institution
• Knowledge Consolidation - Over the years, I have diversified myself  into many technical areas: Applied AI, Community Informatics, Content Delivery, Contextual Intelligence, Network Security, Usability, Information Security etc..  However this year, I was able to anchor myself under the umbrella of Cryptographic Applications - though I worked on PKI, Internet Standards, and DNS Security
• Personally - bought (more) than a decade old flat !  -  have come a long way from my thinking against the flat system (in my young days) and now realizing the benefits of community living
• Travel (Many places, this year): Mangalore (Visited many temples), Varanasi (Ganga and many temples), Visakhapatnam, Meghalaya (Shillong, Cherapunji), Delhi, Noida, Trichy, Srirangam,Alagar Koil (Madurai), Chandigarh, Arani, Vellore Golden Temple, Tiruvanamalai Temple. 

Tough Learning:

• Discovered how tough to restore a tape backup, when it really matters!
• Realized that how easily you can be taken for a ride, when managing enterprise level systems and infrastructure.
• A Proposal on an effort that started in 2013 is still dragging and no light visible even this year too,with so many back and forth happening and eating my time and efforts
• Patiently waited another whole year for the recognition from the office, which did not come as usual. Expressed them in formal ways, but of no avail.
• Realized what a big folly is to buy a washing machine like Bosch in India. Will blog about it soon.
• Health of my parents was a big concern, and especially my mother had to undergo a surgery. Tough times during that period, but we overcame, thanks to almighty.

Chennai Floods and Probable Techno Solutions

Chennai Floods and the damages it had caused to life and lifeless things are enormous. Hope the people rebuilt it with zeal to make it a better place, withstanding any natural and man-made disasters in the future.

This post tries to dream or fantasize, how much could be done to minimize the pain and suffering of the people who were badly affected, by using the upcoming and future technologies.

1. Electrical Power 

The most fundamental element - as lots and lots of our equipment and devices, food and even water are dependent on electricity. So, we badly need a way to generate it with little manual power in case of emergency situations. A recent innovation unveiled by Manoj Bhargava that uses pedaling power to produce electricity is a good place to start with. A detailed article can be found here. Probably a leaner, efficient and compact machine for individual homes, if becomes available in future will be grabbed by many! 

2. Water 

People need clean and pure drinking water.In today's environment, the water is pumped up to the overhead tanks through electrically powered motors. So, electricity is required, and of course regular water supply is also required. With these two constraints in getting the drinking water, it's going to be tougher in these situations. Even if we manage to get, purification will be another problem, unless people use the traditional LPG stove and boil the water for 20+ minutes. Low-energy water purification systems that may come into play in future can be found here. 

3. Communication and Home Delivery 

With energy being available, communication would eventually be available. Proposals to use balloons, and drones by Google and Facebook respectively aim to use the Stratosphere for providing Internet Connectivity. Whether they will be able to come out of red-tape and be able to offer these services remains, but probably will be allowed to function under emergency situations.  Also, Amazon's idea of using drones for delivery of items such as medicines will come in handy in these kind of natural calamity. 

Madurai Discussion on Neeya Naana and my thoughts

A month ago, there was a debate about Madurai in the popular Neeya Naana program in Star Vijay Television Channel.  Though it was a general debate without any sides to it, I, being from Madurai (I was born there, and lived there for 8+ years) have my share of views. Here they are: 

1. The basic amenities like water and electricity should be available to all in their convenience of their houses and should be reliable - Well, I know that it does not happen in most parts of our country - but that does not mean, it should not happen here too.
2. Madurai is a place of historical importance, and for more details check out my other blog post. So, when we say that, we need to benchmark against cities like London, Melbourne etc.. and see what is lacking. What all these cities have in common is a river flowing through them, and Madurai has the Vaigai river flowing through it, but when you see it, you get a sense of despair. What needs to be done is to clean it up, and do whatever it takes to keep the water flowing through and if possible establish waterways - which will not only attract tourists but also provide income generation for the people there. 
3. Vehicle movement has been stopped around Madurai Meenakshi Temple, for few years now. How about having battery operated vehicles that can ply pilgrims and citizens for a nominal fee (or even free) around the temple. They are clean, and pollution free. 
   
4. Regulating the Autos (they simply charge as per their wish - current rate stands at minimum of Rs.30/- for a km) and improving the public transport, increasing the public toilet amenities, and of course maintaining the cleanliness all will go in a long way to improve not only the look and feel of the city, but will also in improving the economy and prosperity of the City and people living here. 

Is timely arrival to office important ?

What is important ? Reaching office on time or being productive? Of course, if you can achieve both it will be good. Also on the positive side, this inculcates a sense of discipline both to the person and organization.

But is it really required? especially in organizations, where productivity is not measured in terms of quantity, but rather in terms of quality - and wherein timely delivery of results are important - which also demands discipline from the person as well as the organization.

Now coming to the arguments against timely arrival goes like this:

• Can you achieve timely arrival day-in and day-out in a congested, polluted, unreliable public transport system and in a highly unpredictable traffic conditions? 
• Can you assure the time it takes to reach point A to point B, through common modes of transport (in any populous city, wherein citizens commute for their work, education etc..) ?
• If you answered yes for the above, can you assure it atleast 95 out of 100 times ?  If you still answered yes, then skip to the next point
• Though reaching on time is a very good thing, do you agree that leaving on time, also is a good thing?  If you answered yes, continue, else exit (as it gets into the unfair zone!)

Timing is critical in a factory setup, or in a service setup, or wherever quantity is more important and where work is routine and in situations wherein employees have to be present before the customer arrives! Isn't it ?, but can the same be said for places where planning, designing, programming and such creative elements are required ?

Think!

P.S: The above points  and situations are purely imaginary! and any resemblance to a person or an organization in real life is purely a coincidence!!  :)  

Identity

Identity has a profound effect in every human life. It is almost impossible to live without it, and almost all of us crave for it. By identity, I not only mean creating an individual identity, but creating or shaping a collective identity.

In this part of the world, there was a period in time, when a person is said to have spiritually progressed, only if he had lost the sense of individual Identity and realizes himself or herself as part of the identity of God. 'Bhagavad Gita' tells the same. Precisely this means losing the identity of  " I ", and being identity-less.

However, for many of us, it is difficult to come out of an identity that has either been created by us consciously or unconsciously or by others on behalf of us. We enjoy the feeling of identity, and the comfort of it, and we are afraid to give it up, even in case of failure. We may give up an identity, only to subscribe to another identity, but never want to be without an identity. But we also need to remember that identity comes with a cost, though not necessarily economical. History tells us that almost every leader aspired to put their identity alive in one form or other, even after they passed away from this earth. 

People (in general) who did not create an individual identity by themselves subscribe to a collective identity, and start believing the collective identity as their own individual identity. Sometimes, they get trapped into the web of this transient collective identity, that they get pushed themselves to the extremes to defend their (collective) identity by taking it up against other's identity. In these individuals, the feeling of "I" gets merged totally with "We", and always looked from the perspective of against "others". Religions and Nationalism all fall in the category of collective identity! 

A must-see Historical place in Shimla

Last year, when I was in Shimla: It was raining and foggy around 4 PM, as I hurried up to the prestigious institute, well renowned for its historical importance & architectural splendor. I was told that the institute was a place that I should not miss, and truly it was! 

Indian institute of Advanced Study - IIAS - an institute for postdoctoral studies in areas of arts & humanities - is housed in this prestigious building that resembles a palace. The building originally built in 1888, was meant to be a summer palace for the Viceroys of India. After independence, it became the summer rest house for Indian president, but Dr. S Radhakrishnan the then President of India, decided to convert it into an academic institution for higher studies. Now residential post-doctoral courses are run here. 

Few of the notable things, that captured my interests were: 

• Clock - Old manual winding clock that still runs today and shows the Full Moon and New Moon
• Roof - Made of Walnut wood  
• Switches - German make and still functioning!
• Piano - keys made out of elephant tusk
• Electrification - First electrified building in Shimla in 1888 and that too with concealed wiring!
• Chandelier - Belgian make 
• Table - Pandit Nehru and Mountbatten signed an agreement for partitioning of India and the table was partitioned to signify it 
• Doors - Burma teak unpolished & unpainted
• Library - Originally a Ballroom 
• Simla Conference - Hindu Muslim conference organized in 1945
• Fire Sensors - Wax on water pipes that will melt automatically on heat
• Entrance - Wood paneled like the best Scottish houses, with fireplace for the winter months

IIAS - As I saw it - that day, that time

Smart Medians or Dividers for a Smart City?

Medians or Dividers on the road serve as an excellent tool for enforcing lane discipline and probably as a good regulator for managing the traffic. However at times, it may be a cause for an increase in traffic jams, especially on one side of the median. 

I had earlier proposed the idea of Shiftable medians (in 2011) - a sort of Dynamic Medians on the road instead of the fixed ones. The advantages are given below:

• During Peak hours, traffic is generally expected to flow in one direction. At such times, when the roads are narrow, the median will be a bigger hindrance, and in such instances, if more lanes (say 3) are allowed for the peak traffic to flow instead of existing (say 2) lanes, it will ease the flow of traffic
• For emergency vehicles, such as Ambulance, a separate lane can be facilitated, if the median can be shifted to one corner of the road 
• A median can be removed during holidays or off-hours to simply allow crowds or gatherings to pass through - on a positive note think of a Marathon or Walkathon 
• A median can be made leaner or fatter based on the need, though such a use case scenario would then be exploited for advertisement hoardings

Given that Smart City initiatives are under progress in several countries including India, it makes sense to have Shift-able medians or smart medians as it has the advantages outlined above. 

Taking it a step further, the smart medians of course would require management, which could be initially done by humans, but later managed through intelligent systems that takes several inputs including the traffic conditions, timing, traffic flow at traffic signals etc... 

Update: September 2015: Found Shiftable median concept being already used in SanFanscico Golden Gate, in January 2015, called as Moveable Median, as given below, wherein a Zipper truck is being used for shifting the median. 

The Year 2014 - for me

As usual, this year too, I am starting with my thoughts on the previous year, especially at my personal front.

General Observations - Positive & Neutral

• Realized that our workplace is slowly adopting paper-less practices and an important step of HR records moving online
• Got a first-hand experience in using various crypto-tokens
• Managed to organize 2 big technical events - One on DNS Security; and another on Digital Signatures and PKI
• Realized that to reach people and propagate your message, you should use all mediums. So, Started relying heavily on Social Media (Facebook and Twitter) for promotion of our concepts and efforts
• Finally visited US and UK this year, and had already shared my experiences in this post. 
• Smartphone era finally heralded in our homes, (and relatives) this year
• Wondered what will happen if Google decides to close Blogger one day ?? So, decided to have my blog posts replicated in wordpress too
• Guided around 10+ Interns this year (though some of them were been my interns since last year) Also met several students who visit our campus each year as a ritual 
• Places Visited: Mumbai, Kollam, Shimla, Noida, Los Angeles, London, and New Delhi

General Observations - Disappointments

• Much expected elevation in my career did not happen this year too, despite list of significant achievements to showoff had been increasing!
• Realized the pathetic situation of M.Tech studies in many not-so-popular institutes! One institution withdrew its intern student saying that the problem assigned was too difficult! Another institution's students got the work published in 'paid' conferences due to their academic pressures! However have to admit that, met a few bright students also.
• Did my best as last ditch efforts to increase the use of the system that I had been building for last few years (4 years). Spent significant efforts in the first half year working on it, tried using AI techniques, changing the UI, increasing interaction mechanisms, and had to also have to overcome difficulties in hosting and integrating with social media and also shifting the connectivity.  But despite all these, more barriers were raised, and it dawned that the current approach is no longer going to be feasible
• Quite frustrated with one of our client, who were adamant on a round-about technique for doing an activity, and even that too did not materialize due to several procedural and technical issues. - An absolute time & effort waster! 
• Figured out how a famous  company's (It had a great name of an important celestial object, with out which life is not possible) software product that was offered at very fair prices, when taken over by another, were offered at exorbitantly high prices using a different model, with just a logo change!, while the code and features remained the same! 
• Realized the pains of organizing a event (had a first-hand experience of it), where many people who you know participate and had to be extremely careful such that their egos are not hurt