Nitin Khanna

I was once described as a philosopher programmer. I think I'd like to describe myself as a lifelong student.

The Two Internets

Theories in Physics tell about the possibilities of infinite dimensions and infinite Universes. Compared to that, the fact that there are Infinite Internets within the same Internet is a reality we all face every time we login to our devices. Of these, I’d like to address two Internets – The Anonymous Internet and the Identifiable Internet. Continue reading →

India wants to control your Internet, Again

A few months ago, a report came out that India wanted to exert more control over the Internet, specifically social networking sites, in a bid to control the flow of discussion about it’s political leaders. A huge ruckus was created by the media, calling India the next China in Internet censorship. The whole ‘mela’ lasted a couple of months with wide online harassment of the political leaders behind this scheme. Then, the dust settled down and the Indian government got what they wanted. Facebook and Google agreed that they already regularly monitor and remove content that is negative towards famous people or towards religious sentiments of the people. They did not, however, as requested by the Indian government, hand over censorship controls to the Indian government, calling the idea outrageous and not feasible. (Further reading here)

 

This time, the Indian government wants to go one step ahead in their control of the Internet. According to this news report by the Indian newspaper The Hindu, the Indian government is pushing the United Nations General Assembly for government control of the task assigned to the non-governmental, non-profit organization ICANN. For those who don’t know, the ICANN is responsible for handing out IP addresses to websites so that they can operate on the Internet. Currently, this task is accomplished at lightening speed because of limited governmental intervention and bringing in government bureaucracy will only slow down the growth of the Internet. The task ICANN performs is vital because the impartial handover of IP addresses to those who require them is directly responsible for the free speech model of the Internet. If India has it’s way, all businesses will have to go to the government to get IP addresses, adding another layer of corruption to the already weak model of economic growth in developing countries like India. Also, such a move will allow the government to exercise undue control over the Internet such that it can threaten to cut off any website that it deems harmful to itself. The consequences to free speech are only one imaginative step away.

 

It is clear that when direct intervention failed them in the case against social networking sites as well as when popular social change leader Anna Hazare chose the Internet to channelize supporters, the Indian government chose to go behind the scenes in order to try and cut off their opponents directly by gaining control of the Internet. It is to be seen whether the leaders of the first world decide if this is a viable proposal on May 18th when the UN General Assembly meets in Geneva. With any luck, this proposal will be tossed out the window.

[Book Review] Daemon

Daniel Suarez's Daemon

I picked up the book Daemon, by Daniel Suarez a few months ago and read it within a few days. Since then I’ve been thinking about writing a book review for it. It’s an interesting book and requires a deep analysis of the topics that Daniel touched in the book. Suarez used his in-depth knowledge of the world of IT and his impressive imagination to build a world where bots, automated software running wild on computers, control not just the usual stuff – bank transactions, toll booth cameras, and Google’s search algorithms, but also complete corporations and the fate of millions of people. This world has mad men like Sobol, a legendary game designer who creates a bot to control everything in the new world and I mean, everything. From sourcing professional killers from seedy chatrooms and creating new weaponry part by part from the hands of young 3D printer owners looking for some extra cash, the software controls the fate of many corporations and important people around the world, destroying whoever stands a chance against it. It even does the good task of killing major spam creators, just to be able to have a better control of the Internet.

The book is well written. Suarez manages to grasp your attention for a long time, even if you’re an Internet junkie with the attention span of a goldfish. His characters are well outlined, his story line is a continuous joy ride, with every piece of amazing added in there to make it the perfect story for a tech lover. Games that recruit people based on their kill percentages, Bio-suits that can control cars and the ultimate truth that everyone works for the corporates, it’s all there. But, as always, there’s the low-point. Unfortunately for the reader, this point comes at the ending of the story. The ending is weak, to say the least. It has all the elements of a block buster but it seems that Suarez pulled the plug on his creativity too soon. I can saw this with certainty because initially, Suarez printed this book himself. This means he had the time and opportunity to build any ending he wanted, but he left it where it stands today.

Over all, read it, if only for it’s amazing insight at the technology that already stands tall amongst us and for what’s to come or may already be here. Interested readers can head to thedaemon.com to find out more about the book.

Curating Music on iOS

I recently came in possession of an 80 GB iPod Classic. That means my entire music collection is now sitting in a tiny silver box. When I listened to some music on it, one of the first things I noticed was the ease with which I could mark a song on a rating of five stars. My entire music collection, from time to time gets vetted like that. I mark songs when ever I feel like and the one star ones get deleted. This reduced the load on my Mac’s Hard disk, a 250 GB baby HD. So, as of now I’m really happy with this device because I can quickly audit songs and after syncing with my music library, weed out the ones I don’t like.

 

So, what’s this about? An article in the limelight these past few days is about rethinking the iPhone’s app switcher. You can read it here on The Verge. It’s a pretty neat article detailing how the process of switching apps can be made a lot more productive. It’s a beautiful design meets functionality idea. In fact, I can safely say that some of the ideas in the article have already been implemented on the iOS by coders who believe in jailbreaking. The recent example of the idea of a new way of editing text on the iPad and the quick response by the jailbreak community shows how the 3rd party developers are faster and more innovative than Apple on the iOS. The one thing, however, that’s missing in the article on The Verge, is the concept of music curation. The ease of marking songs on the click wheel iPods has not translated well to the touchscreen and it’s something Apple or the jailbreak community can fix. The idea that the app switcher can be a lot more than just a dock is an important one and must be explored a lot. Maybe some day, I’ll have a way to curate my music right there in my iPhone.

Driving

I love driving. When I was in India, I had a 180 cc bike that I loved taking out for a spin every day. Here, in the US, driving is a fairly stress free task because of the gear-free cars that are the status quo of the country. The past three days have been amazing because I’ve driven on the highway, hills and in rainy weather at night. It’s been an amazing journey but the one thing that has been driving me crazy is the speed. The standard speed on the Boulder-Denver highway is 65 mph (miles per hour) but in my Indian mind, it translates to about 105 kmph. That’s a lot of speed! While driving, the first reaction I’ve always had is that I don’t want to make any mistakes. A mistake at this speed means a definite accident. That one thought in mind is such a killjoy that I’ve been scared for most of my driving time. The last time I’ve driven, this very evening, at last, I was confident that I’m driving well and that I’ll not make any mistakes.

 

Perhaps, in a few more drives, I’ll be very comfortable with my driving and it’s other aspects, specially, the speed.

Internet Addiction

I was sitting at dinner with a few friends of mine, most of them Masters students who have excellent communications skills. They were all talking about something. On closer inspection, I realized that most of what they were talking about was the topic of the single most important communication revolution of this generation – the Internet. To be specific, they were talking about two things, memes and Facebook. I pointed out a few lines ago that most of them had excellent communication skills. The importance of that is the vocabulary in use in the conversation. They were talking about “liking” things and getting the best pic so that it can be their next “profile pic”. They were talking about flying cats and Loki-bashing memes. It seemed that all of these people were talking more in terms of Facebook features and popular memes instead of that once popular language, English.

Who am I to talk about this? I’m as much a part of this meme culture as anyone else. But some times I worry about why simple English is being replaced by Internet lingo in dinner tables across the world. Or maybe that’s not the case? Maybe I’m looking at a group of highly educated individuals who wish to break free from the rigid language-sensitive world of academic papers and presentations and the best way to let off some steam is by using some bad language and talking in some silly and distorted lingo. I certainly hope that’s the case because otherwise the world is doomed to one day just talk in terms of “like”, “comment” and “forever alone”. This does not bode well for expression. Because drawing cartoons and using lingo to accommodate original thought is a good idea as long as the cartoons themselves are originals. A few building blocks can easily form millions of complex structures but they are, in fact, limited by the types of building blocks to begin with.

What’s worse is that the force of Facebook and memes is so strong that it is changing the way the whole Internet interacts. The original game changing communication medium is now being forced into careful coercion by a social network and a silly set of characters adapted from 4chan. I can only hope that another tide brings some other social network into the lime light and that one will not be forced to define a person’s image with a “cover photo” alone.

Graduation

I graduated yesterday. I am officially a Master of Science in Telecommunications. It’s a surreal feeling, one that’s making me very giddy this whole time. This degree in MS is, for me, the last time I’ll be in an academic setting for a long time. The reason I’m feeling so weird is because that’s where I’ve been my whole life. Leaving this behind is a strange feeling and it’s something I’m afraid of. Continue reading →

Doctor Who and a new adventure

Image Courtesy BBC

I’m writing a story about Doctor Who. But first, a disclaimer – I’m watching the Doctor Who series and I’m up to the Tenth Doctor’s episodes. Those who don’t know what or who Doctor Who is, please check out the BBC website or the Netflix page for Doctor Who and you’ll find a pretty neat story about a Doctor (believe me, I’m trying not to drop any spoilers here!) who keeps saving Britain and the Earth. I’m writing some fan fiction around him. Here’s a synopsis –

 

The Doctor and his new companion Meera find themselves in a new world. It is the same old Earth but in a different Universe. The most amazing thing is that the Earthlings seem to know a lot more about the Universe than the Doctor anticipated. This is because in this Universe, they have been given the gift of  extensive knowledge by an alien entity. The Doctor, from a different Universe, is asked to look into the issue of the dying entity and to help them save it. As always, the Doctor is able to use his intelligence and infinite knowledge to resolve the issue.

 

So, how’s it coming along? Well, I’ve hit a writer’s block. I know what the story is and how to execute it, I’m even half way through it. The issue is that I’m stuck at around a point in the story where I’ve irreparably changed the story line to something I did not want initially. I’ve kind of even found a way to fix the issue, but the right words are eluding me.

I’ve been writing stories since I was a little boy. I’ve enjoyed writing original, inspired and even fan fiction stories over the years and if I’m ever able to execute the whole thing in one fell swoop, there’s no one more glad than me. So, I’m mighty irritated that I’m stuck here. The last time I hit this kind of writer’s block, I ended up leaving the story in the middle, with no ending (I’m sorry Sherlock Holmes). But not this time because I’m intent on finishing this story no matter what happens. I’m too far into the story to quit now. Let’s see what happens.

This was my update for the day. Once I’m done with the story, I’ll post it here.