The Cluster power to Edge computing

Several years ago (actually that is around 18 years ago :)) when I first heard of Artificial Intelligence, I had just entered into hard core Java programming. Back then, I was working on Atlanta based Asset Management ERP startup.  Dotcom boom was at all time high and herd of Y2K bug fixers were floating around. Motorola had started giving out embedded Java Development CDs. Being few years already into core programming and always interested to learn new things, I was fortunate to be introduced and then nurtured into a culture of analytical thinking. This gave me numerous opportunities in interacting with some of the greatest minds in the industry over the years.

One thing just held back few of us who were spawning thoughts of machines being intelligent was computing power. We never went deep into exploring ML, but what did we do for next decade is understanding better HL (buss kya..  Human Learning yaar1). We learnt numerous tricks on computing. Some of us who were coding back in early in late 90s and early 2000 may recognize the raise of GUI tools. And we were sucked into the swirl of GUI based application programming. From early days of Oracle Pro C to Informix 4GL then to Sybase PowerBuilder, titans had taken over the market. While I saw that it took most of the developers deep connection with hard core programming, for the analytical few, it gave new visual dimension to programming.

Today, I live in a society neighborhood where every other person is coder here. I feel deep coding is gaining its popularity again due to emerging techniques in cloud, AI and possibilities of doing marvel with so little of device footprints. This is a boon to many who were coding conservatively on ever growing server farms. My most of the last 15 -20 years of work was on clustered grids, where flexible plugging of heavy duty servers allowed many havoc to happen as well. I called it overuse of the resources with bigger the better perceptive thinking of few. Frankly, I am resource conservative guy when it comes to programming. That also provided me some of biggest opportunities with Fortune 100 customers to work on million dollar optimizations. And most of them were result of "have it all, we will make clusters bigger " syndrome.

It all boils down to : Bigger the better is not always good. Vision of exactly what is required for making bigger is important than have all data and then we figure it out later.

Today, we have Bigdata clusters, infinite (well sought of) cloud computing power, ever improving AI computational power and what not!. The big Question you need to ask is "What do you want to do?"

I was watching a BBC Earth TV series called Dynasties few days ago. In that, they were showing how Orangutans of Indonesian jungles and Chimps learning to eat insects hidden inside tree barks. How do they teach other fellows those techniques? It is all observational intuitions to transfer learning.
From nature we have lot of things to learn, as humans we have forgotten the art of "Enough"ness as we are living a pseudo life of abundance resources. Taking example of AI, today, still at research stage our early(ZenSpectra) smart designs are learning on the edge and communicating inferences to find outliers of decisions to refine themselves. I would like to see them as Smart Enough Devices.
The challenge I have taken myself is to go towards tiny footprint machines and ensure that coding is at epitome of efficiency with high speed real-time edge hybrid computing with cloud backbone.

In your next project, don't be just dummies executing instructions of so called requirement specs coming from gods. Go one step beyond and challenge to achieve maximum by using minimum of resources. No one wants to waste resources, somehow they have been living under impression that they need all resources to win. But you have the secret, winning does not take all that is available, it is mere leading from the front, execution with a vision and for the coder at heart - take efficiency as your principle component!

Conserve network, Conserve storage, Conserve power, ultimately be part of Awesome Future building!

Kiran

How I am losing weight at 2Kg a month rate!

Frankly weight lose was never in my mind. I am 6 feet tall and was weighing 74 Kg in 2002. Fast forward to 2019, my weight was 91Kg. I was feeling bit lethargic due to the weight gain over time as well.

During my annual medical examination in mid of April 2019, few parameters were highlighted to me. First was higher cholesterol level and second was 140/100 Blood pressure. Examiner went through the report and asked how much I spend time for myself. He said, i need to give more attention to my physical health. And probably start BP medication if parameter do not improve in a month. 

I barely used to do any exercise other than 15-20 minutes of walk few days a week and some asanas in the morning. And my daily eating frequency was high. I used to eat atleast 4 times a day. First breakfast used to be at 7 AM, second light snacks at office with tea at 10 AM, lunch at 1PM, evening tea at 5:30PM and dinner at 8:30 PM. There was not much oily content neither i am non vegetarian, but the quantity and frequency increase was doing its job. 

I decided that this has to be given a much makeover and focus on better physical health and mental sharpness. I was regular in practice of Heartfulness Meditation as well. However, i made a will to fierce the practice and give a try. 

I heard about two time diet practice from one of my uncle. I had earlier read about eating adequately to maintain good  health etc. But had never practiced it.

The diet i follow has no stringent compulsion on what we eat. However, normally at home, I used to eat good vegetables, rice, chapati and other regular Indian food. The first month, I reduced around 3 Kgs, and subsequent months I saw reduction of 2 kgs on average. Now my body weight hovers around 83Kgs. BP has significantly reduced to 125/85 from 140/100. I have some more to shed off. But i feel confident that it is achievable in next couple of months as i continue the practice.

Following is what I started practicing:

1. Getup at around 5AM
2. Drink around 2 cup of water (sometimes with lemon or apple cider)
3. Meditate for ~45 minutes
4. Asanas for 20-25 minutes
5. Breakfast at 7AM. It contains regular south Indian food like Dosa, Idli, upma, poha, rice baths etc. Normal consumption of butter or ghee as required. Fresh ginger and Lemon Grass tea with half spoon of honey.
6. Warm water consumption whole day. At least one large glass for each hour
7. Next meal after 3:30 PM but no later than 5:30PM. Dal, vegitable curry, stirfry, rice/chapati etc. which are common in Indian cooking.
8. Brisk walk for half an hour between 7:30 and 8:30PM
9. One fruit at 9PM
10. Other tips:

• Eliminated sugar completely (earlier atleast 3-4 spoons a day used to go in!)
• Reduced salt consumption to bare minimum only if required level
• If you feel like(must?) eating sweat or fried item during the food time, go ahead but reduce quantity 
• If there is change in one day eating schedule, there is no panic. Body will get adjusted in next couple of days. However, you will note that body now does not want to take more food. Even, what used to be must eat at a time feeling will vanish. I feel that it is more of psychological thing.
• Some people will say it will be problematic, one may develop gas or weakness etc. But for the person who makes a will, the entire system cooperates. They feel refreshed from within. I think, body organs get more time to digest what is put to it and probably, they are much happier that they don't have to work over time :)
• First few days of the practice, one will feel very hungry during the usual eating time. I drank lot of warm water to control this. Once i passed those few days, i started observing that my body has adjusted to new clock cycle.

This method is working for me. It may or may not for everyone. It is not lucrative method to many who prefer munching all the time, or who are instructed to eat little each other hour or people who are counting calories delicately and say there should be balance in food etc etc. Indian food has all varieties and what we require is eat bit less than what we feel we should. But whatever you eat during that time, be thankful to the giver and feel the food rejuvenation.
This gives enough energy and keeps our body and mind in most alert state. 

Make your will and start now! 

Kiran

Live as if there is no tomorrow!

ARSI Ham Radio News Articles Q1 2019

I have been writing on HRN for sometime now. Sometimes topics are about updates on my contest experience, homebrew projects or operating. For 2019 Q1, I became bit philosophical and wrote couple of articles with subjects " Art of the Start" and "Homebrewers & Contests – Quest Burns In Both".
These can be found at ARSI's newsletter archive location:
http://arsi.info/newsletter/

Also feel free to explore other editions from past. I am sure you will find some interesting articles written by many others.

73s

VU2XE