KAI=CHANGE and ZEN=GOOD

When these two words are put together they dont just mean
a good change but they imply continuous improvement as a good change. Kaizen was
originally introduced to the West by Masaaki Imai, a Japanese author. Kaizen, dear
readers is the essence of all the available strategies that claim a systematic approach to
climbing the ladder of success.
Kaizenis a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continual improvement throughout all
aspects of life. When applied to technology, Kaizen activities can improve every function
of development process, from designing to manufacturing and from the CEO to the
assembly-line workers. Kaizen aims to eliminate waste in all systems of an organization
through improving standardized activities and processes.
One of the most notable features of kaizen is thatbig results
come from many small changes accumulated over time. The computer and IT industry is
booming not because of one gigantic milestone but because of thousands of such small
milestones being created by ordinarily extraordinary people such as you and me every
single day.
The continuous cycle of Kaizen activity has seven phases:
Identify an opportunity
Analyze the process
Develop an optimal solution
Implement the solution
Study the results
Standardize the solution
Plan for the future
The technology you see today, be it the Apple watch or the solar powered
airplanes, be it a 3-d food printer that can actually print you an edible pizza
or a 32-core CPU was not built overnight. It has taken decades if not
centuries of research and development to reach where we stand today. And the simple
term Kaizen defines this transition and the times to come.
After hours of brainstorming searching for a suitable name for the
magazine, the ACM CRCE editorial committee unanimously concluded that there
isnt a better term that could explain not just the history but also the present and
the future of science and technology with the simplicity and elegance as Kaizen
does.
We hope you enjoy your copy of Kaizen!

Picasa Picasso

have two passions. First being Sherlock Holmes;

it was like love at first sight. I have been in love
with Sherlock Holmes since I read his first case
A study in Scarlet. My second passion is painting.
So you can imagine my excitement when I saw
an amazing painting of Sherlock playing Violin. It
had strokes like a typical Monet painting and was
as bright as a Sabyasachi saree! The only reason I
could take my eyes off it was to google the artist.
I could not believe what I was reading. This lively
painting was a work of virtual brush and palette! I
do believe that technology can set milestones but
I never imagined it could create masterpieces. This
discovery (though pretty late in its arrival) opened
my eyes to the two way handshake of technology
and arts.
I dont claim the authority of
Columbus, but I hope this tour
leading to the secrets of the
modern day Picasso will be
equally productive.

distributed, marketed, preserved and supported

have shifted as a direct reaction of the worlds
transition to a socially connected, digital society - to
the age of the internet.
You will find abundant references in the literature
of the struggling artist going around with his
portfolio and begging the gallery owner to label
his work fit for expose. The stereotypical scenario
has now changed. Now, they turn to the web - to
exhibit their work and to sell it, too. With new
services such as crowdfunding, for the first time
artists are able to raise money online to pursue
their ideas.
In 2011 alone, crowdfunding website Kickstarter
raised almost $100m in pledges with more than
27,000 art-related projects.

The art
challenges the
technology, and
the technology
inspires the art.

There was a time when only the

elite few like Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo would created art
while the rest of the society was left
to enjoy viewing masterpieces. The
public was a mere spectator. Today,
you and me can be considered
blessed by Apollo. Almost everyone
participates. With the internet and
new technologies of fabrication,
remixing, editing, manipulating and
distributing, it is becoming easier to create things and share them with the world.
Consider for example the rising colorspace.

Since the beginning of the

postmodern art era, roughly from
the 1860s, the most influential
players - renowned artists,
museum curators, art critics, art
fair promoters and, especially,
powerful gallery owners - have been dictating the
behaviour of the whole art world.
But modern ways in which art is created, produced,

If Rising colorspace, an abstract artwork painted

on the wall of a Berlin gallery, doesnt seem so
fabulous at first glance, just give it a little time.
Come back the next day and it will look at least
a little different. Thats because the painting is
always changing, thanks to a wall-climbing robot
called a Vertwalker armed with a paint pen and a
software program instructing it to follow a certain
pattern. The creation of artists Julian Adenauer and
Michael Haas, the Vertwalkerwhich looks like a
flattened iRobot Roombais constantly overwriting
its own work, cycling through eight colours as it
glides up vertical walls for two to three hours at a
time before it needs battery change. The process
creation is ideally endless.

interested in simulating painting and drawing

digitally. Price: $30-$60
3. Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk - This is slick and
does a great job of balancing simulating traditional
tools well, having a clean friendly interface, and lots
of advanced options for when you start to master
it. Price: $60 4. Photoshop elements - Has most of
the digital art tools of Photoshop with a beginnerfriendly interface. Its surprisingly good, almost
everything it lacks compared to full Photoshop is to
do with productivity and the speed and efficiency
of your work, so its good for someone doing it for
fun or starting out. Price: around $100
Need a little more inspiration? Visit www.
thepaintingfool.com! This place is the ultimate
destination to get lost in reality, arts, philosophy
and of course technology.

Give Russian artist Dmitry Morozov some credit

hes devised a way to make pollution beautiful,
even if his purpose is to make us aware of how
much is out there. First, he built a device, complete
with a little plastic nose, that uses sensors which
can measure dust and other typical pollutants,
including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and
methane. Then, he headed out to the streets of
Moscow. The sensors translate the data they gather
into volts and a computing platform called Arduino
translates those volts into shapes and colours,
creating a movie of pollution. Morozovs device
then grabs still images
from the movie and
prints them out. As irony
would have it, the dirtier
the air, the brighter the
image. Exhaust smoke
can look particularly
vibrant.
Now going back the
conservative Monet,
if you have the itch to
create art but lack the
talent to hold charcoals and crayons, try these
online tools and produce your very own magnum
opus.
1. Adobe Photoshop : You obviously know about it
(so just for formality).
2. ArtRage : For people who are exclusively

Well as we have all written in our school essays

on technology, it cannot just have perks. What is
changing and probably - arguably - for the worse is
that it is now easier to create art, and we see a lot
of bad art being created and exposed.
A huge concern is that, as a result of so many new
tools and techniques, we may lose our sense and
ability to evaluate what is great art.
I do see a challenge for artists to be simultaneously
more open to new
technologies that
lead to novel forms of
expression, and also
staying truly creative and
imaginative. Artists of
today have to think not
merely about the tools
of the present, but also
to engage in a dialogue
with the artists of the
past, who both haunt us
and challenge us to rise above the mundane.
I believe that any modern artist needs to remember
about pushing the art forward, inventing, defining
new paradigms of expression with powerful
meanings.

-Ayushi Gupta

Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program

in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it,
how will you ever debug it?"
-Brian Kernighan, "The Elements of Programming Style"

A Car With A Cockroach Brain

dmittedly, it would have been the easy way

out, but still I had to ask. So I held down the
home button on my iPhone, waited for the
words What can I help you with? to appear, then
posed the question.

years ago. Soattos group built a self-driving car for

the U.S. Department of Defenses DARPA Grand
Challenge in 2005, and one of the groups company
partners has since built systems for vision-based
driver assistance and autonomous driving. Selfdriving vehicles have been available for sale in
Japan since 2006, and arent far from hitting the
market in the United States.

Will you write an article on artificial intelligence

for me?
If anyone should have known enough about AI to
pound out a 2,000-word piece, it was Siri. Yet her
response was completely unsatisfying.

AI problems that seemed nearly unassailable just

a few years ago are now being solved. Googles
driverless car fleet has tallied more than 700,000
miles including navigation on public roads and
Google has developed a prototype that doesnt
even have a steering wheel. It may even seem like a
glorified version
of adaptive
cruise control,
lane departure
warning and
other semiautonomous
tech you can
get on many
high-end
sedans these
days. The
automobile
giants are far
behind. Audi,
Mercedes Benz
and Tesla have also been conducting road tests on
their self-driving cars.

Ive never really thought about it.

Maybe artificial intelligence really is an oxymoron.
AI is based on
the notion that
knowledge and
thought can be
represented
and
manipulated
through
computer
algorithms
so as to build
a thinking
machine. When
you see a
phenomenon
exhibited by
humans, it must be that computers are able to
simulate it. We may not be able to get machines to
do everything humans can do, but along the way
we will make a lot of progress and learn so much
about ourselves that it will be beneficial even if we
dont. Five years ago, AI was present but not visible
to the average person; now its become more
obvious in everyday use, and the iPhone is a great
example The funny thing is, in a few years well take
that for granted, too, and consider it invisible.
Among the most anticipated application of
computer vision are self-driving cars. The
first vision-guided vehicles were successfully
demonstrated in Munich, Germany more than 20

Suppose an autonomous driving car system has

the capacity to detect that a passenger in the
car is gravely ill, or a woman is in labor. Can it
be programmed to correctly weigh the risks of
speeding to the hospital against not getting the
passenger there soon enough?
So how smart really is todays vehicular AI ?

Consider the case of the humble cockroach. The

roach is heir to a considerable body of cockroachstyle common sense knowledge. At least, that is
how it must appear to any theorist who thinks

One google search produces about 0.2g of CO2.

But since you hardly get an answer from one
search, a typical search session produces about the
same amount of CO2 as does boiling a kettle

Google handles about 1 billion search

queries per day, releasing some 200 tons
of CO2 per day

explicit knowledge is the key to sensible-looking

real-world behavior! For the roach is a formidable
escape artist, capable of taking evasive action that
is shaped by a multitude of internal and external
factors.

as a winner of an advertising slogan, however.

Our prejudice against basic forms of biological
intelligence and in favour of bigger and fancier
filing cabinet/logic machines goes all too deep.
How does the roach manage its escapes? The
neural mechanisms are now beginning to be
understood. Even the embodied knowledge of a
cockroach would probably require several volumes
of books to capture in detail!

Here is a brief list, abstracted from Ritzmanns

(1993) detailed study, of the escape skills of the
American cockroach, Periplaneta americana:
The roach senses the wind disturbance
caused by the motion of an attacking
predator.
It distinguishes winds caused by predators
from normal breezes and air currents.
It does not avoid contact with other
roaches.
When it does initiate an escape motion, it
does not simply run at random. Instead, it
takes into account its own initial orientation,
the presence of obstacles (such as walls and
corners), the degree of illumination, and the
direction of the wind.
No wonder they always get away!
This last nexus of contextual
considerations, as Ritzmann points
outs, leads to a response that is
much more intelligent than the
simple sense predator and initiate
random run reflex that cockroach
experts (for such there be) once
imagined was the whole story.

These seemingly simple heuristics used by a roach :

If you are being attacked, dont run straight
into a wall.
If something big is between you and the
food, try to go around it.
Gentle breezes are not dangerous.
have taken automobile manufacturing giants and
teams of researchers all over the world decades to
solve; and - were not yet completely there.

are the artificial minds

"Just because the chip Where
promised since 1950s science
speed is going to be fast fiction and 1960s science
Why are even the best
enough to duplicate a journalism?
of our intelligent artifacts still so
human brain in terms unspeakably, terminally dumb?
in the AI field believe its not
of performance doesnt Some
a matter of if but when we will
mean it will have
put all of the problems together
create artificially intelligent
anything smart in there." and
machines that are smarter

The additional complexity is nicely

captured in Ritzmanns descriptions
of a comparably intelligent automobile. Such a
car would sense approaching vehicles, but it would
ignore those moving in normal ways. If it detected
an impeding collision, it would automatically
initiate a turn that took its own current state
(various engine and acceleration parameters) into
account, took account of the roads orientation and
surface, and avoided turning into other dangers.

than humans a concept thats

been called The Singularity. It
wont be easy, and for that reason some suggest
projections that we are as few as 20 years away
also are overly optimistic. Just because the chip
speed is going to be fast enough to duplicate a
human brain in terms of performance doesnt
mean it will have anything smart in there.
With the Moores law being endangered by the
growth rates, we can only stay certain that the
future is full of dreams coming true.

A car with the intelligence of a cockroach, it

seems clear, would be way ahead of the current
state of the automotive art. Buy the car with the
cockroach brain does not immediately strike you

-Tejas Khot

If making transistors smaller and smaller is continued with the same rate
as in the past years, then by the year of 2020, the width of a wire in a
computer chip will be no more than a size of a single atom.
-Gershenfeld

Quantum Computing
qubit is both 0 and 1.

lmost every computer today is based on the

Turing machine, developed by Alan Turing in
the 1930s. Most of us had no clue about why
was it invented and why was it so necessary till the
movie Imitation Game released.

A quantum computer would not just be a
traditional computer built out of different parts, but
a machine that would exploit the laws of quantum
physics to perform certain information processing
tasks in a spectacularly more efficient manner. One
demonstration of this potential is that quantum
computers would break the codes that protect our
modern computing infrastructure the security of
every Internet transaction would be broken if a
quantum computer were to be built. This potential
has made quantum computing a national security
concern. Yet at the same time, quantum computers
will also revolutionize large parts of science in a
more benevolent way. Simulating large quantum
systems, something a quantum computer can
easily do, is not practically possible on a traditional
computer.

Since the last fifty years computers have

transformed, comforted and benefited humans.
During this evolution of computers they have
grown faster, smaller, and more powerful in ways
too numerous to count. But like any other resource
and its extensive exploitation which is increasing
tremendously by the minute, this growth as
stated by Moores law must soon come to an end.
Computing revolution has been by far the most
significant revolution and is coming to an end but
the question which still remains unanswered is
What is next? This very question led researchers
to the possibility for an entirely new type of
computer, one that operates according to the laws
of quantum physics a quantum computer.

THE POTENTIAL OF QUANTUM

COMPUTING

A qubit is a bit of information that can be

both zero and one simultaneously (Superposition
state). Thus, a computer working on a qubit rather
than a standard bit can make calculations using
both values simultaneously. A qubyte, is made up
of eight qubits and can have all values from zero to
255 simultaneously.

WHAT IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER?

Forty qubits could have the same power as

modern supercomputers. A supercomputer needs
about a month to find a phone number from the
database consisting of worlds phone books, where
a quantum computer is able to solve this task in 27
minutes.

Todays classical computers work on a basic
element of bit. Data is stored and is processed in
binary format however the quantum computers
work on a basic element called Qubit. It is the
smallest possible unit of quantum data which is
technically an atom in an energy state. A qubit like
a bit can take the values 0 or 1 but also it can be
into a superimposed state where the value of the

Quantum computer with 500 qubits gives

2 superposition states. Each state would be
classically equivalent to a single list of 500 1s and
0s. Such a computer could operate on 2500 states
simultaneously. Eventually, observing the system
would cause it to collapse into a single quantum
state corresponding to a single answer, a single list
of 500 1s and 0s, as dictated by the measurement
500

The price for making the first 2qubit

computer was approximately $1 million.

2400 BC -The abacus, the first known

axiom of quantum mechanics. This kind of

computer is equivalent to a classical computer with
approximately 10150 processors.

voice and image recognition, molecular simulations,

true randomness and quantum communication.
Randomness is important in simulations. Molecular
simulations are important for developing simulation
applications for chemistry and biology. With the
help of quantum communication both receiver and
sender are alerted when an eavesdropper tries
to catch the signal. Quantum bits also allow more
information to be communicated per bit. Quantum
computers make communication more secure.

calculator was invented in Babylonia

FUTURE BENEFITS OF QUANTUM

COMPUTERS

1. CRYPTOGRAPHY AND PETER SHORS

ALGORITHM
In 1994 Peter Shor (Bell Laboratories) found
out the first quantum algorithm that, in principle,
can perform an efficient factorization. This became
a complex application that only a quantum
computer could do. Factoring is one of the most
important problems in cryptography. For instance,
the security of RSA (electronic banking security
system) - public key cryptography - depends on
factoring and it is a big problem. Because of many
useful features of quantum computer, scientists put
more efforts to build it. However, breaking any kind
of current encryption that takes almost centuries
on existing computers, may just take a few years on
quantum computer.

SCOPE OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

Recently Singapore invested over $100

million in quantum computing research. The
Canadian government has contributed over $50
million to the University of Waterloos Institute
for Quantum Computing and the Perimeter
Institute for Theoretical Physics, both of which
have become world leaders in quantum computing
and information. European spending on quantum
computing is comparable to that of the US.
Making a practical quantum computer is still
far in the future. Programming style for a quantum
computer will also be quite different. Development
of quantum computer is an expensive process. Even
the best of scientists cant answer a lot of questions
about quantum physics. Quantum computer is
based on theoretical physics and some experiments
are already made. Quantum computers easily solve
applications that cant be done with help of todays
computers. This will be one of the biggest steps
in science and will undoubtedly revolutionize the
practical computing world.

2. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It has been mentioned that quantum
computers will be much faster and consequently
will perform a large amount of operations in a very
short period of time. On the other side, increasing
the speed of operation will help computers to learn
faster even using the one of the simplest methods mistake bound model for learning.
3. OTHER BENEFITS

-Dhairyashil Patil

High performance will allow us in

development of complex compression algorithms,
8

Bitcoin: Future of Financial transactions?

1. Free of central control
2. Require significant algorithmic exercise to
mine them
3. Peer-to-peer

he most fundamental document about bitcoin

is Satoshi Nakamotos break-through white
paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash
System.
Bitcoin is a consensus network that enables a new
payment system and a completely digital money.
It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment
network that is powered by its users with no central
authority or middlemen. From a user perspective,
Bitcoin is pretty much like cash for the Internet.
Bitcoin can also be seen as the most prominent
triple entry bookkeeping system in existence.

HOW DOES THE TRANSFER TAKE

PLACE?

A flow chart to keep it simple

After we lay out the technical foundation it is

important to recognize and differentiate between
bitcoin the currency, and bitcoin the technology.
Bitcoin the currency, is simply cash for the
internet. It does not have any intrinsic value of its
own and is not backed by a government.
It is technocratic, predictable, scientific, nonreversible, mathematical currency, traded via a
decentralized trust network of payments, and using
distributed proof of work report, stored in a
database called the blockchain.

HOW ARE BITCOINS MINED?

There are nearly 21 Million bitcoins in the world

and nearly 12 Million are in circulation till date.
What it means- with the total amount of bitcoins
limited finding a bitcoin in like finding gold or any
other very other natural resource which is precious
as the supply is limited. At current speed it is
expected that by 2040 all bitcoins will be mined.
Now Supply being limited, with expected demand
increasing for bitcoins, the value of bitcoin will
increase every day.

Notably, as far as currencies go, bitcoin is arguably

the most successful i.e. the most valuable currency
because, at the moment I am writing this article, 1
bitcoin is traded for over 292.51 US dollars. [And I
dont know of any other currency that is as highly
valued as that.]
But bitcoin the currency, works because of bitcoin
the technology. And the technology has three
main features:

ADVANTAGES OF BITCOIN

1. It is decentralized no single person,

organization or government does or can control it.

Bitcoin is very similar to PayPal, but with several

advantages and differences.

2. It is pseudonymous transactions are conducted

under a pseudonym i.e. a fake name. [As opposed
to anonymous without any name.]

Advantages of Bitcoin:

3. It has near zero transaction cost and it doesnt

matter whether you send a penny or a billion, the
transfer fee is the same.
So, In short we can say, Bitcoins are cryptocurrencies which differ from the concept of fiatmoney. The bitcoins enjoy the following advantages
compared to other currencies
9

Bitcoin has lower transaction fees (zero)

Bitcoin does not subject merchants to
chargeback risk.
Bitcoin has stronger privacy protections
than PayPal. Accounts are numbered,
but have no personally identifiable
information, similar to a Swiss numbered
account.
Your bitcoin account cannot be frozen or
seized. PayPal often freezes accounts used
to sell virtual goods and stored value cards

economic system unlike anything weve seen so far

one that we cant possibly imagine from this end
of the black hole. Or it could simply be the end of
the current system resulting in chaos and anarchy
a disturbing alternative not only for Charlie Stross
and Paul Kurgman.
To sum it all up, bitcoin is here to stay in what
shape and form We cant really say. I am not sure
if bitcoin the currency, will survive. But I have no
doubt that, in one form or another, bitcoin the
platform, will prosper. And thousands, perhaps
millions of cryptocurrencies are going to be a major
part of our future.

because of the high fraud and chargeback

risks. Bitcoin is more suited for these
applications.
Bitcoin transactions do not incur currency
exchange fees. Capital controls in many
countries and central bank fixed exchange
rates which are below black market
exchange rates create an incentive for
bitcoin adoption. Bitcoin serves as a digital
alternative to existing hawala networks.
Not everyone in the world has access to
traditional banking services, but everyone in
world who has a cell phone can use Bitcoin.
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS THAT
BITCOIN SOLVES?

Though it is unlikely to replace the American dollar

any time soon, bitcoin may well end up replacing
smaller, more volatile currencies such as the
Argentinian peso or the Zimbabwean dollar. Though
it may not replace the banking system any time
soon, it may provide a financial framework for the
billions of people not able or eligible to use a bank.
Thus bitcoin doesnt have to replace entirely the
current system to be successful. But it will make it
less and less relevant.
It will take some time before the dust settles and
we can start seeing what it all ads up to and begin
weighing the consequences. But if bitcoin does not
work people will lose money. If it does work it will
change the world as we know it.
One thing which is evident that Bitcoin Users are
increasing, if Bitcoin were a bad idea, it would not
be gaining uses.

Bitcoin solves 3 major problems:

The first one is the so called double-spending
problem. Put simply double-spending results
from the fact that, in contrast to physical goods,
digital files can be copied infinitely. This means
that if I get a single digital coin there is nothing
preventing me from copying and spending it a
million times. Traditionally this issue is resolved
by trusted third parties such as government
institutions but bitcoin does it via an electronic
payment system based on cryptographic proof
instead of trust.
The second problem that bitcoin solves is getting
a bunch of people who dont know and dont
trust each other to agree on a transaction.
Mathematicians refer to this as The Byzantine
Generals Problem.

FACTS ABOUT BITCOIN:

The last one is the traditional transaction cost

problem. Unless you are a mathematician or a
cryptographer, you may fail to appreciate the
elegance in Satoshi Nakamotos first and second
solution. But his mathematical and cryptographic
break-throughs result in the resolution of the
problem we all care about near zero transaction
cost.

1. The FBI owns 15 per cent of the worlds bitcoins

BITCOIN: THE FINANCIAL

SINGULARITY IS HERE?

When Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer paid a fellow

bitcoin user 10,000 bitcoins (roughly $25 then) for
two Papa Johns pizzas on May 22, 2010, little did
he know that it would be worth around $4 million
today. Since then, May 22 is celebrated as Bitcoin
Pizza Day to celebrate the most expensive pizzas in
history.

By now it should be clear that, after bitcoin, the

world will never be the same. But, similarly to AI, it
is hard to foresee whether bitcoin will be good/bad
or the end/the beginning of civilization. Yes, you
will find the full spectrum of ideological opinions on
the topic. But the reality is that the proof is in the
pudding and right now we simply dont know; we
cant know. That is why it is a singularity.
Bitcoin may be the beginning of a new socio-

When the US federal government raided and shut

down the first online drug marketplace, Silk Road, it
also seized bitcoins to the tune of $28.5 million or
almost 15 per cent of the worlds bitcoin mine.
2. May 22 is Bitcoin Pizza Day

-Nikhil Badugu

10

The first mobile telephone call was made

on April 3, 1973 by Martin Cooper, a
former Motorola inventor, who is known as

The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the

first cell phone sold in the US; launched on
April 11, 1984, it was designed by Rudy
Krolopp and weighed 2 pounds.

the father of the cellphone

EPAPER: THE FUTURE OF ELECTRONIC DISPLAY

results in compact and light weight portable
device .The electrophoretic technology used by
E- ink Corporation is the most widely known and
used form of E-paper. Commercial products using
E-paper technology include Amazon Kindle, Sony

-paper is a revolutionary, flexible material used

to enhance the appearance of ordinary ink
on the plain paper. Electronic paper was first
developed in the 1970s by Nick Sheridon at Xerox,
Palo Research Centre. He contributed in invention

Real books
will never
die

of Gyciron(a Greek term for rotating

image) which became the basis for
modern e-paper technology. Gyciron
was to be the new display technology
for Alto personal computer. It was the
worlds first office and word processing
computer with one major drawbackthe cathode ray tube display it used was
not bright enough and contrast was
not so great. This led to the development of Gyciron
based on the phenomenon of electrocapillarity.
The distinctive features of this technology offers
superior battery life due to efficient and low power
consumption as compared to the back-lit flat panel
displays. Additionally, direct sunlight is perhaps an
enigma for major competing technologies that do
not rely on scattering and diffraction phenomena
for their brightness and contrast. Hence it caters
to a wider market of users preferring the simpler,
paper-like display. The technologies involved for
manufacturing E- paper are electrophoresis and
electro-wetting. Electrophoresis works on the
principle of rearranging charged pigmented particles
by applying electric field while electro-wetting is the
modification of the wetting properties of a surface
with an applied electric field. . This technology

Librie, Barnes and Noble Nook and

Kobo E-reader. This topic is still under
R&D, emphasizing on adding colour,
and improvised hardware that can
refresh pages more quickly. Though
the electronic paper application is
probably in near future, with some
prototypes already available, it is likely
that other application will be more
interesting from a commercialization and social
acceptance point of view.

The Motorola F3 uses an E-paper display

instead of an LCD (Source:Wikipedia, 2010).

11

E-paper comprises two different parts, the first

is electronic ink, sometimes referred to as the

DVORAK keyboard is more efficient that

QWERTY. 20 times faster in fact.

On an average a typists fingers travel

frontplane, and the second is the electronics

required
to generate
the
pattern of
text and
images
on the
E-ink page,
called the
backplane.
Over the
years, a
number
of methods
for
creating
e-ink
has been
developed.
The
Gyricon
Active
Matrix
Watch.
E-ink
developed
in the 70s (Source: Baseworld, 2010) by Nick
Sheridon
of Xerox is
based on a thin sheet of flexible plastic containing
a layer of tiny plastic beads, each encapsulated in
a little pocket of oil and thus able to freely rotate
within the plastic sheet. Each hemisphere of a
bead has a different color and a different electrical
charge. When an electric field is applied by the
backbone, the beads rotate, creating a two colored
pattern. This method of creating E-ink was dubbed
Bichromal front plane. Another such technology
is electrophoretic front plane developed by the
E-ink corporation. Electrophoretic front plane
consists of millions of tiny microcapsules, each
approximately 100 microns in diameter (about as
wide as a human hair). Each microcapsule is filled
with a clear fluid containing positively charged
white particles and negatively charged black
particles. When a negative electric field is applied,
the while particles move to the bottom of the
capsule and are thus hidden from view. When a
positive electric filed is applied, the black particles
migrate to the top and the white particles move
to the bottom generating black text or a picture.
The brightness and resolution of electrophoretic
based E-ink is better than that of bichromal-based
E-ink, but both are monochromatic in nature. To
create color, E-ink joined hands with the Japanese
company Toppan printing which produces color
filters

Cell Phones: Motorola low-cost mobile phone,

12.6 miles

the Motorola F3TM uses an alphanumeric black/

white electrophoretic display. The Samsung Alias2TM
mobile phone incorporates electronic ink from
E-ink into the keypad, which allows the keypad to
change character sets and orientation

while in different display modes

Education: Digital School Books: In January 2007,
the Dutch specialist in E-paper, edupaper.nl started
a pilot project in a secondary school in Maastricht,
using E-paper as digital school books to reduce
costs and students daily burden of book.

Wristwatches: In December 2005, Seiko released

their Spectrum SVRDOOITM wristwatch which

has a flexible elestrophoretic display (Daimaou,
2005) and in March 2010, Seiko released a second
generation of this famous E-Ink watch with an
active matrix display.

E-books: In late 2007, Amazon began producing

and marketing the Amazon KindleTM, an E-book

with an E-paper display. In February 2009, Amazon
released the Kindle2TM and in May 2009, the larger
Kindle DXTM was announced. In November 2009,
Barnes and Noble launched the Barnes and Noble
NookTM, based on the
AndroidTM operating system. It differs from other
big name readers in that it has a replaceable
battery and a separate touch screen below the
main reading screen.

APPLICATIONS:

Status Displays: Some devices, like USB flash

drives have used electronic paper to display status
information, such as available storage space (E-ink
Corp, 2010).

-Aishwarya Khokle

12

There are approximately 1.4 million

apps on the Google Play Store

And over 1

billion active android users

Essential Android Security Apps

has a password protection hint feature that
asks you questions to help remember passwords.
Additionally, the app features an automatic
password generator that will help you create
strong, secure passwords for new or existing
accounts.
3) Antivirus Free
This is a popular antivirus application
that has been downloaded more

hile Android is a terrific operating system

in many ways, it does pose some real risks
for IT departments as well as any android
user. Last weeks revelation that Google had to
remove around 50 malware-infected applications
from its Android Market and had
activated an Android app kill switch
highlighted the downside of the
companys approach to publishing
applications where it will let anyone
put their app on the market and
will only take it down if alerted by
a third-party user. The upside of
this, of course, is that the market
also offers a wide variety of quality

than 500,000 times and has received an average

rating of four-and-a-half stars from more than
12,000 users on the Android Market. It scans
applications that youve already installed onto
your device and cross checks them with its
own reference database of known malicious
applications.

android

security applications that can protect you from

malicious apps. Here are Android applications that
can help android user and IT departments keep a
better hold on employees Android-based devices.

4) DroidDream Killer
Heres a quickie solution
if your Android device
has been hit with the
DroidDream malware.
Essentially, the app
acts as a stop file that
instructs the DroidDream
malware to not infect your device. Developer
Chris Ravenscroft cautions that while hes been
successful in using this application so far, there is
no guarantee that this particular piece of malware
or another one will not change their behavior
and start ignoring this file. So far the app has
received glowing reviews from users, as it has
received an average five-star rating on the Android
Market. Even so, this should
be seen as a quick patch and
not a comprehensive security
solution.

1) McAfee WaveSecure
McAfees WaveSecure app
doesnt have any of the virus
scans or firewall protection
that the company is famous
for, but it does have some
important features such as
the ability to remotely lock your phone and to wipe
key data from it, the ability to back up and restore
wiped data after a device has been secured, and
the ability to track and map your device using GPS.
2)mSecure Password Manager
This app specializes in encrypting and storing
important information and
passwords, including bank
account numbers, Social
Security numbers, e-mail
log-in passwords and more.
The app utilizes 256-bit
Blowfish encryption and

5) AppScan Beta
While DroidDream Killer is
13

Android devices contribute to

approximately 81% of global
smartphone shipments

Over 1.5 million new android devices

are activated daily

Monali Shetty
Assistant Professor,
Computer Department,
Fr. CRCE, Bandra.

designed to help you deal with malware after its

already been installed, Aegislabs AppScan Beta is
designed to stop you from ever downloading it in
the first place. The application scans other apps
on the Android Market and identifies any spyware
or malware they may have on them by flagging
them as suspicious. It can also scan apps for any
unwanted advertisements.
6) Titanium Backup PRO
Key
While mSecure Password
Manager specializes in
saving key financial and
personal data, Titanium
Backup aims to back up
data for just about every
application you have.
Youll also be able to use
this app for encryption, batch verification and
application freezing. Theres even an experimental
Bloatware Melter thats designed to cut down
programs that take up too much space and
memory.

The smartphone is one of the most

empowering and intimate objects in our
lives. Yet most of us have little say in how
the device is made, what it does, and how
it looks. And 5 billion of us dont have one.
What if you could make thoughtful choices
about exactly what your phone does, and
use it as a creative canvas to tell your own
story?
Google introduces Project Ara - designed
exclusively for 6 billion people.

7) Remote RDP Enterprise

Heres a remote desktop
application for IT pros
who want to troubleshoot
company computers
remotely through their
Android smart phone or
tablet. Features include
bidirectional audio, TLS (SSL) encryption, support
session auto-reconnect, zoom buttons, and mouse
support. Developer says the application is optimal
for tablets that have an external mouse and
keyboard attached.
8) Advanced Task Killer
This final application isnt really a security app , but
its certainly something IT departments will want
people using company smart phones and tablets to
have since it will help them save both memory and
battery life on their devices.

Get Involved

14

Android is a major step towards an ethical, user-controlled, freesoftware portable phone, but there is a long way to go.
-Richard Stallman

Master your Droid

Rooting your android

write and execute permissions. Root is allowed to

delete your files. Root is allowed to say that your
half empty battery is really full by lying and entering
any value it wants in that file. Root is allowed to tell
the CPU to never sleep or to never wake up, or run
at any speed and voltage that is supported by the
kernel

n the topic of Android, it is most likely that

ROOTING is the keyword that you may
come across with high frequency when
researching Android. So, you want to know about
rooting your Android? This may sound a little
bit confusing and maybe scary. Its kind of a big
decision to make. To root, or not to root. Lets know
what actually rooting your phone means what

THE SECURITY FACTOR

The middle ground (and in my opinion the best

method) is when you can unlock the bootloader
on your phone after warnings that when you
screw things up youre out of luck and install
any firmware you like. This is how Nexus devices
and so-called developer-editions come from the
factory. You can break it if you want to, and the
manufacturer wont try to stop you or care when
you break it. I also think a bootloader unlock token
should be provided when your device is paid-in-full,
but thats another article for another time.

ABOUT ROOTING-IN A NUTSHELL

What does Rooting an Android device actually

mean?
Rooting an Android phone or tablet means giving
yourself root, or admin rights. This means that
you are able to edit system files which, normally,
wouldnt be accessible to normal users. What does
that mean? Well, it means that you or other apps
that only work on rooted devices, can access and
change things like your camera flash, notification
light and many other things.
Does rooting void the warranty?
Let me get that immediately out of the way: Yes,
rooting an Android device voids the warranty.
Thats a fact. Same thing with jailbreaking an
Apple device. But, thankfully, its not difficult to
un-root a device and to flash a stock ROM or a
manufacturer supplied ROM onto the phone. After
doing that, your device wont show any sign that it
used to be rooted, thus making you eligible for any
warranty claims.
There is no magic in root

BENEFITS OF ROOTING AN ANDROID

PHONE OR TABLET

1- PUT YOUR HANDSET ON A DIET

The first benefit of accessing administrator
privileges over Android is full control over the
applications installed on your handset. No longer
do you have to suffer from the cluttered app
drawers and reduced memory space taken up by
pre-installed carrier and manufacturer applications,
you can instantly cut the bloatware and keep only
the apps that you really want.

ROOT IS A USER WITH PERMISSION TO

BREAK THINGS

Because everything is a file, being able to make,

delete or alter these files can have a dramatic effect
on just about everything in your Android. Allowing
a user to alter any files they dont own is never a
good idea, so Android uses permissions to decide
who can do what. No, not like the permissions you
grant when you install an app. Were talking about
permission to read, write or execute a file in the
system.

Even if youre up to date with Android 4.1 or above,

which grants users the ability to disable these preinstalled apps if you dont want to see or use them,
you cant permanently remove them, theyre still
there eating up your memory space. Rooting is the
only way to permanently get rid of these pesky
apps, but please dont uninstall something crucial
or your handset may stop working properly. Apps
like Titanium Backup are particularly helpful for
organising and culling this bloatware.

Theres nowhere that root doesnt have full read,

2- BETTER BACKUPS
15

The HTC Dream was the worlds first

Android phone.

HP, Google, Microsoft and Apple have one

thing in common apart from the obvious
that they are IT companies. All were
started in garages.

use of root permissions, and simply arent available

with a non-rooted device. The speed junkies among
you could take advantage of overclocking software
to boost performance or save on battery life,
providing that your Kernel supports overclocking.
Alternatively, fans of custom ROMs can use a ROM
manager to install and update their operating
system without the need to flash zip files from
Recovery.

This brings me nicely on to the next major benefit

of Android, improved backup and restore options.
As already mentioned, Titanium Backup is one of
the most popular backup apps used by rooters, and
this, or a similar app, is essential if youre going to
start tinkering around with Android software. But
as well as acting as a safety net in case you uninstall
something important, Titanium Backup can also be
used to backup your user data, from SMS messages
to browser bookmarks.

4-DRESS TO IMPRESS
My final reason for rooting your handset is the
wider range of customization and theming options,
after all who doesnt want their desktop to look
pretty.

ClockworkMod Recovery offers superior protection

against faulty updates and bricking your handset.
Even better still, once rooted you can create
complete backups of your entire handset using the
ClockworkMod Recovery option, providing you with
extra protecting in case of a major malfunction.
Recovery can only be accessed before booting
into Android, but it provides additional backup
options in case, for whatever reason, Android fails
to boot properly or experiences a crippling error.
This makes ClockworkMod Recovery an essential
tool for those looking to install custom versions of
Android.

Looking good there Android.

Although there are options to tweak themes and
whatnot that dont require rooting, usually through
third part launchers such as ADW, rooting gives
you access to the important files needed to make
changes in folders that are usually hidden from
users. Access to the/system/fontsfolder allows
users to install and replace custom fonts. You can
also flash zip files from Recovery to install themes
too. But if all that folder browsing isnt for you,
there are also a few root only theme applications to
choose from.

3-ADMINISTRATOR PRIVILEGED APPS

As rooting opens up administrator type privileges
on your handset youll instantly have access to all
the core files on your handset. File browser apps
can take full advantage of this, allowing you to
move stuff around on your internal memory if so
require.

-Vikram Rajpurohit

App wise, weve already touched on Titanium

Backup, but there are far more apps that can make
16

It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible

to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful
with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.
- John von Neumann
What does Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) mean?

the need for faster processing speeds increases.

GPU allows faster graphics processing speeds. This
means all scenes
increase in detail
and complexity
without sacrificing
performance. In
essence, the GPU
gives you truly
stunning realism
for free.
Which specifications matter?
This is the
question that
most frequently
pops up when people ask about video cards. Its
not really the right question for what most people
are eager to know because the honest answer
would be that most of them do :-)

graphics processing unit

(GPU), also
occasionally called
visual processing unit
(VPU),is a specialized
circuit designed to
accelerate the image
output in a frame buffer intended for output
to a display.GPUs are
very efficient at manipulating computer
graphics and are generally more effective
than general-purpose CPUs for algorithms where
processing of large blocks of data is done in parallel. In a personal computer, a GPU can be present
on a video card, or it can be on the motherboard
orin certain CPUson the CPU die
Basically , it is a single-chip processor primarily
used to manage and boost the performance of
video and graphics. It has been designed to lessen
the work of the CPU and produce faster video and
graphics.
A GPU is not only used in a PC on a video card
or motherboard; it is also used in mobile phones,
display adapters, workstations and game consoles.

To make matters even more complicated most

of them matter only in the context of the other
specifications. Below is a list of the most commonly
listed specifications with both retailers and
manufacturers:
Number of shaders/streamprocessors/cores
Memory clock frequency
Effective memory clock
Memory type

But why do we need to care about GPUs ?

Well GPU changes everything you have ever seen or
experienced on your PC. I mean the video quality,
truly .
Especially if you are a gamer. Just to give an example , here is a huge difference :

GPU clock frequency

GPU shader clock
Memory bandwidth
Memory size
TDP (Thermal Design Power)
Maximum board power
There are many specifications to look after but the
ones listed above are among the most important
ones to look for.
Desktop GPUs :

As 3D becomes more pervasive in our lives,

17

Nvidia introduced the first GPU, the GeForce
256, in 1999 and remains one of the major players
in the market. Others include AMD, Intel and ARM.

Pessimists, were told, look at a glass containing 50% air and 50%
water and see it as half empty. Optimists, in contrast, see it as half full.
Engineers, of course, understand the glass is twice as big as it needs to
be.
Hoping for a simple answer right about now? Sorry
to disappoint :-) The truth is that comparing AMD
and NVidia on this is a bit like comparing apples
and oranges. In some scenarios the AMD design
will win while in others the NVidia design will win
when it comes to performance.

But the market is mainly dominated by Nvidia and

AMD.
The 2013 product lines of AMD and NVidia still
have significant differences in architecture, the
most distinctive difference is this:
NVidia has fewer cores but they are capable
of more complex tasks than the AMD cores.

The NVidia design does offer a little more flexibility

when it comes to non-graphical usage scenarios.
This is how PhysX came to exist, as a prime example
of what the NVidia architecture has to offer besides
pure graphics.

AMD has more cores that can significantly

speed up some calculations but are less
flexible.

So , we both are the best at the jobs they were

designed for.

This is the main reason that you cant simply

compare core count between AMD and NVidia
GPUs to estimate their relative performance.
Comparison of GPUs from the same manufacturer
is a fair performance indicator. Obviously this
comparison works best when comparing cards
within the same generation (for example comparing
the core count between an AMD HD 6870 and HD
6950).

-Karan Diware

And the war between them goes on .

Nvidia Desktop GPUs in order of
their release :
Pre-GeForce , GeForce256 Series
,GeForce2 Series GeForce3 Series
GeForce4 Series ,GeForce FX (5xxx)
Series , GeForce 6 (6xxx) Series ,
GeForce 7 (7xxx) Series ,GeForce 8
(8xxx) Series , GeForce 9 (9xxx) Series
, GeForce 100 Series ,GeForce 200
Series , GeForce 300 Series ,GeForce
400 Series , GeForce 500 Series
,GeForce 600 Series ,GeForce 700
Series ,GeForce 900 Series
GeForce GTX Titan X is the latest
GeForce 900 Series release .
Some of the popular AMDs Releases :
Radeon HD 2000 series and TeraScale 1 Radeon HD 7000 series , Radeon HD 8000 series,AMD
Radeon Rx 200 series
So which is better? Many simple stream processors
or fewer more complex ones?
18

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but
when you do, it blows away your whole leg.
Bjarne Stroustrup

The Computer Engineers Toolkit

ho wants to set breakpoints when they

can pepper their code with far more
insightful statements like printf(abrakadabra) ? While learning how to use a debugger
is a skill most programmers love to hate, anybody
who has spent long hours trying to make sense of
a crash report- often couched in equally insightful terms by the operating system- knows better.
They say a wise person learns from the experience
of others and as I hold a very high opinion of the
mental capacity of my readers, I have compiled the
following list of skills that I was either thankful of
possessing as a computer science student, or, lacking which, was often left pulling my hair in anguish.

but also being the de facto standard for research

publications, it gives each document a well established academic look. A less obvious advantage,
but much more important, is that LaTeX allows you
to clearly separate the content from the format of
your document. As a writer (scientist, researcher or
not), this gives you the opportunity to focus on the
what, the creative part of your work, rather than
the how is it going to look printed out in paper.
COMMAND LINE NINJA:

Power users love the command line for its ability

to perform complicated tasks with just a few keystrokes. Once you learn it, you can then directly

instruct the system to do what you want. A GUI can

slow you down as you end up waiting for it to do
something, such as crashes and a wizard can hide
many intricacies.

UNIX:

Computer clusters at large corporations run Unix

(or one of its variants) and to take advantage of
these resources, you should feel at home logging in,
performing basic file operations, using the compiler, and editing text files from a Unix shell. Add the
ability to write simple shell scripts to the mix and
before you know it, youll have a Live Free or Die
license plate. There are thousands of distributions
available each with their unique design philosophy
leaving you enough room for choice and preference.

PROGRAMMING IN C:

LATEX:

A typesetting language, LaTeX makes it extremely

convenient to produce high-quality scientific documents. Not only does it help you as an editor,

19

Disregarding the popular maxim that real men

(and women, of course) program in C on the
grounds that it, perhaps, expresses a somewhat
subjective and unscientific opinion, the reasons for
learning this beautiful language are, nonetheless,
numerous. It provides the perfect level of abstraction for understanding the architecture of the underlying machine. C programmers generally possess
a better ability to think low level and have a more
solid understanding of core programming principles. Being among the simplest and most concise
programming languages around, C has managed to

Bill Gates house was designed

using a Macintosh computer

The first computer mouse was

invented by Doug Engelbart in
1964 and was made of wood

stay strong even after 3 decades.

efforts to compile downloaded source code have

been foiled by appearance of a cursed makefile,
Id have loads. For the unfamiliar, make is a utility
for managing and building source files, and most
online codebases include a makefile specifying the
order of compilation and any build parameters. If
you intend to interact with a large codebase and
maintain a good head of hair at the same time,
learn to use make.

AN OBJECT ORIENTED LANGUAGE:

While C is great for low level usage, most of the

software development abstracts the details using
high level languages. Depending on your needs and
goals, learning either C++, Java, Python or C# would
serve you well. These lay great power in your hands
giving ability to create powerful software.

-Tejas Khot

VERSION CONTROL:

Version control is an essential tool if you want to be

successful in todays web & software world. With
several tutorials and free platforms like GitHub,
BitBucket and SourceForge, the path to learning is
made very easy. You wont find a top programmer,
web developer, or web designer who doesnt use
version control because it helps you produce better
results and makes collaboration easy. And because
it can save your life when things go wrong!
THE MAKE UTILITY:

This last choice may seem a bit controversial. But,

believe me, if I had a nickel for every time my eager

20

Chess 5 Piece Puzzle

Green numbers indicate how many
pieces could move to that square
on the next move. Blue squares
show the possible locations of the
following five different chess pieces:
King Queen Rook Bishop Knight

DOORS

How are the five pieces arranged?

You have 100 doors in a row that

are all initially closed. You make 100
passes by the doors starting with the
first door every time. The first time
through, you visit every door and
toggle the door (if the door is closed,
you open it; if its open, you close it).
The second time you only visit every
second door (door #2, #4, #6, etc.).
The third time, every third door (door
#3, #6, #9, etc. ), and so on, until you
only visit the 100th door. What state
are the doors in after the last pass?
Which are open and which are
closed?

21

The Editorial Committee

Varun Bhatt - Designer

Teachers in charge:
Mrs. Monali Shetty
Mr. Saurabh Kulkarni