One fine day, I logged into Facebook as I do every hour, and caught myself staring at the logo. Considering it was Facebook, I had spare time and decided to redesign the logo, thinking of it as a quick job. One hour and a couple of glasses of coke in, and mercilessly pulling my own hair, I had nothing to show for it on my screen. This seemingly small incident surprised me more than it upset me. Even though options were available to switch among around a thousand fonts, millions of colour variants, and plenty of other features, I failed to come up with a good alternative logo, and meanwhile decided to explore the challenges and prerequisites that come with re-branding.

It leads to more creativity, and compels us to do more than recycle designs from the internet. Rebranding is a chance to change with the need to, and gain a necessary sense of accomplishment. Moreover, it helps us experience how designing would be under limitations and regulations, which will ultimately help us succeed in our design careers. Designing is a journey that helps us change and learn, and the rebranding process is a process through which our community grows.

Re-branding: Challenges and Prerequisites

One fine day, I logged into Facebook as I do every hour, and caught myself staring at the logo. Considering it was Facebook, I had spare time and decided to redesign the logo, thinking of it as a quick job. One hour and a couple of glasses of coke in, and mercilessly pulling my own hair, I had nothing to show for it on my screen. This seemingly small incident surprised me more than it upset me. Even though options were available to switch among around a thousand fonts, millions of colour variants, and plenty of other features, I failed to come up with a good alternative logo, and meanwhile decided to explore the challenges and prerequisites that come with re-branding.

The process of rebranding makes us realise how successful companies have been in imprinting their logos in our mind, and this is essentially the biggest challenge that lies in front of us. We are so used to the current logos that anything else feels…unnatural. Another technical hurdle is the limited scope: We have to adhere to a set scheme of colours, fonts, and proportions at all times. This is opposite to what we experience designing from scratch, simply a white canvas and innumerable possibilities. Leaving aside the science, creative personnel encounter a barrier unrelated to the physical work, namely the adoption of a philosophical outlook. If we aim to redesign an already aesthetically pleasing logo, we need good reason. This reason, more often than not, is in form of a philosophical one, a change which lets the logo connect better with the target audience. For example,

https://medium.com/art-marketing/the-new-google-logo-rounded-off-45db0524b46f

-Gyan Lakhwani

(Image of the Rounded off and the Original Logo and the reason behind the change)

Luckily, the perquisites outweigh the challenges. Most importantly, the process pulls us out of the conventional designing process and makes us learn more than we ever can. It leads to more creativity, and compels us to do more than recycle designs from the internet. Rebranding is a chance to change with the need to, and gain a necessary sense of accomplishment. Moreover, it helps us experience how designing would be under limitations and regulations, which will ultimately help us succeed in our design careers. Designing is a journey that helps us change and learn, and the rebranding process is a process through which our community grows.

For instance, this redesign of gaana.com’s logo uses a font which is beautifully geometric and has a forwardness appearance. The italicized font style also indicates motion in music.  The more circular g and a symbolize openness and harmony. The icon is the first thing one sees when one downloads an application, and since gaana is a hindi word, gaana.com can utilise this identity to connect with its target audience. Visually, the Hindi letter ga resembles musical notes.

(Courtesy: Anand Chowdhary, tiny.cc/anandc)

Tanmay Bansal

Introduction

Advances in modern automobile technology have completely changed how we commute. Although we’ve been unable to recreate lightsabers, we’ve built something equally awesome: driverless cars.

How They Work

The way in which driverless cars reason about their surroundings is not very different from us humans. Using radar, lidar, cameras as well as some peripheral technologies, driverless cars are able to sense not only the presence of objects but also their velocity and their size. This raw data is then processed to calculate trajectories and other similar factors. The car responds to this data by turning, speeding up and stopping. This cycle is repeated extremely fast, thousands of times a second, allowing the car to achieve response times much, much faster than humans.

This isn’t very different from how we humans process information. Our senses perceive stimuli, our brain processes them, and we decide how to respond.

The reason why driverless cars are groundbreaking is that they’re autonomous, not automatic. A driverless car doesn’t need the installation of any special equipment on roads, which means we don’t need to spend money on installing additional infrastructure on roads. You just need the car.

* Lidar is a technology similar to radar, where you bounce some sort of wave off the environment and see how the environment responds. In the case of radar, it’s a radio wave, while LIDAR uses a laser.

The Big Players

There are a few big players in the driverless game, but the industry is lead by Tesla Motors and Google.

Tesla rolled out its semi-autonomous Autopilot feature to most of its cars in September 2014. It’s not completely autonomous, i.e. there still needs to be someone behind the wheel to take control of the system during any difficulties. Tesla Motors was one of the first companies to market driverless technologies to ordinary consumers, starting nearly 5 years ago, and remains a leader in the commercial driverless car industry. Unlike most other driverless cars, Tesla automobiles have a consolidated body. External components aren’t required since the sensors are built into the car itself.

Google isn’t a car maker. Its driverless car project is part of a larger effort to aid the transition to electric cars for cleaner energy and its cars have driven nearly 3 million kilometres. There were only a few accidents, and all of them were attributed to human error.

A Driverless World

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors has stated that he believes that eventually, human driving will be outlawed because of its dangers.

Although it is difficult to entirely eliminate traffic, traffic is still an area where driverless cars can help. A network of driverless cars could intelligently avoid situations that increase the

chances of having a traffic jam. Driverless cars will also open up a lot of possibilities for refueling, since driverless cars could just go refill their tank / battery themselves, without any human intervention.

Where Do The Jobs Go?

In New York City, a taxi medallion is a license required to pick up people who hail taxis on the street. The cost of a taxi medallion was 1 million dollars a year ago, but with the introduction of ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, the price has fallen to just half a million dollars. Because of this, taxi drivers are unable to sell their medallions and join Uber or Lyft since they would be making a loss. Driverless cars would be another nail in the coffin of the nearly 42,000 taxi drivers of New York City, driving the costs of taxi medallions further down and leaving taxi drivers stranded.

Driverless cars would poach jobs from taxi drivers, Uber and Lyft drivers, truckers and bus drivers, causing an unemployment crisis. 0.3% of the US GDP comes from these individuals, who earn a mean income of 42,000 dollars and account for 67 billion dollars of income.

We could see a crash reduction rate of up to 90%, leaving 445,000 automobile repair technicians without jobs since people would visit their shops less often.

The Trolley Problem: A Thought Experiment

There is a runaway trolley hurtling down the railway tracks. If the trolley is allowed to move on the tracks unimpeded, it will kill 5 people. You stand near a lever which can divert the trolley to a different track, but you notice that there is a person on the other track as well. Would you divert the trolley, killing one person but having to bear the responsibility for his death, or let the trolley continue on, killing five?

Another variant of the trolley problem is one where you’re standing on a bridge, above the railway track. Rather than pulling a lever to divert the trolley, you may push a fat man off the bridge and onto the path of the trolley in order to stop it. Would you push the man off the bridge or let the trolley continue on and kill the 5 people?

The relevance of the trolley problem in the world of driverless cars is in a situation where the car has to either run over a pedestrian or swerve and cause the death of the car’s occupants. It is a difficult problem and doesn’t really have any solutions. If you want to offer your opinion on dilemmas like the trolley problem, then you can take MIT’s Moral Machine survey at moralmachine.mit.edu. It’s very interesting and pretty thought-provoking and I strongly recommend you take it.

Liability

The trolley problem leads us to an interesting legal problem: if the car hits a pedestrian, is involved in an accident that kills the occupants, or crashes, then who is liable? Is the manufacturer or are the occupants of the car? Pinning liability on the manufacturers is problematic; making manufacturers liable for accidents demotivates them from manufacturing the driverless cars in the first place, and ultimately stifles innovation. On the other hand, it doesn’t make sense for the occupants of a completely autonomous car to be liable for accidents.

Volvo, which hopes to roll out its driverless IntelliSafe Autopilot system by 2020, says that it will take responsibility and pay the damages for accidents caused by its driverless cars. Erik Coelingh, its senior technical leader for safety and driver support technologies, said that the Volvo’s IntelliSafe Autopilot system will eventually include so many redundant and backup systems that a human would never have to intervene, and could not be at fault. It’s hoped that other car makers will follow suit, but liability, in this case, is a complex legal problem and it will take several lawsuits before it is fully understood how responsibility should be attributed in the event of an accident.

Uber’s Driverless Cars: A Case Study

The city of Pittsburgh is home to bridges (446 of them!), tricky intersections, hilly areas, diverse climatic conditions and a large variation in terrain. It’s also home to Carnegie Mellon University, which has one of the most advanced robotics and machine learning programs in the world. This made it a perfect location for Uber to test out its fleet of self-driving cars, which it rolled out in September 2016.

The fleet right now consists of modified Ford Focus cars. The cars have 20 cameras, seven lasers, GPS and radar equipment, and a liquid-cooled computer in the trunk. If you’re ever in Pittsburgh, you can recognize these cars from the spinning lidar unit on the roofs and the Uber logo across their sides.

The cars are requested in the usual way, by ordering an Uber ride from the app. The app randomly pairs you up with a driverless car, and for the time being, rides in these driverless cars are free.

Since the cars are currently in testing and are not completely ready, they still require an Uber technician to be at the wheel and ready to take over at any moment in case of difficulties. There’s usually an Uber engineer sitting next to the technician, noting down any unusual occurrences and ensuring everything is going smoothly.

The cars are currently not able to navigate bridges which is ironic since Pittsburgh is often referred to as ‘the City of Bridges’, in reference to the city’s whopping 446 bridges. Bridges pose a unique challenge since they lack contextual cues like landmarks and buildings.

During a visit to Pittsburgh, I had the unique experience of seeing several of Uber’s driverless cars for myself. They’re easy to spot, and you’ll see several if you’re walking around the city.

What About India?

While European countries and the US are wrapped up in the testing of driverless cars, we have to wonder: what about India? Will India ever be ready for driverless cars? At the moment, driverless cars require well paved roads with clear markings. India lacks the infrastructure for these cars to run, with only 16% of all roads being paved. In a country where roads lack basic traffic signs, a car which reacts by reading these signs and markings would run into problems pretty soon. Sudden obstacles like cows and other animals also pose serious problems.

To shine a bit more light on how an Indian techie would view driverless cars, we were lucky enough to have Rajiv Mangla, the CTO of Snapdeal share his opinion. We asked him about the scope of driverless cars in the future of India. He believes that it will leave many unemployed but will make for well-planned cities. Daily commutes will be much more predictable. However, he feels that India isn’t going to see commercial driverless cars in the near future unless the technology in the cars and the quality of roads is improved.

This doesn’t mean that Indians can’t make driverless cars. A few Bangalore based engineers have already retrofitted a Tata Nano with sensors and cameras to turn it into an autonomous vehicle. Roshy John, the person behind this project, began his work in 2011. Although the team is yet to take the car for a test drive, it means the future for Indian autonomous vehicles may not be too far away.

What The Future Holds

It’s hard to say what the future holds for driverless cars since they face a number of hurdles. Many people are still reluctant to sit in them out of safety concerns. It’s up to companies like Uber, Tesla, and Google to show people that driverless cars are the future, and that the future is now.

Written by Kabir Goel. Section on India written by Sarah Randhawa.

From ten people on one computer to personal computers and phones. Computers are becoming ubiquitous. it’s not long before they become a part of the environment.

Basic logic states that there will soon come a day when things become small enough to finally let us carry only what we need to.

Over the years we have progressed from storing our data in giant temperature-controlled rooms, to hand-sized disks, and now in remote locations around the world, thanks to the cloud. In fact, even by merely using applications, we use cloud technology to store invisible data – what links we click, how long we’ve spent on a website – which enhances our experience with our device. The internet connection itself is becoming ubiquitous, with more and more innovative ideas coming up for this purpose; for example, Google X’s Project Loon involves using hot air balloons to spread the required hardware to make this possible, making internet connection available in the most remote areas.

When the internet emerged, it connected computers to share information. The internet of things – a network of physical objects that communicate with each other -will be no different. Not only information sharing but true peripheral connection, merging reality with the digital world. Sensors collecting relative data will have a connection to the cloud and with powerful processors will know what to do next. There will be a direct connection of control to physical systems which will give the virtual literally access to our environment. Computers will have access to switching on or off the washing machine, to the locks.Computational technology’s integration into our environment , their sensing and controlling our it will lead to a cyclic influence between us and technology

In the evolution of computers to becoming a part of our environment, the display will disappear. New ways of output are being evolved. Interconnected physical and digital output systems will synchronized to create non-intrusive integrations into our lives. The interconnection can lead to say, the AirConditioner getting switched on or off on the basis of the output, making things truly smart. In terms of healthcare, for example, our disease can be detected and medicine given to us. If that’s too sci-fi, then at least threatening situations can be sensed and the ambulance called

Sensors and processors will together be able to predict our mood and change the environment accordingly. So not only will we see the information collected but the system can decide what to do with it.
In actually predicting what is required, sensors play a major role. Spreading sensors and data collection devices will allow us to control our environment more efficiently. The amount of data collected will allow processors to find trends which will ultimately give us clues regarding the products’s improvement, we will be able to find loopholes and streamline the technology to be more efficient. Ubiquitous computing will allow us to have complete control of our physical environment. According to Chris Curran, Chief Technologist at PriceWaterCoopers, “We’ll no longer be guessing in the dark, we will truly have complete knowledge and control of our environment.” He suggests this will play a big role in digitising reality as everything will have a digital footprint, which is undeniably the future. ; the world will be much smarter. It will bridge the gap between the real and the digital world.

In Designing Calm Technology, Weiser and John Seely Brown describe “calm technology” as “that which informs, but doesn’t demand our focus or attention and will move easily from the periphery of our attention, to the justify, and back.” This will truly allow technology to go to the background and serve as the expected helping hand allowing us to do other important things as well.

-Ritin Pachnanda

If you’ve ever spoken to someone in Exun about Exun, you might’ve felt it’s not like any other club in school. That’s because it’s true. For decades, Exun has had a work ethic and a spirit of teamwork that’s hard to rival.

I learnt a very important personal lesson as well from Mukesh Sir himself, and I see it embodied in the best of Exun’s people and work. I learnt that no matter how tough or unfavorable things get for me, I have to try my best to be a part of the positivity that is always waiting to balance the tense equation. I had become a part of a group that knew things don’t always go your way, but that you cannot compromise on yourself and on the change you want to see in order to achieve that very step.

Of course, it’s not all serious work! The Exun staybacks, where this article is being written, the dozens of interschool events, the rush of winning an overall trophy, and the feeling of calm I got at having upheld Exun’s name… All these little things made my years at school more exhilarating and enjoyable than they ever would’ve been without. It always feels nice to be included, and Exun values an inclusive spirit above all.

The Exun Dynamic

Adit Bhardwaj

If you’ve ever spoken to someone in Exun about Exun, you might’ve felt it’s not like any other club in school. That’s because it’s true. For decades, Exun has had a work ethic and a spirit of teamwork that’s hard to rival.

We’re not exaggerating when we say that this is where we learned the most in school. We learnt how to follow our leaders, and how to lead ourselves. We learnt how to be responsible for an ideal, and to be a part of something bigger than all of us. From Mukesh Sir, who is perhaps the best example of a mentor and a leader-by-example, all the way to our newest junior inductee, there is an unwritten process of give and take, wherein we teach others what we learn, and learn by what others teach.

Honestly, I’ve never seen this done more open-heartedly. Nowhere else have I seen such a huge organization where all of its members and leaders, without exception, believe in the collective good, whether it’s through the spread of benevolent technology, or just witnessed in an interaction between members of this family. Because that is what it feels like to be a part of Exun: it’s like one big family. We make mistakes, we run late, we ask favors of each other, and sometimes fail to live up to our own and others’ expectations of us. But at the end of the day, we’re all there for each other, and we realize that all this is a necessary part of our journey, that this is how we grow and become better at what we do, provided we are always open to learning and changing ourselves.

I learnt a very important personal lesson as well from Mukesh Sir himself, and I see it embodied in the best of Exun’s people and work. I learnt that no matter how tough or unfavorable things get for me, I have to try my best to be a part of the positivity that is always waiting to balance the tense equation. I had become a part of a group that knew things don’t always go your way, but that you cannot compromise on yourself and on the change you want to see in order to achieve that very step.

Of course, it’s not all serious work! The Exun staybacks, where this article is being written, the dozens of interschool events, the rush of winning an overall trophy, and the feeling of calm I got at having upheld Exun’s name… All these little things made my years at school more exhilarating and enjoyable than they ever would’ve been without. It always feels nice to be included, and Exun values an inclusive spirit above all.

To summarize, suffice it to say that Exun runs on two things: skill and good will.

-Adit Bhardwaj

When I talk about Exun, it can never be in singular. Exun’s motto truly defined the time I spent as part of the clan, because I never did anything alone! Dhruv (Kumar), Abhishek (Suri), and I, joined Exun together in 2001 and never looked back.

Back then, we had no idea what Exun was, we had just heard about 2 seniors who bagged a foreign visit because they made a website, and Suri got us together. We went straight to Mrs. Chona (our principal at the time), and she directed us to Mukesh Sir. After a few failed attempts at making a website using Windows 95, Internet Explorer 5, our broken knowledge of HTML and Floppy Disks, we decided to abandon the project. However, given all three of us, for some odd reason, knew C++ at the time, Mukesh Sir decided to test us, but we failed miserably there as well. We must’ve tried for 2 months to clear his test, but couldn’t! He still took us in. I made it by default with Dhruv and Suri, even though I’d stopped going to the meetings with Sir.

Exun used to be extremely selective and very small at the time (28 members at the time), and we were extremely lucky to have made it. We spent the first year behind the scenes, lifting boxes, chairs, monitors and everything in our way! We didn’t even participate in any event for the first year. This was our first lesson in patience and looking back, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Over the years, we worked extremely hard, participated in and won several events, had the time of our lives and made life long friendships. In class 12, Dhruv and I were chosen as Presidents, a dream we held since the day we joined, and I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better partner. I credit Dhruv for coming up with several new initiatives including Under_Score and a Quiz book (which never saw the light of day but is 200 pages of quizzing awesomeness). Exun was probably the best part of my school life, and I certainly miss it to this day.

Even though I was really young, and it was a long time ago, Exun has left an indelible impression on me. It was really something that gave us life lessons. The biggest lesson that none of us can ever forget is teamwork. We, not I is not just there for the sake of it. Mukesh Sir has made sure it is entrenched in our DNA, and every Exun member swears by it. Even with old alumni, this is what connects us and doesn’t bring any barriers between us.

Second, I learnt about humility and integrity. There were a few times when we were bragging about our wins and the work we were doing, and Mukesh Sir was quick to step in and put a bit of sense into us. To this day, each time I feel myself straying, takes me back to Mukesh Sir’s words. We also had immense responsibility, because our teachers put immense trust in us with confidential data and processes, and none of us ever thought of breaking that trust.

Last but not least, my biggest lesson was really the thrill of being the underdog. My life’s motivation has always come from being the underdog, when I’ve been at the lowest and then with confidence and grit made it back.  Amongst all the events we did that, the one that is etched in memory is TCS IT Wiz 2006. Dhruv and I, somehow managed to qualify amongst 700 other amazing teams, and then Dhruv decided to vanish (because he hadn’t told his mom he was going for the quiz, and never imagined he would qualify). I was amongst the finalist teams, alone! And was nowhere in contention till the last round, but the Exun spirit  (and crowd support), kept me alive and I managed to place second (Dhruv was there in spirit)! All alone! That was the moment I realized that nothing is impossible and one should never give up. And the very next day, we went for another quiz where we didn’t even manage to qualify. (talk about highs and lows!)

Years later, when I was sitting for job interviews, I went through 4 terrible interviews and had almost given up, and had only last chance to secure a job. Even during the interview, things were not going too well and the interviewer had already interrupted me twice, but I managed to get through it and got the offer!

Over the years, my exun classmates have gone on to become Watchmakers at Apple, and amazing engineers and I steered off to work at a bank, but our friendship is intact. We always pick up from where we left off, usually over a bucket of KFC!

I am also absolutely blown away by the things that the current batch of Exun members is achieving. I feel out of place when I meet all of them! It’s truly awe-inspiring, keep up the good work guys!

Here’s to forever being an EXpert Unlimited!

WE, not I.

Gursartaj

All of us have laptops, but do all of us know what they’re really about? In this guide we’ll explain how to get a great laptop for your specific needs at a budget for YOU.

Let’s start by explaining what the ‘specs” of a laptop really mean. We’ll break down your laptop’s components and their subcomponents, and walk through some of the best available options in the market.

1. CPU – A CPU is the main component of a laptop which carries out all operations. The processing speed of the computer is directly dependent on its CPU.

To measure how the CPUs actually performs, go to benchmarking websites like Geekbench 3 Browser and search for the CPU model.

A CPU has four main things to look for:

1. Cores: A ‘core’ is exactly what it sounds like. A central component that is responsible for delivering all instructions. So a Dual Core system has 2 cores working simultaneously whereas a Quad has 4.

1. Clock Frequency: As you might guess, it is the speed of the CPU. But it isn’t exactly the processing speed of CPU. It is rate of the clock cycles in a certain time period. Designers divide each instruction into clock cycles, so, better architectures will take lesser clock cycles to perform same instruction. 1 GHz means a billion clock cycles cycles in a second.

1. CPU Cache: The cache is like the CPU’s handbook. If it needs to search for some data in the main memory (RAM), it first checks whether it is there in its cache so it might take lesser time, although, if it is not there then it searches in main memory. The cache helps in reducing time spent for retrieving data.

1. Architecture: It refers to the efficient technology of the processor and the size of the transistors. Smaller transistors means less heat and less electricity usage.

Some recent Architectures from Intel Are:

1. Nahlem (45nm transistor size)
2. Sandybridge (32nm transistor size)
3. Ivy bridge (22nm transistor size)
4. Hasewell (22nm transistor size)
5. Broad2qwell (14nm transistor size)
6. Skylake (14nm transistor size)
7. Kaby Lake (14nm transistor size)

The 2 giants making CPUs for laptops are Intel and AMD.

Intel Atom: They are low power CPUs made for low power devices with less heat and longer battery. But, they sometimes lag because of low speed on Windows.

Intel Core M series: They are extremely efficient and less power consuming CPUs made for convertible laptops, tablets, and pocket PCs. It does not require cooling. They give speed comparable to other Core CPUs because of good use of Intel TurboBoost 3.0 technology.

Intel Celeron: It’s Intel’s line of entry level CPUs. They don’t use many new technologies which makes it a little cheaper and slower alternative to Pentium.

Intel Pentium: It’s Intel’s series of budget CPUs. The same name has been continued for more than 2 decades so don’t be fooled by it and don’t think they are same as old processors, the new generation Pentiums pack enough power to perform basic tasks well. They now come in Quad Core models but are still inferior to Dual Core i3 because it uses comparatively inferior technologies.

Intel Core i3: It is Intel’s line of CPUs designed for average usage. They are able to perform all general tasks smoothly and also allows for casual gaming. From 2nd generation onwards, they have 2 hyperthreaded cores come with integrated graphics to help in producing sharp images.

Intel Core i5: It is Intel’s line of mainstream CPUs. They run tasks effortlessly and allow to play recent games at low to medium settings. From 2nd Generation onwards, they have 2 hyperthreaded cores. In 6th Generation, they also have models with 4 cores (with Q in the model name).  It also uses Intel Turbo Boost technology to increase CPU clock speed when demand is high and save power when demand is low.

Intel Core i7: It is Intel’s line of high end CPUs. They are able to do large work rapidly and perform well in gaming. From 2nd Generation onwards, it comes in models with 4 hyperthreaded cores and some with 2 hyperthreaded cores. They also support Intel Turbo Boost Technology. The quad core models are designed for gaming and workstations where speed is more important than heating or electricity usage. The dual core models are made to work on lesser power.

AMD: They were founded just a year after Intel and focus on providing cheaper alternatives.

1. RAM: Random Access Memory a.k.a System Memory is the Memory which is placed between storage and CPU. It contains data and applications in use. If RAM is not enough, the system has to put the data or applications in the Storage. The speed of RAM is much faster than Storage. (It is roughly 100 times faster than HDD and 10 times faster than SSD). So, if the RAM is less, the CPU will have to wait for the storage to send and receive data, which will decrease overall speed even if the processor is good.

A 32-bit architecture computer can utilise upto 2^ 4GB RAM

1. Storage:
   1. Hard Disk Drives are traditional storage devices. They have large capacities at cheap rates. Their speed is however, a bit slow (around 50MB/s) because they use a physical disk and a mechanical arm which move to access data stored, it takes time for them to move which results in low speed.
   2. Solid State Drives are modern storage devices without any moving parts. Hence, they are much faster than HDD (about 200 to 500MB/s) but are more expensive due to new technology. SSD makes retrieving files faster which results in faster startup of the laptop and faster opening of large files.

1. Screen:
   1. Size:

Average to large screens are helpful in working in corporate databases and Excel files. They are useful in Gaming too, as the player can see all elements of the game. Large screens also help in graphic designing as you can place all toolbars on the larger screen.

Large screens, however, result in bulkiness and a bit difficulty in carrying around.

Small screens work well for normal web surfing and light work etc.

1. Resolution:

It is measured as number of pixels eg: 1920*1080 (FullHD), 1280*720(HD) etc. Larger screens require more pixels to give a sharp image. The sharpness of image is measured as Pixel density as Pixels Per Inch (ppi).

1. Ports:
   1. RJ-45 (LAN): This is also known as ethernet. It connects the cable from the router to your laptop incase WiFi doesn’t work.
   2. HDMI: High Definition Media Interface is used in projectors or external monitors / TVs to connect with your laptop. It is used to present in seminars, or to get a larger screen to work.
   3. Mini DisplayPort: DisplayPort is a speedy and versatile interface for video output. If you’re buying an ultrabook, be sure it has Mini DisplayPort output.
   4. VGA: Visual Graphics Array is used to connect with old monitors and projectors. Not used very often these days.
   5. USB: Universal Serial Bus is an interface which is used in many devices, ranging from Pen Drives to Dongles to Smartphones to Printers to external mouse, keyboard and many more peripherals. Be sure to have atleast 2-3 USB ports to connect multiple peripherals simultaneously.
   6. Thunderbolt: If you want a future-proof gaming laptop, be sure to buy one with a Thunderbolt 3 port. Thunderbolt 3 enables you to connect desktop graphics cards externally, so you can game without compromise and upgrade your graphics performance as time goes on. Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C connector, but a USB-C port on a laptop doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a Thunderbolt 3 port (It can also be a USB 3.1 gen 2 port) [more on this in the article about USB-C]. Be sure to check the manufacturer’s website whether the laptop has Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 gen 2, or none.

1. 3.5mm Jacks: They are used to connect audio devices like headphones and speakers. It generally had 2 ports, one for audio in and one for out. But, new devices come one single port which can do both input and output.
2. Card Reader: All in one card readers are used to read storage cards of various sizes from devices like camera etc., so you can directly read data from the device’s memory.

1. Now, here is our suggestion of laptops and their specs on the basis of the usage

1. General Purposes
   1. Basic User: For those who use their laptops for watching videos, writing simple documents, using the internet, writing mails etc

Recommended Specifications:

• CPU: Intel Pentium Quad Core or Intel Core i3 (4th or later Generation) or AMD A8
• RAM: 4GB DDR3
• Storage: 500GB Hard Disk Drive
• Screen: 11” to 15.6” 1280*720 to 1366*736 resolution
• Price: Rs 17,000 to Rs 25,000

Suggestions:

• Lenovo Ideapad 100        
  • Price: Rs. 18,000
  • Specifications: Intel Pentium N3540; 4GB DDR3 RAM;  500GB HDD; 15.6” screen @ 1366 x 768
• Acer Aspire R 11 R3-131T
  • Price: Rs.24,000
  • Specifications: Intel Pentium N3700; 4GB DDR3L RAM; 500GB HDD; 11.6” Screen @ 1366×768
• Dell Inspiron 3551
  • Price: Rs.25,000
  • Specifications: Intel Pentium N3540; 4GB DDR3 RAM; 500GB HDD; 15.6” Screen @ 1366 x 768

1. Average User: For those who use their laptops for writing some emails, downloading videos and music, viewing websites, making presentations, casual gaming etc.

Recommended Specifications:

• CPU: Intel Core i3 or i5 (4th Generation or later)
• RAM: 4GB or 8GB DDR3
• Storage: 1 TeraByte Hard Disk Drive
• Screen: 14” to 15.6” on 1280*720 to 1366*768 Resolution.
• Price: Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 35,000

Suggestions :

• Lenovo G50-80

• Price: Rs 26,000
• Specifications: i3-5005U; 4GB RAM; 1TB HDD; 15.6” Screen @ 1366*768p

• Dell Inspiron 3558 Notebook

  • Price: Rs.33,000
  • Specifications: Intel core i3(5th Gen); 4GB DDR3 RAM; 1TB HDD; 15.6” Screen @ 1366*768p

1. Business User: For those who use their laptops for business purposes like writing large emails, researching websites, uploading and downloading presentations and videos, installing business related software, working on large excel files, making big ppts etc.

Recommended Specifications:

• CPU: Intel Core i5 (4th Generation or later)
• RAM: 8GB DDR3
• Storage: 1 TeraByte Hard Disk Drive or 256GB Solid State Drive
• Screen: 15.6” on 1366*768 to 1920*1080 resolution
• Price: Rs 30,000 to Rs. 45,000

Suggestions:

• Mac Book Pro(This is an exception)
  • Price: Rs. 79,000
  • Specifications: Intel Core i5; 4GB DDR3; 500GB HDD; 13” @ 1280X800
• HP 15-BE002TX
  • Price: Rs. 48,000
  • Specifications: Intel Core i5; 8GB DDR4; 1TB HDD; 15.6” @ 1366*786

Thank you for reading our article and we hope that you can make the right choices now!

Written by:

Aditya Singh, Josh Randhawa, Shreyas Kishore

There’s been a huge buzz about quantum computers recently. Here is what the fuss is over and how it may or may not affect you.

In traditional computers, each transistor has 2 states. In quantum computers, the number of states is 2n , where n is the number of quantum states. This is called a quantum bit or “qubit”. Where earlier you would have 16 pairs of states to choose from, in quantum computing this number is a staggering 4294967296, 268435456 times more! Now that’s a lot of computing power!

This will help a lot in simulations of quantum particles, optimization problems(like finding the overall cheapest way of travel) and analytics which will utilize the quantum superposition property properly, as an extremely large amount of outcomes will be tested at the same time. This would mean an incredible lapse in security and in turn,privacy(due to many possible ‘decryption keys’ being tested at one time) but that is a topic for later. Its effect will be felt across industries.

The Future: Quantum Computing

There’s been a huge buzz about quantum computers recently. Here is what the fuss is over and how it may or may not affect you.

The Turing System of Computing

In traditional (Turing) computers, there are 2 absolute basic states: 0 & 1. This is called the binary system, wherein 0 means off, 1 means on. Although computers perform extremely complex calculations, it all starts here. This simple base soon evolves into rather complicated structures. But this system is reaching its limit with transistors reaching the size of an atom, beyond which this system won’t work(due to a phenomenon called quantum tunneling) thus proving Moore’s Law (in a year processors will be become twice as fast at the same cost) invalid.

The Quantum System of Computing

In the quantum system, transistors are traded in for electrons. Electrons have 2 “spin” states (like a 0 and 1), but unlike tradition computers, electrons attain a superposition when they are not observed. They can be in both states at the same time. Sounds crazy, right? If we utilize this property, operations would be exponentially faster, to the tune of a 100 million times our current speed!

The Quantum Leap

In traditional computers, each transistor has 2 states. In quantum computers, the number of states is 2n , where n is the number of quantum states. This is called a quantum bit or “qubit”. Where earlier you would have 16 pairs of states to choose from, in quantum computing this number is a staggering 4294967296, 268435456 times more! Now that’s a lot of computing power!

What this means

This will help a lot in simulations of quantum particles, optimization problems(like finding the overall cheapest way of travel) and analytics which will utilize the quantum superposition property properly, as an extremely large amount of outcomes will be tested at the same time. This would mean an incredible lapse in security and in turn,privacy(due to many possible ‘decryption keys’ being tested at one time) but that is a topic for later. Its effect will be felt across industries.

What this doesn’t mean

This doesn’t mean an improvement in everyday tasks like browsing the web or writing documents. Sorry, no faster video-streaming or such. Also if you see the requirements of a quantum computer you will see that probably exceeds your budget by a lot. Seriously.

The Challenge

The challenge is to effectively use the quantum

property of superposition. Unlike our home computers, which are cooled by fans, the quantum computers need to be cooled with cryogenic machines. The quantum processors themselves require very less space and wattage and aren’t very expensive and it is actually the cryogenic engines which require huge amounts of storage, wattage and money(to construct as well as to maintain) and so each quantum computer costs millions of dollars unlike on our everyday computers which are cheap(comparatively). The cost therefore has to be brought down.

The Race for Quantum Supremacy

The race for quantum “supremacy” is the one to build a proper quantum computer. Google and IBM are the leaders in the race for quantum supremacy. They have been trying to make their own quantum computer and Google has recently created its own quantum chip, though it is still pretty primitive. IBM, which has also been creating one, has opened it up publicly for people to use through their cloud interface. This is only for consumers who have an idea of the use of quantum computing, not a regular home software. Also right now their quantum computers are extremely primitive so they can only perform very specific tasks.

Conclusion

So you see we can’t safely say that we will have proper quantum computers in the immediate future. But we’re getting there.

Written by:
ASHVIN VERMA (7-K), ASHAY SRIVASTAVA (7-I), ANGAD SINGH (7-C)

Not too long ago, our world thought of technology as something with no pragmatic utility rather than as a revolutionary tool of creation. Luckily, the opinion of world has evolved, with technology now being thought of as a tool to help to earn a living, a platform to influence anyone, and a chance to revolutionise the world. An article in The Verge called today’s youth ‘The Startup Generation’. Why? Is it easy to succeed and become rich with a self-run business? Is it really true that everyone can succeed at what they do, that their company will be the next tech giant? No one really believes that.

Of the hundreds of startups, 99% believe that their idea stands out – that in no time they will make billions. But most startups struggle just to get an initial investment. All that matters to them is their idea. Many startup CEOs fallaciously believe that investors look for just an idea. However, there are many more factors – a business plan, projected growth, burn rate, estimated stock value etc – that investors look at before putting up money in new companies – after all they also want to make money for themselves. Without having plans for the future and a proper , they can’t possibly get an investment, or turn their company into a profit – let alone be productive.

The world out there is a battlefield and not everyone survives. People shouldn’t think of a startup until they have a plan of action – not just technologically, but economically as well. After all, it is a business that they’re trying to run.

-Sameer Chadha

The great startup bubble has finally burst. The number of billion dollar startups – called ‘unicorns’ – are at an all time high: currently more than 180. But the question is, why do so tech startups hesitate from going public?

One possible answer is that many people in the tech world are introverts and see the process of going public as a distraction from their work. The other reason being their sky high valuations, which backfire as these tech companies have sought valuations above what public investors are willing to pay. So far this year, only 14% of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) in the US were made by tech companies, the smallest percentage since at least the mid 1990s according to reports. The data suggest that even some of the most promising startups in Silicon Valley might be worth far less in the eyes of the rest of the investment world. The risk is that the lackluster reception for tech startups in the stock market could ricochet through companies that are still private. We saw this in the case of Square Inc in 2015, a mobile payments company co-founded by and still run by Twitter’s Chief Executive, Jack Dorsey. Square Inc.’s IPO price was steeply discounted at less than 60 percent of the company’s last private evaluation.

Last year Dropbox had no trouble in boosting its evaluation from $4 billion to $10 billion but investment bankers caution that the San Francisco based company might be unable to go public at $10 billion and might not deliver a big pop to recent investors and employees who had hoped to strike it rich. Nick Woodman, CEO of action camera maker GoPro doesn’t regret taking his company public in 2014 despite the many stock troubles it has faced. Japanese messaging company Line raised $1.1 billion in an offering on July 11 and has been the biggest tech IPO of the year, while other newly public tech companies stocks are up 90% on average, signifying that winter may finally be over for tech IPOs. What happens in the future remains to be seen as startups such as Snapchat, Airbnb and Uber might go public in the near future and they may offer fresh hope for tech related startups. The question still stands, should tech startups go public or not?

It is our opinion that they should. As in the experience of Facebook, going public was nothing but an excellent business decision, signifying an uncommon conflation of both technological genius as well as business acumen on the part of the creators. Not only did it make Bono the richest musician at the time, it signalled to several smaller companies that this was the way forward. Facebook sits atop a pyramid of the world’s biggest and richest tech giants, and made a killing by going public. Not just this, going public provided a face for the company to bank on, and heightened their public presence like never before.

The only question that remains, thus, is can you pull it off like Mark?

-Aveneel Waadhwa

How often do you use the Internet for entertainment purposes and how?
Internet is the preferred medium for entertainment purposes for me. YouTube, Hotstar, Netflix and Spotify are some of the prevalent platforms used by me.

In what ways do you think can we fight torrenting?
Torrenting is a two sided sword. On one side, many people prefer to download open source softwares via torrenting as not everyone has a 24×7 reliable connection in this world but on the other side, it has become a hub of pirating, costing the world billions of dollars annually. The battle to curb piracy is to be done on multiple fronts. While cyber laws and crackdown on pirates is important, encouraging ethical behaviour and work is equally important.

What are your views on cashless transactions through mediums like PayPal?
Cashless transactions are the way to go. Cashless transactions not only make payment easy but also help in reducing pure cash transactions, which means more transparent transactions.

What would you prefer- a DSLR Camera or a Smartphone Camera?

Preference depends on the task at hand. Nowadays, for most of the purposes the Smartphone Camera does serve the purpose well though.

-Shalini Harisukh