1 - CSI NSIT

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CSI NSIT
contents
CONTENTS
COVER STORY
4
Leaders of Innovation - Google Inc.
The all-new 4th Gen Intel Processors
14
PlayStation 4 vs. XBox One
20
Python vs. C++ - Which language to
begin with?
24
The Mayer Merger Mania
28
The Most Anticipated Games of 2013
32
About CSI-NSIT
Computer Society of India (C.S.I.) is a non-profit body comprising of IT professionals,
students, academicians, scientists, corporate and other institutions. This wide spectrum
of members is committed to the advancement of the theory and practice of computer
engineering and technological systems, science and engineering, informatics processing
and other computer related fields.
CSI NSIT primarily works to bridge the gap between technology and the academia by
conducting various seminars, presentations and workshops. It has also organised many
competitions over the past years, encouraging a new thought process in the budding
engineers of NSIT.
It is one of the only few societies to have its own web portal located at
http://www.csinsit.org/, blog at http://blog.csinsit.org and a very active Google Group
([email protected]). The Google Group proves to be a very useful platform for
communication among CSI members. It has many members and undertakes in-depth
discussions encompassing a wide range of topics.
A Web Development workshop conducted by CSI NSIT in Mini Audi
4
COVER STORY
Leaders of Innovation
Google Inc.
Google has always tried to be innovative and path-breaking. With the new tests being
carried out in the Google X, the super-secret laboratory of the giant, Google has just
outdone itself.Google X is the search giant’s factory for moon shots, those million-toone scientific bets that require generous amounts of capital, massive leaps of faith,
and a willingness to break things. Google X (the official spelling is Google [x]) is home
to the self-driving car initiative and the internet-connected eyeglasses, Google Glass,
Project Loon among other improbable projects.In this article we take a look at two of
the most innovative projects to come out of Google X: Google Glass and Project Loon.
AUTHORS
Garvit Jain, COE, 2nd Year
Anant Simran Singh, COE, 2nd Year
PROJECT GOOGLE GLASS
We all have somewhere or the other come across the
adage “History repeats itself” being gifted to us in a
very taunting fashion mostly when something goes
wrong. So I ask what possibly have I done wrong?
Why does the science want me to discard my OS
based phone, tagging it as useless bunch of electronics? Should have I waited for another tech-gizmo to
hit the market? Well the answer is no, yes and yes
respectively and with this let me welcome you to
the world of augmented reality which has a hottestlatest-and-most-exciting gadget of the year Google
Glass. This invention is definitely set to time travel
us back to the pre-mobile phones era, but in a futuristic manner. My father generation witnessed the
launching of mobile phones into Indian market and
most probably by the time next generation arrives,
the scenario would have changed a lot with need of
mobile phones wiped out of the same market. All
thanks to the invention of Google Glass.
Google Glass is an initiative of Glass Research &
Development Department of Google to develop
wearable computer incorporating the recent major
technologies of augmented reality (AR) and optical
head-mounted display (OHMD) to the full extent.
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Google Glass is an attempt to free
data from desktop computers and
portable devices like phones and
tablets, and place it right in front
of your eyes.
Essentially, Google Glass is a camera, display, touchpad, battery
and microphone built into spectacle frames so that you can perch a
display in your field of vision, film,
take pictures, search and translate on the go. With the launch of
Google Glass, the mission associated is to produce a mass-market
ubicomp-perhaps next generation
of computers. Literally, Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) refers to a post-desktop model of
human-computer interaction in
which information processing has
been thoroughly integrated into
everyday objects and activities. Indeed Humanistic Intelligence has
particularly benefitted a lot form
alloying of these technologies together, which treats the human
mind and the computer as a single entity and has laid the foundation for wearable computing. This
explains satisfactorily the need to
make it a wearable computer. The
Google Glass is the latest to embody these technologies and the
users have whole heartedly declared it as the closest thing ever
to Augmented Reality.
SPECIFICATIONS
»» Android OS 4.04
»» Lithium Polymer battery
(2.1 Wh)
»» Photos and Video Recording at
»»
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»»
»»
»»
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720p HD video
CPU OMAP 4430 SoC
Dual-core processor
Storage capacity 16 GB
1GB RAM
Prism
projector
Display,
640×360 pixels (equivalent of
a 25 inches screen from 8 feet
away)
Sound
Bone
conduction
transducer
Input Voice command through
microphone
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
Magnetometer
Ambient light sensor
Proximity sensor Controller
Touchpad
MyGlass phone app
And so on, it is no less than a
phone either. This partly explains
my ambiguity about discarding
my OS phone!!!No doubts, the
Google R&D Department has put
in a lot of effort to enhance its
user friendly features and customer satisfaction.
Google Glass: Display
First of all, Google Glass displays
Being considered as the inven- information in a Smartphone-like
tion of the decade, Google Glass is hands-free format over a Prism
set to be launched as a complete projector Display, 640×360 pixels
replacement of any modern OS which provides comfortable view
based phone. It is no less than a
phone either. This partly explains
my ambiguity about discarding
my OS phone! No doubts, the
Google R&D Department has put
in a lot of effort to enhance its
user friendly features and customer satisfaction.
Answers without having to ask
equivalent of a 25 inches screen
from 8 feet away.Once it’s on, you
simply swivel the tiny prism that
projects the screen into view, and
“OK Glass” is all you need to get
going with the device.The display
‘hovers’ in the top right of your
vision, and at first feels very, very
strange and intrusive. But eventually it doesn’t feel at all that it is
sitting there on our nose (unless
you notice why people are looking
at you strangely, anyway!!!). The
battery has been careful placed
behind the ear to precisely balance
the device - which feels incredibly
light when being worn. You can
just about get a full day’s use out
of the battery, assuming you don’t
record too many videos or take
part in Google hangouts. The design means that when the screen
is off, you can see through it and
act and see like a normal pair of
glasses.
Google Glass: Controls
For control and navigation, touchpad is located on the right side
of Google Glass, allowing users
to control the device by swiping
through a timeline-like interface displayed on the screen. The
touch-sensitive frame, on the
right of the glass, is very simple
to use and responsive, with left to
right scrolling, tapping to move
down a menu layer and swiping
down to move up. The menu system is a series of cards, which you
scroll through. Some of the cards
have folded edges, which mean
they contain more information –
for instance, clicking on an email
lets you see past conversations.
Sliding backward shows current
events, such as weather, and sliding forward shows past events,
such as phone calls, photos, circle
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It’s surprisingly simple
updates, etc.
Other than the touchpad, the
communication between user and
devices is eased up via natural language voice commands. To activate Glass, wearers must tilt their
heads upward or tap the touchpad, and say “O.K., Glass.” Once
Glass is activated, wearers can say
an action, such as “Take a picture”,
“Record a video”, “Hangout with
[person/Google+ circle]”, “what
year was Google founded?’”, “Do
you know NSIT, Dwarka”,”Give me
directions to NSIT, Dwarka”, and
“Send a message to Toshit Sir”.
For search results that are read
back to the user, the voice response is relayed using bone conduction through a microphone
that sits beside the ear, thereby
rendering the sound almost inaudible to other people. Unsurprisingly, the integration of Google’s
search engine is superb, with voice
recognition and smart handling
of results, which can show you
weather forecasts, directions or
standard Google results within a
click of a second.
Google Glass: Directions
Leaving the hotel room for the first
www.csinsit.org
Directions right in front of you
time is the biggest leap of faith,
and it’s slightly terrifying to stand
in a place with everything unfamiliar around. The key to Glass
is that it’s always there, ready to
go - and always keeping you up to
date. Playing with it around the
place is all well and good. Walking
directions are superb, and incredibly well implemented, and taking
video and pictures is very neatly
implemented - just tap the touchpad or lift your head to wake up
Glass, say ‘take a picture’ and the
task is complete. There’s a lot of
debate over whether using Glass
in a car will be safe, but directions show Glass at its best, with
unobtrusive information that’s
just there when you need it. Now,
many people could debate on the
efficacy of this science by calling it
superfluous or unnecessary. There
are driving, walking and cycling
directions built in apps too to assist you. The best use for Glass,
You don’t have to pull your Smartphone out of your pocket when
The key to Glass is that
it’s always there, ready
to go - and always
keeping you up to date.
you’re walking around somewhere
unfamiliar. All you do is ask Glass
for directions, and it updates the
display for you.
Google Now is the key to Glass
from Google’s point of view, Now
integration brings information
you’ve searched for elsewhere
to Glass - for instance, look up a
restaurant on your PC before you
leave, and it’ll be in Glass as you
leave, complete with traffic delays
and the option to get directions.
Google Glass: Camera
The first thing you’ll do with Glass
is, without doubt, take a picture.
The 5MP unit is surprisingly capable of recording 720p video. While
using the camera, there’s no warning to anyone around you that
you’re doing so, no red light, no
audible click. That seems like a potential privacy concern, and very
different from the situation that
has pertained ever since mobile
phones became camera phones.
The best use for Glass, You don’t
have to pull your Smartphone out
of your pocket whenever you wish
to click, saving yourself from all
related objections. All you do is
ask Glass for snapshots, and it updates the gallery for you.
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Say ‘take a picture’ to take a picture
Google Glass: Apps
The current apps are very limited,
and are really little more than a
proof of concept for the technology, but that is set to change quickly
now developers have them. Most
of the apps available are Google’s
own, with email and text support, along with Google’s search
and Google+ and Google Hangouts. There are also Twitter,Path,
New York Times, CNN, Evernote
and Tumblr apps, although all are
very basic, but do allow you to easily share information. The Google
product-Android enjoys one of
the biggest apps market among
its competitors, perhaps one reason it sits as a king in the market.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll need an Android phone to get the most out
of Glass, and setup is easy - just
download the MyGlass app, and
tell it what your Wi-Fi network
is and what apps you want to use
from a (currently very small) list.
Even share what you see live
Google’s speech recognition is
so good. Getting your email or a
tweet mentioning you popping
up becomes part of life, and being able to reply by voice instantly
really means you’re never out of
touch, and means you communicate in an entirely new and fascinating way. Imagine you just have
to speak your brain out and by the
time you finish, it’s already onto
your screen. Isn’t it fascinating!!!
privacy more than the average
Smartphone. On the other hand,
being welcomed with mixed critics, this advancement has not
been able to please everyone and
the ethical discussions surrounding the Google Glass are set to
continue.
Firstly, one of the slightly annoying things about the design, however, is that you really do have to
wear Glass all the time if you deGoogle Glass: Privacy
cide to go out with it - there’s no
way to fold it up and store it. There
There are obvious privacy con- is a carrying bag which protects it,
cerns, and people do seem to be but it’s not small.
uncomfortable when they realise
you’re wearing Glass. However, Secondly, correction lenses users
many people, ourselves included, are the worst hit while the frames
believe the usefulness (or poten- do not currently have lenses fittial usefulness, at least) does out- ted to them. Some criticised that
weigh the issues. Besides, Google they looked quite foolish wearing
Glass doesn’t really infringe on a glass without a pair of lenses
fitted in them. Although Google
is considering partnerships with
sunglass retailers such as Ray-Ban
or Warby Parker, and may open
Google Glass: Text
retail stores to allow customers to
messaging
try on the device, but this is first
point against it. Google has conSeeing texts pop up is a bit of a
firmed that Glass will eventually
shock at first, but soon becomes
work with frames and lenses that
incredibly useful, particularly as
match the wearer’s prescription;
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lifestyle accessory rumoured to be
named as iWatch. Cook hinted:
“As I said before, for something to
work here [pointing at his wrist],
you first have to convince people
it’s so incredible that they want to
wear it.” That’s Apple’s challenge,
and likely where the company’s response to Google Glass will arrive.
the glasses will be modular and droid, TV, taxes, and just about
therefore possibly attachable to everything else at a conference.
normal prescription glasses.
But he also spent a considerable
amount of time on Google Glass.
In terms of rival products, Glass First, though, Cook damned bitreally is the trailblazer in the ter Apple rival Google with faint
wearables market, and while there praise, saying Google Glass —
are a few adventure sports goggles which could be seen as a “giant
that offer augmented reality dis- chisel” to pry Apple users out of
plays, there really is no competi- Apple’s ecosystem — had little
tion for Glass at the moment. Of chance to be a major consumer
course, with something as high hit product “I think the likelihood
profile as Google Glass, every ma- that it has a broad-range appeal …
jor company has been linked with that’s tough to see.”And that’s simbuilding a competitor. Apple and ply due to where you wear Google
Microsoft are Google’s most obvi- Glass, according to Cook: on your
ous rivals - and both are rumoured head. “I wear glasses because I
to be working on their own equiv- have to — I can’t see without them
alents. Sony has gone so far as to – but I don’t know a lot of people
patent a Glass-alike offering Vuzix that wear them that don’t have to,”
, Oakley and Baidu are other num- Cook said. “People who do wear
bered among the potential Glass them generally want them to be
rivals, and they won’t be the last. light, unobtrusive, probably want
Interestingly, Google might al- them to reflect their fashion, their
ready be considering its own suc- style … from a mainstream point
cessor to Glass if this patent is to of view this [pointing at his head]
be believed. The patented design is difficult. In fact, Apple sees it as
looks more like regular glasses, the next evolution in the post-PC
following the style of Google’s po- world — as game-changing as the
tential competitors.
Smartphone or the tablet: “I see it
as another very key branch of the
Now have a look at a recorded re- tree.” That’s as candid an admisview of an eminent personality- sion as you’re going to get that ApApple CEO Tim Cook. He was ple is working on wearables too,
found talking about Apple, An- and likely on a wrist-based digital
www.csinsit.org
The latest technology offering
from Google has succeeded in
gaining attention of the important tech bloggers in the business
and received a glowing review as
well. The elite of the tech world
have decided that Google Glass is
the future. It’s not even the nearfuture, rather a leap into a ultramodern lifestyle. It has provided a
new perspective at how social the
gadget are put to use, compared
with a mobile. This shift from
making users stare at adverts all
day, to utilising and monetising
the way in which online services
are used by people, could be significant in the online space as a
whole. By now everyone will definitely agree with me -“Hail Glass”!
The elite of the tech
world have decided
that Google Glass is
the future.
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internet”- probably the only sane
thing about this is ‘Google’. Yes,
the ‘almighty’ Google.
“The idea may sound a bit crazy and that’s part of the reason we’re
calling it Project Loon - but there’s
solid science behind it”- it’s hard
not to believe Google.
“Project loon” is crazy, but it’s so
crazy that it just might work.
The Technology
Courtesy: http://www.google.com/loon
project loon
The world stared in awe as Google announced its project to bring
Internet to forgotten corners of
Globe. Google’s super-secretive
but super-cool Google X labs have
designed some amazing things
so far, such as Google Glass and
the self-driving cars from Google. But Project loon is something
that even the ardent of Google
supporters did not see coming.
Through this project, Google aims
to bridge the gap between internet
haves and have-nots through ‘Balloons’’ floating in stratosphere.
Movement:
become the most popular in the
world.
“Project Loon”- Google couldn’t
have chosen a more lunatic name
for this project.Google has a truly
sky-high idea for connecting billions of people to the internet - 19
kilometres in the air to be exact through giant helium balloons circling the globe that are equipped
to beam Wi-Fi signals down below. Technicians can control the
movement of a balloon by shifting
them up or down on different air
currents. A machine on the balloon allows air in and out, controlling altitude. Users have a special
Invoking mixed reactions from antenna, which will connect to
critics and supporters alike, some the internet of any balloon flying
described it as ‘too ambitious to overhead.
float’ while some competitors
chose to keep fingers closed se- Google calculates that each balcretly hoping it won’t work.
loon could provide Internet access
to an area twice the size of New
And then there are those who York City - about 1,250 square
did not like the idea of Google kilometres.
controlling their Internet amid
intensifying debates of Internet Google has always been innovaprivacy. Already, the company has tive and ambitious in its projects,
the leading web search, email ser- but this time around it might have
vice and internet video site, while gone too far. “Internet connectiviits Android mobile software has ty through balloons floating in the
Project Loon balloons travel
around 20 km above the Earth’s
surface in the stratosphere. Winds
in the stratosphere are generally steady and slow-moving at
between 5 and 20 mph, and each
layer of wind varies in direction
and magnitude. Project Loon uses
software algorithms to determine
where its balloons need to go then
moves each one into a layer of
wind blowing in the right direction. By moving with the wind,
the balloons can be arranged to
form one large communications
network.
The high-altitude balloons fly
around the world on the prevailing winds (mostly in a direction
parallel with lines of latitude, i.e.
east or west). Solar panels about
the size of a card table that are
just below the free-flying balloons
generate enough electricity in four
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11
hours to power the transmitter
for a day and beam down the Internet signal to ground stations.
These stations are spaced about
100 km (62 mi) apart and bounce
the signal to other relay balloons
that send the signal back down.
This makes Internet access available to anyone in the world who has
a receiver and is within range to a
balloon. Currently, the balloons
communicate using unlicensed
2.4 and 5.8 GHz ISM bands,[9]
and Google claims that the setup
allows it to deliver “speeds comparable to 3G” to users. It is unclear
how well technologies that rely on
short communications times or
pings, such as VoIP, will work given that the signal may have to relay through multiple balloons before reaching the wider Internet.
Envelope:
ever a balloon is ready to be taken
out of service.
Solar Panels:
Each unit’s electronics are powered by an array of solar panels
that sits between the envelope
and the hardware. In full sun,
these panels produce 100 Watts
of power - enough to keep the unit
running while also charging a battery for use at night. By moving
with the wind and charging in the
sun, Project Loon is able to power
itself using only renewable energy
sources.
There are some obvious kinks and
flaws that come with the idea.
Wind being the biggest. The project’s lead developer thinks he can
solve this issue with something he
refers to as “variable buoyancy”.
Equipment:
His idea is to steer the balloons by
tweaking altitude to get wind curA small box containing the bal- rents blowing in the right direcloon’s electronic equipment hangs tion.
underneath the inflated envelope,
like the basket that is carried by a Loon relies on some beautiful
hot air balloon. This box contains reasoning “Winds in the stratocircuit boards that control the sys- sphere are generally steady and
tem, radio antennas to communi- slow-moving at between 5 and 20
cate with other balloons and with mph, and each layer of wind varInternet antennas on the ground, ies in direction and magnitude
and batteries to store solar power (see above). Project Loon uses
so the balloons can operate during software algorithms to determine
the night.
where its balloons need to go, and
then moves each one into a layer
of wind blowing in the right direction. By moving with the wind,
the balloons can be arranged to
form one large communications
network.”
Project Loon’s balloon envelopes
are made by Raven Aerostar and
are composed of polyethylene
plastic about 3 mil or 0.076 mm
(0.0030 in) The balloons are super pressure balloons filled with
helium, and stand 15 m (49 ft.)
across and 12 m (39 ft.) tall when
fully inflated. They are specially
constructed for use in super pressure balloons, which are longerlasting than weather balloons because they can withstand higher
pressure from the air inside when
the balloons reach float altitude.
A parachute attached to the top Connection:
of the envelope allows for a controlled descent and landing when- Each balloon can provide connecwww.csinsit.org
tivity to a ground area about 40
km in diameter at speeds comparable to 3G. For balloon-toballoon and balloon-to-ground
communications, the balloons use
antennas equipped with specialized radio frequency technology.
Project Loon currently uses ISM
bands (specifically 2.4 and 5.8
GHz bands) that are available for
anyone to use.
From the project announcement:
“We believe that it might actually
be possible to build a ring of bal-
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loons, flying around the globe on
the stratospheric winds that provide Internet access to the earth
below. It’s very early days, but
we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial
planes, to beam Internet access
to the ground at speeds similar to
today’s 3G networks or faster. As
a result, we hope balloons could
become an option for connecting
rural, remote, and underserved
areas and for helping with communications after natural disasters.”
they have lifted the stock price,
but Google is an ad company and
autos and Glass will not add to
that revenue stream.
become a global broadcasting network .With this project, Google
would have enough muscle to replace the existing TV model with
content being developed to be
For every person on this planet aired on TV. With hi speed- free
that can get online, two cant. internet, Is there a room or more
That’s about 5 million people with- importantly a need for the archaic
out the internet. What Loon does, model of channels and scheduled
and it will, is getting more people programming?
online with better connectivity.
Add to that the population rise in What Project Loon means
coming years, and Google Search to World:
will expand like never before.
According to Google, for 2 out of
That’s about thrice the traffic for every 3 people on Earth, “a fast,
Gmail and YouTube and thrice the affordable Internet connection is
As Richard Bennett, a fellow with revenue.
still out of reach.” Project Loon is
the non-profit Information Techan early, inspiring attempt to denology and Innovation Foundaliver reliable connectivity to those
tion, told the Associated Press, cell If Project Loon becomes areas where it does not exist or is
phone towers and smartphones
prohibitively expensive.
a
success,
Google
will
are already quickly bridging that
divide in developing countries. become the undisputed It means accessibility of infor“I’m really glad that Google is king of Internet.
mation to the not so reachable
doing this kind of speculative recorners of the planet.Everything
search,” he said. “But it remains to
would just be a click away, espebe seen how practical any of these
cially in remote areas.
things are.
If Project Loon becomes a success,
Google will become the undisput- Google also mentions the ability to
Google has a way of surprising ed king of Internet. Right now it deliver communications using its
people with both the scope of controls the most popular e-mail balloons following natural disastheir vision and its willingness to service, the most used video site, ters. Disasters such as Hurricane
push it into reality. It reflected in the most popular OS in mobile de- Sandy, which devastated Haiti last
Glass and Driverless cars, but with vices and of course , ‘The Google year before striking the U.S. East
Loon, Google has just taken the Search’ .Add to that the worldwide Coast, can cripple a region’s comlegacy to another level.
used Internet Connection and you munications infrastructure for an
have got a superpower, the ulti- extended period. Loon could poProject loon is crazy, but it is this mate authority and Alexander’s tentially serve as a helpful backup
madness that might propel the dream of conquering the world grid.Because of natural disasters
balloons.
comes to reality.
every year like earthquake, floods
and sometimes Tsunami, all the
What Project Loon means And it simply doesn’t end here. Communication mediums are lost
to Google:
We’re talking about Google be- as Mobile towers or the Internet
coming a global ISP, actually pro- service providers get damaged
Although Google has its “way-out” viding or selling internet service. and it takes a long time to restore
projects like Driverless Cars and That kind of service might replace everything back. But with this
Google Glass, those projects are the traditional mobile connec- Loon Technology we will be really
adding nothing to the business. tions and Internet calling would able to connect and communicate
They create great press and clearly become a norm. YouTube would to such deserted areas and provide
“
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the relief and support to these areas.
With that potential information
boom, Loon has the ability to become a school in its own right.
Right now providing high speed
internet to remote areas is tedious
due to a lot of digging operations
required to lay down the cables
.With Loon around the corner,
Virtual Schools can be set-up in
the not so fortunate parts of the
world and Video lectures can be
used to a very good extent.
Loon can also help implement
telemedicine, where a doctor can
consult you in real time with the
help of a high speed internet connection.
Concerns:
Ever since Google announced this
“out of the box” project, there
have been doubts over its usability and function. One major concern is the lack of Electricity in
most remote areas. Without electricity and consequently the electronic devices to catch the internet, Loon will be reduced a group
of expensive balloons.
But the biggest challenge to this
project lies not in the technological implications, but the political
issues. It may be used for surveillance same as satellites are being
used as it has nearer approach it
will be most likely affected by the
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security concerns of the people’s vince hundreds of different reguprivacy.
lators to agree on a unified band
or ride over an existing one – such
If the Balloons are drifting as the unlicensed airwaves used
around, Can somebody introduce for Wi-Fi. But the scope and range
their own balloons in the sky or of Google’s Loon network will
use these Balloons for keeping likely require dedicated airwaves.
surveillance on the rival country?
Bill Gates also isn’t very keen on
One other wrinkle that could crop the ideaup is foreign governments’ suspicions of the network in the wake “When you’re dying of malaria, I
of the Snowden leaks. Recon Ana- suppose you’ll look up and see that
lytics analyst Roger Entner said balloon, and I’m not sure how it’ll
foreign governments may want help you. When a kid gets diarrhoea,
access to the network to be sure no, there’s no website that relieves
it is not used for espionage. “That that” Gates told Business Week,
will be very interesting, how the in an interview about the work of
American government can allevi- the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundaate the fears of foreign govern- tion.
ments that basically their data is
safe,” he said.
Google has expanded field testing
for its Project Loon beyond New
Also, the same network infra- Zealand and into California’s Censtructure floating over the U.S. tral Valley, which is about a twomight make its way above Mid- hour drive from the company’s
dle Eastern countries with which headquarters in Mountain View,
the U.S. isn’t exactly on the best Calif.
terms. True, the internet should
transcend international bounda- The company late last month
ries, and it does more to help in- launched a small, test version of its
ternational relations than it does low-cost, high-altitude balloons
harm. But not every world leader at a rural California airfield used
will see that way.
mainly by crop-dusting planes.
The launch was part of a series of
Since Loon will use radios, it will Project Loon tests planned in the
have to use spectrum, which is area, reported the San Jose Mertightly regulated by the world’s cury News.
governments.It will have to conDespite all its technical flaws and
political issues, Project Loon has
what it takes to be the next big
thing. This is something that has
the potential to turn our lives upside down and, looking at the present scheme of things, it will only
do well.
14
TECH TRENDS
The all-new Intel
4th Gen. Processors
Intel proudly announces the launch of 4th Gen. Intel Core processors that deliver everything you need to enjoy from a stunning and seamless graphic experience to interacting with pictures and media on your system. Processor integration and manufacturing
take huge leaps forward in the latest Intel® microarchitecture (codename Haswell). As
the first new microarchitecture on the 22nm manufacturing process, this new platform
delivers significant performance advancements—including vastly improved graphics,
battery life, wireless display, touch friendly and security—for a 0% compromise computing experience. So get ready to experience the techno-wonderful world of 100%
performance 200% fun processors!
AUTHOR
Garvit Jain, COE, 2nd Year
George Alexander Louis, the new royal heir in line
and 4th generation of presently ruling her majestyQueen Elizabeth, has set the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge in delight. He has seen the entire country contract ‘Royal fever’, with millions remaining
glued to their television screens, eagerly awaiting
news of the infant. A lot of celebrations and warm
wishes are floating in air to make his arrival memo-
rable and wish him brighter days ahead. So I wonder how machines would celebrate the arrival of
4th generation of Intel processors into this world.
Are they satisfied with the smaller in size bigger in
performance feature? Do they also want a processor
that can not only rock the latest game but also rip
through your media? The 4th gen Intel Core processors deliver everything you need to enjoy a stunning
and seamless graphic experience when viewing and
interacting with pictures and media on your system.
Talking about the “revolutionary thing” associated
with 4th generation of Intel Processors, the company had indeed worked remarkably to bring this
futuristic technology into existence. For the past
20 years we have been constrained on what design
flexibilities we have with mobile computing, largely
driven because the wattage of the processor. It has
to sit under the computer and a function of that was
because of its clamshell orientation. But clearly over
part few years a global trend has emerged towards
tablet usage which has set an example of low wattage
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16
there are a handful of reasons why
Haswell is Intel’s best-ever architecture. As seen in the diagram
below, the Unified Reservation
Station (task scheduling) has had
two ports added; one to improve
integer performance, the other
for improved store address calculation. In addition, the L2 TLB
has been increased in size, and
tion for multiple form factors.
wide vector units have had their
bandwidth doubled. VirtualizaArchitecture: All 4th-gen Core tion latencies have been reduced
processors are built on a 22nm as well. The overarching goal with
process, remarkably smaller than these improvements is to increase
32 nm structure of Ivy Bridge, the overall operation-per-clock cyutilize 3D tri-gate transistors and cle – ideally, that should be double
work in the LGA1150 socket. Out- what it was on Sandy Bridge for
side of IGPs and TDPs, the trio of some operations. A new CPU isn’t
i7-4770 models are identical to a new CPU without a new instructheir i7-3770 predecessors. Inter- tion set or two, and Haswell has
estingly, despite the power-related got us covered. AVX2 has been
overhauling Intel has done with added to the mix, which enables
Haswell, the K and non-K models support for 256-bit integer vecare 7W higher. Intel might have tors, and FMA3 (fused multiply
made a lot of changes to the Has- add) support has also been added.
well architecture over Ivy Bridge, Any media-related workload that
but the general function layout re- supports either of these two inmains identical: Haswell’s Archi- structions should see a great performance improvement.
devices for the inquisitive brains
at Intel. The 4th generation core
believes in how low we can drive
the power of these devices, how
we can begin to move that processor behind the screen and really
create a true 2-in-1 experience of
the best of the notebook and the
best of the tablet in one. With its
capabilities build on the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ (Ivy Bridge)
processor graphics, this introductory article provides a glimpse
into the 4th gen processor, with
an overview of highlights like
the Intel® Iris™ graphics, performance enhancements, low power
options, face recognition capabilities, and more. The new processor
builds on the processor graphics
architecture first introduced in
2nd gen Intel® Core™ processors.
While they were built with the 32
nm manufacturing process, both
3rd and 4th generation processors
are based on the 22 nm technology. The following paragraphs describe the key new features of the tectural Layout As with the prelatest release-.
vious couple of generations, Intel
packs graphics, a memory controlSoC: The 4th gen Intel® Core™ pro- ler and PCIe lanes into the CPU,
cessor is the first ever SoC for a PC. which negates the need for an enSystem on Chip, or SoC, integrates tirely separate chip on the mothall the major building blocks for a erboard. The biggest 4th-gen Core
system onto a single chip. With models include 8MB of L3 cache,
CPU, Graphics, Memory, and con- while the middle-of-the-road i5′s
nectivity in one package, this in- include 6MB (i3′s include 4MB;
novative modular design provides Pentiums, 3MB).
the flexibility to package a compelling processor graphics solu- Efficiency: Regarding efficiency,
Superior Graphics: As these devices become 2-in-1 enabled and
incorporate the best of a notebook and a tablet, the user experience is definitely set to be a
“WOW”. When you run a video
on 4th Gen Core it will remove as
much of that shake and shudder
without the user doing anything,
which is otherwise a pain. And for
Intel® Core™ i7 processors, Intel®
Hyper-Threading Technology4 allows each processor core to work
on two tasks at the same time, improving multitasking, speeding up
the workflow, and accomplishing
more in less time. With 4th gen
Intel® Core™ processors, you can
boot your PC, load applications,
CSI NSIT
17
and resume from sleep faster
thanks to Intel’s responsiveness
technologies such as Intel® Smart
Response Technology,5 and Intel® Rapid Start Technology. Intel
Iris Graphics allows you to play
the most graphic intensive games
without the need for an additional
graphics card. The graphics performance on the 4th gen processor
nearly doubles the performance
relative to the previous generation of Intel® HD Graphics. Additionally, the Intel Iris Pro Graphics
with integrated eDRAM provides
close to double the performance
of the 3rd generation HD graphics GPUs on Ultrabook™ devices.
Both GPUs operate at higher than
28W Thermal Design Power (TDP)
compared to the 17W TDP of 3rd
generation graphics making them
more suited for high performance
operations on Desktop/AIO/Laptop form factors .Intel Iris Graphics also support Direct3D* 11.1,
OpenGL* 4.1 and OpenCL* 1.2,
Intel Quick Sync Video encoding
engine, Intel® AVX 2.0, and DirectX Extensions.
Longer battery life: Haswell’s power system has been overhauled to
keep power usage low at home and
battery-life long while on the go.
The bulk of the power improvements have FIVR to thank, or Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator.
www.csinsit.org
As its name suggests, this is a voltage regulator built right into the
CPU – a rather significant change.
With a VRM built-in, efficiency
is of course improved, with Intel
gaining even finer control on how
power is distributed throughout
the chip. The greatest advantage
to these changes, and the addition
of two new power states, is mobile. Intel claims that Haswell has
delivered the greatest increase in
battery -life it’s ever accomplished
“
when in standby. Clearly, these
are some noteworthy gains. You
can’t have a brand-new CPU architecture without brand-new
chipsets, so to fill the void is Z87,
H87, H81, Q87, Q85 and *catches
breath* B85. The contents of the
flagship Z87 chipset can be seen
in this diagram:
Wireless display: With 4th Gen
Core we can also project the wireless display screen to your home
TV with much better latency. The
communication happening beWith 4th gen Intel®
tween a TV and a 4th Gen Core
Core™ processors,
device is that much better. With
you can boot your PC, latest tech gizmos like Google
Glass, Apple iWatch entering the
load applications, and market, this seems a valid feature.
It also enables much better online
resume from sleep
gaming thanks to very good lafaster
tency between the device and the
screen, which allows very interacfrom one generation to the next. tive type of gaming experiences.
The 4th gen processor provides up The 4th gen Intel Core processor
to 9.1 hours of HD video viewing connects family automatically to
compared to 6 hours on the 3rd wireless hotspots. Your e-mail,
gen one. The latest processor also social media, and apps are always
provides 10-13 days of standby updated thanks to Intel® Smart
power (with refreshed email and Connect Technology. Finally;
social media notifications) com- wirelessly stream your HD / 3-D
pared to 4.5 days of standby pow- video and games to your TV or
er on 3rd generation processors.
projector for presentations and
entertainment using Intel® WireIn some cases, battery-life could less Display Technology.
be improved by as much as 50%
when in use, and 250% longer Increased Security: The 4th gen
18
for more complex multimedia
applications
and immersive gaming.
Whether you are looking for improved performance, greater adaptability, or differentiated
visual features, Intel has
the processor to fit your
needs. If you are using your PC
for creativity, playing games, or
everyday tasks such as homework
and e-mail, these new processors
make it easier to design, render,
edit, play, and share. Intel Core
processors feature Intel® Turbo
Boost Technology4 2.0, which delivers a burst of processor speed
automatically when the workload
demands additional performance.
Intel Core processor family offers
hardware-level security that helps
protect your devices, your data,
and your online transactions. Ultrabook systems with 4th gen
processors come with enhanced
security features like Intel® Platform Trust Technology, Intel® Insider, and Intel® Anti-Theft technology (iii). The processors also
feature Intel® Identity Protection
Technology (IV), which provides
identity protection and fraud deterrence.
Intel Iris Graphics Extensions to
DirectX API: An added feature
Touch enabled: Every Ultrabook with 4th generation processor
that would be build with 4th Gen graphics is the API set for DirectX
Core will be touch enabled, it will extensions. Two APIs are available
have the full hardware structure that provide for pixel synchronito support full voice control. With zation and instant access. Pixel
Microsoft launching Windows 8 synchronization lets you effecwith touch support the very last tively read/modify/write per-pixel
year, this feature comes as a full data, which makes the tasks of
bonus to a windows user. I believe
with this we are straight heading
towards a kind of new capabilities like full gesture control of the
device. Bygone are the days of
touch, keyboard and mouse which
could not be the best way to interact with the content. Intel also
proposes to invest in 3D camera
technologies that will embed into
the device to support really native
gesture interaction.
programmable blending and order
independent transparency (OIT)
more efficient. Instant access lets
both CPU and GPU access the
same memory for mapping and
rendering. These APIs work on DirectX 11 and above.
Optimize apps with sensors: 4th
generation processor-based platforms come with several sensors:
GPS, Compass, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, and Ambient Light.
These sensor recommendations
are aligned with the Microsoft
standard for Windows 8. Use the
Windows sensor APIs and your
code will run on all Ultrabook and
tablet systems running Windows
8.
Better screen resolution: 4th Gen
Core supports the 4K based definition content – the most beautiful
definition screens on the planet.
Minus point: With Haswell, Intel
continues to let Sandy Bridge-E
(2nd-gen Core) have the exclusive
benefit of being able to offer 2x
x16 PCIe lanes when using two
Unlocking the Full Potential: The
latest Intel Core processors enable
system tuning for the processor
cores, memory, and power and
adjust these settings to provide
extra performance and flexibility
CSI NSIT
19
graphics cards in SLI or CrossFire.
Admittedly, this is going to potentially affect only the highest-end
of graphics configurations – unless you’re running a $1,000+ configuration, you’re likely safe. PCIe
3.0 offers a ton of bandwidth, after all. In addition to those PCIe
lanes driven by the CPU; the Z87
chipset adds support for 8x x1.
Other functionality includes 6x
USB 3.0, 14x USB 2.0, Gigabit
Ethernet, Intel Audio and support
for up to DDR3- 1600 (faster RAM
can of course be used).As has become somewhat of an unfortunate trend, Intel differentiates its
CPU line-up in ways that are very
easy to overlook. You’d imagine,
for example, that the highest-end
Core i7-4770K wouldn’t lack a single feature – but it does. As seen
in the CPU comparison below, we
can see it lacks vPro Technology,
VT-d (an I/O virtualization accelwww.csinsit.org
erator) and also TSX-NI support
– aka: transactional memory. According to Intel, the reason the K
models lack some of these feature
is because that’s not their target audience. You’d also imagine,
though, that a lot of people purchasing a non-K or non-S wouldn’t
have much interest in something
like VT-d, so it seems likely that
there’s more at play here. The fortunate thing in all of this is that
those lacking features are going to
affect a small number of people,
but you could be one of them, so
it’s worth noting.
video about 20 times faster than
a similar four-year old computer.”
Intel South Asia Managing Director (Sales and Marketing Group)
Debjani Ghosh commented. The
market is abuzz with this revolutionary technology hitting the
market and has already allured
major manufacturers like Dell,
Acer, HP, Lenovo and so on to start
incorporating them into their devices right away. I think it’s safe
to say that overall, Intel brings a
lot to the table with Haswell. Performance aside, it’s simply an impressive architecture to behold,
with a large number of benefits
“This is the largest generation- for all-around computing. As enover-generation gain in the com- thusiasts, though, we tend to care
pany’s history; and the 4th gener- about performance gains even if
ation processor enables every day they’re not supposed to be huge.
computing to be about two times So when Intel brings a lot togethfaster. It helps systems wake up er, the magic happens and certainaround eight times faster, and al- ly what we are definitely going to
lows users to edit and share HD witness is – let’s go do wonderful.
REVIEWED
PS 4 vs. Xbox One
With the imminent releases of the two next gen consoles, PS4 and Xbox One, we do a
head to head showdown. Last time around in the console wars, PS3 vs. Xbox 360, we
came to see that they were both able to co-exist and both the consoles were able to
rope in huge profits for their parent companies. Here we’ll put these consoles through
their paces, inspect various aspects of them and come to a conclusion and decide if
one could actually hold the throne this time.
AUTHORS
Daksh Sharma, ICE, 2nd Year
a bulky VCR straight from the 90s, while the PS4 is
reminiscent of the PS2 slim, albeit not as slim (Heck,
not even close). Now, mind you, design is something
which is totally subjective and as the old saying,
beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, same is the
case here, you are the ultimate authority on how you
like the design.
Verdict: Tie.
Internals and HardwarE specs:
Design:
Both these consoles have got a very peculiar look
to them. The moment you set your eyes on them,
you’ll associate them to something you’ve already
seen before. In the case of Xbox One, it looks like
Unlike the last generation’s radical differences in
the internals, these two are made up of a similar
DNA. They both use AMD’s x86 octa-core solutions;
though both manufacturers have modded the CPU’s
according to their likings. Both use AMD’s graphic
cards to push the pixels. Numbers favour the PS4 on
this one; however, you would be hard-pressed to notice much difference in real life.
Verdict: PS4 (Narrow victory)
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Games:
ter than PS3’s controller, which
was terrible when compared to
Games! Games! Who doesn’t love Xbox 360’s controller. PS4’s conthis word? Let’s see which console troller also has a touchpad placed
offers a better gaming library at at the center which would provide
the start.
game developers with opportunity to extract some extra funcBoth consoles have some big tionality out of the controller. We
names to boast when it comes to are yet to see how much they can
exclusives. Microsoft has Halo, build up on it.
Forza 5, Quantum Leap (A TV
Crossover), Dead Rising up its Verdict: Tie. (PS4 wins in funcsleeve where as Sony has biggies tionality while Xbox One wins
like Killzone Shadow Fall, Infa- in comfort)
mous Second Son, Final Fantasy
XIV in its arsenal.
Price:
Both consoles will of course get all
the cross platform games like Call
of Duty, Fifa, Assassins creed etc.
So, it all really boils down to what
kind of games do you prefer and
what have you been following on
older consoles.
Verdict: Tie.
Controller:
Not much has changed in the basic
controller layout this time. Xbox
one’s controller is even better than
the extremely comfortable Xbox
360 controller whereas the PS4’s
controller is leaps and bounds bet-
Currently there isn’t much information about the India launches
of these consoles; however we can
get a rough idea from their prices
abroad. PS4 would cost $400 at
launch whereas the Xbox One
would cost $500. If you take the
absolute cost in to consideration
then you might feel that the PS4 is
20% cheaper than Xbox One however, make note that the Xbox one
has Kinect bundled along with it
however there is no PS Eye ($69)
bundled along with the PS4. That
makes the verdict a bit more complicated than a straight out victory for PS4.
Verdict: PS4. (If you’re a fan of
motion gaming the $100 difference can be justified. Else,
PS4!)
Other Differences
Xbox One’s keynote presented it
as an all in one box to control your
living room. Features like voice
commands, switching directly to
television and back etc. backed the
claims up. PS4’s keynote, however, was totally focused on gaming.
More focus was laid on showing
off gameplay trailers and launch
games. This marks a clear cut difference in their approaches. Xbox
here is targeting more of the casual audience who are also looking
to consume some media off the
Internet, whereas PS4 lays its focus primarily on gaming and then
other stuff. Not that it makes any
of them worse; it makes the choice
easier for the consumers.
Verdict: For media, Xbox One.
Overall Winner: PS4
PS4 won 2 out of 5 battles whereas Xbox One managed 1. They
both had 3 closely fought ties.
Objectively it might seem that
CSI NSIT
23
this is landslide victory however
it depends on you to choose which
factor matters more to you. For
example, if you have truckloads
of money, Price aspect becomes
moot; if you just want to game
then Media aspect becomes moot.
Also, one very important factor is
– Which one does your peer group
own? This is important because
we don’t have cross platform multiplayer gaming yet, so, it might
get a bit frustrating for you if all
of your friends are playing against
each other while you’re sulking
over your finished single player
campaign.
The decision boils down to your
priorities, though, know that you
can’t go wrong with either one.
Cheers and Happy Gaming folks!
www.csinsit.org
\\ Hello world
Start fresh.
24
PROGRAMMING
Python vs. C++
Which language to
begin with?
It’s a war of speed and popularity vs. uncomparable ease and potential. Get ready to
feel the heat as we pit the two biggies of programming languages – C++ and Python
against each other, in this issue of Bits ‘n’ Bytes. While C++ has a worldwide fan base
ranging from high school students to professional developers, Python is still unknown
to many. Knowing all this, CBSE has still introduced this language to our higher secondary syllabus and plans to make it compulsory by the next few years. Before you all
start criticising it, spend a few minutes to read on and I’m sure you will get your answer.
AUTHOR
Ayush Jain, COE, 2nd Year
All readers must be aware of the
new changes in the computer
science syllabus introduced by
CBSE for classes XI and XII. For
those who are not, CBSE has allowed students to choose either
C++ or Python as the language
to code various problems in
their computer science curriculum. Accordingly, the Class XII
batch of session 2014-15 and
onwards will write their board
exam based on the language selected in their class
XI, C++ or Python. The decision was made in May ’13
and has since put the teachers, students and parents
in a great fix, basically, which language to choose?
Looking at one of the headlines of a leading national
daily, one realises the weight of the matter.
“Parents worry as Python
enters
CBSE
schools.”
– The Hindu
Seen as a step in the right direction by software activists and in
line with the global trends, the
change hasn’t been welcomed
by schools and parents. The new
language as perceived by School
heads poses a threat due to
dearth of teachers knowing the
subject, or for that matter training the existing ones. This is
what the Principal of a Chennai
school has to say – “Our faculty don’t know anything
about the new language. The board should have informed us at least a year in advance”. Schools all over
the country had similar woes, with the decision coming all of a sudden; they have found themselves helpless with no choice but to resort to taking up C++
over Python.
25
26
C++ needs no introduction, so
let’s get to know our competitor
a little better. Python is a general purpose, high-level programming, and finding extensive use
as a scripting language. It was
designed by Guido van Rossum
(aka BDFL – Benevolent Director
for Life, a title given to him by the
Python community).The language
design focuses on code readability
and allows programmers to implement similar tasks in fewer lines
of code. Programs written in Python are typically much shorter
than equivalent C, C++, or Java
programs, (as a matter of fact 3-5
times shorter than an equivalent
Java code and often 5-10 times
shorter than equivalent C++
code!)For several reasons:
»» The high-level data types allow
you to express complex operations in a single statement;
designed to be more extensible.
Now let’s come to the technical
part. Python, although used in
non-scripting contexts to quite
an extent, is primarily used as a
scripting language and thus incorporates many of its characteristic features. To name a few, it’s
easy to use, fast to pick-up, simple
syntax, and simple semantics. Do
we have a winner here? Anyways,
clearer programs, organised lay-
“
Programs written in
Python are typically
much shorter than
equivalent C, C++, or
Java programs
outs and lesser syntactic exceptions, overall, a highly readable
language with sparser and less
»» Statement grouping is done by cluttered grammar. Python is a
indentation instead of begin- multi-paradigm
programming
ning and ending brackets;
language, thus allowing programmers to work in a variety of styles.
»» No variable or argument dec- It fully supports OOP concepts
larations are necessary.
and structural programming resulting in a better reusability and
Rather than having all the func- maintainability of code in additionality built in its core, it was tion to an improved control flow.
“When I see a bird that walks like
a duck and swims like a duck and
quacks like a duck, I call that bird
a duck.” Don’t worry I haven’t lost
my wits, what I’m getting to is
another important aspect of programming languages i.e. the typeset. Python relies heavily on dynamic typing or Duck Typing and
hence that unexpected and rather
comical phrase by James Whitcomb Riley. Let’s try to understand what exactly was he trying
to imply. In dynamic typing one is
concerned with just those aspects
of an object that are frequently
used instead of the type of the object itself. In another words one
can identify an unknown object by
observing its habitual characteristics. The success of dynamic typing depends upon documentation,
clear code and testing, ensuring
correct usage otherwise one could
let a dragon doing a duck impersonation inside a pond.
When comparing statically typed
languages(like C++, Java, C#) with
the dynamically typed ones, one
might argue that the former one
with its stricter rules and limitations gives you more “structure”
or “safety” to do big jobs. They
would justify themselves by sayCSI NSIT
27
ing that the dynamic ones are only
good for modelling purposes and
and the programmer is totally unaware of the object he has. Statically typed languages are better
because the compiler checks that
for you. Well let me tell you that
all this is untrue.In a statically
typed language you have all kinds
of rules that try to force you into
writing something that “makes
sense”. The rules limit what you
can do and are intended to help
you avoid doing something stupid.
A piece of code which compiles
correctly may not be that “correct”
after all.
This is not about saying that dynamic typing is superior. Dynamic
and static typing are two different
paradigms that appeal to different
kinds of people, they match different ways of thinking.
Apart from those mentioned
above, Python is blessed with a
host of many other useful functionalities. Programmers, who are
even faintly acquainted with Python, would use the phrase “Batteries Included” to brag about its
huge extensive libraries. It helps
with regular expressions; document testing, unit testing, thread-
www.csinsit.org
ing, and many other system specific functionalities. All these
modules are part of the standard
Python installation. Apart from
these they are many more high
quality ones available on the internet. Moving ahead, Python, due
to its open-source nature has been
ported to many platforms such as
Linux, Windows, Macintosh, Palm
OS, Play Station, Amiga, and even
S60 Nokia Phones. Apart from
these, Python finds indispensable
use in heavy computing including
3D computing, and game development.
amateur programmer. While C++
might make students stronger
in basic coding, Python will give
them an intuitive approach to
programming.
On an ending note, don’t get
fooled by all this simplicity. Python is part of the winning formula for productivity, software
quality, and maintainability at
many companies and institutions
around the world like D-Link,
Philips, YouTube, Google, Pinterest and Instagram.
Finally, it’s not the language
If you have reached here, then you but our mindset that has to be
have probably gone through more changed. There’s no denying that
than 6 paragraphs (and I really Senior Secondary is a very crucial
appreciate that). I think you all time and accepting a new course
deserve an undiplomatic answer can be challenging but then it’s us
to this entire dilemma of which who have to support the right deone’s better. There’s no doubt that cisions.
C++ is one of the most popular
and efficient languages around
but learning C++ requires a prior
programming background and in
Finally, it’s not the
all takes much more effort than
language but our
learning its competitor Python.
mindset that has to be
Python on the other hand has the
right combination of performance
changed.
and features that makes writing programs both fun and easy,
the most essential thing for an
“
28
NEWSMAKERS
The Mayer
Merger Mania:
19 and counting…
Starting October ’12 Yahoo has been under a lot of limelight not because it somehow
had a better searching algorithm than Google but due to its recent pricey purchases
in a very hurried manner. Now by pricey we don’t mean a million or two but deals
amounting to over a billion dollars and thanks to their new CEO Yahoo found more
than 19 ways to spend the cash. The question which arises now is whether this shopping spree was justified and moreover what the company plans to do with their new
purchases apart from shutting them down.
AUTHOR
Ayush Jain, COE, 2nd Year
From Jerry and David’s guide to the World Wide to
becoming a multi-billion dollar internet giant, Yahoo has certainly come a long way. Since its incorporation in March 1995,
the company has gone
through a lot of ups and
downs from sky-high
stock prices to the 1997
dot-com bubble. Apart
from its own staggering
wealth, Yahoo has turned
many into millionaires
and billionaires thanks to
its more than 83 acquisitions in a span of 17 years.
Of the nine CEOs the company has had, the present
one has managed to pull offsomething which others could have hardly imagined.After CEO Marissa
Mayer took over the reins of the company on July
16 2012, Yahoo! has been quite active on the acquisitionfront.This buying spree or popularly known as
the ‘Mayer Merger Mania’ started with the acquisition of Stamped, an year old New York City based
start-up that built an iPhone app to let people record
and share recommendations of their favourite
things, founded by one
of Mayer’s co-worker in
Google.
There was no stopping
now, the company went
on to acquire ONtheAIR,
a mere nine month old
video chat broadcasting
app for an undisclosed
amount. Like the previous
acquisition, the motive was to pool in a team of creative talent which would join forces with Yahoo and
work in its mobile team.The team could help Yahoo
29
30
compete with Google Hangouts or
build mobile communication apps.
Under the guidance of Mayer, Yahoocontinued to flex its M&A
muscles, with a special focus on
start-ups with smart teams that
have made well-designed apps.
The next target was Snip.it, a SanFrancisco based social content curator with a vision to make news
more social. For the Snip.it team
this was a way to take their vision
to a ‘larger scale’; for the buyer
they were a team of exceptional
talent and a worthy addition to their existing “media
group”. The coming months
added two more: - Alike, a
location discovery app and
Jybe.The move, ironically
brought the five member
team of Jybe (all ex-Yahoo!)
back to the Yahoo!
What came next was rather
astonishing (even morefor
the 16 year old founder).
Well... some of you might have
guessed it by now. Yahoo purchased Summly from now 17 year
old Nick D’Aloisio for $30 million
(yes , you heard it right – 17 and
30 million).Summly is a completely redesigned version of Nick’s
earlier Trimit, developed further
with two successive aids of $300k
and $1 million and in the process
he became the youngest person to
raise venture capital in technology.Summly is an auto-summarisation app for iPhone which uses ar-
tificial intelligence and algorithms
to provide a 400 character summary of news articles. I think it’s
time to summarize this one and
move ahead.
brands, and people
feedback and analysis from their followers and bosting
of some high profile
clients like ESPN,
The Weather Channel and Netflix. The
latter one is a service
for frequent flyers helping them
to make the most out of their reward points from credit cards, hotel points and frequent flyer miles
thus justifying their tagline “travel like a genius”. It seemed that if
Yahoo had a couple more hours
that day, they would have made
full use of it because the next buy
came the very next day; a mobile
gaming startup, Loki Studios.
After Summly, came a popular, in
fact a perfect task-management
service called Astrid recognizable
by its distinctive octopus icon. It
has over 5 million downloads on
the play store with an avg. Rating
of 4.5 (no need to get excited; it’s Time to MAKE SOME NOISE!
going down on 5 August, thanks That was probably what Yahoo
had in mind before making
its next purchase. Well…
what’s a better way than a
billion dollar deal? Not that
Yahoo hasn’t done this before. After Broadcast.com
and GeoCities in 1999 and
Overture Services in 2003
came Yahoo’s third billion
dollar buy – the microblogging platform Tumblr. Yahoo acquired this excessively popular social networking
to our beloved Yahoo).The Astrid and blogging site for a jaw dropteam confirmed the acquisition ping $1.1 billion. Totally agreerecommending former competi- ing there is no need for Tumblr’s
tors Wunderlist and Sandglaz to introduction but respecting Yatheir users.
hoo’s previous buys, here we go
– the service allows users to have
After a week of rest it was time their own short-form blogs and
to go shopping for some mobile post multimedia content or foltalent: - GoPollGo and MileWise. low other user’s blogs. Much like
Not being so ‘big’ start-ups, Ya- the previous deals, the acquisition
hoo closed the deals with both of made many of the Tumblr’s users
them on the same day itself!!The unhappy; can’t say anything about
former being a real-time polling its celeb users like Lady Gaga,
tool giving businesses, companies, John Mayer and Tyler Smith. AfCSI NSIT
31
ter scoring a bull’s eye, it was time of Facebook, Youtube and Grouto go low profile.
pon.Take back your inbox with
Xobni (does it make sense to you
The company’s next purchase now?). It aims at making our incame at a time when the talks of box and address book smarter by
its previous deal were still hot in creating full profiles of our conthe tech world. Playerscale, an on- tactsof people with whom we have
line gaming platform providing exchanged mails , calls or messagback-end services to game devel- es. Ztelic is a Beijing based startup
opers having an estimated audi- which provides comprehensive
ence of 150 million. This ended social network data by using data
the company’s rather hectic and mining, natural language processcrucial month of May 2013 which ing and large scale information resaw the takeover of 6 companies. trieval.
The month of June was quite ‘cold’
but the company ‘still managed’
to pocket GhostBird Software –
the makers of KitCam and PhotoForge2 iOS photography apps,
Rondee - a free conference calling
service which unfortunately will
meet the same fate as Astrid and
others and finally Bignoggins Productions - developer of two iOS
fantasy sports apps.
Yahoo’s
acquire-everything-insight philosophy was seen in action again in July with three multi-million dollar deals- Qwiki for
$50 million, Xobni for $40 million
and Ztelic. Qwiki is an iPhone and
iPad app which creates short movies out of the pictures, videos and
other events captured by the user.
Seeing its potential it has received
investments from the co-founders
www.csinsit.org
The company’s goal of buying everything on the Internet would
take a significant period of time
to finish but fortunately we won’t
(I know you all were literally praying for this). Except for a few
like Tumblr, Summly and Xobnimost of the purchased companies
would be shut down (Yeah yeah I
know, so many people unhappy
and BLAH BLAH; as if Yahoo gives
a damn) and the founders joining
their new parent providing them
with exceptional engineering talent in varied fields. With these acquisitions Yahoo hopes to re-enter
the social marketing and mobile
segments which have seen an accelerated growth and the presence
of some really strong players.
“
NOTE: This article doesn’t provide
you with a complete list of Yahoo
acquisitions because by the time
you read it, Mayer would have
gone shopping again.
With these acquisitions
Yahoo hopes to reenter the social marketing and mobile segments which have seen
an accelerated growth
32
GAMES
The Most Anticipated
Games of 2013
(yet to be released)
2013 has been a good year for games so far. But it’s only been half a year so far and
there’s a (hopefully) better half yet to go. We at CSI have compiled a list of what we
think are some of the most anticipated games coming out in the second half of the
year. Check ‘em out!
AUTHOR
Mahesh Ram, ECE, 2nd Year
Grand Theft Auto 5 (17th September)
their gameplay trailer shows how much fun and different this experience can be. And the overall tone
of the game looks a little brighter and comical as
compared to its predecessor, with recreational activities like jet skiing, dirt biking etc. at every turn.
And then there’s this thing called Free Roaming in
GTA which I’m sure is what kept most of us busy
in our childhood. Rockstar claims that GTA 5 has a
‘map’ larger than GTA 4, GTA San Andreas and Red
Dead Redemption combined. Which is a yay (!) for
free roaming. All of this is something worth checking out.
FIFA 14 (24th September)
This might just be the biggest and most anticipated
game of 2013. You just can’t have enough of GTA.
The game takes place in Los Santos (LA, whatever)
and it promises big changes. We get to play as not
one, but three characters simultaneously. A look at
This is a game which should be on this list every
year. EA does something new and innovative with
FIFA every year. Most of the times, the changes are
good (we haven’t forgotten FIFA 10) and they help in
making the game more and more ‘real’ and challenging. One of the most played games in the world with
an extremely addictive multiplayer; FIFA remains a
33
34
Assassins Creed IV : Black Flag
testament to the fact that playing Assassins Creed IV : Black
football is equally fun even when Flag (29th October)
you’re sitting on a couch.
What happens when Desmond’s
Batman: Arkham Origins ancestors decide to go Yohoho
(25th October)
with a bottle of rum? We get the
next edition of Assassins creed.
Who could have thought a punch Gameplay in the high seas, filled
and brawl based gameplay with with pirates, this is a new direcbatman would have been suc- tion the series is taking. And the
cessful after countless failed at- protagonist looks less of a saviour
tempts by many developers. But and more of a pirate interested in
Arkham Asylum shocked us out looting people. The environment
of our wits. And then, Arkham looks so well-crafted that you can
City bought us to the edge of our almost smell the gunpowder and
seats (bean bags?). And now here rum floating around in the air.
comes the third part in the game And that’s our impression from
series by rocksteady. It’s more of a just watching a trailer. Nuff said!
prequel, featuring batman’s early
villains. And of course, how can Battlefield 4 (29th October)
batman be complete without the
clown prince of crime, the Joker. Another battlefield game so soon!
Need we say more? Ahahahahaha- This game’s announcement was
hahaa!
a surprise, considering a six year
gap between BF2 and BF3. But the
wonders BF3 did with its online
gameplay left us wanting more.
Now with Battlefield 4 around the
corner, our needs shall be fulfilled.
Even though very less is known
about the era and setting of this
game, we are sure EA and DICE
have something amazing up their
sleeves!
Call of Duty: Ghosts (5th November )
This is another game like FIFA
which should be anticipated every year. Which is supposed to be
anticipated every year. Every Call
of Duty title till date exceeded all
expectations by delivering an extremely well planned single-player and an extensive multiplayer.
And so shall this one (hopefully!).
Shooting in gameplay trailers
looks as good as ever. This is yet
another game for a FPS fanatic.
Watch Dogs (19th November)
Batman: Arkham origins
Despite what it looks like at first
glance, this game is not Grand
Theft auto. You don’t get to play
as a cop or a criminal. That doesn’t
mean this game isn’t full of crooked cops, crack dealers and murderCSI NSIT
35
ers. It is. You take them down as
Alden Pearce, tech genius. Instead
of using a smoke grenade for distraction, info bomb every phone
in a one mile radius and while everyone is going crazy over it, get the
job done. Or blackout the entire
block using a scrambler (Oceans
style!) and escape. This game is
oozing with tech- tech that will
make James Bond go whoa! This
innovative and different approach
is surely something worth trying.
play as the princess. What surprises us is who has been kidnapped if
we’re playing as the princess. Still,
it remains to be seen how good
the implementation of this multiplayer is.
Apart from these games, there are
two more games which deserve to
be on this list: Forza Motorsport
5 and Killzone-Shadow fall. The
only reason why they’re not there
is that they are Xbox One and
PS4 exclusive. However, if you are
Legend of Zelda: Link lucky enough to get your hands on
between worlds (Late No- either of these next gen consoles,
vember)
be sure to check these out as well.
The name says it all. Zelda. Nintendo always plays it well when
it comes to bringing out a Zelda
game into the market. This time
they decided to give a full 3D sequel to the super successful ‘Legend of Zelda: A link to the past’.
And there’s more. Link gets new
and awesome powers, like making
himself two dimensional whenever he wants (Yeah, we see the irony too!) and a lot more makes this
game seem interesting. Nintendo
never disappoints. We hope that
we’re still able to say this when the
game comes out.
Super Mario:
(December)
3D
World
The goofy Italian guy and his
friends are all back to rock the
world of gaming again. But apart
from the fact that it is in 3D as the
name suggests (this is a big deal as
well), there’s something entirely
new. Something no Mario game
had before. Multiplayer. Four
players can play at a time to jump
and collect coins and mushrooms
(the good ones) and crush goombas. And one of the players can
www.csinsit.org
battlefield 4
FIFA 14
Tech Trivia
Rules:
1.
Please do not use Google. It is against the spirit of quizzing.
2.
Email your answers to [email protected]
3.
Witty answers are more than welcome.
4.
Star marked questions will act as tie-breakers, just in case we have a tie.
5.
The first person with the maximum correct answers wins.
Q1. X is a legendary Video Game programmer and has been the lead programmer for many groundbreaking games. Very recently, X joined a company Y as their CTO. Y is currently developing a virtual
reality head-mounted display Z. Identify X, Y and Z. Brownie points for giving names of the games.
Q2. X, CEO of a major Internet and Search giant Y recently went on a buying spree and bought a
bunch of tech companies. Identify X, Y and give the names of any 2 companies that were bought.
Q3. X recently leaked details of mass surveillance programs by National Security Agency and British
Government. Codename for one of these programs is PRISM. He is currently taking asylum in the
country Y.
Identify X and Y.
*Q4. X runs a comic and articles website Y. X launched a fundraiser in August 2012 through Indiegogo
to raise funds to purchase the Wardenclyffe Tower. X used to play Quake a lot during his childhood
and that played a part in the naming of the site.
Q5. This term is used when a better product is trumped by an inferior one owing to better marketing
or aggressive pricing. Give an example of a betamaxed product and who betamaxed it.
Q6.
Q6. ID this guy and give his claim to fame. (Hint: The placard in the picture might help.)
*Q7. Connect: Instagram, Yelp, eBay, Quora. (List is not exhaustive.)
Q8. This is a still from the music
video of a very popular game.
ID the game and give the song
name.
Q9.
Q9. ID him and name the company
that he founded.
Q10. What is this?
Q10.
Q8.
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