Life of a Tamil in Sweden!

The skin instrument I am holding in my hands are called the Parai (Tamil:பறை) or Thappu (Tamil:தப்பு). It is one of the oldest drums said to have used in India, especially in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and also in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. It is the pride symbol of Tamil culture. In ancient days, this instrument was used as a communication mechanism to convey messages to people and alert against danger. It is believed to be the mother of all skin instruments in Tamil Nadu.

“The problem here is to balance our concerns over protecting our computer networks with personal liberty and privacy.” - TIMOTHY H. EDGAR

 No wonder Internet is a remarkable technology that has changed the world. Its impact on our daily lives like world wide web, e-mail,  e-commerce, e-banking, IP TV  etc. are magics that makes living simple. The same internet that powers many of society’s most significant scientific advancements brings with it vulnerabilities that impact every aspect of our lives, from our bodies to our bank accounts to our national security.

To blow the questions of the insecurities, we need a system where records could be stored; security is guaranteed because anyone can verify the facts.That way no one could cheat by editing the records because everyone using the system could be watching. Over the past decade, an alternative digital paradigm has slowly been taking shape at the edges of the internet. This new paradigm is the Blockchain.

“Blockchain is the early leader.. They are actually making the entire ecosystem”   -  The New York Times

Blockchains store information across the network of personal computers making them decentralised and distributed. This means no one can own the system, yet everyone can use it and help run it. This is an important aspect because its difficult for any one person to take down the network or corrupt it.

People who run the system use their computers to hold bundles of records submitted by others known as blocks in a chronological chain. The blockchain uses a form of Math called Cryptography to ensure that records cant be counterfeited or changed by anyone.

So you probably heard of blockchains first killer app called “Bitcoin” a form of digital cash that can be used to send digital money to anyone. Bitcoin is entirely different from credit cards, pay pal and other payment methods because there isn’t any bank or any financial middleman involved.

The Internet of Things (IoT), also known as the Internet of Everything (IoE), is nothing but interrelated web-enabled devices that collect, send and act on data they acquire from their surrounding environments using embedded sensors, processors and communication hardware.

These devices, often called "connected" or "smart" devices, can exchange data to other related devices via machine-to-machine(M2M) communication, and act on the information they get from one another. Humans can interact with the gadgets to set them up, give them instructions or access the data, but the devices do most of the work on their own without human intervention.

The first Internet-connected appliance was introduced in 1982 which was a modified Coke machine at Carnegie Mellon University that reported  its inventory and whether newly loaded drinks were cold. Mark Weiser's produced the first contemporary vision of IoT in a seminal 1991 paper on ubiquitous computing, "The Computer of the 21st Century”.  In 1994 Reza Raji described the concept in IEEE Spectrum as moving small packets of data to a large set of nodes, so as to integrate and automate everything from home appliances to entire factories.

One of the simplest applications of IOT is a Smart door lock. Smart door locks offer sophisticated "access control" features to any home or business. Proximity sensors like Bluetooth and NFC can enable a door to unlock whenever an authorized user's smartphone approaches.

Users can also remotely lock and unlock the door, or share access with any number of others, using mobile apps. Physical keypads provide a backup with many locks, but are no longer the main way to let yourself in. There are numerous applications like smart homes, smart offices, wearables, smart cities, Industrial internet, connected car, connected health, smart retail and so on.