One Year On..

It's been an year now since I last blogged :) :(

Running Dry... .. . .

My mind's running dry these days.... And so is my blog! I did take up to blogging with a passion bordering on vengeance.. But the fire seems to have fizzled out now :( Probably because I ran out of ideas. Never mind. I'm being laid down for now.. But not laid OUT! Will be back with something new.. Until then this link will go static! Ciao all soon... .. . .  .    

On Sucess & Failure..

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

That's Michael Jordan on success and failure.. Statictics apart, it shows how nothing is inconquerable to the human spirit. But to keep that flame of desire and passion burning bright, it takes a lot of mental toughness.. But the incentives of hard-earned success far outweigh the numerous failures that strike us down as we work our way through!

Starting Afresh!

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. "

One of my favourites.. The importance of letting go of one's past, purging one's mind of all negativities and making a fresh beginning cannot be overstated. It's sometimes the simplest medicine to all our worries.. Just that it's one pill that's not very easy to swallow :-)

Back!

Aaah.. It's good to be back! It's been a long time since my last post.. Was just wondering what to write next all this while.. Out came the philosopher in me..

IRR

Day: Wednesday
Time: 8.43 a.m
Location: Intermediate Ring Road, Bangalore


Have you ever cruised along a 3 km stretch at 60 kmph on Bangalore’s increasingly crowded roads on any working day? No, I’m not talking about the numerous peripheral roads leading out of the city, but arterial roads well inside city limits!

It’s any city dweller's dream to start at 8.40 am from home & reach office before 9 am! Unless you’re rich enough to live in a posh neighbourhood near your sprawling office complex or your office is located on the terrace of your apartment for want of realty space elsewhere :)

And if you’re taking the IRR (as it’s fondly called), you know you belong to an elite group of commuters! The IRR stretches from the Airport Road flyover and winds its way south, passing through Domlur, Ejipura & Koramangala. The road’s very wide, by Bangalore’s standards and between signals traffic flows smoothly along. The best part of it is the stretch between the Ejipura signal & Golf Links Business Park where it passes through a golf course and grassy vegetation. The cold morning breeze and the bright sun are refreshing. And the evening sunset of course! (It makes a great picture). And you can see luxury cars, BMTC buses & bikes whizzing along. And then there’s this Ejipura signal that turns red with unfailing regularity, every time I approach it [I haven’t been able to break this jinx yet :)].

Yes it does have its share of problems too! But putting aside a few potholes and that occasional generous spray of water from a passing vehicle soon after the rains, this road is a blessing! For it makes your commute a little better.

Everytime I pass that reflective green board that proudly displays ‘Intermediate Ring Road’, I do feel thankful to be taking this road everyday!

And you’ll all agree with me on this!

Meshes for Riches?

Wireless in Automation is becoming commonplace now. New developments in communication infrastructure arena are increasingly & almost immediately being adapted for the industrial automation domain. The latest addition to this list is the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for low power wireless networks. We already have live examples of this technology running, albeit on an experimental basis.

Mesh networks are ad-hoc networks built using sensors that also double up as wireless data relay points. That is a sensor & a wireless access point combined. Media access is defined by the underlying 802.15.4 protocol stack while the physical layer is wireless-over-air. As with any wireless network, attenuation of radio signals especially in harsh plant conditions is always a concern. This partly is overcome by the basic architecture of these networks; short hops for data from node to node instead of one long haul. Moreover, usage of the well established ‘frequency hopping’ technique also mitigates this problem. The architecture is self healing, i.e. the failure of a node doesn’t bring the network down. Data immediately takes a alternate path to reach its destination.
Add to this the encryption and check codes for ensuring data security & integrity, and you have a truly functional wireless infrastructure in place. Saving on cabling costs and short up-times make these more viable. Wireless HART has been one of the first technologies to be built based on this standard. Once the ISA100 Working Group freezes the final specification for the standards on 'Wireless in Industrial Automation', we can expect to see a revolution in the way we set-up automation systems.

I’m eagerly looking forward to the standard’s release and the deluge of products from all leading automation vendors then on!