Internet Revolution: From 33.6 kbps PSTN Dialup in 1999 to 1 Gbps Always-on Fibre Internet in 2020, we have come a long way!

A few days back a read an article of Kapil Jain (from Tata Communications) about his 25 years journey of Internet in India starting with 15-Aug-1995. It makes me look back into my own journey not from 1995, but from 1996.

So in 1996 I joined NIIT (a reputed Computer Training institute in India) through the Bhavishyajyoti Scholarship scheme somewhere during mid-year. It was the Mumbai, Santacruz (W), Hasanabad Lane centre which was quite reputed those days. It was around the end of the year that Dial-up Internet connectivity arrived at the centre. There were many families invited to demonstrate what Internet was. I was lucky enough to get the first glance, being a volunteer in the centre. It was provided by VSNL those days and due to errors in Telephone lines, the connectivity would drop often. It would probably take a minute or 2 to just load an image in a website. The Internet was also available in 2 variants – Text and Graphical. If you had the Text package, then you would dial using Hyperterminal and then be presented with Linux logon prompt and post login we had to use the Lynx browser which would present the webpage in a non-graphical (Black & White) format. I had a close friend (Anish) who had all the latest things at his house in Vile Parle and other than NIIT, it was his place where I would explore all tech.

Do you really need a Google Drive Paid Upgrade?

Problem!

My Google account is more than a decade old now. 15 GB for free storage seemed absolutely fine until a few years back, when I started running short of storage space with lot of my storage lost to Google Photos. While per Google "High Quality" photos/videos are not counted against your storage space, if your photos/videos are not lucky enough to get auto-converted by "Google Backup and Sync" application to the "High Quality" format, the size of the files then get counted against your storage quota in Google Drive.

What did I do then?

I deleted some obsolete files. I then created a shared folder in my wife's Google Drive account and moved around 9 GB of archived files to the shared folder located in my wife's account.

DIY: Fixing Android "System Update" Boot Loops with Open DNS

 Few days back I received a pop-up for Software Update for my 3 year old Lenovo Yoga Tab 3. This Tab is an excellent Tab having premium looks, finish and performance. This was probably the 2nd or 3rd update I have received over the years. While the previous updates went through smoothly, this update did not happen.

The system would always prompt for an update, auto-download it and start updating a little while later. The problem starts after the Tab reboots for update. After showing the progress bar for few minutes, the update crashes on the Recovery screen (as shown in the screen shot) with a "Status 7" error. While I wanted to investigate more on the error and fix it, I couldn't do as the ab would reboot to android, download the update, reboot and this went into a loop. After googling,  found few solutions on disabling the "System Update" service, which unfortunately didn't work. Coming from a Network Admin background I realised that the best way to circumvent the System Update is to block the website from where the update is being downloaded.

DIY Home-made Hand Sanitizer

Due to the pandemic of Corona Virus, sale of Hand Sanitizers shot up. While trying to buy one for my family from Amazon, I ended up buying something which looked similar, but was a "Menthol perfumed Detton Disinfectant liquid". To ensure that my purchase doesn't go for a waste, I Googled and realised that making your own DIY Hand Sanitizer was really easy.

Ingredients -

1. Isopropyl Alcohol (99.9% pure).

2. Aloe Vera gel.

3. Essential Oils.