Me and My Comp

I have always been a lazy person. Probably, that’s where my fascination with computer bears its root. Computer can get us done the most difficult work in the easiest of ways and ironically, even the vise versa can also be true. And this is when the individual will have to fall back on his specifically designed organ i.e. brain.

My tryst with computers started the day my Dad bought me Intel 486 computer with 16MB RAM. The fascination of the DOS games was followed by the urge to understand how it works. The first successful execution of a ‘C’ program gave me a sense of pride which even my Engineering degree did not provide ;-)

How will it be if I could talk to another computer from mine? Yes, that’s what excited me next: Computer networks. Imagine getting connected to a system hundred’s of miles away from you. The thought of gave me a sense of supernatural power.
The acronyms like TCP/IP,UDP,SSH,SSL,LAN,WAN,MAN,FDDI,ALOHA,CDMA and the IEEE standards like 802.3/4/5/6 sounded like a soothing music to my ears.

The next natural transition was into WLAN (Wireless LAN). It added a new dimension to computer networks – mobility. Conventional mobile accesses points like PDA’s, SIMPUTER and to certain extent laptops were used as a mobile device within a fixed network. WLAN provided a mobile network!!! You could create a network on the move, jump from one network to another and it worked just like how our mobile phones work.

Even though a computer network has been my first love, system programming has been my passion. It has helped me demystify computers. I was fortunate enough to come across Linux during this process. The open source nature of the operating system helped me in understanding what was happening beneath the decorative cover (Graphical User Interface). I always believe one thing about programming in general. An individual’s knowledge should be estimated by his understanding of the concepts (logic) and not by gauging the number of computer languages known. If a person can deduce the implementation logic he can implement it in any programming language with the help of a good book. Definitely, a good hold on the programming language will act as an added advantage, while not knowing should not spell doom.