Straight from the mind

The Internet turned 40 last week. Its been more than 2 yrs now that I have been a web developer and that makes the Internet the source of my bread and butter. I have now been a part of teams that have built some of the best websites on the net. But i would like to make an confession here, untill today,  I did not know how the Internet was born and how it evolved over the years and am even sure 9 out 10 developers too wouldn’t know even a bit of the history. So lets take a look on how the internet was born and how it has come of age.

Birth and Naming…

The research and development of the Internet spanned over 10 years and hence no exact date can be attributed to its birth, but the day October 29, 1969 stands as the first 2 nodes of what became ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and SRI International in Menlo Park, CA on this day. Based on ARPA’s research packet switching network standards were developed in the form of X.25 by ITU. Later on UUCPnet was developed with the idea of using simple Bourne Shell scripts to transfer news and messages on a serial line. TCP/IP unified the different network standards and became an important communication protocol for the internet. The term “internet” was coined in the first RFC published on the TCP protocol in 1974(5 years later)  as an abbrevation of the term “internetworking”. To keep it simple “any network using TCP/IP was internet“.

The first steps…

The progress in the 1st 12 years were really slow with only 213 computers being connected to the ARPANET network. From the mid 70’s to the mid 80’s Internet’s technologies spread world wide and many new applications(Email, telenet, compuserve etc.) were developed for it out of the interest of many researchers in wide spread networking. Email became the most important and highly looked up application as it reached 16m users in 1985. Although most of the basic application that made the internet were developed, it was still used mostly by techies, geeks in research labs and had not gained much public face.

Getting Young and Dynamic…

As the internet grew, many people realized the increasing need to be able to find and organize files which lead to projects like Gopher, WAIS, FTP archive list etc. but all these fell short of full filling the scaling requirements. In 1989, Tim Berners Lee invented the network based implementation of the hypertext concept via his project named World Wide Web. With the advent of the WWW things started moving faster and till today there has been no limit to the way the Internet is growing. With the arrival of web browsers and not to forget the browser wars that still goes on we had 500m+ users online by 2001.

Fast Forwarding to Today…

Today the internet has over 1.7 billion users most of whom cannot think of life without emails, social networking, chatting, gaming etc. Today it is more like a virtual but required addition to the basic necessities list of  food, clothing, shelter and education of most developed countries. I cannot think of a day without access   to the internet; if not on the PC then from my mobile. The Internet has change the way people interact and socialize, thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. When the web was born it was just about digitizing content; web2.0 was driven by socializing, sharing content and has become the platform for the concept of linked data. Now concepts like Real-Time Web and Internet of Things are driving us into the Web3.0 generation.

I doubt 40 years ago anyone would have imagined that the successful connection between 2 nodes would go on to become one of the major and  fastest growing platforms in the field of technology. I would love to see how the internet evolves in the next 40 years but wouldn’t dare to imagine  coz whatever it may be, it will surely blow our imagination from today’s standpoint.

The past few months had been really boring, frustrating and anti-creative on the professional front and this break or mini vacation as I call it, was very much awaited by me. I have been to Mahabaleshwar quiet a few times before but this was the first time that I was going with my family. Thought of writing this post to share my experiences about Mahabaleshwar, which could even act as a tour guide to others.

Getting There ….

Getting to Mahabaleshwar from Mumbai is pretty easy and quick. It would take you around 6-7 hrs on a luxury bus for the complete journey . I would recommend taking a sleeper coach that departs late in the night from Mumbai and arrives early in the morning at Mahabaleshwar. The same is recommended while getting back to Mumbai. You even have other options like a Volvo bus or a tourist car which are equally comfortable. Bookings can be done at any travel agent in Mumbai.

Where to stay…

Mahabaleshwar has a plethora of small and large hotels that you can stay in. If your not having your own vehicle to travel around Mahabaleshwar then i would recommend selecting a hotel in and around the market place. Nell’s House, Hotel Dreamland, Hotel Lakeview, Silverine being some of the good ones. If your very low on budget there are many small hotels on the market road. Staying in a hotel away from the market place comes with the added facilities of a peaceful environment and a beautiful scenic view from your room itself.

Hotel tariffs vary based on the season and type of hotel you check into. Mahabaleshwar experiences daily 2 hrs of load shedding, so if your very particular about your staying conditions make sure that your hotel has a good generator(most of them will have an inverter which is connected to only 1 lamp per room) and provide round the clock hot water through the tap.

Where n What to eat…

If your a vegetarian then Mahabaleshwar is a pleasure ground for you  and you need not worry, coz 75% of the food outlets out there are pure vegetarian. Meat eaters have quiet a few options around the market place which include Hotel Aman, Nukkad, Shere-e-Punjab that provide very good non-vegetarian food.

You would be sinning if you haven’t paid a daily visit to a ice cream parlour at Mahabaleshwar, which is famous for Strawberry n Cream,  Mulberry n Cream(my personal favorite) and many other fresh fruit ice creams. I would recommend going to Bageecha Ice Cream Parlour on the market road and trying out their entire menu as that is one of the best outlets I have been to out there. Another place that is a must visit is the Mapro Factory, the waffle cone ice creams and grilled sandwich out there are the best i have ever had and at the same time you can even shop for your favorite crushes, squashes and jelly sweets. Mahabaleshwar is even famous for chikki and fudge which you will get anywhere in the market place, Wilsons being one of the best shops to pich this stuff.

What to see aka. Sightseeing….

Located in the Western Ghats[pic] and having one of the few evergreen forestsin the world it is one of the scenic beauties to be watched in India. The entire sightseeing at Mahabaleshwar can be divided into 4-5 tours, each having a duration of 3-4 hours and costing around 350 - 550 INR.

• Tour 1 - Pratapgad Darshan[pic] [ Duration 150mins ]
  Pratapgad Fort, Bhawani Temple, Shivaji Statue[pic], Pratap Garden, Tomb of Afzal Khan
  The Pratapgad fort was one place where i could atleast see some kind of maintainence happening and efforts being made to keep the place clean which is very unlike other spots I visited
• Tour 2 - Mahabaleshwar Darshan 1 [ Duration 150mins ]
  Panchgani Mandir, Window Point, Tiger Spring, Echo Point,  Savitri Point, Monkey Point, Marjori Point, Arthur’s Seat…
  The Arthur’s Seat is known as the pride of Mahabaleshwar as you get one of the best views of the valley from that platform. The rest of the points are either on the way or around this point.
• Tour 3 - Mahabaleshwar Darshan 2 [Duration 150mins]
  Kate’s Point[pic], Needle Hole Point, Elephant Head Point, Strawberry Garden, Sunset Point[pic], Lodwick Point[pic], Venna Lake
  Needle Hole and Elephant Head point are nothing but Kate’s Point looked at from different directions. Venna Lake is a drop spot after the tour where you can go for boating and it even has a mini Chowpati. The lake is really big and very good for boating.
• Tour 4 - Panchgani Darshan [Duration 150mins ]
  Table Land, Parsi Point, Jam Factory
  Table land is one of the biggest plateaus in the world and you can try your hand on hose riding and para-sailing. Insist on your tour guide to take you to the Mapro Factory and not any other factory, coz some tour guides would take you to some small factory to make the tour quick and get their commission from the factory owner for the products you buy.

Other than these tours you can even go for the Wai Darshan if you like visiting temples and the Sunrise point for which you would have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning.

One spot which you would not find in any of the tours but is a must watch is the Roman Catholic Church[pic] at Mahabaleshwar which is near the market place. Its more than a century that the church has been built and has one of the smallest parishes(10 families) in the world.

Do not depend on your credit card when you travel to Mahabaleshwar coz 8/10 shops or outlets do not accept credit cards, you would have to withdraw cash from one of the few ATMs hidden in the bylanes of the market.

I have had some the best and most memorable times of my life when i have been to Mahabaleshwar and i hope this post helps you to have a pleasant vacation too

In Part 1 of the this series, I introduced PHP and spoke about how it has evolved with every release into a mature language.

Summarizing PHP

Here I would be speaking more about the advantages of PHP.

• The HTML relationship
  PHP is always embedded in HTML in code islands. One key advantage to using PHP as opposed to some other solutions is that PHP code is all executed at the server, with the client only receiving the results of the script. What this means is that users never see your PHP source code because they are never sent it: they only see what you want them to see.
• Interpreting vs Compiling
  PHP uses a blend of interpretation and compilation in order to provide the best mix of performance and flexibility to programmers. Behind the scenes, PHP compiles your script down to a series of instructions (called opcodes) whenever it is accessed, and these instructions are then executed one by one until the script terminates. PHP re-compiles your script each time it is requested. This constant recompilation may seem a waste of processor time, but it is actually not all that bad because you no longer need to worry about hand recompiling your scripts when you make any changes. The speed hit of regular compilation is nullified entirely by the use of PHP accelerators. One major advantage to having interpreted code is that all memory used by the script is managed by PHP, and the language automatically cleans up after every script has finished. This means that you do not need to worry about closing database links, freeing memory assigned to images, and so on, because PHP will do it for you.
• PHP is cross-platform, free, fast, capable, extendable, reliable and advancing
  This may seem to be a simple point but it covers all the features that a superior programming language must possess.  It can be run on Windows, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris, as well as a variety of other platforms.
  In the majority of scripts, PHP will easily compete with both Perl and Python, and usually pull ahead of Microsoft’s ASP.NET by about 10-15%. Add to that the fact that PHP code can be cached for execution.
  What makes PHP capable is the thousands of pre-written functions that perform a wide variety of helpful tasks like database handling, file uploads, FTP, email, graphical interfaces, generating Flash movies, and more.
  PHP is extendable. Writing your own extension to PHP is a common and easy way to implement speed-critical functionality, and PHP’s extension API is a particularly rich and flexible system.
  PHP is reliable. As an official Apache Foundation software project, PHP is brought to you by the same people that produce Apache, the world’s most popular web server.
  PHP is advancing. With the release of PHP 5, PHP has introduced features that have long been waited for, including more comprehensive error handling, better object orientation, and, of course, more speed.
• When to and not to use PHP???
  Owing to its fast development time, easy maintenance, and overall fast execution time, it is rare to find PHP is not the best choice for a web application. Homepages (big and          small), database front-ends on the web, command line shell scripts where you want extra functionality, and even basic GUI development are all popular uses for PHP, and it excels  at them all. If you are doing anything that displays its text through a web browser, you are likely to find that PHP is your best choice. There are two situations when PHP is not recommended. Firstly, if your not developing a web application and you desperately need all the performance you can get, you should be  using C and C++. Secondly, if you are adding to a system which already has a lot of code already written in another language, then coding parts in PHP will only make your maintenance job more difficult, so you are likely to find it easiest in the long run to keep using the old language.

Extending PHP and Frameworks

The base of the PHP language is very simple, having just enough to set and retrieve variables, work with loops, and check whether a statement is true or not. The real power behind PHP comes with its extensions – addons to the base language that give it more flexibility.

• Core Extensions
  Core extensions are extensions that are bundled with PHP itself, and enabled by default. For all intents and purposes they are part of the base language, because, unless you explicitly disable them (few people do, and sometimes you cannot), they are available inside PHP.
• Bundled Extensions
  Bundled extensions are extensions that are bundled with PHP, but not enabled by default. These are normally commonly used, which is why they are bundled, but they are not available to you unless you specifically enable them. For example, the mechanism to handle graphics creation and editing is handled by an extension “GD Library” that is bundled with PHP.
• PECL - PHP Extension Code Library
  PECL stands for “PHP Extension Code Library”, and is as a subset of the PHP Extension and Application Repository, PEAR. PECL (pronounced “pickle”) was originally created as a place where rarely used or dormant bundled extensions could be moved if they were no longer considered relevant. PECL has grown a lot since its founding, and is now the home of many interesting and experimental extensions that are not quite important enough to be bundled directly with PHP.
• Third Party Extensions
  Third-party extensions are written by programmers like you who wanted to solve a particular problem that was unsolvable without them creating a new extension.
• DIY - Do It Yourself
  Finally, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) extensions are simply extensions you created yourself. PHP has a remarkably rich extension creation system that makes it quite simple to add your own code as long as you know C.

PHP has also attracted the development of many frameworks that provide building blocks and a design structure to promote rapid application development (RAD). Some of these include CakePHP, PRADO, Symfony and Zend Framework, offering features similar to other web application frameworks.