Today airports are more than just transit hubs. They are community and business centers. They are malls. They are the first point of contact for an international tourist.
Most airports around the world want to provide services beyond just air mobility. That is why we can see restaurants, work desks and even hotels inside the building.
At any point in time there may be thousands of guests at an airport and such a huge volume of people need to say connected at all times.
Airport wifi plays a crucial role in meeting the connectivity requirements
Since wifi uses unliscensed spectrum no additional permission needs to be taken by the management. They are free to deploy as many hotspots as they want.
WiFi is one of the most widely supported protocols. It is guaranteed to work across all client devices regardless of what SIM they use.
As a universal connectivity platform wifi can be used to deliver not just the internet but also other services crucial to the co-ordination of ground staff and partner airlines.
Wifi at an airport needs to provide end to end connectivity. It should be a universal and consistent experience for the visitors. It should be inclusive. It must not rely on authentication methods like OTP codes over SMS that require cellular connectivity and become inaccessible to foreign tourists. The very people.who may need connectivity most.
A reliable wifi leads to a better visitor experience. People will spend more time at airports and therefore create possibilities for alternative sources of income for the operators and partners. Through advertisements, value added services like meeting spaces or maybe even entertainment and shopping.
Internet solves many problems. A good internet connection means
1. Availability of cheap education for all who are connected. Educated citizens can take better financial decisions and participate in the growth of the country thereby dragging even more people out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
2. Access to all kinds of services. From banking to commercial to redressal of grievances. It reduces the amount of time taken for the services to be rendered. Quick service reaffirms the faith of citizens in their government.
3. Easing of the pressure on state machinery. Digitization of repetitive tasks frees the administration to focus only on most important matters. Which means better decisions are taken and the condition of the nation is improved.
Internet is an enabler for other industries. An investment in Internet yields exponential returns. Even if you lose some money in installation and operation, the cost savings in other areas more than make up for it.
Comparatively speaking internet infrastructure is among the cheapest. What would cost more building a 4 Km road or laying down a 4 Km fiber?
Building a 10 storey tower or adding an access point per floor?
Many other factors can reduce the price of internet. The fact that the internet has become not only a way to surf the web but also to communicate is a big factor. 4G is a completely internet based platform. Voice, and messages are all sent over IP.
Planning well can reduce even the one time installation cost. In a developing country like India,for example, Railtel has one of the largest fiber optic network with nodes at 5000 stations. And Railtel is a subsidiary of Indian railways. By combining the railway and internet infrastructure together India could rapidly penetrate far flung and remote areas at much lower costs.
100s of railway station across India have today become free WiFi hotspots offering millions of people internet absolutely free.
Not only that these fiber optic lines are even leased to mobile network operators to distribute the internet into cities.
Small initiatives like these add up. Reduce the overall cost of access and improve the economy.
Fly social is an airline social network. Operating at about 38,000 ft from ground level it enables communication among passengers.
Fly social makes your flight interactive. Your guests connect to fly social service over the air without need for internet. It works offline.
Fly social is more than just communication. It can be a travel guide helping the passengers understand their destination. Or it can be a brand advertisement platform for your partners unlocking new sources of revenue for you. It can be a magazine for promoting your routes, fares and loyalty programs. The possibilities are immense.
Fly social personalizes air travel. With fly social every flight is a new story. A new experience.
Talking about previews is fun because the game is still in development. The possibilities are endless. We get to dream about playing it. How fun it would be when we get it in our hands.
Even more so when the game is Avengers coming right after Avengers endgame (that is the movie not the game)became one of the biggest hits of 2019 with years long build up.Converging the individual plotlines of star super heroes into a satisfying ending.
Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman,Thor, Silver Surfer and the Hulk.These are not simply names . They are big franchises. They are the biggest franchises in entertainment. With Comic books, video games, toys, clothing lines, songs and movies made after them. The have got it all.
You can imagine then how tough it would have been to bring it all together. But Avengers did it. With a budget of $386M endgame was one of the most expensive movies ever made. It remains the best grossing movie of all time.
The question for the developers then becomes how can you top endgame?
The studios behind marvel avengers the game
Square Enix is no stranger to big budget entertainment themselves.
The studio became a household name with final fantasy 7 and since then Square Enix has been known for high production values.
With kingdom hearts an action role playing game featuring Disney characters SE demonstrated that they can handle third party IP just as well as their own.
SE might just be the most progressive Japanese game development studio. They have taken immense risks in popularizing their games with western audiences. Final Fantasy XV the most recent game in the long running franchise was fully open world action adventure that aspired to get on with the times and was not afraid to test the patience of long time fans.
Their reboot of the sacred Final Fantasy 7 looks to change the core gameplay mechanics, something that fans have adored for almost a decade.
Dissidia Final Fantasy a game that made its way in the PSP almost 10 years ago is the last thing you’d expect from a role playing production powerhouse. A free movement 3D fighting game.
They’ve acquired western studios like Crystal Dynamics and Eidos and thereby gained access to some fan favorite titles like Hitman, Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. Their recent effort with the Franchises have received an enthusiastic response from the fans.
Even Dragon quest Square Enix long standing traditional hit, a Japanese cultural phenomenon has experimented with new style of gameplay in Dragon Quest Heroes. Mixing Dragon Quest Characters with fast paced hack and slash of dynasty warriors.
It’s safe to say that S.E. is a highly experienced studio. But I’ve not written these paragraphs as a PR for them. I just want to underscore that even for a.studio as big as SE the challenge of making a game like Marvel Avengers is very big.
The open world super heroes
While superheroes have been very popular in comics movies and cartoons,their games have not exactly resonated with the fans. Before insomniac’s smash hit spiderman used to be just a quick movie cash in. While Iron Man is a silver screen hit on home consoles it has not been able to weave it’s magic.
Silver surfer on NES has the dubious distinction of being one of the worst games ever made.
And who can forget the disaster that Superman was on N64.
Maybe it’s due to high expectations. Perhaps due to the narrative set by other forms that dictate the video game development but superhero video games have performed below par. They were supposed to massive hits but instead have turned out mediocre misadventures.
That is not to say that all video game superheros have been duds. The punisher did well. As did Marvel ultimate alliance games. Batman games by rocksteady are a shining example of how to do a superhero in a video game.
Outside of traditional superheroes Saints Row 4 translated the open world for original characters. With special abilities and no tradition weighing them down. Infamous and prototype presented their super heroes in a darker light. Immensely powerful characters who were not hesitant to use their strength to get what they want.
Gravity Rush created the most fresh and endearing teenage sensation in Kat, a young girl who could manipulate gravity.
Lego games have kept fans constantly entertained. They are fun and cute and relaxing. Giving the fans a break from the heavy and brooding apocalyptic plots and letting them have a bit of sunny fun.
There’s no dearth of super hero games to take inspiration from. Even then with so many characters and personalities. So many possibilities how can a game be created that brings them together?
The elements of the game
Since avengers is a superhero team, the game allows both single player and cooperative multiplayer modes. In the demo shown at gamescom recently the game transitioned between lifelike cutscenes and gameplay elements seamlessly. As a viewer, in fact, it was sometimes difficult to tell when the movie ended and when the actual gameplay began.
Little indications like the health bar on the top of the screen and the mission objective on the left corner gave a clue that the character is now in the control of the player. It is a testament to the design team of avengers that they have produced a title that has such lifelike graphics.
Avengers seem to be a role playing action game with a focus on a smooth combat. Only a few playable characters were featured in the demo.
Iron man used his suit for firing projectiles. Thor was a mix between melee and magic. Both characters could fly like in movies. Black widow preferred fast but deadly hand to hand combat. Captain america used his shield as a boomerang to make short work of his opponents. And hulk. Well he was smashing fun. More on him later.
While the game isn’t an open world game in the truest sense it seems that the players will have plenty of opportunity to explore the in game world with their favorite character. I’m assuming that it’ll be somewhat like Eidos Montreal’s hit Deus Ex Mankind divided which even though is a highly focused narrative driven game it gives the player a high degree of interaction with his environment.
And if we compare this design choice with the presentation in the movies as well as the comics, it makes more sense. Avengers have to hop around quite a few places before they are through with their adventure. Having the entire action in one city, as detailed as it may be, is not going to be true to the franchise.
There seems to be built in progression for the characters. They gain experience as they complete their objectives and their is a skill tree to unlock and explore. However the devs need to maintain a very tight balance between making the character feel like a superhero while at the same time giving the players more abilities to unlock. An underpowered Thor could leave the player unsatisfied where as an overpowered one would make the gameplay a bore.
In that respect some notes could be taken from the progression system of Marvel Ultimate Alliance while tweaking and streamlining some of the rougher spots.
Another exciting aspect of the game is the story line. Although much of it is kept under wraps it’s clear that the game is going for a fresh setting. No infinity stones existential drama. But Avengers this time are going to face a different kind of crisis. Of self doubt, and lack of confidence from the general public whose support they have enjoyed for so long. This time around they have been replaced by an organization called AIM. They must fight to prove their worth again in the eyes of their fans. And gain back their self respect. Are they up to the task? We’ll find out in May 2020.
Why am I so excited about the hulk?
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post its fun to talk about a game before it has been released. There is so much that can be done. So much to look forward to. The expectations are high. The excitement even higher. The wait itself is a joy.
Way back in the days of ps2 there was a little gem of a superhero game called the incredible hulk ultimate destruction by radical entertainment that gave us gamers a little taste of what an open world superhero action game could be like.
You played as hulk and you caused mayhem in the city. There were no rules. You could jump up high to the top of the building. You could use the car as a skateboard. You could throw missiles back at the enemies. There were no limits.
It was not the open world action that got me excited rather an open world platformer. The idea of jumping and collecting things on top of huge skyscrapers as hulk gave me immense satisfaction.
Many games have tried to replicate the same feeling of 3D platforming exploration but they haven’t quite done it for me.
I know that Avengers is more than just the Hulk. But I hope that they make him as awesome as he was in the ultimate destruction.
The current efforts in digitizing education are focussed on paperwork. Admission, roll calls, student records etc.
However these initiatives are just more of the same. Instead of marking attendence on paper techers will now use an app. While a case could be made that this adds more transparency to the process it doesn’t do much to improve it.
Far greater opportunities exist to change the way we teach,not just the way we adminster students. And they don’t even need cutting edge technologies.
Different students have different ways of learning. Simple things like
– Recording lectures on video
– Creating audio books on common topics
Can have a substantial effect. These exercises are one time effort and students, generation after generation can learn from the knowledge thus preserved.
We live in an “on demand” age. If students can get access to study material when they need it , it would make their learning journey a bit more pleasant.
Teachers know this all too well that students like to take help from their peers. And most of them communicate digitally.
It would be clear then, that a school wide digital forum or a wiki could be a great learning resource.
Of course effort would have to be spent in moderation to keep a balance between useful.content and fun stuff. It should not be too formal but neither should it stray far away from topic.
Digitization is not as much about doing the same things on a computer. No. It’s more than that. It’s about changing processes and making them better with the help of technology.
Technology is at its best when it’s simple enough that anyone can use it. Not just the people who are trained in it.
At the same time technology should be flexible enough to handle real life problems.
It should encourage collaborative problem solving. Facilitate communication across groups of people and just blend in with the daily life.
Good technologies should improve business processes. That is possible only when we are more methodical in our approach.
1. Do more with less. Discover ways to use the existing tools and platforms in unique new ways, before you go shopping for new stuff, if something doesn’t meet your exact standard.
2. Work towards unification or convergence of tech. Web is a great example of different technologies being used from a common interface. Define similar interfaces for your business processes.
3. Always keep on learning. Technology is at a stage where basic understanding can pretty much allow you to digitize all your business. Most of it is free. All you need is to take some time out and learn how to use it.
Even if you possess the best possible technology it won’t be of any use if you don’t apply it.
The social project initiative allows organizations to create context sensitive digital communities.
The social project communities believe in diversity. They come in all shapes and sizes. The experience that you get from a community in a restaurant would be distinctly different from from the one that you get in a plane.
We like to keep things fresh. Our communities take their identity from a location. A bit different from the theme of a central platform that looks the same and works the same for everyone.
Enter as a first citizen and let new adventures begin. Catch the wave on what’s new. Talk about anything you want.
Our digital engagement platform enables conversations and help owners increase brand loyalty.
Fly social, live social, work social, shop social,eat social, travel social. Be social, with the social project.
I discovered The Cape on my way to Cabo De Rama fort. It was March. A little warmer than January but with the heady holiday fever behind.
I say discovered but if I’m being completely honest it was more of an accident. In a stumble upon kind of way. Like what usually happens when you go trekking and instead of focussing on the trail you ramble about gaping at the view.
As you can probably guess focus is not one of my strengths. If you were to call me as a witness for your trial you’ll most probably loose the case.
Anyway, I knew I had to go to the Cabo de Rama fort but I had no idea which road to take. I’m not much of a Google maps person. When I’m on the road I like to follow it. But every turn makes me a little anxious. Should I keep going straight? Or maybe I should turn left? Where would I end up if I took a right? If it were up to me I’d ban the turns on the road and I’d fine people taking them.
Perhaps that day I took a wrong turn. Or maybe it was the right one,if you look at it from a philosophical angle. Memory is a bit hazy on the details. I can confidently say that it was about afternoon. Not quite the time for sunset just yet. But past your lunch. The kind of time when you like to take a nap your desk.
These were the circumstances in which I found myself facing a cliff overlooking the vast Arabian sea.
The “road” was not in a driveable condition. I parked my scooter in the shade of a tree and proceeded to take some photos of the cliff. Maybe a few selfies.
As I drew nearer I saw a notice board pointing to “The Cape”. You can sympathize with me given my circumstances, me being a little lost, I decided to go into The Cape and enquire with fellow brothers and sisters as to how might I reach my destination.
With such pious intentions I stepped inside. I desended the steps firmly, with my goal set in mind. As I reached the reception I was amazed to look so much sea in front of me. It seemed to me that I was in a restaurant.
The staff was patiently attending to the guests. Dishes were being served. A nice gentle music played in the background. My phone was encouraging me to connect to the free WiFi hotsopt.
The breathtaking view touched my heart. It brought about a change in my outlook. Instead of following my plan to inquire about the route I took a seat and ordered watermelon juice to go along with french fries. One likes to snack upon something solid when one is enjoying the nature peacefully.
I must say in about 2 minutes I forgot all about the fort. It was not going to go anywhere, I reasoned. The soft,cool breeze refereshed me. And food restored my energy.
I decided to take a few photos of the place. And as I was clicking the manager insisted that I should tour the property. So I did.
What luxurious huts! What splendid rooms! What a spectacular view! Simply amazing jacuzzis!!
At the bottom of the cliff there was a nice secluded beach. I took my seat on a chair. Ordered a pineapple milk shake and sipped on it till the sun went down.
Should you go to the Cape Goa? I’m not the one the make recommendations. Even if I were ,reading this post should have made you realize that you shouldn’t be taking my advice anyway.
Although I’m writing this peice you can be sure I would not read anything before I went some place new. Not that I would have the patience to finish reading anything I start.
However I believe that holidays should be spent exploring a place. Not following a map or a guide. Who knows what you’re going to find on the next turn?
But I’ll say this. If there’s a better resort /restaurant in Goa I haven’t seen it.
Light is the fastest communication medium that we know. It takes light a few milliseconds to travel across farthest points on Earth. To be precise in 1 second light can circle around earth 7.5 times.
Internet on Earth works on light. It’s fast and reliable.
Suppose we we’re to set up an internet connection between earth and a station on Sun. Then we’ll be having a latency of about 8 minutes between the two points. Because that’s the amount of time light takes to travel from sun to earth.
It would be a very frustrating experience to communicate back and forth,to say the least. There will be far more timeouts than data transfers.
If we get a bit more ambitions and set an internet in our solar system then end to end latency would be about 4 hours. That’s how much time it takes for light from Sun to Neptune. One positive outcome however is that with such a bad connection the customers won’t even bother to call in for support!
If we persist and manage to wire entire milky way it our end to end latency will rise even higher to a 100K years. Mere mortals like you and me won’t even live to see the delivery receipt of our what’s app messages. Forget about a reply.
Intergalactic internet would require signals to travel millions of light years. With our current technology the communication will be so slow that it might as well have not taken place.
We need a technological breakthrough to be able to communicate over such long distances.
I’ll try to answer this from a technical perspective not from a political one.
Wifi has traditionally been better suited for internet data. It was built from ground up to do that. It is low powered. It works on open frequency that any one can use. Its cheap. It’s well understood. Every house that has internet has wifi.
Cellular networks were traditionally designed for voice and messages. From the 3rd generation we’ve started seeing the shift towards data. Today even voice and messages are based on internet protocol.
A phone network today provides voice, message and internet. Unfortunately satisfying all there consumer needs have stressed the networks. The solution proposed is to install even more towers. A brute force method of increasing the number of access points to improve connectivity.
However there are a few points that must be considered before such a step is taken
1. Telephone networks are power intensive. Most of them are run on diesel.
2. They require a lot of space to install. Real estate is premium in big cities. And this makes setting up new towers too costly.
3. The mobile networks are segregated. Although there are roaming arrangements between the providers the quality of service varies wildly between networks even in the same region. This often results on poor quality of service for users.
Internet today has become a necessity. Not only does it help people stay connected but also provides critical services like banking, education etc. As more people are coming online we want better connectivity. At the same time we’ve also got to keep the costs low.
Wifi hotspots offer a solution.
– Wifi can be deployed by any one. It does not require any license fee for spectrum usage. Trained professionals for wifi would be easier to find. Unlike telephone network the skill set required to maintain wifi is lower. Maintainence can be done by more people.
– Wifi routers can be customized to offer over the top services like messaging, e-commerce , social networks to communities to help with the efforts of digtization. The open nature of wifi and it’s components make it more flexible. Although such things would be possible on mobile radios it would be much harder.
– Wifi can offload the congestion on mobile networks [2] making them more responsive for critical voice and messaging applications. It will ease the pressure on mobile networks and give them more breathing room.
Additionally they can help make the city more firendly to foreign tourists. Tourists won’t have to shop around for a SIM card before they can get connected. Wifi is universal so anyone can use it from any smart phone.
I welcome the effort to install city wide hotspots but I’m a bit hesitant about the free part. As it is unsustainable. Internet costs money. And the operator must find a way to monetize it.
There are other technical challenges as well. Such as roaming between hotspots and managing user identity. But none of them are major roadblocks. With tweaks these problems can be solved.
I’m excited to see how people react to the initiative.
**Footnotes**
1. When you walk around just try to count the number of telephone towers you see. Notice where they are installed. Try to guess how much the operator would have paid for the spot.
workrock 