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Connecting the World- Success Story of Nokia

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There are few people who are unfamiliar with the brand name Nokia. Chance are that if you ask your parents about their first handset, it would be a Nokia. Synonymous with mobile phones in India, and around the world, the company has undergone massive changes in its long history. How many of you knew that Nokia’s history goes all the way back to the 1850s? Here’s a look at the story of Nokia, and how one man’s idea changed the way the world communicates.

About the Founder

Nokia became what it is today, because of the effort and dedication of Fredrik Idestam. The founder of Nokia was born in Tyrväntö, Finland in 1838. While there isn’t much information regarding his education, we do know he was a mining engineer. Though an engineer, Idestam decided to start his own paper factory, and in 1865, set up a plant in Tampere.

Art of Paper-Making

Idestam chose to go into this field because, at the time, Europe had high for paper. Also, Idestam was responsible for bringing fresh technology to the field of paper-making in Finland. His innovative methods came from revolutionising the industry in Finland which used fabric. The new technology came from Heinrich Voelter who utilised wooden raw materials and Idestam introduced this idea in Finland. He called his company Nokia and started making paper in 1865.

A community living in southern Finland inspired Idestam to name his company Nokia. The company’s first factory came up near the Tampere waterfall in 1866 and derived power from the waterfall. The presence of abundant timber nearby made it easy for the plant to acquire raw materials. The rise in demand and the use of new technology helped the company grow exponentially. In 1871, Idestam and Leo Mechelin expanded to Finland and officially created Nokia Ltd. This company became the largest paper manufacturer in Finland and soon started exporting products to the rest of Europe.

Expansion and Merger

Idestam passed away in 1916, leaving Nokia in the hands of a successor. Until World War I ended, this company remained a paper manufacturer and soon after it entered the electricity business. The Finnish Rubber Works later acquired Nokia, and it started manufacturing cables and telegraph lines. In 1967, the merger of three different companies led to the formation of the Nokia Corporation. At this stage manufactured several products such as car tires, rubber boots, cables and even televisions. In 1960, a formal cable division came to be, and later an electronics division, which in later years, became the company’s face.

Networking Giant

By the 1970s, Nokia became a network equipment powerhouse developing switching products. They joined forces with Salora to build automatic cellular phone systems, eventually acquiring the company in 1984. In 1987, Nokia launched the Mobira Cityman 900 which became an instant hit. The Mobira Cityman 900 became iconic when Mikhail Gorbachev used it to make a call in 1987, earning the nickname “The Gorba”. The company helped in the development of the GSM 2G and delivered the first 2G system in 1989. In 1992, Nokia launched the first GSM phone, the Nokia 1011, and the mobile phone landscape was never the same again.

Global Leader

In later years, the company branched out and developed CTRs, LCDs for laptops. They also released a mini laptop, which they discontinued after a short while. But the company will always be known for its mobile phones which were sold in over 130 countries.  The Nokia 2100 series, which was the first to feature the Nokia ringtone sold over 20 million phones, making it one of the most recognisable models of all time. During the late ’90s and early 2000s, the company’s turnover rose from €6.5bn to €31bn.

They followed it up with the spectacular Nokia’s 6100 series which sold over 41 million phones in 1998. The same year Nokia surpassed Motorola to become the world’s top mobile phone manufacturer. The Nokia 6110 was also the first phone to have the game Snake pre-installed.

While mobile phones are a trend now, and everyone has different models to brag about, it wouldn’t have been so if not for Nokia. The company helped make cellular phones popular and was for decades the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer.  In 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia, ending the legacy established by Idestam. While it had less success later, due to tight competition, a paper company from Finland changed the telephone industry for the better!

automation

Automating the World: Story of George Devol

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Robots have been mankind’s fascination for quite some time. But the last two decades have seen them grow from being a science fiction object to reality. Many industries around the world now employ robots to improve their production lines. Automation is no longer a thing for the future, but rather has become a reality. But how did we first start using robots? Here’s a look at the story of George Devol who developed the first known robot.

About the Creator

George Charles Devol was born in 1912 to a wealthy family based in Kentucky. He did his schooling from the famous Riordan Prep school. Following his graduation, he decided not to go for higher studies. Instead, he went into business and founded United Cinephone in 1932. The company produced recording equipment for motion pictures or talkies. But on discovering that companies such as RCA and Western Electric were also working on similar products, he dropped the idea. When WW2 descended on the US, he was working on a proximity controller for washing machines. Finally, in 1939 he filed for a patent for his RF-based controller. This device was the first of its kind and could open laundry presses automatically. However, due to the war breaking out in Europe, the patent office closed down, and hence, Devol could not get his patent.

Work with Radars

It was around this time that he sold his shares in United Cinephone. Briefly after that, he met with Sperry Gyroscope to discuss his ideas on radars. Sperry then hired him as a Special Projects Manager and allowed him to work on radar devices. As the war intensified, the Auto-Ordnance Company approached him to make products for them. However, Devol turned their attention to the emerging field of radar technology. Later, in 1943, he started working for General Electronics Industries which was a subsidiary of the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. He helped with the production of counter-radar devices. Under his tutelage, General Electronics became the largest producer of radar equipment for the American forces. He resigned soon after the war due to differences in opinion with regards to future products.

Creating Unimate

He followed this up by working as a sales manager at RCA. But, he quit this job as he felt he didn’t fit in and started work on his robot. A year later, in 1946 he created a magnetic recording system and applied for a patent for it. He helped with the creation of the first commercial microwave oven, known as the Speedy Weeny. By the early 1950s, Remington Rand was using Devol’s recording device. Soon enough, he became the manager of their magnetics department. Over there he worked on magnetic recording systems, high-speed printing systems and other such devices. While the idea would not work out, Devol’s magnetic invention later became the Unimate robot.

Patenting and Raising Funds


In 1954, Devol got a patent for his concept of Programmed Article Transfer which would become the basis for Universal Automation or Unimation. Devol’s wife, Evelyn suggested the name Unimate for the robot. At the time of filing the patent, Devol wanted Unimate to be a general-purpose machine. After securing the patent which did not have any citations, Devol looked for an investor. While he talked to many companies, they turned him down due to the risks involved. Finally, using family connections, Devol met with Manning, Maxwell and Moore. Joseph F. Engelberger served as the chief of engineering at Manning, Maxwell and Moore which was based in Connecticut. Engelberger found the project interesting and was about to invest in it. Unfortunately, the company was sold off that year and the plan fell through.

Forming Unimation Incorporated

However, Engelberger convinced Consolidated Diesel Electronic to back the development of the robot. Hence Codec, formed a new division called Unimation Incorporated and Joseph Engelberger served as its president. The first Unimate prototype relied on digital switches and transistors. Further, digital encoders and other electronic parts available in the 1950s were not adequate for the Unimate. Hence, under Devol, a team of engineers built all the parts for the Unimates. Devol as a part of the process invented new technologies such as the rotating drum memory system and parity controls.

In 1961, the first Unimate robot was sold to General Motors to help with die casting and spot welding. In 1961. GM’s plant in New Jersey became the first one to utilise a material handling robot. The robot helped in lifting metal from the die-casting machine and stacking them. Soon enough, companies like Chrysler, Ford, and Fiat started purchasing the Unimate. By 1966, full-scale production facilities were set up in Connecticut and Unimate became a resounding success in the field of material handling.

Resounding Success

By 1975, the company was cash positive and was making a profit. The Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly or PUMA robot came out three years later through a collaboration with GM. Since then, industrial robotics has grown to become a massive field with a lot of large-scale applications. So much so, that in 2003, Unimate became a part of the Robot Hall of Fame for being the first of its kind.

While the first robot took over $5 million to develop, industrial robotics is now a sprawling field. Devol would later go on to obtain several patents on visual sensors and magnetostrictive manipulators. He is hence, known for creating the field of “micro-robotics”. George Devol was 9 years old when the word robot was coined. Decades later, he would be the one to invent the first programmable robot, which in turn, started a revolution that continues even today. With over 40 active patents to his name, Devol spent his life-giving wings to his ideas and turning them into real products.

Legal way to sell Bitcoins in India and get cash in bank

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Click to start trading in Bitcoin

After RBI’s (Reserve Bank of India) curbs on cryptocurrency where most of cryptocurrency exchanges in India stopped selling of cryptocurrencies for money, many Indian investors were left wondering what to do to cash out the Bitcoins (BTC) they had. In 2018 RBI declared cryptocurrencies as not a legal tender and barred banks to deal in it.

Today there is no direct way to sell your bitcoins and get the money in your bank account in India. Hence people holding Bitcoins who want to sell and get money in their bank are stuck. One way is to transfer your BitCoins to some international exchange wallet and sell there and get money in either some US or UK account or PayPal account (if you qualify to add PayPal). In most cases this is not an easy task for people with Indian ID proofs.

However, there is a way which lets you to sell your BitCoins and get the  cash in your bank account. It is called P2P trading. In P2P trading offered by exchanges like Localbitcoins or WazirX, buyer and seller are matched and cash transaction happens directly between seller and buyer. 

Cash out cryptocurrency in India 
In India you can use exchanges like WazirX that offer P2P trading to sell your Bitcoins or other cryptocurrency and get the cash in your bank or PayTM account.

  1. Create an account on WazirX
  2. Add your bank account, UPI and PayTM details
  3. If you are holding cryptocurrency on any other exchange or wallet, transfer it to WazirX using your WazirX address. Make sure to use correct wallet address.
  4. Once you see your Bitcoins in WazirX wallet, you are ready to trade 
  5. In order to sell Bitcoins you need to first convert it into USDT (another cryptocurrency like BTC) in WaZirX. Hence first trade in BTC to USDT
  6. Once you have got all BTC or any other cryptocurrency converted in USDT, you can go for P2P trade
  7. Go to P2P interface and create a sell order for USDT
  8. You can also check market to see buying offers so that you can create your sell order accordingly
  9. Once your order is placed, it will be matched with buyer(s)
  10. Mostly it takes less than 30 mins
  11. Once the order is matched, buyer will transfer money in your bank account and BTC are locked in escrow until you confirm the payment in WazirX
  12. Sometimes your trade if larger in size may be completed in 2-3 orders. Once you start getting payment(s), you need to confirm the payment so that WazirX can release BTC to buyer

So before 2018 where money was transacting through cryptoexchange to bank and vice versa, it is now a bank transaction between two people (buyer and seller) in which cryptoexchange is not involved. P2P exchange just connects buyers and sellers and keeps the digital coins in escrow till seller confirms that he has received the money and it is now OK to transfer the digital coins to buyer.

Click to open a new WazirX account to trade in Bitcoins

Nikola Tesla

Guiding the Future: Story of Nikola Tesla

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Remote controls are without a doubt something that symbolises modern technologies. Most electrical devices we use come with a remote of their own, and most of us own at least a dozen remotes. We have remotes scattered on our coffee tables and even access devices from remotes on our phones now. Although we associate remotes to TVs, they were a staple long before that. So how did the remote control come to be? Read on to find out more about the history, origins and story of remote control systems.

About the Creator

Nikola Tesla was born in Lika in 1856 to an Eastern Orthodox priest who had an interest in mechanical appliances. He attended a primary school in Smiljan and completed his high-school from the Higher Real Gymnasium. His physics teacher inculcated in him an interest in electronics, and that would life-long passion for Tesla. He was a prodigy while at school, being able to do integral calculus in his head. Tesla ran away from home in the 1870s to evade enrolment into the Austro-Hungarian Army.

He then joined the Austrian Polytechnic and learnt electrical engineering but received no degree. Rather, he gained practical knowledge working for Central Telegraph Office in Budapest and the Continental Edison. In 1884, he shifted to the United States and worked for Edison Machine Works. He left soon after, setting out to form his laboratories and companies. His patent for an AC motor through Westinghouse Electric earned him large sums of money, which he utilised to fund his research. During the 1890s, Tesla pushed for wireless lighting and communication, becoming a pioneer in the field. with his devices.

The Famous Boat Experiment

Famous American inventor Nikola Tesla created the world’s first wireless remote control. He unveiled the system at Madison Square Garden in 1898 to much awe from the public. He called the system, which could control several mechanical devices, a tele automaton. To demonstrate his new invention, Tesla used a boat and controlled it via radio waves using a small metal antenna. Tesla sent radio signals to the using a version of remote control. The box consisted of a lever and a telegraph key and generated signals. These signals moved electrical contacts on the boat, adjusting the rudder, thereby controlling it.

Idea Catches On

Financially though, Tesla’s system was a flop. He planned on selling the system to the U.S. Navy, but the contraption was too unreliable for use in war. However, the idea caught on and spread like wild-fire to other equipment. Following in Tesla’s footsteps, Leonardo Torres-Quevedo devised a system utilising wireless telegraphs. With this system he first controlled a tricycle, then a boat, and later even submarine torpedoes.

Acts of War

These inventors led the way for the concept of remote controls. In World War I, Germany made use of such boats to launch attacks against the opposition. Hence, remote controls were the start of a new kind of warfare, which saw armies fight from a distance. During World War II, both the Germans and the Allies used several guided torpedoes and missiles.

Part of Our Lives

By the end of the 1940s though, remote controls became a part of consumer electronics, like garage doors and toys. Soon enough, several products started using technology, radically changing the technological landscape. Afterwards, Philco started production of radios utilising a wireless, battery-powered remote known as the Mystery Control. The most significant contribution, however, was of Zenith who introduced the Lazy Bones remote. Soon after, Eugene Polley made the Flashmatic TV remote, which made use of light technology.

Resounding Success

A few years later, Robert Adler, created a system which made use of ultrasonic sound in place of light. This new remote was more expensive but was still a resounding success. These clicker remotes forever changed the nature of the interaction between customers and electronic devices. It gave people the power to change channels without having to rise from their seats. Ever since then, remotes have been continually evolving, making use of IR technology, and even universal remote technology.
In 1898, the world had little understanding of Tesla’s brilliant idea. But in the years to come, the spark he started grew to become a raging flame. His innovation paved the way for future inventors to build a system that changed the world.

cleverbot

Story of Cleverbot and Rollo Carpenter

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Google Assistant surely helps us by setting reminders, sending texts, playing music and calling people on behalf of us. These are just a few things from the ample of benefits it provides. But, have you ever experienced a friendly conversation with a machine without realizing that you are talking to one.

Almost every smartphone users at least once tried to have a funny conversation with either Google or Siri, but after some point, it becomes evident that we are talking to a human-built program. The replies from the bot are not always friendly and not how humans speak to each other. This is where the true power of AI was unleashed by Rollo Carpenter when he came up with Cleverbot.

Cleverbot, a web application to serve the purpose of a chatbox was created by Rollo Carpenter. The application went public in 1997 and even passed the Turing Test with 59.3% accuracy while the minimum criterion is 30%. The application is developed entirely based on AI algorithm. It was built to serve the humans by chatting where the latter one won’t feel like it is speaking to a bot at all.

Rollo Carpenter

Having played the role of managing director for more than one company, Rollo Carpenter did some excellent works throughout his career. Born in 1965, Carpenter started his career as the co-founder of Bizfinity Inc. Through the years, Carpenter vehemently experimented with AI and ML and came up with the idea of developing a chatbox.

His main motive was to build AI-based software that can learn from the conversations carried out with humans and reply accordingly. When Cleverbot was developed, it initially conversed with Carpenter and his associates and it turned out to be very friendly and entertaining.

In 2005 and 2006, Carpenter acquired the first position in Loebner Prize Contest for his AI-based software. In October 2005, Carpenter joined Icogno Ltd as its Managing Director followed by acquiring the same position in Existor Ltd after three years. Carpenter launched his project, Jabberwacky to create AI-based entertaining chatbox and hence Cleverbot was launched as one of its product.

About Jabberwacky

Carpenter started working on Jabberwacky since 1986. He launched Cleverbot in 1997 as a product of his project, Jabberwacky. Today, Cleverbot is nothing but the updated and modified version of Jabberwacky in the market.

Carpenter started programming for a very young age and became quite impressive in managing databases at an early teen. The idea of programming a chatbot clicked in his mind when he was working with these hardcore programming languages.

The first strategy that came into his mind was building a feedback system for the bot which will help it learn from the humans. His main goal was to make the chatbot learn from humans today and implement on them tomorrow.

When Jabberwacky went online in 1997, the bot received almost 20,000 entries and carried out different conversations with every individual. In 2003, Jabberwacky crossed more than a million interactions which turned up to 150 million in 2019.

The most unique feature of this chatbot is its model is based on AI. When you speak to Google Assistant you might notice that after a certain point of time it keeps repeating a particle sequence. This elaborates the fact that any normal chatbot has a particular pattern easily distinguishable by humans. But, Jabberwacky has proved that its borrowed intelligence makes it different from most of them.

Jabberwacky’s new version, Cleverbot performed so well in convincing humans that they are not talking to a program that it passed the Turing Test with a whopping 59%.

Cleverbot

After the Cleverbot went online and passed the Turing Test a lot of modifications have been done to it. The test was conducted by IIT Guwahati on 3rd September 2011. It was declared a success when it entertained and fooled around 59.3% of participants to be exact. Since Cleverbot saved the responses from previous human interactions it improvised itself every day.

Today, Cleverbot can easily carry out around 7 million interactions at a time efficiently. Since 2014 Cleverbot has started using GPU techniques. The entire team is working on launching a new version of the chatbox implementing machine learning. Carpenter, in an interview, said that the data accumulated is more important for the software since the stored data helps it responds differently.

Broadcom

Broadcom, Success story of the communication industry

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Semiconductors are an integral part of the broadband communication industry. Products like integrated circuits, wireless networks, cable modems are in huge demand today because of the rising efficient in existing technology and making it accessible to every corner of the world.

Pioneering in the world of communication engineering, Henry Samueli along with Henry Nicholas co-founded Broadcom Corporation in 1991. The company was built mainly to produce semiconductors and products that can contribute to today’s communication system.

The company came under the acquisition of Avago Technologies in 2016 and is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. Headquartered in Irvine, California; Broadcom has made more than twenty big acquisitions till date and listed as Gartner’s Top 10 Semiconductor Vendors.

Henry Samueli

Samueli’s Jewish parents moved to the United States with nothing but lucky enough to survive in the Nazi terror land. The family ran a liquor store in Los Angeles and this is where Samueli grew up. He went to Bancroft Junior High School followed by Fairfax High School.

His great interest in electronics started growing inside him since he was a child and he built a radio all by himself in junior school. He went to UCLA School of Engineering to complete his graduation and passed with all the three successive degrees from Bachelor’s to PhD from this very place.

Samueli studied Electrical Engineering and after completing his PhD he joined UCLA as a professor. This is where he met Henry Nicholas who was a PhD scholar at UCLA. Apart from being an engineer, Samueli is also a great philanthropist who is the founding director of the Samueli Foundation, a non-profit organization. Recently, Samueli has donated $100 million for the development of UCLA.

Henry Nicholas

Nicholas was born to a prosperous family in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was four years old, his parents got divorced and he moved to Los Angeles, California with his mother and sister. Nicholas did his junior years schooling from Malibu and later went to Santa Monica High School.

Nicholas pursued his degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and before that went to the United States Air Force Academy. Nicholas received his Master’s degree from UCLA as well and got admitted for the PhD program under Samueli.

After completing his PhD, Nicholas moved to Cerritos and joined PairGain Technologies as Director of Microelectronics. But he left the company soon and joined his business partner who was also his advisor to co-found Broadcom.

History of Broadcom

In the beginning, both Samueli and Nicholas invested $5,000 from their pocket to start this business. They didn’t have a proper workplace and temporarily worked at Nicholas’s beach house. It’s a good thing one of them was a bit richer. After a year of rigorous hard work, both of them were finally able to rent an office in Westwood.

This was Broadcom Corporation’s first office which was shifted to Irvine three years later. The company went public in 1998 and made a kick-off start with serving more than fifteen countries around the world.

In 2009, the company was listed in the Fortune 500 and by this time Broadcom hired more than 11,000 employers. At the end of 2013, the company’s annual revenue summed up to a massive figure of $8.01 billion with its ranking coming down to 327 in Fortune 500.

Acquisitions

Broadcom has got a never-ending list of acquisitions starting from 1999. The company mainly bought other small semiconductor companies and networking companies like Maverick Networks, Epigram, Altocom, BlueSteel Networks and many more. Some biggest acquisitions before the company was sold were in 2000 and 2011. The company bought Silicon Spice and NetLogic Microsystems for $1 billion and $3.7 billion respectively.

End of an Era

The company which achieved a great deal of success for more than two decades came under the acquisition of Avago Technologies in 2015. The company was sold for $37 billion with Samueli becoming the CTO of the newly merged company and Nicholas playing the role of strategic advisor. After all the legal works were completed by February 2016, Cypress Semiconductor bought Broadcom’s entire IoT sector in May 2016. The acquisition was made for $550 million.

It was estimated that after the merging, Broadcom Inc. (present parent company) would have an estimated market value of $77 billion.

Broadcom Inc

The company was formerly known as Avago Technologies, that is, from 1961. Tan Hock Eng is the current CEO of the company with more than 15,000 employers to date. According to the records of 2018, the company’s annual revenue is $20.84 billion.