We learn something everyday// A nerdy blogpost

            I joined college in early August of 2015, in Sriperumbudur. I chose to pursue Electrical and Electronics Engineering with input from my mother. A month into the program I was at the crossroads of shifting my course to Computer Science Engineering. I'd asked my sister who was one year into studying Computer science Engineering in Banglore at the time about how dry or not dry, how hard or not hard the subjects in CSE were for her and she told me the difficulty was medium level and assuring me to go ahead with the switch and also computers and coding had been picking up pace among engineering students during that time. I decided to go ahead with my current course which had a few familiar topics in physics that I was fairly comfortable with. But in the back of my mind, I wished I'd made the switch. I also wish I took up environmental engineering in SRM while I had the chance but no, this post is about how the tiniest of the computer things make me excited, so let's focus on this one for now.

Fast forward into one year of the four-year program, I scratched the surface of the dark web, discovered VPN, and this was only because I wanted to have access to the websites the college network had blocked such as Youtube.

I was quite the introvert for the first two years of college (what's not to say I still am?) so computer and the empty hostel galley were my safe spaces. My sister even referred to my PC as my soulmate, and that's one soulmate I wouldn't give up on!  So, in summary, I was more comfortable being around my computer, the internet than around people. 

 I would scour the internet for ways to watch and download video files, tampered with my laptop's wifi settings, trying to learn about proxy IP addresses which I made sure didn't fall under the category of felony because the wifi rules of the college clearly stated that finding ways to get around their wifi would not be tolerated. Besides, the boys in the men's hostel had already found ways to get their hands on the blocked websites.

Time went by and I have a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering now.

Yesterday, while I was looking for ways to transfer images onto my iPhone from a Windows OS I came across a super-helpful article on HFS, thank God for engineers who also happen to be writers, no, not me, I have been more into digital marketing, I'm talking about the kind of writers who write about what they studied on their journey to their Bachelor's degree.

You can click here to view the said article.

With an iPhone that has very less storage, it is an absolute struggle having huge data to hoard, trying to find ways to store it and an even bigger hurdle is looking for ways to transfer hundreds of photos between an iOS device and a Windows platform. I was delighted to have found this way, but the bigger question was could I pull off this stunt? I could. It was a cakewalk, mostly owing to the fact that it had nothing to do with coding. Phew! I remember how much learning HTML used to excite me in 10th grade. I mean what could be more fun than having the skill and the chance of creating a webpage?! Not just for a school project but for those times when you're bored and you would like to meddle with the spacing of the background image or making a webpage or a link open in a new tab. Sounds pretty basic now, not back then. The excitement of the page fully loading, seeing your code come to life. Couldn't be prouder!

// *Sighs* Those were the years. A continuous five years in CBSE and then a long, two-month break before I was welcomed by State Board. It was like I was missing something. The transition from CBSE to State Board was not smooth owing to some psychological (the shift in itself) and academic factors (lack of continuation of what I learnt towards the end in 10th grade and what and where I picked up learning in the 11th grade, it felt like the bridge that was supposed to connect both the kinds of syllabuses was non-existent). And lastly, I changed groups, went for biology, left my nascent coding skills to collect dust. And did I fare well in learning biology? Kinda. But the journey was a hard one. Always a battle between what you are comfortable with and how well you can challenge yourself, am I right?//

So, getting back to yesterday's discovery, I thought to myself maybe I still have it in me. Although what I stumbled upon was much, much easier compared to a hundred-page code, it felt refreshing to have helped myself solve a problem. A pat on my own back:)

"So, you say you found a loophole in visiting websites five years ago and now you found a way to transfer files in your home network, good for you, but what does it have to do with anything now?"

 I ask myself this, yes, I ask myself, I do. I even slept on it last night. How could I not have a self-depreciative inner voice and make it through 22 years of my life? This is not a sappy Disney movie, this is life and it throws choices at you from time to time. These two feats surely have me thinking I may have something for computers but it also gives me a sense of new beginnings. While this may or may not be perfectly backed with the inconsistent passion of mine for computers all the time, ( inconsistent because the list of hobbies I have is.... let's say it's diverse and I gotta keep up with all of them) the thought that I can still choose to pursue Computer science engineering in my masters someday makes me feel a little happy as though that would fulfil my deep-seated wanting to have a degree that has my family referring to me when I walk across the room as "computer nerd" or "coder" or "computer science engineer" or "software engineer" or " developer" wow there are a lot of names I could get called if I chose this one. It sure as heck would be nice but how consistent would I be with it if I invested time and money for another 3 years? There's something I could sleep on tonight.

"What about my Renewable engineering idea?"

Uh, that could make a cameo, I guess.

PS: I redid the transfer again today for documentation purposes.  Here's how the transfer went, CBSE Q&A/exam style.

Question 1: Write briefly on how to use an HFS program to transfer files. Brownie points for extra effort like using screengrabs and including additional pointers.

• Download the HFS/ HTTP File Server program.
• Run it
• Click anywhere on the Virtual File System pane and select the folder for transfer
• Copy the web address form the URL bar (number, dot and forward slash combination) from the search bar onto the Safari page on the iPhone
• Download the contents of the folder

Had to wrap it up with the screenshots due to examination time constraint. ( It do be like that XD)

                                                                              Fin.

To the reader in this special Post Script: I learnt a miscellany of things such as hits and was blown away by the fact that all this took place so seamlessly at the comfort of one's own LAN connection. I tried doing it using my mobile data to see if that works but like I'd expected, it did not work. I realised that there is always something new to learn. I could have used Telegram to transfer files but I assumed this method wouldn't use the internet but I was wrong, it created a pathway in the home network's server to send and receive files. For some reason, this method felt super secure too! 

If this blogpost helped someone, yaaay, go me! Pass the link of the medium article or the link of my blogpost along that way it may come in handy to someone who may be in need of this information. I also pray for them to buy a phone with more storage next time as I would pray for myself.

Stay healthy & hydrated folks!