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Aswin Chandrr, from India, is a MSc student in Biorobotics at the faculty of 3mE. (Photo: webcam/Ramesh)

“I first got my hands on to a computer when I was 10 years old. It did not take long before I was teaching grownups on how to use the internet or operate those seemingly complex functions. In the beginning it was just about games and chat rooms, but gradually in high school I got really interested in programming, which continued into my university life. While at the university, I realized just how much computers impact my daily life.

In my opinion, one of the best developments of internet has been remote access and cloud sharing. I use team-viewer in extreme frequency to access computers at my lab and work place from the comfort of my home. Even before the advent of Dropbox, I made use of Windows Skydrive to share and access files. Open course-ware lectures, especially from NPTEL and MIT were of great help when I wanted to reach beyond my primary academic interests. Recently, Stanford has introduced a online lecture series for Artificial Intelligence where real-time lectures can be watched from any part of the world and the viewer can actually be a part of the course by completing assignments and sending them over to the professors who grade them. At the end of the lecture series, on completion of all the assignments and a final written exam, we get a certificate from Stanford University.

Outside academics, I have recently developed an interest in photography. But a tight work schedule has restricted me from taking up a professional training class for it. Nevertheless, online training classes have been really useful in learning the tricks of the trade. What intrigues me most is the amount of technical details which I can learn from these online sites. I am an engineer and more interested in the technical aspects of photography as much as the artistic side of it. The internet is of course a wonderful place to get my skills in tune with my expectations.

To relieve myself from stress and attain an inner peace, I use ‘napuru’, which contains troves of information about meditation and self-realization. And for all those who want to avoid using torrents for watching movies, there is icefilms, which is godsend and contains every possible English movie I ever wanted to watch. And for my salsa addiction, I have addicted2salsa.com, which teaches advanced salsa lessons free of cost. I can keep going if there was enough space, but as with the internet, there is not enough space to put in all the stuff you want to put in.” 

My favorites:
strobist.blogspot.com
digital-photography-school.com
nptel.iitm.ac.in
napuru.com