We're opting for 2LO in this guide because it's better suited for server-to-server communication.

Prerequisites:

• Google Workspace Account

• Access to the Admin Dashboard in Workspace for Domain Wide Delegation

Step 1: Setting Up a Project

1. Create a new project on Google Cloud or use an existing one.

Step 2: Enabling the Gmail API

1. Go to the API and Services section and select Library from the menu.

2. Search for Gmail and select Gmail API and click Enable.

   

Step 3: Creating a Service Account

1. Navigate to API and Services, then click on Credentials.

2. Choose to create new credentials and select Service Account.

3. Fill in the required details and click Done.

   

4. Under the newly created service account, go to the Keys tab and click Add Key.

   

5. Choose Key type as JSON and click create. This will download the JSON file which will be used later.

   

6. Copy the Unique ID from the details tab.

Step 4: Domain Wide Delegation

1. Go to the Admin Console, then to Security, and select API Controls.

2. Click on Domain-wide Delegation or visit this link: https://admin.google.com/ac/owl/domainwidedelegation

3. Add a new entry, paste the Unique ID into the Client ID field, and add "https://mail.google.com/" under OAuth Scopes.

   

4. Click Authorize.

Step 5: Setting Up Nodemailer Transport

1. In the downloaded JSON file from Step 3, keep only the private_key, client_id, and token_uri.

2. Add a new key named user with values as the email associated with the project. This email will be used by the app to send out emails

3. For simplicity, rename the downloaded file to auth.json.

    let auth = require('auth.json');
   
    // For .env freaks, use btoa(JSON.stringify(auth.json))
    // and store the base64 output in .env auth key
    // const auth = JSON.parse(atob(process.env.AUTH))
   
    let transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
      service: 'gmail',
       auth: {
        type: 'OAuth2',
        user: auth.user,
        serviceClient: auth.client_id,
        privateKey: auth.private_key,
        accessUrl: auth.token_uri,
       }
    });
   

That's it folks. If you encounter any issues or have questions, don't hesitate to reach out for further assistance. Happy emailing!

In my quest to resolve this issue, I performed a series of troubleshooting steps, including:

• Defragmenting my drive
• Dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
• sfc /scannow
• chkdsk /f /r /x
• Clearing out File Explorer thumnail cache
• Checking event logs of explorer.exe for possible crashes/issues
• Reinstalling VLC

Despite these efforts, the problem persisted.

After some digging, I discovered that the root cause of the problem lies in the thumbnail generation process. While temporarily switching views or disabling thumbnails proved to be a workaround, I knew this wasn’t the exact solution.

Thus I gathered all the video files in a folder and relocate them to other folders which I rarely use. A breakthrough came when I installed PowerToys, featuring a tool called LockSmith. Running this tool on the MKV folder revealed that a process called dllhost.exe was consistently locking the MKV files. Terminating this process allowed File Explorer to successfully load and generate thumbnails for some files, but the problem persisted due to recurring locks.

The best explanation I found was: “As an example, a COM object may be used in handling media files such as videos for the generation of a Windows Thumbnail. Sometimes the file; DLLHost.exe may hold the File Handle of the media file in an “Open” state and this may not allow that file to be moved or deleted. Thus causing a “file lock error”.”

Upon inspecting each file, it became evident that only x265/HEVC files were being locked, while x264 files generated thumbnails successfully. The focus narrowed down to x265/HEVC files as the root cause of the issue.

From what was now known, I looked into installed apps that could be handling HEVC Files. This unveiled the culprit: “HEVC Video Extensions” by Microsoft. Uninstalling this application proved to be the correct step as I no longer ran into this issue again, thus eliminating the infinite loading issue in File Explorer.

Additionally, you can install “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer“, to generate thumbnails for HEVC files.

TL;DR:

In summary, the infinite loading issue in File Explorer for x265/HEVC video files is caused by the Microsoft’s “HEVC Video Extension“. Uninstalling it and installing “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer” resolves the problem.

For those who don’t know, Miracast is a wireless display standard developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It allows users to mirror the screen of a compatible device, such as a smartphone, tablet, or PC, onto a larger display, such as a TV or monitor. With Miracast, you can effortlessly share photos, videos, presentations, and more without the need for cables or additional hardware.

The reason Miracast doesn’t work out of the box is due to missing packages in the Windows Installation. Fortunately, there’s a way to resolve this issue and install these missing packages.

Please note that the following steps assume you have the en-US edition of the system. If you have a different language pack, make sure to replace the LanguagePack (3.zip) file with the appropriate one for your PC.

Steps to Enable Miracast:

1. Download the zip packages: MiraCast Support Files. If you prefer, you can also download the original files and use software like 7zip to extract the ESD files. For your convenience, I have zipped the extracted files together.

2. Extract the 1.zip, 2.zip and 3.zip in their respective folders.

3. Start the CMD/Powershell from the base folder, ie the folder under which these files were extracted.

4. Run the following commands:

    dism /online /Add-Package /PackagePath:1\Microsoft-Windows-RegulatedPackages-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.1.mum
   

    dism /online /Add-Package /PackagePath:2\Microsoft-Windows-RegulatedPackages-wow64-package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.1.mum
   

    dism /online /Add-Package /PackagePath:3\update.mum
   

5. Restart your device.

6. Open the Settings app and go to “App & features” and then “Optional Features.”

7. Click on “Add a Feature” and search for “Wireless Display.”

8. Install the feature.

That’s it! Wireless Display should now be enabled and ready to use on your device.

Image Credits: PcWord

On the other hand, all the modern Laptops/Computers run on Central Processing Units (CPUs) which are x86-64 (or amd64/x64) architecture based. These CPUs are exclusively designed and developed by two companies, namely AMD & Intel. These CPU then sits on motherboard manufactured by some other companies. These motherboards will then in turn have their own designs & support for different hardware (like GPU, Sound Card, Lan Ports & etc).

The ARM model is now also penetrating in the Laptop/PC space, as last year Apple started pushing it’s own in-house developed ARM based SOCs to its Mac line-up following the Steps of Microsoft which has been porting Windows 10 to ARM for a while.

RISC vs CISC: The long-lasting battle:

Before delving onto RISC-V, lets us first understand what do we even mean by RISC.

Above, I have used ARM. So, ARM based chips are family of chips that use Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). While earlier iterations of x86-64 were Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) based but the modern-day iterations of x86-64 does have included bits of RISC too making it somewhat a hybrid.

RISC is built to minimize the instruction execution time by optimizing and limiting the number of instructions. It means each instruction cycle requires only one clock cycle. On other hand, CISC approach is to reducing the number of instructions on each program and ignoring the number of cycles per instruction. Therefore, a program might need less step on CISC than RISC as often a single Complex instruction on CISC will equal to performing multiple instruction on RISC.

We might think that 2nd seems a better approach & might give better performance, but that’s not how it plays as each system requires exactly the same time to execute a program. This is mainly due to the fact that CISC will take as many clock cycles as RISC approach. Therefore, RISC based chips are also much more power efficient than their CISC counterparts, allowing for longer battery life on Mobile/IoT based products, thus making them more useful & viable.

What is RISC -V then?

Reduced Instruction Set Computer – V or RISC-V is a free and open ISA which enables a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. The project began in 2010 at the University of California, Berkeley along with many volunteer contributors. RISC-V is established on reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles thus leveraging it’s overall benefits.

The goal was to make a practical ISA that was open-sourced, usable academically and in any hardware or software design. The RISC-V ISA is thus provided under open-source licenses, allowing it to be used without royalties unlike ARM’s licensing. RISC-V has a modular design, consisting of alternative base parts, with added optional extensions. Therefore, RISC-V combines a modular technical approach with an open license business model, meaning that anyone, anywhere can leverage the IP contributed and produced by RISC-V International to build products.

Semiconductor Industry is very hard to penetrate industry for any company due to enormous cost of development (Think Billions of Dollars) & production that is involved upfront. RISC-V was able to break down many barriers in the semiconductor industry, bringing together different companies, industries, and geographies for open collaboration.

The Indian Outlook:

Semiconductor is the one of the key components that is very essential to build the infrastructure for modern, secure, self-reliant digital India. India has significantly lagged in semiconductor technology whereas many of its neighbouring Asian countries were able to keep up with development like China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan & etc.

India currently has no consumer foundries yet and thus Indian government is once again trying to get a fabrication plant setup in India. Recently, the Indian government has announced that $1 Billion+ will be made available in Cash to Chip-maker companies that sets up manufacturing units in the India as part of its “Make in India” Initiative. The government is hoping to build on its ever-growing smartphone assembly industry to strengthen its electronics supply chain. The locally manufactured chips will further bring down the cost of a Smartphone & IoT based products and reduce imports. The chips that will be made locally will also be designated as “trusted sources” and will be used in products ranging from CCTV cameras to 5G equipment in future. It should finally help India Gain a foothold in Semiconductor Industry as the growing demand for electronic Smart Devices has only exploded since COVID-19 era.

In 2020, the government also announced a national competition to foster the use of the nation’s homegrown RISC-V microprocessor designs in the hope the tech will eventually replace imported parts, and be used to create products in demand around the world.

Credits: Openhwgroup’s CVA6 – 6-stage, single issue, in-order CPU on RISC-V ISA

Shakti Processors – IIT M:

The SHAKTI Processor Program, was started as an academic initiative back in 2014 by the Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) group at IIT-Madras. It is completely Open-source Project like RISC-V. The major aim of the Project is to bridge the gap between academia and industry, to provide innovative and customized solutions without the hassles of royalties!

The SHAKTI project is currently building a family of 6 processors, based on the RISC-V ISA. The project has currently developed an Embedded class (called E-Class) and Controller class (called C-Class) of processor based on the RISC-V ISA. Shakti have been taped out and fabricated at 180nm by the Indian government’s Semi-conductor Laboratory in Chandigarh (A 200mm fab owned by ISRO), and at 22nm by Intel’s foundry with FinFET+ technology. Last Year, Indian defence and strategic sector also started using the Risecreek processor (64-bit RISC-V based, clocked at 100-350 MHz) developed by IIT-M and fabricated by Intel.

C-DAC’s VEGA:

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is also developing VEGA Processor. These Processors are also based on RISC-V ISA. VEGA is a series of 32-bit/64-bit Single/Multi-core Superscalar In-order/Out-of-Order high performance processors integrated with Multi-level Caches, MMU and Coherent Interconnect.

Future Prospects:

Linux Kernel & its related tools have already implemented support required to bootup RISC-V based processor. RISC-V based CPUs are also already deployed in some data centres & many other areas of Server Infrastructure. Since, development cycle for processors are generally long (3-4 years at minimum), we should expect a lot more variety as more companies start releasing their own works in future.

In mobile especially, replacing ARM will be a challenge that cannot be achieved in a year or two given its deep ties in both the Android & iOS ecosystem where apps & games are optimized on ARM’s architecture. Additionally, there is not much traction where RISC-V based SoCs are in development for such use case. This might change in due time as more companies wouldn’t want to continue paying for ARM’s licensing fees and build around RISC-V for long term benefits.

Many companies like Alibaba Group, SiFive, Western Digital & lot more institutes & organizations have already forayed into building and developing products based on it. Recently, Intel announced its plan to open its foundries to fabricate RISC-V & ARM chips as part of new business strategy. This could be very helpful in the long run as companies will have wider sources from where they could fabricate their chips.

Though may be not this decade but surely in the next coming decades, RISC-V will definitely standout as ISA for ALLL and will get more mainstreamed as the time & resources that are required to build semiconductors are invested. On a different note, we should also think that the vast potential of RISC-V will be definitely tapped into in this decade as general IoT based products could be available by mid or end of decade at latest. So do keep an eye out on those when they are available. As we also seen, RISC-V will also bring many benefits for India as whole as many Indian companies could build around it to build their next-gen smart products to avoid licensing fees for ARM & avoid making something from scratch-up.

(The article too was also written for the College Magazine. You can find the entire copy of the magazine here: https://www.tcetmumbai.in/COMP/E-magazine/NIMBUS%202021.pdf)

So, What is Blockchain?

It all started in 1982, when a Cryptographer named David Chaum proposed a blockchain-like protocol in his dissertation but it only gained traction in 2008, when a single/group of Developer(s) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto released a white paper and thus established the blockchain.

The simplest dictionary definition we can say is “A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that’s duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain. Each block within the chain contains a cryptographic hash (Hashing is method to map arbitrary data into a bit array of fixed size) of previous block (to form a chain. With this, you can trace back it back to the very first block, which is also often referred as genesis block), a trusted timestamp & batch of verified transaction which are hashed & encoded into a Hash/Merkle tree. Each time a brand-new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to each participant’s ledger. This enables the Blockchain Technology to be used for fund transfers, settling trades, voting & many other”

An Example of Blocks in Blockchain. Credits: Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: A Systematic Review by Cornelius C. Agbo, Qusay H. Mahmoud & J. Mikael Eklund

In simpler words, think Blockchain as a register where you note down transactions but with permanent ink. The new transactions are recorded immediately and they cannot be changed. This register is accessible to all. People can also register themselves as Accountants (think Miners) who can verify the transactions added on the register(mining). This technology is termed as Blockchain.

This blockchain network is decentralized, such that, all those who want to use blockchain network run it instead of some central entity. This doesn’t allow any misuse & nobody can change value in the register to give themselves a X amount, increasing overall trust in the network.

An Example of Merkle tree. Credits: MOF-BC: A Memory Optimized and Flexible BlockChain for Large Scale Networks by Ali Dorri, Raja Jurdak & Salil S. Kanhere

The Proof War: Proof Of Work VS Proof Of Stake

How do we verify the transactions without any third party? Meaning, we can be 100% sure that no one is double spending or doing some mischievous work. Well, Proof of Work (PoW) & Proof of Stake (PoS) are the answer. PoS is older than PoW and works on basis of Advanced Mathematics called “cryptography”. Cryptography refers use of very difficult mathematical equations that only powerful computers can solve them. Drawbacks of PoW are that it requires significant amount of electricity & it can only process a limited set of transactions in a limited time given the complexity to solve the problem. Example: In Bitcoin, every 10 Minutes a new block(think a page in register) is created & as we learned that each block contains multiple transaction, therefore each block that is created comes with its own set of unique transaction which are to then be independently verified. To tackle these issues, PoS was created in 2012 by Scott Nadal and Sunny King. In PoS, participants will stake their own assets and may get selected randomly or by using predefined algorithm. The system purely works on economic incentives & punish the participants who try to add false transaction by taking away their part/full of their stake & rewarding them with transaction fees.

Ok, I somewhat understand Blockchain, then What is Cryptocurrency?

Simply stating, Cryptocurrency is a use case of Blockchain Technology. It refers to digital currency which uses strong cryptography to make it almost impossible to counterfeit & double spend. Most Widely used Cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and many more. Each of these currency employs their own version of Proof Of Work (PoW) or Proof Of Stake (PoS) system to verify the validity of blocks/transaction thus in the end giving some value to miners/stakers. The value of these currency depends on Supply/Demand as each currency is limited in the amount at the time of creation. The post-pandemic has definitely given cryptocurrency a huge surge causing the current market cap for crypto (As of April, 2021) to be whopping $2+ Trillion. To give some perspective, India’s stock market is $2.7 Trillion.

The Future Of Blockchain:

I always like to think that the past decade was only the testing ground for this game changing tech. The most successful use was obviously in CryptoCurrency, where “Bitcoin” its oldest Player was in headlines at various points throughout the decade. At the start of the decade, Bitcoin had just reached parity with Dollar and by the end of that decade it was more than $30,000, it all-time high throughout that decade. In this Year (2021) alone it reached it’s all-time High Value in Mid May 2021 at $61,000+ & is currently (As of April 10, 2021) sitting at the price of ~$60,000 and have the market cap of $1.1+ Trillion.

Some of the Emerging use of Blockchain Technology:

Now, that we understood about fundamental of Blockchain, let’s take a look at what the future may hold for Blockchain as Technology. Below listed are some of the best use cases that we should definitely keep an eye on.

1. Smart Contracts: It is probably one the most promising use case outside cryptocurrency. A Smart Contract is program that automatically enforces a contract once a predetermined condition is met & verified. The program is stored on blockchain & works on conditional statements that are written in the code. Therefore, it cannot be changed once deployed. Let’s take an automobile as an example. So we start by defining a smart contract for every automobile, and then we record every transaction (sale, service, etc.) on the blockchain. This gives buyers/sellers the ability to easily inspect and trust the history of every car before someone buys.
2. Financial Services: A research by reason revealed that many Banks in the US has shown interest in moving away from their existing systems to create private blockchain and implementing distributed ledgers for use in banking
3. Supply Chain: Walmart is already using Blockchain in their Supply chain monitoring system in partnership with IBM & other players. It will allow for tracing of the products very easily & will be very helpful in finding out problematic suppliers or finding the source of contamination in a product. More companies are expected to introduce similar system in their supply chains as fear of COVID-19 like Virus will persist throughout the decade. This will be key technology to keep track of any contamination thus avoiding risk of shutdown for those corporations.
4. Domain Name: With Blockchain-based domain names, the domain names would be entirely be the assets of the owner of the domain and can only be controlled by his private key. This will allow more freedom & resist censorship as no third party could hijack the domain and take it under their control. This is also a very emerging use case which can cause rippling effects throughout the web.
5. Identity Management: Personal ID has always been targeted by malicious people to gain access either to your bank accounts or profit from your data. With the help of blockchain, storing digital information will be a lot easier & safer and importantly unalterable. They will use Public & private Keys to verify ownerships & gain trust. The Identity is to be self-sovereign, meaning the Owner could update their data (verification by third party in case required), Hide particular information & etc. A more standardized ID could be could be made that can be accepted globally & be trusted could arrive in this decade.
6. Data Storage: One potential use is decentralizing cloud data storage. This will improve reliance & will allow the data to be accessible in case one node is disturbed. Further trusted timestamp will allow people to know who changed the data & when.

All Big & Small Enterprise have also started developing & testing products based around blockchain technology. We should expect a lot more real world use case Blockchain based Technology in this coming decade as more people fiddle around the tech & build more reliable & successful product. The coming decade is full of promise considering the wide commercial success it had in the previous one.

Disclaimer: At the time of Writing, I own various cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin.

(This was an article I have written for college magazine. You can check out other articles here: https://www.tcetmumbai.in/COMP/E-magazine/NIMBUS%202021.pdf)