At this moment (as I type this), it facebook has been down since over an hour worldwide. Viewable, but nothing much else can be done. Talk about being blank π Looks like people need to resort to twitter to speak out their minds. Has the world come to an halt or the other way around?
Let the revolution began! #facebookdown
Since facebook is down, can we get back to liking each other away from keyboard in real life?
I had a good laugh at this. Of course in such a context I’ll accept, heck I’ll be thrown in regardless of my thinking π
Here is me holding my new shiny Guinness World Record certificate.
Here it is in all it’s glory.
Some more pictures in album here. So last month it was finally announced that we participants in redditgifts for secret santa 2012, now hold a new Guinness World Record for 44,805 participants successfully completing the largest online secret santa game!
What is this redditgifts you may ask. See this video below:
Last year in the month of November, I took part in this online event called secret santa, in which people (mostly redditors) sign up for taking part in a worldwide exchange, in which people anonymously (or not, depending on their choice) send gifts to each other. After the final sign-up date, users are randomly matched by the system and each participant is assigned a giftee, thus that user becoming the (secret) santa.
Just think about that for a minute: 44,805 internet strangers from 130 countries put their faith in one another and exchanged gifts. Isn’t that something beautiful? Sharing gifts and happiness all over the world, and a world record just for being nice. π (and spending a bit of money, in my case thanks to my nice mom π but it’s the thinking and effort that counts)
Going backwards, it’s these small things which make the big picture. And this was my first exchange in which I took part in, and it was so great that it’s still there after almost a year. And earlier today holding that certificate is really a milestone! I’m now officially a Guinness World Record holder! Can’t thank redditgifts enough! π
They have awesome exchanges throughout the year, on different themes and occasions, and since then I’ve become a regular enthusiast there. Can’t wait for ss again this year in the coming months, and hopefully we’ll break the record again! You can take part too this time when it arrives and give it a shot! You can find me on redditgifts here and at reddit here. See you around!
Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012. Teaming up with IndiBlogger this is a multi-in-one entry for The Idea Caravan focusing on the several issues which each speaker spoke about respectively all with the basic backing power of today’s technology – The spark that runs today’s lives. (spark comes from electricity, though I didn’t have to explain that, did I?)
The beginning is in closing the gaps
“We didn’t knew what it was for, or why we want this but we knew it was definitely interesting.” – Matt Johnson
After seeing this talk, just one word reaction – WOW! This is called hitting several birds issues with one shot. Right from a child to an artist, engineer, educator or anyone else, anyone can be an innovator! The possibilities of having people of several expertise coming together and creating wonders is infinite. This is nothing short of magic, literally d rawing stuff our of paper and making it spring out alive!
Not only you are creating many wonderful products, but creating a platform for many to come up with innovation multiplying the end result. Everyone has an artist and an engineer in themselves, of varying proportions. But now both of them can come together with their best strengths and compliment each other.
Bringing out the innovator and entrepreneur in one which is wonderful (and required) right from an early age is what we need. How wonderful will the world be when we can have posters of our favourite artists which can actually sing for us and children & disabled drawing things which come out alive? To start something with the future unknown, just as everyone begins their lives, to endless possibilities?
We need such a world, people ready to dare beyond the horizon. And it all begins with simple steps. As promptly said “To discover the purpose of things is the work of history.”
Challenging and overcoming the failing system
“I truly love circumventing limitations.” – Angad Nadkarni
Hacking as well described by the speaker, is just about 3 things.
Being a computer enthusiast myself, what I would like to add no this is hacking isn’t about getting just into computers and systems, but rather extended to everything in and around our lives. There many who indulge in it without even realizing it themselves. And there are those whom we call ‘life hackers’. The above 3 simple principles can be applied in any other scenario in life (and bonus, you don’t need to write thousands of lines of code too!)
In this context, when growing up, the next phase of a person’s life – Education, which can last a lifetime, is sadly growing to be a joke here. That too a bad one. Students are burdened with too much than required (torture will be a mild word here)
Children are taught what to think instead of how to think. They grow on to become mechanical beings following orders than becoming innovators.
The speaker devised an app called examify, based on few simple principles, figuring out what is needed among the demo-graph, devising something simple and effective and eliminating what is unnecessary, precisely what the aforementioned 3 points are. Not only you are doing a service, but also exercising entrepreneurship lessons and overcoming a failing system, here being the current education system.
People are afraid to get out of their comfort zone, stand up and challenge and establish order. You will be criticized, and given crap, but that’s what the world does, drag you down (that is debatable but generally speaking) one has to stand up for themselves and bring about to change. This problem extends from an personal/individual right to the national and as a human level, but time and again in history it’s all about stepping up in the game.
And, from the talk, you also learn how to make a cool exit. π
Self-learn and Experiment
“I had no choice but the Internet itself to be my teacher.”
– Usman Riaz
We are a generation, especially those were born in the ’80s and ’90s are fortunate to witness the rise of technology and the Internet revolution, just like those back in history witnessed the Renaissance and Industrial revolution. We live in a strange time where we have no appropriate means of learning due to many flaws and reasons, and yet, thanks to improving technology and the Internet we have information and resources at our finger tips. The above talk is a classic example of this.
The speaker not only learned to play the guitar, but also other instruments (YAY YouTube! and Google), became a TED fellow and performed with his own inspiration! That is the power of today’s tools at our disposal, we only need to be willing and brave enough to use them. What is also very much needed is access to Internet (good connections moreover, we are a laughing stock at one of the worst speeds in the world) to be made available to everyone at affordable rates so that all can make use of it, from farmers to students to industrialists.
The Power of Human Connection
“I knew I had to do something about it.”
– Karthik Naralasetty
In the past 5 years, the rise of social media was tremendous and continues to be so. For many that is a big part of the Internet, if not the Internet itself! And they are factually not wrong either, just look at the numbers. Staying in touch with people from your day to day colleagues to people you have not met in years and miles or even countries across the world apart. As much as we keep hearing about all the negativism among all the bad happenings, because only the complainers and cribbers are more vocal. The very reason why we have ‘complaint centers’ nicely dubbed as ‘customer care’ while for ‘appreciation and feedback’ there is only a box compared to whole venues of the former…
Today, than just few years ago, thanks to social media we get almost everything on a daily basis, ranging from news, entertainment, networking and much more, all structured around staying connected. Trailers, campaign movements, events, you name it. When used right, this is one of the most powerful mediums of expression and sharing we have. That’s how this speaker created another product but very important and helpful, a facebook hack as you might put it, called Socialblood which he shares and talks about in his story. This is just one of many brilliant innovative ideas sprung out of two things – creativity and a thinking of helping others.
Here he rightfully points out, we have a global compassion crisis. As much as we like to think how good we are, actually many are more apathetic than they know. We live in a time where pizza gets delivered quicker than an ambulance. But now, thanks to the tools we have, it just needs a common will of working for the greater good.
Giving Back
“I have a great debt to the planet.” – JoΓ£o Lammoglia
If I were to summarize this talk, the speaker already did it, winning the room:
“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force.” – Darth Vader
These words from one of the most iconic figures in pop culture is very much in resonance with our reality. Here, the metaphor to the force is the human energy. The human spirit. Mankind together as one. If you have seen the The Matrix (or simply paid attention in science class when you were) then you might know how much energy our human body itself is capable of generating. So much that in the movie the AI beings didn’t even bother about the sun anymore and held humans captive for energy and mass breed them.
Although we aren’t in such a terrible state (yet?), after learning from since kid to growing up, how much we can progress ourselves thanks to technological advancement, helping not only ourselves but each other, it’s naturally a two way street – we owe it to nature, or as geeks fondly know it as ‘the force’. Plus it’s for our own good as well. We can charge our various gadgets we depend on so much today and get exercise, which many of us evidently need.
As he pointed out, what’s more important than the product itself, is the concept, the idea – that we can be the part of the solution when many of the problems are the direct result of our advancement. We have been learning about boring environmental lessons since we were kids in school but the fact remains as citizens it’s our responsibility to be aware and make others aware asΒ well, and help get the governments and other bodies to implement non-renewable sources of energy to work to an everyday practical extent.
Summing it up:
So these were 5 videos which spoke to me a lot when I saw each speaker sharing their tales and their work. As you might have read by now, a very common theme ran among all of them, and quite ironically, they seem to be a step-by-step guide (as I listed and posted) since when you are kid to growing up and rather than a linear line, it forms a cycle as on needs to be tackled
If you are reading this, than congrats! You’re already capable of doing everything mentioned above. So just go for it! The spark does run lives. Both figuratively and literally. I hope you enjoyed this post. π
Today, what good or harm facebook does (and by extension the Internet) is a rather popular topic apart from themselves.
Like most things in the world, there are many sides to everything and not all are black and white. Here are two articles rather stories which provoke some a lot of thoughts and give quite some insight.
I read this article by The Verge author Paul Miller, whoβll tell you itβs not the internet thatβs ruining us, weβre our own worst enemies. Miller recently came back to the internet after one year of self-imposed exile: no email, no Twitter, no Facebook, no Google Maps, period. Many would claim such a thing is impossible in today’s age. yet they forget or rather mostly don’t know that despite a steady growth only 2.4 billion people use or have access to the internet as of June 2012 out of the 7 billion population of our planet.
Now here I would specifically want to talk about the so called ‘smartphones’ era, whether they are a blessing to us, or a curse, though a lot other aspects of technology especially relate to this and play a major role too. I really enjoyed reading Miller’s piece, he describing his endeavors in the ‘free real world’, and his ending with his conversation with his 5 year old niece, who didn’t knew what ‘the internet’ itself was but knew everything about Skype due to it being always used and though her uncle simply didn’t want to talk to her, not questioning his absence of conversation. That really got to me too. Children of this generation pick up things so fast, they are ‘born’ with the (so called) modern world of ours.
And hey, if someone paid me for something like this, I would drop everything and do it! It’s not just the money but would be a very welcome different thing to do. Though the money helps too. π But I personally would like to tell you it might be a big thing at start, but as does everything, eventually you get used to it, however troublesome it is. I lived some weeks without internet, and months all together without a laptop or phone, let alone a ‘smart’ phone. I remember over 2 years ago, plotting and begging my parents to get me a new computer, after which it was rewarding in getting my first Alienware laptop, and I got my first ‘smart’ phone, rather a new phone after over 3 years of using spares of my parents, my ex, my friends and colleagues and remaining without one or no means of contact (except the internet) for months. It was a real pain, I feel I had been through hell at such times. But amusingly it was fun in a strange way too. I spend a lot of hours in front of my laptop, but the first one to jump out at the notice of anything. My parents are still surprised why I’m not blind yet though. Also I barely use my phone, I don’t find myself comfortable in this chatting and clicking everything you eat and shit which people indulge in these days.
So in short, answering is a ‘smart’ phone a blessing or a curse?: It’s very much a blessing indeed. Made lot of things convenient for me personally and otherwise. But remember, contrary to popular belief, marketing and propaganda by the corps bent on ruling over the world, your phone is NOT an extension of YOU. You are what you, around you and your life is about. I don’t even keep my phone beside me when I go to sleep, I keep a notebook and a pen instead to write down anything worth remembering which would strike. Though I haven’t been able to write down anything worthwhile so far, it’s still a start. You ought to do the same, that’s one very useful tip I got from WordPress. π
This must be one of the most relevant documentaries of our times, telling the tale of one of the world’s most famous sites The Pirate Bay. While I personally don’t fully condone piracy, this is a tale of our internet culture and in a way, freedom of expression.
You can watch it fully in HD below on Youtube, or download it from torrents in 480p, 720p and 1080p formats. Yeah this time it IS legal so don’t shy away π
Visit the TPB AFK site and support it by buying it if you can. I know quite ironic to buy something which is the pioneer of piracy.
Spread and share the film online and offline. This is the documentary of our times.
There is no real life, just AFK.
There was a dream, of a better world, A world where people are connected and free. Connected by a space covering most of the planet (?) called the Internet. Cyberspace. Not created by some god, but by some men, throughout time, from the machine hardware to the personal computer, the internet to the world wide web, all being shaped bits and pieces, another world created by these ‘founding fathers’ and millions billions of people.
This is a story of one of these men, or more precisely a young man. Just like many of us, interested in computers and the ever changing each moment, ever growing Internet Culture. He who as a boy made it easy for you to get all your news, politics, hobbies, blogs and all interests in one convenient place for you to read, aka RSS whose first specification he had co-authored. He helped create the internet’s (unofficial) front page of the Internet, reddit.
The young man didn’t stop there. When the world continued going down drain at an accelerated rate, when freedom of expression was being threatened everywhere, just as we have soldiers protecting our lands, he one of them who was trying to protect our second world. When the rich, the corrupt tried crossing the lines, there were some like him who opposed the oppressors.
But not all tales end with a happy note. The man who fought against SOPA/PIPA, who tried to make information and knowledge free for the public got trapped in controversies and conspiracies and faced charges for fighting for this world’s freedom. Depression made him away go away, no one might know what was in his mind before he departed.
On January 11, 2013, we lost this fighter. A friend. RIP Aaron Swartz. Your work will continue and never be forgotten by the countless faceless ones.
You can check out what his family, friends, colleagues and others have to say here.
This post was made for the Daily Prompt: Ripped from theΒ Headlines! after seeing my favourite daily digest news blog Mashable, and with thanks to that my small tribute to him.
The Nameless One 