Internet Abstinence Week : Fingers crossed

Life has never been faster, Enter the Internet.

Oh, really...?

 Would Edison have invented the bulb, if he was busy updating his Facebook status, tweeting, liking and commenting Madam Curie's pics?

Or would Einstein have had the mental energy to imagine himself sitting on a photon, while replying to his patent office manager via Blackberry?

Thankfully, I am exactly in such a position now. A chance to think out of the Ether.

 

Start: 12.00 am : 29th Nov.2011

End : 12.00 am : 06th Dec.2011

 

What I expect to happen...

I hope these things might start to involve themselves with my life more frequently

  • Reading from paper-pulp-ink prints
  • Newspapers 
  • Calling up friends, who usually know my alive:status from blog
  • Writing & reading my journal : The Red book, that Steffi gifted me.
  • I don't even have things to fill this list! Oops, high time I get out of the box!

 

Plan for Unavoidable Circumstances

The plan for absolute necessities like mails from Institutions/publishers etc would be...

Take a walk to the Cyber Cafe, sip a hot lime tea and deal with it swiftly and walk back.

 

What when I get back..?

May be I will be mad, may be I will be a Buddhist, may be more addicted. How can I know if I don't try? Trying it. NOW.

Will share the experience with you. Probably in page-scans of my journal.

Fingers_crossed

 

 

 

 

 

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Classic Virals Ever : A Collection

It is a Saturday, and hopefully Rebecca Black is sleeping now after her Friday. The viral videos are a common occurence in the Internet, especially with the video uploading made easy like never before and millions of tools available for multimedia content generation and broadcast.

Here are the ones that made their ways swiftly into the pages of the Internet History book. If you haven't watched them till now, enjoy it. If you have already watched them, get nostalgic and take a walk down the memory lane.

Note: The viral porn videos like Mysore Mallige and dumber virals like The Friday, have been omitted, for the sheer pleasure of selective omittance.

Enter the Virals...

The Newest First..

This video is the most recent, but has somehow managed to catch more hits than the most others....! Wonder how, if the mechanics need to be discussed, it would need another blogpost. So lets restrict ourselves with watching!

The Dramatic Chipmunk...

Baby Shakira...

Star Wars Kid...

This is an example of Cyber bullying, and I request my readers not to take the trip of others like this, if an opportunity presents itself in the future.

Charlie Bit my finger...

British kids and a British accent, can sometimes overthrow the popularity of Two girls and a cup.

I plan to be doing more of this again...but in different categories. The Next one would be The Ted videos I liked.Until then, Take care....
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The Pomodoro Technique: martial arts of time management.

Pomodoro Timer

Image via Wikipedia

 

The Pomodoro Technique® is a way to get the most out of time management. Turn time into a valuable ally to accomplish what we want to do and chart continuous improvement in the way we do it.

Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro Technique® in the 1980s. It is now practiced by professional teams and individuals around the world.

This is how the website defines the technique, and it is true! Website: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

I have never been a great enthusiast of productivity techniques, for all that I do is the creative stuffs. Writing, cartooning and painting. These are the art forms that never needs to be rushed, for it could spell kaput. But, what happens when you are in a position to create more in the least possible time? Enter the Pomodoro Technique

 

What is this technique..?

Simply put, there is no ritual to working, you define your style here. Work - if seen in the conventional terms simply means "anything that we might or might not like, but yet have to do it, for a greater benefit". Even to a writer, whose passion is to write, there is occassional or more frequent writer's block, and mathematicians have burn-outs. Overdoing clearly has its disadvantages. It is important to draw a line, enjoy what was done, and plan what needs to be done and then get back to work. For more often than not, we are always more equipped than we actually think we are to get the things done.

Taking the cues from the previous sentence, there are a myriad of productivity techniques to choose from, just to name a few, we have :-

  • GTD(Getting Things Done)
  • Mnmlsm (Zen Habits approach : minimalism)
  • Journaling (this is an art, learn more from Jim Rohn)
  • To-Do list
  • ABCD techniques (Brain Tracy : Eat That Frog)
  • Using timer instead of watches etc.

About the techniques above, I shall blog some other day; for today we are doing Pomodoro.

Where Pomodoro clearly wins...?

This technique simply uses a timer, like the one shown in the picture. The timer is set for 25 minutes, and then follows a 3-5 minutes break. This goes on for 4 such cycles, after which you deserve a 15 minutes break. 

Note: The how to and guide ebooks are free, and can be downloaded from the website. The pomodoro timer I use is an Android app named Pomodroido 

This technique clearly wins over GTD and all possible techniques partially because there is hardly anything to learn here, and there are no intricate details (to begin with), however after mastering the technique, there are a host of intricate analysis you can perform. But for now, let's just be beginners and enjoy the beginner's luck.

The timer looks cute, unlike a huge excel sheet that enervates us as we look at it. The method is self-propogative, you tend to feel addicted to working (sounds paradoxical?!). 

You don't get tired!...But How?

Normal Scenario: Imagine climbing the stairs for 3 continous hours.

Pomodoro Scenario: Imagine climbing stairs at a proper & planned pace, for 25 minutes. Resting for 5 minutes, then continuing such cycles. Taking 15 minute braks now and then.

Thats how it works.

So. Ready... Get set... pomodoro!

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2.33 AM Soul searching

It is around 2:33 AM, and you will find out how long I usually take to write a blogpost by the time I publish this article. The night started with plans for a good night's sleep. Plans have a reputation for not working out and that's what happened now. I chose to browse instead.

Drunkards_walk

Random browsing is no lesser than a soul-searching walk by the sea shores, the advantage here being is that you can choose to be in the luxury of the home and take a walk down the Internet lane, meeting all possible websites that come your way and having a silent talk with them. The authors of website communicate silently their thoughts, and I read them silently. The communication is achieved in its purest form.

Mathematician's call it the Drunkard's walk. The random pattern that probabilistically leads you somewhere. That was what Steve Jobs believed in, and it now became the famous "Connecting the Dots". I have been connecting quite some dots tonight, and am jotting it down here to help you through another insomniacal night of yours, if need be.

The jouney...

  • The jounery started with Drunkard's walk, an audiobook I recently absorbed through my faithful non-living friend, the Philips GoGear Vibe that supports audible.com books. 
  • did a bit of googling about random walk...liked it
  • walked further, and met smashingmagazine website, got to know about blogazines
  • blogazine : blog+magazine eg. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/the-death-of-the-blog-post/ (you will love this), wish I could do this, I can...but no time!
  • ended up in zenhabits.net then. I frequent this space often.
  • changed this blog's theme, a bit of tweaks here and there...
  • searched for a few domain names at bustaname.com
  • then thought will say a hi to you, my lovely readers. Did it!
  • Bye for now, and catch you again with more nicey stuffs soon...

Until then have fun and take care.

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Netiquettes - #Self: Taming Your Inner Online Menace

The Book in a Nutshell

  • the book starts from birth of Your Internet life
  • walk you through the memory lane
  • reminds you of your past mistakes
  • makes you realize the folly
  • tells you how to grow up, and stop whining on Facebook, and commenting crap
  • shows you the direction to a new set of Internet tools/sites to make better use atleast now
  • by then, you will know where you stand
  • helps you clean your online activities, so that you don't lose a job b'cos of it
  • admonishes you on a thing or two
  • makes you a better netizen in the end.

#Self: Taming Your Inner Online Menace - Carla Madden

Image representing Kobo as depicted in CrunchBase

 


#Self: Taming Your Inner Online Menace By Carla MaddenThis book was read on..

Discover the fine art of netiquette brush up on the dos and dont's of online dating and make some spare change without changing your underwear. An indispensable guide to becoming a savvier online you #Self: Taming Your Inner Online Menace offers practical advice and tongue-in-cheek wit on navigating one of the most intimidating (and exhilarating!) places out there - the internet.

- Synopsis of the Book by Carla Madden.

Now, this was a book that made my Sunday today. A Brilliant book.

I got to lay my hands on this book was simply because when I downloaded the Android app for Kobo ebook reader, I was gifted with this book as a complement. From there on, it has been one continuous addictive journey of book reading. Kobo is psychologically designed to incentivize your reading and motivate you into doing more and more of reading. I have been a loyal Aldiko user so far, and if Kobo has convinced me to switch over, it is definitely some serious success.

Please do read it. If you have any plans of maturing into an adult, seasoned and responsible Internet user within your life-span, go for it.

Here is a set of first thirteen points from the Book...

Chapter.13.1 The Basic Rules(of netiquette)

  1. I will remember there is a human behind the machine
  2. I will remember when I am on the Internet and comment accordingly
  3. I will forgive other people's n00b mistakes
  4. I will respond in a timely manner to emails, messages and posts
  5. I will not change my relationship status without notifying  my partner
  6. I will not start a hate group about that gremlin I work with
  7. I will be discreet when posting on someone else's wall
  8. I will read all messages twice before hitting "Send"
  9. I will not default to "Reply all" because I'm lazy
  10. I will learn to spell at a Grade 8 level
  11. I WILL STOP USING CAPS and instead go to anger management class
  12. I will never forward another religious, cure cat or chain email again
  13. I will not UEABICSMF (use excess acronyms because I can't share my feelings)
  14. I will watch my sarcasm and tone or run my email thro..........Buy the book!

 

Do not forget to like/tweet this, who knows..your friends might be Interested too...

Be a good netizen and share the news!

Take care...

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How to watch out for "get paid, get laid" spammers

Spamming comes in different flavors and colors with every progressing day of Internet era.

This time the flavor is that of an email ID compromise. Your email acccount sends around 50-100 emails within a short span of 2-3 minutes, and before you realize the word has spread, and there are other greedy people in your contact list who have clicked through this already!

Do's and Dont's

The most important thing about using emails: 

  • Remember that there is no postmaster who sits and organizes your mails, it is all by machines.
  • Machines don't have blood, and hence are cold. Hence they don't have judgemental capabilities.
  • So, if you have the slightest doubt about a mail, be it from your contacts or not, simply delete it. For if it was from contacts, they will get back to you, or better will call you over phone.
  • Use a Good email provider. Some of the trustworthy ones are Gmail, Microsoft(MSN, Hotmail, Live), Rediffmail, in.com 
  • These we call trustworthy because, even if there is an instance of such issues, the automated internal security systems are alerted in no time, and your digital personality is safe again.
  • If you can, go for a https:// level security in settings of your email. https : stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Secure is the catch word here.
  • Switch on your spidy senses when the mail that has a subject line like "hello, i am free now, are you free tonight, hi", often from someone from whom you would rather not expect such a mail, say your ex-girl/boy-friends, or dad/mom. Also note the unmindful usage of small letters here.
  • Use Internet like driving on a Road. "Watchful". It could cost you not your life, but certain crucial elements of it like Happiness.

Some spammers to watch out for...

  1. Get Paid more than $100 per week
  2. Get Laid tonight, with girls around your location. (Note: They have already tracked your location!)
  3. Ones using Google's name. Big companies don't share money with you! Remember.
  4. Easy money: There is no simpler way to make money, only harder ones. So forget the 'easy' option, and get back to work.
  5. Foreign Exchange Online. There are only a handful that are legit, so ask an expert before you get all serious about it.
  6. Online Poker and Gambling, which are not safe even in the real world, leave alone digital world.

 

To Give you a glimpse for how the look and feel usually is on a crappy website...here are some pics.

 

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BSNL Customer Care - Doesn't Exist.

Mascotte Air India / Air India Mascot

Air-India's Idea of Airhostess!!!      Image via Wikipedia : 

It is not unusual for the telecom providers to record the calls that we make to the customer care executives, for their 'Internal training' purposes. I thought why not reverse the process and use it for external training purposes.

What was done:

  1. Call up : 123, and tolerate the not-so-sexy-voice, which is a voice equivalent of the physical disasters, which the Airhostesses of Air India are. Both Air India and BSNL are government run. Thats all I am saying.
  2. 1-Balance related; 2-blah blah blah; 3-yadayadayada; 4-speak to a customer care executive
  3. So... press key 4
  4. And it enlightens you with the information that : "The number doesn't exist"

Bsnl crap care service by ramreva

 

So is it like one guy sitting and taking 100 calls simultaneously?

Oh..yes..sorry..could be one girl too. But hey, the number doesn't exit. So what difference does the gender factor doing here?!

The website

You must be knowing that there is nothing more annoying than a poorly designed website. BSNL is an epic example. Click on Have a look.

 

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First Podcast

The logo used by Apple to represent Podcasting

Image via Wikipedia

Podcasting - Recently there's too much buzzz about soundcloud.com in the Internet as well as in the blogospheres, and quite naturally I am into it now.

Yeah, of course.. the first podcast did suck a bit, but hey...Soundcloud does a real good job! It did reduce the background noise, in fact I felt like the sound quality was almost like 'In Bed with Susie Bright'! Ha ha...So I am going ahead and attaching my first soundclip, purely for records' sake.

BUT...I s.h.a.l.l do something creative with it, keep watching! 

Now for the people intererested, the app available in Android market, too!

Take care, till will me meet again.

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First Podcast by ramreva

Home alone... Ram alone...

Being home alone is a fun/fantasy for grown up kids. Biologically at 24, I am now a kid who can reproduce. I have been home alone for the past four days now and five hours from now my parents would open the doors with their set of keys, for I will still be asleep when they arrive.

Being home alone is less glorious than those images that prevail in the mind. For when a guy like me, the one with more respect for purpose than for order; stays at home all alone, without the admonitory effects of mother, the result is often a catastrophe, that religiously abides by the second law of thermodynamics. Entropy is all that keeps increasing.

Entropy [Before]

 

The following happens in no-praticluar-order: just like the mis-spelt word.

  1. kitchen gets screwed up; mom suddenly seems to me... a wonder-woman
  2. the study table becomes... less of a study table
  3. the dining table loses its purpose, with study table components invading
  4. the newspaper finds itself purposeless without dad
  5. bed has gone for a toss
  6. the resources that support life, like food, water, milk and coffee... start to run out.
  7. The un-washed clothes somehow increase exponentially

And then something happened..

Happy-Maid effect [After]

The maid who cleans our home is an elderly lady. She eats breakfast at our home, for my mom cooks not for the three people of our family, but for four people. I followed the practice whole-heartedly. Made it a point that I make breakfast for the good old lady, no matter what. She was happy. 

And I noticed that there had been a face-uplift surgery that the home had gotten. Kitchen was spanking clean...!

A Great lunch : courtesy Aunt 

The most unexpected surprise however was a sumptous lunch, my aunt (chitti) had made. A treat. 

Sundhari_chitti_food_parcel
A family lunch...

Menu :

  • Male chicken in Briyani
  • Female Chicken in curry
  • and their daughters egg1 and egg2, as omlets.


This is possibly the most unorganized article I have ever written. But what the hell...it is straight out of the brain, bypassed by the fingers onto this page. So I am kinda happy. For may be if I capture all the thoughts and inferences of these four days, they won't be mine anymore, but yours too! and chances are you will unsubscribe. Why would I do that!?

Other happenings..

Friends...period.

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iPad met my fingers today.

Steve Jobs while introducing the iPad in San F...

Image via Wikipedia

It was fifteen minutes since I made a mental promise to myself, that I will abstain from lusting with the technologies, machines, and especially the Internet; and rather devote more time to people I really need to be lusting with...then I got a call from my uncle. It was for buying an iPad for his kid. One hell of a brilliant kid he is. He needed his tools right, for he uses them well. Uncle is bright, and he chose to provide.

So there I was, at the electronics store Croma, in Koramangala, Bangalore. iPad was directly looking into my eyes. It has sarcasm all over its glossy glassy face and it said...

You abstaining from technology???!!!... 10010100100101010101

-iPad

I guess 10010100100101010101 was it's laughter or swearing...whatever it may be, I didn't understand it, for good. 

I had a solid set of 30 minutes of waiting for my uncle and the kid to arrive. Do I have to mention that Bangalore has hectic traffic at this point? When we talk of being late in Bangalore, even Siri of iPhone will understand that it is due to traffic!

What Does Ram do with time + tech!?!? Muhahahahhaaaaa...!

Did you notice that there are two images with different signature of mine. Oh yes, that is where digital art has a clear victory.

Pros

  • Rapid
  • High throughput
  • Ease of performance
  • Un-doability
  • less messy

Cons

  • This is not painting. Absolutely no pigments involved!
  • This is just a set of electrons flowing in and out solid-state memory, and made up light through the LCD/LED.
  • It's Maya!!!

 

But Steve, I played my part in making your briainchild grow a bit bigger, that it was yesterday. So, you better remember this as you are watching me from above.

But in the end, we have one happy kid... Shiv Ram.

Shiv_and_his_ipad

 

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When Did Lord-Shiva ask you to smoke-up?

Soul searching begins when both basic and advanced necessities are not met. If one gets Food, Water, Love, Sex and Fame in abundance, chances are God and Spirituality will become pointless.

So hunger and inequality are here to stay, as the great God must survive. Just the way Governments keep one group of population always poor, for their votes a.k.a survival.

What happens when some men start soul searching and walk towards Himalayas?

Being successful releases Dopamine and Endorphins in the brain, which is the ultimate addiction of Humans; as it reinforces the fact that one is still alive, more precisely not dead. 

We call people dead not when they cease to live, but when they cease to act. Life then, is a verb. Life is response to stimuli. 

So chemically inducing such elated states of mind become far more easier, than bursting their pair of arse over lubricating the grinds of life.

Guess what...B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. If God knew you wanted those chemicals in your system, he would have given you a gland to secrete it, wouldn't He?

The Path to God...

LSD - attempted reconstruction of acid patterns

Image by wallygreeninker via Flickr

Weed comes as the entry drug. Aaaaahhhh..I am Spiritual, closer to God.

LSD...aaaaahhhhhhh....God resides in me. 

Ketamine...Aaaaaahhhhh...I am one with the God.

Meth...aaaahhhhhhh...I am the God...

What the Hell..Who are you?

I am God buddy, and guess what.. You are dead. You found Me, before you found yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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