A Management guy ☀ Neophiliac ☀ Blogger ✏ Artist☻ Right-Brain guy ♫ Thinks in Science ☢ Master of Perceptions. Keeper of relations for a lifetime. Lives now in...San Francisco. Can be connected via about.me/nram . Let's do it!
Today I had a good opportunity to go shopping for running shoes, which was because of my friend buying it for himself. I can't think of any other reason for which I would enter a Puma showroom otherwise. As he was shopping, and I was tweeting and chatting with no idea about running shoes, all that I could notice was the emphasis Puma places on the design elements and the general branding aspect. I was lost in the symbols of marketing and branding, and such related soft touches of a big brand for quite a long while, the long while that Gautham (here: the friend) took to narrow down to his choice of shoe.As we were riding back home, drenched in an unexpected yet comforting rain, I was comparing in my mind Apple to Puma. They seem to be doing stuffs alike. Good.
Do anything. But as you do it, keep saying, "I am doing the right thing". And then do it well... Also do it more often.... More often than not, it would turn out to be right, correct and successful. Reason : Cos you did it well, and more importantly avoided having doubts about it in the process of doing it.
Especially for the majority of Internet users who have the need to maintain anywhere between 40 to 60 different passwords, some for work and some for personal use and not to mention the lover-passwords, and/or friends-passwords. The latter two are more like a set of shared passwords which friends and/or couples share. More like a sign of trust and faith. Great going!
So we all kinda know what we are talking about right now. You know what to expect out of this blogpost. "A password strategy" that will not be a pain on your memory neurons and at the same time does not compromise your online security and privacy. You are reading the right write-up.
What kind of Passwords do systems require these days?
Password requirements vary depending on what you intend to use the password for. Windows password can be a simple word. Whereas, a bank password should not be a simple word, or it could be the other wat if your Windows OS has all our crucial data, but the bank account has nothing-to-lose! So categorize your requirements and plan your unique ways in which you will put this three-level strategy to work.First Level
A simple password. In short, anything that you can remember. This will be the 'word' on which the complexity will be added. Eg. loudspeaker : A simple non-guessable word.
Second Level
A password that requires atleast one caps(Uppercase alphabet), and one number. Eg."Loudspeaker5"
Third Level
This is becoming the standard slowly, and this is where you can be at your creative best. A password with atleast one caps, one numeral, and one special character!
Eg. "Loudspeaker5%" or "Loudspeaker5^". That is, any special character above/next to the number you choose to suffix.
So essentially, you use the same word, which now is the only thing you have to worry about now. Make sure other's can't guess it. Let it be not these:
"Mom / dad / girl's / pet's / bike's name Years which you think only you know about... You get the idea right?"
"Not guessable" is the keyword. "If guessable" it's not a password.
What if my employer/organization wants me to change password every 15 days??
Do this...
Loudspeaker5%
Loudspeaker6^
Loudspeaker7&
Loudspeaker8*
and keep re-cycling your password.
It would be far more efficient if you can also change the 'words' often. And they too must follow a pattern. A pattern, that you are comfortable remembering.
Eg.
Himalaya1!
Clipper2@
SilverStar3#
ClassicMilds4$ etc.
Also, please add your password ideas/problems in the comments.
"I am now on cloud, doesn't matter if it is cloud 9. We don't care about the specifications."
The year, five years ago. Age of specifications.
It was in my college times, when a girl I knew, when asked about her computer's specifications, did not know it. She just used her comp. That day, which was five years ago, and she seemed to be stupid. Today she seems all the more correct. No wonder I had a latent crush on her!
The un-definable years of computing.
This is 2012 and the world is being woken up to think beyond the specification of its computers. This change is being fueled by all the IT Titans nowadays, with the first being Apple, followed by Linux and now recently Windows. To write a blog post like this has become really difficult, as the definition of personal computer is changing, often crazily. The definition now includes anything from a Desktop PC, to a laptop, to a netbook, ultrabook, ipad, tablets, iphones and all other smart phones which seem to be using the same processors as our computers a year ago once did.
This spec, that age.
My first laptop had 256 MB RAM, my present mobile, a Motorola Backflip has 512 MB RAM. But we are not here to cribb about this, are we?! The point of the post is that, we don't care what's in the device. All that we care about is what can the device do, and how well can the device do it. That's what smart means, isn't it?
Apple, past specification.
When I bought my Apple iPad, the seller convinced me not with specification, but only with what the device can do. It did make sense. Why would I bother which MegaPixel my camera is, when I can be sure to have a crisp photo from it, every time. The problem started with literacy, when after completing Engineering (or any technical degree), we needed a purpose or scenario to put that knowledge to use. And so the specs! Aaahh...engineering finally.
In the process we forgot that we were consumers, who should not give a damn as to what's inside. All that we need is.. "will the device live upto it's promise." If it's retina display, I don't care to know the exact pixel count, the only question is, "do I feel happy looking at it?". Simple.
Even Windows does it, these days.
I am typing this, as the windows 8 consumer preview is being downloaded, it is currently at 72%! But one thing that inspired me to write this post was this, unlike how it used to happen those days, my computer was not bothered to ask me, "___ these many data are to be downloaded,____ it will take this long, ___close all other applications etc". Instead, the download is happening happily, and the message says "Feel free to use your computer!". Very unusual, but very very sensible.
Windows phones, rethought.
I don't have to access facebook "app", do I? Simple as it may seem, this architecture must have caused headaches and costed million of Ramen noodles, coke and cigarettes for the designers and engineers. In the end... everybody happy! The OS is integrated with facebook, twitter and other such usual "app" stuffs. I feel this is more like a positive mutation, rather than an evolution. Evolution is what Apple does.
Whatever be it, we are diving deeper into ubiquitous computing. And I am happy, cos I am a guy, and technology for us is raison d'etre! I am now on cloud, doesn't matter if it is cloud 9. We don't care about the specifications.
Receptionist : (Fake smile) Thank you for the Stay sir. Hope you liked your stay here. If there was any inconvenience, we are sorry. But please let us know and we sure can serve you better the next time.
Customer : (Sarcastic smile) Electricity, water, soaps and shampoos and Air conditioning were not asked for, but provided to me as a basic and default service. I am here in this Hotel, and obviously not carring my Internet around. You must have provided me with Wi-fi.
It often amazes me when I see public spaces like malls, cafes, restaurants, gyms etc spend huge sums of money on Interiors, chairs, tables and sofas, lighting, water temperature, soaps and its fragrances, AC temperature, ergonomics, Newspapers, magazines and a few hundred other factors, to win the customer's heart. But they miss the most easy and catchy form of service a company/institution can provide to its customers - Internet Access.
Hobbies are important, no wonder generations after generations, our resumes have been carrying the information about our interests and hobbies. Ever wondered why you feel fresher after a brief period spent on your favorite activity? A lot has been said on the energizing nature of hobbies. But brain activities don't create energy, they consume it. Entropy rules! Then why or how do hobbies re-energize?
"a penny saved is a penny earned", a very old proverb. In fact the proverb here is so out of place that this discussion just lost its charm. But the saying says a lot. When read as "a calorie saved is a calorie earned", it makes sense, at least in this context. So getting back to how hobbies work, Hobbies are those activities that we choose to do, since we love or cherish doing them. Or better, passionate about doing those activities. Be it by nature or nurture, we all develop our unique interests and there is a part or module of our brains that is very capable of handling certain activities better than other people can.
Some paint, some sing, some write, some dance and some solve sudoku and crosswords. Not all can do everything. We do what we do best. But our jobs don't necessarily have to be the kind of activity that we might relish doing. You might be a painter working as a Sales person. Now this is tough, at least until when your brain learns new ways to efficiently form neuronal patterns that can handle new activities better, like remembering names (memory), mailing, thinking, decision making and calling, all at the same time (multi tasking) etc. Most of which are something not generally the kind of things that introverts do. So in the process of doing these new stuffs, our brains consume huge amounts of energy, simply put, more glucose and oxygen. So after a while (until the stamina gradually increases with practice) we are bound to feel tired. That's just normal and fair. For the brain needs rest now and then, to re-energize and form better patterns. In order to make something out of the gathered information, we humans need rest.
Hobbies, on the other hand, are activities our brains are better capable at handling. The patterns of neurons that makes a painter a painter, is unique to him/her. Your unique thinking patterns process data more efficiently and effortlessly. Passion fuels these activities. This makes the brain exercise a different part of the brain, which is already well designed to handle that specific and unique favorite hobby or hobbies of yours. So, you spend lesser energy as you indulge in your hobby, and by this time, the tougher job's data has been sorted and you are good to go again.
Not to mention that you are emotionally charged again and the hobby facilitated dopamine and endorphins are doing their magic. Congratulations, you just got more productive.
I had to answer a question. I loved to answer the question, too. I was just glad that I now stay with friends who ask me such questions. The question was...
What do you really want to become dude? When will you consider yourself a success?
It made me think for two seconds, not because I had to generate the answer, but because the processing speed of our brain is much more faster than the flexibility of our tongue muscles. The sentence got compiled in those two seconds. I answered...
Success is a relative term. And going by that definition, I am already a sucess. But if a goal were to be attached to quantify the success... then I want to be a "Thought Leader".
Now a friend who asks such a queston, is sure a serious question shooter. He was, and he went on...
Now this question demanded more of my processing potential! I had to phrase it properly, I had to deliver the answer with accurate precision. The entropy of the information had to be minimised as much as possible. I went ahead and replied...
A thought leader is one who makes it his responsibility to innovate, which requires a deep understanding and conherent thinking across many domains, to create a holistic and innovative concept/product/anything that was previously undone, but that which needs to be done with an urgency more than ever.
In short, if you think CEO's are the cream layer, a thought leader is one who lays the framework/model by which the CEO's think, and hence the termthought leader. He/she does what a scientist does to science. Science and scientists are in asymbiotic relationship. But, a thought leader andmanagement scienceare in a mutualistic relationship.
By the end of the answer, the pulses of neuronic firing that existed in my brain embodying these concepts, gained a crisp clarity and identity in the more universal and Generic language of English.
Wikipedia too talks on such stuffs, it would be a lot more easier if you could read about "Thought Leaders andThought Leadership", using the link below. For in wikipedia, thousands of thought patterns converge to form an article, and at times suchcrowd-wisdom's co-creation is easier to understand.
Soft Power British Empire, just a few decades ago was famous for wielding Hard Power, with strong expansion policies. Now, things have changed. It is the era of Soft-power, you are reading and I am writing in "English", we all watch and listen to BBC, we download BBC podcasts, become members of British Library's Cultural relations 'programme'. The expansion policy still holds good, but it is soft. It is refined. Enter the Soft New World.
Soft Porn Porn is a different game altogether. BDSM, CFNM, BBW, MILF and many more perverted concepts are gone. Porn industry now is focusing on 'Female-Friendly' porn! Wonder what that means! In simpler terms, it is a porn where the emphasis is not 'Sex' but to 'Make-love', emotions matter here, and that's all that matters. A Softer porn, more like our everyday life stuffs. Blame it on your mirror neurons.
Softer Softwares We don't see major software and OS designs anymore, or at least, as frequent as they used to be. All that we see are OS updates/upgrades, Software patches that are pushed when we are online. We don't want to shift environments, do we? Isn't it? Apple people/Android People/Windows people? Soft Skills Soft-skills, are the norms of the modern corporate. Frederick.W.Taylor's Scientific principles are slowly taking a back seat. Behavioural Economics are shaking up the very mindset of corporations and governments worldwide. It is in the small things that the major bucks are hidden. Advertising is not just tag lines anymore. Advertisements are now a very psychologically thought-about form of marketing. Sometimes called Neuro-marketing or Synaptic Branding.
Why all these Shifts?
Simple, we are not hungry anymore. We are not at war. Our Governments are fairly functioning well. If at all we are at war with the government, it is not because we don't have food, freedom or electricity. The soft-revolutions are now more about making the governments more efficient, free of corruption, better legislation, better administration, better global policies. We are at peace!
It was about a month ago, that someone on Quora asked a question. A sensible question, a serious question...which if answered, can answer the problems of believers and non-believers alike. I tried answering. Here below is the copy's paste of all that happened...if you are on Quora, this is my link. Let's answer some questions... http://www.quora.com/Ram-Reva "How can we get atheists to be nicer? And what would be the outcome? I see a lot of atheists being jerks toward religious people, to the point where they can be just as condescending as the people they oppose. How can we bring about harmony rather than continuing the sniping? EDIT: I wrote this question badly, and now I'm getting into a flame war. What I was really hoping to get at was more like "How should I respond when I see people attacking all religion on the Internet?" I didn't mean to attack atheists in general, and it was stupid of me to not realize that was how people would read this question." Ram Reva, Ram.N : Wrote (that's me)... " "Be it the belief of God, or the non-belief of God. If "beliefs" are given too much of importance, they lead to problems, often unnecessary ones. Be it religion, be it Hitler's ideas that caused pains, or be it Green peace "fighting" for a cleaner world. Don't place so much weightage on simple beliefs. It was the place and people we were born and grown with that makes us believe certain things. You can be right, that's all. Don't force others to be right! They have their own versions. Your liberty to smoke, should not interfere with my liberty to breath! " 1 vote by Peter Ireland Repost • 1 Comment • Delete • • Dec 22, 2011 " Greg Holley The only way to challenge destructive beliefs or ideas is to counter them with constructive ones. Human history is a bloody battleground of ideas and beliefs. Progress is made when more constructive thought wins out. If people like green peace don't "fight for a cleaner world", a cleaner world is not going to happen. In the end it is apathy that is our greatest failing, not earnestness of belief. That being said, no one likes a strident a hole. As an atheist I try not to emulate the dogma of my fundy christian background but its a challenge. Reply UpvoteDownvote • Repost • Dec 22, 2011 "
Island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud, Norway - 17.22
The first gun shot was heard at 17.22. The Nature is a bitch, for when you are about to die by a bullet, you see the light first, hear the sound next and then the pain is felt; of the bullet piercing through your flesh to release your life trapped in your body. When life and body separate, neither have a purpose. The terrorist and his purpose wins. The Norwegian gun man, killer in a Police's guise won the war, killing 69 people. 69, the most pleasurable number in sex, attained a new avatar of pain in Norway.
Anders Behring Breivik-Reason to Kill
Here are two citations from different pages of Wikipedia, that pretty much gives the essence of the issue...
Breivik is linked to a compendium entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence bearing the name "Andrew Berwick", the file was e-mailed to 1,003 addresses about 90 minutes before the bomb blast in Oslo.[137][138] Analysts described him as having Islamophobic views and a hatred of Islam,[139] and as someone who considered himself as a knight dedicated to stemming the tide of Muslim immigration into Europe.[140][141]
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or Muslims[1][2] The term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s,[3] but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.[4]
Salman Rushdie and Open Fatwa
The Satanic Verses controversy was the heated and sometimes violent reaction of some Muslims to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, which was first published in the United Kingdom in 1988. Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted from Muslim anger over the novel.[1]
Anders suddenly sounds justified...
For someone with Arachnophobia, his/her tendency would be to kill all the arachnids in the vicinity. However, they don't develop the courage to do it. Partly because the phobia is overpowering, which makes them to not kill, but to avoid the spiders.
Being Arachnophobic and killing cockroaches...
However, our candidate here is different. "It is an Islamophobic subject". He couldn't kill the target group of his, but rather went ahead and killed his own people. Which is something like killing cockroaches and claiming that it was out of the fear of spiders.
What's right or wrong with the book?
Salman Rushdie wrote a book too early. People are not yet seasoned enough to accept views with the weightage that they deserve. The choice of Gods and religious views are like sexual orientations or like a choice to smoke or not. "It's personal" and it stays personal, till when your choice to smoke does not interfere with my right to breathe.
The Doggy style (Conclusion)
If you like doggy style; you like it and thats that. Doesn't make you wrong or make me right. If you like Krishna, Jesus or Allah keep it to yourself. Don't go ahead like a newly turned gay/lesbian person running around streets proclaiming a newly acquired identity.
This is where I'm afraid, my Muslim brothers. That after 2083, if things go right according to Anders Breivik's compendium, writers like Salman Rushdie, who have just expressed their views and are threatened for life, might find a place to live, devoid of open Fatwas.
With every threat you pose to the world's population, justified by your own personal views, you are making Anders Breivik's cause stronger and stronger.
Don't have to listen to yourself. Others dont talk to you. Dream is an entertainment. If a scary dream, it can't really hurt. If its lucid, be more than happy. Gather some energy for life outside the sleep and get back. Sleep.
At times it makes some sense to use this blog not just as a platform to think, but also as a repository to store memories. This post is one such act. Posting from bus, during the journey. This will be valuable ten years from now!
It was December 14th, 2011 that my parents left Bangalore, and moved to Tamil Nadu. From that day to Jan 4th, 2012, it has been a wonderful learning experience for me. (more about the learning in the next post)..
Had I gotten the curse of having anybody else other than this particular combo of mom and dad, I would not have been the success that I am today.
And when I say success...if your question was, "what actually has this guy achieved? Money? Status? President of United States? Won the world cup?....etc
That's exactly what I meant. My parents helped me realize that success doesn't really have to be the above mentioned "self-imposed-definitions" about yourself. It simply means : winning over hearts and your ability to make other people give you a genuine smile.
P.S...
My mom finally chose to display my painting in the show-case of our home. It was painted a year ago. I mean... which mom would be comfortable with a painting by her son that is an lustful rendition of a nude woman, and added to the chrome are accessories like smoke, hookah and wine. And to sum it all up, a set of footprints above them! She understood the meaning, and that's what makes her special.
I recently happened to come across this review about a book titled "A View from the center of the Universe", by Joel R.Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams. The caption for the book is "Discovering our Extrodinary place in the Cosmos". I could not help but copy-paste the review here, and express my love for the way the review was knit. I really wish, you could spend some time reading it. Thank you, if you chose to read.
These kind of books have a charm of their own. However, the aim of the blogpost is not to spray some words of appreciation or criticism for the book. Rather, we here, have something more subtle to appreciate. The reviews about a book, by real book lovers can be identified with the sheer fragrance of intellect that emanates from the writing, all the while using a rather unimaginative invention of humans, called words.
Words are packets of data for conveying information, and they have their limitations. Firstly, you must be aware of the word the author writes, for the communication to happen between you and him/her(author). In the five paragraphs quoted below, the author (who unfortunately could never be identified by me with simple Googling techniques) has written a brilliant review about the book and this wise man has knit those words beautifully. 'A good read', to be precise. Enjoy.
The married couple of philosopher Nancy Ellen Abrams and cosmologist Joel R. Primack are uniquely placed to discuss how our understanding of the Universe affects how we perceive our role in it. The ancient creation myths provide comfort and meaning, but they are fantasies. In contrast, modern cosmology offers a glimpse of reality but leaves many people cold. In View from the Center of the Universe, Abrams and Primack challenge themselves to try and get the best of both world views.
In the distant past, we convinced ourselves that we had a special place in the Universe. Geographically we were at the center of space, with everything revolving around us, and biologically we thought that humans were an exceptional creation. But as each century passed, we realized that we are less and less special. Today, we see ourselves as insignificant in the context of the whole Universe. The Copernican revolution relegated and redefined Earth as just another planet, and made the Sun the hub of the Universe. Then astronomers showed that the Sun is not even at the centre of the Milky Way, and eventually it became clear that there are billions of other galaxies, which made Earth seem trivial.
The problem with becoming increasingly insignificant was appreciated as far back as the seventeenth century by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal: "I feel engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing and which know nothing of me. I am terrified . . . The enternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me."
The existence of dark matter only further relegated humanity, as Primack pointed out in 1984: "Yet another blow to anthropocentricity: not only is man not the center of the universe physically (as Copernicus showed) or biologically (as Darwin showed), it now appears that we and all that we see are not even made of the predominant variety of matter in the universe!"
But Abrams and Primack argue that humans still hold a central and special position in the Universe, perhaps not geographically but in many other ways. For example, we are special because we are made of the rarest material in the Universe, namely large atoms. Also, we live at a central time, because most nearby galaxies are past their violent youths but are not yet senescent. And we live at the midpoint of our planet's life, which is a few billion years before it will be roasted by our Sun swelling into a red giant. And humans have a reasonably central size, roughly halfway between the smallest length scales (10-33 cm) and the distance to the cosmic horizon (1028 cm)
Aakash tablet, is undoubtedly a pride for India. In the sense that, we Indians were able to think one huge step beyond the price hype created about the tablets by the world's leading techno cartels and lobbies. Just the way micromax did with its phones, which has not brought Nokia down to its knees in India with its Asha series of phones!
To begin with, the tablets are simple devices. See if a tablet is all you actually need using this checklist:
If you browse a lot, read emails and reply in one-liners
Consume movies and videos like food, and music like water
And importantly if a keyboard for you comes into picture only to login and type in your password.
Reading news online and ebooks (if you don't do this now, you soon will)
STOP: A tablet is for you.
In this blogpost lets look at some simple math as to why should one buy a tablet, more precisely, an Aakash tablet.
Imaginary Scenario: Let's say, the product sucks.
I am writing this article, when nobody per se has really used this product, not atleast in large numbers. So lets start with the following assumptions.
The touch sensitivity is not-that-sensitive
The processor is slow
The video buffering gets stuck, as the processor is not great
The battery back up is not very great
Gaming experience is not all that adrenaline
Here are some Aakash review videos from Youtube...Have fun..take rest and continue reading!
OK, Lets spill some Numbers...
The cost of Aakash Tablet: Rs.2500(Lower end), Rs.3000-1(Higger end called Ubislate7+), but since the name Ubilate7+ sounds weird like some American CIA operation codename to catch Jason Bourne, we will just stick to the Indian-masala name Aakash, which BTW means Sky.
Usage Scenario: News subscriptions
Cost of subscribing to The following for one month.
Forget about subscribing to Ney York times, Playboy and Le monde in India. But hey, for all the newspapers and magazines we just mentioned above, there is a website, which I presume doesn't cost you anything! Think about that. How about reading all of them on a tablet, and clicking the ads now and then, so that the newspapers get some money, which will prevent them from converting the online version of their news into a paid thingy. We all hate paid apps and softwares, don't we. Ok, if we hate paid so much, what business do we have with Kindle?!
With an application like Aldiko, if you just have the epub format of your favorite books, you are pretty much all set to read books on Android.
Other ebook readers of Note:
Usage Scenario: Kindle for Android
Unfortunately(for Amazon), Amazon already provides a kindle Reader for Android, and also now has an independent app market for Android based mobiles and tablets. And worth mentioning is that the Kindle fire, is more of a service and less of a tablet in itself. It is a great thing to buy if you have already spent hundreds or may be even thousands of dollars on ebooks and audiobooks and music. In this case having a kindle fire would be of some use. Even under this scenario, it can be no-brain-ly deciphered that any Android device, with the related apps namely, Kindle and Audible for ebooks and audiobooks respectively, can be put to the same use.
Cost of Kindle Fire : $200(minus 1) = approx. Rs.13,000/--in India
Cost of Aakash Tablet: Rs.3000(minus 1)=approx. $60
Conclusion
If the product has a good capacitive touch screen and if it comes with an O.K response to touch, without any doubts this tablet can be bought. If not for being used as a full time laptop alternative, but atleast for watching movies and reading newspapers, ebooks and browsing. And moreover, there is an USB port... just saying.
How many times do we get the doubts about the blogs we write?
Are we doing it right? What else should I do?
Or worse, into what style should I morph my writing so that it becomes a more-cooler, more-trendy, or simply into a more-read blog.
The blog, from its bigger word 'web-log', actually meant an online diary, where you post your unique thoughts. So that everyone's voice could be heard alike.
Until or unless you are in China, where you could be screwed for expressing ideas, I don't see a point in why should someone change their writing style to what people want to read, than keeping it the way you want to blog.
There clearly is a confusion here. Writing, taking into account the ego and biases of the readers, is writing for a book, now called ebooks! A blogger has the greatest liberty as a writer, almost equal to that of the President!
So please blog for what you think. Not for what others might think about it.
This is a good example blog...Seth's blog http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/5mmyPr--n30/lazy-jour...
Internet was born before we were born. We are the digital natives. We are the cyber stigmata(click for my older srticle on cyber stigmatas), who type faster than we think, and have a dark region on our wrist, and know that the thumb is for the 'space' key of our laptop keyboard.
Not all the people who were born before the Internet, have adapted to the newer world with ease. They are typically identified by the typing-with-two-finger (t-WTF) syndrome. This reminds me of a saying, 'All generalizations are wrong, including this one'. Generalization is a bad habit, because it is only when one looks beyond generalizations, can the real probing and learning occur. Hence, we will not generalize the people born before the Internet to be Digital Aliens. But they were lucky...
They, unlike us, did not have the responsibility of giving birth to themselves and watch themselves grow up. Yes, we are talking about social networks here and about our digital clones that we create online.
We do share a lot of data about ourselves in the Internet. But this is not something to be afraid of, but definitely something we all need to be cautious about.
However, this blogpost talks about the people who were born before the birth of the Internet who missed the one great opportunity Internet has given the Digital natives like you and me. The things that they clearly missed are these...
The fun in giving birth to your own-online-digital-self
Have fun in looking him/her/it grow up and make new friends, who again are the online-digital-selves of somebody you might or might not know in organic life.
At times commit terrible mistakes and later repent for having put "that" pic on fb/twitter
Learn a lesson or two from such misbehavior
These are my favorites...
Feel your real self getting older and wiser, but can choose to keep that youthful photo for your digital-self, for that will be his or her face forever, until you choose to change his/her age
Finally watch the your real-self die, while letting your online-self to live forever, until the last day of the Internet/world, whichever comes earlier.
One word of caution
Your online-clone will continue to live forever, and will neither age nor change until you choose to change him/her. So be a good parent to yourself and grow that online-child of yours with utmost care. For he/she/it can reveal a lot about you to your kids, to the future generations or to the Artificially Intelligent machines of the future.
