The Loss Of A Habit

A long time back I had read about this quote.

~~ Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as are bad habits.
~~~~ Robert Puller

Well, when I read this one, I prayed to God that all the good habits that I posses stay with me, forever.

But sadly, in recent months, I have lost one very good habit which I possessed. A habit which I deeply cherished. A habit which made me many a precious friend. A habit which started countless discussions in innumerable situations.

It is the habit of Reading. It was the habit of Reading.

Sadly, I have lost the habit of reading in all its forms. Be it news papers, or magazines, or books. All of it.

There was a time when I used to start my day with reading of the newspapers. I would go through all the pages and read the most eye-catching ones first. I would also make a mental bookmark of the articles that I needed to catch up later in the day - possibly over the evening tea or while having dinner.

But off late, early morning sleep has been more precious. The only thing after getting up is to get ready and head off to work. This has made reading of the news papers a rarity.

The only solace is the fact is that I manage to catch up with the online newspapers - spending a maximum of 20-30 minutes a day on it. But it does not give the same satisfaction as that of reading a "real" news paper. What's bad is the fact that the quality of news articles that show up on the first page of the website are not upto the mark or diverse enough to give me full fledged information about the going on's in the world.

Next one is the habit of reading books. I was a voracious reader at one point of time - gulping upto three books a month in my tight schedule. Reading was the most common pastime over the weekends and holidays. I enjoyed reading about any topic under the sun - fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, comics, romance, business, biographies - the list was endless.

Back in school, during the summer vacations, I used to enroll at the local library. It used to offer a facility to take two books at a time, for sixty rupees a month. 

I used to make the best use of that opportunity by reading two books a day. And most importantly, every school year - wait for the vacations to arrive.  

But then came my personal computer - only to steal away the company of my humble books. Enticing Electronics took over the humble Paper.

This picture made me wonder whether it was the same me who used to read the Harry Potter books on the same day of they being released, keeping every other thing on the sun aside, only to finish the book and get to the end of the mystery. With Harry Potter, the mystery never ended.

I would also love to read before sleep. Falling asleep while reading was one of the pleasures life used to offer.

I maintained an online compilation of the books I had read and I planned to read. Shelfari was the website where I maintained this list. It took me quite a while even to recollect this website. I had to take support of my email to do so. That explains the gravity with which I have lost it all.

And then came the habit of blogging. Blogging, like Reading, is quite addictive. And for the last few months, it has been Blogging Vs Reading. Blogging has won hands down.

The advent of movie franchisees has been another factor which led to this situation. Twilight has been one of the most sucessfull novel series in the last couple of years, and I was keen to check it out - by reading. Ultimately, I ended up seeing the movies - killing any chance of reading the books.

Another thing which has contributed to this downfall is the short articles that we read on the internet. Although they are easy to grasp, they have resulted in a reduced attention span. And a reduced attention span does not make life easy for reading books.

There was a time when every alternate shopping trip with friends consisted of visiting the neighboring book store. Flipping through the books, looking for interesting stuff was a great way to pass time and connect. And If something caught you eye, by God's grace, you could buy it. And make the best utilization of the purchase by sharing it with your friends.

These days I force myself to get a few of books - every few months - just in the hope of kick starting back the habit. Or maybe read some magazines to develop the interest back.

The only book that I can remember of reading in recent times - without putting it down - was "Freakonomics". I loved the concept of the book and the answers put down to simple, real world, questions.

Books make you think, and that was the case with "Freakonomics" too. I had purchased this book while traveling for work - over the Xmas weekend. Incidentally, the travel back home was delayed due to bad weather, delayed flights and a shutdown airport (in the capital city of the biggest country on the earth). 

Made me wonder - Why do we have all the travel troubles in the midst of the holiday season?? If you have read "Freakonomics", you will acknowledge that this is one question which the authors of the book would love to answer - with their excellent analysis.

This loss has been hurting me more over the last few days - since I discussed books with two people. Some one told me that she had slept only at 2.30 in the morning - because she couldn't sense the time while reading. That made me jealous. That made me recollect my old times. 

And someone else told me that her favorite book was "The Kite Runner". And I professed that "To Kill A Mocking Bird" is my favorite. Incidentally, this lady was able to recollect the most significant line of this book - thanks to her sharp memory. 

~~ "Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

~~~~ Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

All this made me wonder - maybe it is time to revive this wonderful habit. I can't make a resolution, because, they say that resolutions are meant to be broken. But an attempt can be certainly made.

If wishes were horses, and horses could fly, I would also love J.K. Rowling to start writing again. Her narration was awesome and reading her books kept me engaged for hours altogether. 

A visit to the bookstore at my office could also help. They offer a generous discount of 10% on every book that you buy.

Maybe the help of the good old "Reader's Digest" can be sought. It's short articles might help to tide over the attention span problem. And once that's taken care, a good flowing book can bring back the good old days. 

A few of them are already in the pipe line - an almost biography of Winston Churchill, a book by N.R. Narayana Murthy on the Indian society - A Better India, A Better World, and a book with the name - Flirting With Disaster.

Well, only time can tell whether I will be sucessfull in my endeavour. A worthwhile resolution could be to come back to this blogpost and leave a comment on completely reading the above mentioned three books. Let's see how soon it happens.

And have you lost any habit recently? Was it for the good or bad? And if it was for the bad, I certainly hope that you are taking those small steps back - to reclaim that habit which was a wonderful part of your life.

Against Cyber Censorship

Time and again, we have discussed about silly laws. These laws are ridiculous to such an extent -  you would wonder what would have the law makers thought about while making them.

One such law has recently been proposed by the Government of India under the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008. This draft deals with the due diligence to be observed by some entities - being referred to as "Intermediaries".

Now question 1. Who are these Intermediaries?

An intermediary is defined as any entity, which on behalf of another receives, stores or transmits any electronic record. Importantly, Telecommunication Networks, Web-hosting and Internet Service Providers, Search Engines, Blogs, Online payment and Auction sites as well as Cyber Cafes have been classified as Intermediaries.

And question 2. What are these intermediaries supposed to do?

As part of the due diligence, they are supposed to be responsible for the contents that they host.

What does this mean for the bloggers?

Well, it means that the bloggers are responsible for the contents that they host on their blog. I would say - nothing wrong with that. 

But if the contents that they host would be reviewed by someone, and if some steps are taken to restrain those contents, views and opinions from being published - then it would mean that the Freedom of Expression is being curtailed.

Blogs give an opportunity to an individual to share their thoughts. And a chance to the general public to share their counter views. And if such healthy discussions are being clipped, it would not reflect nicely on a democratic country like India.

After all, we do not want to go the China way. If I see the visitors to my humble blog, I hardly find anyone from mainland China.

Once when I asked my friend in China to check out my writings, she said sadly - the site does not exist. The Chinese government had blocked my site.

Well, we don't want such a situation to exist in India. India has given her people a chance to voice their opinions and thoughts. And it should continue this way - for the development of the nation and her people.

If you are interested in reading more about Internet Freedom - how some countries have taken steps to curb it and how the people have overcome such difficulties - you should have a look at this article.

This article has classified Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as  "Enemies of the Internet".

Other countries are classified as "Countries Under Surveillance".  You might be surprised to find some first world countries - like Australia and France - in this list.

We should hope that better sense prevails and such laws are not passed. Only then we can ensure we have an inclusive growth - and voices of the people being heard.

And lastly, before I conclude, it will be worthwhile to note that 12th March is observed as "World Day Against Cyber Censorship".

Here is the newly compiled list of nations and the leaders of the nations who are considered as opponents of the Freedom of the Internet.

Catch more here for discussions on this topic.

Bloggable

I have been an avid blogger for the last 4 years. And blogs have been active on the internet for the last decade or so.

The humble blog topics - which millions like me and you write about - have finally found an official recognition, courtesy the Oxford Dictionary.

The word Bloggable has made its way to the Oxford Dictionary.

It means - and I quote "suitable or sufficiently interesting as a topic for a blog".

A sample sentence right the from dictionary is - "I started subscribing to the journal in the hope of finding bloggable material in there". 

And I pray to God and hope that I get a lot of bloggable topics to voice my opinions and thoughts.

Internet Addiction

Addiction is a bad thing.

The dictionary would define it in two ways.

The first one says that an addiction is an abnormally strong craving. Craving in itself is an intense desire for a particular thing.

This definition gives a moderate picture of an addiction. The second one depicts a more harsher reality.

Addiction is being abnormally dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit forming. This habituation or dependency is alarming.

Why am I thinking about this??

Well, today afternoon, I was disconnected from the online world for more than three hours - courtesy a power cut. With nothing else to do, sleep not forthcoming and no one to talk to, the desire for  connecting to the internet was getting onto me.

It made me think - Have I become addicted to the Internet??

A few hours of disconnection shouldn't have ideally mattered. But then when you don't get something when you are really expecting it, the desires grow stronger and multiply into enormous proportions. Net result - an addiction.

The first thing that I did after the power was restored was to switch on the computer and get back online.

And this isn't a good sign for someone who is online and connected to the net - more than fifteen hours a day, for at least 5 days a week. And for the remaining two days, its twelve hours a day.

What is more troubling is a small fact. 

The number of websites that I most commonly surf do not exceed ten. This includes - a mail site, a couple of social networking sites, three news papers, a tabloid and a blog. These days, it's on a very rare occasion, that I go beyond these trusted companions.

It made me think - Is the addiction really worth it's part??

But addictions have an habit of demonstrating themselves - so that you can introspect and take the required corrective action.

And what's the signal??

A silly me, sitting up in a dark room just moments before sleeping,  at half past twelve in the night, writing a blog post entry about Internet Addiction. 

Was this really warranted?? 

The fact that I can't stop writing until I post the blog entry is the crowning moment of the addiction.

I'm hoping to take some steps to reduce this mad desire for internet in the coming days. And I pray to God Almighty to help me succeed in my endeavour.

And this might become my wallpaper in the coming days. :-)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Internet Needs

The internet, since its inception in 1969, has been a trend, an utility, which has influenced our life.

For some, like those in Africa, it is a privilege. And for others, like those in America, it is a necessity. 

The penetration of the internet has been steadily increasing. This is definitely for the good, as the vast amount of knowledge, and information, contributed by the internet, among other factors, would go onto improve the lifestyle of people.

If we consider the current internet statistics, as on 30th June 2010, Asia leads the continents in terms of absolute volume of internet penetration.

But if you consider relative percentages, in terms of the population of the respective continents, America leads the pack.

This goes onto show that the penetration of the internet in a particular continent is closely linked to the lifestyle of its people, to their wealth and abundance.

We strongly look forward to the day when each and every thinking individual in this world would have basic access to the internet. This would be the day when everyone would be considered as empowered and can have equal access to the information and opportunities created by the internet.

But then, why do we need the internet for?

This can be illustrated by Maslow's Hierarchy of Internet Needs.

So what does Maslow propose?

At the very base of the pyramid, stand the "Cats". He says that internet users come looking for funny pictures of cats. 

This may have been the case a few years back. But even today, searching for photographs and pictures is one of the primary usages of internet.

Next comes social networking. 

Man is a social animal. In the old age, meeting up socially was considered to be a norm for keeping in touch with acquaintances. 

In this fast forward age of the internet, networking socially is considered to be the order of the day. Needless to say, you have a host of social networking sites to assist you in this - including the current rage, Facebook.

Next comes something whose popularity need not even be mentioned. 

You can understand the mass of people looking for this information when you will find out that there are approximately 193 million results for this query in Google. 

And the results are bound to grow going ahead. Unless all people decide to practice celibacy.

People also look for answers for addressing their shortcomings on the internet. 

All of us have certain shortcomings. Self Introspection can provide answers to resolve them. But many a times, we have little faith in what our mind says to us. 

Thankfully, we have someone to answer of queries, and to resolve the intricate questions of our mind. It is the internet.

Next comes knowledge search.

People across all age groups, right from students, professionals, adolescents  come looking for something which will increase their knowledge base. 

This might help students do better in their studies, or help professionals do nicely at their jobs, or help adolescents to improve their lifestyle. This is one of the strongest benefits of the internet.

At the summit of Maslow's pyramid is Productivity.

Once the other lower level needs are satisfied, the man will aim for realization of this need - the need of self actualization.

Frankly, I did not understand how this need relates to the internet. Have to end this blog post on an incomplete note. :-( :-(.

But leaving things incomplete is not a good thing. So I need to make a resolve to complete this last part once I understand this better. And I strongly hope that it is soon.

The Wall

Let me walk you through time.

Situation 1

You are somewhere in Central Asia. As a trader, you are following the Silk Route. It's early 19th century.

You meet a man as you stop for water. 

You ask, "Hey. Have you heard of the wall?"

He replies "Are you referring to the Great Wall of China?"

He points his hand towards the east and says "It's right there."

Situation 2

Fast forward to the 1970's.

You are in Central Europe at the height of Cold War and a few years after the end of the World War 2.

Walking the streets of Paris, you meet a man as you stop for water.

You ask, "Hey. Have you heard of the wall?"

He replies "Are you referring to the Berlin Wall?"

He points his hand towards Germany and says "It's right there." 

Situation 3

Fast forward to the 1990's.

You are in India at the height of the Cricket World Cup fever.

Walking on the streets of Mumbai, you meet a man as you stop for water.

You ask, "Hey. Have you heard of the wall?"

He replies, "Are you referring to Rahul "The Wall" Dravid?" 

He points his hand towards the billboard and says "He's right there." 

Situation 4

Time flies, and it is 2010.

Walking on the streets of Tokyo (it doesn't matter even if it is London, New Delhi, Moscow or New York), you meet a man as you stop for water.

You ask "Hey. Have you heard of the wall?"

He points his hand towards his cellphone and says "It's right there."

Shell shocked, you see a wall - without any bricks.

But I wouldn't offer any prizes for guessing it.

It is the Facebook Wall.

This is a short story of how the humble wall has transitioned from being a landmark, to being a barrier between two nations, to being superstar cricketer, and finally being a hottest trend on the internet!!

What next??

What Got Me Started?

Every thing that one does is driven by a single spark that gets it started.

Blogging is an activity which I try to pursue regularly. 

Way back in 2005, it was this blog - titled Filter Coffee - which got me hooked onto the world of blogging.

It all started with following this blogger's post on the Company's intra-net. 

These were the initial days of blogging and everyone was new to the concept of blogging. Later the blogger stopped posting his posts on the intra-net and limited himself to the internet only.

I followed him there. 

What made me attracted to his posts?

First of all, the blog was generously spiced up with pictures. The pictures were simple. Each of the pictures had a superb quote with it. This quote gave words and superb meaning to those static images.

The pictures were elegant. The words with it were thoughtful. The blog made for a good read everyday.

Maybe thats when I decided to start with my own blog. But the lack of regular access to internet, and generous time for self to pursue this passion held me back.

But finally I got an opportunity to start my own blog in October 2007. I got a URL of my choice and I was happy. 

I had been thinking about the name of my blog for sometime before registering it on the internet. In my busy work schedule back then, all I got was a moment to surf up the internet and read a story of my choice. That's how my blog was christened "A Moment Please".

Lack of a personal computer and limited access to the internet made me  passive blogger for a year and a half. However, with every opportunity, I attempted to write about a story which made me say - A Moment Please - on that day.

It was not until May 2009 that I started being a regular blogger. And today as I write this line, I look up at the heavens and say a small Thank You - for providing me this opportunity.

Blogging has given me an opportunity to improve my writing skills - something that I was poor at while in school. My essays, back in the school examinations, were miserable to say the least. The score did not go beyond a measly 3 or 4 on a scale of 10.

I have been trying to improve the content of my blogs. The writing is still in the evolving phase and I think there is a tremendous room for improvement.

Hoping to get good ideas, strong support and good learning opportunities in this wonderful world of blogging!!

URL Shortener

Did you try to tweet a URL on Twitter - and then found that you don't have enough space to write the actual message?

Or did you ever think of sending a URL to someone with the intent of hiding actual address of the URL from the recipient? 

Or did you want a URL which people could easily remember?

Well, the answer to all of these questions is a "URL Shortener".

To understand this better, check out this link. (http://bit.ly/5rdxu8)

Well, this is the the address of my blog - http://soreanblog.blogspot.com/ - in a shortened format.

Doesn't this sound like an alter ego?

Check out this interesting article which explains how URL shortening works.

And if you want to shorten your URL, then you can use this website.

Information Factory

Have a look at this interesting video from YouTube.

This video highlights the complex times that we live in - how we live in a world that was simply unimaginable a few years back.

Much of it is raw fact. It simply awes you.

It speaks about the creations of the humans - be it babies, or information, or markets - and how we, in pure ignorance, create all of this by a vast amount.

Makes you wonder - Are the details as told in the video really true?

I can think of one line which can summarize the theme conveyed by the video - 

We are living in a world which can also be called as an "Information Factory" or a "Fact Factory".

And today itself there has been a news article which confirms that the amount of information that we create is so humongous, so vast - that the Peta Byte is falling short - which has led to the arrival of Zetta Byte.

Makes me wonder - what next? Definitely "Zetta" is going to go the "Peta" way - and then we would have Yotta Byte!! 

What Why When Where How??

What Why When Where How??

What's on the the top of the mind of most people ??

Check it out below (courtesy Google)

The World and The Internet

One thing that stood out every time I checked the Geo Locations of the visitors to my blog was the sole visitor from Africa.

It made me wonder - about the internet penetration across the world - the ease of access for people in North America and Europe - and the scarcity of access for people across Africa.

Well, the chart below explains everything

Check the Internet Stats here.

Hope that in coming times, the net will be freely and easily accesible for everyone across the globe - cutting across geographies. Needless to say, the benefits will be huge.

 

Only then a person somewhere in Africa or Siberia can read my blog!!!

New Search Engine www.Cuil.com Launched by Anna Patterson, an ex-Googler

Anna Patterson
cuil.com

Anna Patterson, an Xoogler(ex-Googler) who was once in charge of Google’s large search index project TeraGoogle, launched a new search engine www.cuil.com in a bid to shake the dominance of her former employer on Monday. As a fervent Google user, I will not use Cuil (pronouced cool) as my major search engine any time soon (after all as a launch version, cuil has too much to improve), but its magazine-like format search results supplemented with relevant pictures in a 2~3-columned layout sure will may let me make it as an alternative of Google when I search for celebrities' pictures.

Screenshot of results yielding 0n Cuil.com when searching Miley Cyrus

Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan Private MySpace Profiles Hacked

Using the steps here, Canadian computer technician Byron Ng exploited Hollywood bad girls Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan's private MySpace profiles. Horribly, in fact Byron Ng can hack anyone's private profile on MySpace which he wants to hack. So do take down those extreme private photos from your profile, it would be too late if someone used Ng's technics to hack yours before the loopholes are amended by MySpace and Yahoo. Source: Valleyvag.com

Liaoning Girl Zhang Ya Cursed Sichuan Wenchuan Earthquake Victims

Zhang Ya, Gao Qianhui (高千惠) from Shenyang of Liaoning Province, cursed Sichuan Earthquake victims

The official death toll of China's Sichuan Wenchuan Earthquake on May 12 rose to 41, 353 as of Wednesday noon. And the whole country is still in a three-day mourning. With the people across China and many foreigners overseas sparing no their efforts denoting money, tents and other materials to those affected by the Richer 8.0 earthquake, a 5-minute video showing Liaoning girl Zhang Ya Gao Qianhui cursing out Wenchuan Earthquake victims using the extreme profane words was surfaced. After the video was posted on almost all major Chinese forums/BBS, she is now in hot waters, attracting millions of Chinese netizens blaming her irresponsible behavior. She has been arrested by the police. We respect the freedom of speech, but apparently, we also can not tolerate that Zhang Ya Gao Qianhui gloated over the sufferings of earthquake victims and cursed the injured to be dying soon and those unborn in the quake areas to be gangsters. If you are Chinese-savvy, click here to watch Zhang Ya  Gao Qianhui's youtube video.

Update: The Liaoning girl was earlier mis-identified as Zhang Ya by "human flesh search." It turned out that she is Gao Qianhui (高千惠), 21, whose parents were divorced when she was young.

Www.TomCruise.Com Officially Got Online Now

Www.TomCruise.Com, Tom Cruise's official website, has just been launched minutes ago after a recent vigorous Google Adwords campaign.

In celebration of 27 years of making movies since his breakout performance Risky Business, the site Tom Cruise created is as a "thank you, to you, for sharing the jounery with and to invite you to continue to explore what the future will bring", [but not for spreading the knowledge of Scientology].

Tom Cruise Launches TomCruise.com on May 5

Truly speaking, if not read Techcruch's Are You Ready For TomCruise.com? I Sure Am Ready, I would not have known Tom Cruise's official site TomCruise.com  will only be launched on May 5. It's interesting to see what the scientologist will put on the site.

Update: Tomcruise.com has officially been launched. On the site. the Impossible Mission actor says nothing about Scientology, but his 25 years' experience in the film industries.

China Overtakes USA As The Country Having World's Most Internet Users

China's Internet users has hit 221 mln and ranked the world's first, Xinhua reported.

The Internet population in China reached 221 million by the end of February, which outnumbered the figure in the United States to rank the first in the world, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information.

The number was 210 million by the end of last year, only 5 million fewer than the U.S. Internet users then, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

Despite rapidly increasing Internet population, the proportion of Internet users among the total population was still lower than the global average level, the ministry said, without giving specific figures.

The proportion was 16 percent at the end of 2007, compared with 19.1 percent of the world average, the CNNIC said.

Www.Dalai-liar.Com

Www.dalai-liar.com is a sister-site of www.anti-cnn.com, a website built by Chinese volunteers to expose the biased reports of western medias against China. Dalai-liar.Com which claims Xizang (Tibet) was, is & will be always a part of the China collects facts telling Dalai Lama is a "liar".

Laura Michaels Is a Facebook Sex Addict

Laura Michaels is a 23-year-old woman from Bristol, UK. Boasted herself a Facebook sex addict, Laura Michaels claimed to have slept with 50 men she met through the social networking site. To satisfy her own (sexual) desires, this British lass had once set up a group on Facebook called I Need Sex (now removed) which soon attracted so many men to contact her. Link Picture via Valleywag

Www.Pizza.com Domain Name Auctioned for US$2.6M

Chris Clark, who is from Maryland's North Potomac, registered the domain name Www.Pizza.com in 1994 and since then maintained it by paying an annual fee of $20. In January, Clark decided to sell the domain after hearing about sale of www.vodka.com for 3 million dollars in 2006.  On March 27, he put pizza.com auctioned on Sedo.com. After a weeklong auction closed at 2pm on April 3, someone threw $2.6 million for the domain.

"It's crazy, it's just crazy. That amount of money is significant. It will make a significant difference in my life, for sure." said Clark. Link