Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2016

Words...

It's only words... and words are all I have... to take your heart away... Goes a song from 90's. 

Few days back, there was a 'Secret Santa' event at my workplace - where we were supposed to send anonymous gifts to our teammates. As usual, few gifts were 'interesting' and others... were pens... I, too, gifted an unknown person a pen. And in return got a pen myself... So much for seasons' festivities. 

I actually wanted to add a note along with the pen to make it 'special'... but... didn't... so here it goes...

They say a pen is mightier than sword! 

There should be some relevance to this proverb. A sword may save or kill one person at a time. But, a pen might bring to action hundreds and thousands of such swords, either one way or the other. As such, indeed, pen does seem to be mightier. However, looking all around us, with so much death and misery and gloominess, I wonder, has all the ink in our 'collective' pens dried up? Or has the thirst of sword overcome the might of pen. Has the power of pen, i.e. words, lost its meaning? Have words turned dysfunctional? 

I write, blog to be more precise. Okay, not very often, but still... occasionally. But, I've never thought, that my words would have saved someone's life. Its a far fetched idea. May have given someone a glimmer of hope, but then that's about it. 

However, if I had a sword (or any other weapon) - would there be any difference. Perhaps not! I still wouldn't have saved or taken anyone's life! But, I definitely would have felt more powerful than a nerdy, introvert punching words on his blog that doesn't get any hits!

Why is this feeling so pertinent and logical?

Having said that, there are so many keyboard punching zealots, who are changing the course of history, as we speak - for good or for bad... mostly for bad, I would believe. Is it because of them that the words, we speak or write are loosing their importance? 

At the end of the day, neither pen nor sword... nor the words matter... its the deeds that we actually do that make the most difference. That would be our legacy. A restraint pen (keyboard!) is as good as a restraint sword! Be careful of the words you choose, for once said they don't come back. There are no erasers and sutures for the hurt caused by our words, choose them wisely. (there's no undo on internet either!) 

People matter more than pens and swords! They should!  

Monday, November 2, 2015

Noise Control!

We all are constantly at the receiving end of endless information, thrown at us without any particular preference or order or relevance! 

Sure, we are in control of our "newsfeed", as it is called - apparently "feeding" us the "news". But, then we really cannot control what the people in-charge of populating the feed are posting. Nor are we in control of events that are triggering the feed. 

However, we choose to ignore most of the things coming in our feed. Occasionally, hiding inappropriate ones, or blocking, or reporting them. This has causes us to apply a first level of filtering criteria - typically where our attention span is very less! In the process, we may/do ignore few things which might warrant more attention. 

How do we strike a balance? Or do we just gulp whatever is fed to us, which might lead to upset tummy sometimes, or puking occasionally (Snapchat-syle rainbow colored)!

Here's a dose of Monday Morning motivation!!



Update1 (04/11/2015):  
Found this... it makes so much more sense!!! 


Update2 (05/11/2015) - above vid was removed, so the link to story!  

And another one brewing up :)

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

काला अक्षर भैंस बराबर!!!

Long before the advent of digital and printing technology, paper used to be an expensive commodity. Reserved only for select few - recording philosophy and religion, and  the truths and legends of history. And the actual process of writing words was no less than an art - taking its sweet time and efforts. Gutenberg came along and invented a method of easily 'mass production' of written word - history was never the same again. The proliferation of knowledge that happened after, was one of the turning points of mankind.

But, there still was a divide - haves and have not’s situation... for many, written word was still "kala akshar bhains barabar" (the title of this post)! And there were some deviant minds, which misused this great invention also... Spreading lies and deceit!!

Times have changed, so has the notion of knowledge. Written word is now digitized. At the click of a button you have access to knowledge of thousands of years... Not just that, but also views and opinions and news on real-time, global basis...

Thus, technology can be a great enabler. But, even the best of tools can do no good, if you can't use them! And use them wisely!

Many of the readers of this editorial would be familiar with the difference between machine and machine-tool. If not, let me explain... Machine is any man-made device which reduces human effort, while machine-tool is something which is used to make machines. A machine cannot make another machine, whereas machine-tool can make another machine-tool. Similar to this, every new development that happens, makes use of a huge number of preceding technological iterations. Some technologies provide the means and ends, while others lay foundations of future technologies, yet to come.

There are many techno-geek jokes popular amongst engineers. "If automotive technology advanced at the rate of IT, a Rolls Royce would have cost few pennies!". "How would a computer engineer fix a broke car - he would shut down Windows and restart it!".

Few centuries ago, even flying was a dream or a wild fantasy, no less than a joke. Now, it's not only a norm, but considered to be one of the fastest and safest mode of transportation! Not without its fair share of mishaps. Self-driven autonomous cars are already here... So are drones... Space travel for masses... Almost all of us have in our pockets a device, (which could be used to broadcast or receive information), with better computing power and graphics unimaginable, super-expensive even for scientists few decades back... And many other ideas and inventions waiting to happen. But does technology really drive this innovation?? May be not! But, it's absence surely retards the progress!!

With these enabling-tools at our hand, rather fingertips, we shouldn't restrict our horizons of innovation. We need to dream big. Dreams that take away our sleep. Float crazy ideas which people may laugh at - but don't stop there, make them work. Stay foolish, stay hungry!

Came across this response in the latest AMA session of Bill Gates… an interesting point in line with current post…

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Social Media!

Once upon a time, every newcomer in the corporate IT world used to have fun with the most widely used communication tool - Email. And the fun was 'forwards'. Remember hitting 'Crtl+F' and 'Alt+Enter' impulsively and shooting a mail with 'FWD' in subject line, perhaps coupled with some other keywords to ensure 'safety'! ;) And then, there were blokes who used to religiously send Thought-For-The-Day or Good-Morning mails as a daily ritual! There were forwards of good-luck or bad-luck striking if one forwarded the mail to x number of recipients, or fund-raising for some sick child - for every forward 1$ will be credited, or blonde-jokes, or about some social-cause, or some product promotions.. variety of subjects.. I vividly remember same images being recirculated with different stories! While few others just plain, out-rightly fake news, stories or urban-legends! And of course, there was also the spamming on personal mail-ids. Over a period of time people could sensibly judge and decide what is true and what is not!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Bobak launches Curiosity - Animation

Read more about this guy here - unofficial fan-club here
And about the NASA space mission here
Note: You'll be asked to install a small add-on from 3DVIA to run this interactive animation!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Cool Geek!!

Geek Alert!!!! 
I love this cool guy from NASA... breaking all the 'stereotypes' and pre-conceived notions of a geeky/nerdy species. 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Love All - Part 4

Someone posted this image on FB and triggered a series of comments from few 'friends'... Things went nasty after few rounds and then the inevitable happened. One guy was forced out of the discussion. One bowed away (see below). Makes me wonder sometimes what the world has turned into :(



Sunday, April 1, 2012

Respect.. Free-will.. Culture..

Few days back I read this interesting post. It was about few blokes who out of respect to elders, don't smoke in their presence.

In another couple of days, saw a similar post on FB. This one had a different flavour. Few young ladies taking a puff - title went 'mulgi shikli, pragati zhali'.. now this particular title is used by Government to promote education of girl child and literally means - If girl child learns (is educated), society will flourish/develop. Obviously, with this picture its plain sarcasm - don't know towards whom.. Government or this young generation of today's progressive India. Below this 'status' were thousands of likes, hundreds of shares and people who had strong opinions also wrote some very fiery comments.. ranging from 'women in India/our culture are treated with respect - daughters, mothers', 'they should not be objects of desire but of respect', and similar sentiments on one side of the spectrum. And in the 'red corner' were champions of free will and equal rights and freedom for smokers. Some were indifferent to the fact that these smokers were females, while others felt strongly that women are being 'singled out'.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Dirty Mind!

Warning: Mature thoughts, and some links contain mature/graphic content!

“My weak flesh cost me everything”, says Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn otherwise popularly known as DSK. A French political biggie, who could have been the next President of France, if not for that unfortunate incident. Dirty old man misjudged the 'fling' and it backfired. I don't know if the French people should have forgiven this 'little' misadventure being the very open cultured society? They were the ones who did ban the burkhas in the first place! Look at India, we 'forgive' our politicians, no matter what kind of harakiri they commit! We have our share of shameless scamsters, not just in money matters but also of DSK-kinds ;)