60 Seconds - Information Overload

"TAKE CONTROL of your real LIFE"

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694,445 searched on Google
6,600+ pictures uploaded on Flickr
600 videos uploaded on YouTube videos
695,000 status updates on Facebook
70 New domains registrations
168,000,000+ emails sent
320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets on Twitter
13,000 iPhone app downloads
20,000 new posts on tumbler
1700 downloads of FireFox
50 downloads of Wordpress
100 accounts created on LinkedIn
40 new Questions on YahooAnswers
100+ questions on Answers
1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary
1,200+ new ads are created on Craigslist
370,000+ minutes of voice calls on Skype
13,000+ hours of music streaming on Pandora
1,600+ reads are made on Scribd

Source: www.go-gulf.com

Good bye Steve Jobs! Lives touched by You will rock on.

FINAL FUNERAL RITES: STEVE JOBS

His Mortal remains will be laid in state at His Residence in Palo Alto, California on the 8th Of October 2011

Burial Service: The iTrinity Chapel Ministries, Palo Alto; The body will be cremated in his residence.

After Church Service, there will be a reception at his residence.

Rest In Peace dear Steve Jobs! You lived very well.

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RIP Steve Jobs

I promise to "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" Steve, I promise.

Watch his 2005 Stanford Speech - http://bit.ly/hCvPdG

Apple iPod iMac iTouch iPhone iTune iPad NeXT Pixar. . . . . . iMiss You Steve iGrieve!

Steve Job; the legend who dented this Universe in his own beautiful way!

Apple's statement says: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

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Music notes for Google Doodle - Play Guitar on your Keyboard - Les Paul's anniversary

Everyone can play guitar right from your keyboard at www.google.com today.

As @neerajsaxena tweeted: The whole world seems to be strumming today, thanks to the Doodle! Thank you Google for making my surroundings musical, no strings attached!

Here are a few songs for you to play:
- Go to www.google.com
- Click on small keyboard image till it shows in Red colour
- Now remember the tunes & adjust timings between the notes as given below

_____________________
Via @saffrontrail From @wwtang Happy Birthday with #googledoodle guitar version: Play this '5565 887 5565 998 5550 8876 4408 998' I tried, it worked. Have fun!

_____________________
Via @CruciFire From @vikas_m: DJDJDJDJDJDJ, GLGLGLGLGLGL, DJDJDJ KDK JDJ, GLG PGP LGL KFK and repeat. System of Down's Toxicity

_____________________
From @MusicAloud varaveena (carnatic) without the gamakas. :)
335 5 658 8 98665 65332 35686 65332 33653 55321
333323535 5 33656 658 8 609988 686665 356865
653321 123 3 32532 12132121 1

______________________
From @SangitaSri Play DoReMi: - asdsdsd - sdffdsf - dfgdgdg - fghhgfh - gasdfgh - hsdfghj - jdfghjk - kjhgfds...
______________________
From @complicateur #googledoodle The opening line of Pani vizhum alone is possible: qqqqqqqq qert rtre
______________________
Via @keshav61 From @complicateur #googledoodle O Butterfly: Q W E WEW QWQ U QWQ WEW WETY YUUY YUUY YTY TRT R EW(together) RW ER(together)
______________________
Via @NameFieldmt From @krishnahok ASDDDDDDDDDDDSDF for the first line of India's national anthem Jana Gana Mana.

_______________________
Via @mestrazulas From @rubbaan: Star Wars theme on #googledoodle - EEE Q T E Q T E UUU I YR T E

_______________________
Via @neokenji01 From @ratm: (123 *press together*)x3 (678)x3 (123)x3 (678)x3 (123)x3 (678)x3 (123)x3 878783 - Killing In The Name intro

Apple - Annual WWDC 2011 Summary

Apple held its annual Worldwide Developer Conference WWDC 2011 on 6th June.
Steve Jobs presented 3major products: OS X (Lion) ---- iOS5 --- iCloud
Watch full video of the WWDC Keynote address via The Next Web.
A collection of highly relevant summary articles online from the best arouces is listed - they are better than me trying to sum up :-)

1. Everything you need to know about the new iOS5


2. OS X (Lion) for only $29 - Features


3. Apple Moves The Digital Hub From The Mac To iCloud


4. iOS 5: Tweet everywhere


5. iCloud - mails, contacts, calendar, docs, iBooks, music, photographs

eG8 Forum – The Internet: Accelerating Growth

For the very 1st time, eG8 Forum brought together movers and shakers from the Internet technolgy world, government, non-profit foundations and media organisations to discuss the current status of the Internet and its social and cultural impact. View video of Interview by Reuters on eG8 here.

When and where and agenda
eG8 Summit was held in Paris, France on the 24th & 25th May 2011. Check the full event schedule and speakers list here.

Aim of the Summit

eG8 Forum in Paris sought to bring together leaders from the political and Internet worlds to think about the future of the networked society. Main discussions involved around the importance of the role that the Internet now plays in our personal as well as our professional lives, and the opportunities but also the challenges that the network represents for our societies, our economies and our cultures.

Elite speakers

Some of the elite panelists and speakers in this event include:
Nicolas Sarkozy, Marc Zuckerberg (Facebook), Eric Schmidt of Google, Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Craig Mundie (Microsoft), Rupert Murdoch (News Corp), Andrew Mason (Groupon), Klaus Schwab (World Economic Forum), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Yuri Milner (Digital Sky Technologies), John Donahoe (ebay), Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Airtel), Mitchell Baker (Mozilla Foundation), etc.

They were joined by eminent academics Yochai Benkler, Jeff Jarvis (Hippocratic Oath for the Internet), and Larry Lessig (Harvard law school). Refer here for full list of speakers during the plenary sessions of eG8. Video of the eG8 Forum plenary sessions of both Day 1 and Day 2 are available on Youtube.

Opening note from Nicolas Sarkozy

The Internet's multilateral dynamic, and the driving role that the private sector and civil society play in its development, have led me to invite the major stake- holders of this ecosystem to Paris, so that the meeting of Heads of State can benefit from their vision. The content of your exchanges will be conveyed to the Heads of State and governments of the G8. A new phenomenon requires a new method of consultation, one that recognizes the legitimacy and the responsibility of the actors concerned: hence the idea of this e-G8 Forum”, said Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France. For more info watch this video of President Sarkozy at the eG8 Summit.

Event Partners

The eG8 was partnered by leading technology firms: Orange, Vivendi, Free, Google, Capgemini, Ebay, Microsoft, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, HP, Eutelsat Communications, Thomson Reuters, and Publicis Groupe.

Selected highlights

Keynote presentation by James Manyika and Matthieu Pé́lissié on 'Internet Matters'.
• Report from McKinsey Global Institute on 'Internet Matter: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth, jobs and prosperity (PDF)'.
• Many organizations concerned with human rights, liberties and civil society online have released a statement to the eG8 and G8 that advocates “expanding internet access for all, combating digital censorship and surveillance, limiting online intermediary liability, and upholding principles of net neutrality.
• When asked about government regulation, Eric Schmidt of Google said that technology moves so fast that governments really shouldn't try to regulate it because it will change too fast, and any problem will be solved by technology. "We'll move much faster than any government”.
• The eG8 shows online innovation and freedom of expression still need strong defenders according to Alex Howard of O’reilly. Read his detailed account on copyright, innovation and freedom of expression here.

What is your online personality?

Users are getting the hang of being on social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, MySpace, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Twitter, Orkut, Friendstr, Hubbo, etc. It is time we mature from treating these as public chat forums to one more meaningful and worthy of belonging to by our valuable presence.

Here are certain roles that one can take for an online Avatar, to add value to the exploding online proliferation and populace. Each role highlights a specific focus of purpose and some of these can be combined in varying ratios to suit one’s preference.

Grooming one’s online personality also creates clear personal brand values and established you presence as a domain champion much sought after online. Over time period, these skills acquired may also lead to lucrative business prospects or even job offers.

A. Authentic news source
This personality is well read and keeps live track of events happening around in one specific domain or in an overall manner. Sources have to authentic and personal reflections and viewpoints may induce interactivity within your network.

B. Local expert
Almost anyone can be a local expert for if they have lived there for a while. Information shared by such experts may range from news about local events, useful contact leads, shopping venues and offers, food / restaurant recommendations, etc.

C. Role model
This character cannot be defined clearly but it is a personality which most readers or users look forward to emulate. Success of these role models may come from the mature opinions they share to the comfort they bring about through their discussions and the inspiration and support they give to others.

D. Motivator or mentor
Such people normally share lot of motivational quotations and inspirational news. They are instant source of positive energy and a must in everyone’s online networking contacts basket.

E. Technical or social help desk

Most often well-versed user of products or gadgets and professional in technical fields play this role well. They are often up-to-date about technology products and by experience they could also help I troubleshooting technical problems for others.

F. Community welfare
Social consciousness is a must in every human being but some are more inclined to be vociferous about such social initiatives and news. They are happy and caring souls who rope-in support for fund-raiser or awareness campaigns for social causes.

G. Social media coach
This character is an experienced user of the social media platform not just in a technical sense but also in the sense of understanding the dynamics of users and content and viral marketing that goes on here. Most often they are compassionate people to network with and learn to rope in your social media strategy.

H. Lifestyle Guru
Anyone indulging in the finesse of life with a taste can become a lifestyle guru online. With news about latest fashions, trends, promotions and teaser campaigns, they entice the user to become a compulsive shopper. Unlike marketing media, these people are genuine and can make personalized recommendation and so they are better received in public.

On the whole life is an experience and each one of us sees only a facet of it in prismatic vision. So being one’s true self in good etiquette is the secret mantra of successful online presence. Making oneself useful either in real world or online is by connecting with others and sharing your insights. So choose your online personality accordingly and create a valuable presence.

Art and science of effective passwords

In our digital life style, most often our privacy and secrecy are protected with username and password (including PIN as in the case of card-based transactions).

On an average over ten different passwords have to memorized for purposes such as internet account, office and personal emails, online social media platforms, financial and utility accounts transactions online, membership logins, etc.


Life was easy until we considered that having a password was enough once and for all. Unfortunately this scene has changes. We are at the risk of financial or reputation loss and might also suffer losing our own identity if our private details are exposed to the wrong people.

Often we use simple password that include abbreviations of our name or initials along with details from our date of birth – a mere 5 to 6 characters long. Many times people find using the default password or ‘password’ as the password itself more convenient. Imagine how simple and how dangerous if this case applies to your online banking website of email account.


Now often we come across so many “Don’t Do” about secure password. Never user names or usernames or ‘123’ or ‘test’ or petname or child’s name being some of these. Seldom there is help in the form of how to coin safe passwords and manage them efficiently. Here is some useful information in this direction.

• Make sure whatever you do, that you can remember the password without having to write it down. The best password is simple yet difficult to crack.


• The length and range and the case of characters in your password determine how difficult it is to guess. So use symbols, numbers, a mix of upper and lower case letters. For example letter ‘a’ can be replaced with ‘@’, ‘s’ can be replaces with ‘$’ etc.


• One method of coining a good password is to use a sentence that one can easily remember. For example “My Favourite Movie Is Casablanca” or “The Best Place I have Seen So far Is Bali”. Take the 1st letter of each word, insert your symbol say ‘#’ between each 3 letter and use your number say ‘3’ after every 5th letter. A password like ‘Tbp#ih3$#$fi#5B’ is almost impossible to guess.


• Another easy technique could be to use two totally un-related words and connect both those words with symbols and numbers while mixing up lower and uppercase letters. Again passwords like ‘ nOvember!=dEcem ber’ or ‘funny<$nail>Flower’ are also very good passwords.


• Use of words from foreign language can be very handy to make good password using English characters. This brings a new range of complexity into your password as the sentence delivered in your native language can’t be guess that easily. Example ‘Guruk@Aashirva@d’ is simple based on a Hindi phrase with symbols missed for the 1st and last occurrence of the letter ‘a’.


• Whatever password you may create can be useless if you do not change is over a period of time. Good level of security suggests change after every 30 or 45 days. Systems can be automated to ‘expire a password’ after this number of days.


• Re-use of old password must also be limited. It is safe to keep this limit as 10/12 minimum, for the list of passwords before they can be reused again.


• Length of the password must certainly be longer than 8 characters but about 14 characters or more is recommended for sensitive applications.
  

As conclusion we can say that no password un-crackable and what we are trying our best is only to make it more difficult to crack in terms of effort and time. Simple and obvious errors like post-it notes with passwords stuck under keyboards must be avoided.

Sharing the password with someone is same as broadcasting your password publicly; this is no longer a secret. The worst password is the one you forgot while the best password is simple yet cannot be guessed easily.

Brave new world with technology

In line with the radical changes, as presented by Aldous Huxley in his novel ‘Brave New World’, in fact surpassing those p jections is where technology has brought in a change in society. An ordinary citizen has access to information like never before, which make him enjoy his comforts better.

Tools of technology like the Internet and the Mobile have given him the power of choice, a true choice in the matter how he wishes to be served with pertinent information. A couple of days of technology-weaning call best explain to us the extent to which we rely on them.

With the innovations in technology leading to price reduction with increased new features it is now possible for a common man to afford access to technology and gadgets. Now comes managing the overflow of information out there and gaining the skill to filter that is relevant to one’s purpose of lifestyle. The culture of the brave new world is one that of strive for success and happiness.

And then one day it dawns to us: "All of a sudden, we've lost a lot of control," he said. "We can't turn off our internet; we can't turn off our smartphones; we can't turn off our computers" as told by the pioneer Steve Wozniak.

Digital Oman suggests here a few means of accessing information from the digital world on a periodic basis in a controlled manner and to manage their flow to digest it. As per the brave new world theory, harnessing technology through a means that best suits one is fostering a powerful and complete reliance of access to pertinent information.

Book marks

The most common means is to use the ‘Favorites feature’ just like book marks in a common web browser. We come across several interesting articles of interest when we try to search for something else. The best means at hand is to save the weblink as favourite and revisit regularly at the end of the day.

Google reader

An alternative tool is to use a free tool called Google reader. You can find this tool under ‘More’ options in Google window. Then one can click on ‘Add a subscription’. For example enter ‘technology’ to find feed in that discipline; then choose your feed subscriptions. Now daily alerts in the field of technology will be waiting in your Google reader for you to read at your leisure.
Yet another interesting feature of this tool is that if your friends on Google email also have a similar reader setup that is public, then you can read their favourite reads also marked from their reader lists.

News Feeds

RSS standing for Really Simple Syndication is another manner in which news as well as website updates are pushed into our subscriptions. Also called as ‘News Feeds’ enable you to get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as its published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from. Most email clients have a feature to import such regular feeds into the separate ‘InBox’.

Twitter

The micro-blogging platform twitter is rich with media and corporate presence so that once you follow these ‘Usenames’, to receive small snippets of news and links appear in your timeline in under 140 characters. If this lead interests you then you can click on the link to read further.
While the above list is not exhaustive, it certainly is a good way to organise information that is found in plenty online and organise it in such a manner that you can access it anytime you are free to process the contents of the information.

Would like to hear more from you as to how you manage your digital brave new world. Do comment.