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Never make friends…
Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
– Chanakya
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What Eating Lunch At Your Desk Every Day Does To Your Body
Playing Scrabble online with friends or stalking an old flame on Facebook can be totally addicting.
But recent research suggests zoning out in front of the computer during lunch might actually lead to overeating [1]. So stop checking those status updates (c’mon, fess up!) and consider focusing on that yummy salad or sammy instead!
Gimme A Break: The Tip
Americans spend an average of 8 ½ hours a day staring at their computer screens, TVs, and cell phones. So take a break at lunch! Research suggests that extra screen time could wreak havoc on the eyes— and maybe even the waistline [1] [3]. In one study, subjects who played Solitaire on a computer while chowing down reported feeling less full than non-distracted participants. The computer gamers also ate nearly twice as much when presented when a post-lunch snack [1].
Need another reason to focus on food and only food during lunch? In another study, researchers found that food-focused diners showed enhanced “meal memory,” (damn, that turkey sandwich was good!), which kept them feeling satisfied longer [5]. Subjects who were asked to read a newspaper while eating, by contrast, had more trouble keeping their hands out of the cookie jar after lunch [6].
Spending too much time in front of the computer can also contribute to eye problems like computer vision syndrome, which can cause pesky symptoms like eyestrain, blurred vision, and light sensitivity [3]. Powering down mid-day can have some social benefits, too. Studies suggest people who regularly socialize with others (and no, email doesn’t count!) display better cognitive function— just from chatting it up with friends [8].
Living in a technology-obsessed culture makes it hard to step away from the screen, even for meals. But it’s important to have some computer, cell phone and television-free hours every day. When lunchtime rolls around, try taking a walk outdoors (fresh air— ahhh!), or getting together some co-workers for a team lunch. Interacting with real live people may seem foreign in the world of texting and Twitter, but studies show communal eating can contribute to a happier mood and healthier meal[9].
Take a lunch break from technology to avoid overeating.
As published on http://www.businessinsider.com/staring-at-computer-all-day-makes-us-fat-2013-5
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The Art Of Screwing Up
I was enjoying breakfast with my good friend, Danny O’Brien, recently, when our conversation moved to the topic of screwing up, making mistakes and the steps we take thereafter. Danny said, “The quality of our lives is not determined by whether or not we screw up—because we all will.”
“No, the quality of our lives is determined by what happens next. Will we hide or come clean? Will we make excuses and search for justification or take responsibility, even if it means receiving consequences?”
Whether in our families, businesses or financial management, mistakes are a given. So as long as screwing up is a part of all of our lives, why not make it an art form, transforming it from a curse to a blessing? Here are three steps to doing so:
1) OWN – Our first instinct is always to deny and defend. Our self-preservative nature fights to keep our better judgment at bay, but in the face of a clear but yet un-owned error, we have an opportunity to claim full or partial responsibility. And while family, friends and employers don’t love our mistakes, they hate buck-passing even more. However, owning our failure isn’t easy, because owning also means accepting the natural consequences of our actions. Claiming bankruptcy might eliminate your debts, but you’re also not likely to procure credit for another seven years or more. Demeaning your children still weakens their resolve that you’re their biggest fan, blowing up at your employer can still get you fired, and calling your spouse a choice word could leave an impression that lasts for years, even decades.
2) APOLOGIZE – John Wayne famously said, “Don’t apologize, Mister, it’s a sign of weakness.” Hogwash! (As someone from Wayne’s generation might say.) A willingness to apologize is a sign of strength—an unwillingness to do so is a sure sign of both delusion and weakness. Do you avoid apologizing to perpetuate a façade that people might perceive is impenetrably perfect? Do you think people are more likely to trust, love, respect or follow you if you can (apparently) do no wrong? The opposite is true. If you try to prolong the ruse, the best case scenario is that people will fear you—if you’ve succeeded in fooling them—but it’s impossible to truly trust, love, respect or follow someone (in a healthy way) if we believe them to possess the inherent infallibility we know to be present in our own lives.
3) REFORM – “Only the penitent man shall pass.” Do you remember that classic line from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? As Indie mumbled the cryptic phrase written in his father’s journal on his quest to retrieve the Holy Grail, he properly (and in this instance, necessarily) infers aloud that, “The penitent man is humble…kneels before God…KNEELS!” And right as he drops to his knees, he narrowly averts sure decapitation. Penitence, repentance, humility—whatever you want to call it—might be seen as only the first step of reform, followed by a second step, an action of a more preferable sort. But true penitence quite naturally results in different (better) behavior; if it doesn’t, the humility itself is merely superficial. Indeed, the root meaning of the verb “repent” actually implies a fluid continuum: contrition, followed by action that is the stark inverse of the errant behavior.
If you have followed this path before, then you know that the satisfaction of recovering from a mistake is often proportionately greater than the pain suffered in being humbled by our own fallibility. You also likely know that when our misdeeds cause others pain, we can somehow mysteriously surpass the strength of our pre-mistake relationship after owning, apologizing and reforming. Although it’s no guarantee, practicing the art of screwing up is often endearing to family, friends and even clients. But let’s not forget that if we’re genuine in our penitence, we shouldn’t be screwing up quite so much in the first place.
As published on http://www.forbes.com/sites/timmaurer/2013/05/16/the-art-of-screwing-up/
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Google To Allow Gmail Users To Send Money Via Email
It’s not easy to send money digitally.
Paypal, an early leader in the field, requires users to have a Paypal account. Users of Venmo, a mobile app, must also have an account, plus download the app.
And Google Wallet, first announced two years ago, has struggled to get wireless carriers and phone manufacturers to install what is called near-field communication technology. NFC technology is what would make it possible for certain Android users to wave their phone at a retailer’s receiver to make a payment.
But now, Google has announced that it will allow Gmail users to attach money to emails, just as they would a photo or a document, as shown in the video. The move could radically transform the way we exchange money with friends, family and even businesses.
Users who link their bank accounts to Google Wallet receive transactions for free. Those using debit or credit cards pay a 2.9% transaction fee, and transactions are limited to $10,000.
Given that Google is the world’s largest email provider, this could help give mobile payments the push they’ve needed to go from being a novelty item to part of our everyday lives. As Quartz points out, text messaging has enabled mobile payments to become widely adopted in the developing world.
Google said it will gradually roll this service out to its Gmail users.
Read complete article on http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/05/16/google-to-allow-gmail-users-to-send-money-via-email/
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Study: People Test Positive for Smoke Exposure After Staying in Non-Smoking Hotel Rooms
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bradleygee/Flickr
PROBLEM: When rooms are continually smoked in, they become “reservoirs of tobacco smoke toxicants that accumulate in carpets, dust, upholstery, mattresses, curtains and furniture, penetrate wallpaper and paint, and are even stored in drywall.” It’s what some experts refer to as “third-hand smoke,” and no one’s quite sure how to clean it up. And while it’s easy enough to keep smokers confined to designated rooms, smoke itself is harder to contain.
METHODOLOGY: Two non-smoking women were recruited by researchers at San Diego State University to spend their weekends at low to mid-budget local hotels. Overall, they sampled 30 non-smoking and 29 smoking rooms in hotels that allow smoking, and 10 rooms in hotels that ban it altogether.
Before they arrived for each 12 to 14-hour stay, a research assistant would set up equipment to measure the air quality and presence of surface contaminants in the room. The women would then spend the night (they were allowed one pre-approved, non-smoking visitor), being sure to touch everything a typical hotel guest would touch, from the drapes to the TV remote, for at least 30 seconds. The women’s fingers and urine were tested for traces of nicotine and other byproducts of cigarette smoke before and after their stay.
RESULTS: Non-smoking hotel rooms generally contained more third-hand smoke when they were part of hotels that allowed smoking in other, designated rooms. They had, on average, twice the amount of nicotine on surfaces and seven times as much 3EP (another cigarette byproduct) in the air. In smoking-permitted rooms, of course, the presence of these contaminants was much higher.
The women, after spending the night in a hotel that permitted smoking, even after requesting a non-smoking room, the next morning had significantly more nicotine on their fingers, and five to six times the amount of cotinine — a biomarker of second-hand smoke exposure — in their urine.
IMPLICATIONS: It’s unclear exactly how cigarette byproducts ended up in places they didn’t belong. It could, write the authors, be the result of smoke migration, or from other patrons ignoring the ban, or from hotels not being entirely upfront about honoring people’s requests for non-smoking rooms. Research budgets didn’t allow for a proper analysis of luxury hotels, but the same principle probably applies across the board: Like most things that may have happened in a hotel room before you got there, and that may or may not have left some residue, you’re probably best not thinking too much about it.
As published on http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/study-people-test-positive-for-smoke-exposure-after-staying-in-non-smoking-hotel-rooms/275808/
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Network security doesn’t have to curb flexible and mobile working
How can businesses give their staff what they want, while making sure their network is safe and secure?
The lines between business and personal life are becoming increasingly blurred as smartphones and tablets are routinely used for business purposes. Employers are using the likes of social media not only to engage with staff but customers, and the number of people working flexibly continues to rise.
What’s more, with the business use of cloud-based and consumer apps hotting up, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are faced with a challenge: how do they give their staff what they want, while making sure their network is safe and secure?
CIOs are fast becoming the enablers for their businesses, and many are already looking at how they can give the right people the right tech tools to perform their jobs better. It’s a crucial role since many organisations are seeing the direct benefits of innovative CIO-led schemes such as bring your own device (BYOD), or the adoption of mobile and flexible working policies.
However, while many CIOs would love to accommodate every employee who asks for their latest shiny gadget to be plugged into the network, many are having to make sure that the consumerisation of their IT doesn’t lead to a more vulnerable network. Is there a middle ground?
Thankfully, as consumer technology seeps into the business place and innovative ways of working are implemented, security tools are becoming more intelligent. Ancient firewalls, with their rigid, company-wide rules about what can and can’t be done, are being given the cold shoulder by forward thinking CIOs. After all, if what they’re trying to do is all about innovation, it stands to reason that CIOs need to protect their networks in innovative ways too.
Many businesses are looking at the new, smart, unified threat management (UTM) firewalls as a way to get the best of both worlds. These are secure but flexible enough to allow staff to work in a style that suits them, whether that’s at home or on the move with a mobile device.
Where traditional firewalls characteristically have an all or nothing approach, smart firewalls are putting CIOs back in the driving seat. They can pick and choose the apps and social media sites needed and keep any that pose a threat out of reach. New apps and websites will undoubtedly come on to the scene and gain favour over others, but when this happens, the CIO can adjust the smart firewall settings accordingly – and hey presto, the new technology is allowed in and the CIO can continue to innovate the business.
But allowing the right technology is just one challenge solved; giving the right people access is a whole other ballpark. Again, CIOs are looking for intelligent security products that give them the opportunity to control who uses what application. If a sales team needs LinkedIn, then they’re given access – and it’s the same for a customer service team using Twitter.
CIOs are now getting a 360-degree view of their organisations and are able to decide what technology suits which member of staff and allow access at the touch of the button. Importantly though, the company’s exposure to security threats is limited by restricting access for all other members of staff.
Clearly, the next generation of firewalls will have to be smarter to handle the challenges of data security; that’s just the evolution of a product. What’s really encouraging is that CIOs are not put off by traditional challenges – they want to innovate and nothing will stop them, so suppliers and the wider IT industry must respond by evolving their products and services to meet the new CIOs’ demands. That can only be a good thing for businesses.
As published on http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/may/09/network-security-flexible-mobile-working
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Nelumbo nucifera or simply Lotus
Lotus
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I have found the…
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. – Mother Teresa
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New Zealand Government Announces That Software Will No Longer Be Patentable
In a bill passed earlier today, the Government of New Zealand announced that software in the country will no longer be patentable. New Zealand’s largest IT representative body, the Institute of IT Professionals, expressed relief and said the decision removed a major barrier to software-led innovation.
The policy was passed in a Supplementary Order Paper, which sets out proposed amendments to the existing Patents Bill. The order defines three basic principals.
(1) A computer program is not an invention and not a manner of manufacture for the purposes of this Act.
(2) Subsection (1) prevents anything from being an invention or a manner of manufacture for the purposes of this Act only to the extent that a claim in a patent or an application relates to a computer program as such.
(3) A claim in a patent or an application relates to a computer program as such if the actual contribution made by the alleged invention lies solely in it being a computer program.
In a post on The New Zealand Harald, Commerce Minister Craig Foss said that following industry consultation he had decided to remove the patentability of software from the Patents Bill, which is currently before Parliament. “These changes ensure the Bill is consistent with the intention of the Commerce Select Committee recommendation that computer programs should not be patentable,” he said.
According to Wikipedia, “Most countries place some limits on the patenting of invention involving software, but there is no legal definition of a software patent. For example, U.S. patent law excludes “abstract ideas”, and this has been used to refuse some patents involving software. In Europe, “computer programs as such” are excluded from patentability and European Patent Office policy is consequently that a program for a computer is not patentable if it does not have the potential to cause a “further technical effect” beyond the inherent technical interactions between hardware and software.”
In doing this, New Zealand is essentially taking the position that existing laws provides enough protection to software as it is; patents only serve to stifle innovation because of the ever-looming threat of being sued by so-called patent troll companies.
During its consideration of the bill, the committee received many submissions opposing the granting of patents for computer programs on the grounds it would stifle innovation and restrict competition. Internet New Zealand said Foss’ decision to amend the Patents Bill drew to a close “years of wrangling between software developers, ICT players and multinational heavyweights over the vexed issue of patentability of software”.
New Zealand’s biggest software exporter, Orion Health, also welcomed Foss’ decision. Chief executive Ian McCrae said obvious things were being patented under the current regime. “You might see a logical enhancement to your software, but you can’t do it because someone else has a patent. In general, software patents are counter-productive, often used obstructively and get in the way of innovation.”
Well done my Kiwi friends, well done indeed!
As published on http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2013/05/08/new-zealand-government-announces-that-software-will-no-longer-be-patentable/
::: Shailendra Nair ::: 
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