Facebook learns to deal with Death

We lost a couple of friends over the last few months, one who ended his life and another who was in a very bad car accident. Both their losses are felt throughout the friends circle, more so in their homes.

A few posts ago I had raised an interesting question about your digital self after you die. Although it is one of those topics which people are not really interested to talk about; it is something that everyone nearly takes interest to at least read. Or at least they should, because your digital self lasts a really long time after you are gone.

Facebook, like most times has taken note of this and has put a step in the right direction. When someone leaves us, they don’t leave our memories or the social network. To reflect that reality, Facebook created the idea of “memorialized” profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who’ve passed.

The service from Facebook allows friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized. By memorializing the account of someone who has passed away, people will no longer see that person appear in their Suggestions, since Facebook is giving a lot of friend suggestions these days.

When an account is memorialized, they also set privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. They also try to protect the deceased’s privacy by removing sensitive information such as contact information and status updates. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into it in the future, while still enabling friends and family to leave posts on the profile Wall in remembrance.

If you have a friend or a family member whose profile should be memorialized, please contact Facebook, so their memory can properly live on among their friends on Facebook. As time passes, the sting of losing someone you care about also fades but it never goes away. You can still visit that friend’s memorialized profile to remember the good times you had and share them with your mutual friends.

This is to Gopal and Vilas, may you guys rest in peace.

You can check out the Facebook blog with this information here http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=163091042130

All My presentations on slideshare.net

Change as an engineer

For the longest time I thought that change is for the good, why would anyone make a big deal of change. Being in an industry where people work for years and years, I would always think of the “Oldies” as some sort of mental blockers in accepting that their landscape is changing. Their reluctance to accept new technology etc is something that we all know of but even people, they would be very skeptical to accept even new people.

On the contrary, they also know that, if we all resisted change all the time, we as designers of course would not be able to improve and advance technology.  Change is, without question, inevitably necessary to evolve our products, procedures, efficiency etc. If the guys making the first car would have never changed or evolved we would have amazing gas guzzlers that would provide 1 km per gallon and would cost a few hundred thousand, wait the American cars still do that.

Working in a similar landscape I realized that we engineers go through rigorous scientific process when making decisions.  We rely on experiment, trial, hard data, user experience, cost analysis, potential and future benefit, and product efficiency to evaluate new tools, products, and design flows.  As one can imagine, this often takes a hefty chunk of time and effort.  We engineers decide to put in the time and effort now, and plan on using the eventual choice for many recurring projects.  It is a significant investment for both the engineer and the company to evaluate and make these difficult choices.  The motivation for change must be painfully obvious and very compelling else the inclination towards it is not even there.

Like they say necessity is the mother of all invention, we believe that laziness is the key to all efficiency. Quite frankly. I can state maybe 2 examples to show this. One being my computer, where the shortcuts, look and feel, customization of menus, bookmarks etc are meant to maximize my computer using experience. And when I say that I mean get all my stuff with the minimum effort. Even the routine excel files that I use are all with formulas, etc to ensure that I am able to provide the required reports etc with minimal effort. Maybe that is why most of us DO NOT like anyone to fiddle around with our computers. Even the place where I used to live as a bachelor was a small 8sqm studio which was made up to accommodate most of my whims and fancies at that time. It was also an efficiency masterpiece to be able to enjoy all of my stuff with minimal effort. Again what might seem as laziness to a lot of people is definitely the efficiency of the process.

I also do believe that engineers do embrace change, but it takes  a lot for them to do so. Like it is aptly put there should be painfully obvious to make the change.

Engineers should embrace change if it provides an immediate opportunity to increase their own personal skill sets.   This applies to learning new software, new programming languages, new management techniques, and of course new design methods. In the industrial world, new products and materials can provide unforeseen improvements to high-tech designs.

The long-term gains available should be embraced by the engineer, given appropriate runway and deadlines.  This is where upper-management normally misses the boat. When all is said and done, the goal is to make money.

The Management’s mantra to lower costs is not entirely evil; it should be everyone’s goal to help the bottom line.  Again, the key is balance.  If there is a significantly cheaper option available, whether it be software, tools, or parts, it should be evaluated in detail by the company’s best engineers.  It is up to them to determine the technical capabilities of the new toy.

And these things are something that I am now getting to see while slowly moving up the corporate ladder. I wonder would it have made a difference if someone had spoken to me during my college days I mean made it more management type discussion then I might have adapted accordingly. Well that Is something of a discussion that needs to be taken another time. For the time being it is clear we as engineers are as stubborn as a donkey on some issues. And yes I am admitting it, finally.

My presentations about Green Technologies

Like a lot of people on the internet, I have been trying to follow and educate everyone about the mishaps of global warming, climate change etc.

Well here are two of my attempts at the same.

Cricket and Technology !

Most people do not know that the International Cricket council (ICC) has over 140 member countries and the sport is being played and watched by an ever larger group of audience now than ever before. The 10 larger cricket playing nations are the more famous of the lot, but definitely the audience of cricket considering that India and china are also in the 140 countries means that the audience is now massive. The introduction of technology for the betterment of the viewing experience as well as the training of players and umpires is something that gets majorly overlooked in the context of a cricket match. I have here enlisted a few technologies that have shaped my viewing experience with cricket and look forward to the future with some more innovative technologies.

Instant replay

One of the first change of the cricket viewing experience was the instant replay, today we see the replay of every ball and each and every shot played and great moments in each game, this was one of the “state of the art” introductions to cricket viewing, we now take it for granted to check each ball in the replay as much as possible.

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Super slow motion

Well the Instant replay required a real uplift since it is being around for a long time. The latest addition that is not yet widespread used is the super slow motion cameras, showing the frames that are missed out by the regular cameras. The very few executions of these cameras have shown how split seconds are as important in this game as any other.

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Zoomer

The Zoomer is another natural propagation of the camera replays and the super slow motion cameras just to display the accurate position of the ball of whether the ball touched the ground before being caught or the ball hit the bat before hitting the pad and take a catch. There is definitely an inquisitiveness that involves in finding out what actually happened especially if it was a crucial wicket etc.

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Eyes and ears of the stump

The next great change for viewing the cricket for the Television audience was the eyes and ears of the stump. I think everyone has seen the stumps being broken either by the bowler bowling the batsman over or the fielder breaking the stumps, all through the eyes of the stump cam. Well there has been more than one proof of sledging between players which are very clear through the microphone in the stump. This microphone also then gave another interesting addition to cricket, which is our next topic.

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Snick-o-meter

With the camera being in the stump, the miniature noises around the stump could be magnified and the image representation of the sound file could be seen, this was instrumental in using the snick-o-meter to specifically check if the batsman had nicked the ball on the way to the wicket keeper. This is a very interesting technology but not without its shortcomings, in very close calls between the bat, ball and the pads, it could not distinguish the sound of the ball hitting the bat or the pad or the bat hitting the pad, even through the snick-o-meter is seen in conjunction with a super slow motion video.

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Reaction time

Reaction timers are something that show the skill of fielders and bowlers with unbelievable proof. I have been awestruck at the fielding of Johnty Rhodes, Herschelle Gibbs and even India’s Yuvraj Singh on how they are able to pick the ball out of seemingly thin air. And the fact that the fielders did it in less than half a second was even as astounding as the catch itself. I think that along with the batting and bowling averages, the fielders need to have statistics as well, with their fastest reaction times shown.

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Speed gun

Radars have been known to most of the western world as a tool used to fine them when they speed up on the highways in their cars, but having them on the cricket field gives people an interesting perspective in the bowlers mind. Especially, when the world has seen the enormous success that T20 cricket has bought to the game, the variations of the bowlers in speed as much in line and length have been praised and appreciated by commentators, players and viewers alike. Its bringing the viewers closer to the game than ever before.

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Run out ruler

People always were of the view that close photo finishers were only for the track and field events, and that was shattered by the introduction of the cameras for cross verifying the field umpires doubts of the run-out decisions. But there was no quantifiable measure to check how much the ball won over the batsman or vice versa. Well Run out ruler to the rescue, although I have not seen too many implementations of this technology in many matches, this seems to be a technology that will grow on users.

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Hawk eye

Hawkeye is different from other technologies used in Cricket, in that it is a predictive tool. The way Hawkeye is supposed to work is, it observes the trajectory of a delivery at various points, till say it hits the batsman’s pads, and then predicts its trajectory past that point based on various additional factors, like speed, how it got off the pitch, etc. Now, I understand that there are limitations to the predictive curves that Hawkeye gives, that it’s not 100% right, and probably won’t be in the near future. But then before a gadget is discarded, we must measure its effectiveness — both absolute and w.r.to. the alternatives! And the introduction of Hawk eye has brought along with it a host of other statistics that are invaluable for statisticians as well as viewers, here are a few below.

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Wagon wheel
The singles, 2s, 3s, 4s and 6s that make up quick-fire 50s or vital centuries are represented by the different colors of the Wagon Wheel, which shows the areas of the field that the batsman has been targeting. Hawk-Eye now has the ability to display wagon wheels over photo realistic or virtual realistic backgrounds, giving broadcasters even more scope to tailor the Hawk-Eye ‘look’ towards the style of their production.

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Pitch map

Simple yet effective; Pitch Maps make a useful pause for reflection after the frenetic exchanges of the opening overs and highlight a bowler’s consistency or expensiveness, line and length. Hawk-Eye can now display comparative Pitch Maps in a split screen format, as shown in the example to the right.

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Beehive

Beehives show where the ball has passed the batsman. As with the Pitch Map, the colored balls correspond to the number of runs that the batsman has achieved from that delivery. Hawk-Eye Beehives can now be shown against a photo realistic or virtual realistic world, as with the Wagon Wheel feature.

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Ball Speed

Hawk-Eye now has the ability to supply ball speeds as reliably as a radar gun, as demonstrated during the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.

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Deviation

Hawk-Eye DeSpin Graphics demonstrate how far a delivery has deviated after pitching. Whilst the blue trajectory below represents a ball that does not spin or seam, the red ‘actual delivery’ shows just how much turn the spinner has achieved.

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Rail cam

The ‘RailCam’ (side view) shot of the VR World can be used to represent differences in speed, bounce and delivery. The trajectories are animated, whilst the speeds provide further evidence of a bowler’s variation or a telling comparison between athletes.

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New Technolgogies that are being introduced or are coming around the corner

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Heat seeker

In a fascinating and unusual tale of technology transfer, the latest broadcasting device to enrich the armchair fan’s viewing experience is based on a system more commonly found on armoured tanks and fighter jets. Hot Spot, unveiled by Sky Sports during the summer’s first test match between England and the West Indies, uses powerful infrared cameras to detect the distinct thermal signature left when a cricket ball hits a pad, clips the edge or flies off the middle of the bat. Hot Spot technology has also detected a few other distinct heat signatures that viewers have hitherto not been made privy too. If you thought technology was putting the Umpire’s decision making under intense scrutiny, you’re right, but the scrutiny doesn’t end there. Hot Spot, it transpires, can also detect flatulence aka farts. That’s right. The Channel Nine technicians “see” Umpires and Players breaking wind. One can only wonder if they’ve actually been keeping score, as it were. You’d have to imagine baked-beans-on-toast Warney would be somewhere at the top end of the rankings.

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Bowling gun

A machine that can replicate the spin and swing of bowlers has been developed at a UK university. The robotic bowler has been created at Loughborough University as part of a virtual reality project to improve match training for cricket. “Cricketers want to be able to face bowlers like Shane Warne,” said project lead Dr Andy West. The machine will help us to figure out the science of bowling and the mysteries of spin and swing and that’s for the future spinners to benefit from. The spin and swing is put on the ball by a combination of two spinning wheels and a barrel which uses rifling theory to add side-spin.

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Pulse – SMS

With the advent of the web 2.0 revolution and all the great additions of social media, Cricket and sport in general is being trying to find a way to use the wave to its advantage. Pulse is a free online application that connects us the fans with live sporting events. What’s unique about Pulse is that it’s integrated with the live television broadcast. Pulse asks fans questions relating to the event, we then take the answers and broadcast them on television to show the public’s opinion. For fans who like to predict the outcome of the match/race then the Pulse Predictor is for you. Predict on a variety of outcomes and win points if you’re right. Pulse also features live text commentary and live stats giving you a deeper insight into the game. I really enjoyed using pulse this time during the IPL 2009.

Future Technologies for cricket

Technology, however, is constantly improving. Infrared cameras have been tested in place of snick-o-meters; they can pick up friction readings, and are close to 100 per cent accurate in detecting snicks. There are now also balls available with built-in speedometers. Fit a transmitting device on such a ball, and you can have the speed of the ball at any given instant. With so much competition between rival broadcasters, the race is on to maximize the viewing pleasure. One plan is to put wireless tracking devices on individual players. This device would measure and transmit live data during the game, to a central computer. Parameters tracked by this device include the running speed of a player, a bowler’s speed during the run-up, the maximum speed and average running speed, the number of times a player changes direction, distances travelled, heart rates, etc. Very soon, such data relating to the bowler and fielders will be flashed to viewers. Commentators will also have a lot more data about individual players at their disposal. But imagine the pressure it will put on the fielders. Today it is only the umpires who are scrutinized for their decisions. Soon, it will be possible to minutely analyze every player’s activities on the field in real time. Lets take a closer look at some of the changes that are happening now

now continuing the topic from this piece in the age.

Player Equipment: the modern player is spoiled when compared to his forbearers light weight pads that offer more protection then ever before. The modern batting helmet which is light and much cooler than the enervating motorbike helmet that Tony Greig wore during WSC (Greig still annoyingly refers to the modern batting helmet as a “Crash Helmet”). The dynamically designed bowling boots, which are light but offer much more support than the heavy military style boots that Lol Larwood had to wear.

But it is the modern bat that technology has had the greatest impact, light weight and ‘all middle’. Even the handle which was once just a turned piece of cane, is now anywhere from a two to a 12 piece cane handle with multi-rubber insertions bound with synthetic glue. Modern bats themselves are around three pounds and pick up like toothpicks. The pitch will also have a large impact on which bat the modern player will choose. For a slow wicket the bat will have a lower swell anywhere from four or five inches from the toe. For a faster wicket the swell will be about seven to eight inches from the toe. The face of how the bat looks is also changing at a very rapid pace, the infamous Ricky Ponting bat using carbon fiber was center of great controversy, have a look at what else might be in the pipeline. Read about the bat that could change cricket forever. And a bat that has a lot more technology built into it. Check out the work by the MCC and closer universities.

The cricket ball is not to be left behind in the technological revolution, after especially proving that cricket balls are not consistent during manufacture even being from the same make and company there has been a great need to include technology into cricket balls as well, to try to make it consistent. So lo and behold, the cricket ball that measures its own speed featuring one which is patented in china and also the new pink colored cricket balls to avoid the visibility issues with the red balls as well as the white balls which get dirty quickly.

Augmented Reality – The possibilities are endless !

What is the future of search, some people might say it is fetching results faster, more relevant and as close to what you expect to find. But like me there are those who think otherwise. This is a look at the hottest new technology on around called augmented reality. Here is the Wikipedia for those who need a textbook definition of the technology.

For the past couple of years I have been following this awesome technology called augmented reality, what is it ? and how is it going to shape our next world is the question that I keep finding myself trying to find the answer for. It is strange, for something that was a concept this technology is now seriously changed the way we might be doing our work in the next few years. It is going to change the way we search for information !! A few years back when Google earth, Android OS and Google images was in its inception, Google announced that they wanted to make a technology that a person using a camera enabled phone would click a picture and Google would fetch information about the place or event. Well you don’t really need to “fetch” information anymore. Augmented reality, provides all the information you need when you see through the camera of the phone.

This was something that I was very interested to see in reality, since I had seen the first application the wikitude demo. When I visited the GE website, looking for information about their eco friendliness. I came across the world’s first large scale implementation of augmented reality. It blew my head off. I started to see the future that Google spoke about in the background. In fact you could start picturing the uses. A few months later, there are numerous tests being done worldwide for augmented reality based applications. There was this unbelievable futuristic vision pointed out by petit inventions that started people thinking in very open ways. Nokia has an application that runs on their phones that does some searching based on pictures called Nokia point and find. You can also see a demo on youtube here. Apart from the above few demo’s, there are now within a few months a lot of applications that people have worked on and come up with. There are applications ranging from Advertising, entertainment, gaming, medical training  etc that are now in labs as being tested.

The Bionic Vision lens

The only hindrance of extreme wide spread use of this technology is the fact that it needs an external device for the technology to work well, including the camera, processing, and display. Now think of this technology being used in conjunction with another technology that is the Bionic vision. Check it out here.  The possibilities by connecting these two technologies are endless. Let me know if you think of any others.

Infotainment = Information based Entertainment

Amazing 3D Movies

Advertising

Magazines

Gaming demos

Hands on training and instructions [BMW Car Service]

Education – Encyclopedia

Architecture and Urban Planning

Architectural design and presentation

What happens to your digital self when you die ?

Today morning I got a very depressing news, A very good college friend of mine took his life. In as disturbing as the news was, there was something that was even more disturbing. Another friend of mine actually started looking up his last few online contributions which included his linked in profile, mail from various sites, orkut profile, some job site registration and application and even some bank statements.

Now, I started to think, that digitally this person has not actually lost his life. There is still a vast amount of information available on this person in terms of his profile: professional, personal and even all the posts, wall posts, scraps, pictures etc, what happens to all that information ? He was one who was not as active as some of us, especially online. There are some of us who have mail ID’s at various sites, blogs, added videos on daily motion, you tube, created tons of content, podcasts, pictures on flickr, several testimonials, referrals .. the list goes on and on.

All this information maybe good or something if misused can tarnish the image of a person who is no longer able to defend himself. There is a side of me that thinks that this is something that needs to be informed to the respective sites, that dudes, this person is no more and please remove all personal information about this person and looking at it practically this service can be misused by a lot of people as well, just like most internet based services available. Well is there a solution to this problem ? I personally feel that it’s not right of me to think this, but I think this is something worth having a look at. In terms of a service this is something definitely that someone should look into. Just like we leave all our worldly possessions to someone when we leave this earth, we should be able to assign our email passwords, profile passwords etc to someone who can handle all this as deemed appropriate.

Well like most ideas I found that there are other people who have also pondered in this question and there are some instances that I want to quote from other internet sources on how to plan for your digital death well in advance.

Email Accounts

As a general rule, you own your email and electronic correspondence and you can leave this to whomever you choose in your will. However, if your family or executors don’t know your email passwords, they may have trouble retrieving it. Email providers have struggled with how to deal with this issue and to balance privacy and security concerns with giving access to grieving families. In 2004 the family of Justin Ellsworth, a young Marine killed in Iraq, tried to get access to the contents of his Yahoo! account. Yahoo! refused, and a prolonged lawsuit resulted. The court ultimately ordered Yahoo! to provide the family with copies of the emails contained in the account, although they didn’t actually get electronic access to the account itself. Other web-based email providers have taken a similar approach, albeit without having to be forced by the courts to do so- Gmail and Hotmail will both give access to email contents upon proof of death and proof of relationship.

Take Google’s Gmail, for example. The company demands the following from the deceased’s family:

1. The full name and contact information of the requester, including a verifiable email address.
2. The Gmail address of the individual who passed away.
3. The full header from an email message that you’ve received at your verifiable email address, from the Gmail account in question.
4. The entire contents of the message.
5. A copy of the death certificate of the deceased.
6. A copy of the document that gives the requester power of attorney over the Gmail account.
7. If the requester is the parent of the individual, they should send a copy of the birth certificate if the Gmail account owner was under the age of 18. In this case, power of attorney isn’t required.

So not only do you need to have been sent a message from your own husband or wife – which is by no means a foregone conclusion in a typical relationship where you talk to one another every day – you also need to have a document specifically awarding you power of attorney. In other words, the Gmail account had to be listed in the person’s will. To make matters worse, the request has to be sent in writing or faxed to Google’s US offices. “We’ll need 30 days to process and validate the documents you’ve provided”, Google claims. Bang goes any chance of tracking down friends for the funeral at short notice.

It’s quaint to think of your email archive like a long forgotten box of love letters from the war, pages yellowed and corners tattered. But the reality is a little more complex- do you actually want your family to be able to read your email after you’re gone? I’m not sure that I do. While some old messages may bring some joy or shed some light on aspects of my life, there are a lot of messages that are nobody’s business but mine. Do you want your family to have access to ribald jokes and gossip sent between friends? To e-fights (or e-love, for that matter) between you and your lover? To receipts from all those adult sites you subscribe to? Probably not. But do you have a plan in place to make sure this doesn’t happen?

Facebook and Social Networking Accounts

Facebook and other social networking accounts are a little different than email accounts as the information on your profile isn’t as private as your emails- your profile is accessible and viewable by anyone who you’ve granted access. Your profile also appears as a friend of countless others, and will continue to appear until the account is either closed or your friends delete you. I’ll admit to a bit of e-voyeurism on my part- when I hear about a young person killed in the news, I have on at least one occasion searched for their Facebook profile just to see if it was still there and, if it’s an open profile, what has become of it. It’s morbidly fascinating to see the last few days of banality in someone’s life documented when you know the outcome. Silly status updates seem much more ominous, tagged pictures a little more haunting. For friends of the deceased, their Facebook page may be a source of comfort or a constant reminder of the loss. But how do you deal with it? Can you bring yourself to just delete your lost pal from your friends list? When is it appropriate? Who decides what happens to the account?

Myspace advises that their policy is to allow access to a deceased’s account upon verification of death, and a significant number of Myspace profiles remain active as memorials. There’s even an entire website dedicated to the Myspace profiles of the recently deceased. Facebook’s approach has been more restrictive- the original policy was to delete the account of a deceased one month after death. This was a controversial approach, and the family and friends of many deceased users protested. Facebook has since revised this to allow for the “memorialization” of accounts, where the accounts remain open as a tribute. There’s even a form you can use to report a user who has died . However, Facebook won’t release login information, so the account can’t be accessed, changed or updated and your final status update may forever remain “MGL is going to stuff his face with hot dogz!!!”.

Blogs and Online Content

An additional consideration for managing your digital estate arises for those of us who run blogs. Much like social networking and email accounts, online service providers such as Word Press and Blogger are reluctant to release login details, even to an executor. If your blog is hosted on your own server or through a third-party hosting service, the task of accessing the site is further complicated and in some cases may be close to impossible. And consider this- many bloggers set up articles to automatically post at a certain time in the future, allowing them to continue regular posting even while busy or on vacation. It is quite conceivable that a blog could continue to be updated and appear to be “live” even when the author isn’t. In one case, a blogger who committed suicide intentionally set his blog to continue posting after his death . Heck, I could be dead right now and you’d never know!

If you’ve got a blog, you’ve also got intellectual property including copyright to your writings and any trade-marks associated with your site. You may also have photographs, music, and other works that are published and maintained online. Copyright generally lasts for 50 years after the death of the author, so there’s a significant tail period of copyright protection that vests in your estate and, just like any other form of property, IP can be given to a specific individual in your will. If the will does not specify who gets your intellectual property, the standard rules of distribution apply. Exactly how much this IP will be worth varies greatly, but even more important than the monetary value may be the continued control and moral rights respecting your content. We each have preferences for what will happen to our content once we join the dearly departed, but without proper instruction to your executors or beneficiaries there is no way to know what will actually happen.

Data locked on your PC

While Google, PayPal and the like certainly make relatives jump through hoops to retrieve their loved one’s data, at least you know that data is there, stored safely on the company’s servers. But what about the digital photos, documents and other valuable data trapped on the deceased’s computer, for which you don’t have the password? Checked on the internet if Microsoft would assist a family who didn’t know the Windows password of a dead relative, there is not information available. However, number 37 of Microsoft’s top 50 Knowledge Base questions is, “How to log on to Windows XP if you forget your password or if your password expires.” The prognosis isn’t good. “If you’ve forgotten the password for all user accounts, and if you did not create a password reset disk [and, frankly, who's got one of those?], you cannot log on to Windows XP. This is for security reasons. If this problem occurs, you must reinstall Windows XP.” Provided Windows is installed over the top of the existing OS without a disk reformat, your personal data should survive the reinstall, but it isn’t without risk – and it’s a procedure littered with pitfalls for the technically naive.

Removing the hard disk and connecting it to another PC or running a live Linux distribution from its CD are alternative methods of retrieving the data. Again, such procedures might come as second nature to PC Pro readers, but are a daunting prospect for amateurs. The less technically minded could turn to the professionals. I were told it would cost Dhs 500 for the drive scan and a hefty Dhs 1495-Dhs 2995 for the recovery of the data. Not a cheap option.

Moral of the story : Plan Ahead for Life 2.0

For some people, this mishmash of postmortem procedures may suit you just fine. But if you’re like me, you may find them inadequate and unreliable. If that’s the case, here are a few suggestions for getting your e-affairs in order.

First, find a “digital executor”, someone who you trust to carry out your wishes with respect to your online personas. Who you choose may depend on what you want done- if you want your emails wiped so your wife doesn’t find out about your girlfriends, she may not be the best choice and a trusted and close friend may be a better option. It is also important to make sure that this person has the technological know-how to carry out your wishes. While it may make for an awkward situation, let this person know ahead of time that he or she has been selected as the lucky contestant to take care of your online estate.

Next, create a “digital will” telling your executor what you want done and giving him or her the information needed to carry out your wishes. This doesn’t remove the need for a real will, doesn’t require the help of a lawyer, and is likely not legally binding in any way. Instead, it’s a way to provide clear information on your wishes with respect to things that may fall outside your will (or just be overlooked) and make the processes much easier for all involved. Prepare a list of your email and social networking accounts along with your login data and brief details on how to access the accounts. If there is anyone from your online contacts that you want notified, write it down along with any other special instructions, such as what you want done with email and other data. Make it clear what data you want destroyed, what you want preserved, and how you want your representative to deal with your online presence. This list is going to contain very sensitive information, and you don’t want it falling into the wrong hands- don’t just jot it down on a piece of paper or save it on your hard drive. Consider keeping it on a password encrypted USB drive that you can update regularly and keep somewhere safe, but make sure your digital executor will know where to find it and what the password is. Don’t include banking information or accounts- your executor will be able to access your accounts without your online sign-in info, and having this data compromised could be disastrous.

Finally, it is important to remember that I totally made up the idea of a digital will and executor. They don’t exist at law, and your real will can override any designations you make. With that in mind, this is a good time to update your will to include specific provisions for who will take ownership of your intellectual property and any data that you leave behind. Discuss the options with your lawyer and let her know that you’ve made separate arrangements for access to your accounts, and see if there are any other changes that need to be made to give effect to your wishes.
Some more interesting services apart form the ones listed above are :

1. http://www.greatgoodbye.com/
2. https://www.legacylocker.com/

Both are paid sites, but they are have an important aspect of our digital life that is not something that we often think of.

How will the world end ?

If global warming and the meltdown of the economy weren’t enough to frazzle you about the future, maybe the ending of the world news will do the trick for you. It all started with a question, if the dinosaurs got extinct, will it mean that we might also have a chance of extinction ? (not like its an honour) People started to provide answers, to what events might lead to the end of the earth. Some are saying it’ll be humans that set it off. Others believe that a natural phenomenon will be the cause. And the religious folks are saying it’ll be God himself who presses the stop button… Well lets look at all the possible options that the people on the internet are talking about.

1. Mayan Calendar
2. Sun Storms
3. The Atom Smasher
4. Religious texts
5. Magnetic Pole reversal theory

Mayan Calendar

The first mob to predict 2012 as the end of the world were the Mayans, a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things: Building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and Sacrificing Virgins. Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the Earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well is the actual conclusion that people jump to, the fact is that the calendar does not continue after the 21st of December 2012. The Mayan’s were extremely incredible at pin pointing exact astrological events. They managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon cycle as 329.53020 days which happen to only be off 34 seconds. How did they do it? They built their equipment out of stone. The problem is – most people have misinterpreted the Mayan’s calendar. They say “oh, they were sooo smart! And they said we’d all end in 2012″.The Mayan’s did not state the end of the world on December 21st, 2012. It says that the world will undergo a change, or transition. This does not mean that the end of the world. It may change in ways that help us all, to accommodate all the filth and waste we have created. Though it could be for the worst, it could be for the better as well. It may have something to do with the Polarity changes as I will mention later. Who knows. But it does not say the world will end. People have a tendency of changing things to be more disastrous For to most, the world is “too boring” for them.

Possibility : Don’t think so !

Sun Storms

Solar experts from around the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery: our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic, and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the Earth with so much radiation energy, it’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse, and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012. Over the last few decades, western civilisations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.

The projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. “We’re moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster,” says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report. It is hard to conceive of the sun wiping out a large amount of our hard-earned progress. Nevertheless, it is possible. The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma – charged high-energy particles – some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection (see “When hell comes to Earth”). If one should hit the Earth’s magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.

The incursion of the plasma into our atmosphere causes rapid changes in the configuration of Earth’s magnetic field which, in turn, induce currents in the long wires of the power grids. The grids were not built to handle this sort of direct current electricity. The greatest danger is at the step-up and step-down transformers used to convert power from its transport voltage to domestically useful voltage. The increased DC current creates strong magnetic fields that saturate a transformer’s magnetic core. The result is runaway current in the transformer’s copper wiring, which rapidly heats up and melts. Things could get far worse than that ! According to the NAS report, a severe space weather event in the could induce ground currents that would knock out key transformers within about 90 seconds, cutting off the power for more than 1 billion people. From that moment, the clock is ticking.

Possibility : We may not go extinct, maybe as bad as when the tsunami hit !

The Atom Smasher

The Large Hadron Collider [LHC] is the world largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is intended to collide opposing protons or lead ions, each moving about 99.999999% the speed of light. So how can this monster machine make or break us? Come on – it’s high tech but how does it bring on the end of the world? Well, it can help us! – it’s suppose to help find out how the universe works. But, ohh it might spawn a few miniature black holes.

Okay, so have you done your homework on the LHC? Even if it does spawn some little black holes, they are saying the black holes will be unstable. Being unstable, they will disappear, unable to suck up much – if anything at all. Even if black holes do come and suck some stuff up – no one is sure what happens in a black hole – this could help with research. Who’s to say if anything in a black hole dies. Maybe it’s transported into the future, or back in time. Maybe another dimension where everything is safe from the suns UVs, and Earth is back to normal. Who knows. The LHC, I believe, is nothing to worry about.

The Large Hadron Collider, this particle accelerator isn’t legitimately believed to be harmful to our universe.  I mean, really, are we supposed to believe some mad scientist bent on the destruction of the world is orchestrating this while trying to fend off bad PR?  I think Superman can sit this one out.  I read somewhere that Stephen Hawking bet someone a hundred bucks that this thing wouldn’t destroy the world.  I’m taking Stephen Hawking’s side on this one.  In case you don’t trust Stephen Hawking like I do, you can always check out this website for updates: http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/

Possibility : Well don’t know, but I will bet on no.

Religious Texts

If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough, religious folks are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between Good an Evil, has been set down for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings. Well its very clear that every religion on the planet tried to show the world that there could be a dooms day where you will be judges, otherwise the primitive conscience of the humans would not be “controlled” easily.

Uhm… I’m going to go with No on this one.  This is one of those Nostradamus theories.  Sure, Nostradamus’ predictions can be applied to a lot of things… Because they’re so broad.  But really, apocalypse enthusiasts, do you have to bring up the second coming every time people start getting hot and bothered about the end of the world?  At least these other theories are fresh.

Possibility : Well I am not sure, but I think God who created the earth, will not destroy it so easily.

Magnetic Pole reversal theory

Doesn’t have to be the end of the world, just because some poles shift.

We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that sheilds us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call north and south have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so – and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is underway, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.

We know how to make a magnet.. right? Electricity. So why couldn’t we set up tons of big poles on the north and south side of the earth, and simulate our own magnetic field out of electricity if the Earths Magnetic Field goes down. We can power it with Wind Mills, Water, and even nuclear energy. It’s freakin’ 2009.. we can build it. We can do it. If it is nessecary, for the precaution of the Human Race – we can get together and save us all. Including the furry little animals. We can prevent the end of the world.

Possibility : Don’t think so !

Is the End of the world near ?

In fact, in the hundreds of millennial predictions, sects, and beliefs that have surfaced since the death of Christ, and before, not a single one has come to pass. The world may seem close to the abyss, but it never quite makes that last step needed to cross the edge. In fact, it often seems in hindsight that it was never on that last step at all, but more than a day’s walk away.

Now we approach the next round of dire predictions. From the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012, to the last Pope prophesized by St. Malachi to come after the current one, to religious-based predictions that the end must be near as the current state of affairs in the world must be omens signaling the end, we unfortunately will never have the answer until the world actually decides to take the last baby step off the cliff.

Expected Casualty percentage

Oddly, Nostradamus seems the odd man out in this orgy of prediction that seems to be gripping the world of those who study things paranormal. He doesn’t predict the end of the world until thousands of years from now, if ever.

I can’t help but wonder why the end of the world preoccupies us so much. For all the predictions and doomsday talk, Chances are, we’ll never see it coming. It could come in the form of an asteroid impact, or even a supernova silently bombarding us with lethal doses of radiation. Or it could be one of the religious predictions that comes true, but in this case, it might not be such a good idea to try to read the mind of God and blow the big secret before the almighty has a chance to finish his plan. You might just invite his judgment for such a thing.

I think the reason is psychological. Some need an order to dismiss the chaos of world affairs. It becomes comforting, perhaps, to see a great earthquake with a horrendous loss of life and see it in the context that it means something. We watch the economic troubles of today, and maybe it makes more sense for them to be part of the divine plan for the earth’s end, rather than mistakes stemming from greed and poor financial infrastructure. The problem is though, we’ve seen all of this before, and the first time around none of them turned out to be indicative of the end. In fact, the world has been in almost constant calamity for two thousand years, leading many to believe that the time in which they lived were the end times. For most of these people, it wasn’t.

I can’t say for certain, nor can I say that I hope I’m wrong, but I think it would be prudent for all of us to take all the talk of the end being near with a grain of salt, especially as 2012 approaches, and those on the crazier end of the spectrum start thinking of making up a batch of koolaid. Chances are, these are not the end times, rather they are the times in which we live. When the end does truly come, whether its tomorrow or a thousand years from now, it will likely be inevitable and unchangeable by the time we know about it, and if it is divine in nature, we will be the last beings in the universe that can stop it. So why do we worry so?

Future Tense …

Previously I did write about the Paleo future, a future which we thought the world would be like in the past. But definitely that future is a little deferred but still in line with what is today. You can check out the Paleo future post here. Lot of things have changed, even the internet that we so admire has changed or simply put, our interaction with the Internet has definitely changed. One of the main domains that has altered our world present, past and definitely in the future is information access.

In the 1800’s we were a clan of people that were meeting at the town center, or at the weekly market to exchange information about each other and the local surroundings, then the big revolution happened, Newspapers. Newspapers provided us with information about what was happening around the world without having to leave the comfort of the homes. It fascinated people that they could go and see pictures from places as well as news from people that are completely not in your circle of friends, village or even continent. The natural succession to the newspaper was the radio, the humble radio as it is called today was nothing short of a revolution at that moment, you could now listen to people live talking about events that happened as you spoke. Unbelievably, the information hunger that people had just kept increasing and now they wanted to also see what was happening, a few years later came the Idiot box, the one tool that ruled the homes, hearts and lives of millions of people around the world. New stars were born, created and then the term “15 seconds of fame” was put together.

Lurking in the background at the same time was a very geeky invention, the Computer and the Internet. It did not seem much until, the efforts of Microsoft along with a whole host of manufacturers put the computer in the homes of people. I know a lot of people will disagree with me about using Microsoft here, but let’s all face it, they were the first to move in to the home with interfaces that maybe the masses could understand and use. Now a majority of city dwellers have a very strong online presence. A presence that is almost like living on the internet where you choose what information you want to see, rather than the earlier medium of newspaper, radio and TV. The information highway got its 2 way route. So, whats next ? well there are theories and then there are theories. With technologies like augmented reality, virtual worlds and social news we are on the brink of yet another shift in our way of life … I have some videos here that shows different people’s opinion of the future. Please do have a look at these You tube videos.

World Builder – Its like Sketchup on steroids

Augmented Reality to the extreme ..  Microsoft concept videos

Microsoft Office

Oh well cannot embed MSN video so, here is the link to the site.