Category: technology

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The Phone Sex Revolution in India

With the recent developments in technology and smartphone capabilities, do you ever wonder how phone sex will work in the future?

Phone sex has been a huge part of the lives of modern human beings. Communication platforms such as Skype and Facetime have given new meaning to long-distance sex. Although the western world has grown accustomed to phone and webcam sex over the last few years, it will take some time getting used to amongst the local masses in India.

Phone sex still remains a fairly new and interesting concept to the Indian population. Let us look at a few reasons why phone sex is here to stay in India:

Western world versus India: Phone sex is still a new concept in India

In general, Indian parents have always refrained from opening up to their children about sex. With the schools shying away from the responsibility as well, most of the sex education the children in India receive is from their friends and sexual partners.

The western world, on the other hand, has always found new and improved ways of teaching sex education to their children. Sexual tension, confusion, and awkwardness is more prevalent amongst the Indian youth when compared with the western youth. Up until recently, not many people understood or practiced phone sex. Since a lot of people are now trying their luck with phone sex, their experiences can help other people understand and enjoy this activity.

Interactive phone sex

The sudden outburst of sex toys in the Indian market has seen a lot of changes in the way people practice sex. Women find themselves lost in the astounding new world of sex toys. These toys come in handy when two lovers are far away from each other and wish to indulge in phone sex.

Interactive phone sex basically involves either one or both partners using sex toys such as vibrators, dildos, male masturbators, etc. to masturbate while talking with their partner on the phone. This is a fairly new activity and is a seductive way of getting each other off over the phone.

Another exciting innovation is a sex toy that can be controlled remotely by your partner, from anywhere in the world. Knowing you can control your lover’s orgasm from that far away is a big, big turn on.

Adult sex chat websites

The online market of sexual products and services has been booming in India over the past few years. A lot of new companies are coming forward with innovative tools, toys, and hotline services designed to satisfy people and achieve sexual satisfaction.

Several new sex chat websites have also made their way into the Indian markets with some of them offering options with local girls/guys who speak regional dialects.

One such website, Indian Sex Talk [NSFW], offers many phone chat language options for you to choose from like Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, along with English. They are also the only website that offers you the option to call from mobile to mobile in addition to the standard web calling options other phone sex services offer. Enhanced technology ensures better, more enjoyable phone sex experiences.

Massive upgrades in the communication infrastructure of the world have resulted in an even more enhanced experience with phone sex. As the quality and performance of smartphones continues to increase, advanced innovations such as virtual reality will soon make their way into the world of phone sex.

Virtual reality, along with 3D mapping will revolutionize phone sex in the future. The day is not far away when you will have a seductive hologram of your lover pop in front of you to help you masturbate. Remote controlled sex toys that are controlled by your partner have already made their way into the market. The future of phone sex looks delightful to say the least.

Phone sex is easy and intimate

Webcam sex has been making a lot of headlines in the recent times, but to many people, phone sex is still more comfortable and feels more intimate. A majority of the population will not like the way they look on that shabby computer screen and it gets in the way of having a good orgasm. You will never find the ideal camera angle that makes you look as hot as you hope to look. It can be really awkward and difficult to touch yourself in front of a computer screen with someone staring at you.

On the other hand, phone sex is smooth and less awkward, and it feels like you are having a really hot conversation with your partner. With no webcams or cameras involved, you are not constantly worried about your looks and can focus on getting yourself and your partner off with some sweet and sexy dirty talk. It also allows for people to fantasize and create their own images. Each conversation can be another story in itself. This is where phone sex becomes way more intimate than regular webcam sex.

In conclusion, although technology has taken over the world, traditional phone sex still offers a very unique and personal experience that is hard to find in the modern substitutes. To singles, paid phone sex offers the opportunity of hiring someone experienced and professional to help get them off in style. For couples, phone sex is less stressful and comfortable and you tend to get better after every session. Feel free to experience what your preferred way is.

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Future Of Sex – State of the Art

Remote Sex: Sex between two peopple in different places. They are connected through internet using electrnic sex toys and transmit sensations through touch sensors to arouse partners in real time.

Technology: Super-connected sex toys, interactive sex shows, participatory porn, teledildonic virtual sex worlds.

Expectation: Long-distance sex, pan-sensual social networks, remote sex workers, holographic lovers.

Virtual Sex: People connect through communication devices to share sexual contents, including text messages, videos, 3D computer worlds, and avatars.

Technology: MMO sex games (MMOSG), alternative sexual community, DIY erotic play grounds, hyper realistic avatars.

Expectation: AI lovers, total immersion with virtual lovers, Neurological interfaces for untethered sexual gaming, long-distance relationships and hookups.

Robots and Gynoids: Robotic and sensor advances will take machines into more complex domains of sex, emotions, and love

Technology: Hyper-realistic sex dolls, chat bots, humanoid robots and gynoids

Expectations: Seductive AI, Augmented robotic reality, therapeutic sex bots, simulated genitals, robotic sex gurus. uncanny valley

Immersive Entertainment: Initially wearing a headset, people will enter simulated 3D environment generated by computers to feels part of the environment.

Technology: Live VR show, multi-sensory sexperineces, augmented adult entertainment

Expectation: holographic partners, immersive sex education, personalized erotic adventure, full body experiences.

Bio-Augmentation: Pushing the limits of pleasure using implants and wearable.

Technology: Lab grown genitals and sexual prosthesis. bio hacking, innovative contraceptives, wearable for sex performance.

Expectation: brain-brain sex interfaces, augmented reality, sexual cyborgs and super human, sex net of things, pleasure implants

 

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Drive Me Wild: Self-driving Cars and the Future of Sex

Before we get to the juicy parts of this article—and, absolutely, autonomous vehicles promise a lot of sexual fun—we first need to talk about what a self-driving car is, and what it isn’t.

What’s a truly autonomous car?

While there has been a lot of press over the last few years about autonomous vehicles and their potential impact on everything from advertising to rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, what is out there now is not, technically, self-driving.

Certainly, the higher-end technologies, like those taking part in The DARPA Grand Challenge, are pretty close to not needing any kind of human operator. But there’s a huge difference between what billion-dollar labs and major universities are doing and what is actually being tested on our streets and highways.

Semi-autonomous vehicles

It would be much more accurate to call them limited self-driving, or semi-autonomous, as they don’t quite have the computerized brains to deal with the reality of handling traffic, bicyclists, pedestrians, as well as other cars.

Even if the current crop of semi-autonomous vehicles did somehow become truly autonomous, it would no doubt be years, if not decades, before they’d be allowed to operate without someone behind the wheel.

When true self-driving cars do appear

It’s when real self-driving vehicles hit the road, and the law no longer requires a human operator to be present, that things are really going to change.

Trucks, more than likely, will be the first true autonomous vehicles; they will change everything about national transportation and shipping, putting thousands of people out of work. Next could very well be ride-sharing services: both Uber and Lyft are pouring millions of dollars into research, which will likely cost many if not all employed drivers their income.

But the jobs won’t be the only major change that will come from truly autonomous cars. Shipping costs will fall, the number of deaths from auto accidents will hopefully plummet, personal car ownership might become rare, and—as the current self-driving cars are electric—have far less impact on the environment.

Then there’s the fun bit. The reason you’re more-than-likely here: sex.

The portable bedroom

A few people have been vocal about the dangers of fooling around in self-driving cars. For example, Barrie Kirk, the co-founder of the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence warned that sex and autonomous vehicles were a bad combination.

To be fair, he’s right. What he was concerned about wasn’t so much the danger of sex inside of truly self-driving cars. Instead, his fears stem from people thinking their cars were truly autonomous when they’re not anything close to that, and then: taking their hands off the wheel to put them somewhere else—to be cute about it.

But when we have the technology right, when you can safely do more with your hands, that’s when all kinds of possibilities open up.

Love hotel on wheels

When you think about it, a truly autonomous vehicle is a room on wheels. You get in, you tell it where you want to go, and then it drops you off. Naturally, a lot of people are going to be bored just going along for the ride. It’s safe to assume that when we have real self-driving cars, we’ll also see fines for public masturbation. Until, that is, the designers smarten up and tint the windows.

One thing a lot of people do in any kind of room is fool around. Don’t have a lot of privacy at your place? Then hire a robot car to take you on a nice long drive with your partner of choice. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to envision these kinds of vehicles becoming a rolling version of Japanese love hotels: a roving bedroom where couples can have some privacy. It’s safe to say that many people will be losing their virginities in self-driving cars.

Imagine a highway full of autonomous vehicles, including a few with not only completely opaque windows, but also festooned with ads promoting their vibrating beds, complimentary condoms, and mini-bar.

New forms of sex

It’s even possible that there could be a new form of sexuality around these vehicles. If you can see outside but no one can see inside, we might have people who enjoy the thrill of self-pleasure while driving next to the unawares. This also brings up serious concerns about consent: if no one is aware has a crime been committed? Questions we might have to deal with as they come up—hopefully with wisdom and sensitivity.

It’s also possible that self-driving cars will change how we find sexual partners. Combine self-driving cars with something like Tinder or Grindr, and compatible couples could have a safe, and totally neutral space, for meeting up. If anyone does something non-consensual then a panic button could take the car to the nearest hospital or the police.

Dating and self-driving

On the negative side, we might see a lot more people engaging in risky sex. Not needing to stay sober to drive, or even ride the bus, it would be far too easy to hook up with someone and then recklessly jump into a robot car.

Back to positive changes, autonomous vehicles could offer those who feel unsafe taking other forms of transportation, or whose disability requires special services. Being able to summon a car that will take you anywhere you want, safely and efficiently, without judgment or comment would open a huge world to a great many people, including being able to travel to meet other people for sex or have some much-needed privacy.

A mobile playspace

It’s even possible that autonomous vehicles could become a portable sex playspace. Let’s say you want to have a good, old-fashioned orgy but don’t have the room. Hire a special bus, one with all the love hotel amenities but also very discreet on the outside, and it will go to each of your participants’ houses to pick them up, and then drop them off again once the party is over.

Highways of tomorrow

We will definitely see a lot of changes when we actually have truly autonomous vehicles. Transportation, the environment, how we work, how we play, even the fundamental structures of our towns and cities. Everything will change.

And, human beings being who they are, once we have those little portable, private spaces, you know that we’ll also be seeing a lot of changes to that most basic of things: how and where we make love.

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Top Ten Transhumanist Technologies

As we gain ever greater control over the atomic structure of matter, our technological goals become increasingly ambitious, and their payoffs more and more generous. Sometimes new technologies even make us happier in a long-lasting way: the Internet would be a prime example.

1. Cryonics: Cryonics is the high-fidelity preservation of the human body, and particularly the brain, after what we would call death, in anticipation of possible future revival. Watch Star Trek “The natural zone”

2. Virtual Reality: Computer graphics are already beginning to approach photorealism. Sometime in the 2020s, reality simulations will become so high-resolution and immersive that they’ll start to get indistinguishable from the real thing. Star Trek Holodeck can become a reality

3. Gene Therapy: Replacing bad genes with good one and rewrting our genetic code. Because of the experiences with genetic engineering, the Federation had banned it except to correct genetic birth defects, though Julian Bashir is a notable exception to this. Despite the ban, the Federation allowed the Darwin station to conduct human genetic engineering, which resulted in a telepathic, telekentic humans with a very effective immune system.

4. Space Colonization: Space colonization is closely related to transhumanism through the mutual association of futurist philosophy, but also more directly because the embrace of transhumanism will be necessary to colonize space. The only reasonable solution is to upgrade our bodies. Not terraform the cosmos, but cosmosform ourselves.

5. Cybernetics: Cyborgs already walk among us, and they look just like normal people. Many cyborg upgrades which will become available in the 20s and 30s, such as hearing and vision enhancement, metabolic enhancement, artificial bones, muscles, and organs, and even brain-computer interfaces will be invisible to the casual observer, implanted beneath the skin.

6. Autonomous Self-Replicating Robotics: A landmark NASA study, “Advanced Automation for Space Missions”, found that robotic self-replication is just a matter of engineering, and that no fundamental theoretical breakthroughs are needed. The study proposed sending a 100-ton package to the Moon, with a self-replication time of 1 year, and letting it self-replicate until the desired level of development is attained.

7. Molecular Manufacturing: If self-replication is the Holy Grail of robotics, then molecular nanotechnology (MNT) is the Holy Grail of manufacturing. Molecular nanotechnology would use massive arrays of nanometer-scale actuators (produced initially through self-replication) to manufacture macroscale products with atomic precision. This concept is known as the nanofactory. In Michael Crichton’s Prey, one such factory turns into a deadly entity.

8. Megascale Engineering: Typically, megascale engineering refers to building structures at least 1,000 km in length in one dimension, such as a space elevator, Globus Cassus, or Dyson sphere or the fictional death star of Star Wars

9. Mind Uploading: We don’t want to accept that we’re just data structures implemented as computational automata on bilogical nerons. The brain can’t tell if it’s made out of biological cells or entirely nonbiological neuron-equivalents: the computation is the same. Sometimes this notion is also referred to as an application of the Church-Turing thesis.

10. Artificial General Intelligence: The way the world would be impacted by the arrival of general AI is too extreme to discuss. If raw materials such as sand can be converted into computer chips and then into intelligent minds, eventually the majority of material in the solar system could be made intelligent and conscious. The result would be a “noetic Renaissance”: the expansion of intelligence and experience beyond our wildest dreams.

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Book Review: Mind Bending Epic Sci Fi Story The Three-Body Problem

Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem is stunning, elegant, epic, and hard core science fiction with mind boggling ideas like using the sun as a radio amplifier, unfolding 11-diemnsional photon into two dimensional circuit boards to etch communication bus to create an artificial intelligence chip,  using nano-technology filaments to cut a ship into thousand pieces, or the evolution of a distance alien civilization through multiple destruction caused by its three suns.

The story spans multiple decades and characters, zooming in on Ye Wenjie and Wang Miao, two scientists born decades apart. Wenjie is an astrophysicist with a haunted past; she’s the daughter of a physicist who was beaten to death by his students during the Cultural Revolution for daring to teach the “reactionary” idea of general relativity while she witnessed the madness helplessly.

Miao is a nano tech engineer drawn into a virtual-reality online video game called the Three Body that’s metaphysical and at the same time simulates the three-sun world of the alien civilization.

Either of these premises alone would make for a rich SF novel, but Cixin Liu is only getting warmed up. By the time the book hits its peak, it’s unveiled a conspiracy that spans solar systems — one that not only threatens to alter the human race, but the very building blocks of physics that we’ve evolved to understand.

The Three-Body Problem is hard SF, full of lengthy passages of technical exposition about everything from quantum mechanics to artificial intelligence. But Cixin Liu supports all of that braintwisting theory with empathetic characters and a strong action-thriller backbone. That’s a lot to set up. The story begins slowly  and it takes a while to untangle exactly who or what the focal points of the plot are supposed to be. Once it’s up and running, though, it’s gripping.

In the following volume he expands upon “dark forest” theory of alien invasion of the Earth. One might say it is China’s imperial history, the history of other expansive civilizations and the pre-history of the first contact of Neanderthals with modern humans.

He asks a classic sci fi question – if we ever detect a fist signal from an alien civilizations, can we hide our dark history to the distant civilization? How would Earth grapple with the bare facts of “first contact”? Will there be riots and chaos as portrayed in Hollywood movies?

How the World religions will react? It may be easy for Buddhists and Hindus with beliefs of grand and teeming universe of untold antiquity vibrating with living energies but Christianity will face the tougher challenge of explaining if Jesus salvation extends to distant planets.

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Book Review: Abundance for all is within our Grasp

In Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler argue that, despite the problems that our technology has recently created (including dwindling resources and global warming), we needn’t discard our techno-optimism after all. Indeed, according to Diamandis, the world is on the precipice of another explosion in technology that will soon bring refuge from many of our current problems, and abundance to our doorstep.

Not content to let the goal or the timeline remain vague, Diamandis is happy to hang a more precise definition on each. When it comes to abundance, Diamandis defines it as a world of nine billion people with clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier medical care, and non-polluting, ubiquitous energy, and, to top it all off, the freedom to pursue their goals unhindered by political repression.

With regards to the timeline, Diamandis claims that it should be achievable in the next 10 to 25 years. In an attempt to convince us that this goal is achievable Diamandis take us through the latest technological developments (and those that will soon be coming down the pipe) in numerous fields such as water filtration and sanitation (including advancements in water desalination); food production (including vertical farming); education (including personalized education); energy (including solar, wind, nuclear and algal biofuel); healthcare (including stem cell therapy and organ creation)and many, many more.

According to Diamandis, the technological innovations mentioned above are being spurred on by 3 forces in particular these days that are likely to bring us to a state of abundance even quicker than we might otherwise expect, and one that extends to all parts of the world.

The 3 forces are, 1) the rise of the bottom billion which consists in the fact that the world poorest have recently begun plugging into the world economy in a very substantial way, both as a consumer and as a producer of goods (largely as a result of the communications revolution, and the fact that cell phones are now spreading even to the world poorest populations 2) the rising phenomenon of the techphilanthropists – a new breed of wealthy individuals who are more philanthropic than ever, and who are applying their efforts to global solutions (and particularly in the developing world); and 3) the rising phenomenon of DIY innovation which includes the ability of small organizations, and even individuals to make contributions even in the most advanced technological domains (such as computing, biotechnology, and even space travel.

With regards to this last force, part of Diamandis’ purpose here is to inspire the layperson to enter the fray with their own contributions towards abundance by way of joining one of the numerous open-source innovation projects available online, or throwing their hand into one of the many incentivized technological prizes in existence, or in some other manner of their own devising.

In this regard, the authors are very successful, as the work is both invigorating and inspiring, and I highly recommend it.

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Online Shopping – Safety, Privacy, and Benefits

Holidays or not, online shopping is fast becoming the main shopping choice for many people. People prefer online stores for their shopping needs over the brick-and-mortar stores for a variety of reasons – discounted price, quick price comparisons, unavailability of desired items in the retail stores, 24 hours shopping convenience, etc. Whatever the reason is, before you jump into the online shopping bandwagon, you must consider a few things to avoid frustration and monetary loss.

Before you pull out your credit card to buy an item at an unbelievably reduced price, think about the reasons why the merchant is throwing out his profits. Maybe it is a total scam and they want your credit card number to rip you off. Stay with the big online shopping sites. Sites that are publicly traded or reputable private companies do not spam your email inbox with unsolicited advertisements. If you find a shopping site, advertised in a spam e-mail, that sells $100 software for $10, you can bet that it is a scammer’s site.

Ask your friends about their experiences with online shopping sites to select sites that are worthy of your hard earned money. Another approach is to use a search engine like Google to search for items you plan to purchase. When you use Google to search for an item, you will get advertised and non-advertised sites offering your items at different prices. Check out a few sites before you decide to make a purchase.

Many sites like bizrate.com or nexttag.com offers price comparisons, reviews, and shopping site ratings. Use these sites to read reviews and to do a price comparisons. Sites like techbargains.com publishes information on latest bargains, coupons, and discounts offered by various online shopping sites. Monitoring this type of sites provides opportunities to get great bargains. One comparison shopping site, buysafeshopping.com, provides information on qualified shopping sites that have gone through a screening process for merchant’s identity, online sales experience, and the ability to deliver purchased items.

If you have to shop with an unknown online merchant, check for their telephone number at their Web site. Contact someone at the merchant’s physical location and talk to them. Ask them about their privacy and refund policy. If you cannot find a phone number or the phone number goes to a voice mail, instead to a live person, go shopping somewhere else. There are dozens, if not hundreds, good online merchants for any items you want to buy.

At the online checkout counter, you have to use a credit card to pay. When you use your credit card, make sure that your credit card and personal information are sent using encryption to avoid someone intercepting your information for unauthorized use. To check for encryption, look for https in the URL. It is perfectly safe if the site has http in its URL for all pages except the order page – the page where you enter your credit card and other personal information like address, etc. Even if a site is encrypted, it can still be a scammer’s site. Look out for tale-tell signs like numbers at the beginning of the URL. Avoid public computers at cafes, airports, etc. for your purchases. The danger is that hackers can install key-loggers to log your key presses before they are encrypted.

Always use a credit card to pay for your online purchases. Most credit cards have online purchase protection. If something goes wrong, you can always call your credit card company and dispute the charge. You do not have to pay for your disputed charges till the dispute is resolved. Federal laws limit your liability to $50 in charges should someone uses your card fraudulently. Never use a debit card. Debit cards pull money from your bank account as soon as the transaction is made. If you are ripped off, it may take months before you get your money back, if you ever see it again.

Despite all the cautionary warnings, online shopping is safer than shopping offline. You do not have to take a shower, dress up, drive and mingle with other shoppers and touch anything in the store for online shopping. How safe can it be? If you are careful, you can guard yourself against identity and credit card thefts by following safety tips discussed above. When you are using a credit card in an offline venue, there is a person, such as the sales person, who processes the transaction and this person can also see your private information. In online transactions, the middle man is eliminated. If you do your research, watch for signs of fraud and only use credit cards for your purchases, online shopping provides more benefits over offline shopping.

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Identity Theft – You Can Prevent It

By now everybody has heard of some horror story about identity theft from TV shows or magazine articles. In the popular culture, references of identity theft are found in the novels and movies, notably Frederick Forsyth’s novel, “The day of the Jackal” and the 1995 movie “The Net.” In real life, the Identity Theft Resource Center (http://www.idtheftcenter.org) reports 8.9 millions identity theft victims in 2006.

So, what is an identity theft? An identity theft occurs when somebody steals vital pieces of personal information, e.g. your social security, credit card numbers, etc. and uses that information for financial gains by taking your identity. The most common form of identity theft involves credit card and mortgage frauds. But it can also be used for vicious crimes like drug dealings, terrorism, etc.

You may be surprised to know that many minor identity thefts are committed by someone you know. So, don’t make it an easy job for a person to steal your personal information from your wallet, checkbook, etc. Avoid leaving things containing your personal information lying around for others to have an easy access to that information.

Shred, shred, shred. Buy a cheap paper shredder from an office supply store and shred all your paid bills, used check books, etc. before tossing those into the trash. Put aside 30 minutes every Saturday morning for shredding anything that contained your personal information and you intend to trash. Make it a habit.

Never give out your personal information like your social security number; birth date etc. over the phone when the call you received is unsolicited. Your financial institutions have those information and they will not ask you for that. Sometimes, for verification purposes, they make ask you the last four digits of your social security number.

Don’t pay to get anybody to get a copy of your credit report. Because of a congressional mandate, all three-credit report bureaus will give you a copy of your credit report for free every year. Go to AnnualCreditreport.com to obtain your free credit report every year from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. While obtaining your free credit report, these bureaus will push some paid services. Just ignore those.

Don’t get your free credit reports from the three bureaus all at the same time. Then you have to wait one year before you can get your reports again for free. In the mean time, some unwanted stuff may show up in your report. Get your free report every four months from each bureau. If you are using a PDA, password protect it to prevent others from accessing it.

Phishing is a popular method to steal sensitive information for identity theft purposes. Don’t be a phishing victim. Avoid clicking on any link that comes to your way through e-mails or IM. The e-mail will disguise itself coming from your financial institutions (your bank or PayPal accounts) and will urge you to click a link to verify your accounts or resort to such other tricks. Sometimes, it can be outright threatening. If you click the link you will end up in the thief’s website. And if you enter your user name and password, the thief will have enough information to log into your actual account.

Open online accounts for all your credit cards and financial accounts. Online accounts are not only convenient for faster bill paying, paperless transactions, etc.; they also help monitor your accounts frequently, instead of waiting for the monthly bill or statement to arrive. Monitor your accounts online every week and if you see any suspicious charges, checks, etc., call you banks immediately. Also setup e-mail based account alerts, if available, to alert you when charges are made to your accounts.

If possible, avoid putting your outgoing mails containing bills and checks in your mailboxes for easy access by a thief. Drop them in mailboxes located in the post office or street corners. Better yet, setup online bill payment with your bank and avoid the snail mail for bill paying.

You also need to keep your computer safe. Thieves can get into computers through spyware and unsecured wireless or network connections. Use anti-spyware programs and turn on your Windows default personal firewall program. To prevent viruses infecting your computer, use an anti-virus program. Setup accounts for each user of your computer and ask them to use strong passwords that include a combination of letters and numbers.

Another way to prevent anybody, including you, from opening any credit in your name is to freeze your credit. This option is not available in all states. If it is available in your state and you opt for this option, you need to lift the block before you allow anybody, e.g. an employer for a new job, creditor for a car loan, etc., to access your credit information. Though it is almost like a foolproof system to prevent identity theft, it is the also the most inconvenient method.

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Disruptive Web – Emergence of Symbiotic Intelligence

By now you are already much familiar with the concept disruptive innovation that is going on all around you. If you have not noticed it yet, I would like to mention the ubiquitous iPod as an example. Sony’s reign on portable music player that started with the Walkman, an disruptive innovation by itself, was disrupted by a series of new technologies in the form of CD players, mp3 players and then the iPod.

Though the forces of disruption introduced by new ideas and concepts have overturned existing market places and people’s lives in the past several centuries, in the last decade a storm was introduced in the form of World Wide Web. It put its strong foothold on every aspect of modern lives – business, finance, sales, marketing, shopping, communication, relationships, and even crimes. The Web was the most disruptive innovation in the history of human civilization.

The Internet boom was followed by a financial bust for hundreds of companies but it created a pervasive technology that intertwined with everything we do today. It pushed us into the true information society. We are happy to use the Web to check our e-mail and weather before going to the office, do our banking during the lunch break, buy that dream vacation package for a bargain price from an online retailer before heading home in the evening, and occasionally chat with our college room mates using instant messaging after the dinner. We have started replacing more and more of existing technologies that we have used in the past by this all encompassing Net.

Virtual communities and social networking sites emerged in early 2000 (though instances of rudimentary social networking sites can be traced back to the early days of the Web) and the popularity of MySpace proved that we are trying to establish a symbiotic relationship with the Web. This relationship is not with the computer that we use everyday in our works and personal lives. It can be any device that lets us connect to this ethereal system that is all around us. We don’t see it, we don’t feel it but we need it.

We have started using these new breed of sites to establish far reaching connections that would not have been possible in human history before. We contribute to this ever expanding network because we believe in the saying, “I will share my knowledge in return for helpful information from others”. We trade ideas when buying a digital computer or visiting a health specialists and use the collective information and knowledge to drive our actions. Social connections that we establish using these sites help us find jobs, business partners, friends with mutual interests, and even life partners.

For the last 200 years, the Industrial Revolution has provided us the impetus to replace manual labor with machines that do things faster and cheaper. The Industrial Revolution brought societal, cultural and economic changes in human lives. Ordinary persons freed themselves from the drudgery of manual labor for enjoying personal lives.

The Web has brought us the Information Revolution. For the first time, one is able to free herself from the drudgery of many personal chores (e.g. shopping) using the Web. The freed time is spent on getting connected, collaborating, and developing network for sharing information and knowledge. Now, she is able to make decisions using the collective intelligence that was not available before. For example, she is able to order her party supplies from reliable suppliers found in her favorite social bookmarking site, organize her party and invite guests using social a networking site, send personalized driving directions for each guest using a mash-up site that uses vCard and road maps, buy that camera, for party pictures, recommended by her favorite collaborative filtering site.

We have started witnessing the emergence of some rudimentary symbiotic intelligence. People are using collective intelligence to their advantages. The Web will provide mechanisms to mine information scattered over databases, documents, web pages, pictures and videos and then collaborate and connect to address users’ concerns. People will further free themselves from the drudgery of going to specialists like financial planners, tax advisors, or even physicians, for obtaining intelligent and reliable course of actions.

The Web itself is a disruptive event in the human history. Each phases of the Web (are we in Web 2.0 phase?) is a natural progression of that disruption. What we have witnessed so far is information stored all over the globe in millions and millions of networked computers and the emergence of user generated contents, collaboration and social connection.

In the next phase we will see the emergence of sites that will be mash-ups of mash-ups, networks of networks, etc. These sites will further free us from some of our today’s daily chores. Besides being cheaper and omnipresent through held held devices, it will provide us the ability to setup semi-intelligent agents that work for us. For example, after work a person will spend 30 minutes using her handheld device connected to a website to configure her party organizer agent that will order supplies, invite guests, and purchase a digital camera using social book markings, networking and collaborative filtering sites. She will be harnessing the collective intelligence of many people to plan her party.

We already use many of the technologies that are required for the maturing of the symbiotic intelligence. We use more powerful cell phones with digital cameras, Internet connections, and the push technology. University and corporate labs are researching intelligent agent technologies. We are enjoying the falling prices of almost all hardware and services. We utilize virtual communities and social networking sites, and we participate in creating and filtering contents.

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Bye Bye Email, Welcome Microblogging

If the growth of blogs has slowed down and the social networking using Facebook and Bebo has exploded in 2007, the year 2008 will see the growth of a different type of communication medium. It is microblogging. Using short texts, and sometimes pictures and videos, you share your thoughts and actions. Its popularity is its simplicity. It frees you from hard thinking and wordy texts.

If you are comfortable sending text messages from your cell phone, you are ready for microblogging. However, instead of sending text message to one person, you use microblogging to broadcast to your social network.

What are the tools available at your disposal for this new and exciting medium of communication? The last few years have seen the birth of a dozen microblogging sites to carter to your various needs.

Twitter is the leader of the bunch. As soon as you create an account, you are ready to publish your micro-contents using your web browser, cell phone, or the email client. You can also follow interesting people like artists, athletes, bands, politicians and check out their insights regularly.

Want to share your files, events, and links using microblogging? Use Pownce to send your stuff to your friends. Pownce also provides a desktop software for you to download and install on your computer so that you don’t have to use the browser.

The site Tumblr has a refined and simple interface. Use it to publish photos and videos from your cell phone. Even if you are not wordy, you will be able to share your love and hate with others.

If you prefer talking, instead of writing, use MySay. You call the MySay service and leave a message. People in your contact will be able to listen to your thoughts using their phones, emails, or computers.

If don’t like texts or audio, use Hictu for video micro-blogging. Use your webcam to video your actions and publish it in Hictu with the click of a mouse.

IRateMyDay has an interesting angle to the micro-blogging. Instead of publishing mundane activities of you daily life, you rate your day on a scale of Worst to Great. You can also give some explanation for your rating.

Are you emotionally upset? Instead of using IRateMyDay, use EMotionr. If it is one of the happiest day of your life, rate it the highest possible 10. Don’t rate the lowest 1. It can’t be that bad.

Moodmill is where you should go after rating your day or emotion. This site is for managing your mood. Use the mouse to slide the mood indicator and share it with your friends and contacts.

If you are at ease with French or German language, you can use Frazr. It has all the features and functionality of Twitter.

Now that you know a few popular microblogging tools available on the web, you may be wondering, “how can I express my thoughts and actions using this new communication medium? Why people will like to read my mundane daily activities? And what value does it provide to my readers?”

To see the value of microblogging, check out what Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama ‘s team is doing. They are broadcasting all the meeting schedules, caucus and primary results, informational and inspirational messages for volunteers to take actions.

If you are a blogger, you can tell your Twitter followers using some teasing information about an upcoming blog article before you publish it on your blog. This will create anticipation and desires.

If you are selling something on the web, you can use Twitter to publish hot sales for your Twitter followers. This will give you an idea which products are hot sellers so that you can stock them before you announce the sale to everybody using other medium.

You can publish cool tricks and tips that you just read in a blog about personal development, productivity improvement, money saving ideas, etc.