Humans and the World

I've always wondered, what would the world be like if humans were not looking at advancing technology all the time? What would the world be like without money? What would the world be like if there was no such thing as ownership, and everything was shared?

Just 2 days back, I was notified about this video posted by AsapSCIENCE on YouTube. They discussed the effects of human extinction from the surface of our planet, and what could possibly happen after. It definitely was an interesting video to watch and I have embedded the video below for you as well.

In my opinion, we humans are very complex creatures. We tend to want more convenience, higher efficiency, and more time to relax. Thus, we invent many things to do all that. The world as we know it, is getting warmer and warmer, and air quality at some places is getting worse as well. We probably only have ourselves to blame for the global climate change. That is why there are many "green" things being invented, and "green" schemes that are coming up in the recent years. Could it be that we are trying to fire fight, and try to prevent the world from heating up too much and triggering a horrible, irreversible destruction?

I remember watching snippets of the video, "Six degrees could change the world", about a year or two back. It is scary what may happen due to global warming if it is not taken under control. The documentary is pretty long, but it shows you how just a six degree change in global temperatures is able to affect the world.

What can we do to prevent global warming from worsening? Is there a limit to research and development? Are our new green technologies really green even in the manufacturing process? These are just some of the many thoughts and questions which I have in mind. Give them some thought if you would, and I would like to hear your opinions.

Fear in Academics

I have observed people around me, through my growing up years, and children whom I tutor on a voluntary basis, and noticed that we all want to give the right answers to questions as much as possible. Students are looking for the right answers in various places in the modern day society. Through the internet, textbooks, or even asking friends for help, most students seek the most accurate answer as possible when it comes to solving a problem.

Some children whom I have taught have actually stopped at every single question which they are unsure of and asked if the answer was correct, or checked if every step of the working that they had done was correct. Even in universities, there may be some who are not willing to speak up and attempt to answer a question as they may fear that their answer is too silly and that the rest of the class will laugh at them.

Which got me thinking, "Could the education system have indirectly affected us in a negative way?"

The education system definitely has taught us to do our best, and score as high a grade as possible. Teachers and lecturers are there to guide us and point us in the right direction. Most of them even prompt the class to answer some questions to further clarify the point that they are trying to make. So why are we so afraid of making an attempt at giving the answers? Could this mentality to score a good grade at school have led to fear developing in our lives?

At this point, I realize that the best time to make mistakes is while we are still in school. Mistakes are part and parcel of the learning process. It gives us the chance to explore, and confirm our understanding on a subject matter. Making mistakes at school allows the teacher to correct it, and prompts the teacher to explain the question and solution in an alternate manner so that there is better understanding. Once you are out in the industry, mistakes made may cost companies time and money, and therefore are discouraged.

Coming from a programming background during my tertiary education, I find that there more often than not, there are many ways of tackling the same problem. If one solution does not work out for me, I find another one, or experiment with various methods until I get a solution. Optimizations and improvements can come later, improving the speed and efficiency for solving a problem. The main thing is to primarily solve the problem first, before exploring other optimizations. That way, if all else fails, at least I still have something that works.

Let us not be hindered by fear of making mistakes at school. Make more mistakes in school while we can, and learn from them. In fact, I feel that making mistakes in class should be encouraged! It would probably help us remember better as well! That is why we go to school right? To learn new things...

I shall end my post here tonight. Maybe I will post something similar next time on comfort zones.

Till then, make more mistakes, and keep on learning!

Food Storage Durations

I came across this interesting image which lets you know the expiry dates of foodstuff kept in various places. Image below is from the TIME article which I saw.

Internet: Backbone of Modern Society.

I'm writing this post using my mobile phone. Reason being, the wireless router and modem at home has broken down and there no longer is any internet connection nor cable television to watch at home.

As the saying goes, "You never know how important something is, until you lose it."

Having lost the ability to freely access the internet at home, has made me realize that the Internet actually plays a big part in modern day society. The internet has been a convenient source of information for me; this is in terms of references and research. Tapping on this knowledge base, one does not have to go through as much trouble to get a similar task done. Without the internet, people will probably be reinventing the wheel more frequently, as they probably did not know the wheel existed already. I realized this when I wanted to try something for my final year project and had no clue how to go about doing it. Having no books with me, I'm pretty much in a helpless situation. My immediate solution would be to go somewhere with internet access, or head over to the library to look for references. Yes, I can possibly use my mobile data for my research as well. However, it is only limited to 2GB of data for the next one month and I want to save the data for other uses..

Why backbone?
I think that the internet is in a way, the backbone of our modern society because of globalisation. Businesses and databases are pretty much globalised by now, and the internet is the framework that holds everything together. Companies may have branches in various countries, and some companies have large databases of customer information, that are stored in various parts of the world for better efficiency.

Emails are the preferred method of correspondence between people as the mail gets sent and received almost instantaneously, compared to snail mail taking days or even weeks to reach the receiving party. Sure there still are various courier services that deliver parcels and important documents but email still is preferred in my opinion for more generic corrsspondences. Another use of the internet in businesses is video conferencing. Video conferencing enables companies to use the internet to have meetings across various countries at the same time, allowing for a global workforce.

In the modern day, I feel that people want things to be done as soon as possible, so that profits can be maximised. Take for example, a person wants to know what something means, or even just want to research on a subject matter. With access to the internet, all a person has to do is to simply do a search on their preferred search engine, and a list of websites filled with relevant infornation is returned.

The internet has helped us to stay connected to one another irregardless of where we live at. It definitely has brought about convenience and efficiency to our lives. It also helps to facilitate our learning process and brings various information to our fingertips. Because of our heavy reliance on the internet, should it suddenly cease to exist, it could well be a major catastrophy. However, I feel that the possibility of the internet's total failure is quite low as all the connections have to be severed before that happens. But it just goes to show how important the internet has become in our modern lifestyle.

Information from the Internet

There is this huge resource of information called the Internet. From time to time, I wonder, what is the internet? Who controls it? Where is it located at? Who posts these content?

Is it not interesting how many of us have access to the internet in this modern day.For most of us, the internet is literally at our fingertips. We access the internet in various, be it by the use of our smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktop PCs. Email, looking up specific information, and gaming are some examples of what we use the internet for on a daily basis. 

Simply put, the Internet is basically a network of computers connected to, and communicating with  one another on a common protocols (think of it as a common language) such that the information being communicated can be understood on the receiving end. As far as I know, I do not recall reading that anyone owns the internet as a whole, because the internet is a global connection of computers connected by cables that run under the seas across various countries and continents. However, there are various organisations that affect the internet we use today, and influence how this internet evolves over time, such as updating the address format for each web page, or what protocols the computers use to communicate with one another. Various people all around the world create content and post it online, they own the content and copying it may infringe copyright laws.

So what about information from the Internet?

I feel that anything that goes into the Internet will remain there somewhat permanently. Take this blog post for example, once it is posted, it may be copied, pasted, backed up, or even screen grabbed. Should there be a mistake, it would be virtually impossible to erase it then, even though the original post has been removed. With the internet being pretty accessible now, I feel that it pays to be cautious of what information you wish to share with the world. Also, be careful of the comments you make and sensitive to how people may react upon reading your posts.

All of us react differently to things we read. If we like what we read, we tend to want to share it. Or if something we read is what we agree with, we would also think that what is written is correct. However, if we do not agree with something, we may immediately get angry at a subject or just choose to ignore it. With satirical news sites popping up, we have to be extra careful about the information we read from the Internet. Some of these sites seem so convincing until you start to cross check and find that it was just a satirical article. I feel that with any article you find online, it is good to do a cross reference with another article to see if a similar story is being posted. If it is an isolated case, then it is up to your own discernment to judge if it is true or false. But my advice is, take what you read with a pinch of salt as not everything you read may be true.

These are some of my thoughts about the Internet and information posted on it. Overall, I would say that the Internet is a good source of information, and it definitely has various methods of sharing knowledge and information when attained from reliable sources. We just have to be a little cautious of our actions taken on the Internet. 

Have a blessed weekend ahead!

New Beginnings

Happy New Year to everyone!
2015 is a brand new year and time for new beginnings and new resolutions.
What better way to have a new beginning by starting a new blog for myself. It has definitely been a long time since I wrote anything besides answers to examination questions.
Posts you can expect to find here may include my thoughts, views on life, and even blessings which I would like to thank God for. If time permits, I may even put up some tutorials or share things which I think may make life a little easier!
I really hope to do a post weekly or fortnightly due to various other commitments which I have.
Stay tuned for updates!