Archives for category: What If..

More and more people around the world are allowing the forever-developing World Wide Web to make their lives that little bit easier.

launch of internet, world wide web, man behind the internet, invention of the century, valuable invention, Sir Tim Berners-Lee unveiled the internet on Christmas Day, 1990

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Business, social networking and communication are being advanced in what can only be described as the technological age that we are currently living in.

What would you do, however, if the internet as we know it was completely switched off via a single switch without any warning?

Fortunately, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has stated that there is no such thing as a single “Off” Switch because the world is decentralised and split up into hundreds of countries, there is no central “Off Switch”.

The only way it could be switched off is if the governments of the world come together and agree to change it from a decentralised system to a centralised one.

But what if everything were to revert to the way it was prior to 1990?

ebay, online businesses that prosper and flourish, amazon, online selling and buying

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A number of businesses relying entirely or partially on the internet would be severely damaged.

Also all people who make a living through pod-casting, hyperlocal news and those selling products on the internet would all consequently lose their jobs.

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With nearly one billion users connecting with friends and family nearby or abroad, the death of Facebook would probably result in the majority of people just not trying to stay in touch any more.

If the internet has made people lazy enough to stay at home to communicate with friends rather than meet in person; will people really put in the extra effort?

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Yep, you would probably regain a large portion of your brain capacity to resolve difficult problems; which would previously have been looked up on the internet.

People would have to rely on books again and reading more has frequently been linked with increased intelligence.

People would buy more newspapers, reading newspapers on actual papers, new trend, going back to way of things

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The newspaper industry has been taking a nosedive in sales ever since the introduction of the internet. With no more “instant” news through websites and social media such as Twitter; the flow of information will travel much slower.

Does this mean more people would revert to reading newspapers for information? As well as more traditional methods of news gathering? More than likely.

Less transparency more corruption, government, private authorities, corruption, hugging and loving laptop, protecting computer

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Without the internet, corporations and government will find it much more difficult to publish information to the public – therefore encouraging the emergence of more Quangos.

Quangos are not affiliated to the government, yet rely on government funding and have been heavily criticised for a true lack or transparency.

You would have to go to work, going back to work after a break and hiatus, driving to work again, getting up early

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As opposed to working from home or teleworking. More and more companies have turned to outsourcing, resulting in a lot of money being saved – but without the internet this could prove difficult.

This will result in many people hopping into their cars and driving to work before…

getting lost without GPS and help of technology, uses of technology, getting around, traveling with smart phones

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Although GPS systems would still operate, but this would prove difficult without a constant flow of internet-based updates.

The loss of Google Maps and other map based technology on the internet would result in people being unable to print off a direct list of instructions and ultimately getting lost. And finally…

blogosphere, blogging, moment matters, blog world

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And you wouldn’t be reading this post. Nor would you be reading any of my other posts or the posts of thousands of other bloggers across the globe.

Just a concept I know, our lives in many respects would probably benefit socially and personally but at the same time be ridden with economic decline in a world without internet.

Would the world be better without internet?

Daniel Mayes is a recent Journalism graduate with an upper-second. He has experience working at BBC World Service, Sky News Online and has worked on projects in Europe and Africa.

Because you can survive with 2 hours of sleep, screw that 8 hours minimum!

Man Sleeping in Work, 2 hours sleep, sleep is for the weak, daytime sleeping, no sleeping, people sleeping, sleep

Sleeping in Work. Photo from foxnews.com

Sleep is a shitty waste of time. 8 hours of sleep entraps a third of your day and all you do is nothing. That time can be used to consume miles of productivity and/or leisure, but we just lie down and succumb to weakness.

Sleep is important, I know that. It is our natural defense against stress. It regenerates our body cells for optimal function and it feels damn good to be well rested. We cannot take it out entirely, but we can reduce it to save more time.

8 hours of sleep is called the monophasic sleep cycle, and it is very inefficient. In that cycle, we sleep once a day but it doesn’t mean that all the 8 hours are used effectively. Real sleep, the deep trance where we dream and truly begin resting, is happening during REM stage. To get to the REM stage in the 8 hours sleep cycle, we have to remain put and count sheep before we got there.  And once you get to REM stage, it doesn’t last until you wake up. It only amounts to 20% of your 8 hours sleep.

Polyphasic sleep cycles only need 2 hours of sleep, most if not all is in REM stage. It means that there’s no waiting for the dream to visit us because it’ll arrive right away. The dreams you’ll have, reportedly, will be more vivid and you’ll feel relaxed and your mind is more clear every after waking up.

There are four Polyphasic sleep cycles to choose from, which was succinctly explained in HighExistence. Just to give you an idea, there is the Uberman sleep cycle where you sleep 20 – 30 minutes every 4 hours throughout the day. See, you’ll feel refreshed six times a day and you have the whole day freed!

The one caveat is the terrible transition from monophasic to polyphasic. If you shifted to polyphasic, you won’t have REM in your firsts 20 – 30 minutes naps. Your body is not adjusted to the new cycle yet, but in time, your body will learn to have REM on every nap you’ll have. Your body will adapt to the new cycle just like moving to a place in different time zone – it takes a while but it’ll happen. Until your body mastered having REM on every 20 – 30 minute naps, you’ll feel tired because technically, you may not be dreaming.

Not many people have tried this. We don’t know the long term effects of this. There are accounts, people like Steve Pavlina who tried it and reported being totally fine or more than fine after gaining more hours of their lives. Some people visit doctors and remained in full health. The only thing they would caution is during the transition because it’ll be tough.

Honestly, this is enticing. Infants live in a polyphasic sleep cycle but lost it when they grew up as they learned monophasic. But the world adults live in is not ready for it. If you are maintaining a career, you cannot really sleep every 4 hours of work or else get thrown out of your building. I also take calculated risks, and I haven’t learned enough about this 2 hours sleep so I won’t jump to it just yet.

Just imagine the wonders you could do with additional 6 hours everyday! Do you think polyphasic will work for you?

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Sources:
Alternative Sleep Cycles: You Don’t Really Need 6-8 Hours! HighExistence
Polyphasic Sleep Log – Day 1; StevePavlina.com
Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep; National Institutes of Health
 

What if..

..your account got hacked

A dumb password is a giveaway, accounts hacked, password security, hacking computer, computer lock, account security, unlock, padlock, black padlock

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@Momentmattters in Twitter has been hacked recently. The most that hackers did was tweet some bar soaps they’re selling. They do it repetitively and I know it’s annoying so I took care of it.

There is nearly infinite possible combination of characters to be used as a password, but some people have sheer luck in guessing your password. The prior month as well, politician Mitt Romney’s private email was hacked by just guessing his favorite pet’s name. We should respond to the security questions with utter seriousness because that’s one way people get through your account.

It’s worth the time to think of a strong password, isn’t it? These passwords should be loads more perplexing than SplashData’s list of worst passwords on the internet. Topping it all was “password” as password, which I would love to buy that person a dictionary because clearly he needs more vocabulary. Next to it was “123456” – how lazy can you be? And then there are those who are just fixated to their nursery days by making “12345678” as their password. But, I won’t recommend an overly inert password like “j7%4s(=z@,a+6qz” because it’s also a hassle if you keep forgetting your password.

At the least of it, we have invested time in our accounts; but there are also valuable data at risk. When Linkedin was hacked, the hackers may control the users’s accounts and contacts. Allegedly, millions of data are shed when Sony’s PlayStation Network was hacked in 2011. It halted PlayStation Network’s operation for a month. And for most people, they can be hospitalized when they found out their daily updates are all gone.

I guess there’s money in hacking? Or does it only feed the pride of the geeks that they can breach the multinationals? I don’t know what they’ll do with the account of other people but mess it up; and that would only mean something if you knew the person you’re hacking. However, screwing up an enemy’s account is a great revenge venture.

What if your account got hacked (wordpress, facebook, email, any account), what will be risked?

What if you could commit a crime and get away with it..

Playing criminal, black shirt and hand gun, white man criminal, shooting a gun, just like in the movies, action, badass man

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What crimes have you committed in your thoughts?

Don’t come clean here, I know at some point in our childhood and especially adulthood, we fantasized stabbing our enemies in the most epic possible way. I do that a lot with movie villains.

The Bling Ring gang had it groovy. They robbed the settlements of A-list celebrities including Paris Hilton, Rachel Bilson, Megan Fox, Orlando Bloom, Lindsay Lohan and more. They executed it between 2008 to 2009, got caught and now a movie in production. How can you get away with that, with Millionaires against you.

I don’t intend to promote crimes here, but to just play around the neat idea.

Toptentopten.com listed the rad crimes to commit.  Among my favorites is hacking “the cities street light operating system and change all the lights to green”, or better make the lights dance like it’s Christmas.

On the said list as well is stealing a tank and driving it all around New York City. Yeah, that was like playing Grand Theft Auto in real life – awesome! Or pulling your pants down and running nude in a live presidential speech – you get to steal the focus.

The rest of their badass crimes are in the list – The Top Ten Coolest Crimes To Commit.

LG, a multinational electronics company, suggested a way to rob their stores. Watch their ad:

I’m a simple dude, my crimes would be tax evasion (understandable, right?), beating traffic laws then bribing the police officer and sneaking into a cinema. I may also want to hack computers of important people, or the Twitter account of the famous. Then I’ll fill it up with untamed viruses. What’s your crimes?

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What if you get a million dollars but only for a day..

Counting money, counting 100 dollar bills, feel of money, Money Living, with money there's honey, great life with money, rich and wealthy buys happiness

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A Single Parent’s Life in the post It’s Just A Bag disclosed that if she had the money to last a life time, she wouldn’t spend much on a bag. What if you DO have the money, on which things would you spend it with? And how about having the chunks of money for only day, and the succeeding days you’ll be back to normal. What things would you want to have for those succeeding days?

Here’s what I’m doing.

I’m buy a Europe travel guide and book a one month Eurotrip! This is how one of my evenings will look like:

Best view in the sea in Santorini Greece, Travel in Europe, vacation in Greece, Greel Island, 1 Month Eurotrip, happy adventurous trip to  Europe, england, italy, france, germany, switzerland, travel route to europe, travel books

Photo from Wolfgang Staudt’s flickr

I’ll deposit the payment for all the air transfers, tours and classy hotels with breakfast. The only thing I’ll have to worry then is lunch and dinner. I’ll add five of my friends and pay all their expenses so our gang was complete with spacious room for adventures.

A rough overestimation would be $10,000 per person, so $60,000 for five of us.

Then I’ll grab a house and pay in advance for a solar panel build to free myself of the electricity bill burden. The house I’m eyeing is valued at 585,000. Solar panel installation reportedly costs $70,000 at its height.

Bought a House, awesome house, house for sale, great house, best house, beautiful house to buy, las vegas homes, rock house ideas

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I’ll donate $200,000 to charity simply because I have nothing better to spend it with. And the remaining is for Vegas baby. Wouldn’t let this day pass without any fun! And who knows, I could lure more fortune.

It is actually hard to decide what you can spend on a day with a million dollars. I could easily buy a fancy painting, except I appreciate art in any value. Other than travel, that which I wanted most right now, I would go for house and charity. Of course, fun should be in that day so there’s Las Vegas.

How would you spend a million in a day?

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