Apple computer found in Junk!!!

Tech revolution

1976 gizmo found in junk, sold for $200,000.

One of the best stories doing the rounds as of now is this. Half of you may have already heard, but do so once more. A Silicon Valley recycling company recently found an Apple I computer in the junk sent to it by an old lady. One of the first 200 computers ever made by Steve Jobs and Joe Wozniak in their historic Garage Experiments. What happened later revolutionized computing forever. 

Apple Inc., now headquartered in a disc shaped office in Cupertino, California operates through 453 retail stores in 16 countries with a net worth of US$230 billion. It is responsible for the first PROPER smartphone, computer, tablet, and much more. 

Anyway, that is en passé. What I really meant to say was how far we have come. 20 years ago, we could not think of phones as objects beyond the reach of the rich. Today, your milkman can Whatsapp you he can’t come today. 

We are now building so much sophisticated technology that we would be soon smothered by all of it. We are now thinking of wearable technology. Virtual Reality. Holograms. And what not.

Sure, technology is set to reformat our lives a few years from now. It will delete our discomforts, Facebook our memories, and Pin our best moments. Technology has made life much easier. But seldom do we think how lazy we have become .

Courtesy evolving technology, technology has also shared with us some really harmful habits. We are all happy Couch Potatoes to huge HDTV’s in our homes. We are getting spine problems thanks to seeing our smartphones for long hours and browsing the net. The long list of problems from too much computer usage is endless.

Thanks to all our interesting gadgets, we are all living in a dangerous web of invisible radiations – the sort that machines use to communicate amongst themselves. It is highly hazardous for us and can cause great problems in the long run, altering body function and interfering with the brain’s ability to think. They can even lead to life -thereatening cancer among many other diseases on offer.

If only we used our computers to help us, we would have been far better off. I would not say that opening accounts on dating sites is not appreciable of the Indian Teen. Or liking that photo. Watching some content when alone. I only wanted to ask them to limit their use of the internet.

The internet is a valuable storehouse of information, meant to be used to help in the usually boring curriculum many of us are subject to in our schools (no offence). One finds educative content in plenty on offer. We can watch videos on those chapters we missed, solve those questions online which we didn’t understand. 

You may carry on your other stuff on other open tabs, but just limit the attention you give to them. You will get lots and lots of time later on, to view so much that you would be amazed.

The internet is so vast that it has powers to make, brake, destroy, bond, and what not. We see broken branches of the family meeting after generations. Seriously, I have a couple of Facebook friends who have been very helpful to us and have we have even spent vacations with them.

 You may also have that one friend in the neighbourhood whom you never had the chance to visit but chat with for long hours. You know what, just cycle down to his house and tell him that you came to meet him. That you remember him from old school days. Trust me, he will love it. Spend some personal time with him. Who knows, you might find in him the friend who will endure.

All I wanted to say is you should try to expand physically, not virtually. Stay away from Gadgetitis or it will seriously harm you. And can is C-A-N not cn. Just that, if technology is used in a great way, it would be awesome. But if you misuse technology, it will destroy you. Now look away from the screen or you will get eye strain.   


Stay blessed. - _a.pratham 
(always in smallcase, just to tell you how insignificant anyone is to the whole creation)

THAT DAY

11 September 2001

Just another day in New York.

Little did they know what future had in store for them. Everyone went about their chores and went to their workplaces. The usual monotony was about to be broken for the first time. Just as the first New Yorkers rushed to their offices, terror had begun to hatch plans of destruction. Four planes had been hijacked and were heading with terror on purpose.

Suddenly, the people inside World Trade Center, the city’s iconic Twin Towers heard the roaring of a plane’s engines. What happened that day is still etched on every mind’s New Yorker as their worst nightmare. The last anyone ever remembers is seeing the plane hurtling towards them. The two flights ripped through the steel framework of the entire structure, at once causing it to crumple like bread does when you hit it.

American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 razed through the twin towers causing them to collapse like a pack of cards. A dozen surrounding buildings also suffered damages from the resulting debris. A third plane American Airlines Flight 77 went into the Pentagon, US Defence Headquarters causing some partial damage. The fourth plane United Airlines Flight targeted at Washington crashed into Pennsylvania.

3000 people lost their dear lives and many others received injuries. All the 19 hijackers were killed in the attack. The attacks led to a reported loss of $10 billion in intellectual property and infrastructure. US machinery suffered a major breakdown in the attacks.

Every American remembers the shrieks of terror that rented the skies on that day.

Shards of glass and reams of sheets were flown into the air as the flight tore into the heart of the towers. In a few minutes, the twin towers were reduced to the ground as if they were jelly. Those who did not attend office thank their Gods everyday for being lucky to have not gone.

The handful of survivors of the attacks are heroes in the minds of all. The US blamed terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda. Osama took responsibility for the terror blitz in 2004.

George W. Bush then President was enraged at the loss on that day of manpower and the destruction of the world’s biggest of economic hubs. The Bush Government declared war with Al-Qaeda. It redeveloped the Pentagon and kick started the most elaborate and dangerous manhunt ever – the hunt for the man who started it all.

Osama, you wont live to see another day!!!

It offered a prize of millions of dollars to anyone with the slightest hint of the terror mastermind’s whereabouts.It initiated elaborate checks at US Airports. It picked up suspects from around the world often subjecting them with inhuman torture and tried to take out facts from them.It swooped on unassuming people’s accounts and scanned their mailboxes.

The elaborate machinery kept in place by the NSA was recently brought to the world’s notice courtesy whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Finally Obama came. In first few weeks of assuming office, he ordered closure of US torture prison at Gaunatamo, citing it had ended, and nobody needs to fear any more. After a series of various snooping, careful surveillance, the US had breath of respite after Navy Seals gunned down Osama in his Abottabad compound, ironically a stone’s throw from Pakistan Army Chief’s house.

The US finally had its man at last. It even used computer algorithms which verified they had shot Osama.

The biggest manhunt ever had ended. The biggest terror blitz ever was avenged. The mastermind was dead. Osama's body lays at the bottom of the ocean as proof.

One World Trade Center was opened on the site of the World Trade Center in 2014.

SPACE HOMES

THE FRONTIERS OPEN FOR CIVILIANS 

Man had been for long been fascinated by the starry heavens. Ancient records hold proof to his dreams. He had said ‘Sky is the limit’ but now he himself has proved ‘there is no such LIMIT’.

Starting from the first hot air balloon by the Montgolifer brothers Joseph Michel Montgolifer and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier on 21 November , 1783 and the first aeroplane by Wright Brothers Orville and Wilbur in 1903 he has never learnt to look downwards.

Orville Wright
19 August 1871 to 30 January 1948

Wilbur Wright
16 April 1867 to 30 May 1912

Joseph Michel Montgolfier
26 August 1740 to 26 June 1810

Jacques Étienne Montgolfier
6 January 1745 to 2 August 1799

Mankind has gone really far from Apollo 11 which touched down the lunar surface in 1969. #neilarmstrong and #buzzaldrin are long since history. Space homes have now been a possibility, given recent advancements in space technology. Plans are being made for a home in the stellar heavens. Yes soon we would be having our addresses in space. Homes for people have for a long time been conceptualized by writers and scientists, the latter trying more to make it a reality.

It would be more and more evident as the world’s population reaches exploding point and we run out of resources on our Home Planet for sustenance. Scientists have long since been conceptualising the idea, and have reached various conclusions on an average roadmap to realising the stellar dream.

He has already seen the plot for his future home. A few millionaires have got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of a commercial spaceflight for those with golden spoons. Virgin Galactic Spaceship One took the first commercial space traveller, a millionaire Dennis Tito for a few minutes in sub orbital space flight.

Given that Earth is going to run out of space for people in near future, the scientific community has long since been debating the idea of an address in outer space, perhaps on a nearby planet.

Scientists are hesitating due to the fact that that such a planet is not near enough to Earth. They call it in science jargon ‘the Goldilocks Zone’   ( Circumstellar Habitable Zone) near a star where a planet lying in it would have conditions suitable for life to thrive.

The only other solution is to terraform a planet – which means to geologically alter it to make it suitable for life. However, terraforming doesn’t take place fast enough to suit us. It takes ages and ages which would not also be practical enough. So the only possibility is of a home far above home, out in the skies.

Already, Virgin Galactic is handing out spaceflight tickets for those with the daredevilry and golden spoons.

In a few years, the sky would be dotted with flying cars (which are in concept as of today), flying homes, hotels, drones and what not. So brace ourselves as the frontiers are thrown open for anyone who wants to have him up there.

We would live in airlocks in special pressurized suits designed for the purpose. A little changes here and there and we would be all set to live in out there. What was yesterday a dream is today a reality. Man would never have dreamed that he would cross his planet to land on the other. Imagine of an address in space!!!

Scientists are also trying hard to make the space dream a reality. As science progresses with the speed of light, God knows what future has in store for us.

For now, we can only anticipate. I would request people to begin to pack their bags of a trip to inter stellar 

space – for soon they would be living, straight above their own houses, floating thousands of feet above Earth.

WORLD AGAINST WOMEN

How many times have we stopped midway from a conversation, only to turn your head and stare at those skinny legs? It's time you stopped that, because it is very annoying for that girl.... READ ON

On The Opposite Sex 

The woman is the most widely discriminated, stereotyped and abused of today. Thanks to a certain class of goons who consider women to be objects of pleasure, the Indian woman fears to keep step outdoors.

If her dress is short, she has the neighbourhood ogling at her. One just cannot stop from looking at each girl in the street bottom to top. It has now become general tendency and even the other passersby to join in once someone starts.

Not to mention the many cases of immoral abuse reported in the media. Thanks to stringent measures, such degrading activities have come to a standstill. She is nowadays prone to harassment both at home and office. Not to mention recent cases of being harassed even while commuting in the once safe Cabs of India.

Few people are not consent with even having women in this world and resort to female foeticide. It takes place, sadly, even today, in rural areas. When she grows up, she is lucky to have completed ten years of schooling after which she is compelled to stay at home and help with housework. Girls in rural households have to work after school. Some even don’t have the fortune to go to school. They wash dishes instead. Soon they are married off. There too, many experience cases of in – laws abusing them. Sadly this is the story in many poverty- stricken urban households too. They are then reduced to nothing but mute spectators.

Girls in India have to return early to their houses lest something happens to them in the dead of the night. Some people really work hard to see to it that women have to look around them as they step out.

Malala Yousafzai is just one. And she is very lucky to survive. What about the others, about whom we do not even know? Thousands of such unfortunate women are present today who have experienced abuse in one form or the other.

Thanks to today’s media-fed commercialization, even Hindi film actresses have confessed to being assaulted in horrendous ways when they were children. Kalki Koechlin, Poorna Jagnathan, Deepika Padukone among many others have voiced themselves against the social evil.

I would like to mention over here the recent passing away of assault victim Aruna Shanbaug, KEM Hospital nurse. She was brutally raped and robbed of her belongings in a dark incident few decades ago. She lay in KEM Hospital ICU ever since in a permanent vegetative state, owning to the nature of the assault. The offender walked scot – free and was charged only of robbery to protect Mrs. Shanbaug’s interests. She left for her heavenly abode few weeks ago.

Why don’t we consider girls as our sisters women as our mothers and so on? Why can’t we just let them be? If she wears a short dress, why do we have to keep on looking at her? Why can’t we just leave her on her own? Perhaps such kind of outlook might work to reduce crimes against women in our era. Is it always that necessary to stare? Most often women choose to ignore all eve – teasing and extra attention.

The government has put into place several laws and stringent policing to make sure anyone with a bad eye goes behind bars as soon as possible. Such kind of measures shall go a long way in protecting women’s rights. Also, self defence using pepper sprays and other such objects is being popularized.

In India, women have many roles. When small, they are a sister. Later, they become wives. Soon they are mothers. Later they are loving Grans. A Woman has enormous responsibility of running the complete house in India. It is she who wakes up before everyone else, cooks food, takes care of everyone, sleeps after everyone – and so  the cycle.

India has evolved from being a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one. We have lost respect in the other sex. The result is the large number of crimes we see today (of course they have lessened now).  If we did not wake up to a solution soon, we would be driven into great problems in near future.