Today's Bit of Wisdom

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions”

Niccolo Machiavelli

       I must say, this is really self explanatory. You are most vulnerable when your desires alone, dictate your actions. The fact that you feel like it doesn't mean you have to do it. Stop, pause and think about what you are doing and ask yourself if its in line with your goals.  

image by Salvatore Vuono

3D Printing : Watch out, Its getting bigger

What is the next big thing in technology?!

3d printing is what I think it would be. Not your thing? Probably you are right, but soon the applications of something like 3d printing will be common in everyday life. For now you might find it uneccessary and a little too geeky but I tell you soon you wont be able to live without it. A year ago the news of this type of printing was in the mainstream media with technology analyst talking about it becoming a common device. I really wasn't convinced but yesterday seeing a demonstration on Bloomberg West changed my mind.

Its surprising how small these devices have gotten over the past year. Although currently they are mainly used for the purposes of making small models for designers, it is their disruptive nature that is so scary. For instance you break a component in your car, lets say a platic piece on your dashboard that can be easily replaced but the parts will have to be ordered from the manufacturer because they are not available in your region, or even worse you drive an old model and the parts are no longer in production. Instead of shipping the parts to you, the manufacturer asks you to visit your local 3d printing shop and pick up that part. The entire process involved in shipping that part to you is cut short because of this technology. I dont know about you but if you start to think about the various ways in which this tchnology can be applied you will soon see how big it is. Certain aspect of the cargo industy will soon see falls in demand. This could totally disrupt the manufacturing sector.

Winners

Consumers will certianly benefit from a reduced cost in certain products and their availability.

Losers

Some transport companies and manufacturing companies will see their business moving away. China's manufacturing industry could take a big hit.

Its not too clear how much of a change this would be but it has the potential to be really huge.

What is 3D printing? 3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. 3D printing is achieved using additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printing is considered distinct from traditional machining techniques (subtractive processes) which mostly rely on the removal of material by drilling, cutting etc. 3D printing is usually performed using a materials printer, and since 2003 there has been large growth in the sales of these machines. Additionally, the cost of 3D printers has gone down. The technology also finds use in the fields of jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

I like the new look for Google Plus even with white spaces.

New look for Google Plus

If you are on Google Plus you would know this by now that Google has made significant changes to its social platform. Its funny the mixed reactions people have especially in reference to a certain white space.

#usesforwhitespace

White Space

This topic has been trending on Google Plus the whole day, I wonder why people just wont get over it. I see nothing wrong although it would have been better if the column with the white-spaces was moved to the outermost part of the page with the Hangouts closer to the trending topics.

Hangouts Closer to the Trending topics

I like the old Google Plus but a change is welcome so long as it doesn’t stop me from sharing with my friends.

The navigation bar is on the left instead of on top. I prefer it that way, with Twitter and Facebook having theirs on top I like to see something different on Google Plus.

Your conversations stay in the middle where they are supposed to be. You have your hangouts on your right.

Its basically just a rearrangement of the features on your page but according to Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra the new design was created to accommodate the new features that Google would be rolling out in a couple of days? I cant wait to see what these features are.

So for so good, I like the new look.

I was right: Rick Santorum Steps out of the race for the Republican Presidential Nominee.

       

           I guess I was right when I made his prediction a week ago that Rick Santorum would step out of the race and give Mitt Romney the chance to ahead and take on Obama. I should have tweeted this but I would rather prefer to leave it right here. 

           For those who did not read my blog post "Rick Santorum might give in soon"on 4/4/12 you can take another look.

          What do you think the chances are for the Republican party to win this years elections?

Fool's Gold (2008) [movie review]

My thoughts


 Its a nice movie, some good elements of comedy and romance but some of the characters didn't seem to fit in properly especially the role of Gemma Honeycutt, what I mean by this, is that a lot more could have been done with those characters. It still is a good movie I enjoyed watching and also one of my favourite actors  Matthew McConaughey was the lead character.  I will rate it 5.5 out of five was funny and a lot of fun but not that great.

Today's Bit of Wisdom

“Go big or go home because it is true what do you have to lose?”

Eliza Dushku

     To really benefit from this you will have to think long and hard about the second part “What do you have to lose?”. If you didn’t realize it in order to follow in that philosophy you should be a humble person one who is not too bothered about failing publicly. Its not that public failure is a good thing but if you have a lot of pride you cant go big, you cant take any significant risk cause significant risks is usually equal to significant gains.

[Most people who are willing to take risks, take calculated risks]

     Some of you might not agree with my explanation but I will leave you with this illustration and I will ask you to think long and hard about it.

    Most people who are willing to take risks, take calculated risks meaning they came in well prepared at the same time those filled with so much pride(those who have something to lose) cannot take risks which might mean taking on some humiliation. What they do is sit back and watch others succeed. When they see the success of others their pide kicks in again and they seek to validate themselves by making attempts to gain similar achievements, but unlike the risk takers they are not prepared and do not take calculated risks. The result is they get badly burnt and never learn from their mistakes because they have something to lose.  




image by Salvatore Vuono

Facebook Buys Instagram

Instagram

Oh my Oh my, Facebook acquires Instagram. They actually dished out $1 billion (not actually cold cash but cash and stocks)to acquire Instagram and the word out is that Instagram users have already started deleting their accounts. I this the deleting of accounts is being over hyped right now.

This is surely a great acquisition for Facebook but I am not sure this marriage would be the best. Instagram as a service has come to be loved by so many people who really love sharing images with friend and your ability to edit pictures with their wonderful apps is an amazing experience although I must be honest with you I particularly don't like sharing pictures(the reason why I don't use instagram). Facebook however have the habit of disregarding user privacy and I can say for sure that Zuckerberg doesn't mind doing the same with his new toy. To be honest I think this is more of a great deal for the owners and developers of Instagram than it is a good deal for Facebook. Zuckerberg says that Instagram would stand alone as a seperate service but they would work closely with the Instagram team to allow some sort of integration. However the Instagram users would be able to opt out of sharing their Instagrams on Facebook, (Zuckerberg will definitely turn on sharing by default).

We know Zuckerberg well enough, I think his motivation is not to keep Instagram but to switch user engagement to Facebook and slowly kill Instagram. Not necessarily shut it down but slowly kill the service. Well we can only wait to see what he would do with Instagram.

I will end by congratulating the founders of Instagram Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom for creating such a beautiful service but I really wish you didn't sell to Facebook since Instagram was cerianly going to blow-up compete directly with Facebook, but considering the fact that Instagram wasn't making mush money its a good deal.

I wonder how this deal will affect Facebook's IPO?