The Dark Side of the Mind

Amazing article I found from Ego Development…

If you desire to stay positive in your life, try to avoid these bad human habits. When you make these changes, you will feel it will make great changes in the way you see things and will help you live a happier life.

1. Fear
“Fear” is one of the harmful negative or depressing emotions. Fear, like all other depressing emotions, poisons the body. This is not said in a figurative sense. It is an actual scientific fact; it has been demonstrated chemically. Were it not for the fact that the lungs, skin, kidneys and the bowels are constantly removing poisons from the body, an acute attack of fear would prove fatal.

2. Worry
Worrying is perhaps the most common and the worst of our mental sins. Worry is like a cancer: It eats in and in. It is destructive of both body and mind. It is due largely to lack of self-control and is a symptom of cowardice. Much worry is also indicative of great selfishness, which most of those afflicted will deny. Those who worry much are always in poor health, which grows progressively worse. The form of indigestion accompanied by great acidity and gas formation is a prolific source of worry, as well as of other mental and physical troubles. The acidity irritates the nervous system and the irritation in time causes mental depression.

3. Guiltiness/Regret.
For one thing, we are all guilty. We live not knowing as much as we need to know about the problems that we have, and so we make mistakes, all of us. It is Nature itself that is imperfect, and we are all the heirs of this imperfection. Knowing that you are totally created makes it possible to rise above personal injuries and move beyond guiltiness and regret. In the words of Lao-Tse, “When I let go of who I am, I become who I might be.”

4. Depression-despair.
Depression affects more than just an individual’s mood and general overall sense of well being. Depression surfaces in a number of other ways, including the form of eating disorders. To be a whole person again, you can move away from ignoring or repudiating your bad feelings and move into a position of being receptive to change. From this position you are compassionate – you recognize that you are more than your bad feelings. Implicit in this attitude lie the words, “I am with you. I do not turn away from you. I acknowledge you. I recognize your bad feelings. My compassion recognizes that you are more than you think you are. Who you are and who you have been have been produced by the processes of Nature/life. I do not repudiate or desert any of you. I do not turn my back on you. I do not try to will you out of existence. I acknowledge your existence, each part of your body and each part of your mind. A person is going to feel the full range of human feelings, including fear, shame, hostility, and guiltiness.

5. Anger.
Anger is a normal human emotion. However, when it’s unresolved or unchecked, it can lead to devastating consequences for the person holding onto the anger and those around him or her. The major reason that anger is so difficult to manage for most people is that it has become a habitual response to certain people, places and situations. Most habits tend to operate below our awareness—meaning we react without considering our choices

6. Self-blame
If you are down on yourself, practicing a lot of self-blame, please remember that it is very difficult to get by in this complicated world as it is without any disorders. Blaming yourself for all kinds of stuff such as whether other people are happy, whether other people work hard, whether your relationship fails to thrive, whether a social event is going well – is so much work! People who blame themselves for too much mistake influence for control. A mother may be able to influence her child when it comes to academic study but she can’t completely control the child’s motivation (or lack of). You may be able to influence whether your partner or friend has a good time but you certainly can’t be totally responsible.

7. Indifference 
An absence of compulsion to or toward one thing or another. To be indifferent is to realize that I have no interest — not now, not yet or maybe ever — in something I have become aware of and spent some time prioritizing. To not know is to realize how futile self-importance is. Ignorance however represents a procrastinization of thought. Ignorance is the substitution of belief for knowledge. Where continuing ignorance would curtain with darkness, realization provides the ubiquity of sun light. The bliss of ignorance is ironic — I’m giving away my bliss to the rapturous.

Web Review: Kwippy.com

Kwippy.com is basically an alternative to Twitter and Plurk.

The functions are simple enough featuring the main aspects of Twitter… Microblogging, with permalinks to the various posts (called “kwips”) and the ability to reply. As per my previous post which put Twitter against Plurk, I have no idea if kwippy.com’s API is being shared or released. Also, it has the same downfalls as that of Twitter when compared to Plurk, where the design is not very Web 2.0 and it’s limited to passing links and is hindered by functionality to include pictures and videos. It does have IM updates via Google Talk though, which makes it a bit easier to post and deal with. Twitter used to have this before it started experiencing its problems…

So far, kwippy.com functions as Twitter, but without it’s API being widely available and having it’s functionality widely dispersed throughout the open source community and the web 2.0 community. Open Source is a major ingredient of web 2.0. Functionality in this regard and the ability to pass content easily between desktop and web applications is paramount.

This is what I see as a major stumbling block for this new Indian startup. They do have a feedback section though… so let’s hope we see some really good development from them in future… you never know, with the way things are going these days, they might surpass both Twitter and Plurk. Let’s wait and see.

Another major stumbling block at the moment – It’s invite only… I may have some available – just get hold of me if you want one – leave a comment or catch me on Twitter.

: Kwippy, kwippy.com, social media, Micro-blogging, Twitter, Plurk, Review

Google Killer: Powerset Semantic Search Engine

Having been long predicted as the shaping the next generation of search, Semantic Web Applications are now coming to the fore with Powerset leading the way. Powerset has released its beta version, allowing the public to finally try out the new key word technology. Ushering the new era of search, Powerset hopes to change people’s expectations of search by offering a far more intelligent and efficient form of searching, at least in theory.

“We’re changing the way information is searched by doing a much deeper analysis of the pages we index,” said Scott Prevost, Powerset’s product director.

Keyword engines treat pages as word bags, indexing their content without grasping its meaning, he said. Meanwhile, Powerset’s engine, applying technology developed in-house as well as licensed from Xerox’s PARC subsidiary, creates a semantic representation by parsing each sentence and extracting its meaning. “Meaning is what we index,” he said.

Google’s Marissa Mayer has even elaborated on the benefit of the semantic web…

“People should be able to ask questions and we should understand their meaning, or they should be able to talk about things at a conceptual level. We see a lot of concept-based questions — not about what words will appear on the page but more like ‘what is this about?’. A lot of people will turn to things like the semantic Web as a possible answer to that,” she said.

She also said that Google seems intelligent more through brute force because of the amount of data it crunches rather than it being really “smart” and working out what the user really means when they are searching for certain terms.

I can already see Google Scurrying to upgrade their system to incorporate this though… they certainly have the budget to do it. The current form of Powerset is limited, consisting only of millions of pages from Wikipedia and Metaweb Technologies’ Freebase, a Web-based structured database of information. Whatever it is, here’s to ushering in a new era in search, one that will ultimately provide a real challenge to the Google’s and Yahoo’s of our increasingly connected world.

Could this possibly be the beginning of a Web 3.0?

Muslim Page added to Alltop.com

Guy Kawasaki has launched a new initiative on his page aggregator site Alltop.com. the new page, muslim.alltop.com is a great page which aggregates Muslim news and updates from all corners of the globe including blogs and news sites all on a single page.

Check out the main page as well as it covers a wide range of topics for all who are interested. It is similar to your personal Google Page which you can ad your own feeds to , but these are done for you and categorised by topics. I think it’s a great idea and I personally recommend the muslim.alltop.com page to anyone who wants to know what Muslims are thinking about and talking about across the globe :)
Technorati Tags: Muslim, Link, Guy Kawasaki, Web 2.0, Aggregator, Alltop, Muslim, News, Blogs

The Twitter Blacklist

The Twitter Blacklist identifies all the idiots who Twitter spam and follow thousands of people in order to draw attention to themselves. I think it’s a really cool idea… I especially remember when I first joined Twitter and got all excited when so many people started following me, only to later realise what a bunch of self-obsessed, ego-driven idiots they are.

How do you know a person is a Twitter Spammer? The site gives a good ratio of identifying them by looking at how many people follow them vs. how many people they follow.

1:5 = twittercaster, 1:2 = notable, 1:1 socially healthy, 2:1 newbie or social climber, 5:1 twitter spammer. — evan

For those using Firefox, install Greasemonkey and then add in the Twitter Blacklist script.
There’s even an API for programmers so they can query if a certain user is on the blacklist.
Technorati Tags: Twitter, Blacklist, Twitter

Presidency of Two Holy Mosques Starts Website

This is interesting…

The Presidency of the two Holy Mosques has started a website in order to enlighten the public about its activities. Phase 1 of the website is already launched and allows people to watch the prayers and sermons at the two mosques (The Prophet’s (SAW) Mosque in Madinah and Masjid-Al-Haram in Makkah) as well as offering 45,000 recordings of the recitation of the Quran as well as Islamic Lectures.

Phase 2 will provide e-education services and indexing of rare books and calligraphic writings. English and other Major languages will also be included in the second phase. The website also includes tons of other information such as How to perform Hajj and Umrah, Speeches in Arabic, Urdu and english, Prayer times in Makkah and Madinah, etc.

The website is http://www.gph.gov.sa

Blogger’s Code of Conduct

Recently there have been calls for a Bloggers Code of Conduct, unfortunately, no one seems to be listening yet… at least not any of the bloggers I know of.

Maybe bloggers should get more involved in drafting this, also a more credible agency needs to be responsible for implementing the code, otherwise it’ll just be another blogpost on its own. Something I think would really work is if a body is formed which can validate various blogs who apply and they can get certified as adhering to the code of conduct.

This is a good initiative but I can’t really see the practicality of its implementation.

Some other blogs have already have their codes of conduct up for some time anyway.

Another question to ask is… what would this really change? Isn’t it just another regulating feature of a phenomenon which can’t really be regulated?
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Code of Conduct

Links 09-03-2008

35 Cool Gmail Hacks – how to Power-Use Gmail with its customised flexibility (for Firefox Users)
11 Resources for Learning Guitar on the Web – For the Start-up Musician
Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well – For Writers :)
The Shy Person’s Guide to talking to Strangers – for the Socially-Challenged

Have fun. Feel Good. Peace.

Technorati Tags: Gmail, Guitar, Hemingway, Writing, Shy, Sociable

Links 28-02-2008

50 Content Management Systems – For the Web Developers
The Art of Negotiation – 15 Easy Steps – Some Personal Development…
Top10 DIY Car hacks - For Car Enthusiasts…
12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go with The Flow – For the Strung out.
Free! why $0.00 is the Future of Business – for New Age Economists.

100 Ways to Use your iPod to Learn and Study Better

If you think that iPods are used just for listening to music, you obviously haven’t been keeping up with the latest technology The Apple-developed music player now features all kinds of accessories to help you study better, and now other companies are in a rush to get their designs in sync with the iPod. Pre-teens, college kids and even adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them. From downloadable podcasts to just-for-iPod study guides and applications, learning on the go has never been easier. To find out about the many different ways you can transform your iPod into a learning device, check out our list below.

Link: The iPod Hacker

Technorati Tags: iPod, Hack, Study

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