Why do we take photos?

In our attempts to imbue that nostalgic warmth, we miss the real reason we treasure our old photos: they’re artefacts, hard-copy memories of our lives. Their true value is in the way they make us feel — a good photo can take us back to the place it was taken, and invoke in us the feeling we had at the time. That’s something no filter, no matter how brilliantly implemented, can ever recreate for us.
Applying Instagram’s filters becomes a way for us to try and make some of these photos stand out — filtering in situ rather than ex post facto.

Our motivation for “sharing” them is same as it’s always been — we want to show people our lives, share with them the moments that were important to us. Fundamentally, it’s the expression of our social nature

I approve of the thoughts expressed here. 

What Do Women Want?

Natalie-portman

4 Key points to indicate a womans psyche. 

1. All romance novels, whether written by the likes of Jane Austen, Nora Roberts or Stephenie Meyer, employ a narrative formula that follows the gradual elucidation of the hero's inner character, leading to an emotional epiphany between hero and heroine. On this journey, the heroine—and the reader—investigates the character of the hero. The goal of a romance novel's heroine is never sex for its own sake, much less impersonal sex with strangers. All romance novels end with a "happily ever after": a marriage or committed long-term partnership.

2. The most popular fan fiction website—and the world's most popular "erotic" site for women—is FanFiction.net.

3. Men who are attracted to a particular actress may go online looking for racy photos of her. Women who are attracted to an actor are more likely to seek out personal details about his life or erotic stories featuring one of the characters he portrays. 

4. Whereas the typical comments beneath videos on websites for men are mostly brief ("Hot!"), women want to discuss in probing detail the emotional qualities of a story, the authenticity of its characters and the nuances of the relationship.

P.S - The only reason Natalie Portman's chosen is because a) my readership is all male b) Thor just released c) I'd like to know what she'd want.

Becoming a Master.

I never thought I'll end up reviving this but the posterous guys are making posting dead simple. Plus there are no rules to follow either here. So what I'm going to do is revive this with select postings and clippings that I like and have read online. Here's James Altucher's particularly interesting point on becoming a master.

7) Master a game: What’s your favorite game? Ping pong? Chess? Poker? Learning how to master a game is incredibly hard. I’ve written before how to do it but lets start with the basics:

  1. study the history of the game
  2. study current experts on the game. videos, books, magazines, etc. Replay, or try to imitate in some way, the current masters of the game
  3. Play a lot: with friends, in tournaments, at local clubs, etc.
  4. take lessons from someone who has already mastered the game. This helps you to avoid bad habits and gets someone to immediately criticize your current skill.


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Free software for a trouble free life. Highly recommended list.

I am just about to reinstall windows and I had this gold list from my brother that I thought I should share with you. These are a list of all the softwares you'll ever need to do your basic stuff. These are stand alone apps, I'll make a list for web apps soon enough, but till then enjoy.

And remember to contribute to the lovely people that made them. I'm adding a small thought thingy for every software and why it's good.

Antivirus software
Microsoft Security Essentials  - http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
This requires you to have an original copy of windows (which I do and most people do but be forewarned).

Outpost firewall - http://free.agnitum.com/
This is a firewall program that you must use if you want some great stuff. But the hosted version is costly.

Browsers

Need not be explained. 2 of the best browsers, I would recommend firefox here, but it can be a pain in the ass with the bloated stuff it brings along with it. However if you are a web developer then I still recommend Firefox since the plugins there are just plain awesome.

Daily required software

This is a winrar replacement, twice as good and free. I still use Winrar since I contributed to it and bought a license but this works just as well.

Replaces windows, is a great software with a simple interface and a lot of options for the geeks too.

This is a replacement for Nero burning Rom.  Again advantage is free and many customisable CD interface options.

When you want to mount those iso files and other stuff you make use of this. Truly the best, better than Daemon tools.

The king of softwares for media viewing. Not bloated and can play any media file on the planet.

If you use torrent downloads and surf many websites somewhere some shit is going to latch on to your registry and temp files. Use this to bust it's ass down.

Lightweight, efficient, customisable, very sexy. Need I explain more?
and some extra links on how to run it so that you max speed downloads.

I used this WAY back and I hated it, so I went ahead and installed super bloated 95 kilos overweight adobe. Became a load I couldn't handle. Bye Adobe, Hello Foxit. Reads every PDF file ever.

BullZip pdf - (Best Print PDF) - http://www.bullzip.com/ 
PDFill - (PDF Tools Merge and Combine PDFs) - http://www.pdfill.com/
These are 2 tools you use for editing pdf files or printing them if need be. You can add your own watermark and just go crazy with the various options.

This is a defragger software. Good if you are a Windows user.

Pick the best DNS to use for your internet connection.

This is a great software for you to use for text editing. Another great software is also Notepad++.

Snycing files between 2 computers, if you need to, this is really good.

Great software for Encryption stuff.

Other Misc Stuff

This is a lot of stuff my brother uses and recommend. Why I'm not sure heh, I have to get back to you on that.

Roll your sleeves up it's time to work. Insights from pros on goal setting and accomplishing.

You know it's 2010. It's that time of the year to bring in some new resolutions, hold it by the ear, successfully resolve that you won't mess up like the last one and then go back to that cake you were eating.

Put that cake down now $#%3er.

I'm done with this slacking, whether it was weight loss, meeting that person, taking that trip whatever it might have been it's a new decade, I'm sure you are too. 

New resolve. 

Nike-just-do-it-300x300

But I have been reading Tim Ferris' book again and also following  Leo Babuata and I realised that setting those Big-HAG (big hairy audicious goals) are good for the spirit but not necessarily for accomplishment.

And really it's best to not announce your goals as Derek Sivers puts it. Here's my quick notes on productive goals that I would like to share.

Setting goals.

a) Set 6 goals for this year. That's it no big thing, 6 worthy goals. Just to clarify. Getting laid is not the goal, finding love is. 

b) Set a time frame to accomplish them in. The better you frame it out with steps the more likely you are going to get them. A goal for me is 5 kilos a month for 3 months = 15 kilos (to start with). 

c) Arrange those goals in priority, something needed in december is not something you do in January. 

d) Go start them , take small steps. Running a marathon starts with running 1 km at a time without coughing your lung out of your nose.

Chris Brogan prefers to use 3 words instead and break it into many actions. 

Accomplishing those goals.

There are a few years to realise these goals. 

a) Translate Being to Doing:  This is important.  An example is learning French this year (being) translates to Talking with a colleague in French for 10 mins daily (doing). So list out the big goal, but write down the short steps. 

b) Write down the steps necessary to get the goals done: I repeat this, you should plan the path but be open to change alongside. Nothing goes according to plan, that's ok. Just keep a general direction in mind and not nomad it up.

b) Set in a time limit to accomplish them in: If I told you that you had 24 hours to live and you had to write that will of yours or clean that cupboard, you'll want to do it quickly and finish it off as ap. That's the power of the impeding deadline.
There are loads of laws that go into effect , the most deadly being  Work expands to fill itself in the time allocated. 

So what goals are you setting yourself this year?