Beware Of BROWSER FINGERPRINTING

 

BROWSER FINGERPRINTING!  Sound techie?  YES it seems BUT before you shun this off in an instant, allow me to beg you to hang-on for a minute please?  BUT I won't be a hypocrite to claim domain knowledge about it because I am NOT and I DON'T have it.  Instead, allow me to piggy-back on Ritoban Mukherjee's recent sharing via lifehacker.com as he highlights the risks way below the surface and offers a cost-free solution WHICH even non-techies like us can consider☝☝☝

Allow me to quote EN TOTO Ritoban's sharing "Uninterrupted browsing used to be a lot simpler.  Disable third-party cookies, blacklist known tracking domains and get an ad blocker.  BUT now, online platforms can pick on things like your screen resolution, basic hardware specs, timezone, and installed fonts to establish a fingerprint unique to your browser and device.  Websites can query a lot of seemingly harmless data from your device without prompting any security reaction"!!!

WHAT's scarier here is that unlike cookies, "FINGERPRINTING does NOT require a website to install files OR extensions to your web browser.  Instead, it uses server-side and JavaScript-executed signals to collect innocuous details about your device and setup".  IF that does NOT scare you, in the simplest terms, it can likely breach through your login credentials to your online banking.  There you go, lock, stock and barrel❌❌❌

Is there a FIX RIGHT NOW?  Yes there is, and it's FREE.  Accessing for free EFF's "COVER YOUR TRACKS", I was able to run FREE scans that showed me exactly HOW EXPOSED my device is/was.  The site generates an immediate report that tells me WHETHER I have cookies or trackers enabled in my browser, along with the types of data my device is "LEAKING" that can then be accessed by FINGERPRINTING technology.  BUT the thing is, we CAN'T fully stop browser fingerprinting because the technology does NOT rely on a single point of access to collect data from our device💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  WHILE there is no fool-proof FIX to this BROWSER FINGERPRINTING, I can attest that by leveraging on 'COVER YOUR TRACKS' [which offers the 'FREE SCAN' of your browser], I am alerted at the earliest possible time WHEN a potential data leak becomes imminent.  Dude, please DON'T shun off from this practical advice simply because you'll claim you're NOT a techie [BUT hey, this piece is for laymen like us😂😂😂

Fading Goals? Oh No!

 

GOALS GOALS GOALS.  Boring words BUT this an earth-shaking word that reverberates across our life.  To complement GOALS, look out there, we're even drowning in a sea of self-development.  Tons and tons of self-driven online courses, life coaches volunteering around and even the deluge of self-proclaimed gurus lording it all over social media, Meta FB, Tiktok, name it.  They preach about longterm plans and even pitch via podcasts.  BUT HOW's the state of our GOALS to date???

True, we are witnessing parade of perfectly optimized people.  BUT WHEN you're just a regular person like you and me, trying to get by, it's hard NOT to feel q little cynical [especially WHEN we hit those unexpected bumps] WHERE does that lead us to?  And NOT to badmouth the gurus, WHERE do they find time to sort of meditate for hours OR that sum of monies to fly to the 'jungle' to 'find themselves'???

NOT to feel negative, it feels easy to get the feeling that those self-improvement 'games' are rigged for people WHO started off the race with a huge advantage.  BUT WHAT about the rest of us?  The ones WHO ride the metro OR the bus, running small businesses, work demanding jobs and promise ourselves tons and tons of resolutions every January 1st, that the next upcoming year will offer us an immense sheet of sea change in our life???

Then that brings us back to GOALS GOALS GOALS.  WHY CAN'T we find out WHY?  Take some time to think  WHAT does your ideal life look like?  WHAT do you enjoy now and WHAT do you want to get rid of?  Your true GOALS are the ones that align with that vision, right?  In that manner, it will be easier and more enjoyable to achieve because they get powered by your GENUINE desire, and NOT triggered even by external pressures [that includes people and the prevailing circumstances that tend to influence you]💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  WHEN we buckle down to GOALS, let's make it REAL, dude.  Once you have an idea, let your rational mind have a look.  Is it realistic?  Planning to negotiate a deal in a language you CAN'T even order a burger might be a stretch, right?  YES YES yoww, your GOALS must challenge you and NOT set you up for failure. And definitely, NOT to precipitate your GOALS to fade.  That CAN'T and MUSN'T be, dude😡😡😡

What Works, Works!

 

WHAT WORKS, WORKS, period. WHENEVER we stumble down, WHENEVER we fall flat on our face, WHENEVER we suffer all the bruises black and blue, WHAT happens next?  We'll start pondering to go back to the drawing board, redraw, revamp and if needed reinvent the wheel right from scratch.  BUT multiple researches proved that flops and failures do NOT mean that we go back and reinvent the wheel because more often, all it needs is a tweak here and there💚💛💜

Even in the topsy-world of the NBA world, a failure does NOT mean a hard reboot OR reset follows suit.  Looking at the Indiana Pacers, they bagged the Eastern Conference Title and went on to the NBA Finals only to lose to the Oklahoma Thunders.  This year, they are down there at the pits, hugging the cellar.  WHAT a difference a half-year brings indeed!!!

We can draw lots of parallelisms between our daily life and WHAT's going on in the NBA basketball world.  You're UP yesterday and you could be down today BUT before one gets tempted to press the panic button, WHY not take that concerted effort for a deep-seated post-mortem to figure out WHAT went wrong and more importantly, validate if the loss OR failure was a close shave between winning OR losing OR was it a runaway loss WHEREIN you did eat the dust?  That validation is critical because WHAT WORKS WORKS and yet, many of us would miss that opportunity to pull the brakes and instead, we end up to be more prone to pressing that panic button pronto, ouch💥💥💥

IF you're in the production line, PROBABLY it was just a single misstep that deviated from the SOP.  IF you're  behind the steering wheel for a long drive and ended up in a mishap, MAYBE you were a second late in your reflec reactions to quickly pull the brakes WHEN a dog running berserk suddenly crossed the highway, causing you to go offtrack?  IF it's a personal cash flow issue, maybe you had one big-ticket item that impacted your budget❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  Picking up from the hard lessons I did pick up along those road patches, it pays to constantly remember that WHAT WORKS, WORKS and that should tremendously calm down our nerves WHEN we feel LIKE we're in a pressure cooker simmering at the seams.  Take a deep breath and after stabilizing things, get back to that oft repeated declarative statement that WHAT WORKS WORKS dude😀😀😀

NOT All Answers Are Correct Answers

 

Typically on average everyday, HOW many questions do we stumble across WHETHER it's asked on us OR questions WHICH we silently ask ourselves?  Could be curious questions, mundane questions, those essential questions OR even self-reflection questions?  There are no pegged averages because it really depends on one's prevailing circumstances.  Obviously, if you are teaching in the academe, expect hundreds of those questions, right?  BUT we WON'T delve into that but drill-down in handling our very own questions💚💛💜

Let's face it.  The real world we face-off everyday is messy enough.  Fact is, we DON'T have all the answers in our daily life.  And that's the best part.  To quote Irish singer Bono, THE MORE YOU SEE, THE LESS YOU KNOW.  THE LESS YOU FIND OUT AS YOU GO.  I KNEW MUCH MORE THEN THAT I DO NOW.     I need NOT look any WHERE else.  Many times in my life, I made a decision because I needed it and NOT because I really wanted it.  Again and again, that vicious cycle most often happened to me in numerous forays in the labor market.  Driven by my goals a.k.a. ambitions, I kept angling for this and that plum job.  Having started my career with Shell, one of the top global organizations recognized across markets, I [wrongly] believed that the only way to go was up up up!!!

The truth is, more often, those decisions I made were the answers BUT were NOT the correct answers to the questions I was facing multiple times in the past.  WHILE it is NOT debatable that our needs and necessity come first amongst anything else. there is a catch there that may NOT be so obvious on the surface.  Sometimes[and in my case, many times], things get so blurred.  OR from a different dimension, WHEN you're right there standing in front the trees, you CAN'T see the forest anymore.  And that's the thing.  This is WHERE we should give some serious thought to reevaluate our decisions before succumbing to it.  And if need be, reinvent ourselves😃😃😃

WHAT I'm harping here is that, there are decision points in our life WHERE we need to be 'larger than life' itself.  UNLESS one is in the midst of those outliers, knock on wood, like terroristic OR medical situations, it's more than just taking a huge leap of faith.  It's true, results and outcomes matter BUT the bigger question is, were those results and outcomes the most appropriate to happen?  Difficult pills to shallow BUT those instances recurred in my life many times all because I [wrongly[ thought over and over again that ALL ANSWERS WERE CORRECT ANSWERS, which is NOT really the case💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  Before I get whacked here, it is very rare to have 'CUT AND DRY' answers to every question.  Hardly, if at all.  In fact, for questions in life that are more complex than simple.  I'll draw a parallelism with the rubik's cube.  One has to approach situations from multiple dimensions until the complexity gets magnified enough to be simpler than complex.  Because after all is said and done, NOT ALL ANSWERS ARE CORRECT ANSWERS!!!

When Do We Pivot?

 

WHEN DO WE PIVOT?  Exactly my ASK.  That question gets often asked by folks WHO would need a much more effective counselling.  And that's fine as well.  Admittedly, WHEN I was quite a newbie out there, PIVOT was never part of my word reservoir.  Instead, during those years, I did develop the perfect spelling of the 2-letter word GO GO GO.  So, that's least surprising then if I was totally clueless.  Now, I'm running a full circle as it's me asking WHEN DO WE PIVOT???

For alignment, let's agree on PIVOTING.  In the NBA, the past eight weeks ever since NBA superstar Lebron James advised his latest NBA ballclub LA Lakers that he was NOT renewing his contract with them, everything turned frenzy across the major NBA ballclubs, to name a few, Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State and Philadelphia 76ers.  WHILE during the NBA offseason, it is the peak season for trades, buyouts and all those player movements, WHEN Lebron James announced, the top NBA ballclubs were all lobbying for him to signoff with them.  Until Lebron James makes that decision, all other plans with regard any other NBA player were all 'in freeze' UNTIL that decision was made.  Yesterday, Lebron James announced he was joining Philadelphia 76ers.  This is WHEN the major NBA ballclubs will now PIVOT☝☝☝

The crux of the matter is knowing WHEN TO PIVOT.  I've stumbled across tons of narratives WHERE PIVOTING was never part of the equation.  And WHY?  The common retort?  They were NOT aware that they had to PIVOT by then, ouch!@#$%?  For alignment, it is a MUST-KNOW WHEN to PIVOT for one to realize that to PIVOT becomes a MUST-DO.  In the simplest terms, PIVOTING means changing strategy, overriding plans, overhauling an approach no less.  So WHEN?  WHEN someone gets stalled, OR off-tracker, OR waylaid OR dumped off OR simply put, WHEN he's doomed to fail way before he even approaches the FINISH LINE💧💧💧

I can effortlessly recall those times I fumbled and fell flat on my face several times on different endeavors.  And WHILE those endeavors were unique from each other, they had a common denominator.  And that's the fact that the root cause of all my fumbling acts then were primarily caused by the fact that I DIDN'T PIVOT. WHY?  Most of the time, I was so ignorant to be aware that it was time to PIVOT.  Of course, there was NO excuse for that faux pas.  And for the remainder WHERE I was aware, blame it on my intransigience and stubbornness as I refused to PIVOT, ouch😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  Those were two despicable versions of me, both failing to PIVOT.  Firstly, because of my unawareness a.k.a. ignorance and secondly, all because of my being stubborn to PIVOT.  So, WHAT's the upside of PIVOTING?  C'mon dude, WHAT happens next is more than a 'shot in your arm' as that revives and resuscitates a journey that is about to fail.  Metrics aside, the benefits we can reap during PIVOTS are enormous.  So, WHEN DO WE PIVOT?  Better be sharp enough to know WHEN TO PIVOT!!!

Finding JOY In Our 'BUSYNESS'!

 

In this frenzied and frenetic pace of our daily lives, it is a non-issue and a non-topic [IN FACT] to fret WHEN we find someone so stressed [and sometimes demoralized and/or depressed] WHEN overwhelmed because of the tons and volumes of things we are engaged.  BUT NOT to beat my chest, allow me to humbly share HOW I managed to swim and swim through my BUSYNESS and although I never crafted any formula HOW to overcome it, I'll modestly spell the word J-O-Y because through the years, it has been embedded deep within me to find J-O-Y in every foray I get engaged all throughout my personal life💚💛💜

Translating things in concrete terms, you might retort:  SO, HOW DID I FIND JOY WITH BEING BUSY?  I'm more than pleased to enlighten us all on that very legitimate question. Firstly, I always ensured that I would find MEANING into every endeavor I get involved.  WHAT IF I DON'T find that MEANING?  Good question.  And my honest answer:  Very likely I'll NOT get engaged into something WHERE I am hard pressed to find meaning in the first place.  WHY?  I always posed that question to me and WHERE I can't pull out the best and most convincing answer from the aces in my sleeve, I WON'T dip my hands into that cookie jar, NOT within the whole nine yards💧💧💧

My second catalyst that helps me FIND JOY in being BUSY is another no-brainer😀😀😀 And that's looking forward to that sense of fulfillment cum sense of achievement once I reach that realization.  And BTW, this is NOT for me to put up a false facade of being pretentious as an achiever if such achievement is doubtful in the first place.  If there's a trophy I cherish most in life, it is that trophy of achievement because I always believed I could have NOT attained something UNLESS I did pour things out❗❗❗

WHAT IF I am hard pressed to look forward to that sense of achievement up front?  Simple dude.  I WON'T even lift a single finger because just like the chef in the kitchen, I WON'T start on a dish recipe UNLESS I really put my heart and mind into it.  And once I do commit things akin to that 'blood compact', I can affirm that NO WAY will I abandon things OR give up along the way, NOT by any means as I always committed to squeeze everything hard out of myself, high and dry💥💥💥

Our takeaway:  I DON'T have a monopoly of experiences to share BUT all I can categorically claim is that if someone is going through the wringer of being constant BUSY, feeling stressed, getting drained down to the last gasp of air, I have to raise a potential red flag down the road because UNLESS we FIND JOY in our BUSYNESS, I doubt that we can successfully wrap up our life journey with the least frustrations.  For anyone WHO's struggling to FIND JOY in our BUSYNESS, it is NOT too late to reawaken ourselves and where possible, REBOOT and RESET.  Do it, dude💥💥💥

Is Intentional Boredom Worth It?

 

Is INTENTIONAL BOREDOM worth it?  During my growing-up years, BOREDOM was a fact of life, period.  It seemed LIKE BOREDOM was NOT even in the dictionary and if one day BOREDOM knocks us off, factually, BOREDOM is an act by itself and it's a precious gift we need to more than just acknowledge BUT appreciate as well.  BUT dude, as much as there are endangered species many concerned crusaders are trying to save, are we consciously aware that BOREDOM itself is also endangered these days💚💛💜

Factually, our phones and gadgets would buzz incessantly, NOT just triggered by messages BUT by tons and tons of social media notif's, right?  And add this and that BREAKING NEWS, every snippet of it feels like a crisis by itself.  A study last year by REVIEWS.ORG showed that in the United States alone, Americans pick up their phones an average of 205 times per day, ouch💥💥💥

Oooops, looks like picking up our phones 200 times per day seems another BORING moment?  Maybe we DIDN'T mean to.  It all felt like progress in the name of technology.  BUT the mother of all ironies is that in creating this so called 'advanced world' of technologies, NOT to our liking, we have come dangerously close to choking off creativity completely.  Likely, the next Steve Jobs is too busy playing Candy Crush❎❎❎

And WHAT psychologists are preaching now is that INTENTIONAL BOREDOM is really worth it and to cite a recent research @Washington U, WHEN our brains AREN'T focused on external tasks, they activate WHAT scientists refer to as that DEFAULT MODE NETWORK, which from their jargon, is a constellation of brain regions in the prefontal cortex that light up WHEN we're daydreaming OR letting our minds wander???

Our takeaway:  Seriously, I tried INTENTIONAL BOREDOM multiple times and I'd admit that it works😁😁😁WHILE human psychology tells us that WHEN we're forced to confront that dreaded feeling of NOTHING-TO-DO-ness, most of us run the other way.  LIKE we automatically reach for our phones WHEN waiting in line at the grocery store, sitting in traffic, even going to the bathroom.  Dude, those are the opportunities we can grab to find that INTENTIONAL BOREDOM is really worth it😗😗😗

When Perception Is In Play

 

One of the areas least recognized OR even spent time for discourse are our PERCEPTIONS.  YET, PERCEPTION refers to our very own sensory experiences of the world we live.  Technically, experts define it as the process of using our senses to become aware of relationships, objects and even events in our daily life.  Oh YES, PERCEPTION relies on our cognitive functions💚💛💜

And one of the most striking and significant examples of the influence and impact of PERCEPTION in our everyday life is the depth and comprehensiveness + that speed of cognition of another person due to certain objective and subjective characteristics.  And experts claim that most often, the PERCEPTION of other people is based only on assumed impressions, assumed qualities, assumed interpretation and assumed evaluation of motives in behavior💧💧💧

The most common PERCEPTIONS do pervade across cultures and callings.  LIKE a bearded man in First World countries is likely a programmer/developer?  LIKE a girl in eyeglasses is a nerd?  On the other hand, many times,cultures are a factor in PERCEPTIONS.  LIKE Persians will describe bittersweet water as simply bitter WHEREAS British can describe it as probably devoid of taste and NOT bad.  And many times, the phenomenon of PERCEPTION of sounds evoke memories OR feelings that indicate that 'close connection' between our sense of hearing and our brain.  Heard of Beethoven WHO did compose music even after he completely lost hearing???

WHAT is often overlooked is that PERCEPTIONS are only from one's POV [Point of View].  I remember this age-old adage, 'IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST, GO ALONE.  IF YOU WANT TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER'.  Until now, this seems to be widely accepted as we see people WHO go on daily walks as part of their daily regimen, they go alone WHEREAS those preparing for a marathon, you'll see them in tandems OR even groups.  And a safe conclusion from this is that YES, we can accomplish many things individually BUT we can achieve even more WHEN working with others😀😀😀

Our takeaway:  As humans, our individual experiences and our own PERCEPTIONS of those experiences impact HOW we engage in those different social systems.  In the shortest words, our PERCEPTIONS would lead us to judgment about people and likely, we CAN'T stop making judgments about people and events BUT we can consciously influence that process and make intentional judgments.  Bottomline, let us endeavor to increase our understanding of HOW PERCEPTION PLAYS in our life, dude💥💥💥

Manage Your Energy [NOT Your Time]!

 

As multifarious demands in our everyday life keep rising [with NO end in sight to slacken at all], many of us keep putting even more hours, WHICH inevitably lead to burnout [spelled S-T-R-E-S-S]. Meanwhile, we tend to take for granted WHAT fuels our capacity WHICH translates to our ENERGY.  And WHAT has the old school taught us all along?  It's NO less than increasing our capacity for MORE time and MORE time.  And WHAT's the huge BIG miss here?  In this vast forest we live in, we're missing this very basic tenet that TIME is finite BUT ENERGY is different.  To quote an in-depth study, ENERGY has four wellsprings, namely, our body, our emotions, mind and spirit.  And with ENERGY being indeed a finite resource, I was surprised sometime back WHEN I realized that intermittent breaks restores ENERGY.  NOT to tear down that 'workaholic' mindset BUT sitting for long hours on your desk OR even performing other rigorous work non-stop, it's a NO-NO!!!

I've witnessed first hand in the past, accountants beating their monthly processing cycles, staring at the looming deadline to close the books YET they CAN'T just do it yet because of disparities in the numbers that need to be reconciled.  NOT to downplay the importance of accountants BUT I did witness [many times in fact] they were literally burning the midnight oil and pitifully, I'd witnessed them rushing for a bladder break WHEN it CAN'T wait any farther.  Pitiful indeed😌😌😌

Rejecting that role of a victim [of TIME] and instead viewing events through hopeful lenses can lead us to reap benefits with NOT so top-heavy efforts.  And if there's an unnecessary wild card, inject technology [a.k.a. social media] into the equation and you've got a new ballgame that can go berserk anytime soon.  Many of us will have that sense of there just NOT being enough hours in the day to do everything we need to do.  Tasks that should take only few minutes can stretch into hours, seriously😡😡😡

For many of us [YES dude, do include me as one of the guilty parties in the past], WHEN we run out of time, the default [and ONLY solution] is to work later into the evening OR even over the weekend, WHICH in the end, leaves many of us feeling exhausted, stressed and worst, burned out at times.  BUT WHAT IF working less was the key to getting more done???

Our takeaway:  Let us totally destroy and debunk that age-old time management myth!  YES, for folks at the workplace, it is an easy trap to fall into, it's drilled into us that working solidly for donkey hours will increase our output and BETTER STILL, impress our bosses, ouch😡  My practical 2-cents?  I always believed that very key to maintaining FOCUS and ENERGY in shorter bursts was to apply flexibility to those segments.  At the end of the day, in time, it's all about finite resources and more often, being smarter will do more wonders than just having the sheer luxury of time over and over again.  YES dude, let's MANAGE OUR ENERGY [instead of TIME]💚💛💜

Still In Autopilot?

 

STILL IN AUTOPILOT?  Hey dude, do you still feel like you're running through the motions?  The days are passing by, and you feel stuck in the same place.  You're doing the same things, driving through the same lanes, wading through traffic gridlocks that have changed BUT only from bad to worse, eating the same food, going to the same cafeteria in a 'rush' mode, and oh YES, bumping across the same people, same faces.  YES, life seems to be happening to us instead of through us.  So, IF you indeed ask yourself these questions often, then you too, are living your life on AUTOPILOT mode.  Alas, you may lose your motivation to do something new.  WHAT else can you change if you're kind of stuck and stalled in that AUTOPILOT mode💚💛💜

Is it worth talking at all IF you find yourself making the same decisions and still you're NOT sure anymore IF you make them out of genuine choice OR simply because of your ease and familiarity?  Experts have covered this in extensive research studies and have coined this as PERCEPTUAL DECOUPLING, that time WHEN our brain disconnects from the present moment to conserve energy, leading you to make and reach decisions automatically, almost effortlessly, WHICH is something ironic, right???

Been there, done that.  There were many times, after a whole day's work, I remember I'll drive home from work, even though I was constantly changing lanes to weave through traffic gridlock, I felt I hardly exerted any significant efforts because it seemed my brain knew it already, so that's WHAT the experts coined PERCEPTUAL DECOUPLING, that intentional part of our mind to switch off WHILE the unconscious takes charge😡😡😡

To look at things with a balanced perspective, AUTOPILOT can be both a tool of efficiency and preservation depending on the circumstances that prevail on a given time.  And that applies well to our brain.  WHEN we move through life on AUTOPILOT mode, we end up operating within the confines of our own programming.  And without that conscious awareness, we end up going through the motions based on WHAT is available OR given to us❌❌❌

Our takeaway:  NOT to downplay the benefits of running in AUTOPILOT, let's heed to the advice from experts that we need conscious thought if we want to do anything outside of our 'existing programming'.  IF we want to change our lives, IF we need to break loose from stagnation, IF we want to extricate ourselves from a state of stupor, IF we want to create a breakthrough we deserve in life, by all means, unshackle yourself from that AUTOPILOT loop because that's only beneficial up to a point before it becomes more as a sword of Damocles hanging and hovering over you.  STILL IN AUTOPILOT dude???