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Problem => Form of Challenge => Opportunity to Grow

“My life is full of problems. When I resolve one thing, I found myself in another difficulty. Ohh God!! Why it’s always me?” This is how we keep saying about obstacles in life.

We grow up playing around favourable and unfavourable conditions in life. Unless everything is going as per our expectations, we are happy. However, when the people and event does not go as desired or when we struggle with circumstances, we tend to see them as a problem.

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.” ~ Paulo Coelho

Everything happens for a reason here. We cannot control everything around us but we can decide how those things affect us.

Let us see how we can better understand the situations called problems in life:

First of all: Having Problem is not a Problem:
Problems and Obstacles are sign of life. You cannot avoid them while alive. What we can do is that we can change our perspective to deal with them. As Theodore Rubin said, “The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.”

Whenever life offers you any difficulties or problems, remind yourself a formula:

“Problem => Form of Challenge => Opportunity to Grow”

Problems are a Form of Challenge:
Anyone can stay calm and happy when situations favours around us. It takes courage to keep going in the dark.

Take an example of any problem in your life. Are you struggling to get a job? Does any of your relationship is not working as expected? Are you facing financial crises? Are you having difficulties in your business or work or family life?

Each of these problem tests your courage. See them, as they are form of challenge. How you face these challenges is what determines our inner strength.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you know that our selection of words and terms make huge difference in our mindset. Once we replace the word “problem” with “challenge”, we can face the situation with more courage.

See Challenge as an Opportunity to grow:
Each challenge is an Opportunity to grow. Stop avoiding them. They will serve as a ladder toward a better future. Kobe Bryant once said that, “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.” This is true for everyone.

You have the power. Accept the life challenges. Review them and see what the root causes are. Once you identify the week point, you can work on that. You can get the best out of you.

“I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.” ~ Joel Osteen

If you are not doing well in job, see what skills you are lacking. If you stuck with a relationship, catch the missing factor. There is nothing a man cannot do if he willing to do.

Stand out of Crowd:
There may be millions of people going through the similar conditions as you. What most of them try to do? They simply react to situations and try to avoid the challenges.

However, that is not what wise people do. They do things differently. Instead of React, they rethink and act. They meet every challenge by opening their arms. Take the path less travelled; you will find yourself standing out of crowd.

“There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet.” ~ William Frederick Halsey, Jr.

Before Life Challenges you, why do not you Challenge Life?
Often we want to stay safe in the existing jobs, relationships or business. However, this safe or comfort zone makes us week with the time. Life will push you out of your safe zone. This is the nature of life and we have to get going with this.

“I’ve learned in my life that it’s important to be able to step outside your comfort zone and be challenged with something you’re not familiar or accustomed to. That challenge will allow you to see what you can do.” ~ J. R. Martinez

I will rather say you to take a step ahead. Before life challenges you, why do not you challenge life by frequently taking next step? See what you can do extra for your business/job/family. That way you will be able to enjoy the changes in life and no situation/challenge can hurt you.

“Challenges will never come to end. Why do not start enjoying them.” ~ Deepak Rajpal

10 Fundamental Truths That Will Change Your Life:--

You can achieve amazing things if you stay focused on the right things.

It’s surprising how easy it is to lose sight of the important things in life. Busy schedules and regular routines have a tendency to put the brain on autopilot.

When things aren’t going quite the way you’d like them to, it’s often because you’ve lost focus on what really matters. But focusing on life’s fundamental truths can be difficult, especially when they remind you that you’re heading in the wrong direction.

The best things in life don’t come easily, and failing to observe yourself carefully is a sure path to mediocrity. I believe that Socrates said it best:

“The unexamined life isn’t worth living.”

Socrates’ observation also applies to business. When Eric Schmidt was CEO of Google, he famously said, “We run this company on questions, not answers.”

Life and business run on questions, not answers. You should be asking yourself regularly if you’re headed in the right direction.

Many of life’s essential truths need repeating. We need reminders that help us to stay focused on them. Keep these truths handy and they’re sure to give you a much-needed boost.

Great success is often preceded by failure:-

You will never experience true success until you learn to embrace failure. Your mistakes pave the way for you to succeed by revealing when you’re on the wrong path.

The biggest breakthroughs typically come when you’re feeling the most frustrated and the most stuck. It’s this frustration that forces you to think differently, to look outside the box and see the solution that you’ve been missing.

Success takes patience and the ability to maintain a good attitude even while suffering for what you believe in.

Being busy does not equal being productive:-

Look at everyone around you. They all seem so busy -- running from meeting to meeting and firing off emails. Yet how many of them are really producing, really succeeding at a high level?

Success doesn’t come from movement and activity. It comes from focus -- from ensuring that your time is used efficiently and productively.

You get the same number of hours in the day as everyone else. Use yours wisely. After all, you’re the product of your output, not your effort. Make certain your efforts are dedicated to tasks that get results.

You’re only as good as those you associate with:-

You should strive to surround yourself with people who inspire you, people who make you want to be better. And you probably do. But what about the people who drag you down? Why do you allow them to be a part of your life?

Anyone who makes you feel worthless, anxious or uninspired is wasting your time and, quite possibly, making you more like them. Life is too short to associate with people like this. Cut them loose.

You’re living the life you’ve created:-

You are not a victim of circumstance. No one can force you to make decisions and take actions that run contrary to your values and aspirations.

The circumstances you’re living in today are your own -- you created them. Likewise, your future is entirely up to you. If you’re feeling stuck, it’s probably because you’re afraid to take the risks necessary to achieve your goals and live your dreams.

When it’s time to take action, remember that it’s always better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than at the top of one you don’t.

Fear is the #1 source of regret:-

When it’s all said and done, you will lament the chances you didn’t take far more than you will your failures. Don’t be afraid to take risks.

I often hear people say, “What’s the worst thing that can happen to you? Will it kill you?” Yet, death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you.

The worst thing that can happen to you is allowing yourself to die inside while you’re still alive.

You don’t have to wait for an apology to forgive:-

Life goes a lot smoother once you let go of grudges and forgive even those who never said they were sorry. Grudges let negative events from your past ruin today’s happiness. Hate and anger are emotional parasites that destroy your joy in life.

The negative emotions that come with holding on to a grudge create a stress response in your body, and holding on to stress can have devastating health consequences. Researchers at Emory University have shown that holding on to stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease.

When you forgive someone, it doesn’t condone their actions; it simply frees you from being their eternal victim.

Live in the moment:-

You can’t reach your full potential until you learn to live your life in the present.

No amount of guilt can change the past, and no amount of anxiety can change the future. It’s impossible to be happy if you’re constantly somewhere else, unable to fully embrace the reality (good or bad) of this very moment.

To help yourself live in the moment, you must do two things:

Accept your past. If you don’t make peace with your past, it will never leave you and, in doing so, it will create your future.
Accept the uncertainty of the future. Worry has no place in the here and now. As Mark Twain once said, “Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.”

Your self-worth must come from within:-

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own destiny. When you feel good about something that you’ve done, don’t allow anyone’s opinions or accomplishments to take that away from you.

While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain -- you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.

Life is short:-

None of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. Yet, when someone dies unexpectedly it causes us to take stock of our own life: what’s really important, how we spend our time and how we treat other people.

Loss is a raw, visceral reminder of the frailty of life. It shouldn’t be.

Remind yourself every morning when you wake up that each day is a gift and you’re bound to make the most of the blessing you’ve been given. The moment you start acting like life is a blessing is the moment it will start acting like one.

After all, a great day begins with a great mindset.

Change is inevitable -- embrace it:-

Only when you embrace change can you find the good in it. You need to have an open mind and open arms if you’re going to recognize and capitalize on, the opportunities that change creates.

You’re bound to fail when you keep doing the same things you always have in the hope that ignoring change will make it go away.

After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Life doesn’t stop for anyone. When things are going well, appreciate them and enjoy them, as they are bound to change. If you are always searching for something more, something better, that you think is going to make you happy, you’ll never be present enough to enjoy the great moments before they’re gone.

Bringing It All Together
Staying focused and asking the hard questions can be extremely uncomfortable. But we don’t learn and grow by sticking with what’s comfortable.

Intel wants your face to replace your ID

Intel launched RealSense ID yesterday, a facial recognition solution that relies on its RealSense depth-sensing technology (via Gizmodo). RealSense started as a Kinect-style camera for touch-free interaction, but RealSense ID seems like Intel’s attempt to reposition its camera business towards secure, on-device facial recognition first, while also potentially putting the company in the crossfire of controversy.

RealSense ID builds on Intel’s depth-sensing technology with a neural network for identifying faces, a dedicated system-on-a-chip, and a secure element that encrypts and processes user data. The device should learn and adapt to a face over time, working around facial hair, a variety of different skin tones, and face masks, Gizmodo writes. The tech is available on a module that can be integrated into other products or as a standalone peripheral that can be plugged into a computer.

Intel’s RealSense tech has been knocking around for several years, popping up in odd, tech demo use cases like inserting your face into Fallout 4, and more useful ones like unlocking a laptop with Windows Hello. Intel suggests this new application of RealSense could be used in a variety of settings, like ATMs, registers, and smart locks. What the company doesn’t mention is the other popular use of facial recognition: governments and law enforcement agencies tracking and profiling people.

Just in the last year, facial recognition software created by Huawei was used to track the persecuted Uighur minority in China. And in the US this past summer, facial recognition tech was used by the New York City Police Department to track a Black Lives Matter activist accused of assault. Intel says it processes facial recognition on-device, but it’s not clear how that would work to give you access to a bank’s ATMs or at cash registers. Beyond the potential for abuse, facial recognition software has been found to be biased for both race and gender, opening up the possibility for false positives. For example, a version of Amazon’s facial recognition software Rekognition, had a harder time identifying people if they were female or dark-skinned than if they were white men.

Intel has taken steps to address the potential for bias in RealSense ID by building out a more diverse sample of faces to train RealSense on. “We’ve done extensive data collection of all ethnicities from Asia, Europe, Middle East Africa,” Intel told VentureBeat at a press briefing for the new device. Intel says RealSense ID has one-in-a-million chance of falsely identifying someone, but we’ll have to wait and see if outside researchers find flaws.

Facial recognition isn’t the only future Intel imagines for RealSense. For this year’s digital CES, the company announced RealSense Touchless Control Software (TCS), which uses Intel’s RealSense Depth Camera to allow you to interact with a touchscreen by hovering your finger over it, rather than touching it. Like facial recognition, the new application makes a lot of sense for a world still dealing with a pandemic, and shows there’s still some room for RealSense’s motion controller past.

Intel’s RealSense ID peripheral is available for pre-order now for $99, and the RealSense ID Module is available in a pack of 10 for $750. Intel plans to start shipping both in March.

2020: Java celebrates 25 years

There were two new major Java releases this year, Java 14 and 15. Java 14 introduced features such as pattern matching for instanceof, a packaging tool, NUMA-aware memory allocation for G1, and more. Java 15 introduced developer productivity enhancements like the Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA), hidden classes, and text blocks.

In May, Java celebrated its 25th anniversary. To celebrate the anniversary, JetBrains compiled data from multiple sources to look at the current state of the language. The survey revealed that over a third of developers use Java as a primary language, and that it is the second primary language of developers following JavaScript.

A major recent change in the Java ecosystem was the loss of support from Oracle. In 2019, Oracle changed its Java licensing model so that only companies with a paid commercial Java subscription would receive updates to Java SE. This change caused 80% of the Java community to start considering other support options.

A survey conducted by Azul Systems in February revealed that preferred use of Oracle JDK dropped from 70% to 32%. A majority of users shifted to free or supported OpenJDK-based deployments of Java.

Another change in the Java community this year was the news that OpenJDK contributor BellSoft was teaming up with VMware to improve OpenJDK. At the time this was announced, the main areas for improvement were to enhance support for ARM processors and optimize Java for cloud deployments and microservices architectures.

In addition, Python finally surpassed Java as the most popular programming language on some developer reports. In JetBrains’ 2020 State of the Developer Ecosystem Report, Python surpassed Java as the most-used language. Java still remained the most widespread primary language.

8 Web Design And Development Trends To Watch Out In 2021

The world of the web keeps on evolving from time to time. The ultimate aim of businesses is to provide users with an immersive web experience. With the year 2020 coming to an end, it’s time to start planning to seize some exciting opportunities for the future. In these past few years, we have seen a rise in AI, creative layouts, and conversational interfaces. The coming year is going to see more of these with some add-ons.

Below is a list of web design and development trends that will rule in the year 2021. Let’s dig into the details.

Illustrations Get More Prominence

The year 2021 will see a rise in illustrations. These act as a powerful tool and can give your website a rich look. Illustrations are gaining an edge in both marketings as well as product designs. You can combine the custom illustrations with some animations to give your website a more appealing look. Moreover, it a great way to showcase your products to your audiences. Definitely worth it!

Bold Colors Are Becoming A Big Thing

Oh yes! Bold colors are becoming a big thing in the online world. The designers are now focussing on more diverse audiences. Getting bold and vibrant colors on your website will attract more audiences including the ones with visual disabilities. Isn’t that cool? So, choose the bold color schemes and welcome more audiences to the list.

AI In Full Swing

Artificial Intelligence and chatbots have been stealing the spotlight for several years now. Today, we can see the power of AI in voice assistants like – Alexa and Siri where the users can enjoy smart interactions. Technology is evolving and is giving users a seamless digital experience. Also, AI-powered chatbots are getting smarter and more intelligent. They can know that smartly take customer queries and provide them with a personalized experience. This not only enhances the user experience but also help in reducing the costs of hiring human customer support. So, it’s a win-win for both!

Single Page Websites Are Becoming More Popular

How many times do you look into the whole website pages? It is common that websites with more sub-categories are never seen fully by users. Considering the smart digitalization happening in the web and mobile world now, single web page websites are gaining more popularity now. Well, this not only enhances the user experience but also helps in reducing the designing costs. The year 2021 is looking forward to less complex navigation and seamless functionality all on a single web page.

Progressive Web Apps Are Handy

The Progressive Web Apps or commonly known as PWAs are quite similar to the mobile apps. They offer a more user-friendly web experience and provides information handy. The PWA apps run on the browser and assure more user engagement in comparison to simple websites. So, if you are want to provide better conversion rates and improved functionality to your users then Progressive Web Apps should definitely be on your list.

Visuals Are Always Pleasing

Admit it, photos and videos are more appealing than reading plain text. Visuals always grab the user’s attention and help in getting better responses. With compelling photos and videos, you can do effective storytelling and sell your brand’s message more efficiently. Just make sure the visuals you select must convey something valuable to the users, otherwise, it won’t make any difference.

Material Design Is A Game-Changer

The concept was officially launched by Google to help the teams in building quality digital experiences for iOS, Android, Flutter, and Web. Material Design features more use of shadows, white space, and motions to provide a more appealing look and feel to the website. The material design follows a minimalistic design look and uses more shadows for amplified appearance.

Motion UI Is Eye-Pleasing

An appealing website always receives applaud from the audiences. The motion UI library allows you to play with the animations and helps in creating immersive web experiences. With the help of Motion UI, you can make changes to almost every element on the web page. The developers can also use this technique to give live graphics to the app. Several companies have seen a rapid increase in the conversion rate after embedding Motion UI to the web pages. You should definitely get your hands on this one!

Play Store downloads hit 28.3 billion during lockdown

It seems Android users spent their extra time during lockdown trying some new apps.

According to data from SensorTower, 24.3 billion apps were downloaded from the Play Store in Q1 2020. This jumped to 28 billion downloads in Q2 and peaked at 28.3 billion in Q3. For perspective, that represents a 31 percent year-on-year increase.

These were the most popular categories of downloads on the Play Store in Q2 2020:

Gaming (13.49%)
Education (9.11%)
Business (6.95%)
Tools (5.88%)
Entertainment (5.82%)
Lifestyle (5.62%)
Music and Audio (5.21%)
Books and Reference (4.51%)
Personalisation (4.21%)
Productivity (3.49%)
Food and Drink (3.46%)
Shopping (3.43%)
Health and Fitness (3.43%)
Travel and Local (3.28%)
Finance (3.05%)
While there’s a debate to be had for quality over quantity, the iOS App Store has far fewer apps than Android—and much fewer downloads.

In Q2 2020, Android users had 2.7 million apps to choose from. This represents a 5.85 percent increase over the previous quarter.