Privacy

How do you feel about your privacy?! For me and for most of people privacy is to be preserved. What happens in your life is not be known to anyone else out of the people (friends, family, co-workers, whatever) you want.

Have read lately about it and I know that whatever you post in internet is being watched! It looks like that conspiracy movies made in USA... Ok, maybe am over reacting, but that's how I feel now.

I have profiles in facebook and twitter, only to mention a few... Facebook is closed, so only who I accept/invite as friends can see my posts, photos, contact details, etc. Twitter was also closed before, but once after sometime I couldn't post directly from twitter to facebook (due to the fact that twitter was closed) I changed the settings just to avoid double typing... Which means that my twitter profile became open to everyone to see!

Naturally while my profile was closed in twitter I had to approve whatever follower coming around and in this case I avoided lots of spams, but nowadays once I've opened it, I have spams following me every time. So, what I do is to go there, block and report as spam, but still once my profile is open everyone can see what is there, what in a country like Brazil could be dangerous. 

Only one example. I have foursquare a location based social network where you can check-in all the time you arrive somewhere and automatically it goes to your facebook and twitter profiles. Meaning: once twitter is open, everyone can know where I am and at what time... what if some bandits who plan to rob my house see it?!!!

Another more annoying fact is that for several times, as soon as I posted something like: "thinking to buy a car", in a matter of seconds came an answer/advertising/spam showing lots of options for buying a car. It really made me uncomfortable cause it gave me a clear picture that I've been watched. It's not a good feeling!

For sure there are mechanisms on internet which allows companies, institutions or whatever else to track any "key words" you post, so again if you mention you are hungry and want a pizza delivery you will get straight away lots of pizza delivery ads...

Now I ask you: do you really want this? I don't!

I am back to Brazil after some years living abroad. As soon as I arrived here went to my bank to check how things were, get to know my manager, etc. Haven't liked what I saw and when back home just innocently posted in twitter: "dun like idiots, but just met one of a kind in my bank (mentioned the name of the bank)". In a few seconds got a replay from the bank asking what was wrong and whether they could help in anything.

Even though I know about these things, I was shocked. How dare these institutions dig into my life like this?

In the other day had to come back to the bank to release my investments and was mad again cause rules have changed and I had to go to a series of new procedures. I was really upset cause I wanted to release these investments when I was out of Brazil, but by that time it was not possible by phone or internet, only in person with forms. Knowing this I went there in search for the form, but it was not required anymore. Nowadays if I wanted to release my investments it should be via phone, but I would have to register a specific password, bank card etc, beforehand.

I did it, but it took me an hour. That without mention that on the telemarketing I talked to people who had no idea about anything and had to follow certain procedures, like to explain me that it was an investment I made and it could give me a nice life bla bla bla... Fuck: I dun care. It is my money and I want to release without listening to this sort of bullshit.

Back home, was so upset that I wrote a text about it in my blog which I made sure to mention the name of the bank several times. Am like this: I knew they would track me again so I used it in my favor... Wrote a very nice text with all the complaints and one day later got a replay from someone in the bank explaining the situation. That they use this to improve their services, that they care about privacy, etc, but again.. that institution invaded my privacy for a second time. Now reading my blog... I didn't asked for it!

It brought me to a reflexion: what kind of internet we want? Is it to be used in our favor or to benefit someone else? I don't mind if it can bring benefits to third parties, but how about my privacy? I don't know about you guys, but I don't fell comfortable with that. Now I am even more afraid to take a shower naked in my backyard and being snapt in Google street! It could happen!

I know that internet is a open service, but for me it doesn't mean everything is open. How about that hot conversation on MSN or Skype? Are we going soon to mention the word sex and receive a lot of ads about condoms?

Some months ago when all that controversy about Facebook Privacy settings came out I was one of those  who criticized them the most. It is my profile and I dun want anyone else other than my friends (by friends I mean people whose I accepted) to have access to them. Fuck, everyone here has an ex-wife-husband-boy/girlffriend, co-work, boss etc whose we don't want them to have access to our life.

Again, I'm able to understand that the corporative world will try to find all means available to monitor and follow up their business as a tool to correct directions, but in which base this should be done?

I guess all of it happened cause I opened up my twitter to public view only to be able to post directly to facebook, so I will close my profile again and control everything but my question is: will this be enough? As soon as I do it only people or whoever I approve will see my things? I'm not sure, but I would like to bring this issue to discussion.

I believe that internet is an open source thing, but countries should regulate what goes on there. Well, we can see the example for instance of China where if you google something that the Government doesn't want anyone to see like the massacre of Tiananmen Square you will get blocked...
Please, am not saying I agree to that, this is oppressive and goes against any civil rights and anything I believe of, but as a principle it shows there are ways to prevent or at least to show me that that institution which I don't follow or not even follows me is digging into my things and it could give me the option to say yes or no.

Você é daqueles que deixa a vida te levar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3P2sLmbeIg
Video: Deixa a vida me levar - Zeca Pagodinho

Com personalidade forte e objetivos bem definidos nunca fui muito do tipo "deixar a vida me levar", mas em alguns momentos senti que a coisa estava indo para outra direção e aí, como diria o Zeca, "...o negócio é deixar rolar..."

No momento, depois de 5 anos morando na Ásia chegou a hora de finalmente fazer as malas e voltar... lutei o quanto pude contra, pois, ainda que longe da família e amigos, realmente adoro viver aqui... Não é tão difícil quanto se possa imaginar, pois internet, e-mails, photo-sharing como Picasa/Flickr, Skype e afins tornaram as coisas muito mais fáceis e as distâncias diminuíram. Você pode aproveitar o lado bom das duas situações e o que é melhor: sem perder o contato com os entes queridos do outro lado do mundo...

Em se tratando de família acho que a "não-convivência" diária acaba por fortalecer ainda mais os laços familiares. Logicamente o fato de que em caso de alguma emergência a volta ao Brasil precisaria de pelo menos 48hrs é uma constante ameaça, mas "...deixa a vida me levar, vida leva eu..."

Em Janeiro deste ano deixei meu emprego... Razões? 

• Depois de 11 anos trabalhando na mesma empresa simplesmente perdi o tesão, não havia mais desafio. 
• Deveria voltar para o Brasil e assumir a implantação do SAP local, projeto até que interessante, mas a perspectiva de voltar para o mesmo ambiente deixado anos atrás e trabalhar com as mesmas pessoas me dava calafrios...
• Também a esta altura do campeonato não estava mais sozinho e tinha que pensar numa segunda pessoa

Moral da estória: negociei a minha saída de maneira a me dar tranquilidade para procurar um novo caminho. 

Sempre tive um sexto sentido/intuição muito fortes e eles me diziam que embora talvez esta tenha sido a melhor época da minha vida, era hora de voltar...

A verdade é que mesmo "sabendo" que deveria voltar resolvi tentar mais um pouco. Well, vamos dizer que os primeiros 3 meses foram mais de relax e descanso do que outra coisa, pois, estive no Brasil e viajei pela Ásia e somente por 2 meses procurei um novo emprego em Singapura. O que posso dizer é que nada do que apareceu, me agradou. Houve ofertas de trabalho nas Filipinas, Indonésia, Vietnam, Camboja e até Singapura, mas nada que valesse a pena. Os três primeiros principalmente são notórios por terremotos, tsunamis e furacões e não pretendo acabar meus dias desta maneira.

Singapura é um lugar muito caro para se viver, por isso decidi mudar para Kuala Lumpur na vizinha Malásia... lugar que adoro e onde o custo de vida é pelo menos 1/3 do de Singapura. Havia outro fator também, meu parceiro é de Kuala Lumpur e muito ligado à família, achei que seria interessante para ele passar alguns meses próximo da família antes de seguirmos para o Brasil...

Quanto a empregos na Malásia, os poucos que apareceram não me atraíram... Houve um  que foi até  interessante: uma empresa de Singapura, com filial na Bahia que queria que eu me mudasse para lá, mas no final das contas, não senti muita firmeza uma vez que o próprio conceito não me pareceu muito claro...

Resumindo, apesar de todas as tentativas posso sentir claramente uma força maior dizendo... Chega! E é aí que me dou conta de que apesar de ser determinado no que quero há momentos em que você deve deixar a vida te levar... este é o meu momento: não é o primeiro e não será o último com certeza.

No começo de Dezembro o contrato de aluguel do atual apartamento acaba... será a hora de empacotar tudo e despachar para o Brasil e para ser sincero esta perspectiva me intimida muito. Primeiro porque significa um imediato retorno a mesmísse, sem as aventuras diárias de viver em outro continente, falar outras línguas e saborear culturas diversas e segundo porque o Márcio que está voltando é outra pessoa, talvez não mais bem vindo à convivência com antigos amigos e mesmo alguns familiares!

"...Deixa a vida me levar, vida leva eu..."

The impact of Technology in our lives

Few days back I was watching on TV a documentary about Bhutan on how technology has been charging the lives and even cultural values in a country where internet and TV came to the country very recently...

If you are not familiar with Bhutan, just take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan

Coming back to the issue: imagine life in a place where there is neither TV nor internet. First thing which comes to my mind is that people have more time available to socialize, to expend with their families and communities, their consumption needs are very limited and at the end their cultural values are kept.

Now put TV and internet in the picture: the flow of information exchanged have a huge impact on people's lives which naturally happens anywhere else but the effects are diluted over the time if it comes in small doses. What happens today in Bhutan is that cultural values have been swept out in a speed that makes people feel like felt from a train in a high speed.

Only a few examples:
* Consumption: till recently if one needed a shampoo one only went to the supermarket and took whatever available. Now one wants brands: L'Oreal, Pantene, etc cause one saw it on the TV. Same happens with any other product.
* Cloths: traditional clothes are being left behind. More and more its youth are looking like westerners.
 
* Quality time: people used to expend more time with their families. Nowadays they prefer to watch TV or surf in internet
* Values: the "I don't need this, so I share" is becoming "I want more". Simple life is dying!
and the list goes...

It made me think how my life looked like before the web.
Maybe 5 years back in time (when I was still living in Brazil) I had only MSN with not more than 10 friends... Remember that my first interaction in the web was in some chat rooms organized by the internet service provider which were divided in categories like: culture, movies, music, cities, sex, etc...
On top of that read some news site and watched a lot of porn movies. Nobody is perfect, right?!
Summary: chat, news, porn movies... I didn't expend more than 30 min daily on it.

Then I moved alone to Asia, to a place where naturally I didn't know anyone. In the first two years, from one side I had to travel a lot once I'd got to know the 10 companies I was in charge spread over 10 countries, but from other side apart from the times I was travelling I had nothing to do, no one to talk. If I went out it was by myself. It was really the loneliest moment of my life. A stranger to the country, to its people, to its culture, to its culinary and even to myself.

As time passed the travels reduced their volume and I had to find something to do. Found a group of friends and started to socialize... All of them, without exception had facebook and were connected to one another and to all other sort of  sites: culture, dating, news etc.
I had never listened about facebook before and once I was in there was no way to stay at home once every day some friend posted some invitation on facebook and there was party again... and more people, more postings, more happenings... It was a revolution.

The interactivity provided by this kind of social networking website is amazing with all its links to news, games, events, the possibility to add friends of all around the world really changed my life and my habits. 


Nowadays I have it all: 



It can easily keep me busy for hours in a row and to find a balance between it and the other stuff like work, gym, sports and quality time with friends, partner and family is really a challenge which I am still figuring out the better way to do it.




Daily web routine


It starts with the reading of e-mails and facebook postings, then the games: you can easily keep busy with the wild range of games online. In my case only two: (trust me: it is enough to keep u busy for at least 1h30m)
   and 

Then I go to the news:


If I don't control my time when I realize is already gone 4 hours...

The amazing volume and speed of information exchange is something never seeing before... simple pleasures like just seat in a bar with some friends and expend hours discussing who won the championship in the year 1978 don't exist anymore. Someone will fatally "google" it and in  a few seconds discussion is over...

I cannot imagine my life without web. Is this a revolution or not?