Going back to the child you were
What are the specific memories you retain about childhood? These are my recollections.
The steps to the school playground were impossibly big.
As I grew, they shrank in size, till I could skip two of them at a time
The smell of new class books.
A nosebleed in the assembly on a hot summer day.
Having a half-eaten sandwich snatched from my hands by a swooping eagle. Just a flutter of feathers and then, it was gone.
Climbing the hill behind the school and suddenly seeing a whole new landscape I never knew existed.
Looking down at the swimming pool from a 10 foot diving board and being terrified.
Smothering laughs in class about a joke that became stupid the moment we walked out.
Having a pigtail attached to my hair for an elocution competition and even though I won the prize, the sniggers are burned into memory.
Walking to school with a big group of friends. I can't recall the conversations but the schoolbag straps cutting into the shoulder are still raw.
Getting the first 'Star' drawn on the exam paper by the teacher for getting all the answers right.
Failing in Math and being terrified of showing the report card at home.
Learning to ride the bicycle with the legs under the bar because I was too small to reach the pedals.
The moment I managed to balance, got overconfident and crashed into a pole.
The smell of Iodex and the warm massages from mother.
Playing for 6-7 hours during the summer holidays and going home only for short bursts in between.
Saying bye to old friends and seeing them disappear in the rear windshield when my dad was transferred to another city.
Seeing the milk tooth in my hand flecked with a little blood and looking into a mirror where a horrid gap in the front teeth was revealed.
This oven's a bit too smart
It demands that you connect to Wifi for it to work in certain modes!
The first problem manufacturers of smart appliances face is how to keep the data flowing.
If buyers turn off 'smart' mode, the company has no idea whether the appliance is being used at all.
So, they've forced a little workaround.
For convection mode to work, the oven has to be connected to Wifi.
That means downloading an app and working out the connections.
Since it is the first generation, there are more bugs that need to be sorted out.
We're seeing what happens when more of the smart controls around the house are built around the smartphone.
That's putting too much power into a single device.
And the nightmare that is likely when a new phone is bought.
Imagine being asked to upgrade every smart appliance in the house, apart from the address book and contacts.
And for what?
How does a smart oven benefit the user more than the conventional one does?
Diagnose problems and tell you if something needs replacement?
On the flip side, the company can track what you make, how often you make it and the money you spend on it every month.
It seems like a deal tilted more towards manufacturers than users.
The oven does work better than the older models according to the reviewer. But the price to be paid in terms in constant vigil from the company hardly seems worth it.
The 'dumb' home is looking like a warm, comfortable and far less stressful place.
The Musk jet tracking has snowballed
A few weeks ago, a young teenager made the news for tracking Elon Musk's jet.
That has now snowballed.
He has turned his attention to tracking the Russian President and the Oligarchs.
Tracking many more jets. It is going to be a lot harder to get to the Presidential jet but the oligarchs may find that their movements are now out in the public
And from planes to yachts is just one short step.
Over the past few days, the yachts have been moved around to friendly harbors or out of reach of authorities planning to seize them.
At the moment, public opinion is on Jack Sweeney's side, egging him to do more.
But it could quickly change if the technology becomes commonplace to be able to track any yacht or jet.
Then, it could truly become a menace.
That is the real problem with surveillance - it starts with noble purposes and quickly becomes something anyone can use.
It is a cat and mouse game and the stakes get higher all the time.
A few decades ago, we barely had a few hundred cameras in public places.
Then the justification was that it would provide evidence of crimes while they were being committed.
That has grown exponentially and the uses of public cameras to prevent crime has grown progressively smaller while other uses have ballooned.
We have to be careful of what we wish for - and what the ripple effects are going to be.
Just see how the Air Tag from Apple launched a few months ago to track the phone has evolved.
The genie is out of the bottle.