The world is a wonderful place. What goes around comes around!

This is a true story that had happened in 1892 at Stanford University.

An 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. A friend and he decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education.

They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck and the boys began to work to make the concert a success.

The big day arrived. Paderewski performed at Stanford. But unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1600, plus a cheque for the balance $400. They promised to honor the cheque at the soonest possible.

“No,” said Paderewski. “This is not acceptable.” He tore up the cheque, returned the $1600 and told the two boys: “Here’s the $1600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left”. The boys were surprised, and thanked him profusely.

It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being. 

Why should he help two people he did not even know? We all come across situations like these in our lives. And most of us only think “If I help them, what would happen to me?” The truly great people think, “If I don’t help them, what will happen to them?” They don’t do it expecting something in return. They do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do.

Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were more than 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them. Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help.

The head there was a man called Herbert Hoover — who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to feed the starving Polish people.

A calamity was averted. Paderewski was relieved. He decided to go across to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, “You shouldn’t be thanking me Mr Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college in the US. I was one of them.”

The world is a wonderful place. What goes around comes around!

SELF REPAIRING SOFTWARE TACKLES MALWARE ATTACK

The new software called A3, or Advanced Adaptive Applications, was co-developed by Massachusetts-based defense contractor, Raytheon BBN, and was funded by Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts, a program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The four-year project was completed in late September.

There are no plans to adapt A3 for home computers or laptops, but Eide says this could be possible in the future.

"A3 technologies could find their way into consumer products someday, which would help consumer devices protect themselves against fast-spreading malware or internal corruption of software components. But we haven't tried those experiments yet," he says.

U computer scientists have created "stackable debuggers," multiple de-bugging applications that run on top of each other and look inside the virtual machine while it is running, constantly monitoring for any out-of-the-ordinary behavior in the computer.

Unlike a normal virus scanner on consumer PCs that compares a catalog of known viruses to something that has infected the computer, A3 can detect new, unknown viruses or malware automatically by sensing that something is occurring in the computer's operation that is not correct. It then can stop the virus, approximate a repair for the damaged software code, and then learn to never let that bug enter the machine again.

 While the military has an interest in A3 to enhance cybersecurity for its mission-critical systems, A3 also potentially could be used in the consumer space, such as in web services like Amazon. If a virus or attack stops the service, A3 could repair it in minutes without having to take the servers down.

To test A3's effectiveness, the team from the U and Raytheon BBN used the infamous software bug called Shellshock for a demonstration to DARPA officials in Jacksonville, Florida, in September. A3 discovered the Shellshock attack on a Web server and repaired the damage in four minutes, Eide says. The team also tested A3 successfully on another half-dozen pieces of malware.

Shellshock was a software vulnerability in UNIX-based computers (which include many web servers and most Apple laptops and desktop computers) that would allow a hacker to take control of the computer. It was first discovered in late September. Within the first 24 hours of the disclosure of Shellshock, security researchers reported that more than 17,000 attacks by hackers had been made with the bug.

"It is a pretty big deal that a computer system could automatically, and in a short amount of time, find an acceptable fix to a widespread and important security vulnerability," Eide says. "It's pretty cool when you can pick the Bug of the Week and it works."

Now that the team's project into A3 is completed and proves their concept, Eide says the U team would like to build on the research and figure out a way to use A3 in cloud computing, a way of harnessing far-flung computer networks to deliver storage, software applications and servers to a local user via the Internet.

The A3 software is open source, meaning it is free for anyone to use, but Eide believes many of the A3 technologies could be incorporated into commercial products.

Other U members of the A3 team include research associate David M. Johnson, systems programmer Mike Hibler and former graduate student Prashanth Nayak.

How to transcend Stage Fear? Read this blog to know more..

       Why would anyone want to overcome stage fear?It is something so natural,even the best speakers feel it just before delivering a speech. For thousands of years,people have been trying to overcome fear.They have failed,and rightly so.Our fear of public speaking keeps us on our toes,and helps us to channel our energies to deliver the best speech we possibly can,on a given day.

Statistics prove that the fear of public speaking is one of the greatest fears faced by people around the world,second only to the fear of death. In a way,public speaking feels a little like death.It puts you in a place of absolute un-predictability.You thought you could always live your boring,average life-fit in the crowd unnoticed,and now-suddenly,you have to take the stage,step up,and be awesome.No excuses. Acknowledging the fear building up in oneself,and tapping it to ones advantage is what separates the best speakers from the average ones.

Here are two amazing ways to acknowledge,accept and transcend your fear of public speaking for the best.

1.Breathing

           The mind is an extension of the body.The body is a continuation of the mind.One cannot exist without the other. When you are happy,in love,or full of joy-your body is in it's peak state.Your breathing is more full,your body is straight,your shoulders relaxed. When you are sad,depressed or afraid,your breathing becomes shallow,faster,dis-continuous,more uneven.Your body becomes stiff,your jaws get tight. Have you felt this before? It happens all the time. All the evidence goes a long way to show that the mind and body are deeply inter-connected. Think of a sad incident,and the tear glands are activated.Think of fear-and the body contracts,adrenaline rises,lips get dry,bowel movement increases,breathing becomes rapid. What we are going to do is shift the body to shift the mind. Observe your breathing right now. Is it shallow or full?Slow or fast?Relaxed or forceful?

Stop reading and observe your breathing. No really! I 'll wait. Feel each in-breath and out-breath on the tip of your nose or against your belly.There is a tiny gap between each in-breath and out-breath.

Do you notice it? Now let's start. Breathe in slowly.... One...two...three...four

Hold....

One...two.... Breathe out real slow.... One...two...three...four...five...six

Repeat this 4-2-6 sequence for 4-5 minutes. The idea is to breathe out as slowly and gently as you can.The sound of your out-breath should not be audible to anyone,not even to yourself. Once you have mastered the extremely simple art of breathing out gently and slowly,the breathing in and holding of the breath will take place spontaneously. Once you try the 4-2-6 technique for a few times,it will be so natural to you.Then you can drop the technique completely and simply breathe gently. It is a very simple and scientific technique.Try it at-least once.

2.What can you give?

        Our fears arise within us because of inferior thought patterns. We are so selfish,always thinking of ourselves. 'If I speak,what will they think about Me?' 'Do I have anything to say at all?' 'How will they judge me?' Notice how all our misery is created when we think about ourselves, 'Me and my problems','me and my little world'. We have become like beggars,walking around with cupped hands, asking passer-bys to give us appreciation,respect and approval. What if we deleted all the trash? The trash in our heads that says-I'm not good enough. What if we consciously select the spam mails in the inbox of our minds and replace them instead with superior thoughts?

What if we became selfless and said-

I am not here in this world to take or get.I want nothing. I am here to give,to serve,to love. The underlying rule here is: Don't wait for permission. I don't want your permission to live my life,and you don't need mine to live yours.

Say to yourself:

I don't need external respect,love and acknowledgement. I am grateful for all that I have,and I have so much to offer to every person I meet. I am so sure of myself-I don't seek for validation from anyone. The beauty or irony of it is- the less you seek for external validation,the more it comes to you. In the end,what you get is just a reflection of your state of mind.

So the next time you get up from your chair to give a speech,tell to yourself and the world-

I am here to give and to serve. How can I help them? How can I make their lives better? I am grateful to all these wonderful people who are spending their time listening to me.I want to help them,be one with them,give them my best. Shift from Get to Give,from Selfish to Selfless,from 'me' to 'them'. Your speech will never be the same again,nor will your life.