Keep Innovating & Improving

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Yes. It’s the countdown for rocket launches.

In recent years, there are a number of Private players who have entered the Space race. ‘SpaceX’, ‘Blue Origin’, ‘Virgin Galactic’ are some of the key players who are competing with each other. Among them ‘SpaceX’ is dominating with low cost Satellite launches, sending crew & cargo to ISS and off late, they are getting into Space Tourism too. Others were trying their hands into Space Tourism along with Satellite launches.

There are few others who are still making a mark silently. One of them is ‘Rocket Lab’ from New Zealand. They build rocket engines fabricated by 3D Printing, which many of the other companies haven’t thought about. Many companies intend to reduce the cost of launches by bringing back the Rockets, Payload Fairing back to earth. ‘SpaceX’ does that well and is considered a master in that.

Companies invest more in Innovation mainly to Reduce (cost) & Reuse (multiple launches), while cutting the time between launches. As most of us know, ‘SpaceX’ does implement innovative solutions to achieve it and tends to show there is no further innovative available. ‘Rocket Lab’, recently announced their next generation Rocket ‘Neutron’. Neutron launches itself into space, leaves the satellite and comes back to the launchpad completely. This eliminates the capturing of the rocket and Payload fairing in the sea, transporting them back to land etc. Animation which was shared about ‘Neutron’ would definitely be bringing headache into the minds of all competitors. ‘Rocket Lab’ is going to rock in the coming years, giving a tough time for all companies including ‘SpaceX’.

There is no end for improvements / innovations, not just for companies, but for individuals too.

‘Rocket Lab’s – ‘Neutron’ Rocket Concept

Passive Influencer

7.40 PM.

While returning home after some purchases, I came through the usual route in my town. Few eatery shops and customers in each shop made me tempted to get into 1 of them(where I always prefer)

I made my mind what I was going to have before getting into the shop, and there was no hesitation in ordering. Within minutes, I received my order, which was served in a banana leaf. It made me feel good, both look wise and taste wise.

Few customers were ordering and while some others were tasting theirs.

I ordered take-away for my home and continued eating mine. In the next table, discussion was going on between the family members on what to order next. One of them mentioned about me to the other family member, saying that, ‘He has ordered a take-away of the same snack that he is eating, so let us order the same’.

By the time I was about to leave, they received the same snack and they seemed to be enjoying it.

If the product is good, there is no need to advertise much. I became a passive influencer for someone’s Product to another Customer.

Credit card – Security Options

Recently, I read a forum post in which 1 of the member’s friend lost his credit card. Before, the person acted to get it blocked, it was used by someone for an Online transaction (outside India) for a purchase of 1.50 lakhs. The catch here is for ‘Outside India – Online transactions’, there is no requirement of an OTP.

This made me think of the options of how to protect myself, if my Credit Card is lost. Though there is 3rd party insurance(s) available for protecting us, I didn’t opt for it for a long time. I tried to search the settings in my Credit Card website and found a few options, which I immediately opted for and set them as per my convenience of regular usage.

Managing the card settings would be under ‘Manage card usage’ (This could be different for different Card providers)

Below are some of the settings which I have already configured long back, before I came across the forum post.

1. Domestic Transactions (Opted few and turned off others)
   1. Online
   2. Point of Sales (POS)
   3. Contactless
   4. ATM
2. International Transactions (Turned Off, all the below options)
   1. Online
   2. Point of Sales (POS)
   3. Contactless
   4. ATM

After going through the forum post, below is what I did immediately.

Apart from the above settings which need to be enabled or disabled, a limit for each of the ‘Transaction Category‘ can be set. Beyond that limit, one cannot make any further transactions. This is the one, which I configured on my account. I tried to validate the settings during this month and it worked.

For instance, if Rs. 5000 (INR) is set as the limit for ‘Domestic Online Transactions / month‘. Beyond that limit, one cannot use the card for ‘Online Transactions’ as the limit is getting crossed. In case, if the card is lost, hackers cannot use that card easily for the reasons below.

1. For Domestic Online transactions, OTP is required
2. For Domestic POS / Contactless / ATM transactions, PIN is required
3. For any International transactions type, card cannot be used as we have ‘Turned Off’ International usage.

Settings can be managed as and when there is a need.

Let us ensure, we ‘Secure’ ourselves proactively, rather than regretting later.

What do you do to release your Stress/Anger?

Many times, we might have gone through this or we would have noticed either in our life or in our surroundings. People tend to speak bad words (or) Smoke (or) Drink to get rid of the anger that one could not control the situation. At times, I felt, does our Anger/Stress go away by doing such things?

To me, Anger/Stress exists, until we find a solution and get that addressed. Many heated arguments get to the peak of it, finally with exchange of bad words by the involved members. This is an unnecessary behavior which not only puts the involved persons in bad books with the surrounding friends, neighbors, public, etc.. but really makes them mentally stressed which will not allow them to concentrate on other work.

This Stress/Anger which came from a situation tends to reflect in other work that one does or affects the behavior/relationship with the people he/she gets with them after that situation. This is a kind of ripple effect that impacts everyone.

It is better to find a way or to concentrate on something that one likes rather than venting the anger/smoking pack of cigarettes in a day / drinking to the fullest.