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How do you keep your digital contents tidy, easily manageable? By filing them properly, in well-structured folders? By naming and tagging them aptly? By sorting them in a meaningful manner? All these methods are good, valid ones and should definitely be applied. But there’s an extra one that I love and find extremely efficient, it simply consists of erasing useless contents, deleting them for good. Some may say it’s simplistic. I’d say it’s not.

I know it is a risky way of dealing with digital files and that there’s always a chance of wanting to have the files back after having boldly trashed them. I still think this is often counterbalanced by the importance of having a clean place. Besides, I don’t delete contents without being careful about what I’m doing and well-focused on the job.

The low cost of data storage, be it local hard disks, optical media, USB flash drives or the cloud, often available in terabytes, is making us store data in a disorganised manner, constantly adding and seldom deleting. Not to mention mailboxes that typically hold thousands of e-mail messages, of which only a tiny fraction remains relevant and necessary after a while.

Erasing what is too old, what is not relevant anymore and what is unimportant, and doing the cleanup without waiting for mayhem to happen, is the best way to keep the place tidy. Whether e-mails, photos or documents, a huge part of what store can be erased. Though the erasable/not-erasable ratio can greatly vary from user to user, I consider that an average of 80 per cent of the digital contents we handle can be deleted without affecting our work, or our life for that matter!

If I am quick at erasing files that I consider are merely “transiting” by my computer I am even more aggressive with those that are passing by my smartphone.

Take a look at the fast chats that take place between people on Whatsapp. A two-minute chat can generate 15 or 20 short messages, a couple of more or less blurred photos and perhaps an audio message or two. Do you really need to keep a message that says “I’m fine thanks, see you tomorrow then” or a photo that looks like it was stonewashed? Except in very rare instances, I usually delete all chats that are older than 2 days, without hesitation.

Out of 100 photos taken with my phone or received through it I rarely keep more than five, and often less — the rest I gladly move to the trash bin. Again, the phenomenon is amplified by the fact that, precisely, because we can generate digital contents so easily and quickly, the quality of these contents is inversely proportional to their quantity and, therefore, the largest number can be discarded.

The benefits of having a tidy computer or smartphone are obvious. Once your digital workspace is neat the machine becomes more pleasant to operate, and everything becomes easier and faster: searching, retrieving, copying, and so forth. More particularly, keeping a device tidy will prove to be invaluable when you have to move to a new one and must copy all data and applications from the old to the new. A messy old machine can be a nightmare to transfer to a new one, just like a tidy old machine will make moving to a new one a breeze.

Whether you are over erasing or not erasing enough is a matter of personal judgement and appreciation. The vast majority, however, seems to belong to the second category. I proudly belong to the first and am willing to take the risk of accidentally deleting an important file once in a blue moon.

It is quite a politically incorrect thing to say these days, but I love being married. When I first entered into holy matrimony, I had not thought about how smooth or bumpy the road ahead would be. I was not given to such reflections then. I was simply happy to be participating in an ancient Vedic ceremony, with the young man who wanted to marry me. It was only when the Sanskrit vows we were making to each other, were explained to me in simple language, by the energetic pundit, that I had a moment of panic. 

I panicked because I realised, I had just told me brand-new husband, in front of innumerable witnesses that, among other things, I would greet him everyday with sweet words and even if I had just one piece of bread with me, I would share half of it with him. Now the sharing of food bit was okay because I was a fussy eater and in most cases I would not have minded passing the entire lot to my spouse. But the former vow made me uneasy. The one where I was supposed to greet him with sweet words, day after day! 

Firstly I could not understand the concept of greeting him when I was living with him. I mean was I supposed to say “hello” to him every now and then at several points in time? I turned to check this with my mother who was sitting next to me during the marriage proceedings. She simply raised her brows at me and gave me a serene content smile. I did not get a chance to prod her further because I got caught up with the next set of instructions that were being issued by the priest. 

While I was still worrying about the sweet worded greetings, without my even realising it, abruptly my name got changed. All along I was Miss P and now I was Mrs M. As soon as I got married my father’s surname was scratched out and my husband’s surname added to my name. It happened so fast that it took me completely by surprise. 

In fact I was sitting in the garden of the hotel where we having lunch a day after our wedding. My spouse went away to make a phone call. Suddenly I heard a woman calling out to someone in a loud voice. “Mrs M”, she said. There was no response. “Mrs M”, she yelled in a louder voice. Nobody answered. “Who is this deaf lady?” said the voice in my head. “Mrs M”, she shouted again, waving in my direction. 

When she strode up to me and shook me by the arm I realised, with complete astonishment, that she was calling me by my own most unfamiliar married name. It took me sometime to get over the shock. When my husband came back I forgot to greet him sweetly in my rush to tell him about the incident. He laughed uproariously and from then onwards the name simply got stuck. 

“So you were Miss P,” our daughter noted the other day. 

“Yes,” I said. 

“Then you became Mrs M,” she went on. 

“Yes,” I agreed. 

“Which surname do you like better?” she asked. 

“Both,” I said. 

“If you had to pick one?” she was persistent. 

“A combination of the two,” I answered. 

“That would become a double-barrelled name,” she stated. 

“Exactly! Better to call her Madam PM,” my husband laughed.

NEW YORK — JetBlue Airways is trying to bring a little bit of country to the city — opening its own “farm” at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The 24,000 square-foot space — less than half the size of a football field — outside JFK’s Terminal 5 is meant to educate travellers more than actually feed them. Although eventually JetBlue would like to serve items grown there in terminal restaurants and even make some blue potato Terra Chips that are served on flights.

One day, if the airport allows it, there might even be animals, such as bees and butterflies.

The goal is to try and teach people about farming and to improve the appearance of the terminal’s exterior.

“We know people like green space. It’s what they have at home. Why not put that at an airport if that’s what they love and want?” says Sophia Leonora Mendelsohn, the New York-based airline’s head of sustainability. “Your flying experience starts on the ground.”

Building a farm at an airport is not simple: It took JetBlue three years to get approval.

Airports are concerned about anything that would attract wildlife, especially birds. That means no growing tomatoes, corn, berries, seeds or sunflowers in its new garden (The airline originally wanted to grow wheat and use it to make its own JetBlue JFK beer).

So instead, JetBlue is focusing on potatoes, chives, basil, carrots and other plants deemed safe.

The airline expects to grow 1,000 potato plants, yielding more than 453.4kg pounds of spuds every four to six months, along with an additional 1,100 plants such as mint, arugula, beets, garlic, onions and spinach.

The project is in partnership with GrowNYC, a non-profit environmental group that focuses on improving New York City block by block. Students will be brought in from local schools to learn about gardening.

Some of the herbs and produce will be used by restaurants in JetBlue’s terminal, others will be donated to local food banks.

All of the plants are grown in plastic milk crates that are bolted together and then tied to hooks in the cement floor. The structure is designed to withstand 258.5kmph hurricane-force winds, another requirement of the airport’s operator, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

For its first few months, the farm will be closed to the public. Then in the spring, pending approval from various regulators, JetBlue hopes to have educational programmes for local students. Eventually, the airline envisions allowing some of its fliers to sign up in advance for visits.

One of JetBlue’s sponsors in the project is Hain Celestial, which makes Terra Chips and other natural food brands including Arrowhead Mills, Earth’s Best, Health Valley and Walnut Acres.

Jared Simon, senior director of marketing for the company, says right now they are growing Adirondack blue potatoes at JFK to raise awareness of farming.

“Most people have probably not been to a potato farm,” Simon said. “It’s really about the education. There’s such a desire from consumers to connect what they are eating with where it is from.”

Eventually, the potatoes might be used to make the blue chips served on JetBlue flights, but not until the company figures out if the crop has the right amount of starch, sugar and moisture.

Terra Blues can be found on all JetBlue flights and have been the official snack of JetBlue Airways Corp. since the airline launched in February 2000. Last year, the airline handed out more than 5.7 million one-ounce bags of the chips.

It takes one to three potatoes to make each bag. There’s no way this tiny airport farm will ever supply enough potatoes. Maybe, if lucky, it will yield enough for less than 1 per cent of demand. The majority will continue to come from a farm in Van Buren, Maine.

TOKYO — Toyota unveiled its vision for self-driving cars in a challenge to other automakers as well as industry newcomer Google Inc., promising to start selling such vehicles in Japan by 2020.

Toyota Motor Corp. demonstrated on a regular Tokyo freeway Tuesday what it called the “mobility teammate concept”, meaning the driver and the artificial intelligence in a sensor-packed car work together as a team.

In the demonstration, a Lexus drove itself within the 60kph speed limit for about 10 minutes, changing lanes, braking and steering. The human at the wheel did nothing except turn on a button to kick in the technology.

Toyota’s plans are part of a larger Japanese government initiative to pioneer automated driving in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

It also marks a shift for Toyota, which has been working on such technology since the 1990s but with great caution, warning that the idea of a driverless car was unrealistic, even dangerous.

With the advancement of sensors and telecommunications, such technology has been increasingly catching on, particularly as a safety measure in hard to execute manoeuvres such as parking.

“Our goal is to offer the freedom of movement to everyone, including the elderly and the disabled,” said Chief Safety Technology Officer Moritaka Yoshida.

But he acknowledged that the technology was not yet ready to be used on roads with pedestrians and bicyclists.

Along with curbing emissions with plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, self-driving technology is a focus of research for the auto industry. Both will be highlighted in the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public later this month.

Google is also testing and refining self-driving technology, putting pressure on the auto industry to innovate.

Toyota demonstrated another futuristic automated technology called Intelligent Transportation System, which it has been testing on roads in the Toyota city area and Tokyo.

The system will be offered as an option in three models going on sale in Japan later this year, including the Crown luxury model.

Tests are starting in the US, but sales plans are not yet decided.

A vehicle equipped with that technology communicates with sensory-transmission equipment at street corners that detects oncoming cars, as well as pedestrians, and warns the vehicle through data transmission. The warning appears as an image on the dashboard, and the car beeps. It is useful in alerting drivers to cars and pedestrians popping out from blind spots.

The technology can also be used for cars to communicate with each other, and fine-tune cruise control, so that the car in the back responds more quickly if two cars driving on the same street are equipped with this technology.

Toyota officials said the technology has tremendous potential to reduce accidents, although it is unlikely to have much of an effect in the beginning because the transmission sensors are installed in only 20 places, including 15 in Toyota’s headquarters area.

The plan is to expand that to 50 places in Japan by spring 2016, according to Toyota.

Nissan has also demonstrated car-detection technology on Yokohama roads, but using a different beaming technology. Toyota’s new transmission system uses a different standard that will be open for use by all automakers in Japan. In Japan, accidents at intersections account for about 40 per cent of all traffic accidents.

Already the most popular compact SUV and Hyundai third best-selling model in the Middle East, with the 60,000 sold in the region in 2014 according to Hyundai figures, the all-new third generation new Tucson is expected to be yet more popular, and to consolidate the Korean automaker’s ever improving brand equity.

Unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show and launched in recent weeks, the new Tucson is the Korean automaker’s markedly improved successor in the ever more popular compact SUV segment. Practical, affordable, more refined and spacious and better looking and driving that before, the new Tucson also packs a more advanced technology suite.

Fresh-faced and fluid

The latest offering to get the Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design language treatment, the Tucson is testament to the Hyundai’s emphasis on design, identity and cohesion. A more complex yet fluent design than its predecessor, the new Tucson is characterised by its sculpted surfacing, defined ridges and hungry dynamic posture.

With a bold and gaping three-slat hexagonal grille taking centre stage, the Tucson’s fascia features gig deep lower hexagonal intake and foglight housings. Moody inwardly tilted squinting headlights are topped with a bulging and scalloped bonnet, and complemented with concave and convex bodywork, including prominently carved sills and side character lines.

Longer, wider and with longer wheelbase than its predecessor, the new Tucson has a more discernable sense of presence, especially when fitted with optional 245/45R19 footwear to fill in its wheel wells. Benefiting from improved cabin and luggage space, but marginally lower than before, the new Tucson’s more sharply descending roofline lends it greater urgency. 

Smooth delivery

Powered by a 2.0 MPI version of Hyundai’s Nu engine, introduced in 2011, with intake and exhaust continuously variable valve timing, the Tucson develops 153BHP at 6200rpm and 142lb/ft at 4000rpm. Respectably covering the 0-100km/h benchmark in 11.1 seconds and capable of 181km/h, the six-speed automatic front-wheel drive version driven returns 7.8l/100km fuel efficiency.

Smooth and well insulated from its cabin, the Tucson’s under-square engine design, with longer stroke to bore ratio, is responsive from tick over and through its mid-range. With a healthy dose of torque accessible throughout for confident overtaking, the Tucson’s engine builds power in a linear and progressive fashion, with precise throttle control.

Driving the front wheels through a smooth and responsively shifting six-speed automatic gearbox, the 2WD Tucson feels light on its feet. With a Drive Mode Select function, one can choose from Normal and Sport settings to sharpen gearbox responses and shift point, as well and to increase steering weighting for a sportier character.

Refined ride

With more linear torque delivery, precise on-centre responsive feel, the new Tucson’s steering delivers better feedback. And with an improved front MacPherson strut and rear multi-link suspension design, the Tucson turns in more tidily and feels more agile and eager through corners, with good body control and grip.

With bigger footprint for improved stability, the Tucson drove confidently at speed and through winding country lanes during test drive in Gran Canaria, Spain. The Tucson also receives revised bushes for improved noise, vibration and harshness refinement, and with new rebound spring makes it feels more buttoned down and settled on sudden crests and dips. 

Built using a 51 per cent high strength steel content, the new Tucson gains 48 per cent more torsional rigidity, which provides improved ride, handling and collision safety. Smooth and fluent, the Tucson drove fluidly and with refinement over dirt and gravel roads, while a bigger footprint provides better highway and cornering stability.

Upmarket appeal

Stiffer and better insulated, the Tucson is noticeably more refined and quiet inside, where design aesthetics and material quality are also markedly improved. Designed with a horizontal and symmetrical emphasis and more generously using soft textures, the Tucson is more user-friendly, upmarket in character and ergonomic with good seat and steering adjustability. 

More spacious than before, the new Tucson’s rear seats were more accommodating for large passengers than expected while minimum boot space is increased by 10 per cent to 513 litres. Well equipped, the Tucson features a ventilated 10-way adjustable driver’s seat, keyless entry, key detecting automatically opening powered tailgate and faster navigation system, with 8-inch non-reflective infotainment display.

Expected to receive the maximum rating on the 25 per cent front overlap crash safety test according to Hyundai’s inhouse testing, the Tucson’s safety features also include Blind Spot Detection system and front and rear parking assistance system. The Tucson also features automatic cruise control, hill start assistance and electronic stability and traction controls.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, transverse 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 81 x 97mm

Compression ratio: 10.3:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, dual continuously variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 153 (155) [114] @6200rpm

Specific power: 76.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 104.4BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 142 (192) @4000rpm

Specific torque: 96Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 131Nm/tonne

0-100 km/h: 11.1 seconds

Top speed: 181km/h

Fuel economy, combined: 7.8 litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 62 litres

Length: 4475mm

Width: 1850mm

Height: 1650mm

Wheelbase: 2670mm

Track, F/R: 1604/1615mm

Ground clearance: 172mm

Approach/break-over/departure angles: 17.2°/18.6°/23.9°

Cargo capacity, min/max: 513/1503 litres

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.33

Kerb weight, min (max): 1465 (1582)kg

Suspension: MacPherson struts/multi-link

Steering: Electric assistance, rack & pinion

Turning circle: 10.6 metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.71 turns

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 245/45R19

Time to Speak: Middle East Issues and Crisis

Samir A. Mutawi

Amman: Al Yazori Publishing House, 2014

Pp. 225

“Time to Speak” is a collection of lectures and papers delivered by Jerusalem-born Dr Samir Mutawi over the past 20 years. The timeline of the subject matter is even longer, reaching back to the 50s and extending into the 21st century. The primary focus is on how Jordan weathered the many stormy events of this period, and the factors that guided its decision making. 

Mutawi’s career qualifies him to speak with authority: After working as a journalist in the UK for 30 years, he returned to Jordan and served as King Hussein’s chief of press, research and studies, and official spokesman at the Royal Court. He also served as information minister, Jordan’s ambassador to the Netherlands, chairman of the board of Jordan News Agency, Petra, and professor of international studies at Philadelphia University.

Much of the book is actually a tribute to the late King Hussein whose leadership Mutawi regards as having been wise, courageous, energetic and consistent. While King Hussein’s legacy is often described as his successful building of the modern nation of Jordan, Mutawi takes this a step further, regarding the late monarch as a “national Unifier… Whereas in 1953, a man might identify himself as a Circassian, a Palestinian, or a Bedouin of a certain tribe, Jordan’s peoples today almost universally refer to themselves as simply Jordanian”. (p. 19)

The other aspect of King Hussein’s legacy highlighted in the book is his prominent role in the search for peace in the Middle East. 

Many chapters of the book demonstrate how closely intertwined are Jordan’s domestic and foreign policies. This is partly the result of the country’s geopolitical position, but also due to King Hussein’s self-image as a Hashemite and thus inheritor of the traditions of the Great Arab Revolt, making him “believe that his duty was not restricted to a purely national actor role but as one who encapsulates a larger Arab role”. (p. 45)

This Arab role was a major factor in King Hussein’s decision making, a process that is high on the list of concerns as Mutawi examines the factors influencing Jordan’s abiding involvement in the Question of Palestine, its participation in the 1967 war and, later, its position during the Gulf Crisis of 1990-91.

Highlighting King Hussein’s “marathon diplomacy” — visiting over a dozen countries in the space of a few weeks, Mutawi calls the immense efforts exerted by Jordan to avoid the 1991 war on Iraq as “one of the most unsung uphill political battles of recent memory”. (p. 65)

Part of Mutawi’s motivation for writing is countering misperceptions about Jordan in the Western media; another part is analysing how regional players have interacted — or clashed with each other, whether in the various attempts at Arab unity, or the recurring wars with Israel. Throughout the period under study, Mutawi’s view of Jordan’s overall role is that of regional stabiliser, balancer and harmoniser.

In another chapter Mutawi mounts a particularly scathing critique of Elie Wiesel’s massive advertising campaign to woo President Obama for the Israeli position on Jerusalem. Besides setting out the justice of Palestinian, Arab, Christian and Muslim claims to the city, Mutawi cites the arguments of Israelis who are critical of their government’s policies.

The same applies to his writing on the Apartheid Wall, which he studied firsthand from north to south when asked to prepare a paper for the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as background for a legal submission to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. His account is both incisive and heart-rending as he describes the devastating effects of land confiscation, settlement building, the closure system, etc. on Palestinian lives. “What I saw in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, my birth city, exceeded my worst expectations.” (p. 121)

Many other topics are covered such as how King Abdullah II is building on his father’s legacy to develop Jordan’s economy and bring it into the era of globalisation and rapid technological advance. A seemingly divergent chapter is a study examining presidential rule and foreign policy under Egyptian president Nasser (1952-1970), but this ties in with Mutawi’s special interest in the decision-making process.

A final chapter compares how Arab media have approached the Arab-Israeli conflict before and after the 1967 war, returning to the days when radio was the preeminent mass media until being eclipsed by the satellite channels.

TOKYO — Tossed aside as outdated junk by some, old video games such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man are now getting a new lease of life in Tokyo’s vibrant Akihabara district, as growing numbers of diehard fans seek out vintage classics to relive their youth.

Inside Super Potato, a famed retro video game store, devotees browse isles packed with everything from Legend of Zelda figurines to immaculately packaged old Sega Mega Drives, while Super Mario toys dangle from the ceiling overhead.

“It was our generation, it was our thing,” said Matt, 35, over the constant ping and buzz of video game theme tunes emanating from the screens lining the walls.

“At that age, when computer games were first coming out, there was nothing else like it,” the Briton told AFP, adding that buying retro games was one of the main reasons he came to Japan on holiday.

Vintage games have been hitting headlines this year: Huge parties were held to celebrate the birthdays of Pac-Man and Super Mario, while video game themed film “Pixels” has grossed more than $200 million worldwide.

Big business has been swift to cash in on the trend, with Microsoft and Sony among those releasing products to appeal to older players.

As the home of Nintendo and Sega, Japan has long been a paradise for gamers and now Tokyo is becoming a global hub for collectors of specialist old titles.

Mandarake, a retro games shop nestled among the crowded, neon-lit streets of Akihabara district, has seen foreign customer numbers soar in the past five years according to staff member Kota Atarashi.

“A large number of our customers are aged between 30 and 50, and they come to buy games either for the sake of nostalgia or to build up a collection they started when they were younger,” he said.

“Old games are more addictive and offer a real sense of achievement when a player finishes. I think that’s one of the reasons for their success.”

‘Under-appreciated
art form’

Vintage editions still make up only a tiny part of the world video games market — estimated to be worth more than $90 billion and growing fast — but avid collectors will pay huge sums for specialist items.

Prices for rare classics have soared, with one example of the Nintendo World Championships cartridge selling for around $100,000 last year, according to its eBay listing.

Their value depends on rarity, condition and popularity. Experts say fans particularly like games that are part of a series, such as The Legend of Zelda and Japanese role-playing games like Final Fantasy and DragonQuest.

For some, they are an artform — even New York’s Museum of Modern Art started collecting older video games in 2012 and plans to acquire dozens of titles in the coming years.

Patrick, a 27-year-old graphic designer from Australia, said he has built up a collection of around 1,000 games.

“To me games are an under-appreciated art form,” he told AFP inside the Super Potato shop. “With a lot of the old games you have to use your imagination, which I think is really cool.”

For others, they bring back memories of the excitement of playing for the first time.

“I remember playing my brother’s ZX Spectrum and not even really knowing what it was,” said Matt, who was around 10 when video games started becoming popular.

“You’d go to your friend’s house and play — now people just sit at home on the Internet. It’s not the same.”

Childhood nostalgia

Clay Routledge, an associate professor at the North Dakota State University and an expert on the psychology of nostalgia, said old video games can be a particularly potent trigger because they are interactive.

“Often, nostalgia is not about the specific game but about the social experiences involving that game,” he said. “The games we played in our youth would likely elicit the greatest amount of nostalgia.”

This has not been lost on video game makers, who have started offering revamped versions of vintage games in their online stores, such as Nintendo’s Super Mario 3: Mario Forever.

Others are also including access to older games in new products. At the Tokyo Game Show in September Sony said its new streaming service, PlayStation Now, will allow customers to play games released years ago, such as God of War.

In June, Microsoft also announced it would be offering “backward compatibility” for hit older titles including Borderlands on its new-generation Xbox One consoles.

This cuts the cost of producing new games and reduces the danger no one will buy them, said Lisa Hanson, managing partner of gaming market research firm Niko Partners.

“It short cuts the marketing process and there is a ready group of gamers waiting to play,” she said.

For diehard fans, spending hours investigating obscure old games is part of the fun, but experts warn off anyone who thinks collecting vintage games could be a get-rich-quick strategy.

“You need a lot of knowledge... to make it viable,” said Jason Moore, whose online store retrogames.co.uk claims to have the largest catalogue in the world with some 40,000 games.

“For every rare game, there are thousands which are virtually impossible to sell and knowing small differences like label variations and box types is vital if you’re going to do well.”

When is an app “too much”?

We have become accustomed to the fact that out of the zillion apps available for Android, Windows and iOS smartphones, only a tiny fraction is useful, meaningful, the rest being downright ridiculous. Still, what may seem not so important today may turn out to be quite useful tomorrow, in technology time measurement.

I remember when many years ago, on the occasion of a trip to the USA, a friend strongly recommended I make sure the car I would rent had a GPS navigation system, a real novelty back then. He explained that since I would be touring Midwestern states in the country, namely Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, a GPS in the car would be helpful.

I first argued that I had good experience driving abroad, bragging that my pigeon-like sense of direction would be enough. A GPS really would be too much. I followed his advice in the end and never regretted it. Today, I even use GPS in Jordan when I have to drive to a place I have never been before, for the first time, especially if it’s outside Amman’s boundaries. The GPS navigation app on my smartphone (Navigator, by MapFactor) has become an indispensable tool.

I sometime browse the Google Play app store — I’m an Android user, I confess — just to explore and see what’s new. It’s a time-consuming activity but that comes with nice surprises sometimes. This time, however, the big surprise wasn’t on Google Play but on an independent site. The app is called EnLighten and it predicts when the traffic light you are waiting at is going to turn green. If you’re asking “why on earth?” please read on.

Today, most of us seize the opportunity of waiting at the traffic light to use our smartphone in many ways: to make calls of course, but also to send messages, check out e-mail, and so forth. Such activity, however, keeps you so much focused on the phone’s screen that the light may turn green while you would still be staring at the display, making angry drivers behind to start honking at you, unless they too happen to be texting.

The EnLighten app is connected to the city’s traffic light system and can predict when the light is about to turn green. Just a few seconds before it happens, a message will pop up on the screen of your GPS-enabled phone to alert you, a warning you can’t miss since you are looking at the screen anyway. The message will overlay whatever you are doing with the phone at that moment, telling you to get ready to move. It can also prompt you with an audio beep.

Too much? Gross exaggeration? Ridiculous? I am not so sure. I am willing to bet that in less than five years most of us will be using such an app.

Currently the main limitation is that very few cities or municipalities have their traffic lights system well centralised and accessible to the masses over the Internet. The name of the start-up company that has come up with the app is Connected Signals, and it is considering adding functionality like for example, to warn when the light is about to turn red, which can also prove to be useful in countless instances.

Those who think it is unbelievable may be interested in knowing that the BMW X5 M, 2015 model, has an in-dash screen that counts down the seconds till the traffic light turns green. Again, for now this works in a very limited number of selected cities in the world. Portland, Oregon USA, is an example of such city. But wait till everything is connected and see it working. No one will honk at you anymore.

SAN JOSE, California — Floyd Mayweather Jr. vanquished his last opponent on September 12, but as fans used live-streaming apps such as Periscope to broadcast the fight, they were also throwing punches at anti-piracy rules in real time.

The battle extends beyond the boxing ring, with viewers whipping out their cellphones to film music concerts, football games or cable TV shows. They’re sharing experiences — often with high ticket prices — for free worldwide and sending copyright holders, tech firms and anti-piracy companies on a mad scramble to get the broadcasts taken down midstream. In a race against time, copyright holders are navigating complex legal and technological waters fast.

“The value of real-time sports content diminishes rapidly after that event has ended so it’s important that we can track these infringing sites and take them down within minutes. It’s a real-time cat-and-mouse whack-a-mole,” said Ben Bennett, senior vice president of business development at Irdeto, a digital security firm with anti-piracy operations in San Jose.

Twitter, which owns Periscope, said in a statement the company is committed to making the live video-streaming app “an enjoyable place for everyone” and quickly responds to takedown notices sent to the company. Periscope broadcasts are up for minutes or at most 24 hours before expiring.

While live video streaming has been around for more than a decade, mobile apps such as Periscope — which has more than 10 million users — and Meerkat rocketed to popularity this year, making it easier to broadcast copyrighted content, Bennett said. Social media giant Facebook recently jumped into live streaming too, launching the feature first for public figures, journalists and celebrities.

The challenges of real-time copyright enforcement came back in the spotlight over the September 12 weekend, when Periscope responded to more than 140 takedown notices, most about the fight between Mayweather and Andre Berto — a pay-per-view boxing match that cost up to $74.95 to watch on Showtime but that thousands watched through the app for free.

Other complaints came from firms acting on behalf of the NFL, the United Kingdom’s Premier League, the US Open Tennis Championship and Taylor Swift, according to data from Chilling Effects, which tracks online takedown notices and was started by attorney Wendy Seltzer, several law school clinics and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, which has kept a close eye on people it believes are illegally streaming its pay-per-view mixed martial arts matches, has sent more than 650 takedown notices to Periscope, according to data from Chilling Effects.

“The unauthorised distribution of UFC content hurts our ability to decide how we connect UFC athletes to their fans and how we present our athletes’ performances. The vast majority of the piracy we are concerned with focuses on profit-generating enterprises who are selling a product they are not entitled to and, in doing so, delivering a substandard version of the UFC experience we strive to present. There is a clear economic impact to losing control of how our content and message are delivered,” Dylan Budd, UFC’s vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement.

In 2014, UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, settled for an undisclosed amount a $32 million lawsuit it filed against a New York man who was accused of uploading 200 hours of UFC content to popular file-sharing websites such as Pirate Bay. The company has also gone after websites that stream UFC pay-per-view events, suing former live-streaming site Justin.tv in 2011 while forcing other sites to shut down and hand over records of users who watched pirated matches.

The NFL and Showtime declined to comment about Periscope.

Quick to skim past the fine print on a ticket stub or rules for using an app, people on the live streaming sites might not realise they’re violating copyright law when they stream live events. Some live streams over the September 12 weekend only attracted a few dozen viewers before being taken down, while others — including a Periscope broadcast of the Mayweather-Berto match titled “The Fight for Free” — attracted more than 1,000 viewers in minutes. Periscope users took to Twitter to gripe about their accounts getting suspended because they didn’t know it was illegal to broadcast a fight, while others thought it was #petty.

“There’s so much out there it’s impossible for the content owners to police everything, and the result is people think it’s OK. We’re not taught in school about copyright law,” said Jesse Morris, a music lawyer at Morris Music Law near Los Angeles.

That law is evolving. There are also cases in which using copyrighted work is “fair use”, a legal concept that allows people to legally reproduce the materials under certain circumstances in news reporting, teaching, commentary or research.

On September 14, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in Lenz vs Universal that copyright owners must consider fair use before demanding that firms such as YouTube pull down videos and other copyrighted materials. Pennsylvania resident Stephanie Lenz sued Universal Music in 2007 after the company asked her to take down a YouTube video of her son dancing to Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy,” which the mom argued was fair use.

“If you were to apply that to the content of live events, then a rights holder that wants to send takedown notices is going to have to consider factors such as if the stream is going to be used for news reporting, how much of the event is going to be streamed, who’s likely to be watching it and if it’s likely to substitute for an actual purchase,” said Mitch Stoltz, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Anti-piracy firms say live video streaming still makes up a small part of piracy that occurs globally, and so far, isn’t as big of a threat compared to other forms that allow criminals to rake in illegal dollars. That includes attracting ad money from posting a video on piracy sites, installing malware through links or selling fake Blu-ray Discs.

Yet, it’s the technology’s potential that has got some worried about what the future holds.

“Somebody will figure out a way to monetise live streaming and video that they don’t have the right to broadcast,” said Adam Benson, the deputy executive director of the nonprofit Digital Citizens Alliance. “Once they do, it’s almost impossible for the consumer to discern and tell the difference between somebody who’s not making money and somebody who is.”

Should one go back to revisit a place that has certain glorious memories associated with it? If you ask me, it is always a gamble and a wild one because several years later a lot of things change, some for the better and quite a lot, for the worse. Everyone who has lived long enough knows this. 

Therefore when anyone suggests a revisitation to a past happy destination, I am the first naysayer. But when my husband booked our tickets to fly down to a South Indian hill-station last week, I was slow to react. That is because close to three decades ago, I had gone there as a new bride and I was curious to discover if the place was as pristine as it was so many years ago. 

The beginning was not very promising because the hotel, which was a sleepy little dwelling earlier, had expanded to a full-fledged five star. And to make matters worse, it was completely booked out. A telephonic conversation with the general manager helped in securing one of the cottages that was reserved for the owners. I think, in this day and age where marriages don’t last beyond the first few years, the general manager was eager to meet a couple who were not only married for so long but were also wanting to return to a place they had visited as newly weds.

The thing about Indian hill-stations is that if you Google them, they all claim to be “the queen of hill-stations”. This is the absolute truth; I am not making it up. Regardless of its location, whether it is situated in the north, south, east or west of the country, they are all stuck with the same royal epithet and their description is also sort of identical. The only variant is their height from sea level

On my recent visit I noticed that the new constructions were lavish and grand with an army of energetic and enthusiastic staff looking after it. This was definitely very different from the lax and laid-back service one was accustomed to earlier. Thirty years ago, in the same place which was much smaller then, we had ordered lunch in the open plan dining area from where the kitchen was visible.

We had watched the chef/waiter/restaurant manager all rolled into one, hop across to the vegetable garden, pluck a cauliflower, clean and chop it and then cook it for us. Next he kneaded the dough for the bread and prepared piping hot nans. It took more than 60 minutes for the meal to appear but I had never tasted fresher or tastier food.

After three days of perfect liveried attention in our now expanded hotel, we ventured out. Passing a small rustic café we were invited inside by an elderly man. The gleaming stainless steel cooking utensils, lay in a neat row next to the wood fired oven, where he sat. There were no menu cards but he rattled off a list of dishes in his monotone. 

“Peas-potato, peas, butter, peas-mushroom, peas-tomato, peas-carrot,” he said. 

“You have gobi?” I interrupted, calling cauliflower by its Indian name. 

“One minute,” he muttered, jumping to the patch of green behind his kitchen.

“Why did you ask for that? One hour gone! Oh, no!” my husband exclaimed. 

“Oh, yes,” the old man said, appearing with a perfect raw cauliflower in his hands. 

“Revisiting delights,” I smiled, settling into my seat for the long haul.