Whether you’re into research, gaming, or online social networks, or you’re just an avid internet surfer it seems that all of us are increasing our ’screen time’ – spending more and more time behind the computer monitor. And you may agree that online interaction, virtual worlds and the great big www can be so captivating that its easy to lose track of the time and suddenly realise that its 1am and you haven’t moved your body for hours!

Even if your office job requires you to spend most of your time at your desk behind your computer, it can certainly take its toll on your fingers / neck / social life / marriage!!

The problem is you could end up way too tired everyday, or you could be experiencing RSI – Repetitive Strain Injury,  carpal tunnel syndrome, or myopia.

Time to keep it in balance (or bring it back into balance!) Enter: Workrave!

This ingenious little program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and also restricts you to your daily limit.

Workrave reminds you to take a break in an unobtrusive manner. When it is time for your break, a friendly small popup window appears asking you to take a break. This window automatically moves out of the way if you keep on working. If you ignore these hints too often, however, the program acts less friendly and pops up the break window for your own good.

The program is designed quite intuitively. It continuously monitors your keyboard and mouse activity. If you leave your computer running while you are at a meeting, Workrave will notice that you are taking a natural break from the computer.

Workrave is fully configurable, in many ways, and here are just a few of the functions you can control.

• the duration between micro breaks, and between micro breaks
• the duration of your breaks
• the duration of the postpone, or ’snooze’ functions
• the maximum amount of times you can postpone
• you daily limit of computer time
• display of status window
• signal sounds or silent mode
• the ability to block you form working further or not

You can read get all the finer details and download the program on the Workrave website.

Don’t panic though – you can override any of the features, and continue to work or play if you absolutely have to! Here is what the configuration window looks like…

And this is what one of the timing windows looks like…

…and when it’s time for your exercises, you will be guided through a routine with the aid of this window…

Workrave is free software. Not only does it come free of charge, but you are also free to make modifications to the program.

You can read more about Workrave here and you can download it free here.

Have fun…and remember: keep the balance!

Let’s say you’re in Sydney, Australia you wanted to set up a telephone or Skype meeting with me in say Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, you would have to pick a time, say 10am, and then mention whether it is 10am “your time” or 10am “my time”. If you decide it is 10am your time, you would have to calculate what the time will be for me in Atlanta and then communicate this to me. In order to do so, you’ll have to figure out what American time zone Atlanta falls under – U.S. Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific Standard times. Then you’d have to make sure that we’re not in daylight-saving part of the year, and what the correct time will be.

Nightmare, I know!

Now imagine you were setting up a conference call with 5 people from 5 different cities across the globe.

Mega-nightmare, I know.

Isn’t it high ‘time’ we started to use a new system of time? Something more universal perhaps.

Well, as I said, it exists, and I’m surprised more of the world isn’t using it yet. I’m talking about Swatch internet time. With this system, there in no need for time zone conversions – because Internet Time is the same everywhere!

Instead of dividing the day into 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, the Internet Time system divides the day into 1000 “beats”. And the distinctive aspect of Swatch Internet Time is its notation -  @248 would indicate a time 248 beats after midnight.

And off course the absolute genius and beauty of this time is: when it is @681 in Sydney Australia, it is exactly @681 in Atlanta, Georgia, and in fact @681 on every place on earth.

So if you’re setting up a virtual meeting with a friend in Rome,  Helsinki or Chennai, you can simply agree to meet at an “@ time”.

Problem solved!

Now there are certain logistic considerations when moving from our old system of time to this new system, and it will be best for a while to have both time systems displayed side by side. You will find a time converter on the swatch website here, or if you use a RSS reader like iGoogle, you can get a ‘gadget’ for it here,

I’m still on the lookout for software that can display swatch time on the task bar or in its own floating window, and for different ways to use and share this system. If you want to collaborate on how we can encourage more people to use this system, just leave a comment below, and I’ll get in touch.

If I take a while to reply, it’s because I generally check mail only between @375 and @750.

Have you noticed over the last few years that there are more and more inventions aimed at self development and life enhancement actually claiming to bring us spiritual growth and happiness, and even greater enlightenment?

This off course raises the question: is it possible that a machine can actually aid in our peace, happiness or enlightenment? The answer lies in understanding what technology really is, in the greater scheme of things.

If you think about it, technology has been with us for millennia already. When caveman drew figures on the rock as a means to visualize a successful hunt, he created and used a technology. It progressed from there to spears and hunting tools, to shovels and farming tools.
Somewhere along the line we had the abacus and ships, telescopes, wagons, pens, cars, and airplanes. Then we had all manner of manufacturing machines, even calculating machines, which led eventually to the mighty computer. This set the scene for us to get finer and more subtle in our technology – with the advent of software. With new software and hardware technology being released every month, who knows where it will take us next?

Because most of our technology currently takes the form of metal, plastic, glass or liquid crystal – mostly inanimate objects, we see them as something that is essentially separate from who we are, and certainly separate from the spiritual world.

Probably still the dominant belief amongst us, although fast changing, is that we are not as spiritual as God is. We believe that God is Spirit, and all of nature is directly connected with God – the heavenly bodies, trees, rivers and birds. We would thus readily use natural objects – fruit and leaves etc in any spiritual ceremony.

When it come to our own relation to the world of spirit, humans have over many millennia, engaged consciously or unconsciously in the ideas pertaining to who we are, what life is, who God is, and what this ‘whole big story’ is about. Collectively, over time, we’ve come to believe that we are removed from the spiritual world – separate from each other, separate from life, and separate from God. This is a mistaken belief, which does not even stand the test of clear reasoning, but from this we have inferred that anything we create must necessarily be even further removed from spirit.

In fact, if you take the view that we are separate from God, and that our inventions and technology are also separate, then you would conclude that God cannot make computers and man can!! Hence your next conclusion may be that humans are more powerful than God!! Closer to the truth is that God can make computers, and did – through us.

Humans are not separate from the divine creative force, but are beautiful extensions of it. And we reflect the creative nature of the universe in our lives and creations. As above, so below. So too with spears, cars, violins, airplanes, computers and i-pods – they are all extensions of who we are, and they can serve to enhance our abilities.

So, can a machine actually aid in our spiritual growth, happiness or enlightenment? Well it is helpful to remember that you cannot produce enlightenment, peace or self realization. You can only remove the blockages to it. Blockages can take the form of mental blocks (ideas), emotional and energetic blockages, or physical blockages. And this is where technology can certainly help, whether it takes the form of surgery or medicine, massage or magnetic plates; movies or mediation music, light or color therapy; biofeedback or brainwave entrainment.

I think it’s a blessing to have such an abundance of well-honed technology that can help us reach greater states of being with relative ease. And it’s certainly an exciting time to witness our ingenious species create subtler, even more intelligent technology which can produce enormous change in the nature of our experience on the planet, possibly reaching all the way into the subtler, heavenly realms! Perhaps the more important question of the day is not whether technology can help spiritual progress, but whether we will we see it and embrace it for what it is?

Will you?

Whether you’re looking to experience powerful self-confidence, or get rid of your fear of public speaking, or lose a few inches from your waist, or maybe even if you want to be the next president of the United States! – here’s a technology that can aid you to get there.

Subliminal Power flashes unobtrusive messages (which you program yourself or choose from a pre-written list) onto your computer screen as you work — and literally starts to reprogram your mind so you can achieve whatever you want in life. You can even control for how many ‘milliseconds’ each message should flash. So while it is running, you probably won’t even notice the messages, or they are too quick for the conscious mind to comprehend…but your subconscious mind will still pick it up.

So the messages are sent directly to the impressionable subconscious mind, where they’re rapidly absorbed and used to create positive, lasting change. They bypass the critical conscious mind, which may filter out positive affirmations and thereby reduce the chances of success.

To provide a literal definition: Subliminal means “below the threshold of consciousness” – and sending subliminal messages means to send messages in a way that cannot be perceived consciously, only subconsciously. (Here’s an article with proof that it works)

Today, subliminal messaging is a popular method of self-development. Individuals have realized its ability to program their minds directly – and gurus such as Anthony Robbins, Tiger Woods and Darren Brown have done much to promote its effectiveness.

If you’re serious about your goals, you’re probably already using affirmations, motivational audios, journalling and visualization sequences. Now you can use one more powerful tool to bring your closer to achieving them – your own subconscious mind.

Click here to read more about Subliminal Power.