I'd like to share something very wonderful with everyone.
I think it's safe to say that many of us found each other through the darkness of malware. Fortunately for us, malware did something its authors probably never considered - it brought us together and united us. But it does mean we have a front row seat of all sorts of nasty stuff going on. We get to see, over and over, how there are a few out there that have no problem taking advantage of others through technology for their own personal gain.
Thankfully, once in a while something comes along to remind us that beyond all the fake security programs, phishing scams, garbage email... technology has brought us together in ways we would have never been able to before, or even thought of before. We're communicating in real time with people all over the world, sharing our passions, reaching out to lend a hand to one another, and hopefully moving closer, little by little, towards a united world.
I used to regularly listen to NPR (National Public Rado) in the afternoons, especially the show
All Things Considered. But I became enraveled in day-to-day things and I hadn't tuned in for a long time. I don't know how I managed to pick Wednesday to double-click that internet stream shortcut on my desktop for the first time in months, but I was very lucky that I did. While listening, a story came on that caused me to just stop everything I was doing and really listen.
A composer, Eric Whitacre, has done something that really amazed and touched me deeply. In the video I'm sharing here, he united 185 people from all over the world, people that have never met, in a way that I can only describe as capturing what I consider the human spirit and conveying it in something more than what we can hear... we can feel. If someone came up to me today and asked me to describe the human spirit through song, I'd play this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDsWhen you go to listen, make sure you listen to it all at once, and if that means waiting a bit for the buffer to fill, trust me, wait.
I know this video went viral when it first came out last year, but I didn't know about it until just now when
NPR told me. If this is your first time, like me, I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I did and are moved like I was.
And when you're done there, imagine what can happen when you go from 185 people to over 2,000. This new video went up last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WhWDCw3MngI might be slightly biased - I was in choir throughout grade school and worked very hard for a spot in the state honors choir. But even without a music background, I would believe it safe to say that pretty much all of us know the power of music. All you have to do is turn on that one song... the one song that, no matter what mood you're in, you're instantly back in an earlier memory, a magical moment in your life... you can close your eyes and be back at that moment, living it again, in your mind, and in your heart.
We are capable of such wonderful things. And unfortunately, some pretty awful ones. But if you're ever sitting at your desk, staring at endless ComboFix logs, wondering what else is going on online besides these infections you're working on, just remember these videos. Technology brings us together in ways never possible before, and when we do come together, what we accomplish is limitless.
//A
