Startup List provides curated list of products and resources to build your next unicorn startup. The products are organized using categories. You can view all the products for a particular category. If you are logged in using blockstack, then it allows you to bookmark your favourite startup products from the category specific page. This data is encrypted and stored securely using blockstack login + gaia storage. For now the list is manually curated. Fill the form at the top if you want to suggest other resources and we will update the list.

Startup List (https://startuplist.pro/) was amongst the Top 10 products launched on Product Hunt on September 5, 2019. https://www.producthunt.com/posts/startup-list

3D Printing has been used to create everything from Car to Prosthetics. It is nice to see that people are using 3D printing to solve problems in a creative way. 3D printing can give people autonomy over their healthcare.

When Michael Balzer's wife, Pamela Scott was diagnosed with a brain tumor behind her left eye, they were terrified. Pamela Scott had already had her thyroid removed and the three-centimeter tumor was giving her headaches and starting to affect her vision. But the doctors seemed unconcerned and suggested to have a follow up MRI scan in a year. Therefore realizing the need to act quickly, Balzer collected scan results and started consulting neurologists. They were suggested to go for surgery. Balzer decided to use his skills in creating 3D graphics to create a computer model of his wife's cranium and the tumor based on the scan results. A few months later, Scott had another MRI, and the radiologist said that the tumor had grown substantially. Balzer used Photoshop to layer the new DICOM (digital format for medical imaging data) files on top of the old images, and realized that the tumor hadn't grown at all. The radiologist had just measured it from a different point on the image.

Balzer downloaded a free software program called InVesalius, developed by a research center in Brazil to convert MRI and CT scan data to 3D images. He used it to create a 3D volume rendering from Scott's DICOM images, which allowed him to look at the tumor from any angle. Balzer had adapted the volume renderings for 3D printing and produced a few full-size models of the front section of Scott's skull on his MakerBot. Balzer then sent a 3D-printed skull model to the Pittsburgh-based surgeon, who used it to plan a far less invasive and less risky surgery that involved accessing the tumour through her eyelid. The tumor was removed in May 2014. Had she waited some more months, her vision would have been damaged permanently. Balzer saved his wife's eyesight by 3D printing her brain tumor.

"What you can now do through 3D printing is like what you're able to do in the software world: Rapid iteration, fail fast, get something to market quickly.You can print the prototypes, and then you can print out model organs on which to test the products. You can potentially obviate the need for some animal studies, and you can do this proof of concept before extensive patient trials are conducted." - Dr. Michael Patton, CEO, Medical Innovation Labs

Balzer now has unknowingly become a medical pioneer. He will inspire many people to take control of their own healthcare. Many surgeons will now use 3D printing to plan medical procedures and to explain the medical procedures to the patients. Using basic maker tools and software, we can ensure that we are receiving proper healthcare.

TED talks by Larry Page, Margaret Gould Stewart, Tim Berners-Lee, Edward Snowden and Keren Elazari made an impact in 2014. These TED talks will inspire future entrepreneurs and startups who want to make a difference in the field of Technology.

Larry Page: Where Google's Going Next

Onstage at TED2014, Charlie Rose interviewed Google CEO Larry Page about his far-off vision for the company. It included aerial bikeways and internet balloons ... and then it got even more interesting, as Page talked through the company's recent acquisition of Deep Mind, an AI that is learning some surprising things.

Margaret Gould Stewart: How giant websites design for you (and a billion others, too)

Facebook’s “like” and “share” buttons are seen 22 billion times a day, making them some of the most-viewed design elements ever created. Margaret Gould Stewart, Facebook’s director of product design, outlines three rules for design at such a massive scale—one so big that the tiniest of tweaks can cause global outrage, but also so large that the subtlest of improvements can positively impact the lives of many.

Tim Berners-Lee: A Magna Carta for the web

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web 25 years ago. So it's worth a listen when he warns us: There's a battle ahead. Eroding net neutrality, filter bubbles and centralized corporate control all threaten the web's wide-open spaces. It's up to users to fight for the right to access and openness. The question is, What kind of Internet do we want?

Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet

Appearing by telepresence robot, Edward Snowden spoke at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives and the laws that protect it. "Your rights matter," he say, "because you never know when you're going to need them."

Keren Elazari: Hackers: the Internet's immune system

The beauty of hackers, says cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari, is that they force us to evolve and improve. Yes, some hackers are bad guys, but many are working to fight government corruption and advocate for our rights. By exposing vulnerabilities, they push the Internet to become stronger and healthier, wielding their power to create a better world.

During the last 50 days (6th October - 24th November), I shared a quote on Facebook every day. It was a part of my 50 days experiment to bring about a change in my life. I decided to post the quotes on Facebook so that others too could benefit from this experiment. I kept aside at least 30 minutes daily to search various quotes. Before posting the quote, I would spend lots of time thinking on the meaning of the quotes and how it could benefit me and others. After 50 days I feel that I am lot more positive, motivated and inspired to follow my dreams. These quotes have given me lot of valuable lessons that will help me throughout my lifetime.

I tried to cover the quotes of great personalities from various fields (Sportspersons, Tech Visionaries, Writers, Scientists, Film Personalities, Philosophers, Spiritual Leaders, and Businessmen). On the day of my birthday, I shared a quote regarding why it is important for a person to give birth to his own personality. On the day of Mumbai Assembly elections, I shared a quote regarding why it is important to cast your vote. During Diwali, I shared quotes regarding why it is important to have the light which shines from within. Before Sachin's book launch, I shared his quote. After watching Interstellar, I was so mesmerized that I shared the quote from the movie. I also shared quotes from the Tech visionaries that inspire me. I like to learn something from everyone who passes through my life.

I hope this experiment helps you. Feel free to carry out this experiment and inspire as many people as possible. I would like to thank all those who supported me during these 50 days.

#1 -"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

~ Steve Jobs

#2 - "If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives: Be kind anyway. If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies: Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank people will try to cheat you: Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight: Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous of you: Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow: Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough: Give your best anyway."

~ Mother Teresa

#3 - "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

~ Theodore Roosevelt

#4 - "Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

~ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)

#5 - "Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality."

~ Erich Fromm

#6 - "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover."

~ Mark Twain

#7 - "When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down "happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."

~ John Lennon

#8 - You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

~ Steve Jobs

#9 - "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: Those who are afraid to try themselves, and those who are afraid that you will succeed."

~ Ray Goforth

#10 - "People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing."

~ Walter H. Judd ?#?GetInkedMumbai?

#11 - "Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that's where you will find success."

~ Thomas J. Watson

#12 - "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

~ Apple Ad. ?#?thinkdifferent?

#13 - "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success."

~ Swami Vivekananda

#14 - "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

#15 - "People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

~ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

#16 - "Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."

~ Mary Kay Ash

#17 - "I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars."

~ Og Mandino

#18 - "When we give freely, we feel full and complete; when we withhold, we feel small, petty, impotent, and lacking. We are meant to learn this great truth, that giving fulfills us, while withholding and trying to get causes us to feel empty and even more needy. This truth runs counter to our programming, which drives us to try to get something from others to fulfill our neediness, only to end up even more needy, grasping, lacking, and unfulfilled."

~ Gina Lake

#19 - "We learn something from everyone who passes through our lives.. Some lessons are painful, some are painless.. but, all are priceless."

~ Unknown

#20 - "The best dreams happen when you're awake."

~ Cherie Gilderbloom

#21 - "I start early, and I stay late, day after day after day, year after year. It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success."

~ Lionel Messi

#22 - "Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different."

~ Stacey Charter

#23 - "Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is stagnation of the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action, converts adversity into prosperity."

~ Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

#24 - "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

~ Marianne Williamson

#25 - "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."

~ Mother Theresa

#26 - "You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself."

~ Alan Alda

#27 - "Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place."

~ Kurt Vonnegut

#28 - "Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

~ Buddha

#29 - "When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don't look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens - and when it happens, it lasts."

~ John Wooden

#30 - "People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones."

~ Sachin Tendulkar ?#?Playingitmyway?

#31 - "A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done."

~ Vince Lombardi

#32 - "The battle against cancer has made me strong. It's like winning a war! When I was diagnosed, I was told by doctors my kidney, liver and other organs could fail. It was tough. I didn't know if I could save my life. But I was positive, and because of that, the doctor told me that I would be a man who would never have cancer."

~ Yuvraj Singh

#33 - "A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure."

~ Unknown

#34 - "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

~ Jimmy Dean

#35 - "The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm going to die. It's really that simple, right? You're not going to out-work me. It's such a simple, basic concept. The guy who is willing to hustle the most is going to be the guy that just gets that loose ball. The majority of people who aren't getting the places they want or aren't achieving the things that they want in this business is strictly based on hustle. It's strictly based on being out-worked; it's strictly based on missing crucial opportunities. I say all the time if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready."

~ Will Smith

#36 - "Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

~ Warren Buffett

#37 - "I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this, and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough."

~ Marissa Mayer

#38 - "We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us."

~ Cooper (Interstellar)

#39 - "I was thinking one day and I realized that if I just had somebody behind me all the way to motivate me I could make a big difference. Nobody came along like that so I just became that person for myself."

~ Unknown

#40 - "Think big and don't listen to people who tell you it can't be done. Life's too short to think small."

~ Tim Ferriss

#41 - "I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself."

~ Elon Musk

#42 - "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

~ Steve Jobs

#43 - "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default."

~ J.K. Rowling

#44 - "The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

~ George Bernard Shaw

#45 - "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

~ Charles Darwin

#46 - "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

~ Michael Jordan

#47 - "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

#48 - "I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint - and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you."

~ Oprah Winfrey

#49 - "What is the one sentence summary of how you can change the world? Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!"

~ Larry Page

#50 - "I take inspiration from all. But I always do what my intuition says in my own ways. Be original"

~ Viraj Anchan

On October 10, Elon Musk unveiled the world's first dual electric motor production car and announced that new safety and autopilot hardware is standard on every new Model S. By putting more and more autonomous capabilities in a car, Tesla has moved a step closer towards Self Driving Cars. Google is working on Self Driving cars that does not require human intervention. Currently, a number of auto companies are experimenting with self-driving vehicles in California. Elon Musk promised Tesla will have a car next year that will be 90-percent capable of auto-pilot.

Tesla D features include a long-range radar, image recognition so the vehicle can "see" things like stop signs and pedestrians, and a 360-degree ultrasonic sonar. The car can park itself in a garage, turn on the air conditioning in advance of a trip and recognize obstacles on the road. It is capable of going from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a mere 3.2 seconds.

New Safety Features and Autopilot

The launch of Dual Motor Model S coincides with the introduction of a standard hardware package that will enable autopilot functionality. Every single Model S now rolling out of the factory includes a forward radar, 12 long range ultrasonic sensors positioned to sense 16 feet around the car in every direction at all speeds, a forward looking camera, and a high precision, digitally controlled electric assist braking system.

Building on this hardware with future software releases, Tesla will deliver a range of active safety features, using digital control of motors, brakes, and steering to avoid collisions from the front, sides, or from leaving the road.

Model S will be able to steer to stay within a lane, change lanes with the simple tap of a turn signal, and manage speed by reading road signs and using active, traffic aware cruise control. On top of that, Tesla's cars will also be able to park themselves at home - the driver can get out and let the car do the rest of the work. It will take several months for all Autopilot features to be completed and uploaded to the cars. Tesla's Autopilot is a way to relieve drivers of the most boring and potentially dangerous aspects of road travel - but the driver is still responsible for, and ultimately in control of, the car.

The Autopilot hardware opens up some exciting long term possibilities. Imagine having your car check your calendar in the morning (a feature introduced in Software v6.0), calculate travel time to your first appointment based on real time traffic data, automatically open the garage door with Homelink, carefully back out of a tight garage, and pull up to your door ready for your commute. Of course, it could also warm or cool your car to your preferences and select your favorite morning news stream.

In August, New York Times had revealed that in a class at the Apple's internal training program (Apple University), the instructor likened the 11 lithographs that make up Picasso's "The Bull" to the way Apple builds its smartphones and other devices. Apple's highly-secretive training program has been a subject of fascination for those in the tech and design world.

Picasso's Bull, a series of eleven lithographs in which the master artist deconstructs a bull down to its most abstract form, is shown as inspiration for Apple's minimalist design philosophy. "You go through more iterations until you can simply deliver your message in a very concise way, and that is true to the Apple brand and everything we do," said the person who took the "Communicating at Apple" class, taught by Pixar alumnus Randy Nelson.

"Objectified": Jonathan Ive talks about Mac design & Unibody MacBook manufacture

Steve Jobs: Good artists copy great artists steal

On June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs delivered Stanford's 114th commencement address where he spoke about connecting the dots, education, love and loss. In this speech Steve Jobs urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks.

There have been many instances in my life when things did not go well. I always try to keep a positive attitude in such situations. I always try to find opportunities in life's setback and it has always worked for me.

Here are the important life lessons that we can learn from this speech.

The road to success isn't linear.

Steve Jobs faced many failures and setbacks on his road to success but he used those experiences to fuel the fire of his ambition and create new opportunities for himself.

Find what you love

You should find and do what you love. It will energize your life every day and give you the patience and determination to turn your failures into opportunities.

Trust that the universe has your back

Setbacks are often blessings in disguise, and that life has a way of working out in our favor.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

Live like you're dying

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Live your own life and listen to your inner voice

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Here is the full text of Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky - I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Over the past few years, tremendous improvements have been made in the speech recognition technology. Google, Apple and Microsoft have developed their own intelligent personal assistants namely Google now, Siri and Cortana. Talking with computers is the future of computing because it is the most natural way for people to communicate.

Google's documentary, Behind the Mic: The Science of Talking With Computers explores humanity's obsession with conversing with machines and the challenges of developing language learning algorithms. It is a fascinating and informative short film about speech recognition, language understanding, neural networks, and using our voices to communicate with the technology around us. The film features interviews with: Ray Kurzweil, Alison Gopnik, Francoise Beaufays, Bill Byrne, Jeff Dean, Roberto Pieraccini, and Geoffrey Hinton. Google lets us know that although we've travelled quite a bit on the path to speech recognition, we still have much to go before we talk to computers like in Star Trek.

Google is working very hard to teach computers to understand what we say. Now, we don't just have a subsidiary of search that is set to overshadow it, i.e. voice search. Now, we have spoken commands for a lot of the main things we do with our rapidly learning machines: a weather query, launching an app, a call, a booking, or a purchase and other speech-to-text. Google wants to tackle the next level of speech recognition, which is getting into understanding meaning. This is incredibly difficult, because of the many subtleties of tone, sarcasm, irony, semantics, accents, and even physical cues, like facial expressions.

We can hope that major improvements take place in speech recognition in the coming years so that we can talk to computers like in Star Trek.

For additional reading, here's an intro natural language processing, computational linguistics and speech recognition by Daniel Jurafsky and James H. Martin: www.cs.colorado.edu/~martin/SLP/Updates/1.pdf

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). After a 298-day transit to Mars, it was successfully inserted into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. It is India's first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It is also the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so. The total project cost is up to 450 crore (74 million US dollars) which is substantially less than what it cost to make the movie Gravity.

The Mars Orbiter Mission is a triumph of low-cost Indian engineering. Here's a video that talks about How India is innovating like never before! I hope after watching this video many people will be inspired to build innovative things that matter.

Technology and innovation has an important role to play in transforming economy and governments should quickly embrace them to bring reforms. Data should be utilized to drive insights and make decisions. Technology can improve the relationships between governments and its citizens. E-governance helps to reduce the cost of government operations and improve transparency and accountability.

In 2013 a tax payment system using mobile phones collected 4.7bn Tanzanian shillings ($2.5m US dollars) in three weeks, 1.7bn ($1m) more than the amount collected using the old system over the same period. Supported by USAid, the city of Batangas in the Philippines launched a similar system in March 2014 to help businesses to pay taxes via mobile devices. In the recent months, the Indian government too has started embracing technology to bring transparency, accountability and reforms.

In July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a website MyGov.in that aims to help citizens contribute in governance by giving their opinions and views on important issues. Under MyGov.in platform, Government of India is running various crowd sourced initiatives that encompass Job creation, Skill development, Green India, Swachh Bharat Yojana, Girl Child education and many more.

Google has tied up with the Indian government to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India programme. The programme is focused on increasing high-speed Internet connectivity across the country, introducing digital classrooms, building smart cities, providing online delivery of services through the integration of government departments, and introducing online visas. Google will also launch a nationwide contest to develop a mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office, help women and small and medium enterprises get online and showcase India's heritage and culture through the digital medium.

Early this month, the Indian Government launched a website named attendance.gov.in to track attendance of officials in the Central government. The Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System enables an employee, with an Aadhaar number, to register their attendance in the office through biometric authentication. For this purpose Authentication Tablets / Desktop Authentication Devices were installed in each of the offices of Central Ministries / Departments. The employees are required to enter their 6-digit Attendance ID on the biometric terminal and subsequently the system asks for finger print verification.

Further, a web-based application software system enables online recording of attendance. The dashboard, relating to real-time attendance and statistics, can be viewed by everyone including the Controlling Officer concerned, with adequate safeguards. The information which can be found on the website are - attendance, over time, the number of registered employees, number of employees present etc. One can also find the number of active devices and further breakdown of the information.

Out of 1456 active registered employees in the Ministry of Home Affairs, only 269 were present today. The numbers were much better in Ministry of External Affairs where 1554 employees were present today out of 2025 active registered employees. Having access to this information makes me feel privileged. By providing this information, the government is bringing transparency and accountability. The government can now track the attendance of the employees and take action against those who are absent regularly or come late to the office.

Last month Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched "Make In India" campaign. It was aimed at attracting Foreign and regional investments into various Indian sectors. When I visited the "Make In India" website I was surprised. Usually Government websites have bad color scheme and code structure. Compared to these websites, makeinindia.com is a refreshing change. The website for this campaign is professionally designed. Lion is the mascot for the "Make In India" campaign. The logo has been inspired by the Ashoka Chakra and lion. The website covers 25 different sectors with each section talking about details of that sector. The "Make In India" branding is bold and leaves a mark on anyone who sees it.

Yesterday Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a new roadmap, including measures to end "Inspector Raj". All 1,800 labour inspectors will be disallowed from swooping down on companies and instead, a computerised system will randomly send them on inspections, based on data trends and objective criteria. Following inspections, they will have to upload their reports within 72 hours and cannot modify them thereafter.

Shram Suvidha Portal will allow employers to submit a single compliance report for 16 labour laws. Manufacturers can now register online at the Shram Suvidha portal and file a self-certified single compliance report for 16 Central labour laws. Labour inspections by four central agencies will be based on a computerised list of units that are picked up from this database. These reforms will help to simplify trade. Ease of business will help to make "Make In India" campaign successful.

It is good to see that the Indian Government has embraced Technology to bring transparency, accountability and reforms. We can hope that many more such reforms are brought in the coming months and that the "Make In India" campaign becomes successful.

Facebook's "like" and "share" buttons are seen 22 billion times a day, making them some of the most-viewed design elements ever created. Margaret Gould Stewart, Facebook's director of product design, outlines three rules for design at such a massive scale - one so big that the tiniest of tweaks can cause global outrage, but also so large that the subtlest of improvements can positively impact the lives of many.