The last decade was interesting in the way that new media became the media of choice for the global audience. So many magazines and newspapers folded up that it was difficult to keep track. In fact, majority of media houses went online and are still operational. What failed offline became a success or at least operational online! The most affected seemed to be the media in Europe, USA and other places where the internet penetration and usage was high.
But the India media was not really affected adversely in the sense that they are still operational. Quite a number of them are operational both online and offline. But of course the media houses are definitely getting impacted, and going forward many will fold up or merge.
Let’s see what and where the new decade leads to!!
12 Scams of Christmas-- from McAfee
As you get ready to do your holiday shopping be mindful of the scamster/cyber criminals, as they too are getting ready to shop but by using your persona details!! Look out for the "12 Scams of Christmas" revealed by McAfee. The company considers them as the "most dangerous online scams that computer users should be cautious of this year".
1. The iPad Scam: Don’t fall for the free iPad scam. If somebody, via mail/web prompts/online quizzes, promise you a free iPad if you buy something else-- SCRAM!!
2. "Help! I've Been Robbed" Scam: If you get a distress email requesting you to wire money or congratulating for winning a big lottery—simple trash it.
3. Fake Gift Cards: No stranger or retailer will offer you free gift cards, unless they want to use your money to get something for free—so keep away from such offers.
4. Holiday Job Offers: Avoid the job offers from unknown sources.
5. "Smishing": If you get text messages requesting you to call so to verify you’re your information, somebody is trying to steal your personal details, so hit delete.
6. Suspicious Holiday Rentals: Use only reputable firms and even call-up to ensure that the rental company is for real. As per McAfee, scamsters put up post fake holiday rental sites that ask for down payments on properties by credit card or wire transfer.
7. Recession Scams: McAfee advice to keep away from the advertised pre-qualified, low-interest loans and credit cards as they too are after your money.
8. Grinch-like Greetings: McAfee informs that the bogus e-cards can not only spread computer viruses and other malware, but may also force the computer to display obscene images, pop-up ads, or even start sending cards to contacts that appear to come from you.
9. Low Price Traps: Be weary when you see a price that's far below what other retailers are offering as it could be a scam.
10. Charity Scams: Keep away from the charity emails and even phone calls during the festive seasons as crooks try to take advantage of your generosity to rob you.
11. Dangerous Holiday Downloads: Don’t download the cool holiday-themed screensaver, jingle, or animation as it could be a virus.
12. Hotel and Airport WiFi: Be careful of using free WiFi connections in airports and hotels during the holiday season as McAfee says the holidays are a tempting time for thieves to hack into these networks and get a hold of your personal information.
In Nutshell, if you get an offer or anything that sounds too good to be true --- keep away from it!!
Change Your Password---Ineffective Security Measure!
Read an interesting piece by Michael Horowitz. He writes about the fact, which I have been quite strongly propagating, that changing your password within a set period of time is not actually an effective defensive method.
Instead of the IT department of an organization spending time prodding employees to change password after a specific period of time or even at times enforcing the rule, they should make the access to the systems inaccessible. Michael correctly points out, “An IT department may better serve a company by doing what the bad guys do and use password cracking software to try to decrypt the passwords under their control. If any poor passwords are discovered, they could educate the person that chose it about better passwords. If nothing else, just knowing that the IT department is watching should make people chose harder to crack (longer, more random) passwords”.
Read the whole post at http://blogs.computerworld.com/17549/change_your_password_maybe_not
Changing passwords strategy has been adopted by almost all the organizations across the globe. Though it seemed to have worked well as far as no complaints against it from any quarters; but about its impact, nobody can really vouch for or against it. Often it seemed more of a mandatory mechanism to give a false-sense of security.
Organizations are slowly waking up to the fact, that this mechanism might not be as effective as it seems. And with organizations moving on to the cloud and looking for better defensive mechanism, numerous other options are being explored. People are even talking about moving to open source based (Linux) security mechanism (especially for online banking as other such activities). What’s your take on it?
Instead of the IT department of an organization spending time prodding employees to change password after a specific period of time or even at times enforcing the rule, they should make the access to the systems inaccessible. Michael correctly points out, “An IT department may better serve a company by doing what the bad guys do and use password cracking software to try to decrypt the passwords under their control. If any poor passwords are discovered, they could educate the person that chose it about better passwords. If nothing else, just knowing that the IT department is watching should make people chose harder to crack (longer, more random) passwords”.
Read the whole post at http://blogs.computerworld.com/17549/change_your_password_maybe_not
Changing passwords strategy has been adopted by almost all the organizations across the globe. Though it seemed to have worked well as far as no complaints against it from any quarters; but about its impact, nobody can really vouch for or against it. Often it seemed more of a mandatory mechanism to give a false-sense of security.
Organizations are slowly waking up to the fact, that this mechanism might not be as effective as it seems. And with organizations moving on to the cloud and looking for better defensive mechanism, numerous other options are being explored. People are even talking about moving to open source based (Linux) security mechanism (especially for online banking as other such activities). What’s your take on it?
Email--- Dead or Alive?
The topic doing around is whether Email is dead or will be dead in a couple of years. Life seems to have come to a full circle for the application that was the reason for the death of writing letters!!
Mark Zuckerberg, founder Facebook, recently mentioned that “email would fade out, just like the letter did, as it is slow and informal”. That added fuel to the discussion that Email is dead. In fact, many of his fans and followers seem to agree with his views on the topic.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder Facebook, recently mentioned that “email would fade out, just like the letter did, as it is slow and informal”. That added fuel to the discussion that Email is dead. In fact, many of his fans and followers seem to agree with his views on the topic.
- http://www.fbjs.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=165275610152788&topic=296
- http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=7&contentid=2010111720101117023600482274049f8
- http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101119/science.htm
- http://gigaom.com/2010/11/15/facebook-launches-all-in-one-social-inbox/
You cannot deny the fact that Instant messaging is becoming more popular, and email is definitely losing its earlier charm. But will it be completely dead? It is too early to comment on that or even comprehend it as of now. Some things that you use emails for, seems almost impossible with instant messaging!! But then who knows? Today’s technology becomes obsolete tomorrow faster than you can imagine or understand!!
I do and prefer a world where IMs and emails are integrated, and we know which one to use for different work. Hence, I like what Terry Zink wrote on his blog :
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tzink/archive/2010/11/22/the-death-of-email-hardly.aspxBut what’s your take on it? Is email dead or integration of Email and IM is the future?
3G Tariff War--Focus on Rural Market
Just as the industry analysts predicted the 3G tariff War has started. The telecom industry has invested a huge amount of money and to break even it will take years. But who ever starts off with the best prices, innovative services, great applications and seamless services of high quality will definitely rule the roost.
To get the critical mass will be very important. Focusing only on the elite or the urban places will not be a good idea. The services should reach even the rule places. In fact, that's where the money would be for the innovative service provider. I am more convinced about the success of mobile services in the rural area after seeing (specially in North Eastern) that people seem to prefer the mobile services rather the landline services which are in fact cheaper. The reason being the wireless connection can reach you where the wired connection cannot reach.
In the days to come, the scramble to offer the affordable yet innovative services will increase! The service providers will definitely tap both the urban and rural markets. The game will become interesting. Let's watch who comes out as the winner, and who folds up!!
To get the critical mass will be very important. Focusing only on the elite or the urban places will not be a good idea. The services should reach even the rule places. In fact, that's where the money would be for the innovative service provider. I am more convinced about the success of mobile services in the rural area after seeing (specially in North Eastern) that people seem to prefer the mobile services rather the landline services which are in fact cheaper. The reason being the wireless connection can reach you where the wired connection cannot reach.
In the days to come, the scramble to offer the affordable yet innovative services will increase! The service providers will definitely tap both the urban and rural markets. The game will become interesting. Let's watch who comes out as the winner, and who folds up!!
Tech Specs for Java SE 7 & Java SE 8 Passed!!!
It's great news for Java!!
Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for the next two releases of the Java Platform - JSR-336 and JSR-337 - have been formally approved by an overwhelming majority in the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee vote.
With this ratification, the Java standard will progress through the JCP while the open source reference implementation will be delivered through the OpenJDK project.
The plan, which includes community feedback and is endorsed by the JCP Executive Committee, calls for standardization of these technologies in Java SE 7 within 2011, with Java SE 8 following in 2012.
Here’s more details:
Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for the next two releases of the Java Platform - JSR-336 and JSR-337 - have been formally approved by an overwhelming majority in the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee vote.
The plan, which includes community feedback and is endorsed by the JCP Executive Committee, calls for standardization of these technologies in Java SE 7 within 2011, with Java SE 8 following in 2012.
- Java SE 7 includes language changes for improved developer productivity, dynamically typed language support, and performance improvements.
- Java SE 8 includes technologies in support of Java modularization and language enhancements for advanced multi-core support.
2010 Top Google Search
Have you checked out Zeitgeist 2010: How the World Searched, the report from Google about the hottest searches of 2010. The surprising part is that the fastest rising searches were chatroulette, ipad and justin bieber. On the other hand, the fatest falling were swine flu, wamu and new moon. The fastest rising in Entertainment were justin bieber, shakira and eminem. Meanwhile, the fastest rising in Consumer Electronics were ipad, iphone 4 and nokia 5530.
To know more please click on the links below:
As for India, the fastest rising searches were irctc login (railway ticket booking), micromax mobile and youtube videos. The fastest rising people were aruna shields, sonakshi Sinha and zarine khan. Most popular brands were nokia, Samsung and Airtel. The most popular how to searches in India are amusing and hilarious; they include get pregnant, kiss, impress a girl, improve spoken English, reduce weight, gain weight and tie a tie.
To know more please click on the links below:
- Global: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/
- India: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/regions/in.html
Steve Wozniak laments how we lost control over tech
Read a story on CNN about Steve Wozniak, Apple Co-founder and the inventor of personal computers. Although his vision of having a computer in every home is almost a reality, but he is saddened by the fact that humans seemed to have lost control over technology. "We can't turn off our internet; we can't turn off our smartphones; we can't turn off our computers," he laments. I know many of us will agree with this view.
Wozniak said that he created the computer not to make a lot of money, “accelerate the world's advancement in the social revolution that it would cause”. Is Steve listening?
Reading on :
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/08/steve.wozniak.computers/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Wozniak said that he created the computer not to make a lot of money, “accelerate the world's advancement in the social revolution that it would cause”. Is Steve listening?
Reading on :
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/12/08/steve.wozniak.computers/index.html?hpt=Sbin
India as manufacturing hub
I remember interviewing an industry leader, years ago, who mentioned that India will never become a manufacturing hub unless the government remove restrictions and unreasonable regulations. He mentioned that India did have the potential to become a manufacturing hub.
The Government of India has removed many of the restrctions and hurdles which was hindering the growth of the manufacturing industry. Today, all these have borne fruits. India is among the top and is a strong contender to become the world's prefered manufacturing hub. That's quite an achievement for the industry, and they deserve a standing ovation for making it and carrying on despite all the potholes that were in place earlier.
If you want to know more please click:
http://www.ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=352&art_id=27352&arc=show
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/time-india-finds-its-niche-areas-926
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Innovation/BREP010.htm
The Government of India has removed many of the restrctions and hurdles which was hindering the growth of the manufacturing industry. Today, all these have borne fruits. India is among the top and is a strong contender to become the world's prefered manufacturing hub. That's quite an achievement for the industry, and they deserve a standing ovation for making it and carrying on despite all the potholes that were in place earlier.
If you want to know more please click:
http://www.ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?cat_id=352&art_id=27352&arc=show
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/time-india-finds-its-niche-areas-926
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Innovation/BREP010.htm
2011 Top 10 IT Trends
Regev Yativ, President and CEO of Magic Software Enterprises Americas, recently wrote about Ten IT trends to watch in 2011.
As per him, the following will be the Top 10 IT trends in 2011.
1. Mobile computing remains important, exciting and risky
2. Mix of in-house and outsourced services shifts
3. Enterprise software begins migrating to the cloud
4. Organizations embrace software lifecycle management
5. Legacy modernization delivers much-sought ROEI
6. The year of the better service level agreement (SLA)
7. Graphical user interfaces get richer; maybe too much so
8. Better performance comes to rich business applications
9. Drowning in data, enterprises turn to BI
10. Multi-tier architecture delivers the keys to integration
I do agree with his views and logic. 3 out of the 10 will definitely be game changers. 1) Enterprise will majorly go to cloud in 2011. But many will be looking for the security aspects which still remains a concern for many 2) With enterprises going to the cloud, SLAs will have to be tightened and changed as per the cloud needs and requirements. 3) With the amount of data being collected everything, many goes unused and hence wasted. But one can well imagine the level of intelligence one can receive from these data. Hence BI will definitely become a major area of focus.
Please click here to go to Regev’s blogpost.
As per him, the following will be the Top 10 IT trends in 2011.
1. Mobile computing remains important, exciting and risky
2. Mix of in-house and outsourced services shifts
3. Enterprise software begins migrating to the cloud
4. Organizations embrace software lifecycle management
5. Legacy modernization delivers much-sought ROEI
6. The year of the better service level agreement (SLA)
7. Graphical user interfaces get richer; maybe too much so
8. Better performance comes to rich business applications
9. Drowning in data, enterprises turn to BI
10. Multi-tier architecture delivers the keys to integration
I do agree with his views and logic. 3 out of the 10 will definitely be game changers. 1) Enterprise will majorly go to cloud in 2011. But many will be looking for the security aspects which still remains a concern for many 2) With enterprises going to the cloud, SLAs will have to be tightened and changed as per the cloud needs and requirements. 3) With the amount of data being collected everything, many goes unused and hence wasted. But one can well imagine the level of intelligence one can receive from these data. Hence BI will definitely become a major area of focus.
Please click here to go to Regev’s blogpost.
Streak, Galaxy, iPad---Battle for the Best
There’s an interesting article Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab: iPad Killers? by Ross Catanzariti for PC World. He has cited a number of interesting points to drive across his views on the subject. I found the following very compelling:
“Both the Dell Streak and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are far more flexible than the iPad thanks to Google's Android operating system. A great example of this is the fact that you can transfer files by dragging and dropping them from your PC (without the need for any software). Also, the Android Market offers a wealth of applications that can enhance the overall user experience of each device, particularly when it comes to multimedia playback.”
Please click here to read the whole article.
“Both the Dell Streak and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are far more flexible than the iPad thanks to Google's Android operating system. A great example of this is the fact that you can transfer files by dragging and dropping them from your PC (without the need for any software). Also, the Android Market offers a wealth of applications that can enhance the overall user experience of each device, particularly when it comes to multimedia playback.”
Please click here to read the whole article.
5 biggest Linux and open-source stories in 2010
Everybody is still going gaga over open source and companies are going big time to open source applications. Not only does it enable evrybody to colloborate and work together, but it saves cost, reduce investment and maintain as well as improve quality. Lots of things happened in the world of open source this year. Read an interesting piece on Computer World blog 2010's 5 biggest Linux and open-source stories by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.
The story behind the story is that Linux has become totally mainstream. You may not have a Linux desktop in front of you the way I do, but if you spend most of your day visiting Google, Facebook or Twitter, you're using Linux. That Android phone in your pocket? Linux. Your DVR? Probably Linux. Do you use a NAS (network attached storage) device for extra storage? Almost certainly Linux. Trade stocks? Yes, Linux again. You get the idea. Linux may be invisible, but it's also everywhere.
Please click here to read rest of the article.
The story behind the story is that Linux has become totally mainstream. You may not have a Linux desktop in front of you the way I do, but if you spend most of your day visiting Google, Facebook or Twitter, you're using Linux. That Android phone in your pocket? Linux. Your DVR? Probably Linux. Do you use a NAS (network attached storage) device for extra storage? Almost certainly Linux. Trade stocks? Yes, Linux again. You get the idea. Linux may be invisible, but it's also everywhere.
Please click here to read rest of the article.
Ignore the Unwanted Calls!!! TRAI helps!!
You get a call in the middle of a meeting, and you pick up thinking it might be an important call but the voice says, “Would you like to apply for a platinum card?”
Ain’t that a big nuisance?? Rather than banging the phone (in this case angrily switching it off) or hurling the choicest of abuses, you cannot do anything. But TRAI’s latest initiative to regulate the pesky calls from telemarketers, a big and important step to help the consumers, might enable you to ignore those calls and saves you time and money (mainly when you are on roaming).
As per the new TRAI directive, telemarketers will have to use numbers beginning with ‘70’ to make calls and it is upto you to decide whether you want to pick up the call or not. Likewise, a unique SMS header has been mandated for easy identification of commercial SMSs. The best part is that no commercial communication, even for unregistered customers, can be sent between 9.00 pm and 9.00 am; now we can enjoy a good night sleep without the friendly loan offer.
The Do Not Call option was a good step but still did stop the pushy callers. The SMSes also continued coming like an avalanche. We- the consumers- definitely needed more, but the big telecom players had been successful in resisting the demand for a complete bans on unwanted and irritating calls and SMSes.
Although the consumers are bit skeptic about it after the bad experience Do Not option, but at least this directive is a good step.
Will this stop the calls & SMSes? No!!
Will make us (the consumers) safe from these irritating calls? Maybe!!
But at least it has given us a choice (sic)!!!! And it is a right step towards a right direction.
Ain’t that a big nuisance?? Rather than banging the phone (in this case angrily switching it off) or hurling the choicest of abuses, you cannot do anything. But TRAI’s latest initiative to regulate the pesky calls from telemarketers, a big and important step to help the consumers, might enable you to ignore those calls and saves you time and money (mainly when you are on roaming).
As per the new TRAI directive, telemarketers will have to use numbers beginning with ‘70’ to make calls and it is upto you to decide whether you want to pick up the call or not. Likewise, a unique SMS header has been mandated for easy identification of commercial SMSs. The best part is that no commercial communication, even for unregistered customers, can be sent between 9.00 pm and 9.00 am; now we can enjoy a good night sleep without the friendly loan offer.
| The TRAI guidelines, to be effective from 1st January 2011, further adds that the erring telemarketing companies will have to pay a hefty penalty of up to Rs 2.50 lakh per call. As per the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010, issued by the TRAI, erring telemarketing companies will also be blacklisted for a period of two years. | |
| But now the consumers have a range of choice to customers. One can opt for the “Fully Blocked” category or “Partially Blocked” category, in which case the customer will receive SMSs or calls in the categories chosen (which includes banking, and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure). The best part is that the telemarketers would have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 for the first offence which will go up to Rs 75,000 in case of a second violation, Rs 80,000 for the third, Rs 1.25 lakh for the fourth, Rs 1.50 lakh for the fifth and Rs 2.5 lakh for the sixth offence, following which the number will be blocked by all service providers. In addition, if an unregistered ordinary subscriber makes unsolicited commercial communication, he/she will be warned for committing the offence for the first time. On committing the offence for the second time, his/her telephone will be disconnected. |
Although the consumers are bit skeptic about it after the bad experience Do Not option, but at least this directive is a good step.
Will this stop the calls & SMSes? No!!
Will make us (the consumers) safe from these irritating calls? Maybe!!
But at least it has given us a choice (sic)!!!! And it is a right step towards a right direction.
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