What's on your mind.....

Very Tough Questions

2010-10-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Two tough Questions
------------------------------

*Question 1:*
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already,
three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and
she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.

*
Question 2:** *
It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote
counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates.

*
Candidate A:*
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.
He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10
Martinis a day.

*
Candidate B:*
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium
in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

*
Candidate C:*
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke,
drinks an occasional beer and never committed adultery.

Which of these candidates would be our choice?

Decide first... No peeking, and then scroll down for the
response.

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolf Hitler.

And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question:
If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn't it?
Makes a person think before judging someone.

Remember:

Amateurs ... Built the ark.
Professionals ... Built the Titanic

Fine example of market myopia

2010-02-18T02:29:00.001-08:00

Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?

Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.

Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.

Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.

Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?

The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"

Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."

In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.

In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!

India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.

Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.

One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!

On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.

—Dr. Y. L. R. Moorthi is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is an M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post graduate in management from IIM, Bangalore

What is Knowledge Process Outsourcing? What is KPO?

2008-04-04T05:26:00.001-07:00

What is KPO?

It is being claimed that KPO is one
step extension of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) because BPO Industry is
shaping into Knowledge Process Outsourcing because of its favorable
advantageous and future scope. But, let us not treat it only a 'B' replaced by
a 'K'. In fact, Knowledge process can be defined as high added value processes
chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills,
domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity. And
when this activity gets outsourced a new business activity emerges, which is
generally known as Knowledge Process Outsourcing.

Knowledge Processing Outsourcing
(popularly known as a KPO), calls for the application of specialized domain
pertinent knowledge of a high level. The KPO typically involves a component of
Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), Research Process Outsourcing (RPO) and
Analysis Proves Outsourcing (APO). KPO business entities provide typical
domain-based processes, advanced analytical skills and business expertise,
rather than just process expertise. KPO Industry is handling more amount of
high skilled work other than the BPO Industry. While KPO derives its strength
from the depth of knowledge, experience and judgment factor; BPO in contrast is
more about size, volume and efficiency.

In fact, it is the evolution and
maturity of the Indian BPO sector that has given rise to yet another wave in
the global outsourcing scenario: KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing. The
success achieved by many overseas companies in outsourcing business process
operations to India has encouraged many of the said companies to start
outsourcing their high-end knowledge work as well. Cost savings, operational
efficiencies, availability of and access to a highly skilled and talented
workforce and improved quality are all underlying expectations in outsourcing
high-end processes to India

The future of KPO has a high
potential as it is not restricted to only Information Technology (IT) or
Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors and includes other
sectors like Legal Processes, Intellectual Property and Patent related
services, Engineering Services, Web Development application, CAD/CAM
Applications, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical
Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research KPO ) etc.

In today's competitive environment,
focus is to concentrate on core specialization and core-competency areas and
outsource the rest of the activities. Many companies and organizations have
come to realize that by outsourcing non core activities, not only cost are
minimized and efficiencies improved but the total business improves because the
focus shifts to the key growth areas of the business activity.

Scope and Future of KPO

According to a report of National
Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of
commerce that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, Knowledge
Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010,
of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts
that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart
from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and
Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry.

According to a recent study by
“Evalueserve, a Gurgaon based outsourcing company having service chart for
global world”, the global KPO market is expected to grow at a cumulative annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent, from $1.2 billion in 2003 to $17 billion in
2010. Compare this with the prediction for the low-end outsourcing services
market. This is expected to have a CAGR of 26 per cent, from $ 7.7 billion to
$39.8 billion in the same period.

Evalueserve says India provided $3.5
billion of BPO and KPO (but non-IT) services in 2003 and is expected to grow at
a CAGR of 36 per cent during 2004 to 2010. Hence, it is likely to earn $30
billion in 2010 by providing these services.

Says country general manager, Kelly
Services, Achal Khanna “India still maintains the competitive advantage for
providing, the combination of the most cost-effective and high quality
manpower- this is India's strength in the off-shoring business”.

In the future, it is envisaged that
KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted only to Information Technology
(IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors, and includes
other sectors like Intellectual Property related services, Business Research
and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research
(Market research KPO), etc.

"Over the past year or two, the
outsourcing industry has been throwing up jobs for Doctors, Engineers, CAs,
Architects," says Jacob William of the Bangalore-based Outsource2India,
which employs 500 people and offers services in the big-buzz, big-bucks area of
knowledge process outsourcing. "Unlike the first wave which was more about
entering data and answering phone calls, these jobs involve skill and expertise."

Also, of course, the talent is much
more affordable. "Law firms in the US charge an average of $400-450 per
hour, and we do the same work for $75 to $100 an hour" says Kamlani"
who is an outsourcing provider in the same area.

In the Indian context, KPO salaries
could be 25-50 per cent higher than those offered to the same domain experts
such as Engineer, Doctor, CA, Lawyer, Architect, Biotechnologist, Economist,
Statistician and MBAs, it said.

In its annual publication Strategic
Review 2005, Nasscom has said the high-end activity of the BPO industry—the KPO
or knowledge process outsourcing could be worth $15.5 billion by 2010.

According to earlier estimates, the
BPO industry itself was expected to be about $20bn by 2008, hence a very
significant portion of the sector—in excess of 50% is now projected to be
knowledge based. This represents significant metamorphosis of call centre
sector business to completely different model. Interestingly, Sunil Mehta,
Nasscom vice-president research, distances himself from the estimates.

The projections are based on a white
paper released by Evalueserve. The paper cites reasons for a possible KPO boom.
It says higher savings by outsourcing knowledge based activities combined with
the scarcity of specialized talent in developed countries could lead to growth
in the KPO sector.

Billing rates for KPO are higher at
$30-45 per hour compared to just $10-14 in the BPO business. However, the paper
also warns of several challenges like higher quality standards, greater
investments and inadequate talent.

The study estimates that while the
compounded growth rate of BPO till 2010 would be just 26% KPO is expected to be
grow at almost 46%.

Bottlenecks in Future Growth

A study on Knowledge Process
Outsourcing (KPO) sector shows a huge supply gap that threatens to cripple its
growth. Rocsearch, a UK-based research services company, has gathered evidence
suggesting that the KPO market may just about reach a size of $5 billion by
2010, manned by 100,000 people instead of projections of a $12 billion market
supported by 250,000 employees.

This accentuates Nasscom's
projections of a shortfall of 500,000 workers in ITES and BPO sectors by 2010.

Assuming an average revenue per
person of $55,000 over the next four years, 100,000 knowledge workers point to
a $5 billion market. This size, though based on a CAGR of 32%, is still 60%
less than the $12 billion potential projected by big KPOs, like Evalueserve, last
year.

Rocsearch COO, Ashish Sinha says the
sector is restricted by low employability despite high graduate turnout, and
competing demand from other sectors as jobs grow faster than the workforce.

For example, all the 2,000-odd IIM
and top 10 B-School graduates are employable, while less than half the 84,000
graduates from Tier-II B-Schools would make the grade.

The study sees only 500,000 of the
over 3 million workers added to the labour pool in 2005 as employable in global
firms and of these, just 2 in every 100 are likely to opt for work in knowledge
space.

Rogueware Being Spread Via Forums and Social Networking Sites

2008-03-28T03:03:00.001-07:00

Most experienced computer users know how adware and spyware is spread.
Typically free programs that are designed for a certain purpose such as
KaZaA (for downloading music) are bundled with other applications which
contain adware or spyware. A new threat on the scene is called
“Rogueware”, Rogueware are meaningful files which in reality can be
quite malicious. The most common type of Rogueware are fake anti
virus/adware/spyware progams that once installed, say you have lots of
viruses/malware installed and in order for the program to remove them
you must pay for the full version. In the past, these programs
typically spread by advertising on other sites with banners saying
things like “1023 Viruses detected on your computer! Click here to fix it now!”.
Recently,I spotted a pattern in posts across a few forums he visited and reported
it to us. It appears to be another method of spreading rogueware.

What makes this interesting is that Spyware
Sweeper (not to be confused with the legitimate application Spy
Sweeper) is a known Rogueware program that masquerades as a spyware
removal program which asks for money to remove the fake infection.

This same group have been doing the exact same thing on other
forums where one of them creates a post saying that they have an
infection, and the other replies recommending SpywareSweeper as if they
were a helpful forum member.

If you look at the original post on Technibbles forums located HERE. And then look at the post on VirtualDr.com’s forums located HERE. You can see that the posts are almost exactly identical.

After doing a Google Search, I can find many other forums with the exact same post.

Technical forums are still an excellent way to get some computer
help, just look at who’s giving the advice on the forum. If the person
just signed up and has a post count of 1, it might be worth double
checking what they say.

Computer Processor Codenames: What the processors are and the inspiration behind the names.

2008-03-28T03:00:00.001-07:00

In the computer industry there are plenty of buzzwords that get
slung about when talking about the next generation of computer hardware
and CPU codenames are quite possibly the hardest to keep track of due
to the sheer amount of them. We have put together this list with the
codename of each of the existing AMD and Intel processors.

So what is the purpose of all the codenames?
Well, it allows the chip companies to talk about their upcoming CPU’s
without actually talking about them. The chip companies let slip the
barebones facts about the chips, give it a codename and let the
computer hardware geeks speculate and ask questions which makes for
great material to write about in the hardware industry.

Why the weird names? It seems most of Intels
processors codenames are inspired by local geography of the Pacific
Northwest of America. Alaska, Deerfield, Foster, Gallatin, Northwood,
Montana, Madison and McKinley are rivers in Alaska, California,
Montana, Massachusetts and Vermont.

The early series of AMD processors (eg. K5, K6-2) had their name
inspired by Kryptonite which is a fictional element from Superman
comicbooks (Im assuming this was set up to sound like AMD is Intels
kryptonite?). Some of the later AMD series were inspired by sports cars
(eg. Corvette, Mustang). Now that is cleared up, on to the list.

AMD Codenames	Processor Description	Socket/Slot
X5	5×86-133	Socket 3
SSA5	K5 (original PR75-PR100)	Socket 5, 7
5k86	K5 (newer PR120-PR200)	Socket 7
K6	The Original AMD K6 core (cancelled)	n/a
NX686	NexGen K6 Core which became the K6	Socket 7
Littlefoot	0.25µm K6	Socket 7
Chompers	K6-2	Socket 7, Super 7
Sharptooth	K6-3	Super 7
Argon	Previously K7	n/a
K7	Athlon	Slot A
K75	0.18µm Athlon	Slot A
K76	0.18µm Athlon (with copper interconnects)	Slot A
K8	Athlon 64
Thunderbird	Athlon	Slot A, Socket A
Mustang	Athlon with a large L2 cache (cancelled)	n/a
Corvette	Previously mobile Athlon (now Palomino)	n/a
Palomino	0.180.18µm Athlon XP/MP, Mobile Athlon 4	Socket A
Thoroughbred-A	0.13µm Athlon XP/MP 1700-2100+	Socket A
Thoroughbred-B	0.13µm Athlon XP/MP 1700-2400+, 2600-2800+, Semperon 2200-2800+	Socket A
Barton	0.13µm Athlon XP/MP 1700-2100+	Socket A
Thorton	Athlon XP (256KB L2 cache)	Socket A
Spitfire	Duron	Socket A
Camaro	Previously Morgan
Morgan	Mobile Duron & Mobile 7 Duron 900MHz - 1.3GHz	Socket A
Applebread	Duron 1.4 - 1.8GHz
Appaloosa	0.13µ Morgan	Socket A
ClawHammer	Athlon 64 (64bit)	Socket 754 & Socket 939
ClawHammer DP	Early name for the now Opteron DP	Socket 940
Newcastle	Althon 64	Socket 754 & Socket 939
Winchester	0.09µ Athlon 64	Socket 939
San Diego	0.09µ Athlon 64 and the Athlon 64 FX with SSE3 extensions	Socket 939
Venice	0.09µ Athlon 64 with SSE3 extensions	Socket 939
Odessa	0.09µ Mobile-version Athlon 64
Manchester	Athlon 64 X2 with 512KB L2 cache and SSE3 extensions	Socket 939
Toledo	Athlon 64 X2 with 1024KB L2 cache and SSE3 extensions	Socket 939
SledgeHammer	Opteron with a large L2 cache	Socket 940
Palermo	0.09µ Sempron	Socket 754
Paris	Sempron	Socket 754
Oakville	Mobile Athlon 64 and Sempron	Socket 754
Windsor	Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 FX-62	Socket M2
Orleans	Athlon 64	Socket M2
Manila	Sempron	Socket M2

Intel Codenames	Processor Description	Socket/Slot
P23	486SX	Socket 1, 2, 3
P23S	486SX SL-Enhanced	Socket 1, 2, 3
P23N	487SX (coprocessor)	Socket 1
P4	486DX	Socket 1, 2, 3
P4S	486DX SL-Enhanced	Socket 1, 2, 3
P24	486DX2	Socket 1, 2, 3
P24S	486DX2 SL-Enhanced	Socket 1, 2, 3
P24D	486DX2 (with write-back cache)	Socket 3
P24C	486DX4	Socket 3
P23T	486DXODP (486 Overdrive)	Socket 3
P4T	486ODPR (486 Overdrive)	Socket 1, 2, 3
P24T	PODP5V (486 Overdrive)	Socket 2, 3
P24CT	Pentium Overdrive 3.3v	Socket 2, 3
P5	Pentium 60/66MHz	Socket 4
P5T	Pentium Overdrive 120/133MHz	Socket 4
P54C	Pentium 75MHz - 120MHz	Socket 5, 7
P54CQS	Pentium 120MHz - 133MHz	Socket 5,7
P54CS	Pentium 120MHz - 200MHz	Socket 7
P54CT(A)	Pentium Overdrive	Socket 5, 7
P55C	Pentium MMX	Socket 7
P54CTB	Pentium Overdrive MMX	Socket 5, 7
Tillamook	Mobile Pentium MMX	Mobile Module
P6	Pentium Pro	Socket 8
P6T	Pentium II Overdrive	Socket 8
Klamath	0.35µm Pentium II	Slot 1
Deschutes	0.25µm Pentium II	Slot 1
Drake	0.25µm Pentium II Xeon	Slot 2
Tonga	Mobile Pentium II	Mobile Module
Covington	Celeron (Pentium II without cache)	Slot 1
Mendocino	0.25µm Celeron with 128KB on-die L2 cache	Slot 1, Socket 370
Dixon	Mobile Pentium II with 256KB on-die L2	Mobile Module
Katmai	0.25µm Pentium III with SSE	Slot 1
Tanner	0.25µm Pentium III Xeon with SSE	Slot 2
Coppermine	0.18µm Pentium III with on-die L2 cache	Slot 1, Socket 370
Tualatin	0.13µm Pentium III	Socket 370
Coppermine-T	0.18µm Pentium III with Tualatin Voltage	Socket 370
Cascades	0.18µm Pentium III Xeon	Slot 2
Coppermine-128	0.18µm Celeron with 128KB L2	Socket 370
Timna	Mobile Celeron with DRAM controller (cancelled)	n/a
P68	Willamette	n/a
Willamette	0.18µm Pentium 4	Socket 423, 478
Northwood	0.13µm Pentium 4	Socket 478
Prescott	0.09µm Pentium 4 with HyperThreading, Celeron D (Sockett 478), Celeron D (socket 775)	Socket 775
Smithfield	Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition	Socket 775
Presler	0.065µm Pentium D
Conroe	0.065µm Pentium D (with reduced power consumption)
Banias	130nm Pentium M with 1MB L2 cache
Yonah	Dual Core Pentium M and Single Core Celeron M
Merom	64bit version of the Yonah
Foster	Xeon DP	Socket 603
Foster MP	Xeon MP	Socket 603
Prestonia	0.13µm Xeon DP	Socket 603
Gallatin	0.13µm Xeon MP	Socket 603
Nocona	0.09µm Xeon (Socket 603) and Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (Socket 478 and Socket 775
Dothan	90nm Pentium M with 2MB L2 cache
P7	Previously Merced (Itanium)
Merced	Itanium	PAC 418
McKinley	Itanium 2 with 3MB on-die L3 cache	PAC 418
Madison	0.13µm Itanium 2
Deerfield	Low cost Madison
Montecito	0.09µm Madison
Shavano	Future Itanium family chip (Itanium 3?)
Dimona	Future Itanium family chip (Itanium 3?)
Tukwila	Future Itanium family chip (Itanium 3?)

Hackers, Crackers. Stop them before they come-in!

2008-03-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

It’s always big news when computers are broken into and sensitive information is stolen. But many a time, computer owners don’t even realise when somebody controls their computer and uses it for malicious activities.

You’ve probably also heard of emails that profess to be from banks or credit-card companies and prompt users to enter details that will enable the sender to gain access to these accounts. All such activities, which are designed to gain access to others’ computers, email, or personal information, are popularly termed ‘hacking’.

What is hacking?

Hacking, however, has another meaning. Before its pejorative interpretation became popular in the 1980s, hacking meant any activity designed to gain an intimate understanding of the internal workings of computers, computer networks or any other system.

In one of his articles on his website, Richard Stallman defines hacking as “exploring the limits of what is possible, in the spirit of playful cleverness”. In this context, hackers have no criminal intent; they are enthusiasts who enjoy understanding how systems work and what can be done with them.

The hacking community uses the term ‘cracking’ for activities that result in breaking security systems to gain unauthorized entry, and the people who do this are termed ‘crackers’.

The upside of hacking
Several organizations, including companies that make security software, employ hackers to strengthen their security systems and software. Called ‘ethical hackers’ or ‘white hats’, these people use their technical expertise and knowledge to test an organization’s security setup by actually trying to break into the setup.

To do this, hackers first gather as much information about the company as possible. They use Internet searches to find out more about the company, its financial results, and its employees. The hacker also uses domain-name searches to get the names of the servers that the company owns. After this, they use tools to look for vulnerabilities on these servers. These include servers where patches have not been applied for known bugs or inadequately protected servers. All the security holes thrown up in this exercise are then plugged by the organization.

Similarly, security software - antivirus programs or firewalls, for instance - is tested by allowing these hackers to break into computers or servers that are protected by the software in question.

The downside of hacking
Virtually anything can be attacked on the Internet. This includes your computer, your email account, and information you exchange with a banking or ecommerce site.

Hackers, or crackers, or black hats, use various means to launch such attacks. Social engineering is a currently popular method. This means that the cracker sends an email or makes a telephone call, professing to be from an authorized source, such as your bank, credit-card company or the system administrator of your email account. The cracker asks for information like username or password, or other such details, for ostensibly legitimate purposes.
Phishing is one form of social engineering, where you may receive an email professing to be from a trusted source, which prompts you to go to a website, which is actually bogus, to confirm certain personal details. Banking account or credit-card numbers form part of the information that’s stolen from you in this way.

Other ways of getting at your passwords include hash algorithms or dictionary attacks. There are several tools out there, most of them easy to get and use, designed for the specific purpose of discovering passwords.

Websites are attacked through several programs or by launching distributed denial of service (DoS) attacks. The latter involve throwing so many requests at a Web server for a particular service that the server gets jammed. Any Web server with known vulnerabilities is an easy target for such attacks. By breaking into the website of an online retailer, a black hat hacker can potentially steal credit-card information of online shoppers from the retailer’s database.

Another commonly used means of attack is to send email with malicious attachments or induce the user to visit a website that installs such mal-ware on the user’s computer. Pornographic websites or peer-to-peer networks are notable for this. Trojans are one such mal-ware that professes to be harmless, but includes a payload that is malicious. Some Trojans self-install when you click on them, and do things like deleting your files, or open a backdoor for a black hat on your computer.

Viruses and worms could also travel as Trojans. Trojans could also include keyloggers that log every stroke of your keyboard, including the passwords you enter; or spyware that notes your browsing behavior and communicates it to the installer, who may use it for advertising purposes.

Once your system has been compromised, the attacker could use it for anything—distributing more mal-ware, launching distributed DoS attacks, steal sensitive information, and so on. What’s more, most of these programs stay hidden after installation and often cannot be detected and deleted.

What you can do

Hacking, ethical or otherwise, is not very difficult to learn. The Web is full of resources for anyone who is interested in it.

However, as a computer user, whether at home or at work, there are several things you can do to block the entry of intruders into your systems.

The first thing to do is ensure that all your software is updated and you have applied patches for known vulnerabilities. This is especially true of the operating system and the Web browser. Second, your antivirus software has to be updated regularly. Consider installing a software firewall and an anti-spyware program to further strengthen security. This also holds true for Web and other critical servers in organizations. Intrusion-detection systems should be installed on such servers.

Then, use the Web and email wisely. You should not trust any email you receive blindly - in case you have received email that professes to be from your bank or other service providers, it’s better to check with them whether such an email has been sent. Banks usually do not send any email that asks you for personal details, especially passwords and PINs.. Similar caution should be exercised when visiting new websites. Be very wary of email from people you don’t know.

Also, keep your passwords secure by making them difficult to guess and changing them frequently. Don’t store your passwords on your PC. And do not share them with others.
Regards
Nikhil Deshmukh

Déjà vu

2007-12-03T09:02:00.001-08:00

Déjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book L'Avenir des sciences psychiques (The Future of Psychic Sciences), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness", "strangeness", or "weirdness". The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past. Déjà vu has been described as "remembering the future."

The experience of déjà vu seems to be very common; in formal studies 70% of people report having experienced it at least once. References to the experience of déjà vu are also found in literature of the past, indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to invoke the déjà vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies. Recently, researchers have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis

Types of déjà vu
Usually translated as 'already lived,' déjà vécu is described in a quotation from Charles Dickens:
“ We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time – of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances – of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it!”

When most people speak of déjà vu, they are actually experiencing déjà vécu. Surveys have revealed that as much as 70% of the population have had these experiences, usually between ages 15 to 25, when the mind is still subjectable to noticing the change in environment.nThe experience is usually related to a very ordinary event, but it is so striking that it is remembered for several years afterwards.

Déjà vécu refers to an experience involving more than just sight, which is why labeling such "déjà vu" is usually inaccurate. The sense involves a great amount of detail, sensing that everything is just as it was before and a weird knowledge of what is going to be said or happen next.

More recently, the term déjà vécu has been used to describe very intense and persistent feelings of a déjà vu type, which occur as part of a memory disorder

Déjà senti
This phenomenon specifies something 'already felt.' Unlike the implied precognition of déjà vécu, déjà senti is primarily or even exclusively a mental happening, has no precognitive aspects, and rarely if ever remains in the afflicted person's memory afterwards.
Dr. John Hughlings Jackson recorded the words of one of his patients who suffered from temporal lobe or psychomotor epilepsy in an 1889 paper:
“ What is occupying the attention is what has occupied it before, and indeed has been familiar, but has been for a time forgotten, and now is recovered with a slight sense of satisfaction as if it had been sought for. ... At the same time, or ... more accurately in immediate sequence, I am dimly aware that the recollection is fictitious and my state abnormal. The recollection is always started by another person's voice, or by my own verbalized thought, or by what I am reading and mentally verbalize; and I think that during the abnormal state I generally verbalize some such phrase of simple recognition as 'Oh yes – I see', 'Of course – I remember', but a minute or two later I can recollect neither the words nor the verbalized thought which gave rise to the recollection. I only find strongly that they resemble what I have felt before under similar abnormal conditions. ”

As with Dr. Jackson's patient, some temporal-lobe epileptics may experience this phenomenon.

Déjà visité

This experience is less common and involves an uncanny knowledge of a new place. The translation is "already visited." Here one may know his or her way around in a new town or landscape while at the same time knowing that this should not be possible.

Dreams, reincarnation and also out-of-body travel have been invoked to explain this phenomenon. Additionally, some suggest that reading a detailed account of a place can result in this feeling when the locale is later visited. Two famous examples of such a situation were described by Nathaniel Hawthorne in his book Our Old Home[6] and Sir Walter Scott in Guy Mannering. Hawthorne recognized the ruins of a castle in England and later was able to trace the sensation to a piece written about the castle by Alexander Pope nearly a century earlier.

Déjà vu

Nikhil Deshmukh

Papa Cj - World Stands Up

2007-12-03T08:15:00.001-08:00

this is funny as hell check it out

Power of Posetive thinking

2007-12-03T01:38:00.001-08:00

Check out how positive thinking works and how it will hep you to be successful

Law of Attraction video

2007-11-30T01:28:00.001-08:00

Law of Attraction

2007-11-30T01:24:00.001-08:00

The Law of Attraction is commonly associated with New Thought and New Age theories, beliefs, and practices. It states that people experience physical and mental manifestations that correspond to their predominant thoughts, feelings, words, and actions and that people therefore have direct control over reality and their lives through thought alone. A person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, beliefs and actions are said to attract corresponding positive and negative experiences, or "harmonious vibrations of the law of attraction". The "law of attraction" states "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your experience." Although this idea has been popular among certain philosophers and denominational adherents for centuries, the idea has received intense criticism from multiple circles in the media, the scientific community, and even some areas of the New Age Movement.

History
Some believers in the Law of Attraction cite a famous quotation from Gautama Buddha -- What you have become is the result of what you have thought as proof that the Law of Attraction has been known to mankind for millennia. It is also alleged that the same idea can be found in Hinduism and in the ancient Greek philosophies of the pre-Socratic Sophists. Some proponents also cite The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus as another ancient example of the belief, but a close reading of that text demonstrates that it deals with correspondences (As above, so below) and does not allege a causal relationship between a thought and the circumstances that befall the thinker.

One of the most important early books on this subject in the English language is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (1864 - 1912), which was published in 1902. The title derives from the ancient Jewish Book of Proverbs, chapter 23, verse 7: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is." Allen took this ambiguous idea of a correspondence between "a man's heart" and his existence to a logical extreme, stating that, "The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires -- and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own."

In America, Allen's idea that "the soul attracts" both that which it desires and that which it fears struck a resonant chord in the New Thought Movement. Working from Allen's premise that one's thoughts attract "circumstances" that affect one's mental and physical situation in life, William Walker Atkinson (1862 - 1932) used the term 'Law of Attraction' to describe the phenomenon in his 1906 book Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World. Atkinson was the editor of New Thought magazine and the author of more than 100 books on an assortment on religious, spiritual, and occult topics.

In the wake of Atkinson's success, other authors very quickly wrote their own books promulgating this new principle. For example, in 1907, just one year ater Atkinson's breakthrough was published, Bruce MacLelland brought out Prosperity Through Thought Force, in which he declared that "dwelling on any quality of mind adds that quality to you, whether it be helpful or injurious," and also clearly set forth what was to become a classic New Thought epigram: "You are what you think, not what you think you are."

In the wake of Atkinson's popularization of the Law of Attraction, dozens of authors in the first half of the 20th century addressed the topic under various names, such as "positive thinking", "mental science", "pragmatic Christianity," "New Thought", "practical metaphysics", and the "Law of Attraction."

In March 2006 a film named The Secret presented the "Law of Attraction" to a new generation, and was later developed into a book by the same name. The movie and book sold at a tremendous pace and gained widespread attention across the media from Saturday Night Live to Oprah in the United States.

In September 2006 Hay House published a book by Esther Hicks entitled the 'The Law Of Attraction' which reached the New York Times best-seller list.

21st century Christian bestsellers such as The 4:8 Principle, Bruce Wilkinson's The Prayer of Jabez, and Joel Osteen's recent work in particular present a similar message, although dressed in explicitly Christian terminology with tacit biblical support (such as Philippians 4:8 and the Prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10).

Some proponents of a more modern version of the Law of Attraction claim that it has roots in Quantum Physics. According to them, thoughts have an energy that attracts like energy. In order to control this energy, proponents state that people must practice four things:

* Know what one desires and ask the universe for it. (The "universe" is mentioned broadly, stating that it can be anything the individual envisions it to be, from God to an unknown source of energy.)
* Focus one's thought upon the thing desired with great feeling such as enthusiasm or gratitude.
* Feel and behave as if the object of one's desire is already acquired.
* Be open to receiving it.

Thinking of what one does not have, they say, manifests itself in the
perpetuation of not having, while if one abides by these principles,
and avoids "negative" thoughts, the Universe will manifest a person's
desires

This list of four steps, couched in quasi-scientific terms, is quite similar to, and was influenced by, the panetheistic "Seven Steps in Demonstration" first outlined in the famous non-denominational New Thought book Become What You Believe by Mildred Mann

Desire. Get a strong enthusiasm for that which you want in your life, a real longing for something which is not there now.
Decision. Know definitely what it is that you want, what it is that you want to do or have, and be willing to pay in spiritual values.
Ask. [When sure and enthusiastic] ask for it in simple, concise language. . . .
Believe. Believe in the accomplishment with strong faith, consciously and subconsciously.
Work. Work at it. . . a few minutes daily, seeing yourself
in the finished picture. Never outline details, but rather see yourself
enjoying the particular thing . . .
Feel gratitude. Always remember to say, "Thank you, God [or
the universe]," and begin to feel the gratitude in your heart. The most
powerful prayer we can ever make is those three words, provided we
really feel it.
Feel expectancy. Train yourself to live in a state of happy expectancy. . . . Act it until it becomes part of you, as it must and will.

And the most important fact is that, Believe in you Self, for instance, many of my friends tell me that they are lazy, by saying that constantly they actually BELIEVE in themselves and thats what happence, universe says "Your wish is my Command" and these people stays lazy. Rather they should always say I am not Lazy! and that will Work.

One of my friend Pankaj Muthe, in the course of general discussion said to me " Nikhil I am never Confused" and the way he said it, he actually believed in it, and I know for a fact that this guy never gets confused!

So folks remember "What goes around Comes around"; whatever vibes you will send to universe you are gonna get them back!

Nikhil Deshmukh

2007-11-30T01:09:00.000-08:00

Guys here is something i came across and would like you all to check. give me comments what you think about it

Nikhil

Marriage?.. or Market? The Great Indian Marriage Market

2007-11-05T01:09:00.001-08:00

Despite the economic and political empowerment of women, gender discrimination is all too alive in the country's marriage market
Have you read matrimonial in news papers? The most common lines you will come across are “Tall, slim, fair”

If you are a Woman and that too Indian, and if you are applying in Indian Marriage Market for the Position of Bride following are the pre-requisites

Tall, slim, fair (as in complexion), convent-educated, a working woman, a homemaker and, above all, `homely'.

These would have us believe that everyone is looking for a superwoman — a formidable deity raring to take on the challenging and often conflicting roles of super mom, glamour doll, a professional, and a compassionate homemaker and Rich.

And, it is this very mythical being whom eligible bachelors and their parents are increasingly seeking. Arranged marriages in India are undergoing a major transition, given the impact of modernisation on basic social values and institutions. Yet, even as modernity has promoted women's empowerment through education, legal reforms, political power and economic autonomy, gender discrimination is all too alive in the marriage market.

If you look at studies in these areas, you will be looking at continuity and change in Indian marriage patterns over a period of 30 years brings up interesting insights on the perceptions and aspirations of young men and women and their families within the institution of marriage.

A significant change, the study reveals, is that the "pretty" and "virgin" bride sought after in the 1960s has given way to a specific female ideal with an emphasis on physical attributes and earning capability. In the 1960s, while caste and family were important, the girl's "merits" were the prime concern.

Beauty was perceived more in terms of talent (like cooking, singling, household) rather than physical attributes; and "decent" dowry were the norm.

While education and caste considerations retained importance in the 1970s, "convent education" (a euphemism for `English-speaking' women), and "smart" were words used in a fairly big way. Specific physical requirements such as height and "fairness" were also mentioned. The 1970s also marked the emergence of the working woman.

The 1980s witnessed an increasing stridency of tone. Physical beauty — in terms of height and skin colour — clearly started becoming very important, to the detriment of "accomplishments" or talent. Adjectives like "pretty" and "virgin" gave way to terms such as "tall and fair". Working women came to stay, and income (the higher the better) became a virtue to be flaunted. During this decade, men put great emphasis on their background, their family, and the part of the world they were settled in, or wanted to settle in.

Adverts in the 1990s demanded the professionally qualified, physically perfect, working woman who was certainly not "pretty". Paradoxically, though, as the desire for the "1990s' woman" grew, there was also a growing yearning for the `homely' daughter-in-law, chosen through a matching of horoscopes.

On the whole, physical attributes of the woman gained importance throughout the period of the study, and acting as parameters of success in the marriage market. For both men and women, more emphasis was placed on professional degrees in the 1990s. In a positive development, women are beginning to get specific about the kind of work their men should be doing. Besides, in adverts for grooms, the requirement of an "only son" has shown a growing trend. This suggests a kind of protection for the bride from living with the pressures associated with the power structures of an extended family. Also, in today's urban context, the fact that the family inheritance is sure to accrue to one's husband is a definite advantage, she adds. However, as far as consideration for brides is concerned, caste, region and family have retained their importance throughout the timeframe of the study. Caste has also remained an important consideration for grooms.

In the face of the decline of the joint family, the demands on the potential bride and her family have become both specific and blatant. In an era of globalisation and free markets flooded with luxury goods, the bride's family is invariably expected to include these goods in the dowry package.

So, has anything really changed — in terms of people's perceptions and how women are viewed — in the Indian marriage market? There is no doubt that the motivation to acquire a bride who has the `right' physical attributes, who can bring in money (whether through a job or a dowry), and generally promote consumerist bliss, has intensified.

On the other hand, despite the growing accent on education and professional qualifications, the straight and narrow tunnel vision on the role of a woman, caste and family background remains unchanged. The relentless demands on woman continue.

Nikhil Deshmukh

http://lateralbol.blogspot.com

2007-11-05T00:42:00.000-08:00

guys I came across this amazing blog run by Mr.Pankaj Muthe, A Management Consultant and a well Renowned mentor. This blog basicaly speaks of different Ideas and very common things in our life with a very UNCOMMON angle. this blog is the best place if you are looking for lateral views and the discussions taken place on this Blog are high quality. Please visit.
Nikhil

Thinking... Lateral Thinking

2007-10-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

Thinking...
I belive that its the most powerful tool that Human's have been gifted with. Ability to think is something which makes humans different then any other animal.
Today I am thinking about Thinking..

Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model space forms and alien creatures and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. Words referring to similar concepts and processes include cognition, sentience, consciousness, idea and imagination.

Thinking involves the cerebral manipulation of information, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason and make decisions. Thinking is a highercognative function and the analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive psychology.