Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts

Buzz Burped !

Google Buzz has demonstrated precisely why - and how - engineers really shouldn't be let loose with human relationships.This, of course, is the failure of the engineering imagination to deal with the reality of human interaction.

Google tested Buzz internally a great deal before releasing it (the product was called "Taco Town" during testing) but the weakness of that is that it doesn't have many people who really hate each other internally. Or perhaps none. And of course stalking would be the sort of thing that would lose you your job at Google.


It's when you get into the grey outside world though that the black-and-white certainties that Google thinks it can apply to search (but which it actually tweaks repeatedly to stave off the people trying to game the search results) break down. And quickly.


We can hope that this real-world example will demonstrate to Google that it has made a real mistake by not letting people opt very carefully in to Buzz. But the question is, will it? |
Excerpt

>> Read more in guardian

Job security

Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr. JH the relaxing edge that most of the company loyal employees are struggling for today. Today, Mr. JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys “ the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years". Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. JH:

Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.

Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?
A: Well I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown. I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up; so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.

Q: Which number of job was that?
A: That was my third job.

Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying employer loyalty. But I was an idiot.

Q: Why do you say so?
A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ˜permanent job, so I need not worry about ˜what will I do if I lose my job. I could never imagine losing a job because of economic slowdown and not because of my performance. That was January 2002.

Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.
A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ˜company loyal and not money earning and saving loyal. But then you can save enough only when you earn enough. So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving “ I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.

Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?
A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring. You tell me “ can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No. So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.

Q: What have you gained by doing such things?
A: That's the question I was waiting for. In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a. In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.3 lakh p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24 lakh p.a. (without variable). I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.

Q: So you decided on your own hike?
A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a debt-free life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.

Q: So are you debt-free now?
A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR flat (1200 sq.. feet) plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs. I am laid off too but I do not complain at all. If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.

Q: Who is complaining?
A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining. They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty. Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too are laid off like me and pass comments to me “ why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12-14 lakh p.a. when they were laid off.

Q: What is your advice to professionals?
A: Like Narayan Murthy had said “ love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you. In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company's needs. Companies can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same. Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.

Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?
A: When a company does well, its CEO will address the entire company saying, ˜well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you. But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same CEO will say, It is MY company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go. So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.

An eMail forward, and a thought provoking stuff :)

Stint with Antivirus herd



Some times a forwarded file from a friend or a crack for your winmobile software. You never know, if the downloaded file is a virus or a clean software. However clean it looks, there are lot of ways computer gets infected by virus/malwares. It's always advisable not to open unknown files directly in desktop.

One safe way is to scan the file with many AntiVirus softwares, as most of the time one AntiVirus may not able to find the black spot. Also it's not advisable to install all available AntiVirus wares because they stalemate the system altogether. I found a free, safe and viable solution to scan with all available AntiVirus wares called - VirusTotal.

VirusTotal provides a fantastic
online service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses. Here's an interesting statistics of its usage on how many files were scanned and what's the common virus/malware affected user's system.
One of the safest & novel solution to open such suspicious files in desktop environment is using sandbox-based isolation program. I rely a lot on Sandboxie.
>> Try free virustotal to be in safe side

Beware orkut gals !

  • Google-owned social networking site, Orkut, is in trouble again in India. This time, a Delhi court has ordered an investigation into the portal, over a complaint by an air hostess whose obscene profile was allegedly posted on the site by some unidentified Oorkut user.
  • The air hostess says someone opened an account in her name and described her as a 'sex-struck woman'. She said the phone numbers given in the account belongs to one of her neighbors, an official at the Lok Sabha Secretariat, who has incidentally been receiving vulgar calls for sometime now. A case has been registered in this regard in Delhi, and authorities have directed its specialized cell to conduct investigations into the allegations and file a report by February 9.
  • In her plea, the 23 year old air hostess claims the act has damaged her image and reputation in society and says she has written to the National Commission for Women and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry against her criminal defamation, but no action has been taken so far. The air hostess says she discovered her profile on Orkut with a photograph of her in her uniform, on December 26, 2006. The person who put her on Orkut also made her a member of online communities soliciting sex. Incidentally, the profile of the miscreant was also connected to communities of air hostesses, both national and international airlines, and multi-national companies.
  • The malicious account had been been flooded with over 250 scrapss or messages by other members of Orkut, by the time she noticed it. Friends and family of the air hostess had immediately reported the matter to Orkut, which in turn had closed the account, but two days later, the profile was reopened.
  • If the guilty can be convicted, he or she can be sentenced to a rigorous imprisonment of up to five years with a fine of Rs 2 lakh under various Sections of IT Act and IPC.

via | tech2.com