Making Internet Banking More Secure

Recently someone tried to reset my net banking password. I called the bank but they were not even aware of it.

They told me they would check but no response.

All banks really want their customers to use net banking, its convenient for them and their customers. But not really secure.

Now i thought was there a way to make me more confident of using net banking.

I wish for users who have provided a email or mobile number, they would send a mail and a sms when their is any activity related to their account online or even offline. When this happens they could let the user respond via sms or click on a link in their email, when a customer does this, the user who is trying to access their account online is banned from accessing the site for sometime.

Seems like a logical thing to do to me. And when it comes to banking its required.

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Greed Plus Dumbness Equals Scam Victim

Recently someone asked me if a email they received informing them of the lottery they have won in UK was real and they should reply.

I mean till i told them its a scam they actually believed it was real.

Its strange. Each of us has heard atleast 100 times in our lives that anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is, than why do fools still fall for this.

Greed plus dumbness equals a scam victim, so be greedy or be dumb, but don't be both at the same time.

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1 - 2 - 3

1 - 2 - 3 are special numbers. For some reason in every sport, the first 3 people are awarded a medal. 

Ofcourse 1 is the best place to be to get maximum attention but 3 is atleast the last place you would want to be. Noone cares about 4, so dont bother, be where you can be 1 or 2 or 3.

Noone remembers the 4th best restaurant or 4th smartest guy in class or 4th smartest employee or the 4th best search result in a search engine. No one remembers the 4th product feature or benefit or the 4th vendor quote, noone remembers the 4th guy who finished the 100% metre race or the 4th country in the olympics medal tally.

Be 1 or 2 or 3, or dont be at all.

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CreepBook - When Its Time To Say "Enough"

"Privacy" - its a joke. Or it has been made into one. Every website has it though, most have i hidden or less prominent.

Try this - go to google.com, see where the "Advertising programs" link is and where the "privacy policy" link is, can you guess which is more prominent? and hence which is more important for google?

Markeeters want us to spend more time on their website they want to know more about you, about who you know, what you ahve or dont have, what you want, what you search for, what you view.

They want to know thsi so they can use it to better target their advertising, sell you something, create a economy.

Well that not the problem, problem is when the "data mining" thing gets too personal fro comfort.

If you are facebook or orkut you would know you get strange friends suggestions, people you dont have emails of, people who are not even in your addressbook or connected to someone you know...but they do..people have faced akckward situatiosn because of this..sometimes social sometimes professional.

Here are some ways facebook gets your "personal" data:

Its searches the general web for your name, email and tries to match them with other people.

It records every search for person and if someone searches for you, it matches (unlikely)

It searches twitter/myspaces/orkuts/hi5s and data mines publcily availables friends.

or maybe even browser hijacking..(unlikely)

but whatever it is, i wish facebook learns to "Ask" before it 'obliges".

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Conficker Worm Removal: If You Cannot Open Anti Virus Sites & Microsoft Sites

Conficker Worm changes your host file (if you don't know what it is, don't worry or search Google) in a way that you cannot visit anti virus sites or even most software company sites like MS. It also blocks your windows update manager from updating windows and anti virus and malware prevention software like McAfee, kaspersky, AVG and AdAware from downloading updates.

It basically renders your anti virus software useless.

If you have been infected by conficker virus here is what you need to do:

Step 1: go to start>run type cmd. Hit enter. In the command line (black screen), type "net stop dnscache" without the quotes and hit enter. It should show a message that says service successfully stopped.

Step 2: Download conficker tool from here http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99

Run this software. Thats it.

How to be sure if symantec tool was able to removal conficker?

Go back to step 1 and this type restart the dnscache service, type "net start dnscache" without the quotes and hit enter and try visiting any anti virus site like symantec. If you open these sites conficker has been removed. Your anti virus/xp software can now download updates.

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When Should Technology "Must" Be Free/Open Source/Open Standard?

I have pondered about this questions a lot, for years maybe & still i don't really know the answer. Technology business is so full of contradictions.

Money is a important factor why people innovate. Second motivations is fame. But money is ahead by a long shot.

Any one who invents something that will be used by masses is sure to make some good money, but he is also sure to want to keep the underlying technology proprietary/licensed/patented. Why because the who invented the technology has little incentive to give it away for free, and most time by charging a royalty fee the end products that use that technology will become too expensive for mass adoption.


I can only imagine what could have happened if father of internet had patented net itself and every else who used it would have to pay him a royalty from ISP's to hosting companies to individual users. That would have made him the richest man ever but the internet would have never been adopted by the masses.

We all need technology. Our lives are dependent on consumer technology.

There are things we all need:

1. Internet
2. A computer (and hence a operating system)
3. A search engine (to search the vast web)
4. Browser
5. Email
6. Basic software(word processor/spreadsheets etc.)


Then there are standards that need to be quickly adopted, like i am just happy that HTML is open / standardized but sad that its controlled by a closed minority.

I am happy that pdf is available but sad that its so tightly owned by one company. Same with .doc files or .wmv files.


Somethings just need to be free, open, standardized as soon as they are created/invented. Why? because it will foster more innovation, it will create quicker mass adoption.

So when does a technology demand to be made open source/free/standardized?

My answer would be when "everybody" needs it. Money should only be made products/technologies/services that are required by "few" or "some" or even "majority" but when "everybody" needs or is dependent on it, it should be free/open source/standardized.


Or at least something about it should be freely available.

I wonder if Microsoft provides all its operating systems for free (keeps some features locked it wants to) and then depends on a ad supported model or a "donation ware" model or both, would it create that big a dent in its business? Even if it took a financial hit, would it gain somethings in the longer run?

Whatever is the answer, operating systems should be free, software should be standardized and run everywhere, file formats should be open and standardized, browsers should free and based on donations.

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"I"

I posted "IF" by Rudyard Kipling sometime back...i figured it looks lot more pretty when you make a little change (atleast to me)..so i am posting it again with that change...let me know if someone else thinks as i do too..

"I can keep my head when all about me
Are losing theirs and blaming it on me,
I can trust myselfwhen all men doubt me
But I can make allowance for their doubting too,
I can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

I can dream–and not make dreams my master,
I can think–and not make thoughts my aim;
I can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
I can bear to hear the truth I’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things I gave my life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

I can make one heap of all my winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at my beginnings
And never breath a word about my loss;
I can force my heart and nerve and sinew
To serve my turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in me
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

I can talk with crowds and keep my virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
neither foes nor loving friends can hurt me;
all men count with me, but none too much,
I can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Mine is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–I am a Man!"

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Your Loss Is My Gain: How China Can Use Terrorism To Its Advantage

China is a different sort of a country. The Chinese are a different sort of people. I mean i love jackie chan, but forget not, most of the hacking/DDoS attacks on government institutions around the world start in China, China killed its own people when they asked for democracy, China is probably the only country in the world as of now that aggressively wants to occupy more land (taiwan, tibet, many parts of India, many parts of neighbouring countries), they have repeatedly prooved they only care about their objective of becomign a super power and beign a good world citizen is not their priority (nuclear proliferation, misslie proliferaton - pakistan, north norea, espionage - stealing classfied info from usa including nuclear info).

Well the point is i came across a company thats trying to sell its self using terrorism in India.

Here is the link to this company that suggests outsourcing providers should switch to China instead because there is terrorism in India.

Some people say terrorists rule China. Not me though ;-), i disagree.

I do agree to one thing though, terrorism is a problem, a huge problem, but China is too unpredictable to be a safe investment. India has way to many advantages and although the wages are rising ad the cost advantge is being lost, we  still have decades of assets, a brand called India and millions of hugely talented people to keep us ahead of the pack.

i wldnt be surprised if blogspot will suffer a ddos attack right out of bejing after this post, China brethern, relax a bit, smile, why so serious?

On a closing note china isn't compeltely untouched by terrorism either guess they have just been lucky someone isn't adding fuel to this fire, but for how long?

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"If" By Rudyard Kipling - heard it?

Found this piece by Kipling...and liked it..so here it goes..

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!"

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Remember The Spammers & Scammers

I was just reminded today, one more time, how most of us who build large scale web apps forget the spammers so easily.

Viewed this website and searched for google. The website basically provides sites similar to the site you put in, if you put a search engine, ideally it should have given you another search engines.

When people build apps, especially the user generated content types, spammers need to be taken care off.

Spam and spammers are a big part of the web, they need to be given the attention they deserve, we need to keep them in our mind when we make our apps.

Misuse of any system is inevitable, but if you don't expect it, you run the risk of turning the entire system unusable, like in the case of tagomatic

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Marissa Mayer Says Sorry On Google's "This Site May Harm You" Issue

Marissa Mayer, Googles, cute(plus hot) but smart VP, Search products and user experience said sorry in a blogpost titled "This site may harm your computer on every search result?!?!"

I am assuming the questions marks and exclaimation marks in the end stress the significance of the issue.

She did give a half baked explaination that would almost make your believe it came from paris hilton or something and here is the explaination:

she says "We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs"

Hmm the url of "/". I wonder if there is a way of explaining this problem in a better way. VP of shit sucks and what not. Get Paris hilton in, she would do as good i'm guessing.

But honestly who cares, the female is hot, when she says sorry you smile and move on.

I'm only wondering how many times did the adword revenues went up during these 40 minutes.

Update: Google blog stops showing trackbacks on their blogpost. And also somehow promotes its own blog post with clarification on top of their search engine for related terms("this site may harm your computer), coincidence? I have never seen Google work that fast for sure. And not showing blogs that link to their blogspot is again somewhat grey. 

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Government of India Plans $10 PC

I recently read a news in Indian Express a national daily. According to the news government of India in association with IIT Madras and IISc Bangalore plans to laundh a $10 PC for students.

They also plan to provide free e-content that students can download and use.

Just below the news someone comments saying something that seems too good to be true, probably is.

Lets face it, IISc is not going to make chips, they are going to use off the shelves chips available. They are not going to build motherboards they will borrow a twaiwan made motherboard.

The cost of a TFT display will be more than $10.

India has always been fascinated by quantity. China is not different.

Only problem is when it comes to education, quality is what we need, not quantity.

I only wish they would have provided somethiing actually useful even if it costed little more, they would exempt broadband services from taxes for next 10 years and let broadband penetration increase in India.

This is whn you start to doubt their vision. I just hope this does not end up being some policitians cheap shortcut to fame.

I'll keep an eye on this one. 

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When Google Gets Fucked: All Sites On The Web May Harm Your Computer

Just about 15 or so minutes(8.30 PM IST) i noticed that whatever you search for, below every search result Google shows a "This Site May Harm Your Computer" warning.

First i thought its only my pc, but then when i checked with some other people the problem was faced with pretty much everyone.

It seems Google has some internal bug, or the server that checks if a site is harmful is screwed up.

Ths funny part is this is the first time i have seen a major issue with Google. Its ok for tech savvy users who understand its just a minor problem with google and that is why its giving this warning message by error, but less tech savvy users would probably think that there is something wrong with the website they were going to visit.

Funnier still is the fact that if you click on result you are taken on a warning page which asks you to either return back to Google or copy paste the link of the website, which is eomthing not many people would do.

The effect of this would be that people will click on ads on the right side more, which amazingly does not wanr users if a advertisers site cna harm your computer. 

I wldnt be surprised if Google click through rates and their revenue jumps by 20-40% till this issue is fixed.

I am curious as to what happened.

Update: Things seem to be fixed now, I am just wondering if someone uploded the wrong file at the wrong place(overwriting shit), makes you realise at the end of the day google is a website too, they fuck up too, so much for 25,000 employees.

 

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In.com sends users a black mail email..

Greetings from IN.com Mail!

We'd like to thank you for having tried your cool, short IN.com email address. 

You've not logged into your account for the last three months, and as part of our "use it or lose it" policy, if you don't login to your account within the next week days, we'll need to delete your email address. 

Once we delete your email address, you will lose all data in your email account, and the address will be available for anybody else to register and start using as soon as it has been deleted.

If you like IN.com mail, and would want to continue using your account; we would request you to login to your email account now, else your account will be deleted by 5th Feb, 2009.

Sign in to IN.com Mail Now!

We've sent this message both to your IN.com account, and your alternate ID. 

Hope you will continue enjoying your IN.com Email Address,

Cheers,
IN.com Mail Team



I remember Hotmail trying this arm twisting by deactivating user emails, but deleting account is something new.

The only problem with this approach is you are showing your customers "we dont care that much" 

And a customer who is registered by not using your service means, he was interested in your service at some point but found a better alternative. 

Deleting such mails sounds like axing your own foot, because if a user is signed up even if he is not using your service, you can reach out to him anytime as you better your service, this atleast gives you a hope that this user will return and start using our service.

By deleting a user account, you only blow the investment you made in getting a user to your site in the first place.

I knw it sucks when users sign up but dont use a service, but this one is a bad strategy network18.

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