Hello Buddy! | வணக்கம் தோழா | नमस्ते दोस्त

लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु

Lokāḥ Samastāḥ Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings find happiness and freedom. May my actions help bring joy and liberation to everyone.

Hey there, I'm Balakumar Muthu, an International Award-Winning Technologist, TEDx Fellow, and Entrepreneur recognized with the Top 50 Asia Innovation Award from SingTel Singapore, Top 100 Startups Award from NASSCOM, First Prize Winner of the Java Master Award & Duke's Choice Award from Sun Microsystems and BenQ Siemens Germany, and the Red Herring Asia Award for technology innovation.

With over 19+ years as a multidisciplinary software consultant and architect specializing in UI/UX design and product engineering, I've worked with businesses ranging from B2B/B2C startups and SMEs to enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, with a particular focus on Japanese companies. I have extensive experience in designing, building, and scaling exceptional web applications, SaaS platforms, e-commerce sites, community and Social Networking Services (SNS), online marketplaces, and enterprise applications to address both technology and business challenges across various domains.


My Entrepreneurial Journey

↪ some of my notable early startups and ventures


I specialize in most aspects of web business, including Product creativity, design, development, strategy, and scaling growth. Throughout my entrepreneurial career, I've launched various startups, successfully scaled businesses from scratch to successful exits, and also learned invaluable lessons from ventures that didn't succeed. Listing some of my notable previous startups and ventures:


LoveLogger As an entrepreneur, my journey began in 2007 when I founded LoveLogger, the world's first private pair-blogging social platform for any two people, which received a massive viral response from China, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea.

LoveLogger was awarded the "Asia's Top 50 Apps Award" from SingTel Singapore and the "Red Herring Asia Award" for Technology Innovation. I designed and developed the complete idea, UI/UX Design, architectural framework, and web cloud hosting for the LoveLogger website, successfully scaling the platform from zero to over 80,000+ users before its acquisition.

LoveLogger was featured in many prestigious internet magazines, including Yahoo! Japan, MSN Japan, Infoseek, Japan.Internet.com, Livedoor.com, Sina.com, and various other popular Asian publishers. Learn More »


Coworkable In 2013, I founded Coworkable, an early pioneer in the coworking space industry. Coworkable is a global network and community for discovering and renting affordable, accessible Coworking spaces, Shared office spaces, desks, Business centers, and meeting rooms in the Asia-Pacific region.

Coworkable gained significant recognition in the startup ecosystem, being selected as one of the Top Startups at the NASSCOM Product Conclave. I designed and developed the entire UI/UX, architectural framework, and web cloud hosting for the Coworkable website, successfully scaling the platform from zero to listings from 387 cities across 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region before its successful exit. Coworkable.com also served team members from various leading global organizations including Google, Zoho, Citibank, BBC News, JLL, Serv Corp, and Coca-Cola.

Coworkable also forged strategic partnerships and collaborated with prominent organizations, including World Startup Fest, Coworking Europe Conference, Global Coworking Unconference Conference (China), Startup Weekend, BarCamp Bengaluru, YourStory TechSparks, Coworking India Conference, World Office Expo Conference, BITS Pilani's Conquest Entrepreneurial Center, Devspace Conference by VIT & Computer Society of India, STARup Summit, Tomorrow's India Conference, and Construkt Startup Festival, among others (view full list). Learn More »


Note My current ongoing ventures are not listed here for business reasons.


My Core Tech Expertise

↪ end-to-end web applications are my specialization—ux/ui design, development, and scaling


UI/UX Product Engineering Expertise in crafting human-centered, intuitive experiences through Design Thinking, User Research, Cognitive Science, User Experience (UX) Design, User Interface (UI) Design, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Information Architecture, Product Design, Frontend Design, Dashboard & Portal Design, Typography, Color Theory, Branding, and Accessibility

Full-Stack Product Development Building and scaling exceptional experiences across Web applications, SaaS platforms, E-commerce, online marketplaces, social networks, payment gateway integration, content management systems (CMS) and enterprise applications.

Server & Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Computing, Open-Source Technologies, Linux Server Administration, Ubuntu Server, Linode Cloud Server, Web Hosting & Server Setup, LAMP Stack, Apache, Docker, Server Administration, Server Hardening, Firewall Configuration, Web Security, DNS Management, Email Server Setup, Backup & Recovery, Server Migration, and Server Monitoring.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Emerging Technologies Building intelligent automation, AI-driven products, Generative AI (Gen AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Agents, Prompt Engineering, Computer Vision (CV), Open Source AI Models, Robotics, and non-fungible tokens(NFTs).

Growth Hacking & Digital Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Copywriting, Creative Campaign Development, Landing Page Optimization, Marketing Automation, Google Analytics, Keyword Research, Market Share Analysis, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising, Google Ads, and Brand Positioning.

Industry Domains Experience spans across multiple industry domains, including Education Technology (EdTech), Social Networking Services (SNS), Retail Technology (RetailTech), Real Estate Technology (PropTech), Job Portals & Recruitment Platforms, Logistics & Supply Chain Technology, Content Management Systems (CMS), and Cloud Architecture.


Awards & Recognitions

↪ some of my selected honors and achievements



Google India Selected me as one of the Top 5 Finalists for Google India - Interview after 8 rounds of challenging and rigorous technical interviews out of 16,000+ total applicants. Created Google Kids, search engine prototype for Kids — which I demonstrated during the Google India interview.

NASSCOM Top 100 Startups Award – Selected my Startup as one of the "Top 100 Startups" to get showcased at NASSCOM Product Conclave (NCP), Asia's largest platform for Product and Startup Companies to connect with Software Product leaders.

SingTel - Asia's Top 50 Apps Award My Previous Startup LoveLogger, the world's first Collaborative Blogging & Private Network for Pairs, was awarded the “Asia's Top 50 Apps 2011 Award” (winner lists) from SingTel, Singapore and the Winner of "Red Herring Asia Award" for Technology Innovation. It was also featured in many popular magazines & portals from Japan, Korea, and China.

Java Master Award First Prize Winner of "Java Master Award " contest, conducted by Sun Microsystems and BenQ Siemens Germany. Received Sun Microsystems Duke's Choice Awards - 10 Year Celebration of Java Technology and Sun Microsystems appreciation for my contribution to the early versions of Java Platform.

TEDx Fellow Recognized for innovative thinking and selected to share ideas worth spreading that inspire change on the TEDx stage.

Certified Yoga Instructor An Officially Certified Yoga Instructor and Practitioner Specializing in Hatha Yoga. As an alumnus of Ramakrishna Mission, I approach yoga as a profound lifelong journey of learning and self-discovery. My yoga practice is rooted in the holistic teachings of Swami Vivekananda, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, and the Swami Sivananda tradition.

Korea Honorary Reporter Selected as the Official Honorary Reporter for the Korean Culture and Information Service of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to promote South Korea to Indian audiences by showcasing its travel, culture, and food through my articles.

Top Tech Blogger, India I started tech blogging in 2002 during my early days and listed as the 'Top 30 Tech blogger' by 'Blog Street India' and rated as the 'Top 50 Tech Blogger' by 'Blogs Top List'. My Tech blog is also listed as Favorite Blog lists at their Official Sun Microsystems Web Blog. My Tech blog posts have also been featured at Google Blogoscoped.com, Netscape.com, Java.net, Webpronews, Planet Mozilla, Linux Toy and few other popular blogs.

W3C HTML5 Working Group & Internet Society (ISOC) India Served as an early contributing member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML5 Working Group, which was responsible for developing the HTML5 specification and advancing it to formal W3C Recommendation status. Also a member of the Internet Society (ISOC) India Chapter, supporting internet development and advocacy .

Wikipedian Contributed to 100+ Wikipedia pages across Computer and Internet Technology topics including software development, web technologies, programming languages, networking protocols, and emerging tech trends, improving technical knowledge accessibility for a global audience.


My Travel & Culture Photo Journal

↪ finding & documenting my travel & culture through photo stories


Casual Walker Casual Walker is the most travel + culture phogo guide and one of the top 50 travel blogs in India — a curious discovery journal that I started in 2017, having travelled across 637 cities and locations, and authored 650+ travel photo guides, finding, exploring, and documenting uniquely authentic local photo stories, guides, and tips.

At Casual Walker, I visually discover and showcase thoughtful documentary photography stories and guides covering Travel Adventures to Timeless Indian Traditions, Ancient Indian Temples, Mesmerizing Art Galleries & Exhibits, Cultural Events & Festivals, Museums & Historical Sites, Vibrant Flavors of Local Indian Food and Culinary Delights, Hotels and Stays, Dance Performances & Art Forms, Yoga & Vedas, Wildlife, Nature & Living, and Reviews.

Casual Walker's work has been featured in Hinduism Today Magazine, British Council India, The Better India, Times of India, Puthiya Thalaimurai TV, Thanthi TV, Citizen Matters, and various other media. Learn More »


Personal Interests

↪ my favorite hobbies, activities, and passions


I travel extensively, mostly on solo trips, and love backpacking and trekking. I'm deeply drawn to minimalism and simple living, and have zero presence on most social media platforms. I enjoy immersing myself in exploration, photography and nature, and love reading books. I'm fascinated by the depth of Vedanta, Yoga, and Zen philosophy, art, and culture, particularly Indian, Japanese, and Korean traditions. I love spending time with my dog and tinkering with personal DIY projects. I'm also a huge fan of classic Western movies and comics.


CONTACT ME

↪ send me a message drop me a line and let's talk


I'm passionate about connecting with fellow entrepreneurs, innovative minds, and creative thinkers. Whether you have a project in mind or you're looking for a UI/UX product designer, design advisor, or long-term design partner—feel free to drop me a line. I enjoy meeting new folks, discussing startup strategies and product engineering, and personally respond to every message.



My Early Open Source & Community Advocacy



As a strong supporter of the open source and free software movement, I have had the privilege of meeting with influential pioneers in the field, including Richard Stallman (RMS), founder of GNU and the Free Software Foundation, and David Axmark, Cofounder and VP of MySQL at IIT Madras and Jimmy Wales cofounder of Wikipedia at WikiCamp Chennai for spreading the open source and free software movement.

I co-organized and active supporter of the early edition of Mozilla Firefox Party India, celebrating the Firefox 2 release, along with IdeaCamp Pune, BarCamp, BlogCamp, - Unconferences to regular attendee of major tech conferences including Sun TechDays, BEA Dev2Dev Days, Oracle Developer Forum, Google Developer Days and many other tech conferences.

Brand designer of the first edition of DevCamp India Unconference Official event brand and WikiCamp conference India event brand, participated by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. Being a big supporter of Linux - Ubuntu & Open source movement, organized the "Ubuntu Dapper Drake T-Shirts Contest" to create more awareness and interest for the early versions of Ubuntu Linux.

Made my own blogging site at Yahoo! Geocities as geocities.com/i5bala (screenshots) in early 2002.

My Works featured at press / media


My works have been featured & covered by ZDNet Asia, Economic Times, British Council India, Times of India (TOI), Citizen Matters, Yahoo! Japan, MSN Japan, Infoseek, Japan.Internet.com, Livedoor.com, Google Blogoscoped, Netscape.com, Java.net, Webpronews, Planet Mozilla, Linux Toy, DeveloperIQ, Sina.com and many other popular Asian publishers. Java.net published my Java Duke Holiday Pictures from 1000's of submission.

My Travel & Culture Photography


Contact & Reach me


Want to work together, grabbing a coffee, or say hello? Good! personally, I have zero presence on Facebook or Twitter. You can ping and text me:


Self - made man

the statue I greatly admire & the principle I strongly believe

“... left to his own devices, man will use his god-given talents to be creative, productive, & prosperous...”
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Mobile Money with Near Field Communication [NFC]!

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No need to carry our wallet any more ... A tiny add-on chip which will turn our mobile into a credit card, bus schedule, concert ticket and much more. An NFC chip in our phone will send our credit-card number—stored on our phone or on the chip—by way of short-distance radio waves. An electronic reader at the checkout will decode the number and ring up our purchase. We can use it in all our phones just need to add, the miniSD-card-size adapter from SanDisk can add NFC to any smartphone with a Symbian operating system. Only thing to take care is just keep our mobiles safe. Check out how it can be used... >>

Inside the World's First PC: Kenbak-1

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Kenbak-1, which is considered by many as the world's first Personal Computer. It represents the first commercially available Von Neumann computing device intended and priced for personal use. Check out the cool collection of Kenbak-1 PC photo gallery. >>

Highly Confusing Invalid, Error Message in Microsoft Hotmail !!

Yesterday while surfing the net, I needed a test email account, so I tried to create a new email account in Microsoft Hotmail.


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I tried to create a new email account as 'thisisjustatestmail@hotmail.com', and checked the availability of the email id, but it throwed me an error message saying, " The e-mail address contains a word or phrase that is not allowed. Please type another e-mail address.". I am highly confused with the message, why the email id is not allowed; I don't find any phrase or word anything invalid. They only contains alphabets, have a look at it yourself.


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Usually, if the e-mail is taken by some one, we will be getting Error message like "The e-mail address is not available. Please try a different address", as seen below


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Next, I tried with creating different account called 'ilovemicrosoft@hotmail.com' [not exactly, just for fun :)] and checked for the availability. But I received the same error message as " The e-mail address contains a word or phrase that is not allowed. Please type another e-mail address.". Is it because ilovemicrosoft, is something not valid, not even Microsoft believe that some one loves them ??


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My next attempt tried in bit-tempered mood, creating account as 'ihatemicrosoft@hotmail.com', once again the same error message!!


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I am just fed up with process; felt I am just wasting my time at Hotmail. So I finally tried to name my account same as 'iamwastingmytime@hotmail.com', and managed to successfully create my new Hotmail account :).


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iamwastingmytime@hotmail.com is ready to go... but I am not ready, just left Hotmail and continued with my coding, peacefully ;).

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Although it doesn't seems to be a big issue, I am not able to understand on what basics Hotmail validates with such Error message. Do you find anything in the word 'thisisjustatestmail', 'ilovemicrosoft', 'ihatemicrosoft', which is invalid ...any one got any idea... please correct me if I am wrong... do drop in a line.

--
Balakumar Muthu



5 Comments:

At 11:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...
I'm going to guess they have a filter with restricted words like : microsoft, test, mail, billgates, etc.
 
At 6:37 AM, Blogger udayms said...
This is definitely an interesting research!! :)

http://blog.udayms.com
 
At 3:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...
I stopped using Hotmail a long long time ago. Why use when there is stuff like GMAIL.
 
At 3:49 PM, Blogger balakumar said...
Ya I am also a GMail user... but I need a account for one of my test mail, I tried it in hotmail ...
 
At 8:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...
i encourage with the first comment

"I'm going to guess they have a filter with restricted words like : microsoft, test, mail, billgates, etc."

i'm one of you, that was annoyed by this microsoft's idea..

first, i try to sign up the new mail and i want to use my name in this account.. my name is Porntawe, so i want to use wee.porntawe@hotmail.com

then.. i found the same error as you.. and it made me so confuse!

i want to find out why microsoft not allow me to use this account and that leads me to this topic.

i suddenly know why i can't use my name in Hotmail. you know why?

i already told you that my name is PORNtawe!!

i click back to the hotmail's subscription page and try
"wee.pontawe@hotmail.com"
and click "Check Avilability"

then microsoft told me:
"The e-mail address wee.pontawe@hotmail.com is available."

god bless you microsoft..
and i'll use Gmail..

Redesign of Famous Logos in Web 2.0 Format

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Checkout this great collection of famous logos which are redesigned in Web 2.0 format. Most of the redesigned looks so great, then their previous old logos. Nice innovative redesign. >>

Spam Plants : Art With Spam !

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Alex Dragulescu, has applied techniques in computational modeling and information visualization to invent a new form of artistic expression. One of his more notable projects involved creating what he calls spam plants. He wrote algorithms that analyzed various text and data points of junk e-mail to produce "organic" images of plantlike structures that spontaneously grew based on incoming spam. He explains "Spam is a random piece of literature, it has unseen effects, it changes all the time. And it's led me to see text differently."... Interesting works check it out. >>

Changing Mozilla Firefox's Default Icon to Java Coffee Cup!!

Changing Firefox's default icon is relatively simple. This is how we can change them from default icon to Java coffee cup or any other icon image.

How to change:

  1. Go to the Mozilla Firefox folder [e.g. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\] and then go to the subfolder chrome.
  2. In chrome, go to icons folder. Next, go to subfolder called default. The full path to this folder could be like C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\chrome\icons\default\.
  3. Fianlly, choose the .ico you want to use and then place it in default folder and rename it to 'main-window.ico', and restart the Firefox !!

10 Common Words Uttered by Programmers !!

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The Most common 10 word phrases uttered by programmers, when getting bugs or errors while programming are listed below:

1. uh-oh God
2. it's weird
3. f**k
4. come on
5. shit
6. it worked yesterday
7. ^#!%& microsoft
8. stupid computer
9. cuppa time
10. more coffee

Anything more left out to be added ??

Dual-Booting Windows and Linux the Easy Way : Videos !!

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Checkout this Linux.com's videos about the dual-booting Windows and Linux in easy way. It consists of four videos in simple steps through the process of downloading Gnome Partition Editor from SourceForge.net, defragmenting Windows, shrinking your Windows partition, and installing the three most commonly-used Linux partitions. >>

Google Vision Gadget !!

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UK designer Callum Peden has come up with a product idea for Google called Google Vision, the concept involves a gadget about the size of a cell phone with built-in GPS that scrolls out to reveal a flexible screen. Its purpose would be to use image recognition and GPS data to tell you what we are looking at. The image would be compared against a database of objects known to be near the physical location identified by the GPS electronics. Nice concept !! >>

Azureus : Java BitTorrent Client

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Azureus is a Java-based BitTorrent client which comes bundled with many invaluable features like Multiple torrent downloads, Upload and download speed limiting, both globally and per torrent, Advanced seeding rules, we can use a proxy, for both tracker and lots more features. I just love the cool simple interface. >>

How Does Anti-Virus Works !!!

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A basic explanation of how Anti-Virus really works

Generally, the Viruses Enters our System:

Running an infected file from removable medias like floppy disk, CD or other vulnerable medium.

When Opening a web age which contains malicious code.

Opening an infected file sent over P2P Network.

When we open un-scanned attachments in e-mail our messages.


The Antivirus Software constantly checks and monitors our system, when it detects an infected file, or when it sees suspicious activity; it uses the most common 3 methods to identify the virus.

Signature Method

Just like cops trace patterns in crimes back to a criminal, the Anti-virus software reverse engineer a virus to find the signature it leaves. This signature is added to the database, which when the anti-virus performs a virus scan, each file is scanned for matches with any of the virus signatures.

Sandbox Method

The Sandbox is a method, which emulates an OS. The suspected executable file is run within the confines of a sandbox, and then the sandbox is examined to see what changes were made. These changes are used to determine which virus infected the file.

Heuristic Method

In this method, the anti-virus analyses a program for seemingly malicious behavior. Heuristic is effective against undocumented new viruses.

After the Virus is found, Antivirus software removes the infected files by:

Removal of the Virus

First the anti-virus tries to remove the viral code from the file. It is the best method and no harm is made to the infected file or the system.


Quarantine of the Infected file

The Anti-virus tries to make the file inaccessible to other programs, by moving the infected file to unreachable location in the system, without deleting it.

Deleting the Infected file

The Anti-virus deletes the file if the virus cannot be safely removed from the infected file.

Physical removal of infected file

If the infected file is in use by the Operating system, the anti-virus asks the user to delete the file and replace the file manually from a clean backup.

Seeking Help

If the virus has changed the registry and the anti-virus can't reverse the changes. The user is directed by the anti-virus to the anti-virus software's website to get an online help on what registry keys to be change or delete.


If all the methods fails to remove the virus or the infected file is critical, the anti-virus boots through the secondary OS to access files being used by the infected Operating System to remove the infected file.

HP's Sticky Memory Spot Computer !!

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Researchers at Hewlett-Packard's labs have come up with button-sized computer called stick-on memory spot that can stick on any document and data on the devices can be erased and rewritten several times. The basic concept of Memory Spot is similar to RFID tags, but the data rates are of magnitude higher and higher capacity. >>

Blogspot/Geocities/Typepad Blogs Blocked in India ??!! :(

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Indian Government has passed an order to all ISPs to block several websites which includes Blogspot, Geocities, Typepad blogs :(. I don't what is happening with the indian government and on what basics this sites are banned. I am really feeling very ill with out blogging :(. Just managed to login to the blogger dashboard website... and post :) ... checkout the blog censorship wiki and cast your views ...>>

Summer's Hottest New Gadgets !!

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Check out the Summer's Hottest New Gadgets, listed by Popular Science Magazine, the clock that beams the time onto any flat surface in our home, a laptop mouse that transforms into a VoIP handset, Moto USB plug and other hot gadgets around. Nice cool collections and bit cheap too. >>

Top 16 Interesting Security White Papers !!

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Network Security Best Practices

http://cisco.com/warp/public/126/secpol.html

Secure Operating System

http://www.jya.com/paperF1.htm

Virus in UNIX Networks

http://www.cybersoft.com/whitepapers/papers/print/networks_print.html

Linux Network Security

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Security-HOWTO/

Spyware, Adware Security

http://ww2.websense.com/docs/whitepapers/spywareyouprobablyhaveit.pdf

Network Security Whitepapers

http://www.securitydocs.com/

Sun Software White Papers

http://www.sun.com/software/whitepapers/index.xml

Virus, Malicious Code Protection for Wireless Devices

http://download.antivirus.com/ftp/white/wireless_protection022801.doc

Instant Messaging Security, privacy tips

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/online/imsafety.mspx

Network Security Issues

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/media/pdf/Hurwitz_wp.pdf

Email exploit detection engine

http://secinf.net/anti_virus/why_you_need_an_email_exploit_detection_en

Collection of Network Security Whitepapers and Presentations

http://cyber.com/section.php?section=papers

Why Phishing Works

http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~rachna/papers/why_phishing_works.pdf

Trojan White Paper

http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?docid=235631&promo=100202

Antivirus Vendor Whitepapers

http://antivirus.about.com/od/vendorwhitepapers/

Window Security Whitepapers

http://www.windowsecurity.com/whitepaper/misc/

Java Powered : Search Inside the Music Project

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Search Inside the Music project is a content-based music recommender/browser and exploration tool that includes a number of visualizations of the 'music space'. It is a research project at Sun Labs which is been exploring new methods of searching music by its acoustic content and context. This project is aimed at helping people find and organize their music based on the properties of the music itself: lyrics, musical theme, melody, tempo, rhythm, and instrumentation. >>

Steve Jobs for Jesus !!!

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[click to see the full size image]

Checkout this religious pamphlet using Steve Jobs' career as a way of promoting Jews for Jesus. Read the top three first from left to right, then the bottom half. Steve hitting the past, present and the future. >>

9 Ways to Work Life Balance: The Key to an Individual's Fulfillment !!

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Striking the right balance is the key to a fulfilling life. Whether you are spiritually inclined or not, the truth is that, balance is central to our very universe. The earth revolves around the sun and as long as that happens, the human race will continue to exist.

From the Upanishads to The Bible, from The Talmud to The Koran, numerous passages call upon individuals to lead balanced lives. Yet, in the rat race of our present-day existence, especially in the long-working-hours ethos of our industry, we forget to maintain a balance between work and family. The result is devastating; High levels of stress, trauma and even nervous breakdowns.

An individual's life can be divided into four basic quadrants - self, workplace, family and friends and community. All of us face the 'Why' factor from the time we take our first breath. And as we grow, the 'Why' follows us like a shadow. The manner in which we tackle the question determines the manner in which we function.

Why does one seek a higher salary? Why does one long for a better house? Why does one go to work? Why does one want to do well?

Why? Why? Why?

Two simple concepts determine the answer: the sense of achievement and the resultant joy.

Happier employees are more productive and more loyal. More productivity adds to a healthier bottom line. Work-Life Balance (WLB) enables a company to retain the best candidates for their open positions, increasing productivity even further. In short, there's everything to gain for both the employer and the employee.

Here are Nine Tips to a Better life:

1) SIMPLIFY

Learn to say `No' if it affects your schedules. You don't have to be busy all the time.
Remember nobody is indispensable. Choose your best time to do the toughest work. Look for tools to improve productivity. Stay home once in a while. Don't carry the frenetic madness of the workplace home - rushing from cinema to restaurant to club. Chill out. Don't commit yourself to anything, especially avoidable social engagements while at home and don't feel guilty.

2) DE-STRESS

Sure, it's easier said than done. A degree of stress enables creative people scale new heights. But one must manage stress so it can enrich and motivate, not result in high blood pressure.

The best relief from the debilitating affects of stress is to 'take it easy' at times. Get your second breath and then tackle the problem.

Learning yoga or doing a course in breathing at the Art of Living Foundation has helped many a stressed-out individual.

3) BE A CHILD

Read with your child. There is nothing to beat a fairy tale to bond with your child, as well as improve your voice modulation. Get down on the floor and cuddle your little one.

Take a walk to the nearby park with your child and point out the flowers and trees. If you have a teenager, have regular conversations; talk to him or her about the birds and the bees.

Go for a movie impulsively with the family. Become a little child yourself. Buy that popcorn, cotton candy or ice cream cone. Nobody is looking.

Go on a holiday at least once a year. It doesn't have to be a long one. You can have a number of short holidays.

Get yourself a pet. There's nothing to beat the welcome you get from your pet dog when you return home.

4) SHARE THE LOAD

A clean, orderly home reduces so much unnecessary tension. Everything in the right place makes existence so much simpler. Sit down as a family and assign each other tasks. Dusting books and CDs can have a calming affect on your nerves.

At the workplace, learn to share your burden. Don't take all the load on your shoulder. Learn to say `No' if it affects your schedules.

Trust your colleagues and delegate. Don't do their fishing for them, teach them how to fish

5) SLOW-DOWN

Sure that's a contradiction in terms. At the workplace we want the assignment done yesterday not tomorrow! If only we could bend e = mc2 to our will!

Yet, one mustn't get pulled in different directions. One step at a time, that's the key. Sometimes one must let go to see the light, to discover a new way of doing the same thing.

6) TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH

It's the most neglected aspect of existence. 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.'

Don't make grandiose plans: take a walk, go to yoga class, join a gym if you are so inclined, and take a swim. Take up a sport, any sport.

Eat a well-balanced diet; reduce junk foods and pesticide-contaminated soft drinks.

And don't forget adequate rest, meaning 'Please Sleep'

7) DON'T POSTPONE

When something needs to be done. Do it. Never procrastinate.

Avoidance uses up more energy than actually doing it.

8) HAVE A POSITIVE APPROACH

Look around you. There is so much to be grateful about.

Take time to list things that you are thankful for it will be a good reminder of how much is going right for you. Remember it could have been worse.

9) FINALLY, TAKE CHARGE

It's your life and as far as we know the only one we have.

Plan ahead: short term, medium term, long term and then work towards them.

Check out the sunscreen song by Baz Luhrmann, director of the Academy Awardwinning Moulin Rouge.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds know still don't



--
This is based on the presentation made by Mr. Parthasarathy senior vice president of MindTree Consulting at the MindTree Lecture Series. © MindTree Consulting.

I felt it's quite inspirational, so thought of sharing it.

Dialog05 USB : Universal Connections

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Dialog05's Universal connections USB, has gone great by merging with things we daily use. Dialog05, explains it's an example of technology being clearly understood and accepted by the general public. Something democratic evolves and develops and therefore often even receives a totally different usage than was originally intended. Given the current, often exotic use of USB in belt, phone, tie, ring and much more to form a 'USB subculture'. >>

COOL Future iMac Concept !!

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Look at the prototype of Apple iMac [unofficial] by Adam Benton, with a 30" utra-thin LCD screen, which is totally transparent when the iMac is not in use. The screen can also be set to various levels of translucency, and can fade during sleep modes etc. The keyboard is also totally transparent and a curved ergonomic design, with light sensitive illuminated keys. Everything is wireless. Looks sooo COOL... >>

Mnemomap : Tree Search Mapping !!

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Mnemomap is a new way to search the internet. It combines technologies of social networking, search engines and other data sources to help you formulate search queries and find really relevant information from various data sources such as yahoo, flickr and visualize them as tree. Try it yourself... >>

Websites to be Checked out, When we are Free !!

Here is a list of some websites to be checkout when we are Free, they are listed in different categories like Movies, Music, Games, Freewares, Kids, News.


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Freeware Encyclopedia

softpedia.com

Gaming Station

ign.com

gamespot.com

actiontrip.com

justadventure.com

eurogamer.net

gametab.com

gamevideovault.com

gameaholic.com

miniclip.com

Kids Fun

kids.discovery.com

foxkids.com

nationalgeographic.com/kids

4kids.com

big6.com/kids

haringkids.com

fbi.gov/fbikids.htm

sciencenewsforkids.org

familyfun.go.com

thekidzpage.com

News

wikinews.com

salon.com

instapundit.com

news.google.com

onion.com


Music

music.yahoo.com

Rollingstone.com

Vh1.com

lyrics.com

nme.com

q4music.com

Movie Magic

digitallyobsessed.com

apple.com/trailers

ifilm.com

movies.com

inetfilm.com

rottentomatoes.com

Wired 40 : Most Innovative Companies on Earth !!

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Wired Magazine has listed the Wired 40 Most Innovative Companies on Earth and explains to land a spot on the annual Wired 40 list, a company needs the X-factor a hunger for new ideas and an impatience to put them into practice. Such companies inevitably become trendsetters, literally. And top 2 companies are .... Google and Apple, Yahoo in 5th place and only one indian company it's Infosys. Chk out the list. >>

Java Masters 2006: Vote and WIN !!


Sun and BenQ Mobile has pre-selected the 10 best Java Mobile Applications for Java Masters Competition 2006. It is up to us to caste the vote and make the final decision to select the Best No.1 Mobile Java Application. The people who are voting have chance of winning S75 Mobile Phone, A soccer ball, multi-functional pen including a USB drive and laser pointer and lots more... so do vote and WIN !! >>


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