Interstellar Overdrive » WWW http://www.romil.in Home page, Blog and Portfolio of Romil Javed Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:31:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Desi Specialists http://www.romil.in/desi-specialists/ http://www.romil.in/desi-specialists/#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:31:34 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=88 Well, just stumbled onto this masterpiece on one of my friend’s friend Facebook album, don’t know whose capture this really is, but, a nice illustration of the direction indigenous medical development has taken in India. Enjoy and comment your pick. ;)

(If you’re the photographer of this masterpiece, please email me, would love to give you the due credit.)

Indian Quacks

Art of Indian Quackery!

]]> http://www.romil.in/desi-specialists/feed/ 2 Paypal Issue in India http://www.romil.in/paypal-issue-in-india/ http://www.romil.in/paypal-issue-in-india/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:14:00 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=82

New Update on Paypal Blog

New Bank Withdrawal Instructions for Our Customers in India

In wake of recent issues Paypal users in India have been facing over last month for remittances of personal credits into their Indian bank accounts, Paypal today morning apparently has sent this e-mail to “affected” users:

PayPal

Dear Romil Javed,

We have been diligently working with the RBI and our business
partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands
of Indian businesses who depend on PayPal to sell their goods
or services in the global marketplace.

Today, we are happy to announce that the RBI has allowed us
to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports
of goods and services.  We are currently making changes to
comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of
goods and services, and we anticipate that, as of Wednesday,
March 3rd, customers will be able to use our
bank withdrawal service.  

As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a
new field entitled 'Export Code' when you request a withdrawal.
This information is required under the current laws of India in
order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.  

On Monday, March 1st, we will be back in touch with specific
instructions on how you can move your money into your bank account. 

Moving forward, the RBI has told us that PayPal needs specific
approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which we
currently do not have.  Until we get these approvals, personal
payments into India will remain suspended.  However, if you are
an exporter, you will continue to be able to use the PayPal
service for payments of goods and services.  In fact, with the
changes we are making to our system, PayPal is now set to be a
more powerful engine for exporters in India.  With purpose codes
for export transactions and FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance
Certificates), you should now be able to get the export
related benefits you seek. 

You can check the PayPal blog for additional updates.

www.thepaypalblog.com

We thank you for your business and for your patience during
the past few weeks.

Sincerely,

PayPal

Now, it remains to be seen if RBI levies certain charges on us “exporters” who have been doing our little bit in accumulating foreign exchequer for India.

The previous updates can be found here:

  1. Paypal India Block Leaves IT Guys High & Dry – Need For An Indian Paypal?
  2. The Paypal Blog

Will post more on this as soon as I know more on this issue.

New Update on Paypal Blog

New Bank Withdrawal Instructions for Our Customers in India

]]> http://www.romil.in/paypal-issue-in-india/feed/ 4 Social Media ROI: Socialnomics http://www.romil.in/social-media-roi-socialnomics/ http://www.romil.in/social-media-roi-socialnomics/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:15:00 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=78 Whats really going on? Check out some trends which emerge out of US markets in this nicely crafted presentation:

]]> http://www.romil.in/social-media-roi-socialnomics/feed/ 0 How to choose a safe password http://www.romil.in/how-to-choose-a-safe-password/ http://www.romil.in/how-to-choose-a-safe-password/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:49:19 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=50 My friends often ask me (yes, they mistake me for a geek!) how to secure their accounts from increasing security vulnerabilities.  Also, some of them who are too busy to ask, I notice, use self-styled security measures as far as choosing a smart password goes.

What they don’t realize is the fact that, if one of their accounts is compromised, it may lead to security lapse of their entire online activity, from social networking tools, work or home e-mail to banking accounts as well. Situation can really be scary. The recent twitter attack has highlighted this issue once again. Before its too little too late, here are some good advice I found on the Gmail Blog the other day:

Creating a new password is often one of the first recommendations you hear when trouble occurs. Even a great password can’t keep you from being scammed, but setting one that’s memorable for you and that’s hard for others to guess is a smart security practice since weak passwords can be easily guessed. Below are a few common problems we’ve seen in the past and suggestions for making your passwords stronger.

Problem 1: Re-using passwords across websites

With a constantly growing list of services that require a password (email, online banking, social networking, and shopping websites — just to name a few), it’s no wonder that many people simply use the same password across a variety of accounts. This is risky: if someone figures out your password for one service, that person could potentially gain access to your private email, address information, and even your money.

Solution: Use unique passwords
It’s a good idea to use unique passwords for your accounts, expecially important accounts like email and online banking. When you create a password for a site, you might think of a phrase you associate with the site and use an abbreviation or variation of that phrase as your password — just don’t use the actual words of the site. If it’s a long phrase, you can take the first letter of each word. To make this word or phrase more secure, try making some letters uppercase, and swap out some letters with numbers or symbols. As an example, the phrase for your banking website could be “How much money do I have?” and the password could be “#m$d1H4ve?” (Note: since we’re using them here, please don’t adopt any of the example passwords in this post for yourself.)

Problem 2: Using common passwords or words found in the dictionary

Common passwords include simple words or phrases like “password” or “letmein,” keyboard patterns such as “qwerty” or “qazwsx,” or sequential patterns such as “abcd1234.” Using a simple password or any word you can find in the dictionary makes it easier for a would-be hijacker to gain access to your personal information.

Solution: Use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols
There are only 26^8 possible permutations for an 8-character password that uses just lowercase letters, while there are 94^8 possible permutations for an 8-character password that uses a combination of mixed-case letters, numbers, and symbols. That’s over 6 quadrillion more possible variations for a mixed password, which makes it that much harder for anyone to guess or crack.

Problem 3: Using passwords based on personal data

We all share information about ourselves with our friends and coworkers. The names of your spouse, children, or pets aren’t usually all that secret, so it doesn’t make sense to use them as your passwords. You should also stay away from birth dates, phone numbers, or addresses.

Solution: Create a password that’s hard for others to guess
Choose a combination of letters, numbers, or symbols to create a unique password that’s unrelated to your personal information. Or, select a random word or phrase, and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as “sPo0kyh@ll0w3En”).

Problem 4: Writing down your password and storing it in an unsecured place

Some of us have enough online accounts that we may need to write our passwords down somewhere, at least until we’ve learned them well.

Solution: Keep your password reminders in a secret place that isn’t easily visible
Don’t leave notes with your passwords to various sites on your computer or desk. People who walk by can easily steal this information and use it to compromise your account. Also, if you decide to save your passwords in a file on your computer, create a unique name for the file so people don’t know what’s inside. Avoid naming the file “my passwords” or something else obvious.

Problem 5: Recalling your password

When choosing smart passwords like these, it can often be more difficult to remember your password when you try to sign in to a site you haven’t visited in a while. To get around this problem, many websites will offer you the option to either send a password-reset link to your email address or answer a security question.

Solution: Make sure your password recovery options are up-to-date and secure
You should always make sure you have an up-to-date email address on file for each account you have, so that if you need to send a password reset email it goes to the right place.

Many websites will ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password. If you’re able to create your own question, try to come up with a question that has an answer only you would know. The answer shouldn’t be something that someone can guess by scanning information you’ve posted online in social networking profiles, blogs, and other places.

If you’re asked to choose a question from a list of options, such as the city where you were born, you should be aware that these questions are likely to be less secure. Try to find a way to make your answer unique — you can do this by using some of the tips above, or by creating a convention where you always add a symbol after the 2nd character in the answer (e.g. in@dianapolis) — so that even if someone guesses the answer, they won’t know how to enter it properly.

Solution 4: Keep your password reminders in a secret place that isn’t easily visible
Don’t leave notes with your passwords to various sites on your computer or desk. People who walk by can easily steal this information and use it to compromise your account. Also, if you decide to save your passwords in a file on your computer, create a unique name for the file so people don’t know what’s inside. Avoid naming the file “my passwords” or something else obvious.

Problem 5: Recalling your password
When choosing smart passwords like these, it can often be more difficult to remember your password when you try to sign in to a site you haven’t visited in a while. To get around this problem, many websites will offer you the option to either send a password-reset link to your email address or answer a security question.

Solution 5: Make sure your password recovery options are up-to-date and secure
You should always make sure you have an up-to-date email address on file for each account you have, so that if you need to send a password reset email it goes to the right place.

Many websites will ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password. If you’re able to create your own question, try to come up with a question that has an answer only you would know. The answer shouldn’t be something that someone can guess by scanning information you’ve posted online in social networking profiles, blogs, and other places.

If you’re asked to choose a question from a list of options, such as the city where you were born, you should be aware that these questions are likely to be less secure. Try to find a way to make your answer unique — you can do this by using some of the tips above, or by creating a convention where you always add a symbol after the 2nd character in the answer (e.g. in@dianapolis) — so that even if someone guesses the answer, they won’t know how to enter it properly.

Permalink

Labels:

]]> http://www.romil.in/how-to-choose-a-safe-password/feed/ 1 What is Social media? http://www.romil.in/what-is-social-media/ http://www.romil.in/what-is-social-media/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:57:37 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=64 In this age of bits and bytes, we often stumble onto terms familiar yet still unfamiliar to us. Some of them confuse us a bit, Social media is one such term circling around in newspapers and online journals these days.

In simple terms:

Social media is formed mainly by the public as a group, in a social way, rather than media produced by journalists, editors and media conglomerates.

Further, as Wikipedia (itself one of the best social media example!) elaborates:

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.

Social media is different from Mass media. That’s where technology came into the picture and internet saw a new paradigm in form of Web 2.0 technologies. Businesses also refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM) and every effort being taken by smart managers of today’s fast paced economy to garner mutual benefit out of it.

Websites like, Facebook, Orkut, Wikipedia and LinkedIn are leading examples of Social media revolution. The democratization of information can also be felt from a blog wave that has swept the intellectual class and a lot of us are voicing our opinions and issues online these days. So from Information Age we are seeing a gradual shift towards Attention Age.

]]> http://www.romil.in/what-is-social-media/feed/ 1 Joomla and Magento Integration http://www.romil.in/joomla-and-magento-integration/ http://www.romil.in/joomla-and-magento-integration/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:58:58 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=32 There is this talented young guy from Thailand called Anh Nguyen, from the class of  GSoC 2009 which Joomla! team has quite timely picked keeping in view the future of this great open source CMS.

So, Anh is working on J! Mint and I have been closely following the development through various sources, like this Webinar and the Magento Forums.

Some of the factors do look challenging in these two vastly different open source leading softwares. However, Anh’s work is nothing but promising there is little competition from a developer in Holland. Well, looks like we gonna be benfitting end of the day.

Looking forward to more updates on all the fronts, maybe a BETA release for us to test. :)

]]> http://www.romil.in/joomla-and-magento-integration/feed/ 1 At the times of Swine flu http://www.romil.in/at-the-times-of-swine-flu/ http://www.romil.in/at-the-times-of-swine-flu/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:22:48 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/at-the-times-of-swine-flu/ Delhi_to_Pune_Swine_Flu

Well, not a very nice contextual advert to see when you’ve just read about Swine Flu updates in Pune.

Hope our wise men in the Health Ministry have finally ordered the H1N1 vaccines.

]]> http://www.romil.in/at-the-times-of-swine-flu/feed/ 0 The server made a boo boo http://www.romil.in/the-server-made-a-boo-boo/ http://www.romil.in/the-server-made-a-boo-boo/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:06:41 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=20 Dunno, why I get such whacky errors first thing in the morning while sipping a cup of lemon tea. : )

Realized it in a bit, its a common Apache error.

The server made a boo boo

The server made a boo boo

]]> http://www.romil.in/the-server-made-a-boo-boo/feed/ 0 Confessions of a Wordpress Server http://www.romil.in/confessions-of-wordpress-server/ http://www.romil.in/confessions-of-wordpress-server/#comments Fri, 17 Mar 2006 06:02:23 +0000 ~Romil http://www.romil.in/?p=12 First up this morning, I saw this “cute” error message on my Wordpress hosted blog. In contrary to “Bad bad Orkut Servers” or “No Doughnut for you!” errors at Orkut, it was a refreshing change though. While this error did not last too long, an auto-refresh after 10 mins made it go.

Here is the text if you haven’t gotten it on your WP.com blogs yet:

OH MY! Life is so unfair! What did I do wrong to be born a server in this day and age? I could have been a nice simple bicycle that people happily rode around on all day. But no, I’m stuck inside this metal case serving web pages instead. I never even see the light of day and all I can hear is the rush of the air-conditioning!
Well, no more! I’m relaxing here with a cup of tea and a biscuit until someone shows me some love and attention.

It never takes them long to fix me when I kick up a fuss so check back in a few minutes and I’ll be chugging along merrily again.!

Signed,
The WordPress.com web server
(WordPress.com – where even the machines have life!)

]]> http://www.romil.in/confessions-of-wordpress-server/feed/ 0