Facebook Photos, Privacy Breach?

Do you upload photos to facebook, create album and set privacy settings to it? I do it, but surprisingly today I found out that it may be hidden from people present on facebook but those personal photos/albums are not really protected.

To give you a demo[use Firefox], Open any of your album. Click on the photo, once opened right click on it and select View Image. Here try to notice the change in url or in more techie terms the connectionstring.

For instance STEP#1

I have opened one of my private album and opened the photo which is: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2495739472781&set=a.2495734472656.144476.1231669070&type=3&theater
If you copy and paste this url in browser, without or even by logging into facebook you won't see the picture. Ideally you'll get error as

This album is shared only with one person than me. So ideally no body else than her can see this photo/album.

STEP #2

If I right click and select view image I get a new connectionstring/url which is
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/314985_2495739472781_50463433_n.jpg

Try copy/paste in browser and you'll clearly see the photo, even without logging into Facebook.

I feel if hackers will be able to decrypt the connection string and understand the pattern it might be easy to see all such photos which are shared privately on facebook, even without logging into it.

I would like to know your views/comments on this, prolly from Techie perspective!

Beware from Check in/geo tagging | Twitter | Foursquare | Flickr

I'm sure many people who know me personally or follow me on Twitter will be surprise to see Gaurav Thorat saying 'Beware from Check ins'! Well, I being a newbie product of Symbiosis's Information Security MBA happened to study a subject called, 'Vulnerability Analysis and Penetration Testing'. Sounds very techie isn't it? But frankly speaking this subject needs a lot of common sense along with good technical understanding of Networks and Information Systems.

Foursquare, as many of you must be knowing is a wonderful mobile application by which you can find near by places like hotels, malls, theaters and what not. It's like where ever you go, you just take out your phone and Check in to the place. Let's say I go to Esquare Multiplex in Pune to watch movie, so the moment I go there I'll take out my mobile. Open foursquare app, it'll find my current location with the help of GPS. It'll show me the nearby places along with Esquare Multiplex, I'll just Click on Equare and it'll notify my friends on Foursquare and Twitter/Facebook (if you have allowed foursquare and twitter/facebook integration). So whats the use of it? Well personally, I use Foursquare because It tells my friends about my where about. So if anybody is around me can just drop by for a quick meetup! Secondly, many a times merchants register with Foursquare and give away some really nice offers/discounts. So you check in to merchant's shop and you get discount on your shopping. More the check ins, you unlock Foursquare badges to flaunt within the community!

So whenever I used to Check in, it used to appear like this on twitter

As part of our VAPT subject's assignment we were told to search some security assessment tools and present it infront of students. I being more interested in Social Media, wanted to present a tool which is unique that no body else can think of! And just as I expected all the students choose hardcore technical tools like snort, sniffers and network analyzer. Nobody thought that something called as 'Social Engineering' should also be considered which is comparatively less technical but if used against the targets, can cause huge loss! I find people are still very ignorant about 'Social Engineering' which exploits the weakest link in security that is Human/User behavior.

Tool which I'm going to discuss over here is one, which can help hacker/cracker to perform passive type of Social Engineering attack which often seek to acquire seed information for further active social engineering or network-based attacks.
Active Social Engineering attacks are more of Direct kind which may involve direct interaction with target to obtain security relevant information, gain access privileges, persuade someone to commit a policy violation or act as a proxy on attacker’s behalf. While Passive as described earlier is more of Indirect type of attack which involves eavesdropping, observation and subsequent analysis of the results.
Tool which may allow an hacker/cracker in Passive Social Engineering attack is called Creepy Tool which is developed in python that allows you to gather geo location related information about users from social networking platforms and image hosting services.
Details
Website  : http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/
Platforms  : Linux, Windows
License  : GPLv3
Author  : Yiannis Kakavas
Contact Email  : jkakavas@gmail.com

So what does application do?
If you Check in to Foursquare which redirects it to Twitter. Or if you take photos with geo tagging allowed in it, chipping in the data about where have you taken the pictures you are vulnerable for a passive Social Engineering attack with the help of Creepy tool.
Hacker/cracker all they need is your username on twitter/flickr and they can track you down. With the help of you check ins they can study the pattern/routine of your day like when do you leave from home to office, where is your home & office located. What do you generally do on weekends, which places to do you visit. Some people also supply information like what food/drink they love the most along with the Hotel's Check in. You may not realize that why would  somebody need and find this information important but let me remind you this why Social Engineering attacks are more risky and cause more damage than any other hacking attack because we are tend to be ignorant about Social Engineering attacks, most of us never worry about all these simple information.

So Creepy tool can integrate all these check in/ geo tagging related information at a one place, supplied with a map, google map! So hacker/cracker might not be knowing Pune city very well but with the help of Google maps within the Creepy tool can easily supply them with necessary information for a further strong Social Engineering attack.


If you see above image is Creepy's interface. I checked one user from flickr who has uploaded photos of Military aircrafts. All I did is put his username in Creepy and you can see where did he take that photo! This is passive social engineering, which a terrorist group may use for destructive and dangerous attack. I hope you are getting the seriousness and why I said Beware from Check ins and geo tagging.

Same is the case with Check ins which appear on Twitter, with all the aggregated information about your daily/weekend check ins hacker/cracker or any person with bad intention can plant more dangerous attack on you/your organization/home.

So how will you save yourself from such type of Passive Engineering attack?
1. Be aware, keep your eyes/ears open.
2. Common Sense
3. If not required disable Geo Tagging feature while you take photos from your smartphone/camera.
4. If you care then stop posting your Check ins on Twitter, you may want to continue using Foursquare but don't integrate it with Twitter.
 
That's all from me, I will be waiting to hear some comments from you!

Diwali Then & now!

One of the biggest festival which is celebrated all over India, right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari! The festival of light, crackers and last but not the least Sweets and namkeens. Hindu, muslim, Christan, Sikh each and every religion in India enjoy this wonderful festival!

I remember Diwali that I celebrated when I was a kid, I was more interested in cracker guns than crackers which makes noise. I always loved shopping cloths, right from my childhood and I still do! For me Diwali used to be about Holidays, lazy holidays. Lots of shopping - Cloths and Crackers. Meeting relatives, exchange of sweets/namkeens. And not to forget, our school used to give us homework that we had to complete before we step back into school.

Then School to College, transition! Interests/choices changed. Total cut off from crackers and mainly from relatives, spent most of the times with friends. Instead of mom's choice, I started buying branded clothes which were meant to flaunt nothing else :-) Unlike school, I never waited for holidays because I hardly cared about lectures. Every day in college was not less than a holiday itself!

Finally got to taste the real Life, when I started working! We used to get hardly 21 days holiday/year, damn it. Especially festival time, I hardly spent it with my friends/family. And no surprise, Diwali was not an exception :-)

Today, after working for almost two years I am back to study. But things have changed, while writing this blog post I'm thinking about the pending project that is opened one my desktop, book of IT Project Management opened right in front of me. Eating Diwali special sweets, listening to the noise that kids and crackers are making right out of the window. Thinking about somebody, dreaming about life :-)

So now what do I like about Diwali? Well shopping but now not just buying cloths but I also enjoy decorating the house (I mean I bring whatever I like, whatever mom/dad wants). I still love eating Diwali sweets/namkeen, but these days you get them in stores all the year so there's nothing called as 'Diwali Special'. I love going out early in the morning during Diwali time to Sarasbaug (Famous Garden) in Pune, India. Where people gather early in the morning, new cloths, fresh faces and fragrance. You get to meet many people, whom you might not have met in years! Everybody ignites diyas, click photos and then head to Vaishali/Vaadeshwar/Rupali for a special breakfast :-)

Wishing you and your family a prosperous Diwali!

Innovative Ideators, platform for B-School students to showcase their Talent!

When I first saw an email stating 'Need Campus Ambassador for Innovative Ideators' in my college's newly created email inbox, I was excited to know what the heck is this 'Innovative Ideators'?

Frankly I always look forward in participating for branding/marketing activities so whenever I see an opportunity to become Campus Ambassador, I jump into it. But this time it was different unlike my previous experience with Microsoft and Naukri.com. 'Innovative Ideators' is not about any product /service but a team of wonderful individuals who have created a platform for B-School students to participate in  management related competitions. Best thing about it is, it's not a one time competition but series of competitions all over the year!

'Innovative Ideators' help students to showcase their talent and at the same time provide amazing and fresh ideas to Corporate Houses. How? Let me give you the idea!
'Innovative Ideators' use a funda called 'Crowdsourcing' well not quite similar to outsourcing but they are similar in some aspects. Consider a Company, 'NeGa Technology' a pune based IT startup who wants to emerge as a Product Based company in near future but they lack in idea generation. They are clueless as in what product they should develop which will help to earn them reputation and revenue! Even being a start up they had angel investors who had faith in the founders, a team of three IT Professionals. So 'NeGa Technology' hired some creative heads to help the founders in developing that 'Unique' product. They launched a website which gives daily information of 'Events happening today in Colleges around Pune'. The website got huge success, NeGa Technology earned reputation as well as revenue but founders were still not satisfied. As they could target only college crowd, they needed something BIG from teenagers to oldies!
One of the founder read an article about 'Crowdsourcing', a new trend in Business World'. They found a money saving way to generate idea for their 'Unique' product!

So the very next day they gave an advertisement in Daily newspaper saying 'Do you have an 'e'-idea but unable to implement it? We'll show you the way! Mail/Call us NOW!'
From very next day, NeGa Technology received hundreds of emails and phone calls. Within a week they had 300 ideas out of which they shortlisted 80 which were unique! All of this with almost no or little money, the only cost was 'Advertisement in Daily'. They finally decided to merge five ideas into one and designed an innovative e-commerce portal. They offered some share of revenue earned in first year with the people whose ideas were used. While rest of the ideas were not scrapped but NeGa Technology informed other start ups that they have some ideas which can be implemented and shared the same to new start ups asking them to give some profit share to the idea generator if his/her idea is implemented. Win - Win situation isn't it?

Now how does 'Innovative Ideators' fit in this example? Well they arrange competitions which are based on the 'Live Case Study' or simply problems faced by the Corporate Houses for which they need help from a common man/consumer/crowd. In 'Innovative Ideators' case the ideas will be generated from talented and creative minds of students studying in prominent B-Schools! If the idea gets selected there are BIG Prizes and wonderful career opportunities that will be offered by the partner companies!

So why to think, just reach out to your 'Innovative Ideators' Campus Ambassador and get the more clear idea about the competitions!
 

How to Set Microsoft Outlook (For SCIT Students)

What do you do when you need urgent access to your old emails and you don't have Internet Connectivity?
Don't you get bored seeing the same Google Email Inbox everyday?

Switch to the Best Email Management Application by Microsoft! It not just manages the email but help you to organize your work. Setting reminders, manage your events/Project Submission deadlines/assignment deadlines with the help of Calender! Don't worry about missing an important email - you get a instant pop up if you get any email! Beautiful integration with other Office applications will actually make your life better :-)

Following are the steps to configure your Outlook with 'associates ID'/ Gmail ID.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 07/10. You'll see 'Add New Account' Wizard, Select 'Manually configure server settings or additional server types' Click on Next.

2. Select 'Internet E-mail' and Click on Next

3. Fill required details as given below.Tick appropriate option shown it the image.

4. Click on More Settings, do not click on Next! You should see a new Window 'Internet Email Settings',Click on tab - 'Outgoing Server'. Put appropriate tick 

5. Click on Tab - Advanced. Ensure you put only what is shown in image below. Do not tick 'Remove from Server after ---- days' you may loose all your emails, I did it once :-(

 6. Click on Ok, you'll see 'Internet E-mail Settings' Window. Click on Next and you are done!

Congrats you setup your own outlook account, successfully!

Let me know if any issue :-)

Custom Made Laptop - unReal, why?

I always need customized 'things' in my Life let it be food, bikes even I chose my MBA course which is customizable! The only thing that eats my head every time is, Why can't we have 'Complete' Custom Made Laptops? Don't tell me that you consider Dell Online Store, A place for customizable laptop. I hate Dell, because they do not allow you to customize everything in 'your' Laptop!
Consider a 'Subway Melt' sub prepared at Subway outlets, you can customize it right from bread, veggies, sauces anything and everything in the sub.Why can't we have it in Laptops?

My Idea about Laptop Customization -
It should start from Laptop's outer body - some people like Laptops to be slim like MacBook Air while some likes it Sturdy like Lenovo Thinkpad.
Another best part is keypad - i prefer a keypad with num keys/pad on right side just like the keyboards that we use for PCs.
Most importantly battery - I have a Gateway ID58 Laptop, it earlier had 6 Cell battery but now as I make heavy use of my Laptop I wanted to go for 9 Cell battery. I asked Acer's Vendor (after sales in India for Gateway) but he said my Laptop doesn't support it.
I have seen some of my female friends who rejected some nice Laptops just because they didn't like the color of the panel, too much huh? But I would say, yes they can demand for it and they should!

Why don't we have a Laptop Vendor who can help us in getting an assembled laptop just like we have it for PCs? I understand it's not easy for a Supply Chain to establish in order to procure different things for a single laptop which can vary a lot from one order to second. But if you see the idea has a lot of potential in it. People would definitely buy a 'Custom' made Laptop which may be or mostly will be 'Heavy on Pocket', but they will buy it, just because they get exactly what they want!

I agree it wouldn't be possible for a Vendor like Dell to allow people choose whatever they want and make their laptop ready for use. But entrepreneurs they can definitely think over it, as I really feel that this unnoticed area can really get you 'Real Money'! And the idea - first of it's kind :-)

Do Let me know your views and opinions about my idea! 

Play Safe with Disgruntled Employees

'Information Security' this word has got a lot of power in it! In my MBA Curriculum (Information Security) at Symbiosis Institute, I often heard terminologies like Threats, Risks, Vulnerabilities and many more.

One of the Threat, i would say the most interesting one is - Disgruntled Employees. The reason i call it as interesting because I wonder how can one predict the intention of a Disgruntled Employee. Definitely it could be a risk for an organization but how can you control them? Just by disabling their access rights and controls? Do you think this would be enough?

Disabling/Revoking the access rights of a Disgruntled Employee can be one of the control measure but according to me the most critical and beyond an organization's control is something different - The Knowledge/insights learn by a Disgruntled Employee during his tenure at the organization. 

Let me take an example: Ajay, a recent college graduate from a Well Known Technical Institute joined Fysat Technology Ltd. a small scale (50-80 employees) IT company into Services. Ajay was interested into Java Development, he also had sound knowledge of Java. But like every other IT Company, he was put into a Support project. Ajay was disheartened but he took interest and started learning things, he was a quick learner so soon he became one of the best knowledgeable resource of his team. But some senior members of the team couldn't digest the fact, they started troubling the newbie. The poor soul couldn't fight back and he fall prey to dirty office politics. 
Time came when the Management announced Yearly Increment, Ajay received least increment, hardly 2%. Reason - His performance was degraded very much, due to some dirty tricks of his seniors Clients escalated many issues about Ajay to Fysat's Management.
Ajay got frustrated within a year though he had good knowledge and technical insights about the work but he couldn't understand and handle managerial things which comes by Experience. 
Finally the day came, one fine morning Ajay put his resignation to his manager. Unaware of the facts manager simply accepted it as he thought Ajay is not worthy resource as he was portrayed by his Seniors to the manager. Even his exit interview was not done properly as the HR felt that this a case of inefficient resource getting kicked out of the company.
Ajay was disheartened, frustrated and angry. But his talent and knowledge that he had gain while working at Fysat helped him to get a decent job at Fysat's competitor Eryat IT Solutions.
Eryat is working into same market where Fysat is operating - South East Asia. Eryat is a market leader but since last few months due to a product launched by Fysat, Eryat was feeling the heat. Fortunately for Eryat, Ajay was the guy who worked extensively in supporting the product for some Big Clients of Fysat.

Now what do you think, by just disabling Ajay's accesses on Client Servers/DBs Fysat will get rid of their 'Disgruntled Employee' ? Can Ajay's knowledge and anger about Fysat help Eryat to beat Fysat?

I feel it's responsibility of Ajay's Manager at Fysat to understand the issues faced by Ajay instead of relying on opinions/view given by senior members of Ajay's team. At least HR should had identified the problems faced by the trainee and if possible change his mind to retain him. But as the person was just a year old at Fysat, HR didn't bother about it.
(I have seen IT industry not much but at least for two years such things happen at many of the IT Companies all over the globe)

For Eryat, Ajay might not prove to be the expert to beat Fysat's special product but his knowledge will definitely be used by Eryat to develop something better than Fysat, something which lacks in Fysat's product.

Disgruntled Employee can potentially impact a lot on the companies, I feel there has to be done something more than just worrying about the Access Control of the Disgruntled Employees. 
What do you think should be done to prevent such losses which may impact organizations terribly!  Do comment to respond :-)

[NOTE: Company names and character name in the above post is fictitious.]

Learning Phases

I remember when my dad used to tell me, how his friend's son can mug up everything, remembers everything and off course better than me! Since my childhood I'm fan of selective learning ;-) I used to hate to mug up the things but thanks to our Traditional Indian Education System which teaches us - more the marks, better you are! I always used to like practical things - science, never got attracted towards mathematics because I never met a teacher who could taught me why the hell do i need to learn it, how I will be able to use it in my life.I used to hate mathematics because it was more of a mechanical thing for me - you remember the formula fill in the values and get the answer.I never liked it and I still don't like it, thanks to my Statistics Professor at B-School - he make sure only people who 'know' statistics only those will be able to learn the subject which he teaches, rest of us - we just look at the whiteboard!

When I was in Higher Secondary School, I used to love Biology, IT and Chemistry. I used to hate physics too, because it belongs to the same family that of Mathematics! Biology because I used to actually see the things (Botany+Zoology), understand them and used to relate them with day to day life. IT because I used to write HTML, VB code and get something meaningful. Chemistry because I used to enjoy the Lab practicals of mixing different things in each other and get something out of it, it was fun! :)

Somehow I couldn't go for medical studies as I performed worst in my Higher Secondary School Exams.Then came the 'Actual' College life - Graduation period.I had decided that I will either dissect human bodies by doing medical studies or I would go for computer studies, and finally I choose computers rather I had to choose Computers :)

In my graduation, I realized that apart from technology I am good at interacting with people. Thanks to Microsoft Student Partner Program that I got the opportunity to mix both People + Technology and I started evangelize Microsoft's Technologies within students communities. Got appreciation from many people, it boosted my confidence. In my graduation college I never had to explicitly study because I choose something which I loved to do - playing with Technology.

Then came the professional life, where in I explored myself more! I knew that I'll enjoy working in IT industry but I wanted to be on the business side - where in I can gel up with business yet work on technical aspects of it.After spending two years in amdocs, I choose to join the Business Administration program with specialization in IT Business Management.This was the phase when I realized that I actually want to Learn something, not for the sake of earning money but for a better life, new goals and completely new responsibilities!

I feel the change in myself, I was completely different earlier - relaxed, care free (not careless!), had limited aspirations and short term goals. But then came a phase where I realized that I need something bigger and better, I need to attain new professional and personal heights! In my MBA I won't and I don't study for getting good grades, I'm studying for understanding things in different aspects. I'm more focused about learning than grading. I still enjoy subjects like Information Security, ERP than Statistics & Accounts ;) I want to be a Techno managerial IT Professional and not a manager who will sit in his Air Conditioned cabin playing with excels. I want to be a manager who will understand how it works at grass root level than worrying about how to climb the professional ladder fast!

I feel good that I can think about all these things at the age of 23 and I'm sure at the end of two years - once I'm done with my MBA, I'll be completely new person with quality knowledge & new ideas, innovations to implement in the IT industry!

At this moment, I'm clueless of what I have written because I scribbled whatever was there on my mind :)

Start of a new Journey - MBA

I never ever went to any premier school/college, I always had this weird feeling. A guy with average academics and so called 'Non Engineering Graduate' but never wanted to follow a traditional path.

A traditional Indian Educational Path according to me - Pass school with bad or average or descent marks, get into a College with Science stream get done with it then irrespective of whether you like it or not, whether you have that caliber or not Straight away get into an Engineering College - spend time over there and join the labor force!

I hated it, literally!

The company called amdocs, changed my life literally. Almost two years of stint in amdocs -India, taught me many lessons Worst/Bad/Good/Best everything! Met many talented people, saw tiffs between people, received appreciations - more from Clients than my very own manager, learned how to handle different situations/people. In due course I was still facing sarcasm of being a Non Engineering Graduate - but I was in the best phase of my life, I was with amdocs!

I had earlier decided to learn the technicality in IT Industry for couple of years and then go back to B-School to learn management. I was always attracted to Symbiosis International University -Pune, right from my graduation - I applied for their graduation course of Computer Application but got rejected (back in 2007)! So after 5 years I tried again, but this time for something bigger - MBA. Things worked out and I got a call from Symbiosis Center for Information Technology, Pune to join their 2 year long residential course of MBA - IT Business Management. A wonderfully crafted syllabus with a right blend of IT + Management.

Though I was doing well in my job at amdocs but I knew that some or the other day I'll have to quit and join B-School. So left the wonderful company in June 2012, with a hope and a belief to return back with better and bigger responsibility :)

Symbiosis Center for Information Technology - a premier IT Business School, my next two years in this place is definitely going to change me, my perspective of looking at things. I call it a new beginning - where I'll be getting two long years to study, learn, innovate and enjoy!

Laptop Requirement for SCIT Batch 2012-14

Hi friends, please fill the below form, let's hope to get the best and affordable deal :-)

My Type of 'Tablet'

It's been a quite long time that Tablet or Tablet Computers that has entered into the market. But let me clarify one thing, for me Tablet is not Asus's Eeepad Transformer but iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Tablet for me is something that can manage everything - be my Mobile Phone, it should allow me to watch HD Videos as well it should be capable of docking the pen drive in it. And I want this whole package to be affordable ~ $200-$250 but NO i just couldn't find such a great deal yet :-(

iPad - I just love the body, color and the feeling when you hold it in hand! It's just superb :-) The OS is fantastic, the app store is huge (But they AngryBird cost you here, noway!!) I have never used Sony's headphones or the music players so for me Apple is the Beast when it comes about Sound :-) I know you people might be thinking, what an A$$ - saying Apple is the Beast ;-)
But the major Turn Off for me about this Sexy white Gadget is - I can't insert the Sim Card in it and try calling somebody. For me a Tablet should have the calling facility, yes I need IT!

Why would you carry an iPad and iPhone at a time, where in the Tablet should have reduced the dependency on a Mobile Phone, I Strongly feel so! I understand that these Tablet/Phone manufacturers wouldn't like if people would start buying a Tablet instead of a phone but this is what a Consumer wants in today's Technological and always Connected World.

Carrying the tablet where ever you go is a pain,Yes I understand that! You don't need a tablet to check the emails/chat with colleagues or friends, a phone definitely can satisfy the need. But then I feel there is something called as User Experience - A User would definitely like to read the email on a 7" or 9" tablet screen, he would love to use the multi-touch Display compared to the 3" or 4" screen of a mobile phone.
Just compare the experience of Video Calling from a mobile with the one by using an iPad (Skype via Wifi)

Many of my friends say to me - how would you receive a voice call from a tab, it's so uneasy to hold the 7" or 9" Tab to your ear. I would say most of the time you can do it by using a hands free but yes there can be some scenarios where it's not possible to use the hands free. But I feel the probability is less! I own a good Bluetooth handsfree by Dell. I've used a Samsung tab and the Dell  handsfree and it works flawless!

The biggest problem with Tab that I feel is - They are BIG. You can't just carry them but you have to CARRY them carefully :-) They aren't that much handy! That's the only and the biggest concern when it comes to buying a Tab :-)

Though price is another concern but if at all the price of an iPad would fall again below $250 :-P I would surely pick one :-)

Another tab that I often think of, 'Let's give it a shot' is Blackberry Playbook. In India the 16GB comes in around $250. It has a USB 2.0 port too! A nice BB OS but again the same problem - I can't call from the Playbook :-( I'll have to enable the WiFi and then by using some App i would have to call to the other mobile phone - this seriously Sucks! Though it isn't cool if you compare it's design with iPad but I can manage ;-) After all it's a good deal in $250.

Then comes the SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab which has everything that I want - I can call from it, I can surf and watch movies on it straight from a youtube too! Just Check this out - Samsung GALAXY Tab 7.7
It's a XXX BOMB, i must admit this! Wonderful device and finally a My Type of Tablet but this beast would cost heavy on the pocket - it's around $700 :-(

But I will surely buy a Tab ;-) My WishList has been updated already!

Google's Project Glass replacement of Smartphone?

It was a nice day in the office when I suddenly saw a Tweet on my phone that quickly diverted my attention from what I was doing ;-) I jumped of from my chair when I saw the video of  Google's 'Project Glass' but I also thought it might be an April Fool prank but then I saw my Twitter timeline started flooding by Project Glass related tweets!!

I'm always fascinated by the electronic gadgets that ranges from a Toy Car to Sexy and Sleek phones ;-) So Google's Project Glass amused me the very first time when I saw the demo of it. I feel if this Technology is not just a concept or a April Fool Prank then I think in coming years this can easily replace the Smartphones. You can call people, text them and can even do a video chat with them without holding any handheld device in your hand. You won't need to wait for Google map to load and then show you the 'How to reach there..' You won't forget to book tickets for your favorite show because by using Google Glasses you can book the tickets on the Go! This is fabulous :-)

I do not wish to comment on the H/W specs or the AI software which might be used in the Google Glasses but I would encourage you to watch the video and post your comments/opinions about it over here :-) And not to forget I'll surely talk about the technical aspects of it, once I hear/see it officially coming from Google! Till then enjoy the video

Google's Project Glass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9c6W4CCU9M4

Life beyond Grades

[Following blog post is my personal view and it's not written to insult anyone/any company. If you find such content/comment in the blog and if you feel that it should be removed please let me know! ]

Every person in India with basic knowledge of computers has an aspiration to become a Software Professional at some point of time in their life. Ever since I used computer for the first time when I was 12, I wanted to do something that is related with Computers and so I did :-) But while dreaming about the highly paid IT Jobs, students do not worry much about their academics, they just want to clear the subjects that are not in their 'To Like' list hence many students perform outstanding in some of the subjects - the ones which they like and they perform average in what they never loved to study!Here is the glitch and a major one!

In India, IT is an ultimate destination for majority of the people and the worst of it is many of the IT Giants choose people by looking at their academic grades and not the skills! I have seen it rather many of you must have seen this - an average (of course the one with 60% through out his educational race) and 0 to below average skills and interest in Computers get recruited in the IT Companies. I bet none of you will oppose this scenario being wrong - because this FACT.

So called Indian IT Giants have ridiculous recruitment process, I've witnessed it once. There is a XYZ Indian IT firm they came to my College to conduct the recruitment drive. The first step is Screening on the basis of Academics - this XYZ company first said that they need students who had consistent 60% through out as well as Math as a compulsory subject in 12th standard or HSC. They got very few people so they further reduced the cut off to 55% with Math compulsory. Again same scenario so they further reduced it to 50% but Math compulsory at 12th standard. This is pathetic - just because you want a guy having math on 10+2 level you are compromising on person's overall performance? This XYZ company recruited even Commerce students who had Math in 10+2 level.

Then comes another scenario, IT companies often hire on large scale when they visit college campuses. I have witnessed an insane recruitment drive where company - ABC recruited more than 300 guys from a single college campus. When I heard the recruitment process experience from students, I was very SAD to know the low quality of process that was followed in the recruitment drive.

I feel the upper management in these IT Giants should analyze all these things from grass root level. Because of such pathetic recruitment strategies Indian IT Companies lack the real passionate students. They just stock the 'Through out 60% guys' and keep on adding the bench strength of the company.

Another hype in these IT companies is - Engineers are equal to the MCA or M.Sc (Computer Science) guys! This is not fair at all. People should be judged not by the qualification but the quality of skills they possess.

In my opinion Indian IT Companies should look for skilled individuals, passionate coders/programmers.

One of the worst part i feel about most of the IT Companies is, they treat freshers as someone who doesn't know anything. They never ask a fresher if he has any skill that they have developed during their school/college time. Companies train freshers on any damn technology and ask them to work on it, irrespective of the fact that even a fresher can code better than  an employee (2 yrs of WorkExp) with constant rating of 2/5 in yearly appraisal process.

These IT giants would hire a Civil Engineer with no prior knowledge in computers but they'll never even think of Non Engineering Computer Graduates who are comparatively more  productive than an Engineer grad.They would recruit a commerce graduate with knowledge in Excel, powerpoint with consistent 60% through out his educational race. But they wouldn't even entertain a person who has good knowledge on various computer related subjects but do not have First Class grade ever in his life. The guy will be kicked out of the recruitment process.

 I feel this is the reason when Recession hits the IT sector, many of the IT employees are sacked.

 I will definitely keep on adding my view in this post but before that let me know your views on my post.

Trekking - It Teaches you, literally!

[Before reading below post, understand that it may contain thousands of spelling/grammatical mistakes but instead of pointing it out try to understand what I really want to say:-) ]

Trekking I heard this word quite late - when I was in College, yes this is true. I'm the only child of my parents so ultimately the life wasn't so easy when your parents are watching you all the time, I do not blame them for this but this somehow made me 'Not much into Adventures' kind as I always did what my parents used to think is right for me *Sigh*And obviously going for Treks or over night stay at any of my friend's place was never in my parent's 'To Allow' list for me! Let me clear one thing - I'm not blaming my mom dad ;-) They did what they thought was Okay for me.

Being the only child of my parents is very cool thing as I never had to share anything with anyone. I used to get everything and anything which was New. But these cool things turned out to be problematic for me, when I completed my college and stepped in to the Professional Life. Then I started realizing things - it was very difficult for me to share things earlier. I used to be dominating over little things. When I was in college my friends - they adjusted with me, my behavior. But in professional life - people make you realize that 'Dude you ain't a kid anymore, no body is going to listen to your tantrums' and slowly I started learning the things - I would say I started understanding my behavior and myself.

So how does Trekking come in between???

Well I did my First Trek when I was in Senior College during Sept - 2009, it was at Duke's nose. I had been to this place twice but still it scares the hell out of me :-( Till now I have been to 5/6 treks and every time while returning back to home I promise myself that I won't go to trek again! Reason - I feel trekking is risking your life for an adventure!

Photography is a thing which attracted me most because I Love the feeling when every time I click something, imagining something and when the image comes out to be just so perfect than what I had thought! This is one of the reason that even when I'm scared of Trekking I go there, just to click some shots ;-) Conquering fear you see! :-D

The most important thing which I love about trekking is, every time I happen to meet new people from different cities, communities, professions and what not! I really love meeting new people, talking to them regarding anything and everything and trust me this helped me limiting my Dominating nature - because you just can't expect everybody to listen to you and tolerate you when they just know you hardly for some hours. People management & behavior handling - you get to learn it!

It's difficult to climb the mountains without the team, people from your trekking group they help you when you need some help while climbing a cliff. They make sure that you don't feel left out of the group - they talk with you, laugh with you, take care of you if you suddenly feel ill. If you are lagging behind of group, people cheer you up and make sure you pick up the pace And eventually by looking at others you understand the real meaning of Teamwork - team bonding.

Most important thing - Time management, you understand the value of it during treks! Ask me, I missed a train just by a minute and I ended up going back to home. In trekking you have to travel with a group of people and you have to make sure that you don't spoil somebody Else's day by not coming on time. You also need to make sure that during treks you walk with people, try not to rest more because of which ultimately the Schedule of trek collapses and you have to bear the consequences that may include No place to seat in a train because you just missed the one which was reserved for you or worst case you just don't get proper vehicle to return back to the base station just because you wasted too much time and driver flee because he thought you may not come back soon. So you gotta watch the watch baby ;-)

During my first trek I was reluctant to share the food and water which I had bought with me, reason - I never did it before,sharing wasn't in my list :-) And yesterday I was carrying extra water bottles in my sack just to make sure that my group mates don't feel the scarcity of water.I felt awesome when we all were trying to help each other, share things just to make sure that all reaches to the destination, safely!

Alertness - you really have to be alert every time when you are trekking in mountains that have a slippery path or a stiff patch where in you wouldn't take chance by being careless. The moment you make a mischief and the next moment you will probably screaming for help! But this doesn't mean you have to be serious all the time without having fun. You will understand by yourself when to have fun and when to get back to your senses and start walking ahead :-)

Responsibilities - when you ask your friends to join for a trek, they look at you as someone who knows what it takes to do trekking. So you have to be very careful while they are with you, taking care of what they need during trekking and making sure that they walk by all the difficult patches and reach to the destination - safe and sound :-)

This is what I think from my past trekking experience, I'm totally clueless why I scribbled all this at 2 o'clock in the morning :-)

Hello World

It's been 2/3 months that I didn't show up here, reason? Well sometimes I'm very lazy and bore person, mind it I said *sometimes* :-D. I really wonder why don't we have smiley on blogger, it would have been fun posting stuff by giving a little emotional touch to it :-D I guess WordPress converts :-D into a proper smiley, anyway...

So these days I have been really busy, as I was preparing for Symbiosis's MBA entrance and related stuff, I'll put that experience once I get 'D' positive result in the last week of Feb 2012. This would be a great and sudden switch to my career!

In terms of new Technologies, I recently attended a one day training on Windows Phone 7 App Development which was conducted by Pune User Group (PUG). It was a 4/5 days training but I could attend only one :-S But it was really a nice experience, i really felt like buying a WPhone and try some hands on App Development but anyway that was just a thought :-D though I'm pretty sure that If I had bought a WPhone I would have surely created some newbie Apps for sure ;-) Apart from WPhone I recently attended some very nice Seminars on Cloud Computing, this is going to be the next BIG thing for sure and I'm definitely interested in understanding the How, Why and What's of Cloud Computing.

My Latest Gadget :-D well it's kind of weird but I bought a new Nokia's black and white screen mobile :-D It's Nokia 1280 the most basic level mobile Nokia has in India, right now ;-) Reason being I never used any black and white screen mobile in my teenage :-P

That's all from me, I promised my self to be active on my blog with some new technology/food posts and I'm going to follow this religiously (*iWish*) :-D

Signing off :-)