Who is mailing you?

Pishing. Scamming. Spamming. And what not! Email accounts are easy targets of spammers and scammers from time immemorial. Most of the email service providers have successfully developed spam fighting systems that automatically send junk mail  into your spam folder or trash them. Yet, spammers find a way around that system and get into your inbox. Worse still, some of them impersonate people you know and trick you into downloading spyware, sending money or joining scam websites. How we wish we had some way to identify the person mailing us? There is a way you can do that now.

Rapportive!

Rapportive is a browser extension that integrates itself into your Gmail Account and it works on both Chrome and Firefox. It does a very simple thing! It shows you who mailed you the mail you are reading. For example, if you receive a mail from me and you have Rapportive installed on your browser, it will show you my photograph and any information available on web about me. It will show you links to my Facebook Account, Twitter Account, Linkedin Account etc. This helps you make sure that the mail from me is in fact from me and no one else.

You may not get the information right away for all email addresses. They have just launched Rapportive and its in the process of accumulating information on people. But I am sure, the service will improve over a period of time as you keep using it and Rapportive will be able to give you exact information about people you interact with.

Imagine receiving a mail from someone, claiming that it is from your friend stranded on an island and he needs help. Rapportive will help you understand if that mail is really from your friend. All you need to do is [if you are using gmail], to click here and install the extension on your Firefox Browser or Chrome Browser!

Snaptu for your mobile phone!

We are increasingly finding ourselves overwhelmed by the flow of information online. And not many of us are fortunate enough to own a smart phone and that keeps us away from the world when we are away from our computer monitor. What if someone can provide us access to all that information even when we are away from our computer monitor and even if we do not own a smart phone? Snaptu does just that!

Snaptu is an Israel based Mobile Platform that brings many popular web applications to one place. Twitter, Facebook, News, Search - you name it, they got it. The key thing about this Mobile Phone Application is that it can run on any Java Enabled Mobile Phone.

How do you know if your mobile phone can run a Java Application? Click here to find a list of Java enabled phones and see if your phone model is in the list. If your phone is Java Enabled, then go to your mobile  browser and type m.snaptu.com  and download the application to your computer. Sign in to your favorite social networks and you are ready to go.

Why do I still go back to Google News?

In spite of Twitter and TweetDeck, I still find myself going back to Google News. Why?

Let me explain. Now, there is no question Twitter is a powerful social media. Often, more powerful than the powerful Facebook itself. And I am sure every tech geek in the world today wish they invented Twitter. Twitter popularized the concept of realtime web. And TweetDeck put the concept into action. As I shared with you in my last post, I look at Twitter as a powerful content delivery device. Having said that, there is one limitation that Twitter has which makes me not to quit my favourite Web 2.0 Services. What is that limitation?

Let me explain. People say Twitter is a river of information. Yes it is indeed. This is more than a metaphor when we talk about Twitter. You never get back the water that flows through River Twitter. Yes, the realtime nature of Twitter makes me miss the news. Twitter is with me when I am online, or when I my phone is with me. But then, I always do not have the time to keep checking my phone or keep going back to Twitter to see what is happening around the world.

On Twitter, it trends only if people are talking about it. But there is news out there that do not trend. News that I may miss out on. This is where feed readers and news aggregators like Google News come into picture. I still prefer the time I set apart to read news. I am not sure if I am really prepared for the information and junk with which Twitter overloads my timeline, my real life timeline. Not that it is bad. Just that I am not really ready for it yet.

So, I still go back and check Google News to see if I have missed out on anything!

What do I do with Twitter now?

So far I was trying to figure out how best to use Twitter. I tried using it as a platform to share when ever I posted something on techedin or pagedin. There was nothing much I needed to do to post links to my blog updates to Twitter. All that I had to do was to link up my blogs to TwitterFeed and the rest was taken care of by TwitterFeed’s automatic feed pullers. TwitterFeed pulled my posts and tweeted. I thought that was all I could do with Twitter because none of my friends are on Twitter. Even if some of them are there, none of them are regular tweeters.

Yesterday, I figured out what Twitter actually can be. First and foremost, it is not a social network the way we think of social networks. It is actually a content delivery device, integrated into the idea of social networking. Let me explain:

On Orkut and Facebook, I follow friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Once in a while we exchange an online ‘hi’, say that we like what they said or comment on something they said. If you are a blogger like me, you will also post links to your blogs on Facebook. Some may read what you write, some may not. May be, sometimes we follow Pages on Facebook, try and get information about things we are interested in. Sometimes, we join groups and share our ideas. It is all fun and very engaging.

On Twitter, on the other hand, most of us follow news channels. We follow celebrities first before we follow anyone else. We follow profiles who send valuable information on our way. So far, as I was trying to use Twitter as a Social Network, I was only following people. From yesterday, I started following celebrities and news channels and life on Twitter has magically changed since then. I am more closer to what is happening out there than ever before.

However, there was one problem. I was in touch with the world outside only after I logged on to Twitter. I wanted information to come to me. You are right, technology makes us so lazy that we always want the easier way out. I wished there was some device like Yahoo Messenger or GTalk on my Desktop that brought what is happening on Twitter in realtime. Looks like technology has an answer to most of the questions you have. I found out TweetDeck.

TweetDeck is a browser like application that fetches Tweets from Twitter in realtime and brings it to your Desktop. You can also Tweet, Retweet, Follow or do pretty much anything that you do on Twitter with TweetDeck. TweetDeck also gives you an option to link to Facebook and access your wall. Ask me what is the best thing I liked about TweetDeck! Let me tell you, there are four things.

1. TweetDeck stays out of my way. I hate it when necessarily unnecessary applications need to remain on the taskbar. That is the reason why I hate playing music using Media Player. I love it when I can leave applications that I am not currently using in the tray and get on with my life. TweetDeck can be reduced to the tray.  It stays in the tray and comes back only when you call it.
2. TweetDeck updates me in realtime. I tried to figure out how realtime TweetDeck could bring information to me. It takes not even five seconds to bring you a tweet, after it is posted to Twitter, if you have not exceeded the API limit. Now, that is real good realtime. Every time something is tweeted by someone I follow, the TweetDeck brid chirps and notifies me.
3. I love the TweetDeck Notification thing. I love the chirping bird, whenever I have a Tweet. More than the bird, I love the fact that I can reply or retweet from the notification box itself. I love it because I don’t have to waste time waiting for the application to open so that I can do what I want.
4. I like the idea of onetime log in. It saves a lot of time as I need to log in using TweetDeck only once. Once I log in, TweetDeck brings me everything that happens on Twitter and my Facebook Wall.

Now that I have TweetDeck, Twitter is a more powerful delivery device than it used to be. Every time someone I follow Tweets, I am more informed and more equipped. I now like Twitter simply because it makes information more accessible. I remember someone comparing Twitter to an ever flowing river of information and people stop by once in a while to dip a mug full of information. Now that I have TweetDeck, it is like I am someone who sits on the bank of that river from morning till evening [because I have my laptop or PC switched on from morning till late night] and constantly gain something from the information that flows by.

[If you want to install TweetDeck, click here. Please remember that you have to install Adobe Air before you install TweetDeck. To install Adobe Air, click here]

See how Google welcomed 2010

Go to Google.com and click on the "I'm feeling lucky" button without entering a search term and you will see how Google welcomed 2010. Amid speculations that Google were up to something big as they had a countdown timer on their website in 2009, the Google's way of welcoming the new year drew mixed responses. People who noticed it first, like Techcrunch, finally arrived at the conclusion that this was about something big Google were to launch at 12.00 AM, January 1, 2010. They tweaked their Mac to see what would happen on January 1, 2010. Google was wise enough not to let system configurations fool them and when Techcrunch tried nothing happened. The secret was finally revealed when the clock struck 12.00 am  January 1, 2010. Watch the following video to see what happened. [Thanks thefrenzybug for the video]

Sure, the whole idea, after it was revealed looked childish. Who would expect a cool company like Google to come up with something as childish as some flash text jumping around their web page? However, the suspense was good when it lasted.

Twitter Trends 2009 Vs Facebook Trends 2009

When Twitter came up with Trends of 2009, Facebook came up with Memology of 2009. I thought it will be an interesting thing to take a comparative look at both.

Before Facebook and Twitter, we had Google and Google Trend was the only way to understand what the world was thinking about. Google Trends were based on what people searched for. Of course that had its limitation, especially because you searched for what was on your mind only when you wanted to find out more about what was on your mind. Facebook and Twitter trends allow you to take a closer look at what the world is thinking because we usually talk about and share and RT what is on our mind. Search comes after we talk about it. This way I find Facebook and Twitter Trends more appealing than Google Trends, if you are going to base some of your advertising decisions based on what trends on the internet.

Again, a closer look at Twitter Trends and Facebook Memology reveals one key thing for advertisers. We are looking at two different types of markets when we are looking at Facebook and Twitter. Facebook Memology makes it sound like we are looking at a hoard of teenagers who will have to cajole their parents to buy the things they want to buy. How else can you explain FML trending only during exams and Mondays and still making it to the second rank on Memology? I think the Facebook Memology perfectly explains TechCrunch’s  stand on how Game Developers on Facebook dupe kids into using their parents’ cell phone to buy what they call Game Currency. Only games survive on Facebook because only kids use Facebook. Twitter, on the other hand, I think is about a mixed market. Every thing from Iran Election to Michael Jackson to American Idol to Harry Potter trended there. And this means you are talking about an audience that has the power to purchase and an audience that has the power to make their parents purchase at one single place, tweeting and retweeting! What more would an advertiser need?

Another interesting thing I noticed is that Twitter Trended on Facebook while Facebook Didn’t on Twitter. I am not sure if this was a purposeful omission by Twitter. If it was not a purposeful omission or filtering, guys at Facebook must be really concerned.

Open Dictionary from Macmillan

fauxtography |NOUN|the practice of creating false photographs by using software. It is a blend of 'faux' (meaning 'false') and 'photography'.The Jerusalem Post caught another fauxtography scam out of the mideast this week.

apatheist |NOUN| someone who is not interested in religion ... most apatheists are not agnostics. Because - and this is an essential point - many apatheists are believers.

technobimbo |NOUN| a girl who uses computer technology a lot but who doesn't really know much about it As a true technobimbo, I really hate the way computers can get stuck, go wrong and generally fail to explain themselves in plain English.

Heard these words? They are the new additions to Macmillan’s Open Dictionary. Well, what is the Open Dictionary? The idea is to allow users to add words that they know, with a meaning and a sentence in which the word in question is used. Anyone can add any word. Macmillan will publish the word if they can find reference to the word elsewhere. It cannot be a word used exclusively by you and your inner circle.

I don’t know how, even the word “adipoli” is there on the Open Dictionary list, as submitted by certain Dinesh Balakrishnan. As far as my knowledge goes, Adipoli is a word teenagers use in Malayalam to suggest that something is good as in “adipoli film”, “adipoli song” etc. Open Dictionary defines adipoli as follows

adipoli

adjective

excellent; used in Indian English

The concert was an adipoli performance which went deep into the hearts of everybody.

May be, soon we are going to see “adipoli” in the main Macmillan Dictionary?

Google Indic is difficult to handle!

If I have to type something in Malayalam, usually to post something on Koottam, a Social Community Network for Keralites that runs on Ning, I go straight off to Google Indic Transliteration Feature. Google Indic was a great feature from Google, as it was easy to use unlike many Transliteration Applications available online. What I loved the most about Google Indic was its ability to let me edit the text, helping me with suggestions, in case my transliteration went wrong. Where Google Indic suggested the possible words for a combination of English alphabets, it used to have an “Edit” option in the earlier version of Indic. I would enable the “Edit’ Option, start typing the word and Google Indic would then come up with possible Malayalam alphabets that could be created using a combination of English alphabets. My spelling never went wrong, as I had great control over what i wrote.

Yesterday, Google India’s Bangalore Team announced the launch of a new and improved version of Google Indic. It looks like Google Indic is going global. They have added all sorts of features to the improved version of Google Indic from Text Formatting to Unicode Character Picker. It supports seventeen languages: Arabic,Bengali, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Persian, Punjabi,Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. It is a great tool still. However, one key feature is missing.

Google India took away the one feature that made me stick to Google Indic, making it similar to the rest of the Transliteration Applications available online. It just took away the “Edit” feature. Now, it is like I am struggling like a five year old to figure out the right English Alphabet combination to produce the desired Malayalam Equivalents. True, Google Indic gives me a Unicode Character Picker to figure out the alphabets. But it takes a pretty long time for me to figure out what goes where. The Edit Feature used to make it very easy. I just had to click on it and start typing and Google Indic used to tell me different combinations I could use. I wish Google India brought the Edit feature back to Google Indic!

Google going live

Here is a screenshot of when Google went real-time when I searched. Well, that was just the Twitter updates, running live on the Google Search Page. And according to Google, there is more to real-time search than just Twitter. With real-time search Google is promising to give us the most relevant fresh information about what we search online, from news to tweets

You also have an option to control what result appear on your search page. You can go to the Option Tab on your Google Search Page and set your search from “Anytime” to “Latest” Following screenshot shows you how the search page appears when you set your options to latest.

You can also set your options to “Updates” mode. When you set your Search Options to “Updates” mode Google will give you only the most current real-time updates like Twitter. Right now I see only Twitter running on the search page. I am not sure if that is because Twitter is popular or right now Google can get updates only from Twitter. I would love if Google could give me the live feed of the most recent happening online from any site or web service, in connection with what I am searching.

Cosmos Infomedia Scam is back!

Take a look at the two screenshots above! What do you see? Same picture. Same layout. Looks like two screenshots of the same website, don’t they? In fact, they are not. They are the screenshots of two different websites claiming to do the same thing – make you rich by letting you work from home, doing mail order.

I received an SMS from my Internet Service Provider today, which read as follows:

Earn 7 to 37000 p/m by doing 2hr paper work at home for quick details open www.cash37k.com or to get details  by post SMS your name add. Pin code on 09321123454

I wanted to find out what exactly this scheme is. And the screenshots provided above are where I ended up. In August 2008, Trendy of Trendite exposed www.Earn45k.com, a site that promised to make customers rich by doing Mail Order from home. According to Wikipedia "Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer." Trendy explained how Earn45K is a scam. Following are the reasons he provides to show how the site is a scam:

1. A Google Search will take you to forums where people discuss how they lost money because of Cosmos Infomedia

2. The contact address on the WhoIs page of the site and the actual contact address mentioned on the site is different. [A WhoIs page is where you get the details of a site’s registration.]

9 months after Trendy reported Earn45K as scam, Times of India reported that certain Aravind Ojah was arrested in connection with Earn45K Scam. That was in April 2009. Times also reported Ojah entering into tie ups with telecom companies to send out SMS to victims. I tried finding out more about Ojah and his accomplice, Mirinda. There is no trace of either of them online, except the Times of India News and Trendite Update. And then, today I received an SMS from for Internet Service Provider about Cash37k. That is eight months after the news of the arrest!

I have only one reason to believe that Cash37k is as wretched a scam as Earn45k – both the sites look the same. The difference is in the money they offer you will make and a few links that were present in the original site is missing in the new site. The new site has a link called “Refund” which is probably to dupe people who may suspect fraud. The new site, like the predecessor, pretends to quote from Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes [Banning] Act 1978 in an attempt to mislead customers.

My Favourite Chrome Extensions

I always used to wish Chrome had extensions like Firefox. But then I was thankful Chrome did not have extensions because whenever I think of Browser Extensions I remember the time it used to take Firefox to load with all those Extensions. In fact the endless loading time is one reason why I left Firefox and started using Chrome. I always had to wait for at least for 15 minutes before Firefox initialized the Extensions or Add-ons or what ever they call it and then checked for updates and was ready for me to use. That was when the lightening speed Chrome came along and I instantly fell in love with this sleek browser that saved a lot of screen real estate and loaded faster than any browser that existed on my system. However, I always secretly wished for some of the cool extensions I had on Firefox.

And then Chrome Extensions came along! Yes, you require a developer version of Chrome if you want to use Chrome Extensions. But then, Chrome Beta is one good way to keep in touch with the new things the browser offers and there is no harm in using it. I went around trying most of what was available on the Chrome Extension Site and finally realized a few key things about what makes a Good Browser Extension.

1. A good browser extension is not just another bookmark! Most of the Extensions we have on Chrome are simple bookmarks which, if you click on them, take you to some websites. If an extension works like a bookmark, then why do I need it?
2. A good browser extension must do what the browser can not! For example, Google has an Omnibox that lets me do both search and browsing from one place. Google also allows me to decide which search engine provides me the results I seek using Omnibox. Then, why would I need another extension that offers to help me do search with different search engines?
3. A good browser extension must enable me to do certain things without leaving the browser window! This is the major factor that decides if I like an extension or not. I like an extension that allows me to do things without disturbing my browser experience. 

Now, these are the factors based on which I have selected my current favourite Chrome Extensions.

Facebook for Google Chrome

This extension allows you to see your Facebook News  Feed, Wall and Notifications without leaving the Current Tab. One click and the extension opens a pop up that lets you read the feeds on Facebook. It also allows you to update your status or let your friend know that you liked what he or she said. My only issue with this Extension is that it does not allow me to comment on what my friends say, though the comment link is available along with the feed.

Chromed Bird

Chromed Bird allows you to follow your timelines and interact with your Twitter account without leaving the Current Tab. One click and you can update your status, see your feed or @ Mentions or Direct Messages and retweet what your friends are up to. An option to create short url adds value to the extension. Initially I used to get an error message when the extension loaded. But now it works perfectly fine.

Chromepad
Chromepad is a note taking extension which I love using. I do not have to leave the browser and open a notepad if I want to take something quickly down as I am browsing. For example, I am browsing and a phone call came and I have to take down a phone number. I just have to click Chromepad open and type the number in. I don't have to even save what I type and recall it any time I want to. It is one of the cleanest and well designed Chrome Extension I have ever come across.

Google Tasks
Google Tasks allows you to recall your Google Task list without leaving your current tab. You can do everything that you do with Google Task when you open it in your Gmail or use it as a widget on iGoogle. The best thing about this extension is the fact that you can use the Google Task as liked to your account or you can use it as an extension specifically for your browser. You can also open Google Task as a seperate window.

Google Quick Scroll
Quick Scroll is Google's contribution to Chrome Extension. It works in the background, unlike most of the Extensions that appear next to the Omnibox. It helps you find what you are searching for faster and has the ability to decide if it must intervene with your search. When Quick Scroll decides to help you with your search it will appear at the bottom of the page leading you to the exact place on a web page where your key word can be found.

What do I like about Chrome Extensions?
Following are the things I like about Chrome Extensions:

1. I like Chrome Extensions because it loads as soon as it is installed. I don't have to restart the browser to see how the new Extension is working
2. I like Chrome Extensions also because they do not affect the Browser loading time.

The only thing I may not like is when third party extensions have the power to keep track of my browsing history and data.

Google's bad idea of personalizing search results!

I admire and respect Google only for one reason - they made it very easy for me to find the information I want, when I want it, as quickly as possible. If what I search for is available on the World Wide Web, Google gets it for me. I am stuck to Google ever since I started using Computer and Internet only for this reason. I won't mind even if Google takes all the other services it offers away. But I can't think of internet without Google, simply because I have learned many things after Google came along.

Search is the core of what ever Google does and they seem to be very proud about that. Personalized Search Result  is one of the key Google Search Features the company flaunts. Day before yesterday, Google announced that they are taking personalized search a step further by converting it into Personalized Search for Everyone. This is what I read on the Company Blog:

Today we're helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide, and in more than forty languages. Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible.Previously, we only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. What we're doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser. It's completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users).

I like the idea of Google trying everything they can to get me the best result possible. However from the way Google explains the new Personalization Feature with an example, I think it is such a Bad Idea and a total waste of Google's time and computer resources. Following is how Google explains their way of Personalization:

For example, since I always search for [recipes] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes. Other times, when I'm looking for news about Cornell University's sports teams, I search for [big red]. Because I frequently click on www.cornellbigred.com, Google might show me this result first, instead of the Big Red soda company or others.

Let me give you another example. When I search for Scocial Networking using Google, let us say I come across Facebook. I visit Facebook and I like it. Now, I visit the site a couple of times using Google. My problem is, if Google is going to put that result on the top just because I visited Facebook  couple of times from Google, then what about the other Social Networking Services? What if some one comes up with something better than Facebook and just because Google has put my favorite Facebook first the new guy gets pushed to the second page where I never go? I say pushed back because  the first ten results on the page are going to be in the order of my clicking frequency.

Lets not talk about Facebook. Let us say I want to know more about Social Networking. Google gets me ten great articles on the first page. I like all of them and I keep going back to read them. What if a new guy comes up with something better on Social Networking? How will I know, if Google puts where I go often first?

Is not Google reducing their Search Engine into a Bookmarking Engine by adding this sort of Personalization where what you click often appears first? I thought Google's way of intelligently understanding what I look for should mean much more than that!

[I have no issues with them using information on what I search to help advertisers target me. Since they give me the search result for free, they might as well make some money out of the advertisers using information about what I do on their site.]

Update: I was just thinking - what if Google puts the list of sites I click often when I search something just below the space available in that corner where they put sponsored links? How useful it will be if they do that, if the sites I have already visited are separated from the sites I have not!

Google is out to demolish the outcome of Babel

"Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" (Genesis 11:4).

God came down and confused the language of men - you know the Story of Tower of Babel. That is how Bible tries to explain the existence of different languages. Since the Tower of Babel, we have thousands of languages and as many cultures. We had no clue what was happening in different cultures and languages across the world. Today, Google integrated their Translation feature into their Search Engine and from today on we can look up what people are writing in other languages too.

Google says this is just to help people who travel out of their country. But I think this means a lot to even others. Now, I hope to look up and see what other languages has got to say about the doubt I want to clear using Google.

Now, next time you go to Google, click on "Show Option" and add as many languages as you would like to the Search result. Google will pick the translated results for you and you can know what people in other languages think about your topic. I hope God won't come down this time and confuse Google!

Image from Google Blog

Career Consultant Spammers!

I am sure you are a member of one of these Indian Job Sites and you get hundreds of mails intimating you about openings at various Organizations and Companies. And I am sure you have applied many a times if you are interested in the position on offer, sending your updated detailed resume. But my question is, how many of you have really got a call back for an interview applying for these jobs that are intimated from Job Sites by consulting agencies?

My experience is I have got a call back for interview only if the mail came directly from the Organization. I have never got a call back from the Recruiting Agencies that are abundant online, even if my profile suited the position they have advertised right to the last word. How do I know my resume suited the position right to the last word? I know because I know my job, I know what you require to do my job.

So I was telling you about the mails that come from Organizations and Agencies, intimating you about a vacant job. And I think we are so caught up talking about spams and scams in other areas like Social Networks that Career Spammers go unnoticed. Even I never noticed untill I received a call to my Unofficial Phone Number, which I leave only for recruiters and some very close friends, from some Agency from Mumbai that was trying to sell me a CD that had something to do with my profession. How did they know my number? How did they know what I was doing? I am pretty sure on of the Consulting Agency or an Organization to which I had sent my resume sold it to them. I went back and looked at the mails, in a hope to find a common pattern to figure out fake Consulting Agencies who are out there to sell my details to some thugs.

What did I figure out? Let me tell you:

• Check if the mail is sent from a Yahoo or Gmail ID than a Company ID. Any decent Company these days will have an email address of their own. 
• If they have an email address of their own, see if they have a website in the same address. If they have a website address in the same name, visit the website. See if the profile of the Company as mentioned in the mail and what you see on the website has reasonable connections. For example your mail may claim that the Company deals with Software Testing. If you visit the Website of the Company, you will find that the it is not about a Company at all. The website will be about some IT related conference that happened in 2006.  So check if the Company Profile on the mail matches with the Company Profile on the Website.
• Check for phone numbers. A serious recruiter will leave a phone number for you to contact. Any Tom Dick and Harry can create an email address. They can not have a valid phone number if they are fake. And a phone number is more traceable than an email address. Go ahead and see if there is a phone number. Also make sure that the phone number in the mail matches with the phone number on the website. A decent company will mention all the public contact numbers mentioned on the website in their mail. Think twice before sending your CV,  if only a cell phone number is mentioned. A valid landline number is your key to make sure that the company exists and has an address. 
• It is not enough you check for phone numbers. Call the number given and find out if you are calling to the same person as mentioned in the mail. Sometimes they can give you all the right numbers and still dupe you. So call and find out. Especially because your resume contains all valid data about you and it is a good tool for social engineering. 
• See if the mail is rational. Sometimes spammers can cut and paste from different mails to avoid hardwork. If it is an authentic company about an authentic job, the mail will have logical connection from beginning till end. Some of these offers may talk about totally unrealistic and unrelated skills in an attempt to sound professional. For example, the other day I got a mail from a Company looking for a Soft Skill Trainer who had knowledge of Hardware and Networking. I know Soft Skill Trainers, who train call centre people. I have never come across a Soft Skill Trainer who has knowledge of Hardware and Networking. And that is the job of a Tech Trainer and not a Soft Skill Trainer. You know your job. So check the mail and see if the skills mentioned in the mail sounds familiar and have some sort of connection. 
• See if the mail is clear about Soft Skills and Hard Skills and Qualifications and mentions them separately. Good recruiters know the hard skills required for the job and mentions them clearly and separately. Check and make sure that what you see is not a list of randomly picked skill sets to make it sound professional. 

But you don't have to bother replying to these mails from Career Sites at all. If you are really hunting for a job,  I have a few advices for you to avoid getting fooled:

1. Go to the company website directly and apply directly to the company instead of trusting Career Sites. Most of the Organizations advertise their job openings in their websites. 
2. Buy a news paper one of these days when they have a Job Advertisement Suppliment. Most of the good companies advertise directly through the news papers. 

If you do this, you can be at least happy that people are not duping you, manipulating your need to get a job.

Safe Social Networking: Orkut is safer than Facebook

I am amazed at the speed at which Facebook is catching up in India, pushing Orkut to the background. Well, I am generalizing based on my personal experience and not based on any research. I see many of my friends becoming more active on Facebook and less active on Orkut. I see bloggers in an eternal struggle to add more friends so that they can share their links with as many people as possible. I see Indian Companies coming up with Fan Pages on a daily basis. You are right, we do that because Facebook has a lot many more Social Networking options than Orkut.

I am on Facebook for the last five month or so. I kind of liked Facebook for their cute colour and fonts, layout and interactive networking options. I felt Facebook looks classy and more social networking than Orkut. I wondered why, Google, with all their mastery of building a brand was neglecting Orkut. If Google made up its mind, it could have taken Orkut way beyond what is is now. But I have never seen Orkut move beyond what it was a year or two ago, except for the new interface they recently launched. I was all the time wondering why!

Untill I read Dennis Yu and his how to spam Facebook like a pro.According to him, many of  the games, the quizes and the other applications that keep popping up while you are on Facebook are aimed at doing three things:

• Installing a spyware or a tracking cookie on your computer which will later open a back door from your computer to smuggle out information
• Trick you into giving up your email address and phone number
• Trick you into giving up your or your friend's profile information

Now I think I know why Google is keeping Orkut simple. It is just about social networking and nothing else.

Convert Pen Drive into RAM for Vista!

Can you convert your Pen Drive or Thumb Drive or USB Drive or whatever you call it into a Random Access Memory for your computer? The answer is NO, you can't! And YOU CAN, if you are using Vista.

You see there is one major Difference between RAM and a Flash Drive. They are built differently, for different purposes. They store information differently. RAM uses volatile memory, which requires power to maintain stored information.In other words, the information the computer stores on RAM is lost once you switch off the computer. Flash Drives on the other hand, like your Hard Drive, is non-volatile storage. What ever information you send to a Flash Drive is recorded so that you can access it later.

There is also another Memory for computer called Virtual Memory. Now you must have seen a temporary file stored on your computer, as you are working with a Word file or Excel sheet. Your computer stores the inactive part of the file you are working on and saves it temporarily on your Hard Drive so that your RAM can be freed up. This is exactly what Virtual Memory does. Virtual Memory uses your Hard Drive and gives an application the "impression that it has contiguous working memory (an address space), while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage."

Windows Vista takes it a step further. It enables you to use a new technology - ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost works using flash drives. Using ready boost, you can convert your Flash Drive into a cache. I am sure you have heard about cache, on your web browser. It is a place where the browser stores previous responses from a web server. In other words, things like cookies, pictures etc are stored on you Browser Cache so that the browser need not fetch it again as you move from one page to another when you are browsing.

Now ReadyBoost converts your USB Drive into a cache so that your computer can free the Virtual Memory and RAM. This makes your computer work faster than it actually does if you have not enabled ReadyBoost. Now how do you enable ReadyBoost?

• Make sure that your USB Drive is 1 GB or more. 
• Plug it into your computer.
• Scan it and fix it when your Vista prompts you to do so. 
• Go to My Computer.
• Right click on the USB Drive Icon and go to Properties.
• If your Flash Drive can be a ReadyBoost, the second last tab on your Properties Window will read so. [Some old Flash Drives may not be able to handle ReadyBoost]
• Click on the ReadyBoost Tab on Property Window
• Select "Use this device"
• Allocate Flash Drive space or in other words, tell your computer how much space it can use from your Flash Drive.
• Click OK
• Restart your computer and feel the difference

Please note that the space allocated for ReadyBoost on your Flash Drive cannot be used for other storage. In other words you can not save your files  if you have converted the whole Flash Drive space into ReadyBoost.  The trick is to use only half of your Flash drive as ReadyBoost and the other half for storing important files.

Portable Applications: Get essential applications on pendrive

All of us are used to running Applications and Programmes from your computer. What if you can run the same applications from a USB drive or pen drive or thumb drive or what ever you call that cute little thing that you use to store information? The thing is, you can.

Portable Applications are useful if you do not have a lap top and you are using public computers. They are useful if your computer is controlled by an Administrator and you cannot add or remove applications from your computer. You can store your log in data or anything else on the Portable Applications, take them any where and they will work the same way they worked when you had them on last time.

For example, if you use Google Chrome to browse and you have the habit of saving bookmarks and password on your browser, Portable Google Chrome will help you do that on any computer and still have all the data with you. This means, ton a great extend you don't have to worry about leaving your password on a Public PC.

Installing a Portable Application is easy. If you have a USB Flash drive, the installer will prompt you and help you install it on the drive. And these portable applications are not version specific. You can run it on XP, Vista or Windows 7. [I have not tested it on Linux or Ubuntu]

I would like to share with you a few portable applications that I use.

1. Portable Google Chrome
2. Portable Google Chrome Beta
3. Portable Mozilla Firefox
4. Portable MSN Messenger 
5. Portable Skype
6. Portable Thunderbird 
7. Portable Open Office
8. Portable Yahoo Messenger 
9. GnuCash Portable
10. Sumatra PDF Portable 
11. VLC Media Player Portable 
12. Cool Player Portable 

I use a 4 GB Pendrive. These 12 applications do not even take half of that pendrive. I have converted the rest of the space into a folder that will allow me to save important documents that I want to take along when I go somewhere.

The best music gadget on your desktop!

When Google does things, they do it in such a way that you will instantly love it. Google Desktop is one good example. It makes life easier by enabling your PC to perform the way you want it to perform. Of course there are several issues about Google Desktop, including the space it takes on your C Drive when it index your files. But that is some space I am willing to give Google Desktop for making search on my desktop easier.

As I was searching for Google Gadgets that would enable me to make my PC more useful, i stumbled upon their music gadget. It is a plugin that indexes music files and bring them together on your desktop so that it is easy for you to search and play songs as you are on the move.

There are several limitations to many of the music players that are available today. One thing is that they are incapable of searching your files out and bring it for you when you need them. If you have too many files on your system and that too in different places, it is difficult for you to locate them. The Music Player by Google Desktop automatically adds all your music files to the library and all that you got to do is type in the song you want and presto, it is there for you.

As you see in the image, it categorizes songs Artist, Album and Track wise. You can add the song of your choice to the play list. Or the album of your choice to your playlist. Or the artist of your choice to your playlist.

What I like the most about this gadget is that you have one button less on your taskbar!

Windows Live Writer: Blogging made easier!

I always used to wish if I could take my own sweet time offline to write a post and publish it once I am done. That was not possible till I found Windows Live Writer.

To me blogging was always something I did online. From typing a post to proof reading it to publishing it. Typos used to creep in and I always had to go back and edit a post even after I published it. I tried a few Offline Blogging Applications. But none of them was worth the bargain. They were very basic and I don’t think any of they really understood what a blogger wants. I think Windows Live Writer understands a blogger better than many of the blogging platforms available today.

Live Writer provides a blogger with many options, options that many blogging platforms, including blogger can not give you. The best thing about Live Writer is the Preview Option. Live Writer downloads your log template so that it can show you the post as it is going to appear in the blog. From hyperlinking to inserting pictures to embedding maps to you name it and it is like Live Writer has it. Following the Google and Firefox steps, Microsoft has also allowed others to develop plugins and addons for Live Writer.

It makes blogging easier is one thing.It also makes blogging much more interesting than it was!

Adsense on You Tube: How is it going to help?

Google is finally opening up Adsense for You Tube Users. So far, monetizing content was the privilege of a few. From now on, Google will let the owners of popular videos join the Adsense Programme and make some money out of it. What are the implications of such a move?

People say Google is struggling to make good money out of You Tube, though it is a very popular web service. People watch You Tube Videos a lot more times than any other video site in the world, to the extend of forcing Microsoft host their Jingle Video Contest on it. Yet, it seems, You Tube fails to deliver in terms of dollars.

I can understand why people want to watch videos on You Tube - it is entertaining. But it is not enough that the videos are entertaining to make some good bucks out of it. Let me tell you why I think so! There are only two reasons as I can see why people would want to upload content on You Tube. Let me explain - there are only two kinds of videos on You Tube. One, personal videos that you want your friends and family to watch. Two, promotional videos or videos that are advertisements themselves. So people upload videos only for personal reasons or because they want to promote their brand. What does this lead to? This is a serious limitation.

Pay-per-click Advertising survives only if people have reasons to click on the links. The most legitimate reason to click an advertisement is the interest of the person who clicks, in the product. Now, imagine that you are watching a home video that I produced because you are my friend. Let us say, the video is on how my dog eats food. And Contextual Advertising would probably put an advertisement on Dog Food along with the video. I am damn sure no one would click that advertisement. Because people who watch that video are going to watch it not because they want to know more about Dog Food, but because they know me and they are curious to know what I'm up to. If I am lucky, the video will become viral and a few more people would watch it. They too would watch it not because they are interested in Dog Food, but because they are curious to know what is happening. No wonder Google makes no money out of You Tube.

Talk about promotional video content. Watching such stuff usually takes us to other sites, if I am interested in what I am watching. And there again Google loses out in the game as in the You Tube Model, Video is much more important than anything else on the site.

And here comes Google with this cool idea - let users monetize their videos. Probably the JK Wedding Dance inspired the idea. Which ever way, all of us are going to gain from this decision. How? Look at the key to this idea - Google is going to let only the publishers of popular content monetize their videos. Some people say Google is doing this because they are worried they can not monetize all the content on You Tube. Some are so worried about how advertisers will have to put up with sponsoring things they do not want to sponsor. But I am not worried about anything. I look at this decision as an opportunity for publishers to make good money out of what they post. I am sure in the days to come You Tube is going to be more than just personal videos and promotional videos. I'm sure You Tube is going to see more quality content as publishers compete to make videos that make people watch. I am sure people are going to come back and watch videos and click on the advertisements because they are interested in what they are watching and advertisements will hopefully cater to their interests. And I'm sure slowly You Tube will become another research tool as more quality content is going to show up.

After Thought: Now we know one reason why Google bought ON2. I'm waiting for the rest of the reasons to surface.