It turned out to be a potboiler after all; John Emburey made a trip and a presentation in vain; Graham Ford rejected the job offered to him; and Chandu Borde said "I am very happy" after getting a job out of the blue.
Happy Ending, the Indian gets the job. But wait ! the story is not over yet, with Indian cricket, you never know what can happen next.
The story :
The Chosen One - An anticlimax
The Chosen One
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Orkut to be banned in India ?
The call for the censorship of Orkut has come from Shivsena. Last week, some internet cafes in Mumbai were vandalized since they had not blocked Orkut.
From an article in the Economic Times
"Orkut is used by many destructive elements to spread canards about India, Hindus, our gods and cultural heritage," said Abhijit Phanse, president of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the student group. "We are gently telling Internet cafe owners that it is their responsibility to see that surfers do not use their facility to carry out such hate campaigns ... Or else, we will have to do that job for them."
Special software is being developed by the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, which will filter objectionable content, this s/w is to be used in internet cafes. Orkut & Google have been informed of these developments. Earlier, objections were raised about the detail that Google maps provided about the Indian terrain, which could possibly be used by terrorist elements to plan attacks; Google had then agreed to filter out sensitive sites. It will be interesting to see what stand Google takes on this. Currently, there is an option in Orkut to flag communities as objectionable, and Google/Orkut will review the content and remove the community, if the objection is valid.
Read all the news about this on Google News
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team is investigating the issue, they will decide the way forward in this matter.
From an article in the Economic Times
"Orkut is used by many destructive elements to spread canards about India, Hindus, our gods and cultural heritage," said Abhijit Phanse, president of Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the student group. "We are gently telling Internet cafe owners that it is their responsibility to see that surfers do not use their facility to carry out such hate campaigns ... Or else, we will have to do that job for them."
Special software is being developed by the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, which will filter objectionable content, this s/w is to be used in internet cafes. Orkut & Google have been informed of these developments. Earlier, objections were raised about the detail that Google maps provided about the Indian terrain, which could possibly be used by terrorist elements to plan attacks; Google had then agreed to filter out sensitive sites. It will be interesting to see what stand Google takes on this. Currently, there is an option in Orkut to flag communities as objectionable, and Google/Orkut will review the content and remove the community, if the objection is valid.
Read all the news about this on Google News
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team is investigating the issue, they will decide the way forward in this matter.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
The Chosen One - An anticlimax
After so much brouhaha about choosing the next Indian cricket coach, it has ended up in an all familiar anticlimax, much like the Matrix, with the players (Neo) becoming GOD.
The current contenders are John Emburey and Graham Ford; now where did he come from ? Both guys had strong backing from the players. It seems that Dav Whatmore was never a front runner for the post, or says the elite panel. BCCI has decided to play it safe by choosing a back room coach instead of a high profile one, since they had enough of leaked mails/SMS and factionalism in the dressing room. It is another thing that the players wanted Tom Moody who has already chosen to coach Western Australia.
India's loss is Pakistan's gain. Now Pakistan has their sights set on Whatmore, whether Dav will take up the job is yet to be seen; initial offers by PCB were rejected by Whatmore, since he was expecting to land the India job. Whatmore being the spunky guy he is, might just take up the job, and make worldbeaters out of Pakistan and BCCI is sure to land in a soup if Pakistan beats India.
Read my previous post about The Chosen One
The current contenders are John Emburey and Graham Ford; now where did he come from ? Both guys had strong backing from the players. It seems that Dav Whatmore was never a front runner for the post, or says the elite panel. BCCI has decided to play it safe by choosing a back room coach instead of a high profile one, since they had enough of leaked mails/SMS and factionalism in the dressing room. It is another thing that the players wanted Tom Moody who has already chosen to coach Western Australia.
India's loss is Pakistan's gain. Now Pakistan has their sights set on Whatmore, whether Dav will take up the job is yet to be seen; initial offers by PCB were rejected by Whatmore, since he was expecting to land the India job. Whatmore being the spunky guy he is, might just take up the job, and make worldbeaters out of Pakistan and BCCI is sure to land in a soup if Pakistan beats India.
Read my previous post about The Chosen One
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Spurious Search results
Yes, search results that are not only unauthentic, but those which install trojans and viruses in your system exploiting those back doors that Microsoft guys have intentionally or unintentionally left open. (One more reason to use Linux). Once these small harmless looking pgms are in, its your systems' Waterloo. One such virus in Bancos, which is aimed at stealing passwords of bank accounts. In these days of online transactions, that can burn quite a hole in your pocket, if it manages to get itself installed in your system. Scary, but the truth. Around 4-5 % of search results are links to risky sites which install spyware, adware, trojans or show popup ads which do the same. If you think it is a small percentage, you should check out how many of them appear at the top of the search results and many of them appear as sponsored links.
According to McAfee's site advisor study, 'The State of Search Engine Safety', Yahoo returns the most search results rated "Red" or "Yellow" whereas AOL has the least. For once, Yahoo has managed to top Google. The study compares this years results with the previous year and states that while Google, AOL and ASK have managed to increase the safety of their search results, that of Yahoo and MSN have declined. Lots of details are available in the study, worth a read, so that next time you think twice before clicking on that search result.
So what do we do about this ? Invariably, one is bound to click on a problem link. A good AntiVirus Software should prevent installation of any problematic programs. To ease matters, there are some tools like McAfee Site Advisor and Link Scanner from Exploit Prevention Labs that give you an idea about how safe the site that you are currently browsing or about to visit.
I checked out SiteAdvisor; the features are quite good, it is available as a Firefox and IE plugin and its free. Its safe browsing button
sits at the bottom right hand corner of Firefox and signals the safety of yoursite. You can also view the site details by clicking the button.
Another feature of SiteAdvisor is that it displays icons near each link in the Search results indicating whether that site is safe or not.
Google
Yahoo
The search query is for "bearshare", the top most dangerous keyword ! Check the number of risky sponsored links in Yahoo.
I will try out Link Scanner as soon as I (and if I) get time. Watch this space for more info.
Further Reading
The State of Search Engine Safety
Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links
Users exposed to millions of risky searches
Dont forget to check the site advisor safe browsing button's color when you visit these sites.
According to McAfee's site advisor study, 'The State of Search Engine Safety', Yahoo returns the most search results rated "Red" or "Yellow" whereas AOL has the least. For once, Yahoo has managed to top Google. The study compares this years results with the previous year and states that while Google, AOL and ASK have managed to increase the safety of their search results, that of Yahoo and MSN have declined. Lots of details are available in the study, worth a read, so that next time you think twice before clicking on that search result.
So what do we do about this ? Invariably, one is bound to click on a problem link. A good AntiVirus Software should prevent installation of any problematic programs. To ease matters, there are some tools like McAfee Site Advisor and Link Scanner from Exploit Prevention Labs that give you an idea about how safe the site that you are currently browsing or about to visit.
I checked out SiteAdvisor; the features are quite good, it is available as a Firefox and IE plugin and its free. Its safe browsing button
sits at the bottom right hand corner of Firefox and signals the safety of yoursite. You can also view the site details by clicking the button. Another feature of SiteAdvisor is that it displays icons near each link in the Search results indicating whether that site is safe or not.
Yahoo
The search query is for "bearshare", the top most dangerous keyword ! Check the number of risky sponsored links in Yahoo.
I will try out Link Scanner as soon as I (and if I) get time. Watch this space for more info.
Further Reading
The State of Search Engine Safety
Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links
Users exposed to millions of risky searches
Dont forget to check the site advisor safe browsing button's color when you visit these sites.
Friday, June 1, 2007
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