New Look

FYkI there has been some changes...

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

Since I first heard of the OLPC project I was very interested in the project and kept an eye on the updates.

"OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community." - www.laptop.org

Here's how the UI looks like. The images are taken from their website.

Here's how the laptops actually look.


This is a great effort done by this foundation for a good cause. Then there was the Intel war.

"Intel is using predatory tactics against the One Laptop Per Child project." - read more on digg and olpc.tv

On April 27 it was reported on CNNMoney.com, according to Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the OLPC, Intel has been offering unusually attractive terms in the expected OLPC launch countries for its "Classmate PC" for about $180 against the OLPC XO laptops that costs around $175.

Anyone can see what's happening here, the big guys trying to crush the little one just for the sake of money. Anyway the recent news on this is that, Intel and OLPC has finally kissed and made-up. Yes, they have joined hands in an effort to make sure that "the maximum number of laptops reach the children" and they have put the pas behind them.

I truly hope that this project succeeds :).

Are you a good leader?

Recently I came across a very interesting article on CIO.com "Questions to Make You a Better Leader". This article talks about several questions you can ask yourself to keep you in-check and ignite the thought process so you can critically assess yourself and make things more clearer.

Here are the questions that were highlighted in that article.

1. What about your work motivates you?
2. What are the challenges facing your department?
3. What can you do to overcome these challenges?
4. How can you help your boss lead more effectively?
5. What are you doing to spread confidence?

I guess these are pretty basic questions, but it makes you think about what you are really doing. These questions are explored in more detail in the original article. And one very important thing mentioned in this article is:

"...all of us can benefit from a trusted associate who challenges us to think by asking good questions, and then pushing us to follow through"

which is very true.

Is there a magic pill for security?

I always wonder whether there is or whether there will ever be a magic pill for security. A one shot solution to protect from it all. With the direction the security industry is heading and the emergence of new threats, more intelligent, adaptive, and evolving threats, I do not think such a thing exists in the present or even in the future.

Maybe it is human nature, but we mostly tend to be in a defensive nature. We react only when things go wrong. I am not saying this just in the context of computer security. If there was a guy in the organization who thought differently and proposed ideas that are preventive of some sort, management sometimes fail to see the point and disregard it under the grounds of being wasteful of resources. It may also be that the guy failed to present the point across to the management in an understanding manner in the first place, but thats not the point I am trying to make here.

I have been noticing emergence of new technologies in the security arena, and some although not referred as new technologies, people have been coming up with new approaches to deal with viruses, malware and the like.

There have been several news recently on new startups that are whitelisting companies and I myself have posted and entry on this. The latest I came across is relating to malware.

A new startup by some previous Microsoft employees has released a beta version of a realtime malware blocking tool for the browser. It seems that they have entered a market dominated by big players such as McAfee's SiteAdvisor, Symantec's AntiBot, Exploit Prevention Labs' LinkScanner, and Google.

According to the company website, the tool can protect the user against malware while surfing social network sites and blogs (eg. facebook, blogger), watching embedded flash videos (eg. youtube), viewing sites with banner ads and widgets (eg. almost every site), clicking search engine results that unknowingly point to malicious sites (eg. while googling).

According to article on Techworld.com the tool has a multilayer strategy against the malware. The first layer works at the kernel level by monitoring dozens of windows processes and services amongst the API calls to the kernel and suspicious behavior from the browser. This realtime task is done by the identification and interception of the behavior based profiling algorithm.


The second layer protects by using blacklisting based on a database of malicious links and blocks the site.


As I have said before, these technologies aren't new technologies. Blacklisting and anomaly based malware detection has been around for sometime. And these technologies are being researched by academics even today. However I believe this tool is a one of a kind as there approach is different and obviously the implementation will be different from every other product out there.

It is indeed interesting and hopeful to see such attempts by people in the battle against the threats that exist out there. And such attempts are needed despite the many products that claim to be "the" magic pill to solve all your problems.

All images in this article have been taken from the Haute Secure website.
Original news article is from Techworld.com.

Which fantasy character are you?

I was recently searching for some fantasy characters and came across this interesting website where it asks some questions and decide which fantasy character best suits you.

I checked it out and came up with Aragorn from Lord of the Rings.

Why don't you give it a try as well on http://www.tk421.net/character/ :)

Windows Vista OR Your Privacy

Did you know that there are over 20 Windows Vista features and services secretly collecting your personal information and transmitting to Microsoft? Well it's true. Microsoft is not denying it and the users have no choice.

If you read between the EULA lines, you will find that Windows Vista provides Internet based services where Microsoft reserves full control to alter or cancel at any given time. These services can share and transmit the users' information without any notification. In fact the EULA has the following quote:

"By using these features, you consent to the transmission of this information. Microsoft does not use the information to identify or contact you."

Using information harvested such as simply the IP address, they could locate and contact you.

I can go on and on about many things like this written in the original article. It is worth having a look especially if you are using Windows Vista.

Please don't get me wrong, my intention here is not to put down Microsoft, but I feel that people should know about these things especially when it comes to your personal information and privacy. Without knowing, there is no way that we can equip ourselves to safeguard such information. So have a look at the article on softpedia.

The Windows Vista image on the top of the article was taken from Windows Vista website.

Workplace Politics

I recently read an article on CNNMoney.com about an interesting question that was asked about backstabbing and what to do if you were in such a situation.

In this particular case the backstabber who happens to be the subordinate of the victim, approached the boss and proposed that he could do the victims job better than him. And unfortunately the backstabber happens to be a top performer and a favorite of the victim as well.

The following is a portion of the answer that was taken from the article:

1. If your performance review isn't due for a while, ask your boss to expedite it: "In a meeting that is specifically about your job performance, you should be able to tell where you stand and whether your boss is listening to the back channel."

2. If official annual or semi-annual evaluations aren't scheduled for any time soon, you can still always have review sessions with people on your team. "You should sit down with each of these team members individually and address how you want communications to work," he says. "Don't utter the words 'Do not talk to my boss behind my back,' but be clear about the communications protocols."

3. Call a team meeting and, without singling anyone out, let it be known that you want to create a culture of trust in your group "and that you won't tolerate behavior that is less than worthy of that standard," Moran suggests.

I bet this is not uncommon in most of the workplaces when everything is so competitive and when ethics goes out of the window. On the other hand what is ethics anyway. I am sure it is debatable topic by it self.

Anyway you can read the full article here.