Srikanth Ramu

Google plus invite and Email address harvesting

2011-07-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

With each passing day, the argument about Google plus surpassing other similar social networking services is getting louder and stronger. Despite being in invite only mode, Google plus is estimated to have millions of users and has clearly impressed netizens. This post is not about the cool features in Google plus, however, on the threat of email addresses harvesting through social engineering.

The term "Email harvesting" means, getting email addresses with a malicious intention. It is carried out in many ways and one such method is social engineering where the information like personal details is collected through social networking sites. Hence, it is a good idea to limit personal information we post in these sites.

Now, you might be wondering how Google plus invite poses email harvesting threat. Well, for a new member to access Google Plus, an existing user has to send an invitation to the new member’s gmail address. As more and more users are eager to get Google plus invite, they tend to share their gmail address in public portals as comments to a blog post or a forum topic or through other social networking sites and request for invites. You would be better off sharing the email address privately instead of sharing it publicly.

Srikanth Ramu

Tips for compensating lack of work experience in your resume

2011-06-30T19:37:00.001-07:00

One of the main worries for a student without much of work experience is competing against experienced folks for internship. A few of my friends who are applying for internship wanted to improve their profile and mitigate lack of industrial exposure, so that, they get calls for interview. I’ve listed some of my suggestions that would help showcase their technical expertise in resume.

Disclaimer:

1. I am not a recruiter, the suggestions given should not be construed as expert opinion.

2. This post contains, some shameless self promotion!!,I just wanted to share some real examples of me practicing rather sounding only preaching.

Contribute to open source projects, below are some of the open source project hosing sites that are worth looking at.
- http://sourceforge.net/
- http://code.google.com/hosting/
Participate in technical forums/discussion portals. Besides learning from reading the posts, one would feel good by solving others problem
- http://www.coderanch.com/forums
- http://stackoverflow.com/
- http://www.dbforums.com/
I used to participate at CodeRanch.com and won a book prize !! too.

Volunteer in any community/organization activities like:
- http://www.wolframalpha.com/participate/
- http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/2011/06/help-improve-google-products-by.html
It is good idea to go for technical certification like SCJP, CCNA, as the preparation for the exams would make us more confident during interviews.
Have a good online portfolio like maintaining a website, blogging etc.
- I blog at http://www.srikanthramu.com, http://ggears.blogspot.com/, http://golddata.blogspot.com/
Create a LinkedIn profile
- My LinkedIn profile is http://ca.linkedin.com/in/srikanthramu

It is also a good idea to subscribe to technical portals for latest tech news and read good materials:

I guess, I have captured some of the tips which would help job hunters to add a few points in their resume.

Srikanth Ramu

Open redirect security vulnerability

2011-05-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

Open redirect is redirecting to an URL with out validating the parameter, it is a type of Web application security vulnerability. This February (end), I found an Open redirect security vulenerabilty in Linkedin service and promptly reported the issue to their support. They replied that, they would review the issue and consider for future development. My subsequent followups were not replied, however, today I noticed that the issue is fixed.

Hence, this full disclosure for the awareness amongst wider audience about such vulnerabilities. Below, url was redirecting to any url parameter, which could be exploited for phishing attacks.

http://ca.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http://www.google.com

My other post on web application security is @ http://www.srikanthramu.com/2009/05/404-error-handling-and-its-security.html

Srikanth Ramu

Widget Builder from WolframAlpha

2010-08-01T02:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, WolframAlpha introduced widget builder for creating widgets to input queries and view the results. Developers can now build UI to make the WolframAlpha's powerful knowledge engine easily accessible.

My wife being a dentist gets little miffed when I spend most of my holiday in front of my computer. However, today she was pleasantly surprised when I showed her couple widgets which I created are related to her field.

Below widget link gives tooth information for the given number:

Below widget gives Tooth Classification details:

The widget builder has a simple wizard approach. Firstly, you need to sign-in or create a login account @ https://developer.wolframalpha.com/portal/signin.html

You would be redirected to the "QUERY TEMPLATE" screen. By default the widget is "Untitled Widget", you could edit and give appropriate name. Refer, the help texts provided under "Get Started" section. The next one is "WDIGET LAYOUT" screen when you could place the UI components with the drag and drop support. Here you have options to give Title, color themes etc for the widget. The next screen displays the output for the sample query. You could choose the type of output you want in the "WIDGET OUTPUT" screen. Finally, you could select how to display the widget like embedding as iFrame, Popup etc.

Before publishing the widget you have to describe the widget and you could also tag with some keywords. You could browse through the gallery section to find already created widgets:

http://developer.wolframalpha.com/widgets/gallery/featured/

Srikanth Ramu

Great Musical experience

2010-07-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

The FIFA World Cup is over, but watching the games late in the night had left some traces. It is now 2:00 a.m and I am still awake and I am not complaining though. Its because I am listening to a few carnatic songs by students of Wesleyan University in a loop. I must admit that I am awestruck by their performance and lost count on the number of times I've replayed the songs. Before proceeding further, let me clarify that I am no expert in Carnatic music, however I am within my limits to appreciate a good music.

Splendid, marvelous, wonderful ... are some of the words I could instantaneously recollect to comment on the songs embedded below.

Firstly, the costumes of the students are the typical ones for a carnatic music concert and considering these dresses are not common in that part of the world. Secondly, on the format of the concert, like in any carnatic song, the lead singer starts with the alapana(i) i.e improvising the raga(m) (Sri Ragam in the first video and Ananda Bhairavi in the second) and aptly supported by mandolin/guitar. Finally, the song by all the students with perfect sync.

What amazed me was the pronunciation of Sanskrit words especially in the song Sri Kamalambike written by Muthuswami Dikshitar.

Truly a wonderful experience.

Srikanth Ramu

City Traffic Police Websites

2010-05-18T01:45:00.000-07:00

Its good to see City Traffic police maintaining websites and whats surprising is the information they offer. Some of the city traffic police websites are listed below:

Delhi Traffic Police - http://www.delhitrafficpolice.nic.in/
Chennai Traffic Police - http://www.chennaitrafficpolice.in/
Mobile Traffic Police - http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/
Kolkata Traffic Police - http://www.kolkatatrafficpolice.org/
Bangalore Traffic Police - http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in/
Hyderabad Traffic Police - http://www.htp.gov.in/
Chandigarh Traffic Police - http://www.chandigarhtrafficpolice.org/

Srikanth Ramu

April - June Tamil Events are added

2010-04-11T01:37:00.000-07:00

I've updated April - June Tamil Events in my Tamil Calendar. Notable dates are:

April
14 Chithirai Thiruvizha, Tamil Varsha Perapu
28 Chithra Pournami

May
4 - Agni Nakshatram Begins
16 Akshya Tirthiya
28 - Agni Nakshtram Ends

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=tqsrpl0tvkmlt2bb89qmmp0408%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Asia/Calcutta

http://srikanthramu.com/tamil-calendar-events/

Srikanth Ramu

New born essentials/items

2010-03-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

It is 3 months now, since Anirudh is born and I look back how I was prepared with the list of baby products for my new arrival. Thanks to my sister and friends for sharing the list of baby items. Parenting is so wonderful that and I am sure all expecting parent would enjoy shopping baby essentials. If you have a new born, then this baby checklist would be helpful. Btw, I've not used some of the items listed below but got to know from others:

Cloth diapers

Rubber/Plastic sheets - You would find a lot of varieties

Branded baby - Oil, soap, creams, shampoo, powder etc

Wet wipes

Baby Towels

Small Wash clothes/towels – to wipe baby’s mouth & saliva

Bibs

Cradle/Crib

Cradle bed and pillow

Baby Bath tub, bucket and mug

Alcohol swabs to clean the umbilical chord knot

Buds to clean umbilical cord after bath

Dresses for new born, 0-3 months

Blankets (smooth) to cover during sleep

Nail cutter – small

Baby head caps

Mittens (gloves) and socks for Baby – New Born size

Milk feeding Bottles – for travel in the later stage

Milk feeding bottles stand

Baby cotton balls to clean eyes during first few weeks etc.

Thermometer exclusively baby to check the temperature at Rectum

Diaper Bag to carry the diapers.

Crib toys

Thermos Flask

Srikanth Ramu

January 2010 Tamil Calendar events

2009-12-31T10:12:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a very Happy New Year.

I've updated January 2010 Tamil calendar events at below given calendar link:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=tqsrpl0tvkmlt2bb89qmmp0408%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Asia/Calcutta

http://srikanthramu.com/tamil-calendar-events/

Important dates in Jan 2010 are:

1/Jan/2010 - Arudhra Dharisanam

5/Jan/2010 - Sri Thyagarajar Aradhanai

13/Jan/2010 - Bogi

14/Jan/2010 - Pongal

25/Jan/2010 - Thai Kirthigai

30/Jan/2010 - Thai Poosam

Srikanth Ramu

Witnessed a miraculous escape, yet there is a lesson for all

2009-12-30T11:18:00.000-08:00

It was Sunday evening and a crowded 5A bus was nearing Velachery MRTS over-bridge. I was conveniently seated in the first row, near the front glass having full view of the road. Most of my fellow passengers were returning from shopping at T Nagar, which was evident with those jute bags from various shops. Our bus was traveling at a mean speed near the road-divider/median paving way to other speeding vehicles from left side. There was nothing unusual about the journey until a pulsar zipped past our bus. The bike caught our attention, as the guy who was riding it, was nervously negotiating with the bike to avoid colliding on the median.

As they say, you can’t stop the inevitable, it did happen and the bike hit the median and bore the brunt of the impact. The guy was thrown out to the other side of the median, only to find a bus traveling in the opposite direction over him. Luckily, the bus driver sensed the mishap and stopped the bus instantly. All of us were mute spectators and shockingly feared for the worst. But, it was not one of those worst days, the guy beneath the bus, hurriedly rolled himself out of the bus and was trying to find some solace at the pavement. He narrowly missed the wheels of the bus running over him, however he had some nasty injuries on his face and other parts of body, but I must say, he missed death by a whisker.

The guy seemed to be in his early 20s and I am sure he must have been shamelessly boosting his driving skills. I wonder what he would think of his abilities at high speed post this misadventure of kissing death. Had he maintained the speed limit, he would have controlled his bike and reached his destination safely. Although, in this case, he escaped the ultimate end, it’s a lesson for all - Speed thrills but Kills. So, drive safe with care and common sense.

Have a great year ahead.

Srikanth Ramu

What do you pay while buying gold jewels

2009-12-29T23:50:00.000-08:00

My blog post on charges included in the bills while buying gold jewels @ http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-in-your-jewelry-bills-making.html.

Srikanth Ramu

Mr. and Mrs. - Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi

2009-11-30T23:41:00.000-08:00

Today, Karthigai Deepam is celebrated across Tamil Nadu, especially in Thiruannamalai where Maha Bharani Deepam is lit and scores of people throng the Annamalaiyar Temple to seek Arunachaleswar's blessings. Apart from being an Agni Sthalam, Thiruannamalai also hosts Ardhanareeswarar symbolizing equality amongst all genders. You would be surprised to know all the Shiva temples will have a specific name for Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi. Here are some of the names and their places.

Arunachaleswarar - Unnamalaiyaal/Apithakuchambaal @ Thiruannamalai
Sokkanathanar/Sundereswarar - Meenakshi @ Madurai
Ekambreswarar- Kamakshi @ Kanchipuram
Viswanathar - Visalakshi @ Kasi
Natarajar - Sivagami @ Chidambram
Jambukeswarar - Akilandeswari @ Thiruvanaikaval
Sri Kalahasthiswarar - Gnana Prasunnambikai @ Srikalahasthi
Kapaleeswarar - Karpagambal @ Thiru Mailai
Marundeeswarar - Thirupurasundari - Thiruvanmiyur
Thenupuriswarar - Thenukambal @ Madambakkam
Mayuranathar - Anjalnayaki @ Mayiladuthurai
Adi Kumbeswarar - Manthrapeeteswari Mangalambika @ Kumbakonam
Rathnagiriswarar - Amodhra Nayaki/Vanduvar Kuzhali @ Thirumarugal
Thiagarajar - Kamalmbikai @ Thiruvarur
Nellaippar - Kanthimathi @ Thirunalveli
Mullaivana Nathar - Garbha Rakshambikai @ Thirukargavur

Srikanth Ramu

December Kutcheri/Chennai Music Season/Margazhi Maha Utsavam/Issai Mazhai

2009-11-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

Come December, you would find music and dance galore at Chennai offering feast to our ears, as musicians gear up for another Kutcheri Season. It’s a great tradition of musical extravaganza, when Chennai comes lively with seasoned musicians exhibiting their skills in rendering krithis and alapanas, while the budding talents have an excellent platform to start their career in music especially in Carnatic music. Almost all the Sabhas have packed schedules and not to ignore the delicious menu they offer which draws quite a handsome crowd. I’ve listed few links that gives an idea of what is in store for this 2009 season.

http://www.musicacademymadras.in/music_schedule.php
http://ramsabode.wordpress.com/concerts-in-chennai/
http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/calendar.asp

Srikanth Ramu

Firefox - Unable to save files

2009-11-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

At times, you end up doing fairly simple things in a complex manner, which other wise could have been done in a straight forward way. Today, was one such day, although I'd to toil a bit, however, much to my solace, I was able to resolve the issue. For the past couple of days, I was unable to do a 'Save As', while browsing through my old Firefox 2.x version. Initially, I felt it was due to my network speed, but realized it to be an issue with my browser, as the case persisted for some time. So, I decided to fix the problem, and as any ordinary Firefox user, I started off with the basic troubleshooting actions:

Firstly, invoked the Firefox preference dialog (Edit -> Prefrences -> Main tab) and checked the download related options:
a) Show the Download window...
b) Always ask me where to save files

Following this, I cleared all the caches/cookies by invoking Tools -> Clear Private Data. Having done this and taking my browser into my confidence, I tried the 'Save As' option but the browser showed no remorse to any my so called corrective actions. Realizing the problem to be a complex one, I tried some geeky stuffs like invoking About:Config and altering download related parameters. And then painstakingly analyzed all the options in Preference dialog. Still, the browser didn't pay heed to my actions. Having tried all the options I knew, I finally went to ever dependable Google Search and searched firefox unable to save files.

The search results pointed me to a comprehensive and neatly written trouble shooting tips. As suggested in the link, I moved the downloads.rdf, and it worked like a charm. How simple it was to just search rather than debugging the issue in my own way.

Srikanth Ramu

VIP culture especially on roads

2009-11-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, my colleague and I had an intense argument on the VIP (like ministers/other government functionaries) culture especially on roads. Here, its a common practice to hold the traffic during VIP passage, leaving behind scores of commoners staring at the convoy. My colleague was advocating this practice and had following points in his defense:

Important Duty: VIPs hold responsible positions and their actions are directed towards the welfare of large section of people, thus making their time precious

Security: Being in public service, make them vulnerable to physical attacks more than other lesser mortals

I couldn't concur with those points, as in democracy that echoes equality & freedom, no special treatment should be meted out to any person in the name of his position. To understand the repercussion of stopping the traffic for VIPs, let me approximately arrive at the loss of time. Mind you, this is only my guess, so its your discretion to arrive at the numbers. In a city like Chennai, when the traffic is stopped during peak hours, you would find at least 50 commuters wait for their signal to proceed or rather wait for the convoy to pass by. So, if the traffic is stopped for a minute, then we are talking about 50 man minutes!!! aren't these time precious?

Although, I understand the security aspect, but can't these VIPs who value their safety, restrict their movement in the larger interest of people. Functions like ribbon cutting (Inaugurations), convocations could be avoided for the sake of people who have elected them. Moreover, with the advent of latest technology in the communication medium, public meetings could also be wisely prioritized.

Sadly, couple of days ago, a shocking incident took place in Chandigarh, were a man who was critically ill could not get medical care on time and reason cited was VIP security procedures.

Srikanth Ramu

My recent posts about Gold

2009-11-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

I've listed some of my posts @ http://golddata.blogspot.com :

India buys 200 tones of gold from IMF - http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/11/india-buys-200-tones-of-gold-from-imf.html

October 2009 Gold price update - http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/11/october-2009-month-gold-update.html
Gold as a decorative material for exteriors/interiors - http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/10/gold-as-decorative-material-for.html
Gold Coin as as investment option - http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/10/gold-coin-as-investment.html

Srikanth Ramu

Business ideas via Google Suggest

2009-10-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a mashable post on funniest Google Suggest results, I tried 'How' search query in Google.co.in to know what users are interested to do. Well, this could be an indicator of market preference for those who are looking for new business ventures. Unlike Google.com, where the search keywords alone are listed, Google.co.in lists the number of results for the search query besides the keywords. Here we go:

Three suggestions out of ten were related to weight reduction or gain programs, so, if you are looking for a business idea, then do some thing to target this popular segment. The next query I tried was, 'Why', and the results were staggering in favor of job interview questions and MBA.

For more such queries check out http://questionsuggestions.com/ and http://www.gdumb.com/, have fun by trying out your queries as well. On a serious note, Google Suggest results could be used to for tweaking your website keywords as part of SEO.

Please note that the suggest results where taken a month ago hence you might not find the same suggestions now.

Srikanth Ramu

My classmates get-together

2009-10-25T13:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, one of my colleague shared some photos taken during his school Alumni meet which he organized. He and his buddies did a commendable job, as they managed to gather, close to 70 folks and about 15-20 teachers. Mind you, some of the teachers had retired and the organizers made personal visits to their place and invited them for the alumni meet. On seeing those lovely photos, I became nostalgic about my get-together with my classmates, which we organized 6 months ago. At times chewing the cud is also fun!!

It all started at orkut, where you get connected to your good old friends, which would have been impossible otherwise. From my class, two of us, now work for the same company and we've been friends for over 15 years!!!. We both started our school community for Kendriya Vidyalaya Heavy Vehicles Factory a.k.a K.V.H.V.F, Avadi and to our surprise, we got connected with many of our old classmates across the globe. It was great to see them as s/w professionals, doctors, Army major, home maker, post doctoral research student to name a few.
A playful guy during my school days, completed his post doctoral fellowship and visited Chennai during his vacation. It was a perfect time to organize a get-together, so we started the idea rolling. After numerous and chaotic email exchanges, we realized that we were 6 to 7 guyz, who could make it to the get-together. We fixed Radha Reagent (near Koyambadu bus terminus) as our meeting spot and we were all excited to meet each other after a long time. As the day came closer, the attendees number went down. Finally, 3 of us met (including the guy who happens to be my colleague) and celebrated our get-together. Although, there were fewer participants but undeniably it was a memorable one.

Srikanth Ramu

Adding widgets/gadgets in Blogger is simple

2009-10-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

I've just added few gadgets in my blog on Gold @ http://golddata.blogspot.com/. Its very simple to add widgets and organize your layout by dragging those widgets. Unlike Wordpress, you could also embed an iFrame to your blog page. The widgets that I've added are Twitter Updates, My Blog List, Google News updates on Gold, Gold Data Feeds. Following below steps would

Select "Layout" link for your blog

Click "Add a Gadget"

You could choose the Gadgets of your choice

After adding the gadgets, you could rearrange the elements in the page by dragging the gadgets and placing it appropriate area

Save the changes

Srikanth Ramu

Home Thiruvizha from ICICI Bank Home Loans

2009-10-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

ICICI Bank Home Loans presents Property Exhibition at Chennai Trade Centre, Nandambakkam, Chennai. Its a 3 day exhibition from 23/Oct/2009 to 25/Oct/2009. Entry is free and open for all. It seems many builders like Akshya Homes, Arihant, L&T Arun Excello, DLF, Doshi Housing to name a few are participating in the property exhibition.

Srikanth Ramu

My post on Jewelry Stores @ T.Nagar

2009-10-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

I've posted my second blog in my new blogging initiative about the yellow metal. My second post is about the source of jewelries for customers i.e Jewelry Stores. And, in Chennai its T. Nager where you would find an array of Jewelry marts. For more details refer below link:

http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/10/jewelry-stores-t-nagar.html

Srikanth Ramu

Getting Processor/CPU speed and other BIOS/Hardware details from Linux System

2009-10-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

One of my buddy who is a Technical Architect, introduced me to this interesting command "dmidecode". Its a command to display the Destop Management Interface (DMI) table contents. If you are wondering what DMI means, well, in simple terms it gives SMBIOS information, BIOS information, System Information (like Manufacturer, Product Name, Serial Number etc), Processor Information, Cache Information and many more. Below command usage would get you the Processor Maximum and current speed.

dmidecode | grep -i "Mhz"

My other posts on Linux commands are:

http://www.srikanthramu.com/2009/07/15/linux-command-to-check-processor-details/
http://www.srikanthramu.com/2009/06/23/linux-command-to-find-the-kernel-details/
http://www.srikanthramu.com/2009/06/20/chkconfig-command-to-startstop-a-service/

Srikanth Ramu

Introducing my new blogging initiative on Gold

2009-10-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

This post is to introduce my new blogging initiative on Gold @ http://golddata.blogspot.com/. This happens to my third blogging initiative, while others being http://srikanthramu.com (http://srikanthramu.wordpress.com) and http://ggears.blogspot.com. The hello world post is @
http://golddata.blogspot.com/2009/10/thangam-swarnam-sona-kanak-au-all-mean.html

Since the blog is more on on a specific subject, I am planning to have a blog post at least once in a week. So stay tuned!!

Srikanth Ramu

December month Tamil Events Calendar

2009-10-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

December month Tamil Events are updated in the Calendar. Some important dates are:

1/Dec/2009 - Thiru Karthigai/ Thiruannamali Deepam

28/Dec/2009 - Vaikunta Ekadhasi

Apart from the above, you would find the usual Pournami, Ammavasai, Pradhosham, Suba Muhurtham, Ashtami, Navami etc.

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=tqsrpl0tvkmlt2bb89qmmp0408%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Asia/Calcutta

Srikanth Ramu

Traffic Rules violations and Fines

2009-10-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Few days ago, I noticed an increase in Traffic police check points with sizable number of sergeants at each check points. This is a welcome move from Chennai Traffic Police, as it would sensitize commuters on traffic rules and road safety. With the lack of monitoring/policing, we witness a lot of traffic rules violations and the effects are visible as well. The common errors are:

Traveling with out valid driving license and other documents like Insurance, RC book etc

Failure to obey traffic signs like not stopping at Red/Orange signal, lane violations, traveling in no entry roads etc

Not wearing helmet

Speed limit violations

Parking at 'No Parking' area

Traveling with more than the allowed persons like triples in two wheeler

Driving in an inebriated condition

Not wearing seat belts

Using mobile phones while driving

Chennai Traffic Police has listed the traffic offenses and associated fines in the below links.

http://www.chennaitrafficpolice.in/spotFine.php
http://www.chennaitrafficpolice.in/courtFine.php

So, the next time when you are caught for any traffic rules violations, you know what to pay :-)

Srikanth Ramu