Anti-Phishing Endeavors

Anti-Phishing Endeavors

The most hated thing and the most dreaded thing of our day to day use of Internet is the amount of and the nature of (convincing) Phishing emails that we recieve. Still there are a lot of innocent people who fall victims to Phishers giving thier usernames and passwords to Phishing websites leading to credit/identity thefts.

I would like to share some information on the various new browser features which are equipped with Anti-Phishing measures. You can find a good explanation to Phishing from the Wikipedia URL here. There are committed efforts worldwide to eradicate this menace. You may like to check out the Antiphishing website group here and their actions.

The most simpler thing would be at least having the latest web browsers like Internet Explorer 7 and/or Mozilla FireFox 2.0 with Antiphishing features enabled. Here are a few pointers towards safe and secure browsing:

1. Internet Explorer 7.0 Antiphishing Filter
2. Google Safe Browsing Tool for FireFox

Under these discussion context, we would also like to draw attention to the sad plight of certain organizations from Chennai and Indian suburbs which does Internet intrusions heavily. You may like to find out a very brief discussion here.

Elegant Talking Blogs

Elegant Talking Blogs

Empower your weblogs to talk to your readers than giving them the pain of reading through your posts. I came across an elegant webservice called Talkr, which gives free accounts for bloggers to Podcast thier posts as MP3 files.

Check out Talkr.com now.

Live CricketScores on Desktop

Live CricketScores on Desktop

For cricket lovers, there is some good news out. Edwin has created a simple cricket score utility which is a free download from his website here. It internally communicates with other service providers to cull data and display in a simple ad-free uncluttered and elegant format. At least for the current ongoing match, for which the application has been engineered, it would really help cricket fans to get live updated scores delivered direct to thier desktop without getting into the hassles of advertisement-loaded, slow and painful websites.

Check out LiveCricketScore website here. While this tool is a great one for cricket fans, we would also like to recall our earlier discussion on Cricket playing the game of ricket on Indian economy. There is nothing there to offend anything. It is an individual personal view.

Akshaya Tritiya at Irving

Akshaya Tritiya at Irving

We have been discussing about the significance and greatness of Akshaya Tritiya sometime back. This year, Akshaya Tritiya, was observed today (April 20, 2007). I just thought of getting some good households. I checked out a few jewellery websites and a couple of shops over here. Fortunately, there is also one Jewellery Television Channel that comes in my room. From the various information that I could gather the purity of gold we get is not like in India.

After clicking online through BestBuys and other websites, I got some suggestions, inheriting to the previous gifting gestures from the current CEO of my previous organization, Paul Kuttikadan. I got some good kitchen appliances automation set. There were some problems with my watch for a while and hence clicked to a good watch too. Actually, the latter derived from as an inspiration from Paul. I also forgot about this till I got an email from my the then project Manager (Sasidharan Chinnaraj), who currently now works for iSoft Plc.

The watch again had a light gold plating so it is a breed rare in itself -- addressing the jewellery purchase, getting a watch for myself. Again the watch idea, I am sure it is the blessing of my Lord Swamiye Saranam Ayyappa. Somewhere in a English lesson during tenth standard, there were mention about purchase of watch by a couple during Christmas gift and it was regarded as 'The Gift of the Magi'. For some reason, I was fondly recalling the phrase of the lesson too.

An hour devoid of Electricity in Homestead Studio Suites, Dallas

An hour devoid of Electricity in Homestead Studio Suites, Dallas

The nation seems to have all high-tech instruments and gadgets for anything and everything -- all powered by electricity. I have also heard that unlike India, we do not have electricity shutdowns here. Even for a few minute power shutdowns, they give some week long notices, I guess. Today evening, when I returned from office and was cutting the vegetables for dinner and parallely listening to the Desi FM channel (Radio Salaam Namaste), the radio stopped all of a sudden. The powersupply had gone off totally. With no power, interestingly, even the little clock does not work leave alone the electric stove or the microoven.

When I called the FrontDesk, there was one desi guy only manning there. He too was rather anew and just getting accomodated to the new culture. He could gather some info that because of gale/tornado alerts, the power supply might have got stopped. There was no ETA on restoration of power either. I called my other colleague on a plan of action for dinner. We then decided to wait till about half past nine and if power doesn't come up, we would get some bites from some nearby restaurant. When I just peeped out of the room, it was raining too.

Interestingly, after a while at about 9 PM, the power supply got restored so we could resume on our cooking delights for the supper-show.

Blooming Spring, Shimmering Chill and Shiny Sunshine

Blooming Spring, Shimmering Chill and Shiny Sunshine

Spring is always a great season to enjoy. And my current trip to Dallas, US has rightly coincided in the Spring of 2007. Inspite of fluctuating and acute weather that prevails now and then like we described for yesterday and for the previous week, it indeed stages a marvellous arena of the greatness and valour of Nature and her talents. Awesome. Great. Terrific. Wonderful. Gazed with wide-open mouth. Deverastic. I just am encountering shortage of English vocabulary to adore the beauty and greatness of Nature.

Today during the afternoon; while casually and leisurely strolling through the green meadows of Meadow Creek Drive and getting snaps of the beauty of Nature I really wondered this way. William Wordworth should be a very great blessed soul to have spent all his life amidst the pleasures of Nature in her laps. After returning to the room, I was still recalling the pleasant views and I fondly recalled Laxmikanth Pyarelal's lyrics 'Panneril Nanaintha ...'. This tunes aptly befit the nature her with alternate snowing, light hails and pleasant sunshine besides the blooming spring.

I would share a couple of snaps I have taken as a Windows Movie with the pleasant background music here. Switch on your speakers.

Tamil New Year (Sarvajit) Prayer Celebrations at Room 177, Homestead, Irving, Texas

Tamil New Year (Sarvajit) Prayer Celebrations at Room 177, Homestead, Irving, Texas

Today (April 14) is observed as 'Tamil New Year' (the beginning of new year Sarvajit). Inspite of being away 10000 miles from hometown, but always there is a gentle tender connection to the homeland and home culture without being drifted and distracted by foriegn, alien and mundane disturbances of any kind. I chose not to just ignore the function with just a couple of minutes slokas. I woke up as early today and took the head bath too. Interestingly the weather was inclement in Irving. I planned the dishes and prayer in the morning, which I could prepare using my little knowledge.

The quick and easy dishes that I prepared are:

1. Venn Pongal (thank's to Priya's Kitchen)
2. Vazhakai (Plantain) Curry. Holy functions ought to include plantain in our principles and scriptures.
3. Thirukkannamadhu (thank's to TRS Iyengar recipe)
4. From Walgreen's I managed to get some fresh fruit mix.

Now comes the Pooja. I knew a few mantras but without a book. My HP Compaq nc2400 became the vadhyar (priest) for my house new year celebration here. Early in the morning itself, he recited the Sri Ayyappan Suprabhatham completely. After the food preparations were over, I prepared the table for prayers and brought all the food items there. My priest then recited all of the following:

1. Pancha Sooktham
1. Purusha Sooktham
   
1. Narayana Sooktham
2. Vishnu Sooktham
3. Sri Sooktham
4. Bhoo Sooktham
5. Neela Sooktham
2. Manthra Pushpam
3. Sri Ayyappan Panchratnam (Loka Veeram ...)
4. Chatrumurai
• Chitranchirugale (Thiruppavai 29th Pasuram)
• Vangak Kadal Kadainthu (Thiruppavai 30th Pasuram)
  
2. Mangala Arthi -- I would like to recall the assistance of the following software in preparing the quick desktop pooja for Lord Ayyappa including flowers, camphor (I can not use real camphor since my room is a non-smoking room and it will alert the flame/smoke detectors), bell and agarbathi (incense sticks).
   
   
   
   1. Irfanview
   2. ScreenWeaver
   3. Sabarimala Temple Website

While taking the food, I was afraid whether it was cooked or half-baked. Thanks to my Lord and no one would really believe that it was really amazing. I am sure it was not me who cooked but it was Lords' own prasadams delivered to my room.

I would also like to share the Desktop Pooja application created for step (4) and snaps in course of time. Stay Tuned!

I also wish all readers A Prosperous and Happy Tamil New Year (Sarvajit) 2007!

A Brief Spell of HailStorm on Friday

A Brief Spell of HailStorm on Friday

Following the previous weekend, this weekend seems to be designed for serving as another spectacular Nature show. Towards afternoon of Friday, the winds became chiller. At five pm, we returned to the hotel and we refreshed ourselves. While we were watching the televisions, we observed a few splatter sounds. There were brief sprinker rain starting up. But as we stood watching within a couple of seconds, some good-sized hail started to flew by. It was really a spectacular sight to watch. We do have captured a couple of moments as clips and videos. We would shortly publish them across.

Weather channels also had placed a Tornado Watch on Fort Worth, the neigboring city of Irving and placed messages asking people to take safe shelters from the high-speed gusts and winds. The severe weather alerts were active till midnight for Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The tornado track was heading towards Alabama sweeping through the state of (North) Texas. Check out Live Dopplet report here. The weather forecasts for today and tomorrow are cool winds and not much of heavy winds or gale. We would keep you posted with our observations.

CommunityCredit Handicap -- Boon Or Bane

CommunityCredit Handicap -- Boon Or Bane

Community-Credit has of late brought in a new scheme called Community Credit Handicap which introduces a few measures so that winners of this month would get cutbacks in the score for the credits that they submit in the next month. The Handicap, as described in the website applies for one month only and the next following month, the user would be treated normally. You can find a complete description of this new feature in the following two URLs:

1. A writeup on CC Handicap
   
2. A discussion thread on CC Handicap

Since the points page didn't have any mention regarding the same, I was bit confused on why the points are not appearing till the CC Helpdesk clarified me with the abovesaid support URLs. Now, with reference to my Grand Prize Winning of the previous month, which I have shared the moments here, I personally feel that this is really a good stepping stone and an accelerator as on of the contributors (Lou Vega) has opined in the thread.

Again, I personally feel that once we win a laurel, there is nothing for us to wait and relax. There are more laurels to win and territories to conquer. I sincerely love Robert Frost in this direction:

The Woods are lovely dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

("Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening" -- Robert Frost)

I would also like to recall a similar emphasizing song from Padayappa where Tamil Nadu cine superstar Rajinikanth plays the lead role. There is a song like 'Vetrikodi Kattu. Thadaigalai Muttum Varai Muttu. Padaiyedu Padayappa.'. [Blow up the hurdles and conquer them till all the hurdles get defeated and run away.] There is one more lyric in the film (and I think it is part of the same song) 'Singa nadai pottu Sigarathil Eru. Sigarathai Adainthal Vanathil Eru'. [Keep marching majestically like a lion, the king of jungle and conquer top positions. Once you reach the top positions, look high up to fly high and conquer more.]

So I think the new concept of 'Point Handicap' that has been brought by Community-Credit is indeed a great welcome step to make us accelerate ourselves and steer forward with more vigor. Let us thank them for the novel slam and also wish them more success to create more successful Community-Credit network.

A Spiritual Weekend

A Spiritual Weekend

This weekend has been more of spirtual nature. There were a few tasks pending in my MSN Calendar for long, which I just thought, I would pop it up and see for thier completion and those are now flagged 'Complete'. With the climate at my place chill beyond normal text description, I chose to stay warm indoors with room heaters on. Rather than just watching crazy channels or unnecessary swipe of credit card elsewhere, I decided to focus on some good eternal bliss stuff. Here goes a summary of events.

Besides this, I got a chance to listen to Velukkudi Swamy's Thiruppavai Upanyasam. It was a 30-day Upanyasam that has been recorded at Bharat Kalachar Auditorium, T. Nagar. A good samaritan kind-hearted soul has published them over the website. Each and every discourse is really enlightening.

---

SaranamAyyappa.TK -- New Look, New Feel and More Expanding Content

One of the network websites, http://www.saranamayyappa.tk/ has been updated now with a new look and feel, with more content and easy navigational use. Currently it has been configured for ease of updation to multiple authors geographically distributed across the globe to get as much information as possible for the benefit of devotees and aspiring pilgrims.

This comes close to the heels of Visu celebrations at Sabarimala.

---

An Exclusive Website for Lord Siva Devotees Launched

The erstwhile Siva Temple section that has been part of my website has been delinked and has been promoted as an independant website now. Currently there is a rich content but the UI needs to be touched to a greater extent. But since the bottomline is service to pilgrims more than alluring anyone, this has been rolled out for service.

---

Arupadai Murugan Website Launched

It has been lying around my Todolist regarding launch of a two page information website dedicated to Lord Muruga, the thought itself, I consider as a divine blessing of the Lord. Perhaps for those who have been closely following the discussions, here is the recall URL.

As a prelude to Tamil New Year, the little humble six page one liner and link repository website on Arupadai Murugan has been published. The website for Tamil God Lord Muruga has been released in the context of Tamil New Year itself, which itself signifies the blessings of the Lord. Check out the website here.

---

Click on these websites and do send me your feedback on the same.

---

Chill Weekend at Irving

Chill Weekend at Irving

This seems to be a chill weekend at Irving. It is said that Texas summer is really hot and really really hotter like in Chennai, India sans sweating and perspiration. However, starting from Wednesday the climate had a very interesting transition. About the previous weekend, there were quite a few mild to strong thunderstorms in the area, with the neighborhood state of Okhlohoma also hosting a couple of tornadoes. This weekend there were predictions like chill temperature including light snowing. I attaching a screenshot of Inbox.com weather forecast at Irving here for April 07, 2007. I use Inbox.com Weather since it has a pleasant interface with configurability to Celsius.

Interestingly yesterday I went in the evening with my friend to Hotel DoubleTree for a casual weekend party. As always the unique thing I always do, I forgot my jacket and when we returned it was 11 PM. The weather had been become more inclement. It had started to lightly drizzle too. Somehow managed to come and no sooner did my friend drop at the hotel, I barged in to the room and turned on the room heaters before preparing some quick dinner bites. Today even during daytime, the weather is really biting cold. A wonderful weather weekend to cherish all the way through.

Interesting Map Direction in Google Maps

Interesting Map Direction in Google Maps

While casually playing around Google Maps to find out driving directions to different places that we were visiting, we found a ver interesting combination. Following from this post, we observed that Google Maps even suggests a route from Dallas to London (in UK). Just try out the following routes for example:

1. From: 5310 N MacArthur Blvd, Irving, Texas 75038
2. To: St James's Palace, London, Greater London, SW1A 1JR, UK

It suggests very interesting combinations for the direction:

1. Drive: 5,500 mi (about 30 days 10 hours)
2. When you scroll down, Item 26 reads as Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 mi

Click here for a screenshot.

April Fool Celebrations at Homestead

April Fool Celebrations at Homestead

April Fools Day or All Fools Day is really a very humourous day, to crack jokes and try fooling others in a way that it does not hurt others' feelings but makes and develops interesting friendship. A few of us who have travelled to Dallas and currently staying at Homestead found comfortable to start cracking jokes right away starting on March 31, 2007 midnight itself. Perhaps, were we celebrating April Fools Eve?

Quite interestingly one of us struck with an idea with the midnight across room calls related to Vivek's Tamil comedy 'Neenga Verum Daas a. Illa Lord Labakku Daas a'? I would also like to share a YouTube trailer hosted by dalitoi.

An Evening of Thriller and Thought-Provoking Entertainer Movie -- Blood Diamond

An Evening of Thriller and Thought-Provoking Entertainer Movie -- Blood Diamond

Today evening as we started from work to home, we just thought of watching some movie. A quick search over the week there were good reviews on Blood Diamond. The movie was running at Starplex Cinemas, Irving. The theater was about a fifteen minute drive from our Homestead Studio Suites. The caption of this post includes a word 'Entertainer'. But I strongly feel that it is a misnomer. It just fits the context in emphasizing it as a movie however the movie has very strong messages and it brings out the feelings and conditions of oppressed people suffering at the hands of smugglers and other greedy people who challenge the precious lives of people to amass wealth by hook or by crook. The 150 minute movie kept us spellbound and glued to the big screen.

While I entered the theater, it was really majestic one. With so many cine options available within the same complex designed exquisitely is itself stands a good testimony of architectural splendor. Quoting from Wikipedia, A blood diamond (also called a conflict diamond, dirty diamond or a war diamond) is a diamond mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts.

There are a number of thoughts and messages which are conveyed through the movie.

1. Avaricious and aggressive greed of the people to swindle the country and its people of its precious resources.
2. Spine-chilling genocide and slavery of innocent people to extort labor from them like diamond mining.
3. Inspite of his son being taken into the the gang of looters, the father's love for him to search and tread him back to the correct paths. When the son again lifted his weapon against the dad and his friend while rescuing him, the way he tries to move him sentimentally and correct him is really very moving and an emotional scene.
4. The smuggler, understanding that he can not survive for long gives the diamond to the fisherman and his son to escape besides calling his Journalist friend and asking him to protect the young boy.
5. Jennifer Connelly has really done a very brave job in her role as a journalist.

A must-watch movie for anyone. Check it out at a theater near you. I would also like to share a YouTube trailer that daautodidact has uploaded.

Creating Cartoons On The Fly

ouCreating Cartoons On The Fly

I was referred to ToonDoo, a unique website of its own kind dedicated to creation of cartoons by users themselves. The website is powered by Jambav, (an AdventNet company). The good feature of Jambav is that it focusses on kids, thier needs and carries a special section on Parenting in its weblog section. ToonDoo complements it parent website (Jambav) by having interactive cartoons to enrich the innovation of kids and to make them think.

Any one can register at any of these websites for free and creating cartoons on ToonDoo is just as easy as saying 1, 2,3 by simple click, select and pick. Check out Jambav and Toondoo now.

Featured in Community-Credit Dev Community

Featured in Community-Credit Dev Community

I am proud to share with you the moment of pleasure in informing you that I am also now featured in Community-Credit Dev Community page over here. If you have subscribed for CommunityCredit newsletter you should have seen my profile featured in March 28, 2007 newsletter also. I have also parallely discussed the same over here.

Click here to get a screenshot.

Grand Prize Winner of Community-Credit March 2007 Contest

Grand Prize Winner of Community-Credit March 2007 Contest

I am very glad to inform that I have been winner again and more as a Grand Prize Winner for the month of March 2007 in the Community Credit website. I have conquered the Grand Prize this month. You can check out other winners at this page of Community-Credit. [You need to select March 2007 in the month dropdown].

Google TiSP

Google TiSP

Another innovative and interesting offering from Google -- Google TiSP. They have showcased this as a FREE in-home wireless broadband service. A description of the service itself is really very humorous and promising too. And backed up by Google, I think, this unique service is sure to rock and enthrall people's hearts all over the nation.

Check out Google TiSP now.