ePragmatic - practical solutions

Malicious Code Planted Via IIS Flaw: "Attack on IIS Web Sites Infects Browsers With Malicious Code
By Dennis Fisher and Larry Seltzer
June 25, 2004

Updated: Security analysts say that the malicious code that has been infecting some Windows machines was planted via an IIS vulnerability on the Web servers that host some high-traffic sites. The attack uses vulnerabilities previously patched by Microsoft updates. "

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WATCH OUT !!!!!

Web Graphics Exploit Marching Across Internet: "Security experts are tracking a new piece of malware that appears to be compromising large numbers of Windows PCs and may be laying the groundwork for the creation of a large spamming network or a major attack in the future.


Analysts at NetSec Inc., a managed security services provider, began seeing indications of the compromises early Thursday morning and have since seen a large number of identical attacks on their customers' networks. The attack uses a novel vector: embedded code hidden in graphics on Web pages. "

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MSN Hotmail Joins Storage Race: "Microsoft on Thursday will make official its plans to join the Web-based e-mail storage wars by increasing storage for users of its MSN Hotmail service.
Free MSN Hotmail users will be gaining 250 megabytes of storage, up from 2MB today, while premium users, for $19.95 a year, will be receiving 2 gigabytes of storage, MSN will announce"

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SLIDESHOW of DiskPie Pro


PC Magazine Utility: DiskPie Pro, Clean Up Your Hard Drive:
"No matter what the size of your drive, you're bound to run out of space when storing digital photos, MP3s, and especially digital video, not to mention bloated Word documents full of inserted images, overloaded PowerPoint presentations, and the loads upon loads of e-mail attachments you're bombarded with daily. Have you seen the size of your Outlook mail folders lately? Windows Explorer offers no easy way to find obese folders and files on your system, so when the drive is approaching its maximum, you're stuck!

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Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!

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Year's Horoscope - Deccan Herald: "PISCES (February 20 to March 21)

Demands of work may strain the frail fish, though professional triumphs lure Pisceans for an exciting holiday. The star pattern is so marked that you find this a perfect time with new experiences and a dominant cycle will lead you on a successful professional ladder. Pisceans grows wonderfully well in the home sector. Hard working Pisceans need a break, so make your time for relaxation. Emotional happiness is a solace and marriage for the eligible foreseen. Fatigue lays Pisceans low during summer time. Mercury feels constrained in financial matters for the business lot between May and August. Nature refreshes you with good health on a holiday. The year 2004 is buzzing with plans to expand and career sector bestows recognitions, promotions, even public acclaim. Be alert to opportunity, it is rarely so abundant as it is now. The trends of the year are vibrant. Personality softens considerably by the end of the year when loving Venus exits Pisces; others will fall in your wavelengths. "

I SHALL LOOK OUT FOR OPPORTUNITIES !!!!

Gmail Account for Sales on eBay anywhere from $1 to $50, Can't Believe check it out here..

eBay item 3684006603 (Ends Jun-21-04 15:45:00 PDT) - 1 GB GMail Account Invite - Get your own address fast: "1 GB GMail Account Invite - Get your own address fast Item number: 3684006603

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High bidder: searchin2k( 1 ) "

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Tech News -
Had been to local Microsoft event in fairfax recently, pretty interesting developments in the newer version of VS and SQL server 2005.

I feel SQL Server Reporting services will uproot Crystal reports as it hits the market in 2005 for the following reason

It is powerful coz it is from MS

It is free as it ships along SQL Server and you can install on the database server and works great, if you plan to install on a separate Reporting server for large companies of 100+ for performance issues then u got to buy licenses

Very EASY to use, web friendly all reports are published onto local intranet and fast delivery of reports unlike Crystal. (Well customers will justify this)

Finally MS is into reporting also, puts Business objects guys to think and work before they are up rooted from their business....

Some of the links to share

ASP.NET link (the newer version has a feature called Refactor very helpful during coding ...)

SQL Server 2005 I liked the new XML data type where u can store and search on child nodes easily, yet to figure out where it could be used....)

MS Blogs

Business practices

Tips: All recent Project code name such as Yukon, Whidbey, Orcos etc are the names of location or island in Washington state, so now u know what next version of MS names will be ...

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The below article highlights some of the hurdles you have in developing enterprise wide solution Vs desktop based solution, I have literally seen every aspect mentioned in this article but never though of putting this on a paper and this article is a must read for anybody dealing with enterprise solution or planning to develop one ....

Desktop vs. Enterprise Applications - The impact on Product Management: "A couple of months ago I discussed product management with a VP at a company that is moving from the 'tool space' to the 'enterprise application space'. As a result of that conversation, I asked myself, how is product management different for enterprise software vs. for desktop applications? "

To read more click here

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"For anyone who has ever read Spencer Johnson?s Who Moved My Cheese?, you'll enjoy this

cartoon by Hilary Price."



Click here to read the article "Who Moved My Poop?" By Jamoka

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Working @ iCode

It took me 6.5 yrs to understand the lifecycle of Product development before I got excited and exited the cycle at iCode.

Talking about iCode, it was a great start up company back in Bangalore during 1997-98 when Internet boom had started in Silicon valley and our co-founders traced back to India for tapping the talents locally for what is called "Cheap Labor". I don't like to call cheap labor, it sounds cheaper and doesn't look professional in an IT industry, so I rather call "low cost resources".....

Joined summer of 1998 as Webmaster, and agreed to work in night shift which was a change in work culture for my mom and pop, who know that working in office means regular shift as my father was a government employee as a Wielding Master/Instructor.

I was happy getting the job, told my mom and made her to feel good about my job.. My mom is typical housewife she questioned me what kind of job will you do in night, so I told my mom "I'm Webmaster", manage the entire site blah blah ...

All she could understand was I was some kind of a master and she responsed with a smile on her face saying "Your grandfather was a Head master in a School, your father was a Wielding master and now you're a Webmaster... so you should be doing a good job ..." the reason she said this was, the word "master" being repeated in our designation in the family, so she concluded that I was a master of Web.... I was damn surprised the way she thought about my job :)

Now after working in night shift for a year got a break to work in mid-day shift and worked on interesting project called "iShop" an e-Commerce proto-type, this project opened the doors of E-Commerce, came across one of the best sites Amazon, cdw and others...

I quickly advanced further into e-commerce product called "Accware Online" now part of Everest Standard edition, equipped 15 memeber team consisting of 8 web developers and 7 web designers to develop out of the box solution along with 2-3 DLL guys. The product become a huge success due to team work and our customers our solution. This was the best thing that could have happened to any developer, a kind of instant gratification.

At this juncture iCode grew from 100 to 200 employees and keeping my rhythm I wanted to move to US for better opportunities (and also my wife was wanting to work in US...) so dropped here with 2 suitcases to explore North America continent, it was the second country I was visting, after my Kenya visit from previous company on a project in Mombasa & Nariboi.

I kind of liked this place, the network of roads amazed me. I have driven most on route 66 as it became popular destination to drive into Captial of US, Washington DC.

Here i'm after 4 years of stay in US without a green card (as i missed the bus) and reside now in Fairfax county, looking for a job in Product/Project Management or Technical Lead position as I quit/resign/laid off (you can perceive it anyway) as far as INS is concerned, I'm not working anymore :)...

My experience @ iCode was transforming as I moved from different roles of software life cycle, it was challenging and an experience to add to my resume. Worked in development, design, analysts, developement manager, product manager etc...

My Accomplishment
a) Everest, is winner of Codie award for best software product category 2004
b) Customer's acknowledging, E-Commerce the best out of the box solution
c) Was the inventor for patented technology in search engine optimization for E-Commerce websites

Last 9 yrs has been a journey and I enjoyed every bit, working with my colleagues back in India, US, Canada, Kenya and UK. If your are interested in my resume, pls email me to HarshaS@Gmail.com :)

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Jumped onto the wave of bloggers, decided to record my snippet of information as i encounter in the field of Technology...

Created my blog account as ePragmatic, one of the reason i choose this name was I'm kind of practical guy, i like to get on to do somethings with little book knowledge and be able to gain experience on the work....

But Why ePragmatic? Well "e" stands for electronic or e-Commerce and I was influnced by Pragmatic Marketing a process for Product Management www.PragmaticMarketing.com .... so hence I coined it as "ePragmatic", makes sense :)

So let's get started with some real solution for real world and get practical...