Send SMS thru Email in USA

In US, you can send out SMS messages to cell phones through email. Here are the email addresses for the 6 most popular US cellular phone carriers:

Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

where phonenumber = your 10(xxx-xxx-xxxx) digit phone number.

New whois - SEO tool

A new whois - SEO tool, that displays several whois, dns and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) information for any top level domain. Click here.

Web 2.0 Buzz

Web 2.0 sites are cropping up all over the place! From Social Bookmarking Sites, to Real Estate sites, this list has only the best Web 2.0 Sites available today! What makes a site a Web 2.0 Site? Web 2.0 is the second coming of World Wide Web. New and improved sites that make the web their platform, provide users a way of interacting with each other, and organize and categorize their content are perfect examples of Web 2.0.
Click here to read more.

Wants to be a Consultant

Today I read this wonderful article written by Stephen J. Friedl, he shares his experience and tips to be a successful software consultant. Please click here.

Google Custom Search Engine

Google introduced Custom Search Engine, now you can create your own search engine which uses Google's core search technology. You can have your own search facility in your website or blog, you can also view the search results in your site using iFrames. You can view my custom search at the right side of my blog in About Me section. To learn more about this click here.

Windows XP Tips n Tricks

1. The 'systeminfo' command at command prompt will produce a lot of useful system info including the uptime. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can make it show everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be the software and you can now uninstall it.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options.

6. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

7. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

8. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

9. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

10. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

11.You can display any two windows side by side on the desktop by first clicking a window's button on the Taskbar. Next, press and hold the Ctrl key and right-click the second window that you want to open, then click Tile Vertically. This works great when you want to view two Word or Internet Explorer windows at the same time.

12.Select the window and press F11 key to view it in full screen mode.

13.It's shockingly easy to create your own icons in Windows XP. Let's Accessories --> Paint. On the Image menu, click Attributes. Type 32 for both the Width and Height of the document, and make sure that Pixels is selected under Units. Click OK to create a new 32x32-pixel document: the size of an icon.

Now add type, color, or do whatever you'd like to your image. I like to shrink photos (headshots work best) to 32x32 and simply paste them into my Paint document. When you're finished give it a name followed by ".ico" (without the quotes), and click Save. (The extension ".ico" tells Windows that it's an icon file.) You just created an icon! Now you can change any shortcut or folder to your own icon—just browse to it on your hard drive.

14.You can change Internet Explorer's title bar text
In regedit navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
change the value of the string "Window Title" to whatever you want on the title bar of Internet Explorer - to have no title except the title of the web pages you are browsing do not enter anything for a value.

For more Tips n Tricks click here.

Custom Google Page

I am very delighted to see my name on google page.
I thought of posting that link here but it is not working anymore :(.

Block Site Visit

It is very easy to block visiting to a particular site, for example if you want to block visiting www.hotmail.com you can add an dummy ip entry in hosts file which is located in the folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

127.0.0.1 www.hotmail.com

Windows uses what is called a hosts file to do domain lookups. If any domain name is configured in this file, it takes precendence over any other normal DNS lookup. Whenever your computer contacts 127.0.0.1 it is actually contacting itself (hence the name loopback IP).

HUMAN METRICS

Jung Typology Test

Today my manager asked all team members to take this personality assessment test and here are my results. It says I am

moderately expressed introvert
distinctively expressed intuitive personality
moderately expressed feeling personality
distinctively expressed judging personality

Type is INFJ Strength of the preferences %
Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging
44 62 50 67

INFJ type description by D.Keirsey
INFJ type description by J. Butt and M.M. Heiss

If anybody want to take this test and see what type you are then
click here.

Add Image in the Browser Address bar

Today I learned how to add an Icon/GIF image on the browser address bar. Just add the following LINK tag in the html/jsp/xsl presentation layer.
LINK href="logo.gif" rel="SHORTCUT ICON"

When you access the URL using firefox browser the logo appears in the address bar, where as in Internet Explorer(IE) the logo don't appear unless we bookmark the link. The icon looks good to view when x,y coordinates (height/width) are same.

Creating an image using RAD
I remember many years back I created a application logo using Visual Studio C++ IDE. Today I was wondering how to do that in RAD and figured it. Open J2EE perspective go to File->New->Web->Image File.
Its a cool way to create custom images using RAD.

14 things to learn from the Google story

The Google Story

1. Connections - human, computer, biology - are everything. Life = networks.
2. Never compromise your ideals because someone said it’s impossible, stupid, or a waste of time.
3. Do focus on changing the world, don’t focus on the money. If you provide value, the money will come.
4. Have a healthy disregard for the impossible. If someone hasn’t done it yet, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
5. Money is a problem, not a solution. Money cannot solve your problems, but your solutions can solve the money problem.
6. Value creativity, not money. View creativity as your company’s true bottom-line, or your company will stop growing and die.
7. Go against the grain. Don’t believe in other people’s visions for you, believe in your own.
8. Speed is more important than looking good. A shiny, beautiful car isn’t impressive when it gets overtaken by an old jalopy; the same applies to software.
9. Organic growth is best. Only grow as fast as you need to, don’t waste money on advertising a product you won’t want your mom to use.
10. Focus on users above all else, e.g. don’t do something that might annoy your users just to make more money, they won’t forget.
11. Never betray users’ trust, or anyone else’s.
12. Spend 20% of your time on blue-sky ideas without worrying about how they will make a profit. If it might change the world for the better, it needs to be done, even if it can’t make money.
13. Don’t make enemies of your competitors to stay driven. Be driven by your own values and mission.
14. Beat your own path through the wilderness.

Management Lessons

Today I found this funny management lessons....

Lesson No.1
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day.A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"

The crow answered: " Sure, why not."

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson No.2

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree.The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon he was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Management Lesson:
Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson No.3

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said, "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, " We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered.Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the Boss.

Management Lesson:
You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.

Lesson No.4

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung,it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!

Management Lesson:
1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.
2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
3) And when you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!

How BitTorrent Works ?

BitTorrent is a protocol that enables fast downloading of large files using minimum Internet bandwidth.

Unlike other download methods, BitTorrent maximizes transfer speed by gathering pieces of the file you want and downloading these pieces simultaneously from people who already have them.

Courtesy:
howstuffworks.com

Maps

Following are few maps that i use quite often

Google Maps
Yahoo Maps
Windows Live Local
Map Quest

Following are few comparisons between the maps

Try this for a 2 way comparison(Google vs. Yahoo):
sergeychernyshev.com

Try this for a 3 way comparison(Google vs. Yahoo vs. Windows Live Local):
maps.idelix.com

Try this for a 4 way comparison(Google vs. Yahoo vs. Virtual Earth vs. Terraserver):
ocarto.com

What is RSS ?

RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") technology is getting popular due to bloggers. There are already millions of blogs floating around, of course its difficult to keep track of interesting blogs regularly in our busy schedule. This technology helps people to keep track of blogs that interests them most.

RSS is basically an XML file which follow RSS specification standards. Say you publish a new page or article in your blog, this can be added as an item in the RSS file and they are called RSS feeds. These can be read by RSS readers or aggregators at specified intervals. Few email client tools and browsers like Firefox has this capability. There are also tools to generate RSS file. There are many Portals like Yahoo which broadcasts various interesting news that the users can subscribe them.

With RSS feeds coming straight to your My Yahoo!, there's no need to visit multiple sites to get the content you want. The summaries you care about are delivered right to you and updated regularly.

* Timely information on your page when you need it
* Consolidated headlines from the sources you care about
* Display sources in order of importance with the latest news on top
* Avoid the information overload of newsletter subscriptions and bookmarks

RSS FAQ

Mozilla vs FireFox Browsers

For those who are unclear on the differences between the Mozilla package and Firefox / Thunderbird, here it is:

1. Mozilla is a complete package meaning it comes with email, browser, address book, newsgroup, and chat applications integrated.
2. FireFox is a stand-alone browser application. It doesn’t have email built-in. There is a chatzilla extension available.
3. Thunderbird is the stand-alone email application. It doesn’t have a browser built-in. The address book is included.
4. If you use Mozilla for email and click on a link within an email, it will open them in Mozilla not FireFox even when FireFox is the default browser.
5. The applications are similar, yet different. The look and feel is different.
6. Commands and features are not identical. For instance, Mozilla has F9 to open the sidebar with search, history, bookmarks, etc. whereas FireFox only opens Bookmarks and History in the sidepanel via Ctrl+B and Ctrl+H respectively. There are a few extensions to do more with this.
7. FireFox has fewer options because it doesn’t have other applications integrated with it, which can make it easier to modify.
8. Many people are using FF compared to Mozilla is due to the fact that many of them don't need the complete Mozilla suite they are just OK with FF browser.
9. The Netscape browser was first developed by the Mozilla people and is based on the same engine, but is severely bloated with commercial additions (shopping etc).

I never used Mozilla yet, for my personal use most of the time I use FireFox unless something didn't work properly I move to MS-IE. Recently while developing a web based application I noticed IE6 spawning two threads for one action, however I didn't notice this issue in FF. The hotmail webmail won't work properly in FF, here I had to use IE. Nowadays I am more inclined to FF but can't ignore IE completely though.

HTTPS secured Communication on WEB

To keep away from hacker spoofing PKI (Public Key infrastructure) is used. Where public keys are Digitally signed and issued in the form of Digital Certificates. Digital certificates are like Passport which typically includes Entity name (CN:), Organization(O:), Country(C:), public key, Certificate authority signature etc. in X509 format. Digital certificate are issued and signed by Trusted Certificate Authority (CA) by using its (CA) private key.

In normal encryption, two communicating parties each share a password or key, and this is used to both encrypt and decrypt messages. While this is a very simple and efficient method, it doesn't solve the problem of giving the password to someone you have not yet met or trust. This is called Symmetric cryptography.

In public key cryptography, each party has two keys, a public key and a private key. Information encrypted with a person's public key can only be decrypted with the private key and vice versa. Each user publicly tells the world what his public key is but keeps his private key for himself. This is called Asymmetric cryptography.

How SSL Works

I. Obtaining an SSL Certificate
XYZ Inc., intends to secure their customer's website www.xyz.com.
Step 1: XYZ creates a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and during this process, a private key is generated.
Step 2: XYZ goes to a trusted third party Certificate Authority, such as Verisign. Verisign takes the certificate signing request and validates XYZ in a two step process. Verisign validates that XYZ has control of the domain xyz.com and that XYZ Inc. is an official organization listed in public government records.
Step 3: When the validation process is complete, Verisign gives XYZ a new public key (certificate) encrypted with Verisign's private key.
Step 4: XYZ installs the certificate on their webserver's.

II. How Customers communicate with the Server using SSL
Step 1: A customer makes a connection to xyz.com on an SSL port, typically 443. This connection is denoted with https instead of http.
Step 2: xyz.com sends back its public key to the customer. Once customer receives it, his/her browser decides if it is alright to proceed.
* The xyz.com public key must NOT be expired.
* The xyz.com public key must be for xyz.com only.
* Client must have Verisign public key installed in their browser certificate store.
Step 3: If the customer decides to trust the certificate, then the customer will send to xyz.com his/her public key.
Step 4: xyz.com will next create a unique hash and encrypt it using both the customer's public key and xyz.com's private key, and send this back to the client.
Step 5: Customer's browser will decrypt the hash. This process shows that the xyz.com sent the hash and only the customer is able to read it.
Step 6: Customer and website can now securely exchange information.

Almost any service on the Internet can be protected with SSL. Example: WebMail, Control Panels, POP, IMAP, SMTP, FTP and more.

References:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/security/jsse/JSSERefGuide.html
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-4.0-doc/ssl-howto.html
http://www.sslassistant.com/info.php
http://www.rajeevnet.com/crypto/ca/ca-paper.html
http://www.xramp.com/resources/how-ssl-works

RAD v6.0 Migration

This week I successfully initiated RAD6.0 migration process in our team.
At my work place all are getting new PC as part of PC Renewal process, so I thought its the best time to plunge into RAD6.0. Everyone in our team were using WSAD5.x/WAS5.0 and PVCS. The goal is to checkout the project files from PVCS and made it work in RAD6.0.

I had problem setting up my local workspace from PVCS project, the metadata files(e.g., the .project, .classpath, etc...) are bit different compared to WSAD. I have to manually setup WAS 5.0 server, tweak the classpath and had to compile the projects with 1.3 JDK to made it work. The plan is to stay with WAS5.0 until early next year before we move to WAS6.1. Below is some notes that I learned during this process.

Product positioning and relationships:
* Rational Application Developer [RAD]: J2EE development toolset
* Rational Software Modeler [RSM]: UML modeling toolset
* Rational Software Architect [RSA]: UML modeling, J2EE development, architectural analysis

* In cost, RSA <> RAD+RSM ['>' means "strictly greater than"]

WSAD v5, RAD v6.0, RAD v7.0 are based on Eclipse.
WSAD 5.0 sit on top of Eclipse 2.x.
RAD 6.0 sit on top of Eclipse 3.x.
RAD fully supports WAS v5.0.2 development.
RAD v7 will not support WAS v5.0.2.
RAD v7.0 [WAS v6.1] planned 1Q2007.

Ofcourse RAD6.0 is better than WSAD5.x. :)

For GM, outsourcing is a way of life

August 29, 2006 (InfoWorld) -- For some companies, outsourcing IT is not just a cost-cutting strategy, it's a way of life. Take General Motors, for example. GM has been contracting out its tech work since the company spun off its IT subsidiary, Electronic Data Systems, into a separate entity in June 1996.

At the time, GM inked a 10-year services agreement with EDS. Through the years, the automotive giant also engaged dozens of other major suppliers -- such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Capgemini -- as well as hundreds of subcontractors all over the globe. Managing the contractors and setting IT strategy required some 2,000 Information Services and System personnel worldwide.

When all of those contracts expired this June, GM's IS&S Group decided to do things a little differently. First, it reduced the number of primary suppliers for its $15 billion worth of contracts from 18 to about six, and made them responsible for hiring and managing their own subcontractors, says Lisa Gage, director of corporate strategy and planning for the IS&S Group.
"We are in the business of building cars and trucks," Gage says. "We shouldn't be spending tons of time trying to manage tons of IT suppliers."

To further simplify matters, each primary supplier was awarded contracts on a global basis -- so GM could rely on a single source for, say, all of its HR management applications or engineering workstations worldwide. More important, GM created standardized work processes in every region of the world.

In the past, Gage says, contractors for IBM Australia might have handled a process differently than their counterparts in IBM Germany or IBM USA. If GM wanted to move employees from one region to another, they had to learn a new way of doing things each time. Under the new regime, every GM process is the same regardless of region -- whether it's filling out a purchase order, managing network capacity, or negotiating an SLA.

Other benefits? "Speed of execution," Gage says. "When we find a better way to do something in one place, we can roll it around the globe rapidly. That helps us drive out waste."
GM also standardized all the touchpoints for every process, so all suppliers use a common interface for reporting information back to GM.

"When you grow as a company, you tend to have a lot of different groups operating independently," Gage notes. "To go to a global management structure you need to knit them all together. The more we drive standardized work, processes, and infrastructure, the less complexity we will have."

Courtesy:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002823

My First Post:

Finally today I started my blog which I have been very eager to do so since quite long time. I want to use this space to share my ideas and views that interest to me most. First let me give a brief intro about me.

My native place is Tenkasi which is in south Tamil Nadu India, my parents, family and relatives live there. But I was born and grown up in Vijayawada city in Andhra Pradesh. I speak Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and of course English. I started my career in Chennai during 1995 and moved to Malaysia in 2000. I worked for reputed Telco companies in kaulalumpur & Singapore for 5 years before I moved to USA in 2005.

I am an IT professional designing & building applications using J2EE technology.