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Historical aspect of tensions between India and China

Switching gears a bit, my thoughts go out to the steadily rising escalation between India and China. While India is rightfully expression anguish over its troops marching 10 kms inside its borders and not letting go of the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) area in Ladakh, China has stuck to its version that there has been no intrusion of Chinese troops within India’s boundaries. Following up with this intrusions, came the report of two Chinese helicopters flying hundreds of kilometers into Indian airspace at Chumar (to the southeast of Leh). Historically, the two emerging superpowers have co-existed peacefully in their earliest days (India and China have two of the world’s oldest civilizations). Starting with the famed Silk Route, there has always been a positive tone of cooperation between the two nations as far as trade and economic ties are concerned. Even with the daunting Himalayan ranges bordering and separating the two countries, there has been no shortage of border-related dispu...

False Positives and False Negatives in Software Testing

Simply put, False Positive is the situation when the functionality is working, but yet it is marked as ‘failed’ in testing/practical application False Negative is the situation when the functionality is not working, but yet it is marked as ‘passed’ in testing/practical application Real-life examples 1.              Software coding:  Thorough testing results in correct and valid code to get rejected (due to mismatch of understanding between coder and tester) 2.              Healthcare sector: Low-cost medical tests administered detects illness that warrants further elaborate testing (which then reveals absence of the illness) 3.              Government administration: Pre-election poll roundup denotes win of a particular candidate who will be defeated by a significant m...

Difference between open source and closed source software models

The basic difference is the accessibility of source code. In a very layman term, open source allows easy access of source code to general public that can be edited and re-released in a customized format. An end-user in open source is allowed to play around with the software. Under closed source or proprietary programs model, the compiled code is not available for tinkering to the general users. A summary of the core difference between the two models are as below 1.       Cost : For the discerning mind, the chief differentiator is the price point at which both softwares are sold. Open source software is always cheaper than the licensed (or closed source) versions 2.     Customization : Open source model allows and facilitates altering the source code to match individual requirement. Closed source on the other hand release the final application without releasing the code thereby restricting the access and editing of the progra...

CRM development for your company

Customer Relationship Management is an integral part of modern business. In order to stay ahead of the competition, companies look for ways and means to effectively manage customer relationship, right from sales, operations, logistics and service delivery. Thought to be one of the critical success drivers in today’s corporate environment, CRM is an overall strategy that helps: 1.       Appreciate the requirements of customer 2.       Employ tools and approaches that enable astute customer servicing 3.       Source and retain newer customer and clientele 4.       Increase customer engagement and reduce costs involved The recent and evolving technological advancements has opened newer avenues for customers to purchase products or services and at the same time has provided alternatives options for corporate houses to attract customers and manage them effic...

George Orwell’s writing rules

In a society fast moving from considering writing as a domain of poets, literary writers and novelists, we now see the need for (and a good supply of) writers coming in to develop business content to help market a company’s product and help them sell it online. The ultimate challenge that writers face today is the get the message across using the Internet as a communication medium (through websites, articles, blogs, tech ref manuals etc.) One of the earliest proponents of clear writing was George Orwell who suggested way back in 1946, the 5 golden rules for effective writing: 1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Does the phrase “Low hanging fruit” mean something to a layman? Can’t it be better written as “non-performing employee” ? Now, how many people recognize the words and the sentiments behind them? 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. “ In the entire world, XYZ is selling like ho...

What makes good webpage writing?

Web content writers often regard website writing to be a part of their daily tasks combining it with other writing tasks/ assigning it to a standard set of personnel without respect to the special considerations it carries. Once we shake off our mindset from such regressive thinking we come to realize that with evolving technological landscape, website content writing too has evolved from nascent stage in the early 80’s to its present day avatar. Earlier websites were restricted to having one’s personality come alive over the Internet. Over the time, companies recognized the huge potential online business carries and sought to have the business information presented in such a way that attracts visitors and successfully converts them to highly engaged sales prospects. One might wonder how this can be achieved. I have come up with a small but relevant list of to-do’s when designing a business website that will allow you to better target your online audience and garner m...

Newest social media sites

With Facebook ruling the roost for quite some time now, netizens are now looking in another direction to get going online, share posts, pics and videos and expand their network. There have been a few success stories such as Instagram, that reached 100 million users in 2012 and now considered a social media icon. We will look at a few recently launched social media sites that have the potential to become the next Facebook or Twitter. Here are my favorite picks: Medium : This one always has a favorable top-of-mind recall for me! With clean cut features, invitation-only membership and captivating stories and images, this site is bound to linger for long in your mind. The humane touch provided by these carefully selected pick of real life stories provide an enchanting read. There is also a nifty editors’ pick that sifts through the collection and brings their top picks of interesting posts that they feel should have greater visibility Flayvr : This photo sharing app ...

Windows XP vs Windows 7

This topic is something that is close to my heart and what makes it even more interesting is the dilemma to upgrade when the current version is perfectly serving my purpose. So here I am sharing a few nuggets about why to upgrade and why to stay put Firstly let’s see why should one stick to Windows XP? Software upgrades are expensive . Other than the basic OS re-install, you will also need to install programs that are compatible with Windows 7. Other than the compatibility issue, there is also an investment involved in purchasing licenses of application which doesn’t usually come cheap All files will need to be backed up (a process that I have not yet fully come to terms with). There might be an element of risk of loss of file in this transition process.    Determine what you do in your daily computing : Mostly is accessing MS Office applications, surfing internet or accessing multimedia. If you fe...

IT technologies to watch out for in 2013

With ever changing technological landscape it is very easy to get bogged down by the plethora of options available today for developers for website and IT software development. I am sure by the time this goes to press, a handful of technologies would well be on their way out! Yes, that’s the massive changes happening daily in IT field. Here goes my list: #3 – Responsive web design – Those who predicted an early demise for smartphones and tablets are sadly mistaken big time. Tables, smartphones, and other Internet-enabled hand held mobile devices are growing at a relentless pace and see no signs of slowing down in the near future. With this growing proliferation comes the challenge of a web developer to create websites that are compatible with the varying screen sizes of different. This is where responsive web design comes in. With fluid layout dynamics, HTML5 and CSS3 are the primary languages that enable responsive web design    #2 – Transformation of the...