Feb
20
Hacking / fraud at Wipro
Most large companies dealing with physical products have a lot of internal controls and systems in place, every action is usually cross checked by people from at least 2 other departments. Things change in the IT and internet industry quickly, so it may be difficult for them to put proper systems in place, but it is also important to ensure that the people they hire are reliable and understand their personal value system. A person may be smart, but if he does not follow the rules, it can be a nightmare for the employer and others who deal with him.
In this case the password was stolen and money transferred out, but no complaint was filed with the cybercrime cell. I wonder how many similar crimes are hushed up?
Feb
17
If you use Web hosting with CPanel, Plesk or DirectAdmin , the web statistics package Awstats is usually installed as a default option for all the websites in the package.
However, for some custom hosting configurations , you may have to install it manually for each add on domain and SSH (shell) access is required.
For manual updates, the following link can be used
http://some-domain-name.in/awstats/awstats.pl?config=some-domain-name.in
Most web hosts rotate the traffic log files, so the update should be done before the log files are rotated.
Feb
15
Bank transfers from Paypal accounts have been stopped since 27 January 2010. Some ad networks are not resending the payments or even replying to emails regarding payments reversed by Paypal, even though they were sent by Paypal Masspay to business Paypal accounts, so some of the Paypal alternatives are:
Moneybookers
Liberty Reserve
PerfectMoney
AlertPay
Pecunix
EPassporte
Alipay
Web Money
Only a few of the above allow withdrawal/conversion to Indian Rupees for small amounts, but you can use the money for making purchases online like Web hosting, Domain registration or related services.
Feb
12
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article102659.ece
Victorian police chief Simon Overland has advised Indian students in Australia to keep a low profile and “try to look as poor as you can”
There are several advantages of looking poor
- Fewer people are jealous, so less attacks
- You don’t attract gold diggers , the kind who will after becoming “friends” say - we have an outstanding credit card bill, can you pay it off.
- People let their guard down and show their true character – after all very few bother to be nice to a poor person.
- People think you are stupid, so they lie to you and foolishly try to cheat you.
- People underestimate you, so do not prepare well when they attack you professionally or in business.
- Looking poor is low maintenance, a less expensive lifestyle option
Feb
10
This article on big companies and innovation – Microsoft’s creative destruction , explains why there is so little innovation at the largest companies in the world. Big companies are able to attract the best and brightest talent in the world, but usually there is so much office politics, that the best ideas are rarely converted into workable products.
If a large amount of investment required, large companies have a distinct advantage, but in terms of new ideas for low investment products/services, a smaller business can be better that a manager in a big company as they can spend time more productively. Not every idea works out, and few managers wish to put their career at stake if it does not.
Feb
6
Paypal has been reversing payments made to Indians since February 1, 2010 . Though the email they send says
Hello ***,
Your payment of xx.xx has been sent back to the sender of the payment.
We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.
Thank you,
PayPal
They claim that only personal payments are affected, but payments sent by Paypal Masspay to verified business and premier accounts are also getting reversed. Paypal Masspay is used by most advertising and affiliate networks to make payments to their publishers
Some of the networks whose Masspay payments are being reversed are:
Infolinks
Chitika
RentaCoder
Freelancer / GetaFreelancer
Reviewme
TLA
Adsdaq
Adengage
Inpostlinks (formerly PayperPost)
Netline/Revresponse
Forbes publisher
The worst affected are freelancers and sellers of digital products who receive small payments from a number of customers, who will find it difficult to get their money back.
Bank transfer requests have not been completed even after 10 days, and could take up to 30 days. New transfer requests have status as pending. If your balance is negative after the transfer request, the transfer will be canceled.
Feb
4
There has been a delay in withdrawal of funds from Paypal to Indian bank accounts and Paypal has sent this mail.
Dear ***,
We are currently experiencing an issue processing withdrawals to Indian bank accounts. As a result, there may be some delay in withdrawals from your PayPal account to your bank account.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and are doing all we can to resolve the issue.
Thank You,
PayPal
From forums, it appears that Paypal withdrawal requests from 27th January 2010 have not yet been credited. Last year (2009), there was a similar delay and funds were credited after 15 days in some cases.
Also refer to : http://www2.ebay.com/aw/in/200903061108272.html
Jan
9
If you find your WordPress blogs suddenly deindexed by the search engines, you will lose all search engine traffic. However, you can fix the problem easily, though I am still looking for a permanent solution.
In the WordPress Privacy Settings, you have 2 options for
Blog Visibility
I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati) and archivers
I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors
In certain versions of WordPress, the default option is ” I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors” . The blog is deindexed and when you view the source code of the home page , it will have the tag “noindex, nofollow” .
I have manually changed the blog settings to “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines”, but even then some blogs are reverting to the deindexed option. Could be a hacker at work or a bug in WordPress / Fantastico.
Dec
27
Interesting report on social networking and productivity, loss of productivity by 12.5%
http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id=2265
In the many non IT sectors like engineering, employees do not need internet access at work except for email, so it would have been better if the report had specified the industries covered.
Dec
18
India’s largest companies by turnover for Financial Year ending March 2009
(Amount in Rs crore)
Top 6
Indian Oil – Rs 290,946 crore – Oil and Gas
Reliance Industries – Rs 153,128 crore – Oil and Gas
Tata Steel – Rs 147,595 crore – Steel
BPCL – Rs 137,993 crore – Oil and Gas
HPCL – Rs 129,979 crore – Oil and Gas
State Bank of India – Rs 113093 crore – Banking
Others of interest
11 NTPC – Rs 47,647 crore – Power generation
13 Larsen & Toubro – Rs 41,055 crore – Capital goods
Tata Consultancy Services – Rs 27,386 crore – Infotech
Infosys – Rs 22,166 crore – Infotech
Bharti Airtel – Rs 37,504 crore – Telecom
Hindustan Unilever – Rs 16,848 crore – FMCG
Approximate figures (from Outlook issue referenced in an earlier post)
Bennett Coleman & Company (Times of India group) – nearly Rs 5000 crore
Dainik Bhaskar Group (Publisher of Dainik Bhaskar, the largest circulated daily and DNA) – Rs 1400 crore
Having worked in Larsen & Toubro as a project engineer for 5+ years (mainly for the experience as I do not want to do a job ever again in my life) and with many of these big companies as customers while working as a project engineer, some general observations:
- Have very good systems in place
- Except the software and banking companies, they do not have too many employees, but have investments of thousands of crores in machinery and infrastructure
- Difficult to displace these companies in terms of turnover due to the investment made.
For employees,
Plus points
you work with experienced people and learn from them, so you make fewer mistakes
Very professional work environment, with little blatant discrimination on the basis of gender
Handle high value projects valued in crores, monitor profits closely, manage risk
You get very good exposure to people from different social and economic backgrounds, treat them fairly, do not discriminate because they are not your “friends”
Secure job, all payments, including dues made on time
Learn to deal with customers and vendors , both good and bad.
Decisions are made on the basis of facts and numbers, not gossip and false rumors.
Transparency – you could ask customers and vendors anything and get an answer and vice versa.
Negatives
salary is average
growth is slow (one promotion every three years)
little flexibility
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