BLOGS

BLOG

     A blog is a short form of the expression weblog,it's a discussion or informational website thats published on the internet.Blogs contain discreet entries called "posts",that are sorted in reverse chronological order i.e, the latest post appears first.

     A majority of the blogs are interactive, they allow visitors to leave comments for feedback and even message each other using GUI widgets present on the blogs, this interactivity is what distinguishes blogs from traditional static websites found on the internet.

     Blogging can also be seen as another form of social networking In the sense that the bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also at the same time build social relationships with their readers of their blogs and also other bloggers.

     There also exist some high-readership blogs that do not allow readers to leave comments, primary example being  "Daring Fireball".Most blogs provide commentary on a subject; some function as personal online diaries; while some others work more as an online brand advertising platform of a particular individual or company.

    A typical blog is a combination of  text, images, and links to Web pages,other blogs and other media related to the blog's topic.The popularity of many blogs can be credited to their ability to facilitate readers to leave comments in an interactive format.

According to critics,Blogger(owned by Google) is the most popular blogging service being used today,as on survey conducted in Feb,2011.Blogs may contain content of any area ranging from arts,business data,entertainment,fashion medicine,politics to weather world.

TYPES

     Blogs are classified not only based on content but also in the way the content is delivered or presented.Some major types of blogs are:

Personal blogs

     A personal blog is one that contains ongoing dairy or a commentary by a single person.

Microblogging

     Microblogging serves as a portable communication mode that makes users feel spontaneous and has been successful in capturing the public imagination.

Corporate and organizational blogs

     Blogs that are used internally by organizations to serve the purpose of enhancing the culture and communication  in a corporation or used externally for brand promotion and public relations  are called corporate blogs.

By media type

      A blog that is made of videos is called a vlog, one containing links is called a link blog, a site containing a collection of sketches and images is called a sketch blog and one comprising photos is called a photo blog.

By device

     Blogs can also be classified by the type of device used to compose it. A blog constructed using a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA can be called a moblog.

Reverse blog

     A Reverse Blog is one which is composed by multiple users rather than a single blogger. This system exhibits the characteristics of a blog, along with the writing of several authors. 

REFERENCES

retrieved april18th 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

retrieved april18th 2014 from http://www.ericastrawberrykane.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/

     

USABILITY TESTING

USABILITY TESTING

     Usability testing is a type of technique used in user-centered interaction mode to evaluate the pro's and con's of  a product by testing it on users.It gives direct feedback on how real users use the system.

     Usability testing usually involves in determining how well people can use the product.both qualitative testing and usability testing are used in combination in Usability testing,to better understand users' perceptions, in combination with their actions.

     Setting up a usability test involves in the creation of a scenario, where the user performs a list of tasks using the product while makers watch and take feedback.

     Hallway testing  is a general method for usability testing. Instead of using an, trained group of testers, just five to six random people are selected and  are brought in to test the product, or service.

     Expert review is another common method of usability testing. As the name indicates, this method relies on bringing in experts mostly from companies that are specialized in usability testing to evaluate and give feedback on the usability of a product. 

     A Heuristic evaluation or Usability Audit is the evaluation of an interface by one or more Human Factor experts.Evaluators measure the usability, efficiency, effectiveness of the interface based on the principles of usability.

  

     On similar lines of expert reviews, automated expert reviews provide usability testing but through the use of programs which have good heuristics The main advantage regarding this is,although they  might not provide as much detail from people, they are more quick and consistent. 

The numbers of users that might be required for usability testing is generally given by the mathematical formula

where p is the probability of one subject identifying a specific problem and n the number of subjects or test sessions. 

REFERENCES:

retrieved april 18th 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing

retrieved april 18th 2014 from http://www.limina-ao.com/

retrieved april 18th 2014 from http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/usability-testing.html

QR CODES

QR CODES

     QR Code is an abbreviation for Quick Response Code.They are primarily used  used to transmit a piece of information.The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is in their ability to store much more data, including website links, geographical coordinates, images and text.The other key feature of QR Codes is that they instead of requiring a  hand-held scanner to scan them, most of the modern day cell phones can scan them using their cameras.

DESIGN

     In contrast the one dimensional QR codes that were designed to be used with hand held Scanners,QR codes are designed in such a way that they can be detected using a 2-dimensional digital image scanner and then by using a programmed processor digitally analyze them.The processor identifies all of the distinctive squares at the corners of a QR code, using a smaller square (or multiple squares) near the fourth corner to normalize the image for size, orientation and establish the angle for viewing.

USES

QR Codes were originally designed for industrial use.Expansion of technology led them to be gradually adopted into consumer advertising.QR codes have applications in various fields.

URL's

     

      An advertisement viewer needs only to reach for his or her phone and scan the QR Code rather than remembering it and risk forgetting it.It would benefit both the advertiser and the customer.

CODE PAYMENTS

     

      Bank account information or credit card information,can be saved using QR codes,they also can be modified in such a way that they work with specific payment applications. 

WEBSITE LOGIN

     QR codes can be used to log in into websites: a QR Code is shown on the login page on a computer screen, and when a registered user scans it with a verified smartphone, they will automatically be logged in on the computer. The user Authentication part in this, is performed by the smartphone which contacts the server and verifies credentials. 

SOFTWARE

    Software for scanning QR Codes is widely available.Specific applications are made available for every kind of mobile operating system by their manufactures in their respective application stores.

RISKS

     Though QR codes are extremely useful,they also come with their own set of risks and disadvantages.

• The only form of executable data that can be stored in an QR code is an URL,The URL's may contain links to malicious websites,which may pose a threat to the user's security.
• When an QR code application is downloaded they ask for various permissions,including read,write permissions.Then the application might read the Sensitive user data present in the device and transmit the data without the users knowledge.

     Although QR Codes come with inherent risks,when used well they can be a great aid in advertising and information Storage.

REFERENCES:

     retrieved april 18, 2014 from http://www.csoonline.com/article/2133890/mobile-security/the-dangers-of-qr-codes-for-security.html

retrieved april 18,2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

     

     

     

CYBER SECURITY

     Cyber security also known as computer security is a term that refers to information security of computers and networks. Computer security is a critical aspect in any industry, which operates on computer systems. With the computer virus alone contributing to losses of about $67 Billion a year, the demand for better computer security has risen immensely.

     There are as many as 28 types of threats currently in the computer world. While some are only mildly annoying some pose a serious threat to information and its security. Some of them are virus, Trojans, Spyware, Scare ware, Wabbits, Botnet,etc. 

     There are various mechanisms that provide security against such threats, they are:

FIREWALL

     A firewall has a predefined rule set, based on the rule set they control the incoming and
outgoing traffic by analyzing the data packets. Most of the personal computer have a software- based firewall, which protects them from threats of the public Internet. A firewall performs its functions in the network layer of the OSI model. The basic working of a firewall can be best illustrated using the diagram below: 

                           
                                                             
                                                               ANTIVIRUS

   
     Antivirus is a piece of software that performs 3 major functions of prevention, detection and

removal of malicious computer programs. Although the name Antivirus can be misleading, they also offer protection against malware such as worms, rootkits, backdoors,etc.


There are primarily three ways that antivirus performs its functions: 

     Signature based detection is the most common of them, the antivirus software has a predefined database of known virus signatures, it compares the contents of a file to its database, if a match is found it prompts that the program or file is malicious.

     More sophisticated antivirus use the heuristic analysis to identify new kinds of malware or slight modifications of existing malware. This kind of approach involves wildcards that allow the scanner to detect viruses even if they are padded with extra,meaningless code .

     The 3^rd approach is a slightly modified version of the heuristic approach, It follows the principle of file emulation. It involves the execution of a program in virtual environment and then logging the actions of the program. Based on the logged actions the antivirus seamlessly carries on the appropriate disinfecting action, if the file is infected.

     There are also various other security software like Anti Spyware and a combination package of a firewall, antivirus and an Anti Spyware manufactured by big-name antivirus software companies that provide protection against malware.All the security software though provide good protection,also consume lots of system resources which can affect the overall system performance

All these kind of software along with monitoring of the web by government agencies,would provide protection for private and public information so that they cannot be mis used  and thereby aid in preserving data integrity.

                                                                  References: 

Retrieved March 7th from http://www.dhs.gov/topic/cybersecurity 
Retrieved March 7th from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_security 
Retrieved March 7th from http://www.zen.co.uk/blog/cyber-security/ 

OpenStack-an open source cloud project

     Openstack is predominantly an open source cross platform cloud-computing project.It acts as an Infrastructure as a Service platform (IaaS), it is currently licensed under the terms of Apache License. OpenStack is completely managed and maintained by the Open Stack foundation. Open Stack serves like a tool kit that helps in building clouds, both private and public. There are currently about 200 Big- name Companies like NASA, Dell, Cisco, AMD, Oracle, Red hat, Yahoo, IBM, etc. involved with this project.

    The software consists of a collaboration of interrelated projects, where each of them controls various issues such as network resources, storage and processing of data that exist in a data center and perform various operations on them through an internet based dash board, command line tools or Representational State Transfer API.

There are various components of OpenStack that are commonly referred to in code names. The primary components of an OpenStack are:

Nova

    

     NOVA or more formally known as Compute s primary functionality is to automate computing Resources and work with all the available virtualization Technologies even with the likes of High-Performance computing configurations. The architecture of “Compute” is designed in such a way that, it provides Scalability and integrates with third party software and hardware platforms without any issues.

 Swift

    

     Stack's Swift or Object Storage is a scalable redundant storage system. Storage clusters scale horizontally simply by adding new servers. Incase a server or hard drive fail, OpenStack transmits its content from other active nodes to new locations in the cluster. OpenStack uses software logic to ensure data replication and distribution across different devices, this is the reason why the most inexpensive hard drives and a variety of commodity servers can be used.

Cinder

     Open Stack Block Storage (Cinder) provides block-level storage devices for use with instances of OpenStack compute. The block storage system or cinder is responsible for managing the creation, attaching and detaching off block devices to servers

Neutron

    OpenStack Networking code named Neutron is a system for managing networks and IP addresses.

Dashboard

    OpenStack Dashboard code named Horizon provides administrators and users a graphical interface to access, provision and automate cloud-based resources.

Advantages

      
      There are various advantages associated with using OpenStack, they are

•  Since OpenStack is an open source software, it guarantees it a non-commitment to a proprietary vendor, that also means a modular design and ability to integrate with the various third party and legacy technologies.
• OpenStack is an industry standard when coming to cloud technologies, with over 200 companies from about 60 countries participating in the project 
• It's already proven software, running services on open stack means running on one of the world largest private and public cloud.
• OpenStack APIs are compatible with various Amazon services like Ec2 and S3 and thus client applications that have been written for Amazon Web Services can be used with OpenStack, without using much of an effort for porting. 

References

Retrieved March 4, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenStack.

Retrieved March 4,2014 from https://www.openstack.org/

Dan Sullivan (2014,Jan 9) Retrieved March 4,2014 from http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/openstack-costs-benefits,2-684-2.html.