India is great : Racist job ad says ‘No Indians or Asians allowed’

India is great : Racist job ad says ‘No Indians or Asians allowed’: Photo © Photokore.com An online outrage ballooned after a supermarket chain in Australia posted a job opening with an outright racist...

India is Great: Cigarettes can make your memory go up in smoke

India is Great: Cigarettes can make your memory go up in smoke: Photo ©freetobacco.info A new study published in the journal Age and Ageing says that smoking causes not just da...

India is Great: Salman Khan's Dabangg 2 theatrical trailer out

India is Great: Salman Khan's Dabangg 2 theatrical trailer out: Fearless cop Chulbul Pandey is back in action with more moves, more romance, more style and more laws (read jaws) to break in Arbaaz Khan ...

India is Great: Beware - A ‘LIKE’ can land you in jail!

India is Great: Beware - A ‘LIKE’ can land you in jail!: Photo ©Momlogic.com Think twice before you “like” a post on Facebook! Shaheen Dhada condemned the “bandh” (shutdown of a city) tha...

India is Great: Lemonade can help you quit smoking

India is Great: Lemonade can help you quit smoking: Photo ©Media-allrecipes.com Who would have thought that a refreshing glass of lemonade could not only quench your thirst but also he...

Wait! Is that your friend on Skype or a hacker?

Photo © Photokore.com

The internet reels from a cyber attack again. This time it’s on the popular audio-video internet communicator, ‘Skype’. Cyber sleuths reportedly said that a malicious spam campaign is on the rise. The virus comes as an instant message from a supposed ‘friend’ from the Skype contact list of Indian users.
The virus then takes over the attacked person’s machine by allowing communicating access through a remote http server. It steals the user’s personal details and credentials and posts fraud activities in the name of the victim.
Cyber security has urged users to not accept unsolicited web links, file transfers or attachments in Skype messages and to install updates on security softwares to protect Skype. It is important to download the latest version of Skype from trusted sources, install and update anti-virus software and disable auto play features as a precaution.

                                                       (Based on Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com)

Facebook 101: 25 Tips and Tricks

Chances are, if you're not on Facebook already, then you're likely to be getting on it pretty soon. Whether it's your kids or your next door neighbor (or those old friends you just reunited with at your high school reunion), folks around you have been hounding you to sign up, set up a profile, and start "social-networking" with all your friends, and their friends, and so on. Truth is, social-networking sites such as Facebook (and MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, etc) are increasingly turning into the first place people go when they get on the Internet, as these services offer e-mail, chat, music players, photo sharing, and so much more beyond just staying in touch with your Friends.

But the best (or worst) part about Facebook is all the people from your past who come out of the woodwork (we're talking grade-school past). All this means you'll want to look your very best on your Facebook profile, and make the best use of all that the service has to offer, which is why we've come up with 25 tips that'll optimize your social-networking experience. Try 'em out by clicking on 'Next' below, and if you've got any tips we've missed, please let us know!

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Mumbai stops for Bal Thackeray's funeral, thousands gather to pay tribute

                     In this file photo Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray waves at party workers gathered outside his residence Matoshree in Mumbai. PTI

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the architect of the sons-of-the-soil ideology in Mumbai, died after nearly four months of illness at his Mumbai residence, 'Matoshree' on Saturday.

Thackeray, who ruled the city for more than four decades, passed away after nearly four months of
illness following a cardiac arrest. He was 86.

The funeral procession will begin from Thackeray's residence in Bandra. A vehicle with Thackeray's body will be taken in a vehicle to Shiv Sena Bhavan for party workers to pay their respects.

"From there, it will be taken to Shivaji Park where the public can pay their last respects from 10am," party MP Sanjay Raut told mediapersons on Saturday evening.

Last rites will take place at a crematorium near Shivaji Park at 6pm this evening, according to reports.
According to authorities, at least five lakh people are expected to gather at Shivaji Park to pay their tributes.

On Saturday, his general physician, Dr Jalil Parkar, who has been treating him since 2009, announced his passing outside his home, where thousands of Sainiks had been keeping vigil following news of his ill-health for the past 72 hours.
"With great grief and sadness, we wish to inform you that Balasaheb Thackeray breathed his last at 3.30 pm following cardio-respiratory arrest. We could not revive him," Parkar announced at around 4.45 pm.

 Hidustan times

How do Facebook ‘Like’ scams reach thousands of users?

If you look, you will find countless Facebook pages that have hundreds of thousands of likes and comments. But are these real? Some of the posts invite people to write a comment to see what happens. But predictably, nothing happens and this is all part of a large-scale Facebook scam.

These ‘stories’ then appear on newsfeeds and begin to resemble spam. The most common modus operandi for such Facebook scams is to attract people by getting their sympathy. This is easily achieved with images of sick children, wounded animals or details about some charitable organization.

How the scam functions
 A page is created with a sympathetic message or an amusing anecdote to attract attention. The post is then shared publicly and people are called to perform actions like ‘like the page’, ‘comment’ or ‘share the page’. The next step posts the page on similar nefarious groups and spreads to hundreds of thousands of people via their newsfeed.

                                           
Once a page has garnered thousands of likes/comments, it is put up for sale. Someone who wishes to acquire the exposure of the page can purchase it and potentially misuse it. Certain details of the page can also be modified for malicious purposes. In this manner, anyone can get their hands on pages with high edge ranks to spam thousands of people, even though they may have the best anti-spam software. Such scams can spread propaganda, increase likes/comments, market something or even fool people into giving money or information.

Edge Rank and how it can be misused
 The reason why parties resort to this trick is the money that can be gained via the ‘Facebook Like algorithm’. As a post gets increased comments/likes, its visibility rises. This page is then displayed to a greater number of people and this is beneficial to marketers in the short term and the long term.

This algorithm devised by Facebook functions on a platform known as Edge Rank. This is simply the score of a page based on various parameters and this score determines how useful the page actually is. In turn, this decides how many people will view the page. A higher edge rank allows a page to be displayed to more people in their newsfeed. Various factors that come into play here are affinity (closeness with the person), weight (embedded video or a link) and the time decay (relevance).

Unfortunately, there are many parties out there that misuse this platform. A high edge rank can be used to enhance brand exposure but it can also be used to bombard Facebook users with random messages and promotions that they are not interested in. Scammers also use this method to reach as many people as possible. All this has led to a process known as ‘Like buying’. This refers to the sale of Facebook fan pages and a simple Google search validates this.

Awareness about this technique and other Facebook scams is useful. ‘Like buying’ is quite a common occurrence and it can be misused in several ways. We recommend that you do not fall for manipulative messages or images that ask you for comments or likes.