Snapchatting the World!

Recently I came across this new app for Android and iOS called "SnapChat" which lets users click pictures, take videos and also lets them add text and pictures to it. These pictures and videos known as "Snaps" can then be shared with  friends on your list. 

So you must be thinking what the big deal is when so many more apps let me do that! Well, you surely will think otherwise when I tell you that this app lets you share these snaps with your friends and will delete them soon after they are seen! Now that catches your attention huh!? SnapChat lets you decide the time limit for how long your recipients can view the snaps. It could be anywhere between 1 and 10 seconds, post which the snaps shall be hidden from the receiver's device and deleted from SnapChat's server.

(SnapChat's logo is called the "Ghostface Chillah")

SnapChat is a photo messaging app developed by Stanford students, Bobby Murphy and Evan Speigel  in 2011 as part of their final year project. It has been pretty long (2 years) since this app got released into the market. Apart from the millions of downloads and fame, what gets interesting is that, FB had recently tried hard to acquire this startup and got turned down. This is one of those few startups like Twitter that chose to stay on their ground and not get sold off. Though the app has been misused enough in the most obvious ways, it is an bold idea worth developing. 

So this left me wondering... Despite the fact that there are on an average two startups opening up in India each day, why is that the silicon valley startups get this big in no time and Indian startups take a really long time to even get identified? These were some of the reasons I thought are different about them and us: (this may not hold true for all Indian startups)

1. In India, having no job is a sin! It's a sign of incapability, leave alone trying to assess his/her ability to employ others. So, most tangential ideas are wrapped up even before they take form  

2. Risk taking is looked down upon by many startups. Here, the focus is more on customer behaviour,  current market behaviour and we  often shy away even from the thought of trying to create something the world would not have thought of. 

3. As for us, our biggest fear is acceptance,be it when building things or when coming up with lateral ideas! We think more about others than ourselves, so we do not believe in our own idea much. So anything, we think could change the world has a greater chance of getting diluted and discarded. On the other hand, the silicon valley guys just mould their ideas with no questions asked!

4. The feeling of "boasting-about-oneself-is-a-bad-thing" has been drilled deep into our Indian minds which majorly differentiates Indian startups from the startups abroad

However, with more talented young minds stepping into the business world each day, let's hope more Indian startups get there soon.

The App can be downloaded here: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snapchat.android&hl=en

Source of info about Snapchat: Internet
All views mentioned above are subjective 

Email = Google or Yahoo ?

If that's your notion as of today, you're so not aware of all the awesome features other mail service providers out there are offering. All the mail servers you must have heard thus far may have included Gmail (which has more or less become synonymous with the very term e-mail), Yahoo mail, Hotmail, Rediff mail and a few others that offer closely similar services. But let me tell you about a very interesting e-mail provider called BigString.

 Big String: 

How many times does it happen that we badly regret having sent a mail in anger and disgust and just wish we could take it back? Often right? How cool would it be to have an email that you can edit, delete or even cooler; self-destruct itself after sending ? It not just happens with James Bond. Now, it's even possible with you. Bigstring let's you do that!

Some cool features of BigString include:

1) It lets you recall, edit or delete the email sent by you even after the mail has been opened by the receiver

2) You can track the number of times your email had been opened by the recipient

3) You can make arrangements for your mail to be self-destructed after a certain time limit

4) You can send password protected emails ; a password that only you and your recipient   can share

5) You can also send in mails that cannot be forwarded or printed

Interesting huh? Well, though Bigstring has its own pitfalls the services it offers are truly remarkable and it is an info worth sharing around!

P.S: Currently the site has gone offline but it's worth a shot once the site is up! 

Do you know your Virtual Value?

The Value of a person is pretty subjective. It can have multiple notions. However, in our physical world, we are apparently talking about the person's social status or his/her economic level. Now, we obviously spend a lot of time in the virtual world everyday right? I meant our social media and cloud presence. So, do you know what's your value up there? Tricky huh? Well, not very! 

In a world where information is power everything holds a value. You and I as normal people may not realize our worth but, businesses out there do! Marketing, Sales, Distribution, etc. are what people say as elements necessary for a business. But Information forms the nucleus of any business. Though, it is not explicitly mentioned it is implied. How would i know whom to sell my product if i din't know there are people out there in need of it? It is as simple as that! So, as an individual, your tastes, preferences and  lifestyle are important sources of information. While people can make money out of it by catering to your needs, there are also people out there who make money by selling this basic information.

Hackers could gather this info about you, not just you but of many many people without their knowledge and make a database out of it. They sell this info out and you may not even know until trouble actually starts peeping at you!

It is surprising to know that there is a way to calculate your value in case a hacker were to use your information. This application is called the CLOUDSWEEPER! It is a research project  being conducted at the University of Illinois, Chicago by Peter Snyder and Chris Kanich. This tool helps users understand the online risks and makes them confront the necessity to secure their accounts.

Once you choose to run this tool, it requests for permission to access your gmail account. However, it does not ask for your credentials. Cloudsweeper then sweeps through all the information in your account that may seem lucrative to hackers. It then puts a value to your account, i.e. indirectly to you. For example, Apple is worth $8 and Amazon is worth $15 as of now! The important thing to understand here is, greater the value of your account, higher is your risk!  (The value referring to the money a hacker could earn out of your account)It only indicates that your account is more vulnerable! This does not end here! If you are interested in working on this vulnerability issue, Cloudsweeper offers you ways in which you could deal with your security essentials.

Sometimes we pass on our passwords through mail and never anticipate that they could be stolen. It is also possible that some of you hold one password for all of your accounts. So, technically speaking  in both the cases, one account of yours could hold the key to open multiple other accounts that belong to you. Never thought so right? There is so much such info that we unknowingly hold on the cloud without encrypting. Cloudsweeper  offers to encrypt such info for you. 

Cloudsweeper makes use of OAuth, which is an open authorization standard to access user accounts without getting to our credentials. This enables users revoke their access at any point of time.

For everyone who thinks they aren't really exposed to such vulnerabilities, since they are normal, this tool is a reality check. So, start clicking to know how much worth your virtual self if!

For cloudsweeper tool click here: https://cloudsweeper.cs.uic.edu/

Content and Picture Courtesy: Internet