Enhanced Security for Pin Based Credit Card [21-June-2015]
An idea came in while discussing security loop-hole while making payment at merchant store - Now a days banks keeps on boosting "we got chip based cards as a part of advanced and enhanced security system" - transaction can be completed only by feeding most secure pin number. All right, I agree to certain point, yes its more secure then previous mechanism but I see a problem on the other end where payment receiver swipes the card and asks customer to enter pin number at public place and also in front of "CCTV camera", which in turn kills the whole purpose of having pin number. Basically somebody can literally use recordings and replay it to fetch the pin entered, simple you are hacked, no more signature required, you will get to know only when you receive sms stating xxx amount transaction has happened....Oh God, save me!!!.
How above having that particular hand-held device where we enter pin is designed bit differently? Let say that device has to come with some kind of cover so that it can avoid others (including CCTV) to pip-in to hide the pin you are entering, with that we achieve primary level security - still I want to make it more stronger, keep that keypad as touch-pad (virtual keypad) "with randomly generating numbers from 0-9 within given area", one similar to whatever comes with banking application (We call it virtual keypad - right?) - similar but only with number every time arranged in random order - This way we can make sure even somebody pips in they can not detect what exact number we pressed, and also at some level it can fool CCTV camera - what say? Share your thoughts if you think it can increase security level for credit card users while making transaction at merchant store.
Shared credits with Srinath Krishnan
Busbuddy [29-April-2015]
Metro city like Bangalore has very good commute facility - almost all the corners of city are covered by bus service, only thing sometimes I see lacking is "supporting infrastructure" to inspire more and more people to use public transport which can actually help to reduce traffic, pollution and all in all win-win for public and government. Now the challenges which I see as a non regular transport user or lets say as an outsider (temporarily in city for business) as follows:
Assume that I have to go from one location to another location, its not my regular route - but still make sense to go by public transport, some how I figured out route details but its extremely difficult to get approximate timings of bus, and even more difficult to figure out if recently given bus has already passed from xyz bus stop or not, sometimes it happens that I wait for 5-10mins - when sometimes 30-45mins - totally clueless on when next bus is coming and thanks to city traffic which actually makes the bus-route timetable almost useless. For outsider its even more difficult grab the pattern.
Now lets say I give you an app - I call it Busbuddy which has following features:
Once you are in bus update it with bus-route number that you are travelling on, now the application is smart enough to track the location of given bus which can be utilized by other users, who want to know what's the current location of given route. That way person can reduce waiting time and frustration.
Additionally person can update more information like if bus is crowded, stuck in traffic jam, breakdown and one can enable chat option to chat with passenger travelling in same route, slowly commuters can establish network if travelling same route (Make connections - expend your social network). As the data being uploaded to server - same can be used for analytics purpose for various types of improvements, introducing more buses for given route,
rush hour, traffic pattern and an ocean of opportunity once data is in. Last but not least, same can be used by female commuters for security of oneself.
Why this can fail: Routine commuters (pillars of the whole infrastructure) won't care about it - as they know timings and available workaround also they are mentally prepared to wait for some more time in case of delay. Why would they use this app? To get more accurate time/location info? They can actually save some time. Some gets tensed if bus not arrived, no clue. Can be used women safety - if any delay in getting bus - person can inform family with right reason on time.
I believe the idea is in-line with crowd sourcing, and can work well with good marking.
Few open challenges:
1. What if user updates fake/wrong information about bus-route? Probably to apply mass-pass algorithm? Mass-pass can use combination of following: Number of user + GPS location + Update Time + Direction + Historical Pattern
2. What if two different passengers(users) travelling in two separate buses which are running back to back, is it possible to detect multiple buses?
3. Do we really need to find out if there is one bus or multiple buses coming up?
4. How to stop user from fooling the system
5. What if mass tries to fool system?
Please share your feedback.
Radio Ad Blocker [31-July-2014]
While seating in cab on my way back from office - felt to listen some songs from radio to catch up with some latest music after a while I felt disappointed when I got slice of song only for 3-4 mins and there after 15mins of continuous annoying advertisement - which is no fun at all, finally I changed channels to check if any station got some music but unfortunately no one. May be they all are synced or whatever the internal deal with them but point which makes me unhappy is too much of advertisements. I know its free and that's why we got no other way but to listen to them.
Idea came to my mind to solve a problem, if there is any algorithm around to make a check if its song/music on specific channel then continue playing else switch to music player or switch to another frequency. Basically, "a mechanism which can differentiate between song and advertisements". I know you are up and ready to say...You know even advertisements can be in form of song - Yes, I know but keep the exception aside and if we want to tackle this issue in general manner where if success rate of detecting advertisement is 70% or more.. we are good to go. Come on we got to believe that we are in android and ios world and anything is possible there. What say? Put your comments.
While checking on net, got a stackoverflow link (which describes similar thought as mine):
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/612038/how-would-you-go-about-designing-an-ad-blocker-for-streaming-radio
SetMyDose [17-April-2014]
While I saw my mom everyday taking medicines from a bottle and I marked small thing happening everyday when she tries to take exactly 2 tablets out but always get some more or some less and hence she is to redo same thing to get exact number of tablets out, I know its not a big deal. Now take another case where a patient is taking some 6-7 types of medication everyday from different bottles and he has to do the same thing for multiple medicines for multiple times a day. I feel its type of tiny tedious and unavoidable thing, On the top of that (s)he has to remember dosage from each bottle.
Now imaging a specially designed bottle in front of you where it dispenses prefix number of tables every time you try to take out, not only these but person (either pharmacist or doctor) should be able to set the dosage directly on to bottle so that patient need not to worry about dosage. Interesting right? Now the bottle design includes following stuff:
Tables filled up in specific alignment (vertical or horizontal) with spring supported elevator in spiral shape from bottom to top (will try to create image for better understanding). Also special cap with notch to adjust amount of tables to be dispensed each time, that's it, problem solved.
Simple concept of revolver comes into my mind where after every shot next bullet is automatically set in place to be fired - here tablets can be replaced and works also exactly opposite (its about saving somebody's life). Oh, Yes I feel same concept can be applied to talcum powder bottle where it happens with me most of the time when I try to take out some amount but comes out in bulk - but yes powder substance has to be handled differently than tables.
Next time I will visit home I will try to have a model for the same.
Email - Draft-Lock Button [10-March-2014]
An idea came in while discussing security loop-hole while making payment at merchant store - Now a days banks keeps on boosting "we got chip based cards as a part of advanced and enhanced security system" - transaction can be completed only by feeding most secure pin number. All right, I agree to certain point, yes its more secure then previous mechanism but I see a problem on the other end where payment receiver swipes the card and asks customer to enter pin number at public place and also in front of "CCTV camera", which in turn kills the whole purpose of having pin number. Basically somebody can literally use recordings and replay it to fetch the pin entered, simple you are hacked, no more signature required, you will get to know only when you receive sms stating xxx amount transaction has happened....Oh God, save me!!!.
How above having that particular hand-held device where we enter pin is designed bit differently? Let say that device has to come with some kind of cover so that it can avoid others (including CCTV) to pip-in to hide the pin you are entering, with that we achieve primary level security - still I want to make it more stronger, keep that keypad as touch-pad (virtual keypad) "with randomly generating numbers from 0-9 within given area", one similar to whatever comes with banking application (We call it virtual keypad - right?) - similar but only with number every time arranged in random order - This way we can make sure even somebody pips in they can not detect what exact number we pressed, and also at some level it can fool CCTV camera - what say? Share your thoughts if you think it can increase security level for credit card users while making transaction at merchant store.
Shared credits with Srinath Krishnan
Busbuddy [29-April-2015]
Metro city like Bangalore has very good commute facility - almost all the corners of city are covered by bus service, only thing sometimes I see lacking is "supporting infrastructure" to inspire more and more people to use public transport which can actually help to reduce traffic, pollution and all in all win-win for public and government. Now the challenges which I see as a non regular transport user or lets say as an outsider (temporarily in city for business) as follows:
Assume that I have to go from one location to another location, its not my regular route - but still make sense to go by public transport, some how I figured out route details but its extremely difficult to get approximate timings of bus, and even more difficult to figure out if recently given bus has already passed from xyz bus stop or not, sometimes it happens that I wait for 5-10mins - when sometimes 30-45mins - totally clueless on when next bus is coming and thanks to city traffic which actually makes the bus-route timetable almost useless. For outsider its even more difficult grab the pattern.
Now lets say I give you an app - I call it Busbuddy which has following features:
Once you are in bus update it with bus-route number that you are travelling on, now the application is smart enough to track the location of given bus which can be utilized by other users, who want to know what's the current location of given route. That way person can reduce waiting time and frustration.
Additionally person can update more information like if bus is crowded, stuck in traffic jam, breakdown and one can enable chat option to chat with passenger travelling in same route, slowly commuters can establish network if travelling same route (Make connections - expend your social network). As the data being uploaded to server - same can be used for analytics purpose for various types of improvements, introducing more buses for given route,
rush hour, traffic pattern and an ocean of opportunity once data is in. Last but not least, same can be used by female commuters for security of oneself.
Why this can fail: Routine commuters (pillars of the whole infrastructure) won't care about it - as they know timings and available workaround also they are mentally prepared to wait for some more time in case of delay. Why would they use this app? To get more accurate time/location info? They can actually save some time. Some gets tensed if bus not arrived, no clue. Can be used women safety - if any delay in getting bus - person can inform family with right reason on time.
I believe the idea is in-line with crowd sourcing, and can work well with good marking.
Few open challenges:
1. What if user updates fake/wrong information about bus-route? Probably to apply mass-pass algorithm? Mass-pass can use combination of following: Number of user + GPS location + Update Time + Direction + Historical Pattern
2. What if two different passengers(users) travelling in two separate buses which are running back to back, is it possible to detect multiple buses?
3. Do we really need to find out if there is one bus or multiple buses coming up?
4. How to stop user from fooling the system
5. What if mass tries to fool system?
Please share your feedback.
Radio Ad Blocker [31-July-2014]
While seating in cab on my way back from office - felt to listen some songs from radio to catch up with some latest music after a while I felt disappointed when I got slice of song only for 3-4 mins and there after 15mins of continuous annoying advertisement - which is no fun at all, finally I changed channels to check if any station got some music but unfortunately no one. May be they all are synced or whatever the internal deal with them but point which makes me unhappy is too much of advertisements. I know its free and that's why we got no other way but to listen to them.
Idea came to my mind to solve a problem, if there is any algorithm around to make a check if its song/music on specific channel then continue playing else switch to music player or switch to another frequency. Basically, "a mechanism which can differentiate between song and advertisements". I know you are up and ready to say...You know even advertisements can be in form of song - Yes, I know but keep the exception aside and if we want to tackle this issue in general manner where if success rate of detecting advertisement is 70% or more.. we are good to go. Come on we got to believe that we are in android and ios world and anything is possible there. What say? Put your comments.
While checking on net, got a stackoverflow link (which describes similar thought as mine):
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/612038/how-would-you-go-about-designing-an-ad-blocker-for-streaming-radio
SetMyDose [17-April-2014]
While I saw my mom everyday taking medicines from a bottle and I marked small thing happening everyday when she tries to take exactly 2 tablets out but always get some more or some less and hence she is to redo same thing to get exact number of tablets out, I know its not a big deal. Now take another case where a patient is taking some 6-7 types of medication everyday from different bottles and he has to do the same thing for multiple medicines for multiple times a day. I feel its type of tiny tedious and unavoidable thing, On the top of that (s)he has to remember dosage from each bottle.
Now imaging a specially designed bottle in front of you where it dispenses prefix number of tables every time you try to take out, not only these but person (either pharmacist or doctor) should be able to set the dosage directly on to bottle so that patient need not to worry about dosage. Interesting right? Now the bottle design includes following stuff:
Tables filled up in specific alignment (vertical or horizontal) with spring supported elevator in spiral shape from bottom to top (will try to create image for better understanding). Also special cap with notch to adjust amount of tables to be dispensed each time, that's it, problem solved.
Simple concept of revolver comes into my mind where after every shot next bullet is automatically set in place to be fired - here tablets can be replaced and works also exactly opposite (its about saving somebody's life). Oh, Yes I feel same concept can be applied to talcum powder bottle where it happens with me most of the time when I try to take out some amount but comes out in bulk - but yes powder substance has to be handled differently than tables.
Next time I will visit home I will try to have a model for the same.
Email - Draft-Lock Button [10-March-2014]
Sometimes you must have faced this situation that you are drafting an email very fast (I assume that you know all the shortcuts, to_list, cc_list already assigned) and suddenly in-between its starts flying I mean by-mistake some key combination you just pressed send....phew!!!, you were in middle of typing and trying to put correct things, some spelling mistakes there and some grammatical correction, some half backed sentences, everything shoots. You feel very very bad.
To avoid such embracing situation what I think is, there is be a locking system, so called "Draft Lock" - so the way it works is, you start a new email and put it in "Draft Lock" state, and until you unlock it, wont allow you to send that particular mail (whatever shortcut you press you are safe) and of course to unlock you have to enter "captcha" simple.
I know you are ready with counter argument that what a big deal you can open word document, type complete mail then copy paste it. Yes you are write, but I believe this is just better way to achieve the final goal :)
Hope some popular service provider with take a note of this feature and implement it someday.
Password Acceptance Standard [06-March-2014]
This is to my dear web-developer friends:
You know end-users are fed-up of maintaining 20+ Passwords across various sites and you know whats the reason, simply they don't comply with some standard password acceptance policy (criteria) or rather there is no such policy exist. Correct me if I am wrong. For example some sites don't accept # where some don't accept %,$ or & and some site has limit of password can be 8 char, some has limit that only alphanumeric allowed and many more such things. I am not saying that one should put same complex password everywhere but allow him/her to manage passwords in strategic manner.
So here is a first list I came up with - which can ease up to certain level for handling password in smooth way unless some new technique enters and whole password mess can be wiped out.
Here is the acceptance criteria I would like to define:
- All the symbols should be permitted
- All alphabets should be permitted (A-Z, a-z)
- All numbers (0-9) should be permitted
- Any combination of above items should be permitted
- Password length should be allowed up to 20-25
I know you are just waiting to put a counter argument, "use openID", yes I agree but still some sites don't have it and I believe some type of sites you don't want to use openID - for example banking or trading sites. I hope one day this will be extended and considered as an acceptance criteria. Suggest if you thing I am missing anything here.
Drive Restful [18-Feb-2014]
The idea is about driving without getting stressed..Here is how its possible: My challenge to dear friend - Google :)
Coming Up....
Why Language Translators don't work 100% Correctly [13-Dec-2013]
Most important aspect I have seen for all the language is so called "Context" - which means circumstances or scenario or event in which given word, sentence or speech is used. You tweak the context and whole meaning goes upside down...Yes sometimes our politicians use such techniques for their own benefit. So lets try to understand it with example: Bank and River are two different word (Normally treated by translator engine) but sometimes combined one makes all together different meaning, which is riverbank and its extremely difficult for any translator (of course other than human brain) to grasp this scenario and represent it accordingly. And the worse part is, it does not end here, one place to another place, from language to language from region to region all the combination and permutation comes into picture and imagine the chaos arise. That is why I think most of things can be covered and translated by mature language translators but when it comes to context based translation AI (Artificial Intelligence) comes into picture and it becomes extreme to calculate and translate. That is why I say Language translators are not 100% correct.
Sprayker
How about Sprayker - which comes into my mind from the idea of Speaker. Name "sprayker" is combination of English word spray and Hindi word ker/kar which means "do/apply". Now coming to the point, actual idea is to deliver smell of something over the wire-live - similar way sound gets transferred through wire yes I know its bit wired but yes it might change the whole experience. For example, imaging that person watching cookery show on TV and (S)he get to know the smell of new tomato-potato curry, Yes its simply amazing. I have thousands of such examples to give...but I think its not needed here. I am sure it will add whole new dimension to the entertainment and not only limited to entertainment but beyond that too.
Sticky Text on my Desktop [29-May-2013]
As a (managed) Software Developer, I feel that there should be a place where I can copy some handy text and paste it wherever needed. For that I saw people using either something like sticky notes (Yellow Notes) or keep a text file or outlook and I too use one of this options but not much happy with it. On this basis I started thinking to have a place on my desktop itself to store some such information for a quick reference. For example lets say I want to have handy list of IP Addresses of servers I am accessing or some (lengthy) url - which changes over a time (so I don't want to bookmark them) - or some other frequently used text/number information, and it must be available as fast as possible and for all this best place I can think of is Desktop as till now I am on windows 7 so it still valid. So in summary, Copy-able text stored on my desktop. I would like if you can throw some ideas on how I can achieve some such functionality.
Scale Blindness
Have you heard about color blindness? If yes, cool now imagine if there is some kind of genetic disorder which make people scale blind, yes I know you are now thinking of some Bollywood movie!!! So let me define what I mean by Scale Blindness: A person will always see the objects/article with some specific size and will be unable to differentiate between objects of different sizes. For example, (s)he might see television-set and mobile phone of same size, or (s)he might see wrist watch and helmate of same size. I know it sounds or rather looks crazy but its possible isn't it, of course it can create chaos!!
Waiter free restaurants
Think that when you enter to restaurant there is nobody around to ask you, "May I take your order sir?" You are seating and waiting and waiting for someone to come and take your order (it actually happens to me in some coffee shops at my town), sometimes you are starving or may be in hurry to eat something but nobody around to take your order or may be all waiters are occupied because of rush hour. Now can you imagine waiter free restaurant? A fully automated restaurant with very less human interaction or may be some robots around.....I know its all about service - but is it sufficient to provide service by machine and not by humans...is it realistic? is it feasible?
Basically the idea is to have a small screen and 4 keypads on each table from where customer
can order anything and everything available in the hotel. Even one can ask for
paper napkin or say glass of water from that only. What say?
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