Friday, April 19, 2013

Cyber criminals' new tricks

Remember all those phony emails that purport to be from your bank, asking you to click on a link and turn over your account information? Cyber experts say criminals have moved on and are using new methods. A cybersecurity banking official told a House Financial Services panel that criminals are now sending emails claiming to be from someone other than your bank. Newer scams use The National Automatic Clearing House Association, the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, the US Postal Service, private delivery firms, telecommunications companies and social media providers.

One thing hasn't changed. Once an unsuspecting user clicks on a link, he or she is redirected to a server that downloads malicious software onto the victim's computer. The software captures the user's online banking credentials as they are typed.

Called "phishing," this tactic involves sending an email that falsely claims to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to trick the user into turning over information.

Michele Cantley, testifying on behalf of the Financial Services Information Sharing & Analysis Center, said that phishing "remains the most popular attack method that criminals use to infect victims' machines."

The center is a nonprofit organization funded by financial services companies, commercial banks, credit unions, brokerage firms, insurance companies, exchanges and clearing houses, and payment processors.

She said criminals are also using malicious advertisements, which appear on search engines and prominent news sites. When a user clicks on the link, malware gets downloaded onto his or her computer.

"A more recent method involves fraudulent messages sent from social media sites," she said. "These may include bogus friend requests, for example, that include links to malicious sites."

Cantley's organization, along with the Microsoft and the Electronic Payments Association, has gone on the offensive against phishing scams. They used a creative legal strategy as part of a civil lawsuit filed earlier this year to disrupt a major cybercrime operation that used malicious software to allegedly steal $100 million from consumers over the last five years.

The lawsuit targeted a global network of computers under the remote control of a criminal group that stole personal information, financial credentials and money, according to court records. The network, known as Zeus, has not been eliminated, but the action has made it much more difficult and expensive for the criminals to operate.

Mark Graff, vice president of the NASDAQ OMX Group, told the panel that his organization is not only concerned about rogue hackers or organized crime, but also attacks backed by national governments.

"It is not reasonable to expect individual companies, no matter how large or sophisticated, to independently stave off cyberattacks coordinated and backed by a foreign government," he said. "If our headquarters or our physical infrastructure were under attack from foreign missiles, the US government would work with us to defend our company.

"The same needs to be true for cyberattacks, especially since the US government is equally under attack from these foreign entities."

Sunday, April 14, 2013

How to make site specific Google search box

Here is some code you can use to add Google's search functionality to your website. You can add both a standard Google search box that will search the web at large (the first example) or a site-specific search box that will search only pages within a specific URL (the second example). If you want to restrict searches to your own site, use the second example and provide your site’s URL as the searchable domain.

You'll need an API key from Google. They are freely available for non-commercial applications.

General Google search box :

<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
        <title>My GAjax Search</title>

        <script src="http://www.google.com/uds/api?file=uds.js&v=1.0&key=YOURKEYHERE" type="text/javascript"></script>
        <script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">
        //<![CDATA[
        function OnLoad() {
       
          // Create a search control
          var searchControl = new GSearchControl();

          // create a search object
          searchControl.addSearcher(new GwebSearch());

          // tell Google where to draw the searchbox
          searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("search-box"));

        }

        GSearch.setOnLoadCallback(OnLoad);

        //]]>

        </script>
       
    </head>

<body>

        <!-- Search box -->
        <div id="search-box">

        </div>

</body>
</html>

 

Site specific Google search box

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">

    <head>

        <title>My GAjax Site Search</title>

        <script src="http://www.google.com/uds/api?file=uds.js&v=1.0&key=YOURKEYHERE" type="text/javascript"></script>

        <script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">

        //<![CDATA[

        function OnLoad() {

          // Create a search control

          var searchControl = new GSearchControl();
       

         // create a search object

          var siteSearch = new GwebSearch();

          siteSearch.setUserDefinedLabel("YourSite");

          siteSearch.setUserDefinedClassSuffix("siteSearch");

          siteSearch.setSiteRestriction("example.com");

          searchControl.addSearcher(siteSearch);

          // tell Google where to draw the searchbox

          searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("search-box"));

        }

        GSearch.setOnLoadCallback(OnLoad);

        //]]>

        </script>
    </head>

    <body>
        <!-- Search box -->
        <div id="search-box">

        </div>
    </body>

</html>

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Website / App Prototyping

It takes a stretch of days at a time to get the coding and programming in place for your web app and if something goes wrong in the process, it hurts to start it all over again. At times when you haven't checked and rechecked your app beforehand, you may come to find out that in the middle of the creation process that the idea you had isn't going to work or the budget for your project is not big enough. This harsh realization can really spoil things. This is the reason why prototyping is a good idea, and can become pivotal for our work as developers. Let's dive into this concepts and really understand prototyping and user testing, and the steps involved in this, in a more detailed manner. 9B5TYBRAVU49

Prototyping means creating a sample model of an app, which will form the base of how your app is going to look and function. Below we outline the steps which will help you go about it.

1. Brainstorm


Work Smart: Brainstorming Techniques to Boost Creativity

The first thing you need to do to start the prototyping process (and one of the most important parts) is get to brainstorming! When you are working on a new idea, gathering inputs from different sources is a great way to not stereotype your app with the tunnel vision that can sometimes come from one point of view. Having a session with developers who have ample knowledge and some experience about interfaces, will surely help you create a good base to start from. With the ideas you gained during the brainstorming session, start making wireframes of the screens and focus more on the important screens that will be used the most rather than screens you know just need to be there (as creating a frame for every imaginable screen is not productive – you can build them once the project is working!). Usually, the same frame can be used for different screens as functions are similar, and if not you can probably modify it to fit (and save some time) in early prototype wireframing.

2. Prioritize


Paper Prototyping As A Usability Testing Technique

Now is the time to prioritize screens – using a pen and paper you can list out all the features or the components it is going to have in the end product. Listing the visual elements such as graphs, menus, texts, buttons and other components like warning messages, default and others is the next step. Do not forget to incorporate the most important screen elements like the logo, search box and others. After listing them, prioritize from the most important to the least important and conclude with a common pattern.

3. Mockups, Wireframes and Prototyping


Wireframing, Prototyping, Mockuping – What’s the Difference?

This is the step where you have to focus on how the app is going to look, create multiple interfaces, and perform the trial and error method to shortlist a few of the most interesting features, keeping the best ones and getting rid of what doesn’t work. This is the time when you might face glitches and problems but this is the most important part as now you would be able to solve these problems right now and reduce future issues that would give you a headache later when actual users are on it. Now is the time to gather all of the pieces of what you have done so far and stick the puzzle together. Here we are talking about the way the screens will work and what the interaction will be like among the elements on the them. For a better execution you can also use apps like Google Docs Drawing, Keynote and other similar programs. Once this is done you have to focus on the last step which is prototyping so that your app can be tested by users. Fireworks or Photoshop can be used for this step as now you have to create a flat prototype image and the interactivity can be manual. You can then export slices as HTML to create basic functionality with some simple hand coding. Then of course, rinse and repeat as necessary. Once your app is coded out and looking how you want it to look – Your app is now ready for user testing!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Mobile site or web or native app?

With the advent of the mobile market, economies are expanding at a rate faster than it can be accommodated. Mobile has brought in its wake a host of growth avenues for companies.

Let's take a look at some statistics that point towards the growing mobile world:

  • 27% of companies worldwide planned to implement location-based marketing in 2013 according to a report by Econsultancy
  • 25% of international media and marketing executives see mobile as the most disruptive force in their industry, informed AdMedia Partners
  • 48% use or would like to use a smartphone to shop while in-store or on the go confirms Cisco
  • The number of US mobile coupon users will rise from 12.3 million in 2010 to 53.2 million in 2014, driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones, as stated by eMarketer
Let's analyse each of these 3 platforms individually:

Mobile site
Firms can build a single responsive site for all their business with the capability to run on multiple platforms. Else, they can choose to build a separate mobile site for their business. The latter approach can be quite cumbersome for web developers and designers.

Pros of having a mobile site:

  • A mobile site renders easy and quick access of information to its users
  • Offers efficiency and speed to users
  • Delivers customized experiences to users at all times
  • Generates more revenue with more action buttons
  • Enables payment transaction in a secure and easy way
  • The site is smart and intuitive which can detect the device it is being run on and adjusts itself accordingly
  • Offers clean and simple navigation with systematic scrolls and zooms at places most required
  • Allows faster download speed to users
  • Mobile sites can use QR Codes to bridge the gap between online and offline media
  • Mobile sites are a one-time investment thus offering a cost-effective solution even to small-business or start-ups
 As most users like to shop from home while watching TV a mobile site is the best option to bank on this trend. It is vital for businesses to optimize business solutions and bring at the door-step of its customers.

Native app
A native app is created in the language of the creating system it will be used for. They are easy to install and function with however, they are an expensive option as they take a lot of time to develop and have to be adjusted for each operating system.

Pros of having a native app:
  • Native apps work faster than mobile web apps
  • They can interface with a device's features such as GPS, camera and so on
  • They provide function-specific performance
  • They offer consistent multi-device performance to its users
  • They use push technology to automatically update information for mobile users
  • They help to reduce data cost by rendering data synchronizations with a lot of back-end data sources
 Native apps require a lot of back-end maintenance work in order for it to function properly. Unless, the app is rendered useless for business requirements.

Mobile web app
Sites built using HTML/CSS are a cheaper and faster alternative to go mobile. The only problem with a mobile web app is that many users hardly care about updating their browsers until they get a new phone.

Pros of having a mobile web app:

  • They have a great cross-browser support
  • They are quick and easy to launch
  • It is designed specifically for the mobile and is thus better suited to work with it
  • It is easy to make modification or render updates on it
  • It offers a great platform for gaming services
  • It can perform complex functions such as calculation and maintaining charts, reports or calendars
  • It can work offline well in contrast to a mobile site
A mobile web app is a sure return on investment as it offers dynamic and integrated platform for performing a range of functions. They are designed to give a more personalized experience to users accessing it for regular usage.

To sum it up
Though there are a lot of structural differences between a web app, a mobile site and a native app; the user experiences offered by the two can make huge difference for brands to fulfill their goals.

Apps, no doubt, offer a bunch of commercial opportunities for companies but development and maintenance cost is something that firms must look into. The after-effects of implementing of any one of these options is a continuous process that requires due consideration.

More on - http://www.oyetrade.com/adaptive-website-design.aspx

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

how to get the parameter value from a url?

Here is a easy to read and understand JS function that you can use to retrieve any variable from url.

All you need to do is call this function with name of the variable that you want to filter and it will return the value back to you.

Hope it helps:


function getURLParameter(name) {
                return decodeURI(
                    (RegExp(name + '=' + '(.+?)(&|$)').exec(location.search)||[,null])[1]
                );              
            }
            var paramValue = getURLParameter('paramName');
            //alert(paramValue);

NOTE:
  • Replace 'paramName' with parameter for which you are looking to get value.
  • Variable 'paramValue' stores the parameter value.