Market Segmentation in the Internet Market

Market segmentation is an important process in conventional marketing. Marketing is an important step in ensuring successful implementation of marketing strategies.

Market segmentation means dividing a market into different groups or categories according to certain criteria such as household income, level of income, level of education, age, gender, hobbies and more. Such data can be collected

. Read More........

Microsoft Company Meeting 2010

Best. Company Meeting. Ever.*

(*excluding the classic Company Meetings, especially the one where Cheap Trick played afterward.)

---

Mini-Microsoft Microsoft -- Comments

. Read More........

Here Comes Microsoft Company Meeting 2010!

Hello, SafeCo Field! Another year, another Microsoft Company Meeting!

Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows that I'm a big fan of the Company Meeting, though I have to admit this is the first year I've thought of skipping and just go out for some beers instead. Well, instead I'll peruse the past and conjure up some enthusiasm:

• 2009: Mini-Microsoft Six Hopes for This Year's Microsoft Company Meeting + Mini-Microsoft Quick Thoughts on the Microsoft 2009 Company Meeting
• 2008: Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting 2008
• 2007: Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting Ahoy! + Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting 2007
• 2006: Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting 2006
• 2005: Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting... I'm looking for some dates! + Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting 2005
• 2004: Mini-Microsoft Microsoft Company Meeting 2004 (the non-meeting Company Meeting)

Alright, I'm in. So what is there to talk about going into the Company Meeting?

No Elop: yeah! So no repeat of last year's late-night telemarketing demo unintentional-skit. In fact, we might have one big demo cut altogether...

Unique Demos: anyone who repackages a demo from earlier in the year should just get boo'd off-stage. Any demos should be new and quick quick quick.

Dreading Mundie: please spare us. If the Company Meeting had a chatter meter for when the audience stopped paying attention and started talking with their seatmates, this would be the peak.

WP7 Microsoftie Demos: I think it would be sweet and smart to have some of the top-notch Windows Phone 7 apps created by Microsofties - under the application developer program to support employee apps - get up on stage and do 1 minute demos of their apps. Microsoft exists only due to the great work of the geeks who work there - celebrate it.

Financials: a nice review of *profits* from the various groups.

Stealth Layoffs: are we done yet? I'm all for making Microsoft a smaller company, but not at the morale busting cost of layoffs lurking around campus like the Spanish Inquisition. It will eventually take a toll on people considering moving to groups that are in a start-up mode with unclear Senior Leadership Team support.

LisaB: she tried something big, Ballmer didn't go for it, and then she faded and became busy with layoffs. And her basketball team. Ms. Brummel kicked off another Listening Tour this year. Now would be a good tie to roll-up any insights and results. What is my dream result? Team based awards. And it's pretty simple.

Every VP-level person has to stack rank their organizational teams, top to bottom. For Sinofsky-fied product teams, this would be at the Dev Manager / Test Manager / General Program Manager triad level, typically defining a product team such that every product team get a rating. Every team gets ranked just like individuals and the team gets a rating just like you and me: Exceeded / Achieved / Underperformed and 20% / 70% / 10%. This - along with the concise VP-level written evaluations - gets pasted into every team member's annual review and part of the overall bonus / stock compensation now comes out of this result.

The reasoning: strong, well-run and results-producing organizations should be rewarded. And poorly run, low WHI organizations should be disinfected with some mighty strong corporate sunlight. When it comes to informationals with new teams, you can ask: "What was the team's rating last year?" in addition to MSPoll results.

Reviews: as long as we're on LisaB and HR: how about them reviews this year? At least we had merit increases back. If you're feeling a sharp-blow about your results and you're up for an interesting point of view (along with a bunch of other good things), I suggest reading Philip Su's goodbye note for leaving Microsoft and joining Facebook: Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Facebook! � The World As Best As I Remember It. (you might remember Mr. Su from the high-profile post-Vista blog-post Broken Windows Theory). That whole post is worth discussing soon. As is the always popular observation: if you're not happy with Microsoft, there's abundant opportunity around you. Try checking it out.

Ballmer vs. The League of Meh. Maybe because we have a lull with our major product groups either coming in for a landing (WP7, Natal) or just taking off (Office 15, Windows 8) that my circle of friends have hit a patch of corporate ennui like never before. True, some of them work on products way on the fringe but others work on some pretty core products and they are feeling... full of meh.

I still believe that Microsoft has turned the corner. Or, as someone else wrote this week, it has turned the tanker: The Microsoft Tanker Has Turned and You Ignore it at Your Own Peril. Why this meh? First of all, the stock: if you are investing in the success of Microsoft, you cannot underestimate the power of the stock to energize the employees to create break-through results. We had great quarterly earnings and what did the financial market say? "Meh." Maybe they started it. Part of it I'm sure is that even though we've turned the corner, sometimes we screw up and spill the Big Gulp in our lap and skip the curb and take out a mailbox (KIN). That startling inconsistency to deliver focused results I'm sure puts fear and doubt into Wall Street, and if there's one combination that Wall Street underperforms dealing with it's fear and doubt.

After the dismissive reaction to our last quarterly results, we had article after article written about Microsoft's Lost Decade, covering how poorly Mr. Ballmer and The Board have been doing running Microsoft and calls for their dismissal. That's not cool, and if anything, it's draining. Under that context, to see Mr. Ballmer screaming and running around high-fiving a bunch of MBAs riding our two cash cows until the milk's dried up is challenging to your self-motivation.

Going back to my friends: some are very loose in their seat, and others have already left to enjoy unfettered engineering (one in particular happy to realize how much unexpected joy results in the 'make Partner or take the 10%' cloud going away).

I expect a CEO like Mr. Ballmer to revisit his previous Company Meeting talks and discuss where those ideas are now. Some of those ideas were quite exciting, but went... where? Otherwise, without the follow-through I guess this is another throw-away show that's in-between me and my beer.

---

Mini-Microsoft Microsoft -- Comments

. Read More........

Hacking: The Next Generation Book Review

Hacking: The Next Generation Book Review

Nitesh Dhanjani, Billy Rios, & Brett Hardin

5 stars


Good Intro to Next Gen Attacks

First Impressions...skinny book. Strike One. Chapter 1 -- "Intelligence Gathering: Peering Through the Windows to Your Organization" spends a lot of time on physical security and social engineering and no mention of Maltego. I'm not sure how anyone can write a book on Intelligence Gathering and NOT include Maltego. Strike Two.

At this point i was thinking I had a dud on my hands BUT Chapter 2 --- "Inside-Out Attacks: The Attacker Is the Insider" redeems. Tons of code and examples to make XSS work in "realistic" scenarios mix the right amount of tech and narrative. My only gripe was that they talked about using XSS shell for XSS exploitation instead of using BEeF which is actively maintained and developed.

All the other chapters (except for Chapter 3) were very good, none of the others are as technical as chapter 2 but I believe they cover the current trends in a entertaining and readable way. Like one reviewer mentioned the information covered in Chapter 5 -- "Cloud Insecurity: Sharing the Cloud with Your Enemy" was not what I expected. It covered high level "possible" attacks versus any "probable" attacks. With the exception of possibly making insecure VM's and getting people to run it. Chapter 7 -- "Infiltrating the Phishing Underground: Learning from Online Criminals?" was a "chapterfied" version of the authors talk on the subject. Chapter 4 -- "Blended Threats: When Applications Exploit Each Other" was a good overview of stringing vulnerabilities that would be/were not considered high risk into high risk issues by combining one or more together which actually is "next generation".

Chapter 3, IMO didnt cover anything new. Mostly a discussion of insecure protocols, arp spoofing, email spoofing. While still a relevant issue in security not "next generation".

. Read More........

Word doc corruption due to Document Map? Steps to repair

Word document corruption can occur due to a variety of reasons. One of the relatively less cited reasons is use of Document Map option. The Document Map allows you to quickly go through a long Word document whilst keeping track of your location in it. It offers you a flexible view of a Word file and allows you to select the level of detail to display. However, you can run into corruption problems while using this option with a document. In corruption scenarios, the text of the Document Map becomes very small or unreadable. In worst cases, the document itself becomes corrupt and exhibit strange behavior including unusual page numbering, incorrect document layout, strange characters etc. To overcome data inaccessibility problems, you can try some effective measures or use a backup copy of the document. However, if no assistance is available, you must use a third-party Word repair software.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you have a huge Word 2003 document (on Windows XP-based system), which is actually a thesis paper. You often have to jump to different headings in the document to edit text or check references and that's why you have enabled the Document Map option. One fine morning, when you decide to add some extra inputs, you find that the font size in the Document Map pane has become too small, and almost unreadable. Additionally, there are some extra headings which appear and vanish randomly.

Cause

The above problems can be witnessed with a Word document in the following scenarios:

� If there is an issue with one of the registry entries in the Word data key
� If you have used the Document Map option: This option works on guesswork to add outline levels to paragraphs, and can lead to document corruption.

Resolution

The following Word recovery steps must be considered to resolve the problem:

� Delete the Word data key
1. Close all MS Office programs, click Start>Run, type regedit, and click OK
2. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data
3. Click the Data key
4. In XP, click Export on the File menu, type a file name for the backup copy of the key, and click Save.
5. Click Yes when you receive the following message:
"Are you sure you want to delete this key and all of its subkeys?"
6. Exit Registry Editor by clicking Exit on the File menu.
� In case of corruption due to the use of Document Map, you should consider employing an advanced Word repair application.

Corrupt Word documents can be repaired safely by trusting a comprehensive utility like Stellar Phoenix Word Recovery. The software helps you in recovering damaged Word documents created with MS Word 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000 versions. This Word recovery application restores all elements including text, graphics, images, tables etc.

. Read More........

Microsoft Annual Review 2010

Just a quick post: some of you enjoy posting information relevant to your review, both looking at numbers and a critical view of the message given to you. It has started to happen a bit in the last post (I'm going through the comments now) so I'm just going to capitulate (again) and put this small post up for the 2010 Annual Review share and compare. Yes, this is a bit late.

Oh, and obviously grab yourself a few grains of salt. Folks seem to like this format:

• L# (promo'd?)
• (Exceeded|Achieved|Underperformed) / (20|70|10)
• Bonus $K
• Stock $K
• Merit % (/Promo %)
• Optional comments about Division / Group, discipline, impression of review

Administrivia: yeah, that was another long pause moderating and posting and all that. I was on an extended vacation that continued as an extended vacation of the mind. My apologies. I've got at least one short post in mind before our Company Meeting 2010.

. Read More........

A Quick Guide to Twitter Security

Twitter can be addictive. For some, it�s the perfect mix of an RSS reader, a chat room and a never-ending cocktail party. But for cybercriminals, it�s just another technology to be exploited.

Worms, botnets, phishing scams and malware have already found their way into Twitter. Crooks work night and day, so you know eventually a variation on every nasty trick that found its way into your email

. Read More........

How to resolve ' The document name or path is not valid...' error while opening Word 2003 document

Microsoft Word is the best application ever developed in the category of word processing. The feature-rich application offers a lot to its users and helps them to create impressive and interesting documents quite easily. However, while working with MS Word documents, you certainly cannot escape corruption issues. A Word file can become corrupt in many instances including application malfunction, virus attacks, global template corruption,macro corruption and others. In such scenarios, it is advisable to seek assistance from clean and updated backup copies. But, if you come across a document corruption situation when you do not have a valid backup to restore the information, you need not worry. Wondering why? By putting in little efforts, you can search and download an efficient third-party Word repair software.

Consider a situation, wherein, you have an important Word 2003 document containing information regarding business transactions taken place in a particular year. You try and open the document to extract some vital figures, but receive the following error message:

"The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
- Check the file permissions for the document or drive.
- Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document.
C:\...\path\filename."


Cause

The above error message could surface in the below-discussed situations:

� If you do not have correct permissions to access the Word document in question
� If you are trying to open a deleted file using its shortcut
� If you are trying to open a document and putting in a wrong name. You might have renamed the document
� Or if you are trying to open a corrupt document

Resolution

The following workarounds can be implemented to perform Word recovery:

� Check for the necessary permissions required to open the file
� Ensure that the file exists on the system
� Open the document with a correct name
� If the document is corrupt, you must observe the following steps:
1. You can try opening the document in draft mode without updating links
2. You can try inserting the document as a file in a document whilst leaving the last paragraph
3. Alternatively, you can use the Recover Text from Any File Converter

If you are unable to address the corruption problem, then you must grab professional Word repair software.

. Read More........

Spam and Phishing Landscape: September 2010

Malware spam is back after a one-month hiatus! The attack has returned to the forefront of the spam threat landscape in the form of .zip and .html attachments, as discussed in the September 2010 State of Spam & Phishing report. Malware spam more than tripled in volume, and .zip attachment spam saw a four-fold increase month-over-month. As such, we reviewed what this attachment spam contained and

. Read More........

Pathology Robbins chapters powerpoint files

Click on the images to download presentation

SOURCE:medicalschoolpathology.com
USEFUL MEDICAL WEBSITES http://mediconet.blogspot.com/

. Read More........

How to address table corruption in Word 2002 document

It's a difficult task to align text in a Word document by using tabs and spaces. To let you organize data in an easy-to-read format, Word has a provision of creating tables. Complex information can be presented in nicely done tables which contain a collection of various rows and columns. But, at times, inserting information in a table can be a jolting task. You might run into several error messages or encounter problems related to missing text, unformatted text etc. Such symptoms clearly suggest that the table you are working with is damaged or corrupt. Table corruption can also lead to document corruption and create serious data loss problems. You can surpass such situations if you have a healthy backup copy of the affected document with you. However, if no backup copy is present, you must try and use Word repair software.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you have a Word 2002 document which contains a complex table along with graphics. When you try and insert a text in the table or do some other task, the document might start to flicker or appear to be repaginating. Additionally, you might also encounter the following error message:

"A table in this document has become corrupted. To recover the contents of the table: select the table and choose Convert Table to Text from the Table menu."

Causes

The following causes can be taken into account for the above error message and abrupt behavior by the Word document in question:

� If you have created a table in an earlier version of MS word and inserted it into Word 2002 document
� Or if the table is actually corrupt and has lead to document corruption

Resolution

To ensure Word recovery, you must follow the below-mentioned steps:

� Obtain the latest service pack of Windows XP i.e. Office XP Service Pack 3
� You can try and repair the affected Word document by observing the following steps:
1. Use 'Open and Repair' feature
2. Try saving the affected doc in Rich Text Format and then converting it back to Word
3. If the above steps do not work, grab a professional tool meant to perform Word repair in an effective manner.

. Read More........

Grabbing Index Pages Of Webservers

Grabbing the index pages of web servers seems like a no brainer and something every pentester is going to perform on a test. The problem I ran into is how do you get this info once your inside and using meterpreter as your pivot into the network.

Your current options are to port forward to each host or set up a route via your meterpreter session and run some sort of auxiliary module. You can tcp port scan and find open ports or use the http_version module to see server version but you don't get a feel for whats actually on the site.

I opted to write something that would scan a range, perform a HTTP GET of / on the ip, then take the resulting body from the response, which should be html, and save it to a file to look at afterwards.

Looks like this when it runs...

msf auxiliary(http_index_grabber) > set RHOSTS carnal0wnage.com/24
RHOSTS => carnal0wnage.com/24
msf auxiliary(http_index_grabber) > run
[+] Received a HTTP 200...Logging to file: /home/cg/.msf3/logs/auxiliary/http_index_grabber/209.20.85.4_20100904.4426.html
[+] Received a HTTP 200...Logging to file: /home/cg/.msf3/logs/auxiliary/http_index_grabber/209.20.85.5_20100904.4429.html
[*] Received 301 to http://drumsti.cc/ for 209.20.85.10:80/
[-] Received 403 for 209.20.85.8:80/
[+] Received a HTTP 200...Logging to file: /home/cg/.msf3/logs/auxiliary/http_index_grabber/209.20.85.12_20100904.4432.html
...
[*] Received 302 to http://209.20.85.57/apache2-default/ for 209.20.85.57:80/ [+] Received a HTTP 200...Logging to file: /home/cg/.msf3/logs/auxiliary/http_index_grabber/209.20.85.56_20100904.4503.html
[*] Received 302 to http://209.20.85.51/session/new for 209.20.85.51:80/

you can then check out the folder with the results


code is here:
http://carnal0wnage.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/msf3/modules/auxiliary/admin/random/http_index_grabber.rb

. Read More........

How to overcome Word document corruption accessed from HTTP or FTP location

Microsoft Word is the most popular word-processing application available today. Professional documents can be created utilizing its advanced features, and that too with utmost ease. But, those who use Microsoft Word on regular basis are aware of the corruption issues which keep bothering them. Corruption of Word documents is a serious problem as it leads to catastrophic data loss problems. If you ever encounter such a situation, then besides relying just on a backup copy, you can look up to Word repair strategies as suggested by Microsoft. There are various methods, like Open and Repair, which might help you in recovering the text of the affected document. However, if you want to go for absolute recovery, there is a hope in the form of a third-party repair software.

Consider a situation, wherein, you have installed Microsoft Word 2003 on your system. You have a document stored on a HTTP or FTP location. This document was created in an earlier version of MS Word. When you make an attempt to open it, you might receive the following error message which goes like:

"Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt. Try one or more of the following:
*Open and Repair the file.
*Open the file with the Text Recovery Converter.
(path\filename)"

It is due to the above error message that you are unable to extract information from the Word document in question.

Cause

The above abrupt behavior is witnessed with Word documents in the following conditions:

� If you try and open the Word document using the following steps:
1. If you click a Hyperlink in an HTML document in a Web browser
2. In Word 2003, you go to the File menu and click OK
� Or if the Word document is corrupt or damaged

Resolution

You must observe the following steps in order to get rid off the erroneous situation and perform Word recovery.

� You can avoid this problem or issue if you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
� If the above solution doesn't solve the problem, then you must repair the corrupt Word document by using 'Open and Repair' feature of the Word.
� If you still do not yield any positive results, it is good that you opt for a professional Word repair software.

These advanced tools have become popular lately as they assist you in repairing a corrupt Word document easily.

One of the reliable tools available is Stellar Phoenix Word Recovery. This application has an intuitive GUI and efficiently repairs Word documents created with MS Word 2007, 2003, 2002 and 2000 versions The Word recovery application repairs and recovers all components of a damaged Word document including tables, graphics, charts etc.

. Read More........