Master

EFFECTIVE MARKETING STRATEGY FOR A SOFTWARE NICHE.

The best way to start marketing is identifying your target customers. Once you explain about the benefits of SOFTWARE NICHE they will be happy to pay more than normal price as they are satisfied with specific customized software products. Since they are satisfied, they usually stick to you for almost all their specific software needs. This can be achieved by “UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION” (USP).Your SOFTWARE NICHE has to be like a patented product which nobody else can emulate. However to bring out multiple SOFTWARE NICHES, extensive research and innovative ideas are required. This is hard to achieve but once it’s over you will be far ahead of competition and get a monopoly in that sector. Another marketing strategy is going as narrow as possible and over delivering value to your specific customers which keep them loyal to you. Even within a SOFTWARE NICHE there are sub or micro NICHES which you can exploit provided it is sustainable. For example, a SOFTWARE NICHE is keeping track of salaries given to employees of an organization. SUB SOFTWARE NICHE of this will be keeping track of savings and expenditure of the employees. Most of the time customers feel so amazed by micro niches, as they were not expecting it, that they always depend on you for their specific needs. After dominating main SOFTWARE NICHES and sub SOFTWARE NICHES’ market, you will have a reputation and a brand name. All your future software products will be sold easily just by brand name and face value. A creative market segmentation strategy can really help you survive in financial meltdowns.
SOFTWARE NICHE MARKET is more dependent on choosing, planning and marketing a product rather than financial resources.Specialization always earns greater profits.
RECENTLY MANY MAINSTREAM SOFTWARE COMPANIES ARE ENTERING SOFTWARE NICHE MARKET TO UNLOCK ITS ADVANTAGES.

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CHOOSING A SOFTWARE NICHE

One of the most important things is choosing the right software NICHE. It is better if you have knowledge and are passionate about the software NICHE, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. There is a concept called “CATCHING A LONG TAIL” which in simple term means software products that are in low demand or have low sales can collectively make up a large share of market rivaling or even exceeding mainstream software products. It requires plenty of time and research to select a proper SOFTWARE NICHE. You have to target growing segments less affected by recession like government, health-care, utilities etc., once you develop a software niche, its all about sales and marketing.

Why choose SOFTWARE NICHE MARKET?

Although there are numerous software mass market companies making exponential profits, the initial investment, human resource and infrastructure is equally huge. Because of large market potential, competition is fierce and pricing of softwares must be done accordingly. NICHE market needs low initial capital. There is little or no competition as it is a specialized market. So you will have the privilege to set software prices arbitrarily. By doing this you gain a large market share which enhances your reputation. If merger is acceptable to you then large mass market software companies who look to get into NICHE market will definitely offer lucrative deal.

Software Niche Marketing

A NICHE MARKET is a subsidiary small group among the main mass market, which is usually ignored by large companies. It consists of specific products focusing on specific needs of potential customers. There is a fine line between focusing on customers of a NICHE market and unsustainable niches. Every products and services in any sectors invariably have niches in them. Difficulty is finding them, analyzing the feasibility and marketing. An example of NICHE market is business channel that offer news exclusively for investors. Mainstream news channels don’t provide information about shares and stocks. The potential customers are share traders, investors etc,
Here is a brief explanation on how to market software NICHES and get maximum profit from minimum resources.

For the ease of using internet on a personal computer we often save our passwords in the web browser (Remember the pop up with “save the password”, “not now”, “never for this site”). It saves you from the pain of entering the passwords in the websites. Do you know these saved passwords can be easily viewed by any person using the computer. Your passwords are not safe in the case if people have access to your computer.

You can also use the same for hacking some friend’s passwords if you have physical access to his system.

Its not rocket science. Its very simple. You might also knew it before hand. In case you don’t follow the steps:

1. Mozilla Firfox:

Open the Firefox.
Click on “Tools” on the top of the browser
Choose “Options”
Choose “Security” tab
Click on “Saved passwords”

Here you can see various websites and the username stored on it
Select any of them and click “Show password”
There it is, right in front of you.

2. Google Chrome: In Google Chrome, go to settings (the wrench symbol on the top right corner). Choose options. Go to “Personal Stuff” tab and select “show saved passwords”.

How to switch back from igoogle to classic google?

igoogle is the customized homepage of google.com. It gives you option of adding lots of stuff o

n the google page for eg. news, language translator, dictionary, currency and stock information etc. Though many people use it, I never found it appealing. Recently when I wanted to disable igoogle and switch back to good old classic google, I simply could not find how to do that. Closing and re-opening the page did not help. After sometime only I realized that there is an option in the setting tab on the top right corner of the igoogle page.

The following is the screenshot of the “option”:

The same setting option can be used to switch from classic google to igoogle.

So Nokia is up with its Ovi store to compete with Apple. There are a considerable number of applications available at Ovi Store to download but …yeah there is a but … You have to download(read install) it directly to your phone using Ovi application for Nokia. This may not seem a problem if you have good network speed on your phone (i.e. if you are connected to Wi-Fi) but it certainly is annoying if you are using GPRS/Edge services to connect to internet or if you want to save the application for future use.

Well, you don’t need to loose heart. Because there always are few tweaks available to counter it. The simplest way to download from Ovi store to your computer is a 2 step process:

1. Download application from Ovi Store to computer

2. Convert .sis.dm file to .sis file/ Convert the .jad file to .jar file

1. Download application from Ovi Store to computer: This part is pretty much straight forward. All you have to do is to click on the desired application. There is an option of “Send to friend”. Just click on that.

After clicking on it. Look into your browser address bar:

Replace “send-to-friend” by “download” and press enter. The file starts to download:

So, Finally you have successfully fooled Nokia and downloaded the application on your PC. But the problem “may” not end here. As you know the Nokia runs on Symbian OS and it uses .sis file. The application you have downloaded might be .sis.dm instead of .sis. (or .jad instead of .jar) So, our next step would be to convert these files into a suitable format.

2(a). Converting .sis.dm file to .sis file This might seem a bit difficult but believe me it only seems, it is not at all difficult. To convert .sis.dm file, you first need to install a Hex Editor. You can download XVI32, the best Hex Editor available free. Unzip the file and run the XVI32 application. Open the desired .sis.dm file(you can also drag and drop into the software). It will look something like the pic below. Try to find the first “7A

” in the left panel. Delete (using delete key) every other entry before 7A. Don’t delete 7A.

Something like this:

Now a similar task. Use the scroll bar to go to the bottom of the file. Here look for first “-” of “–boundary–” (in the right panel). Delete from here till the end.

So. its final look will be like:

Now you can save this file as filename.sis. Your application is ready to use. Install it using Ovi Suite or copy it into your phone and then install it.

2(b). Convert .jad file to .jar file: If the downloaded file from Ovi store is .jad file, then it can easily be converted to .jar file. .jar file can then directly be installed on Nokia phones. The idea is that mostly .jad files contains the address of the .jar file inside it. So open the .jad file in a notepad or (preferably) notepad++. Look for the address inside it. Copy the address and paste it inside the web browser. Enter and .jar file is on your computer.

Enjoy Hacking Nokia Ovi Store.

How to type in Hindi and other Indian languages on any website like Facebook?

If internet is your religion then Google is your God

Always there to guide and help. This time with theirTransliteration bookmarklet. Sometimes when you want to reply in Hindi or any other language you simply feel helpless. Google powered websites like Orkut has automatic option of writing in Hindi but not all of them. At different forums it simply is a tough task.

Thanks to Google’s Transliteration bookmarklet its simply matters of clicks. If you want to write यार मस्त कट रही है instead you type “yaar mast kat rahi hai” and this can easily be translated into Devanagri script. Same goes for other languages as well. Please follow the steps (The same steps are followed for other languages as well, links for other language bookmarklet is given at the end of the page):

Drag and drop this link [अ Type in Hindi] your browser’s bookmark bar
Now when you want to type in Hindi on a particular website just click it once
It will enable the translation. You can see अ in the type box.
If want to stop typing in Hindi, click it once again and it will be disabled

Remember: You have to click on the bookmarklet for each website i.e. if you have multiple tabs open, then click on it for each tab. If you opened another website on the same tab you have to click it again to type in Hindi. But its not a pain as it is only a matter of a click.

Links for other Languages:

Kannada: [ಅ Type in Kannada]
Malayalam: [അ Type in Malayalam]
Tamil: [அ Type in Tamil]
Telugu: [అ Type in Telugu]

Sources: http://googleindia.blogspot.com/2009/05/type-in-your-language-on-any-website.html

Review: Chrome Web Store

Announced and launched in December’10, the Chrome Web Store is now available in more than 15 countries other than USA. Web

Store is more like Mozilla’s add on page with different extension and application available for free or a nominal fee. Apart from extension it also has a number of browser games to keep you busy and help you in killing time right in your browser.

The web store is open for the developers to develop new applications and extensions. Industry sources say that the delay in launching the web store outside US is related to payment issues. The developers can select the region where they want to sell their product. Inspired by Apple Store, it contains a decent number of applications with more to come as developers flocked to get a pie out of Google.

If you are using Google Chrome and still do not see the chrome web store option on the new tab page, I would suggest you to change the language of the browser to “English US” from the setting. This way you can enable the option of web store in your browser.

Altogether it is an innovative step from Google to popularize their already popular web browser. Now we need to wait and watch for the reaction of Mozilla, Apple and Microsoft.

Review: Facebook email is a big let-down

It was announced few months back. All devoted fb users were so eagerly following the news, the news about the gmail killer facebook email. Last night I got the much awaited Facebook email invitation. I was so happy to see that

message. I gladly accepted it. As soon as I applied the new messaging, everything looked different, better. I could not control my emotions and put up my facebook status right at that moment. I got replies from friend for invitation. Meanwhile I was exploring this new hyped application. I found these things from my experience:

Whats New: There definitely few things you will notice at first. For instance, You can see the smileys

instead of : ) in your messages. The message space is more clean and shorter fonts are used. It shows all the previous message conversation with the person (It categories the messages by User). You just have to scroll up for seeing that. You can receive email from other service provider like gmail at an address username@facebook.com. These emails will be saved in the “other”category of messages.

It does allow the user to attache files and also allows to send pic/video taken at the instant from webcam. The upper limit on attachment is not known yet.

It also has the text messaging feature. It means if a friend sends you a message and checks the “send to phone” option, you will receive the same message on your mobile phone and you can reply straight from your phone. This conversation will also be shown in the facebook messaging box.

Now you can forward the messages you receive to other users (which was missing in the older version of facebook messaging).

Why it disappoints? When you expect something like “gmail killer”, you want a grand application. Unfortunately, facebook email is not a gmail killer. I guess, it cannot replace the regular email service. Instead of having a complete new email feature, it is just an up-gradation of facebook messaging.

Right now its available only by invitation. When I invited my friends, they did not see any invitations despite of me sending it.

By default, it archives the message instead of deleting it. If you want to delete a message, you have to open it and then from drop down select the delete option. Tiresome.

Verdict: It definitely is a better messaging service but it is a poor email service.

Waiting for replies on this post.

P.S. If you want to get a the facebook email, first you need to apply here:http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/

Sources: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=new_messages

You can also use the same for hacking some friend’s passwords if you have physical access to his system.

Its not rocket science. Its very simple. You might also knew it before hand. In case you don’t follow the steps:

1. Mozilla Firfox:

Open the Firefox.
Click on “Tools” on the top of the browser
Choose “Options”
Choose “Security” tab
Click on “Saved passwords”

Here you can see various websites and the username stored on it
Select any of them and click “Show password”
There it is, right in front of you.

2. Google Chrome: In Google Chrome, go to settings (the wrench symbol on the top right corner). Choose options. Go to “Personal Stuff” tab and select “show saved passwords”.

Basic Networking Commands in Unix

I would like to discuss the basic Unix commands useful for networking:

Network interfaces commands:

ifconfig –a —- Show all interfaces
ifconfig <interface name> ——shows the configuration (like IP, MAC, SubNet, IPV6) of a particular interface
ifconfig <interface name> <params> —–Set parameters of the interface (Root only) You can set various parameters like IP address, subnet,
ifconfig <interface name> <params> <up/down>—– that particular interface is Up (activated) or down (deactivated)

Connectivity:

ping <host> —- sends an ICMP echo message (one packet) to a host. This may go continually until you hit Control-C. Ping means a packet was sent from your machine via ICMP, and echoed at the IP level. ping tells you if the other Host is Up.
telnet host <port> —- talk to “hosts” at the given port number. By default, the telnet port is port 23. Few other famous ports are: 7 – echo port, use control-] to get out
25 – SMTP, use to send mail
79 – Finger, provides information on other users of the network

Arp:

arp –a —- Print the arp table. Arp is used to translate IP addresses into Ethernet addresses. Root can add and delete arp entries. Deleting them can be useful if an arp entry is malformed or just wrong. Arp entries explicitly added by root are permanent — they can also be by proxy. The arp table is stored in the kernel and manipulated dynamically. Arp entries are cached and will time out and are deleted normally in 20 minutes

Routing:

netstat –r —- Print routing tables. The routing tables are stored in the kernel and used by ip to route packets to non-local networks.
route add <IP/SubNet> <GateWay> —- The route command is used for setting a static (non-dynamic by hand route) route path in the route tables. All the traffic from this PC to that IP/SubNet will go through the given Gateway IP. It can also be used for setting a default route; i.e., send all packets to a particular gateway, by using 0.0.0.0 in the pace of IP/SubNet.
routed —– The BSD daemon that does dynamic routing. Started at boot. This runs the RIP routing protocol. ROOT ONLY. You won’t be able to run this without root access.
gated —– Gated is an alternative routing daemon to RIP. It uses the OSPF, EGP, and RIP protocols in one place. ROOT ONLY.
traceroute <host> —- Useful for tracing route of IP packets. The packet causes message to be sent back from all gateways in between the source and destination by increasing the number of hopes by 1 each time.

Others:

nslookup <host> —- Makes queries to the DNS server to translate IP to a name, or vice versa. eg. nslookup facebook.com will gives you the IP of facebook.com
ftp <host> —– Transfer files to host. Often can use login=“anonymous” , p/w=“guest”
rlogin <host> -l <login> —– Logs into the host with a virtual terminal like telnet

Important Files:

/etc/hosts —- names to ip addresses
/etc/networks —- network names to ip addresses
/etc/protocols —– protocol names to protocol numbers
/etc/services —- tcp/udp service names to port numbers

Courtsey: Prof. Andrej Duda, Wikipedia, math.uaa.alaska.edu

Useful basic commands for Networking

ifconfig <interface> <address> [up]
ifconfig <interface> [down|delete]
ethereal to launch ethereal
tcpdump –i <interface> tool to capture and analyze packets
netstat –w [seconds] –I [interface] display network settings and statistics
udpmt –p [port] –s [bytes] target_host it creates UDP traffic
udptarget –p [port] it’s able to receive UDP traffic
tcpmt –p [port] –s [bytes] target_host it creates TCP traffic
tcptarget –p [port] it’s able to receive TCP traffic
ARP, switching and VLANs
arp –a it shows the current ARP table
arp –s <ip_address> <mac_address> to add an entry in the table
arp –a –d to delete all the entries in the ARP table
telnet 192.168.0.254 to access the switch from a host in its subnetwork
sh ru or show running-configuration to see the current configurations
configure terminal to enter in configuration mode
exit in order to go to the lower configuration mode
vlan n it creates a VLAN with ID n
no vlan N it deletes the VLAN with ID N
untagged Y it adds the port Y to the VLAN N
ifconfig vlan0 create it creates vlan0 interface
ifconfig vlan0 vlan ID vlandev em0 it associates vlan0 interface on top of em0, and set the tags to ID
ifconfig vlan0 <address> [up] to turn on the virtual interface
tagged Y it adds to the port Y the support of tagged frames for the current VLAN
Routing
netstat –rnf inet it displays the routing tables of IPv4
sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1 to enable packets forwarding (to turn a host into a router)
route add|delete [-net|-host] <destination> <gateway> (ex. route add 192.168.20.0/24 192.168.30.4) to add a route
route flush it removes all the routes
route add -net 0.0.0.0 192.168.10.2 to add a default route
routed -Pripv2 –Pno_rdisc –d [-s|-q] to execute routed daemon with RIPv2 protocol, without ICMP auto-discovery, in foreground, in supply or in quiet mode
route add 224.0.0.0/4 127.0.0.1 it defines the route used from RIPv2
rtquery –n to query the RIP daemon on a specific host (manually update the routing table)
UDP/TCP
socklab udp it executes socklab with udp protocol
sock it creates a udp socket, it’s equivalent to type sock udp and bind
sendto <Socket ID> <hostname> <port #> emission of data packets
recvfrom <Socket ID> <byte #> it receives data from socket
socklab tcp it executes socklab with tcp protocol
passive it create a socket in passive mode, it’s equivalent to sock tcp, bind, listen
accept it accepts an incoming connection (it can be done before or after creating the incoming connection)
active it create a socket in active mode
connect <hostname> <port #> these two commands are equivalent to sock tcp, bind, connect
close it closes the connection
read <byte #> to read bytes on the socket
write (ex. write ciao, ex. write #10) to write “ciao” or to write 10 bytes on the socket
NAT/Firewall
ipnat –f file_name it writes filtering rules into file_name
ipnat –l it gives the list of active rules
ipnat –C –F it re-initialize the rules table
map em0 192.168.1.0/24 -> 195.221.227.57/32 portmap tcp/udp 20000:50000
ipf –f file_name it writes filtering rules into file_name
ipf –F –a it resets the rule table
ipmon log_file in proto icmp all it allows to display the specified traffic
ipfstat –I it grants access to a few information on filtered packets, as well as active filtering rules
[block/pass] [in/out] proto [icmp/tcp/udp] from [any/192.168.0.1/24] port=22 to [any/192.168.1.1/24] port=80

If You want a pdf version: basic unix networking commands

For more commands do check here: http://computerandu.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/basic-networking-commands-in-unix/

Courtesy: Jianning Zhang

How to use netstat : A Unix networking command

This command displays the different data structure contents linked to the station network configuration. Here we will only talk about two ways to use netstat, but there are many other information that we can get (sockets status, routing table, multicast ).

Network interface statistics: Use the option -I (interface), and specifythe interface name to observe (em0 for instance), and the option -w 1 to display a report every second. If you do not specify this last option, netstat will only give one report in a different style. We can also specify the option -d.

Theses reports include the following information :
(fxp0) : network interface name.
packets : the received/transmitted packets with no errors ;
errs : the received/transmitted packets with errors ;
bytes : The number of received/transmitted bytes ;
colls : the collisions number ;
drops : the dropped packet numbers (with -d).

For instance :
# netstat -w 1 -I fxp0 -d will display a report of the fxp0 interface every second. We get :

Routing table display: Specify the -r option (routing table). It can be also interesting to specify the -n option and -f inet, to disable the name resolution and only list IPv4 information (use inet6 to display the IPv6 table).

Various fields signification (for a thorough explanation, use man) :
Destination : the destination network of host address ;
Gateway : the router address, the local link or the remote interface address on thelink ;
Flags :
U : Indicates route is ”up” ;
G : Route is to a gateway ;
S : Static route (manual addition) ;
H : Route is to a host and not a network ;
D : Route was created dynamically by a redirect ;
Refs : The ref field gives the current number of active uses of the route ;
Use : The use field provides a count of the number of packets sent using that route. ;
Netif : The interface entry indicates the network interface utilized for the route ;
Expire : The Expire entry is the result of FreeBSD’s unfortunate co-mingling network layer routing information with layer 2 ARP information. The only entries with ”Expire” values are actually ARP entries.

How to speed up the Start Up process in Windows7?

Do you think your computer takes quite a lot time while starting? Once started properly, it works fine but it takes a significant amount of time at the start. The reason is pretty obvious and most of the people know how to deal with it. If you don’t, then read the complete article.

The reason for the PC start-up being slow relates to the number of applications it loads at the start. You can check how many applications are run at the start-up in the right bottom corner of your screen. Here is a hint:

How many applications do you see? (There are 6 applications which are loaded everytime I start my PC and these are essentials for me). If you see a lot of unnecessary programs like Nokia Ovi, Java updater, Adobe updater, Google update etc, get rid of them. These are the applications for which you selected yes and ticked next while installing

To get rid of these type RUN in the search bar of Start. If you don’t know what is that here is a hint again:

Now click on Run and type msconfig. Press enter. Here choose Startup tab.

Here you see the ticked program that loads at the start up. De-select the programs which you think are unnecessary for you. But PAY ATTENTION in doing this as you might disable some application which might turn into disaster . I would suggest following things for safety :

1. Do not disable any application which is in the Command like C:\Windows\System32. Never touch the applications from Windows folder.

2. Do not disable Microsoft Windows Operating System. I don’t need to tell you why.

3. Do not disable your Anti-Virus

4. Better to disable programs that are in C:\Program Files. And the programs you know are of no use to be loaded every time at the start up like Adobe updater, java updater, webcam central, Nokia Pc suite etc.

For better PC performance I’ll also suggest to keep your C drive as much free as possible. And apart from that delete your temporary files and clean your registry clean at regular intervals

Best practices to get better Battery Life for your laptop

With the time the performance of Laptop battery changes drastically.

A new one gives a backup of around 3 Hrs easily but in an year only it comes down to 1.5 Hrs or may be low. Its always good to use the best practices to get the best out of your Battery. These are some of tips to extend the battery life:

A laptop battery’s health deteriorates the more you charge and discharge it, running it from a power source will make your battery remain in a state of charge/recharge. Instead,when your battery gets to near 100% charged, unplug it from the power and plug it in again when it is low.
Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the Li-ion battery. While on the other hand fornickel-cadmium batteries, discharge the battery completelyat least once in a month.
If you are using your laptop more as a desktop, I would suggest you to remove its battery and use directly from power supply.
Never use your laptop directly on bed. If you have to use it on bed put some hard stuff under it. If you look closely on the back of your laptop, it stands on four miniature legs, which allow the heat to pass from it. When you put it on bed or some other surfaces like it, there will be no space for heat to pass and it can harm your computer and the battery in long run.
Try cleaning your laptop battery contacts at least once every few months. This can be done by using a cotton swab and alcohol.
It is also a good practice to charge the battery when your laptop is turned off.

Google lab applications are excellent add-ons for a better e-mail experience. Most of them are still under development but that doesn’t stop you from using it. These Lab features certainly gives gmail an edge over other email giants like Yahoo and Hotmail.

To enable google lab features follow the steps:

Click on setting tab in the top right corner and choose “Mail settings”
Afterward choose “Labs” in Setting Tab
Now select your Google Lab feature and “Enable” it from the radio button
Save changes
Now when you click on “Settings” again you can see “Labs” option in the drop down button

The Google lab features helps you experiencing e-mailing in a way that has never been realized before. (If you do not know how to enable google lab features then follow: If you do not know how to enable the gmail features the follow:http://computerandu.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/how-to-enable-google-lab-features-in-gmail/)It make e-mail life much more simpler and efficient. Some of the Lab features that make you overcome those silly, boring, tiresome and sometime fatal mistakes and effort you have to put in a normal e-mail service provider have been sorted out. These are the must haves which one should include in his gmail account.

Undo send: How many times you sounded “Oops” just after hitting the send button. I bet one too many times. And then you just feel like snatching it back and stop it from being delivered. Well, you can now actually do it. The “Undo send” lab features enable you to cancel the sending upto 30 secs after hitting the send button.

Message translation: Do you understand nothing but English and often get messages in languages other than English (For eg. French or Italian). Now with the help of “Message translation” you can translate it directly in your inbox with out the need of copying it and then pasting it in Google translator.

Canned Responses:Do you often need to send the same message again and again a number of times? This one if for you. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.

SMS (text messaging) in Chat: Allows you to send and receive text messages (SMS) in Chat with no extra cost. Currently available for US users only

Nested Labels: Labels are good. Even better is nested labels. It allows you to manage your labels in a hierarchical order. Add slashes (/) to label names to express inheritance. For example, if you want a Home label with two child labels named Kids and Shopping, create the three following labels: Home, Home/Kids and Home/Shopping.

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