If you are a Tech Geek you need to read this ...

RASPBERRY PI

What is Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry PI is a low cost computer.  Guess what? This computer is so small that it can fit into your palm, just about the size of a Credit card. This computer can connect to any standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch, Python and many other Programming Languages.

How much does it cost?

The Basic model costs less than Rs 3000/- and then you can buy additional modules to expand the features, and the options are endless.

Where can you buy it?

There are a large number of re-sellers for the Raspberry PI in India, but probably a cost effective solution to buy it is online, try amazon.in.

Queries?

If you have any queries please feel free to post your comment/queries on this blog at: http://priyatechnology.com/

And don’t forget to check out this link, to get to know all about the creators of this device and much more  https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Why you need to know about Social Engineering?

Social Engineering

You may have probably received phone calls at some time saying that you have won a huge sum of money, calls originating from unknown numbers. If anyone responds to these calls either due to greed, or ignorance, they are surely heading for trouble. What they are basically doing, is to try and get confidential information out of you, or get you to deposit some amount of money in some account to help you get the huge sum of money they claim that you have won. This and various other techniques used by fraudsters to get you to give out information, forms part of a concept known as Social Engineering.

Social Engineering is the art of getting confidential information from people using techniques like Phishing (when a malicious user sends email disguised as mail coming from a trusted source), Baiting (when an attacker coaxes you to install malware on your computer by providing you some incentive to do that, and you unknowingly fall for the bail), Pretexting (someone for example trying to call you and getting your bank information under the pretext of calling from your bank) and using Scare ware (someone sending you a message to say your phone is infected with virus and then forcing you to buy a software to take care of it) etc.… There are a whole lot of other techniques fraudsters use to get confidential information.

Here is a classic example of one such incident. One of my uncles who is a Doctor (and has very little knowledge of Technology), gets a phone call from a fraudster claiming to be from Google saying “We suspect your account is being abused, can you please give us your username and password so we can track the culprits”. Guess what? My uncle gave them his Gmail user id and password over the phone. 

The fraudster logins into my uncles account and does the following;

• Changes the password effectively blocking the email account
• The fraudster logs in and from my uncles account send mail to all the contacts saying “I am in London and met with an accident and am hospitalized, please send US$ 1000/- to this account” and gave details of a Bank account in a London bank

You will be surprised that three people actually sent money to the fraudsters account and my uncle was not even aware of this for many days.

Just imagine the consequence of losing your mail account and losing all your contacts, or you lose your bank card etc... So here is what you can do to avoid Social Engineering techniques used by fraudsters.

• Never give out any information, confidential or other wise to any one on the phone
• If someone calls you and tells your credit card has been compromised, do not give any information, call the Bank directly.
• Don’t leave any copies of digital data like passwords etc. written on paper slips etc. anywhere on the office table etc.
• Be careful of information you give out to any one, specially strangers and casual acquaintances.
• Most importantly don’t leave your personal computers, laptops in office unlocked even for a second.

Push & Pull Marketing

What is Push & Pull Marketing?

Push marketing refers to traditional forms of marketing such as advertising through  television, radio, newspapers, magazines etc. Typically, even when customers are not interested, details of their products are advertised and pushed on to the customers. Classic example is the advertisements shown on TV specially at prime time. May be you are seeing the news channel and you see innumerable advertisements thrust on to you, to the extent that you start getting irritated and often times you change the channel to get rid of the advertisements.

On the other hand Pull Marketing refers to marketing strategies wherein the advertiser display the advertisements to prospective customers, when they are seeking a product or service. Of late the power of the Internet has revolutionized Pull Marketing. Technology facilitates the marketing of products and services to prospective customers when they are searching or making inquiry for products. A typical search for a product may involve a Search Engine Query using Google or some other search engine, and the advertisers present their products in response to these queries. This leads to a greater probability of the marketing material being assimilated by prospective customers or consumers. Other media that facilitates Push Marketing may include promotion on Social Media and through e-Mails, blogs etc.

Pros & Cons

Pull Marketing requires more planning, time and effort as compared to push marketing. However the extra effort put can yield better results, as one can focus on targeted audience and bear more fruit in the long run.  Pull marketing offers better and more cost effective opportunities. In terms of cost and reach, with a well formulated marketing strategy, for the same budget, one may probably reach lesser audience with pull marketing, but the audience you reach can me more specific in terms of demography, gender, age and various other parameters.

What should be your Marketing Strategy?

Well that really depends on what is the product or service that you offer, besides various other factors that may include Target Markets, Product Differentiation, Pricing Policies etc.  Successful Market strategies may try to adopt the best of both worlds. A pull marketing strategy would be woven well into the digital communication channels available and also the marketing plan. Study of number of marketing campaigns indicates that successful marketing campaigns typically include a judicial mix of both Push and Pull marketing.