Prototype for Software(s)

What is a Prototype ?

Prototype is used to help the consumer of the software and the developers to understand the requirement. In general, Prototype can be defined as : pseudo system to validate the requirements.

Prototype can be used to give the end-user of the software a clear vision of the system. Also, it helps the developer(s) to identify their work product clearly.

Types of Prototype :

• Evolutionary Prototype &
• Throw-away Prototype

HSBC Security Device

I have a HSBC credit card and often check my account/statement online. In the last week of May, I got a mailer from HSBC saying that they are going to deliver me a "SECURITY DEVICE", and with that only I have to use my HSBC account online.

And on 14th of June, I got a red colored box from them which read - "Until now, banking online with us was SAFE". And when I opened the box it had another: "We are now making it EVEN SAFER". And there was a small lid type of thick sheet & upon opening I found the  Security Device, which was in the size of a keychain.

Mission Impossible 3 & Superman Returns

Today Im going to 2 movies(Mission Impossible 3 and Superman Returns) one after the other in Satyam Cineplex in Madras. Sometime back I went to In her Shoes & Hanuman in Satyam on the same day with my cousin. And now its with my friends.

We are 10 people in total, I booked the ticket through their website, thecinema.in. The website, gives the ability not only to book the ticket, also to get coupons for the snacks & while booking they allow you to select the seats which comes wth an aditional fee of Rs.10/-

Mostly I used to book the tickets online, but this is the first time im booking 10 tickets, thats the maximum number of tickets one can book at a time. Its getting late, im moving for Superman... as a superman

Problem in Microsoft Visio

I have been using Microsoft Visio for about a year to draw flowcharts & block diagrams. MS Visio was actually a good tool, in terms of usage like other Microsoft Product & it is smart enough to convert all the diagrams into many type of image formats.

My current project Prima, is a product thats under-development in Saksoft. It has so many modules and each of us have part in designing work also. As per some standards I created a .vsd file(visio native file format) so that I can share with my teammates.

Im using Microsoft Visio 2003 & most of my team mates use Visio 2000. So, there exists a backward compatability issue. The problem is, the file saved in Visio 2003 is not supported by Visio 2000, and that is normal. So I opened the file & tried to save the same in the lower versions like we do it in the Word...and the worst part is that Visio 2000 was missing, only Visio 2002 was there. And actually the file(the one I designed) had half a dozen rectangles & couple of arrows & Texts. Basically, this a simple workout in the Visio but the fileformat is not supported/missing.

Atleast Visio 2003, supports some other formats such as XML drawing, XML stencils etc., but there is no solution for my problem other than re-doing the drawing.

So I have to use one of my Teammates' PC with Visio 2000, to create that .vsd file!!!

Private Banks Vs Nationalised Banks

In India, Retail banking is very much successful than any other developing countries. Take some private banks for example : ICICI, IDBI, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra etc are not just a Retail banking institutions started. They were started for some different purpose or to render financial services for Home Loan, Consumer finance, Corporate Lending etc.,and in years they have started Retail banking. Not only Private Banks, Multi-National banks like HSBC, CITI Bank, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro etc., are also there in the list, and they are doing a very good business over here. Then we have the Nationalised Banks like State Bank of India, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank, etc are there in the list, and these Nationalised Banks only have a large customer base.

All the Nationalised banks are operating in the rural areas and the Cities. Whereas very few private banks like Karur Vysha Bank (KVB), Karnataka Bank, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), operate in the rural areas.

Many other private banks like IndusInd, ICICI, HDFC have started to show their presence in the rural areas. We know that in rural areas its tough to do business since those people won't be looking for all these hi-fi services like ATM, internet

Spams in the Mailbox

Generally I used to get nearly 500 spams a day. The SPAM filter is not that much good since 10-25 SPAM mails comes into my Inbox(not getting filtered properly), so i have to do something else. Also is there anyway to stop/reduce the number of spam mails ?? Since my mailbox bandwidth is increasing by 8% a month due to SPAM.