Technology
Tech trends, tools, and infrastructure
32 articlesCracking a 25-Year-Old Password with Claude Code
While cleaning up old files, I found a password-protected Word document from 1999. I had no memory of the password. Claude Code and I cracked it together.
Why Data Breaches Don’t Hurt Stock Prices (Harvard Business Review)
Rajiv Pant and Elena Kvochko co-authored a Harvard Business Review article examining why data breaches have minimal long-term impact on stock prices.
Cyber Resilience Towards the Quantification of Cyber Security Threats
The World Economic Forum developed a cyber value-at-risk framework to help organizations quantify cybersecurity threats and calculate their potential impact.
9 Reasons Why News Media Web Sites Should Consider Moving to HTTPS in 2015
Nine reasons why news media websites should adopt HTTPS, co-authored with cybersecurity experts and published on The New York Times Open Blog.
Why investors should care about cyber security breaches
Why investors should care about cybersecurity breaches, co-authored with Elena Kvochko and published on the World Economic Forum website.
Proposal for Linking To Users Across Social Networks @username@service
A proposal for a universal convention to link to users across social networks using formats like @username@service or service:@username.
Hosting Large-Scale Web Sites: Contract Review Guide for the CTO
A comprehensive contract review guide for CTOs covering servers, networks, managed services, CDN, SLAs, and negotiation strategies for web hosting.
Understanding SLA Uptime Percentages: What They Really Mean for Your Business
A guide to understanding SLA uptime percentages, converting them to real downtime durations, and aligning measurement windows with billing cycles.
How to Avoid Duplicate Search Results when using Apple Mail.app with Gmail
How to configure Gmail IMAP and Apple Mail.app to eliminate duplicate messages in Spotlight search results using Advanced IMAP Controls.
Checklist for Migration of Web Application from Traditional Hosting to Cloud
Pre-cutover, during-cutover, and post-cutover checklists for migrating web applications from traditional hosting to cloud platforms like Amazon EC2.
Save Money On Hosting & CDN By Optimizing Your Architecture & Applications
A guide for technology managers on modeling, monitoring, and reducing web hosting and CDN costs for large-scale web properties.
Save Your Company Money In Monthly Bills Using Browser Caching
How companies operating large websites can save thousands monthly by maximizing browser-side caching to reduce bandwidth and CDN costs.
Ars Technica Interview: IT consumerization in the enterprise
An Ars Technica interview covering IT consumerization and the shifting boundary between professional and personal technology profiles.
This Web Site is Now Hosted on Amazon EC2 & S3
How and why this website was migrated to Amazon EC2 and S3, including benefits, potential drawbacks, and detailed LAMP stack configuration.
Why I’m not a fan of fingerprint scanners for computer security
Why fingerprint scanners alone provide a false sense of security for laptops and devices, with scenarios showing how they can be easily defeated.
The Evolution of Web Sites
A framework for understanding four generations of website evolution, from static pages to user-generated content to co-developed virtual environments.
Software Products: Own vs. Rent & Create vs. Get (Incorrectly Called Build vs. Buy)
A strategic framework for technology executives to evaluate software ownership, reframing build vs. buy as own vs. rent and create vs. get.
List of Open Source or Free Software for Home and Business Use
A curated list of open-source desktop software for home and business: OpenOffice, Firefox, GIMP, Thunderbird, Eclipse, and Linux distributions.
Sometimes extra steps in workflows are good
Extra workflow steps in software are not always bad. Like car doors, they serve purposes including security, maintainability, and reliability.
Google Web Toolkit: Develop and Test in Java, Deploy as AJAX
Google Web Toolkit lets you develop and debug web UIs in Java with Eclipse, then compiles to cross-browser AJAX automatically.
Web site hosting provider and technologies change
Migrating rajiv.com from Microsoft .NET to Java with Struts and Tiles at Kattare Internet Services, using mod_rewrite for URL preservation.
Suggestions to Nikon for future DSLR cameras
Feature suggestions for future Nikon DSLRs: sensor-shift vibration reduction, flip-out LCD, full-frame sensor, movie mode, and open third-party ecosystem.
On content sites requiring user registration
The case for shared web identity systems like Liberty Alliance and TypeKey, instead of creating separate accounts on every content site.
Searching Instead Of Browsing: Organizing Information Using Labels as Meta-Data
Labels with search are superior to folders for organizing digital content: items can have multiple labels, results are dynamic, and less user effort is needed.
Preserving URLs of Evergreen Content
Why changing URLs breaks bookmarks, search rankings, and revenue, and how Microsoft's .asp to .aspx to .mspx changes illustrate the problem.
Java Progammer? Use BeanShell
BeanShell is a Java-compatible scripting language for interactive Java development, bundled with BEA Weblogic, Forte for Java, and NetBeans.
Other Web Search Engines
A list of alternative web search engines beyond Google, maintained as a blogroll for when Google does not have the best results.
Ads by Google on some of my pages
Added Google AdSense advertising to some pages on rajiv.com, including the Humor and India sections.
Content Management: Content & Search Technologies
Search technology is most effective when intimately integrated with content, not bolted on as a separate system, using typed content adapters.
Can you hear me now? Good
Switching from AT&T Wireless to Verizon Wireless using new number portability, comparing CDMA vs. GSM networks and customer service.
Cofax Goes Open Source
Knight Ridder releases Cofax as open-source software on SourceForge, making newspaper web publishing technology freely available.
Finding a Security Hole in Microsoft Exchange
Discovering a password caching vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 where old passwords remained valid after changes, and the broader flaw it revealed