Victor's Blog about the Web, Security and Life

 This guy is marvelous! Watch and try the trick. You will like it...

The new Sensys radar (shown in the photo) is a clever radar for speeding drivers. This radar does not flash and, most importantly, does not need to measure your speed at the moment where you pass near it. In other words, if you speed between two cameras and slow when you reach the radar, it will uncover your trick.

Most of us, speedy drivers, go over speed between any two radars and slow down when the radar is within range. This radar is a bit more clever in this sense. It will record your speed and time (after identifying your plate number) when you pass by the first radar and  will record your speed ad time when you pass by a second radar. This information is transmitted, through mobile connectivity, to a central system that will analyse your speed based on the given speeds, the distance between the two radars and the time taken to travel between them. If the time taken is shorter than the maximum allowed, the radar will report your car as a speeding one and, thus, you will get the ticket.

The ticket has been recently installed in many locations in Doha and I am pretty sure it is either being used where you are or will be shortly deployed. Therefore, it is time for us all to start admitting that technology is finally being used where it is supposed to be used.

Drive safely and take care and beware!

If you receive an email related to the suspension of your Standard Chartered account with a link to www.standardchartered.ae in it asking you to login in order to update your account settings, don't click on it.

Beware of it. This is a phishing email leading to a phishing website and has been reported as such. Just don't click the link in that email. The website it takes you to is: http://sinhwatech.com/V1/Standardbankae.html

I checked it again right now and Google is reporting it as a phishing website but it is good to note it here just in case you didn't have the Google bar installed.

Recently, I am noticing many individual walking around with huge lighters in hands and (barely) in pockets. Huge lighters (similar to the one shown in the picutre) are being considered as pretty cool these days by many. While I agree that such a thing is somehow cool, we must be aware of the many risks associated with this type of lighters especially when using them in crowded places (like restaurants) or when temperature is high (like the summer).

It is a well known fact that a small lighter (almost 1/8 the size of the huge lighter) can cause sever damage to the ears if it explodes. Small lighters usually explode under high temperatures only. If a small lighter falls down from a table, for example, it rarely explodes and, as such, you are usually safe carrying it into crowded places as long as you keep it away from direct contact with fire.

The huge lighter, however, does not share these same characteristics. The lighter that I bought as tall as a half-liter water bottle (check picture). While experimenting, it exploded from a height of 2 meters as soon as it touched the floor on its base. Another lighter exploded after 1 second from touching the fire.

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Today, I spent some time updating my blog with few stuff that should have been here a long time ago.

• AddThis is now active for you to share / bookmark articles
• A print button is finally there with an empty layout suitable for printing
• ReCaptcha is now implemented instead of the old AuthImage plugin
• Related articles are now displayed when you view an article
• Emails are required now when posting comments (so that I can reply to you at least)
• A mobile version is now available. To use it, simply go to www.victorsawma.com/mobile/

In December 2009, NetDesignPlus officially opened its newest branch in Shuwaikh, Kuwait. With this opening, we will be able to better serve our Kuwait clients by being closer and in direct contact with them regarding our online services including web development, design, hosting and consultancy.

Yesterday, I booked my first ticket online with Malev Hungarian Airlines. My trip is from Beirut to Gotenburg on July 2010.

The total fare to be charged "as per the website" was 567 USD for the roundtrip. The confirmation email (and yes I still have it and is attached below) confirms that the total charges should 567 USD. Yet, my credit card was charged 609 USD.

Being pretty familiar with Credit Card charges, I decided that this should be some sort of conversion between USD / Euro while processing the payment through their payment gateway. Thus, I gently sent them an email asking them to refund the difference.

Today, I received a reply back from them asking me to contact client service on a Hungarian phone number. I did. The woman on the other side simply checked, confirmed the price (567 USD) and said that everything is OK lol

I told her that the card was charged 609 USD. She was surprised first but, then, she remembered (surprisingly she did) that there is something that they call a "Service Fee" that is worth 30 Euros for the Lebanon region and that changes from region to region. What a joke!

She couldn't even confirm that the service fee is 30 Euros. She said that it should be around 30 Euros but there is no way for her to know the exact figure.

The worse part is that she is admitting that they have hidden fees.

The worst part is that she cannot now what the exact fee should be.

No comment from me on this. I know that this will be my last time to book with them online unless some magic occurs and someone points how something so unprofessional can happen with an airline reservation system.

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I am experienced in Internet technologies, Web Services and Online Interactive solutions. I am very interested in challenges related to web services engineering especially complex and hybrid online solutions (Intranet, Extranet, e-Commerce, etc.) and algorithms (search engines, security, etc.)

I am experienced in security as well. My expertise is mainly in network and Internet security. I am also experienced in the fields of cryptography, security assessment techniques, security design (policies, profiles, architectures, etc.) as well as security auditing and ethical hacking.

I am a Linux fan (by nature :). Period.

• Alfa Statement Roaming Charges
• Google Analytics vs Log File Based Statistics
• Ziad Baroud Spamming?
• A Couple of Amazing Tricks!
• A New Speed Radar That You Cannot Fool!
• Standard Chartered Email & Website Phishing
• Huge Lighters Security Alert
• Few Blog Updates to Share
• NetDesignPlus in Kuwait
• Hidden Fees with Malev Hungarian Airlines Online Booking System
• IEEE High Availability Database Workshop
• Halloween 2009
• One-Million Dolar Picture
• Google Wave: Social Networking or Cloud Computing?
• How To Recover Your Hotmail / MSN / Live Passport Account?
• Beirut: CNN's Best Party City
• The Future of Web Programming
• Ecosystem Virtual Implementation
• The 45 Lessons of Life
• Lynn's Birth

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