Software Engineering Commons^™

Is Anti-Virus A Necessary Evil?, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

While everybody is becoming more and more dependent on computers there are some unscrupulous people who continuously try to misuse the technology and get illegal and illegitimate benefit out of this sophisticated environment. Today the Internet is like a busy street or open market place where you find almost everything you want. As there are some obvious risks when you stand or move in a busy street such as you are likely to be pick pocketed or cheated or even knocked out by a rash driving vehicle. Similar threats loom over the head of a user when he is exposed …

Evolution Of User Interfaces For The Visually Impaired, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot use a computer in the same way a normal people can. For example, persons with disability in hands cannot use a standard keyboard or mouse efficiently. Persons having visual disability cannot benefit from a standard display screen. People having locomotor challenge, visual disability or hearing problem etc. cannot interact with a computer like a normal person. So it is necessary to design the computers, interfacing devices and software interfaces with special features, which can be used by the people with physical challenges.

There are many input/output devices like mouse, keyboard, pointers, and touch screens …

Critical Considerations For Developing Mis For Ngos, Umakant Mishra, Kailash Chandra Dash

Umakant Mishra

Although Information Systems and Information Technology (IS & IT) has become a major driving force for many of the current day organizations, the NGOs have not been able to utilize the benefits up to a satisfactory level. Most organizations use standard office tools to manage huge amount for field data and never feel the need for a central repository of data. While many people argue that an NGO should not spend too much money on information management, it is a fact that organizing the information requires more of a mindset and an organized behavior than a huge financial investment.

Designing An Mis Database For Selection And Recruitment, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Selection and recruitment is a key HR function and it is often necessary to maintain at least a small database of all the candidates who have been invited in past interviews. This information may be considered as a part of HR MIS and may be maintained by HR department along with other HR MIS such as employee information, transfers, performance appraisals, trainings etc.

This recruitment MIS database includes all the candidates after the preliminary scrutiny is over. When the candidates go through different stages of interviews, the MIS also captures all their interview results. Maintaining this information not only helps …

Introduction To Management Information System, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A Management Information System (MIS) is an information system that is intended to be used by the higher management of an organization. The MIS generally collects summarized data from different departments or subsystems of an organization and presents in a form that is helpful to the management for taking better decisions for the organization.

Management Information Systems Vs. Other Information Systems, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

A Management Information System (MIS) is a systematic organization and presentation of information that is generally required by the management of an organization. In one sense MIS is a part or subset of the Information Management System of an Organization. There are different types of information systems such as, Transaction Processing System (TPS), Decision Support System (DSS), Executive Support System (ESS) etc. having some differences and some overlapping.

MIS is different from DSS as the later uses unstructured data to take non-standard decisions. MIS is different from TPS and the later is used for day-to-day transactions of the organization. Thus …

How To Implement Access Rights In An Mis Project, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The MIS data is critical to an organization and should be protected from misuse by wrong persons. Although The MIS data is typically meant for the senior managers each MIS report may not be required by every manager. The access to MIS data is determined by the role of an individual in the organization and controlled by the MIS administrator accordingly. The access is generally determined by the following parameters, (a) the type of user (such as staff or manager etc.), (b) the type of data (whether general data or managerial data), (c) level of access (read/ write/ admin access) …

How Do Viruses Attack Anti-Virus Programs, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

As the anti-viruses run in a trusted kernel level any loophole in the anti-virus program can enable attackers to take full control over the computer system and steal data or do serious damages. Hence the anti-virus engines must be developed with proper security in mind. The ant-virus should be able to any type of specially created executable files, compression packages or documents that are intentionally created to exploit the anti-virus’s weakness.

Viruses are present in almost every system even though there are anti-viruses installed. This is because every anti-virus, however good it may be, leads to some extent of false …

Protecting Anti-Virus Programs From Viral Attacks, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

During a fight between viruses and anti-viruses it is not always predictable that the anti-virus is going to win. There are many malicious viruses which target to attack and paralyze the anti-viruses. It is necessary for an anti-virus to detect and destroy the malware before its own files are detected and destroyed by the malware. The anti-virus may follow thorough testing and auditing procedures to fix all its bugs before releasing the software in the market. Besides the anti-virus may use all the obfuscation techniques like polymorphism that the viruses generally use to hide their codes. This article also shows …

Finding And Solving Contradictions Of False Positives In Virus Scanning, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

False positives are equally dangerous as false negatives. Ideally the false positive rate should remain 0 or very close to 0. Even a slightest increase in false positive rate is considered as undesirable.

Although the specific methods provide very accurate scanning by comparing viruses with their exact signatures, they fail to detect the new and unknown viruses. On the other hand the generic methods can detect even new viruses without using virus signatures. But these methods are more likely to generate false positives. There is a positive correlation between the capability to detect new and unknown viruses and false positive …

Demonstrating Contradictions In A Graphical User Interface, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

Designing a GUI is not so easy as it may appear to outside. The developer has to face many difficulties while improving the features of a GUI. In many cases improving one feature of a GUI results in worsening another feature of it, thus leading to a situation known as contradiction in TRIZ. Many such contradictions have been solved by different inventors in the past. We will demonstrate some important contradictions in this article and discuss alternative solutions for each contradiction.

Application Of Triz Principles In Software Concepts, Umakant Mishra

Umakant Mishra

The Inventive Principles of TRIZ are not only applicable to mechanical or technical field; they are also applicable to Software solutions. Most of the 40 principles are easy to learn, but the question arises where to apply and how to apply. This article shows some simple examples of applying TRIZ principles.

Some people may ask, the solutions in this article are all known, what is the use of trying out TRIZ Principles on them. My answer is the art of problem solving is like learning a bicycle. If you are capable of riding the cycle on a known road, there …