Success lessons from Marvel's Avengers strategy: A must business lesson.

All Marvel movies since 2008 have earned over $16 billion worldwide. And, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War earned more than $1.2 BILLION in just 2 weeks! As a business enthusiast, you can learn some valuable lessons from the way Marvel achieved this. Future prediction and long term thinking The new MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) timeline started in 2008 with the release of Ironman. Even at that moment, Marvel had already planned at least 7-8 years ahead, and knew exactly what movies would be released, and when. Marvel teams already had meetings about movies up until 2025, and they’ve already planned out 20 movies to come out after Infinity War. When you think long-term like Marvel does, you start thinking differently. You think strategically, not tactically. You focus on important things, not on shiny new objects. And it’s ok if you don’t have all the pieces figured out. Marvel doesn’t. Plan ahead. Have long-term goals. Focus on long-term wins, not short-term gains. You’ll avoid distraction and stress, and you’ll deal with temporary failures much easier. Do not wish to be successful at each stage, but keep larger goal at aim Hulk is one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel universe. But even despite that, a 2008 version - The Incredible Hulk - brought only $135 million in the US ($263M worldwide) on the $150M budget. Not even close, compared to Ironman that was released that same year. Even if you choose to sell a product that you’re sure will be a winner - and it turns out to be a loser, don’t lose hope. Maybe you released the product too soon. Maybe you missed some step in the process. Or maybe it just isn’t the right time. Remember lesson #1. Don't just run after your dream product. Rather think what people want No, there are no spoilers here. Keep reading. I’m referring to lesson #2. The audience wasn’t thrilled with Hulk, so Marvel “killed” the standalone Hulk movie… for now. But in later movies, Hulk became the audience’s favorite hero. Will they try again? It’s very possible. The point is, if you love your product, but your market doesn’t - kill it. Don’t waste your resources on something people don’t want. But keep it handy. Maybe offer it as a bonus. Maybe as an upsell. (Marvel did that with Hulk. :)) As I said, maybe it’s just wrong timing. Keep a good team and hold them tight After The Avengers and Ironman 3, Marvel encountered some problems. There’s no doubt that Robert Downey Jr. was (and is) the biggest star of the MCU. No wonder he’s the highest paid actor on the team. However, some other important team members were paid very low! Apparently, Chris Hemsworth made less than $1 million from the first two Marvel movies. However, the team stood together. The lower paid actors demanded a pay raise, and Robert Downey Jr. said that he’d quit as well, if any of them quit. Marvel had no option but to raise their pay. Based on how much money Marvel made from that moment until now, it was a smart decision and a small price to pay. If you find people who are worth keeping, keep them at any cost. It may cost you some extra money in the beginning, but they’ll either make you or save you 10x more when you need them.

Be innovative and take risks Thor: Ragnarok is an interesting movie. Up until that moment, Marvel movies were serious action, with a dose of humor. Ragnarok is 180° opposite. It’s a movie full of humor, with a dose of action. Marvel decided to play with it. And it paid off. But notice WHEN Marvel decided to test an unorthodox approach… Years after it was established. When they already had a loyal audience. And when they had enough cash on their hands to cover the potential loss. Experiment with new products, new launches, new strategies, new approaches… but experiment wisely. First do something, then dwell deeper Be honest, had you ever heard of Guardians of the Galaxy before Marvel made that movie? Guardians of the Galaxy was never a mega-popular comic. But Marvel apparently cracked the code, and now knows how to create a blockbuster, even with less popular heroes. Again, check the timing. They didn’t start the MCU with the Guardians. It was too risky. They started with the most popular hero - Ironman - and they introduced the Guardians when they already had a loyal MCU fan base. If you’re starting out, don’t go with an untested product. Start with something that is proven to sell well. Once you have enough cash and a customer base, try something unusual and new. Deal with high-quality product as sub-optimal products will jeopardize your growth You can say anything you want about Marvel movies, but you can’t say they’re not perfectly executed. Scripts, directing, casting, special effects, sound effects… Nothing but high-quality work. Whatever you sell, you should always strive to offer only high-quality products. You’ll feel better about yourself, your customers will appreciate it, and your business will thrive. These 7 simple lessons made Marvel movies into the highest cash-producing machines in the entertainment world. These strategies can help you transform your business as well. The only “trick” is, they require time and effort. Success never happens overnight; it’s always a result of planning, clear vision, hard work, and dedication. Now go, and build a marvelous business. (This article is inspired and adapted using an Amazing.com advert)

Delete Cache & Cookies for specific website in Non-IE Browsers like Chrome and Firefox

At times, we may feel the need to delete or clear the Cache & Cookies for a specific website only – and not the entire Browsing History – especially if you face errors like 400 Error or Server / inaccessible errors.  Sometimes, for a .Net type of application, you also get errors like the constructor to deserialize an object of type 'Autofac.Core.DependencyResolutionException' was not found.


In all such cases, you have already seen how to Clear Internet Cache & Cookies for a particular domain in Internet Explorer. Now let us see how to do it in Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Normally, we simply the entire Cookie cache of that browser. This will mean that, when you exercise this option, you will be clearing all the Cookies. But if you don’t to do this, you will have to clear the Cookie for that particular domain only.

Clear Cache & Cookies for specific website in Chrome

Open your Google Chrome browser and then open its Settings. Click on Show advanced settings and the scroll down till you see Privacy.

Now click on the Content settings button. You will see a new panel pop-up with settings for Cookies right on the top. In newer versions, scroll down some bit and you will see this screen.

Search here for the website whose cookies you want to neutralize. Click on the All cookies and site data button to open the following panel.


Delete Cache & Cookies for specific domain in Firefox

Open your Mozilla Firefox web browser and then open its Options. Select Privacy next. Here under History, you will see ‘You may want to clear your recent history or remove individual cookies‘. Click on the ‘remove individual cookies‘ link to open the following panel.


Search for the domain, select the Cookies you want to delete and then remove those Cookies.


You can also use CookieSpy a freeware that lets you manage Cookies of all Browsers in one place. Use it to delete Cookies from a particular domain.

Threat hunting, mitigation and Vulnerability Management

This article is a part of my series 'Security is our duty and we shall deliver it'

Threat hunting is a very deep and strong method to deal with security issues in markets and solutions that need stringent regulations, policies and have risks involved. It is the process of proactively and iteratively searching through networks to detect and isolate advanced threats that evade existing security solutions. According to SANS institute, the threat hunters are actively searching for threats to prevent or minimize damage. The formal process of threat hunting should not be confused with an attempt to prevent adversaries from breaching the environment or for defenders to eliminate vulnerabilities in the network. 

We employ SIEM tools typically only provide indicators at relatively low semantic levels. There is therefore a need to develop SIEM tools that can provide threat indicators at higher semantic levels. As the industry itself is developing around it, we also have our feets wet in the process. We have our Chief Security consultant actively involved in all the three methods viz. Analytics-Driven, situational-Awareness Driven and Intelligence-Driven. As an accompalished engineer he is a master of monkey and fuzzy tests as well.

For bug logging and defect tracking we use home grown technologies as well as Atlassian tools like Jira. For the cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, remediating, and mitigating vulnerabilities, i.e Vulnerability management we have adept leaders to lead and guide teams in teams in using vulnerability scanners. We have successfully employed Coverity and various checkstyles and PMD level rules. 

We have a set of our own scripts and systems to analyze and investigate for known vulnerabilities such as open ports, insecure software configurations, and susceptibility to malware infections. Like stated above, we have masters of fuzzer techniques who can work with us 24x7. Unknown vulnerabilities, such as a zero-day, and complex threats are all under our hand. We have consultants worked with a variety of antivirus software and heuristic analysis mechanisms. You remember we said, we have smartest of security consultants!


You can read and download the article from:
https://www.slideshare.net/toughjamy/security-is-our-duty-and-we-shall-deliver-it-white-paper

Read on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/security-our-duty-we-shall-deliver-mohd-anwar-jamal-faiz/

Security is our duty and we shall deliver it! - A White Paper For Software Security Organizations

Recently, I wrote a White paper. It is titled as - 'Security is our duty and we shall deliver it!'


This paper could be best described in following words-

Quality Management, Information Security, Threat Hunting and Mitigation Plans for a Software Company or a Technology Start-up engaged in building, deploying or consulting in Software and Internet Applications.


The chief sections of the document would be:

1. Introduction to Enterprise Risk & Cyber Security
2. The technologies we employ in
3. Types of Software testing
4. Some examples of Cyber Security Firms and what they do
5. How we achieve a secure product
6. InfoSec and Managed Security Service Provider
7. Training and development
8. Safeguarding against Phishing and Multi-Factor Authentication
9. Threat hunting, mitigation and Vulnerability Management
10. The denouement

You can read and download the article from:
https://www.slideshare.net/toughjamy/security-is-our-duty-and-we-shall-deliver-it-white-paper

Read on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/security-our-duty-we-shall-deliver-mohd-anwar-jamal-faiz/



Following blog posts are must read for any Software Quality and Security Professional or an organization working in this field:

http://www.w3lc.com/2010/05/veracode-as-new-whitebox-testing-tool.html

http://www.w3lc.com/2012/02/analysis-of-valgrind-still-reachable.html

http://www.w3lc.com/2011/07/stress-testing-what-how-when.html

http://www.w3lc.com/2011/02/types-of-software-testing.html

http://www.w3lc.com/2010/10/dos-and-ddos-clarification-on-hacking.html

http://www.w3lc.com/2010/05/baseline-and-traceability-matrix.html

Cheers my readers.
You are my reason to be motivated.

- M. Anwar Jamal Faiz

AMU Engineering cut off explained : Demystifying questions like Can I get admission in the Aligarh Muslim University BTech with a score of 72?

This article will explain you every bits of AMU Engineering cutoff and waiting lists.

To start with, a simple answer to what is the cutoff for the engineering entrance examination - Fluctuating!

Many of the young students often ask questions like: Can I get admission in the AMU BTech with a score of 72? My reply to all of them would be - You are just on margin and nothing can be predicted surely at this score!

Having said that, I congratulate them on the efforts they put in. They surely are among good students who have the mettle to get admitted to this prestigious university. To anyone with this high score, you now have 3 options:

1. Wait and watch for the results to come. I wish you all the best and once selected respond here with the good message.
2. Hold tight! You might also get included in Waiting lists. There might be 3 waiting lists in themselves. You can get admission if people drop off and do not take admissions.
3. Start focusing on more exams and preparations should never loose focus waiting on the results on one exams. Exams are a part of life, and not the life itself!

It should be understood that the cutoff shall be based on some of the influential factors which affect the same to a great extent. Various aspects are taken into consideration while announcing the AMUEEE 2017 Cutoff Marks. It varies highly with the difficulty level of question paper and other factors. Generally,  for moderate level of difficulty , it is around 70-75 for external students and around 60-65 for internal students.



The total number of seats are around 365 and number of seats in different trades are as follows:
Chemical Engineering - 30
Civil Engineering - 60
Computer engineering - 50
Electrical Engineering - 60
Electronics Engineering - 50
Mechanical engineering - 90
Petrochemical Engineering - 20
BArch - 20


The cutoff depends on how many well prepared candidates appeared for the exam that year, question paper and if you are internal or external. Some important factors that you can include in guessing the cutoff present year are listed as following:

• Total Number of students
• Availability of seats
• Toughness level of examination
• Lowest and average marks in the entrance examination
• Marking scheme
• Performance of the candidates
• Previous year cutoff trends

As per the official notifications:

AMU determines the minimum scores obtained by the candidates to be considered for admission to various engineering courses at the university. AMUEEE 2017 cutoff involves various important aspects. The vital aspects are given below.
For admission to various undergraduate engineering courses at AMU, the candidates have to either score the minimum required cutoff marks or above that.
AMU conducts AMUEEE 2017 and is the competent authority that decides AMUEEE 2017 cutoff marks.
AMUEEE cutoff 2017 is determined by various factors like candidates’ performance level, seat capacity of the respective courses, total number of test takers, and difficulty level of the paper and reservation policy.
Aspirants, who fail to secure the minimum marks required for admission to AMU through AMUEEE 2017, will not be considered eligible for admissions to B. Tech courses at the university.
On the basis of AMUEEE 2017 cutoff, AMU prepares AMUEEE 2017 merit list for the examinees.
As per their ranks in AMUEEE 2017 merit list, seats are allocated to candidates.

My three advises here:

1. Concentrate on your preparations and give your best shot. Don't prepare with a preset target score as it can deceive you into making a wrong decision at your test date. Think 95% plus!
2. Even if you don't get your favorite branch, you have a chance to change your branch in the beginning of your second year, provided you study well. I did that. You need to have very high scores in your first year results.
3. In case you get a waiting list, do not be disheartened. There is a good chance that it will get clear as many would cancel their admissions. 

I wish all the students a very best of luck in all the engineering entrance exams. You all are a gem and a treasure for the nation.

Jai Hind & Jai Ho!

Using Github ReadMe opened programatically : How to open and read the ReadMe.md file dynamically

It is noteworthy to understand that HTML does work in the ReadMe.md file. With this clear understanding, I guess many of such questions would be automatically answered like - how to make bold font in ReadMe file, or how to insert image etc. Also note that it depends a lot on what application/ text editor you are using and also lot on the OS. 

Recently I had trouble in inserting blank line character in the Readme.md file of Github. I personally preferred < br /> tag there, and i have a full post describing the same: http://www.w3lc.com/2017/05/new-line-in-readme-file-github-fixing.html.

I have demonstrated the change in a git commit in the Github repository explained in the post. See: https://github.com/Anwar-Faiz/Simple-Java-Unicode/commit/85bd54531067ff4055c5e8801aba5324221d5ae3

This understanding was much needed to handle the question and also to find many other uses of why you would probably need to do it!

Further, to answer the question straight, you need two steps: 

1. Find the Url for the ReadMe.md file in Raw version. For example see one: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Anwar-Faiz/forkrap/master/README.md 

How to open Raw view of ReadMe.md file: ( See screenshot )

2. Now if you want to use server side the using file_gets_content etc of php you can load the url. Or, if you want to use jquery, you can use the Load().

** Do, also notice that if you do View Source of the Raw URL page, you just see, plain text. So, you don't need to do much text parsing stuffs as well :) This is a good news.

** Next you can use unescape functions or tools like codebeautify to unescape the characters that can alter with the look and feel of your HTML like ' <   " etc etc.

Using Github ReadMe opened programatically : How to open and read the ReadMe.md file dynamically: https://www.w3lc.com/2017/05/using-github-readme-opened.html

To create sophisticated formatting for your prose and code on GitHub with simple syntax, you can refer the basic writing and formatting syntax at: https://help.github.com/articles/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax/

Have a great Day dear :)

@Anwar Jamal Faiz

New line in ReadMe file Github: Fixing the blank new line break issue in ReadMe.Md files in Github

This post is aimed to fix a very simple issue - Fixing the blank new line break issue in ReadMe.Md files in Github. You can find the ReadMe.Md file which had this problem and how it was fixed in my Github repository: https://github.com/Anwar-Faiz/Simple-Java-Unicode


When editing an issue and clicking Preview the following lines in Read me file:
a
b
c
i.e. it shows every letter on a new line.

However, it seems sometimes that after pushing similar markdown source structure in README.md joins all the letters on one line.

Issue: This usually happens because of different Operating systems and text editors used.


Solution:
Interpreting newlines as
used to be a feature of Github. But recent documentations do not list this as a feature. So, you have to do it manually. But its easy!

Method 1: Introduce a __ character at end of each line. _ acts as a blank space
i.e transform:
a
b
c
as following in the ReadMe.md file:
a__
b__
c
(where ).

Method 2: Explicitly add
tags.
Eg:
a
b
c


I personally prefer method 2 for a number of reasons. For example you can see following commit of mine just to fix the same issue:
https://github.com/Anwar-Faiz/Simple-Java-Unicode/commit/85bd54531067ff4055c5e8801aba5324221d5ae3


Using Github ReadMe opened programatically : How to open and read the ReadMe.md file dynamically: https://www.w3lc.com/2017/05/using-github-readme-opened.html

New line in ReadMe file Github: Fixing the blank new line break issue in ReadMe.Md files in Github
https://www.w3lc.com/2017/05/new-line-in-readme-file-github-fixing.html

To create sophisticated formatting for your prose and code on GitHub with simple syntax, you can refer the basic writing and formatting syntax at: https://help.github.com/articles/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax/

Cheers ;)
Anwar Faiz