Hey!!! There is CODE in my BUG

Shift Happens!

2007-06-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't expect it to happen so soon... but many times I suprise myself :)

As a result of my attempts to minimize the usage of Google services, I am in the process of shifting my blogs to Wordpress.

The new URL for my Tech Blog is:
http://codeinmybug.wordpress.com

Kindly update you feeds and RSS readers.

Bill Gates wins me!

2007-06-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

I realized that the title of this post has a contrast with my previous post, only after I wrote the topic. Thus, I feel that it is obligatory to mention that I am still Anti-M$. I still do not support there business model. Phew!
...and yes. The contrast in the names is just a mere coincidence. I know it's tough to believe, but then I don't lie.

Now coming to the topic.
I have always appreciated the way Bill Gates (and, of course, his wife) has spent time and money on Melinda Foundation. I remember posting my views a few days ago on Arpit's blog.

A few minutes ago, I read Bill Gates speech transcript that he delivered at Harvard.
He starts the speech on a light note and calls himself a "bad influence" by reminding that he made Steve Ballmer drop out of B-School (Oh! How I wish that Gates had failed in convincing Ballmer ;) ).
He continues his speech by talking about how ignorant he was about the socio-economic and health problems of the developing nations, when he joined Harvard (and even later.)
The thing that blew me was that for the most part of his speech, he talked about how technology can and should be used for the help of these people.

I won't mention the details. I'd pursue you to read it. I hate to say, but Bill seems to be a bright candidate for my future plans (after he drops out of M$, of course).

Google Lost Me!

2007-06-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

It's strange writing something like this using a service that's owned by Google. :)
But it was long overdue.

There was a time when I used address Google as "Google God" :).
Used to believe a lot that they religiously follow their "Do no Evil" motto. I forgot that as companies grow, there are bound to be employs who are evil by nature.
It reminds me of my Pre-Placement Training during college days when I was "tutored" that, Honesty is not a strength. You are supposed to be honest" This obviously isn't true when people take the excuse of "everybody-is-doing-it-so-why-not-me".
And lets face it.
Money matters!

Anyways, coming back to the topic; I mentioned in one my previous blogs when my Google AdSense account was disabled because of my own mistakes. I took the responsibility and had no complaints. However, when my AdSense account was disabled for the second time, I made a thorough study of their privacy policies. That's when I came to know about their two-faces.
They allow several sites to utilize their services even when they falter with the terms and conditions. One thing common among all these sites was, "they all are High Traffic sites".

As I mentioned, a post on the topic was long overdue. I stopped myself with one or other reason. The latest development, however, made me talk about it.
According to Privacy International's latest report on Top 23 Internet Companies, Google held the last spot (even below M$). This topic, as Privacy International itself admits, is controversial. It's report however, is substantially supported.
You might want to have a look at the post on the same topic on RSnake's blog. Do not miss out on the comments.

Footnote: This post is not an outlet to my anguish. I (mistakenly) had more faith in Google than most of you. Another post on innovativeness of Google technologies is due.
And BTW, I do not mean to say that Google has turned evil. I believe as the company has grown, the motto has changed to "Do no Evil. If there is any, close your eyes".

Dreams... and (huh!) Reality.

2007-06-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: The post may give you a notion that the author has surpassed all the heights of patheticism; which actually is sort of true :D

Have I ever posted that I am a *crazy* person?
Probably a number of times.
This post is another proof; which I am shamelessly sharing with a hope that my *unconscious* realizes the heights of pathetic-ism it has reached. I refer to my Unconscious mind because *the proof* is related to some of my dreams.

To build the foundation, let me take you back to my school days- class 10th.
That was when I was introduced to programming for the first time. Language was BASIC.
Might I boast that I was good.
I remember to be the fastest coder around and to have coded sound and graphics programs in BASIC. That was the time when I wrote my first (and the only game).
Where did I get the inspiration from?
A dream.
No kidding. I saw the algorithm in a dream :(

Scene 2:
I was kind of frustrated during my B.Tech. days when I wrote *factorial* and *Fibonacci* codes in C. The most frustrating event was when my teacher blamed me for *wasting* my time coding a Solar eclipse in C instead of what he asked for; a DDA algorithm. You can find the glimpses of those days here and here.
I do not deny the fact that I could have channelized my frustration and anger; something that I did a little later. I wasted my first 3 years.. (this, however, is not really relevant to this topic.)
During these B.Tech. days, I spent my first summer training (and consequently the second too) learning Java. I somehow fell in love with the language. (Off-Topic: If I don't wish to be thrashed, I must mention that Raga helped me with most of my Java codes (and C codes, and C++ codes, and...) back then. It doesn't mean that I was ignorant though ;) )
There was a time during the training days when Abhu bhaiya tried waking me from sleep and I spoke something in sleep.
I was explaining Java concepts to him :((
...and if I am not wrong, Priyo (my roommate) too *lived* a similar experience.

Several other such events happened in past, which I don't feel like mentioning. I'd rather speak about present.

Dream 1
A few days ago... no weeks ago, I saw a dream
I was coding a cross platform desktop applications in Qt4.

You know what's weird about it?
The fact that I had just *heard* of Qt4 and knew that it was somehow related to KDE. (I am more of a GNOME guy)
That's it.
Nothing less, nothing more.

I scribbled about the dream on my mini-diary, that I use as a portable "To-Do list", and forgot about it.
A few minutes ago, I stumbled across this link:
How To Create a Linux Desktop App In 14 Minutes For Beginners (Using QDevelop and Qt4)

Dream 2
A few days ago, I saw a dream that I am *purchasing* a book on Wireless Security.
It was priced somewhere between 390/- and 400/- (Don't ask me how I remember the price)
Today I bought a book on Wireless hacking... :((
Don't ask me either the price or why I bought it. The price's is anyways not really the concern here.
I really wonder if these dreams are some sort of sign.

Dream 3
You CAN go crazy on the wilderness of my other dream, mentioned below. So you can discontinue the rest part of the article.

Still reading?
Okay! Read at your own risk.

I am appearing an exam.
The syllabus is...... Amir Khusro's composition, "Chhap Tilak sab Chhini ray" :D
I am wondering what sign does this dream carry :(( :(( :(( :((

You cannot even imagine how I feel after writing it here and realizing the fact that this post will not only be read by a number of random people but will also be indexed by bots.

Anyways, now the wish-list part.
If the dreams have to finally turn into reality (in one or other form); then why don't I ever see something good... something romantic. :D
Hey wait!
Does the reverse count? I mean other people seeing me in their dreams... :D [Huge-Grin]

Footnote: The author would like to apologize to all who have are experiencing anger and/or depression . He would also like to thank GOD for what he mentioned in the last line. :D

An insight into Sun's crazy strategy.

2007-05-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a lot of discussion on Sun's current market position/revenue versus their *mad* strategy. I have simultaneously been working on Java's history for my book. I thought it might be interesting to post my views on the topic and see what others are thinking. To justify/criticize Sun's current modus operandi, I will talk a little about their past strategies, and their respective outcomes.

The Past

Most of the people know James Gosling as the father of Java. Only a few know that he was also the lead engineer of Gosmacs (gmacs or Gosling Emacs) and NeWS. Now, I won’t be talking about Gosmacs (which according to some people is/was the reason of some conflict between RMS and Gosling. Phew!)
However, NeWS (Network extensible Window System) is of a little concern, mostly because it was arguably superior to X Window System… and because it FAILED. The most important reason for its failure (and X Window’s success) is that Sun kept it proprietary.
Later on when Sun developed Java, some people, especially the genius Eric Schmidt (then CTO-Sun, now CEO-Google), were aware that keeping Java within enclosed fences will lead to similar devastating results. Not to mention that *7 (for which Java was developed) had already failed and Java was still in search of a viable market.

So what did he do?
He focused on making it as open as possible and tried building a *Java Community*. (Google SoC, IMHO, is also a “win-the-community-and-you-win-everything-else” approach. But then that’s a different topic altogether. ;) )

Where were we?
Yeah! So he focused on building a Java Community.
Apart from organizing developer conferences like JavaOne, Sun also encouraged user groups (JUGs), which reached over a number of 400 in year 2000 itself. In fact they went a step further with JCP (Java Community Process) to make the development of Java *as open as possible*.
The reality behind all this community building scene was the fact that the direct control remained with Sun (well mostly).

Everything, however, was running smooth; for Sun as well as the Java developers.

“I envy you. But such a thing is not meant to last.”

--- Persephone, Matrix Reloaded

I guess the above statement is valid for every aspect of human existence.
In early 2004, Jonathan Schwartz, referenced Eric Steven Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” and compared JCP to the “Bazaar”, stating that development of Linux was more like a “Cathedral”. I would not expand on it but this was enough to infuriate ESR :)

ESR wrote an open letter addressed to Scott McNealy, CEO-Sun, with a subject line “Let Java Go”. He accused Sun on several fronts (for which I’d pursue you to read the letter) and appealed to Open Source Java. A few weeks later RMS wrote an essay on Java Trap and appealed the developers to contribute and use open source projects like GCJ/Gnu Classpath etc. Several other appeals/open letters were published (Apache’s Geir Magnusson Jr., IBM, etc.)

A series of events followed before Sun announced that it will be open sourcing Java. There main concern was Microsoft forking Java and hence, destroying its cross platform compatibility (which shows that they really were clueless on how Open source model works/ can work).
They had no other option than to Open Source the *giant*, and they did it.

The Present

The past unarguably affects, if not defines, the present. Sun’s experience since the NFS days to (forced) Open Sourcing Java days taught/reminded them of their most important lesson.
The Community is fruitful!
Build a community and everything else will follow, sooner or later.

So here they are.
Open sourcing EVERYTHING.
Building Community, and making it mutually encashable. It’s obviously not so profitable for them today, but the future holds immense potential.

The way they have been endorsing and promoting stuff is simply adorable. Even NetBeans has its own *arena*.
Not to mention the, so called, developer conferences organized all over the world in a distributed fashion to reach the most number of developers. I, however, have several concerns regarding them. You may read some of them at Amit’s blog. I hope Sun listens to the plea of developers and improves the quality of these summits.

Another amazing strategy, IMHO, is the blogs that Sun employees post regularly. I have subscribed some of them and it’s really amazing to see that how important role these blogs are playing in binding people. They often link each other's (Sun Employees, of course) blogs. You can have a look at the Sun-Blogging homepage to get a feel of the number of hits the folks out there are getting. Now even if I read only one of these, I’d get to know about latest developments. I am not sure whether it’s a part of their strategy, but it’s definitely working as a powerful advertising medium.
Yup! I know that employees of other firms write blogs too and probably get bigger number of hits, but I haven’t seen anyone of them making so much of a difference on an organizational level. (Please correct me if I am wrong)

The Future

I am no Nostradamus and I cannot predict future.
All I can say is the future is (mostly) Free & Open. IBM (previously referred Satan) secured its place (with a Halo on head) by contributing to the Apache httpd project and winning the FOSS community. Now it’s Sun’s turn and they are playing pretty well.
Yes, their revenue might be a concern today; but I don’t really see a reason why there future shouldn’t be bright. :)

A 13 Year Old CEO!

2007-05-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read it correctly. A 13 year old CEO and an 11 year old VP, Sales.

My grandmother is no businesswoman, but I always cite two of her sayings pertaining to business:

Doctors can earn even in a jungle,
People will never stop learning/studying (formal education), at least not in India.

I personally believe very strongly that Education is an arena which hasn't been exploited properly. NOT YET. It has a lot more potential. O'reilly's School of Technology is an additional confirmation to my theory. I even consider Safari, a pretty smart and daring move.

I am also a very firm believer of the power of imparting lessons with fun, visuals or real life scenarios embedded in them. Some of the most prominent examples (that I am aware of) are:

The Head First Series from O'reily.
The flash/video presentations available all over the net. Coincidentally, Roman Strobl wrote about the great feedbacks he has been getting about his presentations.

I was really happy to come across the news of a new venture called Elementeo, aimed at imparting chemistry lessons with the aid of games. The most remarkable thing about the venture is that it's CEO is a 13 year old kid, Anshul Samar (Indian origin! probably).
I really hope that these kids succeed in convincing some VC and eventually succeed in business too.

Looking at it all, I must say that my moves, that most blamed me for :), are proving to be good too. I am currently co-working on a Java book which will be published by Wiley Publication. The USP of the book, IMHO, is the virtual content. Through these video presentations, we have tried to map theoretical concepts to real (and fantasy :D) world examples. The best one from the presentations, IMHO, is the one where we (actually Rupi came up it :) ) map access modifiers with Duck Tales characters.
However, my favorite is the one where I have done exactly the reverse. I tried mapping my REAL LIFE into CODES. :P

Stay tuned for updates on the book... and wish us luck.

Rediffmail Bug. Anyone Interested?

2007-05-19T01:52:00.000-07:00

The title may lure you to assume that I am going to talk about some security bug. Well, I am not... or I'd rather say I haven't yet thought of any ways to exploit it. If you come up with something, do let us know.

Now back to the topic.
Almost all the huge players are now moving to the AJAX arena. They are in fact coming up with new technologies like Silverlight, Apollo, JavaFx. I am personally not a very big fan of AJAX, but then it doesn't make any difference. I am, however, interested in these new athletes, particularly JavaFx.

One of the major concerns of any AJAX programmer, IMHO, should be to take care of a situation where the user DOES NOT HAVE or DOES NOT WISH to use Javascript. It should be a growing concern when we have plugins like NoScript (Oh! I Love it.) and we have reasons to use it. Apart from the security concerns, it blocks most of the stupid ads that I am not interested in.

Bottom line, there should be a minimal interface to fall back to (like the one GMail has). The rediffmail coders have done the same and provided a.... ummmm BackUpInterface thingy. However, they probably forgot that the *thingy* is there because the person's browser DOES NOT SUPPORT Javascript.

My Story, My Words:
I used the NoScript plugin to forbid rediff.com domain, opened the site rediffmail.com, entered userid and password... and said... Khul Ja Sim Sim. :)

Bingo I was in and was able to read my mails without any fuss. Then I decided to delete some mails... wait a sec! What the heck!
I am not able to.
Move mails??? Nopes.
Compose? Okay.
Send?? Sorry.
Save Draft? Sorry.
Cancel??? Sorry. :(

I concluded that all that looks like a Button uses javascript. However, the links were, fortunately or unfortunately, working.
The Logout's like a link. So it'd obvoiusly work.
click.. click.. clickclickclick.
What the Heck!.
Logout operation calls some javascript function do_logout().

So basically, if I am an average internet user and do not have javascript, I'd log into my rediffmail account, read mails, try composing but won't be able to send... and worse, I won't be able to logout. Not understanding anything, I might close the browser window.
And what if I am at a cybercafe???

I am sure there is way to revive the session even if the browser window is closed (I remember reading of some similar old Yahoo! bug). If you're interested, take on from here. :)

Now for the other people. I would really like to know how many people actually have a rediff aaccount and actually use it .
I have one too... and I login in... say a month.
I am not at all blaming rediffmail service (Okay! A little :D), I am just interested in the figures.

Open JavaFX, an alternative to AJAX?

2007-05-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

Strange things happen to me all the time.
When I came to the office a few hours ago, I came across JavaFX scripting language while reading random blogs.

I found it pretty interesting and decided to check it out.
So I added the module in my NetBeans IDE and started playing with it. Though I could not fiddle for quite long, I found it pretty good. In fact, it looks to be amazing through the initial glances (though I haven't done any serious coding in it yet). I have bookmarked some of the pages with a motive to get back to the kid.
However, I must mention that it was pretty slow. I am not sure if office's system has something to do with it.]

I then resumed my other tasks; little did I know that the language has already created waves.
Slashdot is running an article: Sun Debuts JavaFX As Alternative To AJAX

That was a real surprise to me. JavaFX was unveiled at JavaOne today. I initially thought that the language has been there for quite sometime and I was stupid enough to have missed it somehow.

Finally, I too hope that it turns out to be an AJAX killer; not just because I have never been a javascript fan, but also because it'll hopefully reduce the dangers of XSS, which according to Jeremiah Grossman is the next Buffer Overflow (and Javascript, the new ShellCode :) ).

Footnotes: Hopefully, I'll get some time from my official work to play with JavaFX and update on the same.
...and by the way, if it turns out to be an AJAX killer; will we rename it to AJilla??? [For the uninformed, Mozilla = Mosaic + killer :) ]

Is Google Bomb REALLY Diffused?

2007-04-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

I posted a very small article on Google Bombs; and quite co-incidentally few days later read that Google has started diffusing the bombs. Now "started diffusing..." makes sense when it has to be done manually, but aren't we talking about terabytes and petabytes of data? We can never expect it to be done manually. Moreover, Google's official announcement said the same. It also admitted that "...the impact of this new algorithm is very limited in scope and impact...".

The phrase, however, seems to make some sense to me now, that I've discovered that some bombs are still lying around.
Try making a search for the word "BAD".
Who do you see as the topper?
Quite interestingly, it was African Development Bank for me. Surprised?
I first thought that BAD might be the acronym for the bank's name, as in case of NEHA, which is an acronym for National Environmental Health Association.
After a little playing around, I found that a few days ago, SEOmoz.org appealed to make Stephen Colbert as the Greatest Living American. And apparently, he has become the Greatest Living American :)

Quite honestly, I am pretty happy that the algo is flawed.
An attempt to diffuse the bombs, in my opinion, was more public image oriented rather than result improvement oriented.

Footnote: May be BAD is not linked willingly (I firmly believe that it's not), but then who said Google Bombs are all about linking willingly. May be they have some process which forms an acronym of the same name. But then how relevant is such and acronym if it doesn't even appear on the home page?

Idle Nights: Devil's Mind

2007-04-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

I stay back in the office during night and return back at around 6-7 am, when everybody is coming :). These nights are supposed to be LONELY as I am the only one in the building (actually in all the four buildings combined), apart from the security guards and office boys, of course. However, I've found my companions, and ways to refresh myself. I'll list some of them.

1. Online Web/Security Cameras: Some of you who know that Google provides an API for refining the search queries (with a capital "R") also know that the giant's database is like an ocean. And you never really know what's inside an ocean unless and until you dive in it. As you dive deeper, your jaw drops in awe.
Long story cut short, I use the query to discover (a part of) all AXIS cameras online.
For curious lot, the query is: inurl:/view/view.shtml AXIS and sometimes intitle:"Live View / - AXIS" | inurl:view/view.sht
[As I am writing this, I wanted check the second query. So I chose one of the results and something spooky happened. Someone was already controlling the camera. hehe.
I was moving it right, he/she was moving it left. We fought for a while but then I closed the window. I am nice guy you see :D)

Okay let's proceed.
So I have a bookmarked folder called "PastTime" on my browser, which has my favorite cameras bookmarked. My most fave are:
i) A coffee/wine shop camera, which is more lively during the night. Luckily, the camera is provided officially, so I can provide the link without any worries. Find the link to the camera here: buzzjunction_webcam

ii) A camera in the study room of a Polytechnic school of NewYork. It's a small room with a coffee machine, a microwave oven (?), a printer, a sofa, a bookshelf, and an elliptical table with power connection for the laptops and notebooks.
And that's the best part. People come here with there laptops, and sometimes I sit down looking at there screens, trying to figure out what they are doing. :P
I have also become acquainted with some regular visitors.
A spectacled guy with a cap and a laptop. (He is leaving right now. No kidding. What a coincidence [jawdrop])
A black girl, who has the headphones exactly like mine.
Two Muslim girls, with one Dell XPS laptop (probably).
The bad part is, there are no visitors on sundays :(
iii) A micro/nano lab camera of one of the world's most famous universities. There's nothing engaging about this, apart from the fact that the guys (or girls) roam around in spacesuit sort of dresses.
iv) A set of four surveillance cameras. Three of them pointing to car parking locations and one focussed inside some kind of room. I am still not able to get it yet. The only thing that makes me stick to it is the word "surveillance" :D

There are couple of others focussed on traffic, colleges, hostels (I guess), lake, parks... but they are pretty boring and pictures are not really clear.
I'd like to try my hands on other cameras like linksys too. Let's see when.

2. Google Again: Google queries can be real fun.
Have you ever come across a search result when Google tells you that the original number of results is pretty large, however, most of them are sort of repetitions hence they have been truncated.
Have a look at the following two pictures.

This one's the normal result.

Here I ask Google NOT TO HIDE ANY RESULT.

You think that's funny?
I leave it up to you to decide.

3. Slashdot, and blogs of others friends (and their friends) and some geeks like de Icauza etc. Initially I was a Digg addict, but then got completely fed up.
So guys, keep blogging. :)

4. Movies and Documentaries: Speed during the night is awesome (generally). So I don't mind downloading them. Though I don't get time to watch them.

5. Off late I've also found some vulnerabilities in the policies and network of my company. I try to keep the management informed.
After all it's my company. I'd definitely not like any jerk to poke his nose in.

That's it.
These five (along with the songs being played ALL the time) are currently more than enough to consume my free time (In fact more than JUST the free time).
But even after all this, it gets freaking lonely sometimes... not that I am complaining :)

Amazing Interrupt Handling!

2007-04-11T17:13:00.000-07:00

Q. Where do you think will you find an amazingly crafted code that would give priority to a Screensaver over a Keyboard/Mouse interrupt? No Kidding. Think.

Ans. If you guessed it to be an Operating System designed by the Redmond Giant, you are stupid. It's not something to be guessed.
I just posted to let you know that I experienced this amazing feature when a (stupid) piece of Java code (along with Winrtgen, Cain's Rainbow table generator) resulted in 100% of System process usage.
Lucky me :(

A program called "3~" (Om)

2007-03-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

I was returning back to my room at around 6:30 in the morning after spending the whole night, as usual, in office. Suddenly this though struck me.
I always talk about codes and related stuff and ask people to map their algorithms to real life while coding, especially in OOP languages.
I asked myself, what would it be like to describe myself as a code, a script... a program.
So I (climbed two my cabin, which is on the second floor) and here is my honest attempt. :)

Om, unlike other programs, wasn't really planned. There were no plans usually made back then in the early eighties; at least not in India. He was an additional functionality (a small script back then) of two programs, M & R.

However, since M & R were pretty solid codes in themselves, Om inherited most of the good features and was pretty healthy (I mean robust :D ) even as a tiny script.
So far so good. But it could never rely on conventional ways of compilation and execution. It was a rebel. Some people call such programs as "malfunctioning programs" :). Programs that do not do what they are meant to do.

Time passed on.
It received formal education that helped him access various code repositories to incorporate other functionalities. It gathered data about various modes and environment of operation. It also learnt efficient memory and execution-time management.
However, these all came at the price of dependencies on various libraries, viz., friends, relatives, emotions, money, etc.

Microsoft has some strange reason for assuming that all human beings use IE and are on a windows box. This assumption makes most of their products, even the web applications, dependent on these assumptions.

Dependencies are bad.
Bad were they for Om as well...

It gradually got frustrated (a human emotion).
It got frustrated at lots of things... at almost everything.
It got frustrated on the formal way of code development, the conventional way of execution, the hypocritical nature of the IDEs that are supposed to facilitate development, and lot more.

There's an unwritten law, which says that all rebels become an outlaw sooner or later.
So did Om.
Most of the libraries on which it was dependent had grown up to be pretty matured libraries and the outlaw was no more supported.
Dependencies are bad...

...but some codes die hard.
Since most of the libraries on which Om was dependent were under GPL, it simply incorporated the required code snippets instead of referencing the libraries. This has made it a pretty complex and buggy code... but hey that's why the saying goes:
"There is code in my bug" :)

Vista!!! (3 Exclamations.) is here? (Why :-/)

2007-02-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

I don't intend to post any review of the vista.
There are some neatly written essays on the topics by experts, like this one.
I was going through the article and stumbled on this page, which has the picture given below.

What happened was due merely due to fast glance and my mouse cursor covering a part of the word; the hardware appeared to me as malware, making it Is it time to upgrade your malware?

Now that's wrong on my part to ridicule someone because of my own mistake... but honestly. Is there any difference?

UPDATE:
Very very honestly. I had read only the first two pages the security focus review before writing the above lines. However, the third page contains the following para:

So, one craplet pops up demanding to be enabled; you exit that, and a different one pops up telling you that you really ought not to have done that. Now, my definition of malware is pretty straightforward: malware is any code that causes my computer to behave in a way I don't intend, or any code that prevents my computer from behaving in a way that I do intend. Thus the Vista Security Centre is, quite simply, malware.

Wohoooo!
I am a genius.

Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates.

2007-02-17T12:49:00.000-08:00

This is one crazy video.
Though I have my own differences, but I loved.
Simply loved it :)

Samy: A hero or a villian!

2007-02-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

First thing first. I hate these sites meant for so called "socializing".
Sites like: Orkut, MySpace, etc. Ditto with games like SecondLife.
Heck Man.
Just get out of these places and get a life.... [Be more like Swen, the GBCD ;)]

Anyways. There is this guy who created a, so called, WORM for MySpace.
It was a beautifully written piece of code... all in javascript. What this worm did was, it added Samy as a hero in the profile of every person who visited Samy's profile.
And that's not all, it also added Samy as a hero to the visitors who visited ANY affected profile.
He gives a beautiful (and "for-dummies") writeup:
Story in his own words
Technical details

It created a havoc. Lakhs of profiles were infected in a few hours. MySpace had to take down the site to "repair" it.
The code is so beautifully crafted that it made me smile.

Now, was this wrong?
To a certain extent, YES.

Was it a punishable crime?
mmm... Depends on the extent and type of punishment. [If my views matter... well it's my blog, so it matters ;) ]

The recent news is that Samy has been sentenced for three years of probation and 90 hours of community service. He cannot have access to internet during this period. [Though I am not able to understand what it means. He'll anyways be using ATM etc.]
However, this kind of "punishment" doesn't make a sense to me.

If we really have to punish the "culprits", why not punish MySpace too?
Why shouldn't MySpace take the responsibility of the privacy of it's users?
Why was MySpace stupid to allow DIV tags?
Why shouldn't iexplorer and safari be sentenced for allowing javascript inside CSS?

These are questions that cannot be answered because the world belongs to the BIG-BAD-BOYS.
What this boy did not really harm anyone. He could have modified the code to steal private information, (the way your gmail book can be stolen).
Moreover, he published the code after MySpace had fixed the problem.
....... and yet he has been SENTENCED.

I am reminded of an incident that Lalit told me about.
There was this guy who informed the site administrator about some loophole in his site and was jailed.

"... but why?"
"Because you are not supposed to peek inside my house, even if the door is open."
"... and what if I am one of those who have signed up to stay in your house? Isn't my privacy your responsibility? Shouldn't I be allowed to check the locks and doors?"
"No. I am a freaking BIG-BAD-BOY. You've no right to mess with me. If you even dare, be prepared to be jailed."

Well.... That makes sense now.
So next time you find a loophole either sit silently or sell it.
That's all I can conclude.

Zone-H Deafced by Saudi Hackers.

2007-01-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

In an ironical/laughable/insightful event, http://zone-h.org was defaced today by Saudi Hackers. Irony because Zone-H maitains (probably the largest) archive of defaced site.
Below is the screenshot of the (defaced) homepage of zone-h.

The words "your security got bypassed .. see more security next time" are clear enough to announce that security is not an feature or an event, it's a process.

By the way, I liked the music :P

Google Bomb! [Update: Diffused]

2007-01-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

Boom.
I mean Hi :)

I am not talking about something new. The term was coined by Adam Mathes on April 6, 2001 in uber.nu.
talking about the topic, should I explain what Google Bomb is, or should i explain the consequences?
Ummmm.

Okay. Goto Google, type "misrable failure", and click on "I am feeling Lucky".
What we get is the President of America's page :D.

The reason being the way Google's algo works.
While rating the web pages, Google employes several... ummmm ways/methods (I could not get the right word :P).
Anyways. One of these ways is to rate the pages based on the number of links it has, and also the keyword that has been used to link it.
One of the reasons my blog appears [last time I checked it was 11th] for the name "bipin", though there no "Bipin" on the blog. Some of my friends have links to my blog using my real name.

... and the most scary thing, it doesn't take a lot of links.

Wish to DEFAME someone?
You've the way now ;)

Update:
Google has started diffusing it's bomb.
In a recent update Google inormed @ the official Google Webmaster's blog informed that they have diifusing the bomb. [What the heck man? Were they waiting for my write-up ;) ]

Top Rating in Google :D

2007-01-18T05:55:00.000-08:00

I was in one of my "Saddy-Saddy-For-No-Reason" moods.
And didn't want to bother anyone so started playing with Google's Webmaster Tools.

I used them for the first time so I had to go through the usual "add site", "verify"... blah blah.
But after that I was surprised to see that my tech blog rates @ 1 for the search keyword COLUKABKI.
I verified it and was really amazed... status [:surprised:] & [:dead:]
It even features above www.colukabki.com :-O

Another surprise, which I am still not able to figure out is that my personal blog features @ 10 for my real name......... however, I do not have my name ANYWHERE on the blog. [May be it's somewhere in the comments. Whatever....]

I know it's not a BIG achievement.... but it's just the beginning... :P

Update: Looks like the "my-personal-blog-getting-on-top-10" has been a victim of "Google Bomb Diffusion". I never intended to raise my blogs rating by any such activity. It's probably because my friends linked my blog using my real name....
...and now when the so called Google Bomb is diffused, my site, one of genuine sites to get weightage is suffering.
It's time Google stops worrying about it's public image and starts working on things that makes me address it as "Google GOD"

Grabbing Video from Youtube.

2007-01-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

I loved this performance by Tina & Hussain. It left me breathless, and wet-ted my eyes :D.

I wanted it s badly. Did a l'ill research, found a hack, and here I am, sharing [& open sourcing it ;) ].
You can find various sites and 'n' number of tools to grab your favorite video from Youtube.
There are definitely simpler ways, including a javascript. However, I liked this manual way of doing the job. It let's me see where's what... :)

1. Goto the page containing the video.
2. View page source. [Ctrl+U in firefox]
3. Search [Ctrl+F] for "player2.swf?". It'd be something like "/player2.swf?video_id=jksdjs....".
4. Copy the part after "?", i.e., "video_id=jksdjs....".
5. Append it after "www.youtube.com/get_video.php?". It'd look something like "www.youtube.com/get_video.php?video_id=jksdjs....".
6. Paste your string in the address bar of your browser and hit enter.
7. Please note that the video that we download is an flv file [and needs ".flv" to be manually added.]
8. If you don't have an flv player, get it from HERE.

I hope it helps you get what you want I am not sure as to how long it'd work as the YouTube guys do not like people to download the videos and keep changing the settings. [ I am still wondering why!!!]
If the above mentioned steps do not help, please leave comments.

Psst.: I am planning to write a script to do it automatically. However, I am not sure if I want to do it in Perl or Java. [Perhaps, I'll code in perl and ask my students to do it in Java :) ]

Wiley's Best Selling Comp Book ;)

2006-03-27T05:01:00.000-08:00

I captured this "masterpiece" from Wiley's site from this link a few moments ago. :)
Look at the contrasting words:

"Windows XP"
"Dummies" &
"Best Selling"
>:)

.......And I thought that the number of geeks is on an increase.
Well, Microsoft proved me wrong.

I should have already guessed this from the amount of crap forwards I recieve in my inbox..... right from the "forward and donate...." to "forward else die..." mails.

I again request the forward-ers to read this article before forwading any mails.

Linux for Coding,
Windows for Gaming. :)

Have Fun.

Apache-MySQLPHP Installation & Configuration Tutorial for Beginners :)

2006-02-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

Hi,
This article is a very “narrow” tutorial aimed for complete beginners and dummies, who want to start off coding with AMP (Apache-MySQL-PHP) but do not want to read manual for installing and configuring them.
This write up is very specifically targeted and applies for Windows platform.

Note: To get the real and complete understanding, spend some time with the manuals. They are the best source of information.

Installing and Configuring PHP5 with Apache

Select the most appropriate mirror for you from the following: http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/httpd/binaries/win32/ (for Apache), and http://www.php.net/downloads.php for PHP.

Download apache_1.3.x-win32-x86-no_src.exe and PHP 5.1.2 zip package (names PHP-5.x-win32).

Note:

DO NOT use Apache 2.x with PHP.

If you use PHP 4.x, make proper changes in the some of the steps given below.

Install Apache by simply clicking on the exe file. The default path is C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache.

Unzip the PHP file to C:\PHP.

Add C:\PHP to system path.

Backup and rename php.ini.dist to php.ini.

Copy php5ts.dll and php.ini to %systemroot%.

Copy php5apache.dll to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache.

Open cmd (command prompt) and run net stop apache (to obviously stop the server).

Backup httpd.conf, located in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf, and then open it in an editor to add the following lines:

LoadModule php5_module php5apache.dll

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

AddModule mod_php5.c

Net start Apache.

To check if all everything is in place, write the following code in a notepad and save it as “phpinfo.php” (with inverted quotes).

< ?php phpinfo(); ?>

Place the file in your DocumentRoot directory. The default path is C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache/htdocs.

Start your Mozilla Firefox browser (it’s not mandatory, just a recommendation :P), and type http://localhost/phpinfo.php.

If everything’s fine, we’ll see something like this:

Installing MySQL:

We can find it in three shapes and sizes :D, The Complete Package, The Essentials Package and The Noinstall Archive. We’d go for the complete package named mysql-[version]-win32.

The installation part is click next type.

At the end of the installation, click to configure and choose the options as per your choice or as given below:

Detailed Configuration>Next

Developer Machine>Next

Multifunctional Database>Next

>Next

Manual Settings (choose 5)>Next

Enable TCP/IP (leave default port as 3306)>Next

Add to both, windows services and ssytem path>Next

Choose root password>Next

Execute.

Configuring MySQL & PHP:

Open php.ini, located in %systemroot%, in and editor and uncomment the following line by removing the semicolon at the beginning of the line:

Copy php_mysql.dll and libmysql.dll from C:\PHP\ext to C:\PHP.

To verify the configuration and administer MySQL, one may use phpmyadmin, found at http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php. However, do make sure not to publish it along with the site :P.

That’s it. Happy Coding (. For anymore queries, either leave your comments or refer to the manuals.

"COLUKABKI - AOL - MSN - YAHOO - RED CROSS"..... aaah Comm'n Gimme a break.

2006-01-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

It's really interesting that even enginieering students, who are supposed to have a very ANALYTIC are least bothered in verifying anything before believing it...... and that too when they have access to GOOGLE.

This blog of mine is in response to the hundreds and thousands of mails that are forwarded so that somewhere, somebody's LIFE COULD BE SAVED BY FORWARDING THE BLOODY MAIL.
AOL, Yahoo, Red Cross, MSN etc. etc .etc. donated certain amount of money FOR EACH TIME THE MAIL IS FORWARDED (generally 1 cent).
Isn't that interesting???? I mean what these sites could do generously (if they wished to), do it when some BIG HEARTED person forwards the mail.
And guess what??? They do it without attaching any kind of tracker in the mail... Not to mention that doing any thing even near to attaching a tracker would be a threat to an individuals privacy... :)

I cannot stop myself from sharing one other similar interesting mail. The mail said that an INDIAN BOY HAS CHALLENGED BILL GATES BY DEVELOPING AN O/S CALLED "O! YES", which very Robust, Secure, blah blah blah... And HP has proposed to purchase it.
Now, the first thing... making such an O/S is no joke. This has nothing to do with the crappy nature of WINDOWS (hehehhe), it's just means that it's very difficult for a young child to do so.
Secondly, if someone succeeds in doing so, this news would be the hottest one around.... not one which has to be informed via email. :P And the most interesting part..... This mail has been doing rounds since 5 years (at least) :))

These mails are generally used for two reasons:

For fun.... or to make mockery of someone.

For stealing your mail id for spamming....... I know this is strange, but it's true. If you have any such mail in your mail box, just try to count the number of email ids in it.... and then imagine what would you do with them if you were a spammer. These mails are infact sent by spammers so that they can have a reasonably beautiful number of such mail ids.

JUNTA, please don't feel bad if you have been forwarding such mails.
Obviously, nobody knows everything... but you can be a little careful when you recieve such mails.

Ignore such mails.

If you really feel that the mail is genuine and need to be forwarded, GOOGLE some keywords contained in the mail,

or forward it after removing all the previous email addresses.

ALTERNATELY, YOU MAY ALSO DISTRIBUTE THE LINK OF THIS ARTICLE FOR SPREADING AWARENESS :)

God's give Interviews !!!

2006-01-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

So, here I am with my first tech. blog that I wrote in the midst of my (frustu) sems, but couldn't post due to some "technical reasons" :P .

I had come across the interviews of two gods in the field of computer security:

Paul (Tony) Watson (I prefer to call him jus Tony Watson :D ). Currently working with Google. I really wonder when the hell does this guy work. I mean each and every time I visit his site or blog, I see some new pics being posted. ;) He shot to fame when he discovered a TCP/IP flaw, but made a place in my heart by his sweet comment on fyodor, where he refers him as Fyodor, the great. :) He was interviewed by whitedust.net. If you know some other interview of God Tony ^:)^ , please lemme know.

God in full form

In a Mysterious Mood

Fyodor or Fyodor, the great, the guy behind world's most powerful vulnerability scanner, nmap. Anything said about him would be less, but the best thing I like about him is his down to earth nature. Read his interviews. For newbies, nmap feauterd in Matrix Reloaded and it's source code in Battle Royale, a Japanese movie (if anyone wants to watch, may contact me :) )..... and he himself feautured in the third edition (Clustermind) of comics published by hero-z.org, a legitimate child of zone-h. He gave his interviews at slashdot, zone-h, and whitedust.

God Looks at You

The Smiling Devil.. (Oops) Genius :D

So this is it people. The show time has come to an end. If you are still wondering about the content of this article.... You need to understand that there are a lot of hyperlinks in it, that need to be visited to unleash the treasure :).

Have a nice time,
3~

Namaskaram.....

2006-01-13T12:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Junta!!!

I created this blog to basically separate my technical posts from my other posts, which are posted at http://projectbee.blogspot.com/ .

Keep visiting both of them and also drop by your comments :D

Luv,
3~m.