K World

Moving out of Blogger

2007-10-18T12:48:00.001+05:30

Well, its the time for me to part from Blogger.

I was with blogger up to now for the following reasons -

It's a service from Google
It's a service from Google
It's a service from Google

Finally, I'm moving to my own domain. Things taken care of are ...

Didn't use Blogger service there. It's wordpress !
No black design. A friend complained a lot about color
All the posts and comments migrated to the new blog

So, its time to announce my new blog

http://karteek.selfdabba.com/

And, btw, if you think you are close enough to me or good enough as a blogger and interested in blogging at yourname.selfdabba.com, let me know at karteek [at] selfdabba [dot] com or my personal email which you would be knowing. I'll do my part.

Anyway, Catch you at Self Dabba

PS : Don't forget to update your bookmarks/blogrolls/feed readers.

The Road Not Taken

2007-10-16T20:58:00.001+05:30

The following is the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost which I saw in my school days.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Wondering what is so special about this poem ? The poem can be related to all our lives. All our decisions. When you are going to take some big decision, you think a lot, you take advice from your friends, relatives, seniors.

After all that, you take some decision - which is going to change atleast some smaller or bigger part of your life. You might feel that the decision which you made is not good for you or may be the choice which you didn't select was a great one. Well, there could be a chance that you can trace back and do the missed option. But, not every one could be that lucky.

I've taken many not-so-big decisions up to now - like "Further Studies" or "Job" ... Actually, I don't know whether it's big or not. But, I can certainly tell that, my decision was completely biased one. Job looked desperate for me when I was taking that decision. To be clear, Job @ My Current Employer looked like LIFE to me. But, after took that decision, life was steady for 6 months. Then, the factor which made be biased towards Job felt like nothing. I started thinking about the Road Not Taken ... but, I actually never felt that I did something wrong just coz, I'm happy with my Job even if life wasn't so happy.

Now, I've a decision to make. A road to be taken. Both roads look good to me. One road is a high-paced all-comfort all-people-want-to-go road which all usually prefer. One road is a different-yet-great scenic-country-road which I would enjoy to the core. But, here I'm not biased towards any of those roads so that I can take a faster decision like I did previously. I wish, there's a reason as strong as my previous one which would make me biased towards one of those roads.

Gutsy Gibbon - A Step Ahead ?

2007-10-12T14:53:00.001+05:30

Tribe 3 is on the move now to become Gutsy Gibbon next Thursday, which actually managed to impress most of the people out there. Gutsy Gibbon is coming; with lots of hopes on its shoulders.

If you are thinking what the hell is this ??? Well, never mind, I'm talking about the new release of Ubuntu Linux Distribution. Probably, you want to read about Vista rather than this ;)

If you are wondering, what is Gutsy Gibbon bringing with it; It's bringing hopes of several Linux lovers of Linux becoming a desktop ready OS. Dell and some other vendors are already selling some of their Laptop and PC models with Linux pre-installed in them. But, the present day situation is little different that Linux is not really so friendly that any one can just start using it as simple they use Windows.

If you are probably a Linux user already, the features worth looking forward in Gutsy Gibbon are

Faster Desktop Search
Compiz Fusion by default
AppArmor security framework
Improvements in Firefox plugins
Better support for audio/video codecs
Graphical configuration tool for X.org
Faster User Switching in shared machines
Printer auto-detection
Better handling for commercial drivers
Better support for NTFS

What is Gutsy Gibbon doing to Linux ?

Well, Ubuntu is just one flavor Linux, and it's giving it's best to take Linux one step ahead of becoming a Desktop OS.

What is so good about Linux ?

This question surprises me a lot. To be very clear, everything is great about Linux. It's got a sexy interface, if you don't trust me, take a look at what Compiz can do. If you don't want any GUI interface, you are TEH GUY for Linux, it welcomes you with a very useful shell. It's got almost every tool you use on windows, check LinuxAlt for more information. It gives you more control on your computer than windows. It lets you do MORE useful stuff with your computer rather than burning your computer cycles for checking those stupid commercial DRM rights. If you are a casual user, you need not spend thousands of your hard earned money just to buy one crippled OS which never gives you for your money.

Is Linux nearly a step ahead of becoming Desktop OS ?

Well, the answer is not with just me. It depends on the "particular" user. A user like me will be comfortable with Linux obviously coz, it does everything what windows do, but, if you are some games freak or if you need Photoshop, well, Linux can't help you much other than giving you some decent alternatives.

What does it mean if you are still reading this post ?

It means nothing that you are little bored of your Windows, and you are little scared of trying/buying the new OS from Microsoft - Vista. And, yes, you are thinking about something good. Just, grab your LiveCD from Ubuntu, and pop the CD and reboot. Ubuntu will boot from the CD without installation. If you like it, you can install it beside your "windows" installation without doing any harm to your files.

You can download the ISO of the CD from Ubuntu site or order a free copy of Ubuntu from its "ShipIt" service.

Jaiku is acquired by Google

2007-10-10T13:56:00.001+05:30

Opensource collaboration suite Zimbra was acquired by Yahoo few days before. Now, Jaiku - A Twitter wannabe or a twitter killer or what ever you want to take it as, is acquired by Google.

If you don't know what's twitter and what can be done using twitter, It is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to send updates via SMS, IM or email. If you want to know what it does, there is a simple and straight forward tip posted at nexuz.

If you want to see the comparison between Jaiku and Twitter to make your choice of selection of the service, here is a very good prizefight between Jaiku and Twitter @ CNET TV.

For Google, it's count++ on mobile services as well as social networking. I started to love these 2.0 wars, let's see what's the next thing going to be sold on the market.

x/10 of rediff :P

2007-10-07T23:27:00.001+05:30

Well, when you hate something, you've to accept that it got your attention in a way or other. So, you tend to think about it. I'm no excuse. Just coz, I hate rediff, I started looking for XSS (Cross Site Scripting) bugs. Well, there are a total of listed in XSSed and I found a good number to prove that rediff is a very-bad coded portal. One can view this page to see the bugs and see the elite-ness of rediff.

The important services of that are vulnerable, which are offered by rediff include its homepages and shopping. If you remember those dark old days of orkut when those so-called hackers took over communities they hate, it was done by exploiting the XSS vulnerability in orkut, that time. Now, you can understand, whoever have their homepages on rediff, or/and people who do shopping @ rediff are not using a secure service.

PS: Having XSS in a site doesn't make it a worst site as even MS, Google, Yahoo had/have them. Even the MNC which I work for, had a similar bug in their portal, but, it was fixed as soon as they were notified through a specific channel. But, I don't know why portals like rediff and mouthshut employ stubborn webmasters who hate to accept that their code has bugs. They must have either ignored or never read my mails.

Nobel, Peace and The Currency Guy

2007-10-02T22:48:00.000+05:30

He is a British-educated lawyer
He is the first "colored" lawyer admitted to the bar in South Africa
He invented a new weapon for fighting - Ahimsa
He is the Father of the Nation which boasts being biggest democracy

The above hints might not be helpful for current generation to identify our Bapu. But, certainly there are couple of hints which might be of very helpful for them in identifying him.

The old guy who talks to Munna Bhai in Lage Raho Munna Bhai movie

This hint might be very helpful for the current generation kids to identify him. But, in India, politicians, often being under-educated than a sixth class student would be knowing a lot about Abu Bhai or Dawood Bhai, but not the "first" Bhai of "South Africa". I've a very easy hint for them to identify the person who made India to appear on World Map as India.

Politician uncle, I'm talking about the smiling person on our currency notes

Now, I don't think there would be any Indian who didn't manage to recognize the hero of this post. I'm not a fan of him personally but I'm a very big fan of one of his weapons to fight against Injustice - Non-cooperation. Sorry, I don't remember the exact dialogue, below is "form" of a dialogue taken from one movie

Do whatever you want. I will accept the punishment you give. And after it's over, I will do the same what I've done for what you've punished me

In the movie, he states that he learned this technique from his wife, and the fact is I've seen same form of war-tactic in almost every girl/woman I've seen.

United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring Bapu's birthday (2nd October) to be the "International Day of Non-Violence." Bapu, being the person who flashes in any person's mind when he listens to the word "peace" was nominated for the Nobel peace prize five times, in 1937, 1938, 1939,1947 and 1948, but wasn't given the Nobel Prize. However, recently, Michael Sohlam, the Executive Director of Nobel Foundation in Sweden said that not awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize was a great mistake done by the Nobel Foundation. May be, it was Bapu's wish not to be awarded the prize given on the name of the inventor of "dynamite" and owner of "Bofors"

No doubts about it. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a.k.a Bapu a.k.a our Currency Guy is one of the Greatest Gifts given to India by God.

Artificial Love

2007-10-01T02:51:00.001+05:30

[Taken with Canon Digital Rebel XTi on 30 Sep 2007, 12.20 AM]

I'll give you all I got
If that's what you want
I'll give you what I got and more
But just see me through and through
That's all you got to do
But don't you dare give dare give dare give me
Artificial Love

[Taken from Bambi - Artificial Love]

I like flowers, especially flowers with water drops on them. When ever I see them, I couldn't stop myself from capturing them. Almost all the snaps I take are special to me. I see them again and again. While taking them, I take so much time that my friends usually get frustrated by the time I take to take a single shot. As I try to give 100% of myself to that particular shot while framing it, some times, I get decent shots like the above one.

You need not observe the picture carefully to find that the flower is artificial, but if you have to see carefully to find that those drops are not water drops. I really don't have anything to tell anything about the camera or the shot or the mode or the focal length used to take the shot. There is something different I sense from the picture.

It's beautiful. But, it's fake ... just like that special "someone" you met in your life. Everyone of us would have met that "someone" atleast once in our lives. That "someone" could be the person whom you've loved sincerely or the person whom you would have considered as your best friend or even a person from your family. If you think that you haven't, the truth could be you haven't sensed it or you are just one lucky person in this world. But, when you come to know that you are not a lucky person, all you would be doing is tracing through the steps written in one of my previous posts.

Everyone of us would have had some minor to major crushes or even serious loves which failed. For "you" who is reading this right now and comparing the artificiality of this flower to the artificiality of love that your "Ex" showed you ... I've one thing to tell you.

The flower is fake just like her love
No big deal of blaming her now
The drops are fake so were your tears
Even a cyclone stops as the sky clears

You moved on for the greater future

That's the same you would get for sure

[Some random rhyme is never a crime]

I wrote this blog post without thinking. One random thought and a very random post. If it makes any meaning, good; otherwise sorry for wasting your time. In a nutshell, I wanted to tell you one thing - If you are a victim of artificial love, just move on. It's everywhere.

Check De India

2007-09-26T20:23:00.001+05:30

Even though, all my optimist expectations on World Cup became true, I had a very pessimist expectations on outcomes of Indian win.

Twenty20 World Cup will be conducted once in every two years. Does that mean, once in two years, there are more chances of mobs burning effigies of cricketers or cricket board as well as state governments pouring money on cricketers.
Yuvi is given 1 crore as well as a Porsche 911 by BCCI for his 6 sixers on England and 70-run knock in Aussie match. India played like a team where Yuvi made his mark in 2 out of 6 matches, where as contributions of players like Gambhir, Uthappa, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Bajji and even Sreesanth were of greater use in remaining matches. We need to remember that Yuvi was indirect reason for the defeat with NZ giving 38 runs in 3 overs (20 odd runs in single over) runs in single over and scoring just 5 runs in the match. When each and every player played an equally important role in the series, those two giant goodies from the board went only to Yuvi which can certainly make remaining players think.
Goodies given to the players by their respective state governments is a different thing. But, this is made an issue by players of another game, Hockey. Indian Hockey Team, which won Asia Cup without losing a single match and with record performances like thrashing Sri Lanka with 20-0 certainly couldn't withstand the step-motherly treatment for the national game by central and state governments and is now planning to go on a hunger strike.

When a go-straight brain like mine could see so many problems, I wonder what would those complicated brains perceive all this.

Taking all these complications into account, Indian Government either has to check all these goodies given "only" to cricketers or it should start giving bank checks with similar numbers on it to players of other games too.

Update: The complicated brains have started analysis on "Why was Team India in the back row ?" while the front row was occupied by great ministers of Maharashtra and greater BCCI crowd. Great to see that it became a political heavy weights' meeting rather than the function to honor the World Cup winning team.

Good Luck Chak De and Analysis

2007-09-25T23:54:00.001+05:30

If you are sent here by a search engine when you were looking for the English Movie "Good Luck Chuck", please click here.

Wondering whether a movie can bring Good Luck to a nation ? A definite logical answer to the question is "No". Not Just "No", but it's "NO!!!"

But, let's trace through this time line

August 10, 2007 - Chak De India starring SRK is released
August 29, 2007 - Football, India won Nehru Cup [1]
September 9, 2007 - Hockey, India won Asia Cup [2]
September 24, 2007 - Cricket, India won T20 World Cup [3]

Lets do the analysis on the above wins.

1. Football, I knew that India had a football team, but never knew that it can even win a cup. The only cup it wins is South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup participated by Maldives (165), Pakistan (179), Afghanistan (191), Sri Lanka (166), Bangladesh (175), Nepal (185), Bhutan (197) and of course India (145). The numbers in brackets are rankings given by FIFA to the national teams of respective countries. Don't wonder if there are 197 nations in the world looking at Bhutan's rank, there should be; atleast according to FIFA, there are 200 ranks and 208 nations. As per the above rankings, India should be the obvious winner of SAFF Cup. On the other hand, participant nations of Nehru Cup '07 are Syria (123), Kyrgyzstan (149), Cambodia (178), Bangladesh (175) and India. Obvious finalists are India and Syria and India won with 1-0 score which no-one expected as India never reached Finals of Nehru Cup.

2. Hockey, despite being national game of India is often neglected. But this year, Asia Cup is a very special tournament for India as they entered as defending champions. India started this tournament with a very mediocre win of 1-0 on China. Later, India played at its best while thrashing Sri Lanka with 20-0, Thailand with 16-0. In final, they out performed Korea with 7-2, all the seven goals being field goals. India ended the tournament with 57 goals and just 5 goals against them without a single defeat.

3. Cricket, after the dismal performance at 2007 World Cup, no one expected India to win Twenty20 World Cup. Seniors understood that they can't play this type of fast paced game and took leave from this tournament. Guess, this was the new beginning for the team with just love for the game and hardly any experience. Knocked out two great teams South Africa and Australia and won a thrilling match over the arch rivals Pakistan in finals. No other win can be sweeter than this.

Football, After 13 tries, Indian Team won Nehru Cup
Hockey, India thrashing Korea to defend title, not with Penalty Corners but with high quality Field Goals. BTW, Entire Chak De squad were there to support Team India for the final.
Cricket, After world cup first round exit, just after losing ODI series to England, with experience of JUST ONE International Twenty20 match, leaving seniors behind, with a captain who is leading his first tournament, with performances not by a single player, India WON the first Twenty20 Cricket World Cup. SRK was there on the final.

All this happened just after the movie is released. I'm being silly trying to convince that Movie could be the reason for India's luck. But, I'm sure that all the three teams must have followed what SRK told in the movie.

Play for India first, then for the team, if anything is still left then play for yourself

Any Indian cricket fan can tell that this hardly happened in our team, till this tournament. Chak De India !

India Did It :-)

2007-09-24T21:39:00.001+05:30

I always had hopes that India will reach finals of any tournament I thought I would never see them as champions. Finally, thanks to captaincy of Dhoni and God of luck; India did it.

Won final of a tournament - Made me happy
Final of World Cup - Made me damn happy
Final against Pakistan - I'm jumping with joy !!!

I jumped with joy as soon as India won, but I forgot that I'm sitting the living room where there is a fan above my head running at its highest speed. Result - India won, I had a very bad cut on my hand (I can see a nerve !!!) First thing to do in the morning is .. to consult a doctor.

Thanks to Dhoni, Gambir, Pathans, RP, Sreesanth, Jogi, Imran Nazir, Misbah for a great final. Thanks to Yuvi, RP, Irfan, Dhoni and Sreesanth for a great tournament. Thanks to Agarkar for staying outside final eleven. Even bigger thanks to Sachin, Sourav and Rahul for staying out of the tournament itself. BTW, to be very neutral, Pakistan was at its best today. They played a very good game - just, the God of Luck was looking at us.

Update : Cut was too deep. Had to go to doctor now itself. Came out with two stitches :-)

Jack of all trades - The Darker Side

2007-09-24T00:30:00.000+05:30

The following is a technology related stuff and The Darker Side of Me and a very very very long "essay" about me. Be warned.

Gone are the days when I didn't know how to shut down a windows PC. When I use to call those so-called "engineers" to fix my PC and shell out an extra buck to get some games installed on my box. I remember the day when my cousins made fun of me for switching off that PC as if the OS was DOS. Good old days and nights of "Age of Empire". Hours and Hours of "Road Rash" and "Need for Speed". One fine day, which almost changed my life in a smaller sense, a friend of my dad forgot the password for a word Document he kept and asked me whether I can do anything to find it.

It was the day, I saw the darker side of the Computing World, the security world. I searched in Google (that time, its a cool new search engine introduced by my cousin. Thank You Ark) to find out how password of a word document can be cracked. I managed to find one software which can crack it, but it was shareware. Then, I saw that it was software one has to buy, but my cousin Ark told me that there is a software named "Serials2K" which will have serial number for any software. I was pretty much impressed by the software, but, being little different, I wanted to know how the guys find those keys. My question was answered by a process named "Reverse Engineering". But, it wasn't enough for me, I wanted to learn how to do it. Then, I found a forum where some folks claimed to know that art and are teaching guys there. That forum had over 4000 members with weird names a.k.a handles. I became one of them and started learning about computers. But, my skills weren't improving in the skill I wanted to learn (Reverse Engineering) but at Social Engineering. I became one of the moderators of the board, then one of the administrators of the board, then administered their IRC server. When having admin access to the board, I learned PHP, Perl and Python. As part of my curriculum, I learned C, C++, Java, VB. Then, being at a board, I saw the culture of "clans" in the board, where another board members use to come to our board and spam/flame/do_crap at our board. Our answer was a simple deface of their site, which introduced me to the lowest level of computer security skills. Then, my interests changed to VIRUSes and then I collected source codes of 1000 viruses, through which I wanted to learn coding viruses but never earned those skills or simply never tried to be malicious.

Then, the greatest turn of my life came, when I was introduced to a site named "try2hack" which dealt with so-called "hacking" simulations. This is the start of the brighter side of my internet life. I left all those kiddie and illegal things along with those boards, closed my clans, ditched those emails, forgot those net-friends a.k.a clan mates (except one) and then I solved all of them within couple of weeks and then started looking for similar sites, then I finally found the site which helped me to learn so many things - Net Force.

Net-Force is the site which doesn't support any illegal a.k.a hacking activities but it gives a very good simulation at the real stuff. There are 8 categories (Javascript, Java Applets, Cryptography, Exploits, Cracking, Programming, Internet and Steganography) with a total of 93 challenges. Challenges of various levels from basic tutorials to very hard challenges. I managed to solve 82 of them up to now. I learned something from each and every challenge and I'm glad that I learned them. The domain of challenges is so wide that you will learn atleast a little about a wide variety of topics.

I'm what I'm right now with little knowledge about a wide variety of topics - Jack of all trades. I never mastered anything up to now. But, I want to be a master in one. I've chosen two topics in which I want to be more than a Jack. One of them being XSS and another is SQL Injections. I started learning about XSS already. My progress is at XSSed. It is an archive of XSS vulnerabilities in various web applications as well as sites ordered by PageRank. I wish, one day, I will be a master at something.

Pay Back Time

2007-09-23T01:28:00.001+05:30

23 March 2003, South Africa
Finals - World Cup Cricket. Dream of a nation and prestige for a nation. Dream shattered by The Mighty Oz.

22/23 September 2007, South Africa
Semi Finals - Twenty20 World Cup Cricket. A team of youngsters with most of them playing their first international series. On the other side, its The Mighty Oz, but without their kingpin Ponting. Odds of winning for the World Champions were double than that of India as per newspapers, former Indian cricketers etc etc.

Indians started slow, but Yuvi came out with a brilliant knock of 70 in 30 balls to help India in keeping a respectable target of 189 on the board. Aussies made a decent start and were on the winning edge till 14th over. Daemon named "Hayden" was walking down the pitch to hit the balls over the boundary line. Same thing happened in 2003, when Ganguly couldn't do anything and gave up trying something new. This time Dhoni had a trick to support his bowlers. He kept just behind the wickets even for the pace bowlers to make sure that the batsmen won't walk down the pitch and not only just hit sixes but also hit down the confidence levels of the bowlers. I don't know whether this worked out or not as those sixes didn't stop, but bowlers were atleast not on their worst confidence levels. Sreesanth was aggressive, extremely good in his bowling and sent two dangerous batsmen - Gilchrist and Hayden to pavilion. Bajji was very good in saving the runs. Indians were never tensed through out the game even when Aussies were in a commanding position of the game, thanks to new skipper Dhoni. They just played a comfortable game. Finally, its the pay back time. Indians took their revenge after four years by sending the Mighty Oz out of the tournament by winning over them for the first ever time in any World Cup.

I'm sure that Aussies are no Gods but daemons but, today's match reminded me one quote from the movie Superman

For Surely As Night Follows Day, There Comes A Time When Gods Must Die

My optimist side of brain was correct in sensing the best ever World Cup final, Cricket can have - India Vs Pakistan. Pakistan never won on India in a world cup. The max they achieved was a tie in this world cup. Pakistan is playing extremely well. It undefeated in the total tournament. But, Now, my optimist side of the brain senses the best ever World Cup win India can have - A World Cup final win by defeating Pakistan. Lets see what's going to happen. Good Luck Team India. Still, My biased heart loves you without Sachin and Sourav.

Unlucky RSA and the lucky Oz

2007-09-21T01:39:00.001+05:30

No !!! I'm not going to talk about RSA algorithm for signing and encryption, but about Republic of South Africa. And its about South African cricket team.

Even though I'm not a hardcore fan of cricket I follow the results of almost all the matches. As an Indian, Team India is the team which I always want to win. But, if the match is not RSA Vs India, then my obvious favorite is RSA.

They always start great, but most of the times, they end up coming out in * Finals. They've won only two big trophies - ICC Champions and Commonwealth Games in 1998 even though they deserve many more wins.

Coming to 2007, First ICC Twenty20 World Cup, they started great with a good win on West Indies over a mammoth score of 205. Then, decent wins on Bangladesh and England booked their spot in Super Eights. Another decent win on New Zealand. By the last match in Super Eights, South Africa is the only team which didn't lose a single match. As usual, their bad luck followed them, and they lost a crucial match.

One single match - One loss in the total tournament - Their dreams shattered - They are out of race - Not even in the final four.

On the other hand, in the deeper parts of my biased brain, there is a team which I always hated. I hated them not because they are no. 1, but because of the reasons I never knew. I hated them even before they were the champions. The team is none other than the Mighty Oz. They were very lucky in this particular tournament. They lost to Zimbabwe in their first match. They lost to Pakistan in Super Eights. I'm completely biased in calling their emphatic win over Sri Lanka as a lucky win as I felt like it was very unlucky day for the Lankans as they hardly play that pathetic.

On the optimist side of my brain, I sense a very much awaited final in the history of cricket - World Cup Final between India and Pak. Lets see, what's going to happen. Good luck Team India. My biased heart loves you without Sachin and Sourav.

Yahoo! acquired Zimbra

2007-09-19T01:59:00.001+05:30

If you've seen a collaboration suite which is completely browser based and works like charm ... you must have seen Zimbra. Well, if you haven't seen anything like that, you can take a look at Zimbra demo page.

Well, it's bought by Yahoo! Guess Google guys were sleeping when Yahoo! was doing this deal with Zimbra. Hope this works out very well. Yahoo! has committed to keep the open source edition open.

Yahoo! is excited about Zimbra and is planning to implement it inside for its own employees. BTW, Satish Dharmaraj, CEO of Zimbra made the deal for $350M in cash.

D.O.A.P - Fiction Doped for Acceptance

2007-09-16T02:43:00.001+05:30

I realized today that I can easily be influenced by a movie. Of course, not by any movie; but certainly by a very good movie. Michael Moore's two documentaries Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko made me believe what ever he has shown in the movie. I almost believed some of those Theories after watching few documentaries.

Today, I realized that I shouldn't believe everything that I see in those documentaries. The reason behind that realization is "Yet another documentary".

So, what is that documentary about ?
It's about Assassination of President Bush.
What ????? Documentary ???? About President Bush ?? Was Senior Bush killed ??
Come on .... None is killed.
Then WTF is that documentary about ????
It's about .... assassination of George W. Bush, current President of USA on 19 Oct, 2007
Dude, WTF are you talking about ???

I'm talking about a documentary named Death of a President which was released in 2006. Its a fictional documentary. But, if you keep me in a dungeon for one total year without newspaper or television or internet and show this documentary after an year, I would certainly believe that this total documentary is true. Director took interviews of people, how used archive footage, he even used computer effects to make us feel like we are watching real stuff.

Its obvious that documentary was very well taken. But, I wanted to understand what the director really wanted to convey with this movie. Wikipedia tells that the film covers topics of civil disobedience, racial profiling, the reduction of civil liberties, sensationalism and just-war theory. But, my thoughts were not limited to just those topics.

I was constantly thinking about those old documentaries which I watched and liked/believed so much. I was thinking about dialogue in the movie "Die Hard 4.0" - "The news is completely manipulated". Those fake sting operations, the unnecessary media attentions, what ever is happening right now in this world made me feel one thing. Should I really believe what I'm watching on those news channels ? As some great person once told ... For every story there are three versions ... Your version, My version and The Truth.

What ever my thoughts, I understood one thing. No big deal in documentaries, they can biased or even wrong. What else can I understand, I just saw a documentary taken so well about the assassination of a person who is alive and who would be thinking about another war right now. Now, I've to rethink about old documentaries too.

Finishing touch and question for you ... Can 21st century media be defined as Fiction Doped With Sensationalism for Acceptance ?

Denial to Acceptance

2007-09-06T21:31:00.001+05:30

This post is going to be lengthy. I've decided not to miss or skip anything unless I make myself clear; very clear. I read about this in a management book by Andrew S Grove - Only The Paranoid Survive. The book is about exploiting crisis points that challenge every company. Those crisis points which can make business diminish or make them grow enormous.

While reading that book, I understood one thing - Crisis points not only challenges any company. There are so many crisis points in our individual lives. Points like ..

Failing in a dream-examination
Dumped by your loved one
Losing your loved ones
Even ... a kid losing his favorite toy

All those points, which influence your life more or less can be taken as crisis points in your life coz, they change your lifestyle; for atleast some time.

Andy Grove tells that each crisis point is taken by a company in different states. On further research, I found some page on the net dealing with some health disorder which tells that most individuals face those crisis points of their life in five stages - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. For some individuals, some stages are lengthier, some are shorter, some stages don't even come. In brief, the stages can be explained as ...

1. Denial - The "No, not me" stage
This stage is filled with disbelief and denial. Company or individual thinks that what ever is happening in their life is NOT happening. They think that its a bad dream.

Individual who failed the exam won't accept the fact that he/she failed. The person who was dumped prefers to think that its a nightmare. If the person is dead, individuals won't accept their death. You could have seen people talking to dead bodies for some time.

2. Anger/Resentment - The "Why me ?" stage
This stage results in anger at the person whom you perceive as reason for everything.

Failed guy scolding the examiner or his friend who disturbed him during his preparation. Dumped person's anger on the guy/girl who was close to their loved ones. God would be usual target for family of dead person. Kids jumping at some one near by them when they've lost their toy.

3. Bargaining - The "If I do this, you'll do that" stage
Negotiation for the change in the situation is the objective of this stage.

Can I bribe and get myself on passed list ??? You could have heard that atleast once in your life when your friend's have failed examinations. Dumped cases - I will quit smoking, I will quit drinking, I will quit doing this, I will quit doing that .. just come back to my life. When people are lost, the very common dialogue you heard from old people is .. "Why him ... why not me ???" They really want to bribe themselves for the lost person's life just coz, it won't happen ;)

4. Depression - The "It happened" stage
Realization of the fact happens in this stage. People do realize that whatever is happened is truth.

Damn, I should apply for the exam again. Man, Its pain. I can't work so hard again. Not again !!! Dumped cases - Long beard, bottle in hands, poetry on lips, face in heart, tears on eyes, suicide as an option, depression as whole. People who lost loved ones - Crying; lots of crying. Nothing else. Same as kids who lost toys.

5. Acceptance - The "Its over. What next ?" stage
Changes accepted. Points noted. Everything's over. Yes, its already out of control What should I do now ?

Okay, Now, I've to apply for the exam again. When's the exam date ? I should start preparing well for the exam atleast this time. Dumped cases - She is gone, but I'm not. I really should find someone else who wont be such a bad bch to leave me. That babe looks great. Will she be a good choice ? God, wish me all the best. Dead people are dead. They are lucky that they are dead. What's the plan for tomorrow ? That old toy is gone. Now, DAD !! I want a new Play Station 3 !!!

What ever Grove wrote about Crisis points and how companies deal with is true to core even in our personal lives. Things do happen like this. Just the fact is that, people with higher Intelligence Quotient and lesser Emotional quotient traverse through the above five stages faster than the others.

Magician with stick in his hand

2007-08-29T22:34:00.001+05:30

There is one Indian Portal which writes articles like ... who is the hottest item girl, Sharapova in sizzling red etc etc, but it won't write that today (Aug 29) is National Sports Day. That is why Arjun awards as well as Khel Ratna awards are given today.

Why do we celebrate Aug 29 as National Sports Day ? It is coz, its birthday of a great guy, who can be compared to Pele, Sir Don Bradman when it comes to his particular sport. To be frank, he is considered as the greatest player ever played that game. But, it is sad that we don't know him as much as we know Anna Kournikova or Sania Mirza even though they are mediocre in their game.

His game was superior that many people thought that he is magician. Tokyo officials broke his stick to search for magnet in it and tried to console themselves telling that he added some sort of glue. He was supposedly offered a place of Field Marshal in German Army by Adolf Hitler. Guess, you got it now. He is none other than Dhyan Chand. It is very sad that I can't see/hear his name on any portal or a news channel today when National Sports Day is celebrated on occasion of his birthday.

To finish, He was part of India's first three Olympics Gold winning National Hockey Team. Team India reached finals of Olympics eight times in a row and won seven Golds and one Silver. In this not-so favorite game of Indians(favorite being Cricket), India won eight Olympic Golds and Aus, with four Olympic Golds is second in the table.

Don't Eat My Cookie

2007-08-28T21:12:00.001+05:30

Uhmmm, will you guys understand if start writing about XSS ??? If you understand, good, if you don't, great, as it tells that you've so many other things in your life to worry about than mere security on a web site. But, in order to understand what I'm writing here, you've to know little about XSS - Cross Site Scripting.

XSS, in simple terms is a computer security vulnerability found in web applications which allow code injection by bad guys. The bugs can be exploited to craft powerful phishing attacks including stealing credentials.

Why am I writing about this ? Yesterday, I found couple of XSSes in two big Indian web sites. Rediff and MouthShut. I've reported to MouthShut about the vulnerability, but not rediff (Sorry rediff, I hate you) The below screenshot is XSS in MouthShut. If they've fixed, you can see it here.

As I hate rediff, and I didn't report to rediff, I don't want to post about rediff's XSS. But, You can see that rediff is STUPID by giving some weird chars (hint : Vulgar fraction for ½ brained rediff) as input in its search box.

So, how do you escape from such kind of attacks ??? See my last post. Fire-up your fox with NoScript. It saves you from bad guys of this world.

Fire-up your fox !!

2007-08-26T19:53:00.001+05:30

Before firing up my fox, I want to write few lines about the synonym of internet - Internet Explorer

MSIE has been the most widely used browser. It had usage share of about 95% in 2004. The share was very high coz of few reasons like ... Most of the desktops run on Windows. IE is the default browser in Windows and most of the users dint give a damn about what they are using as long as it finishes their work. Opera was an alternative but wasn't free. Netscape navigator became one "buggy" product without any innovation which was a super hero among browsers in 90s.

But, in the second half of 2004, a new kid of entered the scene and started to take over the screen. Name was Phoenix, Mozilla Phoenix. Later the name was changed to Mozilla Firebird then to Mozilla Firefox coz of trademark issues. It decreased the usage share of MSIE from 95 to 86 in 2 years !!!

Firefox is considered as the best browser by many companies but not limited to Forbes, PC World. Firefox dint become a great browser all by itself, but by the features as well as the big developer community which develops plugins for it to do various tasks. Well, now we will see how to Fire UP our Firefox to do various tasks.

NoScript - Extra extra Java Script protection for your firefox
Greasemonkey - Customize the way your webpages look with thousands of free scripts from userscripts.org
Adblock plus - Get rid of all those ad banners
FoxyTunes - Control any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos with single click
Fasterfox - Tweak performance of Firefox
FireBug - Web development evolved ;)
Themes - Make your great browser look great ;)

You will certainly feel that Firefox is 200% better that IE6/7 with all the extra added security as well as features. BTW, take a look at new product based on Firefox, Mozilla Firefox Campus Edition

Register ? Globals ? What ???

2007-08-25T22:13:00.001+05:30

I deal with little PHP at my work. Some of my teamies also deal with php. One of my teamies who left for some other company, created a great application which is a shopping cart with certain _damn_cool_ features. He used php do some stuff.

Someone else wanted to see that tool again, and another teamie tried installing it on a laptop. He was reading Installation Manual for the application, where I saw one point as .. "Set register_globals to ON"

As a security enthusiast, I always read about "how not to do" a lot. I still remember that most controversial change in php of setting default value for register_globals was changed to ON from OFF. When I came back to the scene, I can smell one thing. One possible security breach. Registering Globals can really go fatal for the application sometimes when the logic is bad.

Consider the following code snippet

<?php
if (authenticated_user()) {
$authorized = true;
}
if ($authorized) {
include "/highly/sensitive/data.php";
}
?>

In the above snippet (from php.net) if you can see that if the user is authenticated, a variable $authorized is defined with value "true". If value of variable $authorized is true, highly sensitive data is included.

The logic doesn't look flawed from the exoskeleton of the code. But, it is very bad logic to code such kind of application ... especially when register_globals are on.

When register_global are set to on, one can create a variable through a request. Now, if we call the above code as

access.php?authorized=1

What's going to happen now ? If I'm authenticated_user(), fine. I've every right to access the data. If I'm not, $authorized is created with value 1 as we are creating it using our GET request and this gives me access to the sensitive data which I'm not allowed to access. Here, this can be avoided by creating $authorized with value false on top of the code.

You can know more about this security issue at php.net If you are using php << 4.2.0, Don't forget to change the directive register_globals to OFF or take proper care to secure your code. If you are using php >> 4.2.0, you need not worry much about this as the default value is OFF. This directive is going to be removed from php 6 onwards.

Alice, Bob and Lahycxpajyqh

2007-08-23T03:48:00.001+05:30

Wondering what's that L.. word in the title ? You guys are supposed to use ~~Google~~ search engine once in a while.

...

Okay, okay. You really don't want to search now and find what the hell is that. What if I give you a couple of hints ?

Julius Caesar was a great Roman political leader.
Julius Caesar was one of The Nine Worthies

Still no idea what's happening here ? Great. That's what this science was developed. This science is considered to be a branch of Mathematics and Computer Science and it is called Cryptography

The Hints were Caesar and Nine. The Crypto I used is Caesar Shift and the shift magnitude is 9. That converts "Cryptography" into "Lahycxpajyqh". Caesar shift is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques.

Now, coming to Alice and Bob. Those names are first used by Ron Rivest while presenting one of the most famous encryption algorithms RSA. Well, about RSA, its an encryption algorithm which uses two big Prime Numbers to encrypt as well as decrypt data. The bigger the primes the more secure it is against attacks.

All crap apart. Coming to daily life usage of encryption and decryption. You guys might be sending some mails. Some of them would be very personal. You might be knowing that mails go thru several servers and some server admin can just read your mail. How do you make sure that your mails are read only by the person who is intended to read it ? Well, The process is easy but it has to be mutual. Both the sender and reader must know about the process.

What's the best/easiest method of doing this ? (a.k.a method I use)

Download GPG (GNU Privacy Guard)
If you are scared of command-line then GPG4Win would be a better option
Create a new keypair
- Private Key for yourself
- Public Key for everyone else
Generate a revocation certificate for your public key (If you forget your password or if your private key is lost, this certificate is used to tell people that your public key is no longer been used. It can also be used to verify your signature)
Give your public key to people who mail you (so that they can encrypt their mails)
Use your private key to decrypt the encrypted messages.
You can also use your private key to sign your messages and readers can verify that the message is sent by you.

With all those GUIs and plugins for the browser (FF) which are available, the entire process is made so simple. Just right now, I'm not doing anything of very high confidentiality and I really don't want others to think that I'm paranoid about security by forcing them to verify my signature or encrypt their mails.

PS: If you are sending a love letter, I know that you really don't want any one else to read your email .. even then, DO NOT ENCRYPT the mail even if you find girl's public key in a key server. Not every girl is Alice to prefer decrypt a mail before reading it ;)

BTW, a public key server is a server where people upload/publish their Public Keys.

No patch for human brain

2007-08-21T01:03:00.001+05:30

Life is good. It's so good that I'm happy with everything that's happening around me. I'm happy for clouds showering on my head as soon as I enter heavy traffic where I can't stop or find a shelter. I'm happy for my boring life to think about silly things. One of those silly things is one silly bug that crept into one advanced application in a Great Company.

It's not about 'a' project among thousands of projects. It's about one project that actually is common to every person of our company. A web application for which you get access even before you get access to your company email-id. In fact, your email-id selection can be done only through that application.

What's good about that application ? Well, it's cool. It's complicated. It's advanced. It makes my work easy (almost :P, atleast I don't have to run around carrying papers)

What's bad about that application ? Silly messages. Yes. Very silly messages. If you press "ctrl" or "alt", you will get a message box telling you "You are not allowed to press that button" .. What .. WTF ?? I'm not allowed to press a button on my keyboard ??? Come on dude. It's heights of "being secure". Well, yeah. A person who just started using computer can certainly think that the application is so secure that it even detects my key presses.

Yeah, As a person who uses computers little more than an average computer engineer, I found that .. exoskeleton of the application is so weak that any kid can break it. There are some basic principles in coding a web application. I've no clue whether they've followed every principle or not .. but they missed principle Numero Uno.

What is that ? They send password back to my browser. WTF ??? Yep. They send password back to my browser, unaltered, unencrypted. Just plain 0xPassword, thinking that no user will press other buttons when they tell that he can't press certain buttons.

So, that's the only bug that has crept into ? Well, the answer is no. There is a whole family of bugs inside that application.

They use one 32 letter word (*cough* *cough* its a hash) to login to certain place of the application. Guess, what's funny ? That word is same for you through out your time. It's not changed even if you change your password of that application. Someone grabs it, you can never help it.

If the above one was funny, this one will make you laugh even more. They transmit your username and password as variables using HTTP GET. Which in other words mean, If you use a proxy and you access this application, even though, they use SSL, the proxy admin can see your password as URLs themselves are not encrypted. WTF, in our company we use proxy all the time !!! Which means, my admin can see my "secret" password if he wishes !!!

Application coders can fight with me, come on dude, we've implemented sessions so well that if you don't do anything on the application for sometime, your session will expire and we take you to login page automatically. My response to that would be .. Wow, I'm speechless. Many users. Yes, I do mean, many users of the application forget to logoff and leave the browser window open and leave. Which means that their session is expired, but window is just showing the dead "session" there on the browser. But, our coders forgot Rule Zero that any browser on hitting refresh button will resend the HTTP query. I just pressed shift button and refreshed the browser. Tada !!! My browser asks me whether to resend that data. Here DATA is my username and password. If I click on Yes. My dead session will get renewed and using bug one, I can find the password.

Well, there is one fact. After you join the company, they give you some guidelines for using the application. If you follow them, you are safe. But, our guys forgot one basic thing that "Applications can be patched, but not human brains"

I know how to fix those bugs. I've told them how to fix those bugs. For two times, they've fixed bugs after couple of months. The other times, they dint even read.

Ashtasiddhi

2007-08-19T18:56:00.000+05:30

I saw a very beautiful idol of Lord Ganesha hiding somewhere in the living room of my uncle's place. I thought to capture it and show it to you guys. I loved the photo too.

After capturing the photo, I wanted to know more about the favorite and most-worshipped Hindu God. Best place would be some old person, but, I wanted to know unbiased version. So, I jumped to Wikipedia, where a good number of topics are neutral.

While reading about Lord Ganesha, I saw a painting by Raja Ravi Varma, whose paintings are considered to be among best examples for the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art. In the painting, The Ashtasiddhi are shown as attendants of Lord Ganesha. As a person of higher curiosity, I read about Ashta Siddhi.

Siddhi literally means "accomplishment", "attainment" or "success". It is also used as term for spiritual power in Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism. There are nine main Siddhis, Eight primary Siddhis (two different versions - Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavatam versions) and ten secondary Siddhis and five Siddhis of Yoga and Meditation.

After reading the classification, the only thing in my mind was .. I always thought that "Siddhi" and "Buddhi" are wives of Lord Ganesha. I was not disappointed by my "knowledge" about Lord Ganesha, as I'm not a very religious person. But, I always thought that I know "little" more than an average guy in his twenties.

To be frank, my "religious beliefs" are little complicated which I couldn't understand up to now. But, being a person who believes that there is only one God, I read about other religions to know their beliefs, their theories, their way to seeking the Supreme Power. Now, I understood that I've to read about the world's oldest extant religion, Hinduism.

MySQL db Password ?

2007-08-17T21:45:00.001+05:30

Note: There is nothing new in the following post. Just some redundant info that can be found on web.

I'm from a project which calls itself a research lab. I've never done a serious research till I came out of the project to help a teammate who was doing some other project.

When I was in lab, I use to suggest my teamies to use MySQL rather than heavier databases from MS or Oracle. MySQL is free, lighter and PHP's best friend. We have installed MySQL in almost every desktop and every server in our control. In most of our Projects, we saved usernames and passwords in the MySQL database. What about MySQL's password ?

I remember the cases where my teamies forgot their password and ended up in reinstalling MySQL. Well, that's not at the solution for the problem. Very simple solution is to skip authorization checks and starting MySQL and resetting the password. Login as Administrator or root into the machine and then

If MySQL is running, stop the server
- Command in Linux : $ killall -9 mysqld
- Command in Windows : C:\net stop mysql
Start the MySQL server using the following command
- Linux : /path/to/mysql/bin/safe_mysqld -- skip-grant-tables &
- Windows : C:\path\to\mysql\bin> mysqld-nt -- skip-grant-tables
Now, you don't need a password to login to MySQL as root
mysql -u root
Mysql> use mysql;
Mysql> update user set password = password ( "newPassword") where user = "root";
Mysql> flush privileges;
Mysql> exit
Restart MySQL server using mysqladmin command
- mysqladmin -u root shutdown -p
Start MySQL normally

Out of "What the hell is my password ?" to "Hope, I wont forget my new password"

GME - Mashups Made Easy

2007-08-10T23:46:00.001+05:30

Note: Following content deals with computer related stuff. Reader discretion is advised.

Mashup. What is a Mashup ?

A mashup is a web page or application that integrates complementary elements from more than one source

Yes, thank you. I understand the {English} definition. But, give the definition of in Lay Man's English. Okay, here is your definition.

Mashup is a web application which takes data from more than one source and displays the integrated for better use

So, what ever takes data from more than one source and displays to me is a mashup ? So, My RSS Feed reader is also a mashup as it takes data from more than one site.

NO. NO. NO. Your RSS Feed Reader, is a web FEED reader. Nothing else. Mashup might take two or more feeds and gives you an integrated experience of those feeds.

Great, give me an example. I don't think I will understand unless you give me a very good example.

Okay master. Your wish is my command. For example, you are on a world tour. You were planning to visit USA. You want to know which cities are safe and which are not. I would take the data from a service link this one which gives me data about America's most unsafe cities. And I will take the data and display the same cities on map. On a click on the city, I will display their rank and some photos which I took from another services like flickr and some videos from a service like Youtube. This web application will help you not only see the names of the cities which are not safe, but also, show it on a map with some other details about the city which is an obvious integrated experience

Okay Okay. That's great. Can I do my own mashups ? If yes, what is the best possible method to do that ?

I know that you will ask this question. It actually depends on what kind of a person you are.

If you want a simple GUI to create a mashup and you're a fan of Mr. Bill, I suggest Popfly from Microsoft. Its very easy to use. Interface is cool. Some wicked features. Just not good enough if you want advanced customization

If you don't want anything from uncle Bill and you still want a good GUI, Yahoo Pipes is a very good alternative. It got nice GUI as well as good customization. But, something between us, I really dint feel like using Pipes. Not my type.

Well, if you are type of a "computer" person who admires what ever is done by Google. You've yet another product from Google. Its simple. It offers a lot of advanced customization. Its for programmers. The name is Google's Mashup Editor. I'm in love with GME already. It's for folks who love to code rather than drag and drop. It's definitely not for weak hearts who can't code or who wants a GUI.

Hey, I'm not a programmer. I'm really interested in creating some mashups. You stay with GME, I will certainly take a look at Popfly and Yahoo Pipes.

Free {legal} alternatives

2007-08-09T20:48:00.001+05:30

Note: Following content deals with computer related stuff. Reader discretion is advised.

Most of us in India use WinTel machines. WinTel as in Windows -Intel machines. Yes, you are wrong. I'm not going to campaign for Linux right now. I'm going tell more about software rather than Linux. Windows is also a cool OS to have if you can pay for it.

As far as I know many people when they use computers at their homes, they tend to use illegal/pirated software. When I was student, I never had a second thought about pirated software. But, when I became part of the IT industry where my company bill my client for the code I write, why shouldn't the guys who coded the program which I use demand the money ... just like I do. They need money for their code as much as I need money for my code.

But, there is always another version of my stories. Yeah, those programmers who code for money should get their money. But, what about poor guys like me who can't afford every software they want to use. Well, people who want the quality/fame of those commercial tools, SHOULD BUY those commercial tools or take a little time to migrate to Open Source/Free alternatives.

Yes, this is about the software. The software which I use every day for my personal use. The software which all use every day to meet their requirements. These are the type of users.

Who BUY their software
Who download their ILLEGAL software
Who look for ALTERNATIVE

I've no comments for users of type {2}. I'm indeed a user who come under {1} and {3} I bought my OS along with my dell lappy. And about remaining tools, I tend to look for an alternative. For everyone out there, who wants grab their free {legal} software, take a look at http://www.osalt.com/ - site which is dedicated to give details about Open Source Alternatives to commercial software.

Whenever you feel guilty for using pirated software (if at all, you realize one day) before checking your pockets for money to buy the commercial software, check Opensource Alternative site. If you change your mind to be a real !windows guy, and you want to switch to Linux, the site which can help you a lot in your transformation is Linux Alternative.

Coding Conventions

2007-08-07T23:36:00.001+05:30

Note: Following content deals with computer related stuff. Reader discretion is advised.

I was helping(read as 'trying to help') a teamie in coding today. That actually made me to touch "My-Bic = Easy Ajax" for coding a web application in PHP which includes lot of Ajax. I told my teamie that use of My-Bic "framework" makes Ajax work very simple.

It's true that My-Bic makes work very simple. But, I was wrong in using one term there. Whenever I use that word with My-Bic I feel tingling in my head that I'm using a wrong term. Yeah, the term is "framework". My-Bic is a basic state of mind system rather than a frame work as per ajaxpatterns.org and also, its simple, fast and easy to use. Actually, this blog entry is not to write about My-Bic, but to write about something else. Yeah, about the title "Coding Conventions". I will come to that after telling thanks to My-Bic for my "Happily Ever After" combination of Ajax and PHP. Guys, thanks a lot for moving pain of many programmers to /dev/null

Now, coming to Coding Conventions. I had a feeling that coding convention is a same thing across all the programming languages. Yeah, I ended up as a stupid with wrong assumption. Today, I saw that there are so many conventions for each and every programming language though only one is standard. Yeah, one standard convention for one programming language.

For fellow PHP programmers reading this page out there, I just saw a set of conventions on a site which gives opensource Ajax Framework (I'm going to try it very soon as its a Framework) The name is Mouse, TigerMouse. It's considered as a very good framework available now. I will confirm whether its easy to use or not (If I can use, it MUST be easy to use) it very soon after trying that out.

Some of the conventions given are (except naming class file, all the following are same in php and Java)

class names in PascalCase (e.g. ClassName)
- I do follow this convention YAY !! (+1 point)
methods, properties and local variables names in camelCase (e.g. methodName)
- I follow this one too !!!! (1+1 = 2 points)
class files <class name>.class.php
- I've coded a class today and I dint follow the above one. Its not same in java. (2 - 1 = 1 points)
only one class/interface per file
- Yes. I do that in both java and php (1 + 1 = 2 points)
keep { in the same line as its respective if, for, function, class, etc.
- Arghh, I always hated this thing. I always keep { in the next line. Duh @ this convention (2 - 1 = 1 point)
document your code using Doxygen tags
- Excusez moi, did I just use the word "document" .. uhmm. //No Comments ( 1 - 1 = 0 points)

Man, being a person who actually codes (not a lot, but, I do code) with conventions in my mind, I scored 0 points for PHP and 1 point for Java. Those conventions make your fellow programmers' lives simpler if they have to hack your code. Just for my friends who follow this blog, though most of them are not into programming now .. I guess, but, if they've to code sometime (in any language, not just php/Java) please take sometime to read conventions of that specific language, and do follow them while coding and give your fellow programmers more time to hack the code rather than try to understand the code.

It's a Dog Eat Dog World

2007-07-22T03:58:00.001+05:30

When ever I see Michael Moore movies, the most I like about them is their banner - "Dog Eat Dog Films"

Well, I'm not going to write about MM or his films or any dogs that eat dogs. I'm just writing about a forward I got from one of my teamies. <masala>It's about two friends in a jungle</masala>

Two friends went to a jungle. They saw a hungry lion there (Don't ask me how do I know that lion is hungry. It's looking at them just the way I look at KFC ;) Come on, just concentrate on the story) As soon as they saw the lion, they understood that they are going to be history. One of those guys took a pair of brand new Nike shoes and started wearing them. His friend was surprised at his action and asked him "Do you think that you can run faster than lion with those shoes on ?" This guy replied him "Dude, I need not run faster than the lion. I just need to run faster than you ! "

Ending is simple. The guy without running shoes has "Experienced Certainty" for having such a cool friend who carries a pair of Nike all the time ;)

Are you thinking about the moral of the story ? It's simple. It's a Dog Eat Dog World. Competition is ruthless and you've to look out for yourself.

Well yeah. I know what you guys are thinking. I never end my posts so normal. Yeah, I've something else in my mind. It's not about lion. It's not about shoes. Not even about forest. It's just about the friend. It's about every friend you leave behind and run when you are chased by a lion.

<philosophy>Life has a very simple rule. Rule is to turn little hard some times and very hard some other times. When it turns very hard on you, only person who can help you is a friend. Even though this is a Dog Eat Dog world. Even though the competition is ruthless. Just, don't make it a habit of running away leaving your friend behind when they need you. One day, when your another friend leaves you behind and runs faster, the guy whom you dint leave will certainly help you.</philosophy>

<utopia>Yes. I know that I shouldn't be using the terms "friend" and "running away" together because a "true" friend will never run away leaving you behind. Friends are here to run with you, not run faster than you ;)</utopia>

Einstein's Intelligence Quiz

2007-07-17T16:07:00.001+05:30

This so-called quiz is written by Mr. Einstein and it seems that he stated that 98% of people in this world cannot solve the quiz

Here it goes.

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors
In each house lives a person with a different nationality
These 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet
No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same drink.

Here is the question. Who own's the fish If

The Brit lives in a red house
The Swede keeps dogs as pets
The Dane drinks tea
The green house is on the left of the white house
The green house owner drinks coffee
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill
The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk
The Norwegian lives in the first house
The man who smokes Blend lives next door to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps horses lives next door to the man who smokes Dunhill
The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer
The German smokes Prince
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water

I tried to solve the problem and yeah, I solved it *genius-smile* .. wait, don't go, BTW, I used Excel ~~and Google~~ to solve it ;)

Hey, I've another puzzle for you. This is for you DJ !!

Why does INFY recruit people by giving them puzzles when they give both Excel and Google to their employees after recruiting ?

Answer : It expects it's employees to pass time by thinking about puzzles when they are on bench for 6 months ;)

Sicko %@#$%@#$^^

2007-07-15T13:33:00.001+05:30

I watched latest documentary/movie of Michael Moore(MM), Sicko. It was not just a documentary on some topic. It's a very good try to Change His World and make it better for people living around him.

It presents only facts, which chill you to the bone. He could've been biased while showing stuff. But, certainly he dint show anything which is not a fact. The way he presented is very good. He presented American HMO in such a way that, any guy who has sensible emotional quotient would feel like beating the blue out of those companies for doing business on lives of people.

One scene goes like this. A guy while cutting wood with a saw, cuts two of his fingers and doctors give him a big offer. If you want your ring finger, we will do that for 12 grand, if your choice is your middle finger, we will do that for 60 grand.

But, at the end of the movie, MM did a mistake by making it public that he helped the guy who runs moorewatch.com when he needed money for his wife's operation. When he helped him anonymously, he should have stayed anonymous rather than making it public in his documentary. It shows that he wanted credit for the help and he wanted to make the guy who hates him to look like a loser.

As soon as the movie is over, I went to moorewatch.com and saw some topics there. Yeah, its clear that MM is biased but what the hell is owner of moorewatch, Mr. JimK trying to do ? One guy is trying to change the world by doing his part, and he is trying to stop the change by telling what ever he is showing is biased. Well, yeah, what ever MM is doing is for fame&money. But, people who are watching his movies are understanding what's going around them atleast 10% of what's going around (One point for MM) May be, they are understanding little more than facts (minus one for MM, that gives him zero) Whatever Mr. JimK is doing, only people who don't like MM would appreciate (So, no big deal, zero of JimK) When both of you guys are zeroes, what's the big deal of wasting MY TIME by letting me know that you are fighting to save the world ?? Real Sickos !!!

Me, Myself and an Artist

2007-07-05T23:55:00.000+05:30

Hi. I always knew that I look bad. Well, bad enough to tell that I'm bad. But, certainly not F-Ugly. I really can't scare anyone with my looks (though, I can with my words)

Many of my friends tell me that I take very nice photos. Yeah, most of the photos I take look decent enough to be called as good photos. For most of my friends, I've take atleast one photo to be called as one of their best photos. But, the sad part is that I don't have any good photos of mine. I really can't expect my friends to click a good photo of mine. Come on, they can take a good photo only if I was little good for the photo. Being not so experienced in making ugly people look better, they never managed to take a pretty picture of mine.

After I bought a pretty new DSLR, I wanted to take a self portrait and I took some picture of mine. And I managed to take a picture which looked decent enough to blog. Well, the picture was good or atleast, it was good looking to my eyes. Then one of my friends commented that .. "Every one look ugly to their eyes" and my cousin commented .. "Every one is pretty for them self" .... Hmm .. which one should I believe ? Finally, I took both of their comments. I looked good in this photo. And I might be bad too. So, I edited the image so that it looks like a drawing. The one you saw is my final output. Hope, you will agree that I'm not an ugly creature :-D

Namesake

2007-06-24T13:55:00.001+05:30

Okay. I know what's going on in your head. You think I wrote a review to the movie Namesake. For hell sake, I'm not a review writer. I write about only movies which are too good to miss or too stupid to miss. So, I guess now you are clear that I'm not writing a review of the movie Namesake.

Its about my name. My name which troubles me most of the times. My name which troubles others when they have to read it. The very common thing that happens with me is .. when someone is reading out a list of names, and if they are stuck at one name, it must be mine.

All this started 22 years before. My parents wanted to name me "Karthik" as of God "Karthikeyan" (Second son of Lord Shiva) But, some guy (must be some stupid astrologer) told them that my name should start with 'S'. That is the start of my problems. They dint want to change "Karthik" and meaning of name too. So, they added another name of God "Karthikeyan" which is "Saravana". My name became "Saravana Karthik E". Do you think this was end of my story ? Then you are wrong. The story started after 15 years.

I was in my tenth class and when I'm supposed to write exams, I was filling my application and my headmaster called me and he told me that my name's spelling is "Saravana Kartheek". I was shocked and I argued with him that I know my name better than him. He gave me stupid reasons that my name is कार्तीक but not कार्तिक (well, though I was not convinced, he was my head master and I had to accept it) Well, this is also not the end of the story. When I saw my 10th class hall ticket, I saw my name as "Saravana Karteek" and I had no other option than to go to him and ask. He had another story for it. He told me that my name is कार्तीक but not कार्थीक to keep "th" which stresses the 'T' sound. I was nothing less than shocked and pissed off. But, still I'm a tenth class student and he is my stupid head master. This is also not END of my sad story.

I was "Saravana Karteek" till my Intermediate (12th class) end. I've the same name in my Intermediate certificate also. But, when I reached my B.Tech, I saw my name in my B.Tech first year hall ticket. OMG, the big clear and smooth space was missing. Yeah .. the important space between "Saravana" and "Karteek" was missing. I thought it was a mistake and I checked my tenth class certificate. You know that they type names in Upper case in certificates. That was the reason I never found that there is no significant space between "Saravana" and "Karteek" and it is "SARAVANAKARTEEK". This is my story of becoming "Saravanakarteek" from "Karthik". Seriously, my name is so odd. This "Saravana" makes me sound like a Tamil which I'm not. So as "Karteek". When I'm in Madaras, if someone shouts name "Karthik", atleast 20 people will look at him. If its Saravana, then the count rises to 30. If its my name, then those 20+30 people will look him.

End of the story. "Karthik" to "Saravanakarteek" but called as "Karteek" or "Karteek E"

Crash into each other

2007-06-23T23:43:00.001+05:30

I'm really not "intelligent" enough or "experienced" enough to talk about this topic. But, I really want to talk about it just because its scaring me. Just because of what's going on around in the world, I'm losing trust in the world around me. I'm lucky enough not to experience it directly (but, I've experienced indirectly)

Well, the topic is ... Let me tell its definition first. It is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human so-called races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior. Yeah, you got it right. Its "Racism".

The main reason behind terrorism, hatred, extremism and all other <cool> bad things is racism. It is the root for hatred, which creates an instinct of hurting others. It is the root for superiority complex, which creates a feeling they are great and every one else are below them. Which is the direct or an indirect reason for every big problem in the world.

Its such a sensitive topic that it can create problems any where and everywhere. When an American calls an Indian as a Pakistani, they call it racism. It just doesn't end there by creating an issue and getting our privilege. The same North Indian guy who was from UP don't consider abusing a Gujju as racism. The same Gujju who was abused never considers abusing a south Indian guy as racism. The same south Indian Telugu guy feels offended when he is called a Madarasi. The cycle never ends.

Every one is racist in one or other way. We just create stereotypes for each and every race. White guy is a racist so are Germans. Blacks are dangerous so are all Africans. Arabs are terrorists so we take every middle-east guy as an Arab. Indians are dark with bad English accent who eat all those spicy curries. Rich people are very bad. Poor people are cheap and dirty.

Its just not in people to call it as Individual Racism. Its in our institution itself. Britain gave knighthood to Salman Rushdie and Pakistan was angry with that and they wanted Britain to take his knighthood back. When Britain dint do that, they gave the title "Saifullah" or "Sword of Allah" to none other than Mr. Bin Laden. They gave a very good reasoning stating that "If a blasphemer can be given the title 'Sir' by the West despite the fact he's hurt the feelings of Muslims, then a mujahid who has been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British must be given the lofty title of Islam, Saifullah."

Well, when I read all these, I'm nothing but scared of the world around me. Every third person hates the fourth person. When all of us are sent by the same God to live in this world, we are not doing it but we are just crashing into each other's lives.

As I told you already, I'm really not intelligent enough or experienced enough to write all this. I might be completely wrong. Just wishing that I will atleast know that I'm wrong and if I'm correct, I wish everything will change in near future.

The world of assumptions

2007-06-22T14:18:00.000+05:30

I assume a lot. You assume a lot. We assume a lot.

While writing this, I assumed that my friends will read this blog and post their comments.

While reading this, you might be assuming that this entry is crap as you really don't assume a lot. So, wrong assumption made by Karteek in ground zero (I meant line zero)

Actually, what ever you assumed that you don't assume a lot .. might be just your assumption and in fact you might be assuming a lot.

Leaving the argument aside, I want to tell you guys about my world of assumption. These are my assumptions (I assume that they are not crap)

1. No one is perfect in this world.

2. If someone is perfect, then the fact is that he isn't perfect as #1 is true.

3. If someone who is not perfect and tends to move himself towards perfection by fixing him step by step is perfectly normal.

4. Its just NOT better to give than take. If everyone wants to give but not take, then who on Earth will remain taking ? So, its certainly not better to give than take. Just try to give, if not possible take.

5. If you think about someone, they JUST DON'T feel it. As I've read in so many books that when you think about anyone constantly they will feel it. Well, I do think about someone atleast 20-30 times a day and they never felt it. (Here, Your assumption : It must be some girl, my answer : Your assumption is wrong, it can be Bill Gates, Google guys or even Abdul Kalam)

6. You don't know the art of living when you can win in the life. You know it only if you know how to compromise in your life.

7. If an intelligent guy finds a 100 rupee note, he will search for the person who owns it and give it back to him. If its a 1000 rupee not, he will keep it with him !!! (Here, your assumption : To hell, he dint talk about 500/- note, my answer : come on guys, use your brain atleast when you find money)

8. Trying to be perfect takes you no where, just be yourself unless you want to reach "no where" like me ;)

9. Just know that one or all of your assumptions are nothing but WRONG.

Here, when I used the word "perfect person", I meant him as a person who is "little good", "little bad", "little intelligent", "little stupid", "little mischievous", "little caring", "little soft", "little arrogant", "straight-forward", "heart follower" and most important "a person without any assumptions". I never meant a person who is really perfect just coz, No one is perfect in this world (well, its an assumption made by an assuming idiot)

Friend or acquaintance .. this is so unfair

2007-06-14T23:50:00.000+05:30

This entry doesn't make any meaning. Reader discretion is strongly recommended.

<sarcasm>I've so many friends in this world</sarcasm> This is what I tell myself once in a while. Whenever I tell this to myself, I end up in a weird situation. Actually end up with a question. Is friendship a mutual feeling or not. As per so many stupid philosophies I read, or the stupid movies I saw, I know that .. Love need not be mutual. It can be one-side feeling. Actually, more movies suggest that when you love someone you shouldn't expect samething in return. Well, those guys missed the lower form. What about friendship ???

They missed it completely. So, friendship must be a mutual feeling. Ain't it ? Come on ... still not convinced ? There are sooooooo many guys who "love" film stars. They know that they can't expect love in return. They are hardly any people (I've n't seen a single person in 22 years of my life) who tell that they are "friends" of a star(when that star don't even know them) Little confusing ? Must be, coz, I'm confused a lot right now. I've so many people around me .. whom I consider as friends and who really don't care about me. There are few people in far distant places for whom I really matter and I don't care about them.

If friendship is JUST giving ... then why the hell those philosphers or authors of big books or simply idiots define friendship as mutual understanding (one definition). If friendship is mutualism, how can that "mutualism" be measured ? Okay, I know what you are thinking now. Why the hell this idiot wants to measure "feeling" ? I've an answer for this. Just because of that pseudo-mutualism so many people get hurt every day.

You are going on a road, you see so many people travelling with you, and you just dont care. You are travelling in a train, you see so many travellers travelling with you and you feel like talking to one. You are travelling the journey of ur life, you meet so many people and do you call people whom you often meet as friends ??? If your answer is "Yes", you are lucky as you dont think much about life. So, you can hit the [x] button on the top. If your answer is "No", lets continue.

Only few of them become your friends. You get close to them. Sometimes very close to them. And one fine day, you will understand that the importance you give them is just one way. They really dont care what you feel. They really dont think about what you want. To them .. you are just one traveller in this road of life. What should you call them ? A friend .. ? or just an acquaintance ? To me, this question arises quite often. This is so unfair.

A curse ???

2007-06-13T01:31:00.000+05:30

I was watching a movie and it made me think for a while. Nevermind, its a boring thought. Now let me tell about some stuff which is kinda different.

What would be the first thought that will flash in your mind when you find a girl whos very pretty is being promoted or given the best rating ???

Well, it depends. Some "very good" "text book" people will think that .. wow, she is intelligent too. These type of people are ... uhmm could be 7% .. or around. And yeah, they are boring guys, so, we will leave them.

What will other 93% or around people think about her ? Somethings "fishy" !!! And people who have thinking like "Madhur bhandarkar" (Director of movies like Page3, Corporate etc) They will declare that ... there is some conspiracy theory behind that girl getting that rating or promotion. I always was in that remaining 93% and I wanted to think on behalf of that one pretty girl .. who is intelligent once. JUST ONCE.

What if that girl is really intelligent ? It was the only one good question. Why couldn't we (I) learn to respect other aspects of her ? Just because she is so pretty, it doesn't mean that she is useless in every other aspect. What ever goes in favour of her is something, why should it be just something thats related to her physical appearance ? Why do we(I) think that she doesn't deserve something even if she deserves it ? Is her beauty a curse to her ? Just she is pretty, people tend to help her sooooo much making her lazy/useless in real and in other's minds too.

Oh. Just stop here kid. You are thinking too much. Just stop here and start doing your part to respect them. Next time you see a pretty girl whos promoted faster than you or who is given a better rating than you, DONT THINK that its JUST coz she looks good. Let her beauty be a gift to her, not a curse.

This part of my life is known as ... Loneliness

2007-06-03T22:16:00.000+05:30

Loneliness is an emotional state of in which a person experiences a powerful feeling of emptiness and isolation. Loneliness is more than just the feeling of wanting company or wanting to do something with another person. Loneliness is a feeling of being cut off, disconnected and alienated from other people. The lonely person may find it difficult or even impossible to have any form of meaningful human contact. Lonely people often experience a subjective sense of inner emptiness or hollowness, with feelings of separation or isolation from the world. The definition taken from wikipedia.

Well, I experienced a flavour of Loneliness today. Friends left Madaras one by one on different missions. A very few were here but were busy with their lives. I tried reaching couple of special friends, but they were very special to each other and I couldn't disturb them. I tried going to some place where loners are welcome. But, whereever I go, I found only people in groups. I couldn't find a single place where I can sit alone and have my dinner. I took my mission as to have my dinner "alone". Yeah, the feeling rocks. Where ever I go, loners are just NOT welcome. Well, finally my mission got little compromised and a biscuit packet became my dinner and beach became my hotel.

I've a serious problem of trying to find someone to blame when something really goes wrong. Today, everything went wrong. I wanted someone to apologise me for a very bad evening. Yeah, finally someone apologised me ... and not to my surprise, it was my Self. The reason for my loneliness was me. Well, being optimist, I hope I'm gonna fix everything soon.

My Seven Deadly Sins

2007-05-12T16:39:00.000+05:30

I was checking my teamie Monu's blog and saw some quiz link there. It was about seven deadly sins. Which one is going to send me to the real HELL from this hell. Here are the results.

Greed:	Low
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	High
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Low
Pride:	High

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

After taking the challenge, I can see that I've loads of Pride, which I already knew, and I couldn't understand what does Sloth mean. Immediate search in Yahoo told me that it means "disinclination to work". Damn, does it mean that I'm lazy ??? _NoComments_

What’s happening to my best friend???

2007-05-10T21:19:00.001+05:30

What will you do if you best friend who was a very good guy turns out to be very evil? And there is only one choice left to you. Leave him. You can't do anything more than that. Your friend is powerful. He won't change for you. If there is something to change, it's you.

Google was my best friend right from the day one I started to use it. "Don't be evil" was Google's motto and I loved it. But day by day, I can see that Google is getting weirder, power hungry and more or less a Big Brother day by day. It's collecting every track of me (a user) and sometimes even without my knowledge. Once I saw a feature named "History" in Google. It was storing every query of mine under my account if I'm logged in while searching. That feature scared me a little bit and I immediately cleared my queries (hope it really removed them from its database rather than just NOT showing them to me) and stopped the service. I trusted Google that it will stop keeping a track of my queries. Later I came to know that Google is keeping track of LOT MORE than just queries. I immediately went to my services and deleted the service "History". Later after a week, I saw a feature named bookmarks in Google where I can store bookmarks. As it's not a serious thing I wanted to use that service. I logged into my accounts and I was shocked to see that my HISTORY IS STILL BEING RECORDED. Just can't understand why an "opted-out" service was still there under my accounts still recording my queries. I disabled it again. Hope it won't start recording my history again.

I was using Google from last 8 years and I know many things about it. When I was cheated by such a service, which was NOT just a service but a friend in my mind, I could do nothing more than being shocked and wonder "What's happening to my best friend?"

Btw, just goto https://www.google.com/accounts/EditServices for stopping the services which might scare you.

Infosian protests

2007-05-06T16:33:00.001+05:30

After posting previous blog entry, I had a chat with one of my friends who work for Infy. The chat went like this

My Friend: man and whats ur angst against infy?
My Friend: damn sucker getting us into the middle
Me: Are you talking about my blog ?
My Friend: yep urs
Me: Nopes
Me: it's only against rediff
My Friend: but it really makes fun of infy in a way
Me: No comments. But isn't it really done by rediff ?
Me: Murthy has gas problem. Tell us about how it smells !!! That could be one of rediff's headlines in future
Me: Any instant, there will be atleast one line about infy in rediff
Me: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/may/05pai.htm <- this is one of the headlines for today
My Friend: he hehe
My Friend: but still dont think infy pays for this

After this chat, I went to my blog to read whether I wrote that Infy pays rediff for that faltoo publicity. Well, I dint !!! I just left it to readers to understand what goes on behind the screens. And my dearest friend who is an Infosian ended up thinking that Infy "might not be" paying for that "Faltoo Publicity". Excuze moi, I meant those great articles.

Rediff

2007-05-06T03:47:00.000+05:30

I'm in _complaint_ mode today. I want to write a review on a site which publishes stupid reviews on movies. One site going down in its quality factor day by day !!!

Here is the talk show with the guy behind Rediff, Mr. Fully Faltoo CEO.

Me: Guys, Welcome to K World. Here, were have CEO of our own apna apna Indian website rediff.com !!! Mr. Faltoo, we are so glad to have you in our studios. Lets start the talk show with introduction about ur company. (Well, no one needs an intro. Its Nasdaq: REDF)
Faltoo: Thanks one and all. Rediff is my brain child. I started it when India din't have much many portals for itself. Most of the idea was to start something for Indians where they can login and read anything and everything about India

Me: Mr. Faltoo, many of your users are complaining a lot that the number of ads are increasing a lot day by day. What are you comments on that sir ?
Faltoo: Hey, you've to understand that we are providing free service to you guys, we also need to earn money. With out ads we cant survive. There are not many ads on homepage. There is one popup, some ads on left side, some ads on right side, some ads on bottom. Thats it. See, top of the page don't have any ads. Actually we are innovating on ads too. We are one of the very first sites to start attracting users by voice ads too. When you are reading an article, our flash ads will make some different sounds so that you get really attracted. May be around 98% of users complain that it was annoying, but it was real good innovation. We innovate in our mail services, we give you unlimited space of mails so that you can save all the spam we mail you with other names.

Me: What are your comments on those stupid head lines on your site ?
Faltoo: Come on guys, those head lines rock. "Aishwarya weds Abhishek? What do you think ?" thats one of our headlines for past one month. See, the importance of it in the world. It so important that we need to collect people's opinion on their marriage. We innovated so much in this also. We posted videos of people who were opposing their marriage. We are one of the very first portals to show comments in videos !!! Even now, I think .. Aishwarya should marry Salman also next month so that we will collect more comments !!! May after that for even more comments she has to marry Vivek also !!!

Me: Sir, what are you comments on the relavence of your headlines. Headlines like, people are scrapping orkut profile of the killed girl at V.Tech.
Faltoo: See, there were around 500 scraps by the time we posted it as headline. With 24 hrs the scrap count went upto 30000 just because of our publicity. Our headline created so much of sympathy for the dead girl and people started scrapping orkut profiles of other girls with same name who are alive also !!! Our head lines are perfect. They are pretty much needed. Another headline "Murthy for president" created so much stir. The great guys of Infosys actually asked Mr. Kalam, whether murthy can be next president, thats another headline though. These type of headlines are so important to growing India. We almost decided next president using our headlines and our messageboards. Although some people in our message boards were asking to make Amitabh as president, which was next day's headline.

Me: Sir, what do you actually do after taking people's opinion ? Do you really follow up with respective authorities or people ?
Faltoo: No no no no. How can you expect that we do that. We just take opinions on everything. Our opinion message board is an another innovation. We created a separate platform for some many types of people. Spammers can spam their sites there. Racist people can show their racism there. Idiots can type all crap there. You can learn so much from our messageboards. They are really important to growing India.

Me: Whats relation between rediff and infosys ? Why do you guys post a lot about Nilekani or Narayanamurthy when there are so many other great people from Wipro, TCS, CTS, Satyam are there ????
Faltoo: Its simple. You've to use your common sense to understand whats the relation between Rediff and 2nd Biggest Indian Software company.

Me: What are your comments on those stupid movie reviews at your site?
Faltoo: Its again simple. If the rating is good. Don't go to movie. If its bad, then its a must watch movie. We are the guys who wrote Spiderman3 is bad even though its breaking so many records. We go according to our wallets not our hearts. I mean your wallets. I mean wallets of the guys who pay us. Ah, never mind. I guess you understand.

Me: Thank you very much Faltoo ji. Thanks for your time and great services from your company. Thank you very much.
Faltoo: Before I conclude, Let me suggest you some other good talkshows. Please watch "Narayanamurthy, The king of IT" on BBD channel on Thursday night 1 AM. Dont miss it. And this interview is sponsored by Yatra.com ! Folks, rediff gives you 1 email free for your spam, Go get it now !!!

A Journey into Ubuntu !!!

2007-04-25T23:46:00.000+05:30

I use to be biased towards to linux when I use to use my desktop. But, after I started using a lappy more than a desktop, I was very happy with my Windows XP. Yes, the word is "happy" with adjective "very" and the person typing is "Me" and its about "Windows"

I was looking forward for Vista on my lappy for a change, but I was little hesitant about taking the decision of moving to Vista, when I wasn't actually able to find one good review about it. And, many of the users are willing to keep XP on their computers than Vista.

Well, I had one -bad- opinion on linux in my mind that it's not suitable for Laptops. May be that was the reason that kept me away from installing Linux on my laptop for more than three months !!! One of my net-friends, told me that Ubuntu is pretty good that it's a very good distro even if it's for a lappy. And I read some where that even Mr. Micheal Dell is using the same on his personal laptop.

I took the decission that I'll install Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE as its Window Manager. Reason : I hate GNOME). I downloaded it, burned it on a CD and booted my laptop with it. Btw, I forgot to tell you that, I tried USB Slax Killbill on my lappy which was decent but, as its not recommended to install it, I stayed away from it. But, for a less than 200 MB File, IT ROCKED !!!

Well, the CD was rotating, something was loaded, and it started some services and I'm supposed to see linux running (as Ubuntu is a Live CD itself). But, I ended up in a black screen where nothing was happening. So, I went to console and tried starting kde by myself, and ended up with an error on my screen. My heart was broken that the --so-called-- best distro now could'nt even start on my lappy. Good thing was I had a desktop next to me, and I started searching on google for possible reasons. The reason was that bloody ATI video card, which doesn't have decent linux drivers (I din't knew before buying my laptop, otherwise my decision would've certainly changed !!!)

I found a step by step procedure for installing Ubuntu on Dell Inspiron 6400 and it was my guide for the installation. But, first step itself was a *duh* factor for me. He was telling about installation with Alternate CD when I've downloaded Desktop CD and burned it. Being so stubborn and after knowing problems, I thought, I'll fix by distro with the hints of that guy.

I've enabled Internet Connection Sharing on my desktop, connected my lappy to it and booted the CD again. I downloaded ATI drivers, installed them, got GUI and installed Ubuntu on my lappy successfully. Once I rebooted my lappy, as I knew, ATI drivers were absent, so, I had to repeat same procedure again to get it working. Then, I thought to try the *so called* best eyecandy desktop manager Beryl on my lappy even though, I've that stupid ATI video card on my lappy. For my, happiness, the same guy gave instructions to do that on those using Xgl. Well, I ended up in some troubles, but fixing them one by one, I finally did it.

Well, the output was one of the sexiest desktops I've ever seen. It looks damn sleek and damn sexy with so much of flexibility in looks. Ubuntu is just not good, but it really rocks if its in good hands and if those hands know how to use Google.

Thanks to Ubuntu team for creating such a cool distro. Thanks to my best friend Google for indexing the required pages. Thanks to the guy at Ubuntu Forums for the simple step by step tutorial. Thanks to AMD for such crappy support for ATI on Linux and increasing my patience and letting me know that I've to suggest Nvidia to my friends from now on. Thanks to such sexy looks of Beryl for making me feel like writing about my Journey into Ubuntu or rephrasing it as A Journey of Ubuntu into my heart ;)

For guys, who wants to decide what to install, here is the video of war between Vista and Ubuntu

V.Tech :(

2007-04-18T13:17:00.000+05:30

* One phsycho with couple of guns.
* "Ismael Ax" written on his arm.
* Some flickr photo telling that he wanted to call him Ismael.
* Thousands of blogs discussing meaning of of those two words.
* Thousands of people googling and trying to crack that code.
* Two Indians dead.
* Thousands of people rushing to Indian student's orkut page and scrapping the DEAD person their condolences (as if she is going to read it from heaven) Another stupid thousands scrapping ONE LIVING person with same name who is from Mumbai their deep condolences.
* And that stupid girl still not willing to change her name in orkut (atleast to tell those guys that she is alive).
* Some idiots fighting in rediff that its all because of Bush (as if he is the only president of USA who allowed GUNS).
* Some idiots in rediff fighting that professor shouldn't be given that much respect as he never took his parents to USA and expressed his love.
* Psycho's parents are shocked to know that their son did all the mess.

In all those, I'm just wondering why wasn't such a big media hype when some bloody psychos blasted trains in Mumbai and killed hundreds of people ???

Different people, different worries. Day after 2morrow everyone will forget this and go back to their work. A month later even V.Tech will forget this. The only people who might remember this for longer time are victim's relations.

Just because of one psycho's actions, so many dreams shattered, so many lives affected. All, I can do is feel sad and bad for the victims and forget all these in a week and worry about something else.

Guess what ?

2007-04-15T23:16:00.000+05:30

Guess what's happening in my life ??? Nothing !!! Life is sooooooo boring and it became soooo routine that, I don't have anything to write here. Will write something when something really happens in life.

Hey, wait .. Yeah, something happened. Two of my team mates left my team with their personal reasons. My Friend's list whom I talk to and meet every day is reduced by two. And it made me feel little sad. Colleagues becoming friends might not be a good thing in big companies as they may leave you at any time. As long as they are growing/happy, I'm happy to miss my friends.

Fool’s Day !!!

2007-04-01T00:16:00.000+05:30

Good Eveninggggggggggggggggggggg Junta,

Welcome to the Fool's Paradise. I know that whoever reads this might not read on an evening, even then, I wrote Good Evening. Yeah, I understood your question. You were asking "Any reasons behind that?" Well, Yeah. There is one big reason. I'm a fool … just like everyone else here in this world.

Don't wonder. That's true. According to Google, fool is a person who lacks good judgment or a guy who neglects and despises what relates to salvation. No doubts about it, we lack good judgment. There are many guys fooling around you every day. Either you just don't care or you don't know that he is fooling around you. Every one of us get so many mails about so many things, we just don't apply our brain and forward them to another bunch of people. Some intelligent folks among us understand that it's a crap mail and they don't care to tell the guys who believe it to be truth !!!

I'm pasting one of my friend's forward here, which really makes some meaning.

I want to thank all my friends
Because of your
kindness:

I stopped drinking Coca-Cola after I found out that it's good only for removing toilet stains.

I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected with AIDS

I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer.

I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls to Uganda ,Singapore and Tokyo.

I also stopped drinking water outside for fear that I will get sick from the rat shit and urine.

When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)

My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a paid vacation to Disneyland.

Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Dalai Lama, Ganesh Vandana,Tirupathi Balaji pics etc..

Now most of those "Wishes" are already married (to someone else)!!!! and m still waitin 4 that gud newz............although got some other gud newz which waz nt gud 4 me

You can add your own notes based on your similar experience and send them to your friends.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you do not send this e-mail to at least 913760 people in the next 10 seconds,a bird will shit on your head today at 6:30 p.m.

Give me a break!!

"The World Is Filled WIth Foolish Ppl And Some Think They Got Talent Too !!!"

No wonder, we are fools either by our knowledge or someone else making us fools without our knowledge. I don't think that I've to tell about our cricketers, their sponsors, etc … who make are fooling around us every damn day. Sachin is telling that he will call you back if you SMS him luck – brought to you by Reliance and Sachin bought by reliance to get your luck. Hi, this is Dravid on Hutch phone to fool around you. SRK loves Pepsi … so what ass? Act in the Pepsi ad without taking any money from them, I'll believe that you'll love Pepsi.

Never mind all my crap. I just wanted to tell this to you guys.`

"April 1^st is not the only Fool's Day. We are fooled by some damn money-makers, our superstars, our cricket stars, fellow fools and many others every damn day"

By the way. Happy Birthday Rish !!!

Epic Movie … Comments :-|

2007-03-25T03:21:00.001+05:30

Starring … too many people whom I don't know. I know only Kal Penn, the guy in Van Wilder(Taj). Review of movie in one word – "Crap". But it's certainly an entertainer if you watch it with your friends. It will certainly make your ROFL. This movie has several parodies in it. Here are they.

The Da Vinci Code
Nacho Libre
Snakes on a Plane
X-Men
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
The Chronicles of Narnia
Mission Impossible 3
American Pie
Superman Returns
Harry Potter
Pirates of Caribbean
The Lord of the Rings
Starwars
Click
Borat

I might be missing some movies. There were parodies of some shows like Punk'd, American Idol, Britney Spears song, Paris Hilton etc. Movie was crap. But if you don't have a habit of using brain while watching the movie. Here you go, it's a good time pass for 100 minutes ;) Don't miss to list out all movies in the movie :D

Once again, name of the movie is "Epic Movie" ;)

Good Morning India !!!

2007-03-24T09:45:00.000+05:30

Cricket is such a wonderful game. India lost to Sri Lanka in world cup league match and total India is disappointed. Well, total 'average cricket crazy' population is disappointed but not everyone. Real lovers of cricket are supposed to be happy for the result. Yeah, I've my own silly but logical explanation. Here it goes.

Some key points to be noted

India's defeat will be big loss in market for ICC, media everyone
Woolmer is dead – Police are running behind bookies, sub-continent players
Many people were thinking India wont loose coz of the big market share
Even now Bermuda can win over Bangladesh and still India can come to second spot

Well, here is my explanation for yesterday's result. People were mailing/texting/telling me that India won't lose coz of the complications in the market and bookies will make sure that India won't lose and result in huge loss of money. But, it happened. India lost!!! Their guesses were wrong. No bookie could do any magic there. Reason was Woolmer's murder. Jamaican cops were keeping track of sub-continent players especially Indians, Lankans and Pakis. If anyone tries to do now with those teams, they will certainly in big trouble. So, yesterday's result was a true result.

But, there may be another version of the same story. Yesterday's match might be fixed too. Reason, people were thinking NO ONE will dare to lose such huge market, so certainly one or other will make sure that India will win. And betting's on India were very high. India's defeat will certainly bring in more money and market can be fixed with Bangladesh and Bermuda match. Bookies may try to fix Bangladesh and Bermuda match as they are smaller teams and it won't make much difference as cops are not behind those teams.

So, if Bangladesh wins over Bermuda, then it must be the time when every cricket lover must celebrate. No bookies, no fixing, everything is going normal. Such a true and wonderful game of cricket is not spoiled by market. I'm an Indian and I'm a cricket lover. I won't mind as long as the deserving team wins. Any team might win over India in cricket, but they certainly can't beat India in the number of cumulative ads they act in.

East of West, Team India is the Best (in ads)

I’m going to sound techie !!!

2007-03-22T22:36:00.001+05:30

Good evening Junta. My teamies call me geek (even though I hate it when they call me geek, coz I've bigger and better life other than being a techie freak). I don't want to sound really geeky but I want my friends to know some important things about technology. So, I'm writing something here. It's not a big thing but in the same time it's not a small thing too. Whether it's a small error or a big error who would care? There is an error and it's a bad thing. Well, I'm not going to write any codes or real exploit here coz it's not good to write them. But, yeah, I'm going to explain what's wrong and what could be done with that.

At office we guys use Lotus Domino as our mail server. I guess they use Lotus Domino R6. And in our office Internet Explorer is suggested browser for browsing purpose. Well, these are pre-requisites for the bug. Ooh Yeah, I'm going to write about one bug in our MAIL SERVICE !!!

He should use webmail. Yes, not Lotus Notes (failure at first step. But, there are people who use webmail)
He has to use Internet Explorer (checked, as its default browser given/available)
He has to open mail and click on the attachment which is an Image (checked, coz most probably people will do is try to open their attachments, which are specially images)
He shouldn't close your browser or logout as soon as he clicks on that attachment(OPTION varies from person to person)
He has to stupid enough to be fooled (OPTION still available. Fill whatever you want to fill)

Well, if those five pre-requisites are true then we'll play our hack here. There is a bug in IE that it will parse scripts of specially crafted images i.e. if there is JavaScript in an image file IE will run the JavaScript. But, there is not good thing about that bug. IE won't parse the script if image is embedded in html file. It will parse only if you try to open image directly in the browser (Here, all professional mails like Gmail, yahoo, hotmail pass and our Lotus Domino webmail fail) I guess you got the bug now. I'm going to send a JavaScript disguised as an image which the victim will open thinking as if it's just an image.

In that JavaScript, I'll redirect to my server along with cookie details of your login and an image from my server is served to the user so that he won't get any suspicion. The script in my server will use the cookie details sent and logs into your mail box and reads every email in your email box. Did I mention … that it's going to read your mails? YES, I mentioned it. You are officially hacked if you've opened that attachment and dint recognize that XSS (Cross Site Scripting) bug.

I know that it sounds little techie, but just can't help it coz, it is little serious issue. I'll try to take it forward to respective group and get it fixed. Well, if you want to know one solution for the problem, here is the solution. When you are in your office, please use Lotus Notes rather than webmail and if you are outside where no one is there to restrict you, please use Firefox !!!

- कार्तीक (By the way, this a cool option in new blogger. Type in English, it will convert to Hindi. Check your dashboard for the option)

Innovations in Democracy !!!

2007-03-21T19:10:00.001+05:30

You must be thinking what could be innovative in democracy. Well, yeah, it happens only in India. As per some great guy, India is a vibrant, chaotic and rambunctious democracy. One of the characteristics of democracy is electing their leaders. One incident happened in a South Indian state Andhra Pradesh which was very much innovative in filtering deceivers.

Here is the version I read in news paper. Political parties are having a new problem that their guys might be cross-voting to the opposition party guys. So, they started killing democracy by keeping an agent in the booth, to check every vote before it was dropped into the ballot box. In that method, they made sure that none of their party guys are cross-voting for their competitors. Well, not just that use, they started counting votes and declaring themselves as winners as soon as the elections are over even before official counting was started.

Well, it's one of the greatest innovations in election procedures (other than rigging, stealing ballot boxes) followed in India. Well, may be election procedures are battered more in some other places (Hint : United States)

Internet Zindabad !!!

2007-03-21T00:33:00.000+05:30

Well, for those downloaders up there. Here are some links for music.

Songs.pk is a nice site. They have loads of Indian as well as Pakistani music. One small tip while downloading stuff from songs.pk :-D Just follow the song link on the browser. Go one step up the folder in the url. You'll get links to all the songs of that album. Eg: If you get http://sound4.mp3pk.com/artist/lucky_ali/kabhi_aisa_lagta_hai/kalh10(www.songs.pk).mp3 as the link, just strip that kalh10(www.songs.pk).mp3 and go to the folder and leech all of them ;)

Well ... in very small letters ... Piracy DownDown and in big letters Internet Zindabad

Deceiving the blue billion :-(

2007-03-18T03:16:00.001+05:30

I was watching world cup match between India and Bangladesh. Well, you know what I'm going to write now. It's nothing but a complaint, one very big complaint. It's not a complaint against Indian team; it's not a complaint against any Indian player. It's against us; you, me and every other Indian who loves cricket.

It's good to love anything. But anything in excess is very bad. Just is the craze for cricket in India. I saw people doing poojas. I read in news papers that some people are doing yagnas. Same people are throwing stones on ad-boards and burning posters of their cricket super heroes. No wonder, there are many hopes for the country that our team will bring home … The Cup. Pressure on our team is building up so much that, I think if I were in any of their positions; I would be running away from this world to save myself from these cricket maniacs.

Okay, enough complaints against us. Now, I want to write something about companies which are playing with our passions/sentiments/etc. Some cool drink guys are giving India … India ads in India and Pakistan … Pakistan ads in Pakistan. Same company wants India to win the cup and Pakistan to win the cup. One mobile network is telling to wish Sachin Tendulkar so that you can get a 'Thank You' call from Mr. Tendulkar. Some cool drink guys are making half the team to run for their bottle, and make them see some crazy fans shouting India … India. When that team can't even fight for a bottle of drink from Indian fans, how can it fight for The Cup from all those teams and their fans?

Every company supporting Indian team is doing that for money. Every guy in the team playing there is for popularity which in return will bring Ads and money from those companies. Any average Indian fan is getting nothing except but one big depression. Companies, media, team management and last but not least, The Team is doing nothing but deceiving the blue billion.

Well, as one of them, I can do nothing except … wish them good luck. Guys, please win the cup, it will bring you more popularity, more ads, more money. You need not do that for the country. We are idiots who think that you are doing that for us, even though we see doing you more ads than playing good cricket.

If the match is played on a pitch named deception, each one of you will score a century !!!

God save the world !!!

2007-03-11T20:13:00.001+05:30

Today, I was checking news around the world and saw two items. Both are from so called "First World" countries. One is from England, second is from United States.

Both the stories are different. Both are at extremes. One is some people exploiting the innocence of little girls. Another one is .. -no comments-

Here is the first news item from England.

Women are being sold into prostitution in modern day "slave auctions" at Britain's airports, it emerged yesterday. The illegal immigrants are sold to the highest bidder for up to £8,000 a time. They are then forced to work in brothels where they can earn up to £800 a day for their "owner". They were even selling girls of age 14 !!!

Here is the second one from United States of America.

For nearly a month after she was stabbed to death, Linda Damm's body lay in the trunk of her car inside her garage while her 15-year-old daughter and friends used her debit card to "do teenage stuff," police say. In a nutshell, 15-year-old daughter and her boyfriend hated girl's mom and they killed her.

First one was about little girls who were sold by some idiots and being harassed by their so called "owners" being raped, locked up in apartments. Second one was about a so called 15-year-old little girl killing her mom with help of her boyfriend and keeping her safe in the trunk of her car.

I clearly know that I don't make any meaning talking about this, but I've one big doubt. When they have so many problems in their countries themselves, why the hell are they calling us backward/third-world countries ???

Sources : thisislondon cnn

The 50 Most Important People on the Web

2007-03-10T17:04:00.000+05:30

No wonder that there are many important people in this world. But, Web became one very important part of your life. These are people with Top 10 ranks in that part.

1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin - Executives, Google
2. Steve Jobs - CEO, Apple
3. Bram Cohen - Cofounder, BitTorrent
4. Mike Morhaime - President, Blizzard Entertainment
5. Jimmy Wales - Founder, Wikipedia
6. John Doerr - Venture capitalist, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers
7. Craig Newmark - Founder, Craigslist
8. Peter Levinsohn - President, Fox Interactive Media
9. Marissa Mayer - Vice president for search products & user experience, Google
10. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen - Founders, YouTube

Well, the total list is at PCworld

Shutdown day !!!

2007-03-07T21:30:00.000+05:30

Well, well, well. Guess whats going to happen on 24th March 2007. Thats DooM Day, oops, I meant Shutdown day. Thousands of people around the world are thinking about switching off their computers on that day. And some thousands accepting the fact that they cannot live without computers.

Well, atleast in this, I can challenge those folk at google. On Shutdown day, I will shut down my computer. Can you guys DARE to do the same with your servers ** Evil Grin **

Yes !!! I can do something which those guys at google can't do !!! Ok guys, no more crap here. If you think you can be one of those guys who can switch off and you want yourself to counted among those great ones, here is the site, shutdownday

Apple Windows ;)

2007-03-05T21:27:00.000+05:30

One of my hobbies is to customize my computer. Now, I've customized it. I named it Apple Windows ;) More or less, it looks similar to OS X. But, its Windows XP.

Softwares used

Windows .. obvious :P

Litestep - A free shell replacement utility - The Core

Scite - A opensource text editor - To modify scripts of Mac OSX theme by Josh

Paint .NET - A free Image Manipulation toolkit - The background

Let me know if you like it ;)

Microsoft lost to crackers again !!!

2007-03-04T11:38:00.000+05:30

Well, story in a nutshell : Vista Activation is cracked

Paradox(PDX), a very famous warez group that has cracked loads of applications. Not just their programs, I love that cool techno music they keep in some of their releases.

Enough about that clan, the rest is .. Windows Vista can now be PIRATED as normal as other Microsoft Products. Actual story is here.

Good luck Microsoft. Hope you make better softwares in future ;)

India's Hottest College Chick

2007-03-04T11:21:00.000+05:30

No idea, what made people to do this. But, they did it. Yeah, I'm late as usual in noticing this. There was an online contest for the hottest college chik in India (Its over now) Well, its more or less, Hot or Not copy for India. But, the little change is, it declared a winner.

Well, if you are bored of those model pics ... check pics of these hot college chicks at Bunkd

I'm making a difference !!!

2007-03-02T19:49:00.000+05:30

Well, whenever you see a mail from your friend .. that forward this mail, you'll get a check from Mr. Bill G ..... I don't know what you do .. But, I just .. get pissed off !!!!

Well, I aint gonna tell about those idiots ... who dont use their brain and forward mails. I'm going to tell about Mr. Bill G and Instant Messaging.

You can read it as I'm making a difference or .. IM making a difference. Well, in a nutshell .. the story is .. "Microsoft donates to charity for every IM you send !!!"

i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. We've set no cap on the amount we'll donate to each organization. The sky's the limit.

So any time you have an i’m™ conversation using Windows Live Messenger, you help address the issues you feel most passionate about, including poverty, child protection, disease, and environmental degradation. It's simple. All you have to do is join and start an instant messaging conversation. We'll handle the donation.

Punchline : There's no charge, so join now and put our money where your mouth is.

You can start making a difference by visiting http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/

Microsoft Launches New Web Site for Beginner Developers

2007-03-02T19:14:00.000+05:30

The Beginner Developer Learning Center (BDLC) is a free, one-stop shop for learning Windows and Web programing fundamentals. It includes a learning path which starts with the absolute basics like how a Web browser works and builds on that with videos, tutorials, and downloadable sample projects using CSS, JavaScript, HTML, ASP.NET, VB, and C#

Are you interested in creating dynamic web sites, or building online applications and services? Then this is the Development Track for you!

Would you like to customize your desktop with cool utilities or build fun Windows applications and PC games? Then you should explore this Development Track

Looks like .. Microsoft started to think about new programmers ....... finally ! Well, here is the site http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner

Hows this ??

2007-02-26T03:29:00.000+05:30

Well, Hows the image ??? If, you like it, just check glassgiant .com :)
Well, the site actually adds its link on the created image. I dint find any rule that we should nt touch the images. So, obvious result is .. I removed its watermark/text/whatever-it-is from the image :P

Anyways, there are many types of banners are there. Hope you like atleast one ;)

Windows Vs Linux Security (A ctrl+c .. ctrl+v story)

2007-02-18T13:49:00.000+05:30

Well, well, who is writing about windows and linux. Its Karteek, so, obvious is its pro-Linux article which I found at theregister.co.uk

They clearly listed out some myths and facts about security in both the Operating Systems. Lets go through them :)

Myth :Windows only gets attacked most because it's such a big target, and if Linux use (or indeed OS X use) grew then so would the number of attacks.
Fact :When it comes to web servers, the biggest target is Apache, the Internet's server of choice. Attacks on Apache are nevertheless far fewer in number, and cause less damage. And in some case Apache-related attacks have the most serious effect on Windows machines. Attacks are of course aimed at Windows because of the numbers of users, but its design makes it a much easier target, and much easier for an attack to wreak havoc. Windows' widespread (and often unnecessary) use of features such as RPC meanwhile adds vulnerabilities that really need not be there. Linux's design is not vulnerable in the same ways, and no matter how successful it eventually becomes it simply cannot experience attacks to similar levels, inflicting similar levels of damage, to Windows.

Well, yeah, I tried to tell this most of my friends .. especially Chintan .. and he never listened to me !!! Now, another one

Myth :Open Source Software is inherently dangerous because its source code is widely available, whereas Windows 'blueprints' are carefully guarded by Microsoft..
Fact :This 'inherent danger' clearly has not manifested itself in terms of actual attacks. Windows-specific viruses, Trojans, worms and malicious programs exist in huge numbers, so if one gives any credence at all to this claim, one would do better to phrase it 'Open Source Software ought to be more dangerous'. But the claim itself hinges on the view - rejected by reputable security professionals - that obscurity aids security. Obscurity/secrecy can also make it more difficult for the vendors themselves to identify vulnerabilities in their own products, and can lead to security issues being neglected because they are not widely-known. The Open Source model, on the other hand, facilitates widespread review and makes it easier to identify and correct flaws. Modular design principles support this, while the overall approach is far more in line with security industry thinking than is 'security through obscurity.'

Hey, I tend to work ... very carefully when everyone is watching me !!! Same is the case of opensource. If I'm an idiot, there always will be another guy to point me out. If I give you just binary, there wont be other guy to be arsed to point me. Now, to the final and important one.

Myth :Statistics 'prove' that Windows has fewer, less serious security issues than Linux, that Windows issues are always fixed, and that they are fixed faster..
Fact :Quite a broad collection of 'facts' exist in this category, but what they have in common is the (actual) fact that they are usually based on single metrics, on a single aspect of measuring security. Claims that all Windows flaws get fixed are baffling when we consider that there are Microsoft Security Bulletins saying some flaws will never be fixed, and the existence of these also makes it tricky to understand how the fix rate could ever get to be 100 per cent. In the case of Forrester, which produces the 100 per cent as the Windows result for one of several metrics, it is arrived at through tallying flaws and fixes within a specific period. In the same metric Red Hat 'comes second', on the basis that one flaw was not fixed within the period. This is a rickety base for Microsoft (not, note, Forrester) to build a security campaign on.

This aside, simply claiming that Windows is more secure than Linux because the time from discovery of vulnerability to release of patch is greater for Linux skips consideration of the importance of what gets fixed. A comparison of 40 recent security patches with reference to Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat Advanced Server AS v3 shows that Windows experienced the most severe security holes, while Red Hat had only a handful (four) which rated as critical. It is also arguable that Microsoft understates vulnerabilities in Windows Server, because some flaws are deemed not critical for Server on the basis of system defaults which are in many operational scenarios impossible to adhere to. For Red Hat, on the other hand, there is an argument that in Petrelely's analysis we have overstated the extent of critical vulnerabilities (Red Hat does not assign severity levels), and very few of them would allow a malicious hacker to perform mischief at administrator level.

Well, junta, just check the complete report card at theregister
Anyways, as usual .... Windows will live longer. But, I want to shout "Long live Linux !!!"

I Hate You !!!

2007-02-17T14:56:00.000+05:30

I was little bored ... and I tried googling the phrase "I hate you". I found a link on wikipedia to an american romantic comedy movie .. "10 Things I Hate About You"

I dint read much about that except those 10 things told by the girl of the movie. They are lil funny. But, if you think, she is .. a very good example of being a girl. You cant understand them and yet you know them !!!

I'm listing down the 10 things here. So, try reading and analyzing them ;) ** If you are bored just like me !!!**

I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car.
I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme.
I hate the way you're always right.
I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call.
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

No comments that I'm weird to read all that stuff .. but can't help it. And to add to your info base .. I hate it when people think that I'm weird !!

Trip de Ooty rocked !!!

2007-02-16T23:06:00.000+05:30

Well, our ooty trip rocked !!! I loved each and every place on the hill. Especially suicide spot was awsome !!! Check the picture for our team picture on Ooty hills.

Well, yeah .. you are correct, thats a blank picture. Our ooty trip rocked in our dreams. Out of 11 people who are supposed to catch 9.00 PM train, only 8 managed to arrive at station before that. Remaining 3 had some office work and and thanks to Chennai traffic, they managed to reach only after 9 !!

The brighter side of the trip is .. I came to know that Indian Railways became damn punctual !!! Atleast on departure side. The train started moving exactly at 9.00 !!!

Man, it was an utter disappointment as I was dreaming to enjoy those great moments with team at Ooty. But, had to maintain a smiling face, so that my team mates wont feel bad that I was disappointed too. Well, it was great experience. Artificial smiles that can make your friends smile ... are also great. Life rocks. I learned something new today. Smile .. even when you are disappointed. The disappointment will be disappointed and .. will leave you in disappointment ;)

Well, dont try to understand ... that was some crap .. which I hardly understood. So, obvious .. you might not ;)

Well, I ll get back to my great life. Once again ... jhor se bolo .. "Ooty Rockedd !!!"

Happy Valentine's Day !!!

2007-02-14T00:02:00.000+05:30

Hearts are broken every day. It reaches maximum on one single day. That day is celebrated is called as "Valentine's Day". Yeah, I'm single .. but just because, all arrows are not strong enough to pierce. The arrow which I shot is broken. Even then, I'm not writing this as a guy who belive in L.i.E(Love is Evil) coz, I aint a love-hater. But, I'm just against people who earn loads of money on the name of "love".

The primary motive behind this stupid Broken Heart's day is .. nothing but money .. money .. more money. Some people who earn those $$$ are

1. Greeting card companies
2. Florists
3. Bakery Guys
4. Who sell .. cute and cuddly teddy bears
5. Restaurants & resorts
6. Nevertheless .. condom company guys (Thanks for the info @ Deepu. He has statistics also, which I wasn't interested in knowing)
7. Many other guys, about whom I've no idea about

Believe it or not, Valentine's days is the second biggest season for greeting card guys after Christmas. Just on the name of "love", people are wasting so much of money on Greeting cards, Flowers, Jewellery, Soft toys, chocoloates etc etc.

Yeah, I know that, their love is soooo special and they want to celebrate it like anything. Even now, I'm not against celebrations. I'm just against the methods of celebrations. When your love is so special, why dont you do something great, or atleast something good along with your valentine rather than freaking out in a pub or a resort ??

Just, take your valentine to an orphanage, let her give some chocolates to the kids there or go to some oldage home and give some clothes to them. Anything, that can help people who NEED HELP. Why can't people give 50% of the money that they spend on these cards or gifts to some charity. When your love is soooooooo great, is your lover not that great to understand that .. you preferred helping some needy people rather giving her an expensive gift ??? If she can't understand that you care for her and the society, do you need her ??? Valentine's day is to surprise your loved ones by letting them know that you care for them. Not to give them expensive gifts !!!

And last but not least .. for the media .. why the hell are you giving so much hype to Valentine's day ??? ** points rediff ** There are sooo many ads on valentine's day. Do you love your valentine ? Tell us how much you do !!

God, if I love my valentine .. why should I TELL YOU ?????? I thought, there might be some people who really want to tell how do they love their valentine and checked the replies. I cant believe that, people are trying to find instant girl friends online. One convo on rediff ..

Manjunath : I doesn't have any girlfriend, anybody girls want to my friend.
Ritu : Can i be ur friend

In this age of fast food, now, I see girls offering fast friendship and guys asking for faster love !!!
After few hours, they exchange phone numbers, the next day they meet, guy gives an expensive gift to show that he cares, they spend the evening happily .. and what after that ????

Same old story. Hearts are broken every day. It reaches maximum on one single day. That day is celebrated is called as "Valentine's Day".

Guys, don't waste money on these type of Days !!! After all ... its yet another habit .. we imported from the West. Valentine's day is NOT our culture. It does n't mean that we should nt celebrate it. Just .. celebrate it in our style. Dont waste money. India is not as rich as West to waste money :)

PS: Let me make clear once again. I'm not against valentine's day. But, it certainly is kinda stupid when you are single. Who knows, I might have given a diamond pendant if I had a girl friend. After all, I'm also an Indian.

Slowdown Culture

2007-02-12T19:58:00.000+05:30

Got a forward from a friend. Thought to share with you folks. If you've time to read, then read it. If you've sense to follow to it, then follow it.

An interesting reflection: Slow Down Culture

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Good that you reached this long. Hope you learn something from this !!!

Russell Peters !!!

2007-02-09T22:53:00.000+05:30

[Somebody gonna get hurt real bad]

Name of that guy is Russell Peters. He is a Indian-Canadian comedian. He is gemini-award winning comedian and that tells that his comedy is certified ;) He primarily focuses on cultural backgrounds from Indians to Italians, from Chinese to Canadians.

[Serty fie dollars, noooooooooooooooo i can't do serty dollar, i sell to you serty dollar today, tomorrow i clo down
I give you best price, serty foe feefty]

[I wanted to break up with her. I woke up one morning, I looked at her. I was like .. "Yo, go make me some breakfast. I thought for sure .. ".
"What do you want ?"
"Two eggs. One boiled. One fried."
"I went downstairs and she did it!! What do you do man !!! Oh .. You screwed it .. You boiled the wrong egg !!!!" ]

Btw, you must be wondering, what the hell are those lines in those brackets. They are just some quotes from shows of Russell Peters. When you've nothing to do. And you feel like laughing out for a whole. I suggest you watching videos of that guy. Just check out google videos or youtube for some videos.

** Satisfaction Guaranteed **

For the lazy asses sitting out there, here are the links for searching YouTube and Google.

YouTube -> http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Russell+Peters&search=Search
Google -> http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Russell+Peters

[Hey we're all gonna be mixing sooner or later......Yeah, if u get a chic from Phillipines and a guy from Holland you'll get a Hollapino. A French guy hooks up with a Greek girl, we get 'freaks'. A guy from Iceland and a girl from Cuba, we get lil 'ice cubes']

Good Old Life - One Masterpiece

2007-01-20T13:50:00.000+05:30

Well ...

Uhmm...

Hi All !!
I dint get my dabba back upto now, but, I couldn't stay away from you folks for much time. Well, even if I don't get my dabba a.k.a computer back, I'll be writing something here.

Well, most of you work. How long has it been that you've sketched something ?? 20 years or 15 years or .. at least 1 year ???

There is a site working for a big cause and in the same time looking for a Guinness record by creating a masterpiece done by one million people. I'm one of those million. Don't you want to be one ???

Arghh !!!!

2007-01-11T22:21:00.000+05:30

A great new year !!!!!

I came home and started my computer. ** Dub ** my room started stinking for a while. Result is ... Motherboard gone, 2 Hard disks gone. No idea about remaining components !!!

Total 120 gb data loss :'-(
And one idiot bugging me to blog X-(

God save the world. Hope, I ll blog next time after recovering data :-)

Feeling Secure ???

2006-12-16T19:04:00.000+05:30

Feeling secure while browsing internet at office.

When you are browsing any site, you've to remember that you are doing that only through your service provider. As long as it is not illegal, he wont mind. But, what if its illegal ? And what if your service provider is your company ? Reading non-official email might not be a crime/illegal in your country. But, if its against your company policies, don't you think that you are breaking its rules "accessing your non-official email" through some proxy. Which might make you look *elite* to your colleagues. But, you are doing nothing other than a CRIME !!!

Yeah, this class won't stop some people from still accessing the content. But, this threat might stop them. Yes, a threat !!! What ever you access through your office, it MIGHT be readable by your network administrator. Login to your email, he might be reading your mail for you ;) Chat using meebo, he can read every IM you send to your friends. Blame your boss, every word can be recorded.

All I suggest is .. just don't forget the fact that you are SPIED !!! And make sure that what you never use any of your personal accounts at office. As long as your admin is good, its ok. He is evil and intelligent, he can do many things. And it will be added advantage, if you are stupid to use office network for your personal purpose.

** Not intended to be too techie, so, no techniques are explained.
Will certainly tell what happens if I get loads of time to explain **

Bug Me Not !!!

2006-12-14T20:42:00.000+05:30

I'm sure that everyone who uses internet must have gone through this situation. You find some page on google while searching for something. And you want to view it .. or may be you want to download something from that website. You click on the link and it will take you to registration page. Unless you register there, you cant view stuff there.

Some very normal people register with their *everyday* email
Some normal people register with their *specially created for these sites* email
Some beyond the obvious people register with their *10 minute mail or mytrashmail* email
Last and never the least, some a way too beyond the obvious people just get a login from http://www.bugmenot.com and use it !!!

Bugmenot is a service, where users share their login information just to make sure that other users are not bugged by websites to register themselves there.

I'm sure that this techtip is NOT great but it will help you when you are really bugged by those websites !!!

Unfairness is always a part of life !!!

2006-12-10T00:44:00.000+05:30

Well, Philosophy ain't a favorite topic of mine. But, some times, few stories DO change you a lot. Atleast for a day or two. When I was at Hyderabad, I was completely upset about things happening around me. At that time, my project team mate told me one story. A story which made me think for a while and feel relaxed. My hatred for the community was gone in two minutes. There are few characters in the story. A crocodile, a boy, a rabbit, birds, snake etc etc., No more dragging .. I ll tell you the story.

** Grammar gurus, please spare me **

Once, a crocodile gets stuck in net of a hunter. Croc sees a kid going on the river bank. So, it begs kid to release it. But, kid is intelligent enough to understand that its a dangerous animal. So, he tells it that he cant do that coz, if he release it, it might catch him and kill him. But, croc plays innocent and it assures kid that it wont kill him. So, kid goes to the croc and tries to help it out. When the croc is half out, it think that its completely out and catches kid's leg.

The kid starts feeling very bad, and tells that its not fair to catch him even after promising. As the croc is still half caught in the net, it doesn't kill the kid. Then, kid tells the sad story to few birds on the tree of that bank and begs them to help him out. Birds, after listening to that story tell the kid, "We work so hard for total year to build our nest and we keep eggs in it. And a snake crawls up and eat them and sometimes humans come and cut down the tree. No one was there for us to help. Kid, solve your problem by yourself. Unfairness is always a part of life." Kid begs few animals living around to help him out. But, no animal helps him.

Then he finds a rabbit coming forward to help him. Rabbit comes near the croc. And the greedy croc while trying to catch the rabbit, leaves the kid. Kid runs back to his village, get few men and gets the croc killed. While coming back from the village, his dog also follows him. When his dog, after seeing the rabbit, runs after it and kills it before the boy could catch the dog and save the rabbit.

Boy gets a bad feeling ... and he remembers the words of birds and other animals .. "Unfairness is always a part of life"

** End of Story **

Well, just remember that "Unfairness is always a part of life". When someone breaks a promise, don't blame them .. It might be their only choice. When someone cheats you, don't blame them .. It might be their only livelihood. When something goes wrong, don't blame anyone ... ITS LIFE !!!

It can't be life .. if its perfect !!!

Oh !!! F*** !!!

2006-12-07T21:11:00.000+05:30

Long time, ain't it ??

Yeah, been bit busy with life. Went to Hyderabad for few days. Came back to Madaras and had to attend cousin's wedding. So, obvious result is loads to blog and no computer. Well, will start with one of the never-ending saga of weird stories that happen in my life.

Going to the Scene ...

Sunday, Dec 03, 2006 8.35 PM @ Hyderabad Airport

I went to Hyderabad after long time. ** almost 9 months ** Dint meet my close buds in that time. So, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. So, I was trying to squeeze out much time. Result is that I reached airport just 20 minutes before take off. As per rules, issue of boarding pass will be stopped before 15 minutes. A guy was waiting outside and was hurrying every passenger of Paramount airways. (Even, I heard that name for the first time, so lite !!) Anyways .. I took my boarding pass thinking that I must be the last idiot to take boarding pass. Just 2 minutes later, I saw my team mate entering for security check. Well, yeah, I'm not the last !!!

Sunday, Dec 03, 2006 8.45 PM @ Hyderabad Airport

My team mate was intelligent enough to choose seat number online itself. But, I wasn't. I entered flight with an innocent face which I try to carry every where ;) I reached my seat and kept my hand luggage in the space over my head. I was looking forward for the person to come who will be sitting in the seat next to me. One pretty chick came there and she was looking at my next seat. The very thought in my mind was ... "Man!!!! How can this happen ??? I never get pretty babes to sit next to me. Woot !!! This travel is going to be great !!!!" After few seconds, My mind came to normal disappointed state when I saw that chick sitting in my back seat. Argh !!!! Yes, this never happens with me. Then, a lungi guy came next to me. And I started praying .. Not him .. not him ... !! Well, you know my luck. There was enough space in the luggage compartment next to my bag to keep his plastic cover. But, the great Madarasi just pushed by bag and kept his cover in that place. Wow!! How come these guys get those ideas ???

Well, this is not everything. Real story starts now. Like a descent passenger, he switched his BOTH mobiles off. When the flight is on the runway, air-hostess came to us offering chocolates. I took one chocolate and was looking at that pretty chick. This lungi guy took around 15-20 chocolates when it was my turn to stare at him and that air-hostess joined me in a very short weird look at that guy. He kept all those chocolates in his pocket and I started thinking about how pathetic this travel is going to be ..

Sunday, Dec 03, 2006 9.10 PM @ Somewhere in Air

After take off, we got our dinner. Quantity was very less. But, I took much time to have it coz that lungi guy was making weird sounds while eating. All of a sudden, I heard sound of spoons falling down. Well, his spoon was in his hand only. But, I couldn't see his knife and fork. He moved quickly before that sound. After 2 minutes, he kept a cover with fork and knife in the pouch !!!! I couldn't believe that a guy who is sitting in Business class of a flight stealing knife and fork !!!!! Well, he looked at me as if nothing happened. I was counting seconds .. !! I want that journey to end as fast as possible. And I wanted to take photo of that guy !!!

Sunday, Dec 03, 2006 9.45 PM @ Madaras Airport

Well, it was the time. Flight landed at Madaras and I wanted to make sure that he had stolen knife and fork. I took my bag and started monitoring his movements. He took his plastic bag down and kept it on the seat and he took the small cover with fork and knife from the pouch and he just slipped that small cover in to his big plastic bag. Man, that was professional !!! He had NO guilt in his face !!! They way he kept them in the pouch tells that he dint do that coz of his ignorance. God !!! Enough spice in my life. I don't want to see any of those type.

I ran to my team mate as soon as I got down from the flight. After I told this story to him, it was his turn to take a weird look at that guy.

Spam ??? Kill it !!!

2006-11-28T23:40:00.000+05:30

Well, in my previous techtip, I wrote about mytrashmail which actually is nothing but some fake email which always exist and you need not register. One of my friends told me that he uses a separate Yahoo! email account for such sort of cases. But, if one has to register twice in the same site where e-mail need to be unique, you can't use Yahoo! mail. There Mytrashmail can be of great help.

You might be getting one doubt. " Is nt there any service which we can use for those sites, and register N times with same email account ?" Well, the answer is positive. And its Gmail. It might be not be a famous feature of gmail, but its certainly the one which can make it unique. In gmail, the character '.' is not important when sending an email (Its important only when signing into gmail)

For example, my email address is karteek [dot] e [at] gmail [dot] com. I wrote it in that way just to make sure that spammer bots who search search engines for emails cant find it. (Well, lets be postitive and think that they can't find). Now, all these following email address bring email to my account only !!!

k.a.r.t.e.e.k.e [at] gmail [dot] com
ka.rt.ee.k.e [at] gmail [dot] com etc etc

This is one feature which is not really useful and I dont know why its given by gmail guys.

Now, Second feature, a real ** KickAss ** feature. '+' can be appended to ur name in the email, and it still brings mail to you only. In plain words, if your email is .. google@gmail.com then google+anytext@gmail.com is also your email.

You can use the above feature to really findout which sites are actually spamming you or selling your emails to spammers. Or just which are useful for spammers to get your email.

Well, I'll be more clear. If I want to know whether giving my email address here in this blog can bring spam to me, i can write my email address is particular way, which will tell me that this blog is helping spammers (Well, obviously I wont sell my email to them). The way I will write my email address is ... karteek.e+k4karteek.blogspot.com-28-Nov-2006@gmail.com

Now, whenever I get some mail to that email address, I can find that this blog is reason for that spam and I can simply add a filter to delete all mail sent to that email. And even if I want, I can complain to the admin of that site. With that feature, I feel like email must be called as Gmail ;)

Hope, this will be useful. As usual, if you dont like this, you know what to do !!!

Dhoom Again !!!

2006-11-24T23:17:00.000+05:30

Yet another friday. I never use to have so much of love for friday till I started working. Today is little different and I went to Dhoom:2 with my team.

So called .. most awaited movie made us wait for 30 minutes for the start itself. Theatre guys played ads for 30 minutes and made sure that we start watching the movie with a strong negative thoughts in mind. Movie started with Hrithik in a lady role .. and then normal and some fights etc etc. He was as good as ever ** I dont like that guy, even then he was good ** He started some flying like Krish right from the start. He did some 'Sand Boarding' ** Sand-boarding is similar to Snowboarding but on sand :P ** and some 'Rail Boarding' ** Now same effect but on rails ** And some flying stunts. Ali a.k.a Uday Chopra entered on bike as expected. Abhishek entered doing some underwater stunts ...

Movie was quite faster in the first half. And it became little draggy in the second. Now you must be wondering why I'm not talking about ladies of the movie. Well .. lead roles are played by Aish and Bips. Aish played some role which is little important to the movie and Bips played a role which looks like created after writing total story. Bips role is 100% useless. She played a (dual) role where one is upto interval (For a song with Abhishek) which I cant see in the second half . And in second half, she was given a role to wear bikini and dance with Uday. Aish sucked as usual ** I'm an anti-ash guy. Sorry for Ash'ing ppl ** There was a smooching scene at the end where poor Hrithik had to kiss her lips. Total movie .. Hrithik and Abhishek Rocked !!! Uday ... good comedy ** Reminded good old-new telugu movie 'Malleswari' and Pelli kaani Prasad ** I got little bored in second half. And some stunts made me think about Tollywood all time great stunts guy .. the ultimate .. one and only ... Grama Simham .... ** Oops, I meant Seema Simham ** Balayya Babu. Bikes are back in action only in the last scene. Hrithik's make up rocked in the movie. Bips bikini rocked front rows. Aish's kiss must have rocked germs in Hrithik's mouth !!

I will suggest people to watch the movie. But, go with least expectations .. you might end up coming out with smiling face. If you go with high expectations .. You'll end up smiling at the guys who are waiting for next show !!! But, I enjoyed the movie .. just coz I went with my team !!!

** Dhoom Again !!! **

Birthday Again !!

2006-11-23T00:10:00.000+05:30

When I don't have anything to do ... God gives me a very good friend ** FYI, literally I meant a friend's birthday. Well, if you still can't understand .. take it as I don't have anything to do .. God gave me a very good friend 'his age' years ago **

Actually, I missed birthday of another close friend who's birthday is on 20 Nov. Well, Belated wishes Deepthi. She was my college mate and now a fellow associate @Work. She is a sweet girl ** yeah, all my friends are sweet ** Lets wish that everything will be good for her this year also.

Now, I've to talk about another guy who's from rival company Wipro. If I've to show a person for whom his name suits the most, I ll show this guy. His name is Chanakya. Yeah, I'm comparing him to Chanakya of our good old history lessons. This guy is damn intelligent ** he is one of the few .. I'm actually jealous about intelligence ** When I first met him, I've n't had any idea that he would one day become my best best best pal. Well, you got it correctly. This guy is one of the very few best friends I've.

If you've ever seen a guy who is

* damn intelligent
* really daring
* little rude
* very friendly
* damn sarcastic
* very very concerned about future
* pakka career oriented
* looking like Yuvi ;) ** this aint pakka truth. But, there were comments **
* a genius ??? ** No comments !!! He is one !!! **
* an all rounder .. cricket ??? badminton ??? physics ??? movies ??? fights ;) ??? .. I'm here attitude
* damn good at teasing dost as well as dushman log :P

Well, that guy is Mr. Chanakya !!! Well, above points are just a few of his traits. If you are a girl .. beware of that guy .. wait, he ain't a casanova .. he is a "Nasa"nova ** he teases/irritates girls a lot. nasa == Telugu(irritate) ** If you are a guy .. even then beware .. You could just become jealous of this guy.

If moon is a person and stars are skills ... then that moon must be "Chanakya"
Hey bud, Many Many Many Happy returns of the day !!!

My 'Trash' Mail

2006-11-20T21:28:00.000+05:30

Well, I'm not a celebrity. So, there wont be something different in my life every damn day. So, whenever there is nothing special in my life and still .. I want to bug you guys, I'll give you out some tech-tips which I use in my everyday life.

Today's tip is on -- E-Mail !

Sometime, you've visited a site. And to see more content that stupid site asked you to register. And the registration system wont let you in unless you click on some activation link it sends to your mail. So, obvious solution is give some valid email address. But, you know what happens if the site is not genuine. Even if your email provider has very good spam protection you end-up having much spam.

I'll tell you about service named MyTrashMail. This site doesn't ask you for any registrations. I'll explain in 3 simple steps how you are going to use this service.

1. Go to some stupid site where you've to register
2. Give your email as somestupidname@mytrashmail.com
3. Just goto http://www.mytrashmail.com and enter 'somestupidname' in the big box provided there and just hit on "Get Email" button.
** Yes, No password. So anyone can read your email. Don't become over-intelligent and use this service for your personal emails too **
4. Now, never get spammed again by giving your original email address

** Well, I told you I'm not a celebrity to stick to my words !!! Thats just only one more point. Don't make it a big issue !!! **

Have Fun. If you like this tech-tip .. Uhmmm Like it !!! Otherwise .. Whenever you see the label "Tech Tip", you know what to do !!!

That was close !!!

2006-11-18T22:58:00.000+05:30

Man, That was close !!!

Friday, as usual, my friends started for home(Tirupati) which is three and half hours away from Madaras. I started from the place I stay in Madaras. I went outside in a very different mood. I was humming some song and was looking for auto. Finally, I found one guy and I asked him whats the fare to Central Bus Stand. He couldn't understand whether I've to go to Central (Railway Station) or Bus Stand. I told him Bus stand and he was not ready to go there. Found another guy .. who demanded 100 bucks for *insert less than symbol here* 60 buck fare (Here, I wanted to type less than symbol. But, there is a bug in blogger beta, which is actually removing all the words after 60 if I type that. Being a very good guy, I've just reported blogger guys. Dunno, when they will fix the bug). And my humming mood was gone and economy mode of my brain started working. I asked for 70 bucks and he accepted for 80. Its high, even then .. couldn't do anything

Well, Nothing was close up to now. Yea yeah, I've habit of typing some stupid stuff before coming to the topic. Can't help it. Its some contagious disease I got from bollywood movies. I met my friends there at Bus Stand and we had to choose very uncomfortable Tamil Nadu buses (seats suck in them, especially for a tall guy like me) As we entered bus, there were many seats empty. We wanted to take some seat in middle to be safe from jerks the bus give. There were 3 girls sitting on on 3rd row and as I don't want to go to back, I told my friends that we will take 4th row, but, one of my friends wanted to sit in 5th row. As it doesn't make any difference we went for the 5th row.

Yeah, I know nothing is close up to now. Common, you need some patience !!! Then .. after chatting for few hours, we tried to sleep (as it was already 1.00 AM) The bus was pretty uncomfortable. But, friends are very close. They adjusted some how, I kept my head on one guy and legs on another guy. At around 2.15 AM. I heard one word very loud "PORIKKI" (Yeah, double K, not the Telugu flick. Its Tamil word to *praise* people who does indecent things. One of those girls in 3rd was shouting at the guy who was sitting in 4th row. She was blaming him that that guy is .. using his hand to do something bad !!! All of us were shocked !!! And the *most-shocking* thing was .. even that guy was shocked !!! He don't know when he did that. Conductor came and he started bashing that guy and left after giving him enough. She happy went into deep sleep back again. This guy was shocked and was very upset. It must be the cool breeze which made her think like that. One can't even keep a finger through the gap there. I wonder how this guy can keep hand !!!

If that guy was really doing that, he deserve the bashing. Otherwise, THANK GOD !! We were not sitting there. That was close !!! It was really a very good decision to leave that row. Friends, when ever you are travelling in a bus, and if you have chance, try to avoid sitting behind girls. Its really dangerous for health ;) People won't even believe you. They will just think that girls never LIE !!! And guys never tell truth !!! (even though they are guys)

Well, now tell me, wasn't it close ???

It happens only in India !!!

2006-11-16T21:54:00.000+05:30

Yet another great day in not-so-great life.

My day usually starts with 10-snoozes on my mobile phone. I kept my recursive alarm at 06.45 AM ** like a very good boy ** And everyday, before going to bed, I keep normal alarm at 07.00 AM and go to bed in between 01.00 - 02.00 AM. As soon as my mobile rings at 06.45, I make it dumb and change the 7'O clock alarm to 7.30 After that .. some snoozes for 9 min of length. And scolding my mobile for ringing and time for passing .. I manage to get up. And with 20-30 minutes I get ready. Then, I ll wait for my bud to come and pick me up and we start our long journey through the great Madaras City traffic and some how reach office by 9.30-9.45 ** Hope my HR is not reading this :D **

Today, the day was little unusual. I got ready in time. I was waiting for the regular miss-call from my bud. Its 9.15 and he dint call. So, I called him. He usually don't pick the call ** which is a good sign, that he is riding his bike, which means he is on his way ** But, today he picked the call and gave me a shocking news that he wont be coming ** This guy is sick !!! Wait ! Not SICK sick, I meant normal sick sick !! **

You must be wondering that .. It happens everywhere .. what so special that it would happen only in India. Well, I'm coming to the topic. By looking at my new bike which is yet to get registered, feeling bad that I couldn't take it, I started for office. I went to bus stop. Mean while, I asked couple of auto-walas and they demanded half my salary * of the day * as hire. And poor me, who couldn't afford it, got into a bus which wasn't as rushy as a typical Chennai bus. There were only 60-70 people inside it. All of a sudden, bus got full and became typical Chennai bus with around 90 people in it. Some stupid students .. started running for the bus as if its the only bus in Chennai. Couple trying to hang on the foot board along with 12 other guys. And couple even trying to hang to WINDOWS !!! I was enjoying the great sight of my great great ancestors trying to climb the windows of the bus as they climbed great trees. And some bad uncles got angry on my ancestors and started scolding them in Tamil ** which I understood only half and remaining half, obviously I created my own version ** One bad uncle became really bad and started pushing one monkey ancestor from the window !!! And he was shouting, if you fall down, your hand or leg will break and what will your parents do ?? ** Wow ! This guy is so concerned about those kids' parents. But, why the hell is he trying to push that kid from moving bus ??? I couldn't understand how that bad uncle can save that kid's life by PUSHING him out of window of the moving bus ** Another semi-bad uncle got all serious and went to the foot board and started fighting with some guy who is NO WAY related to those monkey kids. ** Uhmm, that poor guy was trying to answer him that he is no way related to them, but this semi-bad uncle is not willing to listen to him. Same old story, I understood half and I created my own version of remaining ** Another very good uncle went seriously to the front and started fighting with CONDUCTOR !!!! ** God, what the hell is happening here. One guy is pushing a kid out of window and telling that he is trying to save his life. Another one fighting with someone else. Another one ... trying to beat conductor AND one idiot (me) looking all confused ** Finally, I reached the destination after sometime. I never was so happy TO GO TO OFFICE !!! When I saw my office, I felt like getting closer to heaven.

Well, I'm sure that it happens only in Chennai. If not, atleast only in India !!! Man, I'm damn lazy to write about total day. Try to adjust with this. Thanks !!! If you cant adjust goto http://www.google.com and search for Chennai life there. Now, THANKS and BYE !!!

Blogger Beta

2006-11-15T01:18:00.000+05:30

Why is this bugger bugging in blogger by blogging about blogger in the blogger itself ?

Sounds like a tongue-twister right ? Yeah, it is supposed to be a tongue twister only. Well, today is Children's day and there was some tongue-twisters competition at office. Those twisters left my tongue but are still twisting my brain. ** Aaao twist kare !!! I'm humming this song since morning **

Coming back to the first line, I wanted to write something about the all new "Blogger Beta". Wait !!! I know you people must be wondering how a guy who started blogging three days before knows about old blogger. Well, this blog is new, but I'm not new to blogging. I started to like it at the very first sight itself. The reason was .. why is this again a beta, when there are no changes ??? It took me few minutes for me to tell that this is really "All New". The dashboard was similar to the old one, which just shows your blogs and links to settings, create new post and layout.

There is something new in layout. Drag and drop page elements is something new and it started exciting me with in moments. Love at first sight !!! Now, my blog's layout can be changed very easily. I need not be a web designing expert to add and remove content from my blog. In fact I don't even need to know A..B..Cs of HTML. There is everything you need. They called them widgets. I don't care what they call them as, but, I call them magic wands ! Just drag and drop the page element and you decide where your elements have to sit. And you've little knowledge in understanding codes .. You can just expand the widgets and modify them as per your need very easily. *YES! I love this !!!*

Then, I tried to create a post. Everything is SOS. But, my senses were telling me that there is something new there too. Are labels new in blogger beta ?? I wasn't sure whether labels were there in old blogger. Well, I'm too lazy to check old blogger. So you better figure it out yourself ! When I posted my first post I was shocked to see that I need not publish my blog again and again as in previous blogger. Man .. My lover (blogger beta) rox !!!

As usual, I felt like adding something my post after posting it. Well, there is still an edit button *winks*. The formatting which the post is showing is sometimes different from the one which is published. And formatting (font sizes) are lost when you click on edit button. Man .. I just called this blogger beta as my lover and it started behaving like one !! Are these little big bugs ???

Ah, never mind. Who doesn't have little problems ? My lover, Blogger Beta *still lover* has some bugs too. After that, there is another software from google named "Picasa" which is photo managing software and it can be used to post photos to blogger directly. I tried to post a photo from picasa and I actually couldn't post it to blogger beta just coz I still get blogger's login in my picasa and blogger and Blogger beta are different. My lover has some more problems.

Ah, never mind. Doesn't make any difference. She is hot !!! As, the post formatting is not good in blogger beta, I wanted to post through writely a.k.a Google Docs. When I tried to publish, it asked me to give my blog details and I gave them, then it wanted to test everything is working or not and after testing it told that everything is fine and it asked me whether to post to blog. My answer was an obvious one. YES !!! After pressing that, it refreshed and told me that my post is not published. ** What ?? Not published ??? Then, what the hell were those tests that I've passed just before ??? ** I've checked my blog and the new post is not there !!

Argh !!! It cant act like a typical lover just because I called it as my lover. Man Blogger beta must be Blogger BETA. There are many functions which are not working well. Now, I cant understand why they are trying to merge blogger and blogger beta with so many disorders. People who were happy with Blogger will obviously find this new chick problematic. As, I'm pretty much adjustable, I'm still working om Blogger Beta.

Thanks Google for giving such a wonderful tool! Guys, by the way, the spell check in writely a.k.a Google Docs is showing that the words "google" and "writely" are spelling mistakes.

What's better than two ? Three !!!

2006-11-14T00:17:00.000+05:30

Well, whats better way to start a blog than starting it with two birthdays ?
Three Birthdays !!! (Yeah, this is a copied thingy from ..... the topic of this post :P ... or some TV program of some kid's channel)

Today is birthday of my childhood friend CN !

If I want to write about that guy, I can finish in one single line ... THIS IDIOT IS NOT IN CONTACT WITH ME !!

This guy was my school friend, later became college mate. This guy is now absconding !!

He looks like a giant with a smiley face. Looks(Tries to) sweet. Sounds kiddish. If any of you people find some huge guy with these characteristics, please report me here.

Dear CN, where ever you are, please come back. I ll give you all the chocolates which I've stolen from you in third class (Yea, yeah, when you were trying to save them from me by keeping them in your mouth, I've stolen them and kept in my bag). Please come back !!!

By the way, Mr. CN, Happy Birthday !!!

* Note: Not intended as sarcasm. If its not funny, please click here *

Joyeux Anniversaire !!

2006-11-13T00:01:00.000+05:30

One of the great ways to start blogging ... is with 2 consecutive birthdays !!

Yesterday was my blog's birthday. Today, its one of best friend's !!!

The topic is in french coz I dont know french and I still dont know what I am going to type in this post. If I start talking about her, I ll certainly forget time. In this world, its really hard to stop talking about stupid things and sweet things. She is blend of those two characters. So, certainly there wont be any stopping if I start talking about her.

I ll just give some hints about her.
She is one of the prettiest girls I know *started with a lie ;) JK*
She is not a typical *shh, kuchi kuchi kooo, choo chweeet* type girl !!
She is one of most career oriented girls I know.
She is SHORT ** Yes, 5'2'' is SHORT !!! **
She is straight forward !!
She is the sweetest thing on Earth !!
She is one of the most boring girls on Earth !! ** ended with a fact ;) JK **

I know I know .. its enough about her. But, believe me, there are many moments I felt so lucky to have her as my friend. She just roxx !!!

Chikky, Happy Birthday !!!
I wish you success in every work you start and lots and lots of happiness !

**Chikky, by the way, what happened to your nose ???? **

Hello World !!!

2006-11-12T02:06:00.000+05:30

Being a programmer, I could nt get a better way to tell that I'm starting my blog. To tell about myself, I'm a software engineer (thats the typical term all employees a.k.a resources of big MNCs call themselves even if they don't deal with any softwares).

Reason behind this blog is .. YES! To terminate all the evil and give our world a fresh start. To teach humans a new method of great living. *BLA* Well, the real reason is .. everyone is blogging, why NOT me ?!!@!!! Yeah, I'm yet another goat following the trends of internet.

Doing my part of count++ to the number of blogs on internet, I assure that, I ll give my best to make this blog as interesting as possible. If its not interesting, well, you know what to do.

K World

Moving out of Blogger

The Road Not Taken

Gutsy Gibbon - A Step Ahead ?

Jaiku is acquired by Google

x/10 of rediff :P

Nobel, Peace and The Currency Guy

Artificial Love

Check De India

Good Luck Chak De and Analysis

India Did It :-)

Jack of all trades - The Darker Side

Pay Back Time

Unlucky RSA and the lucky Oz

Yahoo! acquired Zimbra

D.O.A.P - Fiction Doped for Acceptance

Denial to Acceptance

Magician with stick in his hand

Don't Eat My Cookie

Fire-up your fox !!

Register ? Globals ? What ???

Alice, Bob and Lahycxpajyqh

No patch for human brain

Ashtasiddhi

MySQL db Password ?

GME - Mashups Made Easy

Free {legal} alternatives

Coding Conventions

It's a Dog Eat Dog World

Einstein's Intelligence Quiz

Sicko %@#$%@#$^^

Me, Myself and an Artist

Namesake

Crash into each other

The world of assumptions

Friend or acquaintance .. this is so unfair

A curse ???

This part of my life is known as ... Loneliness

My Seven Deadly Sins

What’s happening to my best friend???

Infosian protests

Rediff

A Journey into Ubuntu !!!

V.Tech :(

Guess what ?

Fool’s Day !!!

Epic Movie … Comments :-|

Good Morning India !!!

I’m going to sound techie !!!

Innovations in Democracy !!!

Internet Zindabad !!!

Deceiving the blue billion :-(

God save the world !!!

The 50 Most Important People on the Web

Shutdown day !!!

Apple Windows ;)

Microsoft lost to crackers again !!!

India's Hottest College Chick

I'm making a difference !!!

Microsoft Launches New Web Site for Beginner Developers

Hows this ??

Windows Vs Linux Security (A ctrl+c .. ctrl+v story)

I Hate You !!!

Trip de Ooty rocked !!!

Happy Valentine's Day !!!

Slowdown Culture

Russell Peters !!!

Good Old Life - One Masterpiece

Arghh !!!!

Feeling Secure ???

Bug Me Not !!!

Unfairness is always a part of life !!!

Oh !!! F*** !!!

Spam ??? Kill it !!!

Dhoom Again !!!

Birthday Again !!

My 'Trash' Mail

That was close !!!

It happens only in India !!!

Blogger ** Beta **

Blogger Beta