Some reasons why you SHOULD use Free Software..

No before i get into the whole thing, by Free Software i mean the programs that follow the 0-3 Freedoms as stated by the Free Software Foundation. Or rather Copy-Left than Copy Right …
Why is that a Free S/w user is so good at fixing a system, trouble shooting software issues and fixes thing without even reading the manual.
Now these are the reasons

1) Free software users expect open licenses and no activation methods
2) Free software users expect regular upgrades and patches
3) Free software users expect to work the way they choose
4) Free software users want control of their own systems
5) Free software users explore
6) Free software users expect to help themselves
7) Free software users don’t fear the command line
Free software users learn software categories, not programs
9) Free software users expect access to developers and other employees

iPhone : The Untold Story

Wired.com has this article : The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry.
Truly its the Untold Story on how iPhone took over the mobile industry and made the fellow competitors run for their money.

The demo was not going well.
Again.

It was a late morning in the fall of 2006. Almost a year earlier, Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple’s top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple’s boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn’t just buggy, it flat-out didn’t work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, “We don’t have a product yet.”

Read on …

DOMPlayer and the Doom.

Creativity has no limits and the fact that people can go to any extend to infect you machine with malware, let me say comes as a total relief. After people has spend dollars securing their machine with the latest spyware remover, anti-virus, pop-up blocker and all the shit that you can get you hands on, there is no stopping a curious browser who downloads some thing and authorizes it to do some operation and ends ups in a deeper shit that he was before.

We all love torrent. The countless torrent files that you looked up on the net to download your favorite movie, would have at least made you thin, what you would have done with out those torrent sites. Its the same feeling you get when you thank George Bush for the oil that he is bringing in from Iraq and Kuwait.

So when some thought of the idea of infecting your machine with the help of torrent download and get paid $3 for doing so , has to be credited with the ingenuity of the idea. Here is the whole scenario.

You download a movie (most of the reports came up with the latest movies like Hitman, Beowuf, National Treasure : Book of Secrets) or an episode of your favorite series on TV. When you try to play it it says

“This video can only be played in DomPlayer, Visit Download.Domplayer.Com“

Like any other desperate downloader you visit their site :

Pretty neat site of a movie player, compared to VLC Player and Real Player. So you go and download the player, the Download button is right in front of you. So whats the big deal. Go ahead download the file… At this point i got suspicious and thought hey i never heard any of my friends talk about such a player, instead of installing it at the home PC (Windows XP), let me try to get an installer/player for Linux. That way its safe and its my Laptop, if anything gets screwd up i can just install all over again. Big Deal!!!

Web searches got me to couple of forums here and here. They talked about another player 3wPlayer by Wildman Productions(i have no idea who the hell they are).

In fact the real deal here is as reported from Best Security Tips is DOM Player says its clean but you call them up and pay them to activate the attack on your P. If that doesnt work they ask you to download 3wPlayer. Which is another piece of shit and load the malware to the PC free of charge.

Now that is a cool idea. You get paid to get infected like the way you paid to get protected. Over that you download movie files (AVI files) which might be renamed porno movies.

FTP problem in Fedora/RedHat

IF any one using Fedora with vsftpd service for FTP might have come across the issue while connecting via FTP

500 OOPS: cannot change directory:/home/xxxx

Login failed.

Then here is the solution. The problem is with SELinux. Go to System > Administration > SELinux Administration. Left side - Select : Boolean. On right side - FTP, check the box that says - Allow ftp to read/write files in the users home directory.

DONE!!! Close SELinux…

Power of Perl

Perl, over the past years has grown into my favorite scripting language. Infact its the one language that i’m most comfortable with. After almost 3+ years of Perl for simple scripting purposes, last day it really helped me get my team-mates just go WOW!!!

The fact that the script that i wrote, automated the 3 lengthy Automation processes is just the beginning. It starts off by FTP-ing the files to the non-stop servers, runs the 3 automatons, FTP-s back the log files of the run, analyzes and prepares the test report.

This was what i had thought of till i went to office yest morning. Then it struck me- Why not automate the mail send out through Outlook? Cool!!! Out comes the Win32::OLE modules for windows and BANG!!!

I have my application, that runs, analyzes and prepares the mail to be send. Unfortunately because of the security feature of Outlook 2003, i have to ‘click’ send before sending the mail.

Now thats why Perl is Practically Everything Really Likable … ha ha ..

Security of an IT Company and YOU…

Security is still a big issue in India. Since there are terrorists ready to blow up anything here, we must be aware of the fact that we are vulnerable and take all means in avoiding it. Of lately when the security measures in my company was stepped up, many employees expressed dissatisfaction and where highly irritated. Sadly they dont realize the threat. They all complained that the Security at the main gates and buildings scrutinized their belongings and treated them equally like terrorists. To a mail sent by my colleague to the Security in charge, part of the reply went like this

… We (the security and the company) are not bothered about what the employee takes unauthorized from the company(hardware and documents). But more worried about the a much more grave situation… The attack at IISc Bangalore was first planned against IT companies as they (Terrorists) realize that a well planned strike at the heart of the Silicon Valley of India, will send India’s market crashing and the country will be in a chaos in no time. Sadly our company was also in their list. They were outside our gates, looking at every move and they found the security tight even for a normal employee. Thus we were spared. Else the AKs would have gone in any of the leading IT company…

A normal Techie, works from 8-to-8 and is completely oblivious to much of the things shaping up in the outside world, spare may be Bipasha’s curves or SRK’s Abs. He doesnt realize that the Bad Guys have really turned ugly and they are recruiting Graduates and Post Grads, like most IT companies, to do the dirty job (both ways its true for the Terror Organization and IT Company). I was surprised one Monday morning when i was asked to stop at the gates and the security guy checked my ID to verify its me. After 2 years, that day i entered the campus a bit happy, coz i found the Security doing their job properly.

Sadly, the fact is, the Security at majority of the IT Companies are a bit inadequate. They in most of the cases doesn’t realize the force they are up against. Everyday i see the security at all the companies on my way to office and i bet i can breach their physical security. I dont know why i do that. But i like doing it. Every time i face a security at a gate, i think of a way of beating him without raising the slightest suspicion.

Leave alone the physical security, its the Cyber age and are we prepared against an attack via the net. No!!! Network security, if you look at most of the intranets, is getting internally compromised by the employees. Simply coz a fair number of people will click the “You won a million dollars“, flashing ad on a web page. In most of the case, that will lead to a pornographic site, at times they open up the pandora’s box for the network of the company. E-mails in particular can bring a network down. A well placed attachment asking the user to open it is more than required. Remember “I love you” or you dont coz you remember it as what your lover told you.

I have had friends approach me saying “I think my damn system is affected with virus. I have the latest in anti-virus updated everyday, the latest pop-up blocker (how did that ever block a virus), a bazooka and an entire army guarding my system… but still. Damn windows … its all because of Windows.” Let me tell you there is nothing wrong with Windows (may be not entirely and probably this will be the only time i’ll be talking for Windows and Microsoft), what is wrong is YOU. Couldn’t resist visiting the site that flashed “Sexy savvy teens… going dirty…”, or couldnt resist opening the attachment that told you how to increase what ever you have or may be had. Think before what you click on or open. They are out there to make money and they will make it any way possible.

Knowing all this what can you do … if u cant make that out by your self, then how lame are you???

“How lame are you???”, the words that lead the world’s biggest Hacker Kevin Mitnik to his fall.

An innovation that ‘Kicks Balls…’

Innovation that doesn’t serve the purpose is like and over sized underwear; You have no other go but to wear it and you know you are comfortable without it.

Thats all that i have to say about the automated kiosks that have been installed by the city authorities of bangalore. Yes! its the Silicon Valley of India, where police check traffic violations using PDAs and common people no longer burns ordinary BMTC buses, but target Volvo buses. Apparently thats how they fight globalization.

Last night i went to the kiosk near my home to pay the water bill. Well if it was long queue in front of a ‘human operated pigeon hole kiosk’, i would have reached home earlier. It took me 10 min to make it accept each of the ten 100 bills that i had. Apparently it has an aversion towards money and even if its kind enough to accept the money, it would rather prefer an old bill than a new one.

If u may argue that the human factor is avoided and automation lets it run 24hrs. Hold on, i say! Apparently the then Hutch now Vodafone, introduced the same for billing systems. People were strugling to get the money in. So guess what they did? They posted a guy at that location, 2 guys in fact one for the morning and one for the night shift. At the end of the day, they end up paying 2 guys instead of one.

The only good thing about it is that if you want to make payment by cheque or with a credit card its faster. That means if u dont have a credit card, stay in the line for hours just to pay.

The fact is true that you can pay any time of the day, 7 days a week. But they just forgot the usability factor in that. Another loose underwear!!! The technology was supposed to kick ass, but it now kicks you balls and it hurts real bad.

Barcamp Bangalore - Random Shots - Day2 - Morning Session

Amit, Sanjukta and Sky (yes, that’s Her name!) …

Sandy’s laptop on a ‘VERY LOW’ connectivity, and currently on Ganti’s lap

Gantiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, the official BCB5 Colgate Ad

The Secret Service was here too …

BCB5 - Various Moods

Mela mein bichdey huey … BarCamp mein miley …

BarcampBangalore -Day2 - Pre Lunch Updates

Saunday morning .. yaawwwnnnnnn!!!! .. But its the day of Barcamp… no sleep… So i dragged my ass out of bed.
Its the day of CAT exams and by the time i woke up, at around 8am all my roommates had in fact left for the test. I have to say that i was one of the first persons to reach.
After a quick lunch with Abhishek Thakkar , who is having this talk on SMS Gupshup, the SMS way of twittering, i’m back in front of the discussion boards.
What is with the WiFi???- It keeps failing at times, on systems for no reason at all and then comes up all by itself.
Now that people are finally arriving and rooms are getting booked up, i see energy again in the atmosphere.
Bloggers decided to have discussion at D4 - 11am. It turned out that Sky was already there. She was trying to set the time zone and the WiFi connection on her laptop. Then people started dropping in thinking its some discussion and Vola!!! everyone is giving a self intro.
Then Nitya of Muziboo, complained that generally indian bloggers are reluctant and unwilling to help someone. She quoted her own experience as an example.
They started the Muziboo and she personally approached bloggers and asked them to do a review on the site and its features. But unfortunately of the 100+ people that she asked only 2 did it for her. This eventually became a hot topic and there indeed some discussion on that. People started dropping by with the noise level that we created. So finally everyone was sorry for the state of affairs and promised to help each other, starting with Muziboo.
Before we knew it was Lunch time and off we go to hog like pigs …

Barcamp Bangalore - Random Shots - Day1

I’m Speaking too

Getting the WiFi connection

The Mutineers …

E-Governance Session

Post Lunch ..