THE CREATIVE LEGACY

Book Review of 'The lost symbol'

2009-12-30T14:04:00.006+05:30

The Lost Symbol

After the 'mega' success of "The Da Vinci Code", the expectations on Dan Brown's latest flick 'The Lost Symbol' were really high. But, Dan Brown had failed to keep up the expectations.

Characters:

Robert Langdon, Peter Solomon, Katherine Solomon, Zachary Solomon, Sato, Trish and on...

Review:

The story is about Freemasonry, their rituals and their secrets. When Robert Langdon's character entertains us in 'Angels & Demons' as well as ' The Da Vinci Code', here the character has really failed to capitalize reader's hearts.

Plot:

Robert Langdon is invited to deliver a guest lecture at Capitol Building by his mentor Peter Solomon. Later, he realizes that someone had kidnapped Peter Solomon and in order to save Peter's life, Robert Langdon accepts the invitation and promises to help the suspect who kidnapped Peter.The rest of the story is about solving the riddles that will reveal a secret location.

Pros:

1. Dan Brown's characterization of Zach Solomon

2. Riddles

3. 'Brown'ian way of expressing things

Corns:

1. Robert Langdon doesn't have star cast in this novel. He is learning here but not solving much of the riddles.

2. There is no big twists unlike Dan Brown's other creation. Few of the twists (especially the climax) seem so predictable.
3. Whenever there is lot of expectation after a big hit, the responsibility for author is too much. Meeting the expectation beyond par is not easy.
Suggestions:
If you have not read any of Dan Brown books, go for 'Angels & Demons' or 'The Da Vinci Code' or 'Digital Fortress'. If you are a die hard Dan Brown fan, you would have no trouble reading this book, but it won't entertain you like the rest.

திருடனை கொட்டிய தேள்!

2009-11-06T15:32:00.003+05:30

எனக்கும் மற்றவர்களை போல் ஒரு சிறுகதை எழுதவேண்டும் என்ற அவா நீண்ட நாட்களாக இருந்தது. நான் அப்படி நினைக்க காரணமாக இருந்து, என்னை ஊக்குவித்த திரு கிஷோர் அவர்களுக்கு என் மனமார்ந்த நன்றியை தெரிவித்துக்கொள்கிறேன்.

வீட்டில் சிறு விஷயங்களுக்கு கூட கோபித்துக்கொள்ளும் அவன், அன்று அந்த பெண் அனைவருக்கும் முன்பு கூறிய கடுமையான வார்த்தைகளை அமைதியாய் ஏற்றுக்கொண்டான். அவன் கூறுவதை அவள் கொஞ்சம் கூட மதித்ததாக தெரியவில்லை.

இதை வேடிக்கை பார்த்துக்கொண்டிருந்த ஒருவன், "இவனுங்க எல்லாம் திருந்தவேமாட்டானுங்க?" என்று கேட்க அவனுக்கு கோபம் தலைக்கு மேல் ஏறியது. இருப்பினும் அதை வெளியில் காட்டிக்கொள்ளாமல் வீட்டிற்கு திரும்பினான்.

"டேய் ஷ்யாம் கண்ணா! டிபன் சாப்பிடு வா!" என்று அழைத்தாள் அவன் தாய். "போம்மா உனக்கு வேற வேலையே கிடையாதா?" என்றவன் "என்னை கொஞ்ச நேரம் தனியாய் விட்டு தொல" என்று சொல்லி தான் அறையின் உள் சென்று கதவை தாளிட்டுக்கொண்டான். அன்று அவன் தனக்கு நிகழ்ந்த சம்பவங்களை ஆசை போட்டு பார்க்கத்துவங்கினான்.

அவனுக்கு அன்றைய பொழுது நன்றாகத்தான் சென்றது. தன் நண்பனின் வீட்டிற்கு சென்று திரும்பும் வழியில் தான் அந்த சம்பவம் அவனுக்கு நிகழ்ந்தது. ஹோண்டா வண்டியை சற்று வேகமாக ஒட்டிக்கொண்டிருந்த அவன் ரோட்டின் முன்பு வெட்டிவைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த குழியை கவனிக்கவில்லை. திடீரென அவன் வண்டியை டிஸ்க் ப்ரேக் மூலம் நிறுத்த முயற்சிக்க வண்டி ஸ்கிட் ஆனது.

இவன் அதிருஷ்டவசமாக அருகில் கொட்டப்பட்டிருந்த மணலில் விழ வண்டி மறுபுறம் தேய்த்துக்கொண்டு சென்று அருகில் நின்று கொண்டிருந்த காரின் மீது மோதியது. காரின் ஹெட்‌லைட் கீழே விழ, இதைக் கண்டு திடுக்கிட்ட காரின் உரிமாயாளரான அந்த பெண் இவனுக்கு மிஞ்சிய கோபக்காரியாக இருந்தாள்.

இவன் எவ்வளவு எடுத்துக்கூறியும் அவள் பொறுத்துக்கொள்வதாக தெரியவில்லை. பிறகு, ஒரு வழியாக "ஹெட்‌லைட் சரி செய்து தருகிறேன்" என்று இவன் வாக்குறுதி கொடுத்த பிறகே அவள் சற்று ஓய்ந்தாள். "ஒரு பொன் என்றால் போதும் உடனே அந்த இடத்தில் கூட்டம் கூடி விடும். என்னக்கொடுமை சரவணன்!!!!" என்று தன்னிடமிருந்த ஆயிரம் ரூபாயை மொய் எழுதிவிட்டு வீட்டிற்கு திரும்பினான்.

100 Essential Skills for Geeks!

2009-07-13T18:07:00.000+05:30

As Geeks we are expected to have a certain set of skills that the majority of the population does not possess. This list is by no means complete, but I think it is a good sample of the skills required to be a true geek. I won’t pretend to have all the skills listed here. I even had to Google a few of them.

Like all good Geeks you should be able to utilize resources to accomplish any of these things. Knowing where to look for the knowledge is as good as having it so give yourself points if you are certain that you could Google the knowledge necessary for a skill.

Properly secure a wireless router.
Crack the WEP key on a wireless router.
Leech Wifi from your neighbor.
Screw with Wifi leeches.
Setup and use a VPN.
Work from home or a coffee shop as effectively as you do at the office.
Wire your own home with Ethernet cable.
Turn a web camera into security camera.
Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point.
Understand what “There’s no Place Like 127.0.0.1” means.
Identify key-loggers.
Properly connect a TV, Tivo, XBox, Wii, and Apple TV so they all work together with the one remote.
Program a universal remote.
Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone.
Benchmark Your Computer
Identify all computer components on sight.
Know which parts to order from NewEgg.com, and how to assemble them into a working PC.
Troubleshoot any computer/gadget problem, over the phone.
Use any piece of technology intuitively, without instruction or prior knowledge.
How to irrecoverably protect data.
Recover data from a dead hard drive.
Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network.
Install a Linux distribution. (Hint: Ubuntu 9.04 is easier than installing Windows)
Remove a virus from a computer.
Dual (or more) boot a computer.
Boot a computer off a thumb drive.
Boot a computer off a network drive.
Replace or repair a laptop keyboard.
Run more than two monitors on a single computer.
Successfully disassemble and reassemble a laptop.
Know at least 10 software easter eggs off the top of your head.
Bypass a computer password on all major operating systems. Windows, Mac, Linux
Carrying a computer cleaning arsenal on your USB drive.
Bypass content filters on public computers.
Protect your privacy when using a public computer.
Surf the web anonymously from home.
Buy a domain, configure bind, apache, MySQL, php, and Wordpress without Googling a how-to.
Basic *nix command shell knowledge with the ability to edit and save a file with vi.
Create a web site using vi.
Transcode a DVD to play on a portable device.
Hide a file in an image using steganography.
Knowing the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers without a KVM switch.
Google obscure facts in under 3 searches. Bonus point if you can use I Feel Lucky.
Build amazing structures with LEGO and invent a compelling back story for the creation.
Understand that it is LEGO, not Lego, Legos, or Lego’s.
Build a two story house out of LEGO, in monochrome, with a balcony.
Construct a costume for you or your kid out of scraps, duct tape, paper mâché, and imagination.
Be able to pick a lock.
Determine the combination of a Master combination padlock in under 10 minutes.
Assemble IKEA furniture without looking at the instructions. Bonus point if you don’t have to backtrack.
Use a digital SLR in full manual mode.
Do cool things to Altoids tins.
Be able to construct paper craft versions of space ships.
Origami! Bonus point for duct tape origami. (Ductigami)
Fix anything with duct tape, chewing gum and wire.
Knowing how to avoid being eaten by a grue.
Know what a grue is.
Understand where XYZZY came from, and have used it.
Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator.
Burn the rope.
Know the Konami code, and where to use it.
Whistle, hum, or play on an iPhone, the Cantina song.
Learning to play the theme songs to the kids favorite TV shows.
Solve a Rubik’s Cube.
Calculate THAC0.
Know the difference between skills and traits.
Explain special relativity in terms an eight-year-old can grasp.
Recite pi to 10 places or more.
Be able to calculate tip and split the check, all in your head.
Explain that the colours in a rainbow are roygbiv.
Understand the electromagnetic spectrum - xray, uv, visible, infrared, microwave, radio.
Know the difference between radiation and radioactive contamination.
Understand basic electronics components like resistors, capacitors, inductors and transistors.
Solder a circuit while bottle feeding an infant. (lead free solder please.)
The meaning of technical acronyms.
The coffee dash, blindfolded (or blurry eyed). Coffee [cream] [sugar]. In under a minute.
Build a fighting robot.
Program a fighting robot.
Build a failsafe into a fighting robot so it doesn’t kill you.
Be able to trace the Fellowship’s journey on a map of Middle Earth.
Know all the names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit.
Understand the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
Know where your towel is and why it is important.
Re-enact the parrot sketch.
Know the words to The Lumberjack Song.
Reciting key scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Be able to recite at least one Geek Movie word for word.
Know what the 8th Chevron does on a Stargate and how much power is required to get a lock.
Be able to explain why it’s important that Han shot first.
Know why it is just wrong for Luke and Leia to kiss.
Stop talking Star Wars long enough to get laid.
The ability to name actors, characters and plotlines from the majority of sci-fi movies produced since 1968.
Cite Mythbusters when debunking a myth or urban legend.
Sleep with a Cricket bat next to your bed.
Have a documented plan on what to do during a zombie or robot uprising.
Identify evil alternate universe versions of friends, family, co-workers or self.
Be able to convince TSA that the electronic parts you are carrying are really not a threat to passengers.
Talk about things that aren’t tech related.
Get something on the front page of Digg.

Twitter is not for teens!

2009-07-13T15:15:00.001+05:30

A research note written by a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern that described his friends' media habits has generated a flurry of interest from media executives and investors.

The Financial Times reported today that the US investment bank's European media analysts asked Matthew Robson, an intern from a London school, to write a report on teenagers' likes and dislikes.

His report, that dismissed Twitter and described online advertising as pointless, proved to be "one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen – so we published it", said Edward Hill-Wood, head of Morgan Stanley's European media team.

"We've had dozens and dozens of fund managers, and several CEOs, e-mailing and calling all day." He said the note had generated five or six times more responses than the team's usual research.

The rapid surge of interest in social networking and messaging sites has prompted speculation that sites such as Twitter or Facebook could be taken over. But Robson's report suggested that such a move could be folly. He said teenagers were using more and more media, but they were unwilling to pay for it.

"Teenagers do not use Twitter," he wrote. "They realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless."

Robson warned that traditional media – television, radio and newspapers – are losing ground as his peers prefer listening to advert-free music on websites such as Last.fm to traditional radio. Even online, teens find advertising "extremely annoying and pointless".

Time and money are instead devoted to cinema, concerts and video game consoles, which he said have emerged as a more popular choice for chatting with friends than the phone.

No teenager he knew regularly reads a newspaper since most "cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text," preferring summaries on the internet or on television.

His report came as media moguls gathered at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. This annual event is a chance for the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to discuss the latest business and technology issues in a relaxed atmosphere.

When interviewed at the event, Murdoch appeared to rule out making a bid for the micro-blogging site Twitter. Asked if he was considering buying Twitter, Murdoch said, "No." Asked about selling MySpace, he replied, "Hell no."

(Courtesy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/twitter-teenage-media-habits)

Reclaim your hijacked search bar

2009-07-13T09:49:00.003+05:30

The other morning, I clicked on an upgrade button for Winamp. Generally, I like the program, it seems to load faster than Media Player, and doesn't bother me too much. In the afternoon, I did a search by typing in the address bar of Firefox. Normally, this type of search brings me to the Google results of the phrase, but this time it brought me to the Winamp results of the search term. Grrrr. Winamp hijacked my search bar.

This wasn't the first time that this had happened, a few months ago, I encountered a similar phenomenon while looking for a way to convert the .3gp files that come from the audio recorder on the G1 to .mp3, .wav or just about any other format that can be used on a standard player.

As it turns out, Winamp hijacked three settings from my browser. Bad software....sit.....stay.... I successfully changed the location bar search, the search bar in the upper right, and my home page. Here's how:

Location bar:

If this is the first time you have done this, it'll be a bit more complex than normal setting changes.

Here is how to get it done:

Open up a new tab

type about:config in the location bar and press enter

You may see a warning message that discourages you from going further. Make your choice and live with it.

In the filter field, type keyword. As you type it, fewer values will be listed below

The one you are looking for is keyword.URL

The value I like is: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q= Which searches google and returns the result. You can also have it search through other vendors, and return different amounts of info.

When you close it, the settings should be changed.

Test it with the term of your choice to make sure it is working properly.

Search bar:

This is an easy fix. Click on the arrow to the left of the field and select the search engine you want.

Home page: This one I didn't notice until later. It's also pretty straightforward. Go to the EDIT menu, choosepreferences, then go to the MAIN section. Home page should be up in the top third of the window. Below it are a couple of buttons, including Use Current Pages. That one can be a pain, because every time you hit the Home button, it will load all the tabs you have open currently. If you are addicted to tabs, this will really send you over the edge with a zillion tabs open in no time at all. It is easier to just pick the one page that you want to be your home page, and go from there.

This process should work for Mozilla-based browsers. What are your favorite tricks with web browsers?

(Courtesy: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/07/how-to_reclaim_your_hijacked_search_ba.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890)

Bottled Water banned in Australia

2009-07-13T09:45:00.001+05:30

The small Australian town of Bundanoon just set a new standard for sustainability by voting to do what no community has ever done before: ban bottled water! The measure was founded over concerns about the tremendous amount of resources used to extract, package, and transport bottled water, and it passed nearly unanimously in a town hall meeting. Will this be the beginning of a trend?

Although Bundanoon is a small community of about 2,500 residents, the decision to ban bottled water sets a great example for towns and cities around the world. The decision to ban bottled water began as a response to the desire of a bottling company to extract water from the town, take it to Sydney, and bring it back to the town to sell it. After the town learned of the environmental impacts of this cycle they decided to do something about it.

All the shops in the town agreed to the measure, and now instead of bottled water the town will install filtered water fountains so that people can fill their reusable bottles free of charge. The shops will sell these reusable containers to visitors coming to the town.

(Courtesy: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/09/australian-town-bans-bottled-water/ )

How to make a Cryptex?

2009-07-10T14:49:00.004+05:30

The word cryptex is a neologism coined by the author Dan Brown for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, denoting a portable vault used to hide secret messages. It is a combination of the words cryptology and codex; "an apt title for this device" since it uses "the science of cryptology to protect information written on the contained scroll or codex" (p. 199 of the novel). Brown implies that a scroll and a codex are the same thing; however a scroll is a book that is unrolled a page at a time; and a codex is a book that can be opened to any page at will, two very different things. It is claimed in the novel that the original design came from the secret diaries of Leonardo da Vinci. In reality, though there is little doubt he possessed the mechanical skill to design such a device, there is no record of him actually doing so.

But, the following video explains you how to make Cryptex:

(Reference: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/07/how-to_cryptex.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890)

Killer Clock Concept by Vadim Kibardin

2009-07-10T09:27:00.002+05:30

Designer Vadim Kibardin's suh-weeeet Black & White Clock turns two dimensions into three with a series of four OLED digits, each with their own power source.

A light sensor would figure out if it's bright or dark in the room, adjusting the numbers accordingly--going dark to form numbers during the day, and bright white at night.

Status: Concept stage, seeking a manufacturer.

(Courtesy: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/vadim_kibardins_killer_clock_concept_14009.asp)

The 'Urine' Power

2009-07-10T09:23:00.001+05:30

Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months with new technology developed by scientists from Ohio University.

Using a nickel-based electrode, the scientists can create large amounts of cheap hydrogen from urine that could be burned or used in fuel cells. "One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses," said Gerardine Botte, a professor at Ohio University developing the technology. "Soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel."

Pee power is based on hydrogen, the most common element in the universe but one that has resisted efforts to produce, store, transport and use economically.

Storing pure hydrogen gas requires high pressure and low temperature. Newnanomaterials with high surface areas can adsorb hydrogen, but have yet to be produced on a commercial scale.

Chemically binding hydrogen to other elements, like oxygen to create water, makes it easier to store and transport, but releasing the hydrogen when it's needed usually requires financially prohibitive amounts of electricity.

By attaching hydrogen to another element, nitrogen, Botte and her colleagues realized that they can store hydrogen without the exotic environmental conditions, and then release it with less electricity, 0.037 Volts instead of the 1.23 Volts needed for water.

One molecule of urea, a major component of urine, contains four atoms of hydrogen bonded to two atoms of nitrogen. Stick a special nickel electrode into a pool of urine, apply an electrical current, and hydrogen gas is released.

Botte's current prototype measures 3x3x1 inch and can produce up to 500 milliwatts of power. However, Botte and her colleagues are actively trying to commercialize several larger versions of the technology.

A fuel cell, urine-powered vehicle could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon. A refrigerator-sized unit could produce one kilowatt of energy for about $5,000, although this price is a rough estimate, says Botte.

"The waste products from say a chicken farm could be used to produce the energy needed to run the farm," said John Stickney, a chemist and professor at the University of Georgia.

For livestock farmers who are required by law to pool their animals' waste, large scale prototypes could turn that urine into power within six months.

Smaller versions likely won't be available until after that, so the average consumer probably shouldn't start saving their pee just yet.

"It is not a solution for all our cars," said Stickney, "but it is the kind of process which will find many applications and will make for a greener world."

(Courtesy: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/08/urine-power.html)

10 Stunning (And Useful) Stats About Twitter

2009-07-09T09:39:00.001+05:30

Last month a social media analytics provider named Sysomos released a comprehensive report on Twitter usage. The problem with most analysis on Twitter, though, is that it is limited by the minimal amount of data that Twitter collects. So, to fill the gaps, most reports do things like guessing gender based on real names or pulling data from keywords in people's biographic information. This often yields some questionable results - and the Sysomos report is not immune to this (for example, they find that 65% of Twitter users are under the age of 25, but base this on only the 0.7% of users who actually disclose their age).

Looking past these small points, the report does share some fairly interesting observations and stats as well if you dig a bit deeper. Here's my read on the 10 standout conclusions that the report offers to help you (and your brand) better understand the potential uses of Twitter:

21% (One Fifth) of Twitter accounts are empty placeholders. These are the percentage of Twitter accounts that have never posted a single tweet. They may either be registered simply to hold a username for later use, or be experimental accounts started up but never used.
Nearly 94% of all Twitter accounts have less than 100 followers. In a finding perhaps consistent with the newness of the tool as well as the fact that many people may currently have an account simply to start experimenting with the tool, Sysomos found the vast majority of Twitter users have an extremely low followership.
March and April of 2009 were the tipping point for Twitter. During these months, Ashton Kutcher launched his quest to get to 1 million followers faster than CNN, Oprah started using Twitter, and the steady flow of new users to the site continued. For many, it offered a safer and easier way to get their feet wet with social media, 140 characters at a time.
150 followers is the magic number. In a particularly interesting data point from the survey, Sysomos found that Twitter users tended to "follow back" all their followers up until about 150 connections. Then the reciprocation rate fell off dramatically, which seems to indicate that this number may be the crossover point where people shift from using Twitter for more personal use to using it more for "lifecasting" their thoughts and actions to a community of people who they feel varying levels of connection to.
A small minority creates most of the activity. A steep curve of a small minority of actively engaged content creators generating most of the activity on a site is common among social networks, but it is steeper and more pronounced on Twitter. 5% of users account for 75% of all activity, and 10% of users account for 86%. This seems to suggest that the site has managed to engage a mass audience beyond those who typically engage with social media.
Half of all Twitter users are not "active." If you take a general description of being "active" on Twitter to mean that you have posted a tweet at some point in the last 7 days (1 week), then the survey learned that 50.4% of all Twitter users fit this category. If you remove the 21% from point #1, this leaves about 30% of users who have an account and have tweeted before, but happen to be inactive now.
Tuesday is the most active Twitter day. One of the most useful data points from the report is that it clears up the common question of which day of the week is the best day to tweet something. Sysomos found that Tuesday stood out as the most popular day for tweets and retweets, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.
APIs have been the key to Twitter's growth & utility. In terms of tools that people are using for Twitter, Sysomos found that more than half (55%) of all Twitter users use something other than Twitter.com to tweet, search and connect with others. This may, in part, be due to Twitter's notorious reputation of failing/crashing, but also is a credit to all the third party applications that have been built on top of Twitter and do their fair share to bring new users to the service.
English still dominates Twitter. When exploring Russia as part of a class that I am teaching this summer at Georgetown, one of the barriers we learned about was the difficulty of fitting some Russian language words into just 140 characters. Twitter is, however, extremely English-friendly. As the Sysomos report found, the top four countries on Twitter are all English speaking (US, UK, Canada, Australia). Of these, US makes up 62% of all Twitter users, followed by UK with nearly 8% and Canada and Australia with 5.7% and 2.8% respectively. The largest non-English speaking country on Twitter? Brazil with 2%.
Twitter is being led by the social media geeks. This particular finding should likely come as no surprise, but 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. These individuals are more likely to post updates every day (sometimes more than once per day) and also use Twitter more actively for direct communication.

Bonus Geographical Stat/Quote: "The cities with the biggest Twitter populations are New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco, and Boston. Los Angeles is the fastest growing city on the list."

(Courtesy: http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2009/07/10-stunning-and-useful-stats-about-twitter.html )

Google to introduce OS!

2009-07-08T14:02:00.004+05:30

The Google Chrome Operating System is Google's new attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because Google's already talking to partners about the project, and they'll soon be working with the open source community.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. They're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, they are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, Google still believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including itself.

A bag of Water can repel Flies!

2009-07-08T09:34:00.001+05:30

We've featured many,many, many different ways to deal with mosquitoes using DIY solutions. But what about the even more common household fly? Turns out all you need to deal with that is a plastic bag or two.

Photo by brookage.

RickyC wrote in to tell us that he recently visited a lakeside restaurant and noticed some clear plastic bags filled with water hanging from the railings. When he inquired about the bags, a waiter explained that they were used to repel flies.

Question-and-answer web site The Straight Dope gives more detail on why this trick works:

Evidently, houseflies, being highly edible and defenseless, are nervous types, and don't like to sit still when they see something moving nearby, because it could be a predator. The water bag acts a bit like a lens—try it some time—in which the movements of people in the area are reflected. Even if the fly is too far from the action to see it directly, it can see a shifting of light and dark in the water bag, which it interprets as nearby movement, and it will fly away from the bag.

So, next time you have a fly problem, grab a few plastic bags, fill 'em up, and let us know how this trick works for you. Likewise, share how you keep unwanted insects out of your backyard—including whether or not you've tried this method before—in the comments.

(Courtesy: http://lifehacker.com/5308039/repel-flies-with-a-bag-of-water)

Clock will strike 04:05:06 07/08/09 tomorrow

2009-07-08T09:30:00.001+05:30

About an hour and 45 minutes before sunrise, the time and date will be 4 a.m. and 5 minutes and 6 seconds on July 8, 2009.

In other words, or numbers, it will be 04:05:06 07/08/09.

Although the alignment may not mean anything specific, it could be a good day to do something for yourself and others, said Betsy Carlson, a Palm Springs tarot card reader and numerology expert.

"It's a good day to make money and have good health," she said.

The sum of the time's digits equals six, if all numbers are added until there's a single figure left (4+5+6=15; 1+5=6).

Also, the numbers within the date add up to eight.

According to numerology, No. 6 represents providing a good service to humanity, while No. 8 represents making money and being healthy, Carlson said.

Let us hope, God provide everyone the best He can!

Google Apps is officially out of beta

2009-07-08T09:26:00.000+05:30

Do you know what that means? It means that Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and Talk are losing that "beta" signage / language you've come to know and loathe. It also seems to mean that Google will be taking a much more direct and serious approach to courting businesses for its Apps suite. At first blush, it looks like the company has all but squashed the "Standard Edition" free hosted Apps package that many now use, though that isn't the case (yet). We say "all but" because while it looks like the pro bono package has been zapped out of existence by the magic raygun of capitalism, a tiny link to the service still exists on an arcane page buried deep in the casefiles of one T. Google Merryweather III. Or just Google. To be completely clear, however, regular old Gmail will still be freely available to anyone and everyone who wants a crack at it. At any rate, you'll be happy to know that the beta tag will be scuttled later today, and you can start getting righteously mad at Google for not taking care of their proper, released products immediately.

Day planner clock which erases itself

2009-07-07T09:24:00.002+05:30

Il-Gu Cha's Trace of Time clock incorporates a whiteboard-esque erasable face and an eraser built into the hour hand - See a video of it in action at http://ilgucha.com/TITLE%20IMAGES/Time%20of%20the%20trace%20final.mov

iPhone 3.0 preview & details- Coming soon!

2009-07-02T15:15:00.001+05:30

Facebook’s iPhone application is one of the most popular iPhone apps overall - nearly 25% of all iPhone owners use it according to Joe Hewitt, lead engineer for Facebook’s iPhone application. Today, Hewitt shared some more details on the upcoming version 3.0 of the Facebook iPhone app.

What will be coming in the new version?

1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

The new home screen will definitely make for a friendlier user experience, especially with the addition of Events, Notes, Pages, and photo albums. The addition of the Pages feature means that brands with Facebook Pages will have increased visibility when users are on the go.

While Hewitt said he didn’t know when the app will be submitted to Apple, it is about “98% done.” However, Push Notifications, which are in high demand, will be included in Version 3.1 later this summer, Hewitt says.

(Courtesy: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/07/01/facebook-for-iphone-30-coming-soon-preview-and-details/)

Pluto is dead

2009-07-02T13:01:00.004+05:30

This lineup shows the 12 planets that were proposed, with a wedge of the sun at far left. Ceres, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313 are barely visible. Now Charon will continue to be considered Pluto's satellite, and the three other worlds will be dubbed "dwarf planets" rather than full-fledged planets. The planets are drawn to scale, but without correct relative distances.

Once known as the smallest, coldest, and most distant planet from the Sun, Pluto has a dual identity, not to mention being enshrouded in controversy since its discovery in 1930. On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally downgraded Pluto from an official planet to a dwarf planet. According to the new rules a planet meets three criteria: it must orbit the Sun, it must be big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball, and it must have cleared other things out of the way in its orbital neighborhood. The latter measure knocks out Pluto and 2003UB313 (Eris), which orbit among the icy wrecks of the Kuiper Belt, and Ceres, which is in the asteroid belt.

(1) A "planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

(2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

(3) All other objects except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar-System Bodies".

Discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the Sun. Pluto's most recent close approach to the Sun was in 1989. Between 1979 and 1999, Pluto's highly elliptical orbit brought it closer to the Sun than Neptune, providing rare opportunities to study this small, cold, distant world and its companion moon, Charon.

Most of what we know about Pluto we have learned since the late 1970s from Earth-based observations, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), and the Hubble Space Telescope. Many of the key questions about Pluto, Charon, and the outer fringes of our solar system await close-up observations by a robotic space flight mission.

No spacecraft have yet visited Pluto. However, NASA launched a mission called New Horizons that will explore both Pluto and the Kuiper Belt region.

References: 1. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Pluto

2. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489259/

The Program Accelerator

2009-07-02T10:09:00.002+05:30

As a postgrad in the late '80s, Neil Bowers made some extra book money by acting as a helper in the computing lab. At the time, undergrads were all working on a grindingly slow VAX-11/780, and Neil and his fellow postgrads were posted there for hands-on help. This tended to be focused at the start of the year, when there were groups discovering Unix and programming for the first time.

One time, an Irish girl asked Neil for some help, saying that she couldn’t understand what was going on: she thought her program looked right, but for some reason, each time she ran it she got partial output, and varying amounts of output each time. The homework assignment she was working on involved writing a program that generated various values and wrote the results in ascii tabular form to a file.

Neil went over to her workstation and had a look at her source code. Everything looked fine. She showed him the file generated by her last run, and indeed, it looked truncated. Hmmm. "Ok," Neil asked, "can you run your program for me, so I can see what happens?".

She typed ./a.out and hit return. Her left hand darted to the keyboard and she hit Control-C. Neil was still mentally processing this when she cat'd the output, and turned to say, "See!" It did indeed contain partial output. Again.

"Um," he paused, "can you just run it again please?" Neil figured that he must have not seen right. But once again she typed ./a.out, hit return, then whap! she hit Control-C. Neil asked her why she hit Control-C every time she ran her program.

"Well," she said confidently, "I discovered that Control-C makes the % prompt come up quicker!"

(Courtesy: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Program-Accelerator.aspx)

PostgreSQL 8.4 is released!

2009-07-02T10:07:00.000+05:30

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released version 8.4, continuing the rapid development of the world's most advanced open source database. This release contains an abundance of enhancements to make administering, querying, and programming of PostgreSQL databases easier than ever before. Our development team has spent 16 months adding over two hundred improvements to all aspects of database functionality, helping every PostgreSQL user in small or large ways.

Many of the changes in PostgreSQL 8.4 are new or improved administration and monitoring tools and commands. Each user has their own favorite features which will make day-to-day work with PostgreSQL easier and more productive for them. Among the most popular enhancements are:

Parallel Database Restore, speeding up recovery from backup up to 8 times
Per-Column Permissions, allowing more granular control of sensitive data
Per-database Collation Support, making PostgreSQL more useful in multi-lingual environments
In-place Upgrades through pg_migrator (beta), enabling upgrades from 8.3 to 8.4 without extensive downtime
New Query Monitoring Tools, giving administrators more insight into query activity
Greatly Reduced VACUUM Overhead through the Visibility Map
New Monitoring Tools for current queries, query load and deadlocks

Version 8.4 also makes data analysis easier through the advanced ANSI SQL2003 features of windowing functions, common table expressions and recursive queries. Enhancements to stored procedures, such as default parameters and variadic parameters, make database server programming simpler and more compact. Of course, there are also performance improvements included in this version.

You can download version 8.4 from the link:

http://www.postgresql.org/about/news.1108

Brilliant Overtime Silent Auction System at NFL

2009-07-01T14:57:00.001+05:30

No one seems to be satisfied with the NFL’s current “Win the coin toss, get the football” overtime system. I’ve been against changing it, though, mainly because I haven’t heard any ideas that I’ve liked better. Until today, anyway.

The Fifth Down brought to my attention a beautiful system that involves strategy, rewards the boldest head coach, does not lengthen the game, keeps the basic structure of a football game intact, and, perhaps most importantly, leaves no one with any room to whine.

Here’s how it would go. The sudden death system stays in place, and the first team to score still wins the game. If that happens on the first possession, so be it. That's still the same.

However, we throw out the coin toss, and in its place, to determine which team gets the football first, we have a silent auction.

Each coach writes down the yard-line at which they’d be willing to accept the ball, and they put their bid in a sealed envelope. Both coaches hand the envelopes to an official at midfield, and the coach who’s written down the least advantageous yard-line gets the ball, at the yard-line he's written down.

So, for example, say the Steelers and Cardinals are going to overtime. Naturally, both teams want the ball first. Mike Tomlin would like the ball, but he wouldn’t mind putting the responsibility on his great defense, either, so he writes down “22 yard-line.” But Ken Whisenhunt is willing to take more of a risk, trusts his offense more, and he’s written down “11 yard-line.”

So we start overtime with the Cardinals having possession of the ball, first and 10 at their own 11. The Cards have the ball, but they’ve got quite a bit of work to do to get into field goal range. The Steelers defense has them in a tough spot, and if they do their job, the Steelers get the ball in good field position.

If Ken Whisenhunt doesn’t like that, he shouldn’t have been willing to take the ball at the 11. If Mike Tomlin doesn’t like not getting the ball first, he should have been willing to start from deeper than his own 22.

I think it’s brilliant. Perhaps some will bristle at the thought of a silent auction, a term more traditionally associated with vintage cars or estate sales, but I really think it’s perfect here. The randomness of the coin toss is eliminated, and instead, the reward goes to the coach who makes the best football decision.

The plan was dreamt up in 2003 by a fellow named Chris Quanbeck, but today’s the first I’ve heard of it. They wrote to the league about it, and NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira expressed some interest, but nothing ever came of it.

Maybe a bit more publicity will help, so this is me, doing my part. Really give it some thought, NFL. This is the best system, and I think it’s something fans would eventually grow to love.

(courtesy: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/The-brilliant-NFL-overtime-silent-auction-system?urn=nfl,173840)

Floor of Money at Standard Hotel,New York

2009-07-01T14:53:00.001+05:30

A floor literally tiled with thousands of copper pennies… it’s pretty surprising to look down and see them when you walk into The Standard Grill in the Standard Hotel New York, below the Highline. See some more peeks of it on the next page!

(Courtesy: http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/06/floor_of_pennie.php)

Firefox 3.5 is released!

2009-07-01T09:13:00.003+05:30

The official release of Firefox 3.5 is done and you can download Firefox 3.5 at firefox.com and enjoy the new features and faster performance. If you’re using the latest version of Firefox 3.0, you can get Firefox 3.5 by clicking on the Help menu and then selecting Check for Updates.

The Firefox 3.5 press release is available here. It also compiled a guide to frequently asked questions. You can also check out the video for a guided tour of what’s new in Firefox 3.5.

Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox has a comprehensive post here. The post includes a list of some of the coolest Firefox 3.5 features, excerpted below.

Firefox 3.5 is available in more than 70 languages – get your local version.
We have included tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode, and the ability to go back in time and Clear Recent History.
Firefox 3.5 has support for the HTML5 and elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio.
The browser features faster performance on complex websites thanks to the newTraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
Users can enjoy Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation.
Web developers can make use of native JSON parsing, and web worker threads.
This release includes improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
Firefox 3.5 supports new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage,

Skyscrapper Collapse in Shanghai

2009-06-30T15:03:00.003+05:30

This happened Saturday in Shanghai, China, where construction mishaps are always done to the extreme. According to Reuters the 13-story apartment building's fall killed one construction worker. The horizontal skyscraperstrend is really taking off.

Creation of First Electronic Quantum Processor

2009-06-30T10:04:00.002+05:30

The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms. (Credit: Blake Johnson/Yale University)

ScienceDaily (June 29, 2009) — A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms, such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time. Their findings will appear in Nature'sadvanced online publication June 28.

"Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and photons," said Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Norton Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. "But this is the first time they've been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor."

Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits ("quantum bits"). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the "1" and "0" or "on" and "off" states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a "superposition" of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power.

For example, imagine having four phone numbers, including one for a friend, but not knowing which number belonged to that friend. You would typically have to try two to three numbers before you dialed the right one. A quantum processor, on the other hand, can find the right number in only one try.

"Instead of having to place a phone call to one number, then another number, you use quantum mechanics to speed up the process," Schoelkopf said. "It's like being able to place one phone call that simultaneously tests all four numbers, but only goes through to the right one."

These sorts of computations, though simple, have not been possible using solid-state qubits until now in part because scientists could not get the qubits to last long enough. While the first qubits of a decade ago were able to maintain specific quantum states for about a nanosecond, Schoelkopf and his team are now able to maintain theirs for a microsecond—a thousand times longer, which is enough to run the simple algorithms. To perform their operations, the qubits communicate with one another using a "quantum bus"—photons that transmit information through wires connecting the qubits—previously developed by the Yale group.

The key that made the two-qubit processor possible was getting the qubits to switch "on" and "off" abruptly, so that they exchanged information quickly and only when the researchers wanted them to, said Leonardo DiCarlo, a postdoctoral associate in applied physics at Yale's School of Engineering & Applied Science and lead author of the paper.

Next, the team will work to increase the amount of time the qubits maintain their quantum states so they can run more complex algorithms. They will also work to connect more qubits to the quantum bus. The processing power increases exponentially with each qubit added, Schoelkopf said, so the potential for more advanced quantum computing is enormous. But he cautions it will still be some time before quantum computers are being used to solve complex problems.

"We're still far away from building a practical quantum computer, but this is a major step forward."

Authors of the paper include Leonardo DiCarlo, Jerry M. Chow, Lev S. Bishop, Blake Johnson, David Schuster, Luigi Frunzio, Steven Girvin and Robert Schoelkopf (all of Yale University), Jay M. Gambetta (University of Waterloo), Johannes Majer (Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten) and Alexandre Blais (Université de Sherbrooke).

(Courtesy: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090628171949.html )

Walkman Review by 13 year old kid!

2009-06-30T10:00:00.001+05:30

BBC Magazine gave 13-year-old Scott Campbell a gen-one Walkman in place of his MP3 player for a week, then gathered his impressions on the device:

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.
I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don't have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, "Walkmans eat tapes". So my clumsy clicking could have ended up ruining my favourite tape, leaving me music-less for the rest of the day
(Courtesy:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/29/13-year-old-kid-revi.html)

MJ hits Internet traffic!

2009-06-29T09:37:00.002+05:30

Any doubts about Michael Jackson's megastardom should have ended after news of the singer's death tripped up Google and crashed AOL Instant Messenger, Wikipedia, TMZ and, of course, Twitter. A survey of the epic traffic:

Leading news websites saw traffic surge to 4.2 million visitors per minute from around 2.75 million visitors per minute, according to Akamai.
CNN's traffic grew fivefold in one hour and the site clocked 20 million pageviews.
Twitter had its biggest spike in traffic, to 5,000 tweets per second, since Barack Obama's election as president,according to co-founder Biz Stone.
Facebook status updates tripled.
AOL Instant Messenger went down for 40 minutes.
TMZ, which broke the news of Jackson's death, crashed several times amid a surge of traffic.
The LA Times, which got early confirmation of the death, went down, as well.
For about half an hour, Michael Jackson queries weren't working on Google News.
Wikipedia froze amid an edit war on Jackson's page.

(Courtesy : http://gawker.com/5302943/michael-jackson-traffic-melts-entire-internet)

GMAIL attachment size now increased to 25 MB

2009-06-29T09:33:00.002+05:30

Now you can send bigger attachments in Gmail, as Google increased the maximum attachment size from 20 MB to 25 MB.

"With Gmail, you can send and receive messages up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size. Please note that you may not be able to send larger attachments to contacts who use other email services with smaller attachment limits. If your attachment bounces, you should invite them to Gmail," suggests Google.

For some reason, Gmail's Flash uploader doesn't allow me to upload files that are larger than 10 MB. The error message is "attachment failed" and Google's suggestions aren't very helpful. Switching to the basic uploader in the settings solves the problem, but it's more tedious to upload multiple files.

(Courtesy: Google Operating System)

YouTube Daily Mobile Uploads Have Increased 400% Since Launch of iPhone 3GS

2009-06-26T15:28:00.004+05:30

Google today announced that daily YouTube uploads directly from mobile devices have increased 400% since the release of the iPhone 3GS last Friday. The iPhone 3GS includes the ability to record video and provides for easy uploading directly to YouTube from within the Camera Roll section of the Photos application.

YouTube also notes, however, that the spike generated by the release of the iPhone 3GS is also the acceleration of a trend that has seen the upload rate grow by 1700% over the past six months.

This growth represents three things coming together: new video-enabled phones on the market, improvements to the upload flow when you post a video to YouTube from your phone, and a new feature on YouTube that allows your videos to be quickly and effortlessly shared through your social networks. It takes just a minute to connect your YouTube account to your Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader accounts. Complete a simple, one-time connection on our upload page to allow all your friends and followers to get a real-time stream of your uploads to YouTube, which can be essential in this age of citizen reporting and ubiquitous sharing.

(Courtesy: http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/25/youtube-daily-mobile-uploads-have-increased-400-since-launch-of-iphone-3gs/)

JSON Hijacking

2009-06-26T09:10:00.000+05:30

A while back I wrote about a subtle JSON vulnerability which could result in the disclosure of sensitive information. That particular exploit involved overriding the JavaScript Array constructor to disclose the payload of a JSON array, something which most browsers do not support now.

However, there’s another related exploit that seems to affect many more browsers. It was brought to my attention recently by someone at Microsoft and Scott Hanselman and I demonstrated it at the Norwegian Developers Conference last week, though it has been demonstrated against Twitter in the past.

Before I go further, let me give you the punch line first in terms of what this vulnerability affects.

This vulnerability requires that you are exposing a JSON service which…

…returns sensitive data.
…returns a JSON array.
…responds to GET requests.
…the browser making the request has JavaScript enabled (very likely the case)
…the browser making the request supports the __defineSetter__ method.

Thus if you never send sensitive data in JSON format, or you only send JSON in response to a POST request, etc. then your site is probably not vulnerable to this particular vulnerability (though there could be others).

I’m terrible with Visio, but I thought I’d give it my best shot and try to diagram the attack the best I could. In this first screenshot, we see the unwitting victim logging into the vulnerable site, and the vulnerable site issues an authentication cookie, which the browser holds onto.

At some point, either in the past, or the near future, the bad guy spams the victim with an email promising a hilariously funny video of a hamster on a piano.

But the link actually points to the bad guy’s website. When the victim clicks on the link, the next two steps happen in quick succession. First, the victim’s browser makes a request for the bad guy’s website.

The website responds with some HTML containing some JavaScript along with a script tag. When the browser sees the script tag, it makes another GET request back to the vulnerable site to load the script, sending the auth cookie along.

The bad guy has tricked the victim’s browser to issue a request for the JSON containing sensitive information using the browser’s credentials (aka the auth cookie). This loads the JSON array as executable JavaScript and now the bad guy has access to this data.

To gain a deeper understanding, it may help to see actual code (which you can download and run) which demonstrates this attack.

Note that the following demonstration is not specific to ASP.NET or ASP.NET MVC in any way, I just happen to be using ASP.NET MVC to demonstrate it. Suppose the Vulnerable Website returns JSON with sensitive data via an action method like this.

[Authorize]
public JsonResult AdminBalances() {  var balances = new[] {
    new {Id = 1, Balance=3.14}, 
    new {Id = 2, Balance=2.72},
    new {Id = 3, Balance=1.62}
  }; return Json(balances);

 



}

Assuming this is a method of HomeController, you can access this action via a GET request for /Home/AdminBalances which returns the following JSON:

[{"Id":1,"Balance":3.14},{"Id":2,"Balance":2.72},{"Id":3,"Balance":1.62}]

Notice that I’m requiring authentication via the AuthorizeAttribute on this action method, so an anonymous GET request will not be able to view this sensitive data.

The fact that this is a JSON array is important. It turns out that a script that contains a JSON array is a valid JavaScript script and can thus be executed. A script that just contains a JSON object is not a valid JavaScript file. For example, if you had a JavaScript file that contained the following JSON:

{"Id":1, "Balance":3.14}

And you had a script tag that referenced that file:

You would get a JavaScript error in your HTML page. However, through an unfortunate coincidence, if you have a script tag that references a file only containing a JSON array, that would be considered valid JavaScript and the array gets executed.

Now let’s look at the HTML page that the bad guy hosts on his/her own server:

<html> 
...
<body>     <script type="text/javascript"> 
        Object.prototype.__defineSetter__('Id', function(obj){alert(obj);});
    script> 
    <script src="http://example.com/Home/AdminBalances">script> 
body> html>

What’s happening here? Well the bad guy is changing the prototype forObject using the special __defineSetter__ method which allows overriding what happens when a property setter is being called.

In this case, any time a property named Id is being set on any object, an anonymous function is called which displays the value of the property using the alert function. Note that the script could just as easily post the data back to the bad guy, thus disclosing sensitive data.

As mentioned before, the bad guy needs to get you to visit his malicious page shortly after logging into the vulnerable site while your session on that site is still valid. Typically a phishing attack via email containing a link to the evil site does the trick.

If by blind bad luck you’re still logged into the original site when you click through to the link, the browser will send your authentication cookie to the website when it loads the script referenced in the script tag. As far as the original site is concerned, you’re making a valid authenticated request for the JSON data and it responds with the data, which now gets executed in your browser. This may sound familiar as it is really a variant of a Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack which I wrote about before.

If you want to see it for yourself, you can download this ASP.NET MVC project and run it locally. Make sure to login first and then go visithttp://haacked.com/demos/JsonAttack.html.

Note that this attack does not work on IE 8 which will tell you that__defineSetter__ is not a valid method. Last I checked, it does work on Chrome and Firefox.

The mitigation is simple. Either never send JSON arrays OR always require an HTTP POST to get that data (except in the case of non-sensitive data in which case you probably don’t care). For example, with ASP.NET MVC, you could use the AcceptVerbsAttribute to enforce this like so:

[Authorize]
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]public JsonResult AdminBalances() {  var balances = new[] {
    new {Id = 1, Balance=3.14}, 
    new {Id = 2, Balance=2.72},
    new {Id = 3, Balance=1.62}
  }; return Json(balances);

 



}

One issue with this approach is that many JavaScript libraries such as jQuery request JSON using a GET request by default, not POST. For example,$.getJSON issues a GET request by default. So when calling into this JSON service, you need to make sure you issue a POST request with your client library.

ASP.NET and WCF JSON service endpoints actually wrap their JSON in an object with the “d” property as I wrote about a while back. While it might seem odd to have to go through this property to get access to your data, this awkwardness is eased by the fact that the generated client proxies for these services strip the “d” property so the end-user doesn’t need to know it was ever there.

With ASP.NET MVC (and other similar frameworks), a significant number of developers are not using client generated proxies (we don’t have them) but instead using jQuery and other such libraries to call into these methods, making the “d” fix kind of awkward.

What About Checking The Header?

Some of you might be wondering, “why not have the JSON service check for a special header such as the X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest or Content-Type: application/json before serving it up in response to a GET request?” I too thought this might be a great mitigation because most client libraries send one or the other of these headers, but a browser’s GET request in response to a script tag would not.

The problem with this (as a couple of co-workers pointed out to me) is that at some point in the past, the user may have made a legitimate GET request for that JSON in which case it may well be cached in the user’s browser or in some proxy server in between the victim’s browser and the vulnerable website. In that case, when the browser makes the GET request for the script, the request might get fulfilled from the browser cache or proxy cache. You could try setting No-Cache headers, but at that point you’re trusting that the browser and all proxy servers correctly implement caching and that the user can’t override that accidentally.

Of course, this particular caching issue isn’t a problem if you’re serving up your JSON using SSL.

The real issue?

There’s a post at the Mozilla Developer Center which states that object and array initializers should not invoke setters when evaluated, which at this point, I tend to agree with, though a comment to that post argues that perhaps browsers really shouldn’t execute scripts regardless of their content type, which is also a valid complaint.

But at the end of the day, assigning blame doesn’t make your site more secure. These type of browser quirks will continue to crop up from time to time and we as web developers need to deal with them. Chrome 2.0.172.31 and Firefox 3.0.11 were both vulnerable to this. IE 8 was not because it doesn’t support this method. I didn’t try it in IE 7 or IE 6.

It seems to me that to be secure by default, the default behavior for accessing JSON should probably be POST and you should opt-in to GET, rather than the other way around as is done with the current client libraries. What do you think? And how do other platforms you’ve worked with handle this? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

In case you missed it, here are the repro steps again: Download this ASP.NET MVC project and run it locally. Make sure to login first and then go visit http://haacked.com/demos/JsonAttack.html in the same browser.

(Courtesy: http://haacked.com/archive/2009/06/25/json-hijacking.aspx )

Analysis of Iran Election to be fraudulent

2009-06-26T08:34:00.001+05:30

There's an interesting article in the Washington Post today exploring one line of reasoning suggesting that the Iranian election is fraudulent. Basically, it comes down to this: the results aren't random enough. In a fair election, you'd expect that each digit, from 0 to 9, would be the final digit the results in each region roughly ten percent of the time: you'd see a vote count like 12,437 just as often as 12,435. But in fact certain digits come up more often:

The numbers look suspicious. We find too many 7s and not enough 5s in the last digit. We expect each digit (0, 1, 2, and so on) to appear at the end of 10 percent of the vote counts. But in Iran's provincial results, the digit 7 appears 17 percent of the time, and only 4 percent of the results end in the number 5. Two such departures from the average -- a spike of 17 percent or more in one digit and a drop to 4 percent or less in another -- are extremely unlikely. Fewer than four in a hundred non-fraudulent elections would produce such numbers.

You can't expect the first digits in a result to be random, because they represent tens of thousands of voters, and in any given region, one candidate probably is supported by more voters than the other candidates. But the final digits should be random in a fair election.

For some reason, people seem to pick numbers ending in "7" as more "random" than other numbers. When we asked our readers to generate random numbers from 1 to 20, 7 and 17 were the most common answers, appearing almost three times as often as you'd expect if the numbers were truly randomly generated. Meanwhile numbers ending in 5 only came up about half as often as they should have. In fact, our results were quite similar to the Iran election results for those digits:

Beber and Scacco also found that the patterns in the last two digits of each number are not random. They calculate the chance of these two anomalous results in the elections occurring due to chance as less than 1 in 200.

(Courtesy: http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/06/nice_analysis_of_why_the_irani.php)

Michael Jackson is Dead!

2009-06-26T08:29:00.003+05:30

Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums -- including "Off the Wall," "Thriller" and "Bad" -- and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed.

Michael Jackson, shown in 2008, was one of the biggest pop stars in history.

He was 50.

He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center.

Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office said an autopsy would probably be done on the singer Friday, with results expected that afternoon. Watch crowds gather at Jackson's hospital »

"Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color," the Rev. Al Sharpton said. "To say an 'icon' would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was. He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by."

Jackson's blazing rise to stardom -- and later fall from grace -- is among the most startling of show business tales. The son of a steelworker, he rose to fame as the lead singer of the Jackson 5, a band he formed with his brothers in the late 1960s. By the late '70s, as a solo artist, he was topping the charts with cuts from "Off the Wall," including "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." Watch Jackson perform at a 1988 concert »

In 1982, he released "Thriller," an album that eventually produced seven hit singles. An appearance the next year on a Motown Records 25th-anniversary special cemented his status as the biggest star in the country. Timeline: The life of Michael Jackson »

For the rest of the 1980s, they came no bigger. "Thriller's" follow-up, 1987's "Bad," sold almost as many copies. A new Jackson album -- a new Jackson appearance -- was a pop culture event. iReport: Share your memories of Michael Jackson

The pop music landscape was changing, however, opening up for rap, hip-hop and what came to be called "alternative" -- and Jackson was seen as out of step.

His next release, 1991's "Dangerous," debuted at No. 1 but "only" produced one top-ranking single -- "Black or White" -- and that song earned criticism for its inexplicably violent ending, in which Jackson was seen smashing car windows and clutching his crotch.

Don't Miss

In Depth: Michael Jackson
Explainer: Cardiac arrest vs. heart attack
Videos: A look back at his life, performances
Videos: Reaction to his death and news of the day

And then "Dangerous" was knocked out of its No. 1 spot on the album charts by Nirvana's "Nevermind," an occurrence noted for its symbolism by rock critics.

After that, more attention was paid to Jackson's private life than his music career, which faltered. A 1995 two-CD greatest hits, "HIStory," sold relatively poorly, given the huge expense of Jackson's recording contract: about 7 million copies, according to Recording Industry of America certifications.

A 2001 album of new material, "Invincible," did even worse.

In 2005, he went to trial on child-molestation charges. He was acquitted.

In July 2008, after three years away from the spotlight, Jackson announced a series of concerts at London's O2 Arena as his "curtain call." Some of the shows, initially scheduled to begin in July, were eventually postponed until 2010. Watch the reaction to Jackson's passing

Rise to stardom

Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958, to Joe Jackson, a Gary, Indiana, steelworker, and his wife, Katherine. By the time he was 6, he had joined his brothers in a musical group organized by his father, and by the time he was 10, the group -- the Jackson 5 -- had been signed to Motown. Watch Michael Jackson's life in video

He made his first television appearance at age 11.

Jackson, a natural performer, soon became the group's front man. Music critic Langdon Winner, reviewing the group's first album, "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5," for Rolling Stone, praised Michael's versatile singing and added, "Who is this 'Diana Ross,' anyway?"

The group's first four singles -- "I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" -- went to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart, the first time any group had pulled off that feat. There was even a Jackson 5 cartoon series on ABC. Watch reaction from Motown Studios »

In 1972, he hit No. 1 as a solo artist with the song "Ben."

The group's popularity waned as the '70s continued, and Michael eventually went solo full time. He played the Scarecrow in the 1978 movie version of "The Wiz," and released the album "Off the Wall" in 1979. Its success paved the way for "Thriller," which eventually became the best-selling album in history, with 50 million copies sold worldwide.

At that point, Michael Jackson became ubiquitous.

Seven of "Thriller's" nine cuts were released as singles; all made the Top Ten. The then-new cable channel MTV, criticized for its almost exclusively white playlist, finally started playing Jackson's videos. They aired incessantly, including a 14-minute minimovie of the title cut. ("Weird Al" Yankovic cemented his own stardom by lampooning Jackson's song "Beat It" with a letter-perfect parody video.)

On the Motown Records' 25th-anniversary special -- a May 1983 TV extravaganza with notable turns by the Temptations, the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson -- it was Michael Jackson who stopped the show.

Already he was the most popular musician in America, riding high with "Thriller." But something about his electrifying performance of "Billie Jean," complete with the patented backward dance moves, boosted his stardom to a new level. Watch Jackson perform "Thiller" »

People copied his Jheri-curled hair and single-gloved, zippered-jacket look. Showbiz veterans such as Fred Astaire praised his chops. He posed for photos with Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the White House. Paul McCartney teamed with him on three duets, two of which -- "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say Say Say" -- became top five hits. Jackson became a Pepsi spokesman, and when his hair caught fire while making a commercial, it was worldwide news.

It all happened very fast -- within a couple years of the Motown special. But even at the time of the "Motown 25" moonwalk, fame was old hat to Michael Jackson. He hadn't even turned 25 himself, but he'd been a star for more than half his life. He was given the nickname the "King of Pop" -- a spin on Elvis Presley's status as "the King of Rock 'n' Roll" -- and few questioned the moniker.

Relentless attention

But, as the showbiz saying has it, when you're on top of the world, there's nowhere to go but down. The relentless attention given Jackson started focusing as much on his eccentricities -- some real, some rumored -- as his music.

As the Web site Allmusic.com notes, he was rumored to sleep in a hyperbaric chamber and to have purchased the bones of John Merrick, the "Elephant Man." (Neither was true.) He did have a pet chimpanzee, Bubbles; underwent a series of increasingly drastic plastic surgeries; established an estate, Neverland, filled with zoo animals and amusement park rides; and managed to purchase the Beatles catalog from under Paul McCartney's nose, which displeased the ex-Beatle immensely.

In 1990s and 2000s, Jackson found himself pasted across the media for his short-lived marriages, the first to Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie; his 2002 claim that then Sony Records head Tommy Mottola was racist; his behavior and statements during a 2003 interview with British journalist Martin Bashir done for a documentary called "Living With Michael Jackson;" his changing physical appearance; and, above all, the accusations that he sexually molested young boys at Neverland. Watch report on legacy on Michael Jackson »

The first such accusation, in 1993, resulted in a settlement to the 13-year-old accuser (rumored to be as high as $20 million), though no criminal charges were filed, Allmusic.com notes.

He also fell deeply in debt and was forced to sell some of his assets. Neverland was one of many holdings that went on the block. However, an auction of material from Neverland, scheduled for April, was called off and all items returned to Jackson.

Interest in Jackson never faded, however, even if some of it was prurient. In 2008, when he announced 10 comeback shows in London, beginning in July 2009, the story made worldwide news. The number of concerts was later increased to 50.

Seventy-five thousand tickets sold in four hours when they went on sale in March.

However, when the shows were postponed until 2010, rumors swept the Internet that Jackson was not physically prepared and possibly suffering from skin cancer. Watch discussion of his tough life, brilliant career »

At the time, the president and CEO of AEG Live, Randy Phillips, said, "He's as healthy as can be -- no health problems whatsover."

Jackson held open auditions for dancers in April in Los Angeles.

(Courtesyhttp://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/jackson/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)

He is survived by his three children, Prince Michael I, Paris and Prince

The Anonymous Hugging Wall in London

2009-06-25T16:03:00.001+05:30

The Anonymous Hugging Wall in London as part of Keetra Dean Dixon ongoing series METHODS & APPARATI for Social Facilitation and Mood Elevation

(Courtesy: http://www.notcot.org/post/22725/)

Kayak to Bing: Stop Copying Us! - Update

2009-06-25T16:01:00.000+05:30

Kayak, the popular multi-airline airfare search engine, thinks Microsoft Bing’s new travel search engine looks so much like its own that it’s confusing Kayak users. The travel search company sent Microsoft a legal letter last week telling them to cut it out, Wired.com has learned.

Microsoft heralded its travel search as one of the key ways that its revamped search engine Bing bested Google by helping users make decisions, rather than just finding information.

Its search results for an itinerary presents users with sliders and check boxes on the left that let searchers change times and specify airlines. Search results reload instantly as boxes are clicked and sliders slid.

There’s no question Bing feels like Kayak. When Microsoft showed us the search engine under embargo, this reporter’s first comment upon seeing the travel page demo’d was “This looks like Kayak.” Our Bing review described its interface as “uncomfortably close to Kayak’s,” an observation that others made as well.

Kayak noticed too.

“We have contacted them through official channels about concerns about the similarities between Bing and Kayak,” Kayak’s chief marketing officer Robert Birge told Wired.com “From the look and feel of their travel product, they seem to agree with our approach to the market.”

That’s careful language for “Microsoft copied our stuff wholesale.”

Microsoft’s Whitney Burk denies that there’s any copying going on.

“We are discussing the matter with Kayak,” Burk said in emailed statement. “Bing Travel is based on independent development by Microsoft and Farecast.com, which Microsoft acquired in 2008. Any contrary allegations are without merit.”

Others noticed as well.

For instance, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s David Radin reviewed Bing, noting that the travel site “feels so much like Kayak that without asking, I assumed Microsoft licensed the technology from Kayak. Can you say ‘eerily similar’?”

Douglas Sims, the president of an IT consulting firm in Tennessee, noted the similarity too, inspiring him to write a short essay on his website:

Bing Travel is like Kayak in more ways than just the layout and visual design. The navigation, the automatic loading of results from different airlines (using ajax), even the results themselves are almost identical.

In an interview, Sims said he had no connection to Kayak but was moved to write about the comparison because he was a longtime admirer of Kayak’s interface. In early June, he had friends writing to tell him how cool Microsoft’s search was.

“I felt offended,” Sims said. “I thought Kayak did an awesome job, and now my friends are giving credit to someone else.”

He noted that Microsoft’s travel search engine includes the same shading on the gray sliding bars as Kayak’s site does.

“I design stuff like this sometimes,” Sims said. “I’ve always said I can’t just copy other people’s work, you can’t just rip it off, but in hindsight, is it fair game? Maybe I should do that.”

Readers at TechCrunch also had a healthy debate about whether Microsoft ripped Kayak off, or was just using the technology it bought when it purchased Farecast.

For its part, Kayak seems caught between indignation at seeing a giant company copy their hard work and flattery that their work at designing a user interface work is so good that someone would ape it.

They are also a company with fewer than 100 employees, while Microsoft employs far more lawyers than that.

Update: This post was updated Wednesday evening with comment from Microsoft.

(Courtesy: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/kayak-bing/)

97 year old NewsPaper - TITANIC!

2009-06-25T13:00:00.003+05:30

Twitter Creator On Iran: 'I Never Intended For Twitter To Be Useful'

2009-06-25T10:16:00.001+05:30

SAN FRANCISCO—Creator Jack Dorsey was shocked and saddened this week after learning that his social networking device, Twitter, was being used to disseminate pertinent and timely information during the recent civil unrest in Iran. "Twitter was intended to be a way for vacant, self-absorbed egotists to share their most banal and idiotic thoughts with anyone pathetic enough to read them," said a visibly confused Dorsey, claiming that Twitter is at its most powerful when it makes an already attention-starved populace even more needy for constant affirmation. "When I heard how Iranians were using my beloved creation for their own means—such as organizing a political movement and informing the outside world of the actions of a repressive regime—I couldn't believe they'd ruined something so beautiful, simple, and absolutely pointless." Dorsey said he is already working on a new website that will be so mind-numbingly useless that Iranians will not even be able to figure out how to operate it.

(Courtesy: http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/twitter_creator_on_iran_i?utm_source=onion_rss_daily)

5 things I wish some people wouldn't install on their PCs

2009-06-25T10:13:00.002+05:30

Our readers are a pretty savvy bunch. You're up to speed on what software is and isn't worth downloading, and you're likely the "friend that knows about computers" to a lot of people. Wouldn't it be nice if some of those people started paying attention to our advice - and quit downloading things like...

1. A second (or third...or fourth) antivirus program. Despite what we tell them, some people think "more is always better" when it comes to PC protection. Inevitably, those people end up bringing their computers in for service saying "it just slowed right down" and - here's the kicker - "maybe it has a virus."

So wait...You installed Norton, AVG, Spyware Doctor, and Ad-Aware because you thought it would keep out all the badness and you still think it's a virus slowing down your machine? /facepalm

2. Just...one...more...toolbar (thank you J-Walk blog for the image). Apparently a lot of people love to search. So much, in fact, that they need dedicated toolbars for Google, Yahoo, Ask, Live, MyWebSearch, and a handful of others. They wind up with less browser real estate than an iPhone on their 22" LCD.

I launch their browser to download something, and it's like a punch in the face. Enough is enough, people. Use your browser's search box already.

3. Apps with annoying avatars. Incredimail, I'm looking at you.

Bonzi Buddy is dead, and for a good reason. Isn't an AOL-style "You've Got Mail!" alert good enough? Apparently not for some people. No, they need to have some snooty butler announce the arrival of every message like he's Alfred bringing Bruce Wayne a phone call from the mayor.

4. P2P apps. Don't get me wrong - it's not apps like Frostwire, uTorrent, and eMule that I have a problem with. But if you're not going to take the time to learn how to configure these things, don't use them. And don't call and get uppity when your internet connection slows to a crawl and tell me I screwed things up.

5. Piggybacked programs. I'm shocked how much software people wind up with on their PCs that they never use and claim to not know how it got there.

Checkboxes are there for a reason, folks. You don't have to install Safari. You don't have to install Adobe Media Player. Remember that Ask toolbar? You probably could have opted out of that, too - if you would take a second to read before you click. If I put food in front of you, you wouldn't just grab it and eat it without looking, right?

What about you - what do you wish people would stop installing?

(Courtesy: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/06/23/5-things-i-wish-some-people-wouldnt-install-on-their-pcs/)

Legislation To Decriminalize Marijuana by Barney Frank

2009-06-24T15:36:00.002+05:30

(Massachusetts Congressman Barney) Frank has filed a bill that would eliminate federal penalties for personal possession of less than 100 grams of marijuana.
It would also make the penalty for using marijuana in public just $100.
"I think John Stuart Mill had it right in the 1850s," said Congressman Frank, "when he argued that individuals should have the right to do what they want in private, so long as they don't hurt anyone else. It's a matter of personal liberty. Moreover, our courts are already stressed and our prisons are over-crowded. We don't need to spend our scarce resources prosecuting people who are doing no harm to others."
Frank filed a similar bill last year, but it failed.
The law passed in Massachusetts last November.

Given the general timidity of the majority party and the hay that most certainly would be made by the minority party, I don't have much hope that this sensible and long-due bill will succeed, but more power to Barney Frank.

(Courtesy: http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/barney-frank-introduces-legislation-d)

Hide Files in an Image!

2009-06-24T10:13:00.001+05:30

It is possible to hide a rar archive inside a png image file and then retrieve the files from this image.

cat picture.png archive.rar > hidden_archive_in_pic.png

This can also be done on Windows:

copy picture.png + archive.rar hidden_archive_in_pic.png

When you want to retrieve the hidden files, download the image, rename to .rar and extract.

(Courtesy: http://www.shell-fu.org/lister.php?id=844)

Beirut - Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg [2009]

2009-06-24T10:08:00.001+05:30

tracklist:

1. East Harlem

2. The Shrew

3. The Concubine

4. Mimizan

5. La Javanaise

6. The Akara

7. Cozak

8. My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille

9. Gulag Orkestar

10. Forks and Knives (La Fête)

11. Brazil

You could tell what kind of a show it was going to be 3 hours before the doors even opened. Outside Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg, a few stone cold kids stood shivering on line. Their hope? Get through those restrictive doors by any means necessary. A sold out show meant not all of them would make it. But if by chance a few did, a fantastic night of music featuring Brooklyn’s own Beirut awaited them.

Zach Condon would choose to begin Beirut’s set with a simple “Good evening everyone”, diving immediately into the set, to the rapturous applause of the hundreds in attendance. Using an impressive variety of instrumentation (stand-up bass, accordion, trumpet, trombone, french horn, euphonium, and Condon’s signature ukulele), the band played a batch of tunes that appropriately ushered the audience to a variety of places around the world. “Gulag Orkestar” sparked a quick trip to the Balkans. During “The Shrew”, a song from Beirut’s brand new EP ‘March of the Zapotec’, Mexico became the destination of choice. They also dabbled in a track called “My Night With a Prostitute from Marseille”; this one from Zach Condon’s ‘Realpeoples’ Holland’ EP.

At the end of their full set, Condon would be forced to tell the still hungry crowd, “You’ve bled us dry at this point”; a statement that would hardly deter the crowd from demanding more. Two encores later, the love affair between Beirut and the fans in attendance was complete. They ended the show with a cover of a dancy old Brazilian song, written by Ary Barroso called “Aquarela do Brasil” (”Watercolor of Brazil”); a lighthearted way to send the happy crowd off into the cold streets of Brooklyn indeed.

(Courtesy : http://bolachasgratis.baywords.com/?p=7320)

Would you wish to Land Here?

2009-06-24T10:02:00.002+05:30

Seriously. I don't.

This is Funchal Airport's runway, in the Island of Madeira. It was one of the most dangerous in the world because its runway was just too short for large airplanes. It had to be extended and engineers had two options: Extend the ground base with extra soil and concrete, or build a platform on top of 180 230-foot pillars. The answer just looks spectacular.

And probably as safe as it is scary. [Premier Holidays via Dark Roasted Blend]

NASA Volcano Image Shows Atmospheric Shockwave

2009-06-23T16:46:00.002+05:30

On June 12th, Saychev Peak on Matua Island erupted, hurling ash and steam into the air. Luckily, NASA's International Space Station was watching. This stunning image, from the Earth Observatory, reveals some rare details about this eruption.

In this image, you can see the volcanic plume extending into the sky. But you can also see the atmospheric shock wave from the eruption, which pushed the clouds back into a ring in the sky. Also visible is a smooth, fluffy white cloud on top of the rapidly rising ash column. This is likely a result of rapidly rising water vapor condensing on top of the plume.

A detail of the image also reveals what is known as the pyroclastic flow. This is a mixture of super hot gas and ash that can travel at up to 130 miles per hour. It's similar to the kind of rapidly moving pyroclastic surge that supposedly wiped out Pompeii so quickly, killing everyone in its path. It's a beautiful image, dense with interesting quirks that demonstrate just how powerful, dangerous and complex volcanoes are.

via NASA Earth Observatory

Adobe's Flash Player 10 Coming to Android in October

2009-06-23T16:39:00.003+05:30

Adobe’s Flash Player 10 is coming to Android, officially. No more speculation or hoping… we are a ‘go’ for launch.

During a recent earnings call for Adobe, President and CEO Shantanu Naraye announced that Flash Mobile 10 will arriving in beta form this October. The release will coincide with their MAX conference for developers.

According the call, there are already multiple partners working with the release. ARM, NVIDIA, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Intel, and Texas Instruments are already optimizing Flash player for their processors and platforms.

Aside from Android, Nokia Symbian, Palm Web OS, and Windows Mobile were mentioned to be among first devices to support web browsing with Flash.

Noticeably absent… Apple.

(Courtesy: http://androidguys.com/?p=5757 )

Apple v/s Blackberry - Brilliant Ads!

2009-06-23T12:49:00.004+05:30

Blackberry takes a shot on Apple!

Apple Hits Back!

App phone rejects Full Commodore 64 Emulator

2009-06-22T09:36:00.001+05:30

iPhone developer Manomio has been secretly working on a major App Store project for the past year that has just been completed, but may never see the light of day in its current form. Readers may remember Manomio as the developer behind the iPhone version of classic game Flashback. Manomio's slogan is "In Retro We Trust" and their mission statement is to bring classic game titles to the leading handheld devices such as the iPhone.

What Manomio has done is to create a fully licensed Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone that can play classic games and even run Commodore 64 BASIC. The full list of features are as follows:

Full speed, Commodore 64 emulator
SID sound emulation
Auto-save, to continue exactly where you left off
Realistic joystick and beautifully crafted C64 keyboard
Portrait and Landscape play
Vertical and Fullscreen gaming (auto rotate for iPod users)

Did I mention it was legally licensed?

Despite some initial work on the project last year, Manomio had originally decided to abandon the project for two main reasons. 1) a lack of licensing rights for the Commodore 64 and 2) the question of whether or not an emulator would be allowed in the App Store.

Manomio, however, ended up connecting withKiloo Aps who happens to own the license for the Commodore 64 and ultimately managed to sign the proper deals with both Kiloo and Commodore Gaming.

Manomio then contacted Apple Europe in the UK and detailed what they were planning to accomplish and according to Manomio's CEO Brian Lyscarz, "Apple seemed really excited" and so he felt safe that they would sanction the final app. With that assurance in hand, Manomio proceeded to secure the necessary licensing from individual publishers and finalize work on this major project.

It all came to a head last week, however, when Manomio confidently submitted C64 for iPhone along with 3 individual gamepacks(officially licensed) to use along with the emulator. All seemed fine until Manomio received the dreaded App Store rejection email:

Thank you for submitting C64 1.0 to the App Store. We've reviewed C64 1.0 and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it violates the iPhone SDK Agreement; "3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."

As originally feared, Apple had rejected their app based on the SDK clause specifically prohibiting interpreted or executable code.

Even aside from Apple Europe's early assurance, Lyscarz pointed out to us that there are a number of apps in the App Store that do exactly the same thing fromCHIP-8 emulators, programmable calculators and, of course, Frotz, a Z-machine interpreter. In fact, Sega's Golden Axe and Sonic iPhone games are nothing more than emulators packaged with the original game ROMs. Lyscarz is understandably frustrated with the process after having spent so much of his company's time and money into the project. Lyscarz continues to hope that C64 might still be approved in one form or another.

(Courtesy: http://toucharcade.com/2009/06/20/full-commodore-64-emulator-rejected-from-app-store/ )

NOKIA DEVELOPS PHONE THAT RECHARGES ITSELF WITHOUT MAINS ELECTRICITY

2009-06-19T14:25:00.003+05:30

The Guardian reports on a new prototype phone from Nokia that is able to power itself on nothing more than ambient radiowaves – the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us.

The power harvested is small but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode indefinitely without ever needing to plug it into the mains, according to Markku Rouvala, one of the researchers who developed the device at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, UK.

... Instead of harvesting tiny amounts of power (a few microwatts) from dedicated transmitters, Nokia's prototype is able to scavenge relatively large amounts of power — around a thousand times as much — from signals coming from miles away. Individually the energy available in each of these signals is miniscule. But by harvesting radiowaves across a wide range of frequencies it all adds up, said Rouvala.

(Courtesy: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/06/023806.htm)

12 Bugs We've found in iPhone OS 3.0

2009-06-19T11:28:00.002+05:30

Multimedia messaging does not support sculpture, macrame, or interpretive dance.
Voice memo recordings totally don't sound like me. I don't sound like that, do I? Seriously?
Turned on adult content filter but everybody in my videos still has their clothes on.
Adding a task to calendar did not result in task getting done.
Clicked this blue "compass" icon but kept getting some stupid web browser.
Still no apps to cure the nagging feeling that I should've bought a Palm Pre.
The touchscreen is now on the back of the phone instead of the front.
Gone to the bathroom four times already today, and Remote Wipe hasn't worked once.
Spotlight search crashed with memory overload error trying to index my Harry Potter cosplay photo collection.
Tried out tethering, but I think I broke my finger smacking that phone around the pole.
Apple still hasn't fixed the no-hardware-keyboard bug.
"Cut" function does not apply to monthly AT&T bill.

(Courtesy : http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=8475 )

How to protect yourself and others from Influenza A (H1N1)

2009-06-18T16:31:00.002+05:30

Paradise Lost - 2009

2009-06-15T12:46:00.004+05:30

It's not regarding John Milton's epic poem but it's regarding the fall of Indian Cricket Team which failed to defend its title. Although the expectations were high on the team, it never played like a champion team in this tournament. The following reasons might be one of the factor for Indian Cricket Team which made them knock out of the tournament:

1. Ravindra Jadeja's poor batting performance in critical match against England scoring just 25 off 35 balls under creeping run rate.

2. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's losing aggressiveness in batting & bad wicket-keeping.

3. Top-order collapse (Gambhir, Raina & Rohit Sharma) in early overs without scoring runs.

4. Failure to capitalise the PowerPlay properly. Also, they didn't score even 7 r.p.o for first 10 overs.

5. Awful bowling and fielding performance.

6. 'Sehwag' Factor.

Overall, Indian Cricket Team never performed like champions under critical situation and they lost against two of the better sides and they deserved the defeat.

Universal Electronics Inc.(UEIC), Bangalore,India

2009-06-12T12:24:00.005+05:30

Universal Electronics Inc. (UEIC) is engaged in developing universal wireless control products and audio-video accessories that are marketed for the home entertainment systems. It also develop software and firmware solutions that can enable devices, such as televisions, set-top boxes, stereos, automotive audio systems, cell phones and other consumer electronic products to wirelessly connect and interact with home networks and interactive services to deliver digital entertainment and information. The markets served by the Company include retail, private label, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), custom installers, automobile, cellular phone, subscription broadcasting, cable and satellite service providers and companies in the computing industry. On February 18, 2009, the Company acquired universal remote control business from Zilog Inc. (Zilog). The purchase included Zilog’s full library and database of infrared codes, and software tools.

Contact Address:

UEI Electronics Pvt. Ltd.

5th Floor, East Wing, Khanija Bhavan

#49, Race Course Road, Bangalore - 560 001. INDIA

Ph: +91-80-22269405, Fax:+91-80-22356353

website: www.uei.com

TCL/TK Tutorial -Part I

2009-06-11T12:52:00.003+05:30

TCL/TK tutorial for beginners

Introduction:

Tcl (Tool Command Language) is a very powerful but easy to learn dynamic programming language, suitable for a very wide range of uses, including web and desktop applications, networking, administration, testing and many more. Open source and business-friendly, Tcl is a mature yet evolving language that is truly cross platform, easily deployed and highly extensible.

Tk is a graphical user interface toolkit that takes developing desktop applications to a higher level than conventional approaches. Tk is the standard GUI not only for Tcl, but for many other dynamic languages, and can produce rich, native applications that run unchanged across Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and more.

All you have to do is just download the TCL kit release 8.5.7 from

http://tcl.activestate.com/software/tcltk/8.5.html

and start using it. You can also practice all sort of commands provided below in tclsh shell from the downloaded tool kit.

Chapter-1: Simple Text Output

puts

- outputs a string in TCL

Example:

1. puts 1.24

Output: 1.24

2. puts hello,world

Output: hello,world

{Note: words need not be quoted unless it contains a white space in between}

3. puts {this is a line} (or) puts “this is a line”

Output: this is a line

echo

- echoes the given string

{Note: no need to be quoted even in the presence of white space}

Example:

1. echo 5.66

2. echo hello how are you

- comment lines

- TCL will ignore the scripts started with ‘#’ symbol.

Chapter-2: Declaring Variables

set

- assignment command

Unlike C programming, there is no necessity for declaring different data types such as int, char, float, string, etc.

Syntax: set

Example:

1. set num 10

- assigns 10 to integer variable name ‘num’

2. set word apple

- assigns apple to character variable name ‘word’

3. set str “this is a line” (or) set str {this is a line}

- assigns the string (this is a line) to variable name ‘str’

Chapter-3: Accessing the variables

1. $

- represents ‘ value of ’

i.e., $x – value of x

$y - value of y

Syntax: $

Example:

Commands Comments

set x “Hello world” assigns “Hello World” to variable x

set y 5.66 assigns 5.66 to variable y

puts $x outputs value of x : Hello world

puts $y outputs value of y : 5.66

Chapter-4: Evaluation & Substitution

String	Output	Hex Value
\a	Audible Bell	0x07
\b	Backspace	0x08
\f	Form Feed (clear screen)	0x0c
\n	New Line	0x0a
\r	Carriage Return	0x0d
\t	Tab	0x09
\v	Vertical Tab	0x0b

Example:

1. puts "\nhello \n how are you"

-prints

hello

how are you

2. puts "Tab\tTab\tTab"

-prints Tab Tab Tab

3. set x abc

puts "A simple substitution: $x\n"

-prints A simple substitution: abc

4. Commands Comments

set y [set x "def"]

puts $y prints def

puts $x prints def

Chapter-5: Mathematical Operations

1. expr

- command for using mathematical operations

- extracted and adapted from the expr man page

- Test expressions, such as if, while and for loops use expr command internally in order to evaluate the expressions.

2. operators (valid operators are listed below, grouped in decreasing order of precedence)

(-, +, ~,!)

-Unary minus, unary plus, bit-wise NOT, logical NOT. None of these operators may be applied to string operands, and bit-wise NOT may be applied only to integers.

b. **

- exponentiation (works on both floating-point numbers and integers)

c. * / %

- Multiply, divide, remainder. None of these operators may be applied to string operands, and remainder may be applied only to integers. The remainder will always have the same sign as the divisor and an absolute value smaller than the divisor.

d. + -

- Add and subtract. Valid for any numeric operands.

e. << >>

- Left and right (bit) shift. Valid for integer operands only.

f. < > <= >=

- Relational operators: less, greater, less than or equal, and greater than or equal. Each operator produces 1 if the condition is true, 0 otherwise. These operators may be applied to numeric operands as well as strings, in which case string comparison is used.

g. eq ne in ni

-compare two strings for equality (eq) or inequality (ne). and two operators for checking if a string is contained in a list (in) or not (ni). These operators all return 1 (true) or 0 (false).

Example:

Commands Comments

set X 100 assigns X value to 100

set Y 200 assigns Y value to 200

set Z [expr {$Y + $X}] assigns Z value to 300

puts $Z prints value of Z :200

- Output is obtained after substituting the expression and obtaining result from it

Example:

Commands Comments

Set x 1 assigns value 1 to x

Set y x assigns y value as x

Puts [expr $y] substitute the value of x as

y’s value

Chapter-6: if Statement

Syntax:

if expr1 ?then? body1 elseif expr2 ?then? body2 elseif ... ?else? ?bodyN?

Example:

Commands Comments

set x 10 //assigns 10 to value x

if { $x == 10} { //check the condition whether x is 10

puts “x is $x” //execute true condition statements

} else { //if condition fails

puts “x is not $x” //execute false condition statements

}

Chapter-7: Switch Statement

- Switch commands are used when you want to match a variable against several possible values, and don't want to do a long series of if... elseif ... elseif statements.

Syntax:

switch string pattern1 body1 ?pattern2 body2? ... ?patternN bodyN?

Example:

Commands Comments

set x 1 assigns value 1 to x

set y 2 assigns value 2 to y

set z 3 assigns value 3 to z

switch $y { switch to case $y i.e.,2

1 {

puts “one”

}

2 {

puts “two” prints two as output

}

3 {

puts “three”

}

default {

puts “none”

}

Chapter-8:While Statement

- The while command evaluates test as an expression. If test is true, the code in body is executed. After the code in body has been executed, testis evaluated again.

Syntax:

while test body

Example:

Commands Comments

Set x 1 assigns value 1 to x

while {$x < style="mso-tab-count:3"> while value of x is less than 5

puts "x is $x" output x value

set x [expr {$x + 1}] increment x value

}

Chapter-9: for Loop

- It has four arguments; an initialization, a test, an increment/decrement, and the body of code to evaluate on each pass through the loop.

- It is very similar to for loop used in C programming.

Syntax:

for start test next body

Example:

Commands Comments

for {set i 0} {$i < style="mso-tab-count:1"> initialization of for loop

puts "value of i is: $i" prints value of i

}

Chapter-10: proc Command

- The proc command creates a new command.

Syntax:

proc name args body

- When proc is evaluated, it creates a new command with name name that takes arguments args. When the procedure name is called, it then runs the code contained in body.

Example:

1. Commands Comments

proc sum {arg1 arg2} { creates a command sum

set x [expr {$arg1 + $arg2}]; assign x = arg1+arg2

return $x return value of x

}

puts " The sum of 2 + 3 is: [sum 2 3]\n\n" function call

proc example {first {second ""} args} {

if {$second eq ""} {

puts "There is only one argument and it is: $first"

return 1

} else {

if {$args eq ""} {

puts "There are two arguments - $first and $second"

return 2

} else {

puts "There are many arguments - $first and $second and $args"

return “many”

}

set count1 [example ONE]

set count2 [example ONE TWO]

set count3 [example ONE TWO THREE ]

set count4 [example ONE TWO THREE FOUR]

How to lose your weight fast?

2009-06-10T18:10:00.003+05:30

No one can lose their weight fast because, any sudden change to your body, can be dangerous. Usage of diet pills, fasting/less intake of food may prove a disaster for life.So, instead of trying to lose weight at a stretch, follow the following 10 steps to lose your weight gradually within a reasonable period and without any side-effect.

1. Plan your meals.

2. Avoid junk food. Have graze on healthy snacks.

3. Drink plenty of water

4. Have Calorie count

5. Rest properly

6. Allocate time for physical excercises

7. Swimming is the best practice to lose your weight quicker & in healthier manner

8. Don't eat too much or too less

9. Regular walking or jogging will prove yourself as a worthy tactic.

10. Patience, consistence and discipline is the key