Thoda sa main...(A little bit of me)

When I saw few images of fancy laser keyboards online & the flexible keyboard in "Die Hard 4.0" and Yahoo! store online, I made up my mind to get my hands on the same.

My friend Rohas Nagpal brought me the same on his recent trip to Singapore & I had a nice time playing around with them.

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The flexible keyboard as seen in "Die Hard 4.0"
# Its a nice rubber keyboard which can be rolled up and stored in very less space

# Space between keys is little more which makes it little difficult to type fast

# The keyboard comes with a USB connector & a complimentary PS/2 converter for desktop users
# To get the feel of typing people need essential push back feel from the keys. This keyboard gives you that feeling.









# Good to use for fun & in emergency (as in the movie)
# Not a good thing for a general use, not comfortable at all.
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The virtual keyboard
# Wow it looks cool!

# for me it didn't worked with b stack of XP SP2. Didn't paired at all
# Tried orchid bluetooth with Bluesoleil, it paired but didn't worked as expected. I pressed ALT+TAB & my system went for a toss, it got into infinite loop of TAB & control kept moving away from buttons, windows, forms, start button etc. Even after plugging out bluetooth dongle & turning off the VKB. Had a very hard time trying rebooting my PC. Finally after a reboot things got settled.
# The laser glow is not at all ergonomic, the glow & reflection hurts your eyes very soon
# You have to have a plain non-reflective surface for this to work
# Its fun to beam the keyboard on weird surfaces & see patterns
# The essential push back feel is not there
# You end up hitting the surface by your fingertips, not ergonomic again.










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IMHO
Both the keyboards
Good to see, good to showoff,. But not for use for more than 15 minutes

[The Policy I follow]

This policy outlines how I try to handle responsible disclosure of a vulnerability
to the product vendors, security vendors and the general public.


Step 1: Vulnerability detected

Step 2: Inform the vendor of the product or the servce formally through email to following mail accounts/aliases
security@VENDOR,
support@VENDOR,
info@VENDOR,
secure@VENDOR,
admin@VENDOR,
sysadmin@VENDOR

Step 3: Wait for vendor's acknowledgement for 5 working days

Step 4: If the vendor fails to acknowledge initial notification within 5 working days, I contact the vendor for second time using mail & other publicly available contact medium such as phone or fax

Step 5: If a vendor response is received within the timeframe we (vendor & me) wait for a reasonable period of time to develop a fix. I make every effort to work with vendors to ensure that they get the technical details and severity of the flaw detected.

Step 6: Once the patch is ready & released with responsible timeframe, in consent with the vendor I will formally and publicly release its security advisories on selected security mailing lists & other forums.

Consent of the vendor for discloser is important as few vendors do not like to get their vulnerability publicized as it may effect their reputation. Respecting their feelings I get the consent from the vendor & then publicize the flaw

tags: Security, Tech

Here we are organizing the third sequel of BarCamp in Pune
A deferred live report :)

0845: Reached Persistent Tower. As I entered the building the first thing I noticed was Kiran running around managing posters. This guy was the man behind the success of BarCampPune3.

0850: Started the day, managed a few posters & then moved to check registration desk @ 7th floor. Few volunteers were already there. Had the first look at the T-shirts which flew in from Bangalore in the morning only. Nice t-shirts, thanks thoughtworks

0900: People started pouring in, thank god it’s not raining at this moment. Registration started. People registering there laptops, putting stickers, admiring t-shirt, moving over to storyboard for planning there sessions

0945: Campers still coming, no session for 1000, planning to move 1045 session to 1030 & start the event.

1000: Almost everybody is done with the breakfast. Wandering around, planning for which sessions to attend.

1015: Welcome & brief intro by Hrishikesh. Good to see that crowd in Pune have started understanding barcamps & unconferences. They know what they are here for & what to expect.

1030: started the first session on 4th floor. Organizers still managing stuff on 4th floor & 7th floor. Kiran & Jatinder jotted down the whole storyboard & got printouts for every camper

1045: I got time to reach one of the sessions, sat for few minutes in TVguide.in by Rakesh Raju. Nice concept.

1050: Showed the first placard of "10 min left" to Rakesh, followed by "5 min left" & "time up". We learnt this from Tarun at BlogCamp. This really helps managing timing of sessions

1115: Same room, Aditya starting (although with few hiccups) on MS Silverlight. Good talk Aditya

1145: finished Aditya's session with "time up" & moved to 7th floor for some discussions

1245: People gathering @ 7th floor for lunch. PSPL canteen had arranged very nice food but pure veg :( There was a sign board sitting next to the sweet dish "One Helping Only". Funny, but don't worry, it’s a BarCamp & people know what they have to do.1330: One table full of BarCamp organizers. Atul, Anand, Jatinder, Anil, Harshal, Tarun, myself, Karthik, we are missing you Dibya! Nice time to decide future camps (I know we are yet to finish this one)

1400: Started a new thread in discussion room on 1st floor with Rohas Nagpal telling people about how to setup a tech company in US/UK/Singapore.

1402: The first announcement about ClubHack. Thank Atul for your loud voice to catch attention. We announced the next big event ClubHack & noticed that people were quite excited about the same.

1430: Waved "5 min" sign to Rohas & moved to 4th floor to announce ClubHack in other rooms

1445: All announcements done, now attending the session on LifeLogger by Anand. Andy you do such complex thing???

1515: I didn't wanted to show the time up thing to Anand as he was from my own team, but can't help it. Thanks to everyone no one got offended (hopefully) & managed the sessions properly.

1530: Same room attending session by Freeman on OpenSource Education. You are doing a great work Freeman.

1600: Snax time! I wonder why the tomato sauce was kept in such a big vessel, many people misunderstood it for soup :)

1630: Session on Firefox addons by Vinod. I tried learning this things many times :). Helpful session Vinod, but I’m not sure when I’d start writing my own addon

1715: All organizers gathered in lobby. Discussed how many track did they were able to attend. Hey look at this even I got chance to attend 5 and half sessions. I know it’s a big count when you are also in organizing team. Thanks to PSPL for such a nice arrangement.

1730: Another session about to start but not feeling like attending it. Started winding up stuffs

1800: Had to barge in last session and request Amit to end up his session on web2.0 powered by PHP. Sorry guys but need to finish of stuff in time.

1830: All organizers sitting in the beautiful lobby of PSPL relaxing after a successful day, 07/07/07 was really a good day for us.

1900: Packup & go!!! hope to see you all in next camp / ClubHack.

I know Atul & Anand will be moving to US soon, but I’m sure we'll get there assistance from remote. After all it’s a digital world.

tags: BarCamp, Events

A funny incidence happened in BlogCampPune few days back

There were 4-5 guys (read GEEKS) standing & chatting with few cute babes.
While the conversation was going on, a guy came from back & said
"hey, my CSS is not working fine in IE6, its working in IE7 & FF"
Guess what, suddenly everyone turned their back to the girls & started suggesting this dude about how to solve his problem

The girls were non-technical & were taken aback by the incidence. I think they even felt bad & one geek understood it, he turned to the girls & explained them
"This a typical geek behavior dear, don't feel bad"

Isn't it actually geeky :)

Yes you read it right - No steganography software

So here is a quick howto on doing image steganography with common tools, no specialized software.

1: Compress the file you want to secure( I tried both rar & zip), say secure.zip
2: Take the image file which you want to use, say image.jpg
3: run the following command
copy /b image.jpg + secure.zip hidden.jpg
4: Double click hidden.jpg & you'll see the original image
5: Open the file in archiving utility (I tried winzip & winrar)
6: It will open the content of original secure.zip

Analysis
copy commands copies the content of both the files into a third file
The third file starts with the header of an image & even the extension is of image, so the OS (tried KDE & GNOME in case of Linux) interprets it like an image & shows the image, that too without any distortion or noise in the image.

/b option indicates binary operation & takes care of any possible goofup.

PoC
Image on left is the original image & where as one on the right is with hidden content, try opening it in any archiving software.

tags: Security, Tech

I just got my office scanned for software inventory using a tool called belarc advisor.While going through reports I wondered how easy it can be for anyone to get license key of any software using belark report & google

Just try this search & you'll get to know by yourself

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intitle%3A%E2%80%9DBelarc+Advisor+Current+Profile%E2%80%9D


Scary, very scary...

tags: Security, Tech

Apart from the reason that black is my favorite color, I found yet another reason for background of my site & blog to be black in color

# Black pages are more ergonomics
# Black background saves energy (more in case of CRT than LCD)
# Black is my favorite color
# Black is a nice movie (India);)

There are two Indias in this country.

One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been recently showering upon us.
The other India is the leash.

One India says give me a chance and I'll prove myself.
The other India says prove yourself first and maybe then you'll have a chance.

One India lives in the optimism of our hearts.
The other India lurks in the skepticism of our minds.

One India wants. The other India hopes.
One India leads. The other India follows.

These conversions are on the rise. With each passing day more and more people from the other India have been coming over to this side. And quietly, while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging.

An India whose faith in success is far greater than its fear of failure. An India that no longer boycotts foreign-made goods but buys out the companies that make them instead.

History, they say, is a bad motorist. It rarely ever signals its intentions when it's taking a turn.
This is that rarely-ever moment. History is turning a page.

For over half a century, our nation has sprung, stumbled, run, fallen, rolled over, got up and dusted herself and cantered, sometimes lurched on. But today, in our 60th year as a free nation, the ride has brought us to the edge of time's great precipice.

And one India - a tiny little voice at the back of the head - is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating.

The other India is looking up at the sky and saying it's time to fly.


http://www.indiapoised.com/

Watch videos @ http://www.indiapoised.com/video2.htm

I was digging MS Defender (anti-malware) & found that even MS is thinking before classifying tools like
EXPLORER.EXE (Windows Explorer)
IEXPLORE.EXE (Internet Explorer)

See that ypager.exe is classifed :)

MS trust yahoo but not itself.

Digital Samurai pointed out 14 lessons from the Google Story
My selected few

1. Connections - human, computer, biology - are everything. Life = networks.
2. Never compromise your ideals because someone said it’s impossible, stupid, or a waste of time.
3. Do focus on changing the world, don’t focus on the money. If you provide value, the money will come.
4. Have a healthy disregard for the impossible. If someone hasn’t done it yet, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
5. Money is a problem, not a solution. Money cannot solve your problems, but your solutions can solve the money problem.
6. Value creativity, not money. View creativity as your company’s true bottom-line, or your company will stop growing and die.
7. Go against the grain. Don’t believe in other people’s visions for you, believe in your own.
8. Quality is more important than looking good. A shiny, beautiful car isn’t impressive when it gets overtaken by an old jalopy; the same applies to software.
9. Focus on users above all else, e.g. don’t do something that might annoy your users just to make more money, they won’t forget.
10. Never betray users’ trust, or anyone else’s.
11. Spend 20% of your time on blue-sky ideas without worrying about how they will make a profit. If it might change the world for the better, it needs to be done, even if it can’t make money.
12. Don’t make enemies of your competitors to stay driven. Be driven by your own values and mission.



Original Story : http://digitalsamurai.co.za/blog/2006/09/16/14-things-you-can-learn-from-the-google-story/

Casual browsing took me to a page where the page auther has claimed he know top 50 adsense keywords most of them are from "Loan Consolidation"

Looking the list & the kind of compilation I don't think it has any practicle value associated with it

The list has few duplications with different CPC value of the same
orlando culinary institute $46.84
orlando culinary institute $46.69
orlando culinary institute $46.51

This shows how trustworthy it is


Can you imagine this guy has actually done so much of hard work (pun intended) to crack google's secret & given you the top paying list


Small sample from his site

Adword & its Average CPC
school loan consolidation $69.16
college loan consolidation $68.35
car insurance quotes $66.88
school consolidation $66.29
auto insurance quotes $65.90
college consolidation $64.04
student loan consolidation rates $60.14
sell structured settlement $59.82
sell annuity $58.92
federal student loan consolidation $58.58



theproguy: Most expensive adwords - 'Loan consolidation' clear winner

Nice blogs about how to handle those direct marketting calls

I'm sure you too might have got such calls


A complete hindi blog entry
http://www.jitu.info/merapanna/?p=580

And the source of insipration, a flow chart to handle such calls
http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html


Enjoy

While trying to reset password of a google account I came across this Captcha
It reads CHOTA, which means small in Indian language

So what you call this

Captcha being decided in hyderabad office of google ;)

Extracts from the latest issue of The Amazing Spider-man, #533

"I didn’t learn about the first side effect until well after the fact ... Once the news hit the television networks ... thirty million people went online and did simulatenous Google searches on Peter Parker ... and crashed the entire internet."

"Including the porn sites."

The comic strip says

"--thirty million people went online and did simultaneous Google searches on Peter Parker--"

"--and crashed the entire internet."

"Many mobile phones today have more processing power than early Internet servers"

Nokia thought why not to make use of the cellphone in everyhand today

Nokia has ported the Apache webserver to Symbian, in order to enable mobile phones to serve content on the World Wide Web. The technique could also be used on Linux mobile phones.


Nokia ported mod_python, in order to enable dynamic pages generated from both Python scripts and PSP (python server pages). Other built-in modules include mod_alias, mod_auth, mod_autoindex, mod_dav, mod_dav_fs, mod_dir, mod_log_config, mod_mime, mod_rewrite, and mod_setenvif.

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